Minneapolis City Council member Robin Wonsley, at a City Council committee meeting, said the Neighborhood Safety Department (NSD) is plagued by internal problems with oversight of millions of dollars of contracts.

“And, some of these concern allegations of fraud and abuse,” said Wonsley. “What appears to be severe mismanagement of the Neighborhood Safety Department.”

Wonsley told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS Wednesday she could not offer specifics publicly to protect the integrity of an audit by the City Auditor and to protect whistleblowers within NSD.

“What I can share is what lead to my actions,” said Wonsley. “Staff and community members essentially acting as whistleblowers and taking great personal and professional risk by exposing information that did demonstrate severe dysfunction and mismanagement within the department.”

The Office of Community Safety oversees NSD. Commissioner Todd Barnette told KSTP he is disappointed by Wonsley’s remarks.

“Well, I don’t condone those comments,” said Barnette. “When you make those types of statements, at least from my prior background, you really have to watch for a defamation lawsuit if it’s not true.”

Sources told KSTP that the director of NSD has rejected billing invoices from some violence interrupter groups because they were incomplete and unverifiable. Barnette said he has built a new management structure for strong oversight of all NSD contracts.

“We gotta have accountability. We gotta have compliance. We gotta have capacity and we gotta have transparency,” said Barnette.

Wonsley said she will meet with Mayor Jacob Frey Thursday to share more of her concerns. Frey’s office declined to comment