Budget Committee September 13, 2024   9/13/2024

Discussion

• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:00:23
    Good morning.
  • 00:00:23
    My name is Ayesha Chuktai and I'm the chair of the Budget Committee.
  • 00:00:26
    I'm going to call to order our adjourned committee meeting for Friday, September 13, 2024.
  • 00:00:32
    Before we begin, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater participation.
  • 00:00:42
    These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community.
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    Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast.
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    We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.
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    At this time, I'll ask the Clerk to call the roll so we can verify the presence of a quorum.
• • SPEAKER_07
  • 00:01:09
    Council Member Payne Present Lonsley Present Rainville is absent Vito Present Allison is absent Osmond is absent Cashman Present Jenkins Present Chavez Present Chaudhry is absent Palmisano Present Vice Chair Koski is absent
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:01:37
    Let the record reflect that we have a quorum.
  • 00:01:44
    I also want to remind colleagues that we're going to be using speaker management today, so please make sure you sign in.
  • 00:01:51
    Today we have three more presentations related to the mayor's recommended 2025-2026 budget.
  • 00:01:58
    We have the 311 service center, information technology and the technology improvement plan.
  • 00:02:05
    We will start with the 311 service center and I'll invite the director to come up and begin her presentation.
  • 00:02:25
    As you're getting ready to begin your presentation, I'll note that we've been joined by Councilmember Chowdhury in this committee meeting.
• • Mwende Nzimbi
  • 00:02:36
    Good morning Chair Shiktai and members of the Budget Committee.
  • 00:02:39
    My name is Mwenden Zimbi and I am the 311 Service Center Director.
  • 00:02:45
    Today I'm here to present the Mayor's recommended 2025-2026 budget for the 311 Service Center Department.
  • 00:02:54
    I'm proud to share that our department has made significant strides and we're now on a promising trajectory towards greater effectiveness and efficiency.
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    Our new mission is to build a stronger community one interaction at a time by providing seamless service that connects both internal and external customers.
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    This allows us to address daily issues more efficiently and ensure that residents get the information and services they need from the city.
  • 00:03:28
    Before you is the organization structure for our department which is new as of April last year when 311 and servicing emerged.
  • 00:03:37
    We have a total of 43 staff.
  • 00:03:40
    With a new organization structure we created a new level of leadership comprising of the operations manager who oversees and coordinates the daily operations and activities
  • 00:03:52
    of the 311 Call Center and Service Center and the Support Services Manager who oversees our training program, systems and technology work, quality assurance program, data analysis and reporting, as well as constituent and customer service delivery work.
  • 00:04:11
    I will note that the mayor's recommended budget includes funding to reclassify the existing manager of operations position to a new deputy director position and this is reflected on the org chart.
  • 00:04:28
    This is our program and staffing summary.
  • 00:04:30
    We currently have no vacant positions.
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    We are requesting an additional two FTEs in 2025 and 2026, which I will touch on in a little bit under the new budget requests.
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    The change in dollar thresholds from 2024 to 2025 seen here also includes reclassifying the operations manager position.
  • 00:04:53
    Non-personnel costs have remained flat.
  • 00:04:59
    311 Service Center has three main priority objectives.
  • 00:05:03
    First is to enhance public service.
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    Our goal is simple, to be the go-to for fast, accurate information.
  • 00:05:11
    Whether it's a resident wondering about trash pickup or an event permit,
  • 00:05:18
    We aim to provide clear answers quickly and reliably.
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    By doing this, we contribute to the city's goal of transparency and ensure that every interaction leaves people feeling confident in the services we offer.
  • 00:05:32
    Our second priority is to support city operations.
  • 00:05:37
    We work with various departments and external partners to ensure everyone is aligned and informed.
  • 00:05:43
    It's about making sure the right information is shared at the right time so the city keeps running smoothly and everyone's efforts contribute to the bigger picture.
  • 00:05:54
    Our third priority objective is to promote public safety.
  • 00:05:59
    While we are not first responders, we play a critical role in keeping the community safe.
  • 00:06:05
    We handle non-emergency services, whether it is reporting a pothole, flagging streetlight outages, icy sidewalks, or filing a police report.
  • 00:06:16
    This helps free up emergency services for what matters most, contributing to a safer, more responsive Minneapolis.
  • 00:06:25
    I will start by saying that you will hear more about the goals of the new CRM, the Technology Improvement Plan or TIP presentation later today.
  • 00:06:35
    The purpose of this slide is to provide context for the planning already underway.
  • 00:06:41
    A current 311 CRM called LAGAN, which has been in use since 311 was established in 2006, is outdated, hardly meets enterprise needs, and struggles to keep pace with modern expectations of efficiency and user experience.
  • 00:06:59
    This has impacted our ability to deliver prompt, effective service and adapt to evolving needs.
  • 00:07:06
    As such, replacing Legan with a modern CRM system is essential for improving service delivery.
  • 00:07:15
    Here are some key actions and upcoming steps.
  • 00:07:18
    A project team comprising of IT and 311 staff was identified in the first quarter of this year and we kicked off the project.
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    In Q1 and Q2 of this year meetings were conducted with who would want to review system requirements.
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    The project team has actively engaged with city departments to understand their challenges with the ligand system and their needs for a new CRM solution.
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    Additionally, we have consulted with directors from REIB, PMI and NCR, as well as constituent services staff from the City Council Office and the Mayor's Office.
  • 00:07:58
    In addition to the internal feedback, we will incorporate residents' input to the new system.
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    As one resident highlighted in an email to me a couple weeks ago, and I quote, We need to rethink our new system with a laser focus on constituent service
  • 00:08:15
    not just efficiency.
  • 00:08:18
    To this end, we will be reaching out to residents in October to gather input and ensure the new system is designed to meet their needs efficiently.
  • 00:08:28
    The RFP will be finalized in Q4 of 2024 and posted in Q1 of 2025.
  • 00:08:37
    Here are some management decisions we made to maximize our budget.
  • 00:08:42
    Over the past year we have conducted a thorough needs assessment and took an FTE neutral approach to evaluate and realign existing roles.
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    This ensured that our staff effectively supports both 311 and Service Center while optimizing our budget.
  • 00:09:01
    Secondly, due to the prohibitive nature of ligand licenses that uses a cost-by-license model at a steep cost of $1,800 per license per year, we have implemented a regular review process to ensure licenses are being used efficiently by reassessing and relocating to areas and departments with increased service requests.
  • 00:09:30
    Thanks to the efforts of our IT team, including CIO Cameron and Director Roth, we successfully negotiated a 30% reduction in our Interactive Voice Response System or IVR costs.
  • 00:09:46
    We continue to explore additional saving opportunities and are considering a couple other options in Q1 of 2025.
  • 00:09:55
    With this savings and lower spending in other areas, we are relocating funds to cover increased expenditures.
  • 00:10:03
    One of these areas where we are seeing an increase in costs is in translation services.
  • 00:10:09
    As part of our needs assessment, we realized that there was a need to do more outreach to create awareness of 311 and service center services, educate the public on 311 processes, and build trust, especially to communities of color and non-English speakers.
  • 00:10:29
    In the last year, we have participated in city and community events, cultural radio shows, podcasts, updated and translated our promotional materials, and leveraged our IVR system.
  • 00:10:43
    As a result, our translation costs increased from the budgeted $5,000 in 2023 to an actual spend of $25,000.
  • 00:10:53
    And we are expecting to spend $35,000 in 2024.
  • 00:10:58
    We have relocated $30,000 for 2025 to meet these ongoing needs.
  • 00:11:04
    The other area is in overtime costs.
  • 00:11:07
    Last summer, we piloted Extending 311 Operation Hours for Pride, Taylor Swift Weekend, and the Taste of Minnesota.
  • 00:11:15
    It was such a success that we did it again this year for the Pride Weekend, the Gymnastics Olympic Trials, and the Taste of Minnesota.
  • 00:11:23
    In 2023, 311 budgeted $9,500 while actual expenditures came to $25,000.
  • 00:11:30
    In 2024, we're expecting to spend $15,000 and so we have relocated $15,000 in 2025 to cover additional anticipated costs.
  • 00:11:43
    Moving on to achievements.
  • 00:11:45
    Our greatest achievement in 2023 was the merger of the 311 call center and the service center.
  • 00:11:52
    In September 2023, 311 was fully staffed for the first time since 2020.
  • 00:11:59
    Our department
  • 00:12:00
    is one which has experienced high turnover rates in the past.
  • 00:12:04
    And I'm happy to say that this year we have seen increased staffing stability with a turnover rate of 2.3 as of August this year, which is a significant improvement from 16% in 2023 and 47% in 2022.
  • 00:12:21
    For the first time since the 311 call center opened in 2006, we held a full staff meeting in December of 2023, and this event allowed us to collectively inform and develop our strategic plan.
  • 00:12:37
    In August of 2023, we implemented the 311 call routing system, which is the IVR, the interactive voice response system.
  • 00:12:47
    and in June of this year we piloted what we're calling 311 on the go and this is a multifaceted, proactive approach to bringing mobile services to outreach events.
  • 00:13:04
    This service allows 311 agents to enter service requests on residents' behalf, such as potholes and abandoned cars, as well as looking up information such as trash recycling collection schedules.
  • 00:13:21
    We are also partnering with the Office of Community Safety and expanding service delivery by providing support to the East Lake Street and South Minneapolis Community Safety Centers.
  • 00:13:34
    For East Lake Street, we have hired two customer service representatives who started training this week.
  • 00:13:41
    We also partnered with Metro Transit to provide access to their Transit Assistance Program, or TAP, at their service center, enabling customers to use Metro Transit bus or light rail for just a dollar per ride.
  • 00:13:55
    Also in collaboration with IT, Property Services, CPED, the City Clerk's Office and MPD, we piloted external facing smart lockers.
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    These lockers offer secure and flexible methods for delivering documents, especially those of a sensitive nature.
  • 00:14:13
    Service center staff assists customers with these lockers.
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    And lastly, service center staff are now trained and able to provide in-person assistance for data requests.
  • 00:14:27
    And now we move on to risks.
  • 00:14:29
    As noted earlier, our 311 system is outdated and does not meet enterprise needs.
  • 00:14:35
    It also utilizes a cost per license model which is prohibitive and cumbersome to use.
  • 00:14:42
    We threw on services in high demand across our enterprise.
  • 00:14:47
    It necessitates a continuous evaluation of our staff's capacity to ensure effective support.
  • 00:14:52
    To manage this growth, we will regularly assess staffing levels just as necessary to align with service demands.
  • 00:15:00
    This proactive approach will help maintain high service quality and operational efficiency.
  • 00:15:06
    Lastly, I spoke extensively about translation costs, which will continue to rise as our services become more accessible.
  • 00:15:14
    I will mention that we will be intentional on bilingual hires for the next class of 311 agents.
  • 00:15:22
    Here are some lessons learned in the past year.
  • 00:15:25
    First, there's a need for a city-wide focused strategy for providing accurate, timely information to constituents.
  • 00:15:32
    Working with departments across the city
  • 00:15:34
    We are in a unique position to identify and quantify gaps in the delivery of customer service.
  • 00:15:42
    Our department will work with HR to develop an enterprise-wide customer service training that implements best practices and maintains quality service delivery expectations.
  • 00:15:56
    Next, and this has been very important to us because of the amazing progress we are seeing and because this was a huge pain point is that to improve responsiveness to 311 service requests, it is essential to collaborate with departments to refine service level agreements or SLAs and enhance communication across teams.
  • 00:16:22
    I cannot overemphasize this point about communication across teams.
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    This ongoing effort has ensured that SLAs are realistic, they meet service expectations
  • 00:16:37
    and result in prompt case resolution.
  • 00:16:40
    By continuously reviewing and optimizing these processes, we are streamlining operations and reducing response times.
  • 00:16:48
    We're also looking ahead to connecting with United Way to explore the alignment of 211 with 311 service delivery in accordance with a safe and thriving communities report.
  • 00:17:01
    Our ongoing commitment to 3-1-1 and Service United Services involves a continuous focus on improving accessibility to city services and information.
  • 00:17:10
    And lastly,
  • 00:17:14
    As we extend our services to the Community Safety Centers, this gives us an additional opportunity to position 311 Service Center as a vital connection between residents and non-emergency services, thus strengthening our commitment to creating safer communities and well-being.
  • 00:17:34
    Next, we will move to the program updates, data summary, and new budget proposals.
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    I will note that we are organized as a single program.
  • 00:17:44
    This slide shows Service Center data for all of 2023 and 2024 up until August 31st.
  • 00:17:52
    As you will see, Service Center continues to be a one-stop shop where in 2023 we served
  • 00:18:02
    About 17,600 people walked into the doors of the Service Center and were able to serve about 23,100 unique transactions.
  • 00:18:17
    So this shows that they were not just coming in for just one transaction, some of them were coming in for more than one transaction.
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    This slide shows through on one data for all of 2023 and 2024 up until August 31st.
  • 00:18:35
    And I'd like to point out a few things with this data.
  • 00:18:42
    In looking at the full year for the 2023, you will see the number of calls we received was 288,000, while the emails were about 50,000.
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    The calls and emails, those come directly to the call center so those are handled by the 311 agents.
  • 00:19:01
    and if these calls or emails are resulting in a service request, those are then entered in login for the departments to resolve and that is what you're seeing as 27% of the total calls and emails resulted in service requests which was about 93,000.
  • 00:19:20
    and then the self-service webpage, those are the service requests that were entered through our e-forms that are on our website.
  • 00:19:29
    Those go directly to the departments, those go directly to Lagan.
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    And the 311 mobile app cases, those also go directly to Lagan.
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    So the total of cases that went into Lagan were 131,400.
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    Now, there's a couple touch points here because the calls coming through our Openscape, the City phone system, emails are coming in through Outlook.
  • 00:19:58
    The self-service web page is through live e-forms on our website and then the app is also separate, a system that is also separate.
  • 00:20:12
    So all of these are coming separately.
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    With a new CRM, we'll be looking at
  • 00:20:20
    an external portal because we know these products are out there where an end to end system where the residents can go in to our website and be able to enter service requests and they'll get a case right there and then they'll be able to track those cases
  • 00:20:42
    on that external portal.
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    So it will eliminate all this where we're not going to have all these other systems in place.
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    We also know that these products out there, when emails are entered, service request is auto-generated from that email.
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    Right now, agents have to go in and read the emails, and it's a lot of emails as you can see.
  • 00:21:05
    and then enter the service requests.
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    Same thing where we have voicemails.
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    If voicemails are left, agents have to listen to them.
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    But we have products out there where service requests can be through voice recognition.
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    Service requests can be auto-generated from that.
  • 00:21:24
    And the other thing that I'll mention too is
  • 00:21:26
    for our live e-forms, those self-service web page, we also are limited in Lagan because we only have of the 238 case types that we have in Lagan, we only have 193.
  • 00:21:41
    case types on our web page and for the mobile app, we're not able to put all our 238 case types.
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    We only have 14 of them.
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    So that's a huge limitation for us and has the new, the need for a new CRM.
  • 00:22:01
    The next slide shows two things.
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    The first box shows Service Center interaction data as well as police record transactions from 2021 to August 2024.
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    It shows how many police records customers were served in person at the MPD counters.
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    So, for example, in 2023, which is the full year, you can see that the Service Center served a total of 23,100
  • 00:22:31
    and 16 transactions.
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    Of these transactions, about 6,100 of them were transactions for police records, which was about 27%.
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    The second box shows 311 data for police records from 2021 to August 31, 2024.
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    Police records can be filled out by the resident on the 311 webpage or a 311 agent can help the customer and file it for them.
  • 00:23:02
    I also want to point out that even when a resident files a report themselves on the public website, many times they will still triage with a 311 agent.
  • 00:23:13
    and for this one you can see that for the full year of 2023 a total of 16,738 police reports were filed.
  • 00:23:25
    Of those 4,277 were done by a 311 agent on the phone which represents 26% of the total reports.
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    Now these are just the total reports from the public website and
  • 00:23:39
    the 311 agent, they do not include reports that were filed at the police present.
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    Our recommended budget proposal is for two service center agents to provide support at the South mania police community safety center.
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    We are a one-stop shop
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    and we hope to bring this to this space.
  • 00:24:08
    Over the past three years, we have gained valuable insights into planning and implementing a successful service center.
  • 00:24:15
    Our experience in offering a one-stop shop for multiple services and simplifying processes has proven effective.
  • 00:24:23
    We're excited to bring this expertise and provide the same level of service.
  • 00:24:29
    When it comes to accessibility, the Service Center ensures that all residents, regardless of their access to technology, language, or physical ability, can connect with City services.
  • 00:24:40
    We offer multiple service channels like phone and in-person support for those without digital access.
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    We're also meeting 8-year requirements by providing accessible technology and physical accommodations, ensuring inclusivity for residents with disabilities.
  • 00:24:56
    Additionally,
  • 00:24:57
    We offer multilingual translation services through the NCR Master Contract.
  • 00:25:02
    Our goal is to create an accessible, equitable and inclusive experience for every resident.
  • 00:25:09
    Since we are an in-person operation, our focus is always on providing immediate solutions in real time to reduce the need for prolonged interactions.
  • 00:25:18
    To meet the need for subject matter experts, our amazing partners in IT developed an in-house solution for us where we can remote subject matter experts into the space through our virtual counters.
  • 00:25:33
    This has been a great success at the Service Center where we have four counters dedicated to this.
  • 00:25:39
    At the Community Safety Center, the face-to-face communication provided by our staff will be key to providing a personalized and empathetic approach, particularly when addressing sensitive or complex issues.
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    By engaging directly with residents, our staff will better understand their concerns and ensure that each interaction is handled with care and professionalism.
  • 00:26:03
    And lastly,
  • 00:26:05
    I believe that in-person interactions like the ones we have at the service center play a vital role in building trust and stronger relationships between residents and city staff.
  • 00:26:17
    These face-to-face interactions allow for open communication, transparency, and a deeper understanding of community concerns.
  • 00:26:30
    In closing,
  • 00:26:32
    I would be remiss if I did not recognize my incredible team's 311 and service center, whose work is often done behind the scenes but is vital to the daily operations of our city.
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    As you have heard today,
  • 00:26:47
    This dedicated professional serves as a first point of contact for seeking assistance, navigating services, or trying to resolve concerns.
  • 00:26:56
    They face the challenge of handling an endless variety of inquiries and issues often without receiving recognition or gratitude.
  • 00:27:04
    It is at times a thankless job.
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    They approach each day with remarkable patience, compassion, and professionalism.
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    They are the quiet strength of our city, serving as a bridge between the enterprise and the community.
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    Their work may not always make headlines, but their impact is felt in every corner of the city.
  • 00:27:32
    I want to thank you all for your continued support of this team.
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    And a big thank you to my 311 service and staff for the incredible work you do every day.
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    You have my deepest respect and gratitude.
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    Thank you for your time today and I will now stand for questions.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:27:52
    Thank you for your presentation, Director Nizembe.
  • 00:27:54
    We have some questions from the committee.
  • 00:27:58
    There are questions right now from Council Members Cashman, Council President Payne, and then Council Member Chaudry and Jenkins.
  • 00:28:05
    So we'll go through those and then after that, Vice Chair Koski did let us know that she would be absent today and then sent a list of questions for you that I'll direct to you.
  • 00:28:17
    Does that sound okay?
  • 00:28:18
    Wonderful, so I'll first start by recognizing Councilmember Cashman Thank you so much Chair Chugtai.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:28:26
    Thank you for the presentation director I also want to extend gratitude for you and your team for the work that you do.
  • 00:28:33
    I know it's not easy to process all of these requests and it sounds like you're receiving them in so many different ways and there's a lot of manual labor involved and
  • 00:28:43
    in this actual listening to voicemails and reading emails and creating the service requests out of it.
  • 00:28:50
    And I'm wondering if you did budget for this new CRM in 2025 and if you could just say a little bit about what that costs and also what then you expect it to help us save in the future too.
• • Mwende Nzimbi
  • 00:29:04
    Chair Shakti, Councilmember Cashman, that question is going to be answered in a later presentation, the TIP presentation that will be presented later today by CIO Cameron.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:29:18
    Okay, thank you.
  • 00:29:19
    Another question that I had was, you know, you have a request for two more FTEs.
  • 00:29:27
    I'm wondering what metrics you use to assess whether staff capacity is high enough to meet the demand of 311 services.
• • Mwende Nzimbi
  • 00:29:35
    Chair Shiktai, Council Member Cashman.
  • 00:29:38
    So the two new FTEs those are going those FTEs are for the South Minneapolis Community Safety Center.
  • 00:29:48
    So we are just preparing for that because we are seeing ourselves as being in that space to help
  • 00:29:58
    with Tria Jean and welcoming the people who are going to be in that space.
  • 00:30:03
    Right now we don't know a lot about how that is going to be, but to start we will at least need two people to be in that space and that's what we're going by.
  • 00:30:14
    So as we know more about the services that are going to be there,
  • 00:30:18
    And what else is going to be needed then we'll do an evaluation of what else we need but We are going out of knowing about what we do at the service center right now and
  • 00:30:31
    and the services that we will be bringing with us from the service center because if we are in that space, we'll be able to bring the other city services that we provide at the service center like utility billing or permits, construction permits.
  • 00:30:47
    So we'll be bringing all those services with us in that space.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:30:51
    Yeah, thanks.
  • 00:30:52
    I think my question was maybe a little bit more about your strategic plan or the metrics of success for your department in general across all staff in your department, but are you using metrics like average response time or average length of case closure or other metrics to assess whether your team has enough capacity?
• • Mwende Nzimbi
  • 00:31:15
    Yes, Councilmember Shugtai, Chair Shugtai, Councilmember Kashman, yes, we do have all those metrics that we are using to do evaluations on staffing.
  • 00:31:28
    We do have a lot of metrics and we can provide that.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:31:31
    Okay, where would I be able to see those metrics?
  • 00:31:34
    Is it already something that you shared with us maybe earlier this year or is it something else that we haven't seen?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:31:40
    I think the director can provide that in administrative follow-up and we can note that.
  • 00:31:45
    Clerks, please.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:31:47
    Thank you.
  • 00:31:48
    And then I wonder if the follow-up could also include some information about these SLAs with departments, the service level agreements.
  • 00:31:58
    How are you making sure they're realistic?
  • 00:32:01
    I know you used that word and I think it's
  • 00:32:04
    it's right that we create agreements that departments can actually fulfill and so that the expectations are reasonable and that we then are able to set that expectation with constituents as well so I'm wondering what some of those metrics again for the service level agreements are that help you assess you know realistically what what
  • 00:32:26
    What can reduce response times and resolutions from departments?
• • Mwende Nzimbi
  • 00:32:31
    Chair Shek, Councilmember Cashman, so those are the conversations that we've been having with departments as we've been looking at their response times and so we went through all of us we're going through we've gone through most of our scripts with departments
  • 00:32:48
    and we've been sitting down with them and looking at all of their SLAs and asking them, is this realistic?
  • 00:32:54
    Because one of the things that we realized was these SLAs had not been updated in a long time and the gap that was there was that it was not clear who was supposed to be the lead for this conversation.
  • 00:33:09
    We realized that departments thought that 311 would be in charge of determining what this SLA times was.
  • 00:33:16
    And then 311 on the other hand was saying that we are not the subject matter experts in determining how long it takes for Public Works to go and repair a porthole.
  • 00:33:28
    That information needs to be coming from Public Works.
  • 00:33:31
    So we have been having conversations with
  • 00:33:35
    departments on all these case types to say this is what we currently have.
  • 00:33:41
    This is what we've been, this is what has been in our system.
  • 00:33:45
    Let's say for example 20 days for this case type.
  • 00:33:48
    It has been like this for
  • 00:33:51
    five years.
  • 00:33:52
    These are the response times that we have been seeing in those six years.
  • 00:33:57
    If it has been varying or if it's been low, we are asking them, is this realistic?
  • 00:34:03
    Is this still working?
  • 00:34:05
    Does it need to be lower?
  • 00:34:08
    Does it need to be higher?
  • 00:34:09
    So we're letting the departments lead that and let us know what works for them because they are the subject matter experts.
  • 00:34:21
    and then having that conversation then for us we are tracking that and our goal, our plan is to constantly review that with them as we measure their response times moving forward.
  • 00:34:34
    So that is the approach that we are taking and that's why for us that communication across teams has been very key and helpful in working this whole thing about SLA and response times.
  • 00:34:49
    Okay, thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:34:52
    Wonderful, thank you.
  • 00:34:54
    Next I'll recognize Council President Payne.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 00:34:57
    Thank you Madam Vice President.
  • 00:34:59
    Thank you for the presentation.
  • 00:35:00
    My first question is, my understanding is 311 used to operate on weekends and I was curious if you remember that era or know what that delta would be as far as staff capacity to be able to fulfill a twenty, well not 24-7 but at least a seven day a week schedule.
• • Mwende Nzimbi
  • 00:35:22
    Chair Sugtaik, President Payne, I know that that was the case but that was a long time ago and I know that it was discontinued because of staff capacity but also because there was not a lot of calls coming in so it was not cost effective and that is why the 311 switched from that to Monday to Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 00:35:53
    Okay and then my next question is around the login serum and I'll probably end up asking this for IT but I think my big
  • 00:36:02
    My second point that I want to explore is here on Council we've implemented a new CRM, ADJER, which is completely separate and disconnected from Logon.
  • 00:36:12
    And I'm wondering if, at least in the roadmap as far as the priorities, is there any discussion around integrating the Council CRM with the new 311 CRM?
• • Mwende Nzimbi
  • 00:36:27
    Chair Sugtai, President Payne, that is a good question and something that we would consider, something that we would have conversation about, but I will also say that that is a good question to have maybe at the presentation later.
  • 00:36:42
    The one thing that I will note is that as part of streamlining our operation, we started
  • 00:36:50
    again emphasizing the point about communication across teams.
  • 00:36:55
    We started having bi-weekly meetings with around constituent services, my leadership team with the constituent services teams from the council, City Clerk's office, so with Mr. Farley and
  • 00:37:13
    Ms. Meyer and also from the mayor's office with Mr. Wallenhurst.
  • 00:37:20
    So we meet bi-weekly and these are some of the conversations we have around the new CRM and what other areas should we explore, what other systems do they have and maybe possibilities of interfacing or what
  • 00:37:37
    What other things should we leverage to make the processes more efficient?
  • 00:37:42
    So this is a conversation that we can bring to that team because they're part of this conversation around the new CRM.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 00:37:48
    Yeah, I'll definitely drill down more deeply for the IT presentation on this but I think the big picture is are we going to do this through a technology integration or are we going to do this through a workflow integration where we're talking about job architecture which I think would be
  • 00:38:05
    more in your camp than IT camp if we were to just say hey let's have this human to human interaction to make sure that we're not losing sight of all these various systems and I just think that we should just be really cognizant as we're thinking about budget implications around how we can integrate those workflows either through people or through technology and which one's gonna get better results for our constituents for the dollar so thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:38:29
    Thank you.
  • 00:38:30
    And then next I'll recognize Councilmember Chowdhury followed by Councilmember Jenkins and followed by Councilmember Palmesano.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 00:38:39
    Thank you Chair Chuktai and thank you so much Director Nizimbi for being here in your presentation.
  • 00:38:45
    I'm going to just start off with some comments and then go into a couple of questions.
  • 00:38:50
    First off, I want to just extend gratitude to you.
  • 00:38:53
    I know you were appointed fully into the role, not interim, in 2023 if I have that right.
  • 00:39:02
    and I just have appreciated watching you step into this role with such grace and brilliance and just a focus on getting to work and being action oriented and being a partner to many of us up here and I know your role is one that has touched all departments.
  • 00:39:19
    and be very nimble so thank you for that and then gratitude to the entire 311 team.
  • 00:39:27
    It has not been an easy handful of years and I even remember before the pandemic visiting 311 workers at the former third precinct when they were there and that's not an easy job and they're working really hard and they're also helping train up folks and make sure that
  • 00:39:44
    people are serviced so just wanted to say that and then I really appreciated your presentation kind of highlighting the innovations and the successes that are happening at 311 the TAP program that's really great to see the service center
  • 00:40:02
    311 on the go and then I also appreciated that you didn't shy away from highlighting Places that need improvement or could be better.
  • 00:40:11
    I really agree with you when we look at our mobile app Like how do we extend that beyond 14 case types?
  • 00:40:17
    That's feedback that I've heard from folks and that's something that I'd love to see especially since we have residents that are constantly on the go and if they're able to just pull up the app and Do the casework there?
  • 00:40:30
    That's always helpful
  • 00:40:32
    Also talking about the CRM system, it sounds like multiple of us are interested in what the future of that looks like and want to be supportive of you and the entire team expanding and improving services.
  • 00:40:45
    And agreed on the translation services, I think.
  • 00:40:49
    with the new arrivals into our community that has been noted by our Office of Immigrants and Refugee Affairs that translation services will continue to be a growing need in our
  • 00:41:05
    um diverse and inclusive city so just wanted to say thanks for all of that um a couple of my questions if you don't have the exact answer or need to like go back and uh maybe ask for them i'll just ask our clerk's team to help with administrative follow-up but
  • 00:41:23
    You mentioned some cost savings that you found and I kind of wanted to ask if you had like a figure around those cost savings that you were able to find.
  • 00:41:34
    I think you said 30% which also is a great accomplishment in current conditions.
• • Mwende Nzimbi
  • 00:41:41
    Yes, I can go back and give you the exact numbers, but it is around 30% around our interactive voice response system and IT was able to find a way for us to get those cost savings where, yeah, it's some technical stuff, but we've seen cost savings in our monthly
  • 00:42:11
    monthly expenses and I'll get the numbers for you.
  • 00:42:17
    Okay, thank you.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 00:42:17
    I appreciate it and then really cool to hear about the overtime hours that were kind of targeted to specific events.
  • 00:42:27
    Could you kind of share like how many overtime hours were there approximately for weekends or overtime hours if if overtime occurred outside of those busy event weekends over the last year or two years?
• • Mwende Nzimbi
  • 00:42:43
    Chair Shigatai, Council Member Chaudry, so for the extended operation hours we did It's usually a standard hours of operations so we're like on Fridays We extend instead of closing at 7 we extend the hours till 8 p.m And then we open on Sunday Saturday, and then we also open on Sunday so I think on Saturday we
  • 00:43:11
    Do you anticipate in the next year maybe trying to pilot more overtime hours and extensions of service depending on events or just need in our city?
  • 00:43:35
    What I plan on doing now that we've piloted this for two years is have a conversation with Director Hartney from 9-1-1 because when we extend our hours of operation a lot of support really goes to 9-1-1 where
  • 00:43:56
    The reason why we even started this pilot was because when we had major events like this and 311 was closed, our 311 center was closed, all the non-emergency calls would be going to 911.
  • 00:44:13
    So they would be dealing with the emergency calls and the non-emergency calls.
  • 00:44:16
    So she and I had a conversation and she let me know what the need was and so we decided to pilot it and open up so that we could help them out and free them from the non-emergency calls and so now because we have the data for the two years we're going to have a conversation to see and do a deep dive of the data to see where we're at, how many calls did we get, how many calls still went to them, where we're at and then kind of determine
  • 00:44:45
    what the next day is going to look like if we're going to adopt this as part of our operations moving forward or what it's going to look like.
  • 00:44:55
    But that is to be determined after we look at that data and have a conversation with 911.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 00:45:01
    Thank you and my last question I was astonished to see that 43 FTEs is doing this work in our city and I'm really proud to see two additional FTEs for the Lake Street Safety Center.
  • 00:45:16
    I think that's going to be a
  • 00:45:18
    And valuable a new resource that curious to know how our constituents respond to Do you have you been evaluating?
  • 00:45:28
    Maybe not this year this calendar year, but into the future calendar year the need to grow the total amount of 311 responders Yes, we have we have doing that.
• • Mwende Nzimbi
  • 00:45:41
    We have been doing that for
  • 00:45:43
    on many different fronts and looking at our numbers for staffing and also I did mention 311 on the go so that service as we're piloting it that's the other area we're also looking at staffing because what's happening is as much as it is a good opportunity for outreach and also bringing the services to the community in person where they don't have to call they can
  • 00:46:09
    We're doing outreach, but the residents can actually walk up to our residents and
  • 00:46:17
    Submit service requests right there where it's also an opportunity for our staff to get off the calls and do something different Be out in the community.
  • 00:46:28
    So we are essentially pulling stuff from the phones and we've started with two stuff So we're pulling stuff from the phones to go out in and provide this service.
  • 00:46:38
    So as we're piloting it and when we'll be Evaluating its success.
  • 00:46:43
    We're also considering then
  • 00:46:45
    this will need additional staffing for this.
  • 00:46:48
    Then we're also going to be considering once we are done with the requirements for the new CRM and we go out to RFP and select a product, we're going to look at what are the savings we'll get on staffing from the product that we'll get.
  • 00:47:04
    So there's a lot of things that we're going to be considering because as I mentioned if we get a product that our staff will not have to go and listen to emails or listen to voice calls or go in and read emails to create service requests it's doing it automatically then we're getting staff savings and so there's a lot of things that we're considering around staffing
  • 00:47:28
    and then we'll come up with a comprehensive request for additional FTEs.
  • 00:47:34
    So there's a lot of work underway.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 00:47:35
    Wonderful.
  • 00:47:36
    Well, great to see you director.
  • 00:47:38
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:47:40
    Thank you, and then next I'll recognize Councilmember Jenkins.
• • SPEAKER_01
  • 00:47:44
    Thank you Madam Chair and good morning Ms. Nzenbe.
  • 00:47:48
    I just wanted to thank you and your incredible staff for the work that you guys do each and every day as you said to keep our city moving and the ships running on time.
  • 00:48:02
    I had an opportunity to participate in your strategic planning and was just really impressed with the integration and the intentionality that you bring to the work and bringing everybody together to try to have folks on the same page and so I just wanted to acknowledge that and say thank you for your commitment and your work for the City of Minneapolis.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:48:33
    Thank you Councilmember.
  • 00:48:34
    And finally I'll recognize Councilmember Palmisano.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:48:39
    Thank you Director Nizimbi.
  • 00:48:42
    I really appreciate the approach that you highlighted earlier that you'd take an FTE neutral approach to evaluate current roles in the organization.
  • 00:48:52
    How long does it take to fully train a new 311 agent and will they be ready to go by next July when it's anticipated the South Minneapolis Community Safety Center will open?
• • Mwende Nzimbi
  • 00:49:06
    It takes long to train a 311 agent currently.
  • 00:49:17
    and that is a gap that we are working on.
  • 00:49:21
    We are looking at our 311 training.
  • 00:49:25
    There was a lot that was going on there.
  • 00:49:31
    But the thing that I want to mention is that for the South Minneapolis Community Safety Center, we are not going to be having a 311 agent there.
  • 00:49:39
    We're going to have a service center agent there.
  • 00:49:43
    And the service center agent training takes two months.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:49:46
    I see.
  • 00:49:47
    So that service center agent won't necessarily be taking other 311 calls if there's time between in-person interactions.
  • 00:49:55
    They'll just be there.
• • Mwende Nzimbi
  • 00:49:57
    No, the service center agents don't take calls at all because the priority is the person in front of them.
  • 00:50:03
    If a 311 agent is needed, then the plan is for us to have a phone line and they can call 311 and we'll have a 311 agent take that call.
  • 00:50:20
    We also have plans to probably have a 311 agent on site but behind the scenes they still be taking calls but if we have someone on site who needs 311 assistance they can either be remoted in through the virtual counters or step up to provide the service.
  • 00:50:43
    The people providing the service at these centers are going to be the service center agents for that
  • 00:50:50
    face to face interaction.
  • 00:50:52
    Those are going to be the primary.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:50:54
    That's helpful, and Madam Chair, that's different than my original understanding of how that was all going to be set up.
  • 00:51:00
    So that's very helpful to understand how we're going to run that community safety center.
  • 00:51:07
    You know, it wasn't that long ago that we had 311 available on the weekends.
  • 00:51:11
    I was here during it.
  • 00:51:13
    I think it was the last year of my first term.
  • 00:51:16
    It was Mayor Hodges that actually cut 311 on the weekends.
  • 00:51:20
    and I was in the room for a briefing about it.
  • 00:51:24
    The reasons at the time that 311 was being cut was because it was hard to maintain, it was hard to retain staff.
  • 00:51:33
    The call center type of job that 311 was had a lot of other opportunities out there where you didn't have to go on a rotation and work on weekends and it was seen as very
  • 00:51:45
    not preferable as a position.
  • 00:51:48
    So they were losing 311 agents.
  • 00:51:50
    There were people that really didn't want to work on Saturdays and Sundays and at the time, yes, the call center data showed that there were less calls on those days.
  • 00:52:02
    anyway.
  • 00:52:05
    But just to reflect and it might just be me but I think residents find these extended hours just sometimes to be incredibly confusing.
  • 00:52:14
    We only reach a small number of people with our messages when we do extend these call hours and I just
  • 00:52:23
    I will be curious to see the data when it comes in about what kind of call load these extended hours end up having because I'm not sure that they're necessarily worth it if we could instead extend even
  • 00:52:39
    15 minutes during normal times to help people with traditional workdays come home and maybe make a call that might be better.
  • 00:52:49
    So thank you and thank you for this presentation.
  • 00:52:51
    We all appreciate the difficulty of calls that our 311 team gets.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:53:00
    just as a thank you councilmember just as a follow-up to Councilmember Palmesano's question I appreciated hearing that one of the one of the reasons you extend hours do overtime hours on the weekends is when there are large-scale events in the city and it's it's
  • 00:53:18
    it's one of the driving factors behind that decision is the capacity need that 911 has when they have to both service emergency and non-emergency calls for service, right?
  • 00:53:34
    And that's something that they need some support with and you were approached by 911 or it started as a conversation between you and the director of the 911 Emergency Communications Center
  • 00:53:47
    to see how perhaps that can help alleviate some of the burden on the 911 call takers and dispatchers.
  • 00:53:55
    When can you help us understand when there's a on those weekends when you have extended hours or overtime hours?
  • 00:54:07
    due to a large scale event, is 911 very easily able to transfer calls that are non-emergent over to you or does the customer have to hang up and then call 311?
  • 00:54:20
    and the City Council.
  • 00:54:42
    Awesome, thank you.
  • 00:54:44
    I have a couple of questions here for you from Council Member Koski, so I'm going to run through those and then I believe that Council Member Chaudry has a couple more questions or comments for you.
  • 00:54:58
    Never mind.
  • 00:54:59
    We're all good.
  • 00:55:00
    So a couple of questions from Council Member Koski.
  • 00:55:06
    If you can just explain what factors are driving the 11.73% salary and wage increase in 3-1-1 from 2024 to 2025?
• • Mwende Nzimbi
  • 00:55:19
    I will look to budget analysts.
• • SPEAKER_06
  • 00:55:35
    Good morning, Chair Shugtai and to Vice Chair Koski's question.
  • 00:55:39
    My name is Justin Carlson.
  • 00:55:40
    I'm a principal budget and evaluation analyst in the Finance and Property Services Department and I support the 311 Service Center.
  • 00:55:46
    To the question about salary growth from 2024 to 2025 is just under 12% of an increase to the budget for salaries and that's largely driven over half of that increases the two new FTEs for the South Minneapolis Community Safety Center.
  • 00:55:59
    in addition to the reclassification of the manager of operations position to a deputy director and then the shift which is budget neutral from contractual services to personnel for the overtime costs.
  • 00:56:10
    If you took those three items out of the salary growth, their base growth is just 4% which is in line with expectations.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:56:17
    I'm not sure that you will need to answer this one.
  • 00:56:25
    I think perhaps Director Nisenbe will be the best person, but why don't you stick around just in case.
  • 00:56:33
    Can you tell us about the factors that are driving the increase in operating costs in 311 between 2024 and 2025?
  • 00:56:43
    And specifically, it's a pretty small chunk of your budget.
  • 00:56:48
    It's like $28,000 in 2024 and it increases up to $40,000 in 2025.
  • 00:56:56
    Now I think you may have addressed this on slide 7 when you were talking about the cost of translation services and how significant of an increase that was this year and your budget to actual this year so and perhaps you're adjusting for that but I'll let you speak to it.
• • Mwende Nzimbi
  • 00:57:14
    Yeah I think I did address that.
  • 00:57:16
    This other part is we're seeing an increase by 42% of
  • 00:57:23
    with about 12,000 driven by the reallocation of base budget to operating costs.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:57:30
    That's exactly the total amount, so that's perfect.
  • 00:57:33
    Thank you.
  • 00:57:35
    That's everything that
  • 00:57:39
    Council Member Kokoski had for you.
  • 00:57:41
    I will look again to see if colleagues, if the committee has any final questions before we thank you for your time and for your presentation every time you come to present before a committee of the council.
  • 00:57:56
    I mentioned this to you earlier this year when you were in front of the Administration Enterprise Oversight Committee, but it is the most extensive and thorough presentation that we receive, all backed up by data.
  • 00:58:07
    and anecdotes and your work is deeply appreciated and your team's work is deeply appreciated by this body.
  • 00:58:14
    Thank you.
  • 00:58:16
    Our next presentation today is going to be from Information Technology.
  • 00:58:27
    I'll now invite Paul Cameron, our Chief Information Officer, to begin that presentation.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 00:58:50
    Good morning, Chair Chugtai and members of the Budget Committee.
  • 00:58:55
    I'm Paul Cameron, the CIO for the City.
  • 00:58:57
    I'm here to present to you the Mayor's recommended 2025 budget for the IT department.
  • 00:59:03
    There is one new budget request included in this presentation, which overlaps with the Technology Improvement Plan, which I'll be discussing later.
  • 00:59:12
    IT was also part of the budget request presentation earlier this week on the settlement agreement.
  • 00:59:18
    That request includes additional FTEs which you will see reflected in this presentation.
  • 00:59:28
    So the IT department is comprised of eight divisions with 108 FTEs recommended in the 2025 budget.
  • 00:59:35
    We are currently operating with 12 vacancies and we are actively working to fill those positions.
  • 00:59:42
    On the org chart, you can see the breakdown of FTEs by divisions.
  • 00:59:46
    All the divisions report to me, and they are infrastructure, security services, project management office, enterprise resource planning, enterprise data and solutions, business services portfolio, customer support and relations, and vendor management and contract services.
  • 01:00:09
    We have three priority objectives.
  • 01:00:12
    The first is to maintain system health.
  • 01:00:15
    The city enterprise utilizes dozens of major business systems.
  • 01:00:20
    We partner with city departments to ensure that these applications are current, secure, stable, supportable, resilient, and meet the needs of the users.
  • 01:00:32
    The second priority objective is creating a secure computing environment.
  • 01:00:38
    The threats to city data and reputation are ever-present.
  • 01:00:41
    To protect against this, we strive to implement a robust framework of cybersecurity measures including firewalls, regular software patching, employee awareness training, access controls, and continuous monitoring.
  • 01:00:57
    The third priority objective is enterprise platform adoption.
  • 01:01:01
    We strive to ensure that the city staff can easily access tools and data to promote data-driven decision-making and trustworthy, transparent information sharing.
  • 01:01:13
    We continue to invest in the people, skills, and outreach related to our major platforms.
  • 01:01:22
    So I'd like to move on to the achievements and risks.
  • 01:01:25
    I'll highlight a few themes now and then provide additional details on these as I discuss the outcomes and the metrics of individual budget programs.
  • 01:01:35
    So data is a recurring theme.
  • 01:01:38
    This could be related to the settlement agreement, fostering a positive data culture, or helping with transparency efforts.
  • 01:01:46
    We're also pushing for automation where possible.
  • 01:01:50
    This could be some small task or an overarching goal of some of the larger projects underway.
  • 01:01:58
    We have multiple ongoing cyber security efforts.
  • 01:02:01
    and we also have the ongoing work to keep the hardware used by the city current as well as keep our software systems up to date.
  • 01:02:10
    We continue to try to work strategically.
  • 01:02:13
    I'd like to highlight the TIP process here as a really positive step in that direction.
  • 01:02:18
    I'm grateful for the partnership of CFO Dai and Director DeCenza in getting that program started this year.
  • 01:02:26
    One risk I want to highlight is around attracting and retaining talent.
  • 01:02:30
    Employees in the IT department are not limited to working in the public sector and our employees are in high demand across multiple industries.
  • 01:02:40
    To help address this, we are prioritizing internal growth opportunities for staff.
  • 01:02:45
    In addition, the Equity and Inclusion Board within IT has partnered with HR on local recruitment opportunities with a goal of having more BIPOC and women apply for jobs.
  • 01:02:56
    We also try to build a positive culture of belonging.
  • 01:03:00
    One example is earlier this summer we had a heritage potluck, which was a big hit with staff.
  • 01:03:07
    The other risk I want to highlight is around cyber security.
  • 01:03:10
    The threats in this space are continually evolving and we need to evolve with them.
  • 01:03:18
    We're seeing more sophisticated social engineering attacks that put our data and our reputation at risk.
  • 01:03:25
    I'll highlight some of the efforts that we have underway to address this in a few slides.
  • 01:03:36
    The Information Technology Department has a recommended 2025 budget of approximately $47.8 million.
  • 01:03:43
    Each color on the chart represents a program area in IT.
  • 01:03:47
    I will discuss each of the program areas in more detail in the coming slides.
  • 01:03:51
    I do want to note that the larger size of the workforce enablement services and infrastructure services programs reflect where we account for software, hardware, and managed services contracts.
  • 01:04:05
    The difference in the 2024 and 2025 budget is primarily driven by changes in one-time funding due to projects and software maintenance contracts.
  • 01:04:15
    There were no budget reductions for 2025.
  • 01:04:20
    Our recommended FTE level in 2025 is 108, and we currently have 12 vacancies.
  • 01:04:27
    This is a bit higher than we've had in previous years.
  • 01:04:31
    We've had a concerted effort on creating detail and promotional opportunities, 15 of those combined over the last year, which can cause positions to sit open a bit longer.
  • 01:04:43
    The majority of the open positions are in the active process of being filled with our partners in HR.
  • 01:04:49
    In other cases, we are looking at the shifting workload projects and the skills needed to support the enterprise and trying to be strategic about how we fill those positions.
  • 01:05:01
    I do have a breakdown of where those 12 positions sit today.
  • 01:05:04
    One of those positions is filled on an interim basis.
  • 01:05:09
    Two of them have signed offer letters and will be starting in the next month.
  • 01:05:14
    We are in the interview process on one position.
  • 01:05:18
    and then three of the positions are actively within the HRQ.
  • 01:05:22
    We have one position that is going through a JAQ process with HR and three positions are expected to be posted early in quarter four as we finalize some internal conversations.
  • 01:05:35
    We expect the last position to be filled in 2025 as the ERP project moves to implementation.
  • 01:05:47
    Next I'll go through each of the three program areas and I'd like to highlight some of the goals and accomplishments for those areas.
  • 01:05:56
    The Decision Support Services Program includes the Collaboration Services and the Enterprise Data and Solutions Division.
  • 01:06:04
    The goal for this program are to enable strategic decision-making across the city through the use of timely data, analytics, software platforms, and expertise.
  • 01:06:15
    to improve transparency and communication with the residents of Minneapolis to protect the privacy of residents and provide collaboration tools and support to city enterprise to enable innovative solutions.
  • 01:06:30
    These teams have been involved in a myriad of efforts, both large and small, to help the enterprise.
  • 01:06:36
    We continue to be heavily involved in the work related to the settlement agreement, helping on visualizations, project work, such as EIS, and strategic planning, such as the Public Safety Data Transformation Plan, which was part of the settlement agreement budget request that was earlier this week.
  • 01:06:55
    The data team has started a data collaborative.
  • 01:06:58
    They are building a community of data analysts throughout the enterprise with a goal of sharing knowledge and lifting that work inside departments.
  • 01:07:08
    We've continued to work on modernizing the census data by neighborhood dashboard and have held several workshops with departments on how they can utilize that data to gain insights in the makeup of the communities they are serving and to create a baseline to compare to as the departments begin to disaggregate their data.
  • 01:07:29
    We've worked with 911 to create a public-facing dashboard of CAD data.
  • 01:07:33
    The data behind that dashboard is now included in the City's Open Data Portal.
  • 01:07:38
    We've worked with Public Works on a traffic calming application.
  • 01:07:43
    In addition, this team has been at the center of a push to automate tasks within IT.
  • 01:07:48
    Thousands of individual tasks were automated over the past year across multiple business processes.
  • 01:07:54
    We continue to work with departments on their website.
  • 01:07:58
    13 departments have completed their migration of public website content.
  • 01:08:03
    This includes work to become ADA compliant.
  • 01:08:07
    And last we've worked to create 40 digital trainings across multiple departments.
  • 01:08:12
    These trainings were created to support onboarding new staff as well as to help train resources on new and existing technologies and how to best use them.
  • 01:08:27
    The Infrastructure Services Program includes the security services, customer support and relations, and infrastructure divisions.
  • 01:08:35
    The goals for this program are to enable a stable, secure, and responsive technology environment for the city
  • 01:08:43
    by providing the hardware, software, systems, computing devices, and support.
  • 01:08:49
    They also provide a friendly place for city employees to go for technology help.
  • 01:08:54
    The divisions in this program are at the core of how the IT department supports the enterprise.
  • 01:09:01
    For the metrics, data, outcomes, and accomplishments, I want to highlight a few things from these divisions.
  • 01:09:06
    Our security team has now operationalized our mobile device management program.
  • 01:09:12
    This includes city issued mobile phone and tablets as well as a variety of other devices.
  • 01:09:19
    We've continued to roll out multi-factor authentication across city applications and we've also had a stronger push towards training and education on phishing emails.
  • 01:09:29
    Enterprise results from simulated phishing campaigns will be tied to one of the outcomes of the IT department.
  • 01:09:36
    These first activities on the list contribute to an increased security posture to keep our systems and data safe.
  • 01:09:43
    We've also made improvements to our system monitoring, allowing for quicker response times when we detect issues.
  • 01:09:50
    We've replaced over 200 switches and wireless access points, 700 computers were refreshed, and over 10,000 incident tickets and service requests were resolved.
  • 01:10:02
    Over 700 short-term loaner computers were provided over the past year.
  • 01:10:08
    These computers are used for a variety of purposes, including HR new employee orientation, expanded services during elections, internship programs, and recurring training events.
  • 01:10:20
    I've also been a beneficiary of this program when I've forgotten my laptop bag at home.
  • 01:10:25
    1,450 computers were donated to PCs for People.
  • 01:10:31
    The computers are refurbished and provided for free or at low cost to underserved communities in Minneapolis with the goal of providing affordable computer access for all.
  • 01:10:46
    There is one budget request for this program, and this is related to the conference room modernization project.
  • 01:10:53
    This is part of a larger TIP request that I'll be presenting again during the TIP presentation.
  • 01:11:00
    This part of the one is just for the FTE.
  • 01:11:07
    Since the pandemic, the uses for conference rooms have changed.
  • 01:11:11
    Employees have higher expectations and a greater reliance on conference room technology to bring everyone together.
  • 01:11:18
    Today, we have a fractured landscape of technology and conference rooms with different experiences and support capabilities.
  • 01:11:25
    This leads to higher risk because of the increased complexity and multiple vendor support model that's in place.
  • 01:11:33
    To ensure equity for all departments, regardless of their location or department size, IT has adopted standardized technology
  • 01:11:41
    that is adaptable to room size and needs.
  • 01:11:43
    Rooms outfitted with this technology are consistently easy to use and make all types of meetings more efficient.
  • 01:11:51
    This portion of the request is for one FTE for the IT department.
  • 01:11:55
    This would include $121,246 from the General Fund in 2025.
  • 01:12:01
    The funding would shift to the IT Internal Service Fund in 2026 and onward.
  • 01:12:07
    This portion of the request is included here because FTE costs are not allowed within TIP.
  • 01:12:13
    This position will allow IT to support a wider rollout of conference space technology in a sustainable manner.
  • 01:12:24
    Moving on to the Workforce Enablement Services program area.
  • 01:12:29
    This program area includes the Project Management Office, Vendor Management, and Contract Services Division in the Business Services Portfolio.
  • 01:12:39
    The goals for this program are to provide administration, enhancements, and support for citywide applications, lead organizational improvements through strategic initiatives and project management, manage citywide enterprise contracts to realize savings and increase productivity, provide process and operational efficiencies to support the evolving needs of the city while upholding fiscal responsibility,
  • 01:13:07
    Moving on to the metrics, data, outcomes, and accomplishments.
  • 01:13:10
    The divisions in this area are responsible for maintaining a health score for major business systems.
  • 01:13:17
    This score helps us maintain a roadmap for major systems that takes into account the technology maturity, budget considerations, contract and procurement dependencies, as well as the functional capability.
  • 01:13:31
    We've initiated an IT project management office assessment with a goal of improving how we handle projects both inside the IT department as well as the rest of the enterprise We were heavily involved in the CAD 911 move to a new location inside City Hall These teams completed over 20 major new implementations and upgrades of software systems And they completed work on over 30 contracts and contract amendments year-to-date
  • 01:14:03
    We are partnering with HR, payroll and finance on the ERP transformation contract.
  • 01:14:09
    We negotiated a new IT managed services contract and we continue to refine our standardized RFP requirements and contract language to take into account the shifting technology landscape.
  • 01:14:27
    This slide provides a summary of the budget requests included in the presentation for reference.
  • 01:14:33
    The conference room modernization project was the only request.
  • 01:14:38
    So this will duplicate what was really on that previous slide as well.
  • 01:14:44
    With that, I want to thank you.
  • 01:14:47
    As I wrap up this presentation, I do want to acknowledge the dedication of the IT staff to keep the city operating.
  • 01:14:54
    They are passionate in their desire to make a positive impact on the enterprise and the community and I'm proud to be leading that team.
  • 01:15:02
    Thank you for your time today and I will now stand for questions.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:15:06
    Thank you for that presentation, Director.
  • 01:15:08
    Do members of the committee have questions or comments related to this presentation?
  • 01:15:16
    Council President Payne.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:15:18
    Thank you, Madam Vice President.
  • 01:15:20
    Yeah, I got a sneak peek of my question.
  • 01:15:23
    But I think I'll expand it probably like system-wide as a conversation around integration and how we have various systems talking to each other and I think there's kind of like
  • 01:15:35
    There's probably more than two buckets, but the buckets that my head is focused on right now is around, so we have our existing systems and infrastructure and there might be some technical constraints around integration.
  • 01:15:47
    There might be some budget constraints to integration.
  • 01:15:51
    But then there are new systems that we're bringing online so that one that comes to mind for me is
  • 01:15:57
    The City Council
  • 01:16:18
    In our conversations with vendors as we're considering either modernizing or upgrading, is there kind of like a universal view on how we might integrate that new platform into our existing system?
  • 01:16:32
    Are some of our systems so old that we ought not necessarily constrain our new systems to integrate with those old platforms but we should be
  • 01:16:40
    kind of future oriented on how we have a more integrated set of systems and then just maybe curiously wondering if we have a centralized data warehouse currently and how that might play into that integration conversation.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:16:58
    Chair Choctaw, Council President Payne, thank you for the question.
  • 01:17:02
    There's a lot there, so I will try to address some of the items that you brought up as best I can.
  • 01:17:10
    If you feel like I've missed something, please
  • 01:17:15
    Yes, we do have a centralized data repository that includes information from, I would say, the majority, if not all, of what I would term the major city business systems.
  • 01:17:34
    And I reference that list that we maintain.
  • 01:17:38
    I think we have a list of about 30.
  • 01:17:41
    Right now that data repository and sort of in a philosophically how we would approach integrations is in general to not try to integrate two systems together but to integrate them through that data repository.
  • 01:17:59
    so that if for instance we change one of the pieces of this, we are only changing the integrations to the data repository, not a whole bunch of different systems that they are talking to.
  • 01:18:16
    Those sort of corollary systems that it may be talking to through the analytics hub would hopefully be able to stay
  • 01:18:28
    in regards to
  • 01:18:48
    I would agree with you that the city has need of an enterprise policy management tool.
  • 01:18:55
    I remember that question that you had or that comment at one of the previous meetings.
  • 01:19:01
    I can't remember which one now.
  • 01:19:03
    I did a little bit of research around that.
  • 01:19:07
    What I found out is that MPD had a very, very immediate need related to the settlement agreement
  • 01:19:16
    that led them to really kind of look for a standalone solution.
  • 01:19:23
    We did pull the clerks and part of IT in.
  • 01:19:27
    From an IT perspective, we wanted to make sure that it met the technical requirements that we have for systems.
  • 01:19:33
    And then from a clerk's perspective, was this a tool that we could potentially leverage as an enterprise tool?
  • 01:19:41
    What we discovered is that the tool that MPD selected is fairly specialized for police almost getting more into procedures and standard operating procedures.
  • 01:19:56
    Could it be leveraged for the city enterprise?
  • 01:19:59
    Yes.
  • 01:20:00
    Is it the best tool for the city enterprise like that?
  • 01:20:05
    Probably not.
  • 01:20:08
    Regardless of whether we chose to use that or not, the contract that was signed was only for the MPD implementation and would actually take a substantial expansion of the dollar amount and the scope to include the entire city enterprise within that system.
  • 01:20:28
    So hopefully
  • 01:20:30
    that answers the questions that you had.
  • 01:20:32
    If I feel like I've missed something, I'm happy to go deeper into different areas.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:20:39
    The question that was actually probably most top of mind for me was that policy management software, and I think you pretty clearly answered that question.
  • 01:20:46
    It maybe leads me to believe or at least kind of explore
  • 01:20:50
    Would you envision that policy management software having a connection point to our centralized data repository so that if we were to do a much more expansive RFP for enterprise-wide policy management, would you see I think it was Oxicon For the MPD policy management, would you see that kind of
  • 01:21:18
    and then an enterprise system also feeding into the data repository as a single source of truth or would you see those two systems standing separately?
  • 01:21:30
    The hypothetical future system and I mean this whole line of questioning is this budget year should we be planning for
  • 01:21:39
    Council President Payne
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:22:01
    I'm going to be answering this in an off-the-cuff manner that I almost would appreciate maybe a chance to go back and validate some of these things.
  • 01:22:11
    When we think of our data repository, today it is largely structured database information.
  • 01:22:21
    policy information sort of gets at more unstructured data and so unstructured data and being able to handle that better is actually part of the from a sort of how do we consume and analyze and use that information to answer questions is tied into I would say two of the requests that we've put forward.
  • 01:22:44
    One of them is the
  • 01:22:46
    settlement agreement, the public safety data transformation.
  • 01:22:50
    That public safety data transformation, one of the details of that is to try to be able to incorporate unstructured data into a repository that would then be available for city employees, which is not something we have a large capacity around today.
  • 01:23:10
    that while it starts with public safety, our goal is to roll that out across.
  • 01:23:19
    all city departments and for all city data sets.
  • 01:23:22
    But we would focus first because of the settlement agreement on public safety.
  • 01:23:26
    The other request that I'll be covering in the TIP presentation that comes to mind is the co-pilot AI tool.
  • 01:23:35
    And when I hear you talk about how we are able to process what's in
  • 01:23:42
    The policies, having something like that tool may be a useful way to sort of surface that information to city employees.
  • 01:23:58
    I think the main functionality that is in the policy management tools is really around the workflow and the versioning and the process of how we craft policies as opposed to how the city consumes that data.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:24:12
    So then, is the data repository an Azure instance, or is it on-prem?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:24:21
    Chair Chugtai, Council President Payne, today it is in our managed services environment.
  • 01:24:27
    What is being proposed as part of the public safety data transformation project is to migrate that to a public government cloud infrastructure like Azure.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:24:40
    Okay, thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:24:43
    Thank you.
  • 01:24:44
    Council Member Palmisano, did you have any questions?
  • 01:24:47
    Okay, wonderful.
  • 01:24:50
    So I have a couple of questions for you from Council, from Vice Chair Koski.
  • 01:24:57
    If you can actually just start, there was an earlier section of your presentation I believe on slide five when you go over vacancies, you just kind of walk through where each of those positions were in the process right now.
  • 01:25:09
    So it was like one filled, two with offer letters and someone starting in the next month and then- Two people were starting in the- yes.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:25:18
    Would you like me to repeat that?
  • 01:25:22
    Yes, please.
  • 01:25:32
    So one position is filled on an interim basis.
  • 01:25:35
    Two positions have signed offer letters and will be starting in the next month.
  • 01:25:40
    We're in the interview process on one position.
  • 01:25:43
    So three positions are actively within the HRQ.
  • 01:25:47
    I'm not sure if those are exactly where, whether they're sort of kind of been posted, if we're waiting for people to respond, but there's some place within that sort of active HRQ.
  • 01:26:01
    We have one position that is going through a JAQ process, which I believe is almost finished at this point in time, and then three positions we expect to post in quarter four as we finalize some internal conversations.
  • 01:26:16
    and then we expect the last position to be filled in 2025 as the ERP project moves to implementation.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:26:25
    Got it.
  • 01:26:27
    In comparing the biennial personnel report information, which had eight vacancies as of the end of July, and now we're looking at 12 vacancies in mid-September, there's actually a growth in the number of vacancies that you have.
  • 01:26:43
    But one of the other things that was detailed in the biennial personnel report was how long a couple of these vacancies had existed in the department, with one of them
  • 01:26:55
    for over a year, and then the other vacant for two years and two months.
  • 01:27:02
    And I really understand, I see all the work that you're doing to try to fill these, but it feels like some of these positions have been vacant for a long time.
  • 01:27:11
    Are they actually, what's the real plan to fill them in the next year?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:27:16
    Thank you for the question and maybe I'll highlight the longest one, the one that is over two years and that is the one I referred to at the end which is related to the ERP project.
  • 01:27:28
    That position is for a PeopleSoft administrator so PeopleSoft is the
  • 01:27:33
    That position opened up.
  • 01:27:41
    Someone left a few years ago.
  • 01:27:44
    I believe we posted that position at least twice in the following six months.
  • 01:27:52
    I know we had at least one offer letter that was tenured.
  • 01:27:56
    We were not able to hire that position.
  • 01:28:00
    During those either two or three times it was posted While that position was empty in those early times we started to utilize contract professional services to Do the work to help maintain this is a very kind of under-the-hood position of our Comet ERP system
  • 01:28:21
    and eventually we made a strategic decision to leave that position empty until we were further along with the new ERP tool and so we used the funds from that position
  • 01:28:34
    to pay for the professional services to basically do the same work that the employee had been doing before.
  • 01:28:42
    And then as now we are moving closer to the implementation of the new ERP, we'll bring that person on board probably in a redefined role to help with the implementation.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:28:54
    Understood that makes a lot of sense.
  • 01:28:56
    Thank you for providing that additional Context in detail and then can you just speak to you know with the vacancies that you have had Over the course of this year.
  • 01:29:08
    How have you used those salary savings those vacancy savings to?
  • 01:29:14
    Within your department.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:29:15
    Yeah chair Chuck type.
  • 01:29:16
    Thank you for the question.
  • 01:29:17
    I
  • 01:29:18
    I think primarily kind of in a similar vein to the PeopleSoft question is we have largely used the salary savings through professional services and short-term contracts work.
  • 01:29:34
    We do have a lot of project-based work that is going on right now and we will bring people in to sort of fill gaps in different roles whether that is
  • 01:29:47
    project management.
  • 01:29:50
    We have someone who is filling a role from a data engineer perspective right now as we have been trying those.
  • 01:29:59
    Some of those positions are just they're extremely difficult to fill and we've had to go out several times for posting and so this allows us to sort of keep the work moving forward as we look to sort of get the full institutional employee count up to where it needs to be.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:30:17
    And then with with some of these short-term contracts in place do you anticipate Where do you anticipate ending this year with with your?
  • 01:30:31
    Appropriated budget right like are you planning on coming in a little bit under over?
  • 01:30:37
    Can we expect?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:30:38
    I would anticipate that we will be under budget in 2024 I know that that will be a mix of longer term project costs where we have projects that have not spent down the budgets to where they should be ERP is one example of that one
  • 01:31:08
    and then we probably will have some salary savings.
  • 01:31:12
    I do not have the exact amount for that off the top of my head.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:31:18
    And then just a second question from Vice Chair Koski.
  • 01:31:23
    Can you speak to, and I believe we'll probably invite back someone from the budget team for this, but just the factors driving the 9% salary and wage increase in IT from 2024 to 2025?
  • 01:31:42
    Welcome, if you'll start with introducing yourself.
• • SPEAKER_05
  • 01:31:45
    Yep, I'm Chair Chug Thai, Council Members.
  • 01:31:47
    My name is Megan Bursch.
  • 01:31:49
    I'm a Senior Budget and Evaluation Analyst in the Finance and Property Services Department.
  • 01:31:54
    There are two main factors driving salary and wage growth.
  • 01:31:59
    One of them is a budget neutral change.
  • 01:32:03
    IT had five administrative ads in 2024.
  • 01:32:08
    So it would be a transfer of costs from the contractual services category into personnel category.
  • 01:32:16
    And then there are also four new FTEs being recommended to be added in the 2025 budget.
  • 01:32:24
    three for settlement agreement and one for conference room modernization.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:32:30
    Wonderful, thank you.
  • 01:32:32
    And that leads me to actually the, I missed this section from an earlier question, but you know, like looking at these vacancies and in addition to that you're receiving
  • 01:32:49
    a number of new positions, four that are given in the 2025 budget and then five that were added administratively.
  • 01:33:00
    That's a significant number of positions that need to be filled if you can just speak a little bit more to especially the new positions now that are coming in.
  • 01:33:12
    I think you've sufficiently answered what the existing vacancies are right now.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:33:17
    Chair Chugtai and just to clarify are you looking for the position say from the new project requests that are coming in and to speak to those right now?
  • 01:33:27
    Yes, the yep And so I'll start with the settlement agreement related budget requests which had three of the four So that That work involves a
  • 01:33:47
    And this is related in some ways to the question that Council President Payne had earlier around the transition to that new skill set.
  • 01:33:56
    And so the migration to the new
  • 01:34:04
    Data structure for the public safety data modernization.
  • 01:34:09
    I would say that it would lift the maturity that we have for how we are managing our data and able to catalog and and Know sort of what is in there ultimately with the goal of trying to make it easier for city employees to access that information that comes with a skill set
  • 01:34:35
    of the city of
  • 01:34:48
    It was just referenced that we had shifted five positions as part of an administrative process earlier this year.
  • 01:34:56
    Those positions will, at least four of them specifically, will be very heavily involved in addition to that work.
  • 01:35:08
    And so we are trying to manage the additional workload as well as we can.
  • 01:35:13
    based on the technical complexity.
  • 01:35:17
    One of the positions that we are anticipating for the settlement agreement work is
  • 01:35:24
    And this comes out of the recommendations from the data collection assessment that was performed by Accenture is for a cloud architect position.
  • 01:35:33
    So this is not a skill set that we have currently and is not one that we can realistically grow from someplace within the department.
  • 01:35:42
    And so that would be a core position for it.
  • 01:35:45
    The other two are really focused on, and once again these are based on recommendations from the assessment that was performed earlier this year, are about the people in the process side of the equation with the Office of Community Safety.
  • 01:36:05
    And so a lot of what
  • 01:36:09
    Let me back up just for a second.
  • 01:36:10
    So this request, like the main expenditure from a dollar amount is the technical work that we have to do.
  • 01:36:18
    I think what was maybe I did not focus on as much in the settlement agreement presentation is the culture shift and the people in the process side of that equation to get people to
  • 01:36:34
    to have this as a core competency for how they are using that information that is really embedded throughout the settlement agreement for how data is used to be able to measure whether we are successful or not.
  • 01:36:51
    Those other two positions are really geared towards managing the process and the ongoing iterations that will happen with the Office of Community Safety and the Minneapolis Police Department around how they are utilizing that data.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:37:09
    Thank you very much.
  • 01:37:11
    Any final questions from the committee?
  • 01:37:14
    I am not seeing any, so thank you for this presentation.
  • 01:37:20
    I will ask the clerk to file this presentation and the 311 service center.
  • 01:37:26
    And then with that we are reaching our final presentation for today and I believe we will be welcoming back CFO Dai to begin that presentation.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:37:48
    Welcome.
• • Dushani Dai
  • 01:37:49
    Good morning, Chair Chertay, Budget Committee.
  • 01:37:52
    My name is Dushani Dai.
  • 01:37:53
    I'm the city's chief finance officer.
  • 01:37:56
    I will start the technology improvement plan presentation, then I'll hand it off to some of my colleagues to finish the presentation.
  • 01:38:05
    So what is the technology improvement plan?
  • 01:38:11
    We've talked a lot about the TIP in previous presentations.
  • 01:38:16
    So TIP, as we will call it throughout the presentation, is a long-term budgeting plan for technology.
  • 01:38:23
    The city is including this plan as part of the 2025 budget for the very first time.
  • 01:38:30
    And I believe this type of long-term planning will be beneficial for the city.
  • 01:38:36
    TIP was modeled after the Capital Improvement Plan and these technology projects would support major maintenance, improvements, replacements, and upgrades to the city's existing technology systems, as well as development and implementation of new projects.
  • 01:38:56
    These projects will be mostly funded by the Permanent Improvement Levy, which is an existing levy dedicated to capital expenses.
  • 01:39:05
    So as part of the long term planning, all possible revenue sources will be identified and budgeted.
  • 01:39:11
    It was more of a comprehensive way to budget for technology projects and think more long term rather than year by year.
  • 01:39:25
    So I'll go over some of the benefits and highlight the technology improvement plan and how it's funded.
  • 01:39:34
    So prior to TIP being established, City had a history of making technology decisions in the context of individual departments without referencing or considering efficiencies or costs to the city government as a whole.
  • 01:39:51
    So departments would bring technology proposals as part of the regular budget process and would compete with other more operational type budget proposals.
  • 01:40:01
    So for example, when I presented earlier this week on the Finance and Property Services budget, I mentioned the ERP project, which would replace the current financial system the City uses.
  • 01:40:15
    So prior to TIP being established, I would have brought my portion of the funding request, HR would have presented on their portion, and the IT department would have separately presented on the remainder of the project.
  • 01:40:29
    It would not have been easy to determine the total cost of a large-scale project and the investment the city would be making when it's broken up by multiple departments.
  • 01:40:42
    So TIP allowed the team to evaluate all technology proposals against each other and prioritize them.
  • 01:40:51
    And IT professionals were also able to identify any long-term costs the departments may not have thought about or planned out in the out years.
  • 01:41:04
    Most importantly, it allowed transparency around total costs of the projects, especially those that span multiple years.
  • 01:41:12
    I will now ask Director DeSensa to come and present on the remaining slides.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 01:41:22
    Thank you, CFO Dai, Chair Chugtai, Budget Committee members, Jane DeSensa, Budget Director.
  • 01:41:28
    I'll handle a couple slides and then we'll pass things off to CIO Cameron.
  • 01:41:33
    So some of the goals and priorities that were laid out at the beginning of the TIP process are listed here on the slide.
  • 01:41:40
    And there's just a few that I wanted to speak about.
  • 01:41:44
    We've already talked about cybersecurity today.
  • 01:41:46
    I think cybersecurity and overall system resilience are escalating themes and something that is easier to handle when IT professionals are providing that coordinated response.
  • 01:41:59
    Additionally, there's a need in this budget context to think about efficiency and cost savings so if we have multiple disparate systems that are doing different things and in Departments there may be savings and having a coordinated strategy coming through this unified process to have one singular platform for multiple city departments to access and
  • 01:42:22
    and we can also think about enhanced service delivery.
  • 01:42:25
    So as you'll hear today, some city systems predate the invention of smartphones and as residents are expecting better quality services from us as they should, can we meet that moment or are we hampered by outdated technology?
  • 01:42:39
    So these are some of the concepts that were underlying the TIP process and we also of course hope that these support city priorities which are also listed here.
  • 01:42:54
    Technology budget requests were submitted, so again trying to mirror the capital process.
  • 01:43:02
    The TBRs were submitted by departments along the same schedule as operating budget requests and then were sort of pulled aside for additional questions in a separate review process.
  • 01:43:15
    We requested that these were, you know, this was a six year planning horizons that we can get at that long term view.
  • 01:43:22
    And then budget, finance, and IT met to review eligibility prior to advancing these TBRs to the broader committee structure.
  • 01:43:34
    Which we will talk about shortly So the process on an ongoing basis for the tip is laid out on this slide so you can see of course It's circular so we begin with the yellow technology budget requests Which then flow into that technical review does this qualify are there do duplicate requests or
  • 01:43:59
    Then we have presentation of some type of scoring process and ranking from the committee members.
  • 01:44:06
    That information recommendation gets presented to the mayor.
  • 01:44:09
    And then the mayor, much like capital, decides what to include in the recommended budget, which then of course is transmitted to all of you for consideration and adoption.
  • 01:44:19
    And with that, I will hand things off to CIO Cameron.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:44:33
    Good morning again chair Chuktai and members of the Budget Committee.
  • 01:44:37
    I'm Paul Cameron the chief information officer for the city I'll be covering most of the remaining presentation On this slides is a bit more detail about the role members of TIP play and who those members are so the members of TIP are by title the community safety commissioner and
  • 01:44:57
    the three deputy city operations officers, the CIO and the CFO.
  • 01:45:04
    The asterisks on the names merely denotes that any of these members could delegate this responsibility if needed.
  • 01:45:11
    We are looking to keep the group small while representing a wide swath of departments.
  • 01:45:19
    The roles these individuals have in TIP is to review technology budget requests, receive presentations from departments about the need, and then rank and recommend projects to move forward as part of the mayor's recommended budget.
  • 01:45:33
    A governance structure that included key stakeholders and decision makers was identified in the Safe and Thriving Communities Report and we use that report as a guide for helping us design this program.
  • 01:45:48
    So this next slide shows the overall funding recommendations as they exist today.
  • 01:45:52
    Each of the items listed here will be discussed in more detail in the coming slides.
  • 01:45:58
    Given that this is the first year of the program, we focused on initiatives that had more immediate need.
  • 01:46:04
    We will be working to populate the later years of the plan with longer term projects in the coming months.
  • 01:46:15
    Moving on to the projects, first I'd like to cover the 311 system.
  • 01:46:21
    So this was a system that was put in place almost 20 years ago and I thought for a long time about how to present this request to this party.
  • 01:46:30
    This is one that you guys are obviously very interested in and there's already been a fair bit of discussion on this today.
  • 01:46:36
    So I was in the IT department when this system was implemented in 2006 and worked on some of the integrations as well as the self-service forms.
  • 01:46:47
    Perhaps the best way I can highlight the need for a new system is that those self-service forms are largely unchanged from when they were implemented and that the system predates, as Director DeCenza said, smartphones and everything that came after in respect to responsive design.
  • 01:47:08
    We've upgraded the system numerous times over the years, but some of the core deficiencies have remained.
  • 01:47:15
    The opportunities that exist to change for the better as part of this project are numerous.
  • 01:47:20
    Director Nizimbi and the 311 team are excited about that opportunity.
  • 01:47:25
    I'll highlight a couple of the goals that have come out of the constituent services legislative directive and the work we've done with 311 on prepping for this project.
  • 01:47:35
    These goals center Minneapolis resident needs and desires to engage with the city in an easy and streamlined way.
  • 01:47:43
    So detailed KPIs to service delivery such as SLAs and resolution rates that reflect the work being done.
  • 01:47:53
    Streamlined workflows and improved response times Consistency in departments reporting back to 311 and therefore residents the status of cases Analyze data around community demographics related to 311 requests to help identify underserved areas within the city with a goal of allocating additional resources
  • 01:48:17
    and then improved and consistent experience for mobile use with the ability for residents to track cases from end to end.
  • 01:48:26
    This request is for $1.25 million in 2025, approximately $3 million in 2026, and $1.58 million in 2027.
  • 01:48:38
    This would cover the initial licensing costs and implementation costs of a new system.
  • 01:48:44
    We've begun planning for this initiative throughout this year.
  • 01:48:48
    We put a core project team in place in early 2024 and building off of the constituent services legislative directive began to identify system requirements.
  • 01:48:59
    The team has continued to gather stakeholder input which will continue through the rest of the year.
  • 01:49:05
    Our goal is to use that information to develop an RFP with a goal of having that published in quarter one of 2025.
  • 01:49:18
    So the next request I'd like to cover is the conference room modernization project.
  • 01:49:23
    So the FTE portion of this request was covered in the IT department presentation.
  • 01:49:28
    So I won't cover everything again, but I would like to highlight some of the outcomes that drove the need for this request.
  • 01:49:34
    So we're looking to ensure equity for all departments regardless of their location or department size.
  • 01:49:41
    We're looking to enable a consistent experience and reliable technology in conference rooms for effective communication and productivity.
  • 01:49:51
    And we're looking to support staff training and development initiatives that increasingly rely on modern conference room technology.
  • 01:49:59
    We want to support city departments who engage with community in all city buildings in ways that allow high functionality and flexibility.
  • 01:50:09
    This request is for $500,000 in 2025, $750,000 in 2027, and $339,000 in 2028 and 2029.
  • 01:50:19
    This would cover the equipment and implementation costs associated with the build-out.
  • 01:50:34
    The next request I'd like to cover is the Enterprise Resource Planning Replacement, or ERP.
  • 01:50:39
    Our current ERP is what city employees know as COMET.
  • 01:50:44
    This includes the core HR, payroll, and finance systems used by all city employees.
  • 01:50:50
    That system was put in place over 20 years ago, and while it has been updated and maintained numerous times over the years, it is struggling to keep up with the demands of a modern city workforce.
  • 01:51:03
    Over the last year, we've made tremendous progress in creating the foundation for a successful project.
  • 01:51:09
    At its core is a collaboration between the human resources, finance and property services, and information technology departments.
  • 01:51:18
    We would not be where we are today without the work of Director Odum and Director Dai and the teams they have built.
  • 01:51:26
    Earlier this year, we had over 50 city employees participate in week-long vendor demos, exploring how a new system could help us operate more efficiently and effectively on items both big and small across the enterprise.
  • 01:51:42
    This group included individuals from many city departments as well as the park board.
  • 01:51:48
    The team is now working through the contracting process while also creating an RFP for an implementation partner.
  • 01:51:55
    Our goal is to begin system implementation in 2025.
  • 01:52:01
    This request is for $5 million in 2025, $6 million in 2026, and $3 million in 2027.
  • 01:52:09
    This would cover the implementation costs as well as the software licensing costs during implementation.
  • 01:52:17
    I would like to take a moment and share some of the north stars that we developed as part of the project team.
  • 01:52:26
    So one system, one source.
  • 01:52:28
    Today we have a collection of disparate systems that create inefficiencies and extra technical complexity.
  • 01:52:36
    Our goal is to collapse those systems into one whenever possible.
  • 01:52:40
    The new system will be the system of record for all departments.
  • 01:52:45
    Employee experience.
  • 01:52:47
    The new system should benefit all employees, not just those of the sponsoring departments.
  • 01:52:53
    And lastly, adaptability, continuous improvement, and automation.
  • 01:52:58
    We are looking to have the new system be adaptable to changing city needs.
  • 01:53:02
    We want to approach the project with a mindset of continuous improvement and willingness to change.
  • 01:53:08
    Lastly, we will be looking to change processes and procedures and eliminate manual work where possible.
  • 01:53:23
    Moving on to the next request.
  • 01:53:26
    So this request is for funds to implement Microsoft Copilot and establish governance and policies around AI use by city employees.
  • 01:53:35
    Copilot is a tool that is integrated into the Microsoft suite of Office tools, so Word, Teams, PowerPoint, and Excel, to assist users in drafting content, preparing summaries of presentations and meetings.
  • 01:53:51
    It will also allow users to use natural language to search and ask questions of city data.
  • 01:53:58
    Tools similar to Copilot are active in the city environment today.
  • 01:54:02
    These range from ChatGPT or similar natural language tools to bots attending city meetings.
  • 01:54:10
    Having city employees use Copilot provides a safer alternative.
  • 01:54:16
    This request is for $300,000 in 2025, $400,000 in 2026, and $500,000 in 2027.
  • 01:54:25
    This would cover the licensing costs for a phased implementation of these tools.
  • 01:54:35
    This next request is for enterprise engagement and would provide funding to procure and implement an enterprise engagement tool.
  • 01:54:46
    This request is a collaborative effort between NCR, communications and IT.
  • 01:54:53
    We value that community engagement is an integral part of city decision making and online engagement is a way to supplement feedback from a large group of our residents.
  • 01:55:03
    This helps us be more efficient with the limited resources we have
  • 01:55:08
    allows accessibility to some that may otherwise not be able to participate and provides another tool for our city employees to do their work.
  • 01:55:18
    Today, departments are using disparate contractors, systems, and processes.
  • 01:55:23
    Our goal is to consolidate these efforts under a single umbrella system.
  • 01:55:28
    I want to highlight a couple of the goals from the sponsoring departments.
  • 01:55:34
    So we want to ensure the integrity of data collected.
  • 01:55:37
    For example, making sure that residents of Minneapolis are the ones participating in surveys and those online engagement.
  • 01:55:45
    We also want to make sure that we are protecting resident data.
  • 01:55:49
    We recognize that our residents' time is valuable.
  • 01:55:52
    By having a single system, we won't need to repeatedly ask the same questions we have already asked residents on previous surveys.
  • 01:56:00
    This request is for $250,000 in 2025
  • 01:56:10
    This next request is for Ptolemy Building Blocks software.
  • 01:56:14
    So this software would be utilized by the regulatory services department.
  • 01:56:19
    So Ptolemy Building Blocks is software that would allow city users to improve compliance by providing a constantly up-to-date view of property owners and managers that are out of compliance.
  • 01:56:32
    property owners and managers that have a pattern of mismanagement or other concerning trends and property owners and management that are coming up on a registry renewal.
  • 01:56:43
    So this request is for $89,125 in 2025 and $71,000 in 2026.
  • 01:56:48
    And then for this next slide, I will actually turn the presentation back over to Director DiCenzo.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 01:57:04
    Thank you.
  • 01:57:05
    So the final project to discuss today is Alluring Greenway Systems Rehabilitation.
  • 01:57:10
    So this is for needed electrical and water repairs on the Greenway, which is of course a major route for those who walk, bike, and take transit in the city.
  • 01:57:21
    So the goal here is advancing a more equitable transit system and improving mobility services This is something that the city has heard about directly from from residents and the funding request is 1.5 million dollars in 2027
  • 01:57:37
    So this is a proposal that did originally come through the operating budget request process But given the broader budget context this year we shifted it To the to be funded through the permanent improvement levy as part of the tip So this is a more traditional use of that permanent improvement levy The long-range planning here for public works will be beneficial.
  • 01:58:00
    They have two years to prepare for this expenditure and
  • 01:58:05
    And with that, I think we'll conclude and we're all happy to stand for questions.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:58:12
    Thank you for that presentation.
  • 01:58:15
    Colleagues, are there any questions for the team of staff that presented on the technology improvement plan?
  • 01:58:23
    I'll first recognize Council President Payne.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:58:26
    Thank you Vice President.
  • 01:58:27
    This question might be for Director DeCenza.
  • 01:58:31
    We kicked off this presentation basically describing this as an analogy to our capital improvement plan.
  • 01:58:41
    And so I was curious, it's my understanding that all of these projects are funded through the permanent improvement levy, but I was curious if any of these would qualify for any type of debt financing.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 01:58:54
    Through the Chair, Council President Payne, I believe the answer is no.
  • 01:58:58
    I think some of these are smaller in scale and I believe software is treated a little bit differently than projects that would traditionally go through the CLIC process.
  • 01:59:08
    Permanent improvement is certainly the main source here.
  • 01:59:10
    I did want to note IT fund balances is being utilized in 2026 as well to get some of those more expensive projects out the door.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 01:59:19
    Thank you.
  • 01:59:20
    And then this might be for Director Cameron.
  • 01:59:23
    I was curious if you could talk about the funding request process and if you have any insights on, you know, this is the final list of approved requests through that process.
  • 01:59:37
    What was maybe the total number of requests relative to what we're seeing here today?
  • 01:59:43
    If that question makes sense.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 01:59:46
    Chair Chigtai, Council President Payne,
  • 01:59:49
    There were, so maybe I'll answer this in a couple different ways.
  • 01:59:54
    There were, I believe, three requests that were evaluated, three or four requests that were evaluated as part of the TIP process and were deemed inappropriate for that fund.
  • 02:00:07
    The one that is most notable for me is one that, and I believe these were moved into the operational part of the budget request process.
  • 02:00:16
    In one case it was almost all FTE requests, for instance, and so that was just not something that was utilized here.
  • 02:00:28
    So that maybe answers the question about the three or four that were not part of here that didn't make it.
  • 02:00:37
    I would say that we've been developing the roadmap and I would say that we have
  • 02:00:43
    at least a few projects that we know will come up in sort of not this two-year budget cycle but in a future budget cycle and so our goal is to provide as much lead time for those projects as we can.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 02:01:02
    And then was there like a scoring rubric in terms of the analysis of which projects were included here?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 02:01:08
    Chair Chuck, Council President Payne, there was a scoring rubric that was used as part of the evaluation.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 02:01:15
    Would it be possible to share out the scores or whatever documentation there is within that process?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 02:01:27
    Chair Chugtai, Council President Payne, I believe that should be possible.
  • 02:01:31
    We'll work to pull that information together for you.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 02:01:33
    Okay, can we note that for admin follow-up?
  • 02:01:36
    Thank you so much.
  • 02:01:37
    And I think that is all my questions.
  • 02:01:40
    I feel like we, oh no, no, one last question.
  • 02:01:44
    Is IT the originating department for each of these requests or was this in collaboration with some of the operating departments?
  • 02:01:50
    So for instance, the Telemme building blocks seems like a very regulatory services request, but is the source of a lot of these requests, whether it's finance and property services, HR, seeking support from IT, and then IT recognizing we might need to use this permanent improvement process versus an additional solution or other solution?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 02:02:14
    So Chair Chug Thai, Council President Payne.
  • 02:02:20
    So maybe two parts as well to this answer.
  • 02:02:22
    In some cases, the departments and the Ptolemy is a good example were just submitted as part of the normal budget process by regulatory services.
  • 02:02:33
    And I think maybe I'll highlight that from a
  • 02:02:39
    Department submitting budget requests this year, there was really no difference between a regular budget request or a technology budget request.
  • 02:02:47
    There was, I think, just a drop down in which it was just flagged, does this include technology?
  • 02:02:52
    And so there wasn't a sort of a conscious choice to
  • 02:02:56
    of the big ones, the 311 project, the ERP project, the community engagement project, those three involved heavy collaboration with the other departments.
  • 02:03:16
    I believe that IT submitted the request through the budget office for 311 and ERP while I believe that NCR submitted the request but with our collaboration for the community engagement.
  • 02:03:33
    The co-pilot request was submitted by IT.
  • 02:03:35
    I'm trying to think if there was another one in there.
  • 02:03:40
    But anyway, hopefully that answers your question.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 02:03:42
    It does, and then I realized I had one last question.
  • 02:03:46
    For ERP, we're highlighting HR, payroll, finance, and I think that's kind of like your bog standard functionality in the ERP.
  • 02:03:56
    In the past life, I was an ERP consultant, but it was in the manufacturing supply chain and logistics space, and I know that, at least the ERP company I worked for, it's like,
  • 02:04:05
    operated in so many industries.
  • 02:04:08
    It had so many modules.
  • 02:04:09
    It could take on a lot.
  • 02:04:11
    I was curious, just maybe philosophically, what the scope is of our ERP system.
  • 02:04:16
    Is it that narrow focus on HR, payroll, finance, or are we thinking expansively of, you know, asset management and public works, procurement, other functionality?
  • 02:04:28
    Are we trying to
  • 02:04:30
    centralize and consolidate some of that functionality under one comprehensive ERP system or are we envisioning having ERP for some of those really core finance functions but still have some other siloed functionality as an example.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 02:04:47
    And Chair Chuktai, Council President Payne, I may, if Director Dye was here, if she would want to expound on this a little bit.
  • 02:04:55
    I think we are going through a process now as we're working on the implementation RFP in which we are exploring sort of where the line is drawn for some of those.
  • 02:05:07
    I think I'll use resource management as a classic ERP functionality.
  • 02:05:15
    That's not something that we're looking to do in this ERP system.
  • 02:05:22
    From an asset management perspective, especially the public works asset management, I don't believe our goal is to replace those asset management systems, but we are looking at sort of where we draw the line between how we are communicating with those systems.
  • 02:05:40
    And partially those systems have the, like I'm thinking a maximum of the city's asset management system.
  • 02:05:46
    is very deeply embedded in the workflow of public works that would hugely increase the complexity.
  • 02:05:53
    So that's not to say that it's not something that could be tackled later, but it's not something that's in the original scope right now.
  • 02:06:01
    I don't know if you want to add anything, Director.
• • Dushani Dai
  • 02:06:08
    Chair Chuktai, Council President Payne, I will speak about the procurement module that you referred to.
  • 02:06:17
    That will definitely be part of the implementation.
  • 02:06:20
    It's currently under COMET, so any modules that are currently within COMET are going to be replaced with the new system.
  • 02:06:29
    Maximo and M5,
  • 02:06:33
    We're going to look at the new system and we've already gone through some demos to see what the capabilities are, but there are specific requirements within M5 and Maximo that the departments that utilize those two systems require that
  • 02:06:50
    the vendors that we demo did not have those specific requirements fulfilled so we may have to retain those two systems.
  • 02:07:01
    I will also add some of the new functionality we're seeing through ERP new systems such as
  • 02:07:08
    employee expenses.
  • 02:07:11
    So if you have to submit a reimbursement claim, if you travel somewhere, we currently have to fill out a paper form and submit it.
  • 02:07:20
    And the new system will be an online submission.
  • 02:07:25
    So we are looking to implement new capabilities within the system that are still
  • 02:07:32
    within the HR or finance realm, but definitely open to enhancing our current processes and practices.
  • 02:07:42
    You know, some of the other systems such as NeoGov, which is a separate system, the new ERP system will most likely take on that functionality rather than using a separate third party system to do recruiting.
  • 02:07:57
    That's another example.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 02:07:59
    And then what does M5, what system is that?
• • Dushani Dai
  • 02:08:02
    It's M5, it's an asset management system that Public Works uses.
  • 02:08:09
    Many government agencies use it.
  • 02:08:12
    It's a fleet and asset management system.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 02:08:15
    And then Maximo is?
• • Dushani Dai
  • 02:08:18
    I believe, do you know more about Maximo?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 02:08:25
    So, Chair Chigate, Council President Payne, Maximo is an asset management system that is used.
  • 02:08:33
    I would say the two biggest groups in Public Works that use it are the surface water sewer and the water departments as a asset management and a work order tool for them.
  • 02:08:44
    I might be missing some, but those are probably the two big ones.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 02:08:47
    And then is it safe for me to assume that each of those systems are at least feeding into our data repository?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 02:08:57
    Yes.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 02:08:58
    And so as you're talking about evaluating a new ERP and kind of figuring out where you're drawing the line, is it a safe assumption for me to just to assume that where you're drawing the line is where you're going to
  • 02:09:11
    basically use the ERP to either replace a system or make sure that the ERP is connected to the data repository.
  • 02:09:19
    So at least those two systems can have some sort of interoperability.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 02:09:24
    Yeah, and Chair Chugchak, Council Member Rupain, I mean the the I mean the probably the real answer is it just depends.
  • 02:09:32
    There is a huge variety.
  • 02:09:34
    I think we have a list of over 50 systems that integrate to our ERP platform today.
  • 02:09:40
    and so that is something that we are evaluating sort of where those things will end up landing with the new platform.
  • 02:09:55
    The asset management functionality, especially that used by Public Works, is specialized enough for what they're doing that
  • 02:10:06
    It's really about those systems will talk to one another, the ERP and the asset management system.
  • 02:10:13
    It's really about where do we have that line and kind of how do we have that integration that works.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 02:10:23
    Excellent, thank you.
  • 02:10:25
    That's all I have.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:10:27
    Excellent.
  • 02:10:30
    Thank you.
  • 02:10:31
    I'll next recognize Councilmember Cashman.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 02:10:34
    Thank you Mr. Cameron.
  • 02:10:36
    I just wanted to ask about the Lauren Greenway technological improvement plan and just hear a little bit more about where this originated, how it came to be and also how we're going to consider 2027 expenses in the biennial budget.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 02:10:52
    Sure, through the chair, Councilmember Cashman.
  • 02:10:54
    So the Lauren Greenway request came from the Public Works Department.
  • 02:10:58
    So this has been a long identified need of replacing a lot of the electrical systems.
  • 02:11:04
    It's to the point where they're, you know, looking at failure of systems within the next few years.
  • 02:11:10
    And so the the need was such that they wanted to get that in front of
  • 02:11:15
    Policymakers soon Much like how in the capital plan we have a six-year plan where we appropriate one year, but we have a long-range plan That's the same idea that we're applying here.
  • 02:11:27
    So while we can only officially appropriate 2025 We're setting up these projects because they're larger scale projects for for that future For being affected in the future.
  • 02:11:40
    Excellent.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:11:40
    Thanks and
  • 02:11:42
    Thank you very much.
  • 02:11:45
    Just a question I believe for Director Cameron, CIO Cameron.
  • 02:11:53
    Can you help us understand, I want to specifically look at the ERP slide where you are requesting that detail.
  • 02:12:09
    First, looking at these funding amounts, $5 million in 2025, $6 million in 2026, and $3 million in 2027.
  • 02:12:18
    One, these are really large and significant numbers.
  • 02:12:22
    And two, I wonder if you can just speak to what level of precision is there, are these guesstimates?
  • 02:12:36
    Can you speak more to these numbers, please?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 02:12:39
    Chair Chai, I'd be happy to to try to shed some some additional light on these numbers.
  • 02:12:46
    And so, like, so there's sort of two, I would say there's two major components that are going into these numbers.
  • 02:12:58
    One of them is the expected kind of annual software licensing costs.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:13:04
    How large will those be?
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 02:13:06
    We are north of $2 million a year based on what we've seen in the RFP responses.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:13:12
    And so this isn't just a 25 through 27 expense ongoing every year.
  • 02:13:17
    We should anticipate a $2 million expense, at least potentially ones that will grow depending on how the landscape shifts around us.
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 02:13:25
    Just for the licensing costs.
  • 02:13:27
    To add a little bit more detail to that, as we retire existing systems, and we've sort of mapped out as we expect, and this is where our best estimates on where we think functionality will come online,
  • 02:13:42
    We will have overlap of licensing costs for the new ERP system as well as the existing system.
  • 02:13:51
    As soon as we sign a license or a contract with a SaaS vendor, we will start paying the licensing costs for that before we have it implemented.
  • 02:14:01
    and so we do have that overlap.
  • 02:14:03
    This budget accounts for that overlap.
  • 02:14:06
    As we roll to where we are hoping the end of the project is, we have sort of plotted out where we expect drawdowns of other funds and so those would be
  • 02:14:20
    licensing costs of the core ERP system that we have now, the licensing costs for all of the sort of third-party systems like NeoGov was mentioned as one that we expect to be able to retire, as well as in this case some of our managed services costs that are used to host the ERP system will also go away.
  • 02:14:43
    So we do anticipate a
  • 02:14:47
    an increase over like an overall like when we've compared the numbers of where we think we're going to be and how much we think we can get rid of we do believe that the new ERP system will be more expensive but it will be in the 10 to 20 percent of the total cost of that software as opposed to the two million dollar number that I just put out there.
  • 02:15:09
    So we're looking at more around $200,000 a year
  • 02:15:13
    that then will grow as the software as a service licensing crossroad.
  • 02:15:17
    That is where our sort of
  • 02:15:23
    Estimates sit at this point in time.
  • 02:15:25
    We are in the middle of contract negotiations right now with the software vendors So we'll see where that goes the other component of the cost and this one is Harder to put a number on is the implementation costs So as I mentioned in the presentation we are building the RFP for that.
  • 02:15:47
    We have not published it yet and
  • 02:15:48
    and so we have not gotten the responses for it yet.
  • 02:15:50
    So we don't know exactly what those responses will be.
  • 02:15:54
    We are basing the estimates based on what other organizations, whether those be cities of a similar size or other groups, have spent to try to implement an ERP system.
  • 02:16:07
    So implementing a new ERP system is probably one of the most difficult things that an enterprise can do.
  • 02:16:15
    This is not something that we enter into lightly.
  • 02:16:18
    And we also recognize that there's so much opportunity for improvement over what we have now.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:16:31
    I really appreciate you framing it this way, right?
  • 02:16:33
    Implementing a new ERP system is one of the most difficult things an enterprise can do, and being really upfront with us right now about potentially how difficult of a thing that will be, but what I hear in that as well is it'll take time.
  • 02:16:50
    and is that accurate to put it that way?
  • 02:16:55
    I think my first experience of really understanding where we were headed when in implementing a new ERP system was earlier this year as we were talking about putting together a biennial personnel report and really understanding, you know, where our
  • 02:17:16
    where are investments made in our budget and how much staff do we have allocated across our enterprise at the department level and then where do vacancies exist and how long have they existed and who is hired right now and what does that look like at the department and division level and really hearing how difficult it is to
  • 02:17:45
    to integrate all of that information because it exists across multiple different systems and departments and there are inconsistencies that are created by just human error or outdated information even if it's outdated by a few weeks or a few months.
  • 02:18:05
    and that has a significant impact because of how large of an enterprise this is.
  • 02:18:11
    And when, you know, I was having these conversations with the HR director and the CFO, you know, I remember hearing from the HR director that we would have a new ERP system and it was going to be, you know, this was right after the vendor demos happened earlier this year.
  • 02:18:30
    I think it was like a couple weeks after.
  • 02:18:31
    And that,
  • 02:18:34
    It would be a thing that would change, like it would be usable potentially as early as next year and I'm not entirely sure that's true and I just wanted to hear more about when we'll start to see the impact
• • SPEAKER_09
  • 02:18:58
    I appreciate the question.
  • 02:19:03
    When we have an implementation partner on board, we will have a much better idea of when we will be able to roll out the functionality.
  • 02:19:21
    that question is one that right now, I feel like any answer I give you would not be grounded in a reality of the work that we have to do at this point in time.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:19:36
    I appreciate that.
  • 02:19:38
    Yeah, thank you.
  • 02:19:39
    I'm not seeing any further questions.
  • 02:19:44
    from the committee.
  • 02:19:45
    Thank you for this presentation.
  • 02:19:48
    And with that, I'll first ask the clerk to file that report, file that presentation.
  • 02:19:58
    With that, we have concluded all business to come before the committee today.
  • 02:20:01
    And without objection, we stand adjourned.