Three radical Minneapolis city officials voted to defund their own police department after riots erupted over the police-involved death of George Floyd, then they promptly hired private security details at taxpayers’ expense.
Now, the bills are coming to light — and so is a suspicious financial arrangement with a sanctioned security company.
According to a Minneapolis city council spokesman, private security for council members Andrea Jenkins, Phillipe Cunningham and Alondra Cano cost $4,500 a day on average.
The taxpayer-funded protection for the anti-police officials was kept secret until FOX 9 investigative reporters exposed payment records on June 26.
At that point, the city reported the cost to be around $63,000.
But the costs ballooned to $152,400.
The security payments were quietly authorized by City Coordinator Mark Ruff who said on Tuesday that they ended on June 29.
The payments were directed to two private security companies: Aegis and Belcom.
But as FOX 9 points out, the contract for Aegis is problematic. It was signed by Erik Bergling, who was caught running afoul of state private security laws last year.
Bergling is the former CEO of the Entertainment Protection Group, a security company that failed to perform background checks on 147 employees working at Super Bowl LIVE events at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
The state licensing board said it was “distressed to see convicted felons providing private security,” and that much of the company’s security personnel hadn’t been properly trained.
As part of the penalty, the Aegis’s license was forced to lapse and Bergling was barred from holding a managerial position in a security company for 10 years.
So how did he land a lucrative contract with three left-wing city council members? By changing his job title.
By statute, the state licensing board can only regulate executive management personnel, specifically defined as “CEO, CFO, Manager, Qualified Representative” or similar title.
But Bergling’s title on the contract is “Special Projects.”
“Nothing we can do about that,” said Rick Hodsdon, president of the state licensing board.
