Greg Urban
Name: Greg Urban
Public Office Sought: Vadnais Heights Mayor
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 651-248-9830
Campaign Website: na
Twitter handle: na
Facebook Page: na
Candidate Bio
I am a lifelong resident of Vadnais height and a graduate of White Bear Lake schools. I own and operate several businesses that employ more than 200 people. I served on the Vadnais Heights Planning Commission from 2009 to 2016 and am a current city council member since 2016. A recent city survey indicated that 97% of our residents indicate we are a welcoming city and 93% view the quality of life in Vadnais Heights as good or excellent. I believe these remarkable results are due in part to policies that I was a part of creating. Last, have been supportive of the work of the Ramsey County Sheriffs Office and their efforts to reduce crime and have earned the endorsement of Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Public safety needs to be our priority, the crime we are seeing coming into our community is affecting our quality of life and needs to be stopped.
Residents have made clear they support lower density owner occupied housing. Future developments need to be considered based on the input of residents.
We need to stop the purple line bus route from sending its 90 buses into our city each and every day, it does not make sense for our community at this time.
How would you characterize the business climate in Vadnais Heights and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
Vadnais Heights has an excellent business climate. We do this by reducing regulation and allowing business owners to run their businesses. Seeing our store fronts fully occupied post covid indicates we have taken a good approach. I believe the fully occupied store fronts show off the vibrancy of our city and all our residents to be employed locally.
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, Vadnais Heights?
The city of Vadnais heights has minimal developable land available. Because of this our goal needs to be supporting our existing businesses. We do this thru low taxes and minimal regulation.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address the labor shortage?
I believe there should be a bigger push to connect young people with high paying in demand jobs such as the trades or manufacturing that offer immediate employment with good paying jobs after high school without requiring the cost and years required for a college degree.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals in Vadnais Heights (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 Vadnais Heights and how would you define any
exceptions to those policies?
I believe wages and benefits are an issue for the free market to determine. Mandates on employers, particularly on a per city bases, are not helpful.
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?
As a current city council member, I have called out our county attorney for not prosecuting crime in a proper manner. I have also requested for our city attorney to get tougher on the crimes that they prosecute. Last and most importantly, I have showed appreciation for the work of the Ramsey County Sheriffs office and have received the endorsement of Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address housing issues facing your community?
The cost of housing in our community is unfortunate and likely a reflection of the great city we have. I do not believe there is a city policy that will change the affordability and availability of housing in our city.
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 homemodels, etc. due to the pandemic?
I believe we are well-positioned at the intersection of two major interstates and close Minneapolis and St Paul. The current transportation system provides adequate service to our community. I oppose the 90 buses that the purple line bus route plans to send into our community each and every day.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
We need to keep the city budget as low as possible while maintaining quality city services. Inflation is affecting the city budget just as it is affecting each of our residents budgets and the city needs to do its part to keep money in the pockets of the residents.
What will you do to expand Vadnais Heights’s tax base?
Vadnais heights has a very strong and high quality tax base that helps keep the taxes affordable for our residents. We will look at future developments based on their own merits, keeping in mind the residents have concerns with high density developments affecting the character of the city.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
The city of Vadnais Heights should be a partner to ensure that the local educational institutions produce educated and hard working people that are currently in high demand by employers.
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 believe that the city currently runs a lean operation and it would be tough to find a service that the community would support being cut back or eliminated. The city not only engages in discussion to share services, but it participates in doing so. An example is our contract with the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office for police services saves our residents almost two million dollars per year compared to having our own city police department.
What is the role of the Mayor in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Vadnais Heights?
Vadnais Heights is a business-friendly community that fosters the development of all businesses and particularly small businesses. We value the face we have minimal regulation which allows business owners to focus on operating their business.
What further policies can Vadnais Heights adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
Vadnais Heights was the most free and open city in the state during covid. We supported business being able to operate their business and allowed regulatory flexibility every chance we could. We did not use city resources to enforces any mandates and focused on helping our businesses survive. The result is our store fronts are fully occupied and employing a lot of people, many of those employees are also Vadnais Heights residents.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
In recent survey of city residents, 97% view the city as a welcoming community, further, 93% rate the quality of life as good or excellent. I believe the policies that I have been part of for the past 6 years have helped accomplish these high ratings and I hope to be able to continue to keep these high ratings and good polices in the role of mayor.
Public Office Sought: Vadnais Heights Mayor
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 651-248-9830
Campaign Website: na
Twitter handle: na
Facebook Page: na
Candidate Bio
I am a lifelong resident of Vadnais height and a graduate of White Bear Lake schools. I own and operate several businesses that employ more than 200 people. I served on the Vadnais Heights Planning Commission from 2009 to 2016 and am a current city council member since 2016. A recent city survey indicated that 97% of our residents indicate we are a welcoming city and 93% view the quality of life in Vadnais Heights as good or excellent. I believe these remarkable results are due in part to policies that I was a part of creating. Last, have been supportive of the work of the Ramsey County Sheriffs Office and their efforts to reduce crime and have earned the endorsement of Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Public safety needs to be our priority, the crime we are seeing coming into our community is affecting our quality of life and needs to be stopped.
Residents have made clear they support lower density owner occupied housing. Future developments need to be considered based on the input of residents.
We need to stop the purple line bus route from sending its 90 buses into our city each and every day, it does not make sense for our community at this time.
How would you characterize the business climate in Vadnais Heights and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
Vadnais Heights has an excellent business climate. We do this by reducing regulation and allowing business owners to run their businesses. Seeing our store fronts fully occupied post covid indicates we have taken a good approach. I believe the fully occupied store fronts show off the vibrancy of our city and all our residents to be employed locally.
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, Vadnais Heights?
The city of Vadnais heights has minimal developable land available. Because of this our goal needs to be supporting our existing businesses. We do this thru low taxes and minimal regulation.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address the labor shortage?
I believe there should be a bigger push to connect young people with high paying in demand jobs such as the trades or manufacturing that offer immediate employment with good paying jobs after high school without requiring the cost and years required for a college degree.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals in Vadnais Heights (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 Vadnais Heights and how would you define any
exceptions to those policies?
I believe wages and benefits are an issue for the free market to determine. Mandates on employers, particularly on a per city bases, are not helpful.
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?
As a current city council member, I have called out our county attorney for not prosecuting crime in a proper manner. I have also requested for our city attorney to get tougher on the crimes that they prosecute. Last and most importantly, I have showed appreciation for the work of the Ramsey County Sheriffs office and have received the endorsement of Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address housing issues facing your community?
The cost of housing in our community is unfortunate and likely a reflection of the great city we have. I do not believe there is a city policy that will change the affordability and availability of housing in our city.
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 homemodels, etc. due to the pandemic?
I believe we are well-positioned at the intersection of two major interstates and close Minneapolis and St Paul. The current transportation system provides adequate service to our community. I oppose the 90 buses that the purple line bus route plans to send into our community each and every day.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
We need to keep the city budget as low as possible while maintaining quality city services. Inflation is affecting the city budget just as it is affecting each of our residents budgets and the city needs to do its part to keep money in the pockets of the residents.
What will you do to expand Vadnais Heights’s tax base?
Vadnais heights has a very strong and high quality tax base that helps keep the taxes affordable for our residents. We will look at future developments based on their own merits, keeping in mind the residents have concerns with high density developments affecting the character of the city.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
The city of Vadnais Heights should be a partner to ensure that the local educational institutions produce educated and hard working people that are currently in high demand by employers.
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 believe that the city currently runs a lean operation and it would be tough to find a service that the community would support being cut back or eliminated. The city not only engages in discussion to share services, but it participates in doing so. An example is our contract with the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office for police services saves our residents almost two million dollars per year compared to having our own city police department.
What is the role of the Mayor in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Vadnais Heights?
Vadnais Heights is a business-friendly community that fosters the development of all businesses and particularly small businesses. We value the face we have minimal regulation which allows business owners to focus on operating their business.
What further policies can Vadnais Heights adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
Vadnais Heights was the most free and open city in the state during covid. We supported business being able to operate their business and allowed regulatory flexibility every chance we could. We did not use city resources to enforces any mandates and focused on helping our businesses survive. The result is our store fronts are fully occupied and employing a lot of people, many of those employees are also Vadnais Heights residents.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
In recent survey of city residents, 97% view the city as a welcoming community, further, 93% rate the quality of life as good or excellent. I believe the policies that I have been part of for the past 6 years have helped accomplish these high ratings and I hope to be able to continue to keep these high ratings and good polices in the role of mayor.