Luke Hellier
Name: Luke Hellier
Public Office Sought: Lakeville Mayor
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 612-237-2551
Website: www.votelukehellier.com
Twitter handle: @lukehellier
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/lukehellier
Candidate Bio
Luke Hellier is a graduate of Lakeville High School, where he met his wife Josi. Following their marriage and living outside of Lakeville, Luke & Josi moved back to Lakeville in 2014 to raise their family. Luke and Josi have five children. Betty (9), Annie (7), Wally (4), and twins coming in December!
As a lifelong community volunteer, Hellier was first elected to Lakeville City Council in 2016 and re-elected in 2020. Upon the retirement announcement of Mayor Doug Anderson, Hellier stepped up to run for Mayor. Mayor Anderson supports Hellier’s campaign.
Luke’s priorities for Lakeville including ensuring it remains the best place to raise a family, start a business, or retire with the highest standard of living.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
If elected as Mayor, my top three priorities are to continue to invest in public safety, enhance investments in infrastructure, and manage community growth.
How would you characterize the business climate in Lakeville and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
The Lakeville business community is among the strongest in the state with a broad diversity of types of jobs available and services provided to residents. The city continues to advocate for new business investment while supporting existing job creators. Lakeville’s business leaders are also extremely generous in supporting our local community through charitable giving.
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, Lakeville?
As one of only a handful of cities in Minnesota with a AAA bond rating, we are well positioned to continue to attract new businesses in Lakeville to serve our growing population and high achieving work force. The city should also continue building relationships with existing business to ensure their next expansion is in Lakeville.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address the labor shortage?
Over the last few years, the city, school districts, and business community have heavily invested the Lakeville Works program which helps build a pipeline of young workers in Lakeville to address labor shortages. I support continued engagement with these efforts. I also support free-market policies that encourage housing development to also meet the needs of the workers coming to Lakeville to meet the labor shortages.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals in Lakeville (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 Lakeville and how would you define any exceptions to those policies? No, these issues should be discussed at a state level.
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?
As a member of the City Council, and now as a candidate for Mayor, I am honored to be endorsed by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association for my support of law enforcement. Over the last six years on the Council, I’ve been an advocate for continued investment in our police and fire departments. Lakeville is also on the leading edge of new strategies in policing including mental health outreach. As Mayor, I will continue to support those efforts.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address housing issues facing your community?
Lakeville continues to build new housing at a rapid clip and will likely outpace the rest of the metro area over the next decade. Managing our existing housing stock and promotion of naturally occurring affordable housing will be a key component as we move forward. Furthermore, continuing to support projects that allow people to stay in Lakeville in retirement is pivotal to create a ‘domino’ effect in housing across the city.
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?
Lakeville residents have always been early and eager adopters of utilizing transit to get to their places of employment. In fact, the 467 bus from Lakeville to Minneapolis was almost always rated with high fare box recovery prior to the pandemic. However, that bus line continues to be not operated in Metro Transit’s system. As Mayor, I will continue to work with partners to re-start the 467 bus line to ease congestion to downtown. Furthermore, I have been a strong advocate at the state and federal level for continued investment in the new Highway 50 / I35 interchange and extension of MnPASS lane to southern Lakeville.
Lakeville is benefitting from the increase of remote work. More residents are in Lakeville on a daily basis which helps fuel the overall economy.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
-Public Safety
-Managing infrastructure like water system and roads
-Providing key services like snow plowing
What will you do to expand Lakeville’s tax base?
As Mayor, I will continue to support the growth associated with Airlake Industrial Park which has added over two million square feet of space since I first took office. Having a growing commercial base helps expand the overall economic health of 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?
As Mayor, I plan to continue to build upon existing relationships with the three districts that serve the students of Lakeville (192,194,196). The partnership between the districts and city are pivotal to ensure the future of workforce in the region.
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?
The goal of any local unit of government is to streamline operations and provide better value to taxpayers. Over the last few years, the Council has explored ideas related to shared service and we will continue that work. For instance, Lakeville is the lead partner on a regional public safety facility that would support Dakota County agencies for training purposes.
What is the role of the Mayor in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Lakeville?
Over the last decade Lakeville has grown to the 7th largest city in the Twin Cities. In that time, 56% of all new residents identify as a person of color, and overall, one in four residents in Lakeville is a person of color. Our business community should reflect the community identity and as Mayor I will continue to support new and existing businesses that look to expand in our community. I’ve also supported endeavors by Chambers of Commerce and women in business efforts. Furthermore, as a member of the council, I have encouraged and supported more women and persons of color to join our city advisory boards.
What further policies can Lakeville adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
Lakeville was on the leading edge to utilize CAREs Act dollars to support our local business community. Nearly a third of all funds went directly to support business. The remainder of the funds were allocated to enhance public safety and included into the fund balance to mitigate against future budget increases caused by rapid inflation. As Mayor, I will continue my financial stewardship of the city budget that has led to our AAA bond rating.
Public Office Sought: Lakeville Mayor
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 612-237-2551
Website: www.votelukehellier.com
Twitter handle: @lukehellier
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/lukehellier
Candidate Bio
Luke Hellier is a graduate of Lakeville High School, where he met his wife Josi. Following their marriage and living outside of Lakeville, Luke & Josi moved back to Lakeville in 2014 to raise their family. Luke and Josi have five children. Betty (9), Annie (7), Wally (4), and twins coming in December!
As a lifelong community volunteer, Hellier was first elected to Lakeville City Council in 2016 and re-elected in 2020. Upon the retirement announcement of Mayor Doug Anderson, Hellier stepped up to run for Mayor. Mayor Anderson supports Hellier’s campaign.
Luke’s priorities for Lakeville including ensuring it remains the best place to raise a family, start a business, or retire with the highest standard of living.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
If elected as Mayor, my top three priorities are to continue to invest in public safety, enhance investments in infrastructure, and manage community growth.
How would you characterize the business climate in Lakeville and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
The Lakeville business community is among the strongest in the state with a broad diversity of types of jobs available and services provided to residents. The city continues to advocate for new business investment while supporting existing job creators. Lakeville’s business leaders are also extremely generous in supporting our local community through charitable giving.
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, Lakeville?
As one of only a handful of cities in Minnesota with a AAA bond rating, we are well positioned to continue to attract new businesses in Lakeville to serve our growing population and high achieving work force. The city should also continue building relationships with existing business to ensure their next expansion is in Lakeville.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address the labor shortage?
Over the last few years, the city, school districts, and business community have heavily invested the Lakeville Works program which helps build a pipeline of young workers in Lakeville to address labor shortages. I support continued engagement with these efforts. I also support free-market policies that encourage housing development to also meet the needs of the workers coming to Lakeville to meet the labor shortages.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals in Lakeville (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 Lakeville and how would you define any exceptions to those policies? No, these issues should be discussed at a state level.
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?
As a member of the City Council, and now as a candidate for Mayor, I am honored to be endorsed by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association for my support of law enforcement. Over the last six years on the Council, I’ve been an advocate for continued investment in our police and fire departments. Lakeville is also on the leading edge of new strategies in policing including mental health outreach. As Mayor, I will continue to support those efforts.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address housing issues facing your community?
Lakeville continues to build new housing at a rapid clip and will likely outpace the rest of the metro area over the next decade. Managing our existing housing stock and promotion of naturally occurring affordable housing will be a key component as we move forward. Furthermore, continuing to support projects that allow people to stay in Lakeville in retirement is pivotal to create a ‘domino’ effect in housing across the city.
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?
Lakeville residents have always been early and eager adopters of utilizing transit to get to their places of employment. In fact, the 467 bus from Lakeville to Minneapolis was almost always rated with high fare box recovery prior to the pandemic. However, that bus line continues to be not operated in Metro Transit’s system. As Mayor, I will continue to work with partners to re-start the 467 bus line to ease congestion to downtown. Furthermore, I have been a strong advocate at the state and federal level for continued investment in the new Highway 50 / I35 interchange and extension of MnPASS lane to southern Lakeville.
Lakeville is benefitting from the increase of remote work. More residents are in Lakeville on a daily basis which helps fuel the overall economy.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
-Public Safety
-Managing infrastructure like water system and roads
-Providing key services like snow plowing
What will you do to expand Lakeville’s tax base?
As Mayor, I will continue to support the growth associated with Airlake Industrial Park which has added over two million square feet of space since I first took office. Having a growing commercial base helps expand the overall economic health of 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?
As Mayor, I plan to continue to build upon existing relationships with the three districts that serve the students of Lakeville (192,194,196). The partnership between the districts and city are pivotal to ensure the future of workforce in the region.
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?
The goal of any local unit of government is to streamline operations and provide better value to taxpayers. Over the last few years, the Council has explored ideas related to shared service and we will continue that work. For instance, Lakeville is the lead partner on a regional public safety facility that would support Dakota County agencies for training purposes.
What is the role of the Mayor in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Lakeville?
Over the last decade Lakeville has grown to the 7th largest city in the Twin Cities. In that time, 56% of all new residents identify as a person of color, and overall, one in four residents in Lakeville is a person of color. Our business community should reflect the community identity and as Mayor I will continue to support new and existing businesses that look to expand in our community. I’ve also supported endeavors by Chambers of Commerce and women in business efforts. Furthermore, as a member of the council, I have encouraged and supported more women and persons of color to join our city advisory boards.
What further policies can Lakeville adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
Lakeville was on the leading edge to utilize CAREs Act dollars to support our local business community. Nearly a third of all funds went directly to support business. The remainder of the funds were allocated to enhance public safety and included into the fund balance to mitigate against future budget increases caused by rapid inflation. As Mayor, I will continue my financial stewardship of the city budget that has led to our AAA bond rating.