Until this year, I did not think much of parades and I learned differently. Parades are especially important when name recognition is an issue. The Sheriff's race is non-partisan so there is not even a party label on the ballot to help build support. Parades also build community, it is an easy way for community leaders to reach out and connect with community members. Add literature, stickers and good presentation to a parade, and it is the best political outreach.
The Matt Bostrom for Sheriff campaign outreach in parades was extraordinary! First of all, the candidate, Matt Bostrom, is amazing. Matt is obviously in great physical shape, so he greets everyone that he can, going from side to side, sometimes running to catch up. Matt Bostrom has great charisma because he really cares about people and it shows. Then we have a team of happy smiling folks handing out literature, handing out stickers and handing out candy. One person is constantly introducing Matt and leading the "Say hello to Matt - Hello Matt" shout-out. With everyone in the emblazoned black and gold shirts, some just carrying signs, it is quite a crowd. An antique police car leads the parade group, occasionally announcing its presence with a siren. Sometimes the antique car needs to "rest" a few minutes, and to the great amusement of the crowd, a half dozen Bostrom people push the car. Can you tell that we are having great fun? This is a group enjoying each other on a social occasion that happens to also be political. At the end of the parade, we share the best Vote-Matt-Bostrom stories from the event, and sometimes surprising stories. Like we had a great response from the Vadnais Heights parade and Vadnais Heights is where our opponent Bob Fletcher lives. That caused me to start using the phrases, "To know Matt Bostrom, is to like him! To know Bob Fletcher is to NOT like him!".
More readers have been emailing me with pictures of lawn signs planted by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher's campaign on vacant property. Once again, as far as I know you can only plant signs if you have the consent of the owner. Furthermore and once more as far as I know, banks and businesses cannot host lawn signs on their properties.
Keep the evidence coming ... eric at mnprogressiveproject dot com.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, aka Gestapo Bob, is flaunting election laws. He is placing lawn signs throughout Ramsey County on vacant properties. Reports have been trickling in, but now the evidence is mounting. If you see a Fletcher lawn sign on an foreclosed, abandoned or vacant property, please take a picture and email me the picture along with the address at eric at mnprogressiveproject dot com.
This photo was taken by a reader at W. 7th St. and Dousman (400 block of W. 7th).
[please see end of diary for Bob Fletcher's response]
[and now, see also link to a flickr page with some pictures I just snapped]
St. Paul's East Side has been plastered with obnoxious colored yardsigns for everyone's favorite sheriff, Bob Fletcher.
I happened to be driving down East 3rd St. (which becomes Kellogg Blvd. once one crosses the bridge out of Dayton's Bluff and into Lowertown) on the day that the Sheriff's goons, I mean, campaign volunteers, were putting up signs.
I noticed later that signs had appeared in the yards of many registered vacant houses. For those who aren't familiar with this term, registered vacant houses are houses which are empty and registered as such with the city (presumably to keep out squatters). Many of them are foreclosures. In order to legally place a sign on one of these properties, one would have to contact the owner of the property (in many cases, a bank) and get permission.
When you see 6 or 7 such houses in a single block, all of which have Fletcher signs, you start to wonder. Especially when the signs were all put up systematically on the same day. Did they really get permission from all of those owners? It seems unlikely.
Today, the new St Paul Chief Thomas Smith is announced by Mayor Chris Coleman. The city council still has to approve this choice. Thomas Smith was picked from four very strong Internal candidates. The finalists for the chief job were: Commander Todd Axtell, a watch commander; Senior Commander Colleen Luna, head of the Western District; Senior Commander Bill Martinez, head of the Eastern District; and Assistant Chief Thomas Smith, who is in charge of operations. One of the other Assistant Chiefs, Matt Bostrom is currently running for the elected office of Sheriff of Ramsey County. The St Paul police is known for its culture of community policing, where the St Paul police partners with the community to solve problems. Though community policing, and through emphasis on character and integrity, St Paul police has gained strong respect and trust from the community.
And the outgoing chief, John Harrington, is one of three finalists to be the police chief in New Orleans. That final decision isn't expected soon. Normally, St Paul police do not move to other departments, so this may be the beginning of a new trend.
More videos will become available throughout the day.
I, Grace Kelly (not MPP) have the honor and privilege of endorsing a really great candidate for Ramsey County Sheriff, Matt Bostrom. Since this is being announced in many places, I thought I would share this with all of you. Not that you would be surprised!
Matt Bostrom is an awarded Assistant Chief of the St. Paul Police force, with over 28 years of experience. It was Matt Bostrom who taught me the importance of community partnered policing. I now understand the reasons that the St. Paul Police are so well regarded in the community, in high contrast with the other communities that I have lived in.
For those of you who have never tried going to a stranger's house, just to join a "meet and greet" party for a candidate, I urge you to try it. It took me a long time before I did.
In a "meet and greet" party, there is time to just socialize with a candidate. There is time just to know the person before evaluating the candidate. And especially with local candidates, there is a feeling of just being with neighbors.
This video is taken in very low light, so I apologize for the clarity. I think you get the feeling of the close knit comfort of a small living room, filled with people. Although this is edited for time constraints, people do have the time to ask questions and then to ask follow-up questions. No debate timer is about to go off! I really like that relaxed atmosphere compared to debates.
Matt Bostrom is running for Ramsey County Sheriff, and here is his social introduction and background, at a "meet and greet" party:
Today, Matt Bostrom formally announced his campaign to run for Ramsey County Sheriff. A most impressive array of local politicians and people filled a Landmark center room.
Normally, we hear the same ideas and same phrases. However, Matt Bostrom is unique in his ideas and even in the way, he describes those ideas.
1) Building trust in the community for law enforcement
"The reality is that to have safe neighborhood, it takes ownership from those that live there and to have a trusting relationship with the law officers that arrive. They are going be the ones that together will solve those long term community problems."
2) Cooperation between different law enforcement agencies is essential
"What we learned after 9/11 is that is not possible for agencies to go it alone anymore. We have to be structured in such away that we know how to come along aside each other in times of need and then solve the community problems, whatever they might be, no matter how big or vast. And then we have be able to go back to doing what we normally do in a daily operation. We have to be able to do it seamlessly."
3) Building an effective law enforcement agency that can work with the community requires diversity
"Diversity matters!"
4) Leadership in the community begins with connecting with youth
"My challenge then to our deputies and to our police officers when those young lives come across your path: a gentle smile, a word of encouragement is going to last a lifetime."
5) In tough economic times, every government agency should be practice fiscal responsibility
"I make a pledge that for two years if I am elected we will maintain the budget at that [current] level."
Matt Bostrom is going to formally announce running for Ramsey County Sheriff, next Tuesday, at the Landmark Center, during the lunch hour. Matt Bostrom is well-liked by everyone that I have interviewed at city hall. He has twenty seven years on the St Paul police force which actively does community outreach. And that means that many St Paul community members also know Matt Bostrom, with similar favorable comments. I personally saw him in two community meetings, where he was open and informative. He even answered all of my pesky questions. Even in the most adverse of questioning, he stays in the conversation, calm and considerate.
Matt Bostrom is also well known for his professional skill in putting together huge collaborative projects with multiple agencies and community projects with over a 1 million people. He manages huge budgets well. For this work, Matt received the 2009 Preparedness Award by the Association of Minnesota Emergency Managers (AMEM). Matt currently serves as the Assistant St Paul Police Chief in charge of the Homeland Security and Support Service Division. And when Matt Bostrom is not actually doing management, he is teaching others to do public administration as as an adjunct Professor at Saint Mary's University, Northwestern College, and Hamline University.
"Do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, whether or not you want to, without being asked, and whether or not anyone is looking." is Matt Bostrom's motto.
Rarely when I call about news on an endorsement, do I hear about an enthusiastic unanimous endorsement. Yet that is exactly what I heard from a group of people on east side of St Paul who endorsed Matt Bostrom for Ramsey County Sheriff. Not only is there a group endorsement, but each member also added a personal individual endorsement.
The Eastside PAC committee is called PROGRESSPPAC, an acronym for "People for Reinvestment, Opportunity, Growth, & Redevelopment on the East Side and Saint Paul Political Action Committee". This group pulls together the east side issues. The chair, Raymond Hess, said that Matt Bostrom's presentation was "really dynamite", expressing "concern for the community". The committee was most impressed with the ideals of the good cooperation between county level of sheriff and the city levels of police. Right now, the relationship between the local police and the current sheriff in Ramsey County can best be described as turf battles. So cooperation would be a huge change in policy.
Matt Bostrom, Assistant Chief of the St Paul Police Department, has formed a campaign committee to run for Ramsey County Sheriff today. That election will be held next year, not to be confused with the current election. Matt Bostrom has more than 27 years of law enforcement experience, handling some of the toughest assignments in the well-liked St Paul Police force. Matt will be running against the incumbent, Sheriff Fletcher, best known for his leadership role in the tarnished Metro Gang Strike Force and a litany of woes.
Matt Bostrom brings the strong community-focused policing that has been the hallmark of St Paul police. Indeed, Matt Bostrom has been well known in neighborhood community meetings, a role he does with ease and charm. As assistant chief of the St Paul police, Matt Bostrom has initiated many community outreach efforts. The St Paul police have long been known for partnering with neighborhoods in joint efforts to reduce crime by getting at root causes. St Paul is unique in that local people speak of positive experiences with their local police. For example, I feel that way because a St Paul police officer gave me a ride home in the middle of a snowstorm, when an accident had demolished my parked car. The peace community has long noted that the St Paul police stand out for fairness and reasonableness in managing peace protests, compared to all other metro law enforcement. It is these types of experiences that build community and trust in local law enforcement.
Right now, cities are getting talk but no effective action from mortgage holders. Basically, the cities do not have a big enough leverage to force mortgage lenders to do what President Obama has asked them to do. Since the sheriff and the police have to cooperate to evict homeowners and to remove trespassers, what if local cities in cooperation with the sheriff and police set up a few conditions:
clear title of ownership must be demonstrated
90 day notice must be given
all negotiation of modification options must have been exhausted
the previous owners must have been offered a rent back option at reasonable rates
the property must have a rehabilitation plan with no more than 90 days of vacancy, with the expectation that if unoccupied for more than 90 days, that property should be given to a non-profit or the city. The mortgage owners should expect to pay someone to stay at the property, to watch over it after 90 days.
There is precedent:
Sheriff in Chicago Ends Evictions in Foreclosures By JOHN LELAND
Published: October 8, 2008
Law enforcement officers in Chicago will no longer evict residents from foreclosed properties, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart of Cook County announced Wednesday...
Housing advocates said that they thought the measure was the first of its kind, but that in recent years, several sheriffs and judges around the country had taken other steps to slow foreclosure proceedings, like requiring lenders to produce titles proving they owned the properties in question. In Philadelphia this year, Sheriff John D. Green temporarily suspended sales of foreclosed properties.
Matt Bostrom is going to formally announce running for Ramsey County Sheriff, next Tuesday, at the Landmark Center, during the lunch hour. Matt Bostrom is well-liked by everyone that I have interviewed at city hall. He has twenty seven years on the St Paul police force which actively does community outreach. And that means that many St Paul community members also know Matt Bostrom, with similar favorable comments. I personally saw him in two community meetings, where he was open and informative. He even answered all of my pesky questions. Even in the most adverse of questioning, he stays in the conversation, calm and considerate.
