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Early in person voting is off to a quick start! First day (Friday) Savage processed 467 ballots (which was 30.5% of all ballots processed in Scott County day 1!), and day 2 on Monday another 388 ballots. This was shared at our council meeting last night. 

I've been getting questions and messages and I want to share a couple things that have come up: 

(1) I recognize that most people don't really understand all of the work that goes on behind the scenes daily, and sometimes for years. 

(2) It is interesting to look at why people choose to run for office and whether or not it's in the best interest of the community or self-serving. 

I want to take a moment to dive into the 10 years I spent working in economic development for the Scott County CDA. In 2015 during my time there, in partnership with SCALE (Scott County Association for Leadership and Efficiency) we launched a Live, Learn, Earn initiative. The idea being that sustained economic vitality for residents/businesses encompasses different pillars. 

The 4 pillars included: housing, transportation, education, and workforce. 

** Housing - variety of safe, stable, and affordable housing options for all the stages of life.

** Transportation - access to safe, reliable, and affordable transportation options that connect people to jobs, goods, and services. 

** Educational Preparedness - today's 3rd graders are tomorrow's workforce. Focus on early learning to set kids up for academic success. (Now 11 years later, those 3rd graders are currently 20 years old!)

** Workforce Readiness - better connections between workforce needs and education/skills being taught to make it easier for young adults to move successfully into the workforce. 

I helped to co-lead the Workforce Readiness pillar. Our Vision statement was: Elevate each person’s contribution to the community through a rich variety of local employment opportunities and career pathways. 

As part of this work we had monthly meetings for a few years that included discussions with local school districts, local employers, community colleges (DCTC/Inver Hills, Normandale, Mankato), local Chambers of Commerce, Greater MSP, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (MN DEED), our Dakota Scott Workforce Development Board, and government leaders to identify and implement ways to improve connections for all Scott County (including Savage) residents to have access to education and training within Scott County that would tie directly into employer needs. Our focus was creating pathways between high schoolers and recent graduates to post-secondary education, and to employment. 

During that time is when/how Southwest Metro Intermediate School District 288 (which services many of our local school districts) purchased an almost 100,000 SF building in the Dean Lakes area in Shakopee where they moved their school and district offices and began to hold high school classes. 

There was extra space available in the building and partnerships were strong, so we were able to utilize some space for our Scott County CDA "Center for Entrepreneurship" business incubator/accelerator program and help small businesses connect, learn, and grow. 

This is also where we worked with community colleges to bring educational options to Scott County for our residents, and DCTC/Inver Hills  offers select classes and workforce training out of this Shakopee location.

The reason this worked is because they didn't want and couldn't financially support their own permanent standalone campus here in Scott County. All of the work that had been happening through the Live Learn Earn - Workforce Readiness pillar built those local partnerships and brought these options closer to home for our Savage residents. 

This leads to where I want to share my intent running for a second term on city council. I have extensive experience with the day to day work behind the scenes that has made some really positive impacts in our communities. I understood what was happening behind the scenes before I first ran for council, and therefore my time to "get up to speed" when I was first elected was pretty quick. 

I have no personal agendas to try and push through city council. I have invested over a decade of my life to work that has benefited our community (through my economic development role, 6 years on planning commission, and the past 4 years on city council). I have done this because our community is important to me, I enjoy helping others succeed, and I want to live and raise my family in a community I am proud of for our future generations. My role on city council allows me to continue doing that here within the city. 

While this is a lengthy post, this only scratches the surface, and I bring so much more to this city council role. 

Bottom line:  I want you to know when you cast your vote for me, I have a deep understanding of where our community has been and where we are trying to go, and I do the work solely because this community is incredibly important to me and I want to see us all benefit from living here. 

Thanks for sticking with me. As always reach out with any questions. And go vote!