Call the meeting of the Saint Paul City Council Policy Committee to order. Welcome, everyone. Good morning. Thank you all for being here. I m excited that we have, uh, two really interesting topics on our agenda today. Um, the first of which relates to the work that the city can do in conjunction with our partners to make life better in our community, for kids and families in Saint Paul. And I know that that is something that is top of mind for everyone at this table. And lots of folks, uh, besides. So, um, I m really grateful that Lori and Nicole from the Saint Paul Children s Collaborative could join us this morning to give us an update on, um, the Youth Outcomes Plan. And I think also just a bit about the collaborative in general for folks who aren t familiar. Um, because the Saint Paul Children s Collaborative is
really the space where all the different bodies that relate to kids in our community, um, come together to talk about how we can make life better for them. And there really aren t other tables that do that kind of work. So it s it s pretty unique. So with that, I will say no more, um, and turn things over to Lori. Nicole, welcome. Thanks. Um, thanks. Madam PRESIDENT. Uh, thanks, members, and thanks, Megan, for getting us all set up here. And, Lori, sorry if you ll just stand right in between the two microphones. You don t actually need to adjust them, but just make sure you re, like, centered. Okay? There you go. They ll pick. Up my. Good. You re good. Um, so my name is Lori Davis, and I co-direct the Saint Paul Children s
Collaborative with my business partner, Doctor Nicole Martin Rogers, who s going to speak second. Um, but I m just going to give a little bit of overview about the children s Collaborative, because as council member said, um, maybe folks aren t familiar. So Minnesota law establishes family service collaboratives all across the state of Minnesota. Every county has one or at least had one. If they haven t, shut it down. And we happen to be the Family Service Collaborative that serves the young people or covers the young people and their families in the city of Saint Paul, um, we also have two partner collaboratives. There s a suburban Ramsey Family Collaborative, whihi is our sister organization covering
the rest of Ramsey County, and then the Children s Mental Health Collaborative, the Ramsey County Children s Mental Health Collaborative focuses on mental health needs. Um, our mission at the Saint Paul Children s Collaborative is to mobilize the influence and resources of the city, county, school district and community to improve outcomes for young people in the city. Our board includes four statutorily mandated partners, and that is the City of Saint Paul, Ramsey County, uh, the cap rw uh agency, which includes headstart and the Saint Paul Public Schools. Those are our mandated partners. And then by choice, our board is more than half made up of community members and youth
representatives who are full voting members. So that s pretty cool. And Council Member Naicker represents the board for the council. And then Erica Prosser from Saint Paul Parks and Rec is the mayor s designee. Um, and I ll talk about our website in a second, but you can see the full list there And all of our work is guided by the Youth Outcome plan, which Nicole is going to talk about in a second. Um, and we use that to sort of, um, focus our work in other in our other areas. So we do a couple other things. We do advocacy. So we work with the Ignite Policy Council on state policy, particularly that impacts young
people. Um, this last session it was focused well there for a number of years. We ve been focused on state funding for out-of-school time program, but also have supported things like statewide expansion of college savings accounts. And, um, we also do program development. So the Children s Collaborative was really instrumental in helping develop college bound Saint Paul when it was just an idea that the mayor had at that time. So we were really involved in that. We ve also been very involved in the Saint Paulul Citywide pre-k program development, doioi research, doing convening of community. So that s that s another part of our program development. And then we also are a convener. We have a community of care we call it, which is 400 people from around the city. Who do they serve youth in one way or another. And we do educational efforts, um, with them. So we
will do presentations. Nicole just did a presentation about the data you re about to see. Um, we do we are partner with family wise. So we offer Ace Aces training. Do we do train the trainer so that people can go out in community and talk about adverse childhood experiences. So that s part of our convening. And then a big part of our work is that we, the state of Minnesota, has a medicaid waiver called the Local Collaborative Time Study Waiver. That s a mouthful. Um, the money goes it s for keeping kids out of out of placement. And the at least for the moment, the federal government, um, we get revenue for doing that thanks to our partners at
the district and the county who do the time study. The money goes to the state. Dhs, then to Ramsey County, who distributes it out to the three collaboratives. And we as the Children s Collaborative, we use 100% of the funds that come to us to do grant making to community organizations. The idea being they re closer too community than we are. So, um, big news are we have a rfp that s open right now for the next two year period. So it ll start in 2026. It s $2 million. It MAY be the last time we re able to do this because obviously federal funds are a little unknown at this point, but it s open right now. And you can find more information
on our website. It s. Dot org, and I think it s in the presentation as well. Um, and that grant making is really alignened with exactly what Nicole is about to talk to you about. So, um, please share that right now, because if anyone wants to apply, they need to notify us by 5 P.M. This Friday. And then proposals are due at 5 P.M. On JULY 11th. So with that, I ll turn it over to, uh, Doctor Martin Rogers, who s my co-director, who s going to talk about what? The details of the youth outcome plan. Unless anyone has any questions about the collaborative. Any questions? Doesn t look like it. Okay. Thanks. Good morning, Council members. Thanks for having us here today. I m Nicole Martin Rogers. I m the co-director. As
Laurie said of the Saint Paul Children s Collaborative. So I m going to talk to you today about our youth outcomes data. So the Saint Paul Children s Collaborative Board has identified the following um indicators as important measures that we should be tracking over time for how kids and families are doing in Saint Paul. And I d like to just recognize that wilder research, where I also work part time, um, was contracted by the Children s Collaborative and has been over the last many years to compile this data for us. So thanks to Wilder Research and Minnesota Compass team for compiling this data. So we re really looking at data
today about Saint Paul kids overall. Um, again, checking on these key, uh, outcomes that the board has deemed as really important and things that we want to improve over time and reduce disparities over time. So I ll just talk about each of the outcomes in turn. The first one is that young people arere ready for kindergarten, and we have data from Saint Paul Public Schools that shows that half of studedes are identified as low risk,eaning that they re deemed sort of ready to start kindergarten, ready for learning. And the share that of kindergartners. That has been low risk is steady over the last few years. You can see we have a missing data point in 2020, of course, because of the
pandemic, and data weren t tracked that year, but otherwise pretty consistent across the years. Um, when we look at data by race and ethnicity, we can see that it varies quite a bit. There s far more white kindergartners that are deemed low risk or ready for kindergarten compared to students of color. And all right, we re probably gonna have more questions here. This just. Um, uh. Thank you. Uh, Council PRESIDENT Baker. Um, I have a couple questions. So when you when you say low risk, it sounds like that means low risk for not being prepared for kindergarten. Or can you talk about what that means? Like what the risk is for? And then
my second question is, um, these this data, when kindergartners are identified as low risk, um, how is that how is that determined? Is there? Um, you know, tests that they re taking or evaluations, uh, to, to make that determination? Yeah. Um, so I think they use the fast, uh, reading, uh, orr kindergarten readiness test is the,, the metric that s used to determine whether, uh, kindergartners are low risk or high risk. And again, I think it s an indicator of um, like pre literacy and numeracy skills and other things that would, um, help them be prepared for, um, the things that they re
going to learn in kindergarten. And if, if I MAY, it s administered at the start of kindergarten. So usually OCTOBER of the kindergarten year by Saint Paul Public Schools. Okay. And then I just I m sorry. One more question. So is it administered again in kindergarten? Um, I ask that because, you know, in I have a kindergartner, um, and, and the teacher told us that when, when the students are just starting, you know, they re just getting used to kindergarten. Some of them have never gone to school, and they don t really maybe necessarily do as well as they might on those exams. And i think sometimes they they do some of them again later. So I was just also curious about that. Yeah. I don t, I don t
think that they do the fast test again. But there are other assessments that are done at multiple points during the year to kind of assess that. If kids are on track and meeting grade level expectations by the end. But I don t think that s the purpose of the fast test specifically. So that s just done in the fall. Okay. Thanks. And then just to thanks, MISS Johnston, please don t apologize. The whole point of this is for us to ask questions. So this is important. Um, the, uh, the next the slide that we were just on showing the racial disparities. So just to make sure I m understanding the slide correctly, that any child in the city of Saint Paul who is not white is more likely to not be ready for kindergarten. More than half are not low risk, meaning are are at risk and are not ready for kindergarten. Yeah, it s a
little bit hard to understand because the data is low risk. Yeah. Um, and also just to clarify too, this is just Saint Paul Public Schools data. So it s not all kindergarteners in Saint Paul. It s just the ones that are going to Saint Paul public. And then I know we ve I ve asked you about this in the past because obviously you see data like this, which is alarming and not acceptable. And you want to know what can you do about it? Um, and during the work on the Saint Paul Early Learning Initiative, I know I had asked the question, do we do we know where these kids are coming from? Do we know if kids to to MISS Joe s point, are kids coming from high quality early learning environments? Our kids coming from, you know, settings where they haven t been able to access child care. And I think
the answewe was, we don t know anything about the kids who are being surveyed here. Is that still that still true? Do we not know any? Does this not tell us anything about what needs to happen before five? Um, I think that we could ask Wilder and ask Saint Paul schools what additional data might be available. Right now. We don t have that in the data that we have, but there they MAY have some data about about entering kindergartners, about what environment they came from. You know, if they were just at home or in a early childhood education program or other. I m not sure what they know. About that. MADAM PRESIDENT, if I MAY. Also, I think, um, this is something that I work on a lot, both within and outside my work at the Children s Collaborative. And this is a it s a proroem at
the statewide level that we don t have and haven t for many years had data on statewide numbers that look like this. So that would be helpful for state policy in the first place. And then secondly, um, we really do need exactly what you re asking for. And at the state level, we absolutely don t have that. We should be able many of these, uh, children are funded in state or federally funded programs. Head start has great data on how their kids are doing, but we don t have that at the cityevel by, you know, where were they in their early childhood experiences? Were they at home, as n Nole said, or were they in high quality programs? We don t really know. We don t have a source of data
that links all those things. So. Thank you. Yeah. Okay, so taking a look at the next youth Outcome plan indicator, young people are reading by third grade. We see that in 2024, 27% of third graders in Saint Paul public schools are Saint Paul schools, including charters, were, um, meeting reading centers, and this is the lowest um proficiency level in the past six years. Um, and there s some difference between um or I ll show you in a minute where Saint Paul Public Schools fits in compared to the charters in Saint Paul. So again, we re missing that data in 2020 during the pandemic. But otherwise, you can see it s kind of been decreasing a little bit. And at a six year
low here in in 2024. And this is from this is M.K. Data Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment test data is where this data comes from. Um so you can see the orange bar here is Saint Paul Public Schools. And the blue bars are the various charter schools in Saint Paul. So Saint Paul Public Schools is kind of near the top in terms of performance. And there is a whole range in charter schools from, um, much higher performing to lower performing in terms of third grade reading proficiency. Um, when we look at third grade reading proficiency by demographic characteristics, both race and ethnicity, gender, and also
some other factors, we can see that there s again, a big variation with white students being far more likely to be proficient in reading at third grade and students of color, um, less proficient with quite a bit of variation between demographic groups. There s gender variation. And then also you can see that a lot of the students like that are eligible for free and reduced price meals. Um, English Learner Special education and students who are experiencing homelessness are all falling below the even relatively low average across the district. Overall. Um, MISS Kemp. Do we. Have data? So it s like the overall population, but do we have like subset data of how
many folks that are English learners fall into any of the racial demographic buckets or the ones that are eligible for free and reduced meals, or folks that are experiencing homelessness??O we s s that more prevalent in other racial demographics in this data? Doo we have do we have that? I see what you re saying. Uh, thank you, Councilmember. I don t I don t think that we have that data that was given to us right now, but I think that that would be something that could be analyzed in the future if we requested it. But it s not something that we have available in the data that we receive from Wilder Research at this time. So you re just asking kind of for like crosstabs of looking at race and ethnicity by these other, um, demographic. Yeah, I d be really interested because I
think it would be pretty illuminating. And I m assuming that I m just going to follow up with an ask which is not tangential to too much is happening in this momomt, but just on the topic of of health care, it d be reallll interesting to ask if there parents have health care since there are folks now that will lose health care JANUARY 1st and that directlyy impacts their ability to access quality early education or early home care for their kids, or, um, child care for their children. Um, it ll be a tremendous burden on their household budget. So I would just also be interested in the future if we have that anywhere. But like their also their family s ability to access health care and their medical bills and how that
potentially impacts their ability to put them into a day. A care provider. To get their kids ready for school. Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. Council member. And thank you for the suggestions about additional ways that we might look at this data. I think that that makes a lot of sense. And I also just wanted to mentiti, too, that one of our current grantees, um, Portico Health Net, is specifically working on the, um, insuring children and family. So, um, that s what one of our funded grantees is kind of addressing that issue a little bit. So. Yeah, and I think just to land the plan o o it, it s a it s a curiosity of mine more so than ever. Um, but less of a requirement for you to actually get back to me. But st a seed planted. Can I say
onon more thing to, um, the. I thought where you were maybe going is these these, uh, racial and ethnic categories are not very nuanced. And we ve had board members in the past, and we ve done advocacy around trying to get the Department of Education to break these out in more detail. We re not there yet, I guess. So if anyone was going to ask that we see that problem in this data, too. And again, this these data are about, uh, they re about the young people. But the problems that, you know, the the solutions to these issues are with the adults, with the systems. So, um, I just want to be clear that we don t think of this data as, oh, look at all these. These young people are failing. That s not how we
think about it. We need to know how to channel our resources to try to address the gaps. I think that s a really important point. And and thank you, Vice PRESIDENT Kim, for for raising it. Because you re right. As I look at this data, I see, um, you know, homelessness that s affordable housing and emergency rental assistance and supportive housing and all the issues we deal with at the hra. Right? Eligible for free or reduced price meals. That s povevey. So that s minimum wage and that s the ability to take time off when you re sick. That s, um, economic development. Right. So like this sort of strange division that we have of like, you know, the school district handles children and the city handles
other stuff is completely false. Everything that we do ends up trickling down to the children, whether or not it s directly related to our kids. And I think you see that really directly here. So I m glad you pointed that out as well. Thanks. Council PRESIDENT. And just to mention to when we see the child abuse and neglect data coming up in a minute, I think keep in mind that poverty and stuff and how that s related to some of the data we re going to be looking at in the disparities that w w see in our community. All right. So I m young people have health care coverage is our next indicator in the youth outcome plan. And we have a relatively low proportion of children in Saint Paul that lack health care coverage, especially since
the Affordable Care Act was implemented and the uninsured rate is slightly lower for the youngest children in Saint Paul. And it s a little bit higher for school age children. And, um, there is not really significant differences between white children and children of color on this particular indicator. So you can see the lighter shaded bars are before the Affordable Care Act. And then the darker orange is after the Affordable Care Act was implemented, um, again, hovering kind of around that 4% uninsured rate. This is again, looking at the data by race and ethnicity and other demographic
factors, in this case, age and household income. And you can see, um, it s interesting that households income between 200 and 400% of poverty have a higher uninsured rate than other groups, and that s probably because that s kind of in the zone where they hit that benefits Cliff, and they start losing eligibility for Ma at about 300% of poverty. Um, but still maybe aren t in a employment situation where they re getting full benefits for their family and they can t afford it on their own. So that s kind of why I thihi that little bump up in that particular income range. And then, um, again, slight variations, but not as much as maybe with some of the other data. Um, that other race might
be a small n, which is why that s, you know, huge 28% or something. So that might be a little bit of a blip in the data, but the rest shows not as much variation as with some of these other data points in the race. Ethnicity disparities. Uh, one of our really important outcome measures that we look is youth, uh, being connected to caring adults. And we actually assume that that s part of the reason why we do grant making is because we assume that through all of our grantees and all the work that they re doing is helping connect youth to caring adults in the community through our school time programs and summer programs. Um, the data that we re going to see here is from the Minnesota Student Survey, and there
s a couple of scales, series of questions that are used to measure empowerment, family and community support, and teacher and school support. So those are kind of three types of ways that you might be connected to a caring adult. And we ll show you some data, um, that, you know, we find in this case. And, you know, Lori just mentioned that for a lot of our data points, we don t have, um, details by some of the larger race and ethnic groups in, um, in our community. But for this particular data, because it s from the Minnesota Student Survey and Youth self-report, what their cultural community is, we do have data like for Somali and Hmong and some of the other, um, larger cultural communities. Um, there s some
variation by those communities. So Somali and white youth are more likely to, um, feel that they have connection to caring adults across these different ree scales. And Hmong students are less likely, um, and then we see students that are in foster care, students that identify as lgbt, uh, students who have experienced trauma are a a reporting lower levels of these ways of being connected to caring adults when compared with students who don t fall into those categories. So again, these are the support types. And this is work done by Doctor Michael Rodriguez at the University of Minnesota. Um, looking at some of the questions on the Minnesota Student Survey. So this just kind of explains what
the specific questions were that went into each scale. Um, it s interesting that,t,m, you know, youth that are younger, grade five, we can see they re reporting relatively high levels of support across family. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry to interrupt you. And soror for being so immersed in the data that I didn t see MISS Johanna. MISS Jones. Same. Um. Thank you, Council PRESIDENT. I was just reading the. Well, while you were talking. I was reading the developmental support types. Um, uh, under family and community support, it says ability to talk with mother if ailable and feeling cared for by parents, other adudu relatives, friends and other adults in the community. Um, could you talk a little bit
more a aut. I guess it s his ability to talk with mother. It doesn t say ability to talk with father. Or can you explain that? I just stood out to me. Um, Yeah, I guess that I don t. I m not honestly sure if it s just the way the items are set up on the Minnesota Student Survey. And that s how Doctor Rodriguez, um, designed it. I don t know enough about that, about the way the survey, but it s a question on this, on the stududt survey. And so I think that I don t know if there s a simimir question about fathers that he just decided not to include. I mean, he did research about this to determine which of these factors are sort of statistically significantly related in a, you know, to the scale. And so that s how he
kind of came up with this is by like statistical analysis of the data and understanding what things, uh, relate together. So I, I that s thenly explanation I can give is that that item was shown as important when he did his analysis. I can look into it more if you d likike, but that would be my. Okay. That s fine. My initial explanation. Because additionally, if there are folks that are identifying as, lgbtq plus to us, plus, um, I kind of wonder theuestion around ability to talk with a parent using like, Non-gendered language, because I m sure there are kiddos right now that have a non-gendered parent. So it s just to s s, I think to
that point, I also was thinking the inverse of why that would be missing. But I think to your great point, it s like what was actually statistically significant to present. So, um. These are all such important points to about when we were often talking about such upstream topics like data and what questions should be included or not included on surveys, and how are they phrased? And it might seem like sort of a, a semantic exercise, but then that that those questions become the data that we can use to make meaning and decide a policy solution. So it s so important to get to ask the right questions and to frame them in the right way. So anyway, just yeah, appreciating the questions. It would be interesting to know, um, Doctor
Martin Rogers, if y y if you can find out if there was a corollary questioio for fathers or other parents, you know, just p pent, um, guardian. I d be happy to look into that. And also, I think that, you know, the process for developinghe Minnesota Student Survey is pretty extensive. And it s in every three year survey. And so that would beomething that if we wanted to issue, I think there s an opportunity to issue comments about that. So if we wanted to provide feedback on those particular questions, once we once we find out what s asked and maybe what s missing or could be worded differently, we can, uh, definitely look into that. Um, let s see, I was gonna say one other thing, but I don
t know what it was so ready to move on. Yes. All right. So when we look at the developmental support, uh, indicators by age group, uh, we can see that fifth grade is hihiest. And then it kind of goes down from there. Kids start to, um, in my own experience with my children, I can say they start to disconnect from the adults in their life a little bit and maybe start to rely on their peer groups a little bit more. During thaha junior high and high school years. And we can kind of see that here of them feeling a little bit less connected to the adults in their family and community. Um, and thenn also you can see that, um, you know, the empowerment score maybe doesn t change as much. So they
re still feeling that, um, sense of connection to a caring community and t tt they re enabled to be themselves and participate in their community. It s just the family and teacher support that kind of goes down. And actually it goes up bacac a little bit. Um, as the kids enter into 11th grade. Same thing here. But looking at, uh, variations by race and ethnicity and, um, we can see there are some variations. Somali and white students tend to report are a little more likely to report, um, connection to caring adults in these ways. African American and Ameririn Indian Hmong students are less likely. And then these are some of those
other, um, demographic subgroups that we look at in that we re able to look at in the Minnesota Student Survey because it s self-reported. These are self-rererted, um, identities. And, um, again, the youth that our foster youth, lgbt, um, and kids who have experienced trauma in partrtular have a lot lower experiences, uh, less likely to feel support from the adults in their family and community. Um, sorry. MR.. Professor. Thanks. Council PRESIDENT, just to clarify, in the last three slides, the first one says Saint Paul Public Schools and then the next two just say Saint Paul. Is this slide, the current slide that shows special population and development support type. Is that referring to only Saint
Paul public Schools or for all Saint Paul? That s a good question. I will have to check with my colleague. I think that they might have analyzed the data in two separate ways. So for Saint Paull Public Schools, they might have had it by grade. And then for Saint Paul overall geographic, they might have. So but I ll verify that before I answer for sure. I thinin it might that might be right that it s different. But yeah. And I don t want to over parse. I think a lot of these are helpful to t te away in sort of the macro, especially because there s a mixture of assessment testing versus self surveyed versusike the methodology in these is all different. And so I m trying to make sure I m not comparing the data sets across different.
Right. Like I, I in the back of my head, m m special ed teaeaer mother and school psychologist sister and pre-k teacher wife are all telling me like, you know, I m getting all these voices back here. Um, but in particular with special ed and, and frankly, with other things, too.O. I just want to note, um, just as a strong supporter of our, our public schools, there s a very real dynamic with what our public schools aree required to provide and how they provide services to students versus what other non-public school district schools might provide. And so, particularly with special ed and other things where there is sort of a strucucral almost,
you know, uh, well, I don t know, I, you know, we re all aware of the differences in what, you know, charters might be required to provide versus Saint Paul Public schools, all those things. And I just I feel strongly about, you know, making sure I m appreciating it correctly. So thank you. Thanks. Council member. Yep. That a great point. I just had a really quick question. , I see on the by specici learning population, I can see ahead. Also, there s um, w w re covering sort of the abuse and neglect section. Um, but I just have a question around howowhe definition of trauma is being used because, um, like is it being used the definition of like, children are taking the Ace test and like you re
learning about that or where is that data being derived from? So this is all that I like, I don t I haven t looked at I I with any recent memory, but I think there are some folks here that would define foster being a foster kid is something that would show up on on an ace score. That s a good pointnt. So these are all, um, youth self-reported, um, inn t Minnesota Student Survey. And I do believe that the trauma category is like a acs scale, that then if they score above a certain amount, they would be considered as having experienced trauma. And I think that potentially might include out-of-home placement as well as a numberf other things
like witnessing, um, domestic violence in their home. And, um, you know, having a parent that has severe persistent mental illness and other factors l le that. So I appreciate that. And similar to the question that matches had, just like making sure that I m orienting myself to like what that definition is looking like in this data set. So I appreciate that. Yeah. Only just in addition to what Council Vice PRESIDENT Kim just ntioned, I am particularly sensitive to, um, because this is a statewide survey. I, for example, I like I grew up in a very like rural small town. You know, Councilmember Johnson grew up in a like smama, medium size, like rural western Minnesota town. And I, I would flag to like questions about
even topics likik this are like e even the differences in how ke you grow up learning different verbiage and language like I would assume the results. And this has nothing to do with the city itself, but the results across the state would vary just by sort of cultural difference of how you talk about different things to like the growing up in an urban, diverse environment. Kids, I believe, are a little bit more equipped to eveve recognize and identify and speak to s se of these things. So I it is interesting getting to see sort of how it t s spoken to here for sure. In Council member. I also say I I s a great question, and I think that, um, it also, it would be
interesting to see the participation rates because I ink parents can opt their kids out of doing the Minnesota students survey. So that s a that s a really good point. Thank you. Council member. I, um, just wanted to note that the Minnesota Student Survey is defifitely not without its challenges orontroversy, but it also is a pretty robust source of self-reported data from youth that we don t have anywhere else. And in the past, actuallyly I think one cycle, Saint Paul Public Schools had declined t t participate as a district overall. So we didn t have student survey data. But we, um, they did participate this last round, and I thinknk they
re kind of back in, but they re yeah, it s definitely not without its issues. Uh, MISS Johnson. Thank. You for that. I m like as you proceed to talk through some of the data points, I think it adds a little bit more questions in my head. Um, but I think, uh, the question I have for you is, is more of a make sure I understand o o which age groupss like what age groups are captured. I know that it breaks it down by g gde above in the first, like when the in the first slide. But I m just is that same then for the rest or at age group are we t tking about. And students actually were reported. So um not every grade takes the Minnesota Student Survey. So that
s why these grades are shown, is because these are the grades that take the survey. Okay. So on every survey it s just fifth. Sixth I mean sorry, fth, eighth, ninth and 11th okay, okay. That just helpful. I aumed so, but I just wanted to clarify. And then I guess my question is like where does this data go? So like who hears it? Um, as you re going through the presentation, y y know, I m just likeehis. There s a lot of things that stick out t t me. I have a lot of thoughts abobo them. None of them necessarily. Uh, great. But really concerning. And so I m just kind of wondering what, um, you
know, when I see the, the stats of just like the amount of black students that are, um, achieving reading standards at third grade. And I see that 12%, um, which iss like the same amouou as maybe an Englili, an English language learner, um, less than individuals eligible for frere and reduced lunch, less than special ed students. Um, it s the lowest race catetery. I just kind of wondering, like where this data goes and like where does it lie and who sees it, who kind of responds to it because that is I think that s a growing concern that I continue to hear from parents and folks in the
neighborhood, too, is like, uh, especially surrounding, like, allids. But like specifically in my community,,ike African American k ks, black kids, um, cocoinuing to be kind of equipped and ready, but then it doesn t show in some of the performance mechanisms in any school, whether that be public or charter. Yeah. Thank you, Councilmember, for your question. Um, so, um,m, these data that we re showing you here were compiled specifically for, uh, Saint Paul Childldn s Collaborative. And so we have the data presented to our children s collaborative board. And as Lori mentioned, we also share it with the Community of Care, w wch is aist of, you knkn, 400. Whohoer decides too come to the presentation where we do it, whehe we present it
here in other places where we re asked, it s on the Children s collaborative website. So this particular collection of data points, right, that the Children s Collaborative has decided is important. But then like if you want to get Minnesota student survey data about these data points andny other data point that s in the Minnesota Student Survey, you can go to the Minnesota Student Survey site at the Minneneso Department of Education. And, you know, depending on t tre s some data, um, on table schools data portal. So depending on which the d da point is, it s alsls sharedn other publili places. Um, a a then I guess the last
thing that I would say, and maybe t to answer your question is, um, and Lori sort of ntioned this already, but wee use these data to help drive the grant making of Saint Paul Children s Collaborative. So when we open an rfp, w w encourage people to look at these data. Weant you to address where the g gs are. And we want you to address where the biggest needs are in our community. So we re requesting that the grantees that we re going to fund would also u use these data to sort of identify what programsnd services are most needed in the community. And then the reviewers that w w are from theommunity and from our board, um, are looking for that, rigig when t the re
deciding who to fund. Does that answer your question? Yeah. No, I think it s it s just nice to kind of know, likee whahat?Hat happens to this data because there s just a lot of like I said, I have a lot of questions. I have a lot of concerns that kind of are identitied here. Um, and if I could a f flow up to that, I guess, then how many of like kind of the, I guess some of theeervices that are provided are some of the grants that are ven targett black studedes? Um, that s a good question. We have, um, several grantees that are culturally specific, and thenene have some g gntees that work with studedes, you know, like breakakrough, Saint Pauau and others that work with
students from all demographic groups. Um, I m trying to think of specific, uh, yeah, Minnesota African Women s Associatation. We did have Malik Brown as a grantee before. Um, they were unable to continue. Um, the network. We used to have a grantee network for children of African descent.. So Saint Pauau promise. Yeah. So we have a few g graees thatterve a lot of Africic American kids and families. Yeah. Okay. Are ey recent and like are they active currently or is like has this in the past? Uh, some of e, uh, the Minnesota Africanan Women sssociation and, um, breakthrough there s we can wee could show you our list of all our grantees. There s there s
actiti grants right now that are serving African Americann children and families. Yeah, I would just be particularly interested mososy in that as and not just like, it s just something that s sticking out through your presentatatn. Um, and I,, you know, I definitely think t tt the susuort for all of our studentss is r rlly important and imperative. I just know sometimes theres, um, just a owing need and concern for some of our students that maybe don t always have those services and support..Nd I know the under this c cegory, black or African American is the diaspora. So I m sure within that there s more data to dissect there. But it is of particular interest t t me as
well. O Oy. Thanks, MISS Johnson. And I do think following up with the list of maybee a couple of years of granteesesould be reallll helpful to this group to understand the work the collllorative does. One of thehe ththgs I really appreciate about the cololboratives that, to youroint, Misss Johnson, it s not j jt I think some organizations gather dataa and some organizationsnsake grants, and this organizizion does both a a specifically uses e data to drive where t t grants are going. So,or example, I remembebe a yearhen because of this data, we and the disparities that you re tataing aboutith Black a a erican I Iian students, the decision w w madad tonly grant to organizations that spspifically fococed on Black
and American Indiaia students. I this was a couple years ago, um,orxactly that reason. So it s the organizationns nimble enoughghhaha every two yeaea when it isssss the r r based on this d da, it canan say,, you know, not only do you have to like, address all of these things I I g genal, but we might even d dide, youounow, we re going to focus specifically on this groro of students. So thank youou That s a really good point. Iould only add, coununlember that if you are familiar with organizations that you feel like are doing good work o o addressing any of these issues, really, really, I mean, this I ishe week to let them know because we want to hear fromm them. We have. So we only have $2 mililonnd that it sounds like a aot, but it s not a a lot. And so that s why we rget, um. And we
ll send out afterr ts the link to allllff us to for thehe rfp. U Um, to send to organizations we know. Thank you. Um, yeah. And I w wld just also note to that, um,o me and maybe the you aittle bit this feels a little bitit like admiring the problem to just ow all these datat points with dispspity, d dpapaty, disparity. And especially when s, um, younow, I ve, I beenen involveve I I the Children s CoCoaborative for a number of yes and looking at, you know,w, it s not changing a l l oveve over the years. And s s t tt can be kind of h hd. B b then when we getet our grantee reportsnd we s s some of the impact that they re having with t the ildrdr a a famililss that are rking with, youounow, that can kind o o help y you feel hohoful t tt there s someolksks
somewherer getting t tctctn. And eventually, hopefully these numbers will changng But I I is. I can j jus ackckwledge that this I I a a little b b can be a little bit frustrating jusus to look at the popopation numbers and t trends over time, because w w don t see a lot of change over t t years.. The next outcome thatt I will share with you is, um, young people are safe andnd free from child abubu and neglect. Um, there s been someme slight d decreaseses over the last fewears. Um, the,,m, casesf neglect,hysical abuse, menenl injnjy havav declined. Sexexl abuse has mamaeded relatively steady. ThThe have been declilis and confirmed cases of maltreatment amongsian Pacific Islander, Black a a Latino childrere Um,
the largest c cegory of confirmed maltreatment I iolves neglect. Um acrossm Saint Paul, children. S Sw you some more detetls h hero o o course there u um, reports thatome in. A a thenhose are,h, trackeke into a a famamil assessment or annnvestititionon anan you can s s, u um, then therer s, uh, relatively fewew number of m mtreatment c ces that arectually confirmrmedn Saintt Paul. I should note, too, that these data a a f fm Ramsey CoCoty. Um, childld p ptectioio Um, t te of,h,h, abuse reported ain,n, u negegct is the most coon thaha sexual abuse, phphical abuse andndental injury is the leaea common.M,
when we loooo at confirmed maltreatatnt by p per 1000 uh, chchdrdr by r rac and eththcity,, can seehat, uh, Americaca Indian and two or more races, um are vy much errepresented. Um, also, agaiai going back t t the questiti of poverty andhat areeome of theheoot c cses of somemef theseituauaonsshaha familieses and childrennind themselves I in?An see that, again, t t American Indiaian mmunitit especially in t area of n nlect, is very, verer overrepresented.M, and Blackck dd African Amemerin also sosomeatat o orrepeprentnt Vice Presidenen Kim yeah, s sryry to
interjecectgain. U Uust wondering if we knoww what t t whatat the most commonwo or morere racaces w wee inn tt dataa set because itt looks like a trends with anonoerace and ethnicitit g gup. But I don t want too make too many assumpmptis. But I m wononriri,, do y y knoww what o oer.. Y Yh, we do not get that da, but we can a ask abobo it a s s I I eyey kw I mm not t Ty j jus gigit to us a twoworrore raceces. S So yeah.H. Um,m, we e ll a d seeeef wee c can fin thaha t. I aays f fd that categogory,m, little b didistbibiecauausett doesn t ll you a w wle lbout, um,
anything.. So, yeah. A And Dococr Roge, in part bececsese ts I is per 1000 cldren, it mesee thinkkhat an importatant w ofofuttitinghetatastst, becacae itt aowss y to mpmpe aosos diffeferent cies ddhe state as ahole, etc.. All off tse chahas,e re lookinin justttt s Saintaul a cocoarargg o oseseeseso oursrsels orrime. But do w we also dohihis for thehe rest o o eetatate? I I c curiousowow we compare, fnkly,, inn my o of thesee catories t stewidede ororthther citieies. Wee have not lolook att any comparison data fo other g ggraphic areas, but ththatss somomhihinghat w we coul um,m, cerertaly, u asksk yoyo k kw,w,boutut innhe nexex un o o dat t that weeetet. YeYe. Yeaea it it mightht just I I mn,n,ndnd ain,, I I s n it d dsnsn t mtete in somome w ways
anan o o l le thissss heararreaking t t l loo a at d data li ts n natatte whahat, n matthehethere re d dngng bett orrorse thaha a another cicity.Ut it doeoe I I tnk I it woululd be intntesesting to contntextualizett inhat way. ....Eaea c Cncil p psidedent I inink in aoo you point I I a nsns it doeoesn t matatter I t t nseehaha l like t the seeinghehe acacalal symymomom, itt wouldld t maerer. But t think onhehe sosotitis se, I I tmsmsf what y y dobobo I I it matttts becau f fe, um, ke f for emplelehehe I gww ,, you know,w, t s schl didiririct w w a almttssenentially 70%%hitete and 7 70%atativ Amicic.. Andnd s so you wou h have only those two dataa setetsnn a
t tsese bredodown f f exexampl or t t theaiaintauaul exexample.M, we reeeining a l lot of,h,h, wt w whatccccs in didierert racacll group for ststentsts. Buthehe ler thahat ss nono mtioneded herer I I w what antiti off thosetutudessrere a g given d dtrtrict or I a a veve bldlding.Oror exalele a lolo of the chaerer t that I m eingng I k kww a s sortff known t t bee very raciallll homogeouous,omeeyy digign a and soso n not by design.Nd t the evenhe districict,or e exalele whene s seehehe c categorie o of lili w what whitetudentnts are dodogg I in sps I I know the didistctcttselel I far more or I shohodd say it t ss m muc muc
mo divererse tnn the cityss whole. Youounow t tha I I r remember tatatist o opsps b bngng soththing lee 9 90% stutudentsff colo o or something, and obvivislyy t citity isowowhe arar that s sor of riaial brbrkdkdn.N. S I tnknk in partularar, likike the s sutioions wouldd be d dfefedd bedednnomom ofhohosereakakwnwns. The o oth inin I I would mentition onl cacause m o m m slyly, um, bale,, I um, the data p point abou allll of thesehaharter school a Atitime Iee ahahart with a thehe chaer schlsls, do wtt t not that a lea some I I not s signicaca puputition of thosetudedess areototaiaint p Paul k kids andot inint Paul families. And s s the inerms off t solution, agai I itoeoesn thehe daaetet is still h hpfulul bausesee e eieinghahatidid iur lik stududents in this a are are peperiencing. But on the solutionide,e, it important toememembe t that, y knonow, the ararrsrs tha I m seeing on rere t thatrere nrr to me when I I metet with themnd I I a
thr g geoapapcc breakdown, itit s n nerer been eveven remotel majori kids in the neighborhoodhahat are a t tsese schools, you know, like it s not even all theimime. Majority kids I Saintaul.L. It ss froro wherever. Andnd and e even escicilyly for lik t the random prprivat t tha havave I in my wawa,, which d don tt thi therere ss aonon,utut like they especially, it s lee the French schchool is, y knonow, ere s probably like 15idid inhehe neighborhdd at that scho,, and the rest are f fmm al o over, bauause it s the nature o thehensnstitution. So jujust notin tt that s h h I I m dodoing. It, I think to adds just a good examp ofhihi Matt, isheheojojourner Acamy p predominant Kornnidids.S. And if we were to hav disaggregatedatata on a Asian populatis,s,hen I it would b able to disagegegate and be
much more intentionalroround the solution that could be offered t t tsese kids. So I just wan t to l lik land tha plplane. But there s a reall eattxaxample. The songcacademy is f filled with k kids, soff the da f for Korean kids, if we disaggregated Asi data sho xyz is h hapnining tohem in the home, then the looks of t susupports that ttt school tn could shift and identify f that populatio c could be much rentntentional. So I really appreciate you namin ttt man. Anank you. Council membe,, um, jujust wan t to point out thathehe data have to beolollected at a certain level of detail in order to be disaggregated on the analysis e.. And so that s ahahallenge for lot of these data, is that it s just not
tracked in the dat system I the firstlalace at that level of daiail.Oo then of course, yo c can t g itt out whenouou want I on the on the back end. And also I wanted to note too, that Saint Paul Children ss Collororative Service area I is childr w who live in and or go to school in Saint Pl.L. So, um w we are actually interested in tho kss who might not live in Saint Paul, but who are attending sooools that are located in Saint Paul. So you. All right. So young people graduate from high school is on of our important youth outcee plan indicators. And citywide, in Sai Paul, 70% of students I public schchools in Saint Paul, including chaerers, um, gdudueded I in four years.
Uh, lowest on-time graduation rate in the past six years, 68% of students in Saint Paul scolols graatated in four years. Um on time graduation rass in Saint Paul Chaerers ranges from 9% to 97%, so you can t get much bigigger range than that. Um, and w have, um, ten percentage point, lower graduation rate for, uh, some demoapaphic groups American Indian, Hispanic and Latin and othertutudent subpopulations. So again, you can see this is over tim And we re at a six year low here. Saint Paul Schools is a little bit more in the midee bottom here tha they were on the third grade reading. Um, it stitillgagain a huge range across all the
charters in Saint Paul. Um, so students don t graduate on time in four years. Um, some of them drop out or leave school and others continue on. And, um, we can see actually that it looks likehehe continuing proportion is down just a little bit. But the dropout or unknown rate is what I kind of gone up as the graduation rate has gone down, unfortunately. So it ll be interesting to see. And it s, um, it s impossible to know. And obviously this is a lot of years of data, but obviously kids graduating in 2023 were in the thick of Covid during their entire high school careers. And, um, so it ll be it ll be interesting to see what happens
with this trend as the years kind of go on. Yeah, that s a really great point. A little bit of disconnection happen for some pretty strong external factors. Um, so looking again at the graduation rate by demographic groups, there s a bit of variation across race and ethnic groups. Variation by gender. And also again, um, students from some of these special subpopulations are all less likely than average to graduate from high school students experiencing homelessness. Only 36% graduate on time. That s a intergenerational, um, pathway,
right? To, um, that we don t want to see. So that s the data that we have for you. Happy to answer any other questions. Welcome you to check out our website. On our website you can see all our current grantees. So if you re interested in learning more about who we re funding right now, all this data, um, is on the website. And previous years of data got a lot of stuff on there. Thanks, Lori. Can I, um, Nicole, we go back to the very beginning where the all the goals are listed because we do have two additional goals that were added by the board this year, which is Nicole was the one who really staffed that. Do you want to talk about those? Sure. Yep. So the first six goals that you see here have
been kind of long standing goals for the Children s Collaborative. And that s what we showed you data on today. The last two here that young people have high social competence and young people have positive identity. These were added indicators by the board. Um, in the um, just in JANUARY of 2025. So we don t have data yet. We ll have data in our next round on those. Those are both, um, scales from the Minnesota Student Survey. So more more student survey data. And the reason why we added those is because anecdotally, we ve been hearing from our grantees and from the community over the past several years, for sure at amplified when the pandemic started. And since then, that mental health concerns and needs are, um, really common in our community and that, um, children and families need more support with
that. And so, um, we didn t because there s the Ramsey County Children s Mental Health Collaborative, and they deal more with like the clinical stuff, right? Getting kids access to therapy and things like that. We added more of these, um, self-reported, uh, indicators that really any time school provider could be addressing. Right. It doesn t have to be a therapeutic or clinical setting necessarily to help people have higher social competence or to help people have a positive identity. We also know that for kids of color, American Indian kids and African American kids, that having a positive identity and being connected to their culture is strongly related to academic performance and outcomes. And so the board voted to include these. So in
future data updates, you ll be able to see data points on these, um, these new indicators. If I might add one thing, just a shout out to sprockets. We work closely with those folks and we really encourage our grantees to be part of the activator cycle. If they are doing out-of-school time programming, I think we might even say that it will be hard for an out-of-school time program to be funded this time if they re not, because it s just such a great, great asset to the programs, the program staff and the families they serve. So we love those guys. Um. Uh, questions and comments. I suspect there MAY be a few. MISS. Just. Um, thank you. Council PRESIDENT, I appreciate you talking about those last
two. Um, uh, outcome plan goals that were added, because that was my question is if you could talk more about those. And I think I was also curious and I understand if this if you MAY not know the answer. This MAY be like a really long answer, but how how are you planning to or how will data be collected for high social competence or positive identity? It sounds like that s going to maybe be in. Would that be in the Minnesota Student Survey? And I think I ll just be curious to see like how that gets measured. Um, and so that s kind of my first question comment. And I think the other I know this was brought up earlier, um, but when we were looking at when I started to look again at the data that was collected for two or more
races, um, I think that that s just similar to what my colleagues mentioned. It s been a little bit confusing to me because it it doesn t really tell a lot of information, but it is a large proportion. And so I d just be curious as to what proportion of those surveyed identified as two or more races compared to, um, you know, some of the other other groups? Um, it seems, you know, possible that a lot of children would identify as two or more races. And I think that would help to understand, um, this data a little bit more, and it would be nice to know which races, but I understand that that might be hard to gather. Thank you. Yep. Council member,
to answer your first question, yes, the two new indicators will come from Minnesota Student Survey data. And they re both up scales. So a series of questions that are all kind of added up to to get to social competence and to get to positive identity. And I d be happy to share with you more about what those items are on the survey. But it s like five, five items. Um, Lori brought up. So it s um, in, in, um, this is kindergartners, um, there is, uh, 5.8% that are two or more races. Three, 3.8 glasses. No. Five. Oh yeah. Yeah. Sorry. I need my glasses. She s younger than I am. So that s entering kindergartners
2023. She has her glasses. Yeah. Um, and the source of that is the early childhood longitudinal data system. If you haven t looked at it, you should check it out. It s amazing. You can compare the whole state to a specific district. Oh, wait, that might be all. That s all. Hang on. That s the state. So I can I can do it, um, for Saint Paul s school. So there are that s an interesting question. I ll do that. Thanks. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Um, well, I really appreciate the thoughtful presentation. I do have one question. Um, actually, before that, I want to know that there are always issues with data. We can always do better with data. I m so grateful that we have wilder research. Um, because without
it, not just in this category, but in so many other sectors that we care about, we would just not have nearly enough data. So, um, thank you, doctor Martin Rogers Wilder also happens to be the organization that we contract with for our audit committee, which is our next topic. So we re doubly blessed. It s a great, uh, great segue. Um, I did not tell you I would be asking you this question, but, um, I like to keep people on their toes, and I m just curious, given that you re both really experts in this field, talk to so many organizations, parents. Um, school leaders. I mean, what if you were to give us suggestions for what we as a city can do to help make an impact on some of these indicators? Um, because
there extremely troubling. And to your point, um, Doctor Martin Rogers, they haven t changed very much. What what might you suggest we do? I have two suggestions, and then we ll see what. Lori. What Lori says, I would say, um, focus on the youngest kids because the disparities start there and they only get bigger. They don t get smaller. And it s really hard to catch up if you re behind. Once you once you start kindergarten. Um, and I would say, um, targeted universalism strategies are, um, something that I would strongly advise you to look into, which means looking at the groups that are facing the greatest disparities, like kids who are experiencing
homelessness, African American kids, American Indian kids, um, lgbtq kids, um, saw all the groups, um, and making sure that any intervention or strategy is designed to meet those kids needs. And, um, a lot of research has found that when that s done, it actually helps. Um, everybody everybody benefits from it. So that would be two things I would recommend. Thank you. Um, thanks. MADAM PRESIDENT. I think I second, what Nicole said is exactly what I would say. And I think that you also pointed to a number of you pointed out a lot of things go back to poverty. I mean, these are huge, huge problems. And so, um, one of the things that
s hard right now is this sort of turning away from data, you know, and why do you have data? Why do we need to separate, why do we need to focus? And I think that, I mean, we have to focus because we don t have the resources to do everything for everyone. So you have to be strategic. And to be strategic you need data. So I think we appreciate the chance to be here. And I think you just need to continue that. I think the city of Saint Paul has done an amazing job in many ways. I mean, college bound Saint Paul, I mean all there s a lot of work that has happened in this city that is not happening in other cities. So you re doing good work. It s just we re not doing enough and we re not doing it fast enough.
Thank you. Um, um, well, thank you again. I do want to note to my colleagues that the Saint Paul Children s Collaborative, um, is in part funded by all of the partners, Ramsey County, um, Community Action Partnership of Ramsey, Washington County s Saint Paul Public Schools, and the City of Saint Paul. Um, all of those other partners upped their contribution to the collaborative last year. Our increased contribution was line item vetoed by the administration. And so we did not. And in fact, um, none of our contribution, I believe, has come in yet to the Children s Collaborative, if I remember correctly. Not even the increase, just any contribution. Correct. So that s something that I m working on, uh, with Lori and Nicole. But I just wanted to
mention it because I know as we enter our next budget process, um, I m committed to restoring that funding. And I think it s really important, given the work that you re doing. So, um, yes. And I see MISS Johnson and Vice PRESIDENT. Kim, and just for clarity, which departments like with that funding typically come from. I believe that funding comes. I m not entirely sure it s not a department. I think it might be sort of a general fund contribution. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. How long have we contributed? How long have we contributed to the Children s Collaborative? Since. Since its inception. So we ve been doing this for 17 years, and it was before that. And the minimum contribution is set out in the Joint Powers
Agreement, which was renewed two years ago. So we re right. We re we re contractually bound to those three other parties to be contributing every year. It s not just a nice thing we do. Um, so vice PRESIDENT. Yeah. Just to clarify, can you remind us what a dollar amount is attached to that ask? Yeah, the increase was $15,000 and it was, um, a line item veto. What s the total amount? And the total amount is 35,000. I gotta look it up. I can never remember exactly. I can do that, though. Historically it s been I believe it s been 20. And all the partners agreed to an increase. Last year. We agreed to a 15,000 increase. So
I think it was 20 is the base. Yeah. All right. Thanks for all your great work and thanks for being here. Appreciate it. Much for the chance. Thanks. All right. Hard pivot. As the vice PRESIDENT Would say, two audit committee. Um, MISS Vang, welcome. And to the to my peers here, one of the things that, well, um, two of us are on the audit committ, so I welcome my colleagues on the audit committee to weigh in as well. One of the things we re really trying to do as the audit committee is to make sure that we re not just we re in a phase now where we re choosing our next topic. We heard a presentation from Wilder Research about our last topic, the capital improvement budget process. Um, now we re about to
choose our next one, and we really want to do this as a committee of the council. This is the audit committee is supposed to be a tool of ours. It s not just supposed to be this extraneous body sitting out there making its own decisions. Um, but I think sometimes the topic selection has been a little bit in isolation from this body. We ve always had to pass a resolution approving the topic, but it s kind of kind of been by rote. And so the hope here today is to hear from MISS Vang about the two topics that emerged as kind of frontrunners in our conversation at audit committee last week. Um, the risk analysis that we have done to we always look at risk, because that s kind of why you do an audit is to make sure you mitigate risk. Um, and then we really want to get this body
s thoughts on which of these two topics is most interesting to you. Um, or if there s another topic that rises to the top, and then the audit committee will take that information into account in its JULY meeting and hopefully make a decision accordingly. So with that MISS Vein, welcome. Good morning, Renee and council members. Thank you for the opportunity to share with you the two topics that rised out of our JUNE 17th Audit Committee meeting. Um, the first is the data practices process, and the second is revisiting the housing development process. I m going to start first with the data practices process. And as Chair Baker has indicated, there s a rubric here that I
did, um, to kind of differentiate between the two topics and also to find out whether, uh, which one is a more viable option for you to consider. Um, so the data practices one, um, as you recall, back in 2020, under the city Clerk Moore s leadership, we implemented a data management tool that helped us streamline the way different department, um, respond to data requests. And because we re mandated by the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, there s various, um, key elements that we, the city, have to comply with. And as you re aware, in recent time, two Ramsey County judges have found that the city were not compliant in responding to those data requests. So the increase in interest in um, compliance has risen to the
top. And most recently, there are two um, legislative file that I think is up for council s vote today. Um, regarding two positions that would be, um, involved in this um, process in general. Um, this request came up twice, 1 in 2024 and most recently in 2025 when the deputy mayor emailed chair acre expressed an interest in the audit committee to look at data practices as an option to, um, improve the process. So it s been five years since we implemented this process, so it s not a bad idea to consider again, just because, um, the volume of data requests have risen, the cost regarding, um, staff time, um, with the city s liability has
also increased slowly over the years. So I think in light of that, um, the audit committee felt strongly that this is a topic that is worth, um, studying further and as Chair Akers indicated, while the research is our consultant who will be doing the study. So, um, I m moving. Is there any question before I move on to the next topic. Any questions? It doesn t look like it for now. Okay, so we are now revisiting the housing development process. We initiated this back in 2022. And um, Director Newton was the project lead, um, on this study. Um, it was to look at the way developers, especially for new and emerging, uh,
developers, including the Bipoc developers. There s a confusion part, confusing process that comes into play in the city. Sometimes there s confusion regarding which department do you first seek assistance to look at your permit before you can actually build a construction? And because of that, Baker Tilly was the consultant that we that the audit committee hired to do this study. Unfortunately, the study, um, had didn t lead to the end result that the committee had hoped for. So now we are revisiting this again to look at ways to improve our process and whether or not there has been change made since 2022. So I think that s a brief summary. And as I indicated in the document,
there are four departments. Well, three major department that are involved in this process that being planning, economic development, department safety inspections, public works, possibly water, and also involvement with third parties like the district council. So there MAY be other department that we, um, had failed to consider. Um, in our previous study. So thank. You. Thanks for having questions about questions for missing or just comments in general. MISS Johnson. Just comments in general for me. Um, I think my initial reaction is that the data practices process might be, um, more pressing and more responsive to kind of like the need for now. Um, and the only reason why I share that is I
think that the housing, the housing development process, the study that was conducted that is missing, maybe some elements that the committee MAY want to see, um, MAY also be able to work in alignment, in alignment with the upcoming economic development strategy. Um, and just kind of thinking, if they re findings there that might be wanting to add to the scope or MAY spark other questions. You know, I do anticipate a huge part of the economic development strategy, especially in regards to downtown coming into how to ensure that developers are able to access these building structures that we have, are able to convert them into housing opportunities and potentially MAY be a piece of
the housing development process that you MAY want to consider. And so it s just not done or completed at this phase. And that MAY be something that can cater to, um, shaping the scope for the next steps in this, this space. So I really like this. In addition to the housing study that we ve allocated resources to, there MAY be certain things that just MAY warrant more questions that you MAY want to add at a later time. So that s really my only thing. Um, I don t I don t have an additional I think when I think of the audit committee, I m also just like there s plenty of things that I feel like we could dive into anytime, anywhere. And so, um, I know this is just the data
practices piece has made, um, some recent headlines and then also has just sparked some interest, especially in community members wanting to see that go smoother. And so I m seeing that more as a response to like, the issues that we have now. And this one more is like something that most has to be done, but maybe not necessarily as pressing and could be evolved with a couple more times, a couple more studies completed in advance. Thank you so much, MISS Johnson. I appreciate those comments a lot. MR.. Thanks, Council PRESIDENT Baker, and just for a little added context, really, really helpful to see the risk breakdown that Nia did like. And it was on a quick turnaround. So huge, huge thanks to Nia. Um, the discussion at the audit committee was really
interesting because obviously there s to your point, Councilmember Johnson, there are so many things folks could bring up that are important. They have varying levels of importance or important in this part of town versus that are important to this type of person versus whatever. Um, so, uh, the added context on the data practices side is it was a topic that s been brought up not just from the administrative side. So Deputy Mayor Pincher was technically someone who submitted, but obviously all the departments are impacted, but also, um, City Clerk Sherry Moore had also raised that as an issue. So I think the comprehensive nature of it also makes me, um, biased that direction as well. I think maybe a more direct way for me to phrase it is my personal like own interest in bias would be on the
development process side, just because I so badly want us to improve the way people do business here, and I want us to improve the way we do that type of service. But I think for the city s sake most broadly, data practices, um, makes the most sense. I said it during the committee and I ll I ll just continue to say it. I think people in the public would have no idea the level of staff time and attempted coordination and failed coordination and effort and nooks and crannies and process and layers that go into fulfilling these requests. And I also think people would dramatically underestimate just the scale of the requests, not only in number of requests, but how much a single request can mean in terms of just quantity
of information and data. Um, so I would echo a lot of the points that Councilmember Johnson made and just wanted to add a little more context in the meeting. Yeah, thanks to you both. MISS. Just. Um, thanks, Council PRESIDENT, I, I, I think that I want to first thank the audit committee, um, and thank you as well for all of your work on this. Um, and just going through this evaluation and sharing it with us. I think, uh, both of these, uh, potential topics are I, I m very supportive of of both of them. Um, I think that the I would really like to, you know, I hear I hear a lot, uh, from potential developers that our
process is really challenging and there are ways that we can make it easier. And I think that that s that s really important. And we we should visit it. I think we should visit it. Um, to, um, council Chair Johnson s point, the in in coordination or conjunction with some of these other studies that we already have going just to make sure it s the most effective. But I do think that that s important. I do think it s, it s um, it s it s pressing. Um, but I also think that the, the data practices process is really important too. So I think what um, and and to Councilmember Brodsky s point that there s just so much effort that goes into that, that, you know, I probably don
t even fully appreciate that would really make this process easier for so many of our departments and so many of our staff, and also for our residents. So I think what I would be supportive of is, like, we could probably prioritize maybe the data practices one and kind of get that, get that done and that could, you know, really be helpful soon to folks. But then also like as soon as we can in conjunction with some of these other efforts, work on the housing development, uh, process. I m grateful for all of those comments. I m hearing strong support for the data practices process. Um, and I think you re right, MISS Jones. The good news about the audit committee is it s not going anywhere, and we can do
multiple audits. So it s not choosing one and nothing ever again. It s really what should we do right now? Um, and, MISS Johnson, your points are really well taken about the fact that we are about to have a study that might cover. You ll notice that in the rubric, one of the things we re trying to avoid is studying something that either was just studied and maybe hasn t had a lot of time to change since or is about to be studied, and therefore we don t want to get in the way. Um, the other thing I ll note about the data practices process is nia mentioned is that both the deputy mayor and um and city staff have raised this, and I think external, like members of the public have raised this as an issue. So it s something that sort of across the board is identified as a problem for different reasons. And so I think could get wider by in,
um, for the work as well. So unless Vice PRESIDENT Kim wants to come out loud and proud against, uh, data practices process, I m hearing pretty unanimous support for that being our recommendation back and request of the audit committee. Yeah, okay. All right. That brings us to the end of our agenda. And I know all of us could use a couple extra minutes in today s schedule. So thanks so much. We