City of Eden Prairie Blogs

The City Council took up the issue of selecting a City Prosecutor at last night’s Council meeting. This has been an divisive issue for the Council in that there are a variety of strong feelings on the matter. The City has outsourced its criminal prosecution legal services to the Gregerson Rosow law firm for many years. At least twenty. Maybe more. Beginning in 2004, individual Councilmembers began to question whether or not the City was getting the best deal it could get for the services it was buying. Staff studying the issue and issued a report in 2004 that said the City was paying about what other comparable cities were paying for outsourced prosecution services. Following the issuance of the 2004 report, the issue was dropped. But it was revived again in 2005 and staff produced an update of the 2004 report with about the same conclusion. This time, however, because the issue was being discussed during the budget preparation process for the City’s 2006-2007 City Budgets, the matter was not dropped. It was discussed all the way up until the final approval of the 2006-2007 budget in mid-December when the Council agreed to a significant cut in the criminal prosecution budget based on the hope that the City could get a better deal for these services. At the first meeting in January 2006, I went back to the Council and asked them to reappoint the Gregerson Rosow law firm as the City Prosecutor and to direct staff to do two things: assess the feasibility of establishing an in-house City staff prosecutor’s office and to conduct a competitive RFP for outsourced criminal prosecution services. We did both. We presented the final report to the Council at last night’s meeting.

In a Plan B Council-Manager form of city government - which is what we have in Eden Prairie - the City Attorney is selected by being nominated by the City Manager and confirmed by the City Council. After reviewing the estimated costs of establishing an in-house city staff prosecutor and reviewing the seven responses to our Request For Proposal (RFP) from private law firms interested in outsourcing our prosecution and interviewing three finalist law firms and reviewing their cost proposals in comparison to that of the incumbent firm and the estimated in-house prosecutor, I recommended staying the course by appointing Gregerson Rosow as the City’s outsourced City Prosecutor.

I then asked the Council to confirm that recommendation. It was not an easy decision for them. The Gregerson Rosow firm’s projected contract cost for 2007 is approximately $240,000. We had a proposal from a law firm for $120,000. We had another one for $195,500. The estimated cost of setting up an in-house staff-based prosecutor’s office was $220,625. From a cost standpoint, selecting Gregerson Rosow was not going to be an easy decision.

But we compared Gregerson Rosow’s costs to what the cities of Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, Edina, Maple Grove, Plymouth, and Woodbury pay for their outsourced prosecution services. Gregerson Rosow was right in the market with what those cities were paying. We also compared Gregerson Rosow’s outsourced costs to what the cities of Bloomington, Minnetonka, Coon Rapids, and Elk River pay their in-house staff city prosecutors and found that Gregerson Rosow’s costs were in right in the market when looked at from this perspective too.

The tough question was not “Could we do it cheaper?”. I knew the answer to that question. Of course we could do it cheaper. The tough question was “Could we do it better?” In my judgment the answer to that was not clear at all. In absence of a clear and convincing answer to that question, I decided to recommend the safest course of action which is to stay with a longtime partner who has provided exceptional service to the City - the Gregerson Rosow law firm.

The City Council debated the merits of my recommendation at last night’s meeting. They discussed the City’s relationship with Gregerson Rosow, the minimal tax impact of the potential savings the City might enjoy from selecting a lower cost service provider, the high level of support for the firm expressed by our Police Department and the nature of the criminal prosecutor’s work load. In the end, the Council voted 3-2 to approve my recommendation.

City Council’s must occasionally wrestle with difficult issues such as this one. The Council had a good debate on the prosecutor issue last night and reached a decision. Now it’s up to staff to make that decision work in the most cost effective way possible. We’ll start working on that immediately.

That’s Rick King standing in the background with his arm pointed at a power point presentation. At the time of this photo Rick was delivering the summation talk of a week of business conferences. Rick is the Chief Technology Officer at Thomson Legal & Regulatory in Eagan. He’s also an Eden Prairie resident. He’s also the chair of the City’s Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission.

Rick invited me to Thomson’s office campus in Eagan today to sit in on a private lecture plus Q&A session with Minnesota native and very hot author right now James McGregor, author of One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China. Thomson was retained McGregor as a consultant to assist the company in developing its own “China strategy”. Rick invited me today because he has been watching the Habitat For Technology, School District, Chamber of Commerce, and City in Eden Prairie all work together on a China initiative of our own with Loudi, China. He thought I would enjoy the lecture, and maybe learn a thing or two. He was right, on both counts.

McGregor’s was a very engaging speaker as well. It was a relatively small group setting for his speech. I’d say there was 60-70 people in the room. The attendees were all part of the technology support wing of Thomson. Many had come from across the country at other Thomson offices to be part of a week business planning and team building. McGregor was the keynote speaker of the final day.

McGregor said some things today that surprised me about China. He said some things I had not expected to hear. For example, he said that the China is not a nation of “collectivists”, but really a nation of conformists. He said the drive among the Chinese to be successful in business is as strong as it is here in the US. McGregor also said that China is taking a serious look at changing its “stuffed duck” education system in which teachers try to stuff as many facts as possible into a students head and students are rewarded for excelling a rote memorization. While we may be looking at Chinese students and admiring their math and science skills, they are looking back at us an admiring our creativity and problem-solving skills. They are changing some aspects of their schools to be more like American schools.

McGregor had many stories he shared with the group. Many of them are in his book, which is an amazingly quick read and good practical guide for doing business in China. Thanks for the wonderful gift of the experience Rick. I appreciate it very much.

Tonight is a Quarterly Business Meeting for the Fire Department this meeting will include badge pinning ceremonies for last year’s recruits as they leave their probationary status and become “full” members of the organization. In addition there will be a badge pinning ceremony for those firefighters that were recently promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Last but not least we will be honoring those members that have achieved another five year increment of service, these firefighters are given a star for their uniform for each 5 years served.

The past year’s recruits achieving full member status are: Charles Adelmann, Rik Berkbigler, Thor Carlson, Charles Eide, Jeff Herrig, Don Jensen, Greg Kinzel, Tony Laursen, Keith Puchalski, Phil Skeie and Tamara Zahler.

Our six newest Lieutenants are: Jeremy Hoehn, Jess Irmiter, Becki White, Jeremy Van Beusekom, Scott Tonjes and Patrick Maynard.

Those receiving service stars are: Eric Meiners, Rick Thompson and John Wolfgram will be receiving a 5 year star. Bob Greeninger and Duane Harrison will be receiving 3 stars for their 15 years of service.

Sadly we also will be announcing one retirement. Sheri Lundeen has accepted a job as a federal Air Marshal and is leaving for her training and relocation very soon. Sheri has been a dedicated member of our department and will be missed, good luck Sheri.

Of course at the end of the meeting there will be enough cake, ice cream and coffee to satisfy everybody involved.

These are just three photos from an event I attended the other day at the Orchard Street Bridge over I-494. The event was a dedication of the newly expanded 494. The theme of the event was “From Rubble to Reality” reflecting the long demolition process necessary to remove the old sections of 494, crushing the debris into rubble, trucking the rubble away, and then finally replacing the rubble with a new concrete freeway. The photo on the left shows a small gift bag of the actual rubble that was given out to everyone that attended the event to remind us of the time and energy it takes to build a road project like 494.

The event was attended by elected officials from State and City government. The middle picture is Eden Prairie Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens addressing the group about the positive impacts the new 494 will have in Eden Prairie and the west metro. To the right of the Mayor is Governor Pawlenty. The Governor spoke about how state government had moved this project up on MnDOT’s priority list to get it completed sooner than expected.

In the picture to the right, Lt. Governor Carol Molnau addressed the group both as Lt. Governor and as Commissioner of MnDOT. She holds both titles. She talked about the effectiveness of the “design-build” process in bringing MnDOT construction projects to faster completion. That may be true, but there is another side to the “design-build” process that I’ll get into on another day. Suffice it to say that on this project, it worked pretty well. Also in the photo with Lt. Governor Molnau are the Mayors of Edina, Minnetonka, Eden Prairie and Plymouth, all of whom contributed a few thoughts to the program.

It was a hot day for September, but it was worth it. It was a good event for a project worthy of such recognition. There were lots of honks from the cars and truckers on 494 going under the bridge during the program. We interpreted those honks as a sign of appreciation for the project. That’s what I think they meant anyway.

Like most Americans, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing exactly five years ago today. I was working in Northfield. Right about now, I was driving into my office at City Hall when I turned on my car radio to here the new about a airplane hitting on the towers of the World Trade Center. There was a television in the main hall of City Hall. I turned it on hoping to catch an update and see some video of what had just happened on CNN.

At that point in the day, it was still the conventional thought that a small plane had crashed into the tower. It seemed like a terrible random accident. But then, as I stood there watching, I saw the second plane crash into the south tower on live television. It then began to become clear that I was not watching an accident. I was watching an attack on our country. I think the military calls this epiphany “situational awareness”.

As the day wore on and our situational awareness matured, I heard about the attack on the Pentagon, and then about United 93 plunging into a farm field in Pennsylvania. I remember getting my Department Heads together to talk about what we needed to do to inform our Councilmembers about what was happening and what we might have to do if a second wave of attacks hit Chicago, or maybe even the Twin Cities. What had seemed impossible when I ate breakfast that morning seemed possible now.

Later in the morning I called my wife at her childcare center. It was about lunch time. She had not heard anything about the attacks. She did not have a radio or a television, so I told her as much as I knew. I called my kids on their cell phones at school. They were all huddled around televisions watching the day’s events unfold live on CNN just as I was at Northfield City Hall.

It was a very difficult day, even for those of us thousands of miles away from Ground Zero. It united us as a country, but it slashed our national confidence that the kinds of terrorist attacks that we had seen happen overseas could not happen on our own soil. We know better now.

As we mark the fifth anniversary today of the events of September 11, 2001, it is both right and proper that we take a few moments today and contemplate the loss of life that occurred five years today. Consider what has changed in our country since September 11, 2001. Where have we been as a nation and where are we going? Pray of those who were lost on that fateful day and for those they left behind. We should never forget what happened on September 11, 2001.

What is the CMBAC? Actually, I hope we don’t get into the habitat of calling it that. I use it here only to catch your eye. The CMBAC is an acronym for the City Manager’s Business Advisory Committee. The creation of the Business Advisory Committee was included in a proposal that I advanced to the City Council at their meeting this week. The Council approved my proposal. You can read descriptions of the Council’s discussion and vote on the issue in stories in both the Eden Prairie News and the Eden Prairie Sun-Current.

I proposed the creation of the Business Advisory Committee to try and be responsive to the City Council’s past discussion about how to improve the operations of the City. I’m interested in making our operations more efficient and effective. If there are operating practices that we can learn from the business community that will make us more efficient and effective, then I’d like to hear about them and consider them.

I have attached (below) the memorandum I prepared for the City Council that explains how the committee would be structured and how it would function. Take a look. It’s an experiment, but I’m committed to this experiment. Eden Prairie may indeed be a Money magazine Top Ten city, but we can always do better.
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Date: September 1, 2006

To: Mayor and City Council

From: Scott H. Neal, City Manager

RE: City Manager’s Business Advisory Committee

At my 2006 performance review on June 6, I presented the Council my idea for the creation of a new standing committee within

Eden Prairie city government for the purpose of taking advantage of the business operations expertise of our citizenry to assist me with improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of municipal services and operations. After the performance review, I met with the Mayor and was advised that the Council received the idea positively and encouraged me to develop it more fully. That is the purpose of this memorandum.

I propose the name of the committee to be the City Manager’s Business Advisory Committee. The committee members would be recruited and selected by the City Manager. The committee would be responsible to the City Manager. I propose the use the word “committee” to distinguish this group from groups appointed by the City Council which we organize as either “commissions” or “task forces”.

The purpose of the committee is to examine selected operations and services of the City in order to provide the City Manager with advice and counsel about how to improve them and make them more cost-effective

The committee will be composed of persons who live or work in

. The committee will be 5-7 members with overlapping two year terms for the members. I will seek the advice of the City Council, City staff and the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce in both the recruitment and selection of the committee members. Committee members will meet as necessary to complete their appointed tasks. Committee members will be unpaid.

The City Manager will determine the committee’s scope of work. The City Manager will determine this scope of work in consultation with the City Council and City staff. The committee’s work product will be written reports which contain both conclusions and recommendations of the study subject. The reports will be public data and will be shared with the City Council and the City staff.

The City Manager will be the chief staff liaison to the committee and will make available such other staff support and resources as necessary for the committee to carry out its appointed duties.

There are two primary challenges in managing a committee like the one described in this memorandum. The first challenge is that it must be able to look into the City’s operations and give honest feedback and input without creating negative tension among City staff. I believe that our City staff is mature and professional enough to overcome this challenge. Our staff has a strong results orientation. We will welcome recommendations from the committee can help us produce a better product or service at a lower cost.

The other primary challenge in managing a committee like the one I am proposing is deciding where to position it within the organization. The committee should have access to those inside the organization that have the information they need in order to analyze the questions they have been directed to study. However, the committee should not be positioned so that it becomes a

City Council when it becomes necessary to deliberate the delicate questions of public policy.

I believe that my proposal balances both of these challenges and places this committee in the optimal organizational location to allow it access to information, but not so powerful that it supplants my recommendation authority or the Council’s approval authority for the most important budgetary and operating decisions for the City.

The Council has had considerable public and private debate about the feasibility and advisability of establishing a citizen committee to review the City’s operations and budgeting practices. I believe this proposal establishes a committee which can take advantage of the business expertise of our citizens to improve the City’s operations and services, while not modifying the fundamental government structure of the City. I recommend its approval by the City Council.

Our EPPD Reserve Unit was presented with The Minnesota Police Reserve Officer Association’s “Spotlight Award”. The award was presented to the unit at their monthly training meeting on Tuesday night. The award recognizes the quality police reserve units around the state.

Here is Todd Schmeltzer, President of the MPROA presenting the award to Reserve Unit Supervisor Jim Burkhardt, Deputy Supervisor Loren Moriearity and Squad Leaders Steve Mueller and Brett McMahon.

A Benefit of the Chief Job, receiving awards on behalf of the quality work of quality staff.

If you want more information on our Reserve Unit, or to see the spotlight award of the MPROA, click back there.

Today is one of my favorite days of the entire year. Today is the First Day of School (FDOS). I’ve been looking forward to today since LDOS (Last Day of School) this past June.

It might be a bit of a stretch to call something a tradition when it has only been going for four years, but for the past four years that I’ve been writing this blog I have highlighted my annual FDOS photo of my own happy children. For those of you that keep track of such things, you may remember that my annual FDOS photo used to have three happy Neal boy faces in it when I first started writing this blog in 2003, but by last year it had shrunk to only one - my youngest son Ethan. He’s 16. That’s him on the left in the striped shirt. He’s starting the 11th grade this fall.

In this year’s FDOS photo, I’ve got a couple of extra guys: my exchange students Marcel, a 17 year old senior from Koln, Germany, and Jay-Jay, a 17 year old senior from Grijpskerk, Holland. They are both here under the Youth For Understanding (YFU) exchange program. They will live with my family and attend high school until late June 2007. They are both settling in and learning English quickly. It’s one thing to learn our language from a text book. It’s quite another to learn it from the 16 & 17 year olds of middle America. It’s a great experience for both the exchange students and for my family.

One of the reasons I like to highlight my annual FDOS photo is that it gives me a good lead-in to talk about the relationship between city government and the School District. In Eden Prairie, the relationship is strong and active. We work closely with the Schools on issues such as public safety in the schools, parking permits at the Community Center, ice arena rental at the Community Center for the District’s boys and girls hockey programs, coordination of a large park improvement project adjacent to Forest Hills Elementary School, Fire Safety Week activities with our Fire Department, repainting work crosswalks for kids that walk to school, and many, many more.

The Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Melissa Krull, and I work closely to keep our respective elected officials in good working relationships too. Since 2003 we have organized two joint School Board-City Council meetings each year to talk about our current joint projects and to discuss future areas where our joint efforts could produce compounded results for Eden Prairie residents. Our next joint meeting is October 3. At this meeting we are going to hear from a guest speaker who is going to talk about how cities and schools should work together on land use decisions to insure that we don’t inadvertently create elementary schools where the racial or ethnic or socio-economic status (SES) balance of the student population is out of balance with the racial/ethnic/SES balance of the community. It’s an important issue for Eden Prairie and one that will require future cooperation between city and school government in order to get it right.

Well, that’s it for me for FDOS. It’s a great day! We’re looking forward to an interesting year of cultural exchange at my house and an interesting year of learning together at the City-School level.