Demgen won't seek re-election

BACKUS - First District Commissioner Jim Demgen announced Tuesday at the county board meeting that he will not seek re-election this fall to the Cass County Board.

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He successfully ran for the board six times, including one two-year term resulting from district reapportionment changes, and will complete 22 years on the board in December.

Living in the Brainerd area 58 miles from the Walker courthouse, Demgen figures he has put more than 200,000 miles on his vehicles on county business in those 22 years. He said he has had good citizens to represent, with only a handful of negative phone calls.

"There's life after politics," he said of his choice not to seek re-election. "I can walk away still liking the job and the people. I'm proud of where we've come in 22 years. I'm proud of our department heads.

Jim Demgen

"I've been blessed to have good boards to work with he added, noting the commissioners have generally agreed to disagree on some issues, but always have treated each other in a friendly manner and gotten along well on a personal level.

Demgen recalled the following county accomplishments in the last 22 years:

• The county never raised the annual budget more than the percentage of growth in the county each year. With growth and the economy suffering now, the board set a zero budget increase for 2010.

• Hiring a county administrator helped better organize county government and the board. Cass commissioners generally complete their twice-monthly meetings in about two hours today. When Demgen joined the board, commissioner meetings beginning at 9 a.m. generally ran all day, sometimes until as late as 7 p.m.

• Creating a chief financial officer position improved the county's financial planning and helped to better track income sources and expenditures.

• Cass has increased collaboration with neighboring counties, most notably with Crow Wing County in the joint jail construction project. Cass has implemented a cooperative law enforcement agreement with Leech Lake Reservation and has improved communications with the band.

• Cass is in the process of exploring emergency service law enforcement communications and possibly dispatching services with neighboring counties as the new federally mandated ARMER communications system is being planned.

• Cass was instrumental in opening family centers in five communities in the county to provide preventive and early intervention family support services. Satellite offices for Health, Human and Veterans Services have been opened at family centers throughout the county, making their services available closer to all residents' homes.

• Cass' website now offers services on the Internet, making county information more readily available to the public and lessening the need for staff to provide services. Converting county records to digital format has saved space and made it much easier to cross-reference information.

• The county's trail system has expanded significantly, offering much greater recreational variety and opportunity.

• The auditor and treasurer offices were combined into one service center as were environmentally related services in the Environmental Services Department.

• The highway department and sheriff's department were among the beneficiaries of Cass' shift to upgrade equipment quality.

"When I started, the sheriff was running with used highway patrol cars," Demgen recalled.

• When the county built a land department office at Backus using proceeds from timber sales, a meeting room was included. This has enabled Cass to hold county board meetings closer to residents in the south end of the county. Planning commission meetings also are more centrally located now than when they were all held in Walker.

• Cass implemented a program to hold county board meetings at night each summer in rural areas throughout the county, making it easier for more people to attend a board meeting near their home at a time convenient to working people.

• Cass adopted a policy that all constituents are the county's customers.

For the future, Demgen has long advocated for expanding interactive television use, especially for the court system and would like to see that implemented. He thinks a regional emergency services dispatching system should be implemented.

Demgen would like to see the county hire a human resources specialist to negotiate union contracts and manage county personnel matters. Currently, two board members, the county attorney, administrator and chief financial officer share those duties, with a contracting outside attorney handling some other personnel functions.

Demgen has been a sales representative for Hillyard Inc., a cleaning products and services company, for 34 years. He and his wife of 43 years, Carol, have lived in East Gull Lake 26 years. Carol is a retired Pillager School District teacher and has been an East Gull Lake City Council member for five years.

They have two adult daughters.

Demgen looks forward to having more time for hunting and fishing and breeding and training Labrador dogs. He hopes to run hunt trials. He and Carol also look forward to having more time to travel throughout North America.