CC VER 2020 08 24CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
AUGUST 24, 2020
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, Councilman McDonald, Councilman
Campion, and Councilwoman Coleman
COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Councilwoman Tjornhom
STAFF PRESENT: Heather Johnston, Kate Aanenson, Greg Sticha, Charlie Howley, Jake
Foster, Jerry Ruegemer, MacKenzie Walters, Richard Rice, Erik Henricksen, Chief Don
Johnson, Lt. Lance Pearce, and City Attorney Andrea McDowell Poehler
Mayor Ryan: Again good evening everyone and welcome to our council meeting. To those of
you that are watching at home or livestreaming on the Chanhassen website, thank you for joining
us. For the record we have 4 of our members here. One of our members, Councilwoman
Bethany Tjornhom is absent with an excused absence. 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. There are no public announcements this evening so next we
have the consent agenda.
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Campion moved, Councilman McDonald seconded to
approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the City Manager’s
recommendations:
1. Approve City Council Minutes dated August 10, 2020
2. Receive Planning Commission Minutes dated July 7, 2020
3. Resolution #2020-49: Lake Lucy Road & Powers Boulevard Watermain Extensions
Project No. 20-04-Approve Plans and Specifications and Authorize Advertisement for
Bids
4. Resolution #2020-50: Approve Change Order No. 1 for Project No. 20-02:
Minnewashta Parkway
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS.
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FIRE DEPARTMENT RECOGNITIONS.
Mayor Ryan: So Chief I will welcome you in.
Chief Don Johnson: Thank you Mayor, council, good evening. Tonight I’ve got a couple of
presentations to give. First and foremost I’d like to introduce our Engineer Gregg Geske. He’s a
28 year veteran of the Chanhassen Fire Department also serving two different terms as the Fire
Chief. Three different terms as the Fire Chief back a few years ago. A little bit about the
Firefighter of the Year award. It’s decided by nominations from the firefighter peers themselves
so we have an award process. We have an award form and those nominations come in through
the fire department and as an officer group we get together. The officers vet those nomination
forms out and they make a final approval to myself who names the Firefighter of the Year.
Unfortunately we do these at our banquet which was side curbed from what we’ve got going on
with our pandemic right now so we weren’t able to present this in front of the department and the
retirees like we normally do but we did get to surprise Gregg and his family at the station after an
event so Gregg was honored for his expertise and knowledge in aiding and replacing the fire
apparatus fleet which many of you have had the opportunity to be a part of over the last couple
of years and Gregg kind of mixes his fire service, which is well over 30 years if you combine his
time with Victoria before coming to us, as well as selling fire pumps and calf system for his
regular day job. Gregg is very quick to train. He’s very patient. He’s got a wit and a sense of
humor that sometimes is a little bit difficult to deal with but overall it says and speaks volumes
for Gregg that firefighters in this department still honor the contributions that he made to the
point where they feel that he should be the Firefighter of the Year so I present Gregg Geske and
last year’s, or this year’s Firefighter of the Year for 2019.
Gregg Geske: I thought it was my last time that I’d have to come to a council meeting except for
the retiring in a couple years as I used to come as being Chief for 6 years. I still get the honor of
like I say, it’s a great honor to be recognized by your peers on the fire department for what you
do. I really enjoy I guess passing on what I have as one of my superiors referred to as tribal
knowledge. I don’t know if you can say tribal knowledge anymore but to be politically correct
but I enjoy passing that information on and I get some excitement out of it. I still enjoy the fire
department. My truck, my new Ford pick-up that I just got was fire truck red and it will be the
last one that I have when I’m on the fire department here so, still fun riding in big red trucks and
driving them. As I get older I push the people into the back seat and I’ll drive the truck and you
guys can do the grunt work so, but like I say I enjoy it and in 2 years I’ll be back here and when I
retire so thanks.
Mayor Ryan: Wonderful. Well Mr. Geske I want to, I have to take my mask off so I can speak
clearly but first on behalf of council I want to say congratulations on this distinguished award. It
is certainly most deserved. As the Chief said and you said there’s something really special that
you are nominated by your peers. That they have decided that because of your wit, sense of
humor, commitment and dedication and really your leadership is something why they nominated
you and you received this award so I’m disappointed that we didn’t get to have the celebration in
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front of your peers this year. I know last year we were dancing in 70’s gear but although we
can’t celebrate in style I just want you to know how much we value and appreciate your service.
Not only to the citizens of Chanhassen but the leadership that you provide to your entire fire
house so thank you for your long standing commitment and congratulations on this most
distinguished and deserved award so congratulations to you.
Gregg Geske: Thank you. I’ve got my plaque prominently displayed on my desk at work so,
and I have one last goal in the next 2 years if I can get the firefighters to fold the towels that are
in the dryer and put the towels in the washing machine because I do it at home. Of course one of
my sons is a firefighter up there so I’d better not catch him putting wet towels in the dirty clothes
but if I can go up there one time and the dryer is empty and they’re all folded and the dirty
towels are in the washing machine I’ll be happy so.
Mayor Ryan: Great, congratulations.
Chief Don Johnson: I’d have to say I think the engine, Engine 1 probably was in the tune of
about $650,000. The ladder truck was about $990,000. I’d pretty much say that Gregg saved us
probably in the $50,000 to $60,000 dollar range on between those two builds so just that industry
knowledge and the knowledge of the trucks was irreplaceable with those two builds so. Next
I’ve got two badging ceremonies. Again because of what’s going on we’re unable to do this in a
smaller environment or in a larger environment. Just to lay the ground work I’ve been, I had a
vacancy of an Operations Chief since last November. I’ve been carrying that load myself and
this year about a month and a half ago, a month ago I lost another assistant chief to a job
opportunity so I’ve been carrying two, would have had two assistant chief vacancies that would
have been open and that isn’t something that we can sustain so it was time to promote some folks
and I’ve two very capable people that I’m going to introduce you tonight and the Mayor will
help swear in so I’d like to start off with Fire Marshal Don Nutter. Don was promoted to
Assistant Chief effective July 1st. This is a formal reclassification of his full time position. It
incorporates his fire marshal responsibilities into a management function on the command team.
Don has been with Chanhassen since 2017 serving as the Fire Marshal and held the fire ground
rank of Fire Captain since his start date. Don has finalized his course work with Hennepin Tech
with a degree in Fire Science. He’s also actively enrolled in Purdue’s University Bachelor
program. Don has approximately 15 years of service combining with Plymouth Fire and as
Golden Valley Fire where he served as a paid on call firefighter with Plymouth and a full time
firefighter and fire inspector for the City of Golden Valley. Don has extensive training
experience and has been actively assisting with training in Chanhassen since coming aboard.
Chief Nutter will be assigned as Chief 4 and will assume the training chief role in addition to his
day to day community risk reduction responsibilities associated with being the City’s Fire
Marshal. Accompanying Chief Nutter tonight is his wife Christina, son Brockton and daughter
Maddie.
Mayor Ryan: If you can stand up front. Alright so please repeat after me. I, state your name.
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Don Nutter: I Don Nutter.
Mayor Ryan: Do solemnly swear.
Don Nutter: So solemnly swear.
Mayor Ryan: That I will serve the citizens of Chanhassen.
Don Nutter: That I will serve the citizens of Chanhassen.
Mayor Ryan: And the officers and firefighters.
Don Nutter: And the officers and firefighters.
Mayor Ryan: Of the Chanhassen Fire Department.
Don Nutter: Of the Chanhassen Fire Department.
Mayor Ryan: With integrity and professionalism.
Don Nutter: With integrity and professionalism.
Mayor Ryan: I promise that I will.
Don Nutter: I promise that I will.
Mayor Ryan: At all times.
Don Nutter: At all times.
Mayor Ryan: Conduct myself in a manner.
Don Nutter: Conduct myself in a manner.
Mayor Ryan: That reflects positively.
Don Nutter: That reflects positively.
Mayor Ryan: On the department and the City.
Don Nutter: On the department and the City.
Mayor Ryan: I promise to follow policies.
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Don Nutter: I promise to follow policies.
Mayor Ryan: On the fire department.
Don Nutter: On the fire department.
Mayor Ryan: City ordinances.
Don Nutter: City ordinances.
Mayor Ryan: And uphold the laws of our State and Nation.
Don Nutter: And uphold the laws of our State and Nation.
Mayor Ryan: And that I will discharge my duties.
Don Nutter: And that I will discharge my duties.
Mayor Ryan: As Assistant Chief.
Don Nutter: As Assistant Chief.
Mayor Ryan: To the best of my ability.
Don Nutter: To the best of my ability.
Mayor Ryan: So help me God.
Don Nutter: So help me God.
Mayor Ryan: Congratulations.
Chief Don Johnson: Alright next in line I have Firefighter Becki White will be promoted to the
Assistant Chief effective August 1st. Becki has 17 years of experience with Eden Prairie Fire
Department serving from 2003 to 2019. Becki has had a progressive fire career from paid on call
firefighter to a full time assistant chief of training from 2014 to 2019. Becki has a masters
degree in education from St. Mary’s with her undergrad in education from St. Cloud. She’s
completed the Fire Science degree at Hennepin Tech and has obtained her Executive Fire
Officer’s Certification from the National Fire Academy which is a national benchmark for Fire
Chief Officers. For Chief Officers in the fire service and this is, was at the time a 2 year
program.
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Becki White: Four years.
Chief Don Johnson: It is still now and still a 4 year program so again kudo’s to a very low
percentage of us in this field that actually go and obtain that fire officer certification under the
National Fire Academy. Chief White will be taking a vacant paid on call operations chief role
which will begin with the finalization of our new standards and operating guidelines which she
will then be supervising. Accompanying Chief wife tonight is her husband Aaron who’s
currently a Sergeant with the Edina Police Department and their two sons, Trevor and Adam.
Mayor Ryan: Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, state your name.
Becki White: I, Becki White.
Mayor Ryan: Do solemnly swear.
Becki White: Do solemnly swear.
Mayor Ryan: That I will serve the citizens.
Becki White: That I will serve the citizens.
Mayor Ryan: Of Chanhassen.
Becki White: Of Chanhassen.
Mayor Ryan: And the officers and firefighters.
Becki White: And the officers and firefighters.
Mayor Ryan: Of the Chanhassen Fire Department.
Becki White: Of the Chanhassen Fire Department.
Mayor Ryan: With integrity and professionalism.
Becki White: With integrity and professionalism.
Mayor Ryan: I promise that I will.
Becki White: I promise that I will.
Mayor Ryan: At all times.
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Becki White: At all times.
Mayor Ryan: Conduct myself in a manner.
Becki White: Conduct myself in a manner.
Mayor Ryan: That reflects positively.
Becki White: That reflects positively.
Mayor Ryan: On the department and the City.
Becki White: On the department and the City.
Mayor Ryan: I promise to follow policies.
Becki White: I promise to follow policies.
Mayor Ryan: Of the fire department.
Becki White: Of the fire department.
Mayor Ryan: City ordinances.
Becki White: City ordinances.
Mayor Ryan: And uphold the laws of our State and Nation.
Becki White: And uphold the laws of our State and Nation.
Mayor Ryan: And that I will discharge my duties.
Becki White: And that I will discharge my duties.
Mayor Ryan: As Assistant Chief.
Becki White: As Assistant Chief.
Mayor Ryan: To the best of my ability.
Becki White: To the best of my ability.
Mayor Ryan: So help me God.
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Becki White: So help me God.
Mayor Ryan: Congratulations.
Chief Don Johnson: Thank you Mayor and council.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Chief.
Chief Don Johnson: Appreciate it.
BOB FINN CITIZEN ACTION REQUEST.
Mayor Ryan: Our next visitor presentation that is scheduled is a citizen action request form
submitted by Mr. Bob Finn and he is looking for City Council guidance regarding the feasibility
of naming relatively short sections of Arboretum Boulevard and Audubon Road adjacent to
Paisley Park. Hello sir, welcome.
Bob Finn: Hi there. How are you guys?
Mayor Ryan: Well, how are you?
Bob Finn: Good, good. Is it okay if I leave my mask on?
Mayor Ryan: You can take it off to speak.
Bob Finn: Well I’m a nearly 27 year resident of city of Chanhassen. Julia’s been to my house
while she was campaigning and I just, I met a new friend that we’ve gotten into a discussion
about naming, trying to get Audubon Road or just a short section of Audubon Road named in
honor of Prince Rogers Nelson. I don’t know if anyone has ever come to the council with that
type of request before. We’re looking at Audubon Road and also McGlynn Drive there right by
the entrance into the visitor entrance there. You know talking about just the naming of the
streets you know that’s still up for debate but looking at guidance and suggestions by the council
for the possibility of that.
Mayor R yan: Sure.
Bob Finn: My friend Mark would like, Mark Webster would like to say a few words about it as
well.
Mayor Ryan: Absolutely.
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Bob Finn: He’s a staff member at Paisley Park but and a long time friend of Prince’s so looking
just to honor this man. He, you know he did a lot for the community. For the world and we’re
also looking at getting a memorial perhaps on Highway 5. I do know in doing some research
that Highway 5 also has a designation for a long time legislator, Oggie Mueller who was a
legislator for Nicollet, Sibley and McLeod counties many, many years ago. But this is Carver
County and you know we’re looking at perhaps memorial signage for Prince maybe at the start
of the Highway 5 split from 212 out to Galpin Boulevard where his home was. I’ve got emails
into both Scott Jensen, Senator Jensen and Representative Greg Boe. I have not yet heard back
from them but explaining the feasibility of the state highway piece of that so I know all of the
rules and regulations along that line so just wanted to present that to the council. I know that’s
probably a separate piece with the state highway part of it. But the city streets I just wanted to
present that to the council so.
Mayor Ryan: Perfect. Yean well thank you for coming forward. I think it’s a fun idea. We
haven’t had anyone come forward yet in terms of this. As you know The Park development, it’s
a Lennar development right off of Galpin and so all of those roads, that was the developer’s
decision obviously council approved but their recommendation or asked that all of the roads
inside the park development are named, have some affiliation with Prince’s family so you’ve
seen those.
Bob Finn: I’ve seen those, yep.
Mayor Ryan: Yep, but I understand the desire to have something closer to Paisley Park so I’m,
familiar with McGlynn road and where that’s at. I know staff reached, followed up when you
submitted your citizen action request form to tell you kind of the process, or explain the process
in terms of reaching out to the legislators to maybe move the ball in terms of the state highway. I
don’t know in terms of the local roads renaming, what’s the process for renaming local roads?
Heather Johnston: Madam Mayor, members of the council, we certainly could take, if the
council’s desire was to rename a local road we could certainly take that, look at the possibilities
and bring you back something for consideration.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Heather Johnston: And also if the council wanted to direct staff to draft a letter in support of the
State highway request we could certainly do that as well to help Mr. Finn in his efforts.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Council I know we don’t typically take things under consideration right as
something is coming across during a visitor presentation. If there is an overwhelming level of
support from council tonight we can make that decision tonight. Otherwise this is certainly
something that we can bring back to a work session and a round table that we have in advance of
other meetings and it gives us an opportunity to kind of outside of this moment right now to
follow up with staff and have some follow up questions so I look to council to see if you want to
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
10
wait and have a discussion in work session or if you are wanting to move forward with pulling
something together tonight. Mr. McDonald?
Councilman McDonald: I have a question. Are we talking about a brown sign which is a
memorial sign?
Bob Finn: That was the initial thought. You know as far as the City signage you know just, if it
would be just a short distance on Audubon Road from like where it starts right there on Highway
5 and then maybe to the, to where Lyman Boulevard or even shorter than that. I mean just
something to recognize Prince in that short distance. And also McGlynn they’re right there as
well so that was the thought process right there. And then it was, if it was just the, the actual
street sign itself or a separate stand alone sign. I was thinking it would be a street sign but now
you’re getting into you know businesses down, up and down that road. Will they have to change
or residents or whatever would they have to change their address? I mean that opens it up for
other.
Councilman McDonald: Well that’s why I was thinking about that’s what a brown sign does. It
you know memorializes a street without maybe affecting people’s addresses.
Bob Finn: Well that would be probably the easier way to go about it. We have no problem
seeking the funding necessary for that so it would be a decision, if that’s a city own decision to
do that you know. We could go that route if it doesn’t create too much problem on the street
address piece of it so.
Councilman McDonald: Okay. I guess Madam Mayor I’d be in favor of bringing this back to a
work session and direct city staff to look at the options. It’s either a memorial sign or okay if
we’re going to change the street name what impact does that have up and down that street and
yeah I’d like to get some of that information.
Mayor Ryan: Sounds good. Councilwoman?
Councilwoman Coleman: Agreed Madam Mayor and thank you Mr. Finn for bringing this idea
forward. I would also like to just in a 15 minute work session lay out the options and then decide
from there once we have all the facts and available options to us.
Mayor Ryan: Great, thank you. Councilman Campion?
Councilman Campion: I agree with the other council members. I want to hear a little bit more
but I’m supportive of the idea so.
Mayor Ryan: Alright. I think the answer is that we are going to bring this back to a work
session and what that means is that one of our upcoming, before our council meetings we meet a
couple hours, it’s a more informal conversation and it gives the opportunity, we’re going to ask
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
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staff to pull together different options. Is it McGlynn make the most sense? Does it make more
sense to do something along Audubon? What does that mean? Is it a brown sign? What are the
procedural measures that need to be taken so once the staff can pull that together for us then we
can discuss it as council and then we can move the ball forward but we’ll keep you in the loop as
we do so, so there’s obviously interest. We just have to know what the options are and what the
process will entail.
Bob Finn: Okay.
Mayor Ryan: And we will circle back with you.
Bob Finn: That sounds great. Do we have any timing on like with, we were looking at maybe
something for his next birthday next June.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Well usually we get requests for next month so yes we’ll get it on.
Bob Finn: The state highway piece then I would just have to wait for Senator Jensen or
Representative Boe to get back to me and let me know what their support is and then go from
there from the state level, is that correct?
Mayor Ryan: Yes, and we’ll find out exactly what the process, yeah go ahead.
Heather Johnston: Madam Mayor, members of the council. I think we did print out the process
that the State and I think we did share that with Mr. Finn as well. We do have extra copies for
folks who want to join in on that effort about what the State process is and so that usually takes a
while so it sounds like you’ve already started the process but to kind of keep on that time line.
Bob Finn: Okay, I sent it to their legislative email addresses so I think they’re in session right
now. I’m not sure what their schedule is so.
Heather Johnston: They have a very specific process laid out and we have some information
available for folks today.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Well Ms. Johnston will be in touch with you and keep you in the loop in
terms of kind of where we’re at and the timing of everything but don’t hesitate to reach out to
Mr. Johnston or one of us as well but we will continue this conversation and if, I didn’t know if
your friend wanted to come forward and say anything as well. You’re welcomed to come
forward.
Bob Finn: Appreciate the time. Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you, appreciate it.
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Bob Finn: Thank you for your support, yeah. Appreciate it.
Mayor Ryan: Hello sir. Just your name and address.
Mark Webster: Yes my name is Mark Webster. W-e-b-s-t-e-r. Webster. I do not live in
Chanhassen but I do work here. And I can say that what me and Bob talked about is someone
that I admired all my life. I basically grew up around. We wonder sometimes why Prince came
all the way out to Chanhassen to build a mega beautiful place to record and do a lot of things and
it just came to mind one day about 5 years ago that, I just felt that there’s something that
Chanhassen can really give to, back to his community and that was renaming Audubon to Paisley
Park Drive. Trying to get Highway 5 into Prince Rogers Nelson Highway and McGlynn to NPG.
NPG is New Power Generation is one of his bands that he really truly liked so to say this to
sums it up real quick is that it’s a passion and this is not Paisley Park sending me here to make
this address. This is me and there’s about 100 other people who said Mark, go do this. Go do
this. Go do this. It so happened Bob Finn pulls up on me and we’re just talking and he’s a
resident here and he was one of the first people who were at Paisley Park when Prince passed
away and so we started talking and I gave him my idea and I thank him for introducing this to
you and I hope that we can make something happen out of this. I think Prince has done a
tremendous job in this community. He loved it. He died here. He done a lot of good things in
this community and I just feel as a human being, as a person who loved him also, I think
Chanhassen would be a great city with a great mayor and great city council to remember him by
designating a street or a highway after him.
Mayor Ryan: Perfect. Well thank you for your thoughts. We appreciate it.
Mark Webster: And I really thank you very much for allowing me to come here and speak too
okay.
Mayor Ryan: Absolutely.
Mark Webster: And can I ask one more thing. You said the brown sign. I don’t know too much
about you know signs and stuff but if it was for me, to me I want to see a green sign but then
again it could be purple. You know so when you’re coming down Highway 5 you see Paisley
Park, you know you see all that stuff so thank you again for allowing me to come and speak.
And I want to thank Bob. I want to thank Ben. You know I want to thank.
Denise: Denise.
Mark Webster: Denise. They live out here in Chanhassen. These are people I’ve met and
encouraged me to come forward and do this so thank you very much.
Mayor Ryan: Great thank you sir.
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Mark Webster: You’re welcome.
Mayor Ryan: Are there any other visitor presentations for this evening? Okay.
FIRE DEPARTMENT/LAW ENFORCEMENT UPDATE.
Mayor Ryan: Chief I think you’re number one.
Chief Don Johnson: Thank you Mayor, council. Department staffing remains at 44. We have
had 2 of our staff affected by COVID but got through it pretty quickly and didn’t affect others
and impacting things. July we had 78 calls for service and if we can focus a little bit on the past
conversation. 18 of those were day only calls which are a limited number of staff that includes,
we left that off the CSO slides. Both of CSO’s part time are firefighters so they also assist
during the day. We had 42 duty crew calls so out of 78 calls 42 were handled by that crew in
station at some point which then leaves 18 general alarms for the month which to make it good
standing you need to make 4 calls so as far as what we’ve done to, for the betterment of the
firefighters in the city, a lot more of this has been now shifting to what we discussed. Shifting to
on staff stations and I know I can speak for a couple in the room but at 2:00 in the morning when
the crew goes out and you don’t hear that general alarm anymore because it’s pretty evident that
some things have changed around here in regards to the firefighters so 4 of those calls, we had 49
rescue and EMS calls with 3 motor vehicle accidents. Responded to 2 fires. One major loss fire
on Lake Point which I’ll wrap into the fire investigation point. That was an accidental fire. We
teamed up with the insurance companies and started doing kind of a more forensic dig to
determine what the issue was. Obviously it was the 5th of July at 2:00 in the morning so there
was some understanding with some fireworks around in the area but that investigation
subsequently stopped so the insurance companies pulled out and it’s an accidental fire. It’s a
major loss so again it started in the garage. We’re not sure how or what so, and then we had a
mutual aid to a Minnetonka fire. On shift EMS training was on poisons and toxins. We had
small group response training going down in the highly hydranted Gedney building and again
kudos to planning, buildings and the owner of that building because the use of it is now where it
was sprinkled in only a very small portion of it. Working with the owner and wanting to expand
the use of that building they were very cooperative in the nature that now the whole building has
a full suppression system on it and they’re able to use the 250,000 gallon tank that was there to
supply the water and we actually put hydrants that we can tap down there so complete approved
suppression system. We spent the entire month down there in small groups due to COVID
working with those new systems. Working through the building. Hooking up to stand pipes.
Hooking up to the hydrant systems that gives us enough water to deal with a building of that size
under a fire load so a pretty good example of our team working together and a real cooperative
owner and wanting to change some use and turning that into something that’s real useable. I
know we’re still working through the hemp thing and the plans and what’s going on in there.
We can all read in the paper what’s going on but pretty exciting for me and for our fire service to
see a building that could be a potential problems and no suppression system. Large commercial
structure. No water systems. To be able to turn that into what it is right now where I’m really
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
14
comfortable with that suppression system and what’s going on down there so. Virtual
Professional Development seminar for several of us on the fire department and small group
sessions for fire apparatus operator that was hosted by Gregg Geske. The only other activities
were, I assisted with a small committee here with city leadership to search and recommend the
search firm for the city manager position and we’ve, a lot of my staff were involved with
submission with the budget process so that’s all I have.
Mayor Ryan: Great, thank you Chief. Council any questions?
Chief Don Johnson: Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Lieutenant Pearce.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Madam Mayor and council. I’m going to cover the July calls for service.
Last month we had 1,023 calls for service. A majority of those, 4 happened to be traffic and also
non-criminal. Non-criminal has been the pattern that we’ve seen consistently in the past.
Medicals, suspicious activity and disturbances kind of highlight that group. The other things that
I’ve been tracking with the city manager and you folks the last couple months, we are trending
up in domestics and domestic assault and that does continue through July but mental health and
fraud and theft complaints are trending back down. The peak that we saw in June for the fraud
had to do with the unemployment insurance fraud and those have almost completely gone down
to zero. So we’re still tracking those. A couple other things I wanted to mention. This month I
looked at some calls for service just to see where we’re at for the year and I looked at last year
and January to July of 2019. We had 6,657 calls. For this year even with the pandemic we’re at
6,473 so we’re only 2.8 percent below where we were last year and I would say we’re probably
back to a normal call service as far as trending wise. A couple other things I wanted to mention
here. Kudos to a couple employees that work here. Sergeant Nate Mueller and Deputy Nick
Eischens. Unfortunately we had a local family experience a loss of a family member a few
weeks ago and one of our chaplains happened to be at the scene and I’ll read an email that he
happened to send to me. I just wanted to point out the great work that those two did. I’ll read it
out loud here. Several family members expressed to me their gratitude and appreciation of how
professional, caring and informing Sergeant Nate Mueller and Deputy Nick Eischens were. One
family member commented that quote, this is what true police officers are like. A job well done
during a difficult time for a family from an unexpected death. So I just wanted to point kudos
out to those two deputies. And if I can have somebody help me get on the Carver County
website. Ms. Aanenson can you help by chance? I just want to show you the new revamped
county website and I’ll show you there’s a crime map on there that citizens can access. Sorry
Kate didn’t mean to call you out. I figured she’d help me out.
Kate Aanenson: Here we go. Hang on one second.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Just go to the Carver County, there you go. Just the regular county website.
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
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Kate Aanenson: Not the sheriff’s one?
Lt. Lance Pearce: No, just the regular county website.
Kate Aanenson: Got it. I thought he said sheriff’s so that’s my fault.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Okay if you click on government on the main bar. Go to the county sheriff
there on the left. Okay, scroll all the way down. All the way down to the bottom. Okay, under
sheriff resources in the middle there it says crime map. Okay this is for citizens that want to see
what’s going on with the sheriff’s office for calls in their neighborhood, the city. This is a public
website completely accessible to anybody. If you click on any of those dots under there it will
show you the basics of what the call is. You’re able to on the left hand side and under the layers
and stuff it will show you a time period. You can search by different time periods. It defaults to
the last 30 days so if citizens have questions on what is going on in their neighborhood they
certainly can access this and this just came out last week. Or the revamped website so I just
wanted to point that out.
Mayor Ryan: I know they’re kind of working on it right now to show how it works but I looked
at it last week, Ms. Johnston shared it with me and it’s very interesting and I know we get a lot of
questions on where crimes are being committed in our area and to be able to go on and look at
the type of crime that’s been committed and the type and location. So if you want to you know
obviously if you type in an address and then it will zoom in to maybe if you could do the city
hall address and it will zoom in on that location and then you can see what’s happening around
there. Speaking and while they’re still kind of, council you have any questions for Lieutenant
Pearce at this time? So as you’re probably aware that there was recent perceived uptick in car
theft. Car break in’s.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Theft from vehicles.
Mayor Ryan: Crimes of opportunity. Those types of things. And once one or two of those are
posted online from in neighborhood websites they kind of trend towards what’s happening and
what’s the sheriff’s office doing to patrol our neighborhoods and our community and so if you
just could share what you’re doing to address this perceived uptick in crime.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Sure. And obviously I get all of this information that the public sees in a
different format that’s not public and we also get updates from all of our neighboring agencies to
do collaborative efforts, we were just working with Eden Prairie this morning on some similar
crimes as far as car theft and theft from vehicle so we certainly know where these trends are and
as the liaison up here I direct my staff to try to address these to try to curb some of the incidents
specific to the opportunistic ones.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
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Lt. Lance Pearce: So we’re doing what we can.
Mayor Ryan: Right and I think it was last summer where there was groups kind of hitting
different parts of the metro area. Is that a similar pattern that you’re seeing happening now?
Lt. Lance Pearce: No.
Mayor Ryan: No it’s not that.
Lt. Lance Pearce: No.
Mayor Ryan: The same.
Lt. Lance Pearce: It’s certainly not the same as we saw last summer. Last summer we were
seeing a small crew if you want to call it that hitting several communities across the metro and
they certainly weren’t remaining where they lived per se. They were traveling all over the 7
county metro area last year.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Lt. Lance Pearce: We’re not seeing that this year.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Lt. Lance Pearce: At least to this point no.
Mayor Ryan: And I know that you just, I mean you just went through your numbers and you
know it’s below where we were at last year but in the last month have you seen an increase in
those types of activities?
Lt. Lance Pearce: A slight increase but it’s not a marked increase, no.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Lt. Lance Pearce: No not like some of the other things that I reported on when we were talking
about mental health and some of the other stuff. There’s certainly not a marked increase those
no.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Then my last question for you because I was asked this by a resident, so if
there was a car that was broken into and then do you send officers to patrol that neighborhood at
an increased level? What is the response from the sheriff’s office when there’s crime that’s
happening in somebody’s neighborhood?
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
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Lt. Lance Pearce: We would certainly do that if we believe that that might be a pattern or a, if
we know that for example if we see a pattern on the weekends then we’ll direct staff to do some
extra patrol in that area for on the weekends. So if we can find a trend or a pattern we will
certainly do that.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Lt. Lance Pearce: If it’s in an area we don’t typically find crimes or incidents happening and it’s
just a one time thing we may or may not.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Lt. Lance Pearce: We certainly do have a focus on the neighborhoods in particular this year
because of COVID and we know that more people are staying home and we know that people
are trying to realize some more normalcy but we know people are more at home so we do have
an additional focus on neighborhoods this year in particular.
Mayor Ryan: Okay, thank you. And I know you’ve said it and we’ve been told many times
before a lot of them are crimes of opportunity so make sure you shut your garage doors. Lock
your cars if they’re outside.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Don’t leaves your valuables in your car that people can see.
Mayor Ryan: Right, okay perfect. Thank you.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Okay any other questions?
Mayor Ryan: Any other questions? Alright thank you Lieutenant.
Lt. Lance Pearce: Thank you.
APPROVAL OF FACILITIES IMPROVEMENTS CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS.
Mayor Ryan: Next is old business and this is a facilities improvement construction contract. I’m
not sure who’s taking the lead on this.
Greg Sticha: You want to take the lead Charlie? …we’ve been tagging in this three different
ways.
Charlie Howley: Do we have a power point?
Greg Sticha: No just the attached contracts.
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
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Mayor Ryan: So if somebody, before we get into the details of the contract, I don’t know if you
want to Ms. Johnston or Mr. Sticha maybe give us a quick background on you know what we’re
doing tonight versus what we approved at our last meeting just to get everybody up to speed in
what this is.
Heather Johnston: Madam Mayor, members of the council. So at our last meeting you had two
things before you. You had the design contract which you approved and we moved forward with
that and then you also had an item about the construction contract and that really was just a list.
We weren’t quite ready to take action on the construction contract yet and so there was really
just a list of the things that were in the estimated budget of $1.4 million that we were planning on
spending on our facilities related to the COVID-19 improvements. We do have representatives
from our construction partner here today. We have finally worked out the details of the contract
which I know you all got relatively late and so we thought it might be helpful to have him come
forward and talk about what, how it’s changed because the good news is that we’re actually, this
contract is less than we brought to you before. There were some things that we took out of the
scope and some fine tuning of the pricing so with that Charlie is going to give you better
background.
Charlie Howley: Thank you Madam Mayor, councilors. So this is the staff report from your
agenda. Sorry staff doesn’t have a power point to go through but essentially what we’re asking
for tonight is a motion to authorize entering into a contract with RJM as a construction manager
at risk and that term is a different type of procurement but generally they’re the contractor. The
general contractor. And this is for the facility improvements. In summary I think the most
important thing to focus on is the schedule which is in front of us here. So we have a
background of what we’ve done to date. Again we hired an architectural firm. They did an
audit. We reviewed the audit. We you know had a rough cost estimate put together and we
entered into a design with the architect to put final plans and specs together and now tonight
we’re taking the next step in the logical process to get a contractor on board. And the reason
why that’s important is the future schedule down here, we work background from when we have
to get everything complete in order to use the CARES funding. You know they’ve got a lot of
work to do in a short period of time and the next council meeting we have is on the 14th right?
So that is only one more council meeting before they got to start work, right? So we wanted to
get in front of you. Get this contract executed. They can start working on some pre-construction
services. We’re going to get the design plans from the architect on 8/31. We’ve got to turn it
around right away. They’re going to make changes and then they’re going to submit their
permits and then they’re going to start building. So if we think about it that way, that’s why this
has been rushed like we’ve been dealing with this contract over the last week and had the
attorneys talking and we got a good plan together and the scope is now itemized with a cost. A
guaranteed maximum price is what GMP stands for and essentially that’s the grand total not to
exceed for the scope of work. And the scope of work could change over the next 2 weeks but
it’s only going to change subtly right? Minor stuff like it’s not all of a sudden we’re going to add
a whole building in right so the designer’s working on the design and we potentially have to do
an amendment in the future if the scope changes but we don’t foresee that. Any changes would
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
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be relatively minor so with that let’s ask Brad to come up from the contractor, RJM and really
just give many any holes that we left out or maybe the current GMP and why it’s different than
what we had in the original facility audit. I think that’s important.
Mayor Ryan: Okay before you begin. I know one of the biggest concerns and it was Mr.
Knutson’s biggest concern, and I think Mr. Campion brought it up was, you know what if they’re
not able to get the equipment or the pieces that were going into contract with. We’re going
under contract. What happens if they can’t deliver?
Charlie Howley: Do you want to go or do you want me to go?
Brad Barickman: I can answer that question.
Charlie Howley: Okay go ahead.
Brad Barickman: Good evening Mayor and members of the council. Thank you for the little
introduction there. I’m Brad Barickman with RJM Construction and also a Chanhassen resident
so excited to potentially finally work here in the city that I live in. To answer that specific
question I would say by September 14th we have a really good handle of what we can and cannot
do. We’ve already worked with staff and Leo A. Daly to outline a scope of work that the team is
confident can be completed within the timeframe that we have to operate in and then over the
next couple of weeks we start to finalize agreements with sub-contractors. Physically
completing the work is not the challenge. The biggest challenge is actually getting materials in
hand. We’ve done preliminary research and feel confident in the information that we’ve
assembled here today that it can be completed within that timeframe but before September 14th
we would be able to guarantee that the products can be in hand within the timeframe that we’ve
established here.
Mayor Ryan: Before September 14th?
Brad Barickman: Yes.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Brad Barickman: And we would also create out clauses within the sub-contracts if for whatever
reason something comes up and they’re not able to deliver. That we are not committing any
dollars to those materials so we’re not pre-paying for any of the materials. There’s no restocking
fees and things like that to further protect the City as well as RJM Construction.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Heather Johnston: Madam Mayor if I can just add to that. We are continuing to be in
conversations with our legislative partners. The Municipal Legislative Commission and there
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are other lobbying groups have been continuing to work with Minnesota Management and
Budget. Some of the folks from the legislature believe that November 15th is an incurred date so
as long as we’ve had this contract going forward they believe that that should be sufficient if we
have a delay in delivery but what we’re trying to do is work with them to get very specific
examples in front of them so that we can ensure that we get sort of the best interpretation of that
November 15th date as well but we’re hearing a little bit of movement there from the Legislative
partners. We haven’t quite heard the clarification from MMB yet but we’re looking forward to
that as other folks align so.
Mayor Ryan: Because as it stands today is the assumption that the work has to also be
completed by November 15th?
Heather Johnston: Madam Mayor yes.
Mayor Ryan: Yes, okay.
Brad Barickman: And I think I heard a question about what changed from the last cost estimate
that was presented a few weeks back on August 10th. I would say the primary differences are we
removed the sheriff’s suite work as well as the work within the council chambers minus the
council Dias so that’s the primary reduction in scope. Collectively with Leo A. Daly and staff
we weren’t comfortable recommending to move forward with those scope of work within the
timeframe that’s been outlined today.
Mayor Ryan: Okay thank you. Councilman Campion did you have a question?
Councilman Campion: No my concerns were just two fold along those lines. One is you know
making sure that the money’s being used efficiently and you know I was curious if you have any
comparison on these items bid, how much the price tag is inflated over what would have been the
same service or the same HVAC system upgrade performed last year.
Brad Barickman: So in terms of cost comparison today versus last year?
Councilman Campion: Yeah.
Brad Barickman: Or just the program for the accelerated work.
Councilman Campion: Yeah the accelerated work and the presumed spike in demand and you
know artificial shortage of supply.
Brad Barickman: Sure. We’ve actually seen a reduction in pricing here since the COVID
situation that has come up. Contractors have less work. We’ve seen more aggressive pursuit of
that work and that aspect a reduction in cost. I would say every project that we’ve bid in the last
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2 to 3 months we’ve seen a reduction in 5 to 10 percent in pricing so from that aspect we’re
seeing a decrease in pricing but I would certainly say that’s, we’re paying a premium here.
Councilman Campion: I’m sure.
Brad Barickman: Because the demand issue as well as the timeframe, it’s hard to say what that
really is. Can we say it’s a wash? You know 5 to 10 percent decrease in pricing because of the
market but then the demand and as well as the accelerated schedule, so it’s probably about the
same. If I had to roughly compare from last year.
Councilman Campion: Okay. And then my other is just a question or concern for, to share with
staff which is you know if come September 14th and we find out there are certain work that can’t
be done or materials that can’t be obtained, that we have other uses earmarked for those funds
otherwise they evaporate right?
Heather Johnston: That’s correct Councilman Campion. We are definitely going to come back
and have, Greg has put on his thinking cap and we are all going to be brainstorming about
additional uses. We’ve actually had a couple conversations at the management team about other
places that we could spend those monies. We plan to spend them all.
Councilman Campion: Okay. Good, thank you. That’s all for now.
Mayor Ryan: Great. Councilman McDonald, Councilwoman Coleman? Okay. And so tonight
we’re agreeing to go into a contract for the construction of the improvements and then on, at our
next council meeting, what is the consider an amendment? What is that?
Charlie Howley: Madam Mayor, so tonight there’s actually a GMP amendment document. It’s
an AIA document in there that we are approving and that’s naming the guaranteed maximum
price. The $1.044 million or whatever. If at that time we learn what the scope is different,
dramatically different we could then do another amendment to further amend the GMP up or
down I guess right? Normally you wouldn’t really raise it down but that’s what that is for.
That’s a place holder for if we need further action to adjust the GMP based on a revised scope
that comes out through the final design process.
Brad Barickman: And I can add to that a little bit. Our pricing is based on preliminary design
information from Leo A. Daly and then over the next several weeks they wrap up that final
design. We do a final confirmation of price. These numbers do have contingencies in it and our
assumption and intent is that those contingencies cover any up and down within that scope and
design so that the number that we do bring on September 14th is less than what we presented here
today. Is the ultimate goal.
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
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Mayor Ryan: And then so September 14th is when you would be looking for that, you know the
final number. Final approval and then if that gets approved, whatever that is, then that, then the
construction begins after that. Correct?
Brad Barickman: That is correct.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Council if you have any further questions for anybody or would stand a
motion for this item.
Councilman McDonald: I’ll do the motion.
Mayor Ryan: Alright Councilman McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Okay I would propose the City Council authorizes entering into a
contract with RJM as Construction Manager at Risk for the CARES Act Funding Facility
Improvements.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. We have a valid motion. Is there a second?
Councilman Campion: Second.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Councilman Campion.
Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Campion seconded that the City Council
authorizes entering into a contract with RJM as Construction Manager at Risk for the
CARES Act Funding Facility Improvements. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Mayor Ryan: Glad you can do work in Chanhassen.
Brad Barickman: Thank you yeah, looking forward to it.
Mayor Ryan: That’s great, thank you.
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF PRIVATE INFRASTRUCTURE INFLOW AND
INFILTRATION PROGRAM.
Erik Henricksen: Alright thank you Mayor, council members for meeting again on a program
recommendations from the private I&I study that was conducted in 2019 in concert with SEH.
Today our objective through this presentation is to seek approval of some I&I reduction
programs aimed at reducing I&I from the private sources within the city and that were identified
in the 2019 study. For reference the second draft study is supplied with you on your agenda item
today. So with the adoption of an I&I program, regardless of which program it is, there are 3
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simple steps that will, staff will have to conduct in order to implement and to implement the
private property inspection program. The first is going to be the updating of the sewer
ordinances to ensure that the program is enforceable. Development and implementation of
public education and public outreach to alert and notify and educate the public on these new
programs and then finally would be the development and implementation of the selected
programs. Through the study four programs were recommended and these programs are also
being used within the metro area within the cities. The four programs are sump pump inspection
program, point of sale program, voluntary and/or mandatory in-home inspection program and a
main line launch inspection program. A sump pump inspection program is a mandatory type of
program where an inspector would go to visually look for sump pumps that are directly
connected to the sanitary sewer system. A little history is on the city’s experience with sump
pump inspection program was that in 1990 we did implement one. In the 90’s we inspected all
the properties in Chanhassen which is about 4,900 properties. 313 were found to have that illicit
sump pump connection and by 2003 all of them were brought into compliance. However one of
the limitations of a sump pump inspection program is you don’t get the full system inspection so
there’s a possibility of missing foundation drains, service lateral leaks and other sources of I&I.
Another program that was recommended through the study was a point of sale inspection
program which is once a property transfers ownership it flags the inspection or full system
inspection of a home to ensure compliance with code. Code would be that no clear water can
enter into the sanitary sewer system. In 2006 there was an I&I reduction plan or another study
that was done. This was in reaction to the MCS’s surcharge program but this study also
identified that a point of sale program was a recommended option for the City to take for I&I
reductions. One of the limitations of a program like this is that you are only able to complete an
inspection for homes that actually over on the market. Another program that was recommended
was the voluntary mandatory inspection program. This is a program where you are inspecting
again the full system similar to a point of sale but it’s not triggered by the transfer of property.
It’s either voluntary so this would just be at the homeowners or the property owners discretion or
be mandatory so be mandated by ordinance to have the inspection done. Some of the program
limitations are listed here but for voluntary, so when those are non-complied they’re typically not
going to volunteer. Things of that nature. Also there’s higher level of effort for staff to
administer such programs. And one of the last programs that was recommended is what’s called
a main line launch inspection program. That’s where you’ll televise or while you’re televising
cleaning your main lines or your public lines a camera will go up the service lateral to inspect
any defects. One of the limitations here is just like with a sump pump program it’s not a full
system so you can miss many of the different sources of I&I from the private side. With any of
these programs once, with these programs you’re going to find certain defects eventually.
Typically it’s either sump pumps, foundation drains or defective private laterals so they range in
cost that can be associated with these repairs. While sump pumps are typically $1,000 or even
less a defective lateral can go upwards of almost $10,000 so there are different funding options
that different cities and municipalities have undertaken to help subsidize or put it either fully on
the City or on the property owner. From the study on these recommendations or these programs
we developed a decision matrix and came up with 5 evaluation criteria that are important to any
I&I program when first implementing which is cost. That would be the annual cost to implement
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
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and maintain the program over time. Public is the level of disruption to the public to implement
such a program or while the program is going on. Ordinances, both the level of effort required
for us to update the ordinance and then also to educate the public on the update to the ordinance
and the program itself. Risk which is one of the key factors is where you have the potential for
not achieving the reduction in I&I that the program should be providing. And then lastly time,
how long a program would take to implement or how long it would take to actually be
actionable. From the evaluation criteria, the decision matrix before you is presented. It’s pretty
colorful but one of the things staff looked at was again a focus on was that risk. The whole point
of an abatement program or I&I program is to mitigate I&I and to in fact decrease it so the lower
the risk the better the program essentially. Also again there are, or there is a detailed breakdown
of each of these categories and how they’re ranked according to low, medium, high which is
available to the public and has been provided to you in previous work sessions. Staff’s
recommendations. Again based on having risk as one of the highest weighted factors but also in
taking into account kind of the rest of the decision matrix is a point of sale and mandatory
inspection program and you’ll see a little note, pre-1969 which we’ll talk about in a moment. So
the point of sale program is one of the programs being recommended. It would require that prior
to a property transferring ownership that it undergoes a sanitary sewer inspection to certify it’s
compliance which is essentially saying that no clear water will enter the system. This program
and one of the benefits and why it’s low risk is that you would essentially ensure that over time
all homes would be inspected and brought into compliance which is kind of one of those nice
residual effects of a point of sale program. When a point of sale program is developed there’s
about 4 steps that would be required in order to complete the program. First would be a property
owner will verify the need for an inspection. With point of sale programs compliance letter or a
certificate of compliance would be issued for a property so the property could check to see if
they already have certificate of compliance. If not then they would submit an application so the
City could track and log that this program was started and then the property owner would have to
schedule an inspection in which the City would review the inspection to ensure that the full
sanitary sewer system is in compliance. If it is they get their certificate of compliance which
could daylight from 5-10 years or what not or if it isn’t compliant then they would have to, the
City would issue what the repair mechanism would be and they’d have to have those repairs
prior to the transfer of property. Fairly similar to other cities. The mandatory inspection
program. This one focuses on the highest risk properties for I&I which are properties that were
developed prior to 1969. Prior to 1969 the plumbing code allowed for cross connection of
sanitary sewer and storm sewer so this is direct connection for I&I so these are highest risk for
private property infiltration and inflow so by focusing the mandatory inspection program on the
highest risk properties or the highest risk property I&I contributors they would achieve the
highest return of I&I reductions from the recommended programs. Also there’s about 733
parcels that were built on or before 1969 so this program would be broken out over about 3 to 5
years to make it manageable. If this program was developed essentially would follow 4 steps as
well. One would be public outreach. So the City would reach out to the 733 parcels. Let them
know that there’s a mandated inspection program. Kind of explain why but also highlight the
importance of reducing I&I to have more of an onboarding of the program. Then the City would
secure a contractor for the inspection program. It wouldn’t just be for the inspection. The
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contractor would also schedule. They would notify the residents. They would do the inspection.
They’d do the report and they will provide the City, they would provide the report to the City
which leads to item 3 which is then the City would review the inspection. Annually staff will
assess how many parcels are contributing to I&I to analyze the cost of repairs for the type of I&I
contributions. As you saw from the previous slide anywhere from one, around $1,000 for a
sump pump disconnect all the way up to $10,000 is a lot for homeowners to bite off but if we can
take a look at the issues that are actually contributing to I&I we might be able to help subsidize
that but again that would really require the reports and the findings of those inspections. And
then staff would annually present the findings of the program to council to review kind of what
we’re finding. The cost associated with them and discuss that further. Couple other points on
the point of sale program is that staff would be ready to start educational outreach and public
outreach by the end of the year. One of the points in the decision matrix was that the time to get
this actionable is high so this would take approximately about a one year lead time to get this off
the ground and running. Coordination with the County and what we’d have to do here at the
City just to kind of get it off the ground would take about that amount of time. The cost to
private property owners for conducting the inspections is about $200 an inspection and then
obviously any repairs that would be necessary to bring the home into compliance. And then
lastly a couple points on the mandatory inspection program. Order updates just like with the
point of sale program and public outreach could be conducted by the end of the year. We would
anticipate beginning inspections in 2021 so it’s something we could really get on the ground and
run with. What staff has found and what we would primarily focus on with the first and maybe
even second year would be focusing on sub-sewer sheds 5, 5A, 7 and 7A. From the study these
four sub-sewer sheds are the highest contributors of private I&I so we would want to tackle kind
of both the highest potential I&I sources with where we’re experiencing the highest I&I rates.
From the map you can see these areas are highlighted in purple and then the peach shaded
parcels are ones built in 1969 and before. And then once those homes have been inspected in
those zones, or properties I should say, a wrap up program where we’d wrap it up with
conducting the rest of the parcels of the 733. The cost for this program would be approximately
$40,000 annually. This is $200 in inspection that the City could utilize through it’s I&I fund.
Again I think the fund is $200,000 a year right now and the cost to the private property owner
would be the cost of the repair from whatever was found in the inspection and then we
potentially could subtract some share from the City. And again that kind of goes back to the
analysis of looking at what kind of repairs are we looking at? What the cost would be and if the
City actually has funds to help assist in that so that’s kind of to be determined. With that I can
open it up to question and answers. A little Q and A and then I’ll leave the proposed motion here
before you.
Mayor Ryan: Council any questions? Councilman McDonald.
Councilman McDonald: Yeah I read through all this and where I’m a little unclear is, I know
you mentioned in there about foundation drains and those things and a couple years ago I know
when we had a back flow into the sanitary sewers. It all came in through a bunch of people’s
sanitary drains so that seems to have been a common practice and these homes were you know
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
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just a few blocks from here so they were all built after 1969. Are we going to say that if that’s
the case that a foundation drain is hooked up to the sanitary sewer you have to correct that?
Erik Henricksen: Yes. Currently that is city ordinance as well. So if there is a foundation drain
which is collecting ground water, essentially clean water, and then discharging it directly into the
sanitary sewer system, already that’s against city ordinance so it is, it’s technically already a
violation.
Councilman McDonald: But the home was built that way and it wasn’t then, again we’re going
to put the burden of the correction and that’s got to be expensive. So how is that going to work?
Erik Henricksen: Foundation drains are typically, again these are kind of your typical dollar
figures but about $3,000 or less to disconnect. I guess the idea of trying to eliminate I&I, if we
allow those sources to maintain we will always be contributing to the problem. It not only helps
with the health of our local sanitary sewer system but it also helps with the district and the area
as a whole. So I guess I would advocate that it, it is something that would need to be
disconnected and as a part of the inspection programs that would be something that would be one
of the mandates. If a direct connection to the sanitary sewer system that’s pumping in clear
water, ground water, rain water, storm water, that would have to be remedied.
Councilman McDonald: But if this was something built and all these homes were inspected by
the City so if that was allowed at that point how do I tell a resident okay now you’ve got to spend
$3,000 and dig up a bunch of stuff and correct the problem because you still need a drain so it’s
got to go someplace and so that’s some more work. How do I tell someone they’ve got to do
that?
Erik Henricksen: I think one of the, with so I think point of sale, the cost is kind of built into the
sale of the home I guess. But when it comes to the mandatory inspections that’s something we
want to kind of on the first round kind of take a look at how many illicit connections there are.
Quantify how much that might cost homeowners to get repaired and look at different funding
mechanisms to help abate the cause or help abate the issue of I&I.
Charlie Howley: Mayor, councilor. I would say look at it this way. There’s lots of I guess code
issues that when somebody asks or submits for a project, a permit, whatever they have to bring
things up to code. This would be bringing something that’s not legal up to code. And just
because it was.
Councilman McDonald: Well I would argue with you on that because that would be
grandfathered in. That was inspected and that was said okay, you’re fine. You can’t now come
back. And I wish our attorney were here but as I understand that would be grandfathered in.
Mayor Ryan: Andrea’s here.
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
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Charlie Howley: Well one of the goals of this would be to get rid of grandfathered in things that
you know need to meet current standards because it causes a problem to our infrastructure that
we pay for so that’s why it’s a decision for council to say yes or no. On this. And I’ll let Andrea
speak.
Andrea McDowell Poehler: Councilmember McDonald, that is the type of property code issue
that would not require a grandfather clause. You’re thinking about in terms of a zoning sort of
issue but when the City changes it’s ordinances for the benefit of it’s own public infrastructure
you are able to require homes to meet those standards.
Councilman McDonald: Okay well I just imagine a lot of push back. We get enough push back
on roads. You know we go pushing this and this is going to create a problem. Especially if
you’re talking about some of these are $10,000.
Charlie Howley: I think with the cost that’s why we’re going to be really intrigued to find out
how much of a subsidy the City could provide because we have a decent amount of money in the
program. The I&I program annually to spend and if we can use a portion of that to subsidize 10-
15 homes a year because of what we find, that might be a good use of money that we could help.
We just don’t know if we got 733 problems or we’ve got 2 problems.
Councilman McDonald: Well I can see it going back on the pre-1969 homes and you can find
out just how bad the problem is. Where I see a problem coming in is if we now do point of sale
that means a house is in the process of being sold. You’re on a timeline there. You know to get
this house sold and the inspection could be a contingency and suddenly a resident loses a sale.
They’re not going to be happy about that. So yeah I think we need to do something there to
lessen the burden on a homeowner especially again all homes are inspected in Chanhassen.
They’re supposed to be. All the plumbing and all like that is supposed to be a part of a process
and if it passed the city inspection because was allowed at that time then I think yeah we need to
come up with some kind of program to lessen the burden on the residents.
Erik Henricksen: Just to add to the issue of cost. Another I think way staff can look at it and I
think the city as a whole is, when we have I&I surcharges that’s something MCS directly can
charge to the City. They give us options where you can either pay the surcharge directly or over
the course of 5 years implement improvements to lessen our contribution of I&I. In 2014 our
surcharge was, I believe it was around $1.3 million dollars so if we don’t look at pushing the
issue of I&I and getting it fixed we’re only going to continually see these surcharges come year
over year. So just when it comes to cost looking at it through kind of a different lens I think also
as a community as a whole trying to fix the issue. The other problem is with I&I what we’re
finding, what the study kinds of alludes to and finds is that private property is a very large
contributor. Private property sources of I&I is a large contributor that we need to find a program
or need to find a way to lessen it because from over 20 years we’ve been working on lining and
improving our main lines but almost 60 percent of our, the infrastructure for sanitary sewer is on
private properties so I think it is, I think cost is definitely an important topic because it would
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
28
affect a homeowner and property owner but I think if we look at it in that larger sense that the
10,000 level as a community as a whole, looking at it through that lens I think puts it into better
perspective as well. I don’t know if that.
Councilman McDonald: Well I’m just saying an individual homeowner, the $1.6 million means
absolutely nothing. The $10,000 means a great deal. It will all depend upon your perspective of
which end of the spectrum are you at. I understand and I supported all this from the city
standpoint that we’ve got to get I&I under control but if we’re now looking and we don’t have a
plan for how do you get a homeowner to be able to fix this without spending a lot of money I
think we’re creating a big problem for ourselves. Just the push back from residents of why am I
having to spend all this money when I bought this home I was told everything was fine. That’s
the only thing I’m concerned about is there’s got to be a…we can solve the I&I and yet at the
same time not place the full burden upon the residents.
Erik Henricksen: Well if the, one of those programs the point of sale program would fix that
argument with when I bought this home why wasn’t it brought up to standard. The point of the
point of sale program would be to bring every home over time up to compliance with the
ordinance and the policy of not having clear water into our sanitary sewer system.
Councilman McDonald: Well I agree with all that but again if you’re talking about putting that
cost in the same of the home, that means the homeowner just lost that money because as part of
the negotiations just like with a road assessment that you know if coming, you’re going to end up
paying for part of that even though you’re leaving. Well it’s going to be the same thing here and
again at that point you’re under a much shorter timeline to get something fixed and that, I’m just
saying these could be problems and they need to be looked at. I need to have answers as to how
we’re going to deal with this. That’s all I’m asking for.
Charlie Howley: Mayor, council. If the issue is we don’t want the private property owner to
have to foot the bill for the repair an option certainly is well the City will fund the entire repair. I
don’t think you definitely, I don’t know if you’d want to go there because that’s going to be an
expensive proposition.
Councilman McDonald: Yeah that’s going to be expensive.
Charlie Howley: But we’ve got $1.3 million dollars potentially coming our way every surcharge
event that is going to cost the City money. And this is again the studies are showing that this is
where the problem is so we’ve got to solve the root problem of the problem. The root cause.
How we get there, who pays for it, you know that’s where we need your direction of course but
this is one of the main root causes of the problem and that’s what we have to fix.
Councilman McDonald: Okay I’m just saying then find some way to be able to subsidize this
and if it’s taking the $1.1 million each year. Divide it up between so many houses and you fix it
and you keep doing that, that’s fine. Then it’s a long term process but in the meantime again
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
29
point of sale there’s got to be something to accommodate that because of time constraints and
those things and if suddenly we’re torpedoing the sale of a home you’re going to have a mad
person there too. So those are things that I think you need to look at and they’re very real
problems from the perspective of the residents.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Councilman. Councilman Campion?
Councilman Campion: I agree with what Councilman McDonald was saying. I feel like we
need to budget for this somehow and that it can have a return as you’re saying with the
surcharges that we’re seeing. I don’t know if there’s a way to conduct the inspections without
you know committing to do the work immediately right. We tally our list of you know how
many properties need to be resolved and then we could budget for doing the repairs afterward.
You know I realize with the point of sale inspection I don’t know if that, if there’s a way of
getting around that right because you’d just you’d note the issue but then the homeowner’s left or
the purchasing party is left scratching their head with what that means and so I think if we do this
we need to be clear. Either we’re, you know the City’s going to plan to fund 100 percent of it
whenever the work is done or some percentage of it. And I don’t know if there’s any way of
estimating of what was it 733 homes or something like that, that are in that bucket of you know
pre-1969 in those zones, is there any indication of how many of those, I mean we can’t know
right? How many of those would be potentially fall.
Charlie Howley: Mayor, council we’d be throwing darts of course so I mean one of the
directions could be move forward with point of sale. Move forward with mandatory inspections.
Don’t make the improvements mandated at this point but make the inspection on a point of sale
mandated. Then we have it. Then we put it on our list and every year we’d say okay we had 8
point of sales that we have this amount of work to do and we had 38 mandatory inspections and
we have this amount of work to do. Let’s budget for that in the following year. I mean that’s
one way to approach it.
Councilman Campion: Right.
Charlie Howley: And that’s just then part of our normal budgeting cycle right? We could.
Councilman Campion: But I agree because this could otherwise be crippling to a homeowner. I
mean if someone’s lived in their home for that long and say they’ve paid off their mortgage right
and all of sudden out of nowhere they get a bill for $3,000 to $10,000 dollars, and it’s not like
they’re getting a new road in front of their house or something in return for that money so that’s
a scary proposition.
Councilwoman Coleman: I have just a quick question. Is there any projection in your studies on
when we would start to see cost savings once this program is implemented if it could be, if
would we see cost savings if we only did a portion at a time as far as the number of people doing
you know renovations?
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
30
Erik Henricksen: Cost savings in the form of I&I reduction?
Councilwoman Coleman: Yes.
Erik Henricksen: And then how much that would contribute? Not directly no. Not through this
study was there a look at how one of these recommendations if implemented could then over
time you’d see a reduction. I would say if you take the broad number of 60 percent of our
infrastructure is in the private side and we can fix 60 percent you would hope to have 60 percent
reduction but there’s no in the study there was no formal analysis of that point. So just a quick
answer to that.
Charlie Howley: That’s what I would have answered.
Councilwoman Coleman: Sure, and could you restate for me. I think I heard you say something
earlier about the options, if we are working towards improvements is paying over 5 years?
Erik Henricksen: So the surcharge program which MCS doesn’t call it that anymore. When it
was implemented in 2006 that was the title and that’s all the reports I read is called that so I call
it that still but essentially you, we are billed for how many millions of gallons were dumped into
the system through a rain event or usually it’s a rain event and they bill you on the usage
essentially with that much use for sewer so in 2014 we experienced a surcharge volume amount
which equated to $1.3 million dollars in costs or how much it would be if it was sewer. So with
that what they allow you to do is then turn to a 5 year improvement program so you can
essentially pay the surcharge by investing into your infrastructure. Public. Not too much on the
private side. There’s limitations to how much actually counts towards the surcharge and there’s
also limitations on what type of improvements you put into the system count towards the
surcharge because the focus of it is to decrease I&I but there are some measures out there where
you improve the system which aren’t necessarily directly I&I contributors so if you re-laid a new
piece of pipe it’s not hopefully it won’t leak or it shouldn’t be leaking but that value is also
adding to the longevity of it and not just directly I&I so in short that’s kind of how the surcharge
program works. Or you can just cut a check every you know year to pay that amount off.
Councilwoman Coleman: And so subsidizing homeowners to make these repairs would not go
towards paying that off over 5 years?
Erik Henricksen: Currently we just finished our surcharge program so right now we are
essentially out of the program so from the 2014 event and the 2019 cycle we invested that
amount. So there are portions yes of the surcharge program where if you contribute or use funds
to put into the private infrastructure, private property lateral repairs, lining and things like that
where it would contribute to the surcharge reduction.
Councilwoman Coleman: Okay. Those were my questions, thank you.
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
31
Mayor Ryan: And are there not grants available for I&I that we can apply for?
Erik Henricksen: MCS is the typical people that we go to for that. They did have a grant
program for multiple years running and we applied and we received grant monies. This year
there was no grant money available. What they ended up doing is having a really large grant for
a study to be conducted similar to the study that we actually conducted but it went to West St.
Paul, or St. Paul. I forget which exactly and they were awarded about $500,000 to kind of
further investigate the impacts of private I&I because again MCS in general will stave 80 percent
of the I&I’s attributed to private property so they want to see a little bit more data on that just as
we did our study.
Mayor Ryan: Well here’s kind of where I’m at and then curious for council feedback as well. I
think Councilman McDonald you nailed it by the overwhelming concern that what the impact,
financial impact is going to be to a resident when and if they discover that they have to make this
correction, right? So we think it’s $3,000. It could be $10,000. We really don’t have any idea
and I think that’s kind of where I’m to the point of obviously we’ve been talking about I&I
reduction for the last few years and more intently in the last couple years by going through this
program. Performing this study in 2019 and while I think the study and the recommendation
gets us to the point of okay these are the two ways that we’re going to go about identifying
where we need to make some I&I corrections, I don’t if we’ve gone far enough to really
understand, nor can we because we need to implement this program first to really understand
what the real impact is going to be to the resident and so I really like your recommendation Mr.
Howley about moving forward with the recommendation of saying yes, let’s implement this
program but let’s give it a year to see what the impact is going to be. How many homes are
going to be affected. What is the possible, or the potential cost to the resident and then at the
same time as we’re talking after this meeting about budget, this is going to be part of our 5 year
budgeting planning is I&I and funding for I&I and so I think that is kind of the next step in this
I&I program is figuring out the budgeting component after we have a better understanding of
how many points of sale homes have, you know have to be corrected. How many of those 733
homes are impacting and then we can say okay here’s the data. Now let’s figure out how we’re
going to fund this and that would be the direction that I’d be comfortable with because I’m just
very concerned about the impact to somebody that’s trying to sell their house or somebody that
has lived in their house for 30 plus years and are you know going to live off of their, what
they’re going to make on their home and then they get hit with a $5,000 ticket of repairing their
home so that’s really where I’m at with how I’d like to move forward but open to council’s
feedback as well. Anybody?
Councilwoman Coleman: Madam Mayor I’m in agreement with your, all of our concerns
regarding this. I did have a question of if the motion changes then.
Charlie Howley: We would, Madam Mayor and council we would want to be specific in your
motion to make sure that it didn’t include mandated repairs or something along those lines just to
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
32
make sure it’s clear and that would be my recommendation anyway. I would look to Andrea to
see if she agrees.
Andrea McDowell Poehler: No. Right I would agree. You would just clarify that this motion
would not include the mandatory repairs. Only the mandatory inspection based on the two
options that have been provided.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Thank you. Any other thoughts, comments, questions? Councilman
McDonald?
Councilman McDonald: I’ve got a question then. Reading through the motion it looks like
we’re saying that yeah, go ahead and go forward but you’ve got to come back with a plan so, are
part of what you’re asking us is to say yeah, go ahead and go forward but don’t mandated
changes at this point? Council will take that all under consideration.
Charlie Howley: Mayor, council, I think the motion is intended to move forward with the
program. As part of the program make sure the ordinances aren’t written so that it mandates the
repairs and then the results on the program on an annual basis will be able to make scope and
budget decisions annually of what the City wants, how much we want to do. If they all cost 5
grand a piece and we’ve got 10 of them to do, do we want to spend 50 grand in ’23 to do those or
whatever that scope ends up being. We don’t know what the scope is until we do the
investigation so we wouldn’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves with the ordinance changes
that then all of a sudden puts us where we clearly aren’t getting direction to be so.
Councilman McDonald: Okay I would want to want to make sure all that happens and I would
support all of this but yeah I’m just not ready to go all the way where okay we found something
wrong. Now homeowner you’ve got to fix it.
Charlie Howley: That direction is very clearly heard.
Erik Henricksen: And another point to it that would address that is, and I guess it’s not the
clearest on this slide but one of the first things that we would need to do to even develop or I
should say implement any of these programs would be updating the sewer ordinances which
would be something that would be presented before you as well. So kind of another backstop I
think to the program even getting off the ground. We can start to develop these programs which
for the point of sale, again that’s something that will take some time. It’s, it is a larger program.
There’s a lot of wheels turning on that one. Mandatory kind of know how that works so that
wouldn’t take as much time but even prior to being able to implement these kind of programs
they have to, they have to be parallel with the implementation of the sewer ordinance updates
which would be before you too.
Mayor Ryan: So does it make more sense then knowing that we’re not going to potentially not
going to mandate repair, that the focus, since there’s a lot of up front legwork with changing
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
33
some of the sewer ordinances to only move forward with the 700, just do the mandatory. I’m
trying to think of the, the mandatory inspection program versus the point of sale program. Or is
it, does that not matter? Is it still important to do both simultaneously?
Erik Henricksen: Well I think both programs blend well together first off. Getting the ordinance
updated would be separate so I guess they kind of it would be best to have them going on at the
same time so that if the decision is to kind of move forward with both of them that the
ordinances work with each other, yeah.
Charlie Howley: Yeah I would say if we move forward with something very similar to what’s
written that point of sale program, like I say we, it could be a year before the first one ever
actually happens anyways.
Mayor Ryan: Right, okay.
Charlie Howley: So there’s going to be no risk of mandated repairs that we would have to
consider on the point of sale stuff for quite some time.
Councilman Campion: Just a thought. I mean ideally before instituting the point of sale
program it would be, or the point of sale inspections, it does make some sense to complete the
inspections for the 733 first and then we might have a program established you know a funding
plan for repairs. Opposed to just flagging and issue during a home inspection in the final sales of
a home purchase and then this question mark of, but we don’t know what’s going to happen. We
don’t know who’s going to have to pay for this because that seems like it, it’s just going to, you
know like Councilman McDonald was saying, it’s going to potentially cause some sales to not
happen of homes.
Charlie Howley: And Mayor, council I would say if we think about a point of sale right, if some
home that was built in the 80’s or 90’s or 2000’s.
Councilman Campion: Odds are there’s no.
Charlie Howley: There’s going to be no foundation connections in theory because it would have
been against code at that time right? The risk that a sewer lateral was completely busted in a
newer home is much less than an older home.
Councilman Campion: Right.
Charlie Howley: And so you might just find the sump pump kind of connection which is super
easy to repair and it might cost a plumber $230 right? Or up to $1,000 if there’s a lot of piping
that has to be done so those are very, in moving forward with the mandatory inspection program
that is the low hanging fruit that we want to get to is to support kind of what you’re saying. The
point of sale you don’t know how old the homes are going to be and if they are pre-’69 anyways
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
34
they’re going to be a part of the other program already so the point of sale is from my
perspective the least of the two that we really want to focus on.
Councilman Campion: Yeah I mean just as we’ve discussed this more that is my thought. The
point of sale is less likely to flag a problem and you know the labor necessary to conduct those
inspections would be much better spent focused on the 733 for the pre-1969 homes.
Erik Henricksen: I guess one thing I would add to that is, one of the benefits where this
conversation is going is not mandating repairs but having the inspection program in place. If the
point of sale maintains, if that recommendation maintains at least we’re getting those data points
to see what these age of home, a lot of different matrix that can go into helping us better assess
scoping and then budgeting. Kind of moving down the road even after the 733 are completed
because again that’s the critical properties I think that would potentially have those cross
connections where they’re just discharging a lot of clear water into the sanitary sewer system but
if we are able to at least capture those data points it might give us better informed you know
decisions kind of to speak to Councilwoman Coleman’s point too about that.
Mayor Ryan: But I mean I agree with Councilman Campion because I, you know you get
nervous when you’re getting your house inspected. Everything’s, you’re right to the finish line
and you’re ready to move on and all of a sudden you get dinged for not having or you know
having an illegal connection and then we don’t have any follow up to it. That doesn’t really
mean anything. You just have a ding on your inspection and does that then result in a loss of
sale because nobody can really articulate what that means or when the City’s going to come back
and do something so until we have a plan in place I don’t know if it’s, you know worth the hassle
for a homeowner trying to sell a home to have this inspection and then this ding against them as
they’re trying to sell their house when nobody really then knows what that means. I think that
just puts the City in a tough spot and I certainly think you know that it puts the person that’s
trying to sell their house in a spot so you move forward with the 733. Then we have some data
points to analyze. Does the program work? What is the cost associated with it? Is there a
funding mechanism from the City’s perspective and then we can, and I absolutely understand
your point that when it turns over it’s great to have those once we get through the 733 but I just
without being able to clearly define what this program is going to mean to the residents I get
concerned about that burden when you’re trying to sell your house and make sure everything
goes smoothly so with that I would rather just move forward with the mandatory inspection
program with mandatory. So anybody?
Councilman Campion: I’ll make a motion.
Councilman McDonald: I guess.
Mayor Ryan: Go ahead.
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
35
Councilman McDonald: Well I was going to say you know speaking in defense I understand you
need data points so we need to find out exactly what the programs are. I mean if it’s a sump
pump connection you’re right. That’s not a big deal. My concern is, is you’ve got to start
digging up stuff it becomes a big deal so if it’s just a sump pump and an illegal connection there,
that is not a big deal to fix so I think we do need to find those because if I read the report and
I’ve heard what you all have said, the biggest contributor is illegal sump pump hook ups more
than anything else. These other would be contributing factors but you really don’t know what is
the biggest contributing factor? Is it sump pumps or is it illegal connections within the plumbing
so we do probably need to find that out. That’s the only reason I would be in favor of moving
forward with both programs so you can begin to get this put together and maybe part of it is, if
you’ve got a sump pump yeah you’ve got to fix that and then we may have to circle back later if
there’s a bigger problem and maybe that falls under a different program. I just I understand the
need for getting data points is what I’m saying. We need to find out just what kind of a problem
are we dealing with and then we can begin to address it but I do agree sump pumps are easy to
fix so that’s kind of where I’m at on this.
Councilman Campion: My counter to that just thinking is that, you know it’s opening up that
can of worms that yeah if it happens to be the sump pump connection then it’s easy but if it is
that odd case of you know you’ve got a broken line and it’s expensive. It’s the can of worms is
open and then what do we say?
Councilman McDonald: Well but I mean do you think that we could have staff, again if it’s
sump pump yeah you’ve got to fix that. If it’s something else we take it under consideration and
we tell people that that’s a potential problem and then we’re going to have to come back later
and again that’s where the program needs to look at how we could take care of this.
Councilman Campion: So I guess the only thing I’m throwing out is, how long would we expect
it to take to inspect 733 homes? I would imagine that’s not a, that will be done by November
type thing.
Charlie Howley: No. Mayor, council, we 3 to 5 years if we took $40,000 dollars a year from our
budget and hired a contractor to do the 733 homes, did I get that right Erik? That would take you
know 3 to 5 years.
Councilman Campion: And so that’s where I’m going with this is, I mean if we go ahead and
proceed and start the inspection of a chunk of the 733 homes and we revisit this again next year
and if we find that we’re having a high hit rate with those and you know we need to start doing
something about them, we could revisit whether we implement the point of sale inspections next
year considering we’ve bit off 5 years of inspections already.
Councilman McDonald: I could agree with that. I mean yeah, I’m not going to push that hard
for point of sale but I do think it is important at some point but you’re right. There’s probably
too many unanswered questions at this point.
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
36
Councilman Campion: Yean.
Mayor Ryan: Do we need to do it in, could we do it in phases? Or approve both programs
because I think we all agree that the point of sale program is an important piece but we’re not
ready to move forward with it yet so if we approve the program as it’s been presented today, but
you know and I don’t know if this is part of the motion or this is just a conversation that or
understanding of staff is that we’re moving forward initially with the mandatory inspection.
We’re going to have that year of collecting the data and if it, as Dan said, Councilman Campion
said you know it’s a high hit rate then we can continue to move forward with that. If we’re
looking for other data points then we can implement the point of sale program at that time and
you don’t have to, it’s not a process where you then have to come back before council. So I
guess is it better to approve and I’m looking at you Ms. McDowell or is it better to approve the
whole program or break it out?
Andrea McDowell Poehler: I would break it out. I would recommend that you approve the
mandatory inspection program now and you can revisit. You’ve got the concepts for the point of
sale if you’re going to review it in a year’s time after you’ve got the data from the mandatory
inspection and then you review whether you want to continue with that point of sale program and
whether you want to budget for potential funding for these repairs in 2022 so.
Mayor Ryan: Okay alright, thank you. That makes sense. Alright Councilman Campion I think
you were going to make a motion.
Councilman Campion: Yeah I will attempt to make a motion. Alright so I propose that the City
Council authorizes the engineering and public works departments to move forward with
recommendations from the 2019 Inflow and Infiltration I&I study to address private
infrastructure I&I by a mandatory inspection program for all homes built on or before 1969 but
not requiring mandatory repairs.
Mayor Ryan: Is that a valid motion?
Andrea McDowell Poehler: That’s valid.
Mayor Ryan: Okay.
Councilman Campion: Okay.
Mayor Ryan: We have a valid motion. Is there a second?
Councilman McDonald: I’ll second.
Chanhassen City Council – August 24, 2020
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Mayor Ryan: Thank you Councilman McDonald. With a valid motion and second, all those in
favor.
Councilman Campion moved, Councilman McDonald seconded that the City Council
authorizes the Engineering and Public Works Departments to move forward with
recommendations from the 2019 Inflow and Infiltration (I&I) study to address private
infrastructure I&I by a mandatory inspection program for all homes built on or before
1969 but not requiring mandatory repairs. All voted in favor and the motion carried
unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0.
Mayor Ryan: That motion carries 4-0. Thank you. Thank you very much.
COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS. None.
ADMINISTRATIVE PRESENTATIONS. None.
CORRESPONDENCE DISCUSSION. None.
Mayor Ryan: Alright with that I would entertain, and council we are going to stay here
afterwards to finish the budget conversation that we started in the work session but with that I
would entertain a motion to adjourn.
Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Campion seconded to adjourn the meeting.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 4 to 0. The City
Council meeting was adjourned at 8:50 p.m.
Submitted by Heather Johnston
Interim City Manager
Prepared by Nann Opheim