Mpls. City Council, sans 3 Muslim members out for Eid, votes down putting rent control on Nov. ballot

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minneapolis City Council on Wednesday voted down a plan that would have put rent control on the November ballot. The vote came without the participation of three Muslim councilmembers who were observing a religious holiday.

The three councilmembers not present were Aisha Chughtai, Jeremiah Ellison, and Jamal Osman. The plan failed in a 5-4 vote.

Some council members -- including council president Andrea Jenkins and councilmember Jason Chavez -- voiced concern over the vote being held Wednesday when councilmembers were missing due to celebrating Eid al-Adha, which is otherwise known as the Feast of Sacrifice. Chavez claimed the meeting was moved to Wednesday without the consent of the three Muslim councilmembers. That was a claim the council clerk disputed during the proceedings, saying that the request to move the meeting from Wednesday happened in less than the required three days' notice. (This discussion begins at approximately the 55 minute mark of the video below.)

"The City Clerk learned about the change in the official date this past Monday afternoon, while attending the Committee of the Whole meeting, approximately 2 p.m., when Council Member Osman mentioned this change in the recognition of this holiday," a spokesperson for the City of Minneapolis said.

Council President Andrea Jenkins, who voted in favor, gave this explanation.

"We made every attempt to try to accommodate the Muslim members of our council, which is why we are meeting on this day," Jenkins said. "I am not a Muslim, so I don't know that calendar works. However, it turned out that Eid fell on this day. And so it's deeply unfortunate, and we have to move forward with the work of the city council."

Community members in favor of the measure rallied outside of the council chambers Wednesday morning before the vote. 

"I'm here just to ask that you hear our story, that you listen to the pain, the cries of the people who are going through all this stuff right now," Deborah Cotton said.

The item was voted to be returned to the author, which means that it has been killed.

"The motion to return to author effectively kills any further consideration or action on the rent control policy proposal as it was introduced," the spokesperson said.

Later Wednesday, the three councilmembers who were absent during the vote issued a statement which read, in part:

"Regardless of where you fall on the issue, the way this vote was taken today violates the spirit of inclusion Minneapolis prides itself on. Muslims have been serving on the Minneapolis City Council for a decade now, and thousands of Muslims live in our city. Our holy days and celebrations are not unknown or mysterious.

"Council Leadership had plenty of opportunity to proceed ethically today: they could have scheduled the meeting to a later date; delayed this item to the next full Council meeting, giving us enough time to still meet the ballot deadline if that would've been the Council's will; or, most importantly, given that this was only an introduction and not a finished policy, the Council could have simply advanced the policy to committee the way we do all other ordinance introductions.

"Rent Stabilization is out of reach for this year's ballot. It's a denial of our democratic process and obligation. This is not transparent policymaking. Further, by taking this action at the expense of their Muslim colleagues, the Council took an action that not only neglected the will of the voters, but the manner in which they did it violated trust and understanding with a significant portion of our community. Reasonable people can ultimately disagree on the issues, but the alienation will linger. Our colleagues will have to figure out how they plan to repair this harm."

Last fall in St. Paul, nearly 53% of city voters said yes to a ballot measure capping rent increases at 3% in a 12-month period. After that, though, the St. Paul City Council moved to allow building owners to increase rent more than 3% after a renter leaves, but no more than 8% plus inflation.