Positions

üSAFE & LIVABLE NEIGHBORHOODS
Complete Position: Word or Adobe PDF
üECONOMIC GROWTH AND JOBS
Complete Position: Word or Adobe PDF
üNEW HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES
Complete Position: Word or Adobe PDF
üSOUND FISCAL MANAGEMENT
Complete Position: Word or Adobe PDF
üEDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Complete Position: Word or Adobe PDF
üENVIRONMENT
üAYD MILL ROAD
üTRANSIT & WEST 7TH BUSWAY
üGOPHER STATE ETHANOL PLANT
üRACIAL PROFILING
üPUBLIC SAFETY
üSAINTS STADIUM

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üSAFE & LIVABLE NEIGHBORHOODS
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Complete Position: Word or Adobe PDF

No Saint Paul parent should have to be afraid to let their child ride their bike to a neighborhood recreation center or a school playground. Unfortunately, that is not the case today. We can do better.

As your next Mayor, I will work to make our neighborhoods and schools safer.

• We will get the illegal guns off of our streets, and put more cops on the streets (just by filling over two dozen vacancies in the Saint Paul Police Dept.)
  
  
• I also plan to work closely with the School District, Ramsey County and neighborhood crime prevention organizations to develop better methods of "community policing" in our city.

We will aggressively seek greater state and federal funding for urban crime prevention and law enforcement efforts. I will continue the work I began as a City Councilmember to develop better juvenile crime prevention strategies, and to work closely with the St. Paul Juvenile Crime Unit to expand successful juvenile crime prevention programs such as the All Children Excel (ACE) program.

Maintaining an environmentally sound quality of life in our neighborhoods is also key to keeping our families in Saint Paul.

• I am committed to improving our parks and open space with more bike, walking and jogging trails.
  
  
• We must continue to work to clean up brownfield lands for redevelopment.

üECONOMIC GROWTH AND JOBS
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Complete Position: Word or Adobe PDF

We must Keep Saint Paul Moving Forward and maintain the momentum in downtown while spreading the prosperity to other neighborhoods. I am the candidate with the energy, experience, and vision to continue Saint Paul's economic renaissance.

As Mayor, I will work to strengthen Saint Paul's neighborhoods and continue the progress in downtown and along our Riverfront. I will use the experience I have gained as a Councilmember, business owner, and attorney specializing in business development to strengthen our business climate and create more jobs. I will

• clean up polluted brownfields, to make them available for industrial development;
• push to make Saint Paul the high-tech capital of the Midwest;
• work to increase the efficiency of city government. Taxes and city red tape will not hinder Saint Paul's businesses.

Finally, I will be the number one "salesperson" for Saint Paul, bringing visitors to our great city through efforts like a new "Great Mississippi Trail" modeled after the Boston Freedom Trail.

üNEW HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES
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Complete Position: Word or Adobe PDF

The Mayor must partner with the private sector to develop more housing options, including senior housing, throughout the city. Saint Paul is a city of fantastic neighborhoods. But Saint Paul's housing shortage has prevented far too many residents from finding a home in one of those neighborhoods. For Saint Paul to be a truly great city, every resident must have the opportunity to find safe, affordable housing.

As Mayor, I will work to meet Saint Paul's housing challenge. I pledge that I will initiate the construction of more housing units in my first four years as Mayor than have been built in the last ten years. I will work with for-profit and non-profit development agencies to use the hundreds of vacant and degraded lots, currently owned by the city, to develop new housing units.

With your help, we can develop some of the most innovative urban housing initiatives in the country.

• I plan to work with participating banks and foundations to develop and finance a "Jobs to Homes" Urban Homestead program to increase home ownership and stabilize neighborhoods.
• In addition, we must preserve and increase the supply of affordable rental housing through new "gap" financing programs for new construction and rehabilitation of existing rental units. I have sought valuable advice from former Mayor Jim Scheibel on his approach to housing at the Project for Pride in Living.
• Let's build new market rate housing units for seniors, empty nesters and young professionals downtown and along the Riverfront, but ensure that a percentage of the units are designated as affordable.
• Finally, by working for further property tax relief and reforms for seniors, we can prevent them from being taxed out of their homes. This is a crucial commitment that we must make to the residents that have spent their lives building our city.

üSOUND FISCAL MANAGEMENT
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Complete Position: Word or Adobe PDF

This year, Saint Paul needs to choose the Mayor who will govern the City in a fiscally responsible manner. I am committed to holding the line on property taxes.

We cannot allow property tax increases to force Saint Paul residents out of their homes. We need to encourage homeowners and businesses to stay in St. Paul and invest in our City to make it even better. While other candidates are endorsed by special interests groups, I pledge to you that I will work for St. Paul, which in my mind means fighting for an efficient and fiscally responsible City government for you.

As Mayor, I will pledge to keep property taxes down. I will fight for Saint Paul residents and businesses against the "double taxation" that we pay for overlapping city and county services and duplication of city and county operations.

My record of fiscal responsibility in the public and private sectors cannot be matched by my opponents. While on the City Council, I fought to keep down property taxes with a number of government reforms. I led the charge to consolidate our local fire and police pension funds with the State PERA, saving the city over $25 million since 1994. As a business owner and partner in a law firm, I have balanced budgets, met payrolls, and gave up my own paychecks now and then to pay my employees. None of my opponents can make such a statement.

üEDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE
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Complete Position: Word or Adobe PDF

We need better schools in Saint Paul. For Saint Paul to be a truly great city, our schools must meet the highest standards. I will be an independent-minded voice for better education in Saint Paul.

As Mayor, I will work closely with our schools and institutes of higher education to ensure that every child receives a world-class education. I will work to ensure that Saint Paul schools stay open after regular school hours so children may participate in additional academic or cultural activities. I will build and strengthen bridges between our institutes of higher education and our public schools to provide mentoring opportunities for our neediest children. And I will continue to promote, in a thoughtful and fiscally responsible manner, the creation of charter schools to provide a more diverse set of educational opportunities to all students.

I have a history of promoting education and children's issues that cannot be matched by my opponents. While on the City Council, I authored the City's comprehensive childcare ordinance. I worked to make affordable childcare available to Saint Paul's working families. I also began working with the school district to start a mentoring program designed to link college students with under-privileged students from Saint Paul schools.

üENVIRONMENT
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As the chief executive of Saint Paul, the Mayor is entrusted with the city's natural assets and resources. Saint Paul has a wealth of environmental assets, from the Mississippi River to dozens of great parks, to our beautiful, tree-lined boulevards and parkways. The next mayor must be vigilant and proactive in protecting these resources for current residents and future generations.

My record on environmental issues is unmatched by any other Saint Paul city official or by any other candidate for Mayor this year. As mayor, I'll continue this commitment by:

• Establishing an Environmental Quality Commission to advise the city on environmental protection initiatives.
• Working with businesses to develop cleaner alternatives to current practices.
• Preserving and developing more open space in all areas of our City.
• Adopting "Green Government Initiative" procurement policies for city equipment and materials.
• Protecting our Mississippi River, lakes and streams by focusing on improving storm water quality and reducing chemical run off.
• Improving our parks and open space with more biking, walking and jogging trails.
• Continuing to clean up "brownfield" lands for redevelopment.
• Working aggressively to resolve specific neighborhood environmental problems like the ethanol plant emissions on West 7th St, and pollution concerns around Como Lake.

A few highlights of my environmental record include:

• Sierra Club Environmentalist of the Year in 1989 for local government leadership.
• Recipient of a special award from Clean Water Action for forming the Environmental Cities Coalition of Minnesota.
• Worked with neighborhood groups and business leaders to reduce air and noise emissions from the Ford Plant paint shop and train yards.
• Organizer of the St. Paul Airport Noise Coalition (SPANC) to fight airport noise.
• Cleaning up brownfields in St. Paul, converting them from polluted sites threatening our water quality to prospering industrial properties.
• Author of the resolution to build a district cooling system in downtown Saint Paul.
• Working with state, federal, and regional authorities to clean up the Mississippi River by reducing non-point source pollution and committing to St. Paul's sewer separation project.

üAYD MILL ROAD
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We must reduce congestion on residential streets such as Lexington and Randolph that is brought by suburban residents commuting into the city. According to the EIS that examined connecting Ayd Mill Road to Interstate 35E, the connection will increase congestion. I propose using federal funds for a direct, underground connection between I-35E and I-94. Ayd Mill could then be used as a local parkway with one lane of traffic going each way. In addition, federal funds could be used to create commuter rail along the Ayd Mill Corridor on existing tracks. This will take additional cars off of local streets.

üTRANSIT & WEST 7TH BUSWAY
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Improving transit options in Saint Paul is essential for continued economic success. The Central Corridor along University Avenue is a crucial part of Saint Paul's transit solutions. It is time to begin development of an LRT line between the two downtowns, and I will fight to make sure Saint Paul gets fair consideration in metro transit planning.

However, I am firmly opposed to the Bus Rapid Transit ("BRT") as currently proposed for West 7th Street. It is a waste of taxpayer dollars that would reduce houses and on-street parking and eliminate traffic lanes.

Instead, I have proposed a two-prong strategy for addressing transit needs on the West 7th Street corridor. First, we should improve existing bus service on West 7th Street for far less cost than the BRT. Second, we need to work toward commuter rail on Shepard Road to serve the Riverview Corridor and further reduce traffic on West 7th Street.

All transit planning must consider the needs and particulars of the city's diverse neighborhoods. I am concerned about the process by which the Met Council implemented its recent changes in bus routes throughout the city, and will work to ensure that transit planning is more responsive and accountable to local concerns.

üGOPHER STATE ETHANOL PLANT
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The City recently made a terrible mistake in dropping criminal charges against the ethanol plant. When the City entered into this questionable agreement, I was the only candidate for Mayor that made an immediate statement criticizing the agreement. I stand by that criticism. The agreement is wrong. As Mayor, I will not be constrained by the City's ill-fated agreement and will work to protect the West Seventh Street Neighborhood.

There must be a thorough, accurate, unbiased analysis of the impacts of the plant on the neighborhoods with the new thermal oxidizer installed. Both long-term and new residents are complaining that the odors around their homes have continued and in some instances gotten worse. We need a thorough examination of the facts before the city enters into any new agreements with Gopher State Ethanol.

Ultimately, given the recent incident and after speaking with neighboring residents, I am convinced that the noise, odor and the emissions from the ethanol plant are not compatible with the high quality of life that the West 7th Street Neighborhood deserves. As Mayor, I will work to stop ethanol production at Gopher State Ethanol Plant immediately and will work with the union to help the handful of displaced workers find new employment.

üRACIAL PROFILING
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As Mayor, I will not tolerate racial profiling in Saint Paul. We must ensure that all our citizens are treated equally regardless of the color of their skin.

The Saint Paul Police Department is to be applauded for entering into an agreement with the NAACP to address this issue. I believe this agreement may become a model for the nation. We should give the agreement an opportunity to be used to determine its ability to address this issue. If it does not sufficiently address the issue, we must work with the community to develop additional steps to correct the problem.

üPUBLIC SAFETY
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Residents of Saint Paul are concerned about illegal guns and drugs on the streets of the city. Some neighborhoods have seen an increase in methamphedamine labs. Others are afflicted with open air drug dealing. These crimes are often accompanied by gun crimes.

Traffic crime impacting pedestrian safety is also of concern. Families worry about the ability of children and seniors to safely navigate city streets.

Dealing with illegal guns and drugs, with various nuisance crimes, and with pedestrian safety is essential to maintain Saint Paul's livable neighborhoods. We must increase our community policing efforts to preserve our neighborhoods.

üSAINTS STADIUM
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The Saint Paul Saints have been very successful in Midway stadium, quickly becoming a favorite of Saint Paul residents. We must keep them in Saint Paul. While there may be problems with the current stadium, I would first work to make improvements to the stadium to keep the Saints in the Midway area. Any city involvement to help finance improvements at the current stadium or any new stadium must be based on revenues raised from the team and stadium. No general city tax money should be used.