Good morning.

My name is Aisha Chugtai, and I'm the chair of the budget committee.

I'm going to call to order our adjourned meeting for Tuesday, October 7th, 2025.

Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all members, staff, and 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 role so we can verify the presence of a quorum.

Councilmember Payne.

Present.

Rainville.

Rosa.

Vita.

Present.

Ellison is absent.

Osman.

Absent.

Cashman.

Present.

Jenkins, absent.

Chavez.

Present.

Chowdery.

Absent.

Palmasano.

Present.

Vice Chair Koske.

Present.

Chair Chucktai.

Present.

Eight members present.

Let the record reflect that we have a quorum.

I will also remind my colleagues that we will be using speaker management today, so please make sure to sign in.

Today we have three presentations related to the mayor's recommended 2026 budget from emergency management, human resources, and the racial equity inclusion and belonging departments.

I'll first invite emergency management director Rachel Sayre to begin the first presentation.

Welcome, Director.

Good morning, Chair Chugtai, Vice Chair Koskey, and Council members.

My name is Rachel Sayer, and I am the director of the emergency management department.

I'm here today to present to you the budget overview for 2026 for the emergency management department.

The emergency management department falls under the Office of Community Safety along with the other emergency response and safety components of our city government.

In my department, which focuses on large-scale emergencies and disasters, we have 10 personnel, one of whom is part-time.

We currently have no vacancies.

First, we place the whole community in the center of our approach.

This means that our work is based on the needs of the community that we serve, and that we place the humanity and dignity of our residents and visitors at the center of how we approach our work.

Another fundamental principle is collaboration.

Coordination and collaboration are the foundations of successful emergency management and response.

We approach our work in the spirit of partnership, not worrying about receiving credit for the work we do.

We just get the work done.

Finally, we focus on sustainability of our programs.

We must ensure that the work we undertake is doable with the staff we have, given we do not have additional budget to provide further programming.

This vision drives our programs and priorities, which are focused on better preparing our whole community for large-scale emergencies and disasters over the next five years.

Anyone can sign up for these by texting MPLS Alerts to 77295.

In just this last year, we've had over 20,000 subscribers in addition to years past, who are receiving direct notifications as soon as the National Weather Service issues watches and warnings, and that gives residents key time to prepare for potential significant weather.

We have also revamped and already delivered our first renewed ReadyCamp.

This is now a more accessible one-hour household level preparedness, what to do with your family to make sure you're ready for any type of disaster.

We delivered the first session of this revamped ReadyCamp last week in collaboration with Minneapolis Community Education.

We've also built a program called Ready Together that we are excited to work toward launching early next year, and that helps community organizations be better prepared for hazards that are specific to their organization.

In 2025, we stood up three emergency operations centers.

One of which was to an EOC to help provide services to the people affected by the August 27th Annunciation mass shooting.

As a part of that response, we had over 1,500 visits to our services, and we're already taking lessons learned from that response forward.

Pivoting to risks, my department is constantly looking forward at what might come our way and then preparing for the risks that are most likely with the largest impact.

We expect to face many of the same risks as a city in 2026 from severe weather, such as extreme temperatures and extreme weather events, to cyber threats to general uncertainty and rapidly changing scenarios and conditions.

While I can't predict specifically what we will face, I can say with confidence that my team will continue to prepare the city government and all of our residents that we will continue to expand our outreach to help all of our residents prepare as best as you can.

We will continue to do this in partnership with other departments such as communications, neighborhood community relations, and others through trainings, exercise, and other engagements.

The emergency management department reports on two different objectives on the city website, both of which are ways in which we can measure in hard numbers how will how we are helping the city prepare for large-scale emergencies and disasters.

The first outcome objective that helps us ensure we're prepared for disasters is about staffing our city's emergency operations center, which is led by the emergency management department.

The emergency operations center is both a physical space and a team that comes together when we stand up on emergency response that is of significant scale that it spans departments and impacts across our community.

When activated, the emergency operations center works to ensure that the people affected by disaster in our city receive the services that they need both in the immediate response phase as well as into initial recovery.

These type of operations, an emergency operations center, require a lot of personnel to run.

So the emergency management department works across enterprise to train staff from many departments on an ongoing basis so that we have a staff we need to run an emergency operations center.

At the end of 2024, we had 20 staff fully trained, and I expect that number to rise by the end of this year.

Our other outcome objective is to support the community of Minneapolis via information and education to prepare for potential hazards.

At the end of last year, which is the first time we reported on this metric, we were approximately 10,000 people reached.

We are no, we know we're going to far exceed that number this year, and we are going to continue expanding the number of people we reach both broadly with information and in depth with information with education and coordination.

Approximately 64% of the emergency management department's budget of 2.3 million is related to personnel.

Approximately 40% of that comes from federal grants.

So I'm gonna dive briefly into one of the specific programs that I mentioned earlier that we run within my department.

Specifically, I want to talk about how we a lot of our programs feed into the smooth running of an emergency operations center during a large-scale emergency or disaster.

First, we train.

We hold regular training all throughout the year for staff who participate in the emergency management center as well as throughout the national incident management system components, including fire and police.

These courses that we facilitate and run cover the nationwide processes and systems required for large-scale emergencies.

We then offer advanced and specialized courses for those who serve in leadership positions across these response components.

Second, we run exercises for the entire enterprise throughout the year.

Just this year, we held an exercise in which we actually sent teams out to practice taking damage assessments in the city.

We then held an enterprise exercise that brought together all components of our response system, and we worked through how as a city we would respond to a large-scale natural disaster.

These annual exercises are critical for making sure we're ready and that as a whole team we know the processes and the roles we need to play when disaster strikes.

Another key piece of ensuring our emergency operations center is able to coordinate effectively during a disaster is contingency planning and coordination for preparedness.

For example, we hold semi-annual calls with key community partners such as utility companies, the Red Cross, Salvation Army, so that we're all tracking the same hazards and ready to participate together in an emergency operations center when needed.

So at the time that we prepared these slides, the uh less 25,600 for this coming budget year means we will be cutting one of these specialized trainings for our emergency operations center staff.

That is how we will account for that loss.

That is all I have for you.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you for that presentation, Director.

Um, colleagues, are there any questions or uh comments related to this presentation?

I'll first recognize Vice Chair Koskey.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much, Director, for the presentation.

I just have a few questions.

Um the 25,000 reduction.

Um I thought, and maybe I'm I if you could just maybe help walk through this.

I thought it was either the um MDHR or the DOJ findings identifying that we had deficiencies in our NIMS preparation.

How will this affect that us being able to like be current like correct our actions in that?

What kind of effect will that have by reducing this?

Yes, thank you for the question, uh, Vice Chair Koskey, Council members.

Um by and large, our NIMS reset or maintenance program that the council has continued to fund will remain intact.

We are just cutting one training per year.

Um that will be the equivalent of around this $25,000.

So that means one specialized position, such as most likely operations chief, which is a role, uh leadership role in our different components.

We would this year, this coming year not have that training, we would have it the following year.

So there would be a gap in this this coming year, but you know, we'll hold over until the next year to continue to pick up that training.

Okay.

And so is do we have some requirements that we're that we're going to be not meeting then because of this, or yeah.

Um thank you for the question, Vice Chair Koski.

Um I wouldn't say that we're not meeting requirements.

I would say that we are uh continually striving across the board to set expectations of what best practice is for people who serve in these roles.

Um we're still in the process of getting to that kind of gold standard of where everyone is trained, fully trained in all of these roles, and that is a many, many year process.

So having one training this one year is not going to make such a substantial difference either way.

Okay, thank you.

That's helpful.

Um can we go back to the federal grant?

I maybe just didn't I want to just make sure I'm understanding what was the total federal grant that we had before, and is it my understanding that we it's reduced to $10,000?

And what or I just want to make sure could you clarify what it was prior and then what it is now?

Yes, and I will do my best.

I might need help from some of my finance colleagues here.

Um first of all, the calendar year, our calendar year does not align with the budget um the federal grant cycle.

So uh for the the current grant that we're working off of, which I believe is FY24, um we had received 900,000.

So that is what we were assuming planning against as continued because that has been the case for some years now.

Um, like I said, just late last week, we learned that uh for the upcoming fiscal year grant that would start sometime next year for us, we were allocated just $10,000.

Okay.

And then can you describe what you utilize that $900,000 for?

It looks, I mean, it's like half your budget.

That is fine.

Did my quick yes, my quick math there?

Quick math is correct.

So I'm assuming this is across the board.

This, but I want to help, I'm not I'm not gonna make assumptions.

Can you describe what you utilize the $900,000 for?

Yep.

Chair Chuck Thai, Vice Chair Koske.

Um that is primarily for our six staff that funds those.

Yes, I'm told that's correct.

6.5 staff.

Okay.

And I obviously this is new news for you.

So do we have, you know, what right now is the plan Border to think about how we plan for this shortfall that's gonna definitely gonna happen next year at some point.

Yes.

Um so you know, just even on the walk over here again, the commissioner, you know, said to me that this is a mayor's priority to um resolve funding for the for emergency management.

I don't I don't know what that specifically will look like at this point.

Okay.

Well, I am I am here to help champion and think about and get creative of what we do to um fill that gap.

Um, and I will be happy to work with my colleagues and the mayor's team to think about, you know, we're gonna have to get creative on that because there's a lot of needs in the city and almost a million dollars is um is not something that we just have obviously laying around right now since we argued around 12,000 yesterday.

Um so I want to just be clear though that I'm willing to to champion it and help and work with all of you on that.

Um okay, another question about the ready camp.

So you this year partnered with community ed.

Is there um and I just looked online the class some of the classes are coming up still?

Is there well first of all?

I would want to be able to help get that information out.

And I think every council member on this dias would want to help.

Um is the registration for that already done?

I know it was through community ed, or can people still continue to register?

Um Vice Chair Koski, good question.

I don't know off the top of my head.

I know there's one more uh course we have in that catalog still coming up, but we're planning to offer that outside of the community education ecosystem as well.

Um so um frankly, I've just been giving my team has needed a little bit of time to recover after the enunciation response, but uh we're tackling actually in the second half of this month exactly what the schedule will look like for 2026 and how we will be delivering that with community education outside of community education, and we certainly would love um to work with you all on helping ensure that that information is communicated as widely as possible to get more people into those those clo classes.

Okay, that was gonna be my next question.

Is like what is the next step beyond community education to provide those courses?

So wonderful.

I appreciate it.

And then also just a huge thank you to you and your team for all the work that you did to support the annunciation community, and that I know that you are continuing to do, and that will be ongoing here for months and possibly years ahead.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Wonderful, thank you.

Next, I will go to Councilmember Cashman, followed by Council Member Vita.

Thank you.

Um Chair Chugtai.

I just wanted to ask a little bit about your org chart here with the assist.

Like you have 10 staff in the department, and there are multiple assistant directors.

So I'm wondering a little bit the thinking behind having the four assistant directors in the department, even though one has you know the majority of the other staff underneath them as as supervised supervisees.

Chair Chucktai, uh Councilmember Cashman, thank you for that question.

Um as you know, I've been here just one year, so I can't speak to how um it was organized or when it was necessarily organized.

I can tell you that all four of the assistant director roles are um uniquely specialized and step into lead for me when I am not available.

Um so I would assume that's why it was organized like this.

It is not uh an uncommon structure across emergency management.

It actually echoes um an emergency operations center structure in which we have those more or less those same four section chiefs.

Okay, that's interesting.

It yeah, it's just a little different than other departments.

Um but really I just wanted to thank you for your leadership in these really hard times and seeing that our contribution from FEMA is dropping to below 1%, I think, if it was 900,000 to 10,000 is really grim and actually really scary.

Um so you know, we're all gonna have to step up to be a much more resilient city in the years to come.

And I know you're up to the challenge, so thanks for leading, and thanks for helping us get through this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, I will recognize council member Vita, followed by Councilmember Rainville.

Thank you, Chair.

I just first I wanted to just make sure we clarified that um council member Koskey's point was about the after action report and not the MDHR or DOJ findings.

Is that correct, Director?

That is correct.

Um yes, that is my that would be my understanding as well.

I would defer to Councilmember Cosk.

Yes, I have been corrected and I appreciate it.

Thanks.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um more than anything, I wanted to just say thank you so much um for your proactive approach and dedication to keeping this community safe.

It's um it's been really cool to see your leadership in action.

You know, you've been here for a short time and it's made a significant difference in my opinion, especially for the North Side.

It is clear to me that you care about this community.

I love your communication style.

I love that you reach out right away.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh Councilmember Vita, you stole my thunder.

I I too want to uh congratulate you on your proactive communications and to and all your staff.

Since you've come, we've received much more information than we ever have in the past, and it's just so helpful.

And and your department really shine during the horrible annunciation shooting.

So thank you for much for all you do.

And as with everybody else here, I pledge uh support to help you get through this dramatic cut in your budget.

Thank you.

Excellent.

I'll note um that we have been joined in this committee by Councilmember Chowdhury and recognize her for some comments or questions.

Uh thank you, Chair Chugtai, and thank you so much, Director Sayre, for your presentation and your work.

Um I am also interested in seeing what work we can do, even in this next legislative session to talk to our state delegation about what does it look like for the state of Minnesota to help support emergency services.

Um I think that could be an interesting way to figure out getting more revenue, um, especially if we're not able to make that entire $900,000 whole given the tight budget year, but I think that's an interesting way for us to lean in.

And I think our state delegation can also use a little bit of understanding of what the purpose of emergency management is.

And I think you have done a really good job of um kind of bringing Minneapolis's emergency management department into modern day 2025.

And I just want to thank you for your work and your team's work.

Um this last year has been incredibly tough for our community this summer for me, just feels bookended by crisis.

And you had to um lead through that, and you really really showed up.

And I think like you heard from many of us, and I will even say myself too.

I often wasn't happy in our conversations, but that wasn't in reflection of the work you were doing, and more so just like holding kind of the trauma, the fears, the concerns of our community, and also just past experience of the city of Minneapolis being unable to meet people where they needed to meet them in the midst of crisis.

And I have appreciated the way that you have taken feedback from council members, community members in a plethora of different spaces and ways, and also have proactively reached out about it and then have executed changes.

I've seen the way that I have asked for specific things or gave ideas, and then they have showed up in the next moment where we had to come together.

And I really think that showed up following the horrific shooting at Annunciation and the horrific shooting at 29th and Clinton.

I still think that there's more places of work, and I have plenty of feedback too.

But I'm just appreciative of just being able to see your work in real time and your team's work in real time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm not seeing anyone else in queue, so thank you for coming in to present your budget, and I'll direct the clerk to file that report.

All right.

Next, we will our next presentation is from the human resources department.

For that, I will invite our chief human resources officer Nikki Odom to begin that presentation.

Welcome, Director.

Thank you.

Good morning, Madam Chair, Council members.

I'm Nikki Odom, the Chief Human Resources Officer for the City of Minneapolis.

Thank you for the opportunity to present the 2026 recommended human resources budget.

Human Resources sits in the Office of Public Service as a part of internal services, reporting to DCOO Saray Garnett Huhuli.

The Human Resources Department is a full service team of about 65 professionals supporting more than 4,000 employees across 27 departments.

We are organized into seven divisions, five of which operate as centers of excellence based on the Ulrich HR operating model, which provides specialized expertise and consistent service delivery across the enterprise.

Those include the HR investigative unit, labor relations, learning and development, talent acquisition, and total compensation.

The Business Partner Solutions Division provides professionalized strategic and HR general support to city departments, while HR operations ensures compliance and manages core internal services, including the administrative administration of HR policies and employee records.

Together, these divisions share a single purpose, helping our people thrive so that the city can deliver its mission effectively.

Human resources is about people.

Second, grow leaders, developing talent at every level.

Third, inspire belonging, building culture where every employee feels valued and connected.

These pillars are supported by innovation and strong systems because culture and compliance must coexist.

Our self-insured medical plan has generated tens of millions in savings compared to fully insured models.

Prudent management, strong vendor partnerships, and proactive wellness initiatives have stabilized reserves, ensuring affordability for both employees and the city.

This stability, this stability positions us to continue offering high quality coverage while protecting the fund against future cost volatility.

In addition, we've strategically expanded wellness offerings like free counseling sessions, chronic condition management, and preventative care programs without increasing overall costs.

Credits and incentives received from our medical provider have fully offset these expansions, allowing us to reinvest in programs that improve employee health and productivity.

These investments both reduce long-term medical claims and strengthen our workforce's overall well-being.

Moreover, HR continues to partner across the enterprise to share resources and reduce duplication.

Examples include shared recruitment, support and MPD, and coordinated processes and joint initiatives that create enterprise wide efficiencies.

This collaboration approach ensures taxpayer dollars are used responsibly while improving service delivery to all departments.

Lastly, rather than requesting new funding, we've allocated existing dollars to support emerging priorities.

Our goal is to move forward in a way that equity is not secondary but embedded in everything that we do.

We're integrating cultural agility training across leadership programs.

We're expanding partnerships with community organizations for recruitment and promoting cultural, culturally relevant wellness and mental health resources.

The goal is simple to create to make the city of Minneapolis a great place to work for everyone.

Over the past year, we've continued transforming HR to be strategic and responsive.

Highlights include strong applicant growth, 89% increase in urban scholars' applications, expanding the city's pipeline of diverse future leaders.

10% of our scholars receive job off received a job offer or internship extension, surpassing the national average of 7%.

Broader outreach, we had 50% increase in urban scholars partners.

HR attended over 95 recruitment events and hosted the third biannual HR Bridges event with nearly 100 community participants.

We've had hiring success.

We've hired over 110 new police officers, bringing sworn strength above 600 for the first time since 2022.

Time to fill remains steady at under three months, consistent with the last year and better than the national average for public sector organizations.

We've had a 2% increase in women applicants from 2024 to 2025.

In terms of engagement and recognition, we've had record participation with nearly 1,000 employees doubling engagement from the prior year.

We restarted our employee recognition program, highlighting employee service during public service week.

Our social media reach has expanded.

On Facebook, we've had over a million impressions over the last year.

With LinkedIn, we've had 4600 new followers and over 2.4 million impressions.

In terms of strategic initiatives, we are on track for Minnesota paid family and medical leave implementation, which begins January 1st of 2026, and we are advancing foundational work for the upcoming enterprise ERP workday implementation.

We've also realigned functions such as merging compensation with labor relations to improve coherence and efficiency.

As we look ahead to 2026, HR is managing several departmental and enterprise-wide risks that require proactive planning and coordination across departments.

Again, Minnesota's new paid family medical leave law takes effect at the first of the year.

Implementation will require significant administrative and legal system readiness, including payroll policy and leave management changes.

We're already working closely with finance and the city attorney's office to ensure compliance and painless integration into our HR systems and processes.

We are also working with departments who have traditionally had high leave rates to prepare for anticipated and anticipated increase in family medical leave requests and approvals.

Some projections include increases of 30 to 60%.

The upcoming workday ERP transition will fundamentally reshape how HR data workflows and user experiences operate across the city.

This is not just a technology technology shift, it's an enterprise change effort.

Our focus is on strong change management, staff training, and communication to help every department navigate the transition successfully.

Like many departments, HR is managing high service demand without adding FTEs.

We're mitigating this through process redesign, automation when possible, and cross-training to preserve service quality and compliance.

Our non-personnel budget has remained flat for several years, limiting our ability to invest in training, development, and technology.

Without growth in this area, it becomes difficult to keep pace with industry standards or maintain skill sets needed to support modernization.

Across all these risks, our focus remains the same to manage change proactively and not reactively.

By planning ahead, communicating clearly, and aligning resources, HR continues to provide stability during major enterprise transitions.

As we transition to our performance measures, I want to highlight how these metrics directly relate to our people strategy, the foundation of how we attract, develop, and retain the talent that drives city services every day.

Our results tell a clear story.

HR is making a difference.

We're hiring faster, improving employee experience, keeping well-nosed programs strong, and maintaining stable, affordable benefits for our workforce.

Looking ahead, our 2026 performance targets are designed to reflect both accountability and aspiration.

They hold us responsible for results while also pushing us to keep improving and to stay competitive, data-driven, and aligned with our mission of excellent service.

These measures are not just numbers on a page.

They represent real progress toward building a high performing, resilient workforce that can meet the needs of our residents now and in the future.

We have increased representation of BIPOC and female employees since 2023.

Half of job applicants who apply for jobs here identify as BIPOC, and almost 45% identify or are female.

This year, our medical plan rates were below the industry standard.

All of our plans are under a 3% increase, and some plans are only seeing an increase of a few dollars.

Our public sector peers in Minnesota are experiencing medical plan increases anywhere from 7% to 20%.

Large employers in Minnesota are seeing an average increase at 6.5%.

These are performance measures for our second pillar, grow leaders.

Retention is one of our most important indicators of organizational health.

Strong retention directly translates to continuity of service and reduced hiring and training cross training across departments.

Our turnover remains lower than industry standard, and turnover is defined by those who have voluntarily left the city.

We are continuing to invest in leadership development, skill building, and career pathways so employees can grow within the city.

This supports succession planning and internal mobility, helping us build a pipeline of future leaders while reducing turnover.

The decrease in internal promotions from 23 to 24 is due to the fact that in 23 it was a big year for sworn promotions, and then we didn't have as many sworn promotions in 2024.

This last set of performance measures focuses on several key operational improvements.

Timely resolution of employee and union grievances keeps city services running smoothly.

HR's goal is always to resolve issues early, fairly, and collaboratively before they escalate into service disruptions or formal litigation.

This approach protects the city's operations, minimize costs, and strengthens labor management relations.

The city has 24 collective bargaining agreements covering nearly all city employees.

Our labor relations team continues to prioritize open communication and problem solving at the table, resulting in settlements that are fair, fiscally responsible, and reached without arbitration or strike.

These outcomes reflect trust, preparation, and the professionalism of both HR and our union partners.

Prompt, thorough investigations maintain trust and accountability across the enterprise.

Our investigations division ensures that concerns are reviewed objectively, consistently, and in compliance with policy and law.

The goal is not just to resolve cases, but to strengthen integrity and confidence in our processes.

HR has reduced hiring timelines and streamlined recruitment processes, and every day saved and hiring directly supports city departments in maintaining the continuity of service for residents.

Like all departments, we are not asking for new funding in 2026.

We're asking for continued support and confidence in our strategy.

This budget recommended recommendation keeps HR stable while positioning us to deliver on major enterprise initiatives.

Your support ensures that we can continue to implement paid family medical leave successfully, launch our new ERP system, maintain affordability and excellence in employee benefits, and deliver equitable, efficient service to every city department and employee.

This is the same information broken down by division.

The drop in 2024 to 2025 reflects one-time increases that were built into the 24 HR budget.

Those included temporary allocations for union COLA pattern adjustments that have since been redistributed to individual departments and funding for metamorphosis, the enterprise anti-racism initiative.

Those are temporary funds, as those temporary funds conclude, the 2025 baseline simply reflects a return going back to operational levels.

While these reductions reflect prudent cost management, they preserve our core HR capacity and ensure no interruption to essential services like investigations, labor relations, or benefits administration.

As detailed in the 2026 budget changes section, the reduction includes one HR manager position in business partner solutions, which we plan to fill in the future when the budget outlook improves, and one position in talent acquisition.

We've also made a structural adjustment that moves two full-time positions from the general fund to the medical self-insurance fund.

This is an industry best practice, aligning administrative costs with the fund they directly support.

It frees up general fund dollars while maintaining full continuity of benefit services for the city employees and retirees.

There is no reduction in service, just smarter, more sustainable, a smarter, more sustainable way to fund the work that supports our people.

As of today, HR has four vacancies.

The change manager position has been filled internally, which will leave another LD vacancy, and BP and the BPS director position, which will likely be filled by the end of the month.

Then there are the two positions that are being held for reduction.

Our 2026 recommended budget reflects a department that's lean, strategic and aligned, balancing fiscal discipline with excellent customer service.

Each division has a clear role in advancing our people strategy.

The next section shows how we've organized resources, optimized structure, and prioritized efficiency, ensuring each division is positioned to meet the enterprise needs while delivering measurable value to departments and employees alike.

The administration and operations division provides the foundation for all HR functions, managing financials, policies, systems, and communications.

The division supports the Civil Service Commission and coordination of enterprise workplace policies.

Good governance requires good data, which is why we must continue investing in our HR system infrastructure to improve reporting, automation, and data-driven decision making.

Through this work, we're able to respond more quickly to data requests, manage our resources responsibly, and align HR policies with city goals and best practices.

In short, this division keeps HR and the enterprise running efficiently and strategically.

Providing support to help leaders achieve their workforce goals.

This team connects enterprise HR priorities with department level needs, ensuring policies, programs, and people strategies work in real time to strengthen operations.

Department leaders rely on their guidance to navigate complex workforce challenges and to drive change that improves both performance and employee experience.

Simply put, business partner solutions translates HR strategy into action, helping every department deliver results through its people.

The investigations division, the HR investigations unit, upholds integrity and fairness, accountability across the enterprise by conducting impartial and thorough investigations into employee conduct.

Good governance also requires reliable and timely investigations that people can trust.

And this team ensures that by contacting complainants within three business days of receiving a report.

Their work promotes safe, respectful, and compliant workplace for all employees.

Beyond individual cases, this team analyzes complaint trends to identify root causes, strengthen policies, and inform training and prevention efforts.

This proactive data-informed approach helps reduce recurrence, enhance accountability, and build confidence in city systems and in city leadership.

The labor relations division is at the center of our partnership with the city's 24 labor unions, fostering constructive, collaborative and mutually beneficial relationships.

From a governance perspective, this work aligns with our commitment to accountability and transparency and responsiveness.

Adequate staffing ensures labor relations are managed fairly, consistently, and transparently.

Upholding the city's values and maintaining public trust.

The increase in the 2026 recommended budget reflects a strategic restructure that moves compensation and classification into labor relations for better alignment and efficiency since over 90% of our workforce is unionized, and compensation work must align with collective bargaining.

By resolving grievances early and negotiating fair contracts without escalation, we help prevent disruption to essential public services.

This investment strengthens the stability and productivity of our workforce, ultimately benefiting the entire community.

This division delivers high-quality training, supports change management and organizational development, and builds leadership capacity across the enterprise.

By promoting innovation, equity, and inclusivity, the team helps transform the city into a true learning organization where employees are engaged, adaptable, and future-ready.

We're ensuring that professional growth directly contributes to better service for the residents of Minneapolis.

Since its inception, the talent acquisition division has worked to ensure that the city's workforce reflects the diversity of the community it serves.

This team attracts, engages, and onboards exceptional talent by aligning people's skills and passions with the needs of the enterprise.

They promote the city as an employer of choice through community partnerships, targeted outreach, and commitment to equitable merit-based hiring.

By streamlining recruitment and onboarding processes, they help departments fill positions faster, ensuring residents continue to receive the essential services they need without interruption.

Ultimately, their work strengthens both the representation and performance of the city, building a workforce that mirrors and serves Minneapolis with excellence.

The Total Compensation and Wellness Division designs and administers the city's comprehensive benefits and wellness programs that attract, retain, and reward a diverse and talented workforce.

This includes employee health and retirement benefits, paid leave programs, employee assistance program, and the city's self-insured medical program, medical plan.

Our enterprise HR technology also ensures accurate management of employee data, timekeeping, and compensation.

The city's benefit and wellness program continues to look to deliver measurable results, helping employees lead healthier lives while keeping benefit plan contributions at or below industry averages.

By reducing health care costs and improving employee well-being, this division delivers real value, both to our workforce and to taxpayers.

The decrease in the 2026 recommended budget is due to two structural changes that I mentioned previously, moving compensation and classification into labor relations for better alignment, and then shifting to full-time positions from the general fund to the medical self-insurance fund.

The recommended budget for 2026 includes reductions totaling about 616,000 $16,000, $600,000.

Um these include $7,000 in food and beverage costs, 281 uh thousand dollars or 100,000 in um personal savings from the two personnel savings from the two positions, um, a reduction of 11,000 um in training costs, and then um the reduction in the two reduced transfers uh from the general fund to the self-insurance fund.

Importantly, these are strategic adjustments.

Um, they reflect efficiencies and realignments, but not um reductions in service.

In closing, maintaining the recommended investments in HR in 2026 means investing in people who make Minneapolis work.

I appreciate your time and partnership and continued commitment to supporting a strong, healthy, and inclusive workforce.

That concludes my presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you for that presentation, director.

Um colleagues, are there any uh comments or questions related to this presentation?

I will recognize council member Rainbow.

Thank you, Chair.

I apologize if I missed this director, but uh, did you mention how many union contracts would be negotiated next year?

In 2026?

Correct.

I do not have that offhand, but I could get that to you.

Um we still have about 10 uh to negotiate uh for 2025.

Okay, great.

Just simple phone call or email be good, thank you.

And then uh congratulations on your efforts with the police recruitment to hear that we're over 600 is great.

I've uh had a chance to talk to some CSOs and the diversity of their life experience is just phenomenal.

We're just on track to really have the police force that we've always wanted.

So thank you for that.

And then um I also wanted to uh thank you for keeping an eye on the budget.

You know, to come in under is very important.

We're in a hard time here for the city, as we just heard from our emergency management.

We're gonna get a lot of cuts from the federal government.

So thank you and your staff for everything you do and keep up the good work.

Thank you.

Um let's note Councilmember Rainbow's question about the number of contracts that will be negotiated in 2026 for administrative follow-up.

I'm sure other members are curious as well.

Um I will recognize Councilmember Cashman.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, thank you, Director Odom.

I was just wondering if you have any any um vacant positions in the talent acquisition or other areas, either open positions or anticipated open positions.

Uh Madam Chair, Councilmember, we do have the one position that we are holding that we are anticipated to be reduced for um 2026 as part of the mayor's uh recommended budget.

Okay, that's the only open position that you have?

As of right now, yes.

Okay.

And then um, what is the leadership and change manager role and function that you're interviewing for?

Uh actually we we filled it.

Okay, and so there is a uh lower level uh role on the learning and development team that we will be opening pretty shortly.

Okay.

To try and fill.

I also wanted to ask if you know this department was established before my time, the racial equity, inclusion and belonging department, but I'm wondering what your thoughts are on whether that department should be within the HR department or a standalone department.

Uh well, I think uh Madam Chair, council members.

Um, I mean, there's certainly separate departments.

Um, you know, I don't uh I don't know that I have an opinion one way or another.

Um I think that the work that they do is very specific and is you know obviously uh uh enterprise-wide and they have different initiatives and they have different strengths because um REIB is able to focus on that 100%.

Um what we are partnering very closely with REIB on is making sure that equity is a part of every single um thing that HR does from you know policies from hiring um from promotions and making sure that equity is embedded in literally everything that HR does.

Uh so we do work very closely with REIB and um are looking at a plan uh to ensure that equity is embedded in all things that we do, and that is the one thing that I would say that um the director Corbett and I um agree um very seriously on and are working every day to make happen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um director, I just had uh a few questions for you.

Um the first one I want to go back to slide 14 in your slide deck where you are walking through performance measures.

In your slide deck where you are walking through performance measures.

And I am wondering if you can speak to that first goal and measure on on this on this list, prevent disruption to public services by resolving grievances quickly.

And the measure here is percent of grievances that are resolved at the lowest level.

Can you just can you just help me understand what that means?

Sure.

Madam Chair, Councilmember, so you know, in the grievance process, there are multiple steps before having to escalate somewhere else in terms of like arbitration or whatever.

So the hope is that we can get the grievance resolved at step one or hopefully step two so that we do not have to escalate beyond that.

So that that is that's the goal to get it resolved as quickly as possible at the first or second step uh so that we do not have to move to um arbitration or litigation or anything else.

Gotcha.

So uh, you know, I see a pretty significant increase from for that metric between the 2023 actual and the 2025 target.

Um so I'm hoping you can help me understand two things here.

One is you know, what's the volume of grievances that um that are being uh that that are coming it to HR to resolve?

So are we you know talking about a few dozen?

Are we talking about you know a few hundred?

Um you may not have those numbers at the top of your head, so we can do uh an administrative follow-up for that.

Um and then the the second part of what I'm trying to understand is um are there are there systems changes that have been put in place that allows for such a significant increase um in that target between 2023 and 2025?

Do you know about how many of you I'm gonna ask um our director of labor relations to come up?

Welcome, Director Deloney.

If you'll first begin by introducing yourself.

Good morning, Rashida Deloney.

I'm the director of labor relations.

Madam Chair, could you please restate your question?

Yeah, so I'm trying to understand between 2023 and 2025 the percent of grievances that are resolved at the lowest level um, you know, increases from the 2023 actual of 65% to the 2025 target of 90 percent.

So I'm both trying to understand what's the volume of grievances that that are um that are before you to achieve resolution, and then are there systems changes that have been put in place over the last two years that allow for such a significant increase um in those grievances being resolved at the lowest level.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

To answer part one, typically labor relations receives round ballpark about 20 grievances annually, give or take.

Um some are in flux, some have not.

Uh the goal in resolving those or the change of the metrics is to try to be proactive, if that answers your question, meeting with leadership, meeting with the departments, um, increasing our engagement with our union partners on a continual basis to you know manage issues before they arise.

So that's another metric that labor relations takes to try to resolve matters before they are escalated.

Arbitration can be costly.

Yep, that makes sense.

And could you just speak uh to whether you're on track to meet that 90% goal for this year?

Madam Chair, yes, we are.

Okay, awesome.

Thank you.

You're very welcome.

Um shifting gears, um, Director Odom.

I am I know council member Kosky, Vice Chair Koskey, and I have been um in communication with you over email for the last several weeks.

Um, but I'm hoping that since we have you here today, um you can speak to our inquiries.

Um so just wondering when the last time a uh like enterprise-wide um uh compensation study was was completed and um what we what we learned.

Sure.

Um Madam Chair, uh council members.

So we do have a written response um, and that will be coming to you either from us or uh uh COO Anderson Keller pretty shortly.

It's um uh just being reviewed.

Um so in terms of doing an enterprise-wide study, it's kind of virtually impossible to do every single job that we have.

Um the last study that we did was uh conducted over a year ago, probably maybe closer to two now.

Um, and what we ended up doing was taking um uh like several hundred jobs uh to be studied.

Um what I'd say overall what we found was just that um we are doing well in terms of um how we compare to the market, and that's you know, looking at Minnesota specifically and um other similarly situated um um jobs across the country, uh ones like for instance in HR that exists in multiple places.

Um from that standpoint, um, we are competitive.

Um we found that, you know, especially at the first steps, um, we um usually are above market, um, but we do have more detail for you, and we have a written response that will be coming to you um probably today.

That's really helpful to know.

I didn't um it I mean it's also just helpful to hear you um mention that you know it's it's virtually impossible to conduct uh uh a study of all compensation for for every job within the city.

Um I'm sorry if I misspoke.

It's just something that had been um shared with with me and I believe other colleagues um that you know we're doing a enterprise-wide um wage study, so that's that's where that was coming from.

But um I did want to add to that, you know, with all of our collective bargaining agreements.

I mean, we obviously look at market um data uh when we are negotiating those amounts every year.

So, you know, over 90% of our workforce has a market study um that that's conducted in in conjunction with negotiations like every three years when they're um when they're at the table.

Okay.

Um that's helpful to know.

I know there were there was uh an example from I want to say last year, a couple years ago, um, where uh the city attorney's office, I believe, ended up going um over budget that year uh because it had been a long time since they did a um did a study on compensation and then um a similar, I think I think it was the city assessor um that that shared uh a similar story with us when she came in to present her budget.

Yeah, madam chair, um council members.

So there are different kinds of studies that we end up um conducting, um, but we always look at the market whenever we're um at negotiations, but then there are other kinds of studies um that we we do too uh to make sure you know we're looking at compression and other things.

Um so those are probably the studies that were not um done um in the in the time frame.

But when it comes to uh actual market studies, we do look at the market whenever we're at the table and negotiating new rates.

Gotcha.

That's very helpful to know.

Thank you very much.

Um let me double check.

I'm not seeing anyone else in cue.

Thank you so much for coming in today.

Um, and I'll direct the clerk to uh receive or to file that presentation.

Um with that our third and final presentation today is from the racial equity, inclusion and belonging department.

Um for this, I will invite Director Prince Corbett to join us and begin that presentation.

Welcome, Director.

Uh thank you, and uh good or good morning, uh Chair Chuck Time and Vice Chair Koskey and members of the budget committee.

My name is Prince Corbett, director of the racial equity inclusion and belonging department, which we call REIB.

Uh this presentation isn't just about dollars and FTEs, it's about what those investments make possible.

REIB exists to ensure that racial equity is not treated uh as a site, as an add-on, but as a standard of good governance across the city of Minneapolis.

Our mission is to build the capacity of this organization, our systems, our leaders, and our workforce to advance racial equity in every policy, program, and service that touches residents' lives.

And this slide illustrates that uh REIB is uh located within the office of uh public service within internal services.

Our position in the structure is both deliberate and strategic.

When the city council established REIB through ordinance, the department was designated to be primarily internal facing.

Our core duty is to build the capacity, the city's internal capacity to advance racial equity across every department policy and program.

As we move into the organizational overview, uh this slide illustrates the current structure uh of the REIB department uh currently in in 2026.

Um and as you can see from uh that I'll talk about later on, our uh two key changes is reductions of two FTEs.

Uh these significant changes um really uh impacts organ operational capacity.

The director now manages the day-to-day supervision workflow and interdepartmental coordination of the program manager, the equity and inclusion coordinator, the administrative analyst, as well as the administrative assistant.

Staff spend more time waiting for direction and from the director as I'm spending more time managing tasks that used to be move fluidly through a second layer of leadership.

However, with this change, uh we are committed to uh doing the best as possible to improving uh efficiencies to improving processes so that we are a more efficient department.

At the heart of the department of REIB, um we have a very clear mission to build the city's capacity to advance racial equity by equipping departments and employees with the tools, data, and systems they need to make equity a normal part of how we govern within the city.

This mission is rooted in the city ordinance that establish REIB.

That ordinance doesn't just ask us to promote equity as an abstract concept.

It directs us to integrate equity into the daily operations of the city government.

First, embedding racial equity across city operations.

We are in the process of developing uh or revamping a racial equity framework to shape budgets, policies, and community engagement strategies of the city.

This framework will help employees, elected officials as well understand how the city can utilize its capacity, influence, and decision-making power to address disparities as well as the development of racial equity tools.

Second is driving institutional change through strategic alignment.

We work to ensure that this uh that racial equity isn't an isolated or a single department or initiative, to ensure that it's built into how decisions are made across the enterprise.

That means collaborating with HR on workforce equity, with finance on equitable budgeting practices, and with the city attorney's office on civil rights compliance and accountability.

And third, building the internal capacity for racial equity.

This is where our the training of staff development and coaching move.

Whether it's the foundational racial equity curriculum, the repair harm and thoughtful confrontation framework, or restorative justice healing circles, we're equipping employees at every level with the knowledge and skills to navigate race, power, and responsibility in government context.

So that's the foundation.

What REIB is here to do and how we approach the work across departments.

But mission statements truly only matter if they translate into real results.

On the next slide, I'll walk through some of the highlights from 2025, examples of how this small team turned vision into impact and continue building trust and capacity across the city organization.

As we look back on 2025, I want to take a moment to acknowledge what this small but mighty team has accomplished over the past year.

Each of these highlights represents more than a single event or training.

It's a piece of a larger system we're building to embed racial equity into the daily operations of city government.

First, our George Foy Remembrance event for city employees.

This gathering created space for reflection, accountability, and healing within the organization for 130 plus employees who attended the event.

Moments like that remind us that racial healing work is not only technical, it's emotional and relational.

It's about the culture we create inside City Hall and the trust that we build with the communities that we serve.

Second, our share your Minneapolis story partnership with StoryCore.

Through this collaboration, we've collected, evaluated powerful stories from city employees, community members that speak to resilience, and uh how they reflect on the murder of George Floyd.

Those stories are now part of a National Story Core archive at the Library of Congress, preserving Minneapolis's journey toward racial healing in the historical record.

It's a tangible reminder that government has a voice in truth telling and a responsibility to use it.

Third, this summer we hosted an REIB scholar in the REIB department.

We participated in the Urban Scholar Program this past summer and was honored to have Uche as our department's urban scholar.

She is an undergrad student pursuing a degree in product design with skills in Adobe, Photoshop, and Storyboarding.

Uche was phenomenal to work with, and she compile completed two major projects.

One project was creating several different versions of a one-pager entitled Why We Lead With Race.

And the second project was creating a video in which urban scholars talked about what does inclusion and belonging mean to you.

And this video can be found on our REIB City Talk page.

Fourth, our expansion of the repair harm, thoughtful confrontation, and gender and racial equity impact assessments.

Last month, REIB employees, along with staff from several other departments completed a train the trainer series that prepared them to lead these frameworks across the enterprise.

The next phase will involve rolling out employee workshops citywide, ensuring that more staff have access to the same skills and thoughtful confrontation, restorative dialogue, and racial healing.

These frameworks also were shared with leaders during the Metamorphosis Anti-Racist Leadership Program, so this is our way of taking what it is that leaders know and understand and bringing it further into the organization.

Fifth, REIB's racial training racial equity training for staff.

In the summer of 2025, we invested directly in the professional development of our REIB employees, including our urban scholar, by participating in Race Forwards National Racial Equity Training Series.

This includes workshops on building racial equity, power building for racial equity, decision making for racial equity, facilitating racial equity, and governing for racial equity.

Completing these trainings allowed our team to be on the same page when it comes to knowledge frameworks and shared understanding so that we can push and share these frameworks and shared understanding throughout the enterprise.

Sixth, REIB director staffing as an equity officer in the city's emergency operations center.

This is a major step forward in institutionalizing equity and crisis response, having a racial equity lens embedded in emergency operations, that decisions made during moments of urgency, such as severe weather or public safety responses, don't inadvertent deepen inequities.

I was able to quickly develop a racial equity impact analysis of the emergency, provide equity feedback on communication materials, and provide guidance on how the repair harm model could be used in recovery efforts.

I personally want to thank uh director racial sayers because she gave a directive to everyone working in the EOC to read the racial equity impact analysis that was compiled and actively work on implementing strategies from the RIA that was done.

Seventh, our restorative justice and racial healing circle training.

Later this month, our REIB team joined with colleagues from several other departments who have participated in an immersive restorative justice training focused on planning, convening, and facilitating racial healing circles.

This isn't just another professional development opportunity, it's part of the larger effort to institutionalize truth and reconciliation practices within the city of Minneapolis.

And finally, we began developing, we're starting to develop our 2026 to 2030 strategic plan.

This plan will serve as our roadmap over the next five years, aligning department efforts, identifying measurable goals, and ensuring that racial equity remains an operational standard across the enterprise.

We're approaching this work collaboratively, gathering insights from other city leaders and key partners to ensure that it reflects both the internal priorities and public expectations.

As we think about risk to the department, we've organized them into four key pillars using a compliance risk management framework, operational, financial, compliance, legal, and then reputational and strategic.

This approach helps us think holistically about the system, not just about identifying problems, it's about recognizing patterns, understanding where vulnerabilities exist.

On the operational side, our biggest challenge stems from the realities of scale and structure.

We're facing ongoing issues with adapting modern technology and the need to adopt modern technology, reduce staff burnout, and uh the absence of streamlined administrative processes that can that other larger departments rely on.

When I talk about leveraging technology, I'm referring to more than just new software.

Failing to adapt modern tools limits our ability to communicate rapidly and at scale throughout the enterprise, especially when sharing updates, coordinating with other departments, or countering misinformation.

It also means missed opportunities to leverage artificial intelligence responsibility to increase efficiency, strengthen analysis, and reduce risk of biases and decision making.

As a relatively new department, just only three years old, we simply do not have the administrative infrastructure that helps staff work sufficiently, and this is one of the things that we are working on as we close out 25 and into 2026, is sharpening our administrative processes.

But underneath those surfaces is a deeper issue around insufficient staffing and resources to meet expanding racial equity demands.

The goals and expectations placed on REIB, which is transforming citywide systems like policing, housing, HR and procurement far outweigh the current capacity.

We're structured in a boutique shop, but asked to function like a structural change machine.

This imbalance creates a double blind.

If progress is slow, critics argue REIB is ineffective.

If we push staff beyond capacity, burnout skyrockets for my team of four other individuals.

Either way, that resource becomes a sustainable risk, not just for the department, but for the city's abilities to cons to consistently apply equity practices across departments.

Financially, we remain vulnerable to budget reductions, insufficient resource allocations, and limited diversification of funding streams.

This is compounded by the nature of the work itself.

There's also a mismatch between expectations and resourcing.

Oftentimes, council and administration wants quick visible outcomes like show me racial equity now, but systemic change is long term.

That requires stability and not speed.

While we're asked to deliver transformational change on a transactional timeline, it raises the risk of burnout, misalignment, and even program failure.

Compliance and legal risk are also front and center.

The city's racial equity ordinance defines our responsibility to operationalize equity, but that work must be done within complex and shifting legal boundaries.

We're navigating a national climate where interruptions of affirmative action, Title VI, and federal funding restrictions are evolving rapidly.

These changes can constrain how we talk about race, how we talk about racial equity, how we allocate resources, and how we structure training and engagement programs.

The risk isn't just legal, it's cultural and legal uncertainty can't create a chilling effect where departments hesitate to innovate or move forward on equity initiatives with fear of backlash or missteps.

That's why a close partnership with the city attorney's office is critical.

They provide the legal guidance and guardrails we need to achieve racial equity within with confidence so that we can be bold while staying compliant and protecting the cities from the city from avoidable litigation.

Reputational and strategic.

We operate in a highly politicized environment where there is active national and local backlash against racial equity efforts.

If we don't demonstrate clear, measurable impact through data, outcomes, and transparency, our credibility is at stake.

Perception matters because REIB lacks stable leadership and systems continuity from 2020 onward, some still view the department as fragile and unproven.

Without visible results and clearly communicating value, skepticism can harden into a narrative of what does REIB really do.

That's why maintaining a strategic communication lens and a culture of results-based accountability is critical, and we not only have to do the work, but we also have to demonstrate, document, and tell the story in ways that build confidence, both internally and externally.

When I look back on this past year, what stands out most isn't just about what we've accomplished, but about what we've learned along the way.

Vision without systems is aspiration.

Without standard operating procedures, we end up reinventing the wheel every time.

Having clear processes for hiring, contracting, and onboarding doesn't just make us more efficient, it makes us accountable as a department.

Building this foundation has been one of the most important steps to ensure our department can grow without future challenges.

I've learned that narratives isn't just communications, it's power.

How we frame racial equity determines whether people experience it as a burden or as a shared opportunity.

When we tell the story as an investment in community and safety, trust and resilience, we see more people step in to own it.

This year taught me that resilience matters more than reactivity.

Crisises are inevitable, whether it's new legislation, media scrutiny, or moments of community trauma.

The lesson is to lead with steadfastness, not panic.

By building continuity plans, creating backup systems, and focusing on what we can control, we've learned to bend as a department without breaking.

I've also learned that relationships move policy.

A beautifully written policy sitting in a binder will not change the lives of the people in the city of Minneapolis.

It's the partnerships we build inside City Hall as well as out within the community that makes equity real.

Trust and collaboration is what turned policy ideas into action.

Another lesson is about energy and morale, celebrating the small wins.

Racial equity is generational work.

The progress can feel slow and the challenges really do feel feel heavy.

But when we pause to recognize milestones, whether it's a department implementing a new equity tool, a successful training session, or a team member stepping up, we remind ourselves that we are moving forward.

And the major takeaway this year is supporting equity teams isn't optional, it is essential.

These teams were the uh made big commitments into daily practices.

I want to be candid.

In the past, REIB has not supported these teams as much as we could have.

That lack of support sometimes left staff carrying too much weight with too few resources, and that's on leadership, that's on me.

The lesson here is that equity teams cannot be treated as side projects.

They are the front lines of organizational change.

And finally, one of the most human lessons that I've learned this year, giving grace.

As people we fall short, just like I do.

Giving grace doesn't mean lowering expectations, it means creating spaces for growth.

When we make room for mistakes, reflection and learning, we create an environment where everybody's feel safe and then try to innovate and stretch, creating an environmental grace.

So this next slide focuses on uh how we measure impact across the department, uh, not only by individual programs, but by what really matters and why we are building the city's capacity to practice racial equity every day.

And if you'll note from these performance measures, these are performance measures that were created earlier this year that align with showing the impact of our department.

So we did not have 23 in 2020, 2023 or 2024 uh measures, and we are beginning to track in 2025 to create a baseline.

So far in 2025, we've had 877 employees participate in racial equity learning sessions or forums.

Things like the 311 Safe Space Series, the George Floyd Remembers event, the Train the Trainer Program, the National Day of Racial Healing, and Story Core launch and line literacy workshops.

And that's correction.

That's not 877 employees, that 877 individuals, including community members and employees.

Our second goal is to expand the number of workshops and forums that we had.

This is about building consistency across the city.

This year we facilitated 11 learning sessions, and our goal is to increase that to 15 next year.

But it's not just about quantity, it's about death.

It's about making foundational trainings with advanced sessions and creating more space for cross-department conversations.

Our third goal is to strengthen cross-department collaboration.

Now, when I say collaboration, I don't mean more meetings.

I mean making sure equity principles show up where decisions are made and budgeting policy, design, and operations.

Because every department makes decisions that impacts equity, but REIB showing up in those spaces makes sure equity is not an afterthought.

This year, our staff participated in nearly 300 hours of internal collaboration from safe and thriving communities to climate equity metrics to HR equity initiatives, My Minneapolis Survey, U.S.

Water Alliance Task Force.

We're tracking these numbers by staff reporting the number of times that they are working on outside collaborations outside of the department.

And when we talk about racial equity being real, we're talking about turning ideas into action.

We also expanded the repair harm and thoughtful confrontation models.

Um and all of this connects directly on citywide progress.

The 2024 impact story shows that Minneapolis is moving the needle, shows more diverse applicants entering the city's workforce, and like I said, you can scan the QR code on this slide to read more about our full impact story.

And as you can see from this slide, as we move into uh budgeting, REIB has steadily declined from just over $2 million in 2023 to 1.1 million in the mayor's 2026 recommended budget, a reduction of nearly 45% over three budget cycles.

And yet the scope of work does not reduce.

In 2023, our budget was supplemented by half a million dollars in ARPA funding of one-time funding, and in 2024, our budget was supplemented by one-time funding of 550,000 in the public's from the public safety aid funds.

But 2025 marked being transferred, but 2025 marked the first year without any special revenue support.

That also included two FTEs being transferred to another department, and this gap highlights one of our biggest financial risks.

Our department's dependence on single-year non-recurring funding stream.

When these one-time allocations disappear, we risk sudden drops in capacity and continuity, and without diversifying our revenue streams through stable city allocations, pursuing other grant opportunities and interdepartmental cost sharing and support, our abilities to sustain long-term equity initiatives becomes vulnerable to the short-term budget shifts.

This slide shows uh staffing uh side by this slide shows the staffing side of the budget picture.

And here you can really see how the reductions translate into capacity.

In 2024, REIB had nine budgeted positions that dropped to seven in 2025, and the mayor's recommended budget reflects a further reduction down to five.

That's a net decrease of two positions, specifically uh reduction or elimination in 2026 of the deputy director, and transferring the senior project manager from the REIB department to the neighborhood safety department.

For a small department like ours, every FTE matters.

These aren't just titles, they're people who lead citywide initiatives, manage partnerships, develop tools, and ensure the equities embedded into every day-to-day operations.

Losing the deputy director position means a significant reduction in the leadership.

It means uh having to determine as a leader whether I'm going to spend weeks focusing on strategic direction and spending time coaching uh my team, providing uh day-to-day project management oversight.

I find myself right now spending roughly anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of my time just on daily operations, improving invoices, signing contracts, um, approving all of the PCAR purchases and all of the um day-to-day operational things.

So moving into program updates, what I want to share on these next few slides of things, uh programs that we started in 2025 that we intend to carry in 2026.

This slide captures the core tension that we're facing at the department.

On the left side, you'll see what we're responsible for under city ordinance, chapter 21.

These are not optional initiatives, these are mandated responsibilities that define how racial equity is supposed to function across the city.

In short, our reach spans the entire enterprise, every major policy, every major budget decision, and every operational area has some connection to REIB's work.

But if you look on the right side, you can see the tension.

Our budget continues to shrink from 1.5 million in 2025 to 1.1 million in 2026, and this comes after several consecutive years of reductions.

So while our responsibility seems to have expanded as we align with the city ordinance, our resources contracted.

And at the end of the day, the ordinance defines the what, but the budget defines the how.

Despite this, we have a committed team of folks who are dedicated to advancing racial equity, to aligning with the city ordinance and the duties and responsibilities of our department.

Even with the challenges we face locally, shrinking budgets, fewer staff, and growing opportunities, our department continues to stay connected to a national movement.

Through our membership with the government alliance on race and equity, or GAERE, Minneapolis is part of a peer network of more than 400 jurisdictions and over 13,000 public employees who are willing to work to institutionalize racial equity in government.

That means for us that we're not just operating in a silo.

Through our partnership and membership to the GARE network, we've been able to participate in the jurisdiction evaluation learning exchange, which helped us benchmark a racial equity infrastructure and framework.

The racial equity leader summit in Montgomery, Alabama, whereas the opportunity to connect with national leaders uh working within racial equity across government entities.

And the democracy resiliency toolkit that was developed by GARE is a way of a toolkit to help jurisdictions prepare for the attack against racial equity and DEI utilizing FEMA's natural disaster uh emergency disaster management framework.

And this has allowed the development of a sample uh democracy resiliency plan.

So our partnership in with GARE is one that we will be expanding and inviting more employees to attend for our membership with GAER, any city of Minneapolis employee can register to get uh a membership to their online community.

And here we stand with the REIB organizational assessment report.

This report was completed in 2024 through uh with research in action.

They produce eight recommendations and 29 specific action steps designed to help REIB strengthen its structure, clarify our role, and keep Minneapolis leading in racial justice efforts.

So, what's the progress?

Out of the 29 actions, nine are complete, which is about 38 percent.

The majority or 14 actions, about 56 percent are currently in progress.

And there's been a couple items that haven't been started, and four items have been dropped due to updated federal policy guidance.

Now, progress doesn't come without challenges.

Continued reduction in staffing and resources has significantly slowed how some of the actions are moving forward that are still underway and with limited capacity.

There's much meaningful movement that is happening.

For example, we've completed the repair harm model training, we'll be launching restorative justice peacemaking circles, and right now we're working on building out a foundational racial equity training for all city employees, developing shared equity definitions across departments, and providing ongoing leadership and support to departmental equity teams.

There are a few actions where we had to pause or admit for now, like creating a leadership cohort for BIPOC employees and embedding racial equity training into onboarding for all new city employees.

These are priorities that we plan to visit when we have the resources and the political will at the federal level to continue these efforts.

Building stronger equity teams.

The title really says it all strengthening REIB support of the departmental equity teams.

Right now, every there are a lot of departments that have equity teams doing important work, uh, but we don't have a unified citywide racial equity strategy connecting these efforts.

The result is overlaps, gaps, lack of who owns this.

There's moments of tension between REIB and equity team leaders and equity teams in general regarding support.

Um, and this initiative is about changing that, from moving scattered efforts to a coordinated enterprise-wide agenda.

From July through October of this year, we're holding structured listening sessions with senior leadership and departmental equity team leads and chairs.

This is an eventing space.

It's a guided conversation designed to surface challenges, clarify roles, and identify where collaboration can unlock programs.

Then in November, we hope to synthesize all of these insights into a final report, identifying common themes and barriers, and most importantly, actionable recommendations.

In December, we hope to present these findings back to department leadership and equity teams and moving forward in early 26, start implementing the recommendations paced at REIB's capacity.

We're striving for four outcomes, which is clear collaboration, deeper insight, actionable tools, and enterprise-wide alignment.

The Day of Racial Healing has become one of the most meaningful and unifying events that we host in collaboration with other jurisdictions.

This annual observance, which was created by the W.

Kellogg Foundation, builds on the truth racial healing and transformation framework for Minneapolis is more than just an event, it's a reflection of ongoing commitment to truth connection and repair.

What makes this event especially powerful is that it's not just the city of Minneapolis.

It's a regional collaboration with the city of St.

Paul, Bloomington, Brooklyn Park, Minnetonka, New Brighton, along with Hennepin and Ramsey County.

Together, we're modeling what intergovernmental partnership looks like when the goal is racial healing and collective accountability.

In 2025, we hosted two events.

One was focused on community, another for city employees.

The community event drew 221 employees or 221 community members with 165 attending, which is a 75% attendance rate.

And the employee event, which was for employees among the jurisdictions.

There were 461 who registered and 405 who attended those events.

And we issue surveys.

The curriculum provides employees with practical tools for thoughtful confrontation and racial healing so that every interaction between colleagues or residents becomes an opportunity to rebuild relationships instead of breaking them.

The goals are clear, preparing city staff to respond to racial harm with care and accountability, promote respectful and constructive dialogue between employees and residents, and support racial healing and reconciliation.

This year was about building the foundation, training facilitators, testing the model, and aligning our content with real organizational needs.

And in 2026, our goal is to offer the repair harm workshops to city employees across departments.

As you can see here from the 2026 mayor's recommended budget includes a total reduction of a little bit over of 219,000.

About 28,000 of that is for non-personnel reductions, covering things like memberships, trainings, and professional development.

But the most significant changes is the elimination of the deputy director position.

On paper, it may look like a single line item, but in practice it reshapes how our department is moving forward and trying to bridge strategy along with execution.

Operationally, the deputy typically manages the day-to-day supervision workflow and interdepartmental collaboration.

And also the deputy director uh position is responsible for uh staffing the equity officer position within the EOC.

And what this means in reality for our department is there are certain collaborative tables that I'm going to uh that is going to be difficult to continue to participate in.

Um it means for me balancing as I've shared earlier from providing the day-to-day oversight to the day to the strategic vision that is needed for a new department.

Um for example, we're working on standard operating procedures on how we uh utilize Microsoft Planner as our project management tool, providing guidance uh to the department on what communication goes in uh teams, chat, email, et cetera.

Those are all processes, like as a as a strategic leader that needs to be built so that our department is moving more effectively effectively and efficiently.

And that concludes uh the presentation of the mayor's recommended budget for REIB for 2026, and I stand for any questions.

Thank you for that presentation, Director.

Colleagues, are there any questions?

I am not seeing any, so I want to thank you for coming in to present your 2026 recommended budget today.

Oh, I see Councilmember Jenkins, and I want to recognize that she's joined us in this committee.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

Thank you, uh Director Corbett, for this presentation.

And um, you know, I think you may have answered this question in in your presentation and and some of the comments that you made, but I'm just curious.

Um has the truth and reconciliation process been replaced by the processes that you described on your last slide.

Um which I think was Ratio.

Can you pull up that last slide?

The building trust or repairing harm?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Is that a a replacement around the truth and reconciliation process or that fell off due to lack of capacity, et cetera, that you discussed in your presentation?

Yes, Madam Chair, uh Councilmember Jenkins.

So truth and reconciliation pro so truth and reconciliation work in 2020, 2023-2024, there was ARPA funding to support looking at a truth of reconciliation commission that was not able to get off the ground.

And so the truth of reconciliation process or process of repairing harm of process of truth and reconciliation is one that we developed with the contractor through good works, which we call the repair harm model.

That process is a four-step process.

One is truth telling, second is seeking to understand, third is remediate, fourth is follow-up and follow-through.

So that's the process, so to speak, or the steps for having truth and reconciliation.

And so we worked with uh the good works to do the train the trainer for workshops that we will then share with employees.

And the intent is instead of just REIB having this information, it's about how do all employees or as many employees understand this process and are able to apply it to their work.

And I'll share another example of like the truth and reconciliation process or the repair harm model.

Um so we were able to take uh a tragic situation that happened within the city with regards to um the uh mass shootings at the encampment and able to take that four-step process and create kind of like an issue paper of how could the city apply the truth of reconciliation process to the situation.

So we have a theory, and now we're working on sharing that theory with employees as well as creating issue papers and case studies for how that repair harm model or that truth of reconciliation process can be applied at the individual level, at the community level, and at the systems level.

Okay.

Um essentially this building trust through um repair and harm is sort of the replacement of that work or next phase of that work, I would maybe.

Councilmember Jenkins, yes.

All right, thank you.

Wonderful, thank you.

I am not seeing anyone else in queue, so with that, thank you for coming in to present your budget.

I will direct the clerk to file that report.

Um with that, we have concluded all business to come before the committee today.

We stand adjourned until our next meeting, which will take place on Thursday, October 16th at 10 a.m.

where we will receive department presentations prepared by the Parks and Recreation Board, the legislative department, along with uh the climate legacy initiative.

Thank you, everyone.