Nick Cauthen
Name: Nick Cauthen
Public Office Sought: Cottage Grove City Council
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (763) 331-4330
Website: cauthenforcgcouncil.com
Twitter handle: @CauthenNick
Facebook page: Nick Cauthen
Candidate Bio
I’m the proud partner and father to our amazing 3 children. Tyler, Teddy and Aubree. I have experience advocating for public colleges and universities, along with serving in the student government in college. I have over 5 years of corporate leadership experience; where I managed multi-million dollar initiates that employed over 200 team members. I am a participating member of a local Hispanic Business Council. Leading the Diversity and Inclusion Education Committee for my employer. I have hired, trained and developed over 300 team members during my career at Target Corp.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Finding where we can drive additional value in our services, to drive down cost and lessen the tax burden on our families, seniors and businesses. Be a listener to the entire community, including our business community and leading with accountability and transparency. Managing the city’s budget responsibly with the community’s best interest at heart.
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?
Growing but needing a stronger partnership with the city. In this COVID economy, it’s more important now than ever that we are doing everything in our power to assist and support our businesses. A healthy and diverse business community will drive prosperity by increasing shopping trips and increase the prospect of new families to the area. With this widening tax base, we can free up capital for businesses to expand or reinvest in the community.
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?
First, its partnering with our businesses to understand what challenges they face when it comes to the attracting and retaining jobs. Next would be to work towards eliminating or mitigating the barriers that stand between that growth and the business. Third is taking action at the city level to increase traffic into our businesses by increasing ease of shopping and driving trips to those businesses. Being open to new ideas to help bring in new business when it comes to zoning, taxes and permits.
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?
I do support increasing the minimum wage; however, it needs to be done in way that takes partnership and insights from the business community and is executed in a phased approach. There would also need to be exceptions in place due to the size and nature of the business.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
In our community we are seeing a boom in residential growth. With this growth comes challenges. I would partner with our law enforcement to talk about those challenges and what the city can do to either remove barriers or provide resources to help drive an even more safe community. I would also encourage the creation of volunteer based community outreach programs for the youth. Building parks and claiming its “community outreach” does not solve the issues that have been on the rise in our community. We also need to partner with the community to understand where there is opportunity to improve traffic flow in and around our business parks. As many of our residents have issues with the traffic lights.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
Managing expenditures more closely and putting in additional thought towards spending. In this economy, we owe it to the community to manage a tight budget; and being cautious about taking on new spending. We also need to evaluate our current city contracts and ensure that we are seeing long term value and savings in our key services.
What will you do to expand Cottage Grove’s tax base?
We need to attract steady and sustainable residential growth, and bring more families into Cottage Grove weather that be single family homes or residential complexes. This will help widen the tax base, and thin out the burden. But; it is a balancing act, as we do not want to grow too fast; which can cause increases in taxes as we have already seen.
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 need to partner with our education community make sure we are bringing awareness of the opportunities that exist in our community by having a team, marketing the jobs on social media or job platforms to drive that awareness. We also need to explore if there are any grants or scholarship programs that can be leveraged to help subsidies the cost of retaining that talent. A large part of this will be determined however by the market, and if Cottage Grove continues to grow and attract new businesses then that talent will follow.
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 wouldn’t say cut back or eliminated, but I would say we need to see where we can drive value in our services by ensuring that we are providing the best possible services at the lowest possible cost. I do know there are opportunities in almost all the services to manage the budget more effectively and limit spending. For example: We have volunteers that do planting of flowers, shrubs etc. for the city. We do not need to be spending over 30 thousand dollars to plant trees which the Council unanimously approved.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Cottage Grove?
We need to take partnership with organizations across the state like Black Business Minnesota, or help start-ups apply for small business grants targeted at Women or Minority ownership. This will help attract a more diverse business community. We also need to partner with the community to understand where there is demand in goods or services. We then reach out to women or minority owned business and encourage them to come to Cottage Grove to help fulfill a demand.
What further policies can Cottage Grove adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
First- Is allowing them to open and conduct normal business. Next to make sure the city is partnering with the business community to ensure they know about all the resources. Weather that be the CARES act, Paycheck Protection Program, or the Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriates ACT. I would also be open to tax free business or things like discounted utilities.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
Public Office Sought: Cottage Grove City Council
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (763) 331-4330
Website: cauthenforcgcouncil.com
Twitter handle: @CauthenNick
Facebook page: Nick Cauthen
Candidate Bio
I’m the proud partner and father to our amazing 3 children. Tyler, Teddy and Aubree. I have experience advocating for public colleges and universities, along with serving in the student government in college. I have over 5 years of corporate leadership experience; where I managed multi-million dollar initiates that employed over 200 team members. I am a participating member of a local Hispanic Business Council. Leading the Diversity and Inclusion Education Committee for my employer. I have hired, trained and developed over 300 team members during my career at Target Corp.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Finding where we can drive additional value in our services, to drive down cost and lessen the tax burden on our families, seniors and businesses. Be a listener to the entire community, including our business community and leading with accountability and transparency. Managing the city’s budget responsibly with the community’s best interest at heart.
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?
Growing but needing a stronger partnership with the city. In this COVID economy, it’s more important now than ever that we are doing everything in our power to assist and support our businesses. A healthy and diverse business community will drive prosperity by increasing shopping trips and increase the prospect of new families to the area. With this widening tax base, we can free up capital for businesses to expand or reinvest in the community.
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?
First, its partnering with our businesses to understand what challenges they face when it comes to the attracting and retaining jobs. Next would be to work towards eliminating or mitigating the barriers that stand between that growth and the business. Third is taking action at the city level to increase traffic into our businesses by increasing ease of shopping and driving trips to those businesses. Being open to new ideas to help bring in new business when it comes to zoning, taxes and permits.
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?
I do support increasing the minimum wage; however, it needs to be done in way that takes partnership and insights from the business community and is executed in a phased approach. There would also need to be exceptions in place due to the size and nature of the business.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
In our community we are seeing a boom in residential growth. With this growth comes challenges. I would partner with our law enforcement to talk about those challenges and what the city can do to either remove barriers or provide resources to help drive an even more safe community. I would also encourage the creation of volunteer based community outreach programs for the youth. Building parks and claiming its “community outreach” does not solve the issues that have been on the rise in our community. We also need to partner with the community to understand where there is opportunity to improve traffic flow in and around our business parks. As many of our residents have issues with the traffic lights.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
Managing expenditures more closely and putting in additional thought towards spending. In this economy, we owe it to the community to manage a tight budget; and being cautious about taking on new spending. We also need to evaluate our current city contracts and ensure that we are seeing long term value and savings in our key services.
What will you do to expand Cottage Grove’s tax base?
We need to attract steady and sustainable residential growth, and bring more families into Cottage Grove weather that be single family homes or residential complexes. This will help widen the tax base, and thin out the burden. But; it is a balancing act, as we do not want to grow too fast; which can cause increases in taxes as we have already seen.
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 need to partner with our education community make sure we are bringing awareness of the opportunities that exist in our community by having a team, marketing the jobs on social media or job platforms to drive that awareness. We also need to explore if there are any grants or scholarship programs that can be leveraged to help subsidies the cost of retaining that talent. A large part of this will be determined however by the market, and if Cottage Grove continues to grow and attract new businesses then that talent will follow.
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 wouldn’t say cut back or eliminated, but I would say we need to see where we can drive value in our services by ensuring that we are providing the best possible services at the lowest possible cost. I do know there are opportunities in almost all the services to manage the budget more effectively and limit spending. For example: We have volunteers that do planting of flowers, shrubs etc. for the city. We do not need to be spending over 30 thousand dollars to plant trees which the Council unanimously approved.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Cottage Grove?
We need to take partnership with organizations across the state like Black Business Minnesota, or help start-ups apply for small business grants targeted at Women or Minority ownership. This will help attract a more diverse business community. We also need to partner with the community to understand where there is demand in goods or services. We then reach out to women or minority owned business and encourage them to come to Cottage Grove to help fulfill a demand.
What further policies can Cottage Grove adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
First- Is allowing them to open and conduct normal business. Next to make sure the city is partnering with the business community to ensure they know about all the resources. Weather that be the CARES act, Paycheck Protection Program, or the Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriates ACT. I would also be open to tax free business or things like discounted utilities.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?