Steve Wilson
Name: Steve Wilson
Public Office Sought: Farmington City Council
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 651-470-9499
Website: N/A
Twitter handle: N/A
Facebook page: @wilsonforfarmington
Candidate Bio
I have served the City of Farmington almost since the day I moved here in 2004 whether it was an elected, appointed, or volunteer capacity. I have served on the City Council from 2005-2010, and on the Economic Development Authority from 2013 to current. During my term on the Council we saw record housing, commercial tax base, and infrastructure growth. As an EDA member we have provided over $60,000 in economic development grants to local businesses and nearly $100,000 in federal assisted grants through the Dakota County CDA to local business as well. In addition, I have been on the Farmington Police Department Citizen Academy and gained valuable experience into police and safety operations. With this experience, I am ready to hit the ground running and go to work on the priorities that residents have for the Council. This includes retail and commercial growth, a grocery store, and a prioritization of the budget to ensure that residents have confidence that their tax dollars are being used wisely. Most important for the residents is my commitment to work as a team with the Mayor and Council and focus on the opportunities we have in our community over the next four years.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
How would you characterize the business climate in Farmington and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
I would characterize it as welcoming, supportive of each other and excited to welcome everyone through their doors. Our business community may not be as large as our neighboring communities, yet they do not lack in enthusiasm or support for those they serve and the community as a whole. A vibrant business community is a key indicator of high quality of life and as a Councilmember it is extremely important to not only acknowledge our business community, we need to be more engaged with them. This is critical now more than ever with the pandemic. Our businesses have appreciated our support through the CARES Act, however, also need us to have dialogue with them to understand what else they might need and how we can support their efforts to stay open.
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?
I think the city should have an active role and invite the City to have a seat at the table. I believe that Farmington has historically taken a more passive approach and our neighboring communities might have benefitted from this. As a member of the Economic Development Authority, I have recently been appointed to serve on a Business Retention and Expansion Subcommittee. In this role, we are taking smaller but necessary steps to help understand business needs and growth. In terms of soliciting new business, here are the steps we need to take. I believe we need to retool our economic development team to focus not only on important policy and relationship requirements, but also to work on more actively seeking and soliciting businesses that meet the needs of our residents and support industrial growth – particularly in high tech areas such as data centers and related high tech industries which Farmington would be well suited. As previously noted, we also need to ensure that we have a seat at the table. Next, we need to make sure that our existing business community and the DCR Chamber are aware of our priorities and engage them to be aware of our growth opportunities in Farmington. I believe if we adopt these strategies, we will see a resurgence of activity in Farmington.
Do you support any other 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. Any mandated proposal on minimum wage, sick time, or mandatory scheduling makes and already difficult labor market even more challenging and uncompetitive. Worse yet, we might see the closure of businesses to which would be unacceptable. If a mandate of this type was brought forward in the Minnesota legislature, I would actively work with our legislative delegation to advocate against these measures as I believe it would ultimately hurt our small and mid-sized businesses and make the entire region uncompetitive.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
Public Safety – Farmington has a very safe community and I would continue providing the necessary tools, resources, and training to ensure that it remains this way. As an enhancement, I would like to work as a team with our Dakota County partners such as Lakeville, Rosemount, Apple Valley, and Eagan to identify how we can enhance mental health services and training where a call or situation requires it.
Housing – Farmington is once again seeing housing growth and this growth is in the entry level single family and second stage single family. Where Farmington needs additional housing is in the area of high-quality apartment, and townhomes where the entry points to establishing home ownership will be available at the lower wage-earning levels.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
Having said all of this, Covid-19 threw a wrench into every city budget and the City of Farmington has had to operate in a leaner manner than we might prefer, however, this leaner operation might be an opportunity to evaluate how we develop future budgets.
What will you do to expand Farmington tax base?
As noted in my priorities if elected, we need to be much more proactive in our goal of expanding the tax base. We are seeing growth in housing which will create additional tax revenue however, the expansion needs to happen with retail and commercial/industrial as well. My priority is relatively straightforward. We need to have alignment with the Mayor and Council that this is not only a priority, but one that will require effort on behalf of Council, City Staff and hopefully the support of our Chamber partners to help solicit and identify opportunities for us. One idea that I have is to consider a position at the City where the individual’s sole responsibility is to work on business development (i.e. sales). This role would be a lead relationship partner with landowners, developers and real estate professionals to promote the city and help drive the expansion of our 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?
The City of Farmington and the Farmington Area Public Schools have a very good working relationship and meet frequently. We are fortunate to have Dakota Technical College almost in our backyard and they are an invaluable asset to our Southern Dakota County region. Ideally, our city staff would work even closer with the school district and partners such as Dakota Electric Association, and other regionally recognized Chamber members large and small to partner with the Dakota Technical College and interested businesses to forge a mutual partnership benefitting all. I think a well-developed strategic alliance would be attractive to potential businesses as they would know that a nearby higher institution of learning is training a workforce that could immediate serve them in our community.
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 believe that if you remove “silos” that exist within any city or business and focus strictly on how to best serve the customer, we might be able to arrive at opportunities to scale back or modify. Two services that are somewhat unique to Farmington are the municipal liquor, and the community supported garbage service. Liquor operations do support important park funding needs and other needs within the city. City garbage services are valued by residents so suggesting that this would be an easy opportunity for elimination would be short-sighted. I believe that there are further opportunities to partner with the school district in a strategic manner to determine what, if any, services are overlapping and how we can best serve the residents. Ultimately the 23,000 residents of Farmington need to see value for their tax dollars and if they are not, it should be open for evaluation.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Farmington?
I think the role of the City Council is absolutely critical. The Council must be united on welcoming an increasing number of minority and women owned businesses. The great news for Farmington on this front is that many of our most popular businesses are either minority owned, or women owned. This creates a unique opportunity for Farmington to engage with these owners in partnership with the Council to identify opportunity for growth and diversity. I personally find this to be a very exciting and “low hanging fruit” area of business growth for us.
What further policies can Farmington adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
The Council has worked effectively with Dakota County to help ensure that our local businesses were able to receive funding through the CARES Act. In addition, on the Economic Development Authority, we created a utility bill grant program whereby up to $500 of City utility bill services could be supported through this grant. It is important to recognize that the city of Farmington does not have by itself unlimited resources to support these efforts. Recognizing this, I would like the Council and City as a whole to be much more engaged in asking our business community what they need. Ask them how we can support their efforts to recover. The more we can partner with our business community, the stronger we will be as a whole on the other side.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
If elected, I plan to work hard, and continue to be an engaged member of the community. I will pledge to residents that I will listen to all concerns and be responsive. We may not be in agreement on all issues, however, you will always know where I stand. The Council must work as a team to serve Farmington and I will do my part to ensure that we are united in our effort to help make Farmington an even greater community than it already is. I am excited for our future.
Public Office Sought: Farmington City Council
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 651-470-9499
Website: N/A
Twitter handle: N/A
Facebook page: @wilsonforfarmington
Candidate Bio
I have served the City of Farmington almost since the day I moved here in 2004 whether it was an elected, appointed, or volunteer capacity. I have served on the City Council from 2005-2010, and on the Economic Development Authority from 2013 to current. During my term on the Council we saw record housing, commercial tax base, and infrastructure growth. As an EDA member we have provided over $60,000 in economic development grants to local businesses and nearly $100,000 in federal assisted grants through the Dakota County CDA to local business as well. In addition, I have been on the Farmington Police Department Citizen Academy and gained valuable experience into police and safety operations. With this experience, I am ready to hit the ground running and go to work on the priorities that residents have for the Council. This includes retail and commercial growth, a grocery store, and a prioritization of the budget to ensure that residents have confidence that their tax dollars are being used wisely. Most important for the residents is my commitment to work as a team with the Mayor and Council and focus on the opportunities we have in our community over the next four years.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
- Support our Police, Fire, and all first responders. Even within the discord of our State and nation, our police department is experienced, highly trained, and has a strong record of community-based policing along with active community engagement. Our fire department is also experienced, and well trained to respond to the needs of our residents and be available for mutual aid to neighboring cities. Our community has a very good relationship with our police and fire departments, and I want to ensure that this continues.
- Business Development and Expansion. From my perspective, this is not a buzz-phrase and instead is an action item. With my experience on the Economic Development Authority and previous Council experience, I know that simply saying we want more economic development in Farmington is not good enough. We need to strengthen relationships with our landowners, interested businesses, our Farmington Business Association and the Dakota County Regional Chamber to be in alignment with our goals. Outside the box thinking might be necessary to make things happen and residents expect this. At the same time, it is critical that the Council work as a team to achieve our strategic goals.
- Managing the budget in a fiscally responsible manner. What does this look like? It means that we work to do the following. First, we analyze the full budget and determine what services we are providing that are necessary and which services may not be as high of a priority. For example, is municipal liquor or garbage operations our best approach for tax dollars or would contracted services and business expansion be a better avenue to look at? Second, I would like to see our budget reserves increase from the low 40% range to nearly 50%. What this will help us achieve is a stronger bond rating which in turn will lower the cost of necessary debt service. Third, the Council needs to make decisions with the residents as the highest priority and avoid all unnecessary waste.
How would you characterize the business climate in Farmington and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
I would characterize it as welcoming, supportive of each other and excited to welcome everyone through their doors. Our business community may not be as large as our neighboring communities, yet they do not lack in enthusiasm or support for those they serve and the community as a whole. A vibrant business community is a key indicator of high quality of life and as a Councilmember it is extremely important to not only acknowledge our business community, we need to be more engaged with them. This is critical now more than ever with the pandemic. Our businesses have appreciated our support through the CARES Act, however, also need us to have dialogue with them to understand what else they might need and how we can support their efforts to stay open.
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?
I think the city should have an active role and invite the City to have a seat at the table. I believe that Farmington has historically taken a more passive approach and our neighboring communities might have benefitted from this. As a member of the Economic Development Authority, I have recently been appointed to serve on a Business Retention and Expansion Subcommittee. In this role, we are taking smaller but necessary steps to help understand business needs and growth. In terms of soliciting new business, here are the steps we need to take. I believe we need to retool our economic development team to focus not only on important policy and relationship requirements, but also to work on more actively seeking and soliciting businesses that meet the needs of our residents and support industrial growth – particularly in high tech areas such as data centers and related high tech industries which Farmington would be well suited. As previously noted, we also need to ensure that we have a seat at the table. Next, we need to make sure that our existing business community and the DCR Chamber are aware of our priorities and engage them to be aware of our growth opportunities in Farmington. I believe if we adopt these strategies, we will see a resurgence of activity in Farmington.
Do you support any other 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. Any mandated proposal on minimum wage, sick time, or mandatory scheduling makes and already difficult labor market even more challenging and uncompetitive. Worse yet, we might see the closure of businesses to which would be unacceptable. If a mandate of this type was brought forward in the Minnesota legislature, I would actively work with our legislative delegation to advocate against these measures as I believe it would ultimately hurt our small and mid-sized businesses and make the entire region uncompetitive.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
Public Safety – Farmington has a very safe community and I would continue providing the necessary tools, resources, and training to ensure that it remains this way. As an enhancement, I would like to work as a team with our Dakota County partners such as Lakeville, Rosemount, Apple Valley, and Eagan to identify how we can enhance mental health services and training where a call or situation requires it.
Housing – Farmington is once again seeing housing growth and this growth is in the entry level single family and second stage single family. Where Farmington needs additional housing is in the area of high-quality apartment, and townhomes where the entry points to establishing home ownership will be available at the lower wage-earning levels.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
- Evaluating the entire budget and working with our department heads to assess how the various expenditures within their respective departments are serving the residents. Simply said, are residents getting value from the tax dollars they are providing to us.
- Evaluating the Capital Investment Program (CIP). The good news in this area is that some larger expenditures which were needed for the Fire Department have been completed. Within the CIP is also building maintenance and infrastructure maintenance and we need to make sure that large infrastructure expenses are being maintained in a similar manner as someone would maintain their home.
- Develop a solid 1 to 2 year financial plan along with a medium and longer range financial plan that can effectively guide our decisions and help us manage t
Having said all of this, Covid-19 threw a wrench into every city budget and the City of Farmington has had to operate in a leaner manner than we might prefer, however, this leaner operation might be an opportunity to evaluate how we develop future budgets.
What will you do to expand Farmington tax base?
As noted in my priorities if elected, we need to be much more proactive in our goal of expanding the tax base. We are seeing growth in housing which will create additional tax revenue however, the expansion needs to happen with retail and commercial/industrial as well. My priority is relatively straightforward. We need to have alignment with the Mayor and Council that this is not only a priority, but one that will require effort on behalf of Council, City Staff and hopefully the support of our Chamber partners to help solicit and identify opportunities for us. One idea that I have is to consider a position at the City where the individual’s sole responsibility is to work on business development (i.e. sales). This role would be a lead relationship partner with landowners, developers and real estate professionals to promote the city and help drive the expansion of our 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?
The City of Farmington and the Farmington Area Public Schools have a very good working relationship and meet frequently. We are fortunate to have Dakota Technical College almost in our backyard and they are an invaluable asset to our Southern Dakota County region. Ideally, our city staff would work even closer with the school district and partners such as Dakota Electric Association, and other regionally recognized Chamber members large and small to partner with the Dakota Technical College and interested businesses to forge a mutual partnership benefitting all. I think a well-developed strategic alliance would be attractive to potential businesses as they would know that a nearby higher institution of learning is training a workforce that could immediate serve them in our community.
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 believe that if you remove “silos” that exist within any city or business and focus strictly on how to best serve the customer, we might be able to arrive at opportunities to scale back or modify. Two services that are somewhat unique to Farmington are the municipal liquor, and the community supported garbage service. Liquor operations do support important park funding needs and other needs within the city. City garbage services are valued by residents so suggesting that this would be an easy opportunity for elimination would be short-sighted. I believe that there are further opportunities to partner with the school district in a strategic manner to determine what, if any, services are overlapping and how we can best serve the residents. Ultimately the 23,000 residents of Farmington need to see value for their tax dollars and if they are not, it should be open for evaluation.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Farmington?
I think the role of the City Council is absolutely critical. The Council must be united on welcoming an increasing number of minority and women owned businesses. The great news for Farmington on this front is that many of our most popular businesses are either minority owned, or women owned. This creates a unique opportunity for Farmington to engage with these owners in partnership with the Council to identify opportunity for growth and diversity. I personally find this to be a very exciting and “low hanging fruit” area of business growth for us.
What further policies can Farmington adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
The Council has worked effectively with Dakota County to help ensure that our local businesses were able to receive funding through the CARES Act. In addition, on the Economic Development Authority, we created a utility bill grant program whereby up to $500 of City utility bill services could be supported through this grant. It is important to recognize that the city of Farmington does not have by itself unlimited resources to support these efforts. Recognizing this, I would like the Council and City as a whole to be much more engaged in asking our business community what they need. Ask them how we can support their efforts to recover. The more we can partner with our business community, the stronger we will be as a whole on the other side.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
If elected, I plan to work hard, and continue to be an engaged member of the community. I will pledge to residents that I will listen to all concerns and be responsive. We may not be in agreement on all issues, however, you will always know where I stand. The Council must work as a team to serve Farmington and I will do my part to ensure that we are united in our effort to help make Farmington an even greater community than it already is. I am excited for our future.