Christopher Shoff of Albert Lea is running uncontested for his second term serving as District 4 commissioner of Freeborn County.

Shoff, 36, is an Albert Lea native, graduating from Albert Lea High School in 1992. He attended the University of Minnesota and then attended Logan College of Chiropractic in Missouri.

He returned to join the family business, Shoff Chiropractic, in 2002 as a practicing chiropractor and has since taken over the ownership.

Shoff was recently elected for his third three-year term on the board of directors of the Logan College of Chiropractic Alumni Association and is a member of the Eagles Club and the Noon Lions Club in Albert Lea.

In his spare time, he enjoys golfing.

Accomplishments

Shoff has served as board chairman for the past two years. His goal is to run meetings succinctly.

He prides the fact that he’s never had to make a motion or a second. “That means other people are working together. The direction is a positive one,” he said.

Shoff is also proud that, when the former county administrator resigned, instead of outsourcing the hiring process to find a replacement, the board opted to use local resources and do the hiring themselves. He said this saved the county over $18,000 in unnecessary fees.

“It’s proven to be a good decision,” said Shoff. “County Administrator John Kluever has done very well.”

This year alone as chairman, Shoff has signed two disaster declarations because of damages received in major storms in Freeborn County: the tornadoes of June 17 and the floods of Sept. 22.

“While there are always things to improve on, we’ve done very well with both of those, both at the time of the incidents and after the incidents,” he said. “It was amazing to see the extra effort that everyone went to.”

He commended county departments, including the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office and the county’s Environmental Services Department, for their assistance to county residents and with surrounding cities during and after the weather-related disasters.

Perhaps his most proud accomplishment, however, has been the pulling together of the entire board in the absence of a commissioner in the District 5 seat. While he said any of the four current commissioners would have always taken calls from constituents outside of their jurisdiction, that holds true now more than ever.

Budget and taxes

The budget and property taxes are always a big concern for Shoff.

He cautions that the county needs to be careful in the next five years in the shift of land valuations.

“The shift has been more toward ag lands,” he said. “We haven’t had the growth in Albert Lea but have seen a big increase in ag land prices. As their valuations go up, they are responsible for a bigger piece of the tax levy.”

He plans to keep an eye on where the cost shifts are going among census trends that estimate the area is losing population. “As the population shifts, we still have that tax levy,” he said.

He added that in his district, the county portion of property taxes has gone down.

Shoff is also concerned about costs being shifted from the state to the county.

“Do you cut costs elsewhere to pay for the state system or do you cut costs associated with the state system?” he asked. “So far, that decision has not been made.”

He said he will work to try and control these costs while not shifting the burden locally.

Streamlining of services

Shoff thinks Freeborn County will see merging of services with other counties across the southern Minnesota region through a statewide redesign being considered by the Association of Minnesota Counties. He said that while there have already been talks of merging of human services at a state and local level, the proposal is still in the infancy stages.

He said that while he doesn’t know how much the county would save on this particular proposal, he thinks this sort of streamlining would be a shift in the right direction on saving dollars and efficiently utilizing resources while continuing to provide quality services.

“Change in government never happens fast,” he said. “The bigger the government, the slower the changes. It’s a shift in the right direction, but it needs to take time to be worked through properly.”

Shoff is pleased with the joint meeting in August between the city of Albert Lea and Freeborn County officials, and hopes to see more of these in the future, along with more discussions about sharing city and county resources.

“The direction is clear from county and city elected officials that we’d like to pursue this as often as possible,” he said.

Revenues

Shoff hopes Freeborn County continues to work on obtaining outside revenue streams, such as wind farms and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract.

“It will take a few years to see how the ICE contract goes,” he said. “It’s covered expenses, hired more individuals and it does provide well-paying jobs in the community.”

He also supports grants, such as the million-dollar grant for the ARMER radios.

“Grants take time and energy, but most of the work is done elsewhere and the money is there, it goes to someone. Why don’t we work for that,” he said.

While he supports economic development in the traditional sense to bring in jobs and individuals to help the area grow, he would also like to see more work done to draw people to reside in Freeborn County.

“Whether you work here or not, this is still a great place to live and raise a family,” he said.