e okay now I am sorry um if you take your seats we're about to start the council forum and I'm here to welcome you I'm Sharon bin I do remember my name president of the League of Women Voters Minon Eden Prairie and Hopkins I'd like to welcome our candidates and our audience and also our viewers on behalf of the League of Women Voters we are 104 years old volunteer nonpartisan organization which encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government works to increase the understanding of major public policy issues and influences public policy through education and advocacy the league does not support or oppose any political party or candidate the views expressed in this forum are those of the candidates and not of the lead Le of Women Voters is our purpose in sponsoring forums like this one uh to provide you with an opportunity to hear candidates discuss face Toof face the issues that are important to you the questions in this forum came from voter citizens this is also um a nonpartisan forum and we ask the campaign buttons or campaign t-shirts not be worn in here nor signs or literature be distributed during the form Forum please sence silence your electronic devices and now I'd like to introduce your moderator for this evening's Forum Deb Brinkman of St Louis Park League of Women Voters hello thank you everyone tonight's forum is provided to give you the opportunity to learn about the candidates running for Eden Prairie City Council their background motivations and goals in relationship to the seat that they seek candidates will be answering questions submitted in advance of or questions that were submitted during the Forum to the extent possible these questions have been reviewed by an impartial committee familiar with the issues It's Our intention in good faith to select questions that represent interests expressed by the voters that are focused on the future and not based on hindsight that are relevant to the office being sought that are not personal in nature hostile embarrassing or unclear questions will be addressed to all candidates and may be Consolidated or edited there's never enough time to cover all of the issues in a setting such as this if your questions were not addressed please feel free to contact the candidate directly the rules for this evening's Forum are as follows candidates will be allowed an opening statement with a maximum of two minutes during the question and answer period answers will be limited to one minute unless designated by the moderator opening statements will be given in alphabetical order and questions will be answered in a rotating order a 15c warning will be given to the candidates the candidates will also be given the opportunity for a one minute closing statement candidates please finish your sentence quickly when you see the stop sign or you'll be interrupted we ask that there be no demonstrations in support of or opposition to the candidates or their positions and that the candidates be allowed the fulltime to get their points across recordings of this event whether in person or by computer may not be used without without the express written approval of the league the league will only allow a audio video of this event to be broadcast its entirety except by the media reporting on this event if you have a question please write it on a 3x5 card that's available from our volunteers and raise your hand to have it picked up the candidates running for Eden Prairie City Council are niilo babovic P narayanam Lisa Tumi Andrew to okay um these seats are all at large you'll be selecting two candidates when you vote in November the city council of Eden Prairie consists of four city council members and the mayor we'll begin with the Eden Prairie City Council candidates to give twom minute introductory remarks Mio we'll start with you thank you so much good evening um I'd like to start off by thanking the League of Women Voters for organizing this forum here tonight of course all of you for taking time out of your busy days um whether you're in person or online to you know let us all speak to you uh to let us introduce ourselves it's truly an honor so thank you so much for being here my name is Mio babovic I'm a 34 year-old attorney and uh as you know I'm running for Eden Prairie City Council the reason that I'm here my drive uh to run for office is really one that is to invest myself into the community that I know I'm going to be a part of for a very long time Eden Perry is a wonderful City it has an immense amount of Green Space biodiversity it's a city leader in clean energy it's clean it's beautiful it's safe it's the reason my wife and I moved here at all and I want to be a part of that I want to help create and Foster that Community the Eden Prairie I know is diverse there's so many voices to be heard and I view the job as a city council member as one of public service right it doesn't really matter what I want or what I like or what I don't like it's about listening it's about understanding and that's what I want to do so I'm here today to help you you know see that about me that I'm here to listen I'm here to understand and I hope so much that you'll give me the opportunity to be your voice and to help represent you and you know build a prosperous Eden Prairie for many years to come so thanks again I very much look forward to it thank you PG thank you to thank you to League of Women Voters for inviting me to this event I'm so honored to be here my name is pgan I have been living in Eden prair last 25 years we have raised our two boys here now we are raising our grandchildren I have I have been serving on the city council last six years I'm a businessman and entrepreneur I have experience of handling 50 plus million dollar in City budget and more and currently I am the founder and CEO of SMI Force Inc a Ed Ed based AI company I love you PR I have been a volunteer public servant for last 20 years I served the human right and diversity commission for six years I served six years of Ed PR Community Foundation I served six years on Southwest Transit board I served on am rotary as a member I am a me I'm I'm a member of Edom pre allance Club I am one of the founding member of Ed PR local news in my last 20 years I acted and helped with many nonprofit serving EDM as you can see I'm truly an EDM volunteer and a servant why I'm running the third time I want to make sure EDM pries Park pristine Lakes extensive bike path abandoned trees clean water roads are maintained well and I want to keep our top notch police and fire department I will collaborate closely with the city staff city manager to ensure EP Sky attribute to pres preserve and enhance thank you for voting for me in November 5th thank you PG and Lisa good evening everyone thank you to the League of Women Voters for for hosting us tonight and thank you to my fellow candidates for your willingness to run for city council my name is Lisa Tumi and I'm running for reelection in 2020 I was fortunate enough to win a seat on the council over the past almost four years I learned so much and feel that I've made a positive impact on our city Eden Prairie is doing extremely well with strong business and Resident support we have an award-winning city manager and fantastic employees the city is consistently ranked in the top 100 workplaces in the state I really enjoy working with my fellow council members and the mayor I'm proud of all that we have accomplished including passing an inclusion Area Housing ordinance adopting Sustainable Building standards passing the race Equity initiative establishing an affordable housing trust maintaining low taxes and sensible budgets enhancing our city parks and trails continuing to plan for Light Rail and of course continuing to support police and fire another highlight of the last few years has been the town hall meetings that we have held with different groups within the city it gives us an opportunity to connect with the residents and listen that is what we're here for I have a proven track record of deep involvement in community philanthropic and safety efforts I still serve on the board of directors as The Treasure of the prop shop I am the President of the Eden Prairie crime prevention and criminal apprehension fund I repres I represent the city on the 494 quor commission the municipal legislative commission and the Southwest quor Management committee I've been a member of the Eden pre lest lines for the past 22 years and am a member of the Eden pre Optimus Club in the latest City survey we have excellent rankings in many areas including safety economic health city services and overall quality of life this is only accomplished through the hard work of City staff and the council I love living in Eden Prairie and hope to continue my service working hard for the residents of this great Community thank you thank you Lisa and Andrew good evening my name is Andrew chaper um I'd like to thank league league of women's voters for inviting everyone here today and everyone coming seems like a good turnout um I am a 35-year-old father of four and I live in this community and my children are here and when I first adopted my children I saw that I wanted to move here and living here since December of 2017 so it'll be 7 years this year and the last couple years I've been looking and being more trying to be more find out more about my community so I wanted to participate in local politics um if I can try something out and I think I can do I think I don't know but you know I want to I want to improve my community for my children that live in this community and um I'm a respectful person and like to see where it goes from there thank you Andrew now we will start with our question and responses again we'll have one minute responses to each of the questions Andrew we'll start with you what is your background and experience that qualifies you to represent citizens of Eden Prairie on the city council please State how long you've lived in Eden Prairie so I've lived in E Prairie for seven years um as of December as I was saying um I am a resident ofan Prairie and I don't have a lot of I'll be honest my I studied political science in college and I have lived in this community and seen all the great things that are in there but I I think just as someone that is there coming from the community and seeing what I could do best yeah thank you Andrew and Lisa sorry um I think what qualifies me is I'm this is I'm running for re-election so I already have experience as a council member but also I've been very very involved in the community for the past 203 years my husband and I have lived here and um and I was the past executive director for Meals on Wheels I've served on the Planning Commission um I volunteered for a ton of organizations from let's go fishing to the foundation I've sat on the board for the Eden prey lines Foundation um and my background is finance and marketing so before I got into the nonprofit sector 25 years ago that's what I did so that's it yeah I guess thank you thank you Lisa and Mio thank you well uh this is my big knock I've been res in Prairie for about 9 months so I'm a uh I'm a long transplant um you know I was born in ex Yugoslavia I was grew up on the East Coast uh kind of became an adult in southern Minnesota and uh spent some time living in the Minneapolis Metro so I'm very excited to be able to set my roots down here which is honestly why I'm here I shoot for the moon um now you know I'm an attorney I I spend my entire day reading statutes trying to understand what legislatures are doing and why and honestly thinking about better ways to do it and how to impact it I'm on the ground seeing how these things are done um I spend my day trying to learn new things and I think I'm quite good at it um so I think I'd be pretty qualified to help understand and help kind of Usher in uh ordinances regulations thank you thank You Mio all right our next question we'll talk about multi excuse Excuse Me Miss thank you PG's thank you so do I get minutes now sorry about that thank you PG thank you um it's I've been here 25 years out 25 years 20 years I served this city I met thousands of people every event I meet people I was there shaking hand and learning what the city want and I think I have a very good understanding what the city is and also lot six years I've been in city council work very closely with the staff the police chief the fire chief all of that and give me the insight as well and the nonprofit the the my education wise I have a masters in electrical engineer I'm a I am a uh businessman and entrepreneur so I can look at a problem in multiple facet and able to solve and for me I always say 1 + 1 equal to two never three or one and a half because that engineering mind helps me to analyze the problem work with the people and solve and make it a better place to live thank you give me opportunity to speak thank you PG and PG we'll start with you with this next question we'll talk about multimodal Transportation what is your vision for walking cycling and public transportation for our city and what is your plan to realize that vision we'll begin with you PG oh okay I didn't know thank you um first I've been serving in Southwest Transit board last six years and that's one of the Premier public transportation um organization we transport around half a million people in in this area three three cities um for example in the in the chest the state fair we transport almost 100,000 people so I'm a big fan of public transportation and as Eden Prairie as a city council uh Miss mumi said and others we all really care about the walking path the bike path the the the ability to people to move around in Eden pree and we work very hard any kind of development come up make sure there is enough access in terms of bike pass and so on and uh that's my answer thank you PG we'll go to Maho uh thank you well I mean I'm Pro biking I'm Pro walking uh it's the crazy thing about moving to the suburbs is that everything's pretty spread out right Eden Prairie's a massive land mass and it's super difficult to connect that um by bike trails uh or walking paths but I I think that there's probably more that can be done uh whether it means you know slowly diverting funds to build New Paths um incorporating bike Lanes into into roads that are existing trying to make it a more cyclist friendly Community uh and of course the same thing with public transportation I think uh you know As the World Turns Greener we want to encourage people to not be driving themselves everywhere and trying to limit um you know trying to limit air pollution so I think there's a lot of variable Solutions of course it costs tax dollars so it's probably a slow imp implementation thing but maybe you start with just encouraging residents to to bike and making it easier for him to do it thank you thank you mahilo and we'll go to Andrew um I I see my kids hop on bikes ride down the trails Ride walk to the park and everything else and I think in the neighborhood communities if you're in your own little neighborhood it's very easy to get around walk where you need to go getting a little bit farther distances like if my kids want to go to the mall like that that's where it's a little bit there's bike paths but it's a little further um I think one thing is Ian PR doesn't have like a city bus like Bloomington does or like that where it's it's not part of the Metro but I think what people kind of miss out as a shout out Southwest Transit is amazing they have the prime service which picks people up takes every else all the good benefits I have that I would continue doing that because it's it's pretty amazing um but yeah I think we just continue how we're doing and and improve thank you Andrew and Lisa so multimodal Transportation um we have to talk about light rail is coming to our city by 2027 hopefully um and Southwest Transit was uh testing autonomous or they're going to be testing autonomous vehicles to get from the stations to it's what is it short like one or two miles um out and that'll be interesting they're going to have drivers in the vehicles for the first 6 months but then they will be autonomous also uh I think Southwest uh service is really great Southwest bus service and um metrom Mobility we have and we also have a um an an outstanding um bike we have outstanding bike trails and you know there are some areas where bikes can be on on the road so yeah I think there's a lot of ways to get around it is also very spread out so thank you thank you Lisa all right um we will switch topics and talk about decision making next Lisa will start with you for this next question describe a recent city council decision you agree with and one with which you disagree with if any and speak um and talk a little bit about why Wow a recent city council um I I haven't really disagreed with any of the decisions that we've made as a council I've never voted against anything we um do look at things and perhaps don't don't approve some programs oh I know here's one here's a project there's a project um off of Pioneer Trail and Valley Road where the road was supposed to be connected there was a sign that it was going to be connected it was there for 202 years the sign was however you know after talking to the neighbors and listening to them at first when I first saw the project I thought yes that road should go through but after listening to the neighbors and hearing their reasoning and talking to a bunch of people you know what it's good that that Road's not going to go through so we decided not to put that road through but we still continued with the project of the town homes that are on there that's one instance I can think of Thank you Lisa and Andrew I I think the city does a pretty good job at their decisions um but if there's something I would disagree with is that it seems like there are there was a apartment complex that was trying to be built over by Menards and they got turned down and I'm for modly priced housing in me Prairie it's not just affordable pric housing or luxury housing I would like like moderately priced housing where just a normal middle class family can go there or even like the middle class couple that's coming to start a family can live in apartment for a while where they're building everything up and I would like to see more of that in Ian Prairie and I think that there's been a couple decisions that have not been in that line so thank you Andrew n PG can you repeat the question one more time yes describe a recent city council decision you agree with and one dis one with which you disagree with if any and state why so I I think it's important to highlight the process beginning of the year that the staff and city council we can to lay out the strategy say what's important to us all of us individually then we consolidate that strategy and that became the process in terms of taking uh the actions in every city council meeting we have an awesome team team kind of work together as a line and and respect each other so lot of times we don't have a lot of Chaos in our city council meetings like other cities has it it works we see each other we we don't agree all the time but we rationalize it and we understands it the end of the day we get unanimous vote like Lisa was saying earlier that one wrote example that when the the residents came and we listened to their voice we decided that is not the right thing for the city and we stopped thank you PG em Millo thank you um you know I'm pretty sure the the 2025 budget was just approved uh with a with a increase in tax levies uh to cover for uh firefighter funding extra firefighter um bodies I guess I there's a better way to say it but I can't think of it off the top of my head um which I think I approve of that I honestly city services are essential to any city um Eden Prairie is doing a very good job of keeping its tax levies lower comparatively to similarly sized cities similarly priced cities and I think that's important uh keeping the quality of life is important now of course uh nobody likes a tax hike so it's a carefully made decision but I think it's more essential to make sure that the city's operating uh efficiently and that everyone's safe and comfortable here thanks thank you Maho and Maho we'll start with you for this next question and it has to do with the budget so a little bit more clarification do you support the Eden Prairie budget and what might you want to change in the budget all right I segue myself right in here um yeah I I support it I far be it for me to challenge the decision this um Council made I I mean they are significantly more informed to uh all the decision-making steps they have access to the various departments um so it's probably not very fair for me to take pot shots at them about something that I agree or disagree with I understand that creating a city budget is an incredibly complicated decision-making process um there's a ton of departments that are vying for upgrades more manpower uh and the like and and for my review of the budget you know I'm an attorney because I'm not good at math so probably don't count that for much but um it seemed very well thought through um obviously it can be Revisited at the end of the year but it seems reasonable to me so I support thanks thank you Maho and PG um yeah absolutely because we just uh uh last last council meeting we just approved the budget but I think it's important to understand the process again we we take from the strategy we narrowed down what important how do we fine tune that budget amount to different aspect and then we have a awesome staff the fin Financial staff they work very hard and experience and they come up with the the budget when we finally see it it's already went through multiple times we see before the council that two three times so when we finally came last last uh council meeting I think that we already seen multiple times so the process is very good uh we regard to my experience of questioning the budget I have dealt with the budget up to $300 million last one of the job I had at state of Minnesota I manage $120 million budget so I do understand how to handle the budget what to ask right questions and I do agree adding the fire department um headcount and the police account which make it 5.8 5.8% thank you thank you PG and Andrew I do like how the manages its budget I like that they use the municipal liquor store to offset the costs that would be paid by property taxes and that's great that we are able to do that um i' like to see similar programs kind of expanded on that type of thing um I like that we put money aside for Capital expenditures years ahead of time so we're not surprised by everything else I think we do a very good job doing the budget I like how we spend the money well and not on crazy things I like that when we got our money for the opioid uh um relief that when I was reading about that it seemed like we did proper things about adding social workers to the police force to deal with that instead of other cities doing crazy things with that money and we're doing really great things with the city with a budget and that's yeah thank you Andrew and Lisa hi um okay so we have we provide a lot of service for very little not little money but we do a really good job at at at at taking the budget and providing really good service to the residents of Eden Prairie um our our tax levy is 5.8% we have this we had the second lowest tax increase of any city of our size within henpen County and um we also always have one of the lowest tax rates of anybody of any city of our side size within the county so our budgets are comparable we spend most of our money obviously on um Public Safety and there's nothing I would change about the budget I don't think and whenever and and to the staff's um a benefit or complimenting the staff if there's a grant to be had for something they will look for it and they will try and get other funding too so they're always looking out to save money for the taxpayers Thank you Lisa all right we will switch topics now and Lisa will start with you with his next question how do you think the city should regulate the sale of cannabis um so cannabis um retailers there's going to be 16 different types of licenses available from the state and uh everything from a cultivator to a retailer to a wholesaler we can have one retailer for every 12,500 residents in the city so we can have five five or six retailers we that means we have to accept their applications for a license we can have as many as we want but we have to accept five or six I think it's five licenses I think that cannabis should be regulated like alcohol and tobacco um obviously you have to be 21 and and to be able to purchase in probably the same hours of operation as say a liquor store and also um you obviously can't drive well impaired or do anything like that and uh and yeah I think compliance checks like they do for alcohol and tobacco the police department and that's how I think cannabis should be regulated thank you thank you Lisa and Andrew I put cannabis in the same bucket as alcohol I don't drink I don't smoke but I put in the same bucket so it's as regulated the type of same way as that and in that way I I really like how we do have a municipal liquor store I think it's controversial to say I I would like to see Municipal dispensary where where if we're going to have cannabis sold in Ian Prairie the city might as well take some of that money and put towards the city to lower the tax tax burden on its residents um I'm not saying that all of it be only Municipal Canabis because that'd be really hard to do but I think it would be a missed opportunity if the city overlooked that opportunity um yeah thank you Andrew and Mio um thank you I think I I generally agree um you know if people want to use cannabis you know power to them it's getting legalized there's uh I'm not really one to come in and and add restrictions on the way that people want to live their lives uh I think it's important probably to consider where individuals are using cannabis um whether that's in Parks or around children I think that's something that's worth looking into for regulation we certainly don't want that to become an issue um but generally speaking I think that it Mak sense to allow as many businesses as will serve Eden Prairie uh if there's a demand for it then I don't see any reason to try to limit that demand or limit the supply that can serve that community and um I think it's just a matter of keeping things safe while we do that thank you Maho and PG I think this is a really timely questions because we just reviewed this last month also um there is I think allowed five different dispensary in Eden Prairie and and we're looking into one other thing we do is before we do any kind of ordinance any kind of rules we look at our neighboring cities what's working what's not working what's what's we want to do some area you don't want to be number one up friend and try out sometimes you want to stay back and see it and learn from others and that's what thing we doing and our our staff is very good at doing and I think there's some level of Regulation needed like other my fellow uh people was saying sitting here um but overall I I support uh having cannabus dispensary in need and pray thank you PG all right um we our next question we'll switch topics and we'll talk about Public Safety PG we'll start with you for this question what Public Safety challenges exist in Eden Prairie and how would you address them so there's a two excuse me there's a two aspect that we look at it one side that we have the cost going up but that's not related to Major crime there's something to do with the household so we increase the social worker aspect in the in the police department that's the right way rather than policemen adding to the budget the other side we looked at the firefighters we we just finished an analysis to say what is the worst scenario from a fire station to the worst point in Edan Prairie and the studies shows sometimes 12 minutes to get there and what everybody recommend is you need to be like 3 minutes to save somebody's life so so I'm big fan of increasing the budget to add the f Fighters and the police to support the um okay that's it thank you Maho thanks um I mean since covid alcohol and addiction rates have been on the rise I think that's definitely something that needs to be talked about and addressed frankly I think so much of that could be solved by education um you know you can there's you can there's so many preventative measures to address these types of things and I think that you got to start with the Community First and you can do that from the inside out um and so you know that could start as easily as you know hosting workshops or informative sessions or um kind of allowing more more neutral uh abstinence groups to come take place uh I know the city's obviously getting more social workers involved to law enforcement which is an important step there too um and so I think we're trending in the right direction you know it's one of those things that there's always more you can do um but I think kind of Outreach and and accessibility are our primary factors to address those kinds of problems thank you Maho and Lisa um could you repeat the question please yes what Public Safety challenges exist in Eden Prairie and how would you address them well I think we we have very well-trained police and fire departments and um I think that they do a good job of addressing any kind of issues that may come up like um P like PG brought up uh hiring a social worker we're going to get another one actually um those are paid for by the county they're not paid for by the state or by the city uh and uh that takes a lot of the um work off of the officer's plate that the social worker can do follow-up calls and everything like that um as far as the fire department looking at it um we may at one point have to build another fire department but not for a long long time but um I I think that o overall we have fantastic um fire and police departments and we're extremely fortunate they're very well trained all of them thank you Lisa and Andrew so I I believe our uh police and fire departments do a really good job I have a story I last year I was at a adopted father's support group and we were talking about problems children with mental health everything else and the one thing that I brought up was how our Police Department we have we have all our police police I believe all our police officers are EMT trained so they come there they're EMT trained they do a lot of good things they're good here for mental health which can escalate be a lot of problem if police is coming from mental health and they're not trained I believe our Police Department is really really great and it's a great example for the rest of the Metro of how Police Department could be done correctly and I want to continue on that thank you Andrew all right our next topic will be on gun control and Andrew we'll start with you do you believe city council has a role to play in gun control um I'm not sure how they would logistically do that um just the I could see on the state level but I'm not sure how we can control guns in our own when you say gun control gun control I mean I understand like you could have gun-free zones like the mall and that type of thing but having a any weigh on people stop buying from guns like that I think that's kind of out of the city's control I wish we could control it more but it's I think it's out of their control thank you Andrew and Lisa um well there's something called the Second Amendment so we're not really able to control any kind of um anything when it comes to guns I would hopefully maybe require retailers to have them tied down or put in a a locking mechanism I'm not sure if the city can actually do that but if we can I I would love to explore that because uh you always want to practice extreme safety around guns Thank you Lisa npg um the the in terms of City only thing city can do is uh where the gun being sold we have ordinance say had to be so many feet away from the school uh from nursery and so on housing so we have some ordinance there in terms of um where to sell the gun at which stores and how far away but I think the other responsibility a city council has even though there is no Direct Control is influencing the state legislators and the federal level we interact with you know Senator household house members and so whatever the best for the emporary we should be something out of our control we should be working with our Senate and House members and federal level to fit best for the ID prary thank you and Maho yeah largely agree um you know gun control is a federal Regis Federal legislation issue um there's not a a whole lot the city can do from an ordinance standpoint right from a purely hey regulatory standpoint um I think a lot of the issues we've seen with gun violence lately nationally and locally um probably does come down to either issues with safety or issues with mental health uh and those are probably things that the city to some extent can try to offer some resources to to help with I mean again uh it's preventative things to some extent right I mean you can try to get ahead of it or or teach people science to look out for um so certainly it's it's I think worth exploring hey kind of what are you know what are the the what's the disease that's causing this let's not treat the symptoms let's go let's go beyond that and see what the city can do to offer residents um you know maybe some opportunities or resources to potentially avoid these issues down the line thank you Maho and you'll we'll start with you with this next question it's on Mental Health Resources actually so great lead in there would you advocate for access to more Mental Health Services um for Eden Prairie residents staff and or First Responders yeah I think so um there's definitely you know budgeting concerns with this stuff I mean you can't um you can only offer so much to keep the budget reasonable without having to just tax the residents to pay for all of it so I think there has to be a balance that's built into how you do these things but um you know for sure our First Responders um you know they see a lot of things that most people don't see on a day-to-day basis and I think there are lingering mental health concerns that they could use help with I mean these are the individuals who serve your community and you don't want to don't want to let them you know ruin their Futures over it so I do think that there is um to some extent the city can kind of try to lead the charge here and offer resources and offer education I think it's definitely something that's worth exploring uh for the benefit of all the residents thank you Maho PG yeah I think mental health problem is a national problem uh so I think we have to play our part um we work with the city work with and Ed Ed PR Community Foundation work around 85 nonprofit organization um in Ed serving Ed PRI and many of them are somehow related or some of them are somehow related mental health issues and so this is a big big issue and also this is the reason that we added a social worker to our uh police force so we do see more uh calls coming in related to uh that can be solve with the social worker the other part is that our Police Department take a lot of training in terms of let's say you stopping a car and and that person may have some uh physical issues and we are trained to uh handle that rather than arresting them and so on so we do take care of it through police and the fire thank you thank you PG and Andrew true I believe a lot of crime comes from unhandled mental health um I like to see how much a dollar of mental health prevention um how much that goes with doing crime I wonder if there's a statistic there that'd be interesting to look too but I think every dollar we spent on Mental Health reduces crime and if we can help support our community members to have bental better mental health we would have a we will have a better community and I don't know how we do that but I think that is worth figuring out a budget for thank you Andrew and Lisa so could you repeat the question I'm sorry yes would you advocate for access to more Mental Health Services for Eden Prairie residents staff and or first provide First Responders yes yes I would advocate for that you can't have too much um Mental Health Health Service mental health assistance um within the I know within the Eden pray police department they have something called checkup from the neck up where officers can go and talk to somebody also our chaplain program is unbelievable they're very well trained all the Chaplin that help out police department they help not only victims but they also help the police when they're going through something the E pray crime prevention fund sponsors something called the recovery assistance program where they will pay for um someone's expenses that their insurance doesn't cover if they're seeking treatment for alcohol or drug addiction and they have to meet with a police officer once a month to discuss goals and they don't meet at the police department obviously but they'll meet with them offsite and talk about things the um also we are hiring another um social worker so that's good as far as uh staff goes I think that you know anybody can hope hopefully feel free to get help whenever they want to and if they can't reach out reach out to somebody thank you thank you Lisa and PG we will start with you with this next question the topic is on partisanship city council positions are nonpartisan and support all citizens what does nonpartisan mean to you and how will you serve in a nonpartisan fashion this is a great question question um you know people ask me especially this year when you door knocking you meeting people in different July 4th and so on are you a Republican or a Democrat and I usually say I don't have the bandwidth or the knowledge really to articulate what all the thing how to solve it all the thing happening National level or state level what I care about Ed Prairie the reason I am last 20 years I'm volunteering is that I can do something about here being an engineer I'm not one of those guys just a talking I want to take into action so I listen to people I ask people what's wrong with Ed Pui I don't talk about the national politics that's a personal View and my view is I I'm here to listen to the people and see what I can do to make Edom Prairie a better place to live thank you PG and we'll go to Andrew um being nonpartisan is not being conformed to any party platform party ideal so you're to your own ideals your own thoughts and what you see around your community and what you could do best to form your own opinions and you're not oh I have to vote with the party for this or for that and I I don't agree with anyone 100% And I'm fine with doing my own opinions based off of what I see with my community and that has nothing to do with what partk you would be thank you Andrew and Lisa so I think it's important to keep in mind that when we make decisions or when we talk about things when we talk to people it's City above party we do not even think about our political affiliations when we make decisions because this the way the city is run has nothing to do with whether we're Democrats or Republicans and that's one of the reason I wanted to run for city council because we can help everybody our only concern are the residents of Eden Prairie Thank you Lisa emaho I think it's difficult for people to well you know you you vote a certain way because you think a certain way and you can't really turn off hey this is the gut check opinion but what you can do is is understand each other right and so I think it's it's super important to make sure sure you understand where everyone's coming from whether it be a fellow council member whether it be a constituent um and try to work that in but it's true right what you're working for is the best thing for the community as a whole and that has nothing to do with party lines um and so that's very easy to set aside and I think uh being nonpartisan means ignoring kind of what the end goal is outside of what's best for the city thanks thank you Maho and PG I just answer that sorry about that that could go again that's okay I got it here okay our um our next question we'll start with Maho that's where I got goofed up here we go the qu the question is on challenges if you were elected or reelected what is your biggest concern that needs addressing Andy and how would you work to solve it I want to do my best to make sure that all the diverse cultures in Eden Prairie are well represented and have an ability to prosper um you know it's it's it's crazy just how many uh different types of peoples and cultures you see driving and walking around outside of Eden Prairie and I'd love to see more representation um frankly I think we could do more community events we could encourage um you know more Multicultural get togethers or or Empower um people to kind of host their own thing maybe with some City sponsorship or something like that so I think it would be uh an excellent way to kind of uh blend in the unique culture that Eden Prairie already has um and help showcase that more because that's really kind of what makes a city a beautiful place and a community you want to grow in thank you Maho and PG the the good news is we we do a annual survey and we get 96 90 95 to 96% approval rating what we are doing how we running it but the new con some of the new things concern is I think Mello said emporary is became more diverse I'm the only minority sitting here in the city council and right here that need more attention in terms of how that Dynamic change in need PR and is not reflecting to some other cities so so that's important thing the other aspect um is very important for the city councils emporary services are awesome so we have to keep the tax low while the services are high and the last one I saw my 15 second last one is I do hear a lot of people concerned about LRT coming in here and adding crime and we will be working closely with the CH uh police chief to make sure nothing bad happened here thank you PG and Lisa I think the most pressing issue facing Eden prayer right now is the lack of affordable housing unless you have a really good job you're not going to be able to afford a house for a long time it it's affecting Mo many generations young kids are still living with their parents or they can't even move back to Eden Prairie after they've graduated from college unless they want to live with their parents also older people like we're putting the developers are putting in these homes that are that are meant for retirees but they're 7 or $800,000 and people can't sell their home they can't afford to move into to that home so they they stay put so and it's not it's not unique to Eden Prairie it's all over the United States so Eden prey what we've been doing is we've passed an inclusionary housing ordinance establish an affordable housing trust which utilizes both funding from both uh state and federal sources to help realize more affordable housing of all the projects that have gone in 20 to 25% have been affordable so that's 600 units within the last few years and um I've been told to stop thank you thank you Lisa and Andrew I I agree with Leisa I believe that there's a lack of moderate price housing for for young professionals young people in this in this city and I think it would be nice to be able to have a city where people could come in when they're younger and not come and oh I saved up money living somewhere else they come here in the 30s to buy a house but buy a house or start living here earlier in their in their careers because they have modly pric housing available to them in the city um I would love to see more price housing because that allows more people that grew up in Eden Prairie to stay in Eden Prairie allows more people to come in and get you know we don't have a a brain drain of you know we have all these educated people but they go some morals for the first couple years because they can't afford to live in any prayer when they starting off it' be nice to have places where people starting off to live thank you Andrew all right um Andrew we'll start with you with his next question so the topic is just on advocacy should the city council consider and debate foreign policy issues or events which are outside of their jurisdiction in efforts to pass symbolic resolutions why or why not if they don't have any control over it I understand having a personal opinion about it or having some sort of support but just having a s just being all with symbolic measure and like that it doesn't make sense to kind of waste our time to do that um because there's not really anything in control over it I can understand saying hey we want to raise money for Ukraine refugees or whatever it might be that's one thing but if it's just symbolic it doesn't make sense to kind of spend time on doing that thank you Andrew and Lisa I agree with Andrew if it's symbolic and um if nothing's really going to be accomplished by us supporting it then I think it might just be a waste of time thank you Lisa Maho I feel like allowing arguments like this to take place is somewhat partisan and and you know people have opinions and they um you know voting one way or the other really uh puts you in a tough spot there I'm certainly happy to allow people a forum to discuss um you know civy and try to understand one another I I don't know that the city has to get involved and or take a position um I don't know that I think that's appropriate or really effective thank you Maho and PG yeah I think I agree with all of all everybody here it's it's it's foreign policy is something that we don't have no control and I think at least I was saying it's it's it's it's I agree with that is that we wasting Council time we are elected to run the city not the world and and so our concern should be the police our concerns should be the fire our concerns should be the trails and bike path and affordable housing and uh that's our focus and we really should not be spending any time beyond that and if you have you know that's that's that's my uh view on that thank you PG all right this is uh the last question that I have for this evening and um we will start with Lisa on this question what type of Civic or nonprofit groups have you been involved with um okay so let's start from the beginning I was the executive director for Meals on Wheels for many years I served on the Community Education advisory Council the Eden Prairie Lions Foundation the um I've been an officer in the Eden pre lion Lions Club I um let's go fishing uh I've been involved with the Eden prey crime prevention and criminal apprehension fund for 16 years I've been president for the last eight years I am currently the treasur of the prop shop I have done volunteer work with many organizations I volunteered with prop onward Eden Prairie um uh the Eden Prairie Foundation I chaired a Gaya and outside of Eden prey I volunteered for uh Virginia Piper Breast Center for five years so I've basically been volunteering since my husband and I moved here from Australia in 2001 so I've been volunteering since since we landed and it's a great way to meet people in the community and usually people that volunteer are pretty nice thank you Lisa Maho I don't know if this counts but since I moved here I've donated so much money to Home Depot um no I I can't compete with list or with with Lisa's illustrious record um I've spent some time um you know working with high school students and coaching them in moot court and trying to kind of educate them about the law and what it's like to be a real grown-up attorney but I'd love to get more involved I I do plan on doing so once I uh you know finish all the home renovations or get closer to being done thank you mahilo PG um I've been here 25 years out of that 25 years I think I volunteered 20 years of that and that start with six years in human right and diversity commission I was the vice chair chair I was edenbury edenbury Community Foundation six years again Vice chair and two years in a row I was chair I was in am rotary couple of years currently I'm the Ed Lions two years in public television TPT public television board I was 10 years in Minnesota in the association of Minnesota and I've been six years in Southwest Transit Commission current and the vice chair uh and on top of it I I worked with many nonprofit organization like prop prop shop and many other ones that I am very closely tied to and I think it's uh every person in need prair should volunteer one of the organization help because City cannot do everything by increasing tax but the nonprofit does a tremendous work in IR Prairie and I hope uh everybody pitch in thank you PG and Andrew I I love the nonprofits there in inan Prairie I love going to the prop shop finding things there supporting that um when my son needed to do volunteering and stuff like that you know to try to build up his resume College I you know you volunteer the prop shop because I want him to do something in the community there I wish I had the time to be able to do all the you guys to do all the community service you guys have and hopefully I can find some time in my thing I don't have as illustrious a list as Lisa and PG here thank you Andrew now we will proceed to our closing statement again you'll each get one minute to do your closing statement and we're going to reverse the order of which we did our opening statement so Andrew we will start with you okay so I am doing running for city council a little bit differently um I am not spending any money because I don't believe that money is should be a big deal in local politics so you will not see a yard sign for me you will not see a flyer for me you will not see any of that everything I'm doing I'm doing just to see what I can do there is a no money campaign and I believe there should be money in politics I believe that I'm someone that's a Community member of Ian Prairie and want to contribute to it and see what I can do for my great city thank you Andrew and Lisa uh thank you to the league of Women Voters again for giving us all the opportunity to participate this evening over the past few years I've had the privilege of serving our community and it's been an honor I hope to continue working on your behalf one thing that I am proud of is that I've been able to help the residents of Eden Prairie I've received numerous calls from people with simple questions or comments about Road Safety or development projects or to even asking for help with more serious issues each time I was able to help them or steer them in the right direction your council members are here to serve you and if reelected I will continue to bring my dedication and Forward Thinking to the council I believe this is a great City but we need to work to keep it that way I hope to have your vote on November 5th for more information you can visit my website lisa4 ep.com or on Facebook or Instagram but I'm not that great at social media but um all my contact information is on my website please contact me with any questions or comments anytime that you might have thank you thank you Lisa and PG my name is PG Nan you have seen yart sign say pg4 EP and if you're confused that's me this is my third time I'm running for a city council I have already served around six years as the city council ladies and gentlemen I am passionate about our city I have lived in EP last 25 years I love my city we raised our two kids now we are raising our grandchildren here I served as a volunteer for more than 20 years in various nonprofit and City organizations i h leadership role in many nonprofit organization and businesses my goal is simple make every resident resident life better CH make ep number one again with the great city services and lower taxes at end of the day I'm trying to give back to this country and serve our city please vote for me pgan for City Council on November 5th please visit my website www. pg4 ep.com and thank you everybody good night thank you PG and Maho thank you um as I started off with Eden Prairie is a a wonderful and beautiful city um quite frankly I think you know the current city council and all the previous ones have done a great job that's why it's uh so high up on the coveted list of the greatest cities in Minnesota um but I want to help I want to be there I want to help Eden Prairie take the next step and so I'll leave you with my marriage proposal to the city of Eden Prairie I promise to learn learn I promise to understand to the best of my ability I promise to give all my time and all my energy to make this city as good as it can be promise to be available I promise to be thoughtful and most of all I promise to do everything in the best interest of this city so I'd love for you to make the Happ make me the happiest candidate sitting up here and elect me um so thank you so much for coming out tonight I hope you all have a great evening thank you Maho this concludes the Eden Prairie City Council candidate Forum on behalf of the League of Women Voters I thank the candidates for being part of the democratic process by running for office and for being willing willing to serve our community thank you also to the League of Women Voters volunteers our audience here tonight and those viewing this event virtually for your participation in this candidate Forum thank you to the Eden Prairie City staff for supporting this event thank you to the City's internet provider for broadcasting live live streaming and recording tonight's Forum on demand viewing can be accessed at lwv.org for additional election information we encourage you to visit vote411.org the League of Women Voters award-winning One-Stop shop where voters can register to vote find their polling place and learn how candidates stand up on issues just a quick Public Service note is that the information will be refreshed on September 17 so double check that website um after September 17 National voter registration day please remember to vote in the November 5th election by absentee ballot or in person you'll be selecting two candidates when you vote both seats are at large early voting begins September 20th your vote is your voice the lwv welcomes new members both men and women at lwv.org this ends tonight's candidate Forum thank you and good night audience please join me in thanking the candidates with a round of [Applause] applause e