Budget Committee December 05, 2025   12/5/2025

Discussion

• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:00:21
    Good morning.
  • 00:00:35
    My name is Aisha Chugtai and I'm the Chair of the Budget Committee.
  • 00:00:38
    I'm going to call to order our adjourned committee meeting for Friday, December 5th.
  • 00:00:44
    Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation.
  • 00:00:54
    These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community.
  • 00:01:01
    Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments.
  • 00:01:09
    We ask speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.
  • 00:01:14
    At this time, I will ask the Clerk to call the roll so that we can verify the presence of a quorum.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:01:19
    Councilmember Payne.
  • 00:01:20
    Present.
  • 00:01:21
    Wonsley.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:01:22
    Present.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:01:23
    Rainville.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:01:24
    Present.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:01:26
    Vita.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:01:26
    Present.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:01:27
    Ellison is absent.
  • 00:01:29
    Osmond is absent.
  • 00:01:30
    Cashman.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:01:31
    Present.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:01:32
    Jenkins.
  • 00:01:33
    Absent.
  • 00:01:34
    Chavez.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:01:35
    Present.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:01:36
    Chaudry.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 00:01:36
    Present.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:01:37
    Let the record reflect that we do have a quorum.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:01:47
    I will also remind my colleagues that we will be using speaker management today so please make sure to sign in.
  • 00:01:55
    Let me do that as well.
  • 00:01:59
    Okay, today we will begin considering revisions to Mayor Frey's 2026 recommended budget.
  • 00:02:06
    Over the last several months, this committee has received a series of presentations to examine the details of each department's budget requests.
  • 00:02:14
    This committee has held three public hearings on this budget.
  • 00:02:20
    and the City Council will be hosting the final public hearing this upcoming Tuesday, December 9th at 6.05 PM in these chambers.
  • 00:02:31
    I want to start with an overview of the process I intend to follow for this meeting.
  • 00:02:36
    The amendments are ordered in a packet that was sent to all Council members and posted in LIMS.
  • 00:02:42
    There are 38 amendments in this packet and we will go through these proposed amendments one by one.
  • 00:02:51
    revised amendments are printed on yellow paper in the binders.
  • 00:02:56
    Any additional revisions will come to you on yellow sheets of paper as well.
  • 00:03:05
    As I anticipate we will be working on amendments all day.
  • 00:03:09
    considering the number of proposed amendments and the desire from several members in the body to try to make as much progress as we can today and potentially complete this packet.
  • 00:03:24
    I am going to plan to call brief recesses throughout the day instead of doing a longer lunch break.
  • 00:03:32
    So please flag for me.
  • 00:03:33
    You can do that by sending me a Teams message.
  • 00:03:37
    when you feel like it's time for a brief recess.
  • 00:03:42
    And so that will help us get through as much of the work that we can today.
  • 00:03:48
    We have a hard stop today at five o'clock because that is, we don't have captioners after that, so let's try to get through as much as we can between now and then.
  • 00:04:01
    There are additional markup meetings that are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday and we will cancel those if we get through our work or we'll pick this back up on Monday.
  • 00:04:13
    As we work through the budget today, please remember to be respectful of each other and of this process.
  • 00:04:20
    Additionally, please make sure you're signed into speaker management so that you're not asking your neighbor to log in for you.
  • 00:04:25
    To ensure we have accurate time tracking, we will be sticking per our council rules to the appropriate time tracking.
  • 00:04:31
    Each member on each motion has up to two speeches.
  • 00:04:35
    The first speech is seven minutes and the second speech is five minutes.
  • 00:04:39
    So we want to be able to track your time appropriately.
  • 00:04:45
    Do my colleagues have any questions about the process I've outlined?
  • 00:04:50
    I am not seeing any.
  • 00:04:52
    With that, we will begin the amendment packet that is in front of us.
  • 00:04:56
    I will recognize the author of each amendment to introduce their motion, and then we will open the floor for discussion on amendments before taking a vote.
  • 00:05:04
    Staff from the Budget Office is on hand to address questions that may arise during our discussion, as well as the departments whose budgets are being considered for changes.
  • 00:05:16
    With that, amendment number one is the technical amendments that are always brought forward by finance staff for any revisions that are needed.
  • 00:05:26
    I'm going to ask Budget Director Jane DeCenza to come up and briefly explain what we have before us in the technicals.
  • 00:05:38
    Welcome, Director.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 00:05:39
    Good morning, Chair Chugtai, Council Members, Jane DeCenza, Budget Director of Finance and Property Services.
  • 00:05:45
    As you'll see in the technical amendments file, there are a number of changes, though fewer than prior years, and largely these are just corrections to the low-level departments that we initially placed these dollars into for the mayor's recommended budget.
  • 00:06:00
    So, for example, in items A through D, reference the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and it's a correction of which CPED low-level department is receiving those dollars.
  • 00:06:16
    Similar situation for health, as well as a budget-neutral shift of personnel dollars.
  • 00:06:25
    of non-personnel dollars.
  • 00:06:27
    So you can see on the bottom of page two an aggregate table that shows the impact of these changes.
  • 00:06:34
    So expenditures and revenues tie out evenly.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:06:42
    Thank you, Director.
  • 00:06:42
    Are there any questions?
  • 00:06:45
    I'm not seeing any.
  • 00:06:46
    I'll move this item for approval.
  • 00:06:47
    Can I get a second?
  • 00:06:48
    Second.
  • 00:06:50
    All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 00:06:52
    Aye.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:06:53
    Those opposed, say nay.
  • 00:06:56
    Any abstentions?
  • 00:06:58
    The ayes have it and that motion carries.
  • 00:07:00
    Next we will move to amendment number two, which is the mayor's amendments.
  • 00:07:07
    I will again recognize Director DeCenza to briefly summarize what we have before us.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 00:07:11
    Thank you, Chair Chogtai.
  • 00:07:13
    Item 2 is a recognition of additional revenue for the capital budget.
  • 00:07:20
    So this is an increase in both revenue and expenditure to the 4100 fund, the Street Paving Capital Program.
  • 00:07:28
    We received additional grant dollars from the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
  • 00:07:32
    And so this wasn't a technical because it didn't represent an error, but we just have more information about the total dollar amount receiving from MnDOT.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:07:43
    Thank you very much.
  • 00:07:44
    Are there any questions?
  • 00:07:46
    I will recognize Councilmember Palmisano.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:07:50
    Thank you Madam Chair.
  • 00:07:51
    As Director DeCenza said, even though there are less than half the number of amendments to consider this year, we only got about 48 hours to review and research these amendments and that's a pretty big lift.
  • 00:08:04
    I've previously asked and will continue to do so that we get this information in a timely manner.
  • 00:08:10
    Maybe a week ahead of time would have been appropriate so we can all be prepared.
  • 00:08:14
    As I did not have time to appropriately prepare, I will have questions for the authors and for staff as we go on.
  • 00:08:22
    of the city of
  • 00:08:40
    Council Member
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:09:01
    I'm just wondering how your question relates to the amendment that's in front of us, which is about public works.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:09:11
    We are talking about item number two, right?
  • 00:09:14
    The mayor's amendments in general.
  • 00:09:16
    I actually was in queue back on item number one, and it was just about, in general, as we start, so yes it applies to the technical amendments, but it could also apply to the mayor's amendment.
  • 00:09:28
    I'm still in queue from before.
  • 00:09:30
    Gotcha.
• • Margaret Anderson KelliherCity Operations Officer
  • 00:09:39
    Thank you Madam Chair, Council Members, thank you Council Member Palmisano.
  • 00:09:45
    I will first apologize for the lateness of this.
  • 00:09:48
    The responses are written to the original drafting of the amendments.
  • 00:09:54
    We have been working very hard with the Chair and with her staff to revise amendments.
  • 00:10:01
    I think you will be seeing some of those revised amendments.
  • 00:10:04
    many of them would be acceptable to the administration under a full agreement.
  • 00:10:11
    However, at this moment we don't have that full agreement.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:10:16
    So Madam Chair, COO Anderson Kelleher,
  • 00:10:21
    is it reasonable to expect
  • 00:10:44
    into last night, perhaps this morning.
  • 00:10:48
    But where are we at on them from your perspective, from the administration's perspective?
• • Margaret Anderson KelliherCity Operations Officer
  • 00:10:53
    Chair Chug Thai, Council Member Palmisano, with the help of the Chair, her excellent staff, Kai Shelley, we have made great progress.
  • 00:11:06
    But there are a few things to work out.
  • 00:11:11
    There's a very problematic amendment I will speak to when it is offered.
  • 00:11:15
    and certainly we would and the mayor most prefers to have a signed budget with the council with items we can implement in 2026.
  • 00:11:28
    Right now we're not there.
  • 00:11:32
    I see.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:11:32
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:11:33
    Thank you.
  • 00:11:36
    Councilmember Palmesano, this answers all of your questions.
  • 00:11:38
    Wonderful.
  • 00:11:39
    I'm going to move approval of the mayor's amendments.
  • 00:11:41
    Does anyone have any questions related to the mayor amendment, which is about a grant that we received from MnDOT?
  • 00:11:50
    I'm not seeing any, so I will move approval.
  • 00:11:53
    Can I get a second?
  • 00:11:54
    Second.
  • 00:11:55
    All those in favor signify by saying aye.
  • 00:11:57
    Aye.
  • 00:11:57
    Those opposed say nay.
  • 00:12:00
    Any abstentions?
  • 00:12:01
    The ayes have it and that motion carries.
  • 00:12:03
    We will now move to amendment number three.
  • 00:12:06
    This amendment in your packet is in yellow.
  • 00:12:12
    This is a revised version of an amendment.
  • 00:12:15
    I actually think that, without exception, every single revised amendment that you see here is a product of discussions with the administration.
  • 00:12:35
    this symbolizes the tremendous amount of progress we actually have made with the administration.
  • 00:12:41
    So this amendment is actually offered by Council Member Osman, who I don't see here, so we're going to skip over amendment number three and come back to it.
  • 00:12:56
    We're going to now move on to Amendment No.
  • 00:12:58
    4, which is also revised.
  • 00:13:01
    For this, I'm going to recognize the author, Councilmember Vita, to please present your amendment and make a motion.
  • 00:13:07
    Thank you, Chair.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 00:13:08
    So, Amendment No.
  • 00:13:10
    4 comes out of many conversations we've been having here, and actually conversations that Councilmember Koski and I have been having for a couple years now.
  • 00:13:19
    I get to sit on the board
  • 00:13:21
    of a organization that helps with
  • 00:13:32
    for quite some time.
  • 00:13:33
    So this amendment before you is an amendment to set aside $150,000 from the franchise fee and then $50,000 ongoing to serve as a way to help residents with utilities.
  • 00:13:53
    Council Vice President, you and I had a conversation about this and you've done a great job at trying to help me out with this.
  • 00:14:00
    I thought we came to a conclusion though that it wouldn't be contingent on the action that is happening this week.
  • 00:14:08
    But as I read this, it's saying that it's contingent on the action that's happening this week.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:14:15
    Gotcha.
  • 00:14:17
    The goal was to use resources from the Climate Legacy Initiative that without impacting any staff positions that are funded through Climate Legacy Initiative and other programs that have already been appropriated.
  • 00:14:32
    So of the new revenue that could be
  • 00:14:40
    generated by an increase to franchise fees $200,000 of that one, $50,000 one time, and then $50,000 ongoing would be set for...
• • Katie Cashman
  • 00:14:50
    Yes, completely understand that, but I think
  • 00:14:54
    where there may be a little bit of disconnect is that we don't know where that ordinance is going, like that change is going.
  • 00:15:02
    So if that doesn't pass or if something happens with that, then this whole thing is a wash based on this.
  • 00:15:09
    I see what you're saying.
  • 00:15:10
    And so that is the conversation I thought we had been having was like, what is the alternative to it being tied to this franchise fee?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:15:22
    I think let's consider the item as it's written and see if we can have our budget staff take a look, work with admin to figure out
  • 00:15:45
    what exists in the base appropriation from climate legacy initiative and franchise fees for 2026, that 10 million base, and where there's a program that may accommodate what Council Member Vitale is saying right now so that her amendment doesn't have to be contingent.
  • 00:16:04
    If we can figure something like that out, then we can come back to it all the way at the end of the packet and make a revision.
  • 00:16:09
    But for now, I think your amendment, we can just consider it that way.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 00:16:13
    in
  • 00:16:31
    residents have increased utility bills and they're looking for additional support from these organizations that help on utility support and I would like to have this funding and ongoing funding to help offset some of that cost to residents.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:16:47
    Wonderful.
  • 00:16:48
    Will you make a motion?
  • 00:16:49
    I'd like to make a motion.
  • 00:16:51
    Wonderful.
  • 00:16:52
    Is there a second?
  • 00:16:54
    We have a proper motion.
  • 00:16:56
    Any other discussion?
  • 00:16:58
    And right before that I'm going to recognize that we've been joined in this meeting by Council members Osman and Jenkins.
  • 00:17:04
    Council member Cashman.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:17:07
    Oh thank you Chair Chugtai.
  • 00:17:09
    I just wanted to note that on
  • 00:17:11
    Amendment number six we do have contingency language and so in case the administration is not able to find a way to work this into the existing ten million dollar allocation in CLI the other option is to write a contingency clause that says exactly what it says on on budget amendment number six that says it's contingent on the adoption of the gas franchise fee and electric franchise fee ordinances that we'll be considering next Thursday.
  • 00:17:41
    So if that first plan doesn't work out, there's the back-up plan.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:17:45
    Yep, so Council Member Cashman, that's how the amendment is written right now.
  • 00:17:49
    Number four?
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:17:51
    Oh, great.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:17:52
    Awesome.
  • 00:17:53
    Thank you.
  • 00:17:55
    Seeing no further discussion, I will ask the Clerk to call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:18:06
    Council Member Payne?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 00:18:07
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:18:08
    Wonsley, aye.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 00:18:10
    Rainville, aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:18:12
    Vita, aye.
  • 00:18:14
    Osman, aye.
  • 00:18:16
    Cashman, aye.
  • 00:18:17
    Jenkins, aye.
  • 00:18:19
    Chavez, aye.
  • 00:18:21
    Chaudhuri, aye.
  • 00:18:22
    Palmesano, aye.
  • 00:18:24
    Vice Chair Koski, aye.
  • 00:18:26
    Chair Chuktai, aye.
  • 00:18:28
    That is 12 ayes.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:18:31
    That motion carries.
  • 00:18:36
    We are going to return back up to amendment number three from Council Member Osman.
  • 00:18:45
    Council Member Osman, will you please present your amendment and make a motion.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 00:18:49
    Yes, thank you so much, Chair.
  • 00:18:51
    This amendment purpose is to establish Zero Waste Project Manager full-time within Bubbly Works to lead and coordinate and advance the City Community Driven Zero Waste Program.
  • 00:19:05
    This position will be responsible building a shared and equitable solid waste recycling system.
  • 00:19:13
    protects public health, advances environment justice and supports the city in the meeting the state goal to achieve 75% recycling rate by 2030.
  • 00:19:26
    That's one part of it.
  • 00:19:28
    The second part is
  • 00:19:31
    requesting proposal budget 25% ongoing funding to support zero waste work group.
  • 00:19:38
    This work group will serve as a central community-rooted structure responsible for strengthening the city's zero waste strategies.
  • 00:19:49
    I will move this amendment for approval.
  • 00:19:54
    Thank you so much.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:19:55
    Council Member Osman has moved approval.
  • 00:19:57
    Is there a second?
• • Jason Chavez
  • 00:19:58
    Second.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:19:59
    We have a proper motion before us.
  • 00:20:03
    Colleagues, are there any questions?
  • 00:20:04
    I will recognize Council Member Palmesano.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:20:08
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 00:20:10
    These are comments for the authors.
  • 00:20:13
    I really appreciate the need to continue working towards zero waste.
  • 00:20:17
    It's one of the only ways that we can reduce and potentially close the herc.
  • 00:20:22
    But I'm curious why this funding is from solid waste and recycling and not the
  • 00:20:27
    I'm so sorry.
  • 00:20:29
    Council Member Osman, I think that might be a question that
  • 00:20:57
    Well, I guess it is to the extent of is this an allowable use of revenue that we're getting from our solid waste and recycling customers to use it for this purpose?
• • Kristyn AndersonCity Attorney
  • 00:21:10
    So Council Vice President, Council Member, we think it's a legitimate use and obviously we'll work closely with the department and make sure that it's set up in an appropriate way.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:21:21
    Thank you.
  • 00:21:22
    I'm curious from the author's perspective, and I know he just got here I want to give him a second to get settled as to why we're pulling this money from solid waste and recycling instead of from CLI Just had a conversation with public works and this is the decision I made and the decision they were okay with it, so okay, I mean I
  • 00:21:48
    that's not super helpful.
  • 00:21:51
    This isn't a huge amount of money within a large budget but I mean there are going to be impacts to the services by any appropriation.
  • 00:21:59
    It's not just about the service workers running routes but also having administration support that they need to organize and be successful.
  • 00:22:06
    I'm sure that all of us have gotten calls to our offices when a pickup is missed or there's some sort of large or unusual item that we need to ask
  • 00:22:14
    solid waste and recycling to come back out of their normal weekly scheduling get You know, I I'm a little concerned about the purpose of this board and what they can accomplish that our paid city staff Couldn't like what results are expected with a $25,000 investment of taxpayer dollars that are not expected from our expert city staff This is a tier four
  • 00:22:44
    type of body that you're suggesting that we do and you're going to fund it.
  • 00:22:54
    What's the plan for this work group, the $25,000 and what's the end date?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 00:23:00
    The plan is written right here.
  • 00:23:02
    Please look at the package and that should answer your question.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:23:06
    Yeah, that's why I'm asking I'm asking for a little bit more detail than is in the written document Councilmember it's similar to the the safe and thriving communities work group that that was established by in the last last budget cycle Thank you and madam chair I think my point here is that I do think that our city staff could probably do more with $25,000 worth of funding than a work group that we're not going to really be able to
  • 00:23:33
    move their work forward for this small amount of money in this small amount of time, and that's kind of my point.
  • 00:23:38
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:23:39
    Do you want to have, I see Deputy Commissioner Hanlon, I see Director Sexton, do you want any- No, I understand that they're all right with this, it's a fairly small appropriation, but these do have impacts.
  • 00:23:54
    Yep, absolutely.
  • 00:23:56
    I see a few other members in queue.
  • 00:23:58
    I will recognize Council Member Cashman followed by Council Member Chaudry.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:24:03
    Thank you so much.
  • 00:24:05
    I wanted to ask Council Member Osman if I could be made a co-author on this amendment.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 00:24:09
    Happy to do it, thank you.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:24:11
    Okay, thank you so much and I would just like to speak in favor of it.
  • 00:24:14
    I do think that we're at a bit of an impasse when it comes to plans to close the HERC and we really need help from the community in guiding that process.
  • 00:24:26
    I think it would be extremely beneficial for us to have a work group of experts in environmental justice.
  • 00:24:32
    world, in the engineering world, in the legal sphere to help us devise strategies to really get to zero waste and I also want to add that it's my preference and you'll see in budget amendment number six that we allocate any new funding that comes from our franchise fees directly towards efforts that lower energy bills.
  • 00:24:57
    I think it's more appropriate that we
  • 00:25:17
    Thank you, Council Member
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:25:47
    Next, I'll recognize Councilmember Chaudry.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 00:25:50
    Thank you, Chair Chugthai.
  • 00:25:54
    I say Chair Chugthai, right?
  • 00:25:55
    For this committee?
  • 00:26:00
    Thank you Councilmember Osmond for bringing forward this motion.
  • 00:26:03
    I think this is really forward-looking for us to consider as we are going to have to have discussions about how we are planning on our contracts with our waste haulers, what it means for the future of the Herc, what happens to that facility, and I also wanted to ask you if I could be added as a co-author.
  • 00:26:26
    I just wanted to uplift Councilmember Cashman's point that
  • 00:26:35
    It's highly critical that the Climate Legacy Initiative be used to bring down the amount of energy that our communities are using so we can reduce the burden on them and that's like a commitment that I want to make to you moving forward on this body that I will continue to push for for new additional funding.
  • 00:27:00
    and I also wanted to say that I think the 25,000 ongoing is a meaningful amount to start these conversations to support a form of work group.
  • 00:27:12
    I do think we need to create a place where we can have additional community and expert capacity in our conversations around what we can do to
  • 00:27:24
    expedite how we're doing zero waste work because I personally feel like we have been a little bit late to the game especially with the closure of the HERC and the changes that were made at the state legislature not this previous session but the session before that so really excited to support this today.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:27:47
    Wonderful, thank you very much.
  • 00:27:49
    Anyone else want to get recognized?
  • 00:27:57
    Seeing no further discussion on this item, I will ask the Clerk to call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:28:05
    Council Member Payne.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 00:28:06
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:28:07
    Wonsley.
  • 00:28:08
    Aye.
  • 00:28:08
    Rainville.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 00:28:09
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:28:10
    Vita.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 00:28:10
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:28:12
    Osman.
  • 00:28:12
    Aye.
  • 00:28:14
    Cashman.
  • 00:28:15
    Aye.
  • 00:28:15
    Jenkins.
  • 00:28:17
    Chavez, aye.
  • 00:28:18
    Chaudry, aye.
  • 00:28:19
    Palasano, aye.
  • 00:28:21
    Vice Chair Koski, aye.
  • 00:28:24
    Chair Chektai, aye.
  • 00:28:25
    That is 12 ayes.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:28:27
    That motion carries.
  • 00:28:29
    Next up is amendment number five.
  • 00:28:33
    This amendment is offered by Council Member Wonsley.
  • 00:28:39
    Council Member Wonsley, will you please introduce your amendment and make a motion.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:28:43
    Thank you.
  • 00:28:44
    Uh CVP Chuck tie.
  • 00:28:46
    So this budget amendment restores the original council allocation made during this 2024 budget markup session regarding sidewalk plowing pilots.
  • 00:28:55
    Uh the mayor's proposed budget essentially cuts the additional funding that council made to public works to implement several pilots to improve winter walkability on sidewalks.
  • 00:29:05
    Uh prior to the mayor's proposed cuts,
  • 00:29:07
    I learned in January of this year that Public Works made an operational budget cut to the program in response to budget amendments.
  • 00:29:14
    They shared, and by they, the administration, that they believed that they could still implement a successful pilot initiative even though $200,000 of it was shifted away from the program.
  • 00:29:26
    And I was pleased to hear in despite of the
  • 00:29:29
    of the
  • 00:29:46
    A feedback that I heard immediately after the public works presentation on the 2024 through 2025 pilot program was that there was still significant interest in better understanding what a fully scaled out pilot program with the original appropriation that council made, what that will look like and the impacts that it will have, especially in areas located around the pedestrian priority network.
  • 00:30:08
    in 2024, it cost the city nearly $7 million to clear roadways.
  • 00:30:13
    If the city is actually serious about increasing winter walkability, then we must invest dollars to get sidewalks clear as well.
  • 00:30:22
    We need to be scaling up different strategies and fully restore this original mouth for a sidewalk plowing pilots can help us understand how far this money can go and allow us how
  • 00:30:35
    Allow us to have access to additional information on how we can be strategically investing in winter walkability in the future.
  • 00:30:41
    So with that, I will move this motion for approval and ask for a second.
  • 00:30:45
    Second.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:30:46
    Wonderful.
  • 00:30:47
    Any discussion on the sidewalk plowing amendment?
  • 00:30:52
    I will recognize Councilmember Cashman.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:30:55
    Thank you Madam Chair and wanted to ask the author which of the three pilots this would go towards or if it would go towards all three pilots.
  • 00:31:04
    it goes to
  • 00:31:13
    Is there a vision around, you know, moving into this is a formal operational program being implemented by Public Works and not just being piloted?
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:31:24
    So from my understanding, that is an operational decision all council can do based off of feedback in the past from PMI, they usually recommend a window of pilot testing.
  • 00:31:33
    Originally, we allocated a preparation for two years that was cut.
  • 00:31:38
    So again, we've never seen the fully roll out of the pilot itself for the full two years.
  • 00:31:44
    So your other question in terms of when will they transcend from pilot to full absorption into the general fund and into general programming that would be decided once the pilot is completed, which it has not been.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:31:58
    Okay.
  • 00:31:58
    And do we have a sense of whether all three pilot programs have been
  • 00:32:04
    of our sidewalks.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:32:14
    Yeah, Council Member Cashman.
  • 00:32:16
    One, I have no interest in pinning good programs against each other and you sit on the committee where Public Works literally did a presentation on this matter and cited the good outcomes of all of the initiatives that's included in this pilot and that's where we put information from into the narrative piece.
  • 00:32:31
    So they share all three have been actually successful community members all across the city have been eager in receiving these services and they want to see more and this is why we're doing the restoration.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:32:44
    Yeah, I guess I obviously chair the committee where we heard that report, but I do want to understand like the programmatic plan for integrating this and I'm gonna vote for this today, but it's my preference that we
  • 00:33:00
    Thank you, Councilmember Palmisano
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:33:24
    We have heard, I have heard over and over again from residents that they want us to focus on core city services.
  • 00:33:32
    This isn't just residents from my ward but all over the city.
  • 00:33:36
    And also from businesses and commercial properties and visitors too.
  • 00:33:41
    This appropriation comes directly from the snow and ice control budget.
  • 00:33:46
    What is more basic than removing snow from our streets?
  • 00:33:51
    I have not
  • 00:34:08
    a decrease or a slowdown in pretreating, in snow removal from streets and bike lanes, from corner clearance, from pedestrian refuge, from other things.
  • 00:34:17
    It will mean a decrease in staffing from transportation maintenance and repair, so much so that staff from other public works divisions will have to help out in emergencies if
  • 00:34:29
    they are available.
  • 00:34:30
    So running a snow removal process on hoping enough people are available is really not the way to do things.
  • 00:34:40
    I guess I would like to call up Director Sexton for this one to ask how this will impact Core City Services.
  • 00:34:46
    As he does, I will offer this, that last night there was an existing water
  • 00:34:53
    and the City Council.
  • 00:35:12
    TMR staff to be available for them to be staffed up and to be able to respond in these kinds of, you know, unforeseen accidents that happen every single day.
  • 00:35:24
    Director Sexton, I'm curious exactly how this appropriation will impact core city services.
  • 00:35:31
    Welcome, Director.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:35:32
    Please begin by introducing yourself.
• • Tim Sexton
  • 00:35:33
    Yeah, thanks.
  • 00:35:34
    Tim Sexton, Public Works Director.
  • 00:35:36
    Chair Chuktay and Council Member Palmesano,
  • 00:35:40
    You know, the pilot, we've really only had just one full winter snow season for the pilot.
  • 00:35:46
    What we found last year was the most successful approach was, the most cost-effective approach was really giving grants to neighborhood organizations, had relationships with their neighbors, could help support them through the plowing, or excuse me, the sidewalk clearing, in addition to the work that we do for corner and intersection clearing already.
  • 00:36:06
    Your question about the impacts
  • 00:36:09
    to services.
  • 00:36:12
    Some of this work you know we're estimating about three transportation maintenance and repair staff would need to be reallocated from other work to do this work that is typically done by property owners or neighborhood organizations or they can contract this out.
  • 00:36:30
    So losing three staff in addition to some of the other amendments that are brought forward today
  • 00:36:36
    that would further reduce transportation maintenance and repair staff will slow down our ability to respond to things like you brought up, emergencies, along with delaying and reducing the level of service for things like snow clearing in the winter.
  • 00:36:53
    I will say that our idea behind this would be to reallocate existing staff versus hiring new because these are part-time positions only needed in the winter.
  • 00:37:06
    and that makes it further complicates the situation because Not all staff want to do this kind of work so But it also makes it a little hard to to reallocate folks But that that's our thought right now.
  • 00:37:21
    It's hard to say specifically what that level of service reduction would be because so many of our public service workers do a lot of different things in the winter that all relate to snow clearing in different ways and
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:37:32
    Thank you.
  • 00:37:34
    The pedestrian priority network, my understanding is it's mostly downtown.
  • 00:37:38
    It consists of commercial building owners who tend to be very compliant with sidewalk clearing rules.
  • 00:37:45
    Is that right?
  • 00:37:47
    Am I wrong?
• • Tim Sexton
  • 00:37:48
    Sure, Councilmember Palmesano.
  • 00:37:51
    We have, you know, 20 to 30 miles of pedestrian priority network around the city, so while there is significant amount sort of in the downtown core area, it does extend throughout the city.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:38:01
    Mm-hmm.
  • 00:38:02
    Thank you Thank you Let's see next we have council member of Utah Thank you chair.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 00:38:15
    Um, my question was for director Sexton.
  • 00:38:18
    I just wanted to make sure I I heard what you said correctly.
  • 00:38:22
    Um,
  • 00:38:23
    Was it that the programs with the snow plow and removal, I know we have someone in Ward 4 who works with Public Works on helping with the seniors or people with disabilities getting their snow removed or help with yard work sometimes in the fall and in the spring, but did you say that those programs are working better like when you work with the neighborhood organizations to have the removal, then is that working basically?
• • Tim Sexton
  • 00:38:52
    What we found, we've only had one year of the pilot, so I appreciate the earlier conversation about the pilot and when it becomes a full program.
  • 00:39:04
    Because of limited snow the last two winters, I think really last year was our first full roll out.
  • 00:39:11
    What we found was it was very cost effective to work with neighborhood organizations to give them grants, sort of low-burden grants to neighborhood organizations so that they could figure out the way to clear the snow for neighbors, seniors, people with disabilities, and others who struggle to clear the sidewalks.
  • 00:39:31
    They know them.
  • 00:39:35
    We provided them with equipment and other things that they could use the grants for.
  • 00:39:39
    We found that was very cost effective and the neighborhood organizations that we worked with really appreciated that because it further reinforced the role of neighborhood organizations in the community and so there was a lot of advantage to that and we found that it was very cost effective.
  • 00:39:55
    and effective overall.
  • 00:39:56
    We also did some of the other clearing work last year in a limited sense, so the pedestrian priority network along with some spot clearing around the city for neighbors in need.
  • 00:40:07
    What we found though was that some of that had to be done by contractors.
  • 00:40:12
    It was very expensive and really not scalable, at least from our initial learnings, to do that in sort of like a spot approach around the city.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 00:40:22
    Council member Wonsley
  • 00:40:39
    around what we're doing in the pilot with the neighborhood organizations, having folks reach out to people who requested through my office or through their neighborhood groups or through 311 that they're requesting assistance.
  • 00:40:53
    And typically, what we work on is, I mean, probably for the entire north side, is folks are getting citations or someone is coming to the door saying, hey, can you clear your walkway?
  • 00:41:07
    And they say, I'm not able to.
  • 00:41:08
    so if there's not a neighbor there that can help on those blocks then you know we send out the Northside Bulldogs or we send out McKinley Neighborhood Association to help those neighbors and so I want to make sure that we continue to fund that and that we have these positions to help in those larger scale matters that may be removed so I personally have never had anyone ask me for municipal snow plowing but I have had someone ask me
  • 00:41:36
    for someone to come over and clear their sidewalk or cut their grass because they don't want to get citations from the city of Minneapolis.
  • 00:41:46
    So thank you for the work, the pilot that you've done this far and I'm hoping that we can develop a bigger program, a more sustainable program in years to come and I think that's what's most needed in my ward so I appreciate you all committing to that work and continuing to do it.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:42:08
    Thank you.
  • 00:42:09
    Next I don't see, oh, next I'll recognize Councilmember Wonsley followed by Councilmember Chaudry.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:42:15
    Yeah, thank you CBP Chuktai.
  • 00:42:18
    I just wanted to offer a little bit more context around the administration's response around cost effectiveness.
  • 00:42:27
    So just reiterating, before the program was ever fully committed, the administration made a $200,000 cut to it, which
  • 00:42:35
    So we once again have never seen as highlighted how this program will look like with it being fully rolled out because there were cuts made before it was even implemented.
  • 00:43:00
    I also want to emphasize this dynamic around service impacts or service delivery, especially we learned this in response to the lighting dynamic and in that we learned we have financial policies that actually gives the administration, also specifically key departments like Public Works, the ability to access funds when it relates to service delivery.
  • 00:43:24
    Again, the case example was when we saw an issue of need for lighting, we saw the administration be able to move a million dollars to meet that core service delivery.
  • 00:43:36
    And our financial policies essentially allows the administration access to those dollars when core delivery services are experiencing gaps and there is a need for moving of funding.
  • 00:43:47
    and we've seen them utilize that even just this past year alone.
  • 00:43:51
    So this idea that we would just be going with our core services, we have financial policies that actually prevents those things from happening.
  • 00:43:59
    So I at least wanted to offer that context.
  • 00:44:01
    And again, I don't think I officially moved this motion for approval.
  • 00:44:05
    Oh, I did.
  • 00:44:06
    Okay, thank you.
  • 00:44:07
    Well, just making sure and I did get a second on it.
  • 00:44:10
    Correct.
  • 00:44:10
    Awesome.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:44:11
    Alright, that's it.
  • 00:44:15
    Thank you and Council Member Chaudry.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 00:44:18
    Thanks Chair.
  • 00:44:19
    I had a question for Director Sexton as well.
  • 00:44:23
    Thank you so much for answering our questions today.
  • 00:44:26
    I wanted to just understand with the current proposal and the proposed budget before we amend it,
  • 00:44:38
    The cuts that are made to the snow plowing pilots, what program impacts would happen?
  • 00:44:45
    What would we lose?
  • 00:44:46
    What would go away?
• • Tim Sexton
  • 00:44:47
    What we found last year in that first year was that the first full year of the pilot was that these grants to the neighborhood organizations were highly effective, so we proposed to expand those and learn to make sure that we're
  • 00:45:06
    They continue to be effective one year, especially with limited snow.
  • 00:45:10
    It doesn't give us extreme confidence about what things will look like moving forward.
  • 00:45:16
    So the proposal was to really just focus then on expanding the grants to neighborhood organizations, along with continuing to provide, through our snow coordinator position, assistance for renters who are having trouble with the property owners who might not be clearing the snow.
  • 00:45:33
    Connecting people with contract services or connecting individuals with their neighborhood organizations so providing that like communications and outreach resource because a lot of people just don't know that say their neighborhood org is helping or that there's a snow angel program even outside of those neighborhood organizations who are receiving grants where it connects neighbors with neighbors so that communications resource is really important along with managing those grants so but the short answer is
  • 00:46:02
    This year the proposal was to focus on expanding the neighborhood grant program because we found it so successful.
  • 00:46:09
    And not doing the rest, the snow ambassadors, or the other city staffed work of snow and sidewalk clearing.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 00:46:18
    Okay, so the proposal would cut those portions of it.
  • 00:46:22
    Okay, got it.
  • 00:46:23
    That's helpful to understand.
  • 00:46:24
    That's my only question.
  • 00:46:29
    I think for me, the thing that feels really important is the fact that we did not get a chance to execute a successful full pilot without
  • 00:46:42
    One, like the impacts of the snow season and then also doing this for the next two years.
  • 00:46:47
    I will say I have had constituents reach out to me that live outside of the pedestrian priority network, that live within the pedestrian priority network, that routinely reach out about
  • 00:47:04
    real life impacts that happen when they get snowed in and they're not able to shovel and these are usually my constituents with disabilities who rely on their sidewalks also sidewalks being cleared to get to transit all these different things so they essentially get snowed in and that's a real life emergency for them and I am in constant conversations I would say that we have like
  • 00:47:26
    for emergent snow conversations that have just come up with the latest snowfall.
  • 00:47:31
    So I would like, I would of course like to see the neighborhood organization program expand.
  • 00:47:39
    I got a request from the Standish Erickson neighborhood organization to see if they could do a program like this because they saw Whittier Alliance post about it.
  • 00:47:48
    but there's only so much neighborhood organizations can do and so kind of seeing out what are the best tools for the next few years especially this year because we're expecting a polar vortex which means snow and it's snowing today so I'll be supporting this amendment.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:48:07
    Thank you.
  • 00:48:09
    I will next recognize Vice Chair Koski.
• • Emily Koski
  • 00:48:12
    Thank you Madam Chair and thank you Director.
  • 00:48:15
    I just would like to clarify, what is the total that's currently in the budget then for the grants program for neighborhood organizations?
• • Tim Sexton
  • 00:48:27
    Oh, it is approximately $100,000.
• • Emily Koski
  • 00:48:35
    And is that, so $100,000, and is that what was utilized last year, or is that what was?
  • 00:48:42
    I'm sorry.
• • Tim Sexton
  • 00:48:44
    Yeah, Chair Chuck Dye, Vice Chair Koski.
  • 00:48:47
    We used less than that last year, and that was because of the grants.
  • 00:48:52
    We weren't issuing as many grants last year, and so this is actually an increase, I believe, of what was spent last year to focus on expanding that work
  • 00:49:04
    for the Neighborhood Association Grants.
• • Emily Koski
  • 00:49:06
    Okay, so we have currently, without making any amendments, we have $100,000 in the budget for the Neighborhood Organization Grants Program portion of the pilot.
• • Tim Sexton
  • 00:49:17
    It's approximately, I think it's between $75,000 and $100,000.
  • 00:49:21
    Okay.
• • Emily Koski
  • 00:49:21
    And then this might be a question to you or possibly to the author.
  • 00:49:27
    My understanding is that this amendment is an additional almost $600,000 but for all three of the pilots so it was an increase to even that amount to the grant neighborhood program as well.
  • 00:49:41
    Is that what your intention was?
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 00:49:43
    My understanding this is also inclusive so because it was always the full amount this was the original appropriation based off of public works numbers the 595 so this is inclusive of their numbers and I'm assuming the absorption of what they've allocated okay thank you
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:50:03
    Thank you.
  • 00:50:05
    I am not seeing anyone else in queue, so I will ask the Clerk to call the roll on Amendment Number 7.
  • 00:50:11
    Sorry, Amendment Number 5.
  • 00:50:14
    5 Wong, Plowing Pilots.
  • 00:50:15
    Miss Boak.
  • 00:50:17
    5.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:50:18
    Council Member Payne.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:50:19
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:50:21
    Wonsley.
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 00:50:21
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:50:22
    Rainville.
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 00:50:23
    No.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:50:25
    Vita.
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 00:50:26
    No.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 00:50:28
    Osman.
  • 00:50:29
    Aye.
  • 00:50:30
    Cashman.
  • 00:50:31
    Aye.
  • 00:50:32
    That motion carries.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:50:53
    We will next move to amendment number
  • 00:50:59
    Amendment number six.
  • 00:51:00
    This is a revised amendment as well in yellow.
  • 00:51:03
    It is the franchise fees allocation offered by Councilmember Cashman.
  • 00:51:12
    I will recognize her for presenting this amendment and making a motion.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:51:18
    Thank you Madam Chair.
  • 00:51:20
    This amendment earmarks the estimated four million dollars that we will receive if the franchise fee ordinances pass next Thursday and the language is written with a contingency for that.
  • 00:51:34
    And the reason that I decided to craft this and earmark that money towards weatherization and retrofitting is exactly because of the comments we've been receiving from the public and
  • 00:51:46
    and so on.
  • 00:51:46
    So I think 60 plus people came to our public hearing on those ordinances and talked about how important it is that we increase the amount of money that we have to deliver weatherization and retrofitting projects for our communities, especially the lower income communities who live in EJ neighborhoods and live within the north side and south side green zones.
  • 00:52:05
    These programs have a huge return on
  • 00:52:10
    are a really important way for us to address one of our top goals in our climate equity plan, which is reducing energy burden.
  • 00:52:17
    And so the amendment that you see before you is to allocate that new money that comes in through the franchise fees for the programs that will directly lower energy costs for energy burdened neighbors in our city, and the amount that comes in is not
  • 00:52:33
    and the
  • 00:52:43
    Council Member Vita's amendment for energy assistance.
  • 00:53:01
    And I will move approval of this amendment.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:53:04
    Is there a second?
  • 00:53:09
    We have a proper motion on franchise fees allocation.
  • 00:53:13
    Is there any discussion from colleagues?
  • 00:53:15
    I will recognize Council Member Jenkins followed by Council Member Palmisano.
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 00:53:22
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 00:53:23
    You know, I guess my concern with this and certainly we need to continue to try to address cost burden households with utility costs
  • 00:53:39
    but it just feels like we're not really, these programs aren't going to those low-income homes.
  • 00:53:50
    It's been really a challenge to get those projects done, so I, you know, why continue to spend more money until we figure out how we can make sure that we're addressing green zones on the north side and the south side?
  • 00:54:07
    and really ensuring that those projects are being funded.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:54:19
    Next I'll recognize Councilmember Palmisano.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:54:24
    Thank you Madam Chair.
  • 00:54:25
    You know I sit with those comments from Councilmember Jenkins.
  • 00:54:30
    But mostly, per some prior comments, I'd like to point out that there are eight goals of the Climate Legacy Initiative.
  • 00:54:38
    Energy efficiency is one of them.
  • 00:54:40
    The other seven are carbon neutrality, emissions reduction, green jobs and training, community investment, clean energy, trees, and sustainable infrastructure.
  • 00:54:53
    We don't get to, as council members, go backwards and say there's just one, or that we're only going to focus on one that we like.
  • 00:55:01
    We need to protect the goals of the program, all of them, to make meaningful progress here.
  • 00:55:08
    Councilmember Vitale's amendment prior went directly to whom is getting impacted by increased franchise fees.
  • 00:55:14
    The most.
  • 00:55:15
    She's...
  • 00:55:17
    her amendment was about how to refund or help those who are impacted the most by rising energy costs.
  • 00:55:26
    That was a good amendment from my perspective.
  • 00:55:29
    This one does go toward one of the goals.
  • 00:55:32
    This isn't about whether or not we are passing an increased franchise fee.
  • 00:55:37
    It's about
  • 00:55:39
    once we do how we will program it.
  • 00:55:43
    So I am receptive to those who've been speaking up about it and I am inclined to program it and make more progress in this area but here's what's important to me to support it.
  • 00:55:55
    Can you confirm for me that this earmark is going to the program itself to the function of weatherization and not to any specific contractor or vendor or community group?
  • 00:56:06
    And this is a question I think to the author.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:56:09
    Madam Chair, happy to answer this question and first wanted to clarify that weatherizing in retrofitting homes addresses almost every single one of the climate goals that you listed including reducing greenhouse gases, supporting our workforce, etc.
  • 00:56:23
    And then you'll see in the amendment that this earmark would specifically fund the following programs within the green cost share umbrella.
  • 00:56:30
    So our city staff have done a really great job in the last couple of years creating an umbrella
  • 00:56:53
    to make these programs as effective as possible so that anyone who applies can find the pathway that best suits their home and their building and their neighborhood's needs.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:57:04
    Thank you for answering the question.
  • 00:57:05
    I was concerned that there were several vendors and groups specifically listed in the supporting materials and we were going to be limiting it to those groups so I just want to be clear here.
  • 00:57:15
    Our expert city staff, as you mentioned, are the ones who should be determining which
  • 00:57:20
    programs within Green Cross Share are prioritized for extra funding and assigning contracts and work through their vetted RFPs, not us directing who specifically will get funding.
  • 00:57:32
    My second or last question is either for you because you've been deeply involved in this work and I appreciate it or perhaps Director Hanlon.
  • 00:57:41
    With increased funds is it likely that we will need to bring on additional vendors to do this kind of work?
  • 00:57:47
    This is a large amount of money in a short amount of time.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 00:57:51
    I would ask that Deputy Commissioner Hanlon come in to answer that question.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:57:58
    Thank you and welcome Director Hanlon.
• • Patrick Hanlon
  • 00:58:06
    I just want to clarify that some of the names that were mentioned in this amendment came from a memo that we had sent back of existing contractors and partners that we work with to get this money out.
  • 00:58:19
    I would say in bringing on a fund of this amount, we would be
  • 00:58:25
    Scaling up the contracts with those vendors, but we it's it would be a lot of program dollars to get out the doors So we would also be open to working with new partners To address especially in areas of the Northside Green Zone Southside Green Zones and with low-income members Thank you.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 00:58:42
    This is really helpful context
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 00:58:47
    Thank you Madam Chair and Deputy Commissioner Hanlon.
• • Emily Koski
  • 00:58:56
    I did hear Councilmember Jenkins comments just about you know who was being serviced and I know that you gave a presentation and not all of us are in some of the committees and so I'm wondering if you could just lay out for us like what these programs and who has been I know you had some concerns maybe of perhaps we weren't targeting in our green zones and I'm just wondering if you could
  • 00:59:24
    speak to that because I know you guys presented some very specific numbers for that and want to make sure that that's clear for the public.
• • Patrick Hanlon
  • 00:59:31
    Sure, Chug Thai, Councilmember Koski, Councilmember Jenkins.
  • 00:59:38
    So there was a letter that went out from our commissioner, Commissioner Chaplin, just talking about some of the complexity around this.
  • 00:59:44
    There are many different EGA environmental justice tools that are out there.
  • 00:59:48
    One from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
  • 00:59:51
    We have our green zones.
  • 00:59:52
    There are Met Council areas of concentrated poverty.
  • 00:59:57
    And so there are different ways to look at some of this data.
  • 00:59:59
    And I think that's where some of the confusion
  • 01:00:01
    around this come from.
  • 01:00:03
    The Climate Legacy Initiative currently uses green zones as a priority, north side green zone, south side green zone, and low income properties, and any organization that is serving people in low income situations.
  • 01:00:17
    And so about 60% of the funding goes to those, what we are currently calling our environmental justice category, so about 60% of the funds go into those categories as we're currently set up.
  • 01:00:29
    Our director of climate equity action is currently working with our enterprise partners and also with external partners through our climate legacy roundtable to have further really intentional discussions around this in how we are defining environmental justice investments.
  • 01:00:46
    But currently as the program is set up, it's around 60% of the funds go to that definition.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:00:51
    Thank you.
• • Patrick Hanlon
  • 01:00:52
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:00:55
    Thank you.
  • 01:00:56
    Next I will recognize Council Member Osman.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 01:00:59
    I'll speak quick.
  • 01:01:00
    I I support this and I had the privilege of attending some of the community engagements some of these organizations did to explain what's what's happening and this organization is are from the community they speak community language
  • 01:01:15
    They explain it better and just with the director that just spoke, Helen, I had the opportunity to just be there and it was just really a great information.
  • 01:01:30
    I encourage any council member to invite those community organizations that are doing wonderful work weatherizing and helping low-income families.
  • 01:01:41
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:01:44
    Thank you.
  • 01:01:45
    With that, I'm not seeing any further discussion, so I will ask the Clerk to call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 01:01:54
    Councilmember Payne?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:01:55
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 01:01:56
    Wonsley?
  • 01:01:57
    Aye.
  • 01:01:58
    Rainville?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 01:01:59
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 01:02:00
    Vita?
  • 01:02:00
    Aye.
  • 01:02:01
    Osman?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 01:02:02
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 01:02:03
    Cashman?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 01:02:04
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 01:02:05
    Jenkins?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 01:02:06
    Aye.
  • 01:02:06
    Chavez?
  • 01:02:07
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 01:02:07
    Chaudhuri?
  • 01:02:08
    Aye.
  • 01:02:09
    Tomosano?
  • 01:02:10
    Aye.
  • 01:02:10
    Vice Chair Koski?
  • 01:02:12
    Aye.
  • 01:02:12
    Chair Chuktai?
  • 01:02:14
    That motion carries.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:02:19
    We will now move to, excuse me, we will now move to amendment number seven.
  • 01:02:28
    After we started this meeting, we had the clerks bring by an amended version of this document.
  • 01:02:37
    So your binder will have a white sheet, whereas the one we are going to be looking at is the yellow one.
  • 01:02:44
    This amendment is related to traffic safety for all.
  • 01:02:49
    It is offered by Council Member Wonsley.
  • 01:02:51
    I will recognize Council Member Wonsley to introduce her amendment and make a motion.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 01:03:00
    Thank you, CBP Chuktai.
  • 01:03:04
    So, the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program, which this amendment makes appropriations to, continues to be a popular program and has been widely acclaimed by residents to help improve safety conditions amongst city streets.
  • 01:03:17
    And we also have
  • 01:03:19
    been made aware time and time again that its current funding levels is unable to meet the demand of this program.
  • 01:03:27
    Last year, in response to a legislative directive by council, public works shared that it would be an estimated $15 million cost to address all the potential projects just for 2025 alone.
  • 01:03:40
    and fully completing eligible projects has been a multi-year effort by council and this additional funding will help continue that work.
  • 01:03:49
    The city has over 16,000 sidewalk corners, many of which have not been reconstructed, so they are deficient with respect to current ADA design standards.
  • 01:03:59
    This amendment will put $2.3 million of investments into ADA accessibility and will fund the systemic replacement of around 100 deficient pedestrian ramps per year.
  • 01:04:11
    There is also a modest increase to the protected bikeways program by a one-time allocation of $700,000 and then a one-time increase of $2.5 million for traffic safety improvements which will improve the overall traffic safety for our city's roadways.
  • 01:04:27
    These categories were selected based on need as well as based on conversations with CLIC members as well I sourced the funding for this proposed amendment from the Public Safety Wellness and Training Center which has allocated about 5.5 million dollars
  • 01:04:45
    and the proposed mayor's budget.
  • 01:04:48
    I will start off by saying simply that this body should not approve this project because the administration chose to commit the city to a $24 million building before getting council approval and funding.
  • 01:05:00
    The administration incorporating this project into the settlement agreement was an overreach, an attempt to bypass our budget authority as council members.
  • 01:05:11
    and the administration has cited the settlement agreement as requiring the need for this facility and that is just simply not factual.
  • 01:05:18
    There was no requirement in the settlement agreement for a wellness and training center like the capital request implies in its proposal.
  • 01:05:26
    The settlement agreement that council voted for
  • 01:05:29
    and we should not commit a twenty
  • 01:05:51
    or commit to a $24 million building to help the administration essentially save face.
  • 01:05:56
    They should take accountability and work through the correct process on this as well as on other settlement programs that they're trying to negotiate with ALIFA to advance compliance with the settlement agreement.
  • 01:06:08
    but that does not mean the council is a rubber stamp on those initiatives when they want to bypass those processes and this is a time to ensure that those processes are being enforced.
  • 01:06:20
    Even outside of improper process by the administration, I do not think this or at this time this funding is appropriate.
  • 01:06:27
    This summer, council approved over a one million dollar contract for wellness services for our MPD officers.
  • 01:06:35
    Wellness and Training will also be incorporated into all the future community safety centers and this was stated and included in the Public Safety Facilities presentation by the Office of Community Safety in response to a legislative directive that council passed just last year.
  • 01:06:50
    The training site that currently is being rented at an MPS facility that is being proposed as a site, again, does not require us to purchase a whole new facility.
  • 01:07:02
    According to the city's own MPD facility assessment, there are several additional ways to meet the training spaces requirement of the settlement agreement, such as utilizing cross-jurisdictional partnerships and agreements.
  • 01:07:15
    MPD actually already does this with some of their other operational needs, so there is no reason why the training center could not be also another opportunity to work and share the cost with other law enforcement agencies who already have resources in place to fulfill training needs.
  • 01:07:32
    The administration has the opportunity to come back to Council next year with a better fleshed out proposal and plan for this body to consider.
  • 01:07:39
    But for now, this is a large investment with too many unanswered questions that currently sidesteps the Council's budget processes.
  • 01:07:50
    In light of that, these dollars are better invested in things that we do know will have a measurable benefit for the public like making investments into our traffic calming program that will ensure dozens more projects will be completed in 2026.
  • 01:08:06
    So with that I will motion this amendment for approval and ask for a second.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:08:13
    Council Member Wonsley has moved approval on traffic safety for all.
  • 01:08:16
    Is there a second?
  • 01:08:18
    We have a proper motion before us.
  • 01:08:20
    Colleagues, are there any questions or discussion?
  • 01:08:23
    I will recognize Council Member Rainville.
• • Michael Rainville
  • 01:08:27
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 01:08:28
    I'm wondering, this is a very strong statement by Council Member, and I'm wondering if someone from the administration could come up, perhaps is Jared here?
  • 01:08:38
    I can't see with the pillar.
  • 01:08:40
    Could you just address how the settlement agreement impacts this amendment or vice versa and then I do have one other question after that.
  • 01:08:51
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:08:54
    Mr. Jeffries, if you will first begin by introducing yourself.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:08:57
    Thank you, Chair Shugthai, Councilmember Rainville.
  • 01:09:01
    I am Jared Jeffries.
  • 01:09:01
    I'm the Deputy Commissioner of Community Safety for the City of Minneapolis.
  • 01:09:06
    Councilmember Rainville, to answer your question, the MDHR settlement agreement requires a training assessment, a facilities assessment, several other assessments that were completed between 2023 and 2024.
  • 01:09:23
    There were several facilities assessments that were done that said our current facility for MPD training, the SOC, the Strategic Operations Center, was insufficient to meet our training needs for what a modern police agency really needs to have.
• • Michael Rainville
  • 01:09:40
    And if I can just stop you there, so for the public, the SOC is that old elementary school that's been retrofitted for this need?
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:09:48
    Correct, the city currently leases or rents.
  • 01:09:51
    In addition to just the facilities assessments that we had to complete and gave recommendations to the city the both the MDHR Selman agreement and the consent decree provisions that we agreed to with the previous Department of Justice all have extensive training and wellness requirements that really put a significant onus on the city to provide these resources to our officers and to our staff and
  • 01:10:20
    they are, I mean it's hundreds of hours of training.
  • 01:10:25
    It is significant wellness resources above what we supply to them right now and I mean inherent in that we have to provide space for these resources and training to actually occur.
  • 01:10:37
    As far as what is in the Selman Agreement and kind of how it was, how we got there, I would defer to the City Attorney's Office on really what that means and the weight of that but
  • 01:10:49
    I'm happy to answer further questions on it though, too.
• • Michael Rainville
  • 01:10:52
    Well, I don't know if you could answer this or perhaps the City Attorney, but does this sidestep the Council agenda?
• • Kristyn AndersonCity Attorney
  • 01:10:59
    Madam City Attorney, go ahead.
  • 01:11:02
    Yeah.
  • 01:11:03
    Council Vice President, Council Members.
  • 01:11:05
    So let me kind of just walk back a little bit and explain what the settlement agreement requires.
  • 01:11:10
    So the settlement agreement required us to do both a training assessment and a facilities assessment.
  • 01:11:18
    as Deputy Commissioner identified both of those assessments actually found serious deficiencies with the existing facility and the facilities assessment recommended that a new training facility be created.
  • 01:11:36
    The settlement agreement also requires us to provide a facilities plan
  • 01:11:43
    which had to be approved by Olifa.
  • 01:11:45
    So we created that facilities plan with the recommendation that a new facility be brought.
  • 01:11:52
    Now Olifa approved that but of course the next step in the process then is to go to CLIC which happened and then to come to the City Council for ultimate budget approval.
  • 01:12:06
    So I would argue we did not do a wrong process here.
  • 01:12:11
    We followed the process.
  • 01:12:12
    It wouldn't make sense to have a proposal come to the City Council for budgetary authority that ALIFA didn't approve, right?
  • 01:12:21
    I mean, part of this is, if we present something to ALIFA, they say, yes, this would satisfy the terms of the agreement.
  • 01:12:28
    If they say no, then we're not going to waste your time.
  • 01:12:31
    If they say yes, then we come to you for budgetary authority, which is why this was in the mayor's budget.
  • 01:12:38
    If the council were to not do the appropriation and not allow for us to go forward with
  • 01:12:47
    with this new construction, then we would have to go back to Alifa, come up with a different proposal that would try to satisfy the requirements for, again, wellness and training that are all in the settlement agreement.
  • 01:13:02
    and see if ELIFA would approve something else.
  • 01:13:06
    Given the deficiencies and given all of the requirements for, again, scenario-based training, all of these wellness requirements, I don't know whether ELIFA would find some other option to satisfy the requirements in the settlement agreement.
  • 01:13:26
    If that answers your question.
• • Michael Rainville
  • 01:13:28
    It does, thank you.
  • 01:13:29
    Would you like to add anything, Mr. Jeffries?
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:13:31
    I'll just say the need for this, I know the question was posed in regards to the settlement agreement, there are needs beyond just the police department that are being unmet as far as wellness and training needs.
  • 01:13:45
    That goes for our fire department, for our 911 department, virtually all of our community safety departments have needs when it comes to space for training and wellness that we currently are unable to meet.
• • Michael Rainville
  • 01:13:59
    Okay, thank you.
  • 01:13:59
    So I'm going to be voting no on this.
  • 01:14:02
    We all want our police department to improve as well as the continued effort for all of public safety.
  • 01:14:09
    And we saw how good the training should be, can be with the annunciation shooting.
  • 01:14:16
    Within four minutes of the call, we had 911 responders on.
  • 01:14:20
    Within 14 minutes, we had those children, those horribly injured children, on their way to hospitals to get fixed.
  • 01:14:28
    and I can't imagine what it's like for a firefighter or a 911 operator or a police officer to be involved with that and the after effects for their mental wellness.
  • 01:14:38
    So I think we should stick to the course, listen to a LEFA and continue with the improved training for our police department.
  • 01:14:46
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:14:50
    Thank you.
  • 01:14:51
    Next we've got the clerk.
• • Casey CarlCity Clerk
  • 01:14:57
    I just was asking if Councilmember Wonsley could restate her motion for clarity.
  • 01:15:02
    We have one that was printed as the revised copy but then we were noted by your staff there might be a change so I want to make sure we captured it correctly.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 01:15:10
    The change was captured in the revised motion, so I'm moving approval of the revised one.
• • Casey CarlCity Clerk
  • 01:15:14
    But in the revised motion that we passed out, it says on the first item that it's $700,000, and your staff tells us it's $720,000, so I want to make sure that we have that correctly.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 01:15:25
    Thank you.
• • Casey CarlCity Clerk
  • 01:15:26
    Sorry, there was a typo.
  • 01:15:27
    So that's the motion?
  • 01:15:29
    Mm-hmm.
  • 01:15:29
    $720,000.
  • 01:15:29
    Okay, thank you.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 01:15:30
    $720,000, thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:15:44
    Wonderful.
  • 01:15:48
    Okay, with that, next we're going to move to Council Member Vitaw, followed by Council Member Wonsley.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 01:15:53
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 01:15:55
    So, I don't think I have a question yet, but just a few comments.
  • 01:15:59
    The training facility is in Ward 4.
  • 01:16:01
    It's at a very old school in a residential neighborhood, like literally across the street from people's homes.
  • 01:16:07
    and I get lots of complaints from the people.
  • 01:16:10
    Not about police, but noise complaints, the usage of some things.
  • 01:16:15
    I mean, mostly it's noise complaints, it's congested traffic because there's a lot of vehicles over there, those sorts of things.
  • 01:16:24
    And I would say, what I hear from people the most is they want officers to be trained well.
  • 01:16:29
    People see that as an opportunity for us to have a better police department
  • 01:16:34
    and I think Officer Wellness just goes right along with that.
  • 01:16:38
    And I know wellness for me does matter, facilities does matter.
  • 01:16:42
    I feel good when I go to my house and it's spotless clean or it's being used in a way that I need it the most.
  • 01:16:49
    So I really do think that we have to look at this as an opportunity to make our department better
  • 01:16:57
    and not as like a bad thing.
  • 01:17:00
    This is an investment in a department that we want to be better.
  • 01:17:03
    A part of that is facilities, a part of that is training.
  • 01:17:06
    Some of the conversations I've had, you know, the 4th Precinct has the range there.
  • 01:17:12
    and there's been conversations about if the range will move to this training facility and out of the fourth precinct and if the fourth precinct actual building will be given back to community because it was a community center back in the day.
  • 01:17:26
    So there's just been a lot of conversations in North Minneapolis about a better training facility for the police department and that does not include this old school on
  • 01:17:41
    42nd and Bryant I think is where it is and if you've ever been there you can see that it's outdated and that the facility definitely it doesn't fit the needs for policing right now and it definitely doesn't fit the needs for neighbors who live across the street and people who are just
  • 01:18:04
    in the community and want to see something different in that space, in that park space, in that area altogether.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:18:15
    Thank you, next we've got, actually I'm going to pause here just really quick.
  • 01:18:21
    Finance just has caught a minor error with that revision, so I'm going to invite Director DeCenza up and just walk through the importance of getting a balanced item and
  • 01:18:35
    how the amendment before us, as it is written, is balanced and correct, and no further changes are needed on it.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 01:18:42
    Thank you, go ahead.
  • 01:18:43
    Thank you, Chair Chogtai.
  • 01:18:43
    Yes, the revision that we just heard about would throw this off balance, so we need to make sure that if we're cutting five and a half million from one project, the addition amount is five and a half, so 700k plus 2.5 million plus 2.3 million will balance, but 770 will not.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:19:03
    So actually, Michael, can you just pull the one that you are dropping off right now, take that one back, because what Director DeSantis is describing is that it's incorrect and not balanced.
• • Casey CarlCity Clerk
  • 01:19:21
    For clarity, Madam Chair, what we read into the record was for line item 1 BIK28 project, we were told that 720,000
  • 01:19:31
    The second item TRO 22 is 2.5 million and 3 PV 104 is 2.3 million.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 01:19:39
    Okay.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:19:45
    Give us just one second.
• • 01:20:00
    Yeah.
  • 01:20:00
    700 is correct.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:20:01
    It should just be 700 even.
  • 01:20:07
    Yes.
  • 01:20:07
    So, take this one back that you dropped off.
  • 01:20:10
    It should be 700 even.
  • 01:20:12
    Wonderful.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 01:20:13
    Thank you director, thank you Michael.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:20:16
    Alright, we're going to return back to the queue.
  • 01:20:20
    I know there's plenty of discussion that is still left on this item.
  • 01:20:26
    So, for clarity.
  • 01:20:28
    For clarity, the motion is
  • 01:20:32
    Reducing the entire budget that is allocated for 2026 for the Public Safety Wellness Center by $5.5 million.
  • 01:20:43
    And then taking that $5.5 million and redistributing it among three other existing capital programs.
  • 01:20:52
    Protected bikeways gets a $700,000 increase.
  • 01:20:56
    Traffic safety improvement supplemental, that is where neighborhood traffic calming is now going to live, is $2.5 million.
  • 01:21:04
    ADA ramp replacement program supplemental gets $2.3 million which adds up to exactly $5.5 million.
  • 01:21:16
    We're going to return to discussion.
  • 01:21:17
    Councilmember Osman followed by Councilmember Palmesano.
  • 01:21:20
    Oh sorry, did we skip over you?
• • Katie Cashman
  • 01:21:23
    I will have you get back in queue.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 01:21:27
    Thank you so much and this question is for the staff or anyone who can answer.
  • 01:21:32
    I'm learning as we go.
  • 01:21:37
    training facility that's coming up, that we're projecting to build, how much is it going to cost?
  • 01:21:43
    Does anybody know what this training facility is going to cost?
  • 01:21:51
    How many millions of dollars?
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 01:21:56
    Through the Chair, Council Member Osman, currently in the budget for the capital improvement budget, we have five and a half million slated for 2026, and then eight million in 2027, eight million in 2028.
  • 01:22:09
    So those are the three years of funding that are proposed.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 01:22:13
    And when will this plan to get built?
  • 01:22:17
    What year is it going to try and get built?
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:22:20
    So just one quick thing before I go into the timeline.
  • 01:22:27
    So I'll note that this was on the city's state capital projects list and it was at the top.
  • 01:22:35
    We asked in our application to the state for 19 million.
  • 01:22:40
    and so as part of that request process that 19 million is actually half of the total anticipated cost so the total anticipated cost would be 38 million with us requesting 19 million from the state and so what I don't know I can't remember if Director DeCenza's sums add up to that but that's the most recent calculations
  • 01:23:04
    To answer your question about timeline, I think this is a project that the administration would like to move as quickly as possible on because of all the significant training and wellness needs in the settlement agreement and in the consent decree.
  • 01:23:19
    and all the needs I covered for all of our departments.
  • 01:23:23
    So what we have talked about is site acquisition, having a site under control in probably early 2026 and then actually starting the design process in 2026 with the goal of start building end of 2026 beginning of 2027.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 01:23:40
    Okay, well we kind of know the process of
  • 01:23:45
    and the time of staff
  • 01:24:00
    We already knew in our precincts, I think the first precinct and the third precinct, is there an option or a way to have wellness or training center while we build those?
  • 01:24:15
    For example, third precinct, wouldn't that be smart to
  • 01:24:21
    I know each precinct has some kind of wellness where lockers, people can go to gyms, stuff like that.
  • 01:24:25
    This is not that.
  • 01:24:28
    This center is going to be a place where everyone, every professional firefighters and everyone can go to get trained.
  • 01:24:35
    I'm just trying to see if there's a way to include the new third precinct that's coming up, a training facility or the new building downtown, a training facility or something similar to that.
  • 01:24:49
    Has that been discussed?
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:24:51
    Councilmember Osmond, thank you for your question.
  • 01:24:53
    Yes, it has been discussed.
  • 01:24:54
    So in regard to the South Minneapolis Community Safety Center, the design for that building has been completed.
  • 01:25:01
    That RFP for the general contractor is out.
  • 01:25:06
    We will be bringing forward to council near the beginning of next year the approval for that general contractor contract for the third precinct for South Minneapolis Community Safety Center.
  • 01:25:17
    And during that you'll all receive more information about the design of that facility that facility really has always been intended at least as we've talked about as a city to be a
  • 01:25:30
    more of an operational center where community can come in and out and so from a purpose standpoint it just doesn't align super well with kind of what we would like to see from a training and wellness facility.
  • 01:25:41
    I also want to note too the city has been already knowing that we were needing to build a new site, a new location for a training and wellness center as recommended by our assessments.
  • 01:25:58
    We've been looking at property
  • 01:25:59
    and we are very hopeful that we'll be able to bring something to you as Council early in 2026 for actual acquisition of the site.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 01:26:08
    Okay, thank you so much.
  • 01:26:10
    I'm just gonna state my opinion.
  • 01:26:12
    I think these are wonderful programs, but also at the same time we do need to set our officers or our professional people that are, you know, first responders should be able to have a place that is welcoming, that is give them the opportunity to train, to be able to, you know,
  • 01:26:38
    be the best of the best.
  • 01:26:40
    And that will take, of course, a lot of investment from the state, a lot of work, and a lot of investment within the city.
  • 01:26:49
    So, not sure when this facility will be available, but I cannot support this.
  • 01:26:57
    this motion because looking forward I think we are making a smart decision building this public safety and training center that we're projecting to come up next few years.
  • 01:27:15
    We just have to set our professionals to have a facility and I look forward to supporting that in the future too.
  • 01:27:24
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:27:26
    Next, I will recognize Councilmember Palmisano followed by Councilmember Cashman.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 01:27:32
    Madam Chair, I get behind the concept of many of these amendments and what my colleagues would like to do.
  • 01:27:39
    But it will be no surprise to you that I object to the funding source of many of them.
  • 01:27:45
    Large cuts or appropriations within MPD or their needed facilities for unrelated projects or initiatives are a total non-starter for me.
  • 01:27:54
    That said, I am so floored and frustrated by this amendment that I'm not quite sure where to start, but I promise to keep track of my time.
  • 01:28:04
    We know that our strategic operations center, our current training center is deficient, and this was confirmed by a mandated facilities assessment.
  • 01:28:13
    I have been actively working toward a new training and wellness center for years.
  • 01:28:20
    I was finally successful in at least getting this into the CIP in 2019, six years ago.
  • 01:28:27
    And I think before that, we got it on our IGR agenda for state funding potential and for state partnerships in this work.
  • 01:28:35
    That is a long-standing need that predates the MDHR settlement agreement and any talk of a consent decree.
  • 01:28:44
    This has been a defining priority of my career on the council, so come talk to me about it when you want to remove it.
  • 01:28:52
    This action will result in massive delays to compliance for the settlement agreement and any consent decree.
  • 01:28:59
    Site acquisition, design, bonding, legislative support take a long time in the initial steps of this project I put in place a long time ago.
  • 01:29:10
    Sending this back to the drawing board will lead to multi-year delays meaning we'll be out of compliance with the settlement agreement timelines.
  • 01:29:18
    We had started off on a path to get all of those things done and fast and make these important changes in our police department in record time.
  • 01:29:29
    In the author's analysis,
  • 01:29:59
    Councilmember Wonsley states there should be a thoughtful study and plan for how all MPD-related capital projects interface together and the Safe and Thriving Communities report.
  • 01:30:12
    Staff created that plan.
  • 01:30:13
    They presented it to MDHR and ELIFA who both approved it.
  • 01:30:19
    OCF staff presented the plan for all of their public safety related capital projects at the September 22nd Committee of the Whole meeting in response to a legislative directive authored by Councilmember Wonsley.
  • 01:30:32
    Staff incorporated several criteria into their design elements.
  • 01:30:36
    I'll quote from their presentation.
  • 01:30:38
    These operational priorities focus on how the city manages and implements projects to ensure they align with the values of racial equity, community safety, sustainability, and community engagement outlined in the safe and thriving communities plan, the strategic racial and equity action plan, the climate equity plan, and the 2040 comprehensive plan.
  • 01:30:59
    They aim to guide departmental processes, staffing strategies and work practices to better reflect community needs, foster trust and promote equitable outcomes across all neighborhoods and populations.
  • 01:31:12
    The author also notes that the settlement agreement itself does not call for a new facility, and that MDHR did not spell that out in the agreement.
  • 01:31:20
    She's correct.
  • 01:31:22
    But the facilities plan that was approved by Alifa was also approved by MDHR, who are the partners at the table for this work in all respects.
  • 01:31:31
    This project proposal did follow the standard click process, contrary to the author's notes.
  • 01:31:37
    The author states throughout her proposed cut that city channels were not followed, and that's simply not true.
  • 01:31:43
    Our independent evaluator approved this plan, which included MDHR feedback.
  • 01:31:48
    It was part of a public presentation to council.
  • 01:31:50
    It was included in the mayor's proposed budget.
  • 01:31:53
    Contrary to the author's claims, this did go through the click process.
  • 01:31:59
    Lastly, we recently approved our state capital investment bill resolution which not only includes this facility but ranks it first of our priorities.
  • 01:32:09
    That request is reliant on a financial commitment from the city to move this project forward.
  • 01:32:14
    I've known that and worked on that for six years.
  • 01:32:17
    This amendment would require the city to reduce its bonding ask.
  • 01:32:22
    The city needs to demonstrate that it is committing half of the cost of this project.
  • 01:32:27
    I'll stop here.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:32:31
    Next up, I will recognize Councilmember Cashman.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 01:32:36
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 01:32:37
    I really need to understand a little bit more what happened with the CLIC review of this project because I see the CLIC's report that says that they needed more scoping and information regarding this project in order to include it in their recommendation and when CLIC came before Budget Committee months ago, it was not in their list of projects but then it was added into the mayor's budget after the fact.
  • 01:32:58
    and I'm wondering if Budget Director Jane DeCenza or someone else who staffs the CLIC can speak to the CLIC specifically which is a tier one advisory body if I'm correct and is appointed to do the work of tier two advisory body to the city, is appointed to do the work of reviewing capital requests and spends hundreds of hours doing that every year, what they had to say about this request and how they analyzed it.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 01:33:25
    Sure, through the Chair, Councilmember Cashman, CLIC did review this project and added a comment on page 12 of their report.
  • 01:33:34
    I'm happy to read it.
  • 01:33:35
    I think it's important to note that CLIC's purview is to comment on infrastructure projects.
  • 01:33:41
    They are not
  • 01:33:42
    lawyers or policy experts on what the requirements of the settlement agreement are.
  • 01:33:46
    But I think it's safe to say that their report, in their comments, they state that neither the underlying settlement agreement nor the facilities condition assessment explicitly address how a new wellness center will contribute to reducing police misconduct.
  • 01:34:01
    So that was the nature of their disagreement.
  • 01:34:04
    And the mayor in his recommended budget had to add this back in because of the
• • Michael Cashman
  • 01:34:10
    Legal requirements as interpreted by our city attorney Okay, I'm hearing some I understand that and I understand the click process here and now I think I'm grappling with the differences in legal opinion around what's included in the settlement agreement versus what Alifa says and what Alifa approved and
  • 01:34:34
    and I think that there are many wellness and training plans that ALIFA could approve.
  • 01:34:38
    This isn't the only one that they would approve, including a more decentralized wellness and training proposal to have distributed facilities throughout the city instead of one centralized expensive new facility.
  • 01:34:50
    And I'm wondering if the City Attorney could speak to whether ALIFA would approve such a new plan.
• • Kristyn AndersonCity Attorney
  • 01:34:57
    Council Vice President, Council Members,
  • 01:34:59
    I don't know what a LEAF will do.
  • 01:35:01
    What I do know is that we had a facilities assessment done by an expert which was required by the settlement agreement.
  • 01:35:09
    That expert recommended that we proceed with a new facility.
  • 01:35:14
    So that is what we presented to a LEAFA.
  • 01:35:16
    A LEAFA approved it with MDHR input as well.
  • 01:35:21
    So we know for sure that if we build this new facility, it will satisfy the requirements of the settlement agreement.
  • 01:35:31
    whether there is a different option, I don't know, but I will say that because of all of the underlying requirements in the settlement agreement for wellness services for all of this training that requires scenario-based training, like one of the things that the training assessment actually pointed out is in the current location in a neighborhood doing scenarios would require
  • 01:35:59
    like pretend takedowns in outdoor locations.
  • 01:36:03
    And that's just not conducive to the current facility when you're in a neighborhood.
  • 01:36:09
    So in order to actually fulfill all of those training requirements with, again, all of the adult learning and all the scenarios, we need a facility that's going to be able to handle that.
  • 01:36:22
    I think it's very unlikely, honestly, that ALIFA is going to approve some other plan.
  • 01:36:28
    Do I know?
  • 01:36:29
    No, I know what they will approve because we've already tested that.
  • 01:36:34
    But I have grave concerns about whether we could actually come into compliance with some other proposal.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:36:42
    Councilmember Cashman, can I make a suggestion here?
• • Michael Cashman
  • 01:36:44
    Yeah, I have two minutes left.
  • 01:36:47
    I would like to ask you another question as well as the Chair.
  • 01:36:50
    Did we, this facility totals 19 million dollars, did we not just get a report that MPD overspent their budget by 19 million dollars this year without authorization from the city?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:37:02
    Nearly 20 actually.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 01:37:03
    Nearly 20.
  • 01:37:06
    I point that out because we're supposed to be up here doing fiscal responsibility and you know making sure that our budgets are aligned with what our policy goals are as a city and making sure that we're appropriating money.
  • 01:37:18
    I mean 19 million dollars is a lot of money to spend on a new facility and I think if they're really serious about wanting the money for that facility then they should have been careful with the extra 19 to 20 million dollars that they overspent this year.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:37:33
    Council Member Cashman, do you want to have the City Attorney actually address why, when CLIC was struggling with understanding, when CLIC was struggling with wanting to make a recommendation on this item, they wanted more information, did you work with them, did you go to them and speak to them about the gravity of the situation if it was of such high importance?
  • 01:37:57
    Not if, it is of such high importance.
• • Kristyn AndersonCity Attorney
  • 01:38:00
    Yes, Council Vice President, no, I was not engaged by CLIC.
  • 01:38:05
    It was presented to CLIC.
  • 01:38:08
    I do believe that Deputy Commissioner Jeffries, though, walked them through our concerns and I did give legal advice to Deputy Commissioner.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:38:19
    Deputy Commissioner, why didn't you engage the City Attorney to
  • 01:38:22
    to come and talk to CLIC.
  • 01:38:26
    This is like of such a high gravity if you wanted this to be recommended by CLIC.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:38:31
    Yes, thank you for the question, Council Vice President.
  • 01:38:33
    So the CLIC has been engaged I think two or three years consistently now.
  • 01:38:39
    and we've tried a few different iterations of presentations on why this is needed.
  • 01:38:44
    So this year myself and Chief O'Hara both went to present, walked them through an extensive presentation on this facility and I will be candid in saying we got no questions.
  • 01:38:56
    So to say that we went through this extensive presentation and then there was no questions it was really confusing for them to say we need more information and we not knowing what the more information was.
  • 01:39:11
    We have talked with the city attorney about in future years for any project related settlement agreement there being city attorney office presence there but I think as far as I don't
  • 01:39:22
    City Attorney Anderson could probably speak more clearly to what she would say to them, but I think in large part, the content would largely be the same of what we indicated, that we are required to do certain things under the settlement agreement.
  • 01:39:35
    This is needed to meet the terms of settlement agreement.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:39:37
    Thank you, Deputy Commissioner.
  • 01:39:39
    Councilmember Cashman's time has now expired.
  • 01:39:40
    Thank you.
  • 01:39:42
    Next, I will recognize Councilmember Osman, followed by Vice Chair Koski.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:39:53
    Committee.
  • 01:40:08
    I'm just curious to know what else have we done to think about the redundancy of that.
  • 01:40:20
    I mean, I understand that we're under a consent decree, and so we are highlighting this as a need, but I imagine that other jurisdictions that are really close by are also going to be
  • 01:40:33
    possibly needing this or want to enhance their facilities.
  • 01:40:36
    So I'm just curious, you know, Councilmember Cashin mentioned decentralizing some of that, you know, training facilities or have we talked to other cities that would also want to partner with us where we have one maybe it's in City of Minneapolis or maybe it's in the City of Edina and we utilize their facility or the county.
  • 01:40:57
    So just curious to understand, you know, when I think about, you know, Council Member Kaschner just mentioned the overspending of our police department, but also just in general the constraints of our budget right now.
  • 01:41:09
    How are we thinking creatively about, you know, this is a 38 million dollar building today, but my guess is within a few years it'll be far more expensive than that.
  • 01:41:20
    How can we reduce these redundancies and be more efficient and effective with our spending?
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:41:27
    Chair Shugtag, Vice Chair Koski, thank you for the question.
  • 01:41:30
    Yes, we have engaged with neighboring jurisdictions on being able to partner on a facility like this.
  • 01:41:39
    In talking this project through, looking at what the city has right now, especially with Olifa and their technical experts who have decades of police training under their belt,
  • 01:41:49
    One thing that has been brought up just as we've gone through trainings is how logistically difficult it is having different training components being in different physical locations.
  • 01:42:02
    So a good example of that right now the firing range is in the fourth precinct.
  • 01:42:08
    That has been noted several times the shuffling of trainees back and forth between there and the SOC
  • 01:42:14
    is really inconvenient, really time consuming, and it's really not ideal.
  • 01:42:20
    The vision for this facility really is an interdepartmental within our own city enterprise, but also interjurisdictional project.
  • 01:42:32
    There is certainly the opportunity to partner with jurisdictions who have similar needs as ours.
  • 01:42:40
    I will say one of the major considerations for us is that if there is a really great site that is within the city of Minneapolis that is not in a residential area that allows for what we want it to be, that is going to be a primary consideration in where we choose.
  • 01:42:59
    That is going to be preferred so that we can always have our officers going to one central location that is able to meet these needs.
  • 01:43:08
    and they're not having to go out to a suburb, use time, on duty time, to be able to go do that.
  • 01:43:15
    So that is, I don't want to take up too much of your time, Council Vice President, but we've talked this through with ALIFA, with several other jurisdictions, and we believe there's great opportunity here to be able to move forward with this project in a collaborative way, but also one that really fits the needs of the city.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:43:31
    So the discussions with other cities or jurisdictions, would that look like Minneapolis hosting essentially this and they paying rent?
  • 01:43:40
    Because I imagine the training isn't happening 24-7.
  • 01:43:43
    I mean there's a building that could be utilized for other hours of the day.
  • 01:43:49
    And so are you saying that we're fronting this initial bill and that there would be a rental process?
  • 01:43:58
    How deeply have you thought through this?
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:44:00
    We have had conversations internally on how this would work, how other facilities of this nature work, and they oftentimes do work off of that kind of rent model.
  • 01:44:15
    I think with
  • 01:44:17
    I'm going to give you a little bit of an incomplete answer.
  • 01:44:19
    It's going to depend on where the facility is.
  • 01:44:22
    So if it's within the city of Minneapolis, and depending on geographically where within the city of Minneapolis, what jurisdictional partners are willing to do, like that sharing agreement, may look different.
  • 01:44:34
    So it could be co-ownership, it could be that rent model.
  • 01:44:38
    We haven't been able to, obviously, have a specific site conversation yet,
  • 01:44:44
    But once we get to that point, we will be able to work through more concrete details of what a partnership could look like.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:44:50
    Okay, and are you looking at areas outside of Minneapolis for this facility?
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:44:57
    We have been looking at areas outside as well as inside both of these.
• • Emily Koski
  • 01:45:01
    Okay, thank you.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:45:02
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:45:05
    Thank you.
  • 01:45:06
    Next, I'll recognize Councilmember Vitale followed by Councilmember Choudry.
  • 01:45:09
    We've got five speakers left in queue.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 01:45:12
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 01:45:13
    Just a couple things.
  • 01:45:17
    You know, Councilmember Cashman made the point about the overtime, and I don't think any of us won an $18 or $19 million.
  • 01:45:25
    I think maybe you even said $20 million in overtime.
  • 01:45:28
    But I could imagine that some of this is related to poor training facilities.
  • 01:45:33
    If we're doing training in five different facilities with different technologies, with
  • 01:45:39
    and things aren't up to par.
  • 01:45:42
    Getting things in one centralized location makes more sense and will cut some of those costs.
  • 01:45:48
    I'm sure of that.
  • 01:45:49
    Don't know how much, but I can imagine that will happen.
  • 01:45:54
    The other thing is, so back in September, I think it was in Cal that we had a
  • 01:46:00
    presentation from a legislative directive around the public safety capital projects.
  • 01:46:07
    And I'm getting a little confused with the back and forth around if MDHR and the LIFA approve this and like how this process happened.
  • 01:46:19
    But I thought we were told in that Cal meeting that, and I don't know who could just confirm this for me, I just want to be clear on the information that this
  • 01:46:30
    that this project went through ALIFA, went through OCS, OCS incorporated the Safe and Thrivens Community Report and what came out of that in this and that it had been given to CLIC, that it went through the standard CLIC process is to my understanding.
  • 01:46:51
    So if someone could just come and confirm that just so that
  • 01:46:55
    it is on the record for me that it went through the standard CLIC process that ALIFA and MDHR both approved this plan back in September when we I believe it was September we had a committee of the whole meeting where there was a legislative directive I think brought forward by Council Member Wonsley that said that all of these things had happened
  • 01:47:20
    and we were at a place where we were moving forward with a request and going to have this training facility.
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:47:31
    Chair Sugtai, Councilmember Vita, to answer your question about CLIC and Director DeCindy can correct me if this is incorrect.
  • 01:47:38
    It was presented to CLIC.
  • 01:47:39
    CLIC did not provide it in its recommendations to the mayor.
  • 01:47:44
    The mayor put this facility project in his proposed budget for 2025, for 2026, I'm sorry.
  • 01:47:53
    So yes, it did go through the CLIC process.
  • 01:47:55
    They didn't include it in the recommendations, but it is in the mayor's proposed budget.
  • 01:47:58
    As far as the process for ALIFA, ALIFA did approve our facilities plan, which did have us proposing that we would build a new training and wellness facility.
  • 01:48:12
    So they approved and in the role that MDHR plays, MDHR consulted, provided feedback there, which ALIFA takes very much into account in providing their approval or not providing their approval.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 01:48:23
    Okay, and so with that, with having went through the process with those entities, it was still said to us that the Safe and Thriving Communities Report was incorporated into the design and the infrastructure and other things also, right?
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 01:48:41
    That is correct, Councilmember Vita.
  • 01:48:42
    As part of being able to actually look for a site, we needed to know what were the functions that we really needed this facility to be able to do.
  • 01:48:55
    As part of that functionality list that we built out, we incorporated the needs, the operational considerations of all of our community safety departments, which is something that the Safe and Thriving Communities Report very much recommends.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 01:49:09
    every department in community safety.
  • 01:49:12
    All their needs were incorporated through that report.
  • 01:49:15
    Okay, thank you.
  • 01:49:16
    I just, I think it's starting to be confusing on what processes things went through, what didn't, who has the authority to do what.
  • 01:49:25
    There's been a lot of questions around, a lot of comments around who has the authority and doesn't have the authority to do things.
  • 01:49:32
    And I really thought we had wrapped this up back in September in the Cal meeting when we had the
  • 01:49:39
    the legislative directive presented to us on the comprehensive plan for all the public safety capital projects.
  • 01:49:47
    Thank you.
  • 01:49:48
    Chair.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:49:50
    Thank you.
  • 01:49:51
    Next I will recognize Council Member Chaudry followed by Council Member Palmisano.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 01:49:57
    Thank you so much, Chair Chugtai.
  • 01:50:02
    First I'll just speak to what this is funding.
  • 01:50:08
    This is one of our budget amendments that really looks at disability justice.
  • 01:50:13
    The ADA ramp program is extremely important for us to complete and us moving ahead on it and making sure that we complete it means that we can move into
  • 01:50:23
    the Sidewalk Accessibility Inventory Program which has long been an issue for our constituents with varying mobility issues, issues with vision, other disabilities where they've had issues on the right-of-way and so I really want to lift that up and this is also an item that we continuously advocate for in our federal legislative agenda
  • 01:50:46
    and we advocate for this at the state legislature.
  • 01:50:49
    So what we're requesting to fund is a really critical need and also traffic safety improvements continue to be a top priority of constituents all throughout our offices as has been shared these last two years in this term that for several council members they hear from their constituents and for them it is
  • 01:51:11
    about a life or death experience.
  • 01:51:13
    And I just really wanted to make sure to uplift the point about what we are funding here and why that matters.
  • 01:51:20
    In terms of the source, this conversation has been extremely clarifying for me in the sense that usually we have the study sessions and the deeper conversations before we say go ahead on a multimillion dollar budget allocation.
  • 01:51:38
    and what I feel like we did today for our short period of time and budget in the 11th hour was a study session when we should have had these opportunities together before.
  • 01:51:50
    And I would encourage council members that are supportive of this item to not just wait for their colleagues to come to them if it is a priority for them to be leaders and conduct
  • 01:52:03
    conduct a study session, conduct briefings, bring people together this next calendar year because there are opportunities for this to go before the click again and to have conversations and I'll also state
  • 01:52:17
    We have made a significant move in making this a priority in our legislative agenda, even given the circumstances that we did not have a lot of the information that we are receiving today.
  • 01:52:28
    We said, yeah, we will pass this forward and we will make this a top priority on our legislative agenda and we will lobby for it and use our city staff and honestly my time as IGR chair to lobby for this.
  • 01:52:42
    I will also share that there is a lot of confusion or lack of information or questions not only among CLIC members, not only among council members, but also among our legislative delegation.
  • 01:52:55
    I have received several questions asking what we have asked today.
  • 01:53:00
    Is this required by MDHR?
  • 01:53:03
    Is this a part of the settlement agreement?
  • 01:53:05
    This doesn't feel clear.
  • 01:53:06
    Is this a direct requirement?
  • 01:53:09
    And what we have come to understand today that there's a requirement for a facilities assessment, and then there is a requirement to improve wellness and training, but there's no requirement that says you have to, within the calendar year, approve a multimillion dollar project for a wellness facility.
  • 01:53:29
    what we have to do under the settlement agreement is provide the finances necessary to achieve it and one question that has not been answered or even asked is if
  • 01:53:45
    there are other options that are more financially feasible for the city to take on to fulfill the requirements of the settlement agreement.
  • 01:53:54
    And I also think it's important that this body has a session with the leafa because I do take issue respectfully with the remark from our attorney that
  • 01:54:07
    she does not believe that this would be approved by Alifa.
  • 01:54:10
    That is for Alifa to determine that's why they're an independent body.
  • 01:54:13
    That is not for the city of Minneapolis to determine if there's no other plan that's going to be approved.
  • 01:54:18
    And I felt that that was important to say because I care deeply about the independent nature of our settlement agreement.
  • 01:54:25
    With that said, we have many budget amendments to go forward.
  • 01:54:31
    I feel like
  • 01:54:33
    Councilmember Paine.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 01:55:04
    Wonsley, aye Rainville, no Vita, no Osmond, aye Cashman, aye Jenkins, nay Chavez, aye Chaudry, aye Palmisano, no Vice Chair Koski, aye Chair Chabte, aye That is 8 ayes and 4 nays
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:55:33
    That motion carries.
  • 01:55:34
    Next, we're going to move to the underlying question.
  • 01:55:44
    On the amended motion by Wonsley and Chaudry for traffic safety for all, Mr.
  • 01:55:52
    Clerk, please call the roll.
  • 01:55:53
    Or Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 01:55:57
    Council Member Payne.
  • 01:55:58
    Aye.
  • 01:55:59
    Wonsley.
  • 01:56:00
    Aye.
  • 01:56:01
    Rainville.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 01:56:02
    No.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 01:56:03
    VITA, no Osmond, no Cashman, aye Jenkins, no Chavez, aye Chaudry, aye Palosano, no Vice Chair Koski, aye Chair Chugti, aye
  • 01:56:25
    That motion carries.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 01:56:30
    Colleagues, this was a really long discussion.
  • 01:56:35
    I appreciate it was very informative.
  • 01:56:37
    I'm seeing that people are needing a little bit of a break.
  • 01:56:41
    So we're going to recess for exactly 15 minutes.
  • 01:56:46
    So we're going to come back at 12.22 and we're going to restart.
  • 01:56:54
    and thank you all.
  • 02:17:40
    Communications we're ready to begin
  • 02:19:00
    Welcome back colleagues.
  • 02:19:09
    We're ready to continue with the markup packet.
  • 02:19:14
    Next up
  • 02:19:15
    We have amendment number 8 presented by Councilmember, which is offered by Councilmembers Chavez and Osman related to the Community Connections Conference.
  • 02:19:26
    I will recognize Councilmember Chavez to introduce this item.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 02:19:29
    Thank you, Chair Chuktay.
  • 02:19:31
    Initially, the goal was to restore the Community Connections Conference that you all know that the mayor cut in his proposed budget.
  • 02:19:38
    In August, we know that the Community Connections Conference is a really important gathering where a variety of our community members come together and engage with the city enterprise.
  • 02:19:48
    It is accessible, it is free, and it is important.
  • 02:19:53
    We were going to restore the funding for the Community Connections Conference, but we also know that
  • 02:19:59
    It was very highly unlikely that the Neighborhood Community Relations Department was preparing for this event next year and we did not want to set them up with unfair expectations of making sure that they had to do some last-minute planning.
  • 02:20:11
    So I would ask for you all to entertain the further resolution and legislative directive because I do not want to come back into the same position next year when we want to restore the Community Connections Conference.
  • 02:20:22
    So the first thing is a resolution asking us as a City Council
  • 02:20:27
    to be supportive of the Community Connections Conference and the second component is basically a legislative directive asking information to provide us information regarding any future Community Connections Conference and a response to the City Council resolution expressing statements of position pertaining to the Community Connections Conference.
  • 02:20:46
    I will say that I want to read a little bit about the resolution and why this
  • 02:20:52
    Why this Community Connections Conference is important.
  • 02:20:56
    So I'll just read the resolution and we'll go from there.
  • 02:20:58
    The City Council supports reinstating the Community Connections Conference in 2027.
  • 02:21:04
    Be it further resolved that the City Council understands the Community Connections Conference
  • 02:21:09
    is a free event that connects residents of Minneapolis, community groups, neighborhoods, and local government.
  • 02:21:14
    Be it further resolved that the City Council understands that the Community Connections Conference brings in people who are often underrepresented in local decision making to meet city leaders in a friendly welcoming space, celebrate successes, and connect, learn about new opportunities to get involved and gain new skills and resources.
  • 02:21:32
    Be it further resolved that the City Council understands that this event brings diverse
  • 02:21:36
    communities together.
  • 02:21:37
    In 2023, 942 people attended with 56% of attendings identifying as people of color of those who completed the survey.
  • 02:21:46
    in 2024, 1,267 people attended with 54% identified as people of color of those who completed the survey.
  • 02:21:54
    We also strongly encourage the Neighborhood and Community Relations Department to include a budget proposal to the mayor that includes the Community Connections Conference and their 2027-2028 budget requests.
  • 02:22:06
    I would like to move both these items for approval and we will not be bringing a funding resolution for that, but we would be supportive of it next year.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:22:15
    Second.
  • 02:22:16
    We have a proper motion on Community Connections Conference in front of us.
  • 02:22:21
    I will just clarify here that this is a zero dollar amendment.
  • 02:22:26
    The motion and proposal are not being considered.
  • 02:22:29
    The authors were amenable to getting their amendment, which initially was about fully restoring the Community Connections Conference.
  • 02:22:43
    withdrawn and wanted to make sure that we are moving forward with these two items, this resolution expressing a statement of support for the restoration of the Community Connections Conference into the future along with legislative directive requesting the mayor's
  • 02:23:10
    So with that, I'm going to look to see if colleagues have any questions or comments.
  • 02:23:23
    I will recognize Councilmember Cashman.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 02:23:26
    Thank you Madam Chair.
  • 02:23:27
    I am not going to be supporting this resolution today.
  • 02:23:29
    I think that the Community Connections Conference should evolve and I think that it should be, the way that we interact with community should be done, you know, in more decentralized ways, more innovative ways, and I think that the Community Connections Conference is a lot of effort for just one event and the amount of money spent towards the Community Connections Conference held at the Convention Center.
  • 02:23:52
    could be better spent actually meeting community where they're at in their own neighborhoods.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:24:02
    Thank you.
  • 02:24:03
    Next I will recognize Councilmember Chavez followed by Councilmember Osborne.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 02:24:08
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 02:24:10
    What I'll say in response to that comment is that I believe that we can do both.
  • 02:24:14
    Our neighborhood and community relations department does deep engagement with our community and what we also know is that the neighborhood puts a great community connections event that really brings so many people
  • 02:24:27
    to a location to engage to learn to talk with city staff where otherwise it would be very difficult to not be able to do all that incredible work so the reason we believe in restoring this funding is because we strongly believe that we can do and should be doing both I know for a fact that
  • 02:24:46
    this yearly event that I am very sad is not going to be happening next year is one of the locations that I get to see a variety of my constituents from Little Earth, folks advocating for immigrant justice, neighbors advocating for the rights of people of color in this city and to not be able to have that opportunity is going to have a detrimental effect in the trust and the engagement that we have with our communities of color in particular so I would just urge my colleagues to support that.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:25:17
    Next I'll recognize Councilmember Osman.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 02:25:20
    Oh, thank you so much.
  • 02:25:21
    And I think, like Councilmember Chavez said, we can do both.
  • 02:25:25
    Someone who has participated, Community Connections, you know, this is where community come and they can talk to the small business community, they can talk to the rental rights.
  • 02:25:37
    This should be something that
  • 02:25:39
    accessible to the residents.
  • 02:25:41
    Do I think it should be moved to location-wise?
  • 02:25:42
    Yes, I think it should be held somewhere where buses have, where people have access to buses somewhere in the community where there's space enough.
  • 02:25:50
    We can be creative.
  • 02:25:52
    It doesn't have to be in Convention Center, but I'm just trying freely to see why was this decision made on the mayor's side to, you know, cut
  • 02:26:06
    Thank you.
  • 02:26:08
    Next I will recognize Councilmember Jenkins.
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 02:26:37
    I just think that this is one of the premier community engagement events of the city and I think it gives an opportunity for different neighborhoods to interact with each other and learn what other neighborhood organizations are doing
  • 02:27:04
    Clearly, it's an opportunity to interact with city staff around a variety of issues, so hopefully funding can be restored to this signature event next year.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:27:20
    Thank you.
  • 02:27:21
    I'm not seeing anyone else in queue, so with that I will ask the Clerk to call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:27:26
    Councilmember Payne?
• • Elliott Payne
  • 02:27:28
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:27:28
    Wonsley?
  • 02:27:29
    Aye.
  • 02:27:30
    Rainville?
  • 02:27:34
    That motion carries.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:27:58
    All right next we are going to move to amendment number nine which is offered by council members Chavez and Wonsley related to immigration legal services.
  • 02:28:10
    Councilmember Chavez please present your amendment and make a motion.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 02:28:15
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 02:28:16
    This amendment is increasing the amount already allocated in the budget that we have all been working hard to increase for the past few years by an additional $121,000 and $418 in ongoing funding for immigration legal services to Minneapolis residents.
  • 02:28:37
    I'm proud to offer this with Councilmember Wansley
  • 02:28:41
    you know we have seen an increase of federal enforcement immigration enforcement across the city this year and we drafted this amendment initially just to increase it because we had seen a need impacting our immigrant residents and this week has been extra hard for our neighbors so
  • 02:28:59
    I would ask that everybody support this amendment because we know that what we have in our current budget is not even close to the amount of funding that we need to serve our immigrant residents.
  • 02:29:12
    I am having multiple conversations with a lot of our immigrant neighbors.
  • 02:29:17
    our residents that even the amount that we are proposing here today is not enough to meet that need so while I will be asking all of you to vote in favor of this amendment today I do know that we are going to continue to look for more funding as we head on to full count to the final meeting of this budget adoption on Tuesday
  • 02:29:38
    I'll speak a little bit about why this is really important.
  • 02:29:41
    We have a lot of our neighbors right now who are being kidnapped by this disgusting federal administration who is literally picking up our neighbors off the streets.
  • 02:29:51
    We have due process being stripped away from a lot of our immigrant neighbors and we have a federal administration that does not care about our communities.
  • 02:30:00
    and we know when we have a government that does not care about its people we have to step up as a city enterprise and one of those ways and one of the opportunities that we have a city to do so is by increasing our funding for legal services for our immigrant neighbors and we're bringing this forward today because we have continued to see a need for these services we know that we do not have enough in our city
  • 02:30:27
    and even with this increase there's still not going to be enough so I would just ask all my colleagues to support this amendment and also hope you understand that we are still looking for something before the final adoption of the budget because this need has only increased this past week.
  • 02:30:42
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:30:43
    And you'll move approval?
• • Jason Chavez
  • 02:30:45
    We will move approval.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:30:46
    Is there a second?
  • 02:30:47
    Second.
  • 02:30:49
    I'll recognize Councilmember Wonsley and then Councilmember Osman.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 02:30:53
    Thank you, CBP, Chuck Tsai.
  • 02:30:57
    Also thank you to the lead author, Councilmember Chavez, for
  • 02:31:02
    working to bring this forward and also acknowledging that this is the bare minimum that we can be doing to meet what has become a very clear need amongst our residents, especially our immigrant residents who are constantly being terrorized in our communities in light of Trump's most recent executive order that has
  • 02:31:27
    deployed federal agents to target very specific community groups within Minneapolis.
  • 02:31:35
    And we already know that many of our residents have already been dealing with the targeting that you very much described as people being kidnapped.
  • 02:31:46
    And I'm part of many groups that are being formed right now.
  • 02:31:51
    And I am just also gonna say I'm so proud of Minneapolis residents.
  • 02:31:56
    who are showing up and building networks of support and solidarity in real time to figure out how we defend our residents from being kidnapped by federal agents, many of which don't even identify themselves who are disregarding, as you highlighted, due process and feel emboldened to do so.
  • 02:32:15
    And it's been both disheartening and
  • 02:32:21
    I'm saddening to watch many of my colleagues these past couple days drive around Minneapolis trying to locate where ICE is, where they're looking to carry out their deportation or detainment operations and to see you all fill questions about people being scared to show up to their ICE appointments
  • 02:32:43
    I just want to say thank you to
  • 02:32:59
    challenging time for our city for many of our residents but I am so thankful to see that our city again is united and making sure that our most vulnerable communities know that they are cared for that they matter and this is just one piece that we can do programmatically to also show that their city stands behind them and we're as you highlighted looking for additional resources to bump this up as well and I look forward to supporting
  • 02:33:25
    increase funding in this effort and all the things that we do to make sure our immigrant residents know that they have a place here and we are going to defend their right to exist, to live, to have a quality of life in spite of what this federal administration does.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:33:41
    So thank you.
  • 02:33:44
    Thank you.
  • 02:33:45
    Next I'll recognize Councilmember Osman.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 02:33:47
    Thank you so much chair and it's been really tough for many members of our community.
  • 02:33:58
    They're being targeted by what they look like.
  • 02:34:02
    Our president has called them directly to by name
  • 02:34:09
    Decorating them as less than human, calling Somali community garbage and all the other horrible words that he used.
  • 02:34:23
    So we need everyone's help and any help we can get.
  • 02:34:31
    I think the city does a phenomenal job.
  • 02:34:34
    The press conference with city leaders were amazing.
  • 02:34:37
    We sent out a clear message.
  • 02:34:40
    It's tough out there for money, U.S. citizen, talking about the U.S. citizen.
  • 02:34:48
    My friends, my residents are being stopped on the streets right now, being asked, documentations.
  • 02:34:56
    I'm carrying my passport right now as we speak, so no one is safe.
  • 02:35:04
    And this is when we need other communities that are not
  • 02:35:10
    East African, non-Latino American citizen or fellow citizen is in Minneapolis to stand up with us in Minnesota and history will write this
  • 02:35:25
    to help
  • 02:35:49
    The office of immigration needs all the help it can get.
  • 02:35:55
    There's plenty of phone calls people are sending.
  • 02:35:59
    They don't know where to turn for help.
  • 02:36:03
    One of the saddest things that I got was a random text message from probably a resident who said, I've been detained.
  • 02:36:13
    Please help.
  • 02:36:17
    and so many different messages.
  • 02:36:20
    I don't really want to share all the horrible stories that's happening in the community, but it's real.
  • 02:36:27
    So I do want to say people are hurting.
  • 02:36:33
    Your fellow residents, your fellow neighbors are being targeted.
  • 02:36:37
    That's just the reality of it.
  • 02:36:39
    It's not just what you see in the news, it's that I'm here, I'm right here.
  • 02:36:45
    My community, my family, we're all scared of what's happening.
  • 02:36:49
    So, thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:36:55
    Thank you.
  • 02:37:00
    Thank you for bringing this forward, council members.
  • 02:37:02
    I'm not seeing anyone else in queue.
  • 02:37:04
    I'm going to ask the clerk to call the roll on this item.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:37:08
    That motion carries.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:37:31
    Thank you.
  • 02:37:33
    Next we are ready to move to amendment number 11 offered by
  • 02:37:38
    or Amendment Number 10, I apologize, offered by Council President Payne, Council Member Chavez, and Council Member Osman.
  • 02:37:46
    This is related to the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs Staffing.
  • 02:37:50
    I will recognize Council President Payne to please introduce your amendment and make a motion.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 02:37:57
    Thank you Vice President Chug Thai.
  • 02:38:00
    The previous amendment really spoke to the need here and I think again whether it is legal services or full-time staff we are in crisis right now.
  • 02:38:12
    We can always do more, and this is my attempt at trying to fulfill our needs and meet this moment.
  • 02:38:20
    This is for a full-time staffer to staff up our capacity within the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.
  • 02:38:27
    I have made a really concerted effort this term to build a deeper relationship with the Ecuadorian Consulate, which is hosted in my ward.
  • 02:38:35
    I joined them on a monthly basis to do a resource fair.
  • 02:38:42
    That was a commitment I made to the ambassador.
  • 02:38:45
    but even next week is the next time that the city is scheduled to be there.
  • 02:38:49
    I have Audit Committee so I can't miss Audit Committee as the chair.
  • 02:38:54
    It's going to be OIRA staff that's going to be there
  • 02:38:59
    to fulfill that commitment and there's been times when it's just been me and my staff.
  • 02:39:07
    I'm fortunate to have a little bit of staff capacity when it comes to bilingual understanding but
  • 02:39:18
    that's like childhood level.
  • 02:39:22
    You know, I went to like a Spanish immersion school.
  • 02:39:25
    I can speak a little bit of Spanish, but when you have that dedicated, committed staff that's, you know, what's been really great is building an actual relationship with the ambassador.
  • 02:39:34
    And it takes that type of full focus of people's time to build the types of relationships that we need to help support our community.
  • 02:39:44
    And I think that in this moment,
  • 02:39:46
    I think what's been really profound is the sense of powerlessness as we see the federal government run through our community, kidnapping people, and this idea that there's nothing that we can do is something that I reject.
  • 02:40:02
    And I think that the idea that the city is going to singularly save us is also not true.
  • 02:40:07
    What's going to happen is that we're going to keep us safe.
  • 02:40:11
    our community is going to keep us safe and we're going to be in partnership with our community to stand up for the dignity of every single resident of Minneapolis regardless of their status and we want to be in partnership with our community doing that and that requires deep relationships and that's why there's a real need for full-time staff to be able to give that type of time energy and focus so I hope I can
  • 02:40:34
    Any further discussion on this item?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:40:56
    Not seeing any, I'll ask the Clerk to call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:41:04
    Council Member Payne?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:41:05
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:41:06
    Wonsley?
  • 02:41:06
    Aye.
  • 02:41:07
    Rainville?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 02:41:08
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:41:08
    Vita?
  • 02:41:10
    Aye.
  • 02:41:11
    Osmond?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 02:41:12
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:41:13
    Cashman?
  • 02:41:14
    Aye.
  • 02:41:14
    Jenkins?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 02:41:16
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:41:17
    Chavez?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 02:41:18
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:41:19
    Chaudry?
  • 02:41:20
    Aye.
  • 02:41:21
    Palmisano?
  • 02:41:22
    Aye.
  • 02:41:23
    Vice Chair Koski?
  • 02:41:24
    Aye.
  • 02:41:25
    Chair Chuktai?
  • 02:41:26
    Aye.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:41:26
    That is 12 ayes.
  • 02:41:28
    That motion carries.
  • 02:41:30
    Next we are moving to the next two amendments.
  • 02:41:35
    are revised versions, so these revisions were a product of discussions with the administration.
  • 02:41:44
    Since they are both, this is about speak, related to Speak Minneapolis and cultural media.
  • 02:41:50
    As they're both related to the communications department and these items have been discussed together, I'm gonna ask that we take up both
  • 02:42:02
    Please present amendment number 11 and amendment number 12 together.
  • 02:42:06
    These are offered by council members Chowdhury, President Payne, and myself.
  • 02:42:12
    Council member Chowdhury will you please present amendment number 11 and 12 and make a motion.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 02:42:18
    Thank you so much, Chair Chug-Thai.
  • 02:42:20
    I really appreciate the co-authors for joining me in this effort and colleagues.
  • 02:42:28
    I ask for your support to restore funding that was proposed to be cut to both speak
  • 02:42:36
    Speak MPLS public access and then also cultural radio Speak MPLS is our public access media to our community It it offers opportunities to connect with community members throughout the city of Minneapolis from different cultural backgrounds from different economic backgrounds
  • 02:43:01
    and also offers creative opportunities for community members to learn how to create medium of their own to take classes, to have their own podcasts, to share information and to tell their stories.
  • 02:43:15
    and I felt it was really important to bring this forward because in a moment in time where we have seen our federal government make a decision to no longer fund public broadcasts, it's really, really pertinent that we continue to keep the minimal funding that we do give to cultural media and speak Minneapolis.
  • 02:43:42
    This organization is run by local entrepreneurs with a staff team from our community.
  • 02:43:50
    And in 2019, when they first received the RFP, they started out with a budget of $472,000 a year and
  • 02:44:03
    has requested since that time for a 3% increase and that has not been able to be made for varying factors but it has stayed flat and they have had to find out how to do more with less.
  • 02:44:18
    Consistently this organization has also given their staff cost of living raises as the cost of living has gone up and again being asked to do more with less.
  • 02:44:31
    They shared an impact statement to this body that said this cut would lead them to no longer have RISE MPLS, a paid internship leadership development program for Minneapolis high school students and that would have a reduction of ten slots down to seven.
  • 02:44:51
    Teach MPLS, their program that provides free and low-cost classes in video production and media literacy.
  • 02:44:59
    I think it's important to note that they made that choice because of all of the operational things that they have to do.
  • 02:45:08
    They contract out for their attorneys.
  • 02:45:12
    The cost of their attorneys annually is this cut.
  • 02:45:16
    It's about $12,000.
  • 02:45:19
    And so in a moment in time where they're doing more with less, and frankly,
  • 02:45:24
    we should see an increase.
  • 02:45:26
    I think it's important that we keep this funding.
  • 02:45:29
    I was proposing an ongoing allocation but in conversations with Council Vice President, the administration, they've agreed to a one-time allocation with a commitment that in 2027 we continue to restore the funding and I would hope to find ways to
  • 02:45:50
    increase it so we can continue to not only broaden this amazing service that we have to reach our communities in a moment where we should have more public service announcements.
  • 02:46:03
    We should have cultural media and cultural radio in Hmong, Somali, Oromo, Spanish to give people information related to not only opportunities in the community but what they need to know their rights.
  • 02:46:19
    I feel that it's really, really important that we, sorry, my blood sugar is so low.
  • 02:46:31
    So apologies colleagues.
  • 02:46:39
    Thank you.
  • 02:46:42
    All right, I'll just close with this because I'm having my my moment of brain fog I hope to earn your support.
  • 02:46:48
    There's a lot of good information within the packet and I also hope that we can support continuing this funding into future years Will you make the motion to approve I'll make the motion to approve is there a second second I
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:47:06
    All right, I see a few council members in queue.
  • 02:47:10
    I'm going to let Council Member Chowdhury take care of her needs right now, so if there are going to be specific questions on this amendment, I'll take them.
  • 02:47:18
    I'll recognize Council Member Paul Massano, followed by Council Member Vita.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 02:47:23
    Thank you.
  • 02:47:23
    I appreciate that.
  • 02:47:24
    And these two amendments have been changed to one-time funding.
  • 02:47:29
    Because of that change, I'm generally supportive of these today, but I still wanted to make a few comments.
  • 02:47:36
    This earmark of $25,000 between the two is a small amount of the contractual allocation to speak Minneapolis.
  • 02:47:44
    it still leaves them with funding of like $460,000.
  • 02:47:50
    Our comms team has to absorb a cut in this way.
  • 02:47:54
    An earmark is a cut.
  • 02:47:55
    It's a cut to our own city services.
  • 02:47:59
    This cut is
  • 02:48:01
    I'm not sure what percentage, and maybe the communications department can answer this question.
  • 02:48:06
    Of the communication department's discretionary budget, these are significant when they're paired together.
  • 02:48:13
    This takes away an earmark as a cut, in this case to the communication department's discretionary budget.
  • 02:48:22
    could staff or somebody or maybe you, Madam Chair, please tell me what those discretionary dollars are currently used for.
  • 02:48:29
    Is it used for other contractual services that we will have to do less of?
  • 02:48:34
    I see Adam Fletcher in the audience, but I'm not sure if you've had these discussions.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:48:38
    We have, and have talked with finance about this quite extensively.
  • 02:48:42
    So the place where these
  • 02:48:46
    these are placed right now within the contractual services budget for the communications department as a part of a seventy thousand dollar pot of money that is used for AV replacement and other
  • 02:49:06
    Mr. Fletcher, why don't you go ahead, please?
• • Adam Fetcher
  • 02:49:08
    Right.
  • 02:49:08
    Chair, Chuck Dye, members of the Council.
  • 02:49:11
    Correct, yes, we have a very limited discretionary budget of $70,000 which pays for, I would characterize as sort of the bare minimum, tools and services that we rely on to be a professional communication shop.
  • 02:49:25
    So that includes, you know, tools for media contacts,
  • 02:49:29
    social media posting you know being able to schedule posting yeah certain needs in terms of the basic equipment they use for content creation as the chair suggested so yeah I think in all told the combined 25,000 earmark here would be 26% cut from that modest discretionary budget
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 02:49:55
    So then Mr. Fetcher, could you help me understand how do you plan to absorb these two amendments?
  • 02:50:00
    Will it mean doing less with social media?
  • 02:50:02
    Will it mean to be continuing to use an outdated tool?
  • 02:50:07
    How do you plan to absorb that?
• • Adam Fetcher
  • 02:50:09
    Well, it will require a choice between either impacting that modest discretionary budget or looking at personnel costs.
  • 02:50:18
    If it impacts the discretionary budget, I think you're correct in that it will require us to use more outdated tools or not upgrade equipment when the need comes.
  • 02:50:32
    If we have equipment that ceases to function, for example, AV or video equipment, we may
  • 02:50:39
    to avoid replacing that or make do with less equipment.
  • 02:50:43
    So yeah, it's a meaningful cost to our operations in terms of getting the city's message out.
  • 02:50:51
    Yeah.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 02:50:54
    Thank you.
  • 02:50:54
    I appreciate that.
  • 02:50:55
    Thanks for the time.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:50:57
    Yeah, Mr. Fetcher, while you're here, just real quick, I feel like there are several staff within the communications department that support some of the work that we do here with our live broadcasting and council proceedings.
  • 02:51:13
    So am I remembering, or am I understanding correctly that you do currently have a vacancy in your department due to like a promotion type situation?
• • Adam Fetcher
  • 02:51:25
    We are currently undertaking some reorganization, so we have a number of roles that are currently posted.
  • 02:51:32
    A number of those roles are geared towards internal promotions, they haven't been filled yet, and we do have one vacancy, which is a role that was part of the unification, came from regulatory services, a digital communications coordinator, which we're working to fill as quickly as possible.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:51:50
    Gotcha.
  • 02:51:50
    So would it be fair to say that a way that you could absorb this one time appropriation of, or earmark of $25,000 is through some of the vacancy savings that you will likely have because those positions
  • 02:52:07
    I'd be almost certainly not going to be filled by January 1 when you get access to this budget.
• • Adam Fetcher
  • 02:52:13
    Correct and the bottom line is we very much appreciate the change to a one-time versus ongoing.
  • 02:52:20
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:52:21
    Council Member Osman.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 02:52:24
    Yeah, thank you, Chair.
  • 02:52:26
    I do want to ask the items that passed 9, 10, and 11 if I can co-author, please.
  • 02:52:36
    And I do support
  • 02:52:39
    This item that we're talking about right now, I think cultural media is very, very important to support.
  • 02:52:46
    We have seen the civil unrest, I think that the information people have been receiving when they receive a language they understand and their algorithm, let's just say the algorithm, like people, you know, on your social media you're not going to see a different language, right?
  • 02:53:06
    But if you are
  • 02:53:08
    you know Spanish speaking, Somali speaking, the first thing you see is Spanish speaking, Somali speaking so just that's the way the world works so I think it's important to support these communities and make sure that they are getting the services City is providing not just the one channel but multiple channels
  • 02:53:27
    Thank you.
  • 02:53:29
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:53:31
    Councilmember Osmond, I want to make sure that we clarify what you're hoping to co-author because I'm certain that there are some questions in the clerks.
  • 02:53:39
    So you would like to co-author Immigration Legal Services, that one was Chavez-Wansley, is that correct?
  • 02:53:46
    Right.
  • 02:53:47
    And then you are already a co-author on Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs Staffing, right?
  • 02:53:51
    Okay, that's perfect.
  • 02:53:52
    And then you want to do both of the Speak MPLS and Cultural Media?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 02:53:56
    That is correct.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:53:57
    I'm not seeing anyone else in queue so on amendment number 11 and 12 speak MPLS and cultural media programming respect oh I am so sorry council member Jenkins thank you council vice president I just want to be named as a co-author on 11 and 12
  • 02:54:26
    We've got that?
  • 02:54:26
    Awesome.
  • 02:54:27
    Thank you.
  • 02:54:28
    And... Alright.
  • 02:54:32
    So, on amendment number 11 and 12, speak MPLS and cultural media.
  • 02:54:38
    Clerk, please call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:54:40
    Councilmember Payne.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 02:54:41
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:54:42
    Wonsley.
  • 02:54:43
    Aye.
  • 02:54:44
    Rainville.
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 02:54:44
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:54:45
    Bita.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 02:54:46
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:54:47
    Osman.
  • 02:54:48
    Aye.
  • 02:54:49
    Cashman.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 02:54:49
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:54:50
    Jenkins.
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 02:54:51
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:54:52
    Chavez.
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 02:54:53
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:54:54
    Chaudry.
  • 02:54:56
    Palmisano, Aye Vice Chair Koski, Aye Chaudhuri, Council Member Chaudhuri is just in the back, Madam Chair, and I see you're walking out.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:55:14
    All good.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 02:55:21
    And Chair Chugtai, Aye.
  • 02:55:23
    That is 12 ayes.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:55:27
    Thank you.
  • 02:55:30
    That motion passes.
  • 02:55:33
    Next we are going to move to amendment number 13, which is offered by Councilmember Vita, related to 4th Precinct Mobile Cameras.
  • 02:55:44
    I know there's going to be a series of changes that will happen here, so I'm going to recognize Councilmember Vita to introduce this item and make a motion.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 02:55:57
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 02:55:59
    This item is in response to a really big problem we have in North Minneapolis around dumping.
  • 02:56:07
    And so I've asked for a couple additional milestone mobile cameras.
  • 02:56:12
    I'm sure you've all seen them.
  • 02:56:14
    They're the cameras that kind of get wheeled around in different communities.
  • 02:56:18
    And so what we noticed in the past year, since I
  • 02:56:22
    Since I've been on the council, I've had probably more dumping complaints than anything.
  • 02:56:27
    And I don't mean like somebody dropped a bag of trash.
  • 02:56:31
    I mean like massive amounts of garbage being dumped in places in North Minneapolis.
  • 02:56:38
    I'll give a couple examples.
  • 02:56:41
    One morning I got a call saying, there are 300 tires in my alley.
  • 02:56:47
    And I was like, there is no way this person has 300 tires.
  • 02:56:52
    This is impossible.
  • 02:56:54
    But I'm going to go by anyway to see what's happening in this alley.
  • 02:56:58
    300 tires.
  • 02:57:00
    I didn't count them but it looked like 300 to me also.
  • 02:57:03
    So there's massive amounts of dumping like that.
  • 02:57:07
    Me and my team had just went by to see a location that the city had been cleaning up often and we just rode by and it was completely clean.
  • 02:57:17
    10 minutes after we left I got a call saying 40 mattresses have been dumped on this site and we go back out and 40 mattresses are dumped on this site and so dumping is a real issue in my ward in North Minneapolis as a whole there's been a big issue also with
  • 02:57:36
    with the dumping for small businesses.
  • 02:57:41
    When small businesses have dumping on their grounds, they have to pay a price to clean it up.
  • 02:57:46
    And I get lots of complaints from small businesses who are spending thousands of dollars weekly to have this dumping removed.
  • 02:57:55
    So the goal here is to add two of the milestone cameras.
  • 02:57:59
    I know a few people have reached out about the cameras not being used in the winter months.
  • 02:58:03
    So we really will be kind of trying this out to see but what we've seen success in the last year is sometimes the cameras are in areas where there may be high crime or particular things that the police are surveying and then
  • 02:58:20
    We captured these license plates of the people dumping, or we captured the people dumping on these cameras.
  • 02:58:26
    So this isn't a long-term fix by no means.
  • 02:58:29
    This is a short-term, hopefully, solution to dumping.
  • 02:58:34
    I did a legislative directive a couple years ago to figure out some opportunities around dumping.
  • 02:58:41
    Nothing really came of that.
  • 02:58:43
    It's an issue that I'm going to continue to explore, but for now I really would like to see how we could use a couple more milestone cameras and figure out if we could curb some of the dumping.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:58:57
    Thank you, and I understand that you also were able to work out a more immediate solution with the administration on this.
  • 02:59:08
    I know they're working on moving a couple of, I think it's the mobile cameras to the fourth precinct immediately, and that's outlined in the letter that the mayor
  • 02:59:25
    sent over yesterday to make a commitment that he's directing his administration to make this change.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 02:59:35
    Yes, I think we've worked out some things with the mayor.
  • 02:59:39
    The mayor's office has been really helpful.
  • 02:59:41
    They understand the need.
  • 02:59:43
    We've been in conversation for four years about this.
  • 02:59:46
    Yes.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 02:59:46
    And am I remembering correctly that we have, are you going to withdraw this amendment or is this going to continue?
• • Katie Cashman
  • 02:59:57
    No, I plan to withdraw the amendment because I think the letter is sufficient enough for us to move forward with.
  • 03:00:04
    So typically they put the cameras away in the winter months and what they're agreeing to is to see what we can do with it in the winter, basically.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:00:14
    Wonderful.
  • 03:00:15
    So, council member
  • 03:00:19
    Council Member Vita has withdrawn amendment number 13 and we will include the letter from Mayor Frey on Northside illegal dumping around this interim solution, immediate solution we were able to work out between Council Member Vita and the mayor's office and the police department.
  • 03:00:40
    So why
  • 03:00:44
    We are ready to move to the next amendment, I believe, but we're going to continue to include this in the legislative file on the budget.
  • 03:00:55
    Alright, next up, amendment number 14, offered by council members Vita and Rainville, related to crime prevention specialists.
  • 03:01:05
    I'm going to recognize council member Vita to present this amendment and make a motion.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 03:01:12
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 03:01:14
    So this amendment is about two crime prevention specialists.
  • 03:01:18
    One would be in the fourth precinct and the other in the first precinct.
  • 03:01:22
    I'll speak to the needs for the fourth precinct.
  • 03:01:24
    The fourth precinct has three wards, Ward 7, 5, and Ward 4, and we currently have two crime prevention specialists.
  • 03:01:32
    They're doing a fantastic job, but there is a great need for a third, with Bryn Mawr being a part of who we need for crime
  • 03:01:40
    who uses crime prevention specialists also.
  • 03:01:43
    Crime prevention specialists does a lot of things for us in the Fourth Precinct around problem properties, around the issue with dumping, a lot of things that get reported.
  • 03:01:57
    We're grateful that we get to deploy those issues to crime prevention specialists and not MPD.
  • 03:02:05
    It frees up a lot of time for MPD to work on.
  • 03:02:08
    Council,
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:02:26
    Wonderful.
  • 03:02:27
    Next I will recognize Councilmember Rainville.
• • Michael Rainville
  • 03:02:29
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 03:02:32
    Yes, so I've asked to be on this with Councilmember Vitov because the need in the first precinct has grown.
  • 03:02:39
    Whether it's Elliott Park, Loring Park, the civilian specialists work so well that that would be very helpful in tamping down the crime in those areas.
  • 03:02:51
    So I would appreciate a vote on this to help out.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:02:57
    Thank you, and next I will recognize Councilmember Cashman.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 03:03:03
    Thank you Madam Chair, I'd like to ask Commissioner Barnett to come up on this item.
  • 03:03:14
    My question for you Commissioner is if this budget amendment passes if you will implement it and hire new crime prevention specialists in the first and fourth precincts.
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:03:24
    If you first begin by introducing yourself, sir.
  • 03:03:30
    Todd Barnett, Commissioner of Community Safety, Chair Chuktai, Councilmember Cashman, it would be our intent to hire for these two positions.
  • 03:03:43
    The real limitation is that we normally try to
  • 03:03:53
    not do it geographically, but do it by need.
  • 03:03:56
    So I get the idea of putting it in the first and the fourth precinct, don't get me wrong.
  • 03:04:03
    The need could be great there, but I'm just saying that in general, where we would deploy additional staff would normally be where their greater need is.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 03:04:15
    Which precinct has had the largest increase in crime in the last few years?
  • 03:04:20
    Am I correct in saying that it's the fifth precinct?
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:04:24
    I don't have that number, I'm sorry, Chair, through the Chair, I don't have that number right here, Councilmember Cashman
• • Michael Cashman
  • 03:04:31
    We have a lot of data that shows robberies, car related thefts, all sorts of other things have spiked in the 5th precinct.
  • 03:04:40
    Last budget cycle we allocated funding to hire a second crime prevention specialist in the 5th precinct and that person was never hired and in fact the hours of the 5th precinct crime prevention specialists were reduced.
  • 03:04:52
    Can you explain why that decision was made?
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:04:55
    Through the Chair, Councilmember Cashman, at this time, I know there's been discussions about that in the specific details of how that decision was made.
  • 03:05:08
    I don't remember right now.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 03:05:12
    I'm going to need some information on that decision in order to be able to support this amendment.
  • 03:05:17
    Ward 7 has precinct 4, precinct 1, and precinct 5 in it.
  • 03:05:22
    Fourth precinct already has two crime prevention specialists.
  • 03:05:25
    Downtown is the smallest precinct.
  • 03:05:27
    Fifth precinct, on the other hand, is the precinct that has the highest spikes in crime in the last few years and has the lowest amount of crime prevention
  • 03:05:35
    Specialists Resources per Capita.
  • 03:05:38
    Last year, Council Vice President Chugtai and I allocated money to hire a second crime prevention specialist in the 5th Precinct responding to the needs of our residents, especially in uptown, and that budget amendment was not implemented.
  • 03:05:50
    And I just want to be clear, that was
  • 03:05:53
    incredibly confusing, continues to be confusing, and as the Commissioner, I expect you to have an answer on why that decision was made.
  • 03:06:00
    It's within your authority to make those decisions.
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:06:02
    Through the Chair, Council Member Cashman,
  • 03:06:10
    There are a lot of decisions that come through my desk.
  • 03:06:14
    There are a lot of decisions in all five departments.
  • 03:06:17
    I don't remember every single reason behind those decisions.
  • 03:06:22
    I'm happy to get that information for you.
  • 03:06:26
    Like I said, I just don't right now remember the specifics.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 03:06:30
    I would ask for an administrative follow-up on that question, Chair.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:06:34
    Why don't we have our clerks note that?
  • 03:06:36
    Thank you very much.
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:06:38
    Anything else, Chair?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:06:39
    Council Member Cashman, do you have any further questions for the Commissioner?
  • 03:06:44
    No sir, thank you.
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:06:44
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:06:49
    Council Member Vitale followed by Council Member Chavez.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 03:06:53
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 03:06:55
    The intent of this is not to
  • 03:06:57
    you know
  • 03:07:13
    The goal of this is to not generate more crime, to have the crime prevention specialists intervene before things get worse in the 4th Precinct.
  • 03:07:25
    Bremar is in your ward, you represent them, and there is a need.
  • 03:07:31
    We have two, we need three.
  • 03:07:32
    It has nothing to do with what's happening in the five, what's happening in five, what's happening in one.
  • 03:07:37
    It's not about that.
  • 03:07:38
    It's really about what's happening in the 4th Precinct.
  • 03:07:40
    and there is a need.
  • 03:07:41
    There may be a need for five.
  • 03:07:43
    I don't know.
  • 03:07:44
    What I'm trying to do here is get one more crime prevention specialist to help in the three wards that we have.
  • 03:07:50
    I don't know what happened with you all's amendment last year and what you did.
  • 03:07:55
    I do remember that amendment.
  • 03:07:57
    If that came up in mind, I wouldn't have got to a year later at a budget committee and embarrass staff in front of everybody and start talking about what didn't happen.
  • 03:08:08
    This feels like something that should have been worked out before you started pitting it against what I'm trying to do here.
  • 03:08:14
    It's not about one precinct or the other.
  • 03:08:17
    It really is about the need for what I need in my precinct.
  • 03:08:21
    I've talked to Council Vice President and Chair of Budget a couple times about this.
  • 03:08:27
    I really wish you would have said this to me, that you all had concerns because this didn't happen the last time.
  • 03:08:33
    I'm watching you look at the Commissioner and like, like y'all call him in some kind of lie or something, when you could have said to me, this didn't work out for us last year, Councilmember Vitale, is this the direction you want to go in?
  • 03:08:46
    Maybe there's a different route for this.
  • 03:08:48
    Instead of this playing out like this today, where we've asked for something,
  • 03:08:53
    You knew exactly what I asked for.
  • 03:08:55
    You could have said, this isn't the way to do it because this didn't work out for me and Councilmember Cashman, but instead it was done and then the commissioners brought up here to like, on trial, to be caught in a lie or whatever we think is going to play out here.
  • 03:09:11
    I don't like it.
  • 03:09:12
    I mean, it really is about getting resources into the fourth precinct that we need.
  • 03:09:17
    I don't know who needs whatever.
  • 03:09:19
    I know what I need and I know what I've been asked for and all I'm asking you all to do is support it or not.
  • 03:09:25
    If you don't support it, you don't support it.
  • 03:09:27
    But it has nothing to do with what you got or what you didn't get.
  • 03:09:30
    That's not what I'm asking here.
  • 03:09:32
    I'm not saying support me because yours worked out or don't support me because yours didn't.
  • 03:09:37
    I'm saying there's a need in the Fourth War.
  • 03:09:39
    I don't know the Fourth Precinct.
  • 03:09:40
    I don't know the crime stats for everything.
  • 03:09:43
    I can't tell you what all the crime prevention specialists responded to.
  • 03:09:48
    What I do know is they work, they're valuable, that crime is going down in North Minneapolis and we have crime prevention specialists to thank for that and so I want to continue to make sure that that's happening.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:10:03
    I'm not seeing anyone else in queue.
  • 03:10:05
    I will ask the Clerk to call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 03:10:09
    Councilmember Payne.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 03:10:11
    Nay.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 03:10:13
    Wonsley.
  • 03:10:14
    Nay.
  • 03:10:15
    Rainville.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 03:10:16
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 03:10:22
    Vita.
  • 03:10:24
    Aye.
  • 03:10:26
    Osman.
  • 03:10:27
    No.
  • 03:10:29
    Cashman.
  • 03:10:32
    Jenkins aye Chavez no Choudry is absent nay Panosano aye Vice Chair Koski aye Chair Choctaw aye
  • 03:10:59
    That is five ayes, seven nays.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:11:04
    That motion fails.
  • 03:11:06
    Next we will move to amendment number 15 offered by council members Wonsley, Cashman, President Payne, and Council Member Osman related to restoring the mayor's cuts to civilian investigators.
  • 03:11:27
    I will, this amendment will include the standard amendment format and it has an additional resolution that goes along with it.
  • 03:11:36
    I'm going to recognize Council Member Wansley to please present your amendment and make a motion.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:11:43
    Thank you, CVP Chuktai.
  • 03:11:45
    Last year, the council funded five civilian investigators to support MPD and their backlog of cases.
  • 03:11:52
    This was in response by several council members hearing from their residents that MPD was not following back up with them on those individual cases.
  • 03:12:01
    As of now MPD does have thousands of unsolved cases and these include hundreds of open cases for homicides, sex crimes, crimes against children, arson and other extremely serious crimes.
  • 03:12:15
    and each open case also means a victim in a family that has not received closure, let alone justice.
  • 03:12:22
    The five civilian investigators will have expanded MPD's capacity as well as maximize staffing resources to help reduce their extensive backlog and ultimately solve cases, which is a shared goal of all of us.
  • 03:12:36
    For unclear reasons, however, MPD
  • 03:12:39
    under the mayor's direction only hired three of those investigators despite the significant need that's been articulated and then also cut those positions to lower down the levy.
  • 03:12:51
    This was a poor decision outright and it's significantly counter to MPD's own data as it relates to investigative needs.
  • 03:13:00
    This amendment restores the two positions that the Mayor has proposed to cut and in fact recently in the Public Health and Safety Committee we received a presentation in response to Councilmember Cashman's legislative directive on clearance rates that basically demonstrated that these positions are deeply needed to meet the great demand around our backlog cases and to address our pretty low clearance rates.
  • 03:13:27
    So this proposal also includes, if people want to get further into the numbers and things of that nature you can look at that, but also accompanying this budget amendment is a resolution that requests the administration to terminate the city's contract with Zen City Technologies U.S. Inc. That resolution also highlights the public, or has highlighted the fact that the public has not seen benefit from this particular contract and thus its funding should be repurposed to meet other critical safety needs such as helping expanse
  • 03:13:57
    We have a proper motion before us.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:14:09
    We'll move to discussion.
  • 03:14:11
    Council President Payne.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 03:14:12
    I actually held my comments on the last item because of the source and my connection to it.
  • 03:14:19
    I didn't want to bring any bias into that conversation, but I think there is some relevancy here in that I was actually genuinely shocked when we had that case closure presentation in PHS.
  • 03:14:30
    to hear that.
  • 03:14:32
    The commander was not authorized to actually hire for the positions that we had allocated.
  • 03:14:38
    I had been, you know, I meet monthly with the police chief.
  • 03:14:42
    One of the topics that I was raising almost on a monthly basis was, you know, where are the crime prevention specialists that were allocated for the fifth precinct?
  • 03:14:51
    I showed up to a neighborhood association meeting on Monday and, you know, the chair of the neighborhood had to apologize and say, oh, I'm sorry, our precinct inspector is not available.
  • 03:15:04
    I'm sorry, our crime prevention specialist is not available.
  • 03:15:07
    And I was confused about where that crime prevention specialist was.
  • 03:15:12
    And it turned out, you know, it was later reported in the Star Tribune that
  • 03:15:16
    They have been working a second job in overbilling over time and they have separated from the city.
  • 03:15:21
    I don't know any further details beyond what's reported in the Star Tribune, but it's a reflection of a poor set of financial controls, lack of oversight, and bad management practices within MPD that is leading to council allocating resources to achieve a specific
  • 03:15:39
    community safety outcome and our inability to achieve that.
  • 03:15:44
    This should not be an amendment before us today because we made this allocation last year, it should have been implemented, and it's only been this week since we got the quarterly report where we saw the 19 million dollar cost overrun, which maybe is getting at why maybe some of those positions were held.
  • 03:16:03
    and I think that's a failure of transparency.
  • 03:16:05
    We should not have these, you know, decisions that seem to not make sense, that we later learn the reason they might make sense is because there is a major, you know, over budget scenario in the department.
  • 03:16:19
    So I think that we need to restore these civilian investigators, but beyond that we need to make sure that we have tighter management and financial controls over this department.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:16:32
    Next, I'll recognize Councilmember Palmisano.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 03:16:36
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 03:16:37
    I don't disagree with anything that President Payne just said, but I did want to speak to the Zen City part of this amendment, which is part B, right?
  • 03:16:46
    We're not going to vote on that separately.
  • 03:16:48
    Unless you asked to divide the question.
  • 03:16:51
    No, I think that's fine.
  • 03:16:52
    The supporting documents for this amendment reference that the contract with Zen City does not fulfill any provision of the MDHR settlement agreement.
  • 03:17:01
    But yet, the settlement agreement does require that Minneapolis prove it is adhering to its training requirements.
  • 03:17:11
    This contract is about measuring whether that training is working and residents see or feel a difference, whether they feel they're being treated fairly.
  • 03:17:21
    It is about surveying, not surveillance, which a lot of people seem to be conflating here.
  • 03:17:27
    This isn't about Zen City, this is about the need to survey our residents, whoever does it.
  • 03:17:33
    This is about compliance with the settlement agreement.
  • 03:17:37
    This is about reaching communities who have been historically discriminated against by MPD and meeting requirements that non-discriminatory policing efforts reflect the values and needs of those communities.
  • 03:17:49
    We know that typical online surveys don't reach communities in the proportion that we have them here in our city.
  • 03:17:56
    I have a couple questions for I think Commissioner Barnett about this.
  • 03:18:01
    I think I'm correct in those statements.
  • 03:18:05
    but I don't understand how we will accomplish this work if we cut the funding for surveying services.
  • 03:18:13
    This is not something that we can do in-house, is it?
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:18:18
    Through the Chair, Councilmember Pomasano, you're absolutely correct.
  • 03:18:23
    This is not, we don't have the capability to do this internally.
  • 03:18:28
    That's right.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 03:18:29
    Are there other vendors who can provide this type of engagement?
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:18:35
    I would probably have to go back and look at that.
  • 03:18:39
    I know we have Zen City doing this.
  • 03:18:42
    I don't know what other vendors do this work.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 03:18:47
    So if we need to survey to prove compliance,
  • 03:18:52
    I don't really understand how we're going to achieve that.
  • 03:18:55
    What would the loss of the special crimes investigations department contractual funds mean for them?
  • 03:19:01
    There's a lot of teams within investigations.
  • 03:19:03
    I'm not sure what these are.
  • 03:19:04
    I assume things like homicide, sexual assault, property crimes.
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:19:11
    If this amendment passes, and I think you have it in your packet, we'll have to lose two embedded social workers, three of our 13 chaplains, and we would also look at having to reduce some of the victim services or advocated services that we have.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 03:19:35
    So social workers seems like a big loss to me.
  • 03:19:38
    Chaplains for people in their time of need.
  • 03:19:42
    What was the third thing you said?
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:19:44
    And also when you look at reducing the $79,000 in special crimes contractual services, that will result in a reduction of our victim advocacy funding.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 03:20:00
    Victim advocacy is something that many of us here on this dais have been looking to bolster and add funding and attention to over the past several years.
  • 03:20:10
    I feel like this has a direct impact on our community and I find it hard to believe that civilian investigators will somehow decrease the need for these other services as stated in the supporting documents for this amendment.
  • 03:20:22
    that is an absolute supposition.
  • 03:20:26
    I think that there is a point of confusion in the community that surveying is somehow the same as surveillance.
  • 03:20:34
    Zen City was hired to help research diverse demographics and ask if they would voluntarily participate in a survey of their perceptions of MPD.
  • 03:20:44
    Do the authors of this resolution think that we can do targeted outreach in-house for less money and greater success?
  • 03:20:51
    I doubt that we can, but I would encourage the authors to tell me how they think we should.
  • 03:20:57
    I would encourage the authors to help educate me as to how they met with city staff to discuss how this work would be replaced by defunding this contract.
  • 03:21:07
    This work does need to be done, contrary
  • 03:21:10
    Council Member Osman
• • Jamal Osman
  • 03:21:32
    I did want to talk about Sun City as we hear the public comments.
  • 03:21:42
    It's obvious if you do a little bit of research, this is Israeli intelligence folks that are
  • 03:21:52
    that we contract.
  • 03:21:53
    I just didn't know why in the beginning we contracted such a horrible business organization who continue to, you know, surveillance and do horrible things in Palestine.
  • 03:22:11
    Go check out Twitter, what the CEO is saying.
  • 03:22:15
    So, personally I have
  • 03:22:18
    Disagreement specific to Sin City and why we should contract and I think we should listen to our residents who have continued to voice their their concern about as a city Minneapolis contracting this kind of
  • 03:22:40
    surveillance organization that continue to violate human rights as we speak in Palestine.
  • 03:22:47
    So that is just a simple answer and simple, straightforward, should not be lining up.
  • 03:22:54
    We don't have the same value as them.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:22:56
    Thank you.
  • 03:22:58
    Thank you, Council Member.
  • 03:23:00
    I brought myself in queue.
  • 03:23:01
    I have some questions for the author.
  • 03:23:04
    that I'm hoping Councilmember Wonsley will answer for me.
  • 03:23:08
    Councilmember Wonsley, in putting together this amendment, did your office meet with the police department to discuss
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:23:19
    their budget.
  • 03:23:20
    Yeah we followed up on this with all of our departments and actually I had a presentation done on the Zen City contract specifically and administration oversight way like a year ago ahead of these deliberations because we've long discussed as a body what purpose does this actually serve in terms of a surveying tool
  • 03:23:41
    and other options that we could pursue, which as someone who was here before you, Commissioner Barnett, I recall MPD saying they could do competitive bids.
  • 03:23:53
    The outstanding question is if you all actually did a competitive RFP bid for this contract.
  • 03:24:00
    So yeah, we did lots of work on this one.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:24:02
    Wonderful.
  • 03:24:03
    I have several questions for you Councilmember.
  • 03:24:05
    The next one, did you meet with the person who is the closest expert to the finances of the Minneapolis Police Department, their finance director?
  • 03:24:15
    Oh yeah, Ms. Vicki?
  • 03:24:16
    Yes, yes we did.
  • 03:24:17
    Wonderful.
  • 03:24:17
    That's excellent.
  • 03:24:18
    So let's go through the two places where the decreases are happening or the reductions are happening to the police department budget.
  • 03:24:27
    And I just want you to tell me what it is that Director Troswick told you would impact the police department's budget.
  • 03:24:36
    Just because there seems to be some confusion about chaplains again.
  • 03:24:39
    So on the first one, the $150,000 reduction to Community Engagement and Outreach Bureau,
  • 03:24:47
    Tell me, what is that money coming from?
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:24:52
    Yeah, so as the budget amendment notes, it does come from the Police Department Community Engagement and Outreach Bureau.
  • 03:24:59
    Within that, specifically their contractual services, where Zen City and a number of other contracts are held, and we're talking about in the millions.
  • 03:25:07
    and we have been in conversations with the director to learn that not all of the zen city money have been allocated and actually this should not impact core services because there's already terms baked into that contract that says the city could terminate within those three years at the end of each year.
  • 03:25:24
    So we could have terminated, which we're asking you all to do now, and there will be savings.
  • 03:25:29
    And we are proposing using those savings of the $150,000 to go towards civilian investigators.
  • 03:25:36
    And then of the separate piece of this, the remaining $79,852 come from MPD's investigations in forensic division contractual services, and that budget is $5.4 million for 2026.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:25:51
    and you specifically, did you specifically think about using the forensic services contractual services budget because as it turns out when we don't have enough staffing for civilian investigations we have to contract it out.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:26:12
    So bringing the services in-house, that's actually the most cost-effective model of this.
  • 03:26:15
    Why not prioritize, as we had the foresight to do a year ago, to make that investment of, really this is low, $200 and something thousand dollars, so that we're not constantly outsourcing in maybe the potential millions from contractual services for investigative needs.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:26:31
    And last thing I think, are civilian investigators actually represented employees of AFSCME?
  • 03:26:43
    Yes, these are union members with AFSCME.
  • 03:26:46
    So you wanted us to use contractual services money to expand labor represented positions within our own department in-house?
  • 03:26:56
    Yes.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:26:56
    I just want to highlight too, this was complimenting the almost $20 million investment we made in the police contract that articulated and got a letter of agreement for us to hire more civilian investigators.
  • 03:27:10
    So this really pairs with that $20 million investment to actually execute the police contract too.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:27:16
    Wonderful.
  • 03:27:17
    Thank you for answering my questions and letting me put you on trial Councilmember Wonsley and thank you for educating all of us about what happened in the background when you picked these sources.
  • 03:27:27
    Next we're going to move to Council President Payne followed by Councilmember Cashman.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 03:27:31
    Thank you Vice President Chugtai.
  • 03:27:34
    I put myself in queue earlier than I took myself out, but I felt I wanted to add myself back to queue.
  • 03:27:39
    My original thought pattern here was we like to talk a lot about the settlement agreement and the requirements.
  • 03:27:45
    It's just so fundamentally important to remind ourselves that the requirements within the settlement agreement are the floor.
  • 03:27:51
    They're the bare minimum to deliver constitutional policing in the city of Minneapolis.
  • 03:27:56
    We should always be striving to do something better than the bare minimum.
  • 03:28:01
    So that's just more of a philosophical thing, but on the matter of Zen City as a source
  • 03:28:08
    I actually have two thoughts.
  • 03:28:09
    On the matter of Zen City as a source, I did get a chance to sit down with Commander Martin, who's overseeing the Community Engagement and Outreach Bureau, who is the person that is responsible for administering Zen City.
  • 03:28:24
    I got a chance to meet with PMI leadership and
  • 03:28:30
    to just talk about what the body's will was when it came to this contract and what we were trying to accomplish with it.
  • 03:28:38
    We had a very robust conversation around our internal capacity to be able to meet the needs of the settlement agreement.
  • 03:28:45
    I offered up in that meeting to sit down with whomever we need to sit down with, whether that's in PMI or in the Community Engagement and Outreach Bureau.
  • 03:28:56
    The expertise is in-house.
  • 03:28:58
    I actually developed, I was a contractor on PMI before I was elected.
  • 03:29:02
    I was contracted to be
  • 03:29:04
    and expert in design thinking and research methods.
  • 03:29:07
    And we developed an entire research methodology to do the behavioral crisis response that had very robust surveying.
  • 03:29:14
    We have a very different set of requirements where it comes to surveying for the settlement agreement, but it is my belief that if we work together as an institution, we can actually achieve our goals, right?
  • 03:29:28
    And I'm offering up my services to help us get there.
  • 03:29:31
    And on the second thing,
  • 03:29:34
    We've gone through this a number of times.
  • 03:29:36
    These cuts, these don't translate to the cuts that you're outlining.
  • 03:29:42
    We don't get to decide those cuts.
  • 03:29:44
    You get to decide those cuts.
  • 03:29:46
    So if you're saying that the impact is going to be on victim services or on chaplains, that's a choice that we don't get to make.
  • 03:29:54
    That's a choice that MPD leadership gets to make.
  • 03:29:57
    And I hope that MPD leadership will look at their budget and be really thoughtful about where they think the impact is going to be minimized.
  • 03:30:05
    That's all I gotta say.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:30:08
    Councilmember Cashman.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 03:30:09
    Thank you Madam Chair.
  • 03:30:11
    I chose to co-author this amendment because of the low clearance rates that we're hearing about and the need for more investigation capacity and I know that it's easier to hire civilian investigators than it is sworn investigators given staffing shortages in the police department as well as all of the training and requirements that go into becoming a sworn officer.
  • 03:30:33
    So I think that civilianizing these positions are a really good way to get our capacity up in investigations.
  • 03:30:39
    We also fought hard for this in negotiations with the last police contract as someone else mentioned and I think we deserve to carry out this strategy of civilianizing our investigations.
  • 03:30:50
    I also think that when it comes to police accountability, one of the best ways that we can improve accountability with our community is through it.
  • 03:30:57
    and the
  • 03:31:21
    And then secondly, when it comes to the source,
  • 03:31:41
    it's very rare that we have residents come to us in a public hearing asking for cuts and I mean that was a great opportunity to have hundreds of residents saying cut this service we don't want this service that rarely happens and our residents are saying we don't want to be surveyed by Zen City we're tired of the pop-ups on our social media feed and not knowing what else they're looking at when they're scrubbing data from our social media feeds and I think it's
  • 03:32:11
    I think it is a good source to take from because our residents are asking for us to stop using that service.
  • 03:32:17
    And I think this is a perfect way to get more resources into the civilian investigators that we need.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:32:23
    Thank you.
  • 03:32:24
    Next, I will recognize Councilmember Vito.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 03:32:26
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 03:32:28
    So, I watched that presentation in Public Health and Safety about the
  • 03:32:38
    the group that St. Paul has pulled together around case solving and investigations.
  • 03:32:47
    And I did hear them say that civilians help, but also what I heard was that civilians need sworn cops to actually clear the case.
  • 03:32:59
    They can only do parts of the investigation, and then we need sworn officers to take everything off the finish line.
  • 03:33:08
    so over the finish line.
  • 03:33:09
    So where I keep getting confused with like adding more civilians is we don't have enough sworn officers to help the civilians.
  • 03:33:19
    So now do we get to a place where the civilians start to work on things and then we just got a huge backlog of cases that they've investigated and we don't have officers assigned to it?
  • 03:33:30
    I mean it feels like we're working backwards here.
  • 03:33:33
    The goal should be, and money was taken away from that, the goal should be
  • 03:33:37
    recruitment was what I heard in that presentation the goal should be training up officers because we got a lot of new officers coming in to the department that are going to need years of training and on-the-job work to be investigators but if we're going to work with what we have now adding more civilians is not it yes they can they can come into the department but they can only do so much without a sworn officer so I don't know like
  • 03:34:07
    if this is going to help the case clearance if we don't have more police officers.
  • 03:34:15
    If we don't have more and it's not just more police officers because even if we were training this is my understanding of that presentation.
  • 03:34:22
    Even if we were training
  • 03:34:25
    the officers we have, the rate in which we can do that it's not fast enough to get us there.
  • 03:34:31
    We have to go to some other resources to bring more experienced officers into the department so they can be at the investigative level.
  • 03:34:41
    I'm kind of just rambling on, Commissioner.
  • 03:34:44
    I don't know if you caught some questions in there, but that was my observation of that presentation.
  • 03:34:51
    It wasn't just that, like, yeah, hire more civilians and more cases will be solved.
  • 03:34:56
    What was impressive about that presentation is how they talked about how they worked with the more senior officers
  • 03:35:02
    to get those cases over the finish line.
  • 03:35:04
    And the training, and now we don't have a training facility.
  • 03:35:08
    And all these things that I feel like we're taking away from the department is really the core of what we need to build the department up to complete investigations.
  • 03:35:18
    So that is one thing.
  • 03:35:21
    And then the second thing is the Zen City contract.
  • 03:35:24
    Of course, I have Warford residents who reached out to me and said, cut the Zen City contract.
  • 03:35:31
    named whatever amount, you know, the handful of residents who came here are the same ones who reached out to me in community and said cut the contract and I think as a council member it was up to me to say the truth about the contract.
  • 03:35:48
    is that you're not being surveyed.
  • 03:35:50
    Like, it is a survey on the internet if you can participate in it or you can't.
  • 03:35:56
    We had a presentation from them about their affiliations here in public.
  • 03:36:02
    They answer questions that people had and this council voted for that contract.
  • 03:36:09
    Okay, not the one where you want it, but a city council voted for this contract.
  • 03:36:15
    and so it wasn't like this wasn't something that came through council and didn't pass and so my question about this in city contract is because we're under contract with this company if this cut if this is cut do we still owe the money like how is this gonna are the city of Minneapolis residents still gonna pay for this contract even if we cut it in this way through the chair um two things one uh council member vita
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:36:44
    I do, like many of you, find that the civilian investigators are important to the work that we do, and I don't want to leave that impression that they're not important at all.
  • 03:36:57
    They provide a lot of value, but they support our sworn officers.
  • 03:37:03
    They're not the lead investigators, so it is that support for our police department and the work they do, and they do provide value.
  • 03:37:14
    As far as the contractual obligation in terminating the contract, I would have to defer that to the City Attorney's Office as to what their opinion is if we owe them money or not.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 03:37:27
    okay can the city attorney please ask us what i mean answer that question i need to understand like what happens if the contract is cut at this point because i thought we had like a multi-year contract was in city um for a specific dollar amount and i guess the addition to that would be where are we in the contract was in city um like what's left that's to the city attorney madam chair
• • Kristyn AndersonCity Attorney
  • 03:37:55
    Madam Chair, Council Members, so I just got sent the contract right now.
  • 03:38:04
    So I don't know how far into it we are and how much money we owe them for obviously we have to pay them for services already rendered.
  • 03:38:13
    The termination clause allows for termination without cause for with 30 days written notice.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 03:38:27
    I don't know if we need a staff memo, but I'd like to know how much we've paid out on this contract already, and what are we going to get for what we've paid for so far?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:38:41
    We've noted that as a staff for administrative follow-up.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 03:38:46
    Because it could be paid out, right?
  • 03:38:48
    Did you give us an end date to this contract?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:38:52
    November 26th, I believe.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 03:38:55
    Of 2020?
  • 03:38:58
    Okay, so it's up in October.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:39:14
    The Councilmember Vita, your time is about to expire.
  • 03:39:17
    Oh, I'm good.
  • 03:39:18
    Okay, wonderful.
  • 03:39:19
    Sounds good.
  • 03:39:21
    Councilmember Chavez.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 03:39:22
    Thank you Chair Choctaw.
  • 03:39:24
    I remember if I recall correctly in the presentation that we had where folks came and we asked questions about the civilian investigators.
  • 03:39:34
    The police department did say that the two civilian investigators would be helpful and needed to the police department and they would be happy if they had that because it would be
  • 03:39:44
    assisting them in these investigations.
  • 03:39:46
    Obviously there's limitations on what a civilian investigator can do, but I do want to be very clear to the public and to folks here on the dais and to our staff that the police department did say that they would find it helpful.
  • 03:40:00
    Obviously it won't address everything that we are seeing in our community, but I just want to make it clear that this is a service that is desperately needed and it is verified if we watch the Public Health and Safety Committee.
  • 03:40:09
    So I want to start with that.
  • 03:40:10
    and also would like to ask the authors if I could be included on not the budget amendment but on the resolution itself.
  • 03:40:18
    So the resolution urging the termination of the contract.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:40:26
    Well, Clerks have noted that.
  • 03:40:28
    Wonderful.
  • 03:40:29
    Are you done with your?
  • 03:40:33
    Yep.
  • 03:40:33
    Okay.
  • 03:40:34
    Put myself in queue.
  • 03:40:37
    So
  • 03:40:39
    I wanted to just make sure, I'm sorry, I think we're trying to figure out whether we have a clear answer right now on when this contract is set to expire, but not confirmed.
  • 03:40:59
    Go ahead, Madam City Attorney.
• • Kristyn AndersonCity Attorney
  • 03:41:02
    Thank you, Council Vice President.
  • 03:41:03
    I was looking at the contract as you were talking, so according to the terms of the contract, it goes from November 9th, 2023 through November 8th, 2026.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:41:14
    November 2026.
  • 03:41:17
    Okay, perfect.
  • 03:41:18
    Thank you.
  • 03:41:22
    I do want to just make some, I'm trying to wrap my head around this discussion of the limitations that civilian investigators have and the benefit that they add to supplement the work of sworn officers.
  • 03:41:37
    I think it'd just be helpful to know, Commissioner, if you can tell me how many civilian investigators are a part of the department right now.
  • 03:41:46
    I can't recall the number myself.
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:41:50
    Let me see if I have that for you.
  • 03:42:05
    I do not have that in my notes but I can get it for you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:42:09
    Is there anyone that is available on hand right now while we're having the discussion on this item?
• • Michael Cashman
  • 03:42:15
    Yes.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:42:15
    So I want two numbers.
  • 03:42:17
    I want to know the total number of civilian investigators in the department right now and the total number of sworn officers in the department right now.
  • 03:42:29
    Thank you.
  • 03:42:35
    That's really the only thing I want to do.
  • 03:42:37
    So I've got three minutes of time on the clock.
  • 03:42:39
    I can just wait.
  • 03:42:42
    If you might be able to get an answer quickly.
  • 03:42:53
    Actually, since we have a couple other members in queue, I'm going to recognize them so they can
  • 03:42:58
    Council Member Wonsley followed by Council Member Vita.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:43:02
    Yeah, thank you CVP Chek Tai.
  • 03:43:05
    In regards to the City Attorney noting the contract terms in terms of deadlines, there's a discrepancy because the RCA in Limbsvall says that the contract that was approved in 2023 says that it actually expires, let me double check,
  • 03:43:28
    Yeah, it started October 7, 2023 and it goes through October 6, 2026.
  • 03:43:33
    So I don't know what... Madam City Attorney.
• • Kristyn AndersonCity Attorney
  • 03:43:42
    Council Vice President, I'm just looking at the document that was sent to me which is the executed contract that has it going through November 8, 2026.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:43:52
    Was there an adjustment or a change?
  • 03:43:54
    Because again, I'm just looking at the LIMS vow, which has something completely different.
  • 03:43:59
    It has the October 6, 2026 date.
  • 03:44:06
    So I would like a staff follow-up on that to understand what are the changes but regardless of it and it sounds like both what you have and also in the LIMS file there was that termination clause baked in that we could within 30-day notice be able to terminate that contract and that assumes that all balances due will also be paid.
  • 03:44:29
    So there would be no financial lingerings on our end that we would need to cover, which is why we were intentional about taking from the contractual service budget.
  • 03:44:39
    Because there would be now vacancies should this contract be terminated.
  • 03:44:46
    That's not a question for you though, City Attorney.
  • 03:44:47
    I just wanted to note the changes there.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:44:52
    Awesome.
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:44:54
    I do have some information for you, Chair.
  • 03:44:58
    It appears that we have 29 civilian investigators.
  • 03:45:05
    It appears that 28 of those positions are filled.
  • 03:45:10
    As far as the amount remaining on the contract, it appears that there's about $112,500 remaining on the contract.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:45:23
    Wonderful.
  • 03:45:24
    And do you have a number for me on the total sworn?
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:45:27
    I'm trying to get that number for you.
  • 03:45:30
    I don't know the exact number of total sworn.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:45:32
    Excellent.
  • 03:45:35
    Council member Vitol.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 03:45:38
    Thank you.
  • 03:45:39
    I had a question kind of similar to yours because one of the other things in that presentation was about the number of cases that should be assigned to officers.
  • 03:45:50
    And so I can't remember, I do remember when I saw the presentation I thought, wow, that's a really low number, lower than what I thought the number of cases should be for officers.
  • 03:46:03
    So just wondering if anyone who's on that committee remembers or if we can get
  • 03:46:08
    It was a very low number of cases that should be assigned to an officer and it was based on what kind of crimes they were.
  • 03:46:25
    Just wondering, do we do the same thing with civilians?
  • 03:46:28
    Do we assign numbers of cases?
  • 03:46:31
    Are these civilians going to get assigned to specific officers or specific crimes?
  • 03:46:39
    And how all of that's going to work out also.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:46:49
    I'm just looking to the chair of the committee to see if we can get something, or Councilmember Wanzi, do you have the answer?
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:46:56
    Yeah, just clarification, and I think there's a conflation of what's happening.
  • 03:47:00
    So the presentation in the Public Health and Safety Committee is actually related to the following budget amendment of 17, the non-fatal shooting task force, where it actually gets at Councilmember Vitas' concerns around us actually making appropriations for sworn staff to do investigative work.
  • 03:47:16
    There was not much
  • 03:47:18
    conversation around civilian and in terms of them providing supplemental support, everyone agrees there.
  • 03:47:27
    There is a need for more sworn staffing support, which is where we're also having a gap.
  • 03:47:33
    But the civilian investigator piece that didn't really get discussed, actually in that non-fatal shooting presentation.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 03:47:42
    No, I don't think that that's where my concern is.
  • 03:47:45
    I completely understand what you're saying, Councilmember Wonsley, but the point I was trying to make was that the civilian staff only can go so far in investigations.
  • 03:47:56
    So if we don't have the sworn staff to support that, then we'll just have a bunch of cases.
  • 03:48:02
    that are piled up that need sworn officers and that is what I've heard in these public health and safety presentations is it's not that civilians don't help, they do a great job but where things can get behind or necessarily don't meet up is when we don't have the sworn staff and we have to do some work around building up our sworn officer, the number of sworn officers we have if we really want to get to the root of
  • 03:48:32
    is what I took away from that
  • 03:48:54
    you know it didn't match up.
  • 03:48:55
    St. Paul one had fewer cases than we did and we don't have as many officers assigned as we had seven, eight years ago and we're adding civilians to that who can only go so far is the point I was trying to make.
  • 03:49:11
    It wasn't that civilians don't do a great job.
  • 03:49:14
    It's really about are we being productive or are we being counterproductive by adding these positions and there's like
  • 03:49:23
    no future in resolving things fully.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:49:29
    Commissioner, you've got a number on sworn.
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:49:31
    Yes, Chair.
  • 03:49:33
    Right now there's 540 active sworn officers and Chair, I thought you would want to know that there's 74 sworn investigators.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:49:46
    Oh, 74 sworn investigators?
  • 03:49:48
    Yes.
  • 03:49:49
    Gotcha.
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 03:49:52
    So you know that the reason I specifically asked that question is because the way the state defines sworn officers, that would include those in the academy.
  • 03:50:09
    So I wanted to know which ones are actually active on the street.
  • 03:50:15
    if that makes sense.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:50:16
    Yeah, yep, that makes sense.
  • 03:50:18
    Thank you for doing the distinction there.
  • 03:50:21
    So like for every officer we have, for every civilian investigator, there are 19 sworn officers total on the force.
  • 03:50:29
    Not asking you to answer the question.
  • 03:50:31
    I'm telling you for an objective fact from a calculator.
  • 03:50:37
    Okay, I'm not seeing any further discussion.
  • 03:50:41
    Clerk, please call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 03:50:44
    Councilmember Payne?
• • Emily Koski
  • 03:50:46
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 03:50:47
    Wonsley?
  • 03:50:48
    Aye.
  • 03:50:49
    Rainville?
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:50:49
    No.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 03:50:51
    Vita?
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:50:51
    No.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 03:50:54
    Osman?
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:50:55
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 03:50:57
    Cashman?
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 03:50:58
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 03:50:59
    Jenkins?
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 03:51:00
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 03:51:02
    Chavez?
  • 03:51:03
    Aye.
  • 03:51:04
    Chaudhry?
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 03:51:05
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 03:51:06
    Palmisano?
  • 03:51:07
    No.
  • 03:51:09
    Vice Chair Koski?
  • 03:51:10
    Aye.
  • 03:51:11
    Chair Chugtai?
  • 03:51:14
    Aye.
  • 03:51:14
    That is 9 ayes and 3 nays.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:51:20
    That motion carries.
  • 03:51:22
    Next up is amendment number 16, which is offered by Councilmember Wonsley and President Payne, related to MPD off-duty fees.
  • 03:51:37
    Councilmember Wonsley?
  • 03:51:41
    Council Member Wanzi, will you please present your amendment and make a motion.
  • 03:51:45
    Thank you, CBP, check tie.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:51:50
    This is one, before I do the introduction, I would actually like to see where our COO is.
  • 03:51:58
    I know this is typically or should be a matter handled by the Office of Community Safety.
  • 03:52:03
    for unknown reasons, we primarily have been connecting with Margaret Anderson Kelleher around a potential administrative proposal for this that they would like to see.
  • 03:52:14
    So because of that, I would like for them to be able to talk about what that is first, and then potentially table this until they're able to get us those proposals.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:52:27
    So is it, am I capturing that correctly?
  • 03:52:31
    You want us to return back to this item?
  • 03:52:34
    Because there's some outstanding information that's, or outstanding things.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:52:38
    Yes, but I want to at least, I know, shade to you Commissioner Barnett, I have not been connecting with you about this matter, so I wasn't sure, there we go, if COO Margaret Anderson can give a little bit more context of what they're discussing on the administrative side.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:52:52
    We'll welcome the COO now.
• • Margaret Anderson KelliherCity Operations Officer
  • 03:52:56
    Welcome back.
  • 03:52:57
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 03:52:58
    I don't think I even identified myself the first time.
  • 03:53:00
    Margaret Anderson Kelleher, COO for the City of Minneapolis.
  • 03:53:04
    Thank you, Councilmember Wonsley, for the question.
  • 03:53:07
    What we've been working on with Councilmember Wonsley, and I know Councilmember Payne, you're also on the amendment,
  • 03:53:12
    is to do something that will produce real progress on off-duty in 2026.
  • 03:53:20
    And so what that looks like is to do some funding from the IT department as well as the police department
  • 03:53:30
    to the amount of $200,000 to work on the change management part of the off-duty program.
  • 03:53:38
    And so that is something that could be accomplished.
  • 03:53:42
    And we have provided an updated written amendment to staff to go through.
  • 03:53:49
    I also do have other folks here who could speak to this.
  • 03:53:55
    The difference is that there will
  • 03:53:59
    There could be, at some point in the future, a need for an app that would collect data, that would help collect the fees, but that's far ahead of the horse right now.
  • 03:54:10
    And the reason I'm speaking to this is this is a cross-collaboration between IT and MPD.
  • 03:54:18
    And so what's happening right now
  • 03:54:23
    is that we are in process in building the new timekeeping system for MPD which is a foundational product or based on a foundational product of UKG for timekeeping.
  • 03:54:38
    Then on top of that product needs to be built an integration to collect and track off-duty time and then on top of that we'll need to likely be something that can help us easily collect the fees.
  • 03:54:53
    The UKG project, which is the base for all of this, is to be done at the end of 2026.
  • 03:55:03
    It is both timekeeping and supervisory related.
  • 03:55:08
    It updates our system from the old workforce director that we've been using.
  • 03:55:13
    We will deactivate workforce director.
  • 03:55:16
    go to UKG, then be able to build on top of that without having to go through further expense like double spending because we will just move to building the integration for the off-duty timekeeping on top of that.
  • 03:55:35
    This is a priority for the administration.
  • 03:55:38
    I know it's a priority for you Councilmember Wansley and everyone around the table.
  • 03:55:43
    So that is what is happening and the proposal back is to really work on that change management piece of it that has to happen.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:55:54
    yeah with the two minutes that I have left I think I also asked in terms of our follow-up conversations and I think it's just getting clarity because our proposal is literally based on what MPD and OCS shared themselves where they never mention IT
  • 03:56:09
    They mentioned the need for a third-party vendor to administer these fees.
  • 03:56:16
    So I shared this with you, COO, that this was information that I heard for the first time in our year and a half.
  • 03:56:24
    Actually, we've been doing this work on this matter since 2022, but the fee piece, where we've had multiple meetings around this, never heard this until you pulled me to the side and shared that about an hour ago.
  • 03:56:35
    So I think it's getting clarity on then why was this not articulated in the presentation or report by OCS and MPD back in May or June when you gave that presentation.
  • 03:56:47
    What happened there?
• • SPEAKER_12
  • 03:56:51
    Council, Vice President, Council Member Wonsley.
  • 03:56:54
    I think between May or June or whenever we gave the presentation and now or earlier this week when we submitted that memo as well, things changed as far as the progress on the UKG project itself and our understanding of how the two needed to interplay.
  • 03:57:12
    I think the COO said it well, if we do a application or software
  • 03:57:18
    that we're managing off-duty or coordinating off-duty through that next year, we'll have to essentially duplicate the work when UKG comes in and we're able to finish out that project.
  • 03:57:31
    So I hope that makes sense and answers your question.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:57:33
    Somewhat.
  • 03:57:34
    We'll connect during recess but for the time being I'm going to motion to table this to allow us the next couple recesses to have further conversation around it and then get through the rest of the proposals.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:57:44
    Yep, Councilmember Wonsley, I'm going to suggest we don't need a motion on this one.
  • 03:57:48
    Without objection, can we table and come back to this?
  • 03:57:53
    COO, just a clarifying question for you.
  • 03:57:55
    Earlier you mentioned there was an amendment draft circulated among staff.
  • 03:58:00
    Were you talking about finance staff or were you talking about chair and author staff?
• • Margaret Anderson KelliherCity Operations Officer
  • 03:58:08
    Chair, we shared it with Councilmember Wansley and her staff right now for a review of it first.
  • 03:58:15
    Perfect.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 03:58:16
    That sounds excellent.
  • 03:58:17
    Wonderful.
  • 03:58:17
    Thank you.
  • 03:58:19
    With that, we are tabling number 17 or number 16.
  • 03:58:27
    Alright, now we are ready for amendment number 17, which is related to non-fatal shooting task force offered by Councilmember Wonsley.
  • 03:58:40
    Councilmember Wonsley, will you please introduce your amendment and make a motion.
  • 03:58:44
    Thank you, CBP Chuktai.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 03:58:47
    This actually correlates with the conversation that we had just related to the civilian sworn, sorry not civilian,
  • 03:58:54
    Yes, civilian investigators in terms of us beefing up support on the sworn side of things.
  • 03:59:01
    But this budget amendment essentially is a $1.7 million earmark within MPD's Public Safety Services budget.
  • 03:59:08
    The intention of this money is to fund between seven to nine investigators to implement a non-fatal task force shooting or non-fatal shooting task force.
  • 03:59:17
    Sorry about that.
  • 03:59:17
    We talked about this already, but we know the clearance rate for non-fatal shootings in Minneapolis, just based off of 2024 data, was 26%.
  • 03:59:27
    And these numbers are not unique.
  • 03:59:30
    MPD clearance numbers in general outside of homicides have actually been some of the worst in the nation.
  • 03:59:35
    And this was even the case in 2019 when MPD had double the amount of investigators that they do now.
  • 03:59:41
    For the past year, my office has explored how other law enforcement agencies across the state and country have increased their effectiveness at solving cases.
  • 03:59:52
    Unfortunately, my office didn't have to look too far as there is a nation leading example right across the river in St. Paul.
  • 03:59:59
    That said, I've spent this year engaging with several stakeholders and experts to learn more about St. Paul's massive success after implementing a non-fatal shootings task force.
  • 04:00:10
    In 2024, prior to the task force creation, St. Paul's clearance rates for non-fatal shootings was 38%.
  • 04:00:17
    And then after implementation of that task force, it rose to 70%.
  • 04:00:21
    In addition to massive improvements in their clearance rates, the task force shared that they have seen a 30% reduction in shots fired and a 70% decrease in homicides.
  • 04:00:33
    So their success is essentially being applauded nationwide.
  • 04:00:37
    and St. Paul is also showcasing their work to other law enforcement agencies and we're glad that they were able to come to our own Public Health and Safety Committee to share that work with us so we too can learn how to solve and improve public safety issues like the backlog we're experiencing around investigative cases.
  • 04:00:56
    There does seem to be just no proposals that
  • 04:01:01
    and many conversations with the administration of we all agree that clearance rates are bad.
  • 04:01:07
    We need to be doing something around reducing our backlog of cases.
  • 04:01:12
    We can't just continue on with it with the status quo of what we have now.
  • 04:01:16
    That's clearly not working.
  • 04:01:18
    And while council can't direct operations, we can fund programs that do work and this amendment does that and attempts to solve the problem that MPD and city leaders
  • 04:01:28
    are essentially ignoring if we continue with just saying we're going to do what we're doing now.
  • 04:01:33
    We're going to stick with our preparations that we have now.
  • 04:01:35
    So of course I encourage colleagues to check out that Public Health and Safety Committee where we had those experts come and discuss more about the success of this model, how it can be translated over.
  • 04:01:46
    But this is giving MPD additional in-house sworn resources that's even complementing the work that we're trying to do around the police contract negotiations to beef up
  • 04:01:58
    are our resources needed for investigations and reducing its exhaustive and extensive backlog.
  • 04:02:06
    So with that, I will move this amendment forward for approval and ask for a second.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 04:02:15
    We have a proper motion before us.
  • 04:02:18
    Is there any discussion?
  • 04:02:19
    Council Member Palmisano?
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 04:02:23
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 04:02:25
    I think it's great that St. Paul has been able to significantly increase their clearance rates for non-fatal shootings, and I hope the same for us someday.
  • 04:02:35
    We had a long discussion at public safety as to some of the big differences as to why and how all of that works.
  • 04:02:43
    One big difference here for a budget debate is that they funded the program with state aid, not appropriating it within their existing police department budget.
  • 04:02:52
    I've lost track honestly of how much public safety aid money we might have left, but I think there's some in community safety center pilots.
  • 04:03:02
    Maybe public safety aid money would be a better source for trying out a program like this.
  • 04:03:08
    And if we had the staffing numbers to support this, I'd be all for it.
  • 04:03:12
    This amendment along with number, well the one that we just tabled, 16 and then 22, total over $3 million in earmarks within MPD, Public Safety Services.
  • 04:03:25
    But I think that to accommodate this earmark, and we know an earmark is a cut to other services, that it would mean cutting sworn patrol positions.
  • 04:03:36
    That's a non-starter.
  • 04:03:37
    If we want to work our way back up to the charter minimum and to a point where we could staff a task force like this, we can't take away from the entry-level jobs that will fill out our ranks.
  • 04:03:48
    As we heard in that public safety meeting, this is not an entry-level position.
  • 04:03:55
    It takes, I forget what rank, sergeant rank to be able to be part of these investigations.
  • 04:04:01
    The savings that we incur with the openings not only help us cover overtime, but they're also funding our CSOs and others in training in the pipeline.
  • 04:04:11
    They may not be ready yet, but they will be someday.
  • 04:04:15
    We cannot mortgage our future staffing needs to this task force.
  • 04:04:21
    Sorry Commissioner Barnett, but I need to ask you up here because I'm curious
  • 04:04:28
    how you were consulted about this to understand the impacts that it might have to precinct operations and staffing.
  • 04:04:36
    Like how would this impact officers in their existing work in order to stand up a team like this.
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 04:04:43
    Through the Chair, Council Member Palmisano, I'll start by just saying that this is something that we've talked about internally to try to figure out how do we do it.
  • 04:04:56
    Early on, when I got in this position, two of the folks that presented
  • 04:05:02
    in front of Councilmember Wansley and her committee, Will Cooley and David Zimmerman both approached me about the non-fatal shooting, what they were doing at the legislature, also talking about what has happened with St. Paul.
  • 04:05:23
    We were hopeful through some legislation by Representative Frazier, who I believe also was present for the presentation, that that legislation would pass.
  • 04:05:38
    It did not.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 04:05:40
    I don't even think it got a hearing, Commissioner.
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 04:05:43
    That is true.
  • 04:05:44
    Why am I saying that?
  • 04:05:46
    Because then we went back to talk about this again Chief O'Hear and I have talked about this several times It boils down to how do we accomplish this with the staff that we have
  • 04:06:04
    And in order to do this, and you're right about there's a certain rank in which we need in order to do this.
  • 04:06:14
    And in no means is it that we don't want to.
  • 04:06:19
    I think it would be great if we could, but the staffing right now is not at a level in which we think we could do it without other areas being affected in our investigations, in patrol.
  • 04:06:35
    If you talk to Deputy Chief Olson, she would tell you the same thing.
  • 04:06:42
    It's pulling those folks from the work that they're doing and able to do this.
  • 04:06:48
    And so I think it will affect other areas if this amendment is passed.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 04:06:56
    Thank you.
  • 04:06:57
    And my understanding is currently non-fatal shootings are assigned to the homicide unit.
  • 04:07:02
    They're just not as top priority as the actual homicides in the homicide unit.
  • 04:07:07
    And we used to have this kind of a team, but we just don't, haven't had the staffing to continue it for the past few years at least.
  • 04:07:17
    Is that also your understanding?
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 04:07:19
    Through the Chair, Council Member Palmisano, it is true that we don't have the staffing to give the attention to these non-fatal shootings that we would want to.
  • 04:07:29
    I also believe that there, I would have to double check, but I think there are signs in the homicide division.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 04:07:38
    Back in October when we had this very thorough report and conversation in Public Health and Safety Committee, the Deputy Chief currently had 14 sworn and two civilian investigators.
  • 04:07:52
    The civilian investigators doing more of the background work.
  • 04:07:56
    It's really hard to compare Minneapolis to St. Paul.
  • 04:08:00
    There were 378 non-fatal shootings in Minneapolis last year.
  • 04:08:06
    I don't remember what St. Paul's was, but so far as of that October public safety meeting there were 50 homicides in Minneapolis, but only 10 in St. Paul.
  • 04:08:18
    And it's really important for us to know that victim count does not equal case count.
  • 04:08:24
    One mass shooting, which we had a very complicated mass shooting in August, is one.
  • 04:08:32
    as far as a non-fatal shooting case, not 21, which is the number of children shot in that one case.
  • 04:08:42
    MPD has been working with the National Public Safety Partnership on this.
  • 04:08:46
    They've received recommendations and they are doing similar kinds of work to what St. Paul does, but I think it's just not as simple as adding more staff and I should probably stop there for time purposes.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 04:09:01
    Thank you, Councilmember.
  • 04:09:02
    I'll recognize Councilmember Wonsley.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 04:09:05
    Thank you, CBP Chucks.
  • 04:09:07
    I think it's important to highlight that if the shared goal is to get seasoned officers to come in, which is needed, in order to actually address this backlog.
  • 04:09:16
    No one's making up new numbers.
  • 04:09:17
    This is based off of MPD's own backlog of cases that's articulated also on the public dashboard.
  • 04:09:24
    that you have to hire seasoned investigators.
  • 04:09:29
    Right now, the way in which the administration has structured its budget does not even allow us to do that because they've put every position at an entry level.
  • 04:09:40
    So let's say the conversations that we're having to create new leadership positions to allow for us to build up more seasoned investigators.
  • 04:09:49
    You would need to do a job classification based off of our current positions right now sworn officers in order to actually pay those seasoned officers what they would be required.
  • 04:10:00
    So this is essentially complementing that process.
  • 04:10:03
    We're saying we're earmarking between seven to nine positions.
  • 04:10:07
    The administration gets to decide to give us at least an initial start to put this together.
  • 04:10:12
    And you will have to do the reclassifications, which you would have had to do anyways if we were actually serious about beefing up sworn personnel to actually boost up our investigative divisions.
  • 04:10:24
    But the other thing that I'm hearing on the table is just like, oh, don't do anything.
  • 04:10:29
    no one is comparing no and I'm not saying you but I'm saying actually yeah actually the administration of you're saying things are working we're still at what was that twenty eight percent clearance rate and I do think it's important that we are looking at other innovative models and models that even our own county supports because what was great about St. Paul's example is Ramsey County was at the table and that involved other partners
  • 04:10:57
    Hennepin County also wants to be at the table and also are excited to bring resources.
  • 04:11:01
    That's why we're saying this is the initial upfront investment which we're already talking about doing in many other ways because we all recognize that our solving rate or our clearance rates are low and that means we're not solving cases and that means there are families out here who have not gotten an answer on their cases or justice have not been delivered through the traditional means.
  • 04:11:21
    So this is the baseline of it.
  • 04:11:24
    It's an initial investment and with that I would still encourage my colleagues to support this and call the question.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:11:53
    That motion carries.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 04:12:24
    Yeah, now let's take up the underlying question.
  • 04:12:30
    Thank you.
  • 04:12:32
    Clerk, please call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:12:33
    Councilmember Payne.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 04:12:35
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:12:35
    Wonsley.
  • 04:12:38
    Aye.
  • 04:12:38
    Rainville.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 04:12:39
    No.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:12:39
    Vita.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 04:12:40
    No.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:12:41
    Osman.
  • 04:12:42
    Aye.
  • 04:12:44
    Cashman.
  • 04:12:45
    Aye.
  • 04:12:46
    Jenkins.
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 04:12:47
    No.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:12:49
    Chavez.
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 04:12:50
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:12:51
    Chaudry.
  • 04:12:53
    Aye.
  • 04:12:54
    No Vice Chair Koski Aye Chair Chantai Aye That is 8 ayes and 4 nays That motion carries
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 04:13:17
    I think we're gonna try to get through so the next three amendments are the last of the safety related amendments that we need to take up let's see if we can try to get through one of them or if there's not a lot of discussion maybe if we get through all of them that's when we'll do our second recess can I just see a like from a I want to do a vibe check here do we need a recess right now no no okay
  • 04:13:44
    okay we can we can get through the safety ones and then maybe we can take a recess excellent okay here we go um number number our next amendment is number 17 offered by oh sorry um our next amendment is amendment number 18
  • 04:14:04
    offered by Councilmember Osman related to Stevens Square Safety Initiative.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 04:14:10
    Councilmember Osman.
  • 04:14:11
    Thank you, Council Vice President.
  • 04:14:14
    I think you heard me many times talk about the hot spots in our city and you have heard me talk about 18 and Nicolette which are really struggling area.
  • 04:14:26
    and this will allow neighborhood and safety departments to design and implement safety focus strategies tailored to the need of Stevens Square neighborhood which is particularly emphasizes highly impacted
  • 04:14:46
    CODOR at this area.
  • 04:14:49
    This will support safety measures that include community visibility efforts, safety presence in public areas, conflict prevention activities, public space activities, youth engagement, improved CODOR between the city and local stakeholders.
  • 04:15:06
    So some of the areas
  • 04:15:09
    Councilmember Cashman and I talked about many times about the need of services and help for this area.
  • 04:15:17
    It's been really impacted heavily.
  • 04:15:21
    So I'm hoping that this will bring some kind of relief next year and so hope to get your support.
  • 04:15:31
    Thanks a lot.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 04:15:33
    And will you... Second.
  • 04:15:36
    Okay.
  • 04:15:39
    Is there any discussion?
  • 04:15:40
    Councilmember Cashman.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 04:15:42
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 04:15:43
    I just wanted to note that our Neighborhood Safety Director, Amanda Harrington, did send us an update pretty recently that they're working on another contract for the Stevens Square neighborhood under violence prevention and I think it is more than needed because the last one that was implemented with Somali Youth Link was for three neighborhoods at the same time so that isn't being seen in Stevens Square as much as
  • 04:16:05
    Maybe we would like it to be along 19th and Nicollet.
  • 04:16:08
    It was, you know, they're being sent to Carmel Mall and other areas as well.
  • 04:16:13
    And so I think that, and then again, this was one of the areas that the analysis done by our technical experts on where the most amount of need is for Minneapolis services.
  • 04:16:25
    It was identified, but it took the longest out of every area to find a vendor that could fulfill it.
  • 04:16:31
    And so it has really been a gap and I think it's
  • 04:16:34
    It is wise for us to keep pushing on making sure this incredibly dense, incredibly important, largely low-income neighborhood is getting the services they need.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 04:16:52
    Thank you.
  • 04:16:54
    I am not seeing any further discussion.
  • 04:16:57
    So, Clerk, please call the roll on Amendment Number 18, Stevens Square Safety Initiative.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:17:02
    Council Member Payne?
  • 04:17:03
    Aye.
  • 04:17:04
    Wonsley is absent.
  • 04:17:07
    Rainville?
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 04:17:08
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:17:10
    Beto?
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 04:17:10
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:17:12
    Osman?
  • 04:17:12
    Aye.
  • 04:17:14
    Cashman?
  • 04:17:15
    Aye.
  • 04:17:15
    Jenkins?
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 04:17:17
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:17:17
    Chavez?
  • 04:17:18
    Aye.
  • 04:17:19
    Chowdhury?
  • 04:17:20
    Aye.
  • 04:17:20
    Palmisano?
  • 04:17:21
    Aye.
  • 04:17:22
    Vice Chair Koski?
  • 04:17:24
    Aye.
  • 04:17:25
    Chair Choctaw?
  • 04:17:26
    Aye.
  • 04:17:26
    That is 11 ayes.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 04:17:28
    That motion carries.
  • 04:17:30
    Next up is amendment number 19.
  • 04:17:37
    Will you take this one?
  • 04:17:39
    Okay, perfect.
  • 04:17:41
    This is offered by Councilmember Wonsley and Councilmember Osman, related to public housing tenant organizing, amendment number 19.
  • 04:17:50
    Councilmember Wonsley, would you like to present this?
  • 04:17:54
    Sorry, yes.
  • 04:17:58
    Okay.
  • 04:17:58
    Going down, going down.
• • Kristyn AndersonCity Attorney
  • 04:17:59
    And move approval.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 04:18:03
    Wait.
  • 04:18:03
    Oh, yes, okay.
  • 04:18:04
    Thank you, CVP, checked tie.
  • 04:18:07
    This amendment reduces after conversations with the administration.
  • 04:18:12
    This amendment reduces the original allocation of $100,000 to $50,000.
  • 04:18:19
    It also changes the source from neighborhood safety.
  • 04:18:23
    and specifically reroute that to CPED.
  • 04:18:26
    This will also be ongoing funding that would support high-rise public housing residents with their public safety needs.
  • 04:18:33
    Project Lookout is the tenant-run neighborhood watch program inside the high-rises and Project Lookout was created due to a resident desire for more safety patrolling without more armed police.
  • 04:18:44
    and Security.
  • 04:18:46
    This ongoing funding will help support them in paying the staff member to support that work and with that I do move this amendment for approval and ask for a second.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 04:18:56
    Is there a second?
  • 04:18:56
    Second.
  • 04:18:58
    We have a proper motion before us.
  • 04:19:00
    Is there any discussion?
  • 04:19:01
    I'll recognize Councilmember Osman followed by Councilmember Palmisano.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 04:19:04
    Yes, I do really want to thank Councilmember Wonsley for bringing this forward.
  • 04:19:08
    It's very important.
  • 04:19:10
    We have heard many times NPHA came here and talked about, you know, how they don't have enough money for security and so on.
  • 04:19:16
    So why not, you know, empower the residents that live there and make sure that they are
  • 04:19:22
    getting together and talking about a way to stay safety.
  • 04:19:26
    I do have over close 1700 17 high-rise buildings which host different safety meetings and there so empowering the resident organizing and and making sure that this tenant high-rise tenant representative council
  • 04:19:45
    is doing, continuing to do the work they always did and I don't know if you are subscribed in their newsletters, but they usually send out wonderful things that's happening at the MPHA buildings, especially the high-rise buildings and the work they're getting done.
  • 04:20:05
    So fully support this and hoping that my colleagues will support this and it's very small amounts of money.
  • 04:20:11
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 04:20:12
    Thank you.
  • 04:20:13
    Next I'll recognize Council Member Palmisano.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 04:20:18
    Thank you Madam Chair.
  • 04:20:20
    I'm generally supportive of this but was curious as to why it was designating funding to a specific organization.
  • 04:20:28
    Why there wouldn't be an RFP and procurement process though I appreciate if your answer is that a tenant-led organization is uniquely qualified to do such a
  • 04:20:37
    public safety, but I do have that question for the authors.
  • 04:20:41
    That was a huge problem in last year's budget that I kept noting and was disappointed to see it again this year.
  • 04:20:50
    In my opinion, MPHA might be a better organization to implement this, but I don't know anything about this tenant-led organization and appreciate that my authors do.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 04:21:01
    So, before I recognize Councilmember Wonsley to answer the first part of your question, on the second, about what, you know, MPHA being, whether MPHA is the right entity for these resources to go to.
  • 04:21:17
    Actually, this is a part of a...
  • 04:21:23
    this $50,000 amendment is going to go right alongside within the CPED existing base budget a $75, $100, yeah another chunk of money that will go directly to the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority to do similar types of work so going both to the
  • 04:21:53
    tenant council and then also the public housing authority.
  • 04:21:57
    That's where the base budget exists and we're taking a chunk of it just for the high-rise council.
  • 04:22:02
    I'm going to recognize Councilmember Wonsley to discuss why, to answer the other part of Councilmember Palmesano's question.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 04:22:11
    Thank you, CVP Chuktai.
  • 04:22:13
    So right now, by HUD's requirements, it requires a tenant council, which is our public high-rise council.
  • 04:22:23
    So they are the only body as it pertains to doing these type of things with public housing who are authorized to do this under HUD.
  • 04:22:30
    So this is a partnership that already exists.
  • 04:22:33
    It's separate from MPHA.
  • 04:22:34
    They don't
  • 04:22:36
    They have separate funding streams per HUD requirements.
  • 04:22:39
    These are completely separate entities, so high-rise council would be carrying out this program.
  • 04:22:44
    It would not be in PHA.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 04:22:48
    Thank you.
  • 04:22:49
    That answers your question?
  • 04:22:52
    Not seeing anyone else in queue, I will ask the clerk to call the roll on item number 19.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:22:59
    Councilmember Payne?
  • 04:23:00
    Aye.
  • 04:23:01
    Wonsley?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 04:23:02
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:23:03
    Rainville?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 04:23:04
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:23:04
    Vita?
• • 04:23:05
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 04:23:07
    That motion carries.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 04:23:28
    This is the end of the chunk of amendments related to safety.
  • 04:23:34
    And so I think this is going to be a good time for us to take a recess before we begin the next set of amendments.
  • 04:23:43
    The next three after that are related specifically to addressing homelessness.
  • 04:23:48
    So with that I want to take a recess actually for about, let's just say, let's come back right at three.
  • 04:23:57
    Yep, I think we need a little more time this time.
  • 04:24:04
    Let's do 30 minutes, exactly.
  • 04:24:06
    Yes, Councilmember.
  • 04:24:08
    We are recessed.
  • 05:02:38
    Communications, we're ready to begin
  • 05:04:03
    Colleagues, welcome back.
  • 05:04:05
    We are ready to continue with the markup packet.
  • 05:04:16
    Our next amendment.
  • 05:04:18
    So we are now ready to move into the next three amendments which are all related to addressing homelessness.
  • 05:04:31
    Amendment number 20.
• • Casey CarlCity Clerk
  • 05:04:34
    Council Vice President, do you want to note we've been joined by Council Member Ellison.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:04:37
    That's a great call.
  • 05:04:39
    Welcome Council Member Ellison.
  • 05:04:40
    Amendment number 20 is Tiny Homes Big Dreams Study offered by Council Member Chavez.
  • 05:04:48
    Council Member Chavez, please introduce your amendment and make a motion.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 05:04:52
    Chair Choctaw, thanks so much for that.
  • 05:04:56
    This budget proposal would mark one-time funding in the CPED department to study the viability of a city-owned and or city-funded tiny home village as a strategy to address homelessness.
  • 05:05:07
    Initially my office was considering looking for sources to develop next year tiny home villages in the city of Minneapolis as a way to address
  • 05:05:18
    The housing crisis we're living in right now where many of our unsheltered residents do not have access to a safe place to sleep at night.
  • 05:05:26
    After discussing this with the CPED department, we figured that doing more work analysis to determine what this could look like in the city of Minneapolis is the more appropriate route.
  • 05:05:38
    So what you'll see in front of you is $15,000 for CPED to study what this could look like in Minneapolis, whether it is city-owned and or just city-funded.
  • 05:05:48
    One of the reasons why this is really important I'll speak what we are experiencing across the city of Minneapolis and in the Phillips neighborhoods here in South Minneapolis is that our residents continue to ask us as a city to find ways to address unsheltered homelessness and what we have seen work across the nation across different jurisdictions and municipalities across the country is that tiny homes have been used as a method to reduce unsheltered homelessness and help connect residents who are struggling
  • 05:06:16
    with homelessness with services and ultimately find access to a stable home to sleep at night.
  • 05:06:22
    We know that we have the real tiny village that exists here in Minneapolis.
  • 05:06:27
    We also know that for the past few years this body has expressed interest in building another tiny home village in Minneapolis.
  • 05:06:34
    We also do not want to just wait for a non-profit to produce that work when we can ourselves determine ways that we can work with different partnerships.
  • 05:06:42
    Is there a second?
  • 05:06:47
    Second We have a proper motion before us.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:07:02
    Is there any discussion?
  • 05:07:07
    Really?
  • 05:07:08
    I'm not seeing any?
  • 05:07:10
    I'm surprised by that.
  • 05:07:12
    Clerk, please call the roll.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 05:07:15
    Council Member Payne?
  • 05:07:17
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 05:07:19
    Wonsley?
  • 05:07:21
    Aye.
  • 05:07:22
    Rainville?
• • Adam Fetcher
  • 05:07:22
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 05:07:24
    Vita?
• • Adam Fetcher
  • 05:07:24
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 05:07:25
    Ellison?
• • Adam Fetcher
  • 05:07:26
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 05:07:28
    That's 13 ayes
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:07:42
    That motion carries.
  • 05:07:44
    Next up is amendment number 21 which is emergency shelter operations funding offered by council members Chowdhury Payne, Chavez and Koski.
  • 05:07:55
    Council member Chowdhury will you please introduce your amendment and make a motion.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 05:08:00
    Thank you so much, Chair Chugtai.
  • 05:08:04
    This is an amendment to allocate $1 million one time from the local affordable housing aid fund to ongoing shelter operations and to Hennepin County through our joint powers agreement.
  • 05:08:24
    And this amendment for today, I want to focus on the urgent need to sustain ongoing shelter operations for the providers who serve our most vulnerable residents every day.
  • 05:08:34
    During the pandemic, emergency federal funds allowed shelter providers to expand hours, improve facilities and offer kind of low barrier trauma informed care that actually helps people stabilize and move forward toward housing.
  • 05:08:48
    Providers stepped up
  • 05:08:50
    They built 24-7 operations, increased staffing, opened culturally-specific programs, and created safer, more dignified spaces.
  • 05:08:58
    But those improvements are built on temporary federal dollars, and now those dollars are expiring.
  • 05:09:03
    Providers are facing severe funding shortfall, a fiscal cliff that threatens their ability to stay open at the level our community relies on.
  • 05:09:13
    If we allow that cliff to hit, providers will be forced to make impossible choices.
  • 05:09:19
    Reducing hours, cutting staff, eliminating beds, or closing entire programs.
  • 05:09:24
    More than 300 24-7 beds could revert to overnight only.
  • 05:09:29
    Low barrier shelters that serve people with the highest needs could disappear.
  • 05:09:33
    Outreach and housing navigation, the very programs that connect people to permanent housing, would shrink dramatically.
  • 05:09:41
    and this isn't just a hypothetical providers to us are already signaling that without funding from local government, state government, federal government, they simply cannot maintain their current operations.
  • 05:09:55
    had the opportunity to speak with several providers from Catholic Charities, People Serving People, Agate, Avivo and we know that if they can't operate the impact falls directly on our city.
  • 05:10:09
    More people outside in extreme weather, more encampments, more strain on first responders and fewer pathways out of homelessness.
  • 05:10:17
    We've made a lot of progress.
  • 05:10:20
    We're making our shelters safer.
  • 05:10:22
    We're providing better services.
  • 05:10:23
    We're building out more innovative services and humane conditions and we risk all of this being undone almost overnight.
  • 05:10:32
    And while this is one-time funding, this paired with the $1 million we are already allocating within our proposed budget would be meaningful to mitigate the impact that we are seeing.
  • 05:10:44
    and keep more services online as we push our state legislature to support the bridge to shelter bill to ensure into the future we have sustainable funding to fully address the fiscal cliff.
  • 05:10:57
    I also want to note that in the recent months
  • 05:11:00
    HUD has finalized deep cuts to federal funding for permanent supportive housing, which threatens thousands of Minnesotans who rely on programs for stable housing.
  • 05:11:10
    In Minnesota, more than 48 million annually supports over 3,600 people, including seniors, veterans, families,
  • 05:11:19
    and people with disabilities and the cuts could eliminate more than half of that funding which means more of our community in our streets and we're seeing a squeeze then at one end of the continuum of care where it's permanent housing and now on this end of immediate shelter and shelter operations and so this is one step that we can take today
  • 05:11:42
    as a council.
  • 05:11:43
    And so I ask you for your support to continue to support ongoing shelter operations.
  • 05:11:53
    And I know that my fellow co-authors probably have some words that they want to say, but I am also available to answer any questions that anyone might have.
  • 05:12:04
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:12:06
    Council Member Chaudry has moved approval.
  • 05:12:08
    Is there a second?
• • Jason Chavez
  • 05:12:10
    Second.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:12:11
    Is there any discussion?
  • 05:12:13
    I'll recognize Councilmember Ellison.
• • Jeremiah Ellison
  • 05:12:16
    Thank you.
  • 05:12:17
    My colleagues know that I've been really, really reluctant to support this.
  • 05:12:22
    I've seen that the amount has come down, which is encouraging, and I probably will support it for that reason.
  • 05:12:30
    And obviously I support, you know, want to continue to support shelter aid.
  • 05:12:35
    Council Member Chaudry laid out why it's so important.
  • 05:12:38
    You know, it's part of the effort to make sure that we closed a gap last year for Revivo Villages, and so this is work that's really important.
  • 05:12:46
    I want to really caution against us pitting long-term affordable housing funding against shelter funding.
  • 05:12:54
    It's a slippery slope.
  • 05:12:55
    It will get out of control fast.
  • 05:12:57
    And once we start doubling and tripling down on using sources that could go towards long-term affordable housing and be in play, dollars that could be in play for 30 years,
  • 05:13:09
    and start putting them towards shelter operations that we know that are only going to last one year.
  • 05:13:14
    We play a really, really dangerous game and we start losing money really, really fast.
  • 05:13:18
    And so I take issue with the source, but I understand the mission.
  • 05:13:24
    I've been a part of the mission of trying to stop the bleeding here.
  • 05:13:28
    But I do want to look at the, you know, I guess make a direct request to the co-authors.
  • 05:13:34
    that in the future, we need to make sure that the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and LAHA becomes one of those things that we don't think is permissible to touch.
  • 05:13:45
    Somebody's got to be a champion for that source of funding in the future and say, hey look,
  • 05:13:52
    during emergencies, maybe we can start to consider this, but it is a slippery slope when we start to see this as sort of like an open source of funding for other projects.
  • 05:14:01
    I'll say it one more time just because I want it to really sink in.
  • 05:14:05
    When our staff put a million dollars towards affordable housing, that money stays
  • 05:14:12
    in the community.
  • 05:14:13
    It stays active, it stays operational for up to thirty years.
  • 05:14:17
    And so that's the risk, that's the trade-off.
  • 05:14:20
    And of course we want to keep people off the streets, right?
  • 05:14:22
    Of course that is absolutely imperative.
  • 05:14:25
    But I just don't want us to get into the habit of pitting these two really important priorities against one another.
  • 05:14:32
    So I'll vote for this here today because of some of the discussion I've been able to have with my colleagues and because I've seen
  • 05:14:39
    The millions come down a bit over the discussions that we've had and I appreciate that flexibility.
  • 05:14:47
    But again, I can't reiterate how much it concerns me to see this, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund potentially be used as a source moving into the future.
  • 05:14:57
    So thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:14:58
    Thank you.
  • 05:14:59
    Next I will recognize Councilmember Palmisano.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 05:15:03
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 05:15:04
    The mayor's budget already invests a million dollars for shelter operations.
  • 05:15:08
    That was something I asked the mayor's office to consider as he was putting together his budget.
  • 05:15:14
    We are a partner in addressing homelessness.
  • 05:15:17
    Others
  • 05:15:18
    really need to step up too, and we can't do this by ourselves.
  • 05:15:21
    I won't reiterate all the things that Councilmember Ellison said about this, but I agree with him wholeheartedly.
  • 05:15:26
    The supporting documents cite a federal decision related to cuts to permanent housing funding in the continuum of care.
  • 05:15:35
    If this is the justification, shouldn't the money stay in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to help create more permanent and deeply affordable homes for people exiting homelessness?
  • 05:15:45
    or in jeopardy of experiencing homelessness, this feels like a trade-off between long-term affordable housing production and shelter operations.
  • 05:15:55
    So like Council Member Ellison said, we cannot pit these against one another.
  • 05:16:00
    And I personally believe that long-term housing is the best use of these funds for the city past what the mayor already decided to invest here.
  • 05:16:10
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:16:12
    Thank you.
  • 05:16:14
    Next I'll recognize Councilmember Cashman.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 05:16:17
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 05:16:20
    I'm wondering if Director Hanson is here to answer a couple of questions.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:16:26
    He's making his way up.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 05:16:27
    Thank you.
  • 05:16:29
    My first question was just about LAHA in general, if there were any restrictions or clarifications around how it's supposed to be spent from the state.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 05:16:39
    Chair Chuktai, Council Member Cashman, it's a joy to be here.
  • 05:16:43
    Eric Hanson, I'm the Director of CPED.
  • 05:16:45
    I'm going to ask my friends at the Budget Office for those technical questions about what we can use for LAHA if you're all right with that?
  • 05:16:52
    Yeah.
  • 05:16:52
    Okay.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 05:16:53
    And then the second question that I had was around the AMI requirements to receive affordable housing trust fund money.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 05:17:01
    The AMI requirements?
  • 05:17:02
    So we have a, we have a, I can answer that question, Council Member, or Chair Chuktai, Council Member Cashman.
  • 05:17:09
    So we have graduated affordability in our programs.
  • 05:17:15
    The unified housing policy of the city is a 50% AMI.
  • 05:17:23
    That's about, I'm going to do the math in my head.
  • 05:17:27
    I know 30% AMI is about $38,000 a year for family of four.
  • 05:17:32
    So to give you a sense of how much.
  • 05:17:34
    Deeply affordable is that 30% AMI rent.
  • 05:17:37
    We will evaluate through the Affordable Housing Trust Fund which types of units are available to different income levels and then they will score points.
  • 05:17:47
    So the further, the deeper the affordability, the higher score you get and the more likely you are to get funded.
  • 05:17:55
    So you can go up to 50, 30% typically.
  • 05:17:58
    But it's usually a mix in those buildings and it's project by project.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 05:18:03
    And the projects don't just rely on affordable housing trust fund awards.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 05:18:06
    They stack it on top of a bunch of other sources as well Councilmember Chuck Tye, Councilmember Cashman.
  • 05:18:12
    Yes, the we are Put a portion of it.
  • 05:18:16
    We've roughly about $40,000 per unit of support from the city Affordable housing trust fund in each unit and it's costs, you know, probably about ten times that much to do a unit or more these days and
• • Michael Cashman
  • 05:18:31
    Okay, and then lastly how much is in the for affordable housing trust fund for next year?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 05:18:36
    councilmember Chuck tie Councilmember cashman if you I'll have the budget office answer that question and I will go get the Little spreadsheet, okay Well welcome director de Sanzo when she's ready
• • Michael Cashman
  • 05:19:02
    The author Council Member Chowdhury was saying that it was 17 million for 2026.
  • 05:19:08
    That's in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 05:19:12
    Yeah Through the chair Council Member Cashman, yes 17 million that is Narrated a bit more on the CPED page of the budget book and LAHA is part of that and
  • 05:19:24
    We just recently had to work with CPED to submit the report to the state about LAHA usage so to answer an earlier question the categories that we report on for the state of Eligible spending our emergency rental assistance financial support to nonprofit affordable housing providers Market rate residential rental property development is a different category.
  • 05:19:44
    So never mind that one affordable housing development and financing and
  • 05:19:48
    operations and management for financially distressed properties, supportive services for supportive housing, emergency shelter, which was a change from the original bill, and then other projects subject to approval.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 05:20:04
    Thanks, just wanted to get a sense of how much of the affordable housing trust fund was being taken and it's, you know, not super significant amount, a million out of 17 million, I guess that's a debatable word to use, significant, but also wanted to point out that this falls within what LAHA was designated for, it's spelled out, and
  • 05:20:29
    I just wanted to add the comment that in the last few months as we've been doing engagement around TOPA in particular, I've been talking to a lot of housing professionals across all different types of
  • 05:20:42
    areas of work in the housing space and over and over and over and over again the top thing that these housing professionals are telling me is that the biggest gap and crisis that we're in right now is the nonprofit shelter fiscal cliff for their operations and I think to that and I think this budget amendment is responsive to that need and I'm going to support it today.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:21:09
    Director Hansen, did you have something for?
  • 05:21:13
    I do.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 05:21:14
    Come on back.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 05:21:20
    If I may through the chair, I did want to flag in reference to councilmember Ellison's comments We should just note that the context for the affordable housing trust fund We are going to be seeing reduced funding from our TIF sources for that in the coming years a pretty drastic drop-off in Funding is projected to come our way because those TIF districts are expiring So if the city does want to commit to affordable housing trust fund It's likely that law hall will be the source for that in future years
• • Jamal Osman
  • 05:21:51
    Council Member Kachman.
  • 05:22:10
    I'm not touching this money, not making a habit.
  • 05:22:14
    I agree with that.
  • 05:22:16
    That's a wonderful job and this is a tool that we have been using that shows a lot of success in our community.
  • 05:22:25
    But also, sometimes crises come up.
  • 05:22:27
    I think last year, Councilmember Chaudry did an amazing job, or was it this year, where we were dealing with, you know,
  • 05:22:37
    The cold weather, the encampments, the evictions, folks being outside, finding no place to go, so this will bring a lot of relief to the emergency situations that some of our most vulnerable people are dealing with.
  • 05:22:55
    In this winter, in this cold weather, people need to go places.
  • 05:23:00
    I support this, but I do want to
  • 05:23:07
    Council Member Chowdhury
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 05:23:24
    Thank you so much, Chair Chug-Thi, and I just wanted to say in response to Councilmember Ellison's comments that I think that they're pretty fair, right?
  • 05:23:36
    Like, there is 100% a trade-off here and
  • 05:23:41
    there is a picture into the future as our budget chair put forward is that we're losing a lot of the funding that our affordable housing trust fund relied on from TIF and I spent a lot of time thinking carefully about this budget amendment and what the trade-offs were and this feels like one of the
  • 05:24:08
    last opportunities for us to use LAHA funding for shelter operations in this way because we're going to need to use nearly all of it to fill the affordable housing trust fund which is an important tool and
  • 05:24:24
    I know I will be continuing on the City Council and that is something that I will keep in mind and it is a source that I do want to protect and I do care about but given the current circumstances right now with the changes at the federal level it's not that like
  • 05:24:44
    With the loss of funding for rapid rehousing, it's not that they're not going to be able to build.
  • 05:24:50
    It's a unit.
  • 05:24:51
    They're just not going to be able to maintain it.
  • 05:24:52
    So we're going to see immediate influx of a number of people who were chronically homeless risk falling right back onto the streets.
  • 05:25:02
    And that's a now issue.
  • 05:25:03
    That's not a, OK, this is going to happen in a few years.
  • 05:25:08
    And that's the squeeze that we're in.
  • 05:25:13
    That's how I came to this decision.
  • 05:25:15
    I appreciate the dialogue up here about this and I appreciate the support from my colleagues, too.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:25:20
    Thank you.
  • 05:25:23
    Next I'll recognize Councilmember Ellison.
• • Jeremiah Ellison
  • 05:25:27
    Thank you.
  • 05:25:27
    Sorry to jump back in queue.
  • 05:25:29
    I, again, this is going to be something I support today and I've laid out why, but I also do think it's really important for us in this body to, it is permissible to be responsive to a crisis, but I also think it's important that we not kid ourselves in the process of what that trade-off is.
  • 05:25:46
    And so I do have one question I wanted to just get confirmation on if Director Hanson could just
  • 05:25:53
    I usually try not to ask questions that I don't already 100% know the answer to, so I guess I'm taking a bit of a risk here.
  • 05:26:00
    When we put affordable housing trust fund dollars into a project and we fill that gap and it's about 10% of a project, that may sound like, okay, not the most significant amount of gap to fill, but if we don't fill that gap, how many of those units end up getting built?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 05:26:20
    Chair Chuck Tai, Council Member Ellison, it's unlikely that
  • 05:26:25
    that they don't get built.
  • 05:26:26
    Right.
  • 05:26:27
    They just don't get built.
• • Jeremiah Ellison
  • 05:26:28
    Right.
  • 05:26:28
    So it's 10%, right?
  • 05:26:29
    We fill the gap up to 10%, but it's not like if we don't come in, that 10% gets filled somewhere else.
  • 05:26:35
    If we don't fill that 10% gap, that is not a unit that hits our city.
  • 05:26:39
    That is not a unit that serves the residents of Minneapolis.
  • 05:26:43
    That is a unit that is not happening.
  • 05:26:45
    And so I just wanted that to be clear.
  • 05:26:48
    You know, and again,
  • 05:26:51
    Crisis is crisis, and we're seeing homelessness increase across the country, we're seeing housing prices increase across the country, rent prices increase across the country, and so I think that it's, you know, again, it's really important that we keep people off the street, but twenty-five years, sorry, a million dollars covers about twenty-five units, that's what we can finance, but that's twenty-five units for about how long?
  • 05:27:12
    Thirty years?
  • 05:27:15
    Versus, shelter stabilization, again, very important, for how long?
  • 05:27:20
    About a year?
  • 05:27:22
    So I just want us to be clear about what it is that we're trading here.
  • 05:27:27
    The last thing I'll say is we don't have rent stabilization in the City of Minneapolis.
  • 05:27:42
    Everybody up here knows that I think that we should.
  • 05:27:44
    We don't have it.
  • 05:27:45
    So the only thing that's stabilizing our rents is new build.
  • 05:27:48
    and we've seen that market rate new build is kind of stalled out.
  • 05:27:54
    And so the only thing getting billed is subsidized units.
  • 05:27:57
    So we take a million dollars out.
  • 05:27:59
    we remove twenty five units it's for an emergency we understand the cost but i just want us to not sit up here and kid the public and kid ourselves about what counts as significant and what it is that we are trading because if we get to a place where we don't know the cost we don't fully comprehend the cost then i fear that in future councils we're going to think it's permissible to take another million or another two million
  • 05:28:26
    And as the years go by, we're not only going to lose a real dollar out of this fund, we're also every single year, year in year out, a dollar loses value too.
  • 05:28:40
    So it's not going to be $17 million in the fund, and that million dollars is going to go less far than it would the year before.
  • 05:28:47
    So I just wanted to say that, again, if I wanted to make an argument against voting for this, I feel like I could do that as well.
  • 05:28:53
    I think we should do this for the sake of stopping the bleeding when it comes to shelter closures.
  • 05:28:59
    I think that there's a real case for why we should do this, but there's also a real case for why we shouldn't and I don't want us to kid ourselves and I don't want us to kid the public.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 05:29:11
    Council Member Chavez.
  • 05:29:30
    are working to address how we're going to use LAHA dollars for example, right?
  • 05:29:34
    Why are we not working together to decide how it's going to be used through a special meeting, through a or some other process because I think the big issue here is that the mayor's deciding how this is going to be used
  • 05:29:48
    and also there's restrictions on LAHA dollars.
  • 05:29:50
    We can't use LAHA dollars to backfill and there's certain restrictions around that which I have concerns of what that's going to mean for the future.
  • 05:29:58
    Are we just going to keep the affordable housing trust fund at $17 million every year and then backfill it?
  • 05:30:04
    and then we actually aren't like doing more for affordable housing but we're just using that state aid to stay at the same level which I also have concerns because I think we should always try to keep it at 17 million dollars but we should also try to figure out how we're going to have shelter operations so there's just a lot of things that I want us to address
  • 05:30:21
    I agree with Councilmember Ellison's concerns that there is concerns about us taking from the affordable housing trust fund but I don't think that these need to be competing measures next year I think this cycle and this budget cycle we should definitely pass this but in the future I would just recommend that the administration works closely with the City Council and develop a strategy on how we're gonna maintain the level of service that we have for the affordable housing trust fund but also not lose the shelter operations that we need to do because I think that ultimately we need to do both, right?
  • 05:30:47
    We should maintain what we have
  • 05:30:48
    and make sure that we're not having shelter operations get impacted.
  • 05:30:52
    I'll name why that's really important.
  • 05:30:54
    We know for a fact that there is a lack of shelter capacity in this city and in this county.
  • 05:31:00
    that is a fact you can look at Hennepin County's dashboard where there are at times in many instances zero shelter beds available at night.
  • 05:31:07
    Now what happens if these shelters close down?
  • 05:31:11
    That means that there is going to be less shelter capacity for our neighbors especially when we are in the freezing cold weather.
  • 05:31:16
    I think that is something that we need to discuss as a city as a city council and that impact
  • 05:31:21
    we just had the encampment reporting ordinance in the business housing and zoning committee where staff reported that at least seven individuals that wanted to move indoors couldn't because there was no shelter capacity and I think that needs to be acknowledged and we need to talk about what that means that means seven individuals at a minimum because there's way more than that and we would have proof to to do that but at a minimum seven individuals could not get access to shelter because there was no space available
  • 05:31:50
    that is a systemic failure of city, county, state, and federal government.
  • 05:31:55
    In no instances should no one ever have to be denied housing or shelter capacity because there is no access to it.
  • 05:32:01
    Like that's just not okay, right?
  • 05:32:03
    So I think that I agree with a lot of the comments that Council Member Ellison is saying and I think part of how we address that concern next year
  • 05:32:11
    is we all need to sit down and talk.
  • 05:32:14
    Both the council and the mayor need to figure out how we are going to make sure that we stabilize the affordable housing trust fund but also provide funding for our shelters, period.
  • 05:32:22
    They should not be competing against each other.
  • 05:32:23
    I think we have to do what we have to do in this instance because we want to make sure that our shelters are able to be up and running but next year those conversations need to happen so we don't have to wait for a budget to be proposed, we can just take action before them.
  • 05:32:36
    So I just wanted to mention that.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:32:39
    Thank you, and finally I'll recognize Council President Payne.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 05:32:43
    Thank you Vice President Chuktai.
  • 05:32:44
    Yeah, I just wanted to just share the seriousness to which I take Council Member Ellison's warning here and I think that we all need to internalize that.
  • 05:32:56
    As a city we're really lucky to have Councilmember Ellison's leadership out throughout these eight years of just that constant persistent and tenacious focus on housing affordability.
  • 05:33:07
    That's how we're able to have this conversation is to have a robust affordable housing trust fund program and to be a leader in developing this type of policy agenda.
  • 05:33:17
    And so I think we got to take that warning very seriously.
  • 05:33:20
    I'm grateful to have his support on this amendment you know given the current context
  • 05:33:26
    and I think one thing that I really want to take forward going into the next term is just a real seriousness around recognizing our context, recognizing the market conditions, recognizing the interest rates, recognizing the federal climate and making sure that our housing policy is as responsive to those realities as possible and that's going to mean that we all take this very seriously so I just wanted to get that on record.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:33:54
    I'm not seeing anyone else in queue.
  • 05:33:58
    Clerk, will you please call the roll?
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 05:34:02
    Councilmember Payne?
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 05:34:03
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 05:34:04
    Wonsley?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:34:04
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 05:34:05
    Rainville?
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 05:34:06
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 05:34:06
    Vita?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 05:34:07
    No.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 05:34:09
    Ellison?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 05:34:09
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 05:34:11
    Osman?
  • 05:34:13
    Is it?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 05:34:14
    Sorry.
  • 05:34:15
    Osman?
  • 05:34:16
    Oh, the shelter.
  • 05:34:17
    Yes, aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 05:34:19
    Cashman?
  • 05:34:20
    Aye.
  • 05:34:21
    Jenkins?
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 05:34:23
    Nay.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 05:34:24
    Chavez aye Chowdhury aye Palmisano no Vice Chair Koski aye Chair Chogtai aye That is ten ayes and three nays
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:34:39
    That motion carries.
  • 05:34:42
    Next up we have amendment number 22.
  • 05:34:47
    There is a newly revised version of this that the clerks brought to our desk as we were restarting.
  • 05:34:55
    Amendment number 22 has several parts to it.
  • 05:35:02
    So we're actually going to start with the top.
  • 05:35:08
    I'm going to
  • 05:35:09
    This is reinstating emergency housing vouchers offered by council members Wonsley, Osman, Chavez, myself, and Chowdhury.
  • 05:35:25
    So I'm going to ask council member Wonsley to introduce this amendment and then walk us through what each of the different aspects of this amendment are and we'll take them each up one at a time.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 05:35:40
    Oh okay, I was going to ask if there was a way to at least move them all together or similar because they're all related.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:35:46
    For sure, if you'll just describe those one at a time and then we can take them all up together unless there's any objection.
  • 05:35:53
    Thank you.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 05:35:54
    Alright so last year this body funded a program that would have supported at minimum 150 residents who are unsheltered and get them into housing with wraparound services.
  • 05:36:07
    I brought forth this amendment after numerous meetings and discussions with our partners at Hennepin County and Minneapolis Public Housing Authority.
  • 05:36:15
    to learn how we could work together to best respond to unsheltered homelessness that we deemed as a public health emergency even as a body two years ago.
  • 05:36:25
    The biggest takeaway from those discussions was that the city did not have to reinvent the wheel and they could fund a program that the county and NPHA have already executed and that demonstrated incredible success.
  • 05:36:38
    emergency housing vouchers was utilized during the pandemic and was funded by ARPA dollars and nationwide we saw that Hennepin County continued to reference it as being one of the most successful programs at reducing unsheltered homelessness.
  • 05:36:55
    For several months last year I received updates related
  • 05:37:00
    to the implementation of those vouchers by NPHA and at the end of July they provided an update that they were no longer able to expend staff time on implementation because the city had not provided a funding agreement that would have allowed them to access the start of funding that council appropriated when we passed funding for this exact measure of last year and then a few weeks later we all came to learn that the mayor proposed in his budget for 2026 to completely cut
  • 05:37:28
    on ongoing funding for this initiative.
  • 05:37:32
    And I'll save comments later about the impact of slow walking and then abruptly pulling out of multi-jurisdictional partnerships later and how that impacts our work to actually deliver needed services.
  • 05:37:47
    But I will say, ultimately, that slow walking by the administration in terms of implementing these policies and these programs
  • 05:37:56
    left at least 150 residents out on the streets this year when they could have been indoors and receiving wraparound services.
  • 05:38:05
    This new funding however restores the cuts and will allow 100 vouchers to be fully funded in 2026.
  • 05:38:13
    The funding for this comes from two positions.
  • 05:38:16
    both well one from the mayor's office another fte position from the city attorney's office and this is reflected in a revised motion that you all received this program also needs ongoing funding and those two appropriated positions will help achieve exactly that the other source comes from npd's public safety service budget
  • 05:38:36
    We made this appropriation in consideration of the work that's happening around off-duty.
  • 05:38:42
    For years, MPD and ultimately taxpayers have been subsidizing the cost of off-duty side gigs for MPD officers at the tune of about $1.4 million.
  • 05:38:52
    Council has now given MPD the authority and the tools to start collecting those fees in 2026.
  • 05:38:58
    budget.
  • 05:39:16
    Mayor Frey's neglect of another critical anti homelessness program called Stable Home Stable Schools which is on track to have a $3.2 million funding gap and that gap grows into a larger amount come 2026 and 2027.
  • 05:39:32
    I have no interest in destabilizing that program because I think we all recognize it does great work and I will not attempt to pit this program of emergency housing vouchers against that one.
  • 05:39:44
    That said, this 2025 resolution that's also accompanied with this motion reallocates the 1.4 million dollars out of the 1.8 that we allocated back in 2024 for stable homes and stable schools.
  • 05:39:57
    this will leave $400,000 in the 2025 Emergency Housing Voucher appropriation which were one-time dollars that NPHA was waiting for anyways.
  • 05:40:07
    I truly hope that the administration will not drag its feet in getting those dollars out the doors so that
  • 05:40:14
    Again, NPHA can start doing that critical work in getting unsheltered residents housed and getting them the wraparound services that they need.
  • 05:40:22
    Additionally, I have a legislative directive that asks for updates on this proposal since it's clear that the council will need to exercise more oversight in a formal way around how this program actually gets implemented and when the progress on it.
  • 05:40:35
    So with that, the order of these votes is the reappropriation of the 2025 Emergency Housing Voucher funding to increase stable homes, stable schools by $1.4 million, a legislative directive that monitors implementation of the program.
  • 05:40:51
    And the last vote is ultimately the 2026 ongoing funding to reinstate the Emergency Housing Voucher program.
  • 05:40:56
    And with that, I move all three of those items forward for approval and ask for a second.
• • 05:41:02
    Second.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:41:03
    We have a proper motion before us.
  • 05:41:05
    Is there any discussion?
  • 05:41:06
    Council Member Palmisano.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 05:41:09
    Madam Chair, I'd be happy to yield first to other authors.
  • 05:41:12
    If there's anybody... Go right ahead.
  • 05:41:14
    They'll get in queue.
  • 05:41:20
    Together, there are a lot of different parts of this.
  • 05:41:26
    Let's see what to speak about first.
  • 05:41:29
    This amendment, along with items number 16 and 17, I believe, total over $3 million in earmarks within MPD's Public Safety Services budget.
  • 05:41:41
    This amendment, along with future ones, 36 and 37, cuts eight total positions from the mayor's office, though there might be some future amendments to that.
  • 05:41:52
    though the revised version here actually just makes it seven positions.
  • 05:41:56
    I don't think there are any vacant FTEs in the mayor's office but maybe we could get some clarification on that.
  • 05:42:02
    I have to say that these feel vindictive.
  • 05:42:07
    I know that the administration has been in deep conversation though with the authors here so I'd like to hear from staff.
  • 05:42:13
    I see Margaret Anderson Kelleher here to say how has that landed from a staff perspective?
• • Margaret Anderson KelliherCity Operations Officer
  • 05:42:22
    Welcome back.
  • 05:42:23
    Chair Chug Thai, Members of the Committee, Council Member Paul Massano.
  • 05:42:29
    I'm going to start by taking us back to what the task was given to members of this administration when we started assembling this budget.
  • 05:42:42
    The mayor made it very clear that there were a few top priorities.
  • 05:42:50
    One was to lower the levy
  • 05:42:53
    so the burden on renters and homeowners went down.
  • 05:42:58
    And we were able to do that by cutting $26 million out of this budget.
  • 05:43:04
    Importantly, a second goal was to have no cuts to people who were in FTE seats.
  • 05:43:14
    So that means no layoffs.
  • 05:43:16
    No matter if that person is our line public service worker
  • 05:43:22
    or in the city attorney's office or in the council staff or in the legislative branch.
  • 05:43:29
    And we did that.
  • 05:43:31
    I'm proud of that work that we did.
  • 05:43:34
    We've been having excellent conversations with Chair Chugtai and her staff.
  • 05:43:39
    In fact, we have agreed on 76% of these amendments.
  • 05:43:46
    The administration, and I know that many of you have given as well on your amendments,
  • 05:43:53
    The administration has contributed $3.4 million in ongoing funding already to the 38 amendments you see.
  • 05:44:05
    They have contributed over $8 million in one-time money to help solve the issues that we saw in these.
  • 05:44:16
    We have contributed six vacant FTEs all from the Office of Public Service line of the administration to work on this budget.
  • 05:44:28
    I plead with you, the mayor's bright fluorescent line has been no layoffs to people in seats.
  • 05:44:42
    We can solve these problems
  • 05:44:45
    We're not against the amendments.
  • 05:44:48
    We've been working through them.
  • 05:44:51
    We need a willing hand from a few more members of the council to work on that.
  • 05:44:59
    And then we will have a signed budget.
  • 05:45:03
    That means we will do our very best to implement the items in the budget in 2026.
  • 05:45:13
    That would be such a refreshing thing
  • 05:45:16
    Thank you.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 05:45:17
    Well, thank you.
  • 05:45:18
    I don't have enough time to call back up Commissioner Barnett, but I am deeply concerned into what this cut in services for MPD would mean to our residents.
  • 05:45:29
    I'm talking about resident-facing services that we could no longer provide.
  • 05:45:35
    We already have, in speaking face to face through a campaign to residents this year, they
  • 05:45:41
    they are struggling to get police services when and where they need them.
  • 05:45:45
    Sometimes when they just need to talk to somebody, a civilian somebody because of things happening in uptown for example.
  • 05:45:55
    What staff will MPD have to lay off?
  • 05:45:58
    How many?
  • 05:45:58
    How many civilians?
  • 05:46:01
    These are all concerns that I have and I don't expect the commissioner to have any immediate
  • 05:46:05
    stats on that, but the impacts of this are really steep to the operations of MPD, let alone the mayor's office.
  • 05:46:13
    Since I see Commissioner Barnett coming up, I'll mention that I have less than two minutes, but would be happy for you to opine in general about the things I just said.
• • Todd BarnetteCommissioner of Community Safety
  • 05:46:24
    Through the chair, thank you, uh, Councilmember Palmisano.
  • 05:46:27
    I was just looking at the source here is the Public Service Division, um,
  • 05:46:33
    We've, I think already there's been an earmark of 1.7 million for the non-fatal shooting.
  • 05:46:43
    Now we're taking another million.
  • 05:46:45
    I'm looking at the numbers and just trying to figure out how do we do all the things that not only this council's asking us to do but the citizens are asking us to do.
  • 05:46:57
    We're, I think everyone here knows that
  • 05:47:02
    We're committed to trying to find people for all 731 spots and we've made some progress there.
  • 05:47:15
    But at some point, the only area where we end up cutting, and I know Council President Payne and others have said,
  • 05:47:23
    MPD and leadership gets to decide where those cuts are and this is where we start to get into cutting our civilian staff which is so important to the work that we do.
  • 05:47:37
    These cuts are just mounting up to a place where we can't do all the things.
  • 05:47:44
    Thank you.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 05:47:45
    Yeah, thank you.
  • 05:47:45
    It totals over three million dollars between these three amendments.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:47:55
    Thank you.
  • 05:47:56
    Next, Council Member Rainville.
• • Michael Rainville
  • 05:47:59
    Thank you.
  • 05:48:00
    I'm not going to vote for this and I'm going to give you three reasons why.
  • 05:48:02
    The first reason, I'm going to channel Alice Rainville, the first woman president of the City Council, who when this emergency shelter, the homelessness issues first came forth,
  • 05:48:14
    and the county did not carry forth their burden and the city picked that up would continuously say the more the city does for the county the less the county will do for the city.
  • 05:48:25
    So I suggest to you that the county needs to step up not us.
  • 05:48:29
    the second is this is just another defund the police movement we are forty percent of the staff we should have we should have a force of twelve hundred and we have about six hundred some this is going to hurt our efforts for public safety and the third reason is this layoffs from the mayor's office this is just plain mean had your candidate won the mayor's race you would not be doing this
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:49:02
    Is there anything else you'd like to say?
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 05:49:11
    Council Member Wonsley.
  • 05:49:12
    Thank you, CBEP.
  • 05:49:16
    I just want to offer some clarification because there's also lots of conflating.
  • 05:49:20
    So the budget amendment between that we're considering today, non-fatal task force, those are all separate funding sources.
  • 05:49:27
    And actually, it funds the police.
  • 05:49:30
    It does actually opposite of what you're talking about.
  • 05:49:32
    It gives MPD the resources that they need to do to actually do their job, which is solve crimes and keep residents safe.
  • 05:49:40
    and we're doing that through non-fatal task force.
  • 05:49:43
    It's a completely separate funding source that uses fake-in positions, so those should not be cuts.
  • 05:49:48
    Additionally, when we're going back to emergency housing vouchers, as I've highlighted in my original comments, should MPD
  • 05:49:58
    actually implement the collection of off-duty fees, you will have the ability to bring in 1.4 million dollars.
  • 05:50:07
    That is already what you have absorbed in your budget by subsidizing side gigs that only benefits the private and personal pockets of MPD officers and do not actually share to the public good around our public safety needs.
  • 05:50:20
    So if you actually implement that, there's a trade-off there.
  • 05:50:23
    So you have the ability to actually replace that subsidization that taxpayers are currently paying for through a fee mechanism that actually placed the cost of that program on vendors that are looking to solicit those services.
  • 05:50:38
    So I just wanted to name that.
  • 05:50:40
    We have largely throughout this budget been, as COO Margaret Anson
  • 05:50:46
    We've been in multiple conversations around how to actually reduce the number of mayoral staffing cuts to actually get to a place where our priorities can be supported and also meet his red line.
  • 05:51:02
    And we largely have done that.
  • 05:51:04
    There's revisions that are coming forward that also addresses some of the following amendments.
  • 05:51:09
    And if it takes one FTE from the mayor's office and then one from the city attorneys out of the actual total number that we were originally considering, I think that is an actual good trade-off.
  • 05:51:21
    And I get this budget means making some hard decisions.
  • 05:51:24
    this is a hard decision to make and also a hard decision is letting over hundreds of people sleep outside and say our solution to that is just wait till the county step up and by the way the county is stepping up that's why they're a part of this partnership and they've been doing the heavy lifting of that work so we're saying we're here also as an equal player with you and trying to advance that work of getting people off the streets
  • 05:51:51
    so I just wanted to ground that piece and the full package actually allows us to do both things, reinstate these vouchers because we wouldn't even be in this place of deliberating this budget amendment had the mayor implemented it in 2025 as we originally proposed to last budget cycle.
  • 05:52:10
    He chose not to so that is why we're here today.
  • 05:52:13
    That has nothing to do with vindictiveness
  • 05:52:15
    It's the mayor undermining council's authority and not implementing the things that our residents calls us to actually support like addressing unsheltered homelessness that puts us in dilemmas like this.
  • 05:52:26
    But this budget proposal allows us to make sure that we're meeting unsheltered homelessness with actual proven and data backed solutions while also supporting another critical homeless program of stable home, stable schools.
  • 05:52:38
    So with that, I would encourage my colleagues
  • 05:52:41
    to support the
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 05:53:03
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 05:53:05
    I just have a brief comment.
  • 05:53:06
    I mean, one of the things when I first heard the budget address, I think back in April, that, you know, the thing that really stood out to me was that we are not going to be laying off any staff.
  • 05:53:28
    And I can't support any amendments that
  • 05:53:34
    potentially lays off staff.
  • 05:53:36
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:53:42
    Alright, next I'll recognize Councilmember Cashman followed by Councilmember Osman.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 05:53:47
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
  • 05:53:48
    Just a question for Margaret Anderson Kelleher, I believe.
  • 05:53:53
    This amendment says that the decrease to the mayor's office is for a vacant FTE.
  • 05:54:00
    And I'm curious if there's a vacancy in the mayor's office.
• • Margaret Anderson KelliherCity Operations Officer
  • 05:54:06
    There is not a vacancy in the mayor's office.
  • 05:54:12
    That position currently has an occupant in it.
  • 05:54:15
    We are not sure if that was written before or contemplated before it was filled, but it was filled on November 10th.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 05:54:26
    Was that the press secretary position?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:54:28
    That's the intent of what this position is supposed to be.
  • 05:54:33
    I mean, as of like last week, my understanding was that was a vacant position.
  • 05:54:39
    But I think there was just things got lost somewhere and that was finances understanding and so I think this is going to be a thing we're going to have to come back and figure out.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 05:54:49
    Okay, my second question is about implementation.
  • 05:54:52
    What prevented the implementation of the emergency housing vouchers this year in 2025?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:55:02
    I believe that's a great question for Director Hanson.
  • 05:55:06
    Director Hanson.
  • 05:55:11
    The question is, what prevented the implementation in 2025 of emergency housing vouchers?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 05:55:19
    Chair, Chuck Tye, who asked the question?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 05:55:23
    Councilmember Cashman.
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 05:55:24
    Councilmember Cashman, my apologies.
  • 05:55:27
    I believe the question was what prevented the implementation of emergency housing vouchers.
  • 05:55:33
    We were working with, staff was working with the county and the public housing authority around setting up, so the first start is to expand the program, there's $400,000 in that.
  • 05:55:47
    $12.8 million dollar allocation to get set up for onboarding new people into that program.
  • 05:55:55
    We had some legal disagreements around what is allowed under onboarding from the public housing authority and the city's attorney that prolonged the debate between the two organizations, the city and the public housing authority and the county.
  • 05:56:15
    At the time that brought us into the summer, that's when we started to learn more about stable home, stable schools.
  • 05:56:21
    We put kind of a pause on the conversation and brought that stable home, stable schools to the council with an email and notification in September.
  • 05:56:36
    and that's what we're kind of paused it.
  • 05:56:38
    So we were in deliberations, we had a disagreement on what could be used with the funding and then we learned about stable schools and had the conversation, the policy conversation with the council.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 05:56:49
    Is there another way to get around the legal disagreements?
  • 05:56:52
    For example, funding through a different provider of the vouchers or another way to get these services into the hands of the people who need it?
• • Erik HansenDirector of CPED
  • 05:57:01
    Chair, Chuck Tai, Council Member Cash, I'm not comfortable answering a legal question on behalf of the city?
• • Kristyn AndersonCity Attorney
  • 05:57:07
    Council Vice President, Council Members, so my recollection was that the real issue was what under the public purpose doctrine what could we
  • 05:57:20
    City Council
  • 05:57:39
    We, however, don't have those sorts of authorities, so there were some things in the program that just did not meet the public purpose guidelines and legal requirements that we have to abide by using city funds.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 05:57:52
    Okay.
  • 05:57:52
    And to any of the authors, can you explain the county's contribution to this partnership from a financial perspective if they have broader legal authority around the finances?
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 05:58:05
    I believe that's a question to me.
  • 05:58:10
    Councilmember Cashman, when this body approved this last year, I'm more than happy to fund you, not fund you, send you the very
  • 05:58:20
    So I'm more than happy to try to dig that up so that I mean we don't have those staff here but you can see directly from them what they laid out.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 05:58:46
    Yeah, I remember it and I had a conversation with MPHA about this as well where they explained the barriers that they were having to implementation and I'm just wondering what's going to change this time?
  • 05:58:58
    How are the barriers going to be overcome in round two?
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 05:59:03
    And just respond on that.
  • 05:59:05
    To me, again, the fact that we only learned about legal barriers or any barriers in August, literally like a week before the mirror
  • 05:59:13
    Council.
  • 05:59:33
    misunderstandings of what happened because NPHA was under the assumption because we made a 2025 appropriation that these dollars would be implemented that a funding agreement would have happened this year and that erupt publication that's saying we're cutting all of this they were never given a heads up and I think that leads lots of concerns around implementation and that's why we're bringing the legislative directive to point to what you're exactly saying we want
  • 05:59:58
    more monitoring and reporting on this.
  • 06:00:01
    We trusted last budget cycle for the administration to carry things out and we landed in this position.
  • 06:00:08
    So that is why we're asking for more regular updates on progress to stay attuned and make sure that those things are happening.
• • Michael Cashman
  • 06:00:14
    Yeah, thank you.
  • 06:00:15
    I guess I am landing on a no on this amendment.
  • 06:00:19
    I just am struggling to see the pathway to implementation on the money.
  • 06:00:25
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:00:28
    Thank you.
  • 06:00:30
    Next, I'll recognize Council Member Osman, followed by Council Member Chow and Trieu.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 06:00:36
    Thank you.
  • 06:00:36
    Hopefully we find a way to implement this.
  • 06:00:39
    No, we failed last year to get this money out.
  • 06:00:42
    This is really, really important emergency vouchers program.
  • 06:00:47
    And let me just say this, you know,
  • 06:00:50
    The conversation has been happening in the background, there has been a lot of negotiation, and I'd like the public to know that there's a lot of compromise here that we're coming together trying to be fairly creative of how to fund this important project, right?
  • 06:01:12
    We, especially me, let me just say myself, the original proposal, yes, I have a lot of issue with it.
  • 06:01:19
    I think that, you know,
  • 06:01:21
    I want the mayor to succeed.
  • 06:01:26
    I want him to be able to have the tools to lead the city to make sure that he's
  • 06:01:38
    He's leading the city and he has all the tools that's necessary for him to do his job.
  • 06:01:44
    And with that being said, what's proposed right now is what's revised.
  • 06:01:49
    What's revised, what's being negotiated on the background, and I think it sounds great for me.
  • 06:01:56
    We're not taking half, so-called, of the mayor's staff at all.
  • 06:02:01
    here.
  • 06:02:01
    We're not taking that at all.
  • 06:02:04
    And it's one staff that's going there and also someone from the city attorney office.
  • 06:02:18
    So the facts are the facts.
  • 06:02:23
    Sometimes, you know,
• • Jason Chavez
  • 06:02:26
    you can have all of it.
  • 06:02:28
    You might get 90% of what you're looking for.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 06:02:30
    It's the way democracy works, the way we all should work.
  • 06:02:35
    I think sometimes there are programs that are very important that we cannot just let it go because we like one program more than the other.
  • 06:02:43
    And I'm hoping that this is something that
  • 06:02:50
    that can be funded next year, implemented next year.
  • 06:02:53
    So these important programs can get to the residents and the services.
  • 06:03:00
    And overall, I think that we came from long way discussion last couple weeks or so, last week or so of where we are right now and this is something I feel comfortable voting for.
  • 06:03:10
    So thank you so much.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:03:14
    Thank you.
  • 06:03:15
    Next I'll recognize Councilmember Chaudry.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 06:03:18
    Thank you Chair Chugtai.
  • 06:03:19
    I just needed to talk about one thing that was brought into discussion because I think it's important because it happens often and it happened last budget cycle, this comment about defunding the police.
  • 06:03:37
    That is so tired.
  • 06:03:39
    That is so unnecessarily divisive.
  • 06:03:42
    And I would just like to state some facts.
  • 06:03:46
    The MPD budget in 2022, $187 million in 2023, $198 million in 2024, $217 million in 2025, $229 million Council Vice President, can I ask you a question?
  • 06:04:03
    Yes.
  • 06:04:04
    How much of this year's last budget did MPD overspend?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:04:09
    Thank you for the question Council Member Chowdhury.
  • 06:04:12
    As you stated, in 2025 the Minneapolis Police Department's budget is $229 million.
  • 06:04:24
    The third quarter financial status report projects that by the end of the year MPD will have overspent their budget by nearly $20 million.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 06:04:36
    That's what we should be concerned about.
  • 06:04:39
    That is the opposite of defunding the police.
  • 06:04:42
    So let's give it a break.
  • 06:04:44
    This is a $1 million decrease.
  • 06:04:47
    The police department is important.
  • 06:04:49
    Public safety is important.
  • 06:04:50
    No one's disputing that.
  • 06:04:52
    But all of our other departments are important, and the police department is not an exception to the rules of all of our departments and our financial oversight.
  • 06:05:02
    Absolutely not.
  • 06:05:03
    And if we make changes and move around funding,
  • 06:05:06
    like we do for
  • 06:05:29
    used as a tool to scare a community that public safety isn't available to them because that's just not true and it's dangerous and it gets us away from our goal which is bringing our community together so we can have accountable professional policing and good public safety services that don't have to be police.
  • 06:05:48
    All of those things can exist altogether.
  • 06:05:51
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:05:54
    Thank you.
  • 06:05:54
    I'm sorry, let me return to my queue really quick.
  • 06:05:59
    Next I'll recognize Councilmember Chavez followed by Councilmember Palmisano.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 06:06:03
    Actually, I think we're talking too much about this item.
  • 06:06:06
    I was going to...
  • 06:06:07
    Okay, well then I'll make my comments quick.
  • 06:06:09
    I think the implementation about this is political will.
  • 06:06:12
    I see no burden into implementing this program except for the fact that people want to see more homeless people out on the street instead of actually housing people.
  • 06:06:21
    So we need to approve this.
  • 06:06:22
    I think it's important.
  • 06:06:23
    We need to address housing and homelessness.
  • 06:06:26
    It is a crisis and I am tired of the administration refusing to implement programs that this body funds.
  • 06:06:33
    We are not Donald Trump.
  • 06:06:35
    We are not the federal government.
  • 06:06:37
    We are Minneapolis and it is time that this administration funds programs that we implement programs that we fund.
  • 06:06:43
    I am tired.
  • 06:06:45
    So I want to make that comment very clear.
  • 06:06:48
    There is no reason for administration to never implement programs that we fund.
  • 06:06:54
    and I am concerned the direction this budget is heading towards when it sounds like administration is saying they're not going to fund certain things unless this council makes certain decisions which feels wrong and it feels political and it feels like
  • 06:07:06
    some legal issues that I'm hearing out loud.
  • 06:07:08
    Now the other thing I'll say is I am concerned about, I mean, I hear some hypocrisy on this dais about folks saying they would never vote to lay off staff but they just voted to lay off staff and failed a little bit ago.
  • 06:07:21
    So I just wanted to name that publicly.
  • 06:07:23
    Members of this body already voted to lay off staff and they failed.
  • 06:07:27
    So, next.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:07:30
    Councilmember Palmisano.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 06:07:33
    Madam Chair, you've
  • 06:07:37
    My colleagues have gone and called the question when only I was left in queue to continue speaking on previous things.
  • 06:07:43
    We've been saying things that certainly ascribe motive to other people without being called out today.
  • 06:07:51
    But one of the things that I heard in this conversation was
  • 06:07:58
    that people are tired, exhausted, all of these things about the idea of defunding the police and their $20 million over budget.
  • 06:08:08
    I don't mean to let the cat out of the bag when we hear a full presentation from I think the chief of police on Monday, but police reform is expensive.
  • 06:08:16
    Do you know why we're $20 million over budget on our police budget this year?
  • 06:08:20
    I don't know the details.
  • 06:08:21
    We will learn them on Monday, but mostly it's that we used to budget for critical staffing over time with vacancy savings and to
  • 06:08:31
    the Chief's credit to the credit of the hard work of our Minneapolis Police Department.
  • 06:08:36
    We have increased staffing so much that we no longer have vacancy savings to pay for all of the kinds of overtime work we need to meet minimum staffing.
  • 06:08:45
    And the second reason that we are $20 million over budget in the police department this year is all of the additional training that we need to fulfill all of the reforms that we have done.
  • 06:08:57
    It is something like 156 hours per officer per year.
  • 06:09:01
    and that's a good thing.
  • 06:09:03
    And what that means is that we need, unlike our positions where if we need to leave for another meeting, if we have to go to something, it just doesn't get refilled with another person.
  • 06:09:14
    Police officers need to be back staffed with other officers.
  • 06:09:18
    and that is another reason why there is incredible amounts of overtime and why the police department is $20 million out of budget because we are doing more training in a substandard, not appropriate, not a LEAFA approved training facility
  • 06:09:34
    every single day.
  • 06:09:36
    Every single day.
  • 06:09:38
    So we don't have the vacancy savings to pay for it anymore and you want to bash police over the head for doing more training, which is what we've been telling them in the first place.
  • 06:09:45
    No one's bashed police over the head.
• • Margaret Anderson KelliherCity Operations Officer
  • 06:09:48
    Literally nobody has.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 06:09:50
    I just don't believe that this is an appropriate conversation to try to hold the police saying we're going to hold you accountable.
  • 06:09:58
    It's not the first or second time that I've heard it today that they are 20 million dollars over budget.
  • 06:10:03
    We will get those details on Monday.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:10:10
    Council Member Chavez.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 06:10:12
    I'm either going to call the question or if you want to call the roll.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:10:15
    Alright.
  • 06:10:16
    I'm not seeing anybody else.
  • 06:10:17
    Thank you.
  • 06:10:17
    I'm not seeing anybody else in queue.
  • 06:10:19
    Clerk, please call the roll.
• • Jeremiah Ellison
  • 06:10:21
    Council Member Payne Aye Wonsley Aye Rainville No Beta No Ellison This is a little complex but I'm going to say no on 22C.1 and then aye on the rest right that's how it's
  • 06:10:40
    I think you just, just all of C. You can't separate C. Oh, you can't separate C. So all of C, yeah.
  • 06:10:50
    Then I'll be a no on C. Gotcha.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:10:53
    No on C. Osman.
  • 06:10:57
    Aye.
  • 06:11:00
    Cashman.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 06:11:02
    Nay.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:11:06
    Jenkins.
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 06:11:08
    No.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:11:10
    Chavez Aye Chowdhury Aye Palmisano No Vice Chair Koski Aye Chair Chubti Aye So on 22A and B 9 4
  • 06:11:41
    8-4, nays 22-C 22-A and B, 8 ayes, 5 nays 22-C 7 ayes, 6 nays
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:12:13
    Does anyone need further clarification on the outcome of that vote?
  • 06:12:17
    I'm not seeing that, so okay.
  • 06:12:19
    That motion, all of 22, passes.
  • 06:12:25
    Next we're ready to move to amendment number 23, offered by Councilmember Osman, which is related to underserved South Minneapolis communities, opioid response.
  • 06:12:36
    Councilmember Osman, will you please introduce your amendment and make a motion?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 06:12:41
    Thank you so much.
  • 06:12:42
    I've been doing this amendments for every year and it's basically just helping folks to overcome the addiction that we have in our community.
  • 06:12:57
    and having some kind of response where cultural organizations can go and reach out to the folks and help them with education, resources, awareness and just
  • 06:13:15
    Something that the Health Department has hosted many years and the Mayor's Office has hosted a press conference with it where we fund these organizations to tackle opioid.
  • 06:13:27
    There's so many different ways we can tackle opioid.
  • 06:13:29
    Opioid is killing our community.
  • 06:13:31
    It's everywhere.
  • 06:13:32
    And, you know, one of the wonderful programs Health Department continues to do is engage residents in their
  • 06:13:41
    their location is in cultural lenses and this is one of those hopefully programs that can help our community having you know
  • 06:13:57
    health department to lead last year where we tested this new Suboxone medication that will when folks take like 80% success rate and that's a big thing it's a new medication that is what the health department is leading and then this is also a way to to respond underserved communities
  • 06:14:18
    I'm hoping we can implement this because last year we have not implemented this.
  • 06:14:25
    The year before that we always did, but this year hopefully we can have administration and the health department continue to do the work they're doing, the wonderful work they're doing already in the community.
  • 06:14:37
    So I'm hoping that everyone can support.
  • 06:14:40
    This will definitely bring some kind of relief at least.
  • 06:14:47
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:14:48
    And you've moved approval?
  • 06:14:51
    Yes, I moved for approval.
  • 06:14:52
    Second.
  • 06:14:53
    Wonderful.
  • 06:14:54
    Any discussion on this item?
  • 06:14:56
    Councilmember Palmisano.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 06:14:59
    Thank you Madam Chair.
  • 06:15:00
    I see and trust how Councilmember Osman has used this opioid money in the past.
  • 06:15:07
    What I am concerned about is why it specifically delineates only South Minneapolis.
  • 06:15:13
    and not North Minneapolis.
  • 06:15:15
    And I apologize, I have not had a chance to look deeply into the details of this one.
  • 06:15:21
    It just wasn't one of the ones that raised to my attention because we've done it in the past.
  • 06:15:24
    So can you help me understand why this is specifically eliminating these kinds of same services for North Minneapolis?
  • 06:15:34
    Not eliminating.
  • 06:15:36
    It's not eliminating.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 06:15:38
    It says for South Minneapolis in the motion.
  • 06:15:42
    Well, we're not gonna go south versus north or underserved versus underserved.
  • 06:15:47
    Another group, these are something that I have done that you have voted for last four and a half years, every year, and it's targeting
  • 06:15:59
    underserved president that we see every day that are under the bridge is that are dealing with opioid.
  • 06:16:05
    If you have a problem with that, you can vote down on it, but it's not something that should be controversial about this.
  • 06:16:15
    So North Minneapolis, I continue to support them.
  • 06:16:18
    I love them.
  • 06:16:18
    They are definitely get all the support they can get from me, and I'm not singling anybody out.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 06:16:25
    With all due respect Council Member Osman, it says specifically in this motion South Minneapolis and I just want to clarify that it would be for all of Minneapolis?
• • Jason Chavez
  • 06:16:40
    I can try to answer that question.
  • 06:16:41
    I think, one, I think it's important and maybe I can enlighten you if that could help with some knowledge in this situation, but the Phillips community south of Minneapolis is disproportionately impacted by the opioid epidemic, so you see high overdose deaths in the Phillips neighborhoods.
  • 06:16:57
    That encompasses Ward 6 and Ward 9, a big part of the south Minneapolis community.
  • 06:17:00
    What we are saying here is that we want to make sure that this area in our city has access to services and reduction
  • 06:17:08
    and the opioid epidemic, making sure that these underserved communities, no matter where they are in South Minneapolis, but we know that it is focused in the Phillips neighborhoods, that we have programs in place to reduce overdose deaths.
  • 06:17:19
    That is what this is saying.
  • 06:17:20
    We're saying that South Minneapolis, staff can decide where in South Minneapolis, but we know that if you look at the data, the opioid epidemic is disproportionately impacting the Phillips neighborhoods in South Minneapolis, from our native community to our East African community,
  • 06:17:35
    to our African American community.
  • 06:17:36
    We are seeing it impacting our neighbors disproportionately.
  • 06:17:39
    We're not saying that the rest of the Health Department budget can't go to North Minneapolis.
  • 06:17:44
    In fact, it will and it should.
  • 06:17:45
    We're just saying that we want to make sure that these services impact and serve the residents of Minneapolis as well.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:17:57
    Thank you.
  • 06:17:57
    I will next recognize Councilmember Chavez.
  • 06:18:05
    That was, but you're, okay, Councilmember Vitaw
• • Katie Cashman
  • 06:18:08
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 06:18:09
    Thank you, Councilmember Palmisano.
  • 06:18:11
    I really do appreciate you speaking up for the Northside.
  • 06:18:14
    Councilmember Osman is correct.
  • 06:18:16
    I have supported this amendment by him, and it's not that it's about the services don't go on the Northside.
  • 06:18:25
    I've just used other ways of getting the same sort of response from the Northside for the Northside, like the trauma response grants, or just funding through other streams to get things done.
  • 06:18:38
    On the north side, I just haven't chose the route of having something earmarked through the budget process because I personally feel like we have a lot of money in a lot of these departments that are going to these services that we can use in that way versus this way.
  • 06:18:55
    That's all.
  • 06:18:56
    It's not like I don't take it as a
  • 06:18:59
    a not on the north side thing.
  • 06:19:01
    This is just an additional step that I'm sure these council members feel they have to take.
  • 06:19:07
    But I really do wish like if a person has a question about something that we don't have to be mean and answer it.
  • 06:19:13
    It's just like it's a question.
  • 06:19:15
    I mean she's got questions she asked her it just say it back Councilmember Chavez.
• • Jamal Osman
  • 06:19:20
    I just want to point out that, you know, thank you Councilmember Fita for clarifying that in the past you used to say Native American and East African and were told by direction to make it specifically for this community in this area and I welcome anyone who
  • 06:19:48
    anyone to come with me and with the health department commissioner and just really go spend a few hours just walking around talking to the organizations seeing where people live and actually witnessing the crisis that we're having on Phillips area that's just uh... it might change your perspective of raising questions, thank you
  • 06:20:17
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:20:21
    Do we have Deputy Commissioner Ritchie in the chambers?
  • 06:20:25
    Okay, actually I just think this is going to help provide some clarity about this.
  • 06:20:30
    Deputy Commissioner Ritchie, if you can come up.
  • 06:20:32
    If you can speak to the context as to how this amendment came to exist in the first place.
  • 06:20:39
    I know this is like the third or fourth time we're doing it again, so if you want to start with
  • 06:20:46
    What was the initial pot of funding the first time that was proposed that Council Member Osman offered this amendment to the very first time?
• • SPEAKER_01
  • 06:20:58
    Thank you Chair Chugtai and Council Members Heidi Ritchie, I'm the Deputy Commissioner of Health
  • 06:21:05
    So the first time, so this has always been from the opioid settlement.
  • 06:21:09
    It's been an earmark of $150,000 and I can't remember the language from the first time, but it was South Minneapolis and then there was, I believe, some demographic descriptors.
  • 06:21:20
    The second time, same thing with some demographic descriptors and then now it's a little bit more broad.
  • 06:21:28
    I will point out that since this is Opioid Settlement Fund it's a little bit different than when we put ongoing earmarks we really do need to see it come back every year and that is what is I think happening with this one this time around as well.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:21:43
    Wonderful.
  • 06:21:44
    And I think what I'm trying to understand, and I can't remember if this is something that we have discussed in the past as we've been trying to figure out the history of this amendment, but am I remembering correctly that there was a time when part of the use of the opioid settlement money in the recommended budget was on
  • 06:22:08
    of that chunk of money that your council member Osman wanted to earmark just a chunk of it to come to South Minneapolis and then that kind of has continued over and over.
  • 06:22:23
    Is that a fair summary of the matter and can you also just speak to the
  • 06:22:34
    the geography of this city and whether we are equitably spending opioid settlement dollars in the parts of the city where it is needed.
• • SPEAKER_01
  • 06:22:48
    Chair Chigtai, members of the committee,
  • 06:22:52
    The first time that this mere mark came about was when the mayor allocated, I'm not going to get the number right, but I think it was somewhere around 465,000 to go out into community.
  • 06:23:04
    At that time, what we did was an RFP.
  • 06:23:07
    We split it up and we ended up doing an RFP that was more youth prevention focused and another one that was more cultural community focused.
  • 06:23:17
    So that was that first round.
  • 06:23:19
    And in terms of demographics, I can speak to where we see disproportional impacts in terms of populations.
  • 06:23:29
    So our East African community and our African American community, our Latinx community, and then our American Indian community.
  • 06:23:39
    Not in any particular order, but those are the four communities where we see the disproportionate impacts with American Indian being at the top.
  • 06:23:47
    and so I can't speak to those demographics and how they play out in the city geography.
  • 06:23:54
    I will say with our mobile medical unit, which is our kind of big ticket, it's the largest pot of money that we have coming from the settlement fund.
  • 06:24:04
    We have been very deliberate in making sure that we're working with our communities on the north side and on the south side pretty much equally as much as we possibly can.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:24:16
    Thank you very much.
  • 06:24:18
    Next I will, I'm going to return back to Q.
  • 06:24:22
    Next I'm going to recognize Council Member Chavez, or Council Member Osman, followed by Council Member Chavez.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 06:24:27
    Oh, you're good?
  • 06:24:27
    And I'll be quick, I just want to add myself as an author and that's it.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:24:30
    Wonderful.
  • 06:24:31
    Clerks, if we can note that.
  • 06:24:33
    And seeing no one else in Q, I will ask the Clerk to call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:24:42
    Councilmember Payne?
• • Elliott Payne
  • 06:24:43
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:24:44
    Wonsley?
  • 06:24:45
    Aye.
  • 06:24:46
    Rainville?
• • Elliott Payne
  • 06:24:46
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:24:47
    Vita?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 06:24:48
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:24:49
    Ellison?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 06:24:50
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:24:51
    Osman?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 06:24:52
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:24:52
    Cashman?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 06:24:53
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:24:54
    Jenkins?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 06:24:55
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:24:56
    Chavez?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 06:24:56
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:24:57
    Chaudry?
  • 06:24:58
    Aye.
  • 06:24:59
    Palmisano?
  • 06:25:00
    Aye.
  • 06:25:01
    Vice Chair Koski?
  • 06:25:02
    Aye.
  • 06:25:03
    Chair Chugtai?
  • 06:25:04
    Aye.
  • 06:25:04
    That is 13 ayes.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:25:06
    Motion carries.
  • 06:25:09
    Next up, Amendment Number 24, offered by Council Member Osman, is related to Autism and Water Safety Public Health Awareness Program.
  • 06:25:20
    Council Member Osman, will you please introduce your amendment and move approval?
• • Jamal Osman
  • 06:25:24
    .
  • 06:25:24
    ≫ Yes, thank you so much.
  • 06:25:26
    Colleagues, you have seen me come and pass a resolution here, all of us pass a resolution trying to really save kids with autism.
  • 06:25:35
    We have seen in the local news and where kids are dying in the 10,000 lakes that we have
  • 06:25:51
    to make sure that we are reaching out communities and making sure that we are developing water safety education material.
  • 06:26:02
    For example, one of the
  • 06:26:06
    One of the material education is to make sure that parents have some kind of a way to make sure that they have a lock in their door so the kid doesn't run and get in the water.
  • 06:26:22
    So it's a very small amount of money and it's just really working with the community to do public awareness and education within the water safety with kids with autism.
  • 06:26:34
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:26:36
    Thank you.
  • 06:26:37
    Is there a second to Councilmember Osmond's motion?
  • 06:26:39
    Second.
  • 06:26:41
    Is there any discussion on this item?
  • 06:26:47
    Clerk, please call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:26:50
    Councilmember Payne.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:26:51
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:26:52
    Wonsley.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:26:53
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:26:53
    Rainville.
• • Andrea Jenkins
  • 06:26:54
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:26:55
    Vita.
  • 06:26:56
    Aye.
  • 06:26:56
    Ellison.
• • 06:26:58
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:26:58
    That motion carries.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:27:16
    Next is Amendment number 25, which is Labor Standards Co-enforcement Funding.
  • 06:27:25
    There's a revised packet on this for you that should be...
  • 06:27:36
    This one's revised, right?
  • 06:27:39
    Okay.
  • 06:27:42
    This one is offered by Council President Payne, myself, Council members Cashman, Chowdhury, and Koski.
  • 06:27:51
    President Payne will you please introduce your amendment and move approval.
• • Elliott Payne
  • 06:27:56
    Thank you Vice President Chuktai.
  • 06:28:01
    I've basically been trying to secure sustainable ongoing funding for co-enforcement since my very first budget in office.
  • 06:28:08
    The first year it was fully funded using ARPA funds one time and so the administration suggested we not go forward with that.
  • 06:28:20
    The second year
  • 06:28:21
    it's kind of
  • 06:28:34
    did as much due diligence as you possibly could but at the end of the day the administration didn't bring forward a funding solution so we brought a funding solution forward last year that secured sustainable ongoing funding and then this year the mayor cut that funding pretty profoundly so we are just trying to deliver on the promise that we gave to
  • 06:28:59
    for many, many years that this is important enough to be sustainable ongoing funding.
  • 06:29:07
    So we worked very, very closely with the administration on this to identify sourcing.
  • 06:29:13
    Largely sources that are ongoing sustainable
  • 06:29:18
    but there is a one-time source that's in here that gets us to the full funding amount that we will have to revisit next year.
  • 06:29:24
    So there's a lot of compromise embedded in this solution.
  • 06:29:27
    So I hope I can get your support.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:29:30
    Is there a second?
  • 06:29:33
    All right.
  • 06:29:35
    Is there any discussion on this item?
  • 06:29:39
    Council Member Vita.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 06:29:41
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 06:29:42
    So I think this is the one with the red stamp at the top is the
  • 06:29:48
    the correct one, right?
  • 06:29:49
    So this is saying that we're going to decrease the school-based clinic's budget by $70,000.
  • 06:29:56
    We're going to decrease the legislative department by $77,000, decrease the budget for performance management by $200,000.
  • 06:30:08
    I'm extremely concerned about what $70,000 does.
  • 06:30:18
    I know that's not even a really big budget to begin with for school-based clinics and that's a
  • 06:30:25
    I take those visits in schools as often as I can and they need more.
  • 06:30:31
    So to see $70,000 being taken from school-based clinics, is there someone here who can speak to what these decreases mean for the city of Minneapolis, please?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:30:43
    yeah so these decreases the the three sources identified that you're are the two sources that you're asking about right health department and performance management and the clerk's office so I'm gonna invite up
  • 06:31:03
    Okay, this was the product of the negotiation with the administration.
  • 06:31:10
    I'm going to have Director DeCenza speak to the impact on health and performance management.
  • 06:31:20
    Then we're going to go to the Clerk to speak about the Ledge Department.
  • 06:31:22
    Thank you.
  • 06:31:23
    Thank you.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 06:31:24
    Through the Chair, Councilmember Vita, the school-based clinics also have a revenue source, patient revenue, which they're still spending down some prior years, so they could temporarily shift some of this general fund expense over to that existing pot of money.
  • 06:31:38
    They're still spending, I think, 2021 dollars.
  • 06:31:42
    from that source.
  • 06:31:42
    So it was our assumption that that would be workable for them since they do have about $4 million there.
• • Robin Wonsley
  • 06:31:51
    Oh, okay.
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 06:31:52
    For PMI, this reduces their non-personnel professional services amount to I think about $20,000 would be remaining in their professional services line.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 06:32:07
    Okay, so with
  • 06:32:09
    $200,000 going out of PMI, this is only going to really be a $20,000 impact, is what you're saying?
• • Jayne Discenza
  • 06:32:18
    No, it would be a $200,000 cut ongoing, but it would leave remaining about $20,000.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:32:25
    About $20,000, okay.
  • 06:32:26
    I got it, I'm sorry.
  • 06:32:27
    and I think we should have the COO speak to what the impact of that is going to be.
  • 06:32:33
    Okay.
  • 06:32:33
    Because I would imagine that going from 220 down to 20 would be an alarming thing to hear.
• • Margaret Anderson KelliherCity Operations Officer
  • 06:32:38
    Yeah.
  • 06:32:39
    Go ahead.
  • 06:32:40
    Thank you, Chair Chug-Thai and Council Member Wonsley.
  • 06:32:44
    This was actually off- VTOL.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 06:32:50
    Y'all are so messy.
  • 06:32:54
    I am messy.
  • 06:32:55
    That was so messy.
  • 06:33:00
    Okay, come on.
  • 06:33:02
    Okay.
  • 06:33:03
    Come on, Saray.
• • Margaret Anderson KelliherCity Operations Officer
  • 06:33:06
    Fair.
  • 06:33:08
    So PMI actually offered this because they are not planning on using this but it is ongoing money and they feel they can handle this level of reduction.
  • 06:33:20
    It also solves this particular issue going forward.
  • 06:33:25
    And I just want to say
  • 06:33:28
    Chair Chug Thai was also very generous in helping to offer up part of this gap through the legislative department.
  • 06:33:39
    And so that is how we have gotten there.
  • 06:33:41
    The other thing is we will continue to work towards that 70k that is the one-time funding moving back towards more ongoing funding in the 27 budget.
  • 06:33:56
    That's what we are going to try to work towards.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 06:33:58
    Okay, and so what is the gift of the legislative department?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:34:05
    Then we'll go to, so this Councilmember Vita is referencing item number two, $77,040 ongoing reduction to the legislative department.
  • 06:34:20
    Mr.
  • 06:34:21
    Clerk, if you can just remind, tell us where this is going to, how this is going to be absorbed.
• • Casey CarlCity Clerk
  • 06:34:26
    Thank you Madam Vice President and there is a correction I need to note on here I gave you incorrect numbers so the Council Vice President asked if our department could come to the table and offer to fill some gaps and we were happy to do that and so I gave you the number shown on the printed copy it should be replaced by 2600114
  • 06:34:47
    Here's a great opportunity to shout out cooperation that was brought to us from the administration by our budget analyst who's been watching all day long, Justin Carlson.
  • 06:34:54
    26-00114 should be the line item.
  • 06:34:58
    To correct that, that comes out of the Clerk's Office General from our contractual services.
  • 06:35:02
    So we're replacing, just so you know, the number that was 500, that's elections.
  • 06:35:07
    We don't want to cut further into elections, so we're moving it into the Clerk's Office through contractual services.
  • 06:35:12
    We feel really confident we can cover that.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:35:14
    Thank you.
  • 06:35:15
    And as the clerk noted, I did ask him to make, come to the table so we could help make this amendment work.
  • 06:35:27
    Who is next?
  • 06:35:28
    I will recognize Councilmember Chowdhury.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 06:35:32
    Thank you so much Chair Chugtai.
  • 06:35:35
    And just really, really thank you to the administration for working on negotiating this and figuring this out.
  • 06:35:44
    It's so meaningful to me There's a lot of budget amendments that are really important here, but I think this is the single most important budget amendment to me This year because it was really hard to see the cuts that we saw to labor standards co-enforcement and I just Really want to lift up the the work that real people in our city are doing
  • 06:36:12
    to make sure
  • 06:36:25
    in a way that is just multiplied because the education and outreach work that they're doing with servers, with genders, with construction workers, it teaches people in their workplace how not only to advocate for themselves but when they see something going on that's wrong
  • 06:36:45
    When they see that someone else is experiencing wage theft, that their hard-earned money is being taken away, that is leaving less money for their kids, for food, for healthcare, they can teach them too.
  • 06:36:59
    They can educate them too.
  • 06:37:01
    And it's a beautiful thing that we do as a city of Minneapolis.
  • 06:37:06
    And we're leading in a moment where so much is being taken away from working people.
  • 06:37:13
    And I also want to
  • 06:37:16
    share that in the last contract that was made for co-enforcement, our partners in co-enforcement, Say Tool in particular, built a lot of infrastructure that they never had to do before so they could adequately report to the city, even better, how they are spending their time on education, on navigation services.
  • 06:37:39
    And in a six month period, they have done thousands of hours of work
  • 06:37:45
    they have retrained their staff they have taught them how to report and I'm really glad that we are not cutting this down and
  • 06:37:57
    If we see a future cut to this, we're going to come back and have a fight on this.
  • 06:38:02
    That's just where I stand, that's where it's going to be.
  • 06:38:05
    Co-enforcement is so, so important and I think we're going to see even better metrics to support the work that we're doing with our partners on this.
  • 06:38:14
    And I hope that there are no future cuts in coming years because
  • 06:38:20
    We have the strongest wage theft protection laws for a reason and we have to be able to enforce them so they count for people.
  • 06:38:30
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:38:33
    Thank you.
  • 06:38:34
    I will next recognize Council Member Palmisano.
• • Linea Palmisano
  • 06:38:40
    Thank you Madam Chair.
  • 06:38:42
    I want to note that we only have three inspectors on the civil rights side for all of this co-enforcement work.
  • 06:38:49
    The education is important but in terms of actually being able to move these things through and get people
  • 06:38:57
    justice for ways that they've been frankly screwed out of paychecks and other things.
  • 06:39:04
    We need to be careful to balance that.
  • 06:39:06
    I'm really not happy with the cuts that are in here, but I really also respect the collaboration between many people to come up with a compromise.
  • 06:39:15
    So for that reason I will be supporting this reluctantly for the cuts, but happy for the collaboration.
  • 06:39:23
    So thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:39:28
    Thank you.
  • 06:39:31
    Seeing no one else in queue, I will ask the Clerk to call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:39:37
    Council Member Payne?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:39:38
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:39:39
    Wonsley?
  • 06:39:40
    Aye.
  • 06:39:40
    Rainville?
• • Michael Rainville
  • 06:39:41
    Aye.
  • 06:39:42
    Beattah?
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:39:42
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:39:43
    Ellison?
  • 06:39:44
    Aye.
  • 06:39:45
    Osman?
  • 06:39:45
    Aye.
  • 06:39:46
    Cashman?
  • 06:39:47
    Aye.
  • 06:39:47
    Jenkins?
• • 06:39:48
    Aye.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:39:49
    Chavez aye Chaudry aye Palmisano aye Vice Chair Koski aye Chair Chugtai aye Those 13 ayes
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:40:00
    That motion carries.
  • 06:40:02
    Alright colleagues, we are now at exactly the 10 minute mark before we have to stop.
  • 06:40:08
    So I'm going to do a look around the room because I want to get a quick temperature check.
  • 06:40:13
    Are there people who want to have a lot of questions or want to have discussion on the next amendment which is street vendors?
  • 06:40:24
    No head nods on this side, no head nods on this side Okay, then we're going to take up street vendors
  • 06:40:31
    Okay, amendment number 25 or 26, offered by Council members Chavez and Chaudhry.
  • 06:40:38
    Council member Chavez, please introduce your amendment and and move approval.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 06:40:42
    Thank you Council Vice President Tregtari.
  • 06:40:44
    Council member Chaudhry and I are bringing you forward for the second year in a row the street vendor grant and compliance program to make sure that we can continue to ensure that our street vendors get into compliance with our city codes and also have access to classes to make sure that they can get access to permits.
  • 06:41:00
    we have seen the proposal from last year where a lot of our community members from the public were able to take their classes many of them were able to pass and that was a really positive momentum for our community when it comes to street vending we want to make sure that we continue this program for the year to come because we have been in conversations with many street vendors who said they want to continue taking classes because they weren't able to access them some didn't pass
  • 06:41:26
    and this will allow us to continue the program for another year.
  • 06:41:29
    We also are moving it into the Community Planning and Economic Development Department rather than the Health Department after conversations with city staff.
  • 06:41:36
    So I would just ask for your support.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:41:38
    Is there a second?
  • 06:41:40
    Second.
  • 06:41:41
    I will recognize Council Member Vita for discussion.
  • 06:41:45
    Thank you, Chair.
  • 06:41:47
    I was just wondering how much money was used?
• • Katie Cashman
  • 06:41:51
    Your mic got turned on.
  • 06:41:52
    Sorry, I was just wondering how much money you used in the last budget amendment for this program.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 06:41:57
    Yeah, if I remember correctly, it was $150,000.
  • 06:42:01
    Well, with the organization that we partnered with, they told us that that was not enough.
  • 06:42:05
    And they had to stop some of the classes.
  • 06:42:08
    So we don't want that problem to happen this time around.
  • 06:42:11
    We want to make sure people have access to adequate classes.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 06:42:15
    You remember who the partner organizations were?
• • Jason Chavez
  • 06:42:16
    Yeah, they were.
  • 06:42:18
    They're in George White Square.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 06:42:20
    Oh, so this was Southside.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 06:42:23
    It was a Southside location.
  • 06:42:24
    There were...
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 06:42:24
    I can't remember the name, but it was Chef LaShelle.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 06:42:28
    It was Chef LaShelle, and it was...
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 06:42:30
    Healthy Roots.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 06:42:31
    Healthy Roots.
  • 06:42:32
    Okay, got it.
  • 06:42:33
    They would still have to do an RFP, a separate process again.
  • 06:42:36
    We wanted to make sure that the funding was not enough to meet the needs of all the classes.
  • 06:42:41
    We also revised the amendment to say organizations, because one of the things that we noticed with the program
  • 06:42:46
    is that we needed to improve the culturally competent part where folks wanted to be able to speak in Spanish so we wanted to make sure that the proposal as written could be served with two organizations that way there could be a better partnership in someone that can take classes and then how we can do the translation a little bit better.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 06:43:02
    Okay, and I think we just need to do a better job of making this a city-wide thing because the feedback I got from this was people thought it was a Southside only initiative and that it was specific to Lake Street.
  • 06:43:14
    And so I think just as a city and
  • 06:43:17
    and departments we need to do better at because we have vendors on the north side too and we have people that are interested in this so I would just like us to figure out how we you know we make it culturally competent and we make it but we make sure that people understand it's not siloed into one part of the city.
• • Jason Chavez
  • 06:43:36
    Definitely.
  • 06:43:37
    This is written in no way to say it's in South Minneapolis.
  • 06:43:40
    There will be an RFP process with staff to make sure to share that when it is made public.
  • 06:43:45
    We wrote it in a way where it's not just one organization, it's organizations would love for making sure that we have partnerships in our side and other sides of our city.
• • Katie Cashman
  • 06:43:54
    Yeah, for sure.
  • 06:43:55
    Thank you.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:43:57
    Thank you, and Councilmember Chaudry.
• • Aurin Chowdhury
  • 06:44:00
    Thank you, Chair Chug-Tay.
  • 06:44:03
    I will be brief.
  • 06:44:04
    I just want to highlight to my colleagues, we made a lot of progress with this.
  • 06:44:09
    There was a lot of success.
  • 06:44:11
    We had many food vendors come and
  • 06:44:16
    take the classes, some had the opportunity to retake them if they didn't pass and many passed, right?
  • 06:44:21
    They got the certification that they needed and that was new for them and they entered into a relationship with the city of Minneapolis that was one of trust and that could lead to their success as entrepreneurs.
  • 06:44:33
    and even one food vendor after the class was able to access a food truck.
  • 06:44:39
    So that's progress just in one year.
  • 06:44:42
    So I thank everyone not only for your support for this budget amendment, but your support in the ordinance change that Councilmember Chavez and I worked on, the fee change, and future support so we can keep on doing this really important work for food vendors across the city.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:45:01
    Thank you.
  • 06:45:02
    Seeing no one else in queue, I will ask the Clerk to call the roll.
• • SPEAKER_17
  • 06:45:08
    Council Member Payne.
  • 06:45:09
    Aye.
  • 06:45:10
    Wonsley.
  • 06:45:11
    Aye.
  • 06:45:11
    Rainville.
  • 06:45:12
    Aye.
  • 06:45:13
    Vita.
  • 06:45:13
    Aye.
  • 06:45:14
    Ellison.
  • 06:45:15
    Aye.
  • 06:45:15
    Osman.
  • 06:45:17
    That motion carries.
• • Aisha Chughtai
  • 06:45:28
    Council Member Osman, would you like to have your vote reflected on this?
  • 06:45:38
    Council Member Osman, aye.
  • 06:45:41
    Oh, I don't know if I remember to mention this, but on the previous amendment, Labor Standards Co-enforcement, Council Member Osman wanted to be included as a co-author.
  • 06:45:55
    We've gotten through 25 amendments today, and that is
  • 06:46:04
    Thank you all for being a part of making that happen.
  • 06:46:13
    With that, I am going to
  • 06:46:19
    With that, I am going to adjourn today's meeting.
  • 06:46:22
    Our next regular meeting is on Monday, December 8th at 1.30pm.
  • 06:46:27
    Our agenda for that meeting will include the continuation of our work on the 2026 budget.
  • 06:46:32
    Thank you everyone.
  • 06:46:33
    Have a good night.