Star Tribune
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, City Council haggle as 2024 spending plan takes shape
A new public safety center on Lake Street, unarmed “safety ambassadors” in several neighborhoods and a boost in funds to address hate crimes were all approved by the Minneapolis City Council on Thursday as members began to work through ideas to reshape Mayor Jacob Frey’s proposed 2024 city budget.
The process, which continues Friday, is raising disagreements between Frey and the 13-member council, who between them offered some four dozen proposals to the Budget Committee charged with shaping the spending plan.
At one point, in an uncommon spectacle, Frey and council members publicly haggled on the record in council chambers over how, when or whether to create three positions to assist people in the throes of domestic violence. That impromptu bargaining session was ultimately set aside — for the day.
Frey most strenuously objects to council plans that would cut positions he proposed in his budget. They include eight new positions in human resources; without them, Frey said, efforts to hire people across city departments are in jeopardy. And without at least five new positions to implement a vision to reimagine policing, he said, that work will stall.
Frey and the council must agree on the budget before the end of the year. A public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in City Hall.
The bulk of Frey’s proposed $1.8 billion spending plan, which he unveiled in August, will remain untouched. But the 48 budget amendments proposed by council members amount to millions of dollars of potential spending on high-profile programs, including public safety efforts by unarmed people, and retention and recruitment efforts for 911 personnel.
Many proposals from council members seek spending on alternatives to traditional policing; the money often would come from a $19 million pool of public safety funding from the state. Frey unsuccessfully sought to use up to $15 million of that money to recruit and retain police officers; a divided council rejected that, dealing a setback to the mayor, Police Chief Brian O’Hara and the police union that also had the effect of freeing up a hefty chunk of outside dollars not otherwise spoken for.
The council, in two votes on Thursday, agreed on two ways to spend some of the state money. They are:
3rd Precinct ‘interim safety center’
Council members unanimously approved spending $500,000 of the funding for the rental, design, build and communication of an interim Safety Center in the Third Precinct. Council Member Jason Chavez said he has already toured two potential locations along Lake Street.
He said the facility would not replace or conflict with an envisioned — but as-yet-undefined — safety center to be opened at the new Third Precinct police station at 2633 Minnehaha Av. that the council approved a month ago. Frey cited the potential redundancy in his opposition to the idea.
The functions of the interim center weren’t immediately clear. Chavez said residents could file police reports or return lost or stolen items there. But the wider intent was to supplement the city’s efforts to determine what a safety center should entail, given expectations that a network of them could offer services not available at police stations.
Council President Andrea Jenkins and others referred to the facility as similar to a “police substation,” such as the one that once was in the area. But City Attorney Kristyn Anderson cautioned that the state money proposed to fund the interim center cannot be used for a police station.
In a related proposal, also approved unanimously, council members agreed to set aside $4 million to explore pilot community safety centers across the city.
Frey’s administration opposed this spending as well, arguing in a memo sent to council members this week that it “will likely not be able to be spent down for many years and overlaps with various other programs and initiatives already accounted for in the proposed budget.”
Safety ambassadors
In another unanimous vote, council members approved spending $2.1 million in state funding to start neighborhood safety programs using unarmed “safety ambassadors” in the city’s seven cultural districts along West Broadway, Central Avenue, Cedar Avenue South, Franklin Avenue East, East Lake Street, 38th Street and Lowry Avenue North.
Public Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette cautioned council members that, while he supported the program, he was skeptical it could begin in the next year even with the additional funds.
After splitting their two-game West Coast trip to begin the season, the Wolves improved to 2-1 with a 112-101 win over Toronto in their home opener. It was a wire-to-wire win that featured some strong bursts of play from the Wolves and other times when their decision-making was suspect. But those moments when they were on, specifically the start of the game and most of the third quarter, were enough to carry them against a shorthanded Raptors team that was without RJ Barrett, Bruce Brown and Immanuel Quickley.
Julius Randle had 24 points while Anthony Edwards had 24 on 21 shot attempts. Donte DiVincenzo had 16 off the bench. Nickeil Alexander-Walker left the game in the fourth quarter and did not return, though he was in the bench area for the final minutes after going to the locker room briefly.
The Wolves’ starting lineup had its best stretch of basketball on the season after that unit started off sluggish in the first two games. Mike Conley, who was 3-for-16 to open the year, hit two early threes to set the tone, though Conley would finish 2-for-8.
Donte DiVincenzo replaced him at point guard halfway through the quarter and continued the hot shooting from the point guard slot with three threes of his own. The Wolves forced five Toronto turnovers and had a 32-18 lead after one.
Coach Chris Finch toyed with some different lineup combinations in the first half as he had Conley and DiVincenzo begin the quarter together while having Joe Ingles run the point later in the quarter. It led to an uneven second, and the Wolves led 56-44 at halftime.
But the Wolves played inspired coming out of the break. Jaden McDaniels, who didn’t take a shot in the first half, had nine points in the opening minutes of the third. Edwards hit a pair of threes as they pushed their lead to 22. The Wolves weren’t sharp closing the night, and the Raptors had the game within right inside of two minutes, but the Wolves had built enough of a cushion.
Rudy Gobert. Gobert had 15 points and 13 rebounds and was the beneficiary of some lobs from his teammates like Edwards, Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Joe Ingles. Gobert also finished with four blocks.
Gobert had two blocks on one possession in the fourth quarter that got the crowd off its feet and Gobert pounding his chest. Gobert blocked D.J. Carton and Jamison Battle.
Star Tribune
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
NOVI, Mich. — Donald Trump further denigrated Detroit while appealing for votes Saturday in a suburb of the largest city in swing state Michigan.
”I think Detroit and some of our areas makes us a developing nation,” the former president told supporters in Novi. He said people want him to say Detroit is ”great,” but he thinks it ”needs help.”
The Republican nominee for the White House had told an economic group in Detroit earlier this month that the ”whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Democrat Kamala Harris wins the presidency. That comment drew harsh criticism from Democrats who praised the city for its recent drop in crime and growing population.
Trump’s stop in Novi, after an event Friday night in Traverse City, is a sign of Michigan’s importance in the tight race. Harris is scheduled for a rally in Kalamazoo later Saturday with former first lady Michelle Obama on the first day that early in-person voting becomes available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters. Trump won the state in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden carried it four years later.
Michigan is home to major car companies and the nation’s largest concentration of members of the United Auto Workers. It also has a significant Arab American population, and many have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza after the attack by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
During his rally, Trump spotlighted local Muslim and Arab American leaders who joined him on stage. These voters ”could turn the election one way or the other,” Trump said, adding that he was banking on ”overwhelming support” from those voters in Michigan.
“When President Trump was president, it was peace,” said one of those leaders, Mayor Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights. ”We didn’t have any issues. There was no wars.”
While Trump is trying to capitalize on the community’s frustration with the Democratic administration, he has a history of policies hostile to this group, including a travel ban targeting Muslim countries while in office and a pledge to expand it to include refugees from Gaza if he wins on Nov. 5.
Star Tribune
‘Take our lives seriously,’ Michelle Obama pleads as she rallies for Kamala Harris in Michigan
”We are looking at a health care crisis in America that is affecting people of every background and gender,” Harris told reporters before visiting the doctor’s office.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden went to a union hall in Pittsburgh to promote Harris’ support for organized labor, telling the audience to ”follow your gut” and ”do what’s right.”
Harris appeared with Beyoncé on Friday in Houston, and she campaigned with former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen on Thursday in Atlanta.
It’s a level of celebrity clout that surpasses anything that Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has been able to marshal this year. But there’s no guarantee that will help Harris in the close race for the White House. In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost to Trump despite firing up her crowds with musical performances and Democratic allies.
Trump brushed off Harris’ attempt to harness star power for her campaign.
”Kamala is at a dance party with Beyoncé,” the former president said Friday in Traverse City, Michigan. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, is scheduled to hold a rally in Novi, a suburb of Detroit, on Saturday before a later event in State College, Pennsylvania.
