Minneapolis City Council again delays decision on 3rd Precinct
The future of the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct is still up in the air.
The Minneapolis City Council’s Committee of the Whole again delayed action on the topic Tuesday afternoon, postponing it until the committee’s Oct. 31 meeting.
The move came two weeks after Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey urged the council to move forward with a new safety center down the street from the precinct’s former home, something he reiterated a day earlier.
“I understand these decisions are controversial,” Frey told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS Monday. “I fully understand, regardless of what decision we make, there will be people that are pissed off, and still, we need to make a decision. People in the 3rd Precinct need service.”
Instead, the council again opted to delay its decision for another two weeks so that more information can be collected. Council members Michael Rainville, LaTrisha Vetaw and Lisa Goodman were the only members to not support the motion to table the measure until Oct. 31.
“Once we have received the mayor’s proposal, the site evaluation, the fiscal analysis and the review that we’re requesting, we will be able to make informed decisions regarding the future community safety 3rd Precinct facility,” council member Emily Koski, Ward 11’s representative, said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Koski was one of a few council members with wards in the 3rd Precinct’s boundaries that led the call to scrap Frey’s request for permission to start drawing up plans for the 2600 Minnehaha Avenue location.
Frey also spoke briefly at the meeting, saying, “My administration will do whatever it takes to get to seven votes.” That’s the number needed for the measure to get formal approval from the council.
But the council opted to have the mayor’s office do further analysis of the vacant, city-owned lot at 2600 Minnehaha Avenue and provide an explanation of if and how the public has a say.
“Due diligence is not indecision or inaction. Thoughtfulness is not indecision or inaction, and consensus building is not indecision or inaction, and I think all three of those things are actually good governance,” council member Aisha Chughtai, the Ward 10 representative, said.
Committee chairperson Linea Palmisano, who did vote in support of the measure, also voiced her desire for the body to take action.
“I feel a bit forced to go along with this legislative directive, as it is the only actionable time before us today that will have the kind of support that it needs, and I will support this if it gets us closer to an actual decision deadline,” Palmisano said.
She also repeated Frey’s calls for urgency and added that, with all council seats up for election in November, it would be “unfair” to pass the decision off to the next council.