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Mike Ostaffe (Maple Grove City Council, Minnesota, candidate 2024)
From Ballotpedia
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Mike Ostaffe ran for election to the Maple Grove City Council in Minnesota. Ostaffe was on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024.[source]
Ostaffe completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Mike Ostaffe provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on October 7, 2024:
- Bachelor's: University of Pittsburgh
- Graduate: Northwestern University, Kellogg Graduate School of Management
- Prior offices held:
- School Board Director (2017-2021)
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign slogan: Represent everyone, everywhere in Maple Grove.
- Campaign website
- Campaign endorsements
- Campaign Facebook
- Campaign Instagram
- Campaign YouTube video
Elections
General election
General election for Maple Grove City Council (2 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for Maple Grove City Council on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | ||
Samba Fall (Nonpartisan)  | ||
| Brad Ganzer (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Brandy Logan (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Clarke Macbeth (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Jon McCullough (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Mike Ostaffe (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Joshua Provo (Nonpartisan) | ||
| James Robbins (Nonpartisan) | ||
| ||||
| = 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. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
To view Ostaffe's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Ostaffe in this election.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Mike Ostaffe completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Ostaffe's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am a loving husband to my wife and caring father to my adult triplet children. I am a trusted friend and a helpful neighbor. I am an engineer with an MBA, a consultant, entrepreneur, and public servant. I currently serve on the Maple Grove Planning Commission, serve on the Board of Directors of CCX Media, and served as a School Board Director, vice-Chair, and Chair. After achieving senior level roles in large organizations I joined a start-up in the agricultural space over 12 years ago and have held several entrepreneurial roles since. I hold a patent. I am a member of the Maple Grove Lions. I mentor start-up companies to help them achieve success.
- Provide for Core services - Water, Sewers, Roads, and Public Safety. These are the needs, and they have to take priority.
- Continue to develop and maintain great parks and other public amenities as prioritized by the residents. Plan for the future of the city in regards to parks, housing, and business investment to the benefit of current and future residents.
- I will focus on the needs, prioritize the wants, and do so in a fiscally responsible manner with the understanding that the money spent by the city comes out of the wallets of my friends, neighbors, and all members of the community.
Public Safety and City Planning. The safety and security of our residents is paramount. Both Fire and Police services needs to be well-planned and properly staffed and funded. Planning for the future development and redevelopment of Maple Grove is also a key issue for me. We need to actively engage with and provide a welcoming environment for businesses seeking to invest in Maple Grove and provide jobs and services for our residents. We must plan for the future housing needs of all of our residents, from young families to seniors, and we need to have infrastructure in place to ensure that growth does not create a financial burden or impact the quality of life for our residents.
City Council is the closest political organization to each of our residents. People have different ideas across the state, and elect their neighbors to represent them and reflect their concerns. The City Council represents the will of the people at the local level. We are tasked with providing clean water, working sewers, passable roadways, and public safety (Police and Fire). We plan and build and maintain the parks and we plan for the future development of the city. Each city is given the unique ability to grow and develop in ways that the residents support. State government must understand that overarching mandates from St. Paul may not reflect the will of the people in different cities across the state. Local decisions should be made locally.
I look up to anyone who has faced criticism from anyone who does not have the knowledge or understanding to be making it. I look up to entrepreneurs who have risked it all to chase a dream and change an industry/the world. I look up to parents who struggle and sacrifice to provide a better future for their children than the one they had.
No, I have not written it yet.
The ability to actively listen to the citizens. The ability to be open-minded. Honesty. Transparency. Accountability. The ability to collaborate. The ability to admit mistakes. A guiding principle is that I will not spend taxpayers’ money on a project that I wouldn’t spend my own money on. A project or program does not magically improve when you are spending Other People’s Money.
I am honest, curious, willing to listen, able to collaborate with many stakeholders, and am willing to learn from mistakes.
If elected to represent the residents of Maple Grove, I will work to maintain and improve the quality of life of all residents through proper guidance of the budget associated with public works projects (water, sewer, roads), public safety (Police, Fire), Parks and Recreation, provide a thoughtful, measured approach to new development, and encourage an aggressive approach to bringing new business investment to Maple Grove.
Leaving a legacy usually means using tax dollars to build a big project. I want to be known as the man who served the residents to the best of his ability and focused on needs over wants, asked a lot of questions, made data-driven decisions, and kept his hand out of your wallet.
The first moon landing. Old enough to understand what a huge achievement this was.
I founded a lawn care business when I was 14 and ran it for 7 years to pay for my way through college. It also helped to pay my Brother’s way through college and kept my college roommates from running out of rent money. I learned how to talk and listen to people, understand their needs, provide services on time and well done, handle criticism, and how to budget wisely, make good investments, and spend frugally.
Ringworld. The first ever sci-fi book that I read. You need imagination to reach the stars.
My own life is pretty good.
Baby Shark. Now you try and get rid of it.
Answering this question.
I have over eight years serving on elected and appointed bodies. That experience certainly helps me better understand the issues faced by the city and how the staff and council work together to address issues. Is previous experience beneficial? Yes. Is it mandatory? No, but you will face a steeper learning curve. Before I ran for the school board, I applied for and was appointed to the Finance Commission. Before I ran for City Council, I applied for and was appointed to the Planning Commission. I also attended council meetings, budget workshops, and strategic planning meetings for several years. I listened and learned before I jumped in with both feet.
You must have the ability to ask questions of the residents and then be quiet and listen to their concerns. You must ask questions of the staff and others whom come to you for project and program funding. You need to be curious. You have to be able to collaborate with other council members to provide the needed services at the lowest cost to the residents. A business background and economic and financial acumen is helpful to understand and prioritize items in a $115M total budget. I believe my mix of engineering, MBA, and governmental experience provides the right mix of skills to successfully represent our residents on the City Council.
A city council member is the closest representative to our residents. We set the priorities and budgets with the input of our residents.
There are enough lawyer jokes already out there. Pick one.
All budgets are published and on-line, budget workshops and public hearings are held to provide information, and a truth in taxation meeting is held annually. Since the information is already publicly available, I would work to better communicate these resources to our residents so no one is surprised when the tax statements comes out. As for accountability, I believe in the power of the vote to bring about change if elected officials are not listening to the will of the people.
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.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
