Office of the Legislative Auditor

Minutes

Legislative Audit Commission
Evaluation Subcommittee

March 20, 2023

Representative Emma Greenman, Chair, called the Legislative Audit Commission Evaluation Subcommittee meeting to order at 9:02 a.m. Chair Greenman welcomed members and said the purpose of the meeting was to narrow the list of 132 submitted topic suggestions to 15; she also discussed the schedule for the next two Evaluation Subcommittee meetings. Chair Greenman said the process for selecting topics at this first meeting would be for each member to list their top three topic selections. After members provided their top three topics from the list, a total of 16 topics had been identified. Jodi Munson Rodríguez, Deputy Legislative Auditor for the Program Evaluation Division, said that the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) would have the resources to conduct background research on all 16 selections.

Further discussion took place to see if any of the 16 selected topics could be merged with other, similar topics on the list. Ms. Munson Rodríguez said that the topics under consideration were large or complicated topics that already would require a large amount of scoping, indicating that it would not be feasible to combine them with other suggested topics. Representative Hansen noted that the list of 16 did not include a topic from Environment, Natural Resources, or Agriculture, and asked if a seventeenth topic could be included. Ms. Munson Rodríguez said that since staff were still busy completing two evaluations, OLA did not have the resources to develop more than 16 background papers at this time. Senator Koran offered to drop one of the topics he had identified in order to include an Environment and Natural Resources topic. Upon request by the chair, Ms. Munson Rodríguez read the 16 topics the subcommittee had identified, which were as follows:

1. Aggregate Mining Operations
2. Bond Proceeds and Cancellation Reports
3. Department of Human Services Support to Counties
4. Economic Concentration in Minnesota
5. Energy Conservation Improvement Program
6. Grant Award Processes
7. Healthcare Ownership Structures
8. Healthcare Provider Consolidation in Minnesota
9. Metro Mobility
10. Minnesota Board of Public Defense
11. Minnesota Department of Health: Health Regulation Division
12. Minnesota Housing Finance Agency Down Payment Assistance Program
13. Recidivism Rates of Adult Felons
14. Unemployment Insurance
15. Vault Health Contract and Billing
16. Worker Classification

Senator Koran moved to adopt the 16 topics for OLA staff to conduct research and draft background papers. The motion passed unanimously. With no further discussion, Chair Greenman adjourned the meeting at 9:19 a.m.

Representative Emma Greenman, Chair
  Evaluation Subcommittee

Maureen Garrahy, Recording Secretary