2024 Chanhassen City Council Candidate

Name: Haley Pemrick Schubert

Website: facebook.com/haleyforchan

Email address: haleyforchan@gmail.com

Home community and how long have you lived in your community:

I was born and raised in Chanhassen, moved back after college, and bought my first house in Chanhassen 13 years ago.

Previous leadership experience: 

Membership chair, 4th of July Parade Chair in the Chanhassen Rotary Club for multiple years; Founding member, secretary and president of the Chanhassen Evening Rotary Club; volunteer lead and admissions lead for Wings of the North’s annual Air Expo for 10 years.

In what community, state, or national organizations have you been involved?

I have been a Rotarian in Chanhassen for 15 years. Through that service, I’ve held multiple leadership roles as well as being a STRIVE mentor at Chanhassen High School. Before being elected to Chanhassen City Council, I served two years on the Parks and Recreation Commission.

How have you prepared to serve well in this office:

My service on the Parks and Recreation commission, before running for City Council in 2020, helped me learn more how the city works and part of the budget process. Over the last four years serving on the City Council, I have learned even more what all this job entails.

What do you view as the three top priorities for the City and how would you address these?

1. Supporting First Responders’ needs to best serve our city. Our community population has grown significantly and is also aging, which leads to more calls for service to our Fire and Sheriff’s departments. We need to stay on top of staffing and equipment needs to ensure the level of service to the community does not suffer.

2. Financial responsibility. Inflation is hurting everyone and the city’s budget should reflect changes that are necessary to maintaining the level of service our residents have come to expect without creating undue burden on residents or businesses.

3. Updating the strategic plan that staff and council use to stay focused and drive decision making. As a “Community for Life,” I like to ensure that mantra is part of all decisions made. Continued focus on strategic growth and innovation is critical to keeping Chanhassen a desirable city for both residential and commercial growth and stability.

What differentiates you from the other candidate(s)?

I am a lifelong resident of Chanhassen and have watched this community grow from farms and a very small downtown to what it is today. I have seen things that have both helped and hurt the community. I also have been active in this community my entire adult life through service and leadership in both Rotary Clubs as well as time serving on the Park and Rec Commission. I am a leader at a manufacturing company in Chanhassen, which lends me to have both a resident and business view in my decision making. Working in manufacturing also requires a unique lens for creative cost cutting, driving efficiencies, and reducing waste, which has helped me with discussions and decision making the last four years on City Council.

How would you plan to balance growth and development while maintaining the character of the city? 

Chanhassen is in a fun position now as we still have new growth and development as we build out the remaining land available and, at the same time, are starting to move toward re-development of other areas. We are lucky to have so many unique restaurants and small businesses here. With the re-development occurring downtown, we are focusing on making the city more walking friendly and ensuring we have spaces for more retail and restaurants on ground level to help promote that. The new civic campus will also create a centralized meeting location for residents of all ages to gather and grow the sense of community through an accessible playground and splashpad for kids, performance space for summer concerts for all ages, summer farmer’s market, winter skating, a new senior center, and pickleball courts.

What is your approach to managing the city’s budget and fiscal priorities?

Part of what makes Chanhassen a desirable place to live is the safety of our neighborhoods, the cleanliness of our city, and the beautiful neighborhood and local parks we have throughout. We strive to strategically finance those services and amenities at a level the residents have come to expect while still being fiscally responsible. All capital and department budgets plan five years out and we look at how best to prioritize all spending across a wider time frame instead of each year as it comes to help balance and keep the budget steadier and prevent big swings one way or another from year to year. We have even started to look out past five years to stay ahead of any potential surprises to the budget.

What measures, if any, should the city pursue to create more affordable housing for the workforce (including young teachers, police officers, health-care workers) and for seniors on limited incomes?

This is a question that comes up regularly. A few years ago, we approved TIF funding for a new senior apartment in Chanhassen that required a percentage of the building to be affordable housing for seniors. Carver County has been working on this issue as well and will be meeting with the city in the next few months to give an update on what they’re seeing and doing. I want to look at zoning and remaining open properties to see where it would make most sense to include more affordable housing. Another thing I’d like to see the city do is amend code for people to add on to their current housing to add “mother-in-law suites” for aging family members to still have some independence but live with their families to get the care and help they need.

What, if anything, should the city do to provide additional or improved activities, shopping, dining, recreation, and parks?

With the addition of the economic development manager to city staff, I feel the city is doing a lot currently to help potential new businesses come to the city. The re-development of the Country Inn & Suites and the old movie theater will provide more rentable space for shopping and dining. Our Parks and Recreation Department are also very involved and consistently looking for feedback on programming from residents as well as through the Park and Recreation Commission. They also have a plan and continuously monitor the condition of neighborhood and community parks and have a rotation of when equipment needs repair and replacement.

If a competitive business climate is important to you, what should the city do to remove barriers so that businesses can move into the city and current businesses can grow?

A competitive business environment is very important to me. We have a variety of retail, commercial, manufacturing and headquartered businesses in this community which makes us unique compared to a lot of our neighbors. The City Council has made it a priority over the last few years to look at even more ways of being even more business friendly. Most recently, we dove into and adjusted SAC/WAC fees to help lessen the burden of new businesses trying to open in our community. Also, the city hired an economic development manager who has been actively working with potential businesses and existing businesses. On top of these, our Economic Development Commission has been active in finding more ways to attract a variety of businesses to the community.

What, if anything, should the city do to increase transparency?

I believe the city has been making strides to increase transparency the last few years through hiring a communications manager and updating the website to be more navigable. Residents are able to sign up for email updates for any active projects happening in the city, the “Chan-happenings” weekly email, the Mayor’s message, etc. Losing the Villager has caused us to have more conversations on what else can be done. Discussions on including message boards at the Senior Center, Library, and Rec Center have been discussed as well. We continue to take resident feedback and re-evaluate communication strategies regularly to continue to increase transparency.

Where do you envision the city in the next five to 10 years?

In the next five to 10 years, I expect the city to have a more resident friendly and active downtown area. I have seen more people at a higher frequency in the last year engaging at City Council meetings since the loss of the Villager. I’d like to see a more active and engaged citizenry across the board to create a greater feel of community and living out being a “Community for Life.” Having lived here my whole life, even with all the change, I am excited to live out this mantra and raise my children here to have the same passion for this community and serving it. I also envision improved strategy when it comes to infrastructure maintenance and replacement as that continues to evolve as it’s been a focus of conversation.

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