Recommendations in Minneapolis' Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Wards

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Veteran Council Member Lisa Goodman is retiring from city service after representing this district for 26 years. She's been the go-to council member for the area that includes downtown West, Bryn Mawr, Cedar-Isles-Dean, Loring Park and East Isles.

Three candidates are vying to replace her. While all of them express commitment to public service and generally agree with the Star Tribune Editorial Board's positions on major issues, the best of the group is Scott Graham (scottformpls.com). In our view, he has the best combination of experience, reasoned positions, leadership skills and history of collaboration to provide the balance the council needs now.

Professionally, Graham owns a real estate firm, has been a landlord and has served on the board of a community housing group. Active in DFL politics for 25 years, he's been involved in numerous candidate campaigns and held several leadership positions within the party. He has worked collaboratively with factions within the party and says he would do the same on the council to "seek consensus where we can find it and principled compromise where we can't."

He wisely objects to rent control caps because, he says, they often hurt the people they seek to protect. The better way to make housing more affordable is through subsidies for low-income renters, programs like the city's Stable Homes, Stable Schools program (mphaonline.org/stablehomes) that helps prevent evictions, and creating and maintaining more housing with state and federal assistance.

Counting himself among "supporters" of the Minneapolis Police Department, he says that backing comes with "high expectations" for police work to be performed respectfully without brutality, warrior attitudes or poor discipline for offending cops. He would also prioritize revitalizing downtown and Uptown to help rebuild trust in safely navigating our urban core.

Minneapolis native Katie Cashman is also a strong contender (katieforcouncil.org). She is a project manager for an environmental advocacy group and has both local and global experience as a policy advocate, nonprofit leader and community organizer. As a student, she studied in both the U.S. and Europe and worked at the U.N. for three years on environmental and social infrastructure in cities around the world. We appreciate Cashman's work with nonprofits and her wealth of knowledge and passion on climate and environmental issues. However, we think Graham's more extensive business experience and direct involvement in city issues give him an edge.

The third candidate, Kenneth Foxworth, says his candidacy is about one word — safety (kennethfoxworthforward7minneap.godaddysites.com). He works for Delta Air Lines, has been active in Black Caucus DFL politics and has spent much of his 40-year career working at the college level to offer sports and other opportunities to the BIPOC and disabled communities. He seems genuinely interested in community service but has not campaigned as actively as the other candidates.

City Council President Andrea Jenkins told editorial writers in her endorsement interview that she's "really tried to be a person who bridges the gaps." She paused. "Or the chasms."

Chasms may best describe the division between a hard-left City Council minority, with many backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and a slender majority of more moderate, albeit progressive, members. Jenkins leads that bloc, and returning her to represent the Eighth Ward would help maintain a more productive balance of power to City Hall (andrea-jenkins.com).

Jenkins' leadership hasn't been flawless. She showed poor judgment by being one of nine council members who, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, stood on a stage flanked by a big "DEFUND POLICE" sign, sending the wrong message when good officers are needed more than ever. Generally supportive of Minneapolis' mayor, police chief and commissioner of public safety, Jenkins now says, "It's not about defunding the police, it's more, in my mind, refunding investment in underserved communities."

Doing so certainly can help address some of the chronic conditions contributing to the crime challenge and the homeless encampments increasingly seen in the ward. Overall, growing homelessness is "one of the most pernicious issues in American life right now," Jenkins accurately said.

While Jenkins has mostly backed the imperative to clear encampments, she proposes investing $18.5 million in an affordable-housing trust fund.

The unhoused population across the city is one of the main motivations for Terry White, who presents a strong alternative for those seeking change on the council (betterminneapolis.com). White said the city "isn't taking the problem seriously enough" — for the housed and unhoused alike, the latter of which are "prey to people who seek to exploit the most vulnerable in our society." He's willing to up the investment ante to $30 million for an emergency fund for housing solutions.

White, a DFLer, said he would seek to be an "independent voice" on the council and is not an insider nor a politician, but a "health care executive who knows how to get things done," which seems like a correct assessment from this impressive candidate.

Other candidates include Robert Sullentrop, a reasonable Republican focused on public safety (bobsullentropforcouncil.com), and the DFL- and DSA-endorsed candidate Soren Stevenson, who initially accepted and then declined an endorsement interview (sorenstevenson.org).

Daniel Orban is a self-described "normal, average person" (danorban.github.io). But, as he explained to members of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, his kids couldn't go out and play in the backyard this summer due to the threat of crime, including from the many encampments of unhoused residents in his ward. So Orban, who works in the education sector, decided to try to do something about it. "I'm not a politician per se," Orban said. But "you have to try and fix it in some way," which in this case means "actually running for office."

Running as an outsider without endorsements may seem quixotic, especially against incumbent Jason Chavez, who is endorsed by the DFL, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and several labor and political organizations (jasonchavez.org). But Orban's practical, compassionate approach to both homeowners and the unhoused, in the case of encampments, is the correct one. That approach and his sensible attitude toward matters like rebuilding the Third Police precinct in its current location, in order to expedite the permanent return of a badly needed police presence in the area, make him the best candidate to represent the Ninth Ward.

Orban's not just concerned about how his family is experiencing the neighborhood dangers. How is it compassionate, he asked, to allow the encampments to stand and just provide Narcan to those who overdose? Many of the unhoused need "an intense amount of help," he said, adding that he believes the city should be more aggressive about delivering more mental health, addiction and housing solutions — and to acknowledge how dangerous the encampments are to those who live in them.

Ninth Ward residents deserve solutions, and the current council — including Chavez, who's aligned with a far-left faction of the council that's routinely, even reflexively, hostile to Mayor Jacob Frey and the thin majority of relatively more moderate council members — has not provided them. Chavez hasn't provided answers either, declining an interview with the Editorial Board.

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For more on the Nov. 7 elections, see the Star Tribune newsroom's voter guides for Minneapolis and St. Paul. Our recommendation for approval of St. Paul's ballot question on a 1% sales tax increase is here. See also our full list of endorsements in City Council races in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The Editorial Board operates separately from the newsroom, and no news editors or reporters were involved in the endorsement process.