Good afternoon and welcome to our regular meeting of the committee of the whole for July 28th, 2026. My name is Orin Chowry and I'm the chair of this committee. I will call this uh regular meeting to order and ask the clerk to call the role to verify the presence of a quorum. >> Council member Payne >> present. >> Wsley is absent. Rainville is absent. Vita >> present. >> Warren >> present. >> Osman >> present. >> Schaefer >> present. >> Stevenson is absent. Chavez >> present. >> Whiting >> present. >> Palmisano >> present. >> Vice chair Chai >> present. >> And chair Chowry >> present. >> There are 10 members present. >> Thank you clerk. Let the record reflect that we have a quorum. Before we begin the meeting, let me offer a friendly reminder to everyone that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation. The broadcast include real-time captioning to increase accessibility for our entire community. So, it's important that all speakers be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe comments for the broadcast. We ask all speakers to please moderate the speed and clarity of their comments. So colleagues, our agenda is in front of them us. Are there any amendments before we begin? May I have a motion to adopt the agenda? So I'll move >> second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Those opposed say nay. And then before we get into a report of standing committees, I would just like to give a big welcome back to council member Chug Tai, the vice chair of this committee. We are so excited to have you back. So we'll start with the reports of our standing committee starting with the business housing and zoning committee chaired by council vice president Osman. >> Thank you chair chowry. Business Housing and Zoning Committee will be bringing forward 20 items on Thursday council meeting. Item one approves the mayor's nomination of Henrique Velasquez to director of regulatory services. Item two approves a wine and strong beer with general entertainment for Strange Loop Laboratory. Item three approves an interimm use permit for people serving people at uh 219 Fourth Street. Item four is an appeal from FGNC regarding 3,000 Minihaha Avenue, aka the Democracy Center. This item was sent forward without recommendation. Item five approves five liquor license. Item six approves 20 32 liquor license renewals. Item seven approves a gambling license. Item eight uh grants a business license operating condition for Bloomington commercial kitchen. Item nine amends the 2029 license fee schedule for tow trucking services fee. Item 10 authorized a contract amendment with Mcville Music Center. Item 11 accepts and authorize the state of Minnesota grants for employment services. Item 12 authorize the DTAP program funding recommendations. Item 13 accepts a bid for replacing floor box at convention center. Item 14 delegates uh delegates authority to seat director of the owner occupied rehab program. Item 15 accepts and authorizes the water efficiency grant program from the metro council metropolitan council. Item 16, authorize a contract extension for green belt development project. Item 17, approves and staff direction related to the renewal properties. Item 18, authorize a program change for the affordable housing trust fund or AHTF. Item 19, authorize a program change to naturally occur affordable housing or Noah. And lastly, item 20 is resoning and LA alley vacation to the democracy center at 3000 Miniha. This item was sent forward without recommendation. With that, I'll stand any questions for my colleagues. Thank you, Ch. >> Colleagues, are there any questions? Seeing none, we'll move to the climate and infrastructure committee report. I will be giving that report. The climate and infrastructure committee has 13 items to bring forward. Item number one is dinner due Nord commercial block event permit for September 10th, 2026. Item number two is banana ball games block event permit August 7th through 9th, 2026. [snorts] Item number three is Skyway easement from Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board for a portion of 2nd Avenue North. Item number four is Metro Green Line Extension Southwest light rail subordinate funding agreement number 14. Item number 15 is Minneapolis Street Lighting Plan Amendment. Item number six is Cedar Lake Road Bridge project overpass agreement. Item number seven is cooperative agreement with Henipin County Regional Railroad Authority for the Grand Avenue South Bridge over Midtown Greenway. And number eight is the Metropolitan Council Municipal Infiltration and Inflow Grant for cured inplace pipe lining repairs of existing sewers and cross connection elimination. Item number nine is a bid for 2026 2027 public works tree removal and disposal. Item number 10 is a bid for the installation of green storm water infrastructure for the West Fulton neighborhood improvement project. Item number 11 is Columbia Heights membrane plant roof replacement. Item [snorts] number 12 is a contract amendment with CS McCroen Constructions Incorporated for bridge 9 improvements. Item number 13 is the bicycle advisory committee appointments. I'll stand for any questions if there are any. Seeing none, we will next go to the report of the Enterprise Labor Relations Committee given by its chair, Council Member Palmisano. Thank you, Madam Chair. The ELR committee plans to bring 10 items forward on Thursday. Item number one is legislative process reform, research, and recommendations directive. Item number two is a bid for the fire department training apparatus expansion. Item three is a contract amendment with Shaol Lungquist for city city hold restack phase three project amendment. Item four is a contract amendment with Saba software for enterprisewide performance management support and maintenance. Items five and six are legal settlements. Item seven is a claim settlement um where we are receiving money. Item number eight is an indebtedness and bond issuance authorization related to outstanding capital improvement bonds. Item nine is an appointed position in the health department for the director of environmental health and item 10 is our committee work plan. I'm happy to answer questions. Not seeing any questions, we will now go to the last report of the public health safety and equity committee given by its chair, council member Chavez. >> Thank you, Chair Chowri. The public health safety and equity committee will be bringing forward seven items. Item one considers the mayor's nomination of Dr. Freeman to the appointed position of fire chief. This was sent forward without recommendation. Item two authorizes a contract with Henipin Technical College for the police cadet program. Item three authorizes a contract amendment with Gov Works, Inc. to provide quality assurance software for 911. Item four authorizes a contract amendment with the Center for Multicultural Mediation for Community Trauma Response Services. Item five authorizes a contract amendment with the Mother's Love Initiative for Community Trauma Response Services. Item six accepts a grant for the Minnesota Department of Health to provide family home visiting services and authorizes an agreement with the state of Minnesota for the grant. Item seven approves a legislative directive related to neighborhood safety department contract management audit. I'll stand for any questions. >> Members, are there any questions? Seeing none, we will now turn to the consent agenda. Our only item today is a special law approval for food hall licenses. This was submitted by the Intergovernmental Relations Department. They're also here to ask any questions related to this item. With that, do my colleagues have any other discussion or questions on this item? Great. Seeing no further discussion, I will move approval of this consent agenda. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Those opposed say nay. That carries. Now moving on to the discussion portion of our agenda. This next item is a grant application to the United States Department of Justice. It is for the 2026 National Integrated Ballistic Information Network Modernization Program, known as NIBEN. I will have MPD Commander Chris Brown come to speak more on this item. All right. Welcome, Commander. Madame chair uh madame vice chair and welcome back and uh council members um thank you for this opportunity to uh request approval for the uh the grant u and the nibben modernization program grant um and sorry for my voice I lost it on Sunday and I haven't found it yet so we love to do it so the nyan uh modernization grants So it's for modernizing the ballistic imaging technology. Um the DOJ provides uh historically provided the funds for this and now it's provided in the in the in the way of a grant for existing NYBEN um agencies. So agencies that currently have NIBN. Um I have an opportunity to file in for this grant. Um so NIBN stands for National Integrated Ballistic Information Network. Um this provides um funding for replacing the outdated NIBN equipment um at existing sites only um to give them modern NY compatible technology to improve crime gun intelligence capabilities. Um this will help strengthen investigations and our efforts to reduce the violent crime in Minneapolis and as well as uh jurisdictions that also use this as well because it's a it's very much a partnership. So the grant funding pays for new NIB compatible technology and equipment includes it is for a five years uh of upgrades and maintenance which will reduce the financial burden on the city of Minneapolis for because without this grant Minneapolis would would own the cost of it and the the grant is over five years. It's $300,000. So this is like I said this is a non-competitive uh grant. So it's those those in those including Minneapolis were invited to attend uh uh to apply for this particular grant. So there's 170 agencies that currently use NIBEN and they were given the opportunity to apply for this grant to maintain and upgrade their their current equipment. So uh NIBEN is a program that is uh managed by the ATF. Uh, Nibbin is a database that captures, stores, uh, and correlates digital images um, which we often times will call fingerprints of, uh, discharge cartridge casings. So, uh, DCC's that so after you shoot a gun, the bullet itself is expelled outside of the gun, but it leaves either in the gun or on the ground a spent casing. So the spent casing is what this equipment analyzes. And what's unique to that particular thing is is that that that casing and the indentations that you and I can't see that are on that particular casing. Naen equipment can see those things and I'll talk a little bit more in detail about that. And it can it identifies the gun. It's the fingerprints of that gun, that specific gun. So firearm evidence from one crime to another is compared um with the purpose of detecting associations between separate shooting incidents um through the firearms evidence and that's actionable intelligence. So NIBEN aids in preventing violence as well as uh finding out who perpetrated the violent crime that was already happened. So up on the screen here you'll see this is the current equipment that we have the uh on the monitor right there. gives you kind of an idea of what it looks like um after a um a spent casing is put through the system. It doesn't look like much, but if you kind of think of it as a fingerprint, you're looking at it, that is I that is unique to the any casing that was sent through that particular weapon. So um next to it is the box that that is the actual um that is actual box that you put the casing on and it analyzes it and shows up on that and then that information is sent down to ATF to um analyze further. So Minneapolis Police Department has been part of the NYN program since 2002. Uh current brass tracks equipment was installed in 2014 and you can imagine there's been a lot of changes and a lot of advancements since 2014. So upgrades in in technology as well as the program itself is is very important. Earlier on um when we were part of Nyan uh we would submit as needed these cases these different casings into the systems and that created quite a backlog. So when we did actually have something happen right away it um it would take weeks or possibly even months before we would get the results back which is really difficult when you're trying to use that information for investigations that are currently open. So, uh, the current process eliminates that wait time by proactively processing every discharge firearm, uh, every discharge casing that we come up with, every DCC, as well as when we recover a firearm in any way at all, uh, we in our laboratories through the forensics labs, we'll fire that weapon and we'll use that casing that comes out of that that recovered firearm and put it through the same system. So now we have the fingerprints of that gun that was recovered and sometimes I can link it to other other gun other guns and other crimes that we've had had happen. So [clears throat] so uh the steps of of of Nimon NY are so MPD will collect and submit that evidence into NIBN. Uh there's a turnaround that's uh as brief as possible because we want investigators to be able to use the information uh to give you an idea. It can be done it could be done rushed to be done in the same day. Um otherwise average time is probably five six days to get the information back but that's still when an investigation is still ongoing and we can link that same gun to other crimes that happened uh previously when when those casings were discharged. Um then there's a followup uh with prosecution and investigations. I just want to say I was here last week presenting and while I was in the lobby waiting um I was here because we were present they were presenting on on the fast team. Uh Lieutenant Schroeder got like six hits while we were waiting. Not saying you guys took too long for all those things but while we were waiting he got six hits from cases they submitted information to Nibban. This is such a valuable tool to make connections and every one of those hits associated that gun with another crime that happened in Minneapolis. Those are just our hits regarding what we're submitting them for. This is such a valuable and critically essential to our mission with Minneapolis. So the effectiveness of Nivven relies on comprehensive collection of the discharge casings um and crime scenes as well as recovering firearms and the ability for the forensic division to enter that into there immediately. The ATF adopts a minimum required operation standards and I'm happy to say that MPD uh does have ATF's gold standard in regarding to that. The gold standard is uh they within two days of collection of the of the either the firearm or the dcc it's entered into niv. So there's no delay and that's pretty exceptional across across uh uh investigations. So the forensics division can contribute to the overall strategy of of to deal with gun violence by providing this actionable uh crime crime gun intelligence to investigators as well as using the forensic data to not only solve crimes but to prevent future violent crimes as well. Take a moment here. I'm going to give you a case study for um use of the NYBEN um program. So I can't give you a one that's currently ongoing. So, I can give you one an example of one that happened in 2023. In August 9th of 2023, Minneapolis police officers were dispatched at the intersection of Thomas Avenue North and Oak Park uh Avenue in North Minneapolis. The report was for shots fired and a woman screaming. Life-saving measures were attempted on the on the victim and unfortunately the victim was pronounced deceased at the hospital. Officers canvased the area and located video from a doorbell captured that captured the incident. Officers also in further canvasing located a video of the of a cargo van that was likely used in the incident. Uh the the following day officers were able to locate a possible suspect vehicle that was used in this crime. Uh officers inside the vehicle were able to with after Warren was uh obtained discovered a uh spent dcc from a 10mm casing from under the vehicle uh the vehicle's undercarriage that matched the features of the 10 mm discharged cartridge casing from a scene from the scene of the shooting indicating that they had been shot from the same weapon. This is the particular example of how the NBA machine was used to connect the particular case. The video evidence led to the suspect vehicle, but the nan's forensic evidence linked the vehicle to the crime. So the NIBN modernization program this will um by receiving this grant and getting the appropriate updates and maintenance to the existing machine system it'll uh which are now reaching the end of their service life making repairs replacement parts and manufacturing support make is incre is becoming increasingly difficult if we were to maintain our existing equipment without without this grant. um maintaining operational capability. Um without the modernization, agencies will risk downtime as well as degraded performance that could result in delayed ballistic evidence processing uh which will affect u crime gun investigations. Um newer IBEN newer NYBEN technology provides faster processing, higher quality images and better match uh capabilities, helping investigators identify firearms more like more quickly. upgrading the systems, maintain capability uh with IBIN software and infrastructure. So um uh ATF is evolving and and improving their software. Our equipment needs to keep up with that at some point in time. Um if we don't have um cost covered and we don't make these changes, we won't be able to participate in the particular program. Um that does conclude my brief uh uh on the on this particular case. If you guys have any questions, I can speak to another. >> Thank you. Uh members, please get into queue if you have any questions or comments. We have council member Chavez and Q. Go ahead, council member. >> Thank you, Tre Chie. I'd like to first express my concern about this matter. I wish the presentation at least acknowledged the harmful language targeting our immigrant neighbors and that it would have at least disputed disputed the harmful rhetoric uh noted in there. I am not disputing the need for funding to address this concern or the concern to address gun violence in our city, but I am disputing the fact that there was no mention in this presentation about the harmful rhetoric noted about our undocumented neighbors. The notice of funding opportunity for this program states that the purpose of funding, which provides funding to enhance capacity to locate and apprehend quote aliens who have committed crimes under federal, state, or local law, in addition to being quote unlawfully present in the United States, investigated crimes committed by quote illegal aliens. I want to be very clear to my community that this language is disrespectful. It is dehumanizing, and it is not in alignment with our values here in Minneapolis. This notice of funding opportunity contains provision barring funded programs or activities from directly or indirectly quote impeding federal immigration enforcement including denial of DHS agent access or failure to honor DHS notice request. Additionally, the pre-awward reimbursement mechanism in this notice of funding opportunity operates under a section which is it itself named the bridging bridging immigration related deficits experienced nationwide. Biden the reimbursement fund which includes locating and apprehended quote aliens who have committed a crime under federal, state or local law. In addition to being quote unlawfully present in the United States, theou attach also states that except as expressly expressly prohibited by law, the IBAN partner agrees to provide ATF with access to all information, reports, and any other relevant information regarding crimes related to evidence entered into the system as well as monthly reports outlining historical, statistical, and case adjudication information on the use and results and the use of NIBEN program andor systems and related services provided by ATF and the system manufacturer in order to ensure the capturing of required performance management information and other stuff. I want to first state that I do not accept the premise implicit or explicit in this or any federal instrument that immigrant residents are a threat to public safety requiring locating and apprehending. I believe that we as a as a city have a duty to ensure that when we are applying for and accepting federal funds that we do not lend the city's name, resources, or partnership to a funding framework that dehumanizes and stigmatizes immigrant neighbors in our city and this state and in this country. I do not accept the idea that undocumented immigrants are quote aliens or quote illegal. And I do not accept the premise that expressing these concerns are rooted in rhetoric when these concerns are coming from caring about our immigrant neighbors in this city. I will not be supporting this program. And if we are going to pursue this, I be working with the city attorney's office to attach a resolution that says we do not agree with the use of calling our neighbors illegal or aliens and that other conditions will be have to applied. So, I just wanted to express my concerns today. Thank you, Council Member Chavez. Next, we will go to Vice Chair Chugai. Um, thank you, Madame Chair. Thank you for the presentation, Commander Brown. Um, always a pleasure to have you in the chambers. Um, I am wondering if you might be able to answer a couple of questions. Um, and specifically, I'm hoping that you can help articulate here the the city has um contracts with a number of agencies in the realm of law enforcement. I know we have a contract with the state's um Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the BCA. Um I think that one is related to um assistance with forensics and um uh I think I think there's like ballistics and and other um aspects that you highlighted in your um presentation. So just help us understand uh why we need to utilize this grant when we have a mechanism of having outside support in this. >> So [clears throat] um we do have lots of differentus and we also um submit our evidence to the BCA and pay for it on many different ways. But what we're doing in this particular program, this is through the DOJ and ATF. So it's it's a broader network that um we've had that partnership with uh since 2002. So this isn't new. This is just looking for funding to maintain and update the equipment for the for the program that still exists. And generally speaking, is it safe to say that like most um of our partners um at the at the state and local level have some sort of relationship with uh an agency that has NYBEN access. um through the chair um vice chair um I can say that there's 170 agencies that are currently using NIBN um but that's going to be primarily large agencies um and so it it does behoove us because some of the crimes that we're we're finding weapons for um are going to be think you know helping our partners um in the immediate area so our suburbs and and such and the guns that we capture um the casings we we may be able to solve other crimes that happen and prevent future crimes from happening as well. I don't know if that answers what you >> I mean, it certainly does, but I I think the what what I'm taking away here is that um you know, we're not we're not the city isn't going to lose access to a system that is critical as a result of not submitting um or the um a proposal to receive this grant. Um, I think that makes it a little bit different from instances in the past. I think when we've had uh contracts or things like that for approval before the body and and the choices between having a system or not. >> So that addresses my questions. Thank you. >> But address I'm looking at the a document RCA here. the concern raised by council member Chavez about the language used in the application. Can you touch a little bit about that? >> Uh through the chair um council member Osman, I I can just uh talk about it briefly. Um so when we first got the so what he's referring to is the notice of uh funding opportunity that's put out by the DOJ. Um all language for federal grants um there we don't write them. >> Sure. language does come from the whoever the current uh federal administrator is that and um so we don't we don't make up that but whenever we receive a grant opportunity we run all that through the city attorney's office um in and vetted before we ever make any agreements in any of any way. So, traditionally, we would have uh um been sending a this information would have come to you um after after they saw it. We were just running late on this particular case. So, we sent the whole package over to you um at the same time that the city attorneys were looking at it. So, so the letter did not come with an explanation from the city attorneys at the time and it and it currently does. So uh my understanding is that we are looking for this funding and applying through the uh US government and part of their notice or application um information it includes a language that is seemed uh to be you know what we hear every day on President Trump which is uh um you know illegal aliens and language like that. Um that is actually uh it is a concern but I don't know how um this could relate to what we're getting as as in our department. Um it is very concerning and it has been concerning ever since the uh Trump took over office. But uh for us we are as a department I'm guessing we're [clears throat] applying and we apply a lot of a lot of uh grants through the through this administration [clears throat] and um I think that what what you mentioned is very important to notice that this uh grant is going to help us reduce crimes and help us catch bad bad guys that are committing uh crimes. Can you relate talk about one more about accepting this grants? What is the um is are there any attachment on immigration or any things uh through the city that we have to address? Um and how is that related to immigration accepting these grants? I I I don't know if I heard that, but if there's any maybe the city attorney is here accepting this grant, does that how's that related to im immigration enforcement in in our city? >> Yeah. Through the chair, uh council member Rossman, uh the city attorney here be able to answer more specific questions. Thank you. >> I appreciate it. >> Good afternoon, members of the council. Um my name is Amy Shut, uh lead assistant city attorney, uh through the chair, council member Osman. Um to your question, generally speaking about problematic grant terms, we have been seeing an increase in these terms since the beginning of the Trump administration and that is the reason that my office has set up a process for reviewing terms of all grants that the city is applying for. So this grant as um was mentioned went through that process just as many other grants do. I happened to be the one who received that for review and I reviewed the um NOFO of the grant and all of the documents referenced in that NOFO for any problematic terms and conditions. That includes terms and conditions that would implicate the separation ordinance as well as any other terms or conditions that would require the city to act in a way that is antithetical to our values. My determination in reviewing those um the those documents was that there are not any um and there's no information in it at this point that does require us to act in a way that is violative of the separation ordinance or antithetical to our values. So, while it does have um problematic um language in it, it has um inappropriate language in it related to our um undocumented neighbors. Um that language doesn't implicate actions of the city that would uh force us to not accept the grant. that is really helpful to um understand that I uh will support uh this um accepting these grants as also that I disagree with a lot of things uh this administration says but as a city uh if we're um following our um separation ordinance and doing the right thing and doing the fetting it's really hard for us to control what this administration says but we just got to keep going and doing what we can to keep our um residents and citizens safe. And this uh grant helps our police officers uh capture uh the bad guys and put them um you know uh in justice to make sure that they are not committed more crimes and this is a tool that could help um you know keep keep our community safe. I appreciate your explanation that this is nothing to do with uh immigration enforcement, but again, we can't control what um our president says. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, we'll go to Council Member Palmasano. >> First, um I'll say I agree wholeheartedly with Council Member Chavez's admonition of the language used by the federal government here. Um, but I think a grant for upkeep of equipment is different than how it's suggesting we use that equipment. So, I can both agree with Council Member Chavez that this is abhorrent language and also agree to get this machine's upkeep funded. The terms of this grant, as the city attorney just mentioned, are what is most important to me. Um, none of these terms require us to act in a way different to our common values here. Um, just yesterday I was speaking with a local Uptown restaurant owner who had shots fired into their restaurant last week at their restaurant manager through a window. And this team of restaurant employees lives in fear and has been waiting anxiously, eagerly to get those casings processed. I have a question for Commander Brown. Um, Commander Brown, you mentioned that the MPD meets the ATF's gold standard for NIBEN entry in its two business days. Um, and it sounds like, you know, we're meeting that. You're proud of that. Does that mean if entry is different than getting results? >> Yes. Yes, ma'am. Through the through the chair, um, council member Palazano, yes, it it gets entered into the system within two days. Um the it depends on either backlog or if it was a case that was given a speedy I believe that would be the response. It could be up to six days I think is probably um otherwise I can bring if you want to know more specific I can provide uh the forensic director up here. >> I guess I'm just curious are do we end up with backlogs based on you know a number of shootings in our community these last two weeks or is that not really a thing? uh through the chair, council palazone. No, we do not have any backlogs because we uh basically pay it forward by processing everything the moment we get it so that we're not so we don't all of a sudden everything's a hurry. Um doesn't happen. >> Okay. Um well, thank you. That that is helpful and it's helpful as we connect with people who are the victims of gun violence. Um but not being able to keep our NBIN systems completely up to date and processing things quickly like this like you mentioned in the slide um equipment breaking down or having problems or not being able to get replacement parts like this is problematic. It impacts victims who are shot at. It impacts an investigation. It means less cases will get solved. So that is why I'll be supporting this today. Thank you. >> Thank you. Go to Council Member Chavez. >> Uh, thank you, Judy. Uh, a question for MPD. Do we have confirmation from the federal government that they wouldn't interpret us accepting this grant as us having to enforce immigr federal enforcement, immigration laws, >> uh, through the chair and, uh, council member Chavez. Um, I personally have not spoken with the federal government about their interpretations of of this agreement at all. I know that >> You haven't? I personally have not spoken through them. I know our city attorney's office is looking at whether what we're obligated to do under this agreement and that was expressed earlier through >> city attorney's office. Would you be able to answer that question? >> Yes, Miss Shut. [clears throat] >> Why is everybody looking at me like that? I get to ask these questions if it's talking about my community. >> I'm sorry. Can you repeat the last thing that you said? >> Has the federal government communicated with us that if we were to apply and accept this grant that we would then have to do immigration enforcement? >> To my knowledge, we've had no communication with the federal government about their interpretation of the law surrounding this area. >> I think that's important to figure out. If we're applying for a grant that literally talks about quote illegal aliens and immigration enforcement, why are we not getting that information? So, I would like that as a follow-up to get an answer to that. Colleagues, it seems like there is going to be votes to approve this that needs seven votes on Thursday. It's going to need nine votes to accept it anyways, and that's a whole different board level eventually. Um, so I'm going to be bringing forward a resolution that I'll work closely with the city attorney's office expressing my concerns about the language in this no uh that dehumanizes immigrants, calls them illegal, calls them aliens, and puts requirements if this is to get accepted. because what I don't want is that we're gonna then um be doing things that would be hurting our immigrant neighbors. So, I'll be reaching out for a meeting. I'll be for that resolution and I'll be attaching it to this no. >> All right. Thank you, Council Member Chavez. Clerks, did you get that? Um >> yes, Madam Chair. Uh the question related to whether or not there's been any communication with the federal government um about this one >> communication and then if there is a way to get that information of if entering into this grant agreement they would be interpreted into enforcing um uh imig immigration enforcement as detailed in that Biden fund act. >> Thank you. Uh, I put myself in Q next. Uh, I think we need to just say what the elephant in the room is. This is like a deeply deeply deeply tough position that members of this council are in, myself included. And I think that was very clearly communicated in our agenda setting. uh because the NOFO has laid out language for purpose of funding that does speak to our immigrant community in dehumanizing ways. Um reflective of the experience that we had in Operation Metro Surge. And I think from where I sit, the feelings that members of this body have and members of our community will have in understanding the purpose of funding and where the funding comes from are valid. I it's it's unsurprising to me that people are having hard reactions to that. And I think that's the reality of this. I think the question before us is should we apply for this grant or not? That's largely a governance approach. Um for me um I am personally very troubled that this comes from the bridging immigration what is it deficits experienced nationwide program basically immigration enforcement reimbursement fund for state governments local governments other units and it's kind of hard for us to separate that. I don't object to IBAN. I understand the tool and it sounds like it's been showing clear deliverables. I don't think not applying for this grant means we don't update it. It does mean that we would have to look to our own budget to do it, which is always a chance if for some reason, one the we apply and this doesn't get accepted. two, we apply and there's terms we can't agree to because the same review that the city attorneys do in applying for said grant, that same level of scrutiny has to happen again uh once the grant is before us and then again we have to vote for it. So those are kind of the things to weigh. Um, I I do want to just ask a question and I noticed this last night when I was prepping for committee. Um, it's my understanding in order for us to apply for this grant, it has to pass through this body, it has to go through final action um on Thursday and then it has to be signed off by the mayor and final our final vote on this is on the 30th. I noticed that the deadlines um listed in the NOFO are beyond that time. So the grants.gov deadline is 7:27 which is now passed and then the just grants deadline is 7:29 which is tomorrow before our final council meeting. And I'm wondering how are we applying for this if it's past deadline? Madam Chair, um actually we we were notified that it's been extended beyond that. I believe it's August. I can get you the exact date if you like. >> I think that would be good to know. Um if you wanted if you're able to pull it up or if you want to do it via um administrative followup, I think that's important. >> Yeah, let's get >> Yeah, let's do administrative followup. Commander, don't worry about pulling it up. If you can get it and then it [snorts] can send it out via email. I think that's helpful. Um those are my comments. Uh and I mean given given the nature of the question that council member Chavez asked and just like from where my viewpoint on a governance approach is I personally don't feel comfortable entering into this grant. Um and I also feel like there needs to be more transparency on the no. uh we had grants come before us like the burn grant that didn't have this type of language and didn't come from this Biden fund that was predicated on immigration enforcement. So I will now recognize uh Council President Payne. >> Thank you, Cherrey. Um I first want to thank the city attorney's office, particularly Miss Shut. I think this is really diligent legal analysis. I also wanted to give a special shout out to Miss Robertson, Miss Humun, and Miss Lyup. Uh, we just recently won a case in the Minnesota Supreme Court protecting our separation ordinance. I mean, our attorney's officer, our attorney's office is fighting day in and day out to really stand up for the values of the city. And I say all that to say that this is this is active and ongoing litigation and legal conflict with the federal administration. And one of the first things that we did at the beginning of 2025 was authorize the city attorney's office to proactively engage with the Trump administration. And then we renewed that um because we had set it expiration date for the end of 2025 when we realized uh for the duration of the Trump administration, we are going to have to be in active litigation and actively fighting out the values of this city. Uh that's just the the background and context I want to share with why I won't be supporting this is because we are not operating in a really stable legal terrain right now when it comes to this. This language is extraordinarily troubling as council member Chavez has highlighted and we've got strong legal analysis, but that legal analysis is ba is based on today's case law and we are not done litigating what that case law is going to be as it relates to our relationship to the federal government. And so if we were under different circumstances, I I mean the value is clear, the need is clear. Um I I I am hopeful that um you know we're not operating under a dismantled system. We have a functioning system. We are at risk just due to age that that system won't be functioning anymore. But it it's not a non-functional system at this time. And I just think that the the risk of the federal government like even with strong legal analysis, which I do believe we have, I I don't think that strong legal analysis really matters when they will extrajudically execute our residents, when they will assault me personally. I might be a little bit biased here, but um my own personal Fourth Amendment rights have been violated by the federal government. Not not hypothetically, literally. Uh, and I just don't think that that risk is worth it at this time. Uh, and maybe in partnership with Council Member Chavez, we can make sure that we have really strong legal protections uh, if this does move forward. But again, this does have to come back for a final vote. Uh, but I I don't even want to entertain it at this time given that context. So, and in fact, I would make a motion to forward this without recommendation if there's a second for that. second. Um, Council Member Vita. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, my I don't know if I'm allowed, but my question really is for Council Member Chavez. Uh, because I do think you get to ask whatever question you want to council member Chavez. the the question is you you raised a point about like what we're required to do um with the contract and I've been waiting for close to two years for dollars to be released from the federal administration based on language that they like very specific language that was used in a contract for a railroad grant that literally had nothing to do with immigration services. And so they [snorts] had actual language in this contract that said we needed to work with um ICE essentially to get the money and we had to litigate that for almost two years. We I mean it was very specific. It was not vague at all. There was no question what they were requiring for us to do and that is why we rejected the grant. So maybe to the city attorney. Um I mean the the things that have been in litigation have been very clear about like what the expectation was from the federal government for us to receive money. I thought >> through the chair council member Vita. So, I believe you're talking about the connecting Camden grant, which is still pending. Yes. And to your point, did have uh language in it related to ICE and immigration enforcement, specifically um some of the similar terms to uh what we saw here. And we do have an active injunction that would prohibit those terms. And so, we have, to your point, negotiated um those terms out of that grant. So, that um the grant is still not complete. to your point, uh we are still waiting for final signature on that grant, but the um draft of the grant that is the most recent grant does have an exception to those terms due to the lawsuits that we've negotiated, >> right? And so I I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that none of this money we want to compromise what we feel as a city. And not only was the connect and Camden grant, which was extremely important to this community um rejected by the administration, I think anything else that came in with that sort of language has been rejected. And we've worked as a city enterprise to make sure that we don't compromise oursel or the residents like that. And I guess I just I feel like I need to ask this because the questions keep coming up like is this going to be the same thing for everything that we get from the federal government? Are our city attorneys and the mayor and the council going to continue to fight the same way we have since this administration took office? like is that the commitment from all of us and the city attorney's office or are we willing to compromise who we are as leaders and let something slip through? I don't think that that's the case here. And so I'm okay with supporting this because I know how many conversations I've had with not only the attorneys, folks that are suing along with our city um in lawsuits similar other cities who've had to sue that we've had to uh model what they've done uh the mayor's office, my colleagues that we won't compromise who we are as a city to receive money from the federal government at all. Like I think that's been clear since day one that we will not do that. We're not going to compromise our residents. We're not going to go into contract with anybody who wants to violate our separation ordinance. Like all the things. And so my expectation has always been no one would even bring that before us because we've done a good enough job of expressing that's not how we roll around here. So, I don't think that anyone would come into this chambers before this body, before the mayor, before the city attorney's office with something that they think would compromise what we've stated very clearly on our own personal platforms, professional platforms. I think every single thing we've done in the last year and a half, what this entire administration has been around, we're standing together as a city. And if the one thing we can agree on fighting it is this administration in especially when they're compromising who we are as Minneapolis. So I I'm happy to move forward with this. I'm also confident in that if something came up not only with the city attorneys, the police department, I know you all certainly don't want another scandal on your hands. And so I'm I'm certain that folks will come and talk to us if something is out of order here. But we have to think about what this does for the what this grant will do for the community, especially when we're in a budget crisis right now, like what we're talking about here. If this grant can assist us in in a financial crisis, then I think we should at least try. If something comes up that is compromising us, then I'm with Council Member Chavez. I say no. Period. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, we'll go to Council Member Whiting. >> Thank you, uh, Chair Chowry. And just a probably a few questions for our city attorney's office here. uh just I think broadly I think we're kind of talking to and speaking about a program and kind of the grants and I'm just trying to get a deeper understanding of what we kind of have before us and what this grant application process uh looks like and so for kind of the language that council member Chavez is speaking to and I think all of us have concerns about um within the the kind of no the notice of funding opportunity uh can you and and at which you can can Can you speak to us of like what nofos are broadly um and like where this language is coming from? [snorts] >> Sure. So uh through the chair council member Whiting uh no are notices of funding opportunity. They are documents put out by the federal government and governments at various levels um providing sometimes competitive and sometimes um uniform uh grant opportunities. So you um any interested party can read the NOFO and um submit an application to receive grant funding. So this particular NOFO is um for the I forget the name it is long the national integrated ballistic information modernization program through the department of justice and the funding for that program the NYN program for short comes from a um recently passed a section of Trump's uh I believe it's the one big beautiful bill and so the particular ular section of that bill that authorized this grant program and this grant funding has language in it related to um various things that the grant funding can be used for. And among those things are um uses such as enhancing the capacity of uh governments to locate and apprehend aliens who have committed crimes under law. and the other uh various uh language that uh council member Chavez read. So those are types of uses that are allowable under that um authorizing statute. They are not the only uses of fund funding allowable under that statute. >> Thank you. And just so I can kind of clarify in my mind, the these kind of no allow for a purpose of funding and that these are uh to council member Chavez's points, there are certain language in here that would allow for uh this funding to go to avenues kind of such as the locate apprehend aliens or legal aliens as as noted um in the NOFO. Uh but there is nothing that requires in either the NO and attached. Uh there's nothing that requires this grants to be used for those specific purposes. >> That's correct. The section that council member Chavez read from was the first section of the NOFO the purposes of funding section, but that is not the section that relates to the uh required use of funding. There is um later on in the NOFO a goals and objectives of this funding section that includes um more specific uh targeted uses of the funds. And then um as I'm sure our my colleagues would be able to tell you more about um you as a applicant you provide a um program narrative of how you intend to use the [snorts] funds that um comports with those goals and objectives. >> That's really helpful. Thank you for the clarification. [clears throat] >> Thank you. Next we'll go to Council Member Warren. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, I I want to support this because I understand the importance of ballistic testing and I really want to solve the unsolved murders and homicides and acts of violence that have perpetuated violence throughout our community. I understand that it is something that is uncomfortable because a lot of times we don't suspect that some of our neighbors who appear to be one way towards us can be another way towards somebody else. And um I don't know here in in the state of Minnesota, I've never seen an alien before in my life. Okay? I've never seen a spaceship pull up. I've never seen anybody green jump up off of there or anything of that sorts. But if they come here and they're cutting up, I need to know that there's something put in place where we can deal with those people accordingly. Now, I know that there are individuals, like I said, who are committing crimes that, like I said before, we did not suspect beyond a shadow of a doubt that that was something that they would be doing. They appear one way to us and they do something else somewhere else. Marilyn Manson, great person, wonderful dad, all of these great things, but then a heinous serial killer somewhere else doing all kind of other stuff. Like, you just never know with people, right? But if these if this machine and this equipment and these testings are going to prove that someone was involved or they're able to trace it back to firearms, like I want to keep the focus on that part of solving crimes because I just really want safer communities. And if it means that we're going to end up apprehending some individuals who are even in law enforcement or apprehending individuals who are in other fields of public safety or people who are doing then guess what? Nobody is without being reproved. I'm just going to say that. So if there's some things that need to be done in order to clean up our justice system and ensure that we are charging people appropriate with the crimes that they have committed and accountability is going to be present, then sign me up twice. I I don't believe in in individuals being targeted around any type of immigration status at all whatsoever. do not target anyone based on their citizenship or anything like that. But like I said, I never have seen an alien before in my life. So, I don't know who this this grant application thing is calling aliens cuz I've never seen any. But if there are people who are committing crimes, who are doing things out here that they have no business doing, then those people need to be dealt with accordingly. And I was hoping that there is a plan in order to get them off of the street so that other people can go on with their natural lives. That's what I that's what I have to say. And so I'm interested in supporting it because I want crime solved. I do. There is a lot of situations with unsolved murders and children and young people and elders and people who have been harmed and injured by firearms. And I just want any way that we can figure out who is responsible for that, then let's go with that that method of of making sure that we are holding people accountable for the crimes that they've committed. >> Thank you. >> The end. >> Thank you. Next, I'll recognize Council Member Chavez. >> Thank you, Chair Chuck Tai. I think the federal government when they're saying aliens, when reading the document, they're referring to undocumented immigrants. So, I at least want to provide the context that they're explicitly naming our undocumented undocumented neighbors as aliens and illegals. Um, so I just want to add that that context. I So, colleagues, it seems like there's going to be votes to support this on Thursday. Uh so I will be working with the city attorney's office to share the language that I have drafted on a resolution that I will be attaching to this no uh that literally condemns the way our undocumented neighbors are being called on in this document that puts requirements on this if we were to move forward uh with seeking this grant uh asking for written clarification from this agency on if they would interpret our separation ordinance being in violation if we were to seek this what they mean by DHS agent access, DHS notice, uh whether they would interpret us accepting this grant as us violating our civil rights ordinance because you know civil rights is mentioned in this uh no and other stuff that I think we need to have written clarification from because what I don't believe is the federal government. they have known to lie about coming to Minneapolis uh to address crime, but what they're doing is taking innocent moms, fathers, and dads away from our city. So, I want to make sure that I'll if if folks are going to move forward with this, I'm going to attach a resolution because I have the responsibility to represent my constituents and make sure that this city is not doing something that could be um you know, impacting our residents. >> Thank you. Next, I'll recognize Council Member Schaefer. >> Yes, I'll be brief. Thank you, Council Member Chavez, for sharing your heart and I'll look forward to seeing um what you bring forward around this resolution and if it's something that we can indeed attach, um I appreciate that work. Um I guess today I have to say on the heels of uh W 7 being on the border of what happened this week and the tremendous violence, um this is something I ha I have to support. Um, we see what this technology brings to insights for MPD in trying to find out the perpetrators of some of these crimes. And we cannot have this become the norm on our streets. We need these tools to be able to find those who are committing these heinous crimes and um get them off the streets. And so I will be supporting this. Um I'm a little surprised at the the conversation. Um but we'll be following up with the city's attorney's office to be able to understand um what our process is. But um I just really am grateful um for the thoughts today. Thank you. Um seeing no further discussion, is there a motion on this item? I I moved for forwarding without recommendation. That was seconded. >> Great. Um I'm not seeing anyone else in discussion. So on the motion uh to forward this item to Thursday's meeting without recommendation, uh clerk, please call the role. >> Council member Payne >> I. Rainville. >> I >> Vita >> I >> Warren >> I >> Osman >> I >> Schaefer >> I Chavez >> I >> Whiting >> I >> Palmisano >> I vice chair Chai >> I >> and Chair Chowry >> I >> there are 11 eyes's. >> That motion carries. Our next uh discussion item is a staff directive from council members Schaefer and vice chair Chug Tai. It is related to the budget process and an analyzes other factors. Do either one of the authors want to speak more to this item. Council member Schaefer. >> Yes. Um this is just a staff directive as we head into our budget season looking at what other cities other processes might be happening that we can look at to glean information from and have talked with um LRO staff about this and I have invited Andrew to come and give just a brief very couple minute overview of where this direction would head. >> Welcome up Mr. Hoggins. Uh, thank you, Chair Chadri, Vice Chair Shukai. Uh, my name is Andrew Hawkins. I'm the director of legislative research and oversight. Happy to speak to this item today. Uh, this staff direction resembles again a lot of the pieces that we see in staff directions to LRO. Um, and that it asks us to kind of go and understand what the sort of what is the landscape of the legislative budget process as it exists in comparable cities. Um, and to pull out any kind of examples that we can for um that would benefit the council for consideration um um as we kind of head into this transition um following the mayor's budget address um in the budget delivery on the 24th of August to the budget um committee and it becomes a legislative budget. So, we wanted to make sure that we were being timely um to get this information to council for consideration in advance. um of that timeline so that any um kind of tools that we observe um across other jurisdictions and comparable bodies to legislative research and oversight um are able to be considered um and kind of adopted for use in this process. Um as it comes as no surprise to anybody. There's you know this will be a challenging budget process. I think that is the one thing that there seems to be quite a bit of agreement on. And so I think from our standpoint, anything that we can do to help support this body um with this considerations as this process begins um is something that we want to pursue. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there any further discussion on this item? All right. Seeing none, can I have a motion on this item? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. I. Those oppose say nay. That motion carries. All right. Now we will turn to our receive and file portion of the agenda. Our first presentation is about the city council's work so far in 2026. I'll welcome up Andrew Hawkins again from the legislative research oversight team for this presentation. All right. Hello again. I'll won't introduce myself twice. Um so for this presentation, I think the one thing you'll probably notice that it's going to be different. Um starting in 2026, um the role of um reporting back on the council tracking report, transition from our city clerk to legislative research and oversight. Um we took the first quarter of this year to um implement um the dashboard that you're going to see um linked and QR codeed and um will be hosted on our website uh shortly. The whole idea behind this was trying to figure out how we can make this more transparent, provide more information both to council and residents about um the different, you know, all the different items that are coming through um our legislative body um with the council and its committees um for consideration any given week. Um this presentation focuses a lot more on kind of what that process looks like and then highlighting some of the items that are going to be included. Um I think subsequently um for quarterly reports uh we'll be able to focus on the expanded functionality and additional um data points and then do a culminating report at the end of each year that's going to be more substantive. Um however for the purposes of this one it's almost kind of deliberately light on some of the details because the details we're trying to drive people to um the dashboard itself to get that information so that we can get feedback and ensure that we're approving um as we go. So again um like a lot of our work um our kind of key reasons for doing for taking this approach with public transparency. Um having a public facing dashboard for all of this work um creates additional transparency and accessibility for residents as well as council. Um it also reduces a burden on originating entities to track the status of requests. Um and what I'm alluding to there would be again council offices that have issued legislative directives, staff directions. Um when our office of city auditor brings back um audit reports that have audit findings. Um historically there have been some challenges with trying to track down what the status is of those um who's responsible for ensuring that um different audit findings are being uh remedied by um the appropriate departments. And so I think making this transparent and accessible um just simplifies that and kind of lets everybody collectively have some accountability and um the ability to call that stuff out when we see there's things that have been outstanding for quite some time. Um just again the one data point I did include just to highlight we're at 774 total council acts. um 19 ordinance acts, 237 resolutions, 520 action items. The action items break down into again we um a number of you know different u ways to cut across these. I think we're still working on kind of what's the most impactful. Um we certainly can throw out all kinds of different stats. But I think it's important that we work with uh the body and um get some feedback on what we're putting forward right now to figure out what's really important um and what people are the most interested in tracking and how we break that out accordingly. Um, additionally this year, obviously due to the um, situation um, created by Operation Metro Surge, like the shift to a lot of our what would have normally gone through our committees to this committee um, like created some challenges with trying to break stuff out in a way that would reflect properly across all the different committees. So that's something that we're trying to work on as we go forward. Um similarly for the legislative directive and staff directive tracking that we're doing um we have the our LRO's dashboard that tracks this is directly plugged into limbs so we're able to pull a lot of information directly. Unfortunately this is a one area where we still don't have that ability to get updates um on the status of things through limbs. So this is still a manual process. Um, I should also say thank you to Malia Helme from the Office of Public Safety or sorry, Office of Public Service um and Tim Conan from it for their help in pulling all this together and getting everything um like published in time and to ensure that we had a public facing dashboard for accessibility today um for the ongoing directives uh that we're tracking um right now. And again, there might be I think I noticed a couple that um sometimes they come through in different formats based on modifications to the request. Um, so we're always going to be going through this to make sure that everything's reflected. If there's something that um, anybody notices, always feel free to reach out, let me know, and we can make sure it's added. Um, but we have, um, for OCS quarterly updates. Um, this was one that again, it creates a challenge when they're quarterly because technically then it never really closes. So, we're trying to figure out a way to display that. So, it can be captured correctly, but that's returning in Q3. I know the Shot Spotter technology evaluation um, will be returning in Q4 alongside the audit report on um, the similar topic. um the South Lindale master corridor plan. Um that that one's targeting the 10826. Um it's a public works CPAD joint effort um on presenting that one. Uh the non-fatal shooting task force. Uh there's a quarterly report that was just presented on 722. Um but again, that's one that's going to continue to come back. And so I think it's we're trying to find a way in the dashboard itself um which there is a link um and QR code on the page too if you want to find any more detail on these that I'm going to point out in a later slide. Um similarly amongst the 19 LDS that we're tracking that are currently open with the administration um uh the ones I wanted to highlight I know the rental rental license ordinance implementation that one it's again a three-part kind of series that's being presented the first was on 513 8:15 is the next and 11:15 would be the final uh the police policy and procedures quarterly report August 5th will be the next date for that um and then the I know the thrive strategic development plan um looks like it has a target date of 9:30 30. Uh moving into staff directives, we had six that have been completed uh from January 1 to now. Um for the eight that are being tracked, and I know we have a couple of other ones that need to get added in here. Um but I can at least speak to the ones from LRO um for the charter compliance and or so municipal over um oversight and implementation. That one's ongoing. Um charter compliance and enforcement is a Q3 target. Um encampment response policies is Q3 early Q4. Uh the public safety policies and practices um that one actually is coming forward to PHSSE next cycle. The data center uses um staff direction will be responded to at presentation in August. Um and payment in lie of taxes is also targeting August 25th and autonomous vehicles is currently in queue for assignment. With that covered, getting into the dashboard itself, which again using the link, um there's assuming there's internet in here, everybody should be able to access. Um this is now public facing. Um so it'll be continued. It continues to be updated. There's a lot of again uh it pulls in a lot of data. Anytime that you have a lot of different data sources, you're going to have um kind of cleanup and beautifification efforts that I'm sure we'll be doing for a little bit. We also have a lot of functionality that we want to continue building out including um cutting across different committees so that we can really dive into what's happening across the different committees, tie that into work plans um and to give people again the most um most insight that we're able to for things that are either going through council that are coming in the future that we've just completed. Um what you see here, this is just the kind of the preview um review page. Um this is the first page that I built, the first tab that people will see when they go to this dashboard. Um the purpose of this it looks forward 14 days and backward 14 days um to try to cover. So that way again just to give people an idea for what's coming um in the future and um also the items that council just covered. Um all of these items if the if you click the more info tab um on the right side do have links to the limbs files themselves. Um next we have the council directive status. Um, again, this pulls from a different data source, but is trying to track all of the directives that we have outstanding and that have been completed just to um allow people to see who the responsible department was. Um, if you hover over the tab on the right, um, it should show the requesttor. Um, it has responsive information um, for the ones that are at least for the ones that are outstanding. Um, so those will contain the latest updates from the departments themselves. Um, but this is also something that we're going to keep evolving that we want to color code so that when it's past a certain date, we have things that'll start to put up flags that they turn again yellow, red, green. um etc. Um then last you have the limbs final search. Um so again like this is similar to searching limbs. It has a little bit different functionality. Um I think we're going to add a couple new fields in there that you can search by. It's worked very well for our staff just to find um legislative files. So again when you open it up it'll have everything from the entirety of this year. Um, but if you um search either the limbs file number or the file subject field um by again any like subject you're looking for um it'll then limit that to anything that's going to be responsive um to that search. [snorts] Uh next steps um a landing page. Um so we want to have a homepage that again outlines kind of more what's covered, how to use um like this dashboard and provide a little bit more information. Um we're going to continue automating data and updates so that this is being updated in real time. Um so again like that way if you um it also does sort of encourage uh people on that have might have outstanding directives um to be updating that information as much as they can because it'll automatically go into the dashboard itself and reflect um to anybody that's interested. And then that expansion of functionality I talked about um is something that we want to ensure that we're being deliberate about how we build it out. Um I'd mentioned city auditor before but um having a tab that exists where we can track audit findings and the responsible department and the committee that they're assigned to um which will again allow pe me members of that committee to ask those questions um when they come up so that we're ensuring the city is being deliberate about how it's responding to audit findings. With that um that concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions there might be. >> Thank you so much Andrew. Members, would anyone like to get into Q? President Payne. >> Thank you, Chair Chowry, and thank you, Director Hawkins. Uh, I think this transparency is so helpful. I think, you know, our dayto-day is such a whirlwind. It's kind of nice to take a step back, zoom out, and actually see what's getting accomplished and what we're working on. And I think that that goes a long way towards building trust and faith in what we do here in government. So just really appreciate your efforts on that. >> Thank you. I mean one quick uh thing I can share too again just from talking to staff with the like the wild card surge. I think it is one of the things that there's so much happens that we can lose sight of of everything that's been accomplished because we just recently had a discussion where I don't remember even the topic but somebody brought up it's like I don't think we've done much with that this year. I pulled up the dashboard told them to type it into the wild card search and I think there were like nine different legislative files that came up on that topic this year. So, I think it's a it's a good opportunity for people if they're interested in any specific topic um to be able to easily search um you know all the legislative files to see what you all are doing and follow along. >> Wonderful. Um next we will go to council member Schaer. Couple things. Um can you speak to the data format underneath the item wild card search? I get the I get this query functions at the top, but then for some reason, can you speak to what we see underneath that and the value of seeing all that? I'm trying to >> Yep. So, um through the chair to council member Schaefer. Um so, this is something where again like, uh the polls from limbs, there's a lot of data on the back end. So, I think trying to figure out what the most helpful data is is something that we're still fine-tuning. What makes sense to me might not make sense to somebody else looking at it. Um there's a lot in the more info tab. So, if you hover over that, it'll pop up a a box that has a lot more. I know that I think we're still organizing that and everything. But what this will show um it's the limbs file number, which is a leg legislative information management um system. It'll have the file subject. Um the action date is going to be the date that um the action was taken. Um so, that's where you'll see it in action. Um those uh columns reflect the titles as they exist in limbs. They still it's something where I want to update them, but when I start editorial editorializing on those um it affects other things in the database. So I need more time to sit down and really be deliberate. Um so that'll show the date that the action was taken and then for the committee it'll show the committee um that the action was taken. Um and so if also if you click on the more info um you in the on the dashboard itself um it there should be some link that pops up in the bottom of the the bubble um that takes you to the actual limbs file for each respective one. So the reason these were picked was to show again kind of where things are moving through. Obviously this year being unique where we had that consolidation of things into biz for a long into cow for quite a while. Um there's not going to be as many different um committees reflected as there would normally be. But I think as we go forward that's going to like a lot of that will start to be populated now the committees are up and running in their normal capacity. Um, but I think what this does that is interesting is I mean again just for like the tailgating ordinance um is it really does show the life cycle of some of these um some of these items for you know and like the sometimes complex routes that they can take um from you know introduction to referral all the way back to council for ultimately for consideration for adoption. >> Okay. So, it's kind of a scrolling function if you know approximately it happened in February, but I don't know exactly the word to pull it up on the query. >> Um, correct. [snorts] I think the date function was one that we were going to that we can add as well, but uh the limbs file subject. I mean, you can really just go in and type in anything. So, if you wanted to look at I'm trying to think what we've been um like the safe outdoor spaces was one that was in here. So if you type that in to the wild card to the limbs file subject, every file that's um that hits with those words will come back. So if you you know and if you want just looking at housing, looking at public safety, I mean you can keyword search it and as long as it's in uh the file subject um as well as the item um title, uh it'll it'll pull back all of those results. So sometimes again if like we know roughly what we're looking for, but we don't know exactly and it can it can often be hard to like go back and identify those uh those items. I know our actual limb site has, you know, some search functionality, but this one just operates a little bit differently. Um, and it's a again a little quicker to scroll through because it doesn't have as much substantive information um like in the actual dashboard itself. And then it'll take you to the full limbs file. [snorts] >> Okay. Well, thank you so much for all your work on this. Um, you know, it'll be interesting. Can you speak a little bit to what's your vision for yeartoyear? like will this all collapse into like 2026 but it'll all you do a query it'll all pull up ongoing years what's kind of your vision going forward >> it's a wonderful question so we um like this is definitely something that I think we want to keep building more more is more um to be able to show you know 26 27 28 um I do have some of the files for previous years um that I was trying to get to merge the thing that becomes hard um as far as just getting it to display in a way that's digestible um is when we have committees that can change names um like things like that um it'll start to display a lot more as far as and sometimes it's not an apples to apples comparison if you have a committee where there might be one function that shifts from you know committee A to committee B um in another cycle. So I think trying to figure out how to add in even historical data is something we want to do but at the very least I think that this is something that we intend to continue to accumulate um data for this council term as we move forward. >> Well it's very exciting and thank you for all your hard work. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. I am not seeing anyone else in quue. Um so I will ask the clerk to file that presentation and report. Um now we'll move to item number five. We have another presentation to receive related to our appointed boards and commission status. I will invite up Julie Hoffland um from the city clerk's office to kick this presentation off. Welcome. >> All right. Good afternoon, uh, Vice Chair Tuckai and committee members. I'm Julie Havland, the ABC program manager. Um, and I'm excited to share our progress on board reform. The city of Minneapolis values active community engagement. Appointed boards and commissions are one of the most visual vis visible ways for residents to take part in local government. Because ABC's are official city groups, um their work must align with the city's operational framework and their own enabling legislation. ABC reform is about making it easier and more effective for everyone to participate in city government. It gives ABC's a clearer structure to their work and and makes their work stay aligned with city priorities. It also supports smoother, more meaningful collaboration be between elected officials, city staff, and ABC bodies. Every ABC has now uh been placed into a tier. Most of our work has focused on tier three and four advisory bodies. This includes many process improvements such as creating and actively using standardized templates for oaths, participation agreements, bylaws, rules, and establishing resolutions. Other accomplishments worth highlighting. Um, we created and published a comprehensive ABC operations manual with all policies, procedures, and standards regarding ABC's in one place. We also completed major limbs updates um adding muchneeded automation and new tracking features for waiverss and service restrictions. A new member uh profile was developed and launched. The required online ethics training is now aligned with members appointed terms. The training itself was redesigned to improve the member experience and ensure content is more relevant. A mayoral executive order was secured affirming the office of city clerk as the central agency responsible for ABC operations. We delivered a comprehensive training course for department board staff leaison focusing on ABC operations best practices and collaboration with the clerk's office to track recurring activities. We created an annual ABC operations c calendar calendar. We revamped monthly VSSL team meetings to include a mix of quarterly group meetings paired with one-on-one sessions and tech labs. In 2025, we completed the legislative reform and reestablishment of eight tier three advisory bodies and created one new tier 4 workg group. Five remaining tier three bodies will be reformed later this year. Looking ahead to 2027, we plan to reform our tier 2 and five bodies. Um these will be more complex uh because they are established by ordinance rather than resolution. Like all developing programs, um challenges have emerged. One of our biggest pinch points in the ABC program is managing recruitment cycles, an area not um directly addressed in the reform ordinance. This slide shows the assumed recruitment process. two cycles, spring and fall. Each cycle includes about seven steps from advertising a seat during open appointments um to having a fully seated member ready to serve. One cycle takes about seven months. ABC recruitment works a lot like an HR hiring process. Uh we typically process over 400 applications a year. However, in reality, we are managing three recruitment cycles, winter, spring, and fall, plus many, many off-cycle appointments. Um, this is caused by unsuccessful unsuccessful recruiting, resignations, seat forfeitures, and other factors. Recruitment is never ending. The nominating an appointment process is in backlog with only 12 months in a year and a process that can stretch to 21 months. Um, this is creating major challenges for managing expectations and delivering a positive experience. In 2027, we hope to work with our partners to find ways to improve this system. Other items underway for next year include creating an online member orientation program, improving how we vet applicants, enhancing the onboarding and offboarding experience for ABC members, and standardizing work plans and annual reports. Thank you uh committee members. Uh that concludes my presentation on ABC reform. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you for that presentation. Do my colleagues have any um questions or discussion. Um Council Member Whiting. >> Thank you, uh Vice Chair Chuck Tai. Uh just wanted to to note just a level thank you. I know this this is a large lift here. I know I helped kind of on the the opposite end when I was in the city attorney office and know the large lift that kind of comes with all of these ABCs broadly. uh and so it is really good to see kind of the culmination of a lot of effort uh that has been so just want to say thank you. >> Thanks course. >> Thank you. Next I'll recognize uh Council President Payne. >> Thank you Vice Chair Trugai. Yeah. Also a big thanks. This is so much of your work is so so much focused on the logistics and I also want to elevate the role of ABC's and what their potential is to be part of our partners in governing right part of our partners in policym and I think that >> there are so many people in the city who are so civically engaged and they are frequently either confused when they show up at city hall and don't know that it's not an opportunity to do a public hearing or even for the folks who sign up to be on an ABC and they don't exactly know how to get their voice represented in policy. So, not only is it important for us to get the logistics of just like getting people onboarded and getting applications reviewed, we on the deis need to do a better job of making sure that we're empowering those voices and putting them into action. And so, I think that's going to be however many phases of reform, that's going to be at least one distinct phase. And I'm >> happy to be a partner in figuring that out. Yeah, I appreciate that. >> Thank you. And finally, I'll recognize Council Member Warren. >> Thank you. Um, Vice Chair, thank you so much for this report this and and just simplifying this process. I really appreciate that because coming in as a new council member, it was pretty tasking to look through the applications and have to, you know, decide and understand and and go through the whole process. So to centralize the information and create a whole you are Thank you so much. I just wanted [laughter] to say thank you. Yes. >> Thank you. Seeing no further discussion, I will ask the clerk to file that presentation and report. Um, now I will turn the meeting over to council member Whiting to chair our settlement agreement subcommittee. I'm sorry, I'm going to hold on that just one second. >> Do you did you >> No, I'm just >> That's right. Uh, >> perfect. Um, okay. Now we'll turn the meeting over to um, Council Member Whiting. >> Perfect. Thank you, uh, Vice Chair Chuck Tai. Um, switching on over to our settlement agreement and consent decree subcommittee. So, uh, our consent decree and settlement agreement subcommittee has two items on its agenda today. Uh first is a presentation related to an update on implementing the reforms within the proposed consent decree. I will invite [snorts] our city attorney Kristen Anderson to come up and deliver her presentation. Thank you Kristen. Welcome. >> Oh um uh hello chair Whiting Council members. It's uh nice to see you this afternoon. It's been a bit of time since I've been able to come and be on this side of the dis. So I'm always pleased to come and and make a presentation. Um our my presentation today is really an update on the work that uh the enterprise has been doing on implementing the reforms of the consent decree. And just for kind of baseline for folks who are new andor watching um uh we have two things that are kind of in play in terms of police reform. One is an actual court enforceable settlement agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights that we entered into and was uh issued as a court order in July of 2023. Again, court enforcable. We have been working uh on on that project of police reform um really frankly from before then um uh once it was negotiated. Um but uh also there was an investigation by the Department of Justice that resulted in uh in a negotiation for what was supposed to be a federal consent decree. Uh we negotiated that agreement uh over the course of I mean actually we we negotiated it pretty fast. Um and uh and completed the negotiations and went uh to court with the Department of Justice during the Biden administration asking for the court to uh issue that as a court order. And uh then there was the change of administrations and the Trump administration actually dismissed the lawsuit and and walked away from the consent decree. Um so uh Mayor Fry determined that uh although we weren't going to have a federal uh consent decree in court, uh it was important to still do the reforms that we had negotiated in that consent decree. And so he issued an executive order um requiring the administration to implement the reforms in the consent decree. And those reforms are really defined as the reforms that are not duplicative of and not in conflict with those uh that exist in the settlement agreement. So we really have the settlement agreement and then there are provisions above and beyond the settlement agreement that we had negotiated in the consent decree that really are enforceable by an executive order of our mayor. And so we have been working on implementing those those additional provisions. Another sort of grounding thing I want to talk about is that between the settlement agreement and the consent decree, there are multiple subject add uh matters that are covered in both. There are a few additional subject matters that are covered in the consent decree that that are are not included in the settlement agreement. But in the settlement agreement for example in both documents there are there's a whole section on use of force and the settlement agreement requires certain things and then the consent decree reforms required a few more things on top of that. So kind of in our implementation work around this, we start with the settlement agreement as being our baseline and the way that we sort of build this reform in infrastructure. It starts with creation of policy, then creation of training, uh then actually doing the training and then um holding officers account accountable to those policies and the things that they trained. So at the ground level of this infrastructure, we are building policies um that are grounded in the settlement agreement, but as long as we are also we are doing the settlement agreement, we're baking those consent decree additional reforms into those policies. So, some of the things that I'm going to be talking about, um, just, uh, kind of the the examples that I'm going to give you are really in the the frame of we were already working on the non-discriminatory policing policy. We had that, you know, open and so we added the terms from the consent decree to make sure that the documents that we're creating are compliant with both. Um, so I'm gonna start with my slide. I don't know. I don't know what to do. Oh, it has some some flying things which I guess I didn't realize that I did. Um, so just some examples. Um, and I'm not going to go too much in depth, but some examples of ways in which we have incorporated the consent decree reforms into the work that we're already doing. So, uh, the consent decree as well as the settlement agreement has a section on non-discriminatory policing. And in the consent decree, it required more than the the settlement agreement and required that officers not only not consider race and national origin in their uh policing decisions, but also because of the consent decree also can't take into account substitutes or stereotypes for race or national origin. you know, unless there is a there's a descriptor of a suspect and there is additional identifying information. So, that's one example. Uh, use of force policies. There are actually a number of things from the consent decree that we added on to the use of force policies. Um, and in fact, while we were negotiating the consent decree, you know, we were ne as we were negotiating things along, we were starting to incorporate some of these higher standards into our our policy work under the settlement agreement. Anyways, um, we don't have a lot of situations between the two agreements that conflict because as we were negotiating the DOJ consent decree where we were very mindful of not creating conflicts. We wanted to be consistent. And what we actually saw between the two agreements is that the provisions that the Department of Justice wanted were in many, many, many respects exactly identical to what the MDHR wanted. And I think it was sort of like because both of them, you know, saw some of the same things and one had federal jurisdiction and the other had state jurisdiction, they they, you know, the reforms were consistent. Let's say that. Um, so we had a lot of the same ground and there was just not a lot of conflict at at least in part because we as the city's negotiators made sure that we were not going to wind up with two agreements that you couldn't comply with both. Um, so in use of force, um, several things have been included in the new use of force policy that come from the consent decree. Limitations on use of chemical spray on people in the car. um that's only allowed where there's no reasonably effective alternative. There are limitations from the consent decree on use of handcuffs to restrain children under 14 whenever feasible. Um we've strengthened the the force reporting and review requirements. We have this whole uh structure of levels of use of force uh where certain types of force are are labeled level one, level two, level three in in increasing levels of seriousness. And uh that framework exists in the settlement agreement, but because of the consent decree, we actually have uh uses of force that were considered lower level under the settlement agreement bumped up to higher levels. And the import of those being higher level uses of force means that um there is more review. So uh for level two and and greater uses of force, uh sergeants are actually required to come to the scene to actually if there's that kind of use of force to actually review on the scene the force that was used and then there are levels of after after review by either higher level supervisors or a force review body. Um then uh bodywn camera another policy that we had open in order to um do the the work for the MDHR agreement and we act uh added to that from the consent decree um that uh there is a self-reporting requirement now that if bodywn camera was supposed to be activated and it wasn't then officers are required to self-report to actually document the things that happened when the the BWC should have been on um self-report about late activations, interruptions of uh of footage and early deactivations. We have supervisors now because of again the consent decree reforms in this policy having to conduct spot audits of BWC recordings and usage data so that there's really that that check to make sure sure that the BWC is actually being utilized. Um, MPD has also from the consent decree adopted the practice of posting all policies that are required by the consent decree for public comment for at least 30 days. Under the settlement agreement, there were only uh big buckets of policies, mission vision values, non-discriminatory policing, uh, use of force, stop, searches, and arrests that are required to be uh, published for public comment for 45 days. That's still happening. But under the consent decree beyond that every policy that's required by the consent decree has to be uh posted for public comment for 30 days. Um the next area is really around uh the the misconduct process and this has uh undergone a massive massive overhaul both because of the settlement agreement and because of the consent decree requirements and in fact this is some of the areas where we see the most change from prior policy is in the standard operating procedures for both internal affairs and the office of police conduct review. um these uh they they're very close to being done with these things like gone they've already gone through the approval process and they should actually be um publicly posted online by the end of 2026. So this has been a massive body of work in fact a massive body of work from my office because we have a lot of uh a lot of expertise in the whole misconduct uh apparatus. But we've uh really added lots and lots of more process, more timelines, more specific timelines about about when um you know about when investigations need to be completed. We also have uh much more restrictive guidelines about when um complaints can be closed uh including uh restrictions on if the focus officer leaves the department. There are very limited circumstances where um those those investigations can be uh dismissed. If they are serious uh allegations of misconduct then under the consent decree again wrapped into the standard operating procedures those investigations must continue. Um and then similarly um for the uh MPD policies that accompany the these standard standard operating uh procedures, it's uh policy 2100, but it's basically the MPD policy on misconduct uh that really incorporates as a matter of policy all of these different structures related to the misconduct investigation and complaint process. again complete overhaul. Um the training is currently being developed on this new policy to be delivered in the spring of 2027. Um so I think it's going to be uh it's just a much tighter process, much tighter policies that I think that uh is really going to serve uh police reform very well. Um, we've also retained a vendor. Um, under the consent decree, there's actually a 40hour training requirement for internal affairs in uh office of police conduct review misconduct investigators. That's a was a really big focus of the DOJ to make sure that those investigators have the appropriate training um so that they can do quality investigations um and uh that is projected to be delivered in the spring of 2027. Um there you go. Um there's uh currently posted for public feedback uh on MPD's website is the new MPD force trends analysis policy draft. This again incorporates uh consent degree requirements including creating a quarterly meeting with precinct level data regarding reported reportable uses of force. Um so we're going to have more data um uh on force uh instances that come out of that. And then finally uh is uh the update of the MPD limitation on hours worked policy. Um this is the um the consent decree um very consistently with the settlement agreement um has an actual hours worked cap. So the the new policy is that um all told both uh regular uh regular duty overtime offduty all work by officers uh is capped at certain hour limitations. So no more than 16 hours per 24hour day and no more than 74 hours per per week unless there is a specific approval by either the chief or a design at the level of deputy chief or above. So this is you know very limited approval authority and for situations that are actually uh put forth in the policy like um like large scale events um emerging investigations in homicides, large-scale disasters. So they're really having a a much more clear policy in place about about that cap on hours worked and if there are exceptions um that they be documented and that they fall within the exceptions. So, so, uh, as you can see, you know, a lot of work has been, uh, going into incorporating the consent decree terms at truly whenever a policy is open that has consent decree requirements, we're just making sure that we're layering in all of the things from the consent decree as well as as the settlement agreement. So that by the time we get done with all of the settlement agreement policies, we should have the vast majority of the consent decree reforms incorporated into the policies. You know, the things that would be outstanding still are are the policies that are only addressed in the consent decrees uh reforms. So So with that, I am done with my very fancy PowerPoint, [laughter] but did not have any charts because I don't know how to do that. Yes. Thank you so much, uh, City Attorney Anderson. Uh, open it up to my colleagues if they have any questions or discussions. I see Council of President Paint. >> Uh, thank you, Chair Whiting. Thank you, Miss Anderson. Um [clears throat] I know that we've had many many conversations about this but you know at this stage like how are you cont like so backing up like we got to give grace there's no other city in the country in the history of the country that has had two consent decrees state and federal and then have the federal government withdraw. So we are an uncharted territory but in a standard arrangement um the consent decree would require the police department to implement new policy conduct training um and be compliant with whatever the provisions are but the determination of our our our compliance would be done by an independent evaluator. How are you contemplating us replicating that at this stage? >> Um, Chair Whiting, uh, Council President. Um, so I think that that's happening in a in a few different ways. You know, one is obviously I'm able to come and report to you, which I think is a really important um, feature. Uh second, I know that you have introduced an ordinance um that would require some reporting that I think would get at some pretty uh important features that uh that will allow for some progress to be shown um through those reporting mechanisms. Um third um because the policies are being again the consent agree provisions are being baked into settlement agreement policies. We're actually getting really good feedback from Alifa. I mean they're they are um part of their contract with us is to give technical assistance and they give us technical assistance also on best practices and really the additional reforms in the consent decree are you know kind of those over and above are really in line with best practices that you know OIFA has encouraged us to incorporate you know sort of without regard to whether they're in the consent decree or not. So we are getting some feedback from OIFA real time um in terms of you know when we incorporate those consent decree provisions just like they are doing for other kinds of best practices. [snorts] >> It's still true though that Alifa technically does not have a scope of work that would include the federal consent decree. Is that correct? >> Um uh Chair Whiting uh Council President that is correct. >> Okay. And then the last thing is just around the SOPs for internal affairs, OPCR. Uh I feel like former chief O'Hara um we don't we don't have a good way of ensuring the integrity of these investigations when like the highest level of leadership of the department um had the ability to interfere. How are how can we contemplate SOPs that can prevent that in the future? >> Uh, Chair Wedding, Council President Payne. So without I guess I'm not going to comment on the kind of underlying assumptions that you're making but I but the SOP is um the new SOP that's that's going to be launched uh at the be at the end of 2026 is super detailed um with very very clear structures of what goes where um if there is a situation where the chief of police is uh conflicted out because they're you know either because of some sort of close personal friendship or because of you know uh participation in the event or what have you. We we have a process where those are uh conflicted out and would be investigated you know potentially could still be investigated by the office of police conduct review in particular. Um but that the decision- making would would be done at a at you know the office of community safety level not at the police chief level because of course if the police chief you know if there's a conflict of interest the police chief can't be the deci the decider. You know, we also have situations where if for some reason both investigative units are conflicted out, we have the ability to um to use outside investigators um to to you know make sure that the there there isn't any conflict of interest. Um so I think that there are lots of controls in place to make sure that the you know the processes are clear and and um conflicts of interest are avoided. I think we're going to have as we get closer to that policy being finalized, I will want to maybe do a deeper dive on that because presumably had those uh measures been in place, maybe we would have avoided what we went through. But I I want to make sure that we're the public in particular is understanding what kind of protections there are for that. >> Uh Vice Chair Chad, >> uh thank you. Um, Mr. Chair, the um, Miss Anderson, if you can uh, just speak to the MPD limitations on hours worked policy. This is your last slide that you gave us an update on today. Um, is is the new limitation on hours worked um, and I know you named a couple of numbers, the 16 hours in a in a day or in a 24-h hour period. Um, and there was a second one I can't remember. But is this consistent with a previous policy on limitation of hours worked? Is it the same number of hours or has anything changed that you can tell that you might be able to tell us about? Um, chair Whiting, uh, council member. So, uh, it is consistent. My recollection is that it is consistent with what the settlement agreement required as well. I can't tell you as I stand here whether there were slight differences between the settlement agreement and the consent decree, but it is the I believe it's the same hour threshold that that was articulated in the settlement agreement. So, um it is now incorporated in that policy. I also can't tell you if that policy right now is in draft or if it's been adopted. Um, and I couldn't follow up with you on that, but but I know that it's it's the and and just it's 16 hours per 24-hour day and 74 hours per week. >> Sounds good. Thank you very much. That's all. >> Council member Schaefer. >> First of all, thank you for this overview. It was very helpful to kind of with broad strokes and then kind of narrow it down and give some examples around each of these categories. I really appreciated your method of presentation. I would like to ask a question around, you know, have we determined or thought about the financial impact of some of these directions that we are um embarking on? Um and have we laid out a framework for you know 2027 these you know or 2027 yeah 40 hours times x number of employees of additional training is going to land in April 27. we need to consider overtime budget for that. How can you speak a little bit to how we how we are monitoring where our investments are landing so that we can better plan for them and and tell the story if it is related to our overtime. I'm not not saying it necessarily is, but I think we I keep hearing about all the various high levels of training that we're really trying to implement which are really important, but I haven't heard anything about budget or fiscal impact. Uh, Chair Whiting, council member. Um, so I'm not the best person to ask those budgetary questions. What I what I can say that particular training that I was talking about is training for investigators in the office of police conduct review which is in civil rights and uh internal affairs. um I don't know how much you know overtime those folks would normally incur as a as a normal course and I think for this kind of training it is it's really a very finite and small group and the training would be incorporated into their you know regular work expectations. So so the train this training itself would not >> No I'm not maybe not this one but more of a cumulative impact as we look back. Um I just think that piece of the story needs to be told in our overtime if it is in fact affecting that and and I just have no visibility on that um heading into the budget season and I think it's really important that yes part of this is an investment in our training if in case it is and I would think in a normal when you have a work plan it doesn't just come for free right we've got the alifa dollar amount that's known but beyond that I feel like I don't have any handle on what this is costing ing us last year, this year, the next 10 years, and I'm I'm just wondering when that's coming. >> Um, Chair Whiting, council member, um, certainly, I mean, you're absolutely right that the the settlement agreement um requires a huge amount of training for officers and and frankly, I don't know how else we could do this police reform if not for the training. I mean, it's, you know, we can develop and we do develop really awesome policies, but if the the officers don't know what they say and practice them, which is really what happens in training and and and forgive me because I don't know that we've had that many conversations about settlement agreement, consent decree, but one of the kind of um for the settlement agreement and the consent decree, there's this really cool, in my view, emphasis on adult adult training techniques that are really, you know, everybody who instructs for uh for MPD training has to themselves go through a train the trainer exercise uh training in order to learn how to teach using adult learning techniques. And these are they're very scenario-based. Sometimes they're like literally physical running outside. You know, that kind of training is the kind of training that really police reform advocates really are um stressing because this is the way that we change culture. This is the way we make muscle memory so that when officers get in precarious situations, it's it's a a natural to do, you know, to react in in the right way. So, so the training it's a huge yes it's a huge huge investment and it's in my view absolutely needed. What the exact budgetary impact and and how that's being tracked I think is is really a a budget office question. >> Well, I've asked about it several different places and seem to not be able to get an answer. And I absolutely agree with you that training is key to seeing change, right? Um, but also with us being the stewards of and I know I'm not speaking to the right person here, but for us being the stewards of the budget, for us not to have that information is really is really a miss in my mind um as we tell the story that we know or we'll have to hear the story in the upcoming months about what's going on in MPD. And so um maybe we can speak offline, but I have I can tell you the places I've checked and I haven't been able to get answers. So I I need some more direction. Yeah, and council member Schaper, if I may too. And so, uh, feel exactly the same way. And so, we were, uh, in these quarterly meetings that I'm going to speak to on this next item, uh, in conversation with OCS and other folks, uh, we are going to have that opportunity, um, that, uh, folks from from the budget office and those related to settlement agreement, set a degree items are going to be present and there for for questions. And so, uh, hopefully I think that will be an avenue or venue to answer those questions. I my only final point is make is whenever you start on a journey, you have to understand where you're going. Um and and and that knowing that budget piece would be a huge help in knowing where we're going. >> Thank you. Uh Council Member Chavez. >> Uh thank you, Chair Whiting. I guess my question for the city attorney's office is the recent report by LEIFA shows that the MPD is not meeting its goal outlined in the settlement agreement which is going to add more expense for the city because we're not meeting the goals and it's making us take longer time in the settlement agreement. I guess my question is what recourse the city council have to ensure that there is compliance with the settlement agreement and two um yeah I guess I'll start there. Um, Chair Whitting, council member, you there the the council doesn't direct the administration. Obviously, you know, we have reporting tools and I think that that is, you know, a really important accountability um item. You know, as I mentioned before, the ordinance that uh uh Council President Payne uh uh introduced and uh will will be coming soon. Um so you know the council's tool often times is is in information and in you know making information publicly available and available in in uh committee meetings and committee hearings and hearing those reports and you know you're having come so that you have a really good handle on what our independent monitor and remember they are I mean we they don't work for us we we work for which is sort of a strange situation that we're paying for them, but but they are really our overseers in in this work and they are the ones with the expertise and are really um gauging our accountability. So, you know, we're we are paying them. Uh it's a capp rate of $1.5 million, but they are really the accountability. Uh as well as the Minnesota Department of Human Rights um and ultimately the court. >> Thank you, Council Member Warren. I just have a brief question. Um, I was listening to you in your presentation and you were talking about how there were alternative means and methods for individuals to report internal affairs complaints, you know, and I was just wondering with the current situation that happened with our previous police chiefs why those alternate means were not utilized and is it something that people are going to be made consciously aware of as we're moving around administration in multiple different departments around um public safety in the city that people will have these alternate means to be um to really feel supported right in their role so that they know and understand that if I do not feel safe and trusted in sharing this information or I'm in fear of some type of retaliation that these things will be readily made available and that they're actively working to support IND individuals and and create a better climate and culture for our public safety divisions as it stands currently. >> Uh, Chair Whiting, council member. So there there are actually multiple multiple ways to raise concerns. Um whether it be through uh the internal affairs department, the office of police conduct review um has uh reporting portals that are on the web. Uh human resources receives reports. The officer of sorry officer office of community safety receives reports. I mean there the ethics line actually um uh is you know we oftentimes get uh reports through the ethics line that are not actually ethics complaints but there are multiple different ways um to to get a concern to the city >> and are those often responded to and people are adhering to them like acting in some immediacy around the investigation of those things. Uh, Chair Wedding, council member. Yes, there are there are processes. There are folks who are assigned to all of those things and processes in place for uh for intake and review of all of in each different methodology. >> Really? >> Yes. >> And those have been in place for quite some time for >> Yes. >> Okay. I'm just wondering just based on previous experiences that we've just had and I'm not naming any names or any specific situation, but we know the elephant in the room. So, I just want to make sure that those things are like clear so that people understand because I know that there were some in issues with internal affairs officers being removed and different things like that and stuff not getting done and people not getting the resolve or the resolution that they needed around a number of different issues. I just really want us to be able to work better and have a better climate and culture around our public safety because what our inner office customer service and communication looks like reflects on how we respond to the constituents in the city abroad, right? And so if that's clean and and our house is clean, then we can have conversations with other people about what their house and behavior should look like. So um I just really want that's that's huge to me like really really big and ensuring that we are doing deeprooted investigations about who we let into our house, right? um because of the culture and the climate that we want to hold around our public safety and what that accountability looks like. So if there's shmear campaigns and I know there's going to be haters in the world because there just is, okay? But if there are things that are being said about conduct and what have you that there are deep dived very serious investigations being done because we don't want other people's garbage. we just don't. So, I just want to make sure that there are methods, means, we're putting those things in place and you're saying that that's a thing. So, I'm going to rest and and assure that you're saying that that's a thing, city attorney. The end. Uh, thank you, council member. Uh, last point question here and honestly a little bit of of maybe a refresher for me and I think it's helpful for the body and those that are are watching. if you could kind of just maybe talk broadly about the the areas of work uh bodies of work uh that are kind of outside of the settlement agreement. So those things that do stand alone um that are larger in those larger buckets for in the consent decree. uh uh chair waiting um council members um so there are the the jurisdiction of the department of justice um was significantly br I mean it's federal right they have broader jurisdiction than the the state did and and their investigation was a little bit more wide ranging than MDHRs so uh the uh specific sections that are in the consent decree that are not in the uh settlement agreement And I'm not going to get all of them because you're asking me off the top of my head. So, let's remember uh see see how well I remember what I negotiated. Um there is a section on uh uh addressing individuals with uh mental health challenges that that is, you know, there's literally one paragraph in the settlement agreement about having a behavioral uh response. Um that's it. There's a whole really robust section in the consent decree reforms on that. There's a robot robust section in the consent decree reforms on first amendment activity. Um you know ho how how policing happens with uh with protests and and those sorts of things. So that's that's unique. There is a section on secondary employment what we think of as offduty. uh some of which is kind of in pieces in the settlement agreement but is its own standalone in the the consent decree. [snorts] Um those are the things that come to mind. There may be a couple of other ones but those are really the significant ones. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Youth. >> Youth engagement. >> Oh yes. Interactions with youth. Thank you. Yeah. >> That's another one. And again, there's I there are a couple of pieces of that in the settlement agreement, but in terms of the standalone, that's see, council president knows what I negotiated better with than what I [laughter] did. >> So, sorry for the cold call. We're bringing you back to to law school. Uh uh with that, colleague, seeing no further discussion here, uh I will ask the clerks to file that presentation and report. Uh lastly, our last item here, uh and thank you, city attorney Anderson. Uh moving to subcommittee item number seven. Our last item was continued from the previous cow meeting on July 14th. Uh at that meeting we received a presentation from Alifa. Uh and this report covered the end of 2025 going into 2026. Uh the action today is simply is to receive and file or I guess not even receive but to file that AIFA presentation. Wanted to note here before we move forward on it. Uh at that previous meeting, I know there was it was clear uh that many of my colleagues and myself had serious concerns about the questions and and findings uh in Alifa's most recent report uh and concerns which which I share. I've expressed to many of my colleagues a desire to set up a regular cadence of reporting um from MPD, OCS, uh C city attorney's office, OPCR, uh it budgetary updates uh and other departments as relevant uh using this subcommittee as a mechanism to receive continuous quarterly results uh or sorry quarterly updates on the city's progress towards meeting its commitments under the settlement agreement and consent decree. pre uh MPD currently holds weekly internal reform stat meetings where key stakeholders across the enterprise meet to walk through the status and progress of reforms related to the consent decree and settlement agreement. Our goal here is to produce similar meetings uh for for council for that kind of oversight measure. Uh my office has been in communication with MPD and OCS um and and every other city department which this work touches um through this subcommittee and they've agreed to come before council to present our own reform stat like meetings directly to this body u making themselves available to council members uh to answer questions or concerns surrounding the city's progress um both to include concerns raised by the semianual reports uh that Alifa will be coming to uh presenting in front of this body on semiannual basis as well. Uh and so the first of these presentations uh will occur uh sometime here in August depending on uh individual schedules uh both council colleague schedules and uh schedules of of key stakeholders. And so looking uh forward to a time here in uh in August or did I say September but August [laughter] August uh followed by uh presentations uh quarterly November February and May of of this year and then next year as well. And so I'm very excited to move forward on this and want to thank uh many of my colleagues here for the collaboration and city half uh for for organizing this work. Um before we receive and file this presentation, uh it looks like council member Schaefer has a question. >> Yeah, this is top of mind just because I toured the sock yesterday and I know I mentioned that to you council member as well. Um it was very clear when Alifa spoke to us that we were responsible providing a new training facility or an appropriate training facility. We heard them clearly that day in the presentation and I had to leave early so I did not have a chance to ask any further questions. But I guess I would like to know how we as a council are going to have an opportunity to dialogue about that fact because I agree with council member Chavez that we are on a clock with Alifa that we are have these important deadlines that we meet need to meet and if that is one that they are clearly telling us I guess I want to have a frank discussion an open discussion like cuz I really want to move this work forward like how are we going to do that if we voted down the land, you know, if we didn't like that idea, then what ideas do we have that we can bring to the table? And I guess I'm asking when we can have an opportunity to dialogue about that. >> Yeah. And in thinking about I know we've kind of discussed this similar with with uh staff from OCFs and trying to figure out the best venue to have these conversations as it relates to um settlement agreement reforms and and the compliance measures for that. I think particularly maybe to this item uh some level of of council briefings or policy briefings that we do in in smaller group settings so we can have those larger discussions. Uh but also I think it is something that can come up in these quarterly uh meetings as well. And so the hope is that all of our questions and and and my kind of hope for these meetings is that all 13 of us uh can have a level of expertise on everything that is going through the reform process broadly. And so I think the there's there's anything germaine to uh consent decree settlement agreement reform progress I think is open and valuable for conversations during those. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Of course uh council member Chavez. >> Thank you chair Whiting. I mean it would be good to get a better explanation from Alifa cuz that's not exactly how I interpreted what they said but I hope moving forward that in these conversations there's a report back on the internal affairs backlog in the uh consent decree federal no in the settlement agreement. um that is a big issue. There's an issue with the early intervention system in the settlement agreement requirement. There is an issue with uneven progress on policy and training development that's been flagged across multiple reports. Now, uh MDHR themselves said the city remains far from transformational change needed to address the root cause of race-based policing. So, there's a lot more than just um this safety center. So, just wanted to at least add more context. >> Yeah. Thank you, council member. Um, seeing no further discussions here, I will ask the clerk to again file that presentation. Perfect. And with that, I will pass it over to our chair. >> Thank you, Council Member Whiting. Um, seeing no further discussion and no b further business before us, with no objection, I will declare this meeting adjourned.