The City has known downtown needs more parking since at least 2018, and a resident group even handed them a ramp design in 2023. Nothing happened. In February 2026, I co-signed a memo showing exactly how to fund a ramp with no direct cost to taxpayers. The City studied it for five more months, then in July 2026 adopted a plan built around that idea, authorizing up to nearly 4 times what the memo proposed as a not-to-exceed ceiling, not a firm commitment. No active projects, including a ramp, are yet tied to it. Still, $8,882,369 of that ceiling (over two-thirds) sits unexplained as "other qualifying improvements." No more delays or studies — the taxpayers have spoken. I'll push for a real deadline, a clear public rulebook for how "shared parking" gets divided, and every dollar spelled out plainly.
Right now, City policy says the one guaranteed public comment period, "Open Forum," can't be used to talk about anything already on the agenda. For everything else, whether you get to speak at all is up to the Mayor or a Council vote. I'll push to guarantee residents a voice on the actual decisions in front of Council, not just other topics.
The City Manager currently meets one-on-one with each Council Member before public meetings, and staff sometimes email every Council Member at once on topics headed for a vote, without those emails becoming part of the public record. Victoria has been down this road before. In 2013, a Carver County court found that a former mayor and three council members violated the Open Meeting Law 38 times, including holding meetings that should have been open to the public. They were fined, but they were not removed from office. The Minnesota Supreme Court's 2018 review addressed only whether they could be removed, and held that removal under the law requires violations proven in three separate rulings. It left the violation findings in place. I'll push to end private briefings and unshared email chains so the real conversation happens where residents can hear it.
Builders often pay for their own roads, pipes, and sidewalks. So why did Victoria pay for a private builder's project instead, and not even say where the money came from until six weeks after it voted?
| What Happened | Amount | Who Really Pays |
|---|---|---|
| City sold its own land to the builder | $1 | Everyone — we gave up something valuable |
| City paid the builder back for roads, pipes & sewer work | $3,000,000 | Your water bill first, then your taxes for 10 years |
| City borrowed more for streets | $3,500,000 | Your property tax bill |
| City let the builder skip a park fee | ~$500,000 | Money the City chose not to collect |
I'll push to require a named funding source, in public, before every development vote.
This isn't a one-time thing. The new fire station was financed by borrowing from the sewer savings account before taking on $20.9 million in debt. One neighborhood's tax deal lets the builder keep 75 cents of every extra tax dollar, and the city still had to borrow $545,000 from its main account to keep it afloat. An older loan needed yet another loan just to make its own timeline work. Water and sewer bills are supposed to pay for water and sewer, full stop — not private development or city buildings. I'll push for one public report every year that adds all of this up in one place.
The city owes more money than it used to, and it's on track to owe even more. About a quarter of every property tax dollar goes just to pay off debt. The city is betting that a big jump in downtown property values will cover it. Maybe it will — but that's a bet, and you deserve to see it clearly before it's made.
When taxes on land and buildings go up, landlords usually raise the rent to cover it. That means renters and small business owners, who don't even get their own property tax bill, end up paying for these deals too, through higher rent.