This and other emails obtained from the City of Minneapolis through a Reformer public records request show that both the Minneapolis Police Department and Mayor Jacob Frey’s office collaborated with Operation Safety Now to lobby City Council members and sway public opinion in the hopes of winning increased funding for the MPD.

As part of their campaign to lobby Council Member Alondra Cano, Rodriguez and his associate, Eric Won, offered to use Won’s influence — including a seat on the Minneapolis’ Capital Long-Range Improvements Committee — to benefit businesses in Cano’s ward. Cano then met with the men, arranged a meeting between them and business owners, and later supported their position on a key police budget vote.

The emails offer a window into the help Arradondo and to a lesser extent Frey have received from political operators as they engage in a fierce lobbying campaign against their opponents on the City Council, who want to take control of the department and fundamentally change it.

Council Member Andrew Johnson called the coordination between Arradondo and an outside political group to lobby the public and the council “pretty unprecedented.”