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1. Affordable Housing- We need 18,000 to 20,000 new homes over the next decade just to keep up with demand. The County Board should bring together residents, builders, small businesses, bankers, townships, code inspectors, and agencies such as the USDA to create a 15- to 20-year strategic plan.
2. No New Data Centers-How would they benefit our community? Utility rites can rise and increase fraud. We need early public collaboration, full transparency, and a bad on non-disclosure agreements.
3. Taxes, Transparency and Tradeoffs-The county has the highest bond rating, with healthy reserves. The county may need to postpone future capital building to meet the basic needs of those needing rental and food assistance.
I have complete confidence in how Olmsted County conducts safe and secure elections. For those that have doubts, I would encourage you to be an election judge. The judges are well trained. I have had the privilege to serve as an election judge serval times. The county tests their equipment and at every stage multiple counts are conducted for accuracy and accountability.
The county board serves as the local board of health, and access to mental health care is one of our greatest challenges. Patients need timely services, but our community also needs more mental health professionals, many of whom are already at capacity.
I will advocate for system improvements that help people receive care early and ensure services work together rather than in silos. No one in our county should have to wait for a crisis to get the support they need.
Under Big Beautiful Bill, it is estimated that the Olmsted County budget will be impacted by $4M. Those resources are needed, so they can support local recipients of programs like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP Food Assistance Program).
The county must add to their annual state and federal legislative agendas that the full costs of these state and federal programs mandated to be implemented by the county are covered. Unfunded mandates are bad policy and irresponsible.
It the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that has the authority to make arrests and detentions. As current policy, the board has made it clear, the local sheriffs office does not and will not make or coordinate arrests with ICE. I am proud of how the Olmsted County Sherriff’s Office under Sherriff Kevin Torgeson and Rochester Chief of Police Jim Franklin demonstrated leadership, transparency and followed the law.
My goal is to communicate proactively with constituents and remain present, accessible, and ready to listen. Because county commissioners do not have constituent service teams, I will make it a priority to respond to every email or contact within 24 hours. Strong community engagement is essential to making sound policy decisions. I will also continue using social media for regular updates and pledge to host a monthly Coffee with Gabe event at a local business to hear directly from residents.
Fiscal Responsibility Towards Taxpayers
I know and fully understand pressures of increasing property taxes and will be a strong advocate of responsible spending and living within our means.
Mental Illiness
It touches all of us! County staff and processes do a great job but there is a huge statewide need. Long term treatment beds are lacking. My goal and a driving purpose of my candidacy is a new state mental hospital in Rochester or elsewhere in Minnesota. It is critical!
Our Environment
We must continue to address climate change by reducing carbon emissions. Likewise preserving our earth’s natural resources is imperative. Olmsted County has environmental sustainability as a core principle which I strongly support.
I would not even consider balancing either. Balancing suggests to me that middle ground needs to be found. It does not and can not. Olmsted County has and will into the future pursue and, I believe, attain excellence in administering safe and secure elections. Likewise, Olmsted County strives to the fullest to provide voter access in an unobstructed, non-threatening, and welcoming way. Free and fair elections are the essence of democracy and must be assured in every way possible.
This goes back to one of my listed issues. The number one challenge is lack of longer term treatment term treatment beds in Minnesota. This leaves too many non-criminal, mentally ill individuals confined to jails or left to fend for themselves on the streets to await is usually a bad outcome. My past legislstive experience gives me a pulpit to work with my county board, advocates, legislators, criminal justice system experts, and our new governor to build a new state mental health hospital.
County board members do not deliver county services but set policy, provide budgets, and work with our county administrator to ensure the board’s policies and expectations are carried out in a successful and cost effective way. This means accountability through attention to established metrics (if you don’t measure it you can’t mange it) by all county departments by regular reports to the county administrator and periodic reports to the county board. Olmsted County does this well.
This is a function of the federal government and I do not believe Olmsted County should play in a formal way in the administration or enforcement of federal immigration laws. Our responsibility rests with the enforcement of county ordinances and state laws.
I am generally known for a long history of constituent accessibility and availability.
I have been told by many that my attention to constituent service is superior. There are, of course, the normal communications measures and they are important however they are one way communications. Being available and immersed across the community with an open, inviting, and welcoming spirit is essential. Likewise, just listening and asking is extremely important and I am told I do this very well,
