A 7-0 St. Paul City Council vote on Jan. 22 made the capital city the last of Minnesota’s 25 largest municipalities to add administrative citations — non-criminal fines — to the city’s toolbelt for ordinance enforcement.
Before the amendment, the city could either issue a warning and hope for compliance or take someone to court — there was no in between. Administrative citations serve as an enforcement middle ground, allowing the city to enforce a civil fine rather than seek a criminal charge.
Administrative citations are not the most exciting conversation starter — for most people, at least. This is not the case for St. Paul City Council President Mitra Jalali, who has been working to achieve this charter amendment for over five years.
“This is an example of a very unappealing issue that has a very important everyday impact,” said Jalali, who recently announced her resignation from the council, effective Feb. 5.
Council members have attempted to make this amendment at least two times in the past. One of these times was in 2021, in the early years of Jalali’s tenure. The attempt to make this change to the charter in 2021 did not move forward because there was a single council member opposed to the idea, Jalali said.
“I’m frankly relieved that our council was the one that accomplished this. I don’t think another council could have gotten it done,” Jalali said.
In order to make a change to the St. Paul city charter, a unanimous vote is required. That’s partly why it has taken multiple attempts to make this change.
How can administrative citations be used?
One of the clearest examples of how administrative citations can be used to enforce current city policy is providing renter protections.
“Administrative citations provide a tool to hold the biggest, most disconnected property owners and employers in our city accountable to the rules and laws of our city,” Jalali said.
For example, a council-approved citation could be used to enforce the city’s “advanced notice of sales” policy. This policy required landlords to pay relocation assistance to displaced renters in the event a rental property is sold.
Administrative citations can also be used to enforce policy around earned sick and safe time. If an employer isn’t granting this time, which they are required to do by law, the city can now implement a fine that does not rise to the level of criminal citation but goes beyond education or a warning. It could also be used to enforce the city’s conversion therapy ban, which Jalali said is imperative in keeping the city’s LGBTQ youth safe and healthy.
These are only a few examples of how these citations can be used, Jalali noted. The goal is not to penalize individual residents of the city, but rather large corporate entities and large property owners who are out of compliance with city policy and ordinances, she said.
Creating an equitable citations framework
The addition of this tool to the city charter does not mean citations will be issued immediately. The council still has to approve cases in which these fines will be used.
In addition to the charter change, the council passed a resolution to create a temporary advisory committee that will spend the next year designing an “equitable” framework for implementation and enforcement of citations.
The resolution to create the advisory committee was brought forward by council member Anika Bowie, who said in an email that, when misused, administrative citations can “function as a hidden tax” on low-income and Black communities.
The committee will establish transparency measures, impact assessments and accountability mechanisms. The intent is not to have citations used as revenue for the city’s general operations, but rather for priorities like housing stability, tenant protections and public safety, Bowie said.
Bowie is from the historic Rondo neighborhood and said she has seen how parking tickets and city fees can trap people in cycles of debt while those who ignore city policies face no real consequences.
“Too often, enforcement in our city is either too weak to be effective or too harsh in ways that disproportionately impact Black and low-income communities,” she said.
Why there’s opposition
There is still a chance the amendment could be challenged and put to a vote in November. Former council candidate Peter Butler has said he is working on collecting 2,000 voter signatures to attempt to freeze the charter amendment and place the amendment on the ballot in November. Butler has 60 days to submit these signatures.
Bowie said many concerns around the use of this kind of city ticketing are based on examples of misuse in other cities.
One of the most infamous cases of this is in Ferguson, Missouri. The city relies heavily on fines and fees to generate revenue. In 2015, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation revealed the city was bringing in over $2.6 million annually, accounting for nearly a quarter of its general fund budget. Black residents were disproportionately targeted, receiving 85% of vehicle stops, 90% of citations, and 93% of arrests, despite making up only 67% of the population.
“That’s exactly what we must prevent in St. Paul,” Bowie said. “I share the concern that administrative citations could be misused, which is why this committee is critical. We are designing a system with safeguards to ensure that fines are used for compliance, not as a revenue stream.”
A changing council
The charter amendment passed three days before Jalali announced she would be stepping down from the council to prioritize her mental and physical health.
Jalali said she’s proud of many accomplishments during her tenure, including the citations charter change.
“It feels like a great point of pride for me that I was able to work with my colleagues and the charter commission and our administration to get this done,” Jalali said. “It was not an individual person’s effort by design, and I felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to deliver this charter change.”
Jalali has served on the council since 2018 and was sworn in as president of the first all-female City Council last January. She was the first Iranian American elected official in Minnesota and the first Asian American woman and first openly LGBTQ+ member of the council.
In the letter announcing her departure from office, Jalali said: “Rarely, if ever, are women of color in leadership positions allowed to show the impact on their health of the constant stressors of public leadership. I am following the leadership of Simone Biles and taking a step back, because continuing through injury is unsafe in the short term and unsustainable for the long haul. It is important for me to live out the truth that powerful women of color do have limits, are not superhuman and will not break themselves in the name of the work continuing.”
This week, the council elected Ward 2 member Rebecca Noecker to serve as the body’s new president.
Winter Keefer
Winter Keefer is MinnPost’s Metro reporter. Follow her on Twitter or email her at wkeefer@minnpost.com.
