WHEREAS, from the founding of this nation, the U.S government—at all levels—has en-acted policies that have stripped Black communities to build white wealth at the expense of Black wealth, and such policies have made access to tools of multi-generational wealth incredibly difficult for most Black people; and

WHEREAS, many of the problems facing Black communities stem from the racist policies of our recent past and the refusal of the federal government to own or address the collective impact of these policies, and the injuries inflicted against Black people by this nation include slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, and mass incarceration, just to name a few; and

WHEREAS, without targeted policies that combat deep bias and correct structural disadvan-tage, the wealth-gap, health-gap, and education-gap will be recreated in each generation; and

WHEREAS, reparations is a practice, in the U.S. and internationally, historically used for acknowledging and addressing harms inflicted by the government; It is a common miscon-ception that reparations involves issuing checks to each individual who has been harmed; reparations can take many different forms and should be tailored to the scope and nature of the injury; and

WHEREAS, precedent was set In 1988, when the United States Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act officially apologizing for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The Act authorized $1.25 billion to be paid in the form $20,000 for each of the sur-viving 60,000 internees. The measure also created a $50 million foundation to promote the cultural and historical concerns of Japanese Americans; and

WHEREAS, in 2015 Chicago City Council set aside $5.5 million in reparations for the vic-tims of torture authorized by police commander Jon Burge from the 1970s to the early 1990s. This is the first time any police precinct in the U.S. has offered such a gesture. Victims are eligible for up to $100,000 in reparations, and their families may receive assistance for col-lege tuition, job training, mental health care, and counseling. The reparations package also included a public acknowledgement of police torture, a formal apology by the Chicago City Council, a permanent memorial recognizing the victims, and the addition of the Burge case to the 8th grade and 10th grade history curricula for Chicago Public Schools.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: That we support the call for reparations to Black communities, Native Americans, and com-munities of color, both in repair of the historical harm that has been done to these commu-nities and to ensure a bright future for generations. One framework for reparations growing in popular support is the idea of divesting from institutions and structures that are harmful to marginalized communities and reinvesting in structures that empower.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,That we commit to utilizing a reparations framework as a means of achieving racial and eco-nomic justice in Minnesota.

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owStable and Healthy Work Hours

WHEREAS, employers are increasingly adopting scheduling practices that undermine the economic security of working families; and

WHEREAS, “just-in-time” scheduling with short notice and last-minute changes to employee sched-ulesare increasingly common, and have a negative impact on employees’ ability to balance work with personal obligations, including arranging child care and elder care, obtaining and keeping medical appointments, attending post-secondary classes, and enjoying restorative leisure time; and

WHEREAS, workers who report to their worksite but are sent home early often receive no compensa-tion, even though they may have incurred costs for travel and childcare; and

WHEREAS, employers are increasingly replacing full-time positions with part-time or on-call positions that provide inadequate and wildly fluctuating incomes; and

WHEREAS, many workers are required to maintain “open availability” for all hours their employer operates the business and have little input into their hours of work; and

WHEREAS, workers have little protection from unhealthy work schedules, including schedules that require back-to-back shifts with as little as 7 hours of rest between shifts; and

WHEREAS, part-time hourly workers are often paid less than their peers in full-time jobs; and

WHEREAS, a Neighborhoods Organizing for Change survey in North Minneapolis found that over half of respondents received their work schedule a week or less in advance, and 68% reported that their work schedules fluctuate week to week, making it extremely difficult to plan for childcare, second jobs, education, and paying bills; and

WHEREAS, these unfair scheduling practices have a disproportionate impact on women hourly work-ers, who are overrepresented among part-time employees and frequently bear primary responsibility for child and elder care; and

WHEREAS, more than 437,000 hourly Minnesota workers are parents of children below the age of 18, more than 26 percent are single parents, and a single mother in Minnesota is two-and-a-half times more likely to be paid hourly than to be paid a salary; and

WHEREAS, 79 percent of the Latino workforce and 71 percent of the Black workforce in Minnesota is paid hourly, these unfair scheduling practices have a disproportionate impact on all hourly workers of color who are frequently tracked into the lowest paid positions with little opportunity for advancement; and

WHEREAS, these unfair scheduling practices represent a threat to the health, well-being and economic security of both organized and unorganized workers; and

WHEREAS, 1.5 million hourly workers - more than 60 percent of Minnesota’s total wage-and-salaried workforce - would benefit from updating workplace hours protections to match our modern workweek.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: The _______ Party commits to advocating for policy solutions that provide healthy and stable work hours, access to full time work, and employee voice in scheduling.

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ation

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ice WHEREAS, No family in Minnesota should have to make the impossible choice of caring for a loved one or losing a paycheck; and WHEREAS, 4 out of 10 working Minnesotans, nearly a million people, do not earn paid sick time for themselves or their families, forcing them to have to choose between their paycheck and their health or the health of a loved one; and WHEREAS, African-American, Latino, Native American, and Asian workers in Minne-sota – disproportionately women -- are less likely to have access to earned sick and safe time than white workers; and WHEREAS, Just three and a half unpaid days off can cost a family without access to earned sick and safe time, on average, its entire monthly grocery budget; and WHEREAS, The lowest paid workers in Minnesota’s fastest growing industries are also the least likely to have earned sick and safe time or afford losing pay to care for their health; and WHEREAS, Workers without earned sick time – including child care workers and food service workers -- are more likely to report going to work with a contagious illness like the flu or a viral infection — posing a major public health risk; and WHEREAS, Parents without access to earned sick time are nearly twice as likely to send their children to school or daycare sick; and WHEREAS, Children of parents who do not have access to earned sick time are twice as likely to have to go to school or daycare sick and, if older, miss school themselves in order to stay home to care for a younger sibling or family member; and WHEREAS, Survivors of domestic violence, stalking, or sexual assault need earned safe time to recover or seek assistance without fear of losing pay or their job altogether.

THEREFORE, IT RESOLVED THAT,The State of Minnesota should act now to guarantee all working Minnesotans have access to earned sick and safe time benefits that are fully paid and enforceable.

earned sick and safe

WHEREAS, the state of Minnesota has one of the deepest educational disparities in the na-tion, with our state graduating less than half of African-American students from high school each year; and

WHEREAS, expanding the Community School model in the Twin Cities and Greater Min-nesota can be the first step in dismantling these disparities in public education; and

WHEREAS, full-service community schools embody critical partnerships between schools and community resources to make schools both an academic haven and community center; and

WHEREAS, the Community School model is succeeding in Duluth, where Myers-Wilkins school has never has low performance on the MCA; and

WHEREAS, Brooklyn Center Community Schools, Minnesota’s only full-service communi-ty schools district, has seen consistent increases in graduation rates and decreases in student absences since its start in 2009.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:we are proposing $2 million in state funding, as well as $1 million in municipal tax levy fund-ing, be allocated for Community Schools in Minnesota, which will be used to conduct Com-munity Needs & Assets Assessment Surveys and fund site coordinators tasked with building the Community Schools model within Minnesota’s public education institutions.

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s for

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olice Restoring the Right to Vote

WHEREAS, on November 15, 2015, Jamar Clark, an unarmed young Black man and Minneapolis resident, was fatally shot by a Minneapolis police officer; and

WHEREAS, Clark’s death sparked weeks of protest outside the 4th Precinct police station; and

WHEREAS, the use of grand juries outside of first-degree premeditated murder cases is extremely unusual and not legally required in Minnesota; and

WHEREAS, the grand jury process is extremely secretive, meaning the prosecutor and members of the grand jury cannot reveal key information about the proceedings to the general public; and

WHEREAS, over the last year grand juries have failed to indict officers involved in the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, and twelve-year-old Tamir Rice, demonstrating the lack of effectiveness of the grand jury process in cases of officer-in-volved shootings; and

WHEREAS, although 142 Minnesotans have died in encounters with the police since 2000, none of the police officers responsible were indicted by a grand jury, well below the already low national average; and

WHEREAS, the historical record reveals that no police officer has ever been indicted by a grand jury for the use of deadly force in Minnesota; and

WHEREAS, the state of California recently outlawed the use of grand juries in cases of lethal force by police because they so rarely result in a decision to prosecute officers for wrongdoing and have largely lost the confidence of the public; and

WHEREAS, the state of New York recently decided to appoint a special prosecutor to preside over cases of deadly force by police, rather than having a local prosecutor present to a grand jury; and

WHEREAS, Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, the Minneapolis NAACP, Black Lives Matter Minneapolis and many organizations, labor unions, and supporters are now calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor rather than the use of a grand jury in the death of Jamar Clark.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: that the ________ Party calls on the Hennepin County Attorney to appoint a special prosecutor rather than use a Grand Jury to de-termine whether to bring charges in the case of Jamar Clark.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: that the _________ Party prioritizes legislation to end grand juries for the use of deadly force by police in the 2016 legislative session.

WHEREAS, approximately 63,000 Minnesotans are denied the right to vote under Minnesota law due to a past felony conviction and 75% of those individuals are living in the community; and

WHEREAS, since 1974, the percentage of voting age Minnesotans disenfranchised as a result of a criminal conviction has increased over 400%; and

WHEREAS, as a result of disproportionate conviction rates, disenfranchisement overwhelmingly affects communities of color – African-Americans make up roughly five percent of the Minnesota population and represent over a quarter of the total number of those disenfranchised and American Indians, less than two percent of the population, account for more than six percent of those individuals who are disenfranchised; and

WHEREAS, involvement in civic life logically results in stronger ties to the com-munity, and research has shown that persons with past criminal convictions are less likely to be arrested again in states that restore voting rights after release from incarceration;

WHEREAS, a policy that permits all individuals who have served their time in jail or prison to vote reduces confusion among voters and election officials about who can vote, thereby easing election administration and reducing government costs; and

WHEREAS, thirteen states already disenfranchise only those persons who are cur-rently incarcerated for a felony conviction, not those on probation or parole.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT: the _____________ Party supports restoring voting rights to Minnesotans con-victed of a felony while they are on probation or parole.

$15 M

inimu

m Wa

geEnvironmental Justice

WHEREAS, in the most prosperous country on earth, no one should live in poverty; and

WHEREAS, current federal and state minimum wages too often do not allow workers to care for themselves and their families; and

WHEREAS, the minimum wage in this country was envisioned by Franklin D. Roos-evelt during the Great Depression as “more than a bare subsistence level — I mean the wages of a decent living”; and

WHEREAS, the average full- time, full-year worker earning less than $15 an hour in Minneapolis spends approximately 40 percent of her monthly income on rent; and

WHEREAS, a recent study by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) showed that lower-wage industries accounted for 22 percent of job losses but 44 percent of job growth between 2010 and 2014, employing an additional 1.85 million low-wage work-ers since the start of the recession. This unbalanced recovery has meant that wealth and income inequality have increased across the United States, including in Minneso-ta; and

WHEREAS, minimum wage workers are disproportionately people of color and wom-en, and

WHEREAS, in Minnesota the poverty rate is more than three times higher for Black, Latino, Native, and Asian families than for white families, and WHEREAS, an increase to a $15 minimum wage will also boost Minnesota’s economy by adding billions of dollars in tax revenue, augmenting local spending power and creating thousands of new jobs, and

WHEREAS, polls show that 62% of Americans and 82% of Minneapolis residents sup-port a $15 minimum wage.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:that we support making the minimum wage in Minnesota a living wage of $15 per hour.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:that we support cities in Minnesota passing their own living wage laws higher than the minimum wage set by state and federal governments.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:that this party will fight all efforts to prevent cities from passing their own living wage laws.

WHEREAS, Minnesota is developing a plan to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) first ever limits on carbon pollution from power plants;

WHEREAS, to stay on track and continue our progress towards a clean energy economy Minnesota needs strong and just implementation of the Clean Power Plan yielding more well paying jobs, public health benefits, and the preservation of our treasured lakes, rivers and streams that benefit everyone; and

WHEREAS, this is a critical opportunity to speak out in support of moving Minne-sota away from fossil fuels like coal, and ramping up the role of renewable energy, such as wind, solar, and energy efficiency, while looking for opportunities to in-crease local jobs for all communities, keep energy bills affordable and find solutions for low income households to get out of energy poverty.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:that Minnesota’s leaders develop a racially and economically just state Clean Power Plan that will strengthen the state’s clean energy leadership that:

● Ensures Minnesota continues the transition to a clean energy economy needed to achieve the state’s science based climate goals of at least 80% carbon reductions by 2050 while creating family sustaining jobs for all Minnesotans in one of the fastest growing sectors of our economy

● Incentivizes clean energy projects, including energy efficiency and community solar, that are affordable and accessible to all Minnesotans, especially in low income communities.

● Includes meaningful participation from underrepresented communities in all stages of decision making and implementation, and through a process that includes an environmental justice and equity analysis.

● Maximizes the number and quality of family sustaining jobs created in renewable energy and energy efficiency, protects and creates manufacturing jobs, provides workforce training accessible to all Minnesotans to meet the demands of job mar-ket, and includes worker transition strategies and strong labor standards.

● Takes into account the legacy of environmental racism, including historically high levels of pollution in low income communities of color, and takes steps to undo the harmful impacts.

● Does not include waste burning as a clean energy option, as it places a significant public health burden on low income and communities of color surrounding waste burning facilities.

#NOCTHE

CAUCUS