Meet Stillwater City Council Ward 2 Candidate: Ted Kozlowski

There will be a primary election Tuesday, Aug. 14 for an open seat in Ward 2 on the Stillwater City Council.

Ward 2 residents Tom Corbett, Ted Kozlowski and Cassie McLemore each participated in forum Tuesday at the Stillwater Public Library to address questions regarding their candidacy and some of the issues facing the city of Stillwater.

Ted Kozlowski: Entrepreneur, President of DemandQuest Marketing Institute

Facebook: Ted for Stillwater

Website: http://tedforstillwater.com

Email: tedforstillwater@gmail.com

Why do you want to be a member of the Stillwater City Council?

“I just love this town. I grew up in Stillwater. After high school I lived in several different cities and a couple different countries and coming back here with my wife and two sweet babies, it’s just amazing to see this town from a parent’s eyes, from an adult’s yes, I’m just crazy about this town.”

Because Kozlowski runs the Stillwater, MN Facebook page and is visible as a Board Member at Valley Outreach, he said he’s been a “sounding board” for residents whether the issue is backyard chickens, stop signs or sandwich boards on Main Street.

“For some reason people come to me with those issues and I’d like to be in a position to address them.”

Kozlowski said as a council member one of his biggest concern is the future of redevelopment of downtown with the new bridge.

“I see Stillwater as being at a little bit of an apex where we can change for the better or for the worse, and I want to be in on the decision-making process.”

What are your personal and professional experiences that qualify you to be on the Stillwater City Council?

Is the Vice Chairman on the Board at Valley Outreach. He said the nonprofit is very personal to him and feels he has developed professionally as a board member.

“It’s an unique organization. We feed people, put clothes on their back and give them money when they need help.”

Kozlowski said his role has helped him develop good ties to the community and develop relationships with businesses that support Valley Outreach.

“I think this job requires passion for Stillwater and I’ve been such a supporter of Stillwater from the Facebook page to giving people tours and directions when I was 12 years old downtown on my skateboard. It’s not a job where you’re paid very much, so that passion is a requirement.”

Kozlowski said he has owned and sold several successful businesses, so at this point he said he has had “very significant management experience.”

What do you think are the three top issues facing the city of Stillwater?

1. Open Government: The level of decorum between the city council members right now “is a little bit alarming to me,” Kozlowski said. “It’s frustrating. When people start asking me about issues in Stillwater it’s really because they don’t feel they have access to city government.” As a council member, Kozlowski said he may not be able to change that, but could bring “visibility to the issue.” When City Council members can’t communicate with one another, and “blast each other in the press, it doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies and is something I’d like to try to remedy.”

2. Fiscal Responsibility: In relation to the Armory Project, Kozlowski said he’s not sure the council is make the “deliberate decisions,” they were elected to make and that “worries me.”

3. The future of Downtown: “There are a lot of expectations with what the bridge is going to do to downtown. I think most people think it’s going to be a positive change, but I’m also worried there might be some consequences to not having the traffic.”

How would you maintain communication with Stillwater residents?

Runs the Stillwater, MN Facebook page with more than 13,000 members, most of who are Stillwater residents.

In addition to online feedback from residents, Kozlowski said he would work with the media and have a “finger on the pulse of comments” written on news articles about Stillwater. He also has a phone line and voicemail dedicated to constituents.

“I want to keep it as open and accessible as possible.”

What do you think a major summer festival should look like in Stillwater?

Kozlowski said he “absolutely loved Lumberjack Days” and doesn’t think it should be that challenging to have a multi-day festival that is good for locals, kids, families, as well as nighttime entertainment.

Regardless of people’s feelings about Lumberjack Days, Kozlowski said it brought a “ton of money in to Stillwater” and kept people coming back.

“I like having Stillwater visible in the metro area and I think Lumberjack Days does a good job of that. I think it would be a shame not to do Lumberjack Days in the future.”

Kozlowski said there is an easy way to do Lumberjack Days right, and history supports that.

“It wasn’t until the last several years, starting with Lenard Skynard, which was a brilliant idea, that Lumberjack Days changed.”

Growing up, Kozlowski said he enjoyed the log rolling, ax throwing, family-focused events and live music “that put Stillwater on the map.” He said he would like to see the festival come back in that shape.

That said, it is the council’s responsibility to make sure the people organizing the event have experience, have demonstrated success and are financially sound before bringing 50,000 people with them.”

What should the City Council’s role in moving forward with a new festival?

The City Council should not be in the event planning business. It is not the council’s role to define what a festival should be, but rather set the criteria based on public input, public safety officials feedback, downtown business owners and the other stakeholders. The council should then interview promoters, vendors and productions companies to put on that event.

Each of you said people have encouraged you to run for this seat. Has any member of the City Council asked you to run, and if so, who asked you to run?

Kozlowski: “No. I don’t know the mayor or anyone else on the council.”

The Stillwater City Council, on a 4-1 vote, attempted to give $80,000 to the Coalition for the St. Croix River Crossing. The state auditor said the method was illegal. Do you agree or disagree with the City Council’s position that it had to help the Coalition to do this?

“The first thing that came to my mind is ho much are we paying the City Attorney for bad advice? Giving $80,000 to a lobbyist in the manner in which it was given was a big mistake and the auditor showed that was the reality of the situation.”

The City Council has the right to engage with groups that will move the city forward, but the bridge is a state and federal project—that arguably will benefit Stillwater—and it is not even in the city of Stillwater.

You’ve all said Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development are top issues facing Stillwater. With those two things in mind, what is your definition of a better Stillwater?

The condo point is a good one, Kozlowski said. The city was excited about those condos, and look how that turned out.

“We were going to have thousands of people walking around, shopping, eating and drinking and was going to be a wonderful influx in revenue, but that didn’t really materialize. There are people there, but I don’t think it had the intended consequences.”

Stillwater needs a comprehensive economic redevelopment plan, and Kozlowski said, it is well within the responsibility of the city to put that together and figure out what is going to make Stillwater a better place for the long-term.

Some projects in the past—like tearing Main Street up for the water project—had “drastic consequences” on downtown, Kozlowski said. The project closed Main Street for about a year and that’s when “we lost a lot of the mom-and-pop shops residents were using.

Antiques stores started moving onto Main Street and people started moving up the hill because Oak Park Heights had a really good economic development plan to get business from downtown to move up the hill, he said.

“I think we missed the boat on that, the city was too busy focusing on building Oak Glen and other things, I don’t think made a whole lot of sense. We’ve proven over 30-40 years that a lot of times when it comes to making big decisions, we get it wrong, so I would like to see something more comprehensive, intelligent and forward looking that details what we want downtown to look like and what we want the top of the hill to look like.”

What is your take on the Armory Project and proposal to relocate the fire station? What do you think of the proposed spending? And what do you think the Stillwater Fire Department should look like?

“The armory is a tough issue.” After talking with a couple of firefighters, Kozlowski said they tell him the service area is massive, and he agrees.

There is definitely a need for a station downtown and maybe something up the hill, he said. With the armory project, gymnasium and everything else going on up there, he’d like to see “a better use of the space.”

“The money part does scare me a little bit. I’d like to see where the money is coming from, how we plan on spending it and if it makes sense in relation to the rest of the city budget.”

Kozlowski said he would like to see something come of the armory space, but the cost of the project and “lack of any evident planning on behalf of the City Council” when spending “a significant amount of taxpayers’ money scares me.”

Is it important to have consensus on the Stillwater City Council or dissent?

“Dissent is very important on the City Council, in city government and in government in general—and I think it is very important with this council.”

“Some of the perception is that it is a rubber stamp right now and while it might not be fun to be the dissenting voice all of the time, it gives more visibility to issues people may not otherwise hear about and that’s my primary concern—is that people know what the city council is doing, where the positions are and sometimes the best way to be heard is to have some dissent on the council, whether that comes from me or somebody else on the council.”

Kozlowski said on the other boards he sits on, he “almost gets queasy” when everyone is in agreement.

“I want to opposition on some level. There has to be a counter argument and I want to hear those before making decisions.”

The General Election is Tuesday, November 6. Polling places open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Click here for information about absentee voting.

The General Election is Tuesday, November 6. Polling placesopen at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Click here for information about absentee voting.

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