• Save the Date: Palmisano Presents March 24
• Children Count Too: Help Make Sure Everyone is Counted in the 2020 Census
• Adopt a Drain
• Mayoral Off-Duty Police Workgroup
• Connecting with Future Leaders
• Public Data Requests
• Bryant Ave S. Update
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Transition Plan
• Connecting with your Council Member

Save the Date: Palmisano Presents March 24

Date: March 24

Time: 6:30-8:00pm

Location: To be determined. Somewhere in Southwest Minneapolis.

Children Count Too: Help Make Sure Everyone is Counted in the 2020 Census

Children are one of the most undercounted communities for the census. In 2010, children under the age of 5 were the largest undercounted group in the nation. And this year in Minnesota alone, 27,749 children live in hard-to-count areas.

Because the census helps determine which areas qualify for critical resources that many children and their families rely on, their proper count is critical to their future. Resources are allocated for the following 10 years – essentially an entire childhood –potentially affecting Head Start programs, food assistance, child care and health insurance. Many services such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) rely directly on census data to allocate federal funds appropriately. It is vital to communities that all children – even newborn babies – are counted.

You can help by:

• Educating families on the importance of the census and the impact that it has on children and their futures.
• Sign up to become a Trusted Space host and assist your community in completing the census.
• Provide your community with census awareness and educational materials.
• Follow The City of Minneapolis or the U.S. Census Bureau on your social platforms to share critical census information with your networks.
• Sign up to volunteer for the 2020 U.S. census in your community.

Adopt a Drain

When it rains, storm water carries grass clippings, leaves, cigarette butts, pesticides, fertilizers, antifreeze, paint, gasoline, motor oil, and animal waste directly into Minneapolis lakes, creeks, and the Mississippi River. In order to help combat this pollution Minneapolis residents and businesses have been adopting storm drains in their neighborhoods and committing to cleaning them regularly.  The Public Works Department's new stenciling campaign is designed to bring awareness to the adopt a drain program and encourage new groups to join. The department has invested in a new technology to make this process easier and will allow residents to see the impacts of their work. Organizing a group to clean up storms drains in your neighborhood is a great way to get involved with your community. By signing up Public Works will provide everything you need to paint storm water educational messages near drains by you, including: Custom GIS map showing storm drains in your neighborhood Stencils (specific to where your area drains to) and paint Wire brush, broom & dustpan Garbage bags and gloves Safety cones, vests & glasses Educational door hangers If you are interested in joining or would like additional information please reach out to Lane Christianson at 612-673-2522.

Mayoral Off-Duty Police Workgroup

Last week I, along with Mayor Frey and Chief Arradondo, announced the formation of a workgroup set to take on the issue of how the City oversees and manages off-duty work by sworn peace officers. As you may know, off-duty work is when an officer enters into an agreement with a private group to provide the services of a peace officer for an event or period of time, outside of their regularly scheduled on-duty work. Last year I authorized an audit of the MPD's off-duty program because I felt we could not have a truly productive conversation about officer wellness, performance and staffing without a full picture of how many hours our officers are truly working each and every week and how many consecutive weeks they are working long hours. You can find the full audit report here with all the findings. Thanks to our new Chief Information Officer, we are actively working to improve and innovate our tracking of all available officers working both on-duty and off-duty. This audit  allows us to take a fresh look at the way we manage off-duty work and what our goals are with the program itself. As we continue to have conversations about how to best provide public safety services to the residents of Minneapolis it is worth asking whether the current off-duty system is maximizing the public benefit by having officers take on additional hours of work and working for private groups. I don't have an answer to that yet. As we move forward we will engage many stakeholders, both internally and externally, and I am excited to dig even deeper into this work and find out.

Connecting with Future Leaders

This month I had the privilege to spend some time with several amazing groups of young people. The first two were  opportunities to sit down with two local Scout Troops and engage with them on the differences between federal, state and local government. These were such fun conversations for me. Talking with folks on how to navigate these different levels of government at such a young age is really invigorating. We ended the night with plenty of energy to spare!

I also had the opportunity to be a guest reader at the Burroughs Elementary School Read-a-Thon with several different classrooms. So of course I brought the classic Dr. Seuss's One Vote, Two Votes, I Vote, You Vote. This was a great conversation starter and led to many excited questions on both how voting and the census work. Needless to say I had a great time with these students and hope to come back next year.

Making sure I am available to groups like these is something I take very seriously. I am happy to accommodate any group that wants to learn about civic engagement into my schedule any time.

Public Data Requests

Just over two years ago I pushed this Council to improve the way the City reports and reviews performance metrics enterprise wide, a program dubbed Results Minneapolis. In that short period of time we have already seen a greater attention brought to departments and programs than we hadn't seen previously. One of those departments is our Clerk's office, and more specifically, the Records and Management Division which handles data requests. Under Minnesota law anyone can request public data from the City through the office of the City Clerk and the Records division will acquire it and deliver it to the requester. What Results Minneapolis showed us though is that the department has seen significant growth over the years in terms of requests for data, creating a backlog of requests.

Making sure residents have timely access to data and services from the City is something I take very seriously. I want to ensure that residents feel that when they make a request to us that it is not entering a black hole of wait times. That is why, two weeks ago, I authored a staff direction tasking the City Clerk's office with submitting recurring reports to the Enterprise Committee, which I chair, on their work managing data requests. Through this we will identify areas for improvement and work to eliminate the backlog.

Bryant Ave S. Update

Thanks to residents reaching out and a lot of coordinated advocacy here at City Hall the reconstruction of Bryant Ave S between Lake and 50th has moved up a year in the City’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). This means construction will start in 2022 instead of 2023. It is a two year construction project, which means the expected completion of the project is 2023. There will be an overlap of one year of work on the resurfacing project on Grand Avenue.

Stakeholder engagement is expected to begin in March 2020 and will include deep dives into the current conditions, addressing zoning questions, and soliciting feedback on proposed priorities of the project.

For more information on the project and to sign up for the e-news updates, which is the best way to stay up to date check out the project website: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/cip/futureprojects/bryant-ave-s-reconstruction

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Transition Plan

Earlier this week in the Transportation and Public Works (TPW) Committee we passed what is called the Americans with Disabilities Act Transition Plan for Public Works. This is a document that traces back to 1993 when the City of Minneapolis completed and published its ADA Self-Evaluation and Transitional Plan with a focus on improving access to owned and leased facilities supporting government programs, services and activities.

In 2012, Public Works developed the Draft ADA Transition Plan for Public Works to address programs, policies, procedures, maintenance practices and infrastructure in the City’s public right of way. The 2012 Transition Plan led the City to complete an inventory of pedestrian curb ramps and to improve access in the public right of way.

In 2015, the City elected to renew its commitment to the ADA through the development of the ADA Action Plan , a comprehensive policy document for the City of Minneapolis. The ADA Transition Plan for Public Works (Transition Plan) is one component of the ADA Action Plan and replaces the 2012 Draft ADA Transition Plan for Public Works.

The ADA Transition Plan for Public Works is being updated to further the City’s commitment to the ADA, address emerging demographic and population needs, and support and integrate with other planning efforts.

I am excited to see this pass with such support as we continue our efforts in making Minneapolis the kind of city that is welcome to and accessible to everyone.

Connecting with your Council Member

We often receive inquiries from constituents asking what the best way is to schedule time with me. I am happy to meet constituents in the ward, over the phone or downtown at a time that works for both of us one-on-one or with your group. The best way to set that up is to contact my office directly. You can do that by calling 612-673-2213 or by completing our Ward Contact Form. Those forms go directly to me and both of my staff and are the best way to make certain one of us will get in touch with you ASAP.

I also make it a habit to attend neighborhood association meetings on a bi-monthly basis. During those visits I come prepared to give updates based on what I have heard the neighborhood association is discussing and am always happy to answer questions.