Elizabeth Dickinson
Name: Elizabeth Dickinson
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 651-235-1208
Campaign Website: www.elizabethdickinson.org
Twitter handle: @mayordickinson
Facebook Page: Elizabeth Dickinson for Saint Paul
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 651-235-1208
Campaign Website: www.elizabethdickinson.org
Twitter handle: @mayordickinson
Facebook Page: Elizabeth Dickinson for Saint Paul
1. Please provide a brief bio highlighting experience and accomplishments that qualify you to be the next Mayor of Saint Paul.
Elizabeth Dickinson is a career/management coach, speaker/presenter, writer and landlord. She has coached/presented in over 40 for-profit and non-profit organizations, including Land O’Lakes and Performance Excellence Network. She has written coaching books, including “The Coach Approach for Leaders: Get the Best from Everyone, Every Time”. Education includes: B.Ed. Honors degree/Cambridge University; M.A. in Psychology/Lesley University; life coaching certification/Adler Graduate School. She led the grassroots effort to repower the Twin Cities’ coalburning utilities to natural gas.
Elizabeth has worked as an organizer, manager or lobbyist for the Minnesota AIDS Project, the Association for Non-Smokers, the National P.T.A., and Healthy Legacy – on topics ranging from comprehensive sex education, increased healthcare funding, and the smoking ban, to eliminating harmful chemicals from consumer products (BPA/baby bottles) and increasing public educational standards. She is a long term boardmember of both the state and national Clean Water Action boards, a former boardmember/honoree of her district council on neighborhood issues, and a former boardmember of the Minnesota Chapter of the International Coach Federation, where she initiated the Prism award which recognized organizational coaching excellence at Barr Engineering, Cargill, Pepsi and nonprofits including Better Futures Minnesota and Pregnancy Choices.
Business climate
2. How would you characterize the business climate in Saint Paul?
It’s not bad but we can do better. We have too much business/commercial office space open (especially older office space), and we definitely need more commercial/industrial investment. Too many emerging businesses are frustrated with the level of red tape and bureaucracy at City Hall with numerous requirements that are hard to understand and comply with.
3. What role do you think the City should have in attracting and retaining jobs, and how would your administration actively solicit new businesses to, and retain existing businesses in, Saint Paul?
The city could be more proactive in attracting jobs and business. Since Fortune magazine reports the solar and wind industry is growing 12 times faster than any other industry, I believe we could position ourselves as the renewable energy capital of the Upper Midwest if we proactively reach out to energy companies who are expanding, and bring them here. Many of the larger wind installations are in the Midwest and manufacturers could save on transportation costs by situating here. We only have 3 solar manufacturers in MN (one of which is in St. Paul) and Moventas, which produces wind turbine gearboxes. Some of the solar manufacturers report that their product is promised for the next year, indicating a high level of growth. We have empty commercial/industrial land on the East Side, like the old 3M plant. Let’s actively do outreach to energy companies who are expanding and bring their living wage jobs, and tax base, here.
We could also do better at matching businesses to available space. For instance, the old but well-maintained EcoLab building, with its smaller floor plans, might be ideal for start-ups/entrepreneurs who don’t need a lot of space.
4. Will you commit to hiring a business advocate as a member of your 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?
I would strongly consider hiring a business advocate as a member of senior staff (or shifting the emphasis of the existing outreach/marketing position to include deeper business outreach) to build relationships with the business community, focusing on retention and expansion. I especially want to help business by using lean urbanism principles (reducing red tape) as well as hiring multi-lingual business navigators to help small businesses find their way through the various city departments.
5. Do you support an increase to the minimum wage in Saint Paul? 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 do you support proposals to mitigate the effects on businesses like a tip credit, a youth wage, a training wage, and/or a phase-in?
Yes, I do support a living wage phased in over 4-6 years. The specific steps I would consider to understand the impact of an increase on business include: researching how increases have impacted businesses in other cities that have increased the minimum wage; and inviting an independent blue ribbon panel/consultant to analyze how an increase would affect existing and potential businesses who might locate here, and how youth wages, training wages and phase-ins have been implemented and their impacts on both workers and businesses. I have already spoken to small business owners and will continue to do so. But please know I am still a supporter of a minimum-wage increase. The Minneapolis study concluded that 71,000 families would be lifted out of poverty with a living wage in that city. I believe we can both lift our workers by phasing in such a wage, and include measures to protect small and medium businesses.
Public safety
6. What is your strategy to address public safety concerns in the downtown core, including safety concerns in the skyway system and police force presence?
Given that some of the skyways are privately owned and can legally limit access after hours, I believe that bringing together residents, employers, and private landlords to discuss easement agreements and other solutions, and potentially to share costs of private security, is an option.
Better signage may also help way-finding in the skyways – alerting people to blocked access after hours – and could cut down on attendant frustrations.
I also believe that asking the St. Paul Community Ambassadors Program and other social services to drop by the skyways at night to connect homeless youth and adults who need services and shelter could be important at a human level, and for moving them out of loitering or sleeping in skyways.
7. What is your vision for these key downtown development opportunities?
I believe we should work closely with the Met Council to expedite the sale of the vacant lot. Given its proximity to light rail, it could be attractive for office space or mixed use.
If we are to fulfill the Solicitation Review Task Force vision of the site as ‘a bold and architecturally significant redevelopment project’, I believe we should proactively encourage more proposals so the Cardon Development Group’s proposal is not the only option on the table. The more proposals on the table, the better able we will be to assess whether the redevelopment proposals live up to the potential of that site with its grand views of the river.
Balanced budget
8. What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
We must start with funding essential services, including police, fire, and infrastructure maintenance. I also believe we have neglected our rec centers which are often the first line of defense for youth who need social services or supportive academic, physical and cultural opportunities. I also support hiring more co-professionals, especially social workers, to assist police and the library system to deal with non-violent, social need calls, such as when the police receive “My room mate is acting strangely” calls or when the library must deal with homeless children/families at closing time with nowhere to go.
9. How do you view the relationship between commercial and residential property taxes?
Commercial/industrial taxpayers receive .87 of services for every dollar they pay in taxes, while residential taxpayers receive $1.16 of city services for every dollar they pay in taxes. What this indicates is that commercial and residential development needs to be managed and balanced in a way so that we always have enough commercial and industrial properties to sustain our tax base and help pay for the essential services everyone wants.
10. What changes need to happen to the City’s budget to avoid an increasing tax burden on businesses and residents, particularly to replace the City’s longstanding Right of Way assessment program?
As a first step, I support constructing a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) for large
tax-exempt, land-owning institutions to make a voluntary PILOT contribution to the City to help cover the cost of providing the institutions with essential City services (i.e. police, fire, snow removal).
Specifically I would want the program to:
Workforce development
11. How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
We would benefit from expanded ECFE services and a pilot pre-k program to ensure parents seeking daycare can find it, and to ensure our youngest children are properly readied with programs that prepare for the St. Paul curriculum K-12 system – and that would also serve to funnel children into our schools. I also believe we are capable of nurturing more university-school partnerships like the decades-old Hamline University/Hamline Elementary partnership, which brings both Hamline University faculty and students into long term mentoring and coaching relationships. I also believe Right Track could be expanded – the Parks department said 1800 students applied for 500 slots. Every qualified student who wants a summer job to develop professional skills should have one. I also believe the unions have a role – not everyone wants to attend college, and I strongly support apprenticeship and vocational programs that lead to living wage jobs.
12. What do you see as the mayor’s role with regard to Saint Paul Public Schools?
I see the mayor’s role as bringing together public-private partnerships (such as replicating the success of the Hamline partnership with other colleges like Macalester, St. Thomas, St. Kate’s, etc.) to enhance the effectiveness of the schools allied with mentoring programs, after school activities, etc. I believe the mayor’s office can help coordinate after school programming with libraries and rec centers that enhances existing curriculums and supplements after school tutoring, arts and physical education.
I would have an open door policy to the superintendent and to the board equally, but I will not interfere in policy decisions made by the board in good faith, that promote a quality education for all, and a safe, productive learning environment.
Other
13. What is the biggest challenge facing the city and how would you address it?
From a traditional service delivery standpoint, I believe the biggest challenge is in maintaining services people rightly expect (police, fire, libraries), and expanding services where the needs are great (transit so people can get to jobs, expanded rec center hours so kids have a place to go where they can spend time productively, etc.) without unduly burdening property taxes and taxpayers, especially retirees on fixed incomes. I believe a PILOT program can help. From an economic justice standpoint, I also believe in addressing poverty through a livable wage, affordable housing, and job creation, which should be high on the list.
14. What would be your top three priorities if elected?
1) Make the city government more transparent, responsive, inclusive, accessible and diverse. Specifically this means the mayor’s office will work more closely and collaboratively with city council, district councils, commissions, task forces, business groups, and unions, and strive to make the city’s workforce reflective of our population (40% people of color). It will cut down on red tape through lean urbanism principles, similar to the project on the East Side that is analyzing what regulations might be loosened to promote business.
2) Develop economic opportunities in a just way, such as incorporating a living wage increase in concert with Minneapolis, with sensitivity to small business interests. Attract new business, particularly in renewable energy sector, particularly on the East Side where there is land available and where the need for living wage jobs is great.
3) Expedite the climate change and energy plan, and see it as part of a broader economic stimulus opportunity to make St. Paul the energy efficiency/renewable energy capitol of the Upper Midwest.
15. What do you think should be the city’s top transportation related priority?
I believe transportation needs include expanding transit, so workers can get to jobs and people who can’t or don’t wish to own cars can get where they need to go, along with preservation of existing roads and expansion of pedestrian walkways and bike lanes. I also believe we should replace diesel buses with electric buses as they age out of the system.
16. 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?
Currently the Ramsey Sheriff’s Department administers the permits to carry and St. Paul administers permits to purchase. These could be combined for city/county savings and make it easier for consumers in a one-stop shopping experience. Additionally, the Sheriff’s Department and St. Paul Police are already combining police reports under one software system. The next step might be to examine what cost-savings there might be in collecting the records into one physical space.
17. Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
The Port Authority’s energy efficiency and renewable energy MinnPACE program and the Trillion BTU program overcomes financial challenges that hinder the adoption of such projects by eliminating upfront costs, providing low-cost, long-term financing and making it easy for building owners to transfer payment obligations to tenants, as well as new owners, in the case of a sale. Many of the projects (like Madison Equities) have saved significant money (over a million dollars in energy efficiency savings yearly) contributing to a better bottom line. I believe these programs could be marketed more extensively as incentives for relocating businesses to move into our older, vacant buildings.
Additionally, as part of my plan to position St. Paul as the renewable energy capitol of the Upper Midwest, I believe we can build on the current St. Paul Energy Action Plan Goals and Strategies by evaluating both city-owned and commercial/industrial buildings for the potential use of solar. At my request, Cooperative Energy Futures has done an initial evaluation of St. Paul’s 70 school roofs and created a proposal:
Plan Elements:
Plan Impacts:
More details will be made available on my website at http://www.elizabethdickinson.org
Elizabeth Dickinson is a career/management coach, speaker/presenter, writer and landlord. She has coached/presented in over 40 for-profit and non-profit organizations, including Land O’Lakes and Performance Excellence Network. She has written coaching books, including “The Coach Approach for Leaders: Get the Best from Everyone, Every Time”. Education includes: B.Ed. Honors degree/Cambridge University; M.A. in Psychology/Lesley University; life coaching certification/Adler Graduate School. She led the grassroots effort to repower the Twin Cities’ coalburning utilities to natural gas.
Elizabeth has worked as an organizer, manager or lobbyist for the Minnesota AIDS Project, the Association for Non-Smokers, the National P.T.A., and Healthy Legacy – on topics ranging from comprehensive sex education, increased healthcare funding, and the smoking ban, to eliminating harmful chemicals from consumer products (BPA/baby bottles) and increasing public educational standards. She is a long term boardmember of both the state and national Clean Water Action boards, a former boardmember/honoree of her district council on neighborhood issues, and a former boardmember of the Minnesota Chapter of the International Coach Federation, where she initiated the Prism award which recognized organizational coaching excellence at Barr Engineering, Cargill, Pepsi and nonprofits including Better Futures Minnesota and Pregnancy Choices.
Business climate
2. How would you characterize the business climate in Saint Paul?
It’s not bad but we can do better. We have too much business/commercial office space open (especially older office space), and we definitely need more commercial/industrial investment. Too many emerging businesses are frustrated with the level of red tape and bureaucracy at City Hall with numerous requirements that are hard to understand and comply with.
3. What role do you think the City should have in attracting and retaining jobs, and how would your administration actively solicit new businesses to, and retain existing businesses in, Saint Paul?
The city could be more proactive in attracting jobs and business. Since Fortune magazine reports the solar and wind industry is growing 12 times faster than any other industry, I believe we could position ourselves as the renewable energy capital of the Upper Midwest if we proactively reach out to energy companies who are expanding, and bring them here. Many of the larger wind installations are in the Midwest and manufacturers could save on transportation costs by situating here. We only have 3 solar manufacturers in MN (one of which is in St. Paul) and Moventas, which produces wind turbine gearboxes. Some of the solar manufacturers report that their product is promised for the next year, indicating a high level of growth. We have empty commercial/industrial land on the East Side, like the old 3M plant. Let’s actively do outreach to energy companies who are expanding and bring their living wage jobs, and tax base, here.
We could also do better at matching businesses to available space. For instance, the old but well-maintained EcoLab building, with its smaller floor plans, might be ideal for start-ups/entrepreneurs who don’t need a lot of space.
4. Will you commit to hiring a business advocate as a member of your 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?
I would strongly consider hiring a business advocate as a member of senior staff (or shifting the emphasis of the existing outreach/marketing position to include deeper business outreach) to build relationships with the business community, focusing on retention and expansion. I especially want to help business by using lean urbanism principles (reducing red tape) as well as hiring multi-lingual business navigators to help small businesses find their way through the various city departments.
5. Do you support an increase to the minimum wage in Saint Paul? 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 do you support proposals to mitigate the effects on businesses like a tip credit, a youth wage, a training wage, and/or a phase-in?
Yes, I do support a living wage phased in over 4-6 years. The specific steps I would consider to understand the impact of an increase on business include: researching how increases have impacted businesses in other cities that have increased the minimum wage; and inviting an independent blue ribbon panel/consultant to analyze how an increase would affect existing and potential businesses who might locate here, and how youth wages, training wages and phase-ins have been implemented and their impacts on both workers and businesses. I have already spoken to small business owners and will continue to do so. But please know I am still a supporter of a minimum-wage increase. The Minneapolis study concluded that 71,000 families would be lifted out of poverty with a living wage in that city. I believe we can both lift our workers by phasing in such a wage, and include measures to protect small and medium businesses.
Public safety
6. What is your strategy to address public safety concerns in the downtown core, including safety concerns in the skyway system and police force presence?
Given that some of the skyways are privately owned and can legally limit access after hours, I believe that bringing together residents, employers, and private landlords to discuss easement agreements and other solutions, and potentially to share costs of private security, is an option.
Better signage may also help way-finding in the skyways – alerting people to blocked access after hours – and could cut down on attendant frustrations.
I also believe that asking the St. Paul Community Ambassadors Program and other social services to drop by the skyways at night to connect homeless youth and adults who need services and shelter could be important at a human level, and for moving them out of loitering or sleeping in skyways.
7. What is your vision for these key downtown development opportunities?
- The empty lot near the Central Station stop downtown
I believe we should work closely with the Met Council to expedite the sale of the vacant lot. Given its proximity to light rail, it could be attractive for office space or mixed use.
- The former West Publishing / Ramsey County jail site
If we are to fulfill the Solicitation Review Task Force vision of the site as ‘a bold and architecturally significant redevelopment project’, I believe we should proactively encourage more proposals so the Cardon Development Group’s proposal is not the only option on the table. The more proposals on the table, the better able we will be to assess whether the redevelopment proposals live up to the potential of that site with its grand views of the river.
Balanced budget
8. What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
We must start with funding essential services, including police, fire, and infrastructure maintenance. I also believe we have neglected our rec centers which are often the first line of defense for youth who need social services or supportive academic, physical and cultural opportunities. I also support hiring more co-professionals, especially social workers, to assist police and the library system to deal with non-violent, social need calls, such as when the police receive “My room mate is acting strangely” calls or when the library must deal with homeless children/families at closing time with nowhere to go.
9. How do you view the relationship between commercial and residential property taxes?
Commercial/industrial taxpayers receive .87 of services for every dollar they pay in taxes, while residential taxpayers receive $1.16 of city services for every dollar they pay in taxes. What this indicates is that commercial and residential development needs to be managed and balanced in a way so that we always have enough commercial and industrial properties to sustain our tax base and help pay for the essential services everyone wants.
10. What changes need to happen to the City’s budget to avoid an increasing tax burden on businesses and residents, particularly to replace the City’s longstanding Right of Way assessment program?
As a first step, I support constructing a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) for large
tax-exempt, land-owning institutions to make a voluntary PILOT contribution to the City to help cover the cost of providing the institutions with essential City services (i.e. police, fire, snow removal).
Specifically I would want the program to:
- Set a standard level of contributions - in programs and payments - to be met by all major tax-exempt landowners in St. Paul.
- Develop a methodology for valuing community partnerships made by tax-exempt institutions.
- Propose a structure for a consolidation program and payment negotiation system, which will allow the City and its tax-exempt institutions to structure longer term, sustainable partnerships focused on improving services for all residents.
- Clarify the costs associated with providing City services to tax-exempt institutions.
- Provide recommendations on legislative changes needed at the City or state level, if necessary.
Workforce development
11. How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
We would benefit from expanded ECFE services and a pilot pre-k program to ensure parents seeking daycare can find it, and to ensure our youngest children are properly readied with programs that prepare for the St. Paul curriculum K-12 system – and that would also serve to funnel children into our schools. I also believe we are capable of nurturing more university-school partnerships like the decades-old Hamline University/Hamline Elementary partnership, which brings both Hamline University faculty and students into long term mentoring and coaching relationships. I also believe Right Track could be expanded – the Parks department said 1800 students applied for 500 slots. Every qualified student who wants a summer job to develop professional skills should have one. I also believe the unions have a role – not everyone wants to attend college, and I strongly support apprenticeship and vocational programs that lead to living wage jobs.
12. What do you see as the mayor’s role with regard to Saint Paul Public Schools?
I see the mayor’s role as bringing together public-private partnerships (such as replicating the success of the Hamline partnership with other colleges like Macalester, St. Thomas, St. Kate’s, etc.) to enhance the effectiveness of the schools allied with mentoring programs, after school activities, etc. I believe the mayor’s office can help coordinate after school programming with libraries and rec centers that enhances existing curriculums and supplements after school tutoring, arts and physical education.
I would have an open door policy to the superintendent and to the board equally, but I will not interfere in policy decisions made by the board in good faith, that promote a quality education for all, and a safe, productive learning environment.
Other
13. What is the biggest challenge facing the city and how would you address it?
From a traditional service delivery standpoint, I believe the biggest challenge is in maintaining services people rightly expect (police, fire, libraries), and expanding services where the needs are great (transit so people can get to jobs, expanded rec center hours so kids have a place to go where they can spend time productively, etc.) without unduly burdening property taxes and taxpayers, especially retirees on fixed incomes. I believe a PILOT program can help. From an economic justice standpoint, I also believe in addressing poverty through a livable wage, affordable housing, and job creation, which should be high on the list.
14. What would be your top three priorities if elected?
1) Make the city government more transparent, responsive, inclusive, accessible and diverse. Specifically this means the mayor’s office will work more closely and collaboratively with city council, district councils, commissions, task forces, business groups, and unions, and strive to make the city’s workforce reflective of our population (40% people of color). It will cut down on red tape through lean urbanism principles, similar to the project on the East Side that is analyzing what regulations might be loosened to promote business.
2) Develop economic opportunities in a just way, such as incorporating a living wage increase in concert with Minneapolis, with sensitivity to small business interests. Attract new business, particularly in renewable energy sector, particularly on the East Side where there is land available and where the need for living wage jobs is great.
3) Expedite the climate change and energy plan, and see it as part of a broader economic stimulus opportunity to make St. Paul the energy efficiency/renewable energy capitol of the Upper Midwest.
15. What do you think should be the city’s top transportation related priority?
I believe transportation needs include expanding transit, so workers can get to jobs and people who can’t or don’t wish to own cars can get where they need to go, along with preservation of existing roads and expansion of pedestrian walkways and bike lanes. I also believe we should replace diesel buses with electric buses as they age out of the system.
16. 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?
Currently the Ramsey Sheriff’s Department administers the permits to carry and St. Paul administers permits to purchase. These could be combined for city/county savings and make it easier for consumers in a one-stop shopping experience. Additionally, the Sheriff’s Department and St. Paul Police are already combining police reports under one software system. The next step might be to examine what cost-savings there might be in collecting the records into one physical space.
17. Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
The Port Authority’s energy efficiency and renewable energy MinnPACE program and the Trillion BTU program overcomes financial challenges that hinder the adoption of such projects by eliminating upfront costs, providing low-cost, long-term financing and making it easy for building owners to transfer payment obligations to tenants, as well as new owners, in the case of a sale. Many of the projects (like Madison Equities) have saved significant money (over a million dollars in energy efficiency savings yearly) contributing to a better bottom line. I believe these programs could be marketed more extensively as incentives for relocating businesses to move into our older, vacant buildings.
Additionally, as part of my plan to position St. Paul as the renewable energy capitol of the Upper Midwest, I believe we can build on the current St. Paul Energy Action Plan Goals and Strategies by evaluating both city-owned and commercial/industrial buildings for the potential use of solar. At my request, Cooperative Energy Futures has done an initial evaluation of St. Paul’s 70 school roofs and created a proposal:
Plan Elements:
- A combination of Community Solar Gardens serving the School District and local residents and solar projects that will directly serve school buildings – 70 school buildings have been identified as initial candidates for cost-effective solar of various types.
- Direct energy savings with no upfront cost to the School District by partnering with local clean energy developers
- Universal access to affordable clean energy with options for no upfront cost and net monthly savings for all Saint Paul energy users with a preference to parents, teachers, and staff or Saint Paul Public Schools. This project will help low-income families reduce their energy burden, the second largest component of housing costs after rent.
- Cooperative ownership of any solar projects that are not directly owned by the school district, ensuring democratic control and community wealth building.
- Workforce development and training with a focus on closing racial disparities in hiring and a commitment to 50% minority hiring on solar installations
- Opportunities for youth education and engagement in clean energy, one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy
Plan Impacts:
- $7.2 million in roof lease revenue and energy bill savings for the Public Schools at no upfront cost (benefits increase with initial investment)
- $11.4 million in energy savings and $8.2 million in cooperative equity for Saint Paul residents who subscribe to community solar on Saint Paul Public School district buildings
- 28.5 million kWh – enough for 4,000 homes - of clean energy per year for 25 years.
- 426 FTE jobs during construction with 50% minority hiring requirements and 9FTE per year for 25 years in operations and maintenance.
- A role model for Saint Paul commercial and industrial corridors and public buildings in other Minnesota cities to lead the way of energy justice and climate solutions
More details will be made available on my website at http://www.elizabethdickinson.org