I'm very excited about the double A plus bond rating we received as city of North St. Paul, which is something that uh we worked very hard on with the council to be able to accomplish.

If you choose to vote for me, what will you get? My answer to that is consistency and hard work. In the last four years, some of the things I'm very proud of the city council accomplishing are the return of the included bulk pickup, the 4.5 million in um water tower funding, and the city's double A plus bond rating.

My career has centered on finance and human resources culminating in my role as vice president of finance at HR and HR at Mid-Continent Engineering. In that role, I helped shape company policies, support responsible financial decisions, and guide growth.

I've lived in several cities over the course of my life, but this place has been the only one that's felt like home to me. North St. Paul is special, and I believe my ideas and passion for this city will benefit it.

To to me the the top issues facing the city are kind of in line with the three things I outlined. keep keeping residents safe and secure in their home and and making the city affordable and making a city a fun place and a desirable place to live. Without those three things, we don't have a viable city.

Uh road infrastructure was a big one that uh when we took over as far as back in 2023, our ratio, our rating was a 56, which is a D minus. And over this time now, we're able to get it up to almost a 70. So we have made quite strides with our roads and infrastructure.

I think I think we're on the way. Is there going to be code violations? Of course there is. That's a city and I think we do a good job of trying to enforce it.

I I I am am very happy with how it is addressing a lot of the properties and I think it's a great result as far as code enforcement um for overall I'm pretty happy with code enforcement in Nor St. all because not only is it done um it's also done with a a conscience and understanding um as our it's not one size-fits-all.

The city is I believe 4.1 square miles 3x3 um and it is built out. So all affordable housing um new comes in the in the form of uh uh apartment buildings and things of that nature that are built um with a side.

We just got a piece of property that uh we were able to tear down a house that was had a lot of issues with code enforcement and it was big enough for a lot where we can split it into two. So, our next two student build homes are coming from that.

As far as I know is Ramsey County is the one that has the flock cameras. We do not have any in North St. Paul. That's a that's a county. That's a county thing.

If fly cameras are a tool and most tools need some sort of safety. If the police came to us as a city council and wanted to install cameras, I would say that there needs to be citizen engagement, council engagement, and police engagement to make sure that all three of those parties are okay with the safeties those would have.

Immigration enforcement is a federal issue. Um, we need to maintain good federal relations. However, our local police department needs to focus on local issues.

As far as the enforcement, I don't know the city's actually being involved with it. they're just told that they're coming into the city that uh that we're not helping as far as doing anything like that.

I like the as far as being able to be when you're on patrol being a little bit more proactive than reactive. I think that's what we get for our own local police because they're they're set up and they're going around.

So now we passed a levy where it's two went up from one and a half I think to two and a half percent. Now everybody shares it. I know Dan, our finance guy, uh an older lady called and wanted how much she had to take out of her 401k or her retirement fund because of the the street assessment that was being done up on Navajo or up in that area. And he says there is no more see street assessments. And he said she was in tears that that they didn't, you know, that that wasn't a burden for anymore.

I I I think keeping taxes reasonable is a big part of every decision that's made as a city council. It it needs to be in the forefront of every city council's mind to make sure that everything that is is voted in the the the cost is worth the benefit.

As far as dissolving our police department and contracting with someone else. It isn't something that um that I would be in favor of. I believe that would change the feel of North St. called and take away some of our local control.

Keep keeping the library is one of the re uh important to me and that has been on the forefront of our discussions and planning when when we talk about what to do with it.

We're able to take that $4.5 million that we received for the community center and got a water tower. So, that's what we're working on now. So, we have a 750,000galon water tower that's been going to be where that money's going.

But at North St. Paul, at least we do plow and take care of our alleys. And in St. Paul, the Midway, I had to go around and knock on everybody's door and get $10 so they could plow. And then half the time, the plow guy didn't show up. So, I think we're ahead of the game when it comes to being able to at least get it plowed and the city taking care of it.

It does take a lot of funding. And I I would I if that resident was in front of me, I I would tell them although there there is talk, it it isn't it isn't a top priority. Uh in in my mind, I I'd much rather be honest with them and curb their expectations um as far as what the city is going to do going forward.

I know as a city we are embarking on an education campaign. Uh we we were all emailed um some information and are uh about what other cities have done and are putting forward uh a collective um so to better educate the city of what is legal, what isn't legal and what is allowed, what is not allowed.

It's more along the lines of education and make sure people stay off sidewalks and are accountable for the traffic laws and not blowing through intersections.

There is challenges. I mean, there's challenges because the federal government has subsidies and then the state government and by the time it gets down to us, the only win we can go to is the taxpayers. So, we directly affect our taxpayers when it comes to stuff because we can't turn around and toss it to somebody else. It's buck stops with the local government.

One of the biggest challenges in the city of North St. Paul for uh the tax base is we have a very very small commercial tax base. Most the majority of our tax base is private individual residential. So, it it falls upon the city council to make sure that when no matter what we're voting on, what we're approving, what new things we're putting forth, what we want to maintain is worth it.

My understanding is most of the places that have climate action plans are expanding and building. as a city that's fully built out if it would be something that we would need to partner with the Metropolitan Council with.

Well, we provide our own energy here in North St. Paul. I know there's some different people can check different boxes if they want to do anything different as far as wind or solar or something like that. I know that's something that's an option.

Well, I we have coffee with the with the um council. We've done that before. Um email-wise, I get quite a few emails and I'm able to respond to that. I show up for um different events, car shows, uh ribbon cutings.

As far as the open hours go, the the the council of North St. Paul is is a plan B government. A lot of a lot of the things that come before us um are directed to the city manager. So, I I would also include the residents or encourage the residents to make sure uh and don't be afraid to contact the city manager for a lot of their events.

The the the big one is if you have passion, I I would invite you to apply for one of the commissions. We we have a a planning commission, a parks and recck commission, a uh police civil service commission, a EDA, um and an arts and culture commission.

Same thing. We do have a lot of commissions. We have some opened up right now. I think we have uh EDA has one. The planning commission has one or two. So there's there's different commissions that are that are available. And part of it is just our weekly newsletter. We have a weekly newsletter that comes out.

Well, the world we live in, we know that there's going to be breaches. I think uh as far as um I know for our own emails that come and everything else, there's always this open up immediately type thing. So, we're always, you know, getting trained in on that as far as that.

As a city our size, a lot of this relies on who we contract with. So it it falls upon the city council to make sure that we're contracting with people and companies that have a proven track record of of protecting data and being smart with data.

A lot of it is continuing with what we're doing and and take pride in our local police force and making sure they have the tools and the presence to make themselves uh be able to do their job in a professional uh good manner.

But the biggest thing is with us is the being able to have the local presence being able to do the the the um proactive support that we do, understanding the neighbors. I was just up um with fishing with the with the cops, you got shopping with the cops, you got all these different things that were trying to, you know, introduce neighbors and residents to our police force to be part of it, to see them as a as positive.

I have no no clue on the voucher. I don't know if that's for part of like section 8 or something like that, but whoever owns the buildings would be in charge of that. I have no idea.

I would be willing to have a conversation with that resident and learn more about what they mean by it. Um and again, because the city is fully built out, we we don't as a city, we don't own any housing, so it's all private investment and private ownership.

To me at a city of our size it's about getting them in touch a lot of with a lot of the county programs as a city we're a smaller city we don't have a ton of programs. So, I know our police force has many times offered rides and and brought them to shelters.

Just like you said, Ramsey County, I know we get an email, I forget how often, for unhoused to see how many, if there are any in our area that so there is programs out there to help when it comes to that. So, that would be it through the county.

I think as far as our council, um, since I've been mayor and been very fortunate to be able to work with Jason and some other ones, we've had some difficult decisions, but we're all very civil. There's never been a blow up. There's never been uh any curse words or anything like that.

I I would say the biggest opportunity that we all have is to lead by example that there are there are some emotional decisions and and emotional choices that we have to make up here. But if we conduct conduct ourselves with decorum and dignity and civility, other people see that.

Overall, I I I am happy with our downtown. Um, I I'm also very happy with the the EDA recently did a program, a facade program to allow the the downtown businesses to apply for grants to give their business a facelift.

This is we just had a meeting at 4:00 today to discuss this because right now there's really nothing that's outstanding as far as uh a building that's in disrepair or anything downtown. So but now we have to and part of our initiative that I was talking about is have the EDA go around and talk to the businesses to see do you have any places some buildings around there are they you know is there any for rent? Is there business? What are you looking for as a business to be able to help bring in more businesses to to downtown North St. Paul?

I truly hope you give me another chance to serve the city for another four years. And I I strongly would encourage you all November 3rd to get out and vote. Thank you very much.

Although I have not previously served on the city council, I believe my 30 years of executive level business experience give me the judgment, financial understanding, and leadership skills needed to make thoughtful decisions for the residents of North St. Paul.

If elected as a city councelor, my priorities would be transparency, sustainability, and community. I believe citizens have a right to know what their elected officials are working on and how their tax dollars are being utilized.

Borrow we borrow money at a lower interest rate because of that which helps all of us being able to take that $4.5 million towards the water tower. So, that's like was a 6% levy would have cost for the water tower. So, just being able to look, I'm a kind of a nuts andbolts kind of guy. You know, we have some things in front of us. What can we do? Look, think about the taxpayers. What kind of bang for the buck like we said before being able to do that?