Hatanpa, Bores look for votes in a very different Ward 5

Sep. 4—MANKATO — Jessica Hatanpa proved popular in her first run for the Mankato City Council in 2018, winning more than 60% of the vote in both the primary and general elections.

A business owner and mother of three, Hatanpa became the youngest member of the seven-member council by more than a decade. She says she never hesitated to seek a second term this year.

"I really like being on the City Council. I've learned a lot. I hope that I'm a good city councilor," Hatanpa said. "And I really like being a voice for people my age with young kids."

Her opponent — Kevin Bores — is a father, a grandfather and the man who brought Dominos Pizza and other franchise foods to Mankato.

Bores said he's watched Mankato change for the better since he moved to the city four decades ago but worries about a more ominous future if city leaders aren't careful.

"We have to avoid big-city chaos if we're going to continue to grow," he said. "... We want it to be a place where the bad guys figure it's too high of a risk to come here."

Mankato's south side

Running for an open seat, Hatanpa cruised to victory in 2018 in her first run for public office.

But that was the old Ward 5, which stretched from the Trail Drive area on Mankato's far southwestern edge where Hatanpa lives to the Minnesota River near downtown. After the 2020 census, redistricting to equalize the five wards radically changed Ward 5.

Gone are west Mankato and the Sibley Park neighborhood. Added are the new subdivisions along Mankato's south side — the entire residential area south of the Minnesota State University campus and Stadium Road, stretching from Stoltzman Road to Victory Drive.

Bores, who lives on Palancar Avenue in the residential area between MSU and the southern city limits, figures only about 10% of the voters who selected Hatanpa in 2018 are still in Ward 5.

Mankatoans, though, have had about 40 years to get to know both candidates. That's how long Hatanpa, a lifelong Mankato area resident, has been alive. It's how long since Bores moved to the city from Kentucky.

Hatanpa, a graduate of West High School and MSU, now has children age 10, 9 and 6 — one in Mankato Area Public Schools and two at Loyola Catholic School. She is co-owner with her husband Aaron of a North Riverfront Drive insurance agency.

In recent years, Hatanpa has been board chair of the Educare Foundation, helped with fundraising and events at MY Place, and served on the Community Education and Recreation Advisory Council and on the Regional Economic Development Alliance.

Adding dozens of council meetings and related committee work to the schedule worked fine.

"I like to be busy. I can't sit down. I don't find anything relaxing," she said, laughing.

Bores continues to be active in franchise work, saying he never will be fully retired. He delivered the Dominos Pizza chain to Mankato, owning the franchise for 30 years. He next brought the first Subway restaurant to town, later adding BW3 and Jersey Mike's to his franchise list.

He's also been involved in the county chapter of the American Cancer Society, Junior Achievement, the Volunteer Center and Leadership Mankato and has been a booster of Minnesota State University and MSU athletics.

He said he's running for the City Council, not running against Hatanpa or her performance.

"I kind of made up my mind to run before they redid the wards," he said. "... I don't have anything negative to say about her."

Now and the future

Hatanpa is proud of where Mankato stands and enjoys having a role in charting its future course.

"I like helping to plan for where Mankato is going," she said.

In her first term, that involved boosting the health of the community's youth, including the Tobacco 21 ordinance raising the legal age to purchase nicotine and vaping products. She also points to climate initiatives, getting the trail built along Stoltzman Road, downtown development efforts and other projects to continue the city's growth.

Despite the pandemic and the ensuing economic disruption, Hatanpa sees strength and resilience in the community.

"We have come out of COVID with super-low unemployment," she said, also pointing to strong demand in the housing market. "It's a good indicator that your town is in a healthy place — people want to live there. ... And I think it's becoming more desirable for younger families."

Upcoming projects such as modernization of the municipal swimming pool, creation of a youth softball complex, expanded pickleball courts and — eventually — an answer for the shortage of indoor hockey rinks are a continuation of the city's effort to make Mankato attractive to young workers.

"I think all of those things are amenities that people are looking for when they choose their town."

Hatanpa said she brings several attributes to the council.

"I'm pretty good at compromise, and I'm very inquisitive, along with asking questions of the staff and looking at things from a different perspective. And I do try to listen to what everyone else has to say and view it from their perspective."

Looking ahead, Hatanpa said she has a few goals for the next four years if voters give her another term.

"I would love (to create) a community park board that could really involve more community members to work on our parks and trails."

She believes some regulatory adjustments could help create more affordable housing in Mankato.

Hatanpa supports continuation of the city's rental density ordinance, which limits to 25% the number of rental homes per block in most single-family residential neighborhoods. She remembers when some residential neighborhoods, such as along Fourth Street and the Lincoln Park area, were overwhelmed by rental housing.

But in homes where rental licenses are allowed, she would like to see rules eased on the number of renters permitted if a house is large enough.

Often, Mankato limits new rental licenses to just two unrelated people. Hatanpa said some large houses could have multiple apartments with up to five unrelated people, something that was permitted in the past.

If a homeowner has space to rent to five college kids, rent could be substantially lower than if the homeowner is restricted to no more than two renters.

"It immediately becomes more affordable," she said.

She also wants to be involved in upcoming redevelopment projects, such as the reuse of the Jefferson Quarry and new projects in the city center. Additional housing and quality-of-life amenities are critical to the city's future, because that's what keeps local college graduates from taking their skills to the Twin Cities.

"To continue to appeal to all the demographics and to want those young people to stay here and raise their families instead of losing so much talent," she said.

Hatanpa also wants the city to work to mitigate climate change, saying it's a priority of many people who talk to her. She's looking forward to an upcoming council work session that will be focused on climate and environmental sustainability: "There's so much more to be done with that."

As the council has begun work on its 2023 budget, Hatanpa has pushed back against proposed property tax hikes.

"It's a balance of maintaining the city services residents want and being responsible with their tax dollars," she said.

With steep inflation, homeowners are already being stressed financially, according to Hatanpa. That requires the council to look more closely than ever at controlling expenses rather than raising revenue.

Putting down roots

Bores was working for Dominos in Kentucky in 1980 when company execs, looking to expand the brand's presence in Minnesota, pushed him to open a franchise in Mankato.

"I had never heard of it," he said.

Even if he had, it would have seemed unlikely that Bores would settle down. Growing up in a military family, he'd spent four years in Virginia, no more than three anywhere else. While Bores said he appreciates how that military upbringing forged his personality, it also left him with virtually no experience with long-term friendships. He found those in Mankato.

"I've got friends I've known for 40 years and that's really been a wonderful thing. ... All in all, it's been a great experience."

He and his wife Patricia have a blended family with nine kids. They've had children or grandchildren in most of the local public and parochial schools.

Bores doesn't share his precise age, but he's making his first run for public office at a time when most people typically retire. With a political science degree from Bowling Green University, part of the motivation is that he's a self-described "political nerd."

Also inspiring the run is a concern that Mankato's future is endangered by its rapid growth, changing demographics and societal trends. He said his campaign is about public safety, maintaining growth and fostering a sense of community, all of which are interconnected. The city is now in a sweet spot that he said needs to be safeguarded.

"When I got here, Mankato had a reputation as kind of a sleepy cow town. ... It didn't have a big-town feel at all," said Bores, adding that he regularly went to the Twin Cities for entertainment in his early years as a Mankatoan. "In the last 25 years, that hasn't been necessary at all. We have everything."

But he's worried that the next step in Mankato's evolution might be less favorable: "If we haven't reached it already, we're going to reach that tipping point where we're no longer that nice rural town. ... We're starting to see more of those big city problems and one of them is crime."

Bores is far from alone in focusing on crime, a campaign theme for numerous candidates running for local, state and federal offices in 2022. He talks of car-jackings and weapons offenses in the campus area: "It has a tendency to be people from the outside."

A thriving city can bring an influx of criminals if word spreads that a city is ripe to be exploited, he said.

"There's a 'telegraph' in the bad-guy community," he said, adding that a smaller city can also garner a reputation for pushover policing. "They also look at law enforcement as 'Barney Fife.' ... I think that's something we have to stay on top of."

The sense of community can disintegrate as well when people feel threatened, according to Bores.

"Cities start breaking off into blocs — this group and that group, this neighborhood and that neighborhood. That's something we want to try to avoid. Mankato is a special place and we want to keep it that way."

Bores was asked if his campaign's focus on crime reflected displeasure with the performance of the city's Public Safety Department, Mankato's longtime use of the community-oriented policing model or the amount of funding that's been provided. Or is he referring more to efforts in communities elsewhere in the nation, including Minneapolis in 2021, to defund traditional policing?

"Right now, it would be the national trend," he said of his concerns.

He isn't offering a specific policy proposal to fight crime, saying he will support anything that ensures "robust law enforcement" and that police have "the tools and the facilities to do its job."

"The current trend is away from that," he said. "The current trend is to go in the opposite direction."

On budgeting, Bores doesn't have any major proposals. As a businessman, he said he will be well equipped to do the work and would bring a conservative approach.

Bores applauds the city's success in promoting economic growth and proposes no changes, warning only against excessive regulations. When a city loses its reputation as a good place to live and do business, positive momentum can transform into self-perpetuating decline.

"The population will decrease or you start attracting the wrong kinds of people," he said. "I've seen other places in southern Minnesota where I've seen that happen."