News @ Noon: Duluth Mayor Publishes Book As He Prepares to Leave Office

DULUTH - Duluth's Mayor is stepping down at the end of the year. Forty-one-year-old Don Ness announced his retirement from public office earlier this year.

There was a time when he was being touted for higher office, but Ness says he never really considered it.

I really don't have political ambitions beyond the local level. Because once you get to the state and national politics it just changes and it's more partisanship, and it's more politics and less tangible solutions.

Ness has written a book as a way to say goodbye to public office. The self-published book is titled "Hillsider: Snapshots of a curious political journey". Ness says he's hoping the book will be helpful for other young people thinking about getting into politics on the local level.

Hopefully present a story to young people that are considering a political life that you don't have to follow that conventional wisdom. That you can create a different political path for yourself.

He says of his time in office he's the most proud of the change in attitude about Duluth.

When I was growing up in Duluth there was this cloud of pessimism that hung low over our city. And, people just knew that Duluth had potential but we weren't capturing that potential. And what we've seen over the last five or 10 years is that people are now saying 'boy let's talk about our strengths, what makes Duluth unique?'

At the age of 41, Ness says he's not sure what he'll do next. But he says he wants to spend some traveling with his family.

Ness was first elected to the Duluth city council when he was 25-years old. He spent eight years on the city council, and the last eight years at Duluth Mayor.

Earlier this month, Emily Larson won an election to become the new mayor.