Thank You and Moving Forward

I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who helped me in this campaign. People hosted lawn signs, walked and handed out literature, stuffed envelopes, hosted gatherings, tracked data, planned the campaign, and gave contributions. There were close to 300 volunteers. Without their help I would not have won.

I look forward to continuing to work to improve Maplewood. I will need your help to be successful. I would hope that we will all be able to put the campaign rhetoric behind us and work together to see if there is some common ground that we can put our collective efforts behind. I believe that it is important that we all work at being considerate and respectful towards each other as a first step. I will do my best as Mayor to do this and will expect each of you to do the same.

Now that the campaign is over I will on occasion put forward some thoughts on this site and other venues and I would hope that you will give your opinion on the topic. Your comments will hold more weight if you use your real name but if you insist on an alias that is your choice. I will not alter or edit your comments as long as they are respectful of everyone and do not contain foul language. Remember this will just be opinions of people who take the trouble to write. No one should look at it as a real survey, or representative of what the residents as a whole think about some issue.

So to keep it simple to start with what comments do you have on this idea?

VOTE NOVEMBER 3RD

We started working on this campaign for Mayor back in May. Along the way we have sent out thousands of informational fliers, been a participant in two public debates, posted information on this site and walked neighborhoods knocking on doors to listen and answer questions. We even had a billboard ad on primary day. This was all done to get you involved or at least interested in the future of Maplewood.

Like I have always done, we have waged a positive campaign. In all of my literature and ads I have stuck to my qualifications and positions. However, there has been an effort by some others to distract your attention away from the issues. Efforts were made to indicate that I was involved in the accidental death of a Maplewood resident, that I am working to ban wood burning in Maplewood, that I want to sell our parks and open spaces, that I want to develop every square inch of the city, and several other off the wall assertions. None of these are true. My detractors know that I am the person they have to beat in this election. They know that I have the most supporters. In order to win they have to change your minds and make you question if you really know who I am and what I would do as Mayor.

It seems odd to me that after I have served Maplewood for twenty years they can not find anything that I have done or votes that I have made, or positions I have taken to hold up and say that I did the wrong thing, or that my vote created a poor condition in the city.

In the past few months from time to time these same people have indicated that for the last two years that I have been the de facto Mayor because the current mayor lost her majority vote in the last elections. I do not agree or disagree with this assertion. I have continually said that the role of the Mayor if done correctly is in the background, hardy noticeable. During these last two years there have been noticeable improvements in Maplewood. We have successfully completed our budgets, the Capitol Improvement Plans, and the financial audits of Maplewood while continually improving the time lines for these reports. We hired a new city manager, after conducting a thorough nation wide search, who has thirty years of experience. We have reduced the lawsuits against the city to a minimum thus reducing our insurance rates. Our Finance Department, which had been decimated by employees leaving the city, has gotten back on its feet. We have restored at least a portion of the Parks Department that had been eliminated. All of this was done, not on the over 10% levy increase the current mayor needed, but 2%. So if I have been the person viewed as the de facto Mayor things have gotten better. You should expect more of the same if you elect me to be the next Mayor of Maplewood.

Look back over the twenty years I have been working to improve the city and think about whether you have liked living in Maplewood. If you, like most residents, did not like the turmoil which came to a head three to four years ago but think Maplewood continues to be a good place to live, then I should be your choice on Tuesday.

I do need you to vote. If the turnout is large then chances are good you and I will win. But if you leave the voting to others assuming it is a done deal then be prepared for four more years of the same as we have now. I do not believe that the majority of the city wants that to happen. The majority includes you. Do your part.