Thanks to Blue Sky Bookkeeping for their support.
In the West St. Paul municipal election this year the mayor and three City Council members are on the ballot. We’ve asked the candidates a series of questions to see where they stand on the issues. We’ll share one question and the responses at a time leading up to the general election on November 5. See our 2024 voter’s guide for more.
Our first question is about candidates’ top issues.
What are your two to three top priorities for West St. Paul over the next few years? How will you address those issues?
Here are the candidates’ responses:
Candidates for Mayor
This is an uncontested race.
Dave Napier
(no campaign site)
Public Safety – This will always be a priority for me. We must continue to provide the resources necessary for staffing and department initiatives. We must work with multi-family housing owners to assure they are complying with state and local regulations on maintenance and safety protocols to assure safe housing options for renters.
Taxes – We must stay the course on paying down our debt from Robert Street. This has been a huge undertaking over the past 9+ years. I would like to seek an extension on our local sales tax which is due to expire in 5-8 years. We need to keep the local levi down as low as we can. We do this through a slow down on spending for things outside the scope of “need”. Sounds easy doesn’t it? However, we must continue to move the City forward at the same time.
Economic Development – First, we must hold our businesses to a higher standard. on keeping the property in a good and presentable condition.
As we just announced the loss of two longtime restaurants, Dunhams and Beirut, we must not lose sight of how important they are to a thriving community. We will continue to work to attract small businesses with an emphasis on sit down restaurants.
Candidates for City Council Ward 1
Doug Fromm
- Maintaining excellent public services, such as public safety, snow plowing, park maintenance, and other services that support our businesses and residents. We need to ensure that our amazing, hard working city staff and managers have all the resources they need to support our residents and businesses.
- Improvements and updates to infrastructure while being mindful of the impact of the increasing costs of these projects on our tax payers. While the costs of these projects are rising, the impact can be offset by taking advantage of our city sales tax revenue and seeking alternative funding sources.
- Work to further engage underrepresented communities. In particular I would like to see a greater level of diversity on our city committees and commissions. West St. Paul is making good progress here, but more work needs to be done. Almost half of our residents are renters. Yet renters make up a small fraction of our committee and commission membership. We should seek to use equitable engagement processes to help ensure everyone has a chance to be included and heard.
Note: Housing affordability and budget concerns are two top priorities, but since they are covered by separate questions, I will cover other priorities here, first.
Andrew Rydlund
(no campaign site)
Andrew Rydlund did not respond to our questionnaire.
Candidates for City Council Ward 2
This is an uncontested race.
Robyn Gulley
It has been my honor to serve as a West St. Paul Councilperson. 3 ½ years ago, I ran on a platform of making our city more inclusive and transparent, and bringing community members into envisioning the future of West St. Paul. These are ongoing goals, but we have achieved many objectives along this path. Our Council has improved ways people get around WSP—developing sidewalks and bike trails, updating parks, and working with Metro Transit to improve public transportation. We have broadened how we engage residents on upcoming projects. We have partnered with Dakota County to have social workers who can support residents experiencing mental health issues. We revived Explore West St. Paul Days and held our first ever Latine Heritage Celebration. We updated critical local infrastructure and developed a maintenance plan that will keep our city in great shape into the future. We are lucky to have a great Council and staff, and I am proud of the work we have done together.
Going forward, I want to continue making WSP the best city for working families in Minnesota. We have big plans including creating truly unique parks and public spaces, redeveloping small business corridors to make them more vibrant, and bringing in new businesses. I am excited for all these things, and I will focus on the part that feels most essential to me—that we are doing the work together, getting input from residents all along the way and ensuring everything we do serves our community.
Candidates for City Council Ward 3
Lisa Eng-Sarne
- Redevelopment that fosters community connections: We have significant opportunity in the former YMCA site (where Hy-Vee didn’t build) and have the potential for incredible public amenities and housing on that site. Additionally, Smith/Dodd is being realigned with a public plaza, memorial, and development likely to follow. If done right, these two sites alone create significant opportunity for creation of community spaces for connection in West St. Paul.
- Maintaining high-quality and efficient services for citizens and businesses: While it may seem routine, this is the bread and butter of local government. One example of creating efficiencies around this is looking closer at how we repair and assess alleys.
- The implementation of long-term strategic planning around our parks and infrastructure: We will move into the follow-through phase of plans instead of the naval-gazing portion. Historically, some parks were repaired due to the squeakiest wheel getting the grease, but the way we are looking forward will allow us to assess the biggest needs and then make those needed improvements. Similarly with our Smith/Dodd plan that was on the shelf for a long time, we will be moving into the implementation phase on more topics like this.
Anthony Smith
(no campaign site)
Anthony Smith did not respond to our questionnaire.
Vote on November 5
The general election is on Tuesday, November 5. Learn more about where and how to vote. You can also vote early with an absentee ballot, either by mail or by stopping at the Dakota County offices.
See our 2024 voter’s guide for more on the candidates and other races.
Thank you to the candidates for taking the time to respond to our questions.
This local election coverage only happens thanks to the support of our members. Consider joining West St. Paul Reader to ensure local election coverage continues. Membership starts at just $3 per month.