Greetings, I'm Benton Bakke, and I'm running for North Mankato city council. My priorities start with ART - accountability, responsibility, and transparency. Without these, city council meetings can't act as the regular check-in with the public that they were meant to be. I am committed to expanding opportunities for the public to weigh in on the council's business, through expanded comment periods and relaxed restrictions on speech during council meetings, and increased formal and informal channels. 

Beyond that, I want to see our city try new things - some things that are proven and just new for us, some things that are a little more experimental and could provide a model for other communities.

Finally, I think that there are ways we could expand our view of public safety beyond the fire and police departments.

Many situations involving safety are very real, but don't escalate to the point of calling 9-1-1, and I am sure that there are situations that our officers arrive at where they wished someone had intervened earlier. 

By talking with community members and our officers, I'd like to help promote safety in a preventative way, rather than just responding only after things get dangerous, because our public servants have been given too wide a range of tasks for anyone to do them all with excellence.