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>> Rep Zerwas thank you for joining us today. >> thank you for having me.
>> can you describe your district and can you tell me in what ways are you in your district
similar? >> my district encompasses the City of out
river, big lake town ship, the city of big lake and a little sliver of Otsego. It is
not a Metro district and is not our role district where we are somewhere in between and I see
myself as I grew up in Elk River and graduated from Elk River high-school lived down in the
Twin Cities for college and then my wife and I moved back north after we got married. It's
kind of one of those things where although for a while I worked in the metropolitan area
I can feel more comfortable in fit in back at home so it's a great place to raise a family
it's a great great school system both districts are excellent school districts and provide
a lot of opportunities for the families in our district.
>> what is your occupation outside of the? Legislature a
>> my occupation by trade is an elite in fingerprint examiner saw compare fingerprints I work for
the sheriff's office in Anoka county for five years and then took of role for target corporation
and started a forensic fingerprint laboratory for target corporation and I left that role
as I entered into the Legislature and now I do some consulting work on the side by,
I have to be honest the Legislature is a little bit busier than I would've anticipated even
with what the call is our rate is generally tends to be pretty time consuming.
>> why did you initially decide to run for office as Representative ?
>> prior to serving and destroy served on the Elk River City Council and I served there
for six years. So many times things happen at the state level and impacted a local community
and that kind of got my attention and then following redistricting two years ago there
was an open seat created in a couple of our community members ask if I would ever be interested
and I threw my hat in the ring and I thought OK how tough can this be? it has been unbelievably
challenging for first term but really rewarding as well so I'm proud of my first term and
what were able to accomplish and learning so much of what goes into the budget session
in setting the budget. >> what do you see as the biggest challenge
the state will face in the next 10 years? >> I think there's a couple here that we need
to make sure Minnesota remains economically competitive. That's with our neighbors and
as a whole within the U.S. and I think a part of that is making sure were attractive to
recruit and retain new businesses and job creators something that's going to continue
to be a challenge in Minnesota and and then when you look at emerging issues clearly health
care and health care costs are still going to be significant issues.
>> if given a chance, who would you like to be for a day or who would you like to exchange
roles with? >> my heart surgeon. He was probably the smartest
person I ever met in my whole life and needed some the most amazing work that impacted families
directly so heated nine of my 10 open-heart surgeries and at certainly was an inspiration
to our family and made such a difference and I think if I can have at that type of job
satisfaction for a day I think that would be pretty powerful. . .