Prior Lake Community Member Since 1975. City Council Member Since 2017.
What's leadership for good?
Lifting others up, including your opponent.
Using your talents to make the world better.
Here's a start. I did four skydiving events for Parkinson's. My dad succumbed to complications from PD after 17 years. The four events raised $550,000 for PD and we launched a documentary film. Here's the trailer:
At the behest of the City Park & Rec Director 7 years ago (thank you Angela Barstad) I founded the Shockwaves Adaptive Ski Squad as a division of the Prior Lake Water Ski Association. I skied on the PLWSA show team for ten years touring the midwest. The adaptive program partnered with Gillette Children's, Shriners and HopeKids. I've raised $450,000 for this organization. It is now the premier global adaptive water ski program. There's nothing else like it. 400 limb deficient children, adults and veterans go through the program each year. Following is a video produced by Gillette's. Know someone who wants to be an adaptive water ski athlete? Find out more at www.enablingsmiles.com.
This evening our adaptive program will share our success. We are donating $3,000 to the Prior Lake Miracle Field and $3,000 to the Shakopee Miracle Field. The Shockwaves Adaptive Ski Squad and the Miracle Fields serve the same adaptive athletes.
The type of leadership you can expect from this Midwestern boy is as follows:
Let's be good to each other.
Mayor Briggs has been an exceptional mayor for our town. He's a corporate transplant from California and our community was fortunate to nab him later in his life. He worked diligently giving immense energy and charisma to Prior Lake. He has had 8 years and has brought a fresh perspective to the position. I thank him for his service.
I will also make an outstanding mayor. I will only take it for two terms if given the privilege by voters. Briggs should have done the same. We have too many good leaders waiting.
Negative comments about Briggs or me online that question us personally, our service or our professionalism should be discounted. Both of us are diligent workers for our community.
It's now time for our community to give the next generation of leadership the opportunity to lead, learn, and grow. I will give 8 years and work very hard. As mentioned, I'm a term limits guy. And I've tirelessly pursued leadership posts in each of my City Council liaison positions the past eight years. I'm a big believer Prior Lake must be a regional leader in all things public policy and governance. If not us, who? We should be the shining beacon on the hill.
Voters have the opportunity to hire a local leader for Mayor. A small businessman. An entrepreneur. Someone who knows our community from every angle from childhood on. A bit of a rebel not afraid to poke the establishment and tell staff to stop following "best practices". I'm a believer that following best practices is the opposite of innovation.
What I'm not:
A social media guy. It's not a healthy environment. It's not a place to create good public policy. My phone number and email address are at the bottom of this page and all over the web. Contact me anytime.
A bar guy. I don't hang out at bars. I idle much too high to stand around with a drink in my hand. I need to be working, playing sports, exercising or with my family.
I'm not corporate.
I'm not from the west coast.
I'm not self-centered, a grandstander or difficult to work with. Apparently my opponent or his agents are expressing this. My life's narrative does not support this. I'm no more a narcissist than any other elected. It may be that we disagreed on something. That's ok. I am passionate and independent. Voters should demand this. If being a grandstander means I will rise in opposition to something I feel is wrong, I'm a grandstander. The transition home was wrongfully/unilaterally placed into a neighborhood by the County. The County deserved a dressing down. I gave it to them, publicly. All of us, not just Briggs, and primarily staff and citizen leaders were responsible for the set of concessions that were retrofitted on that project. My pressure campaign was instrumental.
What I am:
Origin: Prior Lake
Well connected in the Twin Cities regional business community for 30 years.
A small business guy.
A family man.
A genuine fiscal conservative. As a retired CPA I'm a budget hawk. Ask our city staff.
A philanthropic leader.
Some call me a micro manager. This approach has not been popular with the old guard establishment. I'll take that. To me, it's due diligence. In the least, staff know the electeds are watching, as we should be. I believe this watchful eye moves staff towards more tax-payer friendly decisions. I feel a responsibility as an elected to serve as a "governor" between the unlimited wants of government and the limited resources of taxpayers.
What I can do with my background:
Transform our downtown. It is ramshackle. My background has positioned me to make this happen. I will deliver.
Usher in a rejuvenation of our park and trail system. My feeling is if we are going to pass a referendum it needs to be dramatically scaled back from the full wishlist we've been reviewing. But, to protect the overall value of our community, something needs to be done. We've fallen well behind other cities. I believe the balance of Council and staff are in agreement. We need to get to something our community buys into, something that will pass.
Provide more respect for family budgets. I want a quarterly budget committee or commission of some sort to work with staff. I'd like to see zero-based budgeting each year. I believe we need to provide targets for staff prior to presentation of a budget.
Regarding social media comments:
I was highly responsive to everyone who contacted me years ago regarding broadband. I pushed for a face-to-face with our internet access providers and we had several meetings as a result of my efforts. I reviewed our franchise agreements to see if there were any penalty options available for service shortcomings. There's not much we can do. The agreements are primarily shaped and controlled at the federal level. We don't have much authority at the municipal level. But we did have productive meetings and I did follow up with those that inquired. Apologies it seems I let someone down.
I recommended we have a POW flag displayed in Council chambers. Council agreed.
I serve limb deficient veterans with the adaptive water ski squad I founded 7 years ago.
Briggs and Braid have done a helluva job with the vet banners downtown. It is a top-notch program I thought originated with Braid as he had seen it elsewhere.
Briggs is not opposed to hockey rinks. None of us are. They may get moved to another park but we will have rinks. We've done poorly handling those conversations. Apologies.
Other accomplishments I'm proud of:
I recommended we utilize a portion of the balance in our park dedication fee account to build pickle ball courts. Park dedication fees are paid by developers so there was no cost to current PL residents. This approach was adopted and we built the pickle ball courts at Spring Lake Park.
I steered transit through COVID. January of 2020 I took over as chair of MVTA and the Suburban Transit Association. That March our ridership was decimated.
High 169 Corridor Coalition - As chair I grew membership and attracted millions of dollars in infrastructure development to our district.
Was part of full Council support for all public safety budget additions including 7 additional police officers and full time fire department over 8 years as led by staff.
Was part of full Council support achieving a AAA bond rating as led by staff.
Elect Kevin Burkart for Mayor of Prior Lake. The Hometown Choice Works for You!
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