Minneapolis, violence interrupter group reach agreement on funding

The City of Minneapolis says its violence interrupters will be held to stricter funding standards.

It’s part of a settlement resulting from a lawsuit filed in December.

That suit claimed the city awarded public safety contracts “arbitrarily” and “illegally.”

The new agreement requires groups to lay out their expenses when filing invoices with the city — including services rendered and personnel costs.

It also requires the city to use a stricter process to select which organizations to award grant money to.

A statement from the plaintiff’s attorney said, “Our firm is very pleased with the settlement as it greatly benefits and protects the City’s residents. Our only regret is that the City forced our firm to litigate the matter to get this result. Our firm could have continued to argue the case to recover its fees for acting as a private attorney general for the benefit of the public, but we concluded it was more important to secure the relief we sought and achieved rather than continue to litigate over fees.”