LCCMR adopts presentation rules, evaluation steps and advances an expanded list of proposals for full presentations

The Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources adopted presentation and evaluation procedures on June 11 and provisionally advanced an expanded list of proposals for full applicant presentations.

Commissioners approved a presentation schedule and format that the commission and staff said matches recent practice: 15-minute slots for larger projects and a reduced 10-minute slot for smaller projects, with five minutes for presentation and the remainder for Q&A. The motion to set those increments passed unanimously among members present (vote recorded 14-0 in roll call for the motion recorded at the meeting). Staff said the schedule would allow up to roughly 30 presentations per day depending on final timing and other business.

The commission also approved the second-stage evaluation process that members will use to allocate available Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF) dollars during presentation days: members will assign ENRTF dollars to proposals of choice until their personal allocation budget is spent; staff will compile a table showing the number of members supporting each proposal and the average dollar amount allocated by supporters; staff will then prepare a ranked list for members to use as a starting point for final recommendation discussions. That evaluation process was adopted unanimously (15-0 roll call recorded) and includes a $50,000 buffer for allocation errors, rounding to the nearest thousand dollars and the requirement that allocations to any proposal requesting more than $300,000 not be below $300,000.

Staff presented the results of initial evaluation number 1: following member allocations, a provisional cutoff fell in the middle of a group of proposals that had been selected by nine members; staff followed the commission's guidance and included that tied group, producing a provisional list of 106 proposals requested at about $146.1 million. After separate House, Senate and citizen caucuses each selected up to three additional proposals, commissioners voted to include the caucus additions in the presentation list. Staff said including the additional caucus picks produced a list that could be accommodated in roughly 4.5 days of presentations.

In a final procedural motion, the commission voted to advance the combined list of proposals identified during evaluation number 1 and the caucus additions to full presentations; that motion passed (14-0 recorded) and staff will prepare the schedule and notify applicants. Staff reminded members that presentations are planned for June 24'July 1 and that the commission will use the compiled allocations and subsequent deliberations to assemble a recommended funding package for the Legislature.

Ending: Commissioners completed procedural steps needed to start presentations next week and directed staff to compile evaluation results and prepare presentation scheduling and materials. The selection and scheduling actions do not represent final funding decisions; final package negotiation and votes will occur after the presentation round and subsequent allocation exercises.