St. Joseph needs a new mayor

I had the opportunity to attend the St. Joe mayoral debate between Mayor Rick Schultz and Councilmember Kelly Beniek at St. Ben’s last week.

The current mayor’s disdain for students and disrespect for women and people of color were clear to me. He introduced himself using a sexist joke about how living with a household of women gives him very little bathroom space.

When asked about helping students to feel more safe in St. Joe, he questioned why anyone would feel unsafe, then announced a plan to install surveillance cameras downtown to monitor students. When asked how students could get move involved in the city, he said “I don’t think you need to be part of government. Government is a lot of effort. There are many nonprofits like the Lions Club, Jaycees and Kennedy Elementary where you can make a difference.”

Evidently he didn’t care that the students in the room were political science majors, McCarthy Center leaders and student senators. He happens to be past president of the Lions Club.

Perhaps most telling, he decried St. Joe’s position as the sixth-highest ranking city in Minnesota of non-taxable property parcels, calling out CSB, the monastery and churches for bringing down tax revenue for the city and overburdening residents. He complained that students use city services without paying. This is false, as both CSB and the Benedictine Sisters make large, voluntary annual gifts to the city for this exact reason. He admitted he was the author behind a failed motion to increase a city sales tax to make up the “revenue lost to non-paying parcels.”

Schultz’s history of assessing the college and monastery special fees for curbs, gutters and street lights has even resulted in a lawsuit from CSB that the city settled. Across all these tax claims, Schultz fails to note the increased property tax revenue from hundreds of employees who own homes in St. Joe and choose to live here because of these large employers.

He also misses the obvious: students and employees spend a lot of money at St. Joe businesses, who are the real driver of financial success the city can claim. Schultz closed his debate comments by noting that he has the history and knowledge to be mayor, a post he has held for 12 years. That’s exactly why he needs to go. Bennies and Johnnies deserve better than a mayor who thinks he knows better than them what they need to feel included in St. Joe.