Minneapolis mayor candidates differ over policing, minimum wage at MPR News/Star Tribune debate
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Four candidates hoping to lead Minneapolis for the next four years drew subtle contrasts Monday on policy but showcased sharper stylistic differences during an MPR News/Star Tribune debate.
The forum comes about a week out from a ranked-choice election that will determine if Mayor Jacob Frey secures a third term or if state Sen. Omar Fateh, attorney Jazz Hampton or minister DeWayne Davis step into the top city hall role.
Topics covered ranged from duties of police to plans for affordable housing to the imposition of a $20 per hour minimum wage.
The debate was moderated by MPR News senior editor Brandt Williams and Star Tribune columnist Eric Roper. It aired on Politics Friday this week at noon.
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Police staffing and duties
The candidates all agreed that more resources are needed to do the jobs expected of police.
Davis said he’d work to beef up violence intervention efforts, which he said he’d study to implement more effectively.
“Our issue is interpersonal violence and access to guns. And the one way to interfere with that is the ability of those violence interrupters to not only be resourced to do it, but to share that information with the police department, and again, free the police department to focus on investigations, to focus on clearances,” he said.
Fateh said the city’s public safety response has been a failure, citing a study that found that about half of all emergency calls could be routed through non-police staff to reduce officer caseloads and allow investigators to focus on violent crime. He said Minneapolis also has to be more proactive.
“We’ve got to tackle the issue of poverty, ensuring that people have a livable wage, ensuring that people have a home, ensuring that we're supporting our public school system, making sure that we're having an ambitious youth agenda, so that we can think more long term,“ Fateh said.
Frey said he has been the first mayor to fully build out violence interrupters in the city. Still, he said it’s clear more law enforcement is needed, even though shootings are down in the city from recent years.
“That’s because of work that we have done in partnership with community, working with moms and grand moms to sort out difficult situations before they arise,” Frey said “Working with our county, our sheriff, and, of course, our U.S. attorney with an officer embedded in them to make sure that we're arresting perpetrators of violent crime.”
Hampton called the police department “woefully understaffed” and said the city also needs to address underlying issues, especially involving young programming.
“We have to improve the amount of before and after school support we have for our students in Minneapolis. We have to expand the time that we give to students with rec hours and programs and opportunities.”
Downtown development effect on livability
Like many other cities around the country, Minneapolis is struggling with high office vacancies and questions about how to revitalize downtown.
Frey is the only major candidate who supports removing bus traffic from Nicollet Avenue, the pedestrian-friendly few blocks in the heart of the city that is closed to standard vehicle traffic.
He said the city needs to create a dynamic on Nicollet Avenue like in the North Loop, where small businesses, bars and restaurants have taken root. He said combining more creative leasing opportunities for small businesses with a pedestrianized Nicollet Avenue would be beneficial.
“You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results,” Frey said. “We’ve got to make the change. We can’t cling white knuckle to what once was in downtown. We’ve got to move forward.”
Fateh said he’d explore ways to partner with business owners and other stakeholders to address issues there on an ongoing basis.
“We know that a healthy, thriving downtown is critical for our local economy, and we cannot continue to function without investing,” Fateh said. “That includes making sure that it’s more walkable, preserving our transit and ensuring that we're creating ways which we bring more people downtown.”
Hampton said he’d focus on reducing the time it takes for permitting and inspections.
“We can incentivize those land owners and say, ‘We will be right here with you,’” Hampton said. “And then we can partner doing the grant opportunities, or low barrier opportunities to bring more businesses into that corridor, because more lively and more businesses means more people will live there, and it means it will keep growing stronger.”
Davis supports more diverse developments downtown as well, but said ensuring the safety of visitors downtown is essential.
Davis said people have to believe “that when they come downtown, they’re going to be safe.”
$20 per hour minimum wage
Fateh is the only major candidate in the race to explicitly support a $20 minimum wage in Minneapolis by 2028. He also supports an ordinance in the city governing how workers can be scheduled and the creation of an office of small business.
“One job should be enough,” Fateh said. “Every single person deserves to have a livable wage period, no matter the worker.”
Frey said he’s worked during his two terms to connect business owners with city resources like grants. He also opposed the creation of a labor standards board in the city.
“We stood up when it was not necessarily politically expedient to do so,” Frey said. “I did veto a labor standards board and we are finding ways … of reducing the regulation to make sure that red tape is cut and small local businesses can open. But it's not just having them open, it's making sure that they can flourish.”
Hampton said he thought the composition of the proposed labor standards board was unbalanced but that it was a worthwhile idea.
Davis said the city should have a full conversation on raising the minimum wage and retain flexibility to adapt to new conditions.
“How can we learn from a business that wants to do well for their workers? How can we help and incentivize that?” Davis said. “Regulation doesn’t have to be a sledgehammer. We can be in relationship and [have] conversations with these people to make sure that they are thriving. But also that we are protecting workers or providing jobs for workers.”
Leadership style
Hampton described his leadership style as “collaborative and pragmatic.” He said he has three children in the Minneapolis Public Schools, and that more attention needs to be paid to incentivizing parents to keep their kids in the system. He said his big vision would be to collaborate with the county to open more after-school programs and drive down crime.
“I know that we are not the only ones in the city of Minneapolis struggling to ensure that our kids are going to be successful in the schools and that financially, it’s viable to raise them here,” Hampton said. “Here’s the thing: that's so much more than just making sure they get a good education.”
Davis said he’d be a “visionary and collaborative” mayor. Davis said he’d lead the city as a whole, not focusing on just areas like downtown or the North Loop. He said the city has been divided by a “factionalism that pits big business against working people.”
“What we have to do as a city and as a leader, we have to figure out: How do we make all of this work for everybody here?” Davis said. “Not only to save ourselves in this sense, but also to forecast to the country what's possible and what we know we can be.”
Fateh described his leadership with the words “bold and partnership.” Especially as cities around the country have been targeted by the Trump administration, Fateh said the city needs a leader who can effectively collaborate with regional partners.
“With a hostile federal government, we need a cross jurisdictional approach more than ever,” Fateh said. “There’s a reason why the mayor doesn’t have [endorsements from] a single state legislator or a county commissioner, is because he’s either unwilling or incapable to do so.”
Frey pointed out that he has the backing of Gov. Tim Walz.
Frey described his leadership style as “earnest and compassionate.” He pointed to successes like the ongoing redevelopment of the Upper Harbor Terminal and the former Kmart site on the Uptown end of Nicollet Avenue. He said programs to keep kids out of homelessness have made a big impact in the city.
Frey said his opponents have told their supporters not to rank the mayor on their ballots.
“And here’s the thing, people are smarter than that,” Frey said. “They’re smart enough to know that they can think for themselves. They’re also smart enough to recognize the big vision that we have for our future.”
