Minneapolis council approves a police contract with significant pay increase, some reforms

After months of controversy, the Minneapolis police contract proposal with a large wage increase cleared a major hurdle Thursday as the City Council voted 8 to 4 to approve the deal. Council members also voted to use the city’s downtown asset funds to partly pay for the additional costs in the contract.

The raises in the contract make Minneapolis police officers some of the highest paid in the state. Critics argued the city should have negotiated for more police reform in exchange for the cost.

Before the vote, City Council President Elliott Payne announced he supported the contract, saying members “can’t allow the vote to be all, end all” but continue the work to change the police department beyond the labor agreement. Payne urged residents to pay attention.

“We had a history of a toxic, racist police department because we had a broad community that was willing to look the other way. We need a majority of voters in this city to start paying attention,” Payne said. “What we learned through this process is that transformation is not going to happen solely in the text of the document. It's going to happen from continuous pressure, not just from us here on this dais, but from you out there … across the city.”

The contract between the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis and the city was negotiated starting last September. It’s already been approved by the union’s members.

It would increase officer salaries by 21.7 percent over the next three years, which means a recruit at the department’s academy would earn about $85,000 a year by the third year of the contract.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has said the high salaries are necessary to build back the city’s police force, which has lost hundreds of officers since 2020. He has said the raises are justified by their “tireless” work.

The contract also includes provisions that allow the police chief more authority to assign officers and fill vacancies. It also increases the amount of time Chief Brian O’Hara may put an officer on leave after allegations of misconduct and allows the hiring of civilian investigators.

Some on the council, including Payne, who ultimately supported the contract, have questioned whether the city could have negotiated more policy changes with the union.

Council member Aurin Chowdhury appeared to wrestle with her “yes” vote. Chowdhury said that a rejection by the council and subsequent likely outside mediation could deliver a worse outcome, and risk reforms in the current proposal.

“I don't necessarily believe it will dramatically change staffing numbers,” Council member Robin Wonsley said before her “no” vote, “I don't think it will retain officers to get back to glory days of pre-2020, largely because pay raises without real and permanent reform does not actually lead to an increased healthy work force."

Budget committee chair and Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai had said the city’s additional costs for the new contract are projected to be $9.2 million next year and $10.6 million in 2026, which doesn’t include the costs for retroactive pay for officers who have left the department. Chughtai voted against the contract.

Council Member Linea Palmisano supported the contract, and said there are substantial reforms in it.

"It's been a long road with this contract, but I think we're finally there. As I said at committee, there have been historic levels of engagement on this, both with the public and the council,” Palmisano said. “We've been in conversation about it for years, and I'm glad we have an opportunity to hear from residents at public hearings."

The council also shifted state public safety aid to partly cover the additional costs of the contract. The mayor’s proposal would have cut funding for the city’s truth and reconciliation efforts, a gun violence collaboration and a transit safety pilot program, but the council approved a plan to partly fund the police contract by using about $7 million of the city’s downtown assets funds, which council members said won’t interfere with the remodel of the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Dozens of residents submitted comments about the proposed contract. Many critics urged council members to vote against it and questioned why a department with low crime clearance rates deserves more money.

The Minneapolis Police Department is currently under state court monitoring with a similar federal process expected along the same lines, both of which were spurred by the killing of George Floyd four years ago by a Minneapolis police officer.

Stacey Gurian-Sherman of Minneapolis for a Better Police Contract said the number of comments from members of the public shows that they’re aware of how important the contract is in enacting the changes required by both those court-enforced agreements over policing.

Gurian-Sherman said the contract is “obscenely lopsided.”

“So, now the city resorts to even more deflection. ‘Well, we can get the reforms you like outside the collective bargaining agreement,’ or ‘We didn’t do everything you wanted this time, but we’ll do it next time,’” Gurian-Sherman said. “The funny thing is they said that two years ago, they said it four years ago, they’ve said it for decades, and we never get it done outside of collective bargaining.”

The contract will be in place until the end of 2025.

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