The Budget Committee of the Whole met on September 10, 2026, starting at 9 a.m., to review the 2027 Supplemental Budget and performance measures for the Safety and Justice Service Team. Presentations were given by the Emergency Communications Center (ECC), the Sheriff’s Office, and the County Attorney’s Office, each highlighting key performance metrics, staffing challenges, community engagement efforts, and future budget needs.
Community driven subcommittee and with financial support from a microgrant we received from Ramsey County Youth Violence Prevention. And some of those activities will be a community, a series of community dinners, and that's a response directly from the community feedback that these gatherings are deeply missed. A restorative practice framework to help families access healing pathways before a crisis escalates. And then finally, a two-day in-person train the trainer program, recruiting community stakeholders and community champions in healing circles, where the final two community dinners would feature healing circles facilitated by those newly trained community healers. The impact of these program of these programs is not abstract. They directly strengthen our ability to deliver timely, high quality emergency communication services by elevating the community voices and expanding access to resources. Next, I want to walk you through a performance measure that is the cornerstone of operational excellence and reflects the collective effort of our entire team, which is how quickly we answer 911 calls. National standards guide this work, both the National Emergency Number Association or NINA, and the National Fire Protection Association, NFPA, recommend that 95% of all 901 calls be answered within 15 seconds and require that 99% be answered within 40 seconds. These benchmarks apply to every public safety answering point in the country. In 2024, we strengthen our reporting by implementing a more accurate and consistent method for analyzing call handling data. We recalculated our historical numbers, including 2023, using this improved methodology. From this point forward, all of our reporting uses this data approach, giving us a clearer and more reliable picture of the performance over time. As you know, staffing levels directly influence our ability to meet these standards. Our staff manage high stress, often traumatic calls, and they frequently work mandated over time. With recent Minnesota law changes to include meal breaks, earned sick and safe time, and paid family and medical leave, they have only intensified this pressure on us, making it even more challenging to maintain the staffing levels necessary to meet operational standards. These pressures can contribute to burnout and turnover, which in turn may affect call answer times. Our overall turnover rate in 2025 was 28.5%, and we are trending around 17.6% this year. We anticipate that number to grow, but we are trending lower than we did in 2025. The majority of our turnover is within the first year of employment through probationary terminations, which each termination is discussed with our labor manager, human resources, and attorney partners, or we see resignations for personal reasons such as moves moving, choosing a different career path, or once they start the training, they realize the job is more difficult than what they thought. We continually strive to make meaningful progress by investing wellness initiatives like Creative Caponia into our budget, which previously was funded by American Rescue Plan Act Fund dollars. In 2027, they will continue to provide monthly on-site support for employees dealing with trauma-related stress or personal mental health challenges. They also provide up to 10 off-site sessions, that is an addition to the county's EAP program. We also have an internal peer support team which receives ongoing training to support staff before, during, and after difficult calls. Additionally, our empower you initiative is helping us strengthen our organizational culture. This work aligns directly with the county's strategic priority of operational excellence. It includes an organization-wide check-in survey, uh, in-person all-staff focus groups, and a leadership retreat, all designed to help us understand where we've been, where we are now, and where we want to go as an organization. The result will be a collaboratively shaped plan that reflects the collective wisdom and lived experience of our staff. I want to emphasize that this work is a far more about meeting the national standard. It's about building a system that serves people when they need us the most. That's why we're also investing in technology that supports our staff and improves the caller experience. With new funding received in 2027, we are implementing tools that will help us process calls more efficiently. One of the most significant advancements is the development of non-emergency call handling automation, or NECA. It's a conversational agent, AI, designed to manage non-emergency calls. I just want to make sure I'm really clear that's only non-emergency calls that is not 911 calls. In 2025, 47% of all incoming calls came through our non-emergency lines. At least 11% of those, more than 36,000 calls were direct transfers to other departments for information requests, report follow-ups, inquiries about the jail, warrants, courts, fingerprinting, property room, gun permits, animal control, and other non-urgent needs. These calls matter, but they consume valuable time and resources that could be directed towards critical incidents. NECA will help reduce whole times, free up call takers to focus on emergencies requiring judgment, empathy, and critical thinking, and help us build uh help us better manage high call volumes of non-emergency calls. This is not about replacing people or doing more with fewer people. It's about supporting our existing staff, reducing burnout, and improving the quality of service that we provide. All of these efforts, wellness, training, culture, technology, come together to support one goal, one goal, answering 911 calls quickly, consistently, and with the highest level of care for Ramsey County. Next, I want to highlight a performance measure that reflects our one Ramsey County approach to justice transformation. The percentage of person in crisis calls supported through the appropriate response initiative. This is a key indicator of how effectively we're connecting people to the right kind of help. As you heard during County Manager Becker's budget hearing, we are now operationalizing this work within ECC operations in 2027 and as part of the supplemental budget. Moving ARI from concept into a fully functioning program. This shift marks a significant step forward in embedding alternative response strategies directly into our emergency communication system. I want to pause and acknowledge the board's continued commitment to advance this work. Your support is what enables us to meet people in crisis with the right response at the right time, and it's making a measurable difference in our community. Person in crisis calls make up a small but incredibly important portion of our overall call volume.