The Blog from City Hall

It took me awhile, but I was finally able to negotiate the necessary permission to profile one more member of the City's administrative professionals staff as part of my blog tribute to recognize the contribution that administrative professionals make to city government here in Eden Prairie. So, filed under the headline of "last, but certainly not least", let me introduce you to Lorene McWaters. (That's her peeking out over the top of her cube.)

Lorene is the Executive Assistant to the City Manager. That's right. Lorene works with me. She has worked for the City for just over six years, the last four directly with me. Every day. Day after day. Before coming to work for the City of Eden Prairie, Lorene was a research assistant for a market research company called Customer Research, Inc. She worked on their Coca Cola market research team.

Aside from the joy of working for the City Manager (just kidding Lorene), Lorene told me that the favorite part of her job was the fact that she can know what's going on in her town. Lorene pays attention to public affairs. She likes to know what's happening in Eden Prairie too.

Aside from the challenges of working for the City Manager (this time I'm not kidding), Lorene told me that the most challenging part of her job is the negativity that raises its head from time to time in the local political atmosphere. I'd second that challenge myself.

In November 2005 Lorene earned her membership into the City's Community Emergency Preparedness Team (CERT). As a CERT member, Lorene learned how to assist the City's emergency responses teams in her neighborhood.

In addition to preparing for community and office emergencies, Lorene also cares for her daughter Sonja (10) and her two dogs Copper (12) and Scruffy (6), and her hamster Fred (age unknown).

I work closer with Lorene than perhaps any other employee in city government. She provides attention to the various details I skip over throughout my day. I owe alot to her for the good things that I've been able to accomplish since I've worked her.

Thanks Lorene. I hope that you had a happy Administrative Professionals' Week.

City Manager Scott Neal and I launched the city's podcast today. Topics covered:

• The World Cup
• The Mayor's trip to China
• Recognizing administrative assistants

Click play to listen (8 min, 20 sec).

  Subscribe to the podcast.

  Subscribe with iTunes.

This is my final profile this week of the members of the City’s administrative professional staff.  I don’t have enough days this week to profile them all.  I picked five of them that I think are representative of the entire group.  Today’s profile subject:  Police Department customer service assistant Carri Haberle.

Carri works the front customer service counter in our Police Department.  Carri has worked for the City for five years.  Prior to coming to work for us, she was an International Communications Specialist for National Car Rental (NCR) in Bloomington.

Carri told me that the “variety” of working in the Police Department is what she likes best about her job.  She must frequently serve people that have committed crimes or have been the victim of crimes.  She says this experience has made her appreciate her relatively normal life more and has made her more compassionate towards people who have suffered a bad turn in life. 

When I asked her about the challenges of her job, Carri said frequently falls back on the skills she developed at her previous job at NCR to work with callers with limited English language skills.

When Carri is not at work, she likes to go walking and spend times in local parks.  She is also an admitted avid shoe shopper.

 In an organization like ours - a city government - can implement all the technology it wants, but we must provide human beings here in our offices for our residents to connect with when they contact us.  We are blessed here with an exceptional group of talented administrative professionals throughout our City departments.  I appreciate their work and feel fortunate to have them on our team.

This is Katie Carleton.  Her computer is booted up and she's getting her telephone headset on and ready to take calls again, ten seconds after walking in the door from her lunch break.  Katie is our front counter reception person at the Eden Prairie Senior Center.  I'm profiling Katie today in my continuing series to recognize the contributions to our organization made by our administrative professionals during Administrative Professional's Week.

Katie has worked for the City for almost one year.  It'll be a year in June.  Before joining the City she worked as an assistant account executive at Momentum Marketing.  She worked in the food services areas with such clients at Schwans and General Mills.

When I asked Katie what her favorite part of her job is, her answer was quick and succinct:  "The People".  She enjoys being part of the events at the Senior Center.  She said it has changed the way she thinks about her future.  She told me that she now looks forward to being retired someday.

Her biggest challenge at the Senior Center is balancing the available resources with keeping her customers happy, which is a tough challenge for all of us working in city government.

In her free time, Katie likes to hike the North Shore with her husband Phil.  She likes to ride horses on the weekend and also work inn her garden.  Katie has a 14 month old son named Ivan.  She said he likes to garden too.

Here's to Katie and the exceptional work she's doing at the Senior Center.  Hang in there Katie.  You've got a few years until retirement.

This is the service counter at the Eden Prairie Community Center.  And right behind that counter is the smiling face of Ikram Ibrahim.  I want you to meet Ikram today in my third installment in a series of profiles I'm writing this week about the City's administrative professionals during Administrative Professional's Week.

Ikram has been with the City for 17 months.  She is the front counter customer service person at the Community Center.  She works there from 5:30 am - 2:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.  It's Ikram's job to get in early in the morning and help get the place opened up for our early morning customers. Before joining our team, Ikram worked for TCF Bank here in Eden Prairie.

When I asked Ikram what she liked best about her job she told me that it was the fact that she is dealing with "different people every minute of her working day".  She likes the variety of her job. 

Ikram says her biggest challenge is making sure the Community Center is up and running by the time that customers are ready to workout in the morning.  She knows that a good morning workout is important to our customers and she doesn't want to let them down.

One of Ikram's favorite things to do outside of work is to ice skate.  She learned to skate since she started working at the Community Center, and now she's pretty good.  She also volunteers her time working for Somali Family Services here in Eden Prairie.

Ikram won the City's "Carl J. Jullie award for Excellence in Customer Service" this year.  Her customer service skills are very good in an environment that is not all that conducive to providing customer service.  Stop by and see her sometime.  You'll see what I mean.

That's Wendy Schmitz at our main reception desk here in Eden Prairie City Center.  Wendy is not the only administrative professional to work the front desk, but she probably works more hours at this front desk than anyone else that works here.

Wendy has worked for the City for 18 years.  She started working for the City by working our 2-10 pm shift at the reception desk at the Community Center.  She worked in Human Resources for a few years and then started working the front desk about three years ago.  Prior to working for the City, Wendy worked in the mortgage banking field.

When I asked Wendy what she liked about her job, she said "I love my job!"  She likes her interaction with residents at the counter.  She likes working with her co-workers.  She said the most satisfying part of her job is when she can answer a citizen's question directly over the telephone without having to forward the call to another City employee. 

Outside of work, Wendy likes to spend time with her son Adam, 13, her daughter Rachel, 7, and her husband Charlie.

Wendy does a very nice job fielding a very wide variety of questions, day in and day out, at our main City Center reception desk.  Next time you call our main line at 952.949.8300, say 'hello' to Wendy.  If you've got a question, she can help.  

It’s Administrative Professional’s Week this week.  To recognize the many administrative professionals that work for the City of Eden Prairie, I thought that I would profile five of them this week.  One each day.  Today, Monday, April 24, we’ll start with Mary Zilka.                                             

Mary Zilka is the Administrative Assistant in the Community Development Department.  That's her working at her desk in the photo above getting ready for a busy Monday morning. She works with our planners, assessors, economic developers, housing people, and human services employees.  Mary’s work station is right behind the Community Development service counter so she has lots of public contact. 

Mary has worked for the City for 18 months.  It’ll be two years in September.  Before joining us, Mary worked for the Eden Prairie School District for eight years.  We’ve hired a couple of administrative professionals from the School District.  They’re pretty good employees.

Mary told me that the favorite part of her job is that she always learns something new every day.  She admits that she did not know much about the workings of city government before working here, but finds the work interesting and enjoyable.

Her greatest challenges are working on projects at her desk while at the same time trying to provide good customer service to residents who come to the service counter with questions.  She also said it’s challenging to set up the City’s “Meet & Greet” visits because she is often juggling the personal schedules of 4-5 people simultaneously trying to find a date and a time for the Mayor, our Economic Development Manager David Lindahl, and me to pay our visits to local businesses.  It’s a tough duty, but she does a good job doing it.

Out side of work Mary likes to hang out with her dogs, and her friends.  She likes to read and watch movies.  She loves to cook.

We’re fortunate to have people like Mary Zilka as one of our administrative professionals here at the City of Eden Prairie.  Check out more profiles of our administrative staff right here in this blog this week.

I attended the annual Community Education Partnership Breakfast this morning at St. Andrews Lutheran Church.  The partnership breakfast is organized each year by the Eden Prairie School District's Community Education Services division in order to bring together leaders from around the community to discuss an issue of community concern.  This year's community issues is racism.  The title of this year's event was "Diversity in Eden Prairie:  Join a Courageous Conversation on Race".

The School District's Nanette Missaghi (pictured at the microphone) moderated a panel of Eden Prairie residents who shared their individual experiences with diversity in Eden Prairie.  The panel included Richard Liu, Gail Toatley, Harry Moran, Abdullahi Hassan and our very own Recreation Division Manager Laurie Obiazor.

The stories from the panel were touching and insightful about what it's like to experience diveristy in Eden Prairie.  You really can't complete a "courageous conversation about race" within the 90 minuntes we had at the meeting this morning, but you can get one started.  I hope we can keep it going throughout the year.

Later this afternoon, I snapped some photos of the most vibrant rainbow that I've seen in a long time.  It had the appeared in the eastern sky over Eden Prairie.  All right, I know it was probably not anywhere near Eden Prairie, but it sure looked like it.  It was beautiful sight.  It was a nice way to end the day.

We ceremonially broke the ground today at the site for our new Fire Station:  Fire Station #4.  That's Fire Chief George Esbensen in the white shirt in the center of the photo.  Chief Esbensen has worked many hours, days and weeks to achieve this ceremonial day.  The new fire station is the completion of our fire station network for our city. 

This is station #4.  It will serve the southwest quadrant of our city.  The southwest quadrant is the final quadrant of our city to develop from rural to urban.  We've been working on site identification and acquisition since 2004.  The area has been rapidly developed since then.  We have been serving this area with our three other fire stations adequately, but this new station will be an improvement to our overall fire and emergency response in the area.  We're looking forward to that. I'll bet that our residents in the area will appreciate it too.

We don't do a lot of ceremonial events in city government.  But they're important.  It's important to stop and take stock of what we've accomplished from time to time.  It's an important opportunity for staff and elected officials to take some pride in what we can do when we all work together.  The groundbreaking for this new project is one of those occassions. We'll do another event when the station is completed next year.

The contractor moves on to the site on Monday. 

"Spring Fling Week" is a gleeful sounding title that we give to our annual Records Review Week, which kicks off today and runs through Friday, April 21. It’s a special week set aside for City employees to sort through their documents, file those that are needed and “fling” (i.e. - dispose of) those that are not necessary for record retention.  And, maybe do a little Spring office cleaning done as well.  The week will also include a number of fun activities, including:

Spring Fling Potluck – Tuesday, April 18, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
All City employees are invited to share a special dish and get to know people from other divisions.  The potluck will take place from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. in the Heritage Rooms (lower level of the City Center).  Please begin bringing your food items down to the Heritage rooms between 11:00 and 11:20 a.m.  To help assure that we won’t have only desserts to eat or only salad, please bring the following items based on the first letter of your last name:

Last names starting with A-E:  Bread or appetizer
Last names starting with F-R: Salads or main dish
Last names starting with S-Z: Dessert

Old Fashion Caramel Rolls – Wednesday, April 19
Employees can look forward to enjoying a yummy treat on Wednesday morning.  Caramel rolls will be delivered to division work areas.

Special Presentation – Thursday, April 20, 10:00 a.m.
Come hear a special presentation entitled “Take a walk through Data Practices Land,” which will take place in the Council Chambers at 10:00 a.m.  Brooke Manley from the Information Policy Analysis Division at the MN Department of Administration will be the presenter.  All employees who attend will be entered in a drawing for a prize.

Plus, there will be a few games and contests held throughout the week to help emphasize the importance of record retention and review.  Employees can dress casually for this week of cleaning, learning and fun. 

So, get ready, get set, throw!

That's Jim Schedin to left.  Jim is a telecommunicator in our Police Department.  I snapped this photo of him this morning at around 7:15 am at his post in our dispatch center.  Jim is working the 6am-3pm shift today, but like his colleagues in the dispatch center, he will work a variety of shifts throughout the year.  Receiving calls for public safety services is an aspect of our City operations that 24/7. Somebody will always answer your 911 calls in Eden Prairie. 

This past week, April 9-15, has been National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.  It is a week during the year that we can give special recognition to those workers that really serve as your first call for help in an emergency.   The Fire Fighter, the Police Officer, and the Ambulance driver don't get to your home without the services of the public safety dispatcher.  They're easy to forget about in an emergency, but we could not help you without them.

I've never been a public safety dispatcher in my career.  I've never been on the receiving end of a frenzied call from a driver who has just been rammed into on the freeway or from a senior citizen who just saw her spouse fall down some stairs.  But I have been in the room when these calls have come in, and watching a trained a skilled telecommunicator handle a caller filled with panic is impressive.  They know exactly what to say and how to say it in order to diagnose the problem and to assure the caller that help is indeed on the way.

And then, in addition to concentrating on the emergency call, throw in the fact that other phones are ringing; police officers are calling in questions to them through the radio system; and other people are talking in the dispatch center itself just a few feet away from them - and you've got a tough job to do.  You've got to be the ultimate multi-tasker.  And you've got to do it 100% right 100% of them time, or people might literally die.  Not many of us work with that kind of pressure on a daily basis.

So here's a BIG THANK YOU to Lisa, Amy, Beth, Jennifer, Marci, Kelly, Kristi, Jim, Laura, Rachel and the two Michelle's for great work they do each and every day for Eden Prairie citizens. 

They're always here when you need them.

Anderson Lakes are two of our city's most important and visible natural assets.  Together, the two lakes (Northwest Anderson Lake and Southwest Anderson Lake) are just over 290 acres in size.  You can see them clearly out your window as you drive through Eden Prairie on I-494 and on Highway 169. 

But like many Minnesota lakes, Anderson Lakes have not escaped the problems that accompany the invasion of the lakes by non-native plants and animals.  The two biggest problems in Anderson lakes are curlyleaf pondweed and Eurasian watermilfoil. 

At their next Council meeting on Tuesday,April 18, the Eden Prairie City Council will consider approval of a joint plan with the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District to study the magnitude of the aquatic plant problems in Anderson lakes and to devise a strategy to defeat these pesky foes.

The study of the lake conditions will cost $7,900 and would be funded from the City's Stormwater Utility Fund.  The Stormwater Utility Fund is funded by the stormwater utility fees that Eden Prairie residents and businesses pay on their quarterly City utility bills. 

The intent of the study is to figure out what we can do to restore balance to plant and animal habitat for the benefit of native species in the lakes.

It'll be better for all of us people too.

We had a pretty good Town Meeting last night at Forest Hill Elementary School.  What made it pretty good?  Well, I think it was pretty good for a number of reasons.

First, we had a nice turnout.  I counted at least fifty people in our audience.  It was a beautiful spring evening last night and the Twins were playing their home opener, so we had tough competition. 

Second, there was good variety in the subjects that citizens spoke about.  One of the risks of this kind of event is that a particular advocacy group of some kind will take it over and essentially run the meeting by monopolizing the microphone with their speakers talking about their subject matter.  That didn't happen last night.  We heard from people who want their taxes lowered; who want us to consider traffic signals at various intersections in town; who want us to take less deer during our annual deer reduction program; who want us to continue our deer management program; who want us to salt & sand running trails during the winter months; and people who want the City to coordinate a clean-up of post-winter litter around town.  Good variety.  We even got to end the evening with a comment from a citizen who was pleased with the Police Department's work on case that impacted her.  That was a nice ending.

Finally, the audience and the speakers were respectful of the Council and of the process we created for them to share their thoughts with the Council.  There might have been one or two exceptions to that, but of the 19 speakers who came to the microphone during the 90 minute meeting, 17/19 sharing their opinions, including those that shared opinions critical of the City, in a courteous and respecful manner, is pretty good.  Compared to other cities I've worked in or other cities in the metro area (such as Maplewood right now), it's very good.

I'm attending Congressman Ramstad's Town Meeting tonight here in City Center in our Council Chambers.  I am hoping that it will be just as pretty good.  

I had the privilege of hearing Congressman Jim Ramstad address the Eden Prairie A.M. Rotary Club this morning.  I am a member of that Rotary Club.  Congressman Ramstad gave our club a general update on issues he is working on in Congress on behalf of the 3rd District.  Congressman Ramstad recognizes himself as a moderate, which seems to me to be quite representative of the voters of the 3rd District.  It must be, because he wins his congressional elections handily every two years.  He is a strong candidate in this district.

Congressman Ramstad is back in the district all week this week.  Instead of resting and relaxing during the congressional break, he is making presentations at service clubs, meeting with high school students, and doing a series of Town Meetings.  Tomorrow night, Wednesday, April 12, he will be hosting a Town Meeting in the Eden Prairie Council Chambers starting at 7:00 p.m.  We're happy to host his Town Meeting and look forward to quite an audience.

Speaking of Town Meetings, the Eden Prairie City Council will be hosting its own Town Meeting tonight starting at 7:00 p.m. at Forest Hills Elementary School.  This is the first Town Meeting hosted by this particular City Council. The Council will have another Town Meeting in late November.  It's an experiment.  City government is interested in hearing comments and ideas from our residents.  We're going to give this idea a try and see how it goes. 

Eden Prairie was recently designated as a “Governor’s Fit City” by the Minnesota Department of Health and Governor Pawlenty.  The designation was announced by Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens (left)during a special ceremony at the Community Center on March 30.  She was joined at the ceremony by several participants of our "Girls on the Run" program - a fitness-running program we have developed for young girls.

This designation recognizes Minnesota cities that are committed to creating and maintaining an environment supportive of active living.  Governor’s Fit Cities are determined through an application completed by a City official. 

Cities must meet these two pieces of required criteria:

1.  A City must adopt a resolution affirming activity-friendly commitments by city leaders and elected officials and the City must agree to advertise and display ‘Fit City’ designation. 

2.  The City must also meet five out of eight pieces of “optional criteria.” As of March 31, sixteen cities in Minnesota have been recognized as a “Governor’s Fit City.”

Eden Prairie prides itself in providing opportunities for people to stay active.  The City boasts over 100 miles of paved trails, forty-three parks, thirteen youth athletic associations and 568 adult athletic.  The Eden Prairie Community Center has a pool, ice rinks and a fitness center that provide recreational activities at a reduced price. The City also has a number of programs that promote wellness from run/walks and fitness programs to running clubs and sport camps.

We're proud that we have an abundance of opportunities in Eden Prairie for our residents to enjoy our “Fit City.”