 Governor-elect Tim Walz is off on a statewide listening tour. He made a stop in Bemidji on Sunday to hear some of the voices of Northern Minnesota. Walz says the goal of the listening tour was to talk directly to people, to determine what exactly they'd like to see from his administration. More than 160 people attended the event at the Sanford Center. Some topics that were brought up include aquatic invasive species, care for the mentally ill, early childhood education, and their proposed line three pipeline routes. These are folks that, you know, very proudly and they're right. They said either I voted for you, I didn't vote for you, but really realizing that's pretty irrelevant now. Now in this job that I will soon be assuming, they want to make sure that their voice is heard. So I'm incredibly hopeful, I'm incredibly grateful, and I think it speaks volumes to the community that a civil discourse in political life, you know, for an hour and a half on very tough issues, we just did that. Another purpose of the listening tour is to engage people to apply to the many open commissioner positions on Walz's team. Right now, there are more than 20 spots available that he hopes to have filled by January 7th. We're asking Minnesotans to ask what they can do for Minnesota. There's commissioners' jobs that are being advertised until the 7th of December, and these are being assembled and screened by the stakeholder groups, the very people who are going to be impacted by those agencies. So if you've got an expertise or if you've got a desire to serve, get a name out there, and this is just the beginning. There's going to be numerous boards that citizens can serve on. A list of the open commissioner positions can be found on the Minnesota government website. We have a link with this story on lptv.org. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.