[0:05] [Music] [0:24] welcome to this airing of candidate [0:26] videos produced by League of Women [0:28] Voters Bloomington with a special thank [0:30] you to the city of Bloomington for the [0:31] video production League of Women Voters [0:34] is a nonpartisan organization that never [0:36] endorses candidates or political parties [0:39] the league is dedicated to defending [0:41] democracy and empowering voters to make [0:43] informed decisions at The Ballot Box in [0:45] these videos you will hear candidates [0:47] for henen County Commissioner District 5 [0:49] the henen County Board is made up of [0:51] seven Commissioners each representing a [0:53] district within the county The District [0:55] 5 commissioner represents the residents [0:57] of Richfield Bloomington Southern [1:00] Prairie and a portion of South [1:02] Minneapolis County Commissioner [1:03] candidates run as nonpartisan and [1:06] elected Commissioners serve four year [1:08] terms both candidates who filed to run [1:10] for the District 5 commissioner seat [1:12] were invited to produce candidate videos [1:33] welcome my name is Ja Beck I'm running [1:35] for County Commissioner this year my [1:38] past experience is in 2004 I ran for [1:41] County Commissioner and in 2014 I also [1:45] ran for County [1:46] Commissioner in 2009 I was elected by [1:50] the people of hopen County to serve on [1:52] the Soil and Water Board which I served [1:54] on until January [1:57] 2013 in November of 2011 I also ran for [2:01] mayor of Golden [2:02] Valley I have a special plan that's [2:06] going to come out on July 1st so I can [2:08] only give a few details [2:11] tonight my number one issue is housing [2:14] stability and shelter stability it is [2:17] the number one factor in the race so I [2:22] plan on building 50,000 new lowincome [2:25] units and I'm going to start off in five [2:28] different cities in hopan County [2:30] County 5,000 of the units are going to [2:33] be multifam units that cost 750 a month [2:37] in rent the other 5,000 are going to be [2:40] single and double for one to two people [2:42] that cost $600 in rent these units will [2:46] be located in Eden Prairie Edina [2:49] Richville Bloomington and South [2:53] Minneapolis I realize that if people [2:55] don't have housing stability they have [2:58] nothing today number two education [3:02] stability I will be increasing funding [3:04] for schools I'm not going to be cutting [3:07] any school funding we will be adding [3:09] teachers we'll be adding [3:11] counselors I want every student to be [3:14] able to study the Arts music band [3:17] theater play [3:19] sports science projects everything [3:23] everything I did when I was growing [3:25] up number two number three employment [3:28] stability [3:30] I like to use the term modern day 2024 [3:33] racism practices that are going on by a [3:36] lot of our cities in the western suburbs [3:38] what I mean by that is [3:40] simple a lot of these cities want low [3:43] income people to work in their cities [3:46] but they don't want the same low-income [3:47] people to live in their cities they [3:50] would rather have them live [3:52] elsewhere and so I am going to change [3:55] that policy [4:03] number three I'd like to quote a thing [4:05] number four from Lincoln in November [4:08] 19th of [4:10] 1863 Four score and S years ago our [4:14] fathers and mothers brought [4:17] forth upon this continent a new nation [4:21] concerned in liberty and dedicated to [4:23] the proposition that all people are [4:26] created equal so let me repeat that last [4:29] sentence [4:30] all people are created equal that means [4:34] transgender queer gay lesbians straight [4:38] fat skinny tall that they are all [4:42] created equal and they'll be create [4:44] treated equally if I'm elected [4:48] commissioner number two of that that [4:50] this nation under God shall have a new [4:52] birth of freedom and that the government [4:55] of the People by the people for the [4:57] people shall not [5:03] perish from the earth let me repeat the [5:06] government is of the People by the [5:09] people for the people what that means is [5:12] everybody in Hanahan County should have [5:14] the right to go to City Hall go before [5:17] the mayor and make the mayor when they [5:20] ask a question not be told you have two [5:22] minutes that's it and not be told oh you [5:25] know what we'll get back to you no [5:28] people have a right to go in [5:30] ask the mayor like a city why don't we [5:32] have light rail in our city why do you [5:35] not want to build Light Rail how are [5:37] workers going to get to like France [5:39] Avenue for all the [5:40] jobs people have a right to get answers [5:43] when they go in not to be told to come [5:46] back later and we'll let you [5:48] know and I don't know if a lot of you [5:51] have been to the hopen county [5:53] boardroom it is not a friendly place you [5:57] come up there and you might be lucky to [5:59] get three [6:01] minutes it is one of the hardest places [6:04] to get an answer from a county [6:06] commissioner they just don't want to [6:08] tell you anything you can ask questions [6:10] you can bring facts and that but when [6:14] one of their contractors come up I don't [6:16] want to mention their name but they're [6:19] in [6:20] Richfield and they're one that put out [6:22] lowincome people 700 units in [6:26] 2016 when they go to the county [6:28] boardroom it's like kissing [6:48] cousins I'm Debbie gotel currently the [6:50] henpen county commissioner and the [6:52] candidate for District 5 my district is [6:55] Richfield Bloomington and Southern [6:57] portions of Eden Prairie south of [6:59] Highway 62 and portions of Southwest [7:02] Minneapolis first I want to thank the [7:04] legal Women Voters over 100 Years of [7:07] advocacy and expanding and strengthening [7:10] our democracy we need informed voters [7:13] and transparent Grassroots organizations [7:16] like these more than ever I'm going to [7:18] open by talking about the budget it's [7:21] $2.7 billion annual budget second only [7:24] to the state's budget providing services [7:27] such as human services public Public [7:29] Health Public Safety Public Works [7:32] elections and libraries and much more [7:36] disparity reduction is a driving [7:38] principle that we embed in our budget [7:41] but all the work that we do that is why [7:44] I'm running as my campaign that makes [7:46] sure we continue to drive this work [7:49] forward that no one is Left Behind in [7:52] henpen county in 2023 alone we invested [7:57] $191 million in affordable housing and [8:00] Housing [8:02] Services as Vice chair of the County [8:04] Board and chair of the budget committee [8:06] I help to guide approximately 246 [8:09] million of the American Rescue plan [8:11] dollars towards uninterrupted delivery [8:14] of essential Human Services throughout [8:17] our pandemic as of May this year more [8:20] than 173 million has gone out the door [8:23] to help pay for programming that has [8:25] helped our residents emerge stronger and [8:28] more resilient spending dollars on [8:30] issues related to homelessness [8:32] employment Public Safety mental health [8:35] and investing heavily in our police [8:37] embedded social worker programs [8:39] throughout our communities we also [8:41] invested in school-based mental health [8:44] and C mental health awareness campaign [8:46] with over 2 million impressions [8:48] digitally on the housing front we're [8:51] working on affordable housing [8:53] stabilization and Supportive Housing [8:55] Programs to make homelessness rare brief [8:59] and non reoccurring right now more [9:02] people are finding housing than have [9:04] come into our shelters in may we reached [9:07] a major milestone in henip Pen's [9:10] homeless to housing program with 1,000 [9:13] individuals [9:15] housed our program Elevate works with [9:18] local business and [9:19] entrepreneurs they are the lifeblood of [9:21] our regional economy and I'm doing [9:24] everything I can to support sustain [9:28] small businesses and creation of their [9:30] enhancement that they give to the [9:32] economic growth through our Economic [9:34] Development policies at the county [9:36] Elevate hanapin programs connects local [9:39] businesses to free tools 2700 of those [9:44] businesses have accessed over [9:47] 31,000 hours of no cost one-on-one [9:50] consulting or learning opportunities 133 [9:55] businesses have accessed 25 million in [9:58] financing through our advisor Network [10:01] impacting over 500 jobs and finally [10:05] climate change climate change is the [10:07] existential threat of our time and my [10:10] background as an environmental engineer [10:12] is Central to helping hpin create its [10:14] first ever climate action plan passed in [10:17] 2021 as a board representative of the [10:20] regional partnership on waste and energy [10:23] I consistently fight to enhance [10:26] Partnerships and find resources to move [10:29] our waste system closer to the county [10:31] zero waste goals at hennipen County our [10:35] carbon sequestration goal is to plant 1 [10:38] million trees by 2030 in collaboration [10:42] with our local Partners we estimate that [10:45] 472,000 trees will have been planted by [10:48] the end of [10:50] 2024 no matter where you live in the [10:53] Fifth District I'm advocating For You on [10:57] the henpen County board so that no one [11:00] is Left Behind in henpen County I want [11:03] to hear about your ideas on how we can [11:06] ensure that our policies are working for [11:09] all of us you can learn more about my [11:12] campaign and get involved at [11:14] www. deig [11:16] go.com and if you have questions please [11:19] email us at the email is info duot [11:24] tell.com we'd love to hear from you and [11:26] connect [11:29] thank you to the candidates for [11:31] appearing in these videos thank you [11:33] audience for viewing these videos voters [11:35] remember to vote in the general election [11:38] on or before November 5th to learn more [11:40] about voting and registering to vote go [11:42] to the Minnesota Secretary of State's [11:44] website at MN votes.gov