Questions from Residents

I agree that doing nothing is not an option. There are legitimate needs with both City Hall and the Police Department that must be addressed. Where I disagree is with moving forward with the current approximately $35 million solution without adequately demonstrating, with data, why that is the right solution compared with other reasonable alternatives.

If elected Mayor, I would pause advancement of the current project long enough to establish a community steering committee and give it a defined period of time to review the available information, evaluate reasonable alternatives, gather any additional information needed, and make a recommendation to the City Council. I would not want that process to drag on indefinitely; my expectation would be approximately six months.

My objective would be to arrive at a solution that meets the legitimate needs of our Police Department and City staff, is fiscally responsible, and has broad community support.

In December 2025, I voted to move the Municipal Campus project into schematic design. I believed the City needed to move the project forward because our Police Department and City Hall have legitimate facility needs that must be addressed.

My vote was not an endorsement of the particular building solution that later emerged. I believed schematic design was the stage where we could develop and evaluate options before committing to a particular solution. I also believed residents should have meaningful opportunities to understand the choices and be involved as the project developed.

When the project returned to the Council in June 2026, we were being asked to approve a specific schematic design and spend additional money advancing that design into the next phase. I did not believe we were ready to make that commitment without adequately evaluating alternatives. I voted no.

Yes. I have consistently supported addressing the legitimate facility needs of our Police Department and City Hall. My concern is not whether those needs should be addressed, but whether the City has adequately demonstrated that the current proposal is the right solution, at the right cost, after reasonable alternatives have been evaluated.

I support maintaining our own Mendota Heights Police Department rather than contracting with the Dakota County Sheriff's Office. I believe maintaining local control of our public safety needs allows our department and officers to focus on our needs and concerns. I have heard from residents that they want Mendota Heights to continue managing its own Police Department, and I agree.

I would give the committee a defined period of time to review the available information, evaluate reasonable alternatives, gather any additional information needed, and make a recommendation to the City Council.

I would not want the process to drag on indefinitely. My expectation would be approximately six months.

No. I am not entering that process with a predetermined answer that the existing City Hall must be renovated, that the Police Department must be located somewhere else, or that a new combined facility is necessarily wrong.

Reasonable alternatives should be evaluated on their merits, with reliable cost and operational information behind them.

I believe we are much more likely to arrive at a solution with broad community support if residents have a meaningful role in developing the solution rather than simply being informed of it after the major decisions have been made.

We elect a City Council to make decisions, but I believe that Council also has a responsibility to create a process in which residents are heard before major decisions are made.