The newly elected Minneapolis City Council met for the first time on Jan. 5, where they voted on leadership and committee positions that laid a foundation for the next four years.
As they elected council leadership, two clear voting blocs emerged. Five council members appeared aligned with Ward 13 Council Member Linea Palmisano, and seven appeared aligned with Ward 1 Council Member Elliott Payne.
Payne or Palmisano for president
At the meeting, Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury nominated Payne and Ward 5 Council Member Pearll Warren nominated Palmisano for City Council president.
Payne “has served steadfastly as the council president over the past two years and I have really grown to appreciate his leadership,” Chowdhury said at the meeting. “One thing that’s really clear is that the city of Minneapolis is really asking us to find a way to work together and not do that in a way where we are compromising our values.”
Without any further comments from the council, Payne was elected president by a vote of 8-5.
He was opposed by Southwest council members, Palmisano and Ward 7’s Elizabeth Shaffer. Warren, Ward 3 Council Member Michael Rainville, and Ward 4 Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw also voted against Payne.
Ward 8 Council Member Soren Stevenson, Ward 10’s Aisha Chughtai and Ward 11’s Jamison Whiting voted in his favor for Payne along with Chowdhury, Ward 2’s Robin Wonsley, Ward 6’s Jamal Osman, and Ward 9’s Jason Chavez.
“I am truly humbled by your vote of confidence in my leadership,” Payne said. “I recognize that this position is one of trust, and that the primary duty is to reflect the consensus of this body, especially our new members as they begin their journey to help us serve our entire community.”
Nominations for council vice president went to Osman, nominated by Chughtai, and to Palmisano, nominated by Whiting.
“I think every person not only in the chamber but across our city has heard a familiar message from our constituents, that they are tired of factional politics in City Hall,” Whiting said in support of Palmisano.
Osman was elected with a 7-6 majority, with support from Payne, Wonsley, Stevenson, Chavez, Chughtai, and Chowdhury.
Contested majority and minority leader proposal
The majority of the meeting was taken up by Payne’s proposal to add majority and minority leaders positions to the council leadership team.
Positions with these titles existed in the past but were removed when the city’s executive committee that required them were dropped from the city charter in 2021.
In the previous provision the majority and minority leaders did not have to belong to the same political party “unless the mayor and all the council members belong to the same political party.”
Payne indicated that the majority and minority positions under his proposal were not related to political parties. The City Attorney clarified at the meeting, “The offices of a city council are nonpartisan so they can’t be organized around political parties. So, this (leadership position) would not be affiliated with political affiliation.”
Wonsley, who favored the creation of the new positions, said that it would formally recognize the political diversity of the council, as it had done in the past.
“As it currently stands we do have council members who identify as democratic socialists. We have four of them,” Wonsley said. “Democratic socialism is not a political party but is a reflection of the political diversity in this body.”
Payne said that the leaders would have “duties as assigned by the president and vice president.” They also would rise to the order of succession to serve as mayor or council president if needed.
Several of the council members who had just supported Palmisano for president expressed concerns about the proposal. and all of them voted against the proposal to add these new positions.
“I am not going to vote for this,” said Rainville, “because I just think it is keeping our council out of balance.”
“Saying ‘duties assigned’ makes no sense to me,” said Vetaw, “I would love you to explain how you decided who…and how they are going to work across the body.”
Payne attempted to answer council members’ questions during the meeting but did not sway any votes.
“I think that reconstituting the majority and minority leaders will help us identify those members where we have a majority support of various policy areas,” said Payne.
A minority leader could help shepherd “policy areas that do not fit within the majority support” through the legislative process, Payne added.
Whiting asked for clarity on how majority and minority was being defined.
“The positions themselves I think require some level of larger definitions,” Whiting said.
Wonsley, Stevenson, Chavez and Chughtai were all endorsed for City Council in 2025 by the political action committee, Twin Cities Democratic Socialist of America.
Stevenson, Chavez and Chughtai also all sought the endorsement of the Democratic Farmer Labor party, which Chavez and Stevenson received.
“Let’s make it balanced,” said Palmisano before moving to postpone the decision. “If the desire is political diversity, which I also appreciate, this is not expanding the leadership circle.”
Shaffer agreed to postpone the decision on the leadership positions.
“I would be really thrilled to think about these with a fleshed-out job description,” said Shaffer. “I’m open to new ideas but I want to be sure we have a process that the public cannot point fingers at.”
The motion to postpone failed on a 7-6 vote with Whiting joining the Palmisano voting bloc again.
On the vote for majority leader, Chughtai was elected 8-5 with Whiting joining the Payne bloc. Chavez nominated Chughtai for majority leader.
For minority leader, after Payne nominated Wonsley, Whiting nominated Vetaw who declined the nomination. “We need democratic socialist leadership to fight for people over profit,” said Stevenson. “I want to see Council Member Wonsley as minority leader because she brings the type of work experience that we need in this city in order to move forward on critical issues that are facing both us here at the city and the nation as a whole.”
Wonsley was elected by a 7-6 vote, with Whiting joining those opposing her.
Council committees established
The council also approved their committees and committee membership, including the committee chairs and vice chairs who will set the agendas as well as run the committee meetings for the term.
Before we proceed, I just want to share my sincere thanks to my colleagues. I am truly humbled by your vote of confidence in my leadership. I recognize that this position is one of trust, and that the primary duty is to reflect the consensus of this body, especially are new members as they begin their journey to help us serve our entire community. I also want to thank the work of Mr. Carl today and your entire team, including our new Legislative Research and Oversight team.
I also want to thank everyone who took time out of their busy day to mark this occasion with us.
Today is supposed to be a day of celebration, a day of joy, a day of transition, and a day of renewal. And there are indeed many things that we should celebrate. This past term was one of the most productive in recent history.
Together, this body worked to keep people safe by:
Expanding the Behavioral Crisis Response team by investing in additional vans and staff so that mental health responders are available 24/7.
We’ve invested in our case closure rate and made investments in civilian investigators to help MPD improve the case closure rate while taking pressure off sworn officers, shifting the department towards more civilianization, and providing justice to victims and their families.
We secured on-going, sustainable funding for wage theft enforcement, recovering over $2 million in stolen wages for workers.
And we will continue transforming our public safety system by expanding services like safety ambassadors in all of our Cultural Corridors and by fully implementing both consent decrees to make MPD more accountable to the community.
We have taken bold action on climate change by:
Establishing carbon fees for the city’s largest polluters.
We’ve secured the city’s first dedicated funding to combat climate change through our $10 million dollar Climate Legacy Initiative.
We’ve secured funding and approvals for key street reconstruction projects, including historical investments in traffic calming, literally paving the way forward for a safer, multi-modal future.
We’ve prioritized investments in zero waste so that we can shut down the HERC garbage incinerator.
And we will make Minneapolis a beacon of climate resilience by creating a new green economy by going block-by-block to retrofit every home to meet our carbon reduction goals.
We have responded to the housing crisis by:
Working to create a more humane response to homelessness that treats our unsheltered neighbors with dignity and respect and the funding necessary to transition them into permanent and supportive housing.
We’ve expanded renter protections so that people don’t get displaced in the first place.
We’ve banned the use of algorithmic price fixing for rental housing.
We’ve continued investing in Stable Homes Stable Schools so that MPS students and their families can thrive, knowing they have housing stability.
And we’ve created home ownership opportunities that create generational housing stability.
And we have fought to protect our most marginalized communities by:
Expanding protections in our Civil Rights ordinance, adding height & weight, justice-impacted status, and housing status as protected classes.
We have created a sidewalk cart and street vending program that provides economic opportunity while protecting public health.
We have made significant investments in our Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, providing dedicated staff support and outside legal services for our immigrant community.
We have prevented young people from falling into addiction by passing stronger protections for tobacco use.
And we secured minimum wages, not just for uber and Lyft drivers in Minneapolis, but the strongest statewide driver protections in the nation.
This display of progress should absolutely be celebrated. And we owe a debt of gratitude to our Democratic Socialist colleagues and the grass-roots organizers who helped shape our ambitious agenda. I’m proud to have been a part of a body filled with such bold leaders. Leaders willing to take action on climate change, solve the housing crisis, transform public safety, expand worker protections, and protect public health—regardless of whether they organize within a political party or as a member or a grassroots organization.
In the words of Zoran Mamdani, the newly elected DSA mayor of New York: “Those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty.”
I say let us put our agendas on full display. Agendas of care and compassion. Agendas of Equity and Justice. Agendas that show we are not afraid of despots and authoritarians.
We celebrate today. We celebrate our return to city hall and our newly remodeled chamber. And we especially celebrate the return of four-year terms.
We hope to celebrate a return to a sense of normalcy. But we are clear-eyed about the dark path this country is heading down. And we are not afraid. We are not afraid because we are steadfast and resilient. We are not afraid because the same grassroots organizers that patrolled our streets when our local government failed our community in 2020 are the same networks of people patrolling our streets today, looking out for our neighbors as our federal government attacks our community. We are not afraid because our networks of mutual aid who have cared for our unhoused neighbors are the same networks hosting food drives and helping our immigrant families go to school and to work. Nothing about what’s happening right now is normal. This moment must move us to show up in ways we never have before and govern like we have never governed before. Because unprecedented evil attacks against our neighbors deserve an unprecedented response from local government.
Today, let us celebrate. Then let’s get back to work.
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