The Public Health Safety and Equity Committee, chaired by Councilmember Jason Chavez, met on June 17, 2026, at 6:31 PM. The meeting included a consent calendar, three public hearings, multiple policy items, and reports. Key outcomes included the unanimous approval of the Emergency Management Director nomination, a 6-1 vote to advance technical amendments on adult bathhouses, and approval of the Welcoming and Affirming Minneapolis and Recognizing All Genders ordinances.
Welcome to the regular meeting of the public health safety and equity committee for June 17, 2026. I am Jason Chavez, the chair of this committee. Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation. These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method 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. At this time, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll so we can verify a quorum for this meeting. Councilmember Payne. Present. Absent. Rainville? Present. Vita. Present. Whiting. Present. Vice Chair Stevenson. Absent. Chair Chavez. Present. That is five members present. Let the record reflect that we have a quorum. And I'll let the public know that Councilmember Stevenson has joined us. I'll remind my colleagues that we'll be using speaker management today. So please make sure you're signed in. Our agenda is in front of us, and we will begin with the consent agenda after our consent agenda. We will then move on to the public hearings. If you would like to speak during a public hearing and have not signed up yet, please see the clerks in the hall and register. I'm gonna get my cue up. Alright, colleagues. On our consent agenda, item number four authorizes a revenue contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves to provide bomb detection security services at Target Center. Item number five accepts the National Environmental Health Association and FDA retail flexible funding model grant to authorize an agreement for the grant. Item number six accepts the Bloomberg Philanthropic grant for youth climate leadership and engagement and authorizes a contract for the grant. Item seven and eight are gift accesses to attend conferences. Item number nine through fourteen approval appointments to the advisory committee on people with disabilities, public health advisory committee, advisory committee on aging, homegrown food council, community commission on police oversight, and the safe and thriving communities work group. Item number 15 authorizes an MOU with the University of Minnesota to work with capstone students. Item 16 is the second request for an update on the status of a legislative directive regarding the city's data practices related to unlawful actions of federal agents. Refer to staff the subject matter of an ordinance related to drug peripheral decriminalization and cannabis paraphernalia decriminalization. Item 24 sets a public hearing for July 8th to consider the mayor's nomination of Caleb McConnell to appoint a position of civil rights department director. Colleagues, is there any discussion or any items that anybody would like to pull for further discussion? All right. With that, I'll move items four through 15 and 17 through 24 approval. I'll ask the clerk to receive and file number 16, postpone number 21, and refer staffs items 22 and 23 and set up public hearing for 24. Are there any questions? All right, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Any abstentions, and those motions carry. Next, we'll take up our public hearings reflected in items one through three on the agenda. Anybody who signed up for these items will be given two minutes each to testify.