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Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) is proposing to close Pratt Community School as part of a proposed “transformation plan.” This I attended a Prospect Park Association meeting to discuss this proposed closure and the impacts on the Prospect Park community. There was strong and unanimous opposition to the proposed closure. Pratt is a gem of the community.
I am happy to share that there seems to be collective agreement amongst the City Council that the “transformation plan” would cause significant harm to our residents. Next City Council cycle, my colleagues and I will be bringing forward a resolution to ask the Minneapolis School Board to delay action on implementing any of the proposed closures.
The public can submit comments to the School Board here until October 16th.
Prospect Park residents attend community meeting about MPS’s Transformation Plan
The rise of mass surveillance goes far beyond Flock cameras and drones. Come hear from local experts about the ever-increasing use of surveillance technologies, the impacts on our communities, and how we can organize to push back to protect our rights and our neighbors. Register here.
The panel will be facilitated by Saint Paul Council Member HwaJeong Kim, and the panelists are Minneapolis Council Member Robin Wonsley, Professor Jessica West from Mitchell Hamline School of Law, Matthew Guariglia from Electronic Frontier Foundation, State Representative Athena Hollins, John Boehler from ACLU Minnesota, and Anna Madison from Women Against Military Madness.
Technofascism: community panel on mass surveillance and AI
Monday October 19th from 6-7:30
New location: North End Community Center (145 Lawson Ave W, Saint Paul MN 55117)
Register here
Technofascism community panel flyer
Join local artisans, makers, growers, educators, small businesses, nonprofits, contractors, and community organizations sharing their talents, knowledge, and passion for sustainable living.
At the heart of this festival is a simple vision: share generously, celebrate the creativity and resilience of our community, and care deeply for one another and our planet. We would be delighted to have you join us in making this festival a place where curiosity blossoms, collaboration flourishes, and everyone leaves inspired.
North Star Sustainable Living Festival
October 10th, 2026
9am-6pm
University Lutheran House of Hope (601 13th Ave SE)
Save Oct. 21 for the free 2026 South Minneapolis Seniors Fair! The fair is tailored for our senior community members and caregivers. The day will feature workshops, an elected officials panel, a resource fair, and a free lunch. The workshops will cover the City Budget, Election and Voter Services, public safety and crime prevention, and connecting with the community.
South Minneapolis Seniors Fair
Wednesday, Oct. 21
9 a.m.-2 p.m.
Diamond Lake Lutheran Church (5760 Portland Ave. S)
Flyer for South Minneapolis Seniors Fair 2026
Summary: The City Council approved Workers Drive Minneapolis, a nation-leading policy to protect workers and residents from Big Tech robotaxis. Mayor Frey plans to veto the policy.
Background: The Minneapolis City Council voted to adopt Workers Drive Minneapolis, a nation-leading ordinance regulating commercial autonomous vehicles (AVs) such as Cybercab (Tesla), Waymo (Google) and Zoox (Amazon).
Workers Drive Minneapolis requires all robotaxis to have a human safety monitor in the driver’s seat at all times and prohibits remote operation of commercial AVs. My co-authors and I introduced the legislation to protect workers and the public from the risks that commercial AVs pose, in particular the risk of job loss. About 10,000 rideshare drivers work in Minneapolis, most of whom are workers of color and immigrants according to the MN Department of Labor and Industry.
During the discussion about the proposed regulation, I was deeply concerned to hear arguments that minimized the dangers of job loss by claiming that workers could simply find a new job, or rely on their neighbors and soup kitchens for food and basic needs.
Several Council Members also advocated for letting Tesla, Google and Amazon operate unregulated robotaxis in Minneapolis in order to increase “choice.” As city leaders, our responsibility is broader than maximizing the number of products available in the private market. We should pass strong worker protections while also investing in transportation policies that give residents meaningful choices about how they move around our city.
Residents deserve safe, reliable options that don’t require dependence on a car. I look forward to working with my colleagues to move beyond a status quo where private-market actors profit from car dependency and instead build a transportation system that provides real mobility choices while protecting workers.
I am grateful to the majority of my colleagues who supported Workers Drive Minneapolis and disappointed that Mayor Frey has chosen once again to prioritize the profit motives of multibillion dollar corporations over the needs of working people. Mayor Frey’s veto would leave our city unprotected and vulnerable to the negative impacts of AI robotaxis. If Mayor Frey does choose to strip away our protections, we are calling on our colleagues on City Council to override the veto to ensure commonsense regulation that will protect local jobs and public safety.
Key votes: Council Members Chavez, Stevenson, Chughtai, Chowdhury, Vice President Osman, President Payne and I voted in support of Workers Drive Minneapolis. Council Members Rainville, Vetaw, Warren, Shaffer, Whiting, and Palmisano voted in opposition.
Council Member Wonsley with co-authors, drivers, and community supporters at a press conference supporting Workers Drive Minneapolis.
Summary: The City Council approved a resolution by Council Members Chavez, Stevenson and I calling on UMPD and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office to terminate use of Flock cameras.
Background: Residents have been clear that Flock cameras and other Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) have no place in our city. These cameras are owned and operated by big tech companies that don’t protect resident data and civil rights. These cameras are part of a growing trend of excessive surveillance and technofascism.
The City of Minneapolis does not own any Flock cameras, but the University of Minnesota Police Department (UMPD) and Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office do.
In July 2026, a Star Tribune investigation reported that federal immigration enforcement agencies, including ICE, were able to access Flock Safety-collected data, despite Minnesota law restricting ALPR data-sharing to criminal investigations. Flock Safety cameras continuously capture and retain location data on every vehicle passing a camera regardless of whether the vehicle or its occupants are suspected of any crime. This creates a comprehensive record of Minneapolis residents' daily movements and raises significant privacy and civil liberties concerns, particularly for immigrant communities already facing heightened federal persecution.
My office has received significant calls and emails from residents in my ward who do not want this surveillance in their neighborhoods. Students and members of the University community have been frustrated with the University of Minnesota for using Flock, and staff, and students, and student groups have been vocal about their concerns about Flock to no meaningful response by the University.
In response to these concerns, I worked with Council Members Chavez, Stevenson and Vice President Osman on a resolution calling on the University of Minnesota and Hennepin County Sheriff's Office to remove all Flock cameras across the city. This week, the City Council adopted the resolution.
Several weeks ago, residents in Cedar Riverside were successful in getting UMPD to take down the Flock camera in their neighborhood and residents across the city deserve the same. While I am proud and happy at the results that neighbors in Cedar Riverside achieved, I am frustrated that the University chose to ignore many other neighborhoods who were also vocal in their concerns about privacy and the utilization of a known questionable tool of surveillance.
My office met with University leaders to emphasize the need to remove all of their Flock cameras only to be told that they would not. However, prior to the final vote on the resolution, the University of Minnesota emailed Council Members requesting that they vote the resolution down while simultaneously emphasizing a commitment to remove all of their existing Flock cameras. While that is promising, the resolution allows Minneapolis to hold the University accountable to that commitment.
University students were excited to see the City Council bring forward the resolution and to ensure that the University follows through on their stated commitment to remove Flock from their campuses. In fact, the University of Minnesota Undergraduate Student Government, which represents 30,000 undergraduate students, passed a resolution supporting the City Council calling on UMPD to remove Flock.
Cities within Minnesota and across the country have committed to removing Flock in response to public concerns. Police departments have decided that Flock cameras did not provide enough value to break public trust and I am hopeful that Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the University of Minnesota will come to the same conclusion.
Key votes: The City Council voted 9-4 to approve the resolution calling on UMPD and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office to end use of Flock cameras. Council Members Warren, Stevenson, Chavez, Chughtai, Whiting, Chowdhury, Vice President Osman, President Payne and I voted in support. Council Members Rainville, Vetaw, Shaffer and Palmisano voted against.
Summary: The City Council used our financial oversight authority to ensure that MPD did not spend $14,000 taxpayer dollars to send senior leadership to a weeklong conference in Orlando that provides no benefit to public safety.
Background: MPD submitted a request to accept a gift of $16,000 from the Minneapolis Police Foundation. The gift was offered to cover the cost for one officer, Inspector Kelly, to receive a national award related to the Annunciation response. While it’s fairly common for outside organizations to cover the costs for City staff to attend conferences, MPD proposed pairing this gift with $13,922 dollars of taxpayer money in order to send nine people to the event. They stated that the other eight people were going “in support of Inspector Kelly.”
There are not any concerns with accepting a gift for an officer to receive an award, but several Council Members expressed strong opposition to spending unnecessary tax dollars sending officers to conferences at a time with MPD is going tens of millions of dollars over budget and is one of the single largest forces driving up property taxes.
There were also significant safety and operational concerns about having nine leaders in MPD out of town for an entire week.
The Public Health, Safety and Equity committee asked MPD to bring back a revised proposal that would not spend any taxpayer money on the travel. MPD failed to do so. Instead of bringing back a revised proposal that would stay within the donated $16,000, MPD instead re-upped their request to spend public dollars taking nine people to the celebration.
Council Member Chavez authored a resolution that conditionally accepted the gift of $16,000 for the travel to occur, if and only if no taxpayer dollars are spent associated with the costs of attending the conference. If MPD does spend taxpayer dollars on conference attendance, they must return the gift and return the $16,000 donation.
Council Member Chavez went out of his way to ensure that the MPD leader being honored could accept the gift and attend the conference, while protecting taxpayers. This was an elegant compromise that demonstrated real leadership and fiscal management.
I was incredibly discouraged to hear several of my colleagues state that taxpayers should be forced to foot the bill for MPD leaders to go to Florida for a week solely for “employee morale,” without even a veneer of a rationale related to public safety. In response to the fiscal crisis the City is in, several departments have cut non-essential budget items to ensure critical services and programs their departments provide to the public are not negatively impacted. MPD is consistently held to different standards than every other department in this City, and continuously demonstrates poor stewardship of taxpayers’ money. I am grateful to my colleagues for using our fiscal oversight authority to prevent MPD waste of public funds.
Key votes: City Council voted 9-4 to accept the gift of funds for travel on the condition that no public funds are used. Council Members Rainville, Vetaw, Shaffer and Palmisano voted in opposition.
This week, the Board of Estimates and Taxation (BET) held their second meeting and adopted a maximum property tax levy of 11.8% which includes both the City’s and Parks & Recreations full budget requests. The BET discussed their significant concerns with MPD’s budget being a main driver of high property taxes and fundamentally unsustainable.
The City Council continues to receive presentations from each department on the Mayor’s proposed 2027 City Budget. You can review all the presentations in the 2027 Budget legislative file, which is updated throughout the process.
Next week, I will share a more in-depth breakdown of some of the key takeaways from the budget so far. On a high level, it’s increasingly clear that the fiscal issues that the City is experiencing can be tied to mismanagement. MPD admitted in their presentation that the millions they went over budget could have been avoided and was due to poor management and oversight of overtime. The $20 million dollar mismanagement of 2025 overtime has led Mayor Frey to propose cutting programs residents rely on to meet basic needs in order to fund MPD.
For example, this week the Health Department presented that they plan to cut childhood lead abatement from their public health work, and climate funding would be cut for community gardens, stop moving forward with carbon-negative biochar production, and reduce the amount of low-income residents receiving utility bill assistance in half. It’s unacceptable to cut public health and climate programs that working class families rely on, in order to give MPD an additional $30 million. There is no data that MPD overtime is benefitting residents or improving public safety.
This is just one example of what we are seeing in Mayor Frey’s proposed budget. I urge all residents to attend the upcoming Public Hearings on the Budget to share your thoughts and priorities.
The dates for the upcoming hearings are:
Budget Committee meeting
- 6:05 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7
- City Council chambers on the third floor of City Hall, 350 Fifth St. S
Budget Committee meeting
- 6:05 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19
- City Council chambers on the third floor of City Hall, 350 Fifth St. S
City Council meeting
- 6:05 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 15
- City Council chambers on the third floor of City Hall, 350 Fifth St. S
Participating in a public hearing
Residents who want to make their voices heard at a public hearing must attend in person and sign up to speak. Speakers are typically limited to two minutes, but the length of speaking time and the number of speakers allowed is at the discretion of the Committee Chair. Comments unrelated to the budget will not be heard.
Testimony submitted as part of a public meeting is considered public data under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. This means that anyone can access information you choose to share. Only include information that you are comfortable making public.
Learn more about how to participate in a public hearing.
Other ways to participate
Residents who can’t attend one of these meetings may be able to attend an upcoming listening session or submit written comments in the following ways:
Learn more about the City Council's budget process.
Flyer for Budget public hearings.
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. |
