Listening and Problem-Solving
Professional experience listening carefully, weighing competing perspectives, and helping people navigate difficult and complex situations.
Meet Jason
A City That Grows Together
Therapist, community organizer, father, and candidate for Champlin Mayor.
Jason Schaal
Candidate for Champlin Mayor
I'm running for mayor because I believe Champlin's future should be measured by more than new development, rising property values, or business growth—important as those things are. Real progress means bringing the whole community forward together and making sure no one is left behind.
City leadership helps set the tone for how a community listens, collaborates, solves problems, and treats its residents. Leadership should be open and transparent, willing to seek out expertise, and intentional about including people whose voices have not traditionally been represented in city decisions.
Champlin is already a strong community. I'm running because I believe we can become even stronger by building trust, supporting our neighborhoods, managing growth responsibly, and creating genuine opportunities for every resident to participate in our city's future.
My vision is a Champlin where families, seniors, young people, local businesses, and residents from every background can thrive—a city guided by Community. Transparency. Service. and committed to growing together.
Champlin Is Home
Roots in the Community
Nearly eight years ago, I came to Champlin as a divorced single father rebuilding a life for my family. I had very little, and I was trying to create stability, belonging, and a sense of home for my children.
After years of service with The Salvation Army, I made the deliberate decision to leave that career so we could put down roots. The quality of Champlin's schools and the strength of this community convinced me that this was where I wanted my children to grow up.
Two of my children have since graduated from Champlin Park High School, and my third will graduate from there as well. I have watched them grow through our local schools, form friendships, participate in the community, and begin discovering who they are. Champlin has been an important part of their personal formation, and that gives me a deeply personal investment in the future of this city.
From the beginning, this community embraced us. When I reached out for help, neighbors provided nearly everything we needed to begin again—from furniture and dishes to towels, silverware, and other household basics. The generosity I experienced through the local Buy Nothing community was not simply about receiving things. It was about discovering that we were not alone.
That experience shaped how I understand community. Community is built when neighbors notice one another, share what they have, and step forward when someone else is facing a difficult season.
Years later, I took over administration of Buy Nothing Champlin North when it grew out of the larger Champlin group. I did so in part out of gratitude for the people who had supported my family when we needed it most. The group continues to be a place where neighbors help one another, reduce waste, build relationships, and strengthen the connections that make Champlin feel like home.
I later created the Champlin Community Circle after seeing how difficult it had become for neighbors to discuss civic issues and politics without conversations becoming hostile, dismissive, or personal. My goal was not to eliminate disagreement. It was to create a space where people could disagree constructively, remain connected as neighbors, share local information, and talk about the future of Champlin with kindness and respect.
The Community Circle is rooted in a simple belief: a healthy community needs places where people can listen to one another, exchange ideas, ask difficult questions, and remain in relationship even when they do not see every issue the same way.
My decision to run for mayor is an extension of that work. For years, I have been organizing community, supporting neighbors, creating spaces for connection, and helping people navigate differences with compassion and respect. I am running because Champlin gave my family a place to begin again, and I want to help ensure that this remains a city where every resident has the opportunity to belong, contribute, and grow.
Background
Compassion and Competence Belong Together
My career has consistently centered on helping people, strengthening organizations, and bringing communities together. Today, I serve as an outpatient mental health therapist and licensed alcohol and drug counselor. My work requires careful listening, sound judgment, accountability, and the ability to help people navigate difficult situations without losing sight of their dignity, strengths, or potential.
Before entering clinical practice, I spent more than 16 years in pastoral and nonprofit leadership with The Salvation Army. That work placed me alongside individuals and families facing poverty, addiction, housing instability, grief, family disruption, and other significant challenges. It taught me to lead with compassion while also making difficult decisions, managing limited resources, and building partnerships capable of producing practical results.
My experience has also included substantial business and organizational leadership. I managed regional networks of thrift stores, multiple warehouse and logistics operations, rehabilitation programming, and multimillion-dollar annual operating budgets. My responsibilities included strategic planning, budgeting, accounting, human resources, advertising, logistics, staff development, organizational change, and values-based decision-making.
That work required more than balancing numbers on a spreadsheet. It meant leading teams, understanding complex systems, identifying inefficiencies, responding to changing circumstances, and making sure financial and operational decisions remained connected to the organization's mission, values, and the people it served.
Throughout my career, I have worked with nonprofits, churches, businesses, service providers, funders, volunteers, and community leaders. I have seen that lasting progress rarely comes from one person or organization acting alone. It comes from building trust, recognizing the expertise others bring, and creating partnerships around shared goals.
I believe effective city leadership requires that same balance: compassion for people, competence in managing resources, a commitment to values-based decisions, a willingness to seek expertise, and the ability to bring different stakeholders together. That is the approach I will bring to City Hall.
Experience
What I Bring to City Hall
Business and Financial Management
Experience managing regional operations, multimillion-dollar annual budgets, staff, logistics, strategic planning, and organizational change.
Community Building
A record of creating spaces where neighbors can connect, support one another, discuss civic issues, and work across differences.
Partnership Development
Experience bringing together nonprofits, businesses, churches, service providers, volunteers, funders, and community leaders around shared goals.
Service-Centered Leadership
Years of serving individuals and families facing addiction, poverty, grief, instability, and other challenges—with dignity, accountability, and hope.
Transparent, Values-Based Decision-Making
A commitment to making decisions openly and transparently, using resources responsibly, seeking expertise, and keeping the needs of people at the center.
Leadership
How I Will Lead
I do not believe leadership means pretending to have every answer. It means asking the right questions, listening carefully, seeking out expertise, and giving serious consideration to the people who will be affected by a decision.
It also means being willing to make difficult choices. Listening should inform action, not replace it. Residents deserve leaders who explain their reasoning, manage public resources responsibly, and remain accountable for the results.
As mayor, I will work to bring together residents, city staff, local businesses, community organizations, subject-matter experts, and voices that have too often been missing from the conversation.
We may not always agree, but disagreement does not have to prevent collaboration or mutual respect.
I will lead with transparency, compassion, preparation, and a commitment to serving the whole community. My goal will be to help Champlin move forward together—not by leaving differences unaddressed, but by creating the trust and shared purpose necessary to work through them.
That is what Community. Transparency. Service. means to me—and that is the approach I will bring to City Hall.