Nick Lien
Name: Nick Lien
Public Office Sought: Farmington City Council
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 651.238.0690
Campaign Website: N/A
Twitter handle: N/A
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/LienIntoIt
Candidate Bio
I have sat as an appointed city councilmember since January of 2022. In those 8 months, I have been involved in several reasonably significant city issues, including the hiring of a new city administrator and redirection of a major park referendum. I have been fortunate to attend trainings and seminars with the League of Minnesota Cities, legislative briefings, and numerous city events. The learning curve for a city councilmember is steep, and I’ve done my best to navigate it. This will give me the ability to hit the ground running, while still being a fresh point of view to the city staff.
My background in engineering and data science has taught me to make logical decisions and to approach issues as independent problems to solve while still being able to keep the long-term vision in mind. Perhaps most importantly, I have nothing to personally gain from being on the council. I am simply here to serve the residents of Farmington as a way of giving back to my community.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Business Growth
Balanced Taxes
Attracting & Retaining Talent at City Hall
How would you characterize the business climate in Farmington and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
Farmington has a long-standing reputation of being a “bedroom community”. For many years, the city has held a very large portion of its developable acreage in agricultural preserve. For better or worse, this is one of the main reasons large enterprises do not locate here. Site readiness and land acquisition costs tend to be instant roadblocks.
The consequence of this lack of large employers is that some 60% of able workers are travel outside the city for work (according to a recent DEED study). Most retail continues to prefer to develop in our neighboring cities (Apple Valley, Lakeville, Rosemount, etc.) since our residents are passing through anyway. The net result is that the city is primarily driven by small enterprise that has seen little growth over the last decade.
That said, our small business owners are an amazing group of people. As a councilmember, I’ve seen them show up time and time again with donations, free labor, community outreach, and just general words of support. They carry our community in so many ways, and I couldn’t be prouder of that part of Farmington.
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, Farmington?
The main priority for attracting business in Farmington should be to improve our site readiness and available land for large enterprise. One major employer coming to town would cause many more workers to stay within the Farmington city limits, which in turn drives retail here as well. I believe the city should be fully open to using its TIF, abatement and subsidies to entice the early developers. There are also additional things like updating the city’s fiber network that can also lower the development burden as well.
In terms of attracting and retaining jobs, the economic development authority recently took a great step by modifying its business subsidy policy to favor businesses that pay higher wages (i.e. – wages which pay above the median cost of living in the city). Any new jobs that come to town should almost be guaranteed to be desirable since there is no reason that it should be below our cost of living.
It should also be noted here that higher income per capita is also viewed positively on our bond rating calls, so there are financial incentives for the city to do this as well as it can help save money on the debt side.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address the labor shortage?
Feeding off the previous question, I believe our current business subsidy policy is a great tool that can be used by both existing and prospective business to increase its wages and create desirable employment opportunities.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals in Farmington (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 Farmington and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
I do not believe the city needs to implement any mandates with respect to a minimum wage or benefits as it only hurts existing businesses that have been able to operate on their existing model. Any new business that comes to town has no reason to pay the federal minimum wage, as the city’s subsidy policy should be utilized to prevent that. City mandates create more roadblocks, and we need to be removing them, not adding. We have already taken the correct steps to attract the right business to town.
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?
Farmington consistently ranks as one of the safest cities in the state in terms of overall crime. We are fortunate to have an incredible police force full of veterans and little turnover. As we begin a period of transition over the next few years with several our senior leadership reaching retirement, we need to ensure that our gold standard is not diminished. Officer enrollment is down statewide, but we as a city cannot lower our hiring standards if we expect to maintain the same elite level of policing that we have enjoyed so far.
And not to plug the business subsidy policy yet again, but when the employers in Farmington are paying livable wages, people can pay their bills, and this has perhaps an even greater effect on crime rates by stopping the problem before it even starts.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address housing issues facing your community?
I do not consider this to be a major problem in Farmington. We have numerous housing developments in progress on all tiers from workforce to luxury retirement. The city has no significant high-density housing to speak of that would require things like rent control.
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?
I believe that Farmington is a perfect candidate for a transportation hub. The nearest bus terminals are all over 5 miles away, making it prohibitive for most people aside from extreme commutes. Aside from the work commuters, there are residents who have no means to reach a grocery store, which creates food insecurity problems for some that could be alleviated by having an available bus line.
The city should engage with MVTA to expand its routes into Farmington and find out what their requirements are to add a park and ride on one of our major throughways. Our population is already known to travel outside the city for work, so the demographic and capacity should already be present to sustain such a route. This is one area where a lobbyist could help us secure state or federal funding to offset the tax burden of building the hub, as this is a topic that is getting pushed for next year’s legislative session.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
Spend our pennies to save our dollars. Over the past 10 years, Farmington has kicked cans down a road to keep the levy increase minimized. We are now on the cusp of paying the price for that as our parks, trails and streets fall into disrepair and our police department operates on razor thin staffing. The city is viewed as the culprit to our high tax burden, a bit unfairly, when in fact our school district is the larger driver of our tax rate. I’m not here to argue about what the school should or should not do in terms of its levy, but the municipal side of things needs to be able to at least perform necessary maintenance to avoid high-cost repairs.
What will you do to expand Farmington’s tax base?
I have outlined this in my thoughts on business growth in the city. We need a far more balanced residential, commercial, and industrial ratio.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
I think it is time that the city and school board came back together on intergovernmental affairs. From many accounts, the construction of the high school was a tumultuous time between the two groups, and I think they have tread cautiously around one another ever since. The first step towards addressing this question must be to repair that relationship back to a better working status so that we can begin a long-term vision. Without that communication, we have no influence.
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?
There are only two areas that could be considered flexible when talking about city services: municipal liquor and parks and recreation.
Our municipal liquor operations have grown significantly over the last two years with the relocation of the downtown store and are now contributing very meaningful dollars into the city. The only argument against municipal liquor would be if that were blocking a grocery store coming to town, which we have no evidence to suggest that it is. Additionally, the tax revenue generated by a grocery store is typically not large enough to beat out the amount that our liquor stores generate. So, I am in support of maintaining our policy of municipal liquor.
Parks and recreation is an area that requires attention. Until a few months ago, parks and rec had not added any staff since 2006, despite our total park acreage doubling in that time. Our 2040 comprehensive plan also identifies that we currently do not have a long-term funding plan in place to adequately maintain our existing parks and trails, let alone expand them. Our trails have been repeatedly identified as one of Farmington’s main draws, and we need to protect them.
The city has a policy that all new housing developments must allocate some amount of the land to park or green space, and while this is a fiscally responsible way of building new parks and acquiring park lands, we do not do the next step of adding the resources to support those parks. Our long-term funding needs to look at either decommissioning old and out-of-date parks, or adding funding mechanisms, or both.
There is also a very strong push from multiple youth sports associations to add facility space to support their organizations. Schmitz-Maki Arena highlights how expensive it can be to solely maintain these types of facilities, and I would not be in support of building new facilities on the city dime at this time when we have the problems I outlined above. I think there are three fiscally responsible ways of getting them into Farmington: 1) a fully private facility, 2) partnering with a corporate sponsor to co-develop the space, or 3) using the facility as an economic development tool to drive retail into the nearby area, or to support existing retail. If we do fund such facilities for economic development, then the site location is critical, and it would need to be a part of a larger overall development plan where the tax revenue generated by the nearby business offsets the tax burden imposed by the facility.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Farmington?
Our policies are designed to foster any business, since it is one of the weak points of the city, so it is tough to say that anything specifically tries to target minority and female entrepreneurs. That said, it is very important that the city always acknowledges inclusion in its charters and policies. Our minority and female businesspeople need to feel represented, not marginalized, particularly in a city that is 88% white. The meeting table needs to be open to everyone.
What further policies can Farmington adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
The silver lining of so much of our labor force being employed out of town is that many of the workers who previously commuted for work were able to switch to a work from home model. This created some of that desired effect of keeping people within the city limits that helps our local retail. So, the business potential is still present in the city, and perhaps even increased. The main lingering effect of covid is the labor shortage, which I addressed in other questions.
If there is one thing that covid did teach city leadership, it’s the importance of cities staying in extremely tight communication with their business community and learning to be flexible. If there are businesses in town seeking certain exceptions to survive, the city needs to be accommodating rather than restricting whenever possible and safe.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
Farmington lives true to its name as a farming town. People move here because the atmosphere still has a small-town, rural feel to it. I personally moved here because I enjoy driving by green fields and open spaces. I think when we talk about developing large-scale business, a lot of people tend to get heartburn at the thought of their city turning into a concrete jungle. I feel the best way to be judicious about not taking away from that signature Farmington feel is being strict about our green space rules. Today Farmington has roughly 10% of its acreage allocated as park and open space. As the remainder of the city develops, that ratio needs to be either maintained or increased so that the city still has a natural and open feel to it. We should engage wherever possible with the state and county to maintain our natural wetlands and improve large scale park and trail systems (such as the North Creek Greenway). It is possible to fix our tax situation by attracting business, without selling our charm to get there.
Public Office Sought: Farmington City Council
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 651.238.0690
Campaign Website: N/A
Twitter handle: N/A
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/LienIntoIt
Candidate Bio
I have sat as an appointed city councilmember since January of 2022. In those 8 months, I have been involved in several reasonably significant city issues, including the hiring of a new city administrator and redirection of a major park referendum. I have been fortunate to attend trainings and seminars with the League of Minnesota Cities, legislative briefings, and numerous city events. The learning curve for a city councilmember is steep, and I’ve done my best to navigate it. This will give me the ability to hit the ground running, while still being a fresh point of view to the city staff.
My background in engineering and data science has taught me to make logical decisions and to approach issues as independent problems to solve while still being able to keep the long-term vision in mind. Perhaps most importantly, I have nothing to personally gain from being on the council. I am simply here to serve the residents of Farmington as a way of giving back to my community.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
Business Growth
Balanced Taxes
Attracting & Retaining Talent at City Hall
How would you characterize the business climate in Farmington and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
Farmington has a long-standing reputation of being a “bedroom community”. For many years, the city has held a very large portion of its developable acreage in agricultural preserve. For better or worse, this is one of the main reasons large enterprises do not locate here. Site readiness and land acquisition costs tend to be instant roadblocks.
The consequence of this lack of large employers is that some 60% of able workers are travel outside the city for work (according to a recent DEED study). Most retail continues to prefer to develop in our neighboring cities (Apple Valley, Lakeville, Rosemount, etc.) since our residents are passing through anyway. The net result is that the city is primarily driven by small enterprise that has seen little growth over the last decade.
That said, our small business owners are an amazing group of people. As a councilmember, I’ve seen them show up time and time again with donations, free labor, community outreach, and just general words of support. They carry our community in so many ways, and I couldn’t be prouder of that part of Farmington.
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, Farmington?
The main priority for attracting business in Farmington should be to improve our site readiness and available land for large enterprise. One major employer coming to town would cause many more workers to stay within the Farmington city limits, which in turn drives retail here as well. I believe the city should be fully open to using its TIF, abatement and subsidies to entice the early developers. There are also additional things like updating the city’s fiber network that can also lower the development burden as well.
In terms of attracting and retaining jobs, the economic development authority recently took a great step by modifying its business subsidy policy to favor businesses that pay higher wages (i.e. – wages which pay above the median cost of living in the city). Any new jobs that come to town should almost be guaranteed to be desirable since there is no reason that it should be below our cost of living.
It should also be noted here that higher income per capita is also viewed positively on our bond rating calls, so there are financial incentives for the city to do this as well as it can help save money on the debt side.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address the labor shortage?
Feeding off the previous question, I believe our current business subsidy policy is a great tool that can be used by both existing and prospective business to increase its wages and create desirable employment opportunities.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals in Farmington (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 Farmington and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
I do not believe the city needs to implement any mandates with respect to a minimum wage or benefits as it only hurts existing businesses that have been able to operate on their existing model. Any new business that comes to town has no reason to pay the federal minimum wage, as the city’s subsidy policy should be utilized to prevent that. City mandates create more roadblocks, and we need to be removing them, not adding. We have already taken the correct steps to attract the right business to town.
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?
Farmington consistently ranks as one of the safest cities in the state in terms of overall crime. We are fortunate to have an incredible police force full of veterans and little turnover. As we begin a period of transition over the next few years with several our senior leadership reaching retirement, we need to ensure that our gold standard is not diminished. Officer enrollment is down statewide, but we as a city cannot lower our hiring standards if we expect to maintain the same elite level of policing that we have enjoyed so far.
And not to plug the business subsidy policy yet again, but when the employers in Farmington are paying livable wages, people can pay their bills, and this has perhaps an even greater effect on crime rates by stopping the problem before it even starts.
What strategies or policies would you propose to address housing issues facing your community?
I do not consider this to be a major problem in Farmington. We have numerous housing developments in progress on all tiers from workforce to luxury retirement. The city has no significant high-density housing to speak of that would require things like rent control.
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?
I believe that Farmington is a perfect candidate for a transportation hub. The nearest bus terminals are all over 5 miles away, making it prohibitive for most people aside from extreme commutes. Aside from the work commuters, there are residents who have no means to reach a grocery store, which creates food insecurity problems for some that could be alleviated by having an available bus line.
The city should engage with MVTA to expand its routes into Farmington and find out what their requirements are to add a park and ride on one of our major throughways. Our population is already known to travel outside the city for work, so the demographic and capacity should already be present to sustain such a route. This is one area where a lobbyist could help us secure state or federal funding to offset the tax burden of building the hub, as this is a topic that is getting pushed for next year’s legislative session.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
Spend our pennies to save our dollars. Over the past 10 years, Farmington has kicked cans down a road to keep the levy increase minimized. We are now on the cusp of paying the price for that as our parks, trails and streets fall into disrepair and our police department operates on razor thin staffing. The city is viewed as the culprit to our high tax burden, a bit unfairly, when in fact our school district is the larger driver of our tax rate. I’m not here to argue about what the school should or should not do in terms of its levy, but the municipal side of things needs to be able to at least perform necessary maintenance to avoid high-cost repairs.
What will you do to expand Farmington’s tax base?
I have outlined this in my thoughts on business growth in the city. We need a far more balanced residential, commercial, and industrial ratio.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
I think it is time that the city and school board came back together on intergovernmental affairs. From many accounts, the construction of the high school was a tumultuous time between the two groups, and I think they have tread cautiously around one another ever since. The first step towards addressing this question must be to repair that relationship back to a better working status so that we can begin a long-term vision. Without that communication, we have no influence.
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?
There are only two areas that could be considered flexible when talking about city services: municipal liquor and parks and recreation.
Our municipal liquor operations have grown significantly over the last two years with the relocation of the downtown store and are now contributing very meaningful dollars into the city. The only argument against municipal liquor would be if that were blocking a grocery store coming to town, which we have no evidence to suggest that it is. Additionally, the tax revenue generated by a grocery store is typically not large enough to beat out the amount that our liquor stores generate. So, I am in support of maintaining our policy of municipal liquor.
Parks and recreation is an area that requires attention. Until a few months ago, parks and rec had not added any staff since 2006, despite our total park acreage doubling in that time. Our 2040 comprehensive plan also identifies that we currently do not have a long-term funding plan in place to adequately maintain our existing parks and trails, let alone expand them. Our trails have been repeatedly identified as one of Farmington’s main draws, and we need to protect them.
The city has a policy that all new housing developments must allocate some amount of the land to park or green space, and while this is a fiscally responsible way of building new parks and acquiring park lands, we do not do the next step of adding the resources to support those parks. Our long-term funding needs to look at either decommissioning old and out-of-date parks, or adding funding mechanisms, or both.
There is also a very strong push from multiple youth sports associations to add facility space to support their organizations. Schmitz-Maki Arena highlights how expensive it can be to solely maintain these types of facilities, and I would not be in support of building new facilities on the city dime at this time when we have the problems I outlined above. I think there are three fiscally responsible ways of getting them into Farmington: 1) a fully private facility, 2) partnering with a corporate sponsor to co-develop the space, or 3) using the facility as an economic development tool to drive retail into the nearby area, or to support existing retail. If we do fund such facilities for economic development, then the site location is critical, and it would need to be a part of a larger overall development plan where the tax revenue generated by the nearby business offsets the tax burden imposed by the facility.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Farmington?
Our policies are designed to foster any business, since it is one of the weak points of the city, so it is tough to say that anything specifically tries to target minority and female entrepreneurs. That said, it is very important that the city always acknowledges inclusion in its charters and policies. Our minority and female businesspeople need to feel represented, not marginalized, particularly in a city that is 88% white. The meeting table needs to be open to everyone.
What further policies can Farmington adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
The silver lining of so much of our labor force being employed out of town is that many of the workers who previously commuted for work were able to switch to a work from home model. This created some of that desired effect of keeping people within the city limits that helps our local retail. So, the business potential is still present in the city, and perhaps even increased. The main lingering effect of covid is the labor shortage, which I addressed in other questions.
If there is one thing that covid did teach city leadership, it’s the importance of cities staying in extremely tight communication with their business community and learning to be flexible. If there are businesses in town seeking certain exceptions to survive, the city needs to be accommodating rather than restricting whenever possible and safe.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
Farmington lives true to its name as a farming town. People move here because the atmosphere still has a small-town, rural feel to it. I personally moved here because I enjoy driving by green fields and open spaces. I think when we talk about developing large-scale business, a lot of people tend to get heartburn at the thought of their city turning into a concrete jungle. I feel the best way to be judicious about not taking away from that signature Farmington feel is being strict about our green space rules. Today Farmington has roughly 10% of its acreage allocated as park and open space. As the remainder of the city develops, that ratio needs to be either maintained or increased so that the city still has a natural and open feel to it. We should engage wherever possible with the state and county to maintain our natural wetlands and improve large scale park and trail systems (such as the North Creek Greenway). It is possible to fix our tax situation by attracting business, without selling our charm to get there.