2020

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Burnsville water towerOne of Burnsville's water towers viewed from County Road 11 in 2019.

What's on the menu for the 2020 budget?The Burnsville Bulletin, Fall 2019 announces scheduled Budget Meetings and highlights of the budget.

Navigating the Burnsville Budget Road MapThe Burnsville Bulletin Fall 2020:

A look at the city budgeting process during COVID 19.

Burnsville's Maintenance CenterLocated on McAndrews Road and County Road 11. Photo 2020 with new signage.

Burnsville City HallA central business card location has been added to the entry at City Hall, 2020.

Chris KlavetterChris Klavetter candidate for mayor 2020.

Chris Klavetter runs for mayor 2020Campaign 2020, Chris Klavatter runs for mayor.

City of Burnsville vehiclesExamples of City vehicles 2019 - 2020.

Election Day 2020Election Day 2020 in Burnsville - photo from Godan Nambudiripad.

Dan GustafsonVote Dan Gustafson for City Council 2020. The undated sign can be re-used for other council elections.

Elizabeth KautzElizabeth Kautz runs for re-election as mayor 2020.

She was elected Mayor in 1994 and re-elected in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016.

Chris Klavetter runs for mayor 2020Campaign 2020 for Mayor, Chris Klavetter.

Burnsville's Maintenance CenterLocated on McAndrews Road and County Road 11. Photo 2020 with new signage.

City of Burnsville signThe wooden City of Burnsville sign is updated 2019.

Burnsville City HallAdditional signage has been placed on the wall at the entry desk at City Hall with Burnsville's new theme line...you belong here.

Road construction 2020The City has scheduled April 2020 to Early November 2020 as Construction season for 2020 street improvements. Photo April 23, 2020 during pandemic. Burnsville Historical Society photo.

Dakota County Recycling Center - Recycling ZoneDakota County Recycling Center located in Eagan.

Chris Klavetter running for mayor of Burnsville 2020A campaign sign for Chris Klavetter, running for Burnsville Mayor 2020.

Dakota County offers a range of servicesPublished in the Burnsville Community Guide, Sun/Thisweek News years 2020 - 2021.

Elizabeth Kautz seeks ninth term as mayorMay 1, 2020 Sun/Thisweek News reports:

Kautz

There’s too much unfinished business to stop now, said Kautz, 73, who was first elected mayor in 1994 and has been re-elected seven times.

“When I start something I can’t walk away from it,” she said, naming COVID-19 response and redeveloping the Burnsville Center retail area among the top priorities of the moment.

“I love this city, and I love the people of this city,” Kautz said. “I still have a lot of energy. I still have a lot of work to be done.”

In an interview two weeks ago Kautz said she’s keeping an eye on federal relief and grant funding that may be available to cities for pandemic response. The city is still working to ascertain the impact on its finances, she said.

“There are things that I should be, as a mayor, staying on top of, because it has a direct impact,” she said. If you’re not, and if you’re not at the table, you don’t have a voice. ... One of the benefits of being in office is the people in Washington know who you are, especially when you’re past president of the Conference of Mayors.”

Kautz was president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors for an extended term in 2009 and 2010.

She traces Burnsville Center redevelopment efforts to her own initiative in 2015 to sign the city up for a Bloomberg Mayors Challenge award. Though the city didn’t win a Bloomberg grant, it has crafted a redevelopment plan for the County Road 42 retail area and sought without success yet, special state legislation to create a tax-increment financing district for the area.

“We have the plan and all the regulatory tools in place,” Kautz said. “But we still need to have our economic toolbox in place.”

Her tenure includes the evolution of the Heart of the City redevelopment district, which she said used to generate only about $200,000 in annual property taxes.

“And now you’ve got about a million dollars in property tax,” she said. “Not a bad investment.”

The Ames Center, the city-owned performing arts center Kautz championed, has finished its last two years with operating budgets in the black, she said. That took years to achieve after the $20 million center opened in 2009, opposed by a number of residents.

“Remember, it opened in the recession,” Kautz said. “Oh, my God, do I know that. And here they are.”

Other accomplishments during her tenure include creation of the infrastructure trust fund, securing an AAA bond rating and completion of the Highway 13-County Road 5 interchange, Kautz said.

Council Member Dan Gustafson seeks fourth term.May 1, 2020 Sun/Thisweek News reports:

Gustafson

Gustafson, 67, was elected to the council in 2004 and 2008 and again in 2016. His time away included dealing with a personal bankruptcy stemming from his former freight logistics business.

In 2016 he said he ran on restarting economic development in Burnsville, including the boom in new apartment construction. Prior councils lacked working majorities needed to approve zoning measures allowing new apartments, but that changed when Gustafson and Schulz were elected in 2016.

“We were falling behind all of our neighbors,” Gustafson said. “All of our neighbors had all of these state-of-the-art apartments, and we had none at that time.”

Now a number of projects have been built or are in the works.

“The city’s changed a lot,” said Gustafson, a Realtor. “Our economic and cultural demographic has changed. We have quite a few more people here that want to rent, including a lot of boomers that are selling their houses and they’re not buying another house — they want to rent a place. A lot of them used to leave Burnsville because they didn’t want to rent what we had.”

The new rentals have prodded owners of some older complexes to improve their properties, Gustafson said.

Burnsville’s new 2040 comprehensive plan lays out a denser development blueprint with more mixed uses, Gustafson said. Density is a tax-base booster that helps hold down taxes on existing properties, he said.

In his current term the city has become more “customer-friendly,” softening its interactions with residents on property code violations and removing costly regulations for trash enclosures at commercial buildings, he said.

“I like what I’m doing,” Gustafson said. “I like the city, and there’s a lot of work left to do here. There’s going to be a lot of work rebuilding after this (COVID-19 pandemic) is done.”

He was on the council that cut the city budget and staff because of the Great Recession.

“A lot of institutional knowledge can come in handy as these decisions are being made,” Gustafson said. “I’ve got that. Elizabeth has that. We’ve been down this road.”

Council Member Cara Schulz seeks second termMay 1, 2020 statement published in Sun/Thisweek News:

Schulz

Schulz has been at the forefront of the council’s 3-2 majority directing city staff to reopen playgrounds it had begun closing because of COVID-19. That controversial direction was given during an April 14 work session and reaffirmed during an April 21 work session.

“The momentum is to start opening things up, not closing things down,” Schulz said in an interview between the two sessions. “That’s where the momentum needs to be.”

She said she welcomes views from closure advocates but said playground use shows that “quite a few people” are “equally concerned that this is a city service they still need and they’re utilizing.”

Schulz said she continually looks for “pain points between city residents and our city code” and ways to eliminate them.

“I have been doing that in my first term,” she said. “It’s definitely something I would continue in my second term if voters look at me and say, Yep, we want to do that again.”

She raised the issue of pet licensing, “which no one was doing,” and which the council eliminated.

Building height limits have been lifted except in single-family residential areas, she said.

She pushed for elimination of costly requirements for commercial trash enclosures and for allowing residents to keep trash and recycling bins on the sides of their houses, not fully screened from view.

City inspectors spent an inordinate amount of time addressing residential trash violations and in some cases issuing exemptions because bins couldn’t be screened on the property, Schulz said.

“Also, trash cans are the No. 1 complaint we received in the community, and it was often used by neighbors who don’t like another neighbor as a way to retaliate against them,” she said.

Schulz, 50, a candidate recruiter for the national Libertarian Party, has broken with council colleagues to vote against every annual city budget and levy. She says she doesn’t support property tax increases.

Schulz acknowledged that could be construed as not supporting the full range of city services Burnsville residents evidently enjoy.

“I think it’s absolutely fair to critique either position on this,” she said. “Part of the strength of our council is that we do have different views on things. You get the best result by having opposing views and discussing those though.”

It’s not “the city’s money,” it’s “every resident’s money,” she said. “And we have to be really careful and trustworthy with that. Situations like this (COVID-19), black swan events like this, are exactly why you have to be so careful. You never know what’s going to come up. So pushing for fiscal responsibility, yeah, I’ll continue to do that.”

Peparing for winter Burnsville Public Works 2019 - 2020Burnsville's Public Works equipment prepares for winter 2019 - 2020. With a major winter storm bearing down and expecting to drop 7-10 inches of snow on Burnsville between Friday and Saturday afternoon followed by high winds and dangerous wind chills, the Burnsville Public Works Department is in the final stages of developing their response plan. Photo compliments of the City.

Absentee mania marks 2020 electionOctober 23, 2020 - Burnsville Eagan Sun/Thisweek News:

With the 2020 pandemic, the rush to absentee voting reached a crescendo...

Burnsville approves budget, 4 percent levy hike 2020December 11, 2020 Burnsville Eagan Sun/Thisweek News:

Burnsville Council debates raising taxes during a pandemic. The City Council voted 4 - 1 to approve the 2021 budget with a 4% levy increase...

Initial Election ResultsNovember 3, 2020 - St. Paul Pioneer Press:

Incumbent Elizabeth B. Kautz leads with 56.6 percent of the vote for Burnsville mayor with 17 out of 17 precincts reporting. Competitor Chris Klavetter follows with 42.5 percent of the vote. Write-ins make up 1 percent.

Cara Schulz and Dan Gustafson are both incumbents to the Burnsville City Council and are running unopposed for the two city council seats. Gustafson had 50.6 percent of the vote and Schulz had 47.8 percent of the vote. Write-ins make up 1.7 percent.

All results are unofficial until they are certified by local boards of elections. This year, many counties may have a backlog of absentee ballots to count, so complete results could be delayed. Also, state officials plan to count all ballots postmarked by Election Day but received later. Those have yet to be counted, and they may be subject to a court challenge.

Kautz ran for her ninth consecutive term as Burnsville mayor this year, and 2020 marked the second time she’s run against an opponent since 1994. Klavetter, a St. Paul firefighter, is running as a libertarian. Part of Klavetter’s platform calls for the immediate funding for EMS and fire services and for an audit of all Burnsville ordinances.

Gustafson and Schulz are both incumbents to the Burnsville City Council and are running unopposed for the two city council seats. Schulz was elected to the council in 2016 and Gustafson was elected to the council in 2005, 2008 and again in 2016.

Two other candidates, M. Chime’re Taylor and Sheldon Beilke withdrew their applications on June 4.

Burnsville mayor has challenger in November 2020June 12, 2020 - Burnsville Eagan Sun/Thisweek News.

In the upcoming election Chris Klavetter will run against Elizabeth Kautz for mayor...

Mall, landfill goals face challenges at Capitol 2020December 18, 2020 Burnsville Eagan Sun/Thisweek News:

A daunting web of politics and policy will confront the city of Burnsville as it continues to seek a tax law to spur redevelopment of the Burnsville Center area and pursue its preferred cleanup plan for the Freeway Landfill and dump...

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