Minneapolis to provide update on violence prevention programs under growing scrutiny
MINNEAPOLIS - City and court records obtained by FOX 9 are shedding more light on violence prevention programs that received hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding.
What we know:
Lea Lakes, deputy director of the Neighborhood Safety Department, is scheduled to deliver an update on the status of violence prevention efforts in Minneapolis during a city council committee hearing Monday afternoon.
The city has been accused of awarding violence prevention contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars without verifying how the funding was actually used.
As part of a legal settlement last year, the city agreed to audit invoices for violence prevention contracts and to require more documentation before paying or reimbursing those groups.
In addition to the legal settlement, the Neighborhood Safety Department has been providing regular updates to city council members about the department's funding, staffing and oversight.
The department was directed to provide those updates last year after a series of allegations were made about the management of violence prevention efforts.
Monday’s meeting will be the first update since the director of the department, Luana Nelson-Brown, resigned in January to take another job.
Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette is now serving as the interim director of the department.
Barnette has consistently said that since the department was re-organized two years ago, it has lacked the staffing and resources needed to oversee dozens of contracts while providing accountability and transparency.
In a statement, Barnette said that infrastructure is now improving.
"Our presentation on Monday will outline much of this and hopefully put to rest a lot of the unfair questions and assertions surrounding this issue."
Violence prevention efforts and funding remain under the microscope in Minneapolis
The backstory:
Council members launched a series of serious allegations about the city’s violence prevention efforts last year.
Mpls 'violence intervention' contracts sparks debate
The Minneapolis City Council got into a heated debate over funding to maintain neighbor safety, and fraud accusations around contracts the Neighborhood Safety Department has with various vendors who do group violence intervention work. FOX 9's Karen Scullin has the latest.
One council member criticized the city for withholding critical funding from contracted organizations, while another made allegations of fraud, abuse and mismanagement.
"I am disappointed at how much this work has been mischaracterized," Barnette said. "I take very seriously the importance of fair procedures as well as appropriate use of public funds."
After the city temporarily paused funding for some organizations, the FOX 9 Investigators requested contracts, invoices and other records involving violence interrupters.
Dig deeper:
The records show some organizations routinely submitted invoices for tens of thousands of dollars without providing receipts, detailed timesheets or descriptions of their work.
That documentation was required as part of the contract.
For example, W Berry Consulting LLC submitted invoices totaling more than $250,000 in 2023 and 2024 for "Outreach and engagement" and" program support and supplies."
It also listed expenses for accounting, IT, clothing, food support, rent and housing.
The city has not yet produced any receipts submitted by that company.
Weston Berry-Belton, the director of W Berry Consulting, declined to comment and referred any questions to the city.
Records show Berry-Belton requested $57,000 for outreach, engagement and supplies in April 2023.
But according to a court document filed last year as part of a lawsuit against the city, Berry-Belton did not provide "any documentation related to the eventual expenditure of these funds."
In that lawsuit, the city was accused of continuing to pay violence prevention contractors after it "intentionally or ineptly failed" to request proper documentation.
What's next:
As part of a legal settlement reached last August, the city must now require organizations that receive violence prevention contracts to provide canceled checks for personnel expenses and receipts for non-personnel expenses.
"There is no question that financial accountability and transparency are paramount in this work," Barnette said.
The city agreed to "commence an audit of past invoices" for violence prevention contracts by February 2025, according to the settlement.
Shortly after the settlement was reached, the city council directed the Neighborhood Safety Department, which oversees violence prevention efforts, to produce regular updates on staffing, financial oversight and compliance.
The Source: Contracts, invoices and supporting documentation obtained from the City of Minneapolis through numerous data requests. Details related to legal settlement were obtained from court case 27-CV-23-17353.