Amy Brendmoen - Saint Paul Ward 5
Name: Amy Brendmoen
Public Office Sought: Saint Paul City Council
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 651-492-8488
Website: amyforcitycouncil.com
Twitter Handle: @abrendmoen
Facebook: Amy Brendmoen for Saint Paul City Council, Ward 5
Candidate Bio
I am an experienced, knowledgeable, resourceful and scrappy two-term councilmember.
In my first term, I was elected by my peers to chair the development and finance arm of the city--the Housing and Redevelopment Authority -- from 2013-2017 which facilitated the Palace Theater, CHS Field, the sale of the Penfield and the Ford zoning plan. In 2017, I was elected by my peers to lead the council as its President. In this role, I chair and manage the council’s budget deliberations and approval our $600+ million dollar annual budget.
Every day since being elected, I have worked hard on behalf of my Ward 5 neighbors, and residents throughout Saint Paul, to address community concerns, to solve problems, and to advance policy to move our city forward. My professional experience is complimented by my real-life role as a mother of three wonderful teen-aged boys and partner to a peach of a husband. Before running for office in 2011, I was a Mediator for the Minnesota Attorney General, a Communications Director for a social service nonprofit, and an Advertising Account Executive. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin- Madison with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science.
Business climate
1. How would you characterize the business climate in Saint Paul?
Saint Paul is growing and thriving, and businesses are growing and thriving as well. That said, the answer to this question likely depends on who you are asking (e.g. size, experience, location of business, years in business, type of business, etc.) I do not think there is a ubiquitous, uniform “business climate” to define. I would like to work with SPACC to understand what its answer is to this question, and address the priority areas it believes are ripe for change and improvement.
2. What role do you think the City should have in attracting and retaining jobs, and what steps would you take to solicit new businesses to, and retain existing businesses in, Saint Paul?
The City should be an active partner in attracting and retaining jobs in Saint Paul. It should work closely with the Chamber of Commerce (and local chambers), DEED, the Workforce Innovation Board and Greater MSP to name a few. We need to be sure that Saint Paul is on the regional map as a location of choice through marketing, networking, incentives and recruiting.
I’m pleased with the initial work of Joe Spencer and the Downtown Alliance. I believe a focus on defining, promoting and creating a real “downtown” is key to recruiting and retaining businesses in our City.
As previewed in question four, another great step would be to hire a top level staff that concentrated on growth and retention.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that we need to establish a succession and transition planning program to help businesses that are ready to hand off to successfully maneuver through the transition. We lost Linder’s Garden Center several years ago on the North End, and I truly believe there could have been a path to saving that business if we were being proactive.
3. Would you support hiring a business advocate as a member of the city senior staff, to concentrate on business retention and expansion; new business recruitment; and business impact of proposed regulations on the business climate in Saint Paul?
Yes. (Like yesterday!) We need a high level professional leading and managing this work.
We also need high level, decision-making staff to manage and drive important development work at and around Allianz Field, at the Ford redevelopment site, Tria & Palace as well as at the Hillcrest site as it moves into the spotlight.
4. Do you support any other specific employment-related proposals in Saint Paul (such as mandatory scheduling notice)? If so, what specific steps would you take to understand the impact of an increase on the many types of businesses in Saint Paul and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
I’m not currently engaged in any employment related proposals. A quick shout out to SPACC and particularly B. Kyle for the great leadership she provided in her role as co-chair in the minimum wage policy formation. Her efforts made the resulting policy much better than it would have been without her leadership. I would expect with any future employment-related proposal the Council would undoubtedly look to SPACC to help us understand any impacts of the policy on our business community.
5. Would you support modifying or repealing the new earned sick and safe time or minimum wage ordinances that apply to the city? If so, how?
No ordinance is cast in stone. Policy should always be scrutinized for improvement and modification. I would not be supportive of repealing either of these measures, however.
Public safety
6. What is your strategy to address public safety concerns?
Public safety is best achieved through connected layers of investment, training, and support. Immediately, we need to invest in preventative services, education, mental health support, stable housing and measures to eliminate poverty and inspire hope for the future. Crime is a symptom of disinvestment in these areas and to reduce it we must invest in people.
I support the Saint Paul Police Department and its current leadership. I am committed to investing in and partnering with the SPPD to further develop the department’s cultural competence, community trust, technology, and innovation.
Through investing in body-worn cameras, supporting a citizen-led Police Civilian Internal Affairs Committee, building a new public safety training facility, expanding the community ambassador program, increasing rec center and library hours and activities, and partnering with our public schools, I have been a leader on prioritizing public safety and creating opportunities for all Saint Paul residents to thrive.
Budget
7. What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
My priorities for the budget include continued investment in attainable housing citywide, focused investment in new, large-scale development (eg Ford) and local investments in Ward 5 like the important work at Rice Larpenteur Gateway and a new (amazing!) Community Center with major planning already underway for Rice Street and the North End.
8. How do you view the relationship between commercial and residential property taxes?
Everyone should get value for the taxes they pay. Of the two forces affecting property taxes, my focus is on expanding the tax base versus attempting to overhaul the overly-complicated property tax system, predominantly determined outside of city authority.
9. What will you do to expand Saint Paul’s tax base?
Huge, deal-changer projects are being completed, designed or imagined in Saint Paul right now. We will expand our tax base as development fills in around the beautiful new Allianz Field and surrounding neighborhoods. The Ford redevelopment site offers the city 122 acres of new development including housing, retail, and commercial which will, over time, add a billion dollars of development investment. The downtown Public Safety Building redevelopment by Ackerberg will bring a large city building on to the tax rolls as well.
Workforce development
10. How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
An educated, ready workforce is crucial to a strong economy and high quality schools are essential to attracting and retaining employees.
Saint Paul, especially its North End and East Side, is a very youthful city when compared to the state (and nation) as a whole. According to the State Demographer, the largest age group on the city is 20-25 year olds. With our asset of young people, we are in an excellent position to build the strongest, most robust workforce in the State of Minnesota. I will continue to work with the K12, post secondary and skilled trades to develop and promote this asset and work with DEED, SPACC, Greater MSP and WIB to encourage businesses to invest in the city to capitalize on the workforce, vs building in a green field 50 miles away and paying to bus our community members in and out.
11. What do you see as the city council’s role with regard to public schools in Saint Paul?
I have raised questions and concerns about the structural “arms length” relationship between SPPS and the City. I am very interested in a more connected, thoughtful method of decision-making that includes things from capital investments to (literally) when to call snow days. This type of work would be a good focus into term three --I have strong understanding of history, relationships and how budgets impact.
The City and SPPS have ample opportunity to partner. I initiated a work group between SPPS and the City to discuss how we could better share facilities. A motivation was that I think the City should bring its recreation programming into the schools rather than continuing to build more of its own (more overhead, more capital outlay) and to figure out how to better share our fields, playground, buildings to better service kids and to preserve scare tax dollars. Our first report back will be in the coming months.
Other
12. What is the biggest challenge facing the city and how would you address it?
From preventing homelessness to stabilizing families with school aged children to attracting millennials and seniors to live in our city, the lack of housing is currently the city's biggest problem.
In concert with my colleagues and DM Beckmann, I established a Fair Housing Task Force at the end of 2017. The Task Force presented its “blueprint” back to the city in time for recommendations to be included in the 2019 Budget. We focused on production, protection and policy. We set housing goals for the next decade, proposed internal policy changes, ideas for more aggressive tenants rights, more training for landlords, affordability levels for housing that is built with public money. The Mayor’s budget responded to the Task Force recommendations with over $71 Million dollars in housing investment over the next three years. Our job now is to keep track of progress and make adjustments and investments to the plan based on on the ground learnings, changes to the economy and investments from the private market.
13. What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Housing, public safety, and advancing prosperity the North End including multijurisdictional efforts at Rice & Larpenteur and a new Rice Street Community Center to name a few.
14. What do you think should be the city’s top transportation related priority?
Effective transportation systems are critical to residents, workforce and employers. Most all world class cities have world class transportation options. All transportation and transit modes are of the utmost importance-- to compete globally we need a strong system to move people across our region.
For mass transit, Riverview Corridor, our connection to the MSP International Airport and triangulated connection to Minneapolis, should be our top priority, and work on Gold Line and Purple Line (Rush) should not be far behind.
The best cities in the world are cities with strong pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, as well. It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity to create and maintain safe sidewalk and trail access to amenities and homes across the city.
15. Are there any services currently provided by the city that you believe should be cut back or eliminated? Or, are there new opportunities to share services with other entities?
To the point of efficiency, Saint Paul, SPPS and Ramsey County all run their own Emergency Management Systems. There might be ways to merge or coordinate between these three entities for less expense and better results.
Saint Paul has been cutting and eliminating services since Pawlenty era cuts to local government aid (LGA). Tax-payers are concerned about increasing taxes, but in the same breath wanting more services from police to parks to libraries to development to programming. While our city’s 2019 budget modestly invested in some new programs and innovations, it is hard to look at the City’s budget and point to waste or frivolity.
Saint Paul, the school district, and the county could contain their costs and deliver equitable service to its community members if the State of Minnesota was funding its cities fairly .Cities across the state are banding together to pressure state lawmakers to restore LGA and help fund the unmet need gap. LGA is not a charitable disbursement by the State, it is a financial partnership. Saint Paul generates proportionately more in state collected taxes than are returned here and that inequity needs to be addressed.
16. Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
Increasingly, Saint Paul has a new, young, energetic and enterprising city council and we are also working with a new Mayor. I love the fresh perspectives of new leadership on the council, and I am delighted in my short tenure to find myself in a position to be the person who can help “get it done.” I bring a deep knowledge of the city’s budget and the ability to bring ideas to reality working with stakeholders, my colleagues and the community in my role as Council President.
I am proud to represent the residents of Ward 5. They are my priority, and my priority for working with business community has been the commercial corridor on Rice Street. Beyond the geography of Ward 5, I am proud of my broad partnership with business across the City. I have supported development and the success of our downtown. I have sought out opportunities to learn from others, participating in the past two intercity leadership visits. I look forward to working together over the next 4 years.
Public Office Sought: Saint Paul City Council
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 651-492-8488
Website: amyforcitycouncil.com
Twitter Handle: @abrendmoen
Facebook: Amy Brendmoen for Saint Paul City Council, Ward 5
Candidate Bio
I am an experienced, knowledgeable, resourceful and scrappy two-term councilmember.
In my first term, I was elected by my peers to chair the development and finance arm of the city--the Housing and Redevelopment Authority -- from 2013-2017 which facilitated the Palace Theater, CHS Field, the sale of the Penfield and the Ford zoning plan. In 2017, I was elected by my peers to lead the council as its President. In this role, I chair and manage the council’s budget deliberations and approval our $600+ million dollar annual budget.
Every day since being elected, I have worked hard on behalf of my Ward 5 neighbors, and residents throughout Saint Paul, to address community concerns, to solve problems, and to advance policy to move our city forward. My professional experience is complimented by my real-life role as a mother of three wonderful teen-aged boys and partner to a peach of a husband. Before running for office in 2011, I was a Mediator for the Minnesota Attorney General, a Communications Director for a social service nonprofit, and an Advertising Account Executive. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin- Madison with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science.
Business climate
1. How would you characterize the business climate in Saint Paul?
Saint Paul is growing and thriving, and businesses are growing and thriving as well. That said, the answer to this question likely depends on who you are asking (e.g. size, experience, location of business, years in business, type of business, etc.) I do not think there is a ubiquitous, uniform “business climate” to define. I would like to work with SPACC to understand what its answer is to this question, and address the priority areas it believes are ripe for change and improvement.
2. What role do you think the City should have in attracting and retaining jobs, and what steps would you take to solicit new businesses to, and retain existing businesses in, Saint Paul?
The City should be an active partner in attracting and retaining jobs in Saint Paul. It should work closely with the Chamber of Commerce (and local chambers), DEED, the Workforce Innovation Board and Greater MSP to name a few. We need to be sure that Saint Paul is on the regional map as a location of choice through marketing, networking, incentives and recruiting.
I’m pleased with the initial work of Joe Spencer and the Downtown Alliance. I believe a focus on defining, promoting and creating a real “downtown” is key to recruiting and retaining businesses in our City.
As previewed in question four, another great step would be to hire a top level staff that concentrated on growth and retention.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that we need to establish a succession and transition planning program to help businesses that are ready to hand off to successfully maneuver through the transition. We lost Linder’s Garden Center several years ago on the North End, and I truly believe there could have been a path to saving that business if we were being proactive.
3. Would you support hiring a business advocate as a member of the city senior staff, to concentrate on business retention and expansion; new business recruitment; and business impact of proposed regulations on the business climate in Saint Paul?
Yes. (Like yesterday!) We need a high level professional leading and managing this work.
We also need high level, decision-making staff to manage and drive important development work at and around Allianz Field, at the Ford redevelopment site, Tria & Palace as well as at the Hillcrest site as it moves into the spotlight.
4. Do you support any other specific employment-related proposals in Saint Paul (such as mandatory scheduling notice)? If so, what specific steps would you take to understand the impact of an increase on the many types of businesses in Saint Paul and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
I’m not currently engaged in any employment related proposals. A quick shout out to SPACC and particularly B. Kyle for the great leadership she provided in her role as co-chair in the minimum wage policy formation. Her efforts made the resulting policy much better than it would have been without her leadership. I would expect with any future employment-related proposal the Council would undoubtedly look to SPACC to help us understand any impacts of the policy on our business community.
5. Would you support modifying or repealing the new earned sick and safe time or minimum wage ordinances that apply to the city? If so, how?
No ordinance is cast in stone. Policy should always be scrutinized for improvement and modification. I would not be supportive of repealing either of these measures, however.
Public safety
6. What is your strategy to address public safety concerns?
Public safety is best achieved through connected layers of investment, training, and support. Immediately, we need to invest in preventative services, education, mental health support, stable housing and measures to eliminate poverty and inspire hope for the future. Crime is a symptom of disinvestment in these areas and to reduce it we must invest in people.
I support the Saint Paul Police Department and its current leadership. I am committed to investing in and partnering with the SPPD to further develop the department’s cultural competence, community trust, technology, and innovation.
Through investing in body-worn cameras, supporting a citizen-led Police Civilian Internal Affairs Committee, building a new public safety training facility, expanding the community ambassador program, increasing rec center and library hours and activities, and partnering with our public schools, I have been a leader on prioritizing public safety and creating opportunities for all Saint Paul residents to thrive.
Budget
7. What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
My priorities for the budget include continued investment in attainable housing citywide, focused investment in new, large-scale development (eg Ford) and local investments in Ward 5 like the important work at Rice Larpenteur Gateway and a new (amazing!) Community Center with major planning already underway for Rice Street and the North End.
8. How do you view the relationship between commercial and residential property taxes?
Everyone should get value for the taxes they pay. Of the two forces affecting property taxes, my focus is on expanding the tax base versus attempting to overhaul the overly-complicated property tax system, predominantly determined outside of city authority.
9. What will you do to expand Saint Paul’s tax base?
Huge, deal-changer projects are being completed, designed or imagined in Saint Paul right now. We will expand our tax base as development fills in around the beautiful new Allianz Field and surrounding neighborhoods. The Ford redevelopment site offers the city 122 acres of new development including housing, retail, and commercial which will, over time, add a billion dollars of development investment. The downtown Public Safety Building redevelopment by Ackerberg will bring a large city building on to the tax rolls as well.
Workforce development
10. How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
An educated, ready workforce is crucial to a strong economy and high quality schools are essential to attracting and retaining employees.
Saint Paul, especially its North End and East Side, is a very youthful city when compared to the state (and nation) as a whole. According to the State Demographer, the largest age group on the city is 20-25 year olds. With our asset of young people, we are in an excellent position to build the strongest, most robust workforce in the State of Minnesota. I will continue to work with the K12, post secondary and skilled trades to develop and promote this asset and work with DEED, SPACC, Greater MSP and WIB to encourage businesses to invest in the city to capitalize on the workforce, vs building in a green field 50 miles away and paying to bus our community members in and out.
11. What do you see as the city council’s role with regard to public schools in Saint Paul?
I have raised questions and concerns about the structural “arms length” relationship between SPPS and the City. I am very interested in a more connected, thoughtful method of decision-making that includes things from capital investments to (literally) when to call snow days. This type of work would be a good focus into term three --I have strong understanding of history, relationships and how budgets impact.
The City and SPPS have ample opportunity to partner. I initiated a work group between SPPS and the City to discuss how we could better share facilities. A motivation was that I think the City should bring its recreation programming into the schools rather than continuing to build more of its own (more overhead, more capital outlay) and to figure out how to better share our fields, playground, buildings to better service kids and to preserve scare tax dollars. Our first report back will be in the coming months.
Other
12. What is the biggest challenge facing the city and how would you address it?
From preventing homelessness to stabilizing families with school aged children to attracting millennials and seniors to live in our city, the lack of housing is currently the city's biggest problem.
In concert with my colleagues and DM Beckmann, I established a Fair Housing Task Force at the end of 2017. The Task Force presented its “blueprint” back to the city in time for recommendations to be included in the 2019 Budget. We focused on production, protection and policy. We set housing goals for the next decade, proposed internal policy changes, ideas for more aggressive tenants rights, more training for landlords, affordability levels for housing that is built with public money. The Mayor’s budget responded to the Task Force recommendations with over $71 Million dollars in housing investment over the next three years. Our job now is to keep track of progress and make adjustments and investments to the plan based on on the ground learnings, changes to the economy and investments from the private market.
13. What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Housing, public safety, and advancing prosperity the North End including multijurisdictional efforts at Rice & Larpenteur and a new Rice Street Community Center to name a few.
14. What do you think should be the city’s top transportation related priority?
Effective transportation systems are critical to residents, workforce and employers. Most all world class cities have world class transportation options. All transportation and transit modes are of the utmost importance-- to compete globally we need a strong system to move people across our region.
For mass transit, Riverview Corridor, our connection to the MSP International Airport and triangulated connection to Minneapolis, should be our top priority, and work on Gold Line and Purple Line (Rush) should not be far behind.
The best cities in the world are cities with strong pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, as well. It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity to create and maintain safe sidewalk and trail access to amenities and homes across the city.
15. Are there any services currently provided by the city that you believe should be cut back or eliminated? Or, are there new opportunities to share services with other entities?
To the point of efficiency, Saint Paul, SPPS and Ramsey County all run their own Emergency Management Systems. There might be ways to merge or coordinate between these three entities for less expense and better results.
Saint Paul has been cutting and eliminating services since Pawlenty era cuts to local government aid (LGA). Tax-payers are concerned about increasing taxes, but in the same breath wanting more services from police to parks to libraries to development to programming. While our city’s 2019 budget modestly invested in some new programs and innovations, it is hard to look at the City’s budget and point to waste or frivolity.
Saint Paul, the school district, and the county could contain their costs and deliver equitable service to its community members if the State of Minnesota was funding its cities fairly .Cities across the state are banding together to pressure state lawmakers to restore LGA and help fund the unmet need gap. LGA is not a charitable disbursement by the State, it is a financial partnership. Saint Paul generates proportionately more in state collected taxes than are returned here and that inequity needs to be addressed.
16. Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
Increasingly, Saint Paul has a new, young, energetic and enterprising city council and we are also working with a new Mayor. I love the fresh perspectives of new leadership on the council, and I am delighted in my short tenure to find myself in a position to be the person who can help “get it done.” I bring a deep knowledge of the city’s budget and the ability to bring ideas to reality working with stakeholders, my colleagues and the community in my role as Council President.
I am proud to represent the residents of Ward 5. They are my priority, and my priority for working with business community has been the commercial corridor on Rice Street. Beyond the geography of Ward 5, I am proud of my broad partnership with business across the City. I have supported development and the success of our downtown. I have sought out opportunities to learn from others, participating in the past two intercity leadership visits. I look forward to working together over the next 4 years.