Council members threatened at budget hearing

On Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, the Minneapolis Budget Committee meeting was interrupted due to a local pastor who was upset about an agenda item.

According to Ward 2 Council Member Robin Wonsley's e-newsletter on Feb. 12:

This individual has a current violence prevention contract with the city’s Neighborhood Safety Department, and went on a hate-filled rant including making homophobic comments against Council Member Chavez, accusing me of corruption, and threatening violence to several Council Members, including myself. 
Unfortunately, the situation has escalated. This individual has now publicly made death threats against Council Members, and of his willingness to carry them out at tomorrow’s Full Council meeting. That said, Council leadership is working with the city’s security team to ensure that everyone, including members of the public, who join tomorrow’s meeting will be safe. 
I want to be clear that the individual making these threats is citing misinformation spread by the Frey administration as his motive. 
On Monday, I brought forward a proposal to temporarily move some of the city’s violence prevention programs to Hennepin County due to ongoing concerns about the city’s Neighborhood Safety Department (NSD). Early last year, several incidents regarding NSD and its services led me and other colleagues to request our Audit Department to investigate the department for fraud, waste, and abuse. Despite the Frey administration being aware of Council Members’ concerns, NSD continued to operate in ways that raised significant concerns. This concerning pattern of mismanagement, accompanied with lack of data on outcomes for almost two years, demonstrated that the department was currently unfit to properly administer public safety services.    
Unfortunately, instead of addressing the concerns that led to the proposal or respecting Council’s authority to take corrective actions, the city’s Commissioner of the Office of the Community Safety, Toddrick Barnette, chose to go on a media tour spreading false statements implying my actions were motivated by some form of corruption. There has been no evidence provided to back these accusations. 
Following the Frey administration’s disinformation campaign, an individual who holds a current contract with the Neighborhood Safety Department came to City Hall and interrupted Monday’s meeting, regurgitating the same false statements that the Commissioner Barnette had shared in the media. This has now escalated into the individual making death threats to Council based on the lies that were spread in order to deflect from the matter at hand. 
We all know the dangers of executives using dog whistles to incite violence against leaders who disagree with them. We are seeing it play out nationally everyday. Unfortunately, this situation has shown that the Frey administration is willing to use those same dangerous tactics at City Hall; in this case, against myself, a Black woman, and Council Member Chavez, a queer Latino Council Member, who have been unafraid to use our oversight authority to raise alarms about the Mayor’s mismanagement. 
While I am deeply disturbed at the administration’s role in this situation, my primary focus always has been and continues to be improving the city’s public safety programming to best serve residents. Improving public safety outcomes for residents was the sole intention of the proposal I brought forward on Monday and I will continue to make decisions based on what is best for residents, no matter what attempts are made to deflect, distract, or intimidate me.
I have had extensive conversation with Council leadership, and I am confident they understand the severity of this situation and will continue to stand with Council Members being targeted. I want to again affirm that Council leadership is working with the City Hall security team to ensure that tomorrow’s meeting is safe, calm, and focused, so that we can get back to the work we were elected to do.

From Ward 9 Council Member Jason Chavez:

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to those of you who have reached out in the past few days to check on my well-being and safety.

At the City Council Budget Committee meeting on Monday, I faced alarming threats and homophobic and sexist remarks from a member of the public, who also directed degrading comments towards my colleague, Council Member Wonsley, and other colleagues. This individual promised to return.

Unfortunately, on Tuesday night we received death threats from the same individual who disrupted our meeting, stating his willingness to resort to gun violence on a public platform.

Disagreements must NEVER escalate to violence. This behavior should not and will not be tolerated. Every resident deserves to feel safe and secure when visiting City Hall. Sadly, our LGBTQIA+ community is currently facing unacceptable levels of threats and violence, and I am committed to advocating for justice and the rights of all our neighbors.

I have been in touch with Council Leadership, who are taking these threats seriously and are working to implement a safety and security plan ahead of tomorrow’s meeting.