The Public Health, Safety and Equity Committee met on September 23, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. under the chairmanship of Councilmember Jason Chavez. The agenda was lengthy, with every item pulled for discussion. Chair Chavez opened with remarks about the mayor’s directive limiting city staff attendance and stressed the committee’s oversight role. The meeting included a presentation on school‑based clinics, extensive debate on a new mobile crisis response contract, approval of multiple grants and contracts, and a resolution calling for the removal of automated license plate reader cameras operated by Hennepin County and the University of Minnesota.
The reports were received and filed; the chair noted that due to captioning time constraints, follow‑up questions would be handled via email.
Welcome to the regular meeting of the Public Health, Safety and Equity Committee for September 23rd, 2026. I am Jason Chavez, the chair of this committee. Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation. These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase accessibility of our proceedings to the community. Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast. We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments. At this time, I'll ask the clerk to call the role so we can verify a quorum for this meeting. Councilmember King. Present. Vice Chair Stevenson. Present. And Chair Chavez. And his five members present. Let the record reflect that we have a quorum. I'll remind my colleagues that we'll be using speaker management today, so please make sure that you're signed in. To my colleagues and members of the public, I want to note that we have a very lengthy discussion agenda today. Before we begin, I want to explain how we're approaching today's agenda. Every item before this committee today has been pulled for discussion. This committee oversees contracts, grants, and programs to affect the health and safety of every resident in the city of Minneapolis. And council members have the responsibility to understand what we're voting on before we vote on it. A formal presentation is planned for item number one. And I know staff did submit a presentation for slides on item number two. The remainder of the items will be introduced by staff, but a formal presentation isn't planned. Therefore, all additional items will be received and filed uh under the last at the bottom of the receiving file components, but there's also presentations for those, I believe. To help us move efficiently through the agenda, we will proceed through discussion items number two through number 13 in this manner. I will introduce each item and ask staff to come forward and provide a summary of the request. I will then open the floor for council members to ask questions and discuss the item, followed by request for a motion on that particular item. If staff are already not in the chambers, please listen for the items so you know where you are on the agenda and when your item is approaching. When your item is called, please be prepared to come forward and provide your summary. Recently, Mayor Fry directed city staff to only attend committee meetings when they're presenting, to limit their time to 45 minutes, and to answer our questions with memos instead of being here in person. Last week, that meant no one from MPD or the Office of Community Safety appeared to answer questions about the more than 20 million dollars overspent by the Minneapolis police department. By having these items under discussion, the administration should be aware that there will be comments or questions on these items, and I made that very clear in agenda setting. Many of our staff would be here if they would be allowed to be here. In fact, they would want to be here. When I talk about city staff in this context, it is my concern with the mayor and his administration, who have given direction that prevents those of us who want fiscal transparency from doing our job here in the city of Minneapolis. It's unfair to our city staff, and I hope the mayor changes course moving forward. That being said, as the chair of the public health safety and equity committee, I will not allow this committee's role to be diminished. The mayor can direct staff, but he cannot direct this council's vote. And he cannot stop us from asking our questions, and he cannot stop us from doing our duly elected roles of doing our oversight. The mayor cannot expect us to lower the committee standards at a time where this city is facing a severe financial crisis, and despite the mayor's insistence on putting barriers on our oversight responsibilities, this committee will continue to do its oversight exercise. If the administration wants an item approved, and members of this committee have questions, it can send someone to explain or answer those questions. If not, members of this body, members of this committee have the right to delay those items in committee, and they have the authority to do so via a vote that this body will be taking. No council member should be expected to approve contracts, grants, or spending city resources while their questions go unanswered. These are tax paragolars and services our residents depend on, and they deserve to be made with these decisions with answers in mind. So I just want to start this conversation. That's why people are seeing items under discussion because folks got questions and we want questions answered. All right, colleagues, I wanted to start that way. Our first item today is discussion item number one. It is a presentation about the school-based clinics. I'll invite Polly Yang, manager of the school health services to begin that presentation.