Loading...
CC 2019 12 09 CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING DECEMBER 9, 2019 Mayor Ryan called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The meeting was opened with the Pledge to the Flag. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Ryan, Councilwoman Tjornhom, Councilman McDonald, Councilman Campion, and Councilwoman Coleman STAFF PRESENT: Todd Gerhardt, Jake Foster, Kate Aanenson, Todd Hoffman, Greg Sticha, and Roger Knutson Mayor Ryan: Again good evening everybody and welcome to our council meeting. To those of you that are watching at home or Livestreaming from the Chanhassen website, thank you for joining us this evening. For the record we have all of our council members present tonight so our first action is our agenda approval. Council members are there any modifications to the agenda as printed? If not we will move forward with the published agenda. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. CONSENT AGENDA: Mayor Ryan: Tonight we have consent agenda items number 1 through 11. All items listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine by the City Council and will be considered as a single motion based on staff recommendation. There will be no separate discussion of these items. If discussion is desired by anyone on council or here in the chambers you may request to have that item removed and have it considered separately on our agenda this evening. Are there any items that council would like to consider separately? Councilman McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Ah yes I wanted to pull the, trying to find it now but the resolution for Southwest Transit and I thought when you said we had 1 through 11 you were. Mayor Ryan: Well I know. That’s because I was wrong. Councilman McDonald: Okay. Mayor Ryan: So 1 through 12, I apologize. Councilman McDonald: So I would like to pull the resolution for Southwest Transit. Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 Mayor Ryan: Perfect. Alright I will move that to New Business number 1 and I will move 1 and 2 to 2 and 3. Alright, so with that is there a motion to approve consent agenda items 1 through 11 from my corrected, initially there were 1 through 12. Councilman McDonald: So moved. Councilman Campion: Second. Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Campion seconded to approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s recommendations: 1. Approve City Council Minutes dated December 2, 2019 2. Approve City Council Minutes dated November 25, 2019 3. Receive Planning Commission Minutes dated November 19, 2019 4. Receive Economic Development Commission Minutes dated November 13, 2019 5. Receive Park and Recreation Commission Minutes dated November 26, 2019 6. Resolution #2019-58: Designate Polling Place Locations for 2020 Election 7. Ordinance No. 651: Amendments to Chanhassen City Code and Approval of Summary Ordinance 8. Approve Temporary On-Sale Liquor License to Rotary Club of Chanhassen, February Festival on February 1 at Lake Ann Park 9. Approve 2020 Contract for Police Services with Carver County Sheriff’s Office 10. Approve Consultant Agreement for Lake Lucy Road Rehabilitation Project 11. Authorize Payment for Parcels 12 and 31, Highway 101 Improvement Project 12. Pulled for separate discussion All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS. Mayor Ryan: We have some students here from I believe Holy Family so welcome students. With no visitor presentations we will move. 2 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 NEW BUSINESS: CONSENT AGENDA (12). ADOPT RESOLUTION OF SUPPORT FOR SOUTHWEST TRANSIT. Mayor Ryan: We’re going to re-order some business as we have somebody here to present so we’re going to move to the item that was pulled off the consent agenda and move to New Business. An so we will go to that item and it is to adopt a resolution of support for Southwest Transit. Do you want to come forward and do a little presentation? Len Simich: Good evening Mayor, members of the council. I’m Len Simich, CEO of Southwest Transit. Before you tonight we have a resolution of support that we’re asking all of our cities that make up Southwest Transit, which Chanhassen is one. Eden Prairie and Chaska to issue a resolution of support. What this resolution really does, it’s going to be the base for our legislative action moving forward. Funding has become an issue for all the suburban providers. This past year we lost approximately a half million dollars in state general fund dollars that we had been receiving through the Metropolitan Council. Those dollars no longer exist. We’re also looking at an equitable distribution of the motor vehicle sales tax funding. That is really the backbone of the funding that we operate from. That has changed over the years and the suburban transit really is not receiving an equitable share of that funding so that is also described in this resolution of support. As is some of our needs in the capital arena to keep our vehicles and facilities in a state of good repair. This year we did not, or were not included in the Metropolitan Council’s bonding authorization so that is also covered here as well as providing some flexibility in terms of setting our own funding or our fare rates. Again some areas that we’ve had some difficulty. We have some of the longest routes in the whole region. We also provide a lot of different services, whether it’s special events to State Fair or other venues and we really need some flexibility on how we set those rates so that we’re not utilizing some of those dollars that are really needed to provide our base core services going for those special type activities so that’s really what we’re trying to do this evening with this resolution and getting that resolution of support from the cities. Mayor Ryan: Great, thank you Mr. Simich. Mr. McDonald, Councilman McDonald was there anything you’d like to add? Councilman McDonald: Well thank you Mayor. Yes I’ll add a few things to all of this. One of the things about Southwest that I think really affects our community is that it’s kind of the glue that holds all the communities together. Ourselves, Eden Prairie and Chaska. Without Southwest Transit it becomes very difficult for our residents to travel between those cities. There is no bus service between Chanhassen and Chaska or Chanhassen and Eden Prairie yet that’s where most the doctor’s offices are. Shopping is and what Southwest Transit does is it provides that service through it’s Prime service. Also now with the Prime MD we’ll be able to get people back and forth to their medical appointments so I would urge all of my fellow council members to support the resolution as I think this is really a vital service provided to the community and I’m just very gung ho on Southwest Transit so thank you. 3 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 Mayor Ryan: Thank you Councilman McDonald. Council any other questions for either Mr. Simich or I would stand, if not I would stand for a motion as well. Councilman McDonald: I’ll make a motion Madam Mayor. I would make the resolution that the City Council adopts a Resolution of Support for Southwest Transit. Mayor Ryan: We have a valid motion. Is there a second? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second. Resolution #2019-59: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded to adopt the Resolution of Support for Southwest Transit. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. Mayor Ryan: That motion carries 5-0. And Mr. Simich if you want to, once as you shared with us in our work session the next steps for this resolution are what? Len Simich: Sure. I will be meeting with, as I mentioned all of our core cities that form Southwest Transit as well as some of our neighboring communities that do take advantage of the services we offer. That will all be packaged together and be part of our legislative initiative and we will actually be trying to introduce some legislation this year. We’re talking to some of the area legislators. In the Senate Senator Osmek has been one of our main leaders so that’s really our next step is trying to get some legislation drafted and this will like I said be the backbone of that legislation. Mayor Ryan: Perfect thank you and as Mr. Gerhardt mentioned in our work session we also put together a list of legislative priorities as a council and share that with our legislators and we will be adding this to the list as well to offer support. Len Simich: Thank you. Mayor Ryan: Alright thank you. AVIENDA PRELIMINARY PLAT/GRADING PERMIT EXTENSION. Mayor Ryan: Alright perfect, going backwards now to Old Business. We have the Avienda preliminary plat and grading permit extension. Kate Aanenson: Alright thank you Mayor, members of the City Council. The action being requested tonight is to grant an extension of the preliminary plat and the grading permit and I’d just like to give a little bit of background on this because it’s been ongoing for a couple of years. So back in July of 2017 the City granted preliminary plat. Our city code allows a certain 4 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 timeframe that the final plat has to be executed so on June 25, 2018, within that one year period they did do a final plat and then they also wanted to do the grading. In looking at the grading they decided they probably wanted to do some changes and just wanted to move forward with the grading itself. So we asked that the City Council extinguish the final plat and just allow the preliminary plat to move forward with the, with an extension. So that was done and we gave them until the end of December this year so they would have to have that extended, the preliminary plat for another year and that would permit the grading permit with the conditions that were outlined in the previous. So the goal here then is that they would come back and they want to make some changes to the final plat and amend the PUD so the goal that we’ve outlined with them is that we would go back, meet with the City Council in a work session to kind of go top down. Get your approval on some of those changes. There’s a resident here from the neighborhood. They’re concerned that they want to make sure that they can see those changes so before we would have a public hearing which is required as a part of the PUD, that they would meet with the neighbors and then go through the process of a public hearing, the PUD and then the final plat for that phase but with the grading permit that allows them to do some work. They’ve got a number of months, the Level 7 team does to do the grading permit so it allows them to work and the best conditions which would be winter conditions with the poor soils. So the other thing with the grading permit approvals is one of the things that they have met these, they’ve already done some of the wetland banking and taking those credits out so they’ve done some of this. They’ve worked through the watershed district on the underground containment system. It’s very complex. The other thing that they will have to do is provide the outlot with the conservation easement on it and so that would be required. Then we also had that be staked so some of those items have been completed but some of them before they get notice to proceed they would have to demonstrate all those steps before they can get the notice to proceed for grading. So with that the staff is comfortable. There’s been a lot of work put into this including the Environment Assessment document. The AUAR which is almost you know a year process going through all of that so we feel that we, it makes sense for both parties. The City and the developer. Level 7 Development to extend it and as they stated in their letter that they’ll be meeting with the City and that they will hopefully be under grading this spring. So with that we are recommending approval of the extension with the conditions that are in the staff report. Mayor Ryan: Thank you Ms. Aanenson. Council any questions before we get an update from Mr. Nordland, are you prepared to give an update? Okay. Any questions of Ms. Aanenson? Alright Mr. Nordland are you, I think you know we’ll come back to some of the grading permit if there’s any further questions there but as we have communicated with you it’s the one frequently asked question at city events and emails that council gets is what’s going on with that site and so with the understanding that you’re looking for an extension for the grading permit if you could just give us a little update of where you are all at that would be great. So welcome. Thank you. Mark Nordland: Yeah no problem. Thanks for having us and thanks for the report. We do intend to start grading this spring. I know I sound a little bit like a broken record. Hearing you say it was 2017 I think when we got that first approval. I was shaking my head too. It’s a 5 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 complex project we’ve all been through a lot of work to get it to this point. The markets have been shifting on us as we know we’ve been putting this into place. As the retail market has changed and housing markets have changed and we’re continuing to try to iterate so that we build the right thing and we believe that we are close to having that laid out. There are going to be some changes that we’re going to propose back to the council in work session which includes some PUD amendments. They’re not, well I guess it’s yeah they…but we don’t believe they’re significant changes. It’s the same types of uses. It’s some configurations within the site and access that we’d like to propose but we do want to get going with grading as soon as possible. In order to, well I was going to say keep momentum but to get momentum back within the market place we need to start building that road and get the grading in place so. That’s where we are today. If we could get this extension I believe it will be our last and we’ll be underway here this year. Mayor Ryan: Okay thank you. Mark Nordland: Thank you. Mayor Ryan: Council any questions of Mr. Nordland? No? Councilman McDonald. Councilman McDonald: Okay as part of this, as I understand it you’re going to be coming back and talking to us about the final plat. The drawing that is in here in our packet, is that what’s changing or is this going to also be changing and basically everything on the inside is up for grabs at this point? Mark Nordland: Well we’re going to be back to you with what is substantially similar to this plan yes. Councilman McDonald: Okay so this is kind of the upgraded plan from what we saw before because yeah it was laid out a little bit differently. As far as the central I guess business district within this was before and so you’ll come back and explain what’s going on with the individual buildings and will you have maybe some idea as to what kind of retail is going to be coming into town at that point or? Mark Nordland: We will have, we’ll update you as best we can at that time about what we’ve got commitments for and then also what we’re trying to do. We can be completely forthright in what we’re trying to do. As far as commitments I can’t tell you exactly what we’ll have locked in but this, you’ll notice the big change that is in the plan in the packet is the collapsing of that corner of the ring road to make it more pedestrian friendly. To make it so that the uses that are outside the ring road aren’t as isolated from those that are inside the ring road. We had feedback from retailers and the housing developers as well that it felt too isolated for those that were out, you know coming into the inside of that with as many cars as will be probably coming to the project. 6 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 Councilman McDonald: Okay well. Kate Aanenson: I think most of the square footage or the total number of housing units and the square footage is pretty similar. It’s just the, it’s what those end users are going to be and where they’re located but. Mark Nordland: So we’re looking at adjusting right now it’s shown angled. We’re potentially going to straighten that. I mean it’s not verbatim to this but it will be, it will be substantially similar to this. Councilman McDonald: Well yeah I notice there’s not as many big anchor stores as there were before but I look forward to you coming back and explaining how all of this is changing and how that’s going to make for a much better development and everything so yeah it has been a long time and we have gone through a number of different changes so I appreciate your patience and I hope you appreciate our’s by you know kind of hanging in there with you. Mark Nordland: We do and we don’t take it for granted. Councilman McDonald: Okay well thank you. Mark Nordland: Thank you. Councilman Campion: So sorry building off that. When is that that we will hear those updated? Mark Nordland: In the next couple of months. We’re working on some dates here after the new year. My guess is it’s February for a work session. Is that? Kate Aanenson: That’s kind of what we’re talking about. That we were going to try to meet in January and get a schedule put together for the council. For the neighbors. Planning Commission. Mark Nordland: Yeah and we do have the ability I believe to pull the grading permit with the preliminary plat to start some grading work out there which we’re really trying to get some of that as Ms. Aanenson mentioned the soil conditions, some of those areas are easier to do while it’s actually frozen which is not typical but in this case it is so we’d like to be able to get out there before the thaw to start some of that and then continue the grading and road work through the summer and hopefully into the fall and be done then. Mayor Ryan: And that actually leads to one of my questions. To feed off of that, how do you start grading if you don’t totally know what the final plat is going to look like? Mark Nordland: The approvals are based on the plan that had the complete ring road. 7 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 Mayor Ryan: Right. Mark Nordland: And the grades aren’t substantially different from that and we would have some feedback from the work session hopefully that we’re not just totally going down the wrong path with the City. Obviously you will need to approve any changes from the approved plan that’s currently in place. Mayor Ryan: Right. Mark Nordland: So we understand that but if there’s general alignment that we’re heading down the correct path then at risk we would go ahead and start the mass grading for the site and especially the mucking out of some of the tougher soils during the wintertime and then while we’re going through the PUD amendment and the final plat. Mayor Ryan: And I’m sure it would have been highlighted in there that if you were going outside of what was initially approved. That we’re not going into any of the protected areas. The bluffs or the. Mark Nordland: No the condition, well you can. Kate Aanenson: I was going to say it’s a condition. We’ve had that discussion. The neighbors are concerned about it. So typically before they get a notice to proceed engineering and planning staff and the City Forester will actually walk the site and make sure it’s, the fence, snow fence is up and the like. I also want to touch too on the grading. Those are fixed points and they have been from the beginning where it’s going to tie into Bluff Creek Drive at both ends. It’s a fixed point so those elevations really haven’t changed at all and then also the touch down at Lyman Boulevard. From the very beginning all the environmental documents so it’s just some of that internal, and we’re not at that granular level. I think what we were trying to do and with the engineering was just making sure that the stormwater collection system and the sewer and water and I think we found another way not to have to continue the depth of that sewer as we’re looking at some of that so the grading overall at this level it should just match up fine. Mayor Ryan: Okay. Okay. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor and council just to kind of maybe clarify some of Mark’s comments on the, it had a ring road that would go from Sunset all the way down to Bluff Creek Drive and then on the west side it went down to Bluff Creek Drive and what they’re thinking is the easterly part of that ring road would be eliminated to bring the development closer together so you didn’t have a public road separating the uses on the east side of the development so that would be a private drive in that area to bring those uses closer together instead of having a public roadway separating the development basically west of Powers to where the public street was going to be. That would be more of a private street that would go up to Sunset and so it wouldn’t separate those two uses. 8 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 Councilman Campion: So does that translate to more parking stalls then or? Mark Nordland: No. It’s ironically, well I guess it’s not ironic. We’re dealing with the same basic footprint but the number of parking stalls, the number of square footage of buildings and types and number of housing units is almost identical. I don’t want to say it’s identical because there’s a couple but it’s substantially similar to what we had initially proposed. It really just has to do with the pedestrian access between those areas and really getting people from the housing to the retail and back and forth without feeling like, the last thing we want is somebody that lives here to feel like they need to jump in their car to go someplace else within the development. Unless they’re buying something very heavy but we want people to be able to, this to be a walk. I mean we understand that a lot of people will still take a car to get here but once they’re there we want them to be able to walk within the development. Mayor Ryan: Okay any further questions? No? Mark Nordland: Yeah we can get much deeper into it when we have the work session and I really appreciate your consideration. Thank you. Mayor Ryan: Alright, thank you for being here tonight. Mark Nordland: Thanks. Mayor Ryan: Council any further questions of Ms. Aanenson or a motion? Councilman Campion: I’ll make a motion. Mayor Ryan: Okay. Councilman Campion. Councilman Campion: It’s a long one. So I’ll move that the City Council approves extension of the preliminary plat until June 30, 2020 and permits grading as stated in the conditions listed below and in accordance with the preliminary plat approvals. Item 1. Approval of the stormwater permit by the Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed District. 2. Meet all requirements of the WCA approval. 3. Receive approval of the plan set for grading in stormwater by both the City and the RPBCWD. 4. Placement of Outlot A in a conservation easement. The City shall review the easement language. 5. Boundary of Outlot A shall be staked and inspected prior to grading. 6. Provide proof of withdrawal of the wetland banking credits from the banks once the withdrawal is completed. And 7. Complete the withdrawal of banding credits form for the LGU review and signature. Mayor Ryan: We have a valid motion. Is there a second? Councilwoman Coleman: I’ll second that. 9 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 Councilman Campion moved, Councilwoman Coleman seconded that the City Council approves extension of the preliminary plat until June 30, 2020 and permits grading as stated in the conditions listed below and in accordance with the preliminary plat approvals. 1. Approval of the Stormwater Permit by the Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed District (RPBCWD). 2. Meet all requirements of the WCA approval. 3. Receive approval of the plan set for grading an stormwater by both the City and the RPBCWD. 4. Placement of Outlot A in a Conservation Easement. The City shall review the easement language. 5. Boundary of Outlot A shall be staked and inspected prior to grading. 6. Provide proof of withdrawal of the wetland banking credits from the banks once the withdrawal is completed. 7. Complete the Withdrawal of Banking Credits form for LGU review and signature. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. Mayor Ryan: That motion carries 5-0. AMENDMENT TO CITY CODE CHAPTER 4, FEES. Mayor Ryan: Alright back to New Business. Number 2, let me pull that up real quickly. This is for amendment to city code Chapter 4, Fees. Mr. Sticha this is you? Greg Sticha: Yep. Good evening Mayor and council. On an annual basis city staff reviews Chapter 4 of city code which does, is about fees for the City that they charge for various items that the City, the most significant of which that is reviewed on an annual basis is the City’s utility fees of it’s water, sewer and surface water funds. There is one additional proposed amendment in this year’s Chapter 4 amended ordinance in front of you and Ms. Aanenson may comment on that briefly but before we get to that I’m going to go over kind of the process that we took or went through to come to this evening and having the revised fees for our utility funds in front of you. The process started early in the year with staff reviewing all of it’s utility expected infrastructure and other costs. Earlier this year than anticipated we attempted to have City Council have the report from Ehlers back to it by September. We were trying to accommodate Ms. Coleman in her eventual happy baby that we got to see this evening so. We 10 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 rd were able to do so on September 23 the City Council reviewed the rate study with Ehlers and staff. Part of that rate study was to look at not only the connection fees as well as the operating rates. Based on one change from the previous year there are additional construction capital costs that are included as part of this year’s rate study that is related to the additional street improvements that are now planned for the city going forward. Those additional costs were incorporated into the rate study and we were able to keep the rate increases consistent with the previous year’s rate study. Some of that had to do with additional bonding that we will do for some of those larger projects that are related to those street projects. But we were able to keep the final increases consistent with the prior year’s rate study. I’m going to just go over a couple highlights in the executive summary with council. This first graph shows our current rates of our water, sewer, and stormwater bill as it compares to our KFS cities. We are right on average, you can see the blue or purple line is average for our KFS cities and we are the far bar on the left. With the average being just under $225 a quarter, Chanhassen is as well just under $225 a quarter so from a comparison to our KFS cities our quarterly operating bills for our residents are very close to average. Even with the 5 percent increase that we’re proposing for 2020 we will be still very close to average with the same cities being slightly higher than us and other cities being lower than us. Councilmember Coleman has asked me a question about their proposed rates for 2020. We do not have that information at this point in time. I can tell you that all of our KFS cities and the majority of our neighboring cities do plan for rate increases on an annual basis so they will be increasing their rates by some percentage. What percentage they’re probably setting those within the next couple weeks as well. I can’t tell you that answer but all of our KFS cities except one, which does not typically set rate increases as part of an annual process and that’s Lino Lakes and you can see that they’re out layer in this graph. All the other cities do set rate increases each year at this time of the year. Taking a look at how we compare to our neighboring cities on our stormwater, or our water, sewer and stormwater bills. Again very close to average. Slightly below average and with the proposed 2020 rate increases we will be very close to slightly below the average as well for 2020. From a standpoint of the fees that are in the ordinance, all of the rates that are incorporated, I’m going to get to the executive summary page. Are based on what you see on the screen now. 5 percent increases to our water, sewer and stormwater utility fees. A 3 ½ percent increase to the water hook-up fee. No change to the sewer hook-up fee and a 2 percent increase to the stormwater area charge. All the fees within the ordinance that are crossed out are based on these percentages you see right here on the screen in front of you. That’s all of the comments I have about the city’s utility fees as well as the rate study that was gone through with the City Council earlier this year. If you have any other questions of me certainly you can ask those. Otherwise Ms. Aanenson can answer any questions you might have about Section 15. 4-30-15 which relates to wetland boundary and alteration permits. Mayor Ryan: Council any questions of Mr. Sticha? I just I have one before I turn it over to you Ms. Aanenson. And I’m sorry I didn’t prep you for this in advance but one of our KFS strategies this year, or initiatives this year was to do an analysis of our, the SAC and WAC charges for you know, for new businesses or people wanting to come to the city and you did an analysis on, and we as a council discussed whether or not we should increase those or decrease those. I’m 11 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 wondering if you can just provide a quick summary of what those are. Why they are set the way and a little bit of history on how that was, or how and why that was established. Greg Sticha: Sure. The most significant expense and debt payment that the City has is it’s two water treatment plants totaling almost $40 million dollars. The first of which was built in 2006. At that point in time when the rate study was done the City Council looked at how that debt should be paid for. The analysis that was done was at approximately that point in time about half the city was built out and half was not. The theory being that then half of the debt payment for that treatment plant should be paid for by operating rates. What you pay your quarterly water bill for and then half should be paid for by hook-up’s and connections. Those that are now entering the system later on. That was, that analysis seemed very sound at the time and I think there was good rationalization behind that analysis. With the second water treatment plant being added last year there’s additional debt now and so as that additional debt has come on one of the discussions that council wanted to at least consider was perhaps shifting that analysis. We reviewed that as a possibility with council in September. I think the consensus of that discussion was to not change the formula. To not change the 50/50 split on the repayment of that debt. But I also think council still has some unanswered questions and still wants to look at potential ways to make our connection and hook-up fees somewhat more affordable in some instances. So I don’t know that we have a complete consensus on that portion but I do think the discussion was that at this point in time there was not a need to change that 50/50 split. Mayor Ryan: Right because otherwise if the burden shifted the analysis if the burden shifted back to the residents then the increase would be quite a bit more. I mean it’d be much more substantial. Greg Sticha: That is correct. You’d be increasing your rates much more than 5 percent. Mayor Ryan: Right, okay. I just wanted to clarify because that was one of our initiatives for this year so I wanted, go ahead Councilwoman Coleman. Councilwoman Coleman: Thank you. Mr. Sticha I was reading in the study it says that the Metropolitan Council regarding the sewer rates, they will be increasing what they charge us for 2020. Is that? Greg Sticha: That is correct. Councilwoman Coleman: What options does the City have when they tell us that these rate increases are coming? Do we have any bargaining ability here? Do we have any ability to say no, come back to the negotiating table? Greg Sticha: The simple answer is no. They’re based on metered rates from the previous year so they actually have meters placed around the city and it’s based on the metered flow at each of those meters around the city. The previous years flow, flow meters were significantly higher 12 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 than the previous year. Therefore based on the entire flow across the entire Twin Cities is how they base their calculations so it’s very formula driven process that they go through in setting the rates for each community in the entire Twin Cities. Our flow increased by a little bit more than most communities. Therefore we’re paying a little bit more. Some of the things that we can do and we have done and we’re still doing is trying to make sure we find and spend any money on the capital side to shore up any infrastructure leaks that we have. I and I that we call it and we have invested a significant amount of capital dollars to do so and I think we’re addressing many of those issues. One project this year we’re taking a look at through the Galpin property that I know we’re addressing some potential I and I issues so the only real way to lower our flows is to shore up any leaks we might have in the system which we are doing but in terms of saying we don’t think that’s fair we can certainly attend the public meetings that they have in regards to those but they are based on actual metered flows so it’d be somewhat difficult to argue that our share of the total pie is unjust because based on those flows it would indicate that we should be paying more. Councilwoman Coleman: Thank you. Todd Gerhardt: Mayor and council I’d like to add to those comments. When our flows do go higher we do get somewhat of a rebate program for the amount that we do invest in our I and I program so they do give us credit for that and in January we were hoping to have it on for tonight but the report that SEH is putting together a list of recommendations to council to solve I and I issues and prioritizing where we should emphasize our initiatives. We felt that the report still needed to give a little more detail regarding those recommendations and so we’re planning on bringing that back in January. It just wasn’t to the standard that we thought was able to explain the different scenarios to the City Council. So they’re going to make some modifications to that report and bring it back in January so from that then the council can pick and choose which I and I approaches you want to take to lessen those additional flows and you know it’s not just from infiltration into our sanitary sewer lines. In some cases it’s individual homes where sump pumps are discharging storm water into basins. Some basement sinks. Or rain gutters directly being discharged into sanitary sewer lines and so there’s a variety of issues that they’re laying out and approaches to correct those situations and we felt as though they needed to get into more detail to explain what options they are for you. Is it at a point of sale? Is it going to be a mass investigation throughout the community? So we want to make sure that you have every option before you to address those potential solutions. Mayor Ryan: Okay thank you. Any further questions? Alright Ms. Aanenson. Thank you Mr. Sticha. Kate Aanenson: So Mayor and council, the wetland boundary and type delineation. Right now the City does have a fee for wetland alteration permits. We’ve had that for a long, long time but as every project that comes in they also have to do a boundary assessment and we do not have an established fee for that so in the staff report you can see some of the fees that individuals are paying to have that, or we’re paying a consultant to have that done so we are recommending a 13 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 boundary type determination. For example on the Park project we probably walked that project 3 or 4 times looking at all those wetlands. Some wetlands are missed because we also have to verify that. That’s on every project. If we’re looking at the areas, if there’s a wetland out there they have to, before they can subdivide go through that process. Whether they’re altering it or not they would get charged for that but just delineating that and that type and determination because that affects what ones they could mitigate potentially or alter so what this, in the fee schedule again it’s a, create a fee for the boundary and type determination. Again that’s an analysis that the staff has to do as the LGU and all the required publications and the like so that’s what that covers so we are recommending a fee change on that and then also we do require that all wetland boundaries be staked and signed and so we’re establishing that fee. It says per sign but we’re clarifying that there is a fee for those too. Typically those would just show up in a development contract. Mayor Ryan: Any, I have, this one just threw me because we haven’t really discussed this as a council and we’ve, you know we’ve gone through the utility rate studies a couple times and had a chance to ask Mr. Sticha about it and go through it. This one I just, I guess I’m a little stuck on how this came about and then, and then we say that it’s consistent with other communities but we don’t know what those communities are and $500 is you know, is a pretty significant expense. I guess my question to you is, right now when we pay a consultant, are none of those fees passed onto the developer? This is just kind of out of left field for me. Kate Aanenson: No. Unless they’re part of a development contract. So if you were to go for a wetland alteration permit or conditional use we charge a fee for that process. It covers the publication process. Administration of that so we have a number of different types of applications. A grading permit. Like I say conditional use site plan. But we do, we have one for a wetland alteration permit but the nomenclature is set that we don’t say where, we don’t require one for a boundary type determination. Todd Gerhardt: So Kate the way I understand that is if somebody was coming in with a single family home and building on a lot, an existing lot that isn’t going through the platting process or the subdivision process, we can’t make it a condition and what this does it gives us the option for them to tell us what that boundary and type of determination is. When we go through the subdivision process Roger will tell you that opens up the gate for the City to allow us to make numerous requests of the developer and a boundary or type of determination is where it is not a part of the subdivision process where we open up those rules to classify what type of wetland exists on your property. Am I correct Kate? Kate Aanenson: Yes and, but right now if they’re subdividing like I’ll take the Park property. There’s 160 acres and so there was a lot of wetlands out there so we walked it 3 or 4 times. We didn’t charge them for that. Yes they paid for their own report but we still had to do all the paperwork and process. So go out in the field. Field checked everything and like I said we were out there several times so that’s our cost of processing that application just like every other application and again because we do have an application we’ve had for 20 plus years for a 14 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 wetland alteration permit, because the, it doesn’t say alteration permit or delineation type. We’re just trying to make sure it’s clear that we do charge a fee for that. Mayor Ryan: But it’s a new fee. Kate Aanenson: It’s a new fee correct. Mayor Ryan: Councilman Campion. Councilman Campion: Mayor, so wouldn’t that be a pretty variable expense I mean based on the size of the project? And $500 sounds like a big fee. Kate Aanenson: Well but if it’s in with the wetland alteration permit, I mean you could have a wetland alteration permit for .03 of an acre or you have a wetland alteration permit for another one. It’s processing the application. There’s not a nexus between the number. Councilman Campion: But as you go through you know just the list that’s provided in the staff report. You know there’s a, b, c, d right? So there’s the alteration permit, single family residence. Alteration permit all other uses. Boundary and type determination. Is it, it’s all the above or it’s, to me it looks like the boundary and type determination would be required for any subdivision. Kate Aanenson: Yes whether it be an industrial park or a wetlands on there yes. Councilman Campion: Whereas the other sub-permits like the alteration would only be if you’re altering right? Kate Aanenson: Correct. That’s the only time we would collect a fee. Councilman Campion: So this seems like a big deal in that it’s now any subdivision is having this $500 permit added right? Kate Aanenson: If they have to do a wetland delineation. If there’s wetlands on the property. Todd Gerhardt: Well it was my understanding that we could make that a requirement without having that in the code. Kate Aanenson: New wetland delineation? Yeah, correct. Correct. Todd Gerhardt: And also get reimbursed for our time verifying that their alteration permit is correct. 15 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 Kate Aanenson: You’d have to ask, I’m not sure what the mechanism is on that. That’s engineering usually doe that part of it so I don’t know. Todd Gerhardt: Well the City Attorney’s telling me yes. Kate Aanenson: Okay, okay. Todd Gerhardt: And you know I could see this if it’s a lot of record somewhere where they’re not subdividing. Let’s use Ann Nye’s as an example. She has like two different types of wetlands on her property and say she doesn’t subdivide and she wants to remodel her house or do something but we want to know how close it is to those wetlands. So I could see this playing a factor in that type of situation. That we get reimbursed for our time and going out there and verifying what she’s provided to us is correct or if we have to do it. Mayor Ryan: But I, I just think that there needs to be more conversation around you know adding a $500 fee like we do when we’re changing a city code. We have a work session on it. When we have our utility rate increase we have a conversation. Whenever we’re talking about significant changes in fees we have an opportunity to discuss it as council in a work session and ask those questions and get some feedback and there still seems to be even a disconnect tonight among staff a little bit so, and I look for council direction on whether or not you want to move forward with this or if council would be comfortable moving forward with some of the other fee suggestions and study, you know utility rate study but hold this amended section back and bring it to an early work session the beginning of the year. Todd Gerhardt: Yeah I mean I’m not trying to push this through. I’m just giving you a couple of different examples. I want to talk about it at a work session so you feel comfortable with it. It is something new. I think Kate gave a good example. I gave a good example and I don’t think either one of us are disagreeing. You know with a plat we typically ask them to provide a wetland delineation or a determination of the type. But then we go out and determine the size. Measure it and we never get reimbursed but we can make that a condition of the plat without a condition of the plat we would not be able to get reimbursed for our costs if somebody was to put an expansion onto a house and you have to have a certain distance from a wetland so, and then we’d have to go out and verify and then the subdivision rules don’t apply in that situation. But we want to make sure that you feel comfortable with this so we would want you to move ahead with the wetlands but table item C for us to give you some clarification and examples of where situations like this could exist. Mayor Ryan: And again that’s just where I’m coming from because I feel like I don’t have a clear enough understanding of the application of it. I hear a lot of times about you know our fees and we continue to add fees or increase fees and now we’re adding a $500 fee and I’m just not comfortable with the application and so I’m personally not ready to move forward with that but obviously I’d defer to the rest of council on that. 16 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 Councilman Campion: I like the idea of tabling that item and when it does come back just to understand what percentage of subdivisions or you know what would this apply to. Is it 80 percent of them have a wetland that would require this or is it even, is it higher or lower than that? Todd Gerhardt: Well it’s, right now we’re seeing a lot of infill type developments and I forget the number of wetlands. We have a variety of different types of wetlands in the community and based on the types, the setbacks are different and so I would feel more comfortable recommending tabling C and having staff come back with you and explain the different options of how it would relate in a platting situation and how we could handle that and then a non- platting situation how we would handle it in that situation. Mayor Ryan: That would be helpful. Council? Todd Gerhardt: Kate do you disagree? Kate Aanenson: No I think that’s great. Todd Gerhardt: Okay. Kate Aanenson: I think it’d be nice to have someone from engineering too because this is really their issue too to help on that. Todd Gerhardt: Yes. And not having a Water Resources Coordinator on staff the last 6 months has been a challenge for all of us so. Mayor Ryan: Right I understand and in no way is it a suggestion that it’s not needed. It’s just I don’t clearly. Kate Aanenson: Yeah I think we should be clear on it, yep. Mayor Ryan: Understanding yeah. Okay. Todd Gerhardt: And it’s you know right now we’re not going, nothing’s going to, the development part of the business right now is just kind of at a standstill as we’re into the non- construction season other than the ones that have foundations in so. So this is perfect timing. Mayor Ryan: Alright. Any other thoughts, questions for Ms. Aanenson or Mr. Sticha or is there a motion? And as part of the motion do we just. Todd Gerhardt: Not to include 15C at this time. Mayor Ryan: Okay. Okay. So if anyone is ready to make a motion? 17 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 Councilman Campion: I will make a motion unless there are other comments. Okay. I propose that the City Council adopts an ordinance amending Chapter 4 of the Chanhassen City Code revising the fees for 2020, not to include item 15C for boundary and type determination. Mayor Ryan: We have a valid motion. Is there a second? Councilwoman Tjornhom: Second. Ordinance 652: Councilman Campion moved, Councilwoman Tjornhom seconded that the City Council adopts an ordinance amending Chapter 4 of the Chanhassen City Code revising the fees for 2020, not to include 15C for Wetland Boundary and Type Determination fee. All voted in favor, except for Councilwoman Coleman who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 4 to 1. ADOPT FINAL LEVY AND 2020 BUDGET AND 2020-2024 CIP. Mayor Ryan: Alright. Next we have the adoption of the final levy and 2020 budget and 2020 through 2024 CIP. Mr. Sticha. Greg Sticha: Good evening again mayor and council. This being the last meeting of the year the council’s tasked with passing a levy for taxes payable in 2020. A total general fund and special revenue fund budgeted expenditures as well as the passing of a 2020 to 2024 CIP as you mentioned. I’m going to go through a power point that goes through the levy and budget portion of this. At the end I’ll also leave room for comment about the CIP but I’m going to start by just going through the attached power point within your packet. The budget process for those that aren’t aware, we get started relatively early in the year and I should also maybe even add a bullet point. Typically in February we kind of have a pre-discussion of the upcoming year’s budget with council kind of setting some of the early, early numbers that we’re aware of so in theory I guess you could say we even start this discussion as early as February of the year but our first discussion with council is typically in June or July. The department heads submit their budgets to the City Manager and myself. At that point in time we review those budgets and then present a detailed budget to the City Council in August of each year. In September of each year the City Council adopts a preliminary levy. That preliminary levy is used for the Truth in Taxation statements that are mailed to all residents and businesses in the city. That was done on rd September 23 this year. That preliminary levy is a not to exceed number when setting the final levy so when those statement notices go out that is the largest number that the City can set for a final levy. They can only lower that number when they set the levy this evening. A public budget meeting or the Truth in Taxation hearing is held the first Monday at the City. It was nd December 2, last Monday and then this evening the City Council will adopt the budget levy and CIP. So before I get into the details, some of the more details of the budget and forgive me council and staff who have seen this presentation multiple times in the last few months but for those of you at home that have not, the first thing I want to kind of do is compare the 2009 18 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 budget versus the 2019 budget and show some of the changes that have taken place over that 11 years. Total general fund spending has increased relatively I would call this a small increases per year on average. If you take a look at some of the actual numbers that we’re looking, $1.894 million over 11 years or annual increase in spending of 1.7 percent. When you further look at that $1.894 million into even more detail, 1.68 of the $1.894 is for wages, health care increases, taxes, pension costs and some increased added seasonal funding and part time hours that we’ve added over that time. Interesting to note that we have the exact same FTE count in 2019 as we had in 2009. $431,000 of that $1.894 was for increases in the policing services contract. An additional $51,000 for the assessing services contract with the County. When you add those numbers up it’s larger than $1,894,200. So that means all other line items in the city’s general fund budget actually has decreased over the last 11 years by nearly $270,000. An interesting side note on the wage. Wages and the health care costs. If you take the $1,680,000 divide it by 11 years you’re spending about 2.8 percent increase in wages increases, health care, taxes and pension cost increase. If you think about it just the increases each year and what it costs to provide health care, which in a lot of years is double digit increases to keep our spending on that particular line item at 2.8 percent per year I think is relatively impressive. So now let’s talk about 2020. The first slide shows the general department area and the increases by those for 2020 as compared to the 2019 final budget. A total increase of 4.4 percent in general fund spending. The 3 areas of significant note are law enforcement and as the council is aware and staff is aware, there are additional services added within this proposed budget one of which is added duty crews at the fire department so that accounts for the largest increase within that department area. The public works area includes an additional employee for the street department and the park and rec area includes an additional employee for the park maintenance department. So those increases are accounted for within those department areas and was of rd much discussion of the City Council from September 23 until this evening. On the revenue side not a lot of significant changes. Obviously we’re presenting a balanced budget so the revenues increased by exactly 4.4 percent. Some minor adjustments into some miscellaneous income and charges for service line items and some additional grant dollars as well as we had some additional tower rental revenue that came in. The majority of the other line items stayed flat. In particular the item of note would be license and permits. We did not increase the license and permit line item budget for 2020 even though typically the actual revenues do exceed the one million 35 that you see on line 2 on an annual basis. So what are the factors that are impacting the 2020 budget? Some of them I’ve already talked about. New growth in Chanhassen for 2020 was 1.61 percent meaning the first $177,000 in levy increases are offset by those new homes in Chanhassen so if you were to increase the levy by only 1.61 percent the average home would not be impacted by a levy increase of $177,100. We had a 16 percent reduction in our health care contract which most certainly was beneficial to this year’s budget setting process. As I mentioned the building permit revenue budgeted the same as the previous year. We did include a 3 percent increase for cost of living and merit pay for employees within this budget. A 5 percent increase is included for the policing services contract. The average home in Chanhassen increased in taxable market value by 5 percent and that become important when we talk a little later about the impact of this levy on a number of valued homes in one of my future, next slides coming down the line here. Some of the increased service levels or 19 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 additional services that were added as part of this budget process includes the expansion of duty crew for a cost to the general fund of about $150,000. A new street maintenance department employee and a new park maintenance department employee costing about $80,000 each including all benefits and taxes etcetera. And then also included as part of this year’s preliminary levy and as a part of staff recommended final budget is an increase in the levy of $350,000 for the pavement management program funding. The City Council and the community I think in general is probably pretty aware of the council’s long discussion about how to fund it’s share of the road improvement projects that are needed within the city of Chanhassen. It’s been something that the City Council has been discussing for a couple of years. In October the City Council did implement a franchise fee on it’s gas and electric utility bills that is going to help fund that. This $350,000 would also be a portion of the funding that would get us to $3.6 million per year in total road construction funding dollars. This again is paying for the City’s share of that $3.6 million. So as it breaks down by levy type, the debt levies stay relatively flat as compared to the previous years you’ll note. The increase in the total levy is at 6.5 percent. The $350,000 for the pavement management funding I was just discussing is within this line item right here. And then the other two line items are flat within the operational levies. The general fund levy is an increase of just over $300,000. So as you take a look at our levy compared to new growth, and taking a look at previous levies. What you see on this graph is a preliminary levy that was set significantly higher than new growth. The last several levies have been set at new growth. The additional services that were included in this year’s budget are the explanation for the 6.5 percent increase. Again those items are the additional funding for streets, the 2 additional employees and the expanded duty crew for the fire department. So with that 6 ½ percent increase in the levy, how does that impact various homes in the city of Chanhassen and these are actual Truth in Taxation statements that I took a look at on the County’s website to see about the impact on the average homes and some of the various dollar valued homes within the city of Chanhassen. Keeping in mind that as I noted earlier the average increased in value, taxable market value by 5 percent so I tried to find statements that where the taxable market value increased by 5 percent. If your home increased significantly in value by more than that you will see larger dollar increases in the city portion of your bill. If your home increased significantly less than that 5 percent you’ll see lower than what you see on the screen in terms of dollar changes in your city portion of your property tax bill. So I tried to find Truth in Taxation statements that were close to that 5 percent average. One item you’ll note is as most people are probably aware the property tax system in the state of Minnesota is a progressive tax base so as your taxable market value increases the more you pay towards the total portion of the tax levy. So taking a look at parcel number 3 which is probably the closest to the average home in Chanhassen which is valued at about $430,000, that particular parcel saw a 5.8 percent increase in it’s taxable market value and it resulted in a $49 increase in it’s City portion of it’s property taxes. That’s about what I had projected the council back when we set the preliminary levy in September. That home did see a slightly larger increase than the average being at 5 percent. This one saw 5.8 percent increase in it’s taxable market value and I think I had projected about a $45 increase on the average home so pretty close to those projections that we had made back in September. Obviously as your home value increases the dollar amount changed to any of the line items on your property tax bill will also change and so that’s why you see the larger value 20 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 parcels with significantly higher dollar amounts paid on it’s city portion of it’s property taxes. Had the City Council issued a levy of new growth only the increase or the change in particular into parcel 3 in this instance would have been very close to zero but the City Council did want to, at least as part of the preliminary budget process and a review of those additional services they wanted to have throughout this fall included that as part of the preliminary budget and staff is recommending a final budget that mirrors what the City Council set for a preliminary budget rd back on September 23. How does the pie divide up? So when a property tax payer gets his property tax bill it’s obviously not just the City of Chanhassen that they’re paying their property tax bill for. It’s the City, County and school district. The City of Chanhassen makes up about 21 cents on every dollar. This is based on an actual Truth in Taxation statement right here, these figures and that’s in School District 112. So 20 to 22 cents is what the average home pays towards their total tax dollar for all of their services that they’re provided within the city. Annually we also review a number of comparisons to our KFS and some of our neighboring cities in Carver County. This particular slide shows the budgeted expenditures, general fund budgeted expenditures per the Office of State Auditor’s office. Of all of our KFS cities with the average for 2019, obviously we do not have the budgeted 2020 expenditures for our KFS cities. They’re adopting their budgets this evening or sometime this week or next week. The average increase of our KFS for 2019 was 4.8 percent. Chanhassen’s was 1.8 percent. If the council does go ahead and set a final levy that mirrors the preliminary levy that will be one of the few years where we aren’t among the lowest on this screen. The percentage increase will be higher than the 1.8 percent but as a comparison to KFS cities I’m also going to get into per capita spending. So taking a breakdown of that previous slide and breaking it out by population, number of people served within each of those jurisdictions the average per capita spending of our KFS is $609. Chanhassen being at $447. Significantly lower than almost all of the other communities in our KFS aside from Lino Lakes who is just slightly higher than us. Taking a look at our tax rates in Carver County. These are based on, the middle column is based on what actually was set for tax rates for tax levies in 2019. The right column is based on the preliminary levy that was set by each of the jurisdictions within Carver County. City of Chanhassen has the lowest tax rate in Carver County with the average being 58. Even with the larger than normal increase in the preliminary levy the City’s tax rate will not increase by much. .03 is the amount that the City’s tax rate will increase. The tax rate will still be by far the lowest within Carver County and then as a matter of fact if you take a look at the tax rate, the City of Chanhassen’s tax rate compared to a number of jurisdictions in Hennepin County, again the City of Chanhassen is among the lowest in the entire Twin Cities. I estimate that the Chanhassen tax rate, city tax rate is probably in the top less than one percent of all tax rates in the entire Twin Cities in terms of total tax rate. So before I get into the recommendation I also want to devote a small amount of time for discussion on the CIP for 2020 to 202the City’s tax rate will not increase by much. .03 is the amount that the City’s tax rate will increase. The tax rate will still be by far the lowest within Carver County and then as a matter of fact if you take a look at the tax rate, the City of Chanhassen’s tax rate compared to a number of jurisdictions in Hennepin County, again the City of Chanhassen is among the lowest in the entire Twin Cities. I estimate that the Chanhassen tax rate, city tax rate is probably in the top less than one percent of all tax rates in the entire Twin Cities in terms of total tax rate. So before I get into the recommendation I also want to devote a 21 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 small amount of time for discussion on the CIP for 2020 to 2024. For those that are not aware the CIP document is a fiscal planning document. The document does not mean that all of the items that are slated for purchase in the upcoming year that they automatically will be purchased. Any item in that document that is over $20,000 will come back to City Council again for final approval. The document that you’re approving for $106 million, the majority of which are road projects of which again the majority of which are funded State and other contributions from other agencies so when you see the $107 million dollars you think wow. That’s a lot of capital cost for the city of Chanhassen over 5 years. The majority of that is not actual dollars of the City of Chanhassen. And as I said all of the items in 2020 will come back to City Council for final approval that are over $20,000. We did review the CIP document with the City Council back on rd September 23 as well but if there are any additional questions about that. There were only some minor changes since that review in September. A couple of the road projects. The timing of them and the dollar amounts changed relatively insignificantly for example the Galpin project was pushed back one year. Some of the funding for some of the other road projects were changed very insignificantly so there were no significant changes from what you saw in September. The majority of the CIP sheets are identical to what you saw previously. With that I’ll take any questions about any of the slides in my power point. Any questions about the budget. Any questions about any of the levies that are presented in front of you as well as any questions about the CIP. Mayor Ryan: Perfect, thank you Mr. Sticha. Before we start discussing this as a council are there any specific questions for Mr. Sticha and the information that was presented tonight? No. Alright so I’d like to tackle this a little bit differently. And the reason for that is, as Mr. Sticha pointed out in years past we had, I mean 15 years past we have always, or the budget has always been approved based on matching new growth and this year we, by setting the preliminary levy higher than or above new growth there were added services that are up for consideration and I think it’s important that we as a council are discussing these, you know these different areas of added service as part of the discussion because again this is something new for the City and although nobody came forward at the Truth in Taxation, you know this is a big deal to be increasing the levy above new growth and so Mr. Sticha put in his over or general summary or background the budget includes and then there’s a list of different items. Oh you’re so good, thank you. A list of items that are the factors for why this budget is changing for 2020 and so as you go down that list I think it’s important for us to talk about what those, what those additions are and I would be interested to get feedback from council in your, you know either your agreement or something that you can’t support as it relates to the expansion of services because there’s a lot on there and I think it’s important for us to really discuss each one and just to give an example I will go first just so you kind of get an understanding of what I’m talking about when I go through this. So obviously I’m supportive of the matching new growth and then you go down and you know the 16 percent reduction in health care costs is significant for the City and I know it’s not something that we expect again next year but had a positive impact on our budget. And we’re keeping building permit revenue the same. The 3 percent increase of cost of living and merit pay is something that I support for our employees. The 5 percent increase in the police services contract. I think we as a city are you know definitely benefit from being able to 22 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 contract our policing services through the County and as their needs increase obviously the contract that we have with them is going to increase so I support that. Chief has spent a lot of time discussing with us this past year the need for the expansion of duty crews and that obviously is one of the more significant budget increases for this coming year but I think you’ve done, Chief you’ve done a great job in explaining the need and how that’s going to improve the services and there’s been a significant increase in our calls for service and so to continue to be able to recruit and support the needs of our residents I appreciate your input and trust that that’s the right direction for the City so I do support the expansion of the duty crew for the additional $150,000. I’m going to lump the two together, the street maintenance department employee and the pavement management program funding. As we all know over the last few, couple years but specifically this last year we’ve talked a lot about the growing need for us to address our infrastructure issues and concerns on the city. We have a number of roads coming due. We need to double the miles of roads that we either are doing reconstruction or mill and overlay and through that conversation in the last month we implemented a franchise fee and that was something that I supported even though the year prior I had not. I thought we did, staff did an excellent job explaining the reasoning behind this growing need for us and through that conversation of franchise fee and the additional funding needs I had conversations with not only staff but folks in the street department and they had talked about that they are short. They hadn’t had an additional employee in 20 years and with the new expectation of doubling the miles of roads they are going to need an additional employee and that was something that came from you know really the boots on the ground and so that was something that as part of the overall franchise fee infrastructure it was something that I supported and brought forward to staff about you know is it the time to increase an employee or additional full time employee in the street maintenance department and so I agree with that and can get behind that. As part of our franchise fee conversation we talked about and had a lot of folks give us feedback on whether or not they thought a franchise fee was fair and some people didn’t believe a franchise fee was fair because one, it is a regressive tax and two, they believe that the City should just be up front and levy for what, you know what projects we’re going to do and it was my belief that we, in order to be able to reach that $3.6 million dollars and for the City’s portion by doing a little bit of both was the best way to really figure out that delta and so that’s why I’m supportive of obviously was supportive of the franchise fee but in order for us to get to that $3.6 million dollars I support the $350,000 an increase of that levy to make sure that we are able to perform and with the additional employee but then also have the dollars to make sure that we’re getting the roads done that we have laid out or outlined for the years to come. The one area that I, I am not in support of for this year is the park maintenance department employee for $80,000 and the reason why I go back and forth on this but ultimately decided with not being in support of it is, as it did come up late and even though we talked about it maybe starting in February and then again in June and July this was never brought forward and it was added towards the end of the year when we were talking about adding additional staff and while I do believe there is a need. I do recognize the amount of work that goes into maintaining the number of our parks. The reason why I supported a street maintenance department is because that was part of our bigger project of franchise fee and doubling the roads. I know we have a lot of conversations coming forward in terms of what we’re going to do with Lake Ann Park and we continue, the City continues to grow. We have 23 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 more miles of trails and parks to maintain but I thought that came a little bit after the fact in terms of that need and so that is one area that I would like to see a reduction in the final levy is a reduction of the $80,000 dollars. So that’s really where I’m coming from in terms of looking at the overall budget change for 2020 is I support all of those bullets that you have presented tonight Mr. Sticha but the one area that I would like to see changed is the reduction of $80,000 for the park maintenance department employee. So that’s really what I’m thinking. If anyone wants to go through it in as detailed as that you’re more than welcome but I open it up for discussion for council. Councilwoman Coleman: Thank you for your comments. I understand the importance of taking care of city needs and appreciate that no proposals before us this evening are frivolous or wasteful. However I also understand the importance of prioritizing and sometimes having to temporarily go without. I’ve been amazed at the work of Mr. Sticha and city staff for addressing the budget issues that have come before us and have no doubt they can continue to use creativity, frugality and critical problem solving to help us continue navigating our city’s finances. I was recently at the senior center holiday luncheon and had the pleasure of speaking to a couple of seniors living on fixed incomes who are concerned about the impact that the franchise fees will have on their budgets. I do not feel right at this time about taking even more money out of their pockets or out of the pockets of lower income family all in the same year in addition to that. Just as Chanhassen residents have to learn what to do without every time government takes more money out of their budget I believe we too must do our best to tighten our belts and prioritize the most important needs before us which is why I support the expanded duty crew for the fire department as well as an increase in spending for law enforcement. Public safety is and always will be my number one priority. I would like however to see more proposals for where we can be resourceful and creative in saving in other departments or for not to reduce costs for requests for additional positions and spending and because of these reasons I do not support any other expenses that will increase the levy this year. Mayor Ryan: Thank you Councilwoman. Any other comments tonight? Councilman McDonald. Councilman McDonald: I’ll make a comment. Yeah this is a change in the budgets for the way we’ve done things in the past and I think for the first time what we’re having to face is that new growth just does not meet the needs of the city. I understand the whole thing about we’re taking money out of people’s pockets but then by the same turn people are asking us to increase our services. One of the big examples was the problems we have with potholes this year. Everybody complained about it. They wanted them fixed. That’s a service we have to perform and what we determined in that is that we probably don’t have enough people in the street department to really handle a crisis such as that plus do the normal maintenance that’s required of our streets during the short period in the summer. The health care reduction was a pleasant surprise because normally it doesn’t go in our favor. It goes the other way so I’m glad to see that. The 3 percent increase and a cost of living and merit pay, I think that as council has said staff does a marvelous job of trying to think outside the box and to meet the requirements that 24 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 council puts on them. I’ve never heard them actually give up and say well good luck. They always go back and they re-sharpen their pencils and they come up with something. I think the 3 percent is well earned and it’s also, and it’s deserved so I definitely would support an increase in pay. The police services I think goes without saying. We have one of the safest communities around and again we don’t have our own home grown police force so I think the sheriff’s department does an excellent job in that. That saves us a lot of money and infrastructure for a police department if we were to put one together. Then the budget would go up by millions of dollars so I think that that’s a great service and we’re getting our money’s worth. The rest of it then we get into a little bit of a, maybe I’m going to differ from the mayor somewhat but I think the duty crew, what I look at there, I’ve been following this for quite a few years and I’ve asked a lot of questions of the Chief because one of the things that’s always stood out to me is we’re not really putting out fires. Yes we do have fires on occasion and the fire department responds quite admirably to all of that and they do a great job in putting out fires. But where the increase in services has really come has been health and medical calls. Now you could argue that maybe that’s not the job of the fire department. Again you could go back and say well they should be putting out fires. However there’s no one else to step up and do that job and I’m sure that if it’s your loved one that’s suffering from a heart attack or a stroke and you’re looking for someone to come and do a, you know save that person’s life or to stabilize them you more than welcome the fire department to come in your front door and you’re really happy that they got there within 5 minutes or no more than 7, right Chief? And I think that everybody is very appreciative about that. One of the things the Chief started when he came in here was to do feedback cards and I read them and everybody was very appreciative of the fact that the fire department showed up for all of these calls and they really, like I say, were appreciative. So I think that’s what led to our whole thing of doing the duty crew. One of the things we asked the Chief to look at was what about this duty crew. Would that solve some of our problems because we were looking at expanding the fire department to a second station and the question was do we really want to spend our money there or is it spent someplace else you know much more effectively. And what we came up with was a duty crew. Now it mainly only works on the weekends but again in tracking the calls and in looking at the services that we perform it becomes very apparent that again people just don’t have heart attacks and strokes and they don’t fall in their home and they don’t do this on the weekend. It happens at any time, day or night. At probably the weirdest hours that you can imagine so it became very apparent and again this council looked at this and determined that yes, a duty crew operating during the week was a needed service for this community and it was something that the community had also given feedback that yes, that’s something that we want. So in order to do this, whether we have to make some changes to the fire station because again what that means is we’re going to have people in there at all hours of the day and night for the most part so they can’t stay up all night. Well we need a place for people to sleep and also to be available so that they can make that call to your home within the 3 to 5 minutes. All they have to do is go out and get in a truck and start driving. So I think that is a very needed service and it’s worthwhile and it is justified so I’m definitely in favor of spending the money for the duty crew expansion. The next one again I touched on kind of briefly about the street department. I think that one of the things in Mr. Sticha’s presentation that was interesting was since 2009 we really haven’t added a lot of people to the payroll here at the city 25 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 and the street department actually does a lot of work. Now I know you don’t see them out there a lot. They’re kind of the hidden people but they’re out there constantly again taking care of the roads of this city. Maintaining trails. Maintaining buildings. When you have a city such as this with the amount of assets and infrastructure that we have it wears out and it needs to be taken care of and that’s what the street maintenance department does. Also as we’ve increased I’m surprised we’re still able to keep the schedules we do with snowplowing. We did increase the mileage of roads this year. We’re going to be increasing the mileage next year and the year after that and I think that that’s a service everybody wants. They want their street plowed so that when they go to work at 6:00 a.m. or 7:00 at the latest they can get out of their driveway so that’s not a service I think we want to try to cut or dial back in any manner whatsoever so again that added employee helps us to maintain our streets during the summer. That employee could make a difference as far as patching the roads. We’ve talked about a number of ways to do that from either outsourcing it or to try to take care of it in-house and I guess that will be one of the first orders of business of our new engineer when he starts in January but that is something that’s needed is you need someone to do those work. Now I’m going to differ from the mayor on the park maintenance because I did initially, I was a little concerned about all of this additions after we had the meeting but as I’ve talked to you know the parks department and also presentations that we’ve been given we do have a lot of maintenance within the parks. I mean if you think about it every neighborhood within this city is only a few minutes away from a park. That’s a lot of parks and also a lot of those parks, like our roads are over 20 years old. They need to be maintained and they need to be, new equipment needs to be put in. Maintenance is probably one of the biggest things that you cannot skimp on because if you do so I think you’re putting our younger citizens at some risk that they’re going to get on a piece of playground equipment that breaks on them or you know has developed some kind of a hazard and no one’s there to fix it and they end up getting hurt. That’s not something that we want to see happen. So I think that the park maintenance employee is warranted. It’s not as though there isn’t the work to be done. I don’t think this person is going to be able to stand around and lean on a shovel or anything. There’s going to be plenty of work that needs to be accomplished so I think this is also justified and I would support it. The last one is probably the biggest one and as the mayor has said yes, we have gone round and round about this. We have discussed it. We have looked at everything from A to Z on this as a way to, how do we take care of our pavement management. Again you’re seeing $350,000 plus you’re seeing the franchise fee because we didn’t want to I think burden either homeowners solely with the ability of fix our roads and at the same time we didn’t want to put the burden on all taxpayers so we tried to find a way to split it. Also I was in favor of the franchise fee because that affects everyone in the city. Whereas levies do not. Levies only affect homeowners and taxpayers. The franchise fee affects everyone and I think it’s only fair that everyone have some interest in the roads of this community. I know that someone living out on Minnewashta Parkway is not going to be too concerned about you know a road in my subdivision being fixed but some day they may drive on that road just like some day I may drive on their road. I think it benefits us all that the roads of this city are kept in tip top shape because we used to be very proud about that. You know if you had a problem with your road you’d call up the engineering department and they would have someone out there and they would fix it. It’s getting a little bit more difficult to do that now again because of as I said the number of miles 26 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 and the fact that we are stretching the envelope as far as the city of Chanhassen. So I did agree and I did think even a couple years ago that this was the best approach. I was in favor of supporting it then but with the election what I understood was that again not everyone was in favor of it and I did not feel that it was right at that point for the majority of the council at that point who was not going to be around whenever the new regime came in, to saddle them with something that they were not quite comfortable with. So I thought it would be much fairer if we took the time. Went through it and if there was a better way to solve the problem we would find it at that point. Well we looked and we looked and the best way to solve it was to go back to what we talked about before. So I’m glad that we did resolve that problem and that we will be able to fix our roads but I think overall I do agree that with this budget yes, I’m going to be increasing the taxes of the residents. That’s not something that I’ve done before in the past and I’ve been very reluctant to do so. However in this particular case I think it’s warranted because again what everybody tells me is they want to have roads they can drive on. They want to have a park that they can send their children to and allow them to play without any worry and they also want to have good police services that they want to be able to feel safe within their community. So based upon all that and after a lot of soul searching and listening to everyone do their pitches on this I can support this budget including the duty crew, the street maintenance employee, the park maintenance employee and also the $350,000 for the pavement management program. Mayor Ryan: Alright thank you Councilman. Councilwoman Tjornhom. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Well thank you Mayor. When I left our Truth in Taxation hearing last Monday I heard a really funny statement and we had students here that were observing us and I think one of them said something like doesn’t anybody ever show up to these meetings or whatever it was and then someone else said to them well they only show up when you lower the levy and you know I think that that was a really funny statement but really true. I sat here too many nights probably discussing levies and you know this previous councils they have worked on lowering the levies and we’ve had residents here angry that we’re still spending too much money and now all of a sudden I come to a Truth in Taxation hearing meeting and no one’s here and it’s crickets and you know then I have to think about that. I have to think I represent the city and I represent the people of this city and nobody was here with questions or concerns and so that brings us to tonight and as you look at this list and the bullet points on it, you know we were feeling pretty good about all the first 6 of them that as a council thinks we’re as I think sometimes or always do our finance department kind of they iron out the wrinkles and really give us a clear picture of what we’re looking at as far as our levy. And then we had I think the domino effect of the franchise fee. I think that I did not support it for, not because there isn’t a need or that it wasn’t fair. You all I’ve expressed to you my concerns about that fee and how it can change. But if you then move forward again and the franchise fee is in place and so now all of a sudden we have money to work with for needs in our community and so when I look at this list moving forward you know I think number 7 maybe if I’m counting right is the expansion of the duty crew and Chief I just want you to know that there are sometimes special moments in this room and you can feel a presence in it. That it just feels so right and you’re so impressed and you’re kind of almost in awe and I think those moments are when I come in and your men are 27 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 standing in uniform and you’re here and we are either honoring their service or someone is retiring or something is happening. It’s just really special and it really is something that I take seriously and dearly and once again as we move on with our town and our developments our demographics are changing when it comes to age and when it comes to just the population in general. We need our first responders and you need us to support you the best we can and so thank you for giving us that honor of supporting you to take care of our residents. Then if you move onto the street maintenance department employee and the park maintenance employee, once again we have potholes to fill and we have parks to maintain and as we expand once again with our population we require or we request our developers either give us park dedication fees or land so we can have more parks. Well someone has to take care of those parks and someone has to fill those potholes and build those, they don’t build the roads but they certainly do maintain them and so I think one thing that’s a little deceiving is the $80,000. Maybe later on after I’m done Greg can talk about that a little bit because we’re not actually paying a new employee $80,000. Well when you hire a new employee there are things that come with that. Benefits, insurance, correct? Greg Sticha: Correct. Councilwoman Tjornhom: Yes so hopefully we can probably talk about that a little bit. The one that I’m going to support but I’m hesitate about is the pavement management program funding. I feel like when we did the franchise fee hearings and we gave information to the public we didn’t add this in there. Oh by the way this is what’s going to come next but this too has to come and happen if the franchise fee program is going to be successful. So as you can tell this just, it’s a lot of money and it’s a lot of responsibility and it’s a big step moving for our city and so I don’t take it lightly but I do support all of these initiatives that have been listed. Mayor Ryan: Thank you Councilwoman. Councilman Campion. Councilman Campion: Alright. So some good comments from all. This budgeting process does take a lot of soul searching. It was you know something when I got elected back in 2014, you know one of the things that I thought I was going to be most against is you know ever raising the budget or adding items to it. To the levy. But then after being on the council and looking at a budget year after year you realize that you know sticking to new growth and new growth only it does create some holes in the services because the cost of getting things done every year does increase and we’ve done a good job of being good stewards of the money. For many years we have the lowest tax rate you know of our KFS cities and surrounding cities but if I go through these one by one yes, I think the increase to keep up with new growth is a must. The reduction in the health care costs is you know great and we’ll accept it. I think that planning for building permit revenue to be the same as 2019 is pragmatic and a good assumption. 3 percent increase in the cost of living and merit pay, I support that. The 5 percent increase in police services contract. Yes we need to do that to keep our residents safe. The market value increasing by 5 percent, again positive that speaks to you know all the things that we’re doing right here in Chanhassen. The duty crew expansion, it is a big price tag and that is one that I did wrestle with 28 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 you know back and forth but you know, and it is to help provide that continuation of you know safety services that go along with being ready to put out fires should there be you know such an event and as digging into it more I think it is something that we need. The street maintenance department employee and the additional $350,000 for the pavement management program funding, both I believe are needed. They’re in line with the franchise fee as we discussed. I think getting our streets back into solid condition will you know promote residents to make improvements to their house. Todd I think you’re making some mention of that and I have seen that in other neighborhoods where we have done the street projects recently. You do see you know kind of a slow explosion of improvement after improvement just because you know suddenly when the roads looks nicer it calls a little bit more attention to the houses around them so I’m supportive of both those items. And the park maintenance department employee I believe that’s something we need as well. I believe that our parks are really one of the jewels of Chanhassen and I mean everyone that lives here talks about them and all of my friends and family that come to visit Chanhassen as well are astounded by the quality of them. You know we have our plan to finish repairing the playground equipment and I think that’s something we need. We need to do well so I am in support of each item listed here and the budget as proposed. Mayor Ryan: Thank you Councilman Campion. Mr. Sticha I believe that Ms. Tjornhom had a couple questions in terms of the $80,000 per employee. Total cost if you want to, if you could break that down a little bit that would be helpful please. Greg Sticha: The budgeted $80,000, of that actual salary is $30,000 less than that. Once you pay for health insurance, pension cost, federal and state taxes, over $30,000 of that is for those costs so the actual pay of the employee is significantly less than that. Mayor Ryan: And then one other point of clarification. Again more of a transparency thing but, and clarification. I do want to confirm that as part of our franchise fee when we had the overall discussion on how we were going to achieve that $3.6 million we did discuss adding that $350,000 as part of the levy in that conversation. Greg Sticha: We did and it needed to either be added this year or next year. This year it gave you a little more safety depending on when we started collecting the franchise fees so that’s why it was included for this year. Mayor Ryan: And another part of that reason is because of the 16 percent reduction in health care costs we were able to, was that another reason why the $350,000 worked for this year? Versus waiting for it until next year. Greg Sticha: Certainly the health care cost reduction really helped all line items. Mayor Ryan: Right, right. Greg Sticha: So it was impactful to every single one that you see an increase for. 29 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 Mayor Ryan: Right. Greg Sticha: So in theory yeah it helped all of them. Mayor Ryan: Okay thank you. Councilman McDonald: Madam Mayor if you’re ready I’ll make a. Mayor Ryan: Could I make one more comment before and then I’ll let you make your motion. I appreciate it. It’s just the point because I do want to support this overall budget I, and I know that 3 council members did support the park maintenance department employee of $80,000. I know one point Mr. Hoffman, and I don’t know if you can speak to this or not at this time but there was some discussion of even having the park maintenance employee also help with, in the street department sometimes or is that not doable? Todd Hoffman: Currently we already do that and this person would as well. Mayor Ryan: Okay. So the last time we added a park maintenance employee was 22 years ago. We’ve doubled the size of our park system, trail system since that time. We do a lot with seasonal employees but at some point you lose the efficiencies of monitoring those people and keeping track so each time we add an employee there’s always somebody from the park department that is going to be plowing streets. At some point they’re going to take a route and so there’s crossover throughout those two divisions. Mayor Ryan: Okay thank you for that clarification. Councilman McDonald if you’d like to make a motion. Councilman McDonald: Thank you Madam Mayor. I would make the following motion. That the City Council adopts the attached resolution establishing the 2020 final levy of $11,741,368 and approves general fund expenditures of $11,899,700. It also approves the CIP for 2020 through 2024 in the total amount of $106,696,900. Mayor Ryan: We have a valid motion. Is there a second? Councilman Campion: Second. Mayor Ryan: Any discussion? If I could make one more comment and this is to all of council before we move forward with making this vote. I just want to say that I know that this is a challenging vote for all of us because this is a change from how it’s been done in the past. I think we are all fiscally conservative when it comes to taxpayer dollars and I know that this is a departure from how it’s been done for many years and I too take that very seriously but I just, I want to extend my appreciation for the hard work that City Council has done working with staff 30 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 and my appreciation to staff for really digging in deep with the numbers and understanding that new growth is not going to, is not sustainable for the future and I think all of us sit here today not for just planning for 2020 but planning beyond 2020 and that is why that this increase this year is vitally important so I just want to extend my appreciation to council on taking the time and digging deep into the numbers but also going line by line this evening to explain your stance on this overall budget so, any other comments? With not we have a valid motion. A second. Resolution #2019-60: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Campion seconded that the City Council adopts the attached resolution establishing the 2020 final levy of $11,741,368 and approves general fund expenditures of $11,899,700. It also approves the CIP for 2020 through 2024 in the total amount of $106,696,900. All voted in favor, except Councilwoman Coleman who opposed, and the motion carried with a vote of 4 to 1. Mayor Ryan: That motion carries 4-1. Thank you everybody. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS: ANNOUNCE RESULTS OF CITY MANAGER’S 2019 PERFORMANCE REVIEW. Mayor Ryan: Last we have council presentation. We are announcing the results of the City Manager’s 2019 performance review and I will do that Mr. Gerhardt. So here we go. Todd Gerhardt: …City Attorney has to cross his fingers. Mayor Ryan: First and foremost on behalf of the City Council Mr. Gerhardt I’d like to say thank you for an excellent year. We are appreciative of the countless hours of hard work you put in over the course of 2019 so we thank you for that. For those of you unfamiliar with the review process the City Council evaluates Mr. Gerhardt on 7 core areas. Quality of work, leadership, job knowledge, strategic initiative, integrity and trust, cooperation and communication in customer service. We then give a numeric ranking for each category with supporting commentary and discussion resulting in a final performance evaluation. The council has already shared our results with Mr. Gerhardt so tonight I’d like to share a general summary review with the public. It is without question that Mr. Gerhardt is an excellent city manager and overall he received a 2.6 out of 3 final rating. Mr. Gerhardt’s highest rankings were in the areas of job knowledge and integrity and trust. The City of Chanhassen is extremely fortunate to have a city manager whose institutional knowledge is unparalleled. As council has said Mr. Gerhardt continues to have the utmost respect from his peer group of city managers and city and county administrators and his depth of knowledge is a tremendous benefit to the council, staff and city. In this role Mr. Gerhardt works with a variety of individuals and groups representing a vast number of interests. That is why it is imperative that a level of trust is established. The council credits and appreciates Mr. Gerhardt for both his trustworthy and being professional in all of his relationships. He keeps conversations confidential and is honest when confronted with a challenging situation. When an error has occurred Mr. Gerhardt accepts responsibility, be it for himself or as an extension as one of the staff members. Mr. Gerhardt works diligently at all 31 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 times to insure he can be trusted by City Council, his staff and our residents. The council also felt that Mr. Gerhardt’s leadership and commitment to customer service are excellent. The council asks a lot of Mr. Gerhardt as we hear from residents daily. Questions and requests are answered promptly by Mr. Gerhardt or are referred to the proper department to be addressed and answered. There is never a time that Mr. Gerhardt says he won’t or he can’t meet with somebody one on one or make a phone call to help facilitate finding a solution. Mr. Gerhardt never backs away from any requests and he always puts others first which epitomizes his leadership and customer service. With any role there are opportunities to grow and this is one area that will be a goal for next year as we focus on strategic initiative. With a growing and evolving city thinking outside the box, adapting to changing needs and having a strategic vision is something that is imperative for Chanhassen’s long term success. As was the case this year we’ll again be confronted with development proposals, financial challenges and a myriad of resident concerns or questions so strategic initiative could never be more important and we know and we are confident that Mr. Gerhardt is up for this challenge. So again Todd, Mr. Gerhardt congratulations on an excellent performance review and a year of hard work. You are so incredibly valued by your residents, your staff and your city council. Thank you for all that you do day in and day out for our city. Congratulations. Thank you. Todd Gerhardt: Thank you. Well whew, what do you say after something like that? I’d like to, I think I always every year I say I did it all by myself but I’ve got some of the best department heads in the metro area. They all don’t have the same personalities because if they did they couldn’t do their jobs. You know Todd Hoffman has put in 33 years as our park and rec director and he amazes me every year with his decision making, his vision for our park department and infrastructure improvements. I think Dan hit it right on the head. The best compliment Todd you can get is when people come into our community and how impressed they are with our park system. Even our city attorney who has a family that played a lot of soccer said that we have some of the best soccer fields that his kids have ever played on. Yes, and I don’t know if Roger played soccer. Roger Knutson: Not much. Todd Gerhardt: But you know Kate is very passionate about planning and cares so much about this community and is why she’s dedicated most of her career here. Greg we’re still trying to figure out but if you can’t tell what Greg’s passion is during his budget presentation and his fiscal responsibility of the city funds, it’s unprecedented. And I think Bruce Loney our interim public works director said Greg hasn’t changed a bit since the time he worked in Shakopee so Greg keep doing what you’re doing. It’s working. And our new addition Jake Foster, again we found a diamond in the rough with Jake. We interviewed I think 5 assistant city managers and Jake just stood out amongst those and he’s impressed everybody from the get go. Our street department are dedicated employees. Park maintenance. Our building department. When you come in and get a building permit you’re going to get an inspection. I can say in not every community in the metro area that happens but in this city when you pay a building permit fee you will get not just one but in some cases several inspections. They do their job and they do it 32 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 well because they’ve worked in the fields. They worked in the trades so they understand what goes into that and that builds on our customer service and, so they understand what those contractors are going through. And what I’d like to do now is introduce Charlie Howley who is our new public works director who I like to say I’ve interviewed more public works directors in the last month than I can count on any of my two hands but once I saw Charlie’s resume and his experience is just perfect for our engineering department. He’s strong in stormwater management. He’s strong in project management. He’s been a city council member. I mean that’s crazy in itself but he has that experience. He knows what it’s like to be on the other side of the table. And he’s serving on a watershed district so everything that you would want to see in a public works director Mr. Howley has and I’m excited for him to start and I think he’s excited to be with us based on the number of emails and questions he’s asked me in the last month and some of the other staff and not to forget our fire department and our police department. Thank you for helping Don Johnson with our duty crew. This is bringing us to a new level. It is going to bring organization to a fire department. It’s not the bucket brigade anymore. It’s an organization where people can sign up and know the time of when to serve and they don’t have to leave their wife at a restaurant and go on a fire call. So I credit Don for slowly building this model. Showing the City Council the benefits of it and in the midst of that completing our fire study plan. Once we’ve completed our fire study plan what do you do next? You develop the next one and Don is fiscally responsible. He reached out to his department and asked them would you guys want to develop our next fire study plan and I think it took less than a couple of days and they got back to him and said we would love to do that. And so Don and his team are going to develop the next fire study plan for the City of Chanhassen for the next 10 years. So credit goes to Don. Lance Pearce, our Lieutenant. You know he leads a team of 15 officers to make this one of the safest communities. Our community surveys tell us that people feel safe going for a walk in the evening. There isn’t a lot of communities that people can say that and, but that’s something our community feels safe doing. And they’re not afraid to get out of the car and knock on the door and say please close your garage door you know so we don’t give out crimes of opportunity for people as they drive through looking for those things because that’s what criminals do. They look for opportunities and Lance preaches that to his department and Lance is the first one to jump on board to work with us on enhancing mental health awareness in our community. He’s going to be a part of our team. We’re going to expand on that even more as we go into 2020 and I’m excited about that. It’s something very dear to my heart and I think the council’s going to be really impressed with the overall outcome of our mental health discussions that we’re going to have in the next couple weeks. But again thank you for the positive feedback. Again my point is I can’t do my job without the help of my department heads and they really make me look good. And a great council and mayor. And a city attorney. And Holy Family too. Todd Hoffman: Unsie. Todd Gerhardt: Oh yes our newspaper where in our community survey where most of our residents get our information from is the Villager so. And Unsie I don’t know where the best Christmas lights are so sorry I didn’t get back to you. 33 Chanhassen City Council – December 09, 2019 Mayor Ryan: Thank you Mr. Gerhardt. ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. None. CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None. Mayor Ryan: Alright before we adjourn I would just like to wish my fellow council members as well as city staff and all of our residents a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe holiday season and look forward to a successful 2020 but appreciate the hard work that we all have done together in a successful 2019 and look forward to an even stronger 2020. So with that I will stand for a motion to adjourn. Councilman Campion moved, Councilwoman Coleman seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The City Council meeting was adjourned at 9:05 p.m. Submitted by Todd Gerhardt City Manager Prepared by Nann Opheim 34