October 6, 2024 • 22 mins
What if a city could grow rapidly without losing its charm? Join us as we unpack this with Sarah Van Asten, a dedicated candidate for City Council in Dayton, Minnesota. Sarah shares her strategic vision for managing Dayton’s expansion while preserving its unique character and economic vitality. By highlighting critical areas like understanding Met Council policies and prioritizing community needs, she offers insights into innovative solutions for balancing growth with sustainability, including resource sharing with neighboring cities to ensure fiscal responsibility.
Maintaining safety without compromising privacy is a delicate balancing act. Discover how Dayton’s Police Department has managed to keep crime rates low and how community watch programs could amplify these efforts. We look into the FLOCK camera system, examining its role in law enforcement and the accompanying privacy concerns. The conversation is an eye-opener on how technology can impact both public safety and personal privacy, urging us to find a middle ground that respects individual rights while keeping communities secure.
Could agritourism be the key to Dayton’s distinct identity? Explore how this city can leverage its agricultural heritage to boost economic development and create jobs. We also tackle pressing infrastructure issues, such as water systems and internet access, essential for supporting current and future residents. As traffic congestion and road safety remain challenges, we discuss strategic collaboration with authorities and creative funding solutions. Finally, Sarah addresses the complex relationship with Hennepin County, advocating for a fair distribution of resources while ensuring the community gets the services it deserves.
Thank you for listening to this episode of HuttCast, the American Podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's discussion and gained valuable insights. To stay updated on our latest episodes, be sure to subscribe to our podcast on your preferred listening platform. Don't forget to leave us a rating and review, as it helps others discover our show. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for future topics, please reach out to us through our website or social media channels. Until next time, keep on learning and exploring the diverse voices that make America great.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the City of Dayton's Question and Answer.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Sarah Van Asten is here and we're going to start
out with some questions, sarah,Hello, my name is Sarah Van
Asten and I am running for CityCouncil for Dayton, Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
There are some questions that were posed and
came off of the survey.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I mean, I wasn't one of the special people invited to
answer the survey.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah, it was on that survey, so we took the.
We took the questions that werepeople had quick concerns about
and we're throwing them on thishere right now.
So the first one is growth ormanagement.
How will you control Dayton'srapid growth to prevent
overdeveloping and preserve thecommunity's character without
sacrificing economicopportunities?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, there's some big changes coming down the line
from Met Council and one of thefirst things will be to
understand exactly what theirnew policies mean.
At the last planning commissionmeeting we were discussing it
and it was pretty clear thatwe're not sure yet as a city
exactly what the rules are goingto be, and no one does.
We're all kind of stillnavigating this.
It's not technically adopted,it's still open for comment
(01:03):
until October 7th, so part of itwill be to see what actually
comes out of that.
But it looks like there may besome ways to follow the letter
of their law, so to speak, andstill follow the spirit of our
community so that we can findways to limit development
whenever possible.
But the reality is there arecertain places that are zoned a
(01:27):
certain way and put in thestaging map in a certain way
that if a property owner wantsto develop, there's not really
much the city can do to say aflat out no.
We can guide it, but we can'tprohibit it.
But for me what that means is,when we've got other spots where
we do have the ability to sayno, that we need to whenever we
can.
I think we need to really becognizant of preserving our
(01:51):
green spaces, our farms, ouragricultural land as much as
possible.
And, just like I said, a lot ofchanges are coming from Met
Council.
So I'm not sure in this moment.
What we've done in the past maynot work in the future.
So it's hard to have a firmanswer until we get our heads
(02:11):
wrapped around this new MetCouncil rule.
But I have some ideas about howwe can do what they're asking
us to do and still limit growth.
As far as the economic side ofthings, I've never really heard
a solid answer for why we needto develop the people who I know
who are a little bit moregung-ho on our development.
Usually the reasons they giveme is because, well, we're going
(02:32):
to build out anyway and it'sinevitable.
And to me that's not a reasonto rush headlong into it just
because it's going to happen.
And no one's ever given me areally strong argument for the
economic side of things.
I'm not saying there isn't one,I've just yet to see it.
So I think there's a way.
If we budget appropriately,thoughtfully, we can limit our
(02:55):
growth and still meet all of ourfinancial needs as a city.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Excellent.
Now number two taxes.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Excellent.
Now number two taxes.
What specific steps will youtake to reduce or prevent
further tax increases whilemaintaining essential city
services?
New to city leadership and citygovernment, but I'm not new to
leadership.
I have held leadership roles inmy profession for decades and
one of my biggest pet peeves iswhen we get a new administrator
in and they just come in withall of these ideas and all of
(03:34):
these changes and they thinkthey can just fix everything for
us and they don't take time toreally understand our history
and why we do things the way wedo, what has worked, what hasn't
worked and why.
And without knowing thosethings, I'm not going to be able
to come in and just be likehere.
This is what we can do andeverything is fine now.
(03:56):
So my first step would be toreally understand the whys
behind the budget.
I get the numbers behind thebudget.
As a mathematician, Idefinitely understand the
numbers, but there's always whys.
Why did we make this decision,why didn't we make this other
decision?
And a lot of those whys are inthe background and the average
citizen doesn't know what thoseare.
So I really want to dig deepinto why our budget is the way
(04:19):
it is before I can make any sortof sweeping changes, generally
speaking, based on that feedbackfrom that survey.
Most people are relatively happy.
Obviously, I don't know anyonewho would be sad if their taxes
went down.
Pretty much everyone is unhappywhen their taxes go up, but
(04:41):
it's kind of hard.
You can't have a steak dinnerfor hamburger helper prices.
So it's really aboutprioritizing and thinking about
what is actually the mostimportant thing for our current
residents.
How do we prioritize that andget that into a budget in a
reasonable way?
Money, things like sharingresources why does Dayton and
(05:05):
Champlin and Rogers and Otsegoall have to have big, expensive
equipment that only gets usedonce or twice a year?
Is there a way we can sharethat equipment and share the
cost?
Is there a way we can shareservices like fire or police or
other ways to work together?
In some of the communitieswhere I grew up, it was a
similar situation where therewere several small communities
(05:26):
and they found the best optionwas to actually combine all of
their police forces together andmake a single police force to
serve all of the communities,and that made more sense
budget-wise.
I'm not saying that is oursolution and that's where, like
I said, I have ideas, but Ireally would need to dig deeper
into the why we have or haven'tdone the things we've done in
the past.
Before I can just say this iswhat we're going to do and this
(05:48):
is what's going to make itbetter.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Next, public safety.
How do you plan to reduce crime, reckless driving, and what
specific metrics will you use tomeasure success in improving
public safety?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
what specific metrics will you use to measure success
in improving public safety?
Once again, I would need to doa lot of research and working
with our current police and fireto see what they think the
issues are.
One of the things that I thinkis really important is to
understand the underlying issue.
Are we dealing with boredteenagers that have nothing
better to do?
Are we dealing with ourcommunity members from either
(06:25):
our own community or neighboringcommunities that are
economically disadvantaged anddon't feel like there is a
legitimate way for them to makemoney?
Or are we dealing with nationalorganizations that are
purposely following the nationalbuilders because they know
there's easy things to take?
Each one of those has adifferent solution and without
knowing what the ultimate causeis, we can't fix it
appropriately.
(06:45):
But I do know that, compared tomany other communities, we're
actually doing pretty good,considering how much Dayton has
grown.
Our crime has not grown in steps, so to speak, which you
normally would expect.
So our police department isdoing really good work already
and it is important tounderstand the good work that
has already been done and how wekeep doing the good stuff and
(07:10):
how we support them in doing thegood stuff so that we continue
to keep those numbers as low asthey are Because they are
actually, quite frankly,compared to many other
communities, pretty good.
I had a really niceconversation with one of our
police officers about thecommunity watch programs he has
going on and he wants to expandthose and get more people
involved in community watchprograms or neighborhood watch
programs, and that's like oneexample of a way that we have a
(07:33):
good program that we can expandand make even better.
And I think that's where wereally need to lean into working
with the people on the grounddoing the good work and figuring
out how to support them andexpand the good work they're
already doing.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Okay, have you heard of the FLOC program, the FLOC
camera system?
Are you in favor of that?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I don't have enough information to have a solid
answer.
Can you tell me more about that?
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Yeah, most cities are employing this camera system
that watches every license plate.
It's an AI camera system.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
And Champlin has three of them and they're
planning to go to about seven oreight of them.
In most cities, if you have anAmber Alert, they can track the
vehicle coming in and out ofevery city nationwide.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
That's one of those things where I get a little
concerned about how thatinformation can be used beyond
what we intend.
I think there could be a lot ofunintended consequences for
stuff like that.
Privacy is important to me, butlaw and order is important to
me, and that's that finding thatbalance between the two.
(08:35):
I don't want to live in a policestate, and I don't want to live
in a surveillance state whereeveryone is tracking my every
move and everything I do.
That makes me veryuncomfortable.
But I also feel like peopleneed to, you know, follow the
rules and obey the laws and dothe right things, and if there's
an Amber Alert, obviously wewant to find that child.
There's no question to that.
It's really thinking throughthe consequences of what does it
(08:57):
mean to be tracking ourcitizens that much and that
closely?
How do we protect that data andmake sure it's not used
inappropriately?
And how do we protect theprivacy of our residents?
That's just as important.
People have a right to privacy,and so I would need to learn a
lot more about those programsand particularly the safety on
the other end of how do we storethat data.
(09:18):
How do we make sure otherorganizations there are so many
criminal organizations out therethat have amazing technology.
I would hate for them to beable to come in and get that
data if it's not storedappropriately.
How long is it stored?
I have a lot more questions onthat one before I could possibly
have a firm opinion.
I have concerns, but I couldsee how it could be beneficial.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Right?
Well, the chair of EDA broughtit to the council last year and
it was quite a thing.
Okay, all right.
Next question Infrastructure.
What immediate actions will youtake to ensure Dayton's
infrastructure and city servicescan handle current and future
growth without compromising thequality?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Again, a lot of research needs to happen.
I need to dig deeper into wherewe've spent our money, why
we've spent our money in thecertain areas we have.
What do the residents actuallywant?
I think that's a big one.
Sometimes there are individualswho can be very loud with their
needs and in the end, they onlyrepresent a very, very small
portion of our population andare requiring a lot of our
(10:21):
resources.
So it's really important tofigure out exactly where our
resources need to go, where theissues really are.
It's one of the reasons whythat survey that was done, which
I think was.
There's a lot of very awesomeinformation in there, and I
think that's where we have todig deep into what
infrastructure is actuallyneeded by the vast majority of
residents, and maybe not justone or two individuals who
(10:42):
happen to be very loud abouttheir needs, which there's
nothing wrong with that, becausethat's how we know to look in
the first place.
But I think sometimes this issomething I've discovered in my
own you know my professionalleadership sometimes the people
who are very loud and have a lotof concerns, and so I put it.
You know I would put a lot ofeffort and energy into solving
this issue, only to discoverthat for the vast majority of
(11:03):
the people I represented, theydidn't really care, and so I
want to make sure we're reallyfocusing on what's important to
the major portion of Daytonresidents.
I do know water is a huge thing.
Internet oh my gosh, isinternet a huge thing?
I'm not exactly sure what oursolutions are for that, but as
someone who only has oneinternet option and it is very
expensive I would like to havemore choices.
(11:24):
So I do think things likeinternet, water, roads which is
its own question coming up.
These are things that areimportant and we have to look
into, and I'm not sure I knowcities have tried to do their
own internet options and havegotten sued by the national
companies, the nationalbroadband companies and the like
.
I again have to look into whathas worked.
(11:47):
What communities have managedto make a difference in getting
internet to their residents.
What did they do?
How can we duplicate that?
Lots of good work has happenedaround this country and there's
no reason to reinvent the wheel.
What really has to happen is wehave to find the communities
that have done these thingssuccessfully and ask how did you
pull that off?
We'd like to duplicate thathere.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Local economy.
How do you plan to attractbusiness, create jobs in Dayton
and what industries would youtarget to diversify the local
economy?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
So this would be one where I would rely heavily on
our EDA and what work they'vealready done and is in progress.
I think we do have to find thatbalance between what our
residents are willing to beneighbors to versus what our
resources can support, versuswhat the market supports.
So, for example, where I grewup, we were a paper mill area.
(12:42):
I mean, every city had its ownpaper mill and that was a lot to
do with the natural resourcesand where the paper trees were
and rivers and lakes and allthis kind of stuff.
So certain times there arecertain industries where you
need particular resources tosupport those industries and we
can't go after an industry if wedon't have the resources to
support them.
On the flip side, people alsowant to have like we have more.
(13:05):
We're mostly a residentialcommunity and agricultural
community and so there's peopleliving everywhere and, you know,
might not want to be a neighborto something.
Cannabis comes to mind.
I feel like cannabis is goingto be a growing industry and
there could be some realeconomic benefits there.
But do we do Dayton residentswant to live next to cannabis
(13:26):
businesses?
That's a question we have tofigure out before we want to,
you know, maybe go one way oranother.
There's there's that balancebetween what what is a good
natural fit for our resources,versus what do you want to be
neighbors for, versus what theeconomy you know what the market
will actually support.
On the flip side, I do thinkthat dayton is special and
(13:47):
unique in that we still have alot of our green spaces, we
still have a lot of agriculturalland.
We still have a lot of ourgreen spaces.
We still have a lot ofagricultural land.
We still have a lot of farmsand hobby farms and homesteads
that our neighboring communitiesdon't have, and I would like to
really support and lean intothat.
Like Dean's.
Pumpkin Patch is an institution.
People travel to Dayton forthat.
We should be capitalizing onthose people.
(14:08):
Like there are people whopurposely come to our city to go
to Dean's.
We should have more things forthem to do while they're here.
Right, we should have morerestaurants.
We should like really focus onthat.
We could become likeagritourism is a growing
industry and we, I think, arepositioned.
A lot of people when I tell themwhere I live, they look at me
with, like I kind of recognizeDayton, but why?
(14:29):
And then I'm like it's, I liveacross from Elm Creek Park
Reserve and I'm like, oh, elmCreek Park Reserve, I, we love
it there, we go there all thetime and it's like we have
people coming to our city forthese things.
We should find businesses thatcompliment the reasons people
are already coming to our cityinstead of trying to.
We don't need another target.
We don't need another cub Foods.
(14:50):
They're great, they're goodbusinesses to have, but that's
not special or unique ordifferent.
Everybody has a Cub.
Everybody has a Target.
Nobody else has Elm Creek ParkReserve, nobody else has Dean's.
These are the things that makeus special and I think we really
need to think about how otherbusinesses can be complementary
to our really special, amazingthings and how do we attract
(15:10):
them and support them, and thinkabout how we can position
ourselves in a way that standsout from all of our neighboring
communities, because we arespecial and we should be using
that to everyone's advantagewithin the city.
We should all be benefitingfrom how awesome and amazing
Dayton is.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Environmental concerns.
How will you tackle Dayton'sflooding, stormwater and
managing drinking water issueswith a measurable, long-term
solution?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
So this is another one where I think there's a lot
of experts that I would need tolean on, particularly for the
water, the storm drainage,flooding, all that kind of stuff
.
There's a lot of informationthere that I don't have at this
moment in time and I would needto learn more this moment in
time and I would need to learnmore.
I've also been told and I needto fact check this, I guess that
(15:58):
there was at one point a planto do a joint water thing with
some of our neighboringcommunities.
I believe Corcoran, Rogers,Otsego, I believe, and us were
going to do a joint water thingand the state was on board and
there was money involved and itwas going to be great, and then
it died.
Why did it die?
That's what I would want toknow, and was it as far along as
(16:20):
this person led me to believe?
There's a lot of informationthere, but I know water is a
huge issue getting qualitydrinking water, but also
controlling water when it rainsand the reality is our weather
is getting more extreme.
We went from several years ofextreme drought to extreme rain
this year and we need to bepositioned to handle both
extremes.
We need to have a good solidwater preservation system in
(16:44):
place to think about how do wepreserve our water when we're in
our drought situations, andthen we also need to think about
how do we manage it when wehave too much.
And the other kind of bigunderlying thing that I don't
think anyone has a handle on orat least no one that I have met
or talked to has a handle on isthe drain tile.
The reality is much of Daytonwas agricultural land and much
(17:05):
of that had drain tile put inwhich affects how the water
moves underground.
But most drain tile is notrecorded anywhere, and so when
you have a developer come in andthey come and start ripping
these things up, they change theway the water is moving
underground in veryunpredictable ways that can have
devastating impacts on theirneighbors, and that is not okay.
(17:26):
And so we've really got to geta handle on that, particularly
since we have so much drain tilethat has been put in and
there's so few records of it.
I think one thing that we coulddo along those lines is I've
heard now on the planningcommission several times when
developers come through,sometimes they're required to do
an environmental study andsometimes they're not.
I think they should always berequired to do an environmental
(17:48):
study, and I think they shouldalways be required to do a water
study in particular.
How is their buildings andtheir roads, and all of their
changes to the topography, howis that going to affect the way
water is moving on and undertheir land, and how is that
going to affect their neighbors?
I don't think we've reallypushed that, and we need to
because, like I said, there's alot of things happening
(18:14):
underground with our water thatwe can't see, and flooding can
just devastate a home or acommunity, and we need to be
proactive about it instead ofbeing reactive about it.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Traffic and congestion.
What concrete measures will youimplement to address traffic
and congestion in an unsafedriving and how will you enforce
these changes?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
implement to address traffic and congestion in an
unsafe driving, and how will youenforce these changes?
So, again, this is one where wehave to work in partnership
with a lot of differentorganizations.
Right, so we control city roads, the county has county roads,
the state has state roads, andthen there's 94, of course, and
there's different players foreach of these roads and
different people who get to sayyes or no, or to bring money or
not bring money.
And we need to have a solidplan, and that's one thing I
(18:54):
have discovered on the planningcommission.
There was a road plan that'spublished and that went out the
window for reasons that I don'tknow yet.
I would like to know, I'veasked, but there's not been a
new plan put in place, and weneed a solid road plan in place
for all of our roads.
One thing that I've heard acouple of different times now is
(19:16):
well, that's a county road, wecan't do anything about it, or
that's a state road, we can't doanything about it.
That's not a satisfactoryanswer to me.
I think Dayton as a city needsto know itself what it wants.
We need to have our own plan.
This is what we want for all ofour roads, and then we go to
the people who have control ofthose roads, whether it's the
county or the state, and saythis is our plan, how can you
(19:39):
help us implement it?
And then we've got to work withour state representatives and
our state legislators to get themoney to do this, because I've
also heard that our staterepresentatives have said, yeah,
we'd support you, but we need aplan to support.
We can't come up with the planfor you.
You need to have the plan andthen come to us and say this is
what we need and then we cansupport you, and that, I think,
(20:01):
has been missing.
So we need to sit down andreally get a firm, solid road
plan in place.
I've also heard that a lot ofwork was done already on the
Fernbrook issue.
I've heard a lot of.
I drive on Fernbrook every day,so I get it.
There's an issue on Fernbrookand I was told that after those
studies and the reports, they dohave solutions and it's
roundabouts but they'reexpensive and we don't have the
(20:22):
budget for it.
So again, I think a lot of workhas been done that either has
got sidelined for one reason oranother and we have to go back
and see what work has been done,what plans have already been
made or researched and what hasprevented them from happening?
And then, how can we move pastthat?
How can we get them movingforward?
Do we need to seek out grants?
(20:42):
Do we need to work with ourstate legislators?
What do we need to do to getthese plans in place?
But Dayton has to take thedriver's seat, so to speak, in
all of our road and congestionthings.
We can't just be passivepassengers waiting for the state
to come in and fix our problems.
We need to take control of thatand really push on all the
different players to get what weneed for our city.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Last question is kind of an on-the-fly question.
Would you support a disconnectfrom Hennepin County as Dayton?
Speaker 2 (21:12):
I don't know enough.
I've heard rumblings alongthose lines that Hennepin County
, that we pay a lot of taxes tosupport Minneapolis and we don't
get a lot of the benefits fromthat.
I don't know enough about whatI know.
I pay a lot of taxes and I knowI get a lot of services.
I haven't really dug deep intowho exactly are giving those
(21:33):
services.
One of the first thing that popsinto my head is you know, the
county has an amazing libraryprogram, but we don't have a
library.
So like we're paying for that,but we're.
You know we have to go toneighboring communities.
But maybe the answer is notwell, let's ditch Hennepin
County.
Maybe the answer is let's makesure we're getting our full
share of the resources thatHennepin County has to offer.
That might not be.
(21:55):
You know, if we haven't done ourpart, I can't turn around and
blame Hennepin County for notgiving us our fair share if we
haven't asked for it or pushedfor it or advocated for
ourselves.
So that's one of those thingswhere I would need to dig a lot
more into how much we'reactually paying in Hennepin
County taxes, what servicesHennepin County is actually
giving us and what would thatmean to switch?
(22:17):
What are the actual impacts ofthat?
Because a lot of times we canmake these changes and they can
have some major unintendedconsequences, and I would hate
to do that.
I don't know enough to tell meoh yeah, we should do that or no
, we shouldn't do that.
I need to know a lot more aboutexactly why we've landed where
we've landed in terms of notnecessarily getting our full
(22:39):
resources from Hennepin Countyand how we can, maybe if there's
other ways to fix that.
My name is Sarah Van Asten.
I'm asking for your vote forDayton City Council.
Welcome to the City of Dayton's Question and Answer.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Sarah Van Asten is here and we're going to start
out with some questions, sarah,Hello, my name is Sarah Van
Asten and I am running for CityCouncil for Dayton, Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
There are some questions that were posed and
came off of the survey.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I mean, I wasn't one of the special people invited to
answer the survey.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah, it was on that survey, so we took the.
We took the questions that werepeople had quick concerns about
and we're throwing them on thishere right now.
So the first one is growth ormanagement.
How will you control Dayton'srapid growth to prevent
overdeveloping and preserve thecommunity's character without
sacrificing economicopportunities?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, there's some big changes coming down the line
from Met Council and one of thefirst things will be to
understand exactly what theirnew policies mean.
At the last planning commissionmeeting we were discussing it
and it was pretty clear thatwe're not sure yet as a city
exactly what the rules are goingto be, and no one does.
We're all kind of stillnavigating this.
It's not technically adopted,it's still open for comment
(01:03):
until October 7th, so part of itwill be to see what actually
comes out of that.
But it looks like there may besome ways to follow the letter
of their law, so to speak, andstill follow the spirit of our
community so that we can findways to limit development
whenever possible.
But the reality is there arecertain places that are zoned a
(01:27):
certain way and put in thestaging map in a certain way
that if a property owner wantsto develop, there's not really
much the city can do to say aflat out no.
We can guide it, but we can'tprohibit it.
But for me what that means is,when we've got other spots where
we do have the ability to sayno, that we need to whenever we
can.
I think we need to really becognizant of preserving our
(01:51):
green spaces, our farms, ouragricultural land as much as
possible.
And, just like I said, a lot ofchanges are coming from Met
Council.
So I'm not sure in this moment.
What we've done in the past maynot work in the future.
So it's hard to have a firmanswer until we get our heads
(02:11):
wrapped around this new MetCouncil rule.
But I have some ideas about howwe can do what they're asking
us to do and still limit growth.
As far as the economic side ofthings, I've never really heard
a solid answer for why we needto develop the people who I know
who are a little bit moregung-ho on our development.
Usually the reasons they giveme is because, well, we're going
(02:32):
to build out anyway and it'sinevitable.
And to me that's not a reasonto rush headlong into it just
because it's going to happen.
And no one's ever given me areally strong argument for the
economic side of things.
I'm not saying there isn't one,I've just yet to see it.
So I think there's a way.
If we budget appropriately,thoughtfully, we can limit our
(02:55):
growth and still meet all of ourfinancial needs as a city.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Excellent.
Now number two taxes.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Excellent.
Now number two taxes.
What specific steps will youtake to reduce or prevent
further tax increases whilemaintaining essential city
services?
New to city leadership and citygovernment, but I'm not new to
leadership.
I have held leadership roles inmy profession for decades and
one of my biggest pet peeves iswhen we get a new administrator
in and they just come in withall of these ideas and all of
(03:34):
these changes and they thinkthey can just fix everything for
us and they don't take time toreally understand our history
and why we do things the way wedo, what has worked, what hasn't
worked and why.
And without knowing thosethings, I'm not going to be able
to come in and just be likehere.
This is what we can do andeverything is fine now.
(03:56):
So my first step would be toreally understand the whys
behind the budget.
I get the numbers behind thebudget.
As a mathematician, Idefinitely understand the
numbers, but there's always whys.
Why did we make this decision,why didn't we make this other
decision?
And a lot of those whys are inthe background and the average
citizen doesn't know what thoseare.
So I really want to dig deepinto why our budget is the way
(04:19):
it is before I can make any sortof sweeping changes, generally
speaking, based on that feedbackfrom that survey.
Most people are relatively happy.
Obviously, I don't know anyonewho would be sad if their taxes
went down.
Pretty much everyone is unhappywhen their taxes go up, but
(04:41):
it's kind of hard.
You can't have a steak dinnerfor hamburger helper prices.
So it's really aboutprioritizing and thinking about
what is actually the mostimportant thing for our current
residents.
How do we prioritize that andget that into a budget in a
reasonable way?
Money, things like sharingresources why does Dayton and
(05:05):
Champlin and Rogers and Otsegoall have to have big, expensive
equipment that only gets usedonce or twice a year?
Is there a way we can sharethat equipment and share the
cost?
Is there a way we can shareservices like fire or police or
other ways to work together?
In some of the communitieswhere I grew up, it was a
similar situation where therewere several small communities
(05:26):
and they found the best optionwas to actually combine all of
their police forces together andmake a single police force to
serve all of the communities,and that made more sense
budget-wise.
I'm not saying that is oursolution and that's where, like
I said, I have ideas, but Ireally would need to dig deeper
into the why we have or haven'tdone the things we've done in
the past.
Before I can just say this iswhat we're going to do and this
(05:48):
is what's going to make itbetter.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Next, public safety.
How do you plan to reduce crime, reckless driving, and what
specific metrics will you use tomeasure success in improving
public safety?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
what specific metrics will you use to measure success
in improving public safety?
Once again, I would need to doa lot of research and working
with our current police and fireto see what they think the
issues are.
One of the things that I thinkis really important is to
understand the underlying issue.
Are we dealing with boredteenagers that have nothing
better to do?
Are we dealing with ourcommunity members from either
(06:25):
our own community or neighboringcommunities that are
economically disadvantaged anddon't feel like there is a
legitimate way for them to makemoney?
Or are we dealing with nationalorganizations that are
purposely following the nationalbuilders because they know
there's easy things to take?
Each one of those has adifferent solution and without
knowing what the ultimate causeis, we can't fix it
appropriately.
(06:45):
But I do know that, compared tomany other communities, we're
actually doing pretty good,considering how much Dayton has
grown.
Our crime has not grown in steps, so to speak, which you
normally would expect.
So our police department isdoing really good work already
and it is important tounderstand the good work that
has already been done and how wekeep doing the good stuff and
(07:10):
how we support them in doing thegood stuff so that we continue
to keep those numbers as low asthey are Because they are
actually, quite frankly,compared to many other
communities, pretty good.
I had a really niceconversation with one of our
police officers about thecommunity watch programs he has
going on and he wants to expandthose and get more people
involved in community watchprograms or neighborhood watch
programs, and that's like oneexample of a way that we have a
(07:33):
good program that we can expandand make even better.
And I think that's where wereally need to lean into working
with the people on the grounddoing the good work and figuring
out how to support them andexpand the good work they're
already doing.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Okay, have you heard of the FLOC program, the FLOC
camera system?
Are you in favor of that?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I don't have enough information to have a solid
answer.
Can you tell me more about that?
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Yeah, most cities are employing this camera system
that watches every license plate.
It's an AI camera system.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
And Champlin has three of them and they're
planning to go to about seven oreight of them.
In most cities, if you have anAmber Alert, they can track the
vehicle coming in and out ofevery city nationwide.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
That's one of those things where I get a little
concerned about how thatinformation can be used beyond
what we intend.
I think there could be a lot ofunintended consequences for
stuff like that.
Privacy is important to me, butlaw and order is important to
me, and that's that finding thatbalance between the two.
(08:35):
I don't want to live in a policestate, and I don't want to live
in a surveillance state whereeveryone is tracking my every
move and everything I do.
That makes me veryuncomfortable.
But I also feel like peopleneed to, you know, follow the
rules and obey the laws and dothe right things, and if there's
an Amber Alert, obviously wewant to find that child.
There's no question to that.
It's really thinking throughthe consequences of what does it
(08:57):
mean to be tracking ourcitizens that much and that
closely?
How do we protect that data andmake sure it's not used
inappropriately?
And how do we protect theprivacy of our residents?
That's just as important.
People have a right to privacy,and so I would need to learn a
lot more about those programsand particularly the safety on
the other end of how do we storethat data.
(09:18):
How do we make sure otherorganizations there are so many
criminal organizations out therethat have amazing technology.
I would hate for them to beable to come in and get that
data if it's not storedappropriately.
How long is it stored?
I have a lot more questions onthat one before I could possibly
have a firm opinion.
I have concerns, but I couldsee how it could be beneficial.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Right?
Well, the chair of EDA broughtit to the council last year and
it was quite a thing.
Okay, all right.
Next question Infrastructure.
What immediate actions will youtake to ensure Dayton's
infrastructure and city servicescan handle current and future
growth without compromising thequality?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Again, a lot of research needs to happen.
I need to dig deeper into wherewe've spent our money, why
we've spent our money in thecertain areas we have.
What do the residents actuallywant?
I think that's a big one.
Sometimes there are individualswho can be very loud with their
needs and in the end, they onlyrepresent a very, very small
portion of our population andare requiring a lot of our
(10:21):
resources.
So it's really important tofigure out exactly where our
resources need to go, where theissues really are.
It's one of the reasons whythat survey that was done, which
I think was.
There's a lot of very awesomeinformation in there, and I
think that's where we have todig deep into what
infrastructure is actuallyneeded by the vast majority of
residents, and maybe not justone or two individuals who
(10:42):
happen to be very loud abouttheir needs, which there's
nothing wrong with that, becausethat's how we know to look in
the first place.
But I think sometimes this issomething I've discovered in my
own you know my professionalleadership sometimes the people
who are very loud and have a lotof concerns, and so I put it.
You know I would put a lot ofeffort and energy into solving
this issue, only to discoverthat for the vast majority of
(11:03):
the people I represented, theydidn't really care, and so I
want to make sure we're reallyfocusing on what's important to
the major portion of Daytonresidents.
I do know water is a huge thing.
Internet oh my gosh, isinternet a huge thing?
I'm not exactly sure what oursolutions are for that, but as
someone who only has oneinternet option and it is very
expensive I would like to havemore choices.
(11:24):
So I do think things likeinternet, water, roads which is
its own question coming up.
These are things that areimportant and we have to look
into, and I'm not sure I knowcities have tried to do their
own internet options and havegotten sued by the national
companies, the nationalbroadband companies and the like
.
I again have to look into whathas worked.
(11:47):
What communities have managedto make a difference in getting
internet to their residents.
What did they do?
How can we duplicate that?
Lots of good work has happenedaround this country and there's
no reason to reinvent the wheel.
What really has to happen is wehave to find the communities
that have done these thingssuccessfully and ask how did you
pull that off?
We'd like to duplicate thathere.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Local economy.
How do you plan to attractbusiness, create jobs in Dayton
and what industries would youtarget to diversify the local
economy?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
So this would be one where I would rely heavily on
our EDA and what work they'vealready done and is in progress.
I think we do have to find thatbalance between what our
residents are willing to beneighbors to versus what our
resources can support, versuswhat the market supports.
So, for example, where I grewup, we were a paper mill area.
(12:42):
I mean, every city had its ownpaper mill and that was a lot to
do with the natural resourcesand where the paper trees were
and rivers and lakes and allthis kind of stuff.
So certain times there arecertain industries where you
need particular resources tosupport those industries and we
can't go after an industry if wedon't have the resources to
support them.
On the flip side, people alsowant to have like we have more.
(13:05):
We're mostly a residentialcommunity and agricultural
community and so there's peopleliving everywhere and, you know,
might not want to be a neighborto something.
Cannabis comes to mind.
I feel like cannabis is goingto be a growing industry and
there could be some realeconomic benefits there.
But do we do Dayton residentswant to live next to cannabis
(13:26):
businesses?
That's a question we have tofigure out before we want to,
you know, maybe go one way oranother.
There's there's that balancebetween what what is a good
natural fit for our resources,versus what do you want to be
neighbors for, versus what theeconomy you know what the market
will actually support.
On the flip side, I do thinkthat dayton is special and
(13:47):
unique in that we still have alot of our green spaces, we
still have a lot of agriculturalland.
We still have a lot of ourgreen spaces.
We still have a lot ofagricultural land.
We still have a lot of farmsand hobby farms and homesteads
that our neighboring communitiesdon't have, and I would like to
really support and lean intothat.
Like Dean's.
Pumpkin Patch is an institution.
People travel to Dayton forthat.
We should be capitalizing onthose people.
(14:08):
Like there are people whopurposely come to our city to go
to Dean's.
We should have more things forthem to do while they're here.
Right, we should have morerestaurants.
We should like really focus onthat.
We could become likeagritourism is a growing
industry and we, I think, arepositioned.
A lot of people when I tell themwhere I live, they look at me
with, like I kind of recognizeDayton, but why?
(14:29):
And then I'm like it's, I liveacross from Elm Creek Park
Reserve and I'm like, oh, elmCreek Park Reserve, I, we love
it there, we go there all thetime and it's like we have
people coming to our city forthese things.
We should find businesses thatcompliment the reasons people
are already coming to our cityinstead of trying to.
We don't need another target.
We don't need another cub Foods.
(14:50):
They're great, they're goodbusinesses to have, but that's
not special or unique ordifferent.
Everybody has a Cub.
Everybody has a Target.
Nobody else has Elm Creek ParkReserve, nobody else has Dean's.
These are the things that makeus special and I think we really
need to think about how otherbusinesses can be complementary
to our really special, amazingthings and how do we attract
(15:10):
them and support them, and thinkabout how we can position
ourselves in a way that standsout from all of our neighboring
communities, because we arespecial and we should be using
that to everyone's advantagewithin the city.
We should all be benefitingfrom how awesome and amazing
Dayton is.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Environmental concerns.
How will you tackle Dayton'sflooding, stormwater and
managing drinking water issueswith a measurable, long-term
solution?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
So this is another one where I think there's a lot
of experts that I would need tolean on, particularly for the
water, the storm drainage,flooding, all that kind of stuff
.
There's a lot of informationthere that I don't have at this
moment in time and I would needto learn more this moment in
time and I would need to learnmore.
I've also been told and I needto fact check this, I guess that
(15:58):
there was at one point a planto do a joint water thing with
some of our neighboringcommunities.
I believe Corcoran, Rogers,Otsego, I believe, and us were
going to do a joint water thingand the state was on board and
there was money involved and itwas going to be great, and then
it died.
Why did it die?
That's what I would want toknow, and was it as far along as
(16:20):
this person led me to believe?
There's a lot of informationthere, but I know water is a
huge issue getting qualitydrinking water, but also
controlling water when it rainsand the reality is our weather
is getting more extreme.
We went from several years ofextreme drought to extreme rain
this year and we need to bepositioned to handle both
extremes.
We need to have a good solidwater preservation system in
(16:44):
place to think about how do wepreserve our water when we're in
our drought situations, andthen we also need to think about
how do we manage it when wehave too much.
And the other kind of bigunderlying thing that I don't
think anyone has a handle on orat least no one that I have met
or talked to has a handle on isthe drain tile.
The reality is much of Daytonwas agricultural land and much
(17:05):
of that had drain tile put inwhich affects how the water
moves underground.
But most drain tile is notrecorded anywhere, and so when
you have a developer come in andthey come and start ripping
these things up, they change theway the water is moving
underground in veryunpredictable ways that can have
devastating impacts on theirneighbors, and that is not okay.
(17:26):
And so we've really got to geta handle on that, particularly
since we have so much drain tilethat has been put in and
there's so few records of it.
I think one thing that we coulddo along those lines is I've
heard now on the planningcommission several times when
developers come through,sometimes they're required to do
an environmental study andsometimes they're not.
I think they should always berequired to do an environmental
(17:48):
study, and I think they shouldalways be required to do a water
study in particular.
How is their buildings andtheir roads, and all of their
changes to the topography, howis that going to affect the way
water is moving on and undertheir land, and how is that
going to affect their neighbors?
I don't think we've reallypushed that, and we need to
because, like I said, there's alot of things happening
(18:14):
underground with our water thatwe can't see, and flooding can
just devastate a home or acommunity, and we need to be
proactive about it instead ofbeing reactive about it.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Traffic and congestion.
What concrete measures will youimplement to address traffic
and congestion in an unsafedriving and how will you enforce
these changes?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
implement to address traffic and congestion in an
unsafe driving, and how will youenforce these changes?
So, again, this is one where wehave to work in partnership
with a lot of differentorganizations.
Right, so we control city roads, the county has county roads,
the state has state roads, andthen there's 94, of course, and
there's different players foreach of these roads and
different people who get to sayyes or no, or to bring money or
not bring money.
And we need to have a solidplan, and that's one thing I
(18:54):
have discovered on the planningcommission.
There was a road plan that'spublished and that went out the
window for reasons that I don'tknow yet.
I would like to know, I'veasked, but there's not been a
new plan put in place, and weneed a solid road plan in place
for all of our roads.
One thing that I've heard acouple of different times now is
(19:16):
well, that's a county road, wecan't do anything about it, or
that's a state road, we can't doanything about it.
That's not a satisfactoryanswer to me.
I think Dayton as a city needsto know itself what it wants.
We need to have our own plan.
This is what we want for all ofour roads, and then we go to
the people who have control ofthose roads, whether it's the
county or the state, and saythis is our plan, how can you
(19:39):
help us implement it?
And then we've got to work withour state representatives and
our state legislators to get themoney to do this, because I've
also heard that our staterepresentatives have said, yeah,
we'd support you, but we need aplan to support.
We can't come up with the planfor you.
You need to have the plan andthen come to us and say this is
what we need and then we cansupport you, and that, I think,
(20:01):
has been missing.
So we need to sit down andreally get a firm, solid road
plan in place.
I've also heard that a lot ofwork was done already on the
Fernbrook issue.
I've heard a lot of.
I drive on Fernbrook every day,so I get it.
There's an issue on Fernbrookand I was told that after those
studies and the reports, they dohave solutions and it's
roundabouts but they'reexpensive and we don't have the
(20:22):
budget for it.
So again, I think a lot of workhas been done that either has
got sidelined for one reason oranother and we have to go back
and see what work has been done,what plans have already been
made or researched and what hasprevented them from happening?
And then, how can we move pastthat?
How can we get them movingforward?
Do we need to seek out grants?
(20:42):
Do we need to work with ourstate legislators?
What do we need to do to getthese plans in place?
But Dayton has to take thedriver's seat, so to speak, in
all of our road and congestionthings.
We can't just be passivepassengers waiting for the state
to come in and fix our problems.
We need to take control of thatand really push on all the
different players to get what weneed for our city.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Last question is kind of an on-the-fly question.
Would you support a disconnectfrom Hennepin County as Dayton?
Speaker 2 (21:12):
I don't know enough.
I've heard rumblings alongthose lines that Hennepin County
, that we pay a lot of taxes tosupport Minneapolis and we don't
get a lot of the benefits fromthat.
I don't know enough about whatI know.
I pay a lot of taxes and I knowI get a lot of services.
I haven't really dug deep intowho exactly are giving those
(21:33):
services.
One of the first thing that popsinto my head is you know, the
county has an amazing libraryprogram, but we don't have a
library.
So like we're paying for that,but we're.
You know we have to go toneighboring communities.
But maybe the answer is notwell, let's ditch Hennepin
County.
Maybe the answer is let's makesure we're getting our full
share of the resources thatHennepin County has to offer.
That might not be.
(21:55):
You know, if we haven't done ourpart, I can't turn around and
blame Hennepin County for notgiving us our fair share if we
haven't asked for it or pushedfor it or advocated for
ourselves.
So that's one of those thingswhere I would need to dig a lot
more into how much we'reactually paying in Hennepin
County taxes, what servicesHennepin County is actually
giving us and what would thatmean to switch?
(22:17):
What are the actual impacts ofthat?
Because a lot of times we canmake these changes and they can
have some major unintendedconsequences, and I would hate
to do that.
I don't know enough to tell meoh yeah, we should do that or no
, we shouldn't do that.
I need to know a lot more aboutexactly why we've landed where
we've landed in terms of notnecessarily getting our full
(22:39):
resources from Hennepin Countyand how we can, maybe if there's
other ways to fix that.
My name is Sarah Van Asten.
I'm asking for your vote forDayton City Council.
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