Maple Grove City Council Welcomes Two New Members
Maple Grove City Council swears in new member Mike Ostaffe on January 21.
Maple Grove City Council swears in new member Jon McCullough on January 6.
Maple Grove City Council welcomed two new members this month. Jon McCullough was sworn in on January 6 and Mike Ostaffe was sworn in on January 21.
“I think new council members always bring new perspective and new areas of interest to the council, so it’s always a time of learning,” said Maple Grove City Administrator Heidi Nelson. “We do a pretty extensive onboarding process with newly-elected officials just to give them a line of sight to the breadth of the work we do here at the city, the services we provide and the facilities we operate.”
Nelson also said the city will often use the winter months when there is less construction and development-related talk to use work sessions to delve into more complex and long-range plans.
“That really gives the city council an opportunity to sit around a table when they’re not really facing a decision but an opportunity to learn about a topic but weigh in and give direction to staff about where to go from here,” she said.
Nelson encourages each new council member to seek out connections with fellow council members in other communities through the League of Minnesota Cities and other organizations, and she encourages open dialogue between council and city staff, including herself.
“One of my practices is to reach out to every council member on the Monday of the council meeting and see if they have any questions and walk through any agenda items that they might seek additional information about or have questions about try to make sure we’re answering those as best we can prior to the meeting and make sure they have all the information they need as they consider how they might vote on an issue,” said Nelson.
