The Duluth City Council held a lengthy meeting covering the 2026 budget, property tax levy, capital improvements, and several controversial items, including the transfer of the former Lester Park Golf Course to the Duluth Economic Development Authority (DEDA) and the Duluth Transit Authority (DTA) levy. Public comment was extensive, with many residents expressing concerns about process, transparency, and the prioritization of development over preservation.
Clean, safe and affordable housing for all residents of the community. The HRA manages over a thousand one hundred units of public housing, including scattered single site homes, townhomes, and six high-rise apartment buildings throughout the city. They also administer 1,700 section 8 rent subsidy vouchers for income qualifying tenants to keep keeping their rent affordable. The HRA is also involved in the creation of affordable housing opportunities, community development initiatives, and neighborhood revitalization efforts in cooperation with the City of Duluth and other organizations. Thank you so much for being willing to come and uh interview with us for your possible appointment to the HRA. Before we begin, I would just like to give you some time to introduce yourself to the uh to the council. So my name is Jacinta. I've worked and lived in this community for 17 years. I moved here for employment, and I have stayed and raised four children in this community. My children are now 18 to 22 and out doing 18 to 22 year old things. And I've worked in human resources for the majority of my career. I started in the human resources uh area of employment when I was in the military. And so I have now gone on to earn a degree in uh organizational development as well as an MBA, and I work to be a fair employer and offer as much support to the employment and the community world that I work in and go from there. So it's a little bit about myself. Thank you so much. Um Ms. Roth. Um and so I have a pre-termined set of questions that I will be going through with you, and then we'll open it up for counselor questions and comments. First question, very simple. Why are you interested in serving on this particular board? Um I think employment and housing are uh intersection where we all can live and work and often have to come together and make decisions and support one another. And so the HRA offers a unique opportunity for our communities to support employment and employers and individuals by creating stability for housing. And as a large employer representative, I have the ability to see into different layers and different wage points of challenges associated with it. So when I was asked about it, I thought it would be an interesting role for me to offer some insight into. Thank you. Please give a brief outline of your educational and work experience along with your personal strengths. How will your background experience and personal strengths be of benefit in relation to the Duluth HRA? Okay. Um so I served in the United States military in the Army Reserve right after high school, and then after that was over, I served um as an American family agent for a short period of time, and then that's what brought me to the Duluth region. I went to night school for five years and had kids at home while I was doing that, so I understand kind of that balanced approach as well as that sometimes you got a lot of things going on at the same time, and so housing can be a real challenge at times with that. Serving families is something I'm passionate about, and that's experience I would definitely draw from. Um I've worked in human resources at several levels. My previous role I was the executive vice president in my role. Now I'm over at Soffadel and I'm the regional manager for Soffadel. So I have multiple locations. I do actually a lot of geographic mapping and understanding of medium-based income as well as income and challenges of recruiting and retaining individuals within communities. So I've got some experience with that. I'm very passionate about how to work within groups and systems to create change that's manageable, and I've learned a lot about that both in my educational background and then my experience. Um, my undergrad is in organizational development with a management focus, and my master's is in um MBA with a change management leadership focus. So I've participated in several leadership cohorts over the years, and I think this space of serving and working within our community is a space that's well defined with individuals who hold roles in the community that they're working in and live in those communities as well. Thank you so much, Miss Roth. Yes. Is that can I address you as Ms. Roth? Absolutely, yep. Thank you. Um next question. Um, and the next few set of questions are just going to be very um technical questions. Umly serving on any other border commission for the city of Duluth or elsewhere, if so, which ones? No, I am not.