2. Invest in community-level safety programs without adding more sworn-officers to MPD: Increasing police presence does not guarantee community safety. I will prioritize public safety funds to increase the number of democratic, transparent, and community-based initiatives, such as the pilot programs funded in the 2017 budget in the Northside and Little Earth, and look to successful national models like the Cure Violence Model.
3. Increase funding for mental health response: We should treat mental illness as a health problem, not a safety problem when responding to emergency calls. The 2017 MPD budget includes funding for a pilot mental health co-responder program. The city must fully-fund this program and move towards a system where mental health professionals—experts in interacting with youth, POCI, immigrants and refugees, LGBTQ, and victim-survivors of violence—are the sole responder to such calls. Additionally, we must collaborate with and support other successful initiatives such as Hennepin County’s Community Outreach for Psychiatric Emergencies (COPE).
4. Reform MPD’s use of force policy and uniformly enforce it in all police interactions: Our Police Chief has the authority to discipline officers who act against standards of the department. As Mayor, I will ensure the Chief has a zero-tolerance policy for instances of excessive force and brutality. Additionally, we must update ambiguous language in our city’s use of force policy to prioritize de-escalation and preservation of life, and ban tactics such as neck holds and head strikes.
5. Ensure all officers complete de-escalation and implicit bias training: I’m proud to have passed permanent, ongoing funding to train officers in de-escalation, cultural competency and identifying mental-health crises. We must continue recent updates to MPD’s training program to ensure all officers trained to appropriately interact with specific communities—youth, POCI, immigrants and refugees, LGBTQ, and victim-survivors of violence.
6. Begin the full-scale demilitarization of the Minneapolis Police Department:

• Residents should know what military equipment MPD possesses so we can systematically end these practices.
• My administration will prohibit using funds for the acquisition of military-grade weapons. I will also work the City Council to pass a resolution making such a ban permanent.
• I support rethinking whether every officer needs to always carry a gun. To reduce the abuse and overuse of force, we need to reduce the number of weapons—military grade or not—in use by MPD. For example, officers do not need to carry firearms during community events like National Night Out and Open Streets.

7. Decriminalize low-level offenses and ‘livability crimes’: In addition to accountable policing, we must work to end mass incarceration. The city has already decriminalized marijuana possession and repealed discriminatory ordinances which outlawed spitting and lurking. We must continue to decriminalize other low-level drug offenses, and livability crimes like open bottle violations, biking on sidewalks, and loitering.
8. Prefer hiring officers who live within the city of Minneapolis: We need officers who are connected to the city of Minneapolis and feel connected to the communities they serve. While requiring officers to live in Minneapolis is prohibited by state law, we can use the hiring practices of the Minneapolis Fire Department as a model, and direct MPD to give preferred hiring to applicants who live in Minneapolis.
9. Reform police oversight committee with powerful civilian accountability mechanisms: State law prohibits any civilian review board from making any 'findings of fact' regarding a complaint against an officer. To date, only 3% of over 1,100 complaints reviewed by the Office of Police Conduct Review resulted in a disciplinary action other than ‘coaching’. The last attempt at a civilian review authority was also unsuccessful at holding officers accountable. As Mayor, I will work with state legislators to repeal this law so Minneapolis can form a civilian commission with greater disciplinary authority over officers.
10. Work with Minneapolis Public Schools to phase out the School Resource Officer (SRO) program: All children in Minneapolis have a right to feel safe while receiving an education. An armed police presence propagates the school to prison pipeline by increasing the number arrests and potential to arrest students for minor offenses. We should instead invest in proper counseling, social work, and mental health services. All in-school staff should also be trained de-escalation and conflict resolution.
11. Implement a transparent process while negotiating the city’s labor agreement with the Police Officer’s Federation: While the labor agreement with the police union is not an inherent impediment to police reform, it is important that the agreement’s negotiation is an open, transparent process with opportunities for community feedback. Where possible, I will utilize the negotiation process to push for greater accountability from the union.
12. Direct MPD to issue more summons rather than making arrests: While MPD does not currently cooperate with Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), anyone the city arrests is taken to Hennepin County Jail, and county officials often coordinate with ICE. We must better protect the city’s immigrant community by issuing a court summons instead of making an arrest. This will allow undocumented individuals to stay in Minneapolis.
13. Prohibit MPD from cooperating and sharing information with federal agents: Minneapolis must remain a sanctuary city, and protect our residents, regardless of immigration status. We must defend our Muslim neighbors from discriminatory, racist surveillance and criminalization by the federal government under the guise promoting Countering Violent Extremism (CVE).
14. Fully protect the right to protest: Protest and civil disobedience are essential tools for affecting change. There will always be times when communities mobilize either in reaction to discriminatory city, state, or national policies, or proactively assemble to further justice in our city. As Mayor, I will secure the right to demonstrate for all residents of Minneapolis. I will restrict the use of military equipment such as Stingray surveillance equipment, chemical agents, armored vehicles, and long range acoustic devices, during protests."^[37]

• Implement an enhanced beat cop system. To be more than just a catchphrase, community policing requires a restructuring of when, how, and by whom policing decisions are made. Playing pickup basketball with the neighborhood kids is not sufficient to build trust and partnership between police officers and communities if those officers are bound by top-down protocols that interfere with their ability to tailor their public safety and law enforcement approach to the unique circumstances, issues, and people of a given neighborhood. Assigning an officer to patrol a particular beat is not the same as empowering that officer to organize and represent that beat through developing relationships with its residents, businesses, and visitors. Policing works best when officers are as invested in their beat as those who live and work there. I support assigning officers beats that are narrower and that are consistently at the same time and in the same place. I want residents and local businesses to know, for example, that their police officer on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays from 4 to 10 PM is Officer Jill, as well as where to find her and maybe even what her number is. I want residents and businesses to develop relationships with the officers that serve them. In addition to assigning officers to specific neighborhoods and blocks, police policy and practice should enable those officers the discretion to work with residents and businesses to identify when, where, and what type of policing activity is best suited to addressing specific problems and problem areas. What works on Hennepin Ave. downtown may be different than what is needed in Loring Park.
• Increase the number of officers living in Minneapolis. Currently, only about 8% of MPD's officers live in Minneapolis. Living in Minneapolis enhances officers' relationships with the people and communities they serve and gives them a vested interest in policing and public safety outcomes. I support incentivizing officers to live in the city. One way to do this is by working with area landlords to obtain reasonable rent reductions for tenants who are MPD officers. The landlord benefits because they have an officer on the premises, the officer benefits with a break in rent, and the city benefits because we officers that live in and care about our communities.
• Implement standards of accountability and peer intervention. MPD should provide training for and implement policy to require that all officers intervene when observing a fellow officer engaging or about to engage in misconduct, abuse, or other unethical behavior. Officers who retaliate against colleagues who report such behavior should be disciplined and charged.
• Implement comprehensive use-of-force reforms. We must implement the use-of-force reforms that the MPD rejected and that Mayor Hodges declined to implement less than a month before Justine Damond was shot, including requiring officers to exhaust reasonable alternatives before the use of deadly force is a permissible option, deterring officers from shooting at moving vehicles, and holding officers accountable for taking actions that unnecessarily place themselves, suspects, or bystanders in deadly force situations. Use-of-force policy violations must be met with strong disciplinary action, including dismissal, when warranted.
• Reform de-escalation and implicit bias trainings. Currently, officers complete a one-off seminar at the start of their careers. These trainings should instead take place continuously throughout their time on the force.
• Expand crisis intervention training. I will commit to finding funding to achieve the goal of having 100% of MPD officers trained in crisis intervention with additional funding for CIT refresher courses.
• Strengthen body camera policies. Body cameras only work if they are turned on. The city should amend its policies to require that body cameras be activated earlier and remain activated longer. We should also institute a rebuttable presumption of misconduct for failure to turn on a body camera when required.
• Implement standardized mental health services and support for officers. MPD should provide direct outreach, resources, and support for officers to obtain mental health evaluations, treatment, and care in a discreet and confidential manner.
• Provide training to improve police interactions with transgender individuals. Transgender Minneapolitans are arrested at a rate disproportionate to their share of the population, a disparity that is further compounded for trans people of color. When interacting with police, transgender people are frequently subjected to misgendering, profiled as sex workers, or otherwise subject to bias. As Mayor, I will improve and expand the trainings that teach our police how to treat transgender people with respect and how to recognize their own implicit biases towards LGBTQIA individuals.
• Make police stations a hub for community activity, not a fortress against it. Rather than fortify police stations against perceived threats from their surrounding communities, future investments in building, updating, or replacing police stations should require the integration of community spaces and amenities such as rooms where residents can hold neighborhood meetings and green space where they can recreate. As a public facility, a police station should invite the type of interaction that the police seek to have with their community.

Crime Control

• Convert vacant lots into green space, parklets, or multi-use public spaces. Vacant lots are frequently used to hide and transfer illegal guns and often become hot-spots for loitering. Converting them into spaces with great foot traffic and public use reduces the opportunity for such activities.
• Improve night time illumination in high-crime areas. The city should partner with housing developments and businesses to improve lighting on both municipal and private properties.
• Improve MPD protocols for evidence collection, especially for crimes involving guns. Ensuring the integrity of evidence collection enables convictions for serious gun crimes to stick and helps remove illegal guns from the streets.
• Improve identification and tracking of illegally owned guns. Violent crimes are very often committed using illegally obtained guns, the majority of which come from a small number of sources. Identifying those sources can both help shut down the flow of illegal guns and track down illegal guns already in circulation.
• Develop a public-private network of security cameras. MPD should work with local businesses to develop and implement a memorandum of understanding and related policy to link together public and private security cameras into a network that can be accessed by law enforcement during emergencies.
• Create municipal summer employment for at-risk youth. The city should collaborate with the Parks Board, Hennepin County, and other units of government to provide these targeted opportunities.
• Train and deploy street outreach workers to deescalate conflicts and fights before they turn violent.
• Stagger bar closing times to reduce rush of crowds emptying onto the streets.
• Incorporate additional valet zones, cab stands, and ride-share pickup areas outside of bars and nightclubs to aid egress from crowds at bar close.

Crime Prevention

• Address public safety as an urban planning issue. There is an important overlap between public safety, policing, and virtually all other aspects of urban life and the ability of city residents to thrive—housing, employment, education, health, economic investment, municipal funding and services, community development and strength, and more. The largest contributing factors to crime are lack of affordable housing, livable wages, walkable streets, adequate green space, and other fundamental necessities that are principal responsibilities of municipal government and urban planning to provide. Concurrently, decades of excessive policing targeted disproportionately at low-income communities of color has persistently eroded the livability of these communities, devastated their property values, and driven out their local businesses. Police reform and safety are necessary, but not sufficient to restore these communities. Municipal decision-making about land use, zoning, growth and density, affordable housing, transportation and transit, energy and environmental planning, and economic development must also be reformed such that enhancing public safety by eliminating contributing factors for its need is always a critical objective.
• Steer urban improvements toward high-crime areas of downtown, not away. Density, walkability, adequate street lighting, and even landscaping are all elements of urban design that have been empirically shown to reduce crime both by reducing the opportunity to engage in criminal activity and by increasing the enjoyment and pride that residents take in inhabiting the space and reducing their willingness to vandalize it. To read more ideas for addressing crime in downtown Minneapolis, refer to my Eight-and-a-Half Block Plan.
• Restore funding for Crime Prevention Specialists. Several years ago, Minneapolis drastically cut funding for Crime Prevention Specialists that work with neighborhoods to develop local strategies for preventing violent crime, sex trafficking, and robberies. While there have been several opportunities to restore funding for crime prevention specialists in the Mayor's budget, it has not happened. A reactionary approach to crime is more costly than prevention both in terms of financial burdens on the city and, more importantly, irreparable harm to victims, communities, businesses, and, also, perpetrators. Restoring funding for crime-prevention specialists must be a top priority.

Restorative Justice

• Implement substantial bail reform. Nearly 34% of Americans who are charged with crimes have their time in jail unjustly prolonged simply because they can't afford to pay their bail. This damages livelihoods, families, and perpetuates the cycle of poverty and community displacement that pushes people back into the criminal justice system and denies them the second chance they deserve. City resources should be used to support victims of Hennepin County's out-dated and overly punitive bail system. Minneapolis should offer funding and technical support to organizations like Minnesota Freedom Fund, which pays the bail bond for those who cannot afford to do so. We should also develop a program to connect Minneapolitans subject to bail they can't afford to free or affordable legal counsel.
• Restore justice around the decriminalization of marijuana. While marijuana use among white and black populations is roughly the same, black men have been 5 to 10 times more likely to be arrested and convicted for possession. These disparities exacerbate the equity gap by leaving people of color with criminal records that can disqualify them for jobs, loans, housing, and benefits. In 2016, I sponsored an ordinance that decriminalized marijuana possession. As Mayor, I will advocate for providing resources to help residents of color with prior criminal convictions for possession pursue expungements.
• Increase funding to support needs of youth returning from incarceration. Minneapolis should be using some of its public safety budget to fund after-school programming and trauma-focused mental health therapy for our adolescent school-based clinics for kids coming out of the juvenile justice system."^[39]

1. Top-to-Bottom Review of the MPD. I will initiate a review of every critical aspect of our police department and its performance over the past five years. We will assess the department’s culture, its relationship with the various communities it serves, its recruitment policies and programs, its training program, including supervisor training, and its adoption of best practices in law enforcement.
2. Reform Civilian Review. I will ensure that our department is not at odds with the population it serves. We will make sure our civilian review panel has subpoena power, and that all investigations of alleged wrongdoing are conducted quickly and handled with the highest quality, with all decisions publicly.
3. Use Outcomes to Drive Performance—and Communicate Broadly. I will work personally with our neighborhoods and the MPD at the precinct level to create community-oriented partnerships. We will measure and communicate progress on our desired outcomes. We will be clear about what we are doing and why, and will ask the people of Minneapolis for their assessment of our performance as well.
4. Provide Effective and Supportive Supervision of the Police Chief. The mayor’s job is to guide and support the chief, ensuring the department has the resources necessary to achieve our stated goals. That’s what I’ll do. If the chief fails to meet our city’s expectations in achieving our goals and building an effective community-oriented culture, I will take appropriate action without waiting to measure the political climate.
5. Change Police Licensing. A priority of our 2018 legislative agenda will be a substantial revision of the operation of the Police Officer Standards and Training Board. This must include a more detailed and transparent tracking system for all infractions, including information on plea agreements. If the state fails to act, I will make every effort to include these substantial changes in the MPD’s internal disciplinary policies.

Objective #2: Address Fear, Crime and Violence in Our Neighborhoods.

1. Ensure that Minneapolis remains a safe and welcoming home for new Americans. Minneapolis is and will continue to observe and vigorously protect its separation ordinance, which limits the situations in which MPD officers can enforce federal immigration laws. Keeping our community safe and violence free requires the participation of all our citizens.
2. Provide Collaborative Leadership. I will convene a working group encompassing representatives of social service organizations, businesses, the judicial system, the Minneapolis Police Department, the city council, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, Metro Transit, and non-profits serving the homeless and/or providing housing/food/mental health services. This group will identify ways to improve public safety with clear responsibilities for each partner.
3. Ensure Law Enforcement has the tools they need to do the job. It’s the job of the mayor to listen and ensure that law enforcement has what they need to do their important jobs in the way our community wants them done. And I will.
4. Focus on Serious Part 1 Crimes including Violent Assault, Robbery and Rape. Minneapolis’ arrest rates for the most violent crimes are shockingly low: Aggravated assaults result in arrest only 35 percent of the time; for robberies the arrest rate is 24 percent; for rape, an arrest happens in only 15 percent of cases! We need to set aggressive major crime arrest targets and put a plan in place to make this happen.
5. Dramatically Increase our Investigative Resources. Minneapolis needs to add more investigators and detectives to investigate serious crimes, find core offenders and secure lasting convictions. While we have added more police officers, our staffing level for investigators and detectives at the MPD has been the same for years. We must increase these resources to attack and address the core drivers of our rising violent crime rates.
6. Focus on Repeat Offenders. A large percentage of violent crimes are committed by a small percentage of individuals. I will work with the MPD, our city and county attorneys, district court judges, and non-profit groups such as Watch, to ensure that the revolving door closes for repeat offenders.
7. Work with Non-Profits to Provide Programs and Support at Agencies and on the Streets. Providing impactful programs on the street and at service agencies can pay huge dividends. Programs that provide entertainment, career training, and intervention services can also take the pressure off law enforcement. The mayor must play a consistent lead role in bringing programs and services to meaningful scale. We can also consider ideas such as adjusting bar closing times or exploring the design and operation of transit stops – and we will.
8. Increase the Access to Services. Despite the political pledges of four years ago, homelessness in Minneapolis has continued to rise. I will work with Hennepin County, the State of Minnesota, our Downtown Improvement District, and our incredible non-profits to make sure that the services we provide correspond with the needs we see. We must make headway on transforming individual lives, and decrease homelessness now.

Objective #3: Build Community-wide Collaboration and Effort.
We need coordinated and substantial investments in effective programs and efforts that help all of our citizens realize their potential. I will lead a community-wide collaboration with efforts in every neighborhood, including:

1. Expanded After-School Programs. Our schools, parks, universities and technical colleges, as well as businesses and our non-profit community, all can be better coordinated to provide a strong base for the constructive engagement for our kids. We need consistent leadership from the mayor in a city-wide effort to coordinate these opportunities.
2. Expanded Youth Employment Programs. Every child in our city must have the opportunity to build skills and grow constructively in the summer. We need a mayor who will visibly, strongly and consistently advocate for expanded youth employment programs, in partnership with employers, the non-profit community and government.
3. Increase Access to Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment. We need increased access to substance abuse treatment services and treatment for mental health conditions. I will work with Hennepin County to better coordinate the connection between street outreach and chemical and mental health assessments and treatment. I will also work with other mayors across Minnesota to lobby our state government for increased funding.
4. A Comprehensive Approach. Crime and violence are a systemic problem with multiple and complex causes. My plans for economic vitality and affordable housing are comprehensive—and designed to address the issues of crime and violence."^[41]

• Has begun transforming police–community relations by:
• Keeping her promise to put body cameras on every police officer;
• Getting all police officers trained in implicit bias, procedural justice, and crisis intervention;
• Making it easier to file and track complaints against officers;
• Creating new classes of Community Service Officers, which are more than half people of color; and
• Investing significantly in community policing, one of the pillars of building relationships and trust with community."^[42]

The time is now to move beyond talking about criminal justice reform. We must now start enacting policies that put those words into action. Minneapolis can be a national leader in showing what true racial equity is all about. That means taking actions like improving community and police relations, advocating for the fair treatment of people of color, and reducing racial profiling. We also cannot forget about those who are reentering society from correctional facilities. I will push for reentry policies that reduce recidivism and provide economic and housing stability for people seeking a fresh start."^[43]

To that end I, Aswar Rahman, propose the following reforms. Some are cultural, some procedural, all to be enacted under the full authority of the Office of the Mayor of Minneapolis, empowered in our Charter with the 'complete power over the establishment, maintenance, and command of the police department.'

1. REFORM REVIEW PANELS TO GIVE CIVILIANS THE MAJORITY VOTE.
Review Panels currently consist of two officers and two civilians, with one vote each. This allows for gridlock, which favors an accused officer and undermines the unquestionable civilian authority of the police department. By reforming this system and adding one more civilian member to the review panel, the judgement of the civilian representatives will ultimately win the day.

Why not eliminate officers from the panels altogether? The sworn officers on the panels are usually high-ranking officers, and provide valuable insight to the process of policing. Removing them completely robs the civilian panelists of an important resource to fairly assess submitted complaints.

Why not keep just one officer? Two officers will better balance out each other’s views. A sole representative of the MPD on the panel may not have adequate information or, worse, provide misinformation.

The goal is to affirm civilian control of policing in our city. Receiving a majority vote on the Review Panel is crucial in guaranteeing that no complaints can be blockaded, while still retaining the advantages of police-community cooperation.

Note: This reform will require cooperation with the City Council to make changes to the charter. In the unlikely event of stiff resistance from the Council, I will create a special civilian commission solely under the auspices of the Mayor’s Office to review any and all complaints, thereby circumventing gridlock in the Office of Police Conduct Review and reaffirming full civilian authority of the police.

2. EXERCISE MAYORAL AUTHORITY TO DISCIPLINE AND DISMISS CONSISTENTLY UNPROFESSIONAL OFFICERS WHEN TRADITIONAL ROUTES FAIL.
Time and time again, officers who are simply unfit for the job are kept in their positions and allowed to do more harm by the simple lack of anyone willing to take responsibility for their discipline or dismissal. In this cultural reform within city government, the Mayor will assert their chartered authority to 'appoint and … discipline or discharge any employee in the department.'

3. IN SITUATIONS OF DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN POLICE AND CIVILIANS, THE MAYOR WILL BE AN ADVOCATE OF THE CIVILIANS INVOLVED.
As the mechanism of our city government works by and large in favor of accused police officers, it is now necessary that the Mayor’s Office embrace its role as the representative of the people of Minneapolis. While all measures of fairness will be taken, it is crucial that the Mayor take any and all concerns and complaints of civilians at their full value.

In practice, this will mean that any and all civilian complaints will be assumed to be valid and true. The Mayor will be obligated to pursue these complaints to vindication unless the MPD can demonstrate illegitimacy of a complaint. This shifts the burden of proof on the service, not the citizen – something that is crucial towards building a more effective MPD.

4. CITY WILL PARTNER WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA TO MAKE ALL LEGALLY SHAREABLE POLICING DATA ACCESSIBLE AND COMPREHENDIBLE FOR ALL MINNEAPOLITANS.
The MPD will create a partnership with the University of Minnesota. If they are unable or unwilling, another academic institution or nonprofit will be engaged. The MPD will provide the partner with direct access to all legally shareable data. It will be the partner’s responsibility to make the data fully accessible to all members of the public. The emphasis will be towards accessibility and clarity.

Fundamental transparency, coupled with access, will ensure civilian control of the police department. Currently, the data that is publicly available is vague and designed more for statisticians rather than the average citizen. This procedural change will ensure that all people in Minneapolis have the data necessary to hold their police force accountable.

5. THE MAYOR’S OFFICE WILL MAINTAIN A DIRECT, CONFIDENTIAL WHISTLEBLOWER ROUTE FROM ANY SWORN OFFICER TO ITSELF.

6. A NEW NON-LETHAL BRANCH (NLB) WILL BE FORMED IN THE MPD TO BE USED FOR LOW-RISK CALLS. NLB officers will be dispatched to address non-violent disturbed persons calls, noise complaints, conflict resolutions, harassment, crisis interventions, suicide threats, minor vehicular accidents, public drunkenness, illegal camping, custody disputes, parking complaints and other quality of life issues. The NLB will be specially geared to handle situations that are amenable to de-escalation.

The NLB will begin as a specialized task force, not to number more than 5% of the sworn officer body. Its effectiveness will be evaluated after two years, after which the NLB will hopefully merit greater investment and personnel growth. All NLB officers will be licensed Peace Officers, and possess some level of social work training. Recruitment for the NLB, if and when necessary, will use the D.I.D. employment model to help hire from within the city.

The NLB will wear colors that distinguish it from the regular force, so as to help create a distinct identity and help further deescalate situations where they are sent. It is not uncommon for the mere presence of armed sworn officers to create greater tension – the NLB will have to simply look different to mitigate that intensification.

7. ALL MPD PERSONNEL IN A SUPERVISORY ROLE WILL RECEIVE ADVANCED TRAINING IN DETECTING DEBILITATING STRESS OR TRAUMA IN THE OFFICERS THEY OVERSEE.
The relationship between a sworn officer and their supervisor offers an unique chance to ensure mental wellness of all officers. Supervisors will be provided with the knowledge and resources to detect stress and trauma in their officers, and will be educated on the best routes forward to help their officers.

Policing is a tough job, and it naturally attracts tough people who may be less likely to admit or even notice damages to their mental health. We need a mechanism to ensure that all officers who take to the street in Minneapolis is in good mental health and supervisor training is necessary to that end.

8. ROTATING 'LIGHT WORK' POSITIONS WILL BE ESTABLISHED IN EACH PRECINCT, TO BE MADE AVAILABLE TO OFFICERS EXPERIENCING DEBILITATING STRESS OR TRAUMA.
Each police precinct will have a set of positions deliberately designed to provide officers a needed break from on-the-ground activities. These can be elective or officers may be assigned by their supervisors.

Without a reliable refuge from constant stress, we are only creating opportunities for mistakes and unprofessionalism. Due to the high stress nature of the work, it is important that we establish these temporary light work positions for any officers who may need it.

9. THE MPD WILL ADOPT A DOCTRINE OF CONSTANT TRAINING.
Policing is not immune from the extreme pace of change in the modern era. The Minneapolis Police Department will adopt a policy of 'constant training' for its officers. All officers, veteran and new, will begin to expect training and retraining as much a part of their job as their actual time on the ground. If this requires employing a few more officers to ensure ground presence, money will be allocated in the budget. It is crucial that our police have the finest training in the world.

In practice, this will mean that, instead of reactive training to new incidents, the professional year will already accommodate substantial amounts of training and retraining for all officers. A sizeable percentage of an officer’s work-month will be dedicated to these constant trainings, to be determined upon consultation with experts and sworn officers themselves.

It is important that we have a police department that is constantly evolving and changing. Embracing constant training allows for exponentially greater opportunities for innovation. Modern methods of de-escalation, trauma-informed interviewing and the like are given a chance to be absorbed by the force as a whole.

10. THE CITY WILL END SELF-INSURANCE, AND REQUIRE LIABILITY INSURANCE FOR ALL OFFICERS.
The current system has the incentives all wrong. Because the city insures itself, it fights tooth and nail to prevent any legal action against officers. This violates objectivity, civilian rights, and ultimately, the effectiveness of policing in our city.

By requiring standard professional liability insurance for all officers – as required by nurses, barbers and thousands of other professions – our city will essentially move the financial risk to an insurance firm. This will allow for objective and honest exercises of justice.

The city will subsidize the starting rate of insurance for all officers. Only officers with repeated and proven violations will pay out of pocket, in proportion to the number and severity of unprofessional acts on their record.

11. OFFICERS WILL BE FINANCIALLY INCENTIVIZED TO LIVE WITHIN THE CITY THEY SERVE.
Whereas the average large police department in the country has 40% of its officers living in the communities they serve, Minneapolis stands at around 5%. This massive imbalance of resident officers and non-resident officers creates a culture that is very much non-resident.

Whereas a resident culture takes into account a deep, personal knowledge of the city, non-resident culture is more likely to promote an occupying mindset. This results in hostility between resident civilians and the police department at large.

State law prohibits police employment police based on residence. Therefore, the best route to moving the MPD towards a higher residency rate is a housing credit. Officers who live in the precinct they serve will receive a sizeable housing credit. Exact amounts are to be determined after consulting experts and officers themselves.

12. THE MPD WILL LAUNCH AN EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM FOR 15-20 YEAR OLD RESIDENTS OF MINNEAPOLIS.
The program will run year-round. During the school year, it will be limited to after-school hours. During the summer, available hours will increase.

The long-term health of our police department relies on cultivating qualified and motivated officers from within our city, whose upbringing in the city provides them with a deep understanding of the community of Minneapolis.

Employing young Minneapolitans is a crucial investment in creating a strong pool of applicants for future recruitment.

13. LAUNCH CAREER AWARENESS CAMPAIGN IN CITY'S PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS.
Besides employment, we must increase awareness of policing as a career, and open up the route to the MPD for all young people of the city.

As Mayor, I will personally speak at every one of our public high schools of Minneapolis to espouse the need of the city for great policing, and will enlist sworn officers to speak about their experiences and about the nature of policing.

Early exposure to policing as a career will pay dividends in the near future, as more young people in Minneapolis begin training to join the department, and create a strong, highly qualified pool of applicants.

14. THE MAYOR MUST TAKE OFFICIAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONDITION AND ACTIONS OF THE MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT.
As it stands, it is unclear who in reality is responsible for the MPD. Blame is shifted onto individual officers. In extreme cases, the Chief of Police is pointed to as ultimately responsible. There is an answer to this: the person who – without question – is responsible for the Minneapolis Police Department is the Mayor of Minneapolis.

This last reform is cultural shift at city hall that stops the blame game and instead allows us to honestly develop better ways of policing. Failures within the MPD are necessarily failures of the Mayor. And on the other side of the coin, the functioning of a brilliant, innovative police department is a success for the Office of the Mayor."^[44]

• Use participatory budgeting to give communities more control over how resources are allocated.
• Fully fund and staff the Office of Equity & Inclusion
• Prioritize funding to create affordable housing, uplift environmental justice, and generate community wealth

2. Analyze the impacts of city projects through a racial equity lens Center equity in all work at City Hall: Our leaders must be fully equipped and educated to move our city forward towards a just future, and possess the tools to appropriately engage with our city’s diverse communities. We also must ensure that our city staff reflects the diversity of our city.

• Create training programs for city staff on both cultural competency and the impact of systemic racism
• Finish and fully implement the Racial Equity Toolkit
• Implement hiring practices that prioritize racial equity
  • Use name-blind hiring practices
  • Remove educational barriers for city jobs where formal education isn't necessary

3. Build coalitions between governmental bodies: As a state legislator, I understand the importance of collaboration at every level—from the neighborhood level to the federal level. As Mayor, I will work to build coalitions around the most pressing issues facing our communities, such as combatting climate change and building affordable housing.

• Work with the Youth Coordinating Board (YCB) to address issues of education, youth homelessness, safety, and out-of-school programming
• Lead the Clean Energy Partnership to push for greater accountability from the energy utility companies in our transition to clean energy and sustainability
• Utilize the city’s legislative agenda to fight at the Capitol for funding for affordable housing, environmental justice, and for reforms around public safety, criminal justice, and rent control/stabilization

4. Transform the city’s outreach and inclusion efforts: Some of the city’s most innovative programs are underutilized because residents lack awareness of their existence. For example, for programs such as curbside compost pickup, and on-bill financing of renewable energy programs, the city has a responsibility to managing effective and inclusive outreach efforts at the grassroots level.

• Partner with neighborhood and community organizations, schools, faith communities to conduct grassroots outreach and education about city programs
• Collaborate with small business when implementing ordinances impacting the workplace
• Engage communities through a participatory budgeting process to aid the creation of the city budget"^[61]

• Defend New Americans from Trump's ICE. The mayor has direct control over the police department. Because of our separation ordinance, I am hopeful that we will be able to thwart Trump in his mission to destroy our New American communities without losing federal funds, but, even if we do lose federal money, I will not give an inch. I am willing to compromise on many things as mayor, but human rights, dignity, and safety will be non-negotiable for my administration.
• Support Pipelines to Jobs for Our Immigrant Communities. Council Member Abdi Warsame led a heroic effort to open the Cedar-Riverside Opportunity Center to address long term unemployment in our East African community this spring. It has been a historic success that I was proud to support alongside Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin. As mayor, I would use city resources to support pipelines to jobs like those provided by this opportunity center because our immigrant communities all too often face discrimination when they try to find employment.
• Promote Culturally Conscious City Services. We will never be able to make "All Are Welcome Here" a reality in our city if Minneapolis can't even ensure that its own city services are inclusive of all its residents. As mayor, I will fight for city services that are cognizant of language barriers, others' religious beliefs, and other cultural differences that we should be accounting for."^[62]

One of the biggest barriers to economic success in communities of color is access to capital. Tom believes we should identify new ways to provide budding entrepreneurs with the resources they need to be successful. This means expanding training programs and business planning support. It also means expanding micro-financing programs that put real money in the hands of small business owners.

RE-EVALUATE JOB REQUIREMENTS FOR POSITIONS IN CITY GOVERNMENT
Hennepin County has blazed a trail with its Pathways program. This program combined forward- thinking job training programs and paid internships with the needs faced by a coming wave of retirements. It also re-evaluated the job requirements for all positions in county government. By eliminating onerous and unnecessary certifications and education requirements, they were able to open the door to a large pool of new applicants. Tom believes that this is precisely the kind of program that Minneapolis should be pursuing."^[64]

• Proposed Minneapolis’ Earned Sick and Safe Time ordinance in April 2015, and signed it into law in May 2016. The ordinance — the first of its kind in Minnesota — will protect more than 40 percent of Minneapolis workers, the large majority of whom are people of color, from having to choose between getting well and getting paid, and will improve public health for everyone.
• Founded her groundbreaking Cradle to K Cabinet to prevent racial disparities from ever arising in our smallest children — work that no other city is doing. It has already leveraged $4.3 million in public and private funds to provide housing for families needing shelter, and to implement the “Talking Is Teaching” literacy program that is designed to close the “word gap” between children from low-income families and children from middle- and upper-income families.
• Has been a national leader in the My Brother’s Keeper initiative to support, engage, and lift up young men and boys of color as one of our community’s greatest assets.
• Has vocally defended Minneapolis’ trans, LGBT, Muslim, and immigrant communities against attack....

This body of work amounts to changing the DNA of Minneapolis city government, fundamentally reorienting it toward achieving racial equity in our city. This includes work such as funding implicit-bias training for all City employees, establishing the Office of Equity and Inclusion, implementing the Promise Zone for North Minneapolis, and guiding the work of the Bloomberg-funded Innovation Team to support renters and small businesses in communities of color...

[W]hile our economy has never been stronger, it is still not benefitting everyone equitably. Mayor Hodges continues to invest in inclusive growth because she knows we do not need to choose between equity and growth: rather, everyone will benefit when our growth is inclusive growth...

From her combined 11 years as Mayor and a City Council member, Mayor Hodges knows that racial disparities cannot be effectively addressed, nor can inclusive growth be sustained, if city government is not run well, with attention to delivering the basics well, innovation and constant improvement, and strict fiscal responsibility."^[42]

We need a paradigm shift in how Minneapolis addresses economic inequality. The city can no longer afford business as usual. A level playing field is the foundation of economic equity and fairness, which is why I will fight to implement policies that shrink wage gaps and reduce racial disparities. And while Minneapolis has a relatively strong economy, too many are still either unemployed or underemployed. We must offer support to those striving to better their lives. I will promote initiatives that encourage businesses and corporations to invest in Minneapolis, particularly in areas with high unemployment, and provide living wages to residents in our diverse city."^[43]

Here is the plan, to be enacted with full vigor over the coming four years, to strengthen and bolster our economy by reducing poverty.

1. FREE UP $70,000,000/YR. IN CITY BUDGET
The following changes will be made to the budget over four years to free up $283m over 4 years (~$70m/yr). The total budget of the city is approximately $1.3b, meaning this is 5.3% of the annual budget. +$42,452,000 by replacing Meet Minneapolis with leaner marketing approach, funded by hospitality sector. +$9,640,000 by capping Regulatory Special Revenue Operating Costs at 2020 levels. +$19,400,000 by capping Traffic and Parking Capital fund to 2016 level. +$101,800,000 by capping Public Water Works Capital to 2020 level. +$17,136,000 by capping Self Insurance Fund Liability to pre-2016 level. +$10,500,000 by cancelling Convention center plaza and related remodelling projects. +$1,130,652 by capping City Coordinator General Capital to 2016 level. +$12,467,568 by capping City Coordinator Internal Service Capital to 2016 level +$5,737,616 by capping City Coordinator General Contractual Services Bring to 2014 level. +$4,121,516 by capping City Coordinator Special Revenue Contractual Services at 2014 level. +$6,722,824 by capping Finance and Property Department Internal Contractual Services at 2016 level. +$1,337,920 by capping Human Resources Contracts at 2016 level. +$14,547,568 by capping Information Technology Internal Capital at 2016 level. +$1,551,476 by capping Intergovernmental Relations Special Revenue Capital Return to 2016 level +$2,178,340 by capping Civil Rights General Department Salaries at 2016 level +$760,936 by capping Civil Rights Department General Fringe Benefits at 2016 level +$198,212 by capping Civil Rights Special Revenue Fringe Benefits at 2016 level +$2,095,924 by capping CPED Special Revenue Operating Costs at 2016 level +$12,531,872 by capping Public Works Contract Services to 2014-2016 levels +$3,659,644 by capping Traffic and Parking Enterprise Operating Costs at 2014-2016 levels +$12,412,184 by capping Transportation Planning and Engineering Capital Project Contractual Services at 2016 level +$1,240,000 by matching Mayor and City Council Salaries to average household income (~$50k) For details on the city’s current budget, visit http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/finance/budget/WCMSP-184999

2. RESERVE 25% OF FUND
It is crucial to set aside a sizeable portion of this newly recovered fund for contingencies. This will amount to roughly $20m.

3. INVEST $10M/YR. IN MCTC'S LOW-INCOME ENROLLMENT PROGRAM
MCTC is an exceptional institution that routinely changes lives in Minneapolis. Their programs, from aviation to tool-and-dye to nursing, provide high-paying jobs that lift entire families out of poverty.
MCTC currently has to turn away 75% of its low-income aid-seekers, due to a shortage of private funds – not a single public penny supports this program. This is an unacceptable situation.
We are going to face a workforce shortage in Minnesota soon. I want the residents of our city to be positioned to benefit from this shortage by creating the next generation of high-income workers for the state.

This investment will essentially make higher education and job training affordable to 25,000 students in Minneapolis.

Learn more about MCTC’s low-income programs here.

4. INVEST $20M/YR. IN UNIVERSAL PRE-SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
Early childhood care is the most crucial long term investment our city can and must make. Life-long health, educational achievement, and, ultimately, poverty are all directly linked to the condition of one’s early childhood.
Pre-school enrollment is an economic godsend for families in poverty. The sheer cost of private childcare can make full-time employment impossible, particularly for single-parent households. The city’s investment will mean higher employment for parents in working poor households.
Pre-school is the strongest way to diminish the achievement gap. Currenty, our students of low-income backgrounds are academically disadvantaged long before they even begin school. Quality, accessible pre-school will bring the quality of early childhood development up to par for all children in Minneapolis, meaning they will be able to study on equal footing regardless of the wealth of their households.
$20 million per year will effectively cover every child in an impoverished household in Minneapolis, and hundreds more. Minneapolis, according to census data, currently has about 13,000 children ages 3 and 4. At the cost of roughly $5,000 per student, 4,000 children ages 3 and 4 will be qualified for the program.

5. INVEST $10M/YR. IN SMALL BUSINESS JOB GRANTS
Job growth is critically needed, particularly in low-income areas in Minneapolis. Unemployment for minority groups in particular is close to double-digits. This should be of grave concern to any observant resident.
This program is focused on small businesses in low-income areas as these will create the jobs most likely to be filled by unemployed residents. Any business with less than 10 employees which presents a qualified plan to add new employee positions, and retention plans for at least one year, will be given a grant, not to exceed $4,000 per employee, to be used towards intake costs and wage guarantee.
10,000 jobs will be created over 4 years, and will forseeably reduce our minority unemployment rate by up to 3 percentage points.

6. INVEST $5M/YR. IN YEAR-ROUND YOUTH EMPLOYMENT
The Step Up program will be expanded. The enormously successful summer youth employment program deserves an expansion into a year-round program, still tasked with providing gainful employment to 16-21 year olds in the city. The program will, of course, be on a part-time basis during the academic year, so as not to interfere with studies. In the summer, the employment may be part- or full-time.

7. INVEST $5M/YR. IN EMPTY STOREFRONTS GRANT
Empty storefronts are a blight on the community and have been strongly linked with rises in crime and lowering of quality of life for neighbors.
New tenants for long-empty storefronts will be provided a grant to help in its rehabiliation. This grant is not to exceed $10,000 per storefront. This program will be in part funded by new fees for storefront owners/landlords who are found to chronically neglect their space.

8. CREATE ANNUAL ASSESSMENT FOR MINIMUM WAGE IMPLEMENTATION
The biggest wildcard for our economic growth in the next four years will be the effect of the new minimum wage legislation. A full annual assessment is necessary to ensure that we implement this ordinance without causing economic harm. This assessment will be funded as a line item in our budget, to cost no more than $500,000."^[65]

I believe that we are, or ought to be, our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper. That means we must take care of the basic needs of all of our citizens. I am proposing that we do that by establishing a Basic Income Guarantee for all of our citizens.

But we must go beyond just their material and medical needs, to include the right to adequate and equal protection by the police and our courts. The problem of inadequate protection in poor neighborhoods is at least as important as the issue of police abuse by some police officers toward people in these neighborhoods.

Another way to prevent violence, is to stop glorifying the purveyors of violence, those from the past, as well as those in the present. In Europe, the Vikings went on a rampage, where they would attack undefended villages, killing everyone, including the women and children. Even the clergy were killed in the name of Odin. They were also in the Americas, initiating the genocidal activities towards the Native Americans, which was then continued after the arrival of Columbus, some 500 years later. The Vikings left a legacy of murder, rape and slavery wherever they went. I am calling for the elimination of the word 'Vikings' in the name of the Minnesota football team. See: Occupirate.blogspot.com: The name 'Vikings' in Minnesota Vikings should be changed."^[66]

• Linkage Fees: A fee paid by developers on residential, office, and industrial space per square foot of built space.
• Luxury Housing Tax: A tax levied on high-end condos, rental units, and single-family homes valued over $500K
• Housing Bond: A city ballot initiative for a housing bond to substantially increase the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Recently, the cities of Portland and Denver have both voted to approve bonds in the amounts $258 million and $150 million, respectively.
  

2. Build affordable housing at every income level: We currently build affordable units at 50% AMI, leaving too many families with nowhere to live in the city. The flight of low-income households to first and second ring suburbs also adds to our transportation crisis, where many remain underserved forced to find new ways to commute to work. By requiring additional units be built at 30% AMI or lower, we can limit displacement.
3. Implement innovative tax policies like value-capture financing (VCF): VCF distributes the benefits of neighborhood revitalization fairly among all residents, not just landlords by allowing the city to ‘capture’ a portion of the increase in land value. Any increases in property value will be directed into specific funds to be reinvested into the community to fund and preserve affordable housing.
4. End exclusionary zoning and implement equitable zoning practices: Exclusionary zoning is rooted in the legacy of discriminatory practices around housing in our city. It has been utilized as a tool to keep low-income families and POCI out of middle- and upper-class neighborhoods. A solution to increasing density in our city is building more affordable units to foster mixed-income neighborhoods.

• Pass an inclusionary zoning ordinance: This incentivizes developers to build a certain percentage of affordable units in market-rate projects. With the housing gap, it is both fair and appropriate to expect new development to contribute to the solution.
• Re-zone neighborhood interiors: Encourage the development of mid-size construction in neighborhood interiors. We will need to up zone some single-family homes into duplex and triplexes.
  

5. Expand funding for community land trusts: Community land trusts are nonprofit, community-led organizations which purchase land and enter into long-term renewable leases with renters and homeowners. They allow low- and moderate-income people to build wealth, and create permanently affordable housing.
6. Increase funding for limited-equity housing cooperatives: Limited-equity cooperatives are housing arrangements controlled by the tenants who reside in the building. The resale value of units is limited by the cooperative’s rules to preserve affordability. Currently, the biggest barrier to forming cooperatives is the overhead price. In order to overcome this, we must dedicate funds to assist residents in purchasing a cooperative.
7. Implement Tenants’ Right of First Refusal: Requires an owner putting a property on the market to first present the tenant’s with the option to pool their resources and buy the property. The new owners can then either form a cooperative and elect a board of directors, or resell the property on their own timeline.
8. Form a Minneapolis Renters’ Commission: Create a commission comprised of housing advocates and low-income renters. This will be an institutional mechanism for renters to advocate on behalf of their own interests, advise the City Council and Mayor on housing policy, and conduct education and outreach to the city’s renters.
9. Oppose preemption on rent control and stabilization ordinances: Currently, the state of Minnesota does not allow cities to enact rent control policies. Repealing preemption of rent control broadens that scope of the conversation regarding housing, and allows us to pursue policies like rent stabilization, which would place limits on the amount landlords can increase rent over a period of time.
10. Pass a just-cause eviction ordinance: Reduces landlord's ability to evict residents to certain reasons (e.g failure to pay rent, violating the terms of the lease, etc)
11. Utilize policies to help residents mitigate and erase eviction records: Nearly 50% of renters in the Northside zipcodes 55411 and 55412 have experienced eviction filing in the past three years, further increasing barriers to renting and homeownership.
12. Enact inclusionary financing models to make housing more environmentally friendly: A mechanism for low-income renters and owners to participate in energy efficiency and clean energy without upfront cost, a loan from the bank, home ownership, or a credit score.
13. Fight for funding restoration for Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA): The MPHA is currently operating on a $127 million shortfall, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the Trump administration is planning to cut the funding for public housing even deeper."^[72]

A longer‐term commitment for affordable homeownership funding is needed in the City of Minneapolis to leverage other funds, create equal opportunities for homeownership, and fill the huge gap in the affordable housing spectrum for household wanting to purchase homes in Minneapolis. The projected population increase in Minneapolis coupled with increasing housing costs only makes the need even greater. A dedicated $10 million fund (or policies that achieve the same benefit), similar to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (rental housing) is needed to ensure ongoing opportunities to fund affordable homeownership in Minneapolis. If not, numerous residents will be trapped in subsidized rental and the city and other public/private sources will continue to be needed in order to re-subsidize rental units in perpetuity. Some proven solutions (used in other larger cities) would serve as tools to fund and support an Affordable Homeownership Fund and are listed below:

HRA Levy
Levy a percent (up to .0185%) of property value increases over the next 10 years to fund an affordable homeownership fund.

Inclusionary Housing Policy(ies) tied to Long-term Affordability
Density bonus, unit size reduction, relaxed parking, direct city subsidy, or in‐lieu payments, could all be used as incentives to create affordable ownership housing units in Minneapolis. These types of inclusionary housing strategies have been used in other urban cities to significantly reduce or even eliminate the need for additional city investments into affordable homeownership. Inclusionary housing policies create opportunities to fund affordability through the pro forma of a project instead of direct subsidies. Important to the inclusionary housing discussion is the need to ensure and mandate permanent affordability. It makes absolutely no sense to only create affordability for a limited time period, so it would be critical to ensure long-term or permanent affordability be tied to affordable units.

Affordable Condo Development
Condo developments in Minneapolis are again becoming a point of housing development discussions. The changes in state law that just went into effect, which increase the responsibility of Homeowner Associations and decrease the liability for developers, will certainly increase the number of new condo units over the next several years. As Minneapolis continues to be more dense and populated, condos and other higher density housing options will need to play a role. East Elliot, Downtown, North Loop, and near Northeast Minneapolis housing continues to become more expensive and displacement of low- and moderate-income residents is a real concern…especially in the East Elliot neighborhood. Inclusionary Housing and/or an in-lieu funding option for all new condos would ensure that affordable units were included in these new Minneapolis condo developments.

Value Capture
If the collective belief is that housing and property values in the City of Minneapolis are going to increase, than value capture opportunities really need to be put on the table as a solution to also support the creation of affordable homeownership units in Minneapolis. Value capture opportunities can be used through TIF (or Tax Increment Financing) or Linkage Fees.

TIF for affordability funding
TIF is already used as a tool for funding many projects in Minneapolis, but might be able to be used strategically to benefit affordable homeownership on a broader basis in underserved and undervalued neighborhoods. Its already been proven in other communities that values will increase near transit and other amenities. In tying TIF investments to long-term affordable housing it will be possible to extend the TIF benefit to future generations of low- and moderate income homebuyers.

Linkage Fees for affordability funding
The City of Seattle has recently introduced Linkage Fees tied to their city’s zoning. Essentially, any new developments over 100,000 SF incur an additional fee that funds an affordable housing fund. Given the development that is occurring in several areas of Minneapolis, a Linkage Fee might prove to be a positive tool to fund a long-term affordable homeownership fund.

Proceeds from the sale of City Assets
Annually, the city of Minneapolis sells numerous assets (land, buildings, homes, other assets). In many or most cases, the proceeds from these sales – if not encumbered with funding sources – end up essentially as unrestricted general funds to be used at the city’s discretion. A portion or all of these unencumbered returned funds could be a dedicated source of funding for an affordable homeownership fund."^[73]

• Dramatically increase funding for affordable housing. I am proud that, as a Minneapolis City Council Member, I successfully led the push to increase the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to a record level of more than $10 million, but this is not nearly enough. With state and federal cuts to low-income tax credits and Community Development Block Grant funding, Minneapolis will need to step up and pull together a coalition of willing metro municipalities. I advocate for Minneapolis setting aside a percentage of the tax revenue received from increases in certain properties valued at $300,000 or more for a special fund exclusively for affordable housing. By capturing this value, working with surrounding jurisdictions to do the same, and subsequently putting our money where it is most needed, we can attack this affordable housing crisis head-on.
• Create more deeply affordable housing in areas with greater economic opportunities. While it is great that Minneapolis created affordable housing for people at 50-60% area median income, the city needs to start creating more housing that is deeply affordable, closer to 30% of area median income or even lower. The city should also emphasize locating this housing in areas that have greater economic opportunities. The importance of deeply affordable housing is also critical in providing an additional rung on the ladder to allow people experiencing homelessness to secure stable housing, as addressed in-depth in our section on homelessness below.
• Increase the timeframe during which housing must be kept affordable. When Minneapolis subsidizes the development of affordable housing, it also requires that housing to remain affordable for 15 to 20 years. After that period lapses, however, the housing can be flipped to market-rate, putting us on a revolving treadmill of trying to build more affordable housing to keep up with that which we are losing. I support making critical investments to extend that period of time to 30 years or longer so that our affordable housing does not expire at such an alarming rate.
• Build more affordable housing in wealthy and predominantly white neighborhoods. Minneapolis has a long tradition of concentrating affordable housing in areas where the least economic opportunities exist, resulting in the segregation of lower-income residents who are predominantly of color, while limiting the affordable options in whiter, more affluent neighborhoods. Sadly, while the rhetoric may have changed, the policy and practice has not. As the Council Member for the 3rd Ward, I fought, and continue to fight, for affordable housing in wealthy neighborhoods, including affordable housing exclusively for those with a felony record trying to rebuild their lives. I am proud that my ward has seen more city-supported affordable housing projects than any other majority-white ward, and I want to expand this approach citywide as mayor.
• Fund the purchase of at-risk affordable housing to keep it affordable. Building more affordable housing is a must, but so is protecting the stock of naturally-occurring affordable housing that we already have, especially in order to minimize the displacement of lower-income tenants from their homes and neighborhoods. The city should help responsible organizations that own affordable housing units to purchase additional units from the naturally occurring stock as they become available for sale.
• Increase funding in the budget for public housing. Building more affordable and market-rate housing of all kinds is necessary to solving the affordable housing crisis, but public housing is a critical tool for providing extremely affordable housing that can remain affordable for the long term.
• Increase the stock of affordable owner-occupied multi-family housing. Homeownership plays a critical role in building inter-generational wealth. I support increasing investments in community land trusts to create and maintain affordable owner-occupied housing. Furthermore, to decrease the demand pressure on existing owner-occupied multi-family units that drives up these units’ prices, we must add to the supply. I am proud to have led a legislative effort to change the state law to allow for more owner-occupied units to be built.
• Support green affordable housing. Efforts to improve the environmental sustainability of housing should not be treated as amenities that are only affordable in high-end developments. The city should invest in subsidizing the up-front costs of renewable energy and energy efficiency installments in affordable housing units, as well as the use of greener and safer building materials. This is essential as a matter of environmental justice, and makes good long-term economic sense as the cost of fossil fuel-based energy continues to increase.

Fighting for Pro-Density Policies and Growth
Exclusionary zoning and density policies created the housing shortage that is the backbone of our current affordable housing crisis and the racial and socioeconomic segregation plaguing Minneapolis. To make Minneapolis a city where all neighborhoods are open to all residents, we need to allow more height, higher-quality builds, and more units so that we aren't depressing the natural housing supply and driving up the cost of housing for residents who can't afford it.

• Undo exclusionary zoning designations. I want Minneapolis to move away from zoning designations that keep low-income residents out of certain neighborhoods. Minneapolis is one of the most racially segregated cities in the country, and the city’s zoning code—and our unwillingness to fix it—has done more to limit the spatial mobility and economic opportunity of lower-income residents, who are predominantly of color, than almost any other policy on our books.
• Decrease minimum lot sizes. The first large-lot zoning requirements in the country were originally written to exclude lower-income people of color from certain neighborhoods. Unfortunately, they succeeded in Minneapolis. I will fight to reduce minimum lot sizes as a key means of reversing this trend.
• Phase-out parking minimums. I support phasing out requirements that new buildings provide parking because they substantially increase the cost of housing. Costs associated with parking are passed on as higher rent to people who need homes and can’t afford paying more to subsidize additional parking for those who can afford multiple cars.
• Increase maximum occupancy limits. More people should be allowed to live together than currently are allowed by city law. Restrictive occupancy limits based on outdated conceptions of what a 'family' is supposed to look like often make life challenging for immigrant families, and I support changing these laws.
• Amend floor area ratio maximums. I want to amend floor area ratio maximums (FARs) that limit smart housing solutions. In doing so, we can move beyond boring, bulky architecture, while making substantial public realm improvements and adding green space."^[74]

We need to do everything we can to guarantee that the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority remains funded. The MPHA currently controls over $1 billion in housing assets. With a hostile legislature and Donald Trump in the White House, we must ensure that this housing stock is fully protected or we will have hugely exacerbated the shortage.

PROJECT-BASED ASSISTANCE
Tom believes we need to place a greater emphasis on project-based assistance in new mixed income, affordable housing developments. Where traditional housing vouchers, like Section 8, enable renters to find affordable units on the open market, project-based assistance is tied to the unit itself. Tying assistance to a unit means we can have greater influence to ensure properties stay affordable. This also gives the city more options in developing affordable housing in every neighborhood.

INCLUSIONARY ZONING
Tom supports an inclusionary zoning policy. One such policy was enacted in Edina in 2015. Inclusionary Zoning requires that new developments of a certain size, receiving any government assistance, contain a portion of affordable units. This policy also provides incentives like relaxed parking requirements or limited tax abatements to developments that meet the requirements.

ACROSS THE METRO AREA
Tom is committed to working with other mayors to lead on the creation of a metro-wide affordable housing initiative. The bottom line is that neither Minneapolis…nor any individual community…can solve this problem alone. If we build 500 units of affordable housing in Minneapolis, but 700 units in Richfield go to market-rate, we haven’t made the progress we need to make as a region. Minneapolis can be, and should be, a leader on this issue in the metropolitan area and at the State Legislature."^[75]

Why?
Part of the reason housing is so expensive is because there is more demand than supply. Vacancy rates in Minneapolis are below 3%, far lower than what we need for a healthy housing market. More housing of all kinds is needed to restore balance to the housing market.
How?
Density: Allowing more housing units on less land is an efficient, economical, and environmentally responsible way to grow our city. Every neighborhood in the city can support higher densities than the current zoning code allows. Duplexes and triplexes should be allowed in most single-family districts, maximum building heights and floor-area-ratios should be increased, and parking requirements should be phased out to allow more space for additional housing units. By-right housing: The amount of land use applications needed to build new housing can be overwhelming. They take a lot of staff time to process, and add project costs that are handed down to the tenants or owners. Some land use regulations are very important to ensure quality urban design, meet health and safety standards, and to avoid truly incompatible land uses. However, in Minneapolis even multi-family housing developments that meet all current zoning requirements (which is very difficult to do) must go through, at a minimum, a site plan review process that requires planning commission approval. If the zoning requirements are met, we can save a lot of time and money allowing eligible housing proposals to be approved by-right.
City-owned vacant lots: Minneapolis owns hundreds of vacant lots, many of which are on the city’s Northside. The city spends money maintaining these lots while families struggle to find affordable housing. Recent efforts have been made to get these lots to sell to home builders more quickly, but we can do more. Building new homes directly, allowing more diverse housing types such as tiny houses, and financial incentives to encourage first time and or lower-income homebuyers with a focus on serving the existing residents of the Northside could help these lots turn back into homes more quickly.
Build it green: It’s a win-win-win. Environmentally responsible buildings are become more affordable to build, they lower utilities and other maintenance costs, and they meet our responsibility to grow Minneapolis in a way that minimizes our impacts on climate change.
Make small apartment buildings feasible again: You know those cute brownstones, fourplexes, two and three-story apartment or condominium buildings that are peppered throughout much of our city, even in many single-family neighborhoods? They are an important housing type that can add light-touch density without changing the character of lower-density areas. Our zoning code doesn’t allow this kind of development in very many places, because of antiquated planning practices that consider this “spot” zoning. We can be more creative than this! We can find a way to allow new, scattered moderate density development throughout the city in a way that is reasonable and gives us the kind of diverse, interesting residential blocks that we already enjoy in older neighborhoods.
Priority: Build more affordable housing!
Why?
While it’s true that we need more housing of all types, we especially need more affordable housing for households that have lower-than-average incomes. Many Minneapolis residents don’t earn enough to afford a decent place to call home. The stress and trauma caused by housing insecurity, the tax dollars lost to housing court battles, and the unacceptable number of children who are poor and who lack access to decent housing affects us all. The cost of building new housing, to be financially feasible, requires rents much higher than many families can afford, so the government must intervene to make sure more affordable housing gets built.
How?
Mixed-income housing: Mixed-income, or inclusionary housing policies, are a great way to increase affordable housing supply and promote integrated neighborhoods. Neighboring cities St. Louis Park and Edina have already adopted mixed-income housing policies, and Minneapolis has certainly supported mixed-income housing developments. But we are overdue to adopt an official ordinance that lets the development community know where and how we expect mixed-income development to be built.
Affordable housing funding: Minneapolis has an impressive history of providing funds for affordable housing development. The city can allocate even more resources to its Affordable Housing Trust Fund; through bonding, increased property taxes on home values in excess of $500,000, and linkage fees for new luxury housing in parts of the city with the strongest housing markets. As Mayor, I will also advocate that Hennepin County’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority increase its levy to support more affordable housing development in its cities. Hennepin County’s HRA levies a significantly smaller percentage of the statutorily allowed limit compared to the other metro county HRA’s that levy for affordable housing. This is a significant untapped source of affordable housing funds. Strengthening partnerships: As your Mayor, I would take a good, hard look at our partnerships with community partners such as the Minneapolis Public School District, City of Lakes Community Land Trust, and the Land Bank Twin Cities to ensure we are making the most of these relationships when it comes to creating affordable housing in our city. The city cannot do it alone, and we need to make sure our affordable housing partners are supported and empowered to help us meet our housing needs.
Different kinds of affordable housing: We talk about affordable housing in a lot of different ways. We talk about what is affordable at different incomes, supportive housing for folks who are chronically homeless, individuals leaving the criminal justice system, affordable housing for artists, seniors, and homeless youths. It can be overwhelming; there are a lot of needs out there competing for the same resources. We must be smart, strategic, and realistic. In Minneapolis, we need to support all kinds of affordable housing needs, but that will mean being proactive about encouraging the kinds of projects that aren’t currently being built; making tough choices about what should be funded when, and following through with projects that may not get funding right away. We are not beholden to the kinds of project that come to us – we can do more to make the kinds of projects we want to see happen!
Priority: Preserve affordable housing!
Why?
With vacancy rates low and rents growing higher, it is a tempting prospect to buy an older, modest apartment building, give it a face-lift, and then charge higher rents, stop accepting Housing Choice Vouchers, and create more restrictive tenant requirements around income and criminal history. While it is understandable that apartment building investors would want to take advantage of these market conditions, we cannot allow our neighbors to be pushed out of their housing so that someone who already has financial means can profit. Fortunately, there are lots of tools we can use to preserve naturally occurring and subsidized affordable housing.
How?
4(d) and other tax incentives: Minneapolis can use tax abatements and tax reductions to incentivize updates and improvements to naturally occurring affordable housing while maintaining affordable rents for income-eligible residents.
Notice of Sale: Giving tenants an opportunity to raise money to counter-offer the proposed sale of their building is one way to protect naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH). The city can do even more, helping to organize and empower tenant associations in vulnerable NOAH buildings before a sale is imminent.
Build and maintain strategic partnerships: The loss of naturally occurring affordable housing is not unique to Minneapolis. Many regional partners are compiling resources and strategies to address this challenge, and as your Mayor I will reach out and maximize our efforts to protect low-income tenants.
Renew affordability contracts: Naturally occurring affordable housing is not the only affordable housing at risk of being lost. Many subsidized affordable housing projects are coming up on the expiration date of their affordability requirements. Minneapolis must stay on top of these properties, keeping a comprehensive database of such properties and proactively seeking ways to extend their affordability terms.
Priority: Improve rental housing quality
Why?
In today’s market and without the benefit of strong, enforceable regulatory tools, too many landlords are able to make a living while taking advantage of renters with few options to live elsewhere. It took too many resources and too much time to finally bring a class-action lawsuit against Stephen Frenz and Spiros Zorbalas – we need to do a better job holding landlords accountable for the impacts they have not only on their tenants, but on the neighborhoods in which they operate. If a landlord doesn’t recognize his/her impact on and contributions to the communities in which they own property, they don’t need to own rental property in Minneapolis.
How?
Renter’s Rights: Renters need to have the ability to hold their landlord accountable for maintenance and livability conditions in their housing units. Many low-income renters are immigrants that may not know their rights nor feel they have the agency to stand up for them. So much of the city’s communication goes directly to property owners, but renters make up more than half the households in our city! How can renters get involved if notifications of public hearings, tax and valuation information, and inspections communication about their homes are not sent to them? There is a power dynamic in the system that favors the property owner, and that needs to change.
Of course, there are wonderful landlords in our city, and I respect their right to earn a living providing others with quality housing. But it cannot be at the cost of their tenant’s dignity or safety. As your Mayor, I will work to include more renters on city commissions and boards, and encourage community organizations to educate and support renters, such as the Renter’s Guide published by the Corcoran Neighborhood Organization and work done by HOMELine.
Regulatory Services and inspections: The city’s regulatory, police, neighborhood and housing staff need to have better tools to work together to identify problem landlords and hold them accountable. Many individuals and small companies own dozens, if not hundreds, of rental properties in our city – it is impossible to be responsive and maintain that many properties without sufficient staff. Through our rental licensing program, Minneapolis can do more to regulate and monitor the quality of our rental housing stock. More inspectors, culturally sensitive inspections training, cross-departmental collaboration and real consequences that are enforced consistently are needed to improve our accountability to the renters in our city.
Priority: Improve/preserve access to housing
Why?
Creating more housing, and more affordable housing is key, but we also need to make sure people have access to that housing. There are a lot of ways people can be left behind, even when the housing is there. We need to maximize our housing efforts and increase and preserve access to housing for everybody.
How?
Workforce development: Building more affordable housing is important, but another way to make housing affordable is to increase the incomes of our residents. We already hear about labor shortages in certain industries, and some economists warn we will run out of workers on a massive scale if we don’t attract more residents as our baby boomers start to retire. But the truth is, we also have intolerable disparities in unemployment, wages, and educational outcomes for our residents of color.
While attracting new residents is important, we need to better coordinate workforce development efforts with the industries that need workers so that our existing residents get to benefit from job creation and economic growth. This is a win-win-win, as it will give folks more income, more housing choices, and address racial inequities in our city.
Just-cause eviction: Let’s face it – landlords need tools, too, when tenants are not accountable for their responsibilities as a renter. But it’s not reasonable for landlords to be able to evict without just cause. And eviction often costs more than the loss of rent or costs of repairs that triggers the eviction in the first place. Finally, eviction records can make it nearly impossible to find another place to live – creating a cycle of costly, traumatic housing instability.
We need to empower landlords and tenants to prevent, mediate and resolve issues that lead to eviction whenever possible, and reduce the length of time than an eviction stays on someone’s record. This means working with Hennepin County Housing Court, community organizations and property managers to reduce evictions.
Fair Housing and Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing: Some folks think that we should only build new affordable housing in neighborhoods that don’t have very much. Other folks think that we need to continue to lift up and invest in our neighborhoods struggling with poverty and crime. The truth is that we need to do both. Segregated neighborhoods, whether by race or class or both, demonstrate the legacy of racist zoning, real estate and finance practices. There needs to be affordable housing options in all neighborhoods of our city, and Minneapolis can be more proactive about attracting it. But our lower-income, racially diverse neighborhoods are vibrant, fulfilling places to live as well, and many people want to be able to afford to stay in the communities they love. New affordable housing in these parts of the city bring new investments, increased tax base, and may replace vacant or run-down properties. We can be thoughtful about the unique needs of each neighborhood when we plan for affordable housing, but there isn’t anywhere in Minneapolis that can’t benefit from some kind of new affordable housing.
Fair housing legislation supports this approach. Our job is to be transparent about how we are prioritizing and achieving new affordable housing projects, so the community can help inform the best ways to implement this balanced perspective."^[76]