Brooklyn Center could soon appoint a project manager to coordinate work on police reforms following the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright in April.
Brooklyn Center to appoint project manager to help with police reform
The coordinator would implement a package of reforms passed after the police killing of Daunte Wright.
September 1, 2021 at 5:28PM
The City Council approved the creation of the position, a project manager to head the Community Safety and Violence Prevention Implementation Committee, on a 3-2 vote at its Aug. 23 meeting. The project manager would coordinate the implementation of the Daunte Wright and Kobe Dimock-Heisler Community Safety and Violence Prevention Act.
In May, the City Council passed a plan to reshape the city's police department that proposed police officers be prohibited from making arrests for low-level offenses and that unarmed civilians be commissioned to handle minor traffic violations. The reforms also would establish a new city department to oversee public safety.
The reforms were proposed after Wright and Dimock-Heisler, two Black men, died during encounters with Brooklyn Center police.
The new project manager would report to Mayor Mike Elliott.
Council Member Dan Ryan said he is not against police reform but voted against creating the position because it deviates from how the city's government operates. In Brooklyn Center, the city manager reports to the council and all other city staff report to the city manager.
"For us to erode the council-manager form of government might sound like it's in the weeds and it's standing up for something obscure," Ryan said. "But we are also setting a precedent for the future."
It was not immediately clear how the city would fund the project manager position, but Elliott suggested using federal grant money from the American Rescue Plan.
In a separate vote, the council rejected a resolution allowing the city to hire an aide to help the mayor.
The position would have included managing the mayor's calendar, conducting research, responding to inquiries from constituents and the media, and reviewing documents needing the mayor's signature.
Elliott had made the request for an aide before Wright was shot April 11, but he reintroduced the idea last week.
"I think I probably aged a good decade just in those few months," Elliott said during the discussion. "This job is extremely stressful."
Council members defeated the measure 3-2, with those objecting saying the position duplicates the work of the city manager.
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