Logan O'Grady
Name: Logan O'Grady
Public Office Sought: Dakota County Commissioner-District 4
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 715-821-2113
Campaign Website: https://loganogrady.com
Twitter handle: @ogrady4dakotaco
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/loganogrady4dakotacounty
Candidate Bio
All my diverse experiences have shaped my desire to serve my community. But two roles are the most important to me: husband and father. My wife and I invested in this community because we knew it would be a great place to raise our daughters. I believe my experience will ensure Dakota County remains a great place for everyone.
I have over a decade of experience working with government, regulatory, and business constituents and clients to advance public policy initiatives.
Currently, I'm the Executive Director of the Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association (MnSEIA). At MnSEIA, I work to advance state legislation and regulatory rules that puts Minnesota at a competitive advantage in attracting clean energy businesses that create family-sustaining jobs in our communities.
Prior to taking the helm at MnSEIA, I practiced law at a local law firm. On the land use and government relations team, I worked directly with cities, counties, and other state and local governments to assist individuals and businesses with the intricacies of permitting and zoning processes.
I attended law school part-time and worked full time. During law school, I worked as the Director of Policy and Public Affairs for Clean Energy Economy MN (CEEM) where I developed and implemented a state and federal legislative and regulatory strategy to bolster economic development in Minnesota’s clean energy industry.
After living abroad and working briefly in Chicago, I realized Minnesota was where I wanted to be. So I moved back home and took a job as the Committee Administrator for the Minnesota Senate’s powerful Capital Investment Committee in the office of former state Senator LeRoy Stumpf. As Senator Stumpf’s lead policy adviser I helped pass numerous finance and policy bills into law - including three capital budgets amounting to nearly three billion dollars of public works construction projects.
I obtained a Bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, a Master's degree from Hult International Business School in London, and a Juris Doctorate from Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Public works & critical infrastructure: The County plays a key role in building and maintaining our County’s public works services, transportation networks, and our critical infrastructure. The County should be working closer with the state government to ensure we receive a larger share of transportation, bonding dollars, and other infrastructure grants. Developing a long-term capital investment plan, and prioritizing those projects is key to bringing more of our taxpayer dollars back here.
Jobs & Economic Development: The County can be the biggest asset to our community in attracting businesses, supporting family-sustaining jobs, and growing our commercial property tax base (in order to keep residential property taxes low). The County should be working more to develop long-term development plans with requests for proposals for private companies to develop unique businesses here. This starts by benchmarking our progress as a County compared to other counties in Minnesota, and even nearby Wisconsin counties. By understanding how Dakota County’s incentive dollars are working compared to other counties, we can adjust as needed and make our County more attractive and more competitive. Additionally, the County Board should determine a priority of sectors and target specific companies within those sectors. When we think holistically, companies from across supply chains will gravitate to our communities. We’ve seen this approach work in Minnesota’s “Medical Alley.” I want Dakota County to be the next smart place for investors to come together and hire locally.
Environment & Energy:
Our private sector grows when our County provides public sector amenities that attract workers, families, and businesses. Dakota County offers unmatched regional parks and trails. Thousands of acres and miles of parks and trails requires a lot of County funding to maintain. The County should be leveraging as much state funding as possible by coordinating with the Department of Natural Resources, the Association of Minnesota Counties, and the Metropolitan Council to guarantee that Dakota County receives its fair share of parks and trail money.
Maintaining our County’s environment goes hand-in-hand with our County’s energy plan. To date, Dakota County has no long-term clean energy plan. Equipping public buildings with solar, energy storage, and updated energy efficiency technologies cuts energy costs and saves taxpayers money. Even our County’s largest employer, Flint Hills Resources, has invested in the nation’s largest on-site solar installation. This was an economic decision. Companies have realized they can cut costs by investing in sustainable energy consumption plans for the long-term. The County should follow suit.
How would you characterize the business climate in Dakota County and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
Dakota County has long been a great place to do business. Our businesses support our communities and in return our communities should support them. The County should explore more public/private partnerships to improve public parks, build unique common spaces, libraries, and recreational and art centers. When companies partner with the County on these quality of life projects, those community investments will ensure long-term success for those businesses within the region.
What role do you think the county should have in attracting and retaining jobs, and what steps would you take to solicit new businesses to attract and retain existing businesses in Dakota County?
Job creation and retention should be a fundamental consideration when the County is making any public policy decision. The County plays a vital role in establishing a pro-job growth environment. The decisions made at the County board send market signals to entrepreneurs, business owners, and investors. Those market signals show businesses of every kind that Dakota County is not only open for business, but supportive of our businesses.
By creating a long-term private sector growth strategy in diverse, targeted industries, the County can begin issuing Requests for Proposal (RFPs) for new business developments. Obtaining robust proposals in those RFPs can be achieved by more creative tax policies, including various county level investment tax credits, including for advanced industries and technologies. Establishing new opportunity zones and working to market those zones to investors is crucial to new growth. Finally, the County should be creating new Tax Increment Financing projects to make commercial building and private improvements easier to finance.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals in Dakota County (such as minimum wage, sick time, or mandatory scheduling notice)? If so, what steps would you take to understand the impact of a policy on the many types of businesses in Dakota County and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
My approach to public policy is to bring people together to find win/win solutions. We can’t support our businesses without supporting our workers. However, a patchwork of unpredictable employment laws that differ from county to county is not a good way to support our businesses either. Coordinating with the state and surrounding counties on labor and employment initiatives can help establish a predictable market for our residents and local companies.
Studies show that supporting workers through higher wages, minimum sick time, and reasonable scheduling timelines produces positive monetary results for companies too. By hosting roundtables and creating new task forces to target these issues head-on with input from the private sector and laborers, we can find reasonable ways to reach that win/win outcome.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address the labor shortage?
Establishing a pipeline of workers in all industry sectors is crucial to address the labor shortage issues our businesses are facing. Once the County establishes its long-term economic growth plan with targeted industries to attract and retain in our County, we can work directly with the Department of Labor and Industry and the Minnesota Office of Higher Education on connecting employers to “earn to learn” grant programs. These programs help offset the costs employers incur for training new workers. If we can partner with county higher education facilities on similar county-level dual training programs, we can develop the pipeline of workers our businesses truly need.
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?
One of the core functions of the County is to provide public safety services. We should be looking to not only increase funding for public safety but looking for new and added services to compliment our public safety services that keep Dakota County one of the safest counties in the state. Seeking state money for new training facilities that serve as regional hubs for collaborative public safety strategies is a great way to ensure Dakota County is filling its growing demand in our expanding communities.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address housing issues facing your community?
As a staffer at the legislature, I spearheaded a pilot program with a northern Minnesota County to establish a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district specifically for workforce housing. It worked. Dakota County should take this same approach and incentivize private sector multi-family and single family housing developments through TIF. This will provide sustainable housing for our County’s long-term commercial growth goals.
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?
My views on transportation has not changed due to shifts in road use because goods and services will always require multiple avenues to reach destinations. This is why I have an all of the above transportation approach.
That starts by preserving and maintaining what we already have. Long term transportation asset preservation plans will help set the baseline for transportation spending at the county level. Once we know the true costs of maintaining our existing infrastructure, we can evaluate and study areas to upgrade, update, and modernize. This will include improving transit corridors for bus rapid transit and the expansion of our biking system with new trails to connect communities more efficiently and sustainably.
What are your priorities for the county’s budget?
We’ve seen the consequences when the government operates in budget deficits. This is why my top priority for our county is to continue operating under a balanced budget model. This is what I do every day as the Executive Director of a trade organization. Account for the true costs of operation without gimmicks and shifts.
I’d also look to where we can be leveraging capital smarter. Investing in our County’s infrastructure is not only smart long-term, it’s smart for job creation in the short term. Often, counties are afraid to bond for much needed basics, like clean water facilities, but the return on investment is well worth it — especially if it can leverage state and federal dollars.
Finally, my priority is to maintain and increase funding where it makes sense, but keep taxes low for our residents and businesses. This is why my priority of economic development is so important. We can grow our tax base, make sure we are investing and spending properly, while keeping Dakota County affordable.
What will you do to expand Dakota County’s tax base?
Our priority should be expanding our commercial tax base through business development and attraction. This also includes working with our agriculture businesses to enhance their operations to include different types of commercial endeavors.
If we expand economic opportunities and create jobs, our residential tax base will grow organically to meet the commercial demand. Our County is seeing immense growth residentially, my fear is we don’t have the commercial base to support the growth, so it is up to our County Board to do more to attract new industry, new businesses, and new job opportunities.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
As mentioned above, establishing a plan to create a pipeline of students to train and earn simultaneously will be vital to creating the workforce of the 21st century. The state provides grants to businesses to help in this, but the county should complement the state’s work here. But, we need insight from our industries to work with educational institutions to develop these pipelines where there is the most need and demand for labor.
Are there any services currently provided by the county that you believe should be cut back or eliminated? Are there new opportunities to share services with other entities?
Dakota County offers our residents superb services. My concern, instead, is maintaining those services with less employees. The County should be prioritizing hiring for vacant positions rather than trying to provide the same service with less workers.
What is the role of the County Board in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Dakota County?
The County should lead by example. We can’t ask our private sector businesses to commit to diversity if we can’t do that at the county staffing level first. That starts by creating real goals and a plan to meet those goals. That’s what I’ve done in my role as Executive Director of our state’s solar business trade group. We committed to creating goals and strategies for diversifying our industry. My experience in this endeavor has shown me that people are willing to make real commitments, they just need guidance. The County can provide this guidance through polling county businesses to understand the challenges they see related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and develop a plan for companies to make their own DEI commitments.
What further policies can Dakota County adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
As our economy continues to navigate the uncertainty the COVID-19 pandemic has created, the County should provide businesses with as much certainty as possible. Stable, predictable, and fair policies, from permitting and zoning, to taxes should remain steady for the foreseeable future. Abrupt changes will only exacerbate the challenges our businesses are facing.
This also shows us how long-term plans, as I’ve proposed in multiple questions above, are vital to county businesses. Long term public works, economic development, and energy plans send market signals to our businesses that Dakota County remains a good place for them to operate. If we commit to our private sector companies they will commit to our County in return.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
Of the candidates for District 4, I’m the only one raising small children in our community. They are the reason I am running and the reason I am so concerned with ensuring Dakota County remains a great place to live for the next 30+ years.
Public Office Sought: Dakota County Commissioner-District 4
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 715-821-2113
Campaign Website: https://loganogrady.com
Twitter handle: @ogrady4dakotaco
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/loganogrady4dakotacounty
Candidate Bio
All my diverse experiences have shaped my desire to serve my community. But two roles are the most important to me: husband and father. My wife and I invested in this community because we knew it would be a great place to raise our daughters. I believe my experience will ensure Dakota County remains a great place for everyone.
I have over a decade of experience working with government, regulatory, and business constituents and clients to advance public policy initiatives.
Currently, I'm the Executive Director of the Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association (MnSEIA). At MnSEIA, I work to advance state legislation and regulatory rules that puts Minnesota at a competitive advantage in attracting clean energy businesses that create family-sustaining jobs in our communities.
Prior to taking the helm at MnSEIA, I practiced law at a local law firm. On the land use and government relations team, I worked directly with cities, counties, and other state and local governments to assist individuals and businesses with the intricacies of permitting and zoning processes.
I attended law school part-time and worked full time. During law school, I worked as the Director of Policy and Public Affairs for Clean Energy Economy MN (CEEM) where I developed and implemented a state and federal legislative and regulatory strategy to bolster economic development in Minnesota’s clean energy industry.
After living abroad and working briefly in Chicago, I realized Minnesota was where I wanted to be. So I moved back home and took a job as the Committee Administrator for the Minnesota Senate’s powerful Capital Investment Committee in the office of former state Senator LeRoy Stumpf. As Senator Stumpf’s lead policy adviser I helped pass numerous finance and policy bills into law - including three capital budgets amounting to nearly three billion dollars of public works construction projects.
I obtained a Bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, a Master's degree from Hult International Business School in London, and a Juris Doctorate from Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Public works & critical infrastructure: The County plays a key role in building and maintaining our County’s public works services, transportation networks, and our critical infrastructure. The County should be working closer with the state government to ensure we receive a larger share of transportation, bonding dollars, and other infrastructure grants. Developing a long-term capital investment plan, and prioritizing those projects is key to bringing more of our taxpayer dollars back here.
Jobs & Economic Development: The County can be the biggest asset to our community in attracting businesses, supporting family-sustaining jobs, and growing our commercial property tax base (in order to keep residential property taxes low). The County should be working more to develop long-term development plans with requests for proposals for private companies to develop unique businesses here. This starts by benchmarking our progress as a County compared to other counties in Minnesota, and even nearby Wisconsin counties. By understanding how Dakota County’s incentive dollars are working compared to other counties, we can adjust as needed and make our County more attractive and more competitive. Additionally, the County Board should determine a priority of sectors and target specific companies within those sectors. When we think holistically, companies from across supply chains will gravitate to our communities. We’ve seen this approach work in Minnesota’s “Medical Alley.” I want Dakota County to be the next smart place for investors to come together and hire locally.
Environment & Energy:
Our private sector grows when our County provides public sector amenities that attract workers, families, and businesses. Dakota County offers unmatched regional parks and trails. Thousands of acres and miles of parks and trails requires a lot of County funding to maintain. The County should be leveraging as much state funding as possible by coordinating with the Department of Natural Resources, the Association of Minnesota Counties, and the Metropolitan Council to guarantee that Dakota County receives its fair share of parks and trail money.
Maintaining our County’s environment goes hand-in-hand with our County’s energy plan. To date, Dakota County has no long-term clean energy plan. Equipping public buildings with solar, energy storage, and updated energy efficiency technologies cuts energy costs and saves taxpayers money. Even our County’s largest employer, Flint Hills Resources, has invested in the nation’s largest on-site solar installation. This was an economic decision. Companies have realized they can cut costs by investing in sustainable energy consumption plans for the long-term. The County should follow suit.
How would you characterize the business climate in Dakota County and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
Dakota County has long been a great place to do business. Our businesses support our communities and in return our communities should support them. The County should explore more public/private partnerships to improve public parks, build unique common spaces, libraries, and recreational and art centers. When companies partner with the County on these quality of life projects, those community investments will ensure long-term success for those businesses within the region.
What role do you think the county should have in attracting and retaining jobs, and what steps would you take to solicit new businesses to attract and retain existing businesses in Dakota County?
Job creation and retention should be a fundamental consideration when the County is making any public policy decision. The County plays a vital role in establishing a pro-job growth environment. The decisions made at the County board send market signals to entrepreneurs, business owners, and investors. Those market signals show businesses of every kind that Dakota County is not only open for business, but supportive of our businesses.
By creating a long-term private sector growth strategy in diverse, targeted industries, the County can begin issuing Requests for Proposal (RFPs) for new business developments. Obtaining robust proposals in those RFPs can be achieved by more creative tax policies, including various county level investment tax credits, including for advanced industries and technologies. Establishing new opportunity zones and working to market those zones to investors is crucial to new growth. Finally, the County should be creating new Tax Increment Financing projects to make commercial building and private improvements easier to finance.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals in Dakota County (such as minimum wage, sick time, or mandatory scheduling notice)? If so, what steps would you take to understand the impact of a policy on the many types of businesses in Dakota County and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
My approach to public policy is to bring people together to find win/win solutions. We can’t support our businesses without supporting our workers. However, a patchwork of unpredictable employment laws that differ from county to county is not a good way to support our businesses either. Coordinating with the state and surrounding counties on labor and employment initiatives can help establish a predictable market for our residents and local companies.
Studies show that supporting workers through higher wages, minimum sick time, and reasonable scheduling timelines produces positive monetary results for companies too. By hosting roundtables and creating new task forces to target these issues head-on with input from the private sector and laborers, we can find reasonable ways to reach that win/win outcome.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address the labor shortage?
Establishing a pipeline of workers in all industry sectors is crucial to address the labor shortage issues our businesses are facing. Once the County establishes its long-term economic growth plan with targeted industries to attract and retain in our County, we can work directly with the Department of Labor and Industry and the Minnesota Office of Higher Education on connecting employers to “earn to learn” grant programs. These programs help offset the costs employers incur for training new workers. If we can partner with county higher education facilities on similar county-level dual training programs, we can develop the pipeline of workers our businesses truly need.
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?
One of the core functions of the County is to provide public safety services. We should be looking to not only increase funding for public safety but looking for new and added services to compliment our public safety services that keep Dakota County one of the safest counties in the state. Seeking state money for new training facilities that serve as regional hubs for collaborative public safety strategies is a great way to ensure Dakota County is filling its growing demand in our expanding communities.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address housing issues facing your community?
As a staffer at the legislature, I spearheaded a pilot program with a northern Minnesota County to establish a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district specifically for workforce housing. It worked. Dakota County should take this same approach and incentivize private sector multi-family and single family housing developments through TIF. This will provide sustainable housing for our County’s long-term commercial growth goals.
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?
My views on transportation has not changed due to shifts in road use because goods and services will always require multiple avenues to reach destinations. This is why I have an all of the above transportation approach.
That starts by preserving and maintaining what we already have. Long term transportation asset preservation plans will help set the baseline for transportation spending at the county level. Once we know the true costs of maintaining our existing infrastructure, we can evaluate and study areas to upgrade, update, and modernize. This will include improving transit corridors for bus rapid transit and the expansion of our biking system with new trails to connect communities more efficiently and sustainably.
What are your priorities for the county’s budget?
We’ve seen the consequences when the government operates in budget deficits. This is why my top priority for our county is to continue operating under a balanced budget model. This is what I do every day as the Executive Director of a trade organization. Account for the true costs of operation without gimmicks and shifts.
I’d also look to where we can be leveraging capital smarter. Investing in our County’s infrastructure is not only smart long-term, it’s smart for job creation in the short term. Often, counties are afraid to bond for much needed basics, like clean water facilities, but the return on investment is well worth it — especially if it can leverage state and federal dollars.
Finally, my priority is to maintain and increase funding where it makes sense, but keep taxes low for our residents and businesses. This is why my priority of economic development is so important. We can grow our tax base, make sure we are investing and spending properly, while keeping Dakota County affordable.
What will you do to expand Dakota County’s tax base?
Our priority should be expanding our commercial tax base through business development and attraction. This also includes working with our agriculture businesses to enhance their operations to include different types of commercial endeavors.
If we expand economic opportunities and create jobs, our residential tax base will grow organically to meet the commercial demand. Our County is seeing immense growth residentially, my fear is we don’t have the commercial base to support the growth, so it is up to our County Board to do more to attract new industry, new businesses, and new job opportunities.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
As mentioned above, establishing a plan to create a pipeline of students to train and earn simultaneously will be vital to creating the workforce of the 21st century. The state provides grants to businesses to help in this, but the county should complement the state’s work here. But, we need insight from our industries to work with educational institutions to develop these pipelines where there is the most need and demand for labor.
Are there any services currently provided by the county that you believe should be cut back or eliminated? Are there new opportunities to share services with other entities?
Dakota County offers our residents superb services. My concern, instead, is maintaining those services with less employees. The County should be prioritizing hiring for vacant positions rather than trying to provide the same service with less workers.
What is the role of the County Board in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Dakota County?
The County should lead by example. We can’t ask our private sector businesses to commit to diversity if we can’t do that at the county staffing level first. That starts by creating real goals and a plan to meet those goals. That’s what I’ve done in my role as Executive Director of our state’s solar business trade group. We committed to creating goals and strategies for diversifying our industry. My experience in this endeavor has shown me that people are willing to make real commitments, they just need guidance. The County can provide this guidance through polling county businesses to understand the challenges they see related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and develop a plan for companies to make their own DEI commitments.
What further policies can Dakota County adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
As our economy continues to navigate the uncertainty the COVID-19 pandemic has created, the County should provide businesses with as much certainty as possible. Stable, predictable, and fair policies, from permitting and zoning, to taxes should remain steady for the foreseeable future. Abrupt changes will only exacerbate the challenges our businesses are facing.
This also shows us how long-term plans, as I’ve proposed in multiple questions above, are vital to county businesses. Long term public works, economic development, and energy plans send market signals to our businesses that Dakota County remains a good place for them to operate. If we commit to our private sector companies they will commit to our County in return.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
Of the candidates for District 4, I’m the only one raising small children in our community. They are the reason I am running and the reason I am so concerned with ensuring Dakota County remains a great place to live for the next 30+ years.