Race for Minneapolis mayor heats up with debate

Race for Minneapolis mayor heats up with debateRace for Minneapolis mayor heats up with debate

Several candidates for Minneapolis mayor took the stage Friday morning for a debate.

Of the 15 candidates on the ballot, just five of them were at the debate: incumbent Jacob Frey, State Sen. Omar Fateh, the Rev. DeWayne Davis, Jazz Hampton, and Brenda Short.

The debate started shortly after at 8 a.m. and lasted about 90 minutes. A moment of silence was held at the beginning in honor of Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moyski, the two children killed in the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church last month.

Topics for the event included homeless encampments, downtown revitalization, public safety, private investments in neighborhoods, ethics and fraud.

View the full debate in the video player below.

Public safety took the spotlight early on.

Fateh, who has called for reforming the Minneapolis Police Department, said some situations are better handled by behavioral specialists rather than police officers.

“We don’t need an armed officer to respond to every single call,” Fateh said. “We know that at the city, we had a report that showed that nearly half of 911 calls can be diverted away from police.”

Davis supported fully implementing the police reforms outlined in state and federal consent decrees.

“Making sure not only as we get more police that those reforms are embedded completely so that everybody trusts our police and that police can work in that matrix in every corner of the city,” Davis said.

On solutions to violent crime, Frey said more local oversight on gun reform is in order, something he and other mayors initially called for in the wake of the Annunciation Church shooting.

“We ban assault rifles, we ban high-capacity magazines … we can’t locally but if the state or the federal government isn’t willing to do it, we should have the ability in cities to do it ourselves,” Frey said.

In that same arena, the candidates were asked whether they would keep Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara or search for a new head of the Minneapolis Police Department. Three candidates, including Frey, said they would keep O’Hara in his current role, but Fateh said he doesn’t know yet.

“I’ve had strong, strong disagreements with the police chief, but I would have to meet with him and the City Council to make a decision,” Fateh said.

The debate also delved into the city’s approach to homelessness.

Fateh attacked Frey’s clearing of an encampment on Lake Street last week, calling the removal “inhumane.”

“We need to deal with it in a humane and compassionate way, and what we know is that bulldozing our neighbors block by block does not put them into housing,” Fateh said.

Meanwhile, Davis said the city’s homeless response team needs more staff.

“We have only four people, I think, four or five last time I checked, in homeless response in Regulatory Services,” Davis said. “It obviously isn’t enough. We need more people in that office. We need a plan — we now do not have a plan. The response we’re getting is a reaction.”

Frey said encampments pose an imminent safety threat and presented connecting more people to shelter as the solution.

“Encampments, period, are not safe,” Frey said. “They are not safe for the people living there, they are not safe for the people in the surrounding neighborhood. … We should not have encampments in the City of Minneapolis, and what we should be doing is connecting people to homes.”

Early voting is already underway in Minneapolis. More information is available online.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS streamed the debate live. The full event can be seen in the video player below.

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