CC 2014 12 08
CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
DECEMBER 8, 2014
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 Laufenburger,
Councilwoman Ernst, Councilwoman Tjornhom, and Councilman McDonald
STAFF PRESENT:
Todd Gerhardt, Greg Sticha, Paul Oehme, Kate Aanenson, Todd Hoffman,
and Roger Knutson
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Janet Paulsen 7305 Laredo Drive
Ryan Pass 7650 Ridgeview Way
Mary Hershberger Thun Victoria
Ken Lang 2631 Forest Circle
nd
Todd Lane 7131 West 192 Avenue, Eden Prairie
John Kunitz 6441 Bretton Way
Vince Beaudette Victoria
Ron Kleve 7307 Laredo Drive
Mayor Furlong: Thank you and welcome to everybody here in the council chambers as well as
those watching at home. We’re glad that you joined us this evening. At this time I’d like to,
with regard to our agenda this evening I’d like to move items K(1) and K(2) under new business
and we’ll pick those up after item 3 on the agenda so are there any other changes or
recommendations to the agenda? If not, without objection we’ll make those changes and move
forward with the agenda as otherwise published.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS:
None.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Laufenburger moved, Councilman McDonald
seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s
recommendations:
1. Approve City Council Minutes dated November 24, 2014 and December 1, 2014.
2. Receive Planning Commission Minutes dated November 18, 2014.
3. 2015 Street Projects, Accept Feasibility Study and Call for Public Hearings:
Resolution #2014-80A:
a. Carver Beach Area, Project 15-01.
Resolution #2014-80B:
b. Kerber Boulevard, Project 15-02.
Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
4. Approval of Temporary On-Sale Liquor License, February 7, 2015, St. Hubert Catholic
Community, 8201 Main Street.
th
5. Approval of Sign Plan Amendment, Medical Arts Buildings, 470 & 480 West 78 Street,
Applicant: Jonathan Adam, Silverstone Realty & Development, LLC.
6. Approval of 2015 Police Contract with Carver County Sheriff’s Office.
Resolution #2014-81:
7. Ratify Fire Pension for 2015.
Resolution #2014-82:
8. Approve Resolution Accepting Donation from Community Bank
for Senior Center Holiday Party.
Resolution #2014-83:
9. Approve Resolution Accepting $600 Donation from Mount Olivet
Rolling Acres.
10. 7/41 Crossing: Request to rezone 5.02 Acres of property from Neighborhood Business
(BN) to Planned Unit Development (PUD); and Site Plan Review with Variances for a
4,000 square-foot retail building with drive thru; 2401 Highway 7. Applicant/Owner:
SCP PE CHAN, LLC (Paster Enterprises, LLC).
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS.
Ron Kleve: Good evening.
Mayor Furlong: Good evening.
Ron Kleve: My name is Ron Kleve, 7307 Laredo Drive. Some of you might recognize me as a
member on the Lotus Lake Conservation Alliance and I am not a member of the LLCA anymore.
My tenure expired and I chose to give others a chance to serve so if you hear mixed messages
between myself and the Board, the LLCA tonight that’s because these are my personal opinion.
I had an opportunity to be part of the boat inspections on Lotus Lake this summer. I took the
task of interfacing with Todd on scheduling and any issues that might arise by inspectors and so I
think I have kind of a unique position to share with you tonight. One item I want to bring up is
the DNR providing labor I don’t think is a very good idea. They don’t seem to have the same
attitude as the City does and as the citizens do as far as commitment to a schedule. They seem to
not have the same attitude I guess. For example they, they gave Todd a schedule at the
beginning of the year that they would comply to and they ended up not following that and they
didn’t update Todd or anyone. They just quit showing up. I think Chanhassen is leaps ahead on
efforts on inspections. I think it’s partly due to the City. I think it’s partly due to the citizens
efforts. The, another item I’d like to mention on the, on Volt. Just as a, you know I, during my
tenure on the board I went to watershed meetings. I went to park and rec meetings. I went to the
county park and rec and each time I went to the groups meetings I was hoping that this group
would be the group that would take the reins and go with it and I never saw that happen.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Granted we had some high hopes that with central inspections with gates. We weren’t able to
accomplish those things but my observation is that I think the City is in the best position to take
the reins and go with it. Having Volt or having the employees, the inspectors work for one
company and Todd being responsible doesn’t seem like a very good structure to me. I mean I
would approach Todd saying you know we got a report that there was nobody down at the boat
ramp and you know Todd granted, he gave me his cell phone. He said call me anytime of the
weekend. I got to commend Todd for that. For being a private citizen or a public employee
that’s great. And I don’t have any qualms about that but for somebody who’s not a supervisor of
the employee is kind of at a loss on providing supervision on it. I really think the City should
employ the inspectors. That was my main message tonight. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you Mr. Kleve. Others that would like to address the City Council.
Senator, good evening.
Sen. David Osmek: Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Thank you for hearing me even though
I’m not a resident. I’m sort of lurking in the back of the room because I just wanted to come
here and say thank you tonight.
Mayor Furlong: You are always welcome.
Sen. David Osmek: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: At least for the next 3 hours.
Sen. David Osmek: At least until I say something wrong.
Mayor Furlong: That’s right. That’s right. Then you’re going to have to talk to someone else.
Sen. David Osmek: And the fact I’m balancing something. At 7:30 I have a band concert with
my daughter so I do need to move along but David Osmek. Your State Senator representing
District 33 in the Minnesota State Senate. I’m here tonight to simply say thank you to your
retiring members for their years of service to the residents of Chanhassen. I am sure that many
of your constituents believe that being on a city council is all about ribbon cuttings and ground
breaking ceremonies and all the fun stuff you get to do but of course we know the truth. The
truth is you sacrifice a lot to serve the public. You miss your children’s baseball games. You
miss band concerts. Hopefully I won’t tonight because you have to attend the meeting. After a
long day at your professional job you have to answer a call at 9:16 at night to explain a water bill
or deal with a neighbor on neighbor issue. In the summer just when you think you’re going to
get a little relaxation and rest you realize that you have to reschedule your vacation because
you’ve got an important city event you have to go to. And then there’s those exciting assessment
hearings that you always love. And of course there’s the hours each week you take to review
your council packets, participate in activities with your commissions, perform site visits, and
deal with residents concerns. It’s more work than you thought when you paid your fee and you
ran for election those years ago but in the end you made a difference. You wanted to be part of
the solution, not a complainer and not a problem. I’ve enjoyed working with both of you and I
hope that in the future I can still reach out to you and ask you questions or ask you for some
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
advice while I’m still in the State Senate. I also want to recognize and give a special thanks to
Councilmember Ernst. As you might remember I had a very challenging primary in 2002. I won
Chanhassen by a significant margin and a great deal of the credit goes to Vicki’s strong support
of myself. Again thank you for your work and your sacrifices you’ve each made over the years
and I hope you look back at your time on the council with pride and satisfaction. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Thank you Senator. Anyone else for visitor presentations? Good
evening.
Laurie Susla: Good evening. I am Laurie Susla. I’m at 7008 Dakota Avenue and I would also
like to say thank you to the efforts that Vicki and Tom have given over the years. It’s a lot of
work. Definitely. And I also just wanted to say thank you to all of you for once again
participating in the 2014 AIS watercraft inspection program. Our lake association, which Ron
claims he’s no longer a part of but he is. He’s just not on the board anymore, is very appreciative
of the work that the City does, especially Todd with all of the runs down to the ramp to see if
anyone’s there and all the oversight that he does so we very appreciate your participation. One
thing I did want to just briefly mention from the presentation in the working session is when
we’re taking a look at inspections per hour Lotus, the inspections per hour were quite low in that
st
presentation because we were looking at every day. November 1 you know at 3:00 in the
afternoon. If you take a look at the summer weekends, which is the data for Susan and Ann,
Lotus is about 3 boats an hour so it’s important to think about, looking at summer weekends to
compare to summer weekends. Just to clarify that a little bit. And I did want to speak a little bit
about the importance of inspections and what happened at Christmas Lake this year. I’m sure
everyone’s aware of that. The watershed did a presentation at their evening with the watershed
last week and they, the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District had a representative there talking
about the Christmas Lake infestation and they do regular monitoring of the lakes. They had
divers in the lake 2 weeks before that. There were no mussels in the lake 2 weeks before and
there were 5,000 mussels that were brought in they believe by a single incident so inspections do
work. There obviously was not an inspector on duty when that happened and luckily for
Christmas Lake the mussels that were brought in were all juveniles still so they were not
reproducing. There were not villagers in the water. They believe they have that under control
but that’s just an example of, think about how many weeds had to be on that boat for 5,000
mussels to come in so we do appreciate it. The inspections are important and we look forward to
planning for 2015. Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you and I should say too Ms. Susla, you’re obviously aware of this as the
Lotus Lake Conservation Alliance but many of the people in the public may not be aware how
much your alliance not only contributes in terms of support and information but also in terms of
financial support for this program and I want to say thank you on behalf of the council and the
residents of Chanhassen. Of the just over $50,000 last year’s budget, $12,500 of that or a little
bit more than that was contributed, donated directly by your association so to you and to
everybody associated with it, even former board members, thank you very much for your service
and putting your money where you mouth is.
Laurie Susla: Yeah we’re happy to be part of the program.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Mayor Furlong: And saying step up and be a part of the solution so thank you very much for
that.
Laurie Susla: Thank you all.
Mayor Furlong: Anyone else under visitor presentations that would like to present this evening.
We are pleased to welcome former mayor of Victoria, Mary Hershberger Thunberg. Excuse me
Mary.
Mary Hershberger Thun: You can forget me that fast.
Mayor Furlong: I can’t believe, I apologize but she is here to speak to us tonight on the WeCAB
program and welcome.
Mary Hershberger Thun: Thank you Tom and to the rest of the council members. Thank you for
hearing me this evening. First of all happy holidays to everyone. I know this is a busy time for
you but I wanted to take an opportunity to come and talk to you about a new program, relatively
new program in Carver County for eastern Carver County with the WeCAB program and I do
have some brochures for all of you. And for those that are left over, wherever you have a place
to park them would be great and I have more to bring over when they’re all gone too. First of all
let me tell you a little bit about the WeCAB program. It originated in Mound, Minnesota and it
is a flexible, supplemental transportation program that was started by a man who happened to be
blind and his services from I believe Metro Cab or whatever were terminated and so he needed
some way to get to his medical appointments and as we all know if you can’t find out how to do
something and there’s nothing in the city, you go to the city and say what can you do for me,
which is exactly what the founder did. And through the work with the Mound City Council,
mainly the Mound City Manager who got time from the council to work on this program. The
program is founded about 3 years ago and over the last 3 or 4 years there have been over 46
hundred thousand hours and over 50,000 hours of, or I’m sorry, miles driven by volunteers for
this program. Quickly what this is is that somebody who needs a ride in our particular service
area, which in this area is Chanhassen, Chaska, Carver and Victoria can call 844-ride-WeCAB.
If a rider wishes to participate in a program they talk to one of our rider registrars who talk with
them about where they might need to go. It could be social. Can be church. Can be council
meetings. Can be any Ridgeview Medical facility and we work with them on a sliding scale and
what they feel that they can donate. In the second place, if you call 844-ride-WeCAB you can
also volunteer. This program is entirely dependent on volunteer drivers. Volunteer drivers use
their own vehicles. They provide a certificate of insurance to the WeCAB program and then the
WeCAB program also carries a blanket insurance policy of over $3 million dollars so it’s a well
insured program. We have had a couple people who have had problems getting that certificate
but mainly the drivers have been fine and they presented that certificate of insurance. We also,
we do this all on a computer program. It’s all confidential. In other words if you decide to sign
up, you could all sign up and we would take you. We don’t have any guidelines in terms of you
have to be a certain age, except you have to be over 18. You can’t be a child and you have to be
able to get into the car or van or whatever that we pick you up in. We had a tremendous
response particularly from Chanhassen and Victoria. Chaska is coming right along and even
Carver is showing some interest in this particular program. This particular program will take
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
riders to, as I said any place done by volunteer drivers and I think it’s a great program for people
to get involved in primarily because it’s a supplement transportation program. It’s not taking the
place of cabs or buses. In fact Southwest Transit, Ridgeview Medical Center and others are very
supportive of this program and have given us grants to keep this program alive. I think I’ll stop
and see if there are any questions.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any questions for Mary? I know that this is one of the programs,
and thank you for coming tonight and thank you for your involvement.
Mary Hershberger Thun: You’re welcome.
Mayor Furlong: Bringing it to Carver County. This was one of the programs that the council
talked about with our Senior Commission back earlier this year.
Mary Hershberger Thun: Right. Right.
Mayor Furlong: As one of their goals. In fact they pointed to the WeCAB in Mound as a
program to look at so it’s exciting to see it come here to Carver County. To eastern Carver
County and can you tell us a little bit about how long has it been actually operating in Carver
County and how many rides have been given and what the level of interest so far has been.
Mary Hershberger Thun: Right. Well we have a lot of riders. We have interviewed over about
25 different people in Chaska, Chanhassen, Victoria and Carver. They come from all over.
Many of our people are coming from Chaska for riders and I have to say many of the volunteers
are coming from Chanhassen and Victoria. So I think that will gradually change over. The first
st
ride was given I believe in October 21, and it was to a woman who needed to go to a medical
appointment and then go to the Walgreen’s drug store and so a person showed up and said gee,
we call ahead of time. We always call ahead of time and say, I’m Mary. I’m going to be there
tomorrow and I’m going to be picking you up and I will wait for you or I have to leave but Susie
will come and pick you up at Walgreen’s or whatever. In this particular case the same driver
waited. The woman was so thrilled. I called her because we keep all names in confidence but I
called her and I said we’ve had some requests from the paper to talk about a real ride. To talk to
a real rider and the woman said oh please have them call me. I just want to talk about this
program and she also was so thrilled, and by the way there is a donation schedule on the back.
However we do not refuse any kind of ride. If they cannot pay, we send a bill every month and
if they cannot pay and they ask for another ride or another 6 rides or 10 rides we don’t deny them
at all. And this woman sent a $10 donation. She said I can’t afford very much but I thought it
was such a great service so she sent us a $10 donation. So we have about 20-25 riders already
who are in the program. We have about 7 drivers and I believe another one is going to be trained
this week, and by the way I want to take this opportunity to thank Chanhassen. They have
allowed us to, all you guys have allowed us to meet here. I particularly want to thank Sue Bill
and Sharmeen Al-Jaff, is that how you say her name?
Mayor Furlong: Yes.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Mary Hershberger Thun: They’ve been so supportive in getting things ready for us and we try
not to take too much of their time but really, really supportive but at any rate we have about 7 or
8 drivers. One that’s going to be trained this week here in Chanhassen. We so far have 1 ½ rider
registrars meaning one who’s really trained and one who’s kind of an almost trained and we have
about 3 or 4 dispatchers. They go into the computers. See there are 10 rides waiting and assign,
or ask if any drivers can handle it.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. Gerhardt.
Todd Gerhardt: How can you volunteer to be a driver? Who would you contact and what’s
involved in the training?
Mary Hershberger Thun: Good question. You also call 844-ride-WeCAB and in the telephone
tree, which we’re all used to, you can go in and say I want to be a volunteer driver. Someone
will contact you. You fill out an application and we review the application and we make sure
that there’s criminal background and also any motor vehicle violations within the last 3 years.
Now when I say that we’re talking serious violations. DWI’s, things like that and also you fill
out a confidentiality. You agree not to disclose anything and then we train you. We don’t train
you in driving. We figure you already know how to do that but we just go through
confidentiality. How to work the computer program. It’s loaded. You go in. You use your own
computer when you want to go in and say oh gee I have some time today or tomorrow. It’s 24
hours. A rider can call 24 hours ahead of time and request. So in other words if you’re thinking
of going to the bar and you think you might need a ride home, you have to plan a whole 24 hours
ahead of time before you can, you know we’re going to give you a ride. Did that answer your
question?
Todd Gerhardt: It does and I’m going to have to put a schedule together.
Mary Hershberger Thun: And I’m sure you have time.
Todd Gerhardt: I do.
Mary Hershberger Thun: I must say I’m kind of, the mayor of Chaska said you know I might
want to drive so I took an application right over to him and I wrote him a little note and I said
Mark, I said can you imagine what some resident would say if the mayor of Chaska picked you
up and took you to your medical appointment or something. I haven’t heard from him since but
it’s only a week ago. It was only a week ago. I’ve got hope.
Todd Gerhardt: Well I’m sure he was scared of the background checks. What else are you
looking for from the City of Chanhassen? What can the City of Chanhassen do to make WeCAB
more successful or continue to be successful?
Mary Hershberger Thun: Talk about it. If you know someone who might be interested in
volunteering or need a ride or wish just to be involved have them call this number or they can
call even me. My name seems to be out there with my number and I think mainly publicity. I’m
willing to go, we’re also doing a brochure drop and I know where all of your residences and your
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
apartment buildings are so we have called them and have said, can we drop off a brochure drop
which will be this one and some of them have been so kind to say we will put them into the
mailboxes and so forth so mainly it’s publicity and letting for instance me or the Lion’s, you
know we really need someone to come and talk or wherever, we will do that.
Todd Gerhardt: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any other questions?
Mary Hershberger Thun: Well I’m not letting this chance pass.
Mayor Furlong: Look at the time. Where’s my gavel?
Mary Hershberger Thun: So first of all I want to say to Denny, another Waconia High School
graduate is eventually going to be a mayor I think in a month or whatever it is so congratulations.
And to the two people that are retiring, thank you very much but I mainly want to say something
to Tom. Tom was a mayor prior to me and he was, I should say was in office prior to me and so
when I came on he really, really, he was a great mentor and continued to be and I want to thank
you personally and professionally for everything that you have done, even for the City of
Victoria. It’s been hard I know but thank you so very, very much and I’ve just really, really
enjoyed my association with you and the support that you have given not only me but the City of
Victoria. Your baseball team is not very good. But you know maybe it’s improved since the
Victoria Vics won but seriously thank you so much. Thank all of you for I think it’s, one of the
things that I really enjoyed being a former mayor is how the different city councils and people
work together.
Mayor Furlong: Great.
Mary Hershberger Thun: And it’s been very nice for me to go and talk to people. Some I know
better than others about the WeCAB program and as usual you’ve been so accepting and helpful
so thank you so very much and Tom I want to assure you there’s a great life outside these
Monday meetings and there’s some TV programs, not very many though so you will want to find
something else to do.
Mayor Furlong: I will find some. I’ll have some free time now.
Mary Hershberger Thun: You’ll have some free time so thank you so very much and good luck
to you Vicki and congratulations Denny.
Mayor Furlong: Very, very welcome and thank you.
Mary Hershberger Thun: Thanks to everyone. Happy holidays.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Anyone else for visitor presentations this evening? Let’s move on
with our agenda.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
LAW ENFORCEMENT/FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATES.
Mayor Furlong: Good evening Lieutenant.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: Good evening Mr. Mayor, council. I have no power point presentation tonight
but since this is the last time I’ll get to address you as Mr. Mayor and Councilwoman Ernst I’d
like to take this opportunity to say what an honor and a privilege it’s been to work with both of
you during my time here as the liaison lieutenant. Appreciate your commitment and
participating with the sheriff’s office to make the city of Chanhassen a safe place to live, work
and play. It’s truly been an honor to work with both of you and I wish you both the best and I
would ask the mayor and Councilwoman Ernst to come down front here because we’d like to
award you with a Certificate of Appreciation and a citizen coin from the sheriff.
Todd Gerhardt: The sheriff would be here but is out of town.
Lt. Jeff Enevold: He is at the sheriff’s conference and where is it? …So the sheriff sends his
regrets. He can’t be here tonight to personally thank you for your service. We’ve got Chief
Deputy Kamerud here to stand in for him and the sheriff would like to recognize your
commitment to the sheriff’s office and your community by awarding you a Certificate of
Appreciation and a sheriff’s office citizen coin and a big thank you from the sheriff for all
you’ve done for the sheriff’s office.
Chief Deputy Kamerud: We have a certificate here that reads given in appreciation of your
support of the sheriff’s office and your service to your community. Thank you Mr. Mayor and
Vicki, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Councilwoman Ernst: Thank you. We don’t have our glasses on.
Chief Deputy Kamerud: So it’s given in appreciate of your service to the community and I’m
told that the deal with the challenge coins is if somebody else has one and they ask you to show
your coin and if you don’t have it…
Lt. Jeff Enevold: And just to clarify that’s not a get out of jail free card.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you and please extend our appreciation to the sheriff and his entire
department. The City and the Carver County Sheriff’s Office has a wonderful working
relationship so we really appreciate all the work that everybody does every day so thank you
very much for this.
Todd Gerhardt: So that’d be the first coin I know that has negative value to it.
Mayor Furlong: Chief you ready? Chief Johnson is here for our monthly fire department report.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Chief Don Johnson: Mayor, council, thank you. Without taking anything away from the coins I
think I’ve got to get some coins or pass some things out about every meeting so. This is my fire
department report for the month. I feel hopefully the month didn’t go by this quickly because I
think I was just here a week or two ago so I do have the monthly numbers for November. Year
to date we’re at 567 calls. We’re running about 11 percent ahead. For November we did have
51 calls which is back to our average for the year. Interesting enough out of those we did
respond to 7 fire incidents during the month. I’m happy to report that 2 of those were cooking
related fires that were in Chanhassen and the other 5 responses were actually to our neighboring
cities. We did 2 in Chaska, 2 in Eden Prairie and we responded once to Minnetonka. If you go
to, and this isn’t going to work Kate. One back. Thank you. The 6 fire related incidents I have
under fire and then the 1 service call. We did do just a stand-by so while Chaska was out
fighting a fire we stood by at their station and manned their station just in case there was any
other calls in the city. The cooking fires is important for us to understand right now. Between
2008 and 2012, 48 percent of all the fires in Minnesota were related to cooking. The 3 top
reasons obviously number one is unattended. We start cooking. We walk away and something
takes our attention and the next thing we know we’ve got a fire going in our house which if
anybody read the coverage on the Eden Prairie house, that’s what we dealt with on Thanksgiving
when we were there so very unfortunate. As we get into the holiday season please if you start
cooking something on the stove or you are cooking something on the stove, pay attention to it.
The number two reason out of that is combustibles that are too close to the stove so as we cook
we’ve got our towels and paper towels and other combustibles that are took close to our cooking
surfaces. And the third is something that I get into trouble at home with is we use our stove for a
little place to store the mail and the paper and everything else and then when you accidentally
turn on the wrong burner, we have a little bit of a fire so please in all seriousness as we, as we go
into the holiday season and continue to cook for our families, make sure we don’t have any other
losses here in Chanhassen. Fire Marshal Littfin actually added that some time ago this council
had adopted an ordinance against fires in town and wanted to know that that is actually working
so if that’s actually, I haven’t been around that long. I don’t think that’s happened but right now
we’re being very mutual aid partners. During the month we did respond to 29 different rescue
and emergency calls. Six of those were motor vehicle accidents with injury. Obviously we
started to experience some of our more slippery and snowy weather and had to deal with that and
we did have one ice rescue. Again that was related to an animal. With, we had 5 commercial
and residential alarms and 8 good intent calls. Kate if you can go to the next one. Right now we
are back to average. December unfortunately has also been a very busy month so far. We’ve got
it projected at being about 619. I still think we may be over that if we continue on the pace that
we’re on right now. Then the last one. And this gives us our breakdown for the year. Our
rescue and emergency calls obviously are our main majority with 7 percent being actual fire
calls. 19 percent being residential and commercial alarms and then a breakdown with some of
the other categories. That concludes my report. Councilwoman Ernst, Mayor Furlong, thank
you for your support of the fire department. I’ve been here a very short time but your leadership,
your questions, the interest that you show in the fire department and obviously the support that
you have during the budget process and keeping us going is very well appreciated. Thank you
very much.
Mayor Furlong: You’re very welcome, thank you. Any questions for the Chief? I guess we’re
good.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Councilman Laufenburger: Just a thank you. Thanks for delivering Santa on time on Saturday
night at the tree lighting.
Chief Don Johnson: You bet.
Councilman Laufenburger: Appreciate your help with that.
Chief Don Johnson: No problem.
Todd Gerhardt: I think Santa grew from last year. I meant taller.
PUBLIC HEARING: METES & BOUNDS SUBDIVISION REQUEST TO DIVIDE A
2.57 ACRE PARCEL INTO TWO (2) LOTS OF 41,301 AND 70,706 SQUARE FEET, 2631
FOREST AVENUE, KENNETH AND BETTY LANG.
Kate Aanenson: Thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. As you indicated this is a
metes and bounds subdivision which you’re aware, we had one at the last meeting that can go
directly to the City Council if both lots meet the minimum requirements. So again the applicants
are Kenneth and Betty Lang. The history on this property located on 2631 Forest Avenue, just
south of Highway 7. West of the commercial center that you approved under consent there at 7
and 41. Access can also go down to Herman Field so Forest Avenue is here. You can see on
this part of it this is what goes down to the park. It has a lengthy history. The subdivision was
actually Minnewashta Park was actually platted in 1887. One of the older areas in town and the
house was constructed, the existing house on the site was constructed in 1975. There was access
that has been vacated in this area. Part of Oriole coming down to Herman Park. There was an
access. There’s wetlands going across that were vacated and part of the history of that in 1991.
So there’s two requests then for tonight. For Parcel A, or excuse me. The request is for the
metes and bounds to create two lots. Both lots are in well excess of the minimum 15,000 square
feet. The most challenging thing on this site is some of the topography and the wetlands but both
lots have access onto a public frontage and meet the minimum requirements. So the subdivision
itself lays out where the existing home here and then this home will be subdivided. The lot will
be subdivided north to south and again a lot of that has to do with the existing drainage pattern.
There’s drainage through the property here and then some of the steep slopes. There’s easements
that will be required to get the sewer and water from the northern Parcel A to the southern Parcel
B and also some of the challenges on this would be the driveway grades. You have to maintain
less than 10 percent so that, I’ll explain that a little bit more in the next slide but the other issue
then that we have a condition on of when the home is sited that they do provide the building
inspection department a soils report of exactly how the house is going to sit on there. What the
ordinance requires that they show a 60 by 60 pad, which they’ve demonstrated so again the
driveway will come in here because we don’t know exactly how the house will sit on that lot.
What the shape of that house will be. We’ll get the soils report with the building permit. Again
as I indicated the driveway is, you know cannot exceed 10 percent so that’s why the house is set
back a little bit further. I know that there was some concern about the proximity. This is
actually treated as a side yard so it would be, could go as close as 10. They’re about 30-35 feet
from that side property line. There’s no variances with this so it meets all the conditions of the
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
staff report so the staff is recommending approval. There is a resolution attached in there as
included in the motion and I’d be happy to answer any questions that you may have.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Questions for Ms. Aanenson. Just a clarifying question. We talk
about metes and bounds subdivision to create two lots. Just to be clear there are, there’s
currently one lot. After this there will be two.
Kate Aanenson: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: It’s not, we’re not creating two new in addition to the house.
Kate Aanenson: That’s correct. A total of one additional lot to make up the two lots.
Mayor Furlong: Two total, thank you.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah.
Mayor Furlong: Any other questions for Ms. Aanenson at this time? If not we’ll go ahead and
open up the public hearing and invite any interested party to come forward and address the
council on this matter. Seeing nobody, without objection then we’ll close the public hearing.
Bring it back to council for discussion and action.
Kate Aanenson: Mr. Mayor I know the Lang’s are here. I don’t know if they have anything to
add but they are here.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. They’re certainly welcome to come forward.
Kate Aanenson: I don’t know if they wanted to say anything or not but.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you for letting us know. Would you like to address the council?
Kate Aanenson: Sounds like they’re not interested but I just wanted you to know that they were
here.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you. With that we’ll bring it to council. Any
thoughts or comments? Councilman Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah, thank you. Ms. Aanenson can you just clarify, the subdivision
does require the placement of a, like a pad or where a house could be built.
Kate Aanenson: Right.
Councilman Laufenburger: Is that the only place on this whole place, on this whole new parcel
where a house can be built?
12
Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Kate Aanenson: What we’re saying is that’s the approximate area based on the drainage swale
that goes through the area.
Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah I see that right there in the middle.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, there’s a big drainage swale that comes through here. That was some of
the, when we looked at whether or not there could be an additional lot put on the site and that’s
what pushed it back. Also with steep grades and to stay under that, the driveway grades change
from 4 to 10 percent so we try to average that out to not to exceed the 10 percent which is the
city ordinance so that’s about the best approximate location that it can go.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay.
Kate Aanenson: It’s not going to be in a square shape but approximately there, correct.
Councilman Laufenburger: And then the second question, I think you answered it with, and you
talked about the grade. There probably is not a likelihood that this parcel 2, is that what it’s
being called? The one that.
Kate Aanenson: Yeah, A and B.
Councilman Laufenburger: A and B. Parcel B likely cannot be subdivided again, is that correct?
Kate Aanenson: Yes. The way it’s laid out now because there’s wetlands on this southern
portion in here, correct.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. Alright. So what we’re looking at is, this is a, this is the final
subdivision that could be made to this property?
Kate Aanenson: I don’t want to say down in 20 years if someone wanted to come in at some
time and try to fill something that might, they might try to but really this is probably the best
layout for that.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. Thank you very much.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Other questions? Ms. Aanenson in the last metes and bounds
subdivision there were issues of water and drainage with regard to neighboring properties. I
don’t see anything in the conditions. Was there anything of concern with this?
Kate Aanenson: No I think in talking to the Water Resources Coordinator, reviewing the
drainage felt comfortable with the location. This was the best location of the house. Maintain
existing drainage patterns. As you know there’s wetlands on back side of Herman Park so this
would maintain existing drainage patterns.
Mayor Furlong: Good, thank you. Any other questions? Comments. Seems fairly straight
forward. Would somebody like to make a motion? Councilwoman Ernst.
13
Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Councilwoman Ernst: Sure. I’d like to recommend that City Council approve the resolution
creating a two lot metes and bounds subdivision of Lot 30 and part of Lot 31, Minnewashta Park
subject to the conditions of the staff report and adopts the Findings of Fact and Decision.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilman Laufenburger: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing
none we’ll proceed with the vote.
Resolution #2014-84: Councilwoman Ernst moved, Councilman Laufenburger seconded
that the City Council approve the resolution creating a two lot metes and bounds
subdivision of Lot 30 and part of Lot 31, Minnewashta Park subject to the following
conditions and adopts the Findings of Fact and Decision:
Building
1.All properties must be provided with separate sewer and water connections.
Engineering
1.The standard 10-foot at front and 5-foot drainage and utility easements shall be granted
around the perimeter of the parcels.
2.The owner of Parcel A must grant an easement for the water and sanitary service for Parcel B
to run across Parcel A.
3.The city must grant an encroachment agreement for the water and sanitary service for Parcel
B to run through the city’s drainage and utility easement on Parcel B.
4.The developer must submit a soils report to the city indicating the soil conditions,
permeability and slope. If water is encountered, the lowest floor elevation of the proposed
building must be three feet above the highest known groundwater elevation.
5.The existing topographic plan must show the first floor elevation of the nearby building at
6360 Forest Circle.
6.The grading plan must show drainage arrows for proposed and existing water flow.
7.Grading at the northwest corner of the proposed building shall be revised so that it is not
directing water towards the structure. The grading plan shall be revised to show the elevation
at the corners of the proposed building pad.
8.The grading north and west of the proposed building shall be revised so that no slope is
steeper than 3:1.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
9.Ten percent (10%) is the maximum driveway grade allowed in the City Code. No part of the
driveway may exceed 10%.
10.Partial water and sewer hookup fees will be due at the time of recording of the lot division
(deed); the remaining hook-up fees will be due with the building permit. The fees will be
assessed at the rate in effect at that time.
Environmental Resources Specialist
1.Tree protection fencing will be required at the edge of grading limits. It shall be installed
prior to grading.
Fire Marshal
1.Additional address numbers may be required at the driveway entrance if not visible on the
house from the road.
Park and Recreation
1.The development shall pay full park fees ($5,800.00) in force for the one new lot at the time of
subdivision approval.
Planning
1.Deeds for the two parcels shall be submitted to the city for review and approval and then
recorded at Carver County.
Water Resources Coordinator
1.A grading, drainage and erosion control plan shall be provided for review and approval
consistent with Chanhassen City Code with the building permit application.
2.The applicant shall pay $11,761.20 in storm water utility connection charges prior to
recording the property deed(s).
3.Prior to building permit approval, the applicant shall work with staff to determine the
wetland extent on the property and design accordingly.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF AMENDMENT TO CHAPTER 4 OF CITY CODE
CONCERNING FEES.
Greg Sticha: Good evening Mayor and council. On an annual basis.
Mayor Furlong: Oh you’re doing it too? See I’m just new to this. Mr. Sticha, you’re going.
15
Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Greg Sticha: Alright, thank you sir. On an annual basis City Council’s asked to review Chapter
4 of the city code which is in regards to the fees the City charges for a number of items. For
2015 there are four general areas. Three general areas that the City Council is being asked this
evening to either add or amend as compared to the current city code for Chapter 4. I’ll go
through each of them and then take any questions either along the way or at the end. The first of
which is adding to Chapter 4. Fees for, cemetery fees. We currently do have cemetery fees for
the City cemetery. However they were not previously in place under Chapter 4 and this evening
due to several meetings we’ve had previously this year, and the improvements made to the
cemetery, City Council’s being asked to amend the fees as presented in the memo before you this
evening. Item number 2, City Council’s being asked to include a fee for a second review of as-
built surveys. Currently the engineering department has a number of as-built surveys that are
being reviewed and then red lined and then asked for comment from the people sending in the
as-built surveys. It’s requiring at times many re-inspections of the as-built surveys. City
Council’s being asked to add a $50 re-inspection fee for those as-built surveys that are re-visited
on a second or third time. And then lastly is an area of Chapter 4 is to amend the fees for the
City’s three utilities. The City has three utilities. Storm water management fee utility, a sewer,
sanitary sewer fee utility and a water utility. City Council has had numerous work session
discussions on setting the rates for the utilities prior to this evening. Ehlers and Associates
presented a detailed report in November on suggested or recommended increases to the fees
based on the report that was prepared in conjunction with staff. I can go through a few of those
items, some of which did not change as compared to the previous year’s rate analysis. The water
fees are recommended being increased. The water operating fees I should clarify are being
recommended to increase by 3 percent, which was consistent with last year’s analysis. The
storm water operating fees is being recommended being increased by 4 percent which is
consistent with last year’s analysis. The water hook-up fees are being requested to be increased
by 3.75 percent which is consistent with last year’s analysis. The sanitary sewer hook-up fees
are being asked to be increased by 2 percent which is consistent with last year’s analysis. The
two changes as compared to the prior year’s utility rate study have to do, one with sanitary sewer
operating. The fee that the City has charged for disposal of sanitary sewer increased again pretty
substantially for 2015 by about 8 percent. In order to keep pace with the main cost in that fund,
the disposal fee with Met Council, City Council is being asked to increase that fee from 3 to 4
percent based on last year’s analysis versus this year’s analysis. Lastly the storm water quality
and quantity connection fees. Initially council had been given direction that the projected
increases should be around 5 ½ percent. After staff and the City’s financial advisors reviewed a
number of numbers, including recommended cash balances we were able to drop that number to
4 percent so staff is recommending an increase in each of those fees by 4 percent rather than the
previous noted 5 ½ percent that the City Council saw in November. Those are the areas that staff
is recommending for change in Chapter 4 of the City Code. If there’s any questions I’d be happy
to take them at this time.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you Mr. Sticha. Questions. Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: So Greg is this grave fee, is that in addition, I mean are the utility fees
that you’re talking about, are those in addition to the grave lot fees that we’ve been talking about
which were $200 prior to the $400 that we were talking about? Or is this $400 what we’ll be
voting on tonight? $400 and $600.
16
Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Greg Sticha: Previously we did have a $200 grave fee in place. It was not part of Chapter 4.
We are including it as part of Chapter 4 as well as increasing the fee with the previously
discussed improvements to the cemetery. So the fee will be going from $200 to $400 for
residential and then $600 for non-residential as broken down in the memo. And we’re not
including it in Chapter 4.
Mayor Furlong: There was no fee for cemetery plots in Chapter 4 before, is that correct?
Greg Sticha: Not prior, no.
Councilwoman Ernst: But, I’m sorry. Can you remind me though have we, have we really
established that fee is going to be $400 per residential? The ultimate fee going from $200 to
$400 because that’s what we’re voting on here tonight, right?
Todd Gerhardt: At our.
Greg Sticha: I think it was on consent agenda.
Mayor Furlong: November 10 meeting.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, bring that up here.
Councilwoman Ernst: So it’s really just to include what has already been voted on in Chapter.
Mayor Furlong: I think that’s correct, yep.
th
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah at our November 24.
th
Greg Sticha: November 10.
ththth
Todd Gerhardt: 10? Okay. We approved the site plan on the 24. And then on November 10
established fees for graves, internments and at Pioneer Cemetery council approved establishing
grave fees for the Pioneer Cemetery at $400 for residents, $600 for non-residents and an
internment fee at $150 per burial. Talking with the City Attorney he directed staff to include that
th
motion as a part of the ordinance in adopting fees so the action that we took on November 10,
you’re duplicating that again this evening.
Councilwoman Ernst: Even though it’s already been voted on?
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah.
Councilwoman Ernst: For the grave fee.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah.
17
Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Councilwoman Ernst: I mean for the grave site plot.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, the City Attorney wanted it adopted into our fee ordinance so it’s clear if
anybody decides to get into our ordinances and want to review the different fees, it’s clear to
them what those fees are regarding to the cemetery. But it is exactly the same as the action taken
th
by City Council at your November 10 meeting.
Councilwoman Ernst: Right, okay. I just wanted to make sure we weren’t voting on additional
$400 on top of, okay.
Todd Gerhardt: No.
Councilwoman Ernst: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: And just for clarification, Chapter 4 includes a wide variety of, it lists the costs
and charges for all the services that the City provides. All contained within Chapter 4, is that
correct?
Roger Knutson: That’s correct.
Mayor Furlong: Alright.
Councilwoman Ernst: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Other questions for staff?
Councilman Laufenburger: Just one.
Mayor Furlong: Councilman Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Mr. Sticha you talked about the sewer charges and I think you
identified an 8 percent charge. That’s a charge that we are given by Met Council, is that correct?
Greg Sticha: That’s correct.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. So we’re simply reflecting that change.
Greg Sticha: Correct. We monitor the charge we receive from Met Council every year we take a
look at it. Previous years the increase hadn’t been quite as substantial. This year with it going to
8 percent we felt it prudent to increase since it’s the by far the most significant cost to that fund
we felt prudent to increase our fee to 4 percent instead of 3 percent. If for some reason the fees
moderate in future years by Met Council we certainly will be coming back with lowering that
percentage increase on an annual basis so we’re continually monitoring the fee that we get from
them.
18
Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Councilman Laufenburger: And that fee that we get from them there’s, is there anything we can
do to moderate that in any way?
Greg Sticha: That’s the actual usage fee for sanitary sewer so I’m afraid not.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. Alrighty. We get what we get.
Mayor Furlong: Any other questions for staff? Thoughts and discussion. Nobody likes raising
fees but I think in absence of raising fees you run the risk of not covering costs and generally
that’s what’s driving most of these Mr. Sticha is increasing costs.
Greg Sticha: That is correct. Maintaining cash reserves and the increasing costs that are
presented to the City.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. If there’s no other discussion, would somebody like to make a
motion? Councilwoman Tjornhom. Oh, I’m sorry.
Councilman McDonald: I’ll do it.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. McDonald you ready? Thank you.
Councilman McDonald: I’m having trouble finding a motion.
Mayor Furlong: Do we have a recommended motion or is it simply to adopt the resolution.
Greg Sticha: Just adopt the ordinance amending Chapter 4.
Councilman McDonald: Okay. I’ll say I would recommend to the council that we adopt the
changes as presented tonight to Chapter 4 of our ordinance. Including the cemetery fees, the
surface water management fees, the sewer and water fees and Met Council fees, or yeah, the
water and sewage rates cover everything.
Greg Sticha: And the as-built survey fees.
Mayor Furlong: As-built surveys.
Councilman McDonald: As-built survey, yes.
Mayor Furlong: Good, thank you.
Todd Gerhardt: And any other fees.
Mayor Furlong: The motion’s been made to adopt the resolution amending the ordinance,
Chapter 4. Is there a second?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second.
19
Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Thank you. Any discussion on the motion?
Hearing none we’ll proceed with the vote.
Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the City Council
adopt the attached ordinance amendment to Chapter 4 of the Chanhassen City Code
revising the fees for 2015. All voted in favor, except for Councilwoman Ernst who opposed,
and the motion carried 4 to 1.
APPROVAL OF FINAL LEVY, 2015 BUDGET AND 2015-2019 CAPITAL
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM.
Greg Sticha: Good evening Mayor and council. This evening the City Council will be asked to
adopt a final budget and levy for taxes payable in 2015. To kind of give some background to the
members of the audience and those viewers at home, the process the City Council went through.
I’m just going to briefly describe the budget process that took place this past year. Preliminary
budgets were submitted by department directors in early July. They were viewed by the Finance
Director and City Manager in late July. A detailed budget meeting was held in August with the
City Council and the department heads to review in detail by department each of the budgets for
the general fund. In September the City Council passed a preliminary tax levy that was to be
used for the Truth in Taxation statement that residents received about 2 weeks ago. Last
Monday evening City Council held a public budget meeting to review the information contained
in the Truth in Taxation statements and what was calculated to create those statements and took
public comment on the levy. The preliminary levy. And this evening City Council will be asked
to pass or adopt a final budget and levy and CIP for 2015. Reviewing the general fund
expenditures, taking a look at the budgeted expenditures to staff’s final recommended budgeted
expenditures, we’re looking at a total expenditure increase of 2.4 percent in all of the general
fund. Not one particular line item in general between the general areas of the general fund that
makes up a significant portion of that, and certainly there was an increase in the law enforcement
contract that had some part to do with that and we’ll go into a few of the other variables in one of
my next slides. Presenting a balanced budget, this slide shows the 2014 final budget as
compared to staff’s recommended 2015 final budget. Total revenues equaling total expenditures
of $10,164,500 or a 2.4 percent increase in revenues for the general fund for 2015. Taking a
look at some of the history of general fund expenditures, you can see the preliminary levy was
set at total general fund spending of $10,236,500. Staff’s recommendation is to amend that to
$10,164,500. Taking a look at how that compares to previous year’s expenditures for the general
fund in the last approximately 9 years. So what factors change the budget for 2015? Like I said
earlier, most expenditure line items remain flat. General fund and total again increase 2.4
percent. Wage increases were included of 3 percent. We kept budgeted permit revenues the
same as 2014. As council is aware that line item has been above budget each of the last 4 years I
believe and our health care costs contract, we had a change from preliminary levy time til final
time. We had originally planned for a 15 percent increase in health care costs. After going out
to bid we realized an actual decrease in health care costs as compared to 2014 of 6 percent. And
an important item to note, new growth for taxes payable in 2015 is 1.76 percent. 1.76 percent
equals approximately $180,000 in tax dollars to the general fund. So taking a look at all of the
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
City’s various levies, operational, capital and debt levies. Operational and capital levies for 2014
totaled $8,614,950. Recommended for 2015 we’re looking at $9,160,023. A 6 percent increase.
The most significant change there is the $395,192 that is being recommended to be now levied
for street reconstruction funds. The City’s portion of that. Previously if you take a look below
the, I hit the wrong button. The Audubon levy had been around $400,000. In 2015 that levy is
coming down to a final payment of $55,000. Staff has been planning for and has used the
difference between those two levies to help fund the City’s portion of street reconstruction costs
and that’s how the $395,192 has come about, and we’ve had numerous discussions with City
Council on that particular number as well as the elimination of the Audubon debt levy. Taking a
look at our debt levies, our total debt levies will now decrease by 22 percent. Again this is
primarily in part due to the, a reduction and eventual elimination of the Audubon debt levy. So
total all levies in 2014 total of all levies was $10,334,140. Staff’s recommending a total levy of
$10,484,021 which is a 1.45 percent increase and the total levy again, 1.76 percent was the
preliminary levy that was set by City Council which also mirrored the new growth in the city for
taxes payable in 2015. Speaking of which we’ve shown this slide every year to show how the
City has enacted it’s final levy as compared to new growth. On this graph you can see the
preliminary levy we set at new growth of 1.76 and the staff recommended levy, the $10,484,000
will be a 1.45 percent change in the levy from the previous year as compared to new growth.
Taking a look at the long term historical trend of the actual levy versus new growth in every year
but one the City has levied less than, at or less than new growth in each particular year.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. Sticha just to clarify, when you say new growth, what constitutes new
growth?
Greg Sticha: As we discussed at our last meeting new growth is essentially the new buildings,
the new homes that have been constructed or that are now part of the tax base in the city of
Chanhassen.
Mayor Furlong: So it does not include inflationary value associated with someone’s property?
If they haven’t finished the basement. Made an addition. Made any improvements to the
building or to their home but their assessed value goes up, that’s not being captured here. That’s
not part of this.
Greg Sticha: No that is correct and I’ll show you that growth number, the inflationary growth
number here in a minute but this is just the actual new growth, new homes, new construction in
the city of Chanhassen.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Greg Sticha: So what will the impact on homeowners be? We sampled several Truth in
Taxation statements that were sent out to city residents. Each of these represents an actual parcel
in the city of Chanhassen and the change in their city portion of their property tax bill from 2014
compared to 2015 as well as it is showing the taxable market value change in their property. As
the mayor was commenting earlier, the average home had inflationary growth or growth as
compared to market value an increase of around 10.9 percent. So in essence the average home
increased in value, if you did nothing to your home by around 10 ½ to 11 percent. So we took a
21
Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
look at a number of parcels to see how they compared to what the City Council set for the
preliminary levy and the one that most closely mirrors what actually took place is parcel number
1. It was 10 ½ percent increase in it’s taxable market value and essentially no increase in it’s
city portion of it’s property tax bill, which is what you would expect if you set a preliminary levy
at the new growth or new construction number. A number of other parcels were included. As
the value of your home goes up, the statement doesn’t necessarily hold true as much as the tax
rates shift when your home value goes above $500,000. But there were still a number of
consistencies across the board. Taking a look at parcel 2, that saw about a 15 percent increase in
it’s taxable market value. Thus you would have anticipated it saw some type of increase in it’s
city portion of it’s property tax bill, and it did. It saw about a 5 percent increase in it’s city
portion of it’s property tax bill. Taking a look at how the property tax bill breaks down by
jurisdiction. This graph shows a home in School District 112 and the percentage of the entire tax
bill and which jurisdiction is responsible for each amount of the total tax bill. The City of
Chanhassen’s around 20 percent, 21 percent of the total tax bill. The school district just above
40 percent and the county about 32 percent. Each year we like to keep ourselves comparable to
our key financial strategy cities so we present to City Council the budgeted expenditures from
the year before just to kind of have a check in as to how we’re doing compared to a number of
our comparable cities. The thing that we like to point out I guess on this particular slide is the
consistency with which the City Council here in Chanhassen has planned for budgeted
expenditures from year to year. If you were to take a look at our 5 to 10 year history on this the
increase from each year is very small incremental increases along the way. You’ll notice some
other jurisdictions have taken a slightly different approach. In some years they will have
significant increases and then other years they’ll actually have decreases. We’ve taken the
approach that small incremental increases seem to be a little more favorable and work better in
the long term. Comparing ourselves to Carver County cities in budgeted expenditures. Again
the Chanhassen number at 2.17 percent. The average at 6, almost 7 percent and the other
jurisdictions listed below as compared to 2013 versus 2014. Obviously we don’t have 2015
budgeted expenditures reported for other jurisdictions at this point in time. So how does that
break down into a per capita number? Taking a look at our KFS comparable cities, Chanhassen
has a per capita budgeted expenditure number of $418 per capita with the average being $489
and the low being $482. Or $402, excuse me. Per capita spending as compared to our Carver
County cities, Chanhassen with the lowest at $418 per capita with the average being around $470
per capita budgeted expenditures. This is spending for 2014. Taking a look at the Carver
County tax rates. The City’s tax rate for taxes payable in 2014 is 27.238. The average in the
county is 64.8 and the other jurisdictions within Carver County are listed on this slide. Taking a
long term or wider picture view of the tax rate from the City of Chanhassen, and this goes back
to all the way to 2003 when the City’s tax rate was almost at 40 to currently estimated for 2015
based on the staff recommended levy in your packet this evening, would be right around 24.667
for a tax rate. Approximate number.
Mayor Furlong: I’m sorry, approximately 24.667?
Greg Sticha: Approximately.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Greg Sticha: In that ballpark… This graph just shows.
Todd Gerhardt: Going to miss the mayor.
Greg Sticha: This graph just shows the long term tax rate history. It’s kind of important to note
that key variables that impact the tax rate not only are just the levy but maybe even more
importantly are your, is your taxable market value and the change in your taxable market value
from year to year. In the years in which, and this would include years 2009 through 12 in the
years in which the city’s taxable market value was actually decreasing, you can see a slight
increase in the tax rate. Even though the City Council was not having significant increases in the
levy, your tax rate was still impacted by the decrease in market values that we were seeing
everywhere in the state, not just in Chanhassen. Now that market conditions have favored and
market values are on the rise, you’re seeing a lowering of the tax rate since 2013 which makes
sense. Therefore staff is recommending setting a final levy of $10,484,021 and a General Fund
Budget of $10,164,500 as well as a final CIP of, let me get the number. $122,985,080. I would
be happy to take any questions on any of these items at this point.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you Mr. Sticha. Appreciate your report. Questions. Councilwoman
Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: Greg when we talked about the Planning Commission, and I was looking
in the packet on the cost for the Planning Commission position. For the planning position, you
have $23,000 and I had written in work session that it would be about $72,000 per year.
Greg Sticha: We are planning on funding half of that position in 2015 and then we’ll be funding
the other half in 2016. The position won’t be filled until probably mid to late June of this year.
Or 2015 so we’re splitting up essentially funding that position between 2015 and 16.
Mayor Furlong: If I could, just to clarify too. We’re changing a part time position to a full time
position as well correct?
Greg Sticha: Right.
Mayor Furlong: So the full time position is probably comparable to what the number she has.
Greg Sticha: Yes.
Councilwoman Ernst: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: But there’s already in the budget from last year the funding for the part time
position plus then half of the increase.
Greg Sticha: I believe $13,000 in the budget for an intern position. That has been eliminated.
Mayor Furlong: Right.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Greg Sticha: And we’ve added the full position at $36,000.
Mayor Furlong: Beginning mid-year.
Greg Sticha: Beginning mid-year.
Councilwoman Ernst: Okay, thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Any other questions Councilwoman Ernst?
Councilwoman Ernst: No. Not at this time.
Mayor Furlong: Anyone else with questions? Councilman Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you. Just to clarify. Greg let’s talk about this new growth a
little bit. You said that you use a percentage of 1.76 in terms of new growth. That means, I’ll
wait for you to get there. Okay 1.76 so 1.76 in new growth represents approximately how many
dollars in new property tax revenue?
Greg Sticha: Approximately $180,000 to the City’s general fund.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay general fund and if I’m not mistaken.
Greg Sticha: Oh excuse me. Across all funds. $180,000 across the entire levy. For the entire
levy.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. So $180,000 and the, you are recommending an increase in
the levy from last year to this year an amount of $149,900. Let’s call it $150,000 right?
Greg Sticha: That is correct.
Councilman Laufenburger: So essentially the new growth is funding the increase in the levy
with an additional $30,000 that essentially is going to be used to reduce the property tax levy
burden on existing homeowners.
Greg Sticha: That is correct. As stated in our Truth in Taxation hearing meeting last week the
statements that the residents received, based on the staff’s recommended levy in front of you.
Councilman Laufenburger: The preliminary levy.
Greg Sticha: The preliminary levy and based on staff’s recommended levy for a final levy this
evening, everybody’s city portion of their property tax bill will be less than what they received in
the mail and on their statements. The majority of homes will see an actual reduction in their city
portion of their property taxes as compared to 2014 as well.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. And again that, whether that’s going to be less will be based
on the valuation that their home or their property took last year to this year. And if it was in the
10 ½ percent range then likely it will be lower. If it’s 15-20 they may see an increase.
Greg Sticha: Correct.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay. Alright. Second question. You showed us a per capita
spending. Can you go to that slide? I think it was like 418. Okay, per capita spending. Is that
general fund per capita spending?
Greg Sticha: That is all budgeted funds based on the State Auditor’s Annual Report that is filed
so this would include in our case, this would include the general fund and the two city special
revenue funds.
Councilman Laufenburger: Special revenue funds?
Greg Sticha: Which in our case would be the charitable gambling fund and the cable TV fund.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay, alright. Have you done a preliminary calculation of what
2015 would look like if the budget’s approved tonight?
Greg Sticha: I did not based on that number. I did it based on some other numbers. It’s around
that number. It might be slightly less than that number for 2015 assuming the new amount of
residents that the city would have for next year. The increase in spending was percentage wise.
Councilman Laufenburger: Okay I just, just because you don’t have the specifics of that I think
I’ll defer that question until next year at this time.
Greg Sticha: Okay.
Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Any other questions at this point? Alright, thank you. Let’s
bring it to council for discussion and consideration of a motion. Thoughts and comments.
Councilwoman Ernst: Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: So based on the information, by the way I’d like to thank Greg and all the
department heads for all the work that they go through every year on the budget. I know it’s not
an easy task and so I appreciate all the work that you put forth in that. What I would recommend
at this time, and of course included, and I’m going to look at the general fund budget because
that is a difference of about $149,000-$150,000 which would be the difference between 2014 and
2015. I would recommend that we provide a 2 percent raise versus a 3 percent and based on the
last few years staff has really enjoyed a 3 percent raise consistently but this would really give us
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
a reduction in the budget of about $42,000 because it’s like $42,000 per increment. Eliminate
the new planning position which is $23,000 that we have in there this year. For this first half.
This would reduce by $23,000 in the budget. I believe this position was a proposal based on the
reduction of the $80,000 savings that we were able to enjoy from health insurance, which by the
way I think that, I thought that number was $87,000 in a work session but in here I see it’s
$80,000.
Greg Sticha: It’s approximately $80,000.
Councilwoman Ernst: So we can use the number $80,000. Okay. Which was the result of the
new program. We should take the $80,000 and give it back to the taxpayers. This would be an
additional including the $80,000, the $23,000 of $103,000 and if we eliminate one CSO this
would be another $15,000 so this gets us to about $160,000 reduction in the general fund budget
which is about $10,000 less than last year’s general fund actuals. That’s my recommendation.
And actually I would like to make that a motion.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. Motion’s been made for the changes she explained. Is there a second?
Motion dies for lack of a second. Other comments, discussion. Mr. Gerhardt, maybe a follow up
question with regard to the new planning position or the movement of a, is it an interim or
planning, part time planning position to full time.
Todd Gerhardt: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: That’s something that you’ve recommended to the council. Perhaps you can
explain the reasons for your recommendation.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah, I believe it was back in 2007 we eliminated a planner’s position as we
saw a decrease in building permit revenues. Slowing of the economy so to help balance the
budget back in 2007 we eliminated the position of Planner I. In lieu of that we did keep a
planning intern. We’ve had the luxury of having 3 to 4 planning interns that we’ve spent
substantial amount of time training, educating them on code enforcement, our ordinances when it
comes to planning codes for subdivisions, PUD’s and have seen those individuals leave our
community and take employment in our surrounding communities. Minnetonka, Eden Prairie
and I forget the other location but we’ve been averaging 175 building permits for the last several
years. You know we do have an uptick in office industrial. Some senior housing. Big market
for apartments and so with that we would like to take the current intern that we have and has
spent the last year in training and turning that position into a full time Planner I position. That
was my recommendation to council to get staffing levels in our planning department back to the
2007 levels.
Mayor Furlong: And one of the reasons if I recall from what you explained before to the council
is waiting til mid-year to make the change is that intern is still completing his studies is that
correct?
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Todd Gerhardt: That’s correct. Right now he is finishing up his masters program and is working
half days on his off school days and will be graduating in May and then would be available for
full employment starting in June.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, alright. Thank you. Thank you. Other discussion on the budget. Mr.
McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Well I guess what I look at this year as Mr. Sticha has said, this is not
the first time that we’ve seen this that the process begins much earlier. A lot of questions have
been asked. We’ve gone through all of these particular line items. I think a lot of these things
about where we were going to cut money has been discussed. The need for it. I’m satisfied with
the current budget and the fact that we’re able to set the preliminary and then still find ways to
bring the final amounts down by a significant amount. I do believe that as we go forward you
have to cover new growth and I think that’s always been something that we’ve tried to look at
because with new growth you add new streets. You add new sewers. You add new roads that
need to be plowed. Your costs go up. They are not the same as they were the previous year so
the labor to do all of that will increase. The issue about the pay raise that we have discussed, and
I know surrounding communities that we looked at are also within the same range that we’re at.
I think that the employees of this city do an exceptional job and the proof of that is in the fact
that again we have been able to maintain a AAA bond rating which gives us a lower rate as far as
borrowing money and that more than saves the amount of money that we’re looking at from
taking money away from a pay raise. It also again helps us to maintain our roads, our streets.
All of this there is a cost associated with the particular I guess quality of life that the citizens of
this city want and they’ve made very clear that they want their parks to be kept up. They want us
to add parks. They want trails. They want all of this and all of this requires maintenance and
cost and again that relates back to labor. That relates back to you know how quickly that we can
get things done and we’ve done a marvelous job on quite a few of these street projects. On quite
a few of these programs that we’ve managed to put together adding parks to neighborhoods and
all of these things. So I think that what the budget reflects is truly what the standard of living is
within this community and I’ve always felt in years past that if cut the budget, which I’m always
in favor of doing, what are you willing to give up and time and time again residents have said
well, I don’t want to give up my roads. I like my parks. I like this. It comes down to quality of
life of what this city is and that’s reflected in all of our awards. That’s reflected in all of these
surveys that are taken. The citizens have spoken time and time again. We just through an
election where that was an issue at the election and what happened there was that no, there is a
cost to maintaining the city and the residents are in favor of maintaining that cost. I think this
budget accomplishes that and that’s why I will support this budget and why I’m going to vote in
favor of it.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you Mr. McDonald. Other thoughts and comments?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Mr. Mayor?
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Tjornhom.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yes. I too will be supporting this budget and I want to thank staff
and everyone that was included I think in preparing this budget. One of the things I always feel
good about when we do the budget is that it starts during the summer and so we have a lot of
time to really meet all the department heads. Their proposals for their budgets and to see what’s
really going on in the city. What they’re spending their money on and how that’s being used as a
service to City Hall to it’s residents. I also like the Truth in Taxation part of it. I think we have
an open discussion with the residents and they are always willing, they’re available or they are
welcome to come and listen to us in any work session just to hear about the process and Truth in
Taxation was a perfect example last Monday night of how if someone does have a question or a
comment or a complaint about their taxes they can come and talk to us about it and it was
refreshing to hear her and just to get her point of view as to how she feels about her taxes and
just to kind of have that open discussion about what’s really happening and what was really
interesting is someone, I don’t know if it was Todd or someone did the math and probably like 5-
6 years ago or later she was paying $500 in property taxes and this year she was $300 and some
so it’s a joy to see how that also goes down with time and to explain to her that your tax bill isn’t
just a city tax bill. It’s a county. It’s a school district. Watershed. It includes a, it encompasses
a whole variety of entities that are taxing you and the city is just one of those entities. I’ve
always thought that our process of only holding our tax rate to the growth, to the rate of growth
has been a way of managing our city the right way. Not just going willy nilly and picking a
number and saying let’s just raise taxes by 3 percent or let’s lower them by 3 percent. It really is
calculated to meet the needs of everybody that lives here and so I feel good about this budget and
I will be supporting it.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Councilman McDonald thoughts.
Councilman McDonald: Mr. Laufenburger.
Mayor Furlong: Oh, I’m just not good at this. Mr. Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: To your left, is that right?
Mayor Furlong: Yeah, yeah.
Councilman Laufenburger: Just a few comments. I want to echo what Councilwoman Tjornhom
said and that is that this process really does begin quite a while ago and what we don’t see
tonight is that there has been substantial discussion at work session amongst the council
members on any of a number of topics including opportunity for discussion regarding the salary.
Opportunity for discussion regarding the cost of public safety. Mr. Sticha correct me if I’m
wrong but are we not being subjected to about a $70,000 increase in our police contract next year
versus this year, is that correct?
Greg Sticha: Yep, that’s what you passed earlier this evening.
Councilman Laufenburger: And that $70,000 the plans for that is included in the budget which
is $30,000 lower than last year’s levy plus this year’s growth so the dialogue that we have
tonight is kind of concluding dialogue and I’m always, I’m always impressed that the process of
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
persuasion that we go under here is, it’s a sequence of events over a long period of time,
specifically about 6 months. The salary discussion. We did significant consideration with
different cities and where we rank with other cities and we were reminded that our salary, though
we offer a specific amount and a percentage, it really is a pay for performance program that we
have so those exceptional employees may get a maximum amount and those that don’t
demonstrate exceptional performance don’t get that and that’s a tool that we give our
management team, the City Manager and the departments heads in order to manage activities.
So I like Councilwoman Tjornhom, for me the 4 years that I’ve been on the council establishing
budget, I have used that new growth as kind of the upper limit thinking that yes, it’s
unreasonable for us to consider that we can have 1,000 more citizens in this city year to year and
not expect that there’s going to be more cost associated with providing the services that the
citizens want so I’m very pleased that we can once again this year, I think it’s each of the last 4
years we’ve been offering a levy that has lower, an increased levy that is lower than the actual
new growth that’s been coming into the city so I too will support this budget.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Thank you for your comments and thank you for everybody that
was involved from the city staff standpoint as well as residents and others who have spoken and
provided comments to any or more, any of the council members or others. This is a long
process. It is something that is not addressed in a single night and that’s good. It gives time and
opportunity for everybody to consider and weigh the options. Discuss in our meetings and our
work sessions the alternatives that might be available. I think Mr. McDonald is right when he
talks about standards of living and service levels. This budget will maintain existing service
levels that our residents have requested and expect and yet it does so in a fiscally conservative
manner and I think that’s represented by the example that Councilwoman Tjornhom used of the
city portion of property taxes have had a general trend downward on a dollar for dollar basis over
the last decade plus and I think that’s something that has been in place. The limitation, the self
imposed limitation of the levy increase to no more than the real growth. I think there was only
one year, 2008 when that was not maintained and that was by specific action in that year as
people will recall. The Chanhassen High School opened and as part of that with the high school,
the City paid for a portion of the school resources officer that’s been there. As a city, as a
community we have seen dividends on that investment into a school resource officer. We also
added in that year as part of our expansion of our contract with Carver County Sheriff’s Office
an inspector. An investigator to look into crimes that were created. Non-felony crimes but
nonetheless crimes. Identify theft and other source of vandalism and such like that. We have
seen with burglaries too I should say, we have seen over the years the benefits of that investment
as well so it’s providing for the citizen’s needs. Maintaining the consistent trend of limiting as
was said the practice of limiting the levy to no more than the real growth has really resulted in a
city budget that provides for our needs and yet keeps us living within our means and that’s the
critical component of it and this is one of the many factors that comes into play with regard to
the City’s AAA bond rating and something that I think it’s less than 20 cities across this state
enjoy that level of financial credit, which has also in and of itself as was mentioned I think by
Mr. McDonald, who’s on my right at the end. That has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars
for the city and for our citizens and continues to do so every year with our lower debt and our
ability to refinance so I thank everybody that was involved. It’s always a healthy discussion
whenever we’re dealing with city budgets but I think this is again a fiscally responsible budget
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
that provides for our citizens needs and continues the strong fiscal policies that we’ve had in the
past. With that I will certainly entertain a motion. Mr. McDonald?
Councilman McDonald: Yes. I make the following motion that the City Council adopts a
resolution establishing the 2015 final levy at $10,484,021 and approves the total general fund
expenditures of $10,164,500. It also approves the CIP for 2015 through 2019 in the total amount
of $122,985,080.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Is there a second?
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing
none we’ll proceed with the vote.
Resolution #2014-85: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded
that the City Council adopts a resolution establishing the 2015 final levy at $10,484,021 and
approves the total general fund expenditures of $10,164,500. It also approves the CIP for
2015 through 2019 in the total amount of $122,985,080. All voted in favor, except
Councilwoman Ernst who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 4 to 1.
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF CITY CODE AMENDMENT REGARDING COUNCIL
COMPENSATION.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, City Council members. Another exciting topic that I know council
loves to talk about is increasing your own salaries. I think the last change that we made to
salaries were 20 years ago for the mayor and council and however we did add some additional
meeting times in 1994. We have 11 key financial strategy cities and of each of those cities the
averages for mayor, $7,831 and for city council it’s $6,609. Staff is recommending that we jump
the mayor’s salary up to $9,000 and city council up to $7,200. Also we would like to make
adjustments into the future taking into account CIP adjustments for every 2 year period of time.
With that staff would open up any questions that council or the public may have.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. Gerhardt you mentioned the averages for the cities and the proposal. Can
you mention the current compensation or did you?
Todd Gerhardt: Current compensation for the mayor is $6,000. For city council it’s $4,800 so
jumping it up to the $9,000 for the mayor and $7,200 for city council is a $2,400 increase for
council and $3,000 for the mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
Todd Gerhardt: And this would take effect after the next election so January 1, 2017.
Mayor Furlong: So there’s no change to the budget next year that we just passed or the
following year. It’s 2017 that any changes would take effect.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Todd Gerhardt: Correct. Our next general election for council is fall of 2016.
Mayor Furlong: Okay. Thank you. Any questions?
Councilwoman Ernst: I have a couple questions Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Furlong: Sure, Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: So if my math is right this is like a 50 percent increase, right over current
salaries for mayor and for city council?
Todd Gerhardt: No. For mayor it would be, would be 50 percent and little less than 50 percent
for council.
Councilwoman Ernst: And I know in work session we talked about elimination of
reimbursement fees for special meetings. Is that a consideration here or is that not being
considered?
Todd Gerhardt: My recommendation would be to keep the special meetings allotment in there.
It is typically for meetings outside our regular meetings so it’s a way to compensate council for
those outside meetings.
Councilwoman Ernst: Okay.
Mayor Furlong: Any other questions for staff? If not, thoughts and comments. Councilman
Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Yeah I do have, thank you Mr. Mayor. Just to clarify the
percentage.
Mayor Furlong: Excuse me before you go. Mr. Ernst you were stepping up. Did you want to
speak to this? It’s not a public hearing but we’d certainly welcome public comments.
Frank Ernst: Well I was going to ask if you had public comments and I’m not sure that I
understood what Mr. Gerhardt said. Oh, I’m Frank Ernst, 840 Cree Drive, Chanhassen.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Frank Ernst: Is there also going to be some built in continued increases here?
Todd Gerhardt: Yes.
Frank Ernst: Okay. I find it pretty amazing. I’ve sat tonight and listened to increase fees. I’ve
heard Councilman Laufenburger say that we hate having fees passed on. As a resident I sure
hate having costs passed on. We’ve heard of proposals on how to reduce some spending. That
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
was rejected promptly. Unfortunately I didn’t pass away last year so my family didn’t have to
bury me so next year buying a cemetery plot will cost twice as much. We’ve just continually
hear about added costs and now you want to increase the council and mayor’s pay by 50 percent.
I think that would be quite a legacy to leave. I just, I think that’s absurd.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Is there anybody else that would like to provide some public
comment? Okay, thank you. The last time, I guess just for clarification Mr. Gerhardt. The
number 50 percent has been used and that is the math between $6,000 and $9,000 and $4,800
and $7,200 but that’s over a 20 year period correct? I mean so on an annual basis, do you have
the number of what that works out to? Or Mr. Sticha.
Greg Sticha: 50 percent divided by 20 would be.
Mayor Furlong: And that would be non-compounded obviously so it’d be even less than that on
a compounded basis so it’s probably fairly close to if not below inflation.
Todd Gerhardt: 2.5.
Mayor Furlong: Is that a compounded rate or just a simple rate?
Greg Sticha: Simple.
Todd Gerhardt: Compounded. Or simple.
Greg Sticha: It’s simple, yeah.
Mayor Furlong: Simple. So the compounded rate would actually be less than that so.
Todd Gerhardt: My recommendation would be to use the state’s CPI index. A lot of cities are
going this way. Edina just passed an ordinance using the State CIP Index for future council
raises every 2 years. And I did put an example in your packet that shows after adoption of the
ordinance it would be the first increase would be 2018. And that was roughly 2.7 percent.
Mayor Furlong: Under your example.
Todd Gerhardt: Correct.
Mayor Furlong: The other question that was raised by Mr. Ernst was with regard to increase of
fees and we did do that with Chapter 4 tonight but I think at the time we talked about that. The
only items that we talked about were the ones that changed. Other fees that were in Chapter 4,
building permit fees and a variety, I mean how many different types of things do we charge for
and why do we charge for them I guess is the question?
Todd Gerhardt: Like any fee you want to charge the fee for the actual service being rendered so
that individual that may not want to take out a building permit fee, we shouldn’t include those
fees as a part of our general fund levy so it should be for the actual fee incurred. So if
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
somebody’s hooking up to our sewer and water you know there should be a fee for that. Getting
a building permit there should be a fee associated with that. Some communities feel as though it
should be as a part of their overall general fund costs. Same thing with our sewer and water
assessments. Some people live in new homes. Why should they be contributing to this portion
of somebody else’s assessment when they just got done paying for their new road as a part of the
purchase of their home so we try to break it down to those who are benefiting from the fee.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Let’s go ahead then with, unless there are other questions
which may come up, thoughts and comments. Mr. Laufenburger would you like to start?
Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you very much Mr. Mayor. First of all let me deal with some
facts. The current, Mr. Gerhardt you budget for full payment of the stipend and the meeting
reimbursement, is that correct?
Todd Gerhardt: That is correct.
Councilman Laufenburger: So currently the 4 councils, council members at $400 and the mayor
at $500 is a monthly stipend of $2,100. If I multiply that times 12, that’s $25,200 plus a full
meeting reimbursement of $150 times 5 members times 12 months is $9,000 so that’s a total
current budget of $34,200 right?
Todd Gerhardt: (Yes).
Councilman Laufenburger: Now to be fair that $34,200, that may not all be spent. I know for a
fact that I don’t submit reimbursements for all of my meetings. I know other council members
don’t but I think for fairness we need to consider what the budgeted amount is so that’s $34,200.
Under the city manager’s recommended plan it would go to 4 times $600 plus 1 times $750
which is $3,150 per month times 12 is $37,800 plus the meeting reimbursement of $9,000 would
be $46,800 would be the total budget and again that may not reflect total expenses because not
everybody may submit for their meetings so that $34,200 to $46,800 is not a 50 percent
increase. It’s a 36.8 percent increase and using your financial wizardry Mr. Furlong, or Mayor
Furlong it’s actually a compounded interest rate of 2.15 percent for 14 years. So those are the
facts. Not 50 percent. Yes. This will become a bullet that can grab attention on political
campaign literature. But I think it’s also important to note that our jobs really can’t be calculated
on an hourly rate as you attempted to do Mr. Gerhardt. We are council members. We are
members of City Council. We are elected officials 24/7. That means we are on the job wherever
we may encounter citizens. Now we don’t do this for the pay. We do this because we love to
serve our city and love to serve the citizens of Chanhassen or whatever elected, whatever elected
body we serve. Excuse me, was I interrupting a conversation? Okay. So what it really, what
this really amounts to is this is $1,050 per month that doesn’t go into effect until 2017. So from
my perspective as an elected official, not only thinking about my role and this would come into
effect only for 2 years of the term that I would have in place, this is a fair and very comparable
stipend and reimbursement and it’s overdue. It reflects, I think it’s a fair reflection of the
consideration for the services that we provide. And yes, let me repeat again this will be a bullet
item on an attention grabbing political campaign literature but $1,050 per month in the scheme of
things 2 years out seems very reasonable.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Other thoughts. Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: Yes. Mr. Mayor, you know one of the comments that came up at our
work sessions was that this would really, raising the salaries would really be attract more
candidates for city council and quite honestly this last election we’ve had more candidates from
my conversation with Mr. Gerhardt, we set a record this year for having as many candidates as
we did that really wanted to be on city council and mayor and so I don’t, I don’t see that as being
one of the factors here that we’re trying to draw more candidates because we definitely don’t
have that issue.
Mayor Furlong: Okay, thank you. Councilwoman Tjornhom.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah this is, I kind of wish we were talking about I don’t know,
anything else but this tonight. Maybe assessments. I don’t know, anything else but this just
because it is a real touchy topic and it’s one I’ve never had to deal with because on my time that
I’ve been on council obviously I’ve never been asked to support or not support a pay raise for
myself. I certainly am not here for the paycheck and I am not here for special reimbursement to
meetings because in the last 2 years I haven’t submitted one reimbursement request so I’m
certainly not here to get paid to be a council person. That being said, if I’m going to relay my
own experiences as being a city council member and the time and it is cost. Money is money.
We all have to earn a living and we all have to do what we have to do and my years that I was on
the TAB board I think that was probably a very good example. I was very honored to be on the
TAB board and hopefully I did some good for the city and so once again I was not there for the
$50 but let’s take a look at my day. I work and the TAB board meets in St. Paul so that means I
have to take time off of work. Drive to St. Paul and stay there for maybe 3 to 4 hours and then
drive back to work and make up for that time I’ve lost and that is what I chose to do but still it
does, there’s a cost to that. When anybody on this panel goes to a meeting somewhere there is a
cost to it and so like I said for myself I haven’t submitted reimbursement costs and I’m not here
for that paycheck and I won’t even receive any compensation for voting yes for this but for those
in the future that are, you know I feel it’s important that we at least acknowledge that for 20
years we’ve stayed the same and now it’s probably time to catch up and so I will support this just
for those reasons.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Well this is a very difficult thing for me because again as everybody
has said you know we’re not really in it for the money. I mean we’re all in it for different
reasons but the big thing is we’re in it to serve the community and we’re trying to help the
community and we’re trying to again, the community does not exist in isolation. We have to
interface with St. Paul. We have to interface with other cities. That means meetings. That
means traveling. That means going to things. I typically am one of the ones who submit my
reimbursements but I get 3 meetings. I average 4 to 5 most months so I’m not collecting on a
couple of them and I don’t collect on anything I do around the city like attending ribbon cuttings
or going to the lighting of the Christmas tree or doing things within the community. Meeting
with residents. Doing things to try to help people cut through the red tape of City Hall or explain
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
why City Hall is doing what they’re doing. That all takes time. Time which I willingly and very
lovingly give to the community because I do love this place. I do, and I’ve wrestled with this
and I’ve thought about it and I know that it will become political and I have said that but I guess
in really reviewing it I think it is long overdue. I think a recognition of what your city council
does for the community should be recognized. Otherwise you’re asking city council to be a
charity and I’m sure no one wants that. This is still not a lot of money. If you want to be a
career politician and live that way you’re not going to do it being a city councilman. Become a
state legislator or county commissioner or the governor or something along those lines and now
you can pretty much give up your day job. None of us have the luxury of doing that so I think
that this is a recognition long overdue that what city council provides is it’s more than just
showing up to these meetings. We do a lot of things within the community, as Mr. Laufenburger
has stated. We’re one of the first ones to get a phone call at any time of the day or night
depending upon how people feel or we’re the first ones to get an email with people voicing their
opinions so I think that you know we serve the public and part of that service is you’re available
24/7 and that comes with the job and whenever you run for this office that’s one of the things
that you inherit if you win a seat on this commission and I think we’ve all done that willingly
and knowingly and we understand what that means. So I too will support this and I guess I will
defend it in 2 years should I decide to run again but I do believe that it is a fair resolution to pass
so I will support it.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you Mr. McDonald. The facts have been laid out. This is an issue that
indeed is long overdue and it reminds me of a situation 10 years ago right after the 2004 election.
I had just been re-elected after my first 2 year term and one of the other council members made a
motion to change the term of the mayor for the city of Chanhassen from 2 to 4 years and with the
wonderful advisory group of the council we had at that time it was 2 to 2 on whether to do that
and so I was the deciding vote. As I said at that time, because I didn’t know what my plans were
2 years from then. If I would run again for re-election. Obviously I did. Obviously I have
enjoyed and done that but personally I would have preferred not to have addressed that issue at
that time. At that night but it needed to be addressed and what, because it was a decision that we
make as a council for the good of the city each and every time, and in the end I voted to change
the term of mayor to 4 years. Not for my benefit but for the next mayor and for largely, for the
benefit of the citizens of Chanhassen. We’re seeing here again tonight a similar type of vote. I
will support this. It’s long overdue but what I want to say on the record very personally is for the
comments and the support from Councilwoman Tjornhom and Councilmen McDonald and
Laufenburger knowing the political price, and it’s not just a price because it’s the politics that
will be played or we expect to be played, that could be played and yet they’re doing the right
thing for the right reasons and to me that’s important. The sense of compensation for elected
officials I know has many people, many people believe that it’s something that we shouldn’t be
doing or changing but in effect the time and effort that goes into these roles for someone else to
take these roles on in the future, to me it’s an appropriate thing to do. It’s a reasonable thing to
do and I will support it for the same reasons because it’s the right thing to do and I think we’re
doing it for the right reasons. With that I’ll certainly entertain a motion.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor, council?
Mayor Furlong: Mr. Gerhardt.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Todd Gerhardt: I’d just like to, just for the public record, everybody to understand that we are
not going to the highest point of our key financial strategy cities. There are 5 cities that are at or
higher than my recommendation so when, and that’s on a per capita spending ratio and so I
wanted to make that clear. And also it’s 20 years since the last time we made an adjustment to
the overall salary but this one will not take effect until 2017 so you roughly have 3 more years to
add to that 20.
Mayor Furlong: 20-22.
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah.
Mayor Furlong: Or 22 years. Thank you Mr. Gerhardt for the clarification. I will go ahead and
move the adoption of the resolution and ask for a second.
Councilman Laufenburger: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Any discussion on the motion? Hearing none we’ll proceed with
the vote.
Mayor Furlong moved, Councilman Laufenburger seconded that the City Council approve
that the Mayor’s salary increase from $500 to $750 per month and the City Council’s
salary increase from $400 to $600 per month beginning January 1, 2017, and adopt the
attached ordinance that will link future raises to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) used by
the State Office of Management and Budget. All voted in favor, except Councilwoman
Ernst who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 4 to 1.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you everybody. We’ll move now to the next item on our agenda. Here
we’re going to move up, as I said at the beginning of our meeting, items K(1) and (2) we’ll
consider as a single item and we’re going to address that at this time.
ANNOUNCE RESULTS OF CITY MANAGER’S PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AND
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE CITY MANAGER’S EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT.
Mayor Furlong: I’ll start with a verbal report and then we’ll ask for action from the council. The
th
City Council met in executive session on November 24 and again this evening, December 8,
2014 to discuss Mr. Gerhardt’s performance and compensation as our city manager. The
following is a summary of those discussions. Mr. Gerhardt’s performance this year was ranked
exceptional by the City Council. This rating recognizes Mr. Gerhardt’s performance during
2014 as one that consistently achieved the highest levels of performance in his duties and often
went above and beyond expectations. He accomplished many of his personal goals and those of
the City Council. Together with the City Council and staff he coordinated and executed a
number of strategic initiatives for the city. Some of the major accomplishments and highlights
include completion of our local street rehabilitation, reconstruction projects on time and on
budget. The completing of the 101 project from Lyman Boulevard to Pioneer Trail and working
with Carver County and the State of Minnesota to begin construction on the new 101 river
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
crossing. Coordination, effective long range planning activities including a joint session with the
Planning Commission, Council and staff to plan for long term improvements and development
opportunities along the County Road 61 corridor along the Minnesota River. Working
effectively with our residents and other government organizations such as School Districts 112
and 276, Carver County, MnDOT, DNR, our watershed districts, neighboring cities to coordinate
improvements, investments and other activities within our park and trail system, our lakes,
natural resources, municipal utilities and other public infrastructure. Expansion of our park and
trail system with completion of the new Pioneer Pass neighborhood park. Maintaining the City’s
sound financial position through strong management of the City’s budget and achieving a
reaffirmation of the City’s AAA credit rating by Standard and Poors, along with stable outlook
and the highest credit rating provided. And moving a number of future road and infrastructure
projects and developments forward such as upgrading the 101 river crossing. Or excuse me,
upgrading 101 from Pioneer Trail to the Minnesota River. Moving forward with planning for the
new water treatment plant and also providing long lasting benefits for our city residents and
businesses. All told the City’s accomplishments in 2014 under Mr. Gerhardt’s management
were numerous. Mr. Gerhardt’s service to the City of Chanhassen for over 28 years and since
2001 as it’s City Manager has positively contributed to Chanhassen becoming nationally ranked
and such a great place to live, work and raise a family. In consideration of his overall
performance and other factors the City Council discussed changes to Mr. Gerhardt’s employment
arrangement in the form of an employment contract and compensation. Based upon those
discussions at this time I would move that the City Council approve the employment contract
distributed with the City Council packet. This contract is consistent with those of city managers
in Carver County, the metropolitan region and across the state. It will put Todd, Mr. Gerhardt
excuse me, on par with others. Not above them. In recognition of his exceptional performance
rating and consistent with the City’s long standing merit pay compensation policies the contract
includes a 4 percent increase in Mr. Gerhardt’s base salary beginning January 1 of next year. At
this time I would ask for a second to my motion to adopt the contract.
Councilman McDonald: Second.
Mayor Furlong: Motion’s been made and seconded. At this time I would invite other members
of the council to provide any comments to Mr. Gerhardt’s performance as city manager that they
wish to provide and then we will address the motion. Thoughts and comments.
Councilwoman Ernst: Mr. Mayor?
Mayor Furlong: Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: Well I actually had some very good comments about Todd on his
performance review this year and I support all the great things that he’s done and it’s been a
pleasure to serve with you on council but with all the increases that we’ve just voted on tonight I
am, I’m unable to really support this increase and I didn’t realize that these were going to come
as a joint effort for the contract as well as the 4 percent increase.
Mayor Furlong: Okay.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Councilwoman Ernst: But based on that I won’t be able to support the proposal.
Mayor Furlong: Alright. Thank you. Any other thoughts or comments on Mr. Gerhardt’s
performance? Councilman McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: You know we spent a lot of time I think going round and round about
what we pay people who run the city and I think that one of the ways you need to look at it is the
city is like a corporation and health and vitality of that corporation is reflected in dividends, net
value, what’s the business worth? Does it grow on a year to year basis? I’ve been on the council
now for 7 years and before that I was on the Planning Commission and before that I was a
resident of this community going back to 1985 so I remember what it used to be like and I
th
remember downtown before West 78 Street improvements and the whole thing of really kind of
making this into a downtown. The city has grown. It’s become very vibrant. We face a number
of challenges going forward such as what’s going to happen to the downtown. You know those
challenges come from again new developments, proposals. Things that individuals would like to
do but we need someone that can lead us through this and Mr. Gerhardt has shown again going
back to, it had to be the late 80’s, early 90’s when all of this was taking place that he’s up to the
situation. He’s very adapt to leading the city. He is a good CEO and the other thing that reflects
a good CEO is you just, you look at their staff. Do they like working there? Is there great
turnover because if there is, what that tells you is they don’t like working for their boss. That’s
not the case here in this city. As a matter of fact people want to work under Mr. Gerhardt. They
know that they will learn a lot. It will help them in their future careers. There is just a lot to
compare as far as a good corporation and good corporations reward their CEO’s. It’s the job of
City Council as the board of directors of this city to again evaluate what Mr. Gerhardt does for
the city. Is he meeting the goals and objectives of the residents? Is he in tune with the residents
as far as growth? The directions we take and again we take feedback from the residents on all of
these surveys that we go out and commission. On all of us every time we run for office. Every
time we go out shopping. Every time we enter into the community people talk to us. Sometimes
they complain but it’s usually over some controversial issue and we work through all of that.
Usually with Mr. Gerhardt’s leadership. I think that last year was, well let’s just say I was very,
very proud and very, don’t take this the wrong way but very surprised at the fact of the
recognition you got from your peers and you know part of that was because I knew what the city
was doing. I could compare you but to be honored by your peers is just phenomenal. It just
doesn’t happen. I can’t think of anybody else around this part of the Twin Cities that really had
that kind of success and again most of them call you. They try to, hey Todd what would you do
here? I’ve got this problem so I think you’re a real resource to the city and I think you’ve earned
this. I think you deserve it. This is not a gift. Again as Councilwoman Ernst said, even though
she’s not going to support it, she was quite I thought generous in her appraisal of your abilities
this year and I think that as a council we do recognize what you add to this city. The fact that
we’re talking about an employment contract, it’s kind of weird because you know I’m also on
Southwest Transit and that entails an employment contract. Very detailed employment contract.
Every other city that’s involved in that you know we used as models, other cities. Eden Prairie
for example. This is not something where we’re again blazing a new trail. It’s just somehow we
came a little late to the party but I think it’s an important recognition. If you don’t continue to do
a good job you know how the council operates. We’ll let you know about it so I would not, you
know I would hope that you do not think that this is your free get out of jail card, as the sheriff
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
says. That doesn’t exist so I will gladly support this and again as I said I think it is earned and
deserved and congratulations.
Todd Gerhardt: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you Mr. McDonald. Other thoughts and comments. Councilwoman
Tjornhom.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: To keep this short and sweet I’m just going to ditto what Jerry said
basically. I don’t know what else I can say. You know I think in work session when we were
discussing Todd’s compensation with Todd this evening we were discussing just him in general
as a city manager and how we appreciated his support and how we appreciate the fact that he
took most of us under his wing and kind of showed us the ropes about what it means to be a
council member and how to think about things sometimes and I appreciated that and one thing I
have to say is, one thing I think I appreciate the most about Todd is the fact that we both agree on
several things but the main thing is, is that we love this town. That we really are here because
we love Chanhassen and I appreciate that about him. He’s not a career city manager. He’s not
just hopping from town to town looking for the best gig. He has stuck through us through thick
and thin and I appreciate that Todd and I’m glad you’re still the city manager.
Todd Gerhardt: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Mr. Laufenburger.
Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you very much Mr. Mayor. Todd I am very pleased that you
have your hand on the tiller of this citizen ship we call Chanhassen and what delights me about
that is that you’ve already given me your commitment that you’re going to be here for 4 more
years so thank you very much.
Todd Gerhardt: Yes. Looking forward to having you as mayor.
Councilman Laufenburger: Thank you. Okay, alright. Enough of the love thing okay but.
Mayor Furlong: We haven’t voted yet.
Todd Gerhardt: I know.
Councilman Laufenburger: What I like Todd.
Todd Gerhardt: Gotten this far.
Councilman Laufenburger: Though you know when I came into office 4 years ago I didn’t know
all of the details that all of the issues that we would be facing. In fact I was surprised by several
of them but through all of those surprises you always kept your hand on the tiller very firmly and
navigated us through the icebergs. Around the islands. Around the moving bogs and here we
are at the end and we are a stronger city as a result of your role and the thing that encourages me
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
most about that is, is that we know some of the things that we’ll be facing in the next 4 years.
We’ve got a comp plan that we’re going to be putting together. We’ve got County Road 61 that
we’re going to work on developing. We’re hopefully rebuild 101 from Pioneer Trail down to the
river. We’ve got many parcels, major parcels of land, both south and north of Highway 5 so
there’s a number of things that we know we’re going to encounter and for those I know that
you’re going to steer us through but you’re also going to steer us through the surprises and for
that I’m very pleased to work along side you so Todd, congratulations and I look forward to 4
more years with you.
Todd Gerhardt: Great, me too.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. Gerhardt thoughts?
Todd Gerhardt: Well, what you going to say? It’s very humbling to hear the comments and you
know it’s not every employee gets to have their performance reviewed and shared with the
public and you’re out there. But the nice thing about this group is we challenge each other. We
may not agree with every decision. Tonight is a good example and, but it makes us think when
we challenge each other and I like to think I do this all on my own but I’m not smart enough to
do that so I’ve been fortunate enough to hire great department heads that also look out for me
and, because I could not do that without their support and all the other employees here at the City
of Chanhassen and I look for people that are passionate to serve. It’s a privilege to serve the
residents of Chanhassen and we get the luxury of designing and building a community that we
hope the public likes and so that’s half the fun of coming to work. You don’t know what’s going
to come up during the day and that’s exciting. But you also get to watch things change for the
good or for the bad. It depends on how close you might be to that change and, but I think we’re
doing things the right way. We check in with our community through our community survey
and we were fortunate enough to grab 4 out of the 8 Voice of the People awards. We were the
only community to grab or exceeded the national standards in the community’s response to the 7
categories that are out there and so I’m proud of my department heads. I’m proud of all the
employees and I really enjoy working with this group. Mayor Furlong. It’s been a great ride.
Mayor Furlong: Absolutely. It has been. When I was first elected I hadn’t served on any
planning commission or any commission. Served on the city council. I was coming in cold and
to have someone such as Todd as a coach and a leader and a sounding board who had been with
the city at that time 15 years probably. If my math is wrong, I’m not going to do the math.
Todd Gerhardt: No, that’s pretty good.
Mayor Furlong: That’s pretty close. You know it was, it was a situation that really was
irreplaceable. We, I have been successful because of Todd. We as a city council have been
successful because of Todd and this city has reached it’s success because of Todd. It has been a
cooperative relationship. As he said we don’t always agree on everything but we always had
very much mutual respect for each other and this city has been blessed to have him in this role
and I agree with Councilwoman Tjornhom. While you are a career at city manager. Fortunately
that career is right here.
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
Todd Gerhardt: Right here, yeah.
Mayor Furlong: In Chanhassen and for that we’re very grateful. Very grateful. Thank you.
Todd Gerhardt: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: There’s a motion on the floor to adopt the contract. It’s been seconded. Is there
any further discussion? Seeing none we’ll proceed with the vote.
Mayor Furlong moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council approve the
Employment Agreement between the City of Chanhassen and City Manager Todd
Gerhardt. All voted in favor, except Councilwoman Ernst who opposed, and the motion
carried with a vote of 4 to 1.
PRESENTATION OF MAPLE LEAF AWARDS:
A. COUNCILWOMAN VICKI ERNST
B. MAYOR TOM FURLONG
Councilman Laufenburger: Mayor I would just ask that Councilwoman Ernst and you join me
out in front if you wouldn’t mind please. Mayor Furlong over here and Councilwoman Ernst.
Mayor Furlong: I’m not used to taking directions.
Todd Gerhardt: Ann you want to come up here and give him directions?
Ann Furlong: No. I’m going to tell my daughter to take a picture.
Councilman Laufenburger: Councilwoman Ernst. Tonight we recognize and honor Vicki Ernst
who faithfully and humbly served as a Chanhassen City Council member for 8 years. From 2007
through 2014, on the Economic Development Authority from 2007 to 2014, the Southwest
Transit Commission from 2003 to 2006 and the Metro Cities Board from 2012 to 2014.
Councilwoman Ernst was a passionate advocate for the people of Chanhassen serving two
consecutive 4 year terms. Vicki was a natural campaigner and enjoyed investing time getting to
know the citizens and hearing their positions on local issues. Councilwoman Ernst was a
dedicated participate in community events and was easily accessible to the people she served.
th
You could count on seeing her waving at you from the Chanhassen 4 of July parade. A big
supporter of military personnel and their causes. Vicki was quick to lend a hand wherever it was
needed. Councilwoman Ernst served the community through a time of significant growth that
was impacted by a downturn in the national economy. Vicki was an advocate for collaboration
with surrounding cities and for lower taxes when feasible. She remained true to her commitment
to the citizens by encouraging reduced costs through challenging the status quo. Thanks to
sound financial policies and an inviting development environment supported by Vicki and the
entire council Chanhassen has weathered the economic downturn better than most and our
economy has rebounded quickly. Her membership on the Southwest Transit Commission was a
position. Was a position. Somebody needs to move. Vicki was a dedicated Southwest Transit
rider and an advocate for all citizens who benefit from the transportation services that they
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
provide. She learned this from first hand experience. On behalf of the entire community we say
thank you and best wishes to outgoing City Councilwoman Vicki Ernst. We trust that you will
thoroughly enjoy your retirement not only from City Hall but also from your career at Target
Corporation. Congratulations Vicki. And now we present you with this Maple Leaf Award as
recognition for your service to the City of Chanhassen. Mayor Furlong. Tonight we are all
honored to recognized Mayor Tom Furlong for 12 years of outstanding service and dedication to
the Chanhassen community. Tom was first elected in the fall of 2002 and began his first term as
Mayor in January of 2003. It was clear from the beginning that Mayor Furlong held a special
connection with the community and his constituents. This connection was rooted in Tom’s
beliefs of doing the right thing, service above self, and a true passion to build a better
community. Tom is a good listener, right Ann? Tom is a good listener, a natural leader, a
talented speaker, a consensus builder, and an all around great guy. He always makes himself
available to the community having attended and participated in hundreds, nay maybe thousands
of local activities and events, most often with all or some of his family by his side. After serving
his first term Tom went on to be re-elected as mayor 3 more times. In ’04, ’06 and again in
2010. In addition to being mayor Tom serviced on the Economic Development Authority from
2003 to 2014. The Library Building Committee in 2002 and 2003. The Metropolitan Area
Water Supply Advisory Committee from ’05 to ’14. The Southwest Transit Commission. Did
you have a day job?
Mayor Furlong: I did.
Councilman Laufenburger: The Southwest Transit Commission from ’08 to 2010 serving as
Chair in 2010 and the Suburban Transit Association from 2008 to 2011. Again serving as Chair
in 2011. The growth in the community during Mayor Furlong’s tenure is truly impressive. Tom
welcomed 3,500 new residents to town. Presided over 75 residential subdivisions totaling 2,300
acres, including 301 acres of new street right-of-way, 426 acres of preserved wetlands, and 115
acres of dedicated parkland. And probably a partridge in a pear tree somewhere. Residential
building permits issued under Tom’s leadership topped 1,900 and over 70 new and expanded
businesses opened the door with Mayor Furlong’s support. Significant public projects benefiting
the community including the Chanhassen Library, Chanhassen High School, the east water
treatment plant, the expanded public works building. They were also dedicated under Tom’s
watch. And during Tom’s tenure as mayor the City received recognition and awards both
regionally and nationally as a great city to raise a family and a great place to live. Tom, you
have placed the City on a path that provides great city pride for all the citizens of Chanhassen.
Tom supports our military service men and women, our community service clubs, Chamber of
Commerce, business groups, Girl and Boy Scout troops and many other local service
organizations. He gives freely of his time and talent to each of these groups and inspired
countless others to do the very same thing. Tom is especially proud of the dedication of the
City’s veterans monument located in City Center Park. And he was honored to have the
privilege to speak at it’s dedication in 2009. Each Memorial Day thereafter the mayor joins
veterans and their families back at the monument to honor and celebrate their service to our
country and community. Mayor Furlong understands the importance of and has been a leader in
developing fiscally responsible policies in the areas of public finance, planning, transportation,
public works, parks and recreation, public safety and fire protection services. Residents trusted
Mayor Furlong to invest their tax dollars responsibly, plan quality developments, expand and
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
improve roads and transportation corridors, build award winning parks and trails and provide
comprehensive police and fire protection. Simply stated Mayor Furlong is one of the best at
what he does. Mayor, civic leader, spokesperson, champion for the community, friend, husband
and father. Our words are insufficient in describing what Tom means to our community and to
his family. His dedication, his commitment, his passion to serve others. Tom Furlong embodied
the, embodied what people desire in their mayor. We are all proud that he has been our mayor
and for that we say thank you and may God continue to richly bless you and your family.
Congratulations Tom. Now on behalf of the City Council, the staff, all the citizens of
Chanhassen, we present you with this Maple Leaf Award in recognition of your exceptional
service to the City of Chanhassen. Congratulations.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you so much.
Todd Gerhardt: Can we get a picture of Tom with his family and then Vicki, Frank and your
family? Frank you want to, and your daughter, come up with Vicki and take a quick picture.
And then Tom and Ann and all the kids.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Furlong: Let’s go to council presentations then and Councilwoman Ernst.
Councilwoman Ernst: Sure. Ending my journey as a city council member I would like to say
thank you to the residents of Chanhassen for all of your support for the last 8 years. I really
enjoyed our time together, whether it was having conversation over coffee, lunch or dinner or
just having a phone conversation. I’ve developed many friendships with many of you and I
thank you for that and I’m encouraged that so many of you want to stay in touch. It has been a
journey and I’ve learned so much from all of you. I’m hopeful for the changes with the new
leadership and the positive impacts it can have on our residents and this city. Thank you for
allowing me to have this opportunity to serve.
Mayor Furlong: Mr. Laufenburger can I say something or are you ready?
Councilman Laufenburger: Well you have a couple council members that may want to make a
comment too. Are you going to?
Mayor Furlong: Nope, that’d be fine. No, that’s fine. That’s fine. Let’s do that and then I’ve
got some things to share too.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yeah.
Councilman McDonald: Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: I’ll keep it short and sweet. I have really enjoyed serving on this
council with both of you. With Vicki and also with Tom and it has always been I think as Mr.
Gerhardt said, we do tend to challenge one another. I can remember early on where the votes
would go the other way as far as budgets and there was always the pressure to move it back and I
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
appreciated our time together you know during those times. And again it’s just, it’s been an
honor to serve with both of you and I wish both of you the best of luck going forward into the
future in whatever the next stage of your life is and I wish you success and a following wind.
Good luck.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Thank you very much. Councilwoman Tjornhom.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Thank you. Councilwoman Ernst, I want to thank you for your
service and what you’ve done for the city of Chanhassen.
Councilwoman Ernst: Thank you.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: And wish you the very best in your next endeavor, whatever that
might be. Enjoy your retirement and hopefully you’re going to stick around and still keep in
touch with everybody.
Councilwoman Ernst: I will.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: Mayor Furlong I, this was a long day. Wasn’t quite sure how I was
going to do it and I finally thought I’m not saying good-bye and I’m just saying thank you and
that’s what I’m going to do tonight. It’s not good-bye it’s thank you. And it’s thank you for
being someone that we can be proud of. A lot of times in commission interviews we would ask
people you know what do you tell people about our city or what do they tell you about our city
and you know it was always good things and I think one of those reasons was because of your
leadership. You made this a community that we could all be proud of and you made me a better
council person.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: You taught me about leadership and a lot of politicians don’t have
that quality. In fact I don’t think you, I think you were probably a really bad politician and I’m
glad you only really had one election you had to win because you know most the people that are
elected, you know we’re still worried about getting elected the next time you know, and we’re
worried about public opinion and you know voting the way we want. Will it be the way we think
certain people want us to vote and you taught me that is not true leadership. You taught me
about consistency and about stability and about constantly taking the high road. I didn’t think I
could ever do it and I still can’t do it very well mayor, I’m sorry but.
Mayor Furlong: You do well.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: You are an example to me, a true example and I think one of the,
probably one of the bigger picture things that you can, I can be proud of and I hope you
understand is that you created a legacy. We have some things that we talk about in town. We
have Mr. Klingelhutz who was a mayor that you know was someone that we always thanked. He
was always here as a part of the past and someone who brought us forward and you certainly
have done that Mayor. There are not many men that you can say that they really created the
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good legacy. A true legacy and you did and you did for your children. You know your children
will always be Tom Furlong’s children. Mayor Tom Furlong’s children and you know what a
gift you gave them doing that and so I just want to thank you for, I can’t thank you enough I
guess so I’m going to stop because otherwise we’ll never leave and we’ll never have cake.
Mayor Furlong: That’s very kind but we have cake.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: And you know that’s my thing and so Mayor, it’s not good-bye.
Mayor Furlong: No.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: And I know you’re a phone call away.
Mayor Furlong: Always.
Councilwoman Tjornhom: And I just wish you the best in whatever you’re going to do and
hopefully this isn’t the last time we see you.
Mayor Furlong: It won’t be the last time but thank you for those comments. Did you have
anything Mr. Laufenburger?
Councilman Laufenburger: Yes I do just real briefly. Vicki you’ve become a friend and I’ve
enjoyed that. We certainly, we don’t always agree with the path that we take but we both have a
passion for this community and I know that that passion continues to burn in your heart and I
hope that you will enjoy your time in your retirement with Frank and with family but I will see
you around the city and I’m pleased that I’ll be able to see you around the city. You’ve
established a bar for future council members and that bar, it will not be easy to reach and I thank
you for that but most importantly I thank you for being my friend.
Councilwoman Ernst: Thank you.
Councilman Laufenburger: Mayor Furlong, you are the model. You are the shoulders on whose
future elected leaders in Chanhassen will stand and we will stand proudly on those shoulders
because you’ve raised all of us. You’ve raised all of us in the eyes of both citizens, surrounding
communities. It is what you have done that has really established Chanhassen as a city for the
future. So standing on your shoulders, I will proudly take your mantle of leadership on January
th
12 and I will do my very best to follow in the footsteps that you put in place for us to follow.
So thank you Tom.
Mayor Furlong: Thank you. Thank you. Let me just start by saying Vicki, I have enjoyed
working with you the last 8 years. As much as people talk about items where we don’t agree, I
think the vast majority of times we do agree and we agree on, you know the differences are such
small margins. They’re margins and they’re real but love of Chanhassen, doing the right thing
for the right reasons. Looking forward and seeking to do what the common good is. Those are
all things we agree on and it’s, and I’ve always appreciated your comments and thoughts and
recommendations simply because it, you have never been afraid to challenge the council to think
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
beyond what was in front of them and that’s good and that makes for a healthy council so thank
you for your service and leadership there.
Councilwoman Ernst: Thank you.
Mayor Furlong: I guess in large part and for the comments fellow council members, thank you
so much. I just want to start by officially saying to Ann and to my family, thank you so much for
supporting me and for the love and for the standing in the aisles of Target, listening to somebody
talk about something and not being able to get into the car because we’re standing in the parking
lot talking to somebody else at Byerly’s or Cub. I think my daughter Kathryn said at one point,
I’m always talking to somebody and I’m always going to meetings but I hope they can appreciate
the fact that that was part of listening to, listening to the people of Chanhassen. The best part
about this job has and will continue to be for anybody that has the benefit of doing it is all the
good people you get to meet. I’m never going to forget that and that is really what I’ve always
enjoyed so much about this. Current council members, past council members, I’ve enjoyed
working with everyone. It’s just been an exceptional group of citizens and the voters I think
make very wise decisions, wouldn’t all of you agree with that? To the city staff, our
professional staff, you have my utmost respect for each of you and all that you do each and every
day. Day in and day out making Chanhassen a great place for all of us to live. Your
commitment to service in this city is exceptional and I have, as I said my respect for you knows
no bounds and thank you for all you do each and every day and thank you for continuing to do
that. And for all the residents just a simple thank you for your support and encouragement over
the years. It’s meant a lot. I was thinking about tonight and thinking about how we all got
started and whether she will admit it or not, after the 2000 election there was a vacancy on the
council and my wife Ann encouraged me to apply for the open seat so she was the one.
Ann Furlong: That’s not how I recall it.
Mayor Furlong: I’ve got the microphone right now dear. Come January that’s going to change I
know but. And even though I wasn’t appointed at that time, it whetted my appetite and so I
decided at that point, with her encouragement to run for City Council in 2002 and it was
probably the shortest City Council campaign on record, or at least one of the shortest. That July
thth
4 I walked with my family and friends in the 4 of July parade and we passed out Tom Furlong
for City Council stickers. Shannon who is 12 here tonight, she was 6 months old at the time and
in a stroller. The other children were passing out candies. In August some friends encouraged
me to run for mayor. I’m so glad I listened to them. At the time I wasn’t sure if they were my
friends or not but I can tell you now that indeed they were and my gratitude to them is, knows no
bounds. It is what the opportunity that they encourage me to do has just been wonderful. And
then the voters placed their trust in me and I’ve worked hard to never take that trust for granted.
Serving as mayor, serving on the City Council I think all of us would agree is such a unique
opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives in ways and for people whom we may never
know, or will never meet. It is really a unique situation in that regard. I’ve been proud to be
involved with the residents, our council and commission, staff, as well as other cities, Carver
County, State. I mean there’s so many good people that are doing such good work in our
government levels at all levels that it’s really exceptional. And when I think back to some of the
things and how our city sits today versus what it was at the time, I think about some of the bigger
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
projects that we see. US 212 wasn’t there. Highway 101 river crossing that’s under construction
now was something that we had long planned for. Wanted. Perhaps even hoped for but the idea
that it would actually come to a reality was something that I think not many of us expected. Our
new public works facility and the first water treatment plant in this city after years of trying to
get something to improve water quality was all part of helping to improve our quality of life
here. The ability to work with the good people on our Planning Commission, our property
owners and developers with the Comprehensive Plan for providing neighborhoods. I had no idea
how many homes and developments we approved. That’s just amazing. Those are all new
families and friends moving into town and that’s wonderful. Our Senior Commission. Our Park
and Rec Commission. The athletic associations. All the good work that they do providing and
expanding our recreation programs and reinvesting back into our parks and trails. City Center
Park where we had the tree lighting on Saturday night. Largest crowd I think I’ve seen. I don’t
know about you Todd. You know 10 years ago that wasn’t there and it has really become the
gathering place, as it was intended to be and really how the mall has, by the City Hall and the
library and with the veterans monument there is just exceptional. I mention the veterans
monument. Thank you Denny for saying that. American Legion, our residents that did that.
The Lions Club. The Rotary Club. All the citizens that really love this city. To be able to meet
them, work with them and provide some of the best opportunities for people here. This is still a
small town and we can’t lose that. That’s a big part of who we are and all the while our financial
strength and everything, the list is really quite humbling for me to think about and with so many
people involved. No one person. Or even one group can claim credit or ownership. It’s us. It’s
not me, it’s we. It is clearly a privilege to have been involved and to work for the greater good
and by doing so we have accomplished more than I think many people, myself included probably
thought possible. I’m most pleased to see how proud people have come to live, work and to be
associated with Chanhassen. Civic pride is a key thing and it’s very much alive and very much
here and with just cause. It’s nice to know that we’ve played a part in that. Our strength, our
success as a city I think has been our ability to focus on areas of agreement, not disagreement.
And when we disagree, to be able to disagree without being disagreeable to each other. We
listen for good ideas. One of the things I tell Todd and anybody else that will listen to me is that
even when somebody doesn’t agree with you, listen to them because they might have a good idea
and you just never know when that idea may come out and we’ve done the right things for the
right reasons. We need to keep checking politics at this council chamber’s door and look for
opportunities to take items off future council agendas. We did some of those things tonight and
for the leadership of this council for doing that, my respect for you. I’ve got complete
confidence that this council going forward, in addition to our new candidates Elise and Dan,
they’re going to do a great job. This city is in very, very good hands and it’s a very easy time
with that regard for me to pass the gavel. I think it was Todd Hoffman who I first heard it from
that said cities are forever. It’s our job to do our best to leave it a little bit better than when we
found it. That’s been my goal and I hope I’ve done that. Above all I want to sincerely thank the
residents of Chanhassen for giving me the honor to serve as their mayor. It’s a privilege I will
never forget and for which I have been and continue to be very humbled. On behalf of my wife
Ann, our children I want to thank everybody for making these last 12 years so special for our
family. Chanhassen is truly a great place to live, work and raise a family and I thank you for
being involved. Thank you. It seems mundane but is there any discussion on the
correspondence packet?
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Chanhassen City Council – December 8, 2014
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION.
None.
Mayor Furlong moved, Councilwoman Ernst seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted
in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council
meeting was adjourned at 9:50 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim
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