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CC 2017 05 22 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MAY 22, 2017 Mayor Laufenburger called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to the Flag. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Laufenburger, Councilman McDonald, Councilwoman Tjornhom, Councilwoman Ryan, and Councilman Campion STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Chelsea Petersen, Paul Oehme, Kate Aanenson, and Katie Favro PUBLIC PRESENT: Jeff Cotter 1730 Motorplex Court Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you and welcome to this council meeting. Those of you that are here in chambers with us this evening as well as those of you that are watching on Mediacom cable public access channel at home or via our livestream through the web. Wonderful to have you with us. First of all for the record let it noted that all members of the council are present with us this evening and first item is action on the agenda. Council members are there any modifications to the agenda this evening? If not we will proceed with the agenda as printed. CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: 1. Approve City Council Minutes dated May 8, 2017 2. Receive Planning Commission Minutes dated May 2, 2017 3. Receive Park and Recreation Commission Minutes dated April 25, 2017 4. Resolution #2017-34: Approve Resolution Accepting Donation from KleinBank for Summer Concert Series. 5. Resolution #2017-35: Park Road/Park Place Street Rehabilitation Project 16-04: Call Assessment Hearing. 6. Resolution #2017-36: Approve Renewal of Proposed Master Partnership Contract 2018- 2022 with MnDOT. Chanhassen City Council – May 22, 2017 7. Approval of Sign Height Variance for Camp Tanadoona, 3300 Tanadoona Drive. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS. PRESENTATION OF $2,500 DONATION FROM KLEINBANK FOR SUMMER CONCERT SERIES, TYLER MILLER AND KATHY DEMBINSKI. Mayor Laufenburger: I think we have at least one scheduled visitor presentation. Tyler are you here this evening? Alright. You have a big check for us is that correct? A giant sized check. Does this require a photo opportunity? Do you want me to leap, is that what you want me to do Katie? My oh my, this is a huge check. Will Klein cash this one if we present it for deposit Tyler? Katie Favro: Okay ready, on three. One, two, three. Mayor Laufenburger: Well for the record Tyler you’re representing KleinBank and how many years in a row has KleinBank sponsored this concert series, do you know Tyler? Tyler Miller: A lot. Mayor Laufenburger: A lot. Katie Favro: It’s like 12 years. Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah anyway so on behalf of the entire City, especially the music loving population of the city we thank you for your support of the concert series. I know it starts in June doesn’t it? Katie Favro: Yep. Mayor Laufenburger: And it’s always one of the best things and the kids seem to enjoy that one night that is, there’s some crazy. Kate Aanenson: Teddy Bear. Katie Favro: We have kids performance, one in the evening and then one in the afternoon. Mayor Laufenburger: Well that’s the one that I resonate with too. Tyler, thank you very much for, appreciate it. Express our appreciation to the KleinBank. Thank you Tyler. Wonderful participation from the business community and that’s just one example of it. I didn’t want to close visitor presentation if there’s anybody who would like to address the council at this time 2 Chanhassen City Council – May 22, 2017 please step forward. State your name and address for the record and we’ll hear you. Good evening, welcome. Jeff Cotter: Thank you Mr. Mayor, I’m Jeff Cotter. I own a garage at the Motorplex at 1730 Motorplex Court and I live, actually just a little bit north of here in Orono, just across the bridge from Excelsior. Mayor Laufenburger: Jeff Cotter, is that correct? Jeff Cotter: C-o-t-t-e-r. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, okay. Jeff Cotter: I’ve been in the area about 20 years and been a taxpayer here for about 5 so. Mayor Laufenburger: Good. Jeff Cotter: And I don’t know if you’re aware. I’ve tried to communicate with several of the councilmen and the City Manager about what the City did recently that disturbed me. I appreciate having a little bit of opportunity to talk about it. Mayor Laufenburger: Sure. Jeff Cotter: But in 2013 I was drawn to the garage complex out here at the Motorplex with the Cars and Coffee event and I came out and found that it was a very wholesome and nice event. Later found the garage that was posted for sale at another Cars and Coffee and bought and became a taxpayer in this fair city. I’d been renting a garage for a number of years to store my boat and my cars and everything in it and then what was attractive here was the social aspect and the 7 monthly morning car shows that were very pleasurable for those of us who enjoy that sort of thing. During the ensuing 4 summers I’ve been out here the Cars and Coffee or the C and C car shows have become sort of a focal gathering port for my friends and family. I have a son who lives in Ohio and comes back every year at least once during the event. During a first Saturday in order to attend the event. My daughters usually cook waffles for friends and I’ve seen lots of people I worked with at Cargill for a number of years. It’s been, it’s become a rallying point for my family so during that span of that 5 years I watched my taxable valuation grow by some 71 percent. I went back and checked that again today. My taxes went up 55 percent during the same time. Most likely driven by the popularity of the Saturday morning car shows. I can get much cheaper storage for my boy toys than I can at the Motorplex. We go and, not just me but most of us go there for the social event so apparently the events grew until the City could no longer tolerate such a success. I’m told that the City placed somewhat onerous restrictions on the C and C management team effectively shutting them down abruptly about 3 weeks ago. I understand there were something between 110 and 150 complaints regarding the event over the 9 years that the 140 owners of the Motorplex hosted. And I’m not here to defend 3 Chanhassen City Council – May 22, 2017 the people that ran the C and C event. In fact I had my own problems with them but effectively shutting them down and forcing them to relocate to another city is something that seemed to be somewhat over the bounds of reasonableness from the City, especially when as a taxpayer I knew nothing about it. Had family and friends scheduled to be at the event that was canceled 2 days before it happened. Now of course the City that is this is, that did this is the City that I pay my taxes to so to protect and serve and all that good stuff becomes you know a bit of a hard pill to swallow when the events go the other way. It’s not my experience, I’ve lived in 9 communities around the country and 6 states and it’s not my experience that cities usually take unilateral action to destroy the value of the property that I’ve invested in the city so I felt the need to come and address the council. Since the Motorplex owners are also a group of people who got into the position of being able to be at the Motorplex by doing something other than just sitting by and watching, we sat down to discuss what we could do about it and in 2 meetings held in the last 3 weeks our group came up with a plan to regroup. The meeting last week we were informed that the City had passed new rules and that as long as we didn’t let anyone at any of our events park on city streets or walk on the city sidewalks we could do whatever we wanted to as long as we didn’t do it more than 4 times a year. Now I don’t have the events. I don’t have this in writing because no one has seen fit to communicate the situation to me so I come here not only to complain about what’s being done to destroy the value of my garage, but also to ask for someone in the community to talk to me as a property holder and a taxpayer in the city. I feel a little bit like the owner of a strip mall. As a condominium owner I consider myself part of the garage but I consider myself to be kind of a like a strip mall owner and the City came by and vacated all the businesses because they were too successful and then came back and said no, no. We really like you. Just find somebody who’s not as successful and we can get along just fine. Oh and by the way your taxes won’t change so that’s the rub. That’s my story. I found the garages. I bought my garage because of car shows. The meetings that we’ve been through we’ve been looking for an alternative and something to do and we keep finding that to add insult to injury the City keeps passing rules and ruling against anything we can do and it just seems like being held to a property that is a full time museum and being held to those same standards for 4 hours once a month, 7 times during the year is a bit onerous. It’s obvious to me that the 138 garage owners, at least that I know of have no comps in the city and that, other than themselves when it comes to taxable valuation. It’s obviously to me that decisions of the City have destroyed a significant part of the market valuation that I invested in when I was there and now wants to restrict the use of my garage for future things so I don’t know what to do other than to come to the City and state my case and complain and seek for some feedback somewhere along the line. So I appreciate your time and if there’s anything I can add in terms of details I’m more than open. I’ve sent emails to Mr. Gerhardt to try to start some sort of a dialogue so I look forward to hearing from you at some point. Thank you. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Mr. Cotter. Appreciate it. Is there anybody else who would like to address the council this evening? Alright, since there is none we’ll close our visitor presentations and move to our next item. FIRE DEPARTMENT/LAW ENFORCEMENT UPDATE. 4 Chanhassen City Council – May 22, 2017 Mayor Laufenburger: Lieutenant Kittelson. Lt. Eric Kittelson: Good evening Mr. Mayor, council members. I have the monthly law enforcement update for you. Monthly calls for service summary. We had 51 Group A crimes. 17 Group B crimes. 450 miscellaneous and non-criminal. 480 total traffic incidents. 36 administrative issues for a total of 1,034 calls for service. Arrests, citations and verbal warnings summary, we had 36 incidents that resulted in 42 individuals being arrested and charged with 72 crimes. We issued 96 citations. 35 of those were for speed, 18 for no proof of insurance, 13 for driving after suspension and the rest for miscellaneous violations. We also issued 276 verbal warnings. I have an announcement to make regarding Towards Zero Deaths. We began a campaign today for enhanced education enforcement of the seat belt and child seat statutes. That th will go through June 4 and we’re joining 300 other agencies throughout the state in that effort. Some community relations updates. We have some beautiful artwork upstairs in our office that we received a thank you card from the children from Chanhassen Elementary who conducted a nd walking field trip to City Hall on May 2 and met with the law enforcement officers present and th toured the vehicles and answered questions and got to interact with the deputies. On May 4 I had the pleasure of speaking at an entire school assembly at Southwest Christian High School on th drug abuse awareness. Deputies and myself also attended the Chanhassen 50 celebration on thth May 8. We met with a citizens group on May 10 regarding city and county policing policies. th On May 11 we went to the Chanhassen Recreation Center as part of the Act on Alzheimers committee. I brought Sergeant Bruenig, Deputy Horwath and Deputy Hastings with me. Not only was it a pleasure to interact with the kids and create a community art project for display for the Act on Alzheimers project but we also learned that at least one of our members is extremely creative and quite an artist which is not something you get to do everyday with your partners in law enforcement so that was fun. And I have a training update for you. All of our licensed staff attended a mandatory department training. We met with Southern Valley Alliance for Battered Women on an annual update with them. We did some ground avoidance and ground escape drills and then we have some statutorily required scenario based training where we determine the correct level and type of response to various situations that we completed so that concludes my report and I’ll stand for questions. Mayor Laufenburger: Any questions for Lieutenant Kittelson? I just have one. As you give us a report on the arrests and the data that you give us, is there anything that you observe Lieutenant that is noticeably different from say a year ago just in terms of criminal activity or traffic activity? Any trends that you’re seeing? Noticeable trends. Lt. Eric Kittelson: Some things in January that we noticed when we were trying to kind of draw a correlation between the previous Minnesota CJRS numbers and the NIBRS numbers and one thing I saw before we had our first NIBRS report is that my instincts and gut in 20 years of law enforcement told me that the theft and drug crimes were up and once we were able to manually go through the coding and pull some of those numbers we did see that drug crimes have increased, I want to say this is going back to January maybe 20 to 25 percent and theft crimes 5 Chanhassen City Council – May 22, 2017 had increased slightly which a lot of times is a direct correlation to the drug crimes increasing but a lot of the other numbers of assaults and burglaries and things were down so those would, I believe some of those numbers are actually in the January council packet, and I’ve seen that those numbers have stayed fairly consistent since then. And we’re also trying to adapt for the numbers consistently rise from January to the warmer months and that’s a trend that goes back as far as these numbers go back is that crime is always down in January when it’s coldest. Mayor Laufenburger: When it’s cold, yep. Lt. Eric Kittelson: And it steadily increases and peaks at the end of summer so and we’re finding those same trends to be holding true. Mayor Laufenburger: How about are you seeing, I want to ask specifically about DUI’s or driving under the influence, are you seeing any trend that suggests that we’re moving either away from those or more of those? Do you see any trend there? Lt. Eric Kittelson: Well compared to 10 years ago the numbers are still down significantly statewide. There is a slight increase from the DUI numbers from the previous year and that’s something that we obviously always you know keep an eye on and try to do our best to educate people and with the Memorial holiday coming up it’s traditionally that had been the most deadly th time on the roadway in Minnesota and it’s actually 4 of July tends to be more significant nowadays but obviously with that weekend just around the corner we want to remind everyone to buckle up and slow down and those are the two best things you can do to keep yourself and others safe on the roadway. Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, well thank you Lieutenant Kittelson. Lt. Eric Kittelson: Thank you. Mayor Laufenburger: Appreciate it for your monthly report. Lt. Eric Kittelson: You’re welcome. Mayor Laufenburger: I see that Chief Johnson is not here. Assistant City Manager Chelsea Peterson. Chelsea Petersen: Chief Johnson is at a live burn training event with his department tonight so he is not here. Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Chelsea Petersen: He does have a written report in the packet. 6 Chanhassen City Council – May 22, 2017 Mayor Laufenburger: Okay we’ll just leave it at that and if we have any questions we’ll raise that with him next month. Okay, alright. And we did have a new business item but it was deleted so let’s move now to council presentations. COMMISSION PRESENTATIONS. Mayor Laufenburger: Any council presentations at this time? Councilwoman Ryan: Mr. Mayor? Oh go ahead. Mayor Laufenburger: Councilmember Ryan. Councilman McDonald: Go ahead. Mayor Laufenburger: No, go ahead. Councilwoman Ryan: Two requests for staff actually versus it’s not really a presentation. It’s just a couple things that have come up in some recent discussions. One has to do with permeable th pavers. We discussed this as a council back in October. I think it was the October 10 meeting of last year. It came up again at our strategy session in January and now with a lot of the, you know kind of tis the season to be doing landscape projects, if we could just take a look at that ordinance so it doesn’t count against hard cover. Kate Aanenson: Paul had that scheduled. Councilwoman Ryan: Oh okay. Mayor Laufenburger: Do you know when that is scheduled Paul? Paul Oehme: Good evening Mayor, City Council members. I believe we do have that item on a work session for June so it’s coming up next month. Councilwoman Ryan: Oh okay. Well great. That was fast. Check that box. And then the second I guess piece of business that I’d like to discuss, it came up as council knows I sit on the Park Advisory, Park Plan Advisory Committee and we’re moving through that process and in the conversation that we had the other week we started the Chair of the Park and Rec Commission Steve Scharfenberg and the woman from the County Health Board, we were talking about tobacco in the parks and it was surprising to me to know that tobacco is allowed in all of our park, or throughout our park system and so she was sharing some data with us about, you know about the impact to the community and so I was hoping that the park commission and you know from the direction of council that the park commission could review this ordinance of having our parks be tobacco free. I don’t know if it goes to the park commission or it’s something that we, staff does. 7 Chanhassen City Council – May 22, 2017 Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah I think that, Chelsea all I would ask is, I don’t think that there needs to be direction from the City Council on that. Councilwoman Ryan: Okay. Mayor Laufenburger: I think it’s reasonable that that could be something that Mr. Hoffman could review with, not only with his staff but also with the Park and Rec Commission and I know that the council would listen to recommendations made by them for that reason so I don’t feel like there’s something that says look at this. This is something that would be kind of a normal course of business for the Park and Rec Commission. Councilwoman Ryan: Okay. Okay. Mayor Laufenburger: Appreciate the comments. Councilwoman Ryan: Alright, thank you. Mayor Laufenburger: And was that, did that come up during the Park Advisory group? Councilwoman Ryan: Just as a side conversation. Mayor Laufenburger: Oh okay. Councilwoman Ryan: We were talking about the system development and it just came up as a topic of conversation and we discussed it as a group, among other things and there’s interest in making them, our parks tobacco free and so I thought I should bring it to the council. Mayor Laufenburger: Well as I say I think that the council certainly can review any kind of recommendation like that from either Mr. Hoffman and his department or from Park and Rec Commission. Councilwoman Ryan: Great. Mayor Laufenburger: As we normally would. Councilwoman Ryan: Alright, thank you. Mayor Laufenburger: Anybody else? Council member McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Yes Mr. Mayor, thank you. I just wanted to report that yesterday the Chanhassen Beyond the Yellow Ribbon held what’s known as our Honors Brunch and Lunch for high school seniors and anyone that’s transitioning into the military and I wanted to you know 8 Chanhassen City Council – May 22, 2017 specially call out to Chelsea who did an excellent job for us. She put the programs together. I know it wasn’t easy with all the last minute changes but everything went off without a hitch and I think everybody was very grateful for the meeting, especially the parents and I think again this is a real service to the community and for anyone whose son or daughter is going into military service. A lot of questions that parents have the children just can’t answer or don’t have the answers and this is a great opportunity for them to find out exactly what to expect so I do want to thank again the City for giving us Chelsea in all of this and again it went off very well and the American Legion is also a very big partner in all of this. Without them we wouldn’t have the place or the food so we want to thank everybody. Mayor Laufenburger: Well just related to that I know that the Chanhassen High School Principal Dick Unger reflected his support and his appreciation for recognizing those as well. Too often a lot of the attention is given to graduates who are going onto college or to community college or a technical school and this is elevating the importance and the recognition of the important decision that some of our young men and women make to join the United States military, whatever branch they do so thank you Chelsea and thanks to other members of the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon committee who made that happen. Very good. Okay, Councilmember Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yes I was so pleased. I had the honor of attending the Firemen Appreciation Dinner on Friday night and you know they are such a special group. I think Mayor you said they, they give us the privilege of sleeping well at night. Mayor Laufenburger: That’s right, soft pillow. Councilwoman Tjornhom: And they are just truly a band of brothers. I mean when you see them together and the comradery and the spirit in Chief Johnson is such a tremendous leader for them and you can see the respect they have for him and it was really fun because they had Fireman of the Year and they had all the previous winners going back to like 1970 or something. Mayor Laufenburger: Wow, wow. Councilwoman Tjornhom: So it was really fun just to see the history and all the alumni that came and you know the inspirational speeches and everything else. It was truly an amazing event so it makes me very proud. Mayor Laufenburger: The firefighter fraternity is, it’s a special DNA and they seem to just grow closer together as they go through training together and experience the trials of fighting fires on our behalf, public safety so yeah it really is. I’m glad you were there. Thank you for representing the council there. Anything else? I just want to take a moment to recognize Kevin Ellsworth. Kevin Ellsworth was a member of the Planning Commission from 2010 to 2012. I served a portion of my time with him and he passed away a week ago. Kevin lived a wonderful and full life, though he left earth far too early. He and his wife Patty married for 30 years and he 9 Chanhassen City Council – May 22, 2017 was passionate about outdoors. He loved biking. He loved boating. He loved camping and here’s what’s amazing to me. I last saw Kevin about 2 months ago in Caribou Coffee and when I recognized him and he recognized me he leaped out of his chair and greeted me and from my standpoint his energy and his cheerful disposition clearly belied the fact that he was dying and he very tenderly told me that with a smile on his face and I thought here’s a guy standing at the doorstep of mortality and he still had a zest for life so Kevin, to Kevin’s family we say we wish you strength during your grieving and rejoicing that he now has incredible mountains to climb, water to ski and bike paths to bike on so Kevin Ellsworth rest in peace. 10