We have a successful system here of soliciting private donations and sponsorships for city sponsored programs and facilities. In fact, in 2008, the City of Eden Prairie was the recipient of over $570,000 in cash gifts and sponsorships in the Parks & Recreation sector of our operations alone. I won’t go into a long list [...]
Category Archives: City services
Who Taxes You?
February 11, 2010 – 11:36 am
The State Legislature is back in session in St. Paul so that means the talk of taxes is in the air. The State collects too much or not enough, depending on your point of view. Income taxes. Property taxes. Personal property taxes. Corporate taxes. Excise taxes. Gas taxes. The list goes on and on.
The tax [...]
Recognizing Successful Progress
February 9, 2010 – 2:10 pm
It’s not uncommon for us to hear some form of the following “observation/allegation” each year when property owners receive their annual property tax statements:
“I know a guy who knows a guy who has a house in Woodbury (or Burnsville or Bloomington or Shoreview, etc.) with the exact same valuation as my house here in Eden [...]
You Just Never Know
February 5, 2010 – 12:46 pm
There is a story in today’s Star Tribune – click here for the story – about an arrest of a property owner who leveled a shot gun at a forestry contractor who was inspecting a diseased tree in her backyard. The Strib story is mostly correct, except that the contractor wasn’t there to remove the tree. [...]
Blog Recognition
January 27, 2010 – 8:08 am
An organization called Careers in Criminal Justice has a website and that website has a blog called Justice City, USA which has named the Eden Prairie’s Police Department Blog one of America’s Top 50 Criminal Justice and Criminology Blogs! It’s a very nice recognition of the effort our Police Department makes to communicate with our [...]
Friday Report for January 15, 2010
January 15, 2010 – 9:25 am
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER Friday Report
DATE: January 15, 2010
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Scott H. Neal, City Manager
RE: Friday Report for January 15, 2010
1. MLC Regional Breakfast Meeting – The annual Municipal Legislative Commission breakfast meeting for west metro cities will be held on Friday, January 22 7:30 – 9 am. If you wish [...]
Sooner Than We Think?
January 14, 2010 – 9:11 am
Who would have thought that when former Gov. Jesse Ventura began his term as our Governor on January 8, 1999, that we would be riding a new light rail train connecting downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of America just five years later?
OK, five and half years later. The Hiawatha line opened for business on June [...]
Police and Fire Fighter Training
December 21, 2009 – 1:11 pm
I had the opportunity last week to attend the debriefing session of a recent police training session at the South Metro Public Safety Training Facility. The South Metro Public Safety Training Facility is a facility in Edina that is owned and operated jointly by the cities of Eden Prairie, Edina and Bloomington and the Metropolitan [...]
Friday Report for December 11, 2009
December 11, 2009 – 1:01 pm
For today’s post, here’s my December 11, 2009 Friday Report to the City Council.
Enjoy!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER½Friday Report
DATE: December 11, 2009
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Scott H. Neal, City Manager
RE: Friday Report for December 11, 2009
1. Brief Special Council Meeting – We have a number of liquor license renewals that have come in since [...]
Sprinkler Heads
December 8, 2009 – 1:27 pm
This is a sprinkler head. It is a simple, but very important device. It has saved millions of lives and prevented billions of dollars of property loss and damage from fire. Our lives would be very different without sprinkler heads.
But sometimes they can be a real pain in the butt too. Earlier this morning a [...]
2010 City Budget
December 2, 2009 – 11:30 am
The City Council approved a new budget for 2010 at their meeting last night. This is the message that I shared with City employees this morning about the new budget:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The City Council approved a new budget for 2010 at its meeting last night. The new 2010 budget holds the City’s 2010 spending and taxing flat [...]
Are Cities Like Lehman Brothers or AIG?
December 1, 2009 – 11:26 am
This is the provocative title of an article from Miller-McCune magazine. Are cities like Lehman Brothers or AIG?
The short answer should not surprise you: No. Cities are not like Lehman Brothers or AIG, or any other private sector business – no matter how bureaucratic they might be. When Lehman Brothers and AIG hit the skids, [...]
Preparing for the Pandemic
November 5, 2009 – 7:58 am
What would city government in Eden Prairie be like if 1/3 of our staff were sick with the flu, another 1/3 were home taking care of a family member sick with the flu, and another 1/3 were well and able to work? What would we do? What services would we continue to provide at their [...]
Mall’s Tax Appeal Backfires
October 29, 2009 – 8:12 am
There was an important story in yesterday’s Star Tribune written by Susan Feyder titled “Malls tax appeal backfires.” If you’ve got a couple of minutes, read it. It tells a rare story. The first line of Ms. Feyder’s story really says it all: “Maybe it would have been better to just leave well enough alone.” [...]
Professional Services
October 21, 2009 – 11:56 am
The City Council approved changes at last night’s Council meeting in two key professional service contracts. The City will be changing its independent financial auditor for the first time in five years. The Council awarded the City’s three year audit contract to the certified public accounting firm of Kern DeWenter Vierre (KDV). KDV was one [...]
