By a 5-3 vote Monday night, the Duluth City Council picked Arik Forsman to serve out the remainder of At Large City Councilor Elissa Hansen's term.
Forsman, a 30-year-old working in the field of regional economic development for Minnesota Power/Allete, was selected to serve as Hansen’s replacement until January of 2020.
He was one of three finalists interviewed by the council for a second time Monday night. Janet Kennedy and former Duluth City Councilor Jeff Anderson also advanced to the final round, with Kennedy garnering three votes to Forsman's five. In all, 20 people applied to serve on the council.
Hansen plans to officially step down from her council seat Tuesday. She is leaving the post due to the demands of her new job as president and CEO of The Northspan Group Inc., a regional nonprofit development organization.
At Large Councilor Noah Hobbs, who succeeds Hansen as council president, praised her saying: “You’ve exemplified listening as a servant and not always having to fill the room with your voice. I think your pragmatic thoughtful decision-making approach and how you do business without letting ego or personality get in the way is an example certainly for me and anyone else who is interested in serving in this so role. So Councilor Forsman you have a role model to look up to.”
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Describing his desire to serve, Forsman said: “I believe in a brighter vision of the future for Duluth, and I have the passion and the work ethic to do things that will help achieve that vision.”
Kennedy, a parish nurse and small-business owner with a background in physical therapy, has twice unsuccessfully run for City Council, once to represent the 5th District and most recently for an At Large seat. She has sought to become the city’s first black city councilor.
Councilor Renee Van Nett, a Native American serving Duluth’s 4th District, asked Forsman how he would work for often under-represented residents.
“I am a young white male of middle-income status. I recognize that I’m pretty much the face of privilege, and I know that I can’t truly understand somebody’s story unless I have walked in their shoes,” Forsman said. “But I do believe I have the passion to understand people’s opportunities and challenges, to meet them where they are, and I want to work on policies that get at those things with all of Duluth and all Duluthians.”
Forsman called himself “a natural relationship builder.”
“I don’t come to the table alone,” he told councilors. “There were a lot of support emails sent to some of you that came from people with diverse backgrounds and life experiences. I want to bring those people forward and really be a champion for them.”
In terms of economic development, Forsman said: “One of the most important things we can do is nurture our entrepreneurs and create an entrepreneurial culture.”
“I do like the idea of working more closely with our universities and colleges. There is great work that UMD Center for Economic Development has done, and I think we can continue to do more to take our students and spin out more local businesses,“ he said.
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“I think we need to invest in what we want to be. One specific example is we have the U.S. Steel site, which we’ve been cleaning up in partnership with the port and others. That has the potential to be a really big project that could create a lot of jobs for families,” Forsman said.
“So what do we need to get there? We need to plan out very smartly the investments that we need to make, like extending infrastructure, which I’m not a big fan of expanding infrastructure, but in this case if we need to, I think it makes sense, developing strategic opportunities to go after a broad diverse range of industries, because we don’t know what will be needed in 10 years from now, making sure that we’re working in partnership with workforce development, so that we have our talent pipeline ready for whenever there is an opportunity for Duluth to jump on,” he said.
