Good morning and welcome.

My name is Areen Chowdhury, and I'm the chair of the Intergovernmental Relations Committee.

At this time, I'm going to call to order our regular meeting for Tuesday, June 9th, 2026.

I want to offer a friendly reminder to all committee 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.

I will now have the clerk call the roll to verify that we have a quorum.

Councilmember Payne.

Present.

Warren is absent.

Osman is absent.

Schaefer?

Present.

Stevenson?

Present.

Chavez?

Present.

Chigte, present.

Whiting.

Present.

Palmasano.

Present.

Vice Chair Rainville is absent.

And Chair Chowdery.

Present.

There are eight members present.

Let the record reflect that we have a quorum.

I'll also remind my colleagues that we are using speaker management today, so please log in.

Our first item is on consent.

Um, but I am gonna have uh Director Topinka come and speak to this if that's all right.

Uh it's a resolution granting a local approval of special law.

This special law is related to the public employees retirement association, also known as Para.

Welcome, Director Topinka.

Thank you, Chair Chowdery and Council members.

Um yes, this resolution before you is to approve a special law that the legislature passed as part of the omnibus pensions bill uh during the last session.

Uh this special law is specifically for um to address a paraissure related to a former public works employee.

Uh this employee was a seasonal employee that was hired in 2016, and then again each year through 2022.

Um based on the way para accruals work, this employee should have been had deductions starting in 20 uh 16 through 2022 for his service, but the information was not consistently reported to Para.

Um it was identified through an audit and um the city worked with Para to remedy as much as we could administratively, but the only way to ensure the employee could get the credit for 2016, 2017, and 2018 was through this special legislation.

Um so we worked with Para and Representative Jordan carried the bill, it went through the pensions committee and was ultimately included in the pensions bill.

So just to kind of get it across the finish line, we do need this final step.

It's just in statute that council or the local governing body must approve a special law for it to go into effect.

So if you do approve the resolution, we will then submit that information to the Secretary of State's office, and the um the special law will go into effect at that point, and then this employee can be eligible for the full uh para benefits that they're eligible for.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Are there any questions or comments?

I'll recognize Councilmember Palmasano.

Thank you, madam chair.

Director Dupinka, the way you describe this is that it is a special law that will benefit one person.

Can you help me understand how either we've also changed laws or are doing different things to make sure that this doesn't happen again?

I think what you're saying is we need a special law to fix this one thing retroactively, but we've figured it out going forward.

Is that accurate?

Uh Chair Chowdry, Councilmember Palmasano.

Um, yes, we needed the special law to fix this one thing.

This is not uh entirely unusual in the pensions bill.

Um it's something that you know there was another special law for somebody in a different part of the state in this omnibus pensions bill as well.

So this is um correcting this one very specific issue.

Um, but but yes, uh going forward.

Um, ideally something like this won't be needed again.

Josie Vautrin is here from HR as well and can speak to more technical questions on on how para works if needed, but but yes, your understanding is correct.

Thank you.

Okay, seeing no further discussion, I'll move this for approval.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

That motion passes.

I'll also recognize that Councilmember Wansley has joined us.

Our next and final item is a presentation related to state and federal updates since we last met.

I would like to take a moment uh to say congratulations to our IGR team for another great legislative session.

Thank you all for your hard and dedicated work.

I know it was really tough coming into this legislative session, and at the end of it, we were able to get some big wins for Minneapolis, which is great.

So thank you for all of your work.

I will um have either Director Topinka or Interim Director Steve Huser come up for the presentation.

Thank you, Chair members of the committee.

Uh my name is uh Steve Huser.

I'm the interim director for the intergovernmental relations department.

Um so yeah, thank you for your work.

Your kind words, Chair.

It was a um a very you know interesting legislative session.

Um and the uh the federal work that is continuing to happen um will be uh gone over by Lauren Olson from our department.

So I'll turn it over to her.

Look them up, Miss Olson.

Good morning, madam chair and council members.

I'm Lauren Olson, senior government relations representative, and I am going to provide you with an update on some of the things that are going on in Washington.

Uh so first we'll just talk about the status of the reconciliation bill that's under debate still.

Um the Senate recently took action to approve a version of the bill, which primarily focuses on funding um IS and CBP.

There was a lot of discussion about the potential of that bill, including other things.

Um, where it landed is a bit more focused.

Um, however, it is for 3.5 years worth of funding for those agencies, so that this issue theoretically would not need to come back to the body um during the rest of the Trump administration.

Um there was some discussion about potential ballroom funds in this um package, and that was not included.

Um the House is expected to be discussing this bill this week and is um expected to take action this week.

Um, another topic that came up with reconciliation was this uh the what is often referred to as the anti-weaponization fund, but it is the a proposed 1.8 million dollar settlement with the IRS that would have uh created the the settlement fund.

I think people are very familiar with this.

Um so in this was obviously not included in reconciliation.

There was attempts during reconciliation process to try to even prohibit such a fund from being made or to limit if the fund were to be made, limit how it could be used, like like for example, not used uh for January 6th.

People convicted with associate with January 6, 2021.

Those efforts uh failed uh in that process.

Um there are a number of lawsuits that are out there related to this topic as well, and there was an action taken recently by a court in the eastern district of Virginia, and what there was a hearing scheduled for the 12th.

However, what is uh interesting is um the uh acting attorney general Todd Blanche has been saying in different venues that they are not moving forward with the fund.

Now we'll you know, time we'll see how that plays out.

Um some people are speculating that there is this other tool that is called the judgment fund that already exists, and some people are speculation that people might try to use a different avenue to achieve some of those goals, but um that's uh what we know at the moment.

Now moving on again, this time of year it starts to get a little bit confusing with the different um things in motion.

Um the fiscal year 2027 budget process, the normal annual appropriations process is going on.

Um the fiscal year ends September 30th.

Um, as you know, it is very common for uh Congress to take more time in order to adopt their budget for the fiscal year, very easily moving into you know the winter or next the following spring, but the uh they will need to use continuing resolutions if they're don't have a budget by September 30th.

Um the House has passed two out of 12 bills in full, and that's agriculture, military construction, veterans' affairs, and um nine of 12 bills are already through their committee process.

The Senate on the other hand has been working on reconciliation and really has not done a lot of uh work to develop their version of the bill right now.

So that's underway, and I think they feel a lot of, you know, we'll talk about some other work that they need to do, but I think they're feeling a lot of time crunch because they usually take some time off in August.

Again, the fiscal year ends pretty soon.

Uh, and then there's midterm elections to consider.

So I think they're feeling um like there's a lot to uh contend with.

Um I'm not gonna go over everything in the House bills, but I will go through a few highlights from or I'll go through a few items coming from those bills.

Um so let's just start with uh Homeland Security bill coming out of the House.

Um Mark, it's come out of subcommittee and now it's uh being marked up.

But what's what's in it so far includes um more money for custom border patrol and funding for ice.

I just want to pause here for a second.

I'll definitely be curious to see if the fact that they're they're working on a reconciliation bill also that would fund these agencies.

So I'll be curious to see if uh if they do pass a reconciliation bill that funds these agencies for three and a half years, whether they're still funding these agencies again through this normal appropriations as well.

Um, but this is what's currently floating through the House as all this is being navigated.

Um, the House would increase FEMA by a little bit, um, although they're still trying to they're trying to improve baggage handling, and they still want to move, sorry.

TSA.

Let me on the TSA side, they want uh to move towards privatization.

Uh they did increase FEMA a little bit, and I think we'll want to see all the details of what how what that really looks like.

Um the House proposes to double the amount of money for body cameras to 40 million, which in a way is um not a lot of money, but um they're trying to uh supposedly give a nod to demand for some improvements.

Um there's provisions in there to attempt to you know prohibit spending on DEI, they eliminate money for immigration detention ombudsman, and then it says there's no funding for NGOs that support facilitated the border crisis.

Again, what does that mean?

Don't know exactly.

Another bill is the uh labor health and human services education bill.

Um, it would reduce the overall spending in that category by 3%, cut Department of Ed by 10%.

I think a notable uh proposal in here is that it would cut $2 billion from a related to operating the ACA insurance marketplace.

So obviously, that would potentially have a negative effect on people knowing about their opportunities and having opportunity to participate in that program.

Um it would do things like consolidate um uh STI and opiate epidemic funding lines.

Um keep some NIH money, keep uh lie heap and head start, um tiny increase.

I think it was even something like 10 million, you know, which is barely um an increase.

Um and then again they attempt to try to prohibit spending in certain categories, and they call them again sex rejection procedures, abortion on demand as their terminology.

They want to prohibit funds from being used at schools that discriminate against religious groups, schools that support anti-Semitic conduct, and the money cannot be used to promote second amendment limitations.

And again, the devil's in the details with all of these.

Um obviously, a lot of people view uh gun violence as a public health uh issue.

So I think that's where the intersection could be here on that item.

Within the appropriations process, there is potential for earmarks.

As you know what the city does is identify projects that might qualify for the kind of the niche requirements of earmarks, and then we submit all those via our members of Congress, and they narrow them down once we provide them with a list.

These are moving through and still have a uh have some steps to get through before they would necessarily be included.

Um but projects that are still in a some step of the process include um modernizing our police records management system.

Uh we asked for three million dollars, police recruitment through peace internships.

That's an existing program that helps support internships as a pathway into a profession working in the policing profession.

Um just a little ask related to our forensic lab, and then some funds for our pedestrian access and safety program to improve ramps and accessibility across the city.

Um, so those are continue to be will monitor the status of those.

Um, and then just for some context, as we're going into this busy time for for Congress, um, some of the other uh work that needs to be done.

Uh there'll be a lot of discussion about the foreign intelligence surveillance act uh this week or so.

Um, I think a lot of people are aware of been hearing about that.

Um, Section 702 expires on June 12th without further action by Congress.

It allows for warrantless surveillance of certain foreign communications, but um there's significant concerns, including on both sides of the aisle about the potential that the communications of Americans gets caught up in that and that the results in warrantless um spying on Americans.

Um renewing this section also will require the has the normal process where the Senate could use uh filibuster, it needs 60 votes to proceed.

So that's gonna be an active discussion right now.

Um, surface transportation bill is also one of those multi-year bills that's up for renewal right now, again, deadline September 30th.

Um, House has a version of that right now, and then the farm bill, another multi-year bill that needs to be renewed.

There's a House version.

I want to acknowledge a couple votes that have taken place recently that may be of interest.

Uh, maybe heard about the war powers resolution.

So the House did vote to um, you know, kind of a sentiment against or concerns about the war in Iran.

Um, however, it really doesn't have any practical effect unless the Senate were also to act on it, and the president can veto this as well.

Um, this is not a declaration of war.

This is so this is a different type of uh animal from that, for example.

Um, Russia sanctions and Ukraine aid was another action taken by Congress.

The House uh approved the package.

What's interesting about this item is that uh they used a discharge petition where you get signatures from from members to force it to the floor because the minority the majority leader did may not have been inclined to bring this item to the floor, and so there it needed some Republican support, and that was kind of a shift.

Um, there were uh kind of a pushback on the power structure and a little bit more support from Republicans than before, a willingness to push back on their leadership to say we want to bring this to the floor.

Um, Representative Omar was the only member that voted no on the item and um her statements.

The sentiment was generally that she thought that a broad sanction package could actually be harmful to civilian populations.

She wasn't sure that was the best approach, and she just thought in general that a sanctions can be uh broad, a broad sanction package can be counterproductive.

And I don't want to put words in her mouth, but I wanted to share what the sentiment.

I think yesterday to become the permanent attorney general, which means that would be a hearing on that.

It has been named the acting director of National Intelligence.

He is currently the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

In that role, he has looked into the books to identify claims about mortgage fraud against individuals, you know, like Letitia James and others.

So I think there's some concern from members on both sides of the aisle too that he might utilize his role and his access to data to try to potentially basically go after people the president doesn't like.

I'm trying to find if we say that.

So there are some people concerned about that, his potential to do that.

He is not nominated for a permanent role, which means there does not need to be a hearing.

He can serve for a certain number of days before action would be required.

So he can believe that he can serve through the remainder of the Trump administration.

If I remember the numbers right.

Does anyone have any questions on the federal update?

I'm not seeing any, so I think we are good.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

And I will recognize that council member Warren has joined us as well.

All right, thank you, Chair.

So I'm going to start us off with the state legislative update.

So the state legislature ended their work on May 18th.

Just to give you kind of a an overview of what the start of session was was looking like.

This was the first session that the legislature was in since the assassination of Speaker America Melissa Hortman, the killing of her husband Mark and their dog Gilbert.

This was the first session since the tragedy of Annunciation School and the tragic loss of Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moiskey.

And this was also the first legislative session since Operation Metro Surge.

And this was also a session that all of the members of the legislature that were running for reelection were going to be going into an election year.

And so the prevailing wisdom was that there's likely not a lot that was going to happen.

Some of the topics that we were assuming would be worked on at least and debated were gun safety legislation.

Finding a solution for the funding challenges at HCMC, and as well as the bonding bill.

And we did remain tied 67 to 67.

The Senate had a few things did actually pass into law related to 33 in that chamber.

There were over 10,400 bills that were introduced between the House and Senate.

So that just means that these bills were put in, you know, put forward for consideration.

91 chapters of law were eventually passed.

Some of those are omnibus bills, so they contained, you know, maybe a dozen or so or more single bills, but then there were, you know, dozens of standalone bills that were passed by the legislature this session.

And so this first slide is related to the federal disruption and impacts legislation, and I'm going to turn that over to interim city coordinator to Pinka to go over.

Thank you.

And Chair Chowder and Council members.

As Steve, I'm just gonna go first name here.

As Steve mentioned, we um this was the first legislative session since Operation Metro Surge.

And so that was a um a pretty significant topic of conversation in both the House and the Senate.

Um there were a number of policy bills that had hearings uh around um, you know, allowing uh people to um have a cause of action related to activities by federal agents, things related to masking, um, other policy provisions, very specifically in response to operation metro surge.

There were hearings on many of those things.

Ultimately, they did not pass because of the closely divided legislature.

Um there was also a lot of discussion about relief to residents who experienced impacts due to operation metro surge.

So small business relief was one topic.

There was a there were proposals in both the House and the Senate for 100 million dollars in business relief.

One proposal included grants, one was forgivable loans.

The Senate did end up passing a small business relief package, but unfortunately did not pass in the House.

Um, so it was a hundred million, that would have been a hundred million dollars in forgivable loans.

Um we were uh very actively involved in in trying to support that effort, but unfortunately uh it did not make it through on the House side in the end.

Uh similarly, the Senate passed a bill to provide rental assistance related to operation metro surge that did not pass in the house.

But as you'll hear in a later slide from um Indiria, there was some um rental assistance passed in the housing bill, not directly in response to operation metro surge, but is assistance that can help people who may have been affected by that.

Um, lastly, there was a bill that would have provided up to 10 million in aid to cities who impacted by operation metro surge.

It would have been to uh provide relief for direct costs that unexpected costs that cities incurred.

Um, it did have a hearing in the Senate in the tax committee, and the Senate tax committee did include $2 million in funding in their omnibus bill, but it was not ultimately included in a final tax bill either.

So there was, as you're hearing, a lot of discussion, I think a lot of really good conversation, and you know, people were able to come to the Capitol and share their stories about the impacts they experienced from Operation Metro Surge, but um ultimately due to the you know the close divisions, particularly in the House, um, these these relief packages did not move forward.

And I'll turn it back to or to India, I think.

Welcome.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, good morning, council members, Chair Chattery.

My name is Indiria Falana, government relations representative.

Um I will be continuing on with the presentation, beginning with the economic growth, labor, and property tax relief slide.

So as part of the tax bill that passed by the legislature, there was 125 million dollars in one-time funding or one-time property tax relief as part, and this is an increase to the 2025 homestead credit um refunds.

It's a 15% increase.

Um, so eligible homeowners must make less than 143,000 a year to receive the uh tax credit.

Um, and then homeowners don't need to take any extra steps to receive the tax credit.

Um they can expect or to to receive the increase, I should say.

They can expect their refunds in late summer and early fall.

Um our bill to add the North Loop to the downtown taxing boundary um for the downtown liquor and restaurant taxes, made progress this session.

Um, this is a proposal that we've been working on for many years.

Uh it had hearings in the House and Senate uh and was included as part of the omnibus Senate tax bill.

Um however, unfortunately, it wasn't a part of any of the final agreements and it did not make it through.

Um, and there wasn't any local sales tax provisions in the tax bill this year.

Currently, in state law, if a property owner wants to proceed with rezoning from a residential zoning district to a commercial zoning district, they must obtain two thirds of signatures from the nearby property owners.

And this rule only applies to cities of the first class, so Minneapolis, St.

Paul, Rochester, and Duluth.

So our bill would have repealed this state law to make us kind of equal with all the other 800 and something odd cities in the state.

And we had a hearing in the Senate on this bill, and it was included as part of their omnibus bill, but unfortunately, did not make it into the final bill that passed.

So something that we will continue to work on.

So affordable housing and homelessness, there was 100 million dollars that was appropriated for housing infrastructure bonds this session.

And these bonds are issued through the state's housing finance agency, MHFA, and the funds are used for new construction, acquisition, or rehabilitation of permanent rental housing.

There isn't a specific amount that comes directly to the city or that's allocated directly to the city.

However, there are many projects in the city that benefit from this program.

The legislature approved 40 million dollars one time for the family homeless prevention and assistance program.

And this is to assist those impacted by staggering rent increases.

So $38 million of the 40 million comes from unused funds from a court settlement dealing with tax forfeited lands.

So the state created a fund after the case went all the way up to the U.S.

Supreme Court, and they sided with a 94-year-old Hennepin County residents who said her home was improperly seized by Hennepin County because she owed taxes on it.

So the state fund was designated to compensate other people who lost property in similar circumstances.

The deadline to apply for these funds was last June, so June 2025.

So the 38 million dollars is the remaining amount in the settlement account, and that is the money that was then redirected into this program.

And then these funds provide supportive and financial assistance for families, youth individuals experiencing homelessness, or who are at risk of becoming homeless.

Direct financial assistance may include covering rent, utility payments, or other housing costs.

There were $13 million in total approved by the legislature this year for a supportive housing program.

Nine million of that of the 13 million moved in a separate bill that the legislature approved earlier this session.

And then this state funding is to fill a federal funding gap for HUD's continuum of care program grantees who are at risk of losing or who are at risk of losing a lion's share of their funding due to program changes that happen mid-cycle in the mid-cycle, just during the granting cycle.

So the continuum of care program, it funds shelters, permanent supportive housing, and other responses to homelessness.

It runs through Hennepin County, and it's the federal government's largest pool of funds for housing homeless people.

So last year the federal government began limiting how much money communities can spend on supportive housing programs, which then created the gap.

So $13 million will not come going, it's not going to completely close the gap, but it is worthy to note the legislature was able to move that first chunk of money, that $9 million that I mentioned previously so quickly.

The bill passed within the first six weeks of session this year.

So once again, this was an area of focus for legislators this session, zoning and land use reform.

There was a bill called the Starter Homes Act that would essentially preempt all cities' zoning authority, and the bill did like a sloop of things.

The House held a few hearings on the bill this session, but it did not receive a hearing in the Senate.

And once again, legislators were not able to come to an agreement, so this bill did not pass.

Prohibition on private equity ownership of single family homes is something else that was worked on again this session, with the goal of limiting private equity companies from owning a certain number of single family homes.

Over the years, there have been different iterations of this bill.

When it was first introduced a couple years ago, the number was 10.

In the bill this year, that number started at 50, and then it grew to 99.

The bill did not have much bipartisan support.

So once again, with the current makeup of the legislature, it did not get really far.

And then the shelter fiscal cliff.

So there wasn't much movement on the bridge to shelter legislation that we've been working on with Hennepin County over the last few years.

And as a reminder, this is legislation that would provide specific funding for specific services, such as 24-7 operations and existing shelters and shelter diversion programming and housing focused case management.

So that bill would have filled the uh fiscal cliff.

There are often funding gaps in these areas, so that's why this bill was of such importance, but unfortunately, with the many different competing interests this year and lack of available funding, the bridge shelter bill did not receive uh a hearing actually this year, but did not move.

So there was no energy omnibus bill this year due to a lack of agreement between Senate and House and the Senate chair and the House co-chairs.

Um but there was an environment omnibus bill that passed, not too many items of note affecting the city was included in the final bill.

It was relatively light.

So the legislature approved funding for a nuclear energy study as part of the tax bill to explore the possibility of building new nuclear plants in Minnesota.

So through the State's Department of Commerce, the study would be conducted by the Great Plains Institute, and it must be completed by January 30th of 2027.

So supporters of this believe that this will help the conversation towards a push to lift the state's uh decades old, I think it's 32 years old, moratorium on new nuclear power plants, as this is a reliable source of carbon-free electricity, or this is what supporters say.

No bills related to data centers passed this session, but there was still lots of conversation on this, and different bills introduced related to the topic.

Some of these bills include banning local elected officials from signing non-disclosure agreements with developers, a statewide moratorium on data center development, and regulation of large water users.

For a second year in the row, the bill that would make manufacturers responsible for recycling the batteries and battery containing products that they produce at the end of their life cycle was in play up until the very end of session.

The bill was included in the larger Senate environment omnibus bill, but was ultimately dropped in the final days.

And then the state energy codes bill is a bill that we were pushing this year in order to provide building code officials with the technical expertise that they need to keep up with new building code regulations.

Um the bill would have provided grants to larger cities such as ours in order to provide building code officials with training, support, education, and tools to help them with compliance implementation.

But because of a lack of funding, this bill did not make it across the finish line, but do want to know there was support for this.

This was a high-profile issue this session, and finding a solution to save the state's flagship trauma center and safety net hospital was a priority for both the DFL and GOP caucuses.

Included in the final bill is 205 million dollars to stabilize Hennepin County Medical Center.

So they'll receive their first 50 million by July 1st of this year, and the remaining over the next year.

It also established a hospital stabilization program to help hospitals cover uncompensated care costs, including targeted support for safety net providers like Hennepin Healthcare.

So there will be 500 million dollars available in that account over the next five years.

The proposed sales tax extension and increase was not included.

There was about 10 million dollars appropriated and one-time funding for food shelf programs and for regional food banks.

So these, so like the money goes out to different regional food banks, or it goes through the food shelf program, which then provides direct grants to the state's 300 food shelves and tribal nations so that they can provide food, pay for utilities, cover staff, and keep their doors open.

We now have a statewide regulatory framework for massage therapy and Asian body work.

So the State's Department of Health has several new responsibilities related to this, such as maintaining a record of names, addresses, taking disciplinary action against registered individuals, including fines and/or suspension of someone's registration.

So the creation of this new statewide law preempts all local massage therapy ordinances, which will go into effect on July 1st of 2028.

However, it did not limit a city's ability to require general business licenses or the ability of the city to conduct a criminal background check on any owners of massage therapy establishments who are not registered massage therapists.

So more specifically the facilities that have six or fewer residents.

So prior to this, there was no communication between the agency and cities if a new group home was opening up or they were granted their license to open up in a city.

So in addition, this new law prohibits newly licensed facilities if the proposed setting shares a property or an adjoining property within it with an existing community residential setting.

And then lastly, the state will be able to get property inspection authority to local govern to local governments if the city or county requests it, which is which is important to note because we lost our ability to license and inspect group homes in 2024.

So this will give us the ability to do such and to me and just to maintain and ensure that everyone has the same level of living and just being able to inspect people's um living spaces, I guess.

I don't know how to phrase that.

And then lastly, updates to medical assistance rules to comply with federal requirements.

The final product would codify federal changes in state law.

So the final bill codified federal changes in state law, and that includes implementing a new federally mandated uh work requirement for adults without children using Medicaid, establishing new six-month renewal requirements, establishing cost-sharing requirements across departments, and shortening retroactive coverage for adults without children from three months to one month.

The state risked losing billions of dollars a year without uh the conformity changes that are not codified in state law.

And I'll pass it off to interim director Husserl.

Alright, thank you.

So next we'll move on to the capital investment bill.

Um so we were happy that the legislature were able to find agreement on two capital investment bills.

One was for general obligation bonds and one is for uh the a general fund appropriation for capital investment, or we call it the cash bill.

Um in total, the city of Minneapolis uh received 24.475 million dollars in this year's uh between the I think it was all on the general obligation bond bill.

Um, so the first bill was uh the first allocation we received was the structural renewal of the 36-inch water main.

Um this was 12.36 million dollars.

This was our full ask for this project.

Um so this will allow the city to uh complete the work that we had in mind for that project.

Uh I want to thank uh Senators Champion and Representative Lee for authoring uh the standalone bill for that project and for their work on that.

Um the next uh project to receive funding is the 13th Avenue Northeast Stormwater Improvement Project.

Uh we received 8 million of the $13 million ask.

Uh, this amount though will allow the city to proceed with that project and do that in conjunction with some other work that is happening uh near that area and related to that project.

Um council member, I want to thank Councilmember Renville if you were here, but hopefully he's watching from home.

Uh, and here's the the thanks that he had and the work that his office and he did to advocate for that project.

I also want to thank Senator Clark and Representative Jordan for authoring the standalone bill for that project.

Um the city did receive uh $4 million dollars for the water yard project.

Um and so that will uh help help the city move forward with some of the work that we need to do to improve uh the needs there that we have for our water facilities.

Uh the city received uh 115,000 for 88 infrastructure improvements.

Uh we came into the legislative session with a five million dollar ask.

Uh we generally do ask the legislature to partner with us in either their transportation bill or capital investment bill to help the city continue to work to make us all make all of our intersections ADA compliant.

Uh I want to thank Senator Mohammed and Representative Jones for authoring our standalone bill for that legislative ask.

Uh, the so that is what uh we received you know directly as a city.

Uh, there were some other uh provisions in the cash bill related to the tab fee holiday provision.

Um so what this was was an agreement amongst the, particularly within within the house caucuses, um, but it was a priority for the House GOP to bring for one time the fee reduced to 2022 levels.

So when you pay your vehicle tabs, it's it's dependent on the value of the vehicle.

What this will do is on a one-time basis, bring whatever you paid in 2022.

Um, you know, it would be the whatever the formula is for that year.

So that should be a savings for most tab fee payers.

Um this would without backfilling this amount, this would have had a negative impact on the highway user tax distribution fund, which includes our municipal state aid street funding.

So that's direct aid that we get from the state for being a city over 5,000 uh for our city streets.

Um, however, they did uh put some money in from the general fund to kind of pay for that that fee reduction that folks will see on their tabs.

Um, I also want to point out that the lead service line replacement grant funding uh was did receive 15 million dollars.

Uh however, these are general obligation bond funds, and so it will be um the private laterals that the city of Minneapolis has will likely not be eligible for that money, but it is helpful to the overall program that there is at least money continuing to go into it.

Um, and then I did want to note that uh one other project within the city of Minneapolis was the uh funding for KMOJ radio station.

They received one million dollars to get their new facility going.

All right, there were a few items related to pensions, not necessarily all in the pensions bill, but they did pass the omnibus pensions bill in chapter 106.

Um part of that bill was creating a within Para, a local government probation officer and telecommunicator retirement plan.

Um, this will be a new retirement plan for public safety telecommunicators.

Um, so I think in layman's terms 911, um, which they did not have prior.

Um these would be for folks employed by local governments, and that would include uh the people that we have working for the city of Minneapolis.

The bill also um established a work group on duty disability and the public safety officers benefit account.

Um this work group is going to review the reforms to the duty disability process and continued health insurance coverage for members of the para-police and fire plan.

Um this bill also expanded the line of duty death benefits provided through the public safety officers benefit program.

It does make it retroactive to February of 2020 to include deaths caused by certain cancers and communicable illnesses that can be traced to exposure while they were on the job.

So next slide is for transportation.

Uh, unfortunately, no transportation omnibus supplemental bill or policy bill was agreed to this legislative session.

Um, I would say that most of the work stalled in the House, uh the co-chairs of the House Transportation Committee were not able to, or that committee at least was not able to come to an agreement.

Um they did not move a vehicle bill out of committee, which is normally a pretty standard procedure for a committee.

Um so that gives you a sense of the gridlock that happened on that on those issues in that transportation committee.

Um there the committees all discussed autonomous vehicle legislation, and so I think most people know this as the like Waymo.

So that's a company that I think everybody has heard of that would like to use autonomous vehicle technology for ride hailing.

There were several bills debated in both House and Senate transportation committees.

One bill that was passed out of Senate transportation to the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Bill was authored by Senator Dibble.

I would characterize it as more of a comprehensive bill that did look at you know creating work groups and study groups to take a look at this issue while also having a regulatory framework for companies that use uh this technology and to do ride hailing.

Um, however, that bill did not proceed past judiciary committee.

Uh the House Transportation Committee was not able to pass any legislation.

Uh there were bills that were a little bit more, you know, a regulatory framework that was being advocated for more by the companies that would like to use AV technology.

There were bills to study this and take a look at not just the how the regulatory framework could look, but also what would be the labor impacts of autonomous vehicles and that technology.

But at the end of the legislative session, even at the end, there were attempts to pass some sort of a uh a compromise position that no one had seen yet behind the scenes that I was aware of, but that was not able to be agreed to either.

And so by the end of session, um, for as it releases to the city of Minneapolis, uh, the city retains all of the ordinance authority that we began session with because of there not being any changes in state law.

Uh, one other bill that was discussed at the legislature, but because there was no bill, was not included.

Was a bus camera enforcement of bus and bike lanes.

Um, this was a uh in the House it was representative Jones's bill.

And what this would have done, it would allow the local governments to partner with Metropolitan Council and Metro Transit to ticket those parking and bike and bus lanes uh using camera technology similar to the pilot program that we have for red light and speeding in the city of Minneapolis.

Um we're gonna continue to work with the author on that to see if there's we're supportive of that idea.

So we'll continue to see if that's something we can do at the next legislative session.

Uh there was also a lot of discussion about updates to electric bicycle definitions.

Uh stand there were efforts to pass a standalone bill on that.

Uh that did not pass.

Um Representative Myers and Senator Johnson Stewart were the authors of that bill, and basic in in broad terms, that bill would have required those under 18 who ride electric bicycles to wear a helmet.

Um, it would have reclassified what was like an e-moto or e-motorcycle different from an e-bicycle, because there is some clarity likely needed to differentiate between the two based on power speed, things like that, and the ability of people to ride things that would now be not classified as an e-bike on trails and bike lanes, and so um that did not pass by the end of session.

Moving to community safety.

Um, the legislature did pass a supplemental safety spending bill and a policy omnibus bill this legislative session.

Uh the spending bill contained funding, a lot of the spending in that bill was for capital security.

Um there were also uh, but there were some uh provisions in that legislation that the city did support.

Um, so there was funding for the non-fatal shooting grant program and the flannel case steel training uh grants.

And so the 905,000 are for those BCA non-fatal shooting case clearance grants and two million dollars, in addition to last year's funding for the flannel case steel training grant program.

Um so some of the allowable uses for the non-fatal shooting grants would be to improve investigatory resources that could include hiring uh personnel assigned to investigate those non fatal shootings, um, staff that can collect process and test forensic evidence, overtime for investigators and support staff, uh developing evidence-based policies, procedures or training, uh technical assistance, um, law enforcement equipment and technology, forensic testing equipment and technology, other uh information systems.

So it's it's a pretty wide um availability of those of those grant fundings.

It does require uh cities to apply for that grant program.

So that will be something if the city is interested in pursuing those funds, we would have to apply for those.

Um and when after that grant program is done, it does require a report to DPS or the Department of Public Safety.

Uh included in the legislation was also a radio task force.

Um, and so that is for the the Armor radio program.

Um so this task force is going to take a look and is charged with evaluating and making recommendations uh for the transition to the allied radio matrix for emergency response.

The city of Minneapolis does have been given a seat on that task force, and it would require the uh an appointment by the council.

So uh as I started off with, you know, one of the main topics, big topics of conversation for the legislature this session was gun safety legislation.

Um the I would say the conversation really started in September after the annunciation shooting.

So there were some you know out of session discussions that were happening with the Minnesota Senate.

There was um some proposal bill proposals happening before session even started.

Um, and then that did you know work its way into when legislation legislature started in February.

Unfortunately, uh, you know, gun safety legislation did not pass this legislative session.

It was uh work that the city had supported.

Um I want to note the strong advocacy from the enunciation families at the Capitol.

They showed up at almost every bill hearing that I was aware of related to this issue, and were very strong advocates for for those proposals at the Capitol.

Um, the Senate did pass uh Senate file 4067, and this was a comprehensive gun safety bill that was authored by um Senator Mohammed.

Uh that was passed on a 34 to 33 vote.

Um, some of the items included in that bill included several standalone bills that had been debated in committee in both the House and Senate throughout session.

Um some provisions included an assault weapons ban, um, or or regulation, high capacity magazine restrictions, a ghost gun ban, 3D printed gun ban, reinstatement of the binary trigger ban that was found to have been passed um, you know, outside of the law last into the 2024 session, and uh the creation of a statewide violence prevention research center.

Um, so following that Senate passage of that bill, um the the House version of the bill was house file 3874.

Um, so then what did happen was the how that bill was then not reported as being sent from the Senate to the House, and so um you know the normally the Speaker of the House would would report that in this case that did that reporting did not happen, and that led to an overnight, you know, almost 24-hour sit-in by House DFL members uh to ask for a vote or at least report on house file 3874.

Uh once that sit-in did conclude, and this was within like the last three days, last three or four days of legislative session.

There was also a motion to debate house file 5140, which would be like a clone bill or a duplicate bill of the bill that passed the Senate.

Um ultimately that did not receive the votes it needed to create the emergency that was needed under house rules to have a debate on that bill.

Um there were some of the other legislation that was considered, you know, was related to things like allowing local preemption bans or local preemption on gun ordinances to be lifted, allowing local governments to restrict guns on city property.

Um, and so the city did weigh in, you know, several times on some of the legislation like that to support it.

And um I also want to note the efforts of representative Greenman in this area.

Um, she authored several bills related to gun safety.

Um, and so the the work will continue, I would imagine, you know, next legislative session as well.

One thing that did pass related to gun safety is in the education omnibus bill in chapter 117, it did contain a provision that would establish a statewide threat reporting system.

Um it's an anonymous reporting system, and it would forward tips to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension or the BCA at this at the state DPS, and it would allow that transfer from local local law enforcement to the state to happen in a more efficient way than it does currently.

Um, and so local districts would be allowed to participate in that statewide system or would then be required to set up their own threat reporting system.

And as uh interim deputy city coordinator mentioned or Topinka mentioned there weren't any um the public safety committees were the area where they were debating some of the bills related to Metro surge um such as like bans on law enforcement masking and things like that and right of action, none of those passed either a standalones or in the omnibus bills.

So the as we have seen now that every year there's usually an omnibus cannabis bill, similar to the omnibus liquor bill that generally gets at least debated at the legislature.

Um there were some changes adopted in an omnibus cannabis bill.

Um it does require some, it does make some tweaks to when and what information local governments and and the timeline of when local governments sign off on local business cannabis business licensing.

Uh this bill included changes to certain cannabis license types um related to medical cannabis.

So it was trying to, I think the the goal is to transition some of the medical cannabis licenses or those businesses to then be more put under a different cannabis business license to help those businesses maintain their viability.

Um it included a hemp derived license change to allow the businesses that were using the cannabis drive from hemp to hopefully have a better chance at viability moving forward.

Um the bill also removed obsolete language regarding the local interim ordinances.

Um, so some cities were allowed to have interim ordinances through January 2025.

Um, and so it removes some of that like now expired language.

The bill clarifies language around the local certification for zoning and building code compliance for cannabis businesses.

Um, it also clarifies the optional population caps for cannabis businesses uh for businesses, business registrations, and then how the counties then can develop their processes for limiting the number of uh licensed businesses in their counties.

It also allows cities to uh contract with private entities if they're operating a municipal cannabis cannabis store, and it also clarifies language related to the 12,500 population cap.

So the local government caps are based on a 12,500.

You know, per you have to have one license per 12,500 people in your jurisdiction.

And then finally, the new law does detail that the data to be submitted to the Office of Cannabis Management by a local government who is conducting compliance checks, that it's making a clarification on what is required to be reported to the state when doing those checks.

Some of those and for some of that information that is required includes the business name, address, the check result, date and time of that compliance check, and the description of any violation that was found during the compliance check.

Uh Chair, this might be a good time to stop on the actual like presentation of the legislature before I hand it off to Ms.

Falana to go over the next steps for legislation.

Yeah, thank you so much for the presentation.

We have a few members in queue.

So we'll go to them.

I'll go to council member Palmasano.

Thank you.

Mr.

Husser, I have a couple of questions about some of the things that you said.

The first was um was actually about the tab fees.

Does this end up getting applied retroactively then to those whose tabs expired earlier this year?

Or will it just go for a full yearly cycle?

Yeah, thank you, madam chair.

Uh, council member Palmasano, it would be if my memory serves me correctly, it would it would be in effect for the 2027 year for registration.

So not this year, but for your next year's tax.

That makes sense.

Sorry.

Um, the other question I had is you mentioned the Filando Castile training grant of two million dollars.

Is two million dollars what the city can apply for?

Because it looked like online it was maybe $10 million dollars at one point, but then it also looks like that didn't pass.

So is it that maybe a $2 million dollar funding amount for the training program passed and cities can apply for it?

I looked it up, it seems like a pretty broad program of training that includes training on things like autism, um, as well as use of force and other kinds of things.

Is this different than other things that have been named in memory of Mr.

Castile?

Like I also see here a news story about a Philando Castile use of force fund.

Madam Chair, Councilmember Palmasano.

I believe those are the same funds.

And so what the $2 million is, it's an additional supplemental budget allocation on top of last year's state budget allocation.

And now I can't what I'm struggling with is remembering if it was four million dollars last year to now have a total of six million that was a lot available for the biennium, or if it was six million last year and another two million on top of that or eight million total.

That's the total state amount, though.

Right.

So that two million dollars would be you know for additional grants that local governments can apply for.

So I would be surprised if one city or one agency got the whole two million amount because that was the total that the state is putting in addition to last year's allocation.

I see.

So is it realistic to think that the city of Minneapolis should apply for and hopefully receive just a portion of of whatever that total is.

Maybe it's just two million, maybe it's last year's allocation plus two more.

Uh ma'am, sure.

I generally speaking, I always encourage all of the city departments to apply for any state grants that we were eligible for.

So I would encourage uh MPD to, you know, I I've I've already reached out to some of the other staff in other departments to take a look at applying for additional grant dollars for that, and as well as the non-fatal uh case clearance uh grants.

Sure.

And do you happen to know if we do?

If we've done that in the past, not off the top of my head.

I'm sorry.

Sure.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, before I go to the next person, I wanted to recognize that council member Vita has joined our meeting, and I will now recognize Council President Payne.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I was wondering if you knew any specific details on expected timeline for appointments for the armor task force.

Madam Chair, Council President Payne, don't know off the top of my head.

I would imagine it would be coming soon.

I would have to look at the actual the enactment date.

Oftentimes when they set up these task forces, they have like a date that they a date certain that they must uh convene their first meeting.

And so I can uh reach out to your office and let you know the the timing of that and let the council know when that appointment should when would be appropriate to be made.

So I'll follow up with you with that.

Yeah, uh I'm currently serving as the chair of MESB, so I can also work with the executive director too.

We can triangulate.

Excellent.

Thanks.

Great.

I am not seeing any other members in queue.

Um just thank you again, the entire team.

I know it was a long legislative session session, so thank you to you, Steve and Diria, Lauren, Katie, Deltree, and every single partner that you have coming into the legislative team.

Um, I think just being able to work with you all session and then also work with city staff and our members up here.

It felt really nerve-wracking going into the session, thinking that we had a tall order of asks and a lot of need from our community following Operation Metro Surge and feeling like we weren't going to get anything done.

And I think it's really powerful that we were able to get um some capital investment projects done, um, rental assistance, the affordable housing and housing behind work, and also even pushing the conversation around just the horrible, horrible presence of ICE and the cruelty that Minneapolis faced and really linking arms with cities and towns and communities all throughout Minnesota around it.

Um I think it's going to be really important into the conversation coming into the next legislative session and super appreciative of your work in thinking about how we can be a city that's ready for the future in our conversations around data centers and autonomous vehicles.

I know that several of us have spoken to you and the entire team about this, um, and we did that all at the same time uh uh while going to Washington DC and making asks of our leaders there, especially in a moment where we felt the presence of the federal government closer than ever.

And I also want to shout out that we, after several legislative sessions, were able to get that four million dollars for the Water Yard East Phillips Urban Farm.

The community is extremely excited.

I want to just take a second to thank every single council member that's been a part of that effort and especially thank Councilmember Chavez for all of his work over the years since he was elected and pushing for the community to get some of that land back and make the urban farm a reality.

They're really excited.

They shared out that they've gotten the keys from the city, and that's a really really big deal.

It's making something a reality that has been in the conversations of the city for well over 10 years, way before any of our time.

So thank you and a wonderful legislative session.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Before I turn it over to uh Ms.

Falana to go over the next kind of phase of our legislative cycle with the PLT process.

Um, just want to thank the members of the council, your your advocacy with members of the legislature, uh, those that were signing on the letters, uh coming to the Capitol.

Um, you know, it's very helpful when we've got those collaborative partners.

Um, you know, the mayor's office and the mayor, you know, also advocating at the Capitol.

It was very helpful.

Um members of the team.

Um I think we all work really well together, so it's always a good um makes it a little easier, it makes a hard job easier.

Um, and then I want to thank the legislative delegation.

You know, we have really good legislators that were very helpful to us on in lots of different ways, and so it was a very, you know, Minneapolis team effort this legislative session.

And so with that, madam chair, uh I'll turn it over to Miss Falana to go over kind of like the next step for next legislative session.

Awesome.

Welcome back, Ms.

Vellana.

Oh, sorry, I apologize.

Uh there's councilmember Palmasano in the queue.

Thank you.

I I had my questions figured out from Mr.

Huser before, but I do have a question from Miss Falan, Miss Falana, based on your earlier part of the presentation, the state presentation about the 125 million of property tax relief.

Can you do you know how this will work?

Um, I think you said it would get auto-applied.

Um you said that it the slide says that it was expected to assist approximately 600,000 homeowners.

And I'm just curious how this gets allocated.

Yes.

Or how does it, you know, get transacted?

Yeah, Chair Charity, Councilmember Palmasano.

I'm gonna have to call a friend up to the up here, but um, there would be no um amendments from I guess what is it like the 2025 tax return?

Like no amended anyways, I'll I'll let her answer.

Thanks.

Uh Chair Charter Councilmember Palmasano.

It is um just running through the regular homestead credit refund program.

So I think it will, as I understand it will kind of automatically happen through the Department of Revenue, but we can uh double check and confirm with you on that.

So I guess I'm just curious if it applies based on the market value of your homesteaded property or if it is about your income level.

Uh Councilmember Chowderry and or Chair Charter, Councilmember Palmasano.

I think it's I think it's more based on income.

But I we will double check and respond back to you and confirm that.

Thank you.

All right, Chair Chattery, Council members at the very last slide.

So our 2027 policy liaison team process.

Um it kicks off actually today, so in June 2026.

Um departments will have several weeks to then submit proposals for consideration to be added or included on in our legislative agenda and policy positions platform.

Um we'll present the draft proposals uh to you all uh in late October of this year.

Uh and then uh it'll just go through the regular council cycle, um, and then we expect adoption of that 2020 2020 legislative agenda um in early December.

Uh and then the first day of the next legislative session is January 12th.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

Members, are there any other questions or further discussion?

Okay, great.

I'm I will just let members know ahead of the council presentation uh of the PLT uh my office will be reaching out to just at some one-on-one time to talk about this past legislative session, future priorities, anything related to this community committee to better get our priorities together, but then also bring it forward to our IGR team as we have those PLT conversations.

Great.

Seeing no further discussion, I will direct the clerk to file those updates and the presentation.

And with that, we have concluded all business to come before the committee, and without objection, we are adjourned.

I'm so sleepy.