September is National Workforce Development Month. At our September 15 @hennepin.bsky.social Board Meeting, I recognized the county programs doing this work and the people behind them. When we invest in the workforce, we invest in people.

I sent a letter to the Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation on the 2027 property tax levies. About 100,000 of my constituents live in Minneapolis. They get one tax bill based on all of our decisions. Read the letter: www.hennepind2.com/statements/2... 1/7

Yesterday, meeting as the Resident Services Committee, the Hennepin County Board unanimously affirmed our commitment to free and fair elections. We reaffirmed our oaths, and directed county leadership to oppose unlawful requests for elections data. 🧵

For months, the federal government withheld evidence about what happened to Renee Good, Julio Sosa-Celis, and Alex Pretti — from state investigators, from their families, and from a community that refused to look away. We kept demanding answers. 🧵 Read: www.hennepind2.com/statements/2...

Today is the Primary Election. Polling places are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Here is what you need to know to vote. Find your polling place and see a sample ballot for your precinct at pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us. 🧵

Community is the heartbeat of Hennepin County's purpose and mission. It steadies us in hardship and inspires us toward possibility. For me, investing in my own community has always been personal. 🧵

At the heart of Hennepin County's important work is our incredible and vibrant workforce. They're the people behind every public good we deliver, and strong public goods create strong communities. 🧵

People ask me: "Dr. Commish, you say light rail increases the tax base. But what does the math say?" Here's what a century of disinvestment looks like in dollars: West Broadway generates about $48 million in property value per mile. 50th and France generates nearly nine times more. 🧵

Yesterday, @hennepin.bsky.social County committed $2.254 billion to the METRO Blue Line Extension. The largest single investment in public transit in Minnesota history, and I enthusiastically voted yes. Strong public goods create strong communities. 🧵 www.hennepind2.com/statements/2...

Before I was a Commissioner, I co-founded a youth leadership nonprofit and earned a Master's in Youth Development Leadership. That's why I'm proud to have led the Board toward opening a new Youth Stabilization Center in December 2025, for youth in crisis who cannot safely stay home. 🧵

Strong businesses and a skilled workforce go hand in hand. Elevate Hennepin launched in 2020 with 11 graduates in one cohort. Today, it's served 4,600 business owners — 68% led by entrepreneurs of color. 🧵

People ask me: "Dr. Commish, you say rail brings investment — but what does that mean for me?" Tax is the government word for revenue. Taxes are how we deliver services and respond to crises. BUT the way governments talk about taxes is not how you experience them. 🧵

The right response to a crisis isn’t always a police car. We built a different kind of first responder into the 911 system itself — and it now serves every city in the county. 🧵

All people should be able to receive services in ways that recognize and uplift their humanity. That's why I authored the Gender-Affirming Board Action, affirming the gender identity and expression of every resident, worker, and client we serve. 🧵

Hennepin County is dedicated to eliminating racial disparities — not just managing them. That distinction is the whole of my equity work: build the systems and the policies that will close gaps. 🧵

A democracy is strongest when every person is heard, valued, and included. That belief shapes how we invest, the initiatives that we fund, and what we fought for at the legislature. 🧵

People ask me: “Dr. Commish, you keep saying the Blue Line will change the trajectory of what’s possible. But what does that actually mean?” Let me start with two terms: investment and tax base. 🧵

As a daughter of immigrants, defending residents regardless of where they were born is personal for me. That shows up in how the county runs, and in the laws I've fought to change. 🧵

Survivors deserve systems they can trust — whether or not they have taken formal steps within those systems. That belief drives how I govern on domestic and gender-based violence: prevention, accountability, and real support. 🧵

Hennepin led on climate before others did — with equity at the center of every action. Cleaner air, resilient infrastructure, and solutions that reach the communities environmental harm hits first. 🧵

Transit is not just infrastructure — it is access to jobs, healthcare, education, and opportunity for the people who depend on it most. I advanced the Blue Line Extension from a stalled project with no viable route to a light rail line the community built and demanded. 🧵

Access to health services is a human right — not a privilege, and never something reserved for the fortunate or the few. When the region's only public safety-net hospital was at risk of closing, I led the fight to keep it open. 🧵

We keep homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring. That is not a slogan — it is a governing standard, and Hennepin is the only county in Minnesota that funds shelter operations to meet it. 🧵

The federal government didn't just come for our budgets. It came for our neighbors. When Operation Metro Surge brought a federal crackdown to Hennepin County, we met it with a plan. 🧵

People ask me: "Dr. Commish, won't the Blue Line displace me or push people out of my neighborhood?" This is a real concern. It's why the Blue Line Extension is the first transit project in the nation to build anti-displacement directly into the project itself. 🧵

Counties are the caregivers of government. When Washington pulls back, we're what stands between a resident and the loss of their coverage, their food, their hospital. This is the work that doesn't make headlines — and it's more urgent now than ever. 🧵

Our systems are not broken. They do not work for all of us because they were never designed for all of us. That's the lens that shapes how we govern. 🧵

Some of our biggest wins started as just one idea. Being good at governing isn't about having every answer — it's about building off each other, staying tied to community, and refusing to stop. 🧵

For the next several weeks, I'm sharing eight years of results from my time on the Hennepin County Board — the wins, the fights, and the work still ahead. I'm Irene Fernando, and you can call me Commish. Follow along, and see it all now at hennepinD2.com/results. 🧵

People ask me: "Dr. Commish, why Light Rail? Why can't the Blue Line just be a bus?" To be clear — I'm a regular bus rider. But this corridor needs buses AND Light Rail. Because Bus Rapid Transit brings only one-quarter of the investment Light Rail does. 🧵