Three contenders vie for open seat on Dakota County Board

A state legislator, an accountant and an environmental activist are vying for a spot on the Dakota County Board.

But first, Joe Atkins, Greg Buck and Holly Jenkins have to get through the primary election.

Two candidates will go on to the general election in November, and one will represent District 4 — which includes parts of Inver Grove Heights, Eagan and Rosemount — on the seven-member County Board.

With Board Chairwoman Nancy Schouweiler retiring at the end of the year, the District 4 seat is up for grabs for the first time since 1999. Elections in three other districts this year all include incumbents.

Of those going after Schouweiler's seat, only Atkins, 50, has previously run for office.

The DFL legislator and former Inver Grove Heights mayor has faced criticism for apparent conflicts of interest. Early this year, it came to light that his children received scholarships from the nonprofit organization he runs.

If elected, Atkins would join two former Republican legislators — Chris Gerlach and Mary Liz Holberg — on the board.

"I have a really good history of being able to set aside the partisan politics to get things done," he said. "So I think that transition is going to be quite straightforward."

Door-knocking across District 4 during the past several months, the issues residents have raised most often are property taxes, public safety and Metropolitan Council involvement in the county, Atkins said.

He's also been hearing about parks — specifically Lebanon Hills Regional Park, where trail paving and plans for greenways have drawn an outcry from Dakota County residents in recent years.

Concerns about the future of Lebanon Hills are what spurred Buck and Jenkins to get involved in local government and, eventually, to run for office.

Both said that, in trying to find out more about board decisions regarding the park, they were frustrated by the lack of information available to the public.

In the wake of the Lebanon Hills controversy, Jenkins, 51, founded the nonprofit organization Wilderness in the City to get information out to residents.

If elected, she said, she would be a voice both for natural resources issues and government transparency, work to organize town halls, improve the county website and record more meetings so people can view them online.

Buck, 64, has similar ideas for making the board's inner workings more visible, including moving the time and location of public hearings so more people can attend.

He also wants to coordinate quarterly listening sessions and send out e-mail blasts to constituents with information about goings-on at the county — efforts to both build trust and increase involvement in local government.

"I believe that this is the most important office, ironically, that no one pays attention to," he said. "I think we do what we can in whatever arena we choose, and this is the arena that I chose — a local arena where I think that I could have an impact."