City Council
The Saint Paul City Council is the governing body of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, as part of a strong mayor–council government. It has seven members from seven wards, each elected to four-year terms. As of 2024, all seven are members of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, although city elected official positions are nonpartisan according to state law, and political party identifications are not included on election ballots.[1]
Council members' hourly wage as of February 2023 is $70.28 per hour, but council members are considered part-time workers and paid only for 40 hours each pay period (equivalent to about $73,000 annually).[2][3]
History
St. Paul has used the single transferable vote system, a form of ranked voting, since 2011, after voters approved it in 2009. The city council has single-member districts, so the single transferable vote functions the same way as instant-runoff voting.
Demographic changes in representation
One hundred and two years after the city incorporated in 1854, the first female council member, Elizabeth DeCourcy, was elected in 1956 and served three two-year terms.[4]
Debbie Montgomery became the first woman of color to serve on the Council in 2004.[4] She represented Ward 1. She had previously been the city's first woman to serve as a police officer.[4] She served one term in office.[5]
In 2013, Dai Thao became the first Hmong American to serve on the Council.[6] He represented Ward 1. He served until he moved to Florida in 2022.[7]
In 2018, Mitra Jalali became the first Asian American woman to serve on the Council and the first to openly identify as LGBTQ+.[4] She was also the first Iranian American elected official in Minnesota.[8] She represents Ward 4.
After Jalali was sworn into office in 2018, the Council had a majority of women for the first time, with four of the seven seats.[5]
In 2020, Nelsie Yang became the first Hmong American woman to serve on the Council after being elected in 2019.[9] She represents Ward 6. Volunteering on Thao's reelection campaign influenced her interest in running.[9] She was also the youngest ever council member, at age 24 when she was sworn into office in 2020.[10]
As of 2024, after the 2023 elections, all seven council members are women, making St. Paul the first city in American history of its size (more than 300,000 people) with an all-female legislative body.[4][11] Six of the seven are also women of color: Saura Jost, Hwa Jeong Kim, and Yang are Asian-American; Jalali is Asian-American and Iranian; and Anika Bowie and Cheniqua Johnson are African-American.[12] The Center for American Women and Politics has noted that "only 32 percent of municipal officeholders across the country are women. And women of color are even more underrepresented."[11] According to Jean Sinzdak, associate director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, "If you compare that, it's [Saint Paul's new Council] not just sort of bucking the trend, it's blowing it right out of the water. So it's a big moment."[11]
Membership
As of January 9, 2024, the Saint Paul City Council members are:[13]
| Ward
|
Name
|
| 1st
|
Anika Bowie
|
| 2nd
|
Rebecca Noecker
|
| 3rd
|
Saura Jost
|
| 4th
|
Mitra Jalali
|
| 5th
|
HwaJeong Kim
|
| 6th
|
Nelsie Yang
|
| 7th
|
Cheniqua Johnson
|
