While Mayor Jim Hovland has been consecutively elected mayor five times without opposition, this year candidate Ron Anderson is also vying for the spot. 

Hovland has a background in law and has been mayor since 2005, also supporting Edina through involvement in the Edina Community Foundation and Edina Chamber of Commerce. 

Anderson has been in real estate for much of his career while also serving Edina on the City Board of Appeals, Edina Crime Prevention Fund, and Edina Housing and Redevelopment Authority. Both candidates served on the Edina City Council.

Hovland, as high school class president and coming from a family with a parent on the school and library board, said he was always interested in public office and representing others. He emphasized his ongoing commitment to improving public safety in Edina, noting that crime has gone down since the pandemic due to increased police, emergency medical services, mental health professionals, and new public safety technology. 

Hovland said he’s also proud of Edina’s economic and developmental success, citing the Southdale Center as an example. “In most towns, regional malls are aging artifacts and people are trying to figure out what to do with them,” Hovland said. “Here in Edina, malls like Southdale are expanding their business model; they have five new stores coming in and there’s a new Kowalski’s because of more density.”

In 2018, Anderson stepped into public service on the City Council to give back to the community after a career in business. During his term, Edina residents voiced concerns over the potential for a land bridge over Highway 100. “It seemed like an enormously misguided effort in self-indulgence,” Anderson said. “The presence of that level of development was going to have a detrimental effect on the quality of life for the residential neighborhoods immediately adjacent to it.” 

Anderson’s advocacy against the Highway 100 land bridge was one of his favorite achievements while in office. “It’s so important to have balanced thinking. It didn’t dawn on people that this was a bad idea so there was tremendous pushback, [but I got it stopped],” he said. “I view that as an accomplishment.” 

 Anderson’s choice to run for mayor stems from his belief that fiscal responsibility has been missing from some of the decisions recently made in Edina. “There’s a lot of differences between Jim and I,” Anderson said. “But they’re basically how much risk we want to take and how much burden we want to put on the taxpayer.”

According to both Hovland and Anderson, a key issue the election faces is public participation. 

“We’ve developed in Edina over the last 20 years a level of transparency and participation that’s unprecedented,” Hovland said, citing the resident input on the 2016 Vision Edina and 2018–19 Comprehensive Plan. “There were many public meetings where people were actively participating and thinking about land use, transportation, and climate. Last time we had a lot of high schoolers, which was terrific. It’s time to do some of that again.”

Anderson, in contrast, pointed out a lack of mayor office hours and transparency beyond televised decisions. “What I hear very often is the concept of not being heard,” he said. “If community input is limited, it’s hard to do better.” If elected, Anderson said he would establish mayor office hours to increase accountability. “Full disclosure is complete and absolute disclosure, not just the decision being televised, so there is no question in the eyes of the public,” he said. “Something that has been missing is the mayor being readily available for appointments with the community.”

Both Hovland and Anderson agree on the importance of good representation. “The leadership aspect is very important,” Anderson said. “Leadership is often explaining your point of view before taking action. The articulation of the city’s perspective is quite important for the mayor. The mayor also speaks for the city in matters of policy. There’s visual and ceremonial presence involved.”

Hovland said that his performance as mayor reflects those positive qualities. “The mayor is the face of the town,” Hovland said. “I love representing us on a local, state, and national basis. I’m very conscious about the fact that I represent our town and want to put my best foot forward.”

Anderson brought the topic of representation back to his beliefs on policy. “It really comes down to spending, the budget, and the decisions that brought us to this point,” Anderson said. “The most important obligation of an elected official is to represent the interests of the people who put their trust in them. If you can’t do that, it’s not the right work for you.”

He shared an anecdote about the mayoral candidate forum. “Somebody asked about term limits and we had very different answers,” Anderson said. “I said, ‘I don’t know why there wouldn’t be term limits. If the president is limited to two terms, I think a mayor here ought to be limited to two terms. Even for council members, that’s eight years of elected volunteer service, which is a lot. Two terms for the council and the mayor should be fine,’ and Jim said, ‘The ballot box determines your term limit.’ I said, ‘Well, you’ve run out of votes.’” Anderson believes the said lack of term limits led to other voices being silenced. “This conversation is so important because at least people can hear and they haven’t been able to,” he said.

In Hovland’s perspective, there’s no reason to fix something that’s not broken. “I know they say time for a change, but what’s the reason?” he said. “You don’t change just to change. You look for the qualities of a candidate that are important to you.”

“I’ve seen lots of things unfold, like getting through the pandemic and recession. In 2016, I called and engaged with people upset with Edina’s arrest of Larnie Thomas; these all give me a breadth of experience Ron hasn’t had,” he said. “I’ve helped make Edina a better place to live, do business, and raise a family. The value of property in our town has doubled in the last 10 years; that’s a significant achievement. Even on the heels of COVID and the death of George Floyd, when we did our quality of life survey we do every two years, in 2023 9 out of 10 people said they loved living here. That’s good because there were a lot of challenges coming out of the pandemic for other cities.” 

He shared that 10 years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta did a study on the U.S. city where one is most likely to survive a cardiac arrest and found the answer was Edina. “Hennepin County was number one out of the counties, and we’re four times safer than Hennepin County,” he said. “We’re number one in the country in emergency medical service response times.” 

Another key issue is development. While Hovland said his goal is to expand Edina vertically through new development plans, Anderson claimed that a focus on spending and key services is necessary. 

“A city is a living organism, like a rainforest: you need to keep growing to survive,” Hovland said. “We don’t have any green space to expand horizontally, so when we think about Edina, we want vertical growth; taller buildings and more density in some parts of town in order to attract jobs and businesses that might not be interested otherwise.”

He illustrated the level of developmental success that has changed Edina’s economy, bringing new businesses in. “Engaging in thoughtful development makes us a preferred location for businesses,” Hovland said. “To have a mall operator say they’re going to spend $400 million in your town is pretty remarkable. We’ve become the epicenter for regional medical care, retail, and financial services or locations.”

In regards to Anderson’s perspective on development, Hovland believes change and growth in development are necessary. “There are some folks in our town that don’t like the idea of growth or change and they tend to align with [Anderson],” Hovland said. “To me, change is inevitable. It’s going to happen and I try to manage that change rather than ignore it or maintain the status quo, because then you’re going backwards and that can be dangerous. Changes I’ve seen in Edina are really positive and have made us a better, more culturally rich town.”

In contrast, Anderson said he sees Edina’s goals as “competing virtues,” arguing that they must be balanced to be financially responsible. “We need to examine our expenditures carefully,” he said. “We need to prioritize our core services and everything else should come into consideration. I view this as competing virtues. There are so many things we would like to do, all of which have merit on some level. Can we do all of them? The answer is probably not.” 

Anderson referenced how an approved project on 70th and France to build a 24-story building didn’t take into account the projected traffic. “That’s 24 stories with a larger commercial presence, but there’s only one lane going east,” he said. “How can you move cars through there? 70th is backed up to 100 and human nature says someone’s going to turn off into the neighborhoods. There are young families, dogs, kids that are going to schools, it’s creating a definite inconvenience. The town was never designed to tolerate high levels of density in certain areas.”

Anderson said paying closer attention to Edina’s development is crucial. “I served with Jim, and I want to say that he is a kind man and has a good sense of humor,” Anderson said. “We shared a lot of jokes over the course of time. However, I don’t agree with his thinking about development. We need to pay attention to our zoning ordinances.”

He brought up Planned United Development (PUD) as an example. “When you grant PUD zoning, it removes all restrictions,” he said. “That’s why [the building on 70th and France] is 24 stories though we had a 12 story limit. And, you still only get one lane. PUD zoning negates zoning.”

He also mentioned the increasing taxes under Hovland. “Property taxes in Edina are escalating to double digit levels,” he said. “There’s a proposed tax increase to 13.1% in 2025. Affordable housing, the execution of the climate action plan, public facilities, these are all virtues we need to balance. Decisions made over 10 years bring us to a point where development expenses escalate.” 

Though he opposes tax increases, Anderson believes that more revenue is still necessary because of the misuse of tax increment financing (TIF) and excessive spending. “There’s more complications within the use of TIF, ethical compromises that are being made when you don’t fully educate the public what the potential impact to them is,” he said. “If you increase the population, you’re going to have to provide services. It’s not simply about spending. We need revenue. TIF districts can be decertified as soon as the public benefit is shared.” 

He used the example of the Southdale TIF district. “Southdale holds over $12 million in assets today that could’ve been closed out in 2014,” he said. “When those $12 million are held in the TIF district and to no avail of the public, it needs to be decertified. That to me, is ethical. For an individual taxpayer, if you are an older person or have fixed income, you have lesser means. It’s a regressive tax. It hurts people with less, more. We need to take a collective deep breath and say, ‘How do we gain revenue?’”

But above development, spending, or politics, both Hovland and Anderson believe the preservation of democracy and constituent feedback is most important. 

“In democracy, you won’t always agree, but you’re at least going to get all the voices heard that will help you make a better decision,” Hovland said. “Whatever it might be, you’re going to have that citizen input that helps you be a better elected official. It’s been so important for me to make sure that we do have an ability for those who want to be heard to have their opinion considered.”

Anderson would agree. “You have to make sure people know they can make an appointment and come in and sit down [for office hours],” Anderson said. “Collaboration is the absolute best way to achieve results. You might come in thinking one way, hear something completely opposite, and all of a sudden a lightbulb comes on and you say, ‘Wait a minute, I think there’s something to learn here.’”

This piece was originally published in Zephyrus’ print edition on Nov. 4, 2024 and updated on Dec. 16, 2024.