St. Paul City Council President Mitra Jalali resigning; cites health issues
ST. PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul City Council President Mitra Jalali, of Ward 4, has announced she will step down next month.
In a Facebook post Friday, Jalali said she will be taking a leave of absence after the city council meeting on Feb. 5 to focus on her physical and mental health and wellbeing.
Jalali says her fellow city council members will work in the coming weeks to appoint an interim council member for Ward 4 through a public process. A special election will follow, allowing residents choose who will fill out the rest of her term, which runs through 2028.
"Since the day I first began knocking on my neighbors' doors to ask for the chance to wield this responsibility, I have strived to put what is best for our community at the center. True to that same spirit, I share my decision with you today," she said in the post.
Jalali was first elected to the St. Paul City Council in 2018 through a special election, and was reelected for a full term in 2019.
In late 2023, while running for her third term, Jalali spoke to care providers who said her profession was negatively impacting her health and wellbeing.
"Being an elected official is a privilege," she said. "It also carries human costs that are far less visible than the role you are elected to. It is not an easy job, and if you are doing it well, it shouldn't be. But when your body is telling you that you shouldn't be in the place that you come to work everyday, it knows something that you have to listen to."
According to the city's website, Jalali is a board member of the Family Housing Fund and Ramsey County Dispatch, and served as co-chair of the 2020 U.S. Census collection initiative for Ramsey County.
Ward 4 covers all of the Hamlin-Midway, Merriam Park, Saint Anthony Park neighborhoods, and part of the Macalester-Groveland and Como neighborhoods.
Jalali made history with six fellow city council members in January 2024. Their swearing-in ceremony officially made St. Paul the first U.S. city of its size — with more 300,000 people living there — to have a city council made up of all women, according to the Center for Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
