Father, son share county service mission in Minnesota

Key Takeaways

Joe Nagel and his father Doug are both county commissioners in Minnesota — Joe in McLeod County, Doug in Pipestone County.

The twist is that Joe has a good bit more tenure than his old man, taking office in 2015, whereas Doug started his first term in January.

“We kind of flipped that over a little bit,” Joe said.

Snowy winter weather kept the pair from meeting in a professional setting at this year’s Association of Minnesota Counties’ Legislative Conference, but they don’t have to stand on formality when it comes to sharing experiences with the job.

Joe moved to McLeod County from his native Pipestone County when he took a job with the Hutchinson Police Department, where he is a sergeant.

A friend of his who is a predecessor on the county Board encouraged him to run, and while he demurred in 2012, he gave it a shot in 2014.

Doug, meanwhile, spent his career working for Pipestone County’s highway department, reaching superintendent, where he spent his fair share of days appearing in Board of Commissioners meetings.

“I guess I always considered in the back of my mind the county commissioner position just because of my employment with the county highway department,” he said.

“I got a little involved with some of the meetings in the budgeting process and some involvement with the government part of it.”

Likewise, Doug had a friend on the Board who encouraged him to run after he retired in 2021, and he learned from his son’s two-year regret and went for it in 2022.

Joe saw his skills in public safety apply to a broad array of county responsibilities.

“What I do translates pretty closely to health and human services, and I certainly picked up road and bridge issues from my dad,” he said.

He added that a teenage summer working for his dad on a road crew gave them a little more quality time together than they had bargained for.

His father’s small farm, too, helped him prepare.

“It wasn’t a big farm, but I had a good basic understanding of agricultural issues coming into office that gave me a head start, learning about what counties do. It gave me a lot of helpful exposure. We have a pretty extensive ditch system that would have taken a lot of people by surprise that’s just part of our infrastructure.”

Doug looks up to his son’s time management skills and stamina handling his job on the police force and the county Board.

“I know he works a lot of odd hours, so he can put in his time as county commissioner, so that takes a lot of dedication,” he said. “He doesn’t miss many meetings and I know that takes sacrifice.”

Joe sees the same in his dad.

“There’s a different level of accountability when you’ve got to be the guy people come to with all of their complaints rather than just being about the roads,” he said.

Joe is confident that Doug will get the hang of the county responsibilities he’s learning now, and so far, he hasn’t turned the tables and doled out any major life advice to his dad.

“We’re only probably 2.5 hours apart, but you know, our counties are different,” he said. “He’s got a hospital, I’ve got a recycling center. My population is much larger than his, I’m an hour from the metro area.

“We’re in different situations, but the job’s not that different.”