Comprising 13 members, the council holds the authority to create and modify laws, policies, and ordinances that govern the city.

However, a strong-mayor charter amendment was passed, and since 2021, the mayor holds executive power and the council has purely legislative duties.

[13] The first openly gay member, Brian Coyle, was elected in 1983 to represent Ward 6 and died of AIDS while in office as council vice president.

Watched nationally, the plan rezoned predominantly single-family residential neighborhoods for triplexes to increase affordable housing, seeking to reduce the effects of climate change, and tried to rectify some of the city's racial disparities.

"[28] In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, nine city council members announced their highly controversial goals to disband the Minneapolis Police Department.

Their plan included amending the city's charter to remove the requirement for a minimum number of officers, along with replacing the MPD with a broader public safety agency.

Herron admitted to accepting a $10,000 bribe from business owner Selwin Ortega who faced numerous health and safety inspection violations at his Las Americas grocery stores.

The affidavit attached to the warrant revealed that the FBI had Zimmermann on video and audiotape accepting bribes for a zoning change.

[38] Zimmermann subsequently lost his re-election campaign, and was convicted in federal court on three counts of accepting cash from a developer and found not guilty of soliciting property from people with business with the city.

[41] In 2015, DFL council member Alondra Cano used her Twitter account to publish private cellphone numbers and e-mail addresses of critics who wrote about her involvement in a Black Lives Matter rally.

[43][44] In July 2022, council member Michael Rainville said during a meeting with his constituents that he was going to go to a mosque in Northeast Minneapolis to "meet with Somali elders and tell them that their children can no longer have [poor] behavior,"[45] in response to incidents on the 4th of July in downtown Minneapolis, during which groups of younger people were seen launching fireworks at buildings and passerby.

[47] Jamal Osman, Jeremiah Ellison, and Aisha Chughtai, the City Council's three Muslim members at the time, issued a statement calling Rainville's comments "incorrect," "inappropriate," "disturbing," and "dangerous.

[49] At the Minneapolis DFL caucus for Ward 10 on May 13, 2023, supporters of challenger Nasri Warsame rushed the stage when incumbent Aisha Chughtai was scheduled to speak.

[50] Later that month, leaders of the DFL voted to permanently bar Warsame from seeking the party's endorsement for any elected office.

[56] Raises for council members and the mayor are based on "averaging out the increases included in the union contracts they approved the previous year.

In 2018, all Council Members were paid a base salary of $98,696 annually, plus mileage, free parking, and the usual employee benefits.