Against the backdrop of an ongoing and unusual budget battle with the mayor’s office, the St. Paul City Council is contemplating an effort to potentially allow them tighter reins over police, fire and other public safety budgets.

The council has for months called for more guardrails around police overtime spending, but the possible creation of a new council committee dedicated to reviewing public safety expenditures has drawn criticism from at least one council member.

On Wednesday, Council Member Anika Bowie introduced a resolution to create a “Public Safety and Community Wellness” committee composed of council members, who will provide “budgetary oversight” over the St. Paul Police Department, the St. Paul Fire Department, the city attorney’s office and the St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections.

The focus, according to the resolution, is to be “transparent budgeting, program evaluation and policy development to improve public safety and build trust within the community.”Bowie said the city is “experiencing challenging times” and needs “an ongoing structural commitment” toward examining public safety priorities, rather than responding to projected budget shortfalls as they emerge.

“We are facing a public safety crisis that demands a strong, coordinated transparent and accountable response from this council,” Bowie said. “The fentanyl crisis is destroying families. Our police force is struggling to recruit and retain officers. The budget … (is) making it harder to fund both emergency response and restorative programs.”

Rather than call for an immediate vote, Bowie asked for “Version 2” — a new form of her resolution — to be revisited by the council on March 26.

Budget transparency effort needs more transparency?

The council approved the request for a two-week layover, 6-0, after some critical comments from Council Member Cheniqua Johnson, who noted that the impacted department directors were unfamiliar with the details and had been unaware the resolution was going to be added to the council agenda.

“That’s a piece of the communication puzzle for me that still hasn’t quite been filled in,” Johnson said. “To get to a place where I would feel comfortable supporting this committee, I’d also need it to be very clear that some of these directors … are truly behind what you’re trying to do here.”

Johnson emphasized that to provide more transparency over hot-button spending items such as police overtime and Office of Neighborhood Safety outreach programs, the committee itself would need more transparency.

She noted that the “Version 2” resolution was not available to council members when Wednesday’s meeting began, though city staff were able to refresh the council agenda electronically while the meeting was already in motion, publishing the proposed language that had just been introduced to the city’s Legistar software onto the Internet for public consumption.

“I’ve been slightly disappointed about the lack thereof of that transparency, including getting the resolution language for Version 2 now, and not even knowing what it says,” said Johnson, adding that she would nevertheless support the two-week layover. “I was prepared to come and vote against this today.”

An ongoing budget question

Bowie said the two-week layover will provide opportunity to begin those conversations with department leaders.

“I just want to say on record, I hear you, I appreciate the feedback,” she said. “This revision came before me today.”

On Jan. 28, the council released a written statement announcing Council Member Rebecca Noecker as the new council president, and included in the statement reference to the public safety committee as if it were settled.

“The council also intends to create a new Public Safety Committee whose scope and responsibilities will be defined,” reads the Jan. 28 statement. “Bowie and (Council Member Nelsie) Yang will serve as chair and vice-chair, respectively.”

On Monday, spokespersons for St. Paul Police and the St. Paul Fire Department referred all questions about the committee to St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s office, which declined official comment last week.

Mark Ross, president of the St. Paul Police Federation, said Monday the police union had not been included in discussions.

“Today is the first we’ve heard of this, which isn’t necessarily surprising. However, I am disappointed that Councilwoman Bowie didn’t take the time to discuss any aspect of this with the police federation and department leadership,” Ross said. “We’re all in the dark about what this concept would look like, and it just seems like another layer of unneeded bureaucracy in a city that should be more focused on reenergizing our downtown area.”

“Our contract and overall policing strategy must be fully considered and understood before proposing something like this,” he added.

Questions around public safety spending dogged last year’s budget process and continue to overshadow relations with the mayor’s office.

On Dec. 12, the council voted 4-2 to reject the mayor’s 2025 budget proposal and slash $1.2 million from police non-emergency overtime spending, holding the city tax levy increase to 5.9% through that and other spending changes. Police officials have said robust overtime spending is necessary because the department is short on officers.

The mayor, who had opted for a tax levy increase of 6.9%, issued five line-item vetoes at the 11th hour — the evening of Dec. 18 — to override the council’s spending decisions. The council responded the next day by voting to override the mayor’s overrides, but it remains unclear if their votes had sticking power.

Under the City Charter, the city budget must be finalized no later than 12 days before the final levy numbers are recorded by the state, which was Dec. 30. The question of which budget proposal now governs city finances remains unresolved.

Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report.