My name is Orin Chaudhary and I'm the chair of this committee.

Let the record reflect that we have a quorum.

So, it's important that all speakers 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 please moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.

I will first make a motion to amend the agenda and add an item to consent. Before you colleagues, there should be a printed copy of the request for committee action. This is an item request for a block party events permit for the Minnesota United um and Brit's Pub for the World Cup watch parties.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Enterprise and Labor Relations Committee has six items to bring forward on Thursday.

Thank you, uh Chair Chair Child. Read the Business, Housing, and Zoning Committee will be bringing 27 items forward for Thursday Council meeting.

Item six is an ordinance related to the licensed business regulation with adult bathhouse and entertainment venue. This item was sent without recommendation.

Item number 16 is appointment to the Minnesota Ball Park Authority. This was sent forward without recommendation.

Yeah. So, uh I just I'm going to vote no on some of these items. And we don't necessarily have to discuss them.

Thank you, Chair Chaudhry. The climate and infrastructure committee has 20 items to bring forward.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Public Health Safety and Equity Committee will be bringing forward 24 items.

Item number two is an ordinance related to adult bathhouses and sex venues, health and sanitation.

Item number three is an ordinance related to all gender and sexuality welcoming city ordinances.

Item number 21 calls on the Minnesota Legislature to establish local authority to explicitly protect transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive residents equal access to restroom facilities.

All those in favor say I.

I am going to, um, refer this item back to staff. It was birthed out of the National League of Cities.

Um I just quick wanted to say thank you Council Member Warren for the discussion on this. I think it's going to be great to have as an item in our strategic planning.

Next, we will pick up item number one, which is a legislative directive regarding the Minneapolis Police Department and their changes and an interim chief update.

Thank you, Chair Chughtai. So, this legislative directive is in response to former Chief Brian O'Hara's resignation last month.

There were several circumstances surrounding the chief's resignation that appears as huge red flags and begs the question whether the city administration has appropriate oversight channels and safeguards with MPD to make sure that we don't repeat the same systemic failures that led not only to the situation pertaining to the chief, but also to the consent decree and the settlement agreement we're currently in.

There is never going to be one police chief who is going to single-handedly save MPD. One person is not going to bring forward systemic and transformative change.

I am concerned that the hiring and promotion processes within the Minneapolis Police Department is not fully supporting or aligning with best practices, and it's still unclear what oversight is um in place outside of MPD to ensure that they are hiring and promoting individuals that will support the city's goal of meeting our required settlement agreement requirements and being a constitutional and equitable police department.

Um I'm also unaware of any other department that has had significant turnover in leadership amongst divisions when there has been a new leader brought on.

Um and it's also concerning to me that there are allegations that police officers may be hiding their off-duty hours or potentially double-dipping working off-duty while on a active shift with the city. And it's even more troubling that the hiding of these hours were allegedly done at the leadership level of MPD.

Um the chief's resignation also spotlighted a practice that is is very unclear in terms of how leave is administered when misconduct allegations are applied to uh MPD leader.

Um and I know we'll get into this part deeper uh when we have discussions about the upcoming Alif report uh regarding the settlement agreement. Um but it's very clear that we need to have further clarity on how the administration is looking to stabilize the misconduct pro- process that's being backlogged within IA.

I really appreciate this legislative directive. Over the last few weeks have had several um meetings with constituents, open office hours, and um community town halls, and there have been so many questions um surrounding the chief's resignation that I have gotten.

I was also really alarmed when we saw the resignation essentially overnight and we had led up to the nomination process and there was um there was a theme in in that saying that if we had did not uh appoint the chief it would lead to a lot of uncertainty and instability for the police department and safety.

As mentioned, this came from a uh legislative directive uh to the to the legislative department um asking in in March of this year uh asking to explore options to strengthen enforcement and understanding of the new Minnesota state law on tenants' right to organize.

The law has two parts. Uh the first part provides uh tenants with an affirmative right to organize in tenant associations and lists the protected organizing activities. The second part prohibits landlords from retaliating against tenants for organizing as well as for reporting problems.

On this slide is the second part of Minnesota's law, which prohibits landlords from retaliating against tenants who organize or report problems.

Tenants can sue for violations. This is known as private right of action. If a landlord's alleged retaliation is within 90 days of a tenant engaging in protected activities, the burden of proof is on the landlord to prove that they did not retaliate. This is known as a retali- retaliation presumption.

The city of Minneapolis can now, in theory, enforce its prohibition against retaliation by issuing citations and fines. However, there is no dedicated mechanism in the city to investigate tenant claims of retaliation.