hi ladies and gentlemen my name is Mary hi Mary I just organized these things just because I want to know who I'm voting for and it started a lot of years ago so I have no political affiliation or any of that kind of stuff um so I'm I'm to totally nonbiased hello okay maybe you just have to hold it I don't know what's wrong with the microphone well thank you all for coming I do have a signup sheet it's optional I I don't sell your information to anyone I Thomas um um I do have to apologize to all the early voters I would have had this in September had I known that the citizens of North St Paul vote so early I apologize next time we will keep that in mind um we're going to be short what I'm plan on doing is giving them each 10 minutes to talk about themselves which you'll find is very hard to do if you tried to talk about yourself for 10 minutes it's a lot longer than think um after they're all done speaking I'll kind of adjourn the meeting and then if you have specific questions you want to talk to specific candidates you can approach them so it's just kind of a mill around I don't open it to questions and answers because I don't they're candidates they don't have they they have opinions but they can't you know really get get them nailed down to answer questions if they haven't really been on the council yet so that's my opinion so you can ask them your questions so I'm going to start with introducing C Roso he's running for city [Applause] council good evening everyone good evening thank you Mary for organizing this yeah can you take it off okay there we go that might be easier well welcome everyone thank you for for coming to this event um just going to take try to keep it short and sweet I don't want to bore you with 10 minutes of my life story I'll I'll keep it short but anyways so my name is Cesar I'm 42 years old uh originally have a born in Mexico moved to the US 30 years ago um in about 5 years ago my family and myself decided to move into the Beautiful city of North St Paul um my family here it's a beautiful family of four my beautiful wife Dorian I have two two amazing kids Haley who is my future doctor or potential scientist who is currently attending St Kates University so we we'll see a doctor a scientist in about 12 years maybe keep it short six years Sav me a lot of money in twish uh and my son he's uh sixth grader very talented smart attending St Peter Catholic School down the road um uh I grew up in St Paul the West Side area of St Paul uh started working and got involved with with the city of morson pole about 8 years ago uh and and then uh we were able to have the opportunity to purchase a student Bill home 5 years ago right across from uh Norwood Park right across from from the big water tower um I'm sorry I'm lo I lost my thought there but uh uh we also have been working with the city again 8 years also been doing a lot of volunteer different events for the city for the past 7 years we do we enjoy doing a lot of volunteering helping others whether that's by working events donations uh try to teach my kids you know always help try to help anyone that it's a need whether that's helping someone across the street find something at the store you know or help with the fundraiser uh we also work with a friend of ours and donate money uh and for the past two three years we've been working with them and donated money towards a water well for an isolated community in Cameroon Africa that didn't have access to to clean water so we were able and given that opportunity to to help uh which talking to Henry you know it helped a lot of families and cut about sickness percent like 75% in after two months of that wall being completed uh another thing that thank you another thing that we try to do try to get my kids inv helped that Christmas Tre up on 9th Avenue least every year for the past four or five years that it's been up there try to bring my kids up there pick something go do it try to help anyone you need uh like I said always remind my kids be grateful for what you have and if you can help others do it don't hesitate uh to help someone that needs it more more than you do uh I am a small business owner and currently director of operations for a cleaning company that conducts business in about seven states in the midwest um started my business from scratch with the help of my my family here my beautiful family and now we have a very successful joral company that works with multiple municipalities and businesses in our area um it's been uh 8 years since we started our our business and we've been growing again it is a small business I still have to have another job on the site to make sure that I get enough money to pay for the Bills starting a business is hard and went without a lot of hard work and my family's help I would not be able to do it it is run by us it's four of us and that's who's running the business um and well why am I running for this uh I I with my 13 years of experience and operations manager and recently as the Director of operations uh I have learned and demonstrated my Integrity loyalty responsibility respect of my professional roles you know manage multi-million dollar budgets Capital budgets labor control contract manages proposals Resource Management uh and understanding all aspects of of running a business and whether that's my small business or a multi-million dollar business um also have been part of uh Union contract negotiations both as a an employee and as a manager uh so I do understand both sides of a a contract negotiation uh and you know there's a balance in between so I've been also involved with with a lot of a lot of that um I want to serve our community and see positive Chang years and growth for nor St PA as a council member my my goal is to create a safe Community while promoting economic growth that benefits all Resident uh I will I aim to collaborate with community members City officials and to make the decision that will enhance quality life in in North St Paul uh again the economic growth uh like I mentioned uh we were fortunate enough to purchase a student Bill home uh 5 years ago and uh I been pushing that so 3 years ago my brother purchased a student Bill home right after 7th and 1st uh moved from Sal Paul so I asked him he you know what this a great Community uh put an offer come over he's also a a a business owner he also worked for the post office so I try to promote the student Bill homes and just recently about a couple of weeks ago my friend Edgar who's present here has also purchased another student Bill home right off elridge so bringing more people quality people law abiding citizens business owners edar is also a business owner uh it's just another way of bringing quality people and bringing more businesses to to our area to grow the community uh economic road is very important we we have to to keep that going uh in order for the city to run Public Safety you know working with Chief Rosales Chief maler to help them have the appropriate tools and trainings to perform their duties to protect our citizens uh I was able and I've been working with with with both Chief Rosales and minger and we had an unfortunate event this past May that actually let me to experience how important Public Safety is we were having our graduation at KC Park on May 25th and a picture took place so we got stuck in the middle of a minute and 12 seconds of bullets going everywhere uh a moment that should have been to remember for my daughter here to remember her graduation turned into a horrible thing but I also got to see how great our First Responders are the PD the fire the EMTs everyone that responded did a great job so I will forever be to our our PD Department uh seeing the response that that how fast and quickly they responded prevented a major tragedy from happening you know we were I was stuck in there till 2:30 in the morning with 20 people still in the party room so I was able and exposed to B things that can happen in a small community so I I was I I can speak how how important Public Safety is um on the other hand also work with uh our work round ring Public Works they do a lot of things you know they keep the city clean making sure our streets are looking good so I working with every Department in the city will be very important getting invol with them and also be grateful for what they do you know being out there when a a main break set at minus 20° they uh show up with a hot cup of coffee and a hot sandwich for him that actually to be gratitude show them you know we appreciate what you do so that's also very important uh my desire to serve as a community member STS from my commitment to help others uh and one way to help our community is understanding how our tax money is being allocated with my experience as a business owner I will work hard to save the best decision on where to allocate City resources uh working with the city and understanding what's happening around us I've been fortunate enough to to be out there for the past eight years so I know a lot of what's going on in the Parks a lot what's going on in the cities what's going on in the buildings so I am out there I know what's going on I mean unfortunately we had those events that took place in Casey which it was people from outside the city and not not from from our city so uh again uh my my father always told me this you know if you want to see change you must act down it this unfortunate Advent took place for a for a casy and I said you know if I want to see a change you know I must St on it so this is a way for me to do what I can to help you guys and help my family to make sure we're all safe and uh understanding that a role that this is very important but then that's going to give me the opportunity in a little piece that I can do something about something not just sit there and hold that something should have done different so thank you all very much and I hope to have your support and I look forward working for you guys thank you thank you Caesar now I'd like to introduce Troy Woods I'll give you a two minute warning I'll take a little note here from Caesar and just pull the mic out and just do it this way so my name is Troy Woods um I've lived in North St Paul for about 20 years for over 20 years uh my beautiful wife Tara and I moved here shortly after we got married and um part of what Drew us to North St Paul was the small town field of North St Paul I grew up in a small town in Iowa don't hold that against me but um it was a town of about 5,000 so I know what it's like to grow up in a small town um over the course of the years uh we've raised two kids my beautiful daughter Emma who is currently a senior at North and my son Logan who is a sophomore at UMD right now um both children have gone through the school district uh from cow Elementary Maplewood Middle School North and so on um sorry spot here um during their time I've coached Sports I sh from numerous field trips I served as a leader both within the Cub Scout uh Cub Scout Pack and a Boy Scout Troop um at North Presbyterian Church I have um currently I am uh on the board of the 622 Education Foundation which supports all the schools in our school district uh from elementary up to both of the high schools um so through all these efforts I've been highly involved in both school events as well as community events and I know that I've worked with many if not u a lot of the people in this room tonight so I appreciate that um sorry now that my children have grown and um moving on to the next steps in their lives uh my goal is to do the same thing that for the community that I did for them you know basically provide as much guidance and everything that I can for the community um sorry um I I've seen the town go through you know in the 20 years that we've lived here I've seen the town go through many changes over the years and I want to ensure that it remains a place where families want to live and Thrive to do that we need to make sure that North St Paul offers what families need we want to make it we want a community where people are safe have things to do and feel that sense of community that North St Paul can offer I believe that attracting businesses and activities that bring visitors to North St Paul will help build the downtown area as a destination for people to come and do things in my professional life as a cyber security consultant I need to work with people to understand their needs then collaborate with various partners and find the best ways to meet those needs while managing resources wisely I lead teams and find innovative solutions to complete projects and I believe that this experience will help me be an effective member of the nursing PA City Council one of my goals is to be present in the community at events and Gatherings so that people can see the counil is here to listen and be present for them I've already volunteered at events like the utumn Arts Festival and believe that the community engagement is the key is like that is the key over the past several months I've been attending the City Council meetings to familiarize myself with the issues that the current council is addressing in hopes that if elected I can hit the ground running and make a positive impact for the residents of North St Paul at these meetings I started to learn how the council operates understand the budget review process currently underway and connected with many of the participants to understand how we can work together I'd like to thank Mary kaval for putting this all together and appreciate her efforts and apologize for um uh any for being patient with us as we got everything put together and I appreciate everybody else being here tonight thank you thanks and your final candidate is David [Applause] McKenzie sure I thought I just told it it looked easier hold right there hello oh hello well hello Nur St Paul residents my name is Dave McKenzie and I have been a resident since 1958 when my parents moved in on longv Drive uh during my years of schooling we went through North Elementary Richardson I went to John Glenn and I went to North High for my high school graduations and then I attended 916 vocational school for traffic management and I um first Ed my education with went to truck driving school through the same school so in 1975 I graduated with both certificates and I became a 45e professional driver and I put on better than 2 million miles and I've been married to my wife for 45 years now I I'm now retired and I married to my wife for 45 years uh we've got a son who was the first group of high school kids to go through the home building process through Central College back in 97 he has furthered his education he's a job superintendent for J RJM construction right now and he's been a union carpenter SL job soup for 25 years and he's what 43 years old so and then I have a daughter who was disabled uh she was went through the district's program but also went through the uh 916s school and graduated from White Bear sou being that's where 916 had the special EDS kids go so and then now now with John and his family we've got three grandchildren and um my volunteering experience has been I did quite a bit I coached baseball for 12 years between t-ball and baseball uh through the local areas here and then uh I became involved with a former councilman Dave zck with the Croc program back in n in 2005 2006 and Dave and I volunteer our time to go down and Feed The Croc program which is cops reaching out to community kids we would go down and feed the police and the kids play basketball at the community center and that was really rewarding and our former fire chief Scott was able to buy us a nice Grill so we cook food for them and provide corn of the cob Burgers dogs whatever you want and uh it was a really rewarding program for the kids and the police and actually our reservists were part of the organization back part then when we had our reserves but that is kind of fizzled right now because there's this police cops out there so and then after that in 2006 I became a uh crime watch block captain and we formed the water tower c Watch group and that ran we had an annual picnics in May um between 2006 and 2012 and I was employed at Simpson so I was laid off in the winter time which was fine but making money and then I would plan the picnics for our water tower Park group and then we'd have a absolutely great attendance of two to 400 people coming out and the fire fire department police department was come out and we'd feed them all and it was a very very rewarding operation here we had and then um I have been organized I organized the picnics and then for the last 15 years I was asked back in 2009 to become a civil service police commissioner and that was by former Mike Kean our mayor and I've been on that commission since 2010 when it started when the first year started so I've been on that now for what 15 going on 15 years and uh as far as what I want to see in and from the city you know as you can see I'm very passionate about the city as far as being here for so many years I have some fond memories of some of the the street department fellas that worked here for many many years especially with a sherik bud sherik who run around the city with the old Ro Red Road Grader PL streets in the winter time that was that was the coolest thing when you'd see the Red Road Grader com and then U I'm a very good listener I'm pastoring at about the city itself I'm Pro police and I'm Pro fire and I want to make sure that we have the best for our our our uh our fire department police department and I want to make it fair to everybody that all our parks are in great shape I also know and I was there that night the day they were doing it for your Park commission that I was there at case or at Silver Lake when they put in the playground equipment so when the parks meet and once we get this or reorganized I can fill them in on what went on when they installed the Park equipment at Silver Lake and then U so I was there in fact Dave zck and I fed them that day too so I mean Dave Dave was great big help he was on the council then so Dave and I have known each other for many many years so and as far as everyone else I appreciate you guys coming thank you and Mary thanks for putting this on and uh I was going to get her tonight but I forgot my thing so I have a uh I have a washer and a clothes pin glued together and I was going to buy her a washer and a dryer but you're luck you're lucky so anyways that's that's what I have to offer I'm very passionate I'm I want to see the city continue to be successful and our most important thing is we got to get our Police Department back to full staff and in fact I just got notification we're having interviews next week again so that'll be fun for us um we have a great staff of police Commissioners and we've been all together now for 15 years so it's a uh very rewarding part of being a part of the city here at this place so I think that's going to be it and thanks you so much have a great night thank you well thanks everyone thank you candidates I think we have a really big big choice to make this year it's going to be difficult I'm glad that you all could make it I'm going to just adjourn the meeting we're going to stop filming this will be on the city website tomorrow so if you're looking for the link it's a YouTube link and we're done thank you