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| Minneapolis Apartment Locator Services : Minneapolis |  | Contents | |
| Law
and Government | Minneapolis
has a convoluted set of different government entities that oversee actions in
the city. The most prominent is the Minneapolis City Council, which holds the
most power. The mayor has some power to appoint certain individuals, such as the
chief of police, but is otherwise relatively weak and must coordinate with the
city council for most other activities.
Other groups in the city include
the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, Minneapolis Public Library's Board
of Trustees, the Neighborhood Revitalization Program, the Public Housing Authority,
and the Board of Estimate and Taxation. These councils tend to be semi-independent,
and some can levy their own taxes and fees. The school board exists as a separate
legal entity from the city as Special School District Number 1, commonly called
the Minneapolis Public Schools.
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are some efforts currently underway to examine how the city government can be
streamlined, though it is hard to say how quickly any changes might come about.
A number of the city boards were created by the Minnesota Legislature between
the time of the city's founding and 1920 when the city finally gained home rule
by passing a new charter (simply an agglomeration of the various laws that had
been specifically written for the city at the time). |
Mayor
The current mayor of Minneapolis is R.T. Rybak. There have been a number of notable individuals who have held the office. Most are known for their positive influences on the city. Hubert H. Humphrey, who became mayor in 1945, started what may be the first equal employment commission while he was in office. He later went on to serve as US vice president and ran for president in 1968. Arthur Naftalin was the first Jewish mayor, while Sharon Sayles Belton became the first woman and the first African-American to hold the office. The city government has not been immune to corruption, however, and the man who exemplified that was "Doc" Ames. He essentially turned the police force into a group of organized criminals before an investigation forced him out of office more than a century ago.
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City Council
The Minneapolis City Council is composed of 13 single member districts, called wards. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) dominates the council, with ten members, and Paul Ostrow (DFL, Ward 1) is council president. The Green Party has two members, and there is one independent.
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