Thanks for the thoughtful recap and I appreciate your balanced perspective. We can be thankful this Council lacks enough DSA aligned votes to override the Mayor veto. Which means we have 7 council members and the mayor to stand against complete DSA rule in Mpls.
I'm going to anticipate This was a sincere question. To me. It's pretty obvious. I won't go through it line by line. But a few things to note:
* The article's tone is strongly partisan, indignant, and down right alarmist.
* There is heavy use of hyperbolic and overly emotionally charged language to frame arguments.
* Speaking of framing, it is blatantlymoralistic and binary setting it up like whatever they advocate for is good and law enforcement is bad.
* Granted, it doesn't pretend to be objective journalism, but clearly it's a school board candidate with an ax to grind. And probably hoping to gin up outrage for future votes.
The whole thing is based on some assumption that the city is going to be advocating for the school board to get State funding. My understanding (granted my limited understanding) is that's the school board's job, not the city administration..
None of that stops anyone from understanding that at least some of the authors points might be valid. I don't see why the city can't advocate for things outside their strict purview if they think it's a good idea. If someone cares about something they're probably going to go hard on their viewpoint.
Great recap! I was hoping they’d mention the lack of progress on the 3rd Precinct while discussing the new training center. It seems like those of us in Minneapolis are more concerned about that than spending $6 million we don’t have on a brand-new facility, especially when there’s a chance law enforcement here could use other underutilized training centers in the metro area, like the South Metro Training Center near Braemar in Edina.
Whether it is this huge delay in having the 3rd Precinct back in the 26 neighborhoods served, OR the training center, it is really more about this....than anything else. This faction will do absolutely nothing to help with policing.
Pieces about the DSA aligned/ Wonsley voting block, (the Chugleys) positions and goals in Mpls.
Clip from Radio Free Sunroot Ep. 30: How “Defund the Police” was Blocked in Minneapolis
The Quote: “there’s a lot of us that identify as abolitionist, or you know have done things under abolitionist politics, but you don’t frame it in that way, you don’t talk about it publicly, because you know Working Class People they’re, it’s one of those trigger words for them because just like when we said defund or dismantle the police, working-class people and black folks just saw the world in complete chaos” – Robin Wonsley, Ward 2 City Council Member
The Context: For those closely watching the Socialist led majority on the Minneapolis City Council for the past few years, this statement Robin Wonsley comes as no surprise. From refusing to accept (during a budget crunch) $15 million from the State of MN for MPD compensation, the the cutting of the police training budget, the defunding of the Mounted Police Unit, the attempt to cancel the ShotSpotter contract, to refusing to build or rebuild the 3rd Precinct station, we’ve been watching the DSA strategy executed exactly as stated in the DSA Political Platform:
At least five on the council wanted on for these reasons below, ( among some others) just as it WOULD be in any city they landed. Mpls has just been an easy TARGET for the Chugleys. They are not going to work with Frey or the others on the council. That would not serve their interests since much of what they are doing is simply about getting attention, and ginning up their base, as we saw at the last council meeting when their supporters showed up with the no " Cop City" banners
Abolition Working Group - Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)
Thanks for the summary. It is disappointing to hear how dysfunctional the Council appears to be. Minneapolis is in tough shape, with no obvious solutions. It doesn't give me much hope when I read about the spatting and wasting time on international affairs.
It's so sad that none of the unskilled City Council members have chosen to educate themselves on the finance, budgeting and ethics. They seem to have forgeten that they are merely stewards of the our tax dollars from the citizens and businesses of the city. There seems to be a belief that the money is their's to spend however they see fit with absolutely no understanding that prior to "non-essential" spending are required to make sure they have enough money to make it into the next year.
We have a huge over spending due to a desire to prevent ICE from doing their job, including a public threat to pull licenses from the businesses that cooperated with them. The new bad PR around the protesters and watchers this year is horrendous, and all they can do blame everyone else when they actually participated. So with decreasing tax revenues and little outside revenue possible all they can think of is how to spend more and how to take from other projects instead of just saying maybe we need to start trimming.
Terry, Thanks so much for keeping us all up to date with the human side of what transpires at City Hall - the "soap opera" of it all. It's almost as important for having a sense of what the future holds as the actual items voted on and the results.
You wrote: "What’s missing, and badly needed, is a full reset. Some kind of all-hands meeting where members clear the air, repair relationships, and refocus on the city’s most urgent needs." and "...the environment can be combative, with insults and innuendo that would be considered unacceptable in most workplaces."
Here's my thought on that: An elected body like the Council is NOT LIKE a workplace, and can't be - because each worker in an actual workplace has personal agency to just not work where there is such hostility. The CMs do not have that luxury. It's not like there is another "City Council" down the street, across town, or even in another state, for which they could do the work they love instead of doing it on this one.
I have met many of the CMs at one time or another, and met an even larger percentage of the ones who served in the '80s, '90s, '00s, and '10s. It would be beside the point for me to name names from the past OR today, but there has ALWAYS been at least one CM who, were I working in a small-medium size business with them, management would simply have had to decide to retain either them or me - and I would have made that clear. CMs do not have that luxury.
So just as it would be advisable for certain CMs to come to grips with the reality that they NEED to work, to at least SOME extent, with the Mayor and his staff and CM allies, it would be advisable for all of us citizen-observers to accept that there will not BE a "full reset" or "repair (of) relationships". They, each and all, need to find a way to reach compromises WITHOUT that happening.
When I am in full "realist mode", myself, I cannot help but acknowledge that there are several CMs right now who I simply could not work amiably with under any circumstances. I can't expect the CMs I like to be "better than I would be" at doing that. Wouldn't be a fair expectation. They must all soldier on, and the ones who do that best will be the ones who let go of any expectation that a day will come when they'll all "sing Kumbaya".
Appreciate the time and attention paid to the council meetings. Like the candidate interviews this is a great service from the Substack.
Thank you. This city is important to me!
Well written Terry. 1/2 the council are fucking children. Chowdury
Thanks for the thoughtful recap and I appreciate your balanced perspective. We can be thankful this Council lacks enough DSA aligned votes to override the Mayor veto. Which means we have 7 council members and the mayor to stand against complete DSA rule in Mpls.
meanwhile, council member wonsley is sharing this is part of her propaganda campaign on social media.
https://racketmn.com/after-the-ice-invasion-we-must-invest-in-public-schools
I haven't covered the school board, but should probably reach out to some of the candidates to see if they are interested in interviews.
This Racket article doesn't seem crazy or anything so I don't get the propaganda comment.
I'm going to anticipate This was a sincere question. To me. It's pretty obvious. I won't go through it line by line. But a few things to note:
* The article's tone is strongly partisan, indignant, and down right alarmist.
* There is heavy use of hyperbolic and overly emotionally charged language to frame arguments.
* Speaking of framing, it is blatantlymoralistic and binary setting it up like whatever they advocate for is good and law enforcement is bad.
* Granted, it doesn't pretend to be objective journalism, but clearly it's a school board candidate with an ax to grind. And probably hoping to gin up outrage for future votes.
The whole thing is based on some assumption that the city is going to be advocating for the school board to get State funding. My understanding (granted my limited understanding) is that's the school board's job, not the city administration..
Hope that helps
None of that stops anyone from understanding that at least some of the authors points might be valid. I don't see why the city can't advocate for things outside their strict purview if they think it's a good idea. If someone cares about something they're probably going to go hard on their viewpoint.
Great recap! I was hoping they’d mention the lack of progress on the 3rd Precinct while discussing the new training center. It seems like those of us in Minneapolis are more concerned about that than spending $6 million we don’t have on a brand-new facility, especially when there’s a chance law enforcement here could use other underutilized training centers in the metro area, like the South Metro Training Center near Braemar in Edina.
Whether it is this huge delay in having the 3rd Precinct back in the 26 neighborhoods served, OR the training center, it is really more about this....than anything else. This faction will do absolutely nothing to help with policing.
Pieces about the DSA aligned/ Wonsley voting block, (the Chugleys) positions and goals in Mpls.
https://minneapolistimes.com/foot-dragging-by-the-council-equates-to-defunding-the-police/
https://minneapolistimes.com/wonsley-confesses-to-hidden-agenda-to-defund-mpd-but-you-dont-frame-it-in-that-way-you-dont-talk-about-it-publicly/
Excerpt...
Clip from Radio Free Sunroot Ep. 30: How “Defund the Police” was Blocked in Minneapolis
The Quote: “there’s a lot of us that identify as abolitionist, or you know have done things under abolitionist politics, but you don’t frame it in that way, you don’t talk about it publicly, because you know Working Class People they’re, it’s one of those trigger words for them because just like when we said defund or dismantle the police, working-class people and black folks just saw the world in complete chaos” – Robin Wonsley, Ward 2 City Council Member
The Context: For those closely watching the Socialist led majority on the Minneapolis City Council for the past few years, this statement Robin Wonsley comes as no surprise. From refusing to accept (during a budget crunch) $15 million from the State of MN for MPD compensation, the the cutting of the police training budget, the defunding of the Mounted Police Unit, the attempt to cancel the ShotSpotter contract, to refusing to build or rebuild the 3rd Precinct station, we’ve been watching the DSA strategy executed exactly as stated in the DSA Political Platform:
At least five on the council wanted on for these reasons below, ( among some others) just as it WOULD be in any city they landed. Mpls has just been an easy TARGET for the Chugleys. They are not going to work with Frey or the others on the council. That would not serve their interests since much of what they are doing is simply about getting attention, and ginning up their base, as we saw at the last council meeting when their supporters showed up with the no " Cop City" banners
Abolition Working Group - Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)
https://www.dsausa.org/working-groups/abolition-working-group/
It is all there right on their website...
Excerpt.
"Defund the police by rejecting any expansion to police budgets or scope of enforcement while cutting budgets annually towards zero"
The Council does not have the power to amend a contract—— a lease. The Constitution has an abrogation of contract clause.
Thanks for the summary. It is disappointing to hear how dysfunctional the Council appears to be. Minneapolis is in tough shape, with no obvious solutions. It doesn't give me much hope when I read about the spatting and wasting time on international affairs.
It's so sad that none of the unskilled City Council members have chosen to educate themselves on the finance, budgeting and ethics. They seem to have forgeten that they are merely stewards of the our tax dollars from the citizens and businesses of the city. There seems to be a belief that the money is their's to spend however they see fit with absolutely no understanding that prior to "non-essential" spending are required to make sure they have enough money to make it into the next year.
We have a huge over spending due to a desire to prevent ICE from doing their job, including a public threat to pull licenses from the businesses that cooperated with them. The new bad PR around the protesters and watchers this year is horrendous, and all they can do blame everyone else when they actually participated. So with decreasing tax revenues and little outside revenue possible all they can think of is how to spend more and how to take from other projects instead of just saying maybe we need to start trimming.
Terry, Thanks so much for keeping us all up to date with the human side of what transpires at City Hall - the "soap opera" of it all. It's almost as important for having a sense of what the future holds as the actual items voted on and the results.
You wrote: "What’s missing, and badly needed, is a full reset. Some kind of all-hands meeting where members clear the air, repair relationships, and refocus on the city’s most urgent needs." and "...the environment can be combative, with insults and innuendo that would be considered unacceptable in most workplaces."
Here's my thought on that: An elected body like the Council is NOT LIKE a workplace, and can't be - because each worker in an actual workplace has personal agency to just not work where there is such hostility. The CMs do not have that luxury. It's not like there is another "City Council" down the street, across town, or even in another state, for which they could do the work they love instead of doing it on this one.
I have met many of the CMs at one time or another, and met an even larger percentage of the ones who served in the '80s, '90s, '00s, and '10s. It would be beside the point for me to name names from the past OR today, but there has ALWAYS been at least one CM who, were I working in a small-medium size business with them, management would simply have had to decide to retain either them or me - and I would have made that clear. CMs do not have that luxury.
So just as it would be advisable for certain CMs to come to grips with the reality that they NEED to work, to at least SOME extent, with the Mayor and his staff and CM allies, it would be advisable for all of us citizen-observers to accept that there will not BE a "full reset" or "repair (of) relationships". They, each and all, need to find a way to reach compromises WITHOUT that happening.
When I am in full "realist mode", myself, I cannot help but acknowledge that there are several CMs right now who I simply could not work amiably with under any circumstances. I can't expect the CMs I like to be "better than I would be" at doing that. Wouldn't be a fair expectation. They must all soldier on, and the ones who do that best will be the ones who let go of any expectation that a day will come when they'll all "sing Kumbaya".
To add to these discussions, just out...
The Socialist Fiscal Trap: Why Minneapolis Progressives Should Be Alarmed by the Collapse of the Commercial Tax Base | Minneapolis Times
https://minneapolistimes.com/the-socialist-fiscal-trap-why-minneapolis-progressives-should-be-alarmed-by-the-collapse-of-the-commercial-tax-base/
imagine a Wonsley or Chavez or Chuhgtai becomes mayor of Minneapolis.
it could happen ... yikes