Okay.
All right. Well, good afternoon and welcome. It's great. It's a real privilege to be able to host the candidate forum.
With me is serve views. There's a candidate for a company commissioner.
Sir, do you want to introduce yourself and let us know what your, uh, what your campaign is all about?
Sure. Thanks for the chamber for setting this up and for having me. And thank you, Mike, for doing this.
I am Sarah Flampeuse. I am running for Carleton County Commissioner District 1.
Just a little bit about me is I have was born and raised in this community. I am an 98 graduate.
After graduation, I chose to stay in the community and get married, raise a family.
Just it wanted to be living in the community, but I also wanted to be a part of the community involved in the community.
So that is why I kind of started getting involved with different types of fundraisers for the school's PTA
Then I jumped into Park's Commission sitting on the cookie education foundation and school board
My career my working career. I've been in the fire service for 23 years and
Up until three years ago. I had a little bit of a second win career, but I still wanted to make sure that I had a career
where I was still serving the community and some sort of capacity.
23 years in the fire service, I enjoyed what I was doing,
but then had an opportunity to get a job as an executive director
for United Way in this county.
And I thought that was another great opportunity to serve the community.
So that is a little bit about me.
I have two kids that go to school in Kokeh and my husband also works
for the Kokeh area fire district.
And it's awesome.
And so what made you decided to run for County Board?
So for running for County Commissioner, a couple of things is Dick Brenner, who had been
in a position for 32 plus years, had announced that he was not going to run for another
term, that made me consider running for County Commissioner.
And then I had a few people in the community that reached out to me and asked me if I
would consider running.
That would be a good candidate.
I really enjoyed, enjoy working for the school board or for the school district of the school board member.
I really wanted to finish that term, but with thick stepping down, this was an opportunity where I could come in and run for county commissioner.
And continue to do the work in advocating for the community and community members just at a county level.
one of these issues, chamber of commerce,
community review, but as a presidential taxpayer,
the property taxes are a big issue.
One of the things we've seen called county as we have taxes
increasing are comfortable with for taxes, property taxes are,
and if so, why, if not, why not?
That's your plan for the property taxes.
Yeah, that's a good question, Mike.
And I, one of the things I've had those conversations
when I've been out dark knocking or the community and talking is one of the reasons why I chose to run
too is because of the taxes in Carlton County. They are getting high. People are feeling the pinch in the
pressure, especially with cost of inflation. Costs of goods are going off, but wages aren't getting
catching up to that. So people are really starting to feel the pinch, especially our baby boomers and
people that are on the fixed income.
Me wanting to run to help solve that problem in that issue.
And one of the big things is the economic growth,
the economic development.
There just hasn't been a lot of growth in the growth
in the current economy area.
And I really wanted to get involved and figure out
how we can tackle that issue and solve it.
One of the things that I, and good at doing and enjoy doing
is connecting the right people, getting stakeholders
at the right table to have those conversations.
So running for county commissioner coming in,
trying to, you know, see the growth in the community, maybe help take that taxes go down for
different people, kind of spread it out a little bit, that is the goal and that's one of
the reasons why I chose to run was on the taxes, the economic development piece, excuse me.
Absolutely, you, as a school board member, have you had some experience with this issue and
and sort of the school, like we've got access to violence
or having a square of that sort of a different job.
But I mean, if every thought through,
you kind of have those skills my translates to being a part of the cardboard.
Yeah, when I started on the school board,
that was the one big piece that we really talk about
is what our budget is, what our taxes are,
what we want to set our lobby at.
You know, we always want to make sure
that we're providing good quality service,
but we also want to be financially
and physically responsible, stretch that dollar,
as much as we can.
We have the Colgate School Board right now.
We're looking at decreasing a 1.3% with the Levy.
And a big part of that is being mindful of your budget,
planning ahead.
And I took a lot of those skills and those ideas,
because we didn't do it all in the year or two.
This took a lot of planning and thinking about the money
and the reserve what we need it for future growth.
And learning that from a lot of the board members
that have been on the school board for many years,
They taught me a lot of things that I can learn and take to the Common Commissioner of all.
Next subject is Child Care.
Programming as a child care crisis.
And there's a lot of communities do.
And with this specific lack of danger, spots available.
Do you think the county plays a role in that?
And so do you have thoughts on the training I do to help address this?
Sure.
Yeah, it's, again, like you said, Mike, it's not just a county issue.
It's an issue in a lot of different areas with child care.
We're seeing a lot of families now, both parents are in an out-of-the-work force, whether they need to or choose to.
More kids are going to childcare, but there's not a lot of availability there.
With the county and with my work with the United Way, we have been working closely with the county and helping solve those issues.
One of the things is obviously bringing more childcare.
There will be out there having more people open up their childcare sites, offering assistance with that for the county,
But then also making it a little bit easier for people that have child care centers open to make it easier for them to continue with licensing
But also if they want to have another another center and stuff open
And then also making that child care affordable is another big piece to for a lot of parents and people that are just trying to make ends meet
So one of the things that the county is doing is they are being able to reach out to different people to start opening up child care areas
There's been a few that have been open up in the last year, but there's still not enough and we need to do a little bit more work and the county, I think is doing a great job. We just need to continue before I'm not.
I do a review of that set. I am used to animate for a county commissioner.
And I'm sure I want to make sure I don't know what the song is like, but I'm sure that not that might continue up so I might just come out to move it.
I have to do this every so long.
Okay, well, I do have a good mom and I do have a good mom voice is what I here and sometimes I don't know if I can hear it.
Yeah, so I don't want to the park.
I'll clean my room.
Yes.
No, thank you for that.
I just want to make sure that listeners and viewers can hear what your answers are.
So we just talked about child care and another issue is housing and both the city and the county have conducted housing studies with
indicating a need for more affordable housing in all sectors, and so are you thoughts, how are you
thoughts on that and if you think the county can play role in addressing the housing prices
or at least the problem?
Yeah, so housing again in our county is nothing that's different than a lot of other areas, but it is
the top-top issue with the United Way as a director. I get a lot of data and information that
sent to us and when people are calling looking for assistance in the area, housing is the number one.
So therefore I feel like it should be the number one priority for the county as well.
And recently with the study coming out, the county I know has created a committee in a group that
is going and working together to help solve this issue.
And it's not just an issue for affordable housing for Section 8, but it's for housing across
the board.
You're looking at our baby boomers that maybe you're looking to try to downsize into something smaller
More affordable. There's just not that option. You're looking for people that just, you know, maybe graduating or starting out living in the area that want to rent
There's just not even rentals that are in the area that are available
So we do have a lot of work that I think the county needs to start working on
But I think they're on the right track right now by getting the right people on the committee and moving forward and
And again, like I said, making it the top priority because housing is the biggest need right now.
I understood your last two answers really lean into a lot of intergovernmental coordination, not just the county, not just the city, the state, maybe even the feds.
Where are some thoughts on that?
I'm going to experience what you bring to working together across different levels of government to deliver for your constituents.
Yeah, with as a county commissioner level, it is also I feel like their responsibility in the role is to reach out to other, you know, representatives that are covering our area down the legislative level and making sure that our voices are heard to.
We're in the rural area, we want to make sure some of this money down at the legislative level for housing is getting pushed up into the greater Minnesota area.
So it is important to have those communications and relationships with our local representatives.
Right now, just with my role as United Way and Director, I already do a lot of that.
Working with Smith and Klobuchar's Office on Congressional Directed Spending and other types of things,
different initiatives for United Way.
I know how important it is to have make sure that you have that communication in those relationships.
And that is a big piece for Carlton County to make sure that they're having someone down there that making sure our voice is heard up here in the Franklin County area.
Very good. Thank you for that. Another big expense and one of the biggest jobs the county has is a ministering criminal justice system.
What do you suppose that can be done or where do thoughts on criminal justice systems are a state of it in Carlton County right now and how can we make it as efficient and effective as possible?
So, right now, I'm sure a lot of people have known that there is a new justice center that was built, and if you haven't had a chance to tour and look at the facility, I encourage you to.
I, when they had the Ribbon Cutting ceremony here last month, before wishing people a tour of the justice center.
before it fully opens go into it but for the county to having to create the new
Justice Center which was pretty much a requirement by the Department of Justice
that they had to come up with a new facility because the one that was at the time
not working it wasn't safe. They've done a great job on collaborating putting that
together and not only with the Justice Center having both of the jail and you know our
attorneys and stuff but also what the county has looked at this as an opportunity to create
some new programs in curriculum for a lot of people that are in the jail that are looking to get
out to their 201 need to give them the tools and opportunity to you know get out of jail and have
have something set up so they don't end up right back where they're at. I think taking the proactive
approach on making sure that we're continuing to move forward and helping people, not
setting up the failure but setting up for success. And I applaud the county for doing
that and I want to continue to, you know, I'm put in this position to help support that.
Wonderful.
Related, obviously, it was the issue of crime. Do you think crime is currently a problem
in quote and county and if so why and if not why not.
I think we do have crime in the area with the 23 years in the fire service.
I've seen a lot of that first hand with anywhere from just different types of calls and
stuff that we go on.
But a lot of this crime that we have to is also related to the mental health crisis that we
have in the area too, but really having the right law enforcement on the streets helping
making sure a community safe is really important, taking that, you know, reactive approach
making sure we're there.
But looking on the proactive side to a wider we have in these crime in the area, mental
health is tied to a lot of that.
Let's start focusing on that as well.
I'm here with Sir, my views, the candidates I'll give you a chance to get a drink of water
with a candidate for County Commissioner.
We've got a few questions left, and an opportunity to kind of get a closing statement, but
everybody know why they should support you.
So we've talked about taxes, we've talked about housing,
we've talked about child care, we've talked about crime,
another seven floors naturally is a drug,
and a substance abuse issue in the county.
And if so, what is that play and any or all of the above,
and what are your thoughts on that as a candidate?
Yeah, there's definitely an awful food issue in this area,
and it's not just again, in curled in county,
it's an a lot of different other areas.
And that is once again tied to a lot of mental health that we're handling and dealing with at this time.
I think the county is working hard to help solve a lot of these issues.
They've taken a lot of different approaches with working with first responders,
making sure that they're able to help with people that with the drug overdoses,
but then also having different programs in place.
For example, Carlton County Human Services United Way.
I have collaborated and worked with them on our drug take-back events where we're trying
to get that out of the cabinets and into safe areas where they can then again be disposed
in the correct way.
But with just that alone in these drug take-back events, we have taken hundreds of pounds
of a lot of these medications and stuff off of the streets.
But then also having different programs in place to help people that may be, you know, addicted
and maybe looking to seek some help in services there.
In the county has done that, a good job with that, but again, I think we could work a little
bit more, again continue with the drug take-back event, and then...
Really tackling that mental health issue that we have in the area, too.
You mentioned it, I mean, in this another issue that's not unique to Carlton.
No. I mean, is this another opportunity to work regionally, or statewide, or tribal community,
with the states, and other governmental bodies to tackle this together?
Is it something you're counting as uniquely positioned?
So it's really, it is this connecting in people and collaborating for the right people.
You know, you have the county, you have the city of Koke, you have found a lack that can collaborate and work together.
But also, it's not just an issue in this area, it's in many other areas, so having those conversations again with the state legislators.
But then also looking at, you know, what are other counties that are having this issue doing, and if it's working, let's try that maybe mirror look at what they're doing and what's not working.
You know, we don't want to recreate the wheel all the time with this.
Other people are having these issues.
Let's see what's working, what's not working, and just help with that mental health
issues.
Very good.
These questions all lead into each other.
It's almost like we're programming this.
Yeah.
Related.
Right.
A lot of the last few answers have to do with health and human services,
which is, I don't know where it sits in terms of the county budget.
I assume it's the top or at least next.
It's the biggest department, so obviously it's a big chunk of the budget.
Absolutely.
And how do you see is HHS, is that adequately funded or are there different funding streams?
Do we have enough to tackle these issues or is there a way to prioritize what we have?
Or what are your thoughts on the budget for health and human services?
I think right now, where public health and human services, I think a lot of the departments
are doing a great job. Very fortunate to have a lot of dedicated employees here. I think
one of the things that public health human services, each department can maybe collaborate
and work a little bit together. But as far as, you know, with the budget is and staffing,
you have to dig a lot deeper into that that I don't have the access to at this time. But
from what I see in the people that I've worked with with United Way and then also with the
thing about Carlton County Public Health Human Services does is, if there's a pilot program
out there, or if there's a new program with funding from different sources, not just taxpayers,
the county is very good on grabbing onto that and seeing if it would work well in our community.
And I applaud them for always doing that and looking at that firsthand and trying to, again, maximize,
you know, the taxpayer's dollar, but also making sure that we're offering great quality
service in the area and with a lot of the work that they do with the pilot programs
or if they're bringing in new initiatives, they're partnering with a lot of different
organizations. For example, United Way, we have partnered with Public Health Human Services
Initiative Department on a three-year grant to help solve some of the homeless youth issues
that we're having in the area. And the county is really good at doing that.
Finding different nonprofits organizations and collaborating and working together,
We all know that we have to work together to solve these problems.
They're too big for us to solve on our own.
I meant to that and thank you for that answer.
A couple of other items and then we'll get to close.
You talked a bit about economic development already.
We had a separate question on that.
It as relates to taxes, but more broadly speaking,
are there elements to economic development that the county is uniquely positioned to bring?
Not just for tax-based concerns, but for general economic concerns.
You know, I think right now with the Justice Center, which took up a lot of time and energy for the county to get to where they're at.
And now that is finished and done, maybe some more of the focus can be more on economic development in itself to see some growth in the area.
I know Bemidji has done it. Cook is doing it up north, is a lot of it is driven towards housing.
if you bring housing here, people have a place to live to stay and then that's going to bring
jobs in businesses in the area.
With, you know, Bemidji doing that over the last couple of decades,
we've seen success with that. I was just that Bemidji here a few years ago and I haven't been
there in a long time since I was a kid. Paul and Babe are still there, but boy that community has
really grown. And then just looking up north in Cook County, you know, they have private
investors building a lot of different housing and stuff up there too.
Really, if you're seeing what's working there and it's successful, then why don't we try
and bring it here as well with that, then that will bring businesses in the area as well,
more jobs that are local, economic development, the housing is important too, because if you
look at just our bigger businesses, Sappy, for example, USG, they employ a lot of people,
but if you don't have enough people living in the area, how are you going to employ more people?
staff, for example, has 20 plus jobs opening right now, and they can't seem to keep filling them.
It's kind of your development.
And if you don't have a lot of growth with housing, how are you going to get more people?
There's only so many people in the area in the population.
So that impacts just the whole area in the whole community.
It's all kind of interweb, like you said.
And economic development is a big beast to kind of talk about,
but it's tied to so many different important things in the community.
You know, all of these other programs flow from healthy job based on tax base, and all the other things, so thank you for that.
Cotton County, and okay, no longer has an animal shelter, and there is a need for that, and the county, do you think that comes on the list of things to focus on, and should you be elected, or is that something that maybe is being handled otherwise?
I think if we look at the history and back what happened before when the county in the city
who was more involved, that shelter there was in a lot of success fair.
So a lot of success there, many different reasons, funding, mismanagement of that.
But right now where it's sitting is there's a nonprofit that is doing a great job in the great
work that is offering that service.
I think with the county, why get involved if something's working, let's let it continue
work.
One other issue that came up was I've heard about it for years but certainly in the
COVID and post COVID era is efficient access to broadband. I think that's related to again a lot of
the issues here. There's certainly areas in the county and even in the city limits without adequate
access to broadband as an employer might define it or certainly as a consumer. Is that an area
that you thought about as far as being a county board member or is there another way to tackle that?
So there's, I think there's two folds with that,
the whole broadband piece, too, is you have with broadband,
just generally Minnesota, I think 20% of our population
does not have internet high-speed internet access.
But so there are people that don't have internet access,
so we need to help and make sure that they get that.
But the other piece is having that high-speed internet
is available and have access to that
is for our businesses so they can continue
to offer the services that they do.
So it is important and I think with this the city of Kokey and Fondalak and with the county
I think they're working great together to try to move forward with that broadband
But that definitely should be one of the things in the front of things to focus on
I'm a broad question. What do you think makes it good to county commissioner?
I assume you'll say all the skills. I'm gonna say all the great things
Someone that you know has great leadership skills
Also, someone that really understands our community, and someone that not only is going to make decisions for themselves, but also for their community and what is in the best interest.
Understanding what the needs and wants are in the community is really important to know.
And people from all different avenues and walks of life, you need to have that before you make all your decisions, I think, as a county commissioner.
Thank you. This will be the last opportunity for you, at least in this format, to make your pitch
to voters. Why should voters vote for you for County Board?
I think with my, you know, history of involvement with the community, for the years of starting
at the year of 18 when I joined the volunteer fire department, I always wanted to serve the
community in some capacity. And my record kind of shows that for all the years I've been
here. I have great leadership skills from that I learned from the fire service, very committed
to the community and like I said earlier, I don't want to just live in this community,
I want to be a part of this community and I want to encourage other people to do that
too. I think I would be a great county commissioner because I have the ability to go and see
different people in the community and talk to them and have that conversation. So I can
come and bring that to the table at the county level and make sure their voices are heard
as well when we're making decisions.
Thank you so much for taking the time today.
On behalf of the viewers, it's awesome to get a chance to know a little bit more about you
and about what you would bring to the county board if you were elected.
So thank you very much, Sarah.
Thank you.
All right.
We'll be taking a short break while we bring in another candidate, so we'll be back for
some of you.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
If you're ready, then we'll just get going.
There's no official queue, but just wanted to say welcome, Caleb Dunlap.
My name is Mike Franklin.
I'll be interviewing you today or having a conversation about your candidacy for County
Commissioner.
Could you please just tell the viewers a little bit about you, why are you seeking the office?
And yeah, go from there.
Well, thank you again for having me today and for facilitating this.
So for everyone that's viewing Caleb Dunlap, I was born and raised in Clocay, I'm a member
of the Fondalac band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and I just a bit about why I wanted
to, why I applied for this position, because Dick Brenner himself, after 32 years announced
in early May that he was not running for this position, and I saw a door that was open and
an opportunity for new leadership, and again, there are a number of things that really
mattered to me. First and foremost is county politics. You know, again, there's so much that
through into the county that kind of, I tell people it's like an hour glass and it comes
into, you know, things come into the county and they trickle down into where our commissioners
stand and then they go out into the rest of the county. And so there's this pivotal point of where
our county commissioners are at, you know, in those decision-making processes and the process
overall of governance, and it excited me.
Again, being from this area, being from the tribal community,
it's a huge asset to have a federally recognized tribe in your backyard, we'll say.
And in district one, it's this huge array of from downtown cloquet
through the tribal nation and into our outer townships.
And so that array really excited me to represent all.
Again, getting people involved in county politics.
And really, there's some big shoes to fill,
where Dick Brenner has been a part of the commissioners
for the last 32 years.
And then also, there has never been a native person
that served as a Carlton County commissioner.
And that's a big part.
You know, my slogan is Connecting our County.
and a big part of that is our tribal community that's in the area and so having that representation
within the County Commissioner Board was something that again we haven't seen and something
that I felt that other leaders in my life have said when a door is open you stand up and you walk through it.
And I guess that was crazy enough to walk through it.
I'll pause there, but I just want to open up with that.
No, it's a big deal, and thank you for running.
I mean, you're kind of no matter what happens in the election, it's a really big deal to stand up and walk through that door and offer yourself for public service.
So, thank you.
We have the people.
Great.
Well, let's get into some issues here, and then I've got eight or nine questions about the working of the county and how you would approach these issues and then we'll close with an opportunity to kind of.
to tell everybody why they should vote for you, but first is property taxes, property taxes in
Carlton County have an increasing. Are you, where are you at on the tax issue? Are you comfortable
with where they're at? Are they too low? Are they too high? And kind of give me a mindset about
your position on taxes. I mean again, one of the things that I have pushed myself to do in this campaign
is to door knock. It's not comfortable to door knock, but I have gotten so much information
from our residents and the topic is property taxes, and our residents are asking for a
leader that can say no when, which essentially is pausing. I know is not forever, but it is
say, how are we spending, how are we using tax revenue on behalf of our residents, and
many of them are looking to it as they feel, and this has been mentioned multiple times
that their tax revenue is looked at as monopoly money, and it's just being used with, you
know, or it's being put back on the taxpayer continuously. And so when it comes to taxes,
I'm someone that really wants to look at creative ways of taxation and of spending and finding
ways to plan ahead and to say, okay, there are certain infrastructure that we need across the
county or there are certain new implementations to say are existing programming or new
and that's the end.
Can we work backwards from that? So that we're not making decisions overnight and that we're not necessarily putting that the funding to the taxpayer.
And so I honestly will be one that will look at our tax base and say, with where it is right now, how can we maintain it and how can we look at creative ways to decrease it?
So yeah, it's very soon. Yeah, and it's it's hard in local government. Yeah, because you and then we almost should have had it to do over
I was structured the questions differently because it's you set your budget and you kind of work backwards from that
Then you set your levy based on what you've agreed to spend it on and all the rest of my questions have to do
things were gonna spend it on as taxpayers, but it is it's that it's that it's that balance
So you're you're one that will look first at holding the line on taxes before and finding creative
ways underneath that to continue the programming rather than, you know, the reverse.
Yeah, I mean, again, there are things like looking at how can we implement a sliding scale
tax, where we look to, you know, it's based on household income, which ultimately provides
relief for lower income as well as our individuals on fixed incomes. And so, which
And again, as I knocked door to door, these are the residents that are really elevating
that to me around like, hey, I'm an aging citizen, and I have a fixed income, and so individuals
who have lived and worked in the county, and they are retired, they may have gotten rid
of their host payment years ago, but now their taxes are increasing so high that it's not
so same as paying another host payment, and so now they're having to make decisions about
do we stay in Carlton County or do we move away?
Which then causes more problems.
Again, when you have to make decisions about I'm going to move down the road, down the highway,
Ultimately, that changes everyone's landscape, and so I think of my mother's 72 years old,
if she was to have to move down 35 towards, you know, Moose Lake or Willow River or anything,
what happens then is it changes who her provider is, where she gets her pharmaceuticals,
you know, it changes what faith community that a person might be in, and what social groups,
And so, you know, there's this trickle down effect.
Yeah, and so we have to be creative about that.
Tax issues, your hourglass, yeah, absolutely.
One strategy or the factor in taxes is business growth
and economic development.
How do you see that as a candidate, as a citizen,
how do you see the interplay between economic development
and taxation, but also just on its own?
I mean, economic development is huge.
I mean, again, I often will ask people
when I'm door knocking.
What are the things that people think of
when they think of cloquet and or Carlton County?
And this isn't to say one thing or another,
but they'll think people remember Gordies.
And so if that's the one thing
people remember about our area, we have to do better. Because there are so many different
businesses that already exist, so much industry that already exists, and so that tells me
that we have to elevate what we already have, and we have to incentivize others to come into this area.
Again, through door knocking, I've found that many of our neighbors in the county, they are working
outside of Carlton County but they live here because it's cheaper because of our
schools here because of their vicinity to families but often when you work
summer that's where you spend your money that's where you might go to dinner after
work that's where you might get your groceries anyway back home and so how do we
increase the economic development within our county area so that people stay here
and spend their money, and that they're able to spend their money here rather than going elsewhere.
And so I think when with economic development, it's so crucial for a thriving county.
And there are, there are different programs around like tax incentive finances, it's
And so what that does is it looks at an area and it divides it into different districts and it looks at how can we make improvements in those areas with different funding based on taxation and incentives to improve those and elevate those areas.
And so I am a major fan of economic developments.
And again, it's not just how to, I mean, a lot of people will share, like, they want
an extra restaurant, they want an extra, you know, anything to keep them able to spend
their money here.
I also look at things that are like incubator programs,
like having a site in an area, or areas across the county,
where we can provide spaces for small businesses to be incubated,
and have people be able to come there,
and start that economic growth.
For folks that might not have the ability to go downtown,
and purchase something and rent something.
because there is that risk there. So I'll pause there. But yeah, that's great. Appreciate that.
So onto some specific issues that the county is facing.
One of the top issues that we hear about, and I'm sure you hear about it as you
Dorna August child care.
And it's been described to me as a child care crisis and a lack of daycare spots in the county.
What kind of role might the county play in that? And what are your thoughts on that as a candidate?
I mean, I look at things in a sense of like, just as much as we're looking at our aging population, we have to look at that beginning of life population. They're not voters.
So even more, we have to look to it. We could ask more questions about that, but you know, we have to look for our population that doesn't have a voice and that's our children and our youth.
And so, again, when it comes to a lack of, we'll say, child care infrastructure, I believe
the county has the ability to work across governance and other partners, whether it be foundations
and our local tribal community to look at creative ways to increase child care outside of
maybe a traditional child care center. It could be looking to our employers that have an
X amount of employees and saying, how can we incentivize you to increase or to have on-site
child care for your employees. We can look at things such as even mobile child care units.
Again, it sounds maybe untraditional, but these days we have to meet people where they are at.
And if that means that there's a neighborhood that needs child care, how do we, you know,
bring something like a mobile child care unit there.
You know, I think that there's the ability to work with community grants again to provide child care co-ops.
And it could be someone, you know, it also increases like who's doing child care as well.
You know, we have a lot of aging population.
You know, I think of my own mother who has supported child care throughout her days.
but being able to open our home and say, okay, I can serve four kids or, you know,
ex-kids. And the county can do their part in saying, how can we help license you and provide those start-up?
We'll say for child care. And I think that would help to alleviate the crisis that you're referring to.
Thank you for that.
Yeah, it's not all doom and gloom, but they're crisis that's been described as housing.
And not just working class, but affordable housing and housing across the spectrum is
another potential crisis or certain issue.
And the city and county have both done housing studies.
What are your thoughts on what those studies indicate and what role as a county board member
and as Tony board, would you see in addressing the need for housing?
So I'm not familiar with the studies that have been done up to date, but so my prior part of my career has been spent in supporting the unhoused for native populations in Seattle.
And so, working with our most at risk that are living on the streets, or there's also what we refer to as over housed, where you might have a dwelling that is for two to three people, but there might be eight people.
And this is something that I honestly believe is more than likely in Minnesota because of our below zero weather.
And so housing is something that's near-endured to me, it really is, and so as a county commissioner,
I have a huge responsibility to ensure that we're looking at creative housing opportunities.
And partnering, again, partnering with our city, partnering with our local tribal community,
And looking at creative solutions, there's inclusionary zoning, which looks to ensure a percentage
of new development is for affordable housing, for mixed income housing, and it provides
that opportunity for low to moderate income.
Again, as I've door knock across our county district, I've come to find people who, again,
making choices or not even able to make choices based on our age and population who they
might have a four-bedroom house.
And so, but they're not able to get into something that's maybe a two-bedroom lower
maintenance because it's at the same price.
And so, how do we incentivize people to come in and provide housing that meets what that study
has shown us to say, OK, we need more to bedroom under this amount to provide the needs
for low income, mixed income, fixed income, and whatnot, and so there's also examples
of community land trust. There's the one roof housing organization out of Duluth who they
We look to a choir and manage land just for affordable housing.
And so I look to working with organizations to provide housing options.
But overall, yes, housing is a huge responsibility of chronic commissioners.
And it's something that it excites me to find opportunities and options for our residents
who have lived here their whole entire lives so that they do not have to make
have to make options to leave and or live with families sooner than they would like to.
So yeah, I'll pause there.
Thank you for that question.
Let's change subjects here.
And the criminal justice is one of the biggest jobs of the county and the biggest expenses,
accordingly, as is the case in every county in the state.
What can be done at the county level to make the criminal justice system and
County as efficient and effective as possible.
Yeah, I mean, again, one of the things that I applaud our county right now is within their
restorative justice program. So this is something that was for youth, or started for youth,
and now it's started to extend to the ages of 18 to 26. And so I applaud that program because
While it also reduces has the ability to reduce crime, it also has the ability to reduce
for lack of a better words.
The taxation on the county, as far as it helps youth to, for us to help you find other
options before we put them into other of our criminal justice programs that might
harness the record for much longer. And it reduces recidivism. Sorry, that's my
word. I don't use all the time. But in general, I mean, I think that our criminal
justice system can create and maintain healthy relationships with our law enforcement across
the county, across the cities that are within our county, to work to prevent and chip
promote that community growth and I look to community police and initiatives and things
Thanks for watching.
And I guess help prevent people to have to move through our community, or criminal justice system.
Thank you. Another issue, and it may be related. Here's what your thoughts on that is, drugs and substance abuse.
Is that a problem you see in Carlton County? And if so, what are some thoughts on how we tackle that issue?
It really, you know, easy questions.
I mean, it absolutely is something that is something that is present in Carlton County.
It's also present across all of rural America.
And so we can't think that we are not a part of an epidemic that's happening when it comes
to drugs and mental health and substance abuse.
Again, I think that there,
in this topic in general,
when it comes to, we'll say drugs.
We have a great opportunity as a county to partner
with local law enforcement, Minnesota State Patrol,
So because we are at a corridor of Highway 33, 210, Highway 35, we're in Highway 2, where
drugs trafficking is going through our area.
And so how do we work with those to stop drugs from coming in and out of our area?
But, yeah, working closely with not only local law enforcement, but our county health
and human services, our tribal health and human services, to look at options for substance abuse
and how do we double down on programs that support that so that people are not going back
to drug use and I've seen a lot of it across our county and it's very personal to me and
I think it's important that we double down on substance abuse, in working with people who
are active in substance abuse, I don't think people really want to be living a life with
substance abuse, but it's how do we wrap around them to support them so there's a lot
partnerships. Yeah, I'll do that. And again, we're here with Caleb Dunlap, his candidate
for County Commissioner. Just a couple of questions left, and we'll give you the chance
to close. What makes a good County Commissioner? What kind of skills do you think needs
need to bridge the candidate or the Commissioner need to bring to the table in order to succeed
at the job? I honestly believe someone who's very transparent, someone who is going to
to not place the blame or pass the buck to someone else, but is really transparent about
what's going on, what they can control, what they can advocate for, and so transparency
is really big, budgetary skills are, you know, it's huge, like we have so much oversight over
budgets, I was talking about that kind of, that hourglass, we're revenue funnel through what needs
the county has and its relationship to the overall state budget and so having budgetary
understandings is important, I believe.
And someone who can really relate, I shouldn't even say relate, someone who can work across,
not only because I'm one of five other commissioners, four other commissioners.
And so one that can, if they are a dissenting voice, and they say no, that the understand
why they're saying no, and they can essentially teach and advocate to the others about their
decision.
So someone who works well with others, and someone who also is aware and can work across government
sectors and other entities like foundations and whatnot. So just someone who has a bigger vision
to say who can we when we need to turn to say the state budget comes back and says hey we're
providing this you have this okay what do we do now so someone who's like creative can work across
the table you know someone who can work across government sectors and other community entities
is someone who's transparent and someone who's committed to getting the job done.
About a minute left, why don't you give your kind of closing argument, and why should
people vote for you?
Absolutely.
Again, I find that throughout my career, I've had the opportunity to work again, like I've
with those that are unhoused on the streets of worked in public health.
I also spent almost a decade working with Amazon
at their headquarters working on global economic initiatives.
And so I want to bring that back to our communities here.
I want to see our county thrive.
And I honestly, you know, as a tribal member,
a native person from this area. I always tell people that, and this goes to myself is, I'm not
going anywhere. You know, this is my home lands, and I can't pick them up and bring them to
Michigan or to Mexico, anywhere. This is our home lands, and I want to see it thrive, and that
includes everyone in the area. And so I also would ask people to vote for me based on that I'm
they're knocking on doors. It's probably the most uncomfortable thing for
both people but I would say it's my superpower because I love that I can earn
trust with a person at their doorway and find out what matters most to them
within a very short amount of time and it's my responsibility to take those
concerns and what matters and do something with it and for them.
And so, again, I'd
ask that people see that commitment to door-knocking and finding out what those issues
are after the doorway and allow people to see that that's what I'll do as a commissioner
is understand your concerns and really fight for them, honestly.
Well, on behalf of the Cook area chamber and residents who are watching this, thank you so much for taking the time today, and we look forward to the rest of your candidacy, and I bet you're excited to the election day to come and go.
Thank you very much.
Good to see you.
And we'll be taking a short break while we bring in another candidate.
And thank you very much.
We'll see you shortly.
All right.
I got here.
Well, very good.
Have you ready?
All right.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back. So my name is Mike Franklin, and I'm here
at the invitation of the Koke area Chamber to conduct interviews with candidates today,
and I'm pleased to be joined by Pete Redosovich. Pete is a candidate for the Minnesota House.
Like Pete, if you could, just introduce yourself and give a brief opening statement. So folks,
know who you are. Sure. I'm Pete Redosovich. I'm an attorney. My office is Alvin Escov,
I've been working here in Cloquet area for over the last 25 years or so as an attorney,
I started at the Newby office, while I've been in town, I've been involved in just
to what everything there is to be involved in in our community.
Most notably I started a restaurant, Esco, called Esco Pizza Pais, that was about 20,
some years ago, recently sold that place.
I also started a newspaper a few years ago called The Pine Not News, with the Janiputers
in Rose 2, and that newspaper is really just brought back a local news source to the
community. I also operate at 7 on behalf of the city so the channel that you're watching this
on is the station that I help operate a little stepping back when I'm running for office.
The reason I'm running is I'm very involved in the community and I want to serve the good
people of Carlton County, the rest of 11A. And I also am running because the guy who's got the
job now just isn't really, he's not really doing a very good job. He doesn't really quite
understand how the system works. He's been ineffective in the legislature and it's really
in our community, most notably for the funding for the jail, which was, we had a $23 million
funding fund for our jail construction, and he kind of blew that and ended up getting $10 million
but only with the help of county commissioners and a representative from a different district.
It was actually bizarre.
And you'll hear him later today take credit for the $10 million that he got.
When actually it was Dave Liz, the guy who got 10 million, what he should be taking credit for is losing the $23 million.
And I can tell you that if I had been in the legislature, that would not have happened.
But that's why I'm running. I want to serve the community.
People who know me know that that's what I do.
They know that I'm a Democrat, but that I'm a moderate who listens to all sides.
And I try to find solutions rather than shut slogans and say all the things that you hear on the TV stations and all the other candidates are saying,
I really do solve problems and that's why I'm running for the legislature.
Very good.
Thank you for that.
This is the Chamber of Commerce question on business climate, you know, as a business
person, what would you say to other businesses on the need for a competitive business climate
in Minnesota and how can we work to improve on that competitiveness if you're in the legislature
next year?
We know that there's a balance between government and business and it's a delicate balance
that it's essential to keep things moving smoothly.
I'm a pro-business Democrat.
I believe that businesses supply the jobs
and the economic opportunities in our community
that are desperate and needed,
especially in a rural community like Carlton County.
And so I understand that what we need to do
is make sure that we foster our policy
towards developing businesses
and allowing smaller businesses to grow,
as well as taking care of the large businesses
in our community.
I'm constantly pro-laver, and I'm going to tell you
something I've noticed when I ran for the legislature two years ago.
So I'm driving off through Carlton County, I'm going up people's driveways, I'm out
in the middle of nowhere and you drive up the person's driveway and they're at a nice
driveway and you pull up and they've got playground equipment and they've got a nice
house and then you ask what they do for a living and they say, well, I work at Sapy or I work
at USG and it dawned on me a couple of months later when my kids and I were driving through
rural West Virginia where the conditions are horrible.
People live in Tahrshak houses and they have terrible health problems.
And everything looks just like it's been in the war zone.
And my kids are saying, well, they have the same industry here in West Virginia.
Mining in that type of thing is we haven't located wood products and the differences
organized collective bargaining.
And so what we know is that when we have strong, collective bargaining, organized labor, that
they work with the businesses to provide good solid jobs that bring up our entire community.
And the beauty of the system is that the people who own the factories are still rich.
So we know that there's a way that people can invest and develop their businesses, even large
businesses like Sapy.
A few years ago, Sapy was ready to move out of town.
And they decided they would rather stay in Koke, pay the high Minnesota taxes, pay the high
Minnesota wages, because the workforce was so good, it was to their benefit.
Sappy was ready to move out of town and decided they would rather invest, I don't remember
what it was, a small fortune in the Koke community.
And the reason is that we've got a good workforce.
So when you grab our own Carlton County and you see the benefits of organized labor and
collective bargaining and the benefits of the business owners have by having such a good
all that workforce, it brings the entire community up, which is why
Carole McCombie and 11A is such a great place to live in work.
Thank you for that answer.
On-to-government spending, there's been large increases in spending.
I don't think that's a subjective statement in the past couple of years.
In fact, our budget forecast now shows growth, spending growth, rather, outpacing revenue
growth.
If you were to take office in a deficit situation, how do you balance that, how do you
where that circle from your perspective?
Well, here's what happened.
We had a healthy business climate, post-COVID things
started getting better.
We had all this projected budget surplus.
And the legislature decided this was a good time to spend it.
And I was opposed to the massive amount of spending
that the rest of my caucus did.
You'll hear ads.
They're formula ads.
You hear them on the rate.
And they say, Pete Redosovich spent $730 million on an office building.
Pete Redosovich is going to take your social security.
the Pete Redosovich will do all these terrible things with the tax increases and they're laughable
because had it been in the legislature when the stuff was happening, I would have advocated
for a larger return of the budget surplus.
When I was campaigning, I said that we should be returning the third of that money to the people
and had it been in the legislature.
I would have advocated and worked hard to get the Democrat trifecta to return a third of that budget surplus
to the people in the form of tax breaks and refunds because that's where it belonged.
And then a third of that money should have been spent on projects and investments.
It's the same thing you would do if you got a big bonus at the end of the year.
You put some money aside.
You might build that new porch.
You've always wanted.
It replaced the refrigerator that's getting old.
And then you, that's what you would do with such a big bonus.
And that's what we should have done with the surplus.
Had it been a part of that process I could have advocated more fiercely to get that accomplished.
And I would have.
the guy who's got the job now is going to come in next and he's going to complain about how
the Democrats spent the money, but he wasn't the legislature and he didn't do a thing about it.
All he's going to do is complain about how ineffective he was but blame somebody else.
Thank you for that answer. On that tax side of the equation, Minnesota has four individual
and contacts rates, the top rate of which 9.85% is 6 highest in the nation.
if this tax does continue to generate.
Owing rates is important, or something else with that. Minnesota is a high tax state, but it's also a high quality state of living. We have good education systems. We've got good transportation. We've got a high quality of living. We've got clean government. One of the beautiful things about Minnesota is that we are high taxed, but we have clean government. We don't want to trade lower taxes for dirty government. Do you want low taxes? Well, live in a place like West Virginia where you can't drive on the roads where we don't take care of the people who are sick or ill.
we've got crooked government, we do, we do have high taxes in Minnesota, that's true, and I do
think that we need to reduce the tax burden on Minnesotans. So, you know, you talk about the
four tax brackets, I think the tax brackets are probably appropriate, what I do think is that
it's smart to sort of move those numbers up a little bit. You're going to hear people say
anecdotally that people are moving from Minnesota because of the high taxes, and that's BS,
That's just not really happening.
Businesses and corporations, especially the big ones in Minnesota, are reinvested in Minnesota.
They want to stay here.
So to me, it seems the smart thing to do is to make sure that the money that we are taxing
our citizens is being spent efficiently and effectively.
And when that happens, we will see growth and we will see slightly lower taxes.
I agree, Minnesota taxes are too high, but you're not going to hear me say that we need to
the quality of life that we really do have here in Minnesota.
Thank you for that answer.
Moving on.
Education and childcare.
Perhaps one of the biggest, if not the biggest line items in the state budget goes to
our K12 system.
Would you think that's an appropriate level or what thoughts might you bring to bear on
K12 spending should you be elected?
Well, education in Minnesota is a core government function.
It's one of the things that the government is supposed to do, we're supposed to
are children. In addition, we're supposed to protect them with fire and police protection.
We're supposed to provide transportation. We're supposed to take care of those who need
help the most through our welfare systems. We should be taking care of our youngest
people and our oldest people in society. So the idea that we have a good strong
public education system that's available for all is really kind of central to my campaign.
I fully firmly, that one of the reasons Minnesota's such a great place to live
because we're willing to invest in quality public education, and the benefits of that benefit
more than just the students who are getting the education is benefit society as a whole.
We know that when we spend money on education in the early years, we see a direct correlation
between a lower number of people who are incarcerated in needing social services in their later
years. It's an easy investment to make. It's really easy to point to the schools and say we can
save money there, but it's a short term, last short term vision.
I'm a long term vision kind of person, I think that when we are structuring something
as big and powerful as the Minnesota State Government, we need to be looking towards the long
term.
So I value education.
I think Minnesota is doing as well.
It's one of the reasons our state is such a great place to live.
One issue you might hear from superintendents, even after the historic investment in schools,
is that along with it came a historic number of new mandates on our schools, what are your thoughts
on that and do you agree with the premise first of all and if so, you know, kind of how
do you square that circle with superintendents?
Somewhat, these mandates are really a result, if that's very popular, they're a result
of the template administration of the number of years ago.
When Plenty and his administration was stuck with a huge, huge budget shortfall due to
a decline in the economy, I felt bad for Tim Plenty.
frankly, even as a Democrat, I thought plenty did a pretty decent job of trying to close that
gap with his little pain as possible, which right off the pain as much as possible.
But one of the tricks they use was what they call unfunded mandates.
And you hear people whining and complaining about unfunded mandates all the time.
Some of them are appropriate, many of them are not.
But what it is, it's a government trick where the legislature says,
we want, appropriately, we want better services for students with special needs.
We want transportation projects in rural Minnesota to meet these certain designs and this is the way we wanted it to mandate if that's the way it's got to be done
And then the tax dollars don't follow and the reason the tax dollars don't follow is because the legislature wants to pass the buck on to the counties
So the legislature and Republicans are just as bad if not worse than Democrats at this but they say look we didn't raise the taxes and we increased the services
Well, in the county board, it's got to go to their people and say,
sorry, we have to raise property taxes to meet these unfunded mandates.
So it's really just a lot of pointing fingers.
The answer to this unfunded mandate problem is cooperation.
The answer to this unfunded mandate problem is direct communication between representatives
and the legislature like myself and the county boards and the cities and the other municipalities
in our district.
In a way that we can work those issues out before going to the legislature and forcing
mandates on school districts, cities, townships, and counties.
And as a representative, I think my years of practicing law on crowd and county shows that
I will be working with all sides, whether they are Democrats or Republicans to make sure
that we are passing an appropriate legislation that's going to work for all the people
of the district.
Thank you.
We're here with Pete Redosovich, as a candidate for House and House District 11A, talking
about education right now. One education, one follow up, education question, and then a bit
of a transition. One of the accomplishments of the last legislature was the school meal
and early childhood programs that was passed. Do you support those programs? And if the funding
were to dry up from the federal government, for example, that arguably helped to underwrite
those programs initially, where do you use... Not the school lunch programs. There's no federal
Well, the school lunch program, it's funny because I hear Republicans whining about that all the time.
Oh my gosh, what are we doing feeding the children out of horrible things to say?
We send our kids to school for nearly eight hours a day and we're not going to give them lunch in the middle of it.
That's absurd.
No Republican, I know, ever goes to a conference outside the city and then is told at noon during their conference.
That lunch is on your own.
Did you bring lunch from home?
They feed you, you go to a conference, they feed you, you go to school, we should feed them.
It's really a fundamental thing that we feed in children.
Do you have any kids?
I have four.
They get hungry all the time, I think.
I'm going to send them to school without feeding them.
What are you thinking?
That's terrible.
So it makes me laugh when that's the biggest thing Republicans can complain about.
It's a democrat.
They're feeding children.
Oh, how horrible.
So I firmly believe in the program.
I will say that it needs to be worked on, though, because the food that kids are eating
are done on a low-did basis and it really needs to be worked on foods really not very good
most of the time or too much of the time I should say well let's go back to the early childhood
issue when we get down to children who are there's there's all day kindergarten now and we
want to see children in the school systems even earlier than that but the reason I support these
of measures is because the key to rural economic development in places like Carleton County
is the ability for people to have children, to families have children and both parents
be allowed to work. What we often see is that a family will get started and they have children
and it's typically the mother who stays home with the kids and then they decided to have a second
child or even a third child and all of a sudden the mother is out of the workforce for 5, 6, 7, 8 years
and they're early 20s, they're able back in the workforce until they're in their early 30s,
that that much behind in the advancement of their careers, that's what they're planning to do.
And we see a big disparity between women's income, the gender equity gap,
income gap, and it's a lot of it is because it's difficult to find childcare. I personally know people
in this community who don't work because they can't afford childcare or just doesn't make sense to
work because child care is so expensive. So the idea that we could foster a community where
child care is more readily readily available for people who want to go and work in the
workforce at an earlier time. I'll tell you what my friend. I would like to have on my
grave stone. I want to say Pete Redosovich solved the child care problem. That's what I wanted to say.
And it's going to take long range of vision. You'll hear people who say what we need to do is
of money at the childcare providers, and that might work for a couple of years, but then what?
We see tax increases and the net gains don't equal the investment.
We need to be thinking long-term what's setting up a structure where early childcare is available to
families so that they are available to go and work and get to the workforce.
We'll see an increase in rural economic development.
We are going to see development in the rural communities if people are able to go to work.
And in the long-term, we could solve that problem.
Thank you, Pete.
Moving on to healthcare, one of the top issues for gosh-a-generation now, one of the issues
that was discussed at the legislature was a state or federally-run public option,
while at the legislature, a state-run public option, various flavors of that that would be
available to all people that would compete with the private sector or that would, in some
versions of it, replace the private sector. What are your thoughts on one or more versions
of what might be called a single pair or a Medicare for all type of a program?
People who've watched my cable access TV show Harry's gang for many years or red men
Newspaper calm, coincidentally also called Harry's gang even though my name is heat redocer
I was on that show when I was a little bit
With Harry with Harry grandpa newbie. Oh, very cool. We'll tell me why we were grandpa was a great guy
I did a lot for my career here in Tom, but when if you if you if you familiar with that program
Your failure if I view points on it. It took me a long time to come around to a single pair health care plan
And I said for a long time that Obamacare was a good start, a poor program, but a good start.
And we need to sort of have that wrong range of vision again.
The Republicans are actually in favor of Obamacare.
They're actually in favor of a single payer health plan.
What they're angry about is that a Democrat and even a black Democrat came up with a process
and had it named after him. That's really what they're upset about.
So if we can figure out a way to work together and decide that we need to start working towards a solution to the health care problem in America and in Minnesota, we will come up with a solution.
We got to pinpoint what the issues are and what the problem is.
So I believe that again, just like child care, throwing too much of money at the problem is not going to solve the problem.
What we need to do is that we need to have a long range vision.
We need to have a goal that we will work towards on trying to ensure that more people are covered with health care.
We know that after Obamacare came into place, what happened was people started living better and
healthier lives and it was a success by that measure.
We saw children doing better in schools because of it and we saw the reduced need for things
like jails, juvenile dyslexia centers, and other social services programs, so it's a good
investment.
It just needs a lot of work, but I'll go back to child care.
Much like I said child care is a key to rural economic development, so it's health care.
If we can provide a more affordable health care option to people as well as childcare to people who want to work in the workforce,
we will see rural economic development.
We will see our small towns throughout Carlton County.
Kindle River, Crownwell, Sturgeon Lake, Barnum.
We will see an increase in people wanting to live and work in these areas,
because they will be able to make a living doing it.
And they will be able to provide adequate health care and schooling for their children.
It's a win-win.
And Obamacare was obviously a national program,
but with heavy state involvement,
you see Minnesota taking a next step,
if you were elected, you would advocate for that.
I would like to see a nice long-term strategy
with a carefully laid-out plan
that works towards a solution to the health care problem.
Yes, absolutely.
All right, thank you.
The other side of the health is the human services.
That's probably the second biggest line item
in the state budget, what are there changes in that or it changes either to the funding
or the programs that you'd like to see coming from the human services budget from the state?
No, not specifically. As an attorney, I work in these systems fairly frequently and it
is amazing to work that human services does in our community. We take care of people in so many
different areas and so many different things, things that you don't even normally often
think about. I'll give you a quick example. Do you know what civil commitment does when
someone's exhibiting mental health issues so severe that they can't take care of themselves,
they become a danger to themselves or others.
In the Duluth area that we are in now, six to ten people a week are civilly committed.
That's how many P is that crazy?
I started working for the court system on these issues once in a while and I was shocked.
I had no idea how much work that human services does in our community that we don't even
know or think about.
And we've got excellent service providers at these
stuff here in Northeastern Minnesota.
We take care of our old people.
We take care of our young people.
Minnesota is a great community for taking care of people
who need it.
And I'd like to see that continued.
Of course, there are oftentimes projects and
problems that come up that we need to address
and human services.
And if we don't, we let them slip under the rug
they will turn into huge and larger problems.
So it's always wise to have a legislative oversight
of what health and human services is doing statewide, and I firmly advocate for that as well.
Thank you for that.
You mentioned seniors, what we have entered the silver tsunami as it was once
called, the March Aging Population, how are we doing as a state in caring for that demographic,
especially as they get older and there's need for services increases?
Well, we're doing pretty good, frankly, but there's a lot of problems that we have that we need
solve. I'll give you an example over at Interfaith in Carlton. There's an entire wing that's
completely empty. Sunnyside. Sunnyside nursing home adjacent to the hospital here in
Quilke, closed down. They can't find enough workers and they aren't being reimbursed properly,
adequately enough to make them financially viable. Now, these Interfaith and the Quilke
community, more of a hospital are both nonprofit organizations that are not out to deliver
dividends for their stockholders. Their community owned, their nonprofit organizations. They don't
need to make a profit, but they do need to break even and they need to be financially
solvent.
And when they can't provide a service like nursing home services to our citizens.
And we need to address it soon. And I'm not just saying that because I'm rapidly approaching that age. You know, we're going to need those services. I do see that long range. We need to solve the child care and the elder care problem. And I've got a bunch of ideas on how to do it and how to work towards that goal. One is that we want to make those positions and those jobs for people who want to make a career out of them. Lots of people.
to make a career out of helping old people and young people.
But the wages and the benefits that come with those jobs just aren't there.
And I think that we can solve that problem.
If we realize that we can have better workers who want to make a career out of that type
of work with proper benefits and wages that the state believes is a value.
Our society puts a value on it.
We should put a value on it and stick to it.
Very good.
Thank you.
An issue that came up in my conversation with our candidates both candidates for county board is housing and the city
the county have demonstrated a housing need across all sectors.
Most, particularly in the workforce and working class and affordable housing sectors.
What are your thoughts in how the state can take an approach to that problem that would help our community?
Well, one thing that the state needs to make sure they don't do is they can't start throwing money at the problem.
That is a huge, huge issue.
You will see Democrats who are going to want to add house buying credits, funding, availability, and that type of thing.
And for first-time homeowners and that type of thing to see an increase in home ownership.
And what typically happens when that happens is the price of houses rise.
When all of a sudden, someone's getting the $10,000 gift from the government to buy a house,
the value of the house increases $10,000, and where does that money go?
It goes to people who are already rich selling these houses.
But don't have any problem with that necessarily, but evidence that those programs don't work.
As a Democrat, I think the smart plan is, again, long-range vision in planning,
so that we're looking down the road and thinking about what is the long-range solution to the
housing problem. One of them is zoning. We want to be able to see more
multi-family housing in areas that are often zone for simply one family residences.
Another issue is that we see this constant expansion, especially in rural Minnesota communities
that locate in Carleton.
We see this expansion of the core city out into the areas around the city where you can get
a little bit larger land and not so clustered together.
What happens is that hollows out the insides of our community.
at the same time that infrastructure, the roads, the power lines, the sewer lines, the water lines,
all still need to be maintained, yet they're still expanding out into those rural areas,
which is very, very expensive.
I think it would be a good use of our money, not suggesting this, but I'm suggesting that we look at the idea
that there's a way that it's possible that we could take two or three internal city lots,
maybe turn it on the houses like the AEO used to do in the 70s on the iron range of those old
and then convert those lots into a single family house,
which a much bigger yard.
It'll keep the core of the city closer to the center of the infrastructure.
People who still want to live in the country still can,
but they shouldn't expect the city services like city,
or water, city sewer.
As we're in these, you would get inside the city.
And that will open up housing options for people.
That's one idea.
But the answer to this problem.
The answer to the housing problem again is a long-range vision where we identify the problems and come up with a solution rather than shouting slogans about what should be done.
I think we only have a few minutes left.
I bet.
And I'm happy about that because you mentioned a long-range vision.
As a general matter, we seem to be incapable of that or far less capable of that than previous generations.
And to me, and perhaps to you, I'm curious about what your thoughts is, is that related
to our particularly polarized time that we are living in and how do those two work together?
The stability to set a long-range vision and to work across the aisle with folks from various
political tribes or parties?
Sure, people who know me and a lot of people know this about me.
The concept of being a Democrat or a Republican is really sort of ancillary to the idea
that we're going to be serving our community.
I'm planning to be elected to the legislature, I'm planning to get when this race and be in the legislature in 2025, and when that happens, I'm going to have to realize that roughly half of the people in my district lean conservative.
We really are a diverse community in Carlton, Connie, where half the people are liberal, half the people are conservative, and the people who elect me are the ones who put me into office, but the people that I serve are everybody in the community.
And if I'm not aware of the issues that are seriously affecting the other half, we so to speak,
I'm really doing a disservice to the entire state and the legislature.
I knew that. And we see way too much of it.
We see way too many people who are, the guy who's got to job now,
it's only representing the Republican Party.
He gives no consideration to the ideas of the Democrats.
None whatsoever.
And that is part of the problem.
It's a big part of the problem.
We can run as a Democrat, like I'm doing.
But when I'm elected, I'm a representative who's representing the people of my district.
not the party leaders in St. Paul. People know that about me. That's the way I've operated,
we're going to be involved with the Chamber, that's what I've done with it. We've evolved
other groups, that's what I've done. Looking at the complete solution, looking out what's best for
the constituency that we're trying to serve is the answer to the problem. Less partisanship is only
going to be good for our communities. We know that. Thank you for that answer. I guess for our final
question, can you give a bit of a closing argument? I'm sure you've given a few in your time. Could
to give a closing argument to our viewers
as to why they should vote for you this fall,
or this month.
Sure, well, it's just kind of repeating everything
I've already said.
People who know me, who read my newspaper column,
people who watch Harrison over the years,
people who have worked with me as an attorney
or on committees and boards that have been on over the years,
know that my solution, that my approach is to look at solutions,
my approach is to try to figure out
what is the problem that we're trying to solve exactly
and how do we solve it?
It's a solution.
You'll hear people shout slogans all the time.
slogans are ineffective. They don't mean anything. They're simply slogans. What I like to do is see
how do we solve the problem? And we start analyzing what the problem is and working towards a
solution is when we all benefit. My experience as an attorney, as a small business owner,
as a citizen of the community, has shown and proven that that's my approach towards leadership,
and that's what I'll do if I'm in the legislature. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen,
of it, Democrat candidate for House District 11 A. Thank you for joining us today.
Thanks for having me. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll be right back with another candidate.
We'll take a small break here. All right. All right. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen.
Again, my name is Mike Franklin. I'm pleased to be the moderator today on behalf of the
He's running for reelection. Jeff, can I call you Jeff?
Absolutely. Thank you.
Very good. Why are you running for reelection?
And what should people know about you?
That's a great question.
First of all, I'd like to thank the chamber for allowing me to be here today,
and the great folks of Clocate.
It's an honor to be here.
Mike, thank you for helping facilitate this meeting.
I'm Representative Jeff Thatzip.
I'm running for reelection.
I've actually served two years in the Minnesota State House,
and running for reelection for the State House.
to, you know, I think, yes, why it's the people.
I mean, Mike, the more I'm out there,
meeting the people, working with the people,
you realize that there's real issues out there.
We've got a broad array of challenges.
Our district consists of all of Carlton County,
Northern Pine, as well as Southern Tantos County.
With that said, I've got, I'm married,
I've got three children, we've got two grandchildren.
And, you know, I actually, my parents live across a road for me over and out there in
Carlton County, which is actually west of Moose Lake is where we live.
We actually live in the family farm.
We purchased a family farm, renovated, I purchased it back in 1999, and my parents live
across a road.
And we really care about the way our way of life and protecting our way of life and really
representing the people of our great district.
So again, it's a truly an honor to be here.
I'm a small business owner.
I should make mention of that, I've got a number of business that I'm going to
real estate industry as well as we're also a farmer as well, I actually
raised beef cattle in my wife and I, and so at the, did preserving
protecting that quality of life?
Excellent.
Thank you.
Well, on a great segue, because as a chamber and as a business owner, I'm sure
you can appreciate the need for a competitive business climate in our state.
How can we, well, first and foremost, what are your thoughts on whether Minnesota has a competitive
business climate today, and what can we do to improve that competitiveness in your next term?
You know, I think number one, Mike, is we've got to lighten up on the mandate.
I'd say the answer to your question would be real simple, no.
I don't believe we have a real competitive business advantage over our neighboring states.
We've got North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, that are bordering states right now.
I forgot I was well, but the one that really bring attention to my mind.
I mean, the mandate that we've actually placed on our businesses.
We need to free up the permitting process.
We can actually proceed forward and get permits in a more
way of reasonable amount of time.
And I think the mandates that have been placed in businesses are
hemorrhaging them.
I think we look at, oh, golly, we look at the paid family paid
medical leave.
We look at the earned second paid time legislation.
House Republicans actually put some reasonable guardrails
and trying to get some things in place, but with the one-party control, we've seen such
an excessive overrun on these policies, and my concern is with the current climate, I'm
concerned that we could actually potentially see that go national as well, so let the
concern that I have.
Thank you for that.
We've had many years of budget surpluses in our state.
Should that happen again?
Do you prioritize tax relief or investing in more government programs?
Number one is that people's money.
I really think we need to start looking at, we have a 17 and a half billion dollar surplus.
With the one party control, they move through that 17 and a half billion dollar surplus.
They spend additional 10 million or 10 billion on top of that, increased spending by 43%.
That's our consumer's money, that's our constituents's money.
I need to think, we have to have more accountability for those monies and where that money
to be in spent, I think focusing on roads, bridges, infrastructure, the priority,
our bones
of our community is what we need to look at, our law enforcement, our public safety.
Thank you.
The flip side of that is you mentioned the large increases in spending, 43% and that budget
forecast that we've got now shows that spending growth, outpacing our tax revenue growth.
What about if a deficit occurs in the next two years?
How should the state prioritize that if you're in the legislature again?
Mike, I think that brings up a real good point.
That was a concern that we had at the legislation.
At least my side of the aisle actually had,
as we were looking at some of the success of spending taking place.
I'll just say it's almost like a bunch of drunk retailers
with the amount of spending that we've seen down there.
And the accountability there to be more accountability
to where that money is being spent.
I just encourage our constituents to follow the money
And look at where that money has been spent.
Thank you for that answer.
So just one more question on taxes and spending.
We have four individual income tax rates and the highest of which is 9.85%
That's one of the highest in the nation.
I think six highest in the nation.
If we, whichever, if we generate revenues,
deficits rather or surpluses, what do you think about those tax rates?
Are they appropriate?
Should they be reduced?
Should they be raised?
And what about the other rates too, not just the top rate?
Sure, you look at Minnesota tax system, I think it needs to be streamlined.
I think there's definitely a handful of faults that we look at that compared to neighboring states.
Again, you mentioned being competitive.
When we look at neighboring states that are extremely more competitive with their tax rate,
versus the state of Minnesota, when we're losing businesses and industries going to neighboring states,
might there's something that definitely need to be addressed and looked at.
That's a major concern in mind.
Streamlining taxes is a, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's a good answer.
All right.
We move on to other other subjects.
Education and child care.
Huge issue in Minnesota.
Probably the number one.
If not the number one.
I think it's actually clearly the number one or number two behind human services.
Budget item.
What do you think about that portion of that funding towards key 12 education?
in particular is do we spend enough or is there enough funding or do we need more funding for education
K-12.
You know, Mike, I'm glad to actually ask that, you know, I look at my teachers, I look
at my first grade school teacher, Mrs. Nelson, that left in lasting impression on me,
my whole life.
And just, you know, we value their art teachers in what they do.
I mean, we've got some amazing teachers, amazing administration, but we need to get back to
basics, reading, writing, and arithmetic.
That's where our focus needs to be.
I think we look at the mandates that we've seen.
I've got to note here.
I just want to make sure I mentioned, right?
We've got 65 new spending requirements
that were passed by the DFL traffic
the last session, that many schools are reporting,
that these unfutter mandates have put them
and further challenges.
I think we need to look at the mandate.
I'll give you an example.
We've got local school district in our district that there was a mandate put on and change in their logo of their school.
You know, because it was, I'll just say, Eskimo was a name that was a mandate from the state that they required that they actually changed that logo.
And that was unfunded. And what is that placing on that school district in those residents of that area?
If we pass these mandates, we need to make sure that there's money behind that to actually help facilitate.
I really believe that our schools need to have more control of how they can handle a manager
money as well and what they can do because I think our districts are completely different
than maybe some of the districts in the metro and our teachers have a whole different
Thank you.
Realtive and how they should teach and our resident have a philosophy of how their children should be taught. I think that needs to be put more back in the local control of our schools and our teachers.
Thank you for that answer. One of the products of the last legislative session was the school meal program, as well as some more early childhood programs coming from the state. Of course, through our school districts, do you support those programs and if if reelected?
you know, how will you handle either of both of those programs?
You know, I think there need to be some accountability on that.
When we've got these programs where they're actually,
I'll give you an example.
We've got school district in,
I'll just say, in the metro area,
why is that a, we'll be an example.
A lot of those students never even needed that program involved
because they never participated.
They didn't have a need.
There's different areas that there's a need.
There's already in place a federal program that actually,
basically to care the issues that are out there, where there are some gaps and challenges
in place.
And it gets where again, allowing more local control and that to be placed, I have a concern
to that hearing reports of a lot of those lunches being disposed of or that I mean being eaten.
So I think we need to make sure that there's some accountability with that.
And who's benefiting from the program?
Is it the students or is it maybe the ones that are, I'll just say who's benefiting from
those programs?
I just encourage our residents to, maybe follow the money a little bit.
I mean, I mentioned early childhood, but along with that comes just the child care crisis that it's been described to me that we're experiencing in northern Minnesota, and I would argue that in a lot of places around Minnesota, those two go together early childhood child care, and if so what attention has the legislature or if reelected will the legislature pay to the child care crisis.
That's existing today.
Mike again, I'm going to come back to the mandates.
We've seen such excessive mandates that have been placed on a child care system.
We've seen a lot of small, mom-pop type of operation that have been forced to close because
of these excessive mandates and over-regulation.
And that's saying that there shouldn't be some oversight, I think there's been some over-regulating
of what's taken place.
And it's forced a lot of real good providers on the industry, and that definitely provided
It's very affordable and quality child care that's out there.
So I think we need to really look at the system carefully and back off on the mandate
that we're placing on these facilities.
And if re-elected, that's a priority that would be a priority for you in Europe.
It has to be common sense legislation.
We're going to get away from playing politics with this stuff.
And I've seen a lot of that, you know, get a number, I've been, I was a freshman.
So, the first two years, I see a lot of, I kind of learned my way around the traffic and
realizing that a lot of politics has been played with real issues that really affect our
community and our, our, our, our way of life.
I'm going to have a question on that.
Kind of the close.
So, I'm glad that you brought it up.
But we will come back to that later on in the, in the interview.
Ladies and gentlemen, two we are with Representative Jeff Dodson,
seeking reelection to House District 11A.
We'll change subjects now to health care.
One of the issues that has been brought up and continues to be brought up is a state or
federally run public option which would be available to all people that would compete with
private sector insurance products.
Do you think we need a state or federally run single-payer program of whatever kind of flavor
would emerge or focus on state?
Do we need a state single-payer program or a Medicaid for all or should we do something else?
Mike, I've learned that people like options when we start having too much government control.
I'm extremely concerned we've got government number one.
They've got in so many different areas we see with the advantage.
When now all of us are coming in and trying to jump into the healthcare, I see a crisis
looming is where we're at.
I'm really concerned about where we're going to be at.
where a lot of these smaller facilities
for real greater menace would have been forced to close
just because of that, that they're losing their competitive
edges for being able to compete with the mandates
that are being placed on them.
I think that we need to really focus on having choices.
I think once the 2017, what was that that was in place?
It was the missiles were suffering from spikes
and 40% insurance premiums, the re-insurance stabilization
premiums.
And that was actually stripped away through this last session
by the Democrat-controlled trans-factor.
And that's something we need to look at getting re-inceed
back in, but that was actually over 160,000 people across the state
of Minnesota at that time.
And that's something that I'm concerned
that we're going to see another moving crisis with that.
Again, you look at EMS, look at the funding going into that.
And then there are areas that we need to look at supporting and getting behind and says
stripping money away from our, I mean, we've got our local fire district that's being
affected.
And I can say that I was actually a champion and actually working on, we got a digital
30 million dollar package that came in to some of those.
500,000 came into House District 11, 118.
We had received 116,439 into Carlton, 119 into a Cromwell with 75,000.
The essential moose lake was 163,176.
That's that enough to sustain themselves.
But that is a concern that we've got to make sure that they can continue moving forward.
Thank you for mentioning the EMS.
That's a huge deal as you know.
So I'm the other side of the health care question
as human services.
How is our state's human service budget?
And are you seeing that spent appropriately?
Are there any changes you would make to the funding
that are programming for our human services agencies?
You know, Mike, I think mental health is a major crisis
around the right now.
And we've seen an uptick on that after COVID
and moving forward, I think that's something
that needs to be addressed.
and we need to be looking at that.
I think redirection of funds of where we can spend our money.
Again, we have a $7 billion surplus.
Why don't we spend some of the additional money
in some of those areas that need to have real needs
out there right now, Mike?
Thank you for that.
One last health care related question,
although this is kind of a bridge to our aging population.
When I was more in a policy role in a different job,
I was heard it referred to as a silver tsunami.
And we're starting to crest over the top of that silver tsunami with our rapidly aging population.
And how has Minnesota doing in service of our seniors?
And are there areas where we could improve their quality care as they can as they age?
It's one year every year is the rate I'm told.
Every year.
Mike, I see a looming crisis coming.
I think that's one thing that the Republican for actually successful in doing.
We brought additional $300 million in to Nursian homes with that said that wasn't enough that's going to be a looming crisis as we move forward
We've got the
Let me make sure I cover my numbers here. We actually had
We were successful bringing 546,000 321 in the interview interview here in Carleton another
4177 and the community memorial bouquet
Moose Lake Village. We were able to bring in 514,000, 180,000. So I think there's some successes, but Mike, as we get an Asian population, that's something that is a major concern. We've got to look at health care.
What are we going to do to help take care of our seniors? Because they pay it in for society. So that is a concern and a question that we need to address and be focused on.
All right, moving on, you mentioned, our infrastructure in the States, and then it goes by
bonding at sort of a back and forth, but infrastructure is from the business community's perspective,
absolutely key to economic development that can be roads, bridges, clean water, building schools, all that.
What kind of infrastructure plans have you worked on?
Or would you propose to work on, should you be reelected, and why is that important?
or assuming it's supported, why is that important to you?
You know, that's near and dear to my heart, Mike.
I think our community more than a lot of communities
because we are an aging community with the first
or infrastructure as well.
We need to focus number one.
As probably our number one is get rid of these pet projects
that are out there for the metro and start focusing
on roads, bridges, public safety.
Looking at the drinking water.
I think we've got an aging drinking water facility throughout.
We've got wastewater facilities.
You know, Mike, you mentioned what is some of the projects
some proud of champion.
I was successful in bringing in and being
chief author in a $17 million bill
that brought in funding for the Western Lake
Superior's Sanitary District,
which is a result of or serves a cool cave,
Thompson Township in the city of Carlton.
That's a major accomplishment right there.
Again, granted, I was actually a freshman as well,
not knowing my way around the track,
you're like, we were successful
bringing in 10 million for the Carlton County
Sex Defender Facility and Women's Facility, another home run for a community, another five million
for the city of Kokey, our Kokey Water Infrastructure. Again, some success, it's a handful.
And you'll see that there was my priorities, it was really focusing on things that were necessary.
We actually did carry some other bills that might take a few years to get them accomplished with the
community and I also can say I was successful in carrying a bill for Jen Rand was a
nursery to look at that, exploring the opportunity of opening that up as well.
So that's something that, again, we've got the paper mill in our community, that's
something that's important to her curls and I was extremely successful in trying to help keep
that facility open and the governor was actually trying to close that facility and that
something that I was behind the scenes working on and we were
to success at the end and any of the day Mike I've learned
that I don't care who gets credit for it if my name's on it if
if I was behind the scenes and actually pushing to get some
lists accomplished that's what matters is what's in the best
interest of our community and our people that live here as well.
Sure. Thank you for that. Yeah. One item that some many
consider infrastructure now is Internet and broadband and
certainly since COVID, but even before COVID that was an issue, how are we doing as far as a state
and in our region for providing usable, you know, market competitive internet and broadband
and what kinds of changes might you advocate for if reelected?
Excuse me, Mike. Thanks, thanks for mentioning that. I think if you just go north of telling here,
we've got a whole wide array of people actually trenching in broadband, right? That was
we speak. So that's a major success right there. I think we need to continue exploring those options
and bringing in more broadband and looking at other opportunities that are out there as well.
Our district actually have just on an email this morning, we're looking at exploring some additional
funding for broadband throughout our townships and needed communities that should believe my email
went out to some of those communities to find out they felt there's a need so we could actually
pursue and pursue some additional money for them as well.
Great.
Thank you.
One other item that's in our local government conversations came as described as a crisis,
as a housing.
What can we do?
If we want to keep in attract people and have businesses attracting and keeping employees
as housing.
So what are your thoughts on the, is it a crisis and if so or their thoughts and ways that
the state can create or generate or incentivize more working class and affordable housing
options?
You know, Mike, I think you bring up a really good point, the housing of the major factory
across our state.
I think, with that, when you get housing, it brings in strong families, with that, it brings
in strong businesses, and with that it creates a strong community.
And that's something that, unfortunately, we've seen so many mandates, again, mandates and
over-regulation in that industry, where we go at neighboring states, Wisconsin, for example,
a lot less money to actually build a home and Wisconsin versus Minnesota, why is that because
we're nickel-diaming our developers and our housing providers that are actually providing
the housing.
We need the stream line to make that more flexible to create more housing.
I've learned that the developers will actually build it, and the builders will actually
build it if it's affordable, if they can actually justify the numbers.
We shouldn't have to have government subsidies for them to actually build these homes.
We need to lighten up on the mandate to be in place upon them.
Thank you, Representative.
One more general question, and I teed it up earlier, and then we'll give you a chance to make a closing argument.
You mentioned political polarization or the partisanship that you've encountered as a state representative.
How do you define compromise and how can you, as if you're reelected, how can you help
to take the temperature down and get back to more working across the aisle, regardless
of your public end or a Democrat or a rural or a metro or whatever the tribe might be in
that particular instance, how can we help to make that change?
You know, Mike, I think number one is you got to look at where you can agree on, forget your
differences, because all parties have differences of opinions and how we get there.
What I've learned is actually focused on where we do agree, and you'll find that I built
the legions with people that you might think that would be completely opposite where I
think.
But there were things that we agreed upon that were best interests for the State of Minnesota
and for our communities.
And that's where I focused on.
I think our constituents actually, yeah, Google, the website, the Minnesota House
representatives and pull up actually my bills and you can track and see the bills that I was
on and the ones that I actually co-sponsored and actually worked across the aisle on various
items that were sensitive to our area and that in Greater Minnesota and that's where I focus
is the center difference to the side mic and quit playing politics because I've seen that
way too much of a playing politics, especially even as campaigns, where it's a lot of politics
be employed. Let's focus on who we represent, which is a greater than a soda and all
Carlton County, Northern Pine, and Southern Fainland.
And that's what we need to focus on. Thank you very much. This is a sort of one more opportunity to kind of close and let folks know who are watching us today. Why they should support you for reelection in just a few weeks?
Well, a number one, Mike, if you want to thank you again for the opportunity to be here in the chamber. That means lack.
I'm a representative of Jeff Doffsett, and I've been honored to serve two years in the
House of Representatives, and I'd be honored to serve additional two years with reelection
in your support.
I think you'll find that I've been proven worthy of reelection, and I encourage you to pull
up again the House of Representatives website and do your own research and actually find out
what builds I was involved with, where my votes were, but also pull up my website, www.dautsethmn.com.
But again, at the end of the day, I just want to thank you.
It's been an honor to be able to serve our community, our great state, and I humbly asked for
your support for reelection, and I want to thank you, and I thank our community, and
God bless.
Thank you.
Thank you, Representative Dots of.
And thank you to the viewers.
This has been a great opportunity.
I hope it's been very informative for you to get to know some of your candidates for
a local and state office.
And with that, we'll close up, and we'll be done for the day, and thank you to the Chamber
for providing this format and this forum for folks to get the word out.
It's not always easy to get 30 minutes of a candidate's time in their own words, so thank you
and to your predecessors here for participating.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.