Mark Andrew

7/30/2019 Mark Andrew

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h juServing Downtown & ortheast Minneapolispril 22–May 5, 2013

B S M c K z

Mark Andrew believes

he has a natural gift that

is essential for a modern

mayor.

“The single most

important quality that

I have is also the most

important quality that

a mayor has to have

— I’m a natural uniter.

I’m a collaborator. It’s

my gift,” he said during

a recent interview.

The next mayor of

Minneapolis will have

to be adept at bringing

people together and

working with different

layers of government,

whether it’s the county,

School Board or Park

Board, he said.

Andrew, a resident

of the Lynnhurst

neighborhood, has a

diverse background in

public service and the

private sector. Most

recently he’s been an

environmental entrepre-

neur with GreenMark

Enterprises, a company

he founded in 2007.

GreenMark helps build-

ings and public venues

become more environ-

mentally sustainable.

One of Andrew’s most

significant accomplish-

ments with GreenMark

has been helping Target

Field secure LEED certi-

fication and create a

partnership with Pentair

to install a rainwater

recycling system at the

ballpark.

Twins President Dave

St. Peter had high praise

for Andrew for his workon Target Field.

“He played a signifi-

cant role in helping the

Minnesota Twins under-

stand the opportunities

and the responsibilities

that go with environ-

mental stewardship, and

I was personally very

appreciative of having

Mark’s knowledge and

talents and his vision

that played an important

role in making Target

Field what we think

Mark ndrew prides himself onability to bring people together

S D» P 16

// Mayoral candidate profle //c i t y e l e c t i o n

2 0 1 3

B D T M S

Before the city locks into

new franchise agreements

with its gas and electricity

suppliers, Minneapolis

will first explore the

possibility of setting up

its own municipal utility.

Twenty-year agree-

ments with Xcel Energy

and CenterPoint Energy

are set to expire in

late 2014. By then, city

leaders aim to refine

their goals for a cleaner,

more sustainable energy

system and examine all

the potential routes for

reaching those goals.

One option is for

Minneapolis to take

charge of providing gas

and electricity to its resi-

dents. Proponents argue

Minneapolis tostudy city-runutilities// Study planned as franchise agreements

with Xcel and CenterPoint set to expire //

S Xc» P 17

‘Trthy rt’

rt in the age o shting acts

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Meatlessbreakfast

o vegan with these

morning meals

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blainggood time

Take a tour o the

Firefghters Hall

and Museum

15

It’s Main Street for Minneapolis, a place where 140,000 downtown

employees go to eat lunch, grab a drink or do some shopping when

they come down from their office towers. Another 35,000 downtown

residents use it almost daily.

City and business leaders are preparing to redesign Nicollet Mall,

opening up a competition among architects to come up with the best

vision for the one-mi le stretch through the core of downtown.

Redesigning Nicollet Mall has been a top priority for the City

Council and Minneapolis Downtown Council for two years. It’s part of

the Downtown Council’s 2025 vision.

“Minneapolis, with this Nicollet Mall design, I believe, should set the

standard for the great new urban street,” said Mayor R.T. Rybak.

Rybak and Minneapolis Downtown Council President and CEO

Mark Stenglein agree that whatever the new Nicollet Mall looks like, it

should be greener, more pedestrian friendly, have more sidewalk cafes

and connect to other city amenities.

S cT M» P 9

DS

cT M

// Design teams will be selected to compete for a chance to redesign the mall //

B c K T

P H T b y y T H M S



16 // Aril 22–Ma 5, 2013 // jurnalmls.cm

p h o t o b y k t b b Mayoral candidate Mark Andrew at a recent campaign event.

is the greenest sports

facility of its type in thecountry,” he said.

Before launching

GreenMark, Andrew was

a senior vice president

at Tunheim Partners, a

strategic communications

firm — a job that followed

a lengthy tenure on the

Hennepin County Board.

He served as a county

commissioner for 16 years

— from 1982-1999 — and

was elected chair of the

board four times.

As for his greatest

accomplishments while

a county commissioner,he points to his work

launching the county’s

recycling program, which

was the biggest local

recycling program in

North America for over

a decade. He also takes

credit for spearheading

the Midtown Greenway

Corridor and playing a

key role in negotiations

for the Hiawatha Light

Rail Transit and Central

Corridor transit lines.

Andrew is a lifelong

resident of Minneapolis

and a graduate of Wash-burn High School and the

University of Minnesota.

He got his start in politics

while in college when he

become the co-founder

and first president of

MPIRG, a student-run

environmental group.

Anita Tabb, a commis-

sioner for the Park

Board’s 4th District and

Andrew’s campaign

co-chair, agreed with the

mayoral candidate that

one of his best qualities is

his ability to bring people

together — an asset for a mayor working within

Minneapolis’ system of

government.

“I love the fact that

he has such a robust

and diverse background

— private sector, public

sector. He’s an entrepre-

neur,” she said. “I love

that Mark has a vision for

the whole city. We can’t

be North Minneapolis

versus South Minneapol is,

or the east versus the

west. We want to come

together and be one

whole city.”

Top pioitis

Andrew has three over-

arching goals for the city:

make Minneapolis the

greenest city in America;

reduce the achievement gap

between high performing

and low performingstudents; and launch an

aggressive campaign to

accelerate development

throughout the city.

As for the first goal ,

Andrew said he’d like to

see the city make more

investments in green

space and other environ-

mental amenities — infra-

structure improvements

that could attract new

businesses to the city.

“We want to do this

because it’s smart busi-

ness to be the greenest

city in America,” he said.

“It will attract all kinds of

positives.”

Andrew’s other top

priority i s reducing the

achievement gap among

Minneapolis students.

He said he has had

education experts tell him

the problem has gotten

substantially worse in the

last decade.

“Now we need to

have the mayor be the

convener and collaborator

to attack that problem

because the achievement

gap — if it persists — will

drive higher taxes in the

city and in the future

drive more government

services,” he said. “It’s a

prescription for disaster.”

He said he would

commission a blue ribbon

task force made up of a

wide group of community

leaders to come up with

a vision for tackling the

achievement gap.

“It has to be the highest priority for the ci ty,” he

said at mayoral candidate

forum April 3 at Solo-

mon’s Porch in the King-

field neighborhood.

Alberto Monserrate, chair

of the Minneapolis School

Board, is a supporter of

Andrew’s campaign.

“There are a number of

good candidates this year

for mayor, but I believe

Andrew wi ll be the best

at forming the types of

collaborative agreements

between the city, school

district, Park Board and

county needed to elimi-

nate the learning gap in

Minneapolis,” he said.

To accomplish the third

goal, Andrew wants to

see more high-density

development in the city,

particularly in North

Minneapolis, along the

riverfront and in the city’s

commercial nodes.

“I want to do somewhat

higher density develop-

ment as a way to more

quickly drive the tax base

and create jobs,” he said.

“It will generate more

taxes and drive more

employment, which is a

critical need.”

Improving conditions

in North Minneapolis to

make it more attractive

for development would be

a special focus area. He’d

also work to recruit new

companies to the area.

“For every nickel of

tax base we create on the

North Side, we take pres-

sure off the tax base on

the South Side,” he said.

Vikis stadium

As for the new Vikings

stadium, Andrew said “any

mayoral candidate who

voted against the stadium

was irresponsible.”

“I will not preside

over a hole in the

ground. That will not

happen on my watch,”

he said. “However, the

funding mechanism for

the stadium was fatally

flawed from the start,

and I was not a Johnny-

come-lately on that issue.

I’ve been critical of the

financing plan throughout

the legislative process.”

Andrew said he

is opposed to using

gambling revenue to

finance public projects.

Still, despite his reser-

vations about the finan-

cial framework for the

Vikings stadium, he said:

“You can’t be for jobs and

against the stadium.”

Popty taxs

When asked to weigh in

on what should be done

about property taxes — a

perennial hot topic in

Minneapolis — Andrew

said he has both short-and

long-term strategies to

keep taxes down.

If elected, Andrew

said in the short term,

he’d have his team do a

thorough review of city

programs. “My guess is

that we’re going to be able

to find some regulatory

functions that are redun-

dant or unnecessary. … All

of those savings are goingto reduce property taxes.”

The long-term strategy

involves Andrew’s economic

development plans that call

for more green amenities to

attract more private invest-

ment in the city, which in

turn would strengthen the

tax base.

Andrew said his prop-

erty taxes have doubled in

recent years.

“They were already

high, and here is the

troubling realty: There

is no game plan other

than to let property taxes

continue to rise,” he said.

“That’s unacceptable.”

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junalmpls.cm // Apil 22–May 5, 2013 // 17

that route would speed

Minneapolis’ progress in

reducing greenhouse gas

emissions, improve the

reliability of the services

and add jobs.

The City Council voted

April 12 to spend up to$250,000 exploring that

scenario and others over

the next nine months with

the Energy System Path-

ways Study.

“We want to let our

current utility providers

know these are our goals

and we are serious about

trying to find a path to

better achieve our goals,”

said City Council Member

Elizabeth Glidden (Ward 8).

At the same t ime, c ity

leaders are following half

a dozen bills at the state

Legislature that couldweigh on their decision,

including two key pieces

of legislation.

One would expand

cities’ power in nego-

tiating utility franchise

agreements, allowing

them to set energy-effi-

ciency goals and requiring

utilities to provide regular

reports on local energy

infrastructure. Right now,

cities can discuss fran-

chise fees and the condi-

tions for utilities to work

on their streets, but the

Minnesota Public UtilitiesCommission has the only

voice in negotia tions with

utilities over, for example,

the mix of renewableenergy sources used to

generate electricity.

“State law tells us you

can talk to Xcel about

how much they pay

[Minneapolis] for right-

of-way use, but we can’t

under state law have

a discussion with Xcel

[asking], ‘Well, we want

you to provide 10 percent

of our energy with clean,

renewable sources,’”

explained Glidden, who

chairs the Council’s

Regulatory, Energy and

Environment Committee.If Minneapolis decides

it can do a better job than

Xcel, current state law

also requires the city to purchase the uti lity’s local

infrastructure — all of the

lines, poles and substa-

tions in town — and

reimburse Xcel for future

revenues.

Another key bill in the

state Legislature would

strip future revenues

from that reimbursement

formula, reducing the

potentially huge costs

facing cities as they transi-

tion to municipal utilities.

Initial estimates indicate

Minneapolis would spend

hundreds of millionsand perhaps more than a

billion dollars taking over

utility operations.

The current law hasbeen on the books since

the 1970s, and Glidden

said that was one reason

why the state hadn’t seen

any new municipal utilities

created in the nearly four

decades since. Still, they

aren’t necessarily rare.

According to the Minne-

sota Municipal Utilities

Association, there are 125

municipal electric utilities

serving cities as large as

Rochester and another 31

municipal gas utilities.

Other cities around the

country, citing concernsabout role of greenhouse

gas emissions in climate

change, are also consid-

ering municipal utilities.

In April, city leaders in

Boulder, Colo., were

nearing a vote to end the

city’s contract with Xcel

and establish a municipal

energy utility.

In Minneapolis, the

targets set by the City

Council aim to reduce

citywide greenhouse gasemissions 15 percent by

2015 and 30 percent by

2025, as compared to a

2006 baseline. To reach

those goals, city leaders

want more detailed

information on just how

energy is distributed and

used, even down to the

neighborhood level.

Representatives from

both utilities said they

planned to cooperate with

the study.

Xcel spokesperson

Laura McCarten said the

company was “eager” to partic ipate in the study

and would work with the

city to explore energy

conservation strategies.

But Xcel opposes the

proposed change s to fra n-

chise agreement negotia-

tions, and McCarten cast

doubt on the idea of nego-

tiating energy standards

city-by-city.

“That’s where our grid

is not designed by city

boundaries,” she said. “I

don’t even conceive of

how we could do that.”

While city leaders ponde r the energy future

of Minneapolis, they have

a citizen-led campaign

pushing them to s tay

tough in franchise nego-

tiation with CenterPoint

and Xcel.

Dylan Kesti of Minne-

apolis Energy Options

said the city has a “unique

opportunity” now to

make progress toward its

clean energy goals. The

campaign isn’t advocatinga municipal utility as the

only solution, but Kesti

noted that Boulder, Colo.,

moved forward when

a 2011 feasibility study

indicated a municipal

utility there could signifi-

cantly reduce greenhouse

gas emissions while

maintaining rates and

reliability at similar levels

to Xcel.

Glidden said City

Council members, too,

are open to whatever

outcome leads to cleaner,

more reliable energy for the city.

“Clearly, there are

a lot of communities

that provide municipal

energy,” she said. “The

questions, I think, for us,

is how realistic is that as

an option.”

Reach Dylan Thomas at

[email protected].

Xcel f r oM PA g e 1

b d A t h o M A

Xcel Energy’s headquarters on Nicollet Mall.

Documents

Mark Andrew