Mayor Massad primed for 2nd term, Leonard offers 2nd option

Sep. 5—MANKATO — Based on the Aug. 9 primary election, challenger Toby Leonard has a steep uphill climb to knock Mayor Najwa Massad off her spot atop Mankato's city government.

Massad received 77% of the vote in the three-candidate primary. Leonard was far behind at 13%, but he edged the third-place finisher to join Massad in advancing to the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

On Aug. 9, Massad insisted she wasn't going to make any assumptions about a similar result in the general election, which is likely to have about three times as many voters as the primary: "You can never let your guard down."

Leonard, who also ran for mayor in 2018 but was eliminated in the six-candidate primary election, said he was hopeful after finishing second this time.

"We're laying groundwork between now and September," he said on primary election night, referencing the start of early voting on Sept. 23. "We're prepping for it and excited for the challenge."

Leonard

In explaining what he would be like as Mankato's mayor, Leonard repeatedly uses words like "dull" and "not very exciting."

That's because his campaign themes are efficient spending, long-term infrastructure planning and market-based strategies for controlling the cost of rental housing.

"I'm just one of those really boring planning people," he said.

But Leonard may be underplaying his capacity for generating a little excitement, as he demonstrated at this year's state convention of the Minnesota Libertarian Party. For the party fundraiser, the owner of Mankato Guns donated a flamethrower to be auctioned.

"I think they bid it up to $1,200," he said, adding that the party officials and delegates definitely had fun with it.

In describing his donated weapon/tool, Leonard wrote that the PulseFire LRT flamethrower "can reach up to 25 feet for snow and ice removal, insect control, land management, or just having fun! Estimated value is $650+"

Leonard's Facebook page doesn't include any shots of him firing a flamethrower, but it does include him holding his Mankato mayoral campaign sign while posing with Jo Jorgenson, the Libertarian Party's nominee for president in 2020. He said his libertarian leanings are reflected in his priorities for Mankato city government.

His top priority, he said, is reducing government waste and targeting taxpayer money to programs and spending categories that benefit the broadest swath of city residents.

"I want to make sure everybody is benefiting from them, not just a few," he said. "I literally want to make sure we're getting the most bang for the buck."

His second campaign plank focuses on closely tracking the condition of Mankato's streets and facilities and ensuring that funding for the most critical infrastructure is available now and into the future.

Leonard applauds city leaders for long-term thinking with major facilities such as the water and sewage treatment plants but stresses the importance of taking the same approach with more mundane infrastructure.

Finally, Leonard demonstrates his libertarian leanings when talking about strategies to increase the amount of affordable housing in Mankato. He notes the current approach in Mankato includes government subsidies for developers of rent-controlled apartment complexes for lower-middle class residents.

Leonard prefers a free-market approach — reducing regulations to make it more efficient and easier to construct new apartments or convert existing structures into apartments.

One way would be to lift the limits Mankato places on rental housing in residential neighborhoods as a way to boost the quantity of affordable housing. The city's rental-density ordinance caps the number of rental homes in most residential neighborhoods at 25% on any given block.

"Either up it or remove it altogether," he said.

The rental-density ordinance was put in place to address complaints by homeowners who felt that certain neighborhoods were being overwhelmed by rental housing, sometimes owned by absentee landlords, targeted toward college-age tenants.

Leonard said he recognizes that people who own their homes are often skeptical of rental properties. Renters, who tend to be short-term neighbors, sometimes can be less concerned about the complaints of the homeowners next door. And absentee landlords often have a reputation for neglecting home maintenance, cleanliness and other issues.

But Leonard wonders why the city couldn't ease the standards for rental licenses for duplexes where the landlord shares a home with a tenant, stating that a landlord would insist on good behavior in that situation.

Ultimately, Leonard said his mayoral run is about offering voters new ideas and analytical approaches to municipal policy.

"A lot of my skills are logistics and planning," said Leonard, a veteran of the U.S. Army and Army Reserve who has lived in Mankato for about 30 years. "... I'm a methodical planner, so it's not just a kneejerk situation."

A security counselor at the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center, Leonard teaches firearms safety courses along with operating his small gun sales business.

And despite the Aug. 9 results, he predicts a narrow margin when the votes are counted on Nov. 8 — and a positive result for the city regardless of who finishes first.

"This race is going to be close, with both of us excellent candidates," he said. "Both of us are business owners, deeply concerned for our community, organized, detail-oriented and can lead the city to success for all Mankatoans. So regardless of which of us wins the mayoral race, Mankato will have a mayor they can be proud of."

Massad

Surrounded by friends and family, it was a festive occasion when Massad was sworn in on Jan. 7, 2019, becoming the first woman elected as mayor in Mankato's 166 years of existence.

"We have about 24 minutes to mingle," then-City Manager Pat Hentges said at the crowded reception following the oaths of office for Massad and two other council members. "We're going to put the council to work ..."

It turned out to be an understatement, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic struck a year into Massad's four-year term.

Businesses and schools shut down, the economy plunged into a deep recession, the city budget situation looked dire and residents needed help. Although she was still learning the job of mayor, Massad said her life experience served her well in accomplishing the first task: empathy.

"I'm fortunate. I'm a mother, I'm a grandmother, I'm a business owner. Every little bit of it, I could understand. ... There was so much going on, but I could relate to it."

A restaurateur, a grandmother, a Lebanese-American immigrant who had experienced poverty and a civil war, she said she could relate to the struggles of everyone — business owners forced to close their doors, people suddenly unemployed, mothers attempting to do their jobs while home-schooling kids.

"At the same time, it proved what the city could do, and I learned from that," Massad said.

The council approved business-assistance programs, a moratorium on utility shut-offs, and municipal spending cuts, including staff layoffs. With economic activity plunging, sales-tax funded construction projects were put on hold.

City leaders also experienced first-hand the divisions the pandemic exposed in America.

When the City Council debated imposing a mask mandate for indoor public spaces, thousands of people shared their thoughts online, through emails and at Zoom public hearings — virtually all of them adamantly in favor of the idea or vehemently opposed.

Despite some "not very nice comments" from mask opponents when she ultimately favored the policy, Massad said she is at peace with her decision. It was essentially the same reasoning that prompted her to support raising the legal age for buying tobacco and vaping products to 21.

"I've always said, 'I'm Najwa, I have to listen to my conscience and what would I do if it was my family? ... I would do anything to keep them safe.' With the citizens of Mankato, how do we keep them safe?"

Even with the worst of the pandemic seemingly in the past, the challenges for the city haven't stopped — labor shortages, supply chain problems and sky-high inflation. The council is in the early stages of creating the 2023 budget, and members have been debating how much of a property tax increase homeowners can handle.

With a lifetime of experience in family-owned restaurant and catering businesses, Massad has advocated for raising property taxes enough to maintain expected levels of service while ensuring the city budget has enough money in reserve to deal with emergencies. She expressed particular concern about the state of the city's aging wastewater treatment plant, where a $60 million modernization project was scheduled to begin this year.

The plan was scuttled when partisan squabbles in St. Paul prompted the Legislature to adjourn without acting on Mankato's $30 million funding request for the regional sewage plant project. Massad, after months of lobbying for the state assistance, didn't hide her frustration with lawmakers.

Despite the sometimes-stressful first term, Massad immediately balks at the suggestion that it wasn't exactly a fun job to hold during a pandemic and recession and time of political and social division.

"But it is, but it is," she said. "I'm the champion for Mankato. I'm the cheerleader wherever I go. I love Mankato and its citizens."

Massad readily recites the list of mayoral duties that are joyful rather than aggravating — everything from delivering a welcoming address to conventioneers at the civic center to cutting a ribbon at a new business.

One of the primary goals of her first run for office was retaining the young graduates of the five colleges and universities in the immediate area. A vibrant economy is a vital part of achieving that goal, but so is enhancing the quality of life, which Massad said Mankato is doing more effectively every year with entertainment at the civic center and Vetter Stone Amphitheater, community festivals, sporting events, parks and trails.

Massad said she's proud that, through all the changes, the city is committed to first seeking the input of citizens. Not everybody weighs in, but everybody has a chance to.

"The community is growing and it's changing, but it's coming with the input of our citizens. It isn't just one person saying, 'This is how it's going to be done.' That's not the way Mankato works."