Carpenters union caller urges clearer communication on county "community productive day" program

A recorded public comment played at the Oct. 20 Hennepin County Administration's Operations and Budget Committee hearing came from Richard Kajewski of the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters. Kajewski thanked county commissioners and staff for supporting the county's community productive day program and described confusion among program instructors about the program's future.

Kajewski said instructors were told at different times that "the program is ending," that it would be "funded for 6 more months to finish the houses that are currently in progress," and in a recent email that the program "would not be accepting any more participants," which he said was news to the carpenters' instructors. He said that, at the hearing he attended, staff indicated the program "is fully funded and is going to continue accepting clients as they currently do while staff consider ways to increase participation." Kajewski asked that an instructor be included in future meetings when discussing program expansion, saying continued misrepresentation creates stress for instructors and participants.

The recorded comment was played along with other recorded messages from prior budget hearings; the clerk noted that public comments on the budget are recorded and will be accepted by phone for later hearings.