Public Safety Training Center: A Message from Council Member Linea Palmisano

Dear Neighbor,

At yesterday’s City Council Meeting, the majority of my colleagues voted against the acquisition of a site for the Community Safety Training and Wellness Center. This project has been one of my top priorities for years, and it has unanimously been a top priority for previous City Councils that were serious about good governance.

I became an advocate for a training and wellness facility after the tragic killing of Justine Damond in 2017. In fact, I remember that some of the very first conversations with her fiance, Don Damond, about this project happened with my youngest son, all 8 pounds of him, strapped to my chest in one of those cloth infant wraps. I made a promise at that time to advance reform and structural change of the Minneapolis Police Department – and we reaffirmed that promise once again after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. This site is about building the infrastructure we need for that promised reform and structural change.

My son is now five feet tall and finishing third grade. After those first two years of effort, we started to gain momentum. Any large project like this is a slow moving ship. It has been part of our Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for the last five years. Our city’s CIP is a multi-year roadmap that identifies and schedules our major infrastructure and large investments.

With the former police chief, Medaria Arradondo, I brought chiefs in our community – from the University of Minnesota, Metro Transit, and cities in Hennepin County – and state legislators to give them a presentation and a bonding tour about what this could be. After the murder of George Floyd, almost exactly six years ago today, we began a bigger debate on what public safety could and should be in Minneapolis. We reimagined this facility as something inclusive of our entire public safety ecosystem rather than just police.

Last December, the funding in the CIP for this facility was removed by my colleague in a budget amendment to instead fund new Public Works projects two years out. Still, we unanimously agreed on this as our top priority for money from the state. Staff found a way to bring together the beginning resources for this project and found an ideal place for it to be located, with a purchase agreement a year in the making. But because of the vote yesterday, we have almost nothing to show for the nine years of conversations, time, energy, and work that have gone into this project. I am frustrated and defeated.

Police reform matters. My colleagues and I all agree on that. The real question is whether we’re willing to invest in making reform real – this must happen both with and beyond policing. As we verge on the sixth commemoration of the murder of George Floyd in our city over this holiday weekend, this weighs heavily on me. If we want safer and more accountable public safety delivery in Minneapolis, then we must be willing to build the systems that we need. I will continue pushing for that investment. We cannot wait another nine years.

Yours in Service,
Linea

Via constituent newsletter, May 22, 2026