David Grant
Name: David Grant
Public Office Sought: Arden Hills Mayor
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 651 431-8982
Campaign Website: ReelectMayorDavidGrant.com
Twitter handle:
Facebook Page:
Candidate Bio
It has been my honor to serve as Mayor since 2011. Thirty three years ago my wife Linda and I moved to Arden Hills to raise a family. We have been part of a community with great neighbors, outstanding schools, wonderful businesses, and a beautiful city. Arden Hills is a wonderful city to; live, raise a family, work, and enjoy our parks and trails.
I made the decision to run for office to give back to our city and maintain the qualities that make our city such a great place. Key in this effort is listening to concerns; whether one on one, in groups, or at council meetings. Our city is made up of many small unique neighborhoods. I know that residents know their neighborhood best and we work more effectively when we work together to secure our future, our children’s future and grandchildren’s future.
Have a B.S. and M.B.A from Minnesota State University Mankato. I am retired in 2020 from Stauer Inc., where I was a Sr. Business Intelligence Analyst. Earlier I was a business analyst for Wells Fargo and Delta Air Lines. My business experience provides a solid foundation for decisions involving city operations.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Development of TCAAP to provide housing choices, employment, amenities and a diversified tax base. Any development agreement needs to protect the city financially, should the economy change or the development falter. The city has yet to receive a term sheet from the County in which to negotiate from.
Keep city taxes low while enhancing and maintaining city services through careful spending and sound fiscal policy.
Support and encourage business retention and expansion, to provide jobs and a secure tax base.
How would you characterize the business climate in Arden Hills and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
The business climate in Arden Hills is strong and expanding. Arden Hills businesses such as
Land O’Lakes, Boston Scientific have added onto their existing campuses. Arden Hills worked with the State of Minnesota and Ramsey County to ensure that Land O’Lakes did not move their Fortune 500 corporate offices outside of Minnesota. In addition, we have added new business such as; Delkor, Colder Products Corporation, Wealth Asset Advisors, Spring Hill Suites by Marriot, Saltbox, Lexington Station businesses, and many others. Over the past 10 years we have been able to revitalize our Lexington Ave and County Road E business district.
Businesses are an integral part of our quality of life. Our employers provide well-paying jobs in our community. Our restaurants and shops also add a variety of amenities for our residents. We are fortunate to have Bethel University and University of Northwestern (shared partly with Roseville) to provide educational and cultural enrichment opportunities.
The city focuses on working with business and expanding our commercial business. Staff and council receive high marks from our businesses and serves as a resource and advocate for our businesses.
Our businesses and local organizations provide volunteers for various projects, and have provided financial donations to improve our city. The city greatly appreciates their efforts of improving our city.
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, Arden Hills?
Arden Hills places a strong emphasis in attracting employers and job creation. It is one of the main forces behind my success in revitalizing Lexington Avenue and County Road E businesses. The city also added two major employers north of 694, Colder Products Corporation and Delkor, both of which will add solid job growth to our local economy.
If done correctly, TCAAP can enhance and add business, jobs and amenities to our community. The city continues to work directly with our business, as well as through the Twin Cities North Chamber of Commerce, the Arden Hills/Shoreview Business Council and the Twin Cities Gateway Visitors Bureau.
The city would like to see a bus rapid transit (BRT) and additional routes in our community. We continue to work with the Metropolitan Council on this issue.
In Arden Hills we have more jobs that residents, in other words we are a net importer of jobs.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address the labor shortage?
Arden Hills is part of the highly rated Mounds View School District. The city meets regularly with the school district and knows that he district promotes and encourages students to take technical training, college level credit courses, and courses that have a college prep component. Our community has two colleges, Bethel University and University of Northwestern (located partly in Roseville). Our businesses to look to these educational institutions as sources for employees. In a recent business meeting, one of our businesses expressed that they find these schools provide quality and even “Rock Star” level employees.
The city would like to see a bus service in our community. We continue to ask the Metropolitan Council for bus service.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals in Arden Hills (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 Arden Hills and how would you define any exceptions to those
policies?
We are a small community and policies of this nature are more appropriate a regional or state level. To implement such policies in a small city could put our employers at a potential disadvantage, especially when competing for limited labor resources.
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?
The Arden Hills City Council has always taken the position of never comprise on safety, that includes both Police and Fire services. Arden Hills joins with seven other cities to fund our Ramsey County Sherriff Department for local police services and with Shoreview and North Oaks to fund the Lake Johanna Fire Department.
As part my commitment to public safety, I serve on the Ramsey County 911 Dispatch Policy Committee.
I support policies based on detailed reports that enable our dispatch to be effective and efficient.
The city meets regularly with the Fire Department and Ramsey County Sherriff’s Office to discuss new and ongoing issues, how to resolve them, and distribute information on ongoing situations and education for crime reduction.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address housing issues facing your community?
The biggest housing challenge facing Arden Hills is the one facing the region—lack of new housing for a growing (and aging) population. Arden Hills has a variety of housing options, from deeply to moderate affordable housing (40%, 1,298 out of 3,277 homes) to more expensive lakeside homes. We have something for everyone. Because Arden Hills is such a desirable, well-run city, and has great schools, people tend to move in and stay. However, houses in Arden Hills are starting to turn over, often to younger buyers.
When TCAAP develops it will bring additional market rate and affordable housing to our city. Currently
the City and Alatus, the developer, have agreed on a plan that will create 1,460 new housing units, of
which 326 will be considered affordable. The affordable units will only become possible when the
landowner, Ramsey County, agrees to sell to the TCAAP land to the developer, Alatus.
A strong business climate and creates jobs are essential so that residents can have the opportunity
to succeed financially, in order to maintain and improve their homes. Able and skilled employees are
essential to the growth and development of strong businesses. The City works hard to support both.
The city continues to support the manufactured home park, Arden Manor. During COVID we continually communicated with the park management, as well as individual home owners impacted by COVID about resources necessary to keep their home.
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 have a well-defined pavement management plan for our city streets. Scanning technology is used to objectively evaluate and score the road condition. Recognizing the value of fixing street problems while they are small, before a complete rebuild is necessary, this plan takes a long-term perspective. We know that the pandemic caused changes in traffic patterns, we are now noticing that traffic has returned to, and in some cases exceeded, pre-pandemic levels.
The city continues to lobby for bus service in our community. We continue to work with the Metropolitan Council on this issue.
There are a number of county and state roads within Arden Hills. I direct staff to coordinate with the State of Minnesota and Ramsey County on their maintenance.
Electric Vehicles (EVs) are on the road in greater numbers than ever before. I would propose that the city continue its work with our business to encourage charging stations.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
Keep city taxes low while enhancing and maintaining services through careful spending and sound fiscal policy. Avoid borrowing (bonding) whenever possible.
We continue to have meetings open to the public during the budget season, as well a phone numbers and email address on our web site. The city continues to produce our award winning budget information. We continue to win the Minnesota Government Finance Officers Association, awards:
Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting
The city has received this award annually since 2006 for its Comprehensive Annual Finance Report. This program encourages governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles and prepare a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report that demonstrates the spirit of transparency and full disclosure.
Popular Annual Financial Reporting Award
The city has received this award annually since 2006 for its PAFR. This program encourages governments to extract information from their Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and produce a report (PAFR) that is readily accessible and easily understandable to the general public.
The Popular report is available on the city web site and distributed via the summer Arden Hills Notes newsletter.
What will you do to expand Arden Hills’s tax base?
Ideally the best way to expand our tax base is through adding new businesses through new development or redevelopment. We have been successful in redevelopment of Lexington Avenue businesses, as well as new development. As part of the redevelopment effort, the PACE building, just north of Cub, will be removed and four new businesses will be moving in. Equally important in the recent expansion is to diversify our business tax base so that we are not dependent on any one company or industry, should the economy change.
Negotiate a mutually agreeable plan with Ramsey County to move TCAAP forward.
TCAAP offers the best large scale expansion through a mixed use development of homes and businesses. Given TCAAPs size, it offers us the ability to further diversify our tax base and housing stock. While it will certainly expand our tax base, it will also expand our costs.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
As Mayor, I attend a quarterly standing meeting of Mayors, City Administrators. I also attend a meeting between the cities and Mounds View School Board Members. Our meetings focus on sharing future plans and how we can work together to improve our mutual success.
I have been a strong supporter of the Bethel University and University of Northwestern. This includes new buildings, a new Bethel University football field and track, a redesigned master plan and traffic flow for the University of Northwestern campus, and many other efforts while Mayor.
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?
I review the budget annually and I am don’t think anything that should be eliminated.
We share a number of services with other cities to save tax payer dollars through economy of scale:
IT Services – Roseville
Fire Department – North Oaks, Shoreview
Police – seven other communities through the Ramsey County Sherriff Department
Maintenance Facility – Ramsey County, Mounds View School District, MN National Guard
Street crack filling and seal coating – Coon Rapids and several other cities
Video Production – CTV15 cities
Metro I Net (Internet Services) – several other cities
Fleet equipment purchases – State of Minnesota
City water - Roseville
What is the role of the Mayor in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Arden Hills?
As Mayor, I welcome minority, women-owned and family owned business. Just recently we welcomed State Farm Insurance and Crumble Cookies. I was proud to be at their grand openings.
In terms of fostering such businesses, this is something best handled on a regional basis. I would support such efforts.
Two of our larger corporations are led at the CEO/President level by women, Land O’ Lakes, and Colder Products Company.
What further policies can Arden Hills adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
At the early stages of the pandemic, Arden Hills used part of its federal COVID dollars to subsidize local business impacted by COVID. I met with individual owners to help them to fill out the necessary application for funding. The main categories of recipients were restaurants, physical fitness locations, bars, and retailers that had been financially impacted. I met with businesses and the city went door to door checking on the condition of our smaller businesses.
I supported the “dine outdoors” movement when restaurants and bars could have outdoor seating. We allowed business the ability to create or expand their outdoor dining, sometimes into parking lots.
I brought forward the ordinance change that allows for more drive-through windows. During the pandemic drive-through windows provided the customer the ability to do business while not entering the store. Equally important was the order online and pick up outside the store.
Keeping taxes low is important for our businesses. This is especially true as many businesses still feel the economic impact of the pandemic. Keeping taxes low helps our businesses financially, which in turn helps them help their employees, which helps us all. The city continually analyzes ways to do things more effectively and cost efficiently.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
My opponent is placing inflammatory comments in his literature. One issue relates to Costco and attributing the comment to the City Council. He has also stated this comment at council meetings during the open comment period. The origin of the comment was determined to second or third hand rumor, and is unfounded. A resident emailed the council in 2019 making us aware of the rumor and asking what the real situation was. Council members replied that they did not make nor were they aware such comment publicly or privately. Ramsey County recieved the full email chain in legal discovery and apparently liking the rumor, included it in their law suit documentation against the city as an uncited reference. The majority of the council supports a Costco, but unfortunately the unfounded rumor continues to spread.
As a city we value communication with residents. As part of that effort, we recently upgraded our website. Information is more robust and easier to locate. On the new website council minutes, agendas, and complete packets are available. In addition, City Council meetings, Planning Commission and JDA meetings can be replayed. We also recently implemented social media information distribution. We hired a staff member for publishing our newsletter, Arden Hills Notes and social media distributions.
For more information please visit my website: ReelectMayorDavidGrant.com
Public Office Sought: Arden Hills Mayor
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 651 431-8982
Campaign Website: ReelectMayorDavidGrant.com
Twitter handle:
Facebook Page:
Candidate Bio
It has been my honor to serve as Mayor since 2011. Thirty three years ago my wife Linda and I moved to Arden Hills to raise a family. We have been part of a community with great neighbors, outstanding schools, wonderful businesses, and a beautiful city. Arden Hills is a wonderful city to; live, raise a family, work, and enjoy our parks and trails.
I made the decision to run for office to give back to our city and maintain the qualities that make our city such a great place. Key in this effort is listening to concerns; whether one on one, in groups, or at council meetings. Our city is made up of many small unique neighborhoods. I know that residents know their neighborhood best and we work more effectively when we work together to secure our future, our children’s future and grandchildren’s future.
Have a B.S. and M.B.A from Minnesota State University Mankato. I am retired in 2020 from Stauer Inc., where I was a Sr. Business Intelligence Analyst. Earlier I was a business analyst for Wells Fargo and Delta Air Lines. My business experience provides a solid foundation for decisions involving city operations.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Development of TCAAP to provide housing choices, employment, amenities and a diversified tax base. Any development agreement needs to protect the city financially, should the economy change or the development falter. The city has yet to receive a term sheet from the County in which to negotiate from.
Keep city taxes low while enhancing and maintaining city services through careful spending and sound fiscal policy.
Support and encourage business retention and expansion, to provide jobs and a secure tax base.
How would you characterize the business climate in Arden Hills and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
The business climate in Arden Hills is strong and expanding. Arden Hills businesses such as
Land O’Lakes, Boston Scientific have added onto their existing campuses. Arden Hills worked with the State of Minnesota and Ramsey County to ensure that Land O’Lakes did not move their Fortune 500 corporate offices outside of Minnesota. In addition, we have added new business such as; Delkor, Colder Products Corporation, Wealth Asset Advisors, Spring Hill Suites by Marriot, Saltbox, Lexington Station businesses, and many others. Over the past 10 years we have been able to revitalize our Lexington Ave and County Road E business district.
Businesses are an integral part of our quality of life. Our employers provide well-paying jobs in our community. Our restaurants and shops also add a variety of amenities for our residents. We are fortunate to have Bethel University and University of Northwestern (shared partly with Roseville) to provide educational and cultural enrichment opportunities.
The city focuses on working with business and expanding our commercial business. Staff and council receive high marks from our businesses and serves as a resource and advocate for our businesses.
Our businesses and local organizations provide volunteers for various projects, and have provided financial donations to improve our city. The city greatly appreciates their efforts of improving our city.
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, Arden Hills?
Arden Hills places a strong emphasis in attracting employers and job creation. It is one of the main forces behind my success in revitalizing Lexington Avenue and County Road E businesses. The city also added two major employers north of 694, Colder Products Corporation and Delkor, both of which will add solid job growth to our local economy.
If done correctly, TCAAP can enhance and add business, jobs and amenities to our community. The city continues to work directly with our business, as well as through the Twin Cities North Chamber of Commerce, the Arden Hills/Shoreview Business Council and the Twin Cities Gateway Visitors Bureau.
The city would like to see a bus rapid transit (BRT) and additional routes in our community. We continue to work with the Metropolitan Council on this issue.
In Arden Hills we have more jobs that residents, in other words we are a net importer of jobs.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address the labor shortage?
Arden Hills is part of the highly rated Mounds View School District. The city meets regularly with the school district and knows that he district promotes and encourages students to take technical training, college level credit courses, and courses that have a college prep component. Our community has two colleges, Bethel University and University of Northwestern (located partly in Roseville). Our businesses to look to these educational institutions as sources for employees. In a recent business meeting, one of our businesses expressed that they find these schools provide quality and even “Rock Star” level employees.
The city would like to see a bus service in our community. We continue to ask the Metropolitan Council for bus service.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals in Arden Hills (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 Arden Hills and how would you define any exceptions to those
policies?
We are a small community and policies of this nature are more appropriate a regional or state level. To implement such policies in a small city could put our employers at a potential disadvantage, especially when competing for limited labor resources.
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?
The Arden Hills City Council has always taken the position of never comprise on safety, that includes both Police and Fire services. Arden Hills joins with seven other cities to fund our Ramsey County Sherriff Department for local police services and with Shoreview and North Oaks to fund the Lake Johanna Fire Department.
As part my commitment to public safety, I serve on the Ramsey County 911 Dispatch Policy Committee.
I support policies based on detailed reports that enable our dispatch to be effective and efficient.
The city meets regularly with the Fire Department and Ramsey County Sherriff’s Office to discuss new and ongoing issues, how to resolve them, and distribute information on ongoing situations and education for crime reduction.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address housing issues facing your community?
The biggest housing challenge facing Arden Hills is the one facing the region—lack of new housing for a growing (and aging) population. Arden Hills has a variety of housing options, from deeply to moderate affordable housing (40%, 1,298 out of 3,277 homes) to more expensive lakeside homes. We have something for everyone. Because Arden Hills is such a desirable, well-run city, and has great schools, people tend to move in and stay. However, houses in Arden Hills are starting to turn over, often to younger buyers.
When TCAAP develops it will bring additional market rate and affordable housing to our city. Currently
the City and Alatus, the developer, have agreed on a plan that will create 1,460 new housing units, of
which 326 will be considered affordable. The affordable units will only become possible when the
landowner, Ramsey County, agrees to sell to the TCAAP land to the developer, Alatus.
A strong business climate and creates jobs are essential so that residents can have the opportunity
to succeed financially, in order to maintain and improve their homes. Able and skilled employees are
essential to the growth and development of strong businesses. The City works hard to support both.
The city continues to support the manufactured home park, Arden Manor. During COVID we continually communicated with the park management, as well as individual home owners impacted by COVID about resources necessary to keep their home.
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 have a well-defined pavement management plan for our city streets. Scanning technology is used to objectively evaluate and score the road condition. Recognizing the value of fixing street problems while they are small, before a complete rebuild is necessary, this plan takes a long-term perspective. We know that the pandemic caused changes in traffic patterns, we are now noticing that traffic has returned to, and in some cases exceeded, pre-pandemic levels.
The city continues to lobby for bus service in our community. We continue to work with the Metropolitan Council on this issue.
There are a number of county and state roads within Arden Hills. I direct staff to coordinate with the State of Minnesota and Ramsey County on their maintenance.
Electric Vehicles (EVs) are on the road in greater numbers than ever before. I would propose that the city continue its work with our business to encourage charging stations.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
Keep city taxes low while enhancing and maintaining services through careful spending and sound fiscal policy. Avoid borrowing (bonding) whenever possible.
We continue to have meetings open to the public during the budget season, as well a phone numbers and email address on our web site. The city continues to produce our award winning budget information. We continue to win the Minnesota Government Finance Officers Association, awards:
Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting
The city has received this award annually since 2006 for its Comprehensive Annual Finance Report. This program encourages governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles and prepare a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report that demonstrates the spirit of transparency and full disclosure.
Popular Annual Financial Reporting Award
The city has received this award annually since 2006 for its PAFR. This program encourages governments to extract information from their Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and produce a report (PAFR) that is readily accessible and easily understandable to the general public.
The Popular report is available on the city web site and distributed via the summer Arden Hills Notes newsletter.
What will you do to expand Arden Hills’s tax base?
Ideally the best way to expand our tax base is through adding new businesses through new development or redevelopment. We have been successful in redevelopment of Lexington Avenue businesses, as well as new development. As part of the redevelopment effort, the PACE building, just north of Cub, will be removed and four new businesses will be moving in. Equally important in the recent expansion is to diversify our business tax base so that we are not dependent on any one company or industry, should the economy change.
Negotiate a mutually agreeable plan with Ramsey County to move TCAAP forward.
TCAAP offers the best large scale expansion through a mixed use development of homes and businesses. Given TCAAPs size, it offers us the ability to further diversify our tax base and housing stock. While it will certainly expand our tax base, it will also expand our costs.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
As Mayor, I attend a quarterly standing meeting of Mayors, City Administrators. I also attend a meeting between the cities and Mounds View School Board Members. Our meetings focus on sharing future plans and how we can work together to improve our mutual success.
I have been a strong supporter of the Bethel University and University of Northwestern. This includes new buildings, a new Bethel University football field and track, a redesigned master plan and traffic flow for the University of Northwestern campus, and many other efforts while Mayor.
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?
I review the budget annually and I am don’t think anything that should be eliminated.
We share a number of services with other cities to save tax payer dollars through economy of scale:
IT Services – Roseville
Fire Department – North Oaks, Shoreview
Police – seven other communities through the Ramsey County Sherriff Department
Maintenance Facility – Ramsey County, Mounds View School District, MN National Guard
Street crack filling and seal coating – Coon Rapids and several other cities
Video Production – CTV15 cities
Metro I Net (Internet Services) – several other cities
Fleet equipment purchases – State of Minnesota
City water - Roseville
What is the role of the Mayor in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Arden Hills?
As Mayor, I welcome minority, women-owned and family owned business. Just recently we welcomed State Farm Insurance and Crumble Cookies. I was proud to be at their grand openings.
In terms of fostering such businesses, this is something best handled on a regional basis. I would support such efforts.
Two of our larger corporations are led at the CEO/President level by women, Land O’ Lakes, and Colder Products Company.
What further policies can Arden Hills adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
At the early stages of the pandemic, Arden Hills used part of its federal COVID dollars to subsidize local business impacted by COVID. I met with individual owners to help them to fill out the necessary application for funding. The main categories of recipients were restaurants, physical fitness locations, bars, and retailers that had been financially impacted. I met with businesses and the city went door to door checking on the condition of our smaller businesses.
I supported the “dine outdoors” movement when restaurants and bars could have outdoor seating. We allowed business the ability to create or expand their outdoor dining, sometimes into parking lots.
I brought forward the ordinance change that allows for more drive-through windows. During the pandemic drive-through windows provided the customer the ability to do business while not entering the store. Equally important was the order online and pick up outside the store.
Keeping taxes low is important for our businesses. This is especially true as many businesses still feel the economic impact of the pandemic. Keeping taxes low helps our businesses financially, which in turn helps them help their employees, which helps us all. The city continually analyzes ways to do things more effectively and cost efficiently.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
My opponent is placing inflammatory comments in his literature. One issue relates to Costco and attributing the comment to the City Council. He has also stated this comment at council meetings during the open comment period. The origin of the comment was determined to second or third hand rumor, and is unfounded. A resident emailed the council in 2019 making us aware of the rumor and asking what the real situation was. Council members replied that they did not make nor were they aware such comment publicly or privately. Ramsey County recieved the full email chain in legal discovery and apparently liking the rumor, included it in their law suit documentation against the city as an uncited reference. The majority of the council supports a Costco, but unfortunately the unfounded rumor continues to spread.
As a city we value communication with residents. As part of that effort, we recently upgraded our website. Information is more robust and easier to locate. On the new website council minutes, agendas, and complete packets are available. In addition, City Council meetings, Planning Commission and JDA meetings can be replayed. We also recently implemented social media information distribution. We hired a staff member for publishing our newsletter, Arden Hills Notes and social media distributions.
For more information please visit my website: ReelectMayorDavidGrant.com