After 14 years as a Hennepin County commissioner, Gail Dorfman will not seek re-election next year.
The Third District commissioner, who posted the news on her Facebook page Thursday, is expected to widely announce her decision Friday.
"I don't know exactly what I'll do after Hennepin County," Dorfman wrote to her Facebook followers. "But I know I'll continue to work hard on the issues that I've cared most about that make our communities stronger."
Dorfman helped spearhead efforts to provide more affordable housing and get people out of homeless shelters.
Heading Home Hennepin, the 10-year program to end homelessness in the county, is being implemented successfully, Dorfman said in an interview late Thursday. She and outgoing Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak co-chaired that initiative, beginning in 2006.
Dorfman's other top priorities include helping "too many" youths who are being sexually exploited, a problem she said was brought to public awareness through the work of others, including the Women's Foundation of Minnesota. "We weren't doing a good job of identifying that they were being exploited, and getting them the shelter and the services they need to break out of this lifestyle, " she said.
During her 23 years in elective office, she's also been St. Louis Park mayor and a council member.
Joy Powell • 612-673-7750
