Allan Rose hangs up council hat after 26 years | News | #citycouncil

“If someone calls you with a problem, or they don’t like something like an ordinance or a policy the city has, I always offer to go to their house,” Rose suggested. “I don’t like to talk on the phone; I like to talk in person. And that’s worked really, really well.”

If he’s known for a second thing, it’d be objecting to City Council meeting adjournments.

“That was something I did one time during Roy [Srp]’s first term as mayor, and he’s never forgotten it since,” Rose said, laughing, explaining that the objection had come at the end of a particularly late council meeting where the city council had held some good discussion. “I guess I just liked it so much I didn’t want to go home.”

Since then, Mayor Roy Srp would often end meetings with a joke where he’d ask if anyone objected to the council adjournment, and then say, “No one ever does except for Allan.”

Rose’s tenure on the council began in 1987, and though his 26 years serving as a are not continuous, with him serving one term from 1988-1989 and then serving from 1998 until Dec. 31 of this year, one thing has been constant during that time: public service.

It actually started in the private sector.

“I moved to Waseca in 1965, and in 1967, I went to work for Coast to Coast Hardware, where I was offered a chance to work my way into owning the store,” Rose said.

And while Rose said the transition to owning the hardware store never came to fruition, it was there that he built the passion that would drive his City Council career.

“I did that for 18 years, and that’s where I first started to enjoy going to homes and fixing things for them, servicing equipment, anything else that a hardware store might do,” Rose said. “Most importantly, that’s where I started to get a feel for public service.”

Rose speculated that it must have been during those 18 years that people began to approach him and ask him about running for city government. However, Rose said he was initially against the idea, because “at that time, and maybe today, politics didn’t get along with business; the two didn’t work very well together.”

Rose has always said he doesn’t think it’s fair to call city government “politics.” According to him, there was “too much corruption in politics. City government is more personal; you work with people.”

That view lines up with how Rose has always approached his elected service.

“I’ve spent 26 years on the City Council, and I’m going to miss it,” Rose said. “I’ve enjoyed working with people. … That’s really the beauty of the whole thing: working with people. You can’t make them all happy, but it’s a great feeling when you get them to change their attitude about something. … That’s what it’s all about.”

Rose was hesitant to name any of the “fantastic people” that he’s worked with over those years, only out of fear that he’d forget a name. However, there was one person who Rose had to praise: former Mayor Roy Srp, who also hung up his hat at the end of the year. Srp chose not to be interviewed for his own story.

“I know Roy doesn’t like to talk much about himself, but he really has done a great job being a representative for the people of the city,” Rose said. Srp, like Rose, is retiring at the end of the year.

Rose has served under four mayors: Richard Marcus (1988-1989), John Clemmons (1998-2000, 2014-2016), Tom Hagen (2000-2004) and Srp (2004-2014, 2016-2022). Of those four, Srp and Rose have spent the most time together on the council, clocking in at 16 years. Recently, at the Dec. 20 council meeting, Srp and Rose were both recognized for their dedication to the Waseca community.

The work of a City Council member isn’t easy. Anyone with the experience and tenure that Rose has will have certainly faced some big challenges in their time. There are some issues that may seem inconsequential now that felt world-ending at the time.

“I remember there was a lot of controversy over tattoo parlors. We spent a lot of time trying to keep those away from schools, children … and making it difficult for them to open up,” Rose said.

Another issue that came up during his tenure was the question of what Rose called “adult entertainment,” and the opposition held to that by many residents and “pastoral folk in the city.” While it may be controversial for a City Council to fight against certain businesses trying to open in Waseca, Rose said that it was all in the course of what he believed good governance to be.

“I believe the government has a moral obligation to protect its citizens,” Rose said, pointing to one specific area. “It’s all about the kids. You have to worry about the kids. Today is a tough time. Society has changed, and along with a new society is a degrading, an erosion, of a lot of things.”

Among the areas he claims erosion has taken its toll, Rose pointed to “integrity, commitment, loyalty, trust, honesty, discipline in schools and work ethic,” plus a “pride in property ownership,” pointing to the rise of city nuisance violations that have come up in recent years.

“It’s my belief that if you live in a municipality … those who live in a city don’t have the right to devalue their neighbor’s property … and that’s what happens when you leave junk in your yard,” Rose said, explaining his problem with the recent uptick in violations, before tapping his chest. “And that’s not written down. That’s in here.”

Just like the issues he’s argued over the years have made their impact, for good or for bad, on the city, those years have impacted Rose, who pointed to his age as one reason for his retirement.

“I don’t like getting older; who does?” Rose said. “My eyes aren’t as good as they were … my ears aren’t what they used to be, I have hearing aids, but I don’t like them. … I just think it’s time to get some new blood into the council.”

“I’ve worked a lot of jobs, sometimes three at a time,” Rose said, specifically mentioning his time at the hardware store, Brown Printing, the Owatonna Police Department and the Waseca Ambulance Service.

Rose said that he faced hard times in life, but was lucky enough to retire four years ago from working, as well as purchase some property down in Arizona, where he plans to vacation for a couple of months starting in early January.

“I want to, hopefully, start to enjoy my life and spend some time down there with my wife,” Rose said. “Her health is good, but when she’s down there it’s so much better. Same thing happened with my folks.”

As for the future, Rose assured that he would stay involved in the public eye as he always has been, mentioning that he’ll likely drop by to watch city council meetings from time-to-time as a constituent.

“I like a lot of people down there,” Rose said. “I’ve made a lot of friends in my time on the council.”