creation development economic development and culture this question is about home ownership wealth creation how do we increase homeownership while the foreclosure epidemic devastated the black community there are some bright developments on horizon such as might rail so how do you use development and strategy and policy to increase home ownership and wealth creation in the black community in ways that addresses the problem just just well homeownership is one of the key ways we're going to have to stabilize our communities we can do that in three key ways making sure to invest in the programs that we know work to create home ownership for folks working on alternative ways of funding homeownership for people and making sure that at the city we are fully funding our affordable housing trust fund and are heading home hennepin planned and homelessness investment means programs like minneapolis advantage or city living that help people get through this foreclosure crisis by providing assistance for mortgages and assistance for down payments on home alternatives include things like community land trusts where you may not have the same amount of equity in your home that you would if you bought it outright but it is your home and then we worked on the affordable housing trust fund i worked with commissioner gail dorfman i was at the county when she was working with gary cunningham my husband to create the affordable housing incentive fund and i learned there how important that is to to create affordable housing throughout the entire city and in the counties case the county i have worked very hard to maintain that funding in our affordable housing trust fund at the city since i got to the city and i worked in partnership to make that happen i said on the executive committee of heading home hennepin to make sure that those strategies that we have to create that housing and get people into that housing were followed and done well in partnership i will continue that work as mayor thank you samuel one of the solutions for the challenges of the north side community is stable housing and people form a neighborhood and neighborhoods are strong and resilient and that's why i became a member of the twin cities munity land bank i'm on that board where we  get the right of first refusal from the banks on certain properties that are going into gone into foreclosure and we we get a forty percent discount and we sell them to developers of our choice to do good homeownership development so that they can sell those houses to homeowners at a reasonable rate and that's the kind of project we need to continue to do to help people with down payment assistance etc and then we also need to emphasize education that's why i'm glad a program like northside achievement zone exists my wife sandra runs because there's an intimate relationship with families so that when families are going into taking the big step of going to homeownership they don't get into trouble later and foreclose again because the scammers are coming after them and the equity they gained so we need we need to support programs like urban homework and project for pride in living and others who are doing that kind of counseling work so that families don't go through a cycle of ownership and last ownership and loss but we stabilize and strengthen our communities  think you know what we do now is that we're not doing enough think about the triple whammy that north minneapolis has experienced with the mortgage crisis and getting ripped off by the banks with the tornado and with the foreclosures that have happened in the community the community has been placed in a completely untenable situation it's not enough to fall back on the same we've used to talk about getting homeownership today in the city of minneapolis we have an economic development agency that's going into north minneapolis and willy nilly knocking down beautiful old hundred hundred year old houses that ought to be preserved there's not a smart policy currently under way what we need to do is coordinate our housing development with an investment strategy with a transit strategy that will make housing less expensive and transit less expensive and a job development strategy that's focused on north minneapolis that works for everyone homeownership is the dream of most families and unfortunately out of the reach of most of families right now we need to fix that the quality and we but we can say that the quality of housing on the north side is one of our greatest assets we need to match those two together trant we know that transit makes housing more valuable we know that trance it is an amenity that really creases our property values and increases employment opportunities there's nobody else up here other than council member sam samuels who knows what it's like to live in the middle of a neighborhood is full of foreclosures i've got a ton of vacant houses around me they've been vacant and there's no plan there is no strategy there is no plan or strategy at sea pead to how to deal with this is as mark just said it's a willingly approach and it's not community based we need to fix that our strategy we had a dentist ready to deal with the homeless we need to support organizations like bill wolff minnesota we need to support the work that the poet foundation and p p l are doing to increase home ownership and we need to connect with communities we need someone coming in and telling us what is a good idea and what would they would like to do for us we need to talk to the neighborhoods about what do you want to see happen to the houses on your block and we need to engage with families who are looking for those opportunities in our neighborhoods how do we increase homeownership  first we have to support our existing homeowners when property taxes are used and raised again and again and again it pushes people out of homes and into apartments so the first thing is to keep property taxes low and stop treating homeowners like number two we have to encourage those who have housing to invest in it to keep up the quality of our neighborhoods the city has gotten rid of so many valuable programs that we used to give grants that were forgivable after ten years when you homesteaded your property i will bring those successful programs back number three the question was also about light rail i believe in community development that brings revitalization without gentrification and i have worked on light rail integration in my district to make sure that we didn't displace people from their neighborhoods but that we used it to harness the energy and the capacity to raise everybody up and that's what i'll do as mayor thank you carom once and for in question how do we increase homeownership how do we use developments like light rail and others to increase homeownership and to ensure home preservation or well as has been said the first thing is to preserve existing homeownership i think it's important to note though one of the other candidates just mentioned that we need to stop treating property tax payers as a t m s i could not agree more but i would ask people to remember that the person you just said that has been on the city council for eleven years and has approved all those budgets that treated you like an a t m so please keep that in mind second thing preserving existing homeownership i would make sure as mayor that i'm using the bully pulpit of city hall to reach mortgage modification agreements that are win win yes for the bank that owns the mortgage but also for that homeowner wreaking working really hard to pay as much as possible i'd use the bully pulpit in that fashion secondly i want to give credit where it's due the minneapolis public housing agencies done remarkable work with a difficult situation but i'd use that bully pulpit to advocate for more section eight funds section eight when done correctly can be an incredible way to preserve people in their homes in our community and finally i would change the fact that currently a developer can get city money to build a property was some affordable housing units in it even when only twenty percent of those units are affordable they're getting our dollars but only twenty percent of the units are affordable that's not right and when i'm mayor that number will be much higher drugs i was instrumental in creating the civilian review authority i was totally dismayed when it was dismantled the fact of the matter is the statement that the police can police themselves is not realistic we've  there done that we need to reinstitute the civilian review authority in a strong way so that we ensure police accountability as it relates to gangs and drugs the fact of the matter is that gangs are a national state and a local problem we need to work with our community based agencies we need to work with our communities to address the issues the fact of the manse matter is i think that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure we can do policing and we can do prosecution but we need to focus our efforts on prevention and that means working with our community based institutions supporting their efforts do to assure police accountability what are your ideas to address the problem of guns and drugs you know the best strategy that we can have overall for demand on the police department and crime in the community is a job for our citizens that's the number one thing we can do with respect to the police department itself i like many others am sickened by the t v reports i have seen over the years regarding police conduct conduct against some of our citizens i don't think this can be a situation policed internally i believe that the is that we need to reinstate the civilian review with already i agree with jackie on that i think it's an important thing to do we need to create distance between how those cases are judged and investigated and evaluated without interference any interference at all and it needs to be done in a transparent way with respect to guns and drugs everything i've advocated regarding guns in our community has been ruled unconstitutional by the supreme court i would abandon years ago with regard to drugs i would take do to assure police accountability what are your ideas to address the problems and well first let me say the civilian review our society was not dismantled as jackie was saying we have a brilliant head of the civil rights department and she worked with the police chief including the new police chief in a heart to say that instead of making decisions as civilians and sending it to the police department to make decisions about discipline let them sit together and talk it out so that the incompatibilities get thrashed out at the table rather than one decision being made and another decision being made independent of that they're now working together and talking about what is it that you don't see in this tell me because i see something and we're going to have stronger results the other thing was not working and the community was frustrated ok so now talking about guns i just think that we are just too soft on this issue and we need to be strong at the state i am going to take the issue of guns to the state and make sure that we hold our state representatives and our national representatives accountable because they're getting away with being afraid of the n r a and and i want to bring the voice of the citizens that everybody ninety percent of the people say that they want sensible gun laws why are we playing with the lives of young african american men in communities like north minneapolis thank you  betsy hart what will you do to assure police accountability what are your ideas to address the problems of guns and drugs guns and drugs are a symptom of the larger problem but it's a symptom that we have to deal with jobs are important housing is important stabilizing our community is important but at the end of the day we need to get guns off the street and drugs off the street one of the ways that we can do that is through policing another way that we can do through support for a youth violence prevention program and one way that i think we should consider doing that is working statewide and region wide to question whether or not there should be sanctions for people coming into our city from other places to buy or sell guns or buy or sell drugs police accountability is something that i have worked on for a long time and right now what needs to be done is to work with chief harto on her new training strategies and her new accountability strategies to change the culture within the police department which i have faith she is very interested in doing but also to see how the civilian oversight process that we have in place now is working and how we can strengthen the state decimated our ability to do independent review and we need to figure out the best way possible to make it said about the importance of more jobs in a neighboring economic growth so that people can turn away from crime and have a paycheck you've heard me talk about my ideas to streamline the process of creating new companies that will hire people and building existing companies that will hire people so let me talk in more detail about cops and drugs as long as we have more jobs more cops will also be part of the solution when i'm mayor for bringing crime rates down right now we have eight hundred fifty cops if you look at the standard metric that's out there about how many cops there should be in a city of our size it will tell you we need about nine hundred seventy five cops who need to be well disciplined and well overseen and when i'm mayor we'll have that many well disciplined well trained cops regarding the oversight process i'm watching closely but i'm willing to give new chief heart so time to implement the training program she's been doing and on drugs people who would peddle poison to our children i will squash them like an insect but to people who are addicted to drugs i'll give them the compassion that they need to rid themselves of that addiction and turn back to a drug free life thank you very schiff what would you do to assure police accountability what are your ideas to address the problems of guns and drugs we have a great opportunity in the years ahead to change the face of the minneapolis police department forty percent of the police department will be eligible to retire in the next decade the next mayor of minneapolis will oversee the recruiting the the hiring of the next generation of police officers from the city of minneapolis i will make sure that we train and recruit from our neighborhoods so that we diversify the police department and get a police department that represents this community so that we see ourselves as part of the solution for safe streets number two i will be a voice for reforming outdated drug laws we have far better priorities than throwing another generation away in prison and three nothing stops a bullet like a job i will make sure that our city contractors are hiring people who live in our neighborhoods and that by connecting people to the jobs we create we fight poverty where it starts the last question before we open the questions up for the audience i'm actually putting two questions together and going to start with don samuels and work that way around back to mark andrew  done what distinguishes you from your competitors what are you saying that's different from other people that are seeking this office number one second part of the question is what would you have done differently from the present mayor where has the president mir not delivered that you would deliver differently to the citizens of minneapolis and to the black community sixty seconds well  in the the sense that we're in a black church let me say that i've been a part of the black church most of my life i have volunteered and served in the black church most of my life i breathe in and live the black experience in the jordan neighborhood i have three two after three african american daughters and an african american son and an african american wife we are an african american family in an african american community  african american church and so we had that unique experience is nothing special about it it's just unique and it's different from all of my my my competitors so i bring that sensibility to the debate and the leadership of the city and i will act out of that you will see that reflected in the decisions i make because i x observed things from a close up my family and their relatives and my neighbors their lives depend on it the sense of urgency it's not about policy for me it's about my life and the life of my family and my community thirty thirty seconds how do you differentiate yourself from the current mayor what would you do differently from the current mayor of minneapolis well the current you know we all have different strengths i am going to be engaged with the people of this community in a way that no other mayor could not just r t but nobody else up here could i'm going to be on the street of a liberal and accessible you walk by my card will see the mayor standing in the doorway i will you can knock on my door you can call my phone i would be you can see me at a visual standing up there when somebody gets killed you can see me on the street when there is a crisis because i'm intimate and viscerally involved with the problems of my neighbors  that's just what distinguishes you from your competitors and what would you have done differently through two parts from the existing current mayor well i'm a leader with experience running city government and running the city's budget but i'm also somebody who knows how to build relationships to get things done we learned through this recession that government alone is not sufficient to solve our problems in a time of declining resources i know how to build relationships i'm president of the league of minnesota cities i'm the only opponent on the stadium implementation committee i know how to reach a hand over a gap invite a hand back and hold it when it comes i also know how to take on a tough fight i spent six years doing something really boring which was reforming our close pension funds but it meant it saved you a twenty million dollars pension bill on your tax levy in two thousand and twelve and then it becomes a little more interesting i would distinguish myself from a ride back i voted differently than he would have on the stadium but now i'm working hard to make sure it happens i voted differently than he would have on his police chief but now i'm working with our current police chief to make sure things go well but i have an opportunity he didn't have i haven't i have an opportunity of a city that's going into economic recovery rather than decline and i believe her ship it will take to get through  from question i'd like to take a brief moment and gradually council member hodges on that work that you just mentioned reforming the pension system that was tough work she did it well and while she and i certainly have disagreed on some  things on that one three thumbs up for council member hodges and her work on the pension reform now let me talk about how i'm different than some of the other candidates as i've mentioned i'm not coming from a background in government i'm coming from a background in the private sector my coworkers and i have built a business and i'm proud of the fact that we've employed one hundred twenty people and sold the company to a bigger one recently in a way that preserved everybody's job and enabled everyone to share in the benefits of the sale or something else party you know someone said oh he's the republican yes i am a republican that said i'm not seeking the endorsement of any party in this race because i want to call it like i see it i think we have a remarkable once in a generation opportunity at this nonpartisan municipal level election to talk about solutions how do we create more jobs how do we keep our kids see a face on the streets what do we want to city to look like in ten twenty years and so that's why intentionally i've been reaching across the aisle i have a d campaign treasurer in a d f l life for that matter so i have plenty of experience compromising with the d f l are and i'd ask for your interest in your support as we go forward in this race now would you distinguish yourself  so would you do differently from the current mirror to question sure i have a lot of respect for r t ryback i think he was he's done a lot of good work but i would distinguish myself in that i think r t ryback and the current city council too often has prioritized the bells and whistles over the basic functions of city government they prioritize things that are nice to have over things that we need to have you know we all agree we need a robust vibrant transit system but with great respect i submit that spending money on a streetcar system rather than enhancing our current bus system is the wrong choice street cars are neat but buses by having heated bus stops and digital signs telling you when the next bus is going to come buses get t the same place at much less cost and so a street car is one example of how i disagree with mayor ryback thank you gary schiff how do you distinguish yourself from the other candidates here and what would you do differently from the current mayor will before i was elected to the city council i was a community organizer somebody who worked in coalition to pass two charter amendments one to close civil rights loopholes the other one to give people the right to vote when large corporate welfare packages are being approved by the city council the that experience helped me in office to represent a very diverse ward my ward has the highest american indian population in the city the highest concentration of latino businesses historic african american community my ward is fifty percent people of color fifty percent renters and that experience on the city council has given me the ability to learn to listen to build coalitions so i can work with communities to advance a common agenda and what we agree on i think public policy and public service is about making progress this is the most progressive city in america and i believe every neighborhood should make progress thank you did you distinguish yourself the queen the current tamir and if you want to pick that i would have made sure that the vikings stadium was paid for by progressive user fees so that it's the personal seat licenses it's a ticket tax that sports memorabilia tax i would not have supported doubling the footprint of the metrodome to make it tax exempt and making every child in the audience who buys a candy bar chip in a few pennies for the new stadium because sales taxes are highly regre what distinguishes you from your competitors and what you do differently from the current mayor you know everybody's answer here is kind of like a little we're pretty satisfied with the way things are the recovery has come and it's getting our way and everything's getting better you know it's kind of like we just need to tinker around the edges to improve things a little bit i'm not interested in that i don't tinker around the edges i'm going for major change the fact of the matter is the recovery is not affecting everybody very well we are not recovering as a city we have gross disparities in health we have gross disparities in economics we have gross disparities in housing opportunities that's our reality i'm not interested in tinkering around the edges i'm interested in change i have the ability to do that i know how to bring people together i have relationships that are wide and deep and long and extend across this city i have relationships everywhere in the city i know how to bring people together i work hard i listen to people and i work with them to solve problems i'm not coming at this with i know exactly what's going to solve every problem i want to listen to the citizens of our city to engage and value our residents and put their valuable insights into any solutions we come up with together this has to be a partnership we're not going to tinker around the edges we're going to make big change something that you would have done differently from the president significant thing that would have been done differently than you are than the president or i will work intentionally with community members i will not come out and say what i think is going to happen or what i think is best i am deeply rooted in this community and i'm interested in hearing what folks have to say and building partnerships and valuing everybody's opinion this is not a top down sort of deal for me this is a bottom up sort of deal and that's not the way things have been operating things have been top down with folks telling us what's good for us and with they think should happen it's time that we engage our citizens listen to them and hear what you from your competitors thank you on this panel i've never been on the city council but i have more government experience than any person sitting at this table having been elected five times to the hennepin county board of commissioners i have more significant leadership experience than anybody on this panel i was chairman of the minnesota democratic party i was chairman of the hennepin county board of commissioners i've chaired major non profits in the community i have experience that nobody else has i also have been blessed with the gift of quitting elective office and going into the private sector where i've held a job for the last fourteen years and for the last seven and a half years have owned a green marketing company green mark which is delivered not only employment opportunities but made our city greener i also own food stands at the state fair i've employed two thousand summer jobs during my time out there and i'm higher in full so you come see me if you want your kids to work this year and and finally i have got a long record of accomplishment light rail transit  recycling greenway childcare increases used coordinating board and hennepin county medical center programs i mean look thank you give them all around and so did you want to make a statement distinguishing you from the president mere ten seconds the most glaring difference between me and the present mayor is that i wear matching socks and i will continue my pledge to the people of the city is i will continue to do that i give the mayor high marks he's done a good job he had a rocky start i was a strong sharon person i was a strong peter mclaughlin person he's done a really good job but i think where i'm going to be different is that i have a really big vision and the times require a really big vision thank you thank you give them all because i am not used to run for second place in my life and every campaign i've run i've run the wind run in to win this campaign my sixth but i think ran cho is voting is going to have an impact on the race because it's forcing the candidates i think to deal with each other in a less personal way in a more collegial way even though there are differences and i think that's going  us all a little bit nicer to each other and it's also going to have an impact on the endorsement process i think it kind of is counter to the endorsement process or the need for an endorsement because it's elections rank choice voting is going to change the way that we campaign i hope first i think it'll make it more positive if i want to be the second choice of any of my opponent supporters i don't want to alienate the supporters of any of my opponents so i hope that it'll make it more positive but what i do know is that we can leave no vote on turned in the advantage for every community is that we all is candidates have to go to every community because we can leave no second choice vote no third choice vote no fourth choice vote unturned that's why i supported rank choice voting i will be clear i am asking every single one of you today for your first choice  him once i'm sorry i agree with what's been said that it certainly changes the way that candidates interact mr samuel said that you know we're being friendlier to each other i'm mulling betsy's later today gary i think i'm doing your windows tomorrow morning right now are we are building i'd go so far as the friendships across the candidates as we go for but more importantly it gives voters an opportunity to step out of normal patterns you can go into the booth and say yeah i really do support my number one person but you know i'm going to think differently for number two i'm going to think broadly and so i do ask yes for your first choice vote and if i can earn your first choice vote i'd like to earn your second choice vote thank you very much schiff bring choice voting will strengthen the role of the d f l party i'm the only candidate was pledging to abide by the d f l endorsement because i believe in the d f l and i believe as progress as we are stronger when we sit together and so in november there may be five candidates on the ballot but only one has the opportunity to carry the label d f l endorsed i'm running for the d f l endorsement because i believe that our party best works together in coalition is the best party that represents progress for our neighborhoods every neighborhood in minneapolis thank you jackie cheerio i'm going to go out on a limb here and say i didn't support rank choice voting in the first place but it's the system we're working with and we're going to figure out how to make it work i think that the notion that we're all being nicer to each other because we're in rank choice voting is a little maybe not quite how it is we're nice to each other because frankly five of us have been friends and colleagues for a very very very long time i don't think we would be rude to each other anyways this does provide an opportunity for us to campaign around the city every person's vote counts equally with every other person's vote but that also means then that we have an added responsibility to ensure that everyone in our city understands how this system works and that responsibility is on us to we need to explain to everybody how this works ensure everybody's participation that's up to us thank you al flowers or years ago our ran for mayor because i didn't think african americans had a choice in the election and this year i think we do have a choice and so i want to save my question is a vow of equity and diversity within the cabinet in city hall we got the civil rights candidates what what can you tell us that we will be involved in government and i want to say that because we have now we are what we have to let it fade thanks the senate to hayden senator champion and  representative mother reid put in legislation from the african american community we got deals there how can we get help from the city have the city got help and make sure we are part of the city council  thank the question as i hear it is how do we support leadership of color in the city of minneapolis and i am proud to have done so already i know that it's important not only to get leadership of color at the city but to support them once they're there because sometimes that is the biggest challenge that we have and i know that when chief jackson was under fire i stood next to him and i made sure that that situation went better than it would have otherwise but the question is am i dedicated to making sure that we have leaders of color in the city of minneapolis and the answer is yes well my staff reflects my intentions and my staff has always been diverse and probably more so than anybody else's and you will see that reflected in the future i think this is an important thing to make a public commitment to when i was chairman of the county board i helped lead the recruitment of  a person of color to be the hennepin county administrator and we worked on that because we coordinated our efforts we did the right research to make sure we have the talent linked to the job then we did an act of recruitment and then we developed a policy that would promote the retention of employees of color we can do the same thing and should do the same thing at the city  i'm honored to have served with sharon sales belt in the administration of sharon sales belton who is supporting me and at that time we had an african american city attorney we hired an african american woman is the head of the public housing authority and we had african americans in a number of leadership roles in the city that will continue with me but more importantly i will partner with his works united and the churches i will partner with the community based organizations where already have relationships with i don't need to be in fight it out to his works  i've been out there a number of times in that with the ministers everybody will be a partner with me it's an open door policy i will work with the community to ensure that we have leadership in all levels of my administration my first hire in city hall  was a voice from the community of voice very very strong today at the capitol senator jeff haden and i think the question is not just about staffing in city hall and department heads but it's about community representation making sure that we have diverse community boards that provide input into city policy and making sure that as mayor i will meet with each of those community boards i will go out to the community meet with neighborhood organizations to make sure that i'm not just stuck in city hall in a bubble but i'm out there in the community listening to you and kim you know that the topic of hiring and the topic of minorities has a special resonance for me because it was actually it happened of the minority who hired me to move to minneapolis b todd jones the current u s attorney he interviewed me for my job at a law firm he was a stern son of a gun i was terrified and i managed to say the right things and so i got the job and so in my hiring as i've gone forward in my campaign staff you know what's the first position i hired for as an elected official want to be on the campaign treasurer and the campaign treasurer is former d f l endorsed person of color ashwin medea who ran for congress in the  rational district we need a city government that looks like our city and when i'm mayor we will thank you for all of the questions so let me close by asking each of the candidates then to do a summation a closing  you get the drift the sense of concerns of people in this community those are great questions great expressions of our concerns and i'd like you to in a feeling way address those concerns in your closing ninety second remark and we'll start at the other in with cam went in can ninety seconds sure i don't know that any leader could address all of those issues in ninety seconds but i'll certainly try to speak from the heart to tell you who i am and why i'm running and captures many of them as i could again i'm cam winton and throughout the course of this campaign i ask you to support me in my effort to bring a fresh set of eyes to city hall to build an all that's good about our city but work to fix the things that aren't just let me tackle a few of the things that were mentioned our educational system i'm the proud graduate of public schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade i went to public school and on the basis of that education i was able to go off and get degrees from three world class universities i'm tremendously grateful to the public school teachers who help me do that but too many of our public school children are not getting the education they need right now and  mayor i want to do more to shake things up we need longer school days and longer school years we need principals to be able to decide whom to hire and whom to fire in their schools we need to link pay to performance we need to use data we need to end last in first out and as mayor i don't just want to use the bully pulpit to try to make that happen i want for direct appointments to the school board to try to push through these changes so that all children can have the opportunities that i was fortunate enough to have as a child let me also say that throughout my life i have been an advocate for people who needed advocacy when a woman was injured in the bridge collapse or when my company had its back to the wall and some of our employees were threatened with losing their jobs i went to bat for those folks and i won both times and plenty of others i want to go to bat for our city and for those who need somebody going to bat for them and so i ask you to consider me for your first choice vote cam winton thank you geologists well this is an extraordinary conversation today reflecting a community and it isn't that different from the other conversations i've had that we in the city of minneapolis are looking to be a prosperous and unified city that works a city that works and does have police accountability it does make sure that our workforce reflects the people of the city one thing i've done recently is is work with achieve minneapolis and our n p r department to make sure that step up graduates are recruited to be members of our boards and commissions young vibrant diverse group of kids who can make a big difference in the city that's a city that w prosperous city make sure that we create jobs that we have the transportation to get people to and from those jobs and that we have the housing for those employees to live in and that we're providing reasons for business to invest here a prospering city also has an excellent education system and the city needs to partner with the schools to make sure that that happens but the one thing we need to make sure to do for this city if we're going to become the greatest city of the twenty first century is we need to create unity which means knowing that the things we do to prosper are things that we need to do for every part of our community i'm running for mayor because i want to make sure every single person in our city can benefit from the opportunities that we have to build the relationships to make that happen so that we can become the greatest city of the twenty first century thank you don don samuels thank you well and thank you new salem and for this wonderful welcome and hosting i'm running from air after a lifetime of working in private sector in spite of people talking about the private sector i worked in the private sector longer than anybody at this podium and at age fifty three i finally went into politics i didn't go in because i was always had a dream of being a politician i went in because my neighbors asked me to and i resisted it but they saw the changes we were able to make working together in the community for our children so that an a senior citizen need not be afraid to walk down the block and a child need not be afraid to stand at the bus stop they knew when bill my friend across the street asked me to run he said we have fifty kids in our afterschool program and we think two of them might graduate he said don you have to run they don't understand what's happening that's why i'm here this is the opportunity of my lifetime to make a difference for our children so that they graduate from high school college ready now when i prep and i go to the schools around here now this stone and i see the african american children in the audience i see successful prosperous husbands and wives working good jobs getting good pay and contributing and paying taxes to a thriving city that's what i see i can see i can taste it and i will never rest until that is achieved as mayor of the city of minneapolis working with the school board for our children thank you thank you mark thank you very much i am more prepared to be mayor today than at any other points in my career yes i had a great career in public service with a great record and i'm proud of that and i had a i've had a great record in private business as an employer greening our city and moving our city forward but i think i'm prepared to be mayor because of the tapestry of my life experiences in this community as an innovator as a student as an organizer as an employer as a father as a husband as a customer and as a neighbor these experiences have given me the temperament and the courage to do the three things that i may or hast to do first a mayor has to have a big bowl vision to move our city forward to the mayor has to have the ability to pull entire communities together not just small groups but entire communities together so that we can propel our city forward in common cause with a common agenda and finally and maybe most important i am the only person up here who have to demonstrate of history of having the guts and that courage to stand up and lay my cards on the table and tell people we're going to spend we're going to invest we're going to build transit we're going to build housing we're going to build jobs we're going to green the north side of minneapolis and the rest of the city too those are the ingredients that a mayor has to have and i am proud that i was given those gifts thank you thank you jackie cherryholmes i want to circle back to the questions that people were asking and i think there were some themes there there was a theme about education there was a theme about police there was a theme about the criminal justice system and a theme about jobs those are things i've heard about in this community for years those are things that i am prepared to tackle but the you don't tackle them alone you tackle them in partnership with people i've worked in our neighborhoods in both north and south minneapolis and i've dealt with some of these most challenging issues facing facing us i've listened i've organized and i've solve problems i work hard i'm tenacious i have relationships throughout our city and i'm passionate about minneapolis future and i have a track record i'm a grass roots person and this is a grassroots campaign the next mayor must be someone who has relationships throughout the city i have those relationships  mayor shouldn't be someone who tells us what to do the next mayor should be prepared to listen i'm a good listener the next mayor much to have the vision the strength and the ability to bring us all together we're everyone is valued and everyone has opportunity i know how to do that i've done it before i'm prepared to do it again as mayor with your support i will hit the ground running team cherryholmes is a big tent we got all kinds of people in the big tent i ask everyone to join us in the big tent and together together we will build a city that works for each and every one of us thank you gary for twelve years on the city council i've been a progressive clear consistent voice for our values i'm the son of a public school teacher i believe in education and i believe in the value of hard work and as mayor i will support our schools not by attacking  criticizing but by bringing resources so that our children can have the same opportunities that children in schools twenty miles away have today i'll be a mayor who works to make sure that urban planning is something that happens with the community not to the community i'll be a mayor to make sure that we disrupt the cycle of poverty with early childhood investment and make sure that we recognize our elders as a resource as some population that's growing and should be treasured and needs to be housed our senior population needs housing that we don't have today and by building that housing we can put people to work i'll be a man who demand accountability for contractors to make sure that they are hiring people who live in our city i'll be a mayor who increases homeownership increases affordable housing opportunities increases job opportunities because i believe we can be a city where it doesn't take two jobs to raise one child i believe we can be this city known where it's easy to get a job not a gun and i believe that in the most progressive city in america minneapolis can be the city where every neighborhood makes progress thank you thank you gary schiff well thank all of these candidates to give them all round of applause it was a great  presentation great answers before we close i want two things to happen one i want to have a brief remarks from state sen bobby joe champion were news outs bobby jo someone up and then after champion will close with some marching orders from the organizer of this event the organizer of this event on behalf of the minnesota state baptist convention and his works united and insight news is pastor brian harradine from zion baptist church thanks to pastor and and pastor when you come and close us out after the senator speaks thank you so very much how  also remember that caucuses are coming up especially for the d f l party i know it is april sixteenth and then there are different times for convention so make sure that you are engaged in our example of that the last thing that i'll say is that our government must we must really represent we the people and the only way that our government can represent we the people is if you make sure that your voices being heard and the world is run by those who show up so we want to make sure that you show up and be counted and your voice to be heard thank you so very much and i look forward to being with you on the campaign trail and now wherever hair and verse i want to thank everyone for coming out this is such an important and crucial time for our community and we must have a sense of urgency about what's going on in our community we are not faring well in every area of the those reports are out and they and the thing about it is i went back fifty years ago it was the same disparities they've only gotten worse so this isn't even new but it's getting worse nobody is going to do anything until we do something the message today is said we will no longer be silent we will no longer sit silent we will hold you accountable for the things that you say we will go to the boat polls and vote but we're going to be informed voters now we're not just going to the polls just to cast a vote but we're going to be informed voters which means that now we've got some work to do now we need to see who's really going to do what they say they're going to do now we need to begin to thank insight i want to use works united i want to thank president mcafee from the state baptist for allowing this opportunity but we got more work now yeah because now we got a whole forums about right choice voting so that our community understands what rank choice voting is so that we can get it done and we can do it right we need to hold more power aboard the fifth ward candidate the city council and and whenever the county commission comes up we need to be on that this isn't the last time you're going to see us is not the last time you're going to hear from us when you get elected to office we're going to be there this is this is this is this is a new day in the city of minneapolis for the african american community and it is us pastors who have come together with the press and with others to say that we must rise to a higher level in our community now having said all that and speaking truth to powers that be we also have to speak truth to ourselves which means that if we begin to get changes then we have to be prepared for those changes that we can't keep acted the same way we act and it means that we have to a community to a higher form of sales it means that we have to come back to the dignity and the respect that we that is our heritage now i want to thank you for coming i really do i thank you for coming i thank you for your candidate miss as you sit here today and i want you to know that whoever is elected mayor we're going to look for you to do exactly what you say if you would do