New mayor is an old pro at city politics

Mike Kuehn, a North St. Paul City Council member for 18 years, was chosen in a special election. The previous mayor died in April.

By JEAN HOPFENSPERGER, Star Tribune

Last update: July 1, 2008 - 11:53 PM

North St. Paul elected its first new mayor in 30 years Tuesday night, when longtime City Council member Mike Kuehn garnered the most votes in a special mayoral election.

Kuehn, 57, was among 10 candidates vying for the job left vacant after longtime mayor Bill Sandberg died in April.

Kuehn, who had been acting mayor, will fill out the remainder of Sandberg's term, which runs through 2010.

"I'm humbled and honored by the support of the community," he said. "I will continue in Bill [Sandberg]'s tradition in terms of being greatly involved in the community. I'll be a hardworking mayor."

With 1,779 votes cast, Kuehn won 706, or 44 percent of the votes.

Candy Petersen, a special-education assistant and North St. Paul Parks and Recreation Board member, came in second place, with 314 votes or 20 percent of the vote.

Jan Walczak, a North St. Paul City Council member, came in third place with 269 votes, or 16 percent.

The election results, tabulated by the Ramsey County elections office, will be confirmed at a special City Council meeting today at 5 p.m.

Kuehn, the government relations coordinator for the Metropolitan Council, has a long history of community involvement in North St. Paul.

Besides serving on the City Council for 18 years, Kuehn has served on the Neighborhood Stability Task Force, a school district advisory committee and the North St. Paul Parks and Recreation Commission.

He attributed his victory to the network of people he has worked with over the years.

He has built a network as both a City Council member and volunteer in community athletics, schools, the environment and other areas. He said he had distributed flyers and literature to likely voters across the city.

"With a special election, you need to focus on likely voters," he said.

Kuehn said one of his top priorities would be downtown revitalization. "I'd like to start a master plan for downtown redevelopment so when the economy comes back, we'll have a plan in place," he said.

Other priorities include maintaining the city's neighborhoods and housing stock, he said, as well as crime-prevention programs.

"I want to continue working on neighborhood preservation and stability, with reasonable [housing] code enforcement and that type of thing,'' he said.

The new mayor also wants to focus on environmental preservation of such city assets as Silver Lake and the Southwood Nature Preserve.

Tuesday's voting was "slow but steady," said city elections clerk Bette Malm, who visited the four precincts throughout the day. North St. Paul has about 7,400 registered voters, she said. Voter turnout is about 75 percent during presidential elections, 10 to 15 percent for primaries. She expected Tuesday's results to be similar to the primaries.

The new mayor will be sworn into office at the July 15 City Council meeting.

For complete results, go to www.co.ramsey.mn.us/elections/index.htm.

Jean Hopfensperger • 651-298-1553