Good morning.

Welcome to the regular meeting of the Super Committee of the Whole.

My name is Orreen Chowdry, and I am the chair of this committee.

As we get started, I want to reiterate that the City Council has temporarily restructured into a single committee of the whole.

This means we've essentially consolidated all of our standing committees into a single body.

All items considered today will be forwarded to the full city council for its consideration at the meeting this Thursday, March 5th at 9 30 a.m.

As usual, these meetings will be broadcast and live streamed for our public access channels and the city's website to enhance public accessibility.

I also want to note we just have two supercows and council cycles remaining.

We will be returning to the adopted structure and schedule beginning on Monday, April 13th, with all of our standing committee meetings during a regular two-week cycle.

I know that all of us are very eager to get back into that structure.

And so there is an end to this temporary structure in the very near future, colleagues.

Having said that, I also want to express my appreciation to all of you for your patience over the past two months and all of the staff across the enterprise for their flexibility in adapting to this temporary structure.

With that, I will call this meeting to order and ask the clerk to call the role to verify a presence of a quorum.

Councilmember Payne.

Present.

Wandsley.

Present.

Rainville.

Present.

Vita.

Present.

Warren.

Present.

Osman is absent.

Schaefer.

Present.

Stevenson.

Here.

Chavez.

Here.

Whiting.

Present.

Palmasano.

Present.

Vice Chair Chiktai is absent and Chair Chowderry.

Present.

There are 11 members present.

Let the record reflect that we have a quorum.

Before we begin the meeting, let me offer a friendly reminder to everyone that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation.

The broadcasts include real-time captioning to increase accessibility for the entire community.

So it's important that all speakers be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast.

We ask all speakers to please moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.

Colleagues, you can see from the printed agenda that we have a significant number of items to address today.

However, in order to accept the grant, the action needs to be amended to correct the grant from 100,000 for one year for a one-year term to $300,000 for a three-year term.

I believe we can deal with this item on consent, so I will consider this item number 74B.

Second, we we have an item from Councilmember Palmasano, a staff directive requesting an analysis of the current community safety training needs and alignment with national best practices, the national landscape of similar facilities in comparable jurisdictions, as well as associated costs with those facilities.

I'll propose that we take up the direction from Councilmember Palmasano as item number 79 to be our last item following the report from our county attorney.

Is there any objection to adding the health department item to our consent agenda as item number 74 B and the item from Councilmember Palmasano to the end of discussion as item number 79?

All right, I'm not seeing any objection.

And then I will also recognize that um Vice Chair Chugtai has joined us.

In terms of the order of the meeting, Madam Chair, I'm sorry to interrupt.

I believe there's also a late breaking third item that was added to your agenda that you had instructed could be added to consent.

It should be at your desks.

This is an RCA cover page from the public works department.

It's addressed to the Climate and Infrastructure Committee.

Um this is the dropkick ice block event permit that we wanted to make sure was added on to the agenda.

It was a late one that was added late last night, and so it is at your um places here on the dais.

And I thought we were gonna add it.

So there's three additions.

Okay.

Um that's not on my script, at least in this version of it.

So thank you for jumping in there.

Is there any objection to that addition?

Okay, great.

In terms of order of the meeting, I'm planning to dispose of the consent agenda first, as I mentioned.

That will now include all items shown on the printed agenda as consent items, including the switch on item number 64 and the addition of item number 74 B as discussed.

After we dispose of the consent agenda, we'll take up the two quasi-judicial hearings and then move the two public hearings noted on the agenda.

I anticipate that we will be able to complete the consent agenda and the four hearings approximately by noon, maybe um a little bit after, and then we will take an hour break for lunch before we return to handle the five items on our discussion agenda, which include the staff directive from councilmember Palmasano as discussed.

Is there any questions on the order of the meeting before adopting the agenda?

I see councilmember Schaefer.

Yes, for the city clerk, I would like to make record of my recusal on number 12.

And then also I would like to pull number 59 for discussion and separate vote.

Thank you.

All right.

We can, and just for the future, you can um you can do that when we adopt the agenda.

So after we adopt the agenda.

Okay.

Councilmember Rainbow.

Thank you.

I do I just want to make sure I had sent an email yesterday asking for a couple items uh to be pulled for uh uh separate vote, small discussion.

Items 52.

Yeah, could we adopt the agenda and then I will thank you, I'm sorry.

Yeah, we'll just we'll just want to adopt the agenda and then I'm actually having a hard time hearing you if your voice is so soft.

So if you could move the microphone closer.

Thank you.

Well, thank you.

In the old chambers, we could just talk into them and it would just be filling the space.

Okay, so then I'll speak up.

I appreciate that feedback.

All right.

Seeing no other questions with that, may I have a motion to adopt the agenda.

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay.

That motion passes.

With that, colleagues, we'll now take up the consent agenda.

For those in the audience, I'll note that we'll be taking up comments on the hearings for each of the quasi judicial and public hearing matters after this.

If you wish to address the committee during any of these hearings and you haven't already done so, we invite you to register with the clerks at the registration table located in the corridor outside this chamber.

You can also provide any written comments or materials for the record to the clerks at the registration table.

Please take a few minutes to register now if you haven't already done so.

And so I'm gonna summarize the consent agenda for everyone, and then I ask that colleagues get into queue and then state if they are going to pull an item for a separate vote and state if it's for a comment or if it is for discussion.

So on our consent agenda, we have items numbered five through 74.

Item five through eight are legal settlements.

Item nine establishes 2026 local board of appeal and equalization.

Item 10 accepts 2025 quarterly donation reports.

Item 11 authorizes a collective bargaining agreement.

Item 12 is the administrative closing of two ethics complaints.

Item 13 is a contract amendment, and items 14 through 17 are ordinances that are being reintroduced from previous from the previous term and are being referred to staff for further work.

Items 18 through 20 are liquor and gambling license approvals and renewals.

Item 21 is acceptance of the fall 2025 Brownfield grants.

Item 22 and 23 are contracts and extensions related to art providers and managers.

Item 25 accepts a grant for the KMOJ project.

Item 25 is a legislative directive related to the rental licenses ordinance.

And lastly, item 26 through 34 are ordinances introduced at the last council meeting that are being referred to staff to begin the drafting process.

Next, items 35 through 39 are contract amendments for various services and programs.

Items 40 through 42 are master contracts with numerous entities through the city health department.

Item 43 is an agreement with Henhamton County.

Item 44 and 45 are both gift acceptances.

And lastly, items 47 through 50 are all ordinances being referred to staff for further work after being introduced at the last council meeting.

Item 51 approves appointments to the South Side Green Zone Council.

Item 52 through 55 are various project agreements with the county and min dot.

Item 56 is a resolution of support for the Metro K-line.

Item 57 is a joint powers agreement with the Parks Board.

Item 58 is a street reconstruction project.

Item number 59 is a resolution expressing comments related to I 94.

60 is agreement with county for waste reduction.

Item 61 authorizes a temporary construction easement.

Item 62 through 64 are gift acceptances.

And I'll note here again this is where we have the swap of the funding source for the gift to uh public works director Tim Sexton.

Item 65 through 70 are various bids, contracts, and grants, and item 71 and 72 are ordinances being referred to staff for further work after being introduced at the last council meeting.

Item 73 is a request to the city auditor that is related to the city's data security and surveillance.

Item 74 is the last ordinance that's being reintroduced and referred from staff from the prior term.

Item 74B is an item printed before us on the dais.

This is that health department uh correction for the school blakes school-based health centers grant from 100,000 to 300,000.

And then we also have that item that um Clerk Carl noted about the meld ice event.

That completes my summary of the consent agenda before I move to approve the consent agenda as summarized.

Council members, this is your opportunity to get into queue to pull items for comment or discussion.

And please, as you're doing that, uh make that distinction.

Councilmember Rainbell.

Uh thank you.

Could we please pull item 52, 54, 55, and 67 for discussion?

It's for discussion.

And is that so we can have a separate vote or is that specifically for a comment?

I I just have questions of the staff, so if anyone from public works is in the back room a heads up, I I have just some short questions.

Okay, thank you.

And then I'm just going to ask the city clerk for that for your advice.

Is it better to take up those questions now or should we put that in our discussion agenda for later?

Uh Madam Chair, I would suggest that if those questions are short as council member Rainville has suggested that we would dispose of the consent agenda, take out those items first and dispose of them so staff can leave if they don't need to be.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And then is that is that everything fully captured, Councilmember Rainville?

Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

Um, Councilmember Warren.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to pull items 36, 37, 38, 39, 46, and 48.

I have questions.

Okay.

Did the clerks get those items?

Thank you.

36, 37, 38, 39, 46, and 48.

Okay.

Great.

Next, we'll go to councilmember Schaefer.

Just reiterating, I'd like to pull item number 59 for discussion and vote and recuse myself on number 12.

Thank you.

Councilmember Chavez.

Uh thank you, Chair Chaderid.

Just wanted to speak quickly on item number 73.

Please go ahead.

This is a resolution requesting that the audit committee request from the city auditor, a consultative and advisory engagement to serve the data security of the city's existing surveillance technology and make recommendations for best practices for data security for existing and future city surveillance technology based on numerous reports uh regarding the Department of Homeland Security.

We know that they are engaging in mass surveillance of immigrants observers and entire neighborhoods and are using technology, including license plate readers, facial recognition technology, cell phone data, and social media monitoring tools.

My hope that this is adopting my hope is that this is adopted today so then the city auditor can make a decision if he would like to make this take up this work.

That way we could uh do an analysis on our surveillance technology in the city of Minneapolis.

Thank you so much.

Council President Payne.

Thank you, Chair Childry.

I was just gonna speak quickly on item number 58, uh Logan Park Industrial, aka keep Quincy Weird.

Uh the community's been highly invested in the future of this project and just wanted to uplift this April 16th uh public comment period.

Excellent.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Payne.

With that, I am not seeing any other questions.

May I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda?

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

The consent agenda passes.

And now we will go to our items that have been pulled for discussion.

These are the items pulled.

Okay.

The first item that we'll go to is item number 36.

And I believe this was pulled by councilmember Warren.

Would you like to go ahead and um I just have questions?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just have questions about these items, and we can kind of group them together because I don't understand why there is grave increases amounts to these individual contracts.

I reached out to our public safety ambassador and asked for a copy of uh uh RFQ or RFP, and I was I seeing that it was from 2024, so I'm wondering what changed in the need for these contracts to need to be increased at these large amounts and what's happening.

Yeah, I think that's I think those are really uh important questions to ask.

We definitely had a discussion in our agenda setting about it.

So why don't we take up 36 through 39 together if that works for you, council member?

That works for me.

Thank you, madam chair.

And then I believe the best person to answer these questions is going to be either director uh um Harrington.

I was like, I can't I can't remember the name all of a sudden.

Either Director Harrington or if we have um director Barnett as well, or Commissioner Barnett Great.

Welcome, Director.

Please introduce yourself and then if you need um any repeating of the question or clarification, just let the council member know.

Thank you.

Amanda Harrington, director of neighborhood safety.

I was trying to watch the transcript on the video, but I would appreciate having the question repeated.

Thank you, Director Harrington, for um being present.

So my question is: what has changed from the RFQ that was sent to me or the RFP that was sent to me from 2024 that allocates this large amounts of funding that are being extended to these multiple groups, and is this any consequence to the groups that were excluded from City of Minneapolis contracts from being able to receive services?

I'm just can I'm concerned.

Thank you.

Um through the chair.

It is typical practice for our contracts and neighborhood safety to be one-year contracts, and so the contracts that are before you were set to expire in uh the end of March 2026.

When those contracts expire, we can either issue a new request for proposal, but we typically only do that every three to four years, or we can go before the council to amend and extend the contract.

In the cases of the contracts in front of you, we had just done the request for proposal in 2024, and so instead of doing that process again, we are asking to amend the contracts for an additional year.

The funding that was given to the contracts last year were only for one year of services.

If we extend the contracts for an additional year, they need commiserate funding to do the work for another year.

The contracts that you're referring to that were cut, the community trauma response contracts, are not paying for the contracts before you.

We're using our 2026 budget to pay for the contracts that are before you.

Okay, so um so not to when it says that it the amount is not to exceed, like with item number um 38 for instance, when it says that there is an additional amount of 234,405, the amount not to exceed 464,810.

So is that the they're spending 232,405 annually?

Through the chair, yes.

Their contract last year was for the example that you're giving, 232,000.

And this year they are getting an additional 232,000, so that their contract not to exceed covers two full years and is double that amount.

We're not giving that that full not to exceed amount in this year.

That's just the total life of the contract.

So you said they would be extended for one year.

Correct.

Okay, so that's the life of the contract.

So then that amount would be a one-year allotment of funding that is extended to these individual groups.

Through the chair, the 232,000 is the one-year funding that they have for this year.

Oh, the April 2026 through the end of March 2027.

So I'm just and I and maybe this is a question and a conversation off record, but I'm just trying to understand what it is that everyone is doing in order to be receiving such large quantities of funding.

What is the what is the issue and is it really being you know solved with all of this question number um item number 39?

We got a million four hundred and sixteen thousand eight hundred dollars for one year term.

Um not to exceed that amount, but they're being given 708,400.

I'm just trying to figure out what are they doing for that amount.

Through the chair, it will definitely depends on the contract that you're asking about what they do.

Each contract has a very um specific scope of service that goes along with that.

In the example that you're talking about, number 39 is for a violence interruptor or Minneapolis contract, they are being given about $708,000 for this year.

Again, the $1 million number is the life of their contract, which started in 2020 5 and will end in 2027 if this is approved.

In the case of violence interrupters, um, the scope of their contract includes um street um activation, so they monitor the the assigned geographic area where they are contracted to be.

They have contacts in that community to understand when violence is bubbling up and to intervene in those before they become escalated into gun violence, for example, or other community harm.

They are also contracted to spread messages of peace and help the community say, like this is not normal for our community to live in gun violence.

This should not be the norm that we want, and and to emphasize that message with all community members.

In addition, they hold community events that sometimes provide resources or provide just bonding opportunities and kind of normalizing that message of peace.

The gun violence intervention and youth group gun violence intervention contracts are different.

They work specifically with individuals who are most at risk of excuse me, group violence.

G is for group, not gun violence.

So people who have been involved in gangs or groups or are at risk of being involved in gangs or groups, and there's very specific criteria for them to get involved.

Once they're referred, we have a number of options, including doing visits with the police department to help gang or group members understand that they are on the radar of law enforcement.

We'd love to provide them the resources and the support to get out of that lifestyle.

Thank you, Director.

Next we will go to Councilmember Vita.

Thank you, Chair.

Good morning, Director.

Thanks for being here.

I just have a couple questions.

You said in your um comments that the dollars were from the 2026 budget, but the fiscal note says it's from public safety aid.

So, like what's the can you explain what where the money is actually coming from?

Because that does make a difference to me.

Through the chair, it um again you're talking about a number of different contracts.

So the community safety ambassador funding is public safety aid funding.

The GBI, YGBI, and violence interruptor funding is through the general fund budget.

Okay, so some of them are general fund and some of them are public safety.

Yes, thank you for clarifying.

Thank you.

And then I don't see uh restoration inc on here for extension.

Can you explain why that is?

Through the chair, restoration inc's contracts do not expire until August.

They had one contract that expires in March, and we are allowing that contract to lapse as part of our cost saving efforts.

Which contract is that?

Um, through the chair, I can't tell you exactly which zone it is, but we are also reorganizing all of the geographic zones.

It's one of the correct.

They had three contracts in North Minneapolis for three separate zones.

Okay.

So then is this um is this touch outreach one, like a zone one too?

Like one of the zones that's getting extended, but because they also had three or two or three also.

Through the chair, touch outreach had two contracts.

One of their contracts expires in March, which is why we're in front of you today.

The other contract doesn't expire until this summer.

Okay, thank you.

That's it.

Thank you.

Councilmember Palmasano.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Director Harrington, I think I understand part of the answer to my first question here, and it was a question about the contract amendment for TOUCH.

Um, I think we still have others other than touch providing services to for these eight different areas as defined by Cure Global.

Um, and this is just an expansion.

Hey, Councilmember Palmasano, I apologize for cutting you off.

Could you speak more directly into your microphone and speak louder?

Is this better?

And that's uh for everyone as well.

We're having some issues with the microphones.

Certainly.

Um you've partially answered my question already, but my question was about the touch outreach question, item number 39.

And it was going to ask are we now only having one vendor providing services to all eight areas?

Um cure global violence.

I don't think so.

I think what you are saying is that we still have others.

Um this is just an expansion of the service area to touch, or just an expansion of their contract in terms of time.

Church Audrey, council members, we have today seven contracts for violence interrupters.

They don't all end at the same time.

Some of them were started in um April of last year, some of them were started in August, and so we will come before council at varying times throughout this year for contract extensions.

Two of the contracts we are allowing to lapse because they end at the end of March.

In this case, we have one contract in front of you that was supposed to end at the end of March.

It is a one-year extension to ensure that Touch continues to work in South Minneapolis.

At the same time, we are also working on changing the geographic areas that these organizations cover, and that does not just mean touch outreach, it's all of the organizations because some of the feedback that we got from last year was that the geographic areas we asked them to cover were too narrow.

And so we are trying to respond to the professionals that are experts in the community and also address those maps.

Yeah, thank you.

I appreciate that.

Um my other questions are about items number 37 and 38.

That was the YGVI and GVI services.

The RCA said this is for client needs and support.

So are there no additional direct client services other than emergent needs?

If you could just maybe say a little bit more about what it is.

Chair Choudery, Councilmember Palmasano, um, the GBI and YGBI contracts are for the work of the organization.

So the contract funding includes salaries, but it also does include client assistance.

The city has very specific uh public purpose guidance on how we can use client assistance, and it is really for emergency needs.

It is much more narrow, I think, narrowly defined than we've had in the past.

I see.

Um then just to say I assume that for these contracts, this is contracting out of the 2026 um NSD budget.

Is that accurate?

Through the chair, GBI and YGBI are funded through the 20 to 26 um NSD budget.

That was something that we had previously planned.

Thank you.

And then I'll just note for the chair that um previously, I don't remember exactly when, but I did ask um for the status of all PSA dollars, kind of where they are at broadly speaking beyond NSD.

Um, and I I have not gotten any answers to that.

I do think that has caused some confusion here this cycle, and it would be helpful to get kind of a level setting on PSA dollars still.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And you noted that for administrative follow-up at a point.

Okay.

So we'll note that again, and then I'll ask the clerk's office to look back at the administrative follow-ups that we have had and other committees to just ensure that they have been fulfilled and we receive them in a timely manner.

Next, I will recognize Councilmember Whiting.

Thank you, Chair Chowdery, and thank you, Director Harrington.

Just to kind of a quick question here, and I think it's helpful for for maybe public to know as well.

Uh, are you able to kind of speak to it's my understanding that we've seen kind of crime statistics uh lower in the last year and a half.

Uh are you able to kind of speak to uh as it sounds like outside of a outside of a presentation, but if you are kind of able to speak to a little bit um if these groups are our are YGV on our GBI uh efforts have been helpful in in that reduction, or if we haven't seen it.

Chair Chowdhury, Councilmember Whiting.

Um statistics are interesting and can be used in a variety of ways.

I think you can interpret data any number of ways.

I would love to take full credit for the reduction in violence and crime in Minneapolis over the last year.

And I'd like to strongly believe that the violence prevention work in neighborhood safety contributes to that, but it also is um contributed to the work of the police department, the work of everyday community organizations and citizens who um spread those messages of peace and kind of talk people down.

So it's not a one-to-one correlation.

Thank you.

That's helpful.

Next, I will recognize Councilmember Chavez.

Uh thank you, Chair uh Chowdery.

I'll just make it quick speaking in favor of these contracts, uh, violence prevention, group violence intervention, um alternatives to policing keep people safe, and these programs have been effective at keeping uh my constituents and constituents across the city of Minneapolis safe.

So I just want to thank the neighborhood safety department for bringing these forward.

Uh these services need to stay intact.

They really do matter to my constituents, and I assume our constituents across the city of Minneapolis, someone big advocate for these, and I really hope that these are adopted today.

Next, I'll recognize Councilmember Warren.

Thank you, Madam Chair and Director Harrington.

I'm just um I'm I'm I've done a lot of youth intervention work myself, okay.

Um with the City of Minneapolis Youth Coordinating Board and also with the City of Brooklyn Park youth outreach as well.

So I'm familiar with how these programs work.

I'm just my question was about what has changed and why there's not an even distribution of funding across the board with respect to trauma response.

Um the the narrative that we're in right now with respect to our city has us responding to a lot of trauma.

This is a reaction of the things that we've endured and our young people have endured since 2020.

So I just thought that it was very um disadvantageous for to see that the domestic abuse project and groups like a Mother's Love and a number of other organizations were being removed from funding when they provide such a great resource to our city.

And I was trying to understand if there was a way to open up and extend those contracts and keep all of these bodies moving the way that they need to move because it's a delicate balance and a delicate dance with the way that we respond to the traumas and fractions within our our community and for organizations, especially like DAP, which I've utilized in in other parts of my life, you know, whether I'm working with clients or whether I utilize them for myself, I see them as very valuable and to take funding away from those type of um organizations and and provide so much funding to these individual organizations.

I just was trying to understand if there's a way to balance that scope and the scope of work because all are necessary.

Chair Chowdhury, Councilmember Warren, uh I agree with you that having restoration services is a critical part of the community safety ecosystem, and it is neighborhood safety's goal to go back to having those services in the future.

The contracts that are before council today are really violence prevention contracts, um, not the restoration contracts, and they're not taking from the community trauma response.

The amount that we're asking to go to the contracts before the council today is just to maintain the services.

But excuse me, Director Harrington, trauma response is violence prevention because it removes retaliatory behavior.

So when you're responding to someone and providing them with intervention services and resources, then you alleviate retaliatory behavior.

Through the chair, I I agree with you.

The public health lens of violence prevention, which we work under talks about um primary, secondary, tertiary.

So the responsive category would be the tertiary category of um violence prevention under the public health model.

I completely agree with you that we absolutely need these services.

Um just the contracts before you today are not taking from the services that you value.

That's a separate discussion, and I'm happy to have that with you because I do value those services as well.

Okay, thank you, Director Harrington.

Next, I'll recognize Councilmember Vita.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, Councilmember Warren, just a quick update.

Councilmember Chavez and I have been working on restoring the funding for the programs that you're talking about.

I'm certain that you've gotten all the calls and emails that I've gotten from Northsiders about uh those very critical programs.

But Councilmember Chavez and I talked on Friday.

We came up with uh um a pathway to getting these contracts funded at least to the end of the um the the uh span that we originally voted on, and so he just texted me and said that it's moving forward.

He I told him just tap you and tell you, but he didn't.

So the contracts don't let her keep going on.

Teamwork make a dream work, okay?

Let's do it.

She is clearly upset.

We're fixing it, council member.

At least we're trying to.

So we're in conversations about um working this out.

Please.

You rightfully so you should be upset about this because it is taking uh crucial services from this entire city, but on the north side in particular, um, you know, we just had uh a very traumatic situation happened in our community, and these teams stepped up in a big way for these families, and so I know where you're coming from, but we're we're working on it most certainly.

Um the uh the other question I had though was um maybe the the public safety chair can answer it or not.

Did we ever have a presentation on the new groups?

Because we had a bunch of groups like um uh what was it like um eMERGE and the Man Up Club and some of those groups that were newer to these contracts, and that I don't recall that we ever got a presentation on their uh progress or like the specifics and any data collection or you know, like what those interventions, the impact of those interventions.

So just wondering if there was a presentation if it was, um, can you tell me when it was?

You can email me this at a later time too if you need to.

But if there's something you have that just shows us since 2024 when we launched this, because we kind of did like uh um a new group of folks, and I just haven't heard like if there's been successes and what areas those successes has have been in around um the youth uh group violence intervention and also a GBI.

So I'd love some updates on what it's looking like with the new groups that are funded.

Um I would love for Councilmember Chavez to say if I'm missing something, but I know we had slides in our OCS quarterly updates that addressed exactly what you were talking about because we had requests from council members to talk about the data for GBI and YGBI.

And if I recall correctly, we had a really busy end of session and ran out of time to have those presentations.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, so in the future, it'd be great though, like if even in the um the RCA, if you could just like add a one pager that says the impact of these grants, so we know like what you know, like what council member Warren is new.

There's new council members here who are just voting for a contract that some of us have extended, and she's had a lot of questions about this that I can't answer.

So, like a simple thing could be just the one pager that says this is what happened before you got here, and this is what we're trying to maintain with solid data about how these groups have um helped in the city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President Payne.

Thank you, Chair Chowdhury.

Actually, just building on that and some of the questions from Councilmember Whiting, Councilmember Warren.

Uh this April, we're gonna have in our audit committee uh our anticipated report out of the NSD audit.

This grew out of I mean, this department has gone through a lot of gyrations, a lot of scrutiny, a lot of questions around how contracting process processes have emerged, culminating in director Harrington joining uh the department uh and bringing a lot of rigor to that process.

And so uh there's actually been a lot of work to strengthen the RFP process um and even the monthly invoicing process.

And I know that uh we're anticipating a big report out from the city auditor at the April meeting for that.

So I just wanted to give a heads up for that and just a little bit more background for my colleagues that have some of these questions.

Thank you.

I I'll just kind of pose a question that doesn't need to be answered uh by colleagues today or right now in this moment, just something to consider.

Uh if that quarterly update presentation would be valuable at one of the next supercows that we have coming up, we can certainly put that in the agenda.

I know that these are long meetings, but they're planned to be long meetings, and so if that's valuable to uh council members, that's certainly something we can discuss about having on the agenda.

I I prefer you prefer briefings just food for thought.

So I appreciate the the response.

Okay.

There are no other questions on these items.

So I will ask someone to make a motion.

So moved.

Uh I move I move to approve items 36 through 39.

Second.

Thank you.

Uh will the clerk please call the roll.

Councilmember Payne.

Aye.

Wansley.

Aye.

Rainville.

All right.

Vita?

Aye.

Warren.

I Osman is absent.

Schaefer, aye.

Stevenson?

Aye.

Chavez.

All right.

Whiteyen.

All right.

Paul Masano.

Aye.

Vice Chair Chick Tai.

Aye.

And Chair Chowdery.

That carries.

Oh, aye.

That carries.

12 eyes.

That carries.

All right.

Next, we have item number 46, which is about the safe outdoor space referral to staff.

And then we also have item number 48, which is about the drug paraphernalia referral to staff on the ordinance.

And I'm wondering, um, Councilmember Warren, if we could take both of these items up together for discussion.

Um, Chair, yes, that's fine.

I just have questions.

I just wanted it explained.

Great.

Why don't you go ahead?

Um item number 46 and um 48 for safe outdoor spaces.

Um what is what is the for individuals outdoor sheltering and for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, and then what is the what is that drug paraphernalia for individuals to be able to walk around with drugs?

Thank you.

Yeah, I will have the the lead author address both of these together, and I'll just also note for you and the rest of the colleagues this is an action specifically to refer to staff to begin the work of working with staff to uh write out the legislation for the the ordinances, and with that I will go to the author, the lead author on both of those ordinances, councilmember Chavez.

Uh thank you, Chair Charter, if I may.

NOR 46 is the safe author space component.

This is for a safe parking ordinance.

This is going to be authored by myself, Councilmember Chowdery, Councilmember Chuck Tai, and it would allow for a safe parking space for individuals who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness to be allowed to be in a parking spot.

It would go through a specific process, it would go through zoning, it would have a similar program to what exists currently in the city of Duluth.

This ordinance isn't here yet because it hasn't been introduced with the exact language yet.

It's gonna have to go through the zoning and planning commission and then come before the city council for potential amendments and discussion.

So that's basically what it is.

It exists in the city of Duluth.

The Safe Bay program, and that's what we're modeling it after.

Now the second one, the drug paraphernalia ordinance, the state legislature already decriminalized the possession of drug paraphernalia.

What this would do is just we're out of compliance in our city ordinance, so it's just adopting what the state did.

And again, there isn't a specific language yet because we haven't introduced it yet.

We're just referring it to staff so we can then come back and set up a public hearing.

So you said that the state has um already decriminalized the possession of drug paraphernalia.

Yeah, because for example, people were getting criminalized for having a water bong.

Okay, but does that add respect to needles and all kind of other crack pipes and I mean just people just walking around with just stuff.

People are allowed should be allowed to carry that stuff.

It doesn't have drugs in it.

This is not about drug use, this is about paraphernalia, which is separate separate issues.

Yeah, but I see paraphernalia all up and down the streets and up and down the sidewalks and needles and all kinds of other things that you know bring about harm to children and elders and individuals who are um moving about community carrying out different business.

So I'm I'm really struggling with this.

Um I'm happy to have a conversation with you once the language is finalized.

Again, this is what the state legislature did.

Governor Walsh signed this into state law.

We're just getting our ordinances into compliance.

I mean, paraphernalia being carried around in public um allows for individuals to, you know, carry out public and drunkenness and other behaviors, or or to be under the influence.

That's why our trains and our transit areas are not as safe as they should be for individuals to commute throughout community because of the paraphernalia that individuals are carrying with them and utilizing because that promotes usage.

If you're walking around with a crack pipe, you're nine times out of ten you're looking for crack or you just got finished using it.

Um traffic cones on top of people's heads and bus shelters and things like that.

I mean, we're seeing too much of this.

This is I don't I don't there's no way I can comply with this.

So my vote on this will be definitely no for both in with respect to that.

Thank you for your explanation though.

Councilmember Chavez, do you have any further comments?

Okay.

Councilmember Chuck Tai.

Uh thank you, Madam Chair, just to reiterate, um, these are not uh neither of these two or um items are the passage of said policies.

Um whether it's safe outdoor spaces or the drug paraphernalia ordinance, these are being referred to staff, which is a part of our standard legislative process um with that that allows for the drafting of policies um which then come back to uh the body to conduct a public hearing which gives opportunity for community to weigh in on proposed policies prior to further refinement and and ultimately then the consideration of passage.

Um so we are very, very early in in the process of these, and I just as discussion is unfolding on them, and and I think it makes a lot of sense.

These are really um these these are these are questions that um are important to be asking and uh you know, just to make sure that we're not passing policies that uh that we're not all clear what we're exactly the the goal we're trying to get to.

Um, but just just for folks who are watching along, um we are we are not passing either one of these policies right now.

We're going through like a very technical part of the process.

Um and then uh, you know, just just to you know reiterate what Councilmember Chavez mentioned around item number 48, the drug paraphernalia ordinance referral, um, that this is about compliance with state law, which we are out of compliance with, and that is a problem.

We cannot do that.

Um and and not a brand new body of work.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um I'm I thank you.

Yes.

Thank you.

Um Councilmember Warren.

I understand we can be out of the state compliance, and that can be anywhere else in the state, but in the city of Minneapolis, that does not have to be the compliance or the behavior in the city.

That can be somewhere else in the state.

That does not have to be in the city.

We don't have to have that behavior in the city of Minneapolis, especially where we're seeing an oversaturation and concentration of that.

Doesn't make any sense at all whatsoever.

Just because it's a uh state law doesn't mean that it has to be ordained within the city that we have to say that this works for this community.

So there's a lot of state laws and all kinds of things that go for other areas of the city, but in a specific jurisdiction of the state, we have the right to say that no, that doesn't work.

And I think we've seen enough of the concentrated drug use and abuse and um displacement here that promotes you know individuals being a harm to themselves and others, and so therefore I'm a firm no, and I would vote to end this conversation indefinitely that we don't even have this talk anymore about any of this because it's ridiculous.

It doesn't even it doesn't match up if we're having a conversation about a war against opioids and all kind of other usage and things like that that are causing people to act out of their body and be at risk or at harm to themselves or other people to be walking around with flashing needles and and pipes and drugs and things like that.

It just it it doesn't make any sense.

It contradicts the health and safety that we're saying that we're trying to promote and wellness with individuals in our community.

I put myself in cue.

I um we'll just say that there will be ample time in the future for further discussion.

Uh I personally am really grateful that we aren't criminalizing our community members uh for having needles, pipes, water bongs.

I don't think that gets at the heart of addressing addiction, which is a disease.

And I believe that community members that face addiction and substance use disorder deserve to be treated with humanity and dignity, and that's why this was changed at the state level.

And it is also my understanding for this state law.

Um, and we will have further discussion about this.

I don't believe we are able to supersede state law on this.

So it's important that our city codes are in compliance with state law as all of our city codes must be.

With that, I will ask the clerk actually to take up the role on both of these items separately, and so why don't we take up the role on item number 30 46, safe outdoor spaces referral to staff?

Councilmember Payne.

Aye.

Wandsley.

Aye, Rainville.

Aye.

Vita.

Aye.

Warren.

No.

Schaefer.

Aye.

Stevenson.

Aye.

Chavez.

Aye.

Waiting.

Aye.

Palmasano.

Aye.

Vice Chair Chintai.

Aye.

And Chair Chowdhury.

Aye.

There are 11 ayes and one nay.

That motion carries.

Uh next, we will take up the vote on item number 48.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Payne.

Aye.

Wansley.

Aye.

Rainville.

Vita.

Aye.

Warren.

No.

Schaefer.

Aye.

Stevenson.

Aye.

Chavez.

Aye.

Waiting.

Aye.

Palmasano.

Aye.

Vice Chair Chimtai.

Aye.

And Chair Chowbury.

Aye.

There are 11 ayes and one nay.

That carries.

All right.

We will continue down the line from items pulled from the consent agenda.

Next we have item number 52.

And that was pulled by Councilmember Rainville.

So we will go to you, Councilmember.

Thank you.

I think we're waiting for public works.

Please let him in.

Thank you.

You guys uh looked a little shifty.

They don't want the security, don't want to let you in the room.

I love it.

So here's my question.

Uh as part of this uh uh blue line extension, green line extension.

Uh there's uh some safety improvements with the streets, especially pedestrian safety and uh enhancements to crossing streets.

When will that start?

So uh council member uh uh sorry chair Chowdery, members of committee, uh councilmember Rainbow.

Could you please introduce yourself and come to the name's Kyle Wallace, project manager with uh transportation engineering design.

So this agreement is an operations and maintenance agreement with the Southwest LRT, which is the Green Line extension that's just um gonna be in service in 2027.

So with the project we did uh numerous ADA upgrades where we had uh ped ramp upgrades, ADA crosswalks, uh just making streets uh narrower and safer for the pedestrians to access the stations fine, but could you tell me or could someone in public works tell me when you're gonna put a new uh eighth street extension and then uh the discussion was about improvements crossing uh Washington Avenue at eighth, excuse me, 8th Avenue, not A Street, 7th, and then uh issues with 2nd Street uh how the traffic is gonna be impacted.

Where is that status?

I I have I would like to know how uh the North Loop neighborhood is gonna be affected.

Uh Chair Chowdhury, uh Councilmember Rainville.

I believe um some of the questions you're asking are for the blue line extension.

Um we're currently expecting 90 percent plans to come through at the end of this month.

Um we did recently have a North Loop package uh come through our CPTF, and we're gonna be addressing comments for those.

Those are due uh March 18th for uh for the review for North Loop package.

March 18th, thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um Councilmember Rainville, do you think we will need to call the roll on this one?

Would you like the roll to the case?

Sure, let's call the roll.

Okay, excellent.

Uh with that, let's call the roll on item number 52.

Councilmember Pain.

Aye.

Wandsley, aye.

Rainville, aye.

Vita, aye.

Warren.

Aye.

Schaefer.

Aye.

Stevenson.

Aye.

Chavez.

Aye.

Whiting?

Aye.

Palmasano.

Aye.

Vice Chair Chigtai.

Aye.

And Chair Chowdhury.

Aye.

There are 12 ayes.

That item carries.

Next we will go to item number 54.

This is regarding Lowry Avenue Northeast to Washington Northeast Reconstruction.

We'll go to Councilmember Rainville.

Uh thank you.

I have several questions.

Uh number one: when does the construction start?

When is it proposed to be finished?

And then uh a little off to the side, in fact, Council President P and I had just discussed this uh at Elsie's bowling alley this weekend.

What is about the timing for Marshall Avenue, University, and uh Central?

How are we doing on that?

Welcome and please introduce yourself.

Good morning, Chair, members of the committee.

My name is Don Elwood.

I'm the director of transportation, engineering, and design.

I heard three questions.

Let me see if I can address them one at a time.

This is a Hennepin County project on Lowry Avenue.

It's scheduled to begin construction in 2026.

It's scheduled to end construction in 2027.

Third question I heard is globally in Northeast.

What is the plan or how is this plan going?

We we do have a task force that has been set up.

It's up and running.

That task force at the city is working with Hennepin County and the state of Minnesota in order to do coordination on all projects in that area to minimize disruption and keep the public moving, access to businesses and to not impede the operation.

Thank you.

That's great news.

When when will the task force have information that uh council president and I would have access to the uh chair, members of the committee, council member?

Um I will have to get back to you on the the status, the exact status.

It is a um an iterative process as we work with each agency to uh push and pull schedules, but we can follow up with you.

That's great, and thank you for follow-up.

And when you talk to those agencies, if you would just let them know that uh the people in my ward, that's one of the most asked questions that I get in northeast Minneapolis is what's gonna happen when these three streets are under construction.

Uh Chair, members of the committee, councilmember, I'd be happy to do that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Could we uh call the roll on this, please?

Yes, Councilmember.

With that, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll on item number 54 Councilmember Paine.

Aye.

Wandsley.

Aye.

Rainville?

Aye.

Vita?

Aye.

Warren.

Aye.

Schaefer.

Aye.

Stevenson?

Aye.

Chavez.

Aye.

Whiting?

Aye.

Palmasano.

Aye.

Vice Chair Chicktai.

Aye.

And Chair Chowdery.

Aye.

There are 12 ayes.

That carries.

Next, we will go to item number 55.

This is regarding Hennepin Avenue improvements.

I will go to Councilmember Rainville who has pulled this item.

Thank you.

Again, my question on this is when will it start and when will it?

And I'm looking for a month, months.

I learned my own.

Welcome.

Please introduce yourself.

Good morning, uh Madam Chair and Councilmembers.

My name is Bill Prince.

I'm a professional engineer with traffic and parking services.

I was wondering if the question could be repeated.

I didn't.

Yes, of course.

Councilmember Rainbow.

Thank you, Bill, for coming.

I'm looking for the month that this will start and the month it will end.

Councilmember Rainville, the project is expected to start after the 4th of July and continue till approximately September, and then the county will do a mill and overlay of Hennepin Avenue in that stretch, and we'll have the new curb lines all set for that.

Thank you.

So the entire Hennepin Avenue, once the stretch is done, the mill and overlay.

The mill and overlay will go from Washington Avenue to the bridge.

Okay.

We're just doing from where the Metro Transit uh E-line bus station was constructed at Session Street to the uh bridge.

Great.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Uh but I I do have one question.

I I did not get a month from Mr.

Elwood.

Would you know, Director Sexton, when the Lowry Avenue, what month the Lowry Avenue will start or there is.

I'm sorry, I should have asked you this.

I'm looking for the month that the Lowry Avenue construction will start in 26.

Uh, and then when will it end in 2023?

Welcome back, Mr.

Elwood.

Chair, members of the committee, uh councilmember, I don't have an exact start date.

If I look at process, Hennepin County will bid this job out.

They'll hope to receive bids and award the bid.

Once the bids are awarded, this is a process.

I go through it with my project as well.

Once the bid is awarded, you work with that contractor to develop a schedule, including a start date with milestones.

Okay.

Thank you.

And the reason I'm asking this is there's restaurants on this stretch of Lower Avenue that are going to be greatly impacted by the role construction, and I would just like to help them do their planning.

So if you could work with Hennepin County in uh somehow what when that information is available, uh just pass it on to me so I can pass it on to the restaurants.

Uh Chair, members of the committee, council member.

Um I will pass that along.

There are customers too, and so it is important.

I understand the importance of doing that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

With that, I will ask the clerk to call the roll on item number 55.

Councilmember Payne.

Aye.

Wandsley.

Aye.

Greenville.

Aye.

Vita.

Aye.

Warren.

Aye.

Schaefer.

Aye.

Stevenson.

Aye.

Chavez.

Aye.

Whiting?

Aye.

Palmasano.

Aye.

Vice Chair Chuktai.

Aye.

And Chair Chowdery.

Aye.

There are 12 ayes.

That carries.

Next, we will go to item number 59, and this is regarding the city's comments on I-94, rethinking I94.

I'll go to Councilmember Schaefer, who has pulled this for discussion.

I thought 57 was also pulled.

Yeah.

I have item number 67 from 67.

All right, I apologize.

Yes, uh, thank you.

I would like to briefly have a short discussion.

First of all, I want to say thank you to public work staff for your brief overview of the last decade of work on this I-94 project.

Um for some of the new council members, even just yesterday.

So I appreciate that was a time frame and shortness of uh uh notification.

So thank you for that work.

One of the things that I um pointed out um in this process was um a phrase um in the third, let's see where it is on your paragraph.

So I appreciate that was a time frame and shortness of uh uh notification so thank you for that work one of the things that I um pointed out um in this process was um a phrase um in the third let's see where it is on your paragraph it's underneath now there it be resolved on the third page um striking the language and strongly opposes the repair or reconstruction of I 94 in its current form um to me in speaking with staff I expressed some of my concern about that um and in the way that that language itself communicates um that we as a city body would oppose maintenance and improvements on this roadway so vital vital to bringing people in to our city and residents getting around so in that dialogue staff were willing to bring this forward and shared this with Chair Wandsley and Vice Chair Stevenson and so I'm just wondering if we could if this body would be willing to replace this new one that you have on your dais dais with um what was originally attached in the agenda and the one change is what is crossed out on the third page in the first paragraph under now there it be resolved then councilmember schaefer is that a question for someone or should we just move through the queue um sure we can take it as a just a voice vote that might be the the quickest way um okay is that what you would suggest uh I I feel like I got the clarification I needed with that I will go to councilmember Wandsley thank you uh Chair Chowder so um this language is actually modeled off of the language that this body passed in 2024 regarding um our official position um orientating to the rethinking I-94 project so this is already a policy position adopted by the city council in the city so staff rightfully included the language that's already been set in the city's policy um positions on this that said um I agree with the sentiments around how this um statement as it currently stands offers confusion regarding our position related to welcoming investments um but that said I we done a lot of work as PAC board members specifically council member my uh Osman and myself and dozens of elected officials who sit on the policy advisory committee around the rethinking I-94 project um are staunchly uh protective of we do not want to maintain the status quo as it pertains to how we're moving forward with this project so that said I actually was going to motion to move this forward without recommendation on Thursday so that we could work with our staff to create some more language that gets at that as opposed to removing fully the also opposition of the reconstruction of I-94 because that is a position that we've taken and uh a pretty elaborate debate that's happening amongst um various jurisdictions that's imp impacted by this project.

So that's the motion I'm willing to make so that on Thursday we can bring back language considering this came to my attention just yesterday um so using this time to come forward and bring an amendment so with that I'll ask for a second on the motion to refer without recommendation.

Second second okay the motion to move this without recommendation has been moved and seconded is there anyone else that would like to speak to this item seeing none I'll ask the clerk you know what I just got I just council member Schaefer.

Yes I I appreciate um the work that has gone into this document to date but I also would like to recognize that we are voting on something with four new members of a council who have had no input into giving this some thought we had no presentations we've had nothing um other than this half an hour briefing yesterday that I requested and I apologize for the late notice of that because I didn't get to reading the agenda till the weekend but I would say that um I think it's really important that we include the voices of all the council members in this document as it goes forward.

We don't have the time to delay this would have been my first choice to delay this one cycle in order to be able to still submit it and have additional dialogue before the state deadline but with our council structure we cannot delay this and it's important for us very important to get these letter to the state I agree with almost everything that is in this document but I think that particular phrase lends itself to confusion within um constituencies about where we stand on on this roadway.

So I will um align with council members wandsley's recommendation to go ahead and move this forward with the idea we may have an amendment or additional changes for Thursday.

Thank you, Councilmember.

I'll go back to Councilmember Wandsley.

Yeah, and just for clarification, again, understanding we have four new council members, but this project is currently set to go for several years.

I think the tentative timelines, even up to maybe 2030.

So this will not be the first or last touch point that this body has to consider this project.

We will be having deliberate and elaborate conversations as we have been for the past three and a half years regarding this project in the climate and infrastructure committee.

Um so I just need to emphasize this is not the last touch point.

It's aligning with the city's position and many other partners who are part of this project as well, who've been impacted by the displacement in the historical racial segregation and dispossession and displacement that cause um harm to dozens of black and brown communities, and still to this day where Cedar Riverside were me and Councilmember Osman share that boundary in war.

Um we're seeing horrible and horrific public health impacts regarding even concentrated rates of at uh asthma and cancer along where that highway stands.

So there is going to be lots of debate, lots of conversations of how we're moving forward with intentionality with this project, especially before any ask of us um comes from uh the Minnesota Department of Transportation for any municipal consent to move forward with anything.

So I just want to name there'll be elaborate conversations, and then again on Thursday.

Yes, I'll bring an amendment that I believe will reflect at least the sentiments of the concerns that I've heard and also honors the intent of our current standing city policy regarding this uh project.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else that would like to get into discussion?

Seeing no one else, I will ask the clerk to call the roll on item number 59.

Councilmember Payne.

Aye, Wansley.

Aye, Rainville.

Aye.

Vita?

Aye.

Warren.

Aye.

Schaefer.

Aye.

Stevenson.

Aye.

Chavez.

Aye.

Waiting.

Aye.

Palmasano.

Aye.

Vice Chair Chittai?

Aye.

And Chair Chowdery.

Aye.

There are 12 ayes.

That carries.

This is the last item that we have pulled for discussion from consent.

This is item number 67 on the shared bike and scooters.

I will ask, I believe it's Councilmember Rainville to start us off here.

Thank you.

Uh I I just have a really short uh question for Director Sexton.

Actually, it's more of a request than a question, but uh this was the first winter that the scooters were allowed to operate in the winter as odd as that seems.

And I've gotten a lot of complaints about those uh scooters being left in snowbanks on sidewalks.

Wow.

Um I'm wondering if you could pass on your staff if they could uh call and we could talk about uh just scooters in general.

Uh obviously the complaints will really pick up in the summer, so I want to be prepared to talk to my constituents about uh the safeguards of public works has on those.

Yeah.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Um Chair.

Uh my name is Tim Sexton, Public Works Director.

Uh, through the chair, Councilmember Rainville, we'd be happy to set something up.

We'll reach out to your office today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

Is there any further discussion?

Members.

Okay.

Seeing none, Clerk, please call the roll on item number 67.

Councilmember Payne.

Aye.

Wandsley.

Aye.

Rainville.

Aye.

Vita is absent.

Warren.

If her aye.

Stevenson.

Aye.

Chavez.

Aye.

Whiting.

Aye.

Palmasana.

Aye.

Vice Chair Chipkai.

Aye.

And Chair Chowdery.

Aye.

There are 11 ayes.

That motion carries.

Wonderful.

We have disposed of the consent agenda.

With that, our first quasi judicial hearing is an appeal for a site plan review submitted by Michael M on behalf of the 800 third lot.

I will just take a moment to share that we have two quasi judicial hearings.

And I will reiterate that anyone that wishes to address either of these matters should register with the clerks at the registration table in the corridor outside this chamber.

We'll take testimony in the order that folks are registered.

And after giving five minutes per applicant and appellant in each case, if you have any materials to submit for the record on any of these matters, please give those materials to the clerks at the registration table outside in the corridor.

For everyone in attendance, especially those who may participate in our hearings on the comment period, let me offer this notice.

These hearings are being recorded and broadcast.

Both the recording and broadcasts are classified as public data under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.

By attending and unparticipating in these proceedings, your image, your image and any testimony or information that you provide will also be subject to disclosure under that law.

That includes but is not limited to your attendance, your name, and other personal details you provide, as well as testimony or comments you provide, which includes any rich written submissions you make that are included in the record of this meeting.

Um before I welcome up Andrew Liska, I will ask Councilmember Vita if she would like to have her vote recorded in the affirmative for item number 67.

Yes, if there's no objection, so we'll have the clerks record that.

With that for um the quasi-judicial hearing on the 800 third lot, I will welcome up city planner Andrew Liska to provide a brief on this item.

Welcome, Mr.

Liska.

Thank you, Chair, Council members.

The appellant for this item has withdrawn this application, so there's no action needed on that.

Thank you.

Great.

There is no action needed.

That is excellent news.

Um with that, I will move to delete that from the agenda.

Could I get a second?

Second.

Uh all those in favor?

I those opposed.

Say nay.

Okay, great.

That carries, and it has been deleted from the agenda.

The last quasi-judicial hearing before we go into our next two public hearing items is a hearing for a variance appeal submitted by Tom Peterson for the property known as Hiawatha Church, located at 4155 41st Avenue South.

I'll ask City Planner Miles Campbell to provide more information on this matter.

Welcome up, Mr.

Campbell.

Thank you, Chair and Council members.

Uh my name is Miles Campbell.

I work in the zoning administration team.

Um, and yes, this is an appeal of uh decision made by the zoning board of adjustment back at their January 15th meeting.

Um the item in question is for property located at 4155 41st Avenue South.

Um the two requests in question here are one to increase the maximum allowed lot cover to 67% of the lot area and to increase the allowed maximum impervious surface to 71% of that lot area.

To give an idea for those of you that aren't as familiar with the zoning code, lot cover refers to the footprint of physical structures, the buildings themselves on the property, maximum impervious is that as well as any pavement or hardcover services that do not allow stormwater infiltration.

Um again, just to give a little bit of background, a little bit of context.

Uh, the site originally was uh developed as a dwelling back um in the very early 1900s and then was later converted to uh I believe a parsonage for a brief period of time and then uh eventually a place of assembly.

Um there have been a couple of additions over the years according to city permit records.

Uh that current uh structure has largely been in place um since around the 1950s.

Uh the lot itself is 10,168 square feet in area, and that existing structure has a footprint roughly uh 5,545 square feet.

Um the structure is today considered non-conforming with those maximum lot cover and impervious surface uh numbers.

To give you an idea, in this district, it's a urban neighborhood one property and the interior one built form overlay.

We'd have a maximum of 45% lot cover and 60% impervious surface.

In this case, that existing uh church structure is at 60% lot cover and 63% impervious.

Again, the main kind of uh trigger for this uh variance and the main reason the church is looking to um make improvements to the structure is to improve the accessibility to the street itself.

Um this was built prior to any sort of uh uh ADA requirements being in place, and currently both entrances to the church itself require kind of navigating stairways to get to the main congregation area.

So they are proposing as part of this uh project to improve uh specifically the south stair entry, uh, provide an elevator on the inside and also have a ramp located in the right of way to the south of the building itself.

And the cause then kind of triggers the need for a larger addition to the rest of that structure to then shift around some of those lobby services, shift around some of the offices that are impacted.

I will note so this originally was scheduled to appear at the Board of Adjustment in December.

Um hearing some feedback from neighbors in the surrounding area.

They did um ask to continue that item to January so they can make some revisions to the plan.

So this was the original proposal submitted by uh Hiawatha Church.

You can see highlighted in that yellow circle is the actual the ramp for the entrance itself, um, and then the rest of the site uh identifying that original addition location.

Again, come January that was revised down largely to kind of um address concerns around shading of properties adjacent.

Um cut a little bit of that uh proposed hardcover proposed footprint.

So the proposal before you today is for this um twelve hundred seventy-five square foot addition that includes a below grade basement.

Again, there's the uh existing main level on the left side on the right.

You can see that proposal with the the new layout.

You can see that south entry has been modified in order to create that elevator space, and then the remainder of that upstairs level.

One thing I will note there currently is not a bathroom on that main level of the church.

So another kind of goal from this project was to provide um accessible restrooms on that main floor.

And then obviously office space, um meeting space for the congregation and community members.

Again, this is the lower level of that structure.

You can see um highlighting green are kind of classroom areas as opposed to kind of the community spaces.

Again, with this addition, part of the um improvement here is they are creating a connection to that north entry so you can um kind of move from the north entry to the lower level without having to get through the whole main level itself.

In terms of staff findings and the findings adopted by the Board of Adjustment, um, when we look at zoning code variances, there is a legal set statute set up by the state that they need to meet three standards of practical difficulties.

Um if it meets all three, then it should be approved.

And if it fails to meet any of those statute uh statutory standards, it should be denied essentially.

Um the Board of Adjustment and Staff generally felt that it met findings two and three, so finding two being kind of within the reasonable use and the intent of the code.

Um one thing we'll note here and was noted in the staff report.

Um the intent of the code and limiting impervious service in lot cover.

Obviously, we talk about um those being in place to combat urban heat island effects, promote adequate space for landscaping and reinforce uh existing development patterns and to reduce stormwater runoff and encourage natural absorption of stormwater into the soil.

Um one of the things that we note here is that we would recommend a condition were this to be approved, um, making the proposed uh rain garden to the west of the building um be required as part of the uh proposal itself.

Again, kind of that uh finding two is being conditionally met by that requirement.

Um the one that both staff and the board of adjustment could not find in this case was the uh first requirement that there are unique circumstances to the property not created by the landowner and not cause um solely in sort of a s economic consideration.

Um thing I do want to clarify for this body that was a point of discussion at the Board of Adjustment.

Property here in terms of unique circumstances does include the structure itself.

So it doesn't need to be uh site condition, it can be something with the building itself being unique, causing the hardship.

Um in this case, staff just did not see that.

Um in terms of and again the applicant has their appeal materials, but they talk about uh the location of the building being right up on that south property line and the split level construction of it.

Um staff did not find those to be unique um in terms of the city's kind of other uh places of worship throughout the city.

And again, in terms of that south property line, in any case that's almost beneficial to the church here.

That means that their um ramp that they're constructing is not actually counted towards lot cover and impervious.

Um so again, staff did not find that there was that unique circumstance with the property or with the site.

Um that would be kind of the main consideration before you all of is there uh a finding to be made in that consideration.

With that, I'm happy to stand for any questions that you all may have.

Thank you.

We will save questions for after the public hearing.

Um thank you again for the summary, Mr.

Campbell.

If the applicant is here to address the committee, you will be given five minutes to speak.

And then after that, everyone else will have two minutes to speak.

So with that, I will welcome up the applicant for any comments.

Please introduce yourself.

Thank you.

Is it five minutes when I get the power for it?

Great.

And if I didn't say it, I will say it that we are opening up the public hearing.

But I have help getting there.

Oh, it's on there.

Um we just uh okay.

Yeah, we'll start when you start introducing yourself.

We'll start the timer then.

I don't know if I can get that a little smaller.

Okay.

Uh Madam Councilmember and uh president and council members, thank you for your service.

Um Peterson was station 19 architects.

We've served a lot of churches around Minneapolis, and I've seen some of your faces uh in that process.

Uh the reason for this variance is the church wants to provide accessibility to uh the public that use their building.

It's been a hundred and twelve years since a chapel was built on the site, and that has been replaced by uh two editions.

The last edition was 75 years ago before accessibility codes, before the current zoning code, before child safety and uh protective custody and uh energy codes went into effect.

And um the fact that the building currently uh uh is beyond what the current zoning code is for coverage has probably limited it from becoming uh accessible.

It's a growing congregation.

The pastors, two pastors are here to talk about how the church is used.

I'll just talk about um kind of why why we're here appealing.

Um I provided a statement, but it kind of boils down to what Miles was saying.

Uh you are the body that currently gets to decide if it's appropriate to uh provide a variance for here.

And uh as Miles pointed out, um uh both in their staff report and even on uh the sheet that he said it it said site uh versus property, and uh I think the judgment has been that the the site itself, just a rectangle on the end of a block is not unique.

Uh but uh for the church that bought this 20 years ago, uh split level building build up to property and setback lines.

Um it is a unique situation.

So uh in order to add and provide accessibility uh to remote entrances, they need to add on to the building to provide that circulation, and by adding on elevators and stairs and restrooms and uh uh large changing rooms that are now required by the code, uh that all takes away the other functional space.

So uh the addition that we're proposing, as you were shown, was reduced uh by 28% in the footprint uh in order to provide uh the accessible components uh and then to accommodate the existing components that are displaced by those accessible components and provide the uh necessary circulation.

So we've feel like we've reduced it down to a minimum size that provides the accessibility that's always been needed there, but just finally being able to provide it, other than uh for the coverage and the impervious uh the building as a one-story building with a basement meets the FAR requirements, floor area ratio requirements, so it's under that.

So other than for this coverage, it would uh comply.

And uh in order to deal with the coverage as Miles has pointed out, we've provided uh two rain gardens to handle the stormwater management and address those concerns.

Uh the edition was pulled back from the north.

We have a five-foot setback.

It's currently a 20-foot setback in order to not cast any shadows from that main body of the edition all through the growth growing season from March through September, and we've demonstrated that in the slides that were part of our pre presentation.

And uh so we're uh appealing uh to your sense of uh helping out a church to uh serve its neighborhood and the public that use the buildings, and I'll uh be available to answer any questions and thank you for your time.

I know it's a busy day here.

So thank you so much.

We will um take up discussion after we complete the public hearing.

Uh with that I have Peter Wayne as the first person signed up to speak.

Welcome up, Peter.

Peter Dugan?

Peter Dugan.

Apologies.

Good morning, chair and committee.

My name is Peter Dugan.

My wife, mine and my wife's home is next to Hiawatha Church where we live and are both fortunate enough to work from home.

We ask the committee.

We asked the committee to deny the appeal for variance requested.

We believe that the church can and should make its ADA compliance within its current building footprint.

I have 25 years of experience in land surveying, and I have experience preparing certificates surveys and hardcover surveys for variance requests such as this.

The church has failed to meet the required criteria to grant the requested variances.

Criteria one, there are no circumstances unique to the property.

The property is already overdeveloped and simply does not support increasing the oversized building with a 1,275 square foot addition.

The building has functioned and served as a church in its current state since 1951.

The congregation outgrowing the current building is a circumstance created by Hiawatha Church itself and is not a reason for granting a variance to add on to a non-conforming building, which is already too large for the size of the property.

Criteria two, increasing the maximum building coverage to 67%, 1.5 times that of the maximum building coverage of 45% for our zoning district and increasing the maximum impervious surface coverage to 71%, 11% over that of the maximum impervious surface coverage of 60% for our zoning district does not keep with the spirit or intent of these ordinances.

Criteria three, the proposed addition would still shadow over our gardens while we are actively gardening.

And we and would also block out the morning natural light we currently enjoy from the windows on the south side of our home during the winter months.

Both would alter the essential character of our backyard, garden, and home, and would be injurious to the use and enjoyment of our property.

Since the church has failed to meet any of the criteria, we ask the committee to continue to deny the variances.

I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Next we'll go to Wayne Thompson.

Welcome up.

Hello.

My name is Wayne Thompson, and I am speaking as both a neighbor and congregate of Hiawatha Church.

I would like to express my full support for the proposed building edition and facility improvements for Hiawatha Church.

For many years, Hiawatha Church has been a positive and stabilizing presence in our community, serving not only its members but also the broader neighborhood through programs, events, and practical support.

The planned edition represents a meaningful investment for the continued presence within the neighborhood by providing accessibility, safety, and community engagement.

Primary benefit of the project is the addition of the ADA accessibility, which will ensure that individuals of all abilities can participate fully in the life of the church and in lights out on site.

This enhancement reflects the church's long-standing commitment to inclusivity, hospitality, and respect for all people.

The proposed security main entry will also address important safety and security needs, particularly for the children's ministry.

As an individual who values the well-being of local families, I believe these improvements are essential for creating a safe environment where uh parents can feel confident and trusting their children during programs and gatherings.

In addition, the new expanded spaces will provide vital support for additional office and ministry space, which will directly strengthen the church's capacity to serve the community through mentorship, outreach, counseling, and other neighborhood-focused initiatives.

The ministry these ministries have already had a positive impact in fostering connections, supporting families, and contributing to the overall well-being of those who live nearby.

Hiawatha Church has consistently offered care, connection, and stability to residents, and the expanded facilities will only increase its ability to serve our neighborhood in times of celebration need and transition.

It is for these reasons I strongly support this project, and I believe it will be a significant asset to both Hiawatha Church and our surrounding community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we will go to Chris Watcher.

Welcome.

Thank you and good morning.

Uh Madam Chair, Council members.

My name is Chris Walkter.

I'm the founding and lead pastor of Hiawatha Church, and just wanted to add a couple of words to our appeal from someone who's been there for 20 years and kind of watch people use our space and watch a church grow from 35 people to about 300 or so now.

Uh and to start by saying that this is not just a theoretical use of space, but an actual one.

Uh at the Board of Adjustment meeting in January, a couple of board members use the term black box to refer to our space.

But I would just ask that you consider how this is not a question about what a church could use this space for in theory, nor is it about how past churches have existed in in the space and used it, but it's about our use of it today and the pinch points that we're experiencing.

Uh again, we're a 300-plus person uh multi-generational church, we're it which includes about a 100 of which are kids, and we have eight staff team members.

And contextually, it's the year 2026.

Accessibility and diversity matter more than ever.

The expectations of our visiting neighbors who've come in to visit for sun for Sunday services have changed over the years as well for what public space should provide in accessibility and kids' safety, things that our space is lacking.

We've been told this by many.

So all of this is why we're needing to do these updates, and both Miles and Tom addressed this, but uh the reason we're here appealing is there's uh significant downstream negative impacts to our space if we were to just do accessibility alone on our existing footprint.

It would come into too many existing offices, bathrooms, and kids' classrooms, and lobby space and would render our space almost unusable for an existing church our size, hence the need to build out.

And so then, in terms of where our heart is with this, um we started Hiawatha Church in this building 20 years ago, purposefully in Longfellow because of our love for Minneapolis and desire to stay.

And we believe that a Christian church that loves its neighborhood that respects those of differing beliefs, and that desire is to lend its space out for the common good of the community is a good thing for Minneapolis and would match the city's commitment to diversity, inclusivity, and safety.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And then we have Spencer Peterson as our last speaker.

If there is anyone else that would like to speak to this item, please sign out side with the clerks.

Welcome.

Madam Chair, uh Council members.

My name is Spencer Peterson.

Uh my family and I moved to Minneapolis a couple decades ago in order to be a part of Hiawatha Church.

We moved into the Longfellow neighborhood uh 10 years ago to be even closer to our church and to invest in this specific neighborhood.

As members of Hiawatha and the Longfellow neighborhood, we're asking you to please allow us this variance that we need to make our building more accessible, safe, and hospitable to our community.

My wife and I both have parents who have had strokes in the past few years and are now unable to utilize our building because of the lack of accessibility.

Additionally, we have a four-year-old son who's in a wheelchair.

He loves attending our church events and services, yet because he's disabled, he cannot participate, participate fully and also needs a constant help of an adult.

Uh the Minneapolis Public Schools do not have a spot for him in their high-fi program this year, so our church is the main way that he gets uh social interaction with both peers and also other adults, including senior citizens.

Currently, though our church building keeps him from being able to fully participate in any church events and community, and uh especially being able to participate in his children classrooms, uh children uh classes with his wheelchair.

He desperately needs an elevator uh slash lift, larger and safer classroom spaces, and a handicap accessible uh bathroom.

Our son's situation and challenge is just one example of why we need this variance.

Uh, we need both a lift and larger, safer classroom spaces for our children so that uh my son and others can have the dignity of fully participating in our community.

Our church's desire for accessibility and also safe and large enough children's space also happens to fully align with Minneapolis's desire and values in their 2040 plan.

We ask this team to approve our variants so that we can serve all types of people in our neighborhood uh for decades to come.

Thank you for hearing us out.

Thank you so much.

Is there anybody else that would like to address the committee?

Okay.

Seeing no one else wishing to speak, I will now close the public hearing and then I have myself in queue for discussion.

So this is uh a church that is in the 12th ward.

And I I have a set of questions both for the applicant but also for staff.

I will say um I am in discussion with uh city staff members on this item just to share with my colleagues to discuss uh a few different things before we take this to full council.

So I will be making the motion to forward this without recommendation.

Could I get a second on that?

Second.

Thank you.

And for everyone that's listening, uh a motion to forward without recommendation, doesn't mean we're approving or denying.

We're just sending it to full council.

And so with that, I will ask a question of um Mr.

Campbell to begin with.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Campbell.

Um I think this is uh a fairly quick one.

Um you had mentioned something briefly in your presentation about this body considering a condition around the rain guarded.

Could you restate that please?

Yes, absolutely sure.

Um so the condition there in terms of finding number two, finding number two to use kind of the direct language I can pull up here.

Talks about kind of the uh is the variance in reasonable in the spirit and intent of the ordinance.

And again, here we're talking about the ordinance talking about um limiting lot cover, limiting impervious surface so that we can allow stormwater to infiltrate um effectively.

Essentially the applicant is showing on their plans and proposing that they would have um potential green stormwater mitigation through those rain gardens.

Um staff feels that rather than just saying that as a potential opportunity there, we should make that a condition of the approval and that that second finding is really conditioned on that being provided.

Otherwise, staff would not feel that that again, that intent of the code to restrict um impervious service to promote um better stormwater management is really being met by the proposal.

Excellent.

And then looking at what the applicant has proposed is the rain garden in staff's view in a suitable location.

Uh we have not really gotten to that degree of review on that um stormwater infrastructure.

I would imagine that would come up more in conversation with our um colleagues in uh both the building code or construction code services as well as um environmental sciences.

Okay, great.

It would be helpful before Thursday if staff could help articulate what a condition proposal could look like on this item or this part of it.

Um next I have questions for the applicant.

Thank you, Mr.

Campbell.

Yes.

Uh my first question is what what are the unique circumstances or characteristics uh that you are claiming in this for this variance?

Sure.

Um the unique circumstances that we have a church that was built on the site um up to the boundaries of its buildable areas uh so that additions can't be expanded, say uh away from neighbors to in a front yard, it has to go in the backyard where it's being proposed uh addressing kind of uh shadow concerns that we have an existing uh two-story building without accessibility that's on a site that will not allow any additions to it, and uh will therefore kind of uh remove usable space in providing that accessibility, so remedy to improve that and uh really the the coverage increases are seven percent uh for the site uh the building area and eight percent above what's existing.

So if you take a increases from existing versus increases from allowable, it's only seven and eight percent versus uh larger percentages.

So thank you.

And then should this variance not be granted and you moved ahead with the ADA additions, um, what space would be taken away within the church and what activities would cease within the space.

Um the we determined we did did a full analysis of the facility, the place that makes sense to add the entrances off the south side.

Uh but that is built right up to the property line, so we have to move in with the energy vestibule landing and rework the stairs and then come up to those stairs into a lobby space.

Um so we're affecting uh the main central core on both levels uh and that displaces the reception office and bathrooms uh non-assessable bathrooms below.

So then we need to also add uh bathrooms in two bathrooms on both levels, and that would take out additional bathroom or office space on the upper level and classroom space on the lower level.

And then it would remain uh the north lobby would remain um isolated and non-assessable except going through both the fellowship hall, like through right actually through the rooms and from the front of the sanctuary all the way up the center aisle to the front to the back of the sanctuary to get to that space.

So not as accessible as it could be.

Yeah, it's it's not an easy one.

So and then currently the the church is not ADA accessible for congregants.

No, uh you can't get in any door on um.

And even on the south side, we have to ramp up about uh two feet from the sidewalk up to the existing landing door.

So there's some ramping that would require right of way um easement or um help me out.

What's the uh approval yeah approval to build on the public land, so which we're not real concerned about.

Great.

Thank you.

Um I do have another question, but my first speaking time is expiring, so I will see if there are other colleagues that would like to get into queue.

And then I'll wait to get back in.

Okay.

I'm gonna get back in for my final question, and I'll just note for my colleagues we can't have ex parte communication and quasi-judicial matters, so I cannot call the applicant offline to have a conversation until we dispose of this item.

All of the conversations that occur with the applicant uh has to happen in a public forum.

So uh my final question is would you be willing to further reduce the lot coverage size and impervious surface size um that's I I'd have to look at the uh the owner for that.

Uh we have not talked, they've kind of directed me no that this would be kind of where the minimum would be in the past.

Um we've we've kind of reduced it this one time, and the question is do we want to reduce it more?

And the answer has been no to me.

So I'm just uh thank you.

That's helpful.

I'll just say this.

I encourage you to consider it, and then if there is any other further information and other details on the consideration that you would like to send to my office, um, other council members, the city attorneys, please do so.

We can receive those comments.

I will not be responding back to you, but getting that additional information or any other additional information that you have ahead of Thursday will be extremely valuable.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Then I will now call up Councilmember Schaefer.

Uh, just one quick comment.

I are not question, but just a comment.

But I would really like to see the staff inclusion of the wildflower or the rain garden in this proposal.

And I think that your presentation has provided a lot of merits for us to think about, and um I'm looking forward to uh voting in support of this, uh I believe on Thursday.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you much.

Thank you, Councilmember Schaefer, and then thank you to everyone that testified and came to the public hearing.

Thank you to the applicants and thank you to staff that has worked on this.

So before us, colleagues, we have uh a motion to forward without recommendation made by me that has been properly seconded.

Uh with that, I will ask the clerk to call the role on this item.

Councilmember Payne.

Aye.

Wandsley.

Aye.

Rainville.

Aye.

FITA.

Aye.

Warren?

Aye.

Osman is absent.

Schaefer, aye.

Stevenson.

Aye.

Chavez.

Aye.

Whitey.

Aye.

Palmasana.

Aye.

Vice Chair Choktai?

Aye.

And Chair Chowdhury.

Aye.

There are 12 ayes.

That motion carries.

Next, we'll take up our public hearings, reflected as items three and four on the agenda.

Anybody signed up for these items will be given two minutes each to testify.

If you have any questions, please see our clerks at the registration table outside in the hall.

The first hearing is for an extended hours of operation license for Joe's Market at 630 Eighth Street Southeast.

I'll invite business licensing manager Amy Lingo to give us staff briefings on this item.

Welcome, Miss Lingo.

Thank you, Chair Chowder and Committee members.

I'm Amy Lingo, Manager for Licenses and Consumer Services.

And I am presenting an application from Quick Mart 8 LLC.

Quick 8 Mart LLC, DBA as Joe's Market on 8th, located at 6 30, 8th Street Southeast in Ward 3.

The applicant is requesting an extended hours of operation license.

If approved, they intend to extend their business hours to um beyond the later of approved hours.

Um later than currently authorized, specifically until 3 a.m.

Thursday through Saturday.

Quick 8 Mart LLC recently purchased the community grocery store in April of 2025 and has completed a full remodel of the interior and exterior of the business.

They own and operate Joe's Market on Como, 1828 Como Avenue Southeast since 2014.

They are adding a Delhi grill counter to their community grocery store and requesting to extend the hours to 11 p.m.

Sunday through Wednesday and 3 a.m.

Thursday through Saturday.

Current approved hours are 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

Sunday through Thursday, 6 a.m.

to 11, Friday through Saturday.

They plan on selling burgers, tacos, sandwiches, euros, and other pre-made orders.

Pre-made to order foods.

All foods will be for carryout.

There is no seating on the interior of the business.

This is in addition to their grocery store, which is now fully stocked with all of the needs for the community.

They currently hold grocery tobacco, three two beer licenses, and have a cannabis hemp registration for lower potency hemp edibles or beverages.

And a food manufacturer license is in process and awaiting final inspections.

On February 9th, 182 public hearing notices were sent to residents and property owners within 600 feet of the premises.

Notices were also sent to the East Bank Neighborhood Association, the Northeast Chamber Business Association, and Councilmember Rainville.

We have received 21 comments from the community.

Seven who are in support of the application, 11 who are opposed, three who are split.

Concerns are added traffic and parking issues, late night noise, possible increase of crime, people loitering outside, possibility of more litter in the area, and just being open past midnight.

A review of any complaints, 311 calls, police calls, and any operating conditions.

Found no significant issues concerning the business and issuance of this license.

The precinct also noted that the owner has a successful business model at the Como location, and they were just awarded a top five business in Hennepin County.

Our office has spoken with the owner about the concerns brought up by the community, and the owner has already taken the following measures.

There's a full remodel inside the store with new flooring, ceilings, paints, fridges, and freezers, fully remodeled outside of the business with new signage and paint.

Added lighting around the store and in the parking lot, added six cameras, and will be adding two more on the exterior of the property.

Added signage that cameras are recording on the outside of the building.

They have nine parking spots in the parking lot.

The city just added a 15-minute loading zone in front of the store for pickups and deliveries.

While they do not intend to start with a delivery service at the beginning, when they do add that they will advise drivers to use the parking lot, and there will be signage stating that.

And an employee will monitor the exterior of the building for cleanup.

They will also enforce snow loadering after 9 p.m.

They will notify police immediately if there are any issues of crime or unruly customers, and they are open to having less security if they need that additional assistance if there are problems after midnight.

Licenses and consumer service division recommends approval for the extended hours of operation license.

This concludes my presentation.

At this time, I stand for any questions.

Thank you, Ms.

Lingo.

Thank you for that presentation.

We'll take questions up after the public hearing.

I'll now open up the public hearing and then I believe I'm welcoming up the applicant, Dauphik Kabalan.

Welcome up.

Thank you.

Council members, good morning.

My name is Tufik Cobalon.

I came from overseas 2007 to Minneapolis.

And I opened my first business in 2014 on Como.

So I worked hard in this business since then 11 years and uh it came up to top five businesses in Minneapolis.

After 11 years, I opened my second location on 8th Street.

And I'm willing to have a Delhi over there and extended ours.

So hopefully you can approve it for us.

Thank you.

If you have any question, let me know.

Thank you so much.

Is there anyone else that would like to address the committee?

Seeing no one else, we'll close the public hearing.

And yes, sir, you could take a seat.

And then now I'll open it up for discussion from council members and for any motions.

Councilmember Rainbow.

Thank you.

I do have a question for both staff and of the new owner.

Oh thank you.

I have questions of both our staff and the new owner.

My concerns.

So first of all, any time the nighttime economy is improved in the city and added on to it, I'm very much in favor of it.

And it just speaks to the need uh that we have to monitor that as well.

That night inspectors would be very helpful.

The uh the main question I have is I see it's 11 to 7 was opposed to granting these extended hours.

So I'm I'm wondering if uh what the staff could tell me uh about any concerns if if there are problems there, uh what is the recourse of the city?

I think the chair, councilmember Rainville, thank you for that question.

So if we have concerns and complaints, we will use our standard progressive process of enforcement where we will address the concerns with the owner with the complaintants, we will check the validity, we will work with the license to see what we can do to alleviate those concerns.

And then, of course, if we need to follow the progressive enforcement protocol, there are citations, conditions, and license settlement conferences that can be addressed.

But we always start with what are the complaints and how can we assist in solving those problems?

Thank you.

And then uh another question uh who at the second precinct uh approved approved this.

It was the lieutenant, sir.

Lieutenant Troy Troy, okay, okay.

I always mess up his last name.

Thank you.

And uh I the question I have for uh the new owner, so uh again, welcome.

Uh are you aware that this location prior to you uh own it had a lot of armed robberies?

Yeah, I know.

Uh because there was no there was zero cameras before, and there was no lights outside at all.

So when I came over, I put like uh six six cameras right now, and we're gonna add two more outside inside.

And um I put lots of lights outside since I came to this location in April last year till now we didn't have any issue, and most of the community is very happy with the store improvement.

Great.

And thank you for those security improvements.

Yeah, thank you.

And my second question is why the three o'clock close?

That's that's very late.

Uh because uh uh the neighborhood is like mostly students area, and they all request uh to open late for like uh sandwiches, and uh that's why we are building a new Delhi inside.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's all.

Did you want to make a motion, Councilmember?

Or I will make I I'm very hesitant on this, so maybe someone else should make the motion.

Okay.

No worries.

I just wanted to check.

I know it's on your board.

Um thank you so much for coming to City Hall.

Um, thank you, Miss Lingo, for your work on this.

You I could tell by the extensive list of agreements, there's been a lot of conversation.

And then I'll just share that um have a lot of fun memories uh at both of the Joe's market locations.

Um both uh when I was a student, and then the Joe's Market in Marcy Homes has been open for a longer time.

Is that correct?

Since when the one on Como is open since like 35 years.

Like 25 years ago.

I've been on Como on Como since 2014, and we didn't have any issues.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I uh I'm I'm just trying to uh make sure my memory is correct.

Uh I went to uh Marcy Open Elementary and Joe's Market was a place that my mom was really fond of and would take me to.

So it's really cool to see this come uh before us, and so with that I will make a motion uh to prove this at full council.

And so with that, I will make a motion uh to prove this at full council.

Second.

Councilmember Rainville.

Uh thank you.

So I am Oh, your microphone, Councilmember.

Thank you.

I am going to vote for this today because I I want you to succeed, but I'm uh I'm very, very sensitive to violence.

There's another store uh not too far away from yours.

We have problems all the time at night.

And uh I wish the best of luck, but please please do everything you can to keep this safe.

The arm robberies were terrible.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Seeing no further discussion, and with the motion to approve before us.

May I have the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Payne.

Aye.

Wandsley.

All right.

Rainville.

Aye.

Vita.

Aye.

Warren.

Aye.

Schaefer.

Aye.

Stevenson.

Aye.

Chavez.

Aye.

Whiting.

Aye.

Paul Masano.

Aye.

Vice Chair Chiptek?

Aye.

And Chair Chowdery.

Aye.

There are 12 ayes.

That carries.

All right.

We are in our final public hearing item today.

And I will just note for everyone.

Um we will not break for lunch until we complete the public hearing.

So we will go through the entirety of the public hearing and then we will take an hour break.

I know that there are discussion items that staff is watching along to to determine when they will come after an hour after we we close, just so that it's noted.

Um this public hearing is related to the proposed temporary pre-eviction notice extension ordinance, also referred to as the pause evictions save lives ordinance.

I'll ask our authors, Councilmember Wandsley and Stevenson, to introduce this item for the committee.

Council members.

Thank you, uh, Chair Chowgery.

I want to make sure my staff or uh council member Stevenson staff is in the chamber so that we can get the presentation pulled up.

Excellent.

We will just wait for staff to arrive and get the presentation set up.

I will have two while staff is getting the presentation set up.

I'll note for colleagues and those who are watching along.

We are going to begin with a presentation from the authors on this item.

They have a slide deck that they will go through.

At that point, we will um continue right away to the public hearing.

Uh we have approximately 70 people signed up right now.

Um, so and and more are continuing to do so.

Um, I'd encourage anyone who wishes to share some public comments but has not had the opportunity to sign up yet to please see the clerks um in the in the hallway um right when you are coming into the chambers, they will help you get signed up and registered.

Umce we conclude the public hearing, um, we will determine whether we're going to do discussion right away, or if we um if colleagues need a break and we we we take lunch and come back and then um take up the take up discussion and the item.

With that, um council member wandsley, please begin your presentation.

Thank you so much.

Uh good morning, everyone.

I am council member Robin Wansley.

I represent War 2 on this body, that is the city council.

Also serve as the minority leader of the Democratic Socialist Caucus.

I'm also the lead author for the policy that we're considering today.

It's titled Paul's Eviction Save Lives, and I'm thankful for the support of my fellow co-authors as well, which include Councilmember Stevenson, Osman, Chavez, and Chowgery.

Um that said, uh, we're gonna do a brief presentation of the ordinance itself, uh, which again is called Pause Eviction Save Lives, uh, which temporarily rarely will expand the eviction pre-filling uh notice from 30 days to 60 days.

And if we can go to the next slide.

Um, so why what has led us to this moment of needing to even consider uh this ordinance?

So everyone knows that we've been under occupation by the federal government under uh operation Metro Surge, uh, which began on December 1st, 2025, uh, with 4,000 federal agents being deployed to Minnesota with a large percentage of those officers um being concentrated in the twin cities and particularly Minneapolis at its peak uh just last week.

The ACLU shared that a little less than 1,000 agents will remain through February and anticipate um 400 remaining through March.

Federal agents have been indiscriminately and violently harassing and abducting residents in our city, resulting in the kidnapping of thousands of our residents and in the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two innocent community members who, like thousands of their fellow other neighbors in our city and across our city, have been now and were out protecting their neighbors.

Thousands of families were able to avoid eviction that's been caused or the housing instability that's been caused by this occupation.

Thousands of families have been able to stay housed simply because of the mutual aid efforts being led by our neighbors who have raised uh tens of millions of dollars to help keep their neighbors safe and be able to shelter in place throughout this occupation.

But understandably, working class people cannot keep hosting fundraisers, maxing out credit cards, and dipping into whatever little savings they have indefinitely.

That said, mutual aid groups across the city have seen a decrease in donations directed towards rental assistance and other mutual aid efforts that's meant to help address uh the variety of basic needs that our residents are experiencing and have been deprived of being able to meet because of this occupation.

And I've said it before, and I'll say it again today.

We cannot expect that we will simply just go fund me our way out of a housing crisis and out of an eviction crisis.

Government partners must step up and help even to match an ounce of what our neighbors have done throughout this occupation, which has been we couldn't even surpass it at this point.

Um, but this ordinance that we're considering today will give this body, this city, official city governing body, the opportunity to do exactly that to step up and help our neighbors and support these efforts that needs to be widely shared in keeping our residents housed.

Thankfully, also this body has been responsive.

Um, just a few weeks ago or earlier this month, um, city council allocated one million dollars towards rental assistance that will um be administered in partnership with Hennepin County and just last week.

Uh St.

Paul City Council also followed suit with a 1.4 million dollars uh funding appropriation towards rental assistance as well.

Um, a lot of the effort in organizing by residents and also by uh the twin cities, uh city councils stepping up to support rental assistance efforts have also helped motivated a variety of our state leaders to do the same at the Capitol as they've uh gone back into session.

Um, as of now, the state legislator, specifically in the Senate, um, has a rental assistance proposal of 75 million dollars that is making its way through its respective legislative process.

And the timeline for the final votes on that piece of legislation is most likely to happen at the end of their session around May.

Um, and I wanted to note that we took the state's legislative process in deep consideration when considering the duration period of the pre-filing eviction notice that's listed in this ordinance, as well as the ordinance effect date as well.

Um, if passed at the state level, um millions of dollars in new funding will be unlocked for working class residents impacted by Operation Metro Surge to access.

But that likely relief would not come until this summer, and they should be given the ability to access those dollars and be able to secure those means prior to having an eviction be filed on them and be able to avoid eviction altogether.

Um, if we can go to the next slide.

And I think that's the underlying basis and significance in the why of this ordinance.

We all have a shared reckon recognition that we are experiencing a housing and crisis.

In fact, we were already experiencing one, but it's been further intensified by the impacts of Operation Metro Surge.

Um, and we have many external partners in the communities who have been monitoring and studying uh the specific financial and lone standing impacts that have been um placed on the shoulders of working class people who have not been able to leave home and go to their jobs and thus be put at risk of losing their homes as a result of this occupation.

Um, more specifically, we're seeing informative data being publicly released by um our research partners who are documenting the scale and severity of this housing instability that is being experienced by many of our neighbors.

Um, this includes data from the University of Minnesota's Center of Urban Regional Affairs, also known as Cura, who published a report last month titled Rent Debt Across Minnesota during Operation Metro Surge.

And they made a disturbing finding that show that there's an estimate of between 30% and 50% of immigrant renters being behind on rent.

The city also did its own internal assessment showing that Operation Metro Surge requires additional $15.7 million in rental systems being needed in our communities.

Organizations like Homeline and United Way are seeing higher levels of tenants reaching out to them requesting financial assistance.

Home Line more specifically has seen the most calls they've have ever received and saw an overall 100% increase.

Once again, neighborhood associations, grassroots organizations, are managing massive inquiries for rental assistance.

And there's a long or widespread understanding that they all cannot collectively meet the need of what is being demanded right now.

So that said, again, this gives us the opportunity at the local level once again, while our state leaders and other partners in the community are doing everything that they can to keep our neighbors in their homes to be able to continue sheltering in place.

This gives us the opportunity to do the same, even through a temporary protection.

That this will allow for ahead of April 1st.

It was our original goal to intentionally want to bring this forward before the March 1st deadline, which was just two days ago.

And this body opted to not exercise that expedition of making sure we could have had this ordinance in place by then.

But what we can do is make sure ahead of April 1st, thousands of other residents do not have to worry about where they're getting money from, where they're going to live.

If they're going to be put in contact at the risk of being evicted with the thousands of agents that's still in our communities that are kidnapping and detaining and killing our neighbors.

So with that, I will pass it to my co-author, Councilmember Soren Stevenson.

Councilmember Stevenson, please continue with the with the presentation.

Thank you.

So this is a proposed temporary change of the eviction period from 30 to 60 days.

Uh and it would run until August 30th.

So that's only six months of change.

Next slide.

And so the threat is that we have a massive eviction crisis.

We do not have the resources to deal with this.

And a lot of our neighbors are really in need right now.

As my co-author said many times, uh the community has stood up over and over again, and they have raised millions of dollars.

There has been rent support raised by different cities, and we're waiting on the state legislature to really step in in a way that is going to be meaningful across this state.

So what we're looking at now is we're looking at uh an ordinance that would give community and give the state legislature a little time to step in to help our residents and help our neighbors who have been sheltering in place or maybe have lost jobs because uh the businesses that they worked at had to close because of uh this invasion.

Um so basically, we're just calling for a limited extension of time for community and for government to do what they need to do.

Uh and next slide.

Uh and with that, we'll uh we'll go to questions and uh it actually, if we could just go straight to uh the public hearing to respect the public's time.

That would be my preference.

Yes, Councilmember Stevenson.

Um we're gonna we're gonna break from tradition and we're gonna actually go straight to the public hearing.

Once we have concluded the public hearing, we will come back for questions and discussion.

Um with that, I will now open the public hearing and I'll list the first five five speakers.

We'll go in that order.

I know there's a lot of people in the overflow room and in the meeting space.

If your name is called on and um you're not able to make it into the chambers in time, um please don't worry.

As soon as you can get here, um we will come back for any any speakers that that we end up missing, or um if you know if you are um if you are in a time crunch and you want to swap speaker order, that's that's you figure that out and we'll go from there.

Um the first five speakers today are speaker number one, Maya Lutke, followed by speaker number two, Emily Green, followed by speaker number three, Ethan Nuss, followed by speaker number four, Rabbi Ariel Rosenberg, followed by speaker number five, Matt Sherber.

I will welcome Speaker number one, Maya Lucky.

You have two minutes and the your time you can see to uh on the on the dais.

Um and if anyone here is requiring interpretation services, we will double that time just to accommodate.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good morning, City Council members.

Um my name is Maya Ludke.

I live in Cork Ren neighborhood on the south side of Minneapolis.

I am here as an organizer with the Corcoran Neighbor Fund.

Um the past couple months, uh, I and a group of uh small group in the neighborhood have been fundraising for to support about 30 plus uh households that are facing the threat of eviction um and have been sheltering in place due to the occupation of our neighborhood and city by violent uh federal immigration forces.

Um over the past many months, my community has experienced uh extreme trauma, and I have witnessed um immense violence in my neighborhood at the hands of immigration agents.

Um much of this violence has been indiscriminate and targeted at uh people of color and observers.

Um, adding to the immense stress of potentially becoming unhoused, layered on top of this existing trauma.

Um, people have experienced being targeted by violent immigration agents is really unacceptable and antithetical to public health and public safety.

Um we need to be supporting people and families who make up the beauty and heart of these neighborhoods of our neighborhoods.

And despite our work to raise funds to support our neighborhoods and communities, um, there's just not enough money to support all the families right now, and they face imminent imminent threat of eviction.

So I urge you all, um, and the mayor and the governor to issue a full um eviction moratorium.

But in lieu of that, I think the absolute bare minimum is this extension of the pre-eviction period.

Um, that notice from going from 30 days to 60 days to give us more time to fundraise to support families.

Um, and then I also urge you to utilize the Hennepin County um emergency rental uh assistant funds preemptively.

It seems like you really have to go um be summoned to court for your eviction before those uh funds go into practice, and I just urge you to like loosen the um rules for that.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next up is Emily Green.

Uh good morning.

My name is Emily Green.

I am a resident of Longfellow.

In early February, I, along with some neighbors, created a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for our immigrant neighbors struggling to pay their rent and facing eviction.

We managed to raise 200,000 in less than a month for 95 families.

As of today, we have 116 people on our waiting list, and we are down to less than $7,000 left to provide aid.

That leaves at least 100 families that we know of in our neighborhood alone on the brink of losing their homes.

We had a neighbor reach out early in our fundraising, and we didn't have enough for her in time.

She was evicted and is now living with her two children in a shelter.

When we were able to provide her funds, all she asked for was 200 for her phone bill.

That should never have happened.

And it affirms what we have seen over and over that people are only reaching out for what they desperately need.

I represent just one of many efforts like this.

It should not be on us to take care of the citizens of this city.

Where are our city leaders?

Where are the safety nets that we pay taxes toward?

The amount of funds from the city to go toward rent support while appreciated is not enough.

Extending the pre-eviction filing notice is the least the city can do.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, it can cost Minneapolis between 35,000 and 150,000 annually per unhoused person.

And it's a shame that I even have to use numbers like this to try to convince the city to look out for its most vulnerable community members who are only in this situation because of months of living through nonstop trauma as a consequence of the federal occupation of our state.

We need to see the city extend this notice window from 30 days to 60 days.

It is the bare minimum intervention we are asking for.

Thank you.

Next is Ethan Nuss.

Good morning, council.

My name is Ethan Nuss.

I'm a resident of Ward 9, a former landlord, and um thankful for my uh council member Chavez for your leadership on this issue and for uh other counsel.

Uh we have been keeping our neighbors in their home.

We have people on my block are paying their rent, bringing them groceries, bringing the children, books from the library, and this is the bare minimum.

We're asking of you today to help keep our neighbors safe in their homes for fear of having their families ripped apart violently by federal forces.

We can we simply do not have the funds to keep our neighbors in their homes.

As you heard, we're all of the money we're raising, we're running out, and thousands of residents across the city are facing eviction.

We're here today to ask that bare minimum.

What we need is a moratorium on evictions.

But if we can get this extension, that's one of the best things we can do.

And we are asking you to join us, your constituents in keeping us safe.

Because we gave you joy.

We gave you hope.

We kept our cities safe from the fed the the folks the feds employ.

We gave you hope.

We gave you joy.

We keep our cities safe from the folks the feds employ.

Now we're looking to you, you what you're gonna do.

Now we're looking to you, you you, what you gonna do, what you gonna do.

We gave you hope.

We gave you hope.

We gave you joy.

We save our city from the folks the feds employ.

Now we're looking to you, you you, what you gonna do, what you gonna do.

We're looking to you, you you, what you gonna do.

Thank you.

Next we have Rabbi Rosenberg.

Good afternoon.

My name is Rabbi Ariel Lekach Rosenberg.

I'm a parent, I'm a neighbor, I'm the lead rabbi of Shir Tikfa congregation in South Minneapolis.

I'm a Ward 13 resident, and I'm here with Rabbinic colleagues today to ask you to extend the pre-eviction filing period and to override veto if necessary.

So, Shir Tikfa, a congregation of 600 families and growing, started a mutual aid fund at the beginning of the siege.

We knew the need was going to be enormous, and it has been overwhelming.

We have an operating budget of a little around a million dollars, and we have raised over a million dollars for mutual aid in the last month.

We have distributed over a million dollars in mutual aid in the last month in partnership with labor community organizations, schools, and neighborhood groups.

Now, Shira Tikfa has given over our infrastructure as an organization to do this urgent work, and we need help.

Now, mutual aid groups are frantically fundraising.

There is not enough money to meet the needs that we are seeing in our communities.

This week alone, Sheer Tikfa opened our fund with 200,000 in it, which was an amount we could not have imagined a month ago.

And in 30 minutes, we received over a million dollars worth of requests.

So every person who is writing to us has a story.

Jewish tradition teaches us that every person is a whole world, which means that every single person who is writing to request rent assistance, and 96% of the people who have written to us are requesting aid for rent assistance, are requesting help that we are then able to connect them with so many other kinds of support, but the need to focus on is rent assistance.

Now, my family fled Eastern Europe because of the Shoah, and I want to imagine what would have been possible had neighbors and local government organized to keep my family safe.

And it is deeply personal that we are organizing now to make sure that we are leveraging our resources and our energy, and I feel that mandate not just of our city, but of my ancestors.

Please, please pass this pre-eviction filing pause.

Thank you.

Next up is Matt Schriber.

Hello, my name is Matt Sherber.

I live in the Camden neighborhood, Ward 4.

Um I have lived and owned my home since 2019.

Uh as a homeowner in Minneapolis and a constituent of my ward for um I'm asking you to support the pre-eviction extension.

The city of Minneapolis has been under attack, and in my ward, I have seen constant need for aid and support for ward four residents.

As a community, we have stepped up and are working hard together to make sure people are stabilized through crisis as best we can.

But we can only do so much.

You have the power as a city council member to provide more time for those efforts.

In these moments of crisis, it's vital that you, as a city council member, stand up and support your residents.

You need to offer solutions, and this is something tangible you can do.

Councilmember Vita, I asked this.

Are you gonna vote in the way of the landlords of the ward that funded your campaign?

The next five speakers, just so they know that they're on deck is Julie Doherty, Kate Kranz, Vivian Bergstead, Carla Henderson, and Alicia Lennard.

I will call up Julia Doherty.

Good morning, Chair, committee members.

Thank you for having me here.

My name is Julie Doherty.

I live in Ward 12.

I think all of you know that so many of our neighbors have been terrorized and traumatized by this ICE occupation.

And it's by our own federal government, um, under the guise of protecting all of us from the worst of the worst criminal actions.

As a result of this purported protection, so many of our neighbors have felt stuck in their houses, afraid to go out, afraid to go grocery shopping, to go to church, to take their kids to school, and for purposes of this ordinance, afraid to go to work.

And here's the deal.

And if we can help prolong the time to allow people to get a little more money to stay in their homes, to do workarounds with their landlords, we can do that.

Thank you.

Next is Kate Kranz.

Good morning.

My name is Kate Krantz.

I am a resident of Ward 9.

I support the PAS Eviction Save Lives Ordinance as a bare minimum measure of human decency in this moment in our city.

It doesn't sit well with me that Mayor Frye is doing a lot of talking on a national stage, growing gaining and growing social capital off the courage of the people of Minneapolis, while he does nothing to meaningfully support our neighbors who are facing eviction or the efforts of this council to do so.

All while moving into his own luxury home.

Oh, you gotta do more than just talk about it.

We've been moving our feet, getting out in the street.

Oh, you gotta do more than just talk about it.

Will you take a stand?

We know you can.

Oh, you gotta do more than just talk about it.

We've moving our feet, getting out in the street.

Oh, you gotta do more than just talk about it.

Will you take a stand?

We know you can sing with us.

Oh, you gotta do more than just talk about it.

We've been moving our feet, getting out in the street.

Oh, you gotta do more than just talk about it.

Will you take a stand?

We know you can.

Will you take a stand?

We know you can.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Vivian Bergstead.

Hi, my name is Vivian Bergstedt, and I live in ward um one, and I'm a homeowner there.

And um I um I'm really impressed with you today.

I've never been in a meeting before, and I've I've been listening to what you've been saying, and I'm I I like how much thought you put all in all of what you're doing.

And and that was just a personal comment from me.

And I'm hoping that you will join us in this song, and I'm hoping that you will um uh stand up for I'm hoping you'll help us help our neighbors stay safe.

And so um, no, no one is getting left behind to death this time.

No one is getting left behind.

No one is getting left behind this time.

No one is getting left behind.

No one is getting left behind this time.

We'll get there together and never get there at all.

We'll get there together and never get there at all.

We'll get there together, never get there at all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Carla Henderson.

Good morning, Chair Chowdry and members of the committee.

My name is Carla Henderson, and I have the privilege and honor to serve as president and CEO of Project for Pride in Living, or PPL.

We are a twin cities-based nonprofit with 53 years of impact, and we own and operate more than 1,800 units of affordable housing across the twin cities.

Our mission is simple to help individuals and families remain stably housed.

While we deeply respect the intention behind the proposal, our experience shows that early intervention, not delayed action, is what prevents displacement.

By implementing a policy that further delays eviction notice, people will lose their homes.

Across our portfolio, we see a clear pattern.

Once a household is two months behind on rent, the likelihood of catching up drops sharply, even with rental assistance.

This was evident after the pandemic era moratorium, when an intervention was delayed, families fell further behind, and were way less likely to remain housed.

This is why we rely on early contact, early conversation, and early connection to resources, which has helped more than 90 24 months of housing stability.

The current 30-day notice is often the moment when residents reach out, begin problem solving, and incur engage with staff.

The notice residents receive also includes valuable information about available rental assistance and support.

These are resources families need early, not later.

In our Hennepin County portfolio, the average timeline from mispayment to an eviction order is already 89 days.

Adding another 30 days only pushes families deeper into debt.

Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your continued commitment to housing stability in Minneapolis.

Next is Alicia Lennard.

Uh, representing Common Bond Communities is the vice president of their services team.

For more than five and a half decades, Common Bond has provided affordable housing alongside supportive services that help residents achieve long-term housing stability.

In Minneapolis, we serve just under 1,500 households across 18 housing communities, many of whom face significant barriers to maintaining that housing.

Eviction prevention has always been at the core of our mission.

And we learned one thing uh very clearly that time alone does not prevent eviction.

Financial support does.

When rent relief was available, household stabilized.

When timelines alone were extended without accompanying financial assistance, residents accumulated larger and larger debts that became very difficult, sometimes nearly impossible to resolve.

That is why we believe that the most critical focus, possibly even more important than adjusting timelines is ensuring adequate, accessible and flexible emergency financial assistance that would build upon the initial one million dollar investment that this uh council has already passed, which we're very grateful to see that's already happened.

And in speaking with the services team uh at Common Bind about this proposal, a couple of concerns uh came up based on uh the experiences that they have with residents.

First, that a longer notice period uh typically allows that rent balance to continue to grow.

And so for households that have experienced job loss or reduced income, an additional month an additional month's rent of uh month of unpaid rent can simply push that balance beyond what may be realistically recoverable.

Second, in our experience, we're most effective partnering with residents when we're able to partner with that resident right away to be able to access uh assistance, uh resources, and when those resources are flexible, um, and when we're able to uh make those connections um as early in the process as possible.

And so in closing, Common Bond fully supports any policy that protects residents, prevents displacement, and promotes long-term housing stability.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And then I'll just make a request to security as space opens up, just ensuring that we use the full capacity of the space when uh speakers leave.

And then if you're able to, if you're willing to, if you've already spoken and you want to free up a spot for any of the testifiers, that would be uh a welcome accommodation.

I'll read the next five speakers so you know that you're on deck.

Howard Dodson, Ben Havlik Anderson, Chris Christine Lind, Kelly Rogers, and Andrew Perry.

I'll call up Howard Dodson.

Hello, Chair Council members.

For 24 years, I've been supporting refugee children in South Africa, Kenya, Lebanon, Jordan, and Ukraine.

And this eviction extension.

I want you to remember Mazo's hierarchy and needs.

At the bottom is safety.

What happens to children when they become unceltered?

They've already been traumatized, hiding in their homes.

And when they become unsheltered, you just added more stressors and more trauma on the children.

I've spoken to you before about trauma-informed resources for children.

That you should work with Minneapolis schools, the county.

These kids are gonna have PTSD if they don't get help in these three months.

Right now it's acute stress disorder.

It will become PTSD, and the life trajectory of that child is going to change forever.

This is a tangible intervention that can protect these young families.

But remember, your home is where your family is.

I appreciate hearing unhoused.

They're not homeless.

They're on house because they have a family.

And if this gets vetoed, the residents of Minneapolis, just like we did with the Gaza resolution, Uber Lyft.

This must not be vetoed.

We need to take care of these families and what we've been through.

We're Minneapolis strong.

I want you to look up my letter in the Washington Post, January 11th.

I said Prince Caldon a long time ago.

The revolution begins in Minneapolis.

At the intersections, I sang Prince's song 7.

Oh, seven and robots and fall.

They stand in the way of and we will smoke them all with an intellect and the sabo fare.

No one in the whole universe will have company strong.

Next, I'll call up Ben Helveck Anderson.

Thank you, members of the Council.

My name is Ben Helvick Anderson and work at Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative and live in Ward 11.

Beak is one is one of the largest providers of site-based permanent supportive housing in Minnesota, serving over 900 residents across 14 properties in Minneapolis.

I will share a brief perspective here, but our full thoughts are included in our letter, and we are signatory to a letter of from 13 nonprofit organizations as well.

We share your urgent concern about the real fear, chaos, and harm Operation Metrosurge has done to our community, leaving too many wondering how to pay rent.

We also share your goal of ensuring all Minneapolis residents remain stably housed and support targeted interventions to address the crisis many families are facing.

In our experience, the most effective way to achieve this goal is to increase the availability of targeted emergency rental assistance, which we applaud you for already moving forward on.

We are concerned this policy will result in serious unattended and preventable harm.

Our experience suggests that longer eviction filing periods often result in renters who have missed payments getting further behind.

We are concerned that extending the notice period may increase the rate of evictions of our most vulnerable households.

In response to the current crisis, we urge our government partners to advance solutions that stabilize residents and strengthen the ability of your nonprofit partners to serve them.

We strongly urge you to rethink this proposal and focus on providing the rental assistance our neighbors truly need to stay housed.

Thank you.

Next is Christine Lind.

Good afternoon.

My name is Christianne Lind.

I'm a longtime resident of Prospect Park neighborhood in Moore II.

And I'm a volunteer parent organizer with Minneapolis Families for Public Schools, which has coordinated efforts across 50 public schools in the city to safeguard and support families during Operation Metro Surge.

Since December, this group has supported daily safety patrols around schools, provided rides for vulnerable students, and collectively raised nearly three million dollars in mutual aid for impacted families.

I've been supporting all of this vital work at Edison High School, a public high school serving over 800 students in Northeast Minneapolis.

At the height of Operation Metro Surge, close to 40% of our students were in online learning.

Over the past several months, I've driven some of our most vulnerable students at Edison, and I've transported kids from all across the city, including Southeast, Northeast, Cedar Riverside, and downtown Minneapolis.

When I go to pick these students up, I often see apartments and houses with all the shades drawn down.

I cannot imagine the fear and trauma their families have gone through, not feeling safe to go outside or to work for weeks or months on end.

I see it reflected in the students' bodies and in their eyes as I drive them to school.

While more of our students are slowly returning to school, the sad reality is that many are not.

They are still sheltering in place.

Thank you.

Next is Kelly Rogers.

Um Thank you, Council.

My name is Kelly Rogers.

I live in the Marcy Holmes neighborhood.

Um, first I want to say that the solution has to be both.

It cannot be just uh, you know, extension of this ordinance.

It also needs for your support, for the state's support.

Um, the speed of government, the speed of bureaucracy, I think we have to be honest, has utterly failed us in this moment.

And that's why I'm spending my time begging for money for our neighbors to stay bare minimum housed.

These are not people that have leases who who simply have the access to the market, the rental market that I do, that many of you do.

They are Section 8 families who will lose their vouchers, which can take 10 years just to get 10 years on a waiting list just to get the bare minimum assistance from HUD.

These eviction letters are naming these agencies as as uh ways to double down and reinforce that they are gonna use the full extent of um of their authority as landlords to make sure that these families are not just unhoused, but are unhoused in the future in perpetuity.

And what does that do for the city?

I I think I'm I'm also a historian.

I think it's it's not out of bounds to say that this is the most targeted, widespread form of organized state racial terror that we have seen since Jim Crow.

And the psychic impact of that will last long after these agents leave the state, which they haven't, right?

Um and so I think really what we're asking is for you to help us do your jobs to help you have the time to release these funds to get it in the hands of the people that need it, who are families who have not gone to school in weeks, months, the people who are stowed away in their homes trying to just get by the next day, even though none of us know what it means to leave your house in in two months when it goes back to normal.

This is a lawless violent terrorist organization that has the full power of the federal government behind it.

That's all.

Thank you.

Next is Andrew Perry.

Andrew Perry.

Andrew Perry.

All right.

The next five speakers are Mitchell Hanson, Mina B.

Amanda H, Aaron Miller, Lawrence Williamson, Mitchell Hanson.

Hi, uh Mitchell Hanson, representing Harrison Neighborhood Association.

We respectfully urge you to side with community and allow community and the orgs that support them by extending the pre-filing eviction notice of 60 days.

Some people here are actually they can predict the future using internal data that favors their point.

And some council members almost seem eager for the community to fail in order to prove some point.

But I have news for you.

We won't.

Across Minneapolis, families are afraid to leave their homes.

People are struggling to afford food.

Many are facing imminent eviction while living in fear and instability under unprecedented and terrifying circumstances.

Thousands of residents feared of deportation and violence by ICE.

Yet we keep hearing that Minneapolis is open for business as usual.

That framing does not match what HA is seeing on the ground.

What's confusing is this.

During the short window, they try to secure legal help and an overwhelm system and stabilize income in a volatile economy.

But once an eviction is filed, the damage is immediate.

With additional time, jobs are found, assistance is approved, churches mobilized, and neighbors raise funds, and the work of HA and our partners is proof of proof of what is possible.

I just want to show you some.

I'm delivering this shoe, baby shoe to a to a family later.

Do you want this shoe to be the last shoe this baby wears in this country?

Do you care?

Next up is Mina B.

Hi there.

My name is Mina Baravon, and I am part of the Twin Cities Tenant Union and the South Minneapolis Tenant Union, where I've been a member and organizer for the last two years and worked with thousands of tenants.

Over the last three months, I've helped give rides, helped people get groceries, and helped keep an eye out for all of my neighbors.

One of my really dear friends, her and her three kids have been unable to leave since December 1st.

This didn't just start with the 3,000 agents.

This started in December and earlier.

She hadn't gone to work in months, and leading up to March 1st, she needed to pay rent.

The rent was due.

She had no money.

So she risked it and she tried to go back to work.

And on her way to work for the first time in two months, she was detained.

She couldn't go to work when she was detained.

She got out, thank God, because they had no reason to hold her, except that she was Latino.

She went home and she still doesn't have money.

She cannot pay the rent.

What she has told me she needs is time.

She needs time to try to go back to work.

She needs time to try to access the funds that exist.

And this is life-saving.

This policy is called pause evictions, save lives, and that is what it will do.

Evictions are violent and dangerous, and right now more discriminatory than ever.

If you all believe in fighting discrimination, you know that we need this policy.

If you guys believe in safety in people's lives of your constituents, we need this policy.

And you guys must believe then that we also need to be ready to override a veto.

This policy will save lives.

We need to fight to keep them in their homes.

Thank you.

Next is Amanda H.

Hi, my name's Amanda Hakimian.

I live in the Windham Park neighborhood of Northeast in Ward 1.

I'm here today as a homeowner, as an MPS parent and volunteer, and as a community college faculty member to voice my support for the temporary pre-eviction notice extension.

Our city has been in a state of emergency since the start of Operation Metro Surge, and our neighbors are suffering.

The economic impacts have been enormous, and I believe that is by design.

This federal administration wants us to become exhausted and to give up on supporting our community.

We cannot give up.

Recovery will take months, if not years, and this is one small way our city government can support our recovery and our community.

As we have already heard from other speakers, school, community, religious, and other groups on the ground have rallied to raise funds to support rental assistance.

That rental assistance is also very disaggregated and decentralized and takes a lot of time to navigate and access.

So our neighbors need time.

And I urge you to support this.

Thank you.

Next is Aaron Miller.

Hello, good afternoon.

My name is Aaron Miller.

I live in the Winden Park neighborhood of Northeast Minneapolis.

I'm here today as a parent, uh community leader, um, and heavily a volunteer recently, uh, supporting our local high school, primarily I just in high school, where I spend hours every week, many hours every week um watching ice move around, watching ICE do their thing, um to try and protect my community.

The violence, the um the uh damage to goods, damage to people, uh terrorizing of our local families is um uh is uh eye-popping.

It's incredible.

I'm sure many of you have seen it.

I'm sure that I'm not unusual in feeling this way.

The community has risen up, right?

We have armies of volunteers, we have mutual aid described by virtually every person at this uh microphone this morning, this afternoon.

Um, and it is overwhelming to see what the community has done.

We need our elected representatives to meet that the urgency, the the time that we've all been putting into this, you may be putting it in personally as well.

We need you to do that professionally, also.

Um the pressure that's being faced, the terror that's being faced by our families is much more than just terror.

It's economic pressure as well.

There's pressure, and and I will agree with the prior speaker that this is absolutely intentional.

This is uh no holds barred, full court press, aggression to um to these vulnerable individuals.

Um I urge you to um increase the time window and the pre-eviction notices, um, and as we as a bare minimum.

These families need money as much as they need time, as much as they need food, as much as they need watchful eyes to watch their children on the way to school each morning and afternoon.

Um thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next is Lawrence Williamson.

Hi, uh Lawrence Ward 8.

Uh, I'm not gonna sing.

Um what about sacrifice?

Um I was threatened by federal agents most days in January.

I was batoned, I was shoved to the ground, I was pepper sprayed, I was tear gassed.

I was violently arrested.

Um, I will live with the trauma of all the things I've seen for the rest of my life.

Um and I made that sacrifice willingly because I knew the moment called for it.

And if it can't be countenanced, if it can't be considered that landlords would make the sacrifice of giving their tenants a little more time to get them money together in this kind of crisis in this kind of environment.

That is obscene.

I echo what many of others said, this is the minimum.

This is the absolute minimum of what the government can provide to its citizens.

Um, I just like the the the violation of the social contract to be attacked by our federal government and to feel totally abandoned by our state and local government to not have anything that I can hold in my heart and say, well, this is what you know, this is what my government's doing for me and my neighbors.

It's really hard.

Um, and I really, really encourage you to please pass this ordinance just so we can have something, something to hold on to.

Thank you.

The next five speakers are Nikki Robert, Taylor Burkis, Laura Russ, and Carol Spector, and then DA Bullock.

Call up Nikki Robert.

Hello, thank you, counsel.

Um, I am Nikki Robert.

I am a homeowner and a small business owner in Ward 9.

Um, and I previously worked at an affordable housing nonprofit.

Um I think it's really important from a moral standpoint that you pass this, and a lot of people have spoken to that, and that is how I feel most strongly about it from the Quaker values that I inherited from my family.

Um also the reality that I think will probably speak to some of you better than others is that it is also the most fiscally responsible choice.

Because many studies show, and I have personally heard Mayor Fry say this at the opening of an affordable housing apartment building.

Homelessness is significantly more expensive civically than keeping people housed.

Evictions lead to homelessness and the long-term cost of evicting thousands of people during this crisis caused by our federal government will cost everyone in this room way more than a brief pause will cause cost, and that allows for our fellow neighbors to catch up on their rent.

So please pass this.

And it is also the financially correct thing to do.

And I am deeply disgusted that there are affordable housing nonprofits here speaking against it.

Please pass this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Taylor Burkis.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I am Taylor Burkis.

I am a resident of South Uptown, and I think that this is the very bare minimum that you can do because these extra 30 days will pass, and these people will still not have the money to pay their rent.

They will still face homelessness.

And we all know this city is not kind to homeless people.

The police terrorize them, ice will terrorize them, the weather is not conducive for any sort of outside living.

So I urge you to pass this and to do much, much more that you need to do for these people.

Because they are facing these financial hardships and these evictions because of government sponsored like racial targeting.

Like this is discrimination.

Them losing their income and losing their housing because of it is a continuation of this discrimination.

And you need to be against this discrimination with whatever it takes.

Thank you.

Next, we'll have Laura Russia.

Good afternoon.

Uh, my name is Laura Russ.

I'm with AN.

Uh, AN is a Minneapolis-based nonprofit affordable housing provider.

We have approximately 1,900 homes in Minneapolis, thousands more in the metro area.

I'm testifying to oppose the this proposed extension.

We've co-signed onto the letter along with 13 of our other nonprofit affordable housing colleagues.

And the reason we've done that is because we have experience with how this negatively impacts residents when extensions are in place.

Um we've actually seen on the ground what happens when when this is the case, and they don't actually prevent evictions, they actually increase evictions.

Even today, it takes about three months for a case to get to court by the time a resident is behind.

That represents a significant financial hurdle for that resident to recover from, and often they are not able to recover from it.

We do not want to set up our residents for something that will actually increase their chances of eviction.

We want opportunities to work with them long before it gets to that point.

There's also the reality that we need to acknowledge rent is the primary revenue source for affordable housing.

When rent goes unpaid for a month, the financial impact does not disappear.

Buildings still need maintenance, staff still need to be paid.

Aon has experience with this, and many of our homes in Minneapolis are at risk because we have consistently not received rental revenue in the way that these properties were underwritten to be able to sustain them.

We can see that cities, even here locally that have extended timelines, such as Minneapolis, Brooklyn Center, and St.

Louis Park do not have lower eviction rates.

In fact, it's the opposite.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Carol Specter.

Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

Madam Chair, members, my name is Carol Spector, and I am the advocacy manager at Catholic Charities.

I want to start by saying that we um share the deep concern that has been expressed in this room this morning for our neighbors who have who are in crisis due to the actions of our federal government.

But I do echo the sentiments of my nonprofit housing provider colleagues, and that we believe that this ordinance will have unintended negative consequences for the people we serve.

Catholic charities provides housing for people with extremely low incomes and high needs.

And we have seen that the longer the notice period, the longer that an eviction period takes, the worse the outcomes are for our clients.

So Catholic Charities provides deeply affordable housing paired with person-centered services to more than a thousand people who are exiting long-term homelessness in the twin cities.

As I said, our housing provides stability for those with extremely low incomes and complex needs.

Nearly all of our units are reserved for people with incomes at or below 30% of the area median income, and the majority of residents have incomes below $500 a month.

Additionally, 86% of the people we serve report at least one disabling condition.

It is our concern that without the availability of sufficient and immediate financial assistance that this policy is actually likely to increase the risk of eviction.

With the current 30-day notice requirement and a time to a court date, recipients typically fall two to three months behind on rent.

Extending the experien the period by 30 days will only compound the amount due.

Next is D.A.

Bullock.

First, I wanted to say this is um written submission that I'm also wanna say because I want to be part of the chorus of voices of neighbors who are here supporting each other.

I'm not going to sing though.

Not gonna be by that part of the chorus.

But I really want to address uh both my north side council members.

I'm ward four, um, I'm DA Bullock, and um it's this is a time when you have neighbors doing the most for each other, and um they're rallying money, they're supporting mutual aid, rental assistance, while the clock is ticking for our neighbors, and ironically, these will be people who have other jobs.

They gotta go out, make the rent for themselves, and they're they're sacrificing everything to do this extra job while we're asking you to do the very least for the job that we're paying you for.

I think it's unconscionable that um I I think both of you are gonna be on a um uh housing panel this evening, right?

With with um urban homeworks?

Like are you gonna walk into that room and really honestly tell them that you might be on the fence on a 30-day extension?

Like that's the least you can do in this time.

It's the it's the very least you and I wanna because I have short time.

I want to address some of the other nonsense that I've heard from landlords.

Um there is nothing in this ordinance that is prohibiting them from helping their residents right now.

Keeping them housed right now.

So that's that's uh a total um fabrication when it comes to how we need to rally together and do the the part that everybody else in this community has been doing throughout this time.

So I'm encouraging you all to do the right thing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next five speakers are Aaron D, Brian F, Emily Thorsen, Astrid, Roland, Flo Adams.

Aaron D.

Uh good after good afternoon.

My name is Aaron Diedrich.

I am out here representing uh Lake Street Dwelling, the Lago apartments in the Lakeville apartments uh in the uptown neighborhood in Minneapolis.

The majority of these are affordable units and or under the 4D program.

So I'm here to testify against extending the notice to evict period.

Under the current 30-day notice period, the process to evict a non-payer can take upwards of 120 days.

This is four months of that property not receiving a rent, but still has the obligation to pay mortgage, property taxes, payroll, utilities, maintenance, and cleaning.

Without these rents being paid, the properties cannot meet these obligations.

It's that simple.

A lease is a contract and an understanding between a tenant and a landlord that rent will be paid in the first of the month.

The landlord is providing a home for that tenant in hopes that eviction eviction will not be necessary.

Eviction is a last resort.

Rental assistance is only available in the Henben County for those that are in eviction proceedings.

If Minneapolis extends this notice of period, it'll delay access to emergency funds for Minneapolis residents.

All other Hennepin County residents outside of the Minneapolis city will have quicker access to the depleting emergency funds.

In many cases, our residents actually ask us to file uh eviction paperwork so that they can access these emergency funds.

Landlords did not bring ice to Minneapolis or create the chaos in the city.

So why is the city council asking us to carry these additional receivables for an extended period of time?

It is our preference to work with residents impacted by Operation Metro Surge to work out a payment plan rather than automatically evict.

Many of our residents align with this viewpoint and it provides a greater chance that the residents will remain in their homes for a longer period.

Thank you.

Next is Brian F.

Uh greetings, uh member of the council uh and public.

Uh I think I represent a unique perspective here.

I actually own an apartment building in Marcy Park apartments, uh is in the Marksy Park neighborhood.

And for 25 years, I've owned that apartment building.

And for that 25 years, I provided housing to people.

And I gotta tell you, we don't like to unlawfully detain our residents.

It's the last resort.

It's the last thing we want to do.

It costs us money.

It's expensive for us to do.

Minneapolis, St.

Paul both have adopted a 30-day notice provision.

That's larger than it is in many other communities.

And the net effect of that is is that if I have to unlawfully detain a resident for non-payment or some other reason, it takes me 120 days to get that person out of my property.

If you adopt this res uh this ordinance, you're gonna make it 150 days.

Some of the other uh nonprofits have talked about the impact on the finances of the individual uh owners.

You know, I I'm not a wealthy guy.

I don't I'm not some big REIT in uh in uh New York or Los Angeles.

I'm I'm a I'm a guy that owns an apartment building, and this is how I, you know, this is how I support my family.

If if if my contract with my residents is not adhered to, then I can't meet my obligations.

And so I believe that you have structure in place already with a 30-day notice provision to to uh it have parties get into the quay to get financial resources, which they really need.

If you adopt the uh the additional 30 days to make it 60 days, you're gonna make it very hard on the landlords to continue to offer housing in this community.

And I don't think that's something we need to do because then you're gonna have even more homeless people.

Next is Emily Thorson.

Hi, counsel.

Uh, my name is Emily Thorson.

I am a resident of Board 8, a renter, a Minnesota licensed social worker, a past family supportive housing case manager, an advocate for housing first policies, and a caring human.

I'd like to see an end to evictions as a whole, but I'm here today to support the ordinance.

Um what I want to do first is talk about housing.

I want to ground us in what housing is.

Sometimes in formal spaces, it gets thrown a lot around a lot and um backed up by data and sanitized, but housing is where families share meals, where babies rest their heads and where we care for our elders.

I have seen the incredible lengths people go through to rent a home or an apartment in this community, scrolling pages of listings applying to emergency assistance for help for a damaged deposit.

And um either they'll approve it or um many programs require a denial in order to assist.

What happens if we fail to act?

I have seen the impact of discriminatory bureaucratic barriers like evictions.

Having an eviction or an unlawful detainer on your record keeps a family almost out of almost all rental housing in the city and forces them to accept usually substandard units and discrimination from landlords who will rent to them.

I have seen a mother be forcefully removed from her home, locked out from retrieving personal belongings.

Uh the family was denied entry to county homeless shelter for families because the baby's birth certificate was still in the locked home.

Uh this is not uncommon.

This is what eviction looks like.

Uh evictions are violent displacement, they are dehumanizing, they are preventable, and it costs us nothing to pass this ordinance.

We have the power to end them.

I ask that you stand on strong convictions and end evictions today.

Thank you.

Next is Astrid Rowland.

I'm short.

Good morning.

My name is Astrid Rowland.

I am a resident of Ward 5.

In addition to tirelessly supporting several schools, bus stops, and small businesses as a patroller and responder.

I've been equally active in fundraising for my neighbors in Northside with money I barely have as a low-income individual, but more importantly, through the act of sharing and connections.

I skipped patrols to be here today.

Two families on my block were in need of rent help for March.

One family briefly lost their primary breadwinner one month ago exactly when he was violently abducted on the street outside of their house.

I was there.

But still my neighbor was taken, leaving behind a wife and young kids.

I've been helping his son safely get on and off the bus so he does not become another Liam Ramos.

My neighbor was eventually released and came back home, but his absence was enough to jeopardize the family's ability to make rent that month until we were able to fundraise the necessary amount.

ICE has still not left our city.

In addition to being a housing issue, this is now a public safety issue.

Eviction will become another tool of violence the moment the clock runs out for these families.

Passing this ordinance is the bare minimum.

The North Side Mutual Aid Fund is still scrambling to cover rents for February.

I fear for April.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next is Flo Adams.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Council members.

My name is Flo Adams.

I'm a member of Ward 5 with Councilmember Warren.

I live near and over near North Commons Park, and I'm here to represent my neighbors that cannot be here.

And my neighbors who have had breadwinners abducted and all who are still afraid to leave their homes.

We have a council meeting where the public is invited to speak to represent the needs of the people.

Yet the people that need this moratorium the most are relying on those with the privilege to be out and about to show up to this meeting as well.

I have neighbors that have been so scared to leave their house next door that even after dropping off groceries for them, they still maintain their distance.

I'm not going to pretend to know the ins and the outs of the city government, but as a human being with a mole compass, I ask you to pass this moratorium to save lives.

We are talking about families with the one place they feel safe being pushed out by money-hungry landlords and nonprofits.

There's been almost $500,000 raised in South Minneapolis, all done by common citizens and people from here and around the country.

The fact that it is March and the citizens of this city have needed a moratorium since January, and we are all here three days into March is ghastly.

I call on the council to listen to their humanity and pass this moratorium as a bare minimum before then also passing a rental assistance fund and a public statement rebuking ICE and their actions in our city.

If it's hard to afford being a landlord, maybe you should sell your properties and have a soul.

Councilmember Warren, you have been silent on ice in our neighborhood, other than your horrible comments two weeks ago.

You have a responsibility to your constituents to protect and uphold them, of which you have failed to do, as you would rather sit on the campaign money you made from the same people who funded Jacob Fry.

There are no words from you on our neighbors getting shot in their front of in front of their home or families being tear gassed, not to mention the countless people that have been abducted.

Vote yes for this, and it'll be one step on a long journey to rebuilding any of this community's trust with you or otherwise.

Otherwise, you're still just complicit in ICE's activity.

Thank you.

Nobody's coming to save us.

You have the opportunity at least try.

Thank you.

Next, we will list out the next five speakers.

So speaker number 31 is Eliana LePole Johnson.

Speaker number 32 is Diane Erdman.

Speaker number 33 is Sarah Branch.

Speaker number 34 is Patricia Francisco.

And then speaker number 35 is Ian Coldwater.

So we'll invite up Eliana LePold Johnson, speaker number 31.

Good afternoon.

It's nice to see all of you.

My name is Eliana Lipple Johnson.

I live in Linden Hills in Ward 13.

I'm a founding member of Southwest Alliance for Equity or Sway.

We believe we are all connected and we are all neighbors.

I support the ordinance.

Okay.

So here's how I see it.

There are politicians who want to alleviate suffering.

And then there's politicians, we know and we've seen at the federal level who want to inflict suffering.

And then there are politicians who maybe are indifferent.

I know none of you want to cause suffering, but I fear that some of you are indifferent.

Council members, how closely are you feeling this crisis?

How is your proximity or your remove influencing your decision making?

Have you, for example, paid someone's rent?

Have you organized a rent fundraiser?

Have you gone on patrol even once?

Have you found someone an attorney?

Have you done someone's laundry?

Have you cleaned a church so a custodian can stay home?

Have you delivered groceries?

Have you located someone who was abducted and was in detention?

Have you held the baby of someone who is sheltering in fear?

If not, you may be too far removed to have good judgment in this case.

And I urge you to look to your colleagues and your constituents who are doing those things before making your decision.

I believe you can vote for this.

It's temporary, and I think it'll help.

As a constituent, I was disappointed to hear that when asked about rent in a committee meeting on February 5th that I was watching.

Councilmember Palmasano not only expressed a lack of understanding that the only reason rental needs were being met in January and February was that community mutual aid was addressing the need.

We can't keep up right now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Speaker number 32, Diane Erdman.

Good afternoon.

My name is Diane Erdman.

I have been 46 years, lived in Linden Hills.

I'm a retired teacher.

Minneapolis is a welcoming place, a sanctuary city.

People come here because we provide a safe community for them and we want them here.

I am here to advocate for a temporary eviction extension to enable our immigrant members to reset lives and remain safely housed.

Not doing this sends a message that we do not want them here.

We do want them here.

Immigrants revitalize our city.

Lake Street is a vibrant example of that revitalization.

I do not want our city to regress.

I personally work closely with and have become deeply fond of two immigrant families here.

A dear person of mine in Powderhorn Park area works with three blocks containing 33 immigrant households.

In past months, they personally raised 20K to cover rent payments for 16 families and arrangement support for 17 others.

This does not include funds raised for food assistance or plane tickets, enabling neighbor children to reunite with deported parents.

My neighbors in Lyndon Hills have given nearly 10K to help these same families.

My husband and I have contributed 5K nearly of our retirement funds.

Mutual aid dried up in February.

Many people are still figuring out how to pay current rent.

Lyndon Hill's mutual aid is also tapping out.

The issue does affect us in Linden Hills, both personally and collectively.

Our city extends beyond Linden Hills.

As a city, we have a responsibility to give these people a gift of time to regain job footing and be the responsible renters they want to be.

This is not eviction as usual.

This is not freeloading, this is support.

It will enable people to live independently like they want to.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Speaker number 33, Sarah Branch.

Hello, council members.

My name is Sarah Branch, and I'm a resident and a renter in Linden Hills and in Ward 13.

I'm here today in support of extending the required pre-filing eviction notice period for non-payment of rent.

And I want to speak to the council, but especially to councilperson Palmasano.

Let's be honest, Ward 13 is one of the most affluent and predominantly white wards in our city.

Our residents have been among the least directly impacted, not to say they haven't been impacted, but at least directly impacted by the immigration enforcement actions and by the financial instability that many other residents and many other wards are facing.

But that relative insulation is not a reason for silence.

It is a reason for responsibility.

With privilege comes influence.

We see that from our ward politically.

And with influence comes an obligation to use our voice, not only for our neighborhood, but for the entirety of Minneapolis.

Housing stability is not a ward-by-ward issue.

It is a citywide foundation for economic health, public safety, and community well-being.

Extending the notice period is not about excusing nonpayment.

It is about recognizing the economic reality of what has happened to our community.

Families whose incomes have been disrupted will not see their finances stabilize overnight.

At the same time, community-based safety nets have been strained and are many in many cases unavoidable, as we're already hearing here.

I personally raised $9,000 for mutual aid and rent in February.

I raised almost nothing this month.

And I am also personally aware of several neighbors who have not been able to make their March rent payments yet.

Neighbors who have children, neighbors who have been traumatized by the immigration enforcement actions for months.

A 30-day notice period assumes a recovery timeline that simply does not exist right now for many households.

60 days provides a more realistic window for families to secure new employment or to seek rental assistance, including from the $1 million emergency rental fund that was approved by the council last month last month, which we do thank you for, but that isn't still in the process of being distributed.

Thank you very much.

I urge you to pass the pause eviction save lives.

Next is speaker number 34, Patricia Francisco.

Council members, thank you for making this time and for delaying your lunch.

Appreciate it.

And I'm the co-founder of Indivisible Linden Hills.

I've only I and I want to thank you first of all for approving the use of general funds for rental assistance.

That was a really important act action that you took, and I'm here to speak in support of the pause and eviction pause eviction save lives proposal.

I've owned a house in London Hills for more than 40 years and paid the rising taxes that go along with living in that lovely neighborhood.

I am happy to do so because I generally feel the city's priorities are just and reflect the values that I support.

But today I am concerned enough to make my way to City Hall to talk with you, to speak with you, because I fear that the council and the mayor may not do what they can actually do, what you can actually do to extend the eviction notice period and give the people of Minnesota, Minneapolis, the break they deserve.

Many, many people in Ward 13 have been helping to pay the rent of those affected by the federal invasion.

I've been glad to do what I can.

But we elect you to take the collective action in a crisis that individuals cannot accomplish.

Please don't lose your way now when you can actually use the power we've entrusted to you to save families from more trauma.

Trauma for which they are not responsible.

You are responsible now.

I know you're hearing from landlords about this proposal, but your constituents constituents are clearly paying attention.

Why?

Because we are still doing our part.

Thank you.

Please do yours, thank you.

Next is speaker number 35, Ian Coldwater.

Hi, and thank you for your time.

My name is Ian Coldwater.

I was a teenage parent and a Section 8 voucher recipient after getting to the top of the waiting list after 10 years.

I'm now a homeowner in Ward 8, working at the top of my field.

I'm living proof of how people can succeed when given the time and the resources to get back on their feet.

I've never forgotten the existential terror of not being able to pay the rent.

And as an individual, I've personally raised tens of thousands of dollars in the last few weeks paying the rent for over 50 families to keep those families in their homes.

We who have been working so hard on mutual aid efforts are making amazing things happen, but it takes time and resources to make those things happen, and we can't do that alone.

There is simply too much need on multiple levels.

We can't afford to ignore it.

Even if you are not concerned about the human element, which I would argue you should be, because these are our neighbors and they matter.

We do not have the resources as a city to handle a homelessness crisis at the scale of the one that we are about to face.

Even just receiving an eviction notice can make it harder for every one of these families to find housing in the future.

There are no family shelter beds available in the city of Minneapolis.

We can stem this tide, given time and opportunity, but prevention is going to be key.

This is not like previous situations that the landlords here are talking about.

There are resources that have been committed, but those resources take time to distribute.

We all just need time.

Please pass the pause evictions save lives ordinance to give everyone, our neighbors, us, and you some breathing room.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

The next five speakers are speaker number 36, Ty Prescott, Speaker number 37, Anna S.

Speaker number 38, Elizabeth, Speaker number 39, Shasa Sartan, and Speaker number 40, Octavia W.

Go to Speaker number 36, Ty Prescott.

Hello.

My name is Ann Ty Prescott, and I'm a tenant of Willard Hay in Ward 5.

I'm here taking time off of work to speak at City Council for the first time today to support extending the pre-eviction notice period.

This is work that we need that can and should be paid with just to address what the landlords have been saying.

This can be paired with financial aid.

It is not an either-or.

Continuing with that, regardless of the specifics, extending the pre-eviction notice period is critical as the state has failed to enact an eviction moratorium.

Extending the pre-eviction notice period would ensure that renters have the time to be able to go back to work or find new work if their employers have gone under in this siege, um, apply for rent releases, et cetera.

All of this takes time and renters that renters currently do not have.

This is because Minneapolis has been under an ethnic cleansing campaign.

And the eviction crisis we are facing is an extension of that campaign, and it is allowing landlords to do ICE's job for them.

This council has the power to stop this, but that is only if you are all willing to act.

Speaking of additional receivables, as some landlords would like to make note of, I have personally gone on patrol, donated at least 400 in the last month to keep people housed, and been threatened by ICE agents while trying to keep them from raiding raiding City View apartments in January, which rendered me unable to work for two weeks because it caused a mental health crisis.

We've been threatened, brutalized, and murdered to try to keep our neighbors in our communities.

And should the city fail to enact an extension of the notice period, it will be a desecration of the sacrifices we've made to protect our neighbors.

We have not put ourselves through months of resistance.

We have not died only for our neighbors to be made houses while there are still agents in Minnesota who are still kidnapping our neighbors.

This is why I'm out urging the council to vote unanimously to support the extension of the eviction notice period, preferably to a minimum of three months.

Any potential for a veto is unacceptable.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is speaker number 37, Anna S.

Good afternoon, City Council.

My name is Anna Stamborski.

I live in Lindale, and I'm a co-founder and organizer of Neighbors Helping Neighbors.

Our Metrowide Network began in early December to support neighbors with groceries and transportation in response to Operation Metro Surge.

In January, we started providing rental assistance, and the need is more dire now than ever.

We've already sent out over $500,000 of rent support to over 325 families.

But when we opened our rent relief application on Sunday, we received 1,200 requests in 12 hours.

Hundreds of individuals, faith communities, organizations, neighborhoods, and schools have similar numbers to share.

In the past three days, we've heard from 124 organizers who are also doing rent relief.

The aggregate numbers are staggering.

These groups report distributing over $6 million in rent support, keeping over 5,000 families in their homes.

Six million dollars.

Notably, only 12 respondents said they've gotten philanthropist or foundation engagement.

One of those is neighbors helping neighbors.

And of the $500,000 of rent support we've distributed, only $60,000 are from philanthropic institutions.

The rest is all small doll small dollar donors, individuals contributing 20, 50, or 100 dollars.

We've all been racing against the clock to get rent support out the door for February 1st and March 1st, because evictions do not wait and our neighbors are on the edge of a cliff every 30 days.

But what if we all had a little more time?

An extension to the eviction timeline is the absolute least you can do.

Not only would it keep people housed for another month, but it would also give us all time to have the conversation around how to sustainably keep people in their homes.

What funders and philanthropists in should be doing, and how we should leverage municipal state resources.

Those are the conversations about scale and money that are needed here because we as neighbors are doing our part.

It's time for you to do yours.

Thank you.

Next is speaker number 38.

Elizabeth from Agate Housing.

Hello, I'm Liz Mackhart, Director of Housing Programs at Agate Housing and Services.

We operate throughout Minneapolis with the most of our renter participants in Whittier and Longfellow.

We serve over 100 households every month in our housing programs, and we operate homelessness prevention services, which is primarily eviction prevention.

I want to say first that I really respect the work this committee has done, and especially in approving a million dollars of rental assistance.

As we've heard from so many community members today about the sheer volume of mutual aid funds that have been raised and used to keep people in their homes over the last few months.

I think my primary goal is to talk about how important and impactful that rentful rental assistance is.

What we've seen in our programs and what we've seen with people coming into our shelters and our housing programs is actually still some of the impacts of folks who didn't get timely rental assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic when that Iving should moratorium was going on.

We have people coming into our programs with eight to ten thousand dollars of old dues rent to a prior landlord that because rental assistance was not timely and did not pay that off at the time.

There's now no funding that pays that.

And so we have people who, as I know one other speaker spoke about, um, can't actually access very safe affordable housing anymore because they have this piece that's gonna come up on their record for the rest of time.

Um so as you're considering this and what more the city can do, I do want to really push the importance of rental assistance.

If we are saying that state rental assistance might not come through till the end of the summer, mutual aid funds are running out now, and we're gonna give people 60 days.

That's not getting them where they need to go.

What we need is rental assistance right now.

Um a 60-day notice is just simply not going to be enough time to come up with money for most people, and the end result is just going to be a higher balance when they are evicted.

So that's all.

Thank you.

Next is speaker number 39.

Shasa Sartin.

Um Good afternoon, members of the committee.

My name is Shasa Sartan, and I live in Ward 8.

I'm grateful to the council members who wrote the temporary pre-eviction notice extension ordinance, and I call on all council members to vote yes in protection of our city.

For evictions to even be possible right now while there is so much terror from ICE agents is completely unethical and disturbing to me.

A complete eviction moratorium is needed, and as others have said, this is a bare minimum intervention before that can happen.

Um I I feel that I also need to note that um the nonprofit leaders and landlords who have been speaking earlier and I um and saying that this will only result in more um debt.

Um I just they're speaking from an alternate reality, and I just need to note that.

That's not based in reality.

Um like many people, I have been given in money I have been giving money that I don't really have to support my neighbors who are most vulnerable to ICE agents.

I've been raising money to cover rents, and I know families who've been applying for rent relief and have not been getting chosen in the lotteries.

I know families who have recently secured housing after being unhoused for months and are at risk of losing it.

I'm very frustrated.

Trying to raise money right now feels like screaming into the void because there is so much need.

Extending the pre-eviction notice to 60 days provides critical time to continue fundraising and sourcing rent relief.

It it gives people the chance to actually get the money.

That extra 30 days could be the difference between being chosen in the rent fund lottery or not, the difference between reaching the GoFundMe goal or not.

This extension is an opportunity to actually be an acknowledgement of the reality we are living in, to acknowledge that it's absurd to have any rules and regulations remain normal when this level of physical and mental violence, abuse, and torture has been waiting outside the doors of so many.

This really is a matter of life or death.

There are there's not room in shelters for the amount of families facing evictions.

They have homes already and deserve to stay in them.

This extension can make that possible.

Thank you.

Next is speaker number 40, Octavia W.

Hello.

Uh good afternoon now, uh chair and members of the committee.

Um, this is my I'm Octavia.

I live in South Uptown Ward 10.

Um, this is my first time being at City Council.

I took time off work for this.

Uh I have given about 10,000 in mutual aid out of my pocket.

7,000 of which is specifically for rent assistance.

I promise you, my pockets are far smaller than a landlord's.

Yet that is my bonus.

That is a chunk of my savings that I have given to my neighbors to keep them safe right now.

I've seen me and my neighbors pick up slack from the lack of assistance from the state and city levels.

A lot of us now, this has been going on for a while, and this Um.

We can't, I can't maintain that.

I cannot maintain that amount of giving.

We right now need.

On my morning walks, I still see my neighbors standing outside at bus stops, making sure that children are able to safely get to school.

I urge unanimous support on this bare minimum.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next five speakers are as followed.

Ella K, Speaker number 41, speaker number 42, Rye G.

Speaker number 43, Alicia House.

Speaker number 44, Regan R.

And speaker number 45, Jessica S.

So we'll go to speaker number 41, Ella K.

Is there an Ella K.

Ella Campelman from Ward 9.

Then we'll go to speaker number 42.

Rye.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, members of the committee.

My name is Rye Galbreath.

I live in Ward 1, and up until very recently, I worked in a prominent award-winning restaurant in downtown Minneapolis.

It's a restaurant that many of you probably think would be doing well, but that is not the case.

No one in our industry is doing well, and we are going to be in recovery mode for a very long time.

I was recently laid off for my restaurant several weeks ago, explicitly due to the ongoing economic toll of Operation Metro Surge.

Even before my layoff shifts were canceled because of a lack of customers, we've closed early because there are no customers with which to remain open.

We in our industry expect a downturn in the winter months.

We are prepared for this, but when I tell you that Operation Metro Surge is something else entirely, I mean that.

The overwhelming majority of us are dependent on mutual aid in order to make ends meet.

The point I want to drive home is that this ongoing federal occupation has been an untenable economic stressor on all workers, regardless of our immigration status.

Thousands of us are facing eviction, and despite the ways that we and our communities have been able to support each other via mutual aid, we will not be able to heal and recover while facing houselessness.

I know from experience that you cannot focus on that healing when you are unhoused and struggling to meet your most basic needs.

We need an immediate policy action to avoid an eviction crisis in the upcoming months.

Extending this timeline is a strong step, first step towards a just recovery from this occupation, and we need to center our vulnerable community members who are shouldering an outsized share of the long-term damage.

This will give people the necessary time it takes to access the various resources that are available to cover rent.

Neighbors, churches, and other organizations have scrambled to pull together funds to help neighbors pay rent, but for renters, finding that takes time.

If we are to be reliant on each other, we need the time to be able to support one another.

Please take action on this immediately to help ensure people can stay in their homes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, next we'll welcome Speaker number 43, Alicia House.

Thank you.

My name is Alicia House, and I'm here representing RS Eden.

Uh RS Eden last year housed about a hundred uh about 1,000 individuals, including adults and children, across our supportive and affordable housing programs.

The individuals and families we serve are often coming out of homelessness, incarceration, substance use disorder, mental health, and deep economic instability.

Housing is not just our work, it's our mission.

I want to be clear that eviction is always the last resort.

It is extremely rare that we pursue it.

When we do, our team works quickly to find alternative supports services or housing options.

But in our experience, prolonging an eviction process does not protect residents, it can often cause great harm.

Like the A get representative from earlier today had mentioned, under the current 30-day notice period, residents typically arrive several months behind rent.

Extending the notice would likely mean three to four months of accrued rent.

For individuals living on extremely limited incomes, that balance becomes earns insurmountable.

Larger balances increase the likelihood of eviction and create long-term barriers to searching future housing.

There's also another difficult truth.

Whether due to safety concerns, lease violations, or instability that requires a higher level of care, holding someone in housing that is no longer working is not compassionate, it's not safe, and it is not stabilizing.

Delays can escalate harm both for that individual and for neighbors.

Engagement around payment plans and rental assistance is offered far in advance for any eviction notices.

We share your commitment to keeping people housed, like somebody else had mentioned.

It doesn't have to be either or.

We support expanding expand expanding rental assistance and prevention resources.

But extending the expanding or extending the pre-eviction notice period is unlikely to produce better outcomes and may unintentionally create deeper instability.

Thank you for your leadership and for your care of the residents, and RS Eden remains committed to working alongside you on solutions that are both compassionate and effective.

Thank you.

Next, we'll welcome Speaker number 44, Reagan Reek, followed by Speaker number 45, Jessica Siminski.

Hello, all my name is Regan, and I am a resident of Ward 3 and the Sheridan neighborhood.

I hope my council member watches this later and hears what I have to say.

Um, because I am here asking you all to vote in support of the temporary extension of our pre-eviction policy for nonpayment of rent.

A small group of my neighbors and I in Ward 1, 2, and 3 raised over 40,000 this past Saturday.

We put together a local bar crawl in two weeks.

And it was a stunning feeling to see all my neighbors gather together to support keeping us housed and keeping our local businesses open.

My neighbors and I have plans to keep raising funds in the coming months, but we can't do this every other week.

We all work full-time jobs on top of this.

I am grappling with the feeling of how fast that 40,000 will be used.

It's so much money, but it is very likely all of that money has already been put towards paying February or March's rent.

It doesn't matter how much we as a small group of volunteers raise, it's gone in an instant.

We as a city and as a state are not ready for the shock waves caused by the federal occupation of Minnesota.

We have done our best to withstand the first wave, and we are still standing.

We haven't been able to save everyone, but we are keeping an incredible amount of people housed right now.

And it is all so delicate, and we are so tired.

I see the late spring and early summer of 2020 in my nightmares.

I talked to so many people who found themselves living out of their cars, out of tents in our parks.

I don't know if any of you remember that, but I do.

That is what is coming again.

We know better.

We can fix this.

We can prevent that from happening again.

We need more time.

We need more fun time for the funds this council appropriated for emergency rental relief to become accessible.

We need more time for the state to pass additional funding, and we need time to breathe.

Thank you.

Give us some time, please.

Thank you.

Um, next we'll welcome Speaker number 45, Jessica Siminski.

Hello, and thank you, Vice Chair and Council members, for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Jessica Szeminski, and I am a ward nine resident and a policy attorney at the Housing Justice Center.

Minneapolis needs you to pass pause eviction save lives.

Even though the feds announced an end to Operation Metro Surge, the impact of the occupation is ongoing and the consequences are dire.

Even though the community has been raising mutual aid funds, and this council authorized an additional million in emergency rental assistance, this has not been enough because the need for rental assistance is simply too high.

Families need time to get back on their feet and recover from this occupation.

Families need time to seek out their rental assistance that the community has been gathering.

The reality is that 30 days just isn't enough.

Temporarily expanding the pre-eviction notices to at least 60 days will allow families time to recuperate and gather the funds they need to pay rent and satisfy their landlords.

This ordinance is also needed because Hennepin County is the only courthouse that requires tenants to show up in person for initial appearances in eviction court.

We have seen ICE arrest people in the courthouse, even though they allegedly told the chief judge that they would not be doing so.

We need to pause evictions to make sure people don't have to decide between showing up to defend themselves in court for their case or avoiding being kidnapped by ICE.

Not to mention that evictions move much faster than the 120 days you've been hearing about from landlords today.

It they don't take that long.

This council already unanimously agreed that an eviction moratorium was necessary to reduce harm and protect our neighbors.

The state failed to step up for our neighbors and act, so it is time for the city to step up and do its job and stand by your unanimous eviction moratorium resolution.

Though we didn't accomplish the moratorium, a similar outcome is within our reach.

By passing pause eviction saves lives, this council can prevent homelessness, make sure landlords get paid their rent, and ensure our neighbors are safe from ice.

Thank you.

The next five speakers we will welcome are Speaker number 46, Alexa Babiak, Speaker number 47, Alana H.

Speaker number 48, Elizabeth Flannery, Speaker number 49, Clay Smith.

Speaker number 50, Kurt Myron.

With that, I'll welcome Speaker number 46, Alexa.

Hello.

My name is Alexa Babiac, and I live in Ward 10.

I help lead a nonprofit called Neighbors from Our Neighbors, a member of the Housing Justice League.

I am here today to ask all council members to pass the pause evictions save lives ordinance.

Extending the pre-eviction notice from 30 days to 60 days during this time creates breathing room.

It allows families to actually access rental assistance and stabilize without the cascading harm that follows an eviction filing.

As a small mom and pop landlord myself, I can confidently say that pausing evictions does not mean ignoring landlords' needs.

It means creating a window for resolution instead of displacement.

If a tenant doesn't pay their rent on time and this leads to me not being able to pay the mortgage on their home on time, I will not be at risk of leasing losing the property for another several months.

And even then, I have a six-month redemption period.

Landlords already have this protection, and this additional time is the bare minimum any of us in this room should be advocating for.

Thank you.

Next, we'll welcome Speaker number 48, or sorry, Speaker number 47, Alana H.

from Neighbors for More Neighbors.

Okay, hello.

Um, my name is Elena Hawley.

I've lived in the Twin Cities all my life.

I'm with Neighbors for More Neighbors, which is a member of the Housing Justice League.

Uh neighbors from More Neighbors works to ensure Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota is a place where everyone has a stable, humane place to live in the neighborhood they choose.

On behalf of our organization, I'm speaking up in support of the pause evictions save lives ordinance in Minneapolis to keep people safely housed during this crisis.

You're hearing or have heard that lengthening eviction notices will stress landlords and create strain between landlords and their tenants.

Of course it will.

Thank you.

Next, we'll welcome Speaker number 48, Elizabeth Flannery.

Elizabeth Flannery, Ward 3 from Trellis.

All right.

And after that, we'll go to Speaker number 49, Clay Smith.

Good afternoon.

My name is Clay Smith.

I'm a renter in the Lindale neighborhood in Ward 8.

I'm here to support the pause eviction save lives ordinance.

In the last three months, we've all witnessed the violence of federal occupation.

I live right off of Lake Street.

I've seen people snatched from the sidewalk and the bus stop.

On January 23rd, I had my car window busted and was assaulted by CBP agents.

Your constituents have put our bodies on the line to prevent abductions.

We've sacrificed sleep and free time to coordinate mutual aid, and I want to be clear, this is not our job.

Every way that neighbors have stepped up to protect each other points to a failure by our government to do the same.

I spent more than 20 hours over the last two weeks talking to renters across Minneapolis about their experience since the occupation.

The threat of March rent loomed large.

They told me their Somali neighbors have taken to walking the hallways for recreation because they're afraid to go outside.

I talked to another woman who lives in a one-bedroom apartment with her two children.

She spent the last of her savings on rent on March 1st.

I thank Council members Wansley, Stevenson, Osman Chavez, and Chowdery for authoring this ordinance.

And I also want to make it clear that passing this extension unanimously is the very least you as a legislative body can do.

Thirty days of extra notice before before being thrown out onto the street, much like one million dollars in rent relief when families have lost more than a hundred million dollars in wages since the occupation started is a band-aid on a bullet hole.

And yet there are dozens of us here, people who are already exhausted, waiting four plus hours on a Tuesday morning just to have two minutes to beg for the bare minimum.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next, we'll welcome Speaker number 50, Kurt Myron.

Good afternoon, Council.

My name is Kurt Myron.

I am a resident of Ward 10.

I think the core question we're seeing with this today is does our city work for the people who live here or for the landlords?

Do we care more about people having a roof over their head or a balance sheet?

I have been so inspired by my neighbors that I have met during this occupation.

The people that are organizing that are organizing the rent donations that are making sure that we are safe.

Even some of you who I've met on the streets who have been out protecting our community.

We need you.

Regular people cannot continue to do this.

The city, the council, the mayor must act.

Our residents, or excuse me, our mayor was recently on national TV praising how well the residents of Minnes Minneapolis have taken care of each other.

He's even cursed at the people who have been terrorizing us.

Let's prove the mayor rights and ensure that our city can keep our most vulnerable residents housed.

I urge you to all pass this moratorium, and let's do everything we can to make sure that the people who live here continue to live here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next five speakers we will welcome our speaker number 51, Julia Johnson.

Speaker number 52, Sagira Shaheed.

Speaker number 53, Angela B from Ward 4.

Um, speaker number 54, Jenny C from Ward 1.

Um, and then speaker number 55 Khaled Wursami from Ward 4.

Um, I'll welcome Speaker number 51, Julia Johnson.

All right.

Julia or Elizabeth or Andrew come in at any point.

Um we'll we'll welcome you.

Um we'll continue to speaker number 52, Sh Sagira Shaheed.

Hi.

Um, my name is Sagera, and I'm a resident of Ward 7.

I am a member of Black Mass.

I'm a member of Minnesota Labor for Palestine and I'm a poet.

Um I'm here today because I'm also facing eviction.

And I want to counter something that has been talked about here in this space.

What helped me to because I was facing it for a couple of months because I've been on the front lines.

I'm a former public sector worker, and I've been putting my body on the line.

I'm a Muslim woman.

Nobody in everyone in our community is impacted by this.

What has saved me is not been being unhoused.

What has saved me is mutual aid and having some time.

I have a job interview tomorrow.

And unlike what these uh uh landlords and nonprofits have been saying, um, we need both.

We need an extension to the uh evictions, and we also need rental assistance.

And so we need time.

It's not gonna help.

I've been unhoused before.

It doesn't help to be in house.

I've accessed uh public uh uh uh resources in the past, and the bureaucracy of it, both as someone who has received it and as someone who has worked in the public sector.

It's ridiculous.

And we know that Operation Metro Surge is unprecedented.

We have uh uh uh federal agency that has the military or the budget of some militaries in other countries have uh descended upon our cities, have created heck chaos and havoc in our communities, and we're asking for the bare minimum, we're asking for more time.

My grandparents survived Jim Crow.

The stuff that I'm seeing on the streets that are impacting my family, in fact, in my community, as someone who's a citizen of this country.

It's unprecedented.

It's bare minimum to extend time to give people time.

It it helps to have that time because you give people time to get their ground and to get their foot.

I know that in Ward 7 in particular, that there are people who businesses, neighbors, and community members who are struggling because they're having the shelter.

They're struggling because they are not paying the rent because it's scary, right?

If you give people time, the mutual aid can come in, they can access the resources.

One of the state uh or the county um websites, I think they're backlogged with some of the assistance.

It's like back in October or something like that.

You all need time.

So because we have shown up for you all, please show up for us.

We are your voters.

Don't listen to the landlords.

Thank you.

Next, we'll welcome speaker number 53, Angela B.

Hello everyone.

I just want to name there's a lot of people that have been here since 9 30 this morning that couldn't speak and are sitting out in the hallway.

We couldn't even get in the overflow room for an hour or a couple hours.

So I just want to name that there were a lot of people out there that you couldn't see today here to support this.

Uh my name is Angela Bonfilio, and I'm a Ward 4 resident and um small business owner and community organizer.

Over the last three months, we have seen the incredible efforts of Minneapolis residents coming together to keep us housed and block black block, keep our neighbors safe.

A few weeks ago, this body had the chance to be a part of this slogan and to keep more people housed and move this vote up a couple weeks ago before the March 1st rent was due.

And five of you chose not to even vote on this a couple weeks ago.

And so that's why we're here in March.

Rent was due on Sunday, and we know the need is astronomical.

Everyone in here has been doing everything they can to raise money for rent, and it is not it it it takes time, it's not enough.

We need support, and we need you all to be a part of this solution.

And I hope by the end of today and this week we can we can think of all of you as part of this solution.

Um and we need you to act to to prevent mass displacement.

And as been said, you need more time to get policies and other things in place before we see so many people being displaced in the upcoming weeks.

Because of our 30-day um pre-eviction notice that we have, that's why we're not seeing as many mass evictions already.

That because of the mutual aid, that's why we're not seeing mass evictions already, but we know it's coming from all the impacts that we've heard today.

We feel like we're facing an unnatural man-made emergency disaster, and from talking to my north side neighbors, we are not seeing our elected officials stand up with us on this to take concrete policy action that's within your power to do and to work towards um work towards solutions.

So I asked you to continue to do to work towards this crisis and and address this.

Thank you.

Next, we'll welcome speaker number 54, Jenny Cr.

Speaker number 55.

Uh Khadija.

Uh please come on up.

One second.

If we can just adjust the time.

Salaam alaikum, everybody.

So just if we if I can ask you to hold on just one second while we readjust the timer.

Okay.

So whenever we get ready, we'll start the time.

Okay.

So perfect.

We're ready for you to begin.

Okay.

My name is Khadija.

Um how not your summit.

So you'll say hi.

So how to know in the house.

Hello, my name is Khadijawar Samet.

I'm a Ward 4 resident and a Somali business owner and the Carmel Mall and a Black Mass Leader.

I am here today because we are not able to pay the rent.

We're not able to pay the rent for our businesses.

We are not, people are not coming to our stores because they are afraid.

And if we are not making revenue from our businesses, we are also not able to pay our rent in Ward 4.

I've lived there for 17 years, and this is an emergency.

So then also Somali.

Still no myself.

Over 700 businesses in Somali Mall are now officially three months behind and are not able to receive rental assistance.

This has affected us now.

We're almost three months behind in our rent in our homes.

We aren't able to make revenue.

We aren't able to move forward.

This is an emergency.

It is hard to apply when some of these are not even in English.

It takes time to go through this process.

We are also asking you for more time for us to catch up on our rent.

We're also asking you to come visit our stores.

The Somali business corridor is dead.

We don't have people coming.

Eat is approaching, and we're getting locked out of our businesses.

This is an emergency.

We have what two weeks, March rent is due on the 5th.

It is now the third.

So had I and Hannah Satan.

I say no.

The ice rate has affected us emotionally, mentally, physically, and financially.

We are feeling the full weight of the federal government on us, on our spirit and our soul, and we need your help as a community.

We need more time.

We have done enough.

We have maxed out our credit cards.

I have used I even use my son's tuition to pay my rent.

Like we need time.

We've heard that you guys have been passing uh funds for us to receive rental assistance, but the assistant hasn't even reached us yet, and we haven't even been able to apply.

And so the we need organizing in the Somali mall.

We need support here.

And again, we asked for more time.

She said, Thank you for thank you for giving me the time to speak.

It's beautiful to see all your faces.

This is my first time.