(C) Minnesota Reformer
This unaltered story was originally published on MinnesotaReformer.com [1]
Licensed under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 [2]
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Idea for new public safety department for Minneapolis differs from one rejected by voters
By: ['Deena Winter', 'More From Author', '- February'], Minnesota Reformer
Date: 2022-02
A new Minneapolis City Council member will float the prospect Thursday of creating a new public safety department — an idea that was rejected by Minneapolis voters in November.
But this time, Ward 1 Council Member Elliott Payne is proposing to amend the city charter through an ordinance, rather than a ballot measure. The City Council can amend the city charter with unanimous support of an ordinance, and the mayor’s approval.
“The path I’m on is to win the support of every council member and the mayor,” he said.
After the Minneapolis police killing of Amir Locke last week, Payne said that a heightened focus on public safety was needed — again. Payne said he went through the same “heartbreak and hopelessness and powerlessness” after hearing about Locke’s killing as he did after George Floyd’s police killing in 2020.
“I felt like I needed to take some kind of action,” he said. “I’m, in fact, not powerless as a council member.”
The proposal bears “no comparison” to the charter amendment Minneapolis voters rejected that would have created a new public safety department, Payne said. He said it would deal with authority over the department.
“I more envision this as how are we approaching public safety under this new government structure… and what kind of structural approaches can we do that are more in line with the passage of Question 1,” he said, referring to the charter amendment voters passed that gives the mayor more power, and council less.
Payne said he’d like to take a look at the entire hierarchy of the executive branch’s relationship to administration.
Payne said he had a “cordial conversation” with Mayor Jacob Frey about it over the weekend, and Frey said he was leaning on his government structure work group and wants to bring changes as part of a comprehensive package.
As for the rest of the council, he said, “the early conversations I’ve had have been receptive.”
“But there’s also a lot of ‘but what are the details? Is this just reintroducing what we tried to pass last year?’ ” Payne said.
He said the city has a lot of public safety functions in multiple departments, or “isolated silos.” As far as whether a police chief would lead the department (under the ballot measure, the chief would not have), he said that’s something he and the council would have to work on.
“It’s my intention to work closely with my colleagues,” he said.
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