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Mayor to veto council vote on safety commissioner appointment
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he will veto the city council's vote on rejecting the reappointment Public Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Mayor Jacob Frey says he plans to veto the Minneapolis City Council's rejection of Toddrick Barnette's appointment as Community Safety Commissioner.
Barnette voted down
What we know:
The council rejected Barnette's appointment on a 6 to 7 vote on Thursday.
Barnette was sworn into office in October 2023, replacing Cedric Alexander.
Speaking after the vote on Tuesday, Mayor Frey vowed to veto the vote.
"Todd deserves this job," the mayor stated. "The residents of Minneapolis deserve him in this job. We need to be concentrating on items like public safety right now, and I'm going to do everything in my power to keep Todd Barnett in this position."
Council vote
What they're saying:
Mayor Frey spoke at the meeting, giving his endorsement of Barnette.
"He didn't wait to see the way the wind was blowing," Mayor Jacob Frey said. "He got to work, bringing structure, stability, compliance, trust where it was needed most."
The other side:
Council members raised concerns about Barnette's budgeting, especially during the federal surge.
"Multiple of the departments that he oversees have repeatedly overspent and exceeded their budgets, some by tens of millions of dollars," Council Member Aisha Chughtai said. "It's jeopardized the fiscal health of our city, and it has come at the expense of services. It's come at the expense of our residents."
In February, Minneapolis' budget director warned about the federal surge stressing the city's finances, particularly public safety. At that point, she told council members that the city had been put on notice by bond rating agencies, meaning the city's bonding rating was at risk of being downgraded. If that were to happen, it would become more costly for the city to borrow funds.
"While I understand that overtime is necessary, I do think that $20 million of overspending is just a huge overage that was really hard for me to wrap my head around, especially as there's this continued rhetoric, I think, that divides our city," Council Member Aurin Chowdhury said.