Anand Balar

Name: Anand Balar
Public Office Sought: Maplewood City Council
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 219-973-3501
Website: https://www.anandbalar.com
Twitter handle:
Facebook page: Please search Anand Balar for Maplewood City Council on Facebook
Candidate Bio
I am a 24 year old IT Analyst who lives off McKnight Road in the Silver Ridge Apartments. I have spent nearly three years organizing for progressive causes ranging from healthcare for all to immigration reform in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. With the current situation involving the pandemic and racial justice issues across the board in the United States, I am strongly suited to be a member of the City Council because of my bold positions, initiatives, and experience in organizing around specific issues.
Currently I work in the field of IT Project Management at 3M and have plenty of experience working with people from all walks of life, sometimes from different countries and different backgrounds. This wide range of experience that I have is what I can bring to the table that can make sure our City Council is well-balanced and holistically represented by levels of unique experience.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
How would you characterize the business climate in Maplewood and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
I believe the city of Maplewood has a thriving business climate and as the city becomes more and more diverse, it will be even more ubiquitous. The unfortunate fact is that small businesses will be negatively impacted by the current COVID-19 pandemic. I believe that there should be an effort made by all forms of government to offer protection to these small businesses because they employ quite a lot of people in our city. That is why I support a Save Our Small Businesses effort in my agenda that is threefold:
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, Maplewood?
The city of Maplewood should support more public transit and increase worker pay to help fulfill jobs that are otherwise harder to reach for people throughout the East Metro that may not have their own transportation. There are many ways we can work with businesses to help retain them in our community. The first step is to let businesses know that the City Council is willing to work with them whenever they require local government assistance.
Do you support any other specific employment-related proposals in Maplewood (such as minimum wage, sick time, or mandatory scheduling notice)? If so, what steps would you take to understand the impact of an ordinance on the many types of businesses in Maplewood and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
I support a four-year phase-in plan for a $15/hr minimum wage. I support guaranteeing sick leave as well as mandatory scheduling notices. I wholeheartedly believe that a well-paid and well-respected worker can be an immeasurable benefit to a business. Increasing the well-being of our workers will net positive impacts across the board to employer and employee alike. These types of ordinances would impact local businesses initially and I will work to make sure that the City Council leads public opinion panels about these initiatives.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
My strategy around public safety involves reduction of some of the inefficient spending in our currently bloated public safety budget to create community-oriented public safety organizations to respond to Maplewood’s nonviolent needs. The savings from this will go toward helping bolster our Parks and Recreation budget as well as other parts of the city that may need more funding such as housing, education, transit, and construction.
I will fully support expansion of public transportation to Maplewood such as continued backing of the Rush Line Corridor that will help integrate different parts of the East Metro and be a boon for businesses all over the East Metro, and especially Maplewood. I will also push for expansion of the 74 Metro Tansit Bus line that has been super beneficial to people that live in Maplewood but work in St. Paul or vice versa. New public transit routes will benefit local businesses and spur job creation.
My strategy around housing involves advocating for a rent and mortgage freeze, capping annual rent increases by no more than 3%, and protecting public housing from privatization.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
I want to cut down on waste. Currently we are spending an exorbitant amount on the public safety budget while there is hardly any money being spent on things such as parks and recreation, road development, and other ecological initiatives. I want to take a hard look at why we’re spending so little on these things and so much on public safety. I also want us to look at what different modes of policing can mean for reducing our budget. Now is the time to answer the call of many marginalized groups that are saying there are more effective, efficient, and less costly ways to operate a police department.
What will you do to expand Maplewood’s tax base?
My goal is to let the Capital Improvement Plan that Maplewood City Council had set forward in previous years take effect. I also look forward to seeing where we can improve the Improvement Plan as it takes effect and find gaps where we can try to prioritize certain businesses or types of businesses being available in our city. There are many ways to expand the tax base in Maplewood and certainly during this pandemic it will be difficult to do so, but I think that is part of the challenge of the pandemic and as things subside, expansion of our tax base will be more possible as people move around more, move into cities, businesses open or reopen, and more commerce takes hold.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
Working with School District 622 can be especially helpful as it spans three distinct cities. The more we can work with them, the better things will be across the board in the East Metro. We want our neighboring cities to have as much success as our own so that we’re all fully integrated with each other in all capacities and our students have the proper training they need. A focus on the jobs of the future is what we will need to work with the school district on. We also want to try to find a way to make sure that our students view Maplewood as a home where they can move back to and work in and raise a family in if they leave the city to go off to a faraway place to pursue higher education.
Are there any services currently provided by the city that you believe should be cut back or eliminated? Are there new opportunities to share services with other entities?
As stated above, I think revisiting some things related to the Public Safety budget will be incredibly important in making sure we reallocate funds to parts of the city that need them most. Central to my campaign is the reopening of the Maplewood Nature Center. It is indefinitely closed as of now, I don’t believe indefinitely closed means permanently closed; therefore, the possibility of reopening it remains available. This is just a small part of our city that is a very huge, important asset we cannot possibly lose.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Maplewood?
The City Council needs to use as much of its commerce power as it can to leverage the creation of businesses owned by members of marginalized communities such as minority-owned and women-owned businesses. I support using our Economic Development Authority to help foster this type of business growth. The more diverse our businesses are, the more people will see Maplewood as the place to be.
What further policies can Maplewood adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
I am in support of the withholding of the 2021 property tax increase and I’ll reiterate my plan for business recovery with the Save Our Small Businesses effort in my agenda:
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
Please check out the following page on my campaign website https://www.anandbalar.com/plans-for-maplewood to learn more about what issues I stand for and why we need bold, new leadership in the city of Maplewood in the year 2020. Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to working with you to make our city the greatest it can possibly be!
Public Office Sought: Maplewood City Council
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 219-973-3501
Website: https://www.anandbalar.com
Twitter handle:
Facebook page: Please search Anand Balar for Maplewood City Council on Facebook
Candidate Bio
I am a 24 year old IT Analyst who lives off McKnight Road in the Silver Ridge Apartments. I have spent nearly three years organizing for progressive causes ranging from healthcare for all to immigration reform in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. With the current situation involving the pandemic and racial justice issues across the board in the United States, I am strongly suited to be a member of the City Council because of my bold positions, initiatives, and experience in organizing around specific issues.
Currently I work in the field of IT Project Management at 3M and have plenty of experience working with people from all walks of life, sometimes from different countries and different backgrounds. This wide range of experience that I have is what I can bring to the table that can make sure our City Council is well-balanced and holistically represented by levels of unique experience.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
- Helping employees and employers alike by passage of a $15/hr minimum wage thus making our city a favorable place to work
- Balancing the city’s budget in order to reopen and keep open the Maplewood Nature Center and other important facilities throughout our city
- Expanding public transit lines into the East Metro so that all the cities can be fully integrated and this can help create job growth as well as assist in people’s employment opportunities
How would you characterize the business climate in Maplewood and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
I believe the city of Maplewood has a thriving business climate and as the city becomes more and more diverse, it will be even more ubiquitous. The unfortunate fact is that small businesses will be negatively impacted by the current COVID-19 pandemic. I believe that there should be an effort made by all forms of government to offer protection to these small businesses because they employ quite a lot of people in our city. That is why I support a Save Our Small Businesses effort in my agenda that is threefold:
- Supporting commercial rent control
- Offering low-income or at-risk small businesses free consultation on obtaining PPP loans from the federal government so that payroll costs are fully covered during this pandemic without a burden on the business owner or negative impact on employees
- Providing workplace protections during the pandemic so that employees and customers alike can feel safe and employers can still fully operate their business
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, Maplewood?
The city of Maplewood should support more public transit and increase worker pay to help fulfill jobs that are otherwise harder to reach for people throughout the East Metro that may not have their own transportation. There are many ways we can work with businesses to help retain them in our community. The first step is to let businesses know that the City Council is willing to work with them whenever they require local government assistance.
Do you support any other specific employment-related proposals in Maplewood (such as minimum wage, sick time, or mandatory scheduling notice)? If so, what steps would you take to understand the impact of an ordinance on the many types of businesses in Maplewood and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
I support a four-year phase-in plan for a $15/hr minimum wage. I support guaranteeing sick leave as well as mandatory scheduling notices. I wholeheartedly believe that a well-paid and well-respected worker can be an immeasurable benefit to a business. Increasing the well-being of our workers will net positive impacts across the board to employer and employee alike. These types of ordinances would impact local businesses initially and I will work to make sure that the City Council leads public opinion panels about these initiatives.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
My strategy around public safety involves reduction of some of the inefficient spending in our currently bloated public safety budget to create community-oriented public safety organizations to respond to Maplewood’s nonviolent needs. The savings from this will go toward helping bolster our Parks and Recreation budget as well as other parts of the city that may need more funding such as housing, education, transit, and construction.
I will fully support expansion of public transportation to Maplewood such as continued backing of the Rush Line Corridor that will help integrate different parts of the East Metro and be a boon for businesses all over the East Metro, and especially Maplewood. I will also push for expansion of the 74 Metro Tansit Bus line that has been super beneficial to people that live in Maplewood but work in St. Paul or vice versa. New public transit routes will benefit local businesses and spur job creation.
My strategy around housing involves advocating for a rent and mortgage freeze, capping annual rent increases by no more than 3%, and protecting public housing from privatization.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
I want to cut down on waste. Currently we are spending an exorbitant amount on the public safety budget while there is hardly any money being spent on things such as parks and recreation, road development, and other ecological initiatives. I want to take a hard look at why we’re spending so little on these things and so much on public safety. I also want us to look at what different modes of policing can mean for reducing our budget. Now is the time to answer the call of many marginalized groups that are saying there are more effective, efficient, and less costly ways to operate a police department.
What will you do to expand Maplewood’s tax base?
My goal is to let the Capital Improvement Plan that Maplewood City Council had set forward in previous years take effect. I also look forward to seeing where we can improve the Improvement Plan as it takes effect and find gaps where we can try to prioritize certain businesses or types of businesses being available in our city. There are many ways to expand the tax base in Maplewood and certainly during this pandemic it will be difficult to do so, but I think that is part of the challenge of the pandemic and as things subside, expansion of our tax base will be more possible as people move around more, move into cities, businesses open or reopen, and more commerce takes hold.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
Working with School District 622 can be especially helpful as it spans three distinct cities. The more we can work with them, the better things will be across the board in the East Metro. We want our neighboring cities to have as much success as our own so that we’re all fully integrated with each other in all capacities and our students have the proper training they need. A focus on the jobs of the future is what we will need to work with the school district on. We also want to try to find a way to make sure that our students view Maplewood as a home where they can move back to and work in and raise a family in if they leave the city to go off to a faraway place to pursue higher education.
Are there any services currently provided by the city that you believe should be cut back or eliminated? Are there new opportunities to share services with other entities?
As stated above, I think revisiting some things related to the Public Safety budget will be incredibly important in making sure we reallocate funds to parts of the city that need them most. Central to my campaign is the reopening of the Maplewood Nature Center. It is indefinitely closed as of now, I don’t believe indefinitely closed means permanently closed; therefore, the possibility of reopening it remains available. This is just a small part of our city that is a very huge, important asset we cannot possibly lose.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Maplewood?
The City Council needs to use as much of its commerce power as it can to leverage the creation of businesses owned by members of marginalized communities such as minority-owned and women-owned businesses. I support using our Economic Development Authority to help foster this type of business growth. The more diverse our businesses are, the more people will see Maplewood as the place to be.
What further policies can Maplewood adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
I am in support of the withholding of the 2021 property tax increase and I’ll reiterate my plan for business recovery with the Save Our Small Businesses effort in my agenda:
- Supporting commercial rent control
- Offering low-income or at-risk small businesses free consultation on obtaining PPP loans from the federal government so that payroll costs are fully covered during this pandemic without a burden on the business owner or negative impact on employees
- Providing workplace protections during the pandemic so that employees and customers alike can feel safe and employers can still fully operate their business
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
Please check out the following page on my campaign website https://www.anandbalar.com/plans-for-maplewood to learn more about what issues I stand for and why we need bold, new leadership in the city of Maplewood in the year 2020. Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to working with you to make our city the greatest it can possibly be!