Review Commission (PCIARC) I came away with the impression that the City of
St. Paul was moving on from the $250,000 settlement agreement Jessica
Kingston and as Mayor Carter stated that night "We are going to build this
community together."
so I was quite surprised by this week when both the Chairwoman and Vice
Chairwoman announced their resignation from the PCIARC identifying lack of
support from Mayor Carter and members of his administration as their reason
for stepping down.
The following is from an article by Pioneer Press reporter Mara Gottfried
regarding the resignation:
“By failing to adequately support the PCIARC’s (Police Civilian Internal
Affairs Review Commission’s) mandate, the mayor and his appointees are denying
St. Paul community members the opportunity to have meaningful participatory
oversight of their police department,” chair Constance Tuck and vice chair
Rachel Sullivan-Nightengale wrote in their resignation letter.
Read the full article at:
https://www.twincities.com/2019/06/04/leaders-of-commission-that-reviews-st-paul-police-misconduct-resign-say-mayor-and-staff-dont-support-their-work/
These developments also follow the resignation of Jason Sole, the first
director of St. Paul’s Community-First Public Safety Initiative earlier this
year. See the article filed by Frederick Melo at the time of that
announcement in January 2019:
https://www.twincities.com/2019/01/25/director-of-st-pauls-community-first-public-safety-initiative-to-step-down/
Taken as a whole these resignation indicate major difficulties for the Carter
Administration's goal of improving police/community relations.
Dennis Hill
St. Paul