Questions posed to candidates 1. Why are you running for office? 2. Why would you be an asset to the Stearns County Board of Commissioners? 3. What are the major issues facing Stearns County in the four years you would be a member of the county board? 4. Do you foresee county revenues shrinking in this struggling economy, and how would the county board deal with that?
Leigh Lenzmeier Lenzmeier, 53, is the owner of Lenzmeier Real Estate Services of St. Cloud. His wife, Alice, also works in the business. The couple have four children. Lenzmeier is a graduate of St. Cloud State University. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics and an MBA. He was Stearns County Board chair in 1993 and 2003. In has many years on the board, he has served in several capacities. He is or has been as a member of the Stearns County Planning Commission, Central Minnesota Mental Health Board, St. Cloud Regional Airport Advisory Committee, Stearns County Dairy Advisory Committee and others.
1, 2. My professional work complements the knowledge needed for land use decisions. Membership in various professional and government organizations, boards and committees provide a knowledge base for the job. I have made useful contributions to Stearns County and have built a network of trust with individuals and agencies. 3. – Continue to improve the county technology base. Deliver more county services and a wider variety of transactions online. Job applications, park shelter reservations, and property tax payments can all be done on the web site, but web-based services need continued expansion. – Untie unfunded mandates and prescriptive implementation. An unfunded mandate is when the state or federal government orders local governments to do certain things but provides no money to do it. The cost burden is borne by local taxpayers with state and federal agencies prescribing how the mandate will be met. Why not just indicate in the mandate what needs to be done? Let local government figure out the best way to get it done. Various methods will evolve. Share the best practices that have developed locally to meet the goals of the mandate. – Stearns County is the No. 1 ag county in the state. The St. Cloud area is a newly designated bioscience zone. With the exception of Gold ‘N Plump, the larger food companies are based in the Metro, but the food is grown here. At the other end of the local spectrum is Stickney Hill Dairy, a goat cheese processing company that employs four, using milk from six area goat herds (see www.stickneydairy.com). Goat cheese is a nutriceutical food product, stuff one can eat to better health. It has a lower sugar content than typical dairy cheese and tastes good too. Such little concepts could have big futures. Value added opportunities are already here. We need to get behind the concept and push. 4. We are rapidly entering a period of real financial challenge for local governments. I have been through this before. In 1993 Gov. Carlson took over a billion-dollar state shortfall. MVET and other local aids were cut in the first 90 days of the then current budget year. The next time was 2002-03. Stearns County implemented adjustments to the then current budget with the following steps: implemented a hiring freeze, reduced staff through attrition, cutback on capital outlay, deferred several road and bridge projects, and closed county offices to public access on Friday afternoons. Stearns County has also increased the budget reserve from 19 percent of the annual budget in 2001 to 35percent in 2008. Experience is needed to blend local needs with resources.
Ken Hemmesch Hemmesch was the oldest of 11 children growing up on the family farm north of Paynesville. He spent four years in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. He has an accounting degree from St. Cloud Vo-Tech College. Hemmesch retired last fall from the Stearns County Human Services Finance and Technology Division after 23 years. He has always been involved in the community and in 1992 Stearns County honored him as its Civic Employee of the Year. He’s a past board member of Holy Spirit Catholic School.
1. The current incumbent has been in office for 18 years and many feel he has been too comfortable in his position and it is time for a change. This year he gave himself another 6.5 percent salary increase in these though economic times. How many of you received a $2,100 salary increase? I also feel the county needs to slow down the same tax and spending that has been going on. This would also help some residents support their local school levy referendums. 2. I feel that my 23 years of experience as an employee with Stearns County would be a great asset. While being in the Human Services, I also had to cross lines and worked with many of the other county departments. I feel I could ask questions of the department heads especially at budget times since I know many of the programs. I also feel my farm background and all my community and church involvement gives me a well versed background. 3. Needless to say the economy and financial bailout is a major concern. This will take some years to recover. The high cost of energy is a concern. When the county residents are financially strapped they have no extra funds to purchase needs and wants. This then affects all the local businesses and slows down growth and in some cases the layoff of employees. As the number of our senior population grows more each year we especially need to be careful that we don’t overtax them out of their homes as most are on fixed incomes. Some probably have lost some of their retirement savings because of the financial and investment problems. 4. No one knows how the upcoming state Legislature will deal with the economy crunch. Recently they have cut back on some of the funding and may do so again. Until this economic crunch turns around with the flat construction market there will not be new tax evaluation properties. In the past the county board used that to help offset their large tax levies. The current board is proposing 17 additional positions for the 2009 budget. If need be some of those positions may not be filled. We could eliminate the out of state travel for employees as was done years ago to save on expenses. There will be some additional revenues for the county from the Green Acres payback provisions. Some landowners will opt out of that program since the state Legislature has changed the rules on productive and non-productive acres.
