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CC 2010 11 08 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING NOVEMBER 8, 2010 Mayor Furlong called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to the Flag. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Furlong, Councilman Litsey, Councilwoman Ernst, Councilwoman Tjornhom, and Councilman McDonald STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Laurie Hokkanen, Kate Aanenson, Paul Oehme, and Todd Hoffman PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Mayor Furlong: Thank you and welcome to those here in the council chambers and those watching at home. Very glad that you joined us this evening. At this time I would like to ask members of the council if there are any changes or modifications to the agenda. If not, without objection we’ll proceed with the agenda as published. First items on our agenda this evening is our consent agenda items. CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: a. Approval of Minutes: -City Council Work Session Minutes dated October 25, 2010 -City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated October 25, 2010 Resolution #2010-92: b. Lyman Boulevard Phase I, Project 06-03: Approve Resolution for Advancement of State Aid Funds. d. Pioneer Pass Neighborhood Park: Approve Purchase Agreement. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: Steve Hansen: Steve Hansen. Mayor Furlong: Good evening. th Steve Hansen: I just wanted to remind people on November 16 the Chanhassen Chamber of Commerce, or the Chanhassen Business Council is having a 50 year reunion for the Chamber presence in Chanhassen so we want as many of you people from the City to attend and also the Chanhassen City Council - November 8, 2010 th public too, they’re definitely welcome. It starts at 11:00 on the 16 at the American Legion. Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you Steve. Anyone else that would like to address the council this evening? Very good, we offer visitor presentations at each council meeting. Guests and residents are always welcome to come and address the council at that time. CANVASS OF ELECTION RESULTS FROM NOVEMBER 2, 2010. APPROVE RESOLUTION DECLARING THE RESULTS. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council members. In front of you are the 2010 General Election results. If you could just take a moment and go through each of the precincts. You’re canvassing just the mayor and city councilmember election results. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for staff as we’re looking over the results? And these results were distributed earlier I think as well. Todd Gerhardt: Yes. Mayor Furlong: Any questions for staff? Mr. Gerhardt, just a couple things. One from an understanding standpoint. Over votes and under votes on ballots, if you could explain those people are interested. Todd Gerhardt: Good question. Laurie Hokkanen: Over votes are when you, is it alright? Todd Gerhardt: Go for it. Laurie Hokkanen: For instance the council race you were supposed to mark 2 candidates so if you in that case voted for 3 candidates that would be considered an over vote. We have no way to know which might have been your top 2 preferences. So that vote is essentially discarded. An under vote which obviously is far more common is somebody who, although you have the option of choosing 2, you only select 1 candidate. Mayor Furlong: Or none. Laurie Hokkanen: Or none, exactly. Far more common, particularly in some of the races on the flip side of the ballot. The judges. Unopposed races. People often choose not to mark those. Mayor Furlong: I guess more substantive question then too, any issues at any of the precincts with irregularities in the voting and problems with people desiring to vote that were not allowed or that were, any issues or problems that came up on any of these? Todd Gerhardt: We had two precincts that we had one where we were missing a ballot. What would cause missing a ballot is, it got stuck to another ballot. They recounted four times. Could 2 Chanhassen City Council - November 8, 2010 not find that ballot. Another cause could be an individual that just decided that you know didn’t want to vote and walked out with the ballot is probably the most likely. They did a great job of going back and doing their due diligence of counting. And the other one was just an extra receipt and could have been stuck together but all the ballots were counted for. Mayor Furlong: Okay, very good. Any other questions? Councilman Litsey: I was just going to make a comment if I could about. Mayor Furlong: Certainly. Councilman Litsey: The fact that how well I thought it went just from my observations and one of the comments I hear, and that I know people appreciate is the number of precincts we have. That you don’t have to wait very long to vote here which is nice where some places they only have a few precincts and the lines get very long which I think discourages people from voting sometimes. We just don’t see that here so as much as I know it’s a lot to put together, I really appreciate all the work that goes in to having enough precincts so people can vote and it doesn’t take them that long to do that. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, Karen Engelhardt our office manager who runs the elections just did a fantastic job. It’s unbelievable how much work and checking goes into the whole election process prior to the election. If there is a benefit of the primary, it’s a good test run for us but the election judges, the day of the election there’s just so many things that need to be checked and they do a great job in performing those duties so hats off to Karen and her staff in having a great election. Councilwoman Ernst: And I’d like to congratulate Karen. She’s done an awesome job over the past however many years she’s been doing it and without mishap, she’s great and so I congratulate her on a successful, another successful election. Todd Gerhardt: We still haven’t heard if we’re going to be a part of the recount process. The last recount we were, had staff members involved so we’ll wait from the County to see what their needs are. Mayor Furlong: The absentee balloting this year was conducted by the County in a different form. Did you get any sense if that was an improved process at all or from a consistency standpoint? Todd Gerhardt: I haven’t heard of any change in that process. I know Karen went down on a Saturday and helped do the county on those absentee ballots so. But no issues that I’ve heard of yet. We’ll see when the recount… Councilman Litsey: Once the lawyers get involved. Mayor Furlong: Well I think there’s, it’s certainly just echo the comments. The work that Karen does. The work that Joe Meuwissen, others do. I mean there’s a lot of time that’s put into that 3 Chanhassen City Council - November 8, 2010 and we can show up and walk in and the election judges are trained. Know what to do. The process is very smooth and I think Bryan to your point, the shorter lines, it’s a bunch of precincts but, and I’m sure you would agree, it’s also a function of the people working at the precincts and getting it done and getting it done right and professionally so. Councilman Litsey: It’s a combination definitely. Mayor Furlong: So I think that there’s a lot of credit that’s there and a lot of work as we all know talking to them behind the scenes in preparation and the day of the election too so certainly our gratitude and appreciation to everyone involved. Todd Gerhardt: And just to let the public know, we had a 72% turnout of registered voters so that’s a good showing. I think county wide it was around 68 so we’re above the county. Councilman Litsey: Perfect day. Mayor Furlong: Very good. Any other questions? Comments about the election process. Councilman McDonald: How about a motion then? Mayor Furlong: That’d be fine. Is there a motion to adopt the results of the election? Councilman McDonald: I would make the motion that the Chanhassen City Council accept and adopt the 2010 General Election results for November 2, 2010. Councilman Litsey: I’d second that. Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Resolution #2010-93: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Litsey seconded that the Chanhassen City Council approves the resolution canvassing local election results from the November 2, 2010 General Election. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS. Councilman Litsey: I just wanted to congratulate you Mayor and Councilwoman Ernst and Denny as well, Laufenburger for being victorious in the election and I think the City’s in great hands so good luck to the next players. Mayor Furlong: Thank you very much. Any other presentations? The one comment that I’ll th make, this coming Thursday I believe, November 11 is Veterans Day and I know there are a number of events that are taking place. The Chaska Middle School West is having their annual Veterans Day celebration. Starts at 7:30 and runs til about 8:30-9:00. It’s a great event if anybody would like to, I will plan on being there again this year. Certainly if anyone else from the council is interested in going let me know or we’ll work through Todd and make sure that 4 Chanhassen City Council - November 8, 2010 you can be there. It’s not one where there’s participation but I’ll tell you it’s great to be involved and a part of it. They’ve done a great job every year and it’s something I look forward to so, and in that regard, I know I speak for everybody in extending a word of thanks to all our veterans for their service. We recognize, on Memorial Day we recognize those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for their service. Veterans Day is a day when we recognize everyone who has served, is serving and of course encourage people to consider serving as well so thank you to everyone on behalf of the City. Any other council presentations? ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. Todd Gerhardt: Nothing this evening. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or his staff from members of the council? Very good. CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None. Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald 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 7:15 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 5