Star Tribune
City Council unanimously approves Minneapolis police oversight commission members
The Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously Thursday to approve 14 residents for the city’s new police oversight commission.
The nominees were selected by each of the 13 council members to represent their wards and by Mayor Jacob Frey, who chose two members, for the 15-member Community Commission on Police Oversight.
The council approved 14 rather than 15 commission members because James Westphal, an attorney nominated by Council Member Andrew Johnson, withdrew his name late Wednesday due to a legal matter he said would occupy his time.
Johnson, who represents the 12th Ward, indicated he was already reviewing possibilities to fill the seat.
With Westphal’s withdrawal, the commission is composed of seven white members and seven people of color, five of whom are Black, according to research done by the Star Tribune. One member is Black and Native American and another is white and Native American.
The commission has no Hispanic or Asian representatives, an omission that went unmentioned by council members during a brief discussion before the vote.
Asked afterward about the lack of Hispanic or Asian members, Minneapolis Civil Rights Director Alberder Gillespie said the new commission was “one of the most diverse bodies that we have. It is not just racially diverse, it is diverse in terms of the lived experiences of these commissioners.”
She added: “I think the board will continue to evolve over time. But I think we have a good initial group of commission members who are ready to do the work.”
Council members praised Gillespie for helping develop the ordinance creating the commission and overseeing the process of soliciting applicants, who numbered more than 160. Council President Andrea Jenkins said she was “thrilled with the level of interest” shown in serving on the commission.
Rotating panels comprised of three commission members and two police officers will consider complaints filed by citizens against Minneapolis police officers, reviewing investigations conducted by the police internal affairs unit or investigators with the city’s Civil Rights Department.
The panels will vote on whether a complaint has merit and forward their findings to Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who would then determine whether an officer should be disciplined and what the discipline would be.
The commission also will meet at least eight times a year to consider whether to recommend policy changes or reforms.
Applicants who were not nominated for the commission included two retired Minneapolis deputy police chiefs, Greg Hestness and Scott Gerlicher. Some observers had said that since the review panels already have two officers on them, adding ex-police officers to the commission would be excessive.
Those not selected for the commission also included two applicants belonging to Communities United Against Police Brutality. The citizens’ group, which has been highly critical of the city’s failure to discipline officers for misconduct, has said the oversight commission should be independent of city administrators and have subpoena power.
The new commission members are Josh Loar, Ward 1; Mara Schanfield, Ward 2; Paul Olsen, Ward 3; Melissa Newman, Ward 4; Jennifer Clement, Ward 5; AJ Awed, Ward 6; Mary Dedeaux-Swinton, Ward 7; Fartun Weli, Ward 8; Stacey Gurian-Sherman, Ward 9; Alexis Pederson, Ward 10; Philip Sturm, Ward 11; Nichelle Williams-Johnson, Ward 13; and Louis Smith and Latonya Reeves, both nominated by Frey.
Twin Amur tigers born at Como Zoo in August now have names — Marisa and Maks.
Two long-time volunteers who have worked with zookeepers to care for and teach the public about the zoo’s big cats came up with the names, the first to be born at the St. Paul zoo in more than 40 years.
Marisa, a name that the volunteers found to mean “spirited and tenacious,” call that a perfect reflection of her personality. The name also carries special significance for the Como Zoo community, as it honors a retired zookeeper of the same name who was instrumental in the care of large cats during her 43 years at the zoo, Como Zoo and Conservatory Director Michelle Furrer said.
The male cub has been named Maks, which is associated with meanings like “the greatest” or “strength and leadership.” The volunteers felt this was an apt description of the male cub’s confident demeanor and growing sense of leadership, Furrer said.
“Marisa and Maks aren’t just names; they’re a fun reminder of the passion and care that keep us committed to protecting wildlife every day,” Furrer said.
The newborns and their first-time mother, 7-year-old Bernadette, remain off view to allow for more bonding time, zoo officials said. The cubs’ father, 11-year-old Tsar, has been a Como resident since February 2019 and remains on view.
Fewer than 500 Amur tigers — also known as Siberian tigers — remain in the wild as they face critical threats from habitat loss, poaching and human-wildlife conflict, the zoo said.
Much of the wood waste in the metro area is sent to a processing site near Pig’s Eye Lake in St. Paul, where it is stored before being burned to produce energy at the St. Paul Cogeneration plant downtown.
Cogeneration provides power to about half of downtown and was originally built to manage elm-tree waste in response to Dutch elm disease. The plant burns approximately 240,000 tons of wood each year, according to Michael Auger, senior vice president of District Energy in St. Paul.
Jim Calkins, a certified landscape horticulturalist who has been involved in discussions about the problem, said he thinks using wood for energy is the most logical solution.
“The issue is, we don’t have enough facilities to be able to handle that, at least in the Twin Cities,” Calkins said. “So there has to be dollars to support transportation to get the wood to those places, or in some cases, to upgrade some of those facilities such that they are able to burn wood.”
Plans are in place to convert Koda Energy in Shakopee to burn ash wood, which could potentially handle around 40,000 tons of wood waste, but that would take around two years to establish, according to Klapperich.
In some areas of the state, cities have resorted to burning excess wood waste because they felt they had no other option. Open burning wood releases a lot of carbon into the air, Klapperich said.
Weary from the rat race nature of practicing commercial law, Danielle Miller had long dreamed of starting a new professional life as a bookstore owner. When the Lincoln, Neb., resident saw a space at St. Paul’s Union Depot, she moved to make her dream a reality. She and her husband now call the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood home.
Eye On St. Paul recently visited with Miller in her sun-drenched store, Story Line Books, to talk about what spurred her to leave the law behind and lose herself in shelves of books. This interview was edited for length.
Q: So, you’ve opened a bookstore, in Lowertown. Are you a little crazy?
A: That’s been the reaction. There’s been a lot of “Really? Lowertown?” There’s been a lot of that. It’s a little unnerving.
Q: Why decide to just up and move to St. Paul?
A: We travel a lot; we travel all over the world. And we go to bookstores. We were here visiting [my husband’s] parents in Woodbury, and we drove down Randolph because we like to eat at Due Focacceria. And we saw this building that had “For Sale” on it. It was a 900-square-foot retail spot on the bottom and an apartment above. And I was like, that is the European bookstore dream, right? I looked it up online, but it got scooped up. A week later, I was looking again and this [Union Depot space] was the first post.
I was immediately in love. The next time we were up here, we made arrangements to come and see it. And I told my husband, “You should probably get a job in St Paul.”
Q: Back up a few steps. Why this compulsion to open a bookstore when you were a working attorney?
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