Former Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo appointed to city housing board

Ex-Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo has been appointed to the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners.

Minneapolis Metropolis Council authorized Arradondo’s appointment by a slender 7-6 vote. The board consists of 9 members who’re accountable for approving the finances and for setting coverage for public housing requirements within the metropolis.

Arradondo served as the town’s police chief beginning in 2017 and resigned in 2022, a interval that included the homicide of George Floyd by officer Derek Chauvin and the unrest that adopted in Might 2020.

Metropolis council members volleyed backwards and forwards on the matter, leading to a detailed ultimate vote.

Those that voted in favor of appointing Arradondo embrace Council President Andrea Jenkins, Council Vice President Linea Palmisano, and council members Jamal Osman, Emily Koski, LaTrisha Vetaw, Michael Rainville and Lisa Goodman, lots of whom are allies with Mayor Jacob Frey, who had a detailed relationship with Arradondo when he was chief.

Those that opposed had been council members Andrew Johnson, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chugthai, Jeremiah Ellison, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley.

Those that supported including Arradondo famous his upbringing in public housing.

“I feel lived expertise goes a great distance,” Vetaw mentioned in the course of the assembly. “He grew up in public housing as did I.”

Vetaw added Arradondo is “properly revered” with some reaching out to her personally in Ward 4 saying they help the addition of the previous chief.

Jenkins mentioned she was “shocked” to see his identify up for the place however helps the addition.

“[Arradondo] believes strongly in offering housing, reasonably priced housing, public housing — all issues of housing, he talks passionately about,” Jenkins mentioned.

Nonetheless, others on the town council did not assume the appointment made a lot sense.

“I do not consider a lived expertise as a police officer will assist get us out of this housing disaster,” Chavez said. 

Wonsley additionally shared the identical sentiment, including it will be organising the general public housing committee to not present what its recipients deserve. She additionally identified how MPD has addressed the housing disaster, noting it hasn’t been on the aspect of advancing housing stability within the state.

“MPD has been used to enact brutal and violent evictions of residents and unhoused folks from encampments,” she mentioned.

“And by appointing a former police officer, and somebody who was below management of MPD whereas [the department] dedicated quite a few human rights violations — that sends a really unhealthy message to our public housing residents and to the general public.”

Arradondo began with the Minneapolis Police Division as a patrol officer in 1989. He was been with the division for a complete of 32 years, having beforehand served in varied management positions, together with 1st Precinct inspector, deputy chief and chief of employees. He was appointed as police chief in 2017 by former Mayor Betsy Hodges after then-Police Chief Janee Harteau was requested to resign within the wake of the deadly police taking pictures of Justine Ruszczyk Damond.

Arradondo’s time period led to mid-January 2022. He mentioned on the time he now not had any curiosity in working for different elected positions similar to governor, nor did he take into account different police chief positions outdoors of Minnesota.

The Minnesota Division of Human Rights discovered by means of a two-year investigation the police division had engaged in an illegal “sample or follow of race discrimination” over a interval of a minimum of a decade, and located the town’s response to the civil unrest of 2020 to be uncoordinated, disorganized and plagued with poor communication. 

You may watch the town council assembly under, the place the subject of Arradondo spans from the 38:50-58:20 timeslot, then the vote occurs starting on the 1:24:32 mark.