The is the Minnesota Law Enforcement Memorial in St. Paul. The memorial is dedicated to the lives of the men and women who have dedicated their lives to keeping the peace and enforcing the laws in our communities.

I am including this photo in my blog today because it is May 15, National Peace Officers Memorial Day. This day has been set aside since October 1962 to consider the fallen peace officers who gave their lives in the line of duty. There is memorial event held at the memorial each year on this date. Our Police Department had officers at the event to serve in the honor guard at the memorial.

I had the opportunity to attend the annual awards and recognition ceremony for our Police Department just last night. It was a great event. New officers were sworn in. Current officers were recognized for their valor and for new promotions. Officer John WIlson was recognized as the 2008 Officer of the Year. Congratulations John!

One aspect of the awards event that is the same year in and year out here in Eden Prairie is the presence of the families. There are moms, dads, brohters, sisters, kids of all ages. The presence of officer families is a really strong reminder to me of the importance of the family to the individual officer, and the importance of having a warm and supportive “work family”. It’s a very strong feeling here. Stronger than anywhere I’ve worked.

So today as I think about the warm feelings and pride that I saw last night, I will also spend a few minutes today thinking about the officers whose lives were given and taken in the line of duty. We should all think about that today.

It’s not hard to see references to Eden Prairie businesses and residents in the Business section of the Star Tribune. I see it almost everyday. This past Monday there wasa very nice story about Eden Prairie resident and business owner Kelli Hueler (that’s her photo) and her company Hueler Associates. The story discusses Kelli’s business and how she turned a degree in Speech from St. Olaf into an annuity juggernaut.

The other story in the Monday Star Trib Business section was called “He’s CSI: Cyberspace”. The story talks about Jason Bergerson’s computer forensics work at Kroll Ontrack here in Eden Prairie. Great story, and a very interesting company.

We’re fortunate to have a diverse economic base in Eden Prairie. These two stories from the Star Tribune Business pages are good examples of that diversity.

I attended the Eden Prairie A.M. Rotary Club’s annual Strive Banquet today at the Community Center. The banquet is the Rotary Club’s chance to recognize the participants of the Strive program which is a mentoring program sponsored by the Rotary Club at Eden Prairie High School. The banquet give a chance for each mentor to say a few nice words about the student they mentored over the past school year. Then we finish off the banquet with a nice group photo of the students.

We held this year’s banquet in the Cambria Room at the Community Center. The room was sponsored by Cambria. It is decked out with lots of Cambria materials, which means it is beautiful. We had a full meeting and breakfast buffet for about 90 people in the room. It was a comfortable room for the event. Everyone that attended had a good time.

If you want to see the Cambria Room for yourself, please hop on over to the Community Center on Saturday, May 17 from 10am to 2pm to celebrate the re-dedication and re-grand opening of the Community Center. We’ve got a great event planned. There will be a ribbon cutting and a couple of speeches followed by tours, live music, cake, punch, face painting, blood pressure screening, fitness analysis, body fat testing and lots of inflatable fun!

Let’s pray for good weather. But good weather or not, I hope you can join us to celebrate the new Community Center. It’s something the can be proud of.

The Eden Prairie Community Center is located at 16700 Valley View Road
Located just north of Highway 5 at the intersection of Eden Prairie Road and Valley View Road.

I attended the funeral today of Officer Jeff Berg at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Chaska. Jeff passed on last Tuesday after a long struggle against cancer.

There were many family members today at the service, including almost every officer, records clerk and 911 dispatcher in our Police Department. He worked in our Police Department for over 20 years. He had a lot of friends and a lot of co-workers.

Jeff was a kind and good man. He will be greatly missed by his friends and co-workers, and especially by his wife and child.

Farewell Jeff. Rest in peace.

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Jeffrey L. Berg age 50 of Carver, formerly of Sunburg, passed on May 6, 2008 after a courageous fight with cancer. Born on Dec. 27, 1957 in Willmar to Franklin and Rose (Stavn) Berg. An officer with the Eden Prairie Police Department for over 20 years and prior to that, he served with the Starbuck Police Department. Preceded in death by his Parents. Survived by his loving wife: Rhonda (Gentz) Berg; their daughter: Jordyn CarinaRose Berg; Brother: Dr. Robert (Mary Jane) Berg; Sister: Donna (Darrel) Kulenkamp; Brother: Donald (Pat) Berg; Sister: Maxine McQuillan; Nieces and Nephews: Warren, Leah, and Erik Berg; Amy, Bryan and Elizabeth Kulenkamp and many, many Friends. Memorial services will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, May 12 at St. John Lutheran Church, 300 East 4th Street, Chaska, MN 55318 with gathering of family and friends at 9 a.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred directed to Pheasants Forever or Ducks Unlimited.

May is Senior Awareness Month in Eden Prairie, as so declared by the Eden Prairie City Council. The Council has recognized Senior Awareness Month every year since 1993. It’s a good idea for every city to take stock of the importance of their senior population, at least for one month during the year. I think it’s especially important for a relatively young city like Eden Prairie because our population is “graying” relatively faster than other cities. Our demographics are becoming more similar to our neighbors, and more similar to most cities in America.

Our Senior Center staff has planned a month full of special activities at the Senior Center for Senior Awareness Month. I popped over there yesterday for their Lunch and Learn presentation on our Police K9 unit delivered by one of our two K9 Officers Jess Irmiter. That’s Officer Irmiter in the photos above with his dog Brix.

Officer Irmiter did a wonderful job of explaining the many aspects of a Police K9 unit, along with all the interesting information about how police dogs are trained and managed. He is a very good speaker. He connected well with his audience and delivered an interesting and informative presentation.

I always enjoy the opportunity to attend community events and presentations where City staff are representing the City so well. Officer Irmiter really delivered on that yesterday. Nice job Jess!

I had my annual performance review with the City Council last night. The Council hires an outside consultant to facilitate the review. The consultant seeks employee input, blends that with Council input, and then adds my self-assessment input. The consultant presents the full report to the Council in a closed session. I do not attend the closed session so the Council can feel comfortable discussing my performance without me sitting right in front of them.

After they complete their conversation, the Mayor sits down with me and gives me the news. It was good news again this year. The Council is satisfied with my performance and would like me to stay on for at least another year. The Council agreed on an increase to my base salary plus a performance bonus payment that is part of my employment agreement.

The final step of my review process is the public discussion, which always occurs on live TV at the Council meeting. The Mayor summarizes the Council’s closed session discussion, accepts a motion for approval, asks Council Members for comments and then asks for a vote to approve the motion. I’ve been a city manager now for 19 years (it’ll be 20 next month), but I still squirm a little bit in the public testimony part - even if it is mostly good. Maybe I should squirm a little bit. That’s probably not a bad thing.

I am very fortunate to have a cast of great co-workers here. That’s where the real work of the City gets done. The Council likes my work, which means the Council likes their work too.

Thanks everybody!

That’s Kristi Luger. Kristi is the new City Manager for the City of Excelsior. She started there on Monday, April 21. I went up to Excelsior today to take her out for lunch to welcome her to the Twin Cities.

Actually, it’s really more like welcoming her back to the Twin Cities. You see, Kristi is an Eden Prairie gal. She grew up here and graduated from Eden Prairie High School. She then went on to get her bachelors and masters degrees from Minnesota State-Mankato. And, just a few short years ago (four years ago, if my memory is correct), Kristi was an intern in my office.

Now I’d like to be able to report that being my intern was the most important experience Kristi had in her college years, but I can’t be sure of that. What I am sure of is that she knew what she wanted to be a City Manager someday and she was dedicated to achieve it.

Following the completion of her masters degree, Kristi served as the City Administrator for the City of Tyler, Minnesota, which is way out west. That was a great experience for her because it was live on-the-job experience. She made actual decisions that combined what she learned as my intern and what she learned in the classrooms in Mankato. She has now worked her way back to the Twin Cities and her new job in Excelsior.

I have several other interns who have moved on to success in their post-intern years, but Kristi is the first to become a full-fledged City Manager, and I am very proud of her.

I had the opportunity this past Friday to spend a couple of hours fighting crime with Officer Chris Fietek. To be honest, she fought crime. I observed her. During our two hours together, we responded to a medical call of a resident who thought he was having a heart attack; issued two traffic tickets; and gave two written warnings.

I took the opportunity to show Officer Fietek where the new CVS pharmacy would be built this summer; looked at the future site of the Presbyterian Homes development; and drove out to the site where United Health Group is planning to build its new corporate headquarters someday. We also talked about the new Art Center, the new dynamic signs ordinance and the proposed LRT alignment.

I enjoy doing Ride Along visits with our Police Department. We have a top notch group of people in our Police Department, both those on the streets and those working behind the scenes. Thanks Chris!

The State Auditor conducts an annual review of the profitability of municipal liquor stores each year. They do this as part of their “watch-dog” role over local governments. They want citizens to know if their local municipal liquor stores are losing money or are creating a drain on local property taxes, instead of creating additional revenue for their owners.

I’ve copied in an article from today’s Star Tribune about that annual study. There are several municipal liquor stores that are losing money. In Eden Prairie, however, our municipal liquor store operation was rated #1 in the state in terms of net profit in 2006 - the latest year for which the state has complete data. Our Return on Investment (ROI) in 2006 was 10.47%. In 2005 it was 10.42%. In 2007 it was 10.5%. We’re looking forward to a healthy 2008.

Liquor profits in Eden Prairie go right back into the community via our Capital Improvements Program. The money goes for such things as parks, sidewalks, trails, streets and other public improvements that we would otherwise have to tax our citizens for, or just not do.

Here’s the article. Congratulations to our fine staff who run a first class operation!

Municipal liquor stores made $20 million in 2006

According to a state auditor’s report, 44 cities that operate municipal liquor operations across the state lost money in 2006, including four communities in the metro area - Robbinsdale, Mound, Shorewood and Farmington.

THE LATEST: Minnesota cities that operate municipal liquor stores collectively had record sales for the 11th consecutive year and turned a net profit of $20 million in 2006, according to a report recently released by the state auditor’s office.