VIRGINIA — Six of the seven candidates running for three Virginia City Council seats participated in a forum put on by Iron Range Today and the Lyric Center for the Art on Wednesday, Aug. 7.
The top six candidates following the Aug. 13 primary will be on the ballot in November. Vying for the seats are Ricky Angellar, Annie Bachscheider, Dave Hansen, incumbent Steven B. Johnson, incumbent Julieanne Paulson, Rodney Salo and Jared Siebert.
Paulson did not attend and said she had a prior engagement. She was given the opportunity to provide an opening statement and did not.
Questions covered everything from housing and property taxes to the Iron Trail Motors Event Center and the retirement of the city’s steam heat system. Much of the discussion centered on financial challenges facing the city’s fire and ambulance.
Candidates were given two minutes to respond to each question. Candidates answered in alphabetical order, with a new person answering first each round.
A full recording of the forum can be found on the Lyric Center for the Arts YouTube.
Meet the candidates
Angellar said he is running for office because he loves Virginia. He described himself as someone who goes into the community to talk to people and learn about what is impacting them. He said residents deserve better law enforcement and more money and proposed building a treatment center and giving tax dollars from a recreational cannabis store to “police, fire and EMT” to take pressure off the city’s budget.
Bachschneider opened with a brief biography; she’s a born-and-raised Virginian, graduated from Virginia High School, and attended Mesabi Range College and College of St. Scholastica. She has a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership and a Master of Business Administration in leadership and change. She’s a workforce development specialist at Essentia Health and volunteers with several community organizations.
Bachschneider said she is running because she loves the city and is ready for change. She expressed sadness at seeing people move out of the city, primarily because of what she described as a lack of value for living within the city. She aims to lower taxes and enhance the city’s living value.
Hansen told attendees he grew up in Winona but has lived in Virginia for over 30 years. He used just 30 seconds of his opening statement time and said he wants to raise taxes, at least doubling the levy, “because we cannot sustain what we have, which we need, on a 4% levy.”
Johnson is one of the incumbent councilors in the race. This is his eighth year on the Virginia City Council. Johnson graduated from Virginia High School and has been doing respite and foster care for 14 years and on-call substitute teaching for 24 years. He said he is running again, and will continue to run, because kindness matters.
“Our city has amazing employees and amazing citizens that take pride in the jobs that they do,” he said. “I honor that by reading my packet, asking appropriate questions and researching information prior to council meetings so that I am well-informed during the meetings.”
Johnson said his daughter wants to be mayor of Virginia, and he wants to leave her a kind, inclusive and healthy city.
Rodney Salo grew up in Biwabik and is a third-generation miner. He said he’s running for office because the cost of everything keeps increasing, and “there’s got to be a way we can start putting a stop to it.” He wants to rework the budget to decrease taxes and represent people in a “constitutional way.”
Jared Siebert is a lifelong resident of the area and is focused on building Virginia’s economy. He’s worked with ReVive Virginia and volunteered at multiple local events. Seibert is also a longtime member of Rock Ridge’s Native American Education parent committee and expressed concern over students leaving the city upon graduation.
“We need to stop that. We need to keep them here,” he said. “We need to build on what the previous generations have left for us.”
On taxes, Siebert said the reality of rising costs means the city may need to increase the levy, though he would aim for keeping taxes the same or increasing them minimally, while still ensuring the city keeps its social structure and infrastructure and funds essential services.
Housing
Moderator Jerry Burnes asked, “Affordable housing has reached a critical point in Virginia and broadly across the Iron Range. What is your vision for housing that people can afford and the role the city of Virginia can play in developing it?”
Bachschneider emphasized the need for all types of housing. She said the City Council has been presented with housing opportunities worth exploring and chose not to investigate further.
“If we want to see our taxes decrease, we have to increase our tax base,” she said. “The best way to do that is to get more people living in our community, whether that is by doing that with affordable housing or non-affordable housing, workforce housing — all housing.”
Hansen agreed housing is needed but rhetorically asked how to pay for it. He suggested rehabbing foreclosed or tax-forfeited properties and using them to provide housing for low-income renters.
Councilor Johnson acknowledged Bachschneider’s statements and said the city has put housing on the back burner each time a new project arose. He also emphasized the need for all housing. Johnson shared that he lived in Section 8 housing at a young age and expressed frustration with negative comments about affordable housing.
Salo did not respond to the question, saying it needed to be looked into, but he didn’t know enough about the subject to give an answer.
Siebert said if the city wants to build business, it needs housing. He said the city needs to partner with investors and find space to build multi-unit facilities, especially given its aging population. He also mentioned buildings in disrepair, saying the city should raze or rehabilitate them so there can continue to be housing within city limits.
Like Johnson, Siebert shared that he lived in public housing in his youth.
“I just bought a house for myself a few years ago,” he said. “Homeownership is great, I want to see that for everyone, but everyone needs to start somewhere.”
Angellar also addressed Johnson’s comments, saying his family was one of the area’s poorest. He said he sees the need for affordable housing when he gives out sleeping bags to the homeless, builds houses for people or helps people find apartments. He also said the city needs to find a way to build affordable housing for seniors.
Property taxes and home values
Candidates were asked, “Property taxes are levied through the city, county and schools. For Virginia residents, the tax comparisons for property taxes can vary widely. Some similar-valued homes are taxed higher in Virginia than St. Paul. And we also see in neighboring cities that the median housing value cost varies widely. How would you work to better align property taxes and home values in Virginia?”
Candidates focused on the city’s budget in their responses. A tight budget became a sticking point in union negotiations this spring, leading to a six-day strike of 79 city employees.
Hansen said the city has to find a "sweet spot" for the levy to pay for services.
Johnson explained the issue by describing the tax levy through a percentage rather than actual numbers makes it hard to see where money is going. He also discussed the funding disparity for the city’s fire department, which responds to communities outside of Virginia but is only funded by Virginia taxes. Surrounding communities are asked to help support the service, but the local officials have to agree to provide funding.
Johnson also said budget cuts are more than just numbers, and there is very little left to cut in the city.
“One of the concerns brought up this year is that baseball for the youth went up to 300 some dollars,” he said. “That is because of the budget cuts to the parks and rec department. We had to find the money somewhere.”
The conversation is bigger than aligning property values, he said.
Salo expressed dismay at Virginia’s fire department serving such a large area. The fire department has five ambulances, and its primary service area — defined by the Emergency Medical Services Regulatory Board — is large, spreading from Britt to Melrude and covering several hundred square miles. The service area overlaps with Eveleth’s and Biwabik’s.
Salo said he wants to look into why these areas don’t pay for the service.
Siebert acknowledged the large service area is causing residents’ taxes to rise. He said the city needs to find other ways to bring money in and increase the tax base, because it may need to raise the levy some to continue to pay for services.
Angellar brought up his treatment center idea again and said it would give the city $5 million that could be used to fund the police, not raise the levy and pay for other needs.
Bachschneider said the city of Virginia is the reason property taxes are so high.
“If St. Louis County was the problem, people wouldn’t be moving to Mountain Iron,” she said. “If Rock Ridge Schools was the problem, people wouldn’t be moving to Britt and Fayal.”
She said the city has a spending problem, including paying for vital services and not passing a special taxing district, presumably referring to the city’s ability to pass a special taxing district in conjunction with other local governments. She said the city needs monthly revenue and expenditure reports to understand “the financial crisis that we are in” and create an action plan to become more economically healthy.
EMS funding
Moderator Jerry Burnes went off script to discuss an issue that multiple candidates brought up: EMS funding. He asked what the city can do about the problem.
Johnson was the first to respond, explaining that state law requires areas in a special taxing district to agree to a levy.
“There’s not much we as a city can do about this,” he said. “It has to be at the state level.”
Salo pushed back, saying he’s not certain the state has to get involved. He thinks other departments don’t have to cover large areas because they’re volunteers, rather than staffed full-time.
“Not saying I want to get rid of it, but if ... the other towns that are involved, we talked to them and they do not want to help us pay for these services, then maybe that’s something that should be looked at, going to voluntary EMS like the other towns have so that we don’t have to cover that area,” he said.
Seibert agreed with Johnson that change needs to happen at the state level, but he said the city needs to press other governments in the service area to help pay for EMS.
Angellar said every life matters, and if Virginia is willing to serve other areas, that’s the right thing to do.
“We can’t quit giving,” he said. “We’ve got to find out how to give.”
Bachschneider said it’s been too many years of talking about the special taxing district challenge without acting on it and the city should work with state and regional officials to change it.
Hansen said the city should try to get reimbursement rates for service mileage raised.
Steam conversion
Moderator Burnes asked, “As Virginia moves toward retrofitting its steam heat system, many are looking at loans to complete that conversion. Many of them also don’t need another loan. How can the city better facilitate moving off of steam heat for its residents and businesses?”
Siebert said the city should look for organizations to partner with to provide additional funding for people who need assistance, though he acknowledged he doesn’t have much knowledge on the topic and couldn’t speak in depth.
Angellar supports the city’s conversion, and he said steam was too expensive and it was a terrible idea from the beginning. He said the city should find a way to give business owners money to convert, but the steam was "just a hole in our pocket.”
Bachschneider, like Siebert, said she had limited knowledge. She did point out that most homes had made the conversion from steam. Only a few areas, including downtown, still needed to be converted.
Hansen agreed the conversion had to happen, but the city had to figure out how to help businesses pay for the expensive switch. He said he had to convert his own home, and he was able to pay off the loan used to pay for it.
Johnson said he liked steam heat, but because of deferred maintenance, the city did have to phase it out. The city offered no-interest loans to help residents pay for the conversion, with the idea being the monthly payment would be comparable to residents’ previous steam heat bill, though Johnson implied his own were much higher.
He said the city must be creative in helping downtown businesses fund the conversion but also did not share specific ideas.
Salo floated the idea of tax credits to businesses to help offset or pay for the cost, though he was unsure if the city had the authority to do so. He also suggested asking the state for funding.
Iron Trail Motors Event Center
“Iron Trail has cycled through a number of marketing directors, and the city is seeking gap funding for the long-planned adjacent hotel. Do you believe residents are seeing the expected return when this was first marketed, and how do you envision the entire project reaching its full potential?”
Angellar said the city’s previous hockey arena needed to be replaced and complaining about the financial issues caused by Iron Trail won’t help solve the problem.
“It’s beautiful. It has everything we need,” he said. “ ... Let’s get together instead of putting down, let’s figure out the solution, so we’re making money and everybody’s happy.”
Bachschneider pointed out that, while the event center was expected to lose money at first, it is losing more money than originally projected. She thinks the hotel will help attract more events, which will help the venue make money.
Hansen and his wife walk the track at the event center and love it. He said the city was told the venue would have more amenities, but the city ran out of money before it could add everything. Residents were told it would compete with the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, he said, but the city did not consider what was needed when it was built.
Johnson said the event center has a negative reputation, but it is a beautiful building. He noted that just because an event isn’t public, doesn’t mean the venue isn’t being used. He said it regularly hosts international trainings for major corporations and youth hockey teams from the Twin Cities rent ice time because of how nice the facility is.
The lack of places for visitors to stay is one of the reasons the venue has struggled to attract or keep certain events, and Johnson said the hotel is coming.
Salo gave a brief response, saying the city has to keep exploring ways to get the building used.
Siebert also praised the facility and noted the need for the hotel to attract visitors and make money. He said the city should continue to build up the Iron Trail and that it will take time to make it profitable, though he thinks in the next few years “we’ll be able to see that facility shine like it should be.”
