The Blog from City Hall

Mayor Tyra-Lukens and I attended a Board meeting today of the Municipal Legislative Commission (MLC). She and I are both Board members representing Eden Prairie. The MLC is an organization of cities that are net contributors to the state’s Fiscal Disparities program and receive little or no state financial assistance. The MLC is represented by the law firm of Messerli & Kramer. They are Eden Prairie’s single most important lobbyist in St. Paul.

At our Board meeting today in Shoreview, we mapped our proposed legislative strategy for the 2004 Legislative Session. We discussed our priorities for our cities. Among those priorities, we are going to seek additional unfunded mandate relief, increase transportation funding, and increased resepct for our representative democracy.

Last year our organization tried to advance a philosophy that if our cities were going to lose 100% of the State financial assistance we recevied, we ought to lose 100% of the State’s control over our finances. It seems fair to me. It didn’t go far, but we’ve reshaped the message and we’re going to try it again.

Another issue we intend to advance at the Legislature this year is that we’d like the State to agree to do a study of the impacts of the Fiscal Disparities program. The program is a metro-wide tax base sharing program. It transfers property tax wealth from high tax base communities to lower tax base communities. It costs Eden Prairie, and other similarly situated cities, millions of dollars each year. For example, the Eden Prairie Center will pay just over $3,000,000 in property taxes next year. The City of Eden Prairie will receive just over $94,000 of that total. The rest of it goes to the County and the School District and the Fiscal Disparities pool. In the case of the Eden Prairie Center, the rest of the metro area gets more taxes from the mall than the City of Eden Prairie gets.

We need to fix that.

The City of Eden Prairie sponsored a City-wide Open House event this past Saturday. I’ll write about the event itself in an upcoming entry. What I want to focus on today is the City’s new emphasis on partnerships.

I believe partnerships are important. I believe that we can accomplish more through partnering with others than we can accomplish alone. I have placed a new emphasis on partnerships, and my staff has really taken off with that.

Some partnerships are merely inter-departmental partnerships within City government. These should be easy, but sometimes history makes them tough. Some of our partnerships are with other governmental organizations like the Eden Prairie Schools or the City of Edina, or Hennepin County. Some are with local non-profits like the Chamber of Commerce or the Eden Prairie Historical Society. Some are with private industry, such as the private partnerships now under discussion with Flagship Athletic Club or Lifetime Fitness.

At our Open House this weekend, we featrued several of our partners.

Centerpoint Enegery was there, as a partner to the Fire Department, to advise people how to handle natural gas safely.

K-102 was there to promote itself, as well as our event. They promoted our event as a community service. We haven’t partnered with K-102 before, but we might do it again in the future.

The Eden Prairie Community Band entertained at the Street Maintenance Facility. People toured the facility, but could also sit and enjoy the band for awhile as well. We partner with them all the time through our Park & Recreation Department.

General Casualty employees were there selling Fire Department t-shirts and taking donations for the new Heart Safe Community Program. General Casualty got the program off and running with a $10,000 donation to the City. The program is a joint effort between the City and the Eden Prairie School District to place AEDs (see my October 13, 2003 blog entry for more info) into Eden Prairie public buildings.

We had a bit of rain on the Open House, but not enough to dampen our enthusiasm for partnerships. We’ll have more in the future.

Thank you to General Casualty Insurance, headquartered right here in Eden Prairie, for a $10,000 donation to the City for the Heart Safe Community Program. The program is a joint project of the City and the Eden Prairie School District to increase the presence of Automated External Difibrillators (AEDs) in Eden Prairie’s public buildings. With an increased presence of AEDs, we believe there will be an increased possibility of saving persons who suffer unexpected cardiac arrests.

The program is being coordinated by the Fire Department. That’s Fire Chief George Esbensen on the far right. He is heading up the effort. If you would like to make a donation, give Chief Esbensen a call at 952.949.8300.

We have been keeping in touch with our former Director of Management & Budget, Don Uram, during his venture to Iraq on behalf of his new employer, RTI, Inc. Actually, to be more accurate, he is keeping in touch with us. The photo above is of Don sitting at his new desk in front of his new work computer. Looks like some kind of wireless thing coming out of the top of it. I’m sure that wireless communication is important not just for the military, but also in the quasi-civilian work that Don is doing.

The photo below is of Don’s office. He is sharing it with three other public finance officiers right now. It is his home base for 6.5 days per week. Don works long hours there and there is not much in the way of recreation. But he reports that he is enjoying his job and knows that he is part of a very important process in rebuilding that country.

And if that wasn’t enough news from Iraq, here are the first photos of the new Pizza Hut in Basrah, Iraq.

Yes, Pizza Hut is there, helping to rebuild Iraq in its own little way.

One of our premier companies in Eden Prairie is Lifetouch. Lifetouch photography has been around since 1936. They are a market leader in school, church, and other large group imaging. Lifetouch is headquartered in Eden Prairie. They have a beautiful corporate center right on 494.

Lifetouch is involved in an exciting expansion project that will almost double the size of their current building. Shown below are two photos of the construction of the new building. The first was taken from the north looking south across Lake Smetana. The second is shown looking north and west from Viking Drive.

There aren’t very many large building projects going on right now in the Twin Cities area. I’m happy that Lifetouch decided to stay and grow there business in Eden Prairie. We will all benefit from their decision.