Star Tribune
Minneapolis City Council to vote on whether to approve police oversight commission nominees
The Minneapolis City Council is scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to approve the new police oversight commission, with 15 proposed members representing a range of professional experience — but not all races.
The nominees include eight white members and seven people of color, five of whom are Black. One member is Black and Native American, and another is half white and half Native American. There are no Hispanic or Asian representatives on the committee, despite Hispanics making up nearly 10% of the city’s population and Asians nearly 6%.
The commission’s composition follows a major legal settlement with the state Department of Human Rights, approved by the city council in March, focused on racial discrimination involving police. Among many provisions, it required the city to create a police oversight commission and “to appoint a diverse group of community members that represent a cross-section of the Minneapolis community” including people with “different abilities” and “Black, Indigenous, and other individuals of color.”
The nominees seem skewed toward a professional class. It includes five with law degrees, with at least 11 of the 15 members holding college or university degrees. Among people of color, only one is a man.
The nominees were drawn from a pool of more than 160 applicants. Each of the city’s 13 council members nominated one commissioner and two were nominated by Mayor Jacob Frey. The council’s Public Health and Safety Committee approved the nominees last week.
The Star Tribune determined the racial composition of the commission by contacting nominees, council members and staff. The city clerk’s office declined to release the data, citing state privacy laws.
Commission members will sit on rotating panels made up of three members and two police officers to consider complaints against police. They’ll review investigative reports from the police internal affairs unit or city civil rights department, then vote on whether a complaint has merit. The police chief will decide then whether an officer should be disciplined, and if so, what it would be. The commissioners will meet at least four times a year to consider policy recommendations to the chief.
Based on interviews and their applications, here’s a snapshot of the nominees:
Ward 1: Josh Loar, white, senior consultant, for a company that designs performing arts venues. On the faculty of a university, he investigated a police response to a controversial rally on campus “I am very invested in community and ensuring that the police force is working with the community and not in opposition to it.”
Ward 2: Mara Schanfield, white, an educator, researcher, consultant, has training in psychology included a graduate degree in prevention science and practice coupled with a school counselor license.
Ward 3: Paul Olsen, white. Former legal counsel to the Seattle police department and assisted drafting a police accountability ordinance and served as co-counsel for Seattle in a federal consent decree on police issues.
Ward 4: Melissa Newman, Black, an insurance underwriter, who once worked in the record intake a juvenile probation office.
Ward 5: Jennifer Clement, white, a former school teacher in north Minneapolis, is now executive director of an organization that takes care of people with physical and mental health disabilities in their own home.
Ward 6: AJ Awed, Black, East African, executive director of Cedar Riverside Community Council. Awed said he saw a “total breakdown of trust between the city’s population and the police department” when he ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2021 and wants “to inject some trust in the system.”
Ward 7: Mary Dedeaux-Swinton, Black, a community volunteer. “I’m a logical person and can objectively look at things and apply rules as they are,” she said. She served on the previous oversight board,
Ward 8: Fartun Weli, Somali-American and, CEO of Isuroon, a nonprofit serving Somali women and girls. “I am dedicated to fostering positive change between our community and the police, with a focus on increased accountability for law enforcement actions, particularly concerning people of color and the Somali community.”
Ward 9: Stacey Gurian-Sherman: white, managing partner of an organization that works on growing job skills, mentoring, conflict resolution and youth programming. “The disciplinary system with the Minneapolis Police Department has been abysmal,’ she said in an interview. “The system seems to be arbitrary, favoring some officers and discriminating against others.”
Ward 10: Alexis Pederson, half Native American, half white and a nanny. “I applied with the hope that this committee will be able to provide an additional level of accountability for individuals within MPD to uphold their oath of integrity, safety, as well as dignity and respect for human life.”
Ward 11: Philip Sturm, white, who has volunteered as a county special deputy and was on a police department/911 workgroup to find alternative responses to 911 calls not requiring an armed police officer. He ran unsuccessfully for Minneapolis mayor in 2021.
Ward 12: James Westphal, white, attorney, primarily criminal defense. He said there were no consequences for the Metro Gang Strike Force, a police unit shut down in 2009 for misconduct. “There has got to be accountability, but it needs to be a fair process.”
Ward 13: Nichelle Williams-Johnson, Black and Native American. Learning connections manager at the Learning Disabilities Association of Minnesota. “The main reason I applied for the commission is because I want to bridge the gap between the community and policing.”
Frey appointments:
Louis Smith, white, attorney. He has served on past boards including president of Advocates for Human Rights. As a former deputy Hennepin County attorney he chaired a task force that made recommendations on racial composition of grand juries.
Latonya Reeves, Black, probation officer, vice chair of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission. “We know we need reform, but we know we need responsible reform and that the community is heard and I am someone who loves the community.”
Betty Danger’s, the quirky northeast Minneapolis bar known for its Ferris wheel and miniature golf, has been sold for $3.5 million.
The property, located at 2501 Marshall St. NE and 2519 Marshall St. NE, was purchased on Nov. 15, according to the certificate of real estate value filed with the state. The primary buyer of the site is entrepreneur Joe Radaich, according to Taylor VerMeer, a spokeswoman for an undisclosed project planned for the site.
“While I can confirm that Joe Radaich is the primary buyer listed on this project, we are not able to share anything more at this time,” VerMeer said in an email.
Radaich has operated bars in the past, including Sporty’s Pub and Grill, which later became Como Tap. Radaich no longer operates Como Tap, an employee said on Tuesday. Radaich did not return requests for comment. Attempts to reach Leslie Bock, the Betty Danger’s previous owner, were unsuccessful.
The property’s mortgage payments are set at $18,886 per month with a 6.15% interest rate, the state filings show.
A Minneapolis nonprofit that served food to low-income kids has agreed to dissolve itself after a state investigation found it violated laws regarding its operations and financial transactions.
The move was announced Tuesday by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office began investigating Gar Gaar Family Services, also known as the Youth Leadership Academy, after it was denied from participating in a federally funded program to provide food to students after school.
The investigation then found additional issues, including:
An attorney who has represented Gar Gaar, Barbara Berens, could not be reached Tuesday afternoon. Neither Ali or Morioka have been charged in criminal court.
The settlement by the state and Gar Gaar requires it to begin the dissolution process within 60 days of a court’s approval. The nonprofit then must transfer its assets to other charitable organizations with a similar mission.
Gar Gaar, which means “help” in Somali, launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to help students in need, especially those in the Somali community. The group served meals outside of the school year as part of the Summer Food Service Program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture but managed by the Minnesota Department of Education.
Gar Gaar received $21 million in reimbursements for serving 7 million meals — the top provider of summer meals in Minnesota in 2021.
What would have been a wild story was quickly put to rest Tuesday when Bloomington police issued a statement clarifying that no, it was not in possession of a recorded O.J. Simpson murder confession.
TMZ reported Tuesday afternoon that Bloomington police may have unwittingly come into possession of such a recording after arresting a former bodyguard of Simpson’s more than two years ago.
But about two hours after that report published, the suburban police department sent out a release that said the belongings seized during the arrest of Iroc Avelli had been inspected and officers “did not locate any information of evidentiary value for the Los Angeles Police Department.”
Here’s what police said happened:
Bloomington police arrested Avelli under suspicion of assault on March 3, 2022. Several items were taken by police in the process, including a backpack which contained multiple thumb drives, according to a statement.
They said Avelli and his attorney said one of the thumb drives in the backpack contained a recording of Simpson confessing to the infamous 1994 murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman, according to Bloomington police.
A search warrant was granted to inspect the thumb drives. A copy was obtained by TMZ, dated June 26, and the document only said the results from the search were “pending.”
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