Welcome to the second episode of In Business with Almanac North and they said it wouldn't last.

I'm Ken Beller.

We're at Tuloo City Hall and we're in the city council chambers where the people we elect in the most recent election just held will represent us for their term.

Also in the room, this reserved spot is for the mayor, his administrative assistant, and a city official, usually the city clerk or other administrator.

All decisions made here affect all of us, just like the decisions made at county courouses in St.

Louis and Douglas County or in St.

Paul and Madison at our state capitals, also Washington DC.

Those decisions affect all of us, but they also affect business.

And that's why we're in a talk business with our newly elected officials here in Duth.

As they all say, as Bill Clinton would tell you, it's the economy, stupid.

And every politician worth their salt runs on economic development.

And that's what we'll ask them about.

What do they see as the future for economic development?

And what do they see as the state of business that is current exists in our region?

You know, the people back here make some very interesting decisions.

Now, certainly in Washington DC, they may talk about national politics, international politics.

Here at Duth City Council, it might be a sewer line extension.

Not a real fancy topic.

But what if that sewer line extension means tearing up the road in front of a person's business?

All of a sudden, economic development becomes possibly an economic hardship if that storefront is not easy to get to anymore.

That's why the decisions made here and at all levels of politics are so very important.

And that's why our special guests this evening will enlighten us about what they see as the future for small business, medium business, and large businesses in our region.

City Hall, County Courthouse, state capitals, our nation's capital.

The most important place in the room, though, is right here at the podium.

This is where you get to tell them what you think is important.

We'll find out more on In business with Almanac North.

Let's get started.

Welcome to In Business with Almanac North.

I'm Ken Beller.

Tonight, we're taking a closer look at the recent elections and what they mean for our region's businesses.

We'll sit down with newly elected city council members and a political science professor from UMD to learn about their new roles and how they plan to impact the local economy.

We'll also take a look at the new right to repair law and dig into some fun election history.

But first, we talked to Mayor Roger Reinert and he gave us his view of the upcoming year and the opportunities facing the council as it relates to economic development.

Hi everyone, I'm Mayor Roger Reinert uh city of Duth.

Uh welcome councilors Desatel and Johnson as well as councelor Clana who I know is not in the program tonight.

Um, you know, the work that we have to do together in this coming year really is about DUTH's next chapter.

You know, as we think about uh what arguably is our single biggest need in the community, it's housing.

It's housing at all the income levels.

It's housing in all the neighborhoods.

Uh, you know, we know from our recent Maxfield study that we need to um reach 9,000 or more housing units by the year 2035.

That's housing at scale, not 10 or 20 a year, but uh hundreds a year.

We know from our employers that they can't hire because we don't have the workforce and we don't have the workforce because we don't have the housing.

So, finding a location within our geographic boundaries is going to be key in order to meet that housing need.

And getting that inventory on market means that everything becomes more affordable for those who have existing homes or are looking to um buy or relocate to our community which we're increasingly see happening.

And then of course another thing that is really land related is focusing on developing our commercial tax base.

You know 34% of Duth's general fund revenue is local government aid money that we receive from the state of Minnesota and having served in the legislature it's the most political uh money out there and should we see a substantial cut in that we will see real reduction in city services.

So how do we account for that?

We grow our own tax base and in Minnesota commercial pays about double what residential does.

So when we grow our commercial tax base we not only help uh keep city revenues more stable so we can deliver on the services that our residents expect from us but also reduce the tax burden on our residential homeowners.

This is in business with Almanac North.

Thank you Mary Riner.

Join us now to talk more about recent elections and what it means for the local businesses and the communities we live in.

Jordan Johnson is with us.

He is Doo City Councelor at large elect.

Diane Dustala is with the Doo City Council in district number two.

And Cindy Rouely is a political science professor from UMD.

Dr.

Rudley and everyone thank you for joining us and we appreciate you being here.

I'm going to start with you uh councelor elect Dust and if you could u the mayor had said some nice things about uh economic development and one of the challenges being housing how there's jobs but we're having a hard time attracting the people that are going to fill those jobs because housing is difficult.

So as we look at the way this goes we've got emerging neighborhoods that are becoming very popular and very successful in Lakeside.

We have the Lincoln Park Craft District.

At the same time though, we have to have a vital downtown that's vibrant and alive and is it possible and how do we do it to have all of that?

Yeah, thanks for that question.

I mean I you I think of the city of Duth.

It's a 17 miles long and we're really a a city within many cities that that combined together and each of these separate little communities.

It's really important to have small businesses close by that meet the the basic services we need.

But downtown is where we connect socially, where our arts is, where our bigger uh businesses are, where tourists come, and where even folks from the region come.

So, they need to all connect closely and well, and we have some work to do downtown.

Um, but I'm optimistic.

Um, Council Johnson, um, business thrives on stability and, um, let's face it, we're not really in a stable time.

uh we like uh business would prefer uh at least a planned change or you know dependable change because change is inevitable of course but I'm wondering from your point of view what can the city of duth do and you as a city councelor to bring more stability perceived to our business community yeah I appreciate the question and we are living in uncertain times for sure but in those times there's also a lot of possibility that emerges and if we think about how we are talking about the current situation our current status.

Um, also let's look at our stakeholders.

Who are our stakeholders who are driving the economy?

Um, how can we build a long-term kind of environment and society of well-being and a culture of care within our community at this time?

And that drives the economy.

Sometimes we don't think about that those pieces around economic uh growth.

But when people are healthy and engaged and um being out and about in the community, that is what brings kind of fruitfulness into our economic uh revenue.

You are in the social services business and uh as a nonprofit.

Um do you think DUTH has a good nonprofit sector that can as you say what you just said uh about nurturing businesses?

DUTH has a phenomenal nonprofit sector in all areas of kind of the sectors that we need to be caring about and many of them work really well together having been in that kind of um field and still am in that field of practice and I think that also kind of is a testimony of how you come together particularly in these times of working together to figure out how to lean on each other also how do we co-create something that we want to see that might not have been there before so this is a time I think if we shift our frame of thinking to think what's really possible well for the city of Duth and what do we want to create um for our future generations that all speaks of course to the stability that I was talking about let's take a look at the election itself uh we're a little over a week uh past it but uh Dr.

Dr.

Rouely is here from UMD.

She's a political science professor.

And one of the things about this past election was that we had one of the highest turnouts as far as percentage of voters in any of the last three uh off-year elections, shall we say?

And Dr.

Ridley, my question to you now is uh why was that?

I think there was a couple of factors at play.

One is sitting at the other end of the table, we had two open seat races.

And whenever you have open seats, voters turn out because there's interest in all the candidates.

And the second is that you can't deny it was the right to repair bill.

It turned out a lot of voters that perhaps would not have voted regularly.

You know, voters who least likely to vote are voters who are younger, more transient, and those are exactly the people that probably had strong opinions about Rot to repair.

They did a wonderful job of grassroots organizing.

Don't you think they did do it a great job with it?

In many respects, I thought this has been a a very quiet election.

I mean, city elections are always different because they're door knocking and bean dinners and things like that, but this one in particular, and I think that, you know, that it probably benefited a lot of candidates in that, you know, the the right to repair groups also tended to support, you know, candidates that lean more favorably toward it.

And so, again, I I think it was a good grassroots organization and I think it was the turnout was excellent.

And whenever that happens, it's good.

Well, that of course is true.

in Duth's new right to repair has been passed overwhelmingly I might add.

So let's take a look at just what does that mean?

My name is Chloe Holloway.

Um I'm a renter in district 2 and I've been a member of DUTH tenants for about a year now.

Duth tenants is an organization of uh DUTH renters who you know are advocating for renters's rights and building renter power in Duth.

um right to repair got started first of all uh issue cutting um door knockocking and surveys to figure out what DUTH renters need the most um and through the dooring and the surveys we heard back that repairs are a huge huge issue in Duth right to repair passing means that we can take care of small issues like a leak in your kitchen pantry before they become health hazards or safety hazards so the landlord um they have two weeks to respond to our maintenance requests and then if nothing is done in those two weeks then we get to take care of it ourselves.

This is in business with Almanac North.

Thank you for joining us.

Going to go back to you uh Dr.

Richley.

Um is there anything we can take from the election here in our region?

Let's just expand beyond duth a little bit but that we could maybe transfer into something that we might be looking at for say the midterms next year.

Yeah.

I mean, one of the issues in this election is affordability and and rights of citizens.

I mean, I think that a lot of people feel like their voices aren't being heard, particularly in regards to the economy and prices.

And I I think that was an important issue and I think that it's something that Yeah, I think that if I was running in a midterm election, I'd certainly be concerned about it.

Another thing, and it wasn't so evident in this election because, you know, it was two open seats, but incumbents might have a tough time We'll look for that next year and we'll uh see if that uh passes as it says.

I'm going to turn to our uh elected city councilors now, councilors elect.

And um obviously the name of this program is in business with Almanac North.

So u I'll start with you uh Jordan.

What do you think is uh something that you can bring to the city council or that you would like to see the city do that would help economic development?

And you can take any level you want whether it's a small business or a medium or a large uh international.

Yeah, I think I think we have all those facets of our uh in our economy and in our area in regards to international and medium and small local businesses.

And so for me, I really want to lift up and leverage our local businesses.

I think there's a lot of opportunities particularly in the downtown area where we can kind of help local businesses thrive.

Um be part of future storefronts, get people out walking on the streets.

And I think also taking a assetbased community development approach is an important way to start to think around how do we build out um lean into and looking within what we have here in our community that we can kind of build upon.

I think also we have I asked the question what do we want to attract to the city of Duth?

Who are the businesses we want to attract the investors and how are those investors going to invest in our community along the way?

And so those are the pieces that I think I can bring forward um and provide a different perspective in thinking around health is really important to community development, right?

When people are healthy, they're out engaged and being part of the community.

Um so well-being and kind of looking at those uh through those lens is really kind of what I can bring forward.

Councelor Johnson is of course a at large counselor.

Um councelor Diane Datel is a second district counselor elect and just happens to be in my district.

So, I'm going to listen real closely to what you say here, but uh if you could elaborate on that, too.

What do you think that uh in your new role as a council person and also as a council in large, the whole group, can the city do to attract more business or nurture the ones that are here?

Exactly.

I think you know this we have to think about what the role of city government is and one of the roles is permitting and zoning and making sure those processes are are well connected and communication is really key and I tend to be an overcommunicator rather than an undercommunicator.

Um I think that the city needs to uh have more working groups that work across our private sectors, the chamber, uh Apex, some of the other groups that are really working on economic development and making sure we're talking more often.

And on top of that, as we're talking with within each other and thinking about new uh economies and new uh industries that want to come into town and are interested, um we need to be working on the housing and the child care issue.

And at the same time, we need to be talking to our communities and informing them as much as we can about what we know when we know it as we go instead of any having any last minute items come up because moving forward is is uh really going to be crucial and this is a community of folks that just want to stay engaged and want to understand.

Uh I I'm excited about some of the new possibilities of economies moving in related to renewable energy because climate's going to be important related to new technologies such as robotics.

Um I have talked to folks at Apex and the council the chamber uh about there is a lot of folks that are interested in in coming here and expanding.

Uh what we need to do is uh focus on the housing from a city's perspective.

Those are all very good points and of course uh there is some work to be done but DUTH also has a big base of good things that are already here and I'm going to ask each one of our counselors for just one good example of if you're talking to a business leader and you're proing Duth as a place to expand what's the topic number one that you would point out and I'll start with you councelor like Jordan I think um wow that's I know it's a tough question it's a tough question but I think one thing that duth really offers is we have a phenomenal outdoor kind of recreational kind of um component that attracts many people to our area.

I think also we have a really we're a union town and so we have a lot of focus around supporting our unions and supporting our workers and workforce.

And so if we can elevate kind of thinking through how do we um build upon um the the climate resiliency uh opportunities here um we can really foster a really robust economy moving forward.

Thank you very much for that.

Now to help you both plan for your new role on the city council, we talked with Doo City Clerk Alyssa Denim about the onboarding process for new counselors such as the two of you.

Um I am Melissa Denham and I am the city clerk for the city of Duth.

When a new city councelor is elected, we in our office reach out to them.

We get their contact information uh to get them access to the building and get them a parking pass.

We then set up a orientation with each counselor where they will meet it attorneys.

They'll talk to our office.

Uh the mayor will welcome them.

We'll walk through chambers and we'll kind of walk through a normal meeting, teach them the technology and uh give them opportunity to answer questions.

I did ask Alyssa if there was a secret handshake or some kind of initiation and she said, "I can't tell you."

So, I go to you now.

Uh counselors, um how does it make you feel to be uh newly elected?

How do you feel about your new role?

How do you feel?

Start with you, sir.

Um I'm very I'm excited.

Yeah, I'm excited to be part of a city council.

I think we have a really dynamic uh council with different perspectives and I think through that we can kind of generate some great ideas um foster some kind of relationships and build uh relationships with businesses and um local leaders in our community.

Um so I look forward to it even when it can be a trying time.

I think for me it's also about again what's the possibility ahead and it's the frame of mind that I'm going into it that I'm really excited to kind of foster for the future generations ahead.

Councelor Le, how do you feel about that?

Well, I'm absolutely honored at uh the turnout and the folks that uh voted me into district 2 and I'm excited uh to start.

I there there are areas you have more to learn about than others, but um I can say I come in skipping a little bit because I have worked with the city.

Um I was the first natural resources coordinator and so I understand policy, I understand planning and those processes well and that's going to help kickstart me.

Um you know the goal of really trying to bring folks together around the table with the expertise and knowledge so that we can really listen and learn and come up with solutions together as a whole council.

I'm excited to work with a council that has a lot of areas of expertise and building that trust and relationship so that we can solve problems together.

Thank you very much uh councelor Dosatel and also councelor Johnson and of course uh Dr.

uh Cindy Rudley.

Thank you all for being with us.

With new leaders in place, local businesses may see changes in priorities and policies.

But let's shift gears and explore some of the fun election history from yesterday.

Thanks again to our guests for sharing their thoughts about the most recent election and what it means for businesses that are affected by the decisions our government at all levels make.

It's interesting that in this off-year election, voter turnout has continued to increase.

This shows a growing interest in the job governments do and the people we entrust to do that work.

We know that elections have consequences and some of them are totally unexpected.

Like being able to buy alcohol on election day.

Back in the day in Minnesota, it was illegal to buy a drink on election day until after the polls closed at 8:00.

I can tell you the lines formed at 7:45.

This is, by the way, the 40th anniversary of a law passed in 1985 that opened up bars and liquor stores on election day.

South Carolina held on to its no booze on election day law until 2014, reversing a ban that began in 1882.

And until recently, Kentucky was another hold out statewide, though some counties in the bluegrass state and elsewhere down south are still dry all the time, like Moore County in Tennessee.

Ironically, that's the home of the Jack Daniels Distillery.

Ah, but it always wasn't that way.

Drinking on election day was once encouraged.

In fact, it was a campaign tradition.

In 1755, a Virginia man ran for the House of Burgesses.

The House was the best representation we got in the days of British rule.

He lost on his first try and made a mental note that he hadn't given away enough free booze to win.

So, in 1758, when he tried again, he spent 39 sterling.

That's about 50 bucks.

the entire cost of his campaign, by the way, to buy 160 gallons of wine and liquor.

And this time he won.

That was George Washington's very first election victory.

Why do we vote on the second Tuesday of November?

Well, let's start with why November?

Well, back then, America was an agrarian society, and November was the least busy month on the farm.

Then, why Tuesday?

Back then, voting was done at the county seat.

This meant that some of the white male land owners who had the right to vote would have to travel some distance to exercise their franchise.

For many, it would mean traveling on Sunday, ignoring the Sabbath.

So, voting on Tuesday meant that you could go to church on Sunday and travel on Monday.

The second Tuesday was because another reason for business owners.

You know, that first week of a new month meant that a business owner was settling accounts from the previous month.

The Constitution spells out it is the right of each state to set its own rules for voting.

Most of the states had land ownership as a determining factor as to whether or not you could vote.

However, right from the start in 1776, New Jersey allowed women to vote if they too owned at least 50 pounds worth of land.

That meant wealthy women, mostly widows, could vote.

The law was repealed in 1807 and women were forced to wait over a hundred years to vote again in New Jersey.

Women's suffrage began with a convention in 1849.

The 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote, was still 71 years in the future in 1920.

In 1869, Wyoming, in an effort to attract more settlers, allowed women to vote.

It was a huge controversy in 1890 when Wyoming asked for statehood because by then there was now a national ban on women voting.

There was a huge push back against joining the union and Wyoming almost passed on being the 44th state to allow women to vote.

During reconstruction following the Civil War, African-Americans were given the franchise, but only for men.

The 15th Amendment, though, was quickly corrupted with a myriad of laws resulting in voter suppression.

Many states, and you know who you are, enacted requirements for literacy, property ownership, and prohibitive pole taxes.

The 24th Amendment in 1964 was supposed to put an end to those specifics, but some new tactics are being explored that critics claim are just updated versions of Jim Crow era laws and voter suppression.

One last election day quirk.

Thanks to the then governor of Texas and future President George W. Bush, it is legal to vote from outer space.

A law was passed in 1997 and it allows astronauts to vote from outer space.

It is the ultimate absentee ballot and would also cover ET Yoda vote I must captain Kirk and the entire cast of Avatar.

The most important thing about election day laws is that we have the right to vote.

Think of all the drastic changes this country has been through.

Every one of them was either caused by voting or repaired by voting.

Freedom is one person, one vote.

A nation voting is freedom for all.

This is in business with Almanac North.

Before we wrap up tonight in business, it's time to take a quick look at some of the top business stories making headlines across our region this week.

First, in Duth, Spectrum has donated $5,000 to the Duth Honor Guard, the 54 member volunteer group that performs military funeral honors, flag presentations, and other ceremonies for veterans.

The support will help cover their uniforms, transport, and other costs.

Especially important since government stipens for military funerals were discontinued in 1920 2023 rather.

In Cloquet, Krauss Anderson construction has broken ground on a new $18.9 million fire and ambulance headquarters for the Clo Area Fire District.

The 35,700 ft facility will feature eight stall apparatus bay, offices, dormitories, a training tower, and a fitness room.

Construction is expected to be completed by December of 2026.

In Minnesota, manufacturers are raising concerns about the state's business climate.

A 2025 Enterprise Minnesota survey found that many businesses are struggling with paid family and medical leave, rising costs, and uncertainty around taxes and tariffs.

Workforce challenges remain high in the Duth area and across the Iron Range with many manufacturers reporting difficulty attracting and retaining skilled employees.

And a new federal bill will shake up Minnesota's emergency hemp derived THC market.

The funding legislation includes provisions that will effectively ban many lowd dose THC products including edibles and beverages.

Businesses say this could disrupt supply chains, force retailers to pull products from their shelves, and threaten millions in tax revenue.

Small processors, breweries, and retailers could be hit particularly hard.

The THC measure was part of the bill that reopened the federal government.

It doesn't take effect until 2027, and lawmakers are now lining up, especially here in Minnesota, to strike down the provision.

I'm Ken Buer.

Thanks for watching In Business with Almanac North.

If you missed any parts of tonight's show, you can always watch at pbs.org or listen on Mondays at 5:30 p.m.

on the North 1033.

We'll see you next time.

And in the meanwhile, let's take care of each other.