Dakota County held its Legislative Breakfast on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025 bringing together city officials, school district leaders and the legislators that represent them to discuss pressing issues of this legislative session. Chair of the Dakota County Board of Commissioners Mike Slavik introduced the annual event as a starting point for cooperation across the county: “The reality is that we can be stronger if we speak in once voice in all of Dakota County.”
“So it goes without saying that the start of this session has been—what’s a Minnesota nice word—interesting,” quipped Commissioner Liz Workman.
Despite the drama playing out in the House of Representatives, the legislature is expected to move quickly once a quorum is finally established, requiring bills in place and plans in motion.
The group of officials quickly broke off into groups divided by district in order to focus on the issues most important to their communities.
At the District 2 table, Slavik sat with Rep. Tom Dippel (R-Cottage Grove) and spoke with representatives from Vermillion Township, Farmington, Hastings, and Independent School District 192. The issue at the forefront of the conversation for the Hastings representatives was securing funding for water treatment plants (WTP).
“Top of our list is drinking water,” said City Administrator Dan Wietecha.
While both of Hastings’ state representatives, Dippel and Sen. Judy Seeberger (D-Afton) have already submitted bills allocating funds to Hastings WTPs, with the Minnesota House of Representatives at a standstill, nothing has yet materialized.
“We don’t know where or how we will get those funds,” said Hastings Mayor Mary Fasbender.
Rep. Dippel expressed hesitancy in providing Hastings funds for WTPs via a bonding bill citing the state deficit: “the money is not there.”
Of particular significance to Hastings city officials was the gap between the economic burden put on residents via water rate increases and the time when clean water will be widely available. Despite ground expected to be broken on the first water treatment plant this year, due to Hastings’ blended water system, city water will not be below the new federal standards for PFAS until all three WTPs are built.
Hastings did look into interim solutions like distributing bottled water but lacked funding for permanent solutions much less interim ones and as such moved forward without them.
Local control was another issue echoed widely not just at the District 2 table, but across Dakota County. Farmington City Councilor Steve Wilson spoke to local control of data centers and education funding.
For Vermillion Township Town Clerk Cynthia Ladzun, the key issue was cannabis ordinances and the odor of cannabis and hemp being cultivated and harvested in the area. Many smaller municipalities are expected to rely on counties to develop a cannabis ordinance for them. Dakota County is rolling out their Cannabis ordinance at the March 3, 2025 county board meeting.
Superintendent Jason Berg spoke about issues facing ISD 192, referring to the difficulties in implementing mandates concerning earned sick and safe time (ESST), paid family medical leave (PFML), and unemployment insurance into contracts with the district citing them as driving up costs.
“School districts are having to rely increasingly, increasingly, increasingly, on voter approved things,” said Berg.
Superintendent Berg praised the READ Act, however, saying literacy training for the law is “the most engaged I’ve seen teachers in a long time.”
At the county level, Chair Slavik spoke to various issues of budgeting and technology. In particular, he criticized Gov. Tim Walz’s proposed budget which shifts many costs from the state onto counties without providing funding. The example given was that of sex offenders whose rehabilitation costs were previously shared between the state and county and is now proposed to be shifted solely onto counties.
“It’s just the way water runs,” said Slavik.
According to Slavik the broad change of shifting costs from the state will cost counties some $800 million over the next four years.
This issue was echoed by Sen. Zach Duckworth (R-Lakeville): “All of a sudden they’re not going to receive that money, but they’re still going to be expected to spend it.”
Another issue Chair Slavik brought up for Dakota County was modernization of technology. While much of the user-end technology has been updated, on the county side ‘We still have programs using DOS and green screens.”
Antiquated software can extend processing time of even individuals to take hours, according to Slavik and can make training in new employees difficult.
Members from each district then shared with the room the key issues from their conversations.
Rep. Robert Bierman (D-Apple Valley) spoke to the need for Dakota County representatives to come together on issues for a bonding bill to “prioritize the ones we are all going to support and take that back to the capitol,” referencing a future recycling zone as an example.
Other issues brought up across the county were Minnesota’s business climate and inviting in new businesses to the state, PFAS, unfunded mandates at both the state and federal level, public safety, public control, and data requests
“Let’s not let somebody with a 15 second email cost a school district or city enough to have a cut a teacher,” said ISD 197 Superintendent Peter Olson-Skog.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the issues expressed throughout the county often echoed those found within Hastings itself. Hastings only recently rolled out its own cannabis ordinance and accompanying odor ordinance. Last year the ISD 200 School Board submitted a resolution which was subsequently taken up by the Minnesota School Board Association to ban anonymous data requests and hold requesters more liable for the costs. Several representatives from other municipalities mentioned PFAS and the issues surrounding it for their cities.
In a room populated with legislators from both sides of the aisle, showcasing such commonalities, especially in the modern age of polarization, feels more relevant than ever.