Before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation. These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community. Therefore, all speakers need to 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 moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.

I'll move to delete item number three, the appointment of police chief from the the former police chief Ban O'Hara from the agenda. Brian O'Hara has resigned from his position as police chief and no public hearing will be held.

So, we will keep that under consent. As a reminder, item number 15 is just setting the public hearing. It's not the vote itself.

Item number 12 is the law enforcement concealment of identity ordinance which is a separate ordinance from the one that we have today. Uh I am going to move to postpone this to the next public health and safety committee which is June 17, 2026.

Uh thank you, Chair Chavez. Uh I just grateful for you taking the lead on this. Um I'll never forget waking up to the news that Melissa Hortman was assassinated and her killer was still on the loose. Um, it is completely um I don't even have the words to describe what it was like to both wake up to that type of news and then live through an occupation by the federal government and not know who was law enforcement, who wasn't law enforcement, who who [snorts] were you safe to be around, who are you not safe to be around. And I think that it just completely dismantles any concept of trust in government to allow for uh that kind of conduct. So I'm just grateful that we're using all of our power at the local level to make sure that that doesn't happen again. So thank you.

Colleagues, this is the law enforcement agency agreements accountability ordinance authored by myself, council member Chowry, council member Chuck Tai, and council member Osman. This ordinance prohibits the city from entering into or amending a law enforcement joint powers [snorts] agreement unless an agency's officers are prohibited from considering their identity while performing activities within the city of Minneapolis. This applies regardless of dollar amount and it requires that a requester for JPA approval must disclose whether the agency has a consumement policy and whether the agency will apply that policy when it is operating within the city of Minneapolis regardless of whether the agency is operating under the terms of the proposed JPA.

So with that colleagues we'll open up for questions after the public hearing that you may have and I'll see if anybody signed up. Thank you Vice Chair Stevenson. Uh the first person we have today is Yan and if I mispronounce your name please let me know.

I do think that it does not go far enough in terms of protecting the citizens who both live in Minneapolis or myself who frequently commute to and you know do business in the city. Um, today is June 3rd and I think it's pertinent to remember that June 3rd last year was when the first major operation um occurred at um Lake in Bloomington um where I don't even know hundreds thousands of people neighbors came out to protest um undisclosed federal actions um from multiple agencies who were all wearing masks to obscure their identities um in very nonuniform ways.

The problem that I see with this is that unlike uh the provision that was passed in St. Paul, which I see that much of this language is modeled after. Um, there is no specifics about how the city is going to engage with federal um officers in sort of regulating this behavior within the city even though it's not coming from city police. So that thing is definitely needs to be um amended to provide some sort of uh pathway to preventing any sort of agency from operating with face facial coverings that obscure their identity and prevent any sort of accountability on our end.

I'm here to voice our strong support for the ordinance to restrict masking. To this day, we're still struggling to get justice for Renee Good, Alec Prey, and Victor Manuel Diaz, three motans who were killed by ICE during Operation Metro Surge. It's extremely clear that the federal government will do just about anything to escape accountability for crimes ranging from pedophilia, corruption, and murder. Thus, the onus is on local and state governments to stop enabling federal governments, federal agents to abuse our communities and get away with it.

City council and mayor Fry, do right by the people that have been terrorized and murdered in your city and pass this ordinance to require mask regulations from any last law enforcement agency the city partners with. And that should only be the first step. We need to move forward to banning secret police in our city entirely.

I would like to speak in support of this ordinance amending the city's code to ensure that when our city enters into agreements with other law enforcement agencies, those agreements disallow concealment of identity. Um, I am also very much aware that today is the anniversary of the incident at Lake and Bloomington that for many of us southsiders marked the beginning of what we now usually refer to as Metro Surge.

We have seen with our own eyes how wearing masks can be used as a form of intimidation, especially against immigrants and communities of color. We have also seen a direct correlation between identity concealment and lawless behavior on the part of law enforcement. From running red lights to racial profiling to acts of violence and physical harm to violations of our first and fourth amendment rights.

Um I agree with some of the people went before me. You know, it doesn't quite go far enough in addressing some of the concerns. Um but you know, you have to start somewhere. Um, you know, so we there's a lot of agreement here on why we need this, but like here's why the city should pass it because I've also heard like, "Oh, but this only affects the city of Minneapolis. Um, it's not going to do that much." But again, we got to start somewhere because we're losing faith in our city government, right?

You know, so we there's a lot of agreement here on why we need this, but like here's why the city should pass it because I've also heard like, "Oh, but this only affects the city of Minneapolis. Um, it's not going to do that much." But again, we got to start somewhere because we're losing faith in our city government, right? Like we just went through Operation Metro Surge and you know, a lot of us who were uh, you know, face to face with ICE during that time felt utterly abandoned not just by our city but by our county, by our state government.

We are an family-led nonprofit and we are here standing in solidarity with Mirac. Um I urge you to vote in favor of banning face coverings for law enforcement officers while they are carrying out their duties in our communities. For decades, black, brown, and indigenous immigrant and poor communities in Minneapolis have suffered from a lack of accountability from policing institutions.

Accountability starts with transparency. When armed officers are operating in our neighborhoods, conducting traffic stops, making arrests, participating in raids, or engaging with community members, the public has a right to know who is policing them.

My question for the council is, what is taking so long? What is taking so long? I don't want to hear excuses about the city attorney saying that there's this or that that they need to pass. If Denver, Philly, Milwaukee, San Jose, St. Paul back in February can get this passed. >> What is what is the hold up in Minneapolis? You need to pass this, right?

The people who aren't here are the holdups. And we need a 9 vote majority to over fry Jacob to overturn Jacob Pry's inevitable veto of this. Right? So my question for you is how can you work together to get this done? We need more than this. We need consequences in the legislation. We need the legislation to have consequences. Okay?

I will move approval of this item with the revisions in front of us. If I can get a second >> and um colleagues, I hope that I can we can earn your support on this ordinance today. As I mentioned earlier, this is not entirely what the community is asking for, but it is a start and it gives us time to bring forward the future action that is on the agenda today that we uh moved to the next cycle meeting to hear the concerns from our community.

Because the reality is is that mass agents have invaded our city and have taken advantage of our community. And I hope when that time comes uh we can earn your support uh to pass that ordinance as well. This morning, a neighbor was kidnapped in Ward 9 by ICE agents in the Corker neighborhood. There was a variety of ICE agents and they were masked and that was a very scary situation for many of my constituents. This individual had his window broken into and he was snatched from his car. And one year ago today, law enforcement agents from a variety of different agencies surrounded Lake and Bloomington. and they concealed their identity and brought military trucks, long guns, and zip ties into our community that instilled quite frankly a lot of fear. And throughout occupation metro surge, our city was invaded by the federal government. We saw a variety of masked agents hiding their identities and kidnapping our immigrant neighbors. And that is just something that will never be acceptable to me.

Uh thank you, Chair Chavez. Council member Whiting invoking the inability for the federal government to even comply with the constitution just made me um remember the day that you know we were interacting with ICE agents at the second precinct parking lot and we had a bunch of community observers just making sure that we knew where their location was and they ended up in the second precinct parking lot and I had to go and introduce myself as the council president and remind them that We had passed a law banning their use of our city owned property for these purposes. They didn't listen to me either. Right? I'm sitting there face to face with masked armed agents.

And I think right it sounds like kind of I'm trying to figure out you know the version of this and where the applicability uh of a of a ordinance like this does exist right and I think as [snorts] we have seen across the the country uh right these these federal agents aren't listening to the constitution uh [laughter] like are they likely to listen to an ordinance and so I think we know that answer is no uh but I think what this does do and I I appreciate the work of of what this does is kind for those local jurisdictions um and ensuring that you know MPD, Henipin County Sheriff's um any any agency in which the Minneapolis Police Department engages in these joint power agreements um has to be consistent to that.

And so, uh, again, I think just thank you to to all the folks that are moving forward on this and and I'm excited to see it move through.

This is super important. Again, it's a first step and uh your comments are really important and your push to us is really important to getting this across the finish line and doing what we all know we we should have done in November. Sorry, not in in February. Um, so thank you. Thanks for coming.