The Blog from City Hall

The Government Performance Project is a non-partisan, independent program of research focused on state governments and the public’s interest in improving their management capacity and performance. The Government Performance Project (GPP) gives state governments information and data they can use to improve management and achieve goals.

The GPP released its annual ratings of government performance for all 50 states. Minnesota got a B+. The only grades awarded higher than the B+ were A-’s to Utah and Virginia. There were four other B+ states: Washington, Michigan, Kentucky, and Delaware. Wisconsin got a B-. The lowest grades are C-’s. They go to only two states: Alabama (no surprise) and California. Yes, California. Looks to me like California and Alabama are beginning to have more in common every year.

The full report on Minnesota from the GPP is available online. It is very complimentary. Sure, there are a couple of admonitions in there about the increase in partisanship in the Legislature and its potential to decrease government performance and drop our grade, but all in all, it’s a pretty good report card.

I will offer my congratulations to the Governor and the State’s Legislative leaders on the outcomes of this report. While we might think things are going poorly with our state government, this report reminds us that it might not be so bad.

In fact, it might not be bad at all.

The City Council meets the first and third Tuesday of each month. The meeting evening starts at 5:00 p.m. with a small informal meal with City staff. At 5:30 p.m. the Council starts what it calls its “workshop”. The workshop is held in the Heritage Room in the lower level of City Center. The workshop is an informal setting. We don’t use parliamentary procedure. Staff and Council discuss things in a give and take fashion. We have planned a schedule of workshops for the upcoming year. I’ve listed it at the end of this post.

Following the workshop, the Council moves upstairs into the Council Chambers. At 6:30 p.m. the Council starts its Open Podium\Open Forum time. This time is preserved each evening for citizens to address the Council. Citizens can call ahead to be scheduled for this time at 952.949.8412. We also reserve some time for citizens who have not called in advance. This portion of the meeting is not recorded or televised. It ends promptly at 7:00 p.m.

At 7:00 p.m. sharp the Council meeting begins. That’s when we go “live” on EPTV-Channel 16. At 7:00 p.m. the Mayor gavels the meeting to order; we say the Pledge of Allegiance; and the meeting goes on from there.

Generally, our Council meeting last from 1 to 2 hours. Our City Council does a great job of staying on task and completing its meeting in a orderly and efficient manner. Believe me. I’ve worked for Councils that don’t do that. I know the difference.

Here is a current list of the Council’s scheduled workshop topics for 2005:

Dates and Topics

Jan 04 NO WORKSHOP

Jan 18 2005 Legislative Issues (Scott Neal, City Manager)

Feb 01 WiFi (Mike Barone, Assistant to the City Manager)
Public Hearing Protocol (Mike Barone, Assistant to the City Manager)
Hennepin Village Update (Janet Jeremiah, Community Development Director)

Feb 15 Human Services in Eden Prairie (Janet Jeremiah, Community Development Director)

Mar 01 MCA Study Joint meeting with Planning Commission (Janet Jeremiah, Community Development Director)

Mar 07 Joint Meeting with School Board (Scott Neal, City Manager)
Note: This is a Monday meeting at the School Administration Building

Mar 15 Joint Meeting with State Legislators (Scott Neal, City Manager)

Apr 12 Joint Meeting w/ Hennepin Co. Commissioners (Scott Neal, City Manager) Note: Meeting at EP Library

Apr 26 169/494 Project Municipal Consent (Gene Dietz, Public Works Director)
Fire Station (George Esbensen, Fire Chief)

May 03 Discussion of Budget & Finance Philosophies of the City (Sue Kotchevar, Finance Manager)
2005 Q1 Financial Report (Sue Kotchevar, Finance Manager)
Review 2004 City Financial Audit (Sue Kotchevar, Finance Manager)

May 17 Council In-service: Assessing and Taxation (Steve Sinell, City Assessor)

Jun 07 MCA Report Joint meeting with Planning Commission (Janet Jeremiah, Community Development Director)

Jun 21 Cemetery Task Force (Stu Fox, Manager of Parks and Natural Resources)
Council In-service: Immigration Update (Janet Jeremiah, Community Development Director)

Jul 05 NO WORKSHOP

Jul 19 Utility Finance Issues (Sue Kotchevar, Finance Manager)
Liquor Store Business Plan (Sue Kotchevar, Finance Manager)

Aug 02 2005 Q2 Financial Report (Sue Kotchevar, Finance Manager)
2006-2007 Budget (Scott Neal, City Manager)

Aug 16 2006-2007 Budget and CIP (Scott Neal, City Manager)

Sep 06 Joint Meeting with Arts & Culture Commission (Sandy Werts, Special Events Coordinator)

Sep 20 Joint Meeting with School Board (Scott Neal, City Manager) Note: Meeting at City Center

Oct 04 Trail Master Plan Report (Bob Lambert, Parks Director) Note: Meeting at Riley-Jacques Barn

Oct 18 Council In-service: Workforce Development (Karen Kurt, HR Manager)

Nov 01 Council In-service: Flying Cloud Airport (Scott Kipp, Senior Planner)
2005 Q3 Financial Report (Sue Kotchevar, Finance Manager)

Nov 15 Council In-service: Comprehensive Guide Plan (Mike Franzen, City Planner)

Dec 06 Joint Meeting with EP Chamber of Commerce Board (Scott Neal, City Manager)

Dec 20 Planning for 2006 (Scott Neal, City Manager)

I’ll be dedicating my blog this morning to plugging other blogs of note. I like to call that “Blog Plugging”.

Fire Chief George Esbensen

Fire Chief George Esbensen is our new staff blogger. He’s a rookie. He started this week. Feel welcome to give him lots of feedback. Check out The Fire Chief’s Blog at our City website.

Police Chief Dan Carlson

Of course, Police Chief Dan Carlson has been at this blogging thing for over a year now, so he fits into the “crafty veteran” catagory. You can read Dan’s blog, A Police Chief’s Weblog, at the City’s website as well.

Here are a couple more without the accompanying attractive photographs:

Behind The Mortgage
Twin Cities Real Estate News, Views, Trends and Chatter by Alex J. Stenback
This guy found my blog somehow and plugged it, so I’ll plug his blog in return. It’s an interesting site about local and national real estate issues.

Diva Marketing.
Diva Marketing is a marketing consultanting company in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s principal is Ms. Toby Bloomberg. She reads my blog and gives me regular feedback. I like to read her’s too.

State Representative Ray Cox
Representative Ray Cox represents Minnesota House district 25-B. Rep. Cox’s district includes Northfield, New Prague, Lonsdale, and other south metro exurban small towns. He has a great blog. I read it regularly. I also know him fairly well. He’s a pretty good guy, too.

Wigley & Associates
And last, but not least, my blogging guru: Mr. Griff Wigley of Wigley & Associates. He is The Man, in the Blog World.

The Market Value Credit (MVC) is a property tax relief program devised by the State government to help relieve the property tax burdens of Minnesota property tax payers. Sounds like a good idea, right? Here’s how it works.

Residential homesteaded property benefit from the state-funded MVC property tax credit. The credit amount is equal to 0.4% of the market value of your home up to a maximum annual credit of $304/home/year. This maximum credit occurs at a home valued at $76,000. As the value of the home increases over $76,000 the amount of the credit begins to decrease. At a home value of $411,000 the value of the credit finally reaches zero.

Now here’s the really interesting part. Rather than issuing each homesteaded property owner a check for the amount of the credit, the State gives the credit as a subtraction from the gross tax on a property taxpayer’s annual property tax statement. So, if you look at your property tax statement, you will see your total property tax liability near the bottom of the statement, but you will not notice a subtraction for the MVC on your tax bill. The entire MVC money exchanging process happens behind the scenes.

So where does the money go? Well, the State isn’t giving the MVC directly to you - the taxpayer. They give you a credit, which is the same thing as the State lowering your local property tax liability. But instead of giving the money directly to you, the State reimburses the local governments whose taxes they lowered through the award of the MVC.

In other words, the State’s plan behind the MVC was that the State would lower local property taxes, take credit for tax relief, and then keep the local governments from squawking by making them whole by reimbursing them for the amount of the property taxes they lost in the whole transaction. Local governments don’t lose any money. Property taxpayers get tax relief. And State Legislators and the Governor can claim that they lowered property taxes.

At least that’s how it was supposed to work. Now, the Market Value Credit program is scam, and nothing more. Here’s why I say that.

In 2003, the State Legislature was reckoning its finances and things did not look good. They were dealing with a state budget deficit of historic proportions. $4.5 billion dollars, by most estimates. That year the Legislature made significant cuts in local government financial assistance programs, including the Market Value Credit. Almost all cities had the amount of their MVC reimbursed reduced. Cities like Eden Prairie had their MVC reimbursement reduced from $850,000/year to zero.

The 2003 legislation that made these local government finance changes included the full restoration of the MVC in 2005. In Governor Pawlenty’s 2006-2007 budget, which he released just yesterday, there it was on page of the Revenue Department’s budget:

“The Governor recommends extending temporary reductions in market value credit reimbursements to selected cities for two additional years. Reduction amounts would parallel FY 2004 and FY 2005 reductions for those cities that had their MVC reimbursements reduced as part of the local government aid reforms.”

The scam of the Market Value Credit is that the State continues to bask in the warm feeling of being able to reduce local government property taxes, but they also enjoy the benefit of not having to reimburse the local governments for the taxes they are losing. Local governments bear the financial brunt of the tax relief program and then get stiffed by the State when it comes time to pay the bill.

That, my friends, is scam - intergovernmental style.

Included in the Governor’s State of the State Address this year was his annual reference and advocacy to Initiative & Referendum (I&R). The Governor strongly supports I&R. So does one of Eden Prairie’s House of Reprensentatives members, House Majority Leader Erik Paulsen (R-42B). Rep. Paulsen has introduced the I&R bill in the House during the past few sessions. I’m sure he’ll be introducing it again this year.

The Star Tribune has panned the I&R concept. They call the idea a “klinker”. For another view of I&R, check out the website of a group called Citizens In Charge. They advocate for I&R around the country.

The debate over I&R is not going away anytime soon. It’s all about the role of the citizen in representative democracy. I’ve lived through both an Initiative and a Referendum while I was the City Administrator in Northfield, MN. Northfield offers its citizens Initiative, Referendum, and Recall because it is a Home Rule City with a City Charter. Recall is a tool that citizens can use to remove elected officials form office before the completion of their terms. This is what happened to former California Grey Davis. It’s interesting to me that the nobody at the state level is advocating for Recall in Minnesota, but that’s another story.

When I arrived in Northfield in 1996 the City was in the last stages of launching a new Sidewalk Construction Plan. The objective of the plan was to build new concrete sidewalks in residential and commercial areas in the City not currently served by sidewalks. The plan was funded by a special assessment on every household and business of about $70/household per year for five years.

The plan was adopted by an ordinance of the City Council. This is an important tidbit because the ordinance is what is susceptible to challenge through referendum. A citizens group opposed to the sidewalk plan gathered a sufficient number of names on a petition to force the Council to have a referendum. Citizens then voted to repeal the ordinance which the Council had adopted to implement the sidewalk plan.

So what did citizens reject? We heard some citizens say that they did not like sidewalks at all. We heard some citizens say they loved sidewalks, but did not like the funding plan. We heard some citizens say that they loved sidewalks, liked the funding plan, but did not like concrete. It was a mixed bag. To date, the sidewalk issue has been left alone.

In 1999, Target Corporation came to town with a plan to build a big box Target store on the edge of town. This upset our local downtown businesses and some citizens in the community who were philosophically opposed to big box development. Other citizens in the community, however, loved the idea of a Target in town and touted the convenience and price advantages of big box retailing.

Target’s proposal required a number of regulatory changes by the City if it were to go forward. When it seemed as though the Council might not make the necessary ordinance changes to allow the Target store, a group of citizens drafted their own Commercial Planned Development Zone zoning ordinance; gathered the sufficient number of names on a petition; and forced the Council to offer their zoning ordinance to the citizens through an Initiative special election. Citizens approved the ordinance by a vote of 50.9% to 49.1%.

So what did citizens approve? Did they really approve a twenty page ordinance that they may or may not have read word for word? Or, did they approve the general concept that the Council should welcome a Target store to Northfield? I think it was the latter, but the former is what they actually voted to approve.

Interestingly, the ordinance approved by the citizens by Initiative contained provisions which were not acceptable to Target, so after the ordinance was approved by the citizens it was modified by the City Council in order to make it more acceptable to Target. That was a politically dicey move, and it was challenged all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court. The Court upheld the Council’s modification of a citizen-approved Initiative ordinance, but admonished the Council for doing it.

In my limited experience with Initiative & Referendum, I would say they are useful tools for citizens to express themselves to their government, but what they communicate is rarely very clear to decision-makers. Maybe more importantly, I&R never settles the issue for good, like you think that it ought to. The Northfield citizens involved in the I&R battles that I observed still fight about what they were fighting about, and what the actual results meant.

But as I said in the beginning, the debate over I&R is not going away anytime soon.

My family gained a new member on Saturday when we welcomed Carina into our home. This is Carina:

Carina is a 17 year old AFS exchange student from a small town outside Munich, Germany. Carina will stay with my family until she goes back to Germany at the end of June. My wife and I have three teenage sons, so having a teenage daughter live in our home, even for just a few months is a new challenge for us.

We look forward to it. We are happy to welcome Carina to our family.

It’s snowing out today. Some people will be joyous. Other will not. I am not sure of the exact reaction of our snow plow drivers. It’s safe to say it falls somewhere in between.

When the snow fails to fall in the snowy parts of our country, it’s not at all uncommon for local and state politicians to talk about how much money we are “saving” by not having to move snow from our roadways. And I guess it’s true. We budgeted to spend money on snow removal, and when we don’t have to do it, we didn’t spend it, so we saved it to be spent on something else.

In a different year, I might be making the same claim myself. But not this year. Why? Because when we have not spent budgeted money on snow removal, it also means that we have put any extra overtime pay into the pockets of our snow plowing employees and their families. Many of them look forward to snow plowing season to make a few extra bucks for the extra things in life. A cabin. A snowmobile. A college education for their kids.

So now that we’ve got a snow big enough to plow out there, I say: “Get after it!” Let’s plow some snow. Earn some money.

To my fellow drivers, please be aware of our plow drivers. Stay back. Stay alive.

This is what you’d look like if you fought a blazing fire outside in Eden Prairie, Minnesota on January 18th. It’s cold. It’s wet. It’s hot. It’s ice. It’s fire. It’s dangerous.

This is a photo of a fire in action at 9340 Hennepin Town Road. Despite the best efforts of our Fire Department the building was a total loss. There were no fire fighter or civilian injuries. That’s always the first thing that the Fire Chief and I talk about when debriefing a fire scene. It’s the most important fact to me.

Our Fire Department is a paid on-call department. We used to call it a volunteer fire department, and that description is still somewhat accurate, but fire fighters do receive a small measure of compensation per fire event and a pension upon their retirement. That being said, make no mistake, the driving force for someone on our Fire Department to stand outside in the cold and fight a fire on a January day is not money - it’s a drive to serve their community. It’s a public service motivation.

Compared to citizens in other states, Minnesotans get a great bargain when it comes to the financial cost of fire protection and suppression. According to the Minnesota Taxpayers Association, using 2002 data, Minnesotans paid (on average) $52.81 per capita for fire protection and suppression. That ranked Minnesota 45th among the 50 states + the District of Columbia. Just for reference, Wisconsin ranked #17 at $90.09 per capita. Iowa ranked #43 at $54.82.

As for Eden Prairie, I think that we offer our citizens an extraordinary financial bargain in this aspect of our City operations. The operating budget for our Fire Department in 2004 was $1,572,056. We haven’t audited our books yet for 2004, but our final numbers will be at our below that budget figure. In Edina, where the Fire Department operates with 31 fulltime employees supplemented by 15 paid on-call fire fighters, their 2004 Fire Department operating budget was $3,674,611.

I will be first to admit that comparing our Fire Department cost to Edina’s is not the cleanest comparison to make because Edina Fire also offers emergency medical transportation services. But I think that it does give you an idea about the magnitude in savings that we are able to achieve here due mostly to the volunteer spirit of the paid on-call fire fighters that are ready, willing, and able to go outside on a cold winter day to fight our fires, protect our properties, and save our lives.

It really is quite a bargain, if you think about it.

Governor Pawlenty delivered the Governor’s annual State of the State address yesterday in Rochester. The Star Tribune summarized the address in today’s paper.

The State of the State is, according to the Governor: “Good, but not good enough.” I think that’s a fair statement. Minnesota is a great state in which to live and raise a family. I moved here from Iowa. I prefer Minnesota. We can also do better. Can anyone dispute that? I think we can all do more to improve the quality of life in Minnesota, and the City of Eden Prairie will do its part.

Governor Pawlenty outlined a number of policy preferences in his address yesterday. Is he on the right track? You decide. I think his heart is in the right place, but I think he’s in a box to some extent. He has an agenda for many things that the state government can do to improve life for Minnesotans, but he does not express a willingness to ask Minnesota citizens to pay for the improvements they say they want.

Telling citizens they can have more of something (i.e - services) for less of something (i.e. - money) is a risky proposition. Some might call it pandering. I’m not saying that the Governor is doing that, but I think we’re taking steps in that direction, and if we were to move in that direction in a substantial way, I don’t think that serves citizens very well from any level of government.

Tomorrow, I will deliver the annual State of the City address at the January meeting of the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce luncheon. I will tell the audience what we accomplished in 2004 and what we are planning to do in 2005. I’ve been working on the address for a week or so. I saw the power point presentation yesterday. I think that it looks pretty good. It looks like we know what we’re doing here.

I will not pander.

At their meeting this evening, the City Council will be considering a request from two Eden Prairie citizens who wish to establish a Farmers’ Market this summer in the Purgatory Creek Recreation Area (PCRA).

The PCRA is one of our news parks in Eden Prairie. It is located at the intersection of Prairie Center Drive and Technology Drive. It was in the planning stages for years and was completed as a joint project of the City and the Watershed District in 2004. The City formally dedicated the park during the summer of 2004.

The proponents would like to have the market open on Thursdays in the late afternoon and early evening and Saturday mornings. They say their market will have 28 stalls. The Farmers’ Market proposal came to Council for initial review in December 2004. It received a warm reception from the Council, but has generated quite a few questions since. Here are some of them:

1. Is there sufficient parking available for customers? Is it close enough to the market to be useful to the customers?

2. Will the market and the traffic is creates damage the park, especially its new sod and flowers? If so, how will the City assess repair costs to the responsible parties?

3. The market is right across the street from Bachman’s. There may be vendors in the market selling the same or similar products that Bachman’s sells. Is that appropriate given the investment that Bachman’s has made in a bricks & mortar store, and given the fact that Bachman’s cannot do “outside sales” of his products due to City zoning prohibitions?

4. Other local produce markets and growers are concerned that commercial growers will unfairly compete with existing markets in Eden Prairie. Is it a good idea to encourage new produce markets at the expense of the ones we have now?

5. The City is proposing to charge the Farmers’ Market a park rental fee of $90/day. Is that sufficient? Is it fair?

We will have both proponents and opponents of the proposal speaking to the Council tonight. Then, we’ll ask the Council to discuss the issue and tell us (staff) what they’d like to do. I don’t know which way this issue is going to go. It will be an interesting evening.

For heaven’s sake, it’s not me. I am not a Packers’ fan.

Today I am brining in my first guest blogger. It’s Mike Barone. Mike is the Assistant to the City Manager in Eden Prairie. Here’s what Mike has to say about a rather glaring personal weakness that he’s been suffering with his entire life. Take it away Mike:
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Might as well tell your straight out, I am a Packers fan. Grew up in Green Bay. It�s pretty hard not to be a Packers fan while growing up there. But I call myself a Minnesotan, having lived here for a long time now. I have been in the metropolitan Twin Cities area since 1976 when I came to go to school at the University of Minnesota, and have been here ever since.

When following college athletics, I bleed Gopher maroon and gold. For professional sports, I am a Minnesota fan all the way (with the NFL exception). Twins � love �em. Timberwolves � how can you not like KG. Lynx � should have done whatever was necessary to get Lindsey Whalen. Wild � wish they were playing, but what fun to watch when they do play. Vikings � Go Packers!

In the almost 30 years since I have been calling Minnesota home, a day wasn�t any harder than Sunday, January 9, beginning about 7pm or so � right after the Vikings beat the Packers in the playoffs � in Lambeau Field � in the cold weather � handily. That hurt! I, like a lot of my friends who are Viking fans, thought the Packers would win, based on the Vikings performance the previous week against Washington. Then throw in the fact that the Pack had won twice against the Vikes this year, even though the games were very close, and it would be more of the same in this playoff game. Right?

Wrong!

Now that a few days have transpired since the big game, I got to thinking. What if the Vikings win it all? Could it happen? I know a lot of people who love the Vikings, like I love the Packers, and I am sure that is what they want to see happen.

The energy and excitement that Vikings fans have now, pumped up from beating their arch-rivals last week, have them thinking - why not! Now, as a good Packers fan, you won�t get me saying �Go Vikes!� anytime soon, but I do hope that all the energy and excitement that Vikings fans now have gets rewarded. Lots of people I know, good Vikings fans, would finally have their wait for an NFL championship come to an end. Hey, the Boston Red Sox finally won a World Series this past season, so you never know.
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Editor’s Note: I am working with Mike on this “issue”. Here is photodocumentation of the progress we’ve made just this past season.

Enjoy the game on Sunday, Mike and all. Skol Vikings!

It’s Legislative Season. Cities have interests at the State Legislature, just like many other public and private parties in the state. Cities sometimes confuse themselves into thinking that they are partners in governing with the State Government, but I can assure you that that’s not the way it works. I’m not saying that to be sarcastic. That’s just not the way it works.

The City of Eden Prairie belongs to several organizations that advocate for legislation at the State Capitol. We belong to the National League of Cities (NLC). The NLC advocates for city issues in Washington DC. We belong to the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC). The LMC advocates for general city issues in St. Paul. We belong to the Association of Metropolitan Municipalities (AMM). The AMM advocates for legislation that specifically impacts cities with the seven county Twin Cities metro area. Finally, we belong to the Municipal Legislative Commission (MLC). The MLC advocates for the interests of eleven metropolitan cities that share two common characteristics: they receive very little or no state financial assistance and they are net contributors to the state’s Fiscal Disparities Pool. In addition to Eden Prairie, the cities that comprise the MLC are Maple Grove, Plymouth, Minnetonka, Edina, Bloomington, Burnsville, Apple Valley, Eagan, Woodbury, Maplewood, and Shoreview.

There are other groups that advocate for city issues that Eden Prairie is not a member of. For example, the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, the Minnesota Association of Small Cities, and the Range Association of Municipalities and Schools. These groups advocate for different policies than we advocate for. In fact, it’s not uncommon for these groups to advocate for issues that we are opposed to, and vice-versa.

Recently, groups that advocate for city issues at the State Capitol have been participating in a task force called the Financing Local Government Task Force (FLGTF). The task force was organized under the leadership of the League of Minnesota Cities in an effort to find common legislative ground among city advocacy organizations. The task force was established in an attempt to try and minimize the number of issues where cities were working against each other in the hope that reducing this number would create more success for all cities legislatively.

As you might guess, the task force had a difficult row to hoe, but the task force reached agreement on the following set of five recommendations:

1. The State should support greater flexibility in cities’ ability to raise revenue. Cities need a wider variety of tools to choose from to ease pressure on property taxes. The State should recognize the diversity of circumstances among cities and allow them greater flexibility in implementing the revenue sources that make sense for their communities. Examples include local sales taxes, street utility fees, and impact fees;

2. Barriers to effectiveness, efficiency, and innovation should be removed. The State should eliminate unnecessary mandates and preemptions, and allow for efficiencies common in the private sector. These include greater use of design/build contracts for construction projects and use of city websites and other options for posting notices;

3. The State should make policy changes to increase the year-to-year stability of its own revenues. The certainty of state aids and credits is clearly related to the certainty of state revenues. A blue-ribbon task force of state and local officials, business leaders, and experts in tax policy should be convened to examine the stability of Minnesota’s tax structure and explore policy options; and

4. Excessive property tax burdens should be mitigated by fully funding Local Government Aid (LGA). Through state and local taxes and revenue sharing, public investment has supported, not hindered, Minnesota’s success. If state lawmakers truly see public safety, economic development, good roads, and strong neighborhoods as priorities, state revenue sharing with local governments must be a priority as well.

5. Additionally, the Task Force calls for establishment of an Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations that brings together the administration, the state legislature, cities, counties, townships, and school districts to begin a fresh dialogue about the quality of life Minnesotans want, as well as the role that government plays in maintaining and enhancing quality of life. A complete copy of the Task Force report, with details on each recommendation, can be found at www.lmnc.org.

These five recommendations are being presented to the Governor and State Legislature. It’s a good start. It’s good timing. It’s Legislative Season.

In 2004 we made some major changes in the way that we managed City facilities. Prior to 2004, the City employed a dozen of so custodians and out-sourced the management of the more sophisticated building systems to a well known Twin Cities building management company.

I was not pleased with the condition of our facilities or the direction they were headed in. After analyzing the situation with my management team, we made a rather significant change to that situation. We decided to out-source our custodial service and bring the building management in-house. It was a painful decision for those city employees that we directly impacted, as it was for the building management company that lost a sizable private contract with the City.

But for the City facilities, it was the right decision. Maybe one of the better ones that I had a hand in making in 2004. Our facilities are in the best shape they’ve been in for years. The buildings are cleaner. The carpeting is getting replaced. The flower beds are weeded. The glass in our doors gets cleaned. It’s working out very nicely.

As we take over more direct management of our building systems, such as plumbing, HVAC, electrical and the like, we are finding more frequent examples of just how poor the service was we were buying prior to 2004. The photos below are a good example.

These are pictures of bag filters. These filters are positoned within the HVAC system and filter particles out of the air before it gets into the ventilation system that leads into offices in City Center. The top photo is of a bag filter that my new Facilities staff estimates hasn’t been change in years. Not months. Years. It’s disgusting.

This is what a clean bag filter looks like. It was installed in place of the dirty one yesterday.

We’ve got more progress to make, but we are surely on the way there. Our new Facilities Division staff is identifying and fixing our facility shortcomings one by one by one by one……..

I heard an interesting baseball story on the radio last week. The Anaheim Angels (major league baseball team), that I grew up calling The California Angels, is planning to change their name again next year to: The Los Angels Angels of Anaheim. Is this a joke? I think it’s for real, but it sounds a bit contrived to me.

But it did get me to thinking about this: The Minnesota Vikings of Eden Prairie. Why not? Eden Prairie is The Home of the Vikings, right out there in Winter Park, on the north side of 494, right off Viking Drive. Turn right at the Viking ship.

The Minnesota Vikings’ football club maintains its corporate offices and practice facility in Eden Prairie. They play in the Metrodome, of course, but their day-to-day home is in our town. It’s interesting to have the Vikings here. A number of their players live in Eden Prairie during the season. You can catch an occasional glimpse of a familiar player at the Mall or your favorite restaurant.

Last year when Randy Moss had his unfortunate traffic encounter with a traffic officer in downtown Minneapolis, Eden Prairie Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens received dozens of e-mails and a few letters from angry people across the country lambasting the City of Eden Prairie for letting Moss “get away with this atrocity” or alleging that City officials were derelict in their duties for “not keeping these blankity-blank football players under control”. I am not kidding. I responded to a few of them on behalf of the Mayor, but then I decided to let them rest of them go - right into the e-waste basket where they deserved.

Why did we get this crank feedback? Because the story about Randy’s incident was released by the Vikings press office with a byline that sourced it from “Eden Prairie, Minnesota”. If you’re a crank and you’ve got to get something angry out of your brain via e-mail, a few Google clicks and you can dump a nonsense e-mail right into the e-lap of the Mayor of Eden Prairie.

So, we take the good and the bad. But mostly I think it’s good. I like having the Vikings here. It adds a little cache to our city.

So try this on to size: The Minnesota Vikings of Eden Prairie.

This is Steve Sinell. Steve is the City of Eden Prairie’s official City Assessor. It is Steve’s duty to evaluate and value all taxable real estate within the City of Eden Prairie. It is not part of Steve’s job to raise your taxes. I think that bears repeating: the City Assessor does not raise your taxes.

The City Assessor values your real estate. In fact, State Statutes in Minnesota say that the City Assessor shall value properties within 95% of their current market value. That’s the law. And that law is set by the Minnesota State Legislature, not by the local City Council or County Commission.

The taxing bodies (i.e. - City, County, School District, etc.) use the value of your real estate as the basis to distribute the burden of the property tax. The higher the value of your real estate, the higher the tax you pay. And vice-versa. The property tax is a “wealth tax”. It is based on the assumption that if you own valuable property, you can afford to pay higher taxes. I’m not trying to justify it, just explain it.

There is a common misunderstanding among the taxed (of which I am one) that the City determines how much it wants to spend and then goes out and assesses property to raise that sum of money. That’s not the way it works. The Assessor actually starts the process by assessing the value of new properties and adjusting the value of old properties. Taxpayers are notified about these changes, and how to challenge the results. After the challenge period is exhausted, the new values are put into place.

Your taxes are actually determined by the spending decisions of the taxing bodies that can tax your property. The more they spend, the more taxes that need to be spread (i.e. - “levied”) over the entire tax base - which is just another name for the collective taxable property in the community. If spending is increased, there is a high likelihood that your taxes will increase. If spending is held stable or decreased, it’s just as likely that your taxes will decrease.

The City Assessor doesn’t have any more to say about the City budget and the City’s spending decisions than the Building Official or City Planner does. Yes, the City Assessor has several employees and a modest operating budget, but when it comes to spending decisions for the City, the buck actually stops with the City Council and me.

A top-flight City Assessor is one that attributes accurate values to the real estate in the community. Not too low, but not too high - and always based on the forces of the market, of course. A good City Assessor is one who can justify his or her work in the political and legal worlds when called upon to do that. We’ve got a top-flight City Assessor in Eden Prairie in Steve Sinell.

And remember to remember this: Steve Sinell doesn’t raise your taxes.