Minneapolis City Council approves police contract and salary increase

MINNEAPOLIS – The Minneapolis City Council voted for the controversial police contract on Thursday morning.

After each council member gave a long speech about their decision, the members voted 8 to 4 to pass.

The agreement provides for police reforms and a 22% increase in basic salary over three years.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara says the new contract is necessary to recruit and retain officers.

The council had originally planned to vote on the contract in June, but the vote was postponed to allow more time for further public input.

The city has made the full contract public. In a press release, it also outlined some of the reforms and contract changes, including:

Typically, the parties to a collective agreement resolve issues that arise during the term of the agreement by means of one-off letters of agreement.

• The City and Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis (POFM) union signed these LOAs for many decades, and there was confusion about which ones were still valid.
• In this Agreement, the parties have re-examined these LOAs, decided which ones should continue to exist, and agreed that only those that are actually part of or attached to the Main Agreement will survive into the future.
• In this way, the city, the federal government and the public can learn the full scope of the written agreements right at the beginning of the contract term.

In the past, the collective agreement regulated work allocation at MPD in many ways, both in terms of shifts and locations and the prescribed number of promotions.

• The new agreement gives management more discretion over job allocation and staffing ratios, allowing the chief and his leadership team to place officers in areas where the need is greatest and to make promotions based on the suitability of candidates rather than on a prescribed percentage.
• The city has also negotiated a change to significantly shorten the time it takes to fill vacancies.

Minneapolis has taken on the task of redesigning its public safety system and ensuring that personnel are deployed where they are most needed.

• With fewer sworn personnel on staff at MPD, the City has continually worked to find ways to utilize specialized civilian personnel for clerical and investigative work, allowing officers to get out on the streets and into the community and be more available to address pressing issues.
• Through the new agreement, the POFM has agreed that the city can hire permanent staff or hire civilians to assist in the investigative work.
• By “civilianizing” work that can be done by non-sworn employees, the Chief will be able to focus the limited number of MPD officers on important security work.

Officials will no longer receive automatic notification of the identity of the person requesting public personnel information about them.

If there are allegations of serious misconduct, the chief has full discretion to place the officer on paid investigative leave for up to 180 days. In the past, the chief had full discretion only for the first 30 days.

This gives the chief more flexibility to keep an officer off the street while he focuses on the investigation.

This story will continue to develop. KARE 11 will provide additional details as new information becomes available.