Here is my weekly Friday Report to the City Council for Friday, November 16, 2007:
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER½Friday Report
DATE: November 16, 2007
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Scott H. Neal, City Manager
RE: Friday Report for November 16, 2007
- Thanksgiving - Next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. City offices are closed on both Thanksgiving Day and the Friday following Thanksgiving.
- LMC Fall Meeting - The League of Minnesota Cities annual fall metro regional meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 29 at the Hotel Sofitel in Bloomington. The meeting starts with registration at 1:30pm and adjourns at around 7:30pm. If any Council Members are interested in attending this event, please contact Lorene if you would like our assistance to register.
- Employee News - We have four new employees who have just started or will be joining us soon. Kari Knoll is our new Communications Coordinator. She starts her new job on November 26. Lori Kerns is our Human Resources Technician. She also starts on November 26. Mark Pearson is a new Street Maintenance Worker who will start on November 19. Jerad Hoff is a new 9-1-1 Police Dispatcher who started on November 6. Welcome aboard!
- NIAOP Fiscal Disparities Information - Attached to this report is a new publication from NIAOP that explains the State’s Fiscal Disparities program. Eden Prairie is the second largest net-contributor of commercial/industrial tax base to this program.
- MLC Legislative Agenda - Enclosed with this week’s FYI Packet is the draft legislative agenda for the Municipal Legislative Commission. If you have any questions or concerns about the draft agenda, please let me know. The MLC Board is scheduled to review and approve a final legislative agenda on December 13.
- Faces of Change Exhibit - The Human Rights & Diversity Commission is sponsoring an exhibit at the Eden Prairie Library on November 29 from 6:30-8:30 pm called “Faces of Change” which details the ways in which immigration, both past and present, has changed the face of Minnesota. We have distributed information to the Council on our outsourced human services contracts. The HRDC will extend a formal invitation to Council Members to attend this event.
- Senate Capital Investment Committee - City staff met with Friendship Ventures staff to begin planning for the upcoming site visit to Camp Eden Wood of the Minnesota Senate Capital Investment Committee on Friday, November 30 in connection with the City’s request for funding through the 2008 State Bonding Bill to improve the camp. The visit is 8:30-9:15am. This site visit will be a very important opportunity for the City and Friendship Ventures to make the case for an investment by the State into Camp Eden Wood. Council Members are welcome to attend this event.
- CMS Presentation - I spoke to the students in Lea Ann Thielman’s CMS class this week about city managers and city government, in general, and what they liked and didn’t like about Eden Prairie, in particular. It was a group of 13 and 14 year old kids. They liked the Eden Prairie High School football team. They think we should build a bigger high school football stadium. They like the mall. They think we need a Perkins restaurant. They want Krispy Kreme to return. They miss the basketball hoops Briar Hill Park. They think that snow plow drivers have bad hours, that Regional Center Drive is a boring name for a street, and that I do a lot of paperwork. That’s a short summary of what I heard.
- Planning for 2008 Council Retreat - Department Directors and I are meeting next week to begin the planning process for a 2008 City Council Retreat sometime in January. As I said at this week’s Council Meeting, I would like Council Members to begin firming up your personal and work calendars for January 2008 so that we can try to schedule this retreat at our December 3 Council meeting.
- Year End Report - Staff are currently working on assembling stories and photos for our annual report. If you have any suggestions for the report, please pass them on to me at your earliest convenience.
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