Editor's Note: The following commentary appeared in the Oct. 19 Eden Prairie News:

By Jon Duckstad

Eden Prairie is truly an exceptional city, an ideal place to live, work and spend leisure time. Appropriately, it was recently ranked as one of the best cities in America with a population under 100,000.

As a candidate for Eden Prairie City Council, I sincerely believe serving as a member would be a privilege and would be a great opportunity to work to keep our city “on the right track.” In seeing what our previous leaders have done to successfully build this once small rural community into a remarkable city, I am deeply appreciative. Our parks, trail system and family-friendly neighborhoods show their foresight. Our extraordinary business community and its varied job opportunities are the result of their wisdom and planning. We’re on a solid foundation as we consider our future.

To keep Eden Prairie on a right – and winning -- track, we need to keep up the quality and professionalism of our city’s services and stay the course with thoughtful planning as we consider future needs in city operations and in residential and commercial development. In these regards, we will be faced with decisions on how much we will spend and how much we will tax. We face the probability of slower tax revenue because of slowing development as the city reaches maturity.

I believe we have come to a time when the city might benefit from and should consider a more comprehensive budget-making structure that brings wider and more in-depth evaluation of spending priorities. I believe it could be helpful to include in our budget process a citizen volunteer task group – or, down the road, a possible budget commission -- that could work with the City Council and the manager and staff to analyze, evaluate and help to recommend spending priorities. Such a group could be a channel for public participation, a gathering point for ideas, a listening point for concerns. By increasing interaction, we could enable wider discussion before budget decisions are made. Importantly, it could be a way to thoughtfully and reasonably restrain increases in property taxes.

By moving to a new budget process, the City Council would be aiming toward goals adopted in October 1997 entitled “Vision 2001,” which says in part:

“We will actively seek information through an open process and make decisions only after careful consideration.”

“We will make decisions that are fiscally sound and sustainable.”

The addition of a budget task group would be in keeping with those goals.

I believe in keeping city expenditures reasonable and taxes fair, predictable and not a burden that would cause residents or business to leave the community. It is my plan to keep a close eye on delivering value for the taxpayer’s dollar.

While we are careful about spending and taxing, we need to consider the growth of our tax base. The increase of revenue through economic development and the retention and expansion of business works together with the city’s tax climate and amenities to encourage growth to keep up our proudly acclaimed quality of life. At the planning level, we will need to be ever more attentive to how we can sustain growth or improvement as our circumstances change.

In regard to our quality of life, I believe we should evaluate how the city of Eden Prairie might achieve a better blend of private and public funding for historic preservation and support of various arts. It might be useful for us to explore how other cities are interacting with private sources in the areas of heritage and the arts. Might the city be useful in a greater role in seeking gifts and grants in not only the arts but other areas as well? It would seem to me that our heritage projects are the kind of activity that might best benefit from that kind of help. Dunn Brothers Coffee, Smith-Douglas-More House, Riley-Jacques Barn and the Cummins-Phipps-Grill House are attractive amenities in our community. To increase private funding for these and other activities could be helpful.

I leave you with these thoughts. Let’s continue keeping our city on the right track.

I offer my experience and commitment and ask for your vote.

Jon Duckstad is a candidate for Eden Prairie City Council.