A-3. Key Financial Strategy: Review Designatin of KFS Cities4
BACKGROUND
A--3
CITY OF
MEMORANDUM
CHMIMSFN
TO:
Todd Gerhardt, City Manager
7700 Market Boulevard
PO Box 147
FROM:
Greg Sticha, Finance Director p ,
Chanhassen, MN 55317
plan and ensuing ongoing process is to give staff, City Council, and residents a
Finance
DATE:
April 25, 2016
on
Administratio n
Administration
Phone: 9
SUBJ:
KFS Comparison Cities — Review of Criteria and Potential Cities to
Fax -.952.227.1110
accommodate growth was critical. The city currently has about 35% of undeveloped
include
Building Inspections
BACKGROUND
Phone: 952.227.1180
Fax: 952.227.1190
One of the City Council's KFS goals for 2016 is to examine the list of cities that we
Engineering
use for comparison purposes.
Phone: 952.227.1160
Fax: 952.227.1170
The Key Financial Strategies process was initiated in 2002. The goal of the original
plan and ensuing ongoing process is to give staff, City Council, and residents a
Finance
common understanding and vision for financial decisions that lie ahead for the
Phone: 952.227.1140
community. In 2002, the City of Chanhassen recognized that just under half of its
Fax: 952.227.1110
land area was undeveloped, so understanding the capital and operating needs to
Park & Recreation
accommodate growth was critical. The city currently has about 35% of undeveloped
Phone: 952.227.1120
land, and is also at a stage of development where we need to reinvest to maintain our
Fax: 952.227.1110
infrastructure. The financial plans that are updated each year, including the CIP,
Pavement Management System, Utility Rate Study, and KFS Annual Goals, identify
Recreation Center
activities to prepare for maintenance and infrastructure reinvestment.
2310 Coulter Boulevard
Phone: 952.227.1400
As part of the original process, staff worked with Ehlers, Inc. to identify a list of
Fax: 952.227.1404
comparison cities to be used in establishing and examining benchmarks. Staff uses
Planning &
these comparison cities in a variety of situations, often to compare service levels
Natural Resources
and/or salaries/benefits. The comparison cities were chosen as a mix of cities that
Phone: 952.227.1130
looked similar to Chanhassen in terms of demographics and available land for
Fax: 952.227.1110
development/infrastructure needs. Some examples of when the KFS list has been
used: comparing Salaries and other forms of compensation/staffing decisions,
Public Works
7901 Park Place
evaluating technology needs, budget and levy discussions, Utility Rate Study, Fire
Phone: 952.227.1300
Department call data and related resource comparisons, evaluating ordinances,
Fax: 952.227.1310
comparison of various city fees and permits charged, evaluation of all public safety
resources, and evaluation of performance measures from all the various departments.
Senior Center
Phone: 952.227.1125
In 2012, the City Council reviewed the original list of KFS cities and finalized the
Fax: 952.227.1110
current list as below:
Website
www.ci.chanhassen.mn.us
Chanhassen is a Community for Life -Providing for Today and Planning for Tomorrow
Todd Gerhardt, City Manager
KFS Comparison Cities
April 25, 2016
Page 2
• Andover (31,874)
• Chanhassen (24,503)
• Cottage Grove (35,250)
• Chaska (25,270)
• Farmington (22,386)
• Rosemount (22,490)
• Lino Lakes (21,129)
• Stillwater (18,892)
• Prior Lake (24,911)
• Savage (29,047)
• Elk River (23,739)
Staff worked with Ehlers to examine the continued validity of these communities as
comparisons. In previous year's comparisons, staff has limited inclusion of cities only in
population size of 10,000-40,000 and without an urban designation. Because of the continual
growing size of our city, staff is looking for feedback from city council on the possibility of
inclusion of larger suburbs that provide similar services and also have similar demographics to
our community. We will be distributing two lists (with many different data comparisons) of
cities at this evening's meeting: one will be the familiar list of communities near our population
size, the other will be suburban communities slightly larger than us. We will discuss the pros
and cons of including or excluding both groups for consideration into our KFS cities group.
ACTION
Staff is not looking for a final recommendation of cities to use for our KFS cities group at this
evening's meeting. However, we are looking for direction on the types of cities to consider for
inclusion in this year's evaluation process. After receiving the feedback, staff will meet and
discuss a list of staff- recommended KFS cities for the city council to consider at a meeting in
May or June.
fAgregs\kfs\2016\update comparison cities - staff report 4-25-16.doc