Minneapolis City Council approves police union contract

Minneapolis police officers will gain historic pay raises after the City Council on Thursday approved a new contract with the police union.

For nearly an hour, a key group of progressive council members wrestled with the decision to move forward; several acknowledged that it lacked the breadth of accountability measures they were seeking but felt compelled to sign off on long-sought language changes — if only incremental ones.

“This contract does not go nearly far enough, it really doesn’t,” said Council President Elliott Payne, who ultimately supported the deal. “We are not done transforming this system.”

They approved the measure in an 8-4 vote.

The contract guarantees a nearly 22% pay raise for veteran officers by next summer and boosts starting salaries for rookies to more than $90,000 a year — putting Minneapolis among the top five highest-paid departments in the state and surpassing comparable wage schedules of some of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies.

The labor agreement, which has the support of Mayor Jacob Frey, also expands managerial oversight of the force, whose numbers stand at their lowest level in four decades, hampering investigations, jeopardizing some residents’ sense of security and racking up massive overtime hours for police and millions in costs for taxpayers.

Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara have said the raises, as well as increased powers for the chief, will be essential to rebuild and reinvent the department since the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

At a news conference, O’Hara acknowledged that increasing pay is “not the panacea to any staffing crisis,” but argued that being among the best paid in the state is “absolutely necessary to retain the outstanding men and women of this agency and to attract the very finest young men and young women who are looking to serve.”

The approval of the contract between the city and the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis follows a protracted period of negotiations and scrutiny. The previous contract expired at the end of 2022. Early bargaining sessions were conducted in public for the first time, but were followed by closed-door sessions and eventually involved state mediation. The union overwhelmingly approved a tentative agreement in early June, and the council held two public hearings — a rare move for a collective-bargaining agreement — lauded by politicians as an unprecedented level of community engagement and transparency.

Police supporters showed up in numbers at those public hearings to urge passage of the plan, telling council members that crime spikes during the pandemic and ensuing feelings of insecurity underscore the need for a robust police force.

But police-reform advocates and some council members argued the labor agreement lacked tangible reforms to rein in misconduct, which has cost the city roughly $50 million in police brutality settlements since May 2020. Several voiced concerns some of the new oversight measures in the contract, such as the chief being able to keep an officer on leave longer during an internal investigation, aren’t permanent.

“I don’t see temporary gains for permanent raises as progress,” said Council Member Robin Wonsley, who questioned whether financial incentives alone would significantly affect employment rates on the force.

She and other critics on the council chastised Frey’s administration for changing its messaging on whether the labor agreement was the appropriate place to enact disciplinary changes. In prior years, the contract was pegged as a direct obstacle to reform; now those same leaders insist that such matters are better addressed in the police policy manual, where they don’t have to be negotiated with the union.

As council members took up the measure, a dozen community activists in the audience raised paper signs saying “Vote NO on contract.” Amid the crowd, police supporter Howard Dotson held his own poster board demanding the council “Back our Blue.”

Council members didn’t have the ability to make any changes to the contract; they could only vote for or against it.

The labor contract broadens the chief’s managerial powers by providing more discretion in how and where he can move personnel, removes a clause that sets minimum staffing levels for certain positions, expands the number of civilian investigators and raises field training officer (FTO) pay from $2,500 to $3,000 per year. It also sheds decades of side agreements between the city and the union that effectively tied the hands of city leaders when trying to make changes. Many had no expiration dates.

In the end, several skeptical council members said they nonetheless supported the contract over the alternative: Voting it down would have meant a return to mediation and potentially arbitration, perhaps resulting in a weaker contract, city labor officials warned.

“These reforms are good, yet minimal,” said Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who read a lengthy statement explaining her rationale. Although “residents are right to be frustrated and their distrust [of police] is valid,” she believes Minneapolis officers are “trying their best” with limited resources at their disposal.

Several of her colleagues were more resolute in their support. Council member Michael Rainville argued the city must boost wages to remain competitive with other area law enforcement agencies, which are all vying for the same limited pool of applicants.

“We all make much more than [police] and we do not face the danger every day that we might be killed doing our job,” he said, evoking the late officer Jamal Mitchell, who was gunned down May 30 while responding to an active shooter call in the Whittier neighborhood.

Voting in favor were Council Members Payne, Linea Palmisano, LaTrisha Vetaw, Rainville, Emily Koski, Andrea Jenkins, Katie Cashman and Chowdhury.

Voting against were Council Members Jason Chavez, Jeremiah Ellison, Aisha Chughtai and Wonsley.

Council Member Jamal Osman was absent because he is traveling abroad. He previously indicated he supports the contract.

Despite the strong support the contract ultimately received, tension remains in City Hall over how taxpayers will foot the bill during a challenging moment for city finances.

Raises this year, as well as retroactive back pay for members of the force, will be covered by the city’s current budget. But future raises are $9.2 million more than city budget planners estimate for 2025 — and the city is staring down a $21.6 million deficit as pandemic aid dries up and downtown commercial property values crater.

Last month, Frey proposed using state public safety aid the council had previously allocated to be spent on policing alternatives. That irked members of the council’s more progressive majority.

After a contentious debate Thursday, council members narrowly approved a different plan that pays for the contract, as well as the policing alternatives, but also raises questions about a planned renovation to the Minneapolis Convention Center.

It wasn’t clear Thursday afternoon whether Frey would veto the funding plan.