St. Paul ends its COVID-19 state of emergency

St. Paul officials let the city's COVID-19 emergency declaration expire Tuesday, marking a shift in the city's response to the pandemic after more than two years.

Mayor Melvin Carter no longer has the ability to issue emergency executive orders, and a handful of the city's remaining pandemic provisions are no longer in effect.

Since Carter first declared an emergency March 15, 2020, the City Council has repeatedly approved requests to extend the measure granting him special executive powers. Citing downward trends in COVID-19 data, the mayor decided not to ask for an extension beyond Tuesday's expiration date.

"After two long years, finally being able to end this state of emergency is a huge relief," Carter said in a statement.

Minneapolis' local public health emergency remains in effect indefinitely. Mayor Jacob Frey or the City Council could end the declaration at any time, city spokesperson Sarah McKenzie said Tuesday.

"The decisions would be informed by an analysis of the environment and supporting data as well as any number of other indicators specific to the city of Minneapolis," McKenzie said in a statement. Frey's remaining emergency regulations include measures governing COVID-19 leave accrual and licensing allowances designed to help businesses hit hard by the pandemic.

The expired executive orders in St. Paul included measures that rolled back permitting regulations for outdoor dining areas, reduced licensing fees, limited third-party delivery fees and allowed inactive business licenses. St. Paul skyways will resume their normal 6 a.m. to midnight hours.

Kamal Baker, Carter's press secretary, said the mayor is "exploring ways to formalize some of the policies related to economic recovery through administrative or legislative action."

"In some ways the pandemic forced us to experiment, and now we have the benefit of being able to see what came out of it," Council Member Rebecca Noecker said.

Many City Council members have for weeks said they are eager to return to St. Paul's normal governance model, which requires public hearings and multiple readings to implement or change laws.

Some expressed frustrations after Carter issued a mask mandate and vaccine-or-test dining requirement amid a wave of cases fueled by the omicron variant earlier this year. Members said they were given little notice of the mayor's plans and found themselves fielding questions and criticism from constituents about a policy they didn't design.

"Giving the mayor those executive powers short-circuits the normal processes of democracy and deliberation," Noecker said. "That's important when there's an emergent situation, but we're long past the time of an emergency."

The council resumed in-person meetings in January, and many city commissions that were meeting remotely have since followed suit. Most of St. Paul's city staff has not received a directive to return to their offices for work.