The Blog from City Hall

Division Managers, Department Directors, and I met with the City Council last night in a 2 � hour special workshop to continue the Council�s discussion about its budget options for 2006. While the Council approved a tentative budget for 2006 at its September 6 meeting, there have been continued discussions since then at Council meetings and in the community about the appropriate size of the budget and the City�s proposed tax levy for 2006.

At last night�s workshop, a majority of the Council expressed support for a compromise 2006 budget with the following elements:

1. It would increase General Fund spending in 2006 by approximately 6.2% over the 2005 budget. The September 6 budget proposed projected a 2006 spending increase of 8.4%.

2. It would reduce proposed 2006 General Fund spending by $200,000 from the September 6 proposed 2006 budget. It�s important to note that, even with this proposed reduction, proposed 2006 spending is projected to increase just over $2,000,000 in 2006 with this budget option.

3. It would reduce the City�s Capital Improvement Plan tax levy from $1,200,000 per year to $1,000,000 per year.

4. It would require the use of $500,000 of the City�s reserve funds to be used for 2006 General Fund one-time purchases, such as new furniture, police department equipment, and other small capital purchases.

5. It would decrease the City�s proposed 2006 Total Tax Levy increase from the September 6 budget projection of 8.6% to 3.7%. By comparison, our Total Tax Levy increase in 2005 was 5.2%.

This budget option has only minor impacts on the City�s proposed 2006 operations and service levels. There would be no loss of employees in this budget option. This budget option also provides sufficient funding for our proposed wage and benefit packages for 2006.

The downside to this budget proposal is that it requires the City to spend some of its reserve funds, which decreases long-term funding for our Capital Improvement Plan. Currently the plan has sufficient funding to the year 2019. If this budget option is adopted by the Council, that will decrease secured funding to the CIP to 2016.

The next step in the budget process is the Truth-In-Taxation public hearing at the December 5 Council meeting. This public hearing gives citizens the opportunity to comment on any aspect of the budget, including the budget option that resulted from last night�s workshop. The Council considers the feasibility and advisability of the public’s input from December 5-13. The Council is scheduled to take final action on the 2006 budget at their December 13 Council meeting.

These are the “new guys” and the “new gals” that work for the City. They’ve all joined us within the last year. Each year we get as many of our new employees together as possible and give them a bus tour of Eden Prairie. Less than half of our city employees live within the City, so I think this tour is an important opportunity for employees to learn more about the citizens we all serve.

Our tour guide each year is our lovable Economic Development Manager David Lindahl. Dave grew up in Eden Prairie. He remembers what it used to be and, as a long time City employee in our Planning Division, has helped it become what it is today. Dave gives an entertaining and informative tour. He’s a good egg for helping out with this task every year too.

Among the many stops on the tour is one at the City’s vehicle maintenance shop where the new employees are asked to work together to lift a fire truck to a height of five ft. or higher. This group achieved that goal with no problem.

To enable employees to connect quickly and accurately with citizens who call us with questions or concerns, it’s important for everyone who works for the City to have a basic working knowledge of the city. I want employees to know where our borders are. They should know basic the basics about major roads in town, such as that Pioneer Trail is in southern Eden Prairie and the Crosstown is in the north. I want them to understand what a Water Treatment Plant is, and where it is. It’s important for employees - any employee - to be able to answer questions and concerns from citizens, even if that means they must find another city employee for help.

[And, yes, the fire truck is on a hydraulic vehicle lift. No city employees were harmed in the creation of this photo.]

Each month the City’s Communications Division staff produces a 30 minute television show about Eden Prairie that we call “Life in the Prairie”. The show airs on EPTV-16 which is the City’s local government cable channel. The show is very well done. If you’d like to watch it on EPTV-16, it runs on the following schedule:

Monday: 10 a.m., 2 p.m. & 11 p.m.
Tuesday: 10 a.m., 2 p.m., 6:30 p.m. & 11 p.m.
Wednesday: 10 a.m., 2 p.m. & 11 p.m.
Thursday: 10 a.m., 2 p.m., 6:30 p.m. & 11 p.m.
Friday: 10 a.m., 2 p.m. & 11 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday 9 a.m., 6:30 p.m. & 10:30 p.m.

If you have a story idea for Life in the Prairie, send it to us at: www.communications@edenprairie.org

EPTV-16 works just fine for Eden Prairie residents who have cable television service. But if you don’t have cable, now we’ve got an option just for you.

Starting today we are offering a streaming video service from the City’s website. Now anyone in the world can watch “Life in the Prairie” or, starting in January 2006, replays of our City Council meetings, or replays of any meeting or event that we happen to record.

This an exciting development for our website and, if you’re interested in this kind of thing, for our citizens. We were able to start a video streaming program because of the hard work and innovative thinking of a guy in our Information Technology Division named Mike Hutter and the persistence of our Communications Manager Pat Brink.

Pat has a very public role for the City. You’ll see him every month on our TV show. Mike, on the other hand, is a guy that most of you will never meet. He is an insider. He is our web developer, e-government coordinator, and all-around problem resolver. He is well known throughout our organization as a guy that gets it done. We’re fortunate to have him on our team.

So check out our website and stream away.

The lights are green and the intersection of Anderson Lakes Parkway and Highway 169 is now open. Actually, it’s been open for a week or so. I used it for the first time just last week.

This is the view going down the entrance ramp to the south bound lanes of 169. If you’re east bound on Anderson Lakes Parkway, as I was at the time, you need to take a left to access the on ramp. A left turn is a brief trip to the north, which is always a bit disconcerting if you’re really trying to go south, but the ramp makes a swooping curve to the south and provided me plenty of room to accelerate up to the speed of traffic on southbound 169. The landscaping aspect of the project has a ways to go yet, but I’m sure they’ll get back to that in the spring.

The construction contractor for this project is the same one that did the new intersection at Pioneer Trail and 169. These were both complicated projects, but they delivered them on time. Because they were MnDOT projects, I’m not sure if they were delivered under budget or not. It’s good to have this intersection open now. Hopefully, business will return to the commercial center at this intersection that is anchored by Jerry’s grocery store. They’ve been hit hard by the road closures and detours. Now that everything is done, maybe business will get back to normal - or even be better. Let’s hope.

Chief of Police Dan Carlson has been our Chief now for just over three years. One of the new traditions that Chief Carlson has started in our department is the Annual Meeting.

The Annual Meeting provides a chance for the various factors that make up the Police Department to come together to hear about the department’s past, present and future. Such an Annual Meeting is a challenging opportunity to arrange for a 24/7 type of operation like a Police Department. It is impossible to have every single Police Department employee in the same room at the same time. That would not be good for the community. But, we get most of them. North of 90%, I’d guess.

One of the new features to this year’s Annual Meeting was the inclusion of the Police Department’s alumni. We reached out this year to retired officers who served the Eden Prairie Police Department during their law enforcement careers. This is former Chief of Police Jack Hacking. Jack was the EPPD’s first Chief of Police. Jack told stories of the old days and shared his appreciation with the group for Chief Carlson’s initiative to actively include retired EPPD officers into the department’s events.

Another distinguished alumni in attendance at the Annual Meeting this year was Joyce Conley. That’s her on the right sitting next to one of our current telecommunicators Marci Pogatchnik. Joyce retired last year. When she was hired in Eden Prairie she was one of the first female police officers in this state.

Chief Carlson used the Annual Meeting opportunity to review the department’s and individual officer’s accomplishments over the past twelve months and to preview the year ahead. The Chief delivered a special message this year about the spirit of law enforcement and how both the department and individual officers must attend to their spiritual sides in order to remain healthy. I think that this can be a tricky message to deliver because spirit and religion are often intertwined in our country, but the Chief did an excellent job of distinguishing one from the other. He made his point, and I think it’s a good one.

The Annual Meeting is an important opportunity for the people that make up the Eden Prairie Police Department to come together to reconnect, to reenergize, and to prepare to “Protect & Serve” for the year ahead.

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is a program of our Fire Department that trains citizens how they can be helpful to emergency service providers during times of public emergencies. The objective of the program is to increase the number of citizens in the community that can be helpful to not only the City during times of emergencies, but also helpful to the residents in their respective neighborhoods.

As we have learned with the terror attacks on 9/11 and during the hurricanes this year, the government’s ability to help its residents can be somewhat limited. We do not staff and budget to help every single citizen the moment a disaster hits. We encourage citizens to be ready to take care of themselves for a short while during an emergency. Our CERT volunteers can help residents figure out how to do just that.

I’m proud of all of our CERT graduates, but this graduating class had a couple of members in it that I am especially proud of. That’s Kitty Porta (in the purple) receiving her certificate of completion of the CERT courses from Fire Chief George Esbensen and Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens. Kitty is our City Clerk. I work with her on a daily basis. Congratulations Kitty!

And this is Lorene McWaters (second from the left). Lorene is my executive assistant. I work with Lorene everyday. Some people joke that I work for Lorene everyday. She is a great assistant to me and I owe her a lot. She’s got a busy life, yet she was able to dedicate time to becoming a CERT volunteer to help the residents in her neighborhood. Congratulations Lorene!

The CERT program is one of the things that I think separates Eden Prairie from being just an average city. The City provides great city services, but we also know there are limits to what we can do, especially when our systems our stressed by an emergency. We know that we don’t exist without our residents. We know that in times of emergency, we will be able to count on our CERT volunteers to help us keep our residents safe

That’s salt on the left and sand on the right. Put’em together in just the right proportions and you’ve got a mixture of elements that I think our Street Division employees will be dipping into later tonight or very early tomorrow morning.

Our first snowfall of the 2005-2006 winter season is on the way.

We’re ready.

Eden Prairie voters approved three of the four questions in yesterday’s special referendum. The results look like this:

Question 1. Shall the City improve the Community Center by expanding fitness center, adding indoor track and a gymnasium?

Yes: 3,899
No: 3,669

>>> Question 1 is approved.

Question 2. Shall the City deepen the current pool and create new zero-depth entry warm water pool at Community Center (Question 2 can pass ONLY IF Question 1 is approved)?

Yes: 3,415
No: 4,152

>>> Question 2 fails.

Question 3. Shall the city improve current parks and allow for acquisition of additional park land?

Yes: 4,405
No: 3,275

>>> Question 3 is approved.

Question 4. Shall the City expand and improve its trail system?

Yes: 4,363
No: 3,211

>>> Question 4 is approved.

What happens next? The City will begin to move forward in a number of ways to organize the projects that were approved in the referendum. The first thing we’ll do is start talking about time lines for project formation, consideration and approval. We’ll start that conversation today. Residents can expect to see these project accomplished over the next three years.

There’s an interesting, and now profitable, small business located in our Golden Triangle Industrial Park called MakeMusic. The company produces software used by composers and in the music education field. There was a story in last Friday’s Star Tribune about the recent rise of the company’s stock by 200% during the past 10 days. There are lots of innovative small businesses in Eden Prairie. It’s good to see this one get some publicity about its success.

There’s a great article on GE Fleet Services’ Kathy Marinello in this month’s Twin Cities Business Monthly. Twin Cities Business Monthly does not make its content available online, so I cannot link to it, but the article is worth buying the magazine for. I met Kathy when the Mayor and I did one of our “Meet & Greet” visits to GE two years ago. GE is located on Anderson Lake on the south side of 494. They’ve got a beautiful office location overlooking the lake. Kathy runs a $2 billion/year division of GE right here in Eden Prairie. We’re proud to have her as a member of local business community.

Eden Prairie citizens will have the opportunity to vote tomorrow (Tuesday, November in a special referendum. Voters will decide the fate of four individual proposals that would add to the City’s system of parks and recreation amenities and increase property taxes to finance it all. You can find detailed information about where & how to vote and the four referendum questions on the City’s website at: 2005 Special Referendum Voting Information.

Basically, the four questions that voters will see on the ballot break down like this:

1. Shall the City of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, be authorized to issue general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $6,500,000 for additions and improvements to the Community Center?

2. If Question 1 is approved, shall the City of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, be authorized to issue general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $3,300,000, for additions and improvements to the existing indoor swimming pool located at the Community Center?

3. Shall the City of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, be authorized to issue general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $4,695,000, for the acquisition of additional park land and improvements to existing parks?

4. Shall the City of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, be authorized to issue general obligation bonds in an amount not exceed $2,000,000 for improvements to and expansion of the trail system?

A referendum such as this one is an important opportunity for a city government to connect directly with its citizens. The language of the ballot questions themselves reinforce that our government is based on the concept that citizens consent to being governed. Unless the citizens grant their consent to these special referendum questions, the City will not provide the proposed amenities. Put another way, the City cannot provide the proposed amenities without voter consent. That’s the way the system works.

Public employees in Minnesota are prohibited by state law from actively engaging in advocacy for special referendums and the like. We must be as responsive to the “Vote No” citizens as we are to those on the “Vote Yes” side. They’re all taxpayers and due that amount of fairness in the way their respective tax dollars are spent.

The improvements to our Community Center and the other amenities that would be created by an affirmative result of tomorrow’s special referendum would add to the quality of life in Eden Prairie. There’s no doubt about that. I hope that voters approve them all, but if they don’t - Eden Prairie will still be the premier city in which to live and work in the Twin Cities on Wednesday morning.

Above all else, send us a message: Vote.

Congratulations to the Eden Prairie High School girls’ soccer team for taking the Class AA state championship last night with a 2-1 shootout win over Woodbury in the final.

For more on the game, check out today’s Star Tribune sports section by clicking this link: Eden Prairie girls are state champs!

Eden Prairie Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens offered the following opinion piece in the Thursday, November 3 edition of the Eden Prairie News about the proposed 2006 City budget. It is a clear statement of how the Mayor feels about the proposed City budget for 2006.

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Commentary: Response to questions about city budget
By Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens

In the Oct. 27 edition of the Eden Prairie News, Mr. Randy Foote of the Eden Prairie Taxpayers Alliance posed a number of questions and offered his opinion concerning the city’s proposed 2006 budget. I do not typically respond to rhetorical questions on city government issues posed publicly in the media, but the tone of the article concerns me and I think it best to respond to Mr. Foote’s concerns in the same manner in which he expressed them.
The proposed dollar increase in the city’s proposed Total Tax Levy is $2,201,102. It should be of interest to citizens to know that about a third of that total, $629,000, is property taxes that Eden Prairie residents pay to fund a state property tax credit program called the Market Value Homestead Credit program. We must levy this extra property tax because earlier this year the state Legislature reneged on its promise in the 2003 Tax Bill to restore full funding for the program, starting in 2006, for cities like Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Edina and other similarly situated cities.

Mr. Foote’s article asked why the city’s social services program spending is increasing 23 percent from 2005 to 2006. While it is reasonable to make this conclusion by looking at the budget numbers, the city is actually proposing to move an employee who is working for the city now in a grant funded position into the city’s General Fund budget. This budget change accounts for $57,450 of the proposed increase of $77,684 for our Social Services division. The city is proposing to increase its level of grant funding for local nonprofit organizations 5 percent in 2006 which accounts for $9,470 in growth in this part of our city budget. The Council believes that these services function as a safety net, albeit small, for those among us who find themselves in need, but may not be served by state and county services.

Another question posed by Mr. Foote concerned the apparent growth in the Recreation Division’s administration line item from $175,954 in 2005 to $244,371 in 2006. Part of the answer to this question is that the city is realigning this part of our budget. We are going to account for an employee in this line item in 2006 who was accounted for elsewhere in previous years. There is no net growth of employees as a result of this change. The total increase in spending for our Park and Recreation program in 2006 is proposed to be 3.9 percent, within the 3-4 percent range that Mr. Foote in fact termed “modest” and “under control.”

Mr. Foote expressed concern about the apparent growth of the city’s spending on public facilities maintenance. Intelligent people will disagree, but I have a strong sense that being a good steward of our public facilities is just as important as being a good steward of our public treasury. Facilities and money are both assets and it is important that we care for them with equal attention.

Yes, the city has made major changes in the manner in which it maintains public facilities in 2004. After careful research and planning, the city reduced its custodial workforce of eight fulltime employees and outsourced the work to a private company. At the same time, the city canceled its building management contract with United Properties for City Center and its liquor stores and used that money to hire an in-house building management staff. The end result of this change has been improved building cleanliness and operations at about the same cost structure as we had before the change. It’s never easy to eliminate jobs in government, but in this case it has proven to be the right move for our facilities and for our citizens.

Mr. Foote asked about a $35,000 “management fee” in this part of our budget. The management fee may appear to be an expense in the city budget, but it is reimbursed to the city by the Eden Prairie School District and C.H. Robinson Co. for building management services the city provides to them as occupants of City Center. The city’s operation of City Center as a multi-tenant office building brings its own set of challenges, but it also generates over $900,000 a year in operational revenues that would otherwise be part of our annual tax levy on Eden Prairie taxpayers.

There is a proposed increase in 2006 city spending on facilities maintenance of $351,475 exclusive of staff and utilities. This increase is the second largest categorical spending increase in our 2006 budget behind only the increase in employee compensation and benefits costs. The increase in facilities maintenance spending is to fund building improvements such as roof repairs; landscape repairs; window replacements; floor covering replacements; heating and ventilation equipment replacements; and other similar building maintenance projects at the city’s 24 public buildings and park shelters. These improvements, paid for by today’s taxpayers, will benefit current and future Eden Prairie residents. I think it’s a good investment of your tax dollars and part of our duty to be good stewards of public assets.

Mr. Foote wonders about several budget line items in the city’s Human Resources Division such as $30,000 for employment advertising, $20,000 for new software and $17,000 for employee testing. These three costs are not new costs in 2006. The city has traditionally budgeted these three line items in a larger line item in previous budgets that was less descriptive than the proposed budget line item titles. This is not new spending.

Concern was voiced over the level of city spending on employee travel, training and conferences. These training costs include training for our city employees to respond to your homes in the event of a fire; to answer your 911 call in the event an emergency; to move snow from our streets so we can get to work; and to inspect the buildings and structures we work and live in everyday to make sure they are safe. The city has budgeted $224,770 for employee training, travel and conferences for 2006. This sounds like a lot of money, and in an absolute sense, it is. But, $224,770 represents just over 1.6 percent of our total payroll costs. When judged against this benchmark, I think it is a good investment to train and develop our city employees, especially as we expect them to be more efficient and effective in their work every year.

Another question from Mr. Foote: Why does the Planning Division have a proposed budget line item of $100,000 for “other contracted services?” Because the city must update its Comprehensive Land Use Plan to remain compliant with State law, the city will contract for this service with a private planning consultant.

It’s not difficult for me to respond to Mr. Foote’s questions because they are the same questions posed to staff by members of the City Council during the budget preparation process earlier this year. Council members have been involved in the budget preparation process for months. The proposed 2006 city budget, in my judgment, contains the spending that I believe is necessary to support the city services that citizens have grown accustomed to in Eden Prairie.

It is difficult to inform citizens about complex city budget issues through disjointed weekly dialogue in the local newspaper. Council members and city staff are open to receive and respond to questions about the city’s financial plans for 2006. The council is scheduled to give final approval to the city’s 2006 budget on Dec. 5, 2005. If anyone has questions or comments about the 2006 budget, we are interested in hearing from you between now and then.

It is much healthier for democracy and for the community if the questions with easy answers get asked upfront before being placed in a commentary that attempts to cast doubt on the elected officials who are working hard to provide residents of this city with the services they desire at a reasonable cost.

Nancy Tyra-Lukens, Mayor
Eden Prairie, Minnesota

This is a view of our American flag at half-staff this morning in front of Eden Prairie City Center. The flag was lowered to half-staff pursuant to the City’s new flag etiquette and protocol, which was adopted by the City Council at last night’s Council meeting. The flag was lowered today at the request of President Bush to honor the life of Ms. Rosa Parks on the day of her interment.

Earlier this year the City had fumbled its flag etiquette on a couple of occasions, and the Council heard about it from citizens. In order to do this important ceremonial task correctly, we felt we needed to develop our own flag etiquette and protocol. After talking to my staff about who we should ask for help on this task, Police Chief Dan Carlson suggested that we ask the Police Reserve Unit members for help. That was a good idea.

To the right is a photo of Mr. Woody Franklin. Woody is our squad leader with the Reserve Unit. He is a former Marine and an Eden Prairie resident. He led the effort to research and draft a new flag etiquette and protocol system for the City.

These are the other members of the committee [see photo below] that worked on this new policy. They were all in attendance last night at the City Council meeting to present the Council with the new policy and to answer questions about it.

The new etiquette and protocol, which we will post on our City website, establishes, among many things, a new Reserve Unit Color Guard which will take charge of the management of all City flags at all of our municipal facilities.

The care and management of how the City displays its flags is important. We want to do it right. With the help of the Police Reserve Unit, I think we’ll be doing it right from here on out.

There was a short story in the Sunday, October 30 edition of the Star Tribune regarding the practice of deer management in the Twin Cities suburbs. The story does not get into the issues very deeply, but it does describe the particular contractor that we hire to conduct our annual deer management program in Eden Prairie. He is referred to in the story as a “Connecticut sharpshooter.” He is really much more than that. He is also a trained wildlife biologist who is quite knowledgeable about the behavior and psychology of the North American whitetail deer. He is an amazing guy. We hire him because he carries out our program safely, quickly, and professionally.