Welcome to the 2017 PAFR

Greetings! 

Whether you're visiting us as a resident, business representative, partner, employee or other Ramsey County stakeholder, thank you for taking time to learn more about Ramsey County. We're pleased to present our 2017 Popular Annual Financial Report (PAFR).

Lee Mehrkens, CFO

Julie Kleinschmidt,
County Manager

The PAFR format has been developed by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) as a complement to the more extensive and specialized Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (PDF). The PAFR’s purpose is to be "...readily accessible and easily understandable to the general public and other interested parties without a background in public finance."

We're excited to present Ramsey County’s PAFR in a digital-first format for the second year in a row here at ramseycounty.us/PAFR following the success of our 2016 PAFR, which recently received the 2018 Northern Lights Award for Public Information Project from the Minnesota Association of Government Communicators. Sharing our PAFR in a digital-first format is in line with our ongoing commitment to modernize and improve our services by meeting residents where they're at.

In 2017, nearly half of the 1.4 million users of our website accessed the site by a mobile device or tablet. The digital report format allows you to access this information on any type of device, translate the information using free online tools such as Google Translate or Bing Translator, and follow linked text to learn more about our programs, services and news.

You can learn more about our commitment to making financial data more accessible and transparent in our feature article on the launch of our Open Data Portal in 2017.

Based on feedback about our 2016 report, we've taken steps to streamline the navigation and reduce the number of pages for easier online viewing. We look forward to hearing your feedback about our 2017 report so that we can continue to make the content easier to access and understand.

We also appreciate your help sharing our PAFR with others – we have created printed materials which you can find at our libraries and other office locations or download and print your own for display where you work and play in Ramsey County.

Thanks again for your interest –

Julie Kleinschmidt, County Manager               Lee Mehrkens, Chief Financial Officer

Download printable 2017 Ramsey County PAFR promotional card

PS - The 2017 PAFR will be my last - after 18 years with Ramsey County, first as Finance Director and now as County Manager, I will be retiring this summer. As Finance Director, I advocated for adoption of the GFOA's PAFR format as a useful tool to explain complicated financial information to our residents, businesses and stakeholders. The PAFR has served our communities well these many years and I look forward to reading future editions as a resident of Ramsey County. - Julie Kleinschmidt