City Council to Look Into Mayor Frey’s Financial Reporting

After the Board of Estimates and Taxation corrected a major error in Mayor Frey’s budget on September 18th, he has attempted to paint the City Council as fiscally “irresponsible,” but has ended up raising serious questions about his financial and budgetary practices in the process.

MINNEAPOLIS — Earlier today, the Minneapolis City Council passed a legislative directive to look into financial reporting by Mayor Frey’s staff in a 10-3 vote. When this measure was initially introduced, the mayor sent out a letter decrying the City Council for “irresponsibility” in funding the Agate shelter downtown. But there’s been one major element of this story that has been missing from all the reporting: Mayor Frey underfunding the Park Board in his 2025 budget and failing to include the raises received by park workers during union negotiations. 

On September 18th, the Board of Estimates and Taxation (BET), which includes Council President Payne and Vice President Chughtai, as well as the mayor himself, met to discuss the mayor’s error. The BET voted 4-2 to raise the levy in order to fully fund the Park Board. As a result, the increase to the tax levy in the Mayor’s Official 2025 Budget is now 8.3%. However, when given the chance to rectify his mistake at the September 18th BET meeting, Mayor Frey voted against the measure to fully fund the Park Board. 

Mpls for the Many Chair Chelsea McFarren had this to say about Mayor Frey’s recent actions and comments:

For the last few weeks, Mayor Frey has spent a lot of time talking about City Council’s alleged “irresponsibility,” however he is responsible for underfunding union contract mandated raises for Park Board workers by over $3 million in his budget proposal. The Board of Estimates and Taxation had to fix his “irresponsible” error and he is now attempting to change the subject to distract from his ineptitude.

The Minneapolis City Council deserves to have clear and transparent information about the city’s financial status, so they can act in the best interest of our communities and prioritize projects that meet our needs. Given the mayor’s recent errors, neglecting collectively bargained raises for workers, this is a long overdue look into the practices of an administration that has put our entire city in a financially precarious situation moving forward.