Notes from Mary Bogie

Regional Administrator

Becoming the regional administrator of the Met Council was not on my career bucket list. My career direction has been finance, and I didn’t necessarily see myself taking this path. But becoming deputy regional administrator under Meredith Vadis and then taking on the acting role truly opened up new perspectives and expanded into new areas. And I am proud to work with Chair Zelle and this Council, whose vision I am excited to execute. As we move forward, I am embracing the strategic, outcomes-based focus of my new role while maintaining that fiscal vision from my roots.

I see the role of regional administrator as envisioning the future, managing risks, managing relationships both internal and external, and helping put our goals into action by empowering staff to show leadership and take things a step beyond our comfort zones, keeping our community stakeholders in mind.

Right now, my focus is transitioning from managing during the pandemic to coming out of it and how we recover. And as you all know, COVID-19 has impacted every area of our work and we have so much to do to move us beyond the pandemic.

Longer term, I am continually focused on the four areas of the Council’s strategic plan: equity, climate, transportation, and housing. We’ll continue looking at the outcomes the Council has charged us to achieve and identifying how we move toward those goals – determining the behaviors and actions we need to shift in order to accomplish this vision.

Next to my computer, I have two post-it notes that have been invaluable reminders for me. The first is “Aligning our behaviors with our values.” Achieving our desired outcomes takes more than putting that outcome on paper and doing the mechanics; it takes believing in it and changing our behaviors and business practices to align with that value.

The second reminder is “Understand the value of making different choices,” something Council Member Ferguson once shared as he stressed the importance of recognizing the long-term impact we might have if we take a different path.

One of the things I love about the Met Council is our ability to create opportunity in the region for our communities to thrive. We help connect people to jobs, housing, clean water, recreation, each other, and more. Through all of our services, our initiatives contribute to public health, safety, and equity and inclusion. It’s clear the drivers that led to the creation of the Council’s regional structure were ahead of their times in understanding what it takes to achieve all this across the region; one county or one city alone cannot do these things. And by practicing fiscal responsibility, we meet the commitment we have to maintain what we put in place.

Through all this important work, we need to continue to align our behaviors and actions with our values and our goals, and I ask you to remember that how we do our work is as important as what we do, if not more important. Our actions in how we go about our work and achieve outcomes have lasting impacts on the different communities in our region, and we must recognize the ability and responsibility we have to build positive relationships and outcomes. The way we get our work done is what is visible as we go, and it needs to work for all our stakeholders.

At the Met Council, we have amazing employees, a foundation of incredible service, and dedicated leaders in every area of our organization. I am honored to work with you all and to help lead this organization as we work every day to improve our region for all who live, work, and visit here.

The legislature concluded a special session that began on June 14 and was required to pass budget bills to fund state government for the next biennium. Legislators spent long hours in negotiations and on the floor as bills were assembled and debated. The final budget bills were passed on June 30, narrowly avoiding a July 1 partial state government shutdown.

The following provisions related to the Met Council were included in the final budget bills and have been signed into law.

Transportation
The omnibus transportation bill includes:

• Continuation of base-level General Fund appropriations for Metro Mobility and transit system operations.
• $57.5 million one-time appropriation for arterial bus rapid transit projects. This will advance the METRO E Line and F Line.
• $250,000 one-time appropriation for an analysis of transit improvements in the Trunk Highway 55 corridor. This appropriation requires matching non-state funds.
• Authorization for the Met Council to issue Regional Transit Capital bonds in 2021 ($48.4 million) and 2022 ($50 million). Regional Transit Capital bonds are used to finance capital needs, such as fleet replacement.
• Metro Mobility is established as a forecasted program in the state budget beginning in fiscal year 2026. This means that future state budget forecasts will incorporate an obligation from the General Fund for the costs of Metro Mobility.
• The Met Council must develop and maintain a zero-emission transit vehicle transition plan.
• The Center for Transportation Studies will undertake a study on transit post-COVID-19 pandemic. The study will specifically review the Northstar Line and commuter-oriented transit service.
  
  

Regional parks

• The Legacy bill includes appropriations of $21.712 million in fiscal year 2022 and $22.149 million in fiscal year 2023 from the Parks and Trails Fund for the Metropolitan Regional Parks System. This represents a continuation of the 40-40-20 split of Parks & Trails Fund proceeds to the Met Council for regional parks, the DNR for state parks, and Greater Minnesota Parks & Trails.
• The omnibus environment and natural resources bill includes $9.99 million each year in fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2023 for regional parks operations and maintenance. This appropriation represents an increase of $850,000 over previous funding levels. The bill also includes two years of appropriations from the Environment & Natural Resources Trust Fund, providing $1 million in 2021 and $2.25 million in 2022 for regional parks land acquisition.
  
  

Environmental Services

• The Legacy bill includes two appropriations to the Met Council from the Clean Water Fund. $919,000 each year was appropriated for the Met Council’s Water Supply Sustainability Support program, which supports projects that address emerging drinking water supply threats. $625,000 each year was appropriated for the Met Council’s Water Demand Reduction Grant program, which provides grants for projects that encourage implementation of water conservation measures by municipalities in the metro area. This is an increase of $250,000 each year over the previous appropriation for this program.
  
  

Questions? Email Brooke Bordson in Government Affairs at Brooke.Bordson@metc.state.mn.us.

Recent news:

• Supervisors and staff will soon have access to specific guidance for planning to return teleworking teams to onsite work after Labor Day.
• To assist the planning teams as they create guidance and put together comprehensive information on returning teleworkers to onsite, please share your questions and concerns related to onsite work procedures and logistics using the online COVID-19 form.
• We want to specifically thank all our frontline staff who have continued to work onsite throughout this pandemic in support of our critical services. Your flexibility and commitment to public service and our customers have been key to our organization’s and our region’s success these past 16 months.
  
  

Tools to help you find vaccine appointments:

• Directly schedule an appointment using the COVID-19 Vaccine Connector.
• Use the Vaccine Locator Map to search for vaccine providers in your area.
• Schedule an appointment on the HealthPartners COVID-19 site or M Health Fairview COVID-19 site.
• Schedule an appointment for a vaccine at a pharmacy near you with the CDC: VaccineFinder.
• Make sure you're reading the regular all-staff COVID-19 email to get the latest on vaccination opportunities, guidelines, and more.
• For more information about the vaccine and how to find an appointment, visit the Minnesota Department of Health vaccine site.
  
  

COVID-19 testing:

• Free COVID-19 community testing locations are available throughout the state.
• At-home test kits are offered by the state for all Minnesotans, free of charge.
• HealthPartners offers testing for Met Council employees who have a HealthPartners medical plan.

Teng Meng Lo

Auditor 2

Program Evaluation & Audit

Primary duties
My primary duties are to evaluate the Met Council’s internal controls and governance processes.

Started
June 7

How does it feel to start a new job when many employees are working from home?
This is the second role that I have started fully remote, so it isn’t too much of a change for me. Although I do enjoy meeting people in person, I don’t miss the commute.

Hometown
Saint Paul

Current residence
Cottage Grove

Family
I am married and have four children.

Education
I graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in economics. I also completed a cybersecurity bootcamp at the U of MN last year. I am currently attending Western Governors University for a master's in cybersecurity and information assurance.

Experience
I have held various roles at the State of Minnesota and Ramsey County. In my two most recent roles prior to joining the Met Council, I was an IT auditor at UNFI and an internal auditor at Bremer Bank.

Other interests
I enjoy hiking and camping. I also enjoy watching boxing and other sports like it. I try to spend as much time with my children as I can, as there’s a finite amount of time that I have.