MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Newly hired Neighborhood Safety Deputy Director Lea Lakes outlined a set of changes in the department to better monitor compliance and enhance the results of violence prevention groups hired by the City of Minneapolis. 

Changes to Neighborhood Safety Department

What’s new:

The city has been accused of awarding violence prevention contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars without verifying how the funding was actually used.

As part of a legal settlement last year, the city agreed to audit invoices for violence prevention contracts and to require more documentation before paying or reimbursing those groups.

In addition to the legal settlement, the Neighborhood Safety Department is providing regular updates to city council members about the department’s funding, staffing and oversight.

The department was directed to provide those updates last year after a series of allegations were made about the management of violence prevention efforts.

On Monday, Lakes outlined a new set of internal changes to Neighborhood Safety Department operations.

“We have intensified our focus on strengthening data reporting processes with our vendors to ensure contracted services are being delivered as specified and that our funded programs are effectively contributing to neighborhood safety,” Lakes told a Minneapolis City Council committee.

Among the changes, Lakes said the department is enhancing its application vetting processes and improving financial oversight by ordering all payments be made through approved methods, such as money order or payroll documentation based on recommendations from the Minneapolis City Attorney’s office. Minneapolis is no longer accepting payments through peer-to-peer platforms.

“NSD (Neighborhood Safety Department) will only provide payment for work that has been performed and verified,” she said, adding the department does not cover costs related to incentives such as gift cards, prizes or entertainment expenses per city policy.

Minneapolis City Council members questions

What they’re saying:

Several council members had questions for the department, which is currently without a director following last month’s resignation of Luana Nelson-Brown.

LaTrisha Vetaw asked, “Where the questions come at for me in Ward 4 is about the violence interrupters and specifically encounters violence interrupters make with people. How are we tracking that? How are we managing those contracts?”

Fellow council member Linea Palmisano wanted to know, “What are those things that we do to make sure that when we get an invoice saying that one of our contractors was working out in the community, that they actually were?”

Lakes explained that department staff is closely scrutinizing billing statements from the various groups and organizations.

“We are looking at the invoices they submit, the things that they’re saying they need reimbursement for, and we are taking that, and we are matching it up to the work that was outlined in the contract,” said Lakes. “And we are looking for discrepancies, and we are looking for things that make sense.”

Dig deeper:

Court records from a lawsuit filed against the city of Minneapolis, obtained by FOX 9, show some organizations routinely submitted invoices for tens of thousands of dollars without providing receipts, detailed timesheets or descriptions of their work.

In that lawsuit, the city was accused of continuing to pay violence prevention contractors after it “intentionally or ineptly failed” to request proper documentation.

What’s next:

As part of a legal settlement reached last August, the city must now require organizations that receive violence prevention contracts to provide canceled checks for personnel expenses and receipts for non-personnel expenses.

Shortly after the settlement was reached, the city council directed the Neighborhood Safety Department, which oversees violence prevention efforts, to produce regular updates on staffing, financial oversight and compliance, including Monday’s update.