like Philippe Cunningham, Jeremy Schroeder, Jeramiah Ellison and yourself lose?
It is the intention of the existing City Council to āupdate documentsā with a
lame duck City Council even though the will of the electorate is to not have
them making policy for the police any more?
Would a lame duck Council where most were voted out of office attempt to
reorganize the City in its last two months?
Can you comment on exactly what documents would be updated?
My reading of the timing is that November 3rd or so we will know whether the
amendment will pass. To make any ordinance change, you have to have two public
hearings before there can be a change in ordinance. There are two council
cycles, presuming you do not meet around Thanksgiving or around Christmas as is
traditional. So it is unclear how you would have time to update ordinances.
Could you comment on the timing you are expecting?
Could you also comment on why documents would be updated before a plan is
created?
Philippe Cunningham has put himself forward as the best person to run this new
department. Can you comment why someone would be appointed for a job that
will last for only two months and whether it is the intention to hire Philippe
given there would be no time to post the job and interview candidates?
Can you comment on the question of a lame duck Council laying off police
officers?
I very much look forward to your answers.
Carol Becker
Longfellow
> On Sep 20, 2021, at 3:14 PM, Cam Gordon <<email obscured>> wrote:
>
> ļ»æNow that we know that the proposed charter change to create a new Department
of Public Safety will be on the ballot, more people are going to be wondering,
writing and talking about what it would look like in Minneapolis.
>
> Naturally, and wisely I think, many of the details have not been worked out.
Before investing in the careful, inclusive, transparent, democratic and
thoughtful process such promising and serious work will require, I believe the
first step is to see if the will of the people is to change the framework and
create the department in the first place. Still, much of what will follow is
predictable and will be built from what has come before.
>
> So, letās say that Ballot Question #2 is approved by the voters in November.
>
> Here are some of my thoughts about what might happen next.
>
> The first action that would likely occur would be the appointment of a new
Commissioner of Public Safety and likely her or his first priority would be to
take the lead in developing a timeline and plan for studying, engaging
stakeholders and considering options for the new department. The Council and
Mayor may even choose to appoint an interim commission prior to January in
order to allow the newly elected group to do a more extensive search and choose
the appointee.
>
> That, and updated our documents to reflect the new charter language, would
likely be the only formal action taken during the 30 days following election
day.
>
> The other formal action that would follow, would be the drafting of
amendments to the appropriate ordinances, including the Police Department
Ordinance, and the creation of a new ordinance governing the new department.
The shape of that would be up to the newly elected Council and Mayor. I think
that the most obvious first things we might bring into the new department would
be all of our Police Department, 911 Emergency Communications and our Office of
Emergency Management staff and resources. We might also consider including
Traffic Control, Fire Inspections, Animal Care and Control, our new Behavioral
Crisis Response division and the Office of Violence Prevention.
>
> To get a better understanding about what a Department of Public Safety might
look like, you might want to look at how some other cities, counties and states
have organized their Public Safety Departments. You can look at our state
Department of Public Safety here
https://dps.mn.gov/pages/default.aspx#<https://dps.mn.gov/pages/default.aspx>
>
> You can get a feel for the general national picture of Departments of Public
Safety, (according to Wikipedia) at -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_public_safety
>
> You can find two examples of other larger cities with Departments of Public
Safety at the following. First for Denver, Colorado at
https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Departments/Department-of-Public-Safety/About-Us.
Second for St Louis, Missouri at
https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/public-safety/index.cfm
>
> I suspect any reorganization and additional City functions would first be
agreed to in a new ordinance and then take months, and likely years to
accomplish and I know that there is a big interest right now at exploring how
to better prevent crime and violence and looking at safety from a Public Health
perspective as well as a Criminal Justice perspective.
>
> In Minneapolis, through our Health Department and with a lot of work being
done under the leadership of former Mayors Rybak and Hodges, we have been
taking a look at using a public health approach for many years. You can learn
a little about the history of Violence prevention in Minneapolis at
https://www.womenspress.com/a-public-health-approach-to-violence/. You can
learn more about Violence Prevention and the Public Health Approach generally
at these 2 links with information from two well-known and credible
organizations, the World Health Organization, and the United States Center for
Disease Control:
>
> https://www.who.int/violenceprevention/approach/en/
>
> https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/about/publichealthapproach.html
>
> You can also find some excellent resources at
https://citiesunited.org/#resources
>
> To get an idea of what this Council, in particular, might be interested in,
in terms of some of the safety initiatives in addition to or instead of
policing, you can also look back at the Safety for All Budget Amendment that
the Council passed last year:
https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/news/step-toward-safety-all-minneapolis. At the
same meeting where this was approved, we also approved funding to support the
training and hiring of 3 new classes of new licensed law enforcement peace
officers and a mental health professional to be part of 911 to help identify
calls that could be assigned to the new crisis response teams.
>
> I also encourage people to see what one expert in the field has offered as a
possible framework for consideration of what a new department might include.
This was written several months ago by Michael Friedman. Michael is the former
executive director of the Legal Rights Center and served for 3 years as chair
of the Minneapolis Civilian Police Review Authority.
https://minnesotareformer.com/2020/07/17/what-happens-when-we-dismantle-the-police-department-heres-a-plan/
>
> Finally, If this measure passes I am confident that there will be many people
standing up and coming forward to help ---- including community members,
professionals who work or study safety and health from academia, other
nonprofit organizations, and governmental entities from throughout the country
and even internationally. Hundreds, and likely thousands, of people are ready
and willing to offer their input, insights, best ideas and guidance to help us
develop, implement and evaluate our new Department of Public Safety.
>
> We will make history and we will become a model for others to follow. I am
excited about the work to come. I hope you are too.
>
> Together, we will make our city safer for everyone.
>
>
> Cam Gordon
>
>
>
> Cam Gordon
> Seward, Minneapolis
> About/contact Cam Gordon: http://forums.e-democracy.org/p/camgordon
>
>
>
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