CC Minutes 2002 04 22CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
APRIL 22, 2002
Mayor Jansen called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge
to the Flag.
COUNCILMEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Jansen, Councilman Boyle and Councilman
Peterson
COUNCILMEMBERS ABSENT: Councilman Labatt and Councilman Ayotte
STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Roger Knutson, Teresa Burgess, Jill Sinclair, and Bruce
DeJong
PUBLIC PRESENT FOR ALL ITEMS:
Debbie Lloyd
Conrad Fiskness
LuAnn Sidney
7302 Laredo Drive
8033 Cheyenne Avenue
Planning Commission
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Mayor Jansen: Thank you for joining us here this evening. Appreciate your coming. I do want
to make one announcement before we start our meeting. We are changing the end of our agenda
because we only have 3 council members here this evening. We were originally scheduled to
have a work session to review the background information on Highway 101, and unfortunately
because our attendance is so light this evening, that would not be a productive meeting for us to
really review that, so we will re-schedule that discussion and add that to a different agenda. So
my apologies if anyone did come this evening for that. It was certainly not something that we
anticipated happening and having to pull as far as our having light attendance. I will mention it
again later as we move into the meeting if you maybe remind me in case people come a little bit
later so that I at least have it mentioned to everyone so they don't wait for that. Moving on we
have several public announcements. I'm going to slip one in early while everyone is here for the
other public announcements. District 112 has a community meeting that is scheduled for
tomorrow evening from 6:30 to 9:00, and I will just read what that meeting encompasses. The
purpose of the meeting is to have a cross section of the District 112 community review and react
to a master facility draft model to serve District 112 learners in the year 2014. How many
schools will be needed for 11,000 students? What size should schools be? How should grades be
organized within the schools? What will our community support? Input from the April 23rd
group will guide revisions to the model before a master facility plan is shared with the broader
community during May, so I just want our community to be aware that that meeting is occurring
tomorrow evening from 6:30 to 9:00 at the Chanhassen Rec Center. It's the continuation of what
you may have been reading about in the newspaper about their input process that they've been
undertaking now for the past couple of months, and now they have a model to, and some
suggestions that they want to get more input on from all of our residents. So it should be a very
productive meeting and hopefully we can get some good turnout for that.
City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
PROCLAMATION DECLARING MAY 4, 2002 AS ARBOR DAY.
Mayor Jansen: Moving on to our other public announcements. We have the proclamation
declaring May 4, 2002 as Arbor Day, and I do have that proclamation to read. And it's a long
one so pardon me. Why don't I first, before I do that call for a motion to approve declaring
Saturday, May 4th Arbor Day.
Councilman Boyle: So moved.
Mayor Jansen: And a second?
Councilman Peterson: Second.
Resolution #2002-32: Councilman Boyle moved, Councilman Peterson seconded to approve
the resolution declaring Saturday, May 4, 2002 as Arbor Day in the City of Chanhassen.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously 3 to 0.
Mayor Jansen: Whereas in 1872 Jay Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of
Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees, and whereas this holiday
called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska,
and whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world, and whereas trees
can reduce the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water, cut heating and cooling costs,
moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce oxygen, and provide habitat for wildlife, and
whereas trees are a renewable resource giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires,
and countless other wood products, and whereas trees in our city increase property values,
enhance the economic vitality of business areas, and beautify our community, and whereas trees
are a source of joy and spiritual renewal, and whereas Chanhassen has been recognized as a Tree
City USA by the National Arbor Day Foundation and desires to continue it's tree planting ways.
Now Therefore, I, Linda Jansen, Mayor of the City of Chanhassen do hereby proclaim Saturday,
May 4th. Had the date wrong on the proclamation. I caught it. As Arbor Day in the City of
Chanhassen. I urge all citizens to support efforts to care for our trees and woodlands and to
support our city's community forestry program. And further, I urge all citizens to plant trees to
gladden the hearts and promote the well being of present and future generations. Thank you and
do join us for our Arbor Day celebration on May 4th.
PRESENTATION To ARBOR DAY POSTER CONTEST WINNER AND RUNNERS-UP.
Moving on to the next item on the agenda is very exciting. We have the presentation of the Arbor
Day Poster Contest winner and runners-up. You'll see around the walls of the chambers the 78
entries that we did have into this program. All fifth graders were invited to participate and we
have a grand prize winner and four special recognition awards to give this evening. Do we have
any of the Environmental Commissioners here this evening that participated in this project? If I
can have you come forward and do some of the presentation with us, we would appreciate that if
you'll come to the front. Our Environmental Commission did the review of the 78 entries and we
certainly appreciate that. I don't know if you want to speak a little bit about the process and what
the commission did and what was entailed for us this evening.
Joan Mueller: Sure. My name is Joan Mueller and I'm on the Environmental Commission and
we just decided it would be a great way to get the word out about Arbor Day if we would take the
poster contest winner and put them on a canvas reusable bag, and make those available for our
citizens to use as they grocery shop. We picked a bag that has a nice bottom so it makes a great
City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
grocery tote, and so we're hoping that these, this makes the winner feel special and also promotes
the reuse of bags when we shop in Chanhassen.
Mayor Jansen: That's great. Thank you very much. We will, shall we start with the winner or
go backwards? Of we're going to go backwards. Okay. So for the special recognition awards, if
you could come forward and we will present you with your prizes. Shall I call all four at the
same time? Okay. We'll start with Lincoln Thompson from the Bluff Creek Elementary School.
Congratulations. If you'd like to hold your poster up for everyone. Do we have it? Oh, it's on
the wall. The prizes are a certificate for a potted tree. We should have them show their posters so
we can get them a little recognition. Please go ahead and bring that forward Lincoln so we can
have that on the camera for everyone to see and hold it up for the audience to see. And this was
his entry. Wonderful. Thank you. That is great. So he now has a certificate for a potted tree,
and one of the tote bags. And the trees are compliment of the Halla Nursery, correct Jill?
Jill Sinclair: These trees are compliments of the City.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. These are compliments of the City. The grand prize is from Halla. Okay.
Our next recognition award is, and forgive me if I pronounce this wrong. Is it Caille Koob?
Caille Koob. If you could come forward please. Caille, come around front and we'll have you
hold up your poster so everyone can see that. There you go. Wonderful. Isn't that great?
Congratulations. Thank you for participating. Good job. Our third special recognition award
goes to Sadie Kelly from the Chanhassen Elementary School. Congratulations. That's great. If
you'll hold your poster for everybody to see. Isn't that wonderful? That's great, thank you. And
then our last special recognition award goes to a joint entry that was presented by Megan, is it
Forcier? Forcier. And Lauren Carlson. If you'll come forward please. This is from St. Hubert's.
Wonderful. Congratulations girls. Thank you. If you'll hold your poster so everyone can see
that and towards the camera so everyone at home can see it. Wonderful. Nice job.
Congratulations girls. Okay. And then our grand prize winner, sitting at the edge of her chair, is
Virginia Chan from the Bluff Creek Elementary School. Congratulations. Now Virginia has won
a $100 gift certificate from Halla Nursery along with the tote bag and her framed poster which
will be hug at City Hall, so congratulations Virginia. Wonderful, thank you. Such talented kids.
You've just got to love that and do take an opportunity to take a look at some of the other entries
on the walls. They're really quite creative. Thank you Jill. Thanks to the Environmental
Commission for their work on the project. Well that's always fun to see some of the talent in our
children here in the community. We'll give them a moment to step out. I have one other
announcement that was shared with us here this evening that we'd like to pass along to the
community. The Legion who is, the American Legion Post on the corner of oh boy, Highway 5
and Great Plains Boulevard. I always want to call it 101 but Great Plains Boulevard. They will
be undergoing new construction and the ground breaking for that facility will be on May 5th at
2:00 p.m. and they are planning on having hot dogs, brats and soft drinks so we certainly hope we
can have some nice turnout from the community for that event. We're certainly excited about
their expansion. Or new construction actually. Moving on to the consent agenda.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Boyle seconded to approve
the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager's recommendations:
a. Park Nicollet 1st Addition, Chanhassen American Legion Post 580:
1) Final Plat Approval
2) Approval of Development Contract
City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
Approval of Grant Agreement with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for
the Lake Susan Aquatic Restoration Project.
Resolution #2002-33: Approve Plans & Specifications, Authorize Bids for the 2002
MSA and Residential Street Projects 01-08 & 01-10.
d. Resolution #2002-34: Call for Public Hearing on Lake Drive East, Project 01-08.
e. Approval of Bills.
f. Approval of Minutes.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously 3 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS:
Tom Devine: Good evening. My name is Tom Devine. I live at 7640 South Shore Drive.
Madam Mayor and members of the council. I came this evening of course to participate in the
continued work that's going on on project 101, and I guess there's been some concern that's been
raised within the various neighborhoods that the project is maybe falling a little bit behind right
now in terms of the scheduling to get the bid specifications completed so that they can begin the
work this summer, so hopefully it's unfortunate that we're missing the people this evening and
we can't move the project along but maybe you should share with us what you think will be the
schedule now for the final approval and then the work on letting the bids and letting the
construction begin.
Mayor Jansen: Certainly. Thanks for being here this evening, and I apologize as far as our
background discussion. The project schedule is at this point listed and posted on the city web site
so that you would be able to gain that access as far as the schedule that you're looking for. And
as far as there being any sort of a delay, we are on schedule with the steps and procedures that are
listed on that schedule. So as far as there, Teresa. If you don't mind my putting you on the spot.
Tom Devine: Maybe you could just share what the dates are then? Is the final approval then this
month of the dates? For the, and then the bid letting.
Teresa Burgess: I missed your question. I was on the route down. I heard you start and I came
downstairs. I apologize. I didn't mean.., your question. All I caught was that you were
concerned about if the project was still on schedule for the Highway 101 trail?
Tom Devine: Yeah.
Teresa Burgess: We are on schedule. The schedule that is posted out on the web site is checked
every week and it is changed accordingly. At this point we're right where it says we are. We are
on schedule with the plans being developed. We've met with MnDot. They have given us some
initial comments. We've not gotten the written yet but we are reacting to those initial comments.
And we will bring it to the council for approval, I believe the schedule says May.
Tom Devine: The first meeting, first week of May, or the first City Council meeting in May?
Teresa Burgess: I believe it just says May and we are on schedule as long as we don't slip and
are able to award contract in July, we will still see construction yet this year. And so at this point,
City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
we update that. We check it every week. Make sure that we're still on schedule and as we can
we will fill in dates. At this time they are semi-vague because they are all dominoes. As one falls
into place, the next one then will fall into place. As one slides, they all have to slide with it. But
we do fill those in. We check them once a week and so if you're concerned about it you can
certainly track it right along with us. That's the same working copy that I'm using, rather than
keep a separate copy. It's just easier to keep one that's always up to date.
Mayor Jansen: And the meeting this evening was intended for the newer council members that
do not have the background data on this project. We felt that it was our duty to really do our
diligence and make sure that they have all the background information. Hence our going ahead
and rescheduling that meeting since we are missing one of the new council members as far as the
background update so we would not have been addressing that schedule. The schedule is as is on
the web site and as Teresa said, it is being updated as we move forward and are able to secure
some of the more specific dates as the work is accomplished. But the project is on schedule as
discussed for end of October completion I think is the projection.
Teresa Burgess: Substantial completion. There's a little bit of a difference. Substantial
completion you'll be able to go out and use the trail, but we probably won't have all the
landscaping in yet. One of the concerns I have heard Madam Mayor, if I can just take a second
on this one as long as it's been brought up, is will staff stop working on this project. We, as staff,
because we have been directed to prepare plans and specifications, will prepare plans and
specifications unless otherwise directed by the City Council. So unless the council passes a
resolution saying okay, stop. We don't want you to work on the plans and specs anymore, we
will continue down that path. We will not stop without that direction. So people have asked me
that, is there some point where we'll just drop this project and it will just kind of whither away.
No. I don't have that authority. Once I've been told I have to prepare plans and specs, I have to
produce a set for the council. And when the council is also watching that schedule, or have a
good reason why I didn't so as we go through the process it will continue. It's not going to just
be left out there to die by itself. We will continue to address that and it will have to come before
the council again for plans and specs approval to be accepted and then a decision by the council
to authorize bids or not based on whether we received our permits.
Mayor Jansen: And we were trying to proactively communicate to as many people as we could by
providing that access on the web site so that we could save some folks making some phone calls
and individual email so we have been trying to alert people as they have been inquiring, that that
schedule is out there and as Teresa mentioned, staff is taking the time to make sure that they're
checking that weekly so that you are very current with the information and where we are in the
process.
Tom Devine: Well certainly we would like to encourage you to move as quickly as you can
along in the schedule. Put it for the first meeting maybe in May, as much as possible, and of
course we do want to, as city taxpayers, take advantage of the grant, or the monies that have been
made available through the special appropriation of the State of Minnesota before things possibly
could occur there that would cause that half million dollars to be withdrawn, because that's
obviously in all of our best interest to have those dollars come forth. And anything that we can
do to certainly move the project along with any expedience is obviously appreciated by all those
people hoping to use the trail by the end of the summer. So thank you very much.
Mayor Jansen: Every indication that we have had is that that grant is there and our project is on
schedule and we're moving forward to get that accomplished so appreciate your coming this
evening. Thank you.
City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
Tom Devine: We'll be here the first week, or the first meeting in May to be a part of that.
Mayor Jansen: Well watch the schedules. Thank you. Okay, is there anyone else that would like
to address the council on any other issues this evening? Okay, I'll close visitor presentations and
we'll move on then to the law enforcement update.
LAW ENFORCEMENT UPDATES:
Sgt. Dave Potts: Good evening Madam Mayor, council members. Nothing significant to report
off the sheriffs area report. The numbers are pretty non-note worthy for the month.
Mayor Jansen: Which is a good thing.
Sgt. Dave Potts: That is a good thing. Just kind of status quo. You also have the crime
prevention highlights, community service officer highlights in your packet as well. The other
items I was just going to mention to council this evening, and this one goes back to February as
we did not have a March meeting. 22nd of February one of our deputies sustained minor injuries
during the arrest of a domestic assault suspect in downtown Chanhassen. The suspect did kind of
a head butt to the deputy's face just causing some minor injuries to his nose and whatever. No
loss of work or anything like that related but just mention that to council. The only thing it
provided the suspect was some additional charges of assaulting a police officer so didn't improve
his situation at all.
Mayor Jansen: Well we're certainly glad to hear the officer was okay.
Sgt. Dave Potts: Very much. March 25th. Did a presentation for the Chanhassen Lions. Did a
law enforcement, crime prevention presentation there. Beth Hoiseth was supposed to participate
with me in that but unfortunately she was sick that day so did the best I could on the crime
prevention part of it, but had about 25 members of the Lions present and some good comments
and questions along with that presentation so it went very well.
Mayor Jansen: Great.
Sgt. Dave Potts: March 29th, arrested a burglar suspect in an occupied home burglary. That was
the third such burglary we've had in Chanhassen and it's something that is very alarming to us.
A typical burglary happens when people are away from home. It's much more alarming when
they're in fact at home when something like this occurs. This particular suspect, Ted Anderson
who actually lives in Chanhassen, was apparently intoxicated and entered into a home again
allegedly looking for alcohol or those other types of things. Also had damaged his car and
mailboxes having a couple of collisions in town which prompted a couple of calls to our
department. Ended up to be a foot chase near downtown Chanhassen. Suspect alluded deputies
initially but was later located on a street near his home. To make a long story short, all turned out
very well with the arrest of this particular suspect and the investigation of course will be ongoing
as we'll see if there's any relation to the two previous and similar burglaries.
Mayor Jansen: And I know you've mentioned in the past often times it's through an unlocked
door. Was that the?
Sgt. Dave Potts: Yeah, that's one of the main points that we always try to make whenever we
talk about these types of incidents. In all of these particular burglaries, and most of the other
City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
burglaries that are reported to us, it's simply somebody entering an unlocked door to gain access
to a residence. And easily preventable for the most part, so we pound the pavement. We put the
word out in a newsletter, in newspaper articles, that type of thing, encouraging people just to do
the simplest forms of crime prevention. Just locking their doors could easily prevented this
particular burglar from gaining entry. And although this person was really no threat to the
occupants of the home, as I mentioned earlier you know it's a huge alarming type of a crime
when people are home and confronted with that situation. One other note I wanted to make on
that, we often get questions of what kind of police coverage do we have in town? In this
particular example when a call comes out of a burglary that occurred, a suspect is left and fled the
scene somewhere in town, officers respond from different directions. In this particular case both
of our patrol deputies assigned to Chanhassen were involved in this as was one of our patrol
sergeants, two of our detectives, one of our school resource officers that happened to be on duty
in the area, a patrol crime technician who responded to process some of the crime areas, and a
state trooper who happened to be nearby as well. So altogether 8 officers participated in this
teamwork effort to catch this particular suspect. And that's not an uncommon situation when you
have some of the higher profile calls that do occur. The officers come out of the woodwork so to
speak, and they're there to help.
Mayor Jansen: Thank you for sharing that. Appreciate that.
Sgt. Dave Potts: May 7th, coming up would be our sheriff's office awards night program taking
place at the Chanhassen Recreation Center at 7:00 p.m. I believe council has, or will be receiving
invitations to that if they choose to attend. This year I believe we have 54 awards to be given out
to sheriff office members and citizens. Approximately 12 of those awards related to incidents in
Chanhassen and this is for the year 2001. Last item I was going to mention is sheriff's office
open house on May 18th. Again I believe council has received invitations to that but that is open
to all citizens of Carver County to come and check out the sheriff's office. Tour the jail, our new
dispatch center. State patrol helicopter will be there weather permitting. The sheriff's
emergency response team will have a display as will the dive team. There will be some fun
activities for the younger folks. Some food and beverages and displays regarding snowmobile,
boat, ATV patrol, canine demonstrations and our mounted posse as well. Just wanted to get that
on television, although I know council's already aware of that function coming up so.
Mayor Jansen: Thank you for sharing that.
Sgt. Dave Potts: That's my report for this evening. Have any comments or questions from
council?
Councilman Boyle: I just have a comment. I want to say that your presentation, both parts,
Beth's and your's was very good at the Lions. I attended that meeting. It was very good, and
very good comments afterwards too Dave so.
Sgt. Dave Potts: Thank you.
Mayor Jansen: Great. We do appreciate that and that of course was something that council was
looking for as far as your interaction with some of our groups in the community so appreciate
your having taken the time.
Sgt. Dave Potts: I'm anticipating doing more of that kind of thing during the year as well so.
Mayor Jansen: Great, terrific. Thank you very much.
City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
Sgt. Dave Potts: Thank you.
Mayor Jansen: Moving on, our next update is with the fire department. We have Greg Hayes
here this evening.
Greg Hayes: Mayor, Council. Our update tonight is going to focus more on training.
Fortunately our calls have been down. We're down 50 calls compared to last year's numbers and
years before so that's a good thing. We're getting slower so our business is slowing down, and
we like that. But training we've been doing a lot of trailing in the last couple of months. Some of
it's been fairly visible with some live burnings. We burnt a house up off of Carver Beach Road to
work with some new technologies and some new skills that we were working on. Down to
working with the old bank building here across the street. Just working on what we do when we
get the initial call and working on the efficiency of our initial crews going in to fight the fire, but
most importantly the crews going in to rescue victims and working on our speed and accuracy
with that so we've been a little visible around town so if people are asking questions, what's
going on downtown at that building. We're just doing some training and we fill it up with some
fake smoke and drag some hose around and we try, when the public walks by we try to hand out
hats and stickers and tell them what we're doing so that's what we're doing over across the street
and we'll use it a couple more times and then I believe they may take it over for the library
project.
Mayor Jansen: Great.
Greg Hayes: Our biggest training was our, this past Friday and Saturday we did a leadership
administration class. We brought in two national level instructors to go through leadership
administration from a National Fire Academy program. And that was a shot in the arm for us, to
help us bring us to the next level with leadership and teamwork. Part of our focus is to keep
working on our mission and our vision, to be a progressive and innovative fire department and we
were able to get 22 of our people to take time off work to attend this class. We had some city
staff attend the class, and it was a big success. This is step one of a three step program. The next
step is to take them through a planning class. Dealing with financial management. Dealing,
realize where the monies come from and we... so when we do deal with people that are a little bit
more aggressive on calls or have issues, we can come out with a win/win situation instead of an
argument with some of these people sometimes that we get into, so that's what we're doing over
at the fire department and that's what our focus is. We're going to be more visible with our
training and we're hoping to, we're going to try to invite more people to come watch us and be a
little bit more public on what we do and try to get people to come out and partake in what we're
doing.
Mayor Jansen: Well that's great, and for your volunteers to be taking that amount of time to put
that into training is certainly significant. As you mentioned actually taking time off work to
attend this training program was very significant and we certainly do appreciate that. So very
exciting that you have as much training going on as you do. Council, any questions for Greg?
Okay.
Councilman Boyle: No questions.
Mayor Jansen: Thank you for being here this evening.
Greg Hayes: Thank you.
City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
PUBLIC HEARING: LIQUOR VIOLATION, CHANHASSEN DINNER THEATERS, 501
WEST 78TM STREET.
Public Present:
Name Address
Tom Devine
Solveig Huseth
Tom Scallen
7640 South Shore Drive
501 West 78th Street
501 West 78th Street
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, City Council members. This is a public hearing regarding alleged liquor
license violation for the Chanhassen Dinner Theater for selling intoxicating liquor to a minor.
Mr. Tom Scallen from the Chanhassen Dinner Theater is here this evening to present his side of
the issue. Mr. Scallen.
Mayor Jansen: Great, thank you. Good evening. If you could just state your name and address
for the record. Do I need the address here?
Tom Scallen: Good evening. I'm Tom Scallen. I'm the producer and owner of the Chanhassen
Theater. My address is that of the theater.
Mayor Jansen: Thank you.
Tom Scallen: Madam Mayor, distinguished members of the council. I want to tell you that this is
a very disappointing experience for me. The Chanhassen Theater has certainly been an important
part of this community for over 34 years. We have never had a liquor violation in the history of
the theater. We have a regular training program for all servers. We've always taken the
responsibility seriously of the serving of liquor. We never have wanted to serve a minor. The
events in question occurred during our busy Christmas season. A Saturday night with over 1,100
people in the theater. It was purely a mistake of judgment on the part of the bartender. He should
have carded the person. He did not. He served them in the rush of things. Thought the person
was old enough. That was his judgment. His judgment was wrong. It's one of those situations
that can occur, it does occur in the liquor industry. It's certainly something that none of us ever
want to see. We're all dedicated to protecting minors. I have with me tonight the General
Manager of the theater, Solveig Huseth and when I finish, if you have any questions that I can't
answer, and I probably can't, Solveig is here to try to answer them for you. We, since this
violation came to our attention, and we are not denying the violation. We're just terribly
disappointed that it happened to spoil a perfect record on the part of the theater. But we found
that this bartender made a serious error in judgment in not carding the decoy. We have instituted
a refresher in-house for all our serving people, and more important than that we got a certified
trainer to do a complete course for all of our people. They've all signed off on it. We have the
documentation for that, if anyone would like to see it. We've done we think everything we can to
correct this situation, and we don't ever want it to happen again. I've been advised by counsel
that, your counsel, that the usual action of the council for a first time violation is a 3 day
suspension of the license. I'm here to ask you not to do that. And in support of that, I'd like to
point out to you that the loss there is to our patrons. We have over 220,000 people who come to
the theater each year. We have the liquor, the wine and the drinks and the beer primarily as a
convenience for our customer. We don't run a bar bar. We don't have a busy bar. We're there
simply there to serve the convenience of our customers. And frankly it's not an economic issue
City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
for us. Because we just, the liquor sales are a very small part of our business. But I'd like to
point out to you that if we have a suspension of the liquor license, the punishment comes upon
those who least deserve it, our customers. Our guests. And we try to do everything that we can
to be customer friendly for all of our guests. We have one person who, Jean McNeill who's full
time job is dealing with any issues that arise with anyone that isn't totally happy with their
Chanhassen experience, and she keeps busy at that all the time, and she's really good. So our
business really is two words, customer satisfaction. So if you suspend our license, and we
certainly recognize your right to do that, the people who are going to lose are our customers. If
you can think of some other appropriate way to get our attention, and I assure you, you have our
attention, we would appreciate that but we feel that a suspension does not serve a real purpose
here. I mean we don't need to be reminded of the importance of the problem. You already have
our attention, and as I've indicated, we just don't want to inconvenience people who come from
hundreds of miles around. We get people from states, Illinois, North and South Dakota,
Wisconsin. All over the place that come in on buses and they are booked months ahead of time,
and we certainly are hoping that you'll assist us in not inconveniencing those people and making
their evening less than an enjoyable one. Do you have any questions for me or for Solveig?
Mayor Jansen: Thank you. Council, any questions for Mr. Scallen before we open the public
hearing? Okay.
Councilman Boyle: I have none.
Mayor Jansen: No. Thank you. Appreciate your comments and sharing with us the activity that
has existing to try to alleviate this situation occurring again. We will go ahead and open it up for
the public hearing, and then at that point I'll bring it back to council for a conversation.
Tom Scallen: Thank you.
Mayor Jansen: Thank you. This is a public hearing. If there is anyone present that would like to
address the council on this issue, certainly step forward to the podium at this time.
Tom Devine: As long as I'm here this evening I'll speak to the issue. I certainly look at the
issue.
Mayor Jansen: I'm sorry, if you could state your name and address for the record, for the minutes
please.
Tom Devine: Tom Devine, 7640 South Shore Drive, Chanhassen. Certainly with the fine record
that the Chanhassen Dinner Theater has had here in Chanhassen, I think that we should look very
favorably upon the request that Mr. Scallen has made this evening, and maybe in this instance
defer it. I attended two events there during the month of December and the busy ness and what
not of what goes on there is obviously well know, and I too can understand, because I have had
several groups that come in from distances to participate in events at the Chanhassen Dinner
Theater there, and these events are scheduled quite a bit out in advance and then to go through a
notification process or whatever is a significant inconvenience and certainly kind of a mark on
Chanhassen. Certainly I would support the request that's being made this evening and look at
something or the alternative that he had suggested. Thank you.
Mayor Jansen: Thank you. Appreciate your comments. Is there anyone else that would like to
comment? Okay. Seeing no one, we'll close the public hearing and bring this back to council.
Council, comments?
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
Councilman Peterson: Todd, how does this differ from the MGM situation of a month ago?
Todd Gerhardt: Very similar. It was the violation of the selling to a minor and it was a part of
the decoy system. Notices were sent out to all the liquor stores and businesses that were selling
liquor, that this sting operation would be occurring in the next month. You could take the same
protocol that you used against MGM in this case, and that's about it.
Mayor Jansen: And what Todd is referring to is that within our ordinance it does state that the
council may deviate in an individual case where the council finds that there exists reasons making
it more appropriate to deviate. Meaning that we can apply a penalty, in fact versus the 3 day
suspension.
Todd Gerhardt: And if I remember correctly Roger, with MGM we assessed a $2,000 fine and
they served 3 year probationary period? That if any time during the next 3 days they had another
violation, it would be 9 days where they would have to not serve liquor.
Councilman Peterson: I don't recall whether it was $2,000 or not. That seems.
Councilman Boyle: I thought it was $1,000.
Councilman Peterson: I think it was $1,000.
Mayor Jansen: I think it was $1,000, but we could certainly direct the city attorney to provide us
that information at the next meeting as noted.
Roger Knutson: Yeah, my recollection is $1,000.
Todd Gerhardt: I think I got that mixed up with what the maximum was.
Roger Knutson: Yes, the maximum is $2,000.
Mayor Jansen: Not a problem. Thank you for recall that.
Councilman Peterson: So what do you need from us?
Mayor Jansen: Some direction for staff as to how we would like to proceed, and then instruct the
attorney will then provide the Findings of Fact and a similar proposal as we had on MGM,
correct?
Roger Knutson: If you'd like what we could do is make sure we know. Confirm what the MGM
penalty was, and then bring that back to you at your next meeting and put that on your consent
agenda. The same penalty.
Mayor Jansen: Okay, and just request similar language, if that's where we're going.
Roger Knutson: That'd be my recommendation.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. I agree with the other two council members, and it is sad to have one of
our establishments here and having to address an issue like this because we certainly are proud to
have you as a member of our community, and we do want to recognize your 34 years, as you
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
mentioned without a violation. So to know that this is one of the exceptions, and we certainly
don't want to inflict any sort of a penalty that seems extreme. The language as it was worded in
fact makes a stronger impact on the second violation. It has repercussions back to the first
situation so I'm hearing council wanting to direct staff going in that direction and because you
have taken measures, as far as instituting your refresher course. You also mentioned having
brought in a certified trainer to work with employees. I think that certainly meets the spirit of the
guidelines that council has to deviate from that 3 day suspension.
Tom Scallen: Madam Mayor, there's one thing I did not point out that I think I should have.
Mayor Jansen: You might step the microphone so we can capture that for the minutes.
Tom Scallen: There's one thing I neglected to mention. The bartender in question who made this
error in judgment, we looked at his record. He had an absolutely clear record of 25 years. Never
any discipline. Never any reprimands. An absolutely clean record. If he'd been a new
employee, we'd have fired him. We didn't feel, we gave him a severe reprimand but we didn't
think the man who's been that good an employee that long who made one error in judgment
should have been terminated, but I should have called that to your attention. I'm sorry.
Mayor Jansen: Appreciate that. Thank you for sharing that. So with that, council ifI could have
a motion please.
Councilman Peterson: I motion, make a motion to prepare the necessary paperwork for us to
make a judgment, essentially the same as we made with the MGM situation about a month ago.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. And a second?
Councilman Boyle: Second.
Mayor Jansen: And staff, was that a detailed enough motion to be able to draft the documents?
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Wonderful.
Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Boyle seconded to direct staff to prepare
Findings of Fact similar to those prepared for the MGM Liquor Warehouse violation, and
bring it back for approval on the next Consent Agenda. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously 3 to 0.
Mayor Jansen: Thank you for being here this evening Mr. Scallen. Appreciate that. We'll hope
to see you under more positive circumstances the next time. Thank you. And I should have
thanked you for participating in our groundbreaking ceremony with the library. That was a
wonderful presentation that was made to the community so thank you so much.
Tom Scallen: We want to be a good citizen.
Mayor Jansen: We recognize that, thank you.
12
City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
PUBLIC HEARING: REQUEST FOR OFF-SALE INTOXICATING LIQUOR LICENSE,
TBI LIQUOR TWO DBA CHEERS WINE AND SPIRITS, 530 WEST 79TM STREET.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, City Council members. Mr. Baier, who currently owns Cheers Wine and
Spirits at 530 West 79th Street is selling the business to Mr. Michael Baier and Alan Johnson. So
as a part of this we must hold a public hearing in transferring that liquor license.
Mayor Jansen: Okay, thank you. Any questions for staff?
Councilman Boyle: None.
Mayor Jansen: I will open this for the public hearing. If there's anyone here. Actually if we
have the applicant. I don't know if the applicant is here and would like to make any comments
this evening. You don't have to.
Applicant: No comments.
Mayor Jansen: If there is anyone who would like to comment on this item, certainly step forward
at this time. Seeing no one, I will close the public hearing and bring this back to council.
Council, comments?
Councilman Boyle: No comments.
Mayor Jansen: Otherwise I'll call for a motion.
Councilman Peterson: I'd make a motion we recommend approval of the off-sale intoxicating
liquor license request from TBI Liquor Two Incorporated to operate Cheers Wine and Spirits
liquor store at 530 West 79th Street.
Mayor Jansen: And a second?
Councilman Boyle: Second.
Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Boyle seconded approval of the off-sale
intoxicating liquor license request from TBI Liquor Two Incorporated to operate Cheers
Wine and Spirits liquor store at 530 West 79th Street. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously 3 to 0.
Mayor Jansen: Thank you. Thanks for being here this evening.
AWARD OF BIDS: CHANHASSEN LIBRARY PROJECT.
Todd Gerhardt: Barry Pettit, if you're in the hallway, if you could come in.
Councilman Peterson: He's talking with somebody. I think Melissa is telling him. Maybe not.
Mayor Jansen: Barry Pettit. Paging Barry Pettit. Barry Pettit, you're up. He's too busy talking
out in the hallway.
Councilman Peterson: We'll deduct it from his fees.
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
Mayor Jansen: There we go. Mr. Pettit, welcome. We are on your agenda item and ready for
you. Are you ready for us?
BatTy Pettit: I am ready. Well we have some good news. I'm going to pass something out that
no one's seen, so I'm not sure if it's good or bad to do this...
Mayor Jansen: It all depends on what it says.
BatTy Pettit: It's just part of the one piece of information I want to cover real quickly tonight.
But basically the idea is to update you on the library in general and I think the objective this
evening is to come away with a, the city, the process with the city is that you have to approve the,
what's the formal process? You have to approve the bids, is that the way it works or what?
Todd Gerhardt: Award bid to the contractor.
BatTy Pettit: Okay, and then in order to get that going we can go with an order to proceed which
is based on the contract to be signed or you could use some sort of, get a contract together and get
it out. You can make that decision internally. But at any rate, real quickly. I think everyone got
a note. The good news, we got favorable bids. I think it's already what 3 weeks, 4 weeks ago.
March 14th. 4 weeks ago. We had a number of people bid, which was good. Probably as, this is
kind of a lot of microphone here. As many as we've, as I've had and especially considering the
fact, and I don't know if people remember that day but it was a sort of a blizzard and we were
thinking about calling off the bid because we'd had some requests from contractors but we said
let's do it and they all showed up. So the bottom line is Kraus Anderson came in with the low bid
of $4,865,000. The budget was, not counting the contingency was $5,125,000. That's what we
were targeting for the budget so we came in below by that difference. And effectively as the
memo said from last week, is that gives us a contingency, an effective contingency of about
$570,000. Okay, which is good. One of the things that it talked about in the memo is, and what I
passed out to the folks here is there are a few items that we're tidying up right now and we have
some final numbers from Kraus Anderson on them and because we had a favorable bid, there are
a number of items that we were able to add back into the project. The sheet that I handed out, the
shaded numbers in the add column, those are numbers that are, that we added, either added back
in entirely or modified somewhat because we had more resources to do something a little bit more
elaborate with them, as was part of our original wish list. And so this, something like this will
probably make up the first change order. We also have to do a little bit of work with the entry.
We have to have a, re-open the dialogue on what the entry's going to look like. I'm not over
pleased with it. I know that Linda was hoping for something. I don't think anyone was overly
pleased with, we want to sketch around a little bit and see if we can get something that's a better
resolution to that.
Mayor Jansen: Well, and just to clarify. It wasn't just myself. It was the building committee so.
BatTy Pettit: There were more. There were more, but the good news on that is in the deduct
column, what we asked for Kraus is to say well at least give us the credit for taking that out, so
what do we have to work with, and that's where the $25,000 comes up with. So that's a little,
that needs some work, and we've got some ideas on that, and we have a little bit of time to work
with that but we've got to start closing on it quickly because if it impacts the footing foundation
work, which obviously starts right away, then we need an answer on that. So that was set up with
the building committee and get that tweaked, and we're doing that all on our own time so we're
certainly not requesting additional service to redesign something. But we think we've got some
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
ideas that might work better. I'm not sure, I think so... sums up with that would be the Kraus-
Anderson again is the low bidder. We had some other folks that were right in the same area,
which is always good because it usually says that the drawings are reasonably decent or at least
everybody looked at them the same way. So there's a little bit of reinforcement that things are
alright. And I think, there's another piece. What was that? 13 months? No. They were thinking
they could it in less than a year in terms of construction from the beginning of construction and
conclusion. That seems a little aggressive but that's up to them. If they can do it that quickly,
that would be great. Typically projects like this are a bit longer than that. I would say probably
from beginning to end, their end, there's always a few things to clean up at the end but from say
ribbon cutting for example, I would say it'd be every bit of about 15 months would be my guess.
And again, Kraus is obviously a big operation. They can probably marshal a lot more work
forces and so forth than maybe some contractors and maybe in general they're just more
aggressive so if we can do it that quickly, that'd be fabulous. You'd basically be open a year
from now, or at least the building would be done a year from now. There's kind of a, it takes
probably about a month for the library to move in and get everything set up and do some shake
down and so forth. But based on that, I think the letter said, let's see where was that? We were
guessing based on what they were talking about that you'd be open June 1. That would be the
optimistic side. And if that works again, that's great. So Kraus is ready to go. We spent some
time reviewing the documents. That's what some of this stuff is generated from. Not that we like
to walk into the projects day one with already talking about change orders but there were some
again as we have an issue, a number of issues. Because we had favorable bids, we have a few
items on the wish list that we can add into the project. We also, as with most projects, in the
bidding process there were some issues that had come up in the very last that you can't mm into
an addendum. And we bumped into a few of those. I think we've taken care of those now so
we're in good shape on that. But I think what I would love to get from the city then is again,
either a notice to proceed or actual working with or getting the contract out. Now their contract,
and I brought a draft of this and I'm sure your city attomey has seen this a lot of times. It's just a
standard Al01 contract... It's very simple. It's only about a 5 page long document, and it
basically links together their work with the construction documents, and it links together also that
document with a series of other documents that are also considered part of the contract
documents. And basically all it does is it fills in the bid amount. The $4,865,000. Talks about
how long the project's going to last, and payments so it's pretty simple. A simple piece that we
use a lot of other things together, so that's it. If there are any questions, love to.
Mayor Jansen: Actually I do have a couple of things, just so that we are clear in how we're
communicating to our constituents how this project proceeded. Some of the things that you
referred to as being able to add them back in because, from off of our wish list. They were in
fact, several of these things, components that we assumed were a part of the bid. However there
was some hesitancy on MS&R's part that the bids may come in high, so they did select a couple
of items, one of them to my surprise was the fireplace that was listed as something that could be
deleted. So I don't want the community to think that we are now taking what now appears to be
this extra money, and now applying it in order to upgrade things entirely. The entryway was a
discussion again where MS&R came to us, boy almost the day we were getting ready to put this
out for bid, and wanted to re-address that entryway as a cost saving measure. And there was a
great deal of discussion around whether we liked the revision and the building committee ended
up communicating that we did not. So I certainly look forward to revisiting that issue and making
sure that we are putting out with the contractor, the entryway that the building committee as well
as council can approve, because if it does vary very dramatically from what council has already
seen, we will obviously need to bring that back up for you to take a look at and approve. But one
of the items that I did notice, additionally was within your memo item number 8. You noted that
on several of the millwork pieces we used plastic laminate tops. And then the notation below that
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
is, I think the teen area booths would be the likely candidates to change back to solid surface. I
would be interested again in your bringing to the building committee the information on which
solid surfaces were eliminated going out to bid that we were assuming would be the solid surface
that now apparently this is saying went to plastic laminate. Just so we know exactly how this is
proceeding. Because there were some options that were put out there again, if the bid had come
in high, we could have gone with an alternative. And I do think it would be important to have the
building committee review that if council is comfortable with them going through that detail for
us. And I had a few other questions in there but we can certainly take that to building committee
and just have them move through this, and I think just one final review. Obviously we need to
award the bid, but I think we need to get a look at what some of these change orders are
encompassing so that we know exactly how this project is moving forward.
BatTy Pettit: Well and there's also the, I think generally just a sort of an overview of the project
because there's some other pieces that need to be finished along the way. We still have the
interior package, which at this point that cost is mostly a County cost but it does impact the
library from an aesthetic point of view which brings in the building committee in terms of review
of materials and so on and so forth. So that still has to happen. And there's a couple other things
like that that we've got to review. And I know there's sort of some issues of what might be
happening in the interim in terms of the sort of the lounge area. Whatever that is, so we have to
take a look at a few of those things. The only issue is just the timing on that is to make sure that
if there are some things that are impacted by construction, we have to just make sure that we get
decisions before they get to that part of the building.
Mayor Jansen: We certainly can check calendars and set up a date right away to bring the
committee in to address that.
BatTy Pettit: I'll do an email with Todd and we'll figure something out.
Mayor Jansen: Okay, appreciate that but again, I just want to make sure we're communicating to
our community that we're not looking for places to spend this money. And there are landscaping
issues that will impact the library as we move forward with the City Center Commons, and what
is now a re-designed plaza area so again, we are being good stewards with this money and not
looking to do any additional add-in's beyond what...
BatTy Pettit: ...talk to you about this but we've been trying to figure out how to weave these two
pieces together, and we.
Mayor Jansen: We had a lengthy conversation around that and I'm sure Mr. Gerhardt can relay
that discussion with you.
BatTy Pettit: And at this point Kraus-Anderson has just given us an amount of money that's in
the contract and they said they'll hold that for the next 6 months until we make a decision on
what to do, so it's not a problem for them and how it gets woven together.
Mayor Jansen: Okay, great. Understood. Council, any questions for BatTy?
Councilman Peterson: BatTy, the only one that I had was regarding the budget for special
inspections. It just seems like a lot of money to have, not to have in there.
BatTy Pettit: What it is is, and maybe you know the history of this but I think it's an addition to
the UBC, you know from building code, 6 years? 7 years? Something like that, and what it did is
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
it took inspections of a project basically dealing with structural kinds of issues, whether it's soil
corrections. Or soils issues, concrete, steel, wells and that sort of stuff, and it made it much more
elaborate and it seems that it became a little bit more nebulous as to what the city wanted to
specifically do with it. And so although the contractor does have dollars in there, has historically
always had dollars in there for some of that stuff, because it became more elaborate, it is again
just kind of turned over to a city cost. And then it depends on, and a lot of it does depend on the
design of the building, so it varies dramatically from project to project and from municipality to
municipality. In this situation, as I did bring up, we've got, although we've got a great flat site
that looks like it's good, it has a few more dollars that we have to contribute to some soils
correction, which again goes back to the testing again. So it really is, the problem with, a short
answer is, the problem with it is, it's very difficult to bid it. That's the problem and so it has been
historically taken out of the bids and said let's look at this when, as a singular contract and I guess
that's the evolution of it. But you're right. It's, the other two bids are a little bit more than that. I
think they're in the 13-14,000 dollar range, but they were both, all three of them were based on
the same criteria so theoretically it's what we want them to do.
Councilman Peterson: Okay. That's it.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Gary?
Councilman Boyle: I don't have any questions.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. And Todd, I would assume that you'll be reviewing any of these costs that
potentially are driven by the city and making sure that they're, our expectations and not anything
elaborate.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, I think Barry had talked with Steve today regarding the fire marshal's
modification of the alarm and fire system, and that he wasn't requesting any additional changes.
Barry Pettit: We're still both foggy on that. He thought we had right and we're not sure that the
engineer does so I still have to talk to the engineer about that as well.
Todd Gerhardt: Alright. And the only other suggestion I'd have for the City Council is that, that
the City Council award the bid and direct staff to enter into a construction contract that has been
reviewed by the City Attorney for the construction of the new Chanhassen library project to
Kraus-Anderson in the bid amount of $4,865,000. So I did change my recommendation to
include enter into a construction contract that has been reviewed by the City Attorney for the
construction of the new Chanhassen library project. Awarded to Kraus-Anderson in the bid
amount of $4,865,000.
Councilman Peterson: I would make that same exact motion.
Mayor Jansen: Thank you. Okay, and ifI could have a second.
Councilman Boyle: Second.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Anything else that we need to add to that? You've caught it within your
changes to the motion.
Todd Gerhardt: Set up a meeting and talk about solid surfaces and a few other things.
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
Mayor Jansen: Okay. And so we're perfectly clear, we have not approved any change orders this
evening with this motion.
Todd Gerhardt: No you have not.
Mayor Jansen: Okay.
Barry Pettit: I will say one thing, is we're hoping by, I think your second meeting in May, to
have all these tidied up and I would assume with any change order come before the council for
approval so if there's some kind of controversy on that. The process is such that the numbers all
come together and go to Todd before the council would see them, so if he's got any questions he
can either, obviously ask those based on what he's seen or pass them around to other folks in the
staff and get their reaction as well. So it's likely by the time they get to you they've been
scrutinized pretty carefully.
Mayor Jansen: Yes, and our building committee members have certainly been flexible with their
time and being able to meet so I'm sure we'll be able to get something set up rather quickly so
appreciate that. I have a motion and a second.
Resolution #2002-35: Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Boyle seconded that the
City Council award the bid to Kraus-Anderson in the bid amount of $4,865,000 and direct
staff to enter into a construction contract, that has been reviewed by the City Attorney, for
the construction of the new Chanhassen library project. All voted in favor and the motion
carried unanimously 3 to 0.
Mayor Jansen: So thank you for being here this evening. This is certainly an exciting project. A
very exciting project. We had a great ground breaking ceremony and we did have the most recent
pictures of the project there for the public to be able to review, but it was a very exciting day and
we're certainly looking forward to the project getting underway.
Barry Pettit: It will be exciting. I do pass along my own apology for not being there. I ran into
Jeff and he said, that I should pass along his apologies for not being. He was out of town. I
wasn't feeling well and the only person that went there was Pat who doesn't even work in our
office anymore so we had some semblance of a representative there, but I know it was a great.
Mayor Jansen: We were glad to see Pat there. Certainly he worked with us throughout the
project so he was a significant representative to have present so.
Barry Pettit: I know he was glad to be there as well. Anyway, thank you and we'll keep you
updated all along the way and we'll get that meeting going with the building committee.
Mayor Jansen: Thank you.
YEAR END UPDATE, SOUTHWEST METRO TRANSIT, LEN SIMICH.
Len Simich: Thank you Mayor Jansen and members of the council. It's my pleasure to be here
this evening and thank you for the opportunity to update you on the state of Southwest Metro
Transit. As we begin our 16th year of service we do so with much excitement. Our goal to
become the region's premiere trans provider and I think with the success that we've had over the
last few years, we are more than on our way. In front of you you should have the Southwest
Metro Transit Commission's 2001 Annual Report, and I'm not going to go over the report in any
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
great detail but I would like to point out a few of the report's highlights and then answer any
questions that you may have. First, for the fifth straight year ridership has increased. Overall we
experienced a 7 percent increase in ridership, with a 10 percent increase in the express market
which as you know is our core service. In 2001 we provided over 600,000 passenger trips. On
the budget side of our operation, our revenues increased 18 percent over the previous year,
surpassing the $1 million mark in fare box revenue alone for the first time. We also spent about a
half million dollars less than we originally had budgeted and this was a plan savings or budget
reduction since after the last legislative session we knew we were going to be coming off the
property tax at the beginning of 2002, and that we would not be going on our new form of
funding which will be the motor vehicle excise tax until August of this year. So during the first
half of 2002 we're really going to be drawing against our budget reserves to pay for our agency
expenses. As for milestones, the agency accomplished a number of things over the past year.
However there are a few that really stand out. First, we secured an additional $10 million in
future federal capital grants. This money will be used to purchase additional vehicles. It will also
be used to construct a park and ride lot, as well as other passenger amenities adjacent to the new
Highway 312, somewhere in the neighborhood of Chaska/Chanhassen border. We also secured
funding and brought into service two new commuter coach vehicles. Those are the larger, luxury
coaches that you may see in operation. Right now we have a total of 8 of those commuter
coaches in our operation, and we will be bringing additional ones in over the next few years. We
also secured funding and brought into service 5 new small vehicles that we use in our Dial-a-Ride
service, and one 27 passenger trolley. Last August we transported over 23 riders to the
Minnesota State Fair, surpassing our previous high by over 10,000 rides. And finally we began
construction on a 900 stall parking deck in our southwest station site, which will be completed
sometime this fall. This will allow for the adjacent transit oriented development construction to
get underway sometime before the end of the year. As we move into 2002, a number of
opportunities and challenges lay ahead. First and foremost of course is the budget, and the budget
situation and with this transfer onto the motor vehicle excise tax, and where that will lead nobody
can really tell right now so that is one thing that we are watching and tracking very closely. We
also will be working with the city staff here in the redevelopment of the Chanhassen Bowl site.
We'll be expanding our current bus garage and maintenance facility to accommodate our growth
in terms of overall vehicles. We'll be taking into possession an additional 6 of those commuter
coaches that I had mentioned earlier. We also will be replacing 10 of our older 40 foot vehicles
that we have in service right now. And one of the bigger items for this year is the evaluation of
our Dial-a-Ride service, which we have some options and we're looking at some replacement
options for that. The Dial-a-Ride service, while it is a very good service and a service that is used
by the passengers in all 3 cities, it is a very expensive service to operate and so we're looking at
some fixed route options for that service and with that I'd like to have John Kragness, the planner
from our staff, come up and briefly identify some of the options we're looking at.
Mayor Jansen: Great, thank you.
John Kragness: Thank you Mayor, members of the council. I am John Kragness with Southwest
Metro and I'm the lead planner on redesign for the Dial-a-Ride system and looking for
alternatives for it. What we're looking at for Chanhassen is connections between Chanhassen-
Eden Prairie and connections between Chanhassen and Chaska. We're planning some fixed route
service that would connect Eden Prairie and also our services beyond from Southdale and
Minneapolis, to connect workers to the Chanhassen area. It would go via Dell Road to Quattro,
along with 78th Street to Market Boulevard. And then continue on down through West 78th Street
down to Powers and Park and then connect to Chaska. We're looking at the service from Eden
Prairie. It will take about a half hour frequency and we're looking at our service to and from
Chaska that will be about an hour frequency. As Len said, the Dial-a-Ride is a good system for
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
those that use it. However we need a replacement. It accounts for about 25 percent of our
operating budget and about 10 percent of our rides. We look at this fixed route alternative as a
system design, it will open up the system to more riders and we believe that it will also, with
increased ridership it will lower our subsidy per passenger so what we're planning to do is go
before public comment at the Chan Recreation Center on May 21st. We'll be promoting that
through the papers. Our web site and also to our riders. And we hope that we will make, the
commission will make a final decision sometime this summer and we would like to move forward
and implement any type of service change in September.
Mayor Jansen: Great, thank you. Any questions while John's at the microphone on that particular
service? Okay, thank you.
Len Simich: One thing ifI could add with the service changes. One of the requests we get from
Chanhassen in particular is additional mid-day service and with this new circulator service it now,
while it will require a transfer at our Eden Prairie facility, will allow people to leave from
Chanhassen in the morning and get back throughout the day. So it's not just the peak hour
service that we currently have, so we think it will be an improvement over that.
Mayor Jansen: Great, thank you for mentioning that. Anything else? Okay. I don't know if it's
premature to speculate on some of the development that might be occurring at the transit hub.
We in fact did have Krispy Kremes participate in our grand opening, or our ground breaking
ceremony for the library so of course that started a little speculation and some quick
communicating that they will be positioning themselves at the transit hub.
Len Simich: Correct. As it stands right now, the Krispy Kremes store at the transit station should
be the third one that will open up here in the metro area. Unless we get pushed back in the
schedule but right now it looks like they'll be coming in as well as some of the standards, the
Caribou Coffee's, the Panera Breads, Gepolte Noodles, Ruby Tuesdays, a Culver's, so there's a
number of things, exciting things that will be happening, as well as about 250 to 275 housing
units so we're looking forward to getting going on that as soon as our parking ramp gets
completed.
Mayor Jansen: That's great. It's some very exciting development that's occurring and as we're
looking at our Chan Bowl site, though it's a much smaller version of the transit development out
at the hub, we are trying to compliment that kind of development with the housing combined with
retail and commercial so it certainly is an exciting project out there to see coming together.
Len Simich: Yes, there's some challenges but I think in the long run it's going to be a very nice
development and again I can see some great opportunities here in Chanhassen for something
similar too.
Mayor Jansen: Any questions for Len? Any comments? Well we certainly appreciate the
service that you provide to our community and coming in and sharing that with us this evening.
You certainly are a key component of I think the quality of life here in Chan. Allowing people
that type of an alternative as far as transportation and having served on the commission for the
last 2 years, I would have to say that your staff is exceptional as far as professionalism and your
customer service is excellent. I know that the few comments that we did receive from the public
were just immediately addressed and reacted to so appreciate that kind of partnership with you.
With Chanhassen and that you're looking at that service and trying to provide as much
accessibility as possible for our residents, so thank you. Appreciate that.
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
Len Simich: Thanks for the comments and it's our pleasure to be here.
Mayor Jansen: And I should mention, Len did the same sort of a presentation at the Rotary
recently so he has been out in the community and sharing this information with others which is
excellent. Thank you for doing that.
Len Simich: Thank you.
MEDIACOM UPDATE.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, City Council members. I do not see a Mediacom representative here this
evening. I would ask that you table this item to your next meeting and I will call Mr. Jensen to
see what happened and request that he attend your next meeting to update you on their activities.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. Appreciate that and part of that was to get an update on the open house
that was held on Saturday. Here on Saturday from 9:00 to 11:00 to receive public comment so
council, if I could have a motion please.
Councilman Boyle: I'd make a motion that we table til our next meeting.
Councilman Peterson: Second.
Councilman Boyle moved, Councilman Peterson seconded to table the Mediacom update to
the next City Council meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously 3 to
0.
APPOINTMENTS TO ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSION.
Mayor Jansen: We interviewed an applicant earlier this evening in our work session. We have
one opening on this particular commission and we have one applicant so with that council if I
could have a motion please.
Councilman Peterson: I'd move that the City Council appoint Kim Grant to the Environmental
Commission for the term expiring March 31, 2003.
Mayor Jansen: And a second?
Councilman Boyle: Second.
Mayor Jansen: So this is a one year, so we're filling the end of a term. We had opted in a prior
situation to make it a one year with the 3 year appointment of a term after that. Is council
interested in doing that in this situation?
Councilman Boyle: I see no problem with doing that.
Councilman Peterson: I agree.
Mayor Jansen: Is there a friendly amendment to the motion?
Councilman Boyle: Amended. Oh you amend it. You made the motion.
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
Councilman Peterson: I'm not that friendly so you're going to have to make a friendly
amendment.
Councilman Boyle: The friendly amendment would amend the motion to include an automatic
appointment after 1 year to a 4 year.
Mayor Jansen: To a 3 year term.
Councilman Boyle: 3 year term, excuse me.
Councilman Peterson: Accepted.
Mayor Jansen: Okay, thank you.
Councilman Peterson moved, Councilman Boyle seconded to appoint Klm Grant to the
Environmental Commission with an automatic appointment after 1 year to a 3 year term.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously 3 to 0.
Mayor Jansen: So congratulations to Klm Grant. Welcome to our Environmental Commission.
We certainly look forward to having you as a part of the team.
APPOINTMENTS TO SENIOR COMMISSION.
Mayor Jansen: We have 4 terms that are expiring this year. The 4 incumbents did put their
applications in for re-appointment and we did not have any new applications. So council, if I
could have a motion please.
Councilman Boyle: I make a motion that we appoint the 4 incumbents, Tom Faust, Jean Mancini,
Mel Kurvers and A10lson, and that Tom Faust and A10lson be appointed to a 2 year term, and
Jean Mancini and Mel Kurvers to a 3 year term.
Mayor Jansen: And a second?
Councilman Peterson: Second.
Councilman Boyle moved, Councilman Peterson seconded to appoint Tom Faust and Al
Olson be appointed to a 2 year term, and Jean Mancini and Mel Kurvers to a 3 year term
on the Senior Commission. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously 3 to 0.
Mayor Jansen: We have appreciated the service of our 4 incumbents to date and certainly look
forward to having them continuing on our commission, so that is wonderful and a wonderful
commitment on their part to continue.
COUNCIL/COMMISSION LIAISON UPDATE.
Mayor Jansen: Any updates council?
Councilman Boyle: I don't have one this time.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. I did want to note that as a part of the information that we received from
our Park and Rec Director, that he has implemented a training program that he's using from out
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
of this particular book, "Are You On Board", and it will be a training program that he'll be going
through with the new board members on how to be a board member and leadership skills and
there is a tape that he discussed in his memo to us that he will be sharing with them and setting up
I believe he said a 3 hour training seminar. And Mr. Gerhardt has had conversations with Kate
Aanenson and she too will be putting together some training programs for the Planning
Commission so I wanted to update council on that and I think there's a few extra copies of this
particular book floating around if you'd like to get a look at it. So I thought that was a good
program. And then just as one other update. I know that we've been getting some
communications on a MPCA meeting that was held last week on Thursday evening concerning
some resident and business concerns around the MGK facility which happens to be located in
Chaska, but it is right on our border and near some of our residential areas. Mark Littfin from our
staff attended that meeting, which we appreciate. He certainly has the hazardous material training
to discuss what are some chemical and odor concerns. LuAnn Sidney from our Planning
Commission was also present and happens to have a great deal of chemical training and
background to be able to advise on this particular project. So we will be getting some additional
communication on this issue. The City's very aware of what is occurring and staying abreast of
any of the current developments around this project so. I also attended that meeting if only to be
able to provide any updated information to council so we will get some communication to
everyone on that particular issue. Otherwise no other updates on meetings.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS.
Todd Gerhardt: We will be having an EDA meeting this coming Monday, the 29th. 7:00 in this
room. And we will have a quorum.
Mayor Jansen: And if you wouldn't mind just sending out a reminder notice to all of council on
that date and time so that we're sure, since it's not a regular council evening, that everybody still
has it on their calendar would be great.
Councilman Boyle: Was that 7:00?
Mayor Jansen: Yes.
Todd Gerhardt: Yes. And it's a public hearing on the land sale on West 79th Street, and then an
update on the bowling alley property.
Mayor Jansen: Great. Now we had moved and item from the consent agenda, l(g). Councilman
Peterson, if you'd like to raise that discussion.
APPROVAL OF REDISTRICTING PLAN.
Councilman Peterson: Yeah, my only comment was really keying on what I brought up last time.
I think precinct number 3 is substantially less than the others. I know the intent was that it be
built with growth in mind, but it was my assumption that we build it, that they should all be
within I think 5 percent of each other and they're clearly not. It just seems inappropriate so I
wasn't ready to vote for that on a consent agenda so.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. I'm curious, were you able, did you raise that issue with staff since the last
meeting? I know our key concentration had been on cleaning up some of the lines, and I don't
know that we concentrated on that population number as far as getting any kind of a response for
you.
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
Councilman Peterson: Did I speak to staff in the interim? No. Other than when I brought it up
the last time and I thought that's what they were going to work on, and I quite frankly thought
they would and I didn't look at it that closely until this afternoon and Todd and I played
voicemail tag today so.
Mayor Jansen: Okay, thank you. Can you give us a comment on?
Todd Gerhardt: The 5% percentage, I don't know if staff included or not but Roger just updated
me. The 5 percent of population is for the ward districts, is what Roger's telling me. Do you
want to expand on that.
Roger Knutson: When you talk about legislative boundaries, commissioner boundaries, if you
had city wards, that you want to be within 5 percent. For precincts, you certainly can be within 5
percent. You can be within anything you want. There is no legal requirement on that, I just want
to be that clear.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. So the intent of that percent is that if you were elected from that particular
precinct, you would in fact be at a disadvantage, correct?
Roger Knutson: The notion on the 5 percent is, you know the one name, give me one person, one
vote. And so if you're in a county commissioner district, you should have roughly the same,
within 5 percent, the same number of people in your district as everyone else has. So everyone
has, each commissioner represents the same number of people or fairly close to it. Precincts as
such don't determine, as you know. No one gets elected from a precinct as such.
Mayor Jansen: We are all elected at large by the entire community. Okay. Thank you for
addressing that. Does that answer your question?
Councilman Peterson: It wasn't really a question other than I think that I guess philosophically
we wait for a census to allocate the precincts appropriately, and I don't think we've done that
here. I don't think it's a huge issue other than the fact that I just don't think it's done right so.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. I guess having reviewed the information that staff gave us previously, and
realizing that that precinct comes into the MUSA line within the next couple of years, the logic
around how they looked at it is that we are set with these precincts for the next 10 years. And if
that population does come in as they've projected, if we bump that number up now, that would
become very quickly the largest precinct versus being the smallest. And I do believe that was the
discussion that I know that Karen had shared with us as she was reviewing the numbers and
certainly as they were trying to do the balances of the precincts so, I'm less concerned with that
having been given that background information from staff and of course they took that same thing
into consideration when they looked at precinct number 7, and the Puke numbers and that
population that's going to be coming in over the next couple of years. That is the second smallest
precinct and will be experiencing that growth number so they did do a significant amount of
calculating and balancing and trying to come up with the right configurations on this so I guess I
am comfortable going ahead with this. I did appreciate from Councilman Peterson's comments
the last time, they did take a look at some of these lines inbetween the precincts and definitely
made it more defined using roadways versus what was school district lines and trails. So I do
think it will be more understandable for the public at large. This isn't a public hearing but if we
do have anyone from the public that has taken a look at the redistricting and wants to make
comments, you're certainly welcome to. We fortunately have tried to get this information out so
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
that people could be aware of it and it's not really a big deal since we are all elected at large so
we haven't received many comments from the public at this point. Okay.
Frank Mendez: With the redistricting, does that have any affect on possible wards for City
Council representation further down the road?
Mayor Jansen: A ward conversation would have to be addressed totally separately. It's a
completely different process and would require a great deal of review. We had staff give us some
background information on that several meetings ago, and the discussion at the council was that
we have so many large projects that are on our agenda currently and we're working in numerous
committees on issues, that we were going to opt to wait and review that. In fact I think one of the
processes involved are having to put it on the ballot to have it approved by the community if we
were to switch to a ward system, correct?
Todd Gerhardt: We need to get special legislation from our legislators to look at enacting the
ward system, and they could make it a requirement that you would have to get special approval
from your residents. Or is that a requirement? I read that two different ways.
Roger Knutson: They could make it a requirement. When the legislature legislates, they can
pretty well do what they want. But this, it wouldn't necessarily have to go to a vote. They could
just authorize you locally to have a ward system, or they could say you can only do it if you have
a referendum and it's approved.
Todd Gerhardt: But this map would have to be all redone as a part of a ward system and that's a
whole other process in itself and just watch the newspapers, Shorewood's going through it right
now.
Roger Knutson: The reason it would be impossible to try to synchronize this with a potential
ward system is, I don't even know how many council members you have. Would you have 5?
Would you have 7? Would you have something else? So you really, I wouldn't even know how
to begin to synchronize and I don't think you can do that. I don't even know what your wards
would look like.
Mayor Jansen: Yeah. It's a pretty extensive process, to say the least and no we are not
undergoing that at this point, but thanks for asking. Appreciate that. Council, at this point we do
need to direct staff. We have a deadline to have this approved by the 30th SO this is our last
council meeting to have this done within the legal guidelines for approval. So if I could have a
motion please.
Councilman Boyle: I would make the motion that we approve as it is presented in front of us.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. And a second? I'll second the motion.
Resolution #2002-36: Councilman Boyle moved, Mayor Jansen seconded to approve the
Redistricting Plan as presented. Councilman Boyle and Mayor Jansen voted in favor,
Councilman Peterson voted in opposition. The motion carried with a vote of 2 to 1.
Mayor Jansen: Roger, is that just simple majority to pass this?
Roger Knutson: Yes. You're just adopting a resolution.
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City Council Meeting - April 22, 2002
Mayor Jansen: Okay, great. Thank you. And any conversation around the correspondence that
we received this evening?
Councilman Boyle: I had none.
Mayor Jansen: Okay. With that, I will again make the announcement that we are not holding the
work session after our meeting due to our short attendance here this evening. I made that
announcement at the beginning of the council meeting but that meeting was strictly to provide
background to our new council members so that they would have the breadth of the project and
all of the decision points so it did not involve the current project. It was just to provide some
background for those members and we are missing at least one that was not involved enough to
really have the background on that project so we will be removing agenda item number 11 and
we will communicate when we will in fact have that rescheduled so our apologies for any
inconvenience. It certainly was not something that we could anticipate as far as the attendance
this evening. So with that, ifI could have a motion to adjourn.
Councilman Boyle moved, Councilman Peterson seconded to adjourn the City Council
meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 8:35
p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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