By Rich Larson, News Director
As the March 8 trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd grows near, Governor Tim Walz has asked the legislature for $35 million to pay
for extra security in Minneapolis. However, his request is meeting some stiff opposition.
Among those opposed is Senator Rich Draheim, who said the city still has not paid for the extra help it received last summer during the riots. The Senator said that Minneapolis receives more funding than any other city in the state of Minnesota, and it has received more relief funds during the pandemic than any other city in the state. At some point, he said, Minneapolis has to pay its bills before it can look to the state for any more help.
Moreover, he said, Minneapolis, with a budget of approximately $1.5 Billion, has effectively cut its police force. Some members of the Minneapolis City Council have made a written proposal to replace the MPD with a Public Safety Department that would include police with several other services.
The Republican controlled Senate has objected loudly to the Governor’s request based on the idea that the state should not pay for what they see as mistakes made by the city, and Senator Draheim is among those opposed.
“I don’t support the cities in my district, and I’ve gotten probably 5-600 emails telling me not to support or asking me not to support the funding for that. So, I will not support letting my cities and my counties and my district pay for that.”
Yesterday, the Senate passed a bill requiring the money Minneapolis owes to law enforcement agencies around the state be garnished from the city’s state aid.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Senator Rich Draheim can be heard here.
City Council to consider making ‘1% for the Arts’ permanent
Among the items the City Council will consider tonight is an ordinance that will codify the city’s practice of requiring 1% of the budget of all municipal capital improvement projects put toward public art. City Administrator Ben Martig said last week that the practice was put in place in 2017 and the ordinance before the council will make it permanent.
Martig said the plan dates back at least 12 years to the City’s Comprehensive Plan. Among the other goals that plan called for was the creation of the Arts & Culture Commission and putting a public art policy in place. The 1% dedicated to public art funding, even as it is already in practice, would be the final piece of that plan.
“So, we’ve been doing it the last few years, with the goal to put it in place in an ordinance format, because that makes it more permanent. So, what we’re proposing to do is put into ordinance that this is something that the city will be doing on an ongoing basis, that has a little procedure in that, and really, again, create more sustainable funding that this would continue into the future.”
Martig said good examples of how the 1% plan is already working can be found with some of the rotating art at City Hall, and the murals that will be installed in the underpass tunnels of the new roundabout on Highway 3 and Jefferson Parkway.
Tonight, will be the first reading of the ordinance.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with City Administrator Ben Martig can be heard here.
It’s Random Acts of Kindness Week
And yesterday was the first day of Random Acts of Kindness Week.
Rachel Miessler and Milosha Malecha of Northfield Shares said that Random Acts of Kindness Day is always celebrated on February 17, but ha
ving come through a year like 2020, it’s appropriate to expand the idea into a full week.
The two said that Northfield Shares, and a host of other organizations around the world, are using the week to point out that a random act of kindness does not have to be a grand, or even planned gesture, but rather it can be a small spontaneous thing that just makes another person smile. And even in a world dealing with a global pandemic, there are any number of things that can be done.
“Send a card to someone in the mail, pick up the phone and give them a phone call just to say hello.”
“Think about paying for someone in line behind you at the drive-through, or hold the door for somebody. That still happens.”
In order to facilitate the week, Northfield Shares has a number of suggestions on their website, including an outline of kindness themes for each day, Kindness Bingo cards with specific suggestions, and cards with the slogan “You’ve been mooed” on them to encourage others to engage in the week as well.
“The one little thing you can do to make a person smile, whether you know them or not, is worth it,” said Miessler, “because you don’t know what somebody else is going through.”
For more information about Random Acts of Kindness week, visit northfieldshares.org.
