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Dear Community,
This was the last week of Council meetings for the term. I am deeply grateful for the residents and community who have worked with my office every single day for the last two years to advance working class priorities. Residents organizing in their neighborhoods and workplaces to bring demands to City Hall is the engine for positive change in our city. I am honored to be completing my first term and sincerely looking forward to working with residents and my colleagues for the next two years to continue making material gains for working class people.
Council meetings resume on January 8th. City Hall will be under renovation next year, so Council will be physically moving to a new temporary location across the street at the Public Service Center, 250 S 4th St, Minneapolis, MN 55415. Council meetings there will still be open to the public.
All Council offices will be working remotely until January 8th. My office is still available to serve you during the break. All of our contact information can be found at the bottom of this newsletter.
Sincerely,
Council Member Robin Wonsley
The City Council unanimously passed a resolution declaring unsheltered homelessness a public health emergency. Following the meeting, I and the majority of my colleagues formally requested that Mayor Frey delay the administration’s announced plan to evict Camp Nenookaasi, an Indigenous-run healing encampment located in the Ventura Village neighborhood of Ward 6 at 13th Avenue South and East 23rd Street, on December 14.
At the City’s final budget hearing on Tuesday evening, dozens of residents and volunteers at Camp Nenookaasi gave testimony about the successful work at the encampment to move people from unsheltered homelessness to housing, as well as addressing issues such as addiction. Since the start of Camp Nenookaasi, which formed a few months ago in response to evictions that happened in nearby neighborhoods, camp organizers report that they have gotten 74 residents into permanent housing and have had no deaths from overdoses.
Tuesday’s public hearing was not the first time the public has shown up to advocate for our unhoused neighbors, rightfully critiquing the administrations’ inhumane approach, and ask us to advance something that would actually get these residents off the streets and into safe and dignified housing. Residents who work in non-profit and direct service providers have spoken publicly about the harm the city causes by using evictions as the main response to encampments. Former staff who have worked within our Homeless Response Team have reached out to Council to advocate for a better response and have highlighted that the city’s approach goes against public health best practices.
The public has recognized that evictions just lead to people being displaced from one site to another, leaving them traumatized, disrupting any services they were receiving, and correlate to an increase in overdoses in the community. The public also knows that the Council knows this, and they are right to demand us to do better. I know many Council Members, including myself, have been working on various ways we can change the current role the city plays and actually provide a sustainable pathway to support our unhoused neighbors.
The fact that Camp Nenookaasi got 75 residents off the streets and into housing in just a few months with essentially no resources really highlights that this issue is solvable, if there is political will.
Following Tuesday’s emotional public hearing, Council Members Osman, Payne, Ellison, Chavez, Chughtai, Koski, Chowdhury, and I sent a letter to Mayor Frey with three specific requests:
- Delay the eviction of Camp Nenookaasi until February 16, 2024
- Between now and February 16, 2024, pursue all efforts to address public health needs at Camp Nenookaasi and the surrounding community
- Request that the mayor meet and work with Council Members to collaborate on short-term, medium-term, and long-term solutions to reduce homelessness, prevent the formation of encampments, and address the serious and urgent public health issues unsheltered populations in Minneapolis face
I see this resolution as a first step to so much more, but it at least acknowledges and level sets the reality we are in today. Homelessness is a public health issue, and the city must use a public health lens in our approach to solving this issue. This will be the foundation of how the next Council can move forward, and I am committed to prioritizing changes as soon as the next Council is sworn in.
Key votes: Council votes unanimously for a resolution declaring unsheltered homelessness a public health emergency. Council Members Osman, Payne, Ellison, Jenkins, Chavez, Chughtai, Koski, and Chowdhury call on Mayor Frey to delay eviction of Camp Nenookaasi, meet public health needs, and commit to working with Council on long-term humane and effective solutions to homelessness.
My ordinance protecting renters who sign pre-leases has passed Council with unanimous support. Thank you to all the students, University, and labor leaders who organized for this policy.
Following the debacle at Identity Dinkytown, many community members reached out to my office asking how we could make sure that renters who signed pre-leases were protected from exploitative landlords. My office took this seriously and got to work on an ordinance that ensures any renter who signs a pre-lease and is unable to move into their unit gets to choose between three options for remedy including the option to exit their lease.
I want to extend a huge thank you to student and university leaders as well as organized labor who were the engine in passing this policy, as well as city staff who worked with my office on the ordinance. I also want to celebrate this as an example that while we are accustomed to policymaking being a slow and drawn out process, it is possible to work quickly and decisively to pass policy when there is the will to do so.
Key votes: Pre-lease renters protection ordinance passes Council unanimously.
Council concluded the budget process with unanimous support for a $1.8 billion omnibus budget. The budget included nearly 50 amendments by Council, most of which passed with unanimous or near-unanimous support. You can read more about the budget outcomes here.
Key votes: The 2024 omnibus budget passes Council unanimously.
Council unanimously approved my legislative directive exploring opportunities to strengthen labor standards regulations and enforcement at construction sites, specifically development of multi-unit housing. Wage theft and labor violations are incredibly common and workers are exploited and physically injured far too often while working in Minneapolis. Unions and workers’ centers have made great strides in labor standards enforcement, and I want the city to be the best partner possible in this work. The city can strengthen the ways we enforce and administer existing labor standards regulations in conjunction with our partners at the state, and there are also gaps in regulation that we can fill. I look forward to getting back the results of this directive in the spring and using the findings as the basis to take action to protect construction workers.
Key votes: Legislative directive about labor standards enforcement at multiunit housing development passes with unanimous support. Staff will report to Council on or before April 15th.
Earlier this year, during the discussion of the Fair Drives Safe Rides ordinance, the Mayor and Council expressed unified support for the goal of Uber and Lyft drivers earning a $15 minimum wage. The ordinance co-authors took these comments seriously. Mayor Frey and Council Members have suggested two minimum compensation models that differ from the original model in Fair Drives Safe Rides. Our legislative work on Fair Drives, Safe Rides has always prioritized using data as a basis for good policymaking, so we authored a motion to evaluate all three proposed minimum compensation models in a side-by-side analysis so that Council and the public can have clarity on which model gets drivers closest to a $15 minimum wage equivalent.
We look forward to using the results of this analysis to bring forward the policy that accomplishes the shared goal of guaranteeing a $15 minimum wage to drivers. We are hopeful that such a policy could pass with full support of the Council and Mayor early next year once there is full clarity on how the models compare to each other and which is actually closest to a $15 minimum wage.
Key votes: Legislative directive about labor standards enforcement at multiunit housing development passes with unanimous support. Staff will report to Council on or before January 19th.
Mayor Frey nominated Margaret Anderson Kelliher to be the new City Operations Officer (COO). The COO is the most powerful position in the city after the Mayor and Council. Anderson Kelliher is currently the director of Public Works. I voted no on her appointment, but she was confirmed in an 11-2 vote. Anderson Kelliher will replace the outgoing Interim COO, Heather Johnston.
Last year during the public hearing for Interim COO Johnston, the Mayor committed to doing a national search for a COO. That search began early this summer, but Council received no further updates after that.
I have a positive working relationship with Director Anderson-Kelliher and appreciate that she has been fairly responsive to any concerns I have shared with her and Public Works staff. That being said, the COO has a great degree of power to help our city accomplish direly needed transformation in the areas of racial equity, climate resiliency, public safety, and good governance. Our city is in dire need of leadership that will rise to this occasion, especially since we are experiencing record-low levels of confidence and credibility with the public. With that in mind, I want to share three examples that exemplify why I voted no on Anderson Kelliher.
Last year, during the public hearing of Interim COO Johnston, the Council and public heard and read testimony from dozens of city staff members highlighting the toxic and racist culture under Johnston’s leadership within the City Coordinator’s office. Those staff members took a huge risk with going public. Despite workers in departments throughout the city standing together and asking for better and anti-racist leadership, several department heads including Anderson Kelliher submitted a letter to Council asking us to set aside this testimony and appoint Johnston anyways. It was difficult for me to see department heads witness those public hearings, see staff recount the trauma they experienced, and simply request that Council ignore them. To me, the willingness in that moment to ignore and undermine those impacted by systemic racism, is a disqualifier for the Chief Operating Officer position. I do not think Anderson Kelliher will be able to meet this critical moment we are in where people are looking to us to be unflinching in our honesty and deliver on systemic changes.
Anderson Kelliher’s role in the Hennepin Ave redesign also gives me pause. Her decisions regarding 24/7 bus lanes on Hennepin Ave mean that transit users will continue to be deprioritized in favor of car-centric infrastructure on a diverse and crucial corridor. Prior to my time in City Hall, Ward 2 residents participated actively in shaping the Transportation Action Plan, and tirelessly advocated for making public transportation a priority within TAP. In response to Anderson Kelliher’s leadership on Hennepin Ave, my constituents are concerned that the administration will continue to regress in their commitment towards ensuring that our future street designs and reconstructions will incorporate expanded public transportation.
The last example I will name is the East Phillips Urban Farm. Director Anderson Kelliher was on the wrong side of that issue and continued to back a proposal that would increase racial inequity and environmental injustice in one of the city's most diverse and polluted communities. The residents of East Phillips and their supporters city-wide were united in that they wanted the city to actualize all the commitments we made when we declared racism a public health emergency and designated East Phillips as part of the Green Zones. When these residents were unable to find support at the City, they went to the state and were successful. This was a missed opportunity.
Seeing the ways in which Anderson Kellier failed to be responsive to moments that could have advanced environmental justice and racial equity both within and outside of City Hall makes me concerned about how she will handle other sensitive and important projects like the Community Safety Center/3rd Precinct and 3000 Minnehaha redevelopment efforts.
In the next term, the COO will lead hugely important projects which have enormous equity impacts. We will be taking up the Safe and Thriving Communities Report, rent control and other renter protections, and supporting out unhoused residents with strategies other than evictions, and begin implementation of the Climate Equity Plan. These are issues that require a strong commitment to racial justice and how to support it through the city’s functioning.
It is not a secret that our city has deeply struggled in the last few years, but I actually am very hopeful for the next term and believe there are several unique opportunities we will have to demonstrate that the city can center working class residents' voices and their experiences as we shape policy. While Anderson Kelliher’s track record concerns me, I look forward to collaborating with her to advance the priorities of Ward 2 residents that make our city better.
Key votes: Margaret Anderson Kelliher is confirmed as City Operations Officer (COO). Council Member Osman and I voted no, and the 11 other Council Members voted yes.
Mayor Frey nominated Interim Director Erik Hansen to be the permanent Director of the Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) Department. My office has collaborated well with Interim Director Hansen on the Fair Drives Safe Rides ordinance, the pre-leasing ordinance, and numerous other priorities. I voted in strong support of Director Hansen and look forward to working with him going forward.
Key votes: Council voted unanimously to confirm Erik Hansen as Director of Community Planning and Economic Planning.
Council was asked to approve another four workers’ compensation settlements for MPD officers. Three of these officers had horrific track records of dishonesty, including one officer who burned police files in the 2nd Precinct during the protests in 2020, one officer who allegedly shot a journalist in the face during the protests in 2020 leading to a $600,000 settlement, and one officer who beat a handcuffed man so severely that he was relieved of duty, only to be reinstated and promoted to a Field Training Officer.
During this term, Council has successfully initiated a public conversation about these workers’ compensation claims and begun to challenge the idea that we must rubber stamp all of them and force the public to foot the bill. I am still frustrated that there has not been any changes done internally by the City Attorney's Office to ensure that when these claims come to Council, Council Members can feel confident that due diligence was done to minimize the likelihood that this important protection for first responders is being abused. As long as officers with documented histories of dishonesty continue to be brought forward, I do not feel confident authorizing taxpayer dollars to go to these payouts. Until serious conversations and safe-guards are implemented, I will continue to vote no on MPD workers’ compensation claims.
Key votes: Council voted 9-4 to approve workers’ compensation settlements for three MPD officers with documented histories of misconduct and dishonesty. Council Members Ellison, Chavez, Chughtai and I voted no.
Council voted on an ordinance related to the Policy Board for the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP). This ordinance will alter the composition of the policy board to better reflect resident voices in NRP policy and funding decisions. I worked with Council Members Palmisano, Vetaw, Payne, Rainville, and Ellison on an amendment to allow absentee voting to increase accessibility and equity on the board and within the voting process.
Key votes: NRP policy board passed unanimously including our amendment.
I am authoring an ordinance to increase financial penalties on landlords who keep their properties vacant for excessive periods of time. This ordinance was advanced to the next step in the legislative process at this week’s Council meeting and I plan to bring forward an ordinance early next year.
Last year, numerous residents reached out to my office expressing frustration with vacant buildings and their impacts in our communities. They shared how vacant buildings hurt the vibrancy and safety of our commercial corridors, and how residential vacancy is a huge missed opportunity to help address our housing crisis. Since then, residents have organized around specific vacant commercial properties and have formed a coalition supporting fees on chronic residential vacancy.
Inspired by resident organizing, I authored a legislative directive to explore how the city can improve the current system for tracking vacant properties and incentivizing landlords to activate them. Thanks to that directive, it is now clear that there is an immediate action we can pursue now to increase financial penalties on landlords who keep their properties vacant for excessive periods of time.
I look forward to bringing this policy forward early next year. It’s just one of many I hope to take in collaboration with residents, city staff, and my colleagues to ensure we are activating our existing housing units and commercial properties for maximum benefit to the community.
Key votes: Council unanimously approves introduction and referral of an ordinance increasing financial incentives to activate vacant buildings.
Following the shooting at Royal Cigar and Tobacco in Dinkytown, the city’s business licensing and MPD met with the business owners to assess what happened and how it can be prevented in the future. The meeting was productive. City staff was able to confirm an approved conditional use permit for this business permitting operation between the hours of 7 a.m. and 3 a.m. each day. The business representatives were willing to work with the City to ensure no repeat of this situation in the future. They reported already taking additional measures to increase security by contracting with a security guard to work at the store between the hours of 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. each day. They agreed to work with Licensing and the 2nd Precinct to develop a written security plan. MPD and business licensing will continue to monitor activity at this business and other businesses in the Dinkytown area. If there are any more safety issues at this business, MPD and business licensing are prepared to take additional enforcement steps.
The Energy Assistance Program helps pay energy bills for eligible Minnesotans. This program is free and provides benefits up to $1,400, with additional support to respond to emergencies. Both renters and homeowners can qualify, and eligibility is based on income and household size. This program is federally funded and administered by the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Application materials can be accessed here.
Glendale Townhomes' 70th Anniversary Exhibit and Celebration is now up online. Organizers share: "Creating the 70th Anniversary Exhibit of Glendale Public Housing Townhomes was a rewarding experience for current and former Glendale residents that led this project. As a community-led project, we learned so much about the beautiful hidden history of Glendale and the amazing people who kept this public housing community together for decades. Even though Minneapolis's political and public systems are rooted in institutional racism and are anti-public housing, we persevered, resisted, jumped over barriers, and created a great exhibit of our history and people, which has never been done before. Keep Public Housing Public".
Check out the full exhibit here.
I was honored to speak at the University of Minnesota Human Rights Gala.
Email Council Member Wonsley and her staff at ward2@minneapolismn.gov
Or contact staff directly:
Policy Aide Celeste Robinson
Policy Aide Qannani Omar
Share your opinion or address an issue, use the Ward 2 contact form
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