Last fall, Minneapolis voters failed to rid their city council of the progressive majority that has led the city into a perpetual state of disfunction. In recent weeks that election result has been rearing its ugly head, culminating yesterday with the council rejecting Mayor Frey’s reappointment nomination of Todderick Barnette as the city’s Commissioner of Community Safety. Frey has vowed to veto the move, but the legality of that remains unclear. Losing Barnette would weaken the city’s already unstable effort to solidify public safety.
Recent council action
There have been nearly six years of Minneapolis City Council disfunction surrounding the rebuild of the police department’s third precinct. Similarly, the council has stumbled and fumbled its way around a plan to opening George Floyd Square to regular traffic as supported by the neighborhood, public transportation, and businesses in the area. If these issues weren’t enough, the news coming out of the Minneapolis City Council this past week should convince even progressives that the Minneapolis City Council is utterly dysfunctional.
Earlier in the week, news broke that the council is considering overturning a 38-year ban on commercial public bathhouses catering to those seeking anonymous gay sex. Support for exploring that measure passed 12-0.
Then, council members sitting on the Planning Commission advanced a measure that would legalize “safe outdoor parking” for homeless people who own cars, making it legal for them to park overnight in approved parking lots. The measure will be taken-up by the full council in the near future.
Both measures belie tried and true public safety and public health policy.
The bathhouse proposal will simply encourage deviant sexual practice, spread disease, and exacerbate human trafficking – not to mention the negative impact such an establishment will have on neighboring businesses and neighborhoods. Eliminating such establishments was a hallmark of New York Cities revival in the 1990’s. Ignoring these lessons is poor public policy exhibited by the council.
The homeless parking proposal is equally bad. For years now, Minneapolis residents have had to put up with homeless encampments, and the associated disfunction and violence associated with them. An advocacy effort that American Experiment participated in helped Minneapolis turn the corner with a more consistent and prompt dismantling of encampments, but the city has failed to maintain it’s focus on that effort in recent months.
Allowing homeless people to “camp” in cars in certain parking lots will signal a free for all on encampments once again. These “safe outdoor parking” areas will attract the same fentanyl addicts and untreated mentally ill people who will fall victim once again to the criminal gangs that use that population to distribute drugs and traffic sex. The police department recently reported that a disproportionate number of all violent crimes are committed withing a short distance of these encampments. Being “permissive” with these measures is not being kind or humanitarian – it’s being naive and careless with the public safety of an already struggling city.
Ousting the Commissioner
That brings us to yesterday’s council vote to reject the re-appointment of the city’s Commissioner of Community Safety, Todderick Barnette. The position is in place to oversee and coordinate the city’s entire public safety apparatus – police, fire, 911 communications, emergency management, and neighborhood safety.
The position got off to a rocky start with Cedrick Alexander serving as the first commissioner for just a year. Barnette, a former chief judge with the Hennepin County District Court, took over the position in late 2023, and brought with him proven trust and credibility with those he’d be interacting with. I supported Barnette’s appointment in 2023 and believe that his departure will harm legitimate efforts to improve public safety in Minneapolis.
“There are significant public safety challenges facing Minneapolis in 2023. The addition of Judge Barnette will provide the city with critical leadership and instant credibility with a wide variety of stakeholders.
As I’ve written many times — it is in our collective interest to see Minneapolis succeed. Today’s developments make that success more likely.”
David Zimmer, 2023
Adding to the disfunction is the report that Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s nomination is being slow walked by Mayor Frey because the mayor doesn’t have the votes needed to ensure O’Hara’s re-appointment.
There is room for disagreement about how well Barnette and O’Hara have performed in their efforts to improve public safety in Minneapolis. What is less debatable is the near impossible job they both have, given the disfunction and lack of support coming from the city council.
Conservatives are quick to criticize the performance of these men, but make no mistake, if they leave the current city council will be emboldened to support replacements who are far more “progressive.” If that happens, we can count on more “alternatives to policing,” fewer actual police officers, and a more rapid deterioration of public safety in our state’s largest city. That’s bad for Minneapolis and bad for Minnesota.
