Metro Bus announced Wednesday it received the 2025 Governor’s Workplace Safety Bronze Award from the Minnesota Safety Council. The council presented this year’s winners in May at the annual Minnesota Safety and Health Conference. The awards recognize Minnesota employers for excellence in protecting workers from injuries, illnesses and other workplace incidents.

The Bronze Award goes to organizations with an incidence rate better than the 50th percentile of either the state or national average for their industry. Incidence rate is a standard measure of recordable injuries and illnesses relative to the hours a workforce puts in, which allows a 160-employee transit agency to be compared against much larger and much smaller operations.

Despite the name, the award reflects Metro Bus’s safety performance during calendar year 2025. Applications for that year were due to the council in February and required three years of injury and illness data along with a scorecard evaluating the employer’s overall safety program.

The plaque was presented during a recent Metro Bus Board of Commissioners meeting. Training and Safety Manager Scott Stark accepted it alongside Chief Executive Officer Ryan I. Daniel, Chief Financial Officer Nene Israel, Chief Operating Officer David Green and Board members Kurt Hunstiger, Ryan Fitzthum, Dave Masters, Ken Schmitt and Dave Kleis.

Metro Bus runs 17 year-round fixed routes with a fleet of 42 buses, plus 33 Dial-a-Ride vehicles serving riders with disabilities, across St. Cloud, Sartell, Sauk Rapids and Waite Park. The agency operates seven days a week on a fiscal year 2025 operating budget of $23.5 million.

The safety award caps a busy stretch for the agency. Metro Bus broke ground on a new transit facility in May, secured a $14 million Federal Transit Administration grant last November, and saw Dial-a-Ride operator David Peacock take first place in the Small Bus Division at this month’s Minnesota Public Transit Association State Bus Roadeo.

Metro Bus was created by the Minnesota Legislature in 1969 and operates as the St. Cloud Metropolitan Transit Commission.

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The open house was held Thursday, July 23rd at the 92,000-square-foot facility at 2040 Jasmine Court. The company, which refers to the plant as HCo 2.0, offered guided tours of the production floor along with live music, food and drink from local vendors and family activities.

The plant is built around an automated cabinet line that the company says is the first of its kind in the country, a system that moves cabinet parts through cutting, sorting and staging with limited human handling before assembly.

Hansen & Company broke ground on the project in June of 2024, the same year the company marked its 20th anniversary. At the time, executives put the price tag at $20 million and said the plant would raise output from 150 cabinets a day to 500, a 400% increase, while adding at least six jobs. The company also partnered with St. Cloud Technical & Community College to train workers on the new robotic equipment.

The facility came online earlier this year and replaces two smaller plants the company operated outside St. Joseph. Hansen & Company builds commercial casework, architectural millwork, countertops and finishes, selling directly to contractors on projects that include multi-family housing, health care facilities and student housing.

The company says it expects to reach full production capacity later this year.

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Attorney General Keith Ellison announced a settlement requiring a nonprofit to dissolve after an investigation found hundreds of employees were misclassified as volunteers at concession stands in Twin Cities stadiums.

Ellison called MN Fundraising Initiative a “sham charity.”

He said it took advantage of parents who wanted to pay for their children's activities by working at venues such as Target Field and U.S. Bank Stadium in exchange for grants. Other venues included Grand Casino Arena, Allianz Field and numerous University of Minnesota locations.

His office said the nonprofit wasn’t operated for any charitable cause and instead operated as a staffing agency that saved on labor costs by misclassifying hundreds of employees.

The settlement alleges MNFI earned more than $3.4 million in annual revenue during 2024, according to its most recently reported IRS Form.

“Charities can’t do an end-run around employment law by abusing their nonprofit status to save on labor costs. Workers who are misclassified do not receive some of the most basic protections under the law, and that loss of protections hurts us all,” Ellison said.

MNFI neither admits nor denies the allegations in the settlement. The nonprofit is based in Blaine and was founded in 2019 by Martin and Patricia Cross. Martin served as the CEO until his termination on March 20, while Patricia served as the treasurer until her resignation on Feb. 7.

“When awarding grants, MNFI did ‘not evaluate the financial need of grant applicants’ or otherwise support communities with a charitable purpose,” according to the settlement. “MNFI awarded grants to benefit workers or their family members in amounts that were tied to the number of hours an individual ‘volunteered’ for the organization.”

Ellison’s office said 20 board members or their family members received approximately $1.1 million in grant funding from MNFI over the course of its existence.

Ellison’s office said MNFI admitted a “large majority of the total grants” MNFI awarded went to “support educational programming and enrichment opportunities that benefit[ted] the families of MNFI volunteers.”

The settlement said a “child of one former board member alone received more than $237,631 purportedly based on work performed by that Board member at MNFI-staffed concession stands.”

Ellison said MNFI must wind up any remaining affairs and dissolve under the terms of the settlement.