Good morning. Welcome to the regular meeting of the super committee of the whole. My name is Orin Chowry and I am the chair of this committee. As we get started, I want to reiterate that the city council has temporarily restructured into a single committee of the whole. This means we've essentially consolidated all of our standing committees into a single body. All items considered today will be forwarded to the full city council for its consideration at the meeting this Thursday, March 5th, at 9:30 a.m. As usual, these meetings will be broadcast and livereamed for our public access channels and the city's website to enhance public accessibility. I also want to note we just have two super cows and council cycles remaining. We will be returning to the adopted structure and schedule beginning on Monday, April 13th with all of our standing committee meetings during a regular two-week cycle. I know that all of us are very eager to get back into that structure and so there is an end to this temporary structure in the very near future. colleagues. Having said that, I also want to express my appreciation to all of you for your patience over the past two months and all of the staff across the enterprise for their flexibility in adapting to this temporary structure. With that, I will call this meeting to order and ask the clerk to call the role to verify a presence of a quorum. >> Council member Payne, >> present. >> Wsley, >> present. >> Rainville, >> present. >> Vita, >> present. Warren >> present. >> Osman is absent. Schaefer >> present. >> Stevenson >> here. >> Chavez >> here. >> Whiting >> present. >> Palmasano >> present. >> Vice chair Chuktai is absent and Chair Chowy >> present. >> There are 11 members present. 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 broadcasts include real-time captioning to increase accessibility for the 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 all comments for the broadcast. We ask all speakers to please moderate the speed and clarity of their comments. Colleagues, you can see from the printed agenda that we have a significant number of items to address today. I'd like to explain how I will be processing the agenda and see if there's any questions about the process and the timeline we will be following for this meeting. First, I plan to take up and dispose of the consent agenda. This will allow us to release any staff who may be waiting nearby to respond to any questions about those items. There are 70 items on the proposed consent agenda. I'd like to note that on item number 64, which is a gift acceptance from the Brooking Institute, you should have at your desks a revised RCA, which shows a gift acceptance from the National Academy of Sciences. The purpose here is to replace the original gift acceptance from Brookings Institute with the gift acceptance from the National Academy of Sciences for the same purposes which will fund travel for public works director Sexton. I think this is a fairly straightforward swap since it just changes the source of the gift. If there are no questions or objections, I'll have the clerk reflect the change in the consent agenda for item number 64. Any questions, objections? I'm not seeing any. Then we will simply incorporate that into the consent agenda um when we take up the vote. Additionally, we have two items that are new before us, both of which are printed at our desks. First from the health department, we have an amendment to an item approved by the council at the last meeting on February 19th for the Minnesota school-based clinic school-based health centers grant for the health education program. It was an approved amount of $100,000 for one year. However, in order to accept the grant, the action needs to be amended to correct the grant from $100,000 for one year for a one-year term to $300,000 for a three-year term. I believe we can deal with this item on consent. So I will consider this item number 74B. Second, we we have an item from council member Palmasano, a staff directive requesting an analysis of the current community safety training needs and alignment with national best practices, the national landscape of similar facilities in comparable jurisdictions, as well as associated costs with those facilities. I'll propose that we take up the direction from council member Paul Misano as item number 79 to be our last item following the report from our county attorney. Is there any objection to adding the health department item to our consent agenda as item number 74B and the item from council member Paul Misano to the end of discussion as item number 79. All right, I'm not seeing any objection. And then I will also recognize that um vice chair Chug Dai has joined us. >> In terms of the order, >> chair, madam chair, I'm sorry to interrupt. I believe there's also a late breaking third item that was added to your agenda that you had instructed could be added to consent. It should be at your desks. This is an RCA cover page from the public works department. It's addressed to the climate and infrastructure committee. Um this is the dropkick ice block event permit um that we wanted to make sure was added onto the agenda. It was a late one that was added late last night and so it is at your um places here on the dis and I thought we were going to add it. So there's three additions. >> Okay. >> That's not on my script at least in this version of it. So thank you for jumping in there. Is there any objection to that addition? Okay, great. In terms of order of the meeting, I'm planning to dispose of the consent agenda first. As I mentioned, that will now include all items shown on the printed agenda as consent items, including the switch on item number 64 and the addition of item number 74B as discussed. After we dispose of the consent agenda, we'll take up the two quasi judicial hearings and then move the two public hearings noted on the agenda. I anticipate that we will be able to complete the consent agenda and the four hearings approximately by noon, maybe um a little bit after. And then we will take an hour break for lunch before we return to handle the five items on our discussion agenda which include the staff directive from council member Palmisano as discussed. Is there any questions on the order of the meeting before adopting the agenda? I see council member Schaefer. Yes, for the city clerk, I would like to make record of my recusal on number 12 and then also I would like to pull number 59 for discussion in separate vote. Thank you. >> All right, we can and just for the future you can um you can do that when we adopt the agenda. So after we adopt the agenda. Okay. Council member Rainville, >> thank you. I ju I just want to make sure I had sent an email yesterday asking for a couple items uh to be pulled for u a separate vote. Small discussion items 52. >> Yeah. Could we adopt the agenda and then we'll ask >> I'm okay. Oh, thank you. I'm sorry. >> Yeah, we'll just we'll we'll adopt the agenda and then >> I'm actually having a hard time hearing you if your voice is so soft. >> So, if you could move the microphone closer. Thank you. Well, thank you. In the old chambers, we could just talk into them and it would just be filling the space. Okay. So, then I'll speak up. I appreciate that feedback. All right. Seeing no other questions with that, may I have a motion to adopt the agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed say nay. >> That motion passes. With that, colleagues, we'll now take up the consent agenda. For those in the audience, I'll note that we'll be taking up comments on the hearings for each of the quasi judicial and public hearing matters after this. If you wish to address the committee during any of these hearings and you haven't already done so, we invite you to register with the clerks at the registration table located in the corridor outside this chamber. You can also provide any written comments or materials for the record to the clerks at the registration table. Please take a few minutes to register now if you haven't already done so. And so I'm going to summarize the consent agenda for everyone and then I ask that colleagues get into Q um and then state if they are going to pull an item for a separate vote um and state if it's for a comment or if it is for discussion. So on our consent agenda, we have items numbered 5 through 74. Item 5 through 8 are legal settlements. Item 9 establishes 2026 local board of appeal and equalization. Item 10 accepts 2025 quarterly donation reports. Item 11 authorizes a collective bargaining agreement. Item 12 is the administrative closing of two ethics complaints. Item 13 is a contract amendment and items 14 through 17 are ordinances that are being reintroduced from pre from the previous term and are being referred to staff for further work. Items 18 through 20 are liquor and gambling license approvals and renewals. Item 21 is acceptance of the fall 2025 brownfield grants. Item 22 and 23 are contracts and extensions related to art providers and managers. Item 25 accepts a grant for the KOJ project. Item 25 is a legislative directive related to the rental licenses ordinance. And lastly, item 26 through 34 are ordinances introduced at the last council meeting that are being referred to staff to begin the drafting process. Next, items 35 through 39 are contract amendments for various services and programs. Items 40 through 42 are master contracts with numerous entities through the city health department. Item 43 is an agreement with Henipin County. Item 44 and 45 are both gift acceptances. And lastly, items 47 through 50 are all ordinances being referred to staff for further work after being introduced at the last council meeting. Item 51 approves appointments to the southside green zone council. Item 52 through 55 are various project agreements with the county and mindot. Item 56 is a resolution of support for the metro kine. Item 57 is a joint powers agreement with the parks board. Item 58 is a street reconstruction project. Item number 59 is a resolution expressing comments related to I94. 60 is agreement with county for waste reduction. Item 61 authorizes a temporary construction easement. Item 62 through 64 are gift acceptances. And I'll note here again, this is where we have the swap of the funding source uh for the gift to uh public works director Tim Sexton. Items 65 through 70 are various bids, contracts, and grants. And item 71 and 72 are ordinances being referred to staff for further work after being introduced at the last council meeting. Item 73 is a request to the city auditor that is related to the city's data security and surveillance. Item 74 is the last ordinance that's being reintroduced and referred from staff from the prior term. Item 74B is an item printed before us on the deis. This is that health department uh correction for the school BL schoolbased health centers grant from 100,000 to 300,000. And then we also have that item that um clerk Carl noted about the melt ice event. That completes my summary of the consent agenda. Um before I move to approve the consent agenda as summarized, council members, this is your opportunity to get into Q to pull items for comment or discussion. And please, as you're doing that, uh make that distinction. Council member Rainville. >> Uh, thank you. Could we please pull item 52, 54, 55, and 67 for discussion? >> It's for discussion. And is that so we can have a separate vote or is that specifically for comment? >> I I just have questions of staff. So if if anyone from public works is in the back room, a heads up. I I have just some short questions. >> Okay. Thank you. And then I'm just going to ask the city clerk for that for your advice. Is it better to take up those questions now or should we put that in our discussion agenda for later? >> Uh madam chair, I would suggest that if those questions are short, as council member Rainville has suggested that we would dispose of the consent agenda, take up those items first and dispose of them so staff can leave if they don't need to be >> Excellent. Thank you so much. >> Thank you very much. And then is that is that everything fully captured, Council Member Rainville? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, Council Member Warren. >> Thank you, Madame Chair. I would like to pull items 36, 37, 38, 39, 46, and 48. I have questions. >> Okay. Did the clerks get those items? 36 >> 36 37 38 39 46 and 48. >> Okay, great. >> Next, we'll go to Council Member Schaefer. >> Just reiterating, I'd like to pull item number 59 for discussion and vote and recuse myself on number 12. Thank you, Council Member Chavez. >> Uh, thank you, Church. Just wanted to speak quickly on item number 73. >> Please go ahead. This is a resolution requesting that the audit committee request from the city auditor a consultative and advisory engagement to serve the data security of the city's existing surveillance technology and make recommendations for best practices for data security for existing and future city surveillance technology based on numerous reports uh regarding the department of homeland security. We know that they are engaging in mass surveillance of immigrants, observers, and entire neighborhoods and are using technology including license plate readers, facial recognition technology, cell phone data, and social media monitoring tools. I've also heard uh reports from the media raising concerns about data security and data sharing from vendors to provide surveillance technology to municipal governments and the public. My hope that this is adop my hope is that this is adopted today. So then the city auditor can make a decision if he would like to make this take up this work. That way we could uh do an analysis on our surveillance technology in the city of Minneapolis. >> Thank you so much, Council President Payne. >> Thank you, Chair Chowry. I was just going to speak quickly on item number 58, uh Logan Park Industrial, aka Keep Quincy Weird. Uh the community's been highly invested in the future of this project and just wanted to uplift this April 16th uh public comment period. Excellent. Thank you so much, Council Member Payne. With that, I'm not seeing any other questions. May I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Those opposed say nay. The consent agenda passes. And now we will go to our items that have been pulled for discussion. >> These are the items pulled. >> Okay. The first item that we'll go to is item number 36. And I believe this was pulled by council member Warren. Would you like to go ahead? Um, I just have questions. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have questions about um these items and we can kind of group them together because I don't understand why there is um these grave increases amounts to these individual contracts. I reached out to um our public safety ambassador and asked for a copy of a uh RFQ or RFP and I was I seen that it was from 2024. So I'm wondering what changed in the need for these contracts to need to be increased at these large amounts and what's happening. Yeah, I think that's I think those are really um important questions to ask. We definitely had a discussion in our agenda setting about it. So, why don't we take up 36 through 39 together if that works for you, council member? >> That works for me. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> And then I believe the best person to answer these questions is going to be um either director uh um Harrington. I was like, I can't I can't remember the name all of a sudden. Either Director Harrington or if we have um Director Barnett as well or Commissioner Barnett. >> Great. Welcome director. Please introduce yourself and then if you need um any repeating of the question or clarification, just let the council member know. >> Thank you, Amanda Harrington, director of neighborhood safety. I was trying to watch the transcript on the video, but I would appreciate having the question repeated. >> Thank you, Director Harrington, for um being present. Um, so my question is, what has changed from the RFQ that was sent to me or the RFP that was sent to me from 2024 that allocates this um these large amounts of funding that are being extended to these multiple groups? And is this any um any consequence to the groups that were excluded from city of Minneapolis contracts from being able to receive services? I'm just con I'm concerned. >> Thank you. Um through the chair, it is typical practice for our contracts in neighborhood safety to be one-year contracts. And so the contracts that are before you were set to expire in uh the end of March 2026. When those contracts expire, we can either issue a new request for proposal, but we typically only do that every 3 to four years, or we can go before the council to amend and extend the contract. In the cases of the contracts in front of you, we had just done the request for proposal in 2024. And so, instead of doing that process again, we are asking to amend the contracts for an additional year. The funding that was given to the contracts last year were only for one year of services. If we extend the contracts for an additional year, they need commiserate funding to do the work for another year. The contracts that um you're referring to that were cut, the community trauma response contracts are not paying for the contracts before you. We're using our 2026 budget to pay for the contracts that are before you. >> Okay. So um so not to when it says that it the amount is not to exceed like with item number um 38 for for instance when it says that there is an additional amount of 234,45 the amount not to exceed 464,810. So is that the they're spending $232,45 annually >> through the chair? Yes. Their contract last year was for the example that you're giving $232,000 and this year they are getting an additional $232,000. So that their contract not to exceed covers two full years and is double that amount. We're not giving that that full not to exceed amount in this year. That's just the total life of the contract. >> So you said they would be extended for one year, >> correct? >> Okay. So that's the life of the contract. So then that amount would be a one-year allotment of funding that is extended to these individual groups >> through the chair. The $232,000 is the one-year funding that they have for this year. >> Okay. So Mar the April um 2026 through the end of March 2027. >> So I'm just and I and maybe this is a a question and a conversation off record, but I'm just trying to understand what it is that everyone is doing in order to be receiving such large quantities of funding. What is the what is the issue and is it really being you know solved with all of this? And question item number 39. We got a,416,800 for one-year term. Um not to exceed that amount, but they're being given $78,400. I'm just trying to figure out what are they doing for that amount >> through the chair. It will definitely depends on the contract that you're asking about what they do. Each contract has a very um specific scope of service that goes along with that. In the example that you're talking about, number 39 is for a violence interrupter or Minneapolis contract. They are being given about $78,000 for this year. Again, the $1 million number is the life of their contract, which started in 2020 um five and will end in 2027 if this um is approved. In the case of violence interruptors, um the scope of their contract includes um street um activation. So, they monitor the the assigned geographic area where they um are contracted to be. they have contacts in that community to understand when violence is bubbling up and to intervene in those before they become escalated into gun violence for example or other community harm. They are also contracted to spread messages of peace and help the community say like this is not normal for our community to live in gun violence. This should not be the norm that we want and and to emphasize that message with all community members. In addition, they hold community events that sometimes provide resources or provide just bonding opportunities and kind of normalizing that message of peace. The gun violence intervention and youth group gun violence intervention contracts are different. They work specifically with individuals who are most at risk of um excuse me, group violence. G is for group, not gun violence. Um, so people who have been involved in gangs or groups or are at risk of being involved in gangs or groups and there's very specific criteria for them to get involved once they're referred. We have a number of options including doing um visits with the police department to help gang or group members understand that they are on the radar of law enforcement. We'd love to provide them the resources and the support to get out of that lifestyle which is what the community >> time has expired for council member Warren. Thank you, director. Next, we will go to Council Member Vita. >> Thank you, chair. Uh, good morning, director. Thanks for being here. I just have a couple questions. You said in your um comments that the the dollars were from the 2026 budget, but the fiscal note says it's from public safety aid. So, like what's the Can you explain what where the money is actually coming from? Because that does make a difference to me. through the chair. It um again you're talking about a number of different contracts. So the community safety ambassador funding is public safety aid funding. The GBI, YGBI and violence interrupter funding is through the general fund budget. >> Okay. So some of them are general fund and some of them are public safety. >> Yes. Thank you for clarifying. >> Thank you. And then I don't see uh Restoration Inc. on here for extension. Can you explain why that is >> through the chair? Restoration Inc.'s contracts do not expire until August. They had one contract that expires in March and we are allowing that contract to lapse as part of our cost-saving efforts. >> Which contract is that? >> Um through the chair, I can't tell you exactly which zone it is, but we are also reorganizing all of the geographic zones. >> Three zones. It's one of the um >> correct they have three contracts in North Minneapolis for three separate zones. >> Okay. So then is this um is this touch outreach one like a zone one too? like one of the zones that's getting extended but cuz they also had three or two or three also >> through the chair touch outreach had two contracts. One of their contracts expires in March which is why we're in front of you today. The other contract doesn't expire until this summer. >> Okay. Thank you. That's it. >> Thank you, Council Member Palmisano. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Director Harrington, I think I understand part of the answer to my first question here and it was a question about the contract amendment for touch. Um, so I think we still have others other than touch providing services to for these eight different areas as defined by cure global. Um, and this is just an expansion. >> Hey, council member, I apologize for cutting you off. Could you speak more directly into your microphone and speak louder? >> Is this better? >> And that's uh for everyone >> as well. We're having some issues with the microphones. >> Certainly. Um I you've partially answered my question already, but my question was about the touch outreach question item number 39. And it was going to ask, are we now only having one vendor providing services to all eight areas? um the eight areas identified by cure global violence. I don't think so. I think what you are saying is that we still have others um and this is just an expansion of the service area to touch or just an expansion of their contract in terms of time. Churchy council members we have today seven contracts for violence interrupterss. They don't all end at the same time. Some of them were started in um April of last year. Some of them were started in August. And so we will come before council at varying times throughout this year for contract extensions. Two of the contracts we are allowing to lapse because they end at the end of March. In this case, we have one contract in front of you that was supposed to end at the end of March. It is a one-year extension to ensure that touch continues to work in South Minneapolis. At the same time, we are also working on changing the um geographic areas that these organizations cover. And that does not just mean touch outreach. It's all of the organizations because some of the feedback that we got from last year was that the geographic areas we asked them to cover were too narrow. And so we are trying to respond to the professionals that are experts in the community and also address those maps. >> Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um my other questions are about items number 37 and 38. That was the YG GVI and GVI services. The RCA said this is for client needs and support. So are there no additional direct client services other than emergent needs. If you could just maybe say a little bit more about what it is. Chair Chry Council member Palmasano. Um the GBI and YGBI contracts are for the work of um the organizations. So the contract funding includes salaries, but it also does include client assistance. The city has very specific uh public purpose guidance on how we can use client assistance and it is really for emergency needs. It is much more narrow, I think, narrowly defined than we've had in the past. >> I see. Um and then just to say I assume that for these contracts this is contracting out of the 2026 um NSD budget. Is that accurate >> through the chair GBI and YGBI are funded through the 2026 um NSD budget. That was something that we had previously planned. >> Thank you. And then I'll just note for the chair that um previously, I don't remember exactly when, but I did ask um for the status of all PSA dollars kind of where they are at broadly speaking beyond NSD. Um and I I have not gotten any answers to that. I do think that has caused some confusion here this cycle and it would be helpful to get kind of a level setting on PSA dollars still. Thank you. >> Thank you. And you noted that for administrative follow-up at at a point. Okay. So, we'll note that again and then I'll ask the clerk's office to look back at the administrative follow-ups that we have had in other committees to just ensure that they have been fulfilled and we receive them in a timely manner. Next, I will recognize Council Member Whiting. >> Thank you, Chair Chowry, and thank you, Director Harrington. Just a kind of a quick question here, and I think it's helpful for for maybe public to know as well. Uh are you able to kind of speak to it's my understanding that we've seen kind of crime statistics uh lower in the last year year and a half. Uh are you able to kind of speak to uh it sounds like outside of a outside of a presentation but if you are kind of able to speak to a little bit um if these groups are are YGVI or GBI uh efforts have have been helpful in in that reduction or if we haven't seen it. >> Chair Chowry, Council Member Whiting. Um statistics are interesting and can be used in a variety of ways. I think you can interpret data any number of ways. I would love to take full credit for the reduction in violence and crime in Minneapolis over the last year and I'd like to strongly believe that the violence prevention work in neighborhood safety contributes to that. But it also is um contributed to the work of the police department, the work of everyday community organizations and citizens who um spread those messages of peace and kind of talk people down. So it's not a onetoone correlation. Thank you. That's helpful. >> Next, I will recognize Council Member Chavez. >> Uh thank you, Chair uh Chattery. I'll just make it quick. Speaking in favor of these contracts, uh violence prevention, group violence intervention, um alternatives to policing, keep people safe, and these programs have been effective at keeping uh my constituents and constituents across the city of Minneapolis safe. So, I just want to thank the neighborhood safety department for bringing these forward. Uh, these services need to stay intact. They really do matter to my constituents and I assume our constituents across the city of Minneapolis. I'm a big advocate for these and I really hope that these are adopted today. >> Next, I'll recognize Council Member Warren. >> Thank you, Madame Chair and Director Harrington. I'm just um I'm I'm I've done a lot of youth intervention work myself. Okay. Um with the city of Minneapolis youth coordinating board and also with um the city of Brooklyn Park um youth outreach as well. So I'm familiar with how um these programs work. I'm just my question was about what has changed and why there's not an even distribution of funding across the board with respect to trauma response. Um the the narrative that we're in right now um with respect to our city has us responding to a lot of trauma. this is a reaction of the things that we've endured and our young people have endured since 2020. So, I just thought that it was very um disadvantageous for um to see that the domestic abuse project and groups like A Mother's Love and and a number of other organizations were being removed from funding when they provide such a great resource to our city. And I was trying to understand if there was a way to open up and extend those contracts and keep all of these bodies moving the way that they need to move because it's a delicate balance and a delicate dance with the way that we respond to the traumas and and fractions within our our community and for organizations especially like DAP which I've utilized in in other parts of my life. you know, whether I'm working with clients or whether I utilize them for myself, I see them as very valuable and to take funding away from those type of um organizations and and provide so much funding to these individual organizations. I just was trying to understand if there's a way to balance that scope and and the scope of work because all are necessary. Chair Chowry, Council Member Warren, I agree with you that having um restoration services is a critical part of the community safety ecosystem and it is neighborhood safety's goal to go back to having those services in the future. The contracts that are before council today are really violence prevention contracts, um not the restoration contracts, and they're not taking from um the community trauma response. The amount that we're asking to go to the contracts before the council today is just to maintain the services. >> But excuse me, Director Harrington, trauma response is violence prevention because it removes retaliatory behavior. So when you're responding to someone and providing them with intervention, services, and resources, then you alleviate retaliatory behavior. Through the chair, I I agree with you. public health lens of violence prevention which we work under talks about um primary, secondary, tertiary. So the responsive category would be the tertiary category of um violence prevention under the p public health model. I completely agree with you that we absolutely need these services. Um just the contracts before you today are not taking from the services that you value. That's a a separate discussion and I'm happy to have that with you because I do value those services as well. >> Okay. Thank you, Director Harrington. >> Next, I'll recognize Council Member Vita. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, Council Member Warren, just a quick update. Council Member Chavez and I have been working on restoring the funding for the programs that you're talking about. I'm certain that you've gotten all the calls and emails that I've gotten from Northsiders about uh those very critical programs. But, Council Member Chavez and I talked on Friday. we came up with a um a pathway to getting these contracts funded at least to the end of the um the the uh span that we originally voted on. And so he just text me and said that it's moving forward. I told him just tap you and tell you, but he didn't. So the contract, don't let her keep going on. >> TEAMWORK MAKE A DREAM WORK. OKAY, let's do it. >> We're fixing it. She is clearly upset. We're fixing it, council member. At least we're trying to. So, we're in conversations about um working this out. You rightfully so. You should be upset about this because it is taking uh crucial services from this entire city, but on the north side in particular. Um you know, we just had a a very traumatic situation happened in our community and these teams stepped up in a big way for these families. And so, >> I know where you're coming from, but we're we're working on it most certainly. Um uh the uh the other question I had though was u maybe the the public safety chair can answer it or not. Did we ever have a presentation on the new groups? Because we had a bunch of groups like um uh what was it like um emerge and the manup club and some of those groups that were newer to these contracts and that I don't recall that we ever got a presentation on their uh progress or like the specifics and any data collection or you know like what those interventions the impact of those interventions. So, just wondering if there was a presentation, if it was, um, can you tell me when it was? You can email me this at a later time too if you need to. But if there's something you have that just shows us since 2024 when we launched this cuz we kind of did like a um a new group of folks and I just haven't heard like if there's been successes and what areas those successes has have been in around um the youth uh group violence intervention and also GBI. So, I'd love some updates on what it's looking like with the new groups that are funded. >> Chair Chowri, Council Member Vita. Um, I would love for Council Member Chavez to say if I'm missing something, but I know we had slides in our OCS quarterly updates that addressed exactly what you were talking about because we had requests from council members to talk about the data for GBI and YGBI. And if I recall correctly, we had a really busy end of session and ran out of time to have those presentations. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, in the future, it'd be great though, like if even in the um the RCA, if you could just like add a one pager that says the impact of these grants so we know like what you know, like what council member Warren is new. There's new council members here who are just voting for a contract that some of us have extended and she's had a lot of questions about this that I can't answer. So, like a simple thing could be just a one pager that says this is what happened before you got here and this is what we're trying to maintain with solid data about how these groups have um helped in the city. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council President Payne. >> Thank you, Chair Trourey. Actually, just building on that and some of the questions from council member Whiting, council member Warren, uh this April we're going to have in our audit committee, uh our anticipated report out of the NSD audit. This grew out of I mean this department has gone through a lot of gerations, a lot of scrutiny, a lot of questions around how contracting processes have emerged culminating in director Harrington joining uh the department uh and bringing a lot of rigor to that process. And so, uh, there's actually been a lot of work to strengthen the RFP process, um, and even the monthly invoicing process. And I know that, uh, we're anticipating a big report out from the city auditor at the April meeting for that. So, just wanted to give a heads up for that. And just a little bit more background for my colleagues that have some of these questions. >> Thank you. I'll just kind of pose a question that doesn't need to be answered by colleagues today or right now in this moment. Just something to consider. Uh if that quarterly update presentation would be valuable at one of the next super cows that we have coming up, we can certainly put that in the agenda. I know that these are long meetings, but they're planned to be long meetings. And so if that's valuable to uh council members, that's certainly something we can discuss about having on the agenda. I I >> you prefer briefings >> just food for thought. So I appreciate the the response. Okay. There are no other questions on these items. So I will ask someone to make a motion. >> Some moved. >> Uh I move I move to approve items 36 through 39. >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh, will the clerk please call the role? >> Council member Payne, >> I. >> Wsley, >> I. >> Rainville, >> I. >> Vita, >> I. >> Warren, >> I >> Osman is absent. Schaefer. >> I >> Stevenson. >> I >> Chavez. >> Hi. >> Whiting. >> Hi. >> Palmisano. >> Hi. >> Vice Chair Chip Tai. >> Hi. >> And chair Chowry. >> That carries. I. Oh, I that carries. 12 I's that carries. All right. Next, we have item number 46, which is about the safe outdoor space referral to staff. And then we also have item number 48, which is about the drug paraphernalia uh referral to staff on the ordinance. And I'm wondering um Council Member Warren if we could take both of these items up together for discussion. >> Um Chair, yes, that's fine. I just have questions. I just wanted it explained. >> Great. Why don't you go ahead? Um item number 46 and um 48 for uh safe outdoor spaces. Um what is what is a for individuals outdoor sheltering and for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness and then what is the what is that drug paraphernalia for individuals to be able to walk around with drugs >> paraphernalia. Yeah. I will have the the lead author address both of these together. And I'll just also note for you and the rest of the colleagues, this is an action um specifically to refer to staff to begin the work of working with staff to uh write out the legislation for the the ordinances. And with that, I will go to the author, the lead author on both of those ordinances, council member Chavez. >> Uh thank you, Chair Charter, if I may. Number 46 is the safe outdoor space component. This is for a safe parking ordinance. This is going to be authored by myself, council member Chowy, council member Chuktai, and it would allow for a safe parking space uh for individuals who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness to be allowed to be in a parking spot. It would go through a specific process. It would go through zoning. It would have a similar program to what exists currently in the city of Duth. This ordinance isn't here yet because it hasn't been introduced with the exact language yet. is going to have to go through the zoning and planning commission and then come before the city council for potential amendments and discussion. So that's basically what it is. It exists in the city of Duth. It's the safe bay program and that's what we're modeling it after. Uh now the second one, the drug paraphernalia ordinance. The state legislature already decriminalized the possession of drug paraphernalia. What this would do is just we're out of compliance in our city ordinance. So it's just adopting what the state did. And again, there isn't a specific language yet because we haven't introduced it yet. We're just referring it to staff so we can then come back and set up a public hearing. >> So, you said that the state has um already decriminalize the possession of drug paraphernalia. >> Yeah. Because for example, people were getting criminalized for having a water bong. >> Okay. But does that add respect to needles and all kind of other crack pipes and I mean just people just walking around with just stuff. >> People are allowed should be allowed to carry that stuff. It doesn't have drugs in it. This is not about drug use. This is about paraphernalia which is separate separate issues. >> Yeah. But I see paraphernalia all up and down the streets and up and down the sidewalks and needles and all kinds of other things that you know bring about harm to children and elders and individuals who are um moving about community carrying out different business. So I'm I'm really struggling with this. Um yeah and I'm happy to have a conversation with you once the language is finalized. Again, this is what the state legislature did. Governor Walls signed this into state law. We're just getting our ordinances into compliance. >> I mean, paraphernalia being carried around in public um allows for individuals to, you know, carry out public and drunkenness and other behaviors or or to be under the influence. That's why our trains and our transit areas are not as safe as they should be for individuals to commute throughout community because of the paraphernalia that individuals are carrying with them and utilizing because that promotes usage. If you're walking around with a crack pipe, you're nine times out of 10 you're looking for crack or you just got finished using it. Um traffic cones on top of people's heads in bus shelters and things like that. I mean, we're seeing too much of this. this is I don't I don't there's no way I can comply with this. So my vote on this will be definitely no for for both in with respect to that. Thank you for your explanation though. >> Council member Chavez, do you have any further comments? Okay, Council Member Chuck Tai. >> Uh thank you, Madam Chair. Just to reiterate, um these are not neither of these two or um items are the passage of said policies. Um whether it's safe outdoor spaces or the drug paraphernalia ordinance, these are being referred to staff, which is a part of our standard legislative process. um with that that allows for the drafting of policies um which then come back to uh the body to conduct a public hearing which gives opportunity for community to weigh in on proposed policies prior to further refinement and and ultimately then the consideration of passage. Um so we are very very early in in the process of these and I just as discussion is unfolding on them and and I think it makes a lot of sense. These are really um these these are these are questions that um are important to be asking, you know, just to make sure that we're not passing policies that uh that that we're not all clear what we're exactly the the goal we're trying to get to. Um but just just for folks who are watching along, um we are we are not passing either one of these policies right now. We're going through like a very technical part of the process. Um and then uh you know just just to you know, reiterate what council member Chavez mentioned around item number 48, the drug paraphernalia ordinance referral. Um, that this is about compliance with state law, which we are out of compliance with, and that is a problem. We cannot do that. Um, and and not a brand new body of work. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I'm I Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, Council Member Warren, >> I understand we can be out of the state compliance and that can be anywhere else in the state, but in the city of Minneapolis, that does not have to be the compliance or the behavior in the city. That can be somewhere else in the state. That does not have to be in the city. We don't have to have that behavior in the city of Minneapolis, especially where we're seeing an oversaturation and concentration of that. doesn't make any sense at all whatsoever. Just because it's a a state law doesn't mean that it has to be ordained within the city that we have to say that this works for this community. So, there's a lot of state laws and all kinds of things that go for other areas of the city, but in a specific jurisdiction of the state, we have the right to say that no, that doesn't work. And I think we've seen enough of the concentrated drug use and abuse and um displacement here that promotes, you know, individuals being a harm to themselves and others. And so therefore, I'm a firm no. And I would vote to end this conversation indefinitely that we don't even have this talk anymore about any of this cuz it's ridiculous. It doesn't even it doesn't match up if we're having a conversation about a war against opioids and all kind of other usage and things like that that are causing people to act out of their body and be at risk or at harm to themsel or other people to be walking around with flashing needles and and pipes and drugs and things like that. It just it it doesn't make any sense. it contradicts the health and safety that we're saying that we're trying to promote in wellness with individuals in our community. >> I put myself in Q. I um will just say that there will be ample time in the future for further discussion. Uh I personally am really grateful that we aren't criminalizing our community members uh for having needles, pipes, water bongs. I don't think that gets at the heart of addressing addiction, which is a disease. And I believe that community members that face addiction and substance use disorder deserve to be treated with humanity and dignity. And that's why this was changed at the state level. And it is also my understanding for this state law. Um, and we will have further discussion about this. I don't believe we are able to supersede state law on this. So, it's important that our city codes are in compliance with state law as all of our city codes must be. With that, I will ask the clerk actually to take up the role on both of these items separately. And so why don't we take up the role on item number 40 46 safe outdoor spaces referral to staff. Council member Payne >> I >> Wsley >> I >> Rainville >> I >> Vita >> I >> Warren >> no >> Schaefer >> I >> Stevenson >> I >> Chavez >> I >> Whiting >> I >> Palmisano >> I >> vice chair Chai >> I >> and chair Chowry >> I >> there are 11 eyes's and one nay. >> That motion carries. Uh, next we will take up the vote on item number 48. Clerk, please call the role. >> Council member Payne, >> I. >> Wsley, >> I. >> Rainville, >> I. >> Vita, >> I. >> Warren, >> no. >> Schaefer. >> I, >> Stevenson, >> I. >> Chavez, >> I. >> Whiting. >> I, >> Palmisano. >> I, >> Vice Chair Chuktai. >> I, >> and Chair Chard, >> I. >> There are 11 eyes and one nay. >> That carries. All right, we will continue down the line from items pulled from the consent agenda. Next, we have item number 52 and that was pulled by council member Rainville. So, we will go to you, council member. >> Thank you. I think we're waiting for public works. >> Please let them in. Thank you. You guys uh looked a little shifty. They don't want the security don't want to let you in the room. I love it. So, here's my question. Uh, as part of this uh uh blue line extension, green line extension, uh there's uh some safety improvements with the streets, especially pedestrian safety and uh enhancements to crossing streets. When will that start? So, uh, council member, uh, sorry, Chair Chowry, members of committee, uh, Council Member Rainville, >> could you please introduce yourself and come to the meeting? >> My name is Kyle Wallace, project manager with, uh, Transportation Engineering and Design. So, this agreement is an operations and maintenance agreement with the Southwest LRT, which is the Green Line Extension. It's just um going to be in service in 2027. So with the project, we did uh numerous ADA upgrades where we had uh ped ramp upgrades, ADA crosswalks, um just making streets uh narrower and safer for the pedestrians to access the stations. >> Fine. But could you tell me or could someone in public works tell me when you're going to put a new uh 8th Street extension? And then uh the discussion was about improvements crossing uh Washington Avenue at at 8th, excuse me, 8th Avenue, not 8th Street, 7th. And then uh issues with Second Street, the how the traffic is going to be impacted. Where is that status? I I I would like to know how uh the North Loop neighborhood is going to be affected. Uh, Chair Chowry, uh, Council Member Rainville, I believe, um, some of the questions you're asking are for the Blue Line extension. Um, we're currently expecting 90% plans to come through at the end of this month. Um, uh, we did recently have a North Loop package uh, come through our CPDF and we're going to be addressing comments for those. Those are due uh, March 18th for uh, for the review for North Loop package. >> March 18th. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Um, Council Member Rainville, do you think we will need to call the role on this one? Would you like the RO? >> Sure. Let's call the RO. >> Okay. Excellent. With that, let's call the role on item number 52. >> Council member Payne. >> I, >> Wanssley. >> I, >> Rainville. >> I, >> Vita. >> I, >> Warren. >> I, >> Schaefer. >> I, >> Stevenson, >> I >> Chavez. >> I >> Whiting. I >> Palmisano >> I >> vice chair Chai >> I >> and chair Chowry >> I >> there are 12 eyes's >> that item carries. Next we will go to item number 54. This is regarding Lowry Avenue Northeast to Washington Northeast Reconstruction. We'll go to Council Member Rainville. >> Uh thank you. I have several questions. Uh number one, when does the construction start? When is it proposed to be finished? And then uh a little off to the side. In fact, Council President P and I had just discussed this at Elsie's bowling alley this weekend. What is about the timing for Marshall Avenue University and uh Central? How we doing on that? >> Welcome and please introduce yourself. >> Good morning, chair, members of the committee. My name is Don Elwood. I'm the director of transportation engineering and design. I heard three questions. Let me see if I can address them one at a time. This is a Henipin County project on Lowry Avenue. It's scheduled to begin construction in 2026. It's scheduled to end construction in 2027. Third question I heard is globally in Northeast, what is the plan or how is this plan going? We we do have a task force that has been set up. It's up and running. That task force at the city is working with Henipin County and the state of Minnesota in order to do coordination on all projects in that area to minimize disruption and keep um the public moving access to businesses and to not not impede the operation. >> Uh thank you. That's great news. When when will the task force have information that uh council president and I would have access to? >> Uh chair, members of the committee, council member, um I will have to get back to you on the the status, the exact status. It is a u an iterative process as we work with each agency to >> uh push and pull schedules, but we can follow up with you. >> That's great. And thank you for followup. And when you talk to those agencies, if you could just let them know that uh the people in my ward, this one of the most asked questions that I get in Northeast Minneapolis is what's going to happen when these three streets are under construction. >> Uh chair, members of the committee, council member, I'd be happy to do that. >> Thank you very much. Could we call the role on this, please? >> Yes, council member. With that, I'll ask the clerk to call the role on item number 54. Council member Payne. >> Hi, >> Wanssley. >> I >> Rainville. >> Hi, >> Vita. >> I >> Warren. >> I >> Schaefer. >> I Stevenson. >> I >> Chavez. >> I >> Whiting. >> Hi, >> Palmisano. >> I >> Vice Chair Chai >> I. >> And Cher Chowry. >> I There are 12 eyes. That carries. Next, we will go to item number 55. This is regarding Henipin Avenue improvements. I will go to council member Rainville who has pulled this item. >> Thank you again. My question on this uh is when will it start and when will it end? And I'm looking for a month months. >> Welcome. Please introduce yourself. Good morning, uh, Madame Chair and council members. Uh, my name is Bill Prince. I'm a professional engineer with traffic and parking services. I was wondering if the question could be repeated. I didn't. >> Yes, of course. Council member Rainville. >> Uh, thank you, Bill, for coming. I'm looking for the month uh that this will start and the month it will end. Uh, Council Member Rainville, the project is expected to start after the 4th of July and continue till approximately September and then the county will do a mill overlay of Henipin Avenue in that stretch and we'll have the new curb lines all set for that. Uh, >> thank you. So, the entire Henipin Avenue once this stretch is done. The mill and overlay, >> uh, the Millan overlay will go from Washington Avenue to the bridge. >> Okay. Uh we're just doing from where the U Metro Transit uh Eline bus station was constructed at Second Street to the uh bridge. >> Right. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Uh but I I do have one question. I I did not get a month from Mr. Elwood. Would you know, director Sexon when when the Li Avenue what month the Li Avenue will start or there is? I'm sorry. I should have asked you this. Uh, I'm looking for the month that the Li Avenue construction will start in 26. Uh, and then when will it end in >> back, Mr. Elwood? >> Chair, members of the committee, uh, council member, I don't have an exact start date. >> If I look at process, Henipin County will bid this job out. They'll hope to receive bids and award the bid. Once the bids are awarded, this is a process. I go through it with my projects as well. Once the bid is awarded, you work with that contractor to develop a schedule including a start date with milestones. >> Okay. Thank you. And the reason I'm asking this is there's restaurants on this stretch of Lara Avenue that are going to be greatly impacted by the road construction and I would just like to help them do their planning. So if you could work with Henipin County and uh somehow when that information is available uh just pass it on to me so I can pass it on to the restaurants. uh chair, members of the committee, council member, um I will pass that along. There there are customers too and so it is important. I understand the importance of doing that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. With that, I will ask the clerk to call the role in item number 55. >> Council member Payne, >> I >> Wsley, >> I. >> Greenville, >> I >> VA. >> Hi. >> Warren, >> I >> Schaefer. I >> Stevenson. >> I >> Chavez. >> Hi, >> Whiting. >> I >> Homosano. >> I >> vice chair Chuktai. >> I >> and Chair Chowry. >> I >> There are 12 eyes. That carries. Next, we will go to item number 59. And this is regarding the city's comments on I94, rethinking I94. I'll go to council member Schaefer, who has pulled this for discussion. I thought 57 was also pulled. >> Yeah, I have item number 67 from >> 67. All right. I apologize. Yes. Uh, thank you. I would like to briefly have a short discussion. First of all, I want to say thank you to public works staff for your brief overview of the last decade of work on this I94 project. Um, for some of the new council members even just yesterday. So I appreciate that was a time frame and shortness of uh uh notification. So thank you for that work. One of the things that I um pointed out um in this process was um a phrase um in the third let's see where it is on your paragraph. It's underneath now there it be resolved on the third page. Um striking the language and strongly opposes the repair or reconstruction of I94 in its current form. Um to me in speaking with staff I expressed some of my concern about that um and in the way that that language itself communicates um that we as a city body would oppose maintenance and improvements on this roadway. so vital vital to bringing people in to our city and residents getting around. So in that dialogue, staff were willing to bring this forward and shared this with Chair Wanssley and Vice Chair Stevenson. And so I'm just wondering if we could if this body would be willing to replace this new one that you have on your dis deas with um what was originally attached in the agenda. And the one change is what is crossed out on the third page in the first paragraph under now there it be resolved >> then council member Schaefer is that a question for someone or should we just move through the queue? >> Um sure we can take it as a just a voice vote. That might be the the quickest way. Um >> okay. Is that what you would suggest? Uh, I feel like I got the clarification I needed. With that, I will go to Council Member Wanley. >> Thank you, uh, Chair Chargerie. So, um, this language is actually modeled off of the language that this body passed in 2024 regarding um, our official position um, orientating to the rethinking I94 project. So, this is already a policy position adopted by the city council and the city. So staff rightfully included the language that's already been set in the city's policy um positions on this. That said, um I agree with the sentiments around how this um statement as it currently stands offers confusion regarding our position related to welcoming investments. Um, but that said, I we done a lot of work as pack board members, specifically council member uh Osman and myself and dozens of elected officials who sit on the policy advisory committee around the rethinking I94 project um are staunchly uh protective of we do not want to maintain the status quo as it pertains to how we're moving forward with this project. So that said, I actually was going to motion to move this forward with our recommendation on Thursday so that we could work with our staff to create some more language that gets at that as opposed to removing fully the also opposition of the reconstruction of I94. Um because that is a position that we've taken and a a pretty elaborate debate that's happening amongst um various jurisdictions that's impacted by this project. So that's the motion I'm willing to make so that on Thursday we can bring back language. Um considering this came to my attention just yesterday. Um so using this time to come forward and bring a amendment. So with that I'll ask for a second on the motion to refer without recommendation. >> Second. >> Second. >> Okay. The motion to move this without recommendation has been moved and seconded. Is there anyone else that would like to speak to this item? Seeing none, I'll ask the clerk. >> You know what? I just got I just council member. >> Yes. I I appreciate um the work that has gone into this document to date, but I also would like to recognize that we are voting on something with four new members of a council who have had no input into giving this um some thought. We had no presentations. We've had nothing um other than this half an hour briefing yesterday that I requested and I apologize for the late notice of that um because I didn't get to reading the agenda till the weekend. But I would say that um I think it's really important that we include the voices of all the council members in this document as it goes forward. We don't have the time to delay this. This would have been my first choice um to delay this one cycle in order to be able to still submit it and have additional dialogue uh before the state deadline. But with our council structure, we cannot delay this and it's important for us, very important to get these uh this letter to the state. I agree with almost everything that is in this document, but I think that particular phrase lends itself to confusion within um constituencies about where we stand on um on this roadway. So that's just my comment there. And um I am willing to move this forward without recommendation. Um and I also um would like to dialogue about I can bring forward this amendment at that time on Thursday as well. So I will um align with council members Wanley's recommendation to go ahead and move this forward with the idea we may have an amendment or additional changes for Thursday. >> Thank you council member. I'll go back to council member Wanley. >> Yeah. And just for clarification again, understanding we have four new council members, but this project is currently set to go for several years. I think the tenative timeline is even up to maybe 2030. So this will not be the first or last touch point that this body has to consider this project. We will be having deliberate and elaborate conversations as we have been for the past three and a half years regarding this project in the climate and infrastructure committee. Um, so I just need to emphasize this is not the last touch point. It's aligning with the city's position and many other partners who are part of this project as well who've been impacted by the displacement in the historical racial segregation and dispossession and displacement that caused um harm to dozens of black and brown communities. And still to this day where Cedar Riverside where me and council member Osman share that boundary in Ward um we're seeing horrible and horrific public health impacts regarding even concentrated rates of a asthma and cancer along where that highway stands. So there is going to be lots of debate, lots of conversations of how we're moving forward with intentionality um with this project, especially before any ask of us um comes from uh the Minnesota Department of Transportation for any municipal consent to move forward with anything. So, I just want to name there'll be elaborate conversations and then again on Thursday, yes, I'll bring an amendment that I believe will reflect at least the sentiments of the concerns that I've heard and also honors the intent of our current standing city policy regarding this uh project. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to get into discussion? Seeing no one else, I will ask the clerk to call the role on item number 59. Council member Payne. >> Hi. >> Wley. >> Hi. >> Rainville. >> Hi. >> Vita. >> Hi. >> Warren. >> I >> Schaefer. >> Hi. >> Stevenson. >> I >> Chavez. >> I >> Whiting. >> I >> Palmisano. >> I >> vice chair Chuktai. >> I >> and chair Chowry. >> I. There are 12 eyes. >> That carries. This is the last item that we have pulled for discussion from consent. This is item number 67 on the shared bike and scooters. I will ask I believe it's council member Rainville um to start us off here. >> Thank you. Uh I I just have a really short uh question for Director Ston. Actually, it's more of a request than a question. But um this was the first winter that the scooters were allowed to operate in the winter, as odd as that seems. And I I've gotten a lot of complaints about those uh scooters being left in snowbanks on sidewalks. Well, I'm I'm wondering if you could pass on to your staff if they could uh call and we could talk about uh just scooters in general. Uh obviously the complaints will really pick up in the summer. So I want to be prepared to talk to my constituents about uh the safeguards that public works has on those. >> Yeah. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. Um chair, uh my name is Tim Sexton, public works director. Uh through the chair, Council Member Rainville, we'd be happy to set something up. We'll reach out to your office today. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Wonderful. Is there any further discussion, members? Okay, seeing none, clerk, please call the role on item number 67. >> Council member Payne, >> I. >> Wsley, >> I. >> Rainville, >> I. >> Beta >> is absent. Warren, >> I >> Schaefer >> I >> Stevenson >> I >> Chavez >> I. >> Whiting >> I. >> Palmasano. >> I, >> Vice Chair Chip. >> I chair Chowdery. >> I. There are 11 eyes. That motion carries. Wonderful. We have disposed of the consent agenda. With that, our first quasi judicial hearing is an appeal for a site plan review submitted by Michael M. on behalf of the 8003rd lot. Um, I will just take a moment uh to share that we have two quasi judicial hearings and I will reiterate that anyone that wishes to address either of these matters should register with the clerks at the registration table in the corridor outside this chamber. We'll take testimony in the order that folks are registered and after giving 5 minutes per applicant and appellant in each case. If you have any materials to submit for the record on any of these matters, please give those materials to the clerks at the registration table outside in the corridor. For everyone in attendance, especially those who may participate in our hearings on the comment period, let me offer this notice. These hearings are being recorded and broadcast. Both the recording and broadcast are classified as public data under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. By attending and participating in these proceedings, your image uh your image and any testimony or information that you provide will also be subject to disclosure under that law. That includes but is not limited to your attendance, your name, and other personal details you provide as well as testimony or comments you provide, which includes any written submissions you make that are included in the record of this meeting. Um before I welcome up uh Andrew Lisa, I will ask council member Vita if she would like to have her vote recorded in the affirmative for item number 67. >> Yes. There's no objection. So we'll have the clerks record that. With that for um the quasi judicial hearing on the 8003rd lot, I will welcome up city planner Andrew Lisa to provide a brief on this item. Welcome Mr. Lisa. >> Thank you, chair, council members. The appellant for this item has withdrawn this application, so there's no action needed on that. >> Thank you. Great. There is no action needed. That is excellent newslet. >> Um I with that I will move to delete that from the agenda. Could I get a second? >> Second. >> Uh all those in favor? I >> I those opposed say nay. Okay, great. That carries and it has been deleted from the agenda. The last quasi judicial hearing before we go into our next two public hearing items is a hearing for a variance appeal submitted by Tom Peterson for the property known as Hayawa Church located at 415541st Avenue South. I'll ask city planner Miles Campbell to provide more information on this matter. Welcome up, Mr. Campbell. Thank you, chair and council members. Uh my name is Miles Campbell. I work in the zoning administration team. Um and yes, this is an appeal of a decision made by the zoning board of adjustment back at their January 15th meeting. Um the item in question is for property located at 415541st Avenue South. Um the two requests in question here are one to increase the maximum allowed lot cover to 67% of the lots area and to increase the allowed maximum impervious surface to 71% of that lot area. To give an idea for those of you that aren't as familiar with the zoning code, lot cover refers to the footprint of physical structures, the buildings themselves on the property. maximum impervious is that as well as any pavement or hard cover services that do not allow storm water infiltration. Um again just to give a little bit of background a little bit of context uh the site originally was uh developed as a dwelling back um in the very early 1900s and then was later converted to I believe a parsonages for a brief period of time and then eventually a place of assembly. Um there have been a couple of additions over the years according to city permit records. Uh that current uh structure has largely been in place um since around the 1950s. Uh the lot itself is 10,168 square feet in area and that existing structure has a footprint roughly uh 5,545 square ft. Um the structure is today considered non-conforming with those maximum lot covered impervious surface uh numbers. To give you an idea in this district, it's a urban neighborhood one property and the interior one built form overlay. we'd have a maximum of 45% lot cover and 60% impervious surface. In this case, that existing uh church structure is at 60% lot cover and 63% impervious. Again, the main kind of uh trigger for this uh variance and the main reason the church is looking to um make improvements to the structure is to improve the accessibility to the street itself. Um this was built prior to any sort of um ADA requirements being in place and currently both entrances to the church itself um require kind of navigating stairways to get to the main congregation area. So they are proposing as part of this uh project to improve uh specifically the south stair entry uh provide an elevator on the inside and also have a ramp um located in the right of way to the south of the building itself. and the cause then kind of triggers the need for a larger addition to the rest of that structure to then shift around some of those lobby services, shift around some of the offices that are impacted. I will note so this originally was scheduled to appear at the board of adjustment in December. Um hearing some feedback from neighbors in the surrounding area, they did um asked to continue that item to January so they can make some revisions to the plan. So this was the original proposal submitted by uh Haywa Church. You can see highlighted in that yellow circle is the actual the ramp for the entrance itself. Um and then the rest of the site uh identifying that original addition location. Again, come January that was revised down largely to kind of um address concerns around shading of properties adjacent. Um cut a little bit of that proposed hardcover proposed footprint. So the proposal before you today is for this um 1,275 square foot addition that includes a below grade basement. Again there's the uh existing main level on the left side. On the right you can see that proposal with the the new layout. You can see that south entry has been modified in order to create that elevator space and then the remainder of that upstairs level. One thing I will note there currently is not a bathroom on that main level of the church. So another kind of goal from this project was to provide um accessible restrooms on that main floor. And then obviously office space um meeting space for the congregation and community members. Again, this is the lower level of that structure. You can see um highlighting green are kind of classroom areas as opposed to kind of the community spaces. Again, with this addition, part of the um improvement here is they are creating a connection to that north entry. So you can um kind of move from the north entry to the lower level without having to kind of get through the whole main level itself. In terms of staff findings and the findings adopted by the board of adjustment. Um when we look at zoning code variances, there is a legal statute set up by the state that they need to meet three standards of practical difficulties. Um if it meets all three, then it should be approved and if it fails to meet any of those statute uh statutory standards, it should be denied essentially. Um the board of adjustment and staff generally felt that it met findings two and three. So finding two being kind of within the reasonable use in the intent of the code. Um one thing we'll note here and was noted in the staff report. Um the intent of the code and limiting imperous service and lot cover. Obviously, we talk about um those being in place to combat urban heat island effect, promote adequate space for landscaping and reinforce uh existing development patterns and to reduce storm water runoff and encourage natural absorption of storm water into the soil. Um one of the things that we note here is that we would recommend a condition where this to be approved um making the proposed uh rain garden to the west of the building um be required as part of the uh proposal itself. again kind of that uh finding two is being conditionally met by that requirement. Um the one that both staff and the board of adjustment could not find in this case was the uh first requirement that there are unique circumstances to the property not created by the land owner and not cause um solely in sort of a economic consideration. Um one thing I do want to clarify for this body that was a point of discussion at the board of adjustment property here in terms of unique circumstances does include the structure itself. So it doesn't need to be a site condition. It can be something with the building itself being unique causing the hardship. Um, in this case, staff just did not see that. Um, in terms of, and again, the applicant has their appeal materials, but they talk about um, the location of the building being right up on that south property line and the split level construction of it. Um, staff did not find those to be unique um, in terms of the city's kind of other uh, places of worship throughout the city. And again, in terms of that south property line, in any case, that's almost beneficial to the church here. that means that their um ramp that they're constructing is not actually counted towards lot covered impervious. Um so again staff did not find that there was that unique circumstance with the property or with the site. Um that would be kind of the main consideration before you all of is there uh a finding to be made in that consideration. With that I'm happy to stand for any questions you all may have. >> Thank you. We will save questions for after the public hearing. Um thank you again for the summary Mr. Campbell, if the CA applicant is here to address the committee, you will be given five minutes to speak and then after that, everyone else will have two minutes to speak. So with that, I will welcome up the applicant for any comments. Please introduce yourself. >> Thank you. >> Is it five minutes when I get the PowerPoint? >> Great. And if I didn't say it, I will say it that we are opening up the public hearing. Could I have help getting that? Oh, it's on me. Um, let me just uh Okay. >> Yeah, we'll start when you start introducing yourself. We'll start the timer then. >> I don't know if I can get that a little smaller. Okay. Uh, madame council member and, uh, president and council members, thank you for your service. Um Tom Peterson with Station 19 Architects. We've served a lot of churches around Minneapolis and I've seen some of your faces in that process. Uh the reason for this variance is the church wants to provide accessibility to uh the public that use their building. It's been 112 years since a chapel was built on the site and that has been replaced by uh two additions. The last edition was 75 years ago before accessibility codes, before the current zoning code, before child safety and uh protective custody and energy codes went into effect. And um the fact that the building currently is beyond what the current zoning code is for coverage has probably limited it from becoming accessible. It's a growing congregation. and the pastors, two pastors are here to talk about how the church is used. I'll just talk about um kind of why why were here appealing. Um I provided a statement, but it kind of boils down to what Miles was saying. Uh you are the body that currently gets to decide if it's appropriate to provide a variance for here. And uh as Miles pointed out um uh both in their staff report and even on uh the sheet that he said it said site uh versus property and uh I think the judgment has been that the the the site itself just a rectangle on the end of a block is not unique. Uh but uh for the church that bought this 20 years ago uh split level building build up to property and setback lines um uh it is a unique situation. So uh in order to add and provide accessibility uh to remote entrances, they need to add on to the building to provide that circulation. and by adding on elevators and stairs and restrooms and uh uh large changing rooms that are now required by the code. Uh that all takes away the other functional space. So uh the addition that we're proposing as you were shown was reduced by 28% in the footprint uh in order to provide uh the accessible components uh and then to accommodate the existing components that are displaced by those accessible components and provide the uh necessary circulation. So, we've feel like we've reduced it down to a minimum size that provides the accessibility that's always been needed there, but is finally being able to provide it other than uh for the coverage and the impervious. Uh the building as a one-story building with a basement meets the F requirements, floor area ratio requirements. So, it's under that. So, other than for this coverage, it would uh comply. And uh in order to deal with the coverage, as Miles has pointed out, we've provided uh two rain gardens to handle the storm water management and address those concerns. Uh the addition was pulled back from the north. We have a 5-ft setback. It's currently a 20ft setback in order to not cast any shadows from that main body of the addition all through the grow growing season from March through September. And we've demonstrated that in the slides that were part of our pre presentation. And uh so we're uh appealing uh to your sense of uh helping out a church to uh serve its neighborhood and the public that use the buildings. And I'll u be available to answer any questions. And thank you for your time. I know it's a busy day here. So >> thank you so much. We will um take up discussion after we complete the public hearing. >> Uh with that I have Peter Wayne as the first person signed up to speak. Welcome up Peter. >> Peter Dugan. >> Peter Dugan. Apologies. >> Good morning, chair and committee. My name is Peter Dugan. My wife mine and my wife's home is next to Hayawa Church where we live and are both fortunate enough to work from home. We ask that the committee we ask the committee to deny the appeal for variances requested. We believe that the church can and should make its ADA compliance within its current building footprint. I have 25 years of experience in land surveying and I have experience preparing certificates surveys and hardcover surveys for variance requests such as this. The church has failed to meet the required criteria to grant the requested variances. Criteria one, there are no circumstances unique to the property. The property is already overdeveloped and simply does not support increasing the oversized building with a 1,275 ft addition. The building has functioned and served as a church in its current state since 1951. The congregation outgrowing the current building is a circumstance created by Haywatha Church itself and is not a reason for granting a variance to add onto a non-conforming building which is already too large for the size of the property. Criteria two, increasing the maximum building coverage to 67%. 1.5 times that of the maximum building coverage of 45% for our zoning district and increasing the maximum imperous surface coverage to 71% 11% over that of the maximum impervious surface coverage of 60% for our zoning district does not keep with the spirit or intent of these ordinances. Criteria three, the proposed addition would still shadow over our gardens while we are actively gardening and we and would also block out the morning natural light we currently enjoy from the windows on the south side of our home during the winter months. Both would alter the essential character of our backyard, garden, and home and would be injurous to the use and enjoyment of our property. Since the church has failed to meet any of the criteria, we ask the committee to continue to deny the variances. I'd be happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you. Next, we'll go to Wayne Thompson. Welcome up. >> Hello. My name is Wayne Thompson and I am speaking as both a neighbor and congregate of H Highwatha Church. I would like to express my full support for the proposed building addition and facility improvements for Haywatha Church. For many years, Haywatha Church has been a positive and stabilizing presence in our community, serving not only its members but also the broader neighborhood through programs, events, and practical support. The planned addition represents a meaningful investment for the continued presence within the neighborhood by providing accessibility, safety, and community engagement. Primary benefit of the project is the addition of the ADA accessibility, which will ensure that individuals of all abilities can participate fully in the life of the church and in life on-site. This enhancement reflects the church's long-standing commitment to inclusivity, hospitality, and respect for all people. The proposed security main entry will also address important safety and security needs, particularly for the children's ministry. As an individual who values the well-being of local families, I believe these improvements are essential for creating a safe environment where uh parents can feel confident in trusting their children during programs and gatherings. In addition, the new expanded spaces will provide vital support for additional office and MI ministry space, which will directly strengthen the church's capacity to serve the community through mentorship, outreach, counseling, and other neighborhood focused initiatives. The ministry, these ministries have already had a positive impact in fostering connections, supporting families, and contributing to the overall well-being of those who live nearby. Haywatha Church has consistently offered care, connection, and stability to residents, and the expanded facilities will only increase its ability to serve our neighborhood in times of celebration, need, and transition. It is for these reasons I strongly support this project, and I believe it will be a significant asset to both Haywatha Church and our surrounding community. I respectfully encourage the approval and advancement of this muchneeded expansion. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next, we will go to Chris Watcher. Welcome. >> Thank you and good morning, uh, Madam Chair, council members. My name is Chris Walker. I'm the founding lead pastor of H Highwatha Church. And just wanted to add a couple of words to our appeal, uh, from someone who's been there for 20 years and kind of watched people use our space and watch the church grow from 35 people to about 300 or so now. Uh, and to start by saying that this is not just a theoretical use of space, but an actual one. Uh, at the board of adjustment meeting in January, a couple board members used the term black box to refer to our space. But I would just ask that you consider how this is not a question about what a church could use this space for in theory. Nor is it about how past churches have existed in in the space and used it, but it's about our use of it today and the pinch points that we're experiencing. Uh again we're a 300 plus person uh multigenerational church where which includes about 100 of which are kids and we have eight staff team members and contextually it's the year 2026. Accessibility and diversity matter more than ever. The expectations of our visiting neighbors who've come in to visit for sun for for Sunday services have changed over the years as well for what public space should provide in accessibility and kids safety things that our space is lacking. We've been told this by many. So, all of this is why we're needing to do these updates. And both Miles and Tom addressed this, but uh the reason we're here appealing is there's uh significant downstream negative impacts to our space. If we were to just do accessibility alone on our existing footprint, it would cut into too many existing offices, bathrooms, and kids classrooms and lobby space and would render our space almost unusable for an existing church our size. Hence the need to build out. And so then in terms of where our heart is with this, um, we started Haywatha Church in this building 20 years ago purposefully in Longfellow because of our love for Minneapolis and desire to stay. And we believe that a Christian church that loves its neighborhood, that respects those of differing beliefs and that desires to lend its space out for the common good of the community is a good thing for Minneapolis and would match the city's commitment to diversity, inclusivity, and safety. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. And then we have Spencer Peterson as our last speaker. If there is anyone else that would like to speak to this item, please sign out side with the clerks. Welcome, >> Madam Chair. Uh, council members, my name is Spencer Peterson. Uh, my family and I moved to Minneapolis a couple decades ago in order to be a part of Highwatha Church. We moved into the Longfellow neighborhood uh 10 years ago to be even closer to our church and to invest in this specific neighborhood. As members of Hayawa and the Longfellow neighborhood, we're asking you to please allow us this variance that we need to make our building more accessible, safe, and hospitable to our community. My wife and I both have parents who have had strokes in the past few years and are now unable to utilize our building because of the lack of accessibility. Additionally, we have a four-year-old son who's in a wheelchair. He loves attending our church events and services. Yet, because he's disabled, he cannot participate participate fully and also needs a constant help of an adult. Uh the Minneapolis public schools did not have a spot for him in their hi-fi program this year. So, our church is the main way that he gets uh social interaction with both peers and also other adults, including senior citizens. Currently though, our church building keeps him from being able to fully participate in any church events and community and uh especially being able to participate in his children classrooms uh children uh classes with his wheelchair. He desperately needs an elevator uh/lift, larger and safer classroom spaces, and a handicap accessible uh bathroom. Our son situation and challenge is just one example of why we need this variance. Uh we need both a lift and larger safer classroom spaces for our children so that uh my son and others can have the dignity of fully participating in our community. Our church's desire for accessibility and also safe and large enough children's space also happens to fully align with Minneapolis's desire and values in their 2040 plan. We asked this team to approve our variance so that we can serve all types of people in our neighborhood uh for decades to come. Thank you for hearing us out. >> Thank you so much. Is there anybody else that would like to address the committee? Okay. Seeing no one else wishing to speak, I will now close the public hearing and then I have myself in queue for discussion. So this is uh a church that is in the 12th ward and I I have a set of questions both for the applicant but also for staff. I will say um I am in discussion with uh city staff members on this item just to share with my colleagues um to discuss uh a few different things before we take this to full counsel. So, I will be making the motion to forward this without recommendation. Could I get a second on that? >> Second. >> Thank you. And for everyone that's listening, uh, a motion to forward without recommendation doesn't mean we're approving or denying. We're just sending it to full counsel. And so with that, I will ask a question of um, Mr. Campbell to begin with. Thank you so much, Mr. Campbell. Um, I think this is a a fairly quick one. Um, you had mentioned something briefly in your presentation about this body considering a condition around the rain guarded. Could you restate that please? >> Yes, absolutely. Sure. Um so the condition there in terms of finding number two finding number two to use kind of the direct language I can pull up here talks about kind of the uh is the variance in reasonable in the spirit and intent of the ordinance and again here we're talking about the ordinance talking about um limiting lot cover limiting impervious surface so that we can allow storm water to infiltrate um effectively essentially the applicant is showing on their plans are proposing that they would have um potential green storm water mitigation through those rain gardens um staff feels that rather than just saying that as a potential opportunity there, we should make that a condition of the approval and that that second finding is really conditioned on that being provided. Otherwise, staff would not feel that that again that intent of the code to restrict um impervious service to promote um better storm water management is really being met by the proposal. >> Excellent. And then looking at what the applicant has proposed is the rain garden in staff's view in a suitable location. >> Uh we have not really gotten to that degree of review on that um storm water infrastructure. I would imagine that would come up more in conversation with our um colleagues in uh both the building code or construction code services as well as um environmental sciences. >> Okay, great. It would be helpful before Thursday um if staff could help articulate what a condition proposal could look like on this item or this part of it. Um next I have questions for the applicant. Thank you Mr. Campbell. >> Yes. Uh my first question um is what what are the unique circumstances or characteristics uh that you are claiming in this for this variance? >> Sure. Um the unique circumstance is that we have a church that was built on the site um up to the boundaries of its buildable areas uh so that additions can't be um uh expanded say away from neighbors to in a front yard. it has to go in the backyard where it's being proposed addressing kind of shadow concerns. Um that we have an existing uh twostory building without accessibility that's on a site that will not allow any additions to it and uh will therefore kind of uh remove usable space in providing that accessibility. So a remedy to improve that and uh really the the coverage increases are 7% uh for the site uh the building area and 8% above what's existing. So if you take it increases from existing versus increases from allowable it's only seven and 8% versus uh larger percentages. So >> thank you. And then should this variance not be granted and you moved ahead with the ADA additions um what space would be taken away within the church and what activities would cease >> within the space? >> Um the we determined we did did a full analysis of the facility. The place that makes sense to add the entrance is off the south side. Uh but that is built right up to the property line. So we have to move in with a energy vestibule landing and rework the stairs and then come up to those stairs into a lobby space. Um so we're a affecting uh the main central core on both levels. Uh and that displaces the reception office and bathrooms uh non-accessible bathrooms below. So then we need to also add uh bathrooms in to bathrooms on both levels and that would take out additional bathroom or office space on the upper level and classroom space on the lower level. And then it would remain uh the north lobby would remain um isolated and non-accessible except going through both the fellowship hall like right actually through the rooms and from the s front of the sanctuary all the way up the center aisle to the front to the back of the sanctuary to get to that space. So >> So not as accessible as it could be. >> Yeah, it's it's not an easy one. So >> Okay. And then currently the the church is not ADA accessible. No >> for congregants. >> No. You can't get in any door on on grade. And even on the south side, we have to ramp up about uh 2 feet from the sidewalk up to the existing landing door. So, there's some ramping that would require right of way um easement or um help me out. What's the uh approval? Yeah, approval to build on the public land. So, which we're not real concerned about. >> Great. Thank you. Um, I do have another question, but my first speaking time is expiring. So, I will see if there are other colleagues that would like to get into Q and then I'll wait to get back in. Okay, I'm going to get back in for my final question. And I'll just note for my colleagues, we can't have exparte communication um in quasi judicial matters. So I cannot call the applicant offline to have a conversation until we dispose of this item. All of the conversations that occur with the applicant uh has to happen in a public forum. So uh my final question is would you be willing to further reduce the lot coverage size and impervious surface size? Um that's I' I'd have to look at the uh the owner for that. Uh we have not talked they've kind of directed me know that this would be kind of where the minimum would be in the past. Um so we've we've kind of reduced it this one time and the question is do we want to reduce it more and the answer has been no to me. So I'm just a >> thank you. That's helpful. I'll just say this. I encourage you to consider it. And then if there is any other further information and other details on the consideration that you would like to send to my office, um other council members, the city attorneys, please do so. Uh we can receive those comments. I will not be responding back to you, but getting that additional information or any other additional information that you have ahead of Thursday uh will be extremely valuable. Great. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Then I will now call up council member Schaeer. >> Uh just one quick comment. I or not question but just a comment but I would really like to see the staff inclusion of the wildflower um or the rain garden in this proposal and I think that your presentation has provided a lot of merits for us to think about and um I'm looking forward to uh voting in support of this uh I believe on Thursday. Thank you. >> Okay. Great. >> Thank you, M. >> Thank you, Council Member Schaefer. And then thank you to everyone that testified um and came to the public hearing. Thank you to the applicants and thank you to staff that has worked on this. So before us, colleagues, we have uh a motion to forward without recommendation made by me that has been properly seconded. Uh with that, I will ask the clerk to call the role on this item. Council member Payne >> I. >> Wsley >> I >> Rainville >> I >> Vita >> I >> Warren >> I >> Osman is absent. Schaefer >> I >> Stevenson >> I >> Chavez >> I >> Whiting >> I >> Palmisano >> I. >> Vice Chair Chugai >> I >> and Chair Chowry >> I >> there are 12 eyes. >> That motion carries. Next, we'll take up our public hearings reflected as items three and four on the agenda. Anybody signed up for these items will be given two minutes each to testify. If you have any questions, please see our clerks at the registration table outside in the hall. The first hearing is for an extended hours of operation license for Joe's Market at 6:30 Southeast. I'll invite business licensing manager Amy Lingo to give us staff briefings on this item. Welcome, Miss Lingo. Thank you, Chair Chowdery and committee members. I'm Amy Lingo, manager for licenses and consumer services, and I am presenting an application from QuickMart 8 LLC. Quick 8mart LLC DBA as Joe's Market on 8th located at 6:30 8th Street Southeast in Ward 3. The applicant is requesting an extended hours of operation license. If approved, they intend to extend their business hours to um beyond the later of approved hours um later than currently authorized, specifically until 3:00 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. Quickmart LLC recently purchased the community grocery store in April of 2025 and has completed a full remodel of the interior and exterior of the business. They own and operate Joe's Market on Komo, 1828 Como Avenue Southeast since 2014. They are adding a deli grill counter to their community grocery store and requesting to extend the hours to 11:00 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and 3:00 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. Current approved hours are 6:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 6:00 a.m. to 11 Friday through Saturday. They plan on selling burgers, tacos, sandwiches, euros, and other pre-made orders. Pre-made to order foods. All foods will be for carry out. There is no seating on the interior of the business. This is in addition to their grocery store, which is now fully stocked with all of the needs for the community. They currently hold grocery, tobacco, 32 beer licenses, and have a cannabis hemp registration for lower potency hemp edibles or beverages. and a food manufacturer license is in process and awaiting final inspections. On February 9th, 182 public hearing notices were sent to residents and property owners within 600 ft of the premises. Notices were also sent to the East Bank Neighborhood Association, the Northeast Chamber Business Association, and Council Member Rainville. We have received 21 comments from the community. Seven who are in support of the application, 11 who are opposed, three who are split. Concerns are added traffic and parking issues, late night noise, possible increase of crime, people loitering outside, possibility of more litter in the area, and just being open past midnight. A review of any complaints, 311 calls, police calls, and any operating conditions found no significant issues concerning the business and issuance of this license. MPD's second police precinct met with the business owners and went over their safety plan and it has been approved by that precinct. The precinct also noted that the owner has a successful business model at the Komo location and they were just awarded a top five business in Henipin County. Our office has spoken with the owner about the concerns brought up by the community and the owner has already taken the following measures. There's a full remodel inside the store with new flooring, ceilings, paints, fridges, and freezers. Fully remodeled outside of the business with new signage and paint. Added lighting around the store and in the parking lot. Added six cameras and we'll be adding two more on the exterior of the property. Added signage that cameras are recording on the outside of the building. They have nine parking spots in the parking lot. Um, the city just added a 15-minute loading zone in front of the store for pickups and deliveries. While they do not intend to start with a delivery service at the beginning, when they do add that, they will advise drivers to use the parking lot. And there will be signage stating that there is one large city- owned trash can on the corner, and they will be adding two additional trash cans on the exterior of the building. They will have staff check and pick up any trash at opening, during shifts, and closing to ensure that the area is clean. They will always have at least two staff on duty. They will have three on duty on the days they're open until 3:00 a.m. cash register, cook, stock, and an employee will monitor the exterior of the building for cleanup. They will also enforce no lording after 9:00 p.m. They will notify police immediately if there are any issues of crime or unruly customers, and they are open to having less security if they need that additional assistance, if there are problems after midnight. Licenses and consumer service division recommends approval for the extended hours of operation license. This concludes my presentation. At this time, I stand for any questions. >> Thank you, Miss Lingo. Thank you for that presentation. We'll take questions up after the public hearing. I'll now open up the public hearing and then I believe I'm welcoming up the applicant, Dofik Cabalan. Welcome up. >> Thank you, council members. Good morning. Uh my name is Tufi Kavalan. Uh I came from overseas 2007 to Minneapolis and I opened my first business in 2014 on KOMO. Uh so I worked hard in this business since 10 11 years and uh it came up to top five businesses in Minneapolis. Uh after 11 years uh I opened my second location on 8th Street and I'm willing to have a deli over there and extended hours. So hopefully you can approve it for us. Thank you. >> If you have any question, let me know. >> Thank you so much. Is there anyone else that would like to address the committee? Seeing no one else, we'll close the public hearing. And yes, sir, you could take a seat. Um, and then now I'll open it up for discussion from council members and for any motions. Council member Rainbow Bell. >> Thank you. I do have I have questions both staff of the new owner. Uh, thank you. I have questions of both our staff and the new owner. Uh my concern. So, first of all, anytime the nighttime economy is improved in the city and added on to I'm very much in favor of it and it just speaks to the need uh that we have to monitor that as well that night inspectors would be very helpful. The uh the main question I have is I see it's 11 to 7 was opposed to granting these extended hours. So I'm I'm wondering if uh what the staff could tell me uh about any concerns if if there are problems there uh what is the recourse of the city >> through the chair council member Rainville. Thank you for that question. So if we have concerns or complaints, we will use our standard progressive process of enforcement where we will address the concerns with the owner, with the complaintants. We will check the validity. We will work with the license to see what we can do to alleviate those concerns. And then of course, if we need to follow the progressive enforcement protocol, there are citations, conditions, and license settlement conferences that can be addressed. But we always start with what are the complaints and how can we assist in solving those problems. Thank you. And then another question. Uh who at the second precinct uh approved approved this? >> It was the lieutenant, sir. >> Lieutenant >> Troy. >> Troy. Okay. Okay. >> I always mess up his last name. >> Thank you. And uh I the question I have for uh the new owner, so again, welcome. Uh are you aware that this location prior to you uh owning it had a lot of armed robberies? >> Yeah, I know. Uh because there was no there was zero cameras before and there was no lights outside at all. So when I came over I put like uh six six cameras right now and we're going to add two more outside inside and um I put lots of lights outside since I came to this location in April last year till now we didn't have any issue and most of the community is very happy with the store improvement. >> Great and thank you for those security improvements. >> Yeah, thank you. >> And my second question is why the 3:00 close? That's that's very late >> uh because uh the neighborhood is like mostly students area and they all request uh to open late for like uh sandwiches and uh that's why we are building a new delhi inside. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> That's all. >> Did you want to make a motion council member >> or >> I I I will make I I'm very hesitant on this. So maybe someone else should make the motion. >> Okay, no worries. I just wanted to check. I know it's in your board. Um, thank you so much for coming to city hall. Um, thank you Miss Lingo for your work on this. I could tell by the extensive list of agreements. There's been a lot of conversation. And then I'll just share that um have a lot of fond memories uh at both of the Joe's Market locations um both uh when I was a student and then the Joe's Market in Marcy Homes has been open for a longer time. Is that correct? Since when? >> The one is open since like 25 years. >> Like 25 years ago. >> I've been in since 2014 and we didn't have any issue. Yeah. Yeah. I uh I'm I'm just trying to uh make sure my memor is correct. Uh I went to Marcy Open Elementary and that Joe's Market was a place that my mom was really fond of and would take me to. So, it's really cool to see this come uh before us. And so, with that, I will make a motion uh to approve this at full counsel. >> Second. Council member Rainville. >> Uh, thank you. So, I am >> Oh, your microphone. Council member, >> thank you. I am going to vote for this today because I I want you to succeed, but I'm uh I'm very very sensitive to to violence. There's another store uh not too far away from yours. We have problems all the time at night. And uh I wish the best of luck, but please please do everything you can to keep this safe. The armed robberies were terrible. Thank you. >> Thank you. Seeing no further discussion and with the motion to approve before us, may I have the clerk please call the role. >> Council member Payne >> I. >> Wantsley >> I. Rainville. >> Hi >> Vita. >> Hi >> Warren. >> I >> Schaefer. >> I Stevenson >> I >> Chavez >> I >> Whiting >> I >> Palmisano >> I. >> Vice Chair Chek >> I >> and Chair Chowry >> I. >> There are 12 eyes. >> That carries. All right. We are in our f final public hearing item today. And I will just note for everyone um we will not break for lunch until we complete the public hearing. So we will go through the entirety of the public hearing and then we will take an hour break. I know that there are discussion items that staff is watching along to to determine when they will come after an hour after we we close. Just so so that it's noted. Um, this public hearing is related to the proposed temporary pre-eviction notice extension ordinance, also referred to as the pause evictions save lives ordinance. I'll ask our authors, council member Wanssley and Stevenson to introduce this item for the committee. Council members, >> thank you. Uh, Chair Chowry, I want to make sure my staff or Council Member Stevenson staff is in the chamber so that we can get the presentation pulled up. Excellent. We will just wait for staff to arrive and get the presentation set up. While staff is getting the presentation set up, I'll note for colleagues and those who are watching along, we are going to begin with a presentation um from the authors. on this item. They have a slide deck that they will go through. At that point, we will um continue right away to the public hearing. Uh we have approximately 70 people signed up right now. Um so, and and more are continuing to do so. Um I'd encourage anyone who wishes to share some public comments but has not had the opportunity to sign up yet to please see the clerks um in the in the hallway um right when you are coming into the chambers. They will help you get signed up and registered. Um once we conclude the public hearing um we will determine whether we're going to do discussion right away or if we um if colleagues need a break and we we we take lunch and come back and then um take up the take up discussion and the item with that. Um council member Wansley, please begin your presentation. >> Thank you so much. Uh good morning everyone. I am council member Robin Wsley. I represent war two um on this body that is the city council. also serve as the minority leader of the Democratic Socialist Caucus. I'm also the lead author for the policy that we're considering today titled Paul's Eviction Save Lives and I'm thankful for the support of my fellow co-authors as well which include council member Stevenson Osman Chavez and Chowry. Um that said uh we're going to do a brief presentation of the ordinance itself uh which again is called Paul's eviction save lives uh which temporarily would expand the eviction prefilling uh notice from 30 days to 60 days and if we can go to the next slide. Um so why what has led us to this moment of needing to even consider uh this ordinance? So, everyone knows that we've been under occupation by the federal government under Operation Metro Surge, uh, which began on December 1st, 2025, uh, with 4,000 federal agents being deployed to Minnesota with a large percentage of those officers, um, being concentrated in the Twin Cities and particularly Minneapolis at its peak. Uh just last week, the ACLU shared that a little less than 1,000 agents will remain through February and anticipate um 400 remaining through March. Um, federal agents have been indiscriminately and violently harassing and abducting residents in our city, resulting in the kidnapping of thousands of our residents and in the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretzie. Two innocent community members who, like thousands of their fellow other neighbors in our city and across our city, um, have been out and were out protecting their neighbors. Thousands of families were able to avoid eviction that's been caused or the housing instability that's been caused uh by this occupation. Thousands of families have been able to stay housed simply because of the mutual aid efforts being led by our neighbors who have raised uh tens of millions of dollars to help keep their neighbors safe and be able to shelter in place throughout this occupation. But understandably, working-class people cannot keep hosting fundraisers, maxing out credit cards, and dipping into whatever little savings they have indefinitely. That said, mutual aid groups across the city have seen a decrease in donations um directed towards rental assistance and other mutual aid um efforts that's meant to help address uh the variety of basic needs that our residents are experiencing and have been deprived of being able to meet um because of this occupation. And I've said it before and I'll say it again today. We cannot expect that we will simply just GoFundMe our way out of a housing crisis and out of eviction crisis. Government partners must step up and help even to match a ounce of what our neighbors have done um throughout this occupation which has been we couldn't even surpass it at this point. Um, but this ordinance that we're considering today will give this body, this city official city governing body the opportunity to do exactly that, to step up and help our neighbors and support these efforts that needs to be widely shared in keeping our residents housed. Thankfully, also this body has been responsive. Um just a few weeks ago or earlier this month um city council allocated $1 million towards rental assistance that will um be administered in partnership with Henipan County. And just last week uh St. Paul City Council also followed suit with a $1.4 million uh funding appropriation towards rental assistance as well. Um, a lot of the effort in organizing by residents and also by uh the Twin Cities, uh, city councils stepping up to support rental assistance efforts have also help motivated a variety of our state leaders to do the same at the capital as they've uh, gone back into session. Um, as of now, the state legislator, specifically in the Senate, um, has a rental assistance proposal of $75 million that is making its way through its respective legislative process. And the timeline for the final vote on that piece of legislation is most likely to happen at the end of their session around May. Um, and I wanted to note that we took the state's legislative process in deep consideration when considering the duration period of the pre-filing eviction notice um, that's listed in this ordinance as well as the ordinance effect date as well. Um if passed at the state level, um millions of dollars in new funding will be unlocked for working-class residents impacted by Operation Metro Surge um to access, but that likely relief would not come until this summer. And they should be given the ability to access those dollars um and be able to secure those means prior to having eviction be filed on them and be able to avoid eviction altogether. Um if we can go to the next slide and I think that's the underlying basis and significance and the why of this ordinance. We all have a shared rec recognition that we are experiencing a housing crisis. In fact, we were already experiencing one but it's been further intensified by the impacts of operation metro surge. Um and we have many external partners in the communities who have been monitoring and studying uh the specific financial and loanstanding impacts that have been um placed on the shoulders of working-class people who have not been able to leave home um and go to their jobs and thus be put at risk of losing their homes as a result of this occupation. Um, more specifically, we're seeing informative data being publicly released by um, our research partners um, who are documenting the scale and severity of this housing instability that is being experienced by many of our neighbors. Um, this includes data from the University of Minnesota's Center of Urban Regional Affairs, also known as CURA, who published a report last month titled Rent Debt Across Minnesota During Operation Metro Surge. and they made a disturbing finding that um showed that there's an estimate of between 30% and 50% of immigrant renters being behind on rent. The city also did its own internal assessment showing that Operation Metro Surge requires additional $15.7 million in rental assistance being needed in our communities. Organizations like Homeline and United Way are seeing higher levels of tenants reaching out to them requesting financial assistance. Homeline more specifically has seen the most calls they've have ever received um and saw a overall 100% increase. Once again, neighborhood associations, grassroot organizations are managing massive inquiries for rental assistance. And there's a long or widespread understanding that they all cannot collectively meet the need of what is being demanded right now. So that said, again, this gives us the opportunity at the local level once again while our state leaders and other partners in the community are doing everything that they can to keep our neighbors in their homes to be able to continue sheltering in place. This gives us the opportunity to do the same um even through a temporary protection that this will allow for ahead of April 1st. It was our original goal to intentionally want to bring this forward before the March 1st deadline which was just two days ago and this body opted to not exercise that expedition of making sure we could have had this ordinance in place by then. But what we can do is make sure ahead of April 1st, thousands of other residents do not have to worry about where they're getting money from, where they're going to live, if they're going to be put in contact at the risk of being evicted with the thousands of agencies still in our communities that are kidnapping and detaining and killing our neighbors. So with that, I will pass it to my co-author, Council Member Saurin Stevenson. >> Council member Stevenson, please continue with the with the presentation. >> Thank you. Um, so this is a proposed temporary change of the eviction period from 30 to 60 days. Uh, and it would run until August 30th. So that's only 6 months of change. Um, next slide. There's just a few things um benefits and threats that are uh that are here. And so the threat is that we have a massive eviction crisis. Uh the city is not prepared for a massive eviction crisis. We we do not have the resources to deal with this. Um and a lot of our neighbors are really in need right now. Um as my co-author said many times, uh the community has stood up over and over again and they have raised millions of dollars. uh there has been rent support raised by different cities and we're waiting on the state legislature to really step in in a way that is going to be uh meaningful across this state. Um, so what we're looking at now is we're looking at uh an ordinance that would give community and give the state legislature a little time to step in to help our residents um and help our neighbors who have been sheltering in place or maybe have lost jobs because uh the businesses that they worked at had to close because of uh this invasion. Um, so basically we're just calling for a a limited extension of time for community and for government to do what they need to do. Uh, and next slide. Uh, and with that, we'll uh we'll go to questions. And, uh, actually, if we could just go straight to, uh, the public hearing to respect the public's time, that would be my preference. >> Yes, Council Member Stevenson. Um we're going to we're going to break from tradition and we're going to actually go straight to the public hearing. Once we have concluded the public hearing, we will come back for questions and discussion. Um with that, I will now open the public hearing and I'll list the first five speakers. We'll go in that order. I know there's a lot of people in the overflow room and in the meeting space. If your name is called on and um you're not able to make it into the chambers in time, um please don't worry. As as soon as you can get here, um we will come back for any any speakers that that we end up missing or um if you know if you are um if you are in a time crunch and you want to swap speaker order, that's that's you figure that out and we we'll go from there. Um, the first five speakers today are speaker number one, Maya Lutkkey, followed by speaker number two, Emily Green, followed by speaker number three, Ethan Nus, followed by speaker number four, Rabbi Ariel Rosenberg, followed by speaker number five, Matt Sherb. I will welcome speaker number one, Maya Lucky. You have two minutes. Um, and the the your time you can see to on the on the deis. Um, and if anyone here is requiring interpretation services, we will double that time just to accommodate. Welcome. >> Thank you. Good morning, city council members. Um, my name is Maya Ludki. I live in Corkran neighborhood on the south side of Minneapolis. I am here um uh as an organizer with the Corkran Neighbor Fund. Um over the past couple months uh I and a group of uh small group in the neighborhood have been fundraising for to support about 30 plus uh households that are facing the threat of eviction um and have been sheltering in place due to the occupation of our neighborhood and city by violent uh federal immigration forces. Um over the past many months, my community has experienced uh extreme trauma and I have witnessed um immense violence in my neighborhood um at the hands of immigration agents. Um much of this violence has been indiscriminate and targeted at uh people of color and observers. um adding to the immense stress of potentially becoming unhoused layered on top of this existing trauma. Um people have experienced being targeted by violent immigration agents is really unacceptable and antithetical to public health and public safety. Um we need to be supporting people and families who make up the beauty and heart of these neighborhoods of our neighborhoods. And despite our work to raise funds to support our neighborhoods and communities, um there's just not enough money to support all the families right now and they face immin im imminent threat of eviction. So I urge you all um and the mayor and the governor to issue a full um eviction moratorum. But in lie of that, I think the absolute bare minimum is this extension of the pre-eviction period. Um that notice from going from 30 days to 60 days to give us more time to fund raise to support families. Um and then I also urge you to utilize the Henipin County um emergency rental uh assistant funds preemptively. It seems like you really have to go um be summoned to court for your eviction before those uh funds go into practice. and I just urge you to like loosen the the um rules for that. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Next up is Emily Green. >> Uh good morning. My name is Emily Green. I am a resident of Longfellow. In early February, I along with some neighbors created a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for our immigrant neighbors struggling to pay their rent and facing eviction. We managed to raise $200,000 in less than a month for 95 families. As of today, we have 116 people on our waiting list and we are down to less than $7,000 left to provide aid. That leaves at least a hundred families that we know of in our neighborhood alone on the brink of losing their homes. We had a neighbor reach out early in our fundraising and we didn't have enough for her in time. She was evicted and is now living with her two children in a shelter. When we were able to provide our funds, all she asked for was $200 for her phone bill. That should never have happened. And it affirms what we have seen over and over that people are only reaching out for what they desperately need. I represent just one of many efforts like this. It should not be on us to take care of the citizens of this city. Where are our city leaders? Where are the safety nets that we pay taxes toward? The amount of funds from the city to go toward rent support, while appreciated, is not enough. Extending the pre-eviction filing notice, is the least the city can do. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, it can cost Minneapolis between 35,000 and 150,000 annually per unhoused person. And it's a shame that I even have to use numbers like this to try to convince the city to look out for its most vulnerable community members who are only in this situation because of months of living through non-stop trauma as a consequence of the federal occupation of our state. We need to see the city extend this notice window from 30 days to 60 days. It is the bare minimum intervention we are asking for. Thank you. Next is Ethan Nus. >> Good morning, council. My name is Ethan Nus. I'm a resident of Ward 9ine, a former landlord, and I'm thankful for my uh council member Chavez for your leadership on this issue and for uh other council. Uh we have been keeping our neighbors in their home. We have people on my block are paying their rent, bringing them groceries, bringing the children books from the library. And this is the bare minimum we are asking of you today to help keep our neighbors safe in their homes for fear of having their families ripped apart violently by federal forces. We can we simply do not have the funds to keep our neighbors in their homes. As you heard, we're all of the money we're raising, we're running out and thousands of residents across the city are facing eviction. We're here today to ask that bare minimum. What we need is a moratorum on evictions. But if we can get this extension, that's one of the best things we can do. And we are asking you to join us, your constituents, in keeping us safe because we gave you joy. We gave you hope. We kept our city safe from the fed the the folks the feds employ. We gave you hope. We gave you joy. >> We keep our city safe from the folks the feds employ. Now we're looking to you. You. What What you going to do? Now we're looking to you. You. You. What you going to do? What you going to do? We gave you hope. >> We gave you hope. >> We gave you joy. >> We gave you joy. >> We save our city from the folks the feds employ. Now we're looking to you. You. You. What you going to do? What you going to do? We're looking to you. You. You. for what you going to do. >> Thank you. >> Next, we have Rabbi Rosenberg. Good afternoon. My name is Rabbi Ariel Leak Rosenberg. I'm a parent. I'm a neighbor. I'm the lead rabbi of Shirikva Congregation in South Minneapolis. I'm a W 13 resident and I'm here with rabbitic colleagues today to ask you to extend the pre-eviction filing period and to override veto if necessary. So, Shirikva, a a congregation of 600 families and growing, started a mutual aid fund at the beginning of the siege. We knew the need was going to be enormous and it has been overwhelming. We have an operating budget of a around a million dollars and we have raised over a million dollars for mutual aid in the last month. We have distributed over a million dollars in mutual aid in the last month in partnership with labor community organizations, schools, and neighborhood groups. Now, Shertifa has given over our infrastructure as an organization to do this urgent work and we need help. Now, mutual aid groups are frantically fundraising. There is not enough money to meet the needs that we are seeing in our communities. This week alone, Shirika opened our fund with $200,000 in it, which was an amount we could not have imagined a month ago. And in 30 minutes, we received over a million dollars worth of requests. So, every person who is writing to us has a story. Jewish tradition teaches us that every person is a whole world which means that every single person who is writing to request rent assistance and 96% of the people who have written to us are requesting aid for rent assistance are requesting help that we are then able to connect them with so many other kinds of support but the need to focus on is rent assistance. Now, my family fled Eastern Europe because of the Showa. And I want to imagine what would have been possible had neighbors and local government organized to keep my family safe. And it is deeply personal that we are organizing now to make sure that we are leveraging our resources and our energy. And I feel that mandate not just of our city, but of my ancestors. Please, please pass this pre-eviction filing. Pause. >> Thank you. Next up is Matt Scriber. Hello, my name is Matt Sherber. I lived in the Camden neighborhood, Ward 4. Um, I have lived and owned my home since 2019. Uh, as a homeowner in Minneapolis and a constituent of my Ward 4. Um, I'm asking you to support the pre-eviction extension. The city of Minneapolis has been under attack and in my ward I have seen constant need for aid and support for Ward 4 residents. As a community, we have stepped up and are working hard together to make sure people are stabilized through crisis as best we can. But we can only do so much. You have the power as a city council member to provide more time for those efforts. In these moments of crisis, it's vital that you as a city council member stand up and support your residents. You need to offer solutions and this is something tangible you can do. Council member Vita, I asked this. Are you going to vote in the way of the landlords of the ward that funded your campaign or are you going to vote to support constituents who need who need you to step up in in a time of emergency? The next five speakers, just so they know that they're on deck, is Julie Dohy, Kate Cray, Vivian Bergstead, Carla Henderson, and Alicia Leonard. I will call up Julia Dohy. Good morning, chair, committee members. Thank you for having me here. My name is Julie Dhy. I live in Ward 12. Um, I think all of you know that so many of our neighbors have been terrorized and traumatized by this ICE occupation. And it's by our own federal government um, under the guise of protecting all of us from the worst of the worst criminal actions. As a result of this purported protection, so many of our neighbors have felt stuck in their houses, afraid to go out, afraid to go grocery shopping, to go to church, to take their kids to school, and for purposes of this ordinance, afraid to go to work. The economic uh damage that has resulted from from this is not ICE collateral damage. It is a direct hit from our federal government from a vindictive attack on our state and particularly our city to bring us down politically, socially, spiritually, and economically. And here's the deal. I have lived here since 1977 and I have never seen city leaders unite like you all have, all of you, to protect our neighbors against ICE. And what I'm asking you to do is look at this ordinance in unity as a continuation of this protection because people you everyone knows how traumatizing evictions are on families, on individuals, on everyone. And if we can help prolong the time to allow people to get a little more money to stay in their homes, to do workarounds with their landlords, we can do that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next is Kate CR. >> Good morning. My name is Kate CR. I am a resident of Ward 9ine. I support the pause eviction save lives ordinance as a bare minimum measure of human decency in this moment in our city. It doesn't sit well with me that Mayor Fry is doing a lot of talking on a national stage growing gaining and growing social capital off the courage of the people of Minneapolis while he does nothing to meaningfully support our neighbors who are facing eviction or the efforts of this council to do so. all while moving into his own luxury home. Pause. Evictions save lives. This is a little reminder for our mayor and for all of you why the people of this city elected you. Oh, you got to do more than just talk about it. We've been moving our feet, getting out in the street. Oh, you got to do more than just talk about it. Will you take a stand? >> We know you can. >> Oh, you got to do more than just talk about it. We moving our feet, getting out in the street. Oh, you got to do more than just talk about it. Will you take a stand? We know you can sing with us. Oh, you got to do more than just talk about it. We've been moving our feet. Getting out in the streets. Oh, you got to do more than just talk about it. Will you take a stand? We know you can. Will you take a stand? >> We know you can. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Vivian Bergstead. >> Hi. Um, my name is uh Vivian Bergstead and I live in Ward um one and I'm a homeowner there and um um um I Okay. I um I'm really impressed with you today. I've never been in a meeting before and I' I've been listening to what you've been saying and I'm I I like how much thought you put all in all all of what you're doing and and that was just a personal comment for me and I'm hoping that you will join us um in this song and I'm hoping that you will um um uh stand up for I'm hoping you'll help us help our neighbors stay safe. And so, um, no, no one is getting left behind to death. This time, no one is getting left behind. No one getting left behind this time. No one is getting left behind. >> No one is getting left behind. This time we'll get there together or never get there at all. We'll get there together or never get there at all. We'll get there together or never get there at all. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Next is Carla Henderson. Good morning, Chair Chowry and members of the committee. My name is Carla Henderson and I have the privilege and honor to serve as president and CEO of Project for Pride and Living or PPL. We are a Twin Citiesbased nonprofit with 53 years of impact and we own and operate more than 1,800 units of affordable housing across the Twin Cities. Our mission is simple. To help individuals and families remain stably housed. While we deeply respect the intention behind the proposal, our experience shows that early intervention, not delayed action, is what prevents displacement. By implementing a policy that further delays eviction notice, people will lose their homes. Across our portfolio, we see a clear pattern. Once a household is two months behind on rent, the likelihood of catching up drops sharply even with rental assistance. This was evident after the pandemic error moratorum when in intervention was delayed, families fell further behind and were way less likely to remain housed. This is why we rely on early contact, early conversation, and early connection to resources, which has helped more than 90 to 24 months of housing stability. The current 30-day notice is often the moment when residents reach out, begin problem solving, and encourage engage with staff. The notice residents receive also includes valuable information about available rental assistance and support. These are resources families need early, not later. In our Henipin County portfolio, the average timeline from mispayment to an eviction order is already 89 days. Adding another 30 days only pushes families deeper into debt. >> Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your continued commitment to housing stability in Minneapolis. >> Next is Alicia Leonard. Good morning. My name is Alicia Leonard uh representing Common Bond Communities as the vice president of their services team. For more than five and a half decades, Common Bond has provided affordable housing alongside supportive services that help residents achieve long-term housing stability. In Minneapolis, we serve just under 1500 households across 18 housing communities, many of whom face significant barriers to maintaining that housing. Eviction prevention has always been at the core of our mission. We learned some very important lessons the last time there was an eviction moratorum uh back in uh after co 19 and we learned one thing uh very clearly that time alone does not prevent eviction. Financial support does. When rent relief was available, household stabilized. When timelines alone were extended without accompanying financial assistance, residents accumulated larger and larger debts that became very difficult, sometimes nearly impossible to resolve. That is why we believe that the most critical focus, possibly even more important than adjusting timelines, is ensuring adequate, accessible, and flexible emergency financial assistance that would build upon the initial $1 million investment that this uh council has already passed, which we're very grateful to see that's already happened. And in speaking with the services team uh at Common Bond about this proposal, a couple concerns uh came up based on uh the experiences that they have with residents. First, that a longer notice period uh typically allows that rent balance to continue to grow. And so for households that have experienced job loss or reduced income, an additional an additional month's rent of month of unpaid rent can simply push that balance beyond what may be realistically recoverable. Second, in our experience, we're most effective partnering with residents when we're able to to partner with that resident right away uh to be able to access uh assistance uh resources and when those resources are flexible um and when we're able to uh make those connections um as early in the process as possible. And so in closing, Common Bond fully supports any policy that protects residents, prevents displacement, and promotes long-term housing stability. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. And then I'll just make a request to security as space opens up just ensuring that we use the full capacity of the space when uh speakers leave. And then if you're able to if you're willing to if you've already spoken and you want to free up a spot for any of the testifiers, that would be a welcome accommodation. I'll read the next five speakers so you know that you're on deck. Howard Dodson, Ben Havick Anderson, Chris Christine Lind, Kelly Rogers, and Andrew Perry. I'll call up Howard Dodson. >> Hello, chair. Council members. For 24 years, I've been supporting refugee children in South Africa, Kenya, Lebanon, Jordan, and Ukraine. and this eviction extension. I want you to remember Mazo's hierarchy and needs at the bottom is safety. What happens to children when they become unsheltered? They've already been traumatized hiding in their homes and when they become unsheltered, you just added more stressors and more trauma on the children. I've spoken to you before about trauma-informed resources for children that you should work with Minneapolis schools, the county. These kids are going to have PTSD if they don't get help in these three months. Right now, it's acute stress disorder. It will become PTSD and the life trajectory of that child is going to change forever. This is a tangible intervention that can protect these young families. But remember, your home is where your family is. I appreciate hearing unhoused. They're not homeless. They're unhoused because they have a family. And if this gets vetoed, the residents of Minneapolis, just like we did with the Gaza resolution, Uber lift, this must not be vetoed. We need to take care of these families and what we've been through. We're Minneapolis strong. I want you to look up my letter in the Washington Post January 11th. I said Prince called a long time ago. The revolution begins in Minneapolis. At the intersections, I sang Prince song seven. Oh, seven. And we'll watch them fall. They stand in the way love. And we will smoke them all with that intellect and the savoair. No one in the whole universe will ever compare Minneapolis strong. >> Next, I'll call up Ben Helv Anderson. >> Thank you, members of the council. My name is Ben Helvick Anderson and work at Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative and live in Ward 11. Peak is is one of the largest providers of sight-based permanent supportive housing in Minnesota, serving over 900 residents across 14 properties in Minneapolis. I will share our brief perspective here, but our full thoughts are included in our letter and we are signatory to a letter of from 13 nonprofit organ organizations as well. We share your urgent concern about the real fear, chaos, and harm Operation Metro Surge has done to our community, leaving too many wondering how to pay rent. We also share your goal of ensuring all min Minneapolis residents remain stably housed and support targeted interventions to address the crisis many families are facing. In our experience, the most effective way to achieve this goal is to increase the availability of targeted emergency rental assistance, which we applaud you for already moving forward on. We are concerned this policy will result in serious and preventable harm. Our experience suggests that longer eviction filing periods often result in renters who have missed payments getting further behind. We are concerned that extending the notice period may increase the rate of evictions of our most vulnerable households. In response to the current crisis, we urge our government partners to advance solutions that stabilize residents and strengthen the ability of your nonprofit partners to serve them. We strongly urge you to rethink this proposal and focus on providing the rental assistance our neighbors truly need to stay housed. Thank you. >> Next is Christine Lind. >> Good afternoon. My name is Christian Lind. I'm a longtime resident of Prospect Park neighborhood in W 2 and I'm a volunteer parent organizer with Minneapolis Families for Public Schools, which has coordinated efforts across 50 public schools in the city to safeguard and support families during Operation Metro Surge. Since December, this group has supported daily safety patrols around schools, provided rides for vulnerable students, and collectively raised nearly $3 million in mutual aid for impacted families. I've been supporting all of this vital work at Edison High School, a public high school serving over 800 students in Northeast Minneapolis. At the height of oper operation metro surge, close to 40% of our students were in online learning. Over the past several months, I've driven some of our most vulnerable students at Edison and I've transported kids from all across the city, including Southeast, Northeast, Ced Cedar, Riverside, and downtown Minneapolis. When I go to pick these students up, I often see apartments and houses with all the shades drawn down. I cannot imagine the fear and trauma their families have gone through not feeling safe to go outside or to work for weeks or months on end. I see it reflected in the students bodies and in their eyes as I drive them to school. While more of our students are slowly returning to school, the sad reality is that many are not. They are still sheltering in place. I applaud this council for approving $1 million in rental assistance, and I urge you to take the next vital step of extending the pre-eviction notice so that our families can continue to stay in their homes during this unprecedented time in our city's history. >> Thank you. Next is Kelly Rogers. >> Um, thank you, council. My name is Kelly Rogers. I live in the Marcy Holmes neighborhood. Um, first I want to say that the solution has to be both. It cannot be just a you know extension of this ordinance. It also needs for your support for the state support. Um the speed of government, the speed of bureaucracy, I think we have to be honest, has utterly failed us in this moment. And that's why I'm spending my time begging for money for our neighbors to stay bare minimum housed. These are not people that have leases um who who simply have the access to the market, the rental market that I do, that many of you do. They are section 8 families who will lose their vouchers, which can take 10 years just just to get 10 years on a waiting list just to get the bare minimum assistance from HUD. These eviction letters are naming these agencies as as uh ways to double down and reinforce that they are going to use the full extent of um of their authority as landlords to make sure that these families are not just unhoused but are unhoused in the future in perpetuity. And what does that do for the city? I I think I'm I'm also a historian. And I think it's it's not out of bounds to say that this is the most targeted widespread form of of organized state racial terror that we have seen since Jim Crow. And the psychic impact of that will last long after these agents leave the state, which they haven't, right? Um, and so I think really what we're asking is for you to help us do your jobs, to help you have the time to release these funds, to get it in the hands of the people that need it, who are families who have not gone to school in weeks, months, the people who are stowed away in their homes trying to just get by the next day even though none of us know what it means to leave your house in in two months when it goes back to normal. This is a lawless, violent, terrorist organization that has the full power of the federal government behind it. That's all. Thank you. Next is Andrew Perry. Andrew Perry. Andrew Perry. All right. The next five speakers are Mitchell Hansen, Mina B. Amanda H, Aaron Miller, Lawrence Williamson, Mitchell Hansen. >> Hi, uh, Mitchell Hansen. He representing Harrison Neighborhood Association. Um, we respectfully urge you to side with community and allow community and the orgs that support them by extending the pre-filing eviction notice 60 days. Some people here act like they can predict the future using internal data that favors their point. And some council members almost seem eager for the community to fail in order to prove some point. But I have news for you. We won't. Across Minneapolis, families are afraid to leave their homes. People are struggling to afford food. Many are facing imminent eviction while living in fear and instability under unprecedented and terrifying circumstances. Thousands of residents fear of deportation and violence by ICE. Yet, we keep hearing that Minneapolis is open for business as usual. That framing does not match what H&A is seeing on the ground. What's confusing is this. In some areas of policy, the city proudly embraces a housing first philosophy. But when it comes to keeping people already housed, the council and administration are ignoring the purpose behind programs like stable home stable schools, which is always touted as such a victory. If you believe that stable homes lead to positive outcomes, a no vote today is inherently contradictory. As a licensed social worker with over 15 years of experience, I know that stability starts with the safety and hearth that a home provides. And H&A has distributed over $40,000 to prevent evictions. We've shown that when community steps up, we can stabilize our neighbors. But we are running out of money and major donors are watching your vote today to decide whether they continue to investing in this work. A no vote doesn't just block policy. It signals that the city council is unwilling to give community and organizations the time we need to keep people housed. Let's be clear about what 30 days actually is. It's not a window for help. It's a countdown. Assistance systems do not move on the 30-day pipeline. Paperwork stalls. Funds are delayed. Calls go unanswered in homelessness and destination loom. 30 days runs in the background while families for being fear being deported by ICE. Fear uh ICE here. During this short window, they try to secure legal help in an overwhelmed system and stabilize income in a volatile economy. But once an eviction is filed, the damage is immediate. With additional time, jobs are found, assistance is approved, churches mobilize, and neighbors raise funds, and the work of H&A and our partners is proof of proof of what is possible. I just want to show you some. I'm delivering this shoe baby shoe to a to a family later. Do you want this shoe to be the last shoe this baby wears in this country? Do you care? >> Next up is Mina B. Hi there. My name is Mina Baravon and I am part of the Twin Cities Tenant Union and the South Minneapolis Tenant Union where I've been a member and organizer for the last two years and worked with thousands of tenants. Over the last three months, I've helped give rides, helped people get groceries, and helped keep an eye out for all of my neighbors. One of my really dear friends, her and her three kids have been unable to leave since December 1st. This didn't just start with the 3000 agents. This started in December and earlier. She hadn't gone to work in months. And leading up to March 1st, she needed to pay rent. The rent was due. She had no money. So, she risked it and she tried to go back to work. And on her way to work for the first time in two months, she was detained. She couldn't go to work when she was detained. She got out, thank God, because they had no reason to hold her except that she was Latino. She went home and she still doesn't have money. She cannot pay the rent. What she has told me she needs is time. She needs time to try to go back to work. She needs time to try to access the funds that exist. And this is lifesaving. This policy is called pause evictions save lives. And that is what it will do. Evictions are violent and dangerous and right now more discriminatory than ever. If you all believe in fighting discrimination, you know that we need this policy. If you guys believe in safety in people's lives of your constituents, we need this policy. And you guys must believe then that we also need to be ready to override a veto. This policy will save lives. We fought really hard to keep our neighbors here, to keep our neighbors safe. We need to fight to keep them in their homes. Thank you. Next is Amanda H. Hi, my name is Amanda Hakeime. I live in the Windham Park neighborhood of Northeast in Ward One. Uh I'm here today as a homeowner, as an MPS parent and volunteer, and as a community college faculty member to voice my support for the temporary pre-eviction notice extension. Our city has been in a state of emergency since the start of Operation Metro Surge, and our neighbors are suffering. The economic impacts have been enormous, and I believe that is by design. Uh this federal administration wants us to become exhausted and to give up on supporting our community. We cannot give up. Uh recovery will take months if not years. And this is one small way our city government can support our recovery and our community. As we have already heard from other speakers, school, community, religious, and other groups on the ground have rallied to raise funds to support rental assistance. um that rental assistance is also very um disagregated and decentralized and takes a lot of time to navigate and access. Um so our our neighbors need time um and I urge you to support this. Thank you. Next is Aaron Miller. >> Hello. Well, good afternoon. Uh, my name is Aaron Miller. I live in the Windham Park neighborhood of Northeast Minneapolis. I'm here today as a parent, uh, community leader, um, and heavily a volunteer recently, uh, supporting our local high school, primarily Edison High School, where I spend hours every week, many hours every week, um, watching ICE move around, watching ICE do their thing, um, to try and protect my community. the violence, the um the uh damage to goods, damage to people, uh terrorizing of our local families is um is eyepopping. It's incredible. I'm sure sure many of you have seen it. I'm sure that I'm not unusual in feeling this way. The community has risen up, right? We have armies of volunteers. We have mutual aid described by virtually every person at this uh microphone this morning, this afternoon. Um, and it is overwhelming to see what the community has done. We need our elected representatives to meet that the urgency, the the time that we've all been putting into this. You may be putting it in personally as well. We need you to do that professionally. Also, um, the pressure that's being faced, the terror that's being faced by our families is much more than just terror. It's economic pressure as well. There's pressure and and I will agree with the prior speaker that this is absolutely intentional. This is uh no holds barred fullcourt press aggression to um to these vulnerable individuals. Um uh I urge you to in to um increase the time window and the pre-eviction notices. Um and as as a as a bare minimum, these families need money as much as they need time, as much as they need food, as much as they need watchful eyes to watch their children on the way to school each morning and afternoon. Um, thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Next is Lawrence Williamson. >> Hi. Uh, Lawrence W8. I'm not going to sing. Um, so a word about sacrifice. Um, I was threatened by federal agents most days in January. I was batoned. I was shoved to the ground. I was pepper-sprayed. I was tearassed. I was violently arrested. Um, I will live with the trauma of all the things I've seen for the rest of my life. Um, and I made that sacrifice willingly because I knew the moment called for it. And if it can't be counterenced, if it can't be considered that landlords would make the sacrifice of giving their tenants a little more time to get the money together in this kind of crisis, in this kind of environment that is obscene. I echo what many have others said. This is the minimum. This is the absolute minimum of what the government can provide to its citizens. Um, yeah, I just like the the the the violation of the social contract, to be attacked by our federal government and to feel totally abandoned by our state and local government. to not have anything that I can hold in my heart and say, "Well, this is what, you know, this is what my government's doing for me um and my neighbors. It's really hard." Um, and I really really encourage you to please pass this ordinance just so we can have something something to hold on to. Thank you. >> The next five speakers are Nikki Rober, Taylor Burkus, Laura Russ, and Carroll Spectre. and then DA Bulock. Call up Nikki Roar. >> Hello. Thank you, council. Um, I am Nikki Roar. I am a homeowner and a small business owner in Ward 9. Um, and I previously worked in at an affordable housing nonprofit. Um, I think it's really it's important from a moral standpoint that you pass this and a lot of people have spoken to that and that is how I feel most strongly about it from the Quaker values that I inherited from my family. Um, but also the reality that I think will probably speak to some of you better than others is that it is also the most fiscally responsible choice. Because many studies show, and I have personally heard Mayor Fry say this at the opening of an affordable housing apartment building, homelessness is significantly more expensive civically than keeping people housed. Evictions lead to homelessness, and the long-term cost of evicting thousands of people during this crisis caused by our federal government will cost everyone in this room way more than a brief pause will cause cost. And that allows for our fellow neighbors to catch up on their rent. So, please pass this. It's the morally correct thing to do and it is also the financially correct thing to do. And I am deeply disgusted that there are affordable housing nonprofits here speaking against it. Please pass this. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next is Taylor Burkus. >> Good afternoon everyone. I am Taylor Burkus. I am a resident of South Uptown and I think that this is the very bare minimum that you can do because these extra 30 days will pass and these people will still not have the money to pay their rent. They will still face homelessness and we all know this city is not kind to homeless people. The police terrorize them. ICE will terrorize them. The weather is not conducive for any sort of outside living. So I urge you to pass this and to do much much more that you need to do for these people because they are facing these financial hardships and these evictions because of government sponsored like racial targeting. Like this is discrimination. Them losing their income and losing their housing because of it is a continuation of this discrimination and you need to be against this discrimination with whatever it takes. Thank you. Next, we'll have Laura Russ. >> Good afternoon. Uh, my name is Laura Russ. I'm with AON. Uh, Aan is a Minneapolis based nonprofit affordable housing provider. We have approximately 1,900 homes in Minneapolis, thousands more in the metro area. I'm testifying to oppose this proposed extension. We've co-signed onto the letter along with 13 of our other nonprofit affordable housing colleagues and the reason we've done that is because we have experience with how this negatively impacts residents when extensions are are are in place. Um we've actually seen on the ground what happens when when this is the case and they don't actually ex prevent evictions, they actually increase evictions. Even today, it takes about 3 months for a case to get to court by the time a resident is behind. That represents a significant financial hurdle for that resident to recover from and often they are not able to recover from it. We do not want to set up our residents for something that will actually increase their chances of eviction. We want opportunities to work with them long before it gets to that point. There's also the reality that we need to acknowledge rent is the primary revenue source for affordable housing. When rent goes unpaid for months, the financial impact does not disappear. Buildings still need maintenance. Staff still need to be paid. AON has experience with this and many of our homes in Minneapolis are at risk because we have consistently not received rental revenue in the way that these properties were underwritten to be able to sustain them. We can see that cities even here locally that have extended timelines such as Minneapolis, Brooklyn Center, and St. Louis Park do not have lower eviction rates. In fact, it's the opposite. Extended eviction notice periods unfortunately actually increase the amount of unpaid rent. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next is Carol Spectre. >> Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Madame Chair, members, my name is Carol Spectre and I'm the advocacy manager at Catholic Charities. I want to start by saying that we um share the deep concern of that has been expressed in this room this morning for our neighbors who have who are in crisis due to the actions of our federal government. But I do echo the sentiments of my nonprofit housing provider colleagues in that um we believe that this ordinance will have unintended negative consequences for the people we serve. Catholic Charities provides housing for um people with extremely low incomes and high needs. And we have seen that the longer the um notice period, the longer that an eviction period takes, the worse the outcomes are for our clients. Um, so Catholic Charities provides deeply affordable housing paired with person- centered services to more than a thousand people who are exiting long-term homelessness in the Twin Cities. Um, as I said, our housing provides stability for those with extremely low incomes and complex needs. Nearly all of our units are reserved for people with incomes at or below 30% of the area median income and the majority of residents have incomes below $500 a month. Additionally, 86% of the people we serve report at least one disabling condition. It is our concern that without the availability of sufficient and immediate financial assistance that this policy is actually likely to increase the risk of eviction. With the current 30-day notice requirement and a time to a court date, recipients typically fall two to three months behind on rent. Extending the exper the period by 30 days will only compound the amount due. This level of arars is incredibly difficult to resolve for the extremely lowincome residents that we serve. >> Next is DA Bulock. >> Uh thank you all for the time. I wanted to um first I wanted to say this is um written submission that I'm also want to say because I want to be part of the chorus of voices of neighbors who are here supporting each other. I'm not going to sing though. Not going to be that part of the chorus. But I really want to address uh both my north side council members. I'm Ward 4. Um I'm DA Bulock and um it's this is a time when you have neighbors doing the most for each other. And um they're rallying money. They're supporting mutual aid, rental assistance while the clock is ticking for our neighbors. And ironically, these are people who have other jobs. They got to go out, make the rent for themselves, and they're they're sacrificing everything to do this extra job while we're asking you to do the very least for the job that we're paying you for. I think it's unconscionable that um I I think both of you are going to be on a um a housing panel this evening, right, with with um Urban Homeworks. Like, are you going to walk into that room and really honestly tell them that you might be on the fence on a 30-day extension? Like, that's the least you can do in this time. It's the It's the very least you and I want to because I have short time. I want to address some of the other nonsense that I've heard from landlords. Um there is nothing in this ordinance that is prohibiting them from helping their residents right now, >> keeping them housed right now. So that's that's a a a total um fabrication when it comes to how we need to rally together and do the the part that everybody else in this community has been doing um throughout this time. So I'm encouraging you all to do the right thing. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> The next five speakers are Aaron D, Brian F. Emily Thorson Astrid Roland Flo Adams Aaron D. Uh good after good afternoon. My name is Aaron Dedrich. I am here representing uh Lake Street Dwelling, the Lago Apartments and the Lakefield Apartments uh in the Uptown neighborhood in Minneapolis. The m the majority of these are affordable units and/or under the 4D program. So, I'm here to testify against extending the notice to evict period. Under the current 30-day notice period, the process to evict a non-payer can take upwards of 120 days. This is 4 months of that property not receiving any rent, but still has the obligation to pay mortgage, property taxes, payroll, utilities, maintenance, and cleaning. Without these rents being paid, the properties cannot meet these obligations. It's that simple. A lease is a contract and an understanding between a tenant and a landlord that rent will be paid on the first of the month. The landlord is providing a home for that tenant in hopes that eviction will not be necessary. Eviction is a last resort. Rental assistance is only available in Hemp County for those that are in eviction proceedings. If Minneapolis extends this notice of period, it'll delay access to emergency funds for Minneapolis residents. All other Henipin County residents outside of the Minneapolis city will have quicker access to the depleting emergency funds. In many cases, our residents actually ask us to file uh eviction paperwork so that they can access these emergency funds. Landlords did not bring ICE to Minneapolis or create the chaos in the city. So, why is the city council asking us to carry these additional receivables for an extended period of time? It is our preference to work with residents impacted by Operation Metro Surge to work out a payment plan rather than automatically evict. Many of our res residents align with this viewpoint and it provides a greater chance that the residents will remain in their homes for a longer period. Thank you. >> Next is Brian F. >> Uh greetings member of the council uh and public. Uh, I think I represent a unique perspective here. I actually own an apartment building in Marcy Park Apartments. Uh, is in the Marcy Park neighborhood and for 25 years I've owned that apartment building. And for that 25 years, I provided housing to people. And I got to tell you, we don't like to unlawfully detain our residents. It's the last resort. It's the last thing we want to do. It costs us money. It's expensive for us to do. Minneapolis, St. Paul both have adopted a 30-day notice provision. That's larger than it is in many other communities. And the net effect of that is is that if I have to unlawfully detain a resident for non-payment or some other reason, it takes me 120 days to get that person out of my property. If you adopt this res uh this ordinance, you're going to make it 150 days. Some of the other uh nonprofits have talked about the impact on the finances of the individual uh owners. You know, I I'm not a wealthy guy. I don't I'm not some big REIT in uh in New York or Los Angeles. I'm I'm a I'm a guy that owns an apartment building and this is how I you know this is how I support my family. If if if my contract with my residence is not adhered to, then I can't meet my obligations. And so I believe that you have structure in place already with a 30-day notice provision to to to have parties get into the quay to get financial resources, which they really need. If you adopt the the additional 30 days to make it 60 days, you're going to make it very hard on the landlords to continue to offer housing in this community. And I don't think that's something we need to do because then you're going to have even more homeless people. >> Next is Emily Thorson. >> Hi council. Uh my name is Emily Thorson. I am a resident of W 8, a renter, a Minnesota licensed social worker, a past family supportive housing case manager, an advocate for housing first policies, and a caring human. I'd like to see an end to evictions as a whole, but I'm here today to support the ordinance. Um, what I want to do first is talk about housing. I want to ground us in what housing is. Sometimes in formal spaces it gets thrown a lot around a lot and um backed up by data and sanitized. But housing is where families share meals, where babies rest their heads and where we care for our elders. I have seen the incredible lengths people go through to rent a home or an apartment in this community, scrolling pages of listings, applying to emergency assistance for help for a damaged deposit. and um either they'll approve it or um many programs require a denial in order to assist. What happens if we fail to act? I have seen the impact of discriminatory bureaucratic barriers like evictions. Having an eviction or an unlawful detainer on your record keeps a family almost out of almost all rental housing in the city and forces them to accept usually substandard units um and discrimination from landlords who will rent to them. I have seen a mother be forcefully removed from her home, locked out from retrieving personal belongings. Uh the family was denied entry to county homeless shelter for families because the baby's birth certificate was still in the locked home. Uh this is not uncommon. This is what eviction looks like. Uh evictions are violent displacement. They are dehumanizing. They are preventable and it costs us nothing to pass this ordinance. We have the power to end them. I ask that you stand on strong convictions and end evictions today. Thank you. Next is Astred Roland. I'm short. Good morning. My name is Astred Roland. I am a resident of Ward 5. In addition to tirelessly supporting several schools, bus stops, and small businesses as a patroller and responder, I've been equally active in fundraising for my neighbors in North Side with money I barely have as a low-income individual, but more importantly, through the act of sharing ant connections. I skipped patrols to be here today. Two families on my block were in need of rent help for March. One family briefly lost their primary bread winner one month ago, exactly when he was violently abducted on the street outside of their house. I was there. But still, my neighbor was taken, leaving behind his wife and young kids. I've been helping his son safely get on and off the bus so he does not become another Liam Ramos. My neighbor was eventually released and came back home, but his absence was enough to jeopardize the family's ability to make rent that month until we were able to fund raise the necessary amount. ICE has still not left our city. In addition to being a housing issue, this is now a public safety issue. Eviction will become another tool of violence the moment the clock runs out for these families. Passing this ordinance is the bare minimum. The North Side Mutual Aid Fund is still scrambling to cover rents for February. I fear for April. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Next is Flo Adams. >> Good afternoon, Madame Chair, council members. My name is Flo Adams. I'm a member of Ward Five with Council Member Warren. Um, I live near over near North Commons Park and I'm here to represent my neighbors that cannot be here and my neighbors who have had breadwinners abducted and all who are still afraid to leave their homes. We have a council meeting where the public is invited to speak to represent the needs of the people. Yet, the people that need this moratorum the most are relying on those with the privilege to be out and about to show up to this meeting as well. I have neighbors that have been so scared to leave their house next door that even after dropping off groceries for them, they still maintain their distance. I'm not going to pretend to know the ins and the outs of the city government. But as a human being with a moral compass, I ask you to pass this moratorium to save lives. We are talking about families with the one place they feel safe being pushed out by moneyhungry landlords and nonprofits. There has been almost $500,000 raised in South Minneapolis. All done by common citizens and people from here and around the country. The fact that it is March and the citizens of this city have needed a moratorum since January and we are all here 3 days into March is ghastly. I call on the council to listen to their humanity and pass this moratorum as a bare minimum before then also passing a rental assistance fund and a public statement rebuking ICE and their actions in our city. If it's hard to afford being a landlord, maybe you should sell your properties and have a soul. Council member Warren, you have been silent on ice in our neighborhood other than your horrible comments two weeks ago. You have a responsibility to your constituents to protect and uphold them, of which you have failed to do, as you would rather sit on the campaign money you made from the same people who funded Jacob Fry. There are no words from you on our neighbors getting shot in their front in front of their home or families being teargassed. Not to mention the countless people that have been abducted. Vote yes for this and it'll be one step on a long journey to rebuilding any of this community's trust with you or otherwise. Otherwise, you're still just complicit nices activity. Thank you. >> Nobody's coming to save us. You have the opportunity to at least try. >> Thank you. >> Next, we will list out the next five speakers. So, speaker number 31 is Elelliana Leole Johnson. Speaker number 32 is Diane Erdman. Speaker number 33 is Sarah Branch. Speaker number 34 is Patricia Francisco. And then speaker number 35 is Ian Coldwater. So, we'll invite up Elelliana Leole Johnson, speaker number 31. >> Good afternoon. It's nice to see all of you. My name is Elelliana Lipple Johnson. I live in Lynen Hills in Ward 13. I'm a founding member of Southwest Alliance for Equity or Sway. We believe we are all connected and we are all neighbors. I support the ordinance. Uh okay, so here's how I see it. There are politicians who want to alleviate suffering and then there's politicians we know and we've seen at the federal level who want to inflict suffering. And then there are politicians who maybe are indifferent. I know none of you want to cause suffering, but I fear that some of you are indifferent. Council members, how closely are you feeling this crisis? How is your proximity or your remove influencing your decision-making? Have you, for example, paid someone's rent? Have you organized a rent fundraiser? Have you gone on patrol even once? Have you found someone an attorney? Have you done someone's laundry? Have you cleaned a church so a custodian can stay home? Have you delivered groceries? Have you located someone who was abducted and was in detention? Have you held the baby of someone who is sheltering in fear? If not, you may be too far removed to have good judgment in this case. And I urge you to look to your colleagues and your constituents who are doing those things uh before making your decision. I believe you can vote for this. It's temporary and I think it'll help. Um, as a constituent, I was disappointed to hear that when asked about rent in a committee meeting on February 5th that I was watching, council member Palmasano not only expressed a lack of understanding that the only reason rental needs were being met in January and February, was that community mutual aid was addressing the need. We can't keep up right now. >> Thank you. Thank you. Next is speaker number 32, Diane Erdman. Good afternoon. My name is Diane Erdman. I have been 46 years lived in Lynen Hills. I'm a retired teacher. Minneapolis is a welcoming place, a sanctuary city. People come here because we provide a safe community for them and we want them here. I am here to advocate for a temporary eviction extension to enable our immigrant members to reset lives and remain safely housed. Not doing this sends a message that we do not want them here. We do want them here. Immigrants revitalize our city. Lake Street is a vibrant example of that revitalization. I do not want our city to regress. I personally work closely with and have become deeply fond of two immigrant families here. A dear person of mine in Powder Horn Park area works with three blocks containing 33 immigrant households. In past months, they personally raised 20K to cover rent payments for 16 families and arrange rental support for 17 others. This does not include funds raised for food assistance or plane tickets enabling neighbor children to reunite with deported parents. My neighbors in Lynen Hills have given nearly 10K to help these same families. My husband and I have contributed 5K nearly of our retirement funds. Mutual aid dried up in February. Many people are still figuring out how to pay current rent. Lynen Hills Mutual Aid is also tapping out. The issue does affect us in Lynen Hills both personally and collectively. Our city extends beyond Lynen Hills. As a city, we have a responsibility to give these people a gift of time to regain job footing and be the responsible renters they want to be. This is not eviction as usual. This is not freeloading. This is support. It will enable people to live independently like they want to. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Speaker number 33, Sarah Branch. >> Hello, council members. My name is Sarah Branch and I'm a resident and a renter in Lynen Hills and in Ward 13. I'm here today in support of extending the required pre pre-filing eviction notice period for non-payment of rent. And I want to speak to the council, but especially to council person Paul Misano. Let's be honest, Ward 13 is one of the most affluent and predominantly white wards in our city. Our residents have been among the least directly impacted. Not to say they haven't been impacted, but least directly impacted by the immigration enforcement actions and by the financial instability that many other residents in many other wards are facing. But that relative insulation is not a reason for silence. It is a reason for responsibility. With privilege comes influence. We see that from our ward politically. And with influence comes an obligation to use our voice, not only for our neighborhood, but for the entirety of Minneapolis. Housing stability is not a word-by-word issue. It is a city-wide foundation for economic health, public safety, and community well-being. Extending the notice period is not about excusing non-payment. It is about recognizing the economic reality of what has happened to our community. Families whose incomes have been disrupted will not see their finances stabilize overnight. At the same time, community-based safety nets have have been strained and are many in many cases unavoidable, as we're already hearing here. I personally raised $9,000 for mutual aid and rent in February. I raised almost nothing this month. And I am also personally aware of several neighbors who have not been able to make their March rent payments yet. Neighbors who have children, neighbors who have been traumatized by the immigration enforcement actions for months. A 30-day notice period assumes a recovery timeline that simply does not exist right now for many households. 60 days provides a more realistic window for families to secure new employment or to seek rental assistance, including from the $1 million emergency rental fund that was approved by the council last month last month, which we do thank you for, but that isn't still in the process of being distributed. Thank you very much. I urge you to pass the pause eviction save lives. >> Next is speaker number 34, Patricia Francisco. Council members, thank you for making this time and for delaying your lunch. Appreciate it. Uh my name is Patricia Francisco. I'm a resident of Lynen Hills Ward 13 and I'm the co-founder of Indivisible Lynden Hills. I've owned a I and I want to thank you first of all for approving the use of general funds for rental assistance. That was a really important act action that you took and I'm here to speak in support of the pause and eviction pause eviction save lives proposal. I've owned a house in Lynen Hills for more than 40 years and paid the rising taxes that go along with living in that lovely neighborhood. I am happy to do so because I generally feel the city's priorities are just and reflect the values that I support. But today, I am concerned enough to make my way to city hall to talk with you, to speak with you, because I fear that the council and the mayor may not do what they can actually do, what you can actually do to extend the eviction notice period and give the people of Minnesota, Minneapolis the break they deserve. Many, many people in Ward 13 have been helping to pay the rent of those affected by the federal invasion. I've been glad to do what I can, but we elect you to take the collective action in a crisis that individuals cannot accomplish. I've been so proud of my city through these challenging months. Please don't lose your way now when you can actually use the power we've entrusted to you to save families from more trauma. trauma for which they are not responsible. You are responsible. Now, I know you're hearing from landlords about this proposal, but your constit constituents are clearly paying attention. Why? Because we are still doing our part. >> Thank you. >> Please do yours. Thank you. >> Next is speaker number 35, Ian Coldwater. Hi, and thank you for your time. My name is Ian Coldwater. I was a teenage parent and a section 8 voucher recipient after getting to the top of the waiting list after 10 years. I'm now a homeowner in W 8 working at the top of my field. I'm living proof of how people can succeed when given the time and the resources to get back on their feet. I've never forgotten the existential terror of not being able to pay the rent. And as an individual, I've personally raised tens of thousands of dollars in the last few weeks, paying the rent for over 50 families to keep those families in their homes. We, who have been working so hard on mutual aid efforts, are making amazing things happen, but it takes time and resources to make those things happen, and we can't do that alone. There is simply too much need on multiple levels. We can't afford to ignore it. Even if you are not concerned about the human element, which I would argue you should be because these are our neighbors and they matter, we do not have the resources as a city to handle a homelessness crisis at the scale of the one that we are about to face. Even just receiving an eviction notice can make it harder for every one of these families to find housing in the future. There are no family shelter beds available in the city of Minneapolis. We can stem this tide given time and opportunity, but prevention is going to be key. This is not like previous situations that the landlords here are talking about. There are resources that have been committed, but those resources take time to distribute. We all just need time. Please pass the pause evictions save lives ordinance to give everyone, our neighbors, us, and you some breathing room. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. The next five speakers are speaker number 36, Ty Prescott. Speaker number 37, Anna S. Speaker number 38, Elizabeth. Speaker number 39, Shas Sartin, and speaker number 40, Octavia W. Go to speaker number 36, Ty Prescott. >> Hello. Um, my name is Ed Ty Prescott and I'm a tenant of Willard Hay in Ward 5. I'm here taking time off of work to speak at city council for the first time today to support extending the pre-eviction notice period. This is work that we need that can and should be paid with just to address what the landlords have been saying. This can be paired with financial aid. It is not an eitheror. Continuing with that, regardless of the specifics, extending the pre-eviction notice period is critical as the state has failed to enact an eviction moratorum. Extending the pre-eviction notice period would ensure that renters have the time to be able to go back to work or find new work if their employers have gone under in this siege um apply for rent relief, etc. All of this takes time and renters that renters currently do not have. This is because Minneapolis has been under an ethnic cleansing campaign and the eviction crisis we are facing is an extension of that campaign and it is allowing landlords to do ISIS's job for them. This council has the power to stop this, but that is only if you are all willing to act. Speaking of additional receivables, as some landlords would like to make note of, I have personally gone on patrol, donated at least $400 in the last month to keep people housed and been threatened by ICE agents while trying to keep them from raiding raiding City View Apartments in January, which rendered me unable to work for two weeks because it caused a mental health crisis. We've been threatened, brutalized, and murdered to try to keep our neighbors in our communities. And should the city fail to enact an extension of the notice period, it will be a desecration of the sacrifices we've made to protect our neighbors. We have not put ourselves through months of resistance. We have not died only for our neighbors to be made houseless while there are still agents in Minnesota who are still kidnapping our neighbors. This is why I'm urging the council to vote unanimously to support the extension of the eviction notice period, preferably to a minimum of three months. Any potential for a veto is unacceptable. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next is speaker number 37, Anna S. >> Good afternoon, city council. My name is Anna Stamborski. I live in Lindale and I'm a co-founder and organizer of Neighbors Helping Neighbors. Our Metroide network began in early December to support neighbors with groceries and transportation in response to Operation Metro Surge. In January, we started providing rental assistance, and the need is more dire now than ever. We've already sent out over $500,000 of rent support to over 325 families. But when we opened our rent relief application on Sunday, we received 1,200 requests in 12 hours. Hundreds of individuals, faith communities, organizations, neighborhoods, and schools have similar numbers to share. In the past three days, we've heard from 124 organizers who are also doing rent relief. The aggregate numbers are staggering. These groups report distributing over $6 million in rent support, keeping over 5,000 families in their homes. $6 million. Notably, only 12 respondents said they've gotten philanthropist or foundation engagement. One of those is neighbors helping neighbors. And of the $500,000 of rent support we've distributed, only $60,000 are from philanthropic institutions. The rest is all small, small dollar donors, individuals contributing 20, 50, or $100. We've all been racing against the clock to get rent support out the door for February 1st and March 1st because evictions do not wait and our neighbors are on the edge of a cliff every 30 days. But what if we all had a little more time? An extension to the eviction timeline is the absolute least you can do. Not only would it keep people housed for another month, but it would also give us all time to have the conversation around how to sustainably keep people in their homes. What funders and philanthropists in should be doing and how we should leverage municipal state resources. Those are the conversations about scale and money that are needed here because we as neighbors are doing our part. It's time for you to do yours. Thank you. Next is speaker number 38, Elizabeth from AGOT Housing. All right. Hello, I'm Liz Mhart, director of housing programs at AGOT Housing and Services. We operate throughout Minneapolis with the most of our renter participants in Whittier and Longfellow. We serve over a hundred households every month in our housing programs and we operate homelessness prevention services which is primarily eviction prevention. Um, I want to say first that I really respect the work this committee has done and especially in approving a million dollars of rental assistance. As we've heard from so many community members today about the sheer volume of mutual aid funds that have been raised and used to keep people in their homes over the last few months. I think my primary goal is to talk about how important and impactful that rental assistance is. Um what we've seen in our programs and what we've seen with people coming into our shelters and our housing programs um is actually still some of the impacts of folks who didn't get timely rental assistance during the co 19 pandemic when that eviction moratorum was going on. We have people coming into our programs with 8 to$10,000 of old dues rent to a prior landlord that because rental assistance was not timely and did not pay that off at the time, there's now no funding that pays that. And so we have people who, as I know one other speaker spoke about, um can't actually access very safe, affordable housing anymore because they have this piece that's going to come up on their record for the rest of time. Um, and so as you're considering this and what more the city can do, I do want to really push the importance of rental assistance. If we are saying that state rental assistance might not come through till the end of the summer, mutual aid funds are running out now and we're going to give people 60 days, that's not getting them where they need to go. What we need is rental assistance right now. um a 60-day notice is just simply not going to be enough time to come up with money for most people and the end result is just going to be a higher balance when they are evicted. So that's all. Thank you. Next is speaker number 39, Shasa Sartin. >> Um good afternoon members of the committee. My name is Shasa Sartin and I live in Ward 8. I'm grateful to the council members who wrote the temporary pre-eviction notice extension ordinance and I call on all council members to vote yes in protection of our city. For evictions to even be possible right now while there is so much terror from ICE agents is completely unethical and disturbing to me. A complete eviction moratorum is needed and as others have said, this is a bare minimum intervention before that can happen. Um I I feel that I also need to note that um the nonprofit leaders and landlords who have been speaking earlier and um and saying that this will only result in more um debt. Um I just they're speaking from an alternate reality and I just need to note that that's not based in reality. Um, like many people, I have been given in I have been given money that I don't really have to support my neighbors who are most vulnerable to ICE agents. I've been raising money to cover rents. And I know families who have been applying for rent relief and have not been getting chosen in the lotteryies. I know families who have recently secured housing after being unhoused for months and are at risk of losing it. I'm very frustrated. Trying to raise money right now feels like screaming into the void because there is so much need. Extending the pre-eviction notice to 60 days provides critical time to continue fundraising and sourcing rent relief. It it gives people the chance to actually get the money. That extra 30 days could be the difference between being chosen in the rent fund lottery or not. The difference between reaching the GoFundMe goal or not. This extension is an opportunity to actually be an acknowledgement of the reality we are living in. to acknowledge that it's absurd to have any rules and regulations remain normal when this level of physical and mental violence, abuse, and torture has been waiting outside the doors of so many. This really is a matter of life or death. There are there's not room in shelters for the amount of families facing evictions. They have homes already and deserve to stay in them. This this extension can make that possible. Thank you. Next is speaker number 40, Octavia W. Hello. Uh, good afternoon now, uh, chair and members of the committee. Um, this is my I'm Octavia. Uh, I live in South Uptown, W 10. Um, this is my first time being at city council. I took time off work for this. Uh, I have given about $10,000 in mutual aid out of my pocket. 7,000 of which is specifically for rent assistance. I promise you my pockets are far smaller than the landlords. Yet that is my bonus. That is a chunk of my savings that I have given to my neighbors to keep them safe right now. I've seen me and my neighbors pick up slack from the lack of assistance from the state and city levels. A lot of us now, this has been going on for a while and this um sorry, we can't I can't maintain that. I cannot maintain that amount of giving. We right now need time. This 60-day extension is necessary for my neighbors that cannot safely leave their homes and for me and my neighbors that are able to assist them. On my morning walks, I still see my neighbors standing outside at bus stops making sure that children are able to safely get to school. I urge unanimous support on this bare minimum. Thank you. Thank you. The next five speakers are as followed. Ella K, speaker number 41. Speaker number 42, Ry G. Speaker number 43, Alicia House, speaker number 44, Rean R. And speaker number 45, Jessica S. So we'll go to speaker number 41, Ella K. Is there an Ella K Ella Campleman from W 9? Then we'll go to speaker number 42, Rye. Welcome. Good afternoon, members of the committee. Uh, my name is Ry Galbreth. I live in Ward 1, and up until very recently, I worked in a prominent, award-winning restaurant in downtown Minneapolis. It's a restaurant that many of you probably think would be doing well, but that is not the case. No one in our industry is doing well, and we are going to be in recovery mode for a very long time. I was recently laid off from my restaurant several weeks ago, explicitly due to the ongoing economic toll of Operation Metro Surge. Even before my layoff, shifts were canceled because of a lack of customers. We've closed early because there are no customers with which to remain open. We in our industry expect a downturn in the winter months. We are prepared for this. But when I tell you that Operation Metro Surge is something else entirely, I mean that the overwhelming majority of us are dependent on mutual aid in order to make ends meet. The point I want to drive home is that this ongoing federal occupation has been an untenable economic stressor on all workers, regardless of our immigration status. Thousands of us are facing eviction and despite the ways that we and our communities have been able to support each other via mutual aid, we will not be able to heal and recover while facing houselessness. I know from experience that you cannot focus on that healing when you are unhoused and struggling to meet your most basic needs. We need an immediate policy action to avoid an eviction crisis in the upcoming months. Extending this timeline is a strong step first step towards a just recovery from this occupation and we need to center our vulnerable community members who are shouldering an outside share of the long-term damage. This will give people the necessary time it takes to access the various resources that are available to cover rent. Neighbors, churches, and other organizations have scrambled to pull together funds to help neighbors pay rent. But for renters, finding that takes time. If we are to be reliant on each other, we need the time to be able to support one another. organizations are already taking weeks to get back. So, I am urging you to extend the uh pre-eviction notice timeline. Rent is due this week and undoubtedly another wave of people will be facing eviction at the end of the month. Please take action on this immediately to help ensure people can stay in their homes. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um next we'll welcome speaker number 43, Alicia House. >> Thank you. My name is Alysia House and I'm here representing RS Eden. Uh RS Eden last year housed about a hund about about 1,000 individuals including adults and children across our supportive and affordable housing programs. The individuals and families we serve are often coming out of homelessness, incarceration, substance use disorder, mental health, and deep economic instability. Housing is not just our work, it's our mission. I want to be clear that eviction is always the last resort. It is extremely rare that we pursue it. And when we do, our team works quickly to find alternative supports, services, or housing options. But in our experience, prolonging an eviction process does not protect residents. It can often cause great harm. Like the AGOT representative from earlier today had mentioned, under the current 30-day notice period, residents typically arrive several months behind rent. Extending the notice would likely mean 3 to four months of acred rent. For individuals living on extremely limited incomes, that balance becomes in insurmountable. Larger balances increase the likelihood of eviction and create long-term barriers to sering future housing. There's also another difficult truth. Sometimes housing is no longer a safe or appropriate appropriate fit. Whether due to safety concerns, lease violations, or instability that requires a higher level of care, holding someone in housing that is no longer working is not compassionate. It's not safe and it is not stabilizing. Delays can escalate harm both for that individual and for neighbors. Engagement around payment plans and rental assistance is offered far in advance for any eviction notices. We share your commitment to keeping people housed like somebody else had mentioned. It doesn't have to be either or. We support expanding expand expanding rental assistance and prevention resources, but expanding the expanding or extending the pre-eviction notice period is unlikely to produce better outcomes and may unintentionally create deeper instability. Thank you for your leadership and for your care of the residents and RS Eden remains committed to working alongside you on solutions that are both compassionate and effective. Thank you. >> Next, we'll welcome speaker number 44, Reagan Reek, followed by speaker number 45, Jessica Sinsky. >> Hello all, my name is Reagan and I am a resident of W 3 in the Sheridan neighborhood. I hope my council member watches this later and hears what I have to say. Um because I'm here asking you all to vote um in support of the temporary extension of our pre-eviction policy for non-payment of rent. A small group of my neighbors and I in ward 1, 2, and three raised over $40,000 this past Saturday. We put together a local bar crawl in two weeks, and it was a stunning feeling to see all my neighbors gather together to support keeping us housed and keeping our local businesses open. My neighbors and I have plans to keep raising funds in the coming months, but we can't do this every other week. We all work full-time jobs on top of this. I am grappling with the feeling of how fast that $40,000 will be used. It's so much money, but it is very likely all of that money has already been put towards paying February or March's rent. It doesn't matter how much we, as a small group of volunteers, raise, it's gone in an instant. We as a city and as a state are not ready for the shock waves caused by the federal occupation of Minnesota. We have done our best to withstand the first wave and we are still standing. We haven't been able to save everyone but we are keeping an incredible amount of people housed right now and it is all so delicate and we are so tired. I see the late spring and early summer of 2020 in my nightmares. I talked to so many people who found themselves living out of their cars, out of tents, in our parks. I don't know if any of you remember that, but I do. They were lost in disbelief because they had never been in the position of having no money to pay rent because they lost their job. That is what is coming again. We know better. We can fix this. We can prevent that from happening again. We need more time. We need more fun time for the funds this council appropriated for emergency rental relief to become accessible. We need more time for the state to pass additional funding. And we need time to breathe. Give us some time, please. >> Thank you. Um, next we'll welcome speaker number 45, Jessica Saminsky. >> Hello and thank you vice chair and council members for the opportunity to speak. My name is Jessica Shaminsky and I am a W9 resident and a policy attorney at the Housing Justice Center. Minneapolis needs you to pass pause evictions save lives. Even though the feds announced an end to operation metro surge, the impact of the occup occupation is ongoing and the consequences are dire. Even though the community has been raising mutual aid funds and this council authorized an additional million in emergency rental assistance, this has not been enough because the need for rental assistance is simply too high. Families need time to get back on their feet and recover from this occupation. Families need time to seek out their rental assistance that the community has been gathering. The reality is that 30 days just isn't enough. Temporarily expanding pre-viction notices to at least 60 days will allow families time to recuperate and gather the funds they need to pay rent and satisfy their landlords. This ordinance is also needed because Henipin County is the only courthouse that requires tenants to show up in person for initial appearances in eviction court. We have seen ICE arrest people in the courthouse even though they allegedly told the chief judge that they would not be doing so. We need to pause evictions to make sure people don't have to decide between showing up to defend themselves in court for their case or avoiding being kidnapped by ICE. Not to mention that evictions move much faster than the 120 days you've been hearing about from landlords today. It they don't take that long. This council already unanimously agreed that an eviction moratorum was necessary to reduce harm and protect our neighbors. The state failed to step up for our neighbors and act. So, it is time for the city to step up and do its job and stand by your unanimous eviction moratorum resolution. Though we didn't accomplish the mortori the moratorum, a similar outcome is within our reach. By passing pause eviction saves lives, this council can prevent homelessness, make sure landlords get paid their rent, and ensure our neighbors are safe from ICE. Thank you. >> The next five speakers we will welcome are speaker number 46, Alexa Babyak. Speaker number 47, Alana H. Speaker number 48, Elizabeth Flannry. Speaker number 49, Clay Smith. Speaker number 50, Curt Myron. With that, I'll welcome speaker number 46, Alexa. Hello, my name is Alexa Babiaak and I live in Ward 10. I help lead a nonprofit called Neighbors from Our Neighbors, a member of the Housing Justice League. I am here today to ask all council members to pass the pause evictions save lives ordinance. Extending the pre-eviction notice from 30 days to 60 days during this time creates breathing room. It allows families to actually access rental assistance and stabilize without the cascading harm that follows an eviction filing. As a small momand pop landlord myself, I can confidently say that pausing evictions does not mean ignoring landlords needs. It means creating a window for resolution instead of displacement. If a tenant doesn't pay their rent on time and this leads to me not being able to pay the mortgage on their home on time, I will not be at risk of losing losing the property for another several months. And even then, I have a six-month redemption period. Landlords already have this protection, and this additional time is the bare minimum any of us in this room should be advocating for. The cost of eviction, emergency shelter, school disruptions, health care strain is far greater than the Z cost of prevention that this ordinance would allow. This is your opportunity to be part of a shift, even if temporary, to provide strong protections that offer both immediate relief for stability and long-term community resilience. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, we'll welcome speaker number 48 or sorry, speaker number 47, Alana H from Neighbors for More Neighbors. Okay. Hello. Um, my name is Elena Holly. I've lived in the Twin Cities all my life. I'm with Neighbors from Our Neighbors, which is a member of the Housing Justice League. Uh, Neighbors from Our Neighbors works to ensure Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota is a place where everyone has a stable, humane place to live in the neighborhood they choose. On behalf of our organization, I'm speaking up in support of the pause evictions save lives ordinance in Minneapolis to keep people safely housed during this crisis. You're hearing or have heard that lengthening eviction notices will stress landlords and create strain between landlords and their tenants. Of course, it will. The question is, will that tension be any worse than the tension that Metro Surge has already created? Landlords have been financially harmed. Tenants have already been financially ruined. There will be damage no matter what choice you make. But will you choose the option that allows repair? This council has approved financial aid for the victims of the federal occupation, but you weren't able to sit down and release that aid on day one. You know better than anyone the time and deliberation it takes for good governance to do its work. Getting people help takes time. That's why extending eviction notices is the option of least harm. Give people time to actually get back to work. Give people time to post and fulfill a GoFundMe. Give the state of Minnesota or yourselves time to find the funds and time to move the funds. We're talking about tenants who play by the rules and who want to pay their landlords. Giving them the grace of time lets people help each other, help themselves, help their constituents. And making the choice to give that time means that landlords do eventually get paid. and more importantly families sa stay safe and alive in their homes. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, we'll welcome speaker number 48, Elizabeth Flannry. Elizabeth Flannry, Ward 3 from Trellis. All right. And after that, we'll go to speaker number 49, Clay Smith. Good afternoon. My name is Clay Smith. I'm a renter in the Lindale neighborhood in Ward 8. I'm here to support the Pause Eviction Save Lives ordinance. In the last three months, we've all witnessed the violence of federal occupation. I live right off of Lake Street. I've seen people snatched from the sidewalk and the bus stop. On January 23rd, I had my car window busted and was assaulted by CBP agents. Your constituents have put our bodies on the line to prevent abductions. We've sacrificed sleep and free time to coordinate mutual aid. And I want to be clear, this is not our job. Every way that neighbors have stepped up to protect each other points to a failure by our government to do the same. I spent more than 20 hours over the last two weeks talking to renters across Minneapolis about their experience since the occupation. The threat of March rent loomed large. I talked to a tenant of a building owned by Dominium, one of the top evicttors under occupation. They told me their Somali neighbors have taken to walking the hallways for recreation because they're afraid to go outside. I talked to another woman who lives in a one-bedroom apartment with her two children. She spent the last of her savings on rent on March 1st. I thank council members Wansley, Stevenson, Osman, Chavez, and Chowdery for authoring this ordinance. And I also want to make it clear that passing this extension unanimously is the very least you as a legislative body can do. 30 days of extra notice before before being thrown out onto the street, much like $1 million in rent relief when families have lost more than hund00 million in wages since the occupation started as a band-aid on a bullet hole. And yet there are dozens of us here, people who are already exhausted, waiting four plus hours on a Tuesday morning just to have two minutes to beg for the bare minimum. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next, we'll welcome speaker number 50, Kurt Myron. >> Good afternoon, council. My name is Kurt Myin. I am a resident of W 10. I think the core question we're seeing with this today is does our city work for the people who live here or for the landlords? Do we care more about people having a roof over their head or a balance sheet? I have been so inspired by my neighbors that I have met during this occupation. The people that are organizing that are organizing the rent donations that are making sure that we are safe. Even some of you who I've met on the streets who have been out protecting our community, we need you. Regular people cannot continue to do this. The city, the council, the mayor must act. Our residents or excuse me, our mayor was recently on national TV praising how well the residents of Min Minneapolis have taken care of each other. He's even cursed at the people who have been terrorizing us. Let's prove the mayor rights and ensure that our city can keep our most vulnerable residents housed. I urge you to all pass this this moratorum and let's do everything we can to make sure that the people who live here continue to live here. Thank you. Thank you. The next five speakers we will welcome are speaker number 51 Julia Johnson, speaker number 52, Sagira Shahib, speaker number 53, Angela B from W four. Um speaker number 54 Jenny C from W one. Um and then speaker number 55 Khaled Wami from W 4. Um I'll welcome speaker number 51, Julia Johnson. All right. Julia or Elizabeth or Andrew come in at any point. Um we'll we'll welcome you. Um we'll continue to speaker number 52, Sagiraa Shahid. >> Hi. Um my name is Sagiraa and I'm a resident of W 7. I am a member of Black Mass. I'm a member of Minnesota Labor for Palestine and I'm a poet. Um, I'm here today because I'm also facing eviction and I want to counter something that has been talked about here in this space. What helped me to because I I was facing it for a couple of months because I've been on the front lines. I'm a former public sector worker and I've been putting my body on the line. I'm a Muslim woman. Nobody in everyone in our community is impacted by this. What has saved me is not been being unhoused. What has saved me is mutual aid and having some time. I have a job interview tomorrow. And unlike what these uh uh landlords and nonprofits have been saying, um we need both. We need an extension to the uh evictions and we also need rental assistance. And so we need time. It's not going to help. I've been unhoused before. It doesn't help to be unhoused. I've accessed uh public uh uh resources in the past. And the bureaucracy of it, both as someone who has received it and as someone who has worked in the public sector, it's ridiculous. And we know that operation metro surge is unprecedented. We have a a federal agency that has the military or the budget of some militaries in other countries have descended upon our cities have created chaos and havoc in our communities and we're asking for the bare minimum. We're asking for more time. My grandparents survived Jim Crow. The stuff that I'm seeing on the streets that are impacting my family, in fact my community as someone who's a citizen of this country, it's unprecedented. It's bare minimum to extend time to give people time. It it helps to have that time because you give people time to get their grounding to get their foot. I know that in W seven in particular that there are people who businesses neighbors and community members who are struggling because they're having to shelter. They're struggling because they are not paying the rent because it's scary, right? If you give people time, the mutual aid can come in. They can access the resources. one of the state uh or the county um websites. I think they're backlog with some of the assistance. It's like back in o October or something like that. You all need time. So, because we have shown up for you all, please show up for us. We are your voters. Don't listen to the landlords. >> Thank you. Next, we'll welcome speaker number 53, Angela B. >> Hello everyone. I just want to name there's a lot of people that have been here since 9:30 this morning that couldn't speak and are sitting out in the hallway. We couldn't even get in the overflow room for an hour or a couple hours. So, I just want to name that there were a lot of people out there that you couldn't see today here to support this. Uh my name is Angela Bonfilio and I'm a Ward 4 resident and um small business owner and community organizer. Over the last three months, we have seen the incredible efforts of Minneapolis residents coming together to keep us housed and block byb block keep our neighbors safe. A few weeks ago, this body had the chance to be a part of this slogan and to keep more people housed and move this vote up a couple weeks ago before the March 1st rent was due. And five of you chose not to even vote on this a couple weeks ago. And so that's why we're here in March. Rent was due on Sunday. And we know the need is astronomical. Everyone in here has been doing everything they can to raise money for rent. And it is not it it takes time. It's not enough. We need support and we need you all to be a part of this solution. And I hope by the end of today and this week we can we can think of all of you as part of this solution. Um and we need you to act to to prevent mass displacement. And as been said, you need more time to get policies and other things in place before we see so many people being displaced in the upcoming weeks because of our 30-day um pre-eviction notice that we have. That's why we're not seeing as many mass evictions already. That because of the mutual aid, that's why we're not seeing mass evictions already. But we know it's coming from all the impacts that we've heard today. We feel like we're facing an unnatural man-made emergency disaster. And from talking to my north side neighbors, we are not seeing our elected officials stand up with us on this, to take concrete policy action that's within your power to do and to work towards um work towards solutions. So I ask you to continue to do to work towards this crisis and and address this. >> Thank you. Next, we'll welcome speaker number 54, Jenny C. All right. Speaker number 55. Uh >> Khadijah Khadijah. Uh please come on up. >> If we can just adjust the time. allaykum everybody. >> Just if if I can ask you to hold on just one second while we readjust the timer. >> Okay. So, whenever you're ready, we'll start the timer. Okay. >> Perfect. We're ready for you to begin. >> Okay. My name is Hello, my name is Kadijame. I'm a war four resident and a Somali business owner in the Carmel Mall and a black mass leader. I am here today because we are not able to pay the rent. We are not able to pay the rent for our businesses. We are not people are not coming to our stores because they are afraid and if we are not making revenue from our businesses we are also not able to pay our rent in ward 4. I've lived there for 17 years and this is an emergency. So then also 700 people almost they behind over 700 businesses in Somali Mall are now officially three months behind and are not able to receive rental assistance. This has affected us. Now we're almost three months behind in our rent in our homes. We aren't able to make revenue. We aren't able to move forward. This is an emergency. The Somali business owner dream is dying. The Somali American dream is under attack. We are asking you simply for more time so that we can apply to these rental assistances. It is hard to apply when some of these are not even in English. It takes time to go through this process. We are also asking you for more time for us to catch up on our rent. We are also asking you to come visit our stores. The Somali business corridor is dead. We don't have people coming. Eid is approaching and we're getting locked out of our businesses. This is an emergency. We have what? Two weeks. March rent is due on the 5th. It is now the 3. The ICE raid has affected us emotionally, mentally, physically, and financially. We are feeling the full weight of the federal government on us, on our spirit and our soul. And we need your help as a community. We need more time. We have done enough. We have maxed out our credit cards. I have used >> I even used my son's tuition to pay my rent. Like we need time. We We don't have the money. 90 days behind on rent and what we make what about $1,000 just in a month. That's that's not enough time. We cannot goofundme our way out of this. to 7 million. We've heard that you guys have been passing funds for us to receive rental assistance, but the assistant hasn't even reached us yet and we haven't even been able to apply. And so that we need organizing in the Somali Mall. We need support here. And again, we ask for more time. She said, "Thank you for Thank you for giving me the time to speak. It's beautiful to see all your faces. This is my first time, but please please pass evictions save lives." Please, thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. The next five speakers we will welcome are speaker number 56 Zah Abdullah, speaker number 57, Wadis Mahmud, speaker number um 59 Barbara Tarant, and speaker number 60 Fuma Muhammad. Speaker number 56, Zara Abdullah. I have two minute. Okay. My name is Zara Abdullah. Can everybody hear me? >> Yep. >> Uh I'm a world four residents and it's my first time coming here visiting. I just want to address a couple of things. Um because we have an issue with the ICE. We created something called we created an organization called United Neighbors United. Um and it's created by members of Somali community who live in Minneapolis, Minnesota and also other neighbors who are helping us um gather some supplies and resources. Um we are facing uh financial crisis, health crisis, safety crisis and yet there's no meaningful aids has reached the small business owners or the families who are struggling to pay the rents. Uh I'm here today to testify and support in support of temporary extension uh to for brief eviction notice. And that being said, I'm so bled to see, first of all, I want to say thank you guys. It's my first time coming face to face, but I'm very bled. There are landlords who are um against this. I mean, there are neighbors who are baying their money. There are neighbors who are bing uh out of their bucket or doing fundraising, but there are uh people with big money, big buckets. that's against us. I mean, come on. What kind of world are we living in? I mean, neighbors are involving, but you just want to keep putting more money in your bucket and watch people struggle. I just wanted to tell you, whoever is against this or not so boring, you just waiting until everybody's homeless and at the door or on the street. I mean, before it's too late. We are better than this. Come on. We're motans. We are very strong peoples. Uh, but don't be behind. just get on the board and support and get get going. And >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next, we're going to welcome speaker number 57, Wadis Mahmood. >> No longer here. Thank you. Um, we'll welcome next speaker number 59, Barbara Trarant. Hi, thank you council. I'm Barbara Tarant. I live in Ward 12. Um, thank you for bringing this um, save I'm sorry, pause eviction save lives. Um, I want to start out by saying that um, my family started coming here in the 1800s and it wasn't from war. It was because of poverty, wanting a new chance. And many of the people that are here today, the Somali people were coming here because of war. People from South America come for a variety of reasons. It all stems from colonization. I do believe this is ethnic cleansing that's happening. And this is all purposeful and I am really disgusted with the United States at this point. I'm embarrassed to be an American. This is not what we're supposed to be about, although we are from the beginning. Um, I am proud of my neighbors and I'm proud of the city council that is standing for and with the people and we need to pass this. It is not the answer, but it does give us more time as um for the city council to work collectively. We I have my family has given money. I'm volunteering with my neighbors trying to meet people's needs, protect people, and we are all part of the human race. There is one human race, and we need to work together to get people's needs met and not allow this hate and evil to win. And when and if people are going to stand with the landlords and not stand with the people, that is part of the evil. Thank you. Thank you. And we'll continue with speaker number 60, Father Muhammad. Hello everyone. My name is Father Muhammad. I am a W9 resident. I am here with New Justice Project and I am here asking you guys to pass the 60-day pause save lives because quite frankly we need more time as you've heard time and time again behind me. Everyone has said this. I work with minimum wage workers all over Minneapolis specifically in North Minneapolis and dollar stores. And the minimum wage here is 1637. If you are working 40 hours a week and you're getting 1637, that's about 1300 and that doesn't include taxes. So, if I'm behind three months on rent and I'm getting a $1,000 check, that's not going to it's not going to it's not going to the math isn't mathing. And so, if we're being honest, like the rental assistant you've passed is a great step, but people need time to apply to that. And I know I'm on the phone with my mom out here translating trying to make sure she can apply. But that imagine that by hundreds of people. And so, truly, we're just asking you to give us time to get organized to get a space. People behind me are doing mutual aid. You've heard people maxing out their credit cards, taking tuition from their kids. Like, you have to give up your education so your family can stay housed. And so, the real reason that I think this is important is cuz if you don't pass this, this is for the soul of Minneapolis. We have been bombarded by an intended federal occupation and these are the intended effects. And people are already traumatized and nervous system are shot. And if you add homelessness on top of that, imagine the soul of our city. And are you are you saying Minneapolis is a city where only if you can afford it, you can live here? If you have money, if you have access, if you're a landlord, if you're part of the ruling class, we are a worker city. We are a union city. We shut this city down. We had two national shutdowns. And so I'm asking for you, elected officials, to stand with us. And respectfully, W four and five, I need you to join us. I am new justice project and we're working with black motans and we need you to vote for this. We need you to support it. So please stand with workers, stand with immigrants, stand with community, and stand with us and pass this bare minimum extra 30 days. bare minimum so we can get some money to the people. Thank you. >> Thank you. The next five speakers um we are going to welcome are speaker number 61 Jackie Leightton, speaker number 62, Flannry Clark, speaker number 63, Aliba Rodriguez, speaker number 64, Dustin McInty, speaker number 65, Alexandra Dart. With that, speaker number 61, Jackie Leighton. from Lynen Indivisible in Ward 13. All right, speaker number 62, Flannry Clark. Hello, my name is Flannry Clark. I'm a resident of the Corkran neighborhood in W Nine. I'm a volunteer with Minneapolis Families for Public Schools and a proud Minneapolis parent. For the last three months, tens of thousands of our neighbors have been in the streets protecting our neighbors. An additional tens of thousands have been behind the scenes managing a complex mutual aid web that has kept our neighbors fed, housed, and wrapped in care. Minneapolis Families for Public Schools has been a part of all of these efforts. We've staffed thousands of patrol shifts per week, given thousands of rides and food boxes, and has raised $3 million for mutual aid. The $3 million that MFPS raised was unimaginable just a few months ago, but it does not even meet the needs of our public school families. At my own child school, we're supporting over 100 families with rent assistance. Our school community has needed $100,000 per month the last two months to pay rent. We've raised that, but we are struggling and we need the time and that's what we're asking you for. Like so many people here, my family has redone our budget and stretched our dollars to support our neighbors. In our school community, we have welcomed four babies born in hiding, three of them in a single week. No one's lives will be improved by those babies and their families being evicted. We know that eviction causes enormous trauma to families, to school communities, and to neighborhoods. It tears apart the community fabric we have all worked so hard for over the last three months. As a parent and a community member, I ask you to take this step to help prevent a catastrophic eviction crisis that is building in our neighborhoods. I urge you to vote in support of pause evictions, save lives. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we will welcome speaker number 63, Aliba Rodriguez. Clerks, if we can adjust the timer, please. Okay. My name is Ala Rodriguez. Hi there. Good afternoon. My name is Ala Rodriguez and I live in Ward 9. messes. I am a mother and a renter in this city and I represent so many people across our city who have not been able to leave our homes or go to work for nearly three months. do not know how we're going to make rent. And with a fear, the absolute fear of being evicted and losing our homes. The place that's been the only safe place in our for us and our and our dear loved ones. We are afraid to leave our homes. We are afraid to take out the trash. This is what we're in. We're afraid that we are going to be taken for something that we do not deserve. That's why I'm here. Even as I'm afraid, but I am here as a mother and representing so f so many other families because I know that it's important that you know that we absolutely need the pre-eviction notice extension from 30 to 60 days because we do not want to lose our homes. This extra time would give us more time to like find other forms of help. It would help us go back to work. This extra time um lets us make sure that we are not evicted with our families. We do not want to lose our homes. And for that reason, please, please extend the pre- eviction notice from 30 to 60 days. And I'm asking it for myself and the hundreds of families that I am here to represent today. Do not leave us alone. >> Thank you. Next, we'll welcome speaker number 64, Dustin Mcinty. Good afternoon to the chair and the members of the committee. My name is Dustin McInty. I'm a Ward One resident. I'm a licensed Minnesota attorney. I'm a athletics coach at Minneapolis South High School. And I'm here today to speak in favor of temporarily extending the pre-eviction notice period from 30 days to 60 days, which will help us climb out of the hole that ICE and DHS have dug and put us in. During Operation Metro Surge, many of my neighbors have been sheltering in place because they know that their legal status will not prevent them from being detained or even shipped out of state because of how they look or how they sound when they speak. Concurrently and relatedly, many local businesses have either closed or significantly reduced their hours of operation because their customers and their employees have been afraid to even be out in the community. The folks in my local neighborhood group have gone above and beyond to help support our neighbors, including but not limited to raising funds for paying rent. Through donations uh from our personal connections, we managed to raise over $25,000 to pay for February and March rent for our m our vulnerable neighbors. And while I am grateful for the support that we have received and shared, it will not be enough for us to keep doing this month over month, especially as the national news media moves on to covering the next major story. As we continue to help our neighbors recover from the peak of the surge, although the surge is not itself over, our next step will involve getting our neighbors connected with larger mutual aid groups that can raise resources at a level that we cannot individually. This process will take time and every extra day that we have to get our neighbors set up with those services will make a significant difference in the lives of our city's residents. This council has a unique and timely opportunity to do something tangible to help our neighbors in need today. I agree with this council's previous uh request for a full-on eviction moratorum. Uh but for right now, I respectfully urge you to take this action and approve the temporary extension of the pre-eviction notice period. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next, we'll welcome speaker number 65, Alexandra Dart. >> Good afternoon, council members. My name is Alexander Dart. I'm a Willard Hay resident and Ward 5 voter. Um, council member Warren who is currently out of chambers. I'm here to speak directly to you. I'm asking you to support the pause eviction save lives ordinance. For the past three months, my north side neighbors have crowd crowdfunded more than $500,000 in rent funds and probably a lot more than that that I'm not aware of. We are regular people just trying to support our neighbors. We need you to use the power you have as our representative and do your part, too. I have been personally paying and fundraising for rent and utilities for five families in wards four and five. I met these families when responding to ICE raids. Some of them walked through seven countries to flee terror in their places of birth to come to this country to work, to give their children a better life and to try to find safety. In the last three months, they have had their doors busted down in pre-dawn hours and family members dragged out in front of their children in pajamas while DHS propagandists filmed their trauma. Their children have been unable to go to school and see their friends. And they may never see their fathers again. The adults have lost their jobs. They have called me at all hours of the day and night, begging me for help when ICE was outside their home stalking them. They are now begging me to help them find work, even though they still don't feel safe leaving home. They have experienced one trauma after another. If they are evicted, they will experience untold additional traumas. As my council member, you have an opportunity to protect them from these additional traumas. We need time to help get these neighbors jobs so they can start paying their rent again, to raise more funds to help pay their rent, and to convince state government to provide financial assistance to help pay their rent. Council member Warren, you have been a huge disappointment to Ward 5 so far. You have an opportunity today to start recovering from that, to show us that you actually care about your conit constituents. How will you show up today? >> The next five speakers we will welcome are speaker number 66 Reagan Bane. Speaker number 67 Ian Rosenthal, speaker number 68, Nina Langenfield Langenfeld. Speaker number 69, Lily Kiddwell. I understand speaker number 70 had to leave. So speaker number 71, Andre Duke. Well, welcome speaker number 66, Reagan Bane. >> Hi everyone. I'm Reagan Bane. I'm a resident of Ward 10. Um, and I'm here to kind of say everything everyone else has been saying, but again, um, one new thing I have to offer is that a couple of weeks ago when y'all were voting on rental assistance, I was here for that and I actually stepped out of that meeting to go respond to news that ICE was inside the courthouse detaining folks as hearings were happening. Um and so I think I want to bring to the table the idea that evict an eviction moratorum um or just an extended period before your um eviction is actually filed keeps people out of that circumstance. It keeps people out of having to be in a courthouse while ICE is there intimidating folks um and detaining them and preventing them from um experiencing our justice system. Um, I also want to, you know, raise up another thing that there were over 70 people signed up today. We've been here for over four hours sitting on the ground outside of the overflow room. Um, there were not enough seats for anyone. Um, so these are folks who have spent a lot of their workday here trying to get you to vote for an extended period um of notice. Um, these are organizers who are raising rental assistance funds. These are organizers who are driving folks to work and to school. These are people who are delivering groceries. Um we as residents of Minneapolis have risen up and met the moment as well as we can and we have not seen the same from our council. Um the rental assistance you passed has not yet been dispersed. Um we are still holding that burden um of making sure our neighbors don't get unhoused. Um and so I really can all I can do is just urge you vote to um extend this notice period. Keep people keep people in their homes and prove to us that your voters, your residents, your neighbors are more important than corporate landlords, nonprofit developers who yeah don't live with us. Thank you. >> Next, we'll go to speaker number 67, Ian Rosenthal. >> Thank you, council. My name is Ian and I'm a renter in Ward 9. I'm a housing organizer with JCA and I'm here to voice support for extending the pre-eviction notice period to at least 60 days and with no exemptions. I'm going to go a little off script here. I want to level set for a moment. The nonprofit affordable housing developers speaking today are some of the worst offenders when it comes to filing evictions. Right? I've organized in many of their portfolios and let's not get it twisted. They are here to protect their power to displace people on the fastest possible timeline. And these renters in their buildings are desperate for more time. They deserve the same protections as everybody else. Right. >> Over the last 13 weeks of this crisis, I've had the privilege to witness and contribute to countless efforts to keep people housed. From a bar crawl last Saturday that raised over $40,000 to a newly opened emergency fund at a local synagogue that has raised over 1 million in a month, we are doing everything we can to stem the tide of displacement. But we are already seeing the limits of our local resources and we desperately need more time to reach every renter. In the best of times, 30 days is hardly enough for folks to navigate and receive emergency rental assistance. Between limited language access, alienating application processes, and the simple fact that there isn't enough money to begin with, renters face huge obstacles to receiving aid. For this reason, we are calling on our city council to unanimously pass the pause eviction save lives ordinance with no exemptions. Giving just one more month to renters to catch up on rent will save lives, and there is no excuse for abandoning tenants in their hour of need. We are inviting you into a movement of abundant care. We want all of you. We know some of you are already involved with us, but we want all of you do your part by voting yes today and on Thursday. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, we'll go to speaker number 68, Nina Langfeld. Speaker number 68, Nina Langfeld. Okay. If Nina is here and would like to speak, just let me know. Next, we'll go to speaker number 69, Lily Kidwell. Thank you, chair and committee members. My name is Lily Kidwell, and I am an intern with the government and legislative affairs team in the undergraduate student government at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. I am here today to urge the council to support the passage of an ordinance to amend title 12, chapter 244 of the Minneapolis code of ordinances relating to housing maintenance code. This amendment is vital in our current political climate as students ability to pay their rent has been hindered by the actions of ICE in the Twin Cities. In the past few months, ISIS's invasion has done immeasurable damage to our campus and to our city. The 75% of N students who reside in non-UN university housing may not be able to pay their rent on time due to the actions of federal agents. Students who've been sheltering in place to avoid ICE abduction have missed out on potential earnings, making paying their rent infinitely more difficult. Evicting these students would mean not only subjecting them to the usual dangers of being unhoused, but also to potential ICE abduction due to their vulnerability without housing. Extending the pre-eviction notice from 30 days to 60 days would allow time for students to apply for and receive rental assistance and find alternative housing options. Students targeted by ICE are not the only ones in the Twin Cities who've been impacted by Operation Metro Surge. Activist students who spent their time organizing to protect themselves and their communities from ICE have missed out on earnings as they spent their time volunteering as ICE watch, organizing marches and protests, running errands for their neighbors who at risk of abduction. Even students who aren't in immediate danger of ICE abduction have had their earnings affected by Operation Metro Surge. The undergraduate student government urges the council to support the amendment to extend the pre-eviction notices from 30 days to 60 days. This ordinance protects students who are at who are at risk of eviction amidst rampant ICE abduction and deportation as well as the general risks that come with being unhoused. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um speaker number 70 had to leave. So, the next five speakers are speaker number 71 Andre Duke, speaker number 72, Connor Carroll, speaker number three, Casima, speaker number 74, Kathy Bennett, and speaker number 75, Mary Alton. So, we'll go to speaker number 71, Andre Duke. Is there an Andre Duke? Then we'll also go back to Nina Langfeld. They are here. Okay. Speaker number 72, Connor Carroll. Speaker number 72, Connor Carroll. >> Great. Hi, Connor Carol. >> That's me. >> You're up. Welcome. I just need to pull up my remarks real quickly here. >> Take your time. >> Thank you. Uh, hi. My name is Connor Carroll. I live in Ward 8. I'm a volunteer and board member with Neighbors for Neighbors, which is a member of the Housing Justice League. And I'm here today to ask all council members to pass the pause eviction save lives ordinance. I want to share some information from a friend who is been gathering and distributing mutual aid to families in need in South Minneapolis. She's unavailable to testify or provide written comment today because she is out there doing the work. Um her community organization is supporting over 150 families with rent, food distribution, and transporting over 100 kids to and from school. They raised over 100 grand in both February and March, but they're almost out of funds. She's been spending 15 to 20 hours per week on mutual aid since early January. She and her fellow volunteers are burnt out and they feel that the systems we stood up in December and which they thought would be in place for 30 days maximum are falling apart and they worry that many at risk neighbors don't have enough time to navigate the system and find the rental assistance they need before eviction proceedings begin. As you've heard today, each of you has constituents raising rental assistance in their neighborhoods, in the wards that you represent. To allow evictions to move forward would sabotage their hard work, dishonor their sacrifice, and do lasting damage to tenants who will have a black mark of eviction on their records. But if you instead temporarily extend the pre-eviction notice from 30 to 60 days, you honor their hard work and sacrifice and give your tenant constituents more time to actually access the rental assistance that their neighbors are raising and catch up on missed rent. Thank you. >> Thank you. I'll also recognize we've been joined by Council Vice President Osman. Next, we'll go to speaker number 73, Casimira. Hello, council members. Um, my name is Casimira Cristiano Zorducho and I am third generation Latina. Um, everything horrible happening due to operation metro surge is very close to my heart. I wonder how close it is to your hearts. Um, I'm speaking to you as a single mother and a renter in Ward 7. Um, I'm a night shifter and all of my co-workers are people of color who are worried about their families and it's, you know, it's just affecting everyone and I'm trying my best, you know, on the corporate level to help in my company to support my um, my fellow M colleagues. Um, before you were elected, Council Member Schaefer, um, my curiosity was peaked when I noticed that you call yourself a land owner and spoke up more about the plightes of landlords and business owners without much talk for renters. That is surprising because renters are the majority of W 7 residents. Your support in the unanimous vote for eviction moratorum and this morning seeing your post on Facebook for meeting to give information on renters's rights gave me hope um that you also do resonate with renters. Please support this bare minimum safety measure. uh for our neighbors. I would be happy to see you all unanimously vote in support of this pause for on evictions as well as rental support sooner than summer. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, we will go to speaker number SA 74, Kathy Bennett. >> Thank you. Thank you, members of the committee. My name is Kathy Bennett. I'm the executive director of the Twin Cities Housing Alliance. We represent more than 100 housing providers across Minneapolis and Twin Cities. Our mission is simple, to expand housing options across all income levels and ensure existing housing remains safe, stable, and affordable. I'm here today to ask you not to support extending the notice of eviction filing period. We fully recognize that there are renters who are experiencing real financial hardship and trauma due to veter. Housing providers see this every day and work hard to keep residents housed whenever possible. They are our neighbors and care about their residents safety and security. Eviction is not their first choice. It's a last resort. Providers are working with residents now to help them as they are sheltering in place so that they do not lose their housing. Eviction notice does not mean an immediate displacement. From notice to a potential move out is 3 to four months. Nearly 40% of all eviction filings in Henipin County do not result in an eviction. During that time, many residents are connected to rental assistance and remain housed and are required in many cases to file an evict uh file an eviction to receive assistance. Extending the nois period risks unintended consequences. It places additional strain on housing providers who are still recovering uh face facing rising insurance, labor and maintenance costs and operation operating with limited reserves. Longer delays also disrupt mortgage tax, insurance payments and threatening property upkeep and long-term affordability. The most effective and responsible response to this moment is targeted rental assistance. We appreciate and applaud you for your investment already made in rental assistance and all those speakers today who have um raised money through mult mutual aid. We're ready to stand to partner with you to expand those resources and to ensure that assistance goes to those who are truly in need of that. We do not believe the eviction notice um extension is the right tool at this time. Thank you for your time and consideration. Next, we'll go to speaker number 75, Mary Alton. >> Hello, my name is Mary Alton. I'm a tenant in a apartment complex in Ward Five and I received an eviction notice. So, hopefully I can give you an idea of what it's like to actually receive a notice. I lived in the apartment complex 5 years and um was applying for social security. The process there is very very long and the uh landlord was very kind and patient as patient as they could possibly possibly be. Um but uh it it came to the point and and I knew that it was possible that I would get an eviction notice but it just wasn't a reality for me. It was just really removed from my world. I It just didn't I just didn't believe it. But it it came. It happened. And um I was blindsided by it really. I just didn't believe it. I went into shock. Um reading it, the language was foreign. Um I didn't know these words. I didn't understand it. And I was faced with court. My god. um complicated of course by some mental health issues. I laid in bed for three days. So uh that was not the right thing to do of course but um I got up and got on the phone calling agencies for assistance and uh they're very hard to get through. They you get answering machines. answering machines and the answering machines and their answering machines say we'll get back to you in two to three days and um you keep calling and you just keep calling the agencies and I called and I called everybody everybody anybody and everybody who would listen to me and that takes a week and you don't get calls back and um so you just keep calling and that's and I'm in the second week now Um, oh my goodness. But, um, so the the 60 days is is necessary, I think, at this point. I'd actually like to see it go permanent. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> The next five speakers are speaker number 76, Beverly J. Speaker number 77, I believe. Yes. K. Carvajal Moran. Speaker number 78, Taz Scott. Speaker number 79, Andrew. And speaker number 80, Anna S. So we will go to speaker number 76, Beverly J. Hello. Hi, my name is Beverly. That was my neighbor who just spoke. Hi, city council. Um, I'm a tenant organizer at Park Plaza. I live in the Harrison neighborhood, fifth ward. I also work with the Harrison Neighborhood Association under Nicole Beller. Uh it's good to see the community and all the neighbors come out today, especially considering the unrest that we've had here in Minnesota. We are living in extremely difficult times. Families are on the verge right now of losing their housing, being evicted because of operation metro surge has held people in constant fear. Fear of going to work, fear of going to doctor appointments, fear of sending their children to school, fear of even standing at the bus stops, and sometimes just fear of driving your own vehicle, fearing that ICE will stop them at any given time and detain them. Loss of jobs means not just being able to pay their rent, but many will lose, many will face eviction. The cold reality is, many residents will lose their housing this month alone. But the communities and my neighborhood are asking for government officials. >> Thank you. >> A temporary policy that would extend evict eviction pre-filing notices period to 60 days versus 30 days. >> Thank you, Beverly. giving renters an extra month >> to access rental assistance >> and stabilize >> their homes. >> Thank you so much. >> I'm not through. >> We Your time is expired. I have to be fair to everyone. >> It wasn't 2 minutes, was it? >> It was 2 minutes. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hey, if you have written comments, Beverly, if you have written comments, Beverly, you can submit it to the clerks and they will enter it into the record. what you didn't get to finish. >> Okay, >> they will take that from you and send it to us. >> Next is speaker number 77, K. Carvajal Moran. Okay. Uh, good afternoon, council members. My name is Kay Carvajal Muran. I am a park board commissioner for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, and I also happen to work in rental assistance. I'm here to speak in support of the post eviction saves life ordinance, but also to share some of the knowledge that I have learned. I want to quickly explain the pre-eviction and court process. Tenants will first receive a warning from property managers. This can usually be by text, verbal, or email. Then the property manager will proceed with a 14-day notice or 30-day notice depending on the city that they live in. The language in this letter is intimidating. Many of the tenants that I have worked with cannot sleep and are confused with the letter um and confused with the court summons. I can um how I summarize it to tenants is that the 14/30 days is essentially just saying like pay your balance or you'll need to move out. Uh once those 30 or 14 days are up, the property manager can go ahead and file through the courts which will start the eviction proceedings. Tenants will then receive a court summon, which is a packet that will have a court date and a court case number. This is an unlawful detainer on a person's record, which can have um years on someone's rental history. There are more steps such as a rate of recovery and lockouts by sheriffs, but I'll just leave it at that for purpose of time. From a rental assistance perspective, during this occupation, a 30-day notice is not enough. There are programs which processing times take more than 30 days. Um, I do want to um say that this ordinance does not say anything regarding forgiving tenants balance. Um, and so the rent will continue to add up. And so I do want to recognize and express my deepest gratitude to our community members that have organ organized mutual aid efforts from GoFundMe, the arts, and other creative means. It's truly been it's truly been grassroot efforts that have kept our community from entering the court process and for there not to be humongous spikes and filings. But as governmental agencies, we can continue to let that burden fall on our community members. If this protection does not pass, please know that as elected officials, we are going to force vulnerable community members to get into the court process. This means an unlawful detainer, which is on someone's record. With this administration, I just don't want this to be a pathway for criminalization. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Next, we will go to speaker number 78, Taz Scott. Thank you and good afternoon council. Uh my name is Taz Scott. Uh he they I am many things part of many groups but today I am here of my own valition as a humble tenant and constituent of W 10. I'm wanting to say what hasn't been said yet. I've heard a lot about how an eviction notice extension is at once a bare minimum and how it statistically will not stop evictions. Let me make one thing clear and allow me to raise my voice so I am heard through my mask. Eviction is absolutely unacceptable. Bad enough to throw our neighbors our power out to the elements to be reprehensibly unthinkable. but also under our occupation, we would be throwing them to the vultures. So, I want to acknowledge the truth of all that has been said. The current proposal is but a band-aid. Pass it without reservation, without uh restriction, but know what it is that we really need. What we really need is a rent freeze while we are under ice with universal basic income without means testing. Like to end my time with a quote from the Gospel of Matthew. It is easier to thread a camel through a needle than it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Thank you very much council for your time. We will next go to speaker number 79, Andrew. But before we go to Andrew, I'll just note for everyone, if you would like to speak, you're viewing this, you're in the overflow, please go to the clerks and sign up uh inside of the council chambers. Okay, perfect. We'll go to Andrew. >> Okay. So good to be with this body who voted unanimously for an eviction moratorum that would absolutely stop evictions across the state, especially council member Warren who decrieded the eviction courts continuing as usual under extreme circumstances. I was at eviction court this morning. 8:30 is when black and brown people line up to be kicked out of their homes. It was not It was terrible. The last time I was at this body was December 2nd after we learned that Operation Metro Surge had started when I had to sit in a committee and listen to landlord tears as our neighbors were being taken from the streets. Since that day, for the past 13 weeks, our community has been on the streets day after day. Tens of thousands of us have stopped federal government terror, attacks, abuse. They have killed us. They have removed our neighbors. Those tens of thousands of people are standing ready to blow the whistle on landlord abuse, on the continuation of extraction from our cities, of our people, and our neighbors. We will not stand for the abduction and the continued work of the Trump administration at the hands of landlords. I listened to landlords today say that they needed to evict faster to reduce evictions. I have been a board member of Sky Without Limits. We support a a housing community that supports an eviction extension for 90 days, for 120 days. We need to save the housing of the Manuel's of the Shondell's of the Samitars and their family and children and babies who are being forcibly removed while the Sarah and the Jacobs and the Fredas and the Stell Estelle's can upgrade their homes to luxury accommodations costing $700,000 of dollars or more. This is unconscionable. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, we will go to speaker number 80, Anna S. >> Hello, council. Thank you. Um, my name is Anna Schlurb and I am a tenant um and a organizer with Twin Cities Tenants Union and South Minneapolis Tenants Union. Um, together we've mobilized thousands of tenants and organized our neighbors and are continuing to build lasting relationships. We've fought ICE um to keep our neighbors here and we're continuing the fight um to keep our neighbors in our home. and I'm here today to ask you to join that fight with us. Um, Alex Prey was murdered just blocks away from where I work. I'm an actor and we had just opened a show at um, the Children's Theater Company the night before Alex was murdered. We had to cancel shows that weekend. And throughout the run of our show, um, thousands of kids were unable to come and see the show because it was too dangerous for schools to bring them. Um, children's laughter is maybe the best thing on this planet. Um, children deserve to be children. Um, to laugh, to play, to dream, and to imagine. And my heart breaks for those who have been impacted by these last months of terror. And it breaks for those um whose families are now facing the threat of eviction. Um, children need stability, and right now, thousands of families are facing eviction. Um, and they need time, and I'm here to, um, call on you as the leaders of our city to help give those families the time that they need. Um, so thank you for your time. Pause evictions, um, and save lives. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, we have speaker number 81, Ava Heinrich. >> Hi, council members. Um, my name is Ava Heinrich. I live in Ward 13 and was watching this live feed from home and felt compelled to come here and say something because even though I have one representative here, the vitality of your wards affects the vitality of all the other wards. And just thinking about you being creative problem solvers, we're in a unique situation, right? where the problem is more complex than just this one thing. But we also are lacking other things. We're lacking data to make the decision based on. I heard a lot of data cited by housing nonprofits, but the reasons that people are being evicted are not the ones cited in their data. It's not a personal crisis caused by mental health or drug abuse or or some other crisis that the family's going through, you know. So, I think that's a tricky place for you to be in, right? But this is a temporary solution that requires a lot of other creative pieces of the puzzle to be put together. So, I understand that it's a risk, but it's a temporary risk. So, being creative about that, but the imminent homelessness crisis and the remarkable ripple effect, right? It's not just housing. It's the economic health of Minneapolis. We rely heavily on our immigrant population. They are our essential workers. And when we can't rely on them because they're afraid to leave our home, their homes, that creates a ripple effect. It's educational. It's early childhood and academic development and achievement milestones. All these things are impacted. So, this is just one piece of that ripple effect. And I know you understand that. But this is a piece of that problem that you can easily solve and it's temporary. the risk of this decision can be temporary and you can re-evaluate the results after the August expiration date. So, please consider that in your decision-m. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to read the names of individuals who signed up to speak but did not show up in case they are still here. Number 15, Andrew Perry. Number 48, Elizabeth Flannry. Number 51, Julia Johnson. number 54, Jenny Chillo. Number 68, Nina Langenfeld. Number 71, Andre Duke. And then I'll also ask anyone that's here or anyone that's listening um before we close the public hearing, is there anyone else that would like to speak? Is there anyone else that would like to speak? You could write walk right up if you wanted. And I'm also giving a second to see if I see anyone out into the hallway. Okay, I don't think there is anyone else wishing to speak. Thank you so much to every single person that waited and then came and testified. We really appreciate the fact that you came to city hall into our chambers today and took time out of your busy days um to be here and express your voice on this matter. Um seeing no one else wishing to speak, I will now close this hearing. Members, we will continue through discussion and I will first recognize council member Wansley. >> Thank you, Chair Chowry. I just want to echo also um appreciation and gratitude for nearly a hundred of our residents who came forward um early this morning on a Tuesday who took time off of work um or took time away from patrols to make sure that this body could hear that um just significant need for a protective measure like this to give our residents time to be able to access rental um supports um that's moving on a variety of fronts um before having to be subjected to a eviction process that could put them on the streets and then further contact with these dangerous and deadly ICE agents in our communities. Um, that said, I did want to offer a couple of things based off of what I heard and also to um highlight the fact that in front of you uh there is a amendment to this ordinance that notes a change in the uh date of expiration where it moves it from July uh 31st to August 31st. Um this is essentially uh reflective of again procedural things that happens at the state where those dollars that's moving forward through the state legislative process would not come into effect until um July. So being cognizant and again recognizing the uh just slowness of government bureaucracy um that would then uh impact how fast those dollars will get out. We want to make sure that our residents are able to receive the benefits of those resources when they do become unlocked at the state level and the expert uh expiration date is reflective of that. Um a couple other things that I wanted to just address um particularly comments made by the affordable housing providers. Um, and after that, uh, I will first I will make a motion to then approve, uh, the amended, uh, ordinance for us to take up deliberation on, which I will ask for a second. >> Second. >> Thank you. >> In response to the nonprofit and affordable housing providers, I just want to highlight where I see one place of agreement or shared agreement is that we do not want to see mass evictions. We also agree that rental assistance is massively needed. And as a result of that, I hope that we are all sharing the labor of lobbying our state uh state lawmakers to uh successfully enact that $75 million uh rental assistance funding package that they're currently considering um at the state legislative uh legislature. So, I'm I'm glad we are on or in agreement regarding those two points. But where I do see disagreement um is that from what I heard today that there is a willingness amongst affordable housing providers to let mass evictions happen between now and when rental assistance could be made available through the state in July. And I am struggling to understand how affordable housing providers who insist that their mission is to support housing stability believe that the best pathway forward in this current unprecedented moment is for us or for the public and for the council to stand by and watch mass evictions occur. That is the only other proposal that I'm hearing on the table as opposed to giving residents the time that they need um to access resources so that they can stay housed. I also can appreciate that these housing providers like many other businesses in the communities are concerned about the potential impacts that this ordinance may have on their operating budgets. But that being said, it is also absurd to insist that this policy will somehow harm renters. Evictions harm renters and that harm can stretch, as we heard today, for many years. This policy is simply aiming to help mitigate what we know is coming, which is the eviction crisis. and it is in the best interest of the public and is okay in this case for I would hope that this body not align with landlords and a housing and housing providers and with our residents who are in need of stability in their housing. I also want to debunk this piece that I heard around equating this temporary provision of a of a 60-day extension to a 16-month eviction moratorum that took place in 2020. They are not comparable. They are not comparable. This will allow for a shortened period of time where we know resources will be unlocked for a shorter period of time, not nearly two years during the 2020 eviction moratorum where also dollars were being unlocked um through federal and and state stimulus packages. Um I I just needed to also note that those are not comparable scenarios. Um, and it's also important to highlight that evictions on anyone's records harms people credit history. And it is absolutely nonsense to believe that residents will risk themselves not being able to pay rent in order to get something that they know will harm their abilities to access housing in the future. Again, evictions, I think we all agree are should be the ultimate last resort ever used. And in this case, we are asking for a little bit more time from our landlords to also step up and make a sacrifice that hundreds of residents have made over the course of this occupation to keep their neighbors house. We're asking you again to extend a little bit more time to make sure you can keep your tenants house because evictions is not favorable for you. They're costly. It's costly on all all fronts. And if we do allow mass evictions to proceed forward, we are going to pay the cost of that at some point in the foreseeable future. And we have the ability to prevent having to even walk into that reality by allowing our residents, allowing working-class people, allowing our immigrant neighbors who've experienced just unprecedented attack after attack the time that they need to recuperate to receive and access supports at least through August. So with that, again, I hope my colleagues can support the motion. Um, and I'm grateful for everyone who came and testified in support. >> Thank you. Next, we will go to Council Member Chavez. >> Uh, thank you, Chair Chery. I'm excited to co-author Positive Eviction Save Lives with Councilman Wanley and members of this body. I particularly want to thank the thousands of residents who have called upon us to adopt this ordinance from every single ward in this city. I am seeing a ton of emails, phone calls, communications out in the public from residents of every single ward. And I want to thank you because your voices and your advocacy and you finally paying attention to how your elected officials act and talk about our immigrant neighbors is going to make the difference. This morning during the Senate hearing, uh, Christine Elm said that there are still 650 agents in Minnesota. If this is found to be true, that is 650 too many agents in our state. This is still an occupation. This is still an invasion of our city by the federal government. And what we know is that our residents are asking us to help our neighbors because people are still getting kidnapped and our neighbors are still getting eviction letters. And if it wasn't for our constituents in every single one of our wards, if it wasn't for them fundraising, these evictions would be at an all-time high, even further than what it is right now. And we know that without government intervention, this issue is only going to get worse. We know that ISIS is still in Minneapolis. The IC is still in Minnesota. And our neighbors in particular are facing the impact of this occupation by the federal government. There's an estimation of $47 million per month lost in wages for people who are afraid to lose to leave their home. There is a lost household income since December 2025 that has created an additional 15.7 million monthly in rent assistance needed in Minneapolis. And we're going to say we don't need this ordinance. Every residents in this city has a story, but these are stories that none of us should ever have to forget. The mother and her daughter who are still hiding because of the father and husband who was deported and others struggling to pay rent. The teenager who lives without parents because ICE took them and are now afraid to end up homeless. The pregnant mother in detention centers in Minnesota whose children miss her and still need help living in their home. the kids who have not gone back to school because they're facing the threats of ICE and are going to face evictions. As we heard earlier today, money that families have saved for their children's education to help them succeed in life is now being used to help them stay in their homes. and the tens of thousands of residents in this city who are living in the shadows once again because of the federal government, who do not know how to access a mutual aid fund, who do not know how to go to the county for help, who are going to lose their homes, and our constituents in every single ward of the city who are literally going broke because they are doing more than the city of Minneapolis and any other government agency, from the county, from the state, from the federal government are doing to keep people together. We know that without intervention from us as a city, our neighbors are going to be evicted and we know that our neighbors should not be doing this work alone. But sadly, they have been. I am in strong alignment with those who have testified today that this action is bare minimum and yet it is life-saving to give someone 30 more days. I was very I I resonated with someone that testified saying that our neighbor neighbors need more time to breathe. And I think this vote is an opportunity to give our neighbors more time to literally breathe. So, I hope that when it's time to call the roll call that this vote is unanimous and that we do agree on this body that our neighbors deserve an extra few more days to pay their rent. I know that our neighbors in particular are exhausted. I'm freaking exhausted after neighbors are kidnapped in every one of your wards because this is happening everywhere. And I get those emails even if I don't represent the particular war where this is happening. They ask for two main things. Help with legal assistance so they can get a lawyer, a way that they can file a habius corpus so they can have their loved one returned back into the state. And number two, because now they lost a loved one that cannot work or they have been hiding since December or have taken a reduction in their hours because they still have to go to work, but now they're working less hours because maybe that means that they won't be deported that day. They need help with their rent assistance. And I know there's going to be talking points about how but evictions aren't going up. And they're not going up. If that's the case, it's because of our neighbors fundraising for us. Our neighbors are doing the work of government. That's it. Government should be helping our community members. And sadly, it's our neighbors that are doing our jobs for them. So, I just want to thank all the neighbors that came here and testified today. I want to give a big thank you to the W9 neighbors who have literally put their bodies on the line, who don't have much to give and are literally using their savings to make sure that our community members are not being displaced. And what we're saying is just an extra 30 days so that our community members can ask folks to help prevent their displacement so that we as a city can get out the rental assistance that we funded out the door so neighbors cannot be displaced. So thank you to those who came and testified. Thank you for our neighbors that have not given up on Minneapolis, who have given your entire livelihood to keep families together, who are literally putting their lives on the line, using their entire savings because you love your neighbors, because you love our neighbors. And as someone who has had relatives be deported from this federal invasion, as someone who has to answer these calls about how many many of our neighbors need rent assistance, I will agree that 30 days is not enough, but it is life- saving. So I hope this vote is unanimous. >> Thank you. recognize Council Member Stevenson. >> Thank you. Um, thank you to everyone who came and testified today. It was it was powerful and I feel like my cup is overflowing after hearing all of you and and a lot of faith is restored. Thank you for um through the chair uh council member Chavez for your your words. Those were really powerful as well. Um I won't reiterate everything that everyone has already said about why we need this. the the why is so clear, but I did want to highlight something and that's that uh we were in in a housing crisis before Operation Metro Surge. Um we know so many renters and homeowners in this city are rent burdened or or mortgage burdened. Um and so this is just highlighting for us that our housing system is so weak. It is so weak and fragile. uh the the federal government coming in here and kidnapping our neighbors was not necess not inherently something that would cause a housing crisis, but it caused a housing crisis because we have decided to we have decided to run potentially the worst possible housing system known to God. Uh we do not need to have a housing system that prioritizes the profits of some in order to house everyone. Housing and a home is a place that everyone needs. There are other ways to do this. Uh and this policy that we're looking at today um is merely a stop gap measure to move us forward to give community time to do what they have already done, raising so many millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars in small communities just to keep their neighbors uh housed. I I want to call out one thing and that this is not uh this policy is not remotely like the eviction moratorum in 2020. Uh and one major major difference is that in 2020 there were not mass efforts raising money to uh cover the rent of our neighbors. That is happening today. We cannot equate the two things. There is so much rental assistance out there and there is also so much rental need out there. What we are doing on this body is we are deciding are we going to give more time for the rental assistance to find the rental need or are we going to continue with business as usual and allow mass evictions which will be catastrophic absolutely catastrophic. Uh I also want to highlight that uh the affordable housing uh developers nonprofits have come in here they are in terrible financial positions absolutely horrible financial positions uh and I get that. So, they're coming in here, you know, pleading to please keep the money flowing into their coffers. Um, our our community should not undergo an eviction crisis because the state of Minnesota and this country have failed to invest in affordable housing. That one does not necessarily cause the other. Uh, we need to protect our neighbors uh from this eviction crisis. Uh and we also need to support affordable housing. Those two things are not separate. Uh the state legislature is working on rental assistance right now. Uh and that is the funds that these affordable housing developers need. We need to give our neighbors time in those homes in order to access those funds which we know will not be uh released and available until probably at the earliest July. Um lastly, I I just uh I want to highlight two things. One is that the policy before us uh is the only policy before us. We're actually talking about almost nothing else to help uh our neighbors. We have already passed the rental assistance. We have already passed the small business assistance. There is just not a lot coming from this body to support our neighbors at this time. And that that is to our great shame. Uh and truly lastly I want to say that um we are deciding right now whether we believe that the government is supposed to do things to protect our citizens or whether we agree with Reagan that the government should sit idly by and watch the quote unquote market ravage our city. Uh I personally agree with uh with so many of my my residents, my constituents, my neighbors that uh the government needs to step up. This is this is a very small but a very meaningful way for the government to step up and I encourage us all to unanimously step up together. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member. Next, I'll recognize Council Member Whiting. >> Thank you, Chair Chowry. And to to similar points that my colleagues have raised, I won't kind of belabor uh this discussion any longer uh to talk about the need. I think we have all heard um from the hundreds of individuals that have come today, the hundreds of emails that we've received uh in our own inboxes. We we understand the need uh and what we are trying to figure out. It was it was brought up here today and I appreciate uh the constituent that brought it up that hey there are jobs of elected officials and I believe every single one of us on this on this body um understands that our role is to alleviate suffering. Uh that is our role. uh and that is why I am concerned with the level and disruption of this policy. Uh what we have seen historically is that eviction moratoriums at their base level without additional rental assistance without uh other mitigating factors increase that need increase that harm and include uh additional versions of evictions. Right? This is not a hypothetical issue. Uh we have seen this happen. We have seen this happen uh in 2020 and and we are seeing it happen again. Uh we had every single one of our largest affordable housing nonprofit providers in this city come here and say that this will increase evictions across the board. Not just for people who have been affected by Operation Metro Surge, but the people that they serve. Right? And these are the exact same people that we are hoping to serve by this policy today. Uh, and so while I I will not get in the way of this policy, I do want to note that if we continue down this path, if we continue to put these policies in place, this will continue to harm the individuals that we hope to help. And seeing that right, this this is a an issue. This is a problem that is more complex. Uh, we we have talked about it drastically uh at length. Uh, and particularly I think we have an ability to communicate to our constituents and the public the million dollars that we sent from our body to Henipin County requires an eviction notice. It requires it and and as we as we raise dollars as we continue to step up, right? And and what we saw uh as somebody who's done this in my own personal capacity, we've raised over $90,000 understand the deep need that is here that is here in our community. But again, I think we have to figure out a way to be creative. Uh, and with that, uh, my office is working with with the city attorneys, uh, to put something forward, uh, to specifically target those who have been, uh, harmed particularly by Operation Metro Surge. And I urge, uh, my colleagues to consider that amendment um, not today, but as we will see on on Thursday. And so I hope that uh you all give it a a a deep uh look and think and and happy to answer questions as they come up. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member. Next, I'll recognize Council Member Warren. >> Thank you, Chair. I greatly appreciate it. Um, so just to scale back on a couple of things that I heard today, and um, I'm going to just be real good for education lessons because that's what I like to do is educate and inform people on how things actually work. So heard a young lady um amongst all of the individuals who were expressing the grave need and desire for individuals to have this extension of 60 days added so that they do not end up with evictions and what have you. and a young lady stated that um there was a a individual who was going to lose her section 8 certificate because of the simple fact that she's not able to um pay her rent. What she needs to do is reach out to uh section 8 and file what's called a significant change and let them know that she has now zero income and therefore they can adjust your rent accordingly. We heard from individuals like PPL and Common Bond, AON, Catholic Charities, a lot of these different organizations that provide not only rent in place subsidies for individuals, but also provide a uncsurmountable amount of affordable housing. When you look at those different things and put them into perspective, if you can't pay 30% of your income or you have no income, then you can't afford the housing. And like they stated here, they're individuals who are coming in who have about $500 a month in income. That means that they are on a very very very steeped level of fixed income. When they get 30, 60, 90, 120 days behind, their income is not going to increase, but the debt is going to be larger. So then when it comes time for you to move forward into a situation that better suits or better meets your needs, you're not going to be able to. I spent the last 3 to four years helping individuals fight to get um housing barriers removed from their records so that they can move forward and find stable housing. meaning they owed previous landlords three, four, six, eight, up to $10,000 in back rents that were owed. And guess where this came from? A lot of the shenanigans that were played around during our last eviction moratorum that we had from landlords who were collecting rent help assistance that didn't apply it to these individuals who then ended up having to walk away from housing situations that ended up with these large debts on their record that prevent them from moving forward into housing. It happens on both ends of the scopes helping you to understand this. But then even if you owe somebody more than what the rent is that is being requested, you cannot rent another unit. Then you have to find private landlords who are willing to work with you. And those private landlords a lot of times do not have the ability to take those applied risks. Why? Why don't they have that ability? Because 90 days means foreclosure. Then 120 days means that I'm into that six-month redemption period. If I put you out of here, I still got to come up with whatever that amount is that I owed from my mortgage not being paid on my property for the last 90 days. We see landlords suffering in that great deal. Not to mention the amount of damages and other things that are done to the property because if you can't afford the rent, then you can't afford a lot of other things that need to be happening in there, too. and tenants in fear of not paying their rent a lot of times do not tell the landlords when other things in the unit are breaking down. Okay, so that things can be remedied. I have a long background in housing. I've seen it on both ends of the scope and this is not going to be beneficial to our community members at all. This is going to be a huge detriment by the time individuals make it to eviction court. it is not going to be good for them. And guess what? You can't even file a bankruptcy to remove evictions or judgments from previous owed rents off of your record. So, it's there. You got to take care of it. And agencies don't pay what was back owed. So, you have to take care of it. And I just do not want to see individuals in these type of situations moving forward because it becomes all bad all the way around. Then you're suffering or settling for deplorable living conditions because you just got to take anything to get something. And then individuals are then complaining about that because you have too many barriers on your record that it pertain to your housing that keep you from moving forward, keep you from buying a house, keep you from renting a house, keep you from doing absolutely anything. So, I just want individuals to take those things into consideration because this is a basket of of absolute chaos that we have going on in our city. And there isn't an easy fix to any of this. But this 60-day extension to eviction is not going to help people. It's going to harm more of our residents than it will help them in any capacity. even if their name came up on a section 8 list that says now all of a sudden you are eligible to move forward with 30% of your rent or income being paid based on what you're making today. If you owe Joe Blow the landlord $8,000, $2,000, $6,000, and you don't have the bread to pay that, you can't even take advantage of the section 8 or section 42 housing or 811 or whatever the situation is, independent living through GRH or whomever, because you have what is called a housing barrier. you owe somebody in the past and you can't move forward in the future until you take care of your past stuff. Next, I'll recognize Council Vice President Osman. >> Thank you so much. This was a day for me that I was laying down in bed sick, but this was not a this this was not a vote that I could miss. Um um sorry for my voice there or it's just been a tough day. Um but I'm really wanted to say that I'm proud of uh my colleagues. Um um second here my colleagues uh council member Wley thank you for continue to stand up and really uh doing the work and thank you for council majority who have actually done something rent assistant small business assistant those are the actual facts what have we done ever since this crisis took place is what actually counts. All talk doesn't count. What counts is that what actual things have we done. And I also want to thank every resident who show up today uh who spoke up uh and who refused to be silent. You know, you are our hero. You are of many many immigrants heroes um that are coming here and speaking out and really helping out. Uh we appreciate you doing that. And I just want to say someone who has worked in in in housing, affordable housing, I hear you. I hear our nonprofit housing providers, uh, I know the pressure you face. I know upkeeping what you have so far is very difficult and it's been very challenging for all of you, but protecting our vulnerable renters must come first. Let's just not forget, we went through crisis. We went through something that no one ever went through. We were invaded by federal government. And I know large of of your portfolio residents are immigrants. All of all of the nonprofits that came here 60 70% of your portfolio or your residents are immigrants. And you know immigrants pay first of the month. Almost all immigrants are not late for their rents. Uh and that is the benefit of being an immigrant and and obeying the law and just making sure that you know they are doing everything they can. They they chip in with their family. They do everything they can to obey the law and pay that. And that is uh something benefit that's going on for you as a affordable housing uh nonprofit providers in in Minneapolis. So, um I know that because I I work I work there. Um we must not banish people uh that were already targeted uh you know that were already facing uh ICE detention abuse. Um I'm talking about US citizens before even you talk about undocumented folks. We're talking about US citizens are not able to go to work. Uh our president call us a horrible name. He target us and his words go far away. It attracts a lot of bad uh folks to to to target us, our mosque, our shopping areas. And there's so much fear that comes with uh what has happened. um not just what ICE did but also what other individuals outside the state are doing to this restaurants that are not able to you know even open up because they're getting threats uh you know for them showing up their own businesses. Um uh immigrant families deserve uh stability not eviction notices. They deserve compassion especially at the time we're going through. Uh and I'll tell my colleagues you know uh this is a moment we choose people over pressure, stability over chaos and humanity over everything else. Um, and I do want to say that uh this will pass for majority of the council members as other items have passed, but it's up to uh the mayor to veto it. And I really want to uh talk to Mayor Fry. Please do not vote. Do not veto this. uh you show up at immigrant events, you take pictures, you speak their language, and now stand with them when it actually matters. It matters to many Somali folks that uh you continue to have a great time with them. It matters to them. It matters to many Latino folks. It matters money community that you show pride being around them. So um and I just want to make sure developers and landlords might be in your ears and might be challenging you like the same way they were. I was getting calls from different landlords and you know challenging my vote uh and telling me to vote this way. Uh and I know you could be in that position as the mayor of the city, but leadership means standing up for renters in a in a crisis. uh not just when the cameras are around, but actually what when eviction is around. So, I'm uh pleading for you. I'm I'm hoping that we this is something that you will uh consider. And for those that are saying, you know, preventing evictionist, the policies we're building is preventing eviction, that's going to cause more evictionist. I just don't understand that that that math that math doesn't really make sense. uh when folks are getting relief of saying that hey maybe I have 30 more days for me to go to uh get some assistance from a family member or from a neighbor from a different government program which takes a lot of hoops to to even get to that uh those 30 days could be a lifesaving for many others. So I appreciate everyone who came and I'm hoping that my colleagues uh we have voted in the past uh we have divided votes for rent assistant support and also um uh business support. Let's make sure this is uh something that we all behind it. Um and uh thank you so much and I I will be taking the vote hopefully today, not tomorrow. >> We're going to take it today. Okay. >> So I I hear from my colleagues, I hear from the community, everyone we agree that the need is clear, right? The need is like direly clear. But I think there's a divergence on the uniqueness and the urgency at this moment. I think that's where we aren't lining up. This isn't we're not operating in a frame of reference as if Operation Metro Surge didn't happen and that people aren't sheltering in place right now and are calling phone numbers that they feel are trusted and asking uh for funds and community members are out here um trying to translate to the best of their ability with neighbors that they've never met before um and figuring out if they can do cash drop offs or if there's some way to do like a payment through a digital app. Like this is a very unique moment. This is not where we were before Operation Metro Surge has started. And that's what I have heard from those who are in opposition and the the housing providers and landlords that came. It's not giving the the amount of difference to this moment that it requires. It's just not. And it also in that same vein means that we have to do hard things. We have to do things that are very, very difficult. And we also have to make choices like a 60-day pre-eviction notice. We know we're all the authors that are on this know this is not the route that we wanted to take. This is not the step that we wanted to take. We passed a 30-day evict pre-eviction notice and we were really proud of that two years ago and now the legislature is looking at doing that statewide. We know that. We know that there is like a toughness that comes with a 60-day pre-eviction notice. That's why we're proposing it be temporary and that's why we're saying, "Yeah, we have to make hard choices because there's not a lot on the table." We didn't get an eviction moratorum statewide. We didn't. And guess what? It's already hitting 30 days without this policy passing. So, we are going to see eviction filings from February. They are going to happen. Those eviction filings are going to happen. And people are going to have to take the steps that they need to take to start getting ready to go to court and navigate the very bureaucratic steps to get rent help or do a lastm minute panic call from their community, their relatives, whoever they can find to get the rent together so they do not get evicted from where they live. And I want to make that very clear because we're speaking as if that's not happening or about to happen. And it's going to happen and even after 60 days, should this pass, there will be eviction filings and people will have to go through the process. Let me go back to the uniqueness of this moment for the individuals at the end of the 30-day period for February and then into the future. Do you know how difficult it is that we're we're going to force hundreds and hundreds of specifically immigrant individuals to navigate a bureaucratic system that someone we had here today come before us. I commend her for coming who's a native English speaker say that was so difficult and scary to navigate and it was written in a way that she could not understand. That's what we're going to see hundreds of people who do not speak English as their first language have to do. And they're going to have to find legal services to do it. And that's going to happen whether we do 30 or 60. But 60 gives them more time to work with the community members that are doing mutual aid to seek out rental assistance, especially for those who might have already been looking at those eviction filings. It gives them the time. It gives them the time also to seek out legal resources. The one the other thing that I've heard over and over again and I would like for anyone that is presenting that argument that if we do the 60-day pre-eviction notice for a temporary amount of time that this is somehow going to harm individuals more and evictions are only going to increase. Please show the information and the data that you have for that because we heard a clear ask from the housing providers. More rental assistance. That's what we need. Guess what? We don't have more rental assistance. We don't have it. We passed the $1 million we could and now we're waiting for the state government to do their work and that is not going to be distributed maybe as early as May or June, likely July or August. We're making those asks. We we're asking everyone to join in on that, but that's not that's not there. So again, it's just not adding up to the reality and the uniqueness of this moment. Additionally, the legislature is also pushing for the 60-day pre-eviction notice themselves because they know that this is one of the stop gap measures that we have to save people's lives and make sure that they're not displaced onto the streets. They're also pushing for rental assistance to be some of them are to be delivered directly to landlords. And one other piece that I want to highlight is one of the housing providers lifted up uh a data point that said 40% of eviction filings don't lead to eviction. To me, that point supports why we need to do a a 60-day pre-eviction notice because that's 60% of eviction filings leading to an eviction. And that's also not considering this unique moment and circumstance. That actually might lead to even more evictions than 60% if people aren't given the adequate time that they need. And I'll close on this. The way that we're going to get through this is again going to come back down to our community members and the neighbors that are fundraising and the people who are pulling money out of their savings account and accounting for their regular household budget because they're going to have to continue to fund raise. It's slowed down for them. All of these housing providers, they fund raise for donors every single year. It's time that they fund raise for rent relief for all of the people that they are providing housing to if they're worried about not making the amount that they need at the end of the month. They should figure out how to forgive the rent. My time's expired. I'm going to recognize Council Member Palmo. Thank you. Um, Madame Chair, I do want to mention that today I heard Beacon and AGOT and I think people serving people not as developers but as service providers to vulnerable vulnerable residents here. Um, I really appreciate Council Member Warren's experiences here and her explanation earlier about the crushing amount of debt that is accumulated along with rental aid not getting credited in those calculations. Um, I see this entire effort as very well-intentioned, but it is poor policy that will lead to unintended bad outcomes. And that's hard because I'm not, as others have insinuated, here for developers. None of us are. But for the people that live in housing in our city, for the people that are the working poor, and yes, for the immigrants of our city, all of them. This idea is complex. When we went to 30-day pre-eviction notice, we gave a year's notice on that. It kept a stable housing market. It's this is not just as simple as saying, "Let's delay eviction for another 30 days." We've all gotten a lot of emails about this, but advocates here are not acknowledging the full picture of how this impacts people long term. Several people here today testified that it is usually at least 120 days before eviction. Extending that to 150 days means four or five months of back rent ending up being owed. We need to learn from our past experience of moratoriums. Yes, different context. I acknowledge that. But we need to acknowledge that when we all agreed to send a million dollars to Henipin County, some of us chose different ways to fund that, that you need an eviction notice in hand to get that aid. A lot of um other Henipin County residents still under the 14-day eviction notice period will get that rental assistance before people in Minneapolis. Extending the timeline for evictions only adds to the amount of back rent and debt owed. This debt is not forgiven. It follows someone four years. It impacts their credit ratings and their ability to secure new housing. Council member Warren said that better than I. After COVID, we saw an increase in evictions after the morator moratorum was lifted. People still owe their back rent. Couldn't make it up. Rental debt created a barrier to stable housing. It caused more homelessness and increased the need for shelter space in our city. Our solution here is rental assistance. Our trusted vulnerable housing advocates like AGOT, Beacon, People Serving People among many said this is not good policy and that we need more emergency rental assistance, which I believe they are lobbying for at every level of government, not a delay. Mutual aid has been incredible and we are already starting to see that tapped out. A lot of people here today reflected that. We've done what we can as a city in that regard. Our city budget is already at a bit of a crisis point, too. We need the state and we need philanthropy to step up. Frankly, the federal government needs to step up and clean up the mess that they created here. I couldn't agree more with Congresswoman Omar's op-ed piece published this morning about that philanthropy has started. AGOT, for example, already received emergency funding from the Minneapolis Foundation and is now dispersing it to everyone that needs assistance. That is our best response in this moment. Another consequence, our nonprofit and affordable housing partners are impacted in the long run. This hurts our entire housing ecosystem that we have in our city. Rent is the primary source of operating v of income for these affordable housing properties. Sustained income loss directly impacts the conditions of housing in a property and long-term housing preservation across our city. These are very long-term macroeconomic impacts. For smaller landlords, this means an inability to pay a mortgage or make necessary repairs or be able to make their property tax payments. Um, this is a very well-intentioned um policy, but it's not one I'll be able to support. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, I'll recognize Council Member Vita. >> Thank you, Chair Chowry. Um, I first want to thank all the northsiders who showed up here today in support of this. Um, you know, even when we don't agree, I love to hear from folks on the north side who show up and um, speak on behalf of things that they're passionate about through this ICE occupation. What I've learned more than anything is that northsiders continue to show up for each other and we show up for each other in a big way. Um, early on I realized that we were missing out on a lot of resources because people just assumed that our large immigration population lived in South Minneapolis and we have a huge immigration population in North Minneapolis. So, a lot of us just mobilized together and started doing the work of donating food, fundraising, um, making sure folks got to school. I mean, there's just so many wonderful people in North Minneapolis who stepped up and people who came to North Minneapolis to support us and help us and and they stepped up in a big way. Um, I, you know, I've been saying this from the beginning that I think we've put a heavy focus on rent and that's not the only thing that I'm hearing people say that they need. Like we have a lot of immigrant families in North Minneapolis that have mortgages and some people seem to think that you get a delay in mortgage payments and like your house won't go into foreclosure. But the trauma that you feel when you can't make your mortgage payment or when your insurance payment comes up or when you get your tax statement or when something happens in your house that needs to be fixed right away and you don't have the money to do it and you're responsible for it. You don't have a landlord. Like that's important to me. I feel fortunate because the folks that I've been organizing and fundraising with, we've been able to help people with whatever their housing situation is. it hasn't been solely on renting. And so I think we feel left out again on the north side when people only speak in terms of rental assistance and policy around rental. And and I know and I have to tell them I I wish I could call your mortgage company and tell them to delay your payment or give you assistance on your insurance or help in whatever way I can. If I could, I I most certainly would. Um so I mean I I trust the experts who showed up here today. I'm sure it wasn't easy for them. I've had some silent conversations with folks who were like, I don't I this policy won't help, but I don't know that I can show up um to the city council meeting and say that. And so, I respect the experts who are housing people at greater numbers than anyone else in this city. These aren't private landlords. These aren't um corporate landlords. These are nonprofit housing organizations whose missions long before I was even on this earth and I'm one of the oldest council members here. Long before I was on this earth, they've been doing this work of housing people. Catholic Charities. I mean, just a pillar in the community around housing. I look to them for advice on what to do policywise. You know, we had common bond. Common bond housing is popular in North Minneapolis and so is PPL. There are organizations that I've been talking to for years around how we make their housing better. And if they come to me and say, "You're probably gonna cause some unintentional harm." I'm never going to do that. And I trust that what they came before us and said today is the right thing. I mean, we just had AGOT before us a couple years ago giving them a million dollars to fix their housing situation. They just came here and told us something and we didn't listen. We can't pick and choose when we want to listen to experts. It's tough. We all hate what's going on. We all want to help every single person in our community and surrounding our communities, but we can't always fix everything in the ways we want to. Sometimes we have to be flexible and bend a little bit and work with people who we necessarily wouldn't work with. Because I'll tell you who's been stepping up on the north side to donate and make sure what families get, families get what they need. Businesses from downtown, folks from um over south that don't necessarily even, you know, help on the north side. They have communities that they can help nearby. Uptown businesses, downtown businesses, northeast businesses. These folks have been stepping up in a great way to support us on the north side and I appreciate that. And I you know and I applaud that. So it's unconventional sometimes and I think we're in unconventional times and I just don't know why now we would separate ourselves from our housing partners who do such a great job at making sure that majority of the people in our city have deeply affordable housing. Not just affordable housing. I people came here and talked about rents as like a um a market rate rent. That's not who we're primarily talking about here. I mean, there are certainly people who pay market rate rent, but there are a lot of people who have deeply affordable housing, vouchers, certificates, these these government programs where I mean, I've had people reach out to me for rental help and it's been as low as $23. And there's people who've reached out for rental help that's been as high as $2,300. So, I think there's a range. There's not like this everybody has these really high rents and we got to get in there. What we have to do, not only as a city, but as a body, is actually have conversations about what's happening in our respective wards. How we can help people in real time. what policy, if any, can actually help people along with the experts, along with our friends who are here to help us through this who want to help, too. I don't think any of those 13 organizations that signed on that letter want to harm anyone with housing because if they did, it would affect their bottom line. If they don't have renters in their housing, they don't have anything. I mean, one of those organizations who came today, they have a brand new um apartment complex in South Minneapolis off of Lake Street. And I think a couple months when we were there, they had one renter and a security um person on site living in the building with maybe 80 units. They want people in there. They want to get people housed. They want to keep people housed. They don't want people out. And I think it's just it just it's not good for us to not consider what they're saying to us and not at least, you know, for now see what happens. Someone said like there there's going to show there's going to be proof that there has been no evictions. I mean, how do we help people if we don't have data to support what's needed? >> It's your time. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Warren. Thank you, Madame Chair. I just wanted to also make this this clear point um because people are making the statement that emergency aid is coming. You're going to have to have income eligibility for that. And when I talked about a stain uh sustainability plan, that means that when you go before these county or nonprofit agencies, not only do you have to have an income, but your income has to say that you can afford to stay there. Not just I got a job. And if it's not and you're used to having a twoerson or two household income or maybe your partner who was unfortunately taken, you know, by ICE, he was the primary bread winner. Say he drove a forklift and he was making$25 $30 an hour. Now based on your skill set, the only job that you're able to get pays you 15. the affordability matrix for you to be able to maintain that housing looks very different. Do you understand what I'm saying to you? And so then when you go to these um these county agencies or these nonprofit organizations, the affordability for sustainability looks different. and they're not going to give you the help that you believe that you'll be able to receive because you don't have the ability to maintain that in which you're staying. Okay? It's kind of like having wine taste but beer money, right? So that we understand and not set people up for the expectation or the ideology that all of a sudden because I just have a job that these agencies are going to funnel down some type of monies in your direction. I have worked with individuals who have gone from housing organization to housing organization trying to piece money together to say, "Oh, Salvation Army's given me 300. This place is giving me x amount of dollars because they did not have the ability necessarily to afford or to sustain where they were staying at." And I think that that is going to be a larger barrier for some of our community members who have had to leave their jobs because of this ICE insurgent that we've had in our communities now to go out and find new work again. It's going to be a little bit of a challenge, but to find equal or better pay than what you were making in order to be able to sustain yourself is going to be extremely challenging. And I want us to keep that into mind. I know that our philanthropy and all of our diligent, hardworking, fundraising, donating, boots on the ground, you know, organizers who have been putting money together to ensure that our community members are able to get their needs met, whatever it is, a phone bill, food, or whatever are are exhausted. I'm exhausted, too. I've been helping to do a lot of work within that, but I mean the work is going to have to continue in that measure because there is just not going to be the amount of doors open that we will believe that will be opened on the other end of that. And I just want us to have realistic and grounded expectations around this work that is before us with how we are going to have to continue to show up for individuals who cannot depend on or cannot receive help from different county or state agencies because that is a very real place. And I just want us to keep that in mind because it's it's it's a real thing. It's a real situation. Just because there's income, if it doesn't sustain the current situation, there will need to be external services that are utilized in order to help keep people stable. I just want people to understand that. >> Thank you, council member. Next, I'll recognize Council President Payne. >> Thank you, Chair Audrey. Um, you know, the really consistent theme of the opposition to this policy is um this idea of unintended consequences. We heard all of the landlords say unintended consequences. Some colleagues up here talk about the unintended consequences and it's just a funny um critique to me because a it's kind of a tired critique of any policy that changes status quo. Um, but on this specific topic, the there there aren't unintended consequences. There's already just the intended unintended consequences are already baked in. The federal government attacked our city to to basically crumble us. And our people stood up against that and fought that back. But the bakedin consequence of that of all these landlords that are complaining about what this policy may or may not do hypothetically, that we don't need to look at hypotheticals. It is baked in. those landlords have not been receiving rent from the people who have been impacted by this ins by this surge by this occupation. That that's already baked in right now. This um worry that you know particularly these nonprofit landlords are going to face insolveny. That insolveny is baked in. The cash is not flowing. The rent's not getting paid right now. That's already baked in. The question is, are we wanting to also bake in the crisis of displacement? That that doesn't need to be baked in. We actually can intervene and change that outcome. Uh and the thing that isn't hypothetical is the degree to which people are stepping up well beyond um what should be expected of individual residents and individual neighbors. but they are all out of pocket. They are all into their savings. They are all into their credit cards uh on behalf of looking out for each other. All we're looking for is the time to uh be able to deliver on that. And this kind of concept of unintended consequences is just really silly to me because uh like I said, that rent's not getting paid. That op that operating income is already missed. The um crisis for landlords is already at at the table. Now, we're asking, do we also want to layer a crisis for renters? And I think we can prevent that crisis through this action today. And so, I just wanted to talk about that. And again, the worst case scenario for a landlord is either chapter 7, total liquid, total liquidation, where those assets get acquired on the cheap. Maybe that helps with our affordability crisis when somebody else takes over those assets. Or chapter 11, uh, re restructure their debt. Right? those things are already baked in as potential consequences of this occupation. Um, and I'm not trying to make light of bankruptcy, but I am trying to put um that in the context of the worst case scenario for some people who've been impacted by this occupation has been death, has been permanent displacement, it's been separation of families. Um, and when I'm weighing these two things, uh, we need to look at this both in the short and long term. In the long term, we do expect the state to step up and be able to backfill some of these financial consequences. And to do that, we do need this type of time. We don't have to have people getting evicted in this time period until we wait for the state legislature to be able to recognize the impact of this. Um, but like I said, these really bad impacts to landlords, that's already baked in. That's already going to happen whether we pass a policy today or not. We're talking about, do we want that to also cascade into displacement for people losing losing their homes. >> Next, I will recognize Council Member Vita. >> Thank you. Um, I I just want to say that uh landlords filing bankruptcy is most certainly a way for people to lose their housing. When you file bankruptcy, things get taken away from you per your buildings that you own, the homes that people rent from you and move into. Bankruptcy doesn't mean you get to live there. It means you have to go and the bank takes it over. So, the last thing we want is landlords filing bankruptcy. Uh that's absolutely not uh the solution. Uh I mean that's absolutely not the solution. And then just um something came up earlier about legal resources. I think it was you council member Chowry. You were saying that people were going to be looking for legal resources if they went into eviction court. And I'm just wondering what you were referring to. What I was referring to was like seeking out legal counsel if they go to eviction court to represent them. Particularly like >> especially if they don't speak English like that's an extra bureaucratic step. >> Got it. >> Even if you have free legal support in place. >> Yeah. So you don't have to seek out legal help in Henipin County. You get assigned legal help if you need it when you're in eviction court. And then secondly, you get a translator. any social services if you need someone to translate for you, you get that. That's not um how that works. And then like so we send money to bureaucrats and like now we're upset that they have a bureaucratic system that's going to prolong how people get money. Make it make sense. Like this body voted to send a million dollars to Henipin County who we talked about the system. It's not like you could just like fill out a form and you were going to be given rental assistance. There's formalities. You couldn't have applied within a year to be able to apply again. You have to have a up-to-date eviction. So, even what you're proposing today is going to prolong how you can get Henipin County assistance just out of the gate because you got to have like an eviction notice for a period of time for Henipin County to even step in. And I I'm almost certain you get legal representation if you need it automatically. And um I mean but these are all the things you support. It's all a bureaucratic system. I mean that's that's what comes along with social services. And so like I mean yeah let's work on changing that. But like we're building up more systems for people to go through. The easiest way for people to get help is for us as a council to be donating our salaries and our money to help people because that means you just give it to them and they can do what they want to do with it. If we're asking people to rely on policies on help from government that takes time. Those systems are put in place. There are protections put in place to um make sure that certain things aren't happening. There's systems of how you apply when you can apply. Unless we're talking to Henipin County about changing the way that they take applications, we're not doing anything. They're not changing. They're not saying you can apply two times now because of the crisis. And I don't hear anybody over there talking to him about it. I tried to ask my commissioner and can't get a call back cuz to me it's not about um what exists right now in Henipin County. They need to change how they take information from people for housing. They need to change how many times people can apply for housing in Henipin County if we're going to get through this. But I what I know is all of this this has been my issue with all of these what feels like impulsive actions is that we don't do the work before. We do it and then we come back later and say, "Okay, well, you know, we gave $7 million, but we don't know what we're going to do with $7 million. We gave a million dollars for housing, but it's gone to the bureaucrats. And we knew they were bureaucrats when we voted for it. Okay, we're going to pass this policy, but if the housing organizations who came here is trying to put fear in, we're going to make up a fake scenario of what could and couldn't happen and not listen to the people who have actually been doing the work. Like, I mean, that's not how this works. We're we're here to do a job and to do it well. And there's always unintended consequences of course, but you don't want people to be harmed even more from them. Like of course things happen and you don't know like that something could be good or bad in that, but you don't want to do things that you're being told upfront that this could cause harm. Like I think we all have to be innovative of how we look at this and what we do. And this just hasn't been it. It really has just been feeling impulsive. I see it. Uh, council member Chugai. >> I'm good, council member. We can continue to the role. >> Okay. I'm not seeing any more discussion, so I will ask the clerk to call the role on this item, please. >> Council member >> I I'll do that again because my microphone wasn't off. Council member Payne, >> I. >> Winsley, >> I >> Rainville, >> no. >> Vita, >> no. >> Warren, >> no. >> Osman, >> I >> Schaefer, >> no. >> Stevenson, >> I >> Chavez, >> I. >> Whiting, >> abstain. >> Pomosano, >> no. >> Vice Chair Chukai, >> I. >> Chair Chowry, >> I. There are seven eyes's, five nazs, and one abstension. >> That motion carries. So members, before you all leave, we will take a a 28 minute break. I want us to come back here at about 400 p.m. We're going to take up hopefully one more presentation. If there's a little bit time before 5, um, we will do that. And then before you leave, please uh check in with Clerk Carl. >> Before you leave for the break, check in with Clerk Carl. Thank you. We'll be back at 402. Tech team. One minute. All right, welcome back colleagues. So now we are going to take up a presentation about Operation Metro Surge from Henipin County Attorney Mary Morardi. Thank you so much for being patient and coming to our chambers. We really appreciate it. Welcome Madame Attorney. We're honored to have you to join us. And you may start your presentation whenever you'd like and let us know if you need any assistance. Our clerks are here to help. Go ahead, Chair Shaktai. Uh, council members, thank you so much for inviting me to be here. It's really exciting to be here to talk about what we at the Henipin County Attorney's Office have been doing with regard to operation uh Metro Surge and I I had the opportunity early in the day to kind of check on and off to see the public comment um on your earlier issue and one thing that struck me about it was there was a lot of camaraderie. there was a lot of collaboration, cooperation, and also a lot of trauma. And that is something that we at the county attorney's office have seen um during Operation Metro Surge. And it is another reason why the people in our office although we're not getting any extra resources have banded together, pulled together uh to to be taking a deep dive into the investigations into the shootings and also other potential unlawful conduct by federal agents. So I will start out by talking just in general. I could go into many many weeds here and I'll try not to do that. I know it's been a really long day for you. So just when Renee Good was killed, I was talking to the FBI, the BCA, also the US Attorney's Office, and we had all worked out an informal agreement that the BCA would be part of investigating that particular scene. And that was nothing unusual. That's the way it usually works. It's almost the way it always works. And then at some point, we were told that the BCA had been kicked out of the investigation. Uh, and we were told that that directive came from the administration in Washington DC. So when Alex Prey was killed, or I should take a step back, Julio Sosa CIS was shot in the leg on January 14th, I immediately called the BCA to ask if they were on their way. They were. We also have a prosecutor who was on his way and was at the scene documenting what was happening there. And once again, the BCA was not allowed to be processing that scene. So when Alex Prey was shot, and that was a Saturday morning, we knew what we needed to do. I was talking to the BCA. We sent a prosecutor down there at the scene, and we learned that the federal agents were actually standing about 2 feet apart with long batons. You may have seen that. they were physically preventing the BCA from gaining access to that scene to do what they would normally do in any kind of situation like that. We worked uh collaboratively with the BCA. They drafted a search warrant. We made sure a judge was available on Saturday. We got that judicially signed warrant. The BCA uh told the federal government that they had a judicially signed warrant and yet the federal government would not allow them into the scene. And so that afternoon we worked collaboratively with with others and we filed a federal lawsuit. Um we asked for a temporary restraining order from the federal court demanding that the federal government preserve the evidence and not alter it in any way. That was actually granted late Saturday. Uh that's highly unusual for a judge to grant a TTRO, but he did that. We then had a hearing the following Monday uh where the judge um asked the federal government were they preserving the evidence and were they making sure none of it was altered. They assured the judge that they were and so that issue kind of got set to the side. So we announced at the county attorney's office that we in uh coordination with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were going to investigate all three cases. That's pretty good and so celiss and we have been working with the BCA and the attorney general's office uh since these shootings happened to collect as much evidence as we possibly could. To that end, because of all the video that was available, we opened a public portal and we asked community members to send us anything that they might have because we knew a lot of our community members were out there taking video and we wanted to make sure we had everything. those the uh portal uh we got over 1,000 submissions. 1,000. And we had a team going through those to make sure that we could sort through the stuff that was going to be helpful and the stuff that was not. So we then uh so unlike an investigation in state court where we can subpoena documents since the federal government had made it clear they are not sharing anything that they got from any of those three crime scenes. So, we could not subpoena that information. You cannot subpoena a federal agency. You have to go through a process outlined by the United States Supreme Court. It's called TUI. We made TUI demands um at various times on these cases. Essentially, we demanded that the federal government give us the evidence um and other records that they had in all three of these cases. One of the deadlines is about to pass today. um or two of the deadlines actually and another one should pass later this week. So we are waiting to hear from ICE uh as well as the Department of Justice as to whether they were going to are going to cooperate and give us the evidence that we've asked for. So this also involves a great deal of um federal research because if we charge in state court and we have every uh legal authority to do that, there is no absolute immunity for a federal agent who commits a crime in the state of Minnesota. That is not a thing despite what the administration has said. But if we charge any federal agent, that federal agent has a right to ask that the case be removed to federal court. It's a very low bar. So it may very well be if we chose to charge that the case would get removed to federal court. However, we remain the prosecutors on the case. We try the case in federal court. It is tried under state law. Sentencing would be under state law. um any conviction even if it was in federal court could not be pardoned um by the administration. So we are researching that we have federal partners who are experts um in this kind of law which we have not been because we don't typically have to deal with this. So we are collaborating with them. Um they're experts from around the country who have volunteered their time to help us in this situation. Um, we also know that there were, and you are aware of this too, a number of videos out there that documented various behaviors that on their surface appeared to potentially be unlawful. And so we knew uh and I I'm I live in Minneapolis and I know what I heard our community saying during what I will say was an occupation and continues to be in some sense was our community was saying who is here to help us? Where is the government? I heard that this morning from some of the the people who are commenting. They're like why are we having to pay rent? Um shouldn't government be helping us? We heard that too. our staff heard that and so we got together and as I said we got no additional resources here but this was about serving our community. This was about telling our community that federal agents cannot just come in here and commit acts which at least on you know in the video appear to be unlawful. Whether they are I don't know but we need to investigate those and see if there's accountability um if there needs to be. So, we heard that from our community and we uh had volunteers on our staff who very much want to help with this. Um, and to me, this was about putting our values where our community wanted them to be put. So, we have no additional resources. And just yesterday, you may have seen the announcement of this. We uh kicked off what we call our transparency and accountability project. I refer to it, we refer to it as TAP. The idea there is we are currently investigating 17 different instances that I'm guessing you all saw on video at some point or another. 15 of them happened in Minneapolis. Um, two happened in the suburbs. So what we have been doing, we assigned one of our investigators, we don't have very many and we have lawyers from the office who are volunteering and partnering on this to do as much investigation as we can to try to get to the bottom uh try to get all the film there to try to figure out what actually happened before and after. Was there a crime committed and if so uh are we going to go forward with charges? So we launched that project yesterday. Um, we have been in conversation with local law enforcement throughout the county um because we're hoping to partner with them and collaborate with them because they have some information that could be very helpful to us potentially. So, that's a project we just launched yesterday. I am one of nine founding members of a national coalition of local DAs. Everybody's called a DA. Everybody else but here, we're county attorneys. called the fight against federal overreach. And the idea there is that DAs from around the country got together. We got together in Washington DC a couple of weeks ago to talk about what do we do if something like this hits in our jurisdictions. And I can tell you we were the first jurisdiction to have something like this happen to. I know there have been things that have happened in other cities, but we were the first jurisdiction to see some of the things that happened that you've all observed. So when we had our convening uh in Washington DC, we had some of those experts that we've been working with who actually live in DC come and talk to the other DAs about, hey, here are the issues that you are going to need to face. And the role that I could serve there was to say, hey everybody, these are the things I wish I would have known. And I can tell you 100% we at the Henipin County Attorney's Office are leading the country in this effort. We are answering questions from other jurisdictions. Um we've experienced this. We are researching it. We are doing the things that you need to do to see whether accountability can be had. And so I'm very proud of that effort. We get calls from all over the country. Can you help us in case something like this happens to us? So that's just a brief overview of the things that we have been doing. I I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you. >> Thank you so much for the presentation and coming to our chambers. I we do have a number of council members in queue to ask some questions and get into discussion. I'll first recognize President Payne. Thank you, Chair Chowry, and thank you, Madame Attorney. Um, I'm curious what you think might be most helpful for us to help with this project. So, even just in my own personal experience, I got assaulted by ICE. I requested that it get investigated by MPD. It's kind of in the MPD investigatory universe. Um, and would, you know, in a nor in a normal world, if a person were to get assaulted on the street, they would ask their local police department to, you know, investigate, file charges on their behalf, and that would arrive either on our city attorney's desk or on your desk depending on the severity of it, right? Um, and now we see just with the kind of unprecedented lawlessness of this and the fact that it is the federal government, we're having to come up with these kind of novel approaches, but I think justice is still what is demanded of us. I saw that um, for instance, um, Attorney General Keith Ellison has a portal stood up. We have a portal stood up now with the county and then there's your standard getting um, charges explored via your local police department. Should we be telling our constituents who have either experienced or witnesses witness these violations to submit to all three? Should we tell them to focus on Henipin County because of the specific focus here or like what might be most helpful for us to convey? >> So, uh, Chair Chowry, I'm not used to this protocol. Chair Chowry, uh, Council Member Payne. Um, a number of those things would be helpful. First of all, they can submit uh to our portal. Uh and I I said evidence at one point and then I got an email last night. I don't have evidence. I don't have a video so I don't have any evidence. Uh eyewitness testim statements are evidence. One of the things that is helpful is to make a police report um because that kind of can start a process. It may very well preserve video that might be uh taped over. So certainly making a police report to the local police department and submitting something to our portal. We will take a look at it. I should say, you know, we've been I had a conversation, I think it was about a month to six weeks ago with uh our chiefs, our local chiefs uh in Henipin County. There are about 38 of them. And I, you know, they've been hearing different things, too. At the time, they were hearing from the administration, oh, there's absolute immunity. Um, and so I fielded some questions from them. One of which was, "Well, we don't have jurisdiction, do we?" And I said, 'You absolutely do have jurisdiction. And I had one police chief say to me that he was reading about the supremacy clause. And I said, "You really don't need to spend time doing the legal research here. We can take care of that for you. Even if you don't know what it is, if if a constitu if a community member calls you, please show up, document it. Um, body cam, do all of those things, send it to us. Even if you're not sure what it is, even if you don't know if it's a felony, we'll work with your city attorney's office as well. So I talked them through a lot of the issues, the concerns that they had and encouraged them to document, document, document, document and send us whatever they had so that we could take a look at it and see what was there. So I had that meeting four to six weeks ago. Um so it is critically important. Um and the chiefs now all know or should know that they do have jurisdiction. they can intervene. And you know, I one of the chiefs said, "Our officers are worried that if they intervene, they might get arrested uh or you know, something worse." And so I get that. And I said, "Totally understand that." And it's a totally new world. Um I mean, some of those police chiefs were telling me that if they actually asked ICE to identify themselves, they wouldn't. And so they were dealing with and are dealing with something very new as well. However, I reminded them their community members are out there trying to document, trying to help, and they needed to keep in mind that they are here to protect and serve their community. And so, we went through a lot of the issues that they had. Um, and so definitely encourage a police report, uh, putting something in our portal. Um, we will certainly take a look at it. >> Great. So simplest answer is absolutely reach out to your police department, file a police report and also proactively submit evidence to this portal so that you can make sure that it doesn't get lost in the sauce of policing. >> Yes. And you know, my concern too is that some of these instance, many of these instances we are investigating, the 17 um happen throughout Operation Metro Surge and as we know some of the video although we have video everywhere gets erased and so we want to make sure that we can preserve that as best we can that witnesses can be interviewed as soon as possible. Uh so that's it is very important to file a police report. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Next, I'll recognize Council Member Stevenson. >> Thank you, uh, County Attorney for coming. I I feel a certain responsibility making you wait all day, uh, because I invited you. Um, thank you for being here. Of course, >> I have a couple of questions. I think one was already asked, but I want to ask it in this way in case there's anything different. Um, this is the Minneapolis City Council. We only have authority over Minneapolis. What do you need from uh MPD in order to investigate and charge federal agents? >> So uh Chair Chowry, Council Member Stevenson, um I had a lot of work today. I So I was occupied. Don't worry about uh running late. So I met with Commissioner Barnett. Um I met with him. I talked to him on the phone. I met with him and I told him that we were going to roll out TAP. Um, and I asked him if we could get uh collaboration with the Minneapolis Police Department because there are some things our civilian investigator can't do and there are some things that MPD probably has video, you know, that kind of thing. Um, they can serve subpoenas. So, there just some things that we can't do. And so, he said he was going to speak to the chief about it. Um, then he came over to our office last week. um and wanted to know how much you know really he I would say this um he didn't make a commitment to collaborating with us. He made a commitment to looking at a case or two and seeing what we were asking for to see if they could invest the resources in that. So we followed up I followed up with an email to him on Friday. Um we sent him three cases um with tasks uh you know we would like X Y and Z and I asked him is this something that you think that you can commit to doing. I haven't heard from him. I did email him again this morning um and I haven't heard yet. So what we would really like is collaboration with the Minneapolis Police Department to look at all of these cases, the 15 cases we have and to see what they have. um and to do some taskoriented work the way they normally would do. And I think it's important to emphasize that our office works with MPD every day. We have an embedded sexual assault prosecutor here with MPD to help with cases. Every single day, our people are talking to MPD investigators about cases. We come over here to talk to MPD. They come over talk to us to say, "Hey, we've got this evidence. What do you think?" So collaboration is really the norm and so I would like to see MPD help us collect the information that we would like in these 15 cases. >> Okay. Um is there anything specific you'd like us to bring up with them? They'll be before us tomorrow. Um anything specific you'd like to bring up you'd like us to bring up with them? >> Uh yeah, I mean we would like to see data. you know, did they there was a particular case that you probably remember of a a woman who was pregnant who was dragged on the ground. I actually had contact with one of uh Chief O'Hara's command staff and I said, "Hey, um are you investigating this?" And she said that the chief had pulled all of the video or had ordered that it be pulled. And I said, and this was very early on, I said, "Would you consider submitting that to us or your city attorney's office?" Because sometimes these may be misdemeanors. sometimes they may be felonies. Um, and she said that yes, she would talk to the chief about it, but we haven't heard anything. I don't know if that was submitted to our office or the city attorney's office. I probably wouldn't know if it was submitted to the city attorney's office. Um, and so that may be a case where it sounds like they did preserve the video that they had. So that could be critically important in helping us. So perhaps uh asking them how many complaints did they get? Did they follow up on them from community members about ICE activity? What did they do in those cases? Can they give that to us? Um because that's where we can get into the nitty-gritty of the investigation and see um whether we don't want to replicate anything that they happen that they have and obviously we don't know what they have unless they share that with us. So I think that would be really helpful. >> Yeah. Have you gotten any complaints from them or any cases or are they are there what are you getting from them basically? >> We have not had a case submitted to us by the Minneapolis Police Department uh involving federal agents. >> That's important to know. Um so I my my next question was how's the collaboration going? Are you getting cases from them? You're you're saying that at this point there's been very little to no collaboration as you've gotten no cases from them. >> Well, on the question of have they submitted any cases involving community interaction with federal agents? No, they haven't submitted a case to us. Um, in terms of collaboration, as I said, I met with Commissioner Barnett. I told him about TAP. Uh, I asked him for collaboration on that. Um, I don't yet have a commitment on that. As I said, he wanted to see what we wanted to see if they had the staffing, I think, to help us with those tasks. >> Okay. Um, and lastly, this is a I think you've answered this a little bit, but I just want to ask it directly because my constituents want to know. Um, when might we see charges against federal agents for illegal behavior? Uh, that's a million-dollar question I think that everybody asks me. And I don't want to I mean, I always want to be honest. I'm always candid and honest. It's hard to say. I think we're getting close to have um gathered the evidence that we need in one of the cases to make a decision about charging. But as I said, there are these other federal, for instance, let me tell you this. So, I said the deadline today on the 2E letters. We have two deadlines today. We've got one Thursday on SOS CIS. So, we don't know what we're going to get from the DOJ um and uh DHS. So, depending on what we get or don't get, there may be there probably will be litigation on that. So, what does that mean in terms of our ability to go forward or not? So, those are decisions that we're having to make and we're probably going to make some of those this week. What I guarantee you, what I've guaranteed people publicly is that we will have enough evidence on those three cases to decide whether charges are appropriate or not. I can't make a it would be an estimate, a guess, and I don't want to raise people's expectations. I do want to say on the TUI litigation, um we have meetings with our federal partners about twice a week. Uh we had one this morning on the TOUI letters and that litigation, that federal litigation does take a long time. That's separate from whether we bring charges or not. But if we bring charges, we have to be prepared to meet the federal defenses and the removal that we'll probably see. So I guarantee you we will have decisions on those three cases. I just can't promise when. >> Okay. Okay. Um and last question for me and >> council member, I'll have you come back into queue if that's all right. Thank you, >> Council Member Whiting. >> Thank you, Chair Chowry, and and another deep, I think, thank you and expression of gratitude to you in your office, uh, Henipin County Attorney Morardi. Uh, I think the work that we are seeing with TAP, uh, isn't just a a creative way. I think it's it's a brilliant piece of of creative legal uh, advocacy. And if there is ways to do this in in other areas as well, I think you probably are looking to to do that as well. So, so thank you. Um, this has been a piece of of particular, I think, help uh for my residents um in W 11 in our community uh that have been asking, hey, how can we help? How can we be helpful? Uh, and this is kind of the link that we have been giving them. So, so thank you deeply for that. Um, and then really only question here uh that I have, you know, you kind of mentioned the duty to intervene piece. Uh, and I know that's kind of right when when when officers are present and witness uh an action. uh what I am hearing a lot from my residents is more so around like immediate action when offices are there or uh particular to arrests uh and right I don't really have that understanding I know it's been kind of harder like as we talk about supremacy clause and other areas of of kind of the the legal apparatus of of engaging in that work and so as it is both helpful for me and I think for for constituents not just in in W 11 but city of Minneapolis and elsewhere um that are having these inst instances. Are you able to help us kind of walk through what that looks like from not just a duty intervene standpoint, but the actual authority uh municipal agent or officers have to arrest uh uh ICE agents or federal agents? >> Chair Chowry, uh Council Member Whiting, that's actually a great question and it's something that I was working through with our chiefs. There was a lot I think that went to the question of we don't have jurisdiction and what I told them and I will tell you you absolutely do the whole supremacy clause absolute immunity all that kind of stuff those are legal defenses and you know this I mean legal defenses come up once charges have been filed so in terms of police officers they absolutely have every right to intervene they have jurisdiction They can do that. They can arrest an ICE agent. They can do that. What I was hearing on that call from police chiefs were a number of things. One was they're afraid to do that because they're afraid what happens. What if I get arrested? What if I get shot or hurt? What if I'm the poster child for, you know, a police officer who arrested an ICE agent? I heard that loud and clear. And that's where I said to them, I get it. I get it. This this is unprecedented. This is scary. I wouldn't want to be in that position either. But our community members are and our community members are telling us who's here to help us. Where is the government when our own federal government is attacking us? So that is something I challenge them to do. I, you know, there were some other issues that they raised. I do think um I I will be very candid about this. I do think that there are some law enforcement that sympathize with federal agents and they do not want to intervene. I mean, we all know that, right? I mean, it's just law enforcement. It's not a monolith. I am absolutely sure there are law enforcement officers who want to intervene and they don't. Is that because they don't get support from leadership? Is that because they're afraid of what might happen? All of those things legitimate, but what I was trying to encourage them was to think about the commitment you made to protect and serve your community. And when push comes to shove, you have some difficult decisions to make and you need to start making them. So, I think it's all kinds of different reasons. I would guess those are, you know, the primary ones. >> And then last question, and I tried to do some research myself and couldn't come up with anything. So I'm sure your office has probably done a lot more research than I have um on it. Have you seen across the country either specifically related to ICE or other kind of historical precedents uh where we have seen agents or municipal particular cities uh officers arrest federal agents? Have we seen that as it relates in the kind of context of of ICE as of late in other cities across the country or if if not recently in any historical precedent either? >> No. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, I'll recognize Council Member Warren. >> Thank you. Um Chair Chowry, I just have a a few questions um for you. Um um DA Mori Arti, I I appreciate all of the um work and due diligency that um your office is doing around the transparency and accountability project. But I'm sitting here on this DAS really having a very difficult time with the level of trust of your department based on the way that you handle our local murders and cases here. So, I'm trying to understand why all of this grave effort and energy is being put on the other side of things, especially when there is a history of you trying local murders here within our city that are happening and individuals are only being given 48 months for murder. So when you come to something and you're approaching it on a federal level where there is an insurgent and people are being slaughtered in the streets the same way that they're being slaughtered before, is there going to be a different level of of energy? Are you going to really take into account the information and the the things that our local police department are providing to your office for evidence into account? because I haven't seen a history of that across the board when it relates to other cases. So, I want to make sure that you're going to be taking things very seriously and you're taking your job a little different. >> Yeah. Uh, Chair Chowry, uh, council member, I'd like to know which case you're talking about. I'm talking about Antonio Moore with the city of Brooklyn Center who was stabbed out there and there were murder weapons of knives and things like that that were turned in that the investigators came down and were prepared to testify. You did not um provide with any information with respect to those things. And there's a number of murders that have happened throughout our Twin Cities, especially uh with respect to northern and northern suburbs where it has been like um an open air prison system with all of the carjackings and everything else with as it relates to individuals or youth or young juveniles or young adults. I'd say these individuals are in their 20s and above, right? where it relates to an open air prison system as the way that things are being ran here locally. So I want to know why is there all of a sudden this urgency and all of this great due diligence when it comes to a federal side of things? >> Yeah. And and I would say your premise is wrong. Um look at our data. Look at our data. We send people to prison all the time. In fact, I want to talk to you about the three one of the three latest RICO cases, okay, that the US attorney I think it's the three latest that they got convictions on. Our office got convictions on all three of those cases and all three of those men were sentenced to prison for over 30 years. So, I challenge you to look at our data because I don't know what you're listening to, but you're wrong. Oh, but I've been down here um with all due respect, DA, and um with coming down here and fighting on the other end of those cases, I've seen A.G. Ellison have to step in with a lot of the cases here to try four murder cases, just like our baby girl who was killed out in Brooklyn Center who was murdered and slaughtered in her apartment out there. And in order for us to get a conviction with that individual, AG Ellison had to come down and step in with those cases. So I'm saying I'm looking for the reassurance. And you said that this is a tap. So I want you to tap all the way in because I haven't seen you do it on a local level where it pertains to murderers. Don't tell me about a Rico. I don't want to hear about drugs. What I want to hear about is the murder and the definition of murder and how it appears on our streets that it's going to be taken very seriously and there's going to be a lot of due diligence and effort that is put into ensuring that individuals are held accountable because I haven't seen it with the history of where your department stands. I actually was quite pleased that Judge Cook was on there, the case that was being tried with respect to Antonio Moore because he has a history of not necessarily um floating with the way that the county attorney's office flows and he challenges those individuals when they come before his courtroom. But I understand that he was also challenged and stated that if he did so that there was a chance that he could be debenched from that situation. So, I just I really hope that there is a real genuine effort and a change in the way that these cases are investigated and that if it's going to be serious that you take it serious because myself and my community members are Fanny Liu Hamer tired of seeing this open air prison system of individuals just being able to commit a crime, get a smack on the wrist, and then they're back out in the streets to do some more goofy stuff again. So, I would challenge you I would challenge you to come to my office. You bring those cases. I will bring our data and I will tell you the exact sentences people have received on murder cases >> because you're wrong and I'm going to challenge you. >> Oh, challenge accepted. Challenge accepted. >> We're not going to do back and forth and thank you. Um, we are talking about Operation Metro Surge and that is the topic at hand. So, if there are other topics that council members would like to discuss with the county attorney, I encourage you to reach out to their office as the county attorney's office has offered and have those discussions as needed. Um, and also I I'll just encourage council members to exhibit a level of decorum for any presenter that is in our chamber. That's a request from me as a chair. Council member Stevenson. >> Thank you. Um, you didn't have to come down here and talk to us about this, but you did, and I I appreciate you doing that. Um, yeah, just a couple more follow-ups before uh before I'm done. Uh, if you could educate me a little bit. I just don't know what's the role um between your office and the sheriff's office. That's a great question. We are the only two, well, we are two electeds in Henipin County and also the county commissioners are elected. It's kind of a complicated situation because my office provides legal counsel to the sheriff. However, I even though that is my office don't interfere with that legal counsel because she is their client. On a policy level, I meet with the sheriff uh once a month. We have conversations over the phone. We have um policy differences at times. Um we communicate with her staff a great deal to try to um talk to them about things that we are seeing. But ultimately, I don't she's an elected, right? So, she can do whatever she wants to do policy-wise. And so that's I can try to persuade her about certain policies, but I don't have any control over her just like any other elected. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I bring this up because of the very troubling things we've been seeing at Whipple with county attorney and and in my neighborhood, we had uh we had the the sheriff's deputies come in and they were cursing out every type of neighbor and they were just picking somebody up who had missed court. So I'm I'm curious because we've been seeing some atrocious behavior. >> Yeah. You know, you bring up a a good question, Whipple. So, my office has jurisdiction generally over felonies throughout Henipin County. However, in parks and at Fort Snelling, we have jurisdiction for everything, which includes misdemeanors. And so, we are in frequent conversation with the sheriff's office about I mean, I'm no different from you. I watched video Sunday about what was going on out there. and we have conversations um because those cases they're cited by the sheriff, right? So when they want to arrest somebody or cite them, they do that. Unlike felonies, they don't have to come through our office first. We then get them from the sheriff's office. We look at them and then we decide whether to go forward. So, one of the issues that we are talking about right now actually is under what circumstances do you issue a dispersal order? Um, because I want to make sure that that people's first amendment rights are um are respected. Um, certainly of the cases we've received, we've actually dismissed uh quite a few of them. Um certainly we prosecute the cases where a sheriff's deputy was assaulted or something like that. Um but we're having discussions about that because I have some differences of opinion with how they're handling things at Whipple as well. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh that's all for me. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I put myself in Q. Thank you so much for the presentation and taking time to be here. I know uh you've been waiting since uh midday for when we had the availability in our chamber. So really appreciate it. Uh my first question is how has the response been from constituents since you announced this? Like how many responses are you receiving? Um yeah, just a sense of like the flow. I will say it's it's been overwhelmingly positive, at least the responses from constituents. And I think that's because for such a long time constituents, our community didn't know, you know, what they could do. There are these various portals, but what actually happens um if you put something in the portal. Certainly the ACLU has been filing lawsuits. But in terms of accountability for unlawful behavior, I think this is the first time that community members have seen something where they can submit something that they've seen happen to them or somebody else. And we will take it seriously and do the best we can to investigate it. So, we've seen a lot of positive uh feedback on that all around the country. Actually, I don't know how many submissions we got. That's not something I look at every day, but I'm guessing we'll probably have a pretty overwhelming response. >> Okay. Are you planning on sharing publicly how many submissions you receive at a given period? And is there like a a date where you're going to close this? >> No. And in we closed the prey and good portal because we believe that it had served its purpose. We closed that Monday. Um and so we're going to keep it open. Um, and when we start not to get any things or we start to get repetitive stuff, we may close it. Um, but we really want community members to have an opportunity to share their stories and the the stories of others. >> Great. Yeah, it would be wonderful. I mean, to take into your consideration just sharing how many submissions you get. I would just love to know like, yeah, we're seeing x amount of people throughout the county and throughout the city reporting in various incidents. I think it speaks just largely to the the gravity of Operation Metro Surge. >> We, you know, we we talked about I mean, transparency is important to us and it's important to the community. We're also aware that in many of these instances, the person who is involved is very vulnerable and many threaten retal or fear retaliation from the federal government. So we are going to be engaging in conversations with them just as to how public we can be or transparent we can be but we will try to be transparent and I hear you about the numbers of submissions and I don't see why we can't share that. >> Thank you. And then my last question um is a question about maybe a specific type of submission that I've been thinking about while we've been having our discussion with you. So, in the 12th ward, there has been um like just reported to my office alone about 30 to 35 individual instances of drones flying um in a concentrated area of the Stish Ericson neighborhood and the Longfellow neighborhood late at night um at a level that we haven't seen before. Um, I have worked to send this to the congresswoman's office to get in contact with the FAA. I have asked MPD to see if it's any of their drones. They have said none of the instances I've reported are theirs. Um, it's not state patrol and it's in a pattern in which it's not a hobbyist. Is this something that constituents should submit to your office? Is this something I should share to your office? I so that's a conversation we're not going to immediately know but we we do have collaborations um on intelligence especially um and that's something we can check into I'd encourage people to submit rather than not um if there's nothing we can do there's nothing we can do but that's not something I had heard and we can certainly try to follow up and get some answers. Yeah, it's I'll just share with you cured public. We've seen between January and February coinciding with the peak of Operation Metro Surge the murder of Renee Good and Alex Prey just like this high volume of drones at in residential neighborhoods >> at night and early in the morning and people feel that they are being surveiled or watched and there's been no public notification from any agency that this is occurring and people are just kind of left with the question mark of what are they being used for? what data is being collected and if this even is a legal thing that can occur. Um, so >> yes, please submit that and we will see what we can find out. >> Thank you. Those are all my questions. I'll recognize council member Vita. >> Thank you, chair, and thank you, county attorney. Um, I had a question. If it's not related, it's totally fine for you to tell me to reach out in a different capacity, but something that's been coming up a lot is uh U visas. And if this is um directly rel if this program is directly related to U visas in the sense that if someone is assaulted, right? Like that's a factor. So it the the law doesn't say you you know a federal agent attacks you or your neighbor or whomever, right? So like I I mean I don't understand it clearly. So, I am going to be reaching out um to you and your office for more clarity and then to maybe get some data too about like what I know you stood up a program a little bit ago, but I have been getting a lot of questions about like if what happens to folks with agents if that's a qualifier for U visas or like how they report those things and who is reported to if that makes sense. >> Totally. Uh Chair Chowry, council member, thank you for answer or asking that question. Yes, absolutely. Um, we have a team that does U and T visas. Um, I will say last year we uh certified over 500. >> That's U visas. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And that's 500 people who were vulnerable, who were victims of some type of crime, um, who can get, and I can't promise how much protection now, but we could certify what happened to them. And so absolutely reach out. Um we have a particular person who handles those. Uh they will definitely explain I mean if you wanted to come over they'll explain to you how the process works. We would love to connect with you. >> Most most certainly. And who should I just reach out to you or is there a specific person we should send an email to? >> Um >> we'll reach out. Yeah. >> Oh lovely. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. And then I will go to council member Chavez. >> Scratch that. It's okay. >> Okay. And then for that those are in those who are in queue and are present, I will go to council member Chuck Tai. >> Uh thank you madam chair um madam city attorney county attorney. I apologize. Um it's been a long day. Thank you for being here um and and for uh for all of the work that you are doing to um to to >> meet the needs of our community. Though it it as you know and I know um uh there are significant limitations in what we can do and um the that uh that our community deserves so much better um than what what they are receiving from from government in general. um and that that the responsibility then on local government um is it only increases to to to build and restore and repair uh trust in public institutions. So, thank you for being a part of um leading with um with that in mind um and with the the safety and um and and well-being of our residents in mind, our shared constituents in mind. Um there was something you brought up earlier that that really captured my attention and it was um that your office provides uh legal counsel that you wall off in your office um to the the county uh sheriff's office. Um and I wonder if perhaps you can speak to this now or I'm very happy to receive followup from your team um at a at a different time. Um, but has your office and the the legal counsel that that uh the the county sheriff receives from your office, have any conversations happened about um, you know, providing them with the council on what is and is not a lawful way to um, interact with residents or providing um, any type of feedback about some of the the frankly like disturbing um, aggressive um, demoralizing footage that you and I have seen and and our community has seen of of sheriff deputies interacting with residents um at the Whibble building, but also just broadly around our community over uh over these past few months that um that concerns me. Are you providing them with any type of legal counsel that about, you know, things, behaviors that are appropriate versus not? >> Uh, or lawful versus not. >> Yes. Chair Chowry, um, council member. So, I'm sure our council um who represents them is talking to them about things like unlawful behavior, but there's a wide range of what's unlawful and what just doesn't seem appropriate. Yes, that's so the unlawful piece of it is where our office provides counsel. >> Uh so, our office actually provides counsel for the every single department in Henipin County. And a lot of people don't know that. And frankly, that's why most uh DAs are called DAs around the country because they don't have this civil aspect of representing the the the entire county. Our office represents the county board, county administration, every office, every department you can think of over there. And so it's a it's a difficult space for me to navigate, frankly. Um, and it's something that I've tried to navigate in having this job, understanding that I don't always know the conversations that our council are having with their clients, but understanding that I can certainly talk about policy things and things that I don't like or think are appropriate. And I do have those conversations with the sheriff. Um, we talk frequently about it. And so I can assure you conversations about what's unlawful are happening. But that space between, hey, how should uh the sheriff's office interact with the community, that's a different space. And as I said, she isn't elected. And so those types of questions, I think, are properly sent in her direction. I really appreciate that. Thank you very much. And again, really, really grateful for your time and for your service. >> Thank you. >> Colleagues, is there anyone else that would like to speak and get into Q for discussion. I'm not seeing anyone. So, I will say thank you again for coming and giving your presentation and um thank you to my colleagues for your patience and flexibility today. Um with that, we will ask the city clerk to file that presentation. >> And thank you. Uh as I said, I live in Minneapolis and I've lived here for decades. Um, I care very much about the city and I know you do too. Care very much about our community and I know you do too. So, we are all trying to figure out how to meet the needs of our community in what's a just unprecedented situation. So, thank you. >> Yeah, thank you for your service during this time. Um, okay colleagues. So, for everyone's awareness, we are going to be adjourning this meeting to tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. March 4th to complete the rest of our discussion agenda. We do plan on having a quorum tomorrow and I don't think there are any other things that we need to mention to that regard. So, we'll just see everyone tomorrow. Thank you for all of your work today. I know it's been a long super cow that will go right into tomorrow. All right, have a good rest of your evening.