Aiden VanBeck
Name: Aiden VanBeck
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 952-807-1114
Campaign Website: www.vanbeck.org
Twitter handle: @AidenVanBeck
Facebook Page:
Candidate Bio
As the youngest candidate for any position in the South Metro area, I have the freshest background in the policy-making landscape. Additionally, I have more than a decade of experience in high-level mathematics, physics, and statistics: all of which supplement nicely with the day-to-day engineering & financial tasks of civic duty. When it comes to negotiations and representing the city in a public capacity, I know my ability to be direct in saying exactly what is desired by Lakeville will provide excellent leverage for the citizenry. Most importantly, my youth will give Lakeville the most committed, healthy, and able leader which can be had.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
Lakeville requires a mayor who is iron-willed and able to push through the public’s voice at any given moment. By maintaining high-endurance and loyalty, I will bring an honorable style of leadership which maintains and launches the opinions of the citizenry over close-minded bureaucrats. This will best suit all of Lakeville - as the opinions of the citizenry matter more than anything else for applied policy implementation.
What are your top three priorities if elected, and how might they be affected by growing uncertainty around state and federal funding?
What is the biggest challenge facing Lakeville right now, and where do you see the greatest opportunity?
Project and planning incompetency poses the most significant risk to the city’s finances, and therefore the city as a whole. Recently, approved projects have accounted for more than 3% of the city’s tax revenues - costs rising due to services charging more than the worth of the project. One of these projects is the city’s creation of a basic polymer & metallic jungle gym whose cost is just north of $400,000. This jungle gym easily could have cost less than half of that price if it was fabricated mostly from timber and supported with metallic squares when needed. I would take personal oversight of these types of projects to ensure spending is minimized at every single point possible, and I would ensure that the providers of services do not cheap-out on the citizens of Lakeville.
Additionally, the city’s planning for future invasive business (e.g. data centers) is not just significantly unpopular, but would also risk natural resource health in the greater Lakeville area, and this risk would need to be backed up by further clean-up instrumentation and tools. I would make it impossible for data centers to be established within Lakeville so that the city does not need to worry about pre-emptive clean-up revenue allocations.
Now, an excellent opportunity for Lakeville arises from the resources which can be pulled from the greater Minnesota revenue pools. By acquiring grants and zero interest bonds, the city would have the ability to maintain stable finances for long-term planning; however, this will only be possible if the mayor and council have the gusto to take financial requests to the state capitol building - something which I would commit to every month of the year.
How would you characterize the business climate in Lakeville, and what role should city government play in partnering with the business community to attract jobs, develop the workforce, and address shared challenges?
The business climate in Lakeville comes off as stable. And, so long as it continues to be stable, any interference with businesses should remain at their current rates and magnitudes. This does not mean that just any business should have the ability to pop-up in Lakeville: only those businesses which can benefit the city without upsetting the natural space and moral structure would be allowed, per a newly-amended city code.
Historically, the council has taken it upon themselves to give out tax abatements to businesses which operate within the city. This is a clear path away from the natural capitalist tendencies we expect for a competitive and free market. By removing these neo-oligarchic practices, the city of Lakeville can expect higher quality businesses, ones which provide excellent conditions for employees, and higher annual revenue-keep for the city budget. Final implementation of this plan would be codified to avoid future city-sponsored bailouts for failing businesses.
What do you view as the most pressing public safety challenges in your community, and how would you address them?
Lakeville is one of the safest cities in all of Minnesota as it relates to violent crime. The thing which most threatens public safety at this current time is the city code. By maintaining a city code full of useless, diffident, or unconstitutional laws, the city is simply trying to create as many bad interactions with its own citizens as possible. Instead of criminalizing honest people, the code should be adjusted to accurately reflect what the majority population expects from its lawbook. City code consolidation and removal of chaff will result in a city leaning more on liberty & honor than authoritarianism.
What ideas do you have to address housing shortages and affordability, and how do you view the role of rent control policies in that process?
Incurred costs make affordability less likely for homeowners and renters alike. So, by reducing incurred costs, it naturally follows that affordability will increase. Incurred costs consist of local tax, state tax, utility billing, and auxiliary costs. The council and mayor are directly capable of lowering local and utility costs - these costs would be reduced by introduction of supplementary revenues through large city events. On the periphery of the council and mayor’s reach is state tax. Although the legislature is responsible for the annual state levy (established every two years), the mayor and council can influence the decisions made through guidance of state representatives on policies benefitting Lakeville. Such policies would include grants and intelligent state spending. All of this together would lower incurred costs, thus affordability would improve.
Unfortunately, some unpatriotic and incompetent owners of housing conglomerates & landlords would use this affordability window to increase profit margin. It is in the natural interest of the citizens of Lakeville that such acts be cast away through popular city code amendments. Considering that the popular decision is made, direct rent controls would be placed on those individuals who are not swayed by soft adjustments to the code.
How would you improve transportation infrastructure and safety for drivers, transit riders, cyclists, and pedestrians in your community?
Previous councils have created an arterial road layout which is less efficient for cross-city transport and would require massive uprooting of homes to physically soothe. Without spending hundreds of millions, the city would have a few adjustments made for general infrastructure support: city-sponsored asphalt-choice studies through the University of Minnesota & University of St. Thomas, heavy traffic ban on Kenwood Trl, Dodd Blvd, 202nd St W, 160th St W, and minor neighborhood roads, and allowance of E-bike travel on sidewalks - guaranteed through code amendments. These changes would increase road life and disallow the normalization of annual road services. Altogether, these changes would cost the citizens of Lakeville no more than $20,000.
Residential property owners across the region are feeling significant strain from rising property tax bills. How would you approach balancing fiscal responsibility with the demand for services when setting the city levy?
When living in one of the safest cities in Minnesota, spending does not have to be increased by millions on an annual basis for EMS. It must also be considered that recent housing bans for Lakeville will allow for a pause on unsustainable levy growth - as the population growth will slow. Since EMS accounts for nearly half of spending from local tax revenues, pausing its spending growth will allow for city revenue to outweigh annual expenditures. This will allow for the city to maintain current EMS standards, but it will bring a net-zero change to any tax revenue allocations for this particular category of spending.
Additionally, negotiations with state representatives by the council and myself will bring state tax levies for Lakeville to the net-zero change goal. These negotiations would concern state budget changes, and assisting in these changes will partially relieve the citizenry of state taxation in Lakeville.
What are the two or three issues where you believe city government is best positioned to lead — and why the city rather than the state or county?
The city, as embodied by the mayor and council, should express the moral standards its citizens expect. It is evident from state actions that their moral compasses do not know which direction to point; only a locally-scaled morality can bring goodness and maintain goodness for Lakeville, the youth, and the citizenry as a whole. I am best positioned to push for goodness in Lakeville as I do not possess the corruption held by the incumbents running for office in Lakeville, and I also try to follow in line as much as possible with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
On a separate note, the services the city provides must maintain organizational excellence. This excellence should focus on efficiency, discipline, and passion for the people they serve. These services include anything from the city government, to law enforcement, to water provisions. By maintaining these three tenets - and inherent ones which are unmentioned - the city‘s services will be seen as completely reliable for the citizens they work for.
What does real taxpayer transparency look like to you, and what specific steps would you take to achieve it — both in terms of financial reporting and public engagement?
Current standards for Lakeville make it an excellent city for acquiring spending information. Projects are duly logged, levies are well-registered, and previous spending can be discovered through the internet or direct request. The archive will be improved by providing an easily-reachable repository for historical records going back more than the current standard of four years for certain categories. Without the transparency that was established by previous councils, I would have more difficulty in creating effective policy theories with respect to the city’s finances. As mayor, these transparency standards would continue.
Now, there is a difference between transparency to the public and the information which the public sees. Direct door-to-door information delivery is the best way to alert the public to spending notices. These notices are normally brought within the city’s magazine, but a separate table of balances will be provided for deeper insight for those interested in exact metrics of city spending.
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 952-807-1114
Campaign Website: www.vanbeck.org
Twitter handle: @AidenVanBeck
Facebook Page:
Candidate Bio
As the youngest candidate for any position in the South Metro area, I have the freshest background in the policy-making landscape. Additionally, I have more than a decade of experience in high-level mathematics, physics, and statistics: all of which supplement nicely with the day-to-day engineering & financial tasks of civic duty. When it comes to negotiations and representing the city in a public capacity, I know my ability to be direct in saying exactly what is desired by Lakeville will provide excellent leverage for the citizenry. Most importantly, my youth will give Lakeville the most committed, healthy, and able leader which can be had.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
Lakeville requires a mayor who is iron-willed and able to push through the public’s voice at any given moment. By maintaining high-endurance and loyalty, I will bring an honorable style of leadership which maintains and launches the opinions of the citizenry over close-minded bureaucrats. This will best suit all of Lakeville - as the opinions of the citizenry matter more than anything else for applied policy implementation.
What are your top three priorities if elected, and how might they be affected by growing uncertainty around state and federal funding?
- City code consolidation is seldom considered by those who have lived under the same laws, sections, and clauses for most of their lives; but, consolidation of unnecessary bureaucracies and elimination of laws of malintent will result in a Lakeville not affronted by codified evil or cloudy rules, but a Lakeville which can profess liberty and leave a standard of righteousness that will promote a healthy civic-living situation for the entire citizenry.
- Preservation and cleansing of Lakeville’s beautiful natural resources remains as one of the public’s top priorities, and one of mine as well. By keeping the land we live on clean of repugnant material, Lakeville will provide the youth with the best natural environment which Minnesota can provide. By keeping the waters we live by free of waste and trash, Lakeville will extend its cultural reach of lake and pond activities to future generations. Maintaining our natural resources now will ensure that they do not contribute to financial burdens in our future.
- The primary mover of local economic activity is the city budget. By creating a self-supporting city budget, Lakeville will overcome its current debts and beat the expenditures which pile up every year. Lakeville’s many untapped recreational spaces will provide the city with revenue boosts in the form of large events. These events will offset the operating costs that the city incurs. A self-supporting city budget would imply a shrinking reliance on federal and state aid, and it would simultaneously allow for a net-zero change in any residential or commercial property tax.
What is the biggest challenge facing Lakeville right now, and where do you see the greatest opportunity?
Project and planning incompetency poses the most significant risk to the city’s finances, and therefore the city as a whole. Recently, approved projects have accounted for more than 3% of the city’s tax revenues - costs rising due to services charging more than the worth of the project. One of these projects is the city’s creation of a basic polymer & metallic jungle gym whose cost is just north of $400,000. This jungle gym easily could have cost less than half of that price if it was fabricated mostly from timber and supported with metallic squares when needed. I would take personal oversight of these types of projects to ensure spending is minimized at every single point possible, and I would ensure that the providers of services do not cheap-out on the citizens of Lakeville.
Additionally, the city’s planning for future invasive business (e.g. data centers) is not just significantly unpopular, but would also risk natural resource health in the greater Lakeville area, and this risk would need to be backed up by further clean-up instrumentation and tools. I would make it impossible for data centers to be established within Lakeville so that the city does not need to worry about pre-emptive clean-up revenue allocations.
Now, an excellent opportunity for Lakeville arises from the resources which can be pulled from the greater Minnesota revenue pools. By acquiring grants and zero interest bonds, the city would have the ability to maintain stable finances for long-term planning; however, this will only be possible if the mayor and council have the gusto to take financial requests to the state capitol building - something which I would commit to every month of the year.
How would you characterize the business climate in Lakeville, and what role should city government play in partnering with the business community to attract jobs, develop the workforce, and address shared challenges?
The business climate in Lakeville comes off as stable. And, so long as it continues to be stable, any interference with businesses should remain at their current rates and magnitudes. This does not mean that just any business should have the ability to pop-up in Lakeville: only those businesses which can benefit the city without upsetting the natural space and moral structure would be allowed, per a newly-amended city code.
Historically, the council has taken it upon themselves to give out tax abatements to businesses which operate within the city. This is a clear path away from the natural capitalist tendencies we expect for a competitive and free market. By removing these neo-oligarchic practices, the city of Lakeville can expect higher quality businesses, ones which provide excellent conditions for employees, and higher annual revenue-keep for the city budget. Final implementation of this plan would be codified to avoid future city-sponsored bailouts for failing businesses.
What do you view as the most pressing public safety challenges in your community, and how would you address them?
Lakeville is one of the safest cities in all of Minnesota as it relates to violent crime. The thing which most threatens public safety at this current time is the city code. By maintaining a city code full of useless, diffident, or unconstitutional laws, the city is simply trying to create as many bad interactions with its own citizens as possible. Instead of criminalizing honest people, the code should be adjusted to accurately reflect what the majority population expects from its lawbook. City code consolidation and removal of chaff will result in a city leaning more on liberty & honor than authoritarianism.
What ideas do you have to address housing shortages and affordability, and how do you view the role of rent control policies in that process?
Incurred costs make affordability less likely for homeowners and renters alike. So, by reducing incurred costs, it naturally follows that affordability will increase. Incurred costs consist of local tax, state tax, utility billing, and auxiliary costs. The council and mayor are directly capable of lowering local and utility costs - these costs would be reduced by introduction of supplementary revenues through large city events. On the periphery of the council and mayor’s reach is state tax. Although the legislature is responsible for the annual state levy (established every two years), the mayor and council can influence the decisions made through guidance of state representatives on policies benefitting Lakeville. Such policies would include grants and intelligent state spending. All of this together would lower incurred costs, thus affordability would improve.
Unfortunately, some unpatriotic and incompetent owners of housing conglomerates & landlords would use this affordability window to increase profit margin. It is in the natural interest of the citizens of Lakeville that such acts be cast away through popular city code amendments. Considering that the popular decision is made, direct rent controls would be placed on those individuals who are not swayed by soft adjustments to the code.
How would you improve transportation infrastructure and safety for drivers, transit riders, cyclists, and pedestrians in your community?
Previous councils have created an arterial road layout which is less efficient for cross-city transport and would require massive uprooting of homes to physically soothe. Without spending hundreds of millions, the city would have a few adjustments made for general infrastructure support: city-sponsored asphalt-choice studies through the University of Minnesota & University of St. Thomas, heavy traffic ban on Kenwood Trl, Dodd Blvd, 202nd St W, 160th St W, and minor neighborhood roads, and allowance of E-bike travel on sidewalks - guaranteed through code amendments. These changes would increase road life and disallow the normalization of annual road services. Altogether, these changes would cost the citizens of Lakeville no more than $20,000.
Residential property owners across the region are feeling significant strain from rising property tax bills. How would you approach balancing fiscal responsibility with the demand for services when setting the city levy?
When living in one of the safest cities in Minnesota, spending does not have to be increased by millions on an annual basis for EMS. It must also be considered that recent housing bans for Lakeville will allow for a pause on unsustainable levy growth - as the population growth will slow. Since EMS accounts for nearly half of spending from local tax revenues, pausing its spending growth will allow for city revenue to outweigh annual expenditures. This will allow for the city to maintain current EMS standards, but it will bring a net-zero change to any tax revenue allocations for this particular category of spending.
Additionally, negotiations with state representatives by the council and myself will bring state tax levies for Lakeville to the net-zero change goal. These negotiations would concern state budget changes, and assisting in these changes will partially relieve the citizenry of state taxation in Lakeville.
What are the two or three issues where you believe city government is best positioned to lead — and why the city rather than the state or county?
The city, as embodied by the mayor and council, should express the moral standards its citizens expect. It is evident from state actions that their moral compasses do not know which direction to point; only a locally-scaled morality can bring goodness and maintain goodness for Lakeville, the youth, and the citizenry as a whole. I am best positioned to push for goodness in Lakeville as I do not possess the corruption held by the incumbents running for office in Lakeville, and I also try to follow in line as much as possible with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
On a separate note, the services the city provides must maintain organizational excellence. This excellence should focus on efficiency, discipline, and passion for the people they serve. These services include anything from the city government, to law enforcement, to water provisions. By maintaining these three tenets - and inherent ones which are unmentioned - the city‘s services will be seen as completely reliable for the citizens they work for.
What does real taxpayer transparency look like to you, and what specific steps would you take to achieve it — both in terms of financial reporting and public engagement?
Current standards for Lakeville make it an excellent city for acquiring spending information. Projects are duly logged, levies are well-registered, and previous spending can be discovered through the internet or direct request. The archive will be improved by providing an easily-reachable repository for historical records going back more than the current standard of four years for certain categories. Without the transparency that was established by previous councils, I would have more difficulty in creating effective policy theories with respect to the city’s finances. As mayor, these transparency standards would continue.
Now, there is a difference between transparency to the public and the information which the public sees. Direct door-to-door information delivery is the best way to alert the public to spending notices. These notices are normally brought within the city’s magazine, but a separate table of balances will be provided for deeper insight for those interested in exact metrics of city spending.