Crime, infrastructure, development focus of St. Cloud City Council candidates

ST. CLOUD ― About 40 people gathered in the St. Cloud City Council Chambers Thursday night to listen to a panel discussion from six city council candidates on the ballot in November. The event was hosted by the St. Cloud chapter of the League of Minnesota Women Voters and candidates were allowed a set amount of time to answer eight submitted questions from the public.

Sandra Brakstad and Karen Larson are running for the Ward 2 seat, Jake Anderson and incumbent Paul Brandmire are running for Ward 3 and incumbent Mike Conway and Hassan Yussuf are running for Ward 4. Incumbent Dave Masters is the only candidate for Ward 1, so he was not at the panel.

Watch a video recording of the forum online at GovTV 181. Learn more about how to register to vote and see what's on your ballot at https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/.

There will be a similar forum for Sartell City Council candidates Monday night, St. Cloud School Board candidates on Tuesday night, Minnesota Legislative District 14 candidates on Thursday night and Minnesota Legislative District 13 candidates Oct. 12.

More:How to register and vote in Minnesota's 2022 election

Meet the candidates

Brakstad said in her opening statement she has lived and worked in the St. Cloud area since 1991 and said both her sons graduated from Technical High School and St. Cloud State University. Over 20 years ago Brakstad founded Midwest Compliance, a regulatory firm that offers the transportation industry driver's education as well as drug and alcohol awareness training and testing. She is a small business owner and also served on the Minnesota Trucking Association Board.

Larson said the city of St. Cloud has many strengths in its environmental profile, the culture of its police force and community sensibility, but also has challenges in infrastructure, public safety, business and residential development. She said Ward 2 "is a fascinating place" and said she would like to bridge the east and west sides of St. Cloud and "connect its historic past with its future."

Anderson said he grew up in St. Cloud, graduated from Technical High School and SCSU and currently works at Stearns County as an information technologies project manager. He served on the planning commission for 11 years and served on the park board for 10 years. Anderson said his three priorities are public safety, infrastructure and quality of life and said, "I'll leave you with the fact that I understand that issues are often more complex than meet the eye and are rarely black and white. So it does take folks that are willing to listen to various sides of an issue to figure out how to get to the point you want to be."

Brandmire said he has lived in St. Cloud for 22 years. He enlisted in the United States Air Force in the 1970s, was trained in law enforcement as a canine officer and served as a special agent in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations in West Germany. Brandmire was later trained as a tactical nuclear missile launch officer and his deployments took him from England to Norway, Germany, Iceland and Southwest Asia.

Conway has lived with his family in St. Cloud since 1991 and graduated from SCSU with a degree in teaching. He has worked for Wolters Kluwer, formerly Bankers Systems, for 21 years. He said since he was elected to the council four years ago, he has represented the citizens of Ward 4 and St. Cloud well and would like the opportunity to continue to do that work with the city.

Yussuf is a small business owner who has lived in St. Cloud for 21 years. He graduated from SCSU and was a teacher at Tech High School and Lincoln Elementary, "so I know how to work with our young ones and our teenagers. And I also work with our elders," he said. Yussuf said he is a person who listens well, keeps his word and is committed to be accessible and work with all residents. He said he's running for city council "to help our city grow."

What top three priority items need to be addressed in St. Cloud?

Brandmire said public safety is his No. 1 priority and said, "We have crime statistics to show that the crime is not rising. But the public perception I think is that it is partly because of the growth that we have." According to St. Cloud Police data, violent crime rose in 2020 and 2021 and there were more calls for thefts, domestic violence, gun-related incidents, robberies and arson. The department received fewer calls for aggravated assault and rape in 2020 compared to 2019. Brandmire said he wants to attract more businesses to keep a good tax base to provide services necessary for the city. His third priority item funding public infrastructure like roads, water, public safety and the fire department.

Yussuf said his first priority is also public safety, but he looks at safety through the lens of community engagement and neighbors looking out for each other, "so that our neighborhood can be close to each other, take care of each other, be there for each other so that when something happens, we're able to stick together and help one another." As a small business owner he said attracting businesses to St. Cloud is important to help the community thrive and provide work. His third priority is also public infrastructure improvements, especially so that the elderly can move through their neighborhoods without many obstacles.

More:St. Cloud police data shows spike in crime in 2020, 2021

Conway said the perception that St. Cloud in unsafe is something "we need to work on." This year the council approved adding four more police officers to the force and will add six more to the force next year, as well as a new fire fighter. Conway said infrastructure improvements and road work will also be his priority, as well as city communication, attracting businesses and housing.

Larson agreed that infrastructure, public safety, business and residential development and improved communication are also her top priorities. She said that although certain kinds of high-profile crimes are up in St. Cloud, the council has to deal with that without giving into alarmism because, "if we allow ourselves to have a negative self perception as a city that will do the opposite of what we want to do with attracting business and new residential growth." Larson also said the council needs to find space in its budget to post speed limit sign changes to help with traffic issues.

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Anderson said he would echo most of what other candidates have said about a focus on public safety, infrastructure and quality of life issues. He said the city council will have to budget for even more police officers, as they grapple with staffing shortages and said retaining those officers "will be key." Anderson said it's also the community's job and neighbors' jobs to look out for each other, not just the police. Investment in parks, street signs and the aesthetics of St. Cloud will also lead businesses and folks to invest here, he said.

Brakstad said she would also echo sentiment about public safety, business development and infrastructure improvements. She said St. Cloud is "really, really fortunate to have the police department that we do have" and said because the area is a regional hub, on a given day, the department is typically servicing 100,000 more residents than those who live here permanently. Brakstad said she'd like to have more police and more COP Houses built to correct public perception on crime and attract more businesses. At the forum, Brakstad said Assistant Police Chief Jeff Oxton told her "a majority" of the crimes and arrests in St. Cloud are committed by people who live outside the city. Oxton later told the Times this was not true, and said their discussion happened when looking at traffic stop data over a period of roughly seven years where 50% those incidents involved St. Cloud residents and 50% involved non-residents.

More:'There to bridge that gap:' St. Cloud police hire Somali community liaison at COP House

Do you have a campaign promise for your term?

Larson said her promise is to generate energy for grassroots development of the East Side of St. Cloud, particularly the downtown area which "needs to be able to function as an area on its own. It needs medical services, it needs grocery availability," she said. Larson said she wants to revitalize that area into "what I hope will become once again the gateway to St. Cloud."

Brakstad said she agrees with Larson and said she was excited about the adoption of the Downtown Alliance, formerly the Downtown Council, by the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce. Brakstad said she looks forward to being a part of the Alliance's business development action group and wants to talk with businesses who lost parking on the East St. Germain corridor. She also wants to build a COP House in that area to "increase the confidence of potential business owners to move into that area or to expand what they already are doing."

More:Sen. Amy Klobuchar announces $475,000 for second St. Cloud COP House

Brandmire said when he ran for city council four years ago, his campaign promise was to make the council accountable to the citizens "and that promise hasn't changed." He said he considers himself a go-between for citizens and local government and said "anybody that has ever contacted me with an issue has felt the fact that I am there for them, regardless of what their background is." His goals are to keep the tax base low, personal responsibility, ensure the council is not overspending, protect individual freedoms and have a limited government.

Conway said four years ago his campaign promise was also to be the voice of the community and said he feels he has fulfilled that promise. Conway talked about residents who asked him to put new speed limit sign changes on Stearns County Road 74, which he did. Moving forward, Conway said he'd like the opportunity to "continue to be that voice of the citizens and the voice of Ward 4."

Yussuf said, "I tell people 'I am not looking to represent you, I want you to come with me to city hall.'" He promised to make trust, accountability and transparency a hallmark of his campaign and said he wants residents to know that if he is elected their voices will be heard and their concerns will be taken care of.

Anderson said promising and delivering are two different things, and said he would deliver on citizen engagement. If elected, Anderson said he would host regular town halls in Ward 3 and would be transparent about issues, good or bad, without sugar-coating. Anderson said he would be willing to change his opinion if he hears another point of view or new data, "and I'm willing to come together ― I think we need more of that."

Currently 5% of housing is accessible to people with physical disabilities and only 1% is wheelchair accessible. How will you support the increase of affordable and accessible housing for people with disabilities?

Anderson said if the city wants to work towards making more homes accessible for handicapped and disabled folks, they should be creating programs through the St. Cloud Housing and Redevelopment Authority, if they don't already exist.

Conway said, "accessibility is kind of one of those touchy subjects because we're dealing with private versus public properties." As a member of the HRA Board, Conway said there are ways to make units accessible for residents in the public housing sector, but "the hard part is when you start demanding private sector people to develop homes. There is a fine line." He said there are resources available to those who need to modify a house and there are public programs currently available to do that.

Larson said this is an extremely complex question that deals with two large issues that need serious work: accessibility and affordability. She said looking at HRA figures for renters who are cost-burdened in their rent, "the figures are too high." Larson said the city needs to do what they can with zoning to promote the construction of affordable housing on the accessibility front. "It's a huge challenge of a community responding to needs that not everyone is aware or maybe not even sympathetic with," she said. Larson said there is need for affordable housing and accessible housing "but in order to get there we're going to need more community education and understanding about those forms of housing and who we are."

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Yussuf said the issue of accessibility is very important, and said it is essential that the city takes care of and considers the elderly, like our mothers and fathers. He said it is very important that the city council, with any bill they pass, examines who is impacted and who will benefit from development in the area. Yussuf said in order to do this they can consult widely with residents and private businesses "who can advise on many levels."

Brakstad said one of the important issues, other than the fact that we need more affordable and accessible homes, "is the fact that we need a larger tax base." In order to get more people to move downtown there needs to be businesses to support them, like grocery stories and shopping areas. "But until we increase that tax base of people who are actually paying into the city to allow us to continue to go in this direction, I think we have some issues," she said.

Brandmire said the city only has so much money to go around and "it's not the city's responsibility, or under our purview of a city to … force somebody else to build ADA-accessible private dwellings." Brandmire said it's individual responsibility to ensure your parents or elders are taken care of and he said there are programs at the county level with social services that can assist someone. Brandmire said the city can ensure public buildings meet federal requirements, but said "unless everybody wants to pay for everything … that's just not feasible."

How do you plan to address racial and religious intolerance in our community?

Brandmire said, "four years ago, I tried to address racial and religious intolerance and my words were twisted around and used against me, and I've been fighting that ever since." He said the issue is that we're all God's creatures and his Christian ethics say we're all made in the image of God. When he was deployed, Brandmire said, "I didn't ask anybody's race or religion." Locally, Brandmire said his church has a decent outreach program and he is a volunteer on the Lutheran Early Response Team and helps out the community in the case of a weather emergency.

Looking back:Community members call for Brandmire, Conway to resign following NYT story

Anderson said as a society we shouldn't tolerate racial and religious intolerance and said, "we need to get to a point where we're all personally holding each other accountable for expressing any level of intolerance and not putting up with it. Governments can do so much. But this really falls on people."

Yussuf said in 2015 he was the chair of a task force at Tech High School at a time when more than 100 students and parents, mostly Somali, participated in a strike to protest what they described as a pattern of bullying and discrimination at the school. Yussuf said the task force was able to bring down the tension and brought about 17 recommendations, all of which were accepted by the school district. "I have done that before and I will continue to do that, working across the board with the different organizations to bring our city together," he said. Yussuf said the first part of accepting diversity is bringing people who are different from us to the table. Once we sit together and know them, their culture, their religion and their beliefs we can get along, he said. "But if we just talk about diversity as something that is there and not here, then we are not going to make any development," Yussuf said.

Brakstad said the role of the council is to take care of neighborhoods and community. She said the council has to have behavioral boundaries that are enforced, and said members must be accountable for our own behavior. "We all have to strive to be good neighbors. We have rules to follow. We need to follow the rules," Brakstad said.

Larson said she spent most of her career as a college professor teaching social science and studying how different cultures "meet and either have success or lack of success in meeting." She said when two groups are traditionally different and don't communicate, "the fear grows, the animosity grows, if there's lack of understanding. If you set people down together to eat … that's where you lay the seeds of understanding, because we're really not all that different. We just think we are." Larson said she's working to make her church's food program more accessible to the Somali community in her personal life.

Conway said there are things we can and should be doing on an individual level to address intolerance "but one thing we can do as a city is develop the relationships with the different organizations, with different churches, with different cultural backgrounds." Conway said the city and the police department have been doing a very good job establishing relationships in the community and said, "I hate to say this, but the rest of the integration for all of us, it's not going to be us. It's going to be my grandkids and my kids. Because I see those guys in the classrooms at school now and they don't know who that person is that's wearing a hijab. That's just their friend."

Do you support the upcoming ballot question asking for a property tax increase to make improvements to our deteriorating city parks? If not, how would you propose we fund needed park improvements?

Yussuf said he hasn't had a chance to study the ballot question, but said our parks need improvements, particularly for kids who have special needs like autism who would benefit from more safety upgrades.

Conway said he does support the ballot initiative, "because I think it's the right thing to do" asking constituents to make that choice themselves. He said the only way the city generates revenue to spend on parks and everything else is through property taxes and said 20% of the geographic area of St. Cloud is non-taxable because it is religious property, schools and other buildings. "Do our parks needs some work? Definitely. Do I support the citizens of St. Cloud if they want to do that? Most definitely," he said.

Brakstad said timing is everything and with the increased costs of groceries, gas and heating bills her first reaction to hearing about the tax increase was disappointment. She said she agreed with Conway that it's up to voters to make that decision. "Unfortunately, our economy right now isn't really strong. And a lot of people are really struggling. So we'll see what the voters decide," she said.

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Anderson said during the Great Recession park budgets were often cut and recreation funding "really hasn't come back." He said the referendum is mostly to catch up on deferred maintenance from what he can understand and said it will be up to voters to make that voice. If the initiative fails, Anderson said he would expect it to come back to voters in the next year or two, perhaps with more concrete details.

Brandmire said he considers park funding a quality of life issue so he'd probably vote for it personally. He said he agrees that there are some safety issues, and agrees that his property taxes went up recently too so "that's a tough one." He said he'd respect what voters decide "but we need to maintain our investment in what we have."

Larson said we may be at "a critical point" where we need to balance making the city attractive to new businesses and workers as well as balancing the budget. She said voters will make their own choices and other counties are also looking at initiatives to raise property taxes. "It is indeed a sticky question, because we need better parks. But there are various kinds of budget stresses on both the city and on citizens," she said.

What proactive steps are you prepared to take to help deal with our homeless population?

Brakstad said there is a particular problem in Ward 2 with a low-barrier homeless shelter called the Lincoln Center, which has been a discussion item for a while for the city council. She said she'd like to see better management of the center and more accountability because, "we don't have that problem in other homeless shelters where the residents have become problematic neighbors. We all have roles to follow, we need to follow the rules," she said.

More:St. Cloud City Council discusses Lincoln Center, responsibilities on homelessness

Larson said she has conducted research on homeless populations, their service providers and the surrounding communities in her professional life. She said as a state and nation there is a homelessness issue that has been made more acute with the closure of mental health institutions and there needs to be a combination of proper services and management to address that. There are challenges at the Lincoln Center and Larson said she is hopeful "in the future that certain levers can be applied to improve the status of the community in the conversation about their needs as neighbors to the shelter [and] at the same time … the functioning of the shelter itself."

Anderson said this topic could easily be a six-hour discussion and said he thinks we're at the point where we're taking an almost reactive approach. Homelessness is a national problem exacerbated by drugs like fentanyl and some people need low-barrier shelters because they've pushed away their families and other help, he said. Running an organization like that needs accountability, "but we also have to remember the humanity of this, that this homeless person is still a person. And they deserve a safe environment," Anderson said. He said the city needs to be working with the county and the state to provide adequate funding for drug treatment and mental health treatment while recognizing this is a larger issue that requires multiple levels of government.

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Brandmire said social services are a county function, "so seriously, if you have an issue with homelessness contact your county commissioner and tell them they need to do something." He said the city council can facilitate federal funds and deal with zoning and the enforcement of "non-sleepovers in the parks and that sort of thing." As a veteran, Brandmire said he would like to see more concentration to make sure veterans are taken care of. "One of my main concerns, though, is the old 'if we build it, they will come.' And we already have people coming up from Interstate 94 from other cities, and we've already got our fair share. We don't need any more by making it easier and more accommodating, more welcoming for them," he said.

Conway said homelessness isn't just a city issue and said the state and counties have more resources and mandating power than the city. "The hard part is, at what point does the city invest its precious funds from you, the taxpayers, to fill this hole when we don't really have the base that the counties do in the states do?" Conway said. "So it's a difficult decision. There is no easy answer. There really isn't. There are several layers. And most of the social services are not at the city level. And it's a bad idea for the city to start doing that, because that's a hole that never, never ends."

Yussuf said he was a refugee before he came to the U.S. and emphasized the importance of "putting a human face" on the issue. Even if resources are tight "at least we can be loud about it," he said. "We can yell about it, we can sit down with the county and ask them to use their resources to fulfill their obligations. We can talk to the governor and the legislature, we can make noise over it. Because these are people." Yussuf said even if more people come to the city for services "that should not be an indication to stop looking into solutions" and said some of the very tight restrictions on the Lincoln Center make it difficult for workers to do their job and help this community.

For many years St. Cloud residents could attend council meetings and at the beginning of each meeting could address the council with concerns. This was stopped several years ago and now all comments are at the end of the meeting. Would you support moving the open comment period back to the beginning of the meeting?

Yussuf said he would support moving the comment period to give more of an opportunity for council members to listen and engage with constituents.

Conway said the council has discussed this many times and said it doesn't matter to him where the comment period is. He said some people misunderstand how the process works and said there's no interaction or dialogue between the council and the resident in this period. "I understand for convenience sake, we could put at the beginning, and that'd be fine with me. Whether it's at the beginning or the end, the interaction is still going to be the same," he said.

Brandmire said it doesn't matter either way. He said there are many ways residents can reach him and not many people come to the comment period anyway. "The bottom line is … if you want something said to your city councilman, contact your city councilman. Just contact him so we can talk," he said.

Anderson said he understands why the comment period was moved to the end because residents were repeating some of the same comments. "I don't I don't really care if it's before or after the meeting. I think there's plenty of ways for folks to interact," he said.

Larson said she would be curious to know if the comments at the end are included in the council's video recording of the meetings. She said there are many ways to contact the council directly, but emphasized that face-to-face interaction is also important and said having the comment period earlier might help residents see a response to their concerns later in the meeting.

Brakstad said it doesn't matter to her where in the meeting it takes place as long as the council is accessible.

How accessible will you be? Will I be able to call you on a daily basis? Yes or no?

All candidates said yes.

You will each have a minute to summarize why you believe your qualifications are well matched with the requirements of being a city council member.

Anderson said again his focus is on public safety, infrastructure and quality of life and he has 21 years of experience between the planning commission and park board. He encouraged residents to conduct research on candidates and reach out to them with questions.

Brakstad said as the city increases its police force the city will be perceived as safer and enhance business development. "I just want to say no more mandates, no more business closures. Let's not encourage protesters to come up to our city from the metro area. I'll fight for you with courage and common sense. And I really appreciate your vote," she said.

Conway said he believes he has stood up to the task of being the voice of Ward 4 voters on the council and looks forward to doing that again.

Yussuf said he wants to continue to make a difference in the community and make sure all residents are welcome and represented. "I'm continuing to ask for your votes so that we can bring our city to where it's supposed to be," he said.

Brandmire said he's always had a heart for service and has been active in his churches, led a Boy Scout troop, coached youth football, volunteered at his local American Legion and VFW and "put in more hours than I can imagine with the local GOP board." Brandmire said he served in the military for more than two decades during 11 assignments and two deployments and "instead of retiring and slipping into a quiet civilian life I got involved in local politics, wanting to serve my community and preserve the American freedoms given to us by our parents and our grandparents, and hopefully, pass those on to my kids and my grandkids."

Larson recited a quote from Queen Elizabeth II, "Let's not take ourselves too seriously. None of us has a monopoly on wisdom." Larson said neither major political party has a monopoly on wisdom or patriotism. "We're all in this together," she said. "And if elected, that is the sensibility I will bring to service on the St. Cloud City Council. E pluribus unum, out of many, one."

Becca Most is a cities reporter with the St. Cloud Times. Reach her at 320-241-8213 or bmost@stcloudtimes.com. Follow her on Twitter at @becca_most.

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This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Crime, infrastructure focus of St. Cloud city council candidates