DULUTH ― Ginka Tarnowski minced few words at a candidate forum Thursday afternoon as she explained her decision to challenge City Council President Janet Kennedy for her seat representing Duluth’s westernmost 5th District.
“I am running because Duluth must change how government does business as usual,” she said.
Kennedy, who is Duluth’s first black city councilor, said, “I am my ancestors’ wildest dream,” and she recalled taking office with the confidence that “I would be a great representative for the 5th District.”
But Tarnowski’s assessment was far more harsh.
She predicted Mayor Emily Larson will be defeated by former state legislator Roger Reinert, and suggested the City Council will need a remake, as well.
“Roger needs a new council willing to try something new. I want people in our district to be heard and served well right now, and that’s not happening,” Tarnowski said.
Kennedy begged to differ, describing her determination to serve as a champion for western Duluth, while also watching out for the best interests of the city as a whole.
“When I started running for office, I noticed western Duluth was not getting the investments that we needed,” Kennedy said.
That’s changed under her leadership, said Kennedy, who claimed: “We’ve had more investment in the last four years than we had in 12 years.”
Tarnowski faulted the city’s uniform development chapter for making it needlessly tough for developers to proceed with projects and meet Duluth’s housing needs.
“I think we need to just get rid of the process that we have right now with the UDC. The process is way too long. A lot of houses in Duluth have been grandfathered in. And if it’s good enough to get grandfathered in, it’s good enough to be built again,” she said, referring to “silly rules about setbacks” from other structures.
Kennedy said the UDC is a big and comprehensive document that does need to be revisited from time to time.
“It can’t be static,” she said, noting that recent revisions have been made. “So, we really did a lot of work in understanding how it’s impacting people.”
“Now, the other side of that is we do need to make sure we understand when we’re making changes how it’s impacting developers. Part of the conversation that we’ve all heard is that it’s hard to build here. So, we need to really dig in with developers. We need to dig in with our partners. We need to dig in with our unions and laborers to figure out what that means,” Kennedy said, noting that public health and safety concerns must also be considered.
Tarnowski suggested the current City Council is more talk than action, pointing the lack of progress on funding for a Spirit Valley community center.
“We say what we want to do, but we don’t actually do what we need to do to help Duluthians,” she said.
In her closing remarks, Kennedy talked about the need to sustain the progress that’s being made by the 5th District and the city as a whole.
“It’s clear that you know and you’ve heard that I have the understanding to continue moving forward policies, practices and procedures that actually work not just for our western Duluth community but across our city. Again, when you are a councilor, you are a councilor for the whole city, not just for one neighborhood,” she said.
“So, I will continue to lead with my values. I will continue to lead as a servant leader, making sure we get what we need across our city and especially in western Duluth,” Kennedy said.
Tarnowski expressed impatience, however.
“I want to be a city councilor because I want to take the time to knock on people’s doors, talk about the issues and then fix it. It should not take four years to learn how to run the city council. It shouldn’t,” she said.
Peter Passi covers city government for the Duluth News Tribune. He joined the paper in April 2000, initially as a business reporter but has worked a number of beats through the years.
