In debate, mayor pleads as opponent criticizes her

After her debate opponent pecked away at her for an hour, characterizing her as the head of a City Council that is neither listening to its constituents nor telling them enough, Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautz on Wednesday delivered an extraordinary televised appeal.

"I love this community," she said. "I love the people in this community. I've dedicated my life -- and I have only one life to live -- to the city of Burnsville."

Next year's president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, provided she can hold her own seat, was taking part in a broadcast debate that will run and rerun on local cable TV in the weeks before the Nov. 4 election.

"People talk about 'respect,'" she said. "We value our citizens and their input. ... We may not always agree with some things brought forth, but most of the time we do agree."

Seated beside her, challenger Jerry Willenburg was unmoved, and he delivered a stinging summation.

"I am hearing one message loud and clear," he said. "People are sick and tired -- angry, in fact -- at a city government that is not listening to what they have to say. ... This mayor has been in office a long time. I don't drive the same car I drove 14 years ago. I don't have the same job or the same house I had 14 years ago. And I don't want the same mayor I had 14 years ago."

Although the structure of the debate allowed them little chance to drill into the details, a big point of contention was Kautz's taste for what Willenburg described as "grand new adventures" -- projects such as the city's new downtown, known as the Heart of the City, with its centerpiece, a publicly financed performing arts center now in the midst of construction.

For her part, Kautz sought to push the discussion into new opportunities open to the city. Among them: claiming the Minnesota River as a community amenity lined with trails, and redeveloping river-flats areas along Interstate 35W as a gateway area.

"We've worked with all the business owners in that area, in a very protracted process," she said. "People talk about 'communication,' 'respect.' We took a long time to talk to them all. Some don't like the rezoning, but all realize we need to look forward" and respect the desire of the community for a greatly expanded tax base and what Kautz called a new "entrance to Burnsville from the north."

The mayoral campaign is the city's marquee race this year, with Willenburg looking to present a stiff challenge; he gained a handful more votes than Kautz did in the Sept. 9 primary, which also featured two other candidates.

Two council seats, one of them an open seat, also are contested, and the three candidates for those seats also took part in the debate.

Incumbent Dan Gustafson, a Kautz ally, defended the city's direction, while challengers Michael Esch and Mary Sherry offered critiques. Both, for instance, questioned the City Council's practice of not televising so-called "work sessions."

Gustafson defended the practice, saying that developers like to get a preliminary read from council members on their ideas before investing too much money in a concept that will fail.

"The public is present and the press is present," he said, but it's a more informal forum for ideas not yet totally firmed up.