All right, here we go. Good afternoon and welcome to assembled family, friends, and community. My name is Casey Carl. I have the privilege of serving as clerk of the city of Minneapolis. In accordance with the relevant provisions of the Minneapolis City Charter and laws of the state of Minnesota, this is the day fixed for the assembling of the newly installed City Council following the 2025 general municipal election as certified by the Municipal Canvassing Board at its meeting November 10th this past year. Certificates of election were provided to all declared winners on November 18th. Those newly elected and reelected members of the City Council were sworn in as required pursuant to City Charter earlier today as part of the city's inauguration ceremony. Consistent with the City Charter and the Council rules, today's organizational meeting marks the commencement of the Council's 2026-2029 term. With that, the Minneapolis City Council will be in order. The clerk will call the roll of members in numerical order by ward. Council member Payne. Present. Warsame. Present. Rainville. Present. Vetaw. Present. Warren. Present. Osman. Present. Schaffer. Present. Stevenson. Present. Chavez. Presente. Chughtai. Present. Weiner. Present. Chaudry. Present. Palmisano. Present. There are 13 members present. The record will reflect that a quorum is present. The purpose of this first meeting is to organize the City Council for the conduct of city business. This organizational meeting is convened pursuant to notice as required by law, which was first posted on Monday, the 22nd of December 2025. Printed copies of the agenda have been distributed to all members and copies also are available for the public including from the city's legislative information management system from the city's website. Council members at this morning's inaugural ceremony, Mayor Frey offered his inaugural address for the 2026-2029 term. Without objection, I'll direct the clerk to receive and file the mayor's inaugural address and have that spread upon the journal. It's now in order for a motion to adopt the agenda as printed and distributed. May I have such a motion, please? >> So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda. Those in favor, please say I. I. Those opposed, say no. The eyes have it. The agenda has been adopted. Members, the first item of business is the election of officers of this body. In terms of procedure and as provided under the rules, I will administer the election for president and vice president. We will take up the nomination and election of a president and then proceed to the election of a vice president. For each office, we will follow the same process which I'll now explain. First, I'll open the floor to nominations for the office. Any member may nominate themselves or another member. Any member who is so nominated must accept that nomination to be considered. After all nominations have been made, the floor will be closed. At that point, we will proceed to take the vote by roll call. We will vote on nominations in the order they were made and accepted. The clerk will call the roll in numerical order by ward. The first nominee to receive the required number of affirmative votes shall be declared the winner of the election. As provided under city charter section 4.3 C1, an election requires the affirmative vote of the absolute majority of the body. That is, there must be the affirmative vote of at least seven members to be elected to the office. As I indicated, we will conduct the election for president first and then we will follow the the process to elect a vice president. Once the election of officers has been completed, we will briefly pause the proceedings in order to set or seat the president and vice president before taking up the remainder of the agenda. Is there any question about the procedures for the election of officers as I have described them? All right. With that, the first office to elect is that of president, and without objection, I will open the floor to nominations. Are there any nominations for president? Council member Chaundry. Thank you, Clerk Carroll. It is my honor to nominate Council member Elliot Payne to uh seat and office of president of the council. Uh is is it all right if I say a few words? Sure. So, where do I even begin? Um Council member Elliot Payne often times shares his story and how he ended up being a council member. And I think it's one many community members, many council members on this day as see themselves in. He was a servant to this city working in performance management and innovation tirelessly um to ensure that we grew our public safety system and we had justice in our public safety system through the creation of the behavioral crisis response team, one of the most successful teams that we have in the city of Minneapolis. Receiving high regard even at the federal level, and he shares that not to claim credit, but to share that that is a North Star that we have in our city, that we can do hard and difficult things, and in hard and difficult times, like the murder of George Floyd through the pandemic, we can be a leader in this nation, and we can both provide justice, but also service. And specifically to the black, brown, indigenous indigenous residents in our city, and even more so the working people of our city. And he has served steadfastly as the president of the council over the last 2 years, and I have really grown to appreciate his leadership because he does not take credit for himself. He really tries to open up this body to be a place where all council members can find their leadership. And he also understands that he's not perfect and that he's made mistakes along the way, but he's taken those mistakes and turned them into lessons. He's tried to seek out feedback not only for the members that he is entrusted to serve, but from the community members who consistently show up and fill our offices and city halls to call for accountability, to call for better services, to shine a light on the residents in our city that get forgotten far too often in a city that often times feels like a tale of two cities. And I know that Elliot Payne will be a leader that will continue to grow, work with all of us to make sure that this body functions in the direction where we're serving working people, we're serving our city. And in a time where we have attacks from the federal level, many of us have received several phone calls and text messages today about the attacks from ICE in our community taking our community members. He knows that he can come to us and work with us to ensure that this body is steady and ready to come together. And I think that's also shown in the structure that he's put forward, giving us all a chance to lead and grow, and that's a that's the hope that I have for this body. One thing that's really clear is that the city of Minneapolis is really asking us to find a way to work together and not do that in a way where we are compromising our shared values, not do that in a way that we're forgetting each other, that we're holding on to each other, and we're taking big, uncomfortable steps and doing things that are hard and still staying true to what the city is. So, I'm really proud to nominate you. Thank you for serving as a president and sharing your leadership with all of the members that you were entrusted to serve. And thank you for committing to share your leadership in this upcoming term. Councilmember Payne, do you accept the nomination? I accept. Thank you. Are there any other nominations for the office of president? Are there any other nominations for office of president? I would like to um move with the nomination. I would like to nominate Councilmember Pammisano. Councilmember Warren has nominated Councilmember Pammisano to the office of president. Councilmember Pammisano, do you accept? Are there any other nominations for the office of president? One more time, are there any other nominations for the office of president? Seeing none, without objection, the period for nominations is now closed. I will remind Councilmembers we will proceed to vote in the order that the nominations were made. Thus, we will begin with the nomination of Councilmember Payne representing Ward 1 to the office of Council president. The clerk will call the roll. Councilmember Payne. Aye. Wansley. Aye. Rainville. No. Vetaw. No. Warren. No. Osman. Aye. Schieffer. Nay. Stevenson. Aye. Chavez. Aye. Chughtai. Aye. Whiting. Aye. Chaudry. Aye. Pammisano. No. There are eight ayes and five nays. That motion carries. Council member Payne has been elected president. Congratulations, Council member Payne. >> [applause] >> We'll now move on to nominations for the office of vice president. Are there any nominations for the office of vice president? I see Council member Chughtai is in queue. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Um it is my privilege to nominate Council member Osman to the office of Council vice president. Council member Osman, representing Ward 6, has been nominated for the position of vice president. Do you accept? I accept. Thank you. Are there any other nominations for the office of vice president? Council member Whiting. Yes, thank you, uh Mr. Chair. Uh I would like also like to nominate uh Councilwoman uh member Palmisano. Um and if possible, if if I would I be able to say a few words about that nomination? Please proceed. Thank you. Uh I think it's to to my Council colleague uh Choudhry as well. Uh I think we have all seen every single person, whether in this chamber but across our city, um have heard a familiar message from our constituents uh that they are tired of factional politics at City Hall. And we have to come to that moment to move progress because as much as uh civility and decorum and words uh of of of affirmation have been used uh against communities to to to to struggle um in terms of of cruelty, so does gridlock, and so does division, and so does continue toxicity. Uh as somebody who's seen who has seen and had conversations with most of this body, um I have seen and had these conversations over, and I think every single person is unanimous in this um understanding that we are tired of that. Um and we and we want something different. And so, seeing balance, understanding that Council Member Palmisano is at 12 years of service on this body, much of it in leadership. Um she has spent her time sweating the details and ensuring that our government is responsive to the people that we serve. Um and for that and for her her experience and service, um I I am proud to support um Council Member Palmisano in that role. Thank you. Council Member Palmisano, do you accept that nomination? Are there any further nominations to the office of vice president for City Council? Are there any further nominations? Seeing none, the period for nominations is now closed. And again, Council Members, I'll remind you that we will proceed to vote on the nominations in the order that they have submitted. We will begin with a vote on the nomination of Council Member Osman representing Ward 6 to the office of vice president. The clerk will call the roll. Council Member Payne. Aye. Council Aye. Rainville. No. Vita. No. Warren. No. Osman. Aye. Shafer. Nay. Stevenson. Aye. Chavez. Aye. Chittai. Aye. Weiden. No. Chaudry. Aye. Palmisano. No. There are seven ayes and six nays. That motion passes. Council Member Osman has been elected vice president. Congratulations. >> [applause] [applause] >> Council Members and for the audience, we will take a brief recess now as we reseat uh the president. The vice president will stay right where he is. Thank you. >> Tech team, we're ready to start. Uh before we proceed, I just want to share my sincere thanks to my colleagues. I'm truly hum- humbled by your vote of confidence in my leadership. I recognize this position is one of trust and that the primary duty is to reflect the consensus of this body. Especially our four new members on this body, I'm very excited about um getting to know you all and working together with you as we uh put the interest of the city first. Um I also want to thank the work of Mr. Carl. Uh today your team and your entire team, including our new legislative research and oversight team, has done a tremendous job uh shepherding us into the the new term and I think that this is a really uh momentous occasion, especially in the city's history with what we've been through, the two-year terms, the new structure of the government. Uh you've been through a lot, we've been through a lot, and I'm glad that we've arrived here. Uh I also want to thank everyone in the room that took time out of their busy day to mark this occasion with us. Today is supposed to be a day of celebration. A day of joy. A day of transition. And a day of renewal. And there are indeed many things that we should celebrate today. This past term was one of the most productive in recent history. Together, this body worked to keep people safe. We keep We keep people safe by expanding the Behavioral Crisis Response Team, investing in additional vans, staff, and making responders responders available 24/7 in every corner of the city. We've invested in our case closure rate and made investments and um civilian investigators to help MPD close those cases uh while taking burden off of our sworn officers. Shifting the department towards a more civilianization and providing justice to victims and their families. We secured ongoing funding uh for wage theft enforcement, recovering over $2 million in stolen wages. And we will continue transforming our public safety system by expanding services like safety ambassadors in all of our cultural corridors and fully implementing both consent decrees to make MPD more accountable to our community. We've taken bold action on climate change, establishing carbon fees for the city's largest polluters. We've secured We've secured the city's first dedicated funding to combat climate change in our $10 million climate legacy initiative. We've secured funding and approvals for key street reconstruction projects, including historical investments in traffic calming, literally paving the way forward for a safer multimodal future. We've prioritized investments in zero waste so that we can shut down the garbage incinerator. And we will make Minneapolis a beacon of climate resilience by creating a new green economy by going block by block to retrofit every home to meet our carbon reduction goals. We've responded to the housing crisis working to create a more humane response to homeless encampments that treats our unsheltered neighbors with dignity and respect and the funding necessary to transition them into permanent and supportive housing. We've expanded renter protections so that people don't get displaced in the first place. We've banned the use of algorithmic price fixing for rental housing. We've continued investing in stable home stable schools so that MPS students and their families can thrive knowing that they have housing stability. And we've created homeownership opportunities that create generational housing stability. We fought to protect our most marginalized communities. We're expanding protections in our civil rights ordinance adding height and weight just in justice impacted status and housing status as protected classes. We have created a sidewalk cart and street vendor vending program that provides economic opportunity while protecting public health. We've made significant investments in our office of immigrant and refugee affairs providing dedicated staff support and outside legal services for our immigrant community. We've prevented young people from falling into addiction by passing stronger protections for product for tobacco use. And we secured minimum wages not just for Uber and Lyft drivers in Minneapolis but some of the strongest driver protections across the nation. This display This display of progress should absolutely be celebrated. And we owe a debt of gratitude of gratitude to our Democratic Socialist colleagues and the grassroots organizers who helped shape our ambitious agenda. I'm proud to have been a part of a body filled with such bold leaders. Leaders willing to take action on climate change, solve the housing crisis, transform public safety, expand worker protections, and protect public health. Regardless of whether they organize within a political party or as a member of a grassroots organization. In the words of Zohran Mamdani, the newly elected uh mayor of New York, "Those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty." I say let us put our agendas on full display. Agendas of care and and compassion. Agendas of equity and justice. Agendas that show we are not afraid of despots or authoritarians. We celebrate today. We celebrate our return to City Hall and our newly remodeled chamber. And we especially celebrate the return of 4-year terms. >> [laughter] >> And we hope to celebrate a return to a sense of normalcy. But we are clear-eyed about the dark path this country is heading down. We are not afraid. We are not afraid because we are steadfast and we are resilient. We are not afraid because the same grassroots organizers that patrolled our streets when our local government failed our community in 2020, are patrolling our streets today, looking out for our neighbors as federal as the federal government is literally attacking our community right now as we speak. We are not afraid because our networks of mutual aid, who have cared for our unhoused neighbors, are the same networks that are looking out for our immigrant neighbors by hosting food drives and helping transport kids and families to work and school. Nothing about what's happening right now is normal. This moment must move us to show up in ways we have never shown up before. It must move us to govern like we have never governed before. Because unprecedented evil attacks against our neighbors deserve an unprecedented response from local government. Today, let us celebrate. Then let's get back to work. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Colleagues, we'll now proceed to the rest of our agenda, which includes the election of our majority and minority leaders. I'm proposing to restore these two leadership positions to expand the members who serve as part of council leadership. Years ago, prior to the government structure charter amendment, the council had majority and minority leaders. And I think this is an opportunity to bring that expanded leadership team back to city council as we continue to implement the executive mayor and legislative council government structure. In consulting with the city clerk, it's my understanding that under council rule 2.2.d, there is a provision for other officers the council requires to assist in the performance of its duties and to provide for those duties. Accordingly, I've taken the liberty of preparing a rough description of these leadership positions, which I directed the city clerk to include in the amended version of the council rules, which are also included in item for the consideration of the council today. The majority leader and minority leader will perform such duties as may be assigned or delegated from time to time by the president of the city council. The majority and minority leaders would also follow behind the president and vice president in the line of succession that I'm proposing as required by the city charter, which is also an item on our agenda today. So, these positions would serve as part of an expanded council leadership team. I'm proposing the council member that council member Sawant be elected to the office of majority leader and that council member Wanzala be elected to the office of minority leader. Before we take up those proposals, I'll pause to ask if there are any questions from my colleagues about this proposal. Council member Rainville. Thank you. Could you explain what the qualifications are? Is this a political So is the minority leader a political party, majority leader political or this is just your opinion? I'll call on the city attorney to answer that question. Council president council members, so the offices of the the city council are non-partisan offices, so they can't be organized around political parties. So this would not be affiliated with political affiliation. As I stated in my remarks, I really want to expand our leadership team and be able to share the load and have an ability for each member to build relationships and help us build a shared agenda ultimately for the body and I think that reinstituting the majority and the minority leader will help us identify those members where we have majority support of their various policy areas and then there may be some priority policy areas that may not fit within the majority support that I would still like to be able to shepherd through at least the legislative process and I think that the minority leader could serve in that role as well. Well, I'm not going to vote for this because I think this is just keeping our council out of balance. You know how all the votes went today. We are far from being in a position to be moving forward. We're still going to argue with with each other like we did for the last term. So I do not agree with this. Thank you. Councilmember Vita? Thank you. So, I called you yesterday about this because I wanted more information on what these positions meant. I was interested myself, so I wanted to know what a majority and a minority leader would do. And you told me nothing yesterday and you've said nothing today, of course, saying that duties assigned makes absolutely no sense to me. What are those duties? I would like I asked you yesterday, I would like to know at least a baseline of what your vision for these positions could be because you've decided who to nominate for this without even telling me why or how I should be supporting these people. If it's not about a division of party lines or whatever this is. I mean, I really genuinely called you to find out what the roles and responsibilities of these positions were because some other folks here with much more senior, much more seniority, a lot of experience could be interested. And so, I not only do I want to know more about what this is, I would love for you to explain how you decided who and where the people you decided on are going to, you know, like how they're working across the body. Like, where where did these like, yeah, I I don't get it. I'll bring the rest of the room into that conversation a little bit and start with saying that one of the things I was trying to outline is that I truly believe that there are areas of agreement on this body across every every member here. I think there are things that are important to our community that we should be prioritizing that represent a a majority position of this body and I'd like the majority leader to work hand in hand with each one of our members to make sure we're identifying and building out an agenda around a set of priorities that we do believe would be representing the majority of of this body. I also believe that there are a number of policy areas that maybe don't quite have that majority support, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't formalize a process to make sure that we're carrying that agenda through. I I want to end my comments by saying, you know, what I've heard more than anyone in this city um throughout the campaign and leading up to today is that they are sick of the discourse on the Minneapolis City Council. They're sick of the fighting. They're sick of the arguments. And so, why I reached out to you in hopes that you could provide information on um a majority and a minority leader is because I think there are some people here who could if that is a part of what you're saying these positions will do, I think there are some people here who could actually do that. And I think um how you start out in in a imbalance in the wrong way is by you picking those people based on what you think should happen and how it should happen. And I really do think this was something I asked you to delay it to a to a later meeting so that we had time to talk with the people of Minneapolis about this. So, we could see what people want to see. I'm I'm with Council Member Rainville. I'm seeing the same old same old here happening today. And I think it's really going to play out with these committee assignments, but I'm I'm definitely not going to be supporting this. It feels like a trade for votes for me. Thank you. Council Member Chavez? Uh thank you, Council President Payne. I think a good part of the confusion here is that people can nominate somebody. So, I'm not sure if you've officially made nominations. Is that correct? Did someone second it? Otherwise, I'll just nominate Council Member Chughtai as the majority leader. Has that been Do Is there a second? I'll second that. Great. Thank you. So, I want to nominate Council Member I want to nominate Council Member Chughtai as the majority leader of this Council because I know that she can work with everybody to get stuff done for our communities. I know that my sister here is someone that I came into this council in together. She was the youngest person elected when we were here. Still young and I think that something that I've been super proud of her is the way that she has shown up for our communities, the way she has shown up for young people, the way young people see her as someone that they can look up to. Young people have had someone they can look at face to face and know that they can be represented in city government. And I think it's important that we give the young people in this city the chance to learn and grow and know that one day they can also be in the seats to create change for our city. I've seen the way that Council Member Tshuk Tai has taken us through difficult moments and made them seem easy to the public, but behind closed doors they were very difficult. Whether it was her work to make sure that our communities' public safety aid wasn't stripped from their backs, making sure that we preserve public safety aid and still worked with the downtown council member, former Council Member Cashman, to save the convention center. She was able to make sure that we worked with both things, right? Making sure we preserve city assets, but also not losing essential public safety services, particularly directed at neighborhoods of color, neighborhoods where you see a lot of crime, and neighborhood where you see people being left behind. And I was proud that I could call Iesha and say, "I need some help because my community is being left behind." And one thing she always did was stand 10 toes down, making sure that she could work with this body to make sure that that got across the finish line with various perspectives. Whether it was her support as budget chair to make sure that we, as at least as a city council, took a stance of saying we are not going to allow more shelters to be closed down. That was something that was really important that I saw Council Member Tshuk Tai lead us through. I got to call her and when I was stressed out, I knew that she said, "This is my job, too, because this is my community members." And she stood down, 10 toes down, making sure that we can help our people. Whether it was her support through this last budget cycle when I said, "Our communities are literally being under attack by this federal administration. How can we find more uh funding for immigration legal services because this funding that we have right now is not meeting the moment." And Council Member Chaktai said, "All right, let me go look for some funding." And there she did. She found more funding to make sure that we can increase that. Whether it was her work to uh to support the working people of the city, shepherding labor policy through this uh through this city, through the city enterprise, through the city council at a time when we are seeing working people in the city being left behind and corporations getting whatever they want. I got to see Council Vice President Chaktai say, "No, our working people, the working people of the city deserve the help of the city." And working us with this body to make sure that we can at least attempt to pass some policy. And I can go along and on and on and on, uh but we can go back to increasing funding for climate emergency this past December that she helped us lead through that. And I think that she has done a really great job in bringing people together that have different various opinions. And with that, I am very proud to nominate my sister, Council Member Chaktai, to serve as a majority leader. And I know that she'll work with everyone to make sure that we can get stuff done for Minneapolis. Council Member Whiting. Sorry. Give me a little patience here on this one. Uh are we still still able to ask questions about the positions themselves? Certainly. Perfect. Thank you. I think my first question uh uh Council President is is I think if we are defining these positions outside of of partisan roles, um how are we actually defining majority and minority then if they are non-partisan positions outside of of political processes and political parties? Yeah, my my vision for this is that there's going to be a certain set of policy areas that this body is going to want to focus on that are going to be uncontroversial. They're going to be things that we largely agree on that we want to move forward. That would be a majority position of a policy area. There's going to be certain policy areas that might have um the ability to pass this body, but maybe it doesn't have that broad consensus. I think that it is really important that we are building agendas that both reflect that consensus view and that view where maybe we need to do some persuasion, right? And so, just because an idea maybe doesn't by default have seven votes, doesn't mean that it's not that that is not a worthy idea. And I would like to make sure that we are putting just as much legislative effort behind those ideas as those broad consensus ideas. Perfect. Thank you, Council President. I think, you know, what is also helpful, I think it would be as these and I might be missing something here, too, and so I apologize if that is the case, but as these roles and the responsibilities and the and the authority that are attached to these positions, I am not seeing them ascribed um as defined here. I don't know if that is the case. And I am I am will be voting no, I think, on these positions, not necessarily for the individuals, but the positions themselves, I think, require some level of of larger definitions and and positions that actually kind of talk through the authority of those positions as well. So, thank you. Yeah, and I'll say maybe you, as a former member of our City Attorney's Office, may appreciate this answer more than other members on this body, but one of the things that we have kind of moved to as a theme is defining less in our formal docket documents so that it provides more flexibility and opportunity for that interpretation to be refined over time without us having to go back and revise revise amend amend through formal council action. And so, we kept the the descriptor description broad so that we can actually do that refinement together as a body. Thank you, and I'm seeing the the definitions in there as well. So, I appreciate you. Thank you. Yep, Councilmember Warren. Thank you, um, Council President Payne. I'm curious as to this really feels like plausible deniability where it pertains to our Council President and Vice President within these positions that you're looking for a majority or a minority to rule over any said motions that come before the Council where you're saying that it doesn't need a seven-person vote for it to be determined or to be ruled as important. How does this position these two positions differ from President and Vice President? And if it's being left that open and broad, where does accountability live? One of the goals of this, uh, reinstating these positions is to create more accountability. Uh, the role of the President and the Vice President is actually not that defined. Uh, we are elected, uh, essentially the role of the President is the chair of the meeting. That's the only formal duty of the President, uh, and to set the structure. But ultimately the power is of the power of the body. So, we only make we move as a body. So, uh, what we would want to define is going to be defined by the majority of this body. So, I don't I don't know if that answers your question. It does not. And so then if we move with the body and you are the head of the body here as we are a legislative body of Council members and reflective of these positions, then that means that you should instrument that leadership and take into consideration clear and concise motions or decisions that come before this body without the need for a majority or a minority because that's being left too open in space where it doesn't provide any type of boundaries with respect to whatever may come before the body itself. Feedback [snorts] noted. I I move not to vote for that. Council member Vita. Thank you. Um thanks I think colleagues have asked some actually really good thoughtful questions and your response I I just want you to kind of elaborate it on a little bit because um while I'm here processing it basically sounds like you're saying that the minority and the majority leaders are the leaders of ideas. And if we match up with your idea, then you're our leader. So like what the minority I I think Council member Whiting said it. Like what is the if it's not political the majority of what? The majority of people who support the police or the majority of the people who don't or the majority of what? I guess I'm trying to understand. Is it just majority of ideas? I haven't had an opportunity to find out if anyone up here we're going to be working on that for the rest of the week what our shared ideas are what our shared values are. So the majority and the minority of what besides what I can gather is you've just said ideas. I think that's the core of the work that we do as a legislative body is bring ideas into reality. So could that switch though? So will could the minority leader be the majority tomorrow if we find out at the end of the week that we have more shared ideas with the minority leader who is not a political part? I've just never heard those words used in that term in that way for nothing. I think the previous majority and minority leaders there was a Green Party member up here. There used to be Republicans on the Minneapolis City Council and that's what those terms were used for because people were literally divided by party. There were Democrats, there were Greens, there were Republicans and you're saying that we should I I can't even say what you're saying cuz I don't know, but it sounds like we're going to act like we're not doing what was previously done, but use it as a reference, but then say that's not what it really is. I mean, I don't I really wasn't that why clerks or somebody can somebody give us a little history here of why we had majority and minority leaders in the past? Wasn't it political party division? Mr. Clark. Mr. President, as Council member Vita has indicated, years ago, under a separate government structure amendment from 1984, there was an independent body created called the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee was chaired by the mayor, and it was in one body, a unification of the executive authority of the mayor and the legislative authority of the council. Its primary duties was to appoint the 10 charter department heads. And because the charter provided that the membership had to include a minority member of council, assuming that all members of the council weren't from the same party, that generated the need for a minority leader. So, it was not necessarily as a result of party per se, but saying that if there was any member of the council that what if it wasn't all 13 and the mayor were from the same party, then the groups that were out out of the majority had the right to have a seat on that Executive Committee for the purposes of appointing the charter department heads and approving enterprise-wide policies. So, it is true that there was previously a provision for majority minority because of that Executive Committee, which was a public vote to amend the charter. I will indicate that the structure of the Executive Committee was removed based on the government structure amendment in 2021. So, the government structure that Minneapolis elected to have, we are now four years later going to say, we don't like what you did, uh, citizens of Minneapolis. We're going to make up our own stuff. I just want us to be mindful of that, that the people of Minneapolis voted for the current government structure, and we're creating a roundabout, um, for what President Payne said he wants to see this. He So, what he wants to see in the city of Minneapolis outside of what people elected us to do. >> Uh, Mr. President, I certainly I can't comment on the the That you didn't need to >> political nature of that. I will say that, um, in my discussions with the President, I think the underlying intent, and I'm certain I'm not saying this as well as what the President has done, so I'm not sure I'm adding value, but that the goal of this, um, proposal using titles that existed before. So, there's a historic basis for these titles. And that using those titles was intended to broaden, um, council's recognized leadership team, if it were, beyond the two positions of President and Vice President, which have always existed and which are required under the city charter. So, I think that the intent, and the President can speak to that more than can I, was to, um, broaden the membership of the council's elected leadership team. The rules do provide for it. I think it's probably more a uh, use of historic terms. Council Member Warsame. Thank you, President Payne. Um, I do want to offer some further clarification to what you also shared as definitions as it relates to actually one of the positions that I'm running for as the minority leader. Um, the minority represented by the minority leader is not referring to ideas that that have minority support. Um, my intention, and I believe in conversations with you and a number of colleagues has been for this role as it did in its prior iteration is to reflect the leadership of the political diversity that does exist amongst this body. And as it currently stands, we do have council members who do identify as democratic socialists. We have four of them. Um and city attorney, I know just floated this around, you know, that this is not in relationship to political parties. Democratic socialism is not a political party. Um so, I want to name that of it does not have correlations towards a partisan orientation. It's about reflecting the political diversity that existed in this body as it did several years ago with my predecessor, Cam Gordon, who was the only Green Party uh representative on this body also reflected. There was political diversity amongst our body then. They created formal recognition and representation for that space. We're looking to do the same and codify that through our structure as well today. And that's the intent. Council member Palmisano. Council President, um let me try and help out here. Um I heard you say, "Let's expand the leadership circle." And I appreciate that. Um let's make it balanced. Um I think there is someone that voted the least with Council member Chughtai or Council member Wansley. I think it's me. Uh if to look at just past votes, both Council member Chughtai and Council member Wansley, I believe have voted together almost always. So, if the desire is political diversity, which I also appreciate, this is not expanding the leadership circle. I do agree and want to work on ways that we can all this term feel like we are represented at a leadership table. I would suggest, given where the conversation has gone, that we we come back to this. Let's postpone and come back to it. I think I think first off they need better titles. Um but if we want balance um maybe better titles might be a second and third vice president. Maybe better titles might be something other than majority and minority because we seem to be getting lost in the details there and I still can't tell you majority of what. Council member Warren. Thank you Council uh President Payne. Um I'm just still confused at these roles because isn't that the purpose of having the assignment of committees and committee chairs and committee assignments that any any issues that are brought before committee, there would not be a minority or majority of things that don't fit in a bucket of those those organized leadership. So I don't understand this. I just need some more clarity and I like a number of my colleagues think that we should definitely stick stick a pin in this and and revisit this at a later date because it does not line up with a clear understanding of what the roles, responsibilities, or accountability looks like on the behaviors of these individuals. Council President. Seeing no one else signed up to >> that's a second. Oh, Council member Irwin-Herrera. So Mr. President we have three days of planning and goal setting ahead of us. It would just make common sense to wait until that was over and revisit that during that time that we have so we can clear all this up. You have the votes to pass this and if that's how you want to do things and just keep forcing it forcing the vote, then that's what we're going to uh look forward to for the next 4 years. Let's try and do something different. Let's talk this over with each other for the next 3 days and come to consensus on this. Please. Seeing no one Councilmember President Adams. Council President, that was from me a motion to postpone and others have spoken in support of it, so perhaps that's a second. Thank you. There's a motion to postpone. Is there any discussion on that? Councilmember Shafer. Yeah, as a new member of this board, process is really important to me. And so, I would be really thrilled to think about these with a fleshed out job description and more discussion about what their role would be in consideration with the President and the Vice President's role. I'm open to new ideas, but we want to make sure that we have a process that the public cannot point fingers at. We want a process that's above board and is very clear with the public that we want to share with you what we're doing and how we're moving forward. So, for the for that, those points, I would be all in favor of postponing to our next full meeting. Second. Councilmember Wansley, are you in queue? Okay. On the motion to postpone this item, I will ask the clerk to call the roll. Mr. President, just to clarify, are we postponing item the election of majority leader or the the election of both majority and minority leaders? >> I think if we Let's consider both of these Well, I don't know. What do you think? Let's consider both of these. Uh Okay. Mr. Clark. Councilmember Wansley. Councilmember Rainville. Yes. Councilmember Vita. Councilmember Warren. I. Councilmember Shafer. I. Council member Stevenson. Nay. Council member Chavez. No. Council member Shugart. Nay. Council member Whiting. I. Council member Choudry. Nay. Council member Pamasano. I. Vice President Osman. Nay. President Payne. Nay. There are six eyes and seven nays. Uh that item fails. We are back to the question of the election of Council member Chuck Tai to the office of majority leader. Seeing no one else left in queue, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll. Oh. Oh, sorry. Council member Warren. I make myself for majority leader. We have currently a nomination on the floor and we We will have a nomination on the floor with Council member Chuck Tai and then we will take that up next based on the outcome. So, on the motion to elect Council member Chuck Tai as the majority leader, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll. Council member Wansley. I. Council member Rainville. No. Council member Vita. No. Council member Warren. No. Council member Shafer. Nay. Council member Stevenson. I. Council member Chavez. Yes. Council member Shugart. I. Council member Whiting. I. Council member Choudry. I. Council member Pamasano. No. Vice President Osman. I. President Payne. I. There are eight eyes and five nays. That motion carries and Council member Chuck Tai has been elected to the office of majority leader. Congratulations. Next we'll take up the election of minority leader. I'll move to elect Council member Wansley to the office minority leader. Is there a second? Second. Uh any discussion? Council member Stevenson. Um you all beat me to my second, but if you don't mind I'll say a few remarks. Um, it's clear in this time that the Democratic establishment is failing America, uh, and it's failing Minneapolis as well. Um, it's failing working and middle-class people, uh, throughout the city and throughout the country. Uh, my personal experience as a survivor of police violence and as someone who's worked in homeless outreach, I have seen this firsthand. I've seen it in unaccountable policing, in neighborhoods that are not as safe as they can and should be, uh, and in having many, many neighbors sleeping outside night after night with, uh, little progress towards a systemic solution that's going to keep everyone in our city safe, everyone in our city housed, uh, and treat everyone in our city with dignity and respect. Um, we need, uh, Democratic Socialist leadership, uh, to fight for this. We need Democratic Socialist leadership to fight for people over profits, uh, we need it at the national level and we need it on, uh, the Minneapolis City Council as well. Um, Council Member Warsame, uh, is an incredible leader and has produced, uh, an, a large body of work, uh, to name a few, though it's not exhaustive. Um, she has worked to protect and expand the BCR program, which everyone wants to claim now because of how successful it is. Uh, she has led on off-duty reform, uh, which is much needed in this city. She has led on carbon fees. She led on, uh, protections and raises for Uber and Lyft drivers, uh, which has been an, a national success. Um, and she has strong relationships in George Floyd Square, which is of particular importance to me and to the people of Ward 8 and to the city of Minneapolis. And so, um, you already beat me to my second, but, uh, I I want to see Council Member Warsame as the minority leader because she brings the type of work and the experience that we need in this city in order to move forward on critical issues that are facing both us here in the city and the nation as a whole. Thank you. Councilmember Warsley. Thank you, President Payne. Good afternoon, colleagues. And I just want to say thank you for considering this motion to elect me as minority leader of the Minneapolis City Council and to exhibit formal representation of the Democratic Socialists on this body. Democratic Socialism has been a growing political movement nationwide as demonstrated recently by the election of Zora Madumni in New York, and Mayor Katie Wilson in Seattle, and hundreds of Democratic Socialists elected to local offices all across the country. Minneapolis has a strong Socialist tradition. Residents elected a Socialist mayor in 1960, shortly before Minnesota elected a Socialist governor. And 100 years later in 2016, 65% of Minneapolis voters supported Bernie Sanders, a Socialist as well, for president. There have been well-funded campaigns to demonize Socialism. And despite the propaganda, people here in Minneapolis understand that Democratic Socialism is the belief that society and the economy should be structured to meet the needs of working-class people and not to create profit for the wealthiest individuals or corporate interests. Neighbors here in Minneapolis support and care for each other while fighting to change the status quo. And that's what made me fall in love with the city. Minneapolis residents truly believe that the purpose of city government should be to serve them. And when that doesn't happen, we aren't afraid to organize. In 2020, following George Floyd's murder by the Minneapolis Police Department, thousands of residents organized one of the largest social movements in US history to demand an end to racist and violent policing. Now, thousands of residents organized to protect their neighbors from ICE. Minneapolis residents love each other and we believe that everyone deserves to have their basic needs met and that's what Democratic Socialism is about. And it's why Democratic Socialism is a huge and growing movement here in Minneapolis. Voters first elected Democratic Socialists to the City Council in 2021, myself being one of them. And this past November, 65,000, over 65,000 in fact, Minneapolis residents voted for a Democratic Socialist mayor. And going into this term, nearly a third of our City Council identify as Democratic Socialists, collectively representing over 120,000 Minneapolis residents. And over the past four years, the Democratic Socialists that have held seats on this body have won significant policies that have improved the lives of working-class people. We've passed policies to protect the majority of Minneapolis families who are renters. We closed the minimum wage loophole for rideshare drivers, leading to a statewide increase for over 10,000 workers who are mostly immigrant and workers of color. We expanded civil rights protections for residents who may be targeted by discrimination and we were among the first cities to pass a ceasefire resolution that acknowledged the genocide taking place in Gaza. All of these victories happened because working-class residents organized and worked hand-in-hand with the Democratic Socialists on the City Council. And now more than ever, we are going to need Democratic Socialist leadership and strong and organized movements. We are in unprecedented dark times and the Council is going to have to do more with less, protect our residents and respond to multiple crises simultaneously. Most immediately, the Council who to protect our neighbors who are unable to safely go to work while ICE is terrorizing our communities. Allowing residents to be evicted because ICE has made it impossible for them to make rent is unacceptable. And I plan to work with the community and all of my colleagues on this body to prevent looming evictions. As tech companies expand their reach, our city will be faced with serious questions about automation, surveillance, and corporate control. And we need to approach these conversations with a unwavering commitment to labor, community, and accountability. Because new technology in our city must serve the working class and not out-of-state billionaires. This council will also face monumental decisions about how to handle the upcoming fiscal cliff. And austerity and social cuts uh will be catastrophic for our working-class residents unless we put them first. And we can't keep asking working-class homeowners and renters to pay ever-increasing property taxes to weather these financially challenging times. We are going to need everyone to pay their fair share, and we're going to have to generate progressive revenue, and that includes also a tax on the rich. Thousands of our residents lack access to fresh and affordable groceries. In my ward, one in four University of Minnesota students face food insecurity. And I know that other areas of the city are also grappling with the lack of access to fresh foods. Democratic socialists recognize that if the private market and philanthropy aren't delivering food access equitably, government leaders have the responsibility to step in. And democratic socialists have championed a vision for comprehensive public safety that protects all of us. Over the last 4 years, we've made tremendous strides towards making this vision a reality with embedded social workers, violence prevention services, and mental health responders. In the term ahead, we recommit ourselves to these efforts to extend safety to all residents and reject the status quo, especially the most recent proposal to give $50 million to the Minneapolis Police Department to build their own version of a cop city. These will be my top priorities as a minority leader for our Democratic Socialists on this body. And I hope to use this position to represent all residents who have ever supported a Socialist candidate or a social justice campaign. I also hope to represent residents who do not identify as Socialist, but want local government to utilize all the tools that we have to make lives easier for ordinary people. So, with that colleagues, I am asking for your vote today as minority leader for the Democratic Socialists that do exist on this body. We're lucky to have political diversity amongst this council, and voting for a minority leader is a vote to acknowledge that diversity no matter how you see yourself in relation to the Democratic Socialist movement. And I look forward to working with every single one of you to improve the lives of working class people and to make Minneapolis a beacon of hope and inspiration for this country. Council member Warsame. Thank you, Council President Payne. And thank you, Council member Rob Wansley for the history lesson we just received. What I won't allow us to do is play in the face of Minneapolis residents when we just stated in your very bleak definitions of majority and minority leader that these were non-partisan positions, and you just made it completely about the Democratic Socialist Party, which is completely unfair to the residents of Minneapolis or the members sitting on this council right at this time. Council member Vita. Thank you. Um, let me just say I don't always agree with Council member Wansley, but she she says what she's coming to do. And she said what the definition meant. I should have called you yesterday and asked you what the roles and responsibilities were going to be because you laid it out clear on what the minority leader is. Instead, I got the now newly elected president who acted like he didn't know what it meant and you I'm I know for a fact you told him what you wanted to do based off of what you just told everybody that's watching and what you just said up here. You made it very clear on what you saw the roles and the responsibilities as the minority leader. So, I appreciate that. I respect that. Thank you for making it very clear. I am I am just I don't even I the word it's just escaping me on how I feel that we've been lied to. It is clear that these are this is about parties. We just not only did we hear Council Member Warsame talk about the party. We heard her nominee the person who nominated her talk about why he was nominating her and that it was about the party. And so, all of this again, all we needed was time to really define what these roles and responsibilities could be and maybe it would have been Council Member Chak Thai. But from what I know about Council Member Chak Thai, she's listed as a socialist, TOO. IT'S NOT that she's not listed as a Democrat, but she's also listed as a Democratic Socialist. And so, that this feels like we have two people with the same agenda, the complete opposite of what you said you wanted Council President newly elected Council President Payne. Um the opposite is before us again, the the complete opposite. Everything was this is not about political parties. This is different than previous majority and minority leaders and the nomination and the actual candidate said nothing but this is about the Democratic Socialist Party. Gave us a wonderful history lesson in Minneapolis in socialism from 19 whatever to up to to her. So, I mean like I I do appreciate you cuz you [clears throat] do that. You're not going to like sugarcoat it for people and make us think like it's what what's to come ain't coming. So, I really do appreciate that. I'm not supporting it cuz I knew that this was about parties and I think it's unfair to the people of Minneapolis to have just sat up here and be reelected and someone gave a speech about how you work with everybody and whatever. It it just it doesn't even make sense. It it just doesn't. Council member Whiting. Uh thank you, Chair. Uh and to to my colleague as well Council member Vita, I I think we are also and first I think let me walk this back a little bit first. Uh can I nominate Council Woman Vita um for role of minority chair? Uh right after we take up the first I don't even know what this means. Are we back to me, LaNay, and Rainville and I are the minority leader of the three of us? I don't know. >> since we didn't Don't GIVE ME A JOB. [laughter] I do not accept. I don't want a job. I have never taken a job without a description. I appreciate you, Jameson, but it it is not my ministry. >> we're going to define majority and minority, right? Let's define it. And so, I think right and the nomination is purely based on if we are defining what is majority and what is minority, let's just name it, right? This city has done for the last 4 years and the last 2 years explicitly factions of council. And if we are purely talking about factions on this council, which I think every single person in the city of Minneapolis, uh this body in this chamber, uh across our enterprise and across this administration no longer want to deal with because we want progress. If we are purely talking about that, then sure. Let's use that as a minority, right? If we if we want to talk about factions, I I think we just saw votes along some of those lines. Right? And so then would that put us uh would that put a certain faction in the minority? And that is why well, maybe that is a minority vote to to put Councilwoman Vita on there. And so maybe you'll rethink it Councilwoman Vita, but it looks like maybe we we have to define some of these versions of what the defense definition of majority and minority is, but sounds like it's a a no to that recommendation. >> do I really [laughter] do appreciate that. But again, not my ministry. Thank you. Council member Chaudry. Thank you, President Payne. Just first of all, I think I want to just correct the record. The DSA, Democratic Socialists of America, are not a party. Like we just need to say that everyone even within the Democratic Socialists of America, there's a debate, like and a big deep divide of like is it party building into the future or is it no longer a party? So really looking at the non-partisan nature of what majority and minority leader are as our city attorney laid out. DSA does not qualify by as a party. There are members that identify with that political belief and system, and that's really apparent in our city. As you said, like we know that there there are people that are pushing that agenda, working towards it across the country. We now have a mayor in New York, the largest city in the the country that is a DSA member and a DSA elected prior to becoming a mayor. Right? That's that that's the future. We're here. Right? Welcome to 2026. And it's a growing growing movement, and it is really rooted in addressing the material needs of working people because entrenched power in established parties, Democrat, Republican, has often times left people behind to the point of the largest party in our country being the the block of people who don't vote in any election because they have been so left behind because they are worried about food on their table, unable to pay for health care or receive it, or get basic city services. And we're lucky in the city of Minneapolis, we have such quality city services. Other cities are really really hurting for it. With with the majority leader conversation, I think I want to just put this out there for my colleagues to think about and the public to think about. The role of majority leader, as in our conversation and as defined here as assigned and delegated by the president or by the city council, is actually a pretty onerous role because your job is to put aside what your personal agenda, what you were were elected for, what you campaigned on aside. That can't be your job. You can't just only singularly look at your own agenda. It has to be the agenda of the entire body, which is what we are going to be developing in this next week. I'll give you an example of an agenda that we are all running towards. Creating more housing. We all have a say in defining how we want to create that type of housing. And that's what Council Member Chughtai has to take up. Even if she has a disagreement with it, she has to try to move those things through. And that's something that we can have a conversation about. Right? There are items that we have not passed in this body. There were not enough votes to pass it through. For for a second there in the last term, people were not going to support my boulevards ordinance. >> [snorts] >> They're like, this is too our our boulevards ordinance, right? People are like, this is too in the weeds. Pun intended. And they're like, this is unnecessary. That was a minority item. And perhaps Council Member Warsame will have to take those things up too. Because it might be a minority opinion, right? And there are little city specific things that are very Parks and Rec-y in nature that are going to be minority opinion. And there are going to be bigger picture things. And that same thing goes for the majority. So these two individuals actually have to take up the role of putting aside their own singular personal agenda and articulating something for a collective people. And Council Councilmember Chung Tiezzi is a big one. There are definitely things in this body that we have a uh a a 13-0 support for and maybe it's like 8-5. Maybe it's um 12-1. And maybe that's something we should take up in deciding because clearly today we saw a 7-6 split. Maybe a majority isn't defined as 7-6. Maybe it's bigger than that. Maybe it's a larger collective of us. Because one thing I will say serving on the City Council for the last 2 years and also being a policy aid is one of our strong suits is having these really really great ideas and putting them forward. But one of our weaknesses is articulating it into a comprehensive strategy and an agenda for us to achieve on the offensive, right? We're often times reacting to things. And so having a role like this can help us focus in. And so I would encourage my colleagues to not think that all is lost in this role and actually use it as a tool to further the goals that you have. Councilmember Palmisano. Council President Payne, um you just said the minority needs more representation and then you voted against more time to understand and figure out how we might work more collaboratively together in an expanded leadership circle. I think these last votes, particularly the unwillingness to have more conversation, have already demonstrated that there is no listening to the minority of this council. I think that my colleagues are mixing the terms DSA and minority. Not on this council. And next it will be reflected in our succession plan. Ironically, as both the majority and minority leaders, this absolutely signals to me that Minneapolis council leadership doesn't want to change anything from the past 2 years, only to further entrench our division. Council member Whiting. Uh thank you, Chair Payne. And I think my council colleague um Chaudry raises the thing I think I'm most confused about here. Uh she mentions that if our majority leader who's just elected has to put aside their personal beliefs for a majority opinion or more majority policy uh I think those same confusions arise when we're talking about minority leaders, particularly around the conversation um that my council colleague Robin Wonsley also just raised. So, if there is a if there is a position uh that we can all foresee uh that is actively against the DSA policy or DSA platform, and it is the minority of this body, will Robin Wonsley, sorry, or Council member Wonsley uh have to put aside those DSA platforms because that policy is within the minority of this body? I think that is where the the confusion for me most lies in in this. Council member Wonsley. Yes, thank you, Council member Whiting. I'll just reiterate this once again. This is reflecting the political diversity. It's not about minority of ideas. That's going to constantly shift. And as someone who's been on this body for 4 years and who have been very clear in their representation as a Democratic Socialist, also as the only independent amongst this body, and who has in their office produced the largest quantity of ordinances and legislative action that has garnered support by a number of my colleagues new uh or existing, well, existing. I have clearly demonstrated ability to represent the interest of our entire city, to work with my colleagues to get to a common goal, but being very firm about it's around we need to be responding to the needs of everyday people. So, that is the diversity. It's not about committing to the minority rule that might constantly shift amongst this body. Thank you, and I think right, my confusion is is not with uh Council Member Wanzi. I think it is with the definitions again. Um I think uh when our Council President uh defined those positions of actual policy, right? Like these definitions in policy positions. Uh and I think we are seeing that actually right now kind of play out. It seems like we do not have a good definition between all 13 of us of what that actually looks like. And I think that's why we're having these conversations right now because we actually don't have a good understanding of what these roles actually mean. Uh and I think that is where the confusion lies. Uh just like I think Council Councilwoman Vita, right? You come exactly what what what you're going to say, right? And I I appreciate that. And I think trying to figure out the definitions within what these things actually mean, these positions themselves, not the individuals that sit in the positions, but the positions themselves, I think are are are are need a a full understanding and I think deeper discussion. Thank you. On the question Oh. Are you good? Okay. On the question to elect Council Member Wansley to the minority leader, the clerk will call the roll. Council Member Wansley. >> Aye. Council Member Rainville. >> No. Council Member Vita. >> No. Council Member Warren. >> No. Council Member Sheffer. No. Council Member Stevenson. Aye. Council Member Sabatino. >> Aye. Council Member Shaughnessy. >> Aye. Council Member Whiting. >> No. Council Member Choudhury. Aye. Council Member Palleschi. No. Vice President Osman. Aye. President Payne. Aye. There are seven ayes and six nays. That carries and Council Member Wansley has been elected to the office of minority leader. Congratulations to Council Member Wansley. >> [applause] >> I will now recognize Council Member Osman. Thank you so much, President. Osman. So much, Council President. >> [laughter] >> Appreciate it. Thank you. I just didn't get a chance to really thank my colleagues. Uh someone who has worked for four different council bodies. Uh uh it's really an honor to to serve my residents and serve residents of Ward 6. And I'm grateful uh for your uh confidence and vote today. Uh I'm committed uh to strengthen our city and continue to really bring us all in together. We all talk about, you know, collaboration, but we you got you got to be that seven vote to be a collaboration, right? Can be like, you know, um Uh and that that is what I have been and I that's what I continue to be. And, you know, uh the goal for me is to really build everyone's relationship and everyone um understand their their concern, you know, what what are they going through? What is what is their difficulty or challenges they're having in their ward? And um I understand for us is to come here and debate and really uh make a bigger decision, but every decision we make it it has affect someone's life and and it's just a honor for all of you to work with you and and you know my office open my phone is open and I would love to uh you know all of you to collaborate and and and be that leader that you can come to and also with honor to serve serve with you Councilmember Payne Councilmember Payne you did a phenomenal job last term and I know we will definitely accomplish a lot next few years. So thank you so much. Thank you. Uh that completes the election of council officers. We'll now proceed to the order of new business as reflected on our agenda. I've asked the clerk to prepare a packet of the proposed resolutions and actions for all the agenda items which you should have at your desks. Each of these items is numbered to correspond to the agenda to facilitate our consideration of these matters. There are six items which are numbered in your packets your packets as NB1 through NB6 followed followed by the introduction of two ordinances shown on the agenda. The first item is a resolution establishing lines of succession to the offices of mayor and council president as required by the city charter and our code of ordinances. The draft before you identifies both name and position of those council members who are in line and in what order to assume the office of council president and as necessary the office of mayor. By charter the president is the first in the line of succession to the office of mayor and the vice president is the first in the line of succession to the office of city of the council president and the second in line to succeed to succeed the office of the mayor. >> [snorts] >> Beyond that you can see that the third member in the line of succession would be the majority leader followed by the minority leader and after that in order set forth in the resolution as needed. Are there any questions from members? Seeing none I'll ask the clerk to call the roll. Councilmember Wansley. Aye. Councilmember Rainville. Aye. Councilmember Vito. Aye. Councilor Warren. Aye. Councilor Shafer. Aye. Councilor Stevenson. Aye. Councilor Chavez. Aye. Councilor Shabbaz. Aye. Councilor Whiting. Aye. Councilor Choudhury. Aye. Councilor Palmisano. Aye. Vice President Osman. Aye. President Payne. Aye. There are 12 ayes. That item carries. 13 ayes. That item carries. The next item of business is a resolution establishing the standing committees of the City Council. The draft in your packet reflects the proposal I'm offering including the number of committees, committee leadership and membership, quorums, and the dates for regular meetings. Colleagues returning from the last term will see that I've largely retained the previous committee structure. That includes a total of six standing committees and one special committee. I'll point out that the former administration and enterprise oversight committee has been reformed as the enterprise and labor relations committee, giving this committee a stronger emphasis on the issues related to the city's labor relations and workforce. Um and the public health and safety committee is also been modified to reflect public health, safety, and equity to reflect some of the re-shifting of the administration and enterprise, the former administration enterprise oversight committee. Four of the standing policy committees will meet in the first week of our regular 2-week cycle. That includes the reformed enterprise and labor relations committee on Mondays, the business, housing, and zoning committee on Tuesdays, the renamed public health, safety, and equity committee on Wednesdays, and the climate and infrastructure committees on Thursdays. All regular meetings of these four standing committees will be programmed at 1:30 p.m. on their respective assigned days in the first week cycle. The one major change change I'm proposing is that the membership of these standing committees be increased from six to seven council members. In the second week of the cycle, the budget committee will continue to meet at 1:30 on Mondays, and the committee of the whole will continue to meet at 1:30 on Tuesdays. Both of the both of these standing committees, as well as our special intergovernmental relations committee, will consist of all 13 council members. Regular meetings of the full city council will continue to be scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. on Thursdays in the second week of the regular council cycle. In terms of committee leadership, I'm pleased to submit my proposal that the following council members shall lead these committees. For Enterprise and Labor Relations Committee, Council Member Paul Moschino will be the chair and will be assisted by Council Member Whiting as vice chair. For the Business Housing Zone and Zoning Committee, our Vice President Council Member Osman will resume his leadership as chair and will be assisted by Council Member Chaudhry as vice chair. Council [snorts] Member Chavez will continue leading the Public Health, Safety, and Equity Committee assisted by Council Member Stevenson as the committee's vice chair. Our Minority Leader, Council Member Wanzley, will take on leadership of the Climate and Infrastructure Committee with the assistance of Council Member Stevenson as vice chair. Our Majority Leader, Council Member Chughtai, will continue to provide leadership of our Budget Committee with the able assistance of Council Member Warren as her vice chair. Council Member Chaudhry will lead our Committee of the Whole with Council Member Chughtai as vice chair. Council Member Whiting will take leadership of our Standing Settlement Agreement and Consent Decree Subcommittee under the Committee of the Whole and I will be assisting as vice chair of that subcommittee. Finally, Council Member Chaudhry will continue her leadership of our special committee, the Intergovernmental Relations Committee, with the assistance of Council Member Council Member Rainville as vice chair. I want to extend my sincere thanks to all council members who stepped up and agreed to lead these committees in the important work we know that the city will be tackling in this next term. Are there any questions from council meeting council members about the proposed committee structure? Council Member Warren. I never asked to be the vice chair of budget. Okay. Any other questions? S- S- Seeing none, I have moved the resolution. Council Member Warsame. I think that it is really unfair that the senior council members as we have four new members who have taken a role and have been seated and have stood up in representation of their wards and all of these decisions were made behind the backs of individuals who have not You have not established relationship. You're picking majority, you're picking minority. You're putting people where you want them to be without asking anyone anything. You haven't had the opportunity to get to know anyone, to see what their strengths are, who needs to be where or what anyone else wants to do. I don't think that's completely inconsiderate and unfair to the constituents of our wards and to individuals in the city that we represent. I don't think that that's fair. I just don't. Anyone else in queue? Seeing none, I have moved the resolution. Council Member Palmisano. Mr. President, is now the appropriate time for comments? I don't have any questions. Go ahead. I'd like to ground my comments in things that we heard today at the inauguration ceremony. Bishop Howell called us to value unity over division. Imam Hamza implored us in the shared responsibility of leading with engagement over distance, inclusion over exclusion, and partnership over silence. Rabbi Zimmerman encouraged us to build bridges over differences and work toward a partnership for the greater good of everybody in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, I do not see the proposal in front of us honoring the charge we were given this morning. Council President Payne, in your email to us last evening, which was the first time several of us saw this structure, you stated, "We have spent the last few days and weeks in conversation about the council of the structure of the council for the next term." And you said, "I have tried to incorporate all member feedback to the best of my ability and this is a reflection of that effort." So, who is we? I certainly wasn't invited to participate in council in conversations about changes to the structure of the council this term. Is this really how you want to lead again? Council President Payne, you put the four DFL-ascribed members on everything. This is overrepresentation. The brand new members of this body put out a joint statement. They challenged us to be fair, balanced, and collaborative. I think that's a great challenge. Let's do join them. Let's try to be balanced and fair and collaborative. This doesn't look like that kind of structure to me. This just feels like a continuation of last term. So, to my new colleagues, do you feel valued and heard that your challenge for us to collaborate was taken seriously? Do you feel treated fairly? I think this is a really poor start and it shows a lack of leadership. We can do better than this and we must do better than this. President Payne doesn't get to make these appointments. He proposes them. So, I would encourage my colleagues to find themselves in this structure and suggest some amendments and I would be happy to entertain them. >> Seeing no one else left in queue. Councilmember Stevenson. I just want to clarify that the the four new city council members, we did not specify balanced as as something in our statement. We were talking about respect for each other and treating each other as as fully human. And I think that was the majority of what we were trying to get out with that statement. The question on the resolution establishing the standing committees, the clerk will call the roll. Well, Councilmember Vita. I'm sorry. I'm just wondering if things need to be amended before or after we or are we going to have discussions about So like Councilmember Warren has clearly said budget was not of her interest, but I know that Councilmember Schaefer was very interested in budget and like we've had conversations. We've had conversations with uh Councilmember Chuck Thai about it majority leader Chuck Thai about this and I'm just wondering at what part of this process do we get to maybe amend or suggest that Councilmember Warren that exchange for Councilmember Schaefer instead maybe. Are you making a motion? Yes. I'd second that. Any discussion? Councilmember Schaefer. Uh my spirit in joining this board was to serve public service. And so I was surprised to see my freshman colleagues all have leadership positions except for myself. Hm. That's fine. I came to serve. But I would love to be vice chair of budget if this body so chose. I would love to work with my Uptown colleague uh Chair Chughtai if this body so chose. I have been uh chair of the Admin Finance of the Park Board at various times, vice chair various times, um have always participated in great detail in the Park Board budget, bringing forward amendments almost every year, some successful, some not successful. Um so yes, if this body so choose, it would be a privilege to take this role as a public servant to the greater group, and I do look forward to working with everyone. I know we've had a little bit of a rocky start here today, but we're bigger, we're better, and uh I'm not going to let this narrative shift on one meeting. So um yes, I would be considered uh as vice chair of budget. Council Member Chavez. Uh thank you, Council President Payne. If there is an amendment to this resolution, I will strongly encourage my colleagues to reject it. I think that the resolution brought forward by the president is perfectly fine and will support the underlying motion, but I will not be supporting an amendment to change the leadership of budget. So that is my position. Is there anyone else left in queue? On the amendment to add remove uh Council Member Warren as vice chair of budget and replace that with Council Member Schefman Schafer, I will ask the clerk to call the roll. Council Member Warsame. >> Nay. Council Member Rainville. Yes. Aye. Council Member Vita. Aye. Council Member Warren. Aye. Council Member Schafer. Aye. Council Member Stevenson. Aye. Council Member Chavez. No. Council Member Chughtai. Aye. Council member Whiting. I. Council member Chaundry. I. Council member Palmisano. I. Vice President Osman. I. President Payne. I. There are 11 eyes and two nays. That carries uh and the underlying motion of the resolution as amended is before us. Is there any discussion? Council member Vita. I have another one. It might be a long shot, but Council member Warren did uh show great interest in CNI. She gave us actually a compelling argument that um climate and infrastructure was a big deal to North Minneapolis. She thought that it was um imperative that she learn that department, that she learn those departments and that she learn how things were operated because that's what she heard from her constituents more than anything else was the services out of that committee is what they wanted to see the city do better for them. They wanted her to come down here and be a master at it. So, I would like to also amend this to um remove Council member Stevenson from vice chair uh which would be a second chair. He's chair He's listed as chair of public health and safety and also of CNI and to add Council member Warren to CNI as the vice chair. Please. I would second that. Council member Vita has moved to remove Council member Stevenson as vice chair of of climate and infrastructure. Uh that's been seconded. Is there any discussion? Council member Stevenson. I wanted to bring up um I was also elected on a mandate uh for the work that goes through that committee. Um George Floyd Square 3/4 of it is in uh Ward 8. That is of vital importance to me. It's of vital importance to the city. Uh I think that I should be the vice chair of climate and infrastructure for many reasons, that being one of them. Many more being Ward 8 is full of climate leaders, whether it's 100% campaign, Faith in Minnesota, transportation advocacy, many, many more. So this is a vital importance to Ward 8. Many, many of the leaders on climate and infrastructure issues live in Ward 8 and have elected me with a mandate on these particular issues. So I would like to keep that vice chairship. Council member Vita. Thank you. And thank you for that, Council member Stevenson. I just want to make a note that when we speak of disparities, when we speak of all the things, the resources that our communities don't receive, that is the community that Council member Warren represents. And so when we think of climate inequities, all the conversations we have on this Council, the decisions we make around climate inequities in the areas where we need to do better at, they are almost always in Council member Warren's area, where she represents. And if her constituents are calling for her to come here and figure things out in a different way than they've ever been done before, I think we all should set her up to to really just do a great job for the North side. I mean, this means a lot to this community. The North side wants to see it happen. I'm not saying that the South side doesn't have um the you know, that they don't have the chops to get it done. But what I know is when I see advocates showing up on behalf of climate issues and some of these issues through public works, where I see little participation is from the North side. And I wholeheartedly believe that Council member Warren in this position could change that. Not only who we see show up at City Council meetings advocating for themselves, but also bring a level of education to these committees that these communities that have been underserved always. I can't even say decades, always underserved with climate infrastructure and infrastructure issues. And so, I really would like to see us set her up to succeed and take this back to her community as a big win and do some big things with this for North Minneapolis and all underserved communities in this city. Is there anyone left in queue? Well, I'll I'll I'll just make a point here that um I I I meant what I said. I did my very best effort to balance a lot of competing priorities based on a number of conversations. Uh and one of those priorities was making sure that the North Side was represented in some of the most critical decisions made. That's why I wanted Council Member Warren to take on that leadership role of budget. I also knew how important uh the future of George Floyd Square was to Council Member Stevenson and his personal story connected to the murder of George Floyd and how he wanted to show up in our community and why he wanted to be the vice chair of PHS as well as making sure that there is a future for George Floyd Square that reflected the values of what happened in that community. And so, my my attempt at balancing those two competing priorities cuz I had I had heard an interest from that Council Member Warren wanted to have that role of the vice chair of climate and infrastructure as I felt that having a leadership role on budget would give her an opportunity to really move the resources of this institution and really move those resources in a way to serve the North Side. Um but the it's about the will of the body. Uh I'm not going to be supporting this amendment because I know how important this is to Council Member Stevenson. Uh Council Member Warren. Thank you, Council Payne. Um, in your statement you are frequently referencing what it is that you have heard because you neglected to have a conversation with me. As I stated to you on yesterday when you um, reached out to me and told me what others had decided on my behalf, you would not had a conversation with me about what my desires were, what were um, things that were very important to me within my community and within my ward that elected me into this position to sit amongst this body and ensure that we have fair and just things that are happening for North Minneapolis. My community is just as marginalized disenfranchised if not more than whatever's happening in Ward 8. And these things are very important to my ward, they're very important to me. I was an environmental justice fellow with the City of Minneapolis EJCC for over um, for two terms and still do other work with environmental justice and and the public works and the service the service that has happened in my ward needs some change and it needs to be effective and we need sustainability for our communities across the board but definitely in the Fifth Ward. So, um, I appreciate you um, you know, preemptively thinking or however you know, you drew your conclusion but I don't think that it was fair. You did not come and have a sit-down conversation with me after you you stated that you would um, but made decisions on behalf of me without my consent and I expressed inference interest in climate and infrastructure and bids not in budget. >> [snorts] >> Council Member Chavez. No, I'm just ready to vote. Seeing no one left in queue. Oh, oh, Councilmember Landry. It's okay. We're getting used to this dais. Thank you, Council President Payne. Thank you, Council President Payne. So, I think I want to just like ground us in the fact that uh being a member of a committee means taking up a a lot of the work. Being a member of the committee means you will be participating in shaping the agenda of the work of that committee. And all of the all of the members on this body that are chairs and vice chairs should listen to their committee members and get their items and work on the agenda. And so, I think that's an important thing to note because there's there's opportunity um for everyone to to do the work of representing their community whether they have a gavel or not. Um that's certainly not the place where I started. I got Intergovernmental Relations Committee. Um which wasn't a committee that was doing a lot and then I tried to work on making it into something and that's still a work in progress in my first term. I served as vice chair of Committee of the Whole with a chair that was very hands-on. And honestly, it it was kind of nice to be able to be a member that kind of got to just focus in on understanding what What is your role? what each what each city council does it what each city council committee does. And so, and that's just something that I wanted to note to everyone is like we will be able to all collectively do plenty of work on this committee on these committees. And I think expanding it to a seven-person body too ensures that more of us get to participate in various committees and help shape the work that we're going to take up. Seeing that one left in queue, I'll the clerk to call the roll on the amendment to add Councilmember Warrend as vice chair of the climate and infrastructure committee. Councilmember Warsley. >> Nay. Councilmember Rainville. >> Aye. Councilmember Vita. Aye. Councilmember Warrend. Aye. Councilmember Schafer. Aye. Councilmember Stevenson. Nay. Councilmember Chavez. No. Councilmember Shabtai. Nay. Councilmember Whiting. Abstain. Councilmember Chaudry. No. Councilmember Palmisano. Aye. Vice President Osman. No. President Payne. No. There are five ayes, seven nays, and one abstention. That uh that fails. Uh we will now take up the underlying resolution as amended with uh Councilmember Schafer as vice chair of budget. And the clerk will call the roll. Councilmember Warsley. Aye. Councilmember Rainville. Aye. Councilmember Vita. Aye. Councilmember Warrend. Aye. Councilmember Schafer. Aye. Councilmember Stevenson. Aye. Councilmember Chavez. Aye. Councilmember Shabtai. Aye. Councilmember Whiting. Aye. Councilmember Chaudry. Aye. Councilmember Palmisano. Uh no. Vice President Osman. Aye. President Payne. Aye. There are 12 ayes and one nay. That resolution is adopted and our new committee structure is hereby approved. The next item is adoption of the 2026 calendar of regular meetings of the City Council and its committees, which satisfies the statutory requirement for notice of such meetings. This action also includes a direction to the clerk to publish and post yet that adopted calendar and to update it as necessary to reflect the needs of the council. A copy of the draft calendar is included in your packets. For my colleagues in the public, I'd like to note that the first cycle of regular meetings will commence the week of January 26th. Also, [snorts] I'll point out that as adopted by the last council, our January schedule already includes two tentative one-week cycles to address any time-sensitive matters pending the start of the regular meetings. Those one-week cycles are for the weeks of January 12th and January 19th. Based on conversations with the clerk, it seems that it is likely we may need to use at least one of these interim cycles to dispense with some time-sensitive business. The need for these meetings or the decision to cancel them will be communicated to council members via email, as well as to the public through the city's legislative information management system on the city's website. I'll also note that it is customary for council to adopt a calendar for its entire term. At this time, the clerk's office is still confirming legal holidays, dates of significance, and other matters in years 2027, 28, and 29. I understand that they will bring forward a draft calendar for those out years at a future meeting. Are there any questions from council members about the 2026 calendar? Seeing none, I move to the adoption of the 2026 calendar. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Clerk, there's there's no public comment during these meetings. There's there's no public comment during these meetings. I'm sorry. Um the clerk will call the roll on the question of the adoption of the 2026 calendar. Councilmember Wansley. Aye. Councilmember Rainville. >> Aye. Councilmember Vita. Aye. Councilmember Warren. Aye. Councilmember Shafer. Aye. Councilmember Stevenson. Aye. Councilmember Chahine. Aye. Councilmember Chaudry. Aye. Councilmember Whiting. Aye. Councilmember Chughtai. Aye. Councilmember Palmisano. Aye. Vice President Osman. Aye. President Payne. Aye. There are 13 ayes. That motion is adopted and our calendar is approved. The city clerk is directed to post and publish that calendar as required by law and to maintain the calendar as needed. Next, we have a resolution adopting the Council Rules of Order. The current version of the rules was adopted in 2024 pursuant to City Charter Section 4.4A1, and those rules remain in effect. You'll note that the copy in your packet is marked as the 2026 version and already incorporates both the majority and minority leader positions in the committee structure. Are there any questions from Council members? I'll move the resolution to adopt the 2026 version of the Council Rules of Order. Is there a second? >> Second. Uh the clerk will call the roll. Council member Wansley. Aye. Council member Rendo. Aye. Council member Vito. Aye. Council member Warren. Aye. Council member Schaefer. Aye. Council member Stevenson. Aye. Council member Chavez. Aye. Council member Shugart. Aye. Council member Whiting. No. Council member Chaudry. Aye. Council member Pamanasana. Aye. Vice President Osman. Aye. President Payne. Aye. There are 12 ayes and one nay. That resolution is adopted. The 2026 version of the Council Rules have been formally adopted. The next item is designating Council members to serve on the Audit Committee. The Audit Committee is an independent decision-making body established by City Charter that is responsible for the city's audit function, including the appointment and supervision of the City Auditor. As provided in Section 8.140B1 and C1, this the Council President is responsible for appointing two Council members to serve on the Audit Committee, one of whom is designated as the committee's chair. Pursuant Pursuant to that provision of the City Code, I hereby name myself as chair of the Audit Committee and Council member Shugart as the second Council member to continue serving on the Audit Committee for the next term. Are there any questions? I'll ask the the clerk to call the roll. Uh Mr. President, there's no vote on this item. It's a a decision by the Council President. It's noted and filed with the clerk. Noted. All All The next item of business is a resolution that appoints council members to various organizations, agencies, boards, commissions, and groups as representatives of the city council of the city of Minneapolis. Colleagues, without objection, I'm going to postpone this item. In consultation with the clerk, we would need additional time to review, finalize, and update the list of these external appointments to be sure we have a comprehensive list. We'll be reaching out to all members to verify these appointments and anticipate bringing the action back at our next council meeting of the whole committee meeting of the whole. With that, we've completed the new business items on the agenda. Finally, we have two ordinance introductions to refer to proper committees. These are routine actions that are included in every organizational meeting to expedite the notice and referral of these matters during the coming term. The introduction essentially opens these chapters for routine recurring actions. In your packet are two motions that accomplish these referrals, which include the introduction and referral of amendments to title two chapter 20 related to wages and salaries, which will we will refer to the Enterprise and Labor Relations Committee. The introduction and referral of amendments to title 20 chapter 530 related to rezonings, which we will refer to the Business, Housing, and Zoning Committee. Colleagues, are there any questions on these referrals? Seeing none, I'll move introduction and referral of these matters. May I have a second? Second. The clerk will call the roll. Council member Wonsley. I. Council member Rainville. I. Council member Vetaw. I. Council member Warren. I. Council member Chaffeur. I. Council member Stevenson. I. Council member Chavez. I. Council member Ellison. I. Council member Palmisano. I. Council member Chughtai. I. Council member Palmisano. I. Vice President Osman. I. President Payne. I. There are 13 eyes. That motion carries and those subject matter introductions have made and referred to the committees as indicated. Colleagues, that completes all items on the agenda today. With that, the city council has completed its organizational meeting for the 2026 through 2029 term. I want to again repeat my thanks and to reiterate that I'm excited to get started on the work that we will accomplish together. With that, we've completed all business and without objection, I will declare this meeting adjourned.