Candidate Profile: Dustin Hoffman For St. Clair Shores Council

Dustin Hoffman

Age (as of Election Day)

40

Position Sought

St. Clair Shores City Council

Party Affiliation

None

Family

None

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Education

MBA, Michigan State University / BA, Economics Albion College

Occupation

Marketing and IT Consultant

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

None

Campaign website

votedustinhoffman.com

Why are you seeking elective office?

St. Clair Shores has a great opportunity to move forward and to be more successful. Today, there are too many barriers for residents and business owners that prevent investment and growth in our city. Additionally, we need more avenues to collect resident and stakeholder feedback across critical city issues to ensure our local government is delivering and more importantly is accountable.
The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The resident experience is one of our most critical issues. The experience you get when you arrive at city hall to conduct business, the level of service your contractor receives when they go to pull a permit and the barriers in place that prevent residents from providing feedback to improve the city. I will tackle this by brining city customer service to the forefront by A) measuring satisfaction with the city and interactions B) digitizing bill payment and other key transactions C) establishing vehicles to solicit resident feedback to ensure this feedback is applied when making city decisions.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

Experience. I have almost 20 years of management, customer services, IT and general experience running large complex organizations. We need to approach local government like a business - and serve customers (e.g. our residents, business owners and other stakeholders). I look at decisions through this angle, which makes me different.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)

I think our current board is full of people who are doing a good job and really care about the city. I do believe that my experience and ideas may help to propel the city forward, which is why I'm running. It's not that the current board is bad or doing something wrong - I just believe my approach and ideas are different and may be more effective.

How do you think local officials performed in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

The city performed well

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

Everything can be found at my website. However, the issues are:
1. Improve the resident experience
2. Put SCS on the map by creating marketing campaigns around events and our city to encourage investment
3. Business First - essentially directly dealing with vacant land, setting up economic growth areas and encouraging business development
4. Keep Lake St. Clair Clean - last weekend we discharged 100M gallons of sewage into the lake. We need to partner with county, state and federal officials to create a meaningful program to stop the pollution

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

The best advice ever shared with me was:

Service is a calling, and not one that should be taken lightly

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

Please visit my website and feel free to email me with any questions or concerns.