Good morning, everyone.

My name is Elliot Payne.

I'm the president of Minneapolis City Council.

Before we convene our meeting, we have the presentation of two honorary resolutions.

First, we have a resolution that recognizes Women's History Month, which will be presented by Councilmembers Chucktai and Wansley.

Also, all of my fellow colleagues who would like to join in solidarity.

Council Member Meeting.

Warren, not a well, Paul Masano.

Men too.

Okay.

Oh, I don't know.

We got an extra meaningful.

Okay.

Awesome.

Perfect.

All right.

Good.

Good morning, everyone.

Happy women's history month.

Woo!

Should have had Beyonce playing.

We were in the rural while we walked down, but it's okay.

Um we're gonna next time next year.

Um, just want to say thank you to everyone for joining us, also to our women employee network who helped pull this together, pulled a phenomenal breakfast together.

Thank you all for not only just showing up today this morning, but um being the backbone of our city um and are constantly coming forward with brilliance, with um persistence and caring for our most vulnerable residents and for the welfare of our entire city.

So thank you.

Um we're gonna start off reading this resolution that many of you help co-create with us, um, and then I'll pass it down to my colleagues.

So honoring women's history month, whereas International Women's Day celebrated on March 8th, originated to honor women's roles in the labor movement in Europe and North America in their early 20th century and was adopted globally in 1977 as a focal point for the women's rights movement, and whereas the month of March is observed nationally as women's history month to recognize and celebrate the courageous women who have guided the course of our history and continue to shape and strengthen our communities, families, and workplaces.

And whereas we acknowledge that the women's history, the women's movement has historically left out black, indigenous, transgender, women of color, and women with disabilities, and it is crucial to recognize and address the specific chat challenges faced by marginalized groups of women in our quest for true equity, elevation, and inclusion.

And whereas there is a collective need for all of us to challenge gender stereotypes and strive for diverse representation and acknowledge that equal opportunity alone is not enough to achieve gender equality.

And the fifth one.

And whereas the city of Minneapolis continues to support within our organization where women, especially black, indigenous, transgender, and women of color are equitably represented and thriving across departments and roles and whereas its initial creation, the women ERG was called the 29% club, which was the percentage of women in the city of Minneapolis's workforce.

Oh, you said that.

Whereas the women ERG offers city employees opportunities for peer support, networking opportunities, well-being, supportive services, and whereas the women of Minneapolis Employee Network is an invaluable resource for the city of Minneapolis and the community in providing guidance to recruit, retain, support, and empower women leaders within the city's workforce.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the mayor and the city council do hereby uh commemorate the achievements of women and their role in the region and the nation, and we join in recognizing the annual celebration of women's history month.

All right, we're amazing.

Um I just want to make sure too.

I know we possibly have guests um who are in the audience.

Please feel free to join us here.

Um I know we also had speakers.

Um, so just wanted to make sure I share the mic with the first.

I think I'm speaking.

Uh thank you.

My name is Karen Moshe, her.

I'm director of neighborhood and community relations, and I have the distinct honor of serving as the executive sponsor for women.

Um, and it really is an honor to um be part of a community of women who are just amazing that every day I learn from to see how they maneuver and do so much.

And I think Councilmember Wandsley, as you said, um, the our city has gone through so much, not just in the last six months, the last three months, but in the last five years and before that, but certainly within the last um, I think three, four months.

What we have seen is um how women just show up from the tiniest thing of taking care of making sure our children get to school to making sure people have food to paying rent, whatever it takes, women show up, and they do not ask for the recognition, they just want to make sure that we are taken care of as a community.

Um, and I am so honored that not only is that happening in community, but watching how these women are taking care of each other.

I will share.

We're exhausted too.

And thinking about planning for women's history month, we had to have a conversation.

And you know what happened?

The women who were exhausted just said, I'm exhausted, and other women just stepped in and got it done the way that we do every single day.

So thank you to every woman employee, to every employee in Minneapolis who supports the women in the work that we do.

Um, thank you to the executive sponsor or to the um the executive team for doing being amazing at holding everything down, and thank you to all of the women who every day just show up and get it done and never ask for the recognition, just that we do it and we do it well, and we make sure we take care of everybody.

I believe there was one more speaker.

That's it.

Oh wow, sure.

Anyone else?

Yeah, right.

Thank you, Director Mo.

Not wanted to follow.

Director Mo for president, we would not not be in World War Three right now.

But um, well, that is it.

We'll gather for a picture.

Do we have staff?

Okay, do we stay here?

Squeeze in like we love each other.

Here we go.

Perfect timing, CVP.

Next we will recognize Ramadan.

No, we want you to stay.

Stay, please.

I'm not saying I'm just here.

Hey, thank you for being here.

I'm gonna surprise I don't want to get out of the room.

Come stand with us.

Do you want to start?

You're like?

Yeah.

Okay, I'll start.

Perfect.

You start us.

All right, let's get your line with us.

Okay.

So this is Mr.

Rainbow, if we can quiet down, please.

Okay, Asalamalaikum.

This is the resolution recognizing the holy month of Ramadan.

If anyone else would like to join, you are welcome to join us.

Where the holy month of Ramadan is observed by Muslims worldwide as a time of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community, this holiday begins and ends with an appearance of the crescent moon, and whereas Ramadan is also a time of generosity and service with individuals and organizations coming together to support those in need through acts of charity and kindness.

And whereas during Ramadan, Muslims practice fasting between sunrise and sunset.

This serves as a practice of self-discipline, spiritual growth, and and empathy for those facing hunger and hardship.

And whereas the call to prayer and the breakf breaking of the fast or ifthar are important traditions that bring families, neighbors, and faith communities together in observance of the sacred time.

And whereas Minneapolis is home to a diverse and growing Muslim population, including one of the largest Somali and East African communities in the nation who contribute to the cultural and economic vitality of the city.

And whereas in times of uncertainty and division, it is more important than ever to uphold the values of compassion, solidarity, and mutual respect that Ramadan embodies.

And whereas this year, Ramadan began at the sunset on February 18th and continued for a full lunar month, concluding with the celebration of Eid Al Fatar.

Now there it be resolved that the mayor and the city council recognize and honors the holy month of Ramadan, extends its best wishes to all who are observing and reaffirms its commitment to fostering and welcoming an incl an inclusive city for all people of all backgrounds and faith.

Thank you, everyone, especially our guests for joining us today.

I'm first going to have uh executive director of the Council of American Islamic relations in Minnesota, Jailani Hussein speak.

Uh, first and foremost, I greeting you all with greeting a piece of salam alaikum.

Um I want to thank the entire city council as well as the mayor.

Um, and just to recognize um we all have been waiting for this beautiful month of Ramadan to start, and it came at no um it came at the best time.

Um this is a month that brings people together.

It's a month that uh makes every person uh reconnect and with their creator and most importantly, refocus on things that matter the most, taking care of our our neighbors and our community.

Um and it is a month that I think um for us as Muslims uh it's a month of also uh an important reminder of what it is to be part of this incredible uh human family and the role that everybody has, especially in this tying times.

And so uh we are in prayer for not only both of our city and our community here in this country, but also the world.

Uh, we're reminded also in this beautiful month to think about those who are less fortunate, uh, especially those who go hungry, those who feel uh that they cannot find homes, and those who oftentimes are on the fringes.

And so in this month we think about all of them, and we find a way to be uh a source of good for the world, uh, as not only thinking about them, but finding ways that we can give back.

And so I want to thank the city council.

We haven't had a chance to thank many of you.

Thank you for your incredible bravery and courageous work in this difficult time for our city and our state.

Um, we did not lose that moment in any of you.

Um you have tested the time and stood up for us, and thank you so much.

And uh please uh continue to come to our mosques.

We are having evening prayers every single night.

I was so impressed.

I went to one of the mosques, and there was not a single place uh to to pray at, which is shows us the resiliency of our community that we're gonna continue to not allow this administration for federal administration to to limit our freedom of sp of practice.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Um next, I am going to have Malaika Daher from Rise, Minnesota give some words.

Thank you so much for being here.

Assalamu alaikum.

May uh peace and blessings be upon everyone.

Thanks again.

Um, as my brother Jalani pointed out, we're incredibly grateful for this resolution um in the city in this moment.

Um we are coming out of a very difficult time.

We're still living through a lot of what has happened as a result of Metro Surge and our communities of the Somali American being targeted and scapegoated to um invade our our state.

Um it's a delicate time.

Ramadan looks different this year where mosques are not as full, families are afraid to gather.

Um, our our malls are pretty much empty.

So this is an important moment to stand with your Muslim sisters and brothers.

We feel the love and we appreciate you, City Council, in all the different ways that you continue to show up for our various communities.

Thank you.

And now I'll ask if any of my fellow council members wanted to say any words.

Okay, I'll just conclude by just saying Ramadan is a month for us as our community, our Ummah to come together and be in this place of reflection, but it also the understanding for community extends to every single person.

And so while we ask you to be in solidarity with your Muslim neighbors and stand up with us for us, we also want to let you know we're standing up with every single person right now that's struggling.

Our Latino brothers, sisters, siblings, our Somali brothers, sister siblings, our black, brown indigenous community, our working communities.

That's what it's all about.

So thank you again for uh being here and bearing witness to this resolution.

And now we're gonna join together to take a picture.

Thank you, everyone.

At this time, I'm gonna call this regular meeting of the city council for March 5th to order.

The clerk will call the roll.

I said we got another one.

Maybe I could say who was there.

Council Member Wandsley.

Councilmember Shepta.

Present.

Councilmember Weiss.

Councilmember Chowdhury.

Present.

Council Member Stevenson.

Present.

Councilmember Rainville.

Present.

Councilmember Vita.

Present.

Councilmember Palmasano.

Present.

Councilmember Chavez.

Present.

Councilmember Warren.

Present.

Councilmember Schaefer.

Present.

Vice President Osman.

Present.

President Payne.

Present.

There are 13 members present.

Let the record reflect we have a quorum.

Before we begin the meeting, let me remind all members and staff that this meeting is broadcast to enable greater public participation.

The broadcast includes real-time captioning as a means to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community.

Therefore, all speakers need to 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 moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.

With that, the agenda for today's meeting is before us.

Are there any amendments to the agenda?

Seeing none, may I have a motion to adopt the agenda.

So second.

The clerk will call the roll.

Councilmember Wandsley.

Aye.

Councilmember Shugtime.

Aye.

Councilmember Biden.

Aye.

Councilmember Stevenson.

Aye.

Councilmember Rainbow.

Aye.

Councilmember Vita.

Aye.

Councilmember Palmasano.

Aye.

Councilmember Shavez.

Aye.

Councilmember Warren.

Aye.

Councilmember Schaefer.

Aye.

Vice President Osman.

Aye.

President Payne.

Aye.

There are 13 ayes.

That carries, and the agenda is adopted.

The next item is acceptance of the minutes from our regular meeting of February 19th.

May I have a motion to accept those minutes?

So move.

Second.

The clerk will call the roll.

Councilmember Wonsley.

Aye.

Councilmember Shagtai.

Aye.

Councilmember Whiting.

Aye.

Councilmember Chowdhury.

Aye.

Councilmember Stevenson.

Aye.

Councilmember Rainville.

Aye.

Councilmember Vita.

Aye.

Councilmember Palmasano.

Aye.

Councilmember Shabbat.

Aye.

Councilmember Warren.

Aye.

Councilmember Schaefer.

Aye.

Vice President Osman.

Aye.

President Payne.

Aye.

There are 13 ayes.

That carries, and the minutes have been accepted.

Finally, we have the referral of petitions, communications, and reports to proper committees.

May I have that motion, please?

So move.

Second.

The clerk will call the roll.

Councilmember Wandsley.

Aye.

Councilmember Shugtai.

Aye.

Councilmember Whiting.

Aye.

Councilmember Chowdhury.

Aye.

Councilmember Stevenson.

Aye.

Councilmember Rainville.

Aye.

Councilmember Vitaff.

Aye.

Councilmember Palmasano.

Aye.

Councilmember Shavez.

Councilmember Warren.

Aye.

Councilmember Schaefer.

Aye.

Vice President Osman.

Aye.

President Payne.

Aye.

There are 13 ayes.

That carries, and those matters have been referred.

The next order of business is presentation of reports from standing committees due to Operation Metro Surge.

We've been operating under a temporary structure that has condensed all standing committees into a single super committee of the whole.

I'll recognize Councilmember Chowdhury, Chair of the Committee of the Whole, to present that report.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

The committee of the whole is bringing forward 58 items to today's council meeting.

The first four items listed were public and quasi-judicial hearings.

Item number one was a site site plan review that was withdrawn by the applicant yesterday.

Therefore, I will delete this item from our agenda.

Item number two is a variance appeal for the Hiawatha Church.

And I will note we sent this forward without recommendation, so that will need to be pulled.

Item number three approved an extended hours operation license for Joe's market on eighth.

And item number four, approved a temporary pre-eviction notice extension ordinance.

Items five through eight are legal sediments.

Item number 11 approves quarterly donation reports.

Item number 12 approves two ethics complaints.

And item number 13 is a contract amendment.

Items 14 through 16 are liquor and gamble gambling approvals and renewals.

Item 17 accepts the 2025 fall brownfield grants.

Items 18 and 19 are art contract amendments.

Item 20 accepts a grant for the KMOJ project.

And lastly, 21 approves a legislative directive related to the rental license ordinance implementation.

Items 22 to through 26 are contract amendments for various services.

And items number 31 and 32 are gift acceptances.

Items 34 through 37 are project and cooperative agreements.

Item 38 is a resolution of support.

Item 39 is a joint powers agreement.

Item number 40 is a street project.

Item number 41 is a resolution expressing comments.

I will note that this item was sent forward without recommendation from the committee, so we'll need to be pulled.

Item number 42 is a waste agreement.

Item number 43 authorizes a temporary easement.

Item number 44 through 47 are gift acceptances.

I'll note here we are D deleting item number 45 from the agenda.

And la, and then items number 45 48 through 453 are various bids, contracts, and grants.

Item 54 is a request to the audit committee related to city data security.

Item number 55 is approving a block permit for drop kick ice.

This was a late addition.

We added at committee.

Item number 56 is accepting an amendment to the school-based clinics grant.

This was also a late walk on at committee.

Item number 57 approved a staff direction related to public safety training facilities.

And I know that there was discussion about uh adding an amendment, so that may need to be pulled.

Item number 57, so I'll leave that up to uh the members if that is their wish.

And then lastly, item 58 is consideration and for an appointed position for a wellness director in the police department and the related salary schedule.

I will note that this item was also sent forward without recommendation from committee and will be pulled.

Uh okay, with all of that, I will move all items for approval.

I move to delete items number one and 45 from the agenda and pull these items for a separate vote and discussion.

Um listed here.

I have item two, item four, item 41, and the few that um I made a note of uh as I gave the committee report.

And if the clerk is able to help uh ensure that we have the full list of what was pulled by me, um, that would be very helpful.

And then I move that for approval council member Chowdry has moved the approval of the committee report.

Uh minus items one to four, 41, 45, 46, 57, and 58.

Mr.

President, numbers one and 45 don't need to be pulled.

The action here is to delete them from the agenda as part of the consent agenda.

The only ones pulled are items two, 41, 57, 58.

46.

Oh.

46 is the one being deleted from the agenda.

And item four was pulled.

Item four as well.

And item four two, four, forty one, fifty-seven fifty-eight.

Uh with that, I will ask, I will call on uh councilmember Vita.

Thank you, Chair.

I just wanted to speak to item number 20, the KMOJ project.

This is an exciting project for North Minneapolis colleagues.

KMOJ has long been the source of how we receive our news in the black community, and this is a project where they get a building on Laurie Avenue on our cultural corridor, and so I'm so excited about this project.

The community is so excited about this project.

I know council member warren is will, and so I'm looking forward to seeing this through.

And so I'm looking forward to seeing this through.

They have uh a plot of land up on Laurie and Penn Avenue.

And the vision for this project is really bringing community together and showcasing how we come together on the North Side as a community.

So uh good job to everyone involved in making this happen.

And I can't wait for you all to come and celebrate with us the grand opening of the new KMOJ building.

Seeing no one else left in queue for the remainder of the items, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll.

Councilmember Wandsley.

Aye.

Councilmember Shagtai.

Aye.

Councilmember Whiting.

Aye.

Councilmember Chowdhury.

Aye.

Councilmember Stevenson.

Aye.

Councilmember Rainbow.

Aye.

Councilmember Vita.

Aye.

Councilmember Palmasano.

Aye.

Councilmember Chavez.

Aye.

Councilmember Warren.

Aye.

Councilmember Schaefer.

Aye.

Vice President Osman.

Aye.

President Payne.

Aye.

There are 13 ayes.

That carries, and those items are adopted.

Next, we will take up item number two, and I will recognize Councilmember Chowdhury to make a motion.

Thank you so much.

Um, Council President.

So before you, colleagues, is a motion on the variance appeal for 4155 41st Avenue.

Uh this is a motion to grant the appeal.

We worked uh with the city attorneys and our uh department level staff to share that there is a unique challenge that exists in complying with the ordinance because of circumstances unique to the property.

The unique circumstances were not created by a persons presently having an interest in the property and are not based in economic considerations alone.

The property includes uh principal structure that saw its last major addition before the adoption and incorporation of the Americans with Disability Act requirements into the state building code.

The building code was designed with split level, the building was designed with split level entries from the street, necessitating significant changes to the internal layout of the building to incorporate elevator lift facilities, accessible restrooms, and improve internal paths of travel.

These factors constitute a unique circumstance which creates challenges in complying with the ordinance and we're not created by persons presently having an interest in the property.

And a couple other things that I'll just briefly summarize that are added onto this motion are conditions.

Uh, I think this is a good compromise between the neighbors and the applicant.

They have agreed to reduce additionally reduce the the amount of maximum lot cover that they're asking for and reduce the maximum impervious service service area surface area that would cover.

Um I was really grateful to see the applicant reach out and share that they were interested in doing this.

We asked them in committee if they would consider it, and then they spoke with our city level staff.

And then finally, there was a portion incorporated about rain gardens and their plan to address uh the increased impervious surface uh factor.

And so we just added a condition so it was codified in um granting the variance.

And with that, I will uh make that motion and ask for a second.

Second councilmember Chowdhury has moved to grant the appeal with conditions, it's been seconded.

Is there any further discussion on this item?

Seeing none, I will ask the clerk to call the roll.

Aye.

Councilmember Wandsley.

Aye, Councilmember Shugti.

Aye, Councilmember Whiting.

Aye, Councilmember Chowdhury.

Aye, Councilmember Stevenson.

Aye.

Councilmember Rainbow.

Aye.

Councilmember Vitaw.

Aye.

Councilmember Palmasano.

Aye.

Councilmember Chavez.

Aye.

Councilmember Warren.

Aye.

Councilmember Schaefer.

Aye.

Vice President Osman.

Aye.

President Payne.

Aye.

There are 13 ayes.

That carries, and that item is adopted.

Next, we will take up item number four, the temporary pre-eviction notice extension.

And I will recognize Councilmember Wandsley.

Thank you.

President Payne.

Uh colleagues, we've had ample discussion on this proposal for the past two days.

So I'll try to be concise in my comments.

There is simply no debate over the reality that Minneapolis has a looming eviction crisis that will be soon here, unless there is significant rental assistance put into the community soon.

It's also clear that the city's current finances make it difficult to do more on our end.

So we are going to have to rely on the state and philanthropy to be able to mitigate what is coming.

The council, though, needs to utilize all the tools that we have to support people as we navigate what will be a multi-year recovery effort.

And what council does have control over is the ability to give our residents more time.

We can give residents more time to find assistance before they are evicted.

And this ordinance gives renters 30 additional days and extends through the summer so that if rental assistance comes forward from the state, our residents will have the time that they need to access those funds and stay housed.

And I also want to take this moment to speak directly to landlords.

This ordinance ultimately gives renters more time to pay you.

This is not for giving anyone of their rent.

People literally do not have the money to pay you right now.

And we're trying to give them the time that they need to get money together to again pay you.

And if we don't give them that time, you will definitely not be receiving the money from them.

Instead, you will be spending money to evict them.

And in the long term, you and everyone else in the city will be paying for the long-term economic impacts of a mass wave of homelessness.

And it's always more cost effective to prevent eviction rather than trying to rehouse someone who has already been evicted.

So that said, this seems like a reasonable pathway to a massive problem.

And quite frankly, I'm I'm very surprised that there are such hesitants to move on this.

It's also important to note that our fellow government leaders recognize the need to give our residents more time.

The state right now is currently moving forward a bill that will put also an additional 30 days onto their existing uh pre-eviction fouling notice that is at 14 days because they recognize there needs to be a blanket statewide protection to give residents time to access the resources they need to stay housed.

St.

Paul, right across the river, their city council also just introduced their own version of Paul's eviction saved lives just yesterday.

And like the ordinance that we're considering, they are extending their pre-filing notice from 30 days to 60 days, and theirs will go all the way through the end of 20 uh 26.

So actually going beyond our own uh expiration deadline.

So again, I just want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for our residents who have stepped up and provided safety nets for thousands of our neighbors who have been traumatized and targeted and attacked while we've all had to navigate this occupation by our federal government.

And I do not say this lightly, but during the height of the occupation, it is fair to say that residents stepped up and excelled in places where government simply failed.

And that looked like not just watching silently while racially targeted kidnappings happened on their streets.

It looks like making sure that some of our neighbors who were being targeted by a fascist government made sure that those neighbors had groceries, make sure those neighbors had a way to get their children to school, had a way to make sure what we're even discussing now, they could keep a home over their families' heads because of their fears to leave their homes and coming into contact with these deadly ice agents.

Our neighbors stepped up and protected one another and took on the role that government should have been performing.

And that said, this is one of the ways in which we can exhibit political courage to match just the admirable courage that our residents have demonstrated for over two months now under this occupation.

So I will hope again we could all share in the agreement that it's important to give our neighbors more time.

Um it's beneficial for them and stabilizing their housing, and it's also beneficial for landlords who also need the money to keep the housing that they quote unquote provide to our residents.

So with that, I will ask for a second second and motion for approval of this um ordinance.

Councilmember Wandsley has moved for approval.

It's been seconded.

I'll recognize Councilmember Whiting.

Thank you, President Payne.

I'm just uh motioning to uh uh amend this item and if have a brief second to speak about that would appreciate it.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, colleagues.

Uh, I'm in introducing and will be withdrawing um this amendment from consideration today.

Uh right, I think we all know and can count the the final votes here.

Uh, and it's clear that this underlying ordinance is going to pass uh and will move forward in its in its unamended form.

Uh I as as I will be abstaining uh from the final roll call here, but while I strongly uh support protecting our neighbors uh and will not stand in the way of this well-intentioned uh uh immediate relief.

Uh, I cannot uh endorse a policy that all of our affordable housing providers uh have come and testified that this will uh only continue to harm the neighbors that we most hope to protect.

And I think we need to be honest uh about what happens next.

Uh it is highly uh likely that this uh underlying policy will come back to us.

Um and I would like this uh as an option and like to note that when this ordinance comes back comes back to us that this language is ready uh as a starting point uh for that conversation that uh as a compromise that both our mayor, our housing uh providers in council would would actually be able to execute and and move forward.

Uh I think what we are seeing uh is is another indication uh that we have seen historically how pauses and eviction moratoriums have put those most vulnerable at risk to continued uh eviction.

Uh and this I think version is an is an ability to target, not have a broad blanket uh eviction policy uh across our city, but target those that specifically need the need uh and actually get across the finish line.

So thank you uh uh for the the consideration and then withdrawal of this amendment, and I hope to come to some level of compromise at some point in time.

Thank you.

Vice President Osman.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

What was that a motion from Councilmember?

You didn't have no withdrew.

Okay.

So it's we're still talking about uh underlying motion.

Okay.

Great.

Well, I uh I think I express my um take on this during the Tuesday meeting on Cal meeting, and I really want to thank first of all my colleagues.

Uh Councilmember Wansley, thank you so much for uh really putting the work on walking to walk.

Uh I would put it.

Uh we have done a lot ever since.

Um the invasion of federal government uh and and the damage it has caused our residents.

We have done uh and we should give ourselves credit because we have done uh the rent assistant, we have done the small business support.

It was not popular for uh for this, but majority of the council members adopted and it passed.

And I'm hoping this also will pass.

This is actually the most critical one in my opinion, because people that have been targeted were immigrants.

Uh people that have been uh called out by their president was immigrant, and people that are uh facing eviction uh due to uh not them not going to work were immigrants.

And uh uh and I'm hoping that uh as we hear money of our residents who came and show up and uh you know spoke out um and gave the reason is uh uh why we should have this.

I think that was a huge number of people in the public that came.

And I hear about uh council member and also affordable housing uh partners, uh providers who came and show up.

Uh I know the pressures on them.

I know it's very difficult for them to keep what they have.

They're already struggling.

Uh but uh you know, protecting the most vulnerable renters must come first at the as well.

I understand uh this uh those uh leaders that came and say that this is gonna actually hurt uh uh money renters and they might face eviction.

Uh I completely understand that, but giving somebody time to come up with extra income for them to pay because the missed work, I think that is uh a reason for us uh to to support.

And let me just say this someone who lived in this community for a long time, someone who worked in affordable housing, uh large affordable housing um nonprofit organizations large of their portfolio or the residents that live there are immigrants, right?

So if we take those out, let's say accept them, exp uh not give them uh not be part of this process, we're actually not doing the work, right?

So uh I want those leaders to understand that this is very important to money of their residents, money of the immigrants.

Uh they have uh that called home that for a long time.

Uh you know those residents are one of the best residents immigrants to have.

They pay their rent first month, first of the month, you know, they they do all these great things and and um for us to to protect is very important.

And and I will say, you know, um they deserve somebody to stand up for them, especially after everything they went through.

And I uh want to really make sure that I want to talk to Director to administration.

This is gonna pass full council today.

Uh and I is gonna get to the mayor's desk.

And I'm really hearing rumors that he might be vetoing.

Um already, you know calling out some of the landlords and saying that he might veto it.

That is something I heard.

I can't confirm, but I heard that.

And this is the time for for him and for the mayor to stand up for immigrant, the same immigrant that he continue to uh show up at their businesses, you know, take pictures, be proud of being part of the Somali immigrants, speak their language.

This is the time they need you the most, right?

All those promises are great, but the bottom line is we need you today.

Immigrants need you today.

Uh given this extra 30 days is not really gonna hurt anybody.

I understand the developers and your close friends could be pressuring you.

I felt that pressure too when I was getting calls and and and folks telling me not to vote for this.

So I hope you consider, I hope you do not vote for this, and I hope you keep your promise that you stand with immigrants.

Um I appreciate your work on doing the you know uh the challenge in time, but it was all talk, it was all media.

The actual work starts today and it has started.

So let's see.

Let's see how you stand up for immigrants and save and give them 30 days extra.

And thank you so much, colleagues, and I appreciate all of you.

And I hope if he vetoes it and it comes back, we really consider our neighbors and override that veto.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Stevenson.

Thank you.

Um across departments in our city, we are very data-driven.

That's a good thing.

Um, and I appreciate on Tuesday, council members expressed the concern that we as a council listen to experts on the issue.

To that end, I reached out to Cura, uh the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs uh to get some word from the experts, people who study housing policy and what their effects are.

Uh they they spend their lives studying this.

They got back to me and said that um extending the eviction timeline uh in Minneapolis, St.

Louis Park, and I believe Brooklyn's Center, yes, Brooklyn's Center.

Um it actually reduced evictions that were filed and then ended up happening in comparison to surrounding counties.

Uh this is what the experts have found.

The experts have found that if we extend the eviction timeline, we will keep more people in their homes.

This is the uh expert testimony.

To that end, uh I want to call out uh one thing.

I want to thank um Vice President Osman for speaking from his experience as an affordable housing employee.

I was also an affordable housing uh employee.

And the one thing that the all the affordable housing organizations did not share, but is very much um their motivations is that they are broke.

They are in a terrible financial situation and they are afraid of going under.

Uh they are, however, wrong that this is what's going to put them under.

The state of Minnesota, the city of Minneapolis, and Hennepin County need to step up another time at another meeting to fix the fact that we are not funding affordable housing properly.

We are pushing these nonprofits to their deaths.

Um, but that is not what we're discussing right now.

What we're discussing right now is are we going to do what the data says is going to keep our neighbors in their homes?

And this data, it comes from a time when there was not citywide, statewide, country wide fundraising to keep our neighbors in their homes.

We can expect by passing this from the data that we will keep neighbors in their homes, and we can go and we can get money for our affordable housing providers.

We can do both of these things.

And so I'm urging my colleagues in light of this new information to support this and then to work with me and work with each other and the mayor to get the money for our affordable housing providers.

Uh we can do both things.

We can stop an eviction crisis, and we can fund affordable housing in this city.

So I I urge my colleagues and I urge the mayor to support this.

Um yeah, and I I really hope that we can pass this because delay is not harmless.

Delay is is actually going to result in evictions.

It's going to result in hardworking, innocent and beloved community members losing their homes.

Uh delaying is dangerous.

Delaying is harmful.

Uh and so let's pass this.

This is the right policy for the time.

It is limited in scope, and we have the ability to help the very few people, these affordable housing providers with the things that they need.

While we are also helping people who don't live in affordable housing, people who live in Hornig properties who own so many buildings, people who live in mint properties, people who live me, in my, you know, my landlord, my neighbors.

You know, there are so many people who do not live in affordable housing who are going to be helped by this.

They don't have case managers who can come work with them.

They don't have a line to a CEO who's responding to philanthropy and this, that, and the other thing.

They are living in buildings that are owned by people who respond to shareholders.

And shareholders don't care at all about evictions.

Shareholders care about maximizing profits.

What we can do right now is we can keep our neighbors in their homes.

We can help affordable housing, and we can actually, in reality, make those profits for those shareholders by getting the rent support to our neighbors.

So please, please support this in light of the experts' testimony.

Councilmember Chavez.

I just there was an amendment that was introduced.

There's nothing on the dais.

I don't know what's happening.

There's no amendment here before us.

I don't know what's introduced.

I don't know what's being withdrawn.

I'm super confused.

We are discussing the uh underlying ordinance.

But there was no well, to be clear, President, there was an amendment that was just introduced.

It's not before us.

It's it was withdrawn.

It was withdrawn.

But how are we going to talk about something that's gonna be voted down or not when it's not even before us, not shown to us, not here?

That just doesn't make sense to me.

That's confusing.

There's nothing in front of us.

How can something be withdrawn if it wasn't presented to us?

Mr.

Clerk.

Mr.

President, maybe just for clarification, there was an amendment.

Um and before the meeting, Councilmember Whiting indicated he wasn't planning on offering the amendment uh at this time, but wanted to speak to it.

I believe that's just a misuse of terms.

There was no formal amendment.

He simply wanted to make a comment.

We shouldn't refer to it as an amendment because there was nothing in front of us.

I just want to make it clear to the public.

There was nothing, no amendment here for us to vote on.

Just want to be very clear.

If people want to change policies, they can always make amendments and we can have debates about it.

This is the only policy before us.

Um if there was going to be amendment, I want to be clear that I would not be supporting any ice hit list that there's been conversations in this dais about creating an amendment that would be tailored to specific groups of people, and that's an amendment that I would call an ICHIT list that I would 1,000% vote down and not be supportive of.

Now I want to be very clear that it is very easy to cuss at ice.

It is actually more harder to actually do policy work to help people stay in our city.

It is harder to pass policy to keep families together, and that is what we're doing today.

We're giving people more time.

We're saying that the impact that ICE has had on our community is wrong.

People deserve more time to stay with their families, more time to seek rental assistance from their neighbors, from wherever, to make sure that we can prevent the mass displacement of our neighbors that is going to happen in this city and is already happening not only here, but across our state.

So you know, I want to give a big shout out to the city of St.

Paul.

They're gonna be passing this, they're gonna make it a lot more stronger.

And it's just very sad to see that our neighbors across the river are gonna have protections in place.

But right here, we're barely gonna be able to pass this, and then we're gonna be facing the looming veto of the mayor.

So we'll find out.

But Power St.

Paul, thank you for doing the right thing.

Councilmember Chowdry.

Thank you so much, President Payne, and thank you to Councilmember Wandsley.

Thank you to every single council member that is a co-author on this.

I'm proud to be a co-author on this.

I just really want to make it clear when we're talking about evictions of working people, poor people, immigrant people who are sheltering in place and are effectively in hiding.

This is not speculative.

It's not a narrative that we are pulling out of the sky and imagining.

These evictions that are coming forward are real.

There have been several accounts that council members have shared of eviction notices showing up on almost entire the entire doors of a whole apartment.

Councilmember Chugtai mentioned that.

I, as a council member in my entirety of this of the time that I've been a council member last term and this term have never received any messages before about eviction notices, people receiving them until this present moment.

So I just want to say that this is real because there has been rhetoric and discussion, kind of making it seem like this isn't an actual reality that we're facing.

And the brunt of this policy not passing that's going to fall on to people are working people.

It's not going to be the landlords, the nonprofits.

It's going to be working people who lose their entire livelihood and didn't have a lot to begin with.

The people that I have talked to over the last few months that have needed rental assistance through the kindness of neighbors who have fundraised, have look like a single mother who now has to take care of her daughter, but the father was detained, and there is no breadwinner in the home, and she is fearful of being detained.

It has looked like a girl much younger than me, 20 years old, being fearful to go to work, but still having to go in part to try to see if she can cobble together some funds for her and her aunt, but that not being enough.

It is brutal.

It is cruel.

And no one is saying that this is the perfect policy.

No one is saying the 60-day pre-eviction is a perfect policy.

It is a hard choice to make.

We understand that.

We understand that it puts pressure on landlords and on the nonprofits that do affordable housing.

But it's that pressure compared to people's lives being completely torn apart.

And if we can help save lives, that's what we're going to do.

That is what we're going to do.

And also there is no way to target this.

There's no way that I have been presented where we could target this just to people who are impacted by Operation Metro Surge because of the precarity of immigrant people being on a list or having to ask a landlord to grant them a pre-eviction notice up to 60 days or say, don't evict me.

We can't rely on that goodwill because we even know our current tenant policies aren't upheld by many of the slumlords in the city of Minneapolis.

That's just the truth.

This allows us to get more time for mutual aid to be fundraised for the purposes of rental assistance.

Our community is the reason why we haven't seen mass evictions right now.

They have been holding the line, raising millions and millions and millions of dollars themselves.

People are adopting a rent.

Working people are adopting a rent, saving their money so they can pay for someone else's rent right now.

That's what's happening.

And the media, the national urgency is gone, so the fundraising has slowed, so we need more time to build it up.

Right.

That's that's the scenario.

And I'll also share with my colleagues with the one million dollars that we passed for rental assistance, Hennepin County.

I talked to a staff member the other day, has agreed for that pre-eviction notice itself to be the be the trigger to allow for rental assistance to be given.

And I think that's something we can push for at the state legislature to allow for that to be the trigger as well to go directly to landlords if that's what's necessary to help people.

But what we're just asking for is this pre-eviction notice for April, May, June, July, and August.

That's not a lot of time.

That's not what we experienced during COVID-19.

And I also believe in this hard choice, the landlords, the nonprofits, the things that they can do right now is say, hey, we face this crisis.

There is a 60-day pre-eviction notice to the list of donors that I have that I fundraise for every year.

I'm asking you to chip in so we can do rental relief so our balance sheet isn't impacted.

That is a choice that can be made.

I haven't heard them bring that forward to say what they can do in this moment.

They can provide rent relief.

They can take different administrative steps.

We all are going to need to make hard choices.

But the hardest choices are made right now by our immigrant communities on whether they're going to stay safe or they're going to go to work so they can stay home, and we're just trying to provide some relief there.

So I ask you, please support this ordinance today.

And to the mayor, please reconsider your veto.

We can do something big here.

We can join with the city of St.

Paul.

And if this is overridden, please, colleague, or this is vetoed, please join in overriding it.

Let's make history as a city.

Let's show up.

Let's continue to stand together.

Councilmember Palmasano.

Mr.

Chair, we had a lengthy discussion about this on Tuesday, so I will try not to rehash my previous comments.

This is not about the will of this body.

There is collective agreement that we need to help those impacted by Operation Metro Surge, and that includes people who can't pay their rent.

But that's not what this policy is limited to.

There is not a good or safe way to only exempt those that have needed to shelter in place.

It's for everyone, and it greatly disrupts our housing ecosystem and ultimately puts more people out on the street.

This is about disagreement of what policy best supports the people impacted by Operation Metro Surge.

And I'm here for solutions.

I appreciate Councilmember Whiting for trying for weeks here, up to last night.

I've now been able to find and read the letter from 13 of our trusted affordable housing providers.

I'm not sure why Kira is the expert and not the people doing the work.

These are people on the ground every day building, and even more importantly, managing clients experiencing homelessness, like Agate and others.

Their professional expertise tells us that pausing evictions is not the answer to this crisis.

It's rental assistance.

We need others like the state and the Fed to step up.

This isn't about developers, it's about the long-term consequences of bad policy leading to housing instability.

And that comes with unpaid rent and then eventually eviction.

So it's not okay.

It's not okay to increase someone's debt load and then delay the eviction filing that's required to get rental assistance.

If the county just changed that, as council member Chowdhury said, it's news to me.

I don't think we've gotten any sort of formal notice from the county to that regard.

I hope that we do.

But this becomes a double whammy of the worst sort.

It literally works against previous actions that we've taken with taxpayer money.

This is well intentioned.

I appreciate the policy, but I cannot support it due to the unintended long-term consequences.

It is not compassionate to get someone deeper into debt than they can climb out of the country.

Councilmember Whiting.

Thank you, Chair Payne.

And I apologize for the confusion, and thank you, uh Clerk for uh expounding upon that.

And if I can briefly talk to kind of the language here, and I know we have conversations uh with many of you about uh this amendment uh that was withdrawn.

Uh and and and like Councilmember Chavez said it right, I think it is hard to target, right?

This is not coming out of out of my brain, this is not coming from uh my auspices, this is coming from LA County.

Uh we are using direction and language that has come from other jurisdictions that use language to help target those in most need.

Uh a blanket policy, as we have seen time and time again again, continues to harm those most vulnerable to these issues.

Uh what we saw in in for historical context in 2020 is it does not necessarily affect those that have been impacted.

It is the communication of a broad uh non-targeted eviction moratorium that will cause people to be evicted.

Not because they do not want to pay rent, but because as we all uniquely and acutely, I think know, those that are in low-income situations uh know best what to do with their money.

The moment that you hear that you are able to actually triage your your dollars to areas that are more affected, you are going to do that.

If your phone bill comes up as the most pressing, you are going to pay your phone bill.

If you are if it your heat bill comes up that is most pressing, you are going to pay your heat bill.

Uh, if rent has 60 days, and as I think many of us here understand, this is the top of the hierarchy of needs in this community.

If you get far behind, if you get two months behind, we know statistically that it is almost insurmountable to overcome.

The moment you do that, you will be out on the street.

And none of us want that.

That is why we saw every single one of our largest affordable housing nonprofits that target those at 80% to 30% AMI, the most vulnerable in our community, come and tell us that this is what is going to happen, not just because, not just a hypothetical, but because they've seen it.

And I appreciate my colleague Councilmember Stevenson talking about the the right the drastic um version uh that we are in right now, and we saw it last time in in in 2020.

Uh no one came to their aid.

And that is why they are in this exact same situation.

Uh that's why they are coming to this in this time right now to say we did not have that aid before.

We are on the brinks of closing.

The moment they close, the moment that they shut their doors, either they shut it down, and those people have to go out in the street, or they sell it to private equity, and that instantly turns into market rate housing.

So we have we have a moment just like like all of this, right?

We are working to figure out, and if we believe this is an emergency, which I believe every single one of us do, then we have the opportunity, and I think the responsibility and obligation to come to the together.

Right.

I have no ability or will to play chicken with the mayor on a veto.

Let's do something that will actually pass, actually get through.

Uh, right, and I don't think, and that's why I polled it, it sounds like it was a comment and not amendment, uh, because I don't think it it is going through.

Right?

And I think we are we are going to see that, and we are gonna see if the mayor will veto it or not.

Uh, and I think there is a way that we could have come together with all 13 of us with the mayor to actually move this thing forward.

Uh, and that's I don't think what we want to do at this moment, and that's okay, right?

And we'll figure that out.

But I think the delay, well, again, to as council member um Stevenson said, a delay will cause people to be hurt.

And if we actually want to do that, we we could have figured out how to get outside of a delay.

Thank you.

Councilmember Warren.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, let's take the landlords off the table.

Let's look at the fact that individuals in our community who are in these positions and situations who are um struggling, who are most vulnerable right at this particular point in time, are not making the most money, period.

Let's look at the economy.

Let's look at the financial structure of things, okay.

So I heard numerous individuals from our communities come in and talk about how they make barely five, six hundred dollars a week, okay, in their employment.

I look at the market right now for rental and housing that individuals can have an efficiency, and it's $1,200, $1,300, $1,500 a month, okay.

The fact that now there's been a disruption in the income, the likeness for an individual to find equitable employment that is going to pay them a livable wage that is at the same or better than what they were previously being paid before they were disrupted by this insurgent of ice is slim to none.

A lot of employers were not holding jobs and holding those spaces for individuals to be able to return to work.

So now you're piecemealing together, one or two jobs or multiple jobs.

If your spouse was abducted, and let's say he had a job, and he was making $32 an hour, forklifting, doing something, roofing, whatever the case is, had a certification, he's doing his job, he's making money, taking care of the household, being responsible, whoever your partner is.

Now that he has been removed from that situation, you may or may not have the same skill set as your partner to be able to achieve the same financial value that he was bringing or she was bringing into the household.

Okay.

So then what happens is you dig a hole for yourself, and you're trying to piece it together.

The relationship that you should have with your landlord or property manager or whomever should be a healthy communication.

I would say in this situation, the best thing would be to do is to do a mutual termination agreement so that you don't end up with a large debt on your record that prevents you from moving forward to a better rental situation.

We can't believe that affordable housing is going to all of a sudden come available for our most vulnerable neighbors at this time.

Those housing lists for affordable housing projects and developments in Section 8 and 42 are anywhere between five to ten years long.

It's not going to be anything instantaneous.

We also have to keep in mind that our most vulnerable community members, a lot of them are in fear with working with the county and other social service agencies.

Because as one of my council colleagues said, it feels like they're putting their name on an ice hit list, right?

We don't want to put them in those types of situations.

We don't.

But we don't want to build barriers of debt for individuals that makes it difficult for them to be able to work with someone moving forward in another situation.

Housing court is going to be so backed up that it'll be 120 days or more before you even get an appointment.

That is ample enough time for you to be able to work something out with somebody.

Just because you get an eviction notice doesn't mean that you all of a sudden go to court the next day.

Sometimes it's three, sometimes even six months out.

When you go to court, they guess what they have you do?

Talk with the mediator.

What can you work out with this landlord?

What things can be be resolved in this situation.

Now we'll put the landlords and the property owners into equation.

If you own a piece of property, 90 days, guess what they're filing?

Foreclosure notice.

Okay.

Yeah, you have a six-month recovery period, but if you don't have any income for six months after that, guess what you can't do?

Recover.

That means everybody's out on the streets.

You lose your property.

We have small mom and pop landlords who own duplexes and smaller units and things like that who can't afford to take the hits of these larger corporations either, who are doing everything in their power in order to support individuals who are in their communities, who are reaching out to me and saying, Pearl, I still haven't recovered from the COVID pandemic.

I have not still have not recovered from that.

I cannot ask for my mortgage company to roll back debt any further on my loan.

I'm gonna lose the property.

So then everybody is gonna be out.

I don't have the means to pay because everybody has been affected.

Everybody, not just immigrant neighbors.

We all have been impacted by the effects of Operation Metro Surge.

It's not just our immigrant neighbors, and I don't think that's fair to just say that it's just them.

We all have been impacted.

I heard the testimony of individuals who stood up here on Tuesday and talked about how they gave their retirement, giving their savings, pouring into folks, which is admirable.

And I think we're just going to have to continue to do those things a little bit longer.

It's it this is not an easy fix.

This is not a remedy that is going to bring lasting results.

When you have Section 8 and different housing, file a significant change.

If you're living in those affordable housing things, let them know you don't have income so they can adjust your rents.

But there is going to continue to need to be a lot more collective efficacy that goes into this work.

This isn't it.

Councilmember Wandsley.

Thank you, Vice President Payne.

Just a couple of things.

That was already unstable.

And we know, even right now, it's not a hypothetical situation.

People are already walking into two months of being behind on rent.

That's that's a reality right now.

So when you say, oh, giving people additional 30 days that will only then just give them this this protection through August of this year.

This is not even indefinite.

We're talking about August of this year.

You're saying I won't even give you that.

You are abdicating your power.

And what you actually are saying, underlying all of this of this being I'm concerned for the landlords and all this, what you're actually saying is no, go work it out with your landlord.

And you better hope you have a neighbor who cares about you to pay your rent.

And if not, that landlord should reserve the right to re uh evict you and make you homeless earlier.

That is what you are saying ultimately.

And Mayor Fry, if you veto this policy, that is ultimately what you're saying.

It's not a care about preserving uh preserving the affordable housing market.

This is literally about preventing what we know is the looming crisis.

People will be evicted.

What we heard from landlords, specifically affordable housing landlords on Tuesday was they want the ability to evict sooner.

That is essentially what they heard.

And where I will share some agreement on this is I I agree.

This conversation is absolutely illuminated the fact that there are structural challenges that our affordable housing uh providers are constantly navigating.

They do not get the ability to have profit margins of to allow them to float on in their operations like some of our more corporate um landlords do.

But it it does put into light too of these challenges when Aon recently accepted millions of dollars in public subsidy only to turn around and then sell one of the largest affordable housing complexes in the metro to a private equity firm, all while their top executives earn high salaries.

So I think there is absolutely a larger conversation about how we need to be approaching the affordable housing nonprofit complex that does not seem to also offer long-term stability, and we need to be thinking of public solutions and options to that.

But that is not what we're debating right now.

What we are debating is giving people additional 30 days to what is already included in our ordinance to get them the resources that are currently not available.

People are not raising millions of dollars as they were just a few weeks ago to get people through March, through April, through July.

And the idea that we will say, residents, I'm not gonna do anything.

Yes, I ran for office.

I'm not gonna do anything.

I'm not gonna exercise my power to even try.

I need you to keep showing up while patrolling, while making sure you put your body between the ICE official and their guns to protect your neighbor, keep going out there and supporting your local businesses.

And yes, keep pulling into your 401k, your savings, keep maxing out your credit cards.

That is what government officials up here and the mayor, if they don't support this policy, that is the option that they're uh presenting to you.

That is what it is.

It's a disdain for poor people.

It says it sucks for you that you landed in a position of poverty.

And if your landlord does not have grace for you, oh whoop the do.

That is a sad state of affairs to be in under our occupation, where we just celebrated these progressive values of being a predominantly women council and women of color.

That means nothing if we can't even stand up for the most vulnerable in our communities.

So I will name that.

And Mayor Fry, you have the ability to actually be a leader in this moment.

You get the opportunity to do more than just give grandiose speeches.

Uh that's really embodied by the courage that residents have demonstrated, not government leaders, but everyday folks have done more than every single one of our elected officials at all levels, including our mayor.

And it's great that you get to go and talk about that work to the entire world, but it means nothing if you can't even use the power that you have.

And right now, that is putting your veto pen away.

Land and chill on ice so that people can have time to get resources so our state partners can do what they can to mobilize funding so that landlords, your actual favorite base of people can get paid.

So I just wanted to name Matt.

Uh Councilmember Chuck Tye.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um Tuesday, we had hundreds of people come here to City Hall.

Um, lots of people taking uh day off of work and uh adjusting their schedules to be here to come to their local leaders and talk to us about um what we can do to have their back in this moment.

Um we had 81 people testify.

Um we had our our chambers, our overflow room and our hallways were full.

We had so many people here.

Um I want to thank every person who came out to offer their testimony um to bear witness to uh local democracy at work.

Um thank you for for being a part of uh building the city we deserve to live in.

I think something I have really struggled with as this discussion has unfolded is um, you know, really hearing from our affordable um housing partners and nonprofits talking about their worst fears, which is um, you know, people will fall multiple months behind rent and they will never be able to catch up.

And as a result, more evictions will happen.

I have a really tough time with that, right?

Um because the there isn't uh this mass availability of rental assistance right now that is working its way through the state.

Um and as we wait for for that to come into effect to become available for uh impacted residents, that we need to buy time to keep people in their homes.

And to do nothing in this moment is only going to mean more evictions happening, right?

Um that I think that is something that continues to be overlooked, right?

Uh that we are talking about hypothetical fears that no one will be able to catch up on rent while ignoring the fact that um that evictions are gonna continue to happen right now, and evictions result in homelessness, and homelessness is expensive.

It is more expensive than buying 30 additional days of time.

It just is that's a fact.

Um we know uh from from the experts who study this that extending a pre-eviction notice, delaying evictions from happening reduces homelessness, reduces evictions.

That is also a fact.

I think something that I really struggle with in this conversation is who we determine experts to be.

And I think I have a tough time with um with colleagues really um really asserting that the only experts we should be listening to in this moment are affordable housing providers.

Let's reframe who experts are.

Experts are the people who are leading in this moment, people who are directly impacted.

Experts in this moment are the organizations and mutual aid networks that have raised six million dollars this year to pay for people's rents.

Six million dollars worth of evictions that have been prevented by neighbors stepping up and giving more than than they have, maxing out their credit cards.

We had an elder who was here testifying about how they they gave 10,000 out of their retirement fund to keep their neighbors in their homes.

That's that those are the types of sacrifices people are making in this moment.

I have personally talked to so many residents who were behind two, three months because they weren't able to work since the start of Operation Metro Surge in early December, who have been able to dig their way out of back rent and stay in their homes as a result of people stepping up.

They're one of the people that has benefited from the six million dollars raised to pay rent for residents of our city.

That money hasn't come from philanthropy.

That money hasn't come from those who have the means to give.

It's come from ordinary people digging into their their retirement accounts, digging into their savings, digging maxing out their credit cards.

That's what's happening right now.

Those are the experts.

Experts are the people who are who are coming to us and saying, I'm behind on rent.

I just need a little bit more time.

I'm working with my neighbors, and and I'm connected to a mutual aid group.

I'm connected to whatever, and I'm trying to get the money together.

I just need a little bit more time, and we're telling them that they're not experts.

Are you serious?

The experts in our community right now, those who are directly impacted, and those who are supporting them are telling us that this is a bare minimum solution.

Let's listen to the experts.

Thank you.

Councilmember Stevenson.

Thank you.

I appreciate the conversation about experts.

I did um, Councilmember Palmasano, I did forget to bring um some professional expertise that I did have.

I also talked to Homeline and in their professional expertise, they have seen more calls for rent assistance than even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

And any quarter, any one quarter in the COVID-19 pandemic.

So what we're seeing now is we're seeing an eviction crisis looming that is bigger than COVID-19.

Uh that is their professional expertise.

Um top of that, we uh we're in a situation where we're deciding who should feel the pinch.

Should people who are gonna be out on the street, people who are gonna have devastating eviction records on their record, should they be the ones feeling the pinch, or should those who have those who have uh uh what are they called?

Development directors, public relations directors, should those people feel the pinch.

Uh the fact of the matter is is that people, immigrant neighbors, those who have been laid off from their PCA jobs, they do not have development directors.

They do not have public public specialists, public relations specialists.

What they have is they have their neighbors and they have the governments that they voted for.

We are the representatives of the people and we are here to protect our people.

We are in fact the only ones who will protect our people.

So let's listen to the experts.

You you questioned whether Cura was an expert.

Um and Cura is the expert because they have PhDs in this, they spend every day studying this.

Uh and in a time when expertise and when truth is so maligned, I think we should listen to the experts.

We should listen to the experts at Homeline.

We should listen to the experts at Cura, we should listen to the experts on the ground, and we should listen to people who have worked in affordable housing uh nonprofits who say that the reason they're here is because they're broke.

And we should go and help those affordable housing nonprofits not be broke.

We should fix affordable housing in this city and in this state and in this country.

Uh, but that's not what we're deciding today.

We're deciding today whether we're gonna keep our neighbors in their homes.

We have a data-driven way of doing that.

We can keep our neighbors in our homes.

We know that we can do it.

If we pass this policy now and it gets signed, we will be able to protect our neighbors and we will be able to help affordable housing.

We can do these things.

We are not choosing, we're not choosing between them.

We are choosing whether we want to help our neighbors or whether we do not.

So thank you, uh, and please, please support this measure.

Councilmember Charles Dre.

Thank you, President Payne.

I'll be brief.

I have really appreciated this discussion.

I feel like I have I I guess gained uh an extra level of clarity on why we're moving this policy forward and why I'm here, why I ran to be on the council and decided to continue to do it.

Um I'm gonna speak to something that I think will definitely make people uncomfortable.

But in this discussion in this term about who's the expert and who's not, and talking about um the housing providers and then talking about how working people and poor people will spend their money is in the city of Minneapolis, we 100% have a major class ratification issue.

We 100% do, and we fail continuously as a city to acknowledge that.

And that is truly why we will never fix poverty in this city unless we choose to change it.

It is literally the reason why we will never fix it.

Because right now we're talking about a class of ultra-wealthy folks who can donate a lot of money to rent relief.

We're talking about the owning class.

We're talking about middle class folks who are donating or contributing, and working class folks that are as well.

And then I would also say in the city of Minneapolis, a class of folks that are oftentimes in the shadows or seen as untouchable.

And right now that looks like our immigrant community are unhoused community for a very very long time.

And the reality of the discussion that we are talking about is we're picking a class interest.

We just are.

And what I feel very clear on, and what my life experience has shown me, and what this job has shown me, from being a policy aide to being a council member, is that the working class, the poor people, the people who are untouchable in some regards, they never have the fighters, they never have the organized momentum.

And they are the ones that always in the in a crisis face the most harm.

And that's what we're stepping to up to do.

And I want to challenge why aren't we, why aren't we asking the wealthy, the nonprofits who do galas every single year to fundraise to pay for the rental relief of their residents if there's a pre-eviction notice?

Why aren't we asking them to do it?

Do telethons, do emails, do a community event, raise millions more of dollars, you have access to networks that some of us could never even imagine to access.

Get that money, build out a plan for the next four or five, six months to talk to the renters who are unable to pay rent and remind them, hey, yes, you have a light bill, yes, you have this other bill, but you need to pay your rent.

Send them letters every single day if you have to, send people coming and knocking, be a friendly face.

There are ways around this.

It just feels like a lack of trust in the working people and the poor people, we are trying to help, that they won't, they're just automatically see that they get 60 days and they're not gonna pay the rent because they feel like they don't have to.

There are ways to mitigate it, and that's reliant on these housing providers and landlords to jump in and be in.

It's not an easy choice.

This has always been a tough choice.

But I just felt like if I let the moment pass to talk about the really clear class ratification that has, in my opinion, never felt clearer because we're in an uh emergency.

If I didn't speak about it, this moment would pass.

And I feel like this is going to be something that comes to head for the next years to come.

It just feels very, very clear to me.

Councilmember Chugtai.

Um thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um just very, very briefly.

Um, you know, I I've read the the letter from the 13 Affordable Housing uh nonprofit providers um a few different times, and you know, something that really strikes me about uh about that letter is the the number of um frontline employees at these organizations that themselves actually are uh are reaching out to mutual aid networks to pay their own rent.

Um so it you know it just it just strikes me as ironic that um that the that these organizations that receive resources from local governments and state government um that uh uh you know and and we should continue to to partner um in that way.

We should continue to be a part of the solution of of building more affordable housing, absolutely, but it just important for organizations like that to be looking inward right now uh about how they can perhaps support their own employees and being able to pay rent who are reaching out to mutual aid networks right now because they are at risk of eviction themselves.

Um so just food for thought.

Um and uh Mr.

President, uh I would I would just request to the authors um to be added as a co-author on this policy.

Thank you.

Seeing no objection, I think the clerks can get that documented.

And seeing no one else left in queue, I will ask the clerk to call the role on item number four day council member Wandsley.

Aye, Councilmember Shubtai.

Aye, Councilmember Whiting, stay councilmember Chowdhury.

Aye.

Councilmember Stevenson.

Aye, Councilmember Rainville, no, Councilmember Vitaw.

No, Councilmember Palmasano, no, Councilmember Chavez.

Aye.

Councilmember Warren.

No.

Councilmember Schaefer.

No.

Vice President Osman.

Aye.

President Payne.

Aye.

There are seven ayes, five nays, and one abstention.

That item carries.

Next, we will take up item number 41, and I will recognize Councilmember Wandsley.

Thank you, uh, President Payne.

As I mentioned at Cal Tuesday that I will work with our staff to bring forward uh amended language that ref uh represents the intent of three plus years of conversations and organizing around the rethinking I-94 uh project that really will shape again what is the the future of this highway and how can we be innovative and um use it as a way to show that we're investing in other modes of transportation, we're um acknowledging the harm that that highway has continued to place um in our communities and specifically um destabilizing and absolutely tearing apart um predominantly in historically black communities and the harm that it continues to cause for black and brown residents living along it, even in our current times.

So that said, the language that um I'm proposing in this amendment uh will then just suggest um and it's already reflecting in your packet.

It says any alternative options that would maintain the status quo.

So essentially um it says the city does not support or strongly opposes any alternative options that um could be brought forward from MINDOT that will maintain the status quo of the highway.

There's already been shared understanding and in conversations and agreement that we cannot keep this highway as it currently stands in light of everything that I shared.

So this amendment and change felt reflective of that.

Um and with that, I will move uh this item for approval now for a second.

Second Councilmember Wansey has moved this item for approval.

It's been seconded.

I will recognize Councilmember Schaefer.

Yes, thank you, Chair Wandsley for changing some of this wording.

I appreciate that.

Um I think these are strong changes.

Um that said, I will still be voting against this today because of the documents that I got um just yesterday from public works to take a deeper dive into this project.

Um so for now I will still be voting against this, but I want to thank you for these changes.

I think they're positive.

Seeing no one else left in queue, I will ask the clerk to call the roll on item number 41 as amended by councilmember Wandsley Councilmember Wandsley.

Aye.

Councilmember Shugtai.

Aye.

Councilmember Whiting.

Aye.

Councilmember Chowdhury.

Aye.

Councilmember Stevenson.

Aye.

Councilmember Rainbow.

No.

Councilmember Vita.

No.

Councilmember Palmasano.

Aye.

Councilmember Chavez.

Aye.

Councilmember Warren.

No.

Councilmember Schaefer.

No.

Vice President Osman.

Aye.

President Payne.

Aye.

There are nine ayes and four nays.

That item carries.

Next we will take up item number 57, and I will recognize Councilmember Stevenson.

Sorry for the delay.

Um, I brought forward this uh amendment because I wanted to add in that um I wanted to check in have included in this study whether there are things that uh we are not able to do training-wise that um that we would be able to do without this, and also to check um basically, you know, just because everyone else has it doesn't necessarily mean that we need it.

So yeah, I wanted a more full um analysis.

I believe that that's what this language is getting at.

I I've discussed with uh one of the authors uh some hesitation around the wording around this, and I'm I I recognize that that this is confusingly worded, um, but I'm I'm at this moment trusting staff that uh they've taken what I've said and and that this the wording they have here means what I just said out loud.

Um so maybe we should check with them on that.

Are you moving to approve this?

Uh yes.

Is there a second?

Second.

Uh I'll recognize Councilmember Palmasano.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Yes, Councilmember Stevenson and I had an opportunity to chat about this it this morning, and I was able to go back to the people that will be doing the work, and they ultimately said, yes, we feel that this amendment doesn't change the scope of our work.

So that's fine that we want to be explicit about what it is we want.

Um I want to thank Councilmember Chugtai, who did a good job uh yesterday when I was unable to be at this unplanned rescheduled meeting.

Um I think you did a really good job summarizing what this is about.

Um again, there's not a return date on this because the understanding is the information is needed as soon as possible.

Uh as we continue to have discussions about the needs and the functionality of funding a public safety training and wellness facility.

Um I think getting this updated information is warranted.

This is asking for things like emerging training technology, space utilization, renovation versus new construction, funding, cross-departmental training options, that sort of thing.

I've done a lot of work on this, but that work was six years ago, and there are changing times and changing needs, so it does deserve a refresh.

Um I'm also aware that this isn't reinventing the wheel.

Um PD is very aware aware of the limitations of their training facilities, and we should spell that out here for everybody.

So I look forward to doing so.

There's things like scenario-based training that I've had an opportunity to um to see to observe.

Um, there's space for large group training that is desperately needed, outdoor training exercises that we've had some discussion on this dais about about the complications of doing that in a neighborhood in North Minneapolis, um, space for multi-departmental training exercises like MPD training with the fire department with EMS, and there's a lot more.

So I'll look forward to staff coming back with that information for us all very soon.

But in the meantime, um, I'm happy to talk about what I've learned over the years about these kinds of facilities and the ways that um the own facilities that we our own facilities that we provide um are incredibly deficient right now.

Thank you.

Seeing no one else left in queue, I will ask the clerk to call the roll on item number 57 as amended by councilmember Stevenson.

Councilmember Wandsley.

Thank you.

Aye.

Councilmember Shugtime.

Aye.

Councilmember Whiting.

Aye.

Councilmember Chowdhury.

Aye.

Councilmember Stevenson.

Aye.

Councilmember Rainbow.

Aye.

Councilmember Vita.

Aye.

Councilmember Palmasano.

Aye.

Councilmember Chavez.

Aye.

Councilmember Warren.

Aye.

Councilmember Schaefer.

Aye.

President.

I'm sorry, Vice President Osman.

Aye.

President Payne.

Aye.

There are 13 ayes.

That item carries.

Next, we will take up item number 58.

And should I call on staff to give an update on what we were considering here?

Mr.

President, I think perhaps Councilmember Wansley could explain the amendment that we just put out that was requested by her of staff to address some of the concerns I think that were raised at the committee of the whole meeting.

And if she needs help, I'm I know staff are here to uh further explain.

Councilmember Wansley.

Uh thank you, President Payne.

Um yeah, just to support the conversations that's been largely led by councilmember Stevenson.

Um it was flagged on Tuesdays um at that Cal meeting around um the shared desire to see uh the social worker position not be used um to then fund the the creation of this director uh position and being able to then see something uh tangible that affirmed the chief's commitment in MPD's leadership commitment towards uh finding a different funding source that will allow us to avoid the cut of that social workers position.

So this is in front of you the amended RCA that originally um had the social worker position and the other uh subsequent uh compliance position reflected in there um is just amended to reflect um the conversations that we had around um MPD now identifying a vacant forensic scientist to position that will then uh substitute uh that social worker or embedded social worker position.

So um hopefully that gives context for people to feel better um in moving this item forward.

Is there a motion to approve this item?

So move second uh councilmember Chugtai.

Um thank you, Mr.

President.

Um well I really appreciate um that the police department was able to go back and take a look at uh uh different vacant position um to make sure that the embedded social worker program remains um funded to its its current levels.

Um I am wondering if um someone from the department um can speak to whether and I would imagine it was probably gonna be Sergeant Hanneman, but can speak to whether this forensic scientists to position is um is one that you will be seeking to come back and and re um refund or add.

I I wonder if maybe Director Troswick might be the right person actually.

Welcome, and if you could just introduce yourself.

Thank you.

Vicki Troswick, MPD Finance Director.

Council President Payne, Councilmember Chug Tai.

We do not intend to return for the forensic scientist to position in the 27 budget.

Um we will consider other vacant positions as they become vacant, depending on what our priorities are at the time.

Um and then the other position, um, the compliance position, you'll still you still plan to come back for that one.

The settlement agreement positions are always being evaluated, and I feel like they do have a larger ask.

It probably would include more compliance specialists as we develop more policy.

We're gonna have to continue to do audits, so I would expect that position to always be expanded until we get through compliance.

That's helpful.

So um that's all for you, director.

Um colleagues, I I think what I I appreciate that this is a position that uh the chief um has asked his his team to work to quickly bring before the council for approval, the director of police health and wellness.

Um what concerns me though is is the process that the department has undertaken to bring this forward.

First of all, um this is uh um this is a position that is more appropriate for them to bring forward through the standard budget process to make um a request to the mayor as the budget the recommended budget is being put together for this to be included in the recommended budget.

Um when you come forward and you um are using two vacant positions, one of which you intend to bring back as was stated in committee yesterday.

Um what we're just we're going through this really convoluted process to eliminate a vacant position that we intend to bring back uh in just a few months.

Um and instead we could just bring this, bring this director of police health and wellness position through the standard budget process instead of taking a vacant position that you're gonna request again from from the council and the mayor.

Um so I I would actually like to make a motion to return this item back to staff.

I don't think this is the appropriate way for us to move forward, and I think we need to be really thoughtful about the creation of new appointed positions, in particular in a department that we know is going to run over budget this year, um, based on just the overtime impact from the last uh the last couple of months as the chief presented on yesterday, right?

Um it's it's over six million dollars has been spent since January on overtime alone.

So I would I would really request that we um return this item back to staff um and that the department bring this through the standard budget process as is appropriate.

I would ask for a second on that motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

All right.

The it's been moved to return this item back to staff and seconded.

Uh I will recognize Vice President uh Osman.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

I I missed yesterday length conversation or discussion.

Uh I do really want to thank the uh the chief's leadership yesterday.

Uh I watched the entire meeting.

Um and I also want to thank my council my my my colleagues who are really uh stand up to say no cutting for social worker.

You know, going from five to three, it's a uh it's just not a good look.

Uh we do care about, I care about the wellness of our officers, but at the same time, also the the uh the victims of crime also deserve some kind uh deserve to have a social worker and for the chief to say, hey, you know, we can go back and come up with a plan.

Uh that was the leadership, and I really want to thank that.

I did talk to his office uh um, you know, uh this morning, and um they assured me this was coming.

So uh it's wonderful.

I do support uh this moving forward, and I don't think we should uh return it back to the staff.

Uh uh because the the department has shown the willingness to work with with the council.

And um, and um, you know, uh we are doing the right thing once we you know cut the mistake, and um, we're hoping that uh end of December you all come back and feel up that uh missing uh social workers and having um uh hopefully the five original uh full-time staff uh to be filled up.

But uh as the motion extends right now to return it to staff, I will not be supporting that.

And again, uh thank you, staff, and thank you, Chief, for your leadership and really listen to the council um suggestions.

Thank you.

Councilmember Towdry.

Thank you so much, President Payne.

Um I appreciated the conversation that we had at committee of the whole, and the chief thing that I was struggling with was we were pitting social work against wellness, and I did not feel like that was right, and I could never in good conscience cut down our embedded social workers.

We used to have five for each precinct, we're down to four, and cutting it down to three just does not make sense, especially where when we're in the middle of a time where there's going to be ongoing um social service needs from our community.

I frankly think that we as a body should push for more embedded social workers for is simply not enough.

Uh, I have appreciated the several conversations that I've had with uh the department, uh, primarily the chief of staff, and then in public here with the chief um about changing the position, and I think the change to forensic scientists too makes a lot of sense.

It's not going to have any current service level impacts in that, and we aren't gonna lose an embedded social worker.

I think that's a big win.

And while I completely respect the position of our budget chair about the budget process, um I do think with this wellness position, there's an emergent need given the back-to-back crises of the annunciation shooting and then um experiences during Operation Metro Surge and just the day-to-day.

Um we all know that officer wellness has been an issue for a very, very long time, and it leads to bad outcomes for our residents as well as officers when officers are out on duty and they are not well.

And for that reason, I will be supporting this position today and will not be able to vote to support to refer it to staff.

I will say to the police department, you are going to continue to have, I think, uh a due amount of scrutiny on budget items and things that are out of process.

You are going to, right?

There's going to be more questions.

We are concerned about the overspending from last year and this year, and it is going to be a primary challenge that will be discussed at length during our budget process.

And so I do hear why the budget chair is concerned.

Those are my comments.

I have appreciated the dialogue that we've been able to have around this item as a body.

Councilmember Vitaw.

Thank you.

I I just want to say that I thought it was fair for my colleagues to ask the chief and the department to find a different source for this position.

And they did.

They came back within 24 hours and they found a different source.

I appreciate the different source very much.

I also believe we're living in unprecedented times with our department.

We need help and we want help.

I don't know how many of my colleagues know this, but this is this is like unprecedented for them to ask for help in this way, to say that we need services for our officers, for their mental health, for their well-being.

There's so much stigma within the department to be vulnerable and to go and say, I want to talk to a medical provider.

I want to talk to a social worker as a police officer.

And then for me, it it would feel like we're rejecting them.

And I would never do that.

I would never reject someone that is reaching out for help and resources.

I mean, I find therapy and counseling to get me through what uh what I needed with this job.

I I'm not responding to these scenes, but I sometimes I have to bear the burden of being the elected official for North Minneapolis, and that's not easy.

That's not easy for me.

That's not easy for my staff, that's not easy for my family, and I know for certain it's not easy for the people who have to show up uh day after day, time after time, countless amounts of times.

Like we don't hear about every incident they show up to.

We don't hear about them showing up to places where children are being abused and they need help and they sit with that forever and year after year.

I've been on ride-alongs with police officers who every single block you go on, they can point out a house and tell you something so traumatic and tragic that's happened.

I mean, it's heartbreaking to listen to.

And so when they come and say we need help, I will never ever vote against that.

And I hope none of us would.

And it's not even just voting against it, it's delaying it also.

There's no reason for us to delay giving help to people who are asking us for it.

I mean, this is this is the department at its most vulnerable, saying, help us and figuring out a way for us to help them.

If they'd come back today and they hadn't chose a pathway where we could all agree on, I would completely understand that and say, go back and do it again.

I was I was ready to vote on this on Tuesday.

I'm sure everyone knows that because I think it's necessary.

And I think it's got this is one of those departments that I'm hoping will grow.

I'm hoping they will come back one day and say, you know what, we need more staffing because more officers are coming in the room, not in secret, because a lot of these officers don't even want anyone to know they need help.

It is a secret.

I never want that for people.

If you need help, you should feel good to go say, I need help.

I had a terrible incident that I showed up at.

And and I want help.

And as I said the other day, it's not just officers, it's civilians in that department too who show up to these horrific scenes to support families and support our officers.

I mean, in the times that we live in now, our counselors need counseling.

Our therapists need therapists.

All of our mental health providers need support because things are hard.

We are living in very hard times in the world and not only in our city.

We all know it.

We all feel it.

It is.

The chief did a presentation yesterday about how many calls that the department went on, just ice-related calls.

I've never seen anything like it, and I never ever want to see anything like it again.

But what I do want to know is when I go in my house tonight, I want to know that if somebody asked me for help, I gave it to them.

That is one of the reasons why I signed up to do this work.

It's to help people.

It's who I am as a person.

And I wish we all would do that.

And we all would see the importance of this.

And and like this is a historic thing for people to do because officers are finally saying, I need the help.

I want it, I want more help.

I want to be able to just ask for it and get it.

And so I really do hope we can all come together today and vote for this and support what our department is asking for and support what they they went back and did.

They went back and did what we asked them to do, and I am I am forever grateful for that.

Seeing no one else left in queue, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll on the referral of item number 58 back to staff Councilmember Wandsley.

Aye.

Councilmember Shugti.

Aye.

Councilmember Whiting.

No.

Councilmember Chowdhury.

Nay.

Councilmember Stevenson.

Aye.

Councilmember Rainville.

Councilmember Vitaw.

No.

Councilmember Palmasano?

No.

Councilmember Chavez.

No.

Councilmember Warren.

No.

Councilmember Schaefer.

No.

Vice President Osman.

No.

President Payne.

Aye.

There are three ayes and ten nays.

That item fails.

So we are back to the underlying motion.

Uh and I see a few folks left in queue.

I'll call on Vice President.

Skip it.

Aye.

Anyone who's in queue still wanting to speak.

Councilmember Palmasano.

Mr.

Chair, I'll go ahead and make this motion for approval.

Uh of this position, unless if we need to do that and ask for a second.

Second.

Seeing no one else left in queue, I will ask the clerk to call the roll.

Councilmember Wandsley.

Aye.

Councilmember Shugtai.

Aye.

Councilmember Whiting.

Aye.

Councilmember Chowdhury.

Aye.

Councilmember Stevenson.

Aye.

Councilmember Rainbow.

Aye.

Councilmember Vitaw.

Aye.

Councilmember Palmasano.

Aye.

Councilmember Chavez.

Aye.

Councilmember Warren.

Aye.

Councilmember Schaefer.

Aye.

Vice President Osman.

Aye.

President Payne.

Aye.

There are 13 ayes.

That carries and that item is adopted and that completes uh the committee of the whole report.

The next order of business is noticeable ordinance introductions.

We have seven notices today.

The first four notices are a package from Councilmember Stevenson, Chavez, and me that all relate to the subject matter of adult bathhouses and sex venues, amending four different titles within the code as listed on the agenda.

The fifth item is from Councilmembers Chavez, Chowdhury, and Chugtai, who give notice of intent to introduce at the next regular meeting the subject matter of an ordinance amending the miscellaneous offenses code to add a new section related to general welfare law enforcement concealment of identity.

Item six is from Councilmember Chavez and me giving notice of intent to introduce at the next regular meeting the subject matter of an ordinance to amend the license and business regulations code requiring commercial tenant notification prior to initiation of eviction actions for non-payment of rent or other financial obligations.

Finally, Councilmember Chowdhury, Chugtai, and Chavez give notice of intent to introduce at the next regular meeting the subject matter of an ordinance amending the health and sanitation code, adding a new chapter 237 establishing provisions of a temporary homeless encampment reporting policy.

I have any questions about these notices seeing none, those notices are hereby given and no further action is required at this time.

The next order of business is the introduction and referral calendar.

We have two items on the agenda today.

First, pursuant to notice Councilmember Chavez, Chowdhury, and Chugtai move to introduce the subject matter of two ordinances that propose to codify the city's status as a city that welcomes and protects people of all genders for first reading and referral to the public health safety and equity committee.

Second, pursuant note to notice Councilmember Chavez, Chowdhury, Chugtai, and Osmond move to introduce the subject matter of an ordinance amending the housing code for first reading and referral to the public health, safety and equity committee, prohibiting inquiries into immigration status during the rental screening process and creating protections for tenants against retaliation based on immigration status.

May I have a motion to approve those introductions.

So second.

Are there any discussions on those items?

Seeing none, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll.

Councilmember Wandsley.

Aye.

Councilmember Chugtie.

Aye.

Councilmember Whiting.

Aye.

Councilmember Chowdhury.

Aye.

Councilmember Stevenson.

Aye.

Councilmember Rainville.

Aye.

Councilmember Vita.

Aye.

Councilmember Palmisano.

Aye.

Councilmember Chavez.

Aye.

Councilmember Warren.

Aye.

Councilmember Schaefer.

Aye.

Vice President Osman.

Aye.

President Payne.

Aye.

There are 13 ayes.

That carries, and those matters are referred to the committees as listed on the agenda.

The next order of business is resolutions.

We have two resolutions both listed on the agenda.

Do council members have any comments to add?

Seeing none, I may have a motion to adopt these resolutions.

Second.

The clerk will call the roll.

Councilmember Wandsley.

Aye.

Councilmember Shugtie.

Aye.

Councilmember Whiting.

Aye.

Councilmember Chowdhury.

Aye.

Councilmember Stevenson.

Aye.

Councilmember Rainbow.

Councilmember Peto.

Aye.

Councilmember Palmasano.

Hi.

Councilmember Chavez.

Councilmember Schaefer.

Aye.

Vice President Osman.

Aye.

President Payne.

Aye.

There are 13 ayes.

That carries, and those resolutions are adopted.

The next order of business is new business.

We have four items today.

Item one is the receipt of resolutions from Berkeley, California related to immigration surges in Minneapolis and across the country.

Are there any comments on this?

Seeing none, I'll direct the clerk to file those resolutions.

Items two, three, and four under new business are the mayor's nominations of Todrick Barnett as the Commissioner of Community Safety.

Margaret Anderson Kelleher as City Operations Officer and Kristen Anderson as city attorney.

I'll move to refer these nominations to the committee of the whole for consideration of those nominations and the setting of public hearings.

May I have a motion to the a second to this motion?

Second.

Are there any questions?

Seeing none, the clerk will call the roll.

Councilmember Wandsley.

Aye.

Councilmember Shugtie.

Aye.

Councilmember Whitey.

Aye.

Councilmember Stevenson.

Aye.

Councilmember Rainbow.

Aye.

Councilmember Pomasana.

Hi.

Councilmember Chavez.

Councilmember Warren.

Aye.

Councilmember Schaefer.

Aye.

Vice President Osman.

Aye.

President Payne.

Aye.

There are 13 ayes.

That carries, and those nominations are referred to the committee of the whole in the next cycle to set a public hearing.

Finally, we have the order of announcements.

Are there any announcements from council members this morning?

Councilmember Warren.

Thank you, Council President.

I have an announcement that I wanted to make this morning because it it resonated with me when I I told my council colleague, sit into the right of mean Chavez that I was gonna be on my best behavior.

And I am not because well-behaved women rarely make history.

So this is a historical moment for me.

And um I'm gonna say this when we talk about decorum on this dais.

Um, and this is you know, to address all of my council colleagues in the way in which we hold the super committee of the whole meetings for individuals to come in here and speak to situations that are happening within community is more than acceptable.

But for my council colleagues that sit amongst this body to allow individuals to come in here and attack the character or the nature or the role of what they think, feel, or believe that council individuals who sit on represent and represent this body is really not proper decorum.

So I think if we're going to have decorum that we need to have a level of decorum amongst ourselves and also hold that expectation to other individuals who enter into this um into this this um, I don't even want to call it a courtroom, but enter into you know our chambers here, that it is acceptable to hold that and hold other people to that standard.

And I won't expect it any other way.

I mean, I've been sitting here trying to understand what the the innate culture is on this dais and amongst this body because it has been a lot of chaos and confusion, and I am utterly confused.

I don't know if we are elected for people to live in homes or if we elect them for them to live on the streets.

If we want people to carry drugs, we want people to not carry drugs.

I don't know what the whole culture is of what's going on and which direction it is that we're going, but I think the decorum in that is to be respectful to all people at all times.

And since I've been here day one, and I don't know any of you people from a can of paint.

I don't.

We have not had coffee, we have not sat down.

We don't I don't know anything about anybody.

You don't know anything about me.

But I will say give me the same respect that you want for yourselves and ensure that other people uphold you with that respect because I will charge others to do the same for you.

So, in honor of women's history month, I'm gonna let that be T, and we can dump that on the floor, Chavez.

Councilmember Chowdhury.

To be clear, apparel was not coming for me.

I was not, I was not let's be clear.

We've got some.

Councilmember Chowdhury.

Um Thank you, President Payne.

I just wanted to uh I hadn't realized that we got uh uh a letter of support from Berkeley, uh, the city of Berkeley, and I just wanted to encourage the public to take a read at it, and then my colleagues.

I think it just highlights a lot that uh another city from across the country is reaching out to us to say that they see so clearly the housing instability that our community members are going to face.

And I just didn't want that resolution to pass by.

Um that uh what's happening here has also uh inspired them to take action and to create uh joint task force on housing.

So I didn't want to let that pass by.

And I also did want to highlight one of the ordinances that we referred.

Um that Councilmember Chavez, myself, and Councilmember Chugtai have given notice to, and it is an ordinance uh to prevent the concealment of identity by law enforcement, which has created such severe impacts to our community members and has eroded trust in law enforcement across the board.

I I I hope to get a 13-0 vote on this when it comes through.

And I also just want to state it hasn't just been ICE that have been concealing their identity.

We have seen several sheriff's deputies doing this as they have used force on community members, and that is a concern.

No one should conceal their identity, no one should conceal their face.

And I have appreciated that our department has taken such uh a long task in the reforms that are put forward through the settlement agreement to ensure that there is that basic uh premise of having your badge number out, showing your face, having a clear badge that says this is what department you're from.

So I wanted to make that announcement and just say very early on that we hope to get everyone's support on this, and we're available for any questions or comments down the line.

Seeing no one else left in queue, no no other announcements, no more announcements.

Okay.

Uh with that, we've completed our business today with nothing further to come before the council and without objection.

This hereby this meeting is hereby adjourned.