It has been almost one year since Minneapolis residents voted to change the City’s government structure. The ballot question passed was:
Shall the Minneapolis City Charter be amended to adopt a change in its form of government to an Executive Mayor-Legislative Council structure to shift certain powers to the Mayor, consolidating administrative authority over all operating departments under the Mayor, and eliminating the Executive Committee?
[Author’s note: For some, this referendum was seen as a power struggle between the Mayor and the City Council. For others, this change would make the Mayor responsible for fixing the problems in the City structure, and make specific people/roles accountable for their employees’ actions/outcomes.]
With the amendment passed in November 2021, Mayor Frey commissioned a workgroup to research possible City government structures and cities that operate under those models. The workgroup made three recommendations after extensive research: Mayor/Deputy Mayor; Mayor/Chief Operating Officer; or Multiple Reports to the Mayor.
Mayor Frey selected the third option, with the people/roles reporting to the Mayor as Chief of Staff, City Operating Officer with Departments, and other direct reports. The Mayor identified the key City services to be: Legal; Operations: Human Resources (HR), Information Technology (IT), and Finance; Public Service; Communications; Race Equity Impact Analysis; and Community Safety (on the same November ballot, the voters rejected the referendum to do away with the Police Department and replace it with a Department of Public Safety).
Mayor Frey also set out to find a candidate with extensive experience and expertise for the first Commissioner of Community Safety for Minneapolis. The announcement of Dr. Cedric Alexander as his choice was made on July 7 and he was sworn in at City Hall on August 8. To learn more about Dr. Alexander, go to minneapolismn.gov/news/2022/July and look for “Mayor Frey to nominate.”
The City Council held study sessions on September 7 to hear about the proposed City structure changes, and to take questions from the council members and the public. These sessions are generally open to the public but are not always publicized with much lead-time. However, the sessions are recorded and can be watched on the CityofMinneapolis Youtube channel.
From the Study Session held on September 7, (September 7, 2022 Council Study Session – YouTube), the major focus was on the structure of the Community Safety Department. Dr. Alexander was in attendance, having been in his job of Commissioner for 30 days. The meeting started with the service heads of 911, Fire, Police, Emergency Management and Neighborhood Safety, each presenting their activities with the Commissioner and each other during the past month. The common theme was that having regular meetings as a team gives them greater awareness of how they can coordinate and communicate better as a Community Safety Department.
Commissioner Alexander also spoke about working with the service heads during his first 30 days on the job. He has been able to work with each head individually and as a team. They have learned about each other and found the common ground of challenges, communication internally and with the public, and agencies outside the City structure.
The City Council members were asking questions as it relates to the challenges Minneapolis faces. More than once the Commissioner had to remind council members that he had only been in the job for 30 days and still had a lot to learn about the different departments and personnel.
One Commissioner is coordinating all safety services and is accountable for the functioning of the Community Safety Department. The Mayor can speak to each service head, but ultimately the Commissioner is accountable to the Mayor, and the Mayor is accountable to the citizens of Minneapolis.
Author’s note: My take-away from listening to the speakers was that these department heads are very energized because they can finally start thinking/planning/working together on how to deliver their government services efficiently, effectively and equitably. I personally am excited to see what can happen when our public servants are not being managed by committee.