The Minneapolis City Council is the legislative branch of the city of Minneapolis in Minnesota, United States. Comprising 13 members, the council holds the authority to create and modify laws, policies, and ordinances that govern the city. Each member represents one of the 13 wards in Minneapolis, elected for a four-year term. The current council structure has been in place since the 1950s.
In recent elections, council membership has been dominated by the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL). As of 2024, 12 members identified with the DFL, while four identified with Democratic Socialists of America (three members identify as both DFL and DSA). Until the 2021 Minneapolis City Council election, the city's government structure was considered a weak-mayor, strong-council system. However, a charter amendment was passed that gave the mayor more power and reduced the council to purely legislative duties.
History
Council chambers in 1900Council meeting in 2015
The Minneapolis City Council represents the city's thirteen districts called wards. The city has never had more than 13 wards, but at one time there were three representatives from each area, for a total of 39 members of the city council. The city council assumed its current size in the 1950s.
The first Black city council member was Van White, elected in 1979 to represent Ward 5.[5] The first openly gay member, Brian Coyle, was elected in 1983 to represent Ward 6, and died of AIDS while in office as council vice president.[6][7] In 2017, Phillipe Cunningham from Ward 4 and Andrea Jenkins from Ward 8 were elected to the City Council, becoming the first openly transgender Black man and woman, respectively, to be elected to any office in the United States.[8][9]
The city adopted instant-runoff voting in 2006, first using it in the 2009 elections.[10] The council has 12 DFL members and one from the Democratic Socialists of America. Election issues in 2013 included funding for a new Vikings stadium over which some incumbents lost their positions.[10] That year, Minneapolis elected Abdi Warsame, Alondra Cano, and Blong Yang, the city's first Somali-American, Mexican-American, and Hmong-American city councilpeople, respectively.[10][11][12]
The city council passed a resolution in March 2015 making fossil fuel divestment city policy.[13] With encouragement from city administration, Minneapolis joined seventeen cities worldwide in the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance. The city's climate plan is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent in 2015 "compared to 2006 levels, 30 percent by 2025 and 80 percent by 2050".[14]
In 2018, the city council passed the Minneapolis Comprehensive 2040 Plan and submitted it for Metropolitan Council approval. Watched nationally, the plan rezones predominantly single-family residential neighborhoods for triplexes to increase affordable housing, seeks to reduce the effects of climate change, and tries to rectify some of the city's racial disparities.[15][16] After the Metropolitan Council approved the plan,[17] in November 2019 the city council voted unanimously to allow duplexes and triplexes citywide.[18] The Brookings Institution called it "a relatively rare example of success for the YIMBY agenda" and "the most wonderful plan of the year."[19]
Controversies and incidents
In July 2001, DFL Council Member Brian Herron pleaded guilty to one count of felony extortion. Herron admitted to accepting a $10,000 bribe from business owner Selwin Ortega who faced numerous health and safety inspection violations at his Las Americas grocery stores.[20][21] Herron served a one-year sentence in federal prison.[22]
On November 21, 2002, ten-year DFL Council Member Joe Biernat was convicted of five federal felony charges, one count of embezzlement, three counts of mail fraud, and one count of making a false statement.[23] Biernat was found not guilty on extortion and conspiracy to extort charges.[24]
In September 2005, Green Party Council Member Dean Zimmermann was served with a federal search warrant to his home by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The affidavit attached to the warrant revealed that the FBI had Zimmermann on video and audiotape accepting bribes for a zoning change.[25] Zimmermann subsequently lost his re-election campaign, and was convicted in federal court on three counts of accepting cash from a developer and found not guilty of soliciting property from people with business with the city. Zimmermann was released from prison in July 2008.[26]
In 2009, Council President Barbara A. Johnson was accused of misusing campaign funds for personal spending. An administrative hearing was held January 26, 2010.[27] The administrative judges at the hearing dismissed six of the eight charges; it upheld two charges—that AAA services were paid for both her and her husband's vehicle and that not all charges for hairstyling or dry cleaning were reasonably related to the campaign. Johnson paid a $200 fine for these violations, the lowest fine possible.[28]
In 2015, DFL Council Member Alondra Cano used her Twitter account to publish private cellphone numbers and e-mail addresses of critics who wrote about her involvement in a Black Lives Matter rally.[29]
In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, nine city council members announced their highly controversial goals to disband the Minneapolis Police Department. Their plan included amending the city's charter to remove the requirement for a minimum number of officers, along with replacing the MPD with a broader public safety agency.[30] The city council was then discovered to have been utilizing private security at a cost of $4,500 per day for three of their members.[31] The plan made it to the ballot in 2021, but ended up failing with only 43% of votes in support of it;[32] along with six of the nine city council members who wanted to disband the police department either voted out or having not ran for reelection.[33]
In 2021, while leaving a Pride Day event, a car containing Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins was surrounded by protesters who blocked her from leaving until she signed a list of demands, which included not interfering with the occupied George Floyd Square and the resignation of Mayor Jacob Frey. Jenkins was stuck for over 90 minutes before signing the list so she could go.[34][35]
In July 2022, City Council Member Michael Rainville said during a meeting with his constituents that he was going to go to a mosque in Northeast Minneapolis to "meet with Somali elders and tell them that their children can no longer have [poor] behavior,"[36] in response to incidents on the 4th of July in downtown Minneapolis, during which groups of younger people were seen launching fireworks at buildings and passerby.[37] His comments drew criticism, including from fellow City Council members who attempted to censure him.[38]Jamal Osman, Jeremiah Ellison, and Aisha Chughtai, the City Council's three Muslim members at the time, issued a statement calling Rainville's comments "incorrect," "inappropriate," "disturbing," and "dangerous."[39] Rainville has since apologized for the comments.[40]
At the Minneapolis DFL caucus for Ward 10 on May 13, 2023, supporters of challenger Nasri Warsame rushed the stage when incumbent Aisha Chughtai was scheduled to speak. Chughtai claimed that over a dozen of her supporters and DFL volunteers were physically assaulted in the chaos, while Warsame claimed his campaign manager had been hospitalized due to an injury sustained by a member of the opposing campaign staff.[41] Later that month, leaders of the DFL voted to permanently bar Warsame from seeking the party's endorsement for any elected office.[42]
Electoral system
In 2006, Minneapolis voters approved the use of the single transferable vote for its municipal elections. The first use of ranked-choice voting was in the 2009 municipal election. However, since the City Council uses single-member districts, the single transferable vote functions the same way as instant-runoff voting.[43] This system of voting is commonly known in the United States as ranked choice voting.
Each member's term is normally four years, and there are no limits on the number of terms a member may serve. In 2020, voters approved a plan to amend the city charter to establish city council elections in 2021 and 2023 for two-year terms instead of the regular four-year terms, with four-year term elections restarting in 2025. The amendment also granted the ability for the city to use this method whenever regular city council elections do not fall in a year ending in a 3 in order to comply with a state law designed to require city council elections in years ending in 2 or 3 after a census.
Wards
Minneapolis city council ward boundaries, enacted 2022[44]
Each city council member represents one of 13 wards. Ward boundaries are redrawn after each census and approved by the court-appointed Charter Commission.[45] For elections, the 13 wards are subdivided into a total of 137 precincts.[46]
Salary
Council Members have a base salary of $109,846 in 2024.[47] Raises for council members and the mayor are based on "averaging out the increases included in the union contracts they approved the previous year."[48] The rate was $106,101 in 2021. In 2018, all Council Members were paid a base salary of $98,696 annually, plus mileage, free parking, and the usual employee benefits. This salary included an increase of $10,000 approved in late 2017.[49]
Members
The council is made up of 13 members. The DFL holds 12 seats, while one member (Robin Wonsley) sits as an independent democratic socialist. New members took office January 2024.[50]
The Minneapolis City Council operates through several standing committees, each focusing on specific areas of city governance.[51]
Administration & Enterprise Oversight Committee
Chair: Robin Wonsley (Ward 2)
Vice-Chair: Linea Palmisano (Ward 13)
Focus: Oversight of general government, enterprise, and administration operations. Regular evaluation of the City’s Strategic Racial Equity Action Plan and the Mayor’s Office.
Business, Housing & Zoning Committee
Chair: Jamal Osman (Ward 6)
Vice-Chair: Jeremiah Ellison (Ward 5)
Focus: Oversight of community and economic development, housing policy, land-use and zoning policy, and employment and training programs.
Public Health & Safety Committee
Chair: Jason Chavez (Ward 9)
Vice-Chair: Robin Wonsley (Ward 2)
Focus: Oversight of public health and social service programs, civil rights, environmental justice, community safety services, and police reform initiatives.
Climate & Infrastructure Committee
Chair: Katie Cashman (Ward 7)
Vice-Chair: Emily Koski (Ward 11)
Focus: Oversight of community infrastructure, climate resilience, transportation, public works, utilities, and recycling.
Budget Committee
Chair: Aisha Chughtai (Ward 10)
Vice-Chair: Emily Koski (Ward 11)
Focus: Oversight of the city's budget, financial wellbeing, and approval of financial policies.
Committee of the Whole
Chair: Jason Chavez (Ward 9)
Vice-Chair: Aurin Chowdhury (Ward 12)
Focus: Oversight of strategic goals, enterprise-wide initiatives, and Mayor’s Cabinet appointments.
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