CC 2009 02 23
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
FEBRUARY 23, 2009
Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. The meeting was opened with the
Pledge to the Flag.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mayor Furlong, Councilman Litsey, Councilwoman
Ernst, Councilwoman Tjornhom, and Councilman McDonald
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Gerhardt, Elliott Knetsch, Laurie Hokkanen, Kate Aanenson, Paul
Oehme, and Todd Hoffman
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Kip & Cameron Lindberg 7361 Minnewashta Parkway
Dalsin 7259 Tartan Curve
Maddy Haigh 90 West Point Circle
Deb McMillan Southwest Metro Chamber
Michael Wurm 2345 Fawn Hill Court
Ciasa Riehl 1221 Bluff Creek Drive, Chaska
Kayla Holme 447 Theis Drive
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Mayor Furlong: Thank you and welcome to everyone. Those in the council chambers and those
watching at home. We’re glad you joined us. I see we do have some visitors this evening.
Some students perhaps. Welcome and I would encourage you to make sure to sign the tablet for
attendance to make sure you name is recorded in the minutes. Also if anybody’s interested in an
agenda, there should be some on the table back there, if you haven’t picked one up yet. At this
time I would like to make one modification to the agenda and that’s just the order of events.
We’ll move, without objection, visitor presentations in advance of the law enforcement/fire
department update, which is typical. I don’t know how that got moved around but we’ll just put
it back the way we typically see it. Any other modification from members of the council or
requests for amendments to the agenda? If not, without objection we’ll proceed with the agenda
as published with that one amendment.
CONSENT AGENDA:
Mayor Furlong: So would anyone on the council like separate discussion on items 1 (a) through
(h)?
Councilman Litsey: Item number (e) please.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Long discussion?
City Council Meeting - February 23, 2009
Councilman Litsey: Not necessarily long discussion. I just would like that voted on separately
perhaps. I would like to see the social host ordinance added to that as part of our strategic
objectives.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. Let’s just bring it up under new business then. Anyone else, members
of the council or others here in the chamber? If not, is there a motion to adopt items 1(a) through
(h) excluding (e).
Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman Litsey seconded to approve the following consent
agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations:
a. Approval of Minutes:
-City Council Work Session Minutes dated February 9, 2009
-City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated February 9, 2009
Resolution #2009-11:
b. Accept $6,110 Donation from SouthWest Metro Chamber of
Commerce for Chanhassen Community Events.
Resolution #2009-12:
c. Well No. 8 Project 97-4-2: Approve Quote for Annual
Rehabilitation.
Resolution #2009-13:
d. TH 101 Gap Project: Approve Resolution Requesting
Reimbursement from MnDot, Community Roadside Landscape Partnership.
f. Approval of 2009 Legislative Priorities.
g. Approve Resolutions Allowing Interfund Loans for Tax Increment Districts:
Resolution #2009-14A:
1) Resolution Authorizing Interfund Loan for Advance of
Certain Costs in Conjunction with the Northbay TIF District (#5).
Resolution #2009-14B:
2) Resolution Authorizing Interfund Loans for Advance of
Certain Costs in Conjunction with the Presbyterian Homes TIF District (#8).
Resolution #2009-14C:
3) Resolution Authorizing Interfund Loans for Advance of
Certain Costs in Conjunction with the Gateway Apartments TIF District (#9).
Resolution #2009- 15:
h. Accept Donation from General Mills Foundation for 2009 Safety
Camp.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
Deb McMillan: Good evening Mayor Furlong, members of the City Council. I’m Deb
McMillan with the SouthWest Metro Chamber of Commerce. We’re here this evening to present
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a check for $6,110 to the City of Chanhassen. These are the proceeds from the Feb Fest fishing
contest and we’d like to present these to you for, on behalf of the park and rec department.
Mayor Furlong: Excellent. Thank you. That is a wonderful contribution by the regional
chamber. SouthWest Metro Chamber. This is, they work together with the city on a number of
events throughout the year and we appreciate all that they do and very pleased and honored to
accept this this evening so thank you very much and please extend our thanks to the Chamber
Board and all it’s members for all that you do. Feb Fest is a great event and it comes off with the
help of a lot of people and a lot of organizations, the Chamber being one of them so thank you
very much. Anyone else who would like to visit, or state something in visitor presentations or
give us money? You don’t have to give us money to speak at this point.
Todd Gerhardt: Jeff? The money part.
Mayor Furlong: The money part, okay. Very good. Thank you.
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE.
Lt. Jim Olson: Thank you Mr. Mayor, council members and I’m glad we don’t have to give you
any money to come up and speak. I was glad to hear that. Before you I have my February
packet with the January monthly report. Are there any questions from that at all? From the
numbers? Also included in that is the citation list, community service officer report and then
I’ve got a couple of miscellaneous items I’d like to present to the council as well. Earlier this
evening we talked about some benchmarks that were formulated for the sheriff’s office and for
the city to take a look at for the policing plan. A couple of positives that came out of that for the
city and the sheriff’s office was the, we lowered the number of calls per officer from 2007 to
2008. We also decreased the number of calls of service per resident. There was a decrease in
the number of Part I and Part II crimes per officer as well as for the city as a whole. There was
also a decrease in crimes per resident. It was at 1 resident, excuse me. There was 1 crime for
every 19 residents in 2007. 2008 that decreased to 1 crime for every 22 residents so we’re real
happy to see that. And there was also an increase in officers per 1,000 population to a .58 for
2008 so we were happy to see all of those things. Any questions about that? I know we did go
over that earlier this evening as well. One other thing that I wanted to talk about that is very
important. We’re looking for the public’s help. Since December we’ve had 3 burglaries of
occupied residences within the city of Chanhassen, and none of these had forced entry. The
residents were actually sleeping and did not even know that somebody was in their house. Two
of these calls had garage door openers in unlocked vehicles that were in the driveway and one
had an open door into the house. We’re asking for help from the residents with locking your cars
even if they’re in the driveway, and if possible even bring your garage door inside the house
when you lock your car up. Remove all valuables from your car as well. Make sure your garage
door is closed. We’ve been going around at night and checking garage doors in the
neighborhoods and making contact with the residents. Some of them even they’ll come out and
they’ll close their garage door. They open back up again. For whatever reason something’s in
front of the eye or ice build-up or snow build-up. Make sure once you close your garage door
you double check to make sure it has closed and it stays down. Make sure all your doors leading
into your house are locked, as well as the ones leading in from the garage. And the service door
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2009
leading into the garage. You know if people have access to your garage door, it’s easy, or into
your garage, it’s easy to leave that service door into your house unlocked. It’s important to lock
those. Even when your car is in the garage, make sure that you don’t leave the keys in your car
and remove the valuables. I have seen with the open garage doors where people actually go into
the garage and if the keys are in the car, take the car out of the garage. The other thing I really
need to ask help on is to report any suspicious activity that you may see in the neighborhood.
You know don’t be afraid to call 911 regardless of what that suspicious activity may be. Even if
it’s kids out after curfew. Make sure you give us a call. That’s very important. As I mentioned
earlier, I’m having deputies spend extra time in the neighborhoods at night and contacting the
residents if they have an open door. We used to do a little door hanger that I’ve re-instituted
with garage doors in case we can’t make contact, just to make sure that the residents know about
it. And if you do have any information regarding any of this, please call our dispatch at 952-361-
1231. And this is not, we’re not trying to alarm residents at all but we need to make them aware
and we do need them to help us protect that. Any questions on that at all first?
Mayor Furlong: Any questions for the lieutenant?
Councilman Litsey: I just wanted to thank you. During our work session, like you mentioned,
you went over some benchmarking and so forth and it’s nice to know. I think we’re on track and
making progress to where we need to be so thanks for helping with that effort.
Lt. Jim Olson: Thank you very much.
Councilman McDonald: Yeah and I guess I’d also like to add publicly, you know I did talk to
you back in the work session but I do think you’re doing a good job. I think Sergeant Anderley
before you did a good job. I think we’re on track for the vision that we’ve had and I just want to
say keep up the good work and again I don’t get complaints about our policing service. You
know not that I always have but I think the residents really appreciate what it is you’re doing so
thanks very much.
Lt. Jim Olson: Well thank you very much councilman.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you.
Lt. Jim Olson: Thank you and have a good evening.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. You too. Chief Geske is here this evening. Good evening Chief.
Chief Gregg Geske: Good evening. First I’d like to add some clarity to about 3 weeks ago, or
actually right before the fishing contest, I think that weekend there was some articles in the
paper. There was also some news footage on TV and they talked about Class B foam or certain
types of foam that were used for training by different fire departments in the state. The Pollution
Control Agency is now going out and actually testing certain areas to see if they can come up
with contaminations in wells that kind of stemmed and started from out at the western area fire
training, WAFTA is what we called it out in St. Bonifacius where they actually had some PFC’s
which come from the Class B foam in the ground. Nearby wells did not test for any but just
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wanted to pass on that in Chanhassen the last time we actually, and that’s a Class B foam. Class
B foam is used for flammable liquids spills so it’d be your gas mains. Your alcohols and oils and
stuff. The last time we actually did training with Class B foams was about 8 to 10 years ago and
the foam that we actually used at that time was a protein based foam. It was not a product made
by 3M which has the PFC’s and PFO’s. Don’t ask me to spell those. I just…but it’s similar to
the stuff that was actually in the Scotchgard which they stopped making and such also so it’s the
Class B foam that’s used there. We do have about probably 10 pails of that but we keep it in
reserve to use on actual Class B fires or spills. We do use Class A foam. Class A foam is used
on your structure fires and wild land fires and that is different in that it’s basically similar to a
soap. It’s approved for use in, by the National Forest Service. That’s the foam that we do train
with and we use most often so we had filled out a questionnaire by the Pollution Control Agency
where we train with our foam. What types of foam that we use so just wanted to pass on that we
are, haven’t used that type of foam for training in Chanhassen and we would only use it basically
if we did have a spill or fire so.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you for that update. Appreciate it.
Chief Gregg Geske: Next I did give in our, in my update that we didn’t have any fires. Well
since I wrote that up we did have a structure fire last Tuesday during the day. I would like to
take this opportunity to thank some of our public service people, especially our water works
department. They were out in the neighborhood and actually called the fire in and then also
stuck around and helped us drag hose. We are short staffed during the day so they stuck around
and gave us a lot of help but Tim Monnens, Jerry Johnson actually found the fire. Called it in
and then stuck around and assisted us laying hose. And then also Brett Martinson assisted us
setting up our aerial. He was a previous guy that had been on the fire department so I’d like to
thank those 3 public people…department. It was great help that they gave us during the day so.
We also were called for mutual aid Saturday out in Eden Prairie for a fire there so just an update
on that. And that’s about all I have to report tonight. Any questions?
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any questions for the Chief? No? Very good. Thank you.
Chief Gregg Geske: Thanks.
PUBLIC HEARING: CONSIDER AMENDMENT TO THE ENABLING RESOLUTION
FOR THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY.
Mayor Furlong: Let’s start with a staff report please. Ms. Hokkanen.
Laurie Hokkanen: We discussed this at our work session at the last meeting. The change will,
we changed the membership on the EDA to a 5 member board and City Council members and
the mayor would serve concurrent to the term council member has been elected to. Right now
the resolution states that it’s a 7 member board. It’s been reduced since the other 2 positions…
This does require a public hearing.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any questions for staff on the issue before us this evening?
There will be a resolution to consider as well, correct? By the council. Okay. Thank you. No
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questions at this time? Let’s go ahead and open up the public hearing then and invite any
interested parties to come forward, stating your name and address and addressing the council on
this matter. No one this evening? Okay. Without objection then we’ll close the public hearing
and bring it to council for discussion. Any discussion on this item? Effectively it codifies what
we’ve been doing in practice for the last many years so it’s as much a clean-up as anything else
and simplify the process going forward. If there is no discussion then, is there a motion to adopt
the proposed resolution and motion?
Councilman Litsey: So moved.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman McDonald: I’ll second.
Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion?
Resolution #2009-16: Councilman Litsey moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the
City Council adopt the resolution amending the Resolution Enabling the Creation of the
Economic Development Authority in the City of Chanhassen. All voted in favor and the
motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
PUBLIC WORKS BUILDING: APPROVE PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS;
AUTHORIZE ADVERTISING FOR BIDS.
Paul Oehme: Thank you Mayor, City Council members. Staff is requesting that the council
approve the plans and specs tonight so we can start advertising for bids for the new public works
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facility. The plans are consistent with what was approved by the council on January 26 at site
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plan approval. That meeting. The goal is to receive the bids on March 19 and add the
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consideration for award of contracts on April 13. Included in your packet is some select sheets
of the plans so if you have any questions regarding the structure itself or what’s inside the
building, Jeff Oertel with Oertel Architects is here and can address any of those questions that
you may have. I’ve also handed out a 90% review of the estimate. Cost estimate for the project
so if you have any questions regarding that, but at this time I’d like to have Brian Recker with
RJM Construction. He’s our construction manager for this project, to give just a brief review of
the estimate and outline the bidding approach we intend to use for this project, along with review
of some of the major alternates that we were also included. Proposing including in this project.
It’s a little bit different approach in terms of the bidding that the city’s been used with. Used to
so at this time maybe if Brian can just give a brief summary.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council members. He’s going to go off the sheet that was handed out.
Brian Recker: Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with
you again tonight. As Paul has mentioned, I’d like to go over a little bit here as far as where
we’re at with the budget for the project. The upcoming bidding process and just overall general
schedule information as well for the project. Throughout the process as a construction manager
we performed various budget estimates as the design has progressed from conceptual design up
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through where we’re at right now which we consider 90% documents, which means much of the
detail is there and design intent is there for we’ll be able to put an accurate budget together. At
this time with the budget that you see before you, we’re tracking the budget at about 1% over the
overall total construction budget. So what does that mean? Right now we’ve actually gone out
to contractors to help provide these budgets for us based on the status of the plan. With 1%
budget that we’re talking about here, we have a very favorable bid market out there right now
and we’re very excited about the opportunity to be able to see bids come in a little less than what
we have budgeted. But in case that they don’t come in under where we’ve budgeted, we also
want to plan for the ability to be able to bring the project to budget in case those line items come
in right where we expect. So that’s where we look at some of the alternates that you see on the
second page that you have there, that provide us the opportunity just in case those numbers are a
little higher than what we’d like. Some various opportunities to be able to reduce that cost with
the public bids that we receive. Some of the alternates deal with finishes, whether it be some
paint finishes in the vehicle storage walls or maybe at the ceiling. Or maybe the type of floor
finishes that we’re using within the building as well. The intent for the design bid alternates is to
have opportunities to save cost without having an effect on the overall design or overall intent of
the building and the programming for the building as well. And that’s how we structure those
alternates, and we’ll be receiving those numbers on bid day from the contractors to be able to
determine exactly what those numbers are. So that’s how we plan to make sure that we come in
at the budget that we’re looking at. Before I move along to the bidding process I’d ask if there’s
any questions in regards to budget, where we’re at right now that I might be able to answer.
Mayor Furlong: Any questions?
Councilman Litsey: What areas have you identified that you anticipate probably will come
under budget?
Brian Recker: Well that’s a tough question to answer. What I can answer is that right now in the
bidding market in regards to the number of competitors that we’d be looking at in each section,
we see the primary areas of the project that have the most bidders would be mechanical,
electrical, concrete, maybe roofing. Those are some of the larger areas of the project as well in
regards to the budget, as well as the number of bidders that would be bidding that as well, so I
see those as probably the biggest opportunities.
Councilman Litsey: Okay. Thanks.
Mayor Furlong: Other questions? Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Yeah the question I’ve got is, one of the things I know that the
Chamber is trying to push is again buy local. We have a number of contractors within the area.
Is there any kind of program being put in place to make sure that they at least get the word that
there is a possibility of bidding on this? And the reason I ask is I’ve talked to some people and
before it’s all been pretty much a sub, you know contractor or general contractor. Contractor
type approach and if you weren’t tied into that, you weren’t going to be able to have any of these
opportunities. Are we doing something to make sure that the smaller businesses within the
community are aware of this and that there is an opportunity here?
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Brian Recker: Absolutely. Great question. Thank you. Actually we’re looking at two different
models for being able to incorporate local contractors into the project. Through this construction
management process and because there isn’t a general contractor providing one bid for the
overall total scope, we are receiving bids for individual trades. So if there happens to be a local
mechanical contractor that would like to bid on the project, they are free to do so and if it’s a
larger scale, like a mechanical contractor would be, if they’re able to provide a competitive bid,
then when we open up those public bids, if they’re the low contractor, and able to provide the
bond that we require, then they’re able to secure that project. And so that’s one way to help local
contractors get involved where maybe they don’t like to bid to a general contractor but they like
to bid to the city. The other opportunity that we have, and because of how the bidding
requirements are structured with the city of Chanhassen is that any project or any scope of work
that we’re able to bid that’s less than $100,000 we’re able to request a quote rather than a public
bid process and so often times there are local contractors. Maybe it’s a local carpeting company,
or maybe it’s a local ceramic tile company. Well because those areas of the project will come
substantially less than $100,000, we actually request quotes on behalf of the city for that work,
and some of those contractors who don’t like to go through the formal bid process and are more
comfortable through a quote process, well they don’t have to provide that performance bond and
they don’t have quite as much paperwork as what a public bid contractor would have and so that
provides some more opportunities as well.
Councilman McDonald: Okay. Are you available from the standpoint if someone wanted to talk
to you about the details of this, either contact the city and they’ll get the two of you in touch or is
there a way that you can help them through the process should they have questions?
Brian Recker: Absolutely. Absolutely there is and we ask that any contractors that are interested
in bidding on the project contact me directly and I can walk through the process, either through
the public bidding process that they may not be familiar with, but also with the quote process and
how that process may differ just a bit. One other step that we take is that when we ask for
permission from the council to advertise for the project, it goes into the Chanhassen’s newspaper
for an advertisement but we kind of take it one step further and we actually target contractors and
send bid advertisements directly to their company and say hey, just so you’re aware that this
project’s coming up and we’d like you to be involved with that and so we’re in the process of
finalizing a list of contractors that we could notify to say in addition to the public bid, we’re
going to bring your attention to and our plan is to send a copy both to our designer, Oertel
Architects as well as a copy for Paul because maybe there’s a local contractor that we’re not
aware of that we can add to that list and then make sure we contact them.
Councilman McDonald: Okay. Thank you very much.
Mayor Furlong: Other questions at this time? I had one with regard to the alternates, and
perhaps it’s, I don’t think it affects the process by which you’re going forward but the question is
how, do any of those alternates affect the cost to operate the facility or might affect, might
modify the cost to operate the facility with one of the alternates. For example one, we might
reduce the operating cost going forward.
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Brian Recker: That’s a very good question and sometimes there are trade off’s when you accept
maybe a savings to a project, be it maybe a long term higher operating cost that may be in
question, and as I review the alternates that we have, I don’t see any alternates and Jeff or Paul
help me out if I’m not seeing this here correctly but I don’t see any alternates that we have that
would be accepting, whether they’d be add or deduct alternates that would have an affect to the
overall operating cost or life cycle cost of the building.
Paul Oehme: Yeah, I mean there are just a couple alternates I just want to point out real quick in
the background. We did have some reduction in R value for some doors and some miscellaneous
insulation reductions but those are kind of the last items that we’d really like to not deal with or
not accept if the bids come in favorably. If it did have to go down to the next level and look at
items that potentially would impact some efficiencies or some, yeah energy efficiencies.
Mayor Furlong: Costs.
Paul Oehme: Costs in the future but obviously those are the last ones that we would want to
accept.
Mayor Furlong: And I think that’s what certainly would be my suggestion and I assume
council’s as well is to consider, consider the operating costs when we’re prioritizing which of
those that we will accept, or which are the last ones to come off so it sounds like that’s already
taken care of. Or in the process so good. Okay. Thank you. Why don’t you continue.
Brian Recker: You bet. Thank you. We already talked about the bidding process. We’ve
touched on it just a little bit here already in our discussions. We will be, should council approve
the advertisement for bid tonight, the advertisement then would be placed in the, it would
actually show up in the newspaper this week and we would actually then target the contractors
for that advertisement this week as well. The plans would be available next week for contractors
to start to review. We will have a pre-bid conference that we’ll be holding at the city for that
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here in the upcoming next couple weeks, and then we would have March 19 then would be the
bid. Would be the date in which we receive the public bids, and our plan is to solicit the quotes
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from the contractors, to have that information available so that on the 19 when we receive the
public bids we’ll have a very good idea of where we’re at overall with the project. And then
after review, we do review each one of the bids for all the low bids that we received to make sure
that they’re qualified contractors and that we don’t see any issues with those particular bids, and
then we’ll make recommendations to the council then for award of those shortly thereafter and
come back to another City Council meeting for that award to be given. Should everything then
proceed based on that process, we would plan to start the construction project at the end of April
with the overall completion date then at the end of the year.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions on the schedule or the process? No? Okay.
Brian Recker: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anything else then this evening Mr. Oehme from presentations or
staff? Okay. So the issue before us tonight then. I’m sorry, Mr. Gerhardt?
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Todd Gerhardt: Sorry.
Mayor Furlong: No. Please.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council members. We would like to go through the site plan. We have
Jeff Oertel here, the architect. We’d like to talk a little bit about the materials and the layout.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. That’d be good.
Todd Gerhardt: Got to get our money’s worth out of him.
Jeff Oertel: Good evening Mayor and council. Good to be here tonight. I’m going what about
me?
Todd Gerhardt: It’s all about the construction manager.
Jeff Oertel: Well as you can, one thing I will say, I’ll only spend a few minutes on the design of
the plans but one thing I can say about the whole effort thus far is that it has been really a super
experience. The word team and teamwork is over used a little bit in the corporate world. If not
over used then maybe stretched to a point where things aren’t actually that teamwork oriented
but this has been a real great team effort. RJM, Brian and his staff have been just super.
Proactive. Extremely proactive and as nice as Brian appears at the podium, he’s that way every
time you meet him. Staff has been extremely proactive and open as the city manager’s comment
earlier toward me might suggest. It’s been a very good collaboration. Paul in fact in an email
sent, that he sent to me said assume nothing. Make sure all the details are covered. So it’s been
just a great experience so far. Very briefly, do we have any slides on power point?
Paul Oehme: Not really but, if you want to talk up.
Todd Gerhardt: Well can’t we zoom in with the camera?
Jeff Oertel: Well you know otherwise we have shared with council the plans before and again
the building is situated on the site where we’re trying to balance a minimal amount of loss of
trees. Trying to keep the building as far away as possible from the.
Mayor Furlong: Can we put a set of plans up on the table?
Kate Aanenson: My only plan is a site plan.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Jeff Oertel: And council has seen this before at a couple different phases but again we tried to
balance everything as best we could. Basically the view toward, of the public or people coming
into the site would be the most attractive part of the building which is the office/admin area, and
that area has a fair amount of brick and glass on it. And we haven’t, although we’re going out
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for bid very soon, we are looking at a brick that was a brown color. Something like this or
something like this which is our favorite one. And there was another very kind of dull brown
brick that was inbetween these two colors, but this seem to have a bit of the most interest. The
pre-cast panels which compose the majority of the building are a nice earth tone. They weigh
about 15 pounds. It’s a nice earth tone and I can tell you this that, that the cost of the panels are
in the modest range. They’re a fairly economical panel. Thank you for that. And so again as
people come up to the building they’ll mainly see the brick part of the building. In the building
itself, just to give you a feel for it, again we’re dividing up the building into, for discussion
purposes, office area. Shops and mechanics area. The very large vehicle storage area and a
wash bay. And I can tell you this that for example even though the mechanics area, that’s an
electrical plan but it gives you an idea.
Todd Gerhardt: Go to the first one.
Jeff Oertel: That area, that area that I circled is the mechanics area. It really isn’t all that much
larger than the existing mechanics area but it’s much taller and much more efficient. Much
better layout and like everything else in the building, and my opinion understanding these
buildings as I do, staff are going to be able to be much more efficient and even safer and
healthier working in this environment. For example in the vehicle storage area, which is on your
left, you can see a parking pattern. They’ll be able to store all the vehicles under cover and they
won’t have to hitch and unhitch the trailers which is a real big plus. At any rate, I don’t need to
go any further unless you’ve got questions. I know you’re slightly familiar with the project and
again as far as the materials go on the outside, it’s the pre-cast panels. The brick and the glass
and then some metal that will be around the windows and trim for the building. And on the
inside of the building there are quite a few finishes and in the next 3 weeks we plan to prepare a
color board of the finishes that we’ve collectively put together and we’ll share those with
council, certainly with staff in about 3 weeks or so. Are there any questions?
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions? No? Okay. Very good. Thank you.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council members. I just want to thank Jeff and Brian for their work in
this project and especially Paul and all the city staff. Kate and Todd and utility department.
Streets. The entire public works department have reviewed the plans and I mean we’re getting
down and dirty into the details. Where the electrical outlets are going. Where the oil recycling
container’s going to be. We even talked about the hand dryers that are in the restrooms to make
sure we spec out the right one that works, and.
Councilman Litsey: The turbo ones?
Todd Gerhardt: It’s the turbo ones. If you’ve ever experienced the new turbo ones but they
definitely will dry your hands than the old method where you had to rub them. This one, leave it
under there for a few seconds and they’re dry so. I mean the guys have really, you know want to
do it right the first time is the goal in this and it has been a team effort and I appreciate the
consultants and the entire public works department and Kate’s department and the building
department that have provided input so it’s had a lot of eyes on it so we’re definitely trying to do
it right the first time.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2009
Mayor Furlong: Well we appreciate that and certainly council and citizens do as well. This is a
building, our current public works facility is about half the size we need right now. This is a
facility that will support our city, not only today but into the future and support as we’re fully
grown and developed so it’s important to get it right and appreciate all the effort and everybody’s
time and effort going into it, both on city staff as well as the professionals that have joined us, so
thank you very much and thank you.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. One other thing I forgot to mention is that we are looking at partnering
with Carver County’s public works department. They see a benefit of maybe having a couple of
trucks out in this area. We have room to accommodate them. You know being closer to the
county roads in this area. Utilizing our sand/salt and working out an arrangement with them to
utilize the extra space we have in our facility at this time so trying to collaborate with our other
government agencies around.
Mayor Furlong: Very good. Any questions for staff at this point? Okay. Any comments or
discussion on the item before us? The request is that we consider a motion that would approve
the plans and specifications and authorize ads for bids for the facility so that would be a motion
that we’ll consider this evening. Any thoughts or discussion on a motion on the items before us.
Councilman Litsey: I’m just really pleased, like has already been mentioned but the,
everybody’s been working together so well as a team. Having been through a project of this size
at the staff level myself, I know how important it is that everybody work together and everyone’s
in sync. It makes for a much better project. Then you don’t miss so many things that way either
so I’m looking forward to a competitive bidding and hopefully that will bring in some good
numbers so we can add some of those other alternates that you’d like to include so that’s it.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other thoughts or comments?
Councilman McDonald: Well I guess what I would just like to add is again going along with
what I said. I see this as a opportunity for the community, not only from the standpoint of we’re
now going to have a facility that will house very valuable assets but it will also allow us to keep
those assets in tip top condition, but I also see this as an opportunity to again provide for the
community and the fact that we do have a lot of small businesses, and that’s why I had asked the
question. I would like to make sure they have the opportunity to participate in this because of
these hard times. You know a lot of them are, they’re having problems so this is something I
think the city, this is a good thing and I’m glad that we went with the construction manager
because that was one of the ways it was sold to us that we could spread the wealth around a little
bit more and I like doing it that way instead of doing it through our taxes so I’m hoping that this
becomes a benefit, not only to the city but also to members of the community so thank you.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council members. Just to add a point to that. If you know anybody that
is in the trades, don’t hesitate to have them call me or Paul and we’ll get them in contact with
Jeff and Brian so they can have an address and we’ll send them a set of specs for them to bid on.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Any other thoughts or comments?
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2009
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah I just, I guess everyone’s comment, I don’t want to repeat what
everyone’s said but I think it’s always important to me to make sure that government makes a
choice or understands their wants and their needs and obviously if you’ve ever been to our
maintenance facility now, it’s undisputable that this is a need that we have and I think that this is
just probably one of those giant steps or leaps we’re taking now in the process of getting it
started and I think without a stimulus package given to us in our cities so hopefully it will bring
some economic growth to those companies that are needing it, and I look forward to also seeing
some good bids coming in and getting the project rolling so thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Councilwoman Ernst, any thoughts? Comments.
Councilwoman Ernst: I like the idea that we’re utilizing the process of the construction manager
concept. I don’t think we’ve ever done that before. So I like that way of thinking outside of the
box. I agree that we do need a bigger, larger public works facility. I mean it’s pretty obvious.
My concerns are still from the same concerns that I expressed two meetings ago and they’ve not
gone away, but even more so the timing of the project and spending $8 million dollars so.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. You know this is a project that there have been multiple steps to this
project. We started the discussion here a number of years ago. In fact I think when it was
initially brought up we were looking at completing this project a number of years ago. One of
the reasons that we’re doing it now is because it does fit in financially into our long term plans.
We’ve been planning to do this project now in part because of the financial ability of the city to
do it without having to increase taxes or increase our levy. The need has been there, as I said
earlier the facility we have now is about half the size of what our current need is based on the
size of our city, so the need has been there for a number of years. The reason we’re going
forward as we are now, and really this process started, or discussion started a couple of years ago
in earnest in terms of what the alternatives were. Whether we expand the existing facility.
Whether we even looked at acquiring property adjacent to our existing facility and building more
of a campus public works facility. We’ve looked at some existing vacant buildings and
modifying those I mean so we’ve looked at a lot of alternatives and the answer came back to this
was the right direction to go at this time so. While this is a, we’ve seen this project quite a bit of
time. Quite often I should say as a council, in part because it’s a, going to be a city owned
project as well as…approving, making sure that it’s done within the ordinances and such so I, as
I said earlier, I appreciate everyone’s effort. I think this is moving along. We’re looking at a
construction schedule that will move us to completion towards the end of this year. Occupancy
in the first quarter of 2010 and I think it’s something that in the long term, even though we need
it now in the long term it’s the right thing to do and we’re going about it in the right way, and
we’re doing it in a fiscally responsible manner so I think all those factors say that we should keep
moving forward at this time. Any other thoughts or comments? Okay. With that there is a
motion that’s being requested. Page 1 in the staff report. Would somebody like to make a
motion?
Councilman Litsey: Be happy to make the motion. I make the motion that the City Council
approves the plans and specifications and authorizes ad for bids for the Chanhassen Public
Works Maintenance Facility Project 08-03.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2009
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman McDonald: I’ll second.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. McDonald seconds it. Is there any discussion on the motion?
Resolution #2009-17: Councilman Litsey moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the
City Council approves the plans and specifications and authorizes the advertisement for
bids for the Chanhassen Public Works Maintenance Facility Project 08-03. All voted in
favor, except for Councilwoman Ernst who abstained. The motion carried with a vote of 4
in favor and 1 abstention.
TWO APPOINTMENTS TO THE JOINT AIRPORT ZONING BOARD, FLYING
CLOUD AIRPORT, METROPOLITAN AIRPORTS COMMISSION.
Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Give us some background maybe.
Kate Aanenson: Yes. Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. The Metropolitan
Airports Commission is going to, is requesting to set up safety boards for jurisdictions that are
affected by the airports. There’s actually 8 in the metropolitan area that are under jurisdiction of
MAC so they want to set up safety boards for each of these communities. Now we recently had
our comprehensive plan adopted and while we’re not affected by the noise element, there’s other
things that come into play regarding… Normally these would only come into play. We’ve seen
a few when we’ve had cell towers. They have to make sure they’re FAA clearance but the noise
that wouldn’t be affected. Our comprehensive plan has gone through. Eden Prairie because the
airport is in their city has a much more detailed plan that they need to work through regarding
noise attenuation. Land uses within the airport. So our’s is going to be more about some of the
height requirements. I don’t anticipate too many land use adjustments again because our
comprehensive plan has gone through it so I’m not sure what our role would be in comparison to
Bloomington and Shakopee who are also part of that. Obviously Eden Prairie’s the biggest. But
what they’re looking is to set up a committee. Certainly as the Community Development
Director I’d be involved in that because I think a lot of it’s going to have to do with land use or
zoning, and then what they’re looking for is someone from the City Council to also serve on that
board. I did speak to Dennis and they’d probably be meeting every other month for a period of
time to kind of see what the issues are out there. I’m not sure again what our impact’s going to
be on that so we’ll just kind of see how that plays out but they’re looking for another person to
serve on that board so that’s what we’re requesting for you in your motion to appoint a member
of the City Council to also serve with the Community Development Director on that force.
Mayor Furlong: And our position, while you say you’re not sure what our role is, but our
position is by statute.
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2009
Mayor Furlong: There were specific cities identified in the legislation.
Kate Aanenson: Yes. And really for the noise part of it is strictly Eden Prairie’s so our’s isn’t
going to be noise. Our’s is probably going to be, and again our land use wasn’t impacted when
we submitted our comprehensive plan. It was approved. Normally it’s always a height
requirement and typically that only comes into play with our cell towers because we’re far
enough away, but we’ll certainly be involved in discussions and see what they want to discuss.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Fair enough. And it’s staff’s recommendation, just the proposed motion,
you’re proposing, or Mr. Gerhardt, it’s your recommendation that it’s the Community
Development Director plus a member of the council?
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, having a staff member there can help with the efficiencies of any follow
up that might be a part of it. Continuation of you know Kate would stay around. She could
share with new council members on the roles and responsibilities of that board member.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. Any questions or thoughts?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: I just, this is obviously a new position that is just coming upon the
council and I think it’s always good to get involved in these issues and I guess my only thought
is that I would nominate Jerry McDonald to serve on this board.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Mr. McDonald, would you be willing to do that?
Councilman McDonald: I would be willing to accept. I understand the time commitment and I
do have the flexibility and that would serve quite well and I’m sure I can bring back the message
to everyone.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. Any other discussion or nominations?
Councilman Litsey: Sounds great. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. Very good. Well, Councilwoman Tjornhom would you like to go
ahead and make, adopt the motion to appoint the Community Development Director and
Councilman McDonald to serve?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Certainly.
Mayor Furlong: Probably I just did it but go ahead. It’s not that long.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yes, you kind of did. The Chanhassen City Council appoints the
Community Development Director and City Councilmember Jerry McDonald to serve on the
Metropolitan Airports Commission Joint Airport Zoning Board. Or I make the motion.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2009
Councilman Litsey: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion?
Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman Litsey seconded that the Chanhassen City
Council appoints the Community Development Director and City Councilmember Jerry
McDonald to serve on the Metropolitan Airports Commission Joint Airport Zoning Board.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
CONSENT AGENDA: (e). APPROVAL OF 2009 KEY FINANCIAL STRATEGIES.
Mayor Furlong: Maybe before Councilman Litsey, we get to your question, maybe we should
just get a quick update from staff. Final thoughts here this evening.
Councilman Litsey: Sure, yep.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. Gerhardt. What this item is about.
Todd Gerhardt: Sure. Our 2009 Key Financial Strategies plan is a combination of staff and City
Council goals that we’ve established for 2009. There’s a multiple list of goals presented to the
City Council for your ultimate prioritization of those. The council received a blank sheet that
they were able to prioritize of 1 to 4 and 1 being the most important. 4 being the least important.
Typically the practice has been in the past, anything with a 2 or less became a strategy for the
year. There are occasions where the council would sit down and discuss other strategies or goals
to be added to that list that may have had a number higher than a 2. For the coming year under
competitiveness, creating an environment for innovation and change, building on our strengths
and creativity and skills, the council would like to see us promote more economic development
in the community. Meeting with our businesses. Marketing the availability of land and talking
to potential developers on opportunities that may exist in Chanhassen. Also under
competitiveness we’re looking at options for old St. Hubert’s Church. Should the city own St.
Hubert’s or should there be a partnership with the local historical society and St. Hubert’s? That
item will be discussed here in the next couple weeks with the City Council on that issue.
Strengthening the City’s financial position. Always looking at opportunities to improve our
financial position in the community. We’re going to conduct a mid-year review on our 2009
budget and economic forecast. We’re really going to start looking at that in March to take
advantage of some early savings if possible so we’ll look at it in March. Also mid-year.
Probably doing quarterly check in’s with the City Council on that strategy. We’re going to
review our financial policies. See if there’s any changes that the council would like to make
regarding our financial policies. That would be our debt policy. Our investment policy in those
areas. Compile a list of unfunded, unproductive mandates for legislative review. This has been
requested from our legislators over in St. Paul so staff is preparing a list of unfunded mandates
and this year our legislators are going to look at maybe easing up on some of those. Don’t hold
your breath. They use that line a lot but.
Mayor Furlong: Cold spring…
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2009
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah. And then look at our budget process. Is there anything we can do to be
more efficient? Using staff and council’s time more wisely. Communication. Meeting
everybody’s expectations of what that budget process should be for 2009. That’s the key thing.
We want to start off on the right foot and make sure we’re meeting council’s expectations as we
go through that. Planning for the City’s infrastructure. Managing our existing infrastructure.
Future growth in the community. Sustaining a quality of life and protecting the environment was
planning for our city’s infrastructure. We’re going to work with other agencies to advance and
implement the Highway 101 improvements from Lyman Boulevard to the Scott County line.
This is the next area that we’re going to be serving with sewer and water and it’s always key to
have those major roadways updated to handle that new growth and 101 plays a key role in that.
Review potential options for the State bonding bill. For the 2010 budget process at the State,
they always have a bonding bill, and we need to start creating a list of projects that we may want
to include in the State’s bonding bill and see if those are priorities that our state legislators could
support. Also Highway 5 improvements, including Minnewashta Parkway intersection. This is a
very important goal of this council to see if we can’t make improvements to Highway 5 and
Minnewashta Parkway for safety purposes. We’ve started the environmental review process and
upgrading Highway 5 from 41 out to Young America and it’s our goal to try to move those
improvements up as soon as possible at the Highway 5 and 41 intersection. Work with Carver
County to advance Trunk Highway 41 trail and pedestrian underpass improvements. This would
be a trail on the east side of 41. Carver County and the City of Chanhassen have collaborated in
receiving a grant to build a trail and an underpass to access the Minnewashta Regional Park, and
that funding is to occur in 2010 and staff is going to work with Carver County to see if we can’t
move that ahead and not start this year. Look for partners on stormwater improvement projects.
That’s anything we can do to work with MnDOT, MPCA, the watershed districts, to partner on
stormwater projects to help improve our water quality of our lakes and streams and so that’s
another one of our goals this coming year. And we’re also going to finish our justification study
on Fire Station #3. Looking at the impacts of building that station on our insurance rating in the
community. Also how we could go about soliciting new members and having a station in that
location. It’s a key area. Again our growth area and making sure that we have fire protection in
southerly Chanhassen. And the last category is enhance local tax base. Evaluate the
comprehensive plan with current goals and policies and assess their impacts. One of the things
we’re going to do is meet with the downtown businesses regarding new zoning to intensify
development in our downtown area. Meet with those businesses that we think could develop
their property a little bit more, and see if we can’t intensify some of the uses in our downtown
area. Support the marketplace driven development of industrial commercial and residential land.
Again getting out to developers that we do have available land in each of those zoning categories
for development. Get the word out to those developers that we’re open for business and looking
for development here in Chanhassen. So those are 2009 Key Financial Strategies and strategic
plan, so any questions?
Councilman Litsey: Good job.
Mayor Furlong: Questions on that? Councilman Litsey.
Councilman Litsey: Well I think it’s good number one to review those here at the council
meeting. We worked hard on these at work sessions and so people understand what we’re really
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2009
focused on for the year, and I have no problem with any of the things that are listed on here. I
think they’re all good things. I think they’re things we should focus on. One of the initiatives
that I brought forth here for a second year in a row is the social host ordinance. I think it fits into
what we’re talking about here in terms of livability and positioning the city better for the, you
know long term viability of the community. I know in our web site we talk about safety in the
city and one of the things we talk about is taking proactive measures to help with that and also to
educate the public and I think the social host ordinance not only fills the gap on the state law, but
it helps to hold people accountable for providing a place for underage, people that provide a
place for underage drinking. It’s a real problem in the community. I think anything we can do to
help prevent teen subsistence abuse is important. A number of community organizations like the
Tonka Cares group. The One Voice Coalition through the Hopkins school district. I’m hoping
that the schools of Eastern Carver County will come on board with this to take a proactive step in
helping with that key goal of preventing teen subsistence abuse. I think as we’ve talked through
it on the council, and I understand that I have a little more information on this and a little more
up to speed, partly because of my profession but there seems to be at least some desire to learn
more about it. I think it needs to be a grass roots effort. A lot of communities have come on
board. I think more are looking at it, especially within the school districts served, that serve
Carver or Chanhassen, and so I would like us to keep it at least on the radar screen. I’d like at
least there’d be an awareness of it. That we track it and that we spend some staff time on it. I
know staff can’t do everything and can’t accommodate every council member’s desires but in
terms of what we need to look at for any given year but I think for 2009, looking at what we
hope to accomplish, I don’t think this would be too onerous on the staff to at least continue to
track it and that we check in to see where it’s at in terms of other communities. Other school,
you know where the school district’s at with it. Some of the community organizations and I’d
like to see the sheriff and county attorney too weigh in on it and see where they’re at with it too
so I’d like to see it added and I know that we voted and majority rules on that so, but I just feel
disappointed that this is something we really could do as a council to promote you know
community for life. That’s what was one of the mission statement says. To make it better and
this is something we can actually affect change I think and really help out when it comes to the
young people of the community. Keeping them safe so I think the Chanhassen Villager did a
good job of making some of the key points so I won’t go over those again. People can obviously
reference that. I guess I’d just like to throw it back to the council one last time.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thoughts or comments?
Councilman McDonald: Well I guess you know I would weigh in on this. I’m of mixed opinion
as I told you, but I do appreciate the information you’ve provided. It does give me a new
perspective and again being relatively new to this whole issue, I really do want to study it and I
really do want to begin to kind of understand and there’s two perspective to this and that’s what
I’m trying to bring together and I guess I just, I’m not sure I’m where you’re at yet. That’s not to
say that I won’t eventually wind up there, but I’m willing to you know make the commitment to
educate myself and to try to understand, not so much why this is so important to you. I know
that. I get that part of it. But I just need to look at it in the perspective of where it fits within the
community. The need for it. What it’s addressing and those type of things and that’s what I’m
trying to get my arms around and the comments that I’ve made about that I hope reflect that. I’m
open to the idea and I’m willing to you know again continue to get educated on it and I would
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2009
appreciate anything that you have. I’m willing to go to any kind of an open meeting someplace
where there’s a forum to discuss things and become educated. I think that’s what I can tell you
tonight I’m willing to do.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other thoughts? Comments.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah I think at the work session last time I was asking Councilman
Litsey a couple questions about it because I am not as well versed obviously as he is being in law
enforcement and during the meeting it struck me that Councilman Litsey, you really do have a
heart for young people and you understand the issue of teenage drinking and it’s something I
think everyone wrestles with and trying to find a solution to the problem. I’m still not sure if this
is the solution to it. I think it’s something obviously that we have wrestled with and talked about
and it sounds like we will continue to talk about it and I appreciate your vigilance on it because
obviously I do feel that you really are trying to make a difference and this is your way of doing
that and I appreciate that. I still wrestle with the, as the Villager quoted me saying, you know the
personal property rights of individuals and the implications of someone just being guilty you
know, and I guess I still kind of, as an American kind of hold to the saying innocent til proven
guilty and so I just, you know I’m, you’re looking at it from a law enforcement side and I’m
looking at it as a civilian side and you know, I don’t know if there’s some common ground. I
think we both are on the same side of stopping teenage drinking and trying to figure out how to
reduce their sources and keep them alive and safe. Obviously. So I appreciate your efforts and
so I think this is a topic that isn’t going to go away and, which is a good thing, and I’m looking
forward to more discussions regarding the issue at some point.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Councilwoman Ernst, any thoughts?
Councilwoman Ernst: Yes. I too believe Bryan that your intentions are very good and you have
a tremendous amount of passion for this ordinance and I can appreciate that. I don’t know, I’m
not quite sure what changes with this ordinance other than the fact that there is an ordinance
being created that would, it sounds to me from what I know of it, would take away from other’s
property rights. My big, I guess my big theory on this is that parents have a responsibility and I
put the onus back on the parents and so I don’t believe that we have to create an ordinance to
hold parents responsible because I think parents should be responsible and I’m not sure that I can
support an ordinance that would make them responsible. If that makes any sense.
Councilman Litsey: No I think one comment to that is, we all hope parents are responsible but
we have child abuse laws on the books because parents aren’t always responsible. We, yeah
majority are, they act prudent and they do the right thing but we do have laws to protect kids
when parents don’t do the right thing, and this is a situation where parents may not always use
the best judgment. And they have to knowingly allow it and that’s a really key phrase in this.
You have to show intent. You have to show knowledge of it, and it’s not just about parents. A
lot of it is, as was mentioned in the Villager, has to do with young adults who can drink. That’s
probably where it’s going to happen more often or be more common place. You know they have
the apartment and they have the place to go and they allow people to come there, and bad things
happen when people drink and especially young people. They don’t use, now arguably adults
don’t always use the best judgment sometimes either, but it’s more common place with kids.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2009
When you look at child development and so forth and making the right choices, that’s why we
have parents to help guide them along and we have certain laws in place to do that. To help
them make the good choices, but like I said before, bad things can happen and we see a lot of
sexually assaults of young girls and so forth in these kind of drinking environments. Poor
choices about leaving and drunk driving and getting into accidents. I’d much rather stop it
before it happens. No law enforcement officer likes to be out there at 3:00 in the morning on a
crash into a car hit a tree and there’s 4 young people that were drunk when maybe you could
have prevented it by having gone to that house and stopped it before it happens. It’s not a, it’s
not going to solve every problem obviously when it comes to underage drinking, but it is another
tool that law enforcement can use to accomplish that goal so.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. You know I think, excuse me, this is one of the items of many that
didn’t make the list, as you know, and I think as it’s been pointed out both by your comments as
well as other members of the council, that this is something that you believe very strongly in. I
admire that and respect that. I think having talked about it as a council last year and again this
year and watching other, what’s gone on during that time, my sense is there’s just a difference of
opinion on this. I don’t think it’s a lack of interest in underage drinking. Clearly we had some
high school students here earlier this evening. I was hoping, because I knew this was coming up,
they’d stick around. I hope their teacher isn’t watching. So maybe we’ll have to modify the
minutes but my comment to them was simply that you know, if you’re not old enough to drink.
Don’t do it. It’s against the law. It’s breaking the law. And that goes for 16, 17 year olds. It
also goes for 18, 19 and 20 year olds, and they’re adults and I think even if you’re a minor at 16
and 17, I think it would be hard to argue and we’ve got our prosecutor here, that they were
ignorant of the law that says that they couldn’t drink. I think everybody knows that they’re not
supposed to. You say this is a tool or there’s a gap in the law. I think you know the issue’s
really what’s, what makes sense. What can we enforce and I think that’s just where we are. It’s
a disagreement in terms of the methods to move forward with, so I think it was said. I don’t
know that this discussion’s going away. Some cities have adopted it. Others have chosen not to
and I think that’s just you know part of the recognition that there are differences of opinion in
terms of if this is the right way to go or not, but the bottom line is, with regard to underage
drinking, the answer is don’t do it. It’s against the law. That’s a state statute. That’s not just a
local ordinance and you know the, that’s really just the answer. To your point, adults don’t
always do what they should do and that’s true. People do stupid things and you know I think that
bottom line is, who’s held responsible? Who’s held responsible and my preference is simply that
the people that are breaking the law that are drinking are the ones to be held responsible for…
and that’s where I’d like to see the enforcement.
Councilman Litsey: I mean that happens obviously.
Mayor Furlong: Sure.
Councilman Litsey: Now because the law is written.
Mayor Furlong: Correct.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2009
Councilman Litsey: But with this ordinance it enhances the ability of law enforcement to get at
the root problem, and when 7 people congregate, yeah they’re at, people knowingly allow this to
happen, they’re allowing a crime to happen in their presence and they’re actually knowingly
allowing it to take place. That isn’t infringing on property rights. That’s knowingly allowing a
crime to happen and so it’s not any new, we’re not branching out any new case law or any new
you know, it’s really just making it easier to enforce something that’s already illegal to begin
with. It’s helping law enforcement take that next step to help young people make better choices,
and actually where communities have enacted it, it actually has looked at it being actually
supportive of parents. Giving parents another reason why they can tell their kids that you can’t
have it here because I can be held accountable too if I know you’re having it, so don’t do it. It’s
actually enabling parents sometimes that had a difficult time saying that, to actually use this as
leverage or a reason why their kids can’t do it. If parents want their own kids to drink in their
own house, they can do it. That’s their choice but I don’t want another parent making that choice
for me on my behalf. I want to make that myself and other people are out there making that
choice for other people’s kids without those parents knowing about it and want law enforcement
to do something about it, and maybe times we can’t. Our hands are pretty much tied and this
helps us to accomplish that. I know noticed, you know when I heard public feedback and
comments from other law enforcement agencies at this forum back in January, it was, I heard
mayors and I heard police chiefs and we heard just citizens and it was, one thing was very
encouraging was there were citizens when somebody was tagged for it, they didn’t have a…rate
actually. It was very helpful in keeping that from happening again. Plus the push back from the
community was minimal, if not, they anticipated there would be some public feedback on it in
terms of not liking it and push back, like I said, and we just didn’t experience that so, which
gives you at least that it’s a good thing to do and people generally are supportive of it. So I’m
encouraged by at least some council members expressing openness to it. I don’t expect to
convince anyone tonight and I also respect the fact that we went through a process and we voted
on this and you know majority rules and so that’s the way it is. My goal in bringing this up
tonight was not to not support what’s here but to have this dialogue and at least hear from some
council members the openness to hear more, and as long as there’s an openness there, that makes
me feel better about it so you know you can go ahead and vote on this. This is fine.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. Do you want to make?
Councilman Litsey: Yeah I’ll make the motion to approve the Key Financial Strategies and
Strategic Plan for 2009 with the, you know what I’ve already stated in terms of I wish that the
social host ordinance had been on there but I’ll support it.
Mayor Furlong: You’re not making that as part of the motion? Okay.
Councilman Litsey: I couldn’t slide that in?
Mayor Furlong: Just wanted to make sure. I always like to know what…
Councilman Litsey: Darn the mayor always catches that. No. It’s been noted for the record how
I feel but I’ll support what’s here. Yes.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2009
Mayor Furlong: The motion is to adopt what was included in the staff report. Is there a second?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second.
Councilman McDonald: Yeah, I was going to second but I was going to ask the same question.
Councilman Litsey: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: Not just me. It’s the attorney too. Any discussion on the motion?
Councilman Litsey moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded to approve the 2009 Key
Financial Strategies and Strategic Plan as presented. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS:
Councilman McDonald: Well I guess I would like to just announce that I did get to go to, what
City Council school over the weekend and everything and I actually learned quite a bit. It was
very interesting. Hopefully I can take some of those lessons that I learned and turn them back in
as we go forward on a number of these projects so I do appreciate the opportunity and again I
will try to feed that back and work better with the council. One of the things that I did learn
there that you know you go through the candidate phase. You run for office. You make all these
promises about what it is you’re going to do once you come to the council. I’m going to
straighten those guys out. We’re going to take care of all this stuff. One of the things that they
taught very strongly was that city council is a team and you know to be effective you need to be
able to work with the co-members on your team so I heard that lesson loud and clear and I will
apply it so thanks for having me aboard team. I appreciate it.
Mayor Furlong: Any other council presentations this evening?
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS:
Todd Gerhardt: Just a couple of building activities. Kwik Trip has announced to our community
development department that they’re going to build their first green building here in Chanhassen
so they’re going to file all the environmental codes in building the new Kwik Trip down at 101
and Lyman area. And Kraus-Anderson’s moving ahead with leasing out their building down
there so that’s coming along nicely. And Westwood Church is looking also to expand in town
and adding some community space to their facility out there so that’s a nice expansion. 51,000
square feet so that’s exciting news there and so we’re seeing some building activity going on in
the community. Shown a lot of interest in senior housing projects throughout the community so
I think the market is there to support maybe one but I know Kate has talked to at least a half
dozen people that are interested in trying to build more senior housing in Chanhassen so. That’s
it.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or staff? Okay.
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City Council Meeting - February 23, 2009
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION.
None.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there anything else to come before the council this evening? If
not, is there a motion to adjourn?
Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman Litsey seconded to adjourn the meeting. All
voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council
meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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