Leadership of county's bigger cities is in flux

Four of Washington County's five largest cities -- Woodbury, Oakdale, Forest Lake and Stillwater -- have mayor's races in the upcoming elections.

Two of those contested races, in Stillwater and Oakdale, include incumbents. The other two cities will definitely end up with new mayors because the incumbents are not running.

In Woodbury, six candidates have stepped forward to replace Bill Hargis, who is stepping down after 17 years.

The last time Woodbury had a new mayor, Bill Clinton was a fresh face in the White House, Eastern Europe was still making the final transition from Soviet dominance and the city of nearly 60,000 had just one-third as many people as it does today.

Just as Hargis presided over incredible growth, his six would-be successors -- Mary Giuliani Stephens, Rachel Homuth, Nicholas Kiecker, Eddie Marcus, Art McCloskey and William (Tom) Owens -- have cited building on that success of continued, controlled economic development as a priority.

They're coming after the job from a wide range of backgrounds:

• Giuliani Stephens is an attorney who is stepping down from the City Council to run.

• Kiecker is a college student who works at the Woodbury 10 movie theatre.

• Marcus is a homemaker and former Veterans Affairs counselor.

• McCloskey has owned Art's Expert Appliance for the past 12 years, and he has another 22 years of experience in the restaurant business.

• Owens owns an independent insurance agency.

Forest Lake also will be getting a new mayor after Stev Stegner opted not to run again after four years in office. Retired Army veteran Kevin Grinnell, attorney Chris Johnson and City Council Member Jackie McNamara are running for the post.

In Stillwater, the race is a rematch from 2006, when Harycki nosed out City Council Member Dave Junker. Results were similarly close in last summer's primary, in which Junker garnered the most votes in the three-candidate field.

Sarrack has been mayor since 1998. He faces a challenge from Kenneth Heuer, Marty Jurgensen and Dave Rubbelke.