The Minneapolis Board of Ethical Practices has concluded that then-Council Member Phillipe Cunningham breached the city's ethics code when he deleted a Fourth Ward Facebook discussion last fall.
Minneapolis board finds former Council Member Phillipe Cunningham violated ethics code
The city has no power to discipline Cunningham, who's no longer in office.
February 11, 2022 at 10:07PM
Cunningham's original Facebook post alleged code violations of a north Minneapolis autobody shop, triggering a deluge of angry comments from defenders of the popular small business. At least one comment used a racial slur. Cunningham then removed the entire post, causing constituents to complain that he had violated the city's social media policy against erasing public data.
Cunningham testified before the ethics board Jan. 25, arguing that the social media policy's complaint-based enforcement was inherently stacked against council members who receive more harassment due to their identities.
This week, board members Walter Bauch and Kyle Kroll discussed findings that Cunningham did violate the ethics code by destroying city property and depriving the public of a chance to appeal the removal of the Facebook post, thus exposing the city to liability.
"The racial and other slurs that were directed towards then-Council Member Cunningham are absolutely reprehensible in my mind and they have no place in civil discourse," said Bauch. "And while I will never walk in Council Member Cunningham's shoes, and have those kinds of slurs directed at me, unfortunately I believe that the council member has violated ... the ethics code."
The board members weighed whether Cunningham's viewpoint-neutral decision to remove the entire post was better than if he had erased a single comment, and whether taking down the Facebook post constitutes destruction of property if the city managed to save a copy through archiving software.
They ultimately agreed that because the city owns the official ward Facebook pages, the content of those pages is city property that once deleted cannot be restored for its essential purpose of being accessible to members of the public.
Once finalized, findings against an elected official are to be reported to the mayor and City Council. However, because Cunningham is no longer a City Council member, the city cannot discipline him.
From small businesses to giants like Target, retailers are benefitting from the $10 billion industry for South Korean pop music, including its revival of physical album sales.
