In St. Michael, the two-year mayoral term belonging to Jerry Zachman is up for election. Filing for mayor are Zachman, Michael Griffith and Richard Brown.

The four-year city council positions belonging to Dean Eggert and Joe Marx are also up for election. Filing for these seats are Eggert, Marx, Jason Holt, Cindy Weston, Allen Lund and Greg Zahler.

The candidates were asked to include their thoughts in statements. Each was asked to include in a response:

1. Candidate biography: Please include a short biography of yourself, your background, your personal and professional experiences and any other information you wish to share.

2. Candidate statement: Please comment on the top issues you feel are important in this election. Explain any changes you would like to see made and address the city's most urgent problems. Please include your vision for St. Michael's future and what the council should do to govern and guide future growth.

The responses received include:

Dean Eggert

I have been married for 31 years to my wife Lynn. We have three children, we have lived in the St. Michael area for 13 years of which I have been involved in city politics for nine of those years.

I am a graduate of Dunwoody Institute in electrical construction, was an electrician for 23 years before becoming an electrical inspector for the past 13 years.

The most important issues that face the people of St. Michael today in my opinion are poor economic times we are going through today, taxes, and future development.

It is very important to make sure that the cost of living is not made unaffordable because of escalating taxes because of unnecessary spending by the city. We must maintain services to the residents without having the cost of those services going up because of situations that we can control, by watching spending.

It is also important to keep business development growing in our city without forgetting about the existing buisnesses. The continued growth of commercial and industrial business in St. Michael is very important to offset the tax base to the residents so our taxes stay low as they are today in comparison to other communities.

In this economic time of uncertainty, it is most important to watch all spending very carefully an to analyze every purchase, staff increase or any unnecessary costs to the city at this time.

I feel that the current council has kept the spending at a minimum for the past four years but yet kept the services and conditions in the city very high. The funding that has come from the federal government has been a great plus to our town to keep the ongoing projects ahead of proposed schedules. Many of the projects being done today have been in the planning stages for many years, but with much hard work by the current council those projects are coming to an end with very good results.

Lets keep the city moving in a positive direction, vote for the incumbent candidates on Nov 4th, Eggert, Marx And Zachman. Thank you for your continued support.

Michael Griffith

I have worked for UPS full time for 25 years, have a degree in marketing and communications have been a St. Michael resident since 2001, married to Kim.

Have been on the Republican platform since 1984. I have always been a conservative. I do various charity activities throughout the Twin Cities, including Twin Cities Artists Guild, First Tee Foundation, United Way, and Juvenile Diabetes Association.

As elected mayor, the first step is to eliminate the vacant lots that are zoned commercial in the so-called Town Center. It is disappointing to see all that land going dormant. I will transform the Town Center into a business venture, not an eyesore. I will be aggressive in my approach to make potential entrepreneurs feel welcomed and appreciated for their interest in this prosperous city.

I will not overlook or shun anyone interested in obtaining or acquiring land for commercial development.

Home values for St. Michael continue to decline and more existing new homes have no occupancy. This cannot happen and must stop.

As mayor, I will abolish all new residential construction permits until the percentage of existing homes decreases. This may take up to a year to restore the housing market. An over abundance of homes on the market makes St. Michael look less appealing to a prospective buyer. It also drives the value of homes in the area downward also. This city needs to look demanding, not in despair.

I will balance the property values and assessed values of properties, so the county cannot have an over exaggerated assessment amount based upon foundation and land.

This will in turn, will decrease property taxes for all homeowners.

It should not be the responsibility of citizens of St. Michael to have increased levies assessed to them, due to poor budget planning on the behalf of the school board, for the design and construction of the new school that is slated to open in 2009.

The school board should have taken other measures to insure that the school had ample funds available before the start of such project.

I will oppose all motions to have levies brought forth to the city.

With families working more hours to make ends meet, or having other commitments during the workweek, it becomes difficult to address issues that may arise. For that reason, I will have weekend hours available for the general public, so everyone has a chance to be heard.

The city is still recovering from the hail damage we received this summer. Some homeowners have completed their projects and have advertising signs in their yards. This year is a national election year and with all the other signs that are in the city already, I will not distribute campaign signs to further pollute the city.

With the economy in a downward spiral right now, I as mayor will cut all unreasonable expenses, keep our property taxes in line, look for new business opportunities for the city, and will always serve the community with a great outlook for the future.

I enjoy living here but a change is needed to expand our city forward.

Vote Michael Griffith Nov. 4 for that change.

Jason Holt

I received my bachelors degree from St. Cloud State University. While attending St. Cloud State I met my wife Katie. I currently work as an Investment Adviser Representative at a local bank.

As a council member my intention is to continue to improve and maintain the quality of life for the residents of St. Michael.

With the current economic situation it is important that the city is making wise decisions on new spending projects, and taxes. I am a fiscal conservative, and in my profession I help people with their current financial situation as well as their long-term plans. I know I would be an asset to the residents of St. Michael helping the city budget for now, and plan for the future as well.

I know the city staff is great and I look forward to working with them to make St. Michael the best place to live! I would appreciate your vote Nov. 4, and would do my best to serve the people of St. Michael

Al Lund

My wife Paulette and I have lived in St. Michael since 2001.

I am 54 years old. I own a company called LifeStage Solutions LLC. I am a Navy veteran. I belong to the St. Michael Legion Post 567 having served as Second vice Commander. I currently serve as President of the MN LST Association, a Navy veteran organization. Paulette and I belong to Life in Christ Lutheran church in Albertville where I currently serve as an Elder. I was elected to the Moorhead MN School Board twice, 1987 and 1990, where I served as Treasurer, Vice Chair and Chair.

I decided to run for several reasons, two of them being that I believe that we each have a responsibility to give back when and where we can and that unless we are involved with our government we cannot and should not be surprised by the government that we get. The issues that I have with the current administration revolve around our tax dollars and the spending of those dollars. I think that the council has made decisions to spend more money than would have been necessary to get the job done. I believe that the administration has an agenda that includes building a new city hall and library in Town Center, in large part due to the lack of development in Town Center. I believe that the city should facilitate development, but not be a developer.

If business is not seeing the benefits of building in Town Center it should not be the city to fill that void. The city leaders will tell you that the current city hall and library are not large enough and if you tour the two facilities you would see that there is no wasted space. Where I part ways with the current administration is how to address those issues. The city plans on building a 26,000-square-foot building (the current city hall is 5800 square feet, current library is 3000 square feet) in Town Center. I would offer that there are several alternatives that the city has not explored such as Thrifty White, Coborn's and expanding at the current city hall.

Elected officials have what I call the burden of trust. Most of us are so busy raising families, taking care of parents, working and just living our lives to become involved with government at any level. We trust that our elected officials will do what is right and will take the honor of governing and spending our money quite seriously. I don't think that our current administration is guilty of anything other than having a case of MG fever (where nothing is too good or expensive) and forgetting how hard most of us have to work for our money.

In these uncertain economic times we need to address the issues that need addressing (maintaining our streets/infrastructure/health and safety issues), but perhaps now is not the time for capital improvement projects such as a combined city hall and library in Town Center.

Joe Marx

I am Joe Marx, 51, married, five daughters, one granddaughter all residing in St. Michael.

I have lived here all my life, I have always loved living here and working in this area.

I have owned my own residential construction business for 26 years. In the last three years and nine months on this council, I have been involved with a whole different trend, one the previous councils (since the merger of St Michael and Frankfort Township in 1996) have not had to deal with, and that is a slowdown in growth! We needed to step back and take a good hard look at what are our needs! And what are our wants! And I feel very strongly we have done that, and we will need to continue doing so.

In the past two years the city has had its bond rating raised twice, now at a AA- rating, must be doing something right!

I am running for council again because I feel a great need to continue with wise decisions and frugal spending. I know we can't make everyone happy, but we want to do what's best for the distant future.

Feel free to contact me at 497-3597. Thanks.

Cindy Weston

I have spent the last two years as founder and chairperson of the St. Michael Daze and Knights Festival. I was a planning and zoning commissioner in 2001 and 2002 and was elected to city council from 2003 to 2006.

I work for a major insurance carrier as an agent and office manager and have worked for my current employer for 14 years. Prior to that I was employed as an assistant vice president and foreclosure manager for a major mortgage bank for over 12 years. I also work part-time for Cashwise Liquor in St. Michael.

I have proudly called St. Michael my home since 1998.

As a previous council member I participated in the approval of the improvements to Hwy. 241 and the intersection at County Rd. 19; the current improvements to County Rd. 19 and the implementation of the one-way pair system to improve the flow of traffic safely through our town. I went to Washington, D.C., to request additional funding to complete our road projects.

I decided to run again for city council because I believe city government should be about service to the c community and not politics. When "teams" of people run in an election it becomes more about politics rather than representation of the entire city. Regardless of how right or wrong a decision may have been the intent was to control the outcome.

I feel I have shown my concern for developing a community rather than just a city. I was supporter of the YMCA when it wanted to bring a facility to St. Michael. That was lost when that some trio despite tremendous citizen support for the YMCA decided they felt there was something better and spent the past four years unsuccessfully courting Gold's Gym. As a person working two jobs just to break even and with rising costs, depreciating home values I want to know that city decisions are made based on what the majority of the citizens want and not by people who run for office to ensure they have the majority vote.

I have been proud to serve the city of St. Michael in the past and ask for your vote in November to allow me to represent the interest of our community in the future.

Jerry Zachman

First, I would like to thank you, the residents of St. Michael, for the past four years. I am now campaigning for my third, two-year term, as mayor.

I am a fifth generation Zachman. With my wife of 29 years, we have raised three children, and are proud of our community.

Since my first election, we are now the largest city in Wright County, and the number of businesses that are coming to or expanding in these economic times is a good sign for our city.

With our increase in population it has been a challenge for our school system. Yet with our dedicated school board, teachers, staff and committed parents we have been able to keep our schools up to date, with the building expansion of two elementary schools, and our new high school to open in 2009.

I would like to thank the federal, state, and county governments for the funding we were able to receive for Hwy. 241, County Rd. 19, and the One-Way Pair. County Rd. 19, as with Hwy. 241, is one of the main arteries of our city, and commuting around is a challenge. Its completion will bring to our city additional benefits of safety and economics. Your city council and city staff were able to work together with Wright County, construction and utilities companies, so as to be working our downtown reconstruction, our one way pair project, and County Rd. 19, all at the same time. This was to be a 15 -year plan, yet with the additional amounts of federal and state funding that we were able to obtain for our city, the 15-year plan will be completed in THREE.

With the foresight of this and previous councils, our city's staff experience and knowledge, we have been able to keep pace with our changing economics and move our city forward. One of my goals for the future is to continue to keep our cities costs down, while making our community the best place to call home. In this upcoming term, my priorities will be:

To continue to control the city budget.

Our city's portion of your tax dollar has remained one of the lowest in the county.

Downtown Redevelopment - Again, I would like to thank everyone responsible for the funding we were able to receive. This has helped St. Michael's Downtown Redevelopment plan move forward. Now with buildings that have been here for generations, along side and incorporated with new structures, we are able to plan for the future while still maintaining our heritage.

With the economic slowdown, our Town Center is suffering. Know that communication and discussion continue, with the fitness, community and senior center developers. Your city council and city staff want to make sure that there is minimum tax monies spent on these facilities. And, that the long-term maintenance of these facilities is manageable and affordable for our city.

Thank you for your support. Remember to vote Nov. 4, and know that your vote does make a difference.