Roll call, please.

Hi, can everyone can anyone can everyone hear me?

Yes.

Okay, perfect.

Um Councilmember Molly Coleman.

Here Dilworth.

Yeah.

Lastner.

Here.

Mike Vang.

Here.

And Chair Negris.

Here.

Awesome.

Thanks.

Thanks, Sonia.

And thanks so much everyone for joining us today.

We have two items on our agenda.

One is uh an introduction to Mayor Herr and her leadership team, which we're really excited about, which is intended to be a conversation between us and the administration.

And then secondly, we are going to be interviewing uh three candidates for our new community advisor position.

Um so I thought we should start.

This is really exciting, I think, for the audit committee to have the opportunity to welcome a new mayor, a new administration.

Um we have not done that before, and we're really excited to build a good working relationship with the mayor and the administration, um, in part because of necessity, because this audit committee is empowered to do performance audits of city departments, but we have no authority over what happens with the results of those audits or if those findings are ever put into practice.

We've been gratified by the fact that despite not having any formal authority, um departments have really adopted and embraced our recommendations to this point, but we think that will be more likely to happen and more likely to happen systemically if we're doing this in partnership with the administration.

And we hope, although this is a council committee, we see this as a service to the whole city, not just to the council.

Um so I thought we could start maybe with just a quick round of introductions, um, maybe just name and role and uh if you're on the audit committee, how long you've been on the audit committee, what else you do besides your service here.

Um, and then it's really gonna be an open discussion of um really from I think the mayor's administration's perspective.

Are there things that just in the few short weeks that you've already been on the job that you are interested in uh exploring?

I know all you've been thinking about is potential audit topics this entire time, so we're eager to hear your thoughts.

Um and then from our committee questions or discussions with the administration, and we know this won't be our last conversation with you all either.

So um, why don't we start uh well I can start maybe we can go this way.

So I'm Rebecca Naker, I represent Ward 2 on the city council.

I chair this committee, and I actually helped start the audit committee many, many years ago with Councilmember Jane Prince, restart it, I should say.

The council had one a long time ago and it was lost in budget cuts.

Um and now uh and we're back and I'm I really enjoy this work.

I think it's important to be able to show folks that we care about not just that the work is what the work is, but that it's being done well and that we're always thinking innovatively about how to do it better.

Amazing.

Hi everybody, Molly Coleman, uh St.

Paul City Council member for Ward 4, currently our newest but not for long audit committee member.

Um I've been on the committee since I joined the council in August, September ish.

Um yeah, I guess maybe the one thing that I will add is you know, I've been going with um Member McVay to district councils to get a chance to talk to them about the audit committee, and it's been really gratifying to see how excited folks are about the work that we're doing here and how they are really I think starting to understand thanks to the presentation that I do not give um that member McVay gives, and that is very well done, that this is a real opportunity for people to get into how our city actually works, and I think seeing the ways that people understand a financial audit versus the type of audit that we're doing here, which is really around is our city our services, our programs, our departments actually working for the people that we intend them to work for, has been exciting and I think you know makes me excited to be on this committee.

I'm Jeremy Lostetter, I'm one of the community advisors.

I've been on the committee for just over two years now.

Um, and it's been great.

I live in Ward One.

I've been pleased uh to be part of this committee, and outside of this, I'm an internal audit manager for Hennepin County, so other side of the river.

Um have kind of both sides perspective.

Um we're really excited to meet uh Mayor Hear's administration representatives today.

Uh thank you for coming.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me and having our office.

My name is Nu Vang, Assistant Mayor of Staff and Strategic Partnerships.

And I'm brand new.

So thank you so much for having me and my team here.

And my name is Nia Bang, and I've been the audit committee staffer for a number of years now, and I'm very happy to know that we have very study that we've completed, and we have one that's underway that is dear to everybody's hearts, and that topic is uh data practices.

Hi, everybody.

Hi, everybody, my name is Laura Isdall and the new policy aide working with Assistant Mayors Vang and Stuma Langer, and I'm a Ward 4 resident.

Excited to be here.

This is my second week.

Yeah, it's a true new.

So you're actually new.

Yeah.

Yeah, we know exactly what's going on.

And um, my name is Nick Stuomalang, our assistant mayor for housing, economic vibrancy, and infrastructure here in Mayor Hers administration.

Um, really excited to be here.

Thank you for having us.

I think a lot of the topics and consideration points from the audit committee are really they align well with what the mayor is interested in.

You're talking about process improvement, talking about how departments can work better together, and I think understanding how the different programs and ways that the city um kind of operates, that's all like in the same mix.

So I'm excited for the partnership here and helping make sure that uh the stuff that we're spending or the things that we're spending money on, the services and programs for folks are as good as they can be.

Thank you.

I'm Stephanie Dilworth, community advisor.

And this is my I'm starting my second term as community advisor.

So I guess I'm the oldest next to uh Caraker.

Um really enjoy being on the committee and and learning about the city.

Um in my day job, I'm at the University of Minnesota in the College of Design as their finance director and um a budget and facilities.

So um I love being here.

And now there's me.

Last but not least.

So my name's Noah McBay.

I am the newest community advisor on the committee, not the newest member, but the newest community advisor.

I joined just in June, actually, June of last year.

Uh I work for four different school districts in 12 different schools as a substitute teacher full-time.

I'm in two master's programs in public administration, governmental accounting, and uh let's see what else.

I live in ward uh ward three.

So yeah, uh I'm passionate about state and local audit, and I love the work that the this committee does and all that we do as colleagues, and so I'm looking forward to that continuing.

So that's all I have to say.

Well, uh thanks everyone for the introductions.

As a former middle school teacher, I came up with an opening question to get our discussion going, but you can either answer this question or you can completely ignore it and just say whatever you want.

Um, and we don't have to do hands because this this is a discussion, so just talk.

Um, but the question uh to to everyone, but especially to the um our guests joining us today is um as you think about the idea of auditing city departments and programs, what excites you about that and what do you find that is challenging or even shall we say terrifying about that?

Can you guys hear me?

Yes.

Uh I'm so sorry.

This is uh assistant mayor Jody Farr.

I apologize that I have to come to you online.

I'm in route.

Um I just want to make sure that I was inner inner that you know that I'm here, and then I'm a process.

I would go ahead and answer your question right away.

Good, go for it.

All right, I'm I'm a process person, so like our systems are perfectly designed to get what we we get.

And so auditing and re-looking at how we are structurally set up and the type of culture that we are creating in how we set ourselves up is what I'm passionate about.

And so that that excites that excites me.

So what you guys do excites me.

It's always um hearing the feedback and then implementing in a way that can improve the system and improve the culture.

There's always a lot of dynamics to that, and that can become a little overwhelming.

Um, not impossible, but just considering all the dynamics, considering all the perspectives and ensuring that they're all listened to as we try to move forward and improve things, just that balance act that that sometimes requires.

Thank you.

And I don't know if you're on route here or not, but either way, um we look forward to seeing you soon.

If not here at another time.

Thanks for joining us.

Thank you.

So I think for myself, uh, Council President, I think one of the things that I'm excited about, which I've just mentioned, the little intro is that process of improvement.

What I've talked about, especially in the impacts of Operation Metro Surge and the impacts on the city, is really focusing on what is the role of city government in helping folks and where can we help facilitate and point people in the right direction for county, for state, and then I guess eventually for federal government support.

Uh, and then also looking at the foundation space and other kind of organizations.

I think something I'm interested in is from the audit committee saying we're saying we have goals for what a policy will do.

Are we meeting those goals?

And if those goals are, you know, the legislative intent, the things that the city is saying that they're doing with those things, how can we kind of adjust?

Um sometimes it's internal controls from a you know financial perspective, and you're talking about what's happening at the state level.

Um, but then sometimes you're actually looking at um are we best suited, are we the best suited actor to do the policy goal?

And I think a lot of the process is iterative in my experience at the state.

Um I'm guessing that's the case here too, of saying that you know we all agree on some of the things that we would like to have happen, and maybe we can best point resources to the right level of government or foundation philanthropic partners so that we're all kind of playing the role we are here to do as well as possible, basically.

That's kind of how I at least think about your question.

Yeah.

Six weeks in, that's what I got.

It's pretty good.

Other thoughts, and committee members can answer the question too, or say anything else, or ask any questions of the administration.

I think it's important that um the city and the council and the and the audit committee all work together as partners and understand that we're all each other's friend, and it's not an adversarial rule.

It is to make the city better, it's to make um internal controls better, and um so we need to work together.

Right.

I would also add that for me.

Yeah, I'm really excited to learn more about the work the audit committee has done and and the work that maybe uh we need to continue doing.

Um I'm looking forward to the collaborative work that I know the mayor is really keen on collaboration, and so I'm looking forward to that and how we can help add on to the work that you all have done and will continue to do.

Thank you.

And Noah, I saw you maybe wanted to say something a minute ago, and maybe you could also should know is also the director and chair, and I think only member of our community engagement subcommittee of the audit committee, which means that NOAA is um pretty much single-handedly responsible for going out and talking to district councils and community groups about what we do.

Um, so knows all of the audits that we've ever done.

So if you wanted to just answer his question briefly with that information too.

I think there's opportunities to um follow up with departments in terms of internal controls, really looking at standard operating procedures and doing this more on a routine basis in the months and years ahead.

Uh we kind of operate in an ad hoc nature right now, it'd be really nice if we could go in on a rotating basis and really evaluate where things are going well, because by and large, things are going well in terms of operational and department operations, but I think there are opportunities for us to grow and to learn from where we have some shortcomings, I think, when we look back at the cybersecurity incident that happened this past summer.

I that's definitely something that we as a committee and the administration and the council need to work together on to ensure that our systems are robust with the increasing risk that cybersecurity incidents pose to us as a city.

We have a lot of sensitive data.

We provide a lot of different services to constituents.

Uh St.

Paulites expect the lights to keep running and the roads to get ploughed.

They don't want those services being interrupted because we've had some kind of breach that is affecting us to maintain accounts payable and accounts receivable.

And so that's something that we need to look at in the long road.

And I'm I'm glad that the administration has an interest in where we can make a process improvement because that's why we're here as a committee.

Another thing is um getting our work out to the um community as that um altogether comprise our city.

Um there's so many people from so many different backgrounds living here in St.

Paul, and where we can work to really reach out to our constituents, I think is instrumental in informing our work.

Um just in reaching out with the district councils over the last couple months.

I shouldn't even say last couple months, last couple weeks now, starting basically at the start of new year.

Um I can tell that there's a lot of opportunity for engagement, but it's it's like um in my experience, I see it as uh I am in the little canoe.

I have just one ore.

I have just one or I am in the Pacific, and I think that there are real opportunities for the audit committee to work with departments to get information from about what we're doing and our findings in concert with uh those are implementing because we are independent, we are house legislative branch, we do not implement recommendations that we make.

That is up to the administration to do so.

And so if we can get that information out there, have a broader reach.

I think the administration can work with us in that.

I think that'd be instrumental in terms of fostering a culture of um high performing public services that our uh constituents expect of us as a city.

So I'm gonna stop rambling now.

Yeah, but no, I want that's my piece.

It's great.

So and what while you were speaking, we were joined by two additional guests.

Would you like to introduce ourselves?

No, you're fine.

So hi, I'm Erica Schumacher.

I'm the first assistant to the mayor, um, and she is on her way.

So we were just running late from a previous meeting.

I apologize.

Hi everyone, my name is Bulzu.

I'm policy in with the mayor's office.

Good to see you.

Um, and the mayor's here.

Welcome.

We're just talking about you.

Come on up.

Should we sit over here?

Come on up.

Uh here.

Are you sitting here?

Should I sit here?

Yeah, nothing.

They're both fine.

Um, Mayor, we just did we did instructions.

I asked folks what they are excited about about auditing, what they're terrified about about auditing, and you can answer any of the above questions.

Auditing as well as introducing yourself.

Auditing is amazing.

I worked with the state auditor very closely at the legislature because I was the chair of pensions, and I also um did a lot of work with like firefighters across the state when volunteer firefighters that it requires a lot of auditing of the retirement plans because they're not part of a uh of a system that it's not part of our main like state system.

So, like I'm auditing is that's my jam.

So I'm glad to be here with all of you.

I think it's exciting, and um, I know that it's kind of a sleepy thing, but it's so important.

Um, it's such an important function of like government and what you know how we do our work and why we have to do it a certain way.

So I'm really excited to be here with all of you.

Yeah, um, one of the questions I wanted to ask the whole group as well was just again, mostly to the administration, but also to others here.

As we mentioned, we so we've we've studied a number of things.

We studied constituent and customer service in the city of St.

Paul.

Um, that was the audit that found that there are 500 different general purpose entry points to the city as an example, you know, phone numbers, emails, etc.

Um, we've studied um the parks and library systems and how they could better work together, what kinds of operational efficiencies they could find that actually came to us from the Parks and Library Department.

They were gonna budget separately for that.

We said we can use our audit committee budget to do that.

Most recently we studied the CID community engagement proposal process, and they are taking some recommendations from that into their process this year, including the idea of having like a pre-application to make it easier for those who are not quite as technically savvy, don't know how to run the numbers on public works construction projects, for example, to apply.

Um, so those are a few of the audits that we've done, and currently, as um Nia mentioned, we're doing we're auditing data practices.

Um, one of the things that I'm so excited about, Mayor, with your orientation is as you said, just sort of this lack of um lack of pride or drama in the programs, even the programs that you have helped create.

And we talked about College Brown St.

Paul very early on, and said I said, you know, I think might be time um for an audit of that program to see how it's doing, to see if it's living up to what we've talked about, to see financially, etc.

Um, and you're really open to that.

So I think I guess to the group, I would say are there particular um topics or departments or questions that have arisen in your minds again with Miss Dilworth's point that it's not um hostile, it's helpful over the last few weeks as you've been getting to know the city.

Are there questions that have arisen in your mind that you think you know, maybe the audit committee could be helpful with this?

Can I just add something really good?

Yeah, please.

I think to that same segment that I I want us to look at our city as a way of also in like city government used to function very specific, um, very specifically, right?

And we always really sort of knew like what is city government, what is county, what is state, what is federal.

And I've seen that over in the last probably decade, there's been a lot of crossing over each in into each other's lines of business.

And I don't look at anything that anybody brings up as is a negative thing.

I think it is important for us to look at our our businesses and would and be critical about it and say, like we've expanded into doing X, Y, and Z.

But it's a really great thing that we're trying to do, but should we be the ones doing that?

Do we have the resources to execute to do some of these things that we've taken on?

And I think that you know, in the desire for people who are elected, and I and I've done this too, where we want to do good to try to solve a problem because people are coming directly to us.

We sometimes will create things or processes or programs that maybe we shouldn't be the ones to be doing that.

And so I hope that you all pick things that that will look critical, and if it and it's like, yes, we should be in this space, we should be doing this, then great.

But if the audit shows us that like it's a great thing, but we should not be the ones doing that.

Is expanding too much staff time and resources to do this, that it is not efficient when we do it, like then we should we should know that.

And I'm very open to that.

So I just want you all to know like there nothing that you bring up will be looked at as like off limits.

I think we should um be really critical and we should do it with the eye of like how do we um do right but our cities and our our city and our residents and the tax dollars that they pay in order for us to run our cities.

So yeah, I just wanted to make sure that you're I feel warm and fuzzy.

I hope so.

I think one thing I just add too, and I think community advisor Dilworth's point is really well taken that this is not necessarily adversarial.

I think the systems that get set up are a little adversarial because it's you know retrospective and you want to make sure things are functioning well.

Um something that I have in just the six weeks we've been here really notices that the city, and you're all aware of it too, are doing a lot of really great things, and we can lift up some of the good positive things while also wanting that consistent improvement too.

Um and to me, you know, it's very important to be able to do both.

Um I think just in whatever function it makes sense.

For instance, I've been I have OFS as one of the um departments under my jurisdiction.

I've been extremely impressed by our grants team, just for instance, kind of consolidating, making sure that you know, both we are applying for really good funding opportunities, and then we're doing the compliance on the back end and kind of staying on it.

I've been extremely impressed, having seen a couple other systems and other entities that I will not name of how that goes.

Um and so I think it's both and of making sure that we're making the the process improvements where things are not maybe working as well as they could be, and then also lifting up the good work that is happening because sometimes we're a complaint-based system overall, but you know, praise and encouraging and positive reinforcements also super important to us too.

And I will I will shout out to uh Wilder Research, our uh on retainer partner in doing our audit work.

I think that they've and I I'm sure I hope my uh fellow committee members would agree, but feel free to disagree, um, that they do a great job making uh making sure that all the interview subjects, all the department staff feel really bought in and like they are being approached in a spirit of partnership.

Yeah, um, because otherwise we're not gonna get any helpful data and so far we have so we have about three minutes left for the conversation before we have to shift gears and do our interviews for a new community advisor.

So I want to just open it up to any thoughts, ideas or comments that haven't been said yet.

Are you also throwing out ideas right now for the president?

The things you would like to have people do?

We'd love to have ideas.

We are we're currently in the so I should say the data practices audit is likely gonna wrap up in the next couple of months.

So we have some time before we choose our next topic, but we're very much in active data collection topic selection mode, and we put a pause on our normal process for that because your administration was coming in.

Yeah, we didn't want to choose a topic when we had the opportunity to do that in partnership.

Could I ask about like general processes like um and not maybe like a specific program or specific thing, of course?

Because like for me, what I would think would be really great to look at is like when we pass certain, and I and this is the thing I at the legislature was really important for me as well when I was there, was that the idea of passing something, but the idea of implementing it are two very very different things, right?

Like, what are the ways in which like when we are going to pass something, what is the ways in which we are vetting that thing as the ability to execute?

Is it executable?

Is it enforceable?

Is it like I feel like what are how do we work these processes so that even though we might have a really great idea about something, it's really impossible to execute on that thing.

And then it and then we find out later that in the trying to do it, we've we've invested a lot of uh resources, time and money into that, right?

So, like, like should we have more clear processes for certain things that we do?

Like, so it's not just us we're critically looking critically at a process that already exists, but are there ways in which we should be creating process for some of the things that we're doing, right?

To make it more efficient and to make it work better.

I often uh would argue with legislators who said, look, yeah, we passed these bills, and I said, Yeah, but you never you didn't look to see if you were ever able to implement it, and now the department is stuck with the having to implement and they they had a really tough time, and they're the ones that have to do with fraud afterwards, or they're the ones that have to deal with inefficiencies, or they're the ones that have to deal with the not being able to execute within a time frame because you know, as a legislator, we didn't I didn't pass, we didn't give them the things they needed to do their jobs well and right.

So, like, can we look at some of these processes as well?

That's that's one of you want to point out.

And you should definitely look at college savings account and see if like you know, is it sustainable?

Can we do that?

It's I I do really support that idea as well.

Yes.

Well, I will just say I know this is not the last conversation we're going to have.

I'll end where I began.

Um, Mayor, it means a whole lot to us that not only are you here, but your entire administrative team, all of your assistant mayors, including Assistant Mayor Farr, who joined us remotely, um, could be here with us.

That says a lot.

So um, we're really excited to work in partnership with you, and we'll be following up about these ideas and more.

Thank you for inviting us.

And did any of the assistant mayors have anything you wanted to say really quick before because I think we're out of minutes now?

We said wonderfully smart things before you showed up.

They were very articulate.

Wonderful.

I knew that.

Very insightful.

Well, thank you.

Thank you for inviting us and letting us be a part of this too.

It means a lot to us.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah, of course.

But it is fun stuff.

So I told you Janet's.

Thank you.

So look forward to working with you.

I read this all the time.

Thanks, CSS Mare Fire.

Looking forward to meeting you soon.

Yeah, Marshall.

Thanks, Nan.

Also so cool that we haven't had him there.

I just saw the cover of TCP.

Oh, her city.

I'm not sure.

I guess come on.

Thanks for coming.

Well, congratulations to you guys.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, I'm gonna look to Nia.

We're gonna do a hard pivot.

And call our first.

I think several of our interviews are here.

Actually.

So I guess I would just say if you are here to be interviewed, um who is our first person here?

Um I believe it is Sharon.

Sharon.

Okay, awesome.

Um I see, I know Dylan is here, and then join us over at the air.

Not sure if the other person who's here is also here to be interviewed.

But um I think we want folks to follow Mel, who's standing right outside the door, so that until your interview, you have another place to be.

Um so right outside the door is Mel, and she will show you where the council reception area is, and then she'll tell you when it's time for your interview.

Sorry for the awkwardness.

Um, you're just here.

I'm just here.

Oh, wonderful.

Feel free to stay.

Uh we're we're just interviewing cans.

I'm so glad you're here, and you are welcome, and this is your space.

I just wanted to make sure if you were interviewing for the role, you weren't awkwardly here while someone else was nearly.

Yes, okay.

Um, welcome.

We have not prepared, except that we have questions in front of us, and we are going to, in no particular order, um, except that Ms.

Ilworth is going to start, ask them of you.

We are so excited that you are uh interested in this position, and as you hopefully just saw, we're a great bunch, and we're gonna be working in great partnership with the administration.

Um so we have four questions for you, and then we'll stop and see if you have any questions for us.

This will take about 15 minutes total.

Um so again, welcome, and uh we'll we'll start with Miss Dilworth.

And maybe just introduce yourself when you ask the question that way all of us are introduced.

All right.

Yes, welcome.

Yes, can you tell us about yourself, your experience with city government, and why you want to serve on the audit committee.

All right, in all candor.

Uh apart for from supporting uh initiatives in the city over a long, long period of time.

I am not conversant with the processes in city government.

However, my background is in federal government, and I have a long, long history of being conversant with government-wide rules and regulations.

I'm very fond of digging down and digging deep on those things.

Um it's uh passion of mine and it's a conviction of mine that we need to be efficient, we need to have an economic solvency, we need to have um things that this committee and the reason for my wanting to be here is because the work of this committee is an essential extension of anything I've ever done in my life.

Because it is interesting that there are all of these people done doing things collegially toward public service many years ago.

I had to be fingerprinted and promised that I would be a good public servant.

I would serve the constitution.

I have read the city charter.

I understand, I believe that this is so essential to our citizens at a time when let's let's be truthful.

Um the faith in our institutions is eroding.

And why I want to be here really is because an extension of trying to put my little fingerprint, and I don't mean mine, mine collegially, collectively, and in cooperation with all of you.

That is such a such a need, and I think the service, this committee is essential in that regard.

So city government no.

Can I read those statutes and have I done that?

My experience goes to serving diversity in this sense that I represent did advocacy work for many, many years inside federal government successfully.

So I don't know if that really addresses what you're saying, but and there's more to that about an evolution on my part that leads me to this committee.

But thank you for the question.

So I know we talked a little bit already out in the hall sharing, but um just introducing myself again.

I'm Noah McVay.

I'm one of the other community advisors here.

Uh our work as the audit committee involves performance auditing and not financial auditing.

Our the our friends at the state auditor's office, you all of our financial audits here at City Hall.

What is the extent of your knowledge of or experience with performance audits?

Okay, again.

I I don't know if you use gaggas.

I don't know if that is the you know the generally accepted government um systems is that what your your ground is.

I'm familiar with some of that.

I've never conducted performance audits, although my education leads me to be able to drill down on data big time.

Um I have a degree in experimental psychology, and so I'm conversant with data collection and um and and using it to a purpose.

So uh well, performance audits per se, no, um, but I did familiarize myself with gaggas in my past.

Yeah, great.

Molly Coleman, I'm one of our staple city council members representing Ward 4.

Could you tell us a bit about your experience, any experiences serving on a committee or engaging with community members, and what skills, qualities, or experiences you would bring as an audit committee member?

Um to experience.

Um yes, um I've worked, I think successfully uh through certain barriers that I think that are presupposed of initiatives that were well-meaning, well-intentioned, but perhaps not well executed or well uh I suppose uh conceived.

My experience is deep on digging into systems that sometimes conflict with one another, and my interest in being on the committee is that this experience leads me to think that what your work here is a prism.

You may select a particular, oh, say for example, TIF or something like that that you want to examine, but these are not unique.

They sometimes overlap, they duplicate, they don't serve, they conflict, and I think the work of this committee that I'm attracted to is to see how we can bring a unifying characteristic to public service.

We have a wonderful population of people in St.

Paul.

They deserve the best of us.

I think the best is on this committee, and um I think the fact that I am uniquely persistent in the experience as reported by people that I have acted to oppose in the past, who have consistently told me they don't understand who I am.

And I said it's because you've forgotten your purpose.

You used to be me, and then years ago, you changed that.

And that was a period in my life where I did litigious things because I had no other choice.

Rights orientation is not solutions orientation.

I'm very solutions-oriented, so I have a background in mediation.

I believe that we are stronger by the values that we place in each other.

The other piece, apart from efficiency and economy and all the things that you do, that's very dear to my heart is equity.

And I've successfully prosecuted cases, had to prosecute because there was no resolution short of that.

And each and every time I step before any third party, I always asked for a solution.

Not having that, I was able to prevail in cases before EEOC where intention needs to be proven in order to retrieve the civil rights of people that I represented.

And that is very dear to me.

So the other piece that I bring is a respect for equity.

Beyond all of the numbers, there has to be some sense in which we direct our attention to fairness for everyone.

So I don't know if that helps you.

Yes, thank you.

Um I'm Jeremy Lostetter.

I'm another community advisor on the committee.

Nice to meet you.

Um the last question is uh are there any particular aspects of city government that you think would be good topics for an audit?

I do.

Thank you for asking.

Yes.

Um in the past year I've become recently acquainted with um the TIFF initiatives.

That's a very big interest of mine.

Uh digging down on that.

Um I would love the work of the committee to rear to direct itself in that regard.

Um what we heard um in before me or her gray star city as mayor.

Um was a common problem relative to property taxes and how people are moved out of their homes.

I presently serve on the Summit University Planning Council, so I'm up on District 8, and there are people that are really in danger because of that of losing their homes who have invested in a community for years that was devastated for years, and are now perhaps on the wire.

So the other interest I have, and I think that this bears on what we look at if we looked at TIFF, is to see how it compromises affordable housing.

So I think there is a carry over there when funds are disposed against some of the interests that make our community whole, and so that is a specific interest, and I have done a lot of research on that subject.

Thank you for the question.

Well, that brings us to our last question, and I'm Rebecca Naker.

I'm uh represent Ward II on the council.

I chair this committee.

What questions do you have for us?

Yeah.

What would you like from me you haven't heard?

Any follow-ups that people have that they haven't heard.

I'd be happy to pass on anything that you would want to raise, you know.

Um I'm not as young as you are, but I'm fierce.

And I thank you for the privilege of being with you today.

I I'm so grateful.

I'm so happy to have been able to sit and listen to you listening to each other.

It's so powerful, you know, to be engaged with people who are as you are.

And I was extremely excited to see me or her, you know.

She's paying close attention to the work, this good work of this committee that I think uniquely um specifies um what we owe the people that are outside this room today, and that you so eloquently speak for.

So I'm privileged to be here, I'm honored to be here, and I thank you.

And I don't want to take, I know you have business to do.

Well, but I thank you again for the privilege and the honor of being with you.

We send that thanks right back to you.

We really appreciate your interest in serving on this committee, and uh just want you to know that first of all, you're always welcome to our committee meetings, no matter if you're at the table or not, you're always welcome to give input no matter what happens with this decision, and then we always say uh we we will always follow up with um regardless of whether or not you're selected to serve on the committee.

We want folks like you engaged in the city of St.

Paul, and there are num dozens of boards and committees that could use your help.

So if the answer here is not right now, um, we will follow up with other opportunities because we can tell you're someone who wants to be engaged and we want you engaged.

So thank you for your interest in this.

We will be following up within the next two weeks on the the verdict here.

Um again, we appreciate your time and your interest.

I thank you again.

Thank you.

I wish you all well.

You too.

We'll be in touch.

Um and Mel, you'll bring in our next person.

Awesome.

And do you have new um do you have new sheets for us too?

Okay.

I was hoping that I didn't have to fit everybody on one, but I wasn't sure.

Thank you.

I hope I needed up I had someone to make extra colours.

I think I can just okay, yeah.

Oh, you did a thing?

Okay, all right.

Well, I can make my work too.

Okay.

Do you need an extra Molly?

No, I'm good.

I've got my little boxes and Hertzy.

Yeah.

Is coming just gonna go grab just in the house it was actually.

Did that go okay in terms of who asked?

Yeah, sorry.

Okay.

We're good on time.

Yeah, I have to leave at 5 15.

I'm not sure if you hear me say that.

No, it's okay.

Yeah.

Quarter two.

15 minutes for each.

Right.

Yeah.

So we should be.

Just have to keep the transition not taking too long.

There we go.

Do we have a vice chair?

Um we don't have a vice chair, right?

Our problem is we lose quorum if I leave.

Oh, delightful.

Yes.

Hi, welcome.

Gonna welcome you right up and uh jump right in.

Thank you so much for your interest.

You can sit in either of these two chairs.

Um take a moment to get yourself situated.

We uh really appreciate your interest in the committee.

Um we have four questions for you, and then we have a question, we'll ask if you have any questions for us.

Um, and we'll introduce ourselves as we ask our questions so you get to know who we are.

Um we have about 15 minutes for the conversation, so we'll dive right in.

Thank you.

I'm Stephanie Dilworth, community advisor.

And welcome.

Thank you.

Tell us about yourself, your experience with city government, and why you want to serve on the audit.

All right.

Um, my name is Herzia, and admittedly I don't know much about city council or city government.

One reason I want to do this is to learn.

Um why do I want well, like I said, I want to learn, and also I want to help out St.

Paul.

I grew up here, born here, and in my opinion, St.

Paul's one of the best cities.

Okay.

You're not wrong.

Correct.

I move that motion.

So hi.

I want to thank you for coming and attending tonight's meeting.

Um my name's Noah McVay.

I'm another one of the community advisors on the committee.

Um, our work as a committee involves performance auditing.

We don't do financial audits, so the folks at the offices see auditor do our financial audits every year.

Um what is the extent of your knowledge of or experience with performance auditing?

Again, admittedly limited to none.

At the same time, I look at performance as oftentimes a series of metrics, and it's a question of can we get to these metrics or not?

And how close did we get to them?

Which in a sense is similar to financial.

Great.

My name is Molly Coleman.

I am one of our council representatives.

I am the St.

Paul City Council member for Ward 4.

Could you tell us a bit about your experiences serving on a committee or engaging with community members, and then what skills, qualities or experiences you would bring to the as an audit committee member?

Uh sure.

As far as experience, um, I was a board member of Minnesota Atheists for several years, both as an at-large member and as an officer.

Um working with our members as far as how did we want to grow the organization or what kind of things did we want to look at and pursue as far as goals?

Um I've also done work in as far as things like reception, retail when I was a kid, dealing with community and peoples is fairly normal.

Um skills.

Um I'm not entirely sure to be fair.

Um I enjoy working with people.

I enjoy looking at data.

I enjoy seeing what can be basically sussed out from that data.

Um my job with the state of Minnesota is actually budget analysis.

So working out backtracking where changes are and why those changes are is something that I do regularly.

Okay, thank you.

Uh I'm Jeremy Lostetter, uh, one of the community advisors on the committee.

Thank you for being here.

Um there any particular aspects of city government that you would think would be good topics for an audit.

I would say what people see.

A lot of times you hear complaints about specific things, and it's one of those, it's like bringing those to the forefront, I think would be good.

For example, everybody's got an opinion about plowing.

Yeah.

But if we actually could say this is how our plowing is, and this is how Minneapolis is and Rochester is, and all of this, it's like in comparison, where are we?

Um well that brings us to the end of our questions for you.

What questions might you have for us?

Um, and sorry, I'm Rebecca Naker.

I represent Ward 2 on the City Council.

Thank you.

Um my first question is do what kind of metrics do we have outside of an audit?

Like is there something already set up for that?

Or is the audit really the biggest metric set of metrics that we have?

I can take a crack at that, and others should jump in.

I I think it really depends on the program.

Um some programs do have their own goals and metrics that they've established.

Um others don't.

We were talking earlier about the difference between programs and processes, and I think it's more likely for a program to have specific goals and metrics than for a process.

So, for example, um, how quickly do we process permit applications in our Department of Safety and Inspections, building permits?

Um that's that seems like sometimes a harder sell than we're starting a new program with college savings accounts, and we want to make sure X number of kids go on to college as a result of that.

Um so I guess I would say it depends.

And we we only have the capacity to audit about two programs or processes a year.

Um, so we definitely depend on programs and processes having metrics outside of the audit.

Do others want to add to that answer.

All right, and what would your description be of the perfect committee member for this?

Maybe our community advisors an open mind.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Someone that's willing to learn.

Collaborative spirit.

Um, like we had Mayor Her here and her um administration and just knowing that uh successful audit um is a partnership approach.

Um that you know it's not adversarial that we're trying to call people out or play gotcha or things like that.

It's information gathering.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

And what was the last book you read?

Well, I'm in the I'm almost done with it, so I'm gonna consider this to be done.

The Shakespeare Riots, which is actually I got interested in it because it was one of the first times that troops were called out to uh a city in the United States.

So I don't know why I was interested in that recently.

Um, and it's about the the riots when two different Shakespearean actors uh went up against each other in New York in the 19th century and the class conflict that ensued.

One was British, one was American.

It's a great book.

The last book that I finished was so embarrassingly long ago.

That I finished the book that in fact I started this weekend, which I just started Middlesex, which is interesting thus far.

What's it called?

Middlesex.

Oh, nice.

Yeah.

25 years late to it, but here we are.

I'll take a stab at it.

Um The Diversity of Life, Eo Wilson, he was a brilliant entomologist.

I just finished reading that um for a second time two weeks ago now.

And uh gets into uh biogeography and um ecology with um smaller organisms, so not megafauna, not mammals or anything like that, but like um really focuses on insects, but also um plants and fungi, which um my b background when I was an undergraduate student was actually in botany.

So uh it was nice catching up on that book.

It's very thick, it's like 500 pages.

EO Wilson was a brilliant um uh uh entomologist as well as an ethologist.

So uh he studied ants in particular.

So I'm gonna be, yeah, I don't remember the title actually, so that's kind of a by but the author's Suleika, and she put together a um, she asked people to all contribute, and it's about journaling and um yeah, it's um very interesting read, but I'm in the middle of it, so I don't know how it's gonna end.

But yeah, I'm in the middle of a uh class on spiritual gifts, so I'm reading a book on spiritual gifts.

Should ask each other this question more often.

It's a great question.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Um, we you know, we'll be back in touch in the next couple of weeks about the decision here, but mostly we just wanted to say, first of all, you're always welcome to come to our meetings.

Um they're open to the public, and you're always welcome to give input into our work.

Um, and also we have about 20 different boards and commissions in the city of St.

Paul that are always looking for interested engaged folks like you.

So, regardless of what the decision is about this particular position, we will reach out with um links to those others in case those are of interest because we just really um appreciate that you took the time and are interested in being part of the city work.

We need we need people like you.

So thanks for your time, and we will be in touch.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Take care.

Last guy.

I actually can make do with one piece of paper.

It's amazing.

Not as neatly as you did it.

Your handwriting is a fortunate.

Dylan.

Right?

Dylan.

Dylan Dillon.

Dylan Donnelly.

Irish.

My name's actually Scottish.

So McVeigh Scottish.

Yes, it is.

But my mother's family is Irish.

So very goidelic.

Yes.

I was like, it's loss be as it comes.

Very.

Are you also a Protestant?

I'm Episcopalian.

I think.

Well, okay.

Not quite them.

It's Protestant.

It's kind of like it's in the words of Robin Williams.

Catholic book with all the guilt.

No disrespect to our Catholic friends.

The book of alchemy.

There we go.

Go share it, go for it.

Yeah.

Uh welcome as handouts, right?

Absolutely.

Okay.

As you're taking time to hand out your handouts and get seated, um, we have about 15 minutes for this conversation.

We have four questions for you, and then we want to see what questions you might have for us.

We want to thank you so much for taking time to interview with us and for your interest in this position.

And we are going to, for the sake of time, uh, introduce ourselves as we ask the questions so that you get to meet us, but also we are efficient.

Um with that, turn it over to Ms.

Dilworth.

Ms.

Dilworth.

Welcome, Dylan.

Um, I'm Stephanie Dilworth.

Um, can you tell us about yourself, your experience with city government, and why you want to serve on the art committee?

I will.

Um, first, thank you for doing this.

And Councilman Raker is so important.

Auditing, it's continuous improvement.

It makes this whole thing work better for so many people.

So I appreciate that.

And thank you to Noah who posted on the St.

Paul subreddit about this opportunity.

And uh that's just rare to see someone show up in a page like that.

So that was really cool.

Um before we came here, I was helping two easters get a job uh at a warehouse.

And it's like that's who we're helping in the system.

And at the end of all these systems and processes, it's people who are impacted by it.

So that's why I'm here.

Those are those are my constituents, people in St.

Paul that need help.

Um experience.

I'm from St.

Paul.

I live in St.

Paul.

I've got two kids.

Um I started on a second shift in a factory.

Um I own a business.

And uh I have a BA, political science, the MBA, and I've done coursework at Humphrey, including the auditing course as well.

So I like to figure things out and uh help people.

Thank you.

So Dylan, I want to thank you for coming tonight.

I have extended that to all of our uh candidates here, and so we've had I'm really pleased with all the candidates we've had, actually.

Um our work as a committee.

Um you may have gathered this from our website.

We don't do financial audits.

Our friends at the Office of the State Auditor, they audit us every year, they examine our financial statements.

Um we do performance auditing.

So what is the extent of your knowledge of our experience with performance audits?

Strong.

So okay, so my background's in manufacturing.

And in manufacturing, making parts is the easy part, but everything else is the challenging part.

And the only way you stay in business is by improving.

And so we had a deep culture of continuous improvement and specifically lean manufacturing.

And lean manufacturing has two tenets.

The first part is iterative, which is closer to like an agile system where you're just constantly improving, which is really important.

And the second part are lean events, which are extremely close to uh performative audits.

What the difference is is like when you do it, I know you don't you're not in charge of implementation, but a lean event is basically the exact same thing, but then you of those findings, you pick one or two of the findings and actually implement it.

Um so I've led lean events, I've participated in lean events, I've been trained in lean events, um, so I have a pretty deep experience in that work.

Um also I do public policy research for fun.

Um after my kids go to bed, I open up 500 page PDFs with highlighters and read through them.

So if you read one of my opt-eds, you can tell it's pretty tedious, but I really enjoy digging into the systems of public policy.

Excellent.

Hi Dylan Molly Coleman, St.

Paul City Council Member from Ward 4.

Uh, can you tell us about your experiences serving on a committee or engaging with community members and what skills, quality or experiences you would bring as an audit committee member?

Yeah, in terms of community, I mean workforce, you don't have to try and be engaged, you're just engaged.

I mean, so in terms of in St.

Paul, work with Eastsiders.

Yesterday I was helping an individual with disability get a job at Pizza Ranch.

Um, we help job fairs at Goodwill, DOC.

I work closely with DOC.

Um, I do mock interviews with international institute of uh KOM, HAP.

Um, so just I'm in community as much as you can be.

Um, and in terms of sort of civic engagement, I was a member of the Ramsey County Workforce Innovation Board, Vice Chair of the St.

Paul Business Review Council, Citizens League, um, other monastery board, I mean, just boards, a lot of board work too.

So uh a lot of experience working at the grassroots level of people, but also that this kind of engagement as well.

Um, in terms of skills, I kind of mentioned my professional background and research.

Um, I read OLA audits for fun too.

So if you're looking for someone that has that skill, that's me.

Thank you.

Um I'm Jeremy Lastetter, one of the community advisors.

Welcome.

Are there particular aspects of city government that you think would be good topics for an audit?

Yeah, okay, two things.

First, this is like a little off topic, but um as much as I appreciate the legislature off the website, where you should put this on YouTube, like all your videos from the audit committee and the findings, the presentations on YouTube would be really helpful for transparency, and you can share them with people, and it's easier to share with you know subcommittees and district councils.

Um the state does a great job with the legislature, all their videos and subcommittees are on the web on YouTube, and so it's just a really good way to share that.

So, okay, in terms of topics, there were two.

Now, I would say your biggest bang for your buck would be facility services.

You look at the city of St.

Paul, our budget is 887 million.

Our backlog, if you count the hockey arena, public works, parks and rec, it's easily over a billion dollars, if not more.

And the reality is if you live in an area of concentrated poverty, you can't afford St.

Paul anymore.

And we can't continue to pay for all these things and expect people to keep up with their incomes.

So having some understanding of what we can afford from a facility services perspective, and it's not a financial audit, but that would be sort of where you're your big biggest bang for your buck.

The second one, and I've sort of labored the point, is college bound, but it's not just college bound, it's when the municipality is taking on programs.

So when we sort of engage in things that aren't permitting, you know, public thing, permitting policing, paving, and we start going into programs, that's dipping outside of the traditional norms of municipality, and what I'm seeing is we're not seeing ROI on some of those programs, or we should at least understand what the ROI is on some of those programs, so that at least if we're gonna do it, we know that it's helping those people that are looking for those warehouse jobs.

Great.

Thank you.

Um, what questions might you have for us?

How often do you meet?

Excellent question.

Roughly once a month, sometimes we cancel depending on the nature of the work.

We have um a regular contract with Wilder Research.

So if they're in the midst of an audit and we don't have anything to, we don't have any community advisors to hire, we don't have any updates from them, we might skip a month.

Why don't we have a city auditor?

That's a great question, Dylan.

Um it's largely a matter of resources at this time.

That's been a question that we've had and some discussions about before.

Um I personally would love us to have audit staff working on the committee.

Me too.

But there that's a matter that will have to be um decided.

That's something I think this committee may be discussing later this year.

I don't want to speak for the committee because I I defer to you, madam chair.

So I think it's later for next month, in fact.

Oh noah's asking great questions about that, which is why I looked at it.

Oh okay.

I listened to like a municipal auditing podcast and the city auditors, you know, it's hard work, but it's so important.

And it pays for itself, you know, a thousand times over.

So I think it'd be a good thing for St.

Paul.

I mean, we'd all be out of a job, so that's the problem.

There's always room for improvements.

Thank you, Dylan.

Um thank you for your time.

Thank you for interesting one of the things that I've um been saying consistently today is um we really appreciate your interest in part of this committee.

We'll be back in touch within the next couple weeks if the answer is not yet or not right now for this opportunity.

Um we will share links to the many other boards and commissions, which I know you're familiar with, um, because we want you involved in the city and we appreciate your interest.

So thank you.

No, thank you.

Cool.

We'll talk to you soon.

Um with that, I think.

Um as Noah was just saying, we do, or as I was just saying to Noah, we do have our March meeting.

This thing, maybe you could give us a sense of what's on the docket and maybe a little bit about our current audit.

And and also next steps for the interviews we just conducted.

Let me pull up my email or um I guess maybe we should start with that.

When do you want us tell us what you want us to do?

Next meet on March 17th.

So as soon as come in your green a week, and you have now down your top candidate, please email only me.

And then I will share with your maker the by consensus by majority consensus who that candidate will be.

Can we can we do that by Friday at five?

Can we do that by the end of the week?

Just your your top choice, Tania.

By this Friday?

Yeah, I think I don't does anyone feel like we need more time.

Okay.

Okay.

And then the next step after that is that I will be drafting a resolution for council consideration to um vote and support the audit committee's recommendation.

And then um, hopefully the candidate will be seated for our first meeting with them in March.

And also at this meeting, we will have um Dr.

Britt from Walder present us the initial report of the data practices study.

Um I guess I would love and then we're hoping also to have Noah had sent a very um I think we should make sure the whole committee.

Did we share your email with the whole committee?

Of the the suggestions for sort of the broader systemic audit changes to the uh we'll we'll pull it up.

Okay, I'll let you know.

Yeah, I'll work with so we have to pull that out.

And I will give a report on all matters of civic engagement.

Excellent.

So March is gonna be busy.

Um then we should probably also I I guess I would just say to everyone, maybe think about the conversation with the mayor and her administration today.

That was really cool to have every single, I don't think we've ever I have never had every single assistant mayor and the mayor in one place at all.

So this is really neat.

That shows I think the value she places on this, but think through what you heard, what you heard from our candidates, um, if there are new topics that come to mind because I think we're gonna want to engage with um come up with our short list relatively quickly and engage with her administration on that.

So think about that for March.

Noah, did you want to you looked like you were ready to oh I was gonna say that I was so giddy.

Yeah.

So I can't could barely contain my excitement.

So great.

Well then if there's nothing else to come before us, thank you all as always.

Um and we are journal.

We'll see you on St.

Patty's Day.

Thank you.