Lona Doolan

Name: Lona Doolan
Public Office Sought: St. Anthony City Council
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 612-850-8184
Campaign Website: www.lonadoolan.com
Twitter handle:
Facebook Page:
Candidate Bio
My background is in Financial Management. I worked as a financial analyst in a financial investment company, the last 10 years in strategic planning where I evaluated and prioritized $35M in annual technology investments. I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Planning, Analysis and Process Improvement from the University of Minnesota while working and parenting full-time. I have been able to use my professions skills to help bring in $100,000 in environmental grants for our schools, churches, and our popular organics collection site.
I currently serve as a Parks & Environmental Commissioner in St. Anthony Village and as a Citizens Advisor to the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization. I have served as an election judge since 2000 and for the past 10 years as Head Judge in Hennepin Precinct 2. I volunteer in our schools, helping younger students learn to explore and care for nature and older students learn about climate change, renewable energy, and climate actions. I am also active with Village Gardeners and Citizens for Sustainability, and I volunteer as a Minnesota Master Naturalist. I received the 2022 US President’s Gold Volunteer Service award for 600 services hours in our community.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
Collaborative – I look for common ground and bring together people with shared interests to solve a problem or take on a challenge. I would work to create a stronger partnership between City Council, our schools, businesses, and community organizations to find solutions to the challenges our community might face.
Data driven decision making – In my professional career, I worked as a Financial Analyst in strategic planning, prioritizing annual investments of $35M. I am experienced in creating cost benefit analysis reports, quantifying qualitative data, and creating benchmark reporting.
Outward reaching – As an election judge, I am deeply passionate about everyone having a voice in government. I appreciate hearing diverse perspectives and I value the expertise and experience of the people in our community. I am committed to fostering an environment where every person is valued, heard, and represented.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Create greater awareness of city council agendas and community activities,
Develop community services to help our seniors remain active in the community and feel well supported as they age in place or look to transition to their next home,
Help St. Anthony residents learn about state and federal resources to save money on energy efficiency programs and build resiliency in their homes.
What do you consider the biggest challenge and conversely, the biggest opportunity in Saint Anthony Village?
I believe our biggest challenge will be in prioritizing critical infrastructure and services in an ever-increasing need for services. We have good schools, good city services, and many parks that we all enjoy. We also pay high taxes to be able to afford them. I wonder how we will prioritize competing challenges I see coming; another school referendum to provide much needed mental health services for our students, uplift in some of our aging parks, and mitigation and adaptation with our changing climate. Knowing we cannot continue to tax our way through all of these, we need to have conversations throughout our community to determine how to prioritize the most critical of these.
Our biggest opportunity is in helping our residents and business owners take advantage of the new federal, state and county funds available for energy efficiencies, solar energy, electric vehicles, organics composting, and other opportunities to create resiliency in our community. We should charge our Parks & Environmental commission with helping us set direction and create opportunity to help our residents and businesses get connected to resources.
How would you characterize the business climate in Saint Anthony Village and what role do you think the city should have in attracting and retaining jobs and new businesses in Saint Anthony Village?
The business climate in St. Anthony is not what it used to be. Our two primary shopping areas have increasing vacancies since the pandemic. The loss of a local fitness center has had a considerable impact in our community. We should work with our state legislators and regional partners to look for opportunities to provide greater services for keeping seniors active and healthy. We have recently opened high-end residential development adjacent to one of our shopping areas. We should work with local businesses to plan events to help draw in crowds and promote shopping local.
What are your strategies to address public safety challenges in your community?
We should encourage more frequent community building events like Nite to Unite. Getting to know your neighbors is a critical element in keeping our neighborhoods safe. When we have connections with neighbors, we become an additional set of eyes and ears for the community. Knowing who lives in your neighborhood and knowing what they are going through can help prepare you and them for future problems. When neighbors collectively identify and report suspicious activities, it makes neighborhoods less attractive targets for criminal activity. Being familiar with your neighbors enables you to check on each other regularly and recognize when something isn’t right. Early detection of something unusual can help prevent damage and theft to your property or bring assistance for a neighbor who has fallen or requires attention.
What ideas do you have to address housing shortages and affordability?
Having a popular school district that drives up home prices can be a good thing for existing homeowners, but it also makes it difficult for many families to be able to afford to stay in the community. We also have a growing number of short-term rentals and Airbnb’s in the community which makes it even more difficult to provide enough housing for permanent area residents.
We should work with Met Council and regional experts to help us understand what options are available to the city for developing and maintaining affordable housing in the community.The city owns a parcel of land at 39th and Stinson Boulevard. City Council and Commissioners recently met with experts from Urban Land Institute to explore options we might pursue in redeveloping this lot. One idea presented was to keep the land in perpetual trust and partner with a developer to build affordable townhouses on the site.
How would you work to improve transportation options in your community, including improved safety for transit riders, pedestrian/bike, and drivers alike?
St. Anthony has several high-traffic thruways that make it challenging for residents to cross safely to get to parks and schools. The recent change on 37th Ave from four lanes to three was first identified on our 2017 Safe Routes to School Plan. It is a good example of how we can work with the county and regional partners to help address pedestrian and bike safety.
I would ask our Parks & Environmental Commission to develop a bike and pedestrian plan to identify opportunities to improve safety and make connections to regional biking trails. Having a plan in place would enable us to look for regional grant opportunities to fund infrastructure improvements. In the meantime, we should paint road striping on key corridors to raise motorist awareness of biking and walking pedestrians.
We should work with: 1) Metro Transit to restore pre-covid transit services and reduce the amount of single passenger vehicular traffic through the community, 2) Met Council to help integrate St. Anthony in regional bike systems, and 3) Hennepin and Ramsey Counties to look for more opportunities where road-diets, round-abouts, and better crossings at major exchanges could improve safety. During our recent Student Climate Action Plan sessions, students also raised the need for more bike racks at City Hall, in our parks, and at schools.
What will you do to expand Saint Anthony Village’s tax base?
St. Anthony is considered a “fully developed” community, with little undeveloped land to bring in new tax revenue. Our largest tax increment financing (TIF) district will end in 2031, which will help spread the cost of city services across a greater portion of the community.
However, until that time, we should look to promote more efficient use of existing tax dollars. 20% of our land use is in parks and public buildings. We should capitalize on our opportunity to install solar and generate income from our rooftops and transition some of our park spaces to native plantings that require less seasonal maintenance. We should limit any future TIF incentives to projects that advance our goal of affordable housing.
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?
St. Anthony currently shares policing, finance, and human resource services with other entities. It is a good model, and we should look to expand it to include sharing a sustainability manager with another community. This would limit the cost of a critical new service and provide us the opportunity to learn from what other cities are doing.
I think we should look at moving local elections to the same cycle as state and federal elections. This would reduce the amount of money we spend on election administration and bring greater participation in selecting local leaders. Local elections bring in just 50% of the voters that a state election brings in.
Public Office Sought: St. Anthony City Council
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 612-850-8184
Campaign Website: www.lonadoolan.com
Twitter handle:
Facebook Page:
Candidate Bio
My background is in Financial Management. I worked as a financial analyst in a financial investment company, the last 10 years in strategic planning where I evaluated and prioritized $35M in annual technology investments. I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Planning, Analysis and Process Improvement from the University of Minnesota while working and parenting full-time. I have been able to use my professions skills to help bring in $100,000 in environmental grants for our schools, churches, and our popular organics collection site.
I currently serve as a Parks & Environmental Commissioner in St. Anthony Village and as a Citizens Advisor to the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization. I have served as an election judge since 2000 and for the past 10 years as Head Judge in Hennepin Precinct 2. I volunteer in our schools, helping younger students learn to explore and care for nature and older students learn about climate change, renewable energy, and climate actions. I am also active with Village Gardeners and Citizens for Sustainability, and I volunteer as a Minnesota Master Naturalist. I received the 2022 US President’s Gold Volunteer Service award for 600 services hours in our community.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
Collaborative – I look for common ground and bring together people with shared interests to solve a problem or take on a challenge. I would work to create a stronger partnership between City Council, our schools, businesses, and community organizations to find solutions to the challenges our community might face.
Data driven decision making – In my professional career, I worked as a Financial Analyst in strategic planning, prioritizing annual investments of $35M. I am experienced in creating cost benefit analysis reports, quantifying qualitative data, and creating benchmark reporting.
Outward reaching – As an election judge, I am deeply passionate about everyone having a voice in government. I appreciate hearing diverse perspectives and I value the expertise and experience of the people in our community. I am committed to fostering an environment where every person is valued, heard, and represented.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Create greater awareness of city council agendas and community activities,
Develop community services to help our seniors remain active in the community and feel well supported as they age in place or look to transition to their next home,
Help St. Anthony residents learn about state and federal resources to save money on energy efficiency programs and build resiliency in their homes.
What do you consider the biggest challenge and conversely, the biggest opportunity in Saint Anthony Village?
I believe our biggest challenge will be in prioritizing critical infrastructure and services in an ever-increasing need for services. We have good schools, good city services, and many parks that we all enjoy. We also pay high taxes to be able to afford them. I wonder how we will prioritize competing challenges I see coming; another school referendum to provide much needed mental health services for our students, uplift in some of our aging parks, and mitigation and adaptation with our changing climate. Knowing we cannot continue to tax our way through all of these, we need to have conversations throughout our community to determine how to prioritize the most critical of these.
Our biggest opportunity is in helping our residents and business owners take advantage of the new federal, state and county funds available for energy efficiencies, solar energy, electric vehicles, organics composting, and other opportunities to create resiliency in our community. We should charge our Parks & Environmental commission with helping us set direction and create opportunity to help our residents and businesses get connected to resources.
How would you characterize the business climate in Saint Anthony Village and what role do you think the city should have in attracting and retaining jobs and new businesses in Saint Anthony Village?
The business climate in St. Anthony is not what it used to be. Our two primary shopping areas have increasing vacancies since the pandemic. The loss of a local fitness center has had a considerable impact in our community. We should work with our state legislators and regional partners to look for opportunities to provide greater services for keeping seniors active and healthy. We have recently opened high-end residential development adjacent to one of our shopping areas. We should work with local businesses to plan events to help draw in crowds and promote shopping local.
What are your strategies to address public safety challenges in your community?
We should encourage more frequent community building events like Nite to Unite. Getting to know your neighbors is a critical element in keeping our neighborhoods safe. When we have connections with neighbors, we become an additional set of eyes and ears for the community. Knowing who lives in your neighborhood and knowing what they are going through can help prepare you and them for future problems. When neighbors collectively identify and report suspicious activities, it makes neighborhoods less attractive targets for criminal activity. Being familiar with your neighbors enables you to check on each other regularly and recognize when something isn’t right. Early detection of something unusual can help prevent damage and theft to your property or bring assistance for a neighbor who has fallen or requires attention.
What ideas do you have to address housing shortages and affordability?
Having a popular school district that drives up home prices can be a good thing for existing homeowners, but it also makes it difficult for many families to be able to afford to stay in the community. We also have a growing number of short-term rentals and Airbnb’s in the community which makes it even more difficult to provide enough housing for permanent area residents.
We should work with Met Council and regional experts to help us understand what options are available to the city for developing and maintaining affordable housing in the community.The city owns a parcel of land at 39th and Stinson Boulevard. City Council and Commissioners recently met with experts from Urban Land Institute to explore options we might pursue in redeveloping this lot. One idea presented was to keep the land in perpetual trust and partner with a developer to build affordable townhouses on the site.
How would you work to improve transportation options in your community, including improved safety for transit riders, pedestrian/bike, and drivers alike?
St. Anthony has several high-traffic thruways that make it challenging for residents to cross safely to get to parks and schools. The recent change on 37th Ave from four lanes to three was first identified on our 2017 Safe Routes to School Plan. It is a good example of how we can work with the county and regional partners to help address pedestrian and bike safety.
I would ask our Parks & Environmental Commission to develop a bike and pedestrian plan to identify opportunities to improve safety and make connections to regional biking trails. Having a plan in place would enable us to look for regional grant opportunities to fund infrastructure improvements. In the meantime, we should paint road striping on key corridors to raise motorist awareness of biking and walking pedestrians.
We should work with: 1) Metro Transit to restore pre-covid transit services and reduce the amount of single passenger vehicular traffic through the community, 2) Met Council to help integrate St. Anthony in regional bike systems, and 3) Hennepin and Ramsey Counties to look for more opportunities where road-diets, round-abouts, and better crossings at major exchanges could improve safety. During our recent Student Climate Action Plan sessions, students also raised the need for more bike racks at City Hall, in our parks, and at schools.
What will you do to expand Saint Anthony Village’s tax base?
St. Anthony is considered a “fully developed” community, with little undeveloped land to bring in new tax revenue. Our largest tax increment financing (TIF) district will end in 2031, which will help spread the cost of city services across a greater portion of the community.
However, until that time, we should look to promote more efficient use of existing tax dollars. 20% of our land use is in parks and public buildings. We should capitalize on our opportunity to install solar and generate income from our rooftops and transition some of our park spaces to native plantings that require less seasonal maintenance. We should limit any future TIF incentives to projects that advance our goal of affordable housing.
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?
St. Anthony currently shares policing, finance, and human resource services with other entities. It is a good model, and we should look to expand it to include sharing a sustainability manager with another community. This would limit the cost of a critical new service and provide us the opportunity to learn from what other cities are doing.
I think we should look at moving local elections to the same cycle as state and federal elections. This would reduce the amount of money we spend on election administration and bring greater participation in selecting local leaders. Local elections bring in just 50% of the voters that a state election brings in.