MANKATO — If he’s done it once, he’s done it a thousand times.
Based on a rough estimate, Community Development Director Paul Vogel has sat at the staff table through more than 700 Mankato City Council meetings and over 300 Planning Commission sessions. And while those in attendance might not always have felt that time flies when observing municipal government in action, Vogel did.
“Thirty-two years goes really quick when you’re having fun and working hard,” Vogel said during his last meeting prior to his June 13 retirement.
A Mankato native, Vogel first came to City Hall as an intern in 1992 — apparently impressing City Manager Bill Bassett enough that he was hired as a full-time employee the following January. He credited Bassett and his first boss — City Planner Larry Forsythe — for instilling in him the importance not only of serving the public but of getting results.
Bassett’s successor, City Manager Pat Hentges, gave Vogel his promotions, all the way up to department head status — seeing skills, potential and maybe some not-so-common enthusiasm for municipal planning in a guy who would someday describe 32 years of council meetings as “fun.”
“Thank you, Pat, for taking a chance on a kind of nerdy, plaid-shirt-wearing, pocket-protector-using city planner,” Vogel said.
Finishing his career during the tenure of Susan Arntz, Vogel said he was thankful to have worked for “three great city managers” while also expressing gratitude to his colleagues, the public and his family.
His work and that of his department has focused on planning and managing Mankato’s growth — using land use plans, zoning ordinances, development agreements and other strategies to promote orderly and sustainable expansion. He’s also been heavily involved in guiding a broad variety of improvements in municipal services, in quality of life and in aesthetics through management of public housing programs, the transit system, building design standards, redevelopment efforts for blighted properties and parks planning.
Two-term Mayor Najwa Massad, who also worked closely with Vogel as a long-term member of the Planning Commission prior to her mayoral run, instructed him Monday night to move from the staff table where he sits with other department heads to a seat in front of the council dais.
“This is the last time I’ll be able to tell you what to do, Paul,” Massad said before praising him at length for a legacy that will “carry on forever.”
“What a beautiful community we have, and you were a huge part of it,” Massad said.
Prior to his own retirement after nearly 25 years as city manager, Hentges credited Vogel more than anyone else for the marathon effort to persuade Walmart to bring its distribution center to Mankato. His legacy goes beyond oversight of the dramatic growth on the city’s east side, also including some striking revitalization efforts in and near the city center such as creation of Sibley Parkway, infill development in underused parcels across the city and a major expansion of bike trails and on-street bike lanes.
Mankato’s population has grown nearly 45% during Vogel’s time in city government, and Mankato-North Mankato officially became a metropolitan area under federal definitions — albeit one of the nation’s smallest metros.
With that status came a number of changes, including the creation of a transportation planning organization governed by elected representatives of the neighboring cities and townships and the counties in the metro area. Vogel was assigned to oversee the creation of the Mankato-North Mankato Area Planning Organization and has been its only executive director.
Vogel’s longtime deputy — Associate Director of Community Development Mark Konz — is slated to take over both as community development director and executive director of MAPO.
Saying “it’s amazing what’s been accomplished” by Mankato in the past three decades, Vogel said he will be keeping an eye what comes next even as he retires to the Pacific Northwest: “It’s going to be really exciting to watch.”
While the specific future of his hometown might be unknown, Vogel’s final four words were entirely predictable. If he’s said them once, he’s said them a thousand times when wrapping up oral summaries of conditional use permits, zoning amendments, preliminary plats, economic development subsidy requests, certificates of design compliance and more over 32 years.
It might not go down in history like “And that’s the way it is,” “May the force be with you,” or “Here’s looking at you kid.” But the four words became Vogel’s catchphrase, and he might have exited to a chorus of boos if he’d finished his comments Monday night without saying it.
“One last time … ‘This concludes staff’s report.'”