Wedge LIVE!

John has a conversation with David Wheeler, who's running for Minneapolis Council in Ward 10. What's David's closing argument in the final days of the election? How does electing David Wheeler help fix our city's problems? What role does he see for himself on the city council with regard to public safety? David is against Question 2 on the ballot (the public safety charter amendment), so John asks what role he could play on police accountability in a world where the city council lacks policy control over police. John observes that David has said his foremost passion is ballot Question 1 (mayoral control at the expense of the city council), which is a counterintuitive thing for a city council candidate to say. Does David agree with removing staffing minimums and creating an integrated department of public safety -- which are the parts of Question 2 that even Mayor Frey has said he agrees with? Does he have a sense from talking to voters about whether they understand the MPD staffing situation is a result of hundreds of officers quitting, and not a lack of funding for police? John compliments David for his willingness to say we should be driving less as a city, and not pandering to transportation NIMBYs like a few of the other candidates in Ward 10. John grinds an axe on Carol Becker, David's current colleague on the Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation. What committee would David like to serve on? How is he ranking his Ward 10 ballot, aside from Wheeler #1? John asks David to reject and denounce the $1.6 million PAC run by close associates of Mayor Frey, which is spending to support candidates and ballot questions, including David Wheeler. David says he knows a lot of garbage about other candidates but refuses to name names. John asks if it was ethical for David to have led his Facebook friends to believe he had received the Star Tribune endorsement. How did David feel about the infamous "thumbs down" hecklers at a Ward 10 candidate forum held over zoom? As always, we end with David's recommendations.

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John has a conversation with Andrea Larson, former deputy city coordinator with the city of Minneapolis. Andrea spent six years in the city coordinator's office, and has overseen teams working to develop alternatives to traditional police response. This is work that began at City Council direction in the years prior to George Floyd's murder. The planning work is well underway, and includes the 911/MPD work group that analyzed which 911 calls the city could respond to without a police response. Andrea describes how well the city's 911 operators correctly code calls as violent vs. non-violent. She talks about how the city's alternative response and violence prevention work is increasingly spread across seven departments. While we often focus on which elected officials a given department is accountable to, we overlook "the implications of having this [public safety] work spread across multiple department heads." She says what troubles her about the current debate is the lack of focus on what Question 2 is really about: the way city government is structured. What needs to be put in place shortly after (and if) Question 2 passes is the appointment of an interim commissioner of public safety and an organizational chart. We go over the common concerns: Can't we do this without a charter change? What's the problem with housing these non-police functions under MPD or in a newly created department in the coordinator's office? Will it fire the chief? Will it abolish police? We talk about how the current charter's minimum staffing requirement denies budget flexibility to shift money to alternatives that are capable of doing work formerly handled by MPD. She explains her conflicted feelings on Question 1 (strong mayor). John asks about the bizarre situation of MPD Chief Arradondo -- in uniform at a press conference put together with city staff and resources -- campaigning against Question 2 and chastising the council for not having a plan. Months earlier, the work of producing an org chart was cut short by the city attorney's office, who warned the city council to back off, because it would amount to engaging in politics in favor of Question 2. Andrea says, "The people we're not hearing from, and the people I worry about leaving" are the talented staff doing the change work around public safety. We don't hear about how difficult their work is or what would make their jobs easier.

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John is joined by co-host Elissa Schufman for a conversation with Naomi Kritzer, noted local election profiler and award-winning author. We talk about why Naomi got into writing about elections, her most and least favorite candidates over the years, if she has any candidate endorsement regrets, how scam candidate Mickey Moore actually got much weirder than the last time he ran for office. Somehow we got Naomi talking about rural broadband. We try to answer questions like: Who is the Captain America of Minneapolis? What is it like to win prestigious awards? Which fellow author does Naomi have beef with in the rough and tumble world of science fiction? Does she feel self-conscious about having so much influence over people's votes? Why did she file an amicus brief in opposition to the Don Samuels lawsuit to knock the public safety charter amendment (Question 2) off the ballot in Minneapolis? And much more. It's our longest episode yet. The truest indicator of quality.

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John is joined by Lisa Bender, President of the Minneapolis City Council, as she enters the twilight of her Council career. We talk about how she feels going into the final week of the city election, public safety, the strong mayor charter amendment, what's next for housing and transportation policy, what it's been like to push department staff to develop a new policy, her hopes and fears for the next council term, her approach to dealing with Mayor Frey, those weird Duluth rumors, and more.

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John is joined by co-host Josh Martin. We begin the show with breaking news (as of last Friday when this was recorded) of the Star Tribune editorial board withdrawing their Mickey Moore endorsement. Then a conversation about Question 1 (aka mayoral control or "strong mayor") with former Minneapolis City Council President Paul Ostrow. Paul is somewhat unusual among question 1 supporters in that he also supports Question 2 (public safety charter amendment). Regarding the City Council and and its relationship to city departments, Paul argues that "14 bosses" is a legitimate and longstanding problem, but isn't a particular problem of the last year and a half. He talks about his experience on the City Council and explains why he's voting yes on Question 2. He thinks it's necessary to remove charter language giving the mayor complete power over the police so that the Council can have legislative control.

Listen to Paul Ostrow's podcast MNQuiry wherever you get your podcasts.

Find Josh Martin's endorsement tracker and other items he's published to google docs by following him at twitter.com/JoshMartinMpls

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John's guest is David Fey from Faith in Minnesota. David served as Deputy Mayor during RT Rybak's first term beginning in 2002. Speaking from his experience in Minneapolis City Hall, David explains why he's telling people to vote no on ballot question 1, which would shift control over the city's non-police departments to the mayor. John expresses his ongoing confusion over why the Charter Commission forced us into having this conversation as the police department has imploded in the year and a half since four of their officers murdered George Floyd. David says, "The police department is the most dysfunctional and least accountable department in the city, so the idea of expanding that model to the rest of the city departments - on the face of it - is really alarming." We talk about the implications of this power shift; why it might not actually be about good government; the benefit of bringing transparency to police policymaking that's currently done behind closed doors in the mayor's office; what should be done about rogue council members (Lisa Goodman, I'm talking about you); and the value of city hall that's equally accountable to all 13 wards in the city. David also talks about his support for questions 2 and 3.

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John and co-host Elissa Schufman (@schufman) have a conversation with ranked choice voting enthusiast Todd Schuman. Is there ever a good reason to not rank every slot on your ballot? Why do we only get three choices for the three Park Board at-large seats (as opposed to three for each seat)? What is a spoiled ballot? How does ranked choice voting work? Why does Todd's last name have an "f" while Elissa's does not? John opens his ballot in front of a live microphone, reveals too much about his potential mayoral preferences, complains about the absurdly long list of Minneapolis mayoral candidates, and suggests there's not much point in figuring out a third choice for mayor if your first two are Kate Knuth and Sheila Nezhad. We answer voting-related listener questions. John addresses a twitter beef. We all express our unhappiness with the idea of shifting more power to the mayor's office (Question 1 on your ballot).

After the show, Elissa fact-checked to make sure John's explanation of the 51% (as opposed to 50%+1) threshold for passage of a charter amendment is correct. Yes, it's in state law: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/410.12#stat.410.12.4 

For further viewing, Todd recommends these MPR explainer videos.

Single-winner RCV explainer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHRPMJmzBBw

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John begins by scolding co-host Jason Garcia for failing to prevent audio disaster in the previous epside. Then we have an extended conversation with Robin Wonsley Worlobah, who is running for Minneapolis City Council in Ward 2. We talk about public safety, the "strong mayor" proposal, and answer the question: how long is too long for a podcast episode? What is Robin learning in her conversations with the voters of Ward 2? What big revelations has she come to while undertaking this massive project of running for office? We talk housing and Robin's approach to public housing. John asks Robin to explain the mechanism by which the city would tax the rich and large corporations, and how her proposal for significantly stepped up affordable housing mandates (six times the affordable units with twice as much affordability) would work. What committee would Robin like to serve on if elected? As a group we all answer the question: What argument this election year is getting on our nerves? We close out the show with Robin's three recommendations.

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This episode took a lot of work to salvage. John screwed up his audio and had to re-record. So you'll be hearing John's voice, as it was recorded on the day of this conversation, as well as some re-recorded voiceover from a week and a half later. Please don't be confused. I apologize to Jono Cowgill, President of the Minneapolis Park Board. You should absolutely vote for Jono, even if you can't endure listening to this episode. Jono has a truly terrible opponent this year. Thank you to Jason Garcia for co-hosting. And shame on Jason Garcia for not warning me about how bad I sounded. The co-host has one job. You failed me, Jason.

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John's guest is Cam Gordon, who represents Ward 2 on the Minneapolis City Council. First, we get Cam's reaction to the recent legal back and forth over the public safety charter amendment (this episode was recorded before the Minnesota Supreme Court's decision to allow voters to decide Question 2). John asks how Cam assesses the quality of the advice the City Council receives from the City Attorney's Office. And how should voters assess the effect of the "strong mayor" charter amendment? What's the public safety agenda if a charter change fails this November?What is Cam's reelection pitch to voters when he's knocking on doors (especially in light of the doorbell camera footage that's been sent into the Wedge LIVE tipline)? John asks Cam about his too-nice approach to dealing with mean tweeters? And the times he faced off with right wing media figure John Stossel, and local TV lawyer Joe Tamburino. We talk about the Mayor's PAC, the politicization of the chief, disinformation, and a gullible district court judge. Cam responds to John's constant frustration with conventional wisdom around the state of our failing public safety system: "so many officers left there was no way they the department could possibly spend all the money we've given them..." We talk about housing, the 2040 plan, boarding houses (why limit who can operate them?) -- and the history of ending occupancy limits based on the definition of family in the zoning code. What's Cam learned in his nearly 16 years on the City Council? We talk about the Charter Commission's anonymous interviews with city department heads (which the Commission used to promote their strong mayor amendment -- Question 1 on your ballot) and whether there is a rebellion at City Hall. Cam says the way it should work is that staff answers to actions of the Council as a body, not individuals (John suggests those rules don't apply to Lisa Goodman). John pushes Cam on neighborhood group funding. Cam talks about how a strong mayor system would shift power away from lower voter turnout parts of the city. How have personal relationships at City Hall changed over the course of the pandemic and social distancing? We finish the episode with recommendations and a Cam Gordon beard time-lapse.

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