Minneapolis City Council did much more than weigh in on Israel vs. Hamas in 2024

In a year in which the Minneapolis City Council grabbed headlines for controversial moves like calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, it actually did a lot of other stuff, too.

So much so, in fact, that the city clerk recently gently suggested the council might want to take it down a notch. City staffers are at “a tipping point,” he said, as they try to keep up with the council’s work while also delivering on core functions.

“The pace of the council this year has been extraordinary,” City Clerk Casey Carl told the council in November. “The city enterprise, including the city’s legislative department, is often hard-pressed to keep up with the council’s demands.”

That seems hard to believe, given clashes between the city’s mayor and council majority — all on the left — often rival the intensity of Democrats and Republicans in Congress. All 13 Minneapolis City Council members are Democrats or Democratic Socialists, and Mayor Jacob Frey is also a Democrat, but the council’s far-left wing accuses Frey of falling short and failing to lead. He pushes back that the council too often bypasses experts on city staff and makes rash decisions.

Progressives took control of the council in November 2023, winning seven seats and snatching the majority from moderates aligned with Frey. But they lack the nine seats needed to override his vetoes. During their first year in control of the council — halfway through the council’s two-year terms and as they head toward the city election in November — the council took action on 1,170 matters by mid-October. In the first seven months of the year alone, the council introduced 48 ordinances — about double the total for all of 2022 and 2023 — and almost 70% of the council’s proposals were moving toward final action.

“There’s this, I believe, false narrative that says the mayor and the council can’t get along, the mayor and the council are not able to work together, and that the city is not cooperating with the council and the administration is ignoring (their) directives,” Carl said. “I think it does advance a political narrative, right? I mean, there are, there’s some good politics to that, perhaps. But ... the data does not show that.”

The mayor and council members point to Carl’s report as proof that they got a lot of work done despite differences. During a year-end news conference, council progressives celebrated their accomplishments and indicated no plans to slow down.

“We had a packed agenda this year, and next year will be no different,” Council Member Jason Chavez said.

Among the big-ticket items the council passed were a new police contract giving police officers raises of nearly 22% over three years; a new fee on carbon emissions; and a $15 minimum price for a pack of cigarettes.

The council and mayor clashed on other big issues that remain unresolved. That includes what to do with the former Third Precinct police station, which was torched in the fallout from George Floyd’s killing by police; the structure of a new Minneapolis labor standards board; and the future of George Floyd Square.

They battled over setting minimum pay rates for rideshare drivers before the Legislature stepped in and passed a law preempting a Minneapolis ordinance after Uber and Lyft started making plans to pull out of the city.

While there are broad areas of agreement, Frey said, some council proposals were “half-baked.” In other cases, he said, the council failed to consult city experts or disregarded advice from city attorneys.

The majority of the council was elected after George Floyd’s 2020 police killing, Council President Elliott Payne said, bringing a sense of urgency around police accountability, climate change and housing.

“When you combine that with COVID and these two-year terms, it just does not feel like we have a lot of time to accomplish what we’re trying to accomplish,” Payne said. “These seats are not guaranteed — we want to try to make the most of our time in office.”

While the council cranked out a lot of legislation, it was often at odds with Frey right up until year’s end, when the mayor took the unprecedented step of vetoing the council’s budget. That capped a string of eight vetoes in 2024, including the minimum pay rate for rideshare drivers; an Israel-Hamas ceasefire resolution; the carbon emissions fee; an ordinance creating a new labor standards board; and raises for about 160 high-paid city employees.

The council overrode half of those vetoes. The pay raise veto will be up for an override vote in the new year.

That’s far more vetoes than during Frey’s prior years in office, and more than the previous two mayors. Frey had one veto in 2023, four in 2022, three in 2021, one in 2020, and none his first two years in office, according to a city archive.

Frey said the council can’t accuse his administration of blocking progress when it’s taking a record number of actions.

“It’s not like I want to veto these things. I certainly didn’t want to veto the budget. There was not an inordinate number of vetoes in ‘18, ‘19, 2021, ‘22 or ‘23. What changed? The council changed in 2024.”

Both he and progressive council members accuse the other of being unwilling to come to the table and negotiate.

“I am always ready to show up to the table to work with the mayor,” Payne said. “The mayor is not always ready.”

The council has increasingly turned to legislative and staff directives since the city moved to a more “strong mayor” structure in 2022, giving Frey more control over city departments. Payne said that created an environment where city staff can be reluctant to work with council members outside of the formal hierarchy, creating bottlenecks and delays that frustrate the council.

Still, Carl says the numbers show there has been “productive collaboration” between the two branches of government.

“Does that mean that it’s all rosy and perfect?” he said. “No, and I’m not trying to give that impression.