Friends and Neighbors,

I hope you all enjoyed a great weekend celebrating Independence Day! It has a been a beautiful summer so far and I hope you are enjoying every bit of it.

Congratulations to Bill Morgan

Congratulations to Bill Morgan of Patriot News and thank you to Bill and his staff for providing such a great service to our communities! We are so excited for them as they embark on this endeavor.

Special Session

By the time you read this, we may already be engaged in another special session or scheduled to be held. It is anticipated that we will reconvene, but an agenda must first be agreed upon by all four leaders and Governor Walz. The priority will be COVID-19 needs, but we will likely also discuss a tax reform bill, capital investment, police accountability and additional funding for roads and bridges!

Digital Signatures

This year we passed a bill allowing counties, cities and townships to adopt legally secure documents or signatures electronically, by mail or by other means of authorization. This will enable people to stay home during this time and still submit important paperwork such as zoning and planning documents or birth certificate copy requests. In addition, this methodology can be used in the future for regular needs.

Bruce Messelt, the Sherburne County Administrator, and Michelle Ashe the Sherburne County Recorder were both very helpful in the development of this bill. I appreciate all their help as we worked together to draft the legislation, testified in support of the bill, and coordinated with other county administrators/recorders to ensure the initiative would work across the state. This will impact countless Minnesotans and be extremely helpful as we modernize our processes to keep people safe and make our government services more efficient.

Grateful For Our Law Enforcement

I am so grateful to our law enforcement for their hard work on our behalf. As we go about our daily activities, they protect us more than we see or often know about. While we debate sensible police accountability, I will continue discussions with my local and statewide law enforcement to keep them funded as they protect us and meet the needs of our communities.

While common sense reforms will be discussed, I am insistent that defunding an agency that prioritizes our protection is unreasonable to say the least and absolutely unacceptable.

As always, if you have any questions or comments do not hesitate to contact my office at sen.mary.kiffmeyer@senate.mn or 651-296-5655.