WS 1999 11 01CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MINUTES
NOVEMBER 1, 1999
PRESENT: Mayor Mancino, Council members Engel, Jansen, Labatt and Senn. Staff present:
Scott Botcher, City Manager; Todd Gerhardt, Assistant City Manager; Anita Benson, City
Engineer; Todd Hoffman, Park & Recreation Director; Bruce DeJong, Finance Director.
CITY MANAGER'S EVALUATION, BOB BENSON, SATHE & ASSOCIATES: Mr. Bob
Benson of Sathe & Associates was present to discuss the City Manager's evaluation. He
presented a six month evaluation form for the council to review. From all parties it appeared that
the form was acceptable. In the near term, individual council members will fill out an evaluation
form and return it to Mr. Benson for compilation. The City Manager will also fill out a form to
perform to a self-evaluation of his performance to date. Following this, the mayor (in all
probability) will present to the City Manager the findings of the council and discuss with him the
results of the review.
KMC PROPOSAL, BRIAN GROGAN, MOSS & BARNETT: Brian Grogan from Moss &
Barnett was present to discuss the KMC agreement executed by the city. Mr. Botcher, on behalf
of the city, communicated the council's concern that as the agreement was signed one month after
the creation of legislation making some of the items contained within our voluntary agreement
non-mandatory, Botcher argued that the consideration within the contract was provided on a
voluntary basis as no party mandated that KMC entered into this agreement. Therefore, in his
opinion there was an issue of breach of the contract ifKMC were not to perform. Mr. Grogan
indicated that while the argument had validity, he thought that our chances of succeeding on the
merits of that argument were at best 50/50.
Mr. Gerhardt stated that the current discussions with KMC had been very favorable and they had
expressed a willingness to provide much of what was in the contract on a negotiated basis with
the city. He will keep the city advised as to the status of these negotiations as they move ahead.
HIGHWAY 101 UPGRADE PROCESS:
The City Engineer provided Council members with draft flow charts showing the project
approval/public involvement process and Minnesota State Statute 161 appeal process. These
flow charts have not been reviewed by the other agencies involved and thus are subject to change.
The overall purpose of preparing the flow charts is to provide persons involved with a clear
understanding of the steps which are necessary to deliver a Highway 101 improvement project.
The City Engineer also provided a draft newsletter article for Council review and comment. After
some discussion it was decided Mayor Mancino would submit revisions to this article for
publication in the City Newsletter by November 2, 1999. Mayor Mancino requested
Representative Tom Workman be invited to speak with the Council regarding the likelihood of
achieving financing for this project prior to 2004 through the turnback fund.
The engineering design team has not met to review the comments submitted since the open house;
therefore, the specific dates of neighborhood meetings and other public informational involvement
cannot be determined. However, Council members did indicate a desire to have the public
information process involving the Chanhassen Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, etc. occur
concurrently with neighborhood meetings.
The engineering design team is scheduled to meet on November 5, 1999 to review all comments
submitted to date and will proceed with neighborhood meetings based upon comment cards
received. The City Council expressed a desire to have the Highway 101 information brought to
them on the December 6, 1999 work session. While Council would have liked to have this item
scheduled for an earlier work session, the November work session dates have been specifically
reserved for finalizing budget issues.
CAPITAL BIJDGET: Mr. Gerhardt presented the balance of the capital budget. Issues of
Public Works, Water & Sewer, and Engineering were discussed. There were no substantive
additions or deletions from the document and staff was directed to compile the capital budget into
a single, final draft form for review prior to adoption at budget time.
2000 BIJDGET: Discussions on the 2000 operating budget were initiated. The Park &
Recreation Department and Engineering Department were both present to discuss their
departments. Mr. Botcher indicated that there had been recent discussions of shifting the Water
Resources Coordinator to the Engineering Department in the position of Project Engineer in
order to meet some of the needs of the Engineering Department. He indicated this solution was
not without issues and had yet to be discussed or finalized. Additionally, Mr. Botcher indicated
that in concurrence with memos drafted by Mr. Hoffman, that in the consolidation of the funds,
some inadvertent deletions of expenditures within the Park & Recreation Department had been
made. These dollars will be added back into the budget.
Respectfully submitted,
Scott A. Botcher, City Manager