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VISION STATEMENT

What does it mean to move forward together?

'FORWARD TOGETHER' DEFINED

Plain and simple, "Forward Together" is a vision for our community that recognizes a city is more than the sum of its institutions, infrastructure and government. Rather a city is its people, their collective work and aspirations.  Moving forward together is built around two foundational principles.

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The first is that for any community to be successful, it must engage and empower ALL of its citizens to be the very best they can be. I believe that we are all created with different talents and abilities. When we create an environment where each of us can use our unique talents to pursue our own dreams and aspirations, we are each able to live our best lives. As we do this, we bring our entire community with us. From work to family and volunteering, our collective actions propel our city forward. I therefore believe a critical function of our city government is to create a safe and stable environment that allows everyone to be their best. Further I believe it is on our city’s leadership to dream big for our city and actively engage everyone, rejecting the status quo that says Bemidji must always experience poverty and fewer job opportunities than other parts of the country. When we are engaged, we become inspired to put aside our differences and focus on how our individual abilities fit together to solve the underlying problems holding our city back to create prosperity for all of us.

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A second foundational principle is that most of our community's problems are not political in nature. Rather, they are simply issues needing solutions. When we turn on our water tap, we all want clean water. When we flush our toilet, we want the waste handled correctly. We all want safe neighborhoods for our families. These concerns are neither Democrat nor Republican. They are neither conservative nor progressive. They are simply challenges that need to be successfully overcome so that our community can move forward. We need each other more than ever, and we accomplish much when we focus on our common ground as opposed to the things that divide us.

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As your Mayor, I understand that I nor our City Council possess all the answers, especially to complex issues such as substance abuse, discrimination or homelessness. Rather our strength lies in our community leveraging our combined knowledge and resources to make meaningful progress in addressing these issues and more. It is always my goal to create an environment in the City of Bemidji that facilitates partnership between city government, businesses, organizations and individual citizens in improving our combined quality of life. A place of mutual respect that embraces innovation, and a place where trustworthy and transparent government lives.

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WHAT I AM COMMITTED TO:

Improving public safety in our community​

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Historically, Bemidji has had a reputation as a city with an elevated crime rate based on per-capita measurements. Further, in recent years we have had significant high-profile crimes shake our community including missing citizens such as Nevaeh Kingbird and the sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl. I am committed to making meaningful impact to create a safer city through investment in our police department and in strengthening our partnerships with our county, state and non-profit partners. Our peace officers handle some of the largest call volumes per officer of any city in Minnesota. Additionally, fewer people are entering the profession while senior officers are opting for early retirement. Given the highly competitive environment for quality law enforcement professionals, we need to improve the wage scale for our officers so that we are competitive with our neighboring cities and counties. We also need to incentivize our veteran officers through efforts such as extending their healthcare benefits so that they have a reason to stay beyond their early retirement date and mentor our new officers as they grow in their roles. Lastly, we need to consider investing in additional law enforcement positions such as a community officer that can work with neighborhoods to address concerns and bring important information forward. These investments come at a cost, but I firmly believe our city cannot afford the price of not making these investments.

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As a city, we only prosecute misdemeanor crimes and not felonies as that jurisdiction resides in our County Attorney’s office. It is therefore important to maintain a strong working relationship between their office and our Police Department. Further, our city partners with the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office in many ways including contracting for dispatch services, making that another key relationship.

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I also believe that many of our non-profits play key roles in impacting public safety in our community. From providing mental health counseling, drug recovery services and abuse intervention, they provide valuable resources in prevention and recovery. Our city needs to partner and help these organizations in whatever manner possible.

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Our Fire Department serves one of the largest geographical fire service areas in our state. Their primary base of operations, Fire Station 1, is in desperate need of repair or replacement. This building is 53 years old with foundation and roof issues. Further, it does not provide separate quarters/facilities for male and female firefighters making the recruitment and retention of a diverse work force incredibly challenging.  Lastly, the station’s limited roof height negatively impacts the replacement of fire engines and similar equipment potentially impacting the quality of response. I am committed to making the necessary investment to address these building deficiencies in a financially responsible manner so that our firefighters have the tools necessary in keeping Bemidji safe. This includes securing as much state and federal funding as possible to lower the burden on our city taxpayers. Our city is also in the process of assessing our firefighter staffing levels and exploring the possibility of creating a separate Fire District. I look forward to being actively engaged in these policy discussions as I believe a strong and healthy Fire Department is key to keeping our citizens safe.

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Improving our city's housing stock and access to affordable housing​

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Our city along with many throughout our nation is experiencing a housing shortage especially regarding affordable housing stock. In Bemidji, I believe this has been the result of a lack of public investment coupled with higher development costs relative to neighboring townships and counties. Given that our state has allocated historical amounts of funding targeted towards housing, our city needs to position itself to apply and receive as many of those funds as possible. This means strengthening partnerships with developers and agencies such as the Beltrami County Housing and Redevelopment Authority, Headwaters Regional Development Authority and Habitat for Humanity to spur development.

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In targeting additional affordable housing, our city will need to actively use financial tools such as fee reduction, tax incremental financing (TIF) and tax abatement to help developers keep project costs low translating into lower rents with a special focus on partnering with developers who accept local, state and federal rental assistance programs.

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Additionally, in the coming years, our city will complete a review of our Comprehensive Land-Use plan and resulting zoning ordinances. We will need to update our plan in a way that promotes housing development in our city, ensuring that we are competitive with our neighboring townships, so we are no longer at a competitive disadvantage.

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In 2022, our city performed the first significant re-write of our rental code in over a decade. Although significant improvement was achieved, issues at Ridgeway Apartments and Red Pine Estates have highlighted the need for that work to continue. It will be important to again update our rental code, applying what we have learned in a way that holds underperforming landlords accountable while rewarding landlords who are doing a good job.

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In recent years, our city has made significant progress in adding additional housing units. This includes 52 new units at the former Taber’s Bait location, the expansion of Conifer Estates, Bixby condominiums, South Beach apartments, townhomes at Mountain View Meadows, Habitat for Humanity homes and new housing projects approved for the Beltrami County Housing and Redevelopment Authority and Gracewin senior housing. We need to continue this positive momentum and build upon these recent successes.

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Economic development and tax base growth

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Over the past two years, all of us have been negatively impacted by inflation. We have seen everything from groceries to housing increase dramatically in price. Inflation has also had a negative effect on our city budget as we have seen dramatic increases to wages, operations and capital improvement expenses. Just as it now costs significantly more to fuel the family car so too does it cost more to fuel police cars and fire trucks.

 

If we are to address these rising costs and meet the service needs of our community, we need to continue to grow our property tax base so that the burden is shared amongst more property taxpayers. Over the past four years we gave made significant progress in our city taking back control of planning and zoning with the dissolution of the Greater Bemidji Joint Planning Board and in accelerating the sale of city owner property to get those properties back on the tax rolls. These actions allowing us to better focus on development in our city while spurring the creation of new jobs and opportunities.

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Soon, our city will complete a review of our Comprehensive Land-Use plan and resulting zoning ordinances. Just as with housing, we will need to update our plan in a way that promotes commercial development, welcoming businesses to our city and promoting the growth of our existing businesses.

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Creating better paying jobs and growing Bemidji's economy from tourism and government to include manufacturing and high technology

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In 2022, the median household income for the city of Bemidji was $49,799 up from $34,112 in 2020 which represented significant improvement. Unfortunately, inflation has eaten away at most of those gains with 24.8% of our city’s population still living in poverty.  As of the most current census, the median income for the state of Minnesota is $90,390 with 9.6% of the state living in poverty. (Dollar amounts quoted in 2022 valuation)

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This means 50% of Bemidji households make less than $49,799. Only 25% of the population has a bachelor's or higher degree. The prevalence of a tourist-based economy gives birth to most jobs being in the service or retail sectors. These jobs are historically lower paying positions.

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We need jobs that can pay a living wage to raise people out of poverty. Bearing in mind that 75% of people within the city do not have a college degree, these jobs need to be higher paying “blue collar” positions. Manufacturing can provide these types of positions as can technology and higher value-added service positions.

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COVID-19 demonstrated to OEM manufacturers the fragility of overseas supply chains. This has caused many companies to look at bringing manufacturing back to the United States. Bemidji needs to take advantage of this wave.

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We need to make Bemidji a business-friendly community that supports our local businesses and attracts high quality employers to expand into our community. As part of this strategy, I am committed to reigniting growth in our industrial park and promoting any needed changes to support economic development in our city.

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Another item to review is the city policy of awarding bids to the lowest bidder. Our city should be focused on making decisions seeking the best value for the cost, not necessarily just the lowest price. One possible idea is to give some form of preference to local businesses and contractors to keep more city construction and consulting jobs local.

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Relationship-building and transparency in city government

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When I first entered office, our city was at odds with many parts of our community. From citizens who openly questioned whether their voice mattered; to entire communities who felt unheard; to members of our business and nonprofit communities believing that city government was not invested in their success; to our tribal and township neighbors being overlooked — I knew we had much work to do.

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Over the past four years, I have worked to be actively engaged and present across our entire community to bridge those gaps. Whether one-on-one with individual people, holding listening sessions with our business and nonprofit communities, or historic first-time council-to-council meetings with our neighboring tribal nations — relationship building has been at the core of my decision making.

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When I look to the future, I know it will take all of us working together to build the community we want for ourselves and our children. Progress is built on a foundation of mutual trust and positive relationships, for it is partnership and collaboration between people, organizations and government that drives us forward. We have both challenges and opportunities in front of us. From affordable housing shortages, to crime, poverty, and property tax concerns — the decisions made in the coming years will define the opportunities for everyone who calls Bemidji home. I am an optimist and believe that if we lean into our relationships, trust each other, and work together we can overcome these challenges and more.

 

Throughout my time in office, I have met so many amazing people doing such good work in our city — it defies imagination. Each of you has my deepest appreciation for all you do to make our community the amazing place it is! It’s truly an honor to serve as your Mayor. I look forward to a successful campaign where I can again share my thoughts and plans for how we continue to move our city forward, leaving no one behind.

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