##VIDEO ID:xWh4YinXmbo## good afternoon so I have been through 10 budgets before this year I have voted for Andor signed every single one of them uh but this 11th budget is in a league of its own with 78 amendments which is an historic number uh this budget is incredibly problematic it is reckless it is irresponsible and it is bad for the City of Minneapolis and I will be vetoing the council's proposed 2025 budget as mayor of the City of Minneapolis I'm charged with representing not just one Ward one neighborhood or one constituency I represent the 435,000 people of our city all 13 Awards I do what is best for the City of Minneapolis not one individual special interest group this budget cuts needs and adds wants the budget the council has proposed was put together largely without expert guidance or thought to the comprehensive work that we can and must do as a city we need to be doing the basics better right now in Minneapolis this budget cuts the important work that we need to do to provide these core constituent services and in no small part it adds a substantial amount of funding I talked to people from around the city about where collectively Minneapolis needs to improve one of the big areas that I've been hearing especially lately uh is in the area of property taxes and the burden that has disproportionately been put on our residents there many reasons for it increased labor costs devaluation of buildings downtown uh and what we've recognized properly is that we as representatives of this city can help to do something about it so let's cut through the confusion regardless of what Levy we talking about you know I I ultimately push for a 6.4% levy the council pushed for a 6.9% levy the council's budget that they just p past adds $6.5 Million worth of spending I'm going to say it again and you don't need to take my word for it you can check the book the council's budget that they just passed adds $65 million of spending when we don't have money to add that money's got to come from somewhere it is not free where does it come from property taxpayers and whether they're feeling that burden this year coming up in 2025 or they feel that burden in 2026 let's not get confused they will feel it moreover much of that money was taken from reserves reserves that we will definitively need over the next several years we have a new federal Administration that is shortly taking office and Donald Trump has explicitly stated that he will deprive cities that Harbor undocumented immigrants of a funding stream we've been clear and consistent we love and care for all of our neighborhood neighbors and that includes those that are undocumented and we need to be prepared to do so not just with words not just with ding a few 00,000 off to a new nonprofit but with actions where we help them when you add to that the fact that the state has lost significant revenues when they themselves will not have a substantial amount of money to give there is no other jurisdiction that is coming to our rescue we need to be responsible and pragmatic ourselves and when you have $6 A5 million dollar worth of new spending that is neither responsible nor is it pragmatic but the increased spending that we are seeing in large form in this Council budget is not the only issue as I said the other issue is that they are cutting needs and adding wants when I talk to constituents around our city there's a few issues that come to the Forefront often times one of them calls on a crisis that we saw just last night homeless encampments when we were proposing this budget I asked our expert City staff what do we need to do to do this better what do we need to do to improve recognizing that there is a lot of room for improvement a proposal was given that allowed for a compassionate response Outreach to people experiencing homelessness connection to shelter and housing resources and yes it also had funds for our ability to clear homeless encampments and by the way prevent them from getting set up in the beginning that money was cut and this is not just some theoretical problem here uh a number of propane tanks exploded last night a house burned up a neighborhood is impacted and people in that Homeless encampment are impacted as well encampments are neither safe for the people living at the homeless encampment nor are they safe for the surrounding neighborhood we had a proposal to help fix it it was gutted what's especially frustrating is so many count council members call me on a nearly weekly basis asking for a particular homeless encampment to be removed and when you ask me to remove a homeless encampment ask our Administration to Garden the resources to prevent them from forming and then prevent us from getting the job done through legislation you can cut that hypocrisy with a knife but it's not just that we've also heard from constituents that we need to have a response from police officers inevitably they can't be everywhere at once and when they're running from 911 call to 911 call they don't have the kind of Engagement that we want and so we've engaged in an aggressive effort to hire and recruit more police officers including a campaign to do so that campaign is working until now it was cut it was zeroed out by the city council so if they're saying that we don't need to do a campaign anymore to police to hire more police officers offers I disagree we need police officers in our city we're drastically short right now we need to make sure that we've got the resources to recruit and retain them this campaign was part of it it was cut and by the way when I talk about these Cuts these is not cuts that just go to decreasing the bottom line of Taxation these were cuts that they took and then by and large added to a number of pet projects sometimes nonprofits sometimes W specific programs and projects but again I've got to look out for the city as a whole but it doesn't stop there I've also heard from constituents that we need to do a better job on basic city services things like filling potholes plowing the streets these Concepts aren't dependent on ideology they're depending on loving your city and doing it right $15.9 million were cut cut from departments that do things like plow snow departments that do things like fill potholes replace light bulbs when they're out or some copper wiring was stolen that's the kind of work that we need to not just do but do more quickly and when resources are cut to that council members can't then turn around and say that it should happen faster when they are the reason for the delay themselves I could go on but the bottom line is we''ve got a love our city more than our ideology the bottom line is we've got to love Minneapolis and do what is right for it and part of what's doing right is listening to expertise from the very beginning we offered we offered to the city council to have them meet about their amendments with the expert City staff not just me not just some political deal no no talk to the people that actually know what they're talking about and maybe we can find a way forward finding a way forward does not mean that they nor I get everything that we want because we know that that won't happen but finding a way forward means that we can do the core work of governance that is so critical that offer was declined and when you take that when you take the campaign that was cut from police and by the way the chief will talk about this shortly another $1.8 million that was taken from the police that goes to things like their ability to purchase cell phones by the way cell phones that can use that can be used to take pictures of evidence these are basic core things that we need to do as a city and it was cut so this budget again was not normal if you go back several years there may have been 10 15 amendments the previous record I think was maybe 40 or so this was twice that simply being twice the number of amendments doesn't mean that it's twice the problem uh but it does mean you need to be more methodical in the work that was not the case here so I I take this veto very seriously it is certainly not something that I've wanted to do I know that vetoing a budget is a tremendous step that has not been taken often nor possibly ever but it's the right thing to do for this city and we're not backing down simply because they pressure We Stand Tall because we love this city and we're going to do the right thing do I have the votes in order to sustain a veto override I don't know but we're doing the right thing nonetheless My Hope Is that the city council will sustain this veto we're prepared to come forward with an alternate proposal that will work for the city that will sustain these important work that we do and will not have a drastic impact on spending as this one does and with that I'll turn it over to our coo Margaret Anderson kellerer thank you mayor I'm Margaret Anderson kellerer I serve as the city operations officer I have the honor of working alongside great people in the City of Minneapolis as the mayor has outlined this is a difficult day for us this organization like any organization anyone in the private sector needs predictability and stability for our long-term planning and we need to operate at a high level unfortunately this budget moves Us in the wrong direction it's a product of a very chaotic IC and halfhazard amendment process that you all got to see budgets are supposed to be a reflection of our values and in a difficult Financial time like we face today and are going to face in the future we really need to be building that thoughtful responsible budget that takes care of our basic services but also provides the expertise and Innovation that we expect this budget really fails those standards there will be real impacts of what has happened here and I'm going to give you three examples right now this budget will create difficult decisions across the public works department particularly in the things that we hear about the most from residents Street repairs pothole filling and notably something we had caught up from which was the backlog of lighting that was out in this city when I arrived here three years ago now we're put in the position where by changing dollar amounts around making ear marks to specific parts of the city it is going to mean delayed maintenance to residents for being able to do things like both repair B basic lighting and the wave of copper theft that we see we will not get it done as quickly the budget this budget by the council will stymy our ability to do thoughtful encampment response by cutting the very things people have been asking us for more proactive response the ability to help connect people more quickly to the things that they need need shelter support services and also yes not having encampments set up in the first place this budget devastates the race Equity inclusion and belonging Department reib hindering our ability as a city to Champion racial Equity only a short couple years ago City Council made this its own Department because in the wake of the murder of Geor Floyd we made a commitment both internally as an Enterprise and to our residents to do better cutting this department by almost 25% in staff and budget is the wrong direction the CFO and her team have worked hard to put the city on strong financial footing in fact in the aftermath of the 2020 they have worked hard hard to make sure that we are in a position to be strong for the future this budget puts that at risk the council spending an additional nearly $7 million I want to be clear that money is coming out of reserves and it will hurt our cash Reserve this team has worked diligently to try to get our reserves to 25 % which is our ideal standard it helps in everything from weathering the storms that are coming with the state downturn in revenue and the federal Administration as well as being able to help our taxpayers save money on their bond our bond rate to get money at a lower rate depleting These funds makes us less strong I want to thank though our city leadership I want to thank the mayor I want to thank my colleagues across departments in working hard for their tireless efforts that they have done they are steadfast public leaders and we will keep at this this entire team this morning woke up and residents of the city woke up to a city that works a city that had plows out that was salting the streets and bridges our Enterprise was responding to a encampment fire from last night on all fronts 311 was taking calls of residents to provide service and just yesterday our housing team announced a historic investment historic investment in affordable housing we are a city that works and we need to continue to be a city that works for our residents I'm going to turn it over to commissioner Todd Barnett thank you Mar good afternoon I'm Todd Barnett the commissioner of community safety for the City of Minneapolis you know um last year uh when I met with the mayor to take on this job um we talked a lot and one of the things that we talked about was Community safety and the priority he had for Community safety I know that that's my number one priority I know for most of our residents that I talk to that their safety is a priority for them and so with that um we talked a lot about uh before I took the job and since I've been in this job for a year about implementing a comprehensive Community safety ecos system and drawing on the multitude of services and resources that we have in the city to provide a coordinated comprehensive plan in which we would support our residents and visitors and meet them where they are at and so I mentioned that because marget Anderson kellerer talked about some of the responses one of the tasks that we have uh here is to work together and so it's not just that Community safety lies within my five departments it's for the whole Enterprise whether that is making sure that our street lights are working or calling 311 to report non-emergency issues a negative impact on any of these departments threatens our implementation of a comprehensive Community safety ecosystem the cuts that impact my departments directly I'll talk about a few of them and I'll highlight them there have been several cuts and several earmarks um I'll talk briefly about uh what's happening in uh neighborhood safety specifically the allocation of funds for specific neighborhood projects can be well- intended some of them are good ideas but it creates an inflexibility for us to continue on that path of providing a comprehensive plan it stops us from doing the work that we need to do we did this last year last year there were pilots it takes a long time to set those up and get those going and so to have to shift our resources in our Personnel to start something new affects our ability to move the needle forward when it comes to an ecosystem that's comprehensive funding these uh projects that haven't been vetted one of the things that um the mayor's talked about council members talked about residents has talked about when it comes to Neighborhood safety hey can you collect data can we make sure that those programs do the things that they're supposed to do that they are effective programs when we have these new ideas that haven't been vetted um that doesn't fit into the work that we're trying to do comprehensively several departments have experienced um over the last couple couple of years having to stop the work that they're doing to start something new and so just trying to emphasize that when we do this um and not engage in a comprehensive way it really stops us from getting to that goal that we want to be at and so uh I'm going to turn it over to Chief O'Hara to talk specifically about the cuts to MPD chief oare good afternoon uh thank you commissioner thank you mayor um obviously uh the budgeting Cuts include about $ 1.8 million doll of new Cuts uh to the MPD um obviously the police department here uh has been losing both civilian professional staff positions over the last few years as well as sworn staff uh in addition to that I think it's important to put into context that we have lost over 500 sworn members since 2020 centuries of experience in a police department that used to be staffed with 900 police officers we don't have anything else left to cut it's irresponsible um you know I we know consistently uh either through surveys that we have or simply showing up at Community meetings with the mayor Community meetings off the times with council members a number one complaint we hear constantly is police presence is our lack of Staffing our lack of ability to do followup just simply because we have a much higher call and case load to follow up with than what we had when we had nearly twice as many employees um so we are thankful to the mayor for the leadership that he has shown to support the police force we are thankful for that and I know since I have gotten here how important that is for us to have a police force that is staffed with people who are motivated and feel good about the purpose of their work and the mayor has stood up to encourage that and we appreciate it but what I'm most concerned about is again just continuing a negative message that we can cut from the police department or the perception that the police department here is not supported that is is damaging to Public Safety we are in the business of saving lives this is serious it is you know the police department in Minneapolis is absolutely essential to providing Public Safety to trying to do something about violent crime it's not sufficient in and of itself but we know we have to have a well-trained and well resourced police force and we know we've seen results recently that are exactly what community has been saying that they want we finally started to get more people to apply to become members of the police department and they are overwhelmingly people of color you saw that at the council meeting a couple weeks ago when we honored our community service officers the majority of which are people of color we are finally getting people from communities that were never represented in this Police Department before why on Earth would we want to stop recruiting them when I came here we had a chapain program that's very good and IT services both our police officers for their help and wellness but also people who've been victims of crime but this is a diverse community in many ways we only had Christians that were chaplain so I expanded that to include an Imam as a Chaplain for the police department and the chaplain's budget is being cut you know we have police officers that go out we need to be able to engage with our community and have relationships there's a significant cut to to Simply cell phones for police officers the cell phones are linked to our body warn camera system the officers use it to collect evidence in the field they use it when they go to calls to call the victim if the victim's afraid to come out um I mean it's just it's it's it sends the wrong message um but that being said the men and women of the Police Department here I am very proud of for their resiliency the men and women who stayed with this city uh and I know they've become experts on doing more with us so I know we will get through this thank you with that we'll open it to questions do you speak to what specific pet projects you find Mo most objectionable or most concerning within the budget there there are a series of groupings that we find overarching uh a concern for now to be very clear we would have accepted one two four even five of these projects and pilots and nonprofit allocations the problem is not in any one of those individual projects it's not in yoga to the park or an allocation uh to a a new market the problem is that when you consider those 78 or so amendments together it becomes very problematic and it takes from things that we don't just want to do we need to do and I said this at the very beginning this is a budget that cuts needs and then adds wants this was not just about cutting needs and then that goes to the bottom line and saves people on tax dollars no they've added $6 and a half million dollars worth of spending $6 and a half million dollar worth of spending that is new uh and so I I've I've told council members this is not any one project here um again any one of them alone I would accept wouldn't necessarily Champion it but we would accept and that's the way that it's been in budgets past in budgets past uh there are quite a few things that I did not support there were quite a few things that added to the property tax levy in the following year and as the commissioner could tell you quite a few things that we did not think were smart and in some cases we couldn't even do but still we were able to get to some form of consensus where it worked this just didn't cross the line it long jumped over it what happens next I know tomorrow I think tomorrow right if if they sustain the V or or what happens yeah is it a back and forth kind of give our Minneapolis residents what goes like what's next the first step is the veto of the budget which I have not officially done yet but I will will do so once I get the document itself Andor then tomorrow Council has the opportunity to either override my veto or sustain it uh again uh this budget could very well get overridden my veto could very well get overridden and I acknowledge that it still was essential to do the right thing of course it could also get sustained if it is sustained uh we will be in the position to work together with council members will be in the position to negotiate out a budget that gets a number quite a few of the things that they really want to do but doesn't sacrifice the core City service that we need and doesn't unnecessarily add in a horrible way to the burden of property taxpayers and so my hope is that over uh the if it is sustained over the next several days and weeks we'll be able to get to a resolution that works and then the other alternative if they don't sustain it then what happens they don't sustain it means they override it it means they get the budget that they proposed and look it's not ideal I'm I tell the people of the city the truth it's not ideal um the Amendments and I have outlined a few of them uh it guts our campaign to recruit police officers uh it guts our ability to prevent some of these homeless encampments from form in in the way of Mobile Security Services uh it takes $15.9 million away from a number of departments that do provide core city services that we still provide them but we'll do it slower and I've already had a meeting with all with our department heads just a couple of hours ago what I told them was look we don't resist a challenge these are tough hardworking people that care so deeply about the city will they need to work harder where we all need to get harder to get the job done of course we will we're going to get the job done we're going to keep providing that basic City service this just made it harder are layoffs you know involved if they sustain and they get the the budget they want we're still exploring and I can turn it over to our our our CEO and and even a budget director if need be we're still exploring the ramifications of of the extent of what these Cuts mean likely it will be a reduction of positions but not necessarily layoffs of individuals in those positions and so we're exploring what that means now there our continued debate then if they don't override what happens come gen one if we don't have a budget we've got a a solution we have a route that we can go uh that will continue to have the City of Minneapolis operate so no government shut that's a ter we hear from federal you hear that often we have a route to get there what is that rout exactly kind of clause if you will uh so the route generally and and if I'm wrong please correct me here is so again if there is a there's a veto there's a sustained budget compromise then starts uh if that compromise and conclusion is not reached by January 1 what we could do is pass a temporary budget for a matter of a couple weeks or a month uh I think all of us council members uh and our Administration have an interest in making sure that uh there is a seamless nature to the service that we know that we need to provide and so I'm very confident that we're going to be able to get there if we go down that route but again there's a number of stop gaps before we even get to that point what about is this new for you forgive me I've been here long I grew up in this city but I don't remember the last time you had you particularly had kind of a dog fight with the city council well you you grew up here you remember probably more than me and can go back more mayoral administrations than certainly I'm able to um I've I've been through 11 budgets now uh in the first 10 I either voted for uh or signed every one of them never once did I oppose the final conclusion now does that mean that I was supportive of every single one of the Amendments that went through of course not but I got to the point both as a council member and as mayor to the point where I was supportive of the budget this is not not a normal budget it is irresponsible and at times Reckless and look we need to say publicly they certainly can override they have that ability that is their prerogative they have their own election certificates I got to do what's right it's a little hard to grasp it seems like and for our residents is seems like everybody kind of has the same goals we're talking about the same priorities from Council to Administration but this is a very different in historic year is it elections a change in power structure this what is different that that's causing this breakdown in ability to compromise you know rather than give you a subjective determination which I am certain that I can give you I'm going to give you an objective one look at the numbers look at the number of of I look I don't I don't think I know that I vetoed anything in my first couple years as mayor uh in the next couple of years it was relatively few things and believe it or not it was pretty controversial in those years it's tough the vetos have come in this last year look at what's happened in this last year again don't take my opinion look at the number of ordinances that they have brought forward the city council I believe in those first seven or so months or eight months um it was more than the previous two years combined uh so the number of things that they're moving forward and yes they are moving with urgency the problem is is that it's not getting vetted the problem is is that there is not coordination with expert staff that's one figure so the number of Am of of ordinances the number of actions has drastically increased and the number of vetos has increased along with them next look at the number of amendments that came forward in this budget compared to previous budgets when I was on the council and again I don't have the exact numbers here before me I recall somewhere in the range of 10 15 maybe amendments times certainly it was less than that uh the record I believe before today was like 40 that was the record which like doubled the previous record we are now double that almost 80 amendments that came forward and you know changes can be made there's a necessary balance of power that always takes place between an executive branch and a legislative branch the problem is in prioritizing wants over needs the problem is in prioritizing things that sound good and cutting things that do good we got a city to run we got to make sure that it works two more questions doesn't mpd's budget still overall it's a pretty good increase isn't it they may have cut your budget proposal but overall pry good SI I'll address it um everything has costed more over the years including the police budget um but the reality is there are fewer you know professional positions in there uh and there are fewer uh uh other you know the ability to have other contracts um you know since the uh the number of sworn positions has been reduced to the Charter minimum uh that remains funded uh and that cannot uh be be uh you know funded below that level uh legally um but as you know Personnel expenditures which is the majority of the mpd's budget uh have continued to increase over the last several years so yes over over and overtime uh yeah um we depend on overtime to provide the most basic city services every single day every single shift in every Precinct in the city um prior to 2020 uh there was about less than 5% of the uh Staffing in Patrol was overtime shifts uh that's police officers who respond to 911 calls uh this year I believe it's we're I believe we're over a third now of all shifts for 911 response are overtime uh and they're not all getting filled either um so as obviously as we have lost over 500 members over the last few years we've had to reallocate Personnel we have fewer than half the number of investigators that we had in 2020 at a time when case loads have significantly increased um and so we've had to reallocate people to the most you know basic of functions but yes as the overall expense for the police department has increased as you know just about everything else that costs has increased um the demands have increased exponentially as well and there's new work you know we have a settlement agreement uh with the state there's a lot of new work that goes into that there's new people that are required to do that job um and there's a whole lot of dozens of hours of new training that we have to implement which is all great because that's what people want that's how we're going to get to the level of policing that people want but there's an expense associated with all of that um and every minute that we take a police officer to put them in this new training is another minute that we're going to need over time someplace else there's just there's just not enough people how much FAL dollars are you expected to lose to President elect Trump follows through on that promise I don't know genuinely we do not know what that means we do not know what kind of restrictions will be put in place uh and no I can't predict the future on that one can I one of the chief no I just want to know um how the and file are handling that if there's that much overtime are they tired are they showing signs of wear and tear how do you kind of manage that and either one can talk and bring the chief up in just one second but I'll note that on the on the overtime piece there were a number of things that were said from the dis that would if they were passed restrict how overtime was utilized we're still exploring as to what exactly that means uh as far as the restriction on how the council proposed over time or if there would be one but they did cut but the question is how is the Restriction take place yeah um so I I do firmly believe um that we are in a very good situation today compared to where we were a couple of years ago I do believe it is indisputable that we have hope for this Police Department which is good for the city um you know we we are uh hiring more and more people as I've mentioned they are more and more diverse we're going to be welcoming probably about 50 young people in January alone we've hired 66 people so far this year for sworn sworn positions we're going to be hiring 50 about 50 young people in January alone that are cadets and community service officers uh and we've seen more and more lateral transfers into the police department from departments all over the metro and all over Minnesota U so that is good um because it shows there's a much higher level of Mor here and people want to get back to work and be the good police uh that that the people of the community need the problem is it's going to get more difficult next year before it gets easier that's the problem because as we continue to hire more and more young people that are in these programs whether they're Cadets or community service officers they are anywhere between you know eight months of schooling before they can go into the police academy or sometimes three years um so we're going to need more people to do training even as we get more recruits and the cadets finish their program and hopefully this year we'll have one of the largest recruits classes that we've ever had before even if all of that happens it's still a drain on Personnel we're going to need more people in the academy we're going to need to train more field training officers because we cannot you know we cannot let up on our standards and what we're trying to achieve with reform so uh it's very very positive the future of the department is very very positive but that being said we have to recognize it's going to get more difficult next year before we finally get some relief we have to let them go if you have additional questions we have our budget team here and a few other city leaders so thank you thank you sorry for