Shannon Fiecke of the Shakopee Valley News reports:

As a 22-year veteran of the Prior Lake Police Department, Chris Olson knows a thing or two about local government.

As such, the county commissioner candidate said he believes he has a good feeling for what government does well and what it doesn’t.

He said he thinks government by its nature is rigid and needs to be more flexible. Without a business competitor to increase efficiencies, he said, the county board must be that pressure on behalf of taxpayers.

The county faces a multimillion-dollar deficit unless it makes substantial reductions to its budget or hikes taxes a lot. Olson said he believes the answer lies in finding creative solutions and reducing niceties.

“You have to find more productive ways to do things,” he said. “The revenue sources are not there.”

One way of lowering costs may be to work with other local governments to provide services.

While governments typically operate within jurisdictional boundaries, Olson said he doesn’t think residents care whose name is on the truck that plows their street.

Olson has been impressed by the quality and professionalism of county management, he said. And he’s pleased with how the county has already made steps to improve efficiencies.

Olson said local governments are considering purchasing fuel together, and he’d like them to investigate other areas like mowing, salt purchases, and snowplows. The county already does some cross-plowing with Dakota County.

Olson said the county has started to cross train its employees in the maintenance and human services departments, and he’d like to see more of that.

“There are ways to save money,” he said. “We need people to sit down, float the ideas, and then explore.”

Olson points to the Scott County Association for Leadership and Efficiency, which is made up of local school districts and local governments, as a great example of collaboration. SCALE played a large role in the new joint public safety training center in Sand Creek Township.

Government traditionally survives on a year-to-year budget, spend-it-or-lose-it mentality, Olson said. He’d like to see greater flexibility in budgeting.

He’s also a fan of long-term focused planning. He points to the greater number of river bridges in Dakota County, compared to Scott County, as an example of a poor lack of vision in the past.
Residents can’t stop development whether they want to or not, but the county can get ahead of the game, Olson said.

Instead of developers dictating transportation decisions, Olson said believes the county should be making infrastructure plans to shape future development.

Olson was impressed with the level of professionalism and understandability in the update to the county’s long-term land use plan, he said, and he thinks the county should have a similar future-leaning financial plan.

Olson said one of his frustrations with government is inefficiencies and nonperformers, both collectively and individually.

He said the county must scrutinize every area to see if it’s absolutely necessary. At the same time, the county board should encourage teamwork among employees and try to keep staff morale up.
Olson declined to name prematurely where cuts should occur, saying such determinations must be based on what areas are most important to constituents.

The choices the county board must make will ruffle feathers, he said, but we can’t have it all.
Olson noted that public safety is important to him and one area in which he sees a need for additional staffing. He said the percentage of deputies hasn’t kept pace with population growth. However, he also sees room for improvement at the sheriff’s office, such as more of a focus on citizen policing.

Olson said he supports recent pay raises that brought the pay grades for county employees up to the level of their peers in other counties.

However, he is concerned there might be incidents in which employees are being overly compensated through the rating system in the pay-for-performance plan. He supports that initiative, but thinks it deserves review to assure it’s implemented correctly, he said.

On the county’s purchase of Cedar Lake Farm and Day Resort for a future regional park, which required a loan, Olson didn’t say how he would have voted, but said there were legitimate points raised on both sides.

On one hand were commissioners who thought it’d be stupid not to pass up such an opportunity, he said.

The voice of opposition came from Commissioner Bob Vogel on a purchase that required a 20-year loan. Olson said that reasoning would be similar to a situation in which his daughter would want to purchase a sale item that’s 80 percent off, but she doesn’t have a nickel in her pocket.

Olson describes himself a fiscal conservative, which to him means “you don’t spend money you don’t have,” unless you’re borrowing for something like a road project, for which interest on borrowing is less than inflation on construction costs.

“The same philosophy that applies to my family applies to the county,” he said.

Shannon Fiecke is a staff writer for the Shakopee Valley News. She can be reached at sfiecke@swpub.com.