Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey officially launched his third term in office with an inauguration ceremony on Monday.
Frey took the oath of office at the Pantages Theater alongside the 13-member city council — including four new members — the nine-member Park and Recreation Board and two members of the Board of Estimate and Taxation.
In his inauguration speech, Frey promised progress in housing and public safety, plus revitalization of downtown and Uptown.
“Right now, Minneapolis has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build its future intentionally and to build it together,” Frey said.
Frey noted that it’s been a tumultuous year, including the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School.
Frey also cited challenges from the federal government. The city saw funding shortfalls in some areas when the federal government cut spending. And the city has recently grappled with the increased presence of federal agents making immigration arrests and carrying out raids.
“City officials may not sit in the front rows of Congress, but make no mistake, we are on the front lines,” Frey said. “The consequences of federal dysfunction do not stay in Washington. They land in our neighborhoods. They land in our schools. They land at our front doors.”
Frey faced political pressure last year, too. He defeated election challengers who said he wasn't doing enough to help the city’s homeless population or to make progress on police reform. Those issues drove rifts between Frey and the more progressive city council, too.
That tension was visible in the theater. A handful of protesters interrupted his speech to call for accountability in the deaths of two women in the city: Allison Lussier and Mariah Samuels. The protesters are part of a group that has criticized the police department’s response in those cases. The women are suspected to have been murdered by their current or former intimate partners after they had reported being abused.
Frey did not address the protesters, but continued a call for cooperation within the city amid the challenges coming from the federal government.
“In all of this, we’ve seen something else that lives down deep in our city but has surfaced far too rarely: unity,” Frey said. “Unity in the defense of our immigrant neighbors; unity, where people who were on different sides of elections stood shoulder to shoulder when it matters most.”
Frey previously told reporters he planned to leave office after this term ends in 2030.
In his last four years, he said he wants to focus on growing the city's police department and non-police emergency responders and adding housing — efforts that he said have helped the city cut back on crime and homelessness in his time in office so far.
New council shows signs of fault lines from last term
Following the ceremony, the city council convened for an organizational meeting to elect leaders and set a new committee meeting calendar. The council re-elected Elliott Payne as council president and elected Jamal Osman as vice president. Council members also chose Aisha Chughtai to serve as the council’s majority leader and Robin Wonsley as minority leader, which touched off spirited exchanges between members who have clashed over their ideological differences during the previous council term.
Both Chughtai and Wonsley are part of a progressive majority that was able to override mayoral vetoes in the past.
