The Blog from City Hall

I’m off to sunny Indianapolis, Indiana today to attend the annual conference of the National League of Cities (NLC). I try to attend this conference every year. I find it more valuable, personally, than attending annual city manager-oriented conferences. I like the focus of the NLC conference on elected officials. I think that they do a great job of understanding the current trends and issues of concern to locally elected officials. In my opinion, those are the issues that ought to be driving my agenda as city manager. I get a better picture of those issues - and more importantly how elected officials might feel about them - at the NLC conference than at the city manager’s state or national conference.

I hope it’s sunny there. It looked sunny in the brochure.

Back on Friday.

Do you know what these are? Anyone? Anyone?

They’re manhole rings. Some people call them “donuts”.

Think of the manhole as a vertical tunnel, or a “chimney”. The manhole is the vertical access point to the underground sewer system. Sewers can be anywhere from 8 to 40 feet underground, so in order to access the lines for maintenance purposes, the maintenance workers remove the manhole lid that you see from street level and proceed down a ladder through the manhole shaft to the bottom of the manhole. From here they use other tools to clean out obstructions or to ascertain other problems.

Manhole rings are used to raise the top elevation of manholes. Specifically, these raise the top of the chimney so that it intersects with the ground surface at the correct elevation. The best example of this is when a manhole is in a road. We want the manhole to “daylight” into the road surface at precisely the correct elevation. Too high and it causes a bump in the road. Too low and it causes a pothole in the road. The manhole rings sit on top of the chimney of the manhole to get the top of the manhole to be at the same elevation as the road surface so that the manhole doesn’t create a problem for the driving public. Sometimes one ring will do it. Sometimes it takes more than one.

We care about manhole rings because they are a good example of how we integrate our systems. Manhole rings are a small, but important tool in integrating our concern for the safety of traffic using our transportation system with our concern for the environmental integrity of our sanitary sewer system.

The manhole ring is where safe transportation meets pollution control. Right there in the middle of a concrete donut.

I have a lot to be thankful for. I have a family that I love and that loves me. I have reasonably good health. I enjoy my job and the people that I both work with and for. I have a home and plenty to eat.

Not so for the English Pilgrims. Here are excerpts of what are generally accepted as the only two contemporary descriptions of that first Thanksgiving Day in 1621. First is Edward Winslow’s account, which he wrote in a letter dated December 12, 1621. The complete letter was first published in 1622.

Our corn [i.e. wheat] did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown. They came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom. Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

The second description was written about twenty years after the fact by William Bradford in his History Of Plymouth Plantation. Bradford’s History was rediscovered in 1854 after having been taken by British looters during the Revolutionary War. Its discovery prompted a greater American interest in the history of the Pilgrims, which eventually led to Lincoln’s decision to make Thanksgiving a holiday. It is also in this account that the Thanksgiving turkey tradition is founded.

They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercising in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.

I must credit Caleb Johnson for his Thanksgiving Day research. Thanks Caleb.

I wish you all a gracious and restful Thanksgiving Day.

At the City Council last night the Council approved a purchase agreement to purchase a vacant 3.6 acre parcel of land at the intersection of Dell and Lindwood as the site of future Fire Station #4.

Currently, we have three stations. One in the NW quadrant of the City near Round Lake Park. One in the center of the City adjacent to City Center. And one in the SE quadrant of the City on Homeward Hills Road. Station #4 is planned for the SW quadrant. The fire suppression needs of NE quadrant, which is mostly the Golden Triangle industrial park, are handled jointly between our forces and the Edina Fire Department’s Tracey Avenue station.

We agreed to a proposed purchase price for the land of approximately $1,900,000. The site itself is actually a little larger than we needed, so we are making plans to spin some of it off for other commercial development. I don’t know how much or of what nature, but that’s our general concept at this time.

The City has been planning for years for Fire Station #4. It completes our planned facilities system for the Fire Department. In addition to building the new Fire Station, we must also recruit and train about 20 new fire fighters to staff the station, in addition to the new equipment to equip it. I would like to think that we can do the whole thing for under $5,000,000. I think that’s a realistic goal.

Kudos to Economic Development Manager Dave Lindahl for his deal brokering on the purchase of the land. That wasn’t an easy task. Also kudos to Fire Chief George Esbensen for his sustained focus on this project. That’s not easy either in an environment that is driven more by sporadic event after sporadic event after sporadic event. Eden Prairie citizens will be proud of this new Fire Station. I know they will.

Did you know that this week - November 21-28, 2004 - is National Bible Week? The promotion of National Bible Week is sponsored by The National Bible Association . The National Bible Association (and because of the violent events of this past weekend in Detroit, I will not hang the acronym ‘NBA’ on the National Bible Association) has asked Mayors and City Councils around the country to adopt proclamations acknowledging and proclaiming National Bible Week. Their thought is that a public body’s adoption of the proclamation brings more attention to their event, which is certainly very worthy, and furthers their goal of getting more people to read the Bible

We may have received such a request, but I don’t recall seeing it. We receive lots of these sorts of things. National Tree Week. EMT Week. National Literacy Month. And so on and so forth. The City of Eagan, Minnesota got into a bit of hot water with some of its citizens earlier this year when the City Council adopted a resolution recognizing June as being National Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Month. We did receive this request. We did not act on it. Instead, we provided the requesting group a copy of Eden Prairie’s Human Rights Manifesto. It makes an affirmative statement about our city government’s position on a number of human rights issues. Then we were done with that one.

The City of Apple Valley, Minnesota is one city that went forward with the National Bible Week proclamation. The St. Paul Pioneer Press is reporting that there might be some second thoughts about the wisdom of making such a proclamation.

I am a Christian. I read the Bible. But I don’t think I could recommend that my City Council proclaim its recognition of National Bible Week. I hope that National Bible Week is a success. I hope it’s a big success. But I think that getting the government hooked into declaring, supporting, or proclaiming November 21-28, 2004 as National Bible Week is not a good idea for too many reasons than I have room to enumerate here.

It’s a good book, and a great cause, but let’s keep the government out of National Bible Week. We’d probably only end up goofing it up anyway.

At our upcoming City Council meeting this week (Tuesday, November 23rd) a motion will be before the Council that concerns the future of the Cummins-Grill Homestead. The Cummins-Grill Homestead includes a house and its adjoining land. It was purchased by the City in the 1980’s to preserve the land for future park uses. The house came with the land. It was purchased through the federal Land & Water Conservation (LAWCON) grant program.

The City has been trying for twenty years to maintain and renovate the house to preserve its historic standing. It’s been tough going. Since its purchase, City staff estimate that the City has spent upwards of $240,000 on the house, and would need to spend at least $500,000 more (by architect’s estimates) to properly preserve the house.

The Council is concerned about that number. $500,000. The Council believes the public may not be supportive of such a large financial investment in this property. On the other hand, the Council is not supportive of having the house razed.

Options? Options, anyone?

At the Council workshop on November 9th the Council discussed one. It’s called adaptive reuse, and the Council liked it. The City has one successful adaptive reuse project under its belt: It’s the Dunn Brother’s Coffeehouse at the historic Smith-Douglas-More House. By most measures, that project was a success. The Council would like the City to see if a similar success can be produced at the Cummins-Grill House.

The Council will consider a motion at the November 23rd Council meeting directing staff to prepare a plan for the private commercial adaptive reuse of the Cummins-Grill Homestead. If approved, City staff will start working on this project in 2005.

There are many obstacles, but I believe an adaptive reuse of the Cummins-Grill House that preserves the historic character of the house and minimizes future City investment in the property is possible. We’ve got a goal and a model. It might take the better part of 2005, but I think we can do it.

A couple of weeks ago the Mayor received a letter from the Nicollet Mall Advisory Board (that’s in Minneapolis for my out-of-town readers) asking if our City would be interested in serving as the new home to piece of public art that they were interested in retiring. The piece of art is known as the “Northern Lights”. It was created by a Norwegian artist named Carl Nesjar. It was installed in the Nicollet Mall in 1991.

The art is essentially a fountain that become more of a sculpture during the winter when the water it spouts freezes. Nesjar has designed the freezing to occur in a particular form so that, when you put colored light behind it, it looks like this:

This is a photo of a similar piece of art by the same artist in Anchorage, Alaska.

The Nicollet Mall Advisory Board is looking for a good home for their art. They are retiring the art because, in its current location, the over-spray from the fountain causes ice and slipping problems on nearby sidewalks and streets. It just doesn’t work well in the current site.

They are offering it at no cost to the acquiring community. There are, of course, costs to prepare the receiving location, plumbing, transporting, etc. This is not a “no cost” offer to whatever city gets this art.

But it might be nice. We’re taking a look at it.

In a Star Tribune article last week, Governor Tim Pawlenty has said that he would sign legislation approving a statewide ban on smoking in most public places, if such a bill ever got to his desk.

That’s quite a signal for the Governor to send the Legislature. Quite overt. No posturing for a future bargaining position there. If you do X, I’ll do Y. Simply put. That’s rare in politics. Something simply put, that is.

The policy issue of prohibiting or limiting the right to smoke tobacco in places where the smoke from that tobacco reaches the noses of non-smokers is an issue that we wrestled with in Eden Prairie in 2002. We wrestled it to, essentially, a draw. The Council adopted an ordinance that prohibited smoking in public parks and on public trails, but added little to advance the cause of the non-smoking advocates. The Council did appoint a task force that studied the issued and produced a Clean Indoor Air Program, which the Council adopted in late 2003.

We were to launch the program in November 2004, but when the Hennepin County Board decided to approve its own County-wide ordinance limiting smoking, we decided to sideline our local program so as not confuse the public about where and when they could smoke and not smoke. Too many governments legislating this issue would be bad for everyone - smokers and non-smokers alike.

As I’ve said before on this issue, there are tough politics behind the scenes. There are significant economic interests that benefit from the current climate where smokers still have freedom to smoke almost wherever they want. Curtailing this right may cause just enough of a hassle for them that more smokers may become non-smokers. That would be a desirable outcome for public health, but it will impact some parties financially - and they’ll fight it. Just wait and see.

Earlier this year, City staff brought a problem to the City Council. The problem was that we had figured out that we were losing substantial amounts of Freon from the freezing system that froze the ice in Rink #1 at the Community Center. Figuring this out meant that we had to address the problem because it’s not legal to discharge Freon into the air and because discharging Freon into the air is a waste of money.

The City staff did some quick assessment of the problem and put prepared a solution based our discussions with vendors,experts and building contractors. When we brought the issue to the City Council to inform them of the problem, we also shared with them our proposed solution: Take out the concrete rink floor and install a new freezing system in a sand floor.

Our Parks & Recreation Director Bob Lambert, in his presentation to the Council about our proposed solution, estimated the cost of this project to be about $430,000.

We totaled up the actual cost of the project last week. It was $429,178.

Hey Bob. Not bad.

I think that people live in Eden Prairie for a reason, and it’s not because we offer the lowest possible property tax rates in the metro area. We don’t. I think that people live here because, overall, Eden Prairie offers the best combination of value and quality of life in the Twin Cities metro area.

We focus on value. V = CR. Value is the product of Cost x Results. We offer a cost of living here that is not cheap. However, the results offered by our services, that are produced by your costs, are very good. You can see that in the economic value of the property in Eden Prairie and the demand for residential and commercial land here.

One of ways that we try to keep our community a high value community is by paying attention to the little things. For example, one of those little things is the aesthetic condition of our traffic signals. Some of them aren’t looking so swell these days. Case in point:

We have dedicated staff, equipment, and money to painting our traffic signals with a new coat of “Eden Prairie Green”. A fellow named Kirby Paulsen in our Street Maintenance Division coordinates and does most of this work. He is the guy that puts himself in a vulnerable position in his bucket truck to paint the signals while cars are speeding all around him.

It’s not easy work, but he does a pretty good job at it. Take a drive around the town and compare where Kirby has been compared to where he has yet to go. You’ll see the difference. Kirby’s effort to pay attention to the little things is one of the ways that City government helps makes Eden Prairie a great community.

The City of Eden Prairie is offering for sale this wonderful classic rambler located on a nature preserve with beautiful panoramic views. On the 1/2 acre property sits a 4 BR, 2 BA home with a finished basement and hardwood floors. This 1965 home features many updates such as newer roof, central air, and a garage addition. The home is located at 6600 175th Ave West in Eden Prairie.

List price: $287,000

For more information, or to schedule a showing, please contact the City’s Economic Development Manager David Lindahl at 952-949-8484.

It’s not often that I try to sell things in this blog. I’m plugging this home because it’s time to return the property to private ownership. Here’s how the City got it in the first place.

For many years previous to this one, the City discussed a proposed sanitary sewer improvement project with the previous owner of the home that would have been good for the City, but inconvenient for the homeowner. The project would have allowed the City to close down a sanitary sewage lift station, but would have required the property owner to grant us a substantial easement through his property under which we would have constructed a new sanitary sewer line that functioned by gravity instead of my mechanical means. This is always desirable, but not always attainable, when you are maintaining a public sanitary sewer system - but that’s the topic of a future blog posting, for sure.

Anyway, the City never pressed the issue too far with the homeowner. Never threatened condemnation, or anything like that. Earlier this year, the homeowner called us to tell us that he was moving out of the property. He knew of our interest in the project and that we might be interested in buying the property. We were. We bought it. Installed the new sewer line, and now we’re selling the house back into private ownership.

This seems like a simple transaction, but many cities would have struggled with condemnation and developed an unhappy and unhealthy relationship with the homeowner. We bided our time; remained patient; stayed in touch; and ultimately got the necessary public improvement project done with little fuss or muss.

That’s Lisa Rund on the right. Lisa works in the City’s Human Resources Division. She’s training a group of ten employees, including Dave Buswell on the left of our Assessing Division, last Friday afternoon on the City’s new employee performance management program called: The Performance Partnership.

Many cities, maybe even most cities, use some kind of performance management system with their employees. For some, it is as simple as sitting down with employees in the face-to-face style and talking about the year behind and the year ahead. For others, it might include a written performance review complete with numerical or descriptive ratings of various work performance qualities.

For Eden Prairie, it’s The Performance Partnership. What is The Performance Partnership, and why is it so important that I capitalize the T in “The”, you might ask? Well, The Performance Partnership (TPP)is our effort to recognize that success in the work world is a result of many factors, not merely the day to day performance of the employee. A productive employee poorly supervised is a wasted resource. A productive manager supervising poorly performing employees will not seem much like a productive manager. And you can have the most productive employees and the most productive managers, but if you equip and fund them poorly, then they will probably perform the same.

The Performance Partnership is our system of setting individual and organizational goals; measuring individual and organizational performance; planning for the future of the individual and organization; and reporting our results throughout the organization, to our City Council, and ultimately to our citizens.

The tools of The Performance Partnership are not particularly innovative or special. The employees write down goals. The managers write down goals. We compare them to each other and to the mission & vision of the organization. We put them together with other employee/organizational goals to form a coherent plan of work. Then we’re done, until it comes time to review the results, which entails all the same steps, only in reverse order.

The Performance Partnership is innovative in that it looks at employee performance in the context of organizational performance. We need both to succeed in order to produce success.

The City’s Human Recources Division staff, Karen Kurt, Lisa Rund, Jayna Kalkes, and Andre Simon, spearheaded the effort to create The Performance Partnership. This is some very good work, and it will be good for our employees and for our organization.

Election day is done, and was it ever a big day in our country this year. I won’t tread into a rehash of the state and national results, but I will share with you our local results from here in Eden Prairie.

Butcher Re-elected, Aho Elected to Eden Prairie City Council
In a field of seven candidates, incumbent Sherry Butcher received the most votes of any candidate with an unofficial vote total of 13,952 or 28% and will be returning for a third term on the Eden Prairie City Council. Brad Aho received the second greatest number of votes with an unofficial vote total of 12,373 or 24% and will become the newest City Council member.

The other five candidates finished in this order:
Larry Kacher 8,487 17%
Darren Wercinski 5,409 11%
Nina Mackay 4,922 10%
Munna Yasiri 2,882 6%
Christopher McPhillips 2,138 4%

Eden Prairie School Referendum Questions Approved
The Eden Prairie School District asked voters to approve to funding proposals that, if approved by the voters, would substantially reduce the level of budget cuts the School District will be making this winter in time for the 2005-2006 school year.

Question 1. Approval of Bond Issue and Capital Project Levy Authorization

YES Votes = 16,775
NO Votes = 14,058

Question 2. Revocation of Existing Referendum Revenue Authorization; Approval of New Authorization

YES Votes = 15,421
NO Votes = 13,729

State Legislative Districts 42-A and 42-B

Republican incumbent Peter Adolphson lost a very close race in 42-A to the DFL candidate Maria Ruud. Adolphson ended the night with 10,769 votes. Ruud collected 11,008.

House Majority Leader Erik Paulsen won his seat again in 42-B by defeating DFLer Carol Bomben by a vote of 13,425 to 8,999.

We gear up for elections months in advance, so there is a bit of a let down when they’re completed. It’s a respite after the storm. We’ve got a great elections staff here, led by our City Clerk Kitty Porta. Hat’s off to them all! We couldn’t do democracy without them.

Need I say more…….

Today is the day. Today we decide who will be our President; who will represent the Minnesota 3rd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives; who will represent MN House Districts 42-A and 42-B; who will fill two open seats on the Eden Prairie City Council; and whether or not our School District will have additional funding for the next couple of years. And, we’ll decide who will fill a host of other public positions as well. Too numerous to mention here.

For those of us involved in the process of providing free and fair elections to citizen, Election Day presents many unexpected challenges. So far today we’ve had to determine whether or not we can remove political signs from state-owned property; whether or not MoveOn.org is subject to the same kind of distance limitations to our polling sites that political parties are subject to; and a quick re-education of our election judges not to allow citizens to wear political buttons in the polling sites. All this and more during the first two hours of voting.

We expect a record turn-out in Eden Prairie, and in Minnesota. We expect to have a free and fair election here. For more information on voting in Eden Prairie, see below. Otherwise, have a great day today, and remember to vote.

Elections 2004

GENERAL ELECTION INFORMATION
Election Information
During 2004, citizens will have the opportunity to vote at the Primary and General Election. The State General Election will be held Tuesday, November 2. Polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The Municipal Election will be held in conjunction with the State General Election November 2.

The November 2 ballot will include:

U.S. President and Vice President
U.S. Representative — District 3
State Representatives — Districts 42A and 42B
HennepinCounty Commissioner ? District 5 & 6
Park Commissioner for District 4
State Judicial Officers
City of Eden Prairie Council Members (two seats)
School District 272 Referendum (two questions)
Polls will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Persons Eligible to Vote
18 years of age
United States citizen
Minnesota resident of at least 20 days
Maintain residence at address given (No P.O. box or commercial equivalent)

Persons Not Eligible to Vote
Individual under court-ordered guardianship of the person where they have not retained the right to vote
Individual who has been found by a court to be legally incompetent to vote

Contact Information
The Eden Prairie City Clerk’s office is available to answer your questions about voter registration and elections. The City Clerk administers city, state and federal elections.

City Clerk
Kathleen Porta
8080 Mitchell Road
Eden Prairie MN 55344
952 949-8414
Fax: 952 949-8390
kporta@edenprairie.org

For more information contact:
Minnesota Secretary of State
651-215-1440

Hennepin County Elections
612-348-5151