Monday, July 29, 2013

Ramsey - The Ward 1 election is tomorrow. Hagen, of ABC Newspapers has published information on both candidates.

This link and this excerpt:

“I’m coming into this without an agenda,” Johns said. “I want to be open to listening to what everyone has to say first before making a good decision.”

Heifort is a retired truck driver who had about 30 years of experience. He was on the negotiating committee for Teamsters Local 120 in Blaine.

Johns is currently a senior executive assistant for McKesson Medical-Surgical in the compliance and ethics department. She attended the University of Hawaii and the Minnesota School of Business.

When asked what their big issues are for Ward 1 and the city as a whole, Johns said the COR development still has to be maintained as a priority, but the council must keep redevelopment in other areas of the community in mind.

She would like to see redevelopment of the corner of Highway 47 and 167th Avenue in her area, according to Johns.

Heifort said he did not have any issues or agenda that he wanted to mention.

“The reason I’m doing this is to learn about the city, to listen and to lead,” Heifort said. “I want to be a part of that process.”

Well. If I were voting in Ward 1, which I am not since the redistricting in the last election, my gut instinct would be to vote for Heifort. He's not working for Big Pharma, and, ouch, on that Johns quote:

Johns said the COR development still has to be maintained as a priority, but the council must keep redevelopment in other areas of the community in mind.

She would like to see redevelopment of the corner of Highway 47 and 167th Avenue in her area, according to Johns.

There already seem to be too many with an idea about where to grow Ramsey, and we had an experinece with the last council where the will to see the Town Center pushed against the market's forces was a king sized mistake, named Darren, in part.

I get, again a gut feeling, that Heifort would be or have been a bigger Darren skeptic than Johns. A bigger Flaherty skeptic and that, earlier, would have been part of a gold standard - skepticism over Darren, Cronk, Flaherty, and being the banker for that batch. Given that Heifort was a Teamsters negotiator, he knows healthy skepticism. Labor negotiation teaches it.

Johns saying grow the Town Center, grow the moribund corner in Ward 1; that's fine in the abstract, but pushing on a rope - engendering "growth" to make us better; it is not fixing roads, putting police on the road, and being ready to fight fires.

That little blurb in ABC Newspapers is not really much to go on, but Heifort says he'd watch and listen. Hopefully, neither would be voting to spend willy-nilly, but who's to say. For those who care on "cut of the jib" appearances, Hagen publishes a photo of each candidate.

Since I don't have a vote, I will wait and see. I have asked Ramsey City Clerk Jo Thieling for the courtesy of an email when she emails results to ABC Newspapers. I shall post the election results.