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Common ground

Candidates agree at Minot Daily News forum

Jill Schramm/MDN Council candidate Shaun Sipma speaks at a forum Wednesday as, from left, Shannon Straight, Josh Wolsky, Mark Jantzer, Lisa Olson and Stephan Podrygula listen.

Minot’s city council candidates agreed at a forum Wednesday that a public gathering space next to Broadway would be a bad idea while automated garbage collection could prove to be a smart move.

Candidates didn’t show wide differences of thought on topics ranging from the MAGIC Fund to flood control. However, each offered their own degree of energy and passion toward different topics at a forum sponsored by the Minot Daily News and the Grand Hotel, at the Grand.

Participating were current council members seeking re-election – Mark Jantzer, Kenton Kossan, Lisa Olson, Stephan Podrygula, Shaun Sipma, David Shomento and Shannon Straight – and newcomers Edward Montez and Josh Wolsky. Six will be elected June 13.

Candidates supported retaining an economic development incentive fund as they shared their thoughts on the city’s economic strategies.

“I believe we need the MAGIC Fund. I believe we need to grow our economy,” Straight said. However, he added, “We need to do a better job.”

Jill Schramm/MDN Mark Jantzer addresses the audience from the podium as Edward Montez and Kenton Kossan wait in the background during a candidate forum Wednesday.

“I think with the the constant change it’s important that everything be looked at as to how we conduct ourselves and how we spend our tax dollars,” he said. “What we do with those dollars going forward is going to be critical to the expansion of Minot.”

“I like the MAGIC Fund. I do not like the way we are doing economic development right now,” Wolsky said. “I am not sure that it’s quite delivered in the way we want it to.”

He suggested changing regulatory policies and internal practices that might be hindering businesses. He warned that incentives for one business creates disincentives for everyone else, citing the unmanned aviation company, SkySkopes, as an example.

“We didn’t pick an industry. We picked a winner. We handed over a monopoly, and I do not think that’s an effective way to build a business environment where other entrepreneurs, other investors, want to come. They want to come to a place that has a level playing field,” Wolsky said.

Olson said without MAGIC Fund incentives, Minot will lose businesses to other major cities in the state.

“Right now, we can’t afford to do that,” she said.

“I am not really fond of spending public money for private business,” Podrygula said. “But I came to the realization early on in my service on the council that that’s the way the game works. I don’t think we can unilaterally disarm. If other communities are offering incentives, we need to do that.”

However, Podrygula joined Jantzer and Shomento in indicating support for suspending money going into the MAGIC Fund.

Shomento said economic development is critical but the MAGIC Fund may have enough money to coast for a while.

“Right now there is $7 million in there. Last year we put $1.4 million in,” he said. “$7 million dollars will get us a long way. That $1.4 million that we deposited could easily go to paying off the bonds on flood protection.”

Candidates wanted to avoid seeing the city take responsibility for downtown Trinity properties that are expected to become vacant when the hospital relocates. The city may have a development role in helping find new uses, though. Podrygula said the city may need outside expertise in redeveloping the buildings, but it needs to learn from past bad decisions on the parking ramps and be careful about who it partners with.

Candidates spoke more favorably about automated garbage collection, which will start up this summer.

Olson said she has heard concerns about the difficulty elderly or disabled people might have in managing the containers. Research in Grand Forks, where a valet services exists for residents who need it, shows the system can be made to work for everyone, she said.

“I think we are fearful there’s going to be a problem, but in reality, I don’t know that there is going to be one,” she said.

Straight said for him, it is about economics. The landfill is nearing capacity, and going to automation will extend the life of the facility, he said. It also will save on workers’ compensation costs due to the high claims rate with the current system.

“It’s also about future thinking and economics. We can’t just simply look at the here and now. We have to be planning for the future,” Straight said.

Sipma said automation will help clean up the city. Last summer he helped pick tons of garbage from the dead loops, much of it blown there from garbage set on the curbs.

“It’s just accepting change,” he said of the switch to automation. “It’s not as big a deal as many people would like to believe it is.”

Montez said he was one of the naysayers initially. While better information changed his mind, he said the city could have done more to make people aware of the garbage proposal and the public meetings.

“You can’t really force people to get involved,” he said. “But the city can do more to make the citizens more aware and help people get more informed so they can see the benefits of it.”

Flood control was not only another area of agreement but a shared priority of the group.

“It’s going to be imperative we don’t let up on the gas pedal,” Kossan said.

Candidates generally were united as well against scaling back on construction of a protection project.

Wolsky said cutting back to half the level of protection would save only 20 percent of the cost.

“When I see an equation like that, the math doesn’t work for me,” he said. “The other part of the equation is whatever plan we build, the first priority has to be that we remove the homes from the requirement that they have to buy flood insurance. That’s the economic catastrophe that we are really hoping to avoid with this flood protection plan because if we don’t build the plan, the next thing we have to do is queue up our trucks so we can shovel our money in and just drive it off to Washington, D.C.”

Regarding conflicts of interest by council members, Jantzer explained council members are required to disclose a conflict if a personal financial interest exists. So it becomes a judgment call if a vote touches on an employer or other relationship.

“The City of Minot has a real trust problem. There’s a lot of general distrust for the way they operated recently and over some of the decisions that have been made. Building trust back is a slow, tedious process,” Wolsky said. “On these particular points, the law sets a pretty low bar for us. I think we can be very intentional about clearing that bar by a high margin. We can be overly transparent. We can abstain in cases where maybe there is not an actual conflict but there just be an appearance of a conflict.”

Straight voiced his concern with appointees to committees that make recommendations to the council. For instance, an ad hoc committee looking into liquor ordinance revisions included license holders with a vested interest, he said.

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