The Blog from City Hall

I read other people's blogs.  It gives me ideas about what I should write in my own blog.  I have noticed an odd thing that bloggers do.  They somtimes say their blog is "on hiatus" when what they really mean to say, I think, is that they are on hiatus.

I'm on hiatus.  Actually, I'm taking a little vacation time away from work to spend some time with my Dad in Waterloo, Iowa, and then back home to complete a number of overdue projects on my perpetual Honey-Do List.  Stain the deck.  Clean the gutters.  Paint.  Clean the garage.  Etc.  You get the idea.

So when I'm on hiatus, my blog is too.  I'll be back in the office on Wednesday, July 5. 

Eden Prairie is represented by two Commissioners on the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners. Most of Eden Prairie is represented by Commissioner Randy Johnson. That's him to the right of Mayor Tyra-Lukens. To the left of the Mayor is Commissioner Linda Koblick. Commissioner Koblick represents everything in Eden Prairie north of Valley View Drive.

For today's post I have pasted in the content of a regular email update on Hennepin County activities that I received from Commissioner Koblick's office. I would venture to say that most people in Eden Prairie are not aware of the breadth of issues that are handled by County government. I hope my readers will take just a few minutes to read this update. You might find a surprise or two.

Read the rest of this entry »

We recently completed a maintenance project at our Community Center to repair and replace the ice making equipment in our ice arenas. City Facilities Supervisor Michael Sheggeby shot these photos of the process we use to paint the new ice in order to get it ready for figure skaters and hockey players. Click photos to enlarge. (They’ll pop to a new browser window so you can look at them while playing the audio interview below.)

Painting the ice white (Main Rink)

Laying out lines (Main Rink); right: Center circle (Olympic Rink)

More lines (Main Rink)

Logo Painting (Main Rink)

Finished Product (Main Rink)

I also interviewed Michael for this week’s podcast. Here’s what he had to say:

Click play to listen (4 min, 32 sec).

Subscribe to the podcast.

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Part of my annual performance review each year with the City Council is to establish performance goals for me for the upcoming year. I review the goals with the Council and get their general blessing on them. Setting performance goals is something we do with all of our employees here at the City of Eden Prairie. Here are mine for the upcoming year:

1.       Budget Leadership - I want to provide overall leadership to the new budget preparation model that Council endorsed earlier this year. Staff is currently working on development of the model in preparation for the 2008-2009 budget process that we will take on in 2007.

2.       Introduction of the Performances Measures Project - This goal is connected to Goal #1, but sufficiently different to stand on its own. For the past nine months, City staff has been working on development of performance measures to monitor our operational performance. We hope to develop a system of metrics relevant to citizens, Council and staff. My goal is to launch certain aspects this project with our 2007 budget, but to launch the full set of metrics with our 2008-2009 budget.

3.       Organizational Efficiency - Over the past year the Council has engaged in considerable debate about the feasibility and advisability of establishing a new citizen task force to assist the Council with your review of the proposed City budget. I have listened intently to this discussion. I believe that some Councilmembers believe there are operational and managerial efficiencies that City staff could learn from the private sector that would improve our overall management of the City. I believe this may be true. It's also clear to me that some Councilmembers are concerned that establishing such a task force will diminish their responsibility and control over the most important policy document of the City. I believe this may be true as well. I have given this matter considerable thought and believe that I have developed a compromise that may resolve this issue. I have reviewed models for establishing what might be called a "City Manager's Business Advisory Council". In fact, Dr. Krull has developed something like this for the School District. The Business Advisory Council members are appointed by the City Manager for the purpose of bringing their private experience and expertise into the public sector budget and operational review process. But because they are responsible to the City Manager, the City Council's ability to control and shape the final budget is not diminished. I am working on development of a formal proposal along these lines that I will present to the Council later this year.

4.       Council Orientation and Planning Session - I don't think that any of us were completely satisfied with the Council's 2006 retreat session. Staff is in the early stages right now of planning the 2007 retreat. I have already had meetings with a planning consultant to help me plan the 2007 retreat. In September, we will take a page from contemporary wedding planners by asking current Councilmembers and Council candidates to "save the date" and commit to attending a well organized and implemented orientation and planning session.

5.       Connection with City Advisory Commissions - During the upcoming year I want to study and propose a new system of protocol for the City's deployment of citizen advisory commissions. We are fortunate to have intelligent citizens volunteer their time to serve on our citizen advisory commissions. When I attended their meetings this past year I heard one common question from each commission: "What does the Council want us to do?" They know their respective commissions each have a jurisdiction of some kind and that each commission has the discretion to develop their own limited set of goals; however, they were appointed by the Council and want some more direction from the Council about what they ought to be studying and talking about. My sense of this is that the Council could easily provide them too much direction and then you would hear about that. I believe that improving the way in which the Council relates to its advisory commissions is a golden opportunity to really improve the way we implement the City's broader vision and mission in the community.

6.       Staff Development & Management - 2006/2007 will be a challenging year for the development and management of my senior management team. We will incorporate Rob Reynolds into the senior management team as the new Chief of Police in January 2007. There are other potential retirements looming in the near future. Succession planning for senior managers will be an important task this year. I work very closely with my senior management team on city-wide policy issues, so it is important to build a strong senior management team as new people are added to that group.

7.       Parks & Recreation Capital Projects - I will have a role in the overall management of the many new capital improvement projects in the Parks & Recreation Department. Depending on weather, contractor and budget, this could be a major new task for me in the upcoming year.

This is a pretty common question that I get the day following a City Council meeting. We had a City Council meeting last night, Tuesday, June 20. Here are the highlights of last night's meeting.

• The Council heard from a number of residents who live around Red Rock Lake who have been encroaching on City-owned land adjacent to the lake. Staff have been directing the neighbors to stop encroaching. The neighbors want to continue encroaching, so they made their case to the Council last night. The Council held firm and supported the staff's action.
• The Council heard from representatives of the Senior Advisory Council that they would like the City to install a more convenient method of watering their garden plots in Pioneer Park. The Council directed that one to the Parks Commission for further discussion.
• The City received an Award of Excellence from the Minnesota Recreation and Parks Association (MRPA) for the development of the Staring Lake Archery Range.
• The Council authorized staff to develop plans and specifications for the Community Center Improvement Project based on Schematic E (I'll explain this schematic in more detail someday) with a cost estimate of approximately $8,060,500.
• In the Council Workshop immediately prior to the Council meeting, staff presented a proposal to establish a new standard for meeting minutes. The Council discussed the proposal and asked staff to prepare the minutes for the June 20 Council meeting in the current standard and the proposed standard so they could compare and contrast them at their August 1 Council meeting.
• The Council granted development approvals to the following development projects: Baneberry Hollow, Gander Mountain, Primrose School, ERS Estates, and The Ridge at Riley Creek 2nd Addition.
• The Council approved the sale of $4,290,000 of new General Obligation bonds to finance our Fire Station #4 project. We learned late last week that the City had its AAA bond rating renewed by Moody's Investor Services.

That's only a summary. There were other things approved too, but I can't fit them all into this post. The Council will not meet again in regular session until July 18.

Several months ago, the City prevailed in federal court in a lawsuit brought against us by an attorney named Adam Webb on behalf of a company called Advantage Media. I've written about this case before. It's about billboards

Eden Prairie has an ordinance that regulates the use of outdoor signage. Mr. Webb represents a company that plans to make money from the sales and marketing of outdoor advertising, on signs that do not yet exist. Mr. Webb alleged in his lawsuit that Eden Prairie is a city that is "grossly under-served by advertising signs". With all due respect to Mr. Webb, the City Council and I disagreed with that assessment of our community.

For over 25 years, the City's Sign Code has allowed freestanding signs, subject to certain limitations, including a maximum area of 80 square feet or less. The City's sign restrictions are designed to reduce distraction and visual blight. Knowing of these limitations, Advantage Media filed fourteen applications to build large sign structures, thirteen of which would have two 672-square foot faces, with three messages on each face that would rotate every six to ten seconds. The system for rotating the messages, called "trivision technology," was designed, according to Advantage Media's owner, to "catch your attention." The proposed sign structures included 110 violations of the City Code, and were all denied.

Reasonable people can disagree, but there was no way that we were going to grant anything close to satisfaction to Mr. Webb. So we went to court to defend our ordinance. The City was represented by a fine attorney from the Greene-Espel law firm named John Baker, who also happens to be an Eden Prairie resident. Mr. Baker and the City prevailed in District Court. Mr. Webb then appealed the District Court decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. That case would have normally been heard in at the U.S. Courthouse in St. Paul , but because there is a rather significant remodeling project going on right now in the Courthouse, it was argued in the U.S. Courthouse in St. Louis , Missouri .

I'm guessing that most of the people that read this blog have never been inside a U.S. Courthouse, much less listened in to the oral arguments of a lawsuit. I never have. If you've always wanted to hear oral arguments in a federal court case, and you've got thirty minutes to spare, click on the link below and you will connect with a site maintained by the court that will allow you to hear the lawyers make their respective arguments to the court.

http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov/oralargs/oaFrame.html, click on "case number," type in 06-1035, and either play it in RealAudio, Quicktime, or Windows Media format or download it as a MP3 file.

Or click to play (30 minutes).

The first voice you hear will be Mr. Webb. He gets 15 minutes. The second voice you hear will be Mr. Baker. He also gets 15 minutes. After you've listened to both sides, I am interested in what you think of this situation.

I've opened the "Comments" feature of my blog for readers to share their thoughts on the respective positions on this issue. Just click on the comments link at the bottom of this blog entry.

I'll leave the comments feature open for a week.

At the end of the week, I'll turn off the comments feature and share the results.

I’ve installed a triple dose of comment spam protection. It’s a defensive strategy designed to prevent the automated spammer scripts, not the one-comment-at-a-time spammers. We’ll soon see, as Scott plans a blog entry in the near future in which he'll turn on comments.

In the meantime, feel free to experiment by posting a comment on this blog entry.

You can't miss it if you live in or travel through western Eden Prairie. The construction of Trunk Highway (T.H.) 212 is marching forward from Eden Prairie to points west in Chanhassen and Carver County. I was out there the other day and snapped these four photos. My podcast today is a solo effort providing some context to these photos. Enjoy!

Click play to listen (5 min, 43 sec).

Subscribe to the podcast.

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There are some good things happening at Round Lake Park right now.  Specifically, there are some very good things happening to the environmental health of Round Lake.  You can read a good feature story about Steve McComas, Lake Detective, in today's edition of the Eden Prairie News.

As far as Round Lake is concerned, Mr. McComas has given us valuable information about what we need to do to continue in our efforts to improve the environmental quality of Round Lake.  This issue is a high priority for the City Council, so it's a high priority for me. 

Here's a summary of what Mr. McComas has told us about Round Lake's current condition:

·        Curly leaf populations have been relatively low this year.

·        The water clarity is so far remaining very good.

·        The fish study conducted by the DNR in the lake this year indicates that the fish are starting to grow in size and reduce in numbers.

·        The fecal coliform tests have so far been below detection.

·        The barley straw is in the ponds.  He will be collecting additional water quality samples today in the ponds and lake.

In early July, the City will be doing some catch & release fish trapping in Round Lake to continue its assessment of the health of the wildlife in the lake.  We're looking forward to more positive results and to the continued progress of bringing this lake back into full use as a swimming and recreation lake for Eden Prairie citizens.

Well it's been a few weeks now since the 2006 legislative session of the Minnesota State Legislature wrapped up for the year.  Now that the dust has settled, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at some of the results that impact the way in which the City does business.

A capital bonding bill was passed by the legislature and signed into law by the Governor.  The bill authorizes the state to borrow and spend approximately $999,980,000 on capital improvements around the state.  There isn't money being spent directly in Eden Prairie in the bonding bill. It includes such improvements as prison expansions, road improvements, trail improvements, and many building improvements at the state's college and university system.  In fact, 31% of the bonding bill will be spent on capital improvements related to higher education. 

There are new stadiums in store for the Twins and the University of Minnesota football team.  The Twins stadium bill, to the chagrin of many of my co-workers, is funded with a new sales tax applied to purchases made in Hennepin County.  Only Hennepin County.  The new 0.015% sales tax is small, but looks like it might be a pesky political issue this fall for state legislators, and candidates for the Hennepin County Commission.  One good thing that came from the final bill on the new sales tax that was signed by the Governor:  It exempts municipal purchases from paying the new sales tax.  Cities will still need to pay the regular sales tax on the goods we buy to do our business, but we won't have to pay the new sales tax.  We estimate that will save the city about $10,000 per year in extra expense.

The Governor signed a new law that creates a Fire Safety Account in state government.  There was a similar account in previous years funded by a tax on fire insurance companies.  The new law funds the new account with a small surcharge on fire insurance policies that will be paid by policy owners.  It may not sound like a big change, but it will be.  It will create new money for the State Fire Marshall's Office and other fire safety related programming.  Our Fire Chief, George Esbensen, was one the main actors to get this bill through the legislatur and into law. Great work George.

There were 3,139 bills introduced this session.  Only 114 of them made it through both houses of the legislature and got the Governor's signature.  It's tough for an idea to become a bill and to eventually become a law.  That's probably a good thing too.

One other notable thing about this past legislative session is the number of legislators that are retiring this year.  State Legislators catch a lot of heat for being legislators.  They don't deserve 90% of it.  Many of them are making significant sacrifices to serve in the legislature.  They miss out on family time.  Some of them lose their jobs because they can't juggle their electoral duties and their job duties.  And most of the feedback they get from the public and the media is negative.  That's really too bad.  We need good people to debate and decide the laws of our state.  Making it more difficult for good people to serve is not in our interest as citizens of our fine state. 

So I want to recognize, and thank, the state legislators who have given their time and energy to help make Minnesota a better place.  Thank you!

Legislative Retirements/House Members Running for Senate  Senate (9 retirements) 

DFL

·        John Hottinger (District 23)

·        Jane Ranum (District 63)

·        Wes Skoglund (District 62)

·        Sharon Marko (District 57)

·        Sheila Kiscaden (District 30)

·        Becky Lourey (District 8 ) (also running for Governor)

·        Steve Kelley (District 44) (running for DFL endorsement for Governor; expected to stay in Senate if not endorsed)

Republican

Bob Kierlin (District 31)

Michele Bachmann (District 52) (Endorsed candidate for 6^th Congressional seat)

 House (17 retirements; 3 running for Senate)

 DFL

·        Ruth Johnson (District 23A)

·        Barb Goodwin (District 50A)

·        Matt Entenza (District 64A) (Running for Attorney General)

·        Keith Ellison (District 58B) (Running as endorsed DFL candidate for 5^th Congressional seat)

·        Katie Sieben (District 57A) (Running for Sharon Marko’s Senate seat)

·        Dan Larson (District 63B) (Running for Jane Ranum’s Senate seat)

·        Irv Anderson (District 3A)

·        John Dorn (District 23B)

Republican

·        Jerry Dempsey (District 28A)

·        Fran Bradley (District 29B)

·        Andy Westerberg (District 51A)

·        Barb Sykora (District 33B)

·        Char Samuelson (District 50B)

·        Ron Abrams (District 43B) (Appointed District Court judge)

·        Jeff Johnson (District 43A) (Running for Attorney General)

·        Scott Newman (District 18A) (May be running for District Court judge)

·        Doug Meslow (District 53B)

·        Jim Knoblach (District 15A)

·        Ray Vandeveer (District 52A) (Running for Michele Bachmann’s Senate seat)

·        Dan Dorman (District 27A)

On Wednesday of this past week, Mayor Tyra-Lukens and I were honored to have State Health Commissioner Dianne Mandernach join us in our City Council Chambers to present us with the official Governor’s Fit City recognition plaque. While she was here, I convinced her to join the Mayor for their first ever podcast. Click the photos to enlarge and listen in to see what the Minnesota Commissioner of Health and the Mayor of Eden Prairie have to say about the Governor’s Fit City Program.

Click play to listen (2 min, 22 sec).

Subscribe to the podcast.

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On March 30, 2006, Eden Prairie was official recognized by the Minnesota Department of Health as one of Governor Pawlenty’s Fit Cities. Here’s the text of the announcement we made on our website:

Read the rest of this entry »

The City of Eden Prairie is issuing a warning today  to residents about the confusion between two tree diseases. Recently the City received several calls from residents who have been told by private tree companies that their trees are infected with Oak Wilt, and need to be cut down. Employees from the City's Forestry Division have investigated several of these complaints only to discover that what was being identified as Oak Wilt was actually a less serious tree leaf fungus called Oak Anthracnose. 

A loyal reader also sent me this link from the University of Minnesota Extension about oak wilt:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/naturalresources/DD3174.html

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/naturalresources/DD3174.html

It is important that residents be aware of the difference between these two tree diseases in order to prevent unnecessary removal of valuable trees. Oak Wilt is a vascular tree disease that blocks water entering the tree from the roots from getting to the trees leaves. The tree leaves then begin to discolor, wilt and eventually the tree dies. Oak Anthracnose, on the other hand, is a leaf fungus that flourishes in cool, wet conditions. Trees infected with Oak Anthracnose will develop brown blotches on their leaves, some of these leaves wither and die.

Although the look of both tree infections may be similar, wilting and dying leaves, there are several important differences between the two diseases: Oak Wilt is a deadly disease and trees infected with it should be properly removed to prevent further spread of the disease. On the other hand, Oak Anthracnose is not deadly and trees infected with this fungus will eventually recover, these trees should NOT be cut down!

Oak Anthracnose most often affects white oak trees, whereas Oak Wilt mostly affects trees in the red oak species group.  To the right is a map showing areas of the country that are suffering from Oak Wilt problems. To tell the difference between trees in the white oak species group and red oak species group simply look at the leaves. If the tree has leaves that are round on the edges then the tree is in the white oak species group. If the leaves are pointed on the edges then the tree is in the red oak species group. Oak Anthracnose produces irregular spots or blotches randomly over the leaf.

Additionally, leaves may be curled or deformed along the outer margins of new growth. However, when leaves are affected by Oak Wilt, browning occurs on the outer edges of the leaves, leaving the center vein green. Both diseases may cause scattered premature leaf drop. Symptoms of Oak Anthracnose are typically most severe on the lower, inside branches of the tree where humidity levels are higher. Conversely, Oak Wilt typically affects the higher branches first and then moves towards the center of the tree. Although Oak Anthracnose may be aesthetically displeasing, it does not cause permanent damage to trees and infected trees do not need to be cut down.

If City residents are unsure whether their tree suffers from Oak Anthracnose or Oak Wilt, they can have a member of the Forestry Department of the City of Eden Prairie come out and evaluate the tree free of charge by calling Jeff Cordes (952) 949-8463, Parks & Recreation at (952) 949-8442. Or by logging on to the Eden Prairie Forestry page. If you would like more information on the symptoms of Oak Anthracnose or Oak Wilt you can visit the University of Minnesota’s College of Natural Resources. Please, please, please, don't cut down your Oak tree because somebody told you that it has Oak Wilt without first getting a second opinion on its condition.  Call us.  The City will help you with this. 

I had my annual performance review last night with the City Council.  Since I started working here in 2002, my performance reviews have been somewhat similar in structure from year to year.  We solicit comments on my performance from City Councilmembers, Department Directors, and generally about 50-60 other City employees.  A couple of times we've also solicited and included community member feedback, but not always.

The review is coordinated and prepared by an outside third party, Personnel Decisions, Inc.  The people who participate in my review receive an email from PDI which links them to an online questionnaire.  They answer questions about my leadership; what I should do more of; what I should do less of; what I should concentrate more on during the next twelve months; what am I good at; and what am I not so good at.  The results are completely confidential and are held by PDI. 

I received pretty good marks from the City Council and City employees on my work performance.  I am humble enough though to know that my work performance is, in large measure, a collective impression of how the organization is functioning.  If things were functioning poorly here, I'd get stuck with that.  But since things are functioning nicely, for the most part anyway, I get the benefit of that too. 

It certainly is to my advantage that I work with a lot of talented, motivated employees.  That's really the secret to getting a good performance review if you're a city manager.

These are a pair of sad, but true, before and after photos.  On the left is the photo of our Prairiview Park warming house just after it was destroyed by an arson fire this past Sunday night.  On the right is the area after our crews cleaned up the area before kids came back to adjacent Prairieview Elementary School on Monday morning.

The original warming house at this park was also destroyed by an arson fire on Sunday, August 28, 1994.  Following that fire, the city placed a 10 x 44 foot modular trailer at the site in 1995 to fulfill the need for a park structure/warming house at this park.  The City's park maintenance crews built a platform and ramp on to the trailer to make it accessible the following year.  Excluding the cost of the ramp, the cost of that trailer in 1995 was $22,848.  The total loss in the fire is estimated to be about $40,000 in today's dollars.

The building was scheduled to be replaced next year with a permanent park shelter.  Its loss by fire, however, is still a loss.  We cannot replace the structure for this summer.  The real loss will be felt by people who use the park and our staff who programmed out of the building.

The Eden Prairie Crime Prevention Fund has established a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the arsonist(s).  We caught the arsonists who burned down the Staring Lake Park slide last year.  I bet we'll catch these arsonists, too.

Summer construction season is an interesting time of year for so many reasons.  For one, when you dig a hole in the ground, you will never be quite sure what you're going to find.  For example, there is a redevelopment project underway at the corner of Mitchell Road and Highway 5 here in Eden Prairie.  It's the former site of the City's Police Department.  The development is called the Lone Oak Center. 

The other day, the excavating contractor was moving dirt around at the project site when, much to his surprise, he uncovered this below ground swimming pool!  He wondered to us, the immediate former owners of the site, just what kind of Police Department building used to be on that site. 

Well, before there was a Police Department on the site, there was a private home. And that private home had a private pool.  And when the private owners sold the site, instead of taking out the pool, they just filled it in.  Probably not an unusual decision to make, based on their expectation of what the land would be used for in the future.

So the contractor will break up the pool and remove it.  It'll be a little "muss & fuss," but not too much. 

This example, though, is a good opportunity to consider that we don't always know what's under the ground we're walking on, or digging up.  Before you build a deck, or plant a tree, or put any major hole in the ground, please call Gopher State One Call at 1-800-252-1166.  Gopher State One Call is the centralized service in Minnesota to locate underground utilities and hazards - before you encounter them by accident when you're digging around in your yard.  The GSOC center will let local utilities know that you are planning to dig a hole and dispatch them to the proposed site of the hole to let you know if there is anything to avoid underground. 

You may not uncover a buried below-ground swimming pool in your back yard, but you really can save your own life by calling Gopher State One Call before you dig.