Mark Andrew Profile

16 // April 22May 5, 2013 // journalmpls.
com
2013 city election
// Mayoral candidate profile //
Andrew
f r o m Pag e 1
is the greenest sports facility of its type in the country, 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 countys 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 Washburn 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 commissioner for the Park Boards 4th District and Andrews 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. Hes an entrepreneur, she said. I love that Mark has a vision for the whole city. We cant be North Minneapolis versus South Minneapolis,
p h oto by k r i st i n l e b b e n
Mayoral candidate Mark Andrew at a recent campaign event.
or the east versus the west. We want to come together and be one whole city.
Top priorities
Andrew has three overarching goals for the city: make Minneapolis the greenest city in America; reduce the achievement gap between high performing and low performing students; and launch an aggressive campaign to accelerate development throughout the city. As for the first goal, Andrew said hed like to see the city make more investments in green space and other environmental amenities infrastructure improvements that could attract new businesses to the city. We want to do this because its smart business to be the greenest city in America, he said. It will attract all kinds of positives. Andrews other top priority is 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
Editors note The Journal will be profiling the self-declared candidates for mayor for the next several issues leading up to the DFL City Convention on June 15. We are kicking off our candidate profile series with a story on Mark Andrew. Stay tuned for future profiles on Jackie Cherryhomes, Don Samuels, Gary Schiff, Betsy Hodges, Jim Thomas and Cam Winton, an Independent candidate not seeking the DFL endorsement.
gap if it persists will drive higher taxes in the city and in the future drive more government services, he said. Its 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 city, he said at mayoral candidate forum April 3 at Solomons Porch in the Kingfield neighborhood. Alberto Monserrate, chair of the Minneapolis School Board, is a supporter of Andrews campaign. There are a number of good candidates this year for mayor, but I believe Andrew will be the best at forming the types of collaborative agreements between the city, school district, Park Board and county needed to eliminate 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 citys commercial nodes. I want to do somewhat higher density development as a way to more quickly drive the tax base and create jobs, he said.
At a glance: Mark Andrew Age: 62 Neighborhood: Lynnhurst Family: wife Connie and children Samantha and John Resume snapshot: Founder of GreenMark, an environmental consulting firm. Before launching the company he worked at Tunheim Partners, a post he took after serving 16 years on the Hennepin County Board. Education: bachelors of arts degree, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Fun fact: Andrew has owned the Real Smores and Worlds Greatest French Fries stand at the Minnesota State Fair since he was in college. Campaign website: markforminneapolis.com Twitter: @MarkForMpls Facebook: facebook.com/MarkForMinneapolis
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. Hed also work to recruit new companies to the area. For every nickel of tax base we create on the North Side, we take pressure off the tax base on the South Side, he said.
Vikings 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 Johnnycome-lately on that issue. Ive 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 reservations about the financial framework for the Vikings stadium, he said: You cant be for jobs and against the stadium.
Minneapolis Andrew said he has both short-and long-term strategies to keep taxes down. If elected, Andrew said in the short term, hed have his team do a thorough review of city programs. My guess is that were going to be able to find some regulatory functions that are redundant or unnecessary. All of those savings are going to reduce property taxes. The long-term strategy involves Andrews economic development plans that call for more green amenities to attract more private investment in the city, which in turn would strengthen the tax base. Andrew said his property 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. Thats unacceptable.
Property taxes
When asked to weigh in on what should be done about property taxes a perennial hot topic in

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16 // April 22May 5, 2013 // journalmpls.

2013 city election

// Mayoral candidate profile //

Mayoral candidate Mark Andrew at a recent campaign event.

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