Local News

Mayor Rybak Addresses Civil Rights Dept. Shake-Up

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ― Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak is responding to the recent turmoil in the city's Civil Rights Department. Concerns arose after two investigators were fired, three others resigned and a group of police officers filed a racial discrimination suit.

The suit was filed in December by four African American police officers and one other, claiming discrimination in the police department. They say they decided to sue only after their complaints were ignored by the city's Civil Rights Department.

"I'm confident in the direction the department is going. I will always hold our managers accountable for what they're doing but I want them to get results on behalf of the taxpayers and I'll keep doing that," said Rybak.

He continues to defend his decision to hire Michael Jordan as the director of the city's Civil Rights Department.

"Let's focus hard on the core work of their department, let's have a tough manager holds his employees accountable, support them when they're doing their work and when his review comes up in a few months let's take that hard look," said Rybak.

The mayor is happy with the strides Jordan is making with community outreach despite the controversy swirling around the African American police lawsuit and the recent departure of civil rights inspectors.

"He's doing tough work. I have a tough manager. I'll hold him accountable at the right time but right now is only a time where people only have part of the information and they can't have all the information because these are highly personal personnel issues," said Rybak.

Still, come Civil Rights Commissioners remained concerned.

"I myself am not very pleased with some of the things that have gone on," said Minneapolis Civil Rights Commissioner Vladimir Monroe. "We don't want apathy to creep back into the community. We were doing so much to sort of quell that."

Even so, Monroe is convinced the issues can be resolved.

"I'm certain as long as we can unify ourselves we can definitely work through this," he said.

The inspectors who were fired or resigned continue to decline any comment on the situation.

 

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