| For the past nine years, I've had the honor to work as the Assistant to Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson. Prior to joining Jeff, I held several other public service positions including as program manager in the State Energy Office at the Minnesota Department of Commerce, as a researcher in the Minnesota House of Representatives and an administrator in the last remaining township in Hennepin County.
For almost 20 years before that, I owned and operated a small construction company that I started in high school.
I grew up in Medina with an older sister and two younger brothers. My parents still live in the house I grew up in. My dad was a proud lineman who worked for NSP (Xcel Energy) and my mom stayed home with us. We had a small hobby farm with a massive garden, two cows, ducks, rabbits, a horse for a while, and far too many chickens!
Growing up in western Hennepin County, I had the best of both worlds. I was surrounded by strong, self-sufficient people who farmed, worked construction, hunted, did business on a handshake and built communities together. And at the same time, I was enamored by the contrast of where I grew up with the culture, diversity and bustling nature of the urban area a few miles away. To this day, I remain rooted in the rural portion of Hennepin County where I live, while commuting to work in downtown Minneapolis.
I attended Orono Schools and as a junior, started a small landscaping business. I knew that I wanted to attend college and at the time, it seemed like the best way to pay for it. There was little discussion around my plans after high school, nor were there any college tours. But I blindly applied for admission and decided that studying marine biology in Palm Beach Florida was the place for me. It seemed like such a good idea at the time! After one semester, I came back home and enrolled at the University of Minnesota. Over the next 5 years, I amassed numerous credits, changed majors, met a girl I would ultimately marry and continued to run my small business.
I learned early that working hard made things possible both at the University and in my business. My small landscaping operation expanded to include urban and rural forestry. We planted seedlings in Alabama, harvested small pine in central Minnesota and produced tens of thousands of round fence posts. I fought wildland fires for the DNR, provided vegetation management for utility companies and landscaped for whoever would hire us. And we were just getting started.
My small company continued to grow and evolve. I built strong relationships with utilities, the forest industry and started discovering ways to enter the municipal construction field. I found that if I combined a bunch of unrelated work in highway contracts, I was able to provide value to large highway/heavy contractors. Making friends and working hard with these experienced contractors provided the necessary experience to take a big step and bigger risk, to becoming a general contractor on my own.
We had our first child (Forrest) in 1989, followed by another (Sally) two years later. We bought a log cabin in the woods in Hassan Township (now Rogers), and the children attended Buffalo Public School, played hockey, tennis, lacrosse, golf and ran track. My cabin is on a bit of an island in the middle of a really big wetland complex. Surrounding yourself with nature, living in it alone ensures that no one can feed your ego. The silence demands introspection and provides a quiet place to recharge.
After a few years and due mostly to my background in park construction, I was appointed to the Hassan Park Board. This was a great introduction to the complexity of government and the hoops that anyone who needs to interact with government must jump through and the time it takes!
My company continued to grow. We built park buildings, tennis courts, trails, city monuments and restored wetlands across the Twin Cities. Business is tough, especially municipal construction. Prevailing wages, low bid, retainage, minority participation goals, performance and payment bonds, unemployment insurance, codes, administrative nightmaresall necessary before you set foot on a jobsite!
By this time, I had been elected chair of the town board and Hassan Township was close to being fully annexed by the city it surrounded. Annexation issues are complex and emote strong feelings that are often vocalized, especially by those being annexed. To complicate matters further, recruiting staff to serve in positions that may not exist in a week or year was dreadfully difficult and put the board in a difficult situation of managing the daily operations of the town. Lacking more traditional options, when asked, I resigned my elected position and the board appointed me as the town administrator.
My service as an elected official and administrator of the last urban township in Hennepin County was major asset as I transitioned to work in the research department at the Minnesota House of Representatives. I covered health policy, public health, health licensing and housing committees, built great relationships with legislators on both sides of the aisle, and along with staff and agency employees worked hard to produce sound public policy.
My time at the legislature was cut short when I was offered a job in the State Energy Office at the Dept. of Commerce.
I thoroughly enjoyed the people and the work we were doing in the energy office, but in 2010, I made the move to Hennepin County to be the principle aide to Jeff Johnson in his county commissioner office. It's here that the duality of my life matured. I still live in a log cabin in the woods in rural Hennepin County with the people and values that I grew up with. And every day, I grab a suit and bring those ideals and ethics to the county to broaden the discussion beyond the myopic metro-centric focus. |