Jamie Deitchman
Name: Jamie Deitchman
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone:
Campaign Website: vote4jamie.com
Twitter handle: N/A
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064097739213
Candidate Bio
I worked full-time to put myself through college, earning a degree in Electronics Engineering Technology. Over my career, I’ve gained hands-on experience across IT, electronics, industrial manufacturing, technical support, music production, welding, and structural construction. Today, I work as an electrician. This broad, practical experience across trades and technology gives me a rare, ground-level understanding of how infrastructure and municipal systems actually work.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
Ideally I see myself offering knowledge to the rest of the team in my areas of expertise. The City Council in Forest Lake currently consists of Accountants, Lawyers, Businessmen, and a Lifelong Police Officer. As someone who has worked in the trades, I know a lot about the physical labor and technology involved with repairing and maintaining roads, heavy equipment, and can offer valuable insight. I’m also aware of how large projects tend to turn into gigantic projects, and expect I can offer recommendations early enough in the process to curtail those expenses. Most of our city government’s job is to tend to the city’s properties, and I have that needed knowledge..
What are your top three priorities if elected, and how might they be affected by growing uncertainty around state and federal funding?
My top priority is bringing competitive accountability to major municipal projects, starting with the proposed $40 million Public Works facility. When a single firm conducts the facility audit, determines it can't be repaired, designs the replacement, and bids the construction, taxpayers lose the benefit of competitive bidding. Spending 2.5 times our annual operating budget warrants exploring cost-effective alternatives first. We must also scrutinize line items in the 10-Year Plan—such as $8,000 e-bikes, and a $130,000 lawnmower — to ensure every dollar spent directly serves essential city functions.
What is the biggest challenge facing Forest Lake right now, and where do you see the greatest opportunity?
Unchecked expansion and growth is going to become a big talking point. We’ve already seen residents flood the council chambers regarding newly proposed multi-family dwellings. Forest Lake is in the ideal place for commuters who need to be in either of the cities, far enough out to still feel like a small town, but close enough to commute in less than an hour. Complying with the Metro Council and zoning, maintaining the small town feel, all while respecting property owners’ rights to build on their own land is going to be a balancing act.
How would you characterize the business climate in Forest Lake, and what role should city government play in partnering with the business community to attract jobs, develop the workforce, and address shared challenges?
Forest Lake offers a unique balance: a high quality of life for commuters alongside a strong local business core. City government’s role should be to foster a business-friendly environment by minimizing red tape and streamlining permitting for local entrepreneurs, rather than using taxpayer dollars to pick winners and losers through heavy industrial incentives. The free market drives our commercial landscape best. My focus is on ensuring local businesses thrive while maintaining the small-town residential character that makes Forest Lake desirable
What do you view as the most pressing public safety challenges in your community, and how would you address them?
The Roundabout at Hwy 61 and Broadway is in desperate need of redesign. It is very unfriendly to pedestrians, and it is not intuitive for motorists turning South from Broadway onto HWY 61.
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?
We have to develop within the guidance from the Met Council on developing housing. According to the Housing Policy, we are expected to provide 600 units of low-income housing by 2050. This means apartment buildings or townhouses. Very few people want to see apartment buildings or large developments in their backyard. Spreading out multi-family units to blend in seamlessly within our existing neighborhoods can help alleviate the concerns of large developments taking over once quiet streets. As much as we may dislike it, we will see new apartment buildings in Forest Lake; we must work to keep the impact tolerable.
How would you improve transportation infrastructure and safety for drivers, transit riders, cyclists, and pedestrians in your community?
I believe we already have the tools we need to reduce accidents and incidents here in town. Sending out snow plows to address snow that gets missed because of obstacles such as garbage bins, or cars that didn’t make it out of the street before the plows came. The same with Street cleaners that miss parts of the road, or need to double back to remove debris from intersections that are too wide to be cleaned on a single pass,. Identifying the intersections that require periodic attention to remove plants from blocking the line of sight of drivers. This would go a long way to increasing safety, without adding capital purchases or expense. It would involve more labor, but this is literally the job of public works, and when they are provided with the resources, they do an excellent job.
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?
We need to focus on essential repairs over unnecessary upgrades. With families facing ongoing inflation and tight household budgets, city government must tighten its belt, too. While parks and outdoor spaces are vital to our community, adding half-million-dollar park commitments or concrete upgrades to quiet fishing spots during uncertain economic times is an extravagance we can defer. On major capital investments like the Public Works facility, carrying over $1.2 million in annual interest payments places an unreasonable burden on taxpayers. We must scale projects to meet functional needs without paying for unnecessary extras.
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?
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?
Our current City Council meetings are formatted to allow for public comment and questions at the beginning of the meeting. In practice, the public is not able to voice an informed specific opinion or concern, just guess and hope they recognize what consequences may come. I believe the simple format change to present the information before public comment would result in better engagement, and may even reduce the amount of time our neighbors spend discussing topics at the meeting, which is another concern.
As for transparency, it is my hope that when the city website is updated, and our City Administrator has said it is being worked on, that the calendar entries for each meeting will contain links to the agenda and any documents with pertinent information, such as site plans, or estimates, so that our citizens can come to the meetings informed and prepared.
Finally, our documented plans like the Ten Year Plan, need to have supporting information. Seeing single line items with dollar amounts is like handing your kids a grocery list that says “buy cake ingredients, salad ingredients, and some form of entree” We can do better.
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone:
Campaign Website: vote4jamie.com
Twitter handle: N/A
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064097739213
Candidate Bio
I worked full-time to put myself through college, earning a degree in Electronics Engineering Technology. Over my career, I’ve gained hands-on experience across IT, electronics, industrial manufacturing, technical support, music production, welding, and structural construction. Today, I work as an electrician. This broad, practical experience across trades and technology gives me a rare, ground-level understanding of how infrastructure and municipal systems actually work.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
Ideally I see myself offering knowledge to the rest of the team in my areas of expertise. The City Council in Forest Lake currently consists of Accountants, Lawyers, Businessmen, and a Lifelong Police Officer. As someone who has worked in the trades, I know a lot about the physical labor and technology involved with repairing and maintaining roads, heavy equipment, and can offer valuable insight. I’m also aware of how large projects tend to turn into gigantic projects, and expect I can offer recommendations early enough in the process to curtail those expenses. Most of our city government’s job is to tend to the city’s properties, and I have that needed knowledge..
What are your top three priorities if elected, and how might they be affected by growing uncertainty around state and federal funding?
My top priority is bringing competitive accountability to major municipal projects, starting with the proposed $40 million Public Works facility. When a single firm conducts the facility audit, determines it can't be repaired, designs the replacement, and bids the construction, taxpayers lose the benefit of competitive bidding. Spending 2.5 times our annual operating budget warrants exploring cost-effective alternatives first. We must also scrutinize line items in the 10-Year Plan—such as $8,000 e-bikes, and a $130,000 lawnmower — to ensure every dollar spent directly serves essential city functions.
What is the biggest challenge facing Forest Lake right now, and where do you see the greatest opportunity?
Unchecked expansion and growth is going to become a big talking point. We’ve already seen residents flood the council chambers regarding newly proposed multi-family dwellings. Forest Lake is in the ideal place for commuters who need to be in either of the cities, far enough out to still feel like a small town, but close enough to commute in less than an hour. Complying with the Metro Council and zoning, maintaining the small town feel, all while respecting property owners’ rights to build on their own land is going to be a balancing act.
How would you characterize the business climate in Forest Lake, and what role should city government play in partnering with the business community to attract jobs, develop the workforce, and address shared challenges?
Forest Lake offers a unique balance: a high quality of life for commuters alongside a strong local business core. City government’s role should be to foster a business-friendly environment by minimizing red tape and streamlining permitting for local entrepreneurs, rather than using taxpayer dollars to pick winners and losers through heavy industrial incentives. The free market drives our commercial landscape best. My focus is on ensuring local businesses thrive while maintaining the small-town residential character that makes Forest Lake desirable
What do you view as the most pressing public safety challenges in your community, and how would you address them?
The Roundabout at Hwy 61 and Broadway is in desperate need of redesign. It is very unfriendly to pedestrians, and it is not intuitive for motorists turning South from Broadway onto HWY 61.
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?
We have to develop within the guidance from the Met Council on developing housing. According to the Housing Policy, we are expected to provide 600 units of low-income housing by 2050. This means apartment buildings or townhouses. Very few people want to see apartment buildings or large developments in their backyard. Spreading out multi-family units to blend in seamlessly within our existing neighborhoods can help alleviate the concerns of large developments taking over once quiet streets. As much as we may dislike it, we will see new apartment buildings in Forest Lake; we must work to keep the impact tolerable.
How would you improve transportation infrastructure and safety for drivers, transit riders, cyclists, and pedestrians in your community?
I believe we already have the tools we need to reduce accidents and incidents here in town. Sending out snow plows to address snow that gets missed because of obstacles such as garbage bins, or cars that didn’t make it out of the street before the plows came. The same with Street cleaners that miss parts of the road, or need to double back to remove debris from intersections that are too wide to be cleaned on a single pass,. Identifying the intersections that require periodic attention to remove plants from blocking the line of sight of drivers. This would go a long way to increasing safety, without adding capital purchases or expense. It would involve more labor, but this is literally the job of public works, and when they are provided with the resources, they do an excellent job.
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?
We need to focus on essential repairs over unnecessary upgrades. With families facing ongoing inflation and tight household budgets, city government must tighten its belt, too. While parks and outdoor spaces are vital to our community, adding half-million-dollar park commitments or concrete upgrades to quiet fishing spots during uncertain economic times is an extravagance we can defer. On major capital investments like the Public Works facility, carrying over $1.2 million in annual interest payments places an unreasonable burden on taxpayers. We must scale projects to meet functional needs without paying for unnecessary extras.
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?
- Local Infrastructure & Asset Management: State and county agencies handle regional thoroughfares, but the city of Forest Lake knows which neighborhood streets, intersections, and public facilities actually need attention. Local council members hear directly from residents and can stretch tax dollars further by prioritizing practical repairs over gold-plated replacements.
- Land Use and Zoning: State and regional bodies like the Met Council try to apply blanket policies across the Twin Cities. City government is best positioned to control local zoning, ensuring new residential and commercial growth respects our small-town character while protecting local property rights.
- Fiscal Transparency and Budget Scrutiny: Unlike state or county budgets where local tax dollars get swallowed in massive line items, city government allows direct accountability. We are best positioned to audit line-item spending, demand competitive bidding, and keep local property tax levies under control, which is exactly why I am running.
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?
Our current City Council meetings are formatted to allow for public comment and questions at the beginning of the meeting. In practice, the public is not able to voice an informed specific opinion or concern, just guess and hope they recognize what consequences may come. I believe the simple format change to present the information before public comment would result in better engagement, and may even reduce the amount of time our neighbors spend discussing topics at the meeting, which is another concern.
As for transparency, it is my hope that when the city website is updated, and our City Administrator has said it is being worked on, that the calendar entries for each meeting will contain links to the agenda and any documents with pertinent information, such as site plans, or estimates, so that our citizens can come to the meetings informed and prepared.
Finally, our documented plans like the Ten Year Plan, need to have supporting information. Seeing single line items with dollar amounts is like handing your kids a grocery list that says “buy cake ingredients, salad ingredients, and some form of entree” We can do better.