Heated debate on minimum-wage charter drowns out nuance

Only in Minneapolis can 200 people with similar ideologies and goals go into a room together and get into a fight about ideology and goals.

That's what happened Wednesday, when protesters stormed the Minneapolis City Council chambers during a vote on whether to put the $15-per-hour minimum wage up to a citywide ballot. Because both protesters and business groups have threatened legal action over the outcome, Wednesday's vote was largely a matter of choosing which one would sue. The council chose the protesters.

As it became clear that a majority of council members did not think a charter amendment was the proper — legal — way to raise wages in the city, the shouting got louder.

"Shame!"

"This is what democracy looks like!"

These shouts were directed at one of the most liberal city councils in America, a council where a majority desire to raise the minimum wage, though possibly not at the city level.

Protesters, however, weren't going to accept overwhelming support without a fight. Several council members offered reasoned, nuanced and heartfelt explanations of their vote, but reason was gobbled up by rhetoric, and nuance was beaten back by bullhorns. To be fair, some council members who now support a higher wage might not have come around to the idea without pressure from groups like 15 Now.

"Sellout!" someone yelled.

"How do you sleep at night?" yelled another.

Jacob Frey is not a fan in general of legislation by popular vote, for good reasons (see Brexit). "I support taking the reins and doing it the right way," he said.

"You are a Redcoat!" yelled someone I can only assume is still paid in doubloons.

"True leadership is taking a stand that is hated by both sides," Frey continued.

Council Member Lisa Bender has been a staunch supporter of Black Lives Matter and many of the issues the protesters care about, so she admitted that "this is a hard room for me today."

"I could take the easy route, the politically easy route to stand with workers," she said. Instead she took the hard road, the road that takes her whole ward into consideration. It was a courageous, thoughtful speech.

She was booed.

You would think the audience would have liked to hear from Abdi Warsame, a Somali immigrant who understands overcoming poverty because he represents one of the poorest sectors of the city, but he was shouted down. So after the meeting, I wanted to hear Warsame's voice.

"If our aim is to reduce the equity gap, one of the ways to do it is capital," said Warsame, who strongly supports a higher wage, but not without assessing the implications. "The engine for growth in a city is small businesses."

After the 10-2 vote against submitting the minimum wage to voters, Frey, Bender and Warsame proposed to have staff work on a city wage ordinance — something that should have delighted protesters. But to paraphrase comedian Mitch Hedberg, you can't please all the people all of the time, and Wednesday all those people were in the council chambers.

Instead, it appeared protesters were actually shouting down their own best interests, chanting, "If the workers don't get it, shut it down." But by this time, I'd bet almost no one in the room even knew what "it" was anymore.

Had Alondra Cano proposed the same thing, there would have been cheers and exaltations. It was no longer about what was being said, but about who said it.

Cano's support of a citywide ballot on the minimum wage was passionate and persuasive. She pointed out the large number of women and children in poverty, and the unacceptable wage gap in the city.

Then Cano, noticeably irritated by the political maneuver of Frey and Warsame, quickly drafted an amendment that solidified any discussion of the minimum at $15. Popular? Sure, but also restrictive and doomed to fail.

The mystifying thing is, if a higher minimum wage is now so important to the council, why hasn't anyone proposed working on an ordinance before? In particular, why haven't Cano or Gordon?

That will happen now, under direction of people elected by a cross-section of voters and pending results of a study commissioned on the impact of a wage increase on all stakeholders. It will require hard work, tough decisions and some compromise. But no bullhorns.

Come to think of it, that's what democracy looks like.

jtevlin@startribune.com