Rafael E. Ortega, District 5, Board Chair
About Rafael Ortega
Commissioner Rafael E. Ortega is a progressive champion for Ramsey County who is working to protect and improve the lives of our most vulnerable residents, build a better transportation network, and redevelop key brown fields to create jobs, housing and regional centers and increase the Ramsey County tax base.
Rafael grew up in poverty in New York City, received his B.A. at Fordham University and came to Minnesota to get his master's degree in social work. As CEO of CLUES, he grew this Twin Cities social service agency from a $100,000 organization serving the Latino community to one with a $3 million budget serving more than 15,000 clients from every community. Rafael is still a licensed clinical social worker.
Commissioner Ortega became the first person of color to be elected to the Ramsey County Board in 1994. He serves as Chair of the Board.
Priorities
In 2025, Commissioner Ortega is focused on fulfilling basic needs for residents. Since COVID hit in 2020, the county has had 40% more people applying for medical assistance, food assistance and housing help. We are addressing the resulting backlog by bringing staff from other departments to fill in and providing better training and support for existing staff. We have made real progress, but we are not yet where we need to be. In the coming months, Ramsey County will hire 80 new workers to address this.
The commissioner is also working steadily with county leadership to prepare for possible cuts at both the federal and state levels.
Rafael is the champion of the RiversEdge park on the Mississippi between the Wabasha bridge and the Science Museum. This is an exciting opportunity on the nearly five-acre site that will provide a critical connection to the river and will spur more housing and quality office space and increase affordable housing in the region.
He and the Ramsey County team are also working to redevelop the 427-acre Rice Creek Commons (formerly the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant) in Arden Hills. This was the largest superfund site in Minnesota before Rafael and county leadership cleaned it up to build more housing and job centers and get it back on the tax rolls for the first time in a generation. This will expand the Ramsey County tax base, decreasing the tax burden on other residential and commercial properties.
Commissioner Ortega’s history
Rafael never forgets his youth in the tenements of New York City and that shapes his understanding of people’s fundamental needs and dreams to live good lives. This understanding and ability to listen to the issues of people struggling in the poorest neighborhoods in Saint Paul gives him valuable insight. Rafael was a front-line social worker before becoming an outreach director for Minnesota Council of Churches.
Transit highlights
Commissioner Ortega has been recognized as a leader on transit in our metro area throughout his time on the county board, particularly in his role as chair of the Regional Rail Authority, which led the major investment in light rail and the Union Depot hub. He has spoken on MPR and contributed to the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press and community papers about transit and economic development.
Rafael served as a co-chair on both the Green and Blue Line committees and helped oversee the creation of the recently opened Gold Line bus to Woodbury and the introduction of the popular Borealis train to Chicago.