Jason Etten
Name: Jason Etten
Public Office Sought: Roseville City Council
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 612-508-5915
Website: jasonetten.com
Twitter handle:
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JasonEttenForRosevilleCityCouncil/
Candidate Bio
I am committed to the City of Roseville and the people in our community. I grew up in Roseville and moved back when our first child was on the way. I served on the Park and Recreation Commission and now am serving my second term on the City Council. I am in my 22nd year as the Choir director at Irondale High School in the Mounds View Public Schools.
I have been a leader on the Council around Parks and Recreation, the environment, affordable housing, and exploring new avenues for engaging residents and businesses. I am involved in the Rice-Larpenteur Alliance, lead neighborhood park cleanups, collaborate regularly with Ramsey County leadership and volunteer in our parks system.
The most important experience I bring to the City Council is serving and leading in many different roles. This has helped me gain a broad perspective on our community and how we can work together to make changes and improvements. Being a servant-leader in many roles has taught me about listening, about including, about learning from others and about making big-picture decisions that are best for the greater good.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
My top three priorities if re-elected are diversity and equity, the Rice-Larpenteur Alliance and making thoughtful, community-focused decisions.
Diversity and Equity work is critical right now. Roseville has been working in these areas for years, changing things such as police use of force policies and how we hire city staff to better match the demographics of our community. This work is never done. There are ongoing efforts to work with the community, implement new ideas and make lasting changes.
The Rice-Larpenteur Alliance is a collaboration between Roseville, St. Paul, Maplewood, and Ramsey County. The goal is to make the beautifully diverse community around the intersection of Rice and Larpenteur safe, healthy and economically prosperous. This collaboration has resulted in improvements including a new park, new sidewalks, public safety initiatives, reconfiguring Larpenteur for safer crossings, and community events. Ongoing work will include improved walkability, more road reconfiguration, adding more green and supporting redevelopment of sites to provide more quality housing and places for local residents to shop, have day care and recreate. https://www.riceandlarpenteur.com/
Making thoughtful and balanced decisions is critical to how our city moves forward. No one knows all that will come in the future, but how we approach each new decision will determine if we get things done or if we end up just arguing. Too many people are fighting right now. We must find common ground and take actions that benefit the broader community. I have a long track record of moving initiatives forward, getting them passed and making a difference for the city of Roseville.
How would you characterize the business climate in Roseville and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
Pre-COVID the business climate in Roseville was strong and getting stronger. The City Council has prioritized supporting and retaining quality businesses and helping businesses expand through multiple programs. This has resulted in some large expansions by companies such as McGough and Tareem Dermatology and even a new corporate campus for Calyxt. In the time of the COVID crisis we have just launched a new program to support small local businesses with our CARES Act allocation working to help businesses missed by the Federal Government's original programs. This will be implemented in partnership with Open to Business.
Many of our businesses engage with making our community stronger. They contribute volunteers to events and parks activities, they contribute financially to local community groups and sports organizations as well as community events such as the Rose Parade, and they serve as places for jobs, internships and school work-program experiences for our community youth. This is a mutually beneficial relationship that is nurtured through our active outreach to our businesses, our local school districts and various affiliated organizations.
What role do you think the City should have in attracting and retaining jobs, and what steps would you take to solicit new businesses to, and retain existing businesses in, Roseville?
A healthy city has a balanced economy and a broad tax base. Businesses are an important part of that bigger picture. In the last several years the City Council has started a business education series, worked with Open to Business to manage contacts and business support, and created a website - Growroseville.com - to serve as a clearing house for business in the city and interested in coming to the city. These types of programs have helped many of our current businesses thrive and has drawn in some new businesses with high quality jobs such as Caylxt. It is easy to attack business supports and Tax Increment Financing but they are important tools for strengthening the broader community.
Do you support any other specific employment-related proposals in Roseville (such as minimum wage, sick time, or mandatory scheduling notice)? If so, what steps would you take to understand the impact of an ordinance on the many types of businesses in Roseville and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
Wages for many workers, especially lower-wage workers, have lost ground to inflation for decades. Recent moves by major retailers in Roseville including Target, Walmart and Best Buy, to pay starting workers $15 an hour are good steps. In the end $15 is not a magic number and is not enough to support a family. It is harder for small businesses such as local hardware stores and restaurants to meet that pay level but the employment market is moving in that direction and they will need to respond at some point. These are very unique and challenging times for all and most local businesses are closer to the edge financially than they were in 2019. Before considering a wage mandate I want to see where the pandemic is at in a year and how small businesses have fared.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of sick leave time that many part-time or lower-wage workers do not have. Sick leave is a critical part of having a healthy workforce, healthy families and helps to reduce the spread of disease. These are true whether in a pandemic or not and should be considered soon.
Any of these changes would occur with significant public comment and using our robust direct business contacts as well as working with SPAAC and Twin Cities North Chamber of Commerce. Any changes would involve a phased approach and would consider the difference in the size of the business.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
Public safety is an important topic right now. For several years we have been working to change the way we train and operate as a police department. We have also changed a number of our policies to reduce the use of and types of force available to officers. While we do these changes we also must respond to community concerns around theft and other crimes at some of our large retail areas as well as in slime neighborhoods. We are actively engaging residents in neighborhoods and management at businesses to help address concerns and find creative ways to reduce crime.
Housing is a big need in our city and across the metro area. The City Council has taken an active role in supporting new construction of affordable and market rate housing. I am the only member of the City Council over the last eight years to support every affordable housing project. We have also worked with Aeon to preserve affordable multifamily housing by making improvements to buildings to make them quality homes while maintaining affordability. I support these projects because every human being deserves a safe and high quality place to live. For single family homes we have several programs to help residents learn about and pay for updates to keep up our housing stock that are managed through our community development department.
Transportation in Roseville has some positive elements and some major weaknesses. The A-Line bus rapid transit route runs along Snelling Ave and has been hugely successful. Other routes in the city are either less consistent or non-existent. We have been working with Metro Transit for years, first to preserve the transit we have, and then to start conversations about getting more routes that go west to east across the city. Transit is important for thousands of our residents to get to work, school, grocery stores and other daily tasks. A more robust transit system would help residents access the community and would be a boon to local businesses.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
At this time of financial crisis for millions of families I am prioritizing a budget that almost exclusively maintains our current plan of staffing and expenditures. Within the budget that may mean a few things are cut back as the world changes from COVID and we make small investments where necessary. We currently do an excellent job of supporting our departments with wide praise for our Parks and Recreation system, fire department and police department. One investment that I am considering is staffing to support our work around diversity and equity. Another new area we have recently invested in is solar power for the city campus. This does not result in new costs but has allowed us to dramatically reduce our use of fossil fuel-based energy and given us resilience to fluctuations in power demand and costs. By the end of the year we anticipate receiving 40% of our energy needs for our city campus buildings from solar power.
What will you do to expand Roseville’s tax base?
A broad tax base helps the city weather changes in local property evaluations and economic swings and moderates any tax changes. Roseville’s tax base has expanded significantly with many recent developments, mostly business and multi family buildings. Roseville’s active efforts around redevelopment and expansion of current business has been key to that expansion. I intend to continue to support the policies we are doing at this time. I have also supported ideas of creating support for small businesses to do facade improvements or other investments that improve their property and keep the community strong.
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 work actively with the two school districts that are part of the City of Roseville - Roseville Area Schools and Mounds View Public Schools. Our focus on outreach with local businesses has given us the opportunity to increase our connection with businesses and then create pathways for school-business partnerships. We have coordinated internships in local businesses, developed school-business partnerships, and created student visits to various companies for a look into the work world.
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?
There are always adjustments that need to be made, especially internally, to determine how to be more efficient with our tax dollars. Right now there are no services I would be prepared to cut in the city. Collaboration with partners is vital to better serve our community and be thoughtful with taxpayer dollars. We are working with Ramsey County on economic development and housing and as well as sidewalks and other livability issues. This partnership has helped get many recent projects to fruition. Also, we have partnered with neighboring communities and Northeast Youth and Family Services to provide a social worker who follows up on police calls to ensure individuals and families in crisis receive the support they need.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Roseville?
Minority and women-owned businesses are the future. Just a few months ago we featured one of our most prominent women-owned businesses, Goodmanson Construction, in our city newsletter. Our business outreach has worked to focus on local businesses, several of which are minority owned. Recently we have had a few new businesses started by immigrants in South East Roseville. These businesses are providing important resources of food and services to the residents of the area. It is important for us to help design our business support programs to directly help them with what they need to be successful. We are working with the Rice-Larpenteur Alliance to provide conditions and financial support to help these businesses succeed. Efforts to support these businesses are more successful because we are working to create individual relationships with these owners by doing direct City staff and City Council outreach.
What further policies can Roseville adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
We have just announced a significant package of supports for local small businesses and for housing using CARES Act funds. We are specifically targeting our dollars to businesses that have been missed by State and Federal support and smaller businesses that are locally owned. During the initial lockdown we supported many businesses when we waved some licensing fees that were only relevant if they were in business. As we move forward we must continue to look for ways to support businesses to help them get their feet back on the ground including a potential small business loan program for facade improvements.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
I am committed to Roseville and the work it takes to make our city successful. A City Council member does not have a lot of power individually but when we work together with the community, City staff and fellow Council members we can make a huge difference. I am most proud of the recent work I have done around adding solar power on our city hall campus, starting to change the area around Rice and Larpenteur, fully funding our long term capital expenses, improving how we engage the community, and changes to city operations and actions we have started, and must continue, around race and equity.
It is important that everyone votes! Democracy only works when you are engaged. I respectfully ask for your vote on August 11 for the primary and November 3 for the general election.
Public Office Sought: Roseville City Council
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 612-508-5915
Website: jasonetten.com
Twitter handle:
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JasonEttenForRosevilleCityCouncil/
Candidate Bio
I am committed to the City of Roseville and the people in our community. I grew up in Roseville and moved back when our first child was on the way. I served on the Park and Recreation Commission and now am serving my second term on the City Council. I am in my 22nd year as the Choir director at Irondale High School in the Mounds View Public Schools.
I have been a leader on the Council around Parks and Recreation, the environment, affordable housing, and exploring new avenues for engaging residents and businesses. I am involved in the Rice-Larpenteur Alliance, lead neighborhood park cleanups, collaborate regularly with Ramsey County leadership and volunteer in our parks system.
The most important experience I bring to the City Council is serving and leading in many different roles. This has helped me gain a broad perspective on our community and how we can work together to make changes and improvements. Being a servant-leader in many roles has taught me about listening, about including, about learning from others and about making big-picture decisions that are best for the greater good.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
My top three priorities if re-elected are diversity and equity, the Rice-Larpenteur Alliance and making thoughtful, community-focused decisions.
Diversity and Equity work is critical right now. Roseville has been working in these areas for years, changing things such as police use of force policies and how we hire city staff to better match the demographics of our community. This work is never done. There are ongoing efforts to work with the community, implement new ideas and make lasting changes.
The Rice-Larpenteur Alliance is a collaboration between Roseville, St. Paul, Maplewood, and Ramsey County. The goal is to make the beautifully diverse community around the intersection of Rice and Larpenteur safe, healthy and economically prosperous. This collaboration has resulted in improvements including a new park, new sidewalks, public safety initiatives, reconfiguring Larpenteur for safer crossings, and community events. Ongoing work will include improved walkability, more road reconfiguration, adding more green and supporting redevelopment of sites to provide more quality housing and places for local residents to shop, have day care and recreate. https://www.riceandlarpenteur.com/
Making thoughtful and balanced decisions is critical to how our city moves forward. No one knows all that will come in the future, but how we approach each new decision will determine if we get things done or if we end up just arguing. Too many people are fighting right now. We must find common ground and take actions that benefit the broader community. I have a long track record of moving initiatives forward, getting them passed and making a difference for the city of Roseville.
How would you characterize the business climate in Roseville and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
Pre-COVID the business climate in Roseville was strong and getting stronger. The City Council has prioritized supporting and retaining quality businesses and helping businesses expand through multiple programs. This has resulted in some large expansions by companies such as McGough and Tareem Dermatology and even a new corporate campus for Calyxt. In the time of the COVID crisis we have just launched a new program to support small local businesses with our CARES Act allocation working to help businesses missed by the Federal Government's original programs. This will be implemented in partnership with Open to Business.
Many of our businesses engage with making our community stronger. They contribute volunteers to events and parks activities, they contribute financially to local community groups and sports organizations as well as community events such as the Rose Parade, and they serve as places for jobs, internships and school work-program experiences for our community youth. This is a mutually beneficial relationship that is nurtured through our active outreach to our businesses, our local school districts and various affiliated organizations.
What role do you think the City should have in attracting and retaining jobs, and what steps would you take to solicit new businesses to, and retain existing businesses in, Roseville?
A healthy city has a balanced economy and a broad tax base. Businesses are an important part of that bigger picture. In the last several years the City Council has started a business education series, worked with Open to Business to manage contacts and business support, and created a website - Growroseville.com - to serve as a clearing house for business in the city and interested in coming to the city. These types of programs have helped many of our current businesses thrive and has drawn in some new businesses with high quality jobs such as Caylxt. It is easy to attack business supports and Tax Increment Financing but they are important tools for strengthening the broader community.
Do you support any other specific employment-related proposals in Roseville (such as minimum wage, sick time, or mandatory scheduling notice)? If so, what steps would you take to understand the impact of an ordinance on the many types of businesses in Roseville and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
Wages for many workers, especially lower-wage workers, have lost ground to inflation for decades. Recent moves by major retailers in Roseville including Target, Walmart and Best Buy, to pay starting workers $15 an hour are good steps. In the end $15 is not a magic number and is not enough to support a family. It is harder for small businesses such as local hardware stores and restaurants to meet that pay level but the employment market is moving in that direction and they will need to respond at some point. These are very unique and challenging times for all and most local businesses are closer to the edge financially than they were in 2019. Before considering a wage mandate I want to see where the pandemic is at in a year and how small businesses have fared.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of sick leave time that many part-time or lower-wage workers do not have. Sick leave is a critical part of having a healthy workforce, healthy families and helps to reduce the spread of disease. These are true whether in a pandemic or not and should be considered soon.
Any of these changes would occur with significant public comment and using our robust direct business contacts as well as working with SPAAC and Twin Cities North Chamber of Commerce. Any changes would involve a phased approach and would consider the difference in the size of the business.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
Public safety is an important topic right now. For several years we have been working to change the way we train and operate as a police department. We have also changed a number of our policies to reduce the use of and types of force available to officers. While we do these changes we also must respond to community concerns around theft and other crimes at some of our large retail areas as well as in slime neighborhoods. We are actively engaging residents in neighborhoods and management at businesses to help address concerns and find creative ways to reduce crime.
Housing is a big need in our city and across the metro area. The City Council has taken an active role in supporting new construction of affordable and market rate housing. I am the only member of the City Council over the last eight years to support every affordable housing project. We have also worked with Aeon to preserve affordable multifamily housing by making improvements to buildings to make them quality homes while maintaining affordability. I support these projects because every human being deserves a safe and high quality place to live. For single family homes we have several programs to help residents learn about and pay for updates to keep up our housing stock that are managed through our community development department.
Transportation in Roseville has some positive elements and some major weaknesses. The A-Line bus rapid transit route runs along Snelling Ave and has been hugely successful. Other routes in the city are either less consistent or non-existent. We have been working with Metro Transit for years, first to preserve the transit we have, and then to start conversations about getting more routes that go west to east across the city. Transit is important for thousands of our residents to get to work, school, grocery stores and other daily tasks. A more robust transit system would help residents access the community and would be a boon to local businesses.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
At this time of financial crisis for millions of families I am prioritizing a budget that almost exclusively maintains our current plan of staffing and expenditures. Within the budget that may mean a few things are cut back as the world changes from COVID and we make small investments where necessary. We currently do an excellent job of supporting our departments with wide praise for our Parks and Recreation system, fire department and police department. One investment that I am considering is staffing to support our work around diversity and equity. Another new area we have recently invested in is solar power for the city campus. This does not result in new costs but has allowed us to dramatically reduce our use of fossil fuel-based energy and given us resilience to fluctuations in power demand and costs. By the end of the year we anticipate receiving 40% of our energy needs for our city campus buildings from solar power.
What will you do to expand Roseville’s tax base?
A broad tax base helps the city weather changes in local property evaluations and economic swings and moderates any tax changes. Roseville’s tax base has expanded significantly with many recent developments, mostly business and multi family buildings. Roseville’s active efforts around redevelopment and expansion of current business has been key to that expansion. I intend to continue to support the policies we are doing at this time. I have also supported ideas of creating support for small businesses to do facade improvements or other investments that improve their property and keep the community strong.
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 work actively with the two school districts that are part of the City of Roseville - Roseville Area Schools and Mounds View Public Schools. Our focus on outreach with local businesses has given us the opportunity to increase our connection with businesses and then create pathways for school-business partnerships. We have coordinated internships in local businesses, developed school-business partnerships, and created student visits to various companies for a look into the work world.
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?
There are always adjustments that need to be made, especially internally, to determine how to be more efficient with our tax dollars. Right now there are no services I would be prepared to cut in the city. Collaboration with partners is vital to better serve our community and be thoughtful with taxpayer dollars. We are working with Ramsey County on economic development and housing and as well as sidewalks and other livability issues. This partnership has helped get many recent projects to fruition. Also, we have partnered with neighboring communities and Northeast Youth and Family Services to provide a social worker who follows up on police calls to ensure individuals and families in crisis receive the support they need.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Roseville?
Minority and women-owned businesses are the future. Just a few months ago we featured one of our most prominent women-owned businesses, Goodmanson Construction, in our city newsletter. Our business outreach has worked to focus on local businesses, several of which are minority owned. Recently we have had a few new businesses started by immigrants in South East Roseville. These businesses are providing important resources of food and services to the residents of the area. It is important for us to help design our business support programs to directly help them with what they need to be successful. We are working with the Rice-Larpenteur Alliance to provide conditions and financial support to help these businesses succeed. Efforts to support these businesses are more successful because we are working to create individual relationships with these owners by doing direct City staff and City Council outreach.
What further policies can Roseville adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
We have just announced a significant package of supports for local small businesses and for housing using CARES Act funds. We are specifically targeting our dollars to businesses that have been missed by State and Federal support and smaller businesses that are locally owned. During the initial lockdown we supported many businesses when we waved some licensing fees that were only relevant if they were in business. As we move forward we must continue to look for ways to support businesses to help them get their feet back on the ground including a potential small business loan program for facade improvements.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
I am committed to Roseville and the work it takes to make our city successful. A City Council member does not have a lot of power individually but when we work together with the community, City staff and fellow Council members we can make a huge difference. I am most proud of the recent work I have done around adding solar power on our city hall campus, starting to change the area around Rice and Larpenteur, fully funding our long term capital expenses, improving how we engage the community, and changes to city operations and actions we have started, and must continue, around race and equity.
It is important that everyone votes! Democracy only works when you are engaged. I respectfully ask for your vote on August 11 for the primary and November 3 for the general election.