Candidate Questionnaire Response: Tony Her, Ward 6

Tony Her is running for City Council in Ward 6. Learn more about him at https://tonyherward6.com

What is your vision for safety and wellness rooted in St. Paul communities? As a city councilmember, what concrete steps would you take to support that vision? And who else would you work with to advance that vision?

I was a park ranger so I take a safety very seriously. If I am your council member I will engage community to listen to their voice and support the vision of crime reduce in the city of Saint Paul. I will work with MN state legislature to punish who commit a sex offenders.

What alternatives to policing, arrest, criminal prosecution and incarceration would you work to support? How would you work to reduce the dramatic racial disparities and impacts of these systems?

I favor the police to do foot patrolling and respond to citizen calls quickly. I support racial gender equity in St. Paul.

Many people who are routinely impacted by policing come from our most impoverished and disenfranchised communities, and due to systemic inequities, they are comparatively disconnected from the levers of power. How would you work to elevate the experience and insight of directly impacted community members so they can have the same impact on shaping policy as well-funded advocacy organizations?

I will work with many different communities to celebrate our life together to shape our police department.

In partnership with the community-first safety initiative, and with leadership support from the city council, St. Paul residents have advanced the idea of a community cabinet on safety, wellness and justice. How would you support this cabinet to ensure it has lasting and meaningful input?

I will work and partner with communities, residents, and others organization to cabinet to make sure our residents are safe.

What is your knowledge of or experience with restorative justice and restorative practices? How might St. Paul become a restorative city?

I am back ground of police officer I favorite punish who ever commit a crime hard and restore our justice to our communities.

What specific steps would you take to build stability in areas hard-hit by poverty, unemployment, and housing insecurity?

I will bring small business and big company to the East Side so they can hire our residents in the East Side before they hire others.

What do you know about the recently dissolved Joint Powers Agreement to share data to flag Ramsey County students as “at-risk”? What lessons do you think officials should take away from the political process that created the Joint Powers Agreement data-sharing plan?

I have worked for St. Paul Public School for over 25 years. I see all the data from our students that are not fair. I want our Ramsey County to study before they join and release any data.

What specific steps will you take to end the school to prison pipeline for St. Paul youth? What can you as a city councilmember do to create more opportunities for youth to thrive?

I will work with all St. Paul city councils and our mayor to bring jobs to Saint Paul to hire our youth and to provide a jobs skill training to our kids to prevent prison.

How should the city of St. Paul welcome and support people returning to neighborhoods from jail or prison, or living on probation? What steps would you take to make housing more accessible to people with criminal convictions?

I will work with the city of Saint Paul, County, and MN state legislature for job skills training to hire and to welcome to the communities.

What is a person, place, book, experience, or film that has especially influenced your vision of community-first public safety and your dreams about what’s possible for community-first public safety in St. Paul?

I am a Martial Arts master and local movies actors we can make some short film to be a good roll model for our kids to learn how to grow up to be good kids.

What informs your decision-making process when it comes to community issues? Can you share a story about a specific time when you had to decide where you stood on a difficult community issue, or when you had to decide what kind of action you should take on an issue? How did you arrive at the decision you did?

I came to this great country without parents and English. I had to face very difficult times but went to High School 4 years, 2 years, 4 years college and Law Enforcement school and graduated. I got hired by Harding Senior High School and worked in there for 4 years and in 1997 after the school was dismissed a Hmong students shot two Hmong students outside of the school I was first to the scene and called 911, called the students that got shot parents and be a liason for the principal to called the Hmong community leader to make sure their understand and also dealing with the news.

What does co-governance look like to you? How have you implemented that vision of co- governance in your own life and work? How would you work to scale up that vision in city government?

I had faced a situation in the Park when I was a Park Ranger a guy came to the park with two dogs he used a stick hit the two dogs in front of a large group of people the dispatcher called me and I went to him and told him not to abuse the animals in the parks so didn’t comply and I cited a with a citation and I took his two dogs to Saint Paul animals shelter.