House Republican bill moves to eliminate Public Safety Advisory Council

A panel created in 2020 in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer is no longer needed, according to a member who spent 33 years in law enforcement.

Rep. Paul Novotny (R-Elk River) said the Public Safety Advisory Council is “obsolete” and no longer needs citizen input on the council to assist the Peace Officer Standards and Training Board in maintaining policies and regulating peace officers in a manner that promotes the protection of civil and human rights.

“It has outlived its usefulness,” said Novotny, chair of the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee and sponsor of HF1257 to eliminate the council. It was approved by the committee on a split-voice vote Tuesday and sent to the House floor.

Novotny said the council was groundbreaking at the time because it was specifically designed to provide community members with input into the actions of the POST Board at a time when public trust in law enforcement was at an all-time low.

The board sets training standards for peace officers, collects complaints about peace officer conduct, and has the power to discipline officers.

Six of the 15 council members are from the community. Novotny believes community input to local police agencies is best done through local police oversight committees that have been established since 2020.

Plus, he said the 17-member POST Board itself has four citizens on it.

“Concerned citizens will still have access to the board, and the main POST Board will still grow and evolve, and it will protect the rights of both law enforcement professionals and the citizens that they serve,” he said.

Carlos Mariani strongly disagreed that the council was no longer needed.

Mariani served in the House from 1991-2022 and was chair of the public safety committee from 2019-22. “(The bill) would reject the desires of tens of thousands of our neighbors who turned out for days to demand a change to how the state regulates and guides the public servants it licenses for law enforcement.

“We knew a vital trust had been broken between our citizens and our state, and we were determined to rebuild that trust,” he continued. “This is not a good move.”