I voted against it not because I don't support the notion that we need more trails and sidewalks and safety in the city we do I just felt bad about it from a transparency standpoint for the city that if we're going to fund it the franchise fee that we passed for the trails is 1.8 million dollars of additional revenue every year four dollars and fifty cents on everybody's gas bill and what what I thought was going to happen I think has happened which is most people don't know it most people haven't noticed it on their bill and so that's an additional tax that's hidden.

I was one of those six people that last fall voted in favor of the franchise fee not because I thought it was a hidden tax we talked a lot about it it was in the Minnetonka memo it was highly publicized and shows up on the utility bill every month but I voted for it because I think the number and trails that we have that we need to get completed in Minnetonka is north of 80 million dollars and adding the franchise fee allowed us to do that in a consistent predictable way where there was a funding stream available to make that happen.

I personally view this as an investment not a tax it's an investment community health people that can walk outside of their cul-de-sac so many of us live in disconnected neighborhoods and we need these trails to get out I was out door-knocking the community and for example by Ridgeview or rich Ridge view up by Ridgedale there's a Senior Center and there's folks who are using walkers in the street because there's no sidewalk or no trail for them so this is not just about young families I think this also does benefit our older folks.

I absolutely do believe in the environment and all that we can do to try to decrease our carbon footprint you all know that our tax levy was high this year 7.5 higher than it's normally been and I know that the council really struggled with this I did support the decision that was made to increase the levy by $100,000 to help fund the climate initiative III believe that the city county or the city staff will hopefully be able to sharpen their pencils and be able to get that down to 7.5 as a levy before we have to vote on it or before the council has to vote on it in a couple of months but I think it was worth it it was worth it to get the climate initiative started now our kids just can't wait until later.

I believe climate is a singular lens that will inform all our decisions moving forward it is critical and it permeates everything we do in the city and it's been said that a budget is a moral document and if that's true that hundred thousand dollars represents more than just the resource for a climate action plan or Commission it represents the priorities of the city to make sure that people know we believe it's important.

I came to that meeting as well and I heard what the climate initiative had said about wanting to receive the hundred well they wanted to receive 200,000 in the city voted on a hundred thousand and so when I thought about that and I've heard my friends and family talk about why it's important to make sure that we continue a healthy environment I thought that we should have had the 200,000.

I don't think we talked enough about the things the city does that are already underway to save our environment and leave the world a better place for the next generation we're participating in its partners in energy program we've committed financial resources for that we're a Tree City USA USA Tree City and by the end of this year the city is going to be 100% dependent on solar energy for all city facilities we're doing a lot so now the second question that there was a six to one vote on and I voted no against I voted no against the levy 7.75% that's a huge burden particularly on people with fixed incomes.

I really hated this one because it was a totally divisive issue for the city we had people with strong feelings on both sides we voted for it and one of the things that that I pushed forward that we got into this as some attempt to compromise was the notion that in two years we do a formal study and make sure that we're not wrecking the park nobody wants to wreck the park so we're gonna do that I voted for it under that condition it was a compromise and I know there's a lot of people who are not happy about it because they think we're gonna wreck the park if I thought we're gonna wreck the park I wouldn't voted for it I don't think we're gonna wreck it but we'll make darn sure we don't.

My fellow council members as council member happy indicated this is a very we all agree this was an extremely tough decision and I voted against the trail because I didn't I don't believe that we can successfully give him the size of the park successfully host a multi-use trail that will accommodate both walkers and mountain bikers in the park the size of lone Lake.

I'm a mountain biker and a lover a lover of quiet places that Park has historically been quiet I think the lack of leadership on the city's perspective was to look at are there more alternatives other than zero or four point seven miles of trail in that Park I think there's special places in that park I hope the city can still continue to look to find ways to protect quiet areas of that park particularly west of the lake but if you're asking me what I've support four point seven miles or zero I would have voted against four point seven I would have fought for a compromise which is let's dip our toe in the water and act more like other cities with similar sized parks and start with three miles.

I did vote for the bike trail I did it for three reasons I believe that the data provided by experts evidenced that we can minimize the damages to the park and those were provided by people much smarter than I am it was my attempt to balance a variety of interests both the park and the supporters of the habitat and the bike trail and lastly as my colleague Mike happy said to build in checks and balances so that if we made a bad decision or we're learning new things we can make a choice to change the direction of the decision that was made.

We need to dig deep and partner with not only developers and and and private entities but with our other public resources we need to look to the state we need to look to the counties and the Met Council to not only encourage these development projects and but also to facilitate them as commissioner Kirk indicated we have a bias I think against putting affordable housing in our backyard and we've got to overcome that bias and find the money and find the wherewithal to make it happen.

I think the affordable housing issue is very complicated for starter cities including Minnetonka make new market rate housing expensive right we have the door--and project to market rate housing and they're paying over $800,000 in park fees right so you can't build new housing that meets any type of like let's say not high price point so plus we have our generally our minimum lot sizes right so we've decided as a community to take most of the land available for affordable housing off because you just quite quite frankly can't do it.

I do believe that affordable housing safe affordable accessible housing is the precursor to achieving all measures of well-being it is the fundamental piece our residents need to thrive and survive in our community so having said that there are a couple things that have happened recently we passed an affordable housing policy for the city which my colleague Tim Berg stat who serves on the council said so aptly you know 20 years ago it wasn't a lens we talked about it sporadically and now it is the thing in which we look at when we're thinking about all developments.

I'd like to find a way that we could actually have some sort of program to support policemen fire fire people police people teachers and all city employees to be able to affordably live in the community where they work and serve and be part of our community.

We've got a great opportunity in Ward 1 with the light rail coming through there's a fair amount of undeveloped property down there but I don't want to exclusively pick that area as as affordable housing pocket I think it's important that we spread affordable housing across Minnetonka I also believe that it's important too protect natural occurring affordable houses people houses homing homes that people own if the city can provide programs to allow low-income families to benefit from low-interest loans to keep those houses affordable.

I think the answer is go to them invite them discover where they are in the community meet them where they are I can say specifically that in my door mock door-knocking campaign I visited the cliffs apartment building in Ward 3 I never knew there was a significant South Asian population in Minnetonka ever now I do because I went to them I now know that they're there from a city perspective I think that that's an example of what do the activities that we scheduled as a city look like and who are they for and have we asked other folks who may be underrepresented what they would like to do or what type of activities they would like to see.

My tagline in my campaign is where you belong and the theme of the work is about creating a sense of belonging for people who don't feel they have a place they haven't met their people or their faith community they're unsure about how they fit in in their neighborhood and so how do we do this well first of all we ask this question right the good question we acknowledge isolation in our communities people don't know how to engage so when we say and we throw on this idea of community engagement community engagement it's great and it's well intended but we need to be very intentional with personal invitations go worship a destiny Hill Church if you aren't a congregant there go rock and roll with the pastor it's amazing.

I believe that actually making sure that you do go and knock on doors you do go invite people to come to events and come to City Hall and educate them about what it's like to be at the City Hall introduce them to other people who don't look like them invite them into your space I think that's really important it's one thing to say what you can do but is one thing to actually do it I blame it on taco for 11 years and I said this before there's only been two door knockers at my door and I think it should have been more and so I would encourage you to really just do it go talk to people welcome them to your space and don't wait for them to have to to take their own space.

I don't know of anyone in the city of Minnetonka who doesn't want this to be a welcoming place for people who want to live and work in the city we know from the Met Council that in the next two decades we're gonna have 10,000 new residents move into Minnetonka and the result of that is clearly going to be a change in the demographics of the makeup of our town the city started a diversity and inclusion committee in 2017 and join the the government Alliance on race and equity or gare in 2018 but I think this issue really starts with leadership of the city and and we can we can check that box because we have a united leadership at the city that is unified on the idea and the notion that we want to be welcoming to all in this city.

I think my general observation is that I don't think there's enough options I think a multimodal strategy is always going to be the best way to address the variety of needs of our community I'll also sound like an old personnel but the way I understand it most young people don't even want to buy cars anymore they see them as liabilities so they want alternate options for transportation and they're eager to use it the other is not unlike some of the other topics we've talked about we need to de stigmatize public transportation I think people have an opinion about who rides the bus and who rides rail and I think if we did a better job educating people about its efficiencies its economies of scale its economic and environmental impacts we get more ridership coming out of Minnetonka going the places people need to be.

Let's be honest we love our cars don't we I mean the idea of giving up our car ride a bus or take the light rail is probably pretty foreign to most of us in the room but it's really a matter of trying to connect jobs with homes right people that need transportation to be able to get to work everybody's excited about the LRT because they'll be able to go down to the twins game but that's not what the LRT is all about the LRT is about being able to get people who are trying to access the workforce.

Things are gonna get a lot better with light rail but we're gonna have a problem we're gonna continue to have the problem a first smile last mile connectivity that is the where the problem is here in Minnetonka and we really have to be creative because I don't think the answer lies and in our traditional idea of transit and buses and trains we have to look at public-private partnerships when I look at that 6:14 was the route that got canceled and went right up to my throat and you know I had a bus stop in my yard that I didn't know about probably until about three years of living there like Oh stop here I know nobody ever stopped there and the the data we got was that those rides were 50 to $100 a ride because of the number of riders but look at what we might be able to do if we think out of the box with vouchers we've got Ober we've got lyft we could probably get somebody from here to Ridgedale for $7 a ride if we thought about things in a different way.