Good evening and welcome. My name is Margot W. Duchelle. I'm a member of the St. Peter League of Women Voters and I will be your moderator for this League of Women Voters St. Peter area candidate forum featuring candidates for St. Peter Mayor and City Council. This forum is being presented with co-sponsors the St. Peter Chamber of Commerce and the St. Peter Herald. I'll be assisted by Joan Eastston of the St. Peter Area League. This forum is being recorded in its entirety without an audience on September 16th, 2025 in the Governor's Room at the St. Peter Community Center. The recording will be available on the Minnesota League of Women Vote Voters website. The League of Women Voters Minnesota and our local leagues conduct candidate forums to provide the public with an opportunity to hear candidates discuss the issues that are important to members of the public. The League is a nonpartisan organization that does not support or oppose any political party or candidate. The views expressed in each forum are those of the candidates, not those of the League of Women Voters. League of Women Voters Minnesota and our local leagues post complete unedited recordings of forums. Editing is authorized only for official media reporting. Excerpts or edited clips of candidate forums may not be used for partisan or political purposes. The League encourages informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy. Our event tonight is designed to inform voters about the relevant views of these candidates. Tonight we will ask our candidates questions submitted by the public to the League of Women Voters St. Peter via email prior to the evening. lead question facilitators and the St. Peter Chamber of Commerce Director Ed Lee screen all questions and may rephrase, combine, or eliminate questions to avoid duplication. Questions that are hostile, embarrassing, inappropriate, or of a personal nature will not be asked. As for a moderator, I have the final responsibility as to which questions will be asked. All candidates for mayor and city council listed by the Minnesota Secretary of State's office have been invited to participate. Our candidate for mayor seated to my left is Shannon Noel. Candidates for city council in alphabetical order by ward beginning to my right are Daryl Pettis, Ben Rant, Sulea Abdi, and Dustin Charstrom. Candidates will have two minutes for opening and closing statements. After opening, questions will be asked on a rotating basis. I will announce that order before asking each question. Candidates will each have 1.5 minutes to answer. Our timers this evening are Cindy Olsen and Judy Allen from the St. Peter Area League of Women Voters. Timers will hold up a yellow sign when 15 seconds remain and a stop sign when time is up. Candidates may finish their sentences. And you can all see those. Great. Okay. We have asked each candidate to be specific in their opening statements as to the reasons they are running for office and what unique qualities, skills, experience or expertise they would bring to the job. Opening statements will be given in the order that candidates were introduced and are seated. Beginning with our mayoral candidate, Shannon Noel. >> Thank you. Thank you to our organizers this evening. I truly appreciate the opportunity to address voters questions through this venue. My name is Shannan Noel and for the past 20 years I've been grateful to call St. Peter home. Since 2022, I've had the privilege of serving as your mayor and it's been an honor to work on behalf of the residents of St. Peter. I know that every decision we make on the council directly impacts the lives of our neighbors and I take that responsibility seriously. I listen to our residents, to community partners, and to city staff because I know the best decisions come when all voices are considered. As we look ahead, our comprehensive plan will guide how St. Peter grows and thrives over the next decade. That means expanding housing options, strengthening our infrastructure with projects like the new city hall, wastewater treatment plant renovations, and continuing investments in community spaces like Gorman Park. I'm committed to approaching each of these priorities with care, accountability, and a focus on the long-term health of our city. St. Peter is a community where history and progress meet, where people look out for one another, and where we can tackle challenges with both practicality and vision. With your partnership, I will continue working to ensure St. Peter remains strong, welcoming, and sustainable for generations to come. Thank you, >> Daniel. >> Daryl. >> Daryl. Right. >> Thank you, Daryl. I also would like to thank the League of Women Voters uh for inviting us here tonight and have this opportunity to um talk about our candidacies. Uh I am Daryl Pettis. I am currently the council uh member for Ward One, a North Ward. I'm running for re-election here. I've served for four years within that ward. When asked why I'm seeking reelection, um my goal is to continue the work that we started as a city council and a council four years ago. These past four years have been very busy and we've accomplished a lot in my opinion. We have built a new fire station. We have built two new roundabouts in this community. We have reconstructed Pine Street and Park Row. We have built Magnar Parkway to connect the high school to Traverse Road to give better access to our new high school. We have extended Klein Street so the state of Minnesota can build a new state facility for the DOT. Um, we have undertaken the purchase of Scholarship America for a new city hall. We have built I think I mentioned we've built a fire station. Uh we have replaced our electrical transformer within our substation uh down on Front Street so we can better um serve the needs of the community for electricity. We have started phase one of the Gorman Park project. Um redoing the park project. Um we have also created a new city park at Howlets Pond. Um I believe that my background and my life experience fits this role very well. I've spent 30 plus years in state and local government both as a county administrator and a county engineer. I've also dedicated my time and volunteered within this community serving 21 years as a volunteer firefighter. I currently serve as a captain of the fire department. I've also served on the as a trustee uh for the relief association. Um I believe I have uh qualifications needed and I would support I would appreciate your support in the upcoming election. Thank you. Ben Raft. >> Uh, thank you to the League of Women Voters, the St. Peter Herald and St. Peter Chamber for hosting and and putting on this event to give us a chance to let folks know what we're about and why we're running or running for reelection. U, my name is Ben Ram. I'm running for reelection to continue to build on the proven record of community involvement, practical problem solving, and fiscal responsibility. four years of collaborative work with residents, local businesses, and civic groups to balance immediate needs with long-term planning. I'm known for listening first, seeking common ground, and making balanced decisions that protect our community's values. I'm dedicated to wise use of taxpayer dollars, strengthening essential services, and ensuring every resident's voice is heard. uh focused on results, not politics, delivering solutions that improve the quality of life for all in St. Peter. And those are some of the reasons why I am running for reelection. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Sulea Abdi. >> Thank you. And excuse my uh scratchy or lost voice. Uh since we came back from the summer break, we went back to school and I have to wake up six kids in the morning for school and I have to be loud a little bit. So, thank you. Uh good evening. Thank you to the League of Women Voters, um, Chamber of Commerce and St. Peter, St. Peter Herald. Thank you for hosting this important event. My name is Ole Kabdi and I'm honored to be here tonight as a candidate for St. Peter City Council Woo. Um, I moved to St. Peter in 2021. I felt so welcome and here welcome here and that's one of the main reason I'm running for city council to give back to the city I so love and appreciate. I have many experiences and skills that will be useful on on city council. I'm a co-president of good neighbor diversity council which brings the community together around cultural events and welcoming uh new people to the city. This work has helped me connect with many longtime St. Peter residents and our immigrants community and community of color. I'm also a board member for St. Peter planning and zoning commission. Through this work, I've learned so much so about housing upon planning and infrastructure. It's been so rewarding to share this knowledge with members of my community who are so excited to have this bridge to the city and have someone someone who was so uh answer who who to answer their questions. Finally, I'm also a licensed community health worker which involves connecting community members with the many resources provided by the county agencies. Through through these roles, I've been I've become very familiar with how decisions are made in the local government and with the many challenges, opportunities facing our city. I'm running for St. Peter City Council because I want to build on the good work that was done before me. I want to use my skills and connections. Thank you. >> And Dustin Charstrom. >> All right. First and foremost, um my name is Dustin Charstrom. I am currently the city council for W 2. I would like to thank the league. I'd like to thank the Herald. I would like to thank the chamber. And actually, I would like to thank everyone in this room that's running. It takes a lot of courage to put your name on a ballot and quite frankly sit here. Um, my background, I'm a father of two wonderful children and a husband to an amazing wife that supports me and allows me to do this. I'm a 17-year veteran teacher. In that 17 years, I have taught history, government, and geography at the middle school, high school, and I also teach at the college level. With that background, I wanted to be a city council member to help St. Peter grow, to make St. Pet help St. Peter make good decisions as a local government. And quite frankly, I think the last four years I've been part of a team of council members and a mayor that have done more for the city than any previous council in recent history has. I would like to take my background as a teacher to connect with the whole community and handle all of the channel challenges with the grace that only a middle school teacher can. In the last four years, there's been more housing added than the past 20 years. There's been so much housing added in St. alone that an independent study said we are leading the way in affordable housing. The housing efforts we've done in the past four years were so noteworthy that Senator Tina Smith a couple weeks ago came to visit to hear what we have been doing in St. Peter. When we go to events with the League of Minnesota Cities, all we hear about is the job St. Peter is doing and I'm proud to be part of that council. One specific project that I would like to feature that I'm very proud of is our work in parks. We have added a new park and we are improving Gorman Park for the first time since it was originally built and it's overdue. Thank you. >> Our question order for the remaining questions um is random. So, what I'll do is I'll read the question and then announce which of you are answering in in order um and ask at any time for me to repeat the question if you would like. Question number one, River's Edge Hospital relies on Medicaid funding which accounts for 15% of its revenue. What options should the city consider to meet any budget shortfall that may occur due to federal and state changes to this funding? And the order for answers is Dustin Charstrom, Ben Ramp, Daryl Pettis, Shannon Noel, and Zulea Abdi. So, beginning with you >> reading that was a long one. It is a long one. River's Edge Hospital relies on Medicaid funding, which accounts for 15% of its revenue. What options should the city consider to meet any budget shortfall that may occur due to federal and state changes to this funding? >> Thank you. This question could not come at a more timely window as we just learned within the past handful of days that we're going to be losing Mayo Clinic in town which is a huge blow to our community. However, we are in a unique position where we as the city own river's edge. Rivers Edge for the past decade has not provided clinic services because the market was saturated. We now are in a unique position to re-evaluate what River's Edge's role is going to be moving forward. The council already has directed city and hospital staff to look at how we're going to address our funding. Not only is the issue that 15% of our funding comes from Medicare, we even have a larger issue. We have a challenging time getting insurance companies to pay us for the services that have been prior authorized. Looking at that as a whole, we do need to think creative and think outside the box. We need access to health care in our local community and we need to make sure the city takes every step possible to ensure that access. I have already reached out to both of our lawmakers and our US senators to communicate my frustration over the Mayo Clinic and the challenges this is going to create for our community. Hopefully we as a city and River's Edge can rise to the occasion to fill that void that is going to happen shortly. >> Thank you, Ben Raft. >> No, River's Edge uh is a great asset to our community. It's it's a local hospital. Not a lot of communities have them. However, I see in the future more communities getting them, especially in the rural areas. Um, like council member Sharststrom said and I'd like to echo, we haven't had the opportunity to add additional services such as clinic support to St. Peter because we have a clinic in town or two clinics in town. Um, by being able to utilize that other portion of the building that we don't have to build, we don't have to get ready for, it's already there. uh we would be able to augment the hospital's uh lines of offerings with the ability to offer clinic support there. Um as council member Sharstrom said and I'd like to in a little further um Medicare, yes, 15% but we also uh do see patients that are veterans. Uh so VA benefits a lot of the times the services that we offer we don't get much payment currently from a lot of our insurance payes. Um but we don't want to turn those services away. It's so important to have the ability to go to a hospital locally in your town and it doesn't matter what type of insurance you have. Um, so with that, I think we'll we'll continue to look and uh dive deeper into different ways to add additional services to uh River's Edge to augment that. Thanks. >> No, uh, I'm going to echo a lot of what council member Charstrom and Ram said. Um, the loss of Mayo Clinic is going to be a tough one. I've already heard from a lot of seniors in particular who say getting 10 miles to Mano is a high bar for me for a lot of reasons. People who don't drive uh don't have family in the area who can assist them. And so um I'm I'm feeling that loss on their behalf. We do have a lot of challenges related to Medicaid and and a great challenge due to insurance and the lack of reimbursement that has been challenging the hospital. And so we're going to need to pay really close attention to hospital finances. We've uh got great dialogue with through the hospital commission and council members who serve on that. And uh lastly, this is a big loss. loss of Mayo is a big loss, but I hope that with creative thinking, perhaps there are opportunities for the city to fill that void through um River's Edge Hospital. So, lots of conversations to come. >> Darl Pett, >> thank you. Um to start off with, I I kind of feel a little bad about being the one of the latter ones to answer on this. Um River's Edge is owned by the city of St. Peter. We have a nine member board of trustees that uh runs the hospital. Two of those nine members are elected city council members. I am one of those members. Carrie Johnson's the other one. Today we spent the entire morning in a strategic planning meeting with River's Edged Hospital talking about this specific question. Um it was just our yearly strategic planning. Um well yes 15% of our revenue does come from Medicaid. 85% of our revenue does not come from Medicaid. Um there will be challenges with the changes in what's happening with mail. Um as many of the members have said here, we are not in the clinic business. We do run an ER, we do run an urgent care, um which does somewhat compete actually with the clinical. So um we are sitting in a very good place right now. Since last August, for the last well year, a little over a year, uh we have been making money. Uh we have had a nice return around 4%. Um things have turned around. A lot of that turnaround came from changing um some of our how we provide services. Uh in the past a lot of our inpatient services are now being done as outpatient. So we spent the morning on strategic planning coming up with strategies lines of service to enter uh areas of health care that are being met by this community and we hope to roll some of these out in the next three to six months. Thank you. and Sulea Abdi. >> Um it is really a bad news to hear that uh we are losing our hospital in St. Peter Rifers or M or Mayo both of them. Um as a mom I have six kids and I when emergency comes that's the first place that we go uh for everyone in the community and what I will suggest is um the council is doing already doing a good job of uh calling the lawmakers and uh make uh joining meetings and stressing about that issue and I will um and and I think it's just good to um listen to the listen to the experts and and help as much as we can. >> Thank you, Kim. The availability and affordability of child care impacts the economic well-being of St. Peter residents and alters who participates in the workforce. What is the responsibility of the city in supporting local child care providers including homebased? The order for this question is Zulea Abdi, Dustin Charstrom, Daryl Pettis, Shannon Noel, >> and Ben Ramped is fifth. Um that's a good question and it it is um a very um essential to have uh local child care available. I know a lot of families who move out of St. Peter just because they don't afford or they don't have enough uh child care. So um and the issue of home home care parents I know a lot of parents who would like to even register to be a child care um have the license but the problem that is limiting the issue that's limiting them is you cannot uh do child care or or like um in their houses because they live in a low-inccome houses that are limited and they don't have the space for you know that the kids can play and and you know so um I will ask the city council or will if I join the city council in the future I will just try to work with them and make sure that uh problem has been taken care of. >> Thank you Dustin Charstrom. >> I think everyone would agree that the cost of child care and the availability of child care is a major problem not just in St. Peter it's a problem nationwide and St. Peter is in a position where we have addressed this issue. Um, and we've done our best. Could we be doing better? I absolutely agree we could. The current council has actually attempted twice to get a child care task force put together. Unfortunately, we have not been able to get that off the ground. It continues to be in the background and conversation in our workshops and in our goal setting sessions. The current council, myself included, are very aware that this issue is ongoing. We do have multiple facilities that offer child care within our community center. That is unique to St. Peter. That is not an opportunity that many communities have had. We also have a working partnership with the school district and are able to work with them to make sure that there is afterchool care available and there is programming available through our recck department. We also work closely with the county. We don't have a lot of say in the county's rules and we quite frankly have to play by those rules, but we as a city can work with the county and work with people seeking a license to make sure the process is as smooth as possible. Thank you, >> Daryl Pettis. >> Um to reiterate what some of the things the comments of uh Dustin Sharstrom, this building right here has two daycarees in it. Um those daycarees have been around for quite a while. Um they are stable. um they are paying us rent and uh we've been working with them to keep them here and keep it stable. As Dustin also stated, we have attempted to uh redo or recreate the child care task force. We've tried to kick it off a couple times and we've had some difficulty getting people to volunteer to meet with us. Um some of the inhome providers are really stretched right now for time and they just don't have the ability or the time to to work with us on that. Um, other communities throughout the state are taking some very proactive approaches in child care. Not uh just subsidizing child care, using taxpayers money to subsidize child care, but doing creative things like Leverne has done in providing a building for the child care facility by the city um subsidizing that building so that child care can operate as a nonprofit and provide child care within that community. Wilmer's also undertaken a similar program. In my opinion, that may be something to happen in the future if child care becomes more and more unaffordable and more and more difficult. Uh instead of strictly subsidizing, it would be some type of a reduction in rent and things like that or housing for the child care. So, I think we've done that. Thank you, >> Shan. Noel. >> Thank you. Uh like Daryl, I've been following some of the conversations in greater Mano about innovative things other communities are doing. I've also been contacted by mayors of other cities about our community center and how we provide space for child care here. And so uh I I think we are already a step above other communities, but it doesn't mean that we should take our foot off the gas. Um, unfortunately, our attempts to pull together a child care task force have not been successful. And I'd love to get to the root of, you know, are people just too busy? Is there not interest? You know, what what is causing that lack of engagement in our attempts to try to learn more? Um, but I think one thing that that is clear to me as a parent and as a city council member is that in many ways child care is economic development for our communities because if families can't have child care, that is a parent who may wish very much to be in the workforce who just can't be. And so, um, like I said, we we've worked on it and I think conversations will continue. Thank you. >> And Ben Raft. >> Um, child care is a huge, huge, huge issue all across the nation. It's not something that just affects St. Peter. It affects communities big and small. Um, like the other council members in the mayor have have echoed, we have tried to start a cha a child care task force on multiple occasions. Um, One thing that that I think has helped uh some of the child care centers stay up and running and operational are the grant dollars that are still coming in. Those childcare centers are able to use that to augment their their pay because one of the biggest issues that we've got nowadays is we've got not a not a a lack of child care, but a lack of capacity. And that capacity comes with with adults or folks to watch those children. The problem is is if you could go work at a child care center for eight hours a day at 16 bucks an hour or you could go work at McDonald's for eight hours a day for 16 bucks an hour, which one's less stressful? So those child care centers getting the opportunity to augment that pay to make it to where it's more appealing to folks has brought in some workers or workforce to increase capacity. We've also worked with the child care centers in this building to make sure that they've got the room they need for the list that they have whether it be infants or or or adult or school age or or x y or z. Uh so it's important that we definitely uh continue with the conversations with our lawmakers, continue the conversations with the county and continue conversations with local stakeholders. >> Thank you. Our next question, we're going to mix it up a bit so nobody falls asleep. This is our lightning round question. So you have just 30 seconds to answer this question. The order will be Ben Raft followed by Shannon Noel, Zulea Abdi, Dustin Charstrom, and Daryl Pettis. The question is, name one type of business or industry you would like to see move into St. Peter. Ben Raft. >> What type of business would I like to see move into St. Peter? Um, something that's that's important for St. Peter is the use of of utilities because we provide utilities. Uh so when we sell utilities, we make money. Uh so something that uses services. We've got uh we've got uh alumiccraftraft that uses a lot of power. So if we had another big industry like that that hired a bunch of people and uh used utilities, um there's all types that are coming into play and and and we definitely need to bring them all in. Thank you, >> Shannon Noel. >> Well, in 30 seconds, um, we have space available, anybody watching at home, we have space available in our indust in our north industrial park. And so, if we could bring some light manufacturing in there, I think that would be a great opportunity because uh, not only do we have the space available, there's also some multifamily residential opportunities in that area. would be a wonderful opportunity for people to be able to uh live by their work, walk to work and um folks at home. Send send people my my way >> and zoolea abdi >> um I would like to businesses to move to St. Peter when it's a halal markets uh for because it is an essential important thing for the Muslim community that live in St. Peter. The other thing is we have a lot of youth that drive far away to look for work and employment. So if Amazon I've been hearing that Amazon can move into main Ko or around that. So if Amazon like the can move to St. Peter that will be a good thing >> and Dustin Sharstra. >> So as Mayor Noel actually indicated we are developing the north industrial area for the first time in St. Peter's history. We have lots available right now that could be movein ready. I would like to see something in the medical technology field or possibly light industry, light industrial go in that area. We will have workforce of housing available that's currently being built and we are ready to go for that right now. >> Daryl Pettis um light industrial um this community lacks a tax base of industrial or commercial type property. uh we are very heavy on the residential and we're very heavy on the nonprofit and the ta uh non- tax or tax exempt. So our tax base is very skewed um towards those towards the residential. So some type of light in industrial and preferably some type of an industry that would employ individuals who are 24 to 40. We have a missing demographic within our community, the just out of college to 40. Thank you. Thank you. This next question is a mayor only question. The mayor is the face of the community. How would you approach discovering the wants and needs of community members? >> Wow. Uh I think that's a great question and I actually think about that a lot when we have big projects. Are we really gathering information from the residents who live here? And I think we are doing some of that. For example, uh with the Gorman Park project, doing surveys, having open houses where people can come and see plans, discuss plans. Um and so all of that formal work is really important and staff helps a lot with that. But also as mayor, I think it's my responsibility to to show up to show up where people are and to hear from our residents. And so you will see me at a lot of community events. If you invite me to something, I'll probably show up because I think um in a place our size, I really value being able to have authentic conversations with people, develop relationships, and really have a deep understanding what the needs of our community are. And so that's that's what I do. >> Thank you. Um our next question is describe an example of how you have been able to work productively with those who do not share your opinions. We'll begin with Daryl Pettis followed by Zulea Abdi, Dustin Charstrom, Ben Ramp and Shannon Noel. Daryl, >> thank you. uh productively with those who don't share my opinion. Um I'm a big information person. Um generally if we have a project going on or we have something going on dealing with the city, there's usually a reason why we're doing it. If it's a street reconstruction, it generally means utilities underneath the street are deficient and in need of service. We're just not out there tearing up streets because we think it's a good idea to tear up streets. we're doing things that need to be done. Um, I feel the best way that I can address these is to give information on why I felt or I believe that this is a worthwhile and worthy project. What need are we addressing? What deficiency are we addressing? Um, there's a reason why we're doing it. I'm a data person. I'm a factsbased person and I tend to work with the facts and maybe not convince people. Um, you don't convince people all the time what you're doing, but you have to show them you are being a good steward with their funds and you're doing what needs to be done and then go from there. Engage, go from there. Thank you, >> Sulea Abdi. >> Um, I will always uh even if it's we have different opinions, I will always um make sure it it make sure it's the best interest of St. Peter. So I will work with anyone even if we have different opinion but it it interests St. Peter. >> Thank you >> and Dustin Chester. >> All right. I would like to talk about one specific project that we did in the past four years which was the capital lofts being built over by Hy. The property that was purchased there was purchased under a conditional use permit and it was very contentious initially and I personally spent nearly four hours with different groups. You had concerned citizens, you had the Lake Hallet Association, you had the developer. And in the end, by listening to all sides and continuing to have conversations and putting people in touch with each other, we were able to get compromises. And as a result, the city got its first ever park land there. We were able to get the developer to pay for the park. We were able to get the Lake Hallet Association people to meet with the APX people and have conversations and change the scope and sequence of the project in order to make both sides happy. And in the end, we took a project that was very contentious. That that project was so successful that they did a second phase for the capital lofts and the second phase was not contended in any way, shape or form. The neighbors welcomed the second part of it. The city is happily enjoying new parkland for the first time ever there and we were able to put steps in place to make sure that Lake is being preserved and protected. >> And Ben Raft, >> I uh I sit on multiple commissions and boards, the Plan and Zoning Commission, the Board of Zoning and Appeals. So there's a lot of times where things that we do um have some type of a differing opinion, differing viewpoints. The biggest thing that I think is one of my strengths is listening. And you've got to listen. You've got to hear where people are. A lot of times if you're one-sided, you're only thinking about the direction that you're going. But when you hear someone else's point of view, it might steer you into a direction where you're listening to an opinion that's different than yours, which is great. Um, not all the times does it say, "Hey, we're going to halt this project." But we find ways to make concessions to make most everybody happy. It's impossible to make everybody happy, but you really, really, really have to try. Um, and and I feel like that's always been one of my strengths is listening to those with differing viewpoints to take in what they have to say, not be dismissive on their opinion, their facts, their viewpoints, because to them it's very important. Um, and a lot of times it might steer my thoughts or directions or help me to come to some type of conclusion or decision that is fact-based and takes everybody's uh everybody's opinions into into account. Thank you. >> And Shan Noel, >> thanks. Um, I really believe in making datainformed decisions. I I feel like that is at the core of of what I value. But you also have to listen to the qualitative. What are you hearing from people? Even if the data is telling us one thing, if if if residents experience is something different, that tells me that maybe that's time to seek a compromise and work for the best interests of of the whole city. Um, so I'm a big big believer that sometimes we have to compromise and I also one thing I personally value I have very strong opinions but I don't take it personally. If we disagree on one issue it doesn't mean we're not going to agree on the next. And so I try to always be moving moving forward. I will be honest. I will be open. I will tell you what my honest opinion is about something. But um after that decision is made, I'm just one of seven people. And I think it's a great thing that we have diversity on our city council of of ideas and experiences because we come to stronger, uh decisions together with that diversity of thought. And so, um it's okay to disagree. We don't need to be in conflict about it. Let's let's make good decisions and just keep keep the good work of the city council moving along. Thanks all. Our next question. The community-led sustainability task force established by the city council is designed to help guide the city in its mission to be a better steward of the environment. What would you suggest as three priorities for this group? I'll read that again. The community-led sustainability task force established by city council is designed to help the city in its mission to be a better steward of the environment. Please suggest three priorities for this group. And our order for this question is Daryl Pettis, Ben Ramp, Shannon Noel, Zulea, Abdi, Dustin Charstrom, Daryl, >> thank you. Um, sustainability task force, something we just created a couple meetings ago. Um, energy savings. We'll start with energy savings. Uh, as most of you know, we do run the electrical department within the city of St. Peter is a enterprise fund for the city. So, energy savings, electricity savings is always something that, uh, we have worked on through the light bulb programs, uh, discounts, rebates for energy star appliances, things like that. So, uh, energy savings is one. other sustainability task force items is purchasing items that um use less power. Um actually I'm going to skip over that sustainability. I think we have something we can put our hat and our feather on is the repurposing of Scholarship America. We are not building a brand new city hall. We're not building a new building. We're taking a building that already exists within the community, remodeling it, and repurposing for something that we can use because it was no longer being used as an office building. Um, it saves us money. It also uh saves resources. Um, it saves um we're able to sustain our our efforts. Uh third one, um just looking at simple things like um like power tools and things like that. um trying to cut down on carbon uh electric power tools versus gas power tools. So those are kind of the three that I had. >> And next is Ben Raft. Um, you know, not only did we compre uh create a community-led uh sustainability task force, but the city also hired a sustainability coordinator. Um, so someone at the city that can sit on that task force and bring the ideas of the city to that group and also take the ideas from that group back to the city. Uh, a couple things that I think that we should focus on is more solar. uh more solar not only in the city as far as city properties, but more solar on residences. There's a lot of grants out there. There's a lot of of of payback for people who put solar on their homes. Um people that put uh that that switch to electric vehicles. Um a lot of things that this sustainability task force needs to do is be very educational and informational. You know, a lot of this isn't going to be doing things, but it's going to be putting information out there to let people know how to do things either correctly or uh look at the uh energy rebates. We've got a ton of energy rebates that are put on by Simpa, Southern Minnesota Power Association, that people just might not know about. So, education is the biggest thing about sustainability. Most important. Um, one of the other things is St. Peter's a green step city and continuing to focus on moving ourselves up those steps uh shows everybody that we're not only talkers but we're also doers. >> Thank you. >> And Shannon Noel >> um I also had written down education. we have great programs uh incentives for re rebates um and those are things that people can opt into or not but I think we have great programs and helping people learn about how they can take advantage of those programs to to save energy and money on their end will be really important. I'm personally very interested in exploring our land use and seeing if there are opportunities to have spaces in St. Peter, where we do not need to mow all the time. A good example of this was would be our storm water detention basins. A lot of them have grass, you know, regular green traditional lawns going right up to and into. And we have to mow all of that. And I'd love to explore whether or not some of that could be restored prairie or some option to uh for a grass that doesn't need as much maintenance. So, that is something I'm personally interested in. And number three, I think the purpose of a task force is to find out what do our residents value? What do the citizens of St. Peter want to see uh in the city? And so I think that's probably the most important to me in regards to the task force >> and Sulea Abdi. >> Yes. Um I think the the city did well hiring sustainability coordinator as just my my colleague Ben uh mentioned created a task force and what we just need to do more is protecting St. Peter's open green space parks for neighbors to enjoy and in the future more pollinator friendly project and encouraging our young people to act to to be active and involved in efforts to protect nature and the environment. Thank you. >> And Dustin Sha. >> All right. Well, I I am going last on this one, but I will start it out by saying I'm very thankful for this question. I am one of the two council members who are on the sustainability task force. Um, first and foremost, we need to start with the partnerships. We need to build the partnerships between Gus Davis, the St. Peter School District, the state hospital, and this city. Those four entities use the most electricity, the most water, and quite frankly, we have most of the green space in our community. If we can get those four entities to work together to take meaningful steps, we can have a direct positive impact. The second area would connect to the first area. We need to look at energy savings and renewable energy that can be collectively used by all of these entities. And then the third one also connects. We need to look together at grant opportunities. The school district went added solar a handful of years ago and did a one-year project, but then found moving forward that it was too restrictive to continue to add solar. That's slightly disheartening because there are new opportunities to add solar within your community. The city just added its first solar field now a year and a half ago and we're working on our second one. If we could get the efforts the city is doing to be spread out over all four entities, we can have a direct positive impact on the environment. >> Thank you. Our next question, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has approached and detained citizens on public property. What do you believe is the responsibility of the city of St. Peter to protect citizens from similar actions on public property? And the order for this question is Dustin Charstrom, Ben Raft, Daryl Pettis, Shannan Noel, Sulea, Abdi, Dustin. >> All right. So, this topic has become far more relevant and challenging for local communities within the recent past. In St. Peter, we are welcoming of all people. One of the first things that I did when we started to see an increase in these arrests is I had a conversation with our police chief. I reached out. I learned. I gained background. And one of the things I found out is no, we don't have any control if federal officials are going to come into our community. What we can do as a community is we can continue to be welcoming. We can continue to support all of our residents. And it is not our responsibility to go out of our way to help the federal enforcement. If they come to our community, we do not have a position where we can oppose it, but we do not have to support them. I think it is unfortunate that this is the conversation we're having here, and I wish it weren't a conversation we were having. In my heart, all people are welcome. All people, excuse me, all people are welcome and as a council member, I would not go out of my way to enforce these policies. >> Ben Raft, >> you know, I really like that the city, the school district, the county have all come together to talk about whatifs. What ifs? What do we do? What if ICE shows up? How are we going to react as a city, a county, a school district? And the position that all have taken is unless there is a federal warrant, we're not assisting. And that's the beautiful thing about being able to say what you've got to do is what you've got to do. However, if it's on if it's in one of our buildings, like I said, unless there's a federal warrant, you don't come in to look for soand so. Um, and we're not going to assist. Uh the only time that changes is if there is a federal warrant. Um because I do believe uh as as council member Charstrom said that St. Peter is a welcoming community and we welcome all into our community. Uh whether somebody is from a certain country, speaks a certain language, uh goes to a certain church, we're welcoming to all. and and to stand up and say that I'm going to um assist in this is is is not not something I'm going to do. Thank you. >> Daryl Pettis. >> Immigration ICE is a federal responsibility and is not a city responsibility. Uh the responsibility of our police department is to keep our residents safe. And the only the best way to keep those residents safe is to be involved, to be out in the community and to have the trust of all of our all of our members, all the residents, all the people who live within our community. Creating barriers and walls does not build that trust and does not protect uh our residents of our community. I fully support uh the vision that our police chief has given us and how we on how he looks at immigration and naturalization ICE and I do support his efforts as he has laid them out to us. Thank you. >> And Shannon Noel, >> I agree 100%. Our police should be focusing on the laws of our community and we need our St. Peter police to be focusing on building those positive relationships with the residents in our community. I know our police chief is very very engaged in community oriented policing. You can see that if you follow their Facebook page that that there are so many events where uh our police officers are getting out and in the community especially engaging with young people because we don't want your first experience with the police officer to be in that moment of crisis. We want to be known by the res. We want our police officers to be known by the members of our community. And so I think that we the police will have to do what they legally are obligated to do and that is not to do the job of ICE enforcement officers >> and Sulea Abdi. Um I agree with my colleagues that um we have to obey the law and that's a federal thing. But at the same time um in our community as being part of good neighbor diversity council being a co-president of good neighbor diversity council I know the fear and the problem that I caused to the community and we have to deal with that all the time. Just what we need to do is we are a great welcoming community. St. Peter, I I agree with that and we have a wonderful police chief that really um takes an extra step to make sure that everything everyone is okay. Um what we do or urge everyone to do is teach people their rights. If your neighbor something happens to your neighbor, just give a helping hand and if anything happens, just try to look out for each other. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, this is our last question and then you'll offer your closing remarks. What is the one thing that makes St. Peter stand out as a community and one challenge that it faces? Beginning with Zulea Abdi, followed by Daryl Pettis, Dustin Charstrom, Ben Ramp, and Shannon Noel. St. Peter uh great is I felt welcome when I moved to St. Peter four years ago. Me and my five my six kids. It is a very welcoming community. Um it put me into a leadership role just because I lived in other states for many years but within this short time I felt the welcoming and empowerment that St. Peter community starting from the council the the neighbors and the leaders that lead St. Peter are doing wonderful work to welcome people and make St. Peter to feel home to feel to feel at home. So one more thing that we would like to happen is more leadership um for for like the majority to to give chance to other people to lead and make makes St. Peter wonderful as it is already. >> Thank you Daryl Pettis. >> Um something that stands out uh for St. Peter that I have noticed is tolerance. Um we have the state hospital in St. Peter. The state hospital houses uh individuals who um are having issues in their lives. Um because of that, this community seems very tolerant to allowing those people from the state hospital to come into our community to get out and to reacquaint themselves back with civilized society again. I've always found that very interesting the tolerance that this community has. Um limits I would say as I talked about before um we are a very residentialheavy tax base. Um commercial we do not have a large commercial uh tax base and that does limit uh some of the things that we can and can't do as far as projects as far as funding within the community. very much of a bedroom community with lots of nonprofits that unfortunately don't pay property taxes. So, I'll stick with those two. >> Dustin Sharstrom, >> there's so many things that stand out about St. Peter that honestly I had multiple things bounce in my head and and to narrow it down to one was was challenging. But I'm actually going to focus in on our parks, our recreck department, the services that we have that we offer the community, the pool, the library. For a town the size of St. Peter, the amount of parks we have, the trails we have, the programing programming we have, and the diversity of that program has grown by nearly double in the last four years. what we're doing for library programming just won a statewide award for excellence. Our park master plan just won a statewide award for excellence. We're doing great things there. The one area where we're struggling, I'm with Darl on this, is our tax base makes it challenging for the amount of taxes people need to pay because we have so many nonprofits within our community that do not pay property taxes. We're in a position where rising taxes always have to be in the back of the mind of the councils and we have to find a way to increase our taxing base. That's another reason we have been aggressively looking at adding housing in St. Peter. The more housing or the more businesses we can add, the more that will alleviate the tax burden on our residents. >> And one thing that I think that is a is a pull or a benefit a pro to St. Peter, St. Peter is a very welcome. It's it's very welcoming to those uh with diverse backgrounds. Um being open, being willing to accept everybody or anybody regardless of of of what uh is phenomenal. I grew up in a little teeny tiny city called Phoenix. Um so to see that in a small town in Minnesota, because I've lived in other small towns in Minnesota, and it's not like that. It's not welcome, arms wide open, come on in. It's uh you look different than us. I'm gonna I'm gonna go over here now. Uh we're in St. Peter. It's like we we hug everybody. Not actually hug everybody, but in our heads, you know, in the way we talk to to our neighbors, in the way that we react. Um we're just we're we're welcoming. Um I echo uh a little bit of what uh Dustin and and and Daryl said. A challenge is St. Peter's tax poor. Um, we've got a lot of property in St. Peter that doesn't pay property tax. Um, so by adding additional uh commercial, that's awesome. One thing that St. Peter also does that a lot of other comp uh communities do, we do it. They don't is uh we do tiff projects. TIFF projects allow for a an apartment complex to be built. You're not collecting tax dollars today, but seven to 14 years down the road, it's on the tax role. No tiff. That project happens elsewhere. It doesn't happen to happen. It doesn't have to happen in St. Peter. It happens here. Thank you. >> And >> this is hard to come up with just one thing that makes St. Peter special because there are so many things, but I have to say it's the people that make the place. uh the way we show up for each other in times of crisis, the way um our city council works and collaborates with our school district because we all have an eye on what is best for the community and it's not about uh dividing our us from them and you know setting up our little territories that we're going to argue over. Uh in St. Peter we really we really show up for each other in in many many ways and so that's what makes St. Peter special and I would say I would agree with others uh limited tax base is a real challenge in St. Peter uh with the of course the state hospital and Gastavis are great great things in our community big employers uh Gastavis brings a lot of culture and uh things that we wouldn't otherwise have and but so our biggest challenge is also a great opportunity we've made tremendous progress in housing in the time I've been on the council and that will help grow tax break base and kind of spread out some of the burdens and among our residents. And so I really believe that we've got great opportunities in that area and we've already done really good work. We'll move into our closing statements where you will each have two minutes. Um these will be done in the reverse order of the opening statements. Uh beginning with Dustin Charstrom followed by Zulea Abdi, Ben Raft, Daryl Pettis, and Shannon Noel Dustin. >> Closing. When I ran for city council four years ago, I talked about wanting housing for all areas. I talked about sustainability and I talked about supporting local businesses in downtown. Quite frankly, your current council has done an amazing job in all of those areas. Our current council, and I will say our current council, because I'm one member of it, and I'm one member of a group that has accomplished a lot. During our window of time of being on the council, the fire station was built. We're currently building a city hall. You can see Gorman Park is being built and phase one isn't costing the taxpayer, the local taxpayers a penny. We have a master parks plan that's winning statewide awards. We have a new park at Hletitz Park on land the city has never owned. We've never been in a position to have parkland there. We've done it for the first time. We've had a grant available each year to make businesses in St. Peter handicap accessible. There have been over 30 businesses that have become handicap accessible just in the last handful of years. That helps support our local businesses. I serve on our heritage preservation commission and one of the challenges we face is we have a lot of buildings in downtown that need to be maintained. I have personally worked with six different businesses to help them navigate that process and come to St. Peter andor renovate their business. >> Thank you so much again to the League of Women Voters, to everyone who joined us tonight. I hope voters consider me for St. Peter City Council because I think I have a lot of things to bring to the table. I am a good listener and I have the trust of many community members. So, it will be very easy for me to get ideas and feedback about city decisions and policies. I am a very hard worker and an eagle learner. I'm not afraid to ask questions and learn more. I work very well as part of a team. The current city council and all the candidates are wonderful. Um I want to so I know it will be a great place to collaborate in decision making for the city. Finally I just want to say that I love St. Peter and I want to get more people especially young people involved in our community and in local government. St. Peter is a vibrant resilient community and I am committed to making sure our city council reflects that spirit no matter what happens. I'm so excited to be running for city council and I hope that people remember my name on election day, November 4th. Thank you so much, >> Ben Raft. >> Um, the last four years has been or almost four years has been uh rewarding. Uh, it's been it's been work, but it's been rewarding. It's been it's been fun. I've learned a lot. Uh, been on the city council for nearly four years. Uh, planning zoning for nearly five years. Um, my priorities remain clear. Uh, expand housing economic opportunities, support responsible growth in infrastructure, and strengthen public safety. I'll continue to engage openly with all residents, ensuring that every voice has a seat at the table. Transparency and accountability will guide my decisions so residents always know how and why choices were made. I'm committed to keeping St. Peter a safe, vibrant, and affordable community, not just for today, but for generations to come. I humbly ask you to keep building to allow me to keep building on the progress we've made over the last four years and uh ask for your support. Thank you, >> Darl Pettis. >> I also would like to thank the League of uh Women Voters for holding this. I'd also like to thank the viewers out there who took their time to uh watch uh this video as it has been posted online. I believe that my background and my experience uh fits well for this role. I've enjoyed the past four years that I've been on the city council and I would look forward to being on the council another four years. When I started my opening statement, I listed through a number of projects that we have completed and were successfully completed. I now have a list of projects that we need to continue to work on. Um, we have phase two of Gorman Park right outside these windows here. funding in the construction of a um water or a water park, not a water park, excuse me, but a splash pad. Uh we also need to work on some utilities and some street work. We have work on 169 Forest Street and Front Street coming up. We need to complete the what we started in the new city or the remodeled city hall at Scholarship America. We also need to uh do some work on our wastewater plant. Um, most of the residents have never had the ability or the opportunity to tour a wastewater plant. Um, those things do need to be fixed at some time. It's been 20 plus years it's been in service and we have some updates to do to the wastewater plant. Nothing real great to talk about. It needs to be done to to protect the water that we discharge from our community. Um, with that being said, I would appreciate your vote on November 4th. I think we are a well functioning city and um uh thank you for watching this tonight >> and Shannon Noel. >> Thank you Marco. Uh thank you again to our organizers, to our faithful videographer Tony and to my fellow candidates for tonight's conversation. For folks watching at home, if your question wasn't addressed this evening, I encourage you to reach out. You can find me on my candidate Facebook page or at shannanoel.com. I believe deeply in St. Peter and the people who make this community strong. As your mayor, I will continue to listen, to lead with care and accountability, and to make decisions that are thoughtful, sustainable, and inclusive of every resident's voice. I will continue to show up for you at forums like this, at community van events, or for one-on-one conversations. Finally, I encourage everyone to make sure you're registered, make a plan, and vote on November 4th. Thank you. This concludes our forum. If we didn't get to your question, as Shannon mentioned, please contact the candidates directly. Contact information is available at the Minnesota Secretary of State's website, mnvotes.gov, under elections and voting candidate filings. I want to thank each of our candidates for participating this evening and especially thank Tony Peragan in the back from the city of St. Peter um for your videography support and for the city for the space here at the community center, our co-sponsors, the St. Peter Chamber of Commerce and the St. Peter Herald, as well as my fellow league volunteers. To our viewers of this recording, thank you for watching. Remember to exercise your right to vote. The election will be held on Tuesday, November 4th, and early voting begins on Friday, September 19th at the Nicollet County Courthouse. If you are not currently registered to vote and you want to register prior to election day, register by October 13th. You may also register on election day at your polling place. For more information about registering to vote and other information about voting and these candidates, please visit minotes.gov or vote411.org. Thank you.