New Department of Safety and Inspections director has old St. Paul pedigree

Angie Wiese is St. Paul's new director of the Department of Safety and Inspections (DSI). But, while only 40, she's got Old St. Paul cred. She's not only worked in the department for 16 years, but her father and grandfather also worked for the city.

Her parents are from St. Paul — Frogtown and the East Side. And her father was a St. Paul fire captain.

Wiese earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and a master's degree in public administration from Hamline University.

Hired as a fire protection engineer, Wiese was fire safety manager when she was tapped as interim director in January. In May, she was named to lead a 150-employee department that administers a dizzying array of programs — from building inspections to animal control. DSI was recently tasked with administering St. Paul's new rent control ordinance.

Eye On St. Paul recently chatted with Wiese about her background and her goals to simplify and streamline what can seem like byzantine regulations for residents and businesses. This interview was edited for length.

Q: Your background is in fire safety. Did you set out to lead the entire department?

A: I had no intention of going after the role permanently. But I told people it would be silly to say never because I'm about to do it. [Now] I tell people it's the best job I never knew that I wanted.

A: I really enjoyed being closer to the work, which meant being closer to the field work. But I also realized that I really enjoyed being asked to the table for the important meetings, for the important considerations — the important choices and part of the decision-making process.

Q: How is the skill set different (leading the department) compared to what you were doing before?

A: It's still the same skill set, there's just a whole new peer group [city department directors] and they're managing all of their departments and much larger budgets and much larger staffs. I had 27 FTEs in fire safety, not a small amount, and a $2 million budget. Now it's much larger.

Q: What's your budget now?

A: Our budget is in the $20 million range.

A: Range is a good word for it. We cover over 170 chapters of the St. Paul legislative code. Some of them are very obvious safety codes — like making sure people have working smoke alarms. But sometimes people have a hard time making a connection. Like licensure of short-term rentals, [such as] VRBO and Airbnb. That's also safety related.

Sometimes, [the connections to safety] are really obvious, [such as] property maintenance. We know that less well-maintained areas tend to have more fires, more crime. So, there is a tie to livability issues and other related things.

Q: [Planning and Economic Development Director] Nicolle Goodman recently said equity is a goal of her job. How does equity relate to the work you're doing?

A: I've taken a deep dive into different sections — we've done fire safety; we've done licensing and we've done code enforcement. And so, we've implemented certain things — some of it is universal. It doesn't just help with an equity lens, but it helps everybody.

Like creating our documents in plain language. That doesn't just help a customer who has a low level of English reading ability, but everybody. Every decision we make should be looked at through an equity lens.

Q: The two people you've added for the rent stabilization ordinance, what is their role?

A: They're answering day-to-day questions, from customers and from residents who are concerned or want to ask if their landlord did the right thing. We have received roughly 250 [complaints] since the program started [in May].

Q: Do you want the people you hire to come from the fields they inspect?

A: Yeah, but we're also trying to grow our own. One of the primary things that we do is education. Before we do anything else, we need to educate, educate, educate. We love hiring educators because they're adept at talking to people and taking complicated things and breaking it down.

Q: Your dad was a firefighter [he died in 2020]. What did you learn from him?

Q: Where do you see yourself in five years?