Good afternoon and welcome to a regular meeting of the committee of the whole for July 28th, 2026.

My name is Oreen Chowdry, and I'm the chair of this committee.

I will call this uh regular meeting to order and ask the clerk to call the role to verify the presence of a quorum.

Councilmember Payne.

Present.

Wandsley is absent.

Rainville is absent.

Vetock.

Present.

Warren.

Present.

Osman.

Present.

Schaefer.

Present.

Stevenson is absent.

Chavez.

Present.

Whiting.

Present.

Palmasano.

Present.

Vice Chair Chinte.

Present.

And Chair Chowdery.

Present.

There are 10 members present.

Thank you.

Clerk.

Let the record reflect that we have a quorum.

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

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

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

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

So colleagues, our agenda is in front of the US.

Are there any amendments before we begin?

May I have a motion to adopt the agenda?

So I'll move.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

And then before we get into a report of standing committees, I would just like to give a big welcome back to councilmember Chug Tai, the vice chair of this committee.

We are so excited to have you back.

So we'll start with the reports of our standing committee, starting with the Business Housing and Zoning Committee, chaired by Council Vice President Osman.

Thank you, Chair Chowry.

The business housing and zoning committee will be bringing forward 20 items on Thursday council meeting.

Item one approves the mayor's nomination of Henrique Falaskis to director of regulatory services.

Item two approves a wine and strong beer with general entertainment for Strange Loop Labatory.

Item three approves an interim use permit for people serving people at uh 219 4th Street.

Item four is an appeal from FGNC regarding 3000 Minneha Avenue, aka the Democracy Center.

This item was sent forward without recommendation.

Item five approves five liquor license.

Item six approves twenty thirty-two liquor license renewals.

Item seven approves a gambling license.

Item A grants a business license operating condition for Bloomington Commercial Kitchen.

Item nine amends the 2029 license fee scheduled for tow trucking services fee.

Item 10 authorize the contract amendment with Macville Music Center.

Item 11 accepts and authorize the state of Minnesota grants for employment services.

Item 12 authorize the DTAP program funding recommendations.

Item 13 accepts a bid for replacing floor box at convention center.

Item 14 delegates uh delegates authority to seat bed director of the owner occupied rehab program.

Item 15 accepts and authorizes the water efficiency grant program from the Metro Council.

Metropolitan Council item 16 authorizes a contract extension for green belt development project.

Item 17 approves and staff direction related to the renewal properties.

Item 18 authorize a program change for the affordable housing trust fund or AHTF.

Item 19 authorize a program change to naturally according affordable housing or NOAA.

And lastly, item 20 is rezoning and let alley vacation to the Democracy Center at 3000 Mini Ha.

This item was sent forward without recommendation.

With that, I'll stand any questions for my colleagues.

Thank you.

Chop.

Colleagues, are there any questions?

Seeing none, we'll move to the climate and infrastructure committee report.

I will be giving that report.

The Climate and Infrastructure Committee has 13 items to bring forward.

Item number one is Dinner Due Nord Commercial Block Event Permit for September 10th, 2026.

Item number two is Banana Ball Games block event permit, August 7th through 9th, 2026.

Item number three is Skyway Easement from Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board for a portion of 2nd Avenue North.

Item number four is Metro Green Line Extension Southwest Light Rail, subordinate funding agreement number 14.

Item number 15 is Minneapolis Street Lighting Plan Amendment.

Item number six is Cedar Lake Road Bridge Project Overpass Agreement.

Item number seven is cooperative agreement with Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority for the Grand Avenue South Bridge over Midtown Greedway.

And number eight is the Metropolitan Council Municipal Infiltration and Inflow Grant for cured in place pipelining repairs of existing sewers and cross connection elimination.

Item number nine is a bid for 2026-2027 public works tree removal and disposal.

Item number 10 is a bid for the installation of green stormwater infrastructure for the West Fulton Neighborhood Improvement Project.

Item number 11 is Columbia Heights Membrane Plant Roof Replacement.

Item number 12 is a contract amendment with CS McCross and Constructions Incorporated for Bridge 9 Improvements.

Item number 13 is the bicycle advisory committee appointments.

I'll stand for any questions if there are any.

Seeing none, we will next go to the report of the Enterprise Labor Relations Committee given by its chair, Councilmember Palmasano.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

The ELR committee plans to bring 10 items forward on Thursday.

Item number one is legislative process reform research and recommendations directive.

Item number two is a bid for the fire department training apparatus expansion.

Item three is a contract amendment with Shaw Lundquist for Cit City Hall Restack Phase Three Project Amendment.

Item four is a contract amendment with SABA software for enterprise wide performance management support and maintenance.

Items five and six are legal settlements.

Item seven is a claim settlement where we are receiving money.

Item number eight is an indebtedness and bond issuance authorization related to outstanding capital improvement bonds.

Item nine is an appointed position in the health department for the director of environmental health.

And item 10 is our committee work plan.

I'm happy to answer questions.

Not seeing any questions, we will now go to the last report of the public health safety and equity committee given by its chair, Councilmember Chavez.

Thank you, Chair Chowdhury.

The public health safety and equity committee will be bringing forward seven items.

Item one considers the mayor's nomination of Dr.

Freeman to the appointed position of fire chief.

This was sent forward without recommendation.

Item two authorizes a contract with Hennepin Technical College for the police cadet program.

Item three authorizes a contract amendment with GovWorks Inc.

to provide quality assurance software for 911.

Item four authorizes a contract amendment with the Center for Multicultural Mediation for Community Trauma Response Services.

Item five authorizes a contract amendment with the Mother's Love Initiative for Community Trauma Response Services.

Item six accepts a grant for the Minnesota Department of Health to provide family home visiting services and authorizes an agreement with the state of Minnesota for the grant.

Item seven approves a legislative directive related to the neighborhood safety department contract management audit.

I'll stand for any questions.

Members, are there any questions?

Seeing none, we will now turn to the consent agenda.

Our only item today is a special law approval for food hall licenses.

This was submitted by the intergovernmental relations department.

They're also here to ask any questions related to this item.

With that, do my colleagues have any other discussion or questions on this item.

Great.

Seeing no further discussion, I will move approval of this consent agenda.

Can I get a second?

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

That carries.

Now moving on to the discussion portion of our agenda.

This next item is a grant application to the United States Department of Justice.

It is for the 2026 National Integrated Ballistic Information Network Modernization Program, known as NIBEN.

I will have MPD commander Chris Brown come to speak more on this item.

Welcome, Commander.

Madam Chair, Madam Vice Chair, and welcome back.

And council members.

I lost it on Sunday and I haven't found it yet.

So we'll have to do it.

So the NOBA NIBEN modernization grant.

So it's for modernizing the ballistic imaging technology.

So agencies that currently have NIBEN.

I have an opportunity to file in for this grant.

So NIBEN stands for National Integrated Ballistic Information Network.

This provides funding for replacing the outdated NIBAN equipment at existing sites only to give them modern NIBAN compatible technology to improve crime gun intelligence capabilities.

This will help strengthen investigations and our efforts to reduce the violent crime in Minneapolis and as well as uh jurisdictions that also use this as well because it's a it's very much a partnership.

So the grant funding pays for new NIBAN compatible technology and equipment, includes it is for a five years uh of upgrades and maintenance, which will reduce the financial burden on the city of Minneapolis for because without this grant, Minneapolis would would own the cost of it.

And the the grant is over five years, it's 300,000.

So this is like I said, this is a non-competitive uh grant.

So it's those those in those including Minneapolis were invited to attend uh uh to apply for this particular grant.

So there's 170 agencies that currently use NIBEN, and they were given the opportunity to apply for this grant to maintain the and upgrade their their current equipment.

So uh NIBEN is uh a program that is uh managed by the ATF.

Uh NIBAN is a database that captures stores uh and correlates digital images um which we oftentimes will call fingerprints of uh discharge cartridge casings so uh DCCs that so after you shoot uh a gun, the bullet itself is expelled outside of the gun, but it leaves either in the gun or on the ground a spent casing.

So the spent casing is what this equipment analyzes, and what's unique to that particular thing is is that that casing and the indentations that you and I can't see that are on that particular casing.

NIBEN equipment can see those things.

And I'll talk a little bit more in detail about that.

And it can it identifies the gun.

It's the fingerprints of that gun, that specific gun.

So firearm evidence from one crime to another is compared um with the purpose of detecting associations between separate shooting incidents through the firearms evidence, and that's actionable intelligence.

So NIBAN aids in preventing violence, as well as uh finding out who perpetrated the violent crime that was already happened.

So up on the screen here you'll see this is the current equipment that we have.

The uh on the monitor right there gives you kind of an idea of what it looks like after a um a spent casing is put through the system.

It doesn't look like much, but if you kind of think of it as a fingerprint, you're looking at it that is I that is unique to the any casing that was sent through that particular weapon.

So um next to it is the box that that is the actual um that is the actual box that you put the casing on and it analyzes it and shows up on that, and then that information is sent down to ATF to um analyze further.

So Minneapolis Police Department has been part of the NIBAN program since 2002.

Uh current brass tracks equipment was installed in 2014, and you can imagine there's been a lot of changes and a lot of advancements and since 2014.

So upgrades in in the technology as well as the program itself is is very important.

Earlier on, um when we were part of NIBAN, uh, we would submit as needed these cases, these different casings into the systems, and that created quite a backlog.

So when we did actually have something happen right away, it um it would take weeks or possibly even months before we would get the results back, which is really difficult when you're trying to use that information for investigations that are currently open.

So uh the current process eliminates that wait time by proactively processing every discharge firearm, uh every discharge casing that we come up with, every DCC, as well as when we recover a firearm in any way at all.

Uh we in our laboratories through the forensic labs will fire that weapon and we'll use that casing that comes out of that that recovered firearm and put it through the same system.

So now we have the fingerprints of that gun that was recovered, and sometimes that can link it to other other gun, other guns and other crimes that we've had had happen.

So uh the steps of of NIMIN, NIBEN are so MPD will collect and submit that evidence into NIBEN.

Uh there's a turnaround that's uh as brief as possible because we want investigators to be able to use the information uh to give you an idea.

It can be done, it could be done uh rushed to be done in the same day.

Um otherwise uh average time is probably five, six days to get the information back, but that's still when an investigation is still ongoing, and we can link that same gun to other crimes that happened uh previously when when those casings were discharged.

Um there's a follow-up uh with prosecution and investigations.

I just want to say I was here last week presenting, and while I was in the lobby waiting, uh I was here because we were present they were presenting on on the FAST team.

Uh Lieutenant Schroeder got like six hits while we were waiting.

Not saying you guys took too long for all those things, but while we were waiting, he got six hits from cases they submitted information to NIBAN.

This is such a valuable tool to make connections, and every one of those hits associated that gun with another crime that happened in Minneapolis.

Those are just our hits regarding what we're submitting them for.

This is such a valuable and critically essential to our mission with Minneapolis.

So the effectiveness of NIBEN relies on comprehensive collection of the discharge casings and crime scenes as well as recovering firearms and the ability for the forensic division to enter that into there immediately.

The ATF adopts a minimum required operation standards, and I'm happy to say the MPD uh does have ATF's gold standard in regarding to that.

The gold standard is uh they within two days of collection of the of the either the firearm or the DCC, it's entered into NIBAN, so there's no delay, and that's pretty exceptional across the across uh uh investigations.

So the forensics division can contribute to the overall strategy of of to deal with gun violence by providing this actionable uh crime crime gun intelligence to investigators as well as using the forensic data to not only solve crimes but to prevent future violent crimes as well.

Take a moment here.

I'm gonna give you a case study for um uh use of the NIBAN uh program.

So I can't give you uh one that's currently ongoing, so I can give you one an example of one that happened in 2023.

In August 9th of 2023, Minneapolis police officers were dispatched to the intersection of Thomas Avenue North and Oak Park uh Avenue in North Minneapolis.

Their report was for shots fired and a woman screaming.

Life-saving measures were attempted on the on the victim, and unfortunately, the victim was pronounced deceased at the hospital.

Officers canvassed the area and located video from a doorbell captured that captured the incident.

Officers also, in further canvassing, located a video of the of a cargo van that was likely used in the incident.

Uh the the following day, officers were able to locate a possible suspect vehicle that was used in this crime.

Uh officers inside the vehicle were able to, with after warrant was uh uh obtained, discovered a uh spent DCC from a 10 millimeter casing from under the vehicle, uh the vehicle's undercarriage that matched the features of the 10 millimeter discharge cartridge casing from a scene from the scene of the shooting, indicating that they had been shot from the same weapon.

This is the particular example of how the NIBIN machine was used to connect the particular case.

The video evidence led to the suspect vehicle, but the NIBAN's forensic evidence linked the vehicle to the crime.

So the NIBAN modernization program.

This will um by receiving this grant and getting the appropriate updates and maintenance to the existing machine system, it'll uh uh which are now reaching the end of their service life, making repairs, replacement parts, and manufacturing support makes increas is becoming increasingly difficult if we were to maintain our existing equipment without without this grant.

Um maintaining operational capability um without the modernization agencies will risk downtime as well as degraded performance that could result in delayed ballistic evidence re processing, uh which will affect uh crime gun investigations.

Um newer IBIN uh newer NIBEN technology provides faster processing, higher quality images, and better match uh capabilities, helping investigators identify firearms more like more quickly.

Upgrading the systems maintain capability uh with IBIN software and infrastructure.

So um uh ATF is evolving and and improving their software, our equipment needs to keep up with that at some point in time.

Um, if we don't have um costs covered and we don't make these changes, we won't be able to participate in a particular program.

Um that does conclude my brief uh uh on the on this particular case.

If you guys have any questions, I can speak to it now.

Thank you.

Uh members, please get into queue if you have any questions or comments.

We have councilmember Chavez in Q.

Go ahead, Councilmember.

Thank you, Chair Chaudery.

I'd like to first express my concern about this matter.

I wish the presentation at least acknowledged a harmful language targeting our immigrant neighbors, and that it would have at least disputed disputed the harmful rhetoric uh noted in there.

I am not disputing the need for funding to address this concern or the concern to address gun violence in our city, but I am disputing the fact that there was no mention in this presentation about the harmful rhetoric noted about our undocumented neighbors.

The notice of funding opportunity for this program states that the purpose of funding, which provides funding to enhance capacity to locate and apprehend, quote, aliens who have committed crimes under federal, state or local law, in addition to being, quote, unlawfully present in the United States, investigated crimes committed by quote illegal aliens.

I want to be very clear to my community that this language is disrespectful.

It is dehumanizing, and it is not in alignment with our values here in Minneapolis.

This notice of funding opportunity contains provision barring funded programs or activities from directly or indirectly, quote, impeding federal immigration enforcement, including denial of DHS agent access or failure to honor DHS notice request.

Additionally, the pre-award reimbursement mechanism in this notice of funding opportunity operates under a section which is its itself named the bridge and bridging immigration related deficits experience nationwide, Biden, the reimbursement fund, which includes locating and apprehended, quote, aliens who have committed a crime under federal, state or local law, in addition to being quote unlawfully present in the United States.

The MOU attached also states that except as expressly expressly prohibited by law, the NIBAN partner agrees to provide ATF with access to all information reports and any other relevant information regarding crimes related to evidence entered into the system as well as monthly reports outlining historical statistical and case adjudication information on the use and results and the use of NIBEN program and or systems and related services provided by ATF and the system manufacturer in order to ensure the capturing of required performance management information and other stuff.

And I do not accept the premise that expressing these concerns are rooted in rhetoric.

When these concerns are coming from caring about our immigrant neighbors in this city.

Thank you, Councilmember Chavez.

Next we will go to Vice Chair Chug Tai.

Um thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you for the presentation, Commander Brown.

Um always a pleasure to have you in the chambers.

Um I am wondering if you might be able to answer a couple of questions.

And specifically, I'm hoping that you can help articulate here.

So just help us understand uh why we need to utilize this grant when we have a mechanism of having outside support in the we do have lots of different MOUs, and we also um submit our evidence to the BCA and pay for it on many different ways.

But what we're doing in this particular program, this is through the DOJ and ATF.

So it's it's a broader network that we've had that partnership with uh since 2002.

So this isn't new.

This is just looking for funding to maintain and update the equipment for the for the program that still exists.

And generally speaking, is it safe to say that like most um of our partners at the at the state and local level have some sort of relationship with uh an agency that has NIBEN access?

Um through the chair, um vice chair.

Um I can say that there's 170 agencies that are currently using NIBAN, um, but that's gonna be primarily large agencies.

Um and so it it does behoove us because some of the crimes that we're we're finding weapons for um it are gonna be thing you know helping our partners um in the immediate area, so our suburbs and and such and the guns that we capture um the casings, we we may be able to be able to solve other crimes that happen and prevent future crimes from happening as well.

I don't know if that answers what you I mean it certainly does, but I I think the what I'm taking away here is that um you know we're not we're not the city isn't gonna lose access to a system that is critical as a result of not submitting um or the um a proposal to receive this grant.

Um I think that makes it a little bit different from instances in the past, I think when we've had uh contracts or things like that for approval before the body and and the choices between having a system or not.

So that addresses my questions.

Thank you.

But address I'm looking at the document RCA here.

The concern raised by Councilmember Chavez about the language used in the obligation.

Can you touch a little bit about that?

Uh through through the chair, um you know, Councilmember Osman.

I I can just uh talk about it briefly.

Um so when we first got the so what he's referring to is the notice of uh funding opportunity that's put out by the DOJ.

Um all language for federal grants um there that we don't write them.

Sure.

All that language does come from the whoever the current uh federal administrator is that and um so we don't we don't make up that but whenever we receive a grant opportunity we run all that through the city attorney's office um in in vetted before we ever make any uh agreements in any of any way.

So traditionally we would have uh um been sending a this information would have come to you um after after they saw we were just running late on this particular case, so we sent the whole package over to you at the same time that the city attorneys were looking at it.

So the letter did not come with an explanation from the city attorneys at the time in it, and it currently does.

So uh my understanding is that we are looking for this funded on applying through the uh US government and part of their notice or obligation um information, it includes a language that is seemed uh to be you know what we hear every day on uh President Trump, which is uh um uh you know illegal aliens and language like that.

Um that is actually uh it is a concern, but uh I don't know how um this could relate to what we're getting as uh as in our department.

Um it is very concerning and it has been concerning ever since the uh Trump took over office, but uh for us we are uh as a department um I'm guessing we're applying and we apply a lot of a lot of uh grants through the uh through this administration and um I think that what what you mentioned is very important to notice that this uh grant is gonna help us produce crimes and help us catch bad bad guys that are committing uh crimes.

Can you relate talk about one more about accepting this grants?

What is the um is are there any attachment on immigration or any things uh through the city that we have to address?

Um and how is that related to immigration accepting this grants?

Uh I I I don't know if I heard that, but if there's any maybe the city attorney is here accepting this grants, does that how's that related to immigrant immigration enforcement in in our city?

Yeah, through the chair, uh councilmember Osman, uh the city attorney here to be able to answer it more specific questions.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Good afternoon, members of the council.

Um my name is Amy Schott, uh lead assistant city attorney, uh, through the chair, council member Ossman.

Um to your question, generally speaking about problematic grant terms.

We have been seeing an increase in these terms since the beginning of the Trump administration, and that is the reason that my office has set up a process for reviewing terms of all grants that the city is applying for.

So this grant, as um was mentioned, went through that process just as many other grants do.

I happen to be the one who received that for review, and I reviewed the um NOFO of the grant and all of the documents referenced in that NOFO for any problematic terms and conditions that includes terms and conditions that would implicate the separation ordinance, as well as any other terms or conditions that would require the city to act in a way that is antithetical to our values.

My determination in reviewing those um the those documents was that there are not any um and there's no information in it at this point that does require us to act in a way that is violative of the separation ordinance or antithetical to our values.

So while it does have um problematic um language in it, it has um inappropriate language in it related to our um undocumented neighbors.

Um that language doesn't implicate actions of the city that would uh force us to not accept the grant.

That is really helpful to um understand that I will support uh this um uh accepting this grants as us also that I disagree with a lot of things uh this administration says, but as a city, uh if we're um following our um separation ordinance and doing the right thing and doing that fetting, it's really hard for us to control what this administration says, but we just gotta keep going and doing what we can to keep our uh residents and citizens safe, and this uh grant helps our police officers uh capture uh the bad guys and put them um you know uh in justice to make sure that they are not committed more crimes, and this is a tool that could help um you know keep keep our community safe.

I appreciate your explanation that this is nothing to do with uh immigration enforcement.

But again, we can't control what um our president says.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we'll go to Councilmember Palmasano.

First, um I'll say I agree wholeheartedly with Councilmember Chavez's admonition of the language used by the federal government here.

Um but I think a grant for upkeep of equipment is different than how it's suggesting we use that equipment.

So I can both agree with Councilmember Chavez that this is abhorrent language, and also agree to get this machine's upkeep funded.

The terms of this grant, as the city attorney just mentioned, are what is most important to me.

Um none of these terms require us to act in a way different to our common values here.

Um just yesterday, I was speaking with a local uptown restaurant owner who had shots fired into their restaurant last week at their restaurant manager through a window.

And this team of restaurant employees lives in fear and has been waiting anxiously, eagerly to get those casings processed.

I have a question for Commander Brown.

Commander Brown, you mentioned that the MPD meets the ATF's gold standard for NIBIN entry in its two business days.

And it sounds like you know, we're meeting that.

You're proud of that.

Does that mean if entry is different than getting results?

Yes, ma'am, through the through the chair.

Um, Councilmember Palmazano, yes, it it gets entered into the system within two days.

Um the it depends on either backlog or if it was a case that was given a speedy.

I believe that would be the response.

It could be up to six days, I think is probably um otherwise I can bring if you want to know more specific, I can provide uh the forensic director up here.

I guess I'm just curious.

Are do we end up with backlogs based on you know a number of shootings in our community these last two weeks, or is that not really a thing?

Uh through the chair, uh Councilmember Palmazone, no, we do not have any backlogs because we uh basically pay it forward by processing everything the moment we get it so that we're not so we don't all of a sudden everything's a hurry.

Um doesn't happen.

Okay.

Um well thank you.

That that is helpful and it's helpful as we connect with people who are the victims of gun violence.

Um, but not being able to keep our NIBIN systems completely up to date and processing things quickly like this, like you mentioned in the slide, um, equipment breaking down or having problems or not being able to get replacement parts, like this is problematic.

It impacts victims who are shot at, it impacts an investigation.

It means less cases will get solved.

So that is why I'll be supporting this today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go to Councilmember Chavez.

Uh thank you, Judge Hodri.

Uh a question for MPD.

Do we have confirmation from the federal government that they wouldn't interpret us accepting this grant as us having to enforce immigration federal enforcement immigration laws?

Uh through the chair and uh councilmember Chavez.

Um I personally have not spoken with the federal government about their interpretations of this agreement at all.

I know that you haven't.

I personally have not spoken through them.

I know our city attorney's office is looking at whether what we're obligated to do under this agreement, and that was uh expressed earlier through the city attorney's office.

Would you be able to answer that question?

Yes, Ms.

Shuttle.

Why is everybody looking at me like that?

I get to ask these questions if it's talking about my community.

I'm sorry.

Can you repeat the last thing that you said?

Has the federal government communicated with us that if we were to apply and accept this grant, that we would then have to do immigration enforcement.

To my knowledge, we've had no communication with the federal government about their interpretation of the law surrounding this area.

I think that's important to figure out if we're applying for a grant that literally talks about quote illegal aliens and immigration enforcement.

Why are we not getting that information?

So I like that as a follow-up to get an answer to that.

Colleagues, it seems like there is going to be votes to approve this that needs seven votes on Thursday.

It's gonna need nine votes to accept it anyways, and that's a whole different board level eventually.

Um so I'm gonna be bringing forward a resolution that I'll work closely with the city attorney's office, expressing my concerns about the language in this NOFO that dehumanizes immigrants, calls them illegal, calls them aliens, and puts requirements if this is to get accepted.

Because what I don't want is that we're gonna then um be doing things that would be hurting our immigrant neighbors.

So I'll be reaching out for a meeting up for that resolution and I'll be attaching it to this NOFO.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Chavez.

Clerks, did you get that?

Um the question related to whether or not there's been any communication with the federal government about this one.

Communication and then if there is a way to get that information of if entering into this grant agreement, they would be interpreted into enforcing um immigrant immigration enforcement as detailed in that Biden fund act.

Thank you.

Uh I put myself in cue next.

Uh I think we need to just say what the elephant in the room is.

This is like a deeply deeply deeply tough position that members of this council are in, myself included, and I think that was very clearly communicated in our agenda setting because the NOFO has laid out language for purpose of funding that does speak to our immigrant community in dehumanizing ways, um, reflective of the experience that we had in Operation Metro Surge, and I think from where I sit, the feelings that the members of this body have and members of our community will have in understanding the purpose of funding and where the funding comes from are valid.

And I think from where I sit, the feelings that the members of this body have and members of our community will have in understanding the purpose of funding and where the funding comes from are valid.

It's it's unsurprising to me that people are having hard reactions to that.

And I think that's the reality of this.

I think the question before us is should we apply for this grant or not?

That's largely a governance approach for me.

Um I am personally very troubled that this comes from the bridging immigration, what is it, deficits experience nationwide program, basically immigration enforcement reimbursement funds for state governments, local governments, other units.

And it's kind of hard for us to separate that.

I don't object to NIBIN.

I understand the tool, and it sounds like it's been showing clear deliverables.

I don't think not applying for this grant means we don't update it.

It does mean that we would have to look to our own budget to do it, which is always a chance if for some reason one the we apply and this doesn't get accepted.

Two, we apply, and there's terms we can't agree to, because the same review that the city attorneys do in applying for a said grant, that same level of scrutiny has to happen again once the grant is before us, and then again we have to vote for it.

So those are kind of the things to weigh.

Um I do want to just ask a question, and I noticed this last night when I was prepping for committee.

Um it's my understanding, in order for us to apply for this grant, it has to pass through this body, it has to go through final action on Thursday, and then it has to be signed off by the mayor.

And final our final vote on this is on the 30th.

I noticed that the deadlines um listed in the NOFO are beyond that time.

So the grants.gov deadline is 727, which is now passed, and then the just grants deadline is 729, which is tomorrow before a final council meeting.

And I'm wondering how are we applying for this if it's passed deadline.

Yeah, madam chair.

Um, actually, we we were notified that it's been extended beyond that.

I believe it's August.

I can get you the exact date if you like.

I think that would be good to know.

Um if you wanted if you're able to pull it up or if you want to do it via um administrative follow-up, I think that's important.

Yeah, let's yeah, let's do administrative follow-up commander.

Don't worry about pulling it up if you can get it and then it can send it out via email.

I think that's helpful.

Um those are my comments.

Uh and I mean given given the nature of the question that Councilmember Chavez asked, and just like from where my viewpoint on a governance approach is I personally don't feel comfortable entering into this grant.

Um, and I also feel like there needs to be more transparency on the NOFO.

Uh we had grants come before us, like the Byrne grant that didn't have this type of language and didn't come from this Biden fund that was predicated on immigration enforcement.

So I will now recognize uh council president Payne.

Thank you, Chair Chowdry.

Um I first want to thank the city attorney's office, particularly Ms.

Shutt.

I think this is really diligent legal analysis.

I also wanted to give a special shout out to Ms.

Robertson, Ms.

Humeon, and Miss Lathrop.

Uh we just recently won a case in the Minnesota Supreme Court protecting our separation ordinance.

I mean, our attorney's office or our attorney's office is fighting day in and day out to really stand up for the values of the city.

And I say all that to say that this is this is active and ongoing litigation and legal conflict with the federal administration.

And one of the first things that we did at the beginning of 2025 was authorize the city attorney's office to proactively engage with the Trump administration, and then we renewed that um because we set an expiration date for the end of 2025 when we realized uh for the duration of the Trump administration, we are going to have to be an active litigation and actively fighting out the values of the city.

Uh that's just the background and context I want to share with why I won't be supporting this, is because we are not operating in a really stable legal terrain right now when it comes to this.

And we are not done litigating what that case law is going to be as it relates to our relationship to the federal government.

And so if we were under different circumstances, I I mean the value is clearer, the need is clearer.

Um I am hopeful that we're not operating under a dismantled system.

We have a functioning system.

We are at risk just due to age that that system won't be functioning anymore, but it it's not a non-functional system at this time.

And I just think that the risk of the federal government, like even with strong legal analysis, which I do believe we have, I don't think that strong legal analysis really matters when they will extrajudicially execute our residents when they will assault me personally.

I might be a little bit biased here, but um my own personal Fourth Amendment rights have been violated by the federal government, like not hypothetically, literally.

Uh, and I just don't think that that risk is worth it at this time.

Uh and maybe in partnership with Councilmember Chavez, we can make sure that we have really strong legal protections if this does move forward.

But again, this does have to come back for a final vote.

Uh, but I I don't even want to entertain it at this time, given that context.

So in fact, I would make a motion to afford this without recommendation if there's a second for that.

Second um, councilmember Vita.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, my I don't know if I'm allowed, but my question really is for Councilmember Chavez, uh, because I do think you get to ask whatever question you want to.

Councilmember Chavez.

The question is about you you raised the point about like what we're required to do um with the contract, and I've been waiting for close to two years for uh dollars to be released from the federal administration based on language that they like very specific language that was used in a contract for a railroad grant that literally had nothing to do with immigration services.

And so they had actual language in this contract that said we needed to work with um ICE essentially to get the money, and we had to litigate that for almost two years.

We I mean it was very specific, it was not vague at all.

There was no question what they were requiring for us to do, and that is why we rejected the grant.

So maybe to the city attorney, um, I mean, the the things that have been in litigation have been very clear about like what the expectation was from the federal government for us to receive money, I thought through the chair, uh Councilmember Vita.

So I believe you're talking about the Connecting Camden grant, which is still pending.

Yes, and to your point, did have uh language in it related to ICE and immigration enforcement, specifically um some of the similar terms to uh what we saw here, and we do have an act of injunction that would prohibit those terms, and so we have to your point negotiated um those terms out of that grant, so that um the grant is still not complete, to your point.

Uh, we are still waiting for final signature on that grant, but the um draft of the grant that is the most recent grant does have an exception to those terms due to the lawsuits that we've negotiated.

Right.

And so I I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that none of this money we want to compromise what we feel as a city, and not only was the Connect and Camden grant, which was extremely important to this community, um rejected by the administration.

I think anything else that came in with that sort of language has been rejected, and we've worked as a city enterprise to make sure that we don't compromise ourselves or the residents like that.

And I guess I just I feel like I need to ask this because the questions keep coming up.

Like, is this going to be the same thing for everything that we uh get from the federal government?

Are our city attorneys and the mayor and the council wanted to continue to fight the same way we have since this administration took office?

Like, is that the commitment from all of us and the city attorney's office, or are we willing to compromise who we are as leaders and let something slip through?

I don't think that that's the case here.

And so I'm okay with supporting this because I know how many conversations I've had with not only the attorneys, folks that are suing along with our city in lawsuits similar, other cities who've had to sue, that we've had to uh model what they've done, uh, the mayor's office, my colleagues, that we won't compromise who we are as a city to receive money from the federal government at all.

Like I think that's been clear since day one that we will not do that.

We're not gonna compromise our residents.

We're not gonna go into contract with anybody who wants to violate our separation ordinance, like all the things.

And so my expectation has always been no one would even bring that before us because we've done a good enough job of expressing that's not how we roll around here.

So I don't think that anyone would come into this chambers before this body, before the mayor, before the city attorney's office with something that they think would compromise.

What we've stated very clearly on our own personal platforms, professional platforms.

I think every single thing we've done in the last year and a half, what this entire administration has been around we're standing together as a city, and if the one thing we can agree on fighting, it is this administration.

Especially when they're compromising who we are as Minneapolis.

So I I'm happy to move forward with this.

I'm also confident in that if something came up, not only with the city attorneys, the police department.

I know you all certainly don't want another scandal on your hands.

And so I'm I'm certain that folks will come and talk to us if something is out of order here.

But we have to think about what this does for the what this grant will do for the community, especially when we're in a budget crisis right now.

Like what we're talking about here.

If this grant can assist us in in a financial crisis, then I think we should at least try.

If something comes up that is compromising us, then I'm with Councilmember Chavez.

I say no, period.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we'll go to Councilmember Whiting.

Thank you, uh Chair Chowdery.

And just to probably a few questions for our city attorney's office here.

Uh just I think probably I think we're kind of talking to and speaking about a program and kind of the grants.

And I'm just trying to get a deeper understanding of what we kind of have before us and what this grant application process uh looks like.

And so, for kind of the language that council member Chavez is speaking to, and I think all of us have concerns about within the the kind of uh uh NOFO or the notice of uh funding opportunity.

Uh can you and and at which you can can you speak to us of like what no foes are broadly um and like where this language is coming from?

Sure.

So uh through the chair, council member whiting.

Uh no for no foes are notices of funding opportunity.

They are documents put out by the federal government and governments at various levels.

Um providing sometimes competitive and sometimes um uniform uh grant opportunities.

So you um any interested party can read the NOFO and um submit an application to receive grant funding.

So this particular NOFO is um for the I forget the name, it is long, the national integrated ballistic information modernization program through the Department of Justice.

And the funding for that program, the Nyben program for short, comes from a um recently passed a section of Trump's uh, I believe it's the one big beautiful bill.

And so the particular section of that bill that authorized this grant program and this grant funding has language in it related to um various things that the grant funding can be used for.

And among those things are um uses such as enhancing the capacity of uh uh governments to locate and apprehend aliens who have committed crimes under law and the other uh various uh language that uh council member Chavez read.

So those are types of uses that are allowable under that um authorizing statute.

They are not the only uses of funding allowable under that statute.

Thank you.

And just so I can kind of clarify it in my mind, the these kind of no-foes allow for a purpose of funding, and that these are uh to council member Chavez points.

There are certain language in here that would allow for uh this funding to go to avenues uh kind of such as uh the locate and apprehend uh aliens or legal aliens is as noted um in the no fo uh but there is nothing that requires in either the no for or attached MOU.

Uh there's nothing that requires this grants to be used for those specific purposes.

That's correct.

The section that Councilmember Chavez read from was the first section of the no foe, the purposes of funding section, but that is not the section that relates to the uh required use of funding.

There is um later on in the NOFO a goals and objectives of this funding section that includes um more specific uh targeted uses of the funds, and then um, as I'm sure our my colleagues would be able to tell you more about um you as an applicant, you provide a um program narrative of how you intend to use the funds that um comports with those goals and objectives.

That's really helpful.

Thank you for the clarification.

Thank you.

Next, we'll go to councilmember Warren.

Thank you, Chair.

Um I want to support this because I understand the importance of ballistic testing, and I really want to solve the unsolved murders and homicides and acts of violence that have perpetuated violence throughout our community.

I understand that it is something that is uncomfortable because a lot of times we don't suspect that some of our neighbors who appear to be one way towards us can be another way towards somebody else.

And um, I don't know here in the state of Minnesota, I've never seen an alien before in my life.

Okay.

I've never seen a spaceship pull up, I've never seen anybody green jump up off of there or anything of that sorts.

But if they come here and they're cutting up, I need to know that there's something put in place where we can deal with those people accordingly.

Now, I know that there are individuals, like I said, who are committing crimes that like I said before, we did not suspect beyond a shadow of a doubt that that was something that they would be doing.

They appear one way to us and they do something else somewhere else.

Marilyn Manson, great person, wonderful dad, all of these great things, but then a heinous serial killer somewhere else doing all kind of other stuff.

Like you just never know with people, right?

But if these, if this machine and this equipment and these testings are going to prove that someone was involved or they're able to trace it back to firearms, like I want to keep the focus on that part of solving crimes because I just really want safer communities.

And if it means that we're gonna end up apprehending some individuals who are even in law enforcement or apprehending individuals who are in other fields of public safety or people who are doing, then guess what?

Nobody is without being reproved.

I'm just gonna say that.

So if there's some things that need to be done in order to clean up our justice system and ensure that we are charging people appropriate with the crimes that they have committed and accountability is going to be present, then sign me up twice.

I I don't believe in individuals being targeted around any type of immigration status at all whatsoever.

Do not target anyone based on their citizenship or anything like that.

But like I said, I'd never have seen an alien before in my life.

So I don't know who this grant application thing is calling aliens, because I've never seen any.

But if there are people who are committing crimes who are doing things out here that they have no business doing, then those people need to be dealt with accordingly.

And I was hoping that there's a plan in order to get them off of the street so that other people can go on with their natural lives.

That's what I that's what I have to say.

And so I'm interested in supporting it because I want crimes solved.

I do.

There is a lot of situations with unsolved murders and children and young people and elders and people who have been harmed and injured by firearms, and I just want uh any way that we can figure out who is responsible for that, then let's go with that that method of making sure that we are holding people accountable for the crimes that they've committed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, I'll recognize Councilmember Chavez.

Thank you, Chair Chug Tai.

I think the federal government, when they're saying aliens, when reading the document, they're referring to undocumented immigrants.

So I at least want to provide the context that they're explicitly naming undoccuted undocumented neighbors as aliens and illegals.

So I just want to add a context.

So colleagues, it seems like there's going to be votes to support this on Thursday.

So I will be working with the city attorney's office to share the language that I have drafted on a resolution that I will be attaching to this NOFO that literally condemns the way our undocumented neighbors are being called on in this document that puts requirements on this if we were to move forward with seeking this grant, uh asking for written clarification from this agency on if they would interpret our separation ordinance being in violation if we were to seek this, what they mean by DHS agent access, DHS notice, uh whether they would interpret us accepting this grant as us violating our civil rights ordinance because you know civil rights is mentioned in this uh NOFO and other stuff that I think we need to have written clarification from because what I don't believe is the federal government.

They have known to lie about coming to Minneapolis uh to address crime, but what they're doing is taking innocent moms, fathers, and dads away from our city.

So I want to make sure that I'll if folks are gonna move forward with this, I'm gonna attach a resolution because I have the responsibility to represent my constituents and make sure that the city is not doing something that could be um you know impacting our residents.

Thank you.

Next, I'll recognize Councilmember Schaefer.

Yes, I'll be brief.

Thank you, Councilmember Chavez, for sharing your heart, and I'll look forward to seeing um what you bring forward around this resolution.

And if it's something that we can indeed attach, um, I appreciate that work.

Um I guess today I have to say on the heels of uh Ward 7 being on the border of what happened this week and the tremendous violence.

Um this is something I have I have to support.

Um we see what this technology brings to insights for MPD in trying to find out the perpetrators of some of these crimes.

And we cannot have this become the norm on our streets.

We need these tools to be able to find those who are committing these heinous crimes and um get them off the streets.

And so I will be supporting this.

Um I'm a little surprised at the the conversation um, but we'll be following up with the city's attorney's office to be able to understand um what our process is.

But um I just really am grateful um for the thoughts today.

Thank you.

Um seeing no further discussion, is there a motion on this item?

I I moved for forwarding without recommendation that was seconded.

Great.

Um, I'm not seeing anyone else in discussion.

So on the motion uh to forward this item to Thursday's meeting without recommendation, uh clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Payne.

Aye Greenville, Fita.

Aye, Warren, aye Osman, aye.

Schaefer.

Aye, Chavez, aye.

Whiting, Palmasano, aye.

Vice Chair Chuck Tai?

Aye.

And Chair Chowdhury.

Aye.

There are 11 ayes.

That motion carries.

Our next uh discussion item is a staff directive from councilmember Schaefer and Vice Chair Chug Tai.

It is related to the budget process and that analyzes other factors.

Do either one of the authors want to speak more to this item.

Councilmember Schaefer.

Yes, um, this is just a staff directive as we head into our budget season looking at what other cities, other processes might be happening that we can look at to glean information from and have talked with um LRO staff about this and have I did Andrew to come and give just a brief very couple minute overview of where this direction would head.

Welcome up, Mr.

Hoggins.

Come on.

Uh thank you.

Um Chair Chowdhury, Vice Chair Shuktai.

Uh, my name is Andrew Hawkins.

My name is Andrew Hawkins.

I'm the director of legislative research and oversight.

Happy to speak to this item today.

The staff direction resembles again a lot of the pieces that we see in staff directions to LROM in that it asks us to kind of go and understand what the sort of what is the landscape of the legislative budget process as it exists in comparable cities and to pull out any kind of examples that we can for that would benefit the council for consideration as we kind of head into this transition following the mayor's budget address and the budget delivery on the 24th of August to the budget committee and it becomes a legislative budget.

So we wanted to make sure that we were being timely to get this information to council for consideration in advance of that timeline so that any um kind of tools that we observe across other jurisdictions and comparable bodies to legislative research and oversight are able to be considered and kind of adopted for um for use in this process.

Um it comes as no surprise to anybody.

There's you know this will be a challenging budget process.

I think that is the one thing that there seems to be quite a bit of agreement on, and so I think from our standpoint, anything that we can do to help support this body um with its considerations as this process begins is something that we want to pursue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there any further discussion on this item?

All right, seeing none, can I have a motion on this item?

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

That motion carries.

All right.

Now we will turn to our receive and file portion of the agenda.

Our first presentation is about the city council's work so far in 2026.

I'll welcome up Andrew Hawkins again from the legislative research oversight team for this presentation.

All right.

Um again, I'll won't introduce myself twice.

Um for this presentation, I think the one thing you'll probably notice that's going to be different.

Um, starting in 2026, um, the role of um reporting back on the council tracking report transition from our city clerk to legislative research and oversight.

Um, we took the first quarter of this year to um implement um the dashboard that you're gonna see um linked and QR coded and um will be hosted on our website uh shortly.

Uh the whole idea behind this was trying to figure out how we can make this more transparent, provide more information both to council and residents about um the different, you know, all the different items that are coming through our legislative body, um, especially the council and its committees for consideration in any given week.

Um this presentation focuses a lot more on kind of what that process looks like and then highlighting some of the items that are going to be included.

Um I think subsequently um for quarterly reports uh we'll be able to focus on the expanded functionality and additional um data points and then do a culminating report at the end of each year that's gonna be more substantive.

Um however, for the purposes of this one, it's almost kind of deliberately light on some of the details because the details we're trying to drive people to um the dashboard itself to get that information so that we can get feedback and ensure that we're approving as we go.

So again, um, like a lot of our work, um, our kind of key reasons for doing for taking this approach with public transparency.

Um, having a public-facing dashboard for all of this work um creates additional transparency and accessibility for residents as well as council.

Um, it also reduces the burden on originating entities to track the status of requests.

Um what I'm alluding to there would be again council offices that have issued legislative directives, staff directions, um, when our Office of City Auditor brings back um audit reports that have audit findings.

Um historically there have been some challenges with trying to track down what the status is of those, um, who's responsible for ensuring that um different audit findings are being uh remedied by um the appropriate departments, and so I think making this transparent and accessible um just simplifies that and kind of lets everybody collectively have some accountability and um the ability to call that stuff out when we see there's things that have been outstanding for quite some time.

Um just uh again, the one data point I did include just to highlight we're at 774 total council acts, um 19 ordinance acts, 237 resolutions, 520 action items.

The action items break down into again we um a number of you know different uh ways to cut across these.

I think we're still working on kind of what's the most impactful.

Um we certainly can throw out all kinds of different stats, but I think it's important that we work with uh the body and um get some feedback on what we're putting forward right now to figure out what's really important um and what people are the most interested in tracking and how we break that out accordingly.

Um additionally this year, obviously, due to the um situation um created by Operation Metro Surge, like the shift to a lot of our what would have normally gone through our committees to this committee, um, like created some challenges with trying to break stuff out in a way that would reflect properly across all the different committees.

So that's something that we're trying to work on as we go forward similarly for the legislative directive and staff directive tracking that we're doing.

Um similarly for the legislative directive and staff directive tracking that we're doing.

Um we have the our LRO's dashboard that tracks this is directly plugged into LIMS, so we're able to pull a lot of information directly.

Unfortunately, this is a one area where we still don't have that ability to get updates on the status of things through LIMS.

So this is still a manual process.

Um I should also say thank you to Molly Helmade from the Office of Public Safety or sorry, Office of Public Service and Tim Condon from IT for their help in pulling all this together and getting everything like published in time and to ensure that we had a public facing dashboard for accessibility today.

Um for the ongoing directives uh that we're tracking, um, right now, and again, there might be, I think I noticed a couple that um sometimes they come through in different formats based on modifications to the request.

Um so we're always gonna be going through this to make sure that everything's uh reflected.

If there's something that anybody knows, is always feel free to reach out, let me know, and we can make sure it's added.

Um but we have um for OCS quarterly updates.

Um, this was one that again it creates a challenge when they're quarterly, because technically then it never really closes, so we're trying to figure out a way to display that so it can be captured correctly, but that's returning in Q3.

I know the shot spotter technology evaluation will be returning in Q4 alongside the audit report on um the similar topic.

Um the South Lindale Master Corridor plan, um, that one's targeting the 10826.

Um, it's a public work CPED joint effort on presenting that one.

Uh the non-fatal shooting task force, uh there's a quarterly report that was just presented on 722.

Um, but again, that's one that's gonna continue to come back.

And so I think it's we're trying to find a way in the dashboard itself, um, which there is a link and QR code on the page two if you want to find any more detail on these that I'm gonna point out in a later slide.

Um similarly, amongst the 19 LDs that we're tracking that are currently open with the administration.

Um the ones I wanted to highlight.

I know the rental rental license ordinance implementation of that one, it's again a three-part kind of series that's being presented.

The first was on 513, 815 is the next, and 1115 would be the final.

Uh, the police policy and procedures quarterly report, August 5th will be the next date for that.

Um, and then the I know the Thrive Strategic Development Plan looks like it has the target date of 9.30.

Uh moving into staff directives.

We had six that have been completed uh from January 1 to now.

Um for the eight that are being tracked, and I know we have a couple of other ones that need to get added in here, um, but I can at least speak to the ones from LRO.

Um for the charter compliance and so municipal over site and implementation, that one's ongoing.

Um, charter compliance and enforcement is a Q3 target.

Um, encampment response policies is Q3 early Q4.

Uh, the public safety policies and practices, um, that one actually is coming forward to PHSE next cycle.

The data center uses um staff direction will be responded to in a presentation in August.

Um, and payment in lieu of taxes is also targeting August 25th, and autonomous vehicles is currently in cube for assignment.

With that covered, uh getting into the dashboard itself, which again using the link, um there's assuming there's internet in here, everybody should be able to access.

Um, this is now public facing.

Um so it will be continued, it continues to be updated.

There's a lot of you can uh it pulls in a lot of data.

Anytime that you have a lot of different data sources, you're gonna have um kind of cleanup and beautification efforts that I'm sure we'll be doing for a little bit.

We also have a lot of functionality that we want to continue building out, including um cutting across different committees so that we can really dive into what's happening across the different committees, tie that into work plans, um, and to give people again the most um most insight that we're able to for things that are either going through council that are coming in the future or that we've just completed.

Um what you see here, this is just the kind of the preview review page.

Um, this is the first page that I built, the first tab that people will see when they go to this dashboard.

Um, the purpose of this, it looks forward 14 days and backward 14 days to try to cover so that way again, just to give people an idea for what's coming in the future and then um also the items that council's just covered.

Um, all of these items, if the if you click the more info tab on the right side, do have links to the LIMS files themselves.

Um next, we have the council directive status.

Um again, this pulls from a different data source, but it's trying to track all of the directives that we have outstanding and that have been completed just to allow people to see who the responsible department was.

Um, if you hover over the tab on the right, um it should show the requester.

Um, it has responsive information for the ones that are, at least for the ones that are outstanding.

Um, so though those will contain the latest updates from the departments themselves.

Um but this is also something that we're gonna keep evolving that we want to color code so that when it's passed a certain date, we have things that'll start to put up flags that they turn in yellow, red, green, um, etc.

Um, then last you have the LIMS file search.

Um, so again, like this is similar to searching LIMS, it has a little bit different functionality.

Um, I think we're gonna add a couple new fields in there that you can search by.

So again, when you open it up, it'll have everything from the entirety of this year.

But if you search either the LIMS file number or the file subject field by again any like subject you're looking for, it'll then limit that to anything that's going to be responsive to that search.

Next steps, a landing page.

So we want to have a home page that again outlines kind of more what's covered, how to use this dashboard and provide a little bit more information.

We're going to continue automating data and updates so that this is being updated in real time.

So again, like the that way if you were it also does sort of encourage uh people on like that have might have outstanding directives to be updating those that information as much as they can because it'll automatically go into the dashboard itself and reflect um to anybody that's interested.

And then that expansion of functionality I talked about is something that we want to ensure that we're being deliberate about how we build it out.

Um I'd mentioned City Auditor before, but um having a tab that exists where we can track audit findings and the responsible department and the committee that they're assigned to, um, which will uh again allow people members of that committee to ask those questions when they come up so that we're ensuring the city is being deliberate about how it's responding to audit findings.

With that, um that concludes my presentation.

I'm happy to answer any questions there might be.

Thank you so much, Andrew.

Members, would anyone like to get into queue?

President Payne.

Thank you, Church Audrey, and thank you, Director Hawkins.

Uh I think this transparency is so helpful.

I think you know, our day-to-day is such a whirlwind, it's kind of nice to take a step back, zoom out and actually see what's getting accomplished and what we're working on.

And I think that that goes a long way towards building trust and faith in what we do here in government.

So just really appreciate your efforts on that.

Thank you.

I mean, one quick uh thing I can share too.

Again, just from talking to staff with the like the wildcard search, I think it is one of the things that there's so much happens that we can lose sight of everything that's been accomplished, because we just recently had a discussion where I don't remember even the topic, but somebody brought up it's like I don't think we've done much with that this year.

I pulled up the dashboard, told them to type it into the wildcard search, and I think there were like nine different legislative files that came up on that topic this year.

So I think it's a it's a good opportunity for people if they're interested in any specific topic to be able to easily search um you know all the legislative files to see what you all are doing and follow along.

Wonderful.

Um next we will go to council members Schaefer.

A couple things.

Um can you speak to the data format underneath the item wildcard search?

I get the I get the query functions at the top, but then uh for some reason, can you speak to what we see underneath that and the value of seeing all that?

I'm trying to Yep.

So um through the chair to Councilmember Schaefer.

Um so this is something where again, like I uh the polls from LIMS, there's a lot of data on the back end.

So I think trying to figure out what the most helpful data is is something that we're still fine-tuning.

What makes sense to me might not make sense to somebody else looking at it.

Um there's a lot in the more info tab.

Um, so if you hover over that, it'll pop up uh a box that has a lot more and I think we're still organizing that uh and everything.

But what this will show, um, it's the LIMS file number, which is a legislative information management um system.

It'll have the file subject.

Um, the action date is gonna be the date that um the action was taken.

Um so that's where you'll see it in action.

Um those uh columns reflect the titles as they exist in LIMS.

They still, it's something where I want to update them, but when I start editorial uh editorializing on those, um it affects other things in the database.

So I need more time to sit down and really be deliberate.

Um so that'll show the date that the action was taken, and then for the committee, it'll show the committee that the action was taken.

Um and so and if also if you click on the more info um you in the on the dashboard itself, um, it should there should be some link that pops up in the bottom of the the bubble that takes you to the actual LIMS file for each respective one.

So the reason these were picked was to show you know kind of where things are moving through.

Obviously, this year being unique where we had that consolidation of things into biz for a long time or into cow for quite a while.

Um, there's not gonna be as many different um committees reflected as there would normally be, but I think as we go forward, that's gonna like a lot of that will start to be populated now the committees are up and running in their normal capacity.

Um but I think what this does that is interesting is I mean again just for like the tailgating ordinance, um, is it really does show the lifecycle of some of these um some of these items for gonna be you know, and like the sometimes complex routes that they can take from you know introduction to referral on all the way back to council for ultimately for consideration for adoption.

Okay, so it's kind of a scrolling function if you know approximately it happened in February, but I don't know exactly the word to pull it up on the query.

Um correct.

I think the date function was one that we were gonna that we can add as well.

But uh the LIMS file subject, I mean you can really just go in and type in anything.

So if you wanted to look at what we've been doing, um like the safe outdoor spaces was one that was in here.

So if you type that in to the wildcards uh to the LIMS file subject, every file that's um that hits with those words will come back.

So if you you know, and if you want just looking at housing, looking at public safety, I mean you can keyword search it, and as long as it's in uh the file subject as well as the item um title, uh it'll it'll pull back all of those results.

So sometimes again, if like we know roughly what we're looking for, but we don't know exactly, and it can often be hard to like go back and identify those uh those items.

I know our actual LIMS site has you know some search functionality, but this one just operates a little bit differently.

Um, and it's a again a little quicker to scroll through because it doesn't have as much substantive information like in the actual dashboard itself, and then it'll take you to the full LIMS file.

Okay.

Well, thank you so much for all your work on this.

Um, it'll be interesting.

Can you speak a little bit to what's your vision for year to year?

Like, will this all collapse into like 2026, but it'll all you do a query, it'll all pull up ongoing years.

What's kind of your vision going forward?

It's a wonderful question.

So we um like this is definitely something that I think we want to keep building more, more is more to be able to show, you know, 26, 27, 28.

Um, I do have some of the files for previous years that I was trying to get to merge the thing that becomes hard as far as just getting it to display in a way that's digestible is when we have committees that can change names and like things like that.

Um it'll start to display a lot more as far as, and it's sometimes it's not an apples to apples comparison if you have a committee where there might be one function that shifts from you know the committee A to Committee B in another cycle.

So I think trying to figure out how to add in even historical data is something we want to do, but at the very least, I think that this is something that we intend to continue to accumulate um data for this council term as we move forward.

Well, it's very exciting, and thank you for all your hard work.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

I am not seeing anyone else in queue.

Um so I will ask the clerk to file that presentation and report.

Um we'll move to item number five.

We have another presentation to receive related to our appointed boards and commission status.

I will invite up Julie Hoffland from the city clerk's office to kick this presentation off.

Welcome.

All right, good afternoon, uh, Vice Chair Chactai and committee members.

I'm Julie Havland, the ABC program manager, um, and I'm excited to share our progress on board reform.

The City of Minneapolis values active community engagement.

Appointed boards and commissions are one of the most visual vis visible ways for residents to take part in local government.

Because ABCs are official city groups, um, their work must align with the city's operational framework and their own enabling legislation.

ABC reform is about making it easier and more effective for everyone to participate in city government.

It gives ABCs a clearer structure to their work and makes their work stay aligned with city priorities.

It also supports smoother, more meaningful collaboration between elected officials, city staff, and ABC bodies.

Every ABC has now been placed into a tier.

Most of our work has focused on tier three and four advisory bodies.

This includes many process improvements, such as creating and actively using standardized templates for oaths, participation agreements, bylaws, rules, and establishing resolutions.

Other accomplishments worth highlighting.

We also completed major LIMS updates, um, adding much needed automation and new tracking features for waivers and service restrictions.

A new member uh profile was developed and launched.

The required online ethics training is now aligned with members' appointed terms.

The training itself was redesigned to improve the member experience and ensure content is more relevant.

A mayoral executive order was secured, affirming the Office of City Clerk as the central agency responsible for ABC operations.

We delivered a comprehensive training course for department board staff liaisons, focusing on ABC operations, best practices, and collaboration with the clerk's office.

To track recurring activities, we created an annual ABC operations calendar.

We revamped monthly VSL team meetings to include a mix of quarterly group meetings paired with one-on-one sessions and tech labs.

In 2025, we completed the legislative reform and re-establishment of eight tier three advisory bodies and created one new tier four work group.

Five remaining tier three bodies will be reformed later this year.

Looking ahead to 2027, we plan to reform our tier two and five bodies.

An area not directly addressed in the reform ordinance.

This slide shows the assumed recruitment process, two cycles, spring and fall.

Each cycle includes about seven steps from advertising a seat during open appointments to having a fully seated member ready to serve.

One cycle takes about seven months.

ABC recruitment works a lot like an HR hiring process.

However, in reality, we are managing three recruitment cycles winter, spring, and fall, plus many, many off-cycle appointments.

This is caused by unsuccessful, unsuccessful recruiting, resignations, seat forfeitures, and other factors.

Recruitment is never ending.

The nominating and appointment process is in backlog.

With only 12 months in a year and a process that can stretch to 21 months.

This is creating major challenges for managing expectations and delivering a positive experience.

In 2027, we hope to work with our partners to find ways to improve the system.

Other items underway for next year include creating an online member orientation program, improving how we vet applicants, enhancing the onboarding and offboarding experience for ABC members, and standardizing work plans and annual reports.

Thank you, uh committee members.

I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you for that presentation.

Do my colleagues have any questions or discussion?

Council member whiting.

Thank you, uh, Vice Chair.

Chuck Tai.

Just wanted to note just a level of thank you.

I know this is a large lift here.

I know I helped kind of on the opposite end when I was in the city attorney office and know the large lift uh that kind of comes with all of these ABCs broadly.

Uh, and so it is really good to see kind of the culmination of a lot of effort.

Uh, that is when it does.

So just want to say thank you.

Thanks.

Of course.

Thank you.

Next, I'll recognize uh Council President Payne.

Thank you, Vice Chair Trug Tai.

Yeah, also a big thanks.

This is so much of your work is so so much focused on the logistics, and I also want to elevate the role of ABCs and what their potential is to be part of our partners in governing, right?

Part of our partners in policymaking.

And I think that there are so many people in the city who are so civically engaged, and they are frequently either confused when they show up at City Hall and don't know that it's not an opportunity to do a public hearing, or even for the folks who sign up to be on an ABC and they don't exactly know how to get their voice represented in policy.

So not only is it important for us to get the logistics of just like getting people onboarded and getting applications reviewed.

We on the dais need to do a better job of making sure that we're empowering those voices and putting them into action.

And so I think that's going to be however many phases of reform, that's gonna be at least one distinct phase.

And I'm happy to be a partner in figuring that out.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Thank you.

And finally, I'll recognize council member Warren.

Thank you, um Vice Chair.

Thank you so much for this report.

This in just simplifying this process.

I really appreciate that because coming in as a new council member, it was pretty tasking to look through the applications and have to, you know, decide and understand and and go through the whole process.

So to centralize the information and create a whole you are thank you so much.

I just wanted to say thank you.

Yes.

Thank you.

Seeing no further discussion, I will ask the clerk to file that presentation and report.

Now I will turn the meeting over to council member whiting to chair our settlement agreement subcommittee.

I'm sorry, I'm gonna hold on that just one second.

Do you did you have no?

I'm just left my vote for the also.

Perfect.

Um now we'll turn the meeting over to Councilmember Whiting.

Perfect.

Thank you, uh Vice Chair Chugtai.

Um switching on over to our settlement agreement consent decree subcommittee.

So uh our consent decree and settlement agreement subcommittee has two items on its agenda today.

Uh first is a presentation related to an update on implementing the reforms within the proposed consent decree.

I will invite our city attorney Kristen Anderson to come up and deliver her presentation.

Thank you, Kristen.

Welcome.

Oh, it's time.

Um, Chair Whiting, Council members, it's uh nice to see you this afternoon.

It's been a bit of time since I've been able to come and be on this side of the dais, so I'm always pleased to come and make a presentation.

Um my presentation today is really an update on the work that uh the enterprise has been doing on implementing the reforms of the consent decree.

And just for kind of baseline for folks who are new and or watching uh we have two things that are kind of in play in terms of police reform.

One is an actual court enforceable settlement agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights that we entered into and was uh issued as a court order in July of 2023.

Again, court enforceable.

We have been working uh on that project of police reform really frankly from before then once it was negotiated.

Um also there was an investigation by the Department of Justice that resulted in uh in a negotiation for what was supposed to be a federal consent decree.

Uh we negotiated that agreement uh over the course of, I mean, actually we we negotiated it pretty fast and uh and completed the negotiations and went uh to court with the Department of Justice during the Biden administration asking for the court to uh issue that as a court order, and uh then there was the change of administrations and the Trump administration actually dismissed the lawsuit and and walked away from the consent decree.

Um so uh Mayor Fry determined that uh although we weren't gonna have a federal uh consent decree in court, uh it was important to still do the reforms that we had negotiated in that consent decree.

And so he issued an executive order requiring the administration to implement the reforms in the consent decree.

And those reforms are really defined as the reforms that are not duplicative of and not in conflict with those uh that exist in the settlement agreement.

So we really have the settlement agreement, and then there are provisions above and beyond the settlement agreement that we had negotiated in the consent decree that really are enforceable by an executive order of our mayor.

And so we have been working on implementing those those additional provisions.

Another sort of grounding thing I want to talk about is that between the settlement agreement and the consent decree, there are multiple subject uh matters that are covered in both.

There are a few additional subject matters that are covered in the consent decree that that are not included in the settlement agreement, but in the settlement agreement, for example, in both documents, there are there's a whole section on use of force, and the settlement agreement requires certain things, and then the consent decree reforms required a few more things on top of that.

So, kind of in our implementation work around this, we start with the settlement agreement as being our baseline.

And the way that we sort of build this reform in infrastructure, it starts with creation of policy, then creation of training, then actually doing the training, and then a holding officers accountable accountable to those policies and the things that they trained.

And so at the ground level of this infrastructure, we are building policies that are grounded in the settlement agreement.

But as long as we are also we are doing the settlement agreement, we're baking those consent decree additional reforms into those policies.

So some of the things that I'm gonna be talking about, just uh kind of the examples that I'm gonna give you are really in the frame of we were already working on the non-discriminatory policing policy.

We had that you know open, and so we added the terms from the consent decree to make sure that the documents that we're creating are compliant with both.

Um so I'm gonna start with my slide.

I don't know, I don't know what to do.

Oh, ooh, it has some flying things, which I guess I didn't realize that I did.

Um, so just some examples, um, and I'm not gonna go too much in depth, but some examples of ways in which we have incorporated the consent decree reforms into the work that we're already doing.

So uh the consent decree, as well as the settlement agreement has a section on non-discriminatory policing, and in the consent decree, it required more than the settlement agreement, and required that officers not only not consider race and national origin in their policing decisions, but also because of the consent decree, also can't take into account substitutes or stereotypes for race or national origin, you know, unless there is uh there's uh descriptor of a suspect and there is additional identifying information.

So that's one example.

Uh use of force policies.

There are actually a number of things from the consent decree that we added on to the use of force policies.

Um, and in fact, while we were negotiating the consent decree, you know, we were no, as we were negotiating things along, we were starting to incorporate some of these higher standards into our our policy work under the settlement agreement, anyways.

Um we don't have a lot of situations between the two agreements that conflict because as we were negotiating the DOJ consent decree where we were very mindful of not creating conflicts.

We wanted to be consistent, and what we actually saw between the two agreements is that the provisions that the Department of Justice wanted were in many, many, many respects exactly identical to what the MDHR wanted.

And I think it was sort of like because both of them you know saw some of the same things, and one had federal jurisdiction and the other had state jurisdiction, they they you know the reforms were consistent, let's say that.

Um, so we had a lot of the same ground, and there was just not a lot of conflict at least in part because we as the city's negotiators made sure that we were not going to wind up with two agreements that you couldn't comply with both.

Um, so in use of force, um several things have been included in the new use of force policy that come from the consent decree, limitations on use of chemical spray on people in the car.

Um, that's only allowed where there's no reasonably effective alternative.

There's limitations from the consent decree on use of handcuffs to restrain children under 14 whenever feasible.

Um we've strengthened the the force reporting and review requirements.

We have this whole uh structure of levels of use of force where certain types of force are labeled level one, level two, level three, and in increasing levels of seriousness and uh that framework exists in the settlement agreement, but because of the consent decree, we actually have uh uses of force that were considered lower level under the settlement agreement, bumped up to higher levels.

And the import of those being higher level uses of force means that there is more review.

So uh for level two and and greater uses of force, uh sergeants are actually required to come to the scene to actually, if there's that kind of use of force to actually review on the scene the force that was used, and then there are levels of after after review by either higher level supervisors or a force review body.

Then body worn camera, another policy that we had opened in order to do the work for the MDHR agreement, and we act uh added to that from the consent decree that uh there is a self-reporting requirement now that if body worn camera was supposed to be activated and it wasn't, then officers are required to self-report to actually document the things that happened when the the BWC should have been on, um self-report about late activations, interruptions of uh of footage and early deactivations.

We have supervisors now because of again the consent decree reforms in this policy having to conduct spot audits of BWC recordings and usage data, so that there's really that that check to make sure sure that the BWC is actually being utilized.

Um PD is also from the consent decree adopted the practice of posting all policies that are required by the consent decree for public comment for at least 30 days.

Under the settlement agreement, there were only uh big buckets of policies, mission vision values, non-discriminatory policing, uh use of force stop searches and arrests that are required to be uh published for public comment for 45 days.

That's still happening, but under the consent decree, beyond that, every policy that's required by the consent decree has to be uh posted for public comment for 30 days.

Um the next area is really around uh the the misconduct process, and this has uh undergone a massive, massive overhaul, both because of the settlement agreement and because of the consent decree requirements.

And in fact, this is some of the areas where we see the most change from prior policy is in the standard operating procedures for both internal affairs and the Office of Police Conduct Review.

Um they're very close to being done with these things, like gone, they've already gone through the approval process and they should actually be publicly posted online by the end of 2026.

So this has been a massive body of work, in fact, a massive body of work from my office because we have a lot of uh a lot of expertise in the whole misconduct uh apparatus, but we've uh really added lots and lots of more process, more timelines, more specific timelines about about when you know about when investigations need to be completed.

We also have uh much more restrictive guidelines about when um complaints can be closed, uh, including uh restrictions on if the focus officer leaves the department, there are very limited circumstances where those those investigations can be uh dismissed.

If they are serious uh allegations of misconduct, then under the consent decree, again wrapped into the standard operating procedures, those investigations must continue.

Um then similarly for the uh MPD policies that accompany these standard standard operating procedures.

It's uh policy 2100, but it's basically the MPD policy on misconduct uh that really incorporates as a matter of policy all of these different structures related to the misconduct investigation and complaint process.

Again, complete overhaul.

Um the training is currently being developed on this new policy to be delivered in the spring of 2027.

Um so I think it's gonna be uh it's just a much tighter process, much tighter policies that I think that uh is really going to serve uh police reform very well.

Um we've also retained a vendor under the consent decree.

There's actually a 40-hour training requirement for internal affairs in uh Office of Police Conduct Review Misconduct Investigators.

That's uh was a really big focus of the DOJ to make sure that those investigators have the appropriate training so that they can do quality investigations.

Um that is projected to be delivered in the spring of 2027.

Um there's a currently posted for public feedback on MPD's website is the new MPD force trends analysis policy draft.

This again incorporates uh consent degree requirements, including creating a quarterly meeting with precinct level data regarding reported reportable uses of force.

Um so we're gonna have more data on force uh instances that come out of that.

And then finally uh is uh the update of the MPD limitation on hours worked policy.

Um this is the um the consent decree um very consistently with the settlement agreement um has an actual hours worked cap.

So the the new policy is that um all told, both uh regular uh regular duty, overtime, off duty, all work by officers uh is capped at certain hour limitations.

So no more than 16 hours per 24 hour day, and no more than 74 hours per per week unless there is uh specific approval by either the chief or a designee at the level of deputy chief or above.

So this is you know, very limited approval authority, and for situations that are actually uh put forth in the policy, like um like large scale events, um emergent investigations and homicides, large scale disasters.

So they're really having a uh much more clear policy in place about about that cap on hours worked and if there are exceptions um that they be documented and that they fall within the exceptions.

So uh as you can see, you know, with a lot of work has been uh going into incorporating the consent decree terms at truly whenever a policy is open that has consent decree requirements, we're just making sure that we're layering in all of the things from the consent decree as well as as the settlement agreement, so that by the time we get done with all of the settlement agreement policies, we should have the vast majority of the consent decree reforms incorporated into the policies, you know, the things that would be outstanding still are are the policies that are only addressed in the consent decrees uh reforms.

So with that, I am done with my very fancy PowerPoint that did not have any charts because I don't know how to do that.

Yes.

Thank you so much, uh, City Attorney Anison.

Uh open it up to my colleagues if they have any questions or discussions.

I see council president Payne.

Uh thank you, Chair Whiting.

Thank you, Ms.

Anderson.

Um I know that we've had many, many conversations about this, but you know, at this stage, like how are you contemplating backing up, like we got to give grace, there's no other city in the country in the history of the country that has had two consent decrees, state and federal, and then have the federal government withdraw.

So we are an uncharted territory, but in a standard arrangement, um the consent decree would require the police department to implement new policy, conduct training and be compliant with whatever the provisions are.

But the determination of our our our compliance would be done by an independent evaluator.

How are you contemplating us replicating that at this stage?

Um Chair Whiting, uh Council President.

Um so I think that that's happening in a in a few different ways.

You know, one is obviously I'm able to come and report to you, which I think is a really important um feature.

Uh second, I know that you have introduced an ordinance that would require some reporting that I think would get at some pretty uh important features that uh that will allow for some progress to be shown through those reporting mechanisms.

Um third, um, because the policies are being, again, the consent degree provisions are being baked into settlement agreement policies.

We're actually getting really good feedback from Olifa.

I mean, they're they are um part of their contract with us is to give technical assistance and they give us technical assistance also on best practices.

And really the additional reforms in the consent decree are you know, kind of those over and above are really in line with best practices that you know Olifa has encouraged us to incorporate, you know, sort of sort of without regard to whether they're in the consent decree or not.

So we are getting some feedback from Olifa real time in terms of you know when we incorporate those consent decree provisions, just like they are doing for other kinds of best practices.

It's still true though that Alifa technically does not have a scope of work that would include the federal consent decree.

Is that correct?

Um uh Chair Whiting, uh council president, that is correct.

Okay.

And then the last thing is just around the SOPs for internal affairs OPCR.

Um we don't we don't have a good way of ensuring the integrity of these investigations when like the highest level of leadership of the department um had the ability to interfere.

How how can we contemplate SOPs that can prevent that in the future?

Uh chairwaiting council president Payne.

So without, I guess I'm not gonna comment on the kind of underlying assumptions that you're making, but I but the SOP is um the new SOP that's that's gonna be launched uh at the B at the end of 2026 is super detailed with very, very clear structures of what goes where if there is a situation where the chief of police is uh conflicted out because they're you know, either because of some sort of close personal friendship or because of you know uh participation in the event or what have you, we we have a process where those are uh conflicted out and would be investigated, you know, potentially could still be investigated by the Office of Police Conduct Review in particular, uh, but that the decision making would would be done at a at you know the Office of Community Safety level, not at the police chief level, because of course, if the police chief, you know, if there's a conflict of interest, the police chief can't be the decider.

You know, we also have situations where if for some reason both investigative units are conflicted out, we have the ability to um to use outside investigators um to to you know make sure that the there isn't any conflict of interest.

Um so I think that there are lots of controls in place to make sure that the you know the processes are clear and um conflicts of interest are avoided.

I think we're gonna have as we get closer to that policy being finalized.

I will want to maybe do a deeper dive on that because presumably had those uh measures been in place, maybe we would have avoided what we went through, but I I want to make sure that we're the public in particular is understanding what kind of protections there are for that uh Vice Chair Choke.

Uh thank you.

Um Mr.

Chair, the um Ms.

Anderson, if you can uh just speak to the MPD limitations on hours worked policy.

This is your last slide that you gave us an update on today.

Um is the new limit limitation on hours worked?

Um and I know you named a couple of numbers, the 16 hours in a in a day or in a 24-hour period.

Um, and there was a second one I can't remember, but is this consistent with a previous policy on limitation of hours worked?

Is it the same number of hours, or has anything changed that you can tell that you might be able to tell us about?

Um, Chair Waiting, uh councilmember.

So uh it is consistent.

My recollection is that it is consistent with what the settlement agreement required as well.

I can't tell you as I stand here whether there were slight differences between the settlement agreement and the consent decree, but it is the I believe it's the same hour threshold that that was articulated in the settlement agreement.

So um it is now incorporated in that policy.

I also can't tell you if that policy right now is in draft or if it's been adopted, um, and I couldn't follow up with you on that.

But but I know that it's it's the and and just it's 16 hours per 24 hour day and 74 hours per week.

Sounds good.

Thank you very much.

That's all Councilmember Schaefer.

First of all, thank you for this overview.

It was very helpful to kind of with broad strokes and then kind of narrow it down and give some examples around each of these categories.

I really appreciated your method of presentation.

I would like to ask the question around, you know, have we determined or thought about the financial impact of some of these directions that we are um embarking on?

Um and have we laid out a framework for you know, 2027, these, you know, or 2027, yeah, 40 hours times X number of employees of additional training is gonna land in April 27.

We need to consider overtime budget for that.

How can you speak a little bit to how we how we are monitoring where our investments are landing so that we can better plan for them and and tell the story if it is related to our overtime?

I'm not not saying it necessarily is, but I think we I keep hearing about all the various high levels of training that we're really trying to implement implement, which are really important, but I haven't heard anything about budget or fiscal impact.

Chair Whiting, Councilmember, so I'm not the best person to ask those budgetary questions.

What I what I can say that particular training that I was talking about is training for investigators in the Office of Police Conduct Review, which is in civil rights, and uh internal affairs.

Um I don't know how much you know overtime those folks would normally incur as a as a normal course.

And I think for this kind of training, it is it's really a very finite and small group, and the training would be incorporated into their you know regular work expectations.

So the train this training itself would not maybe not this one, but more of a cumulative impact as we look back.

Um I just think that piece of the story needs to be told in our overtime if it is in fact affecting that.

And and I just have no visibility on that um heading into the budget season.

And I think it's really important that yes, part of this is an investment in our training, if in case it is.

And I would think in a normal when you have a work plan, it doesn't just come for free, right?

We've got the Alifa dollar amount, that's known.

But beyond that, I feel like I don't have any handle on what this is costing us last year, this year, the next 10 years.

And I'm I'm just wondering when that's coming.

Um, Chair Waiting, Councilmember, um certainly, I mean, you're absolutely right that the settlement agreement um requires a huge amount of training for officers.

And and frankly, I I don't know how else we could do this police reform if not for the training.

I mean, it's you know, we can develop and we do develop really awesome policies, but if the the officers don't know what they say and practice them, which is really what happens in training, and and uh and uh forgive me because I don't know that we've had that many conversations about settlement agreement consent decree.

But one of the kind of um for the settlement agreement and the consent decree, there's this really cool, in my view, emphasis on adult adult training techniques that are really, you know, everybody who instructs for uh for MPD training has to themselves go through a train the trainer exercise uh training in order to learn how to teach using adult learning techniques.

And these are it, they're very scenario-based, sometimes they're like literally physical, running outside.

You know, that kind of training is the kind of training that really police reform advocates really are um stressing because this is the way that we change culture.

This is the way we make muscle memory so that when officers get in precarious situations, it's it's a natural to do, you know, to react in in the right way.

So the training, it's a huge, yes, it's a huge huge investment, and it's in my view, uh absolutely needed.

What the exact budgetary impact and and how that's being tracked, I think is is really a uh budget office question.

Well, I've asked about it several different places and seem to not be able to get an answer.

And I am absolutely agree with you that training is key to seeing change, right?

Um, but also with us being the stewards of, and I know I'm not speaking to the right person here, but for us being the stewards of the budget, for us not to have that information is really uh a miss in my mind as we tell the story that we know, or we'll have to hear the story in the upcoming months about what's going on in MPD.

And so um maybe we can speak offline, but I have I can tell you the places I've checked and I haven't been able to get answers.

So I I need some more direction.

Yeah.

And council members, if I may too, and so uh feel exactly the same way.

And so we were uh in these quarterly meetings that I'm going to speak to on this next item uh in conversation with OCS and other folks, uh we are going to have that opportunity.

Um that uh folks from from the budget office and and those related to settlement agreement and set-degree items are going to be present in there for for questions.

And so uh hopefully I think that will be an avenue or venue to answer those questions.

I my only final point is make is whenever you start on a journey, you have to understand where you're going.

Um and and that it knowing that budget piece would be a huge help in knowing where we're going.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Chavez.

Uh thank you, Chair Whiting.

I guess my question for the city attorney's office the recent report by LeafA shows that the MPD is not meeting its goal downline in the settlement agreement, which is going to add more expense for the city because we're not meeting the goals and it's making us to take longer time in the settlement agreement.

I guess my question is what recourses the city council have to ensure that there is compliance with the settlement agreement.

And two, um, yeah, I guess I'll start there.

Um Chair Waiting, Councilmember, you know, I there the council doesn't direct the administration, obviously.

You know, we have reporting tools, and I think that that is you know a really important accountability um item, you know, as I mentioned before the ordinance that uh uh council president Payne uh uh introduced and uh will will be coming soon.

Um so you know, the council's tool oftentimes is in information and in you know making in information publicly available and available in in uh committee meetings and committee hearings and hearing those reports, and you know, you're having a leaf accomp so that you have a really good handle on what our independent monitor, and remember they are I mean, we they don't work for us, we we work for them, which is sort of a strange situation that we're paying for them, but but they are really our overseers in in this work, and they are the ones with the expertise and are really um gauging our accountability.

So, you know, we're we are paying them.

Uh it's a capped rate of 1.5 million dollars, but they are really the accountability, uh, as well as the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, um, and ultimately the court.

Thank you.

Councilmember Warren.

I just have a brief question.

Um I was listening to you in your presentation, and you were talking about how there were alternate means and methods for individuals to report internal affairs complaints, you know.

And I was just wondering with the current situation that happened with our previous police chiefs, why those alternate means were not utilized, and is it something that people are going to be made consciously aware of as we're moving around administration and multiple different departments around public safety in the city that people will have these alternate means to be um to really feel supported, right?

In their role so that they know and understand that if I do not feel safe and trusted in sharing this information, or I'm in fear of some type of retaliation, that these things will be readily made available and that they're actively working to support individuals and and create a better climate and culture for our public safety divisions as it stands currently.

Uh Chair Whiting, Councilmember.

So there are actually multiple, multiple ways to raise concerns, um, whether it be through uh the Internal Affairs Department, the Office of Police Conduct Review, um has uh reporting portals that are on the web, uh, human resources receives reports, the officer of uh starting officer, Office of Community Safety receives reports and there are the ethics line actually um uh is you know, we oftentimes get uh reports through the ethics line that are not actually ethics complaints, but they're multiple different ways um to get a concern to the city.

And are those often responded to and people are adhering to them, like acting in some immediacy around the investigation of those things?

Uh Chair Whiting, council member, yes.

There are there are processes, there are folks who are assigned to all of those things and processes in place for uh for intake and review of all of it in each different methodology.

Really?

Yes.

And those have been in place for quite some time for yes.

Okay.

I'm just wondering, just based on previous experiences that we've just had, and I'm not naming any names or any specific situation, but we know the elephant in the room.

So I just want to make sure that those things are like clear so that people understand, because I know that there were some in issues with internal affairs officers being removed and different things like that and stuff not getting done, and people not getting the resolve or the resolution that they needed around a number of different issues.

I just really want us to be able to work better and have a better climate and culture around our public safety because what our inner office customer service and communication looks like reflects on how we respond to the constituents in the city abroad, right?

And so if that's clean and our house is clean, then we can have conversations with other people about what their house and behaviors should look like.

So I just really want that's that's huge to me, like really, really big.

And ensuring that we are doing deep-rooted investigations about who we let into our house, right?

Um because of the culture and the climate that we want to hold around our public safety and what that accountability looks like.

So if there's smear campaigns, and I know there's gonna be haters in the world because there just is, okay.

But if there are things that are being said about conduct and what have you, that there are deep dive, very serious investigations being done because we don't want other people's garbage.

We just don't.

So I just want to make sure that there are methods, means we're putting those things in place, and you're saying that that's a thing.

So I'm gonna rest in and assure that you saying that that's a thing, city attorney.

The in.

Uh thank you, council member.

Uh last question here, and honestly, uh a little bit of maybe a refresher for me, and I think it's helpful for the body and those that are are watching.

If you could kind of just maybe talk broadly about the the areas of work, uh bodies of work uh that are kind of outside of the settlement agreement.

So those things that do stand alone that are larger in those larger buckets in the consent decree.

Uh uh Chair Waiting, um, council members.

Um there are the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice Um was significantly broad.

I mean, it's federal, right?

They have broader jurisdiction than the the state did, and and their investigation was a little bit more wide-ranging than MDHRs.

So uh the uh specific sections that are in the consent decree that are not in the uh settlement agreement, and I'm not gonna get all of them because you're asking me off the top of my head.

So let's remember uh see see how well I remember what I negotiated.

Um there is a section on uh uh addressing individuals with uh mental health challenges that that is you know, there's literally one paragraph in the settlement agreement about having a behavioral uh response.

Um that's it.

There's a whole really robust section in the consent decree reforms on that.

There's a rebo robust section in the consent decree reforms on First Amendment activity.

Um, you know, how how policing happens with uh with protests and and those sorts of things.

So that's that's unique.

There is a section on secondary employment, what we think of as off-duty, uh, some of which is kind of in pieces in the settlement agreement, but is its own standalone in the consent decree.

Um those are the things that come to mind.

There may be a couple of other ones, but those are really the significant ones.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Youth engagement.

Oh, yes, interactions with youth.

Thank you.

Yeah, that's another one.

And again, there's I there are a couple of pieces of that in the settlement agreement, but in terms of the standalone.

That's see, council president knows what I negotiated better with than what I did.

Sorry for the cold call.

We're bringing you back to law school.

Uh uh with that, colleagues seeing no further discussion here, uh, I will ask the clerks to file that presentation and report.

Uh, lastly, or last item here, uh, and thank you, City Attorney Anderson.

Uh, moving to subcommittee item number seven.

Our last item was continued from the previous COW meeting on July 14th.

Uh, at that meeting we received a presentation from Alifa and this report covered the end of 2025 going into 2026.

Uh, the action today is simply just to receive and file, or I guess not even receive, but to file that Alifa presentation.

Wanted to note here before we uh move forward on it.

Uh, at that previous meeting, I know there was a it was clear uh that many of my colleagues and myself had care serious concerns about the questions and and findings uh in Alifa's most recent report uh and concerns which I which I share.

I've expressed to many of my colleagues a desire to set up a regular cadence of reporting from MPD, OCS, uh, see it city attorney's office, OPCR, uh IT, budgetary updates, uh, and other departments as relevant using this subcommittee as a mechanism to receive continuous quarterly results uh or sorry, quarterly updates on the city's progress towards meeting its commitments under the settlement agreement and consent decree.

Both to include concerns raised by the semi-annual reports that Alifa will be coming to uh presenting in front of this body on semi-annual basis as well.

And so the first of these presentations uh will occur uh sometime here in August, depending on uh individual schedules, uh both council colleagues' schedules and uh schedules of of key stakeholders.

And so looking uh forward to a time here in uh in August.

Or did I say September?

But August.

Followed by uh presentations uh quarterly, November, February, and May of this year and then next year as well.

And so I'm very excited to move forward on this and want to thank uh many of my colleagues here for the collaboration in City Hath uh for for organizing this work.

Um before we receive and file this presentation, uh it looks like Councilmember Schaefer has a question.

Yeah, this is top of mind just because I toured the SAC yesterday and I know I mentioned that to you, Councilmember as well.

Um it was very clear when Elifa spoke to us that we were responsible providing a new training facility or an appropriate training facility.

We heard them clearly that day in the presentation.

And I had to leave early, so I did not have a chance to ask any further questions.

But I guess I would like to know how we as a council are gonna have an opportunity to dialogue about that fact because I agree with Councilmember Chavez that we are on a clock with Alifa, that we are have these important deadlines that we meet need to meet.

And if that is one that they are clearly telling us, I guess I want to have a frank discussion, an open discussion, like because I really want to move this work forward.

Like, how are we gonna do that?

If we voted down the land, you know, if we didn't like that idea, then what ideas do we have that we can bring to the table?

And I guess I'm asking when we can have an opportunity to dialogue about that.

Yeah, and in thinking about it, I know we've kind of discussed this uh similarly with with uh staff from OCS and trying to figure out the best venue to have these conversations as it relates to um settlement agreement reforms and and the compliance measures for that.

I think particularly maybe to this item, uh, some level of of council briefings or policy briefing that we do in in smaller group settings so we can have those larger discussions.

Uh, but I also I think it is something that can come up in these quarterly uh meetings as well.

And so the hope is that all of our questions and and and my kind of hope for these meetings is that all 13 of us uh can have a level of expertise on everything that is going through the reform process broadly.

And so I think the there's there's anything germane to uh consent decree settlement agreement reform progress, I think is open and valuable for conversations during those.

Okay, thank you.

Of course.

Uh Councilmember Chavez.

Thank you, Chair Whiting.

I I mean it would be good to get a better explanation from Alifa because that's not exactly how I interpreted what they said, but I hope moving forward that in these conversations there's a report back on the internal affairs backlog in the uh consent decree federal no in the settlement agreement.

Um that is a big issue.

There's an issue with the early intervention system in the settlement agreement requirement.

There is an issue with uneven progress on policy and training development that's been flagged across multiple reports now.

Uh MDHR themselves said the city remains far from transformational change needed to address the root cause of race-based policing.

So there's a lot more than just um this safety center.

So just wanted to at least add more context.

Yep, thank you, Councilmember.

Um seeing no further discussions here, I will ask the clerk to again file that presentation.

Perfect.

And with that, I will pass it over to uh chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Whiting.

Um seeing no further discussion and no bur further business before us with no objection, I will declare this meeting adjourned.