Welcome to the regular meeting of the Public Health and Safety Committee for September 17, 2025.

I am Jason Chavez, the chair of this committee.

Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all member staff of the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation.

These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community.

Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast.

We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.

At this time, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll so we can verify a quorum for this meeting.

Councilmember, Council President Payne.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ringville is absent.

Chowdry is absent.

Paul Masano.

Present.

Vice Chair Wansley.

Present.

Church office.

Present.

We have four presidents.

Let the record reflect that we have a quorum.

I'll remind my colleagues that we'll be using speaker management today.

So please make sure that you're signed up.

Colleagues, before I begin, I'd like to send my deep consoles to our entire community that has been rocked with gun violence from the enunciation school mass shooting, the mass shooting near Chris Ray Jesuit High School, Mari Samuels in the north side, the recent mass shootings on Lake Street, including 27th and Lake, 15th and Lake, and Stevenson Lake.

It's clear that we as a city in Minneapolis are not doing enough to address gun violence at the local level, and that our our residents deserve a plan to address uncharted homelessness.

These are issues that this committee can address and more proactively move forward changes to make sure that these issues are being addressed more proactively in the city of Minneapolis.

And as we wind down the end of this year, I look forward to working with my colleagues in this committee to figure out what needs to happen from our end on the council to ensure that these issues are being more adequately addressed and that plans are being implemented.

With that, I'd like to welcome Councilmember Chowdery, and we'll continue on to our consent agenda.

Item number one is accepting a grant and authorizing an agreement with the DWI court of the state of Ford Police Liaison and DWI monitoring services.

Item number two is accepting a grant from the Minnesota Department of Health and authorizing agreements with partner organizations for cannabis and substance of use prevention.

Item number three is accepting a grant from the Minnesota Department of Health and authorizing agreements with partner organizations working on chronic disease prevention.

Item number five is receiving and filing a report responding to the fee study legislative directive.

And colleagues, are there any discussion on any of these items?

Seeing no one on queue, I'll move all these items one through five for approval.

And I will call on vice chair once.

Thank you, uh Chair Chavez.

I did just want to make some brief comments related to uh item number five, which is the receiving and filing of a legislative directive that my office brought forward.

Uh, that's related to uh the analysis of a PCAR fee on carbon dioxide equivalents.

Um just last council cycle.

Uh we passed uh this fee and what we're receiving if Allen today is the broader presentation on staff's um analysis of how they got to it.

Um, I won't belabor the point in this committee, but uh many folks in the public are aware that when we originally passed this fee, um, about late last year, it was hovering hovering around 400 um per ton of carbon dioxide.

Uh, what is before us or what we did ultimately pass um just this past cycle, and what this presentation highlights is uh slightly substantially less than that.

It's around um, I believe, looking at $44 dollars uh per ton of carbon dioxide.

Um, so I really hope this is an opportunity for us as we're going to the budget cycle to um consider what we need to do to strengthen up our legislative department, because there is a huge discrepancy after three years of work on this, where we had the mayor's administration tout in certain figures and saying that they were contracting with subject matter experts to get to set figures.

And then once we pass the fee, we're told that those figures were not accurate.

And now we have a whole different and reduced figure amount that we end up passing.

And there's just a lot of things that did not make sense in the process and really thinking through how are we as a body constantly receiving fair and accurate information.

And I know that likely can't happen should we just continue to put our eggs in a basket of the mayor's administration providing that we need to make sure we have those resources on our end.

So that is something in light of this uh whole situation that I'm gonna be um paying attention to in our budget cycle around how we can make sure our legislative department, especially our research and policy division, continues to be shored up and continue to be the trusted subject matter experts that we have at our disposal to give us the information that we need to make um informed legislative decisions and to take policy actions like we did with this PCAR fee.

But just want to give that context and I'm also uh looking forward to getting additional information back on how we can continue um making sure that polluters in our communities are paying for the harms that they are causing, both to our communities and to the climate, and really looking at how we make sure we're approaching our climate crisis with the serious that it seriousness that it deserves and that is not being met by our current city right now.

Um so just wanted to flag that, and that's all.

Seeing no one on queue and no further discussion, I'll move approval of items one through five.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions that carries and the consent agenda is approved.

Our next item is passage of a resolution to the Save and Thriving Communities Report.

Um, by Vice Chair Wancy to speak on this item before we start the presentation.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

Um, I am pleased to finally be moving this resolution forward, and all of you should have an amended version um through the limbs document that's uh before you through speaker management.

Um the resolution was brought forward almost a year ago, and at the time, the city attorney took a significant and very different um legal stance, stating that council could not adopt action plans as we've done in the past, uh such as with the Transportation Action Plan or the Climate Equity Plan.

So in the beginning of 2025, I and many of my colleagues proceeded to meet with the city attorney's office to better understand the basis of their legal rationale behind this new opinion that essentially cuts city council out of what has been the city's main tool for long-term strategic planning.

Um I have been working with council leadership to have that formal opinion and discussion at the committee of the whole before uh the end of the year, so that all 13 council members are aware of what that legal opinion is, its impacts, as well as our potential pathways forward and making sure that we contribute to the loans long-term planning or strategic planning of this city.

That being said, the resolution that we're considering today is a byproduct of work that um has had lots of leadership by our now neighborhood safety uh director, Amanda Harrington as well as uh City Attorney Dan Abelson, who worked together to help us figure out how we can move forward um and identify that this body is specifically this committee has identified public safety beyond policing as a key priority, and we have a blueprint to make that work happen.

Um, and one to figure out how we can codify our support to reflect that commitment.

Um, and obviously, the timeline in which we brought this forward on was not idea, but again, I just want to thank um Director Harrington and Deputy Attorney Abelson for giving us a strong foundation to build off of with this resolution, and I anticipate the next iteration of what the Public Health and safety committee will be.

We'll be able to truly expand this resolution into a work plan that shapes the work that they do during the four-year term.

And to continue making sure that we have a public safety system that meets all the needs of our residents.

With that, I would like to invite Director Harrington to share a little bit more about the resolution in terms of what was included.

Also, I don't see Dan.

Sorry, City.

Oh, there we go.

Okay, you're a hiding behind me.

Um, and for City Attorney Um Abel Synths also share some of the context uh behind the resolution and um the way in which they integrated their legal expertise in shaping it.

Good afternoon, Amanda Harrington, Director of Neighborhood Safety.

I will be brief because um Dan Abelson will be giving a presentation to update everybody.

But I I do want to thank this body, council members, the mayor's office, Commissioner Barnett, and particularly the city attorney's office for working in collaboration on this resolution.

It has been my understanding and belief since I started with the city in December of 2023 that we all agree that the Safe and Thriving Communities Report is our blueprint.

It is our North Star guiding our actions.

And so through all of us working together, we were able to pull out the policy recommendations from that report, and reach agreement that it is our North Star in one document.

And so I will defer to Dan Abelson to give more detail.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Chair Chavez, uh committee members, I'm Dan Abelson.

I'm the deputy city attorney for the civil division and the city attorney's office, and I want to echo uh Director Harrington's uh thanks to everyone.

I think that this was a collaborative effort.

Um sometimes government structure is still relatively new, and sometimes it takes us time to all together sort of work through these issues and figure out a path forward that meets people's goals and also still respects the government structure.

Um, as Vice Chair Wansley mentioned before you today is a resolution to adopt the policy goals and priorities from the Safe and Thriving Communities Report and Plan.

I'm going to just discuss some of the legal uh framework behind the council's authority to adopt these types of policy goals and priorities.

Um just as an initial matter and on terminology, gonna be using the terms today, policy goals and priorities and action plans in some earlier discussions.

Um, the city attorney's office has used the term operational strategic planning, and as part of these discussions, we learned that that's not the best term because both policy goals and priorities and action plans involve strategic thinking and strategic work by those involved.

Um, and by way of just a little bit more context, there is a group working across the city that includes the clerk's office, the policy and research division, also within that office, Office of Public Service, and CAO to provide more guidance on an enterprise policy framework more broadly and how that might be implemented.

Um policy goals and priorities is the city's policy-making body, the council has the authority to adopt policy goals and priorities to guide action planning by the administration.

That authority is in section 4.1a of the city charter, which provides that the council is the legislative body in which the city's general legislative policy making authority and oversight resides.

Action planning is within the realm of the administration.

So the administration has the authority to adopt action plans, which are based on the strategies for implementation and delivery of city services based on policy goals and priorities.

Um that authority comes from both charter and ordinance.

Um section 7.1 of the charter gives the mayor of the city's general executive and administrative authority, which includes the responsibility for the direction and supervision of the administration.

And then in ordinance, with respect to the Office of Community Safety, City Ordinance Section 12.30 provides that the Office of Community Safety is responsible for providing a comprehensive and collaborative community safety approach to the city and its residents, including strategic planning and direction for the city's comprehensive approach to community safety.

There's also a similar ordinance, Section 12.20 for the Office of Public Service, which gives the Office of Public Uh Service the responsibility for strategic planning and direction necessary to ensure the delivery of high quality coordinated city services.

And both of these ordinances were passed as part of the government structure change.

So with respect to the safe and thriving communities report and plan, you know, it's a it's a 143-page comprehensive document that contains a mix of both policy goals and priorities as well as recommended action plans and steps flowing from those policy goals and priorities.

So just to give one example, the plan raises as a policy goal and priority, linking all responders and applicable services through a service ecosystem.

The plan also is part of that policy goal and priority implementing it talks about implementing SMART 911 and modernizing 911 as part of that service ecosystem.

And that section of the Safe and Thriving Community Report, there's about eight pages or so that goes into great detail on things such as the specific information that a SMART 911 system would get from callers, a detailed three-step recommended uh process for updating the city's information technology systems as part of modernizing 911.

So that part would qualify as an action plan.

So as uh Director Harrington mentioned, we worked with her and the neighborhood safety department and consulted as well with Councilmember Wansley's office to identify the policy goals and priorities in the report and pull them out in this resolution.

And so that's why you have before you a resolution with uh 31 policy goals and priorities from the Safe and Thriving Community Report before you.

And of course, you know, for future similar types of reports.

I think that's you know, that's a discussion for things for the administration council to think about, you know, how can we structure these types of reports and plans so it's more clear what's a policy goal and priority, what's an action plan, and so the council could more easily adopt policy goals and priorities.

That's the end of my presentation.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, C.

Attorney Ewelson.

I'll see the queue if anybody has any questions or comments.

All right, it doesn't look like anybody is on cue.

I just like to thank uh Vice Chair Wancy for her work on this resolution along with uh city ables and the city attorney's office for I bet a lot of work went into this work.

You know, we had been delaying it in committee, and it took uh I bet a lot of meetings, conversations, and work to get to a point where we can officially vote on this today, and just incredibly proud of Vice Chair Wancy for her work and dedication on this, and you state city attorney Abelson for your work and finding a pathway forward for this as well.

So just kudos to Vice Chair Wansley and the City Attorney's Office for bringing us an item that we can move forward with today.

So uh with that, uh uh would you like to make a motion, Vice Chair?

Thank you.

Uh, Chair Chavez, I would like to uh move this item for our approval.

Second.

Uh on the motion to this forward with approval, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions?

And that item carries.

Our next item is receiving and filing a report on the Office of Community Safety's quarterly report.

Uh, it is my understanding that the Office of Community Safety uh could not be here today given uh a lot of stuff on the calendar and schedules within their offices.

So what I'm going to do is delay this one cycle to the next public health and safety committee.

And the date for that committee is on.

If someone can help me out, September, October 1st.

October 1st, thank you.

Yep, thank you.

So now I'm delaying this one cycle till October 1st.

And my ask to the office community safety would be even if not every department can present that day, making sure that we can have as many departments available on that day to make sure that we can give that report that we had to delay last cycle because of technology issues at City Hall.

Um, so on the motion to delay this until the next public health and safety committee, which is August 1st.

Is there any questions on that motion?

Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions, and that item has been delayed till the next public health and safety committee.

Our next item is receiving and filing a report on the health department's contract and contracting process with Helix Health Services.

I'll now invite staff to begin their presentation.

City Auditor Timmerman.

All right.

Welcome.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

Thank you, committee members.

Um, my name is Robert Timmerman.

I have the pleasure of serving as the Minneapolis City Auditor.

I'm here to provide you with an update on an audit we performed earlier this year this year to review a single source contract that the city had with a company called Helix Health and Housing Services.

If you recall, this contract arose from a need in the late fall of 2023 to provide culturally specific housing, substance use disorder treatment, and mental health services, primarily for American Indian individuals experiencing homelessness in Minneapolis.

The Office of City Auditor identified 177,000 in what we deem to be overpayments to Helix Health and Housing Services, which was a single source vendor contracted by the health department at the urgent request of the mayor's office.

We also identified gaps in contract management and oversight.

In the interest of time and to avoid redundancy of information that we've uh provided to the audit committee at this point, I'm not going to go into the full details of the contract or discuss the scope and methodology of the audit that we performed, but I will provide you with information on how to retrieve our audit report and our June 2025 presentation to the audit committee, the key recommendations that we had in that report, and what the health department has done to address those recommendations since we first communicated them in April 2025.

First, I want to briefly provide some information about the Office of City Auditor.

Audit is a logical place to perform this review since it is the only function across the entirety of Minneapolis city government that has been established by the voters through city charter to be an independent watchdog of activities across the city.

Further, the Office of City Auditor has jurisdiction over city council, each board, commission, committee, department, office, or employee, and other agency or agent who must cooperate with any audit or inquiry and furnish information that the auditor requests.

It's my duty and obligation as the city auditor to conduct examinations of city operations to improve the management of city policies, functions, and programs.

My personal mission since taking on this role in February is to help strengthen trust in our city government, providing factual, unbiased, non-political reviews that are free from influence, whether real or perceived, and that is the primary tool my office has to reinforce trust.

This advisory review is a good example of our independent and objective work.

It was requested by the City Operations Officer and supported by city council members to better understand the dynamics around a specific contract.

The recommendations for my office are intended to help the administration bolster their contract oversight and management, which is necessary to strengthen public trust.

On April 28, 2025, we released this advisory services report titled Oversight of an Urgent Single Source Contract, Helix Health and Housing Services.

The audit committee voted to formally publish it during their meeting on June 2nd, 2025.

You can access the report through the link on the screen here or on the slide.

We provided a pretty lengthy discussion at the audit committee on June 2nd, 2025 with significantly more detail, and so I've provided some direct links to that as well.

But today I do want to highlight the report's recommendations and the updates that we've received since its publication.

Considering the observations we made during this review, we developed five recommendations for the health department and administration.

Our report contained additional details to help the administration navigate our recommendations to strengthen contract oversight.

Our recommendations were one, all staff involved in the procurement of a single source contract, including the requester, should complete a conflict of interest review form.

Two, policy and contract documents should articulate when advanced payments are allowed.

There should be a clear approval process for those advanced payments.

Three, contracts should provide direction on allowable and unallowable expenses.

Four, all vendor information or sorry, all vendor invoices must be verified and reconciled with sufficient supporting documentation before payments are made.

Contract managers should be familiar enough with the contract to know what documentation is required.

And finally, policies and procedures need to be clearly defined, communicated, and followed to ensure urgent contracting is scrutinized and goes through appropriate approvals.

In response to the recommendations that we provided to the health department, we received a memo from the administration committing to corrective action.

At the close of our advisory review, the administration said that they had implemented a more robust tracking system to effectively monitor all active health contracts.

They have a dashboard that will provide real-time visibility into contract status, ensuring that it is aligned with their objectives and can address issues proactively.

They also said that they've been working on clear written expectations for health department contract managers.

This guidance will help maintain consistency and accountability across their team as they monitor deliverables and expenses.

Going on, the administration stated that they are committed to continuous enhancement of their processes.

They're working on future initiatives aimed at strengthening their contract management system.

Specifically, they're implementing a health operations realignment to provide greater support to the operations division.

They're looking at opportunities to support this realignment through future indirect cost recovery and increased capacity for grants administration, as well as additional process and systems improvements related to invoice management and approvals.

To facilitate these enhancements, they will formalize standard operating procedures that will serve as a framework for their operations.

These system enhancements should be fully implemented by the end of 2025.

Also, they're working on making improvements to staff training and accountability measures that will offer practical assistance along with establishing a community of practice of contract managers.

They will serve as a forum to share best practices, discuss challenges, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

At our last audit committee meeting, which was August 2nd, we requested a status update from the Health Department, and so this is information in addition to those commitments that they made.

They had provided this update.

They've required the health's contract managers to attend the city attorney office newly developed contract management and monitoring training sessions.

They commented that this was good background information, this training, but that it did not go into helping them develop standard operating procedures, job aids, or enterprise-wide standardization.

So that's something that is on their radar.

I will say that this city attorney's presentation or training has now trained over 300 city staffers since this audit.

I sat in this training three weeks ago, four weeks ago, and Jocelyn Bremer from the attorney's office did a fantastic job developing this.

They had two other comments, and I didn't put them on the screen here because they were a little bit more critical of what maybe hasn't happened since the audit report, and that is that they've had no contract or contact from procurement on more universal systems changes that had been recommended related to audit recommendations, and they're also lacking guidance on definition of items such as sufficient supporting documentation, allowable and unallowable expenses, and they deem these to be enterprise-wide issues.

But you can see from the progress that the administration's made that they are taking seriously the contract oversight concerns expressed by my office.

The Office of City Auditor has been expressing a need for improved enterprise risk management for several years now.

We've called this out by recommending and expressing a need for an elevated position to be responsible for enterprise risk management.

This could help manage and oversee the function.

At a minimum, an existing executive leader should be made responsible and accountable for enterprise risk management.

As you hear about the updates that I've provided, health does not feel that there's necessarily the adequate enterprise level support for some of these corrective actions that they'd like to put in place.

And I think that there would be a great use for an enterprise risk management executive within the city that could help hold departments accountable for these actions, but also to help create broader strategies related to risk management.

When it comes to contract management, that's uh especially important because we've seen over many contracts that we've reviewed that some accountability is in order.

We communicated this uh most recently in a memo that we shared with the audit committee in June earlier this year.

In that memo, we recommended that the council and the mayor's office collaboratively draft an ordinance that requires the development and maintenance of an enterprise risk management framework.

That framework should include an appointment of an enterprise risk management executive officer, the assignment of key department personnel to participate in an enterprise risk management governance team, regular enterprise risk management reporting to the council and to the audit committee, and an integration of enterprise risk management discussions into strategic planning, operational decision making, and the city's annual budget process.

The Office of City Auditor is actively developing training modules for city operations leadership that will focus on the importance of strong control environment, a robust ERM structure, and well-developed and communicated internal controls.

So with that, I thank you for the request to provide this update.

I'm happy to stand for any questions, whether it's related specifically to the Helix report, or as I said, this is an example of contract oversight and management that we have made broader recommendations on in the past, and I'm happy to answer questions related to that as well.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you all for special to Vice Chair Wantsley.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

Thank you, City Auditor, for this pretty thorough presentation.

I just had a follow-up question regarding the broader recommendations that she made in terms of having a risk management executive level position to kind of do that, high-level overview and policy advisement.

I'm slightly confused because we have a risk management and claims departments.

And on their website, it says that they have four functions.

Particularly one is a policy analysis, and to build upon that, develop risk management policies and procedures.

But for my understanding, there is staff.

We've also learned that that role, the individual in that role is fantastic.

He actually, his name is Andrew Lathrop, and he participated in a training that we provided to the audit committee related to audit work but also to enterprise risk management oversight.

He shares some of the same observations that we've made that as time has gone on, the responsibilities of that position seem to have diminished.

On paper, they may still exist, but it seems to be more of a a risk, a claims risk and um and more of a financial function.

So I think that if we if we had to sit down and look at what could the structure look like, I certainly think that some of the functions of that role could be elevated, but they need to look at all departments.

So when you're looking at that particular role, most of that work is uh specific to the financial department.

Um, and when you think about risk to the enterprise, financial risk is one of many.

And just clarification on that, so what you're recommending is some like having um kind of like the with the DC CO structure or the commissioner structure, you're thinking of having someone at that executive level in in terms of a position.

That's correct.

And uh, and sorry, chair and and council member, that's correct.

Um I'm not necessarily recommending a new position, but I do think that the functions of enterprise risk management should reside in a position at that level.

Um the city's unique in the sense that you know the the police department and other public safety departments report to one individual, whereas other administrative type functions report to another individual.

And so this needs to be um a position that can provide an umbrella of risk oversight for the entire enterprise.

Um there are positions like this that are specific, but there are functions of enterprise risk management that could probably be assigned to an existing individual.

The problem is when we see lack of contract oversight or lapses in contract oversight, um, there's limited accountability.

So having a person in this position not only can help set um standard operating procedures for contract oversight as an example, but they can help hold individual departments accountable for that, and ultimately this individual now becomes accountable to ensure that departments are uh managing risk appropriately.

No, this uh what you're you're uh recommending makes absolute sense.

Um we ran into this similar obstacles in doing a lot of regulatory and oversight work of the neighborhood safety department when we were honing in on violence prevention contracts this past year and learning that there wasn't that standardization and in real time seeing in response to us pointing those things out, the administration having to figure out that standardization within training of contract managers so that we can have continuity both on the vendor side and for the public side of receiving quality services that they know they're not overpaying or are in alignment with the city's goals and vision.

So definitely saw that in other departments outside of just you know health itself.

It as you highlighted, this does seem to be entreprise-wide issue.

Um, and it would be good to get clarity and and eyes on if this is happening in other places that is in need of immediate corrective action.

Um it's just also interesting to know that we do have a department on paper in our city's website that says it's charged with doing that when operationally it sounds like that is not actually happening.

Maybe you mentioned this one position, the the responsibilities have shifted, and as opposed to then matching those responsibilities to the needs of the entire entreprise, because that's why I also see like departments are there to also support entreprise-wide efforts like this.

Um I would love to be part of ongoing conversations around how if it's just starting with the existing department or elevating.

I don't know if that's uh in your deeper recommendations, if that's an ordinance change or because what you also know it sounds a lot of is operational in itself.

Um there is nothing it sounds like to stop the mayor from being able to create that position or repurpose an existing one at the executive level, but I just would like to get more clarity on where would council fit in to that if it's not needed for like additional money is not needed for FTE, and we already have existing infrastructure that could just be repurposed.

Um it's not clear how we kind of fit into that piece.

Uh Churchavis, Councilmember Wancy, that's you know, really interesting because those are all of the same thoughts that we have that we've spoken with um Mr.

Lathrop about that we've spoken with the audit committee about.

Um we are currently undergoing a rewrite of our audit charter.

And with that, uh the audit committee in October will be deciding how we're going to move certain recommendations forward to the council body.

Okay.

Um and so we're working through some of our own processes to make sure that happens.

With the memo that I released in June, it was it was not an audit, it was a memo that kind of expressed observations that I had made.

And there are some recommendations in that memo that the audit committee still needs to take action to move forward.

In the meantime, our office has developed training, like I mentioned, about enterprise risk management for the audit committee.

We've uh now adjusted that training to make it available for the administration.

I've spoken with um city operations officer Anderson Kelleher, and she is uh open to the idea of us providing that more general training regarding enterprise risk management.

Um we have not had discussions about you know what position movements might happen, but your insightful comment that these positions to an extent already exist, how can we maybe elevate them or repurpose them?

Um I think is something that needs to happen.

And so as we move forward in the next month or so before our next audit committee, I think that's some conversations that I will have with the committee members on, you know, how can the city auditor help with that?

We often are but between a rock and a hard place.

We can't create policy, we can't require certain things, um, but with our recommendations, often um there is strength to those, and uh changes can be implemented.

And so I do hope that we can work with the council, the audit committee, and the administration to help move this forward because frankly, like I said, this is something we've been talking about as recommendations for three years through our annual risk assessments, and now I believe it is time that we as the um office of city auditor that we are the impetus to move it forward because I think somebody needs to uh take on that action.

We just need to be very careful that we're not the ones making policy decisions.

So we'll pull people together, we'll start the dialogue, um, and then we need people to make decisions and move forward.

So I think it is a team effort to get there.

Yeah, and I'll be on the lookout then for the presentation that you give to the audit committee with some more robust recommendations on what they can do as as next steps.

Um, one thing I will encourage as you're preparing for that presentation is then looking could looking at our government structure ordinance, if that could be a potential way in which again council could use our authority to um amplify something like this.

I'm just thinking of when we first did deliberations around government structure and recognizing the importance of racial equity um and wanting to elevate that into a cabinet position.

That's something my office brought forward.

Uh the body at that time did not support that, but that was an ordinance change that we may or proposal that we may to amend the government structure um ordinance to elevate a certain position to that executive level.

So I don't know, again, we just had a robust conversation around government structure and its changes.

Like if that could be uh another pathway um just to explore in in preparation for your recommendations, because if so, that's feels very doable then um and very clear of oh okay, council is using their legislative authority to you know further strengthen oversight, it will leverage our oversight authority over their entire administration while repurposing or using existing resources.

Um, so I would yeah, as if you could do some digging and see if that's also a viable pathway.

Uh, but those are all the questions and comments I had today.

Thank you again so much for the presentation and conversation.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, City Auditorman uh for being here today.

I did have a request for our clerks.

If we can add the Helix report to this limbs, I know that we have the other files attached through a link in a different way, but if we can text the actual report under the supporting document, that would be really helpful just so the public can actually read the book that I want to read a little bit about because I think it's important to know what's noted in it.

The executive summary said that the office of the city auditor identified 177,000 and 462.

And what we classify as overpayments to Helix Health and Housing Services, a single source vendor contracted in November 2023 by the health department at the urgent request of the mayor's office.

This vendor was to provide temporary housing, substance use, disorder treatment, and mental health services for individuals experiencing homelessness.

We also identified significant gaps in contract management and oversight.

This creates an environment where the opportunity for fraud to occur is significant due to insufficient internal controls.

We developed five recommendations to help the city improve its contract management and oversight reduce to reduce the risk of fraud.

One, all staff involved in the procurement process of a single source single source contract, including the requester, should complete a conflict of interest review form procurement, and the assigned contract manager should verify and document that this has been completed prior to formalizing the contract.

Two, policy and contract documents should articulate when advanced payments are allowed.

There should be a clear approval process for advanced payments.

Three, contract should provide direction on allowable and unallowable expenses.

Four, all vendor invoices must be verified and reconciled with sufficient supporting documents before payments are made.

Contract managers should be familiar enough with the contract to know what documentation is required.

And five, policies and procedures need to be clearly defined, communicated, and followed to ensure urgent contracted is scrutinized and goes through appropriate approvals.

Our recommendations are not unique to the health department.

The Office of the City Auditor has identified an ineffective contract oversight as a priority risk to the city, and we further highlight recommendations throughout our audits this year.

I just want to highlight part of the report because I think it's important to name what is in this executive summary of the report and what we can do to address the significant concerns that was identified by this report through a contract that was urgently requested by the mayor's office.

And I think one of those things I heard I hear that there is some progress being made in the report, that some movement is happening.

Should we separately reach out to the mayor's office on future initiatives and their timelines for that if that makes sense?

Yeah, Chair Travis, thank you for the question.

The Office of City Auditor will continue to monitor the recommendations.

We monitor all audit recommendations until they're closed, and we provide updates to the audit committee.

With that said, if this particular committee would like updates, you certainly could ask of the administration.

But yes, we will definitely continue monitoring.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, I mean I was reading through the report that you gave in the audit committee, and one of them was duplicate and erroneous payments.

I think that is something that is very concerning as a council member that we have to make sure that that doesn't happen.

So I and I can't find it now, but there was a particular component about an ordinance that requires the development and maintenance of an ERM framework and some other components.

I can't find it anymore.

I found it somewhat earlier.

I had reached out to the city attorney's office last month to help begin the legislative process to draft the notice of intent, begin um the legislative process to possibly do an ordinance to address some oversight to address some of the concerns that are um being highlighted here today.

And I guess my ask is that when the city attorney's office uh reaches back out to my office about my request that we can figure out what needs to be happened to address some of these concerns because I don't think anybody wants to have duplicative payments, erroneous payments in our city.

Um that's just not a good use of taxpayer dollars, and it shouldn't have to be on the city auditor to find this out.

It should just not be happening.

So, Chair Travis, if I may, I I appreciate that.

I'd be happy to work with you after you get that information back from the city attorney's office.

I think there's a great opportunity here.

I think as you've seen here, and as we've seen in some other contract reviews, um oversight uh can be improved.

The city attorney's office is taking great action through those trainings.

As I mentioned, 300 folks have been trained already on that.

Um it is it is not uncommon in the world of audit to see contract issues because contracts are something we frequently are asked to look at.

Um that said, we take great pride in being able to help fix those um those mistakes.

And so if we're able to participate in that with you and the city attorney's office, we'd be glad to.

Thank you so much.

I really appreciate it.

So and yeah, when I hear back from the city attorney's office, my office will reach back out.

I know that this is something that they would give good advice to the city council on as well.

So thank you.

Uh next up we have Council President Payton.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

Uh, uh thank you, Mr.

Mr.

Timmerman.

I I just got into queue just to kind of speak to my dual role uh as you know, one that a member of this body, obviously the president of the full city council, but more specifically my dual role uh as the audit chair.

And in the role of council, I think it's really our responsibility to look at these contracts as they're coming through and and make determinations on whether or not um we've we've we've passed the test, or at least the admin has passed the test of rigor when it comes to contracting and and the role of audit.

It's to make sure that those tests are actually in place for rigor.

And I think that this Helix report has really demonstrated that those tests are not fully in place to have the type of rigor to bring forward to this body.

So, and I recalled voting on the Helix contract when it came before us last term, because you know, the opiate crisis was urgent then as it is urgent now.

Um at the same time, we now see in hindsight that we we did not have the right level of due diligence in place for this to be as successful as it could have been.

And so uh I think we have to really think deeply about the type of structural changes that we need to make into how we do procurement.

Uh, that's what we're supposed to be taking from audits is how do we make structural changes to the way that we function institutionally.

And uh one of the things that uh Mr.

Timberman's referencing is the audit charter.

We need to figure out how we take an audit and actually activate that towards recommendations that are going to actually improve the outcomes for the residents because we always have to center outcomes for residents with everything that we do.

And so I I the Helix contract is very concerning uh once we have this hindsight view of what happened.

But we also have to look at this from the perspective of how do we actually follow through on those findings and recommendations to improve our policies and procedures so that when it does come to a vote the next time around, when we're trying to be responsive to something that's happening urgently in the community, we've got the appropriate amount of due diligence and we can trust that our controls are in place to provide that level of due diligence.

And so I'm just really grateful that not only did we audit this, but that we're bringing it in front of the city in front of city council so that we can make those considerations.

I thought Councilmember Wansley's ideas around, you know, if we're gonna have an enterprise uh wide risk manager, uh maybe that isn't uh budget move.

Maybe that's an amendment to our ordinance to look at the executive structure of oversight over the entire administration.

And so I think there's some real actionable things that we should be looking at from a city council perspective on this.

And so hopefully that I just want to cede that for everybody here that we should be taking some action as a result of this audit.

My channel.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

I did just want to put on Collee's radar in case you also want to uh collaborate further on this, that um again in the administration entreprise oversight committee.

We've had lots of conversations around uh contract management oversight or the lack thereof, uh, especially under this administration.

Um and that said, I do have an ordinance um and we've had procurement give a presentation to the full body and budget around um this this uh ordinance that I'm moving forward uh where we're going to be honing in on the purchasing ordinance chapter 18 specifically uh to revise it to provide this body with quarterly reports of all professional services uh and contracts related to those between $5,000 and $175,000.

So that threshold of contracts that we don't get to see part our current financial policies.

So if there are folks who are wanting to further collaborate on that, again, we're moving that through the legislative process, but I think that continues to build upon how we can strengthen oversight over all aspects of our contracts across the city and making sure that we're informed about what money is going out into where, and to then be able to have, of course, early intervention systems be put in place to flag when things are not adding up or concerning trends or happening a month's contract.

So just wanted to open that up for the body for potential conversations.

And you know, if people would like to collaborate, feel free to reach out to my office.

But that's all.

Thank you for being here, City Auditor Timberman.

We appreciate you.

Thank you.

All right.

Seeing no more discussion and no one on queue, I'll ask the clerk to file that report.

Our next item.

Oh, well.

Yeah, same thing, actually.

Our next item is a receiving file of the civil rights biannual update on the invite staff to make that presentation.

This is actually our last one of the day.

Welcome, Director McConnell.

Thank you so much, Chair Chavez.

Council members, thanks very much for having us here today.

I'm Kayla McConandietta.

I'm serving as the Interim Civil Rights Director.

I'm gonna be uh joined as a co-presenter in this presentation by Johnny Burns, who is our interim deputy director for the Civil Rights Department, and we also have um the other associate directors over each of our divisions present in the chambers today.

So, what I'm gonna spend time talking about today is just going over each of our divisions and updates on their work, particularly up to this point in time in 2025.

So we're gonna talk about the administration of civil rights, the office of police conduct review, the complaint investigations division, contract compliance division, and labor standards enforcement division.

And I will start with the administration.

So just briefly, the mission of the administration is to provide process management, resource delegation, and program coordination in support of the department as a whole.

We provide leadership guidance and support to all divisions focusing on budgetary health operational efficiency and effectiveness.

And the administration sets the overall standards and expectations to ensure strategic outcomes of the department are met.

We monitor and lead uh the creation and implementation of the department's strategic plan as well as work with all divisions to lead effective communication and engagement strategies along with other enterprise and community partners.

So to that end, um we have developed a new mission, vision, and values statement for the department that's new this year.

So the mission, newly drafted mission of the civil rights department is to protect and advance human rights through enforcing civil rights protections with accountability and impartial investigations to empower community.

The long-range vision of the department is to function as the people's investigator.

We strive to eliminate civil rights violations in the city of Minneapolis by rooting ourselves in service, justice, and community, and working to remove systemic and institutional barriers that cause harm.

And the values we've identified for the department.

There are five are integrity, equity, accountability, justice, and trust.

We worked pretty extensively with our entire department and all of our staff to really align on all of those statements and really make sure they reflect um the work that the department is doing.

We also identified some priorities, many of which I'll touch on throughout this presentation, but generally they are to improve and standardize case timelines, create document and align where possible standard operating procedures across the department, increase community engagement, and refine and implement ordinances and policies.

This is our org chart.

I think you all have seen this before.

Um there are not a lot of major changes.

I will just articulate that for the time being, there are some slight adjustments to this with me and um our interim deputy director being in the roles that we are now based on our current uh specialties and kind of backgrounds.

So as of right now, the reporting structure is that I am overseeing the Office of Police Conduct Review and the Complaint Investigations Division, whereas our interim deputy director is overseeing contract compliance.

He still remains also the associate director in charge of contract compliance, as well as our labor standards enforcement division.

We have not made permanent changes because those roles are, of course, interim.

I will highlight a couple newer positions in our org chart that we're pretty excited about.

So one is a manager of grants and community engagement.

That position reports to the director, and it is really an alignment with our priorities in robustly engaging in community engagement in civil rights department work.

We had a person start in that position in June, so we're really happy to already be hitting the ground running on that, and he has already led robust engagement throughout the summer and into the fall, which I'll touch on throughout this presentation as well.

We also have a senior quality assurance manager position who reports to the director and is a part of the administration of the civil rights department.

And the role of that particular position is to monitor compliance of the civil rights department specifically with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights Settlement Agreement with consent provisions, and then also with our own internal standard operating procedures as well as best practices for work across all of our different divisions within the civil rights department.

So it's not exclusive to police misconduct.

We're excited that that position is currently posted.

So if you happen to know of anyone who would be a good candidate, please encourage them to apply.

It closes on the 21st.

So we still have a few days to get some more applications, but we look forward to being able to extend an offer for that position soon and get that work up and running.

So moving to our Office of Police Conduct Review.

So the Office of Police Conduct Review is an impartial division that investigates public allegations of police misconduct by Minneapolis Police Department officers.

The things I'll highlight for this particular division in this presentation is the reorganization of the office structure, significant progress on the OPCR backlog, as well as work around the settlement agreement compliance efforts and ordinance work.

This is the current organizational structure.

This is not new, but I just want to highlight again this new level of kind of supervision and management that has been implemented in the Office of Police Conduct Review.

We now have a supervisor over our intake work, our investigative work, and then also our policy and research related work.

This is really ensured the division can do the work it needs to, has the level of support for staff that we need, as well as the level of accountability for the work that's being produced out of the office.

And then I'll highlight the policy and research unit, which is our newest unit within that division.

And what they're tasked with doing is conducting research and studies to identify trends, patterns, and possible policy gaps.

They provide policy recommendations to the Minneapolis Police Department, and through staff recommendations, most recently have made recommendations on a sexual misconduct policy for the police department as well as policy language refinement.

They also support the CCPO Community Commission on Police Oversights, Policy Research and Recommendation Standing Committee, which also makes recommendations regarding police policies.

And they, this division is who provides the dedicated staff support to the C CPO to ensure that they're able to function effectively.

Also, not new information, but just to make sure that folks have a little bit of an understanding of the process.

So this is a basic breakdown of like a case process in our Office of Police Conduct Review.

We have our intake part of our process, which takes about approximately 30 days or needs to be completed in 30 days.

We have administrative investigations, which need to be completed within 180 days.

And then once investigative work is complete, it goes to our review panel process.

I do want to highlight specifically in our review panel process.

We've had updates to the CCPO ordinance that we're very excited about.

I'll talk more about at a later slide.

But we are review panels are now made up of three individuals instead of five, one sworn Minneapolis police officer and two members of our community commission on police oversight.

It used to be five members.

We're excited about this change because it allows us to move more efficiently through these processes, assign more review panels and get them moving at a faster rate, which is really important.

So OPCR backlog process.

So I'm particularly excited about this report out.

So as many of you know, what we've defined as the OPCR backlog is any complaint that was received on or prior to May 23rd, 2024, and there is a total of 234 complaints that were identified as part of the OPCR backlog.

As of Monday of this week, we have completed all investigative work on everything but four of those backlog complaints.

So 230 complaints have been processed.

The four remaining cases that are are all in late stages of investigation and should be completed by the end of September.

So we are so close to there being no cases in our backlog.

Big shout out to our associate director, uh Fujisawa in charge of our Office of Police Conduct Review for all of the work he has done to make that happen, as well as our former department director, Michelle Phillips and all of her work, and then, of course, our extremely dedicated OPCR staff who have put in the work to actually investigate these cases and move them forward.

Um I do want to note just for you know anyone in the public watching that while the investigative backlog has been largely cleared with the remaining of just these four cases.

There are additional steps that these cases need to go through.

They do need to still go through the review panel process, they do still need to go to the chief's office.

So just to be as transparent as possible, that it doesn't mean the cases are complete through the entire uh process, but the investigative work from the Office of Police Conduct Review is complete.

So general backlog prevention.

How do we make sure that this backlog, you know, a backlog problem doesn't occur again in the future?

We certainly want to make sure that that does not happen.

Um so there is has been increased staffing and really a focus on making sure that we're filling all of our positions so that team members can work on assigned duties versus having to have like an emergency response to an influx of complaints and everyone having to focus on one particular thing.

We want team members to continue doing their duties across the board.

Um, strategic prioritization of the work, uh stable team structure that creates clear roles and responsibilities.

These new newish supervisors are really important part of this, and then just a fully staffed division that will help insulate the Office of Police Conduct Review from community events or shocks.

So an incident, for instance, that um brings about many, many complaints being filed at any particular time.

We have a better ability to triage and prioritize effectively to address any emergency issues that come about while still being able to complete the day-to-day work.

Another area that the Office of Police Conduct Review has been working considerably on is compliance submissions.

So related to these two paragraphs that are noted here that are specific for the Office of Police Conduct Review and the Civil Rights Department to reach compliance on in relation to the MDHR settlement agreement.

The first is paragraph 338, which requires that we develop an outreach strategy for the CCPO.

We received a letter of compliance for that outreach strategy back in March of 2025, and then paragraph 339, which requires the Office of Police Conduct Review to provide sufficient staff support to the C CPO.

We received a letter of partial compliance last month, and we are currently working on an updated submission with the hope that we will receive full compliance here soon.

And then lastly, for the Office of Police Conduct Review, just highlighting the ordinance amendments to the CCPO ordinance that recently passed last month as well, that have really been key to our continued ability to move this work forward.

As I mentioned, there's a change in the review panel composition from five panelists to three panelists, two civilians, and one sworn member on each review panel that's taking a look at police misconduct cases.

That has already been fully implemented.

We are assigning cases to three-person review panels at this point in time.

We also have additional provisions and changes that are currently in the process of being implemented, and that is to include statistical data on the number of times the chief's disciplinary decision departed from the review panel's recommendation.

Review panels make a recommendation to the chief's office, and then it is ultimately the chief of police that makes that final decision.

Um so documenting when that, you know, there might be divergence in that publishing a pool of sworn members that are eligible to serve on review panels so that is publicly available, and then the um an additional amendment to seat five alternate members of the CCPO who are dedicated just to review panel work.

This is another really important step in our ability to just keep moving these cases efficiently and having enough folks to spread the work out so that it is not overly demanding on specific individuals who are serving on the CCPO.

Um, and then also give the CCPO the ability to invite the chief of police to commission meetings to provide an update on the status of the department.

All of those are currently in process to be fully implemented in the CCPO's work.

So moving to our complaint investigations division.

So this is our division that enforces the civil rights ordinance by receiving and investigating complaints of discrimination.

In order for us to have jurisdiction over those complaints, the discrimination has to be based on protected class.

Protected class is generally something about your identity that you cannot or should not be asked to change.

It includes things like race, sex, disability, religion, and the like.

Um, and we have jurisdiction to investigate discrimination in many different areas, including employment, housing, public services, education, and more.

Um, and just some high-level kind of case outcomes in this particular division.

The division closed 70 cases in 2024 and has closed 44 cases to date in 2025.

In 2024, the division facilitated more than 200,000 in monetary settlements to victims of discrimination, and so far this year, a little over 100,000.

Um, also in 2025, they've conducted and resolved uh 23 cases via mediation in discrimination cases, and then they've continued to maintain no backlog of appeals before our civil rights commission, who is charged with reviewing appeals of our decisions, and uh we've been able to maintain no backlog there and move those cases through, um, as well as seeing an increase in public hearings before our commission in discrimination cases.

This is uh the basic structure of the division.

This is not new.

Um, we have two intake coordinators that are there, two complaint investigation officers, and two senior complaint investigation officers that work on these cases.

And then the biggest update here that we're very excited about is the passage of civil rights ordinance amendments that went into effect on August 1st of 2025.

They included a variety of new protected classes, bolstered current protections, as well as some procedural changes.

We did work with the communications department to put together a video that summarizes all of these changes.

I am gonna play the video for you.

It's uh two and a half minutes long.

Um, and I would encourage folks to use this video if it's ever helpful with constituents to let them know what these changes look like and what to expect from the department.

As of August 1st, 2025, anyone living, working, or visiting Minneapolis has new civil rights protections.

You can't be discriminated against because of your housing status if you are just as impacted, which means having a criminal record history, or your hiding away.

According to the new law, housing status means whether you have a stable regular place to sleep at night or not.

The ordinance doesn't stop organizations from making certain distinctions or asking questions about housing status if federal law or state law requires it, or if there's a good business reason that's allowed by law.

Does this impact it means having a criminal record or history like an arrest, charge, conviction, jail time, or probation?

That said, employers can consider how film lines criminal history relates to the job.

Employers should consider the following when making decisions about justice impact individuals.

If there was a conviction, how long ago the offense or conviction occurred, the severity and nature of the crime, the person's age at the time, and evidence of rehabilitation.

Employers cannot discriminate based on arrests that did not lead to convictions, except for pending cases.

State and federal licensing rules still apply.

Schools also need to think about how criminal history might affect the students' ability to get licensed for certain professions.

Height means how tall you are, and weight means how much you weigh.

This includes actual numbers and how people see you, like tall or short, heavy or light.

For education, employment, housing, and public accommodation places like stores and restaurants.

Any decisions that take into account height or weight must be reasonably necessary for the normal operation of the job or service.

That means there can't be any other way to do it without a significant problems, changing the main purpose of the program, or putting anyone's health or safety at risk.

Other new protections include expanded definitions of race, familial status, and disability, and increased protections for private workers and people's religious observances.

Employers and education institutions should review the ordinance to understand what they now need to consider.

Visit our website to learn more or to file a complaint if you think you've been discriminated against.

So we have these new protections that we're really excited about, but new protections and new provisions in law don't necessarily mean anything if no one knows about them and knows that they can make complaints.

So with the passage of those new protections, we wanted to engage in a really robust outreach and engagement effort to make sure that people do know that these protections exist and how to go about making a complaint.

So I am going to summarize some of those.

Many of these are actively in process.

So we have internal efforts that are focused on the enterprise and especially reaching folks who work across the enterprise that have a lot of interface with community that might have some of these protected classes that would be relevant to them, as well as external efforts to, of course, get the word out to community partners, to the legal bar, and to members of the public that might be having these experiences.

So some of those efforts have included internally scheduling meetings with neighborhood and community relations and regulatory services to provide information about these new protections and how to access our services.

We are planning an enterprise-wide presentation for sometime this fall, so keep an eye out for that.

We'll definitely publicize that for everyone across the enterprise.

And then working, of course, closely with communications on the video that you just saw and likely some other things like that, and then also creating some new graphics that we can use, particularly for this campaign.

You can see one of them on the screen is the all the hands together, the different um shades of hands that are all together.

So we're using those graphics throughout for, you know, attempted cohesion around all of our outreach and engagement for these new protected classes.

And then external efforts.

So staff in the complaint investigations division did a Minnesota CLE continuing legal education session on August 29th.

Um we're also planning to present at the Real Estate Institute in October.

Um, associate uh director Vaughn is actively drafting an article for bench and bar.

Um, we do think it's really important to get the word out to our legal community so that they can bring um claims when it's relevant to do so.

Um, and then working with a variety of different community organizations.

These are a lot of the same um community organizations that were a part of the passage of these amendments to assist us in getting the information out, particularly, for instance, to justice-impacted individuals who may be experiencing this throughout their lives, and then participating in a variety of community events, um, including open streets, the Trans Equity Summit, and around the world on Lowry.

We have specific handouts that are specific to these new protections and trying to engage members of the public and provide that information to anyone who is interested.

Um, we've also done um extensive uh appearances and continue to do across our different um cultural media uh both TV stations and radio stations.

So we are working or we've been on Hmong Radio, um, Somali TV, Native Roots, La Raza, and KMOJ, and really look forward to just continuing to try to disseminate this information as much as possible so that folks really know that they have these protections and can start making those complaints, and we look forward to continuing to enforce these new protections.

With that, I'm gonna hand it over to interim director, uh Deputy Director Burns to talk about contract compliance and our labor standards enforcement division.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Thank you.

And I'll try not to take up too much of your time, but at least try to give you some information.

So I'm currently the associate director and interim director, associate director in charge of contract compliance and the interim deputy director of the department.

The contract compliance division is charged with uh implementing the small business program, ensuring our small as small underutilized businesses have opportunity to bid and compete for uh city of Minneapolis contracts.

We also make sure that contractors uh commit to non-discrimination while working on our contracts and that they provide affirmative action uh in recruiting and retaining uh people of color and women.

We also ensure that uh contractors classify and pay workers uh according to the work that they do on all of our city construction and development projects, as well as um, and that's done through our active monitoring of contracts.

So we don't wait on the complaint, we actually review payroll, we go out to the job site, we interview workers, we talk to workers, and we also are part of the Minnesota Unified Certification Program.

So we certify businesses uh for MENDOT, Med Council, and the Airports Commission.

So we are a certifying member of that.

The contract compliance division, as you see here's our current uh structure.

We have a I think the new position is the compliance supervisor, which has helped us streamline uh information and get projects awarded faster, as well as holding uh contractors and staff accountable.

So we can't uh expect our contractors to do uh what they're supposed to do on contracts if our city people aren't doing what we're supposed to do on the contracts also.

These are some of our second quarter uh to date, I guess uh through the second quarter, some of our accomplishments or actually some new information, uh 38 new contracts.

So we have probably around $80 million worth of new contracts that came in the second uh quarter of this year to go along with the contracts we already have.

So we're actually monitoring about 226 contracts totaling about 1.6 billion dollars.

So some are in various stages, professional service uh construction, goods and service contracts, and then we have an additional uh 145 million dollars worth of upcoming uh development projects.

Those are projects through our CPID.

Uh we reviewed affirmative uh 89 affirmative action plans were approved over the second quarter.

That means 89 companies have committed to non-discrimination on our projects while they're working on them.

We've also certified 17 businesses and reviewed 21 applications.

And uh through our wage investigation, we have a wage investigator also for our division.

We did 21 investigations and received $96,000 back for our 46 workers during the second quarter.

That's during the second quarter.

So uh we we're doing a really good job with that.

That's not without um challenges, I would say.

So one of the things that we're focused on more this year, uh refocusing on, I should say, is outreach, uh renewed outreach uh commitment, uh, relationship building with some of our community partners, uh, do some training and and uh thanks to uh I always give uh associate director Walsh credit because they do a lot of outreach and we strive to be more like them in the outreach area.

But there's a lot of challenges, as you all know, to the federal affirmative action, federal small business programs, some of the major court cases that are starting to trickle down into the local level, and one of them is the federal disadvantaged business enterprise, which we have been aligned with for about um, I would say almost 10 years now.

And if that program falls, which it looks like it may in the next year or so, then it's gonna impact us.

Luckily for us, we've been working with uh council uh council to try to make some changes to our program, some minor changes to, but not to compromise the small underwise business program, but just make some changes so we are uh in line and not have any legal issues with that.

And so we're also working with the city attorney's office in that area, too.

Uh, and then looking maybe to actually look into align more with our local uh certification programs versus a national program, which gets us more into looking at our local businesses here in Minneapolis.

And next I will talk about the labor standards and enforcement division.

Uh, the labor standards and uh enforcement division includes sick and safe time, minimum wage, overtime, and other forms of wage theft.

They investigate payroll and sick time violations and resolve disputes uh and demand back wages and and back wages owed to workers and monitor ongoing compliance.

And 2024, they closed 163 cases and got collected over $540,000 for workers, impacting over 1,300 workers.

And to date, they've closed over 124 cases and collected over 245,000 dollars in back wages and damages for workers.

That's a lot of money.

Uh so they're doing a good job.

In 2025, they're also monitoring 33 settlements, impacting over 2,700 workers.

This includes training and policy changes, uh, and they've have provided over the last couple of years 278 technical assistant consultations uh for employers and employees.

So the outreach, the commitment to back wages for workers and monitoring what we've settled with contractors or with uh businesses is super important.

Here's the structure of the division.

They have two senior compliance officers, two investigation officers, I'm sorry, and two two other investigation officers, the intake worker and of course the associate director.

And, as you all know, on September 11th, the council passed the sick and safe time amendments to align with state law and to strengthen the protections for uh workers that's currently under mayor review, but it was a um good effort by the council and by uh Associate Director Walsh and making sure that we're in line with the state.

Uh we also have our co-pilot uh program that saw us um train bookkeepers and uh funding to make sure that people understand and identify non-compliance upstream before it grows into any bigger problems for their small business and their clients.

So we had 69 community-based uh bookkeepers recruited by our partners and trained in labor standards and compliance.

We had 47 small businesses that receive compliance assistance, uh subsidized through their existing bookkeeper.

And then we had our co-enforcement with our also our partners uh to empower our vulnerable or vulnerable low-wage workers to learn to spread the word and to enforce Minneapolis labor standards through prevention, intervention, and by reducing barriers to accessing city and legal services.

So over a thousand hours of outreach and engagement, including proactive training, and over 500 hours of navigation services to help workers address complaints with employers, city staff, or private legal uh assistance.

That's over 1,500 hours of communication with individuals, bless you, to ensure that they understand uh the responsibilities.

So I'll turn it back over to Director McConadira.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

Okay, so we also don't want to miss um the really important work that's being accomplished by our boards and commissions that are supported by um the civil rights department.

So I want to highlight um some achievements um and updates from our civil rights commission.

So I want to commend them um for the collaboration they engaged in on the civil rights ordinance updates.

Um the idea to add heightened weight came from a recommendation from the commission, so that was really robust and valuable engagement in that work.

Um they are also actively working on um their 2025 youth essay contest.

They had a very successful 2024 youth essay contest, so building on that success, um, and we will certainly be in contact with more information on that as it moves forward.

Um, but it'll be geared towards middle schoolers and on a civil rights-related topic.

Um, they're also actively planning their 50th anniversary celebration because the Civil Rights Commission is 50 years old, which is pretty impressive.

Um, and so that is tentatively scheduled for November 20th, but we will confirm that and certainly get the word out once those details are more specifically finalized.

Um, and then I will also highlight that they've been a great help in participating in those cultural media related interviews.

They've been a part of like our interview with La Raza, which was great, and we plan to continue partnering with them with getting the word out about those new civil rights protections as well.

And then moving to our community commission on police oversight.

So huge thank you to them for all of the time they've put into training, especially over the last year.

It really is a big lift in the amount of time they need to dedicate to that, but is really vital to their ability to, you know, have all the information and know how to best function within their role to hopefully be as effective as possible.

There also has been significant, significant efforts around review panels, and that effort is going to keep on continuing because we still have plenty of cases to get through and work to do in that area.

But I will just highlight and you know, again, commend our commissioners, but also our OPCR staff.

So we had 24 cases go through review panels in 2024.

We've had 63 cases go through already in 2025.

So we are outpacing last year by a very significant amount, and certainly proud of that team for being able to keep moving that work forward, especially with our smaller number of folks serving on review panels.

We're hoping this just keeps getting better.

So we're excited about that.

They also have held a public hearing on police policies and continue to engage in that policy recommendation work, which is also a really important part of their work moving forward.

I will also highlight that we also support the workforce advisory committee, which is also engaging in really important work around our labor standards related ordinances.

So I want to highlight the community engagement.

I talked about this a little bit at the beginning of the presentation.

This has really been a renewed focus of the entire civil rights department.

We now have a person in a position who's completely dedicated to community engagement, which is not something that we previously had.

Just to highlight some of the different events and things that we've done in this area.

We participated in the Juneteenth celebration, the community connections conference, we've been at all open streets events, and we'll be at the next one.

The Northeast Park Fest, the Black Business Week events, North Points Free Fresh Food Fridays.

I believe we've participated in six of those, the Trans Equity Summit, and then collaborative efforts with some of your council offices as well.

We also have, of course, the work of our boards and commissions, which really is a vital part of our community engagement here at the Civil Rights Department, both with regular monthly commission meetings, subcommittee meetings, as well as recruitment and community engagement sessions and efforts.

And then we've made many of these media appearances, in addition to some that I've already covered.

We also had a press conference when our labor standards enforcement division reached the very important milestone of collecting two million dollars in wages for workers since their inception, since the division's inception.

So we're excited about that.

We also participated in the press conference for the first wage theft felony conviction with our partners over at Hennepin County, and then issued a press release for the new civil rights protections as well when they went into effect.

We've also focused really specifically on investing in training for our staff and for our commissioners, too, as appropriate.

So this just highlights some of the different ones that we've participated in.

We've sent many staff to internal affairs investigations training.

We've had folks participate in the employment law institute, in the American Contract Compliance Association National Training Institute, in mediation training, and more.

And then this is kind of our last substantive slide, just to highlight kind of the overall achievements that we want to outline up to this point in 2025 for the department, and then also our future plans.

So the key achievements we want to highlight are we created the updated mission, vision, and values, which I discussed.

We have been assisting the city clerk in providing more direction and support for the CCPO.

We've continued to work to meet the terms of the MDHR settlement agreement in our compliance submissions.

We are actively working on new case management systems for our Office of Police Conduct Review, complaint Investigation, and labor Standards divisions that really needed to be updated.

We have are very proud of and thankful for the collaboration on the passage of the amendments to the civil rights ordinance and uh implementing those changes, passage of the amendments to the CCPO ordinance and implementing those changes, as well as near passage or awaiting on the oral review of earned sick and safe time.

For future plans, we're really focusing on reviewing, updating, and ensuring stronger quality assurance protocols, policies, and procedures, actively hiring the role that's gonna assist with that.

Our quality assurance and compliance manager, continuing to work on the centralization of administrative work for the department for greater financial oversight and accountability, uh proactive community engagement and education, increased internal staff engagement and support.

I'll just note that I really especially value that right now in times of transition, right?

That can be hard on staff, and so I'm really making sure that we um focus on there being a lot of that internal staff engagement as well.

Um, working with the council on um changes to the small and underutilized business enterprise program ordinance, um, and then also implementation of the earn sick and safe time amendments once um those ultimately fully pass.

That's just a picture of the whole group at our last all staff meeting, but that's the team.

Um, and then I'll end with that.

Thank you so much for hearing our presentation.

There is a code for you to follow us on social media if that's something that you're interested in doing.

Um, and I will stand for any questions that you might have.

Thank you so much, Director.

Um I'll first pass it to Vice Chair Wance.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

Thank you so much for this presentation.

Just going back to slide uh 15.

I did want to know if you had the figure on hand around total cases, or was that also year to date um that you've uh oh sorry, wait, you just sorry, which division?

Oh, that was contract compliance.

Oh, it's contract compliance, okay.

Okay, I will have shows up on interim deputy come up 15 no no.

So it said yeah, the division closed 70.

Oh, wait, oh, contract compliance.

Okay, sorry, the complaints investigation slide.

Okay.

Sorry, we don't see the numbers.

Oh, okay.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, go back one.

There we go.

That one.

Yes.

Uh the 44 cases.

Uh is that year to date or the total?

Yeah, 44 cases year to date in 2025, and then it was 70 cases a total in 2024.

Okay.

Awesome.

Only question I have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council President Paint.

Thank you, Chair Traves.

And I just wanted to say thank you for all this great work.

It's been a pleasure uh working.

CCPO has taken this entire uh term to get amended, and it's I'm just really happy to see we got that done and to see we've almost tripled the output um of panel reviews.

Is I think just the beginning of what I'm really hoping is a lot of improvement to that.

So thank you.

Thank you for your partnership.

We really appreciate it, and I agree.

I think it's onward and upwards from here.

Thank you.

Um, no one else is on queue.

So seeing no more discussion.

I'll ask the clerk to receive and file that report.

And uh before we finish, I actually need some help from this the clerk.

So I'd like to make a motion to reconsider item number five, which is receiving a filing report responding to the fee studies legislative directive.

There are a ton of questions that we have now for staff for the regarding PCAR, so uh I'd like to make a motion to reconsider that item.

And if the clerks can help me with that process, that would be helpful.

Uh Mr.

Chair, if there's no obstruction from the body, then uh you may reconsider it.

I'll reconsider item number five without objection.

All right.

And the item is now before us, item number five.

I did email staff as we were hearing from the civil rights department that we were I was gonna make a motion to reconsider this item to be able to ask staff questions about this, given that staff is not here.

I'll pause it to Vice Chair Wansey and we could consider this next cycle as well.

Thank you, Chair Chavez.

I did want to uh also build upon your motion to delay this for one cycle in order for us to have staff be able to come and give an overview of the presentation.

Um I think many of us were here uh right when we passed this on consent uh when uh in my inbox and all of you all's inbox, we saw a press release that um really mischaracterized a lot of the work that went behind council and my office bringing forward this PCAR fee and um it's a really uh just really fascinating activity of whitewashing of what transpired behind it.

So um I would love to be able to have uh staff be able to share a little bit more context uh in how they came to characterizing PCAR as they did.

Uh the miss or the inaccuracies of reporting that went behind the figures that's also not being addressed in the release that's being shared with the public.

Um so this gives us at least until the next cycle, and also in the container of this committee, to get those questions fully answered and for the public to be fully aware of how council um supported efforts in holding the administration accountable in delivering on both climate change, um, where we're not meeting many of those benchmarks as according to our current climate equity plan.

So um I will uh build upon your motion to then delay um and I recall you shared the date earlier when we delayed another item.

October 1st.

October 1st.

So this will be the delay to the October 1st PHS committee.

Thank you.

I also put myself on cue and request that staff be present to give the presentation on this item at the October 1st, a public health and safety committee.

I think it is important that we get more answers to some of the questions that members have.

Oh, I'll pass it to next to Councilmember Palmasano.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I might have missed the email that you are referring to, but it was my understanding that last cycle before we had to cancel the meeting because of microphone issues.

We were due to have a fulsome presentation on this, right?

So is what you're saying that you essentially want to have that presentation and then be able to ask questions.

All right, thank you.

That's just what I wanted to understand.

Great.

And now my computer froze.

So on the motion to postpone this item to the October 1st public health and safety committee.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed say nay.

Any abstentions?

And that item is going to be reconsidered on August 1st for the presentation.

All right, colleagues, given that no one else is on queue and there is no further discussion.

I want to make sure.

Okay.

There is no more left.

I will declare this meeting adjourned.