The State Auditor conducts an annual review of the profitability of municipal liquor stores each year. They do this as part of their “watch-dog” role over local governments. They want citizens to know if their local municipal liquor stores are losing money or are creating a drain on local property taxes, instead of creating additional revenue for their owners.

I’ve copied in an article from today’s Star Tribune about that annual study. There are several municipal liquor stores that are losing money. In Eden Prairie, however, our municipal liquor store operation was rated #1 in the state in terms of net profit in 2006 - the latest year for which the state has complete data. Our Return on Investment (ROI) in 2006 was 10.47%. In 2005 it was 10.42%. In 2007 it was 10.5%. We’re looking forward to a healthy 2008.

Liquor profits in Eden Prairie go right back into the community via our Capital Improvements Program. The money goes for such things as parks, sidewalks, trails, streets and other public improvements that we would otherwise have to tax our citizens for, or just not do.

Here’s the article. Congratulations to our fine staff who run a first class operation!

Municipal liquor stores made $20 million in 2006

According to a state auditor’s report, 44 cities that operate municipal liquor operations across the state lost money in 2006, including four communities in the metro area - Robbinsdale, Mound, Shorewood and Farmington.

THE LATEST: Minnesota cities that operate municipal liquor stores collectively had record sales for the 11th consecutive year and turned a net profit of $20 million in 2006, according to a report recently released by the state auditor’s office.

Every year we have Records Review Week during the same week as Earth Day. It’s a week that we spend time and extra effort cleaning out our files, which means filing stuff more precisely or throwing a lot of stuff away. I prefer the latter category. Our City Clerk Kitty Porta would prefer me to prefer the former, but that’s an entirely separate blog post for another day.

In order to make Records Review Week interesting, we usually wrap a theme around it. This year’s theme is baseball. We call our Records Review Week - The Great EP Pitch. Here’s what’s going on for City employees this week:

Monday: Pitching Trivia Kickoff
Test out your pitching knowledge with some online trivia! Check Prairie Pages for daily trivia questions, track your answers and win!

Spring Training Seminar: Internet Safety
Heritage Room I
2-3 p.m.
Join Detective Mark Gustad from the Eden Prairie Police Department
to learn more about social networking sites (MySpace and Facebook),
auction sites (eBay and Craigslist), instant messaging, text messaging,
gaming and gaming systems, blogs, pornography/child pornography
issues, parental monitoring software, keylogging software, Internet
related crimes and basic computer safety measures that anyone can use.

Tuesday: Show Your TEAM Spirit
Wear your favorite baseball attire (hats, jerseys, etc.) and you could be headed to the ballgame! Four Saint Paul Saints tickets will be awarded to the Best Dressed Pitcher!

Wednesday: Game-Day Snacks
Get ready for the big game with some deliciously gooey caramel rolls, the breakfast of champions!

Pitching Clinic: Data Practices
Council Chambers
10:30 - 11:30 a.m.
And
1:30 - 2:30 p.m.
Plan to attend one of these two sessions and brush up on your data practices knowledge! Katie Engler, assistant director with the Minnesota Department of Administration Information Policy Analysis Division, will review Data Practices policies and procedures for all City employees. There will be plenty of time for question and answers as well!

Thursday: Seventh Inning Stretch
Be prepared to stand up, take a stretch and sing!

Friday: Pitching Trivia Prizes
Submit your completed Pitching Trivia answers to the City Center front desk and pick up your prize!

At their meeting this week the City Council accepted a gift of a building from the Sampson family that will serve as the City’s future Art Center. The Council’s action means that City staff and the City’s Arts & Culture Commission can now move forward in the planning effort to get the Art Center ready to go. We presented the Council with a tentative plan of necessary building improvements and a program of use for the building at the Council meeting. That was good enough to win the support of the Council, so now it’s time to make it real.

The Council Members expressed their appreciation and gratitude to the Sampson family for their gift to the City. It’s thought to be the largest single gift (in terms of monetary value) ever given to the City - a 5,400 sq ft building worth over $1,000,000.

There’s a lot of work to do, but now we’re cleared to do it. Thank you City Council, and thank you Sampson family. We will do this right. You will be proud of this gift to Eden Prairie.

I attended a big meeting yesterday at the headquarters of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) in St. Paul. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the prospects for the future improvement of the I-494 - T.H.169 interchange given the State’s new transportation bill generated new funds for MnDOT. We wanted to see if the new money meant that the project might be accelerated, or if the new money might vault other area projects ahead of this one.

The meeting included the Mayors, City Managers and Public Works Directors of Eden Prairie, Edina and Bloomington. There were also City Council Members and other city staff from the respective cities. There were also a couple of representatives from Eden Prairie’s business community: Liberty Property Trust and SUPERVALU. Finally, there were also three State Representatives there: Rep. Maria Ruud from Eden Prairie; Rep. Ron Erhardt from Edina and Rep. Neil Peterson from Bloomington. MnDOT was represented by the Acting Director Bob McFarlin, Metro District Engineer Tom O’Keefe and several other high ranking MnDOT staff members. It was a large group of people with busy schedules who got together to talk about a very important project.

It was a productive meeting. MnDOT shared with us what they expect to receive in new revenue as a result of the new transportation bill. They will see new money, but a significant share of it will go toward the repair and replacement of bridges. That was a legislative mandate by the State Legislature. The second priority of the new money will be pavement preservation. Expansion projects, which is what they say the 494-169 project represents, are, at best, a third priority for MnDOT.

Nonetheless, Mr. McFarlin told us that the 494-169 project is a priority project for him. He has a long history with the project during his career at MnDOT. He told us that he would work with his staff and with the three cities to figure out a solution to get the project moving. He asked us to consider potential decreases to the scope of the previously approved improvement plan for the interchange. The message was that if we could decrease the cost of the project, which is estimated to be over $120,000,000, by decreasing the scope of the project, the project could be completed sooner rather than later. No surprise there. The cities said they would look at variations of the project scope proposed by MnDOT and get responses back to MnDOT this summer.

Meetings like this a necessary in order to set a path for creating a solution to a problem. We want the project to happen tomorrow. They don’t have enough money to do the project tomorrow. So what do we do? We talk. We compromise. We move the project forward by reassessing what’s important and what’s not. We’re going to get right to work on this. This project is too important to the traveling public and to the economic development prospects in Eden Prairie to wait another ten years. We need it sooner rather than later.

Congratulations to the Eden Prairie Veterans Memorial Committee. The Committee, along with our locally elected state officials - Senator David Hann, Representative Erik Paulsen and Representative Maria Ruud - were successful in garnering a $100,000 appropriation in the State’s 2008 Bonding Bill. The appropriation will be used to continue the progress of building a Veterans Memorial in Purgatory Creek Park.

The bonding bill was signed into law by Governor Pawlenty earlier this week. I don’t yet know the details of how the money will be disbursed for the project, but I’m sure we’ll work that out later. If you want to see the actual line item appropriation for yourself in the bill, click this link and page down to page page 6 of 9, line 365: 2008 Bonding Bill Link.

The City was also seeking a sizable bonding bill appropriation for the Camp Eden Wood Project, but that did not come through this year. That’s OK. We’ll try that one again next time. But I couldn’t be more happy for the Memorial Committee. They have worked so hard to realize this dream, and now it is really within their sights.

The second phase of the new Eden Prairie Community Center opened on Saturday, March 1. The major component to open on Saturday was the new front door. The new front door opened at 5:30 am, and shortly after that the building was full for most of the day with residents, visitors and youth hockey players and their families & fans. I don’t really want to call it a “grand opening” because we have picked out a beautiful Saturday in May for the Grand Opening, but it was an important milestone. We will be able to provide much better service to our residents and customers through our front door, and much better parking options as well.

I have added a number of photographs that I took on Monday when I took my first walk through the front door. I want to encourage everyone in Eden Prairie to come see the Community Center. It’s fantastic now, and it will get better between now and May. Come see it, soon.

Last week at their February 12 meeting, the City Council took the final actions it needed to take in order to sell a parcel of City-owned property to Presbyterian Homes, which is putting together a larger overall real estate deal that will redevelop the Broadmoor-Castle Ridge property on Prairie Center Drive.

It takes equal parts patience and diligence to get deals like this completed. I thought for today’s post that I’d share the historical time line for this deal:

December 2005 Received first of many calls from John Mehrkens asking about whether we would consider selling our parcel for a future redevelopment

May 5, 2006 Received three development proposals & purchase offers and decided to sell to Presbyterian Homes

May 19, 2006 First major meeting w/Pres. Homes (Janet, Steve, Molly, Scott Kipp, Mike, Randy and I)

January 16, 2007 After seven more major meetings with Pres. Homes a purchase agreement is approved by our CC

May 5, 2007 First amendment to purchase agreement - closing extended to September 2007
October 2, 2007 Second amendment to PA - closing extended to January 18, 2008

October 8, 2007 Project approved by Planning Commission

November 13, 2007 Project approved by Council

January 8, 2008 Third amendment - closing extended a week to January 25, 2008

January 23, 2008 Fourth amendment approved extending the closing date to February 15, 2008

February 15, 2008 The money is transferred to the City!

And how much money are we talking about here? Exactly $2,989,323.35. The money is in our Economic Development Fund, for now. The City Council will make the ultimate decision about how to use this money at budget time.

Hats off to the City staff that worked hard to make this deal happen for the City: Janet Jeremiah, David Lindahl, Molly Koivumaki, Mike Franzen, Scott Kipp, Randy Newton, City Attorney Ric Rosow and others. Great work on a job well done!

What did you do for the Presidents Day holiday? I helped my wife clean the house. I did some laundry. And I helped my son with an essay he is writing about Bolivia.

And I also testified at the a meeting of the Minnesota House Higher Education and Workforce Development Finance and Policy Committee meeting last night in St. Paul. That’s Rep. Ruud and I at the witness desk next to the display board. This is the first committee to take up House File 2842 which is the bill introduced by Rep. Maria Ruud in the Minnesota House of Representatives seeking $6.8 million dollars of state funds to do a complete renovation of Camp Eden Wood. There has been a companion bill prepared in the Senate, but it has not been introduced yet.

The committee hearing started at 6:00 pm. Our bill was heard at around 8:20pm. Not bad, actually. I was expecting 10pm. The committee heard about thirty bills last night, all of them seeking state bonding bill funds for local projects. Mora wants a new senior center. Walker wants a new water line. Austin wants better flood protection. Rochester wants state financial assistance to expand the Mayo Civic Center. Duluth wants state money to expand their civic center.

Our project received a good reception. After exchanging a few opening greetings in Croatian with the chair of the committee, Rep. Tom Rukavina, Representative Ruud introduced the bill. She said a few words about the project and then turned the microphone over to me to tell the committee members what we want and why we want it. We took a few questions from the the committee. Nothing too deep or difficult. Then the committee voted our bill out of their committee and on to the House Capital Investments Committee. I don’t know when we will appear at that committee, but I bet that it will be soon. This is supposed to be a short session so time frames are compressed.

Presidents Day was a good day for the Camp Eden Wood project.

One aspect of the aftermath of the shootings in the Kirkwood, Missouri Council Chambers is that it has reminded city officials everywhere to review their processes and procedures for managing unhappy citizens, thinly veiled threats, overt threats, citizen input at Council meetings and safety & security of public meetings - among many things. We have reviewed our policies and procedures here in Eden Prairie. While it is difficult to predict this kind of tragic event, I believe we have put in place reasonable safety and security measures that does not eliminate an open dialog between citizens and their elected officials at our public meetings.

Earlier this week, city officials in Minnesota received the following advice from League of Minnesota Cities executive director Mr. Jim Miller. We will be reviewing Mr. Miller’s advice on this matter with our City Council at the March 4 Council meeting. Here’s what he had to say:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

February 13, 2008

To: LMC Members

From : Jim Miller, Executive Director

Last week’s tragedy in Kirkwood, Missouri, reminds us that at times our public service as mayors, council members and administrative staff can take on serious overtones. Fortunately, such tragedies are rare. It is, however, advisable for city officials to consider their own options for dealing with the rare constituent who may cross the line from expressing democratic views-to actual disruptive, threatening and potentially physically violent behavior. Rachel Carlson, one of our LMC research attorneys who has advised member cities in this matter, offers the following:

Disruptive or Threatening Behavior at Public Meetings

A city council is authorized to preserve order at its meetings. The mayor, as the presiding officer, is also vested with some authority to prevent disturbances.

While council meetings must be open to the public under the Open Meeting Law, no individual who is noisy or unruly has a right to remain in the council chambers. When the council decides that a disorderly person should not remain in the meeting hall, law enforcement officers may be called to execute the orders of the presiding officer or the council. In addition, the disruptive individual may be charged with the crime of disorderly conduct.

Perhaps the most effective way to prevent or mitigate disturbances or disruptive behavior is to plan for citizen commentary, by providing a public comment period and exclusively limiting comments to this period. Additionally, many cities find it helpful to impose time limits on individual speakers. A number of cities have adopted written meeting rules governing the public comment period. Failure to follow the rules can be grounds for removing an individual from the council chambers.

If the city anticipates that an upcoming issue is particularly contentious, the city should discuss ahead of time its procedures for dealing with disruptive behavior. In particular, the city may wish to have law enforcement on hand or standing by. The city may also wish to consider in advance its procedures for recessing or adjourning a meeting if the meeting becomes too disruptive for public business to occur.

These issues and more tips for public meetings can be found in the LMC Governing & Managing Information Memo “Meetings of City Councils” available at http://www.lmnc.org/pdfs/LMCResearchMemos/Meetings_of_City_Councils.pdf on the LMC web site.

Disruptive or Threatening Behavior at City Hall or Worksites

Many city officials maintain office hours and encourage constituents to approach them with concerns. Additionally, city staff may have frequent, regular interactions with the public while at the front desk of city hall, or-as in the case of the public works employee-as they go about their day fixing streets or maintaining city property. In these situations, it is also possible to encounter the constituent who crosses the line from voicing his or her concerns to more troubling behavior.

Dealing with these types of situations can be even more problematic (and potentially frightening) than behavior that occurs at a public meeting. Often city officials and staff are scrupulous about allowing their constituents to exercise their free speech rights. They are deeply concerned that citizens be afforded an opportunity to speak and be heard, and often simply try to overlook abusive behavior.

However, free speech rights do not justify harassing, threatening, abusive or noisy conduct.

When confronted by a constituent who is acting inappropriately, cities have options available to them. Cities should discuss with their individual officials and staff any safety concerns they may have. Those concerns may easily be mitigated by making sure more than one person (or law enforcement officer) is present when the constituent interacts with city staff or officials. If this is not practically possible (for example, a small office where normally only one person is working on site), it may be necessary to require the constituent to set appointment times, so that additional staff may be on hand during those times. If the constituent will not comply with appointment times, he or she should be asked to leave.

In more extreme instances, the constituent can be charged with the criminal offense of disorderly conduct. Under the Minnesota criminal code it is a crime to “. . . in a public or private place . . . alarm, anger or disturb others or provoke an assault or breach of peace . . . [through] fighting . . . or abusive language tending reasonably to arouse alarm, anger or resentment by others.”

In the alternative, individual officials or city staff may pursue a civil restraining order against the constituent. Restraining orders are available after a single incident of physical assault or after repeated incidents of “intrusive or unwanted acts, words, or gestures that have a substantial adverse effect . . . on the safety, security and privacy of another.” A restraining order may prevent the harasser from visiting city worksites or attending public meetings where the city staff or official may be present.

In most instances, the city official or staff will need to individually petition the courts for the order. Once a restraining order has been granted, local law enforcement officers are able to arrest, without a warrant, any person that they reasonably believe is violating a restraining order. Violation of the order itself becomes a crime with significant criminal penalties.

If you have any questions about how to safely deal with potentially threatening constituent behavior, please feel free to contact our LMC Research Services by phone at (651) 281-1200 or (800) 925-1122 or through our online inquiry form at http://www.lmnc.org/researchanalysis/question.cfm.

My heart goes out today to my colleagues at the City of Kirkwood, Missouri where a resident killed six people at their City Council meeting last night. It’s a terrible, terrible tragedy. You can read more about the event at this link from CNN: “Six Dead as gunman goes to war with Missouri city“.

As soon as I heard the news this morning it took me immediately back to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa where I was the City Administrator from 1990-1996. In 1987 a resident named Ralph W. Davis walked into a Mt. Pleasant City Council meeting and shot Mayor Edd King three times and the Council Member on either side of the Mayor once each. Mayor King died at the scene. The two Council Members suffered serious injuries, but later recovered. Davis was later convicted of murder and died in an Iowa prison. The motive for his crime: he thought the City was intentionally filling up his basement with flood water.

As I said, I was not in Mt. Pleasant at the time of this event, but the mental, emotional and community trauma was still churning when I arrived in February 1990. There were lawsuits. There were workers’ compensation issues. The City had a tough time getting citizens to volunteer to serve in any capacity for the City. The City of Kirkwood will go through these issues too. It’s very difficult. In some ways, their city will never recover from this tragedy.

So I will say a prayer tonight for the citizens, City staff and elected officials of Kirkwood, Missouri tonight. They will need all the support they can get.

There was a very nice article in the Star Tribune on February 5 written by Laurie Blake titled “Eden Prairie may get arts center.” I thought she captured the story well. I was glad that she went into a bit of detail on Roger Sampson. I’m sure people will be interested in the man whose gifts in life created what may be a very nice final gift to our citizens.

Also, thank you Laurie for a nice winter photo of the Sampson building.

Parks & Recreation Director Jay Lotthammer and I met with the City’s Arts & Culture Commission last week to outline the assignment given to them by the City Council: research how to effectively operate a community arts center and make a recommendation back to the Council in 60 days. The commissioners were excited to receive the assignment. They are off and running. They will meet almost weekly between now and the end of March to work on this assignment. They are scheduled to make their final recommendation to the City Council at the April 15 Council meeting.

A group of 14 City employees from our Police Department, Fire Department and IT Division have been spending a lot of time lately in a series of demonstrations by vendors of public safety software packages. Over the past three weeks, the group dedicated a day (yes, an entire day) to four different vendors in order to begin understanding the software packages that are available in the market right now. The information the group gathered from these four demos will be used to create a Request For Proposals (RFP) that will be released later this month. We are planning to receive and evaluate proposals in March and April. We will submit the recommended proposal to the City Council for approval in May.

The software we’re purchasing is the key link connecting you to the City’s public safety services. It will be the root of our 911 dispatching system, our public safety radio and mobile computer communications network, and our public safety records systems. Our current system is reaching the end of its useful life. The new system was authorized by the Council during the 2008-2009 budget process. We are estimating that it may cost over $1,000,000 so it’s very important to be very sure we know what we need and to negotiate a good deal with the preferred vendor.

In order to be very sure we know what we need, we are dedicating staff resources to study the issue. We’re talking to police officers, 911 dispatchers, police records technicians, IT support techs, and fire fighters. We need to hear their ideas and concerns to be able to translate them into software features and functionality. The “translation” stage is where everything is right now.

If we do this right, the transition from the old system to the new system will be seamless. You won’t notice a thing. That’s what I’m hoping for.

Tomorrow (Saturday, January 26) the City is hosting an Open House event at the Community Center. The Open House starts at 8:00 am and warps up around Noon. You will be able to tour the new fitness center, which is up and operational right now, and get a preview of the rest of the facility. Also, if you’re interested, you can enjoy open skating tomorrow at the Community Center from 1:30-3:30 pm for just $1.00.

So if you haven’t seen the new fitness center yet, or caught a glimpse of what the Community Center is turning into, check it out. We’re very proud of it.

At our City Council meeting last night the Council had a brief discussion about the proposed Art Center. I recommended the Council ask the City’s Arts & Culture Commission to study the concept in more detail and report back to the Council within 60 days. The Council unanimously approved that recommendation.

The Arts & Culture Commission will study the immediate and long term capital needs of the building. For example, we know that the building will require additional parking spots if we are going to develop it into a public art center. How many spots will we need and how much will it cost? We want to know that.

The commission will also study different options for the new art center. Will the City hire new fulltime staff to run the place? Maybe parttime staff would be OK? Maybe we can contract the management of it to a non-profit arts group? The City operates an Outdoor Center and a Senior Center using two different operational models. Perhaps one of those models would be a good fit for the art center? We want to know this too.

The proposed gift of this building to the City to serve as a public art center is a wonderfully gracious act. The best thing that we can do as a city government is to make sure that we know what we’re going to do with this gracious gift after we receive it. That’s the best way that we can honor the gift and the giver.

At our 2008 State of the City event last night Mayor Phil Young made a very special announcement. The owners of this building, the Sampson family, have offered to give the building and land to the City for use as a community arts center.

The building is located at 7650 Equitable Drive. The building was built in the mid 1990’s by Mr. Roger Sampson. Mr. Sampson was a successful businessman who built the building as a place to create art. Mr. Sampson passed away a short time ago. His wife and his children wish to donate the building to the City so that it can be an arts center for the community like it was for their family.

This is a very exciting development for Eden Prairie. An arts center has been a community amenity that Eden Prairie city leaders have been wanting for many years. I think the time for an Eden Prairie Arts Center may be here. The City Council will talk more about this development at their January 22 Council meeting to discuss what comes next.

Very exciting!