The St. Paul Police Department plans to keep 16 vacant jobs unfilled next year, with nearly half of them community engagement cadets, under the mayor’s proposed budget, the police chief told the St. Paul City Council on Wednesday.

No current officers or other police department employees would lose their jobs.

Mayor Melvin Carter presented his 2026 budget proposal on Sept. 4. The city council is now receiving weekly informational presentations from the city’s departments before it finalizes the budget in December.

Carter’s $887 million proposed budget for the coming year would rely on a 5.3% property tax levy increase, roughly comparable to this year’s 5.9% increase and about average for the decade.

The 2026 budget would expand investment in housing programs, such as office-to-housing conversions and down-payment assistance, without laying off city employees. To accomplish those goals, Carter’s proposal would trim hours at some recreation centers and freeze hiring for dozens of open city positions.

The police department’s proposed budget for next year is $146 million, which is about $3 million more than this year’s budget. Just over 92 percent of the budget is salaries and wages, and next year’s budget increase reflects already-negotiated salary increases in the contract with officers, Police Chief Axel Henry said.

Homicides, shootings are down

St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry speaks to City Council members. (Claudia Staut / Pioneer Press)

The department’s priorities are reducing gun violence and violent crime as a whole. “A lot of good news on that front,” Henry told the council Wednesday. “Every major felony crime category in the city is dropping, and it is dropping in consecutive years.”

There have been eight homicides in St. Paul this year, compared to 19 in the city at this time last year. Forty-nine people have been injured in nonfatal shootings, according to preliminary information; there were 77 as of this date last year.

The reduction in violent crime means the department has not needed to call in investigators and crime-scene analysts as much on an overtime basis.

Police overtime spending from the general fund was down 30 percent for the first half of this year compared with the same period last year.

In downtown, the Dale/University area and other places — where some people are dealing and using drugs in public, contending with mental illness and involved in quality-of-life crimes — the police department has shifted officers’ hours and focus, Henry said.

“Obviously, the goal would be that we do something in prevention. No one wants to arrest our way out of the opioid crisis,” Henry said. “But we also know in the short term, one of the ways that we can compel people to seek … treatment … is to arrest them for the lower-level crimes that they’re committing, and then say, ‘Hey, you have a choice. You can face the consequences of that crime. Alternative number two, which is you go to drug court, and you basically go seek treatment.’”

Funding officers

Carter, in previously deciding how to use one-time federal funding for public safety, asked Henry if starting a nonfatal shooting unit could reduce such shootings and also push down homicides.

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“I said, ‘Absolutely,’” Henry recounted Wednesday.

Nonfatal shootings were previously handled by homicide investigators. Designating investigators to solely solve nonfatal shootings led from a clearance rate of 38 percent at the end of 2023 to 71 percent for 2024 cases, according to the department.

The federal funding will run out at the end of 2026, “but they have been so effective” Henry told the council he would not “get rid of or disband that group.”

Meanwhile, due to a grant that’s expiring, 11 other officers who’d been grant-funded will need to be funded by the department next year.

Down to 8 parking enforcement officers

St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry, top left, speaks to city council members during a meeting regarding the mayor’s 2026 budget proposal for the police department. (Claudia Staut / Pioneer Press)

Keeping 16 vacant positions open will save about $1.4 million next year, according to the department.

There are currently 17 community engagement cadets working for the police department. They’re young people who are in college, “on a pathway program to become police officers,” according to Henry.

The seven vacant cadet positions that will remain open next year is “not saying that I don’t value that position,” but comes down to making difficult budget decisions, Henry said.

Parking enforcement officers, who are in college for law enforcement and are a pipeline to becoming a St. Paul police officer, are a “way to illustrate some of the issues with our budget,” Henry said.

There is enough work for about 24 parking officers during two shifts, but the budget doesn’t allow for that many, Henry said. The police department had 12 at one point and, in the last year, the number was reduced to 10. Next year, there will be eight.

“We would like to see those (numbers) obviously stay up,” Henry said, but it’s understandable that they have to reduce them “when we’re doing budget crunches.”

Council Member Anika Bowie, whose ward includes Allianz Field, said she hears from people who live in the neighborhood and are frustrated about cars parked for a long time or in handicap parking spots.

“If we’re going to be a city that’s going to have more events, more concerts, more festivals … all those things that helps generate our economy … we want to make sure that the residents here aren’t compromised with having adequate parking,” she said.

‘Retirement boom’

The department is authorized to hire up to 619 officers, which will drop to 616 in next year’s proposed budget. But the department hasn’t had close to that number for some time because hiring hasn’t kept up with people leaving. There were 562 officers on the department’s payroll as of Sept. 8.

The police department brings on new officers through one or two training academies each year, and this year a third is starting in October. There is not funding earmarked in next year’s budget for two academies.

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“Having academies is critical to hiring those officers and then getting out of our shortage, which saves us on overtime, so we want to be investing there,” city council President Rebecca Noecker said, asking Henry if the department will be able to hold two academies next year.

“We will find a way,” he said. “… We have people in the pipeline, and we are recruiting.”

Furthermore, law enforcement is “in the middle of a retirement boom” as people reach retirement age, Henry said. At the same time, fewer people have been applying to become officers.

Over the next three years, there will be 90 to 100 St. Paul officers who will turn 55 or older and could retire.

“Keep in mind, I’m 56 so people don’t automatically leave at 55, but for most folks, that’s typically when you get there, especially if you’re hired in your early 20s,” Henry said.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN

Starbucks workers in three states took legal action against the coffee giant Wednesday, saying it violated the law when it changed its dress code but refused to reimburse employees who had to buy new clothes.

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The employees, who are backed by the union organizing Starbucks’ workers, filed class-action lawsuits in state court in Illinois and Colorado. Workers also filed complaints with California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency. If the agency decides not to seek penalties against Starbucks, the workers intend to file a class-action lawsuit in California, according to the complaints.

The Associated Press left a message with Starbucks Wednesday seeking comment.

Starbucks’ new dress code went into effect on May 12. It requires all workers in North America to wear a solid black shirt with short or long sleeves under their green aprons. Shirts may or may not have collars, but they must cover the midriff and armpits. Starbucks gave each employee two free T-shirts that comply with the new guidelines.

Employees must wear khaki, black or blue denim bottoms without patterns or frayed hems or solid black dresses that are not more than 4 inches above the knee. The dress code also requires workers to wear black, gray, dark blue, brown, tan or white shoes made from a waterproof material. Socks and hosiery must be “subdued,” the company said.

The dress code prohibits employees from having face tattoos or more than one facial piercing. Tongue piercings and “theatrical makeup” are also prohibited.

Starbucks said in April that the new dress code would make employees’ green aprons stand out and create a sense of familiarity for customers. It comes as the company is trying to reestablish a warmer, more welcoming experience in its stores.

Before the new dress code went into effect, Starbucks had a relatively lax policy. In 2016, it began allowing employees to wear patterned shirts in a wider variety of colors to give them more opportunities for self-expression.

The old dress code was also loosely enforced, according to the Colorado lawsuit. But under the new dress code, employees who don’t comply aren’t allowed to start their shifts.

Brooke Allen, a full-time student who also works at a Starbucks in Davis, California, said she was told by a manager in July that the Crocs she was wearing didn’t meet the new standards and she would have to wear different shoes if she wanted to work the following day. Allen had to go to three stores to find a compliant pair that cost her $60.09.

Allen has spent an additional $86.95 on clothes for work, including black shirts and jeans.

“I think it’s extremely tone deaf on the company’s part to expect their employees to completely redesign their wardrobe without any compensation,” Allen said. “A lot of us are already living paycheck to paycheck.”

Allen said she misses the old dress code, which allowed her to express herself with colorful shirts and three facial piercings.

“It looks sad now that everyone is wearing black,” she said.

The lawsuits and complaints filed Wednesday allege that Starbucks’ dress code violates state laws that require companies to reimburse workers for expenses that primarily benefit the employer. Colorado law also prohibits employers from imposing expenses on workers without their written consent, according to that lawsuit. The plaintiffs seek damages on behalf of all Starbucks workers in those states, whether or not their stores are unionized.

Multiple plaintiffs, like Allen, said they requested reimbursement from Starbucks to conform to the dress code but were denied. Gilbert Cruz, an employee in Aurora, Illinois, requested $10 for the cost of removing a nose piercing.

Worker-led lawsuits in state courts are a shift in tactics in the multi-year effort to unionize Starbucks’ stores.

Starbucks Workers United, the labor group that has unionized 640 of Starbucks’ 10,000 company-owned U.S. stores, has filed hundreds of unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks with the National Labor Relations Board. The union filed an charge over the dress code in April.

But the board’s ability to hear cases has been curtailed under President Donald Trump. Trump fired an NLRB member in the spring, leaving the board without the quorum it needs to decide cases.

Musician Bob Dylan, famously from Minnesota, has been added to the lineup for Farm Aid’s upcoming 40th anniversary show Sept. 20 at the University of Minnesota’s Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

Dylan is central to Farm Aid lore but very rarely performs at the event: The origin of Farm Aid was sparked by an onstage comment Dylan had made in 1985, Farm Aid organizer Willie Nelson has said. Dylan performed at the inaugural Farm Aid in 1985 and via satellite for the 1986 concert but had not appeared on the Farm Aid stage again till a surprise appearance in 2023.

Dylan, 84, and Nelson, 92, have been on the road jointly in recent years with the Outlaw Music Festival, which stopped at the Somerset Amphitheater last fall, and Dylan played a small show in Mankato in the spring. But the “Like a Rolling Stone” singer has not visited the Twin Cities since a memorable Xcel Energy Center show in 2017.

This year’s Farm Aid show is the first time the touring benefit concert has visited Minnesota, though the show was nearly derailed by a Teamsters strike at the University of Minnesota. Farm Aid expressed support for the striking union workers, who ultimately reached an agreement with the university to end the strike last weekend.

With the exception of a break in 2020 and 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, Dylan has been consistently playing about 100 shows a year since 1988, as part of his so-called Never Ending Tour.

Tickets to the all-day Farm Aid concert are still available online at farmaid40.org. The final five hours of the event, from 6 to 11 p.m., will also be broadcast live on CNN.

A full performance schedule has not been released, so it is unknown when Dylan will perform, but given his stature, it’s likely he’ll take the stage among other headliners later in the evening.

Other musicians in the lineup include Nelson, Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds, Margo Price, Kenny Chesney, Billy Strings, Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats, Lukas Nelson, Trampled by Turtles, Wynonna Judd, Steve Earle, Waxahatchee, Eric Burton of Black Pumas, Jesse Welles, Madeline Edwards and Wisdom Indian Dancers.

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When the 2026 World Junior Hockey Championship comes to the Twin Cities in December, not many will know that more than 50 years ago, a diminutive former Gophers hockey player was a catalyst in the establishment of the tournament that now garners worldwide media attention.

Murray Williamson died this week at age 92 after dealing with an illness for the past several weeks. Originally from Winnipeg, he first came to Minnesota to play for the Gophers in 1956, and he coached the 1972 U.S. Olympic team to a silver medal in Sapporo, Japan.

“Murray was truly a legend. As a player, I believe he was an All-American, but what he did after, he gave back so much to USA Hockey and the growth and development of our sport,” Gophers men’s hockey coach Bob Motzko said. “He was a true icon, and we lost one of the all-time greats that found his way to our campus and never left.”

As recently as July, Motzko and Williamson spent time together in Minneapolis, promoting the coming World Juniors, which will be played in the Twin Cities for just the second time in its half-century of history.

After his turn as the Olympic coach, Williamson wanted more opportunities for American players to continue in the game after high school. Despite some initial push-back from the NCAA and others, he worked to grow junior hockey leagues and what eventually became the World Juniors.

From a family of humble means when he came to Minnesota for college, he also got into the lodging business and at one point owned seven hotels in Minnesota and Florida.

Part of his success in coaching and in business stemmed from a naturally extroverted personality.

“He used to drive me crazy whenever we went somewhere, whether it was the golf course or a restaurant or the hockey rink; he would talk to anybody and everybody,” said former Gophers forward Dean Williamson, one of Murray’s three sons. “Even in the hospital, whether it was the nurse or the person delivering his food, he would strike up a conversation and ask where they were going to school, what they were studying, whatever. It was amazing how he always had a crowd around him.”

The family’s foray into hotels came after Williamson and a few friends started a summer hockey camp in Bemidji, and parents from the Twin Cities bringing their children to the camp complained about a dearth of available lodging.

The author of several books about hockey in the U.S., Williamson is survived by his three children, seven grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. He and his second wife, Patricia, were married for more than 30 years. Williamson’s granddaughter Taylor was the 2015 Minnesota Ms. Hockey winner at Edina and played for the Gophers, as well.

Plans for a celebration of life and funeral are pending.

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