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 so please use this time to your question and submit to City personnel I am pleased to introduce the candidates for Anoka County Commissioner District 1 John Hinrich and Betsy oerry thank you both for being here tonight so each candidate will now have two minutes for an introduction and then we will get started with the questions miss oerry you have two minutes for an introduction well thank you Lori and thank you to the city of ramsy for allowing us to sit down for this forum and inform our citizens and most of all I'd really like to to thank all of you who are here in either in the audience or who are watching this on television it's really important to become an informed voter and I know that for a race like this uh for County Commissioner uh it's more difficult to get good information and so I I really appreciate the fact that you're taking the time to actually get good information um again my name is Betsy oerry I'm a retired certified public accountant I have owned my own business I have advised many other businesses and I think that translates very well to actually helping to advise the business of Anoka County which is really what our commissioners do is they help to manage the business of the county um I doing this is a continuation of work that I have done in the past I am a 31-year resident here of ramsy I have been married to my husband Jeff who's here for 37 years and we raised my son Nick who is also here um here in the city of Ramsey uh this has been my home and I uh appreciate the opportunity to live in a beautiful place like this so I look forward to uh the additional questions and uh working with all of you as your enoka county commissioner thank you Mr Hinrich you have two minutes for an introduction well thank you for being here this evening thank you Lori and to the city of Ramsay for hosting these forums uh my name is John Heinrich I'm running for in NOA County Commissioner District 1 at that's uh includes the cities of Anoka Ramsay now then and St Francis so I grew up in Rapids uh graduated from Metal Creek Christian School in Andover now Legacy Christian academy uh in 1998 and I joined the Marine Corps in 1999 one big reason why I joined the Marine Corps is my grandpa was in World War II in the Navy and I remember at a young age one of my earliest memories of my grandfather he he passed away quite a few years ago now but he was showing me some of his Navy uniforms and I remember at that time I wanted to be just like him and many others that have gone before us and served our country and so that's uh kind of where I started out as a as an adult uh being a military police officer in the Marines uh I was deployed to Iraq in 2003 when we first crossed the border in Iraq and went back again in 2004 ended up spending uh eight years in the Marine Corps uh came back here to Minnesota met my wife wife Jessica um we've been married 18 years now our oldest is 17 we have three kids and we live in inoka uh not too far from the fairgrounds actually just off of Highway 47 um I've been a active volunteer in my church Stepping Stones emergency housing in inoka Anoka Community Mission I help run a business that does asphalt and concrete work I serve customers clients uh and my employees we uh have between 15 and 20 employees uh over the past few years and uh and we actually have to make payroll every week and so I'm used to making the sacrifices needed that a that a business needs to do to uh keep everybody employed and keep the customers happy um as well as uh being a father and an active member in my community I grew up as my mom was a uh a teacher and my dad was a pastor and I've always had that heart of service I'd like to continue to do that as your county commissioner thank you we will now go to our prepared question excuse Lor yes oh sorry sorry no I'm sorry I I thought I got confused about the order sorry all right uh so we'll go to our prepared questions now and there's a two-minute time limit for each answer so we'll begin with Mr Heinrich why are you running for County Commissioner and what skills and talents would you bring to the office thank you Lori well I touched on uh some of those things but uh one big reason that I'm running is because I I just love my community and um if it's not in this position and anyway I've always enjoyed serving others my dad always taught me that things will come and go but people last forever and so relationships are very important to me and working well with others are very is very important to me as well and we don't didn't always agree in St Paul some of you probably know I was the the state representative for the cities of Ramsey and inoka for four years um on the Republican side of the aisle um ended up getting redistricted in 2022 and losing the city of Ramsay of redistricting they cut off city of Ramsey gave me Western Rapids um ended up not prevailing in that race but since then uh commissioner Matt look had resigned uh end of February and so this is an open seat and I had many people from my old constituency in city of Ramsey reach out to me and say hey John here's an opportunity to come back and uh represent uh your friends in ramsy again uh and so going forward I I think some of the other questions will cover this but I'd really like to concentrate on our uh Public Safety issues um we'd have a very big Spirit of lawlessness that's been allowed to be pervasive especially in our neighboring County to the South and and we've seen that kind of Across America fortunately inoka county has been a leader in keeping our community safe and I'd like to keep it that way thank you thank you I'll repeat each question Miss oerry why are you running for County Commissioner and what skills and talents would you bring to the office thank you Lori so um I consider running for a county commissioner as a continuation of all of the work that I've done throughout my life uh I have uh served as both a corporate controller and as a certified public accountant uh advising other businesses but I've also been very active in the community including being president of my church uh Council C of hope uh Lutheran Church right here in Ramsey um and I've also been active in my profession I have taught classes to other CPAs I've been the past president of the American women Society of CPAs and I've also written articles for a journal that you've never heard of called the footnote which is the state Society of CPA Journal I see Chris just another CPA said yes he knows what that is so um this is really a continuation of the work that I've done and you know Anoka County is really a special place um in the past year as I've been watching Anoka County government meetings we've had a number of uh awards that Anoka County has gotten for our Parks we've gotten awards for Innovation and I'd like to make sure that we continue that and I think we need to have somebody who's got a good rounded business background who can help with doing all of those things so this is a continuation of my work to make sure that an NOA County continues to be a wonderful place to live work and play and I will approach that by making sure that we have good transparency so that you know what your government is doing because you you deserve to know that that we're collaborative so we work with each of our cities uh St Francis is a lot different from now then and uh Ramsay is different from Anoka and we need to honor those differences and make sure that we're working collaboratively with each of those communities thank you very much thank you moving on to question two and we'll begin with Miss oerry what do you believe is the greatest need of the residents of Ramsey and inoka County and how would you go about advocating for this need well I think one of the things that our city City people have certainly heard is that we really have a lot of Transportation needs here um the city of Ramsay had a lot of building that happened in the 80s and uh didn't set aside money for renovation of their roads and so that means right now we're paying for a lot of New Roads um that isn't really something that the C we as a county we can work with the cities but uh the transportation system can be very complex because we have state roads we have County Roads and then we have City roads and I will be an advocate for transportation here in enoka County um I'm pleased to see that we have Highway 10 uh finally being finished this is a a a a problem that we've been working on our city people and County people have been working on for decades to get Highway 10 uh completed and I do want to mention you know as that work is going on we have a number of businesses who are located on Highway 10 and I would urge everyone who is either watching this online or who is here to make sure that we continue to go and visit those businesses they need to have your patronage even during the difficult times of the construction that we're doing um I do want to point out and John hates this when I pointed out but he knows that it's coming that uh in the legislature he was one of the votes people that voted no for the bonding bill that brought us Highway 10 I will be a consistent advocate for um our road roads and bridges uh one of the other pieces of transportation that I'd like to see you know that's that's working on East West access we also have some needs for north south access including a re redesign of Highway 47 which has a huge amount of traffic and uh in 1993 when we moved here we were told that in 10 years there would be a bridge across the Mississippi River and I am still looking forward to working on getting that bridge built so that we can alleviate some of the congestion that we see on Highway 169 thank you Mr Heinrich what do you believe is the greatest need of the residents of Ramsey and enoka County and how would you go about advocating for this need support for Law and Order is our biggest need in inoka County uh we have uh a county to the south of us here that has not done that I know I mentioned this earlier but it's so important uh so I'm the candidate that's endorsed by law enforcement Minnesota police and Peace Officers Association I received that endorsement uh because during the time when push came to shove in St Paul so many people cozied right up to the anti- defund the police people and so this was very harmful uh for our community as well and so I look forward to working with Chief cers here in city of Ramsey Chief Peterson city of anela and our County Sheriff Brad Weiss I'll tell you what Sheriff Stewart really set the bar high as far as law order and keeping our community safe and now Brad Weiss is fully capable and and I think doing a fantastic job so far he's been uh he was the police chief of Rapids for over a decade I believe I've done ride alongs with uh the Ramsey police department and the inoa police department and the sheriff's office I'm familiar with the problems that they deal with every day we cannot wne on our support for law enforcement so I see that is the the biggest issue that we are going to face fortunately like I said we've been in great hands and so we haven't had the types of problems that we've seen some of our neighbors have uh but we need to keep that uh that support and so we don't have this pervasive Spirit of lawlessness start to Prevail uh so this helps everybody we saw in Minneapolis uh multiple businesses burn houses burned down and people of all communities very affected uh by a lack of leadership a severe lack of leadership at the at the state level and the county level there in henpen and so I want to do my part to keep that from happening making sure that we're funding our County Attorney's Office to hold criminals accountable and funding our Sheriff's Office and giving them the needs that they they desire as well thank you moving to question three we'll begin with Mr Heinrich 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 my opponent talked about a bill a bonding bill that was um the reason she brings that up is because it was my bill that I Chief authored for Highway 10 uh she's right we had worked on this this is a community effort for multiple years um but when I became when I got to the state legislature I uh had a a lunch meeting with uh the Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and met with others and got along with them well and I requested to be on the transportation committee for those of you that don't know when you get elected to the state legislature if you're in the minority you don't get to choose what committees you're on they they they tell you where to go but I was very fortunate to be and honored to be able to be put on the State Transportation committee because I knew after talking to the residents of city of Ramsey and en NOA that we needed some action on Highway 10 just down the road here we had um uh the kitchen table restaurant uh I actually brought the transportation committee out to Ramsey we sat down at the table with city of Ramsey and the full Transportation committee minus one member I think but the chair was there the vice chair and multiple other uh dfl members as well and we talked about the needs on Highway 10 and we crafted a bill Chief authored the bill uh it went before the legislature we were able to pass it in committee one thing that happens sometimes in uh in St Paul is they pile together I'm sure you guys have heard it Omnibus bills they pile together hundreds of things and so my opponent's right she has me there I voted no on that ultimate bonding bill that had hundreds of things in it um now I disagree a lot of the time with my Republican colleagues there I wasn't a rubber stamp like we see a lot of people in St Paul do that I think for myself and I make the decisions that I think are right and that's how I vote and that's how I continue to vote in the future thank you Miss oerry 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 well you know I think we're we've continued to work on uh as I had mentioned before finishing Highway 10 uh we want to make sure that we uh patronize the business bus that are on Highway 10 so that we keep our businesses here in Ramsey and I just have to to mention you know it's one thing to say you did all of this work we don't know what work my opponent did on the highway 10 Bill we do know that when the chance came to actually vote Yes for it he voted no so I don't know what he did in the background but I do know that when if you actually are supporting something you should vote for it um the Bible says make your yeses mean yes and your NOS mean no and you know and I'm a certified public accountant I've been a tax accountant for a long time I've had to give people good news and I've had to give them bad news and I'm a pretty straight shooter I'm not going to tell you one thing and then do something completely different and so that's that's all I'm going to say about Highway 10 but we are also working on Highway 65 here in Anoka County I'd like to get more work done on the bridge and as I said uh Highway uh 47 really needs a redesign um I had the privilege of talking to one of the residents who who lives along Highway 47 she's living in the house that her parents used to have and she grew up there when she was growing up Highway 47 St Francis Boulevard had two to three cars per hour and that is that's a lot different from what we're seeing today and so what we what my biggest concern is that as a a business owner I think that when we do things we need to do them right the first time and I'd like to see us redesign Highway 47 with a plan for the continued development that we're seeing up north in St Francis and in now then so that we can handle the traffic of the future thank you question four we'll begin with Miss oerry what is your vision for the County's development over the next five years well as I mentioned before we live in really a special place here in enoka county and I'd like to make sure that as a county we continue the great Innovation that we've we have had in the past part of that means that we keep our employees um in the past an NOA County uh tried to get by by not giving people raises not uh not actually paying people what they were getting paid in other counties and so we became known as a place where you train people so people got their training in inoka county and then they went some other places and they didn't just go to a hennipen and Ramsey County small counties like Isanti County uh were stealing our employees because they they could live here drive that direction and be paid better and so we need to make sure that we continue to train and keep our employees and keep them motivated so that we continue to have uh great work done here in inoka County um I as I mentioned we need to finish some of the roads that we're working on Highway 10 and Highway 65 we need to work collaboratively with our cities as they continue to develop and one of the key things that I'd like to work on a vision that I have is that we have a more transparent government uh earlier in uh uh September we or actually it was in August we had a vote on the new jail and an NOA County needs a new jail we know that that's coming but rather than listen to the citizens of Anoka uh the County Board in less in less than 24 hours before a board meeting added the site for the new jail to a board agenda that is not transparency we need to give people an opportunity to know what's happening in their own districts in their own cities so they can help us make the best decisions so those are things that I'd like to see as we work forward in this special place in inoka County thank you Mr Heinrich what is your vision for the County's development over the next five years well we need to make sure that inoka County stays a lucrative place for businesses to come do business and families to come live and individuals to to live here and work and play in anela County uh one thing that I'd like to uh advocate for is bringing Metro Mobility to the city of ramsy this is something I worked on a little bit as a state legislator um it hasn't happened yet um but I have those relationships in St Paul that I spent four years building and some good trust relationships uh with with Democrats and Republicans uh and so I'd like to continue that I also uh Chief authored a bill for Highway 4 7 uh which got passed as a $50 million uh towards a bridge over those railroad tracks which are considered the most dangerous in the state now two weeks after I submitted the bill that I drafted um Governor walls showed up and did a press conference there he didn't call me and invite me but but we were able to highlight uh the need there uh and so I feel like I've been a great advocate for uh for our transportation needs uh here in inoka County um you know I'm going to be the uh the person that's check on regulation and over taxation when I talk to Ramsey residents you know one of the biggest concerns right now um aside from our uh Transportation safety upgrades that we need aside from uh support from for for Law and Order is uh just the the extra taxation they've had our Ramsey residents here have had to you know throughout inoka County in our state frankly have had to really tighten our belts and um under the uh the Biden economy and the inflation it's been really tough for people and so I want to get uh to the County Board and pour over uh the different needs in the budget and as we administer what comes down from the federal government and from our state legislature um we need to be uh fiscally conservative and make sure we're looking out for people's money it's not government's money it's yours um also another thing I'd like to do is look at upgrading uh our software and our hardware and our computer systems at the county level as well thank you we will now move to audience questions each can Cate will have one minute to respond the first question is as follows some of our commissioners are full-time and some are parttime keeping their present jobs will you be a full-time commissioner and give up your regular job we'll begin with Mr Hinrich well my regular job is I help run a asphalt company and uh and so I will continue to do that um I don't have to uh punch a clock at the at the company that I run and so I'll be able to uh to do the uh County Commissioner job but yeah that should be a concern for people is what time what type of time commitment frankly when I was in St Paul I I wished that uh some people weren't there to vote because I didn't like how they voted so um I will show up for every meeting I'm supposed to be at and work uh off hours and on hours uh to advocate well for an NOA County as your next commissioner thank you I'll repeat the question Miss oerry some of our commissioners are full-time and some are part-time keeping their present jobs will you be a full-time commissioner and give up your regular job the short answer is that I will be a full-time commissioner this the Anoka County has a budget of approximately $365 million a year that means that we're spending a million dollars a day on infrastructure Social Services records all of that sort of thing we have 2200 employees and a diverse uh group of businesses including um records as I mentioned infrastructure we have a lot of decisions that we need to be able to make and we need to be able to dive deep into that now I mentioned before that I am a certified public accountant I'm one of those nerdy people who gets into spreadsheets and looks at how we what processes we're using and and how we're we're working with people I want to tell you that the Anoka County Commissioners make something in excess of $90,000 a year I think that that for $90,000 a year you should have a full-time commissioner and my promises to you is that if you elect me I will earn thank you we will now move to the next question and we'll begin with Miss oerry Miss Barry what are your thoughts on the bigger the government the smaller the individual well I that question came up in a previous forum and I thought that was very interesting because I I think a lot of us see government as a check on uh some of the forces that come against us so we have a problem in this country with monopolies and those monopolies are costing us a lot of money they are are monopolies in drug prices there we're starting to see monopolies in terms of ownership of homes and rental apartments and government is has an opportunity to provide a check on those monopolies so that you actually can uh work and live a good life and so I I I really don't see that uh that uh government makes us small I think government protects us from polluters it protects us from people who from junk fees that people people want to be stripping out of our pockets constantly and so government uh is us we are the ones who decide on what our government is and I think that government does a great job of actually protecting us from some of the forces that would make us very small thank you Mr Heinrich what are your thoughts on the following the bigger the government the smaller the individual that's up uh I've never heard that quote before I'm not sure if somebody just came up with it or if that's quoted by some famous economist in the but I'll tell you what if you look and you draw a line through history and you find where the government uh was very large you generally find greater the poverty and where the government is smaller and the people are empowered you find greater freedom and so that this is a a basic principle that we've seen um we can see it in in Venezuela uh throughout Europe uh uh Russia the USSR um the difference between East and West Germany one the government was very restrictive mandative uh probably under good intentions a lot of people with great intentions probably wanted to make sure that uh it was a right that everybody had food so they made a law that everybody gets food well six million people ended up Starving in the USSR uh because of that uh type of mindset so I am a free market Economist um uh I believe in free markets working um you can choose to patronize a business or not and so if a business isn't doing a good job for people you're not going to go there if a business is uh is acting racist if you feel it you're not going to go there I'm not either and so oh my time's up thank you thank you that's why I'm here be nice to have more time sometimes for these tough questions thank you yes thank you for your understanding we will now go to a one minute closing statement from each candidate and we'll begin with John Hinrich well thanks again to the city of Ramsey and and Lori and Metro North chamber for hosting this forum and others I think this is my opponents and I have this is our fourth maybe there's still another one or two to come we're starting to get to know each other and uh and how to respond in the different things but uh uh but my opponent's been uh very gracious and you know I do have a record um my opponent doesn't have a legislative record uh she has ran as the D dfl endorsed candidate multiple times for the legislature on 2016 she was an electorate um for Hillary Clinton one of only 10 uh dfl activists that were sent to uh to vote for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election um and so our ideas are probably a lot different from each other but I do believe that we both care about our community I think I'm the best option for you in city of Ramsey and in NOA County for your county commissioner giving my given my experience and my support for Law and Order their support for me and my uh ability to uh run a business and still make the correct votes as a county commissioner for you thank you thank you betso Berry you have one minute for closing statement thank you so much um I'd just like to remind members of the audience and uh those of you watching online that this is a nonpartisan position and uh you know our job as County Commissioners is to take care of the residents of Anoka County and uh you know and I just I I always uh bristle at uh my opponent's attempts to try to make this a partisan uh position because I think that that vote on Highway 10 and other things were some of the worst parts of partisanship I am a business owner a former business owner I am a business adviser um I am willing to work full-time to dig into what we need to do and how we can continue the great Innovation that we've had here in inoka County I uh am am working hard to represent you and I promise that I will work just as hard as your commissioner as I'm working to become your commissioner um I uh look forward to serving with all of you and I ask for your vote if if you want more information about me you can look at my website bso.org thank you thank you this concludes our form 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 [Music]