Minneapolis City Council candidate to resign from Park Board amid residency questions

Becka Thompson, a Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board member, is planning to resign her seat in a northern district of the city so she can run for a City Council seat in south Minneapolis.

Thompson faces a dilemma. Elected officials must live in the places they represent, according to the Minnesota Constitution. In order to be eligible to run for City Council in Ward 12 — the southeast Minneapolis ward currently represented by Council Member Aurin Chowdhury — Thompson needs to give up her northside Park Board seat and move to Ward 12 at least 30 days before the general election.

As of Monday, Thompson spends four days of the week at her home in north Minneapolis and three days at a residence in the Cooper neighborhood of south Minneapolis, she told the Minnesota Star Tribune. She said she would continue to split her residency this way until next week, when she plans to move to Ward 12 full-time.

This means that Thompson cannot legally hold on to her Park Board seat next week. Short of officially confirming her resignation, Thompson told the Minnesota Star Tribune in a call Monday that she will submit her decision in a letter to Park Board President Cathy Abene later this week.

“I will neither confirm nor deny, but what you’re saying is likely to happen imminently,” Thompson said, acknowledging that in order to stay in the City Council race, she must resign from the Park Board. “And I just was choosing the last legally possible moment for North Siders and just for myself, because I really love being on the Park Board, to be honest. But I do live 50/50, almost, right now in Cooper.”

Questions about Thompson’s residency have been swirling in the months since she announced her intention to run for the south Minneapolis council seat.

On Friday, the Star Tribune published its city elections guide, which asks candidates to disclose their home neighborhoods. Thompson claimed Cooper as her neighborhood, which raised eyebrows with some readers. She later clarified that she splits her time between north and south Minneapolis, and the voter guide was corrected to explain that, at the time of publication, Cooper was not Thompson’s primary residence.

“My opponent owes the voters of Ward 12 and North Minneapolis the truth,” she said. “Misrepresenting residency is a serious breach of public trust.”

Edward Bear Stops, a nonprofit founder who works as general manager of a Jimmy John’s, is also running in Ward 12.

“She says she plans to [move], but planning and actually living here are not the same thing,” Bear Stops said about Thompson. “Our neighbors deserve clarity. ... Residents want someone rooted here, who knows the daily rhythm of the ward and is invested in its future right now, not later.”

If Thompson resigns from the Park Board, she will leave a vacancy on the board with just over two months left in her term. Current Park Board terms expire in January.

Historically, when Park Board members leave office mid-term, the remaining commissioners appoint a replacement. The last time this happened was 2023, when the former At-Large Commissioner Alicia Crudup moved to Robbinsdale.

Park Board officials did not confirm Monday whether Thompson’s resignation would trigger this process, or when.

Whether Thompson is making her move just in time or too late will depend on whether any of her opponents follow through with a legal challenge and how the law interprets when an election begins.

According to the city’s website per the state Constitution, “To run for a specific office, you must live in the corresponding election district for at least 30 days before the General Election.”

State law defines "general election" as “an election held at regular intervals on a day determined by law or charter at which the voters of the state or any of its subdivisions choose by ballot public officials.”

Election Day is Nov. 4 this year. However, early voting began on Friday. The city has already sent a record 12,640 requested mail-in ballots, and more than 350 people have cast votes at the Early Vote Center, 980 E. Hennepin Av., according to a Monday news release.