Jerry Schmitt
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.
64 years old
2 years St. Cloud Tech College in the electrical field
Farmed 25 years
Wife Barbara
Son Michael
What experiences do you have that prepares you for public office?
Worked in residential and commercial electrical construction for 40 years. Well knowledged in building and construction codes. Lived and ran a farm for 25 years and handled the land from crop farming to CRP, to land restoration and conservation to prevent erosion and increase water quality of out lakes and rivers. Held high interest the last 2 years about present council actions and how they ignore the peoples requests and concerns.
Why did you decide to run for this office?
Try to return the city of Rockville back, to its roots as an unique city by relating to small core city agriculture and lake residential concerns. Rockville needs to gain back its fiscal responsibility and curb unnecessary spending. Try to get all residents to unite and climb out of the enormous debt that the city of Rockville faces.
Top three issues you would tackle, if elected.
A.) Return the city back to fiscal responsibility, curb all unnecessary spending and trim city costs and expenditures and don't let lawyers and engineers run our city. Set up a good financial committee to create a fiscal budget and abiding to the budget.
B.) Stop pretending we're a big city and return to our small community values. Do away with present ordinances which are closely related to county ordinances. Listen to the peoples voice before making ordinances. Do away with an assessment policy that won't work in such a diverse city. Use the present governing entities as the Sauk River watershed instead of creating lake improvement District which takes people only around one lake. What about the other 3 lakes within our city boundaries.
C.) Develop districting within the city so everyone has an equal voice on the council. Make sure the core cities, agriculture, commercial, and lake residential all have an equal voice on the council. Encourage new business and residential development to broaden own tax base.