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TOM CONLON ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR STATE AUDITOR
By Luke Hellier | December 2, 2009
CONLON TO SEEK REPUBLICAN ENDORSEMENT FOR MINNESOTA STATE AUDITOR IN 2010
Former St. Paul School Board Member Tom Conlon announced today that he will seek the Republican Party endorsement for Minnesota State Auditor.
“In difficult economic times for families and taxpayers, as well as Minnesota’s local governments, accountability in how we spend our tax dollars is essential.†Conlon said. “We cannot do business as usual when people are hurting.â€
Conlon said that the state auditor plays both a policy and a non-partisan, professional role in assisting municipalities, counties and other governmental bodies in Minnesota with strong accounting and reporting practices. “I want to improve transparency of how tax dollars are raised and used,†he said. “The auditor must also consider the challenges governmental units face and provide assistance where needed to improve accountability and transparency. There must be a better way.â€
Examples where transparency could be improved are in areas of tax increment funding and other public subsidies local governments use for economic development. “We must make sure there are sound reasons for such and not political payoffs or wasteful handouts to political cronies,†he said. “There are probably places where this has become an issue, and I look forward to talking with Minnesota’s citizens and elected officials on the campaign trail to find out areas of concern in their communities.â€
Other areas Conlon feels the auditor can play an active role are ensuring that state and federal funds going to local governmental units for job growth are creating sustainable jobs in the long term. “If these funds disappear in one or two years, and they likely will, the money is wasted if those jobs disappear. Sustainable jobs are a wiser investment and help people and communities in the long term, particularly in the private sector.â€
Conlon served on the St. Paul School Board from 1992 until earlier this past summer, when he resigned his seat to relocate to Asheville, N.C. to operate a historic inn. He recently returned to Minnesota and has continued his teaching duties on the management faculty at Metropolitan State University. He also is a self-employed photographer and real-estate investor. Divorced, he resides in St. Paul’s Macalester-Groveland neighborhood where he grew up and has lived again since 1989.
Conlon served as the school board’s lone Republican his entire time on the board (and as the sole Republican-endorsed elected official among the city’s elected officials at any level of government). “Having won five consecutive elections with Republican party endorsement in a heavily DFL city, I believe I am the most electable of the candidates for our party endorsement because I can attract votes from constituencies that traditionally have not supported Republicans,†he said. “I represented a constituency of approximately 287,000 people (2000 Census) or half of a congressional district, so I also bring a larger general election base to grow from.â€
During Conlon’s board service, he was a voice of fiscal responsibility and accountability. “I raised questions of spending on employee contract settlements, project labor agreements on construction projects and other areas that at times we could not afford, or which came at the expense of funding more mission-critical needs in the classroom,†he said. “I participated in audit discussions and reviewed findings of 16 annual school district independent audits, so I am familiar with the work that they review.
“I also saw organizations representing governmental bodies, or providing services to them, with governmental representatives on their boards but who would not make minutes of their meetings public. Decisions were made at those meetings that influenced policy or how tax dollars would be spent to pay membership dues, but their own members or constituent bodies could not find out who advocated for them or what went into the process. This is the type of transparency I’d like to advocate for on a policy role, and where appropriate make recommendations to the state legislature or legislative auditor how we can improve openness is government.â€
Conlon added that “golden parachutes†in governmental executive contracts, pensions and related contracts should be more aggressively explored. “Former Auditor Pat Anderson brought light to this with school district superintendent contracts and made a real difference,†he said. “We need to pick up where she left off and be advocates of the taxpayers, not special interest groups.â€
Conlon hopes to be endorsed at the Republican Party state convention in late April 2010 and has begun campaigning throughout the state to meet with party activists, delegates, citizens, elected officials and attend community events and forums.
Conlon, 49, was born and raised in St. Paul, excluding 4th-10th grades when his father taught music in the Department of Defense Schools in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and his family lived overseas. A 1978 graduate of St. Paul’s Highland Park Sr. High School (and 2006 Hall of Fame inductee as well as alumni association president), he then served 4 years in the U.S. Marine Corps in California and North Carolina. He obtained degrees at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (B.A. journalism/political science, 1984; M.A. public administration, 1986) and a Ph.D. in Work and Human Resource Education from the University of Minnesota in June 2009. He was also a 1994-95 Humphrey Policy Fellow at the University of Minnesota.
His previous professional work included sales, marketing communications and public relations positions at 3M in Dallas, TX and St. Paul, followed by self-employed consulting/independent contract work in human resources and free-lance writing for local companies. He has been on Metropolitan State University’s community faculty since 2005 where he teaches undergraduate courses in management and organizational behavior. He has also taught human resource, management, sales, and customer service courses at the University of Minnesota and other local institutions.
Outside of professional activities, Conlon enjoys doing volunteer work with photography or serving meals for charitable organizations, the Germanic-American Institute in St. Paul, and Boy Scouts of America. He has served on boards of directors for the Minnesota School Boards Association, Minnesota Chorale, Minnesota Service Cooperatives, Metropolitan Educational Cooperative Service Unit (ECSU), Minnesota State High School League Region Committee and delegate assembly, and related organizations. He chairs the University of North Carolina’s alumni club in Minnesota is currently a candidate for the University’s General Alumni Association Board of Directors.
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