Justin Olsen
Name: Justin Olsen
Public Office Sought: Cottage Grove City Council
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 651-459-6336
Website: olsenforcottagegrove.com
Twitter handle: @JustinOlsenCG
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Justin-Olsen-Cottage-Grove-City-Council-Member-1150424041833309/
Candidate Bio
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
How would you characterize the business climate in Cottage Grove and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
Our business climate in Cottage Grove is excellent! We have issued permits for 115 commercial, retail, and industrial projects in the last 10 years totaling $311,748,544.00 in valuation. Our tax capacity value has grown 64%, with 62% growth in market rate in that same 10-year time frame. First, that record level of business growth provides the amenities our residents are looking for, including strongly desired retail services & dining amenities, so they can stay in town when seeking those amenities and enjoy more quality time with family & friends. Next, that business growth also provides good paying jobs for our residents, who can now work close to home and save both time and money spent on lengthy work commutes. Finally, the tax capacity generated by those businesses locating and growing in Cottage Grove reduces the tax burden on residential properties while enabling more flexibility to the city council around funding infrastructure projects like road improvements, more parks & green space for our residents to enjoy, and a terrific public safety department that provides exceptional service.
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, Cottage Grove?
The city council should work in partnership with private industry, other government agencies, and state leaders to ensure doing business in our community is easy and hassle free from the time the developer expresses interest in our community until the project reaches conclusion. That easy, hassle free experience is what attracts new businesses to the city while encouraging our existing business to expand and add more jobs. We currently use tax increment financing and similar tools to help new businesses locate in our city when appropriate. We have also created an Economic Development Authority and Convention & Visitors Bureau as part of our strategy towards working with the area Chamber of Commerce, DEED, etc. on being the premier place to do business inn the state of Minnesota. Finally, members of our EDA attend the ICSC Convention in Las Vegas each year to market our city nationwide and establish contacts with business agents who may want to work with us on future projects that could bring many more jobs to our community.
Do you support any other specific employment-related proposals in Cottage Grove (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 Cottage Grove and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
As someone with over 25 years of retail & wholesale management experience, it has been my observation that great business organizations are driven by great people. That starts with the culture of an organization. Pay, benefits, and work environment are typically a function of what the market dictates a business should provide to be competitive when it comes to hiring & retaining great talent. We do not currently have any ordinances in place which require a specific minimum wage beyond that which the state has ordered by statute, nor do we have any ordinances in place regarding sick time or mandatory scheduling notices. If there was a need for those sorts of ordinances in the future, it would be critical that the city council and staff schedule listening sessions with all stakeholders to better understand the consequences of those actions before moving forward. Information gathering to best understand the potential impacts would also guide any actions regarding possible exceptions to the proposed policy change.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
Our exceptional public safety team has had my full support since before I was a council member, as I served four years on the volunteer Public Safety, Health and Welfare commission before running for elected office. Public safety is a core function of government that has a tremendous impact on our residents’ quality of life. We have invested greatly in our Public Safety Department over the last ten years with respect to personnel, facilities, and equipment so we can ensure the safety & security of our residents, businesses and both public & private property. We built a state of the art training facility called the Hero Center, which opened earlier this year, next to our recently built Public Safety/City Hall Facility so we can provide the very best training to our valued first responders. Regarding housing and transportation, we have seen record growth in residential building permits over the last 10 years with over 1,300 new homes built in that time. We have changed zoning requirements, set back requirements, and other building codes where necessary to accommodate residential developments that makes sense for our city based on our comprehensive plan. We have also zoned for planned higher density housing stock in some areas as we continue to work hard with potential developers on workforce housing, retirement communities, and starter homes. Our goal is to provide the full gamut of life cycle housing to our residents. Finally, with respect to transportation, we are continually working with our county and state partners on improving access to our community through bus rapid transit, DART buses for residents to travel on within the community, and infrastructure improvements like roadway upgrades and roundabouts to improve mobility & convenience for anyone traveling to or within Cottage Grove.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
My intent is always to be fiscally responsible while maintaining balance between the city’s tax levy and fee structure, the necessity of maintaining infrastructure, and our primary obligation of providing high quality city services to our residents. It is also particularly important to ensure we maintain a strong bond rating (currently a terrific AA+) by watching our debt load closely so we can continue to bond for critical roadway projects and other infrastructure. Our tax rate for Cottage Grove residents has decreased from 41.29% in 2012 to a current day 36.95% due to our council’s fiscal guidance and focus on increasing our tax base. I would like to continue that decline as we add more tax capacity in the next four years while continuing to provide the outstanding service levels Cottage Grove residents have come to expect from their city government.
What will you do to expand Cottage Grove’s tax base?
We’ve seen an amazing degree of growth in our tax base and tax capacity over the last 10 years due to our ongoing marketing of the community to potential developers, our streamlined permit and inspection process, and our reasonable fee structure. All of which we worked on with intent in 2008 and 2009 so we could exit the recession in a strong growth position. That strategy has proven to be fruitful, so we have now established the Cottage Grove Convention & Visitors Bureau to help us market our community to a broader audience of residential and commercial developers. Primarily in our business park and east ravine growth nodes. All of which have been well planned and made shovel ready for ease of use. Cottage Grove currently has a retail vacancy rate of 6.2% versus the metro average of 7.5%, and an office vacancy rate of 7.4% versus the metro average of 11.9%. I would like to see both of those below 5% by the end of fiscal 2021.
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 meet monthly with the superintendent and staff of our ISD #833 public schools to ensure we are on the same proverbial page around school boundary discussion, facilities need, and community engagement on budget issues to ensure our schools are properly funded. We also have a partnership with MNSCU for college level lass offerings to take place at the Hero Center in Cottage Grove. I have personally endowed the Craig Woolery Scholarship for first responders to be used by our city’s Public Safety Board to reward ISD #833 students who desire a career in public safety, and the city works very closely with local non-profits like the Cottage Grove Lions on scholarship offerings for students in our community who want to attend college. A large part the success we’ve seen from those programs stems from our very generous business community making donations to help fund education opportunities close to home so students who live here can learn here and get jobs here.
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?
Currently the City of Cottage Grove shares services with surrounding communities in the areas of building inspections and engineering work. This enables cost sharing for the staff who provide these services while acting as a revenue stream for the city at times. Our council and staff are incredibly careful about watching expenses when reviewing our budgets each year. We spend many hours in meetings during July and August as we comb through every line item of the budget for each department in the city to ensure no wasteful spending talks place, while simultaneously ensuring we are spending in the proper areas of residential services to provide exceptional service at a great value to our residents throughout the year. We are constantly seeking third party funding for key projects through grants or intergovernmental partnerships, such as the partnerships into which we have entered with several agencies for use of the new Hero Center Public Safety Training Facility. We also have several public/private partnerships we work on each year to again keep costs down while providing exceptional service to our residents.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Cottage Grove?
The Cottage Grove City Council works in unison with our Economic Development Authority, Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Cottage Grove Area Chamber of Commerce to encourage business development throughout our community. The council is focused on seeking out new businesses for our community in a variety of ways, including attending the ICSC convention each year, with top of mind emphasis on making it easy for minority and women owned businesses to locate here. Our city administrator is a woman who formerly served as our community development director, and our economic development director is also a woman. Both of whom work closely with the Cottage Grove Women in Business group through the Chamber of Commerce to advertise how easy it is to base your business in Cottage Grove and encourage minority and women owned businesses to choose our community as their base of operations.
What further policies can Cottage Grove adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
We have made every effort to support our local businesses through our Economic Development Authority by providing $10,000 grants and easing the costs of permits for businesses who qualify. We also work closely with the county and state elected officials and economic development branches on encouraging our local business to apply for all available aid programs. Our staff has made personal phone calls to all local business owners to provide them with information about those aid programs, how to apply, and to act as a resource for any questions or concerns our local business owners may have as they work through these unprecedented times. Moving forward, we will continue to work closely with those business owners and provide personalized service through the pandemic. Last, we have and will continue to stress the importance of shopping local through our “Shop Cottage Grove” initiative and additional advertising for our local businesses through our various social media outlets.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
It has always been my goal to serve Cottage Grove residents fairly and honorably, to represent our city positively, to communicate my positions clearly and effectively, and to help enact sound policy initiatives in partnership with my council colleagues and city staff that serve the greater good of our community. Those are my core values, instilled in me as I grew up in Cottage Grove, went to school here, and settled here with my family. I would love to continue that work if granted the opportunity. Thus, I am asking for your continued trust and your vote in this year’s city council election. Thank you!
~ Justin Olsen for Cottage Grove City Council
Public Office Sought: Cottage Grove City Council
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 651-459-6336
Website: olsenforcottagegrove.com
Twitter handle: @JustinOlsenCG
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Justin-Olsen-Cottage-Grove-City-Council-Member-1150424041833309/
Candidate Bio
- Accomplished nine-year Council Member seeking re-election
- Cottage Grove Public Safety, Health & Welfare Commissioner for over 4 years
- Previous President of Cottage Grove Strawberry Festival Committee
- Former Vice-President & Current Board Member for local area Lions Club
- CGAA Youth Baseball & Softball Coach for many years
- Business Mentor for DECA & Junior Achievement High School Students
- Past Vice-President of the Cottage Grove Economic Development Authority
- Member of Cottage Grove and Surrounding Area Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Committee
- Resident of Cottage Grove for over 38 years
- Proud 1988 Graduate of Park High School
- Over 27 years of Multi-Unit Retail Business Management & Corporate Support Experience in a variety of Retail & Wholesale Industries that includes responsibility for regularly managing budgets exceeding $100 Million annually
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
- Sensible growth in our business sector to increase our city’s tax base & create living wage jobs.
- Fiscal responsibility that perfectly balances our city’s overall tax levy, bond rating, & infrastructure needs for the long-term prosperity of our community.
- Work closely with our Cottage Grove Area Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development Authority & City Staff toward a vibrant, compelling commercial environment including retail services & dining amenities that keep Cottage Grove residents shopping locally.
How would you characterize the business climate in Cottage Grove and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
Our business climate in Cottage Grove is excellent! We have issued permits for 115 commercial, retail, and industrial projects in the last 10 years totaling $311,748,544.00 in valuation. Our tax capacity value has grown 64%, with 62% growth in market rate in that same 10-year time frame. First, that record level of business growth provides the amenities our residents are looking for, including strongly desired retail services & dining amenities, so they can stay in town when seeking those amenities and enjoy more quality time with family & friends. Next, that business growth also provides good paying jobs for our residents, who can now work close to home and save both time and money spent on lengthy work commutes. Finally, the tax capacity generated by those businesses locating and growing in Cottage Grove reduces the tax burden on residential properties while enabling more flexibility to the city council around funding infrastructure projects like road improvements, more parks & green space for our residents to enjoy, and a terrific public safety department that provides exceptional service.
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, Cottage Grove?
The city council should work in partnership with private industry, other government agencies, and state leaders to ensure doing business in our community is easy and hassle free from the time the developer expresses interest in our community until the project reaches conclusion. That easy, hassle free experience is what attracts new businesses to the city while encouraging our existing business to expand and add more jobs. We currently use tax increment financing and similar tools to help new businesses locate in our city when appropriate. We have also created an Economic Development Authority and Convention & Visitors Bureau as part of our strategy towards working with the area Chamber of Commerce, DEED, etc. on being the premier place to do business inn the state of Minnesota. Finally, members of our EDA attend the ICSC Convention in Las Vegas each year to market our city nationwide and establish contacts with business agents who may want to work with us on future projects that could bring many more jobs to our community.
Do you support any other specific employment-related proposals in Cottage Grove (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 Cottage Grove and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
As someone with over 25 years of retail & wholesale management experience, it has been my observation that great business organizations are driven by great people. That starts with the culture of an organization. Pay, benefits, and work environment are typically a function of what the market dictates a business should provide to be competitive when it comes to hiring & retaining great talent. We do not currently have any ordinances in place which require a specific minimum wage beyond that which the state has ordered by statute, nor do we have any ordinances in place regarding sick time or mandatory scheduling notices. If there was a need for those sorts of ordinances in the future, it would be critical that the city council and staff schedule listening sessions with all stakeholders to better understand the consequences of those actions before moving forward. Information gathering to best understand the potential impacts would also guide any actions regarding possible exceptions to the proposed policy change.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
Our exceptional public safety team has had my full support since before I was a council member, as I served four years on the volunteer Public Safety, Health and Welfare commission before running for elected office. Public safety is a core function of government that has a tremendous impact on our residents’ quality of life. We have invested greatly in our Public Safety Department over the last ten years with respect to personnel, facilities, and equipment so we can ensure the safety & security of our residents, businesses and both public & private property. We built a state of the art training facility called the Hero Center, which opened earlier this year, next to our recently built Public Safety/City Hall Facility so we can provide the very best training to our valued first responders. Regarding housing and transportation, we have seen record growth in residential building permits over the last 10 years with over 1,300 new homes built in that time. We have changed zoning requirements, set back requirements, and other building codes where necessary to accommodate residential developments that makes sense for our city based on our comprehensive plan. We have also zoned for planned higher density housing stock in some areas as we continue to work hard with potential developers on workforce housing, retirement communities, and starter homes. Our goal is to provide the full gamut of life cycle housing to our residents. Finally, with respect to transportation, we are continually working with our county and state partners on improving access to our community through bus rapid transit, DART buses for residents to travel on within the community, and infrastructure improvements like roadway upgrades and roundabouts to improve mobility & convenience for anyone traveling to or within Cottage Grove.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
My intent is always to be fiscally responsible while maintaining balance between the city’s tax levy and fee structure, the necessity of maintaining infrastructure, and our primary obligation of providing high quality city services to our residents. It is also particularly important to ensure we maintain a strong bond rating (currently a terrific AA+) by watching our debt load closely so we can continue to bond for critical roadway projects and other infrastructure. Our tax rate for Cottage Grove residents has decreased from 41.29% in 2012 to a current day 36.95% due to our council’s fiscal guidance and focus on increasing our tax base. I would like to continue that decline as we add more tax capacity in the next four years while continuing to provide the outstanding service levels Cottage Grove residents have come to expect from their city government.
What will you do to expand Cottage Grove’s tax base?
We’ve seen an amazing degree of growth in our tax base and tax capacity over the last 10 years due to our ongoing marketing of the community to potential developers, our streamlined permit and inspection process, and our reasonable fee structure. All of which we worked on with intent in 2008 and 2009 so we could exit the recession in a strong growth position. That strategy has proven to be fruitful, so we have now established the Cottage Grove Convention & Visitors Bureau to help us market our community to a broader audience of residential and commercial developers. Primarily in our business park and east ravine growth nodes. All of which have been well planned and made shovel ready for ease of use. Cottage Grove currently has a retail vacancy rate of 6.2% versus the metro average of 7.5%, and an office vacancy rate of 7.4% versus the metro average of 11.9%. I would like to see both of those below 5% by the end of fiscal 2021.
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 meet monthly with the superintendent and staff of our ISD #833 public schools to ensure we are on the same proverbial page around school boundary discussion, facilities need, and community engagement on budget issues to ensure our schools are properly funded. We also have a partnership with MNSCU for college level lass offerings to take place at the Hero Center in Cottage Grove. I have personally endowed the Craig Woolery Scholarship for first responders to be used by our city’s Public Safety Board to reward ISD #833 students who desire a career in public safety, and the city works very closely with local non-profits like the Cottage Grove Lions on scholarship offerings for students in our community who want to attend college. A large part the success we’ve seen from those programs stems from our very generous business community making donations to help fund education opportunities close to home so students who live here can learn here and get jobs here.
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?
Currently the City of Cottage Grove shares services with surrounding communities in the areas of building inspections and engineering work. This enables cost sharing for the staff who provide these services while acting as a revenue stream for the city at times. Our council and staff are incredibly careful about watching expenses when reviewing our budgets each year. We spend many hours in meetings during July and August as we comb through every line item of the budget for each department in the city to ensure no wasteful spending talks place, while simultaneously ensuring we are spending in the proper areas of residential services to provide exceptional service at a great value to our residents throughout the year. We are constantly seeking third party funding for key projects through grants or intergovernmental partnerships, such as the partnerships into which we have entered with several agencies for use of the new Hero Center Public Safety Training Facility. We also have several public/private partnerships we work on each year to again keep costs down while providing exceptional service to our residents.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Cottage Grove?
The Cottage Grove City Council works in unison with our Economic Development Authority, Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Cottage Grove Area Chamber of Commerce to encourage business development throughout our community. The council is focused on seeking out new businesses for our community in a variety of ways, including attending the ICSC convention each year, with top of mind emphasis on making it easy for minority and women owned businesses to locate here. Our city administrator is a woman who formerly served as our community development director, and our economic development director is also a woman. Both of whom work closely with the Cottage Grove Women in Business group through the Chamber of Commerce to advertise how easy it is to base your business in Cottage Grove and encourage minority and women owned businesses to choose our community as their base of operations.
What further policies can Cottage Grove adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
We have made every effort to support our local businesses through our Economic Development Authority by providing $10,000 grants and easing the costs of permits for businesses who qualify. We also work closely with the county and state elected officials and economic development branches on encouraging our local business to apply for all available aid programs. Our staff has made personal phone calls to all local business owners to provide them with information about those aid programs, how to apply, and to act as a resource for any questions or concerns our local business owners may have as they work through these unprecedented times. Moving forward, we will continue to work closely with those business owners and provide personalized service through the pandemic. Last, we have and will continue to stress the importance of shopping local through our “Shop Cottage Grove” initiative and additional advertising for our local businesses through our various social media outlets.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
It has always been my goal to serve Cottage Grove residents fairly and honorably, to represent our city positively, to communicate my positions clearly and effectively, and to help enact sound policy initiatives in partnership with my council colleagues and city staff that serve the greater good of our community. Those are my core values, instilled in me as I grew up in Cottage Grove, went to school here, and settled here with my family. I would love to continue that work if granted the opportunity. Thus, I am asking for your continued trust and your vote in this year’s city council election. Thank you!
~ Justin Olsen for Cottage Grove City Council