John Fruetel will succeed former fire chief Alex Jackson, who retired earlier this year amid criticism.

​John Fruetel, a longtime Minneapolis firefighter, was officially appointed to chief of the department today after a unanimous vote from the City Council.

The appointment of Fruetel (that's pronounced FREE-tel, we're told) comes just weeks after embattled former chief Alex Jackson announced he would retire. In his last few months, Jackson was criticized by the Council for how firefighter overtime pay had contributed to the department's budget problems.

In a statement released today, Mayor R.T. Rybak sounds optimistic that Fruetel will bring welcome change to the department.

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Alex Jackson's announcement to retire comes amid scrutiny over his leadership.

​Minneapolis Fire Chief Alex Jackson is retiring from the department effective February 29.

The decision comes at a time when Jackson's leadership has been under scrutiny with City Councilmembers, mostly stemming from the department's troubled budget.

Last month, Jackson was criticized for a $1 million overtime bill for firefighters in 2011, and a failed program that tasked firefighters with boarding up vacant houses. The latter was supposed to bring revenue to the department, but instead lost about $300,000 in its first year, according to city data.

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Fire Chief Alex Jackson will present the data to a City Council committee today.

​A program designed to turn a profit for the cash-strapped Minneapolis Fire Department has been bleeding money since it launched last October, according to city data.

Fire Chief Alex Jackson will report to City Council members Wednesday afternoon that the board-up program, which tasks on-duty firefighters with boarding up Minneapolis properties, is already $281,977 in the red.

This is particularly bad news -- and bad timing -- for a department so financially troubled that it announced layoffs just last month.

"You talk about us being over-budgeted," fire union secretary Joe Mattison told City Pages. "That $280,000 we spent on it -- that was probably a couple firefighter positions."

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Pot holes are turning into money holes.

​We were stunned to read a report from WCCO this morning about Minneapolis hitting up homeowners and businesses for upwards of $1,000 to repair pot holes in front of their property.

Weren't we just rejoicing over the Minneapolis City Council dumping an extra million dollars into this spring's pot hole repair program?

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If it keeps going at this pace, the program could end up losing the department money.

​It's been slightly more than six months since Minneapolis started tasking its on-duty firefighters with boarding up buildings and houses all over the city, and the program is already on track to be a disaster.

When City Councilmembers introduced the board-up plan, they projected it would save the cash-strapped department $400,000 a year. At the halfway point of the first year, the program has billed about $39,000, according to fire department data, which does little more than cover the costs of materials.

The greater cost of the program, according to many in the fire department, is that it's pulling firefighters away from emergencies, and spreading an already imperiled department dangerously thin.

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This guy's well versed in tax policy.

​The big tax debate and vote ended last night at City Hall with Minneapolis homeowners facing a 4.7 percent increase this coming year. It could have been worse. The original proposed increase was about 6.5 percent.

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City of Minneapolis

​The Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved R.T. Rybak's nomination of Velma Korbel for the city's new Civil Rights director this morning.

Korbel is currently the Commissioner of the Minneapolis Minnesota Department of Human Rights. She is slated to start the new gig June 1.

The Civil Rights department has endured some rocky times under Rybak's watch.

The outgoing director, Michael Jordan, became a controversial figure in city politics almost immediately after his 2007 appointment when he fired Ingrid Tollefson, a highly praised investigator. In the six turbulent months that followed, the department underwent a major staff shakeup that left many questioning the new director's leadership.

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Dave Bicking has been a squeaky wheel in Minneapolis politics for years.

Courtesy Dave Bicking.

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A man with a long white beard and hair parted to one side, Bicking has vied for a spot on the City Council twice. He once ran a mere few-hours-long mayoral campaign against R.T. Rybak on the anti-Twins stadium ticket.

Most recently, Bicking became the first member of the Minneapolis Civilian Police Review Authority to seek reappointment and not get it since the board's redesign in 2003, says CRA Manager Lee Reid.

According to Ward 5 City Councilmember Don Samuels, it's Bicking's flare for oft-controversial politics that earned him the boot."It's not a political position, you know, it's a board position," said Samuels in an interview with City Pages after the appointments earlier this month.

Bicking argues that it is the city's politics -- not his -- that led to him not being reappointed to the CRA. The City Council and mayor want the police watchdog board to stay quiet, says Bicking. "They don't want to hear bad news," he says. "They shoot the messenger. Now who's going to be the next messenger?"

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City of Minneapolis.

​The City Council voted today not to reappoint Minneapolis Civilian Review Authority member Dave Bicking to another term. Bicking is crying foul on the Council, accusing the members of ousting him in a conspiratorial political maneuver to keep the CRA from making too much noise.

"My own feeling -- and I'm sure there are a lot of people that would agree with me -- is that I'm working to make the CRA stronger, and a lot of people don't want that," says Bicking. "I think the City Council ... doesn't really want to know what's going on, doesn't want to get involved."

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​The Minneapolis City Council approved police Chief Tim Dolan for a second three-year term on a 8-5 vote on Friday.

Kevin Reich, Diane Hofstede, Barbara Johnson, Don Samuels, Lisa Goodman, Gary Schiff, John Quincy and Sandy Colvin Roy supported Dolan. Cam Gordon, Robert Lilligren, Elizabeth Glidden, Meg Tuthill, and Betsy Hodges voted against him.

"Chief Dolan has led a strong reduction in crime in Minneapolis over the last three years, making our city dramatically safer by almost every measure. He has accomplished this not only by through smart, cutting-edge policing, but by building strategic partnerships with communities in every corner of our city," Mayor R.T. Rybak said in a statement.

"I especially appreciate that the Chief has been a full and unwavering partner, along with a wide range of community organizations and many other levels of government, in our successful efforts to reduce juvenile violence," he said.

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