Minneapolis voters on Tuesday voted against replacing the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public while approving the 'strong-mayor' system and giving the Minneapolis City Council a pathway towards rent control.
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LaTrisha Vetaw, who handedly defeated Philippe Cunningham for the Ward 4 council seat on Tuesday, told WCCO Radio's Paul Douglas on Wednesday morning that even though she wasn't in favor of the policing proposal, there are steps to take when it comes to reform.
"People want good police officers and people want police officers held accountable," Vetaw said. "People in North Minneapolis want police officers. We have some challenges. We led the city in murders this year in the fourth ward."
With all 136 precincts reporting, 80,506 votes were against the proposed amendment while 62,813 were four. Vetaw added that her take away from the election was that her ward wants to be heard not only by the councilmember from Ward 4, but by the entire city.
"People want a collaboration throughout the city with the mayor, city council, residents of the city, the police chief, and police officers on how we make this better and how we get to a better place on safety."
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Meanwhile the Minneapolis City Council will approved a proposal to replace the city's "weak mayor, strong council" system in favor of giving the mayor clearer authority over day-to-day government operations.
"I think this is going to bring a tremendous amount of clarity to our city," said Emily Koski, who defeated Ward 11 incumbent Jeremy Schroeder. "We are going to be able to work more efficiently and more effectively. I'm glad that our city saw that."
The ballot measure, measure one, needed 51 percent of the vote to pass and passed with 52 percent of the vote.