Election Day is this upcoming Tuesday, November 2nd. Please be sure to vote if you have not already done so! More details here.
I hope you are all enjoying the start of fall. It has been non-stop at City Hall and there is plenty of good news to share and many updates.
Snelling Yards groundbreaking. Construction officially began this week on 100 units of affordable senior housing, including 11 units for homeless veterans. Getting here took perseverance, as this project was 5+ years in the making and faced many obstacles. I was proud to help get it across the line. In total, there have been more than 15 years of effort to develop this City-owned parcel at 44th St & Snelling Ave. Congrats to everyone who helped make it happen and a big thank you to our City staff for their work. We need more affordable housing, especially at the deepest levels of affordability, and it’s projects like this that help countless individuals and families. We also need more housing for seniors, those experiencing homelessness, and veterans, so I am quite happy with the focus.
Public Works strike averted. Headlines last month detailed members of Local 363, the union representing workers in some of our most essential roles which include plowing and garbage pickup, rejecting a recommended contract offer and authorizing a strike if necessary. The City continued to negotiate in good faith with Local 363 to achieve an agreement that honors our workforce and their service to the public, particularly during the unprecedented challenges faced over the past 18 months, while also ensuring a financially sustainable trajectory in the midst of revenue shortfalls due to the pandemic. On Monday,
members of Local 363 voted to approve the agreement. Congrats to everyone involved in reaching this fair contract agreement!
Credit ratings agency upgrades. Both S&P and Fitch Ratings have upgraded their outlooks for our city. This comes just as we are set to sell bonds to pay for important infrastructure projects and public facilities. We now hold a AAA rating with a stable outlook from S&P, and a AA+ with a positive outlook from Fitch. To quote S&P:
“The City has a fiscal roadmap in place that we believe sufficiently demonstrates how it will navigate the next few years while actively managing emerging and ongoing risks.” This is the result of hard work and sound financial decisions from elected officials and our City staff. Thank you to everyone who helped play a role in this. It demonstrates confidence in our decisions navigating challenges and helps get better debt financing terms, savings money for taxpayers.
Promising results from gun diversion program. The typical rate of reoffence for individuals in our city convicted of a gross misdemeanor gun charge prosecuted by the City Attorney’s Office was 75%. Yet a diversion program funded by the City Council, run by Urban Ventures, and led by our City Attorney’s Office, has been able to successfully drop the reoffence rate for any new charges to below 27% for participants. The program includes developing skills to handle strong emotions and learning about trauma and how to address it.
You can read more about the program here. These are wonderful results and demonstrate the value of taking a public health approach to addressing criminal behavior.
My catalytic converter theft ordinance passed in committee. Over the past several years, thieves have targeted an expensive vehicle part, known as a catalytic converter, in cities across the nation. To address the rapid increase in these thefts, which can cost victims thousands of dollars to fix, I authored an ordinance to restrict who scrap metal dealers can buy from and to make possession of a converter without documentation of ownership or sale illegal. This will help address the demand-side which drives thefts of this part for its scrap value and will provide additional tools to hold criminals accountable.
My ordinance unanimously passed in committee on Wednesday and heads to the full Council for approval. I will continue fighting for more statewide and federal action, as while this new ordinance will help, more can still be done beyond Minneapolis to stop incentivizing these thefts.
Civil unrest rebuilding updates. Our emergency rubble removal program resulted in 17 of 18 eligible properties being completely cleaned up, with assessments from the city waived; the final property is in the permitting process. The City so far has issued permits for $175 million in construction activity for rebuilding, showing a substantial recovery just over a year later. We have also successfully secured tens of millions in aid to support rebuilding, an effort in partnership with our State delegation members and Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) team, which I was humbled to work on as IGR Chair. Finally, fees continue to be waived and applications expedited for impacted property owners under a legislative action I authored. We will continue working to rebuild our city to a better place than before.
Charter amendment ballot questions: With the election less than a week away, a friendly reminder that City officials are prohibited by state law from using City resources (such as my official email account or this newsletter) to share personal opinions on any of the ballot questions. The good news is that there is lots of information available out there, both opinion and factual, from news media, campaigns, and commentators. Voters are encouraged to research the issues on the ballot to make their own informed choices.
For more info on what's on the ballot, click here.
While I am not allowed to share my opinions on the ballot questions with you via this newsletter, what I am allowed to share, verbatim and with her permission, are the Q&A’s related to ballot question #2 that were sent to employees of MPD by our interim City Coordinator, Heather Johnston. These address questions over what happens if the ballot measure passes. These are being shared because they involve important continuity of government questions that residents may have and provide factual information from non-partisan staff.
