Keith Ellison was still a congressman in 2016 when his team held interviews for a new policy aide and community liaison.
“We were so blown away, we didn’t interview anyone else,” said Ellison, addressing St. Paul City Council President Mitra Jalali on Wednesday. “For the constituents that you helped, they fell in love with you. They thought you were their champion.”
Mitra Jalali. (Courtesy of the City of St. Paul)
The Minnesota attorney general wasn’t the only elected official to offer accolades for Jalali, who was joined by a who’s who of city personalities on Wednesday as she presided over her final city council meeting before leaving office. After serving a year as council president, Jalali — once considered the council’s most progressive member — announced last month she would step down from the Ward 4 seat, citing unspecified concerns for her health.
She leaves behind a council that is much transformed since she first won office in August 2018. The November 2023 election ushered four new faces onto the seven-member council, now composed entirely of women, including six self-described progressive women of color. At the time of the election, all of them were under the age of 40.
Council Member Rebecca Noecker, the council’s longest-serving member, is expected to be voted in as president on Feb. 12, when a process for appointing Jalali’s temporary replacement will be announced. An election for the Ward 4 council seat will be scheduled by Ramsey County Elections.
Jalali said it was possible, but not final, that the election could be held in November to coincide with that of the mayor.
Surrounded by fans, including fellow council members and city staff wearing her signature pink, Jalali said she had worried, prior to announcing her resignation four years in advance of the 2028 election, that her constituents would greet her decision with anger rather than understanding. She was relieved, she said, to be wrong.
“One of the things that has made this moment hard for me is the moment our country is in,” Jalali said. “And really feeling like there’s always a reason to keep going. There’s also a reason to keep fighting. But when your body is telling you you actually can’t and you’ve got to sit this one out … you need to listen to that. I want to say thank you for supporting my well-being.”
“What is the point if we can’t actually be real human beings with each other?” she added. “I’m going to get healthy. I’m going to find a way to return to community in a more sustainable way as a neighbor, a friend and advocate. I don’t feel like my work is done but I do thank all of you for helping me close this chapter in a way that is more perfect than I could ever hope for amid something that is really painful and hard for me.”
Council Member Nelsie Yang remarked on Jalali’s years-long efforts to promote renter protections, amend the city charter to allow for administrative citations and pave the way for a new Hamline-Midway Library, a project still in the works. Council Member Cheniqua Johnson invited Ellison, Mayor Melvin Carter, Jalali’s parents and more than a dozen others to join her at the podium as she recognized her council “sister.”
Jalali also weathered tough political fights, including a hard-fought effort to approve rent control in 2021 through public referendum, and a brief but tumultuous series of council meetings last year interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters demanding that the council issue a public statement denouncing U.S. involvement in the Israeli bombings of Gaza.
Some constituents in her Hamline-Midway neighborhood aggressively opposed Jalali’s decision to put public funds toward the proposed expansion of Kimball Court, a Snelling Avenue housing development owned by the Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative. A parking area next to the dorm-like structure was linked by St. Paul Police to heavy drug activity and shoplifting.
After thanking her for her service, the mayor declared Wednesday to be Mitra Jalali Day in the city of St. Paul.
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