Paul Langenfeld
Name: Paul Langenfeld
Public Office Sought: St. Paul Mayor
Campaign Phone: 651-491-8410
Campaign Website: PaulForStPaul.com
Twitter Handle: @PaulForStPaul
Facebook: Paul Langenfeld for St Paul Mayor
Candidate Bio
As a native Minnesotan and proud son of a World War II veteran, Paul Langenfeld has called Saint Paul his home for the past 40 years. Paul’s dedication to our community runs deep. He is the founder and President of the Langenfeld Foundation (est. 2006), an organization dedicated to improving the lives of those with developmental disabilities through increased access to opportunity. Paul holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Saint Thomas and has received many awards for his public service. Today, he remains firmly committed to the people of the City of Saint Paul and as your Mayor, will serve to be a catalyst to bring our community together to strengthen our city in effort to create more opportunity for everyone.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
How would you characterize the business climate in St. Paul and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
While major employers and multinational corporations continue to weather the pandemic economy well, Saint Paul’s small business sector isn’t as fortunate. Without a healthy / vibrant small business sector, the quality of life in our community is negatively impacted. In such situations, a community can expect to experience less economic opportunity and face additional hurdles in efforts to retain a competitive workforce. Inversely, a vibrant small business sector provides increased economic opportunity, creates local wealth, and provides a strong job market for all.
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, St. Paul?
One of the primary responsibilities of a city that desires to attract / retain a strong business sector (hence good jobs), is to identify and reduce any negative impacts caused by the city that are currently weighing upon the St. Paul business sector. Though the city’s roll is not to create jobs, it does play a role in whether we stand as a pro-business environment (conducive to business / job growth) or a challenging business environment where businesses are tempted to look to other cities for opportunities. Everything must be looked at… from public safety (crime rates), workforce quality, current condition of infrastructure (roads, public transportation, parks, and utilities), time in the regulatory/permitting processes, and overall tax burden upon a small business all become key issues that can help us or hurt us in our efforts to strengthen opportunity in our City.
Step #1: Evaluate how competitive the city is to attracting / retain both businesses and their corresponding jobs. Engage with large and small employers to help identify challenges.
Step #2: Quickly address and resolve any identified opportunities for improvement.
Step #3: Empower an economic development team with the data and tools needed to attract/retain a vibrant business community.
Do you support any other specific employment-related proposals in St. Paul (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 St. Paul and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
No.
The key to building/supporting a vibrant business sector (especially our small businesses) is to identify and reduce adverse economic impacts upon our business community caused in part by actions of the city or other government body. Increasing cost burdens via mandates will only serve to make our small business sector less competitive in a globally competitive economy. While multinational companies and chain stores are afforded greater flexibility in how they are able to mitigate increased regulatory cost burdens, independent small businesses are not afforded the same scale/capacity and will not have the flexibility to shift costs (labor) overseas where such mandates may not exist.
Rather than mandates, the City should look at programs that incentivize a competitive economy, such as a “buy local” program that connects large company purchasing demand to smaller corporate suppliers.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
Public Safety:
Housing:
Transportation:
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
What will you do to expand St. Paul’s tax base?
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
Attracting/retaining/developing an educated workforce is of key importance if the city desires to increase access to economic opportunity for all the citizens of Saint Paul. While the city looks to the School Board leadership for educational policy initiatives, it is important for city leaders to be a catalyst in establishing ongoing communication between the city, our School Board leadership, the community, our larger employers (including economic development efforts with potential corporate relocations), and the state (as needed). Remaining in continual communication with local business leaders will help navigate the everevolving workforce needs of our business partners. Helping our business leaders to connect with the appropriate leadership teams can create vital synergies that work to increase the competitiveness of our community. This could mean increasing access to job shadowing and internship opportunities (including with the city), promotion of professional trade occupations, and assisting trade schools to match the labor service demands of the community more efficiently and perhaps introduce an expedited professional certification program for industry specific technicians.
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?
First, a thorough review of the many services the city provides to the community should be completed. Such an effort will help us to prioritize our focus upon those services that are the most important while eliminating wasteful spending on redundant or less important services that may no longer be needed or should be delivered by other entities.
What is the role of the Mayor in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in St. Paul?
The Mayor has many tools available to the office to foster increased minority and women owned business growth. At minimum, the Mayor should strive to support an entrepreneurial mindset throughout the entire community, especially to those who share this same passion for economic opportunity within the minority and women owned business community. Taking a business from just an idea to a successful reality is challenging. A Mayor who is passionate about entrepreneurism, who can leverage both public and private sector resources to inspire, develop, train, connect, and expand a locally inspired -- locally grown business, can have a powerfully positive impact upon, not just our minority and women owned businesses, but throughout the entire community of people who are truly seeking more economic opportunity.
What further policies can St. Paul adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
Eliminate policies that are shutting down our small businesses. Stop picking winners and losers by determining who is essential and who is not.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
Formerly a Vice President of the Highland District Council board of directors, Paul Langenfeld was a visionary leader for community involvement and bringing unity amongst diverse groups.
Public Office Sought: St. Paul Mayor
Campaign Phone: 651-491-8410
Campaign Website: PaulForStPaul.com
Twitter Handle: @PaulForStPaul
Facebook: Paul Langenfeld for St Paul Mayor
Candidate Bio
As a native Minnesotan and proud son of a World War II veteran, Paul Langenfeld has called Saint Paul his home for the past 40 years. Paul’s dedication to our community runs deep. He is the founder and President of the Langenfeld Foundation (est. 2006), an organization dedicated to improving the lives of those with developmental disabilities through increased access to opportunity. Paul holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Saint Thomas and has received many awards for his public service. Today, he remains firmly committed to the people of the City of Saint Paul and as your Mayor, will serve to be a catalyst to bring our community together to strengthen our city in effort to create more opportunity for everyone.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
- Increasing access to economic opportunities and quality jobs for our community.
- Attracting/retaining a vibrant workforce.
- Strengthening public safety programs to provide safer streets for our neighborhoods and businesses.
How would you characterize the business climate in St. Paul and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
While major employers and multinational corporations continue to weather the pandemic economy well, Saint Paul’s small business sector isn’t as fortunate. Without a healthy / vibrant small business sector, the quality of life in our community is negatively impacted. In such situations, a community can expect to experience less economic opportunity and face additional hurdles in efforts to retain a competitive workforce. Inversely, a vibrant small business sector provides increased economic opportunity, creates local wealth, and provides a strong job market for all.
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, St. Paul?
One of the primary responsibilities of a city that desires to attract / retain a strong business sector (hence good jobs), is to identify and reduce any negative impacts caused by the city that are currently weighing upon the St. Paul business sector. Though the city’s roll is not to create jobs, it does play a role in whether we stand as a pro-business environment (conducive to business / job growth) or a challenging business environment where businesses are tempted to look to other cities for opportunities. Everything must be looked at… from public safety (crime rates), workforce quality, current condition of infrastructure (roads, public transportation, parks, and utilities), time in the regulatory/permitting processes, and overall tax burden upon a small business all become key issues that can help us or hurt us in our efforts to strengthen opportunity in our City.
Step #1: Evaluate how competitive the city is to attracting / retain both businesses and their corresponding jobs. Engage with large and small employers to help identify challenges.
Step #2: Quickly address and resolve any identified opportunities for improvement.
Step #3: Empower an economic development team with the data and tools needed to attract/retain a vibrant business community.
Do you support any other specific employment-related proposals in St. Paul (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 St. Paul and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
No.
The key to building/supporting a vibrant business sector (especially our small businesses) is to identify and reduce adverse economic impacts upon our business community caused in part by actions of the city or other government body. Increasing cost burdens via mandates will only serve to make our small business sector less competitive in a globally competitive economy. While multinational companies and chain stores are afforded greater flexibility in how they are able to mitigate increased regulatory cost burdens, independent small businesses are not afforded the same scale/capacity and will not have the flexibility to shift costs (labor) overseas where such mandates may not exist.
Rather than mandates, the City should look at programs that incentivize a competitive economy, such as a “buy local” program that connects large company purchasing demand to smaller corporate suppliers.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
Public Safety:
- Businesses (and the community) cannot thrive if customers do not feel safe leaving their home to shop or simply enjoy a safe night out on the town.
- If criminals feel safe… citizens won’t feel (or be) safe.
- If citizens feel safe… criminals won’t feel (or be) safe and will feel compelled to find another city to “work” in.
- We must choose between who we want to feel safe on our streets. I vote that our citizens should be the ones to feel safe.
- We need to bring back common sense to our police department and work with our peace officers to bring back safe streets. I’m committed to safe streets!
Housing:
- Housing costs are rising because of a multitude of different factors. You certainly have increases in demand (as more people immigrate into the country and as the large Millennial generation buys their first home), increased cost of materials, increases in labor costs, increases in energy cost, increases in health care cost, increases in insurance cost, increases in regulatory cost, etc. The city must take a fresh look at how our own policies (and permitting process) are impacting the cost of new construction. Many of the other costs we will have zero control over. We must look at how we currently incentivize (or not) the development of new housing and how multi-income housing can be utilized in our community. It’s time to think outside of the box and consider that the solutions of the past may not be the solutions that lead us into the future. As your Mayor, I will lead this discussion.
Transportation:
- How we view transportation today will likely be viewed quite differently in the future. As technology continues to evolve, we can expect ongoing changes in how workers commute to their jobs and how children get to school. Even rush hour patterns have changed in part due to flexible work schedules and workers performing their jobs remotely from home. One thread remains consistent… the current service capacity of and condition of our roads, and bridges has its challenges. Like so many other cities, our infrastructure is experiencing a growing need for improvement, and it will take funding along with focused initiative. We need to identify a longterm plan to win more grant opportunities to fund our ongoing infrastructure needs given that additional funding may becoming available to the city from recently passed infrastructure legislation. Increases in taxes or fees should be viewed with caution as it works to make the Saint Paul business community less competitive.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
- Outstanding Public Safety (Fire / Police)
- Improving Infrastructure / Public Works
- Improving Opportunity - Economic Development/Redevelopment - Serving Citizens - Efficient City Services
What will you do to expand St. Paul’s tax base?
- Before deciding where best to invest public resources to potentially expand the city’s tax base, it may be appropriate to perform an “Economic MRI” of sorts. Let’s fully understand the city’s current revenue streams and identify which areas of the community are the most economically potent in the bigger picture. Let’s determine which types of development are creating the most community wealth and then prioritize more of what works and less of what doesn’t. This type of information will help focus all stakeholders to make better growth policy choices.
- At minimum, we should expand upon redevelopment efforts that provide opportunities to reinvest in our aging economic corridors to bring back a level of new vitality, growth, and increased commerce. Review incentives that encourage private development to help expedite long term redevelopment priorities.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
Attracting/retaining/developing an educated workforce is of key importance if the city desires to increase access to economic opportunity for all the citizens of Saint Paul. While the city looks to the School Board leadership for educational policy initiatives, it is important for city leaders to be a catalyst in establishing ongoing communication between the city, our School Board leadership, the community, our larger employers (including economic development efforts with potential corporate relocations), and the state (as needed). Remaining in continual communication with local business leaders will help navigate the everevolving workforce needs of our business partners. Helping our business leaders to connect with the appropriate leadership teams can create vital synergies that work to increase the competitiveness of our community. This could mean increasing access to job shadowing and internship opportunities (including with the city), promotion of professional trade occupations, and assisting trade schools to match the labor service demands of the community more efficiently and perhaps introduce an expedited professional certification program for industry specific technicians.
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?
First, a thorough review of the many services the city provides to the community should be completed. Such an effort will help us to prioritize our focus upon those services that are the most important while eliminating wasteful spending on redundant or less important services that may no longer be needed or should be delivered by other entities.
What is the role of the Mayor in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in St. Paul?
The Mayor has many tools available to the office to foster increased minority and women owned business growth. At minimum, the Mayor should strive to support an entrepreneurial mindset throughout the entire community, especially to those who share this same passion for economic opportunity within the minority and women owned business community. Taking a business from just an idea to a successful reality is challenging. A Mayor who is passionate about entrepreneurism, who can leverage both public and private sector resources to inspire, develop, train, connect, and expand a locally inspired -- locally grown business, can have a powerfully positive impact upon, not just our minority and women owned businesses, but throughout the entire community of people who are truly seeking more economic opportunity.
What further policies can St. Paul adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
Eliminate policies that are shutting down our small businesses. Stop picking winners and losers by determining who is essential and who is not.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
Formerly a Vice President of the Highland District Council board of directors, Paul Langenfeld was a visionary leader for community involvement and bringing unity amongst diverse groups.