By Rich Larson, News Director
The 2021 state legislative session is underway in St. Paul, and District 20 Senator Rich Draheim said that one of the changes the Senate has made this year is committee reorganization. The Senator said that there are more committees this year, and they are smaller, in the hopes that if the legislature can meet in person sometime this year, smaller committees will be better able to physically distance themselves within their meeting chambers.
Draheim will serve on four committees this year. He will chair the Senate Housing Finance & Policy Committee and said that he is looking forward to working on issues that are extremely important.
“Housing is so ingrained into every aspect of our lives from homeownership to homelessness and everything in between. And there is a lot of work we need to do there. We have a housing shortage, and that’s why prices are so high, because we don’t have enough units. So, we need more affordable housing units. And I’m more of a free market guy, y’know ‘What can we do?’ There’s such demand out there that they will sell if we can build them. So, how do we build them more affordably?”
Senator Draheim will serve as Vice-Chair on the Health and Human Services Committee and will be a member of the Jobs & Economic Development Committee and a brand-new committee called the Technology & Reform. That committee will look to make government more efficient by looking at the technology the government uses, much of which, he said, is antiquated.
Another area that Senator Draheim has interest is in the new State Government and Finance and Elections Committee. While he does not serve on that committee, he sees the work done there as keenly important.
“A lot of people questioned the election results. Even in my district, which I won by I think 14%, there were a lot of things that happened that shouldn’t have happened. So what can we do to make sure that no one has any question about the outcome of an election, moving forward. I think that’s something important that we can do, moving forward. What are some simple things we can do to modify – or clarify – our elections?”
Draheim said the first week of a legislative session is usually about getting organized, but he is looking forward to getting to work.
Sheriff Troy Dunn and Representative Todd Lippert share mental health priorities
Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn is beginning his final year on the board of the Minnesota Sheriff’s Association as Past President. The MSA, among other purposes, serves as a lobbying body to create legislation for the betterment of the public. Sherriff Dunn said that it is his belief, and the belief of the MSA, that the state must do a better job in the area of Mental Health.
“Mental health has always been at the top. We need our legislators, we need our senators, we need everybody to work together. And we know there isn’t an easy fix; it’s going to take time, it’s going to take money; it’s going to take resources. We need to put our heads together and make things happen because we cannot keep putting people in a jail to deal with their mental health issues.”
State Representative Todd Lippert, who is serving on the newly created House Behavioral Health Policy Committee, said not only does the state need to do more to foster better mental health care, but money also needs to go into the state budget just to protect the programs that are already in place.
“We need more mental health beds. It’s a top need that I hear regularly from school officials to law enforcement, religious leaders and health-care professionals. And right now, we’re having conversations about protecting the beds that we have. So, I’ll be eager to dig in there. We’ll be having some hearings very soon. And there will be legislation that I’ll be authoring to try to protect access to the mental health beds that we have and what we need.”
Sheriff Dunn has felt frustration about this situation for several years. Too often the courts will mandate that someone in custody be remanded to a treatment facility, he said, but state facilities are unable to take custody of that individual due to a lack of space.
The Sheriff said that Rice County is looking at holding areas in their new jail study that would prevent prisoners in distress from being a danger to themselves, but he said, his staff does not have the training, nor does his department have the resources, to give these people the help they need.
Moreover, Sheriff Dunn said, as a society and a community we all have to decide that mental and behavioral health issues must become a higher priority.
“That’s where we as community members need to reach out if we see someone that appears to be in distress, and say ‘What can I do to help?’ And if they call law enforcement, or if the call social services, or public health to say ‘What can you do for them?’, we need to have a place for these people to get the help that they need. I look forward to working with all of our legislators to make something happen, because we need it. I do not like to see the jail as a treatment facility for mental health.”
Spanish Sidewalk Poetry winners announced
And the Northfield Arts and Culture Commission has selected the three winners of the 2020 Spanish Sidewalk Poetry Contest. 
The three winning authors, Tyler Gardner, Francisco Gaytan and Luis Rivera were among 14 writers who submitted poetry for consideration. The poems were selected by a five-judge panel that included Melanny Castillo and Jennifer Rosas of the Northfield Public Library, Claudia Gonzalez George of the Community Action Center and the Northfield School Board, Kristina Medina-Vilariño of St. Olaf College, and Mar Valdecantos of the Northfield Public School District. All judging was blind, and no identifying information was supplied to the panel about the poets.
The three poems will be on display at the Northfield Public Library, City Hall and on a variety of online outlets. They will be installed in city sidewalks over the spring and summer as weather permits.
