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By Erik Hare

If you want information on the election in 2008, there are hundreds of websites that can tell you a lot about it. The horserace, the policies, the personalities – it’s all there if you want it. But in Saint Paul, we have an election in November 2007 that is a lot harder to find information about. I happen to think it’s far more important, too.

In Our Fair City we elect the City Council, Mayor, and School Board in odd-numbered years. This is done to keep them from getting lost in all the noise of state and national elections. These elections are done on a relatively low budget, around $20k for the City Council, and conducted personally one front door at a time and one festival at a time.

While these are active races with a lot of people involved, there are still many residents that don’t know much about them. This is a shame, because the city delivers most of the basic services that we depend on every day. When you leave your driveway, you’re on a city maintained street. See some trouble? It’s the Saint Paul Police that handle it. If you have a medical emergency it’s the Paramedics from the Fire Department that save your life.

Everything about life in Saint Paul comes about with at least some influence of the City. Anytime a development happens that changes your neighborhood, it’s gone through a process of citizen input and comment to make sure it fits with the city. A neighborhood having some hard times will ask the City for help. The Parks and Libraries that keep the kids strong and smart are part of the City as well. All of this on a budget of $528M, which sounds like a lot until you add up how central it is in the lives of the 290,000 residents and 400,000 workers of Saint Paul.

In addition to the City Council, we elect half of our School Board this year. The Saint Paul Public Schools does a tremendous job educating kids, especially when you consider that 62% of them are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch, and 43% are classified as “limited English proficiency”. But there are always fights about what they can do better and how a particular neighborhood needs better service. These are only natural, and they are the way we make our schools meet our needs better, no matter how contentious they might sound.

What does it take to perform well in one of these jobs? Opinions vary, of course. Most people are concerned about policy issues in an election. I think that people skills and the ability to get neighbors and the city working together are far more important, and I think of my City Councilmember as more of a facilitator than a leader. This is basic stuff, and a lot of their job involves basic constituent service like coordinating the crime watch or removing a trailer left illegally parked for a month. Whatever the opposite of glamorous is, that is the City Council.

What counts more than anything is getting involved and understanding these roles so that you can make a good decision this November. The process of running an election in Saint Paul means a lot of handshakes and hard questions on every porch as votes are courted one and a time. Make the most of this, and ask really hard questions. You can learn a lot about how our city works and who is best to lead it. I think you’ll agree that your everyday life is as good as it is because the City works pretty well. But maybe you have some good ideas to make it better. I’d like to hear them.