Sandra Feist
0Name: Sandra Feist
Public Office Sought: Minnesota House of Representatives District 39B
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 651-492-8389
Campaign Website: feistforhouse.org
Twitter handle: @SandraFeistMN
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/FeistForHouse
Candidate Bio
I am the current State Representative in District 41B, elected in 2020. I am also an immigration attorney and run my own firm as a Partner at Grell Feist PLC, founded in 2010, where I have eight employees. In addition, I am an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. In my first term, I was the chief author of a number of important bills, including the Veterans Restorative Justice Act, legislation to streamline the “U visa certification” process to protect immigrant victims of serious crimes, and a bill to expand funding for suicide prevention training of school staff. In the 2022 session, I chief authored four bills that were signed into law, including a bill to create some of the strongest and most forward-looking student data privacy protections in the nation, as well as a bill to protect vulnerable immigrant youth by better aligning state and federal immigration law. As an attorney, a small business owner, and a sitting legislator, I am excited to continue to dedicate my skills and insights into the political and legal processes in service to my community.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
First, we need to fully and equitably fund our public schools so that all students have equal access to a top-notch education and are able to fulfill their full potential. This is key in addressing the unacceptable opportunity gap in Minnesota, as well as to training our future workforce.
Second, I am focused on ensuring that our legal and public safety systems are more just and effective. Our legal systems need to be adjusted to ensure that our systems of law and public safety treat all Minnesotans fairly and equally, find more data-driven mechanisms for reducing recidivism, and eliminating the costs of over-incarceration
Finally, I am committed to advancing legislation that protects Minnesota’s natural resources and fights climate change. As a member of the DFL House Climate Action Caucus, I care deeply about climate action policy, including transitioning to renewable energy, reducing fuel emissions, investing in sustainable agriculture practices, and protecting the Boundary Waters. These issues impact the entire state, and all future generations.
How would you characterize the business climate in the East Metro and what role do businesses play in supporting quality of life issues in East Metro communities?
District 39B has a robust mix of residential housing, commercial and industrial businesses and is poised to take advantage of new opportunities created by the pandemic and rise of remote work. As someone who owns a small business and works in our community, I would like to see more office space and amenities in my district. As more small businesses relocate from the city centers and more workers spend at least part of their work week at home, there are great opportunities for small businesses to flourish and create an even more dynamic atmosphere of energy and engagement, not to mention creating more job opportunities for residents.
What role do you think the State should have in attracting and retaining jobs, and what steps would you take to solicit new businesses to and retain existing businesses in the East Metro?
Methods for attracting and retaining jobs are vast and deeply interrelated. On a very basic level, the more cities can do to create attractive, safe roads and neighborhoods the more welcoming they will be to new businesses. Transportation policy is key to attracting and keeping businesses, so that our roads are safe for pedestrians and drivers, and businesses are accessible to all. Investments in affordable housing and policymaking around housing are also key to ensuring that residents have access to the jobs in their area. Lastly, I know that when I moved with my family to this area it was in part for the great schools. Investing in our schools attracts residents to the area where they will invest in the community and build lives.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address our state’s critical labor shortage?
As a small business owner, the main concern I’ve had is around child care and medical leave. The more the state can do to ensure that all workers have access to quality, affordable, stable child care, the more we can ensure that all workers – in particular women – are able to fully participate in the workforce. Any investments in this area are key.
Second, creating a paid family and medical leave program at the state level would be incredibly meaningful to small business owners, who don’t always have the resources to maintain such programs. I know that this would be very valuable to me and my employees, and to many other businesses of a similar size. This is about creating a safety net for workers and business owners, as well as about ensuring that workers who need to take this type of leave don’t need to quit their jobs. It’s about continuity, which is huge for operating a stable, profitable business.
Lastly, it’s important to come back to the basics - we need more affordable housing to ensure that sufficient workers can afford to live and work in our community. I have been gratified to see the cities in 39B investing in affordable housing, as this is key. Related to this is ensuring that residents have access to public transit to access employment opportunities as well as take advantage of places for entertainment and recreation in our area.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals? If so, what steps would you take to understand the impact of a proposal on the many types of businesses in the East Metro and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
As described above, policies expanding access to stable, affordable child care and to ensure paid family and medical leave for all workers are two policies that I as a small business owner believe would be most beneficial to simultaneously support my business growth and my employees’ quality of life. In addition, continuous investment in affordable and plentiful housing with access to transit will be incredibly important to ensuring that the businesses in our community thrive. I would like to continue to hear from employers in the East Metro on what some of their needs are as well, so that they have a voice in State-level employment-related proposals.
Public safety and rising crime rates are of serious concern to the business community and residents. What strategies or policies would you use to address public safety issues?
As a member of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committees in the House over the past term, I have focused much of my time and energy around this question of ensuring public safety for all members of our community. I have focused on juvenile justice as one of the key elements for any public safety initiative. This is an area of policy that can be bipartisan and hugely impactful in helping struggling youth get back on the right path, and keep them off of the bad path in the first place. Investments in prevention, intervention, and mental health and harm reduction for system-involved youth are areas where experts agree we can have the biggest impact. These investments need to look at the “whole child” and take into account issues such as housing instability, involvement in the child welfare system, and transportation challenges - all of which are addressed through the “education support services” programming offered in Hennepin County that I supported through legislation in 2022. I am already working on a comprehensive bill to reform juvenile sentencing statewide, working with experts, stakeholders, and the impacted community to draft a bill that can pass with bipartisan support.
What strategies or policies would you use to address transportation issues? 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?
Transportation should not be simply about getting to and from work. It must also be conceptualized as a tool for accessing entertainment, shopping, etc. Therefore, we need to ensure that transportation is truly functional in terms of flexibility and accessibility. In addition, we need to work with shift-based employers on transit schedules and stops to make public transit a more viable option for workers. This not only addresses labor shortages, but also ultimately addresses climate change through decreased reliance on cars.
What strategies or policies would you use to address housing issues?
Housing is a complex topic, as is exemplified by the fact that housing policy and finance spans numerous committee budgets, including Housing, Tax, and Health and Human Services. In addition, while not directly implicated, housing deeply impacts student performance and is taken into account through policies to address the opportunity gap.
Among the myriad strategies we should take to support housing in our district, we should invest in housing that is mixed-use, enables seniors to age in place, provides opportunities for working from home, and - on the opposite end of the spectrum - facilitates the ability to walk to work. These investments can be supported through tax incentives to support new housing development, as well as to support already-existing affordable housing. Through tax incentives or direct funding, the legislature could create funding for cooperative housing arrangements that make it easier for low-income families to afford purchasing a home, neighborhood revitalization programs to provide funding for repairs by vulnerable residents, and programs to buy and preserve affordable housing.
In addition, we need to support renters and address the underlying issues that create housing insecurity and ultimately homelessness. I was proud to chief author legislation to fund local homelessness prevention programming, which provided one-on-one assistance to individuals and families that experienced homelessness, providing them the resources and skills to maintain housing stability.
What are your priorities for the State’s budget? Are there any services currently provided by the State that you believe should be expanded, cut back or eliminated? Are there new opportunities to share services with other entities?
As I have previously discussed, my priorities center around equitable funding for education, innovating and enhancing public safety, and investing in bold climate action. That said, other policy areas such as housing, transportation, and supports for workers and small business owners are also top of mind as we head into the next term.
What will you do to expand your district’s tax base?
In addition to simply expanding housing density through additional residential housing, including affordable units, we can attract new residents to the district through fully funding our public schools and investing in community amenities, such as our community centers and parks. I hope and expect that businesses and workers will begin to reassess the need to be located directly in city centers and spread out to the suburbs including in the north metro. This presents a great opportunity to expand our tax base through new business development and an expanded local workforce. I look forward to collaborating with partners at the city, county, state, and federal levels in order to identify these types of opportunities in coming years in order to maximize the return on investments in my district.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce, and address the achievement gap?
I chief authored a bill to require “Universal FAFSA” in Minnesota, requiring FAFSA completion for high school graduation. This measure has been instituted in numerous other states, both conservative and liberal, and the result is that more students complete the FAFSA form for federal student aid and then attend post-secondary institutions at higher rates. Minnesota high school graduates left $49 Million in Pell Grants on the table in 2021. This is essentially free money for college that we simply didn’t request. Universal FAFSA is a key priority of advocates for two-year community and technical colleges where students receive training in cutting-edge technology, oftentimes through in-house training with Minnesota companies. Universal FAFSA would provide more college graduates entering the workforce with the up-to-date skills needed by employers.
At the macro level, we must fully fund our schools in order to ensure that every student in Minnesota receives the same quality of education regardless of their zip code. Last term, I introduced bills to tie the education formula to inflation, to reassess how we calculate and allocate compensatory revenue funding targeting low-income youth, and to provide greater and more flexible funding for different types of K-12 programming outside the classroom setting. I am committed to advocating in the legislature for adequate and equitable funding of our public schools in order to address the opportunity gap and ensure that all Minnesota students are able to achieve their full potential.
What is the role of the State in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses?
Both as a female business owner and as an immigration attorney, this is a question that excites me. One approach here is for the government to provide more transparency and education for smaller businesses on how to navigate government procurement processes, which is often a barrier. At the state level, there is already a DEED position to support New American entrepreneurs, and I believe that these types of investments in supporting new entrepreneurs are incredibly valuable to Minnesota’s economic future.
Notably, disadvantaged business entities are often smaller and have a hard time even qualifying for government contracts. Therefore, we need to think about how subcontracting opportunities can be leveraged to allow these businesses to get more exposure.
One final suggestion is to encourage co-working space for industrial and manufacturing businesses, rather than just office based co-working. This would open a lot of opportunities for these types of fledgling businesses to save on start-up costs in the early stages of business growth.
What further policies can the State of Minnesota adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
This is a critical question that we will need to address in the coming sessions. We need to engage on a deep, detailed level with business owners and workers in order to determine which needs are most urgent and whether there are creative ways to address them. The pandemic disrupted the status quo dramatically and we have an opportunity to think in new ways about the fundamental structures of our economy and routines. The state should explore whether there are unique ways to provide services in ways that meet people where they are at rather than focusing on the previous 9-5 office schedule. We know that expectations of workers, families, and businesses have evolved over the pandemic and we should embrace that and look for ways to support the evolution to the new normal.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
I appreciate this opportunity to share my thoughts as a legislator and small business owner. These are challenging times and I aim to provide thoughtful solutions that ensure that our economy can recover and that everyone in Minnesota is able to thrive post-pandemic.
Public Office Sought: Minnesota House of Representatives District 39B
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 651-492-8389
Campaign Website: feistforhouse.org
Twitter handle: @SandraFeistMN
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/FeistForHouse
Candidate Bio
I am the current State Representative in District 41B, elected in 2020. I am also an immigration attorney and run my own firm as a Partner at Grell Feist PLC, founded in 2010, where I have eight employees. In addition, I am an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. In my first term, I was the chief author of a number of important bills, including the Veterans Restorative Justice Act, legislation to streamline the “U visa certification” process to protect immigrant victims of serious crimes, and a bill to expand funding for suicide prevention training of school staff. In the 2022 session, I chief authored four bills that were signed into law, including a bill to create some of the strongest and most forward-looking student data privacy protections in the nation, as well as a bill to protect vulnerable immigrant youth by better aligning state and federal immigration law. As an attorney, a small business owner, and a sitting legislator, I am excited to continue to dedicate my skills and insights into the political and legal processes in service to my community.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
First, we need to fully and equitably fund our public schools so that all students have equal access to a top-notch education and are able to fulfill their full potential. This is key in addressing the unacceptable opportunity gap in Minnesota, as well as to training our future workforce.
Second, I am focused on ensuring that our legal and public safety systems are more just and effective. Our legal systems need to be adjusted to ensure that our systems of law and public safety treat all Minnesotans fairly and equally, find more data-driven mechanisms for reducing recidivism, and eliminating the costs of over-incarceration
Finally, I am committed to advancing legislation that protects Minnesota’s natural resources and fights climate change. As a member of the DFL House Climate Action Caucus, I care deeply about climate action policy, including transitioning to renewable energy, reducing fuel emissions, investing in sustainable agriculture practices, and protecting the Boundary Waters. These issues impact the entire state, and all future generations.
How would you characterize the business climate in the East Metro and what role do businesses play in supporting quality of life issues in East Metro communities?
District 39B has a robust mix of residential housing, commercial and industrial businesses and is poised to take advantage of new opportunities created by the pandemic and rise of remote work. As someone who owns a small business and works in our community, I would like to see more office space and amenities in my district. As more small businesses relocate from the city centers and more workers spend at least part of their work week at home, there are great opportunities for small businesses to flourish and create an even more dynamic atmosphere of energy and engagement, not to mention creating more job opportunities for residents.
What role do you think the State should have in attracting and retaining jobs, and what steps would you take to solicit new businesses to and retain existing businesses in the East Metro?
Methods for attracting and retaining jobs are vast and deeply interrelated. On a very basic level, the more cities can do to create attractive, safe roads and neighborhoods the more welcoming they will be to new businesses. Transportation policy is key to attracting and keeping businesses, so that our roads are safe for pedestrians and drivers, and businesses are accessible to all. Investments in affordable housing and policymaking around housing are also key to ensuring that residents have access to the jobs in their area. Lastly, I know that when I moved with my family to this area it was in part for the great schools. Investing in our schools attracts residents to the area where they will invest in the community and build lives.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address our state’s critical labor shortage?
As a small business owner, the main concern I’ve had is around child care and medical leave. The more the state can do to ensure that all workers have access to quality, affordable, stable child care, the more we can ensure that all workers – in particular women – are able to fully participate in the workforce. Any investments in this area are key.
Second, creating a paid family and medical leave program at the state level would be incredibly meaningful to small business owners, who don’t always have the resources to maintain such programs. I know that this would be very valuable to me and my employees, and to many other businesses of a similar size. This is about creating a safety net for workers and business owners, as well as about ensuring that workers who need to take this type of leave don’t need to quit their jobs. It’s about continuity, which is huge for operating a stable, profitable business.
Lastly, it’s important to come back to the basics - we need more affordable housing to ensure that sufficient workers can afford to live and work in our community. I have been gratified to see the cities in 39B investing in affordable housing, as this is key. Related to this is ensuring that residents have access to public transit to access employment opportunities as well as take advantage of places for entertainment and recreation in our area.
Do you support any specific employment-related proposals? If so, what steps would you take to understand the impact of a proposal on the many types of businesses in the East Metro and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
As described above, policies expanding access to stable, affordable child care and to ensure paid family and medical leave for all workers are two policies that I as a small business owner believe would be most beneficial to simultaneously support my business growth and my employees’ quality of life. In addition, continuous investment in affordable and plentiful housing with access to transit will be incredibly important to ensuring that the businesses in our community thrive. I would like to continue to hear from employers in the East Metro on what some of their needs are as well, so that they have a voice in State-level employment-related proposals.
Public safety and rising crime rates are of serious concern to the business community and residents. What strategies or policies would you use to address public safety issues?
As a member of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committees in the House over the past term, I have focused much of my time and energy around this question of ensuring public safety for all members of our community. I have focused on juvenile justice as one of the key elements for any public safety initiative. This is an area of policy that can be bipartisan and hugely impactful in helping struggling youth get back on the right path, and keep them off of the bad path in the first place. Investments in prevention, intervention, and mental health and harm reduction for system-involved youth are areas where experts agree we can have the biggest impact. These investments need to look at the “whole child” and take into account issues such as housing instability, involvement in the child welfare system, and transportation challenges - all of which are addressed through the “education support services” programming offered in Hennepin County that I supported through legislation in 2022. I am already working on a comprehensive bill to reform juvenile sentencing statewide, working with experts, stakeholders, and the impacted community to draft a bill that can pass with bipartisan support.
What strategies or policies would you use to address transportation issues? 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?
Transportation should not be simply about getting to and from work. It must also be conceptualized as a tool for accessing entertainment, shopping, etc. Therefore, we need to ensure that transportation is truly functional in terms of flexibility and accessibility. In addition, we need to work with shift-based employers on transit schedules and stops to make public transit a more viable option for workers. This not only addresses labor shortages, but also ultimately addresses climate change through decreased reliance on cars.
What strategies or policies would you use to address housing issues?
Housing is a complex topic, as is exemplified by the fact that housing policy and finance spans numerous committee budgets, including Housing, Tax, and Health and Human Services. In addition, while not directly implicated, housing deeply impacts student performance and is taken into account through policies to address the opportunity gap.
Among the myriad strategies we should take to support housing in our district, we should invest in housing that is mixed-use, enables seniors to age in place, provides opportunities for working from home, and - on the opposite end of the spectrum - facilitates the ability to walk to work. These investments can be supported through tax incentives to support new housing development, as well as to support already-existing affordable housing. Through tax incentives or direct funding, the legislature could create funding for cooperative housing arrangements that make it easier for low-income families to afford purchasing a home, neighborhood revitalization programs to provide funding for repairs by vulnerable residents, and programs to buy and preserve affordable housing.
In addition, we need to support renters and address the underlying issues that create housing insecurity and ultimately homelessness. I was proud to chief author legislation to fund local homelessness prevention programming, which provided one-on-one assistance to individuals and families that experienced homelessness, providing them the resources and skills to maintain housing stability.
What are your priorities for the State’s budget? Are there any services currently provided by the State that you believe should be expanded, cut back or eliminated? Are there new opportunities to share services with other entities?
As I have previously discussed, my priorities center around equitable funding for education, innovating and enhancing public safety, and investing in bold climate action. That said, other policy areas such as housing, transportation, and supports for workers and small business owners are also top of mind as we head into the next term.
What will you do to expand your district’s tax base?
In addition to simply expanding housing density through additional residential housing, including affordable units, we can attract new residents to the district through fully funding our public schools and investing in community amenities, such as our community centers and parks. I hope and expect that businesses and workers will begin to reassess the need to be located directly in city centers and spread out to the suburbs including in the north metro. This presents a great opportunity to expand our tax base through new business development and an expanded local workforce. I look forward to collaborating with partners at the city, county, state, and federal levels in order to identify these types of opportunities in coming years in order to maximize the return on investments in my district.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce, and address the achievement gap?
I chief authored a bill to require “Universal FAFSA” in Minnesota, requiring FAFSA completion for high school graduation. This measure has been instituted in numerous other states, both conservative and liberal, and the result is that more students complete the FAFSA form for federal student aid and then attend post-secondary institutions at higher rates. Minnesota high school graduates left $49 Million in Pell Grants on the table in 2021. This is essentially free money for college that we simply didn’t request. Universal FAFSA is a key priority of advocates for two-year community and technical colleges where students receive training in cutting-edge technology, oftentimes through in-house training with Minnesota companies. Universal FAFSA would provide more college graduates entering the workforce with the up-to-date skills needed by employers.
At the macro level, we must fully fund our schools in order to ensure that every student in Minnesota receives the same quality of education regardless of their zip code. Last term, I introduced bills to tie the education formula to inflation, to reassess how we calculate and allocate compensatory revenue funding targeting low-income youth, and to provide greater and more flexible funding for different types of K-12 programming outside the classroom setting. I am committed to advocating in the legislature for adequate and equitable funding of our public schools in order to address the opportunity gap and ensure that all Minnesota students are able to achieve their full potential.
What is the role of the State in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses?
Both as a female business owner and as an immigration attorney, this is a question that excites me. One approach here is for the government to provide more transparency and education for smaller businesses on how to navigate government procurement processes, which is often a barrier. At the state level, there is already a DEED position to support New American entrepreneurs, and I believe that these types of investments in supporting new entrepreneurs are incredibly valuable to Minnesota’s economic future.
Notably, disadvantaged business entities are often smaller and have a hard time even qualifying for government contracts. Therefore, we need to think about how subcontracting opportunities can be leveraged to allow these businesses to get more exposure.
One final suggestion is to encourage co-working space for industrial and manufacturing businesses, rather than just office based co-working. This would open a lot of opportunities for these types of fledgling businesses to save on start-up costs in the early stages of business growth.
What further policies can the State of Minnesota adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
This is a critical question that we will need to address in the coming sessions. We need to engage on a deep, detailed level with business owners and workers in order to determine which needs are most urgent and whether there are creative ways to address them. The pandemic disrupted the status quo dramatically and we have an opportunity to think in new ways about the fundamental structures of our economy and routines. The state should explore whether there are unique ways to provide services in ways that meet people where they are at rather than focusing on the previous 9-5 office schedule. We know that expectations of workers, families, and businesses have evolved over the pandemic and we should embrace that and look for ways to support the evolution to the new normal.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
I appreciate this opportunity to share my thoughts as a legislator and small business owner. These are challenging times and I aim to provide thoughtful solutions that ensure that our economy can recover and that everyone in Minnesota is able to thrive post-pandemic.