The St. Paul City Council convened a special meeting Friday to appoint a seventh member for the next four months who will fill the Ward 4 seat vacated by Mitra Jalali.

But after about three minutes, following an awkward exchange between a council member, a member of the city attorney’s office and the council president, the six elected officials abruptly exited the council chamber without appointing anyone.

The quiet blow-up of sorts follows a tortured appointment process that has called into question the ability of the council to complete basic tasks, like filling an open seat.

Still, the stakes are high. The new appointee could cast potentially tie-breaking votes in issues ranging from rent control and public safety to city budget matters.

The council interviewed four finalists last week — artist and community organizer Sean Lim, art conservator and neighborhood advocate Lisa Clare Nelson, nonprofit consultant Melissa Martinez-Sones and clean energy advocate Matt Privratsky — with the stated intent of choosing the interim Ward 4 council member on March 26.

Council President Rebecca Noecker sponsored a draft resolution that kept the name of the chosen person blank for the council to fill in together, but she was unable to attend Wednesday’s meeting and instead took bereavement leave.

In Noecker’s absence on Wednesday, Council Member Saura Jost motioned to amend the draft resolution and add Privratsky as the council choice, a decision that was approved 3-2 after strong criticism about the process from Council Member Nelsie Yang and Vice President HwaJeong Kim, who chaired the meeting.

It would take four votes to undo Jost’s amendment — an unlikely outcome — and as of Wednesday evening, Privratsky appeared primed to be appointed as the interim council member. The resolution was scheduled to be finalized Friday.

Amendment ‘did not meet that standard’

Instead, Noecker opened Friday’s meeting by saying it’s been her goal to maintain a transparent appointment process worthy of the public’s trust, and “unfortunately this week, actions were taken that did not meet that standard and did not reflect well on (this) council.”

“That action was a surprise to several council members,” added Noecker, noting one of the four finalists had withdrawn their name from consideration as a direct result. In an email to a reporter on Friday, Martinez-Sones confirmed she had withdrawn herself from the process.

Noecker then motioned to withdraw the draft resolution she had previously introduced, and said the appointment process will be revisited next Wednesday.

“It’s my understanding that … I would be the sponsor of this item,” said Council Member Saura Jost, cutting in.

A representative of the city attorney’s office told Jost she was mistaken and had already been told otherwise, and Noecker then closed the meeting abruptly, saying: “This item is being withdrawn and this meeting is adjourned.”

Jalali stepped down from city employment on March 8.

Under the city charter, the council is expected to appoint a council member to fill a vacancy within 30 days, which would presumably be April 7. If they fail to do so, the mayor then has 10 days under the charter to appoint “a qualified voter of the ward,” which would presumably be April 17.

The interim appointee will serve through the Aug. 12 election, when voters in the Ward 4 neighborhoods of Hamline-Midway, Merriam Park, St. Anthony Park and portions of Macalester-Groveland and Como will choose Jalali’s official successor through 2028. Several residents have come forward as likely candidates in that election.

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By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday lifted an order blocking Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from further cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The lawsuit was among of the first filed against Musk himself. It argued that DOGE’s actions were unconstitutional because he was wielding significant power without being elected or Senate approved.

A lower court judge agreed, but the three-judge appeals court panel sided with the Trump administration, at least for now. It found that while DOGE played a part in the dismantling of USAID, the cuts were approved by government officials.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that social-media posts like Musk’s declaration that he “fed USAID into the wood chipper” didn’t legally prove he was making the orders.

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Rather, the evidence indicates he was acting as an adviser to President Donald Trump, carrying out his policies of rooting out what he calls waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, the court found.

“While defendants’ role and actions related to USAID are not conventional, unconventional does not necessarily equal unconstitutional,” Circuit Judge Marvin Quattlebaum, who was appointed by Trump, wrote. More evidence may be unearthed as the lawsuit keeps playing out but for now the record doesn’t support barring DOGE from USAID, he said.

If the plaintiffs say that the dismantling of USAID violates the constitutional separation of powers, those claims should be directed at the administration, the appeals court suggested.

Their order halted a ruling from U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland in a lawsuit filed by former USAID employees. He found DOGE’s moves to dismantle the agency were likely unconstitutional.

Chuang had required the Trump administration to restore email and computer access to USAID employees, including those put on administrative leave, though he stopped short of reversing firings or fully resurrecting the agency.

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s younger brother is serving in a key position inside the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior adviser, Hegseth’s office confirmed.

The high-profile job has meant meetings with a UFC fighting champion, a trip to Guantanamo Bay and, right now, traveling on the Pentagon’s 747 aircraft as Hegseth makes his first trip as defense secretary to the Indo-Pacific.

Phil Hegseth’s official title is senior adviser to the secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and liaison officer to the Defense Department, spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson said in a statement Thursday.

“Phil Hegseth, one of a number of talented DHS liaisons to DOD, is conducting touch points with U.S. Coast Guard officials on the Secretary’s Indo-Pacific trip,” which includes stops in Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines and Japan, Wilson said in response to a query by The Associated Press.

Border security, the responsibility of DHS, has been highlighted as one of the top priorities for President Donald Trump, and thousands of U.S. troops have been deployed to the border to assist DHS with curbing illegal immigration.

Liaison roles are common

It’s common for the Defense Department and other federal agencies to have liaisons. Each military branch sends liaisons to Capitol Hill. The Pentagon, State Department and others all use interagency liaisons to more closely coordinate and keep tabs on policy.

But it is not common for those senior-level positions to be filled by family members of the Cabinet heads, said Michael Fallings, a managing partner at Tully Rinckey PLLC, which specializes in federal employment law.

Jennifer Rauchet, third from left, and Phil Hegseth, fifth from left, listen as Pete Hegseth appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing to be Defense Secretary, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Based on Phil Hegseth’s publicly available resume, his past experience includes founding his own podcast production company, Embassy and Third, and working on social media and podcasts at The Hudson Institute.

It’s not the first time Phil Hegseth has worked alongside his older brother. When Pete Hegseth was CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, a nonprofit that fell into financial difficulty during his time there, he paid his brother $108,000 to do media relations for the organization, according to federal tax records.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed Phil Hegseth’s job title and said this “interagency mission is part of Mr. Hegseth’s preview,” presumably meaning “purview.”

DHS said Phil Hegseth, while on the Indo-Pacific trip, has been meeting with representatives from Homeland Security Investigations, the law enforcement arm of the department, “and other DHS components and interagency partners.”

The Pentagon did not respond to a request to interview Phil Hegseth. Neither the Pentagon nor the Department of Homeland Security has responded to queries about his qualifications for the job..

A close ally to the secretary

He has been his brother’s close ally, appearing alongside him throughout his fraught confirmation process in the Senate. In photos, as Pete Hegseth walked the halls of Congress, Phil Hegseth is often right there by his side.

He now has offices just down the hall from him along the Pentagon’s E-Ring, according to a U.S. official familiar with the office location, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth holds a joint press conference with and Philippine Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro at the Armed Forces of the Philippines Headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, Philippines, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerard Carreon)

Photos posted by the defense secretary’s official Flickr account show Phil Hegseth at the secretary’s table as he met with officials or high-profile guests, including Ultimate Fighting Championship champion Conor McGregor this month.

He traveled to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with Pete Hegseth in February.

Nepotism laws guide government hiring

A 1967 federal nepotism law prohibits government officials from hiring, promoting or recommending relatives to any civilian position over which they exercise control.

An image of an office organizational chart obtained by The Associated Press shows Phil Hegseth in a small group of officials directly beneath his brother, with Phil Hegseth labeled as a senior adviser to the defense secretary.

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Further review of Phil Hegseth’s hiring would be needed to determine if it ran afoul of federal nepotism laws, “but it does not pass the smell test,” Fallings said.

However, if he is wholly employed by DHS, that “would avoid a nepotism violation, unless it can be shown that (Pete) Hegseth was involved in the hiring or had asserted his authority to help hire his brother.”

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it wholly employs Phil Hegseth, whether he is paid and if so at what federal pay level.

There are also some exceptions to the nepotism law for the president’s office. In his first term, Trump appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner to serve as his senior adviser. When he was president, Bill Clinton named first lady Hillary Clinton to serve on his health care task force.

In the Biden administration, Jake Sullivan served as national security adviser to the president while his brother, Tom Sullivan, was the counselor of the State Department.