good evening and Welcome to our candidate Forum thank you all for joining us tonight my name is Lori Higgins and I am the moderator for this evening's Forum as well as the president of the Metro North Chamber of Commerce our goal in tonight's candidate forum is to provide residents with an opportunity to learn more about the candidates and their positions on various issues I'd like to note as a resident of Blaine I cannot vote for any of these candidates we will ask four prepared questions responses will be in rotating order there will be a short period of time at the conclusion for audience questions please use this time to write your question and submit to City personnel I am pleased in to introduce the candidates for city council W 2 Jeff barski and Eric Peters thank you both for being here thank you for having us each candidate will now have two minutes for an introduction and then we will get started with the questions Mr lubarski you have two minutes for an introduction thank you hello everybody thank you for coming my name is Jeff lari I have been a resident of the city of Ramsey for 26 years I am a retired iron worker and also retired army veteran I have two children who have lived in the city of Ramsey their whole lives I am passionate about our community and I want to make sure that the city continues to thrive as it develops I am truly interested in how the residents of this city see the city's future and how we want it to be I do have an open mind and and as how we would develop with my only goals being making it cost effective usefulness of our residents and something we can maintain into the future without significantly increasing the cost of our citizens thank you thank you Mr Peters you have two minutes for introduction uh yes thank thank you very much to North Metro Chamber of Commerce for graciously hosting this event to CCTV for providing AV support and to our Ramsey City staff for uh spending the time to get to assemble this last minute form my name is Eric Peters I've been married to my wife Amy for 20 years we have two wonderful children uh my oldest child is currently attending Florida State University after being chased down by a hurricane this last week so he's just now settling back into his dorm and I have a daughter emiline who uh right now is a is a is thriving at packed right now as a new student I've lived in Ramy for seven years after retiring out of the Navy of after spend 20 years in the Navy as I retired as a Senior Chief five of these years serving in in in Ramsay I have served on the Ramsey Planning Commission we're going to shape the future of our community for uh excuse me um I'll leave it there okay all right thank you well then we will now go to our prepared questions there's a two-minute time limit for each answer and we'll begin with the first question with Mr lubarski why are you running for city council and what skills and talents would you bring to the office thank you uh I am running for the city council because I want to be a representative of the average city resident I was in Army Reserves for 25 years as I said I joined when I was 17 and since then I have held major major uh positions High positions and high roles in the the Army Reserves as also I was an iron worker for 27 years which I held for in positions there both of these positions have helped me with my skills working with teams and of individuals to make decisions and complete projects together I have gained knowledge while working as an iron and the different aspects of construction projects and Public Works projects to understand what parts are necessary to plan and execute a successful project thank you I'll repeat each question Mr Peters why are you running for city council and what skills and talents would you bring to the office great question I've always felt that God blessed me with a deep-seated passion for service when the opportunity to join the Ramsey Planning Commission was announced I eagerly seized it I applied died participated in interviews and was honored to be appointed my 5 years on the commission have been transformative filled with valuable lessons and guidance from exceptional mentors throughout the journey I've made it a a priority to listen attentively to to all residents and their concerns I'm wunning for city council to represent the voices of w 2 because I am committed to fostering a harmonious balance between our Rural and Suburban communities I believe in keeping our taxes low to support our families and local businesses above all I want to ensure our community remains safe which is why I strongly advocate for supporting our dedicated First Responders my career in the N both the Navy and the supply chain sector instilled in me a Relentless pursuit of Excellence I've always demanded the highest quality from our vendors understanding that opting for the lowest cost sometimes isn't the right thing sometimes going for the best quality is the thing that keeps us going I proud myself of being a great listener someone who values collaboration and and constructive dialogue I'm committed to a decisive act committed to decisive action when others may only seek to assign blame thank you thank you we'll move to question two and we'll begin with Mr Peters what do you believe is the greatest need of the residents of Ramsay and how would you go about advocating for this need another great question I I not only believe but I know that the rant that Ramsey has pressing needs that must be addressed first and foremost we need to ensure that our police and fire departments are equipped with Personnel training and Cutting Edge equipment necessary to keep Pace with a rapid growth of our of our community as Ramsey continues to expand is crucial that we forecast population growth year-over-year to allocate sufficient funding to enhance our police and fire support as someone who watched a House burn down in my neighborhood and seeing that Ramsey was not the first responder in that neighborhood I see the need for having expanded support another thing is that we as our community grows we need to make sure that we're looking ahead at the future for our kids we are going to eventually need a middle and high school and us having that middle of high school requires us to have a bridge across the Mississippi as far as I've been told so there's two things right there we need look at the future for our kids and their education we also need to look at infrastructure going across that River currently the the traffic across the river is a significant issue and someone who drives drives that route daily I can tell you it is not a fun experience I F I fully understand the urgency this endeavor will not be easy it will require dedication and resilience this is not a first time a bridge has been gone over the the Mississippi before or any other River we can do this thank you Mr lari what do you believe is the greatest need of the residents of Ramsey and how would you go about advocating for this need okay thank you very good question okay currently I see the greatest needs of our residents is to maintain the infrastructure maintain our safety and public services for their police fire and rescue secondly I believe that we need to budget consciously and providing these things to our residents we need to make sure the core Services the needs of the city are funded first and then to see what additional amenities our community can fund without significantly raising cost to our residents our projects should be coste effective while meeting the needs of our residents thank you thank you moving on to question three we'll begin with Mr lubarski transportation is a concern for many Ramsey residents if elected what would be your priorities when it comes to Transportation infrastructure improvements for this area thank you another good question as a longtime resident in the city of Ramsey I do know that our transport Transportation infrastructure does need needs to be prioritized I want to make sure that following plans and a schedule for maintaining our roads so they do not need to have massive construction projects to tear up tear and tear out and replace the roads we also need to make sure that we are in conversation with the county of Anoka with regard to projects that we need their cooperation on we also need to make sure we are continuing to develop infrastructure and non vehicular Transportation making sure that our Trails walking path sidewalks connect and have safe Crossings is also priority for pedestrians thank you thank you Mr Peters transportation is a concern for many ramsy residents if elected what would be your priorities when it comes to Transportation infrastructure improvements for this area as I stated before the the the one for the future as Kiron alluded to the mythical bridge going over Mississippi is something that needs to happen it's been pushed off for too long uh also we have a great uh infrastructure program for our roads right now that we need to maintain that schedule uh we need to also ensure that they're putting on Quality quality roads for us that that can be maintained and they won't degrade so so quickly over time um there's also there's also things like in like we talked about metro metro transit and making sure that people can get some get to places sometimes it comes down to people just not having the information in front of them and pointing them in the right direction even even Jeff who works for the DAV he can attest like the DAV will provide transportation to the to the VA for for any vet out there so there are there are things out there for people to use um and also if it comes to the time if if a time comes when we are needing a bus routes to go into ramsy we need to address that with our residents to find out where they should be going um uh and we're like like even Ryan said we're already paying for it why not why not let's see if we can get some buff stops in here for the future thank you thank you question four Mr Peters what is your vision for the city's development over the next five years great question my vision for War Two start with that one is over the next 5 years is to maintain the current property density is ensuring that the roads are maintained and Hazard free and work with Thea County to reduce the speed on Highway five as we know as now the road which has two elementary schools and multiple Community multiple communities living off that road the speed generally needs to be reduced I've reached out to multiple people at the at the county level on that one if nothing is done it only invites tragedy we see what happen in in in um in St Francis at there they Crossing we don't want that to happen here especially in front of a school we don't want that I don't ever want to hear that ever happening my vision for the city as a whole would be to facilitate economic and residential growth that benefits the residents of Ramsey with the Advent of Highway 10 Ramsey Corridor Ramsey will be well positioned for as a manufacturing Hub in the future we must we must ensure that we are understanding the need for Workforce housing and how that affects business's decisions to come to our area and as a former Chef I would love to see more restaurants here and anybody would love to have more restaurants I I my wife can't keep me at home I want to eat eat at different restaurants every night especially the ones on Highway 10 we need to make sure we're supporting those folks thanks thank you Mr lubarski what is your vision for the city's development over the next five years and thank you very good question and thank you Mr Peters for your comment that was very good that that was I'm spot on with you on everything as far as the city's development though I want to work on ways to increase businesses development in the city specifically I want to see where we can make it easier for small business to develop but all business that support the needs of our residents so they don't they are not forced to travel to other communities for days to for day-to-day needs and diners out all right thank you so we will now move to audience questions each candidate we'll have one minute to respond the first question and we'll begin with Mr laari the question is as follows on September 5th 2024 you all participated in a forum run by the League of Women Voters how do you feel about spending the taxpayers money to do this forum again just because a few people in the city want to be able to edit the answers they don't like oh good question uh I don't see why we should have to spend taxpayers money why can't we do it for free why can't we just go out there and do it I mean why should we have to waste money on something plain and simple I don't see no no reason to spend taxpayers money people work hard for their money we shouldn't waste it that's all I got to say in there all right Mr Peters I'll repeat the question on September 5th 2024 you all participated in a forum run by the League of Women Voters how do you feel about spending the taxpayers money to do this forum again just because a few people in the city want to be able to edit the answers they don't like I won't be editing any of my answers so uh the I find it just funny that somebody would pay $500 listen to two old vets talk talk about stuff all day all night long and at 7:30 at night it's very very hilarious to me um I I I I always look forward to any opportunity to talk any opportunity to talk to anybody out there um I wish it was for free I I would think that we could spend take that take that money and use for putting gas in the police cars or you know sharpening the blades on the on the snow plows uh but here we are and now it's spent so I'm happy to talk to anybody that wants to talk to me especially in this crowd right here this is great thanks all right we will move on to the second audience question and we'll begin with Mr Peters the question is as follows in financial terms only please describe why you believe the tax levy or franchise fee is a better Road funding source I I don't know enough about it to be smart about it I've only heard different points of view on it um it's something that I would I would like to read up more on um I think if the if anything comes down to we need to spend more money on things I think all options should be on the table we should all we should always adjudicate those and make sure that we're we're taking everything into account whether it be getting funding from outside or from inside um moving money around to help support certain things uh we should be uh looking in depth at all those but you know I I I spend seven bucks on coffee every day so it wasn't a thing for me but also I paid my taxes because I'm a citizen and I like what I have in my my my community so all right thank you I'll repeat the question from Mr laari in financial terms only please describe why you believe the tax levy or franchise fee is a better Road funding source uh just like Mr Peters here exactly I don't know very much on this Levy system either I just know it's another tax base um I'm not too Pro for it to confort however if it's all going to our roads and it's in Prov proven our roads and that money is being spent just on the roads nothing else no other hidden things I see no problem with it all right the third audience question is as follows and we'll begin with Mr laari what are your thoughts on the following the bigger the government the smaller the individual another good one as all the other past candidates said too the government is kind of big and it's it's up there uh as I say I go to the D I go to the legislature in Washington DC every year to fight for our vets um the government is getting big the government is power we want to keep our stuff at City level and this is where we want to focus all our deals just just on the city local government and not not any higher than that I'd like to leave it here thank you all right thank you and Mr Peters what are your thoughts on the bigger the government the smaller the individual I think I'm the biggest guy up here I don't think can get any bigger than get bigger than me um I I as as someone who worked for the Department of Defense for 20 years I can tell you right now that is a ballooning organization um I think we Ry and and and Jeff can attest to the uh it's it's it gets crazy when you see the different levels of it um I I like like Jeff L too I'm I'm concerned about what happens here we're not going to add a department of whand security in Ramsey uh I don't think there's any need for it um I think the only level of government we should add to is more place and fire I think that's that that'd be my only thing right there so all right we will now go to a one minute closing statement from each candidate and we'll begin with Mr Peters thank you residence of Ramsey I I've dedicated over 20 years of moving my family across the country in service to our great nation we uh we finally found a true home in Ramsay here we discovered not only Safe Streets and excellent schools but a warm and welcoming Church community that embraced us as a family I was honored to be appointed on the Ramsey Planning Commission where I had the privil privilege of serving my adopted Hometown during my time there here I listened intently and and learned learned from the diverse voices within our community while my opponent and I share common values both having served honorably for our country and and Desiring the best for our city the key difference here lies in experience I spent the last 5 years sitting in that chair KN on you um it's okay Budd um and uh my approach to service of of the city is with a heavy heart knowing that the weight of the responsibility yet with a thick skin to withstand the challenges open ears to hear your concerns and a focus to to listen to and focus vision for the future thank you thank you Mr laari you have one minute for a closing statement thank you in closing I just want to say thank you for putting this on and all you people for attending and giving all the candidates chance to speak as a longtime resident of the city of Ramsey I have seen the city go through many changes and I want that to continue living here with my family in a safe beautiful and thriving Community I feel that all our residents deserve a voice I want to make sure that our residents feel they have a voice and that they are heard and their opinion their opinions are being taken into account when the city council is making their decisions as I said before I have on the a I'm the senior Vice I travel around we do legislative and I'm also on the board of directors I support my veterans so you are the voice I listen to that voice you are me if you have any questions and you want to discuss please reach out I appreciate your support on Election Day thanks again thank you this concludes our Forum I would like to thank our candidates and CJ luck the equipment operator for making tonight's event possible please remember to vote honor before Tuesday November 5th thank you again thank thank you thank you