Minnesota

Minneapolis officials on Friday approved ballot language for a proposal that will determine the future of the city's Police Department, capping a dramatic day when City Council members met three times and the mayor twice vetoed their wording.

In an evening meeting, council members voted to override Mayor Jacob Frey's second veto of the day — allowing them to send ballot wording to the county roughly five hours before the deadline outlined in state law.

"Everybody's very pleased. This is an important hurdle," said Terrance W. Moore, an attorney for Yes 4 Minneapolis, the political committee that wrote the proposal and sued the city over an earlier version of the wording. "That said, there is a campaign in front of them, so it's a night to celebrate, and organization continues tomorrow."

Groups opposing the proposal were quick to blast the City Council's new wording. "This language should be recognized for what it is: an attempt by some members of the Council to hide from voters the most basic facts of what the amendment does so that they're more susceptible to political propaganda that misleads," another political committee, All of Mpls, wrote in a statement.