Police controversies, political missteps foiled Hodges in Minneapolis
Mayor Betsy Hodges came to north Minneapolis in November 2015 to talk to demonstrators who'd been encamped for days outside the 4th Precinct police station protesting the fatal police shooting of Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old African-American man.
It did not go well on Plymouth Avenue. Some protesters dismissed her appearance as nothing more than a photo-op.
Weeks later, after she'd ordered the camp cleared citing public safety, she thanked police for their professionalism and protesters for their peaceful, although involuntary, withdrawal. Her appreciative remarks, though, did little to endear her to either group.
Clark's death and the weeks of protests that followed tore the veneer off Minneapolis' story of harmony and progress. It was likely on the minds of many voters who came to the polls Tuesday to elect City Council member Jacob Frey as the next mayor. Hodges finished third behind state Rep. Ray Dehn and Frey.
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Supporters say Hodges, who will leave office in January, set the stage for key reforms in the police department and championed a two-decade park maintenance plan that's centered around racial equity.
But her four years as mayor were also marked by two high-profile officer-involved shootings and public spats with the police chief. In the fallout from the Clark shooting, the U.S. Justice Department said city leaders did not have a plan to manage the situation and that strained relationships and poor internal communications hampered the response.
"Oftentimes she had the best of intentions, but didn't have the ability," said former Minneapolis police chief Janeé Harteau, who was forced out by Hodges in the fallout from the fatal police shooting of Justine Ruszczyk in July.
Harteau said communication with Hodges was consistently difficult over their three and a half years working together.
In April, the mayor overruled Harteau's appointment of controversial past police union leader John Delmonico to head the 4th Precinct. Dueling news releases exposed a rift between the two. And Hodges soon told Harteau not to make any public statements without her OK. Harteau said that directive would delay her public response to the Ruszczyk crisis.
"I wanted to be the police chief. And I think she wanted to be the mayor and the police chief," Harteau said. "And I think that's where we struggled."
Hodges entered public life a dozen years ago, when she was elected to the first of two terms on the Minneapolis City Council. She has often said her proudest accomplishment was reforming police and firefighter pensions — a behind-the-scenes move that saved taxpayers millions.
R.T. Rybak, who was mayor at the time, said Hodges' budget expertise goes far beyond just numbers on a page.
"She was a person who focused a lot on balancing the budget, but also on balancing our values, so that we spent more time working with those most in need," he said. "And so I think she had a very unique ability to cross smart fiscal discipline with deep compassion."
Unlike Rybak — a gregarious, crowd-surfing politician — Hodges was more of a cerebral kind of leader, said University of Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs.
"It was hard for her to get credit for much of what was good in the city. Part of that is that Betsy Hodges just did not have the retail sales skills that she needed to drive home what she was accomplishing," he said.
Jacobs said Hodges can rightly claim credit for police training that emphasizes de-escalation and community relations, and for a measure that's putting $11 million a year into park maintenance, with an eye toward underserved parts of the city.
Hodges has not spoken publicly or granted interviews since conceding the mayor's race. But in a statement, she highlighted other accomplishments including the $15 minimum wage, and said she's committed to a smooth transition when Frey moves into the mayor's office next year.