CC VER 2020 12 07CHANHASSEN CITY COUNCIL
CITY COUNCIL/TRUTH IN TAXATION MEETING
DECEMBER 7, 2020
Mayor Ryan called the City Council/Truth in Taxation meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The
meeting was opened with the pledge to the Flag.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Ryan, Councilwoman Tjornhom, Councilman
McDonald, and Councilman Campion, Councilwoman Coleman
COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: None
STAFF PRESENT: Heather Johnston, Kelly Strey, Kate Aanenson
PUBLIC PRESENT:
George Beniek 412 West 76th Street
Bala Chintaginjala 8982 Southwest Village Loop
Mike Wollin Carver County Sheriff’s Office (via Zoom)
Mayor Ryan: Good evening again, everyone. Thank you again for joining us tonight. Due to the
high COVID numbers we have decided to again conduct our City Council meeting via Zoom.
While I am here in the Council chambers along with a few members of city staff, our four
Council members are joining us via Zoom and since we are operating in this fashion I will be
taking roll call votes throughout the meeting. For the record, we have all of our members present
tonight. Our first action is our agenda approval. Council members, are there any modifications to
the agenda as printed? Please respond with yay or nay. Councilman McDonald?
McDonald: Nay
Tjornhom: Nay
Coleman: Nay
Campion: Nay
Ryan: Nay. So we will proceed with the published agenda. Tonight we have no Public
Announcements. Next is our Consent Agenda. Tonight we have Consent Agenda item numbers 1
through 8. All items listed under the Consent Agenda are considered to be routine by the City
Council and will be recorded as a single motion based on staff recommendation. There will be no
separate discussion of these items. Are there any items that the Council would like to consider
separately? Councilman McDonald?
Councilman McDonald: No.
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Councilwoman Tjornhom: No.
Councilwoman Coleman: No.
Councilman Campion: No.
Mayor Ryan: I would like to remove one item and that’s Consent Agenda Item No. 4 and that’s
the 2021 Police Contract with Carver County Sheriff’s Office. After we approve that I would
move that to H-1 under New Business. Is there a motion to approve Consent Agenda Items Nos.
1 through 3 and 5 through 8?
CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Coleman seconded to
approve the following consent agenda items pursuant to the Interim City Manager’s
recommendations:
1. Approve City Council Minutes dated November 23, 2020.
2. Receive Planning Commission Minutes dated November 17, 2020.
3. Receive Park and Recreation Commission Minutes dated October 27, 2020.
4. Approve 20201 Police Contract with Carver County Sheriff’s Office – Item moved to
New Business H-1.
5. Approval of Telecommuting Policy.
6. Ordinance 662: Approve Code Omnibus Amendment Addressing the 1) Definition of
Street; 2) Administrative Duties; 3) Administrative Septic Variances; 4) Earthwork Fee.
7. Resolution No. 2020-65: Carver County Covid Support.
8. Approve Engagement Agreement with Moss & Barnett.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0.
VISITOR PRESENTATIONS - NONE
PUBLIC HEARING: PUBLIC MEETING ON THE PROPOSED 2021 BUDGET.
Kelly Strey: Thank you Madam Mayor and Council members. Tonight we will have our budget
presentation. I’m going to share my screen here. Tonight you’re getting down to the last two
meetings of your budget year. As you can see, all of the meetings that you’ve had previous to
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this where you discussed a lot of detail in every aspect of the budget previous to this. So tonight
is just a summary of where we’re at on the levy and follow up as we’ve had and an opportunity
for public comment.
Mayor Ryan: Could you speak just a little bit louder please? It’s a little bit hard to hear.
Kelly Strey Would you like me to do that one over again or?
Mayor Ryan: No. We see the budget calendar so that’s good. As if you move forward if you
wouldn’t mind speaking a little bit louder that would be helpful please.
Kelly Strey: I’ll move a little bit closer to my screen. Is that better? This slide’s just a little
information about the truth in taxation meeting and how the process works. As you remember,
you set a maximum levy back in September and you set that levy at 2.77% and then the County
has sent no truth-in-taxation notices of the proposed tax statements to each individual property
tax owner so that they can see what the maximum amount of tax will be on their property. So
everybody should have gotten one of those recently, by the end of November I believe and then
we are required to hold a public hearing where public where the opportunity for public testimony
is available. Then you’ll have your vote on final levy adoption next week on December 14th. As
an overview of where your expenditures are, this is the General Fund so this is where most of the
General Fund activity is, not capital and enterprises funds but General Fund. The total proposed
recommended budget for 2021 is $12,086,200 for a 1.6% increase. On the revenue side, property
taxes are just one revenue. It is the majority of the revenue in the General Fund. You can see
how each of those different categories has changed. This represents a balanced budget with
$12,086,200. You will notice that your charges for services this year are down significantly and
that is due to the economic factors that are going on right now. What factors changed in the 2020
budget – the high level ones? You have a levy increase of 2.5% proposed which is a little bit
below the maximum tax that we set. No increase in health care costs for employees and that is an
unusual year so that’s a good thing that factored into the budget this year. There’s a 2% cost of
living and step pay increases for merit. There is adjustments to the police contract and police
state aid, a new technology fee for permit software, and a Planning Intern that’s funded out of
sign permit fees. We have revenue estimates updates that had some shortfalls from last year and
we have a new partnership for congregate dining, and streets and parks snowplowing policy
savings are factored in a savings of $19,000. The next two slides show you a breakdown by fund
with the General Fund and the capital and the debt levy for changes… Are you able to see that
final column?
Mayor Ryan: Yes.
Kelly Strey: So that shows you where the levy is so a total levy of $12,066,700 at max tax was
2.77. This slide shows you how it changed which is just in the General Fund for $12,034,800.
This is just a reminder, just a point of reference on how much the levy has to change in order to
have a 0.1% change in the levy. Every 0.1% change is $12,000 up or down, and to have a 1%
change in the levy that’s $120,000. I like to show this slide just as a point of reference. If you
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are wanting to make an impact on the levy, this is how much that would equate to. This slide is
from our last meeting, our most recent meeting that shows the effect on three different values of
homes if their valuation did not change during the year at what it was in 2020, also with the
referendum levy which is the debt levy that’s going away, and then what it would be for 2021
based on the preliminary levy at 2.77% and 2.5% increase in the next column. The difference
between the 2.7% increase and the 2.5% increase that’s reduced from the max tax ranges from
about three to five dollars a year on those different values of homes. As you can see it’s not a lot
on an individual home and that is a levy decrease of about $32,000. When property owners look
at their property taxes, residential, you will see that there are multiple governing bodies that have
a piece of the property tax on that property tax statement. I want to point out the city represents
about 19% of property tax on the residential property. The school district and county have the
other portions and some other smaller districts represent that over 5%. So how do we compare to
other cities that are similar in size? These cities are ones that Chanhassen has selected as their
comparable cities over time. As you can see, Chanhassen is on the low end of percent change in
the levy this year. This is kind of a simplistic comparison because each city is different and they
have different factors each year but it is just at a high level looking at it. Chanhassen is one of the
lowest of the proposed max tax. This slide shows you compared to Carver County cities, also on
the low end in comparison to our neighbors. That leads me to discussion points for Council
consideration. As you consider the final tax levy and CIP and fees on December 14th, you can
direct staff to prepare the levy at 2.5% as previously discussed with the reduction. The most that
you could levy is that max tax at 2.77%. There was some discussion about whether an IT
position could be moved ahead from proposed for 2022. You could take part of that $32,000 and
fund a portion of that. Or you could add resources to the Equipment Fund. Those are a couple of
options that you could if you wanted to. We have recommended one-time use in the budget for
the compensation study and unplanned COVID-related expenses so as we go forward if we have
continued COVID paid sick leave we would recommend using fund balance to fund those
expenses. That completes my portion of the presentation. I will open it up for questions.
Mayor Ryan: Wonderful. Thank you. Before I open it up for the public hearing Council, are
there any questions at this time, and just remember once I close the public hearing then we can
come back to Council for further questions and discussion. If there is any questions at this time
that you have for staff as it relates to the presentation, please let me know. Councilman
McDonald? Any questions?
Jerry McDonald: I will wait until after the public hearing to see what issues come up. Thank you.
Bethany Tjornhom: Not at this time.
Councilwoman Coleman: Not right now, thank you.
Councilman Campion: I will hold my comments as well.
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Mayor Ryan: Thank you and I don’t have any questions either. I hereby open the public hearing.
Please step forward and state your name and address for the record. We also have the number on
the screen if you want to call in. Before I welcome anybody to the podium, the public comments
we did receive an email as it relates to the levy so I would like to read that into the record. The
comment came from a Rob Hagerstrom and comment was “With the pandemic many folks are
not getting raises or have even had to take pay cuts but city still wants more money. Does not
make much sense.” I want to read that into the record. So that was from Rob Hagerstrom and I
don’t have an address for that. That is one comment and if there’s folks from the audience that
would like to step forward, please come forward and just state your name and address for the
record please sir.
George Beniek: My name is George Beniek and I live at 412 West 76th street. My question is did
the city receive any stimulus funds and how were they spent?
Mayor Ryan: Great question. We did receive just over $2 million dollars in CARES funding and
the majority of the CARES funding went to facility improvements so we retrofitted some of our
HVAC systems at City Hall and at our Public Works building, the Rec Center as well as the
Library to make sure that there is a cleaner transfer of air. We upgraded some of our facilities
within our public bathrooms, IT… Do we have the list, Heather that we could put on the screen?
Heather Johnston: I can pull it up.
Mayor Ryan: There was some IT improvements, technology improvements. The Council
allocated just under $200,000 of funds to help small businesses in the form of grants. So we
spent, I think it ended up being just about $2.1 million that we received in Federal money in the
CARES Act. If we can pull this up to share with you.
Heather Johnston: I’m still working on pulling it up but I also could take your email address and
just send you the list as well but I will work to get it up here quick.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. While she’s working on that, if there is somebody else that would like to
come forward with a question or comment? Or a phone call. Bala, welcome.
Bala Chintaginjala: Good evening, everybody. My name is Bala Chintaginjala. I live at 8982
Southwest Village Loop. During this stimulus fund, how much will you spend on IT
improvements and may I know the details, if possible? Out of the money that was issued from
the stimulus, how much was spent for IT.
Heather Johnston: For the stimulus? Oh, how many IT improvements? Okay. I’m going to keep
working on this because it will be on the screen.
Bala Chintaginjala: I guess you could send an email answer. One more thing is, how much we
support our small businesses during this time…
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Heather Johnston: And that one I can mention off the top of my head is that we actually
partnered with the Carver County Community Development Agency (CCDA) to give small
business grants. We provided as many funds as there were applicants so if people applied they
were able to receive those grants. I think that my understanding is actually the Council just
passed a resolution tonight on the Consent Agenda saying that, recommending to Carver County
that any additional stimulus funds that the might have because they have a little longer to spend
it, should be used to provide support to local businesses. The total dollar amount? I’ll have to get
back to you as soon as I pull it up but we did in fact try to maximize the amount of money and, in
addition, there were some grants that were made to help with the liquor licenses, too. Help offset
the cost of those liquor licenses as well. So those were the two primary areas that we did that and
the Council, as I mentioned, just passed another resolution saying we need continued support for
our small businesses. But I’m going to find that number for you as well.
Bala Chintaginjala: Can I ask one more question on this support. Do we have a plan to use the
loans free of interest for these small business owners during this time… ?
Heather Johnston: Madam Mayor, sir. I am not sure that, the program that we partner with the
CCDA and I think Ms. Aanenson is also on the line so she can certainly jump in and help me
here if I go too far. That program was a grant program. It was not actually a loan program. I’m
not aware of any particular additional programs for loans other than at the state. I know the state
has some small business loans. The programs that we were participating in were all grant
programs.
Bala Chintaginjala: Thank you.
Heather Johnston: You’re welcome.
Mayor Ryan: Ms. Aanenson, are you on the phone?
Kate Aanenson: Yes, I’m here.
Mayor Ryan: Do you know off the top of your head and I apologize for putting you on the spot,
but do you know how many Chanhassen businesses ended up receiving, I know everyone that
applied from Chanhassen did receive the money, the grant. Do you know off the top of your head
how many in Chanhassen were recipients?
Kate Aanenson: Yes, actually I’m looking at, Kelly put together at your last meeting, the Interim
Finance Director put together at your last meeting the allocations. So we actually had it broken
down by different types and I could just go through that really quickly. I know Ms. Johnston was
looking for that. So that was on the presentation made on your November meeting. It was a
combination of about $327,000, almost $328,000. It went to hospitality, education, child care,
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salons, some sports and fitness, some retail and health and wellness. So that was the… I can give
you the numbers but I’m hoping that answers your question.
Mayor Ryan: Bala, does that answer your question in terms of…
Bala Chintaginjala: Yes, it does. Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: And we can follow up more specifically, I know we have your email and Mr.
Beniek if we could get your email as well we can give you the specific breakdown. We do have a
chart that has a breakdown of how the funds were allocated. We had a short window of time to
be able to spend it. It had to be spent initially by November 15th. So we made every effort to
spend every dollar that was allocated to Chanhassen. So please, before you leave if you don’t
mind leaving your email address so we can follow up? That would be great. You know, in
addition, small businesses, addressing the needs of small businesses was absolutely a priority for
Council as well as city staff and we acted immediately so it was initially with the liquor licenses,
then as we were approaching some of the summer months, staff came up with a plan to figure out
how businesses that had limited outdoor seating or no outdoor seating, we worked with them to
move into the sidewalks and into the parking lots and our city staff came up with very ways to be
able to address those needs when they weren’t allowed to have patrons inside or limited
numbers. So we worked in close concert with our, particularly our restaurants, in order to support
their needs as well. So it was a priority for this Council and city staff.
Kate Aanenson: So mayor, I would just add to that, too. Not only did the City put in money be
we were also able to leverage some of the County’s money, too. So that’s while we put in
$200,000, actually over $350,000 was actually allocated to Chanhassen.
Mayo r Ryan: Perfect. Thank you Ms. Aanenson. As Ms. Johnston pointed out just tonight our,
when we approved that Consent Agenda at the very beginning of the meeting, the County had
asked to cities to provide a preference if they have addition funds, how we would like to see
those dollars allocated. The motion that we passed unanimously was to have it support small
business because there continues to be a need as we know. And this looks like a very small
printed screen so I don’t believe that anyone’s going to be able to read it very easily.
Heather Johnston: And this is really the list, Madam Mayor. I’m sorry. This is the list of all the
folks who received the grants but in terms of the list that was requested by the previous
gentleman, we’ll have to just email that out and we can also post it on our website with this
agenda as well.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. That sounds great. Thank you for your questions. Is there a phone call?
Anybody else who would like to come forward. Sir? No? We’ll just wait to see anyone wants to
call in. You know, and as mentioned in terms of small business, early on when things were
rapidly changing, our city staff reached out, had kind of a calling tree where they were reaching
out to local businesses to find out what their needs were. If the City could help in any way so we
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did outreach not only to small businesses but then also with different faith organizations to what
they were doing to reach out to people in need. It was a really remarkable team effort in order to
reach businesses and individuals in our community to make sure that we were providing any help
that we could or, at least if at the time we hadn’t received any CARES funds, but if we could be
a resource to put them in touch with folks through DEED and understanding that everybody was
coming presenting different challenges and struggles and we wanted make sure that we would be
a resource for them as well. We acted very quickly and then as soon as got the funds, the way
that we identified what the needs were in terms of how we were going to spend those allocated
dollars. We did a feasibility study for all of our different facilities in Chanhassen to see what
would be the best way to spend those CARES funds so we actually did a study that then directed
us how best to use these dollars and that’s how we came up with that list, this list that’s on the
screen now. This is the allocation of the dollars and it’s a little bit hard to read, I know.
Heather Johnston: Madam Mayor, if you would like I can go through it real briefly. Would you
like me to do that?
Mayor Ryan: Yeah, please. That would be great. Thank you.
Heather Johnston: So this is a list that the Council approved back in September and so the final
numbers will be a little bit different than this. This was kind of the approved budget. The first
piece is talking about EPSO, what is that? Well, that’s emergency paid sick leave and
unemployment wages and so that was an estimate of when workers, in order to receive these
funds the Federal Government mandated that we pay for up to 80 hours of sick leave for all
employees. So that was our estimate of that. We did have additional costs related to public safety
so our Fire Department duty crews, their wages are included on this as well as additional turnout
gear. There were recommendations that were made that if you go into a COVID environment
that you made need to change out your turnout gear. At this point in time very few of our fire
folks had two sets of turnout gear so they would have to wash it and then wait for it to dry. That
was what that was for. There were some wages that were paid for folks who were, while we were
kind of transitioning to this virtual environment, and then there’s a grouping, so I won’t go into
super detail on some of these improvements other than to say that as we learn more about the
COVID-19 virus and we learned that and a lot of that was through the air, the Council made the
decision to really try and make some improvements to the HVAC systems. We had also made
improvements, as I think the Mayor had mentioned, to have touchless. You probably noticed
there’s little hooks on the doors now and touchless fountains and things like that. In an older
building you don’t necessarily have as many of those types of things. The forced closure on-sale
restaurants grant award, you can see that was related to some of the liquor licenses. There’s
election safety improvements. You probably noticed when you voted this year that there were a
lot more guards and gloves and everything like that. There was a lot of PPE. We have masks for
City employees and public visitors and then as a part of our facility review, before making large
investments in the facilities themselves, we did have a study done, that’s that $14,000 there. I’m
almost to the end, Madam Mayor. That really helped us kind of prioritize and make
recommendations to the Council about what really would be best for the public and for the
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employees in terms of keeping them safe in those facilities. Then that really kind of brings it the
end where we have the Emergency Small Business Grant Award Program and that’s the
budgeted amount of $250,000 as I indicated. I think we got a little bit of that back from the
CCDA only because we didn’t have enough applicants so we funded everybody who was eligible
who applied. That is the estimated budget, if that is helpful. If anyone has questions I’m happy to
answer them.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Do you have any questions about the information? No? Okay. No
phone calls coming in? Okay. With no further comments or questions. Thank you for those
questions. We appreciate it. I’m going to close the public hearing and bring it back to Council for
questions or comments this evening. Nobody called in? No? I’ll go down the line again and ask
for any questions or comments. This is now coming back to Council for discussion. Obviously,
tonight is public hearing, and then at our next meeting is when we will set the final tax levy for
2021, but I will begin with Councilman McDonald if you have any questions or comments.
Jerry McDonald: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have one question on the levy at 2.77%, one of
the things that we were looking at would be an IT position. In light of everything that’s happened
with COVID and the fact that we’re doing a lot more Zoom meetings and those types of things,
I’d like to get an idea of what the priority should be for this particular position. I would like for
city staff, if you can, to tell me the importance of this position by mid-year, or waiting until the
following year in the budget at that point. Where are we at with, again I know we’ve put quite a
strain on our IT systems. Do you see that lessening or is that what this decision helps with?
Heather Johnston: Madam Mayor, I’m going to start and then I’m going to ask Rick Rice, our
department director, to come up as well. I’m glad that you asked this question because the
gentleman had asked specifically about IT and I just cruised right by that. Our technology
improvements that we did as far as CARES was $112,000. I don’t know if you saw that on the
list. You asked me that specific question and I read too quickly, so I apologize. Councilmember
McDonald, I would start by saying that the needs are only getting greater. One of the big
technology changes that we are doing currently is moving to a system that has online permitting.
I think people’s expectation for their information technology needs only continue to increase.
They want to do more things online. We are able to kind of do those as we can, but one thing I
would say that is a challenge is that we really don’t have much by way of backup in our IT
function. We have two people doing the work of probably four people and its’ been a little bit of
a strain from a couple of different things. I’ll have the three that I pick and then I’m going to ask
Rick to address it. One, I think that moving forward and the innovation you all expect from us,
it’s difficult to do when you are doing kind of break fix and you’re really just trying to make sure
everything’s working and so you don’t have the time to do those reflections and look for what
might be the best approach or what kind of system might make us more efficient or allows for
better public input. That kind of proactive is very difficult to do with a staff of two. The second
thing, and I think I mentioned this, is really the backup. Just by having two people is very
difficult to do to have something go wrong and if somebody’s out of town. We don’t often let
Rick take vacation but if we do it’s very difficult for Matt. But it comes down to that. The third
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piece really is training. You want to develop your people. You want them to be engaged in their
job and from my standpoint as the person who encourages that, they don’t have any time to do
training and so the only training they are able to do is “Oh, darn! That broke. Now I’ve got to
quick go online and see if I can learn how to fix it.” That’s not the kind of training you want your
folks to be able to do. You want them to do a lot more proactive. So that’s a very long answer to
a short question which was the needs are only increasing. I don’t think that changes with
COVID. They did a tremendous job, as you know, turning us all virtually very quickly. Now I’m
going to stop talking and let Mr. Rice answer that question as well.
Rick Rice: Thank you. Again, I’m Rick Rice. I’m the IT Manager here. The first issue that we
run into is that there isn’t enough time for each of us to back each other up. I have my unique
skills in the network side, Matt has unique skills in the user side, and right now there’s not
enough time for us to actually understand what each of us is doing to be able to do that when the
other person is gone. That’s a big chore. So when we take vacations it’s generally with your
laptop so if there is a question that comes up you can answer that. The second thing again was
we have seen a high turnover in staff here and what we’re experience is that there are quite a few
new employees coming in with either greater skillsets of greater demands and they want to see
the utilize the technology to be a little more efficient. So we’re trying to meet those needs but,
again, both the time and the budget is a challenge. Then again, as Heather mentioned too, the
training side of that, we unfortunately do kind of training as needed. We don’t really have time to
sit down and do a full course. It’s typically you run into a problem, and I have the utilities or the
ability to find what I need and train myself up to fix that problem. We’d certainly like to get to
the point where we can be a little bit more expert level, at least at a higher degree in some of the
applications. The other thing is the technology, especially the virtual stuff, is changing. I don’t
anticipate the virtual environment to go away. I think that’s going to continue here as people get
used to that and it makes it a little easier for people to work from remote locations, especially
Council now. I see that actually taking off and probably not going back to the way it was. With
that, it kind of puts some demands on the virtual environment here. It does require a couple of
people to run a virtual meeting so that’s been a challenge. To answer the question that came up
earlier, too, what technology was spent? The first thing we spent as far as the funding that we got
available for the CARES is on improving the AV systems here so we could actually do this
hybrid meeting. It’s actually quite easy to do a strictly virtual meeting but when you blend the
cameras in along with the virtual meeting participants, it’s still a bit of a challenge and someone
has to manage that piece of it. So it’s those sorts of things that become a challenge here. Then
again, we’ve got to kind of plan for the future too. We kind of see things with technologies
going. We’re a small city, but when it comes to security we have the same risks as Minneapolis
or St. Paul. Maybe not as big a target but again, a target. So keeping up with the security side of
that is a real chore. I’ll open it up for any questions.
Mayor Ryan: Councilman McDonald, do have any questions for Mr. Rice or Ms. Johnston?
Jerry McDonald: Well, I thank you for your answers to your question. I think you got around to,
what I’m kind of looking for. I’m looking to assign a priority to this and what I mean by that is,
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is this something that we need to look at now and move it up in the budget schedule, or is this
something that again within the budget schedule could wait until next year? Why I’m asking is
because I know that during COVID you have had to kind of step up what IT can and cannot do.
So that’s why I was question the question because when to being to look at all of this for a
budget number, I don’t think IT was, it’s always been a priority. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t
think it was maybe the problem that it is becoming and that’s what I’m trying to get at the heart
of is how critical is this at this point? Is this something that we could wait an additional 12
months to bring someone on, or is this something that because of circumstances we probably do
need to look at it now? That’s what my question was all about, so thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Did you want to respond, Ms. Johnston?
Heather Johnston: Madam Mayor, Councilmember McDonald, I would say what happened with
COVID really emphasized that this is such a priority just because we are so dependent on
technology in every way, shape, and form and I think if we knew last September what we know
now, I think that you would have seen a request for this IT person last year. Hindsight is always
20/20 but I would say that in order to move forward with a lot of things that we’re hearing from
Council I think the sooner we can get this filled the better, especially when it comes to… It’s not
just about doing new things either it’s really about supporting and maintaining what we have and
I think that where I get most concerned as your City Manager, is making sure that we can 1)
maintain what we have now but it’s also a very competitive environment as you probably know
for IT personnel so I would expect that, we probably don’t need 100% of this salary on day one
because it takes a while to get them hired. Any acceleration of this I think would be, certainly in
my view, warranted as a priority.
Mayor Ryan: Ms. Johnston, if I could jump in here to tag on that last comment as well as
Councilman McDonald’s question. It’s $32,000 gap that we’re looking between the 2.77 or 2.5
so that was why we brought up the IT employee and so by utilizing that $32,000 it would only be
for half of the year. We know that the request is coming for 2022 when we were looking out for
our one to two-year budget planning. Mr. Rice had made us aware that this request for a full-time
employee is going to come in 2022. We recognize the importance of getting somebody on board
sooner and that was the difference of utilizing that $32,000 for at least a half of a year to get the
ball rolling, recognizing the increase in technology demands. The web site improvements, there
are so many technology pieces that we’re looking to implement right away in 2021 and so to get
somebody on board halfway through the year.
Heather Johnston: Madam Mayor, that’s about a third of the cost of the FTE and so it would be
closer to start looking halfway throughout the year unless the Council decided to allocate some
one-time funds to be able to get that position in sooner in addition to that $32,000. I think Ms.
Strey can certainly tell us what that dollar amount estimate is but I think it’s roughly a third of
the year. So, in order to fill it sooner that, we would have to request some one-time funds as well.
Mayor Ryan: Mr. Rice, any further comments?
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Rick Rice: Not unless there are other questions for me, no.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Thank you. Councilman McDonald, any other questions or comments at this
time?
Jerry McDonald. No, that was the big thing I wanted to look at was to ask that question, trying to
get a difference between 2.5 and 2.77 so that answered the question. Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Councilwoman Tjornhom, any comments or questions at this time?
Bethany Tjornhom: Not at this time:
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Councilwoman Coleman?
Julia Coleman: Per usual Madam Mayor, Councilman McDonald hit the nail on the head and
asked the same questions that I had in mind, so no additional questions from me.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Councilman Campion?
Dan Campion: No further questions right now.
Mayor Ryan: I don’t have any questions either. I didn’t really have a question it was more, I’m
glad Councilman McDonald brought it in in advocating for the 2.7. I know we had worked hard
as a Council, or asked staff to work hard to figure out ways to get down to 2.5 to save those extra
few dollars which we all know are very important to our residents. My biggest concern is we
know that this is coming in 2022. We know that there’s going to be other budget constraints
coming in 2020 that we’re already starting to plan for, and if we can get somebody on board to
address our technology needs, it’s something that I am very much in support of because we talk
about the demands internally of what our expectations our but I think the demand from our
residents continue to come of having more efficiencies from the technology perspective and how
they interact with the city and with different departments. To be able to have an extra person to
support the two of you and the team and the technology, we spend a lot of money in software and
hardware and I think we need to make that investment as well as an individual to really have the
full complement of IT in this city with overall expectations of our residents. It’s something that I
very much support. I know the decision is next week for us Council but I just wanted to share my
feelings as well as it relates to the IT person. There’s no action tonight. It was just gathering
public hearing for the 2021 budget which we collected. Kind of a last go around. Any other
comments, questions, items that you want staff to look into further to bring back for our final
meeting next Monday. I will just go around the horn again. Councilman McDonald?
Jerry McDonald: I think I’ve raised the issues that I’m most concerned about and I think I
received the answers that I believe I’m looking for so I’m actually fine until next week.
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May Ryan: Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman Tjornhom:
Bethany Tjornhom: No, I’m good.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Councilwoman Coleman?
Julia Coleman: No. I just wanted to say thank you to the staff for the countless hours that they
have spent going through this again and again with us so that we do feel so prepared for next
week, so thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Nice comment. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Campion?
Dan Campion: I’m good with the material. Nothing additional at this point.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Thank you. Kelly, that you so much for the presentation and I don’t think we
have any other questions. Thank you for joining us via Zoom tonight. We appreciate it. To the
residents that are here in the room or still listening online we still welcome your questions or
your comments. It won’t be part of the public hearing, per se, but we do address this again next
Monday. We have an email on our website for public comment so if you have further questions
or feedback, please don’t hesitate to send in those emails and they will be reviewed at our next
meeting so thank you to those who came tonight to ask questions. We appreciate it. Next we
have New Business and it was an item that I had removed from the Consent Agenda and it has to
do with our 2021 police contract with the Carver County Sheriff’s Office. We often just approve
this and it goes through the Consent Agenda as it was on tonight, but I just thought it was
important as I receive different questions, particularly this year as it relates to our policing
contract. Why we have a contract with the Carver County Sheriff’s Office versus having our own
police department. I wanted to pull it up not to really scrutinize the contract in and of itself but
just a couple questions as it relates to this. Ms. Johnston, I’m going to just put it out there.
Obviously this is our biggest contract that we have. It’s 6% of our budget and if you could just
address the difference between having a contract with the Sheriff’s Office versus what would it
cost or what would it look like for the City Council to move away the contractual service to a
full-time police department.
Heather Johnston: Madam Mayor, thank you for the question and thank you for the heads up on
the question so we could get some research to actually be able to answer this well. Jake Foster
had done some research on our KFS, our Key Financial Strategies comparable cities, and really
looked at their 2020 adopted police operating budgets just as a means of comparison. We have
about a $2 million dollar contract for our services with Carver County. I do believe that
Commander Mike Wollin is also listening in via Zoom in case there were questions. The range,
if you will, of costs for other police departments in our comparable cities is really Lino Lakes at
about $4 million, $4.1 million all the way up to Stillwater that has about an $11.6 million budget
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for their police department. The average of our KFS cities is really about $6.7 million for their
police department. That includes Chaska, our neighbor, at about $4.7 million.
Mayor Ryan: Is this public information?
Heather Johnston: Yes, it’s certainly public information. I’m not sure how I can pull it up.
Mayor Ryan: Does the camera work over there?
Heather Johnston: We’ll try and get the other camera working. I promised him one camera but
they’re just so good. See, this is the thing. This is why we need more of them. This is kind of
hard to read, and this isn’t really their operating budgets so it doesn’t include the one-time
startup that you might have associated with that which might involve vehicle purchases and
things like that. I would say that you would probably just over double your costs associated with,
if we were not to have a contract if we wanted to start up our own department, there would be
additional administration costs and such. You would probably be looking at two to three times
what we’re currently paying for our contract.
Mayor Ryan. Okay. Thank you. I think it’s important. Again, it’s a question that I receive a lot
of. Is it time for the City to, and maybe this is a question for Mr. Wollin if or Ms. Johnston,
whoever wants to answer, when the question is how do you determine when it’s time to go to a
full-time police department versus contracting. Ms. Johnston?
Heather Johnston: Madam Mayor and member of the Council, I think there number of factors. I
think cost is only one factor. I think there is an identity factor. There is a control factor if for
some reason you felt you weren’t getting the services out of Carver County that you felt the
citizens needed and deserved, then you might need to have an independent police department. So
it really comes down to service level and how that relationship is working, I would say.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Did you say Mr. Wollin is on…
Heather Johnston: Commander Wollin, I’m not sure if he’s…
Mayor Ryan: Commander Wollin, are you on?
Commander Wollin: Yes, I am here Madam Mayor.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Thank you for being here tonight. I appreciate it. Or joining us via
Zoom. I appreciate it. A quick question for you. It has to do with police state aid and how it’s
distributed. Is that something that you can speak to? I know there was a $35,000 decrease. Is that
something that you can speak to?
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Commander Wollin: I can touch on that a little bit. We had looked at recalculating state aid
reimbursement for the cities when we had looked at how the reimbursement was occurring. We
had discovered that we had been over reimbursing cities that way so the recalculation was to get
more in line with the actual number of hours for what contract communities account for.
Mayor Ryan: So that’s the money that comes in from the State to the County and then the
County allocates that to the cities? Is that a correct understanding?
Commander Wollin: Right. The money comes from the State and they it’s a pass-through for us
as distribute the reimbursement to the cities.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. I’m not sure if this a city question or Commander Wollin, but I know that
there was some union negotiation that still has to take place on the County’s end. How is that, if
things dramatically change on their end, what is the City then obligated, if there is a difference,
what is the obligation for the city and is it something that we need to budget for if there’s an
increase:
Heather Johnston: Madam Mayor, I’ll take it and then I’ll ask Commander Wollin to chime in on
whether our understandings match. The Sheriff’s Office did change in terms of its calculation to
provide more stability to cities. Specifically, they said that they froze the contact at last year’s
amount. Then next year that contract will include any differential in salary that would have been
in this year with a settled contract. There would essentially be a year lag every year in terms of
actual dollar amounts so you would budget for it sort of in arrears. What end’s up happening is if
we did get to a point where Chanhassen wanted to have their own police department, I would
imagine that there would be some sort of a true-up payment is kind of how I’m understanding it.
I’m going to ask Commander Wollin to chime in on whether I’m understanding that correctly.
Mayor Ryan: Just for clarification, Commander, I’m not asking in terms of switching to a full-
time police department. Rather, if your contract negotiations then lead to an increase with the
union and that, in turn, comes back to, your city’s paying more. What Ms. Johnston just said is
that there a year lag so will that continue year after year or then when it comes to 2022, let’s say
there’s a 2% increase this year and a 2% increase that next year, then should we anticipate a 4%
increase or will it just continue to be a year lag with any type of increase?
Commander Wollin: Madam Mayor, what we are going with is basically that year lookback and
so it would be the lag and then we would perpetuate that method in successor agreements. I want
to make sure I’m not getting certainly confused with the question. When we look for a true-up,
that would be if the city elected to decrease the level of services they contract with the Sheriff’s
Office or terminate as a whole, then what we would have seen with that increase and so we
would look to true-up those costs for services already rendered.
Mayor Ryan: That makes sense. Again, my concern obviously with our contract with the
Sheriff’s Office being our biggest contract and one to two to three to four percent jumps are
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significant. I just want to make sure that we don’t all of a sudden get hit with a double increase
from last year and then going forward. Knowing that it’s lookback or a year lag, that’s helpful
just from a planning perspective so thank you for the clarification. My last question, and I know
it’s a question that the County gets often, is one that I do as well, it’s reference about body
cameras. Is that something that the County is seriously considering going to having their officers
where body cameras?
Commander Wollin: Madam Mayor, yes. The County is looking at a body-worn camera program
implementation. We’re certainly in the early phases in regards to review of vendors out there of
what’s offered as far as equipment and certainly what the best is for us moving forward with that.
But yes, we are looking at the implementation of a body-worn camera program. But there are
steps to take as we develop that.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. And that equipment cost falls under the Article 5 in terms of equipment
covered by the County or is that part of the negotiation?
Commander Wollin: The equipment piece or what we would look at on the equipment generally
and many time the outfitted deputy or deputy in the community, the equipment costs are the
upfront as the one-time purchase made by the County and then the ongoing operational costs or
whatnot or what, is phased in or developed into the contract.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. So that will be a discussion going forward in terms of the costs associated
with body cameras.
Commander Wollin: Yes.
Mayor Ryan: But not part of this contract, correct?
Commander Wollin: It is not part of this contract, no.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. But that’s the direction that the County is going is body cameras?
Commander Wollin: Correct.
Mayor Ryan: When do you, do you have timing for that? Is that next year, 2022?
Commander Wollin: So we would look at the implementation we are looking to have that as we
develop through 2021 that we would have that implemented going forward for 2022. When we
look at costs or potential increases as it relates to equipment as we come to successor agreements
or the 2022 agreement is where we would look at, that discussion in rates as far as contract talks.
Mayor Ryan: Okay. Perfect. That’s good to know just for a heads up when planning for 2022.
Commander, I appreciate your time tonight. I’m going to ask Council if they have any questions
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for you or for city staff. If no questions come up then Council I would stand for a motion that, if
you can pull it up on your or our screen, but I will go around to see if there any questions.
Councilman McDonald?
Jerry McDonald: (unintelligible interference) …per se but I would like to say that if it ever came
down to a discussion about issues involved and what we’ve… with tonight so, I mean based
upon that, I… about the contract. Could you hear me?
Mayor Ryan: No, I was just about to say we heard bits and pieces so you wouldn’t mind restating
that. You kind of froze up here a little bit.
Jerry McDonald: Okay. Can you hear me okay?
Mayor Ryan: Yes.
Jerry McDonald: What I had said, and I’ll try to remember it, is that I believe that going forward
if we ever the discussions about whether or not we should have our own police department, the
numbers that have been put out here tonight I think are grossly underestimations of what it would
be. I think that if we ever had that discussion going forward, I would just like to put out there that
I think it’s more than double or triple our current numbers. Having said that, I have no questions
about the current contract so I’m okay with that. You had raised a number of issues and I did
want to address anything about going forward with looking at independent policing. Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you Councilman McDonald. Councilwoman Tjornhom?
Bethany Tjornhom: No, this was a great discussion. Thank you but I have no questions.
Mayor Ryan: All right. Councilwoman Coleman?
Julia Coleman: No questions from me at this time. Thank you.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you. Councilman Campion?
Dan Campion: No questions.
Mayor Ryan: All right. Thank you. I asked my questions up front. Commander, again I
appreciate it. I want to reiterate I know we’re just talking about the contract tonight and we
haven’t done this in past meetings, but we absolutely appreciate and value the relationship that
we have with the Carver County’s Sheriff’s Office. We absolutely value the service that they
provide our residents and the County as a whole. I just want to make that very clear that we are
in great support of our Sheriff’s Office but thank you for answering the questions as it related to
the contract. I appreciate it. With that, are there any motions that any Councilmember would like
to make:
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McDonald: Madam Mayor, I’ll make the motion.
Councilman McDonald moved, Councilman Coleman seconded that the City Council
approves the 2021 contract for policing services with the Carver County Sheriff’s Office.
All voted in favor and the motion carried with a vote of 5 to 0.
Mayor Ryan: Thank you again, Commander. Thank you, Ms. Johnston. That’s it for New
Business. Tonight we have Council Presentations. Council McDonald, any Council Presentation?
Jerry McDonald: Yes, Mayor. I would like it very much if you would give us a rundown as to
what happened with the tree lighting. I saw a part of it. Again, we talked about IT tonight and the
importance of all of that. I know that we did all of that live streaming… (unintelligible
interference).
Mayor Ryan: You’re frozen again.
Jerry McDonald: …run data as to what happened because you were there by yourself with just
your family. You guys hearing me?
Mayor Ryan: Yep. We heard you. You’re looking for a rundown of the annual tree lighting and I
was planning on saying something, so I’ll say it right now. First of all, it was so much fun. It was
disappointing not to have residents there to join in the festivities but hats off to our amazing City
staff for getting creative again and allowing it to be done virtually. Ours Park’s crew is
phenomenal and the amount of lights, I don’t know if you’ve been, had a chance to get down
here to see the streaming lights but they are just absolutely magnificent. We just had a fun night.
There was just, it was my family and about 8 members of City staff. We had a nice time and
really appreciate the number of people that watched it online. Again, hats off to our staff because
they sure do an amazing just and to be able to celebrate the holidays driving through downtown
is something special. I was very pleased to be a part of it and be able to carry on the great
tradition that we have with the tree lighting ceremony. Hopefully, next year we can have the
residents back and reindeers and Santa roaming around. Thank you for asking, though,
Councilman McDonald. I appreciate it.
Jerry McDonald: Thank you for the synopsis of what happened thanks for doing that.
Mayor Ryan: Absolutely. Thank you. Councilwoman Tjornhom, any presentations?
Bethany Tjornhom: No.
Mayor Ryan: All right. Councilwoman Coleman?
Julia Coleman: None for me.
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Mayor Ryan: Councilman Campion?
Dan Campion: None for me.
Mayor Ryan: All right. I just have one final send off on behalf of Council, we have Deputy
Zydowsky, I want to read a letter from Council tonight:
Dear Deputy Zydowsky,
On behalf of the City Council, I want to thank you for 32 years of service to the residents of
Carver County—24 directly serving the City of Chanhassen. Starting in Chanhassen as a
Community Service Officer before starting as a County Deputy Sheriff in 2000.
A team player, your kindness and approachable nature have been a credit to law enforcement.
You truly embody the Sheriff’s Department’s mission to “serve everyone with respect and
dignity and to do so with honor, integrity and pride.” Your passion for lifelong positive impact
with the youth in our community is evident by your 11-year tenure as the School Resource
Officer at the Chanhassen High School. Many citizens are familiar with ‘Officer Bob’ and go
out of their way to stay connected, both the youth in the community and those that have grown
into adulthood.
Thank you for your service to our community and to the public as well. We will miss you here at
the City of Chanhassen, and hope you enjoy your much deserved retirement in your new home in
Wisconsin. Enjoy your well-deserved retirement, Officer Bob.
Congratulations and best wishes from all of us on this new phase of your life. Thank you for
many years of keeping us safe.
Mayor Ryan: Warmest regards from myself as well as the City Council, City Staff, and all the
residents in Chanhassen. Thank you Deputy Zydowsky and we wish you the best. That’s it for
Council Presentations. Any Administrative Presentations?
Heather Johnston: No, Madam Mayor.
Mayor Ryan: Nothing on the Correspondence. With that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn?
Councilwoman Coleman moved, Councilman Campion seconded to adjourn the meeting.
All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The council
meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.
Submitted by Heather Johnston
Interim City Manager
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Prepared by Kim Meuwissen