Minnesota and North Dakota Voter's Guide

Forum Communications Co., in collaboration with the League of Women Voters of Minnesota and of North Dakota, is providing this voter guide to help keep you informed ahead of the 2024 election.

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Voter Guide

Halstad City Mayor

The mayor is usually the head of the city and may represent the city in front of other government bodies. They also can preside at council meetings and appoint city workers. A mayor usually has a role in proposing a city budget which influences services provided to residents and can veto ordinances proposed by the city council.Voting in local elections is important - learn more here: Why Vote for Mayor

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  • Candidate picture

    Darin Johnson
    (NP)

Biographical Information

Why are you the best candidate for this position? (750 characters)

If elected, what will your top three priorities be and why? (500 characters)

If elected, what strategies will you use to ensure transparency, accountability and ethical conduct in city government under your leadership? (500 characters)

How will you engage with residents to solicit feedback, involve them in decision-making processes, and ensure their voices are heard? (500 characters)

How will you approach public safety and community policing to ensure the well-being of all residents? (500 characters)

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I am humble enough to know that I quite possibly am not the best candidate for Mayor. I initially ran as mayor to pursue the issues that I knew were important to our citizens. I bring a combination of small business management skills, people skills, and a proven ability to develop effective systems from 25 years of building my agricultural software business. This experience has developed my strategic decision-making and financial management abilities, both of which are useful tools as mayor. My experience of nearly 10 years on the Halstad Municipal Utilities Commission and expertise in developing systems that work logically and efficiently. This is important now where we are planning replacement systems to our aging infrastructure.
1. Continue to develop the West Central Rural Water District that we have been working on for nearly four years now.

2. Improve the energy efficiency and affordability of our city buildings. We really need to pursue cold climate heat pumps or geo-thermal systems to reduce the costs of running the Landmark and the LRC, and improve the environmental conditions, especially in the Landmark.

3. Continue down the road of researching a replacement for our wastewater treatment operations.
We already have a commitment to transparent city government. All our city council meetings are broadcast online, and we also try to record them. Our meetings are always open to the public and we encourage people to attend and present topics that concern them. All financial activities are reviewed by all council members every month.

This is a small town, and generally anyone that wants to communicate with the mayor knows their phone number, where they live and work. Also, when we have any major decisions to make, we have called special meetings and presented our plans to the public and asked for their input.

We need to encourage neighborhood watch programs. I also would like to have cameras installed on some of our major streets and public places. We really don’t have a lot of control over our policing as we are patrolled by the sheriff's department. We do need to have good communication with the sheriff's department and “if we see something, say something”, and share information and issues in our town with the sheriff’s department.
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The League of Women Voters of Minnesota and North Dakota crafted the questions sent to the candidates in the Spring of 2024. They reached out to candidates based on contact information in their public candidate filings. Candidates with email addresses were invited and reminded with emails. Candidates with only mailing addresses were sent a letter. Candidates with phone numbers received a phone call as well.

Candidate responses are published as they responded and have not been edited, except when responses were longer than the given character limit. In those cases, the responses are truncated.

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