by Steve Timmer

Oct 25, 2024, 10:30 AM

Re-elect Carolyn Jackson to the Edina city council

And re-elect incumbent Mayor Hovland and Council Member Pierce, too

In the recent story here, Connie’s Law, I mentioned my support for Edina Council Member Carolyn Jackson for re-election to the council. I want to more directly make my endorsement of Carolyn, and the other two incumbents running, Jim Hovland for mayor and James Pierce for the council, too.

The Edina Sun Current published a letter I wrote endorsing the three incumbents. You can read it here: Support the incumbents. Please read the whole letter, but here are two grafs:

The city of Edina is a large enterprise that is well run and governed. It has the highest bond rating possible; there is a no more beady-eyed bunch than the rating agencies. We can thank Mayor Hovland and incumbent council members Carolyn Jackson and James Pierce for that.

* * *

A lot of people – including me – are resistant to change and aren’t crazy about paying taxes, but if you want things, like a robust public safety system, you must pay for them. Challengers say on the one hand, we need more public safety personnel, but on the other, we need to reduce the budget. About 70% of the city’s operating budget is for personnel and about 55% of that is for police and fire; you can see the contradiction, can’t you?

My impression of these races aligns well with that of another Edina resident, Dan Lew. Writing about the council election contests, he had this to say about Carolyn:

[Jackson] has an extraordinarily long resume when it comes to working with the city of Edina. It would take too long to list it all out, but she was the chair of the Edina energy & environment commission, chair of the Edina community foundation, chair of the Edina Morningside rotary club, on the committee for an affordable housing group, president of her PTO… the list goes on and on.

As a result, she has a realistic view on what the city council does and how to be effective on it. I was most impressed with her answers during the candidate forum (where she often gave useful context on top of the question before answering – great stuff). On top of it all, she definitely shares values with me (such as a focus on climate resilience).

He had nice things to say about James Pierce, too. About the non-incumbent challenger in the race, Dan Lew was less complimentary:

[Ryan] Daye moved to Edina in 2021, joined the Edina planning commission in 2023, and is now running for city council. What that means is that he is, by far, the least experienced candidate running.

This inexperience showed in the candidate forum. Some of his answers were just bad or uninformed (e.g. proposing making Edina more walkable as a way to reduce solid waste… huh?) More importantly, he overall seemed focused on cutting services (“must-haves vs. nice-to-haves”) to reduce taxes; but to be blunt, I’m actually a fan of higher taxes in exchange for more services.

Regardless of personal views, Daye strikes me as needing more experience with both living in Edina and being a part of our local government.

I called Ryan Daye a callow lightweight. There is a rump group of discontented Edina residents who view Daye as the empty vessel into which to pour all the bile of their discontent.

As I do, Dan Lew also endorses Jim Hovland for re-election as mayor:

Personally, I am more a fan of long-term thinking, so I’m voting for Hovland. Also – I have no big complaints about how Edina has been run. It’s hard for me to justify switching away from a mayor who has been doing a good job to a somewhat unknown quantity.

Exactly.