Mark Schleusner (Rochester City Council District 6, Minnesota, candidate 2024)

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Mark Schleusner

Nonpartisan

Candidate, Rochester City Council District 6

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

Winona State University, 1998

Military

Service / branch

U.S. Army

Years of service

1991 - 1998

Personal

Birthplace

Rochester, MN

Profession

Software engineer

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Mark Schleusner ran for election to the Rochester City Council District 6 in Minnesota. He was on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024.^[source]

Schleusner completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Mark Schleusner provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on July 16, 2024:

• Birth date: November 3, 1969
• Birth place: Rochester, Minnesota
• High school: Mayo High School
• Bachelor's: Winona State University, 1998
• Military service: United States Army, 1991-1998
• Gender: Male
• Religion: non-denominational
• Profession: Software Engineer
• Prior offices held:
  • School Board Director (2017-2020)
• Incumbent officeholder: No
• Campaign website
• Campaign Facebook

Elections

General election

General election for Rochester City Council District 6

Dan Doering and Mark Schleusner ran in the general election for Rochester City Council District 6 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate
		Dan Doering (Nonpartisan)
	Submit photo	Mark Schleusner (Nonpartisan)

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	Incumbency information for this election was not available.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Rochester City Council District 6

Molly Dennis, Dan Doering, Mark Schleusner, and Becca Dyer Tesch ran in the primary for Rochester City Council District 6 on August 13, 2024.

		Candidate
	Submit photo	Molly Dennis (Nonpartisan)
		Dan Doering (Nonpartisan)
	Submit photo	Mark Schleusner (Nonpartisan)
	Submit photo	Becca Dyer Tesch (Nonpartisan)

---

	Incumbency information for this election was not available.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Schleusner in this election.

Campaign themes

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Mark Schleusner completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Schleusner's responses.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a Rochester native and military veteran. I have lived my life in the pursuit of serving my family, my community and my country. After high school in 1989 I started working at Mayo Clinic in the Environmental Design unit developing architectural reference standards for new building construction and remodeling projects. In 1991 I joined the Army to serve my country as a Tank Armor Crewman. I served active duty for 2 1/2 year and then in the Kentucky and Minnesota National Guard for 5 1/2 more year for a total military career of 8 years. After I transitioned from active duty for the Army to National Guard I started my college course of study in Computer Science and Mathematics. My degree was completed at Winona State University in 1998. After college my first job was back in Rochester at IBM where I worked for 12 year. In 2010 I started a new job at Mayo Clinic where I am today as a Lead Analyst Programmer. A few years into my career, I began volunteering on the organization's boards of directors. I've served in numerous organizations, mostly local. I had also served on the Rochester Public Schools future facilities planning committee. After growing my leadership skills with those organizations I ran for the Rochester Public Schools school board back in 2015 getting elected. I served on the school board for 1 term from January of 2016 thru December of 2019.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• I will bring experienced leadership with an understanding on what it takes to work effectively as an elected official. Working with multi-million dollar budgets is not overwhelming to me and I see as a key responsibility of every elected official. That is, to understand the budget and work with leadership on making recommendations on funding priorities. I also have a lot of governing experience which is both working with policy and supervision of organizational leadership. My background in architecture and school district facility committees helps me understand the mechanics of a city. Zoning and urban development are not new to me. Those too should also be key areas of understanding of a city council member.
• Affordable housing is a very high priority. Rochester has many needs and some need to take a higher priority than others. While there are organizations within the city as well as the county looking at this community need, it is also important for the city of Rochester to also look at helping where in can in this priority. With the growth projection facing Rochester is expected to be large, we need the housing for everyone in the city to be where it can be afforded. We also need more family housing planned and developed, more affordable apartments planned and developed as well as all the associated businesses for the city to be ready to meet the demands of growth in the coming years.
• Rochester has a number of challenges facing it in the years to come but a common thread between most of them is simply transparency and community involvement. Having served as an elected official on the Rochester Public School school board I have seen the need and strength of involving the community in discussion. But I have also seen where the community cannot fully understand an issue because of a lack of clear and transparent communication. For all of us to trust and believe in the decisions the city makes, it has to be based in open dialog with stakeholders that are not all hired consultants. While that tends to be a slower path to decision making, if we want to grow Rochester to be the city we all want, it is engagement is needed.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

While I want to joke and tell you my passion is in city services like sewers, that would not be true. My passion in public policy is actually in the space of quality, effective organizational governance. There are a lot of very important aspects of a city such as quality police and fire services, housing needs, transportation services and especially park services, they all have to start with highly efficient governance and policy. That policy is typically set by the organizations leadership, which in the case of a city is its elected officials. If you want to change the direction of an organization you have to start with changing policy and you have to understand the complexities of doing that. I simply love that.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

While I don't look up to an individual, I certainly look up to those around me willing to speak up when it is hard to speak up. To people that carve out part of their busy life to give that time to help others. Or as the Rotary organization states it, people that put service above self.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

An elected official must be of the highest character in terms of respect, integrity and leadership.

In terms of respect, while any elected official should have a passion for the office they hold and of course stand up to that they feel is right and wrong, it does not mean they should be disrespectful when decisions are made that do not go in the direction they were hoping for. Decisions are made as a governing body and with a multitude of differing opinions there will be times that go against the elected officials desires and that is part of the process.

In terms of integrity , while everyone elected or not should hold a high level of integrity all elected officials absolutely must uphold the highest level of integrity. The people that elected the official put their trust into that person to do what is right, truthful and honest in all situations, be it a situation while acting as an elected official or as a private citizen.

In terms of leadership, while there are many characters of a high quality leader, specifically an elected official must display the qualities of courage, communication (listening as well as conveying information), vision, learning agility and decision making. While many people have some of these qualities, it takes all of these qualities to perform as the highest level of needed for an elected official to move an organization forward.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

Go back and read what I wrote for qualities an elected official needs to posses. I posses those qualities, I have had formal education in those qualities and having been an elected official in the past, I have demonstrated those qualities.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Effective communication (listening as well as conveying information), understanding vast amounts of information, decision making skills.

What legacy would you like to leave?

Simply the legacy that anyone with a passion for service, for making the community they live in better and wanting to help all the people around them can run for office, make a difference and leave the world a better place.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

The space shuttle Challenger exploding during takeoff. I was sitting in woods class at Mayo High School when the teacher turned on the TV after an announcement and we sat and watched the replay of the event.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My very first job here in Rochester was washing dishes at John-Barley Corn restaurant on south broadway. While I only washed dishes for less than a year, I moved up into a prep-cook position and worked there for 2 years while in high school.

What is your favorite book? Why?

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell.

Why, because it is real world situations that explain one of my favorite classes, Chaos Theory (mathematics). There are times when the slightest of situations while seemingly small, maybe tiny over time can have huge effects on situations surrounding the situation. Or other times where someone might thing a topic is unrelated when it is actually the root of a situation.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Alex Rogan - Last Star Fighter. A story about a kid that loved to play video games and was recruited for those skills to fight in the interstellar war and save everyone. Just a regular kid that found out he could step up and do great things when he needed to.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Frank Sinatra - My Way

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

Weight loss. Yes, while this has nothing to do with an elected official, but it has been my life long struggle. Its personal to me in how it effects my self image, it is always something I am trying to overcome.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for holders of this office to have previous experience in government or politics?

answer

What kind of skills or expertise do you believe would be the most helpful for the holders of this office to possess?

A person elected to the position of city council member needs to have the skills and experience of look at, discussing and analyzing large (multi-million dollar) budgets.

The person needs to have the skills of collaboration with other elected officials, city staff, citizens and other government organizations.

The person needs to have great communication skills. From listening to different levels of voices to then being able to convey effectively what they understand the situation to be is. When I say different levels of voices that means from very high level visionary thoughts, to mid-level topical discussion to low level details of the subject of discussion.

Tell us your favorite joke.

:-) I can't share my favorite joke on this platform (and I hope that made you laugh).

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

I feel financial transparency and accountability are extremely important.

While some government organizations do a good job sharing budgetary information it can be obscured in a voice of accounting terms and business management language, not often common voices of the average citizen. I feel while that is the voice of the person putting the information together understands, it needs to be conveyed in a public forum typically to the elected body in a voice the citizen can understand. When people understand how a budget is established, where budgetary priorities are set, where fiscal efficiencies are found and where growth is constrained to reasonable levels, the budget is going to be more accepted.

This all applies to accountability as well. When budgetary levels are set and not met, there needs to be accountability as to why the level was not met. When budgets need to increase, when the increase is not within fiscal norms, there needs to be additional accountability in explaining why the increase needs to be outside those norms. When projects paid fail after money has been spent, the projects failure needs to be understood as to why so that failure is not repeated on future projects.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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Rochester City Council District 6

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