MINNEAPOLIS — Members of service workers unions celebrated Thursday afternoon after the Minneapolis City Council voted to create a new Labor Standards Board.

Supporters say it’s about giving workers more of a voice in crafting policies that affect them in the workplace, while business groups warned the new panel would drive companies away from Minneapolis at a time the city’s economy is still in recovery mode.

Council Member Aisha Chughtai, the lead author of the resolution creating the panel, said Thursday’s vote came after two years of discussions with constituents and stakeholders.

“I have always trusted the voice of workers, from living with my family, to working for a union, to being an elected official,” Chughtai, who was surrounded by members of the CTUL and SIEU unions, told reporters after the meeting. “That’s what this board is about, it’s about working-class people having a seat at the table. It’s about workers who are the experts in their own working conditions having a seat at the table.”

The council passed the proposal on a 9 to 3 vote, with one member absent. That is considered a veto-proof majority if all nine members stick to their current stances after Mayor Jacob Frey vetoes the resolution.

“I’m extremely proud that we not only believe in economic justice in theory, but we also fight for it in practice, and that’s what we’re doing here today,” Council Member Katie Cashman remarked.

The new board will include members of labor unions, businesses, and consumer groups. It will craft policy proposals that would need to be approved by the city council before becoming law. Business groups, especially in the local restaurant industry, say they’re already operating on thin margins even without the new advisory panel.

“We’re not feeling very comfortable that this is truly going to be a balanced board, to pass it without so much of hearing from the businesses this will impact, does not give us a lot of hope that we’re going to have a fair seat at that table,” Angie Whitcomb of Hospitality Minnesota told reporters.

The Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce and Minneapolis Downtown Council joined Hospitality Minnesota in opposition, branding the council’s vote as “reckless” and rushed. Opponents were particularly upset that the final details of the plan were published only 11 days before the final vote, and there wasn’t a formal public hearing on it.

“They’ve been having conversations, yes, stakeholder meetings, but the feedback has not been implemented,” Whitcomb explained. “It feels performative. They checked the box so they can say. ‘We’ve met with small business; we’ve met with the restaurant community.’ They have. They didn’t listen to us.”

The council deadlocked 6 to 6 on a proposal to delay the final vote until after a public hearing could be held. Supporters said there will be plenty of opportunities in the future to amend the structure of the new board if problems arise.

“If we want people to be engaged around this issue, what is wrong with hearing from them?” Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw asked her colleagues.

Council Member Emily Koski supported the idea of holding off until after a public hearing but did eventually support forming the new board. She said the City Council needs to do all it can to shield working people from the impact of a second Donald Trump term.

“This attack on workers’ rights on the highest level of government will have far reaching consequences, consequences that will reach us here in Minneapolis,” Koski told her colleagues.

Council Member Michael Rainville warned that just the prospect of more business regulations will drive investment away from Minneapolis at a time the city is trying to recover from the pandemic, civil unrest around George Floyd’s murder, and a surge in crime.

“This is so wrong to sit up here and demonize the business community, the corporations. They create the jobs. They pay the taxes. They give to charity.”

Council Member Jason Chavez recalled his family’s struggles as he spoke in support of moving ahead with the labor board now, rather than waiting to act.

“My mother had to work three frickin’ jobs — three frickin’ jobs — to barely afford rent, to barely be able to put food on the table, to barely be able to live her life and support us as children,” Chavez recalled. “I don’t understand why it is controversial to have an advisory board that says people in the City of Minneapolis, workers in our city matter!”

Mayor Jacob Frey has shown support for establishing a labor standards board in the past, but his office issued a statement Thursday saying he’s opposed this version.

“Mayor Frey has been clear and consistent in his support for a Labor Standards Board that is balanced and fair, but the Council’s proposal was never that. He will be meeting with stakeholders from both the business and labor communities over the coming days to determine next steps.”

PRESCOTT, Wis. — A substitute teacher accused of reenacting the death of George Floyd in a Woodbury High School classroom this past October has resigned from his job as a police officer. 

The incident was detailed in a letter to families sent by Woodbury H.S. principal Sarah Sorenson-Wagner describing “inappropriate and racially harmful behavior involving a substitute teacher.” Students told Woodbury staff that the teacher, contracted through Bloomington-based Teachers On Call, reportedly told students he thought they’d like to hear about his life as a police officer. 

He is also accused of making sexist jokes to students, “invading” their space, telling students “police brutality isn’t real”, describing dead bodies he has seen and sharing explicit details on sexual assault cases he investigated. 

RELATED: Students: Substitute teacher reenacted death of George Floyd in Woodbury H.S. classroom

The principal said the substitute was immediately trespassed from Woodbury High School, and will not be allowed back on district property. Teachers On Call told KARE 11 in October that the sub is no longer an employee of theirs. 

The substitute was also an officer with the Prescott, Wisconsin Police Department. In October, the chief told KARE 11 he was on administrative leave while the incident was investigated. Officials have now confirmed he has resigned from the department.

ST PAUL, Minn. — The City of St. Paul has the potential of adding nearly 4,000 new apartment/condo units in the coming years without breaking any new ground. That’s according to a new report that scored 20 downtown properties based on their compatibility for residential conversion.

The Saint Paul Downtown Alliance commissioned the new Office to Residential Conversion Study, which was completed by Gensler, an international architecture and design firm that has handled conversion projects worldwide.

It found that half of those properties, 10 total, are prime targets for conversion.

“We’ve always speculated that there’s some unique features to St Paul architecture that would be a competitive advantage for us,” said Joe Spencer, President of the Saint Paul Downtown Alliance, which commissioned the study. “What the report did, was really verify that. Gensler has done this type of analysis for 1400 buildings across North America. On average, 30% of their buildings will score as a strong conversion candidate.”

“Fully half of ours were scoring as a strong conversion candidate and then another 30% were medium candidates for conversion and only 20% were really poor.”

Residential conversion projects aren’t new to downtown St. Paul, but at a time when many large office buildings have been losing value and vacancies have grown, the report hopes to help provide a guide to potential developers.

“In downtown St. Paul, we’ve got two (conversions) under construction right now, the one right behind me (in the Ecolab University building) and Landmark Tower just a couple blocks that way,” Spencer said.  “We’re hopeful that by providing this report to the market, we’re going to help accelerate that conversion.”

The buildings based on factors like the size of the floor plate and accessibility to windows, how easily the shape can be divided up into units and several other factors like accessibility to parking, plumbing and electrical.

If all 10 of the suitable properties were to be completed, the report estimated that nearly 4,000 new residential units could be added downtown St. Paul.

Spencer: “When you have that mix of users, where you have residents and workers and visitors all in one place, that’s what makes for an exciting and vibrant downtown.” 

Kent Erdahl: “I’ve talked to developers who have said that it’s not that easy because of how much money this costs in order to convert buildings. How do you get from, on paper, this can happen to a developer coming in and actually making that happen?” 

Spencer: “So there’s no question none of these are easy projects. That being said, what this report shows us is our buildings are actually more efficient to convert. We also know that there’s going to be a (cost) gap on top of that. One of the big tools that we’re looking for from the state is the (Conversion of Underutilized Buildings tax credit) what we call the CUB credit. It’s an additional tax credit, a subsidy, that helps close that gap so that we can accelerate the conversions.”

Building prices could also make the conversions more realistic. At a time when downtown office real estate has plummeted in value in the Twin Cities, five of the 20 St Paul properties are owned by Madison Equities, and have already been sitting on the market for months.

“Those buildings are going to fall in value until, at some point, the price is right and buyers are going to come in,” Spencer said. “We’ve had that part of downtown, where Madison Equities properties are clustered – struggling – kind of in the center of downtown for a while. This moment is, I believe, our greatest opportunity for transformation in the last 100 years.”

In the meantime, prices aren’t the only thing that could come crashing down.

Erdahl: “Will there be, in your opinion, buildings that disappear from the skyline?” 

Spencer: “That may well be a possibility. I think, certainly, over the course of time, certain buildings may have proved to out live their useful existence.”