GreeningFrogtownJanFeb18FINAL

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PAGE 4 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017
For County Board Seat, the Race Is On You might think, wait, didn’t I just vote? But there’s always another political race around the corner. The next big local seat up for grabs is the County Commissioner position. Although this race is still mostly under the radar, it will be a focus of attention at the February 6 party caucuses, when DFL and Republican party activists get together to begin the process of deciding who, if anyone, will get the party endorsements. So far it’s a race between incumbent Janice Rettman and DFL challenger Trista MatasCastillo. Rettman has held the seat for 20 years after serving 1 0 years on the St. Paul City Council. Her district includes wildly different communities, ranging from Frogtown to Falcon Heights, to the Como Park area, the North End, and a swatch of the East Side. The responsibilities that come with the seat are enormous, since the county’s hand reaches into human services, parks, libraries, the courts, county law enforcement, roads, waste, housing and more. Rettman has often enjoyed a cakewalk into office, facing either weak challengers in the general election or none at all. In 201 4 she tallied 1 0,779 votes against the 2,953 for FROGTOWN NEWS Incumbent Jane Rettman, left, and challenger Trista MatasCastillo. Get involved in the race by participating in the DFL caucus, 6:30 pm, Tuesday, Feb. 6 at Capitol Hill Magnet School, 560 Concordia Ave., St. Paul. rival Girard Goder. In 2006 and 201 0, there was no other candidate for the seat. This time around, MatasCastillo is looking to make a strong bid for the DFL endorsement, and vows that regardless what happens at the district endorsing convention, she’ll take the race up to the August 1 4 primary. MatasCastillo brings an atypical work history to this contest. She served 1 6 years in three branches of the military — the Navy, Marines and Minnesota National Guard. She was a master weapons instructor, later went on to work for Habitat for Humanity and now serves as aide to Shoreview-area county commissioner Blake Huffman. She’s also a Bush Foundation fellow — a highly sought after award intended to promote leadership skills — and is founder of the Women Veterans Initiative, a nonprofit that assists female veterans. Plus, she and her husband serve as coaches of a boy/girl East Side wrestling club. Rettman, meanwhile, is a familiar face to thousands of constituents. For a generation she’s showed up at countless neighborhood meetings and events, developing personal relationships with voters along the way. She had a strong hand in developing neighborhood-based clean ups, and in the creation of yard waste disposal sites. More recently she was an advocate for the Trout Brook Nature Sanctuary. But she’s also known as a lone wolf on the county commission — often the single no vote amid the ayes of six other commissioners. That propensity got her included in a September StarTribune roundup of local public officials who are frequently the sole naysayers among their peers. Asked to name her priorities, MatasCastillo speaks to personal issues that are public policy matters as well. Her 1 8-year old son is severely autistic — Continued, Next Page JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 PAGE 5
Page 1 and 2: JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 Inside… Gre
Page 3: FROGTOWN NEWS Manager Simona Zappas
Page 8 and 9: Training, Continued showing me how
Page 10 and 11: She Wins the Clean Water Prize Frog
Page 12: PAGE 12 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

GreeningFrogtownJanFeb18FINAL

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