The Blog from City Hall

I am a member of six person group from the City going on a short field trip to the Scott County courthouse to visit with Scott County officials about their information technology system. Scott County is well known in government circles for its IT system. It is widely recognized as being one of the best government IT systems not only in Minnesota, but also in the country.

The Scott County website, for example, is powered by the products of a local Eden Prairie company:

About a year ago, we implemented a new website design and system. It was also designed by a local IT company. At times it has been great. At times not. The web product we went with was right out of the chute without a long history of web presence, i.e. - it still had some bugs in it. We’ve been working out the bugs over the past year, but we are still driven to see how we can improve our presence on the web. How can we make our website more helpful to citizens? What kinds of information are they looking for at our site? These are a couple of questions that we ask ourselves as we think about the future of IT inside the City of Eden Prairie.

Hence, our field trip to Scott County.

Today’s St. Paul Pioneer Press has an article titled, Blogging for Business by Julio Ojeda-Zapata.

It includes a quote from Scott’s June 11 weblog entry.

City staff are still holding our breath (not really though) waiting to find out the fate of a number of local road improvement projects. The Governor and the State Legislature approved a plan for $900,000,000 of new money to invest in road improvements. About half of that is supposed to be spent in the metro area and about half of it outstate. MnDOT is changed with the decision to prioritize the projects, which is the same as prioritizing the spending.

We are waiting for MnDOT to make its decisions. We have hopes for the completion of the third lane on 494 from Highway 100 on up to 394; the improvement of the intersections of Anderson Lakes Parkway & Pioneer Trail with 169; and the completion of 312.

If we don’t get at least one of these, I will be shocked and disappointed. I’m hoping for all three (or four, however you count it). It could happen. Our projects have high marks for need and cost-benefit.

Watch the paper. We’ll be seeing the MnDOT list soon.

There was a time when clean water referred to the water we drink, opposed to the water in the natural environment, in our rivers, streams, and lakes. Clean water is now a term that more commonly refers to the quality of our rivers, streams, and lakes. I guess we just assume now that the water we drink is clean. And it is clean. The City of Eden Prairie makes your drinking water in Eden Prairie. It is good, safe, and a great value.

The Star Tribune reported today that the Governor is going to place a new political emphasis in his administration on “clean water”. It sounds like we are going to see a renewed investment in technology and conservation to clean the state’s public waters. It’s a great idea!

DFL opponents claim that Governor Pawlenty’s new emphasis on clean water is about “two months late”. Maybe. But the 2004 Legislative Session is literally just around the corner. Right now is the time for elected officials and citizens to plan for the 2004 session. It’s good to see that the Governor is planning this constructive new initiative and announcing his intentions right now.

On another somewhat related note, the Star Tribune article mentions the role of the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) in the Governor’s plans. Earlier this week the Governor announced two new appointments to the EQB. One the new appointments is Ms. Susan McCarville of Hopkins. Ms. McCarville is also a City employee. She works in the administrative office of the City’s Water Division. Ms. McCarville has a wealth of public service experience. She will be a great addition to the EQB.

Sue, we’re very proud of you. Congratulations!

The photo below is a snapshot of a fireworks tent. Recent changes in Minnesota law will allow tent sales for fireworks almost anywhere, even in cities, like Eden Prairie, that are restrictive on tent sales.

The fireworks industry has been very successful during the past two state legislative sessions in getting the state to amend its laws to allow more varieties of fireworks in Minnesota. The law cracked last year, and from all indications, it will continue to crack until any meaningful difference between Minnesota and Wisconsin has been eliminated (just kidding).

During the 2003 state legislative session, the legislature amended state law to clamp down on cities that were too tough in their regulation of local fireworks sales. Some cities were charging high sales permit fees. Some were restricting fireworks sales to permanent buildings with sprinkler systems. Some were discouraging local merchants from selling fireworks at all.

So, the 2003 state legislature removed or relaxed most local regulations on the sale of fireworks. Cities can charge permit fees, but they have been reduced to $100-$350. Depending on the type of permit, that amount isn’t even close to covering our internal costs of conducting the inspections. The state also forbid cities from requiring that fireworks sales merchants carry insurance to sell fireworks. Finally, the state required cities to allow fireworks sales from tents if we allow other things to be sold from tents. We do that in Eden Prairie. We allow fruit and veggies to be sold from tents. You might see one of these in a parking lot near you soon:

Fireworks tent sales probably won’t be the end of the world, unless you happen to be in one of these tents when a fire breaks out. There are real public safety concerns about fireworks tent sales, but we’re forced to roll the dice because fireworks industry lobbyists are convincing folks.

..

This is a photo of Tria Mann. It was taken during the spring of 2003 at the City of Eden Prairie employee awards ceremony when Tria was awarded the Jim Clark Ward for Excellence in Teamwork.

There are those employees in every organization that you just hate to lose. Tria Mann was one of those employees for the City of Eden Prairie. Tria worked as a member of our program staff in the City’s Park & Recreation Department. She was very good at her job. People liked her. People liked working with her, both inside and outside of city government. We’ll miss her.

Tria is leaving to spend more time with her family, especially her two young children. Nobody can fault her for that. She might come back someday. I hope she will.

Eden Prairie’s newest restaurant opened for business yesterday: Culver’s. Culver’s is part of the SW Metro Transit Hub development. It is the western anchor of the commercial developments that will eventually surround the transit hub and its parking garage. The Pickled Parrot is on the southeastern end of the development and a future Krispy Kreme will be on the northeast corner. The Pickled Parrot has been open since December 2000. I expect the Krispy Kreme to be open by late fall.

This is view looking east of the new strip commercial development that will lie between the Pickled Parrot and Culver’s. This development will include a number of new restaurants, incuding: Noodles & Company, Chipotle Grill, Bear Rock Cafe, and Old Chicago.

.

Good planning by SW Metro and cooperation with the City of Eden Prairie has led to the development success of the transit hub development. Cheers to Len Simich and his Board for their foresight and patience. This is going to be a great addition to our community

The City of Eden Prairie belongs to a number of associations, probably too many to mention in this spot, that are actively involved in trying to influence the formation of public policy in St. Paul, and by extension, in Washington, DC as well. But I’ll mention of a few of the big ones in descending order of geographical specificity.

The National League of Cities

The City of Eden Prairie belongs to the National League of Cities (NLC). As you might guess, the National League of Cities is a national organization that, among other things, tracks and influences national legislation that have direct impacts on the nation’s cities. The organization has been around a long time and is well respected in Washington, DC. The NLC sponsors two important conferences each year in which elected officials from Eden Prairie usually participate. One is a general conference, with a focus on professional development, that occurs in the late fall and the other is a specific legislative agenda conference that occurs in the spring.

The League of Minnesota Cities

The League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) is an organizational member of the National League of Cities. The LMC is similar to the NLC in that it tracks and influences municipal legislation, except that it does its work in St. Paul and not in Washington, DC. The LMC also helps cities develop special legislation and to find sympathetic legisaltors to introduce it. The LMC is active in developing training courses for local government employees and for locally elected officials. The League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust (LMCIT) was formed by the LMC to provide cities with a secure source of general liability insurance. The LMC works with all cities all over the state.

The Association of Metropolitan Municipalities

Like the NLC and the LMC, AMM tracks and influences legislation. The Association of Metropolitan Municipalities (AMM), however, concentrates its research and legislative resources on the Twin Cities’ seven county metropolitan area. It is especially concerned with unique metro issues, such as the Metropolitan Council. AMM represents the interests of all cities in the metro area. It works cooperatively with the LMC, when their interests align.

The Municipal Legislative Commission
Sorry, no logo or website. It might seem strange, but there are many times when the interests of cities are difficult to represent. The LMC runs into that alot. AMM sometimes. The Municipal Legislative Commission (MLC) was formed to represent the interests of a small number of suburban communities that did not recevie much state financial assistance and that contributed significantly to the metro area’s Fiscal Disparities Program. Specifically, these cities are net contributors to the fiscal disparities program. The cities in the MLC include Eden Prairie, Plymouth, Minnetonka, Bloomington, Edina, Maplewood, Apple Valley, Woodbury, Eagan, Shoreview, and Burnsville. The MLC is administered by the law firm of Messerli & Kramer. The eleven cities of the MLC have interests that are very similar and MLC does a great job of representing these interests at the State Capitol. The MLC works closley with the LMC and the AMM when our interests are linked.

These organizations are important to the City, and therefore, important to the citizens of our Eden Prairie. These organizations keep us informed about the activities of Congress and the State Legislature that could positively and negatively impact the quality of life in Eden Prairie. You should know that representatives of your city participate actively in these organizations and help move them towards sound policy positions.

Left to Right: Scott Neal, City Manager; Robert Clarke, Regional Vice President of General Casualty Insurance; Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens, and David Lindahl, Economic Development Manager

The photo above was snapped at our most recent stop on our Meet & Greet tour of Eden Prairie businesses. This stop was at General Casualty Insurance. They are located in the beautiful 10400 Building on Viking Drive, which is a frontage road on the north side of 494. General Casualty is not only located there, but they are the anchor tenant for the building. General Casualty is an insurance company. This is the regional headquarters for the company for the Northern Plains region. They employee over 200 people in Eden Prairie. They specialize in commercial and personal lines that are sold through independent agents. It’s a well known company.

We had a nice visit with Mr. Clarke. He is happy to be located in Eden Prairie. He talked to us about the importance of their location as a recruiting tool for skilled employees who like to work in Eden Prairie, but live everywhere from Farmington to Becker. General Casualty wants to get more involved in the community and offered to help sponsor a community event in the future, such as a joint-educational event for National Fire Prevention week in October. We could always use a sponsor and it has a good tie to his company. Good idea.

I’ve been away from The Blog for a couple of days. During the past week, my oldest kid graduated from High School this weekend and my wife had an emergency gall bladder removal surgery. Other priorities.

But now I’m back, and talking about liquor issues again. This time it is about the new later bar closing time law. There was a good story about the new law in this morning’s Star Tribune.

During the recent legislative session, the State Legislature authorized bars in Minneosta to stay open until 2:00 a.m., under a couple of conditions. Current closing time for bars in Minnesota, in case you haven’t made it all the way to closing time lately, is 1:00 a.m. The two conditions are simple. First, the City must authorize 2:00 a.m. bar closing time. Second, the bar owner must apply for and receive a special permit from the State. The permit fees taken in by the State will be used to provide extra State Patrol officers to supervise the highways during the middle of the night.

The Eden Prairie City Council will be discussing the new bar closing law at its June 17th meeting. I am not aware of any Council discussion on this issue yet, so I’m not sure how it might go. I am interested in a statement on this issue from the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce. They will be meeting this week to talk about it. Chambers of Commerce were particularly strong advocates for the adoption of the legislation at the State Legislature.

I am not sure how I feel about it. When I was a young man in Iowa in the 1980’s, I spent 4 years tending bar, off and on, during my college and pre-college days. There is no doubt in my mind, based on my personal experience anyway, that a 2:00 a.m. closing time will produce more people who are more drunk than the current 1:00 a.m. closing time. That does not mean that all of these people will be hopping into their cars and driving home or elsewhere. Public safety officials are concerned about an expected upswing in OWI arrests, and the long trail of problems created for people with OWI on their records.

But, as with the new handgun laws, we’ll just have to see how it works out. It is indeed possible that people will ast responsibly with this new freedom.

The Office of the State Auditor released its annual report of municipal liquor operations yesterday. You can find an article about the report in the Tuesday, June 2, 2003 Star Tribune, which has been pulled from their website so I can’t link you to it. . You can download a PDF copy of the report from the State Auditor’s website by clicking on the State Auditor’s picture below:

The report contains this quote from State Auditor Awada: “There is no real reason for a municipality to have aliquor store unless it is making money that can be used for local government activities that would otherwise have to be paid for with increased property taxes.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Many municipal liquor stores were originally established by city governments as a means of controlling the introduction of alcohol into the community. It was thought then that local governments would be more careful about the dispersion of alcohol into the commuity than a business motivated by a profit motive. It was a different time. People were more suspicious and concerned about the negative impacts of alcohol and were willing to compromise their freedom ( and the freedom of their neighbors) to buy it and drink it. Sixty years later, we’ve changed and people’s attitudes in general towards the government’s oversight of our ability to buy and drink alcohol has become somewhat more liberal.

Now, it is generally agreed, the only reason to have municipal liquor is because of the property tax relief it provides. The financials in the State Auditor’s report are from 2001. In that year, Eden Prairie has the 4th highest sales of all municipal liquor operations in the state. In 2001, Eden Prairie’s municipal liquor stores had gross sales of $8,157,285. Of that amount, gross profit was $2,194,556; or 26.9% of sales. After adjusting the gross profit with the other operating revenues and expenses, the three stores produced a 2001 net income of $708,532. Of the stores’ 2001 net income, 84%, or $605,728 were transferred into the City’s Capital Improvement Program fund where it was used to build trails, buy park equipment, improve public buildings, etc.

The current environment is not optimistic for the future of municipal liquor operations. I do not anticipate that the private sector interests who are intent on capturing the net income produced by these stores for themselves will give up their efforts. It’s a lot of money. Right now, the City uses this money for the benefit of everyone in Eden Prairie.