Maybe it’s time to end the Minneapolis experiment and simply fold the city into St. Paul, Bloomington or Edina.

Minneapolis City Hall can’t manage to get its act together on a core function of municipal governance or even pretend like it’s trying.

I’m not talking about the council’s consideration of legalizing of bathhouses, weighing in on Cuba or telling European financial institutions how to invest their money. I’m talking about the foundational need for security and the council’s willingness to give the boot to the city’s Community Public Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette and, perhaps soon, terminate the tenure of Police Chief Brian O’Hara. If both actions occur, the measures will leave the city without high-profile leaders at a critical moment.

Late last week, the council took the first step, voting 7-6 against Mayor Jacob Frey’s nomination of Barnette for another term. This was no insignificant snub.

The public safety office, which oversees five other departments, was created to be a transformative piece of the city’s public safety reckoning after George Floyd’s 2020 murder in police custody on a south Minneapolis street.

Barnette, the former chief Hennepin County District Court judge, is the highest salaried city employee, paid about $350,000 a year, more than double the mayor’s salary and slightly more than the police chief.

The office was created after Floyd’s murder when activists and some city leaders pushed the notion of defunding the Police Department. The creation of the office was aimed in part at assuaging concerns of those who believed the Police Department could not be reformed.

The necessary discussion of whether the office has delivered on its mission cannot be answered or resolved in a single vote or debate. That must be an ongoing evaluation and conversation for the council and the mayor.

The issue of who should lead the office is a more immediate concern that requires resolution.

Complicating the discussion about Barnette’s future is the question whether Frey will nominate O’Hara for another three-year term. The council vote against Barnette suggests Frey’s going to have a tough time keeping the chief, as he’s signaled he would like to do.

So what was wrong with Barnette in the eyes of the seven council members who voted against him? Some faulted him for a lack of oversight of the police budget. Others had vague concerns about a need for better communication.

Council Member Robin Wonsley said the $2 million the city spends a year on the Office of Community Safety should be redirected to violence prevention programs “that are keeping people safe.”

Council President Elliott Payne said his vote against Barnette was an expression of his discontent with Frey for rejecting his policy ideas. “And so now I have this really blunt tool, which is a once-everyfour-years vote up or down on his nominees,” Payne told the Minnesota Star Tribune.

The dissenters raise fair topics of discussion. But partisan infighting and gridlock serves no one well. Minneapolis residents voted for a strong-mayor system in 2021, not a wholesale breakdown of core functions. Absent malfeasance, at some point these council members need to recognize the mayoral authority to appoint an administration.

Then the council needs to get on with making the best of developing a working relationship with Frey and his cabinet.

The issue of public safety leadership isn’t an ancillary or frivolous matter that can be bandied about and kicked down the road for a future council to decide. Public safety leadership and direction is a foundational function of the mayor and City Council leaders that must be resolved swiftly.

I don’t need to remind anyone, I’m sure, that the function is especially important right now as the city and state continue to reel from Operation Metro Surge and the fatal shooting of two residents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by federal agents.

This is far from an opportune moment for the city to toss aside two essential leaders and spend months searching for and hiring new ones.

Minneapolis is the state’s largest city, its most important economic engine, cultural and entertainment hub. The state economy relies on a strong, stable Minneapolis, and now the vote to jettison Barnette will fuel skeptics outside City Hall who long have questioned whether the council is capable of sustained focus or even understands its role.

They’re not wrong to wonder; it’s hard to comprehend why this council would waste time pondering stands on foreign policy issues and bathhouses when they’re disgruntled with public safety leadership.

Council dissenters can pick apart and fault Frey, Barnette and O’Hara all they want, but they, too, share the blame for this breakdown, and they can’t just throw up their hands and walk away.

If the council is serious about governing, then the dissenters must find a way to work with Frey, otherwise it’s safe to assume their main goal is fomenting chaos and obstruction.

It’s unclear where Barnette’s nomination goes from here. Frey said he’ll veto the council rejection as soon as it hits his desk. And then what? The council needs two more votes to override a veto.

Last week’s council meltdown over Barnette and what it portends for O’Hara’s reappointment mean the city could be perilously adrift on public safety preparedness through summer, traditionally the most violent time of the year.

The Barnette and O’Hara reappointments are stress tests for the council and Frey.

Conversely, this moment is also an opportunity for City Hall leaders to show they are capable of working together to avoid mutual destruction.

The city’s reputation is on the line. Minneapolis recently showed the world how to rise to the occasion and protect its neighbors. Now, it’s time for the elected leaders at City Hall to do the same. rochelle.olson@startribune.com