Q&A: Paul Reiland, Candidate for Northfield's Second Ward

Four candidates are vying for your support for the Second Ward representative on the .

Next Tuesday, Aug. 14, voters will be asked to choose two candidates to move ahead to November's General Election.

The four candidates for Second Ward representative are:

Patch asked candidates to respond to a series of questions. Below, you will find responses from Reiland. You can read Balster's , DeLong's  and Schulz's responses here.

On Tuesday Patch ran responses from the three candidates seeking the At-Large Council seat. They are: ,  and .

If you're interested in voting absentee, .

Paul Reiland

Why are you running for a seat on the Northfield City Council? 

Because I believe that the council could use the skills and experience of a local business person who is working in town from 9-9 each day.

What’s the most pressing issue facing Northfield and the City Council? 

A general lack of direction in regards to working with the business community and poor communication with the public.  

What is something you think the current Council has done well? 

I think the street reconstruction plan is going to work but it will take time to show results.  

What is something you think the current Council hasn’t done well? 

I have sat in on the council meetings.  These people have genuine motives and they work very hard but they simply don't seem to have the wisdom to see the unintended consequences of bad policy, haven't done a good job communicating with the public how they get from point a-z, and seemingly aren't able to create a winning job's strategy.  

What would you have tried to do differently? 

First of all the city staff has many good people.  I have worked with many of them but the city have a very poor reputation in the region towards business, especially towards development of any kind.  We deserve that reputation because we do not embrace elementary customer service skills at .  We need to streamline policy and planning but more important than that we need to bend over backwards at every level to make businesses feel welcome.  Many (voiceless) citizens are suffering because we do not have enough good-paying jobs in this local economy.  We need to be competitive with the surrounding communities to attract new businesses and to keep our current businesses from relocating and/or expanding to other communities like some many have.

Why should constituents vote for you in the Primary Election? What makes you a better choice than your opponents? 

One thing. I am the only candidate that have daily control over their schedule to be available to see the "policy at work".  In my view this is a necessary component for a council person.  There ought to be "checks and balances" in city government and if councilors are not present during the work day how can they really see clearly what is going on, where are the weaknesses in the system, etc. 

Anything else you would like to add? 

Just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to voice my concerns.  2 candidates will move forward to the election but I hope we have all learned something from each other and from our neighbors.  This is an historic time in our country.  It is a time where good leadership must stand up.  We can no longer stand at the sidelines and throw mud on our brothers and sisters we are running out of time..  We need to pull together and work together so we can get strong again.  Our government has become burdened with debt and a stagnating economy.  I believe that if many thousands of Northfielders rise up and work together and start making "stuff" again that we can emerge ever-stronger than we have ever been.  We cannot fear growth, nor change in fact we must plan for it.  We need to be "shovel-ready" in our expansion plans for our town. We must work to bring jobs right here.   

My wife and I have decided to put our roots down here.  We have had trials but the good people of Northfield have supported us and it's time that we give back for our children and their future as well as ours. 

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