Members of a Minneapolis City Council committee delayed a decision Tuesday on whether Council Member Jeremiah Ellison should be removed from his committee assignments for the remainder of his term.
Ellison, a two-term council member who is not seeking reelection, has come under scrutiny for accepting a full-year Harvard University fellowship which forces him to split his time between Minneapolis and Massachusetts.
Ellison’s fellowship, which began this month, has raised questions among council members and city residents about whether he was being paid for a full-time job without being present.
The Loeb Fellowship in Harvard’s Graduate School of Design comes with a $57,500 stipend. Ellison also receives nearly $110,000 a year for his full-time council duties.
Council members also debated whether north Minneapolis residents would be adequately represented on city committees during Ellison’s absence. He is one of two North Siders on the council.
Minneapolis City Clerk Casey Carl testified that the city doesn’t have technology to let Ellison attend the committee meetings remotely while meeting conditions under the state Open Meetings Act. He added that city rules currently require council members to be physically present in council chambers to make votes.
Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw argued that, as the only other council member who represents the city’s North Side, she should take Ellison’s spot on two committees centering around business, housing and zoning and public safety. Vetaw said with Ellison missing meetings, neither committee would have representation from the North Side.
“What I brought before you today, colleagues, is more work for myself, because I believe the North Side deserves to be represented on these committees,” Vetaw said.
Vetaw emphasized that she was not asking for any “special favors.” She also claimed that Ellison, who was not present at the meeting, supported her plan. Ellison could not be reached by phone and did not return text messages Sahan Journal sent to him late Tuesday afternoon.
However, he told the Star Tribune that he has continued to attend full council meetings every other week.
Council Member Katie Cashman expressed disappointment that Ellison “didn’t communicate with us before his departure” and voiced opposition to Vetaw’s proposal, stating that she had previously expressed interest in serving on the Public Health and Safety Committee herself.
“I’ll say on the record that he needs to be here. He should be showing up,” Cashman said of Ellison. “Make the point to show up.”
Council Member Andrea Jenkins said that she’s heard concern from constituents and other city residents about Ellison “collecting paychecks from multiple sources” and whether his acceptance of the Harvard fellowship “is in conflict with his duties on City Council.” She noted that former Council Members Andrew Johnson and Adbi Warsame stepped down from City Council when they accepted other job opportunities.
Council Member Jamal Osman, who chairs the Business, Housing and Zoning Committee, said that he would support Vetaw being added to the committee “if she can commit that she will advance policies that she might not agree with, without recommendation, to the full council.”
Council Member Linea Palmisano characterized Osman’s request as “a litmus test that I have never heard before.”
“If we want to make this a personal thing about ‘I want to be on the committee instead of you,’ and people not understanding that the North Side is already underrepresented — there’s only two of us here,” Vetaw said. “I don’t know how many South [Siders] are here. There’s only two of us on this entire council.”
Council Member Jason Chavez noted that not all committees are equitably represented geographically. He emphasized that half of the council members on the Business, Housing and Zoning Committee represent downtown Minneapolis. He added that in previous sessions, the Public Health & Safety Committee had no one from the Phillips neighborhood and that “the question of equity was not talked about.”
The council members ultimately voted to keep the current committee assignments without recommendation and let Ellison explain himself in the next council meeting this Thursday. Only Jenkins voted no on the measure.
