Politics & Government

Hopkins Mayor Gene Maxwell Seeks One Last Term

He has been mayor since 2000.

Mayor Gene Maxwell is seeking another term in office this year—but the 13-year incumbent said there will be no 2015 bid.

“I know it’s the final term,” he said. “I can’t do this forever.”

Maxwell has two decades of experience as a Hopkins elected official. He was a city councilman from 1993 until 2000, when he began his current role as mayor.

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He got involved with city government when former Mayor Bob Miller recruited him to serve on the Park Board. After that, he served on the Zoning and Planning Commission.

Maxwell’s time in office has made him the face of the city in many ways. But he said he’s running again, in part, because of the success Hopkins has had getting everyday citizens involved. He cited initiatives like the Citizens Academy, Community Emergency Response Team and Police Reserves as ways the city has encouraged people to get involved in their local government.

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“I think the city’s making real good progress—and I’m not talking development-wise. I’m talking community-wise,” he said. “We’re just building a strong community through this whole process and that, to me, is more important than anything else.”

That doesn’t mean development is unimportant to him. Shepherding along projects like the Southwest Light Rail Transit line and the Shady Oak Road expansion also factored into his decision to run again.

Like others on the City Council, Maxwell said the challenge with future development will be holding out for the right projects. He noted how Hopkins passed on less-desirable proposals for the Cargill site until eventually the corporate campus project came along.

More recently, the council rejected maX It Pawn’s request to put a pawnshop on the old Blake Road BP site. In a parting shot council members never forgot, the pawnshop owner criticized the city for choosing a “hope and a dream” over a real project and that there is “no magic pixie dust” for a site that has proven difficult to redevelop. His broker predicted the property would sit vacant for at least five years.

Yet it took just a little more than five months for a new project to come along that developed into the retail center under construction now that will include a Five Guys Burgers and Fries and more.

“There’s going to be some opportunities that we turn down, but there’s also going to be some that we accept and look into,” Maxwell said. “It’s all about opportunities right now. We’re sitting good with light rail. We can be more selective.”

Maxwell also praised the way Hopkins has continued to maintain roads, sewer and other infrastructure during the roughest times of the recession; it’s left the city in a better position than surrounding communities. But he expects budgets to be a continuing challenge on the road ahead.

“It’s still about dollars. It’s still about getting the services that the citizens want at the best possible value,” he said.



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