Kara Perry

Name: Kara Perry
Public Office Sought: Inver Grove Heights City Council
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 651-238-7155
Website:
Twitter handle:
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/KaraPerryIGHCityCouncil
Candidate Bio
I am a sitting IGH City Council Member. I was elected in 2016 and I am finishing up my first term. I have lived in IGH since 2005 and have been an active member of the community in a variety of ways including serving on my Children’s PTA at school and my HOA before moving to my current home. I try to be involved in many different things within the community so that I get a full understanding on what the community is wanting and has concerns about.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
My top 3 priorities if re-elected are
How would you characterize the business climate in Inver Grove Heights and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
I think with our new Community Development Director we are finally starting so see more conversations around this. So while I still think the market in IGH is hard with so many of our surrounding cities having the “big box” stores, I think we will finally start seeing some potential movement in IGH. I am concerned about how COVID might alter things once again, but that is yet to be determined as we are still dealing with it.
While I think it is helpful that businesses are close so that you do not have to drive 30 minutes to a store for something that is also beneficial to quality of life so is the amount of open spaces that IGH offers. So the city needs to work to maintain a good balance of all things to support quality of life in our city.
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, Inver Grove Heights?
While I think it is the city’s job to help support existing businesses and to work with the chamber to solicit new ones. I don’t feel as though the city is solely responsible for attracting and retaining jobs in the city. If we are supporting our businesses, then by default we are trying to help retain jobs. Thankfully (to my knowledge) IGH has only lost 1 business to COVID shutdowns. I think the City and the IGH CVB have done a good job at supporting them during this time. I would hope if business owners feel otherwise, they would contact staff or council and discuss it, I am always open to hearing from them.
Do you support any other specific employment-related proposals in Inver Grove 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 Inver Grove Heights and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
I think IGH has a good handle on things at this point. We are still working on a cultural assessment within the city and things appear to be better than previously. IGH is not that large of a city that we should need specific ordinances on these things. As we grow this might be things to consider but for now I think what we are doing and have done in the past few years is working.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
Public Safety issues are regularly being addressed. We have a new Police Chief who is doing a great job and changing and implementing new things as she sees them. Our Fire Chief moved into the New Station on Courthouse BLVD last fall and was able to hire 3 FT Captains as it is becoming more and more of a struggle to find Paid On Call Firefighters. I meet with both chiefs on a regular basis to see how things are going and I have taken the Citizen’s Academy’s for each so I have a solid foundation of understanding the departments as well.
Housing issues in the city is needing a more diverse housing stock in IGH. We are seeing quite a bit of growth in the NW/Argenta Hills area with the $400k+ homes but we need more market rate and median income housing. We have seen and are seeing several projects at the city in recent months, so we are staring to move in the right direction already.
Transportation issues in IGH .. We all know our biggest one is the condition of many of our roads. I would love to complete more road projects per year. However, Councils of the past waited too long to start saving for projects and so current and future councils will have an uphill battle of finding ways to pay for them without raising taxes significantly.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
The City is and has managed the budget well for many years. We always get a good rating and because of the rating we receive we get good rates on bonds that we might need to take out. Police and Fire both budget each year to replace vehicles so when they need to be replaced, they can pay cash for them vs taking out loans, which saves us interest and sometimes on the front too since we pay cash.
We also have a new Director of Finance at the city, so I am excited to be working with her to see where she takes us going forward.
So my priorities would be to continue to keep a close eye on it and maintain the balance we have been doing as well as adding to the Pavement Management plan to work on completing more road projects.
What will you do to expand Inver Grove Heights’ tax base?
Since being on Council I have voted to approve a Senior Memory Care Facility, IGH Brewing, The Concord Education Center that was converted from a Rainbow Foods to a school, Cahill Place Apartments, and the United Properties project on Courthouse Blvd among other things. I am open to a variety of projects if they fit the location and plan for 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?
In 2017 the city began working with both the HS and the Community College to start getting more workers ready for jobs that were in high demand. I am open to working with the district(s) on any sort of collaboration they might want to get into jointly with the city. We need to encourage youth to look at a variety of job types and not just tell them all that a 4-year degree is the only way to go.
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 think the city as a whole is pretty streamlined. However, that said I think the potential for lost revenue due to COVID might bring some things to light that could be even more streamlined.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Inver Grove Heights?
I think the city does try to attract minority and women owned businesses. However, the city council is not typically directly responsible for doing this. We could consider offering things like tax incentives and such but the city will consider this for any business if it is warranted. If we get Minority or Women Owned business’ who are looking at coming to our city it might be a benefit to them and the city to make sure they know about other possible grants and things specific to them and their potential businesses.
What further policies can Inver Grove Heights adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
I am not sure we need more policies as much as we might need to take a closer look at what we have and consider make adaptations to that. COVID is likely going to change the world as a whole so we need to work with businesses to find ways to help support them through all the changes and things that are still happening and changing frequently. Adding policies should be discussions that are had with the city and some business owners because what I might think is a good policy might be great for some business and hard for others.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
The past almost 4 years have been a very challenging time to be on council in a variety of ways. The fact that we had to replace many of the department heads sometimes twice made it harder to accomplish certain things within the city. I think we have a good team in place to move us forward, but that has made it a challenge to do some of the things I had hoped when first elected. One thing I wanted to do when elected was to add more outlets to contact residents other than email, Insights, and the limited social media the city did have. We have since hired communication staff and are much more transparent in the things we are doing and are communicating with residents in several ways instead of simply quarterly mailers. I have enjoyed my time on council for the last 4 years and I would LOVE to serve our community for another 4 years.
Be Sure to vote Vote on August 11th and Nov 3rd, 2020
Public Office Sought: Inver Grove Heights City Council
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 651-238-7155
Website:
Twitter handle:
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/KaraPerryIGHCityCouncil
Candidate Bio
I am a sitting IGH City Council Member. I was elected in 2016 and I am finishing up my first term. I have lived in IGH since 2005 and have been an active member of the community in a variety of ways including serving on my Children’s PTA at school and my HOA before moving to my current home. I try to be involved in many different things within the community so that I get a full understanding on what the community is wanting and has concerns about.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
My top 3 priorities if re-elected are
- Working on parks that are much needed in the NW/ Argenta Hills area
- Working with staff and council to improve funding the Pavement Management Plan (PMP) so that we can do more roads on a regular basis
- Working on making our business climate more attractable to new businesses.
How would you characterize the business climate in Inver Grove Heights and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
I think with our new Community Development Director we are finally starting so see more conversations around this. So while I still think the market in IGH is hard with so many of our surrounding cities having the “big box” stores, I think we will finally start seeing some potential movement in IGH. I am concerned about how COVID might alter things once again, but that is yet to be determined as we are still dealing with it.
While I think it is helpful that businesses are close so that you do not have to drive 30 minutes to a store for something that is also beneficial to quality of life so is the amount of open spaces that IGH offers. So the city needs to work to maintain a good balance of all things to support quality of life in our city.
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, Inver Grove Heights?
While I think it is the city’s job to help support existing businesses and to work with the chamber to solicit new ones. I don’t feel as though the city is solely responsible for attracting and retaining jobs in the city. If we are supporting our businesses, then by default we are trying to help retain jobs. Thankfully (to my knowledge) IGH has only lost 1 business to COVID shutdowns. I think the City and the IGH CVB have done a good job at supporting them during this time. I would hope if business owners feel otherwise, they would contact staff or council and discuss it, I am always open to hearing from them.
Do you support any other specific employment-related proposals in Inver Grove 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 Inver Grove Heights and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
I think IGH has a good handle on things at this point. We are still working on a cultural assessment within the city and things appear to be better than previously. IGH is not that large of a city that we should need specific ordinances on these things. As we grow this might be things to consider but for now I think what we are doing and have done in the past few years is working.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
Public Safety issues are regularly being addressed. We have a new Police Chief who is doing a great job and changing and implementing new things as she sees them. Our Fire Chief moved into the New Station on Courthouse BLVD last fall and was able to hire 3 FT Captains as it is becoming more and more of a struggle to find Paid On Call Firefighters. I meet with both chiefs on a regular basis to see how things are going and I have taken the Citizen’s Academy’s for each so I have a solid foundation of understanding the departments as well.
Housing issues in the city is needing a more diverse housing stock in IGH. We are seeing quite a bit of growth in the NW/Argenta Hills area with the $400k+ homes but we need more market rate and median income housing. We have seen and are seeing several projects at the city in recent months, so we are staring to move in the right direction already.
Transportation issues in IGH .. We all know our biggest one is the condition of many of our roads. I would love to complete more road projects per year. However, Councils of the past waited too long to start saving for projects and so current and future councils will have an uphill battle of finding ways to pay for them without raising taxes significantly.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
The City is and has managed the budget well for many years. We always get a good rating and because of the rating we receive we get good rates on bonds that we might need to take out. Police and Fire both budget each year to replace vehicles so when they need to be replaced, they can pay cash for them vs taking out loans, which saves us interest and sometimes on the front too since we pay cash.
We also have a new Director of Finance at the city, so I am excited to be working with her to see where she takes us going forward.
So my priorities would be to continue to keep a close eye on it and maintain the balance we have been doing as well as adding to the Pavement Management plan to work on completing more road projects.
What will you do to expand Inver Grove Heights’ tax base?
Since being on Council I have voted to approve a Senior Memory Care Facility, IGH Brewing, The Concord Education Center that was converted from a Rainbow Foods to a school, Cahill Place Apartments, and the United Properties project on Courthouse Blvd among other things. I am open to a variety of projects if they fit the location and plan for 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?
In 2017 the city began working with both the HS and the Community College to start getting more workers ready for jobs that were in high demand. I am open to working with the district(s) on any sort of collaboration they might want to get into jointly with the city. We need to encourage youth to look at a variety of job types and not just tell them all that a 4-year degree is the only way to go.
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 think the city as a whole is pretty streamlined. However, that said I think the potential for lost revenue due to COVID might bring some things to light that could be even more streamlined.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Inver Grove Heights?
I think the city does try to attract minority and women owned businesses. However, the city council is not typically directly responsible for doing this. We could consider offering things like tax incentives and such but the city will consider this for any business if it is warranted. If we get Minority or Women Owned business’ who are looking at coming to our city it might be a benefit to them and the city to make sure they know about other possible grants and things specific to them and their potential businesses.
What further policies can Inver Grove Heights adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
I am not sure we need more policies as much as we might need to take a closer look at what we have and consider make adaptations to that. COVID is likely going to change the world as a whole so we need to work with businesses to find ways to help support them through all the changes and things that are still happening and changing frequently. Adding policies should be discussions that are had with the city and some business owners because what I might think is a good policy might be great for some business and hard for others.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
The past almost 4 years have been a very challenging time to be on council in a variety of ways. The fact that we had to replace many of the department heads sometimes twice made it harder to accomplish certain things within the city. I think we have a good team in place to move us forward, but that has made it a challenge to do some of the things I had hoped when first elected. One thing I wanted to do when elected was to add more outlets to contact residents other than email, Insights, and the limited social media the city did have. We have since hired communication staff and are much more transparent in the things we are doing and are communicating with residents in several ways instead of simply quarterly mailers. I have enjoyed my time on council for the last 4 years and I would LOVE to serve our community for another 4 years.
Be Sure to vote Vote on August 11th and Nov 3rd, 2020