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Mostly cloudy and flurries this morning. Highs 9 to 15 north, to lower 20s to lower 30s south. The latest from Updraft.
A Cook County Highway Department snowplow clears a road earlier this month. A lack of workers like snowplow drivers is straining local governments all across Minnesota and forcing some counties and cities to make difficult choices. 
Ben Hadley | Cook County Highway Department file

By Dan Gunderson

A lack of workers is straining local governments all across Minnesota and forcing some counties and cities to make difficult choices.

In Crookston : The Northwest Regional Corrections Center can house 200 inmates, but this week, a 60-bed housing unit will close, cutting the jail capacity to 140. Staff departures have been climbing since 2016, but the issue reached a critical point this year with 40 resignations.

Cook County: Administrator James Joerke is trying to manage a growing number of open jobs. "We're actually recently up to a dozen vacancies, which is approaching 10 percent of our workforce,” said Joerke. Especially noticeable at this time of year are two vacant snowplow driver positions.

Housing shortages make the lack of workers even more challenging for those working for small governments and that for many increases burnout and leads to more resignations or retirements.

And workforce growth will be stagnant as more baby boomers retire.

"This is the number one issue that we hear about,” said Julie Ring, executive director of the Association of Minnesota Counties.

Ring met with officials in every county this fall and the labor force was the top issue from large urban counties to the most remote rural areas.

Ring says local governments are raising pay, trying creative approaches to make jobs more appealing, or stretching the existing workforce. But as the worker shortage drags on, providing some services might become more difficult.

"We keep pretty close track of this, and I haven't heard of people saying, ‘Well, we're just having to get out of that business right now,’ or ‘We can't meet that need,’” Ring said. “But I'm hearing a lot of concern about — 'We're on the edge of that right now.’"
 
What else we're watching
Oodles of money are piled up in Minnesota’s state government accounts, giving the Legislature plenty to spread around in the 2022 session and adding another layer to next year’s campaign themes. The Department of Minnesota Management and Budget was set to issue a new economic forecast Tuesday, with tax collections already swamping projections for the fiscal year. Only four months in, Minnesota had already pulled in about $750 million more than predicted.

The city of Brooklyn Centeris making changes in its approach to public safety in the wake of the killing by a police officer of Daunte Wright. But a compromise preserved more of the police department. The suburb northwest of Minneapolis is establishing several new public safety programs that are aimed at reducing negative interactions with police in the course of low-level traffic stops and to better respond to people in mental health crises.

Osterholm on omicron:  Michael Osterholm, the director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said the evidence so far suggests omicron may be more transmissible than delta, but it might not make people as sick — perhaps due to genetic information that omicron picked up from another virus that causes the common cold in humans. “I think a family event where everyone is fully vaccinated, and, to add an additional layer of protection, using the rapid test in the morning before that family event to make sure everybody's negative — then celebrate the holidays, and have just a great time,” Osterholm said. “But if you don't do that, just know you may be the one individual who creates an outbreak.”
– Michael Olson, MPR News
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