Nicollet County Commission

Candidate Questionnaire:

1. Why should voters elect you to serve the position you seek?
Throughout my professional career, during my 12-year term as Mayor of North Mankato, and now after 2 years as a Nicollet County Commissioner I have demonstrated a successful, collaborative leadership style with tangible results. While serving as a Nicollet County Commissioner I have gained a greater appreciation for the County level of government, its programming and specific focus areas. Our Board has demonstrated good fiscal stewardship and sustained the financial stability of the county. Together with the County staff, we have worked hard to represent the best interests of all our Nicollet County residents.

My proven local government experience, strong leadership and conservative fiscal management skills will continue to be invaluable at the County Commissioner level moving forward. I also continue to enjoy discussing issues with our citizens and, when appropriate, helping guide them through the proper government channels to address their concerns. Most importantly, I really appreciate the opportunity to represent and promote the citizens of North Mankato and Nicollet County and their quality of life thanks to all our great citizens and businesses!

2. What would you say are the key issues facing the city/district/county/state you seek to represent and how would you impact them from this elected position?
Key issues I would like to address first include preservation of the county’s health care safety net functions for its citizens. My 37+ years’ experience as a health care provider and 11 years’ experience on the administrative side of a physical medicine provider group give me unique insight into the county’s largest budgetary expense, health care. Affordable health care is a challenge for many, as medical costs cause two-thirds of all personal bankruptcies. Providing support for our residents, especially the most vulnerable, will require diligence and creativity. Mental health issues are especially challenging due to limited resources and beds. My second issue is fiscal stewardship. Fiscal conservation leveraging taxpayer dollars through cooperative measures with community partners to foster growth and mitigate the tax burden we all contribute to is a proven strategy that will be effective in today’s unprecedented inflationary environment. Past joint infrastructure projects, like the Hwy 14/41 interchange, and joint equipment purchases are past examples that will be beneficial in the future. Additionally, law enforcement has become a tough profession in MN and nationally. Joint task forces for law enforcement and mutual aid agreements serve the safety of all residents and support our officers. I also will be a champion for regional cooperation with our local government and business partners as we face the challenges ahead, especially in housing and childcare, as we continue to promote the quality of life that has made this area so successful these last 10 years.

3. In your view, what is the role of the body/office you seek in supporting business vitality and economic development?
Our Nicollet/Blue Earth County Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and the Greater Mankato community have a long history of partnering with our business and educational communities to develop networks of support to leverage all our assets. The spirit of cooperation between these entities has helped us develop the broad, robust diversity of businesses that have insulated us through previous economic downturns in different segments of the economy and will do so in this current tumultuous environment.

The Regional Economic Development Alliance consisting of our local communities and counties joined together with Greater Mankato Growth to efficiently provide both regional and individual city and county information to businesses interested in the Greater Mankato marketplace. Together we recognize that economic prosperity does not stop at jurisdictional boundaries but lies in the collective success of our regional marketplace. Each of us benefits from investments made in and by other members, where private investment in one community benefits the others and public investments that each community makes benefits all. Working together and branding our collective strengths has resulted in major success as our area grew twelve times faster than other communities of comparable size and we have enjoyed $1.5 billion in capital investment over the last 10 years.

Today we focus on resident recruitment and workforce development, as people can now live where they want and yet work virtually anywhere. Creative placemaking is a key component of economic development as demonstrated by the increase in annual investment in the City Center since the addition of the City Art Walk. The Green Seam project highlighting the importance and vitality of our regional agricultural economy is another clear example of our regional significance. As the spirit of collaboration continues within our region, we can continue this growth and be a national leader in collective economic development.

4. The effective and efficient use of public tax dollars is a key component to serving in public office. What experience do you have dealing with complex budgets? When presented with a budget that will often be several hundred pages in length, what will be your process to determine if it is a good budget? What improvements would you recommend to improve the fiscal responsibility for the body/office you would represent if elected?
I have been a home and business owner in North Mankato for more than 35 years. I have also had the opportunity to serve in leadership roles in several organizations with varying budgets ranging from a few thousand dollars to 100s of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars. Notably I have never worked for an organization that had excess financial resources.

Therefore, it has always been necessary to prioritize needs over wants and do more with less. As a leader, it is important to have open discussions with invested members to identify the issues, reach reasonable consensus on priorities, budget available resources to live within the available means and then work to attain the intended goals, reevaluating with progress and changing circumstances. However, that also means that on occasion you have to say “No” to proposals that do not vet out, despite the passionate endorsement by segments of our citizens.

I have successfully applied this strategy in our home, with our children, in my business, and in my various affiliations. This philosophy of fiscal responsibility weathers good times and bad and works in both large and small budgets.

These last 2 years serving as County Commissioner I have continued my conservative fiscal view of local government. With the help of our hardworking administration, we have endeavored to provide the best services possible for our county residents possible while keeping our county tax burden to the minimum we can. Last year and again this year we are looking to have one of the lowest tax increases amongst our peer counties with this year’s maximum tax levy increase capped at 3.5%.

5. Compromise and consensus are a crucial part of bringing conflicting views/positions together to get decisions made in a democracy. How will you go about working with other elected officials of varied political backgrounds to build the consensus necessary to govern for the benefit of citizens?
Over my term as Mayor and now as County Commissioner, our Council/Board have faced issues that have had broad, significant, and emotional impact on our communities. Some of these issues have required extended, recurrent discussions to resolve them. To build consensus the various parties involved have had to compromise which requires a partial surrender of purposes or principles. Such circumstances result in everyone involved giving a little to attain the best result for the greatest number of our citizens. Our elected officials are always striving to make the best decisions possible based on the best available information that is too often incomplete and conflicting. This process of democracy is often frustrating and messy, leaving some of those affected feeling dissatisfied with the end results. To those that follow our local politics, this has polarized some of our more ardent special interest advocates. However, this is also a great testament to the passion and pride our citizens have for their hometowns. This local nonpartisan bias generally works out to the common good of our larger community. I strongly believe this remains the strength of local government relative to the more polarized state and national arenas. This remains true in the role of County Commissioner because we must face our citizens every day at church, in the restaurant or gas station, and be accountable for our choices.

When faced with tough issues I have tried to sort through all the provided information, as well as my own education and experiences, to make the best decision I can with the goal of serving the larger community today and into the future. I remain willing to stand by those decisions as I humbly ask for your vote as I seek election as Nicollet County District 4 County Commissioner!