Elliott Payne
Despite the problems Minneapolis faces, and despite the recent surge of federal agents into the city, City Council President Elliott Payne remains optimistic about the future of the city and Northeast Minneapolis.
Payne won re-election in 2025 and was again elected president of the City Council.
“I’m more optimistic than ever,” he said in a phone interview with the Northeaster on January 13. “Especially after the ICE invasion of Minneapolis. I see hundreds, maybe thousands of people peacefully demonstrating. I see people helping families by bringing them groceries. I see people helping people. I see people standing on Central Avenue keeping watch.
“I see so much hope for our strength and unity as a city.”
Payne was first elected to office in 2021, the first Black person to represent Northeast’s Ward 1, and was re-elected in 2023 and 2025, this time to a four-year term. He served as council president this past year — the first Black person to hold that office.
He is happy that Minneapolis, St. Paul and the State of Minnesota are suing to remove the influx of federal immigration officials from the state. “We want ICE to stop its terroristic assault on our city,” he said.
The lawsuit, filed against the Department of Homeland Security, asks “the court to end the unprecedented surge of DHS agents into the state and declare it unconstitutional and unlawful,” according to the City of Minneapolis’ website.
With everybody settling into four-year terms, he expects more stability on the council. “We don’t operate as individuals, we operate as a body. Our power comes from working together.”
Payne says they will stress monitoring city policy to make sure it is being enforced. He noted that even after Mayor Frey announced a policy barring police from no-knock entrances into homes or apartments in Minneapolis, a man was killed in a no-knock incident.
Payne also brought up the ongoing issue of monitoring police discipline in general, noting that when there was a federal order on restructuring the Minneapolis Police, there was a judge assigned to monitor discipline and other issues, but with the order no longer in effect, there is no judge to oversee best practices.
He said the city now has an independent auditor, Robert Timmerman, who will help that process. And he said a plan to reduce the number of people on a police/citizen committee will help the committee to deal with police discipline matters faster.
Payne said the city is working in a variety of ways to help police, including a group of “trusted messengers” who can use their community connections to defuse situations. The messengers have ties to both the city and to the neighborhood — bringing an element of trust to situations.
Another group, called “Safety Ambassadors,” engages with the community, mainly in the Lake Street and Franklin Avenue area.
Payne is hopeful that the Safety Ambassadors can be used at places like Central and Lowry which has been a hotspot for trouble in recent years. Their blue shirts make them easily recognizable.
One issue that has stirred some contro-
versy for Payne is the introduction, on the city council, of majority and minority leadership positions. Some thought the majority position would be occupied by a member of the council’s more liberal cohort and that the minority position would be a person from the more conservative councilors.
Instead, Payne appointed Robin Wonsley, a Democratic Socialist, to the position of minority leader. Wonsley is one of the more liberal members of the council.
Payne noted that on the council there are 12 who identify as Democrats and one Democratic Socialist – Wonsley. He said she is the true minority person on the council, and thus his choice.
As president of the council, he said his main goal is that everybody be heard. “Whether you’re to the left of me or the right of me, you have a right to get a vote,” he said.
He said in the past, there were barriers put up by both sides to stop the other side from being heard. “I want a council that’s highly functional, highly productive and highly effective.”