Graeme Allen
Name: Graeme Allen
Public Office Sought: New Brighton City Council
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 612-481-2144
Campaign Website: www.AllenForNB.com
Twitter handle:
Facebook Page: facebook.com/AllenforNB
Candidate Bio
I have served on the New Brighton City Council since 2018. I have served on the Economic Development Commission, am a former Board member of the Mounds View Schools Education Foundation and current Board member of Community Partners with Youth (CPY). I live with my wife, Liza and our daughter Madeline.
After graduating from the University of Minnesota, Morris with a B.A. in Political Science, I have held various positions for Twin Cities non-profits focused on advocacy and civic engagement. I have a proven track record of listening to residents and stakeholders, building coalitions, bringing groups and individuals together to find solutions.
The city has accomplished a lot in the past 4+ years including:
○ New Brighton’s Bond rating increased to AA+
○ Intentional business outreach has led to greater understanding, planning, coordination and listening to the different needs of our businesses.
○ Approved the planning and funding for a generational investment in our parks over the next few years.
○ Created the Equity Commission to add more resident and business owner voices and backgrounds to city planning and policy decisions.
○ Added almost 400 below market cost housing units, 52 market rate townhomes, providing more housing options for residents, while adding to the tax base.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Community Outreach. I would continue to increase connections between residents and business owners to what’s happening in the city and solicit feedback. While in office the past 4+ years, I have worked with colleagues and staff to emphasize increasing and diversifying our communication with the community in print and digitally. We have a reformatted newsletter, newly designed website, increased Social Media presence, and more direct mailings and phone calls. I have pushed for regularly scheduled surveys on a whole range of topics.
Moving forward, I feel we can help be a greater informational conduit and promoter of the many Federal, State, County and non-profit resources that exist for residents and businesses. Our residents and businesses have a variety of different needs, and we can make positive impacts on peoples lives by connecting them with the many resources available.
Environmental Stewardship. The city has made great strides in improving our environmental impact byadding solar panels to city owned buildings, taking advantage of grants to help clean up contaminated businesses and partnering with a company to provide Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations in the next two years. Currently, the city is working on developing a climate action plan that should help us identify quantifiable goals to reduce our environmental impact and help the city, residents and businesses take advantage of existing programs and grant opportunities to be an even greener community.
Being proactive and planning for the future. I have tried to take the long view in decision making while on the Council. By listening to residents, we can see emerging challenges and inevitable changes that are and will happen. By focusing and planning for the future we have become a more dynamic city able to address emerging challenges and inevitable changes. Long term issues of housing affordability, quality, and quantity and maintaining our infrastructure considering the increasing pressures from extreme weather.
How would you characterize the business climate in New Brighton and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
The overall climate is positive. We have worked with some of our larger businesses to expand their operations and create more jobs in the community. In the wake of the pandemic, some sectors have taken longer to fully recover. Our hospitality industry was greatly affected by the pandemic. We were fortunate, like most communities, to receive federal funds that we could use for grants to support individuals and families, businesses, and non-profits. Combined with easing of regulations and fees, we helped many businesses weather the pandemic.
Our businesses serve a vital role in keeping New Brighton a vibrant community. Our businesses provide jobs, pay taxes, provide goods and services to residents and other businesses, giving us a stronger sense of community and maintaining our city as a desirable place to live.
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, New Brighton?
Although market forces are the main driver in terms of business development and job retention or growth, the city can make a difference in substantive ways to retain and attract business and jobs growth by setting the stage for business success.
As mentioned earlier, the city has really started to intentionally reach out and talk with business owners to better understand their needs and build relationships to better collaborate.
Increase the number of local customers. Many of our businesses benefit from increased housing development. More housing has meant more potential employees looking to work close to home. More residents also have been a big benefit to many of our local businesses.
New Brighton is halfway through a two-year process of updating and modernizing our zoning codes with the goals of making it clearer for businesses to understand the rules. This has been a much-needed step as our current code is mostly from the 1970s with additions and over the decades that has created some confusion, conflicting provisions. A more clear and readable zoning code will help businesses understand the requirements and possibilities.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address the labor shortage?
Working with businesses and leveraging our relationships with the State, County, School Districts, and community organizations, could help bring collaboration and collective efforts to address the labor shortages. I will work to promote local job fairs that could provide a great benefit to our businesses and residents looking for employment.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals in New Brighton (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 New Brighton and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
I think that Minnesota laws governing these topics need to be modernized to better reflect the growing understanding that stronger labor standards have a significant positive economic and quality of life impact for working individuals and families, as well as overall economic growth and decreased reliance on government services. Because of labor shortages, many businesses are currently offering higher wages and increased time off to attract employees.
Generally, our lowest wage workers are falling further behind economically and often do not have paid sick leave or flexible schedules. I think paid sick time to care for oneself or family members is not a radical idea, especially after seeing the devastating impact of the pandemic especially on women and BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) residents.
Cities of New Brighton’s size could face challenges if acting alone in these areas, which is why I support a state-wide or County/regional based approach. Before any proposals would be heard, I would want extensive conversations with as many businesses as possible to identify impacts.
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?
2019 represented the lowest recorded crime rates the city has had. Yet, like every other community, we have seen an increase in crime in the past two years. We have tried to provide the necessary resources to our award-winning Public Safety Department’s community policing approach in several ways. I would work to:
○ Increase our efforts to attract and retain the best officers. In the short term, this is the most impactful thing we can do. Hiring more officers will allow our officers to have more time to investigate crimes and work on cases and not just respond from one call to another.
○ Increase response to residents and businesses dealing with neighborhood issues
○ Continue to make sure that our officers have the training, equipment, and additional supports (Working with partners such as Northeast Youth and Family Services, Ramsey County, and others to provide mental health and resource assistance)
○ Continue efforts to reach out to neighbors to help identify problems and notify Public Safety when needed.
○ Support efforts to modernize Ramsey County 911 services to offer appropriate and different responses and tools for our officers based on the call.
○ Continue to support our collaborate efforts with surrounding jurisdictions and joint efforts with other law enforcement entities.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address housing issues facing your community?
I have been a vocal proponent of the city taking a more proactive approach in terms of the city’s housing policy. The last 10 years have seen big changes to the quantity and cost of housing. I have heard from many residents about the challenges to find affordable housing. In the past 4+ years the city has worked to build or preserve almost 400 units of below market rate cost units. We have increased protections for renters when a landlord sells properties. We have listened to many community members and are working towards a policy that gives greater tools to deal with problem residents and property owners. We are trying to increase the standards and inspections of rentals to ensure that everyone in the city has safe, quality housing.
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?
Residents have ever increasingly asked to have a safer transportation system with greater connectivity. My colleagues on the Council and I have been working to make New Brighton an easier place to get around, especially focusing on making New Brighton a more walkable, bikeable, and rideable and ADA compliant community when opportunities arrive. Currently, we are working with Ramsey County to redevelop Old HWY 8 to include a dedicated bike and walk lane. We have added permanent stop lights, yield, and stop signs to help decrease potential accidents at several intersections. We are lowering the speed limits on our streets to 25 MPH to lessen the chances of serious injury for pedestrians and bikers. We are working on a complete streets policy that could help guide future planning.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
Maintaining financial stability. Sound financials have led to the city receiving a AA+ bond rating, which is the highest grade the city could receive with the size of its budget. I would continue to focus on long term planning and preparing for future needed upgrades. My biggest priorities are to continue to maintain our high quality and affordable services while balancing the shared tax responsibilities. First and foremost, we need to ensure that our core services are meeting the needs and expectations of our residents.
What will you do to expand New Brighton’s tax base?
We have continued to see New Brighton’s tax base expand over the past several years. The expansion of several of our larger businesses and recent new housing developments translates to more businesses and residents contributing to the tax base. Encouraging appropriate development, when opportunities arrive, will lead to greater economic diversity and more individuals and businesses contributing to the tax base.
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 are fortunate to have two great school districts in the city. We continue to see many families moving to city, in part, because of the school districts. A well-educated workforce benefits local businesses by having more potential qualified workers. By continuing strategic improvements to the city, we will continue to be a desired place to live and stay for workers.
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?
New Brighton is relatively lean in its operations. There are not large or expensive programs that could be cut without an impact on city services and our residents. When putting the budget together, the Council generally tries to listen to staff about potential programs and purchases to consider. With the tax levy in mind, and the impact on residents and businesses, I have tried to focus on prioritizing maintaining our core quality services while looking at where increases in spending could have the greatest positive impact and efforts that will save money in the long-term.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in New Brighton?
In the past several years that has been increasing awareness that municipalities can strengthen their local economy and increase economic growth and equity by establishing policies and practices that allow for minority- and women-owned businesses to competitively bid and receive city funds for projects. I support developing policies that increase participation among women and minority owned businesses in city projects.
What further policies can New Brighton adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
I think residents of New Brighton can be proud of the response New Brighton had to individuals/families, businesses and non-profits struggling during the pandemic. We used ARPA federal fund to pride grants to many struggling. I know our efforts helped many survive the economic downturn. During the pandemic we also decreased regulations and fees for some businesses most impacted. If we experience another downturn in the economy, I am willing to replicate our reaching out to every business we can identify and providing financial relief and/or connecting folks with city and outside resources.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
I humbly ask for your vote in November. I have tried to honesty and cordially work with all stakeholders and colleagues. We need a Council that functions and can work together. I think we have a very strong team of staff and Council members all committed to keeping New Brighton a great place to live, work and play. We don’t always agree or see eye to eye on every issue and that’s how it should be.
I have tried to be available and responsive when residents and businesses have reached out. I have been invited in the homes of many residents to talk about issues and have thoroughly enjoyed meeting neighbors and doing what I can to explain the who, what, where, when and why of city government happenings and have worked with residents to find solutions. With your partnership, we can move the city forward and prepare for the changes and challenges to come.
Public Office Sought: New Brighton City Council
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 612-481-2144
Campaign Website: www.AllenForNB.com
Twitter handle:
Facebook Page: facebook.com/AllenforNB
Candidate Bio
I have served on the New Brighton City Council since 2018. I have served on the Economic Development Commission, am a former Board member of the Mounds View Schools Education Foundation and current Board member of Community Partners with Youth (CPY). I live with my wife, Liza and our daughter Madeline.
After graduating from the University of Minnesota, Morris with a B.A. in Political Science, I have held various positions for Twin Cities non-profits focused on advocacy and civic engagement. I have a proven track record of listening to residents and stakeholders, building coalitions, bringing groups and individuals together to find solutions.
The city has accomplished a lot in the past 4+ years including:
○ New Brighton’s Bond rating increased to AA+
○ Intentional business outreach has led to greater understanding, planning, coordination and listening to the different needs of our businesses.
○ Approved the planning and funding for a generational investment in our parks over the next few years.
○ Created the Equity Commission to add more resident and business owner voices and backgrounds to city planning and policy decisions.
○ Added almost 400 below market cost housing units, 52 market rate townhomes, providing more housing options for residents, while adding to the tax base.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Community Outreach. I would continue to increase connections between residents and business owners to what’s happening in the city and solicit feedback. While in office the past 4+ years, I have worked with colleagues and staff to emphasize increasing and diversifying our communication with the community in print and digitally. We have a reformatted newsletter, newly designed website, increased Social Media presence, and more direct mailings and phone calls. I have pushed for regularly scheduled surveys on a whole range of topics.
Moving forward, I feel we can help be a greater informational conduit and promoter of the many Federal, State, County and non-profit resources that exist for residents and businesses. Our residents and businesses have a variety of different needs, and we can make positive impacts on peoples lives by connecting them with the many resources available.
Environmental Stewardship. The city has made great strides in improving our environmental impact byadding solar panels to city owned buildings, taking advantage of grants to help clean up contaminated businesses and partnering with a company to provide Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations in the next two years. Currently, the city is working on developing a climate action plan that should help us identify quantifiable goals to reduce our environmental impact and help the city, residents and businesses take advantage of existing programs and grant opportunities to be an even greener community.
Being proactive and planning for the future. I have tried to take the long view in decision making while on the Council. By listening to residents, we can see emerging challenges and inevitable changes that are and will happen. By focusing and planning for the future we have become a more dynamic city able to address emerging challenges and inevitable changes. Long term issues of housing affordability, quality, and quantity and maintaining our infrastructure considering the increasing pressures from extreme weather.
How would you characterize the business climate in New Brighton and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
The overall climate is positive. We have worked with some of our larger businesses to expand their operations and create more jobs in the community. In the wake of the pandemic, some sectors have taken longer to fully recover. Our hospitality industry was greatly affected by the pandemic. We were fortunate, like most communities, to receive federal funds that we could use for grants to support individuals and families, businesses, and non-profits. Combined with easing of regulations and fees, we helped many businesses weather the pandemic.
Our businesses serve a vital role in keeping New Brighton a vibrant community. Our businesses provide jobs, pay taxes, provide goods and services to residents and other businesses, giving us a stronger sense of community and maintaining our city as a desirable place to live.
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, New Brighton?
Although market forces are the main driver in terms of business development and job retention or growth, the city can make a difference in substantive ways to retain and attract business and jobs growth by setting the stage for business success.
As mentioned earlier, the city has really started to intentionally reach out and talk with business owners to better understand their needs and build relationships to better collaborate.
Increase the number of local customers. Many of our businesses benefit from increased housing development. More housing has meant more potential employees looking to work close to home. More residents also have been a big benefit to many of our local businesses.
New Brighton is halfway through a two-year process of updating and modernizing our zoning codes with the goals of making it clearer for businesses to understand the rules. This has been a much-needed step as our current code is mostly from the 1970s with additions and over the decades that has created some confusion, conflicting provisions. A more clear and readable zoning code will help businesses understand the requirements and possibilities.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address the labor shortage?
Working with businesses and leveraging our relationships with the State, County, School Districts, and community organizations, could help bring collaboration and collective efforts to address the labor shortages. I will work to promote local job fairs that could provide a great benefit to our businesses and residents looking for employment.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals in New Brighton (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 New Brighton and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
I think that Minnesota laws governing these topics need to be modernized to better reflect the growing understanding that stronger labor standards have a significant positive economic and quality of life impact for working individuals and families, as well as overall economic growth and decreased reliance on government services. Because of labor shortages, many businesses are currently offering higher wages and increased time off to attract employees.
Generally, our lowest wage workers are falling further behind economically and often do not have paid sick leave or flexible schedules. I think paid sick time to care for oneself or family members is not a radical idea, especially after seeing the devastating impact of the pandemic especially on women and BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) residents.
Cities of New Brighton’s size could face challenges if acting alone in these areas, which is why I support a state-wide or County/regional based approach. Before any proposals would be heard, I would want extensive conversations with as many businesses as possible to identify impacts.
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?
2019 represented the lowest recorded crime rates the city has had. Yet, like every other community, we have seen an increase in crime in the past two years. We have tried to provide the necessary resources to our award-winning Public Safety Department’s community policing approach in several ways. I would work to:
○ Increase our efforts to attract and retain the best officers. In the short term, this is the most impactful thing we can do. Hiring more officers will allow our officers to have more time to investigate crimes and work on cases and not just respond from one call to another.
○ Increase response to residents and businesses dealing with neighborhood issues
○ Continue to make sure that our officers have the training, equipment, and additional supports (Working with partners such as Northeast Youth and Family Services, Ramsey County, and others to provide mental health and resource assistance)
○ Continue efforts to reach out to neighbors to help identify problems and notify Public Safety when needed.
○ Support efforts to modernize Ramsey County 911 services to offer appropriate and different responses and tools for our officers based on the call.
○ Continue to support our collaborate efforts with surrounding jurisdictions and joint efforts with other law enforcement entities.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address housing issues facing your community?
I have been a vocal proponent of the city taking a more proactive approach in terms of the city’s housing policy. The last 10 years have seen big changes to the quantity and cost of housing. I have heard from many residents about the challenges to find affordable housing. In the past 4+ years the city has worked to build or preserve almost 400 units of below market rate cost units. We have increased protections for renters when a landlord sells properties. We have listened to many community members and are working towards a policy that gives greater tools to deal with problem residents and property owners. We are trying to increase the standards and inspections of rentals to ensure that everyone in the city has safe, quality housing.
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?
Residents have ever increasingly asked to have a safer transportation system with greater connectivity. My colleagues on the Council and I have been working to make New Brighton an easier place to get around, especially focusing on making New Brighton a more walkable, bikeable, and rideable and ADA compliant community when opportunities arrive. Currently, we are working with Ramsey County to redevelop Old HWY 8 to include a dedicated bike and walk lane. We have added permanent stop lights, yield, and stop signs to help decrease potential accidents at several intersections. We are lowering the speed limits on our streets to 25 MPH to lessen the chances of serious injury for pedestrians and bikers. We are working on a complete streets policy that could help guide future planning.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
Maintaining financial stability. Sound financials have led to the city receiving a AA+ bond rating, which is the highest grade the city could receive with the size of its budget. I would continue to focus on long term planning and preparing for future needed upgrades. My biggest priorities are to continue to maintain our high quality and affordable services while balancing the shared tax responsibilities. First and foremost, we need to ensure that our core services are meeting the needs and expectations of our residents.
What will you do to expand New Brighton’s tax base?
We have continued to see New Brighton’s tax base expand over the past several years. The expansion of several of our larger businesses and recent new housing developments translates to more businesses and residents contributing to the tax base. Encouraging appropriate development, when opportunities arrive, will lead to greater economic diversity and more individuals and businesses contributing to the tax base.
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 are fortunate to have two great school districts in the city. We continue to see many families moving to city, in part, because of the school districts. A well-educated workforce benefits local businesses by having more potential qualified workers. By continuing strategic improvements to the city, we will continue to be a desired place to live and stay for workers.
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?
New Brighton is relatively lean in its operations. There are not large or expensive programs that could be cut without an impact on city services and our residents. When putting the budget together, the Council generally tries to listen to staff about potential programs and purchases to consider. With the tax levy in mind, and the impact on residents and businesses, I have tried to focus on prioritizing maintaining our core quality services while looking at where increases in spending could have the greatest positive impact and efforts that will save money in the long-term.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in New Brighton?
In the past several years that has been increasing awareness that municipalities can strengthen their local economy and increase economic growth and equity by establishing policies and practices that allow for minority- and women-owned businesses to competitively bid and receive city funds for projects. I support developing policies that increase participation among women and minority owned businesses in city projects.
What further policies can New Brighton adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
I think residents of New Brighton can be proud of the response New Brighton had to individuals/families, businesses and non-profits struggling during the pandemic. We used ARPA federal fund to pride grants to many struggling. I know our efforts helped many survive the economic downturn. During the pandemic we also decreased regulations and fees for some businesses most impacted. If we experience another downturn in the economy, I am willing to replicate our reaching out to every business we can identify and providing financial relief and/or connecting folks with city and outside resources.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
I humbly ask for your vote in November. I have tried to honesty and cordially work with all stakeholders and colleagues. We need a Council that functions and can work together. I think we have a very strong team of staff and Council members all committed to keeping New Brighton a great place to live, work and play. We don’t always agree or see eye to eye on every issue and that’s how it should be.
I have tried to be available and responsive when residents and businesses have reached out. I have been invited in the homes of many residents to talk about issues and have thoroughly enjoyed meeting neighbors and doing what I can to explain the who, what, where, when and why of city government happenings and have worked with residents to find solutions. With your partnership, we can move the city forward and prepare for the changes and challenges to come.