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CC 2009 09 14 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING SEPTEMBER 14, 2009 Council members toured Camp Tanadoona and the new public works facility prior to the meeting. Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:10 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, Roger Knutson, Paul Oehme, Todd Hoffman, Greg Sticha and Kate Aanenson PUBLIC PRESENT: Janet Kinney 3608 Grove Street, Edina Kathy Mandy 6210 Near Mountain Boulevard Kaitlin McGee 1411 Mallard Court Maureen Walsh 3945 Hillcrest Road PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Mayor Furlong: Good evening and welcome to everybody here in the council chambers and those watching at home. We have a few minutes later start than usual. We were out on a tour this evening. A couple very nice assets of the city. Camp Tanadoona and the new public works building so we got a little bit delayed in our tour but we appreciate you waiting for us and your patience as well. Let me start with the council, ask if there are any changes or modifications to the agenda. If not, without objection then we’ll proceed with the agenda as distributed. CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Litsey moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded that the City Council approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: a. Approval of Minutes: -City Council Work Session Minutes dated August 24, 2009 -City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated August 24, 2009 Receive Commission Minutes: -Planning Commission Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated August 18, 2009 Resolution #2009-65: b. 2010 Street Projects: Approve Consultant Contract and Authorize Preparation of Feasibility Study. d. Nick’s Storage & Parking, 1900 Stoughton Avenue: One Year Extension of Conditional Use Permit and Interim Use Permit. Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 e. Approval of Joint Powers Relating to eCharging Services, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (Chanhassen Prosecution Services). All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: LIVE IT! YOUTH SUMMIT, OCTOBER 10 AT CAMP TANADOONA, CARVER COUNTY HEALTH PARTNERSHIP. Maureen Walsh: My name is Maureen Walsh and thank you Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council for allowing us to make a brief presentation tonight. I’m part of an organization called Carver County Health Partnership and the Youth Development Action Team Planner and have had the privilege of working with youth and adults led planning team to convene the th county’s first ever youth summit this coming fall on October 10. Just brief background on Carver County Health Partnership for those of you that aren’t familiar with it. It is a 10 year, nearly 10 year old non-profit organization, community based organization that just received it’s 501C3 in the last couple years and has really been an excellent convener of the county stakeholders in addressing, bring resources to the table and addressing issues that affect the health and well being of residents of the county and in the last year a group of stakeholders identified youth development and youth engagement as an issue that they wanted to work at over the next couple years and young people actually were the group of stakeholders that wanted to kick off and infuse some energy into the county by having a youth summit. Kaitlin McGee is a senior at Chaska High School and she is a resident of Chanhassen and she is a leader on our planning team. One of the people that has been with the planning process from the very beginning so she’s going to just provide some, an overview of the event and answer any questions the council may have. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Kaitlin McGee: Thank you Mr. Mayor and the council for allowing me to be here to present to you tonight. Just to start off I’m going to give you a background, an overview of what the summit actually is. It’s called our Live It Youth Summit. The goals and purpose of our summit are to inspire and educate youth towards action in their communities, their country and even beyond that. As a result of this action more youth and youth of diverse backgrounds and life circumstances will be actively engaged in their communities. They will have meaningful roles in their community and will feel valued and they will feel more connected to adults and other youth in the county. This will be very beneficial to youth within the county because when they feel like they have a voice and they have a role they feel valued by their community and they are moved to care more about their community and to be more actively involved within it. The youth summit theme is, as I stated before is live it and that’s an acronym for some of the traits that we hope youth will get out of the summit. It stands for leadership, inspiration, voice, empowerment, innovation and teamwork. At the summit both youth and adults will be participating and hopefully they will become inspired toward action through hearing youth engagement ideas from others in the county and the larger metro. They will learn strategies and 2 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 shape ideas for individual or collaborative action and they will work in adult youth partnerships to plan next steps to go forward with the plans that they come up with while they attend this th event. The actual youth summit will be held Saturday, October 10. That’s less than 4 weeks away from now. From 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. It will be held at Camp Tanadoona, which as I hear you guys just took a tour of, and we are expecting participation from around 250 youth and th hopefully 100 adults. Our target age group for youth, we are targeting high schoolers from 9 th through 12 grade but if there are middle schoolers who would wish to participate we will definitely welcome them. Just a brief overview of the structure of the day. We will have some entertainment and resource fair towards the beginning and as part of our opening ceremony we will have a welcome and we will also have a keynote speaker. Following that we will have a large group forum in which youth can share their ideas and adults who can share their ideas of what they have so far and how they feel about their communities and what they feel needs to be changed and what they feel needs action. And then we will also have two separate 75 minute breakout sessions in which youth and adults can attend to hear what other youth from the county and around the county have already done to start generating ideas and to help carry out action plans. And then there will also be some action team planning time in which youth and adults can form those initial partnerships and can start to move forward with their plans for what they hope to do in our community. And there will also be a closing ceremony with awards and a capnote speaker and some more entertainment. What I’m here to ask of the council is your help in spreading the word about the youth summit. Like I said it’s less than 4 weeks away and we’re trying to get as many youth and adults involved as we possibly can. We were also asking for your support through people. We do need adults at this summit to help the youth to form those adult youth partnerships because sometimes there are obstacles that youth may run into while they are trying to carry out their action plans that they cannot necessarily clear on their own. They may need an adult support and help to clear those obstacles. And also for any financial contribution that the council is able to make. What I have always thought is that one of the community’s greatest resources is it’s youth population. All of us, youth and adults included just need to be, I think, a little bit better educated on how to access that resource and how to make it available. I want to close with a quote from Margaret Meade. It’s never a doubt that a small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has. Are there any questions? Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Any questions? No? Very good, thank you. Good presentation and we hope you have a very successful event. Kaitlin McGee: Thank you so much Mr. Mayor and the council for your time. th Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council. We will advertise this on our new display sign off of West 78 Street and also put it up on our web site so if anybody wants to access the information we’ll make it available there. Kaitlin McGee: Thank you. CHANHASSEN LIBRARY ANNUAL UPDATE, JANET KINNEY, BRANCH MANAGER. 3 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Thank you. We also have Janet Kinney who’s the branch manager with the Chanhassen Library here for an annual update. Good evening. Janet Kinney: Good evening Mr. Mayor and members of the county and city officials, members of the community. I am Janet Kinney. I’m the branch manager at the beautiful Chanhassen Library that’s just across the way from here. I’m just going to give you a very quick update on some statistics and a little bit about our strategic plan and then a couple of the issues that we have at the library. The Chan circulation, which is our major measurement of our work and productivity, the number of materials that are checked out of our building, continues to grow in double digits every year. This year we are expecting 11% increase over last year and our entire system is expecting our first million circulation year. We think we’ll hit that early in December. June, 2009 was an all time record for Chanhassen. We had 46,534 items checked out during that month. The kids items remain extremely popular, as you can well image, but interestingly enough it’s our adult, our adult circulation in books that are increasing at the greatest rate at the moment. Our adult media circulation has been really, really high but recently it’s the books that we see that are really increasing. We also supply a large number of public access computers. We recently added 3 more for a total of 23 that are available. We’re what we call a 81% computer utilization rate which means that 81% of our computers are filled every hour that we’re open. That’s a little too high of a utilization rate because obviously there are hours during the day when we don’t have as much demand. During the summer we did have people waiting from basically from 1:00 to 5:00 everyday. Now that school’s starting we see it from about 3:00 to 5:00, or even 3:00 to 7:00. The County is continuing to try to increase that resource but it’s under tremendous demand right now. I’m sure you’re all aware that we have summer reading program. If any of you have tried to park at city hall on a Tuesday during the summer you know that we are busy. This summer we had, we changed the reading program quite a bit. As I’ll mention later in my presentation, our budget has been reduced so in order to meet some of the expectations and try to serve our public to the best of our ability we did kind of decrease some of the gift giving and some of the activity as far as the number of reading records and so on. We still had 3,100 kids get reading records and we had a little bit lower completion rate than usual but I think that was just the handing in of the forms because the kids were there and they were reading. Generally we had very positive response to the new program from our public. And then on those Tuesdays, well we had 3,304 people attend our program. There were 9 different performers were there and we had 18 programs from those performers so that’s a couple hundred kids at every single session and that’s interesting in our building. I hope the Fire Marshal isn’t here. We also have been building a new kind of program. These are, the performers where we have…come into the Wilder Room and we dance and sing and do magic tricks and do all kinds of things. We’re also starting some other kind of programming this summer. This is our second year, what we call literacy programming and that’s a smaller group so we’re not trying to manage 300 kids but more like 30 to 90 children and we have a book based program where our librarians work with them. Read to them from the book. Maybe have the kids read and then there are crafts and activities related to that specific book. They have been very well received. We had about 700 attend those programs this summer and we’re really pleased with that and we’re going to continue to develop that kind of programming. We think it has very high results as far as activities with reading. So how did we manage to do that? To circulate 46,000 books and entertain 3,000 kids and so on? Well, we used a lot of volunteers and I’d especially like to call out our teen volunteers. We had 45 kids who donated at least 4 hours a week on average to 4 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 the library throughout the summer program. These kids are just terrific. Some of them basically hand out the little reading records and then encourage the children as they report back in. Others help us with just managing those programs and we also have started a program called Book Buddies where some of the teens read to children. Just an informal sitting in the kids room reading books and we just think it’s fabulous for the younger children to see teens actually engaged in reading. That has been proven to be a very influential activity. So we love it and we’re going to continue to grow that program. We think our teen volunteer program is extremely important. So that’s about kind of what we’re doing with a few numbers. I do want to take a moment to mention the strategic plan. The Carver County Library is in the third year of a 5 year strategic plan. We had to re-scale it. The library system lost 2 full time employees in the latest budget cuts and 3 staff reduced their hours considerably. I reduced my hours from 5 days to 4 days a week. The budget, other items in the budget also remain reduced and this will go into the next year’s budget so we really needed to take a good look at our strategic plan and make sure we were well focused. There are 4 areas, and I’ll just briefly mention them. The first area of course is materials. Why have a library if you don’t have books, right? So we have continued to purchase, we have a little bit of a reduced budget. We tried not to hit that anymore than we absolutely had to. We continue to buy in most formats although we have stopped purchasing something called Play Aways. They were a very popular format but they were relatively expensive per circulation and we just felt we could meet those people’s needs with other technologies. But we continue to buy of course children’s materials. This past year we did a major purchase of early readers because literally last summer there were empty bins. We literally ran out of those early readers for children. This year we always had them so that was a great thing to be able to accomplish. We also continue to buy DVD’s and books on CD as the circulation is extremely high per item on those types of materials. The second area that was, materials was first. The second is community partnerships. We feel that this is extremely important for the library. We need to be very focused in our community that we’re not duplicating educational programs and other services that other organizations are doing. So I need to say that you guys are the best. The City has supported us in so many ways. I see Todd here. We’ve received a lot of help from the parks and recreation. Whenever we need something, they’re always there. If it’s mic’s or if it’s advice or whatever it is, we work very closely with them. We worked with the planning department who helped us with data and statistics about our community. Administration. I know many of you members well as we continue to work so closely together and especially appreciate all the help we have at the building. As you know the building is provided by the City and it’s in it’s sixth year. I can hardly believe it. It’s still in fabulous condition and that’s because of all the support from the City. We also work with the senior center, Sue Bill and her folks are at our events and we really have a great time, and your new sign. We call it the library sign. Other people point out that maybe it isn’t but that has just been a tremendous asset and we appreciate it and thank you very much. As you know we have a Friends of the Chanhassen Library. That group is not quite as active as it was a few years ago when they had the challenge of building a building. They were extremely active, as you all know. And they continue to be active but they’re focusing primarily on 3 book sales a year and they’re still raising about $9,000 a year that we use directly for programming and there’s some special book collections. The book collection, the book budget is primarily provided by taxpayer dollars through the county and we think that’s very, very important that we continue to keep that tax supported support but the Friends also help us with special collections. We work very closely with District 112 and also with the Minnetonka School District. We’re making sure that 5 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 we publicize each other’s programs and that we eliminate any duplication. Also with the city and the rotary we’re supplied with an AED. The Automated Electronic Defibulator which I can use better than I can say. And we also are working quite closely with the other Carver County organizations and most recently I’d just like to point out the public health organization is gearing up tremendously around the flu and what we can do as a county to be prepared so the county web site as some excellent resources. We’re repeating those on the library resources and if there’s anything we can do to help spread that information. Whoops. That was a bad word to use. To disseminate that information we’d like to be a part of that. We also work closely with the Environmental Services Department at the county because they’re doing some wonderful programs and we make sure that they get advertised. Our third area is aligning our programs and services to the community needs. Very quickly on this I just wanted you to know that that meeting room is booked at about 50% of the time. All the meeting rooms. Mostly by not for profit groups which is kind of too bad because you don’t get any revenue from that. You get revenue from the profit ones but it’s very, very, very well received and an important resource in our community and we’re continuing to make ways to make that even more available. The other big change, and I didn’t introduce Mark Peterson which I meant to do. Mark is your representative on the Carver County Library Board and he’s helping me tonight. He’s going to hand out a handout that’s a brief thing but it’s so exciting. We don’t have the new marketing materials on this yet but this is a service that is just being rolled out at the library. It’s called Brain Fuse Homework Help and this is an online, live program for kids to have support from a direct tutor from 1:00 in the afternoon until 11:00 p.m. where they can actually go online. Sign up for a tutor who is skilled, who has been vetted by this organization and so they work online using white boards and all of that to actually do homework. It’s just incredible. We’re just barely getting. Mayor Furlong: Where were they when I was going to school? Janet Kinney: Well now they have the adult learning center too… Mayor Furlong: The re-learning. Janet Kinney: We should call it the re-learning center. We are going to continue, we just signed this contract. This is a contract signed by MALSA. Some of you who hang out with know that that’s the Metropolitan Area Libraries Service Agencies part of the state and federal funding device and we just barely got the contract signed before school started so we don’t even have the marketing pieces yet but this is just printouts from the web site. We’ll continue to work with our teachers. This is not available through the school web site so we have to let them know. So if you know a student or you know a teacher, feel free to hand this out to them. We will be getting a lot more marketing and you access it by the path I have there. To the carverlive.org and then look for databases and then look for Brain Fuse. We’ll try to make that a little easier soon but this is a tremendous community resource that I want to make sure everybody knows about. And the other quick thing under programs and services is that early literacy. Getting those children, especially 0 to 3, we’re doing everything we can think of. We’re working with all kinds of daycare centers. We’re working with the county. We’re working everywhere. We have to get those children exposed to the early phases of literacy between the age of 0 and 3. That’s a very short window. So the library is focusing, we’ve decided that has to be made more of a high 6 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 focus even during the time of declining budgets. And our fourth and last area is to improve access to our resources and this remains the biggest challenge for the county library. We had beautiful wireless provided by the city and Rick Rice was a tremendous help to us. The county has taken that over now and it is very, very robust and very good so we’ve got that in place. But our biggest challenge has been county technology structure is just not robust enough to help us have the kind of web page we should. To say nothing about being social networking with all of those other wonderful opportunities. So this next year we’re really going to try and figure out how, at the county level, we can increase those resources so that your library will be literally available to your kids and to yourself 24 hours a day in whatever format you want. We’ve just seen the change and that’s just where it is right now. We’ve got to get those in place. So that brings us to basically the issues. Our hours changed. As you know we had to close at 8:00 instead of 9:00 on Monday through Thursday. That happened earlier in the year again in response to budgets and the biggest impacts on that has been the meetings and the groups meeting in our library. By the time you start an evening meeting, you know people don’t get there til 7:00 and we close at 8:00 so many groups cancelled their room reservations when that happened. Some of them were able to adjust but that is sad and for the librarians it makes for a very short evening. We work very fast so we are very much more efficient. Our per hour counts are way up by losing those hours and so that’s the good news. We like to be efficient. The other question that I thought I should mention is the materials handling. I hope you’ve all seen the machine. I don’t know if you’ve all been over there. It’s the biggest thing in town. We have a materials handling machine that actually checks the materials in and sorts them into bins. I don’t know what we’d do if we didn’t have that with all these double digit increases every year and our staff has actually decreased. We do have some productivity. Some efficiency issues there and process improvements. The size of the bar coding, although we’ve been buying standard bar codes for years, some of them are not being seen by the system properly so we’ve been working all summer on that and that continues through the fall and I think we’ll see that last little bit of improvement that we really need. Otherwise we have to re-check things too much and we can’t have that. Our other problem that I only mention quickly was the technology being challenged at every level on that. Keeping our staff trained. Getting our materials through the new technology remain our focus. One thing I haven’t mentioned that I wanted to be sure I mentioned is meeting the needs of job seekers. That’s the single biggest change in our library in the last year and a half. Pretty much 10:00 in the morning, and I don’t know if any of you have been there but there’s a crowd waiting at 10:00. At the gate. Most of them are there to use computers and most of them are there to check their unemployment status. To make sure they’re registered properly. To apply for jobs. These folks are under pressure and we try as hard as we can to make it a comfortable environment for them but it truly is a change and of course they want to learn so much. So many of them don’t have computer skills so trying to help them through this and trying to get their printing done and try to get their faxes out, you know the resumes. Most of them need to fax things. There are an awful lot of documents. We just didn’t even plan on this. A lot of documents need to be faxed back and forth with either COBRA documents or all those things that happen when people lose jobs and people are there at the library. Very tense. So we hope we’re a nice place. We have coffee and we try to make it a little more enjoyable but that is the biggest change at the library. So again thank you all for all you do to support your library and I know you tell people about us all the time and we really appreciate it and I’d love to receive any questions that you may have. 7 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions of Ms. Kinney? Councilman McDonald: I’ve got a question about the utilization of all the community rooms and everything. You say that you’ve got a lot of non profits in there and some of the problems with the for profits are the library hours. If there were something that could be done, is there anything we can do to maybe get some more people in the community using that because it is a good resource. Janet Kinney: Beautiful resource. Councilman McDonald: You’ve got 2 or 3 rooms in there that are quite large. Janet Kinney: Yes we do. We continue to try to publicize our rooms. The one, the Wilder Room is the one that most people would be willing to pay for and we have found, we actually reduced our fees with your permission several months ago because we found out there was some resistance to that. We haven’t been feeling that any more. People say oh that seems to be a reasonable charge so I’m, I think it’s continuing to try to keep the publicity out there so people know it’s available. Because the smaller rooms are booked almost all the time. And actually what we call the booking rate is what they book ahead of time. We have a large number of groups of 2 or 3 or 4 that come in on that day and actually you know use it, but we don’t consider that a booking. It’s just a convenience you know so. Councilman McDonald: Yeah I’m just wondering if there’s something else we can do to utilize that a little bit more to get some better use out of it and also maybe to help generate some revenue at the same time because it is a good space. In fact you’ve got a couple of good spaces that would be good for business or you know any groups or. Janet Kinney: I think if our web site were a little better we’d be able to market more. Councilman McDonald: Okay… Janet Kinney: I’ll write that down as something we need to get on that. This is the library’s web site. I’m not talking about the city’s web site. The library’s. Thank you. Councilman McDonald, thank you. Mayor Furlong: Other questions at this point? Councilman Litsey: I was just going to make a comment that I think it’s a terrific community asset. I’ve never been there when it wasn’t a positive experience for myself or my son or wife so just really good job and thanks for making that like the showcase. Janet Kinney: We really love our building. Councilman Litsey: And your enthusiasm shows. That’s great. 8 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 Janet Kinney: I could go on about libraries. I’d better not. Thank you and I really appreciate your time. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anyone else that would like to address the council under visitor presentations this evening. Good evening. Cathy Mandy: Good evening Mr. Mayor. I’m not sure if I should address at this part or if you would rather, my comments are about the tax levy. I have a prepared statement so I don’t know if you want me to do it now or if you want me to wait to the tax levy. Mayor Furlong: Why don’t we go ahead and take that when we’re ready do that budget item which will be in a few minutes. Cathy Mandy: Alright. Mayor Furlong: We can take it context. Cathy Mandy: Very good. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anyone else that would like to address the council under visitor presentations this evening? Okay. Very well. Thank you. ESTABLISH PRELIMINARY LEVY FOR 2010 BUDGET. Greg Sticha: Good evening Mayor and City Council members. We prepared a power point presentation tonight to just review some of the information that we’ve been talking about over the last month so some of this will be repetitive for City Council and staff but we still wanted to give our residents a little feel to what information we’ve already been discussing since early August so. Just going to go through a few slides very quickly here. The budget calendar, which th we talked about at our last meeting, sets up as such for the rest of the year. September 14, this evening we’ll be setting a preliminary levy. That preliminary levy needs to be by the county th tomorrow in their certification form. On October 26 we will be holding a work session dedicated just to budget discussion where the departments will be giving a review of each of the individual department budgets. The plan is to have the regular sessions scheduled for that th evening to be cancelled. November 9 we have a work session scheduled to discuss the annual utility rate study and 5 year CIP. Additional time may be allotted for budget discussion if we rd need to at that meeting. November 23 an additional work session meeting to discuss any remaining budget, CIP or utility rate issues that might still be lingering at that point. December th 7 the plan is to hold our public meeting in regards to the budget, now called the Public Budget th Meeting which was formerly called the Truth in Taxation hearing. And on December 14 the plan will be to set a final 2010 tax levy, adopt a 2010 through 2014 CIP and set the utility rates for 2010. Also want to review some of the budget assumptions that we’ve used so far in preparing the various scenarios that you’ll see coming up shortly. A zero percent wage increase is planned for for all employees in 2010 in the 2010 budget. A reduction in the amount of the levy for the street reconstruction fund of $100,000 is currently planned. We, in regards to the drop in permit revenues that we’ve been seeing over this year and we plan on seeing again into 9 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 next year, we reduced permit revenue by $650,000 in the 2010 budget. We allowed for an increase in the levy for the new construction or the new growth that we saw within the community within the last year which amounts to about $139,000. We’ve moved the software upgrade costs out of the general fund into the CIP fund to reduce the amount of cost associated with that to the general operating fund and pushed it into the capital improvement, capital replacement fund. We eliminated some scanning services and temporary salaries in the building department budget. Those two amounts totaled about $30,000. There were a few other smaller items that we also put into budget assumptions. None of them are bigger dollar amounts that were noted in this particular slide. So that brings us to the five scenarios that we’ve been talking about since August. I’m just going to go over each one briefly. Talk about what the levy would be at each scenario. The potential budget impact each scenario would have, and then the impact that that would have on the average home in Chanhassen. Scenario 1 would be an increase in the prior year levy of about $350,000. Just over that of which that amount, $139,000 would be absorbed by new growth. Potential impact for Scenario 1 would still allow for all services and most of the street reconstruction levy to remain in the budget for 2010. The impact of this scenario would be about a 2% increase or just over an $18 increase to the average home in Chanhassen. Councilman Litsey: Can I just, if you don’t mind, the increase there of $18 per year? Greg Sticha: Yep. That’s correct. $18 per year. Councilman Litsey: Thank you. Greg Sticha: Scenario 2 would be an increase in the prior year levy of about $298,000 of which again $139,000 would be absorbed by new growth. Potential budget impacts would be all services would still most likely remain in the budget but the street reconstruction levy would be probably around $100,000 less than previous year’s levies for the street reconstruction fund. The impact to an average home or resident in Chanhassen would be about a 1 1/2% increase or just over a $14 increase per year to the average valued home. Scenario 3 would be an increase in the prior year levy of about $210,000 of which again $139,000 would be absorbed by new growth. Potential budget impacts with Scenario 3 would most likely mean the elimination of scheduling the, the scheduled hire of the patrolman and again the reduction in the street levy but would probably able to keep most other employees and services in place with Scenario 3. Potential residential impact on that would be a levy increase of under a percent. About .7% or an increase or just over $6 per year to the average valued home. Scenario 4 would be an increase in the prior year levy of exactly $139,000 which is exactly the new growth we had in this year. The potential budget impact for Scenario 4 would be the elimination of the scheduled hire of a patrolman, again reduction in the street levy, and most likely a reduction of 1 FTE at city hall. One employee at city hall. The impact to an average home or resident, the result of this levy would be no increase in the city’s share of property taxes to the average value home. And the fifth and final scenario that we’ve presented to you would be an increase in the prior year levy of about $78,000 which would be completely absorbed by the new growth. The potential impact of Scenario 5 would be again all the eliminations that we talked previously. Not hiring the patrolman that was scheduled. The reduction in the street levy and an additional reduction in staff of 2 FTE’s at city hall. The impact to average home or resident would be a decrease in the 10 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 city’s share of property taxes of about .6% or a savings of just over $5 to the average home in Chanhassen. Staff is recommending setting a preliminary levy using Scenario 2. Scenario 2 allows for at this point in time the most flexibility in planning before we set a final levy in December. It allows us to present our department budgets in October and have more information hopefully available in the next month or two as we get into more, as we get closer to setting the final levy in December. I am going to pass around a copy of the resolution that needs to be passed tonight and certified with the county tomorrow. There are three things on the resolution. We need to decide tonight one, setting a budget for 2010. Those numbers I have in front of me based on the scenario that City Council decides to go with, I know the impact that that has on the general fund budget so I have those numbers in front of me and when we get to the point of adopting the resolution I will give you those numbers as we get closer to that point. The second thing we need to do is adopt a levy. Final levy for preliminary levy certification at the county. And then thirdly we need to adopt the budget meeting date, the truth in taxation hearing meeting th date which we will be setting at December 7. With that I send it back to City Council. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Just to make sure we have those three things. One is the resolution you passed out. Correct? What was the second item that we need to complete tonight? Greg Sticha: There’s three items that are a part of the resolution. One is to. Mayor Furlong: There are all three parts are in the resolution? Greg Sticha: All three parts are in the resolution. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Alright. Alright. Very good. Any initial questions for staff? Councilman Litsey: Not initially, no. Mayor Furlong: Any uninitial questions for staff? Councilman Litsey. Councilman Litsey: I will reserve that for later thank you. Mayor Furlong: Alright. Councilman Litsey: We’ll see what the discussion goes. Mayor Furlong: Alright. If there are no questions at this time, we did have a request from one resident to speak. Ms. Mandy would you like to address the council at this time? Cathy Mandy: Mr. Mayor, council members and guests. I have very poor vision so bear with me on this. My name is Cathy Mandy. I reside at 6210 Near Mountain Boulevard in Chanhassen. My family has lived here since October 31, 1986. Almost 23 years and tonight I’d like to address the issue of a tax levy that’s going to be set by Chanhassen this evening. I reviewed the minutes of the last work session and the council meeting. I’m one of these crazies that goes home and reads them, and I’m pleased with the comments of the majority of council 11 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 members. There seems to be a grasp of the real effects of the U.S. and the world economy on Chanhassen residents by some council members. There is unemployment in our community and I didn’t pay her but you heard about the library. The use of the library on unemployment. Excuse me. There is unemployment in this community. A budget is a budget is a budget. Whether it’s your personal family budget, the city budget, the state budget or the federal budget. In our family our budget means we cannot and we do not spend more than we have in income. Every bill that comes into our household, including our VISA credit card bill, is paid in full each month. The only items purchased on credit by our family are our house and our car. Other items require cash which we plan and budget for. The reality in our household is that we have not had a wage increase in over 5 years. Therefore when our taxes increase, insurance, utilities, food, clothing, all costs increase, there is less in our family to spend. We cut our expenses. We don’t increase our spending or go to our employers, parents or friends and ask for more money. Our family has basically fallen behind in our cost and standard of living for the past 5 plus years. But we’re really okay with that. When we know that the purchases we make are good purchases and that our tax dollars are being wisely used. Well this year our income changed drastically. There is real unemployment in our community in Chanhassen. In fact my husband and I are both unemployed and we have been since February of this year. We’re aggressively searching for new employment but we haven’t had success to this date, but we will. We’re keeping a positive attitude. We are not the only residents in Chanhassen who are unemployed but many unemployed people are embarrassed by their situation and they may be ashamed to speak out about their finances. I’m not. We worked hard all our lives with a simple and happy life and I am so proud of our accomplishments and my family. Our daughter graduated from Minnetonka High School in 1996. When she went to college she was shocked to find out, you don’t have to pay your credit card bill in full every month. She called to tell us, hey lots of kids don’t pay their bill every month. Well you do we said and she has consistently paid her bills on time. Purchased a townhome of her own one year after graduation from college. Married in 2005 and now she and her husband own a 4 bedroom home in St. Michael. They know to live within their means. Spend only what they have and not live on credit. I’m very proud of our daughter and her accomplishments. Our entire family loves the city of Chanhassen. We’re so happy we built our home here in 1986. We have no immediate plans to move but here’s our reality. We are currently in the process of a refinance on our home in order to stay in our home of 23 years. We have downsized to one car. We no longer eat out, go to movies. We don’t buy birthday or anniversary presents for our parents. We don’t buy clothing. We don’t buy new glasses, which I need. We don’t buy shoes, which we need. We don’t even have company over for dinner because we cannot afford to feed anyone else. What we can afford to do is make great dinners for ourselves. Raise a vegetable garden in our back yard and at the community garden in Chanhassen. Freezing the produce from that to get us through the winter. We plan our errands so that we go north or south to consolidate our trip and save gas. And we visit with our family and friends and we love, absolutely love our life. And I want to emphasize we love it. When you discuss the tax levy I ask that you keep in mind the impact of each scenario on our personal household. Know that we are not the only Chanhassen residents in this situation. Consider the impacts a tax increase will have on at least 100 more families, and I’m guessing 100 unemployed families in this city is a low estimate. In some families 1 person is unemployed and in some others 2 or more are unemployed. My husband and I are lucky. Our daughter is grown. We don’t have to purchase school supplies, sports equipment and fees. We don’t have to provide clothing, food or shelter for a child. But think of the families with children who have these costs. 12 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 One cost that younger families don’t have that we do are health care costs. Most people over the age of 50 are paying more in drug and doctor visit co-pay than younger families. These costs range from $100 to $1,000 a month and we won’t even get into the health care discussion. Because we are in the process of refinancing our home we just received an appraisal. Our 2009 property tax for Carver County taxable market value is $352,900. Next spring we’re going to appeal this amount because our appraisal sets our market value at $325,000. This is a difference of $27,900 and I’m going to repeat it. $27,900 lost to our bottom line. That’s reality. This is real. This is one impact on our everyday life of this new economy that we’re in. The city staff has recommended scenario number 2 for the tax levy. Now my numbers are wrong. I read the power point wrong and thought it was per month. But it’s a tax increase of $14 a year. I’m sorry, I don’t have the $14 to give you. I need this money to put food on my table and to pay my utility bills. I’m excited now to hear that it was for a year rather than for multiplying it by 12. But I would like to recommend scenario number 3, an increase of $6 a year to the average Chanhassen home. I know I can find that money to continue the lifestyle to which the city of Chanhassen and it’s residents have become accustomed. While it would be nice to hire another police officer for our city, it isn’t a necessity. It’s a want, not a need. I also do not want the city to lay off any staff. I know how hard the city staff works. I know that you have no excess personnel time. There are no wasted hours in this city. Keep all the city employees. I do not want another person to be unemployed. I ask the city of Chanhassen to look at every budget item as a want or a need. Do we need this or do we want this? If it’s a want, then let the group who wants it fund it. The city gave no funding for the veterans monument and it was built with personal funds. Thankfully the city did not purchase old St. Hubert’s. Let the church and the historical society purchase it and fund it. It’s a want and not a need. The council is elected to take care of our city which includes the budget. It’s your responsibility to manage this budget in a reasonable and efficient manner. This community is number 2 in the nation because of wise decisions and fiscal responsibility. It’s not number 2 because we have every amenity that everyone wants. Please take the current economic climate into consideration in setting the tax levy. Residents in Chanhassen do not have deep and unlimited pockets. Some of us may be leaving sooner than planned if the council is not fiscally responsible with our money. Thank you for your time and I will take any questions that you have. Mayor Furlong: I will just start by saying thank you for coming. I’m sure it was very difficult to write this letter and I’m sure it was even more difficult to read it in a public forum so one, I very much appreciate your efforts for doing that and the words did not go unlistened to. Cathy Mandy: Thank you. I hope not. Mayor Furlong: Any questions for Ms. Mandy? Cathy Mandy: Any questions? Councilman Litsey: Yeah if you don’t mind. I echo the same thing. First I appreciate you reading the minutes. Taking the time to read those and stay informed. I think that’s important and I wish more people would do that so thank you, and I certainly do understand your situation. You’re very articulate and you expressed it well. The one question I do have though is you stated in the paragraph that was prepared, I’d like to recommend scenario 3, an increase of $6 a 13 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 year to the average homeowner. You said $6 a year here but then you multiplied it and said that it was $72 a year. Cathy Mandy: Yes, $72. Councilman Litsey: And that you thought that you could handle that. I hope you realize that all the scenarios that we present here this evening are well below that so I think we have as a council been pretty sensitive to the fact that we’re not looking at any large you know tax increases. I’d also be happy to sit with you, I don’t know that this is the forum to do that but I know you’re making an assumption about the need of law enforcement in this community but statistically we are on the low end and there is some real good data. There’s also officer safety issues to take into account. When we ask our officers to respond to calls and if they’re having to do that alone without back-up and things like that, that is an important thing because we want them to go home to their families too so it sounds like from reading this at least that every scenario we’ve presented is something that you feel you could handle within your budget. Cathy Mandy: I would preface, the only thing I would say is, the only reason I went for scenario number 3 at price because I thought every one of them needed to be multiplied by 12. Councilman Litsey: Okay, and I understand that. Cathy Mandy: So if you take them all multiplied by 12, I was picking one that was would work but it’s going to be a stretch and now I will say if now that I know it’s $6 a year as opposed to $72, to put it into reality of how it’s affecting our budget because we are unemployed, that is my phone bill and that is my gas bill. Councilman Litsey: Could I ask and you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to but you know the community, the budget for next year is about $63,000 budgeted for funding special community events, which I personally feel are important and I support, but if it came between that or additional law enforcement, essential services, which would you choose on those? Cathy Mandy: I would pick special events because it will impact probably everyone person in the community more. Councilman Litsey: Over public safety. Cathy Mandy: I understand the public safety and I understand that the one person out there at a time responding to a call, but if I still have to pick, if you give me A and B to pick, I’m going to pick something that’s going to be a positive impact on our community. Something that’s going to positively impact our children and we’re going to have an opportunity to educate our children, educate our citizens and say if you are a good citizen you do not commit crimes. Councilman Litsey: So, okay. One last question and I’ll let go of it but, so public safety isn’t a quality of life issue for you in the community? Cathy Mandy: I didn’t say that. 14 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 th Councilman Litsey: Okay, but the 4 of July celebration is more important in your opinion? And that’s fine. That’s fair. Cathy Mandy: I didn’t say that. Councilman Litsey: Well that’s what it’s funding so. Cathy Mandy: No, that’s what you interpreted from what I said. Then I answered the question improperly. Let me rephrase the question so that it does come through. Councilman Litsey: But, Mayor let her finish. Don’t interrupt. Thank you. I appreciate your candor. I’d like to hear it. I value your opinion. Cathy Mandy: I don’t favor celebrations and fireworks over public safety. I favor public safety but I don’t feel that the only way we impact public safety is with the addition of an additional police officer. I believe if we take the resources we have, such as the library, there’s a way to disseminate information and if we educate the people and if we bring our families to these events and they see the interaction of families and they see good actions, that’s public safety. And that’s actually public safety 24/7. So now does it come across to you that I’m not putting public safety on equal footing? Councilman Litsey: No, you make a valid argument and I was truly interested to hear what you had to say so thank you. Cathy Mandy: But do you understand what I said? Councilman Litsey: I don’t agree with you. How you’re presenting it but I understand. Cathy Mandy: No, that’s not what I asked you sir. May I ask my question? Councilman Litsey: Sure. Cathy Mandy: Do you understand what I said to you? You don’t have to agree with it. Do you understand how I feel about it? Councilman Litsey: You’ve expressed it articulately, yes. Cathy Mandy: Okay, thank you. Audience: You should run for office. Cathy Mandy: I’m sorry, what? Audience: I said you should run for office. 15 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 Cathy Mandy: I’ve been told that before. Mayor Furlong: Any other questions for Ms. Mandy? Cathy Mandy: Any other questions? Mayor Furlong: Ms. Mandy, thank you very much. Cathy Mandy: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Appreciate your time. Is there anybody else that would like to provide public comment on this topic before the council discusses it? No? Okay. We will have as a part of our resolution this evening, I’m confident not of everything that we will pass but I am confident th that at least we will pass a selection of December 7 as a date for the public hearing on the final budget so that will be a time, even though historically that’s been the truth in taxation night, is that correct Mr. Sticha? I think you mentioned that. Greg Sticha: Right. They changed the name of the meeting in the law this year. We technically do not have to have a truth in taxation hearing, or a budget meeting but they’ve changed the name of it to a budget meeting and in the past historically we’ve always held our hearing, regardless of the fact of whether we’ve had to have it or not. Mayor Furlong: Whether we’ve had to have it or not and that was the point I was going to make is that, there have been other times when we haven’t had to have it. Greg Sticha: We still. Mayor Furlong: And we will be having it this year I’m fairly confident of that. Okay. Let’s bring it to council. Let’s have some discussion. This is, we’ve talked about this at some work sessions and let’s figure out where we need to go. Anybody that would like to start. Councilman Litsey? Councilman Litsey: Sure. Well I’m in favor of Scenario 1. Although I would be willing to go with staff recommendation, Scenario 2. The preliminary tax levy really does need to provide some wiggle room at this early stage of the budget process and really much still needs to be discussed and evaluated prior to the final levy being adopted in December. I think it really is irresponsible to arbitrarily hold it to a zero percent tax increase at this point without letting the process play out over the next 3 months. That doesn’t mean it may not get to zero when we get to the final tax levy in December but like I said, a lot of the budget process has to be played out. We’ve got to hear from department heads. We’re going to hear with some additional information and additional data so I think we need to support that. So I do support what staff’s presented. I prefer Scenario 1 but would be willing to go with what staff said at Scenario 2 which if it wasn’t reduced between now and December would result in a nominal tax increase of $14 per year on the average valued home in Chanhassen and I think to maintain the services that we have, we’ve done all those other things that were already reviewed in the slide before about zero percent increase in wages. We’re asking staff to be a part of this process and I appreciate 16 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 that. I appreciate what they’re doing to make this work. It’s obviously not easy for them because when you factor in the increase in health insurance, they’re actually, they’re what they really can use their money for is going to go down. They’re not going to have as much disposable income to deal with because of the health increases and so forth so a zero percent increase in their wage is actually a reduction overall to them so I appreciate, I just want to make that clear, what they’re going to be doing next year to help make this work. So, and I’m concerned this year. We’re using lots of cash and accounting shifts to balance the 2000 budget. 2009 budget which we missed the mark. We’re off by what, $600,000? Somewhere around there. I don’t want to make the same mistake next year in 2010. Really what’s the point of going through the rest of the budget process if we don’t give ourselves some kind of flexibility here moving forward. I want to be penny wise and pound foolish so that’s where I stand. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: Sure. First off I want to thank the city for doing some of the things that they could under the budget assumptions. One of them being a zero percent wage increase for all employees in 2010. A reduction in the amount of the levy for the street reconstruction fund of $100,000. And eliminating scanning services and temporary services for $30,000. Great job Greg. I think it goes without saying that we need to cut back. Just as everyone has cut back. We need to reduce spending. We heard Ms. McKinney talk tonight about what they’ve done at the library. They’ve done significant reductions at the library and we need to do more with less. As we put our strategic thinking hats on tonight the responsible thing to do is to go with a minimum of Scenario number 4. I prefer to go with number 5 but I think the minimum I could support is number 4. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Councilwoman Ernst. Or Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Or Tjornhom. Mayor Furlong: Whoever I’m looking at. My apologies. Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Well, back at the work session I said that I’m not sure if I was sold on any scenario. I don’t want to necessarily box myself in to anything in particular. I think staff did a good job of painting a picture perhaps of the scenarios of what things could look like with the different options and if there were cut backs, what that might look like but my main focus, as I said before, is at the end of the day that when people open up their tax statement that there’s a zero percent increase in what they pay for property taxes. And I think for me it’s more of a, maybe tonight for me it’s more of a philosophical discussion than anything else. I mean let’s face it. As taxpayers in Minnesota we’ve been hammered and hammered and hammered and told that we won’t miss $5 here and we won’t miss $10 there and so you know other, other representatives that we have elected have just gone ahead and raised the roof on our cost of living basically. A good example of that is I have two children. I have one who’s 18 and has a car and it was time for him to go purchase his drivers, a new tab for his car. Well his car was old enough where he actually had to buy a new license plate and so we assured him it’s $35. No problem. Well he came home and rambling on and on about something and it wasn’t $35. It was like $55 because of all the hidden fees. All the little taxes that were you know going along 17 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 with this license thing, and that money did mean something to him. Next scenario or the next example I have is my daughter who’s 16 has her first job. Got her first pay check. She was counting up the hours she worked. Knew how much she was supposed to get an hour. Well, it wasn’t that much at all because she had to pay social security taxes and all these little taxes that she didn’t know about and she was outraged that she had worked all this time and you know this is what she got. She didn’t get her full amount of money, and so I think that while maybe, excuse me I have a tickle. Maybe $14 a year isn’t going to make or break anybody. I don’t think for me that’s the discussion. I think the discussion is, is should government live within it’s means the way we have to live within our means? It’s not about how much I can take from the taxpayer and they won’t notice. It’s about how much should I spend to get those services that they need going. To keep those services going and I think that with, I guess I’ll go with scenarios because it’s what I have but Scenario 4 keeps us at a zero percent increase in the budget and I believe though that we have not had that crucial meeting with department heads where we can go through every department as line by line and see what’s a want and what’s a need. What can stay. What can go. Can we keep a full time employee? I hope so. You know, I mean is that what the council wants to see? I’m willing to work for that goal if that’s really a necessity for our town, but I do want to keep our lifestyle the way it is. Our services up to speed while still spending responsibly. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Councilman McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Well I, first of all I would like to thank Ms. Mandy for coming forward. I agree with the Mayor, yeah this is kind of tough to air your financial I think situation in public but I believe as you say you’re not alone. A lot of people understand where you’re coming from. This has been kind of difficult to kind of look at because I feel a lot of things I’m being pulled by. I did talk to people within the community. I look at the emails that we get. I actually traveled to people’s homes and I talked to a couple of people there and you know it wasn’t so much what my views were. I wanted to listen to them. I have asked everybody about this that wants their taxes cut or do they want their taxes raised, I ask why. Those are easy questions to answer because they’re very good at answering those. They want to raise them because they want the services. They want us to increase things. They want to cut them because they’re trying to save money. They want us to save money. So then the next question I always ask is what are you willing to pay for that and what I mean by that is, what’s your taxes buy our services. You may not think of, you know some of the things we do as services but snowplowing. Taking care of the parks. Just doing things. The library. All of these things are services. Within the past couple of days we’ve gotten emails from people who were upset about things within their community. They want services from the city. They want us to do stuff that costs money. The money comes from the taxpayers. So this question’s always been very difficult for people to answer because at that point they don’t know what they want to give up. Now I will look at groups that want to give up things within the parks. But then they don’t use the parks. If they have kids they use the parks. They want to keep those. They’re willing to give up maybe some stuff on streets because their street’s fine. Why pay for streets? Other people, their streets are in bad shape. They want those services so this has been very difficult. I’ve talked with the City. I’ve tried to understand where does this money go. Why do you need it? What are we spending it for? And you know I voiced my opinion about a couple of things on these scenarios. I don’t like them. I understand why we did them but I feel as though I’m boxed 18 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 in to having to select something that’s not exactly right and actually, you know I would propose something else which I will get to but I am probably going to end up siding a little bit, well before I get to that. I just want to explain where I’m coming from. You talk about taxes and we look at is $14 a year a lot? There’s at least 5 major governmental groups and you can divide those into different areas that are between you and your money and every one of those groups are asking for so much per year. Per month. Per hour and it adds up. It’s real money. As Dirksen used to say, a million here. A million there. Pretty soon you’re talking about real money. It’s the same thing here. I mean I’ve talked to Pastor Joel down at the Westwood Community Church. They are over filled with people now because what they started was an outreach program to people who were unemployed and they can’t keep up with it. The community is hurting but this is a very proud community and you don’t know that. It’s the same as Ms. Mandy said that yeah, people aren’t talking about it. I’ve got quite a few friends that have lost significant jobs and in this economy no one’s hiring. I like what you talked about, about we need to look at things from a want or a need and all I can do is assure you that going forward that is exactly what I will be looking for is, is it a want or a need but at this point I don’t know because we haven’t gotten into those details. I like what you talked about about the community. You know being number 2 in Money Magazine is a big deal. I think it’s because of our quality of life. I mean we were graded on that. If you read the article you will find that the community that beat us pays half of what we do in property taxes. Now I’m not sure that that’s exactly why they were number 1 and we were number 2. The mountains and the trails could have had something to do with it too but I just found that to be kind of interesting that that was something that Money actually pulled out as one of the factors that they did look at. The other thing I guess too that I’ll, what I kind of wanted to get. I’ve got to look at all my stuff here. Wiggle room. I agree with Councilman Litsey, and we don’t generally agree on things. I believe that there needs to be some wiggle room. I’m not sure we’re going to get to the same number together but I agree there needs to be some wiggle room and that’s because of this question of services. No one can give me an answer so what that says is, well we need to explore that a little bit more and in talking to city and to staff at this point, I want to look at those details. I pulled up a bunch of articles today. I’ve been looking at this. Every community in the south side of, well in fact every community around the metro area this year is going to be reducing taxes. When the City of Minneapolis came out and said that they wanted to hold a zero impact upon residents, it’s like it knocked me over. I mean they are finally starting to get the fact that taxes are a problem to residents. Burnsville, Apple Valley, all these places are looking at reducing police services so other communities are looking at this and I think this needs to be on the table but I believe public safety is one of the things that we provide to the community and I think we need to look at what is the impact on that and I want to hear from the sheriff because you know one of the things I want to look at is, what is the impact of us not doing something and I think we need to hear that so that again is why I’m in favor of some wiggle room in all of this. So I guess again, my thing was I’m not happy with the scenarios. My number that I thought was, I think we ought to be $100,000 over Scenario number 4. However there’s no number there. I think number 2 is too high and I felt number 3 is too low. I would you know be willing to go with number 3 but I feel that that probably doesn’t allow enough wiggle room and I think number 2 is too much but again I felt the right number would be $100,000 over Scenario 4 which is zero growth. So at this point you know what I will go with is either 2 or 3 and I’ll probably wait until we actually vote before I come up with something but I want to put staff on notice and I want to put everyone on notice that what I am looking for is why do you need an extra $100,000 and if it can’t be justified, then 19 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 the answer is, there is no growth in the tax base because the money is not needed. And on top of that, you know part of what I would be looking for along with Councilwoman Ernst, because at that point I may start to agree with her, is are we over spending? I don’t know the answer to that and that’s why I think we need to go through the process and we need to hear from everybody and then make up our mind but for right now what I would be willing to go with is I want to see some wiggle room. I feel the number should be $100,000 but as I say I’ll wait til we vote but it’s either going to be Scenario 2 or 3 for me. Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council members, if I could just interject a comment here. Mayor Furlong: Mr. Gerhardt. Todd Gerhardt: Staff gave you five scenarios. You can come up with any dollar amount you want and we kind of gave you kind of a just an idea of what the impact would be with those scenarios. We are waiting for our meeting in October to go through the detail of each of our department budgets and their wants and needs and describe to you in detail at that meeting but if you want to come up with a scenario 2 1/2, go for it. You know this is just to give you an idea. What Greg and I are looking for is a total tax levy dollar amount and that would be $10,213,000 on Scenario 2 or. Mayor Furlong: No. Todd Gerhardt: Whoops, sorry. Wrong line. The $10,373,000 Scenario 2 or if you want to come in at $10,300,000 you can do that. This was just a guide for you. You can mix and match. We’re just looking for that $10 million whatever it’s going to be. Hopefully. Mayor Furlong: You’re assuming it’s $10 million plus Mr. Gerhardt. Todd Gerhardt: Above $10 million, yes. Don’t go below last year’s limit please. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. I think there’s points of clarification. I think Mr. Gerhardt your clarifying the information that was distributed and Mr. McDonald brought this up in terms of what these, and I think we’ve all had some comments. Councilwoman Tjornhom too talked about we may not like any of the numbers. Where we’re finding ourselves here, and probably why we’re spending a little bit more time on some of this is, is we’ve gone through clearly in our society and our economy and our country, around the world some transitions economically since we were all talking about this a year ago. 2009 was a transition year. No question about it in terms of many family budgets, business budgets and certainly government budgets. We’re seeing that. What we are looking at and have been talking about as a council in our work sessions, where’s that new level of normal that we’re going to be starting out in in 2010 and hoping that that’s a stable level of normal and not one that will continue to decline. Hopefully a new base upon which we will grow. When the economy eventually turns around at some level of growth rate, whatever that is, I’m confident that this area, our city will continue to benefit from that as we have in the past. That being said I think it would be difficult for anyone to look 20 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 forward to say that that’s going to happen at any particular point in time. The answer is we just don’t know. As far as the budget process goes, we’re, we have two charges as a council. Working with staff very closely. Listening to residents and businesses and one is to prioritize our spending. We heard discussion tonight about wants versus needs. And as part of that is how much are we going to spend and that’s really what our task is here tonight is setting that limit. The no higher than limit can go lower. That’s the tax policy. Question, that’s the balance component. Last year that levy was just over $10 million dollars. $10,075,000 roughly. And so while much of the, because of some delays and the way property taxes work and assessed values, we’re actually going to see a higher tax base. That capacity, our tax base grew by, in real terms, new construction by about 1.4% last year and consistent with what we’ve done for the last 6 years, staff has recommended that we capture that as part of our levy. That is what we have done over the last 6 years and I think it’s something that has proved very effective. What we haven’t done in the last 6 years is we haven’t taxed the inflation change in assessed values for homes when homes were increasing at assessed value by single digits. A couple years double digits. We didn’t capture that. Some cities did. Some counties did. We did not. We stuck to limiting our levy, our, the amount of money that we were going to spend from a tax policy to that rate of real growth. As we look at where we are today with home values actually depreciating, and we heard tonight from one resident and we’ve seen that even in our own market value that market value change, inflation or deflation from year to year, last year on residential properties was down. Now we can benefit from the standpoint that other areas, even within the Twin Cities market have been down much more significantly. But nonetheless our home values in this area have declined. Similarly from a local economy, unemployment is up but it’s not as much. That doesn’t help anybody who’s out of work. You know statistics are great when you’re talking about broad areas but if somebody doesn’t have a job, statistics don’t really matter. If unemployment was down and they still didn’t have a job, that would be important. But we know that there are more families this year with people at home that are out of work than there were last year. Employment in the area has stayed stable. There has been some decline in business employment in the area. Fortunately it hasn’t been as bad as some areas in the region and across the country but we still know that businesses are having a difficult time as well. We can’t ignore these things. As I look at it from a tax policy standpoint, whatever the scenarios, whatever the column titles talk about in terms of what this means, and I’ve expressed before whether it’s one employment up. One employee down. More employees with more money or less employees with less money. You know I think those column titles are helpful to some point in terms of giving us some parameters but I think they can be unhelpful at some point as that assumes that we’re locking in to if we choose this alternative or this scenario, that’s what it means. You’ve heard tonight, and I think all five of us, and I know the staff is very eager to talk about, how should we prioritize our spending. How should we change, if anything, what we’re spending money on? Clearly I think we need to look at that strategically but in terms of our tax policy and where we are, given the economic situation, given our resident’s situation, given our business situation, for the last 6 years this council has not raised taxes. In fact this council year to year over that period of time, city property taxes are lower on the same property, barring new construction in refinishing your basement or finishing it off or a new deck or something, it’s been lower. Why in this economic environment would we change that? It was raised cities across this area are finally coming to realize, I think Mr. McDonald brought this up, that taxes do matter and we can’t just keep as cities, as government entities of the city, county, federal, state level just a little bit more, little bit more, little bit more. It’s got to stop somewhere and we 21 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 stopped it a while ago. Our taxes have been flat year to year on the same properties for the last 6 years. You know of all the years to change that, now would not be the time. We can still provide $10,200,000 versus $10,075,000 last year. I am confident that we can still provide for the needs and the priorities and even some of the wants that we have. By going with a scenario that captures the real growth in the tax base and no more will provide us plenty of ability and I believe some flexibility to realign our spending for the changes that we’re seeing in demand for our services, but I think those changes need to be done strategically. You know if demand for services across the city are down, we don’t have anybody sitting around with nothing to do at city hall. I mean I’m convinced of that. There’s nobody sitting there playing solitaire on the computer all day long. We all know that. But we also know that demand for services are down. We’re not growing. We have been staffed to grow and we’ve grown very well and we’ve done a very good job of doing that. But demand for city services have changed. Whether it’s in staffing levels. Whether it’s the street and road funds. That’s something that I’ve brought up before. Nothing in our economy has changed our need for continuing to reinvest, upgrade and improve the streets. Some of our streets and utilities are very old and need to be replaced. We’ve been doing that for the last many years because we recognize that. Some cities put that off and put that off until it’s a huge problem and then they don’t know what to do so, well we can go on with that but cities accomplish that differently. We haven’t done that. We haven’t done that and there’s no reason to change that now. So I think there will be some very fun discussions and some challenging discussions and I say fun and challenging because you know it’s, we need to look and we’ll have the opportunity as a council and staff together with our citizens and businesses to look strategically at this new level of normal and where we’re going to be and what we need to be funding, and any of these scenarios, and certainly I believe by going with a preliminary levy that captures the real growth and nothing more will not only provide us flexibility to do whatever we see as strategic needs, as I said, but some of the wants. And it does so in a, and it sends a signal. A message loud and clear to our property owners. Our homes. People who have homes and businesses in town that, that the most we’re going to collect in city taxes next year is what we collected this year. We can collect less than that I’d like to do that. I don’t know that we can but I think as a council we can take a position, and I’m, I know we can. We can do it. We can provide what needs to be provided for capturing the real growth and, what we spent last year. So I think it’s just something that we have to do. So in terms of scenarios, call it scenario or not but Scenario #4 captures that, the tax collected last year. $10,075,000 roughly, plus an additional $140,000 for new growth and with that at the council and staff together I’m confident that we will be able to provide what’s needed and get it done and get it done well for the City of Chanhassen and keep our high quality of life where it is. That may not have, ultimately it may not match what the column titles say. If we as a council and as a city believe that we need to expand our police contract with Carver County, we’ll be able to do that. We might have to make some decisions elsewhere but bottom line I think government should start making some choices too and some prioritization and I think we can do that and we can do it strategically within that confine. Those are my thoughts and I know, I will finish by saying you have different thoughts and priorities up here. That’s good. Our goal now is to keep this a healthy discussion amongst ourselves. Let’s ask the questions. Let’s get the information we need. Let’s continue to listen to businesses and residents and let’s make wise decisions. Not just for now but looking ahead, and we may differ. We may disagree on what those decisions should be but I’m confident knowing the 3 to my right and 1 to my left in terms of members of the council but also staff and everybody here and those not here that we’ll be able to get that done. 22 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 We’ve done it before. We’ll do it again. So those are my thoughts. I’d be open to any other comments or if somebody would like to make a motion, that’d be fine too. Councilman Litsey: I guess my comment is I don’t, apparently you have a crystal ball so you can say all is well before we finish the budget process. I don’t so if in fact we’re going to jump to the bottom line tonight, which was one of my concerns last year, then I think our sequencing is wrong. Then I think we should have heard it during the summertime from the department heads and had some of those tough discussions because we haven’t had those yet. I’m not prepared to say that we can go right to zero. Maybe we’ll get there. I mean that’s a good goal if we can get there that we live within the growth rate. But to do that at this preliminary stage before we’ve had all these other scheduled discussions about the budget I do think is irresponsible. This is what we’re supposed to have. We’re supposed to let a budget process play out. We’re supposed to set the preliminary levy so that we can start the process but we have enough, what I call for lack of a better word, wiggle room so that if unforeseen things come up as we go down this path, let’s face it, we were off $600,000 last year, or more, so we’re not doing a real good job of hitting the mark and we’re using a lot of cash right now to balance that out. We’re doing some accounting shifts. You know moving things around and that kind of thing and we need to get some better data before we make some of these decisions so I think we have been locked into scenario in terms of what things are we going to keep and what things are we not. I think I’m looking at the dollar amount. I just say scenario 1 or 2 just for sake of simplicity but I agree with Councilmember McDonald that we need to hear and make some decisions down the road and make some tough decisions. But I honestly don’t think there, if we jump to the bottom line tonight then I would just say what’s the point of going forward with the rest of the budget process because why waste the staff’s time. Because we’re obviously not interested in hearing what they have to say. Councilman McDonald: Can I just kind of add to that too because right now the way it’s looking it’s you know scenario 3. I’m in a very difficult position here because I believe that the answer is scenario 4, but the thing is I think I owe it to city staff and I owe it to the residents to listen and play this out and that’s what I want to do and that’s why I said I have a problem with scenario 2 and 3. I think 2’s too much and 3 isn’t enough. I want to give staff an opportunity to again show us whether or not this is a need or a want. The other thing I’m very cognizance of is the fact we now have a AAA bond rating and my thing is, when this economy turns around that’s going to be one of the most important things we could have going forward so I also want to make sure we don’t jeopardize that and that’s why I want to hear from staff to basically come up with why they need an extra $100,000 to me over scenario 4 and I think I owe it to staff to listen to that, and it’s not just staff. It’s also again the deputy and to me everything is on the table and that’s why I didn’t like the scenarios because if I think we need the deputy and I think scenario 4 is the answer, I think staff needs to find a way to hire the deputy and something else has got to happen. I’ve had a lot of discussions with staff about this and I came to realize one of the things I might have been doing was micro managing and that’s not my job. I hate it when people micro manage me. I run my own business. I do it. I’m responsible for the bottom line and I became to realize that our responsibility as council members up here is to guide the staff and so that’s what I think I’m doing by saying I hear you. I hear the residents. Let’s start off with some wiggle room, and again as I say, I find myself in a weird position because when we get to the end I think I’m going to support the other 3 but right now I’m supporting Councilman Litsey from the standpoint of I 23 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 think we need to hear from staff so that’s where I’m coming from in all of this because I want to prioritize all of this just as the mayor has gone through and talked about and I think that that’s the job that staff needs to present us with the information and then we need to determine is it a want or a need. And I think if we go immediately to scenario 4 that we’re doing an injustice to ourself. This is not final levy. This is not what’s going out to people. This just says that’s the cap and you know one of the things that Chaska has done, they’ve put the burden on business. On property taxes. I don’t want to see us do that either so yeah, I want us to go through the process and I don’t want to have a repeat of last year either. I want to arrive at the numbers in a way that I think is very justified and everybody feels that they’ve had a part of it. But you know I guess tonight, I have to vote my conscience and what I’m going to do is, I think the number should be $100,000 and that’s what I’m going to go with. But I will support scenario 4 if that’s what we’re going to go to, then we will go into the meetings and we will go from there but to me the only place to go is down and that could hurt so I guess we’ll see what happens but that’s why I intend to vote the way I intend to vote tonight. And I did listen to the residents and again it comes back to me, people can’t answer the question of what they’re willing to give up and they have to give up something to get this below scenario 4 and there will be an impact. Councilman Litsey: You know what I’ve heard from residents is they want us to do our due diligence and I appreciate Cathy Mandy coming here today, or tonight to express her opinion. But I also want to hear from other residents too and I have heard and most that I have talked to, now it’s my circle so that may be different than your circle of people that you talk to, have said you know as long as you do your due diligence and you’re watching things and they say really at face value it looks like you are because you’re keeping salaries at zero. You’re doing some other things. You’ve got a budget shortfall in 2009 to deal with so you’re using up cash reserves and so forth. Paying a buck or two more a month I’m willing to do. I’m willing to give up a, you know a medium sized coffee at Caribou Coffee once a month. I’m willing to go without one extra dinner out per year to make that up. That’s something I can do back to the community to support the fine quality of life we have here and I am concerned that we draw down our reserves and we do these accounting shifts and so forth, that’s going to come back in the future with our bond rating and some other things too and these are yeah, they’re tough times and I think if we play the process out and in the end it comes to zero, it comes to zero. What I have, my biggest objection right now is that we’re jumping there without having all the information and letting staff and hearing from residents and other residents in the community. I respect the voices that have been expressed so far but others have a right to do that too and we need to balance that out and we are really not doing due justice to that if we don’t allow this to play out. Councilwoman Ernst: Can I make a comment? Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: The comment was made about we were, we had a discrepancy of $600,000. Actually that $600,000, if you remember correctly, was a shortfall and that was based on what we budgeted last year and the way the economy turned around. Last year we saw it coming and we’re in it now. And now we’re in it. We need to make some adjustments. And really I think the responsible thing for scenario number 4, which is not, a zero cost to our tax dollars is the responsible thing to do. I mean Bryan we talked about it last year with the budget. 24 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 I mean one of the things I challenged staff on last year was how can we cut the least $800,000 out of the budget. And now we find ourselves with, I think it’s at least a $600,000 shortfall. But we’re right in the middle of it right now and we need to make some adjustments. Councilman Litsey: One of my concerns too is down the road is that at zero percent for salary increases and so forth, that’s going to have to be made up at some point in time. I mean we need to remain competitive and have good employees and retain good employees and so we’re going to fall further and further behind and because of, and I’m not faulting anybody for this shortfall. I mean I was part of this process so yeah, I think if the tax levy had been a little bit higher we wouldn’t be quite in this situation but we’d still have to deal with it and so we are trying to do that but we’re using up some cash and we’re using up some, we’re making some accounting shifts and so that even makes it all the more important moving forward that we let the budget process play out. I’m not saying in December that you might you know, it’s scenario 4 or 5 or whatever. What I’m more concerned about, is like Jerry, letting this play itself out. We’re just setting a preliminary levy. This is the max we can go. We can go lower and my goal is too, I hope we can go lower than, if I’m supporting the amounts under scenario 2, there’s a lot of things we can look at. I’ve done some, a little bit of my own too and trying to find some areas where we’re going to have to make some tough choices. I mean there’s no doubt about that and some are going to be special events versus public safety or special events versus other things. Whether or not we look at ourselves, you know where we help out from our standpoint in terms of our compensation and things like that. I think there’s a whole lot of things we can take a look at and we’re going to have to make some tough choices. Mine’s a philosophical thing too. Let’s let this play out. Mayor Furlong: You know I think, I’m sorry. Councilwoman Ernst? Councilwoman Ernst: No, go ahead. Mayor Furlong: No I was just going to say I think there’s been some terms and stuff thrown around. I appreciate everybody’s position and I’m going to assume that you appreciate mine as well. Councilman Litsey you said accounting shifts 2 or 3 times tonight and I don’t know if that’s specific or on purpose but the. Councilman Litsey: It’s reality. Mayor Furlong: The fact, I will take a little bit of exception. Councilman Litsey: Fine. Mayor Furlong: The fact that there are funds available that normally, through the normal course of accounting for city government flow into the general fund, that is something that is done on a regular basis. When one fund closes out and it has excess cash balance. It might be a bond fund. It might be a TIF fund. It might be another type of fund. It has excess cash at the end of the fund’s year life, from accounting purposes you close it out and that, any balance goes into the general fund. 25 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 Councilman Litsey: But we’re doing more than that, you know that. We’re doing more than that. Mayor Furlong: I want to take exception because I don’t know that we are. What happened back in the spring timeframe, I believe it was Mr. Gerhardt May when there was discussions with S&P, Standard and Poors about the bond issue that we were doing when they gave us a AAA rating, we already had met as a council and with staff and talked about potential shortfall in 2009. There was a plan in place and it included taking, you know closing out funds that were done and using some of those cash reserves for covering the shortfall. Looking at expenses that are coming in below. Looking at revenues that might be coming in above. That plan was already in place and with that plan in place they awarded us a AAA rating. They upgraded our credit rating from that and the reason is, is because we have a responsible plan to deal with it. Cities across this state have been laying off people from employment. We haven’t done that. I hope we don’t have to do that and the reason many of them are doing it, because I think they have made different choices in the past than we have. We have added staff at city hall since I’ve been here, I think exclusively with the sheriff’s contract for police services. Other staff positions that have actually opened up through a retirement or resignation or other means, not all of those have been filled. Duties have been reassigned and we try to operate efficiently and we need to keep doing that. So I think that you know really what we’re looking at here is, is the, to go back to everybody wants flexibility in budgeting. I think we’re going to have plenty of flexibility. We’re adding $140,000 to our tax levy from last year. We are, the staff is proposing zero salary increases this year. I admire them for proposing that and I think that’s admirable for them to agree to do that. We’re also trying to reduce other expenses. We’re trying to get done what we need to get done within some limitation and that’s you know, if we can do it for a hundred and, or $10,200,000.00, you know why do we need another $100,000? We can get that. It’s a $10 million dollar budget. We can find that somewhere. Councilman Litsey: But we’re facing $600,000 short for now. Maybe I could ask Greg, what are we doing with utilities in terms of billing ourselves for the water and so forth that we use? Is that not an accounting shift? Greg Sticha: Well that particular, we haven’t officially decided how we’re going to handle the 2009 shortfall. On that list is stop billing the general fund for water, which amounts to $17,000. There are a number of things on that list. Administrative charge for utility projects. The bulk of that $600,000 is using cash in funds that are either closing or excess cash that is available. There are some items on there that are, like you said, stop billing general fund for water and a couple other items. And we planned on having a discussion on the 2009 shortfall sometime in December when we know the, at least a little closer to the exact amount we’re going to be short. We have about just over $750,000 in that spread sheet and let’s say the number is $600,000, we would have to pick and choose how we get to that $600,000. Councilman Litsey: And if we hadn’t had faced a budget shortfall, where would we have gone in terms of where that closed out of bonds and so forth, where would we put that? Probably in pavement management? Greg Sticha: Typically in years past that money would have gone to the street reconstruction. 26 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 Councilman Litsey: So it is an accounting shift. You can call it what you want. Because we had planned, we had not planned on it for 2009, this year and so, and what we would have done is put it in pavement management which would have helped our residents out as far as not having to be assessed streets and so forth. We could look at perhaps some changes there too but you know it’s just going to come back down the road to bite us and we need to be very careful here how we proceed and how we present things to the public. I want to be fair to the people out there that they know the things that, and you can promise those things that we can do it but there’s going to be some services lost and the vast majority of people that I have talked to said for a Caribou coffee a month, I want you to do your due diligence and then keep things where they’re at the best you can. Not expand all these things. Law enforcement, it’s adding another police officer or deputy was part of our plan and we’re already playing catch up. We’re not there yet. We’re way below where the statistical information tells us, but I still want to hear, like Councilmember McDonald, from our sheriff because he’s our expert. But this doesn’t allow us to do that if we jump right to scenario 4. Councilman McDonald: Instead of you all arguing about whether it’s an accounting shift or not, I mean you make my point the fact that when we do have a problem, we do turn to city staff and they’ve always solved the problems and again that’s where I’m coming from in all this is, I listen to staff. I listen to residents. I have confidence in the staff. I know where the number has got to be and I’m convinced that we can get there but I want to give staff and opportunity. That’s where I’m coming from in all of this because I think I owe a duty to staff and to the residents and I think that we’ve got to go through the process so I really wish you guys wouldn’t get into this terminology stuff because at this point there’s plenty of time for that if we decide to get into details later but I think the thing tonight is, yeah we need to decide what the number is going to be. If it comes out to zero again, as I said, I will support this council and I will work very hard to try to get it below that because that’s what I would like to see also but yeah, we’re starting at zero and trying to go down. That may be a tougher thing to do than you know start a little bit above and then work our way down from there but again, I think that I understand Councilman Litsey and as I said, this is difficult he and I being on the same side because we philosophically do not agree on a lot of things but I do think that again we need to work the process. Councilwoman Tjornhom: And Mayor. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: May I say that while Councilman McDonald I understand, I hear what you’re saying but when it comes to adding services, you know we had projected to add some of these services based upon growth. Upon actual growth and that growth has not happened and so based upon that I still feel that we can still have a zero percent increase to the residents and still keep our services at the current level based upon the growth and that’s the difference I think between how I’m seeing it and how you’re seeing it that these are real numbers. You know what we have coming in and that is all we should be looking at because that’s all we have to spend and that’s the way most families have to live and so I still am going to support a zero percent increase and that is basically because of the growth that we don’t have that projected growth we thought we were going to see. 27 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Let me ask a quick question Mr. Sticha on the, I’m looking at the staff report which showed the different scenarios. It’s titled tax levy on the top. The second group, the tax generation capacity number there. All those numbers are $10,213,565. You see the rows I’m looking at? Greg Sticha: Yep. Mayor Furlong: Total tax capacity. And you know, $10,213,600 dollars. That is what I’ve been describing as the last year’s tax levy plus the real growth. Greg Sticha: Correct. Mayor Furlong: So when the total up above under scenario 4 is $10,213,190, that’s actually a little bit less. If we every. Greg Sticha: There’s a rounding difference. Mayor Furlong: So it’s just rounding essentially and such like that? Greg Sticha: Yep. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Alright. And I think that would be true for any of those, looking at those types of numbers. Greg Sticha: Yeah. All the numbers presented are based on an average and you know whether it’s $6.40 to that home or $6.50, until we get a final tax statement from the County you know, we can’t project to that finite detail but it’s based on the best information we have at this point. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Councilwoman Ernst: So isn’t number, is scenario number 4 then, or number 2 on the resolution? $2,213,190? Under scenario number 4. Greg Sticha: Scenario number 4 is a zero percent increase to the average homeowner which is $139,000 increase in the levy from the previous year, which is essentially capturing the new growth in the city. Councilwoman Ernst: But. Mayor Furlong: So I think to Councilwoman Ernst’s point, that would be the number down below. That would be the $10,213,000 call it 600. $10,213,565. Greg Sticha: Yep. Scenario number 4 is $10,213,190. That would be. 28 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 Mayor Furlong: But in terms of what, and we’re talking about a few hundred dollars so that’s fine. Greg Sticha: Either way. Mayor Furlong: That’s fine. Councilwoman Ernst: But the resolution is what I’m talking about. Greg Sticha: Right. Either one’s going to be just fine. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. Alright. I’ll make a motion. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: I make a motion that we approve the total preliminary levy to be certified to Carver County by September 15, 2009 is $2,213,190. Greg Sticha: It’s $10,213,000. Councilwoman Ernst: I mean, sorry. $10,213,190. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Is there a second? Councilwoman Tjornhom: I’ll second that. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Based, we have a motion made and a second made. Mr. Sticha based upon that motion, item 1 on the resolution so we can, what I may suggest here is that we adopt the entire resolution in it’s entirety. But as part of the discussion of the motion made which was really just limited to item number 2 on this resolution if I’m not mistaken. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. Mayor Furlong: What would be the amount on line item 1? Greg Sticha: The amount of the budget would be $9,557,400. Based on a levy of $10,213,190. Councilwoman Ernst: I’m sorry, what was that number again? Greg Sticha: $9,557,400. Mayor Furlong: And those amounts, that’s a preliminary. Now, from the levy is limited but the item in 1 could move. Greg Sticha: Correct. 29 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 Mayor Furlong: Up or down depending on where we want it to be, as part of our ongoing budgeting process, in terms of establishing the spending and everything else. Greg Sticha: Right. The amount of levies for other, for other levies could be shifted or changed if you wanted to accommodate more within the general fund budget. Mayor Furlong: Correct. Thank you. Councilwoman Ernst: So the general fund can go up or down, is that correct? I mean go. th Greg Sticha: The budget can go up or down after this date on September 15. The levy, the total levy cannot. That number can only come down. Councilwoman Ernst: Correct, but I guess I’m saying if we make the resolution tonight it can still change on number 1. Greg Sticha: The budget, correct. Yes. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. So you want me to just make one more? Mayor Furlong: That’s fine. I guess if we can, if we can go forward with the entire resolution, unless there’s any objection, why don’t we, is there any? I’ll just make a motion to table the initial motion that you made Councilwoman Ernst: Sure. Mayor Furlong: Is there a second? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second. Mayor Furlong moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded to table action on the previous motion for further clarification. All voted in favor, except Councilman Litsey who was silent, and the motion carried with a vote of 4 to 1. Mayor Furlong: That motion prevails so now Councilwoman Ernst I’ll, would you like to make a motion regarding the entire resolution? Councilwoman Ernst: Sure. I make a motion that the 2010 preliminary budget for the City of Chanhassen is adopted in the aggregate revenue and expenditure amounts for the general fund of $9,557,400. And that the total preliminary levy to be certified to Carver County by September 15, 2009 is $10,213,190. And that the following sums of money have been scheduled as proposed levy certification to fund operations of the general fund, capital replacement fund, MSA fund and debt service funds to be levied in 2009 for collection 2010 upon the taxable property in the City of Chanhassen as shown in this resolution. And that the City Council and the City of Chanhassen determines that certain bonded indebtedness levies are hereby adopted to meet current and future bond requirements. And that the County Auditor is hereby authorized 30 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 and directed to increase or reduce the previously adopted bond debt levies as shown on the attached tax levy certification document. And that the public meeting date will be set for December 7, 2009 and the budget and tax levy adoption will be set for December 15, 2009 as allowed by law and that the City of Chanhassen authorizes the County Auditor to certify the amounts as set forth in the attached proposed levy certification document for purposes of preparing the Truth in Taxation notices. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second. Mayor Furlong: Made and seconded. Any discussion on the resolution? Councilman Litsey: Yes. I’d just like to make a comment. Mayor Furlong: Councilman Litsey. Councilman Litsey: That I’m disappointed that this council once again has jumped to the bottom line without letting the budget process play out. Mayor Furlong: Any other discussion? Resolution #2009-66: Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the City Council adopt the following resolution: The 2010 preliminary budget for the City of Chanhassen is adopted in the aggregate revenue and expenditure amounts for the general fund of $9,557,400. And that the total preliminary levy to be certified to Carver County by September 15, 2009 is $10,213,190. And that the following sums of money have been scheduled as proposed levy certification to fund operations of the general fund, capital replacement fund, MSA fund and debt service funds to be levied in 2009 for collection 2010 upon the taxable property in the City of Chanhassen as shown in this resolution. And that the City Council and the City of Chanhassen determines that certain bonded indebtedness levies are hereby adopted to meet current and future bond requirements. And that the County Auditor is hereby authorized and directed to increase or reduce the previously adopted bond debt levies as shown on the attached tax levy certification document. And that the public meeting date will be set for December 7, 2009 and the budget and tax levy adoption will be set for December 15, 2009 as allowed by law and that the City of Chanhassen authorizes the County Auditor to certify the amounts as set forth in the attached proposed levy certification document for purposes of preparing the Truth in Taxation notices. 31 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 All voted in favor, except Councilman Litsey and Councilman McDonald who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 3 to 2. Mayor Furlong: Motion prevails 3 to 2. Does that complete our items this evening Mr. Sticha with regards to the prior budget… Greg Sticha: That’s enough to set the preliminary levy tomorrow. Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good. With that, that completes our items of new business. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS: Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom, what’d you do on Saturday? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yes, I had a very festive Saturday. I had the honor of announcing the awards for the participants in the Dave Huffman 5K Run. It was beautiful weather. The year before when I was given the opportunity to do it, it was rainy and cold so…the mayor had a crystal ball and knew the weather but he was wrong this time so it was a wonderful event. We had almost 230 participants. I think we actually had a record set by a gentleman in the, I think it was like the 20’s category or maybe 15 to 20 year old category. 14 minutes and 15 seconds or something. It was quite amazing run for him and it was a quite amazing day for everybody. Culver’s was there giving out free food and children had their own races and it was just really another great use of our city property. The community coming together to enjoy something that was really worthwhile and so I want to thank the mayor for letting me participate in that and it was just a great event. So thank you to the City of Chanhassen, the parks and rec department, all they did to make that happen. And also the sheriff’s department for keeping everyone safe while they ran. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other council presentations? Councilwoman Ernst: I’d just like to say that I did the tour at the high school and it was great. It was great to see the high school. It looked quite a bit different than when we were there with the Planning Commission. We saw it when it was in the construction stages but it’s a beautiful high school and I you know, Todd was selling the tickets and it was good to see his friendly face when we walked in there as usual. So anyway it was a great experience and it’s a great high school. It’s beautiful. Mayor Furlong: Other presentations? Councilman Litsey: Actually I was going to comment on that too but Councilmember Ernst said it quite nicely. It was a fun event. It was good to see so many people out there. Proud of the civic pride in the high school and so forth and not many places you can get a meal for 3 bucks so it was pretty good. The other thing, the other night we had an opportunity to attend the appreciation banquet at the Legion for the veterans memorial and I wanted, I do want to thank 32 Chanhassen City Council – September 14, 2009 Mayor Furlong for a very nice speech or talk, whatever you want to refer to it as but it was, it said it quite well and I know they appreciated hearing from you so thank you for doing that. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anything else from council? Mr. Gerhardt, Administrative presentations. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS: Todd Gerhardt: The Mayor and I attended the 112 Leaders Meeting this last Friday and it’s great to see all the communities in the school district working together on emergency management. We had a nice table talk discussion. Everybody kind of talked through their emergency management plan and how we coordinate with each other and the different services that each community provides in that emergency management role so. The nice thing, I made the comment of that day, I know it was the mayor’s first year as mayor and we had the ammonia leak out at General Mills and he calls me, or I called him to let him know you know why there’s 9 fire departments at General Mills and his comment was, is well what do you need me to do? I said well if you want to come out and look, it’s kind of cool to see 9 fire departments working together on trying to control this ammonia leak. What gives me comfort at night is that 9 fire departments working hand in hand as if they’re just one fire department so you can sleep well at night knowing that we have a very strong joint powers agreement here in Carver County, Hennepin County and our surrounding communities and I think that was on display when we talked about it at our leaders meeting this last Friday. It was just a great meeting to share that information. That’s all I have. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or staff? No? CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None. Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom 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 9:05 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 33