Empowering Grand Forks to Lead Itself
Good leadership comes from broad and deep connections across a community. It is countless long nights and difficult conversations, finding common ground and building relationships. It’s being flexible and learning what a community wants and needs by listening to and working within that community over the course of years. And it’s enabling others to reach their potential.
It’s this hard work of connecting, building structures on the ground, and helping others accomplish their goals that I’ve been doing in Grand Forks for decades — at UND, with the City, in the nonprofit community, or for my family.
In those years I’ve learned that the best leadership is not about telling people what to do or letting others do the heavy lifting, but about thoughtful Engagement, Connections, and Strategic Action with a team.
1
Number of days it will take me to open the Mayor’s Office up to the public and to start shadowing you at your place of work.
17
Years I sent UND students out to learn from and contribute to the community.
1
Nonprofits I’ve founded with a $140K annual budget and multiple employees.
22
Years I have been living and problem-solving in GF.
50
local organizations I have partnered with in many roles.
The following pillars make up the core of the platform my campaign released on February 1, 2020. And they’re our version of the community-based problem-solving package that I’ll bring to City Hall on Day One:
ENGAGEMENT
Communities are most vibrant when they’re shaped by their people. Ensuring residents can access public officials and ensuring public officials have a chance to hear your good ideas is a great challenge of a democracy. Grand Forks can lead the nation in this area. Let’s build a culture of accessibility and engagement from the Mayor on down. Here’s a way to start:
A Public Engagement Center
Let’s reimagine the City’s great Public Info Center as a full-fledged Public Engagement Center, a place that ensures residents, businesses, and workers not only get accurate information but have the means to share input.
One-Stop Shop to Make Things Happen
Want to change a policy? Open a business? Host an event? When government can streamline processes, the community benefits from the creative energy of its people. So let’s make all of these things easier in Grand Forks.
Participatory Budgeting
Budgets both financed by and designed for the people should be shaped by the people. Let’s get more stakeholders participating in the City Budget process. It’s our money–we should get more of a say in how it gets spent.
Connections
Whatever our work or background, we all rely on each other and impact each other in a city like Grand Forks. But those connections haven’t always been recognized or leveraged to benefit the community. Let’s implement programs and policies that can help make Grand Forks a more connected, collaborative place. On my first day as mayor I’d begin:
Mayoral Job Shadowing
The best leaders are those who understand their community in direct, personal ways. So invite the Mayor to shadow you at your job! She’ll listen, watch, learn.
Open Office Hours
Accessing the Mayor in large communities can be a challenge. Let’s be more in Grand Forks by establishing and publicizing a series of office hours for the Mayor–open to everyone hoping to meet her and have a productive conversation about the City.
A Community Visioning Process
Residents, nonprofits, businesses, and other institutions can come together to help Grand Forks envision what we want to be in the next decade. Are we an arts community, college town, and industrial center? All of these? What do we also want to be and do? Let’s decide on our North Star together, and let that guide our energies and decision making.
Strategic Action
How do we know which tax, housing, environmental, or zoning policies are the right ones for us now and for the future? We need strategic decision-making, based on evidence, not only to help us stretch our limited dollars further, but to enable our property-owners, small businesses, and civic leaders to make the best choices for themselves and Grand Forks. To that end I propose:
Affordable Housing
Whether you rent or own, housing costs are too high Grand Forks. We’re still feeling the effects of the 1997 flood on our affordable housing supply, and our solutions need to address that. We can make solid progress with a range of nuanced approaches that are right for Grand Forks. To increase the supply of affordable homes, let’s support infill development, grow the Grand Forks Community Land Trust, incent developers to build more affordable housing, and ensure the City and residents are making full use of federal and state funding opportunities.
A retail/small business development action team
Retail was hurting before COVID-19. And now small businesses are in an even more uncertain place. Let’s assemble a team of committed people from all sectors—business, education, government, unions, nonprofit—and identify solutions to reclaim our economy moving forward. And let’s implement solutions quickly. From parking assessment relief to tax breaks to zoning to wages and other incentives, everything is on the table in this crisis situation.
The Poverty Partnership
Yes, we have a lot of college students in Grand Forks. But our childhood poverty rate is far too high, contributing to our 20% overall poverty rate, and that number will increase in this economic crisis. When problems are systemic, they can’t be fixed by a single program or policy. And while the City can do things directly like making benefits and wage standards part of tax incentive packages, it can do even more by pulling together others to lead a broad community effort. We must engage nonprofits, businesses, workers, legislators, leaders, and impacted individuals. I’ll use my experience bringing stakeholders together to craft and carry out ambitious, collaborative solutions to trim our poverty level in my first term.
This is how we all help our community reach its potential. And right now no one is better positioned or has more experience than I do to help Grand Forks take that next step into a future of less poverty, empowered residents, better quality of life, and a more responsive, participatory government.
Let’s do this, Grand Forks.
