Seven candidates are vying for an open seat on the Minneapolis City Council to represent parts of north Minneapolis.
The Ward 5 seat, being vacated by Council Member Jeremiah Ellison, represents one of the most diverse wards in the city, with three-fourths of residents being people of color. Forty-four percent of residents are low income.
It’s one of three open council seats in this coming fall’s election.
Ward 5 encompasses all or parts of the neighborhoods of Harrison, Hawthorne, Jordan, Near North, the North Loop, Sumner-Glenwood and Willard-Hay.
Two of the seven candidates gained the most votes at this month’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party convention, which resulted in no endorsement. They are Tinitha “Pearll” Warren, who works as a home-ownership development manager for Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, and Ethrophic Burnett, a senior project manager in the Minneapolis city auditor’s office.
Warren came away with 43 percent of DFL delegate support on the fourth ballot, while Burnett gained 38 percent support. All other candidates had been eliminated in previous ballots, and 17 percent of delegates went with no endorsement. Neither Warren nor Burnett gained the required 60 percent of votes to capture the DFL endorsement.
The city election is Tuesday, Nov. 4.
Sahan Journal takes a look at some of the Ward 5 candidates.
Tinitha “Pearll” Warren
Warren, 48, comes into the race with support from We Love MPLS and All for Mpls, political action committees aligned with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Warren puts housing at the top of her priorities, citing her work in the field for Habitat for Humanity, as well as her role as a certified housing and compliance manager with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
She laments how the ward is dotted with vacant commercial buildings, and wants to find ways to persuade the owners to either occupy or sell them.
“If we’ve got to have a monthly commercial property owners meeting and talk about what’s happening with the state and condition of this property, then that’s what we need to have,” Warren said.
She also wants the city to employ more property inspectors to ensure that people applying for rental licenses have their properties in compliance with city codes.
On public safety, Warren supports efforts by the Minneapolis Police Department to recruit potential police officers from the city and ward. She cites the Police Activities League after-school program as an example of the type of efforts she supports.
“If it’s not broke, you don’t have to fix it,” she said. “Just continue to support those things and make sure there are constant avenues and pathways.”
Warren would like to see more city dollars go to police recruitment efforts, and acknowledges that hiring more housing inspectors would also cost money. Recruiting businesses to the ward will bring more revenue, she said, but she also is open to looking into solutions like bringing parking meters to certain areas of the city.
Ethrophic Burnett
Burnett, 53, cites her jobs for the city of Minneapolis for the last seven years as one of her biggest assets as a candidate. She is endorsed by progressive lawmakers like Attorney General Keith Ellison, the father of Ward 5’s outgoing council member, and Hennepin County commissioners Irene Fernando and Angela Conley.
Currently a senior project manager in the Minneapolis city auditor’s office, Burnett first came to the city as a policy aide for former Council Member Phillipe Cunningham.
Burnett takes progressive positions on many issues, including supporting rent control and right-to-first-refusal policies, the latter of which would allow a renter the first opportunity to buy their home should their landlord decide to sell.
Burnett also advocates for what she calls a “fully staffed and fully funded public safety ecosystem,” which with policing includes behavioral health response teams and mental health providers.
She also wants to look into ways to bring something similar to Midtown Global Market or Karmel Mall to the ward.
“We have to revitalize our cultural corridor,” Burnett said. “That means engaging with constituents who have businesses within their homes and would love to have a storefront.”
She said she would also partner with organizations like the Northside Economic Opportunity Network, which works with entrepreneurs in the community, to find business owners interested in storefronts.
Burnett acknowledges that those ideas would cost money and said she would look at finding new revenue streams and cuts to make in the city budget.
Miles Wilson
Wilson, 30, works in life insurance as a contract analyst for Voya Financial. He said his positions are similar to Warren’s, and even urged his supporters to endorse Warren for the DFL endorsement on the fourth round of votes.
But because no candidate had enough support to earn the endorsement, Wilson is marching ahead with his candidacy.
Wilson said Ward 5 is underserved and that one of his top priorities would be improving constituent services. His approach would include monthly town hall meetings where residents could voice their concerns and priorities. Then, Wilson said, he would host quarterly meetings where he’d report to his constituents what was going on at City Hall. Finally, he said he would report on the progress of his initiatives every six months and every year as a form of accountability to himself.
“I would say, what has happened, what has changed, what has not changed and how are things going?” Wilson said.
On public safety, Wilson also supports increased recruitment of new officers from the ward through initiatives like the city’s community service officer program.
Anndrea Young
Young, 31, prioritizes bringing more anti-displacement dollars to the ward in anticipation of the effects of the Blue Line light-rail extension.
A supporter of the light-rail line, Young said she wants to make sure people living along the future line will not be forced to move out of the ward because of it. Currently, the state has authorized $10 million in anti-displacement money for people living along the entire proposed line extension, which will go into Robbinsdale, Crystal and Brooklyn Park.
That’s not nearly enough money, Young said.
As a member of the 2024 Blue Line Extension Community Engagement Cohort, Young said she believes that the line extension will be a net positive for the ward and could reinvigorate its business sector.
“When infrastructure comes into the community, it naturally brings in investment,” Young said.
Young currently works as executive director of the Heritage Park Neighborhood Association.
Amber Frederick
Frederick, 25, is a youth support specialist for the YMCA of the North. A recent college graduate, Frederick is new to the ward and grew up in Mankato, where she volunteered for Gov. Tim Walz’s first gubernatorial campaign in 2018, when she was in high school.
In her day job, Frederick works to find housing for homeless youth. She places housing policies at the top of her priorities.
Many of the youth she works with can’t meet housing requirements that they make at least two times the amount of the cost of rent. “I would like to see that qualification eliminated, if possible,” she said.
A supporter of climate justice, Frederick also said she would lead efforts to close down the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC), which she said causes pollution in the ward.
She also criticized city government for spending $330,000 on clearing encampments last year, which she said didn’t address the root of the city’s homeless problem.
Also running for the open seat are Maurice Ward and Jovan Northington.
