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The City hosted the annual Public Health Heroes Award Ceremony. The awards and ceremony are one way the Health Department recognizes the vital role community members play in building healthier communities and supporting the department’s vision. Healthy lives, health equity, and healthy environments are the foundations of a vibrant Minneapolis now and into the future.
I was honored to present an award to Portland House, a community-based service offering an alternative to incarceration and prison prevention for males ages 18 and older. Thank you to all our Public Health Heroes!
Council Member Wonsley with Portland House leadership and Minneapolis Health Commissioner Damon Chaplin at the Public Health Heroes Award Ceremony.
Join community members and the AIOIC team to honor our organizations’ founders and connected with new people and opportunities. There will be dinner, kids activities, music, and much more!
AIOIC Block Party and Resource Fair
Friday May 8th from 4-7
American Indian OIC (1854 East Franklin Ave)
Flyer for the American Indian OIC Block Party & Resource Fair.
This week, I had the opportunity to attend the Seward Business & Commerce meeting alongside Council Vice President Jamal Osman, and other city staff to learn about top of mind issues amongst local business owners. My office had the chance to share the work that we’ve been doing to support businesses impacted by Operation Metro Surge, such as passage of $3.8 million in rental assistance and $7 million in Small Business Resiliency Funding. Additionally, we also got to provide more information about recent actions that the Council has taken to address unsheltered homelessness and our ongoing opioid epidemic. My office looks forward to further collaboration with our local businesses to find solutions that best support them and our communities overall.
Council Member Wonsley speaking at a panel by the Seward Civic and Commerce Association.
This week, my office had the opportunity to check out a locally owned cafe near City Hall called Nur House. It was also great to see many young residents including U of M students also employed at the cafe. In a time when small businesses are being met with substantial challenges, it’s always beautiful to see residents still open up establishments that help meet the needs of our community and bring them closer together.
Council Member Wonsley and aide Celeste with Nur House staff.
Last cycle, the City Council passed two ordinances that had life-changing policy impacts for vulnerable residents. This week, Mayor Frey vetoed both. Mayor Frey’s has now vetoed 4 actions in 2026 alone.
The first ordinance, Care Over Criminalization, aligned our local laws to the state as it relates to decriminalizing drug paraphernalia. In 2023, the state legislature passed a bipartisan law that was signed by Governor Walz that codified a public health approach in responding to those battling addiction. The city’s current policy harms criminal justice reform efforts by creating a pretext for additional criminalization of people suffering from substance use disorder. The city policy also prevents public health professionals from utilizing tools that would decrease exposure to infectious diseases.
Rather than listen to the experts on this issue, public health professionals and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, Mayor Frey conflated this issue with actual drug use and vetoed the ordinance.
This could have been an opportunity to demonstrate leadership and take responsibility for some of the livability issues related to drug use under his leadership. It is incredibly dangerous that Mayor Frey has chosen to uplift fear mongering propaganda over evidence-based public health strategies. I am deeply concerned about the real impacts this will have on diseases like HIV and hepatitis. Minneapolis should not mimic the federal government in sidelining science, and I commit to continuing to work with my colleagues on other ways the council can support harm reduction and related public health issues.
Mayor Frey’s other veto this week was Pause Evictions, Save Lives. In March, Mayor Frey vetoed an ordinance I led called Pause Evictions, Save Lives, which was in response to Operation Metro Surge. Thousands of renters lost income due to federal occupation and need extra time to pay rent, or they will be evicted. Pause Evictions, Save Lives would have given renters in our city an extra 30 days to pay their rent. Despite knowing that mutual aid would dry up and an eviction crisis was looming Mayor Frey vetoed the ordinance claiming he would track future data to see if intervention like this was needed.
Evictions in March were up 60% from the same time last year, demonstrating that housing experts like HOMELine and Housing Justice Center were correct in anticipating massive increases in evictions without a supportive policy like Pause Evictions, Save Lives to complement any potential resource allocation that may come from the state. In light of this reality, Council Member Chowdhury introduced a second attempt to prevent evictions by introducing Pause Evictions Save Lives 2.0, which included a 45-day pre-eviction filing timeline.
Despite these frightening numbers and a concession to reduce the extension from 60 to 45 days, Mayor Frey still vetoed the second attempt at the Pause Evictions Save Lives ordinance. I am alarmed that in his veto letter, Mayor Frey offers no indication he has a plan for what will be an increase to unsheltered residents in our city. Vetoing Council-led solutions, and offering no alternatives to solve the problem is unacceptable. Deflection and avoidance are not policy actions and do not meet this moment.
As I have stated before, if City Hall allows mass evictions and displacement to occur to our most vulnerable residents, we would be complicit in helping Trump in his attacks against our neighbors. I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues to bring forward policy solutions to support our communities recover from Operation Metro Surge.
The City Council allocated $7 million for small business relief in the wake of Operation Metro Surge. This week, the City announced $1 million in grants to 34 community-based organizations across every ward to help revitalize neighborhood business districts and support small businesses impacted by Operation Metro Surge.
Throughout 2026, grant recipients will activate storefronts, promote neighborhood businesses and host community events. The goal is to bring more people into commercial areas, boost visibility and help the local economy build more social capital.
Operation Metro Surge had a devastating impact on local businesses, causing an estimated $400 million in losses. To support these businesses, the City Council allocated a total of $7 million in funding to support business owners, assist their employees and help keep doors open.
I’m glad to share that community organizations in Ward 2 are receiving over $100,000:
- East Bank Neighborhood Partnership — Wards 2 and 3 — $29,000
- Redesign, Inc — Wards 2 and 6 — $38,000
- Seward Civic & Commerce Association — Wards 2 and 6 — $33,500
See the full list of grant recipients on the City website
Summary: The Charter Commission, an unelected body that can make changes to the City Charter, is holding a public hearing on their proposal to remove checks and balances in City government.
Background: The Minneapolis Charter Commission is an unelected body that has the authority to propose changes to the City Charter, which like the Constitution for the City. The Charter Commission is a fundamentally undemocratic structure and in the long term it should be eliminated.
The Charter Commission is currently proposing a set of changes to the structure of the city government to go to the ballot for voters to approve this November. While some of these changes are technical or benign, others propose eliminating important checks and balances in the government. The proposal would make it so that the Mayor could appoint heads of Departments without confirmation by the Council. Confirmation votes are an important way for the legislative body to support a functioning executive branch that reflects resident priorities.
I am very concerned that these steps to remove checks and accountability on the Mayor’s office will have negative impacts for the public. The Charter Commission’s consistent focus on ways to limit the power of City Council is troubling, particularly since there are several other issues that they could be addressing that would actually improve government structure and accountability, but are choosing to ignore. Some of these include empowering residents through the ability to run ballot initiatives like residents in Saint Paul can, and closing loopholes in the City Charter that allowed the Mayor and his administration to spend over $20 million dollars in overtime pay without any guardrails.
The Charter Commission should be focusing on ways to improve government through expanding democracy and accountability, not consolidating power in the Mayor’s office to avoid public scrutiny on important decisions like city leadership appointments.
Charter Commission Public Hearing
- Room 350, Public Service Center (250 S 4th St)
- Any resident can speak for 2 minutes.
Key votes: No votes taken.
Summary: The City Council received a presentation on ways to fund our waste reduction efforts.
Background: Reducing trash and solid waste is a city priority. It’s important for meeting our Climate Equity goals. Waste reduction also helps support closing the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC), the harmful trash incinerator in North Minneapolis.
The city has a Zero Waste Plan that outlines all the initiatives that can be taken to reduce waste. However, the Solid Waste & Recycling Division is very limited in the types of funding they can collect and spend. In light of this, City staff worked with a consultant on opportunities to generate new equitable revenue to fund Zero Waste. This week, Council received the presentation on ways to fund the Zero Waste plan. You can read the full plan and the executive summary.
At a high level, the study recommends implementing organized commercial collection, under which the City negotiates franchise fees with one or more exclusive or zoned haulers. Under an organized commercial collection system, one or more franchised haulers would pay a fee that supports program administration and the City’s waste reduction and diversion priorities.
I look forward to working with my colleagues to continue to explore opportunities to bring in new revenues to support Zero Waste work and offset the cost to taxpayers.
Key votes: No votes taken
Summary: The Council received a presentation on the Transportation Action Plan (TAP), the city’s 10-year plan for equitable, sustainable transportation citywide.
Background: The Transportation Action Plan (TAP) is a 10-year plan for the City of Minneapolis to ensure that there is equitable and sustainable transportation for all residents. It outlines hundreds of strategies related to pedestrian infrastructure, bike infrastructure, public transportation, roadways, and more. There are five key indicators: mode split, safety, greenhouse gas emissions, transit proximity, and vehicle miles traveled reduction.
The TAP was approved at the end of 2020, meaning that we are now approximately halfway through the 10-year plan. The Council received a comprehensive presentation on the implementation of these hundreds of strategies and the key indicators. They also published a redlined version of the TAP to indicate updates, and a table outlining the updates.
Over this coming four-year term, I’m excited to prioritize making more progress to our TAP goals! This includes sidewalk plowing so that our sidewalks are safe and accessible all winter long, road designs for bike and pedestrian safety, keeping buses on Nicollet Avenue, and more.
Key votes: No votes taken.
Summary: Council is holding a public hearing on an ordinance that would require any law enforcement body that partners with MPD to have a policy banning face coverings.
Background: Federal agents with ICE and DHS have terrorized our communities over the last several months. Many times, these agents wore masks that concealed their faces and prevented any form of transparency or accountability for acts of violence they committed. Council Members heard clearly from community that banning agents from concealing their identities is a priority for holding the Trump administration accountable.
In response to this, Council Members Chavez, Chowdhury and Chughtai are authoring an ordinance that would prevent law enforcement from concealing their identity from the public using a mask. There will be a public hearing on this ordinance on May 13th.
Testify in person
- May 13th at 1:30pm
- City Hall - 350 South 5th Street, Room 350
- Two minutes per person
Testify in writing
Key votes: The Public Safety, Health and Equity Committee voted unanimously to set a public hearing on the Law Enforcement Concealment of Identity Ordinance on May 13.
Summary: Council received a presentation on the plans to keep residents safe this summer.
Background: Council Members Chavez and Stevenson lead the Public Health, Safety & Equity Committee (PHSE). They authored a legislative directive requesting that the Frey administration share their plan to keep our communities safe this summer. Typically there is a higher volume of 911 calls and violent incidents during warm weather, and the City Council wants to ensure that there is robust planning for violence prevention and response services before the summer begins.
The presentation included updates from the five public safety departments: MPD, Neighborhood Safety, Fire, 911, and Emergency Management, as well as the Office of Community Safety which is supposed to coordinate all public safety departments.
I was particularly glad to see that the non-fatal shooting task force within MPD that I helped create is a key part of the summer safety plan.
Key votes: No votes taken
An image of a headline about the success of the nonfatal shooting task force.
At a public listening session coming up May 7, the Capital Long-Range Improvement Committee and the Planning Commission will discuss the projects currently under review for the Minneapolis 2027-2032 Capital Improvement Plan.
Capital projects currently under consideration include: Cop City, removing busses off Nicollet Mall, public art projects, community safety centers, a new animal care and control center, and more.
The committee invites public participation for a deeper understanding of community perspectives, to incorporate public input into discussions with City departments, and to share information about the committee’s role in shaping the City’s long-range capital planning.
Public listening session on capital projects 6 p.m. May 7 Public Service Building room 100AB 505 S. Fourth Ave.
The Capital Long-Range Improvement Committee
The Capital Long-Range Improvement Committee is a group of residents who advise the City of Minneapolis on its six-year Capital Improvement Plan. They share recommendations through an annual report and project ratings system. The committee will meet until the end of June.
See upcoming committee meetings and events on the calendar or look at previous meeting agendas and minutes.
Contact Ward 2
Visit: minneapolismn.gov/ward2
Email: robin.wonsley@minneapolismn.gov
Phone: 612-673-2202
City Hall
350 S. Fifth St., Room 370
Minneapolis, MN 55415
For reasonable accommodations or alternative format please contact 311. People who are deaf or hard of hearing can use a relay service to call 311 at 612-673-3000. Para ayuda, llame al 311. Rau kev pab, hu 311. Hadii aad caawimaad u baahantahay, wac 311. |
