Credit Michael Bloomberg, in part, for bringing Elliott Payne to where he is today and why he decided to run for Minneapolis First Ward City Council. The former New York Mayor funded the first Innovation Team at the Minneapolis City Coordinator’s office. Now city-funded in-house, the group of full time staff and Payne as consultant has been responsible, among other things, for a portal and information sets that make it easier for entrepreneurs to navigate city regulations.
In his four years of leadership in the city’s Office of Performance & Innovation, “Elliott and his team have brought city employees and residents together to design transformative solutions to some of the city’s most complex and polarizing challenges,” his campaign announcement states, including “community-led, data-driven alternatives to policing, which are now part of the approved 2021 city budget.”
“My biggest through-line is equity,” Payne told the Northeaster.
Other influences that brought him here are activist parents; a Black Panther and a white single mother who raised him in Milwaukee after they split.
Payne earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota. In 2005, he and now-wife Lindsay moved into their first Northeast apartment. He got an MBA, “and we changed jobs and industries. Through our whole life together, Northeast Minneapolis has kept us safe, made us welcome, and given us a place to belong. Everyone who chooses to make the Eastside home should feel just as safe, welcome, and cared for,” Payne wrote on his website. They reside in Audubon Park neighborhood
In his campaign announcement, Payne said, “The incumbent deserves a lot of credit for his many years of quiet service to our neighborhoods. But after the murder of George Floyd, when the world looked to the Minneapolis City Council for moral leadership, our council member was simply absent when we needed him most. The people of Ward 1 — including Black residents, like me — need a City Council representative who’s willing to take courageous action when it counts.”
“Elliott looks forward to earning the trust of Ward 1 neighbors and securing the DFL endorsement in what may be the most inclusive and democratic process in DFL history,” said campaign manager Liam Davis Temple. “The fact that the incumbent joined Mayor Frey in questioning the legitimacy of the endorsement process underlines the urgent need for change. We need leadership that welcomes new voices.”
First-time candidate Payne said he is “very supportive of addressing the seriousness” of climate change and environmental issues, and is “still thinking through what are the policy levers available to us.”
On constituent service, “I want to represent everyone. Not everyone knows how to get hold of their council member. I’ll be reaching out. It also really matters what relationships you have internally in city hall,” to get people connected and get things done.
Payne will hold a one-hour virtual kick-off visioning session on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. For details and his platforms, go to elliottpayne.org. For more on the DFL party process, go to minneapolisdfl.org.
Below: “Two L’s, Two T’s,” Elliott Payne (Provided photo)
