A hallmark of St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s time in office was the creation of an Office of Financial Empowerment dedicated to opening new doors for low-income residents in the capital city, which has high poverty levels.

That work continues under a new administration, as does a federal lawsuit filed by the city over $900,000 in payments to a small, out-of-state nonprofit that promised an elaborate financial literacy curriculum that, according to the city’s claims, it never delivered in full.

The $1 million educational contract with Maryland- and New York City-based BlackFem fell apart in 2025, months before Mayor Kaohly Her took office, but it’s one of several social programs the new mayor has inherited from her predecessor. Carter had made a point of highlighting social and economic injustices and trying to bridge their gap through progressive municipal efforts. Many but not all of them were funded by outside grants.

“We were really good at raising money from outside the city coffers,” said Carter in a phone interview. “For college savings accounts (for kids), those deposits were made by money that we raised. It’s the Bush Foundation, it’s Kresge (Foundation), it’s private. I spent a lot of time on the phone asking people for money for that.”

Several of those efforts continue, for now, but not all have survived the transition from one administration to another, and more cuts are possible. Her, in a series of public discussions over budget priorities, has already put voters and property taxpayers on notice that the 2027 budget will be an especially difficult one, as inflation and other pressures have created a $26 million gulf that will need to be balanced by the time she delivers her budget address in August.

In June, a $1.1 million medical debt relief initiative launched by the Carter administration was effectively dismantled by the city council with the support of the mayor’s office. The council redistributed $800,000 to other city uses after finding the effort had gained limited traction with hospital partners.

City council President Rebecca Noecker called the medical debt relief program an unfortunate endeavor from the start, noting she had voted against it in 2023. “I didn’t understand how it would work, and it didn’t work,” said Noecker in a recent interview.

College savings, Right Track employment

Noecker, who chairs the council’s audit committee, said she’s recommending that the council take an equally hard look at another Carter initiative — college savings accounts for the city’s newborns. As of last summer, little more than half of the families assigned a college savings account through the program had ever logged into the online portal to review the particulars, and only about 5% had made a deposit on their own, according to data provided by the city. Those numbers improved this past year through a financial literacy initiative run by St. Paul Public Schools.

An employment effort launched in 2014, the Right Track youth internship program, has grown more steadily with time, placing more than 1,000 applicants with 144 employers last year to create a workforce pipeline that introduces students to job opportunities in the public and private sectors. In participant surveys, 80% of interns rated their experience as “very good” or “excellent.” Among employers, 89% of those surveyed said they would hire their intern if they had a job opening or recommend them to a colleague.

Her has said she isn’t eager to dismantle Carter’s social agenda, but given the city’s budget priorities, she’s also shown she isn’t entirely wedded to it. Here are several service areas that could be revisited:

Fine-free libraries

In his first year in office, Carter chose to forgive some $2 million in existing library fines in an effort to welcome back as many as 51,000 library card holders who had been locked out of library services. The new mayor seems on board with that mission. “Our community is stronger and healthier when people have access to the programs, services, and materials they need to pursue their educational, career, family and life goals,” said Matt Wagenius, a spokesperson for Her’s office, in an email.

Medical debt relief

For pennies on the dollar, the city of St. Paul planned to buy uncollected medical debt from St. Paul medical institutions, clearing the ledger for city residents with unpaid hospital bills. The city council approved Carter’s use of $1.1 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act pandemic relief funds by a vote of 4-3 in December 2023, despite critics arguing that the debts in question were “dormant” and being written off by the hospitals anyway.

Early on, several medical institutions expressed enthusiasm for the approach, which aimed to eliminate some $110 million in “terminal debt” for city residents. By November 2020, the first round of the city’s “Medical Debt Reset Initiative” had purchased some $40 million in hard-to-collect debt from Fairview Health Services, with the average debt forgiven amounting to $268. The largest debt was nearly $105,000.

While officials called those results promising at the time, the city found about $15.4 million of the newly erased debt pertained to some 14,000 St. Paul residents. “When we audited the first batch, a significant amount of it was debt held by people from outside of St. Paul,” Carter recalled. “We were fine with that, but you can’t do that with our money. It’s accurate to say 40,000 people were helped by it.”

Medical institutions seemed sluggish about untangling the particulars. “Partners like hospitals have a lot of competing priorities and many don’t have a precedent for selling medical debt,” said Em Brostek, a spokesperson for project organizer Undue Medical Debt in Long Island, N.Y., in an email.

With ARPA funds facing an end-of-year deadline to be spent down, the city council voted on June 17 to cancel the effort and redistribute $800,000 from the Medical Debt Reset Initiative to other ARPA-funded projects, including $507,000 for a Department of Safety and Inspections effort to conduct virtual property inspections.

About $291,000 was redirected to boost the city’s Enterprise Asset Management System, which aims to keep better track of all city-owned property and work orders through a centralized database.

Office of Financial Empowerment

In 2018, Carter asked the city council to help him fund a $400,000 Office of Financial Empowerment, which would oversee some of the city’s progressive social initiatives.

The office, which launched in March 2019, follows similar efforts in cities such as St. Louis, San Francisco and Oakland, Calif. Carter noted at the time that one-third of St. Paul residents live within 150% of the federal poverty level and one in five residents lives below the federal poverty level.

The office’s work has been wide-ranging. Its current programs include a “shared ownership initiative” that seeks to support worker-owners, such as those buying businesses from their retiring employers; a fair housing program that offers outreach and education around housing initiatives; and the CollegeBound St. Paul effort.

The office also oversees the St. Paul Financial Resource Hub, a directory of assistance programs. OFE previously oversaw the now-defunct Medical Debt Reset Initiative, a Financial Empowerment Community Council that could yet be revived and an Immigration Fraud Awareness initiative that is no longer active.

The office now has seven employees and operates on a $769,000 budget. Marcus Owens, former chief executive officer of the African American Leadership Forum and the Northside Economic Opportunity Network, was appointed OFE’s director in February.

Guaranteed income

Under Carter, the city experimented with two types of guaranteed income projects — the People’s Prosperity Pilot Project in 2020 and CollegeBound Boost in 2023 — which offered selected families $500 in monthly income for 18 months and two years, respectively.

The results were tracked over time by academic researchers, who found that the payments offered some financial breathing room for low-income residents, which translated to more time spent with family and less stress, but savings were elusive.

Neither project has been continued.

College savings accounts for newborns

In January 2020, Carter stopped by Regions Hospital to welcome the new year’s first babies with new college savings accounts pre-loaded with $50, courtesy of the city’s grant partners.

The accounts, established at Bremer Bank, were part of the city’s new CollegeBound St. Paul initiative, which automatically connects newborns to college savings under the premise that even small savings accumulated over time can put a child on the path to higher education.

“We know who the kids are who are coming into kindergarten two years from now, which means we can get to them with messages about early childhood screenings,” Carter said. “There’s so many layers of what we get out of college savings accounts.”

CollegeBound, which is still dubbed a “core program” of the city’s Office of Financial Empowerment, has since opened more than 22,000 accounts through June 2025. Participation has been limited, with 56% of families having accessed their account by logging into the online savings portal. Only 5% of families had made a deposit as of last summer.

Critics have noted the accounts are savings accounts, as opposed to the state’s more competitive 529 plans, which offer greater growth potential through the stock market.

Asked about the initiative during a recent budget forum, Her noted that CollegeBound is funded by outside grant partners through at least the next budget cycle, and not city property taxes. During the past school year, more than 5,000 pre-K and kindergarten students participated in “School Deposit Day” activities, which are intended to introduce age-appropriate lessons about saving and education after high school.

The partnership with St. Paul Public Schools resulted in approximately $49,000 in additional deposits into students’ CollegeBound accounts. The program is expected to expand to first-grade students next school year.

Noecker said she will recommend that the council’s audit committee audit the program.

President Donald Trump this month launched “Trump accounts,” which make any child born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, and who are U.S. citizens, eligible for a $1,000 government deposit into a long-term investment account. The money can be used for higher education, though it’s intended for longer-term savings.

Office of Neighborhood Safety

At the mayor’s request, the city established an Office of Neighborhood Safety in February 2022, with the goal of going “upstream of crime” and deterring crime before it happens through a “community-first public safety” strategy.

Carter points to the city’s plummeting homicide rate as proof of the office’s effectiveness. “St. Paul created a model that people around the country and around the world are taking notice of and following,” he said.

The office’s first director was Brooke Blakey, a former Metro Transit police officer and investigator with the Ramsey County Public Defender’s Office. Her involvement drew some criticism from social justice advocates such as school board member Chauntyll Allen, who said the office should have greater separation from police and policing.

Her appears to have rejected that criticism, ultimately selecting a veteran police officer to lead the office.

Blakey stepped down last October, shortly before the mayoral election. Cedrick Baker, a former chief of staff to St. Paul Public Schools and the McKnight Foundation, ran ONS for about five months before being tapped by the mayor to serve as an assistant mayor, in place of Jodi Pfarr, who had returned to work for Ramsey County.

In early May, the mayor appointed Sgt. Toy Vixayvong, a St. Paul police spokesperson, former undercover officer, school resource officer and 25-year member of the police department, to lead ONS. The mayor’s office noted he has long-standing connections with the Karen community and many of the city’s outreach organizations.

“This community is where my heart is, and the community knows who I am,” said Vixayvong later, recalling asking for a month to think about the offer. “That’s what sold me.”

ONS initiatives include “Project Peace,” which reaches out to victims of gun violence and their families to encourage de-escalation rather than retaliation. To that end, the office works closely with the police department’s non-fatal shootings and community outreach units.

ONS runs a “Familiar Faces” initiative that works to find housing and services for 50 of the city’s hardest-to-reach homeless residents, and it convenes an advisory group, the Neighborhood Safety Community Council.

Climate Resilience, Arts

When Carter assumed the corner office in 2018, he chose not to designate a policy adviser exclusively focused on arts and culture, a position his predecessor Chris Coleman had relied on heavily to steer major projects like the opening of the downtown Palace Theatre.

City council member Anika Bowie recently approached the council with a consultant’s general outline for what could be a new municipal department of arts and culture, overseen by a department director and other staff. “At this time, we have no plans to implement that change,” said Wagenius, the mayor’s spokesperson.

Given budget pressures, Noecker, the council president, said this month that the prospect of a new city department warrants further discussion if Bowie chooses to pursue it further, but she noted the same responsibilities likely could be carried out without creating a new office.

Her, who assumed office in January, chose not to carry over a position Carter had elevated into a key role — that of climate resilience officer, an environmental adviser of sorts to the mayor. Whether she will attempt to add back that position through her 2027 budget proposal remains to be seen, and dependent on funding sources like a franchise fee agreement with Xcel Energy.

The city does maintain a climate action coordinator, Liz Boyer, within the Office of Financial Services. “Assistant Mayor Nick Stumo-Langer has taken on the workload of that position and works in close partnership with (Boyer) … to coordinate the city’s climate work,” said Wagenius, in an email.

“The future of this position will be directly impacted by this budget cycle and the work negotiating with Xcel Energy,” he wrote.