The proposed labor agreement with the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, which is currently on the agenda for discussion and likely an up or down vote at the upcoming Minneapolis City Council meeting March 22, includes a $7,000 sign-on and retention bonus for new recruits and existing officers alike. This bonus exists because of a court ruling requiring Minneapolis to get the number of officers on the police force up to the city charter requirement by June 2022.

On March 14, an appeals court reversed this decision, ruling that while the City Council is obligated to fund the police force sufficiently for 17 officers per 10,000 residents, the actual number of officers hired is at the discretion of the mayor ("Court says mayor decides number of cops," March 15). With this ruling there is no longer an urgency or even a mandate to hire more officers, and therefore, the rationale for the $7,000 sign-on and retention bonus is no longer valid.

While it is presumably likely that the majority of the community agrees that staffing levels are considerably lower than ideal within the Minneapolis Police Department (651 sworn officers as of April 2021 compared to funding provided by the City Council for 888), we no longer find ourselves with our backs against the wall, needing to take hasty, poorly thought-out actions to meet a court-imposed mandate.

Indeed, the task before us — to hire over 200 new officers — is a unique opportunity for the city to reimagine what the police force looks like, what the culture is. With this appeals court ruling, the city should remove the sign-on bonus from the new contract. The city should also slow down and take time to invest in the hiring process. How do we attract good candidates? How do we define good candidates? We could bring over 200 new officers into the ranks who all receive reformed training and orientation.

There is a great opportunity before us. Let's not blow it by throwing money at a problem to hire as fast as we can.

Ben Auckenthaler, Minneapolis

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For the sake of brevity, I will focus on only one of the fascist narratives that riddle last Wednesday's article about the most recent police intrusion into public privacy and safety: GPS tracking ("Suburban police battle car thefts with trackers," March 9). This article promotes the biased viewpoint that "illegal" is equivalent to "wrong," and therefore anyone committing a crime is a "bad guy," deserving of whatever punishment the police and the courts choose for them. This narrative is omnipresent in police mythos because it dehumanizes "criminals" enough to allow the police to feel justified in subjecting them to the atrocities of incarceration. Here is a contrasting and more hopeful narrative: "Crime" is not a monolith, and the "crimes" that police prosecute often arise from situations of poverty or trauma. If a given criminalized behavior negatively affects people, and not all of them do (see: smoking marijuana), then a systematic approach based in healing poverty and trauma will be far more effective than one that uses punishment and fear of further traumatization as a deterrent.

Andrew Vrabel Miles, Minneapolis

On behalf of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, I apologize for the poor conditions of sidewalks at several southwest parks mentioned by a March 8 opinion writer ("Wintry city is no walk in the park"). With 180 parks, most with sidewalks, our dedicated crew of 16 employees responsible for snowplowing typically does an outstanding job clearing more than 120 miles of paths and sidewalks and more than 100 acres of parking lots throughout the park system. We do not schedule snow removal crews on the weekend unless the forecast calls for more than two inches of snow. That weekend's forecast called for one inch, so we did not have additional crews on staff over the weekend. On Monday, several of the regular crew were out sick so we adjusted crews based on the operators present. The operator that usually clears the routes for Kenwood, Clinton, Mueller, Stevens Square, Smith Triangle and Washburn Fair Oaks was one of those out sick. Staff finished their typical plow routes and then began clearing the plow routes normally done by the absent operators. Unfortunately, those parks were completed later than usual, resulting in the poor conditions encountered by the writer.

With nearly 30 million visits to the Minneapolis Park system each year, we know our sidewalks and trails are well used. We'll continue to do our best to clear sidewalks as soon as possible.

Jeremy Barrick, Minneapolis

The writer is assistant superintendent of environmental stewardship, Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.

Evidently facts are not important in Tuesday's teacher pay rebuttal ("Context from a former teacher," Readers Write) referring to my recent yearly pay calculations. I did not calculate any hourly wage as stated by the writer but converted the pay from a nine-month salary to yearly. Also, to use the excuse that extra hours worked somehow make it clear the person is underpaid doesn't clarify anything. Many people are paid a salary for which they work more than a 40-hour week but they work a 12-month year as well. The author is still trying to compare apples to oranges.

Charles Hendrickson, Columbus

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I would like to clarify the yearly hours worked by teachers. I have been a classroom teacher for over 30 years. The job cannot be done well in the allotted time. This was true when I started teaching, and it is true now. The job is also harder and more stressful now than it has ever been in my experience. Student needs and academic demands have only increased. Support and resources have only decreased. Throughout the school year I work 50-60 hours a week while being paid for 40. I work at least 15 unpaid hours each August to get my classroom set up and ready for the school year. That makes nearly 600 unpaid hours that I work every year — more than a summer's worth of working hours. Perhaps it should be called "comp time" instead of vacation to acknowledge all those hours already worked. Also, teachers do not get paid vacation time beyond a few personal days each year. What we do get is 13 unpaid weeks (summer, winter and spring breaks). I absolutely enjoy my breaks but I get no control over when I take my "vacation." I only get to travel during peak travel times when crowds and prices are high. Many people would balk at being told they have to take 13 weeks unpaid every year and that their employer would decide when those weeks would be. Many teachers need to find summer jobs to fill the paycheck gap, jobs that do not pay their teacher salary rate. Teachers live on the salary they receive, not on the salary they would receive if they were paid for their vacation time.

Over the last 30 years it has not been unusual for my engineer husband to receive annual pay increases of 4-5%, while mine have had a range of more like 0-2%. The gap between our salaries has gone from starting about equal to his being more than double mine.

Teachers are underpaid and overworked. Teachers care deeply about their students and their families and making a difference in the lives they touch. That is why they accept these less-than-ideal terms.

Striking Minneapolis teachers are trying to make a positive difference for their students and their colleagues in the years to come. The state is debating what to do with the budget surplus, and my district is putting together budget-reduction committees. Would the Minneapolis teachers be striking and would my district be cutting if the state funding formula actually kept pace with the costs of education and fully funded their mandates? Support teachers and direct your attention to inadequate state funding.

Sari Zach, Northfield, Minn.

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