City Briefs

The Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara has appointed Ayodele Famodu as chief of the Internal Affairs Bureau, and Ganesha Martin as chief of the Constitutional Policing Bureau, noting in his announcement that this is the first time nonpolice officers have held such high-ranking positions in the department. The two bureaus were created in 2023 by O’Hara.

 

The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) has scheduled maintenance work this spring and summer that may affect flight patterns and noise levels in south Minneapolis. Runway closures and reroutes were planned for April 14 to May 23, and Aug. 18 to Sept. 26, 2025. This timeline means that the runway will be fully open during most of the peak summer travel season.

 

The city has approved a framework for redevelopment of the 10 acres of land the city owns at the former Kmart site.  It includes a new park and six parcels they plan to sell to provide up to 600 rental housing units, retail uses concentrated on Lake St. and Nicollet Ave., an indoor recreation space, a full-service grocery store, and 20-25 townhomes for homeownership. The first request for proposals could go out later this year focused on the southeast quadrant of the site that is next to the proposed park followed by parcel-by-parcel requests moving clockwise through the rest of the site over the next several years.

 

In the Democratic Farmer Labor party ward conventions for Wards 7, 8, 12 and 13, Elizabeth Shaffer, Soren Stevenson, Aurin Chowdhury and Linea Palmisano were endorsed in their respective city council races. The Green Party met in April and endorsed Adam Schneider for at-large Park and Recreation Board commissioner. The DFL Wards 9, 10 and 11 conventions will be held on May 31. 

 

Hennepin County is holding community collection events this summer where people can dispose of garden and household hazardous waste on Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 27 and 28 at St. Louis Park Middle School and Aug. 8 and 9 at South High School. 

 

The city has authorized a contract of $15,000 with the Longfellow Community Council for the Bryant, Central, Corcoran, Longfellow, Nokomis East, Powderhorn Park, Hale Page Diamond Lake, and Standish-Ericsson neighborhood organizations to explore shared services, staff, training, programming, and fundraising. 

 

The city council has authorized contracts of $80,000 with Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, $25,000 with the International Institute of Minnesota, $70,000 with the Volunteer Lawyers Network, $20,000 with the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, and $80,000 with Advocates for Human Rights to support the continuation of immigration legal services through the end of the year.   

 

The city charter commission is proposing amending the city charter to reduce the number of appointments that the city council must approve from 11, as it is currently allowed, to seven. Under their latest proposal the mayor, who now also has to approve the 11 appointees, would take over sole appointing authority for the appointments of the city’s commission of health, as well as directors of civil rights, regulatory services, and emergency management.