The Blog from City Hall

We held our State of the City/Spring Employee Recognition event today. We gave our employees a presentation on the upcoming parks referendum, reviewed some highlights from the last year, and recognized employees who have achieved certain tenure threshholds.

The event culminated with the annual performance awards, a tradition we started here just last year. We named the awards this year “The EPys” (you know, like “The Oscars”). This is the group shot of our 2004 crop of EPy winners. I’m going to name them from left to right.

Sgt. Randy Thompson works in our Police Department. He won the 2004 Jean Harris Award for Excellence in Community Service to his home community - Minnetonka. Randy has a long history of serving on community fund raising committies, cub scouts, and coaching in youth sports.

Sandy Mitchell also works in our Police Department in the Records Division. She won the 2004 Jim Clark Award for Excellenece in Teamwork. Sandy is one of those people who will drop her own work to help you finish yours.

Karen Kurt in our Human Resources Manager. Karen won one of three 2004 City Manager Quality Awards recognizing her high level of productivity and success over the past year. Karen has tackeled some tough projects this year and has come through them quite nicely.

Leslie Stovring is our Environmental Services Coordinator. She also won a 2004 City Manager Quality Award. Eden Prairie is still a developing community. Leslie keeps us legal and proper when it comes to our compliance with state and federal environmental law. That’s important.

John Carlon won the 2004 Jean Harris Aeard for Excellence in Community Service for Eden Prairie for his years of service and dedication to the Eden Prairie Wrestling Club. John is a supervisor in our Outside Utilities area of our Water Division.

Brenda Uting is the Administrative Assistant to the Director of Parks & Recreation. Brenda won the 2004 Carl J. Jullie Award for Excellence in Customer Service. She’s excellent. A great example of how excellence in customer service looks, day in and day out.

Kevin Cassady also works in the Outside Utilities area of our Water Division in our Public Works Department. Kevin won a 2004 City Manager Quality Award for his work with citizens and in mentoring our new utility operators. Kevin works successfully with homeowners in many difficult situations.

We’ve got a great group of employees at the City of Eden Prairie. It’s hard to choose those who are worthy of winning awards. We do it though to provide the rest of us (and I do mean us) with examples of what we mean when we say “teamwork” or “customer service” or “community service”.

Congratulations to our 2004 EPy Winners!

This is the schematic drawing of the design of the future intersection of 494 and 169. North is at the top of this drawing.

This project was included as part of the Highway 169 projects that were authorized by the State Legislature in 2003. It is a major project, and a major improvement to this very busy intersection. The project will make this interchange a full access freeway interchange. The project includes a new bridge for Washington Avenue. The bridge will connect Washington Avenue to West 78th Street on the south side of 494. The project also includes the extension of Viking Drive into Edina and West 78th Street into Bloomington. Both of these connections will be in tunnels that go under 169. In the end, I think it will have the look and feel of the interchange of Cedar Avenue and 494 near the Mall of America.

We’ve been spending some effort on this project recently because there is a fear that it might be pushed back (after being pushed ahead substantially) due to increasing costs on other highway improvements serving the SW metro area. The cities of Edina, Eden Prairie, and Bloomington are working together to make sure this project stays on MnDOT’s priority list. We are meeting with federal and state elected officials to make sure the political support is there for this project. For example, Councilmember Jan Mosman and I delivered letters and met with officials from Congressman Ramstad’s office and Senator Dayton’s office earlier this month when we were in Washington DC.

This is an important project for our region. It looks like we will have to keep advocating for this project until the first shovel is in the ground.

Just a note that I added some additional information to my March 24th blog rant about the Fiscal Disparities program. You can now link to the Star Tribune’s story and the Citizen’s League report that started this discussion.

FYI.

Councilmember Ron Case has lived and worked in Eden Prairie for most of the past twenty-five years. Mr. Case is employed by the Eden Prairie School District teaching elementary school, focusing on 3rd grade, 5th grade, and for the past fourteen year, 6th grade.

Mr. Case is currently serving in his third elected term as a Councilmember on the Eden Prairie City Council, most recently re-elected in November 2001, with his current term running from January 2002 through December 2005. He was first elected to the Eden Prairie City Council in November 1993 for a four year term from January 1994 through December 1997; and was re-elected in November 1997 for another four-year term from January 1998 through December 2001.

Prior to his time as an elected official, Mr. Case served as an appointed Commission member; for four years on the Eden Prairie Cultural Commission from 1990 � 1993, and for two years on the Eden Prairie Heritage Preservation Commission from 1993 � 1994.

Mr. Case has a Bachelors of Arts degree in Education from Wheaton College (Illinois), and a Masters of Arts degree in Counseling/Psychology from the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota). He is finishing an Educational Administration License degree from Saint Mary�s University (Minnesota), and is also currently working towards a Doctoral degree in Leadership in Education from Saint Mary�s University.

There was another good report from the Citizen’s League on the current status of the state’s Fiscal Disparities program in the Pioneer Press today. The Star-Tribune had this to say about the same report in their March 25th edition. The annual report from the Citizen’s League again casts some doubt on the effectiveness of the program. You can see a copy of the report by cloicking this link: Minnesota Journal.

Make no doubt about it: the fiscal disparities program is effective in incenting certain behaviors. For example, if St. Paul did not receive the revenue it receives through the fiscal disparities program, they would have to tax their own citizens for the revenues collected and spent by their city government. Without a doubt, St. Paul spends more today than it would spend without the program.

Fiscal disparities also can incent some cities, like the examples of Andover and Lake Elmo, to develop into large lot residential subdivisions because there really is little incentive for a city, froma tax standpoint, to plan and allocate land for industrial development. Why? Because other cities gain more in tax revenue from an industrial development than the city that hosts the development gets.

Let me restate that. Other cities, collectively, in the Twin Cities metro area get more tax revenue benefit from the Eden Prairie Center, for example, than does the City of Eden Prairie. The same can be said about our other major tax payers in Eden Prairie, or Plmouth, or Bloomington, or any other “net contributing” community.

Strange, but true. Strange, but bad, if you ask me.

The City of Eden Prairie has this land for sale. It is at the SW corner of Highway 5 and Mitchell Road. It is the site of the City’s Public Safety Center. We still have a Public Safety Center, of course, only now it is in the City Center at 8080 Mitchell Road, about a quarter of a mile south from this site.

The site is 2.3 acres. You can read more about it at the this link to the City’s website.

The City has been marketing this land for the past couple of years now trying to entice a hotel/restaurant to pick it up and develop it. There have been a couple of close calls, but no deal, as of yet. City staff held a meeting with the City Council earlier this month to run through the history of the land for them and to take their input on what an acceptable development plan might be for this parcel.

It’s a hard decision. We can wait. We can wait a long time, if we have to. We’d like to get the very best development we can get for this highly visible piece of land. But, it would also be good to get the land sold, developed, and back on the tax rolls. The City shouldn’t hold land just to hold land. We are actively pursuing proposals for the land. I think we might see a deal fro this land come together this summer. Who knows? Here’s a different angle of it.

Got an idea for this parcel? Call Dave Lindahl at 952.949.8484 or e-mail me at this site.

The City Council has decided to ask the voters of Eden Prairie to consider authorizing the City to proceed with a number of improvements to the City’s park and recreational facility system. We’ve got a top flight system already, but we must also moderize and plan for the future. The City last asked voters to authorize improvements like this in 1994. Since then, Eden Prairie has grown and the demands on our parks have grown.

On May 11th, the citizens of Eden Prairie will have the opportunity to vote to authorize a bond issue of not to exceed $22,500,000 for the following items:

$7.3 million for an outdoor aquatic center, to be built on the grounds of the existing Community Center at 16700 Valley View Road.

$1.3 million for site improvements at the Community Center to accommodate the water park. These improvements would include relocating a baseball field, realigning a part of Valley View Road, and adding additional parking for the aquatic center.

$7.1 million to expand and upgrade the Community Center�s facilities. These projects would include a new gym and play space, larger locker rooms, expanded fitness facilities, a walking track, and improved spectator seating in the ice arena and pool.

$1.8 million for repairs and improvements to the Community Center. The refrigeration systems for the two ice rinks must be replaced because of their age and the fact that they use Freon, an environmentally unfriendly gas that is being phased out worldwide. A new roof is needed to replace the 20 year-old one, and the pool must be deepened to allow the use of starting blocks by swim teams.

$1 million towards the construction of a $3 million third ice sheet at the Community Center. The balance would be paid with a $1 million donation from the Eden Prairie Hockey Association and another $1 million would be raised through revenue bonds which are paid off with user fees.

$4 million for sports fields, land acquisition and trail renovations. These include: $1.3 million for expansion of youth athletic fields and parking at Flying Cloud field. $300,000 towards restrooms, concessions and storage at the Miller Park softball fields. The balance of the $600,000 project will be paid with a $50,000 donation and $250,000 in Park Dedication Fees. (Park Dedication Fees are paid by developers as part of the permitting process for new construction. The funds must be spent on park acquisition and development projects. These fees are limited, one-time revenue sources.)

$300,000 for restrooms, concessions and storage at the Miller Park football and soccer fields. Another $100,000 will be donated by sports organizations and $200,000 from Park Dedication Fees will be used to pay for the rest of the $600,000 project.

$500,000 towards a total $1.3 million Miller Park Baseball Grandstand. The balance of the cost would be paid with $350,000 in donations from a sports association and $450,000 in Park Dedication Fees.

$1.0 million for land acquisition, including a portion of the cost of land in the Birch Island Woods Conservation area, lower Purgatory Creek Valley, and Riley Creek Valley. Additional land purchases in the Edenvale Conservation Area might also be included, depending on the availability of funds. Another $900,000 would be raised through donations, Park Dedication Fees and grants, for a total of $1.9 million.

$600,000 for trail renovations and construction, including widening of older trails to make them more accessible. The remainder of the $1.7 million project will be raised through Park Dedication Fees and other revenue sources.

That’s a long list, but it’s important for citizens to know what they have the opportunity to have, or the opportunity to pass up, depending on their vote.

In consultation with the City Council and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, Eden Prairie is pulling out of the stadium pursuit process. Here’s the text of our official press release:

Eden Prairie Withdraws Stadium Proposals

(March 17, 2004) — The City of Eden Prairie is withdrawing its proposal for the construction of a new Minnesota Vikings or Minnesota Twins stadium in the City’s Golden Triangle. The decision follows the announcement Governor Tim Pawlenty’s stadium financing plan in St. Paul on Monday.
The decision is prompted by the financing formula proposed by the Governor. Eden Prairie proposed a regional funding plan for a stadium, with a requirement that the plan be approved by voters in a local referendum,” said Scott Neal, Eden Prairie City Manager. The City supports the Governor’s proposal and respects his willingness to lead on this issue. We still believe a new stadium is important for our state, but we feel it is best to withdraw from the process at this point, given the degree to which the key components of the Governor’s proposal differ from our stadium proposal.”
In pointing out the advantages of the Golden Triangle site to members of the Governor’s Stadium Screening Committee and the metro area business community, the City sparked renewed interest from private developers who have come forward with significant proposals to redevelop the former Best Buy headquarters site and adjacent properties. The City expects the developers to move forward with their plans for the Golden Triangle site following the City’s announcement of its withdrawal from the stadium process.
We are fortunate to have a thriving local economy,” said Eden Prairie Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens. “The Golden Triangle will continue to be one of the region’s most desirable locations for business, retail and residential development.”

Non-Press Release Comments
We’ve been doing all sorts of media interviews today. You’ll see this story in the news for the next 24 hours, then I think it will begin to drop off.

On a personal note, I am in full support of the Governor’s leadership on this issue, even though his direction differs from the direction we wanted it toprerogativehis prerogaitve to form a stadium bill that he thinks is best. I respect that. I hope a stadium project can be put together in Anoka County, or some other place in Minnesota. I believe it’s important to keep the Vikings in Minnesota, even if they can’t stay or play in Eden Prairie.

Here’s how the Pioneer Press/AP reported on the issue:

Governor Pawlenty released his proposal yesterday that described how he would like to see two new stadiums developed in Minnesota. One for the Twins. One for the Vikings. The Star Tribune described the Governor’s proposal like this: Stadium Proposal.

Governor Pawlenty describes his own proposal like this:

Governor’s Proposal

During the Governor’s stadium screening committee process, Eden Prairie was named as one of two local governments fit for a new football stadium. City staff are examining the Governor’s proposal and will come forward with a response from the City very soon.

We might be in. We might be out.

This is John Gunyou. John is the city manager in Minnetonka. He has a great career history in the private and public sectors. Notably, he was the Finance Commissioner for former Governor Arne Carlson.

John and a fellow former Finance Commissioner, Mr. Jay Kiedrowski, co-wrote the attached article on the advisability of the Governor’s proposed budget solution for this year. The article appeared in today’s Star Tribune opinion section.

John is a recognized authority on this kind of thing. His opinion carries weight with me.

The City of Eden Prairie�s Deer Management Program for 2003-04 that is normally conducted in the fall got underway this past week. A wildlife management company using professional sharpshooters will again be used to reduce the City�s deer population by about 135.

The Deer Management Program was instituted nine years ago on the recommendation of a citizen/city staff taskforce that extensively studied deer overpopulation in Eden Prairie and presented their study to the City Council. Before the program was instituted in 1994, there were up to 280 deer/vehicle collisions per year in Eden Prairie. That number has fallen to below 100 per year.

The goal of the Deer Management Program is to manage white tail deer population at 25 deer per square mile. This is in line with Minnesota DNR guidelines that one square-mile of good habitat can reasonably support 25 deer. As the City has been developed, the amount of deer habitat has decreased markedly. In addition, in suburban areas like Eden Prairie, deer have no natural predators to help control the population and sport hunting is severely restricted due to residential development. The early aerial census revealed that there were nearly 700 deer were in Eden Prairie before the management program began with some habitat areas having a deer population density of 60 to 80 deer per square mile. The current population is between 300 and 350 deer.

An aerial helicopter survey of the deer population is conducted each winter when there is total snow cover. Based on this count and the deer population densities based on habitat size, the City staff contact the DNR and apply for a permit to reduce the deer population. The City contracts with a professional firm to conduct the reduction work. The program is conducted under special permit from the DNR over the course of 7 to 10 days, typically in mid-November. Last years fall program is being conducted during March.

A police officer is posted at each site to ensure safety and answer citizen questions. The sharp shooting typically takes place around dusk when deer are most active. Each site is chosen with safety as the most important consideration. The shooting is done from elevated stands with excellent site lines, mostly on public lands.

The City�s Manager of Parks and Natural Resources, Stuart Fox, calls the city�s current contract sharpshooter a �consummate professional.� He has an advanced degree in deer biology, and is known for his �one shot/one deer� marksmanship. Fox stresses that the City�s deer management program is not intended to eliminate the deer from Eden Prairie, but rather to maintain the deer population in balance with available natural habitat.

Residents with questions about the deer management program can call Stuart Fox at 952.949.8445. Safety concerns can be directed to the police department at 952.949.6200.

Phil Young is currently serving on his first elected term as a Councilmember on the Eden Prairie City Council, elected in November 2001, with his current term running from January 2002 through December 2005.

Prior to his time as an elected official, Mr. Young spent three years as an appointed Commission member on the Human Rights & Diversity Commission from 2000 � 2002, with all three years in the capacity of Vice-Chair for the Commission.

Mr. Young has Bachelors of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, IN), and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Minnesota School of Law (Twin Cities campus). He is a shareholder in the law firm of Moss & Barnett, P.A., located in Minneapolis, MN, and is a trial lawyer with an emphasis on business and employment litigation.

(L to R) Councilmember Denise Klint from Coon Rapids; Lulu Mosman, Eden Prairie; Councilmember Jan Mosman, Eden Prairie; and Colleen Fay from Congressman Jim Ramstad’s Office.

This a follow-up to the entry earlier this week when I was in Washington DC for the National League of Cities annual congressional cities conference. I snapped this photo outside of Congressman Jim Ramstad’s office. The congressman’s intern, Colleen, gave our small group a staff led tour of the U.S. Capitol. Colleen was friendly and knowledgeable about the Capitol. It was obvious to me that she gives a lot of tours. As a staff led tour, we got to see some things that normal tours don’t get to see. One such place was the House of Representatives Chamber. The House was not in session that day, so it was quiet, and sobering.

Councilmember Mosman and I also had business on the Hill that day. We met with Adam Peterman of Congressman Ramstad’s staff and Jeremy Bratt of Senator Dayton’s staff concerning federal funding for the 494/169 interchange project. We also dropped off official letters signed by the Mayors of Edina and Eden Prairie advocating for the funding at Senator Coleman’s office, but his transportation staff person was unable to meet with us.

Big projects, like the 494/169 interchange project, can take a long time to catch on in Washington. That may not be the case with this particular one. Congressman Ramstad is well aware of it and is working diligently with Minnesota’s two Senators to get the project the HPP funding designation that it needs.

The National League of Cities is probably a lot like any other national advocacy group. While it tries to represent the interests of all cities, it does in fact come across, at least in my opinion, with a bit of a bias. The bias at NLC is towards large central cities. Most speakers and leaders of the NLC, with the recent exception of Minnetonka Mayor Karen Anderson, are from large cities. Many from the East.

This bias shows through in a number of policy areas. For example, one of the strong NLC positions on homeland security is that local governments ought to reimbursed for their locally incurred homeland security costs by the federal government. I like that sound of that. We’ve incurred costs for homeland security. I would like to fill out a reimbursement form and submit it Washington DC and then wait for my reimbursement check to arrive in next year’s mail.

But is that the best way to handle the sharing of costs for this important governmental function? I think of it like this. The federal government gets its money from the same place that cities, states, school districts, etc get their money: from you and me. Is it efficient for you and me to send our tax dollars to Washington DC only to have them processed and sent to St. Paul and then processed again and then sent to Eden Prairie? I’d say no. That’s not an efficient way to pay for these expenses.

I will admit that I don’t actually know the best way to finance the costs of homeland security, but I do know that creating another Washington DC-based bureaucracy that takes my federal tax dollar and then gives me back thirty-five cents of it to spend on local homeland security expenses is not a good deal for the taxpayers that live in my town. Maybe we’d all be further ahead if we, both private and public sector entities, shouldered the burden of our own homeland security costs. I think if we did that we might think and act differently about alot of things. If we had to shoulder our own costs, maybe other American cities and states would be more judicious about other related political policies.

And so ends my thoughts on the federalization of homeland security costs. Click on the logo to see what the National League of Cities thinks:

Fair question.

This is The Honorable Charles Lyons, President of the National League of Cities. He is a Selectmen (comparable to our City Councilmembers) from Arlington, Massachusetts. Click his photo to see how he answered this important quesiton:

I am writing this early Monday morning. Councilmembers Jan Mosman and Phil Young and I will be heading over to the U.S. Capitol this morning to meet with Rep. Jim Ramstad’s staff and to tour the Capitol building. We also have planned stops at the offices of Sen. Norm Coleman and Sen. Mark Dayton. We will be asking all of our representatives to support a proposal to add the large improvement planned improvement project at the intersection of 494 and 169 to the Senate’s High Priority Project (HPP) list. This is an important designation for this project to be eligible for additional federal funding.

I’ll let you know how it went…..