Undecided on tomorrow's Ward 2 Northfield City Council primary election? We can help
Our League of Women Voters forum transcript compares candidates' views
The City of Northfield’s Mayor’s race (seven candidates) has gotten most of the attention for tomorrow’s (Aug. 13) local primary election.
But there’s also another race for Ward 2 residents. Three candidates—Chad Beumer, Emy Farley, and Edward Malnar—are competing for the seat.
(The top two vote-getters in each race move onto the Nov. 5 general election. See the City’s comprehensive Elections & Voter Information page for more.)
The League of Women Voters Candidate Forum on June 27 devoted a full hour to the Ward 2 candidates. It was structured to facilitate comparisons: 13 questions, with short responses by each candidate to each question.
We’ve created a text transcript of the Ward 2 segment of the forum for those of you who might find it a helpful alternative to the video version. (We used an online service to create the transcript from the audio. There may be some errors. Contact us if you notice anything significant.)
The 13 questions (plus introductions at the beginning and closing statements at the end):
Why you are running for city council and what do you see as the biggest issues facing Northfield?
We can think about housing on a continuum from homelessness to subsidized housing to affordable rental to affordable home ownership and market rate housing. Where do you see the biggest gaps and what is the role of city government, if any, in easing the housing crisis we are facing?
From your perspective, how important is it to share the estimated future costs of proposed projects?
With the recent floods, what priorities will you advocate for around the Riverwalk remediation?
How do you plan to ensure diverse community voices are heard and included in decision-making processes about major city projects?
Talk about a time when you had to work to find common ground with someone you disagreed with.
How will you support the small business community?
What do you know about the city's climate action plan, and what is your opinion about how it should be implemented?
How will you prioritize maintaining existing city facilities?
How important is it to you that city administration, staff, and elected officials return calls and emails to citizens in a timely manner? And if so, how will you hold those in power accountable for timely and transparent communication?
How do you feel about the transportation options currently available in our city? Can all of our residents affordably get to where they need to go? If not, what will you do to improve transportation in our city?
Minnesota's housing crisis disproportionately harms families of color, especially black and indigenous households. Minnesota is one of the worst states in the nation for racial disparities in home ownership. What meaningful steps will you take to eliminate racial disparities in housing?
Where do you get your information about city issues and projects?
Ward 2 LWV forum transcript
Chad Beumer introduction:
Good evening, I am Chad Beumer. First I'd like to thank the league for hosting this evening's event. I am a townie born and raised in Northfield, a 91 graduate of Northfield High School.
I served four years active duty in the Marines from 1991 to 1995. Following that I served six years with the Minnesota Army National Guard. I am married to my wife Lori, who is an elementary education teacher. She taught at my alma mater just down the street at St. Dominic's Catholic School for 22 years and is currently teaching at All Saints Catholic Church or Catholic School up in Lakeville.
I have been involved in the construction industry the majority of my life, concrete, framing, and for the last 20 years as a construction supervisor, for the last seven of which I have worked for Wooddale Builders, a high-end custom home builder based out of Minnetonka. Over my career I have been involved in many aspects of construction from home building, some site development, and a few small commercial projects in the various sites and jobs that I've worked.
I am running in hopes that my experience and background can bring some much-needed common-sense spending back to the city council. A few of the items I hope to focus on are fiscally responsible spending to help minimize tax burden, be someone who listens and hears what my constituents have to say, focus on the needed projects versus the wanted projects, work on economic development for both residential and commercial development to help increase our tax base, city government transparency with increased communication, and to be a voice for blue-collar workforce, the retired seniors, and the 42 percent of Northfield population with an annual household income under $60,000. Thank you.
Emy Farley introduction:
Good evening. Thank you to the League of Women Voters and St. Olaf College for hosting tonight's forum, and thank all of you for attending and Catherine for moderating. My name is Emy Farley.
I'm running to represent Northfield City Council in Ward 2. I've lived in Northfield since 2015 when I relocated here with my family to work at Carleton. I now work remotely in Maine, but my family and I made the deliberate choice to remain here in Northfield because this town is really something special and I'm very eager to be a part of that.
I'm running for city council because I believe in the progressive place that Northfield is and in all the things that Northfield still wants to become. I want to help ensure that Northfield meets its goals for economic and job growth, affordable housing, responsible spending, environmental stewardship, and equity, for being a good place to work, a good place to raise a family and start a business, and a good place to retire. But like every city, we have problems to solve.
Taxing and spending, transparency, jobs, housing, and I think my skills and background can help us manage them. By day, I'm an IT product manager. I consider the wants and needs for spending at my organization's technology dollars.
I meet with people across the organization to hear what they do and what they want. I do research and I talk to experts and then I work to prioritize our spending and our projects. I make well-informed projections about our options and our obligations and then I make hard decisions about what can be resourced now and what needs to go back on the shelf for later.
I also work in our change management processes, helping drive communication to our community so they're informed about the changes that are coming their way and know about opportunities to learn more and provide input. Then I bring that input back to our teams and executives where they're incorporated into our decision making. I want to do this for Northfield because I do this every day and I know what it means to make tough choices in the name of sustainable improvement.
I want to put my skills to work for a city that my family and I have deliberately and proudly chosen to call home. Thank you. Thank you.
Edward Malnar introduction:
All right. Good evening everyone. It's great to see so many of you here. My name is Edward Malnar and I'm running to bring community integrity and accountability to your representation on the city council. I might have grown up in cornfield country Illinois but I'm happy to be considering myself a townie now. I might have studied foreign policy, foreign language and culture at Carleton with the expectation of living abroad and working abroad but I found my home here and I might have even lived elsewhere throughout the country but I came back.
The community in Northfield is something truly special and I am delighted to be able to take part in that in all manners, in educational and volunteer opportunities, in religious life and performing music. I have a five year cycle now. A veteran's seasoned experience as an election judge and I love the civic aspect of helping people by following the law so that they can participate directly in our society and in our community.
Following the law is the kind of integrity that I want to demonstrate and use as a model of leadership in the city council. I feel as though the current city council doesn't really pay too much attention to playing nice. The paying attention to the state laws, paying attention to the voters, these are things that very quickly go out the window.
I am running because I've been asked to run by my friends and neighbors who see a need for change. They are being forced in some cases from their homes by rising city taxes which is why we need accountability. As a quality assurance specialist and project manager here in town at Aurora Pharmaceutical, I am able to demonstrate to auditors and to our customers that we do things right.
That we are giving the best product possible and that is exactly what all of you deserve in your representation.
Moderator question 1:
Thank you. Our first question will go to candidate Malnar first, then candidate Farley, and then finally candidate Beumer. So tell us why you are running for city council and what do you see as the biggest issues facing Northfield?
Edward Malnar:
All right, I'll get to pick right up where I left off. I am not a person who's wanting to run because I have something to gain from it or I have something to prove. I am running because people have asked me to do this.
They trust me. They trust my knowledge, my habit for study, and the willpower I will bring to say no. The current trajectory of the city council is bigger plans, bigger spending, and higher taxes constantly even over their own self-imposed tax increase limit.
This is an unsustainable model that we cannot afford and it's going to force the people that Northfield worked so hard to attract into town right back out in order to be a sustainable community that is respecting its citizens and listening to them. It is time that the city council hears people are in pain. We have a need to change our direction and that is why they have asked me to run. I am doing it for that interest.
Emy Farley:
I'm running because I genuinely love the type of work that a city council does. I love looking at all of the sides of the issue and making decisions based on the facts and the feelings and inputs of the people and I would love to do that for Northfield. To me our biggest issues are making sure that we have economic investments that bring jobs and broaden our tax base.
I want to make sure that we are doing things equitably across the city so that no matter which ward you live in you have access to the services and the goods that you need even if you have a car even if you don't. I want to continue to make sure that this is a livable community where people feel welcomed and accepted and that this is the place that they want to call home, continue to invest their own dollars into, and I want us to be bringing more businesses to diversify our tax base so that we can stay a livable community. Thank you.
Chad Bueumer:
Some of the things that I think we need to work on the most are focusing on what is needed versus what is wanted. Decreased spending and we need to not ignore our citizens when our citizens come to us requesting that we do something, you know, different. One of the things that I think we need to work on absolutely is affordable housing with lower tax rates.
Part of my experience in the construction industry I believe that that's something that I could absolutely help bring to the table here in town and I really think we need to get more industrial type development in here to help ease that burden on the local taxpayers. Thank you.
Moderator question 2:
Thank you. We now have a question that was submitted prior to our forum. We'll begin responses with Candidate Farley followed by Candidate Beumer and then finally Candidate Malnar.
We can think about housing on a continuum from homelessness to subsidized housing to affordable rental to affordable home ownership and market rate housing. Where do you see the biggest gaps and what is the role of city government, if any, in easing the housing crisis we are facing?
Emy Farley:
There are actually a lot of really interesting linked studies in the comprehensive plan and one of them talks specifically about housing and it identifies obviously the need for affordable housing but particularly sort of this middle range of housing, so townhomes, apartments, things like that. And in particular affordable apartments. So those are some of the places that I would focus on.
I think the role of government there is trying to build those public and private partnerships, getting HRA guidance but also making sure that the developments that we're putting in are desirable areas, making sure that there's infrastructure to those places. Again sort of building, you start at the middle where the infrastructure exists and then start going out toward places where you would have to add additional infrastructure. Those to me are the places where the role of government is to help make sure that we're making reasonable investments that make the most sense for who we are and where we are and what we need.
Chad Beumer:
Thank you. We need more affordable housing as I stated just a couple minutes ago. Keeping the property taxes low, some of the ways to do that is with multi-family units.
We need to develop area, we need shovel ready areas, we need to work on getting the infrastructure ready so that we can do that. We cannot have, we can't do bring in more industrial type businesses without affordable housing here in Northfield because we need a place to house those that are going to work in those places. Thank you.
Edward Malnar:
Northfield is a fairly small city. As a regulatory body, as a legislature, the city council doesn't have a whole lot of power single-handedly. Most laws that we could pass are already preempted by state and federal laws.
The power of the city council primarily lies in the budget and it is taxes that are the fastest, best, and most reliable route to making housing affordable in Northfield again. With the ridiculous amount of property tax increases that are on tap for this year, as much as 20 percent this year alone with all of the things that are being proposed, I look at a trajectory that is different from the one that I've lived under so far. 12 years in town and my property taxes have increased 130 percent.
They're going to double again in just eight years. We can make housing affordable by cutting the taxes. That is going to enable seniors, wage workers, and other people who are having a hard time making ends meet stay in their homes.
Moderator question #3:
[Editor’s Note: an earlier version of this transcript mistakenly attributed Edward Malnar’s answers for #3 to Emy Varley and vice versa. Our apologies to the candidates.]
Here's one from the audience. We'll start with candidate Malnar and then we'll go to candidate Farley and then finally candidate Beumer. From your perspective, how important is it to share the estimated future costs of proposed projects?
Edward Malnar:
Easy question. Terribly important. There is no good way we can act as a city council without knowing what's going to happen.
How can we make any decision without thinking about the consequences? That is how we wound up in the situation where we are. Currently, the city council is operating on a model of, oh, we got something. It's new. It's shiny. Sure.
Let's say yes. And then they start thinking about the costs asking for community input after the decision has been made. We need to be asking these questions up front and really paying attention to what is going to happen.
That is the accountability that I want to bring to city council.
Emy Farley:
I think as many creative ways we can find to share costs on the projects that we're doing is fantastic. I do think that costs are part of consideration before projects roll forward, but I think it's really important that we're transparent about the ways that we're doing that and making the information easy for citizens to find, making it easy for citizens to understand the considerations that the council has taken when choosing which projects to roll forward with.
And so I think as many ways as we can find to share costs, like we've talked about with housing for public-private collaborations, I think that's a fantastic idea so that you do ameliorate some of the costs on the taxpayers.
Chad Beumer:
Thank you. I think the first place we have to start is is it is it needed or is it wanted? That that's the first question that we always have to ask when a project comes up.
If it's not wanted, if it's not a needed project, can we afford it? Have we done a proper financial analysis on the project? Is there a good return of investment on the project?
Those are all questions that we have to ask and we have to be sure of before we do it. And we certainly need to make sure that the tax that the people footing the bill, the taxpayers, need to are aware of what's going on before we make the decisions so they can have a voice in whether we do it or not. Thank you.
Moderator question #4:
Thank you. Another question from the audience. We'll begin with candidate Beumer, go to candidate Malnar, and end with candidate Farley.
With the recent floods, what priorities will you advocate for around the Riverwalk remediation?
Chad Beumer:
I think one of the things that would be helpful is if we could potentially somehow figure out how to have things a little bit more ready. If there's a way if there's a way to stage things, maybe have sandbags filled prior. Are there other types of barriers that we could be using that are quicker to install than sandbags?
Floods come fast. Look what happened the other week up on Lake Vermilion. Overnight rain raised the lake 11 inches. That could happen in a river quicker than that. We just need to be ready and come up with some creative ways to react quicker to help those businesses and everybody that's down around the river. Thank you.
Edward Malnar:
I'm running on a back-to-basics model of funding in city government, prioritizing essential services and then worrying about the more elaborate kinds of things that city government can do. Riverfront development is definitely in the more elaborate category.
That said, I look to the Economic Development Authority as being a good model for how we can be investing in downtown and investing in businesses in Northfield. They operate on a fiduciary model. They make more money than they spend. This is based on loans and promotion for business.
So when it comes to riverfront development, there was a whole lot of talk of cleaning up the floodplains and making the natural spaces look pretty. Well, there's no return in that. So I would prioritize projects that are going to be invested into downtown businesses.
I think the development of Little Joy Coffee shop having a back patio that can open towards the river was a good use of public funding and I would be interested in projects that can grow business like that.
Emy Farley:
I think if I were a civil engineer who could solve this problem and predict weather that well, I would be like a millionaire. I think Chad's right that preparedness and having strategies that you've thoughtfully planned out ahead of time because you know, we keep getting these hundred-year floods and x-year floods and they're not going to go away. And so we do really actually have to figure out, get experts involved who understand river mitigation much better than I personally do because I work in IT.
But that I would absolutely support preparedness, figuring out what are like, are there barriers that we can have? I don't know where we would store them. Are there sandbagging efforts that we could get going earlier?
And looking at the businesses that are next to the river because it's important for businesses to be next to the river and figuring out ways that we can stop damage before it starts as we get these floods more and more frequently.
Moderator question #5:
Thank you. Our next question came to us prior to the forum. We'll begin with candidate Farley, then we'll go to candidate Beumer, and then finally candidate Malnar.
How do you plan to ensure diverse community voices are heard and included in decision-making processes about major city projects?
Emy Farley:
I think this is another thing that if I had a really great way to solve it, I would be a millionaire. But I think the best thing you can do is try to be really diverse in all of the places that you're putting out messages, all of the formats that you're putting out messages, because we know that there are people who will only read the newspaper and we know that there are people who will never pick up a newspaper. And so you have to be really versatile with the way that you're putting messages out.
There are people who don't relocate for hurricanes because the message from FEMA wasn't on TikTok, right? So maybe we need to diversify the ways that we're putting messages out there. And I think being a welcoming presence, being somebody who, making sure that when you have an open forum or something that there's maybe a couple of people there because not everybody's message is going to resonate with everybody.
So if you have other people in the room that someone connects with, you're probably going to have a better shot at getting someone to open up to the person sitting there and listening. Thank you.
Chad Beumer:
One of the things that I've been talking about wanting to do if I were to be elected would be to host meetings with the ward or anybody else that wants to come in, you know, come. They answer questions, be transparent. It would allow, take notes and then take that back to the council.
The rest of the, the rest of the council members I would hope would want to hear what people from my ward are saying. And I sure want to hear what they have to say. I want to listen and hear. And I don't think that that's something that's happening an awful lot around here. Thank you.
Edward Malnar:
All of you, great job for being here. You are already ahead of where I was merely a few years ago. It took for me getting into city hall where I've had three years experience working to find out about how these things work.
I just didn't know what was going on before. I wasn't connected and I was just living my life in town. I think that's the normal mode for people.
And I might not have been a big newspaper reader at the time. I might have thought that KYMN was a religious music station. It's a reasonable assumption. So it took me being a part of city hall to learn about what they're doing, how they're messaging. And then I realized, but nobody from city hall ever talked to me before I started working there.
That's why I think representative government, and that's what we are. The city council is representative government. It's supposed to get out, talk to the people, ask you, what do you want? What do you think? And then take that back into the council chambers.
Moderator question #6:
Thank you. Another question from the audience. We'll start with candidate Malnar, followed by candidate Farley, and then candidate Beumer.
Talk about a time when you had to work to find common ground with someone you disagreed with.
Edward Malnar:
I like people and I work at getting along with people because I understand we aren't the same. We're going to disagree on things. We're going to have different experiences and be coming from different perspectives.
It doesn't change how I'm going to think about or treat you because I care more about the person than the opinion. I came from a positively puritanical background where I grew up and that was just very much the country culture that we had. When I got to college and started making friends, started finding out that these were people from political backgrounds with gender identities, never heard of that before.
The first time somebody raised what pronouns do you use, I jokingly, referring to Latin, said I like interrogative pronouns. But despite all the differences and the fact that my friends agree with me on almost nothing, we all get along. That's the kind of relatability that I think representative needs to bring.
Emy Farley:
That Latin joke made my mind go absolutely blank. I think my day job is to sometimes tell people that their projects are not being funded because we need to do something else. And so you really have to start out with respect and a deep understanding of where someone is coming from, even if you don't agree with it.
I really do think that folks have more in common than we have not in common. I think if you start from a place of acknowledging your shared goals and the things that you agree on, the things that you both want to pursue in a similar direction, it makes it much easier to disagree with somebody because it makes it clear that you're disagreeing with the thoughts or the opinions and not the person and not the human being who is having different thoughts or opinions than you. Thank you.
Chad Beumer:
I deal with it every day. I've been building houses for the last 20 years. It's absolutely an everyday occurrence where you're agreeing or trying to come to a solution with somebody that you don't necessarily agree with or somebody that doesn't necessarily agree with you.
You meet all kinds of people when you build houses from a $250,000 range all the way up to a six or seven million dollar range. Finding the common ground is something that seems to lack lately and that's something that I am actually very good at. So I hope I can bring that to the council as well. Thank you.
Moderator question #7:
Thank you. Our next question is another one from the audience. We'll begin with candidate Beumer followed by candidate Malnar and end with candidate Farley. Specifically, how will you support the small business community?
Chad Beumer:
We have to listen. Talk to them, listen to them, hear them, and then try to do the best that you can to act upon what you're hearing. Cutting spending to on those again wanted projects and focusing more on the needed projects will ultimately reduce the amount of money that we are requiring of those business owners and the residents of Northfield to have to pay for, which will keep their taxes down.
The main theme that I have heard from most of the people that I have talked to that own small businesses is their taxes are going to get to the point where they are going to have to close the doors because it's just too costly. So cut spending, keep taxes low. Thank you.
Edward Malnar:
There are a number of things that the city council can and should do. I'm thinking about cutting taxes, cutting red tape, and promoting workers.
Cutting taxes, I've covered before, so I'm going to focus more on the other two. In terms of red tape, there are a lot of ways in which the city is trying to be a responsible, study-oriented, data-driven community and comes up with all kinds of added reports and studies and surveys that they expect businesses to fill out. When I talk to business owners, they tell me, the red tape is just ridiculous.
I'm wasting time on all these things where I could be working, running my business, trying to take care of my family. And I think that's an easy fix. We can just cut a lot of red tape.
I also want to look at housing as a way of drawing in workers. Many of my co-workers at Aurora Pharmaceutical don't live in Northfield because they can't afford it. They want to be able to live here and be a part of the town where they work. We need to make that happen.
Emy Farley:
I think both of you have made excellent points, both about listening and hearing from the businesses, but also about housing. Again, in the comprehensive plan, one of the studies around housing tells us that about a third of the jobs in Northfield are held by Northfielders. Blue-collar workers come here from out of town, and high-paying professional jobs tend to commute out of town or be remote workers.
I think one of the ways to help the small business community is, again, by focusing on some of those mid-range housing projects, high-density housing, mid-sized houses, affordable rental units, and hearing what they have to say about their needs. I loved George's idea about supporting entrepreneurship. I think that at Riverwalk, there's always the youth booth where different kids come in and sell their things.
I love this sort of a model. There are great business models out there based on that, and I think something like that would be lovely in a town like Northfield.
Moderator question #8:
Thank you. Another question that was submitted prior to our forum today. We'll start with candidate Farley, then move to candidate Beumer, and finally candidate Malnar.
What do you know about the city's climate action plan, and what is your opinion about how it should be implemented?
Emy Farley:
So I've read part of it, but it is a very comprehensive document. I support really any efforts to mitigate our climate impact, especially in a city that cares about these types of efforts as much as Northfield does. We just talked about river flooding.
These things are not getting any less frequent. Climate has an impact on that, and so I think that the city doing what it can to lower our emissions and then building those climate action plan pieces into development that we bring into the city, whether it's by business or by housing, I think is a really smart way to put our money where our mouth is.
Chad Beumer:
I have started to read to read the plan. I have lots of questions and lots to learn. I'm very willing to learn, very willing to listen, and I just obviously I don't have enough knowledge base on that to accurately answer the question. Thank you.
Edward Malnar:
My fundamental problem with the plan is that it is not based on data in science. The climate action plan draws heavily on Carleton's misrepresentation of its own energy efficiency and carbon footprint. There used to be a Carleton 2050 carbon neutrality plan.
Then the federal government came up with a new definition of saying, well, goodwill and some advising and your pollution magically goes away. We're going to give you a waiver, effectively, on your claimed impact, and Carleton said, oh, well, we're just going to drop it to 2030 and we're not going to change a darn thing. It's dishonest, and before we can actually tell anything about the impact we are having, we need to be able to get past the fancy language, get back to facts and data, and actually look at a local impact for what is really going on here in town.
Moderator question #9:
Thank you. Another question from the audience. We'll begin the responses with candidate Malnar, followed by candidate Farley, and ending with candidate Beumer.
How will you prioritize maintaining existing city facilities?
Edward Malnar:
The top priorities are very straightforward. In what I call a back-to-basics model of funding, our top priorities are education, emergency services, the hospital, and the public infrastructure of physical utilities. These are the top priorities.
When it comes to looking how we're spending our money, those need to be top. Everything else gets pushed behind it. So if we're going to be talking about making costly renovations to the second floor of City Hall, is that really changing anything? Okay, we have a new floor. Yay! No, it didn't really make any meaningful difference about how accessible City Hall was.
We need to put priorities first. Those are the needs, those are the things that are public goods that truly benefit everybody.
Emy Farley:
I think first you start off with the services that absolutely everybody needs. So fire, police, infrastructure for utilities, things like that. After that, I think I'll say it again, the river.
There are a lot of things that we can't control that have an impact on the life we have in Northfield. And so then you should start by upgrading things to help make sure that our facilities are safe, that we are hopefully... I mean, working on the fire station a few years ago helped keep it dry this time.
And so the more of these types of things that we can do, the better we will be in the future. We can't continue to defer needed maintenance because eventually down the road it costs you a whole heck of a lot more. And so looking at spaces where you need to make adjustments and fixes, prioritizing those so that you actually do save money in the long run would be how I would prioritize maintaining facilities.
Chad Beumer:
Obviously, such as everybody else has stated, the hospitals, police stations, fire station, you know, first responders, paramedics, we need to make sure that their budgets are maintained so that they can operate and do what they need to do to protect the community. As far as buildings go, we need to keep them safe, update them, keep them up to code.
Do we need to spend extra money to build new buildings such as liquor stores? No, we do not. It's not profitable. It's way more into that wanted category than the needed category. $77,000 last year, 6.4 million dollar liquor store, you do the math. Thank you.
Moderator question #10:
All right, another question that was submitted prior to the forum. We'll begin the responses with candidate Beamer, go to candidate Farley, and then end with candidate Malnar.
How important is it to you that city administration, staff, and elected officials return calls and emails to citizens in a timely manner? And if so, how will you hold those in power accountable for timely and transparent communication?
Chad Beumer:
I would hope there's a policy in place for that already. Emails, you know, councilor members, I'm an open book. Somebody wants to get a hold of me, they got my emails, they've got my phone number.
I will do my absolute best to respond at any time. I think that staff should be held accountable. Doing what I do in the construction industry, building houses, general rule of thumb is 24 hours.
If you get a question from somebody, an email from somebody, a phone call from somebody, you should be returning that call within 24 hours. If the city staff isn't being held accountable, I would hope that we could do that and make that better for everybody. Thank you.
Emy Farley:
I think that responding to calls, emails is part of the job and folks should be expected to do that. I agree with Chad that hopefully within 24 hours people have responded. It's part of how you build trust, it's part of how you build accountability, it's part of how you show that you care about the people that you are working with and for.
In terms of how you can hold someone accountable, it would be really difficult, I think, unless there were a policy to hold someone accountable because city councillors would be my peers, but I think, you know, working on a policy if there isn't one to make sure that we have one or bringing it up as a point of conversation as like just, hey, get any emails from your constituents this week? Let me tell you about this one that I got and bringing it up as a point of conversation maybe.
Edward Malnar:
I'm going to be right up front with you, which is exactly how I intend to be if elected. I have priorities in my life. I have responsibilities that follow a very clear order and this is the order.
Responsibilities to God, to myself and my own health, to my family, to my livelihood. Then comes public service. If I'm not taking care of the really important things, I'm not going to be any good for you when it actually comes to public service.
So I have to disagree with Chad. I think trying to cram it into a formal policy is not going to be flexible enough to respond to how people actually live and the health problems that come up and, you know, the issue of if my basement is flooding because it's been raining non-stop for a month. There is a priority to how I'm going to handle things.
That said, I really believe in and will strive to listen to everyone, to respond to everyone, and I want to get out and interact with you personally. I'm a personable person. If I can talk to you, that is great. If you write in to me, then I'll respond.
Moderator question #11:
Thank you. Another pre-submitted question. We'll begin the responses with candidate Malnar, go to candidate Beumer, and end with candidate Farley.
How do you feel about the transportation options currently available in our city? Can all of our residents affordably get to where they need to go? If not, what will you do to improve transportation in our city?
Edward Malnar:
Northfield is not the Twin Cities. It's about a mile across in each direction. I walk to work. I walk to the library. I walk to stores. It's a small town. You can get around walking. You can get around biking, and we have a fairly robust system of roads to enable you to get around. We do not need public transit.
There is no room for any kind of, you know, like light rail train to go scooting around town. It's going to have, what, two stops? It doesn't make sense. I think that this has received way too much priority from the City Council that we currently have. I want to see this drop in priority. Thank you.
Chad Beumer:
We do have a couple of transit buses that run around town. There are a couple of businesses that offer taxi type services. We do have Uber.
We do need to spend a pile of money on a transportation hub? Nope, I don't think so. I think that follows more into a wanted thing than a needed thing, and like I said, my primary focus will be to focus on the needed things so that we can hopefully stop wasteful spending within our city. Thank you.
Emy Farley:
I think one of the things that city government should make sure of is that people can safely get around their city to take care of the needs that they have. Get to the doctor, get to the hospital, make sure that there's options available.
There are options available, but not all of them are cost-friendly. We have areas of the city that don't have as many transportation options as others, that don't have as friendly ways of biking.
When I worked at Carleton, I often heard from students that they found it actually very difficult to get over to St. Olaf, for example, if they were going to be doing a class or a social event or something like that.
It's ableist to say that people can walk everywhere. I personally cannot, and so for someone to tell me that what Northfield is a mile across, it actually takes me personally over an hour to walk a mile because I have to do it with a limp. And so I think that it is our obligation to make sure that we are taking care of the people who have the most need in the community. Thank you.
Moderator question #12:
Our next question will start with Candidate Farley, go to Candidate Beumer, and end with Candidate Malnar.
Minnesota's housing crisis disproportionately harms families of color, especially black and indigenous households. Minnesota is one of the worst states in the nation for racial disparities in home ownership. What meaningful steps will you take to eliminate racial disparities in housing?
Emy Farley:
This is a fantastic question, and I really wish I had the answer for it. New rentals need to be affordable. We need to make sure that we are prioritizing equitable options for housing. Almost half of renters are cost-burdened, and what that means is that they have a lower income threshold than, like over 30% of their costs, sometimes over 40% of their costs are going to housing.
We have the ability, I would hope, to work on building these mid-range housing, again going with public private partnerships, townhomes, apartments, smaller homes, and making sure that they fit into the income categories that we need in our city.
Chad Beumer:
Good point. The affordable housing isn't a $350,000 house. That's not affordable. I don't care what you tell me. It's not an affordable house. If we can get housing somewhere in that $200,000 to $250,000 range, it might not be very big. It might not be a palace, but it will be somebody's palace, correct? We have to keep the property taxes down for those houses as well.
I think one of the things we need to do is try to attract a builder that's going to do that, a developer that would that can do that. Might have to be a national type builder. There are a few out there. I'm not talking your Lennars or your D.R. Hortons. I'm talking smaller national builders that have that type of buying power to be able to do that kind of stuff, but keeping the housing actually affordable is what we need to do. Thank you.
Edward Malnar:
According to the last census, racial demographics in Northfield are a near exact match to the median of the state. The income relative to living expenses, again, is a near-median match to the middle of the state. I don't think that the question is identifying any particular problem that's unique to Northfield.
So, since it's not a unique problem, I don't think we need any unique solutions. What we can do is continue to prioritize what we can do to help people live and work in Northfield. What is going to be good for workers is going to be good for everybody, and I think that as a government that is representing everybody, we need to be able to take a good-for-everybody approach.
Moderator question #13:
Thank you. We have time for one last question, and we'll begin responses with candidate Malnar, followed by candidate Farley, and ending with candidate Beumer.
Where do you get your information about city issues and projects?
Edward Malnar:
Well, shoot, I have to go first on this one. There is quite a list, so that's going to take me a bit to think through. I have work experience in City Hall, and honestly the best and clearest information I get is straight from the people who are at City Hall or on the City Council.
This is not accessible to everyone, and that's really unfortunate. After that, I would say talking to neighbors, talking to churchgoers, just the people I meet and the personal connections I have in town. After that's going to be Northfield News, then maybe radio, and every once in a while I'll get information exclusively through the digital realm.
There are lots of channels of information, and I want as a councilor to be the kind of person who is active in trying to get the message out to any and all of those channels so that other people can hear it.
Emy Farley:
I go first to the city website because, so for example, the City Council website, you can find links to the agendas, you can find PDFs of presentations that folks have given. They're not always, you know, right there that day, but you can find them soon after. I actually, I find that the city is pretty transparent with what information goes out there, but you do have to get the hang of the website in order to be able to understand it.
The city Facebook page gives a lot of really good information. I have found a lot of helpful facts about the construction projects that are going on around town, for example, and they always link back to the information that's on the city website, so I found that very helpful.
And then I do go to KYMN a lot because I think they do a great job of putting information about the meetings and interviews with folks out there pretty much a couple of times a day.
Chad Beumer:
The council agendas are one of the locations, the city website, social media. However, I will say that often the information is after the fact or too late for you to actually be able to have a voice on it. It seems like you have to dig a lot on that city's website to be able to find any information that you're looking for.
One of the things I would love to see changed, whether I get in there or not, would be to have a very easy link to all construction projects and then have another link to tell you which project is which and then have the documents there. It would be nice to see that a little bit more transparent and easy to access on the city's website. Thank you.
Moderator request for closing statements:
All right, we will have closing statements now. Candidates will have one minute for the closing statements to summarize their qualifications and positions. In our order is Candidate Beumer, Candidate Malnar, followed by Candidate Farley.
Candidate Beumer:
Again, I'd like to thank the league for hosting this evening's event and I'd really like to thank everybody for attending. It is very refreshing to see so many people actually care about what's happening in our city and care to learn about the people that are actually trying to help run the city.
I believe it's time to change how our city spends our hard-earned tax dollars and make better use of them by focusing again on the needed to maintain our infrastructure and our city services.
One of the things I want to make sure that I point out is remember to get out and vote on August 13th so that you can ensure your voice is actually heard and then remember to get back out again in the general election on November 5th. Thank you everybody for attending tonight. It is greatly appreciated.
Edward Malnar:
My name is Edward Malnar and it is time for new leadership on the City Council. So I am eager to do the work of researching and finding better solutions, better ways forward. I'm interested in working with you and receiving your input so that we can make that road together.
I believe in us and I believe in Northfield. I know we can excel at basic services. I know we can do very good things to cultivate high quality of life, to promote culture and education, to develop and improve our necessary utility infrastructure and to make Northfield a place that is a connected community.
I want that community to be one that is enjoyed by everybody so I bring my integrity. I will push as hard as I can for accountability from government for you and I look forward to meeting with you, talking with you and hopefully receiving your vote on August 13th. Thank you.
Emy Farley:
Thank you to the League of Women Voters. Thank you to St. Olaf for hosting this event and especially thank all of you for choosing to spend your time with us here tonight, especially on the night of a presidential debate. I really appreciate you here because I really feel that so much of what we can accomplish begins right at home and so the fact that you're here tonight is really meaningful.
I want to do this work because this is my kind of my special little skill set. I love doing this type of work. I love evaluating all of the different options and helping move people forward and I hope that you will trust me to do that.
Please vote, grab your neighbors, put them in your car and bring them with you on the 13th for the primaries and then again on the 5th for the general election. Thank you so much.
Ward 2 candidate information
Chad Beumer
Email: cb4cc24@gmail.com
Phone: 651.356.9620
Emy Farley
Website: electemyfarley.wordpress.com
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/803654881866678/
Edward Malnar
Email: edwardofnorthfield@gmail.com