Minneapolis City Council seeks to move $1.25M in violence prevention funding to county

Former Mpls safety official speaks out on funding

The former director of the Minneapolis Neighborhood Safety Department is speaking out to defend the work of her office to provide violence prevention programs throughout the city as council members determine the most effective use of future funding.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A proposal to move $1.25M in violence prevention programming and funding is headed to the full Minneapolis City Council.

The measure passed out of the budget committee with mixed support on Monday.

Minneapolis City Council proposal

Minneapolis council members on violence prevention funding [RAW]

Minneapolis City Council members hold a press conference Monday regarding the proposal to move some of the city's violence prevention funding to Hennepin County. The proposal will be discussed during the city council budget committee hearing on Monday afternoon.

What's new:

Several members, including Council President Elliott Payne, say they have lost confidence in management of the city’s violence prevention efforts that go beyond traditional policing. And they want the county to step into administering those ongoing efforts for the rest of the year.

"This action we are proposing today allows for the city to build up our capacity, strengthen our infrastructure and ensure that these strategies are moving forward at the pace that our community really is demanding," said Payne.

"It is about our current group violence interdiction programs not being accurately and effectively managed and deployed, and that is leading to harmful outcomes for our residents," added council member Robin Wonsley.

The city has been accused of awarding violence prevention contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars without verifying how the funding was actually used.

"The residents who are most at risk of being perpetrators or victims of shootings are not getting adequate service due to mismanagement in [Neighborhood Safety Department] NSD. Temporarily moving this program to Hennepin County will ensure these high risk individuals are getting the services they need, keeping our entire community safer," said Council Member Jason Chavez in a statement.

Moving violence prevention funding sparks concern [RAW]

Minneapolis public safety commissioner Toddrick Barnette discusses the city council's proposal to temporarily transfer the GVI and YGVI programs and funding from the city to Hennepin County. He says he was "blindsided" by the announcement.

Former Neighborhood Safety Director speaks out

What they're saying:

In her first interview with FOX 9 since resigning her position as Director of the city’s embattled Neighborhood Safety Department, Luana Nelson-Brown said she did everything she could to improve oversight of the city’s violence prevention efforts.

"I would definitely call it a broken system. I would also say it was a system that, in the way that it was developed, makes the environment ripe for corruption," said Nelson-Brown. "I believe the vast majority of organizations wanted to do the right thing. They were just never asked or told what to do."

She added, "As far as services, I think they got some pretty good guidance, and they were doing services in the way that they believe work best. But we can't prove that because we do not have any documentation of what was being done, where it was being done, how often it was done."

Nelson-Brown singled out her office’s efforts to install more rigorous safeguards during the contracting phase with groups and grassroot organizations seeking taxpayer funding to do community outreach programming. She disputed claims of mismanagement and believes the effort to move money to Hennepin County is an end-run for council members who are aligned with violence intervention groups who lost out on recent funding opportunities because of the enhanced bidding process.

"I highly encourage taxpayers and residents to oppose moving that money until you can see who the recipients were, more importantly, who did not get the funding and why," explained Nelson-Brown. "So, I would not support moving anything until the public is fully informed."

What's next:

Under Payne and Wonsley’s proposal, Hennepin County would take over the administration of the Group Violence Intervention and Youth Group Violence Intervention programs through the rest of the year. The measure passed out of committee with mixed support. It now heads to the full city council meeting, where an up or down vote is expected Thursday.

If it passes, Mayor Jacob Frey has a veto over the proposal. His office said he is not in favor of this effort, but said he would need to see the final language of any measure before deciding what to do.

Violence prevention

Minneapolis pastor calls out city council

Rev. Jerry McAfee disrupted a budget committee meeting as the City of Minneapolis discussed its anti-violence efforts. The meeting was thrown into recess until he walked out of the meeting. [Note: A chunk of the disruption is not available due to a lack of audio after the podium microphone was cut.]

Dig deeper:

FOX 9 has previously reported the city has been accused of handing out violence prevention contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars without following up to verify how that money was actually used.

A recent lawsuit settlement has led to additional guardrails and enhanced procedures in contracting and oversight.

Minneapolis Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette has previously called the city council’s proposal "ludicrous", while city council members argue the community is not getting adequate violence prevention outreach because of the department’s mismanagement.

"I don't think it's a wise decision to move funds. In fact, I think it will interrupt the services that are there. But I don't know, because I don't know what the plan is. I haven't been engaged to say, hey, this is what we're thinking. What's your thought? How is this going to work?" Barnette said.