Dan Roe
Name: Dan Roe
Public Office Sought: Roseville Mayor
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 651-487-9654
Campaign Website: www.roe4roseville.org
Twitter handle: @MayorDanRoe
Facebook Page: @RosevilleMayorDanRoe
Candidate Bio
I have been elected mayor 3 times and served on the city council and planning commission prior to that. I have been active in Roseville local government and issues for 20 years. During my service, I have led or had active roles in: initiation of the upcoming update to the community’s vision from Imagine Roseville 2025; geothermal and solar installations for city facilities and other sustainability initiatives; partnership with Maplewood, St. Paul, and Ramsey County on the Rice/Larpenteur Alliance to reinvigorate that area; creating and adequately funding a 20-year plan for city infrastructure rehab and replacement; providing for connected and engaged, professional, well-trained, and transparent policing; updating our fire and emergency medical service to be able to respond to the evolving needs of our community; wider and earlier notification of neighboring residents about development projects; improved engagement of our community in city decision-making; centering equity in city business, including recruiting and hiring, contracting, and support for local BIPOC businesses before and during the pandemic.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
My top priority has been and will continue to be that we as a city government are proactive in addressing the challenges that face first-ring suburbs, so that we can thrive and grow. Our city finances must be sound and sustainable. Our public safety must be effective as well as equitable for all and transparent. And our neighborhoods must remain vital through thoughtful development and planning, maintenance of our park & recreation system, and ever mindful of environmental impacts.
How would you characterize the business climate in Roseville and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
Roseville’s business climate continues to benefit from our location close to both Minneapolis and St. Paul, linked by major transportation routes, and anchored by a regional retail center. With all that going for us, we still face many of the issues that are present in the larger economy, including shortages of workers to fill jobs in key sectors such as lodging & dining, health care, manufacturing, and others. Our local business community has a long and important history of philanthropic support of quality of life through sponsorship of park and recreation programs and services and other local charitable efforts. Additionally, many local businesses have partnered with the city and local school districts to support and enhance vocational education and training that help to connect tomorrow’s employees to rewarding careers. And, of course, our business community is a significant contributor to the local tax base, supporting the quality-of-life work of the city, school districts, and the county through property taxes.
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, Roseville?
The city has a role, although we acknowledge that the market is the prime driver of where businesses and jobs locate. The city must create a regulatory environment that reflects both our duty to protect the health, safety, and welfare of our community and our goal to promote business activity. Roseville has worked to make sure we allow for as much flexibility as we can in our local zoning and land use guidance, so that development decisions can reflect the current marketplace, while also being respectful of impacts of different business uses on surrounding neighborhoods. We target job growth or retention in our development financial assistance policies. Roseville was an innovator in tying development assistance to ethical and legal business practices by developers, protecting workers from exploitative practices. The city is an active partner with our school districts in connecting our business community with vocational education and training. In-person business visits are important, and I have been on nearly all of those visits during my term. We have learned a great deal and made great connections during those visits, and I plan to remain active in those visits going forward. Our Grow Roseville web site is designed to help connect site selectors with information about the benefits of locating here as well as site opportunities in Roseville. Roseville has also used federal pandemic funding to provide aid to local small businesses in the form of direct financial assistance as well as free marketing and promotion guidance.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address the labor shortage?
If only cities alone could solve the labor shortage issue! Where we can do the most in this area is to facilitate partnerships and connections with those who more directly can have an impact, such as our school districts and partners like our local chambers of commerce, Ramsey County’s workforce development programs, and non-profits such as the International Institute of MN, who offer job training to new immigrants. By being engaged with our local businesses, we can help to facilitate their connections with those partners to directly fill jobs, and also keep trainers and educators aware of local needs in terms of job skills and workers.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals in Roseville (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 Roseville and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
I know the importance of these measures in protecting workers and providing for improved quality of life for people. However, I am a bit leery of highly localized measures such as these. It seems more effective to advocate for measures at a regional or state level to make sure the playing field is more even and the whole region can benefit. Additionally, I have concerns about the resources required to enforce such provisions at the city level. The city already operates with a very lean workforce, and I’m not so sure that it is the best use of our limited local resources to staff enforcement of such city labor provisions. I note that other first-ring suburbs such as St. Louis Park have considered such provisions and came to similar conclusions about regional versus local implementation.
Public safety and rising crime rates are of serious concern to the business community and residents. What strategies or policies would you propose to address public safety issues facing your community?
At a time when other police agencies have been reducing staffing, Roseville has in the last few years added officers and investigators to our force. That has been in response to increased concerns about crime in the community. For me the key aspect of this was not just to increase the count of officers, but to target and focus those added resources toward emerging issues. We have been able to take advantage of grant opportunities to have dedicated investigators for human trafficking and sexual violence as well as auto-related thefts. Likewise, we have partnered with Ramsey County to have 2 social workers on staff at the city to connect residents who often are the subject of frequent and repeat police calls due to social welfare or mental health issues with resources and follow-up. Additionally, we have a grant-funded housing coordinator, who works with homeless people to get them into permanent housing. All of this provides 2 benefits: addressing issues with the correct resources (rather than always a patrol officer), and also freeing up patrol officers to focus on their areas of expertise. Much of this work falls under our new Community Action Team (CAT), which works to be proactive and nimble to get ahead of those emerging issues.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address housing issues facing your community?
I am proud that Roseville has long focused on housing issues. We have a history of financially supporting affordable housing developments. Just in the past two years, we have revamped our homeowner loan programs to focus on specific home rehab needs of seniors and manufactured home owners, and we have started a down payment assistance program for first-generation home buyers. We have a new, first-of-its kind land trust that partners with Habitat for Humanity to rehab single family homes for affordable home ownership opportunities. We frequently study the local housing market to understand where there is the greatest need, and how we can help to put resources or policies toward those needs – whether they be affordability or housing types that are missing from our mix in the community. I continue to support those efforts and innovations, and efforts to be sure our building and zoning codes are updated to reflect innovative solutions such as accessory dwelling units and tiny houses.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address transportation issues facing your community? Have your strategies or views changed on transportation since we’ve seen shifts in road use, public transportation use, work from home models, etc. due to the pandemic?
We all may have to wait a bit to fully understand the long-term impacts of those recent shifts on transit and transportation. For example, we have seen highway traffic nearly resume pre-pandemic levels in most of the region, though transit ridership overall has been slower to recover. I have been a long-time supporter of targeted lane expansion such as the recent MNPass projects on 35W and 35E, and envisioned in the future for highway 36. I believe that the answer to highway congestion is not merely adding more lanes, but adding lanes that also encourage use of transit and higher-occupancy vehicles, along with congestion-based pricing for single occupancy vehicles. I also support increased use of arterial bus rapid transit (BRT) as a cost-effective means to improve transit use and connections, allowing transit dollars to also go toward expansion of interconnecting bus service, including fixed routes and reserved services. The A Line that serves western Roseville has shown what arterial BRT can do to enhance transit, and I was glad to be integral in lobbying for the Rice Street corridor (designated as the G Line!) to be second on Metro Transit’s list of upcoming priority arterial BRT routes in the region.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
In general terms, my priorities are that the budget must always be sustainable, with ongoing costs paid for with ongoing funding, and one-time costs paid for with grants or use of city savings, as appropriate. Where we propose increased spending, we should be clear with the taxpayers what they are getting in exchange for the increase. For 2023, we are likely to have essentially a status quo budget, except for adding some funding for public safety toward staffing a full complement of firefighters in the fire department and shoring up a couple of infrastructure rehab funds. This will surely be a challenge because, like for our residents and businesses, the city’s costs are going up with the significant jump in inflation, as well as wages and salaries. I will continue my work to minimize the impact of levy changes, being mindful of higher costs across the board for taxpayers.
What will you do to expand Roseville’s tax base?
It is important to begin by acknowledging the reason for maintaining and expanding the tax base. When city costs go up, and are not able to be offset with cuts or alternative revenue, the city must increase its tax levy to keep up. If we continue to divide that larger tax levy among the same taxpayers, everybody’s tax bill continues to go up. By growing the tax base, we add more taxpayers to divide the tax levy among, which helps to keep everyone’s share more reasonable. As a bonus, a growing tax base keeps our local economy healthy and our city a desirable place to live and do business. What we have been doing, and should continue to do, to grow the tax base is to allow the greatest flexibility in our land use guidance and zoning, so that development can be responsive to market needs and trends, while still meeting guidelines to protect surrounding neighborhoods. I support the use of development financial assistance in the non-retail sectors to promote revitalization of our commercial areas, as well as the use of targeted assistance to homeowners to keep up their properties and make improvements. Additionally, I have been a longtime advocate for our proactive nuisance code enforcement that helps to keep up our business and residential properties across the city.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
This is an important role for the city to play, although our role is primarily to facilitate the exchange of information and the connection of businesses and job seekers to resources and opportunities. Through our business outreach programs, in partnership with our chambers, we have been able to remain up to date on current needs, and to pass those along to the educators that serve our area. Additionally, we have been able to connect businesses with those educators, and jobseekers with the training and jobs they are seeking. An example is how a city business retention visit to KFI helped to connect them with Roseville schools, leading to support for Roseville vocational programs. I will be sure to continue and enhance these working relationships with our business and educational partners.
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?
We at the city work hard to provide only the services that are supported and needed by the community. I think we have done a good job of that over my time in office, and I will continue those efforts. Because of that long history of being prudent and responsive with taxpayer resources, as well as seeking many joint or shared services and non-taxpayer funding wherever possible, there is not a service or program that comes to mind to cut back or eliminate at this time. It may be tempting to cut parks or recreation services to save costs, but the park & recreation department provides excellent value for our money spent, and it is demonstrable that an attractive and highly used park and recreation system promotes public safety and prevents blight in a community. The city continuously seeks opportunities for joint efforts and shared services, and I continue to support doing that. We have the examples of the Metro I-Net joint powers agency for IT services, NineNorth for local city meetings and community video programming, Roseville providing City Engineering services for Falcon Heights, use of joint purchasing authority for vehicles and equipment off the State bid contract, and a joint health care purchasing alliance, to name just a few current endeavors.
What is the role of the Mayor in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Roseville?
I see 2 roles for a mayor in this area: One is to amplify new or existing minority- and women-owned businesses through my networks and social media. The other is to support city policies and programs that seek to bring material support to those businesses. I have done and will continue to do both. I am pleased that we have been able to use short-term pandemic relief funds to target support for minority- and women-owned businesses, but I am also glad we have put in place long-term policies and programs to maintain such support through our Economic Development Authority (EDA) and GrowRoseville programs.
What further policies can Roseville adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
The city has continued to allocate a portion of our pandemic relief funds toward local business support, and we have maintained some of the relaxed regulations that were put in place during the pandemic. Those efforts should continue for as long as we have funding and there is need.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
I believe that I have lived up to my intention to provide “thoughtful, constructive leadership” in Roseville throughout my time on the council and as mayor. I remain committed to including all voices in our city decision-making and have led efforts to do that. We continue to improve, and I am excited that the city is taking steps that I have called for to “institutionalize” effective community engagement in our work including revamping our communications department into a community relations department, providing all staff leadership with intensive training in the theory and practice of effective engagement, and implementing an engagement toolkit for the city’s work going forward. I believe my leadership of the city council as mayor has assured that our decisions really do reflect the views and desires of our whole community. And I remain committed to our diversity, equity, and inclusion work to make our staff and city leadership better reflect our population as it continues to diversify, and our policies and procedures truly equitable for all.
Public Office Sought: Roseville Mayor
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 651-487-9654
Campaign Website: www.roe4roseville.org
Twitter handle: @MayorDanRoe
Facebook Page: @RosevilleMayorDanRoe
Candidate Bio
I have been elected mayor 3 times and served on the city council and planning commission prior to that. I have been active in Roseville local government and issues for 20 years. During my service, I have led or had active roles in: initiation of the upcoming update to the community’s vision from Imagine Roseville 2025; geothermal and solar installations for city facilities and other sustainability initiatives; partnership with Maplewood, St. Paul, and Ramsey County on the Rice/Larpenteur Alliance to reinvigorate that area; creating and adequately funding a 20-year plan for city infrastructure rehab and replacement; providing for connected and engaged, professional, well-trained, and transparent policing; updating our fire and emergency medical service to be able to respond to the evolving needs of our community; wider and earlier notification of neighboring residents about development projects; improved engagement of our community in city decision-making; centering equity in city business, including recruiting and hiring, contracting, and support for local BIPOC businesses before and during the pandemic.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
My top priority has been and will continue to be that we as a city government are proactive in addressing the challenges that face first-ring suburbs, so that we can thrive and grow. Our city finances must be sound and sustainable. Our public safety must be effective as well as equitable for all and transparent. And our neighborhoods must remain vital through thoughtful development and planning, maintenance of our park & recreation system, and ever mindful of environmental impacts.
How would you characterize the business climate in Roseville and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
Roseville’s business climate continues to benefit from our location close to both Minneapolis and St. Paul, linked by major transportation routes, and anchored by a regional retail center. With all that going for us, we still face many of the issues that are present in the larger economy, including shortages of workers to fill jobs in key sectors such as lodging & dining, health care, manufacturing, and others. Our local business community has a long and important history of philanthropic support of quality of life through sponsorship of park and recreation programs and services and other local charitable efforts. Additionally, many local businesses have partnered with the city and local school districts to support and enhance vocational education and training that help to connect tomorrow’s employees to rewarding careers. And, of course, our business community is a significant contributor to the local tax base, supporting the quality-of-life work of the city, school districts, and the county through property taxes.
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, Roseville?
The city has a role, although we acknowledge that the market is the prime driver of where businesses and jobs locate. The city must create a regulatory environment that reflects both our duty to protect the health, safety, and welfare of our community and our goal to promote business activity. Roseville has worked to make sure we allow for as much flexibility as we can in our local zoning and land use guidance, so that development decisions can reflect the current marketplace, while also being respectful of impacts of different business uses on surrounding neighborhoods. We target job growth or retention in our development financial assistance policies. Roseville was an innovator in tying development assistance to ethical and legal business practices by developers, protecting workers from exploitative practices. The city is an active partner with our school districts in connecting our business community with vocational education and training. In-person business visits are important, and I have been on nearly all of those visits during my term. We have learned a great deal and made great connections during those visits, and I plan to remain active in those visits going forward. Our Grow Roseville web site is designed to help connect site selectors with information about the benefits of locating here as well as site opportunities in Roseville. Roseville has also used federal pandemic funding to provide aid to local small businesses in the form of direct financial assistance as well as free marketing and promotion guidance.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address the labor shortage?
If only cities alone could solve the labor shortage issue! Where we can do the most in this area is to facilitate partnerships and connections with those who more directly can have an impact, such as our school districts and partners like our local chambers of commerce, Ramsey County’s workforce development programs, and non-profits such as the International Institute of MN, who offer job training to new immigrants. By being engaged with our local businesses, we can help to facilitate their connections with those partners to directly fill jobs, and also keep trainers and educators aware of local needs in terms of job skills and workers.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals in Roseville (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 Roseville and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
I know the importance of these measures in protecting workers and providing for improved quality of life for people. However, I am a bit leery of highly localized measures such as these. It seems more effective to advocate for measures at a regional or state level to make sure the playing field is more even and the whole region can benefit. Additionally, I have concerns about the resources required to enforce such provisions at the city level. The city already operates with a very lean workforce, and I’m not so sure that it is the best use of our limited local resources to staff enforcement of such city labor provisions. I note that other first-ring suburbs such as St. Louis Park have considered such provisions and came to similar conclusions about regional versus local implementation.
Public safety and rising crime rates are of serious concern to the business community and residents. What strategies or policies would you propose to address public safety issues facing your community?
At a time when other police agencies have been reducing staffing, Roseville has in the last few years added officers and investigators to our force. That has been in response to increased concerns about crime in the community. For me the key aspect of this was not just to increase the count of officers, but to target and focus those added resources toward emerging issues. We have been able to take advantage of grant opportunities to have dedicated investigators for human trafficking and sexual violence as well as auto-related thefts. Likewise, we have partnered with Ramsey County to have 2 social workers on staff at the city to connect residents who often are the subject of frequent and repeat police calls due to social welfare or mental health issues with resources and follow-up. Additionally, we have a grant-funded housing coordinator, who works with homeless people to get them into permanent housing. All of this provides 2 benefits: addressing issues with the correct resources (rather than always a patrol officer), and also freeing up patrol officers to focus on their areas of expertise. Much of this work falls under our new Community Action Team (CAT), which works to be proactive and nimble to get ahead of those emerging issues.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address housing issues facing your community?
I am proud that Roseville has long focused on housing issues. We have a history of financially supporting affordable housing developments. Just in the past two years, we have revamped our homeowner loan programs to focus on specific home rehab needs of seniors and manufactured home owners, and we have started a down payment assistance program for first-generation home buyers. We have a new, first-of-its kind land trust that partners with Habitat for Humanity to rehab single family homes for affordable home ownership opportunities. We frequently study the local housing market to understand where there is the greatest need, and how we can help to put resources or policies toward those needs – whether they be affordability or housing types that are missing from our mix in the community. I continue to support those efforts and innovations, and efforts to be sure our building and zoning codes are updated to reflect innovative solutions such as accessory dwelling units and tiny houses.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address transportation issues facing your community? Have your strategies or views changed on transportation since we’ve seen shifts in road use, public transportation use, work from home models, etc. due to the pandemic?
We all may have to wait a bit to fully understand the long-term impacts of those recent shifts on transit and transportation. For example, we have seen highway traffic nearly resume pre-pandemic levels in most of the region, though transit ridership overall has been slower to recover. I have been a long-time supporter of targeted lane expansion such as the recent MNPass projects on 35W and 35E, and envisioned in the future for highway 36. I believe that the answer to highway congestion is not merely adding more lanes, but adding lanes that also encourage use of transit and higher-occupancy vehicles, along with congestion-based pricing for single occupancy vehicles. I also support increased use of arterial bus rapid transit (BRT) as a cost-effective means to improve transit use and connections, allowing transit dollars to also go toward expansion of interconnecting bus service, including fixed routes and reserved services. The A Line that serves western Roseville has shown what arterial BRT can do to enhance transit, and I was glad to be integral in lobbying for the Rice Street corridor (designated as the G Line!) to be second on Metro Transit’s list of upcoming priority arterial BRT routes in the region.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
In general terms, my priorities are that the budget must always be sustainable, with ongoing costs paid for with ongoing funding, and one-time costs paid for with grants or use of city savings, as appropriate. Where we propose increased spending, we should be clear with the taxpayers what they are getting in exchange for the increase. For 2023, we are likely to have essentially a status quo budget, except for adding some funding for public safety toward staffing a full complement of firefighters in the fire department and shoring up a couple of infrastructure rehab funds. This will surely be a challenge because, like for our residents and businesses, the city’s costs are going up with the significant jump in inflation, as well as wages and salaries. I will continue my work to minimize the impact of levy changes, being mindful of higher costs across the board for taxpayers.
What will you do to expand Roseville’s tax base?
It is important to begin by acknowledging the reason for maintaining and expanding the tax base. When city costs go up, and are not able to be offset with cuts or alternative revenue, the city must increase its tax levy to keep up. If we continue to divide that larger tax levy among the same taxpayers, everybody’s tax bill continues to go up. By growing the tax base, we add more taxpayers to divide the tax levy among, which helps to keep everyone’s share more reasonable. As a bonus, a growing tax base keeps our local economy healthy and our city a desirable place to live and do business. What we have been doing, and should continue to do, to grow the tax base is to allow the greatest flexibility in our land use guidance and zoning, so that development can be responsive to market needs and trends, while still meeting guidelines to protect surrounding neighborhoods. I support the use of development financial assistance in the non-retail sectors to promote revitalization of our commercial areas, as well as the use of targeted assistance to homeowners to keep up their properties and make improvements. Additionally, I have been a longtime advocate for our proactive nuisance code enforcement that helps to keep up our business and residential properties across the city.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
This is an important role for the city to play, although our role is primarily to facilitate the exchange of information and the connection of businesses and job seekers to resources and opportunities. Through our business outreach programs, in partnership with our chambers, we have been able to remain up to date on current needs, and to pass those along to the educators that serve our area. Additionally, we have been able to connect businesses with those educators, and jobseekers with the training and jobs they are seeking. An example is how a city business retention visit to KFI helped to connect them with Roseville schools, leading to support for Roseville vocational programs. I will be sure to continue and enhance these working relationships with our business and educational partners.
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?
We at the city work hard to provide only the services that are supported and needed by the community. I think we have done a good job of that over my time in office, and I will continue those efforts. Because of that long history of being prudent and responsive with taxpayer resources, as well as seeking many joint or shared services and non-taxpayer funding wherever possible, there is not a service or program that comes to mind to cut back or eliminate at this time. It may be tempting to cut parks or recreation services to save costs, but the park & recreation department provides excellent value for our money spent, and it is demonstrable that an attractive and highly used park and recreation system promotes public safety and prevents blight in a community. The city continuously seeks opportunities for joint efforts and shared services, and I continue to support doing that. We have the examples of the Metro I-Net joint powers agency for IT services, NineNorth for local city meetings and community video programming, Roseville providing City Engineering services for Falcon Heights, use of joint purchasing authority for vehicles and equipment off the State bid contract, and a joint health care purchasing alliance, to name just a few current endeavors.
What is the role of the Mayor in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Roseville?
I see 2 roles for a mayor in this area: One is to amplify new or existing minority- and women-owned businesses through my networks and social media. The other is to support city policies and programs that seek to bring material support to those businesses. I have done and will continue to do both. I am pleased that we have been able to use short-term pandemic relief funds to target support for minority- and women-owned businesses, but I am also glad we have put in place long-term policies and programs to maintain such support through our Economic Development Authority (EDA) and GrowRoseville programs.
What further policies can Roseville adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
The city has continued to allocate a portion of our pandemic relief funds toward local business support, and we have maintained some of the relaxed regulations that were put in place during the pandemic. Those efforts should continue for as long as we have funding and there is need.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
I believe that I have lived up to my intention to provide “thoughtful, constructive leadership” in Roseville throughout my time on the council and as mayor. I remain committed to including all voices in our city decision-making and have led efforts to do that. We continue to improve, and I am excited that the city is taking steps that I have called for to “institutionalize” effective community engagement in our work including revamping our communications department into a community relations department, providing all staff leadership with intensive training in the theory and practice of effective engagement, and implementing an engagement toolkit for the city’s work going forward. I believe my leadership of the city council as mayor has assured that our decisions really do reflect the views and desires of our whole community. And I remain committed to our diversity, equity, and inclusion work to make our staff and city leadership better reflect our population as it continues to diversify, and our policies and procedures truly equitable for all.