Cam Winton

Information about mayoral candidate Cam Winton

By ericroper

October 21, 2013 — 4:03pm

Party: independent

Occupation: A senior counsel for Duke Energy. He was formerly the vice president and general counsel at a wind energy company called Outland Energy Services, LLC, now owned by Duke.

Education:

Winton is the only leading mayoral candidate calling for the mayor to have the power to appoint school board members, which would require a state law change.
He would like to end the so-called "last in, first out" policy that rewards teacher seniority, which would require a state law change, tie teacher pay to performance and impose longer school days and years.
He has said that the teacher's union "stands directly in the way" of key reforms (MinnPost).

Development:

Winton believes the city overregulates in the area of development. He has proposed that construction projects less than 10,000 square feet be absolved from obtaining a building permit.
He says the city should transition to "form-based" zoning, which focuses more on building exteriors and their relationship to neighboring properties, to replace to existing complex zoning code. The city is already slowly doing this.
He believes the permitting process should be eased to incentivize developers building housing at all price points, rather than just the more high-end areas.

Transit:

Winton is a fierce opponent of the city's plan to build a 3.2-mile, $200 million streetcar line along Nicollet Avenue. He has called instead for enhanced buses, a dramatically cheaper alternative that would improve the city's existing bus service.
Opposition to streetcars is representative of a larger Winton campaign theme of reducing city spending on what he calls "bells and whistles," while putting more focus on core city services like police, fire, plowing and paving.

Public Safety:

Winton has proposed hiring an additional 125 police officers using the savings generated by merging some county and city back-office functions.
Is a proponent of expanding the bike cop program, and supports putting body cameras on police officers to record their interactions with the public (Southwest Journal).

Taxes:

Winton says he can keep a lid on property taxes by not "funding things that are not priorities." He would try to rely less on unpredictable local government aid to fund core services, though he says he would also fight for local government aid at the Legislature (MinnPost).

Other:

Winton is a Republican, but running as an "inclusive" independent. He is fiscally restrained but socially moderate on issues like gay marriage and global warming.
He has likely held more press conferences than any other mayoral candidate. They have taken place inside a pothole, aboard a moving bus and beside a rented garbage truck.