Democratic Socialists gain leadership role on Minneapolis City Council
Council Member Robin Wonsley
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - For the first time in the city's history, Democratic Socialists have gained an official leadership role on the Minneapolis City Council as Robin Wonsley has been elected as the council's minority leader.
Democratic socialists gain leadership role
What we know:
Council Member Robin Wonsley was elected as Council Minority leader during the organizational meeting on Monday.
Wonsley says she will lead a caucus of four council members who identify as Democratic Socialists on the city council, including Jason Chavez, Aisha Chughtai, and new member Soren Stevenson. Chughtai was also voted in as majority leader.
While Wonsley says she will represent the Democratic Socialist members, the city attorney pointed out during Monday's meeting the majority and minority leaders serve in nonpartisan roles.
Dig deeper:
It's unclear exactly how the majority and minority roles will function on the new council.
In years past, the council had majority and minority leaders, but in recent years, those roles have not been elected to the council due to city power structure changes.
Many council members also seemed unsure of how the roles would function during Monday's meeting.
Because they are nonpartisan roles, Payne said he envisioned that the majority leader would handle issues that have broader support among the council, while the minority leader would focus on narrower policy issues that have less support among members.
What they're saying:
In a provided statement, Wonsley says:
"Democratic socialism is the belief that society and the economy should be structured to meet the needs of working class people, not to create profit for the wealthiest individuals and corporate interests. Over the past four years that democratic socialists have served on City Council, we’ve worked with residents to win significant policies to improve life for working class people. We’re in unprecedented dark times and now more than ever we’re going to need democratic socialist leadership and strong, organized social movements."
Payne remains council president
Big picture view:
Elliott Payne was once again elected council president for the new term and Jamal Osman was elected vice president, replacing Chughtai in the role.
Local perspective:
It's worth noting, Wonsley's release notes four members on the council who identify as Democratic Socialists but only names Wonsley, Chavez, and Stevenson.
However, Chughtai has previously been endorsed by the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America.