Patty Hartmann
Name: Patty Hartmann
Public Office Sought: St. Paul City Council Ward 3
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 651-321-1922
Campaign Website: www.patty4ward3.com
Twitter handle: @forhartmann
Facebook Page:
Candidate Bio
I am an accomplished attorney with over 40 years of experience, a long time Saint Paul resident, former City Council candidate, and an engaged resident.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
I will bring a leadership style that is thoughtful, engaging, authentic, and collaborative.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
I will focus on delivering basic municipal government services that exceed expectations, engaging residents, and promoting our city to foster economic opportunity for our residents.
What do you consider the biggest challenge and conversely, the biggest opportunity in St. Paul?
Our biggest challenge right now is that we have leaders who are sacrificing basic municipal services for costly, headline-grabbing projects that do not deliver the promised return. As a result we have failing infrastructure, public safety issues, and fiscal problems that are holding us back. With that said, Saint Paul has so much potential because of our great neighborhoods, beautiful green spaces, and unique commercial areas. If we can improve on the above-mentioned shortcomings, Saint Paul will once again become a destination for people to live and work.
How would you characterize the business climate in St. Paul and what role do you think the city should have in attracting and retaining jobs and new businesses in St. Paul?
The Saint Paul business climate is as frigid as a Minnesota winter. At one time downtown Saint Paul was a hub of commercial activity with iconic corporations such as Burlington Northern Railroad, 3M, West Publishing, Saint Paul Cos, and many others. Many of the major professional service firms have also vacated downtown. Sadly, downtown St. Paul now has more than a 40% vacancy rate. As a consequence of losing so many businesses, we have also lost a number of great longtime restaurants and retailers who can no longer survive due to the sparse number of people now working downtown. As previously stated, we need a municipal government that executes on the basics and then we need to promote our city. My goal, and one of my major campaign promises, is to work to recruit another major employer to downtown Saint Paul. I also believe that when we clean up the downtown area, we will see a renaissance in our commercial business district, fueled by new small businesses.
What are your strategies to address public safety challenges in your community?
I have two main strategies. First, we need to make sure that law enforcement is properly staffed to meet the public safety needs of our city. Right now, they are understaffed. Second, we need to deploy our law enforcement so that their presence is visible and accessible to our residents and businesses. When people feel safe going into our stores, there will be more commerce, businesses will do better, and the presence of more people will create a more vibrant, self-sustaining, safer community.
What ideas do you have to address housing shortages and affordability?
Saint Paul has a large stock of older homes. Another one of my major campaign promises is to create a program to incentivize homeowners and Saint Paul contractors to rehabilitate and refresh our existing housing stock.
St. Paul candidates only: Do you support the rent stabilization ordinance in its current form? If not, what would you like to change?
I don’t support the rent stabilization ordinance. It’s not workable in a dynamic city like Saint Paul and there are other ways to ensure tenants are treated fairly. The ordinance is already disincentivizing maintenance on older apartment buildings and tamping down new investment in affordable housing.
How would you work to improve transportation options in your community, including improved safety for transit riders, pedestrian/bike, and drivers alike?
I support infrastructure that meets the needs of our bikers and walkers. Also, we need to be better stewards of our public resources so that we can take better care of our roads, fill the potholes and plow the streets. With all transportation proposals, we need to make sure that they are effective, efficient, and that they balance policy objectives.
What will you do to expand St. Paul’s tax base?
One of my major campaign promises is to incentivize new investment in the city and work to recruit another major employer to downtown Saint Paul. I also think we need to stop using TIF for development unless it fits a truly exceptional need. Right now our TIF districts are draining our tax revenues. It’s like we’re trying to heat our house in January, while keeping the doors and windows open.
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?
Coordinated trash pick-up can work but the city's plan has been a failure that has resulted in rising costs, lower levels of service and ongoing contract disputes. There are now only a handful of big, national haulers with the locally owned, smaller companies being driven out. More evidence of city leadership's efforts to favor special interests over the needs of residents. We need to cut back the city’s misguided effort to micromanage a service that was better before the city took it over.
Public Office Sought: St. Paul City Council Ward 3
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: 651-321-1922
Campaign Website: www.patty4ward3.com
Twitter handle: @forhartmann
Facebook Page:
Candidate Bio
I am an accomplished attorney with over 40 years of experience, a long time Saint Paul resident, former City Council candidate, and an engaged resident.
What style of leadership would you bring to this position?
I will bring a leadership style that is thoughtful, engaging, authentic, and collaborative.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
I will focus on delivering basic municipal government services that exceed expectations, engaging residents, and promoting our city to foster economic opportunity for our residents.
What do you consider the biggest challenge and conversely, the biggest opportunity in St. Paul?
Our biggest challenge right now is that we have leaders who are sacrificing basic municipal services for costly, headline-grabbing projects that do not deliver the promised return. As a result we have failing infrastructure, public safety issues, and fiscal problems that are holding us back. With that said, Saint Paul has so much potential because of our great neighborhoods, beautiful green spaces, and unique commercial areas. If we can improve on the above-mentioned shortcomings, Saint Paul will once again become a destination for people to live and work.
How would you characterize the business climate in St. Paul and what role do you think the city should have in attracting and retaining jobs and new businesses in St. Paul?
The Saint Paul business climate is as frigid as a Minnesota winter. At one time downtown Saint Paul was a hub of commercial activity with iconic corporations such as Burlington Northern Railroad, 3M, West Publishing, Saint Paul Cos, and many others. Many of the major professional service firms have also vacated downtown. Sadly, downtown St. Paul now has more than a 40% vacancy rate. As a consequence of losing so many businesses, we have also lost a number of great longtime restaurants and retailers who can no longer survive due to the sparse number of people now working downtown. As previously stated, we need a municipal government that executes on the basics and then we need to promote our city. My goal, and one of my major campaign promises, is to work to recruit another major employer to downtown Saint Paul. I also believe that when we clean up the downtown area, we will see a renaissance in our commercial business district, fueled by new small businesses.
What are your strategies to address public safety challenges in your community?
I have two main strategies. First, we need to make sure that law enforcement is properly staffed to meet the public safety needs of our city. Right now, they are understaffed. Second, we need to deploy our law enforcement so that their presence is visible and accessible to our residents and businesses. When people feel safe going into our stores, there will be more commerce, businesses will do better, and the presence of more people will create a more vibrant, self-sustaining, safer community.
What ideas do you have to address housing shortages and affordability?
Saint Paul has a large stock of older homes. Another one of my major campaign promises is to create a program to incentivize homeowners and Saint Paul contractors to rehabilitate and refresh our existing housing stock.
St. Paul candidates only: Do you support the rent stabilization ordinance in its current form? If not, what would you like to change?
I don’t support the rent stabilization ordinance. It’s not workable in a dynamic city like Saint Paul and there are other ways to ensure tenants are treated fairly. The ordinance is already disincentivizing maintenance on older apartment buildings and tamping down new investment in affordable housing.
How would you work to improve transportation options in your community, including improved safety for transit riders, pedestrian/bike, and drivers alike?
I support infrastructure that meets the needs of our bikers and walkers. Also, we need to be better stewards of our public resources so that we can take better care of our roads, fill the potholes and plow the streets. With all transportation proposals, we need to make sure that they are effective, efficient, and that they balance policy objectives.
What will you do to expand St. Paul’s tax base?
One of my major campaign promises is to incentivize new investment in the city and work to recruit another major employer to downtown Saint Paul. I also think we need to stop using TIF for development unless it fits a truly exceptional need. Right now our TIF districts are draining our tax revenues. It’s like we’re trying to heat our house in January, while keeping the doors and windows open.
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?
Coordinated trash pick-up can work but the city's plan has been a failure that has resulted in rising costs, lower levels of service and ongoing contract disputes. There are now only a handful of big, national haulers with the locally owned, smaller companies being driven out. More evidence of city leadership's efforts to favor special interests over the needs of residents. We need to cut back the city’s misguided effort to micromanage a service that was better before the city took it over.