John Hayden

John Hayden

Education

Bachelor's

Spring Arbor University

Personal

Profession

National training lead

Contact

Personal website

John Hayden was a candidate for Ward 1 representative on the Minneapolis City Council in Minnesota. He was defeated in the general election on November 7, 2017.

Municipal elections in Minneapolis are officially nonpartisan, and Hayden ran as an independent candidate.

Biography

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Hayden earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Spring Arbor University.

At the time of his 2017 run for city council, Hayden was the national training lead for Genesys Works. His experience also includes service as a board member for No Labels Minnesota and work as a program coordinator for Genesys Works and Playworks and as a program leader and naturalist for Catholic Charities CYO.

Elections

2017

See also: Municipal elections in Minneapolis, Minnesota (2017) and Mayoral election in Minneapolis, Minnesota (2017)

Minneapolis, Minnesota, held a general election for mayor, all 13 seats on the city council, both elected members of the board of estimate and taxation, and all nine members of the park and recreation board on November 7, 2017. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was August 15, 2017.

Incumbents ran for re-election to all but two of the city council seats. Ward 3 Councilman Jacob Frey filed to run for mayor instead, and Ward 8 Councilwoman Elizabeth Glidden opted not to run for re-election.

Minneapolis City Council Ward 1, 2017, Round 2
Candidate	Vote %	Votes	Transfer
Kevin Reich (i) - Winner	51.1%	4,296	281
Jillia Pessenda	48.9%	4,112	266
John Hayden - Eliminated	0%	0	−853
Undeclared Write-ins - Eliminated	0%	0	−20
Exhausted		326	326
Total Votes		8,734	0
Note: Negative numbers in the transfer total are due to exhaustion by overvotes.

Legend:     Eliminated in current round     Most votes     Lost

This is the first round of voting. To view subsequent rounds, click the [show] button next to that round.

Minneapolis City Council Ward 1, 2017, Round 1
Candidate	Vote %	Votes	Transfer
Kevin Reich (i) - Most votes	46%	4,015
Jillia Pessenda	44%	3,846
John Hayden	9.8%	853
Undeclared Write-ins	0.2%	20
Exhausted		0	0
Total Votes		8,734	0
Note: Negative numbers in the transfer total are due to exhaustion by overvotes.

Campaign themes

2017

Hayden's campaign website highlighted the following issues:

“	A Better Ward One Anyone who lives in Ward One knows what makes our part of Minneapolis a special place to live. The breweries and restaurants, the diversity, the beautiful neighborhoods, and the Arts District are all part of what makes our ward truly exceptional. ​ However, anyone who wants to make Ward One their home long-term, should have some serious concerns. As one of those people, here are my biggest concerns: The average ACT score for a student at Edison High School is 16.5 and about 45% of students do not graduate. What does this say about the services our city provides these students and their families? What does this mean for the future of our community's workforce and economy? Housing is expensive! Our community cannot thrive if everyone is house poor. We do not have pedestrian or biker friendly streets and sidewalks. Many of our sidewalks are downright treacherous (read Tripping All the Way to Target) and our ward has perhaps the worst bicycle infrastructure in the city. As your city council member I will do the following for Ward One: Protect what makes our community wonderful by advocating for our small businesses and pushing for even better incentives for artists to locate to our Arts District. I will lead our community in unprecedented action towards the success of our schools. Though I won't write the curriculum, I will stabilize and support students and their families outside the classroom to increase performance inside the classroom. I will also promote initiatives that will engage our community in career and college guidance for our students. In order to keep the cost of housing down, we must zone responsibly and capitalize on prime development opportunities. The development plan for Shoreham Yards MUST include higher density, affordable housing. I will do everything in my power to end the streetcar project, decertify the special tax district, and reallocate the already captured funds for a much more affordable and effective Arterial BRT system. With the remaining funds, we can bolster our pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure--and do much more! Ward One IS great! However, without proactive leadership, the significant issues that need to be addressed may jeopardize everything that makes Ward One special. As a city council member you can count on me to put Ward One first! We will improve our schools. We will have more affordable housing. We will have transit that makes sense! World-class Arts Over the next 30 years, $650 million of downtown sales tax dollars will be committed to the stadium. However, the total sales tax collected will be in excess of $2 billion! A bill authored by Rep. Diane Loeffler in 2009 allows us to use sales tax dollars not spent on the stadium, convention center, and Target Center on economic development, affordable housing, and ARTS! St. Paul is way ahead of us! Since 2014, their Cultural STAR Program has committed nearly $7.5 million of their sales tax dollars to a special Arts & Culture District. We can no longer allow the stadium to soak up all of our resources! Let’s boost our economy and strengthen an already world-class arts community by investing $3 million of our sales tax dollars to Arts & Cultural Districts across the city each year. Our Arts community is truly world-class! Let's invest in our strength and make sure artists can continue to be an economic engine in Minneapolis. Budget Integrity Our city officials are fond of declaring our progressive priorities. However, once it is unshrouded, our city's budget speaks louder and tells a different story. The most notorious proof of this is our city's excessive and illegal spending on U.S. Bank Stadium. (I co-authored an article with Paul Ostrow for the Star Tribune on this very issue.) If you read the article, you will understand why I would call for a legal audit regarding the city's stadium spending on the first day as your city council member. Minneapolis taxpayers are being ripped off! What if we had made a stadium-sized investment in ending homelessness or closing our achievement gap? As your city council member, you will know how your tax dollars are being spent and you will be satisfied that they are being spent wisely! Healthy Democracy My decision to run as an Independent candidate is perhaps the strongest distinction I can make between myself and the all of the other candidates running for city council or mayor in Minneapolis. Democracy in Minneapolis is severely lacking. My opponents have just taken part in a DFL endorsement process that is exclusive, complicated, and outdated. Since the DFL has been the only game in town for decades, this arcane process has determined and preserved who makes decisions for our city. A single-party DFL system is not doing us any good. The charter defines the city council member position as nonpartisan. As an Independent, I am only beholden to my constituents, not a party. Additionally, to prevent an unhealthy accumulation of influence and to ensure fresh ideas and representation, I believe that council members should serve no more than two terms. If elected, I will push for this charter change and abide by the principle regardless. Environmental Leadership Minneapolis should be the greenest city in America. We have made tremendous strides in this area, but there is still room for growth. Public Transit – We must have a robust public transit system that serves people so well they wouldn’t think of using a car unless they absolutely had to. In order to do this, we must win over people who prefer parking over people (density). I will work to decertify an inefficient and ineffective streetcar project in favor of an ABRT system that is more flexible, affordable, and actually meets the needs of those who rely on public transit. Density – An article I recently read said, 'the most effective mass transit technology yet devised: the elevator.' I couldn’t agree more. Density makes public transit more effective. Density means more building shadows in a warming planet. Density allows for energy efficiency. Everything about density is environmentally friendly. We must zone our cities accordingly and boost our Affordable Housing Trust Fund, so that this density is affordable and welcoming. Global Warming preparedness – We must build on the goals and objectives of the Clean Energy Partnership to ensure that our city can adjust to rising waters and deadly heat. This means green space is preferred over concrete and resources are available to our most vulnerable citizens. As a former Outdoor Education Teacher, environmental stewardship is a value I hold dear and you can count on me to lead the way at city hall in this area. Policing and Public Safety I believe Minneapolis needs to return to a robust community policing model. We have 100 fewer officers on patrol than we did 8 years ago. If there is any hope in restoring trust in our police force and addressing growing crime, we must return to functioning levels. However, these must be culturally competent, well-trained officers who are invested in the communities they serve. Only 8% of Minneapolis officers live in our city. Forget that your tax dollars are flowing straight out of town, the real disaster is that 92% of our officers have no skin in the game when it comes to our public safety. State law prohibits us from residency requirements, so we must financially incentivize officers to live in our community. I propose a targeted program of housing vouchers for officers living within their precinct. We also must advocate for legislation that will allow residency to be a factor in promotions and for leadership positions in the department. We also need proper training and strict standards for our officers. And don’t let anyone fool you into thinking implicit bias and de-escalation trainings are adequate. These are token, knee-jerk reactions to an issue too complicated for a 6-hour training. Anyone championing these as solutions has not spoken with officers who have taken the trainings, as I have. The quality of police training relies on the competence and attentiveness of Field Training Officers. Raising the bar for FTO qualifications will directly improve the quality of our police force. Further, we cannot hire based on residency, but residency should be a requirement for being an FTO. What better way to ensure the FTO is invested in the success of a cadet or recruit? If we can focus on increasing the number of quality officers on patrol, we can build trust and address crime at the same time.	”
—John Hayden's campaign website, (2017)

Endorsements

2017

Hayden received endorsements from the following in 2017:

• Former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson
• Former Minneapolis City Councilman Paul Ostrow

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms John Hayden Minneapolis City Council. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

John Hayden - Google News

See also

Minneapolis, Minnesota	Minnesota	Municipal government	Other local coverage

External links

Suggest a link

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• Campaign website
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