Service & Program Highlights

Economic Growth and Community Investment

Highlights

• We stood up the new Housing Stability department to reduce barriers, eliminate racial disparities and maximize key housing functions that create pathways to long-term, affordable housing.
  
• We worked closely with residents to introduce and implement the Parks 21st century vision to ensure all feel welcomed and have memorable experiences year-round in our parks and recreational facilities.
  
• We saw our eighth consecutive Library Journal Star Library award. The Library also published an award-winning book, “This was 2020,” edited by library staff and featuring 51 writers from across Minnesota.
  
• We led or supported nearly 20 construction and maintenance projects on county roadways. Most notably, we completed the final phase of Dale Street reconstruction in Saint Paul’s historic Rondo neighborhood. In November, the American Public Works Association recognized the multi-year, $14.7 million project as a Project of the Year Honorable Mention.
  
• In December, the METRO Purple Line – formerly known as the Rush Line – received approval to enter the Project Development phase of the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts program, and our multi-modal planning team turned over project leadership to the Met Council.
  
• We introduced the county’s first ever Economic Competitiveness & Inclusion Plan prioritizing inclusion in future investments and other actions related to housing, job creation, workforce development and place-based investments.
  
• In an effort to help Ramsey County businesses become more inclusive workplaces, in alignment with the Economic Competitiveness Inclusion Plan, we piloted an Inclusive Workplaces Cohort. Seventeen local businesses participated to amplify the diversity of our community as a tool for economic growth.
  

Health and Wellness

Highlights

• Thanks to the work of our staff and the love of adoptive parents, 2021 was a record year for finding loving homes and keeping families together.
  
• Financial Assistance Services collaborated with community partners to help renters and landlords in need because of COVID-19.
  
• An interim food security coordinator was hired to prioritize strategies and convene action teams to coordinate food security work across our departments and community.
  
• Community Corrections, Social Services and Public Health worked toward the goal of stopping mass incarceration and disproportionate involvement with the criminal legal system. Less confinement, more community is Community Corrections’ goal through its work on initiatives such as the Community Alternatives Program. Social Services’ mental health co-responder model was embraced by public safety partners, and the Public Health model of group and gun violence prevention and healing continued through the work of Healing Streets.
  
• Veterans Services partnered with Workforce Solutions to raise awareness about higher rates of unemployment of veterans, while at the same time they bring a heart for service and resourcefulness to the workforce.
  
• We continued to collaboratively advance a holistic approach to strengthening families through early childhood care and education initiatives.
  
• Public Health continued its essential role during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the help of county and community partners, and volunteers, we vaccinated tens of thousands of residents at hundreds of clinics. We also engaged community in a targeted push to lowest-rate vaccination areas, answered questions and concerns, and provided accurate information through all the change with vaccines, boosters and variants. These efforts were recognized by government and community partners.
  

Information and Public Records

Highlights

• We successfully administered the 2021 local elections – where every voter in Ramsey County had at least one contest on their local ballot – by operating 170 polling places on Election Day and serving nearly 10,000 absentee voters.
  
• Communications shared critical COVID-19 information – expanding our emphasis on providing materials in multiple languages to better serve residents – along with messaging from across the county.
  
• Our Government Relations team produced award-winning 2021 legislative platforms.
  
• Led by Enterprise & Administrative Services, we continued a resident-centric service delivery model centered around Residents First at four service center locations. Navigators offered assistance in-person and via referral to connect residents with several core support programs.
  
• We published the 2021 Assessor’s Report via Open Ramsey County, making it easier to understand trends in the market. The 2021 property valuation was the highest in county history.
  
• We hosted a hybrid public hearing on the 2022-23 county budget providing options for residents to offer public comments and connect with appraisers in-person or virtually.
  
• We continued testing and developing a property tax solution that ensures residents receive accurate and timely calculation, billing, settlement and reporting of property taxes.
  

Safety and Justice

Highlights

• The County Attorney’s Office advanced efforts to reduce structural racial disparities in the criminal justice system, including a move to ease prosecution of non-public-safety traffic stops, as well as implementing Collaborative Charging Reviews and Restorative Justice Circles. The office published new Adult Prosecution and Youth Justice and Wellness data stories through Open Ramsey County.
  
• Following the dissolution of the State Fair Police Department, the Sheriff’s Office successfully organized and implemented a security plan at the fairgrounds in 2021, serving more than 1.3 million fairgoers. Deputies also secured and patrolled the fairgrounds day-to-day and for other events under an agreement between the county and Fair organizers.
  
• Telecommunicators and dispatchers again handled about one million emergency and non-emergency calls in 2021. Our team was lauded by public safety partners and other for the key role they played in response to the tragic shooting at the Seventh Street Truck Park bar on Oct. 10. The center has also taken a lead role in preparing for a model that provides for dispatching social workers and other professionals to non-life threatening calls when most appropriate.
  

Strategic Team

Highlights

• Transforming Systems Together hired a director and began its journey of shared power and community-based decision-making through convenings of community and systems leaders. The initiative identified multiple areas where systems change is needed and prioritized child protection and foster care as its first “North Star” to keep families intact.
  
• The COVID-19 Racial Equity and Community Engagement Response Team continued to advance our community partnerships, and several departments began working with the Equity Action Circle to co-design initiatives.
  
• Human Resources increased Ramsey County’s wage floor to $15.
  
• In response to the ongoing pandemic, we implemented a vaccination and testing policy for employees.
  
• We were awarded nearly $107M in American Rescue Plan Act funds. Finance has worked to efficiently and effectively manage these funds.
  
• Procurement processed 136 emergency contracts with nonprofits, community organizations and other providers to deliver much-needed services and also completed 573 regular procurements.
  
• The budget team successfully produced the 2022-23 County Operating and Capital budgets.
  
• Risk Management, in collaboration with IS and Compliance, successfully secured cyber insurance for Ramsey County after many years of effort.