Star Tribune
As longtime City Council member steps down, four vie to represent St. Paul’s Third Ward
When Chris Tolbert was first sworn in as the City Council member for St. Paul’s Third Ward in 2012, the 125-acre Ford plant had just closed down in the Highland Park neighborhood.
“Now there are people living there,” Tolbert said. “The ward’s changed a lot, and I think it will continue to change.”
Since Tolbert announced last year that he would not be seeking a fourth term, four candidates have stepped up to lead the Third Ward. Located in St. Paul’s southwest corner, the district has historically had the highest voter turnout of the city’s seven wards.
Interest was evident at a forum last week, where the four candidates — Troy Barksdale, Patty Hartmann, Saura Jost and Isaac Russell — discussed topics ranging from public safety to infrastructure and trash collection.
Jost and Russell were the first to jump into the race, and have since competed for key endorsements and contributions.
Jost, 35, won the nod of the St. Paul DFL in late April, joining a slate of candidates from other wards who are campaigning on a progressive agenda. When pitching herself to voters, she emphasizes her civil engineering background and deep roots in Macalester-Groveland, where Jost and her partner are raising their 4-year-old son.
Russell, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Economic Inclusion, told DFL delegates he was dropping out of the race after Jost won the party’s endorsement before resuming his campaign three days later — a move that drew criticism from some DFLers. The 40-year-old father of three said he doesn’t hear much about it on the campaign trail, where he emphasizes his public policy experience and his plans to “focus on basic city services.”
Hartmann challenged Tolbert in 2019 and garnered more than a third of the ward’s votes. The 69-year-old personal injury attorney said she decided to run then after feeling like city officials were ignoring residents’ complaints about St. Paul’s rollout of organized trash collection. Now, Hartmann says, she’s been urged to run again by people with ongoing concerns about the city’s direction.
Barksdale is a student in his last semester at Macalester College, where he plays on the football team. The 22-year-old said that while he entered the race late and has fewer resources than his opponents, he’s relying on “the energy of youth,” as well as his ability to win over voters through rallies and other public speaking opportunities.
“It’s going to be a pretty competitive fight,” Barksdale said. “But I’m excited for it.”
Top issues
When out door-knocking, Jost said the most frequent thing she hears from voters are complaints about the condition of St. Paul’s streets. She then explains her technical expertise and problem-solving mindset.
“People really know that it’s important because they can see what happens when things aren’t going the way they should,” she said.
Russell said he hears the most about safety concerns. He’s advocating for “fully funding” law enforcement.
“A lot of folks are concerned about catalytic converter thefts, car thefts, breaking and entering,” he said. “I’m a Black man, and I have concerns about law enforcement. But also, I want cops to keep me safe.”
Hartmann said she also hears a lot about public safety, as well as the proposed Summit Avenue bike trail that the council voted to approve earlier this year — and which she opposes.
“There’s sort of a chronic longstanding issue — the feeling that a lot of decisions are made that never really give people an adequate opportunity to participate in the decision-making process,” she said.
Though he’s a renter, Barksdale said his top priority is eliminating the city’s rent stabilization policy because it’s “bad macroeconomics.” He also said he will work to maintain low housing density in the Third Ward.
Campaign finances
According to campaign finance reports filed in mid-September, Russell had raised nearly $60,000, while Jost had raised about $45,000. Both had about $22,000 unspent. Hartmann reported about $5,000 in her account, and Barksdale had no campaign finance form on file.
Last week, a new political group funded primarily by labor unions and backed by some businesses announced plans to support Russell.
“We need a council that is squarely focused on a city’s core priorities — affordable housing, maintaining our streets and infrastructure, and improving safety,” said Jason George, business manager for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49, in a statement.
Jost has backing from several current council members, including Tolbert.
“I think she’s showing that she is working hard, understands the issues, has relationships and understanding of the views and values of not just the Ward 3 residents, but the city as a whole,” Tolbert said.
No matter which candidate wins, the Third Ward may be headed for a first: the district apparently has never been represented by a woman or person of color.
Read more about the candidates at startribune.com/stpaul-guide. All seven St. Paul council seats are on the ballot this fall.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and her daughter were among the throngs Friday as President Joe Biden delivered the apology that many Indigenous Americans thought would never come.
“I think he really said the things that people have been waiting to hear for generations, acknowledged just the horror and trauma of literally having our children stolen from our communities,” said Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. “It’s a powerful first step towards healing.”
Hundreds of boarding schools operated in the 19th and 20th centuries, separating Indigenous children from their families and forcing them to assimilate to European ways. Many children were abused, and at least 973 died, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Other Minnesotans reacted similarly to Flanagan, saying they welcomed the apology but that additional action is needed to help Indigenous people move forward.
Anton Treuer, a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, wrote in a newsletter that the apology was “a welcome first step on the journey to healing.”
“There is no way to truly right historical injustices for the children buried at Carlisle, Haskell, and other schools, but these words set a new tone for the country and will help heal the anguish so many Natives have carried for so long,” Treuer wrote. “It gives me hope that we can come together to reconcile and heal our troubled nation.”
Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, the first Indigenous woman to serve in the state Senate, called Biden’s apology encouraging.
“This recognition of past wrongdoings is an important step towards healing relationships between the United States and the sovereign nations affected by these past systems,” Kunesh said in a statement. “This dark period of American history must be remembered and taught.”
“I have done everything in my power to remedy this situation, and it continues to get more and more violent by the day,” Moturi wrote. “There have been numerous times when I’ve seen Sawchak outside and contacted law enforcement, and there was no response. I am not confident in the pursuit of Sawchak given that Sawchak attacked me, MPD officers had John detained, and despite an HRO and multiple warrants — they still let him go.”
On Friday, five City Council members sent a letter to Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara expressing their “utter horror at MPD’s failure to protect a Minneapolis resident from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”
Council Members Andrea Jenkins, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley went on to allege that police had failed to submit reports to the County Attorney’s Office despite threats being made with weapons, and at times while Sawchak screamed racial slurs. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.
The council members also contend in their letter that the MPD told the County Attorney’s Office that police did not intend to execute the warrant for “reasons of officer safety.”
At a Friday afternoon news conference at MPD’s Fifth Precinct, O’Hara said police had been working to arrest Sawchak since at least April, but “no Minneapolis police officers have had in-person contact with that suspect since the victim in this case has been calling us.” The chief pointed out that Sawchak is mentally ill, has guns and refuses to cooperate “in the dozens of times that police officers have responded to the residence.”
O’Hara put aside the option to carry out “a high-risk warrant based on these factors [and] the likelihood of an armed, violent confrontation where we may have to use deadly force with the suspect.” The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside his home, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”
ROCHESTER – The Federal Transit Administration has green-lighted an $85 million grant supporting the development of the city’s planned Link Bus Rapid Transit system.
The FTA formally announced the grant on Friday during a ceremonial check presentation outside of the Mayo Civic Center, one of the seven stops planned for the bus line. The federal grant will cover about 60% of the project’s estimated $143.4 million price tag, with the remaining funds coming from Destination Medical Center, the largest public-private development project in state history.
Set to go live in 2026, the 2.8-mile Link system will connect downtown Rochester, including Mayo Clinic’s campuses, with a proposed “transit village” that will include parking, hundreds of housing units and a public plaza. The bus line will be the first of its kind outside the Twin Cities — with service running every five minutes during peak hours.
“That means you may not even need to look at a schedule,” said Veronica Vanterpool, deputy administrator for the FTA. “You can just show up at your transit stop and expect the next bus to come in a short time. That is a game changer and a life-transformational experience in transit for those people who are using it and relying on it.”
The planned Second Street corridor is already one of the busiest roads in Rochester, carrying more than 21,800 vehicles a day, and city planners have talked for years about ways to reduce traffic congestion in the city’s downtown. Local officials estimate that the transit line, which will rely on a fleet of all-electric buses, will handle 11,000 riders on its first day of operation and save eight city blocks of parking.
Speaking to a crowd of about 100 people gathered on Friday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the project shows Rochester is thinking strategically about how it handles growth.
“If you just plan the business expansion, and you don’t have the workforce, you don’t have the child care, the housing or the transit, it’s not going to work very well as a lot of communities across the nation have found,” Klobuchar said.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings