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CC 2011 10 24 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING OCTOBER 24, 2011 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 McDonald, Councilwoman Tjornhom, Councilwoman Ernst, and Councilman Laufenburger STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Laurie Hokkanen, Paul Oehme, Kate Aanenson, Todd Hoffman, Roger Knutson, and Greg Sticha PUBLIC PRESENT: Paul and Isaac Anderson 7025 Cheyenne Trail Mayor Furlong: Thank you and welcome to everybody here at the council chambers and those watching at home. We’re glad that you joined us this evening. At this time I would ask members of the City Council if there are any changes or modifications to the agenda. If not, without objection we’ll proceed with the agenda as published. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Mayor Furlong: We have two public announcements this evening. The first one I’d like to extend an invitation to the ChanJam 2011. The City of Chanhassen is proud to announce and present ChanJam ’11. th I would like to invite everyone to join me on November 18 6:30 at the Chanhassen High School auditorium for this musical showcase. The event will feature a number of local bands from Chanhassen High School, Chaska High School, Minnetonka High and other places. The bands will be rocking it out in a battle for the bands and bragging rights to be Chanhassen’s best. Several prizes will be awarded th including recording time, opportunities to play at the Chanhassen 4 of July celebration and Minnesota State Fair. Guitar and rock camp scholarships and more. The winning band will be selected by a panel of judges. Tickets are $5 a person. They’re available at the door and you can save a dollar if you bring a th non-perishable food item so I look forward to seeing everyone at November 18, 6:30 p.m. at the Chanhassen High School auditorium for ChanJam ’11. At this time I would like to invite Lieutenant Enevold from the Carver County sheriff’s office to come forward please. Good evening Lieutenant. Lt. Jeff Enevold: Mr. Mayor, council, good evening. Mayor Furlong: Good evening. Lt. Jeff Enevold: I have the pleasure tonight of sharing a great story of our business community working together with the law enforcement community to identify a prescription fraud in the city, and two of the key players are right here with me. This is Allyson Reinsch. She was the Chanhassen pharmacist. This is Deputy Ben Grommets. He works for the City of Chanhassen. In this incident that I’m going to share with you really highlights the importance of partnerships not only with our businesses but with our residents and the visitors. We as law enforcement professionals cannot reduce, prevent all crime in the city without the help of our community and this is a great example of working together to prevent a crime. So on December, or December. On September 29, 2011 at 3:40 in the afternoon our office received a phone call from the Chanhassen Walgreen’s of a possible prescription fraud. Deputy Ben Grommets responded to the call and spoke with the pharmacist Allyson. Allyson recognized a female attempting to Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 fill a prescription. Had been in the store before using different names. She became suspicious and found that the phone number the female was using belonged to 3 other people and the addressed belonged to 2 other females so what she did is she made contact with the doctor’s office who filled the prescription and was able to verify that this gal was using different names and then she called our office. Deputy Grommets was able to talk to the female and attempted to identify her. He ran 3 of the names that she was using in the mobile computer in his car. Wasn’t able to get a match. He ran the fourth one and the photo came up with a match. He was able to positively identify her. Deputy Grommets arrested her. Transported her to jail and charged her with attempt to possess schedule 2 controlled substance by false name and also giving false name and date of birth to a police officer. Without Allyson’s attention to detail and willingness to get involved in this incident the female could have continued to fill these fraudulent prescriptions for who knows how long. A few years ago one of our deputies developed this citizen coin to present to citizens who go above and beyond the call to assist law enforcement. This fits the criteria of one of those incidents. The front of this coin has the sheriff’s badge on it. Has the words respect, dignity, honor, integrity and pride. On the back of the badge it says given in appreciation for your service to the community so it’s with great pleasure tonight that I present the sheriff’s office citizen coin to Allyson Reinsch and say thank you for the service to our community. That’s all I got for now. Mayor Furlong: Very good. Ms. Reinsch thank you very much for your service. Allyson Reinsch: Thank you. Mayor Furlong: Thanks Evan. Lt. Jeff Enevold: I was going to introduce her son Evan here too. Mayor Furlong: Absolutely. Thank you very much. Great story to tell and we really appreciate it and congratulate everyone involved. Let’s move forward then with our consent agenda. CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor, I’d like to remove item (e) for separate discussion please. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Item 1(e). Councilman Laufenburger: Yes. Mayor Furlong: Is that a long discussion or short? Councilman Laufenburger: Just a couple questions for Mr. Gerhardt or Mr. Hoffman. Mayor Furlong: Why don’t we pick it up right away after we’re done without objection. Councilman Laufenburger: That will be perfect, thank you. Mayor Furlong: Are there any other items 1(a) through (g) excluding (e) that people would like separate discussion on? If not, is there a motion to adopt items 1(a) through (e) excluding, excuse me. (a) through (g) excluding (e). Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: 2 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 a. Approval of Minutes: -City Council Work Session Minutes dated October 10, 2011 -City Council Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated October 10, 2011 Receive Commission Minutes: -Park and Recreation Commission Verbatim and Summary Minutes dated September 27, 2011 Resolution #2011-57: b. TH 5 Underpass at Minnewashta Parkway: Approve Resolution of Support for DNR Grant Application. c. Approve License Agreement with the University of Minnesota for the TH 5 Pedestrian Underpass. d. Approval of Temporary On-Sale Liquor License, St. Hubert’s Catholic Community, February 11, 2012, Cana Dinner. Resolution #2011-58: f. TH 5 Improvements from TH 41 to CR 11 in Victoria: Approve Plans. g. Approve Quote for Purchase of Replacement Vehicle for Fire Department Utility Truck 11. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. 1(E). RICE MARSH LAKE TRAIL EXTENSION PHASE I: APPROVE RESOLUTION OF SUPPORT FOR GRANT APPLICATION. Councilman Laufenburger: Yes Mr. Mayor, thank you. This relates to the Rice Marsh Lake trail extension and the description. I don’t have a problem with this motion. I just have a couple questions and I think I would direct them to Mr. Hoffman, okay. First of all Mr. Hoffman over the last several months we’ve had a number of grants that I’ve heard about where the actual cost of the trail or whatever it is, exceeded the initial grant. Can you just talk a little bit about how confident you are that the accuracy of the $111,000 for the trail, how accurate is that would you say? Todd Hoffman: For the cost estimate? Councilman Laufenburger: Yes, cost estimate. Todd Hoffman: It’s for the first phase so it’s a relatively simple section of trail to build because it’s on top of an existing utility, sewer utility line and so the grade is flat. The project is defined fairly easy. There’s no walls. Not a lot of water structures. Storm water structures go along with it so in this case I’m confident that that estimate should be real close to the actual construction cost. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. And I’m just reminded that this is a, we are offering a resolution of support for the grant so as a result of this we would then, the City Council essentially supports the application for the grant. What, am I saying that correctly? Todd Hoffman: Correct. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. What’s the likelihood that the grant will be approved? Do you have any feeling for that Mr. Hoffman? 3 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 Todd Hoffman: I do not. I’m hopeful but I do not have a real estimate on what the likelihood that it would be, it’s a scoring system and so it’s a ranking system. It’s a good project but we’re just unclear whether or not it will be supported. Councilman Laufenburger: Is the success, or the successful application and approval, is that predicated on Eden Prairie’s approval? Are they doing similar work? Similar grant application for their side of the trail or not. Todd Hoffman: They are not. They’re, but they’re supporting this application. They’ve mailed a letter of support for this application. Eden Prairie’s constructing their section of the trail with some remaining referendum dollars that they had in the bank and then they’re doing some special assessment on the section that’s going down through the south to Lyman. Councilman Laufenburger: So their agreement or the agreement we have with them is that they will build the trail up to the Chanhassen border and then we will complete the trail from the Chanhassen border and connect it with our existing Rice Marsh trail? Rice Marsh Lake trail, okay. Todd Hoffman: Correct. Councilman Laufenburger: Alright. That answers my questions Mr. Mayor. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Are there any other questions or would someone like to. Councilman Laufenburger: I’d be happy to, yeah. I’d like to recommend that, just a moment please. I recommend or I make a motion that the City Council approves the attached resolution supporting a DNR local trail connection program grant application for the construction of the Rice Marsh Lake trail extension Phase I. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second. Mayor Furlong: The motion’s been seconded. Is there any discussion on the motion? Resolution #2011-59: Councilman Laufenburger moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the City Council approves the attached resolution supporting a DNR Local Trail Connection Program grant application for the construction of the Rice Marsh Lake Trail Extension Phase I. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS: Mayor Furlong: We do have some representatives from the Chanhassen Dinner Theater here this evening. Mr. Brindisi, Mr. Jensen and Ms. Erickson are here. Ladies and gentlemen, would you like to come forward at this time? Jim Jensen: Well I guess I’m going to start. Mayor Furlong: Who stood up first. 4 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 Jim Jensen: Yeah. Mayor Furlong and council members. Thank you so much for having us here tonight. You know as we think about it, the Chanhassen Dinner Theater is a big part of the Chanhassen brand. I mean it’s actually something that was mentioned in the Money Magazine article as one of the real qualities of Chanhassen. Given that we employ 300 people at that theater, which surprised me actually was that many, and given that we have 200,000 guests who come to the Chanhassen each year, and hopefully stay in Chanhassen do some other wonderful things here, we thought it’d be a good idea that the new ownership group would talk to you a little bit and kind of give you an update on where we’re at, how things are going, and what we’re thinking about for the future, and the good news is we don’t have any complaints about anything and we’re not here to ask you for anything so it’s kind of nice. Councilman Laufenburger: You should come more often. Jim Jensen: By way of introductions, this is Michael Brindisi. He the Artistic Director and he’s the president of the new company. Sitting next to him is Tamara Kangas Erickson. Sorry Tam, who is our choreographer and our vice president and I’m Jim Jensen. I’m one of the new owners. I’m also a board member and I’m also the treasurer on the holding company so I do a lot of good things there. My background is an actuary so I’m a numbers kind of guy. I worked with Ameriprise Financial for almost 30 years. I’m now the CFO for a small company in downtown Minneapolis called the Lennick-Aberman Group. The other thing is I live right off of 5 and Dell so technically my mailing address is Eden Prairie but I will honestly tell you that my grocery store, my gas station, my hardware store, my liquor store, my Target, my restaurants, my insurance guy and of course my dinner theater are all in Chanhassen so I’m a Chanhassen kind of guy, just so you know that. Going back to late 2009, it was a tough time for the theater. Had gone through a few years of some pretty bad losses. Somebody who was going to buy the theater had just backed out and it was pretty discouraging there and it’s when a team of the people who are there put together, decided they’d put together a group and try to buy it themselves. In late January I got a call from my business partner, Doug Lennick out of the blue on a Wednesday morning suggesting that we should buy the Chanhassen Dinner Theater. And my first thought was of course all not that positive on this idea and I said what do we know about a dinner theater and he said nothing but there are 3 people there who really get it. Michael and Tam and a gentleman named Steve Peters who runs a company called VenuWorks down in Ames, Iowa. They actually run theaters all over the country and so they really knew theater. And Doug’s thought was that with these 3 and Doug and I knowing business, that we could really turn this thing around and make it go. So I looked at the numbers, being the good actuary that I am. Put together my financial models and it all looked good and yet I still wasn’t quite sure and it just so happened, it’s like fate or destiny that my wife had bought tickets to come see Footloose that same Friday night and we sat way up in the corner where all the people laid out in front of us and all you have to do is listen to the great noise in that theater. All the people who shut their technology off. Come together as friends and family and they talk and they laugh and they have a great meal and when the lights go down and the show comes up, I don’t care what’s bothering you that day, it’s all gone and you just lose yourself in that live production and in my mind, as biased as I am, it’s the best show in town. In the cities. There’s nothing like it. And I think that’s important. It’s always important but it’s really important now because I think we need those breaks. And it was the next morning, I called Doug and I said yep, let’s do this. Doug and I ended up putting half the money into buying the theater and it has been amazing. Just amazing. We now have actually have 18 owners and they have to be accredited investors under the Rule 501 of our FCC. Our registration exemption which means they either have to have assets or income or they have to be a director or officer of the theater. Otherwise they can’t invest. So we have 18 people like that with all their experience, all their knowledge and their resources to make sure that the Chanhassen Dinner Theater does well, and I think that is absolutely phenomenal. These two are going to talk about what we’ve done since we bought it. I will tell you it has been an amazing turn around despite a tough economy when it’s easy for people to think well maybe I can’t afford to go to the theater. Even given that we’ve turned this place around and just done an absolutely wonderful job. And by the way all the credit for that goes to the leaders, to the staff because they not only love that theater, they love what 5 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 they do, and that’s hard to find nowadays and of course to all the customers who come out and come and enjoy that theater. I heard when we were looking at buying it that the Chanhassen Dinner Theater was a real family and I’ve got to tell you that’s true and I can’t believe I get to be part of that family. It is without a doubt the best thing I have ever done in my whole life and I just love it so if you haven’t been to the Chan lately, come to the Chan. We have something really cool there. Okay? Tam Erickson: Thanks Jim. Michael Brindisi: Thanks Jim. Tam Erickson: It was a great opening. Michael Brindisi: Yeah. Hi guys. Thank you for having us again. We’re both really excited. We were talking before about how wonderful it was that in March of 2011 when we came here and you guys opened your arms and literally practically jumped over that counter to give us hugs and welcome us and support us and we’ll never forget that and we just wanted to come by today and just briefly say thanks. We’re still here. I keep telling our customers, look we must be doing well. Look at that nice parking ramp we built for you. It’s not as easy as we thought it was going to be and we certainly haven’t fixed all the problems but it’s going in the right direction and we’re really confident that we have some good ideas. One thing that I wish Tam would talk about, we didn’t realize we were going to do so quickly but we have new managers in all departments and it just so happened that some people had other commitments. Other jobs. Some people didn’t want to continue working at the Dinner Theater and left but as we look back over the first year and a half we just realized we have all new people. We have a new Food and Beverage Director. A new Executive Chef. Tam Erickson: New Marketing Director. New Banquet Sales and Events Manager. Who else? Our General Manager’s the same so... Michael Brindisi: Group Sales. Group Sales. Tam Erickson: Group Sales Manager. Michael Brindisi: New Group Sales Manager. Not a new Artistic Director. Not a new Choreographer but you know our focus and our strategy has been, it’s a 96,000 square foot facility. We have 300 employees. We can’t expect ticket sales to do it all. It’s a 500 seat theater and a 230 seat theater. We need to be thinking bigger for that facility and having revenue centers and different opportunities for people to come maybe to not see theater. To see something else and the first thing we did was we started the Comedy Club on Friday and Saturday nights. A hugely successful program. Doesn’t sound like much. Seats 75 to 100 people a night on Friday and Saturday night. Turned into a $100,000 plus profit center that we didn’t even know was there. Tam Erickson: And new audience. New people coming into the theater. Michael Brindisi: People that clearly are not in our database and are coming into the building for the first time. We have a very successful children’s camp program in the summer. We do 8 weeks and like 800 students. It’s a profit center. We have this new sales and banquet sales manager. Why don’t you tell them about Haley. Tam Erickson: Haley has been there for just under 6 months and she’s already booked almost $400,000 in future sales. For events and weddings. 6 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 Michael Brindisi: For weddings and meetings. Tam Erickson: Going out through 2012. Michael Brindisi: It’s a part of our business that virtually did not exist before she came. Tam Erickson: It had died. Michael Brindisi: It had gone away so we’re very, very excited about that. We have plans to move our gift shop. Our gift shop is buried in the back of the building where nobody can find it so pretty soon here we’re going to be moving it up into the front lobby where we can run it more efficiently and more effectively. Tam Erickson: Make it not a break even but an actual mini profit center. Michael Brindisi: Profit center. We have a plan to renovate our pub. The Brindisi Pub which it’s called right now to make it a pub for the community for lunches or happy hours or unrelated to the theater. We have a very good friend, an architect who loves our theater and came to us and said I want to give you my services for free so we have the drawings. We have the whole program laid out. Tam Erickson: So it would involve the patio. If you know the front of our building, that patio area. That would be built out as part of the new restaurant and then a small, probably 60 seat restaurant that we would separate, quarter off from the main lobby so it would actually feel like a separate space and have kind of pub fare. Really casual but good food and just be a great place for the citizens of Chanhassen to go and have dinner with their families. Michael Brindisi: We’ve entered into, so we’ll be coming back to you for your approval for that at some point. We have entered into a dialogue with a company in Chicago called Columbia Artists Theatricals to produce tours for them from our scene shop, from our costume shop and from our rehearsal hall and it looks very promising for next fall that we will have a show on the road that will have our name attached to it and we’ll be drawing some royalty from. We also have two guys that are writing a play for us. You may remember a show called Midlife Crisis Musical. It ran for 76 weeks at Chanhassen. Well the boys that wrote it, Jim and Bob Walton came back to us and said they have, they’re working on a second one and they’d like to develop it with us and give us a percentage of the property if we allow them the first production of it, and we’re going to do that next fall and so that could be a revenue generator for Chanhassen Dinner Theater that’s not even in the building. That’s in Chicago or L.A. or playing around the country, so there’s lots of things we’re dabbling in and lots of really exciting prospects on the horizon. But we just wanted you to know that we’re here. We’re here to stay. We’re going to be here for a long time and we are incredibly grateful to the City of Chanhassen. Tam Erickson: And excited about the future. Mayor Furlong: Well excellent, thank you. I know that the Chanhassen Dinner Theater’s been a part of this city, this community for over 40 years and we’re so happy for you and the successes that all of you have had in these recent years and we’re pulling for you to continue to be a strong, strong, great place for people to go and as you say get away from, Mr. Jensen, get away from their normal daily routine and enjoy the theater so thanks very much. Michael Brindisi: Thanks Mayor, thanks council members. Mayor Furlong: Yes, Councilwoman Ernst first then Councilman Laufenburger. 7 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 Councilwoman Ernst: Thank you so much for being a part of the family of Chanhassen. It’s such a big part of family. I just, I have to say that I was in the flash mob for All Shook Up. Not the greatest dancer but I have to say it was one of the funnest events I ever participated in and very proud to be part of it so thank you for that. Michael Brindisi: Thank you. Tam Erickson: Thanks for participating. That was a challenge for me. Councilwoman Ernst: Yes. Great job though. Tam Erickson: It was a lot of fun. Mayor Furlong: Councilman Laufenburger. Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Brindisi and Ms. Erickson, I think that the Chanhassen Dinner Theater is a source of pride for everybody in Chanhassen and I know that it’s probably not part of your mission statement to create opportunities for people to go on to greater stardom but how can you not feel proud every time you see Amy Adams in a leading role in cinema and to think that she got her start in the same place where I went to see my first musical. So I just share on behalf of all the citizens, I just share my thanks to both of you, to Michelle as well. I just think that you are part of the fabric that we call the best place to live, grow, raise a family in America so thank you. Michael Brindisi: That means so much, thank you. Tam Erickson: Thanks for having us tonight. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anyone else for visitor presentations? If not we’ll move on with the rest of our agenda. LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATES. Lt. Jeff Enevold: Well this is great to address the council twice in one night. Mayor Furlong: You don’t get next month off though. Lt. Jeff Enevold: Well I’ll talk to Todd about that. Alright, I know you have the monthly report and I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. If you have any questions, I’d be glad to field those and get you an answer to those but just want to spend a few minutes here. We know a week from tonight is a big night. It’s Halloween so I wanted to share some tips. Our goal this year, like every other year, is to make it a happy, safe and memorable experience for everybody out there. I have a daughter who’s 17 and a son who’s 15 so I speak from experience on trick or treating tips and keeping people safe so just a few parent reminders. If you have young children, let’s make sure they’re accompanied by an adult. If your child is old enough to go out by themselves, let’s go in groups of 3 to 5 and stick together. If they’re out after dark let’s have them carry a flashlight or have something on their to identify them or light them up. Obviously remind them not to enter a home or accept a ride from a stranger. Tell them to keep an eye out for cars backing out of driveways or making turns. Some tips for drivers. Obviously drive slowly when kids are present. Be alert for children running into the street. You know you’ve got kids going out with their buddy and they want to be the first one to the next house because they think you know they’re going to run out of candy so they’re going to run out there and be the first one there so. Reduce distractions. 8 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 Stay alert. Don’t be talking on your cell phone. Have your music loud. And if you see anything suspicious or unusual or criminal, you know don’t hesitate to call the sheriff’s office and don’t hesitate to use 911 to call us. We’ll respond there. I’ve given work direction to our deputies to provide some extra patrol in the neighborhoods during the trick or treating hours so you know we’re going to make it as safe and memorable as we can so. That’s all I have tonight Mr. Mayor and council. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anything for the Lieutenant? Very good. Thank you so much. Lt. Jeff Enevold: Have a good evening. Mayor Furlong: Chief Wolff is here this evening. Good evening Chief. Chief John Wolff: Good evening. Mayor, council. I know you have report. I’ll just kind of hit the highlights. Year to date calls are down 15% from last year. Last year really was more of an aberration. We’ve kind, where we are today is really where we’ve been the last prior 5 years. Function of really kind of a stable population and stable infrastructure. We’ve hired an Assistant Chief of Training and Safety. It’s a lieutenant, full time fire lieutenant from Edina Fire. He’s a 3 year member on Chanhassen Fire and it’s an initiative that we feel is really important to have a focus on training and safety and in conjunction with that, in fact tonight we just named our Safety Officer. First time having these two positions on the fire department. We’ve kind of reallocated some other positions around to be able to fund that but putting a lot of focus on training and safety for our membership and for our response capabilities. Calls are down 15% but staff time’s up 10% and that’s really driven off of a lot of training time and really community service work that we do. We’ve added 5 new recruits last summer. They’re doing really well. They’re about half way through their training and we’re very excited about what this group is doing. I wanted to comment about some quick response support that we got from Jeff’s people. The sheriff’s deputies have really done a phenomenal job and you know because we have to come from home to come to the station to pick up our equipment, they go direct to the scene. I can cite two examples in the last month. Last night we had a cardiac arrest at the Dinner Theater with a gentleman down in the parking lot and by the time our first units arrived we had 3 deputies working on this individual and the report that we got from the hospital is that this person made it so he’s still alive today, and that’s kind of a rare circumstance when someone in cardiac arrest actually survives the initial 24 hours. It’s a direct result of the quick response from the deputies. Another call about 2 weeks ago, we had a deck on fire. Early morning, a neighbor saw a fire on a deck across the street and we got reports as we came in that the house was not catching on fire and by the time I got there, and I was the first person on the scene, I couldn’t find the fire and that’s because the deputies grabbed an extinguisher and put it out. I was kind of driving around in circles looking for a fire that wasn’t there, which was really good news so just an excellent partnership working with our sheriff’s deputies. Another call I’ll just briefly mention. Last Monday night we had a sprinkler save in our largest building in town. The R.R. Donnelly Company. It’s 260,000 square feet. It’s a big, huge printing operation. Lots of fire load in there and they had a compressor fire, and electrical fire and because of the good work of the folks at Donnelly, I mean the sprinkler system was working very, very well. It clearly saved a major fire situation from advancing so sprinkler systems do work. Like to close with just some community events that we’ve been involved with. Fire Prevention Week was 2 weeks ago. Or I’m sorry, last week and we saw 2,000 students in 4 elementary schools and 5 pre-K’s. Focusing on the pre-K and that K through third grade so if you were at open house, and some of you were and I appreciate you coming, thank you. We had about 1,000 attendees and a lot of them were you know waist high and lower. Lot of really young people which is the target audience for us on these kinds of events. They enjoyed about 600 hotdogs, 15 gallons of chili, lots of fire truck rides and Sparky the Dog interviews along with Freddie the Fire Truck so really a great day and a beautiful day for really the community to be there. Nice fall day. And one final, for Halloween night we do send out fire trucks with candy and fire fighters so we’ll be in the neighborhoods driving around. 9 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 Mayor Furlong: Sounds great. Chief John Wolff: I’ll take any questions if anybody has any. Mayor Furlong: Any questions for Chief Wolff? No? I’m sorry. Todd Gerhardt: Just one. John, can you talk a little bit about your business partnerships with General Mills and your recent training opportunity with them. I know when Mayor Furlong first got on the council he was involved with the ammonia leak out at General Mills. Mayor Furlong: More of a witness than involved. Todd Gerhardt: You were in a leadership role and I think Chief was also Chief then. Mayor Furlong: Yes he was. Chief John Wolff: I was the Chief back then. Yeah, that was a big call, and we’ve had 2 or 3 since then. th Not quite that serious. We, on November 14 we’re going to be doing a drill with them and it’s a major ammonia spill simulated and we’ll be responding with the sheriff’s office, the Carver County Hazmat Team, Carver County Emergency Management, Chanhassen Emergency Management, Chan Fire and a few of the State resources. They really want to test their capabilities because they’ve turned over a lot of their staff in the last 3 years and they have a lot of really good infrastructure. Safety systems. Safety management. Loss control people that are there every day. They actually do initial response when they have a hazmat accident. They have all kinds of capabilities and they’re very well trained so we team up with them and support them. So this drill, we’ve been doing a lot of planning work around that our City Emergency Manager, Ed Coppersmith’s been working closely with them along with the County Emergency Manager Tim Walsh to kind of put this event together and so Chan Fire with these other agencies will be responding to that drill so it’s a great partnership. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Chief John Wolff: You bet. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you Chief for the report. Chief John Wolff: Thank you folks. PUBLIC HEARING: REQUEST FOR OFF-SALE INTOXICATING LIQUOR LICENSE: SKYWAY WINE & SPIRITS, LLC DBA WINE & SPIRITS AT 7 & 41; 2401 HIGHWAY 7. APPLICANT: LINDA MASON. Laurie Hokkanen: The request is for a liquor license. We have conducted the required background check revealed a minor infraction and a liquor related infraction 12 years ago but nothing that would stand in the way of granting the license. A public hearing is required to be held and the applicant is here for any questions. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any questions for staff or for the applicant? No? Seeing none then I will go ahead and open a public hearing and invite all interested parties to come forward and address the council on this request. Okay, seeing no one, without objection we’ll close the public hearing and bring it back to council for discussion and action. Is there any discussion on this or would somebody like to make a motion? 10 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 Councilwoman Ernst: I’ll make a motion. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: I make a motion that we approve the request for an off-sale intoxicating liquor license for Skyway Wine & Spirits LLC, dba Wine & Spirits at 7 and 41, 2401 Highway 7 contingent upon receipt of a liquor liability insurance and the license fee. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilman McDonald: So moved. Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none we’ll proceed with the vote without objection. Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council approves the request for an off-sale intoxicating liquor license from Skyway Wine & Spirits, LLC dba Wine and Spirits at 7 and 41, 2401 Highway 7 contingent upon receipt of liquor liability insurance and the license fee. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. PUBLIC HEARING: CERTIFICATION OF DELINQUENT BILLS: UTILITY BILLS AND CODE ENFORCEMENT VIOLATIONS. Greg Sticha: Good evening again Mayor and council members. Mayor Furlong: Good evening. Greg Sticha: On an annual basis the finance department brings forth certification of the delinquent utility bills as well as code violations for the city. These bills are after this point then certified with Carver County and paid with next year’s property taxes. In terms of the delinquent utility accounts in the memo it kind of dictates the numbers from the previous year and this year. Nothing significantly different from last year. Typically this number hovers right around $140,000 or $150,000 in delinquent accounts at this point in the year. Between now and the actual certification with the County that will take place on st December 1, usually the number’s reduced by a fourth or a third. They’ll be paid by the residents or businesses at that point in time. Same would go for the code violations. I believe the number this year was 9 as compared to last year of 11 accounts. The dollar amount is fairly similar to last year’s dollar amount so really no surprises in the terms of the amount of the accounts or the dollar amount that were talked about in terms of certification. The residents have until the end of November to make payment on st the delinquent accounts. On December 1 the finance department will certify with Carver County those that are still remaining delinquent at that point in time. There is one change in the resolution, under the code violations resolution. The last sentence, and there’s a new resolution that was put in front of you, has been taken off of that. Well actually excuse me. We removed that one from in front of you but the resolution for the delinquent utility accounts added a sentence which states that assessments will run for one year and not accrue any additional interest. The City’s attorney asked that that information be included on the resolution. That information is not on the resolution for the code violations because it is under a separate state statute. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Mr. Knutson. 11 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 Roger Knutson: I admit this is confusing. The code violations are under 429 so you’ve added that sentence. These assessments will be one year and not accrue any interest. Water delinquencies are not under 429. They’re under a different statute, 444. That the certification to tax is not a special assessment. This is all inside the beltway technical stuff but that’s why that one sentence was added to the code enforcement. Mayor Furlong: Only to the code enforcement. Roger Knutson: Not the delinquencies. Mayor Furlong: And so the question I would have is after the one year, if they’re not paid, then do they become part of delinquent tax? Roger Knutson: Yes. Mayor Furlong: Do we have to reassess them at that point? Roger Knutson: No. Mayor Furlong: How does that. Roger Knutson: No, they’re part of taxes. They’re certified to taxes on the water. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Okay. So they would, if they’re not paid then they would be unpaid taxes at that point. Roger Knutson: Yes. Mayor Furlong: Why the issue of the one year and is that just the way the statute, follows the statute? Roger Knutson: Under 429, whenever you do an assessment you have to do a lot of things but you have to certify how long you’re assessing for. Over how many years and you have to specify what your interest rate on the unpaid balance is. Mayor Furlong: Okay. So this implies it’s collectible next year? It’s collectible over the next year. Roger Knutson: Yes. They’re not giving a series of years or it’s all due next year. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Appreciate that clarification. Mr. Sticha, anything else in your staff report or we just stand for questions? Greg Sticha: No, this also requires a public hearing to be opened. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Greg Sticha: And then at that point in time, after you close the public hearing you could pass a resolution. I believe you can do one motion passing both resolutions. Roger Knutson: Sure. 12 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 Greg Sticha: The motion would be to authorize certification of delinquent utility bills and code violations to Carver County. Mayor Furlong: Alright, thank you. Any questions for Mr. Sticha? Councilwoman Ernst: I have a clarifying question. Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst. Councilwoman Ernst: Greg, can you tell me our, so just to confirm, are all of these 273 accounts 90 days delinquent or over at this point? Greg Sticha: At this point that would be the minimum. Some are more delinquent than that depending on which billing cycle they are in. Councilwoman Ernst: Just more of a curiosity question, how delinquent are the majority of these? Any idea? Greg Sticha: That I would not have. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay, but they’re all at least 90 days or more? Greg Sticha: Yep. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay. Greg Sticha: Yes, all of them would be less than a year. Mayor Furlong: Less than a year. Greg Sticha: Because they would have been certified last year. Councilwoman Ernst: Okay, thank you. Councilman McDonald: Mr. Mayor. Mayor Furlong: Mr. McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Yeah, I have a question. Why are these accounts listed by property identification numbers and not by the individuals who own the property? Greg Sticha: Maybe Mr. Knutson can answer that. I think. Councilman McDonald: Well there are municipalities, and I know that Chaska does list by name so why do we not list by name? Roger Knutson: You can do it either way legally. Councilman McDonald: Okay. We can talk about it later. Okay. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Any other questions for staff? 13 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council. In the past we’ve done names and I don’t even remember when we switched back to PID’s but we’ve done both. Councilman McDonald: Like I say, we can talk about it later. Mayor Furlong: Question, each of these properties have been notified of this hearing this evening, is that correct? Greg Sticha: Multiple notices. A minimum of 2 notifications. Mayor Furlong: With regard to the past due amounts. Greg Sticha: Yep, with regard to the past due amounts so, and in some cases depending on the billing cycle they may have gotten even more. Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. And you said a substantial number generally do. st Greg Sticha: Typically between now and December 1 a fourth to a third will probably come in and pay the amount so we’re usually actually certifying under $100,000. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Mr. Laufenburger. Councilman Laufenburger So Mr. Sticha there are 273, I think that’s the number of utility right? What was the number before you started calling them? What was, I mean to get to this final 273 a number of people have refused to pay, right? Or a number who didn’t pay have already paid. Greg Sticha: Yes. They were delinquent and sometimes they’re delinquent by a week. Sometimes by a month and sometimes by a few months. I wouldn’t be able to tell you exactly how many were delinquent for how long. Councilman Laufenburger: But this 273 does not represent all the property descriptions that are delinquent. Some could be delinquent by 30 days or 45 days and they wouldn’t show up here, is that correct? Greg Sticha: They could be delinquent to the point that they would not be certified this year, yes. They could be delinquent by you know less than 30 days. Councilman Laufenburger: And 273 represents what percentage of all property utility owners? Approximately. Greg Sticha: We send out 7,000 bills a quarter. Councilman Laufenburger: Okay, so one 7, 128. So about 2 1/2%. Okay. Maybe 3%. Okay, thank you. Mayor Furlong: Would you agree with his math Mr. Gerhardt? Todd Gerhardt: Yes I would. Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Wizard. 14 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 Mayor Furlong: Other questions for Mr. Sticha. If not, I’ll go ahead and open up a public hearing and invite all interested parties to come forward and address the council on this matter. Seeing no one this evening without objection we’ll close the public hearing and bring it back to council for discussion and action. Would somebody like to, is there any discussion or would somebody like to make a motion? Mr. Laufenburger. Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor, I move that the City Council approve the resolution certifying both utility, delinquent utility accounts and delinquent code enforcement accounts, referring them to the County. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is that sufficient? Roger Knutson: Yes. Mayor Furlong: Excellent. Is there a second? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second. Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Councilman Laufenburger: Just one. I think Mr. McDonald makes a good point that I’d like to see names associated with these and I recognize that there may be some embarrassment associated with that, but these are valid invoices, bills that we’ve send to our citizens of Chanhassen. We’ve given them an opportunity to pay and I think that it’d be appropriate that while I recognize if somebody really wanted to look up and find the names of a PID, in the future I’d like to see names be identified. Just a comment. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Greg Sticha: Just a comment on that. These per law they are published in the local newspaper as well so it would not only be just publication on our agenda, it would also go to the local newspaper as well. Todd Gerhardt: And Mayor, council members, in the newspaper it’s been PID number also. Councilman McDonald: But that’s because we give it to the paper as PID number, right? Todd Gerhardt: Right. Councilman McDonald: That’s why I said I would like to discuss this because I feel the same way that if you’re going to skip out and not pay I think that the citizens of the city are entitled to know who is doing that. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Other discussion. Comments. Seeing none, a motion’s been made and seconded. Without objection we’ll proceed with the vote. Resolution #2011-60: Councilman Laufenburger moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded to approve the resolution certifying delinquent utility accounts to the County Auditor. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. 15 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 Resolution #2011-61: Councilman Laufenburger moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded to approve the resolution certifying delinquent code enforcement accounts to the County Auditor. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS: Councilman McDonald: Well you know the Chief kind of brought it up. I went to the Fire Department’s open house. Took my grandson. You know he really enjoyed it. Everybody that was there really enjoyed it. It’s, I think it’s a really good show he puts on. Shows all the equipment. What it can be used for. Where it’s at. You get to go up and actually touch it and you can play with the fire hoses and you begin to get an idea of what it is the fire fighters of this city do to protect the city so I really appreciate them putting it on. It is a really good show and again each year more and more people turn out and I’ve never heard anything negative come out of that. I think everybody walks away very impressed with what our fire department does for this city. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Other council presentations. Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Mayor. Mayor Furlong: Yes, Mr. Laufenburger. Councilman Laufenburger: Just I noticed that one of the, actually this is about the correspondence packet so I guess I’ll hold. Mayor Furlong: Alright, that’s fine. Any other council presentations? Mr. Gerhardt. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. th Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, City Council members, just one item. This coming Saturday, October 29 at 9:00 a.m. at the Chanhassen Rec Center city staff is hosting a public informational meeting on zebra mussels so we’d like to invite the public to attend. We have representative Heidi Wolf from the DNR to give an overview on the DNR’s practice in protection program regarding zebra mussels and how they travel from body of water to another. And then also our Lotus Lake groups will be presenting their inspection program and prevention of infestation into Lotus Lake and so I’d like to just invite the public attend and listen. Mayor Furlong: Very good, thank you. Any questions for Mr. Gerhardt or his staff? CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Mayor. Just to comment, you have ESP. Mayor Furlong: Yeah. Councilman Laufenburger: Karnack, right? Just to comment on the letter from Mediacom. A few weeks ago I made the comment about correspondence with Bill Jensen and he indicated an upcoming open house and I think it’s important that we identify now and also perhaps promote on the City website, Channel 8 that Mediacom will have an open house at their facility here in Chanhassen on Thursday, th November 10 from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Excuse me, it’s going to be at the Chanhassen Rec Center. Not their facility but at the Chanhassen Rec Center and I would encourage people to use that as an opportunity to meet the people from Mediacom and be regaled by whatever fun things that they have 16 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 going on that particular day. That’s one thing I wanted to highlight. The second thing is, is that also in this correspondence there’s mention of the digital adapters and if there are any people in Chanhassen, not unlike my wife and I, we still have 3 very, very high quality analog TV’s purchased prior to 2000 I think. Anyway these TV’s are obsolete in a few more weeks, except that Mediacom is offering digital adapters available. I placed an order. Within 3 days I received the digital adapters and now my wife and I are happy and we can watch the Wedding Channel again. So get your digital adapters from Mediacom. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other discussion on the correspondence packet. As noted in there, there was a letter from Three Rivers Park District. Mr. Gerhardt, Mr. Hoffman and I met with their representatives a couple months ago and I think it was one of the first meetings between our organizations. Mr. Hoffman is that? Todd Hoffman: Correct. Mayor Furlong: You can correct me if I’m wrong, and really just looking for ways that we can work together and I think this just another example of how, and as a council I know we deal with it all the time. It almost becomes routine, whether we’re working with the County or the State, MnDOT a lot for transportation projects or other organizations and this is one more organization that does a great job of providing park and recreation services here in our region and in our city and so we’re looking for some opportunities to work with them as well so thank you Mr. Hoffman for getting that set up and the start of… Mr. Laufenburger. Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah I just had one more item. And I think perhaps Ms. Hokkanen can confirm this. This Saturday, from 10:00 until 2:00 there is a Carver County sponsored prescription bring back. Is that what it’s called Laurie? Laurie Hokkanen: Take back. Councilman Laufenburger: A prescription take back so if there is anybody in the community that has unused prescriptions that they have wisely chosen not to flush down their sewer system, those prescriptions can be taken back to the senior center, which is in this building, this Saturday, 10/29. th October 29 from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. so all those of you that have prescriptions that are just occupying space in your medicine cabinet, bring them in. The County wants them. Laurie Hokkanen: And if I can piggy back on that. Mayor Furlong: Please. Laurie Hokkanen: The County is hoping that this will be a twice annual event. There’s not really a good place to get rid of prescriptions. Pharmacies don’t accept them. Hospitals don’t accept them so if you want to conscientious and not flush them, here to date there really hasn’t been somewhere acceptable to do that so they’re hoping to rotate that and have three locations around the county twice a year. So it’ll be here in Chanhassen and then in 6 months, if you’ve got a new stockpile there’ll be other locations around the county and they’re working on details to put a permanent location in the sheriff’s office in Chaska so that will be a nice service people. Mayor Furlong: Okay. Very good, thank you. Any other comments or discussion this evening? If there’s nothing else to come before the council this evening, is there a motion to adjourn? 17 Chanhassen City Council – October 24, 2011 Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 7:55 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 18