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CC 2016 03 14 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MARCH 14, 2016 Mayor Laufenburger called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to the Flag. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Laufenburger, Councilman McDonald, Councilwoman Tjornhom, and Councilwoman Ryan COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Councilman Campion STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Chelsea Petersen, Paul Oehme, Kate Aanenson, and Todd Hoffman PUBLIC PRESENT: Amy & Ron Dvorak 4061 White Oak Lane Val MacLeod 2710 Longacres Drive Joyce & Bruce Boje 8193 Marsh Drive Michael & Tom Furlong 1405 Knob Hill Lane Renee & Lee Carlson 7606 Iroquois Avenue Dave Peterjohn 3921 Hawthorne Circle, Excelsior Mayor Laufenburger: Welcome to this evening’s City Council meeting. To those of you that are in the chamber with us today and also those of you that are watching on Mediacom cable channels at home. Our first item for tonight is to review the agenda and council members are there any modifications to the agenda? And if not we will proceed with the agenda as printed. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Mayor Laufenburger: I do have a public announcement tonight. The City of Chanhassen is rd proud to present the 33 Annual Easter Egg Candy Hunt. This is the second in a year long series of special events. The first being February Festival. These are sponsored by the City of Chanhassen and local service organizations and the local business community and I want to th invite everyone to join me Saturday, March 26, so that would be not this Saturday but the following Saturday at 9:00 a.m. at City Center Park and I have it on pretty good assurances from Katie that the weather will be wonderful that day. This event is for children 12 and under and of course their parents or guardian or whoever takes them to wherever they go. 12 and under and this will feature a candy hunt, a coloring contest, prize drawings and a special visit from the Easter Bunny. The cost is $5 per child. We ask that you pre-register at the Chanhassen Rec Center or City Hall please. You can also register the day of the event and I look forward to seeing everyone there and I will tell you last year I visited there and I could believe that there Chanhassen City Council – March 14, 2016 were that many kids that could get rid of all of the candy in under 2 minutes you know. They just scramble and they have bags and buckets and it’s quite amazing so Easter Egg Hunt, a week th from this Saturday. March 26. 9:00 a.m. at City Center Park. CONSENT AGENDA: Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: 1. Approve City Council Minutes dated February 22, 2016 2. Receive Park and Recreation Commission Minutes dated February 23, 2016 Resolution #2016-22: 3. Approve Resolution Accepting Donation from KleinBank for Senior Center Lifelong Learning Programs 4. Approve Amendment to Section 7-18(a) of Chanhassen City Code Chapter 7, Building and Building Regulations Resolution #2016-23: 5. Approve Resolution Authorizing Entering into the Minnesota Government Access Master Subscriber Agreement, and Authorize the Mayor to Sign Agreements Necessary for that Agreement Resolution #2016-24: 6. Park Road/Place Improvements Project 16-04: Accept Feasibility Study; Call Public Hearing Resolution #2016-25: 7. 2016 Mill & Overlay Project 16-05: Approve Plans & Specifications and Authorize Ad for Bids th Resolution #2016-26: 8. The Preserve At Bluff Creek 5 Addition: Approve Streets & Utilities rd 9. Amend Frontier 3 Addition Development Contract Resolution #2016-27: 10 Approve a Portion of 2016 CIP Vehicle and Equipment Purchases 11. Approve Quote for Concrete Work Associated with Picnic Shelters at Carver Beach and Greenwood Shores Parks. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS. None. 2 Chanhassen City Council – March 14, 2016 APPOINTMENTS TO PLANNING COMMISSION AND PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION. Mayor Laufenburger: This is appointments to the Planning Commission and the Park and Recreation Commission. First of all I want to say that every year at this time we open up our, there are 4 commissions that the City Council works closely with. The Environmental Commission, the Senior Commission, the Park and Recreation Commission and also the Planning Commission. There are roughly 7 seats on each of those commissions and 2 or 3 people are up every year. Those terms are usually 3 years long. Anyway we always get wonderful people who are interested in serving the community and as always, as this year as every year it’s difficult for us to make a decision because everybody comes in with special qualifications but at this time I would like to identify the following nominations for the Park and Rec Commission and also for the Planning Commission and as I identify these individuals I will then ask for a second. First of all for the Park and Rec Commission we will, I’d like to nominate Cole Kelly, Rick Echternacht for 3 year terms on the Park and Rec Commission and also Lauren Dale for a one year term as a youth member of the Park and Rec Commission so that’s the Park and Rec Commission. And then on the Planning Commission I would like to nominate Andrew Aller, Steve Weick and Nancy Madsen, each of them for a 3 year term on the Planning Commission and I’d ask you to consider that a motion. Is there a second? Councilman McDonald: Second. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Mr. McDonald. Any discussion? Mayor Laufenburger moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council approve the following appointments to the Park and Recreation Commission: Cole Kelly, and Rick Echternacht for 3 year terms and Lauren Dale for a one year term as the youth member; and approve the following appointments to the Planning Commission: Andrew Aller, Steven Weick and Nancy Madsen for 3 year terms. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. APPROVAL OF ROUNDHOUSE PARK SPORT COURT IMPROVEMENTS AND CIP BUDGET AMENDMENT. Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Hoffman, good evening. Todd Hoffman: Thank you Mayor Laufenburger and members of the commission. Mayor Laufenburger: Council. Todd Hoffman: Members of the council, thank you. Normally talking to that park commission. Happy to be here this evening and we have members of our Park and Recreation Commission with us present as some neighbors and friends of the project this evening that may speak as well. 3 Chanhassen City Council – March 14, 2016 So the proposed Roundhouse Park sport court improvements. The proposed motion is that the City Council would approve the construction of the Roundhouse Park sport court improvements. The project will include one tennis court, 4 pickleball courts which fit right on the same size. This site would have traditionally been 2 tennis courts. You can take out one of those tennis courts and replace it with 4 pickleball courts and still maintain a tennis court on one of those halves. And then a one half court basketball. This would go across the parking lot on the other side of the project area. That it be put in the 2016 CIP and that we amend the maximum budget expenditure to $254,000 in park funds for these improvements and that we authorize advertising for bids for the project. Little bit of history about Roundhouse Park. It has a wonderful history, both in the building and the site. It’s 8.29 acres. It was acquired in 1995 through a combination of park dedication and then also purchase. It was a complicated and often tumultuous acquisition process as you can imagine. The developer would have liked to have kept the lakeshore for their development but through park dedication we could acquire the lakeshore first through our park dedication ordinance and we did so and then we continued to negotiate with that property owner, the developer to acquire the remaining, other half of the park to get to the full 8.29 acres. In 1997 the first improvements to the park were completed including the construction of a parking lot, pedestrian trails. Subsequent to that we did the addition of the children’s playground. The open play field. Half court basketball. Swimming beach. Fishing pier. Renovations to the roundhouse and most recently the construction of an open air picnic shelter which serves as a nice gathering point. Talking to neighbors before the meeting, one thing that is really nice about Roundhouse Park is that the public, all the neighborhood has access to Lake Minnewashta through the beach. They can take kayaks there. Launch canoes and so many of the homeowners up and down Minnewashta Parkway has beachlots but now this public park provides community access to the lake for all the neighbors. Often the Park and Recreation Commission goes out and talks to neighbors to listen to what they have to say about their park. How are things going. How is the park operating. What would they like to see in next improvements. Each park has a master plan which kind of talks about what the eventual build out will be of that park. There are some things that are completed and others that are not. Before you move ahead with the next project you’d like to at least see if the interest is still there for the particular thing that you’re th talking about so on July 28 the Park and Recreation Commission mailed out a mailer and met with the neighbors to discuss what they’d like to see at the park next time around. This was a tabulation of people at least that were there that evening and then also sent in some information and so the sport court facilities that we’re talking about this evening, tennis, basketball and pickleball were the top 3. A playground upgrade would be scheduled when that playground serves it’s full life and then a playground would come after that. Hockey at this park has been a topic of conversation. Should there be a hockey boards at the corner on that flat spot or not? Still yet unresolved. We do flood an open skate here where they play some neighborhood hockey but you know hockey just didn’t rank as high as some of the other things. Soccer temporary net softball and so that was the ranking that evening. Again shows us that those court, sport court facilities ranked very high with the group. This past August, 2015 the park commission made a recommendation to City Council that we include $135,000 in the 2017 CIP so that would be next year at a lower amount. This past December a group of Roundhouse Park neighbors, residents and area pickleball members came into a City Council meeting to encourage 4 Chanhassen City Council – March 14, 2016 the council that sport court improvements be advanced and the project happen in 2016. There was a pad built to accommodate this future court facility so it’s there in place. It currently has a half court basketball court on top of it. If this larger court is built that half court basketball will be relocated to the opposite side. It would be east of the parking lot and that half court basketball has been in place for approximately 15 years. So the current plan that we’re proposing is to increase the scope of work to include 6 individual court surfaces to accommodate that tennis, 4 pickleball, one half court basketball. A more robust plan to increase the budget from $135,000 to $254,000 and that $254,000 includes all costs so it includes construction costs, design development, inspection. Increase the budget and advance the project to 2016 and so that would change our 2016 park dedication capital improvement program expenditures would increase from $775,000 to $1,029,000 and then taking it out of 2017 would lower our current 2017 spending from $370,000 to $235,000. Something to keep in mind is that $235,000 in 2017 includes a Galpin Boulevard project that’s not going to happen and so there’s some additional cost or some additional cash that’s going to be cut loose in 2017 so what you’re looking at is really a pretty robust park improvement year in 2016 and then kind of taking a year off in 2017 to allow that fund to replenish itself. Here’s the proposed layout in the park showing the tennis and then the 4 pickleball can fit on the same size of the tennis court. This pad is graded and in place. It’s been there since the 1995-1997 time period. It would be accessed, extended to the parking lot and then the basketball court would go over here on this flat space. This would remain as the skating rink in this location. The new shelter was here. Playground. You’ve got this nice walking loop through the park and then the lake access is across the road with the fishing pier and the beach. The current inventory of our tennis, pickleball and basketball court is we have 15 tennis courts in town. 6 pickleball. Those are all at the Chanhassen Recreation Center and 16 basketball courts. If you build this project the new inventory would be 16 tennis, 10 pickleball and 16 basketball. These are, this is Meadow Green tennis courts. Pickleball at the Chanhassen Recreation Center and then these are basketball courts at City Center Park. This is a good plan to let the council know where our current sport courts or tennis courts primarily and where was this new one being proposed. As you can see most of our tennis courts, they’re equally spread out but they’re clustered in the center part of our city and then number 9 would be the Roundhouse Park project area. Something we always utilize is Minnewashta is a large neighborhood. Isolated by Lake Minnewashta and so we treat Roundhouse as kind of a super neighborhood park. It’s got a large area. It’s a little bit larger than most of our neighborhood parks. Serves a lot of people so we want to create a really, kind of a robust or expansive plan there as far as neighborhood park amenities and it’s same as North Lotus Lake Park number 6. Kind of the same design for those 2 parks since they are large neighborhoods that are isolated from the remainder of the community a little bit by lakes. So this is the inventory of all our courts. It shows good distribution. The final court to be built in the city would be down here at Bandimere number 8 so that’s the final and there’s a pad there just inside the new expansion area that will accommodate a double court of some sort. Some combination. City Council would need to approve, they need to amend the project scope and budget to advance the project from 2017 to 2016. That’s why we’re here this evening. The neighborhood involvement, they’ve always been involved in their park and this process has been no exception. We really appreciate their involvement and their input. It helps us pick the right projects and move them forward. 5 Chanhassen City Council – March 14, 2016 Staff would be happy to answer any questions and Mayor if we want to hear from any neighbors or the park commission that’s up to you as well. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Mr. Hoffman. I do intend to invite one or two of the neighborhood to speak if they would like, however let’s open to council. Any questions for Mr. Hoffman? Councilwoman Ryan. Councilwoman Ryan: I have a few. Some that I just think are important to highlight but first I want to commend you and the commission for working so hard and diligently with the neighbors up in the Roundhouse area as well as I’m assuming this is a big pickleball contingent so. Mayor Laufenburger: Did they bring their paddles? Audience: Always in the car. Councilwoman Ryan: So but in terms of budget could you just clarify and explain the difference between park dedication funds. The funding source basically for this project. Todd Hoffman: Be glad to. So the current balance in the park dedication is just over $1.9 million. Park dedication fees are generated through new development and so when we’re working with our planning division and looking at subdivisions for commercial, residential and then downtown business community everybody pays into that park fund. The intent or the purpose for that park fund is to build out your first park system in your community and so you could look at it, this fee that every resident and every business owner pays. It’s kind of an association fee for a city park system so you take those dollars. Those are non-tax dollars. Everybody’s paying them as a part of a fee. As a part of a building permit. They go into a fund that the Park and Recreation Commission, their job is to advise the City Council on where and when to invest those dollars. What is going to be the best project for the in this case a neighborhood or a community park setting and we expect there’ll be another approximately $20 million dollars in park dedication funds that the City receives before it’s built out and so that’s the plan is to put together. That’s the reason the Comprehensive Plan is there so what we have for parks. What do we have facilities? How are we going to build it? Both trails, tennis courts, ballfields and all that comes out of that park fund. Councilwoman Ryan: And just you touched on it before about the Galpin trail extension and when I was looking at the numbers, because I know you plan 5 years out and you know 2017 this dollar amount moves forward and then without proceeding with the Galpin trail extension that reduces it by another $150,000 so 2017 now looks fairly empty which is a nice thing when you’re planning out so I just wanted to highlight that. Todd Hoffman: Yep. 6 Chanhassen City Council – March 14, 2016 Councilwoman Ryan: Another thing when we looked at the map and we look at Roundhouse some of the feedback we got from the pickleball group as well as some of the neighbors is that now without having tennis courts they have to cross either Highway 7 to go to Cathcart or up to Minnetonka Middle School West and so this is an important piece to keep people in the neighborhood so. Todd Hoffman: Absolutely. Councilwoman Ryan: And then last I would like to say that, or just confirm I know some of the feedback was about the lack of shade and trees and you had mentioned that Roundhouse has been picked for Arbor Day to plant, is it 30 trees there? Todd Hoffman: Approximately 30 trees so working with again our planning division, Jill Sinclair. Our Environmental Resource Coordinator. Each year now on Arbor Day they’re going out and planting a variety of trees and so even before that public hearing input we received that was already planned and ready to go and so we’ll be out at Roundhouse with the Mayor and the council, the Environmental Commission, our Park and Recreation Commission and the neighbors planting trees on Arbor Day so, and that will also include some type of a covered bench shelter and so just outside of this facility we’ll put a bench with a cover so we can provide some shade that way as well. Councilwoman Ryan: Great, thank you. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, any other questions from council? You mentioned Cathcart Councilwoman Ryan. Can you just talk about Cathcart. That’s on the northern boundary of Chanhassen is that correct? Todd Hoffman: Yes. Mayor Laufenburger: Tell us what’s there. Todd Hoffman: It’s number 12 and it’s an interesting story. Cathcart Park is in the corporate limits of the city of Chanhassen but it’s owned and operated by the City of Shorewood. The church just across the street to the north owned that property and they gave it to the City of Shorewood for a municipal park setting if they develop it and maintain it as a park for all time so it does serve both Shorewood residents and Chanhassen residents. There is a tennis court at that location and so what we were talking about is, some of these, especially children or families with bikes or walk to the north have to cross Highway 7 to get to that tennis court and those other facilities. I don’t think many members of the park commission, I don’t view that as a reasonable access. Mayor Laufenburger: Just because of, principally because of safety right? 7 Chanhassen City Council – March 14, 2016 Todd Hoffman: Safety yeah. Summers are full of kids out enjoying things. They can, one of the neighbors said you know what a more joyful experience to bike down and have the kids play some tennis or pickleball and then hop in the lake and go for a swim and so keeping that a little more connected to the neighborhood is just viewed as a much better scenario. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Todd can you talk a little bit about the volleyball. I know there was some discussion. First was there community support for volleyball and if so what’s our response to that? Todd Hoffman: Sure. There was a couple of folks that talked about volleyball and that would be sand volleyball. What’s been happening in our neighborhood park system is sand volleyball, the courts just don’t get used and so we’ve been actively taking them out over the years. In our community park sites they are used very heavily and so Lake Susan Park because you have corporate picnics, company outings, athletic events, just larger groups of teenagers that are spending time there so those are used. There’s one at Lake Ann by the beach and there’s 2 at Lake Susan but we don’t routinely install them in neighborhood parks. We do have rental sets available so if you have a graduation or birthday party you can rent that for $15 bucks upstairs and you can set it up on a temporary basis. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Let’s see. Also you mentioned open skate. So we flood a rink. We don’t put permanent boards up or anything is that correct? Todd Hoffman: Correct. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay so it’s open skate and it’s, do we do anything to finish or to keep this ice smooth? Todd Hoffman: Yep we sweep and flood it. Mayor Laufenburger: We do? Okay. Todd Hoffman: And then we open up the round house on limited hours as a warming house. Mayor Laufenburger: Warming house, okay. And do you have any history of, is that used a lot? A little as compared to some of the other areas that we have. Todd Hoffman: It’s the lowest used rink in the city but again since it is on the far western side of our community we keep it open and so it’s being utilized. The people that use it like it. I would tell the neighbors that if they want to see it there for all time they should encourage their neighbors to get more people out on it. Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah so we can take population counts right? 8 Chanhassen City Council – March 14, 2016 Todd Hoffman: We do correct. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, kind of like our bird count. Let’s see, just talk a little bit more about the community feedback. You did have, you interacted on July. Any other feedback you got from the community? Todd Hoffman: Yep we got really excellent feedback at the Park and Recreation Commission meeting when they took this item up to formulate a recommendation to bring to the City Council. We did a complete mailing so all the neighbors were notified that this was up on the docket. We had many people there that evening. They spoke passionately about this project but they talked about a lot of other things they’d like to see. How they enjoy the park. Why it’s important to them. One gentleman said his particular lot does not have a useable back yard so this is his back yard for his family and they really take great pride in utilizing the park for that and so people just wanted to come in and again thank the commission and the city for providing the park. It’s in a great site you know as far as it’s location. It’s connected via trails and sidewalks to the entire neighborhood and I think this project is regenerating some interest. If this is approved and built they want to host a gathering of the entire neighborhood to rekindle some of those neighborhood connections and again make connections with their park and their neighbors. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. And this is a question for Ms. Aanenson. Is this, the area around here is it pretty well developed in terms of residential housing? I know that there’s a recent development to the west called Mill Creek or something but are there open spaces out there or does it look like this. Kate Aanenson: It’s pretty much all developed. There are some opportunities for some additional small lot subdivisions or you know larger lots that could be subdivided but pretty much it’s been subdivided. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay so this, what we’re looking at in terms of population is pretty close to what. Kate Aanenson: On that side of Minnewashta Parkway correct. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Kate Aanenson: Yeah there’s a couple pieces that are further down towards Highway 5 that we’ve had some interest, that are adjacent to Lake St. Joe and a few other there that are closer to Lake Minnewashta but going north most of that’s been subdivided. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Well I’m not going to make the mistake that I made at a previous council meeting and adjourn the meeting without giving those present an opportunity to speak so if, is there a neighbor or two that would like to address the council either in support of or against 9 Chanhassen City Council – March 14, 2016 the recommendation that’s being made to the council at this time I would invite them to come to the podium. Is it Amy? Amy Dvorak: Yes. Mayor Laufenburger: Just state your name and address if you wouldn’t mind please for the record. Amy Dvorak: Yeah good evening. I’m Amy Dvorak and I live at 4061 and my husband is here as well. We bought our lot in Oaks of Minnewashta a block up from the park and we bought it in response to the park and the setting as a whole so, and we still live there today and love it and so we are very, very excited about all of the development along the 20 years that it’s taken and so we’re finally getting to our full adventure in living there. And I do want to take the opportunity to say as one of the other council people did here this evening, there was a lot of communication to the community. I was at the July meeting and I was one emailing in September and November and I came to the December meeting and a lot of neighbors are all for it but they don’t necessarily really have time to come and talk and so. Mayor Laufenburger: So we should consider that we’re listening to the voice of hundreds is that what you’re saying Amy? Amy Dvorak: Well maybe I don’t know. Mayor Laufenburger: Dozens okay. Amy Dvorak: Dozens what the number is but it’s really great because I did go on the website and read all the letters from the different neighbors and some of them I knew and some of them I didn’t know and it was very rewarding to see the different thoughts and one of the neighbors who I don’t know who now I need to get to know was suggesting that we have this big family fun park event once we, you know if this is all approved and put in 2016 and we are very supportive of getting it done now. We feel like we’ve waited a long, long time since 1996. That’s a long time and so we’re very thankful for what we have and we would really love for you to support this as it is proposed because we really do think it offers a lot. We took a walk on Saturday and there were kids playing on the basketball court that’s there currently. It’s a little bit smaller. It’s been there 15 years. It’s showing it’s age but the park gets used and it will be used even more so we encourage you to support it and thank you for all your efforts. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, thank you Amy very much. Is there anybody else that would like to speak either for or against it? Let me offer this opportunity. We have some members of the Park and Rec Commission here this evening. Anybody like to say something about the process? Okay, alright. Let’s bring it back then to council. Any discussion or motions? Councilwoman Ryan: Yeah I’ll make a motion. 10 Chanhassen City Council – March 14, 2016 Mayor Laufenburger: Councilwoman Ryan sure. Councilwoman Ryan: The Chanhassen City Council approves the construction of Roundhouse Park Sport Court improvements including one tennis court, four pickleball courts, and one half- court basketball; advances the project to the 2016 Park CIP; amends the maximum budgeted expenditures to $254,000 in Park Funds for these improvements; and authorizes the advertisement for bids. Mayor Laufenburger: We have a valid motion. Is there a second? Councilman McDonald: I’ll second. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Councilman McDonald. Any discussion? Good work Mr. Hoffman and members of the commission listening to the community. Councilwoman Ryan moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the Chanhassen City Council approves the construction of Roundhouse Park Sport Court improvements including one tennis court, four pickleball courts, and one half-court basketball; advances the project to the 2016 Park CIP; amends the maximum budgeted expenditures to $254,000 in Park Funds for these improvements; and authorizes the advertisement for bids. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you very much. Congratulations community members. That resounding cheer you hear is from the hundreds of people that are represented by the dozen or so people that are here. That concludes our, most of our agenda items. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. None. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS. Mayor Laufenburger: Council presentations? Mr. McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Yes. This afternoon Chelsea and I attended a Carver County Court and it was the Veterans Court and this is one of the things that Beyond the Yellow Ribbon and Chanhassen has been involved in. It’s a diversion court that got started about a year and a half ago down at Carver County and we’re the only one in the western suburbs. There’s only 3 others. One’s Hennepin County and then the other one’s out in Washington County but we had our first real graduating class today and so Chelsea and I got to attend again because of the support that Chanhassen has provided, not only in our community. The American Legion. The City. A number of volunteers but it was really kind of heartwarming to see what happened. Veterans Court is really unique in the fact that what they try to do is to take veterans that have run afoul of the law and in a lot of cases this is directly due to experiences that they’ve had while 11 Chanhassen City Council – March 14, 2016 in the service. Either developing a PSTD or other types of stresses and those things and so what the feeling has always been across the country when these things have started out is that you know communities do owe a service back to the veteran from the standpoint of the veteran has committed quite a bit of service for the community so in an effort to try to again get someone straighten out. These are not chronic criminals or anybody along those lines. These are people that have had you know major difficulties within their lives and something’s happened and they’ve reached a point and so they either try to self medicate with alcohol or in some cases they have had anger issues and what the court has tried to do is get them back on the you know straight path so what they do is bring them into court and basically what the deal is, is that when you finish your 18 months of going through court they’ll drop the charges and it’s not that easy. You could easily plead guilty and you’d be out of the court system within 12 months. In fact in some cases less than that but what the court offers is help and we have a number of people from the Veterans Association. Hospitals. Local doctors. A lot of civilians within the community and I use the term civilians. It’s actually citizens but they act as mentors for the veteran and it gives that person someone to talk to. It’s their own kind of coach to get them to you know go to treatment. You know address the issues that got them into trouble in the first place so that’s what Veterans Court tries to do and the outcome of this is you’ve actually returned to society a very productive citizen so today we got to witness that with 2 graduations and the stories that they told were kind of interesting. I mean both of these people, one was a man, one was a woman and both of them had been in combat situations and they had really kind of hit the bottom as far as alcohol and bad decisions and all of this. Well now they’ve turned their lives around. Both of them have gone back to school. One of them is in the process of graduating. The other one actually got a paralegal degree so I mean it’s very heartwarming to see someone live up to their potential and that’s the purpose of Veterans Court is to try to give that back to the veterans so you can kind of reclaim your dignity. Otherwise you go into the system and you know you’re a criminal and you plead guilty and you’re on your own as far as getting anything and then what happens is it becomes a revolving door and the situation just gets worse and worse. So I thought it was very, it was a very moving ceremony. I was very pleased to see it happen. I was involved in the beginning to bring it out to Carver County so I’m kind of glad too that we’ve got some graduates but that’s what Chelsea and I did today. Mayor Laufenburger: So it sounds like this is a, in the right situation this is extending an element of grace to somebody who made a decision influenced, likely influenced by the experiences they had quite frankly in difficult combat or service situations and the outcome is that the investment made in the veteran certainly though it may not compare to the investment the veteran made in our country, it’s a way of giving back to the veteran. That’s what it sounds like. Councilman McDonald: Very true. Very well said. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Councilman McDonald. 12 Chanhassen City Council – March 14, 2016 Todd Gerhardt: Mr. Mayor I think the judges played quite a role in this. They act more than a judge. They act as a counselor and meet with these 2 individuals on a regular basis to make sure they’re following along with the procedure set out and that the judge has laid out for them. Councilman McDonald: Well yeah as I said it’s an 18 month process to get through and they go to court once per month so they’re in court on a monthly basis and as part of what their probation is and what they’ve signed up to do is they have to go to all of these treatment sessions or they have to go and take whatever classes the court or the counselors have recommended and so on a monthly basis what they’re doing is checking up. Did you follow up on this appointment? Did you make that one? What progress are you making towards your education? The judge gets very involved and also in their personal life because again a lot of that’s what got them here to begin with because of family or friends or those things and yeah you’re right. The judge is more involved in these cases than the judge normally would and actually the judge out here is Judge Cain who does that and in the beginning trying to find someone to do it was also a big task and Judge Cain to her credit stepped forward and said that she would do it and she would make the commitment and she has and she’s done an excellent job so we’ve very lucky. Mayor Laufenburger: Good. Okay, thank you Mr. McDonald and Mr. Gerhardt. Any other council? I just wanted to make one. This is kind of a, this is an idea that had it’s genesis with our participation in the League of Minnesota Cities. So with the cooperation of Assistant City Manager Chelsea Petersen the City has developed a program called Mayor for a Day so if you are a fourth or a fifth grader in Chanhassen or if you’re the parent of a fourth or a fifth grader in Chanhassen or an educator at a school with a fourth or fifth grader in Chanhassen, that would be Chanhassen Elementary, Bluff Creek Elementary, St. Hubert’s or Chapel Hill, we have a program for you. We’re looking for submissions in the form of essays for ideas that if you were Mayor for a Day, not 24/7 like the current mayor but if you were Mayor for a Day what would you like to see happen in Chanhassen and this is a contest that runs through March and we would th like submissions by I guess it’s April 8 and then what we will do is we will review all of these submissions amongst these fourth and fifth graders and we will pick a winner and that winner will have a chance to gavel a meeting to order and actually act and act as Mayor for a Day following the current mayor. That would be me, to see what we can do to improve Chanhassen for a single day so Mayor for a Day and if you have any interest in this there’s a website. Just go to the Chanhassen website and you can search Mayor for a Day and you can find it or call and talk to Chelsea Petersen so I would invite lots of participation from the schools that may be, that may have an interest in that so. Todd Gerhardt: Previous mayors are excluded. Mayor Laufenburger: Yes. Well previous mayors are excluded because they’re beyond the fourth and fifth grade. Most of them are anyway. Todd Gerhardt: Well that’s up for debate I think. 13 Chanhassen City Council – March 14, 2016 Mayor Laufenburger: And present company accepted. Just for those that are watching at home we do have a former mayor with us this evening. I’m not sure why he’s here but probably checking up on his successor. Todd Gerhardt: He raised his hand right away. Mayor Laufenburger: Of course he did. Of course he did and we’re talking about Mayor Furlong. Nice to have you here Tom this evening. CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor one thing that I did forget is that you’re going to give the Chanhassen update at the Rotary this coming Wednesday at 7:00. Mayor Laufenburger: I am. That’s correct. Todd Gerhardt: The public is invited and council members also and so looking forward to that. Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah I too am looking forward to see what the mayor has to say. With that is there a motion to adjourn? Councilwoman Tjornhom moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 7:45 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 14