The Minneapolis city attorney has accused the head of the city's Police Conduct Oversight Commission of misusing her position by criticizing Mayor Jacob Frey and endorsing his challenger Kate Knuth on social media posts.
The city's ethics code prohibits local officials from using city resources to promote an election outcome or using their official authority to compel someone to take part in political activity.
But Abigail Cerra, head of the oversight commission, sees a double standard in the reaction to her social media posts vs. the response to Police Chief Medaria Arradondo's news conference Wednesday, where he criticized the proposed charter amendment to replace the Police Department.
"The city attorney seems to just be in lockstep with the mayor in limiting speech of anyone who is critical of the mayor, critical of the chief," she said Friday.
Minneapolis spokeswoman Sarah McKenzie said the city's ethics officer can only give advice to someone covered by the city's ethics code if they ask for it. She said no one in the City Attorney's Office, including ethics officer Susan Trammell, had advance knowledge of Arradondo's press event.
The day after the news conference, which the chief conducted in uniform and in front of a backdrop with the city logo, City Council President Lisa Bender, a critic of the mayor, filed an ethics complaint against Frey and Arradondo. The city's Ethical Practices Board will review the complaint.
Last weekend, Cerra posted on Nextdoor, a neighborhood social media platform, that, "I am the Chair of the Minneapolis Police Conduct Oversight Commission (PCOC), and I have some fact-based reasons for not supporting Frey."
She later added, "I'm writing this only in my personal capacity as a Minneapolis resident, not as a representative of the Commission."
