Metro briefs: Hopkins mayor loses seat

Voters in Hopkins elected a new mayor Tuesday, ousting an incumbent who withstood recall efforts during his tenure as a City Council member.

Patrick Hanlon, director of Environmental Services for the city of Minneapolis, won the seat with nearly 59% of votes, while Mayor Jason Gadd garnered 19%. Samuel Stiele, chair of the Hopkins Planning & Zoning Commission, won 22% of votes.

Hanlon has deep ties to Hopkins, where his family for years ran the now-shuttered Boston Garden restaurant on Main Street.

"Let's make the next decade in Hopkins one of the best in our already wonderful history," Hanlon wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday night.

Gadd was appointed mayor in 2018 after his predecessor, Molly Cummings, was appointed to the Metropolitan Council. The two were targets of recall efforts — never formalized — by residents upset over traffic bypassing the official Hwy. 169 detour and instead being routed through downtown Hopkins.

Despite those efforts, Gadd was reelected as mayor in 2019.

Gadd was first elected in to the City Council in 2011 and now plans to step away from city government. He said he looks forward to working with Hanlon through the transition.

West St. Paul officials are planning to limit how much space Robert Street businesses can allocate for parking in an effort to make the corridor more pedestrian-friendly.

An initial version of the proposed ordinance, which would allow no more than half of businesses' Robert Street frontage to be dedicated to parking, passed Oct. 25. A public hearing and final vote are scheduled for Nov. 8, and Mayor Dave Napier said he expects the measure to pass.

"The whole idea is to allow for more flexibility for the businesses," he said.

Napier called the changes part of the city's "vision for the future" and said fully developed cities must "get creative" to adapt as urban planning ideas shift.

"We're excited about the change," he said.

The public can weigh in on a proposal to add fines to the Ramsey County Public Health Department's continuum of penalties for business license violations.

It's a change from the current system, which makes all transgressions punishable as a misdemeanor. The County Board will hold a public hearing at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the council chambers of the Ramsey County Courthouse.

If passed, the change would allow the county to issue an administrative citation for a public health violation instead of a misdemeanor, with fines ranging from $100 to $1,000 per violation. The county still could choose to issue a misdemeanor citation or take more aggressive action, including license revocation.

The county licenses nearly 2,900 businesses, including about 850 suburban restaurants and grocery stores, 185 public swimming pools and 27 hotels, as well as manufactured home parks and solid waste haulers. It also licenses 1,700 businesses or facilities that generate hazardous waste, which range from dentists' offices to large manufacturing plants. Licenses include a variety of rules governing signage, hand washing, food preparation, cleanliness, record keeping and proper waste disposal.