After an emotional special meeting of the Minneapolis City Council this afternoon, members have voted down an agreement between the mayor's office and the city's police union. It was a packed and somewhat tense meeting Friday afternoon as members prepared to take a vote on a $15 million recruitment and retention package.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the special meeting after a council committee refused to consider the agreement earlier this week. Several members are expected to oppose it, including Councilmember Elliot Payne.
"My concern around this is that we are in active labor negotiations right now, with MPD," said Payne. "There are a number of things we need to consider, not just retention bonuses but also base pay. And we need to partner that with deep, transformational reforms."
"It is factual, it is not an opinion, to say that retention and recruitment bonuses do not work," said Council Member Aisha Chugtai.
There were a number of instances of members interrupting each other as they debated the package. Members have even been arguing about the amount of time they should be allowed to ask questions.
Not all council members are against spending the money. Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw represents Ward 4 on the north side of the city and in an emotional plea, she said they need to do whatever is possible to protect citizens from violent crime.
"We've had five young men die in the last week," said Vetaw. "It's hard to sleep when you know you're arguing over, if you should give a bonus for more police or if you should focus on the money in other areas. I say (expletive) it. Let's do it all. OK? We gonna lose nothing."
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara is also making his point on the dire state of staffing in the department.
"This is not about the cops," said a clearly agitated O'Hara. "This is about the residents. We have been collapsing units into each other. We're talking about what else are we not going to be able to do next year."
Mayo Frey says regardless of today's vote, they need an answer now, given the city's serious police understaffing problem. He says if it's voted down, they'll go back to the negotiating table.
The meeting comes after a 7-5 vote from the City Council against the incentive agreement reached between the Minneapolis Police Department and the Police Union Federation, addressing staffing shortages that would provide up to $15.3 million in sign-on and retention bonuses.
The department is down more than 300 officers from four years ago and still well below what the City’s charter calls for as a minimum. This agreement between the department and the union is just part of the entire contract, but something both the mayor and the chief say is crucial to providing the staffing numbers the city needs.
Some council members say they are not convinced bonuses will actually work to recruit and retain officers.
Today's meeting was called by Mayor Jacob Frey to "force skeptical council members" to take a vote on the issue.