October 21, 2026 Public Health, Safety & Equity Committee

The Minneapolis Public Health, Safety & Equity Committee met on October 21, 2026. Procurement and funding items included a three-year, approximately $440,000 contract with Keepers Wellness for firefighter mental health services, which the committee approved, and approval of an expanded Roach Mobile Medical Unit testing service for chlamydia and gonorrhea; no amount was stated for that contract. The committee also approved acceptance of a $250,000 grant from the Minneapolis Foundation’s EPA Environmental Justice Thriving Communities grantmaking program for community air monitoring, and a Title V maternal and child health block grant passed through the Minnesota Department of Health, with annual funding through a contract extending to 2029. A fire department revenue agreement with the Minnesota DNR for emergency responses at the Fort Snelling Upper Post housing development provides a $15,000 annual retainer plus per-response fees. The committee also considered a Hennepin County joint powers agreement to expand community trauma response capacity after shootings, as well as acceptance of a gift for police department staff to attend a civilian police oversight conference; the transcript does not provide the agreement amount or the gift value.

Other actions included approving a resolution recognizing October 2026 as Health Literacy Awareness Month and an ordinance aligning ethics-training intervals for Community Commission on Police Oversight members with those for other non-employee local officials. The committee set November 4 public hearings on the mayor’s nominees for health commissioner and police chief, and on a proposed commercial hood and exhaust-cleaning program ordinance. It also approved an automated license plate reader legislative directive amid concerns about surveillance, data security, and sharing with federal immigration enforcement. Public commenters called for an independent after-action review of the police response in Mariah Samuels’s case and raised concerns about domestic-violence response resources and police accountability. The committee received reports on public-safety organizational structures in other cities and recommendations concerning community and civil-rights input into the police chief hiring process.