CC 2018 02 26CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
FEBRUARY 26, 2018
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, Councilwoman Tjornhom,
Councilman McDonald, Councilwoman Ryan, and Councilman Campion
STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Kate Aanenson, Paul Oehme, Todd Hoffman, Greg Sticha,
and City Attorney Andrea McDowell Poehler
PUBLIC PRESENT:
Nicole Nejezchleba 2851 No. Manor Road
Linda Boerboom 8261 West Lake Court
Christopher Erickson 2731 Sandpiper Trail
Keith Butcher 1770 Pheasant Circle
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you ladies and gentlemen for coming. Welcome to the council
meeting. Those of you that are in the chambers here as well as those of you that are watching on
either Mediacom cable channel at home or watching through our Livestream through the
Chanhassen city website. For the record let it be known that all five members of the council are
present this evening and our first action council members is to review the agenda. Are there any
modifications to the agenda as printed? If not we will then proceed with the agenda as it is
printed.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom
seconded that the City Council approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the
City Manager’s recommendations:
1. Approve City Council Minutes dated February 12, 2018
2. Receive Park and Recreation Commission Minutes dated January 23, 2018
3. Approve 2018 Key Financial Strategies and Legislative Priorities
4. Ordinance 631: Arbor Glen PUD Amendment
5. Resolution #2018-19: Approve Purchase of 2018 CIP Vehicles and Equipment
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6. Resolution #2018-20: Approve Labor Agreement with Local 49 International Union of
Operating Engineers
7. Award of Quote, Purchase of Picnic Shelters for Prairie Knoll Park, Sunset Ridge Park
and Manchester Park
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Laufenburger: Good evening, state your name and address please.
Nicole Nejezchleba: Good evening council. My name is Nicole Nejezchleba and I live on 2851
North Manor Road in Chanhassen.
Mayor Laufenburger: Nice to have you here this evening Nicole.
Christopher Erickson: Good evening I’m Christopher Erickson and I’m on 2731 Sandpiper Trail
in Excelsior. Or Chanhassen.
Mayor Laufenburger: Good evening.
Nicole Nejezchleba: Good evening. I’ve been before the council before regarding the
Minnewashta Manor road improvement project and I wanted to give a little update. Ms. Jill
Sinclair and I have been working together on replanting the berm in our neighborhood and that is
set to get approved by the Department, Minnesota Department, the State basically.
Mayor Laufenburger: Department of Transportation?
Nicole Nejezchleba: Thank you, yeah and we needed 7 to 8 volunteers in the neighborhood to
help out with the planting and we had 35 people that volunteered.
Mayor Laufenburger: Wow congratulations.
Nicole Nejezchleba: Just to kind of let, thank you. To let the council know that there are
success stories. So it pains me a little bit today that I’m here again with an issue regarding the
road construction. My neighbor Christopher Erickson lives on Sandpiper Trail which is part of
the Minnewashta Manor road improvement project and his lot is right here.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Chanhassen City Council – February 26, 2018
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Nicole Nejezchleba: Before the road construction project began the City had numerous info
sessions to which the neighbors came and asked numerous questions. One of the questions was
will our access to our property be impeded. Are we going to be able to get to our houses during
the road construction and we were told that we would have access to our homes and residences
every night at the latest. On January 23rd City Council, there we go, actually approved a road
construction project and at the time Mr. Oehme said that they, meaning the residents, would be
notified when the project is going to be any potentially disrupt their access to their property so on
that day it was confirmed in writing with the minutes that we would always have access to our
property at the end of business obviously. The residents were also pointed to the website to look
for updates about the road construction which were far and few between and there is a disclaimer
on the website, still today, that was there from the beginning of the project and this disclaimer
says that the City’s inspector or contractor will notify occupants directly if they will be impacted
by utility service shut down or work that will impede access to the property for a period of hours
or days. On August 17th no such notice was given to Mr. Erickson. Again all the neighbors are
under the impression that come nightfall we’re able to go to our houses. His wife Kristine
Erickson returned from church with her daughter at 10:30 at night and drove down Sandpiper
Trail to get to her house. There was a giant hole in the road in the mud that was horizontal,
about 12 inches deep. Her car bottom out. Her front 2 tires went into the hole and it caused
significant damage to her car. She needed to call a tow truck to get her car out. She wasn’t done
with dealing with her car until 1:30 in the morning that day. The repair costs are in excess of
$2,000 including the tow truck bill. Now Mr. Erickson and Kristine Erickson are looking at
being out $2,000 for driving to their house. The road was not closed down. No notice was given
by the City that they couldn’t drive on that road and the contractor’s didn’t notify them that
somehow there was a problem with the road. Don’t drive on the road, so on and so forth. So as
my neighbor stands here today he’s already expended 25 percent of the entire assessment amount
to fix his car. That’s a lot. He tried to work with the City to get the issue resolved
unsuccessfully and we’re here today because we really want to have this fixed. This is not right.
It was an accident. We’ve talked to the City before how we were not happy with the contractor
leveling out the road. How rivets were left. Residents called. Complained. The reality is
there’s some responsibility here between the City and the contractor but there’s no responsibility
with the Erickson’s. All they did that night was drive home to their house. And after the
incident the road wasn’t fixed. The rivet that Kristine drove into remained that entire weekend.
It was actually Chris who went out and put cones around it so no one else would drive into it. So
I’m here with my neighbor today hoping that we can talk to the City Council to get him put back
into the place that he was at before the road construction started. I think it’s just not fair and it’s
not right that they’re out that money and that they’re having such issues.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright Nicole I appreciate you addressing the council. Mr. Erickson did
you want to make any comment at this time?
Christopher Erickson: She pretty much said it all. I have pictures and.
Mayor Laufenburger: Could you just step in front of the microphone there please.
Chanhassen City Council – February 26, 2018
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Nicole Nejezchleba: Sure.
Christopher Erickson: Nicole pretty much expressed all of what that issue was about. We
actually have another vehicle that had issues as well with the road construction and I waited until
the end of the summer to try to deal with it all. I also worked, tried working with the contractor’s
insurance company. Providing them with video and photo evidence of both issues and estimates
for damage and was denied correctly on one date and more than a month after incorrectly on the
other date on a denial letter. So I’m at a point where it’s either if you guys are open to working
with myself and my wife and solving the financial piece or it’s a small claims position for us and
whatever that means after.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Christopher Erickson: So we’re just coming on bended knee and being humble and seeing what
the options are.
Mayor Laufenburger: It’s Chris Erickson is that correct?
Christopher Erickson: Yeah, Chris or Christopher, either one.
Mayor Laufenburger: I’ll do Chris. Shorter. Chris I’m sorry for your frustration.
Christopher Erickson: Thanks.
Mayor Laufenburger: I appreciate that you’ve taken time to come to tell us about this. I would
ask that you give us an opportunity to review this. I would assume that you have presented
materials to the City so if I go to my city manager and say tell me more about this.
Christopher Erickson: I have not.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well if there’s any documents identifying your experiences that you and
your wife experienced that we need to know about I would ask that you make sure that that gets
to our City Manager Todd Gerhardt and then I will have a discussion with him to see what our
options are. This may or may not be a decision for a 5 member council but I appreciate you
using this time, very appropriately to identify an issue that’s obviously near and dear to your
heart.
Christopher Erickson: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: So I would ask for two things. Patience and give us an opportunity to
look closely at all of the details including the things that you’ve identified. Fair enough?
Chanhassen City Council – February 26, 2018
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Christopher Erickson: Sure, sure.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay. Mr. Gerhardt you okay with that?
Todd Gerhardt: Yeah a few questions for Mr. Erickson.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, go ahead.
Todd Gerhardt: Did you write a letter to the insurance company requesting the claims of the
estimates of the damage to your car?
Christopher Erickson: I spoke both with Widmer Construction.
Todd Gerhardt: Yep.
Christopher Erickson: And also with, I’m blanking on the name of the, Widmer was the sub.
Paul Oehme: GMH.
Todd Gerhardt: GMH.
Christopher Erickson: GMH thank you. And I worked through Steve Ferraro.
Todd Gerhardt: Yep.
Christopher Erickson: If I’m pronouncing his last name correctly.
Todd Gerhardt: Yes you are.
Christopher Erickson: So he suggested that this isn’t a city issue. This is a construction issue
and the construction people said this is a city issue. It’s not our issue. So that was the beginning
of the process. I’ve been in constant communication with Steve. One disappointing piece with
this, this particular incident. I let Steve know that night because it was a Friday night.
Todd Gerhardt: Yep.
Christopher Erickson: Just letting him know that the road was not in a passable condition and
not blocked off and that we were stuck and the first tow truck was not able to pull us out because
they would have gotten stuck so I had to call a second tow truck.
Todd Gerhardt: Okay.
Christopher Erickson: And his response, I don’t know if you have that in text was.
Chanhassen City Council – February 26, 2018
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Mayor Laufenburger: Well let’s make sure that, make sure we get that so.
Christopher Erickson: Yeah I have all of this.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay.
Christopher Erickson: Was essentially just letting me know that I would have thought that you
would have known the condition of the road and not driven on it and it just.
Todd Gerhardt: It’s not appropriate.
Christopher Erickson: It struck a cord that I didn’t want struck. So it was disappointing point
and I’ve talked with Steve a lot so it wasn’t a first communication by any means with him so.
Todd Gerhardt: Did you bring copies that I can have tonight?
Christopher Erickson: I have a whole jump drive of stuff that you can have.
Todd Gerhardt: Okay.
Christopher Erickson: Images. Videos. All of these. Texts. Screen shots.
Todd Gerhardt: If you can give it to me tonight or if you need to drop it off tomorrow or
whenever.
Christopher Erickson: I would just need to make a copy of the vehicle damage estimate for you
because that’s not in any of this stuff.
Todd Gerhardt: Okay, if you could give me that that’d be great. I’ll work through our insurance
company and also work with GME and see if we can’t get this resolved.
Christopher Erickson: Okay, great.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thanks for your time Mr. Erickson.
Christopher Erickson: Thank you Mr. Gerhardt.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Nicole and we appreciate your help with the, getting that re-
treed, is that re-arbored or what do you call that?
Nicole Nejezchleba: I’m not sure but re-treed sounds…
Chanhassen City Council – February 26, 2018
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Mayor Laufenburger: Okay yeah, re-treed. Alright.
Nicole Nejezchleba: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Nicole. Is there anybody else that would like to
address the council at this time? Please step forward. We’ll give the two gentlemen an
opportunity to chat just a little bit. Alright, your name and address please.
Keith Butcher: Good evening, I’m Keith Butcher. Address is 1770 Pheasant Circle.
Mayor Laufenburger: 1770 Pheasant.
Keith Butcher: Correct, as in the bird.
Mayor Laufenburger: We have a lot of birds in Chanhassen Keith.
Keith Butcher: Yes I noticed.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, go ahead.
Keith Butcher: I also happened to be a member of the Environmental Commission.
Mayor Laufenburger: Oh.
Keith Butcher: So I wanted to stop by because on the consent agenda, which just got passed
included the 2018 key financial strategies approval.
Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah.
Keith Butcher: Which included a project that the Environmental Commission has been working
on quite a bit over the last year which is the GreenStep Cities and I just simply wanted to thank
the council for the support and including that in that report. The key financial strategies efforts
because we really think it’s a value to the city to make sure that we’re always following best
practices. Asking good questions. There’s nothing in it that forces the city to do anything. It’s
just make sure we’re doing a good job, the best job that we can for the city and it’s residents so I
just wanted to thank the council for that. I also wanted to publicly thank Todd Gerhardt as well
as Jill Sinclair who’s our staff liaison. They both have been great through this whole process and
very supportive and so I just wanted to say thanks for their help as well.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, well Keith thank you for taking time to come tonight and as you
know and the public may not know the City Council meets with each of our commissions to
early, I think it’s early in the second quarter and we will be discussion exactly some of those
Chanhassen City Council – February 26, 2018
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strategies so we look forward to hearing more about your recommendations on what we can do
in accordance with that GreenStep program so thank you Keith.
Keith Butcher: I look forward to it as well. Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you. Anyone else who would like to speak at this time?
Alright with that I will just close visitor presentations but remind everybody that, especially
those that may be watching at home, visitor presentations are an element of all of our regularly
scheduled City Council meetings and we encourage people to come forward and talk about
issues, problems or as Keith just did items of recognition for either the council or members of
city staff so with that let’s go to the next item on our agenda which is our monthly fire and law
enforcement update.
FIRE DEPARTMENT/LAW ENFORCEMENT UPDATE.
Mayor Laufenburger: Did you and Chief Johnson flip a coin?
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Chief can go first.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alrighty. Chief Johnson, what can you tell us on the fire horizon here?
Chief Don Johnson: Good evening Mayor and council. I’ll make this quick since there’s such a
heavy law enforcement presence in the room.
Mayor Laufenburger: Don’t say anything that disappoints them.
Chief Don Johnson: I wasn’t sure if we had a fire department event with food going tonight or
not but I’ll have to leave that for now. In all seriousness with all the officers here from us to you,
it’s a pleasure working with all of you. We make a good partnership and that’s another example
of what happened today so. I know working through a lot of the stuff that we do in town, from
the fire department and the deputies here that it takes a team approach and we appreciate all your
partnerships so thanks to Lieutenant Kittelson and his staff. Mayor I’ll also thank you and Jerry
McDonald, Councilman McDonald for coming to our banquet on Saturday night. We had a
Hawaiian themed banquet on a snow storm so it was a little bit of an interesting evening but
thank you for the kind words and your presence and support there. I did jumble together two of
our two months here or the end of the year and our January just for the timing with our cancelled
council meeting last month so we ended the year with 39 firefighters. Our current rookie class is
in HAZMAT training until the middle of next month. In February we did have one probationary
firefighter resign and on the back side hired an experienced firefighter to take his place on an
accelerated training program. We’re currently under open recruitment with the intent to hire in
June and get them started in the academy. We’ve ended 2017 with 753 calls. I went back to
2004 and that’s the highest we’ve had since at least back then. We haven’t changed anything.
Medicals are now starting to overtake a higher percentage within our call load. We do have an
Chanhassen City Council – February 26, 2018
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ambulance in town 20 hours a day which with multiple runs going between Chaska and Chan,
sometimes that ambulance is out of town which then will call out the fire department. And I
know from Lieutenant Kittleson’s staff they’re double, they double about what we, what we’re
doing in medicals so the type of, as I try to tell Mr. Gerhardt from time to time, I don’t control
who calls 911 but our community’s needs are changing a little bit more and we’re starting to
focus a lot more on medical response so I don’t see that changing. It’s up about 9 percent from
where we were the past 2 years and we started off January with 71 calls where we average about
55 or 60 so this year hasn’t slowed down at all. It just seems to keep going. We had 5
significant fires. Significant loss fires in 2017. One of those being an explosion with arson and
that’s still being adjudicated. As well as we ended the year with a fatal fire at Summerwood
which most of you know about so that’s an accidental fire but we still had loss of life here in
town so just a couple of highlights and I am working on the annual report for council and I’ll
have that out here in the next month or so with a little bit deeper drill down of stats. Training has
been focused on all of our annual OSHA requirements. We try to get that out of the way at the
beginning of the year as well as EMS training so I can end there and stand for questions and then
turn it over.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Chief. Just a word of appreciation to you and the team
that ran the banquet. Yes there was 6 to 8 inches of snow on the ground. I thought it was, my
wife was quite impressed that you would invite a couple of snowplow drivers into have some
Hawaiian food. Good motivation for them to get those streets cleared right?
Chief Don Johnson: Exactly.
Mayor Laufenburger: Anybody have any questions or comments for Chief? Mr. McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Chief I have to apologize for not reading your memo so you have my
deepest apologies for putting a damper on the festivities on Saturday night.
Chief Don Johnson: You bet. We had a good either way.
Councilman McDonald: Okay, good.
Chief Don Johnson: You’ve seen all kinds of dress there. Between shorts and.
Councilman McDonald: Well what the memo said was, it was a luau. Come in your Hawaiian
shirt so I dressed up in a suit figuring it’d be a more formal attire and you can ask my wife, I’m
always looking for an excuse to put on my Hawaiian shirts and I had one and I lost it so, but I
apologize. Thank you. We had a lot of fun.
Mayor Laufenburger: Do better next time Jerry.
Councilman McDonald: I’ll read the memo completely next time.
Chanhassen City Council – February 26, 2018
10
Mayor Laufenburger: Chief you made mention, just briefly and I think for anybody in the
chamber, those that may be watching at home, you made mention to the events of today. Can
you just speak briefly about what happened? Tell us only that which you, you’re able to tell but I
know.
Chief Don Johnson: Today’s rescue?
Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah, you were involved in a rescue today. Can you just speak to that
briefly?
Chief Don Johnson: Yeah it was about 3:15 we were called to a female that had fallen down a
ravine at the, what would be the south side of Deerbrook Circle so Deputy Burt, Deputy Larson,
myself were.
Mayor Laufenburger: Talk a little bit more about why did she fall?
Chief Don Johnson: They were out snowshoeing.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, yeah.
Chief Don Johnson: They live in the area. Experienced. Wanted to get out and enjoy a warm
day and just ended up getting too close to the edge and she went down the, she went down a
pretty steep embankment and hit a tree on the way down so she was conscious and alert the
whole time. It was just a little bit of a complicated rescue with what we were dealing with with
terrain and then being about 200 yards out in the woods so but my compliments to the deputy
staff that both worked it as well as my team that did a good job of getting her out and it took us
about 45 minutes but we got her in an ambulance and took her to 212 so hopefully she’ll be a
little bumped and bruised but not laying in the snow out in Deerbrook.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well my compliments to your team as well as Lieutenant Kittelson for the
resourcefulness that you exhibit to do all of these things that are quite frankly unplanned in our
community.
Chief Don Johnson: That’s the best thing about be a firefighter mayor is you don’t get to always
plan for the problem so when you get there you’ve got to kind of think on your feet and that’s
what keeps us smiling.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well your team does a wonderful job of that and I think you should take
my idea of Toga, Toga, Toga theme for another time.
Chief Don Johnson: I’ll bring that back Mayor, thank you.
Chanhassen City Council – February 26, 2018
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Mayor Laufenburger: Yeah thank you very much Chief. Alright, Lieutenant Kittelson, law
enforcement update.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Good evening Mr. Mayor, council members. I have the annual law
enforcement update for you this evening but in the interest of brevity I’ll review the 2017 totals
but I have included the December, 2017 and January, 2018 monthly reports in the packets for
your review since we haven’t, I haven’t been in front of you since November.
Mayor Laufenburger: Right.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: So annual calls for service for 2017 summary. We had 563 Group A crimes,
174 Group B crimes, 5,288 miscellaneous and non-criminal. Over 6,000 total traffic incidents.
574 administrative tasks for a total of 12,657 for the year. These totals represent approximately
1,054 calls for service and traffic stops handled by each one of our deputies annually with an
average of 6 calls for service per deputy per shift. The types of incidents most commonly
responded were DUI’s, 73. Drug violations, 97. Theft, 188 and as Chief Johnson mentioned
1,004 medicals. The busiest day of the week when looking at our analysis of calls for service is
Friday and the busiest time of the day on every day is 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. as one might
expect. Arrest, citations and verbal warnings. We had 416 individuals were arrested and
charged with 691 crimes in 329 separate incidents with DUI leading those with 73, 54 for drug
violations and 34 burglaries. We had 1,624 citations were issued and the most common
violations being speed, no proof of insurance and driving after suspension. We also issued 3,408
verbal warnings and all those violations, were issued on all violations with 3,069 being on traffic
stops. Training update, all of our staff attended first aid refresher training in the month of
February. Community relations update. The deputies attended, again we haven’t been in front
of you since November so this goes back to the annual tree lighting ceremony at City Center
Park on December 2nd. Deputies attended Cocoa and Cookies with Santa at…on December 16th.
Deputies read stories to children of family members, residents and caregivers. Myself and Agent
Amanda Groneman presented the FBI/DEA opioid prevention project at the Stigma 180 program
hosted by Eastern Carver County Schools on January 10th at the Chaska High School. Deputies
worked a special detail at Paisley Park during Super Bowl week on February 1st, excuse me, and
deputies also assisted with Feb Fest events at Lake Ann Park on February 3rd. So I’m going to
try to just drink some water for a second and then I’ll discuss the 2018 policing plan. So our
mission is to develop an atmosphere of policing that works in partnership with the community to
creatively problem solve and deter crime. Our primary goal is to coordinate and tailor the
delivery of police services in a manner that is aligned with city and county core values, goals and
strategies. Some of our methods, and I’ll just highlight a few of them are to identify traffic
concerns within the city with an emphasis on prevention and education. One such example is to
maintain our special details to educate and promote safety for pedestrians and cyclists. We want
to maintain the initiative of our community policing project to ensure neighborhood vitality by
deterring theft and quality of life crimes through continuation of that project to provide
additional follow up. Excuse me. By deputies assigned to individual districts for creative
problem solving with neighborhoods experiencing unique concerns. We also are going to
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continue to utilize crime mapping dashboard to maximize our efficiency of services by
delivering timely and relevant preventive patrol strategies to impacted areas and we will always
maintain our participation in special events and projects such as February Fest, National Night
Out, July 4th and Details with Deputies. So just in time I want to introduce our staff for 2018.
So we have 4 people that are no longer with us. The other 11 you’ve all met in previous years
including last year. Tonight Deputy Carly Amberg could not make it and Deputy Mike Hanson
could not make it but they are both repeats from last year. They’ve been serving Chanhassen for
several years so starting with our Team 1 Night Supervisor we have Acting Sergeant Dustin
Bones. If you guys could just come up and file behind me here so people can say hi and put a
face with a name, especially as we continue our community policing project we have areas of the
city assigned for follow up after the call to figure out you know has that problem been solved and
what can we do to prevent it in the future so. We also have our night shift Deputy Jonathan
Howard who works with Deputy Amberg who’s not here. Our Team 1 Day Shift is Deputy
Travis Larson and Deputy Mike Hanson who is not here tonight. Excuse me. Our Team 2
Supervisor, Sergeant Tyler Ston and Night Shift, welcoming back to Chanhassen Deputy Mike
Felt and I just want to take a minute to recognize Mike Felt because Mike Felt, Sergeant Breunig
and myself all started working in Chanhassen around the year 2000 and today when we were
going over our seniority, Mike is coming back to Chanhassen after being out west for several
years so he had to remind me that Deputy Horvath is no longer our most tenured officer in
Chanhassen. Mike has 20 years of service and probably about 15 of those with the City of
Chanhassen so we’re really excited to have him back in the city. We also have Deputy Adam
Heitz. And then on Team 2 Day Shift we have Deputy Jamie Horvath and Deputy Adam
Hastings. Deputy Andrew Burt who is assigned to the power shift but is currently filling in for
Mike Hanson’s on an extended absence. And then we have some of our specialty positions. We
have Sergeant Jason Breunig who kind of coordinates everything Monday through Friday during
the day with me. We have Detective Charles Possard and last but not least the actual, the most
tenured law enforcement officer in Chanhassen, Bob Zydowsky, our School Resource Officer
has 30 years of experience serving the city of Chanhassen. Both with Chanhassen Public Safety
and now with the sheriff’s office so I thank Chief Johnson for his kind words but these are the
men and women, in Carly’s absence who really do the work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Nights, weekends, holidays. Doesn’t matter what the weather is. When you call 911 we will be
there and we have a tremendous blend of services with, as Chief Johnson mentioned with the fire
department and a great working relationship so this is your public safety team for 2018 and like I
said, I’m very pleased that 11 of these folks are returning from last year so very happy for that
and excited for that. And with that, this is the one time a year I always get to say and now I will
stand for questions with my team standing behind me.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well Lieutenant Kittelson, you know yes it’s important for us to recognize
your faces but take a good look at these faces. If you see us behind the wheel of a car, just be
gracious with us okay. But on a very serious note your role Lieutenant Kittelson and each of
your roles in keeping the community of Chanhassen, the citizens, the visitors, the businesses,
keeping them with a feel of a safety is of utmost importance and that is probably the primary job
of government and that is keeping our citizens and businesses and residents and visitors safe so
Chanhassen City Council – February 26, 2018
13
on behalf of this entire community, the council, city staff, all those whom you serve so willingly,
and so professionally, I thank each and every one of you for all of your years of service and I’d
say Officer Bob, 30 years. Are you now, are you now interacting with kids at the high school of
the young people that you served at the beginning?
Bob Zydowsky: Not yet.
Mayor Laufenburger: Not yet? Okay. 30 years. It sounds like a generational thing okay.
Anyway I know each and every one of you bring a dedication and a commitment and a desire to
serve the citizens of Chanhassen so on behalf of all of us I want to say thank you very much.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Thank you Mr. Mayor and I just want to say, you mentioned discretion a few
minutes ago and I just wanted to hit on that again and highlight the fact that there is a selection
process when we’re selecting the deputies for the contract community and as the liaison to the
city the number one thing I’m looking for for deputies to represent both the sheriff’s office and
serve this community is discretion and critical thinking skills and each one of these officers
represent the finest aspects of both of those skills and that’s why they are selected to serve in
Chanhassen because I find that to be the two most important pieces of public safety.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well as you are proud to serve, we are proud to have you serve so thank
you very much.
Lt. Eric Kittelson: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you Lieutenant.
AWARD OF BID FOR 2018A GENERAL OBLIGATION UTILITY IMPROVEMENT
BONDS IN THE AMOUNT OF $3.595M.
Mayor Laufenburger: Is this your’s Mr. Sticha?
Greg Sticha: Yes it is Mayor.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, go ahead.
Greg Sticha: Good evening Mayor and council. As City Council is aware and most of the
people who probably live on the west side of town are aware, the City is undergoing the
construction of a second water treatment plant called our West Water Treatment Plant. As part
of that process we have issued debt for that water treatment plant. To this point in time we’ve
issued approximately 14 million of the 17 ½ million in debt that will be used to construct the
water treatment plant upon it’s finish. This evening the City Council will be awarding bid on the
final 3 ½ million of bonds to be issued for the West Water Treatment Plant. As a part of that city
staff underwent a rating review call with, along with Ehlers and Associates with Standard and
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Poor’s 2 weeks ago. Mr. Gerhardt and myself were on that call and happy to announce that the
City’s AAA bond rating was reaffirmed as a part of that process. Standard and Poor’s
highlighted the very strong economy. The very strong management and strong financial policies
and practices under place. Strong budgetary performance. Strong budgetary flexibility and
adequate debt and contingent liability positions. All of those things are fantastic news and a
credit to the City Council for their years of proactive financial management. So with that I’m
going to introduce Bruce Kimmel from Ehlers and Associates and he’s going to go through the
bid process and what took place today and then at the end of that you’ll be voting on awarding
the bid.
Mayor Laufenburger: Welcome Mr. Kimmel.
Bruce Kimmel: Thank you very much Mr. Mayor and council members. I’ll just be touching on
a few highlights from the sale day report that I believe you all have. As Mr. Sticha mentioned
we took bids on the City’s behalf this morning at 10:00 a.m. and received 7 bids on your behalf.
The winning bid came from Baird out of Milwaukee. If you look at the bid tabulation that’s part
of the packet they were joined by 29 other underwriting firms that wanted a piece of the City’s
bond issue so this is what’s called a very large syndicate.
Mayor Laufenburger: Is this a good thing Mr. Kimmel?
Bruce Kimmel: It’s a good thing yes, because when they all band together and say we’ll take,
you know a certain part of the bond issue. That allows them to put in a more aggressive bid as a
group than they might as single underwriting firms. So that was great to see. And if you look at
the other 6 bids they’re all bunched pretty close together so the Baird bid came in with a true
interest cost of 2.52 percent but even the last place bid was only, let’s see about 16 basis points
or .16 percent higher than the winning bid so very aggressive bidding for the City’s bonds and
definitely in line with market conditions that we’re seeing overall. I won’t go into too many
details. I would note that the Baird bid included a premium so in other words they bid more than
the face amount of the bonds which allowed you to slightly increase the project proceeds
available for this third phase of the project. And the last thing I would just mention is again we
did include the bid tabulation as well as the final debt service that you can look at if you’d like
and a copy of the rating report that Mr. Sticha mentioned and I got a little bit of a kick out of this.
Usually S&P will say what are the things that they could, that could drop your rating and this
was about as strongly worded as I could see where they said, we really think this is unlikely that
you would ever lose your AAA rating so, although Mr. Sticha could mess things up. It doesn’t
seem very likely.
Mayor Laufenburger: Well we have, no, no. No, no. He can’t mess things up Mr. Kimmel.
Bruce Kimmel: This was about as strong of an affirmation as I’ve ever seen from S&P so
congratulations on that.
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Mayor Laufenburger: Thank you very much Mr. Kimmel.
Todd Gerhardt: Bruce, not with me here.
Bruce Kimmel: That’s right. I’d welcome any questions that you might have about the bids or
the resulting debt service or the rating but otherwise ask you to consider the resolution.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright. Any questions from council? Just I would say that I received
word of the S&P rating and the positive report that they gave to Chanhassen and this is, I can
understand how people would see that this reflects on the council but in fact this is a reflection
on the entire community. The community has established itself with a reputation of conservative
financial policies. Stewardship of the funds. Low taxes. I mean it just, we continue down the
road of all of the things that contribute to things like 29 people wanting to get on a syndicate
with Baird and Company for this and you know I know that there are some cities around us that
don’t have the luxury of a AAA bond rating and they pay more for their debt and they’re not
regarded as confidently as the City of Chanhassen so I say this to the entire community,
specifically to city staff and the work that this council. Not specifically these 5 members but the
City Council has done for the last 14-15 years has done exceptional in putting us in a strong
financial position so Mr. Kimmel I thank you very much for your report.
Bruce Kimmel: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Sticha is there a resolution that you want us to read in.
Greg Sticha: I believe as part of the new online packet there is.
Mayor Laufenburger: It’s called a proposed motion.
Greg Sticha: Yes.
Mayor Laufenburger: Is that the document?
Greg Sticha: Yep and you would insert Baird and Company as the winner.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay, alright. With council’s permission I’m going to make this motion.
I know that I don’t normally do that but I’m going to make this motion. I move that the City
Council award the bid for the General Obligation Bonds Series 2018A to the low bidder, Robert
W. Baird and Company of, did you say Milwaukee? Of Milwaukee period. Valid motion.
Councilman McDonald: Second.
Mayor Laufenburger: Okay we have a valid motion and a second. Any further discussion?
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Resolution #2018-21: Mayor Laufenburger moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that
the City Council award the bid for the General Obligation Bonds Series 2018A to the low
bidder, Robert W. Baird and Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All voted in favor and
the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Sticha I’m going to sign this document right away.
Greg Sticha: Thank you.
Todd Gerhardt: Mayor can I add a few words?
Mayor Laufenburger: Go ahead Mr. Gerhardt.
Todd Gerhardt: Well I believe this council has played a big role in this as have previous councils
and as much as I may tease Greg he’s done a fantastic job in managing his staff and our financial
situation. But again it’s a team effort from our accountants to Ehlers and doing our annual utility
rate study all play a role in us having this AAA bond rating reaffirmed and kudos for the council
for continuing to look at your utility rates and from previous interview earlier today we have one
of the lowest debt ratios in the Twin Cities area, especially for a growing suburban community.
It’s almost unheard of to have this low of a debt ratio and the debt that we do have is supported
either through our utilities or through assessments or GO backing so it’s a team effort believe it
or not with me and thank you to all our department heads and all our staff in making this AAA
bond rating to be reaffirmed and putting us in this position. That could not be of said 15 to 16
years ago.
Mayor Laufenburger: Alright, thank you Mr. Gerhardt.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS. None.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS.
Mayor Laufenburger: Mr. Gerhardt do you have any administrative presentations at this time?
Todd Gerhardt: Nope. One item that we are going to continue in our lobbying efforts for the
turn back of 101. The Mayor and I have another lobbying effort this coming Friday in St. Paul
with Katy Senn. We’ve given Paul the day off to do other duties back here at the office that have
a higher priority and so we’re going to be meeting with Senator Jenson and.
Mayor Laufenburger: Senator Senjum. He’s the Chair of the Senate Bonding Committee.
Todd Gerhardt: Thank you.
Mayor Laufenburger: It’s capital investment committee, yep.
Chanhassen City Council – February 26, 2018
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Todd Gerhardt: Right and hopefully we can get in front of that committee and testify and it’s our
goal to bring some of our businesses with us in that testimony. Something I’ve been thinking
about for the last 6 months is that we’ve been over there for 3 years and I think we’ve sent a
strong message but I think it’s time that they hear from some of the private businesses that would
benefit from this change in realignment of 101 and so it’s safe for their employees and for their
businesses to be successful into the future so we have a couple of businesses in mind and we’ll
reach out to those.
Mayor Laufenburger: Good. Good comment. I agree with that strategy. Any other
administrative presentation?
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None.
Councilwoman Ryan moved, Councilman Campion seconded to adjourn the meeting. All
voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council
meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m.
Submitted by Todd Gerhardt
City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim