Budget Committee March 04, 2024   3/4/2024

Good morning, I'm Aisha Chugtai and I'm the chair of the Budget Committee.

I'm going to call to order our regular meeting for Monday, March 4th, 2024.

At this time, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll to verify the presence of a quorum.

Present.

Rainville is absent.

Lita?

Present.

Ellison is absent.

Osman is absent.

Jenkins is absent.

Chavez?

Present.

With that we will proceed to our agenda.

We have seven items up for discussion today which are all related to new and reclassified appointed positions.

I will take these items by department.

We will hear joint presentations from Human Resources in conjunction with the relevant departments for the item before us, including the City Attorney's Office, the Auditor's Office, and the Office of Community Safety, along with the Health Department.

will begin with items one through three, which are the three appointed positions in the city attorney's office, managing attorney, managing attorney for implementation and the deputy city attorney position.

I will invite Brenda Miller from the health department to begin the president presentation and then she'll be joined by city attorney Kristin Anderson.

Hi, I'm Brenda Miller with the Classification and Compensation Department, and I'm here to talk about seven appointed positions.

The first one we're gonna talk about today is the managing attorney job.

This job combines what was previously the managing attorney civil and supervising attorney criminal positions into one job classification.

The managing attorney is part of the city attorney's office and supervises a team of employees in the CAO which includes attorneys and sometimes support staff for providing civil and criminal legal counsel.

The new managing attorney has been evaluated at 685 points, grade 15.

This evaluation is part of a larger study of the CAO office.

Previously we have evaluated and market priced assistant city attorney positions, the three levels, and this is a continuation of that project.

The base salary schedule for this position is based on internal equity and external market data.

We looked at Hennepin County, Ramsey County, Dakota County, St. Paul, State of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota for reference market points.

The salary schedule for 2024 ranges from $160,000 to $190,000.

In 2024, the annual cost of the base salary benefits and fringe for the seven managing attorneys is about $1.7 million, which represents about a $179,000 increase or 11.5% increase, and this assumes benefits and fringe are 35% of base salaries.

The incremental cost in 2024 is being paid for by the General Fund should the CAO budget savings be insufficient to cover the additional expenses.

This position meets the criteria of Section 2010-10.

So it reports to the City Attorney.

It's a member of the City Attorney's Executive Management Team.

It leads the development and implementation of city policy goals and strategic planning for the CAO.

It requires leadership, vision, team building, and strategy implementation, and it establishes policies, goals, and strategies that are consistent with the goals and priorities established by the mayor, the city council, and the city attorney.

Our request is that you find that the managing attorney meets the appointed criteria as defined in Section 2010-10 of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances and forward it on to City Council for approval.

The next position we're going to talk about is the managing attorney implementation.

Sorry, I forgot to advance the slides again.

This position is part of the City Attorney's Office again and oversees and manages the overall compliance and settlement agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the future consent decree with the federal government.

The managing attorney implementation has been evaluated at 685 points, grade 15, and again is part of the CAO evaluations and market pricing.

The Managing Attorney implementation position hasn't changed with respect to the 2010-10 criteria since it was last approved by Council in February of 2023.

The base salary schedule for this position is again based on internal equity and external market data.

Similar sources were used.

The 2024 schedule is $160,000 to again $190,000.

The 24 annualized costs of base salary benefits infringed for the managing attorney implementation is about $157,000 which represents a 25K or 10.7% increase.

The incremental cost in 2024 is again being paid by the general fund should the CAO budget savings be insufficient to cover the additional expenses.

Like the managing attorney, this reports to the city attorney.

It's a member of the city attorney's office executive management team.

It leads the development and implementation of city policies, goals, and strategic planning for the CAO.

It requires leadership, vision, team building, and strategy implementation, and establishes goals, policies, and strategies that are consistent with the goals and priorities established by the mayor, city council, and the city attorney.

Again, we're asking that you find that the managing attorney implementation meets the appointed criteria as defined in Section 2010-10 of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances and that you forward it on to City Council for approval.

Our last position in the CAO office is the Deputy City Attorney.

and again the deputy city attorney is part of the CAO's office and focuses on ensuring the highest level of service delivery to virtually every area in the city's legal services for the criminal and civil divisions.

The deputy city attorney position combines the previous deputy city attorney criminal and deputy city attorney civil so it'll be one position going forward.

The deputy city attorney is placed in the unclassified service through the city charter.

The deputy city attorney has been evaluated at 790 points at grade 17 and is part of, again, the CAO evaluation and market pricing project.

Again, the base salary schedule for this position is based on internal equity and external market data and adjusted to minimize compression with the salary schedule for the managing attorneys.

We use the similar survey sources for the external market data.

The 2024 schedule is between $177,000 to $210,000.

The annualized cost of the base salary benefits and fringe for the two deputy city attorneys is about $517,000 which represents a 9.5% increase.

and again the incremental cost in 2024 is being paid for by the general fund should the CAO budget savings be insufficient to cover the additional funds expenses.

Again, this position meets the criteria of 2010-10.

It reports to the city attorney.

It's a member of the city attorney's executive management team.

It leads the development and implementation of city policies and goals and strategic planning for the CAO.

It requires leadership, vision, team building, and strategy implementation.

And again, it establishes policies, goals, and strategies that are consistent with the goals and priorities established by the Mayor, City Council, and the City Attorney.

Okay, now we'll be joined by City Attorney Kristin Anderson.

Hey, Council Vice President Chagte and Council Members.

Just one correction that I wanted to make from Ms. Miller's presentation is that the managing attorneys actually report to the deputy city attorneys, not directly to me.

The managing attorney for the implementation group, however, does report directly to me and the two deputies report directly to me.

As Ms. Miller identified, none of these positions are actually new positions.

They went through a new sort of classification audit.

We did some combining so we don't have separate classifications for civil and for criminal.

So really making those classifications cleaner.

The 2010-10 factors are not any different than the positions already were and they were already placed in the unclassified service.

But this is really part of an office wide look at all of the attorneys and if you remember in my office

there are attorneys, there are labor and employment attorneys, there are managing attorneys, there are deputy attorneys, and then my position.

And this sort of the salary study all started the attorneys, the line attorneys are represented by AFSCME and in the last round of negotiations

they negotiated for both a classification study and a market study.

And through that study, we learned that really frankly, not surprisingly, the positions were underpaid relative to a lot of our other public sector jurisdictional compatriots.

We don't really look at the private sector so much.

It's really hard to find market data for the private sector.

They're not required to publish it.

But for public sector entities,

We were losing folks to other jurisdictions.

One manager left that position to go and make more in a neighboring jurisdiction as a line attorney.

So it was really, really helpful to do that market study, learn that the attorney's series was underpaid.

We made those adjustments, similar adjustments to the labor and employment attorney, and now then looking at the appointed positions because once you move the attorneys, then there becomes compression in the office between then the attorneys and the folks who manage and supervise them.

So we asked HR to take a look at the managers and the deputies.

Ultimately, they'll take a look at my position too, but that's not ready to go yet.

Excellent, thank you City Attorney.

I'll first note that we've been joined by council members Rainville and Chowdhury in this in this committee meeting.

I will also move approval of items one, two and three and ask if there's any discussion.

Thank you, Madam Vice President.

Council Vice President, Council President, just the classification, the roles still remain very different.

Mr. Bernstein oversees the Criminal Division, Mr. Nilsen.

oversees the Civil Division.

But we really are trying, just generally speaking in leadership, to really highlight the one office.

And part of merging those classifications is to recognize that we are one office, even though we've got different lines of business, we really come together as one office for the people of Minneapolis.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Council President.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Excuse me.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm happy to vote yes for this and I want to pass on my thanks to you and all your staff for their professionalism and their hard work as we rebuild our city.

I will echo that sentiment Councilmember Rainville, and I think it is shared by all of us here on the City Council any further discussion Seeing none on the motion to approve these three items all those in favor, please signify by saying aye aye those opposed say nay any abstentions

The ayes have it and that motion carries.

Next we have items four and five which are two new appointed positions in the City Auditor's Office.

The Director of Policy and Research and the Director of Oversight and Evaluation.

Again I will invite Ms. Miller from Human Resources to kick off our presentation and then she will then be joined by our City Auditor Ryan Patrick.

Thank you.

So the Director of Policy and Research is part of the City Auditor's Office and ensures policy analysis and research are conducted free from political influence or bias, allowing for impartial and evidence-based decision-making.

The new Policy and Research Director has been evaluated at 610 points and grade 13.

The salary schedule for 2024 ranges from $133,000 to $158,000.

In 2024, the annualized cost of the base salary benefits and fringe for this position at Step 1 is about $180,000.

This position is included in the 2024 budget.

Again, it meets the criteria of 2010-10 of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances.

It reports to the city auditor.

It's a member of the city auditor's executive management team.

It leads to the development and implementation of city policy, goals, and strategic planning for the city auditor's office.

It requires leadership, vision, team building, and strategy implementation.

It establishes policy, goals, and strategies that are consistent with the goals and priorities established by the mayor of the city council and the city auditor.

Again, we're asking that you find that the Director of Policy and Research meets the appointed criteria defined in Section 2010-10 of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances and forwarded on to City Council for approval.

The next position.

Again, the Director of Oversight and Evaluation is part of the City Auditor's Office and guarantees the oversight and evaluation projects are conducted free from political influence or bias, allowing for impartial and evidence-based decision-making.

The new Director of Oversight and Evaluation has been evaluated at 610 points, grade 13.

The 2024 schedule for the Director of Oversight and Evaluation is $133,000 to $158,000.

And in 2024, the annualized cost of base salary benefits and fringe for this position at step one is about $180,000.

This position is included in the 2024 budget.

Again, this position meets the criteria of Section 2010-10 of the Code of Ordinances.

It reports to the City Auditor.

It's a member of the City Auditor's Office Executive Management Team.

It leads the development and implementation of city policy goals and strategic planning for the City Auditor's Office.

It requires leadership, vision, team building, and strategy implementation and establishes policy goals and strategies that are consistent with the goals and priorities established by the Mayor, City Council, and the City Auditor.

Thank you for that presentation, Ms. Miller.

Good morning, Chair Chigtai, members of the Budget Committee.

These positions are listed in the ordinances that were passed under the new government structure, one creating the Policy and Research Division, the other creating the Oversight and Evaluation Division, both lists that a director will oversee the work in those divisions.

We, as you know, have been building out these programs over the last year.

and it will be extremely helpful to have some leadership who have direct responsibilities for continuing to build that capacity and growing those roles.

Excellent, thank you for that City Auditor.

I will move approval of items four and five and ask if there's any discussion.

Thank you Madam Vice President and thank you Mr. Patrick.

I'm really excited to see these today.

We've already seen some tremendous work coming out of the policy and research division of the auditor's office and I'm really excited to get oversight and evaluation up and running and strong and I know that this was a long time coming to get some of these structural elements in place so really appreciate this.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And I want to thank you for your patience in all this.

It's been quite a while since we had this vote and these firm division lines between the administration and the council.

The council needs your help and you've been providing that with limited resources.

So here's the start of us fully funding you.

Thank you, Council Member.

Any other discussion?

I just wanted to also say I'm very excited to support this.

I have seen our City Council operate through different government structures and moments where we really needed to see the Legislative Department have the support that it's needed to have

robust policy making tools that really at the end of the day are about impacting constituents in our communities to improve our city and really uplift their voices and create more transparency in different stops in the process where they feel like they can be a part of it.

And oversight and evaluation is just another tool that ensures a robust legislative department that makes sure that there's a place for us to say, hey, if there are certain things operationally,

going on in the city of Minneapolis that aren't giving us the outcomes that we really believe in around equity and inclusion and belonging in our city.

This is a place where we as a legislative team, as a city council with our auditors can really work on that to improve lives and so I just wanted to take a moment to put in the public record that

At the end of the day this is grounded in the everyday people of our community that we care so much about and about improving the lives of our city and entering into this next chapter of Minneapolis that's really coming back and redefining its identity.

Thank you Councilmember.

Any other discussion?

Colleagues, seeing no further discussion on the motion to approve items four and five, those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, say nay.

Any abstentions?

The ayes have it and that motion carries.

Next, we've got item six, which is the appointed position of director in the office

of the Office of Community Safety.

Again, I will invite Ms. Brenda Miller from the Human Resources Department to kick off that presentation.

She will then be joined by Commissioner Todd Barnett from the Office of Community Safety.

Thank you.

The Director of the Office of Community Safety, or OCS, Administration is responsible for the administrative function of the OCS, including the planning, organization, direction, and coordination of financial and workforce-related matters for the OCS and its departments.

The new Director OCS Administration job has been evaluated at 553 points, grade 12.

The 2024 schedule ranges from about $120,000 to $140,000.

At step one, the 2024 annualized cost for the base salary benefits and fringe for the Director of OCS Administration is about $162,000 and is in the 2024 budget.

Again, this position meets the criteria of Section 2010-10 of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances.

It reports to the community safety chief of staff.

It's a member of OCS's executive management team.

It leads the development and implementation of city policies, goals, and strategic planning for OCS.

It requires leadership, vision, team building, and strategy implementation.

and establishes policies, goals and strategies that are consistent with the goals and priorities established by the Mayor, City Council and the Community Safety Commissioner.

Thank you, Ms. Miller.

I'll now invite Commissioner Barnett

Thank you.

Good morning.

Excuse me, Chair, Chuck Tai, President Payne, and other council members.

This position

if it hasn't been stated, already exists with us, the director position of partnership and outreach is there.

This is really changing that to a director of administration.

And so why is that important?

That's important because we need someone who's looking at

our finances really strategically and proactively as we plan long term for the Office of Community Safety and its five departments.

Currently what happens at least in the brief time that I've been here is that

our departments really focus in on their current budget and the budget next year.

And we're not really looking at and being very strategic about our short term needs, mid term, and long term needs.

And that this position would proactively seek funding from the state level and the federal level.

Right now the way things happen a lot of times we either get an email or we find out by word of mouth of these revenue streams and this person would actively look for those.

This position as the Director of Administration basically will be responsible for the long term financial stability and the oversight in identifying revenue streams that would be assisting the Office of Community Safety and its other departments looking at informing us about our financial situation long term and informing us on making those appropriate decisions.

Thank you Thank You commissioner.

I'll move approval of item six.

Is there any discussion from council members?

Thank you, Chair Choctaw.

I just wanted to say thank you, Commissioner, for this reclassification.

Last term, there were just so many conversations around your new department and the staffing levels and what people were going to be doing in specific positions.

So I'm glad to see that your office has taken the time to reclassify this and really look at

how you can best use the staff you have.

In speaking with your staff, I understand that some of the work that was previously classified in this you're going to be taking on yourself, which is directly connected to community.

I've always felt like that is a big part of the work that you and some of your lead staff should be doing and there's always been questions around your budget, the finances, how things are being used and so I'm really happy to support you in this today because you've clearly taken the time to really look at the staff in your department and how you can best use them.

Thank you, Council Member Viton.

To just piggyback on what you said, what we've noticed is that a lot of the outreach and partnerships is already occurring with me, with Chief of Staff Jared Jeffries, with Amanda Harrington, and also with our Director of Communication JL McNamore.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Vice President.

So I will name, there are still a number of unresolved questions that I know we've raised in the AEO committee around, you know, how to make an informed decision relating to, you know, resources not only within OCS but also neighborhood safety.

specifically, and wanting to have some time to really make sure that this is the best use of resources.

We've had these conversations in AAL so much that on February 26th, that committee approved a legislative directive requesting an overview of current capacity challenges within NSD.

and I know that report back that you've been in conversations with my office about as well as other vice chair I know that's going to be coming back on March 11th so I would like to make a motion to postpone the consideration of this position to at least the next budget meeting on March 25th because then by then we will have had the presentation

in AO about challenges, use of resources to support NSD, and then we can use that information to make an informed decision regarding this position too.

The budget meeting on March 25th following the presentation in the Administration and Enterprise Oversight Committee.

Got a proper motion before us.

Madam Chair, can I just make one quick correction?

Yes, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk.

We have a proper motion before us.

Thank you Madam Chair.

I was in queue to thank you personally for all the great work you've done in such a short amount of time and the way you've organized your staff and the way you've outreached into the community.

So thank you very much.

I will not be voting for this motion to postpone.

It's just putting another hurdle in the front of our Commissioner.

and the work he's done in non-armed public safety in the Third Ward is phenomenal.

So I do not want to stop one second of one day of that effort and thanks again for all your help and I urge my colleagues let's just keep going forward relying on the expertise of our Commissioner to move our city into a new way of non-armed public safety.

Thank you Councilmember.

Thank you, Chair Choctaw.

I just wanted to get some clarity on the amendment because this isn't a budget decision or any type of allocation of funding.

This is just the use of an existing position at OCS.

So I guess I don't understand, Councilmember Wansley, what the two things have to do with each other and why we would need to delay this for

for the work that Councilmember Wonsley is doing.

Thank you for that question Councilmember Vita.

Sure, I just want to make sure Councilmember Vita, I'm capturing your question right.

So, you mentioned because the position that we're voting on is just a reclassification of a position, then that's not related to

anything else around neighborhood safety.

Do you want to address that clarification?

Yes.

So the the what we have before us today is a reclassification of an existing position in OCS.

Councilmember, my understanding of what you were doing with your legislative directive was specifically directed to a department within the entire Department of Neighborhood State.

I can't remember all the acronyms, I'm sorry.

But the larger department.

So what's before us today is about the larger department having financial support, having

You know, all the things that the Commissioner just brought up, his department needs support What Councilmember Wonsley asked for was about one particular department and some needs there and some clarity So, I'm urging my colleagues to not support this because 1.

It has nothing to do with what's before us today and 2.

We can do this today and she is 100% going to get

Sure, I didn't hear a question.

I did hear of direct, you know, comment, but what I will name in the legislative directive that I brought forward, which was related to the Neighborhood Safety, you know, Department within OCS.

was it asked for an overview of a fiscal analysis of current needs.

Because what has come about is we recognize that there are certain resources that might need to be allocated to NSD.

And right now, we're being asked to approve a position that it would be really good to know in light of that presentation on March 11,

is this the best use of the resources.

We know within our committees we have the ability to also reassess these positions.

We've done that before.

So it's not a matter of them not being related.

But I do know for sure we have this presentation on March 11th.

I mean the department head just told us what they need That's the goal of this and it's not

a new position.

It's a reclassification of an existing position.

And again, the department head just stood here, gave us a presentation, said what they need to make the department function in the way that they want it to.

And like, that's what I want to be supported.

Uh, piece of all the sorry attorney.

Mr. Nielsen, do you want to jump in here?

It's been stated already and it was stated several times by Brenda Miller, but just to reiterate for the committee that the charge of the committee is to determine whether it's appropriate to establish the position in the unclassified service.

That's the charge.

And so in making that determination of appropriateness, you're just looking at the criteria in 20.1010.

Thank you, Mr. Nielsen.

Do you want to continue, Council Member Vitale?

Okay, excellent.

Yes.

So, CAO Nielsen, thank you for providing that clarification.

So, as you mentioned, we have an appointed position in front of us, which again, we've seen these before in committee last year.

So, we're essentially being asked to approve the creation of this position.

The decision is to whether it's appropriate to establish in the unclassified service.

So again, I state that with full recognition of the committee's right and discretion to continue things really for any reason that you would like.

I mean, you have that ability.

Excellent.

We're gonna go back to our queue and if either of the council members have further questions you're welcome to get in get in queue.

Once I was confirmed in looking at our staffing, there were some positions that were open.

Those positions that were open at that time and that already exists was director of communication which I filled the beginning of December Other position that was open was director of design and implementation Which was filled I think I got that I think that one was filled in December but director of communication was filled in January and the last position

that had not been filled was this position of Director of Partnership and Outreach.

And so as being here and seeing all the work that was being done, there is a lot of outreach being done, there's a lot of partnerships being done.

I'm probably

more external partnerships and outreach.

You can look at our Chief of Staff is probably more internal with partnerships and outreach.

And then you look at Director

Amanda Harrington, which I think is a little bit of both again Outreach and partnerships that are being done internally and externally And so when I looked at that These things are being done.

It will continue to be done the one gap that I felt was missing was a real Strategic Financial Proactive

um view of our finances and budgets and how do we get grants how about all the contracts we have one of the things I learned being here is that their contracts that in my view you know it's like okay why is the lead contract

in the City Attorney's Office and not under neighborhood safety or why is there a contract in police that looks more like it should be under neighborhood safety.

So looking at all these things and talking to all the department heads, they really seem to be more focused on their current budget

next year's budget and making sure that's okay and no long-term strategic planning for their departments looking at how we can continue to sustain the work that the mayor and the council have tasked me with when you look at community safety and the initiatives in looking at what's being asked to do with

this community service ecosystem of services, just really looking and making sure that financially we have some oversight, some accountability, that we have compliance.

So that's, this position is really about is that long term view and making sure that not only can the Office of Community Safety

be in a good place, but also that all five departments can be in a good place.

I guess one example that I would give you is we are looking right now at the wellness for our police officers, and that was in the settlement agreement, and so as we're looking at their facilities and things like that, that's just one department of the five, but

Someone like this could say, okay, we have contracts for wellness for our other first responders like fire and 911.

Maybe we can have one contract that really covers all of them and have that view of that cost saving that it could bring.

Not just looking at just that focus in one place, but how can we maximize or leverage all of these contracts that we have?

Yes, that's really helpful.

I have just a follow up to that.

So with the reclassification of this role, what is like the, I guess, the human resources next steps to hiring this position?

Excuse me.

We already have basically everything written up to post if we need to.

There has been some folks in my mind within the enterprise and outside the enterprise that might be good candidates for these positions.

As soon as HR can approve us posting and everything, it shouldn't take long.

Thank you so much, Commissioner Burnett.

That's all the questions that I have for you, so I appreciate that.

Since we do have a motion to amend or postpone on the table, I did want to just ask the author of that amendment a question with the legislative directive.

What are the pieces of information that are expected to come forward?

Councilmember Wonsley, Councilmember Chaudry has asked a question to you directly.

Sure, thank you Councilmember Chaudry.

So basically the questions that are raised in the legislative directive there is about five points.

Basically, the first one is around, you know, overview of current staffing challenges and capacity challenges within NSD, and then the fiscal analysis of any budget needs.

And this is actually where, when it's my time to get in queue, I would like to get some further clarification on this piece based off of a budget presentation we received in August

Sorry, October 13th from the former commissioner at that point around maybe money was moved from NSD to fund several positions in OCS.

So that's also a piece of like, okay, coming out of last year's budget, NSD's budget needs, was there any appropriations moved over to OCS too?

Okay, thank you so much Chair Chugchi and Councilmember Wonsley.

I don't think I have any follow-ups.

I appreciate the answers.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

So I understand legislative directive is coming forward, but I was just wondering maybe high level if you could describe the difference between this directive of administration role and we had been talking about this potential deputy role in the Office of Neighborhood Safety.

Is the deputy role for neighborhood safety, if that would be to be funded this year?

Thank you, Chair Chuktai, Vice Chair Koski.

Maybe this background will be helpful.

When you look at police, and most of you will remember Robin, I don't remember her last name who was

like the budget person for police, right?

And fire has a person, 911 has a person that's responsible for the budget and what they do in their operations and emergency management.

So the position that you're talking about, I think it's a deputy of finance in neighborhood safety would help them with their operation, their budget,

specifically, that would be that person's view, just like the rest of the departments have their view.

A director of administration with OCS, like I was saying earlier, has a higher level view of what's going on and long-term planning for all of these departments and bringing them together.

One thing that might be helpful,

is that Director Nelson Brown and I have had a lot of discussions.

She is in the process of redoing her org chart.

She is looking at her staffing needs and should be making a request here in a month or so.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Yes, I think, you know, where the conflict, or at least where I see the conflict, is that we approved last year this original role, and when we approved that, we approved you moving money out of the Neighborhood Safety Department in order to fill those roles.

I think where the conflict lies is that we are now hearing a lot of information about how we moved funding out of that department but the reality is they need that in order to fulfill some of these rules and so I am grateful to hear that the org chart is underway and that there are going to be requests I am supportive of the legislative directive that's coming forward so that we have a really robust understanding I personally feel that these are two roles

that need to happen.

Thank you Vice Chair Koski.

Now I see a couple of new council members that have added themselves into queue under the main motion so I'm going to just ask for a quick clarification.

I know Vice Chair Koski just spoke but I see Councilmember Wonsley, Councilmember Cashman and then Councilmember Chavez in queue under the main motion.

Excellent.

Thank you, Council Vice President.

Actually Councilmember Koski really hit it on the head in terms of the, you know, conflict of information based off of actions taken last

budget cycle in regards to NSD and how dollars were also moved to OCS.

So I will name this predates you and your tenure with OCS.

In light of that, if this is a separate position and there is going to be another deputy finance position being allocated to neighborhood safety, and I will name that currently was not reflected in the presentation we received from

the prior OCS commissioner last year.

So I think that's the conflict that's trying to be reconciled.

So with that, I'm completely fine with withdrawing my delay motion.

I did have some clarifying questions, at least on the main motion then.

Can I proceed with that?

Okay.

So in light of the budget presentation we got on October 13th and kind of just a status update on the org chart of OCS,

Can you share just like where we're at in terms of current FTEs and vacancies?

I know we appropriated funding for 12 for OCS last year and then at that point there was about four vacancies.

Chair Chuktai, Council Member Wansley, I was not I didn't come here with that information.

I don't know it off the top of my head I would have to go back and see I know that this position is open right now.

I think that We might have

one or two other temporary positions because of the budget.

Some money was moved out of OCS and then with one-time money backfill.

So there might be one or two temporary spots there.

This position's not filled.

Those are the only three that I know off the top of my head.

Awesome, and then I know and again the conflict around some of the money that was moved out of NSD was to go towards you mentioned Amanda Harrington's position there was supposed to be two project coordinators funded FTEs under her position.

Commissioner, I'm so sorry to interrupt commissioner and council member.

I'm gonna interrupt here and I'll ask the clerk's Can you please note that we have an administrative follow-up on on this question here.

I was just gonna say that I think there's a position there but we're being very deliberate about how we're going about filling these positions

and so I think that's how you see or you've seen Ms. Harrington come on in December.

You've seen a director of communications come in January.

Amanda I think hired her senior project manager maybe about two or three weeks ago.

I mean so just trying to be deliberate about what we need in the roles that people are playing and what they can actually deliver.

So

I would have to get back to you.

I believe that there is that position open.

I just, from the top of my head, I can't remember what positions were actually FTEs were moved out and where we backfill.

Right, no, I meant last year.

Oh, last year.

I thought you meant were we going to ask for any this year?

Right.

I'm sorry.

No problem.

That's all.

Excellent.

Thank you very much, Commissioner and Councilmember.

I'll also note that we have in a couple months coming up here in the Budget Committee a biennial report on vacancies, so we'll have more information from not just the Office of Community Safety but enterprise-wide around vacancies.

So I understand that Councilmember Wansley has withdrawn her motion to postpone this item, but I know that we've got Councilmembers Cashman and Chavez in queue.

Would you like to go ahead?

Thank you, Chair Chogti.

Thanks, Commissioner, for being here.

Of course, I'm going to support, obviously, this position.

At a high level, yes.

Like I said earlier, I really do believe that the five departments in Neighborhood Safety of course stands out in this regard with the number of contracts they have there compared to the other departments.

Their focus is just really on their current budget and what's going to happen next year and this person really gives that

No.

Other than maybe the result of a contract and how that fits into someone's budget but they wouldn't be directly involved with negotiation.

Okay, thanks.

Thank you.

I'll note before going to Councilmember Chavez who's last in queue that we've been joined by Councilmember Jenkins.

Chair Chuck Tai, thank you so much.

I just want to add a few clarifications and some information that the Commissioner added on why LEAD is in the CAO's office instead of OCS.

For the public to know, OCS, the COO, Commissioner Barnett sent a memo to the City Council on November 29, 2023 that the LEAD amendment should go to the CAO's office instead of OCS.

No, but I made that, I'm sorry.

Chair Choctaw, Council Member Chavez, I use that as just an example.

That contract had been with the City Attorney's Office before I even got here.

The fact that it's there or remains there has to do with the capacity of neighborhood safety.

It would be great

if all contracts related to neighborhood safety could be there, but they're not.

So hopefully that answers that or gives you some follow up there.

Thank you.

I was just adding clarification to that for the public to know.

I worked on that budget amendment, so I wanted the public to understand that my office did put it in NSD at first and was told to move it to the CAO's office.

Excellent.

Seeing no further discussion on this item, the motion before us for clarification is approval of item six.

On the motion to approve, all those in favor please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions?

The ayes have it and that item carries.

Thank you for your time and your thorough answers, Commissioner.

We've got the administrative follow-up that will be sent to your office later today and we'll go back now to item number seven which is the last item on our agenda.

Thank you for your time, Commissioner.

Item number seven is the Director of Climate Equity Action in the Health Department.

We will welcome back Ms. Brenda Miller from Human Resources and she will be joined by Deputy Health Commissioner Patrick Hanlon to supplement this presentation.

Thank you.

The Director of Climate Equity Action is responsible for leading and coordinating an enterprise-wide approach to climate change.

The new Director of Climate Equity Action job has been evaluated at 575 points and is grade 12.

If you would just want to move to the next slide in this presentation.

The 2024 schedule is as follows.

It's about $125,000 up to $148,000.

At step one, the 2024 annualized cost of base salary benefits and fringe for the director climate equity action is about $169,000.

The cost is being paid by the general fund of the new climate legacy initiative.

This position meets the criteria of Section 2010-10 of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances.

It reports to the Deputy Health Commissioner of Sustainability and Healthy Homes.

It's a member of the Health Department's Executive Management Team.

It leads the development and implementation of city policy goals and strategic planning for the Health Department.

It requires leadership, vision, team building, and strategy implementation, and finally establishes policies, goals, and strategies that are consistent with the goals and priorities established by the Mayor, City Council, and the Health Commissioner.

We're asking that you find that the Director of Climate Equity Action meets the appointed criteria as defined in section 2010-10 of the Minneapolis Code of Ordinances and that you forward it on to Council for final approval.

Thank you very much, Ms. Miller.

Chair Chugtai, Vice Chair Koski, Council members, my name's Patrick Hanlon, I'm the Deputy Commissioner of Sustainability, Healthy Homes, and Environment.

This position, the Director of Climate Equity Action, is part of a large initiative last year that started with passing our climate equity plan that came before council that really sets aspirational science-based targets for us to hit net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

This position was part of a council approved budget as was mentioned.

The climate legacy initiative is the first phase of implementing that climate equity plan which was a 10 million dollar investment in climate action here in Minneapolis which is probably more than three times larger of a budget than we had been applying to climate action previously.

That being said this first phase is creating a lot of new positions and programs So it's not just the dollar amount, but it's a lot of process in creating all of these new programs That includes green careers workforce with CPED weatherization that has an equity focused including working on a block by block pilot across the city that will be starting this year and

large greenhouse gas emission reduction projects with large businesses, portfolios of buildings, resources for small businesses as well, carbon sequestration, tree planting, and then of course with all of this goes administration.

There's around 10 positions that were funded through this climate legacy initiative.

In this position, as mentioned, we'll be leading a team working on policy outreach and coordination.

I'd be working with department leadership so that we can act as a combined enterprise as we address climate change Looking at our climate equity plan goals.

There'll be data tracking.

So working with other folks with performance and evaluation and then working with the existing community advisory groups with the community to get feedback on the programming that that we create this year and

um this is not not only uh with the investments that the city has made but there's incredible opportunities with the inflation reduction act dollars that are coming out in fact with the city right now and hopefully will be coming before council when this gets finalized but we're a lead cohort

on a $10 to $15 million request working on residential weatherization and decarbonization.

So really in need of a position like this that can help us have an enterprise-wide approach at a leadership level.

And as we look across other agencies that are hiring in these positions, both public and private, if you look at sustainability ESG positions, to have a position that is competitive so that the city of Minneapolis could be competitive

Thank you, Deputy Commissioner and Ms. Miller, for your presentation.

I will start by moving approval of item number seven.

Is there any discussion, colleagues?

Deputy Commissioner, or as I prefer to call you, Mayor Hanlon.

It's so good to see you again.

Thank you for bringing this forward.

Great expectations from the members of Ward 3, the citizens of Ward 3, about the weatherization program.

So I look forward to working with you and your future staff to really get that going quickly.

Thank you Councilmember and Mayor Hanlon.

Thank you, Madam Vice President.

Yeah, I just want to echo Councilmember Rainville.

We're just really grateful that this work is getting going and I mean, we're so aligned on this.

Any final discussion?

Seeing none, on the motion to approve this item all those in favor please say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions?

The ayes have it and that item carries.

Thank you all.