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Council Information Memorandum 03-09-2001
MARCH 9, 2001 1. COUNCIL MEETING SCHEDULE. 2. 3. TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 5:3 0 PM TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 7: 00 PM TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 5:30 PM TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 7: 00 PM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 7: 00 PM THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 7: 00 PM 4. THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 7: 00 PM S. SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 8:30 AM -2:30 PM 6. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 7:00 PM Dummy SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING, Police Training Room • Surface Water Utility Fee Structure • Update on Hilde Performance Center REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING, Council Chambers SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING, Police Training Room -Speed Hump Policy REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING, Council Chambers ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE (EQC), Council Chambers HRA MEETING, Medicine Lake Room PUBLIC SAFETYAD VISOR Y BOARD, Police Department Library STATE LEAGUE OF HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSIONS REGIONAL MEETING, Council Chambers PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING, Council Chambers 7. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 7:00 PM PACT, Bass Lake Room CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION MEMO March 9, 2001 8. THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 6:30 PM Page 2 MEDICINE LAKE WATERSHED (EQC), SUBCOMMITTEE, Medicine Lake Room 9. FRIDAY, MARCH30, S:00PM PL YMO UTH FINE AR TS CO UNCIL, PRIAM VERA ART SHOW BEGINS, Plymouth Creek Center 10. A List of future Regular Council Meeting agenda items is attached (M-10) 11. February, March and April Calendars are attached (M -I1) 1. NEWS ARTICLES, RELEASES, PUBLICATIONS, ETC. a) Governing magazine article on the performance of government today. Submitted by Mayor Tierney, the entire magazine is in the Council Library at City Hall. (I-1 a) 2. STAFFREPORTS a) Update on installation of the Ice Center dehumidification system. (1-2a) b) 2001 Street Reconstruction Project Updates for Mapledell/Maple Creek area and Magnolia Lane. (I --2b) c) Hennepin County Adult Correctional Facility Population Report. (I -2c) 3. STAFFREPORTS a) Park and Recreation Advisory Commission February 8 meeting. (1--3a) b) Draft minutes of the February 12 Environmental Quality Committee meeting. (I -3b) c) Youth Advisory Council February 20 meeting. (I -3c) 4. CITIZEN COMMUNICATIONS POLICY—CORRESPONDENCE a) Letter to Earl Heinrich from Public Works Director Fred Moore responding to concerns about street plowing in his neighborhood. Mr. Heinrich's original communique is attached. (I -4a) A summary report on the 2001 correspondence is attached (1-4) M_ -J, ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE March 14, 2001 ( Wed.), at 7:00 PM in the Council Chamber Agenda Items: 7:00 PM Call to Order, Chair: Kathy Osborne • Review of Agenda • Approval of Minutes • Guest Introduction & General Forum: Guests may address the EQC about any item not contained on the regular agenda. A maximum of 15 minutes is allotted for the forum. If the full 15 minutes are not needed for the Forum, the EQC will continue with the agenda. 7:10 PM Presentations: • City of Plymouth Tree Preservation Ordinance. As requested by the EQC, a brief presentation will be provided on the City of Plymouth's Tree Preservation ordinances by Mr. Shawn Drill of Plymouth Planning Department. 7:40 PM Updates & Reports: • Environmental Champion Selection Criteria. EQC members need to review and comment on the attached preliminary selection criteria prepared by the staff. Margie V. • Native Plant Model Sites. Ms. Fortin will give an up date on the progress of establishing a native plants area on Schmidt Lake. • Parkers Lake Watershed Educational Efforts. As reported at Feb meeting, a new and comprehensive educational effort is being developed for the Parkers Lake Watershed area. An early draft of the watershed news letter will be presented at the meeting. Ms. Margie V. • 2001 Yard & Garden Expo. Saturday, March 24, 2001. The EQC is planning to have a booth at this expo. There will be an up date on the expo and the booth. Ms. Margie V. 8:10 PM Gleason Lake Association Fund Request. The association recently completed its first year of a three year Purple Loosestrife biological control, which was partly funded by the City. The association is asking for $ 2,000.00 to continue their project in 2001. 8:20 PM Bassett Creek Water Management Commission & Citizen -Assisted Lake Monitoring Program (CAMP). In CAMP, volunteers collect water quality data and met - council tests and analyzes the samples for a small fee. The Bassett Creek watershed is offering to pay the $ 700.00 fee if there are interested parties in the City of Plymouth. 8:30 PM Review of EQC's Annual Plan and activities. A quick review of the EQC's annual plan, particularly on Watershed Education Program. 8:55 PM Plan for next meeting: April 11, 2001! ( Mark your Calendar) (EQC Members will help to determine agenda for next meeting) 9:00 PM ADJOURNED NOTES: D:\TEMP\031401.doc M-3 AGENDA rp) ANNUAL MEETING PLYMOUTH HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY THURSDAY, March 15,2001,7:00 pm WHERE: Medicine Lake Room Plymouth City Center 3400 Plymouth Boulevard Plymouth, MN 55447 1. Call to Order — 7:00 p.m. 2. Introduction and Administration of Oath of Office for New Commissioner Sandy Hewitt 3. Approval of Minutes 4. US Bank Application for Community Activity Set -Aside Mortgage Program 5. Purchase Agreement for Sale and Declaration of Restrictive Covenants for Village At Bassett Creek Townhome 6. Nomination and Election of Officers 7. Plymouth Towne Square Monthly Housing Reports 8. Other Business 9. Adjournment If you have any questions regarding the HRA meeting please call Barb Peterson, HRA Office Support Representative at 763-509-5411 or Ed Goldsmith, HRA Supervisor at 763-509-5412. %'ply_m N.l.pm HWSING,HRA\AGENDAS�30 11 10315, a Tentative Schedule for City Council Non -Consent Agenda Items March 20 • 2000 Unaudited Financial Report • Public hearing for liquor license for Wild Wings Grill and Bar • Review and comment on sketch plan for a 119 unit residential development to be called "Seven Greens" on 62 acres located on the northeast corner of Schmidt Lake Road and Vicksburg Lane (Swan Development LLC) • Comprehensive Plan Amendment to consider 1) removing Holly Lane as a minor collector from Old Rockford Road to Schmidt Lake Road and 2) eliminating the Holly Lane connection across the Canadian Pacific tracks (City of Plymouth) • Agreement with Pillsbury Neighborhood Services for "Job Stops" Transit Service (postponed from February 27) • Plymouth Boulevard parking bays and overlay improvements from 34`h Avenue to County Road 9 (postponed from February 27) March 27 • Presentation of after action report by CP Railroad on train derailment April 10 • Present Environmental Champion Awards • Sunrise Park Development PA-- (I OFFICIAL CITY MEETINGS March 2001 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 Feb 2001 Apr 2001 S M T W T F S S M T W T F S 7:00 PM HUMAN 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RIGHTS 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 COMMISSION - 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Medicine Lake Room 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 25 26 27 28 29 30 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7:00 PM YOUTH ADVISORY 6:30 PM BOARD AND COMMISSION RECEPTION, 7:00 PM PLANNING COMMISSION, 7:00 PM PRAC, Council Chambers COUNCIL, Plymouth Creek Council Medicine Lake Center Chambers Room 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 7:00 PM EQC, 7:00 PM HRA - 8:30 AM - 2:30 Council Medicine Lake PM, LEAGUE OF Chambers Room MINNESOTA HUMAN RIGHTS 7:00 PM PUBLIC COMMISSIONS REGIONAL SAFETY ADVISORY MEETING, BOARD, Police Council Chambers Dept. Library 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 7:00 PM YOUTH ADVISORY 5:30 PM SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING Update on Hilde Pert. Ctr. and Surface Water 7:00 PM PLANNING COMMISSION, COUNCIL, Utility Fee Structure, Public Safety Training Council Medicine Lake Room Chambers Room 7:00 PM REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING, Council Chambers 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 7:30 AM LOCAL6:30 BUSINESS COUNCIL, Radisson Radisson Hotel 7:00 PM PACT - Bass Lake PM MEDICINE LAKE WATERSHED 5:00 PM THRU SATURDAY - PLYMOUTH 5:30 PM SPECIAL Room SUB-COMMIITTEE, Medicine Lake Room FINE ARTS COUNCIL MEET NG- COUNCIL Speed Hump Polity, Public Safety Training PRIMAVERA SHOW, Plymouth Room Creek Center 700 PM REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING, Council Chambers modified on 3/9/2001 M- 1 OFFICIAL CITY MEETINGS April 2001 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 DAYLIGHT SAVINGS COMMENCES - set clocks ahead 7:00 PM YOUTH ADVISORY COUNCIL, 7:00 PM PLANNING COMMISSION, Council 7:00 PM HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - 1 hour Medicine Lake Room Chambers Medicine Lake Room 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 7:00 PM 7:00 PM EQC, 7:00 PM PRAC, REGULAR Council Council COUNCIL Chambers Chambers MEETING, Council Chambers 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 7:00 PM YOUTH ADVISORY COUNCIL, Medicine Lake Room 7:00 PM BOARD OF REVIEW, Council Chambers 7:00 PM PLANNING COMMISSION, Council Chambers 7:00 PM HRA - Medicine Lake Room 7:00 PM PUBLIC SAFETY ADVISORY 11:00 AM CITY EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION LUNCHEON, Plymouth Creek Center BOARD, Police Dept. Library 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 7:30 AM LOCAL BUSINESS COUNCIL, Radisson Hotel 7:00 PM PACT - Bass Lake Room 630 PM MEDICINE LAKE WATERSHED (EQC) SUB -COMMITTEE, Medicine Lake Room 7:00 PM REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING, Council Chambers 29 30 Mar 2001 May 2001 7:00 PM YOUTH ADVISORY S M T W T F S S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 COUNCIL, 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Medicine Lake Room 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 L_ I 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 27 28 29 30 31 I I I modified on 3/9/2001 OFFICIAL CITY MEETINGS May 2001 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 Apr 2001 S M T W T F S 7:00 PM BOARD OF REVIEW RECONVENED) Council Chambers HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION REGIONAL WORC eekOCentemouth 7:00 PM HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - Medicine Lake Room 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 7:00 PM PLANNING COMMISSION, Council Chambers 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 5:00 PM YOUTH ADVISORY COUNCIL TOWN FORUM, Plymouth Creek Center 7:00 PM EQC, Council Chambers 7:00 PM PPAC, Council Chambers 10:30 AM - 4:00 PM PLYMOUTH HISTORY FEST, Parkers 7:00 PM REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING, Council Chambers Lake Park 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 7:00 PM YOUTH ADVISORY 7:00 PM PLMOUTH TOWN 7:00 PM PLANNING COMMISSION, 7:00 PM HRA - Medicine Lake Room COUNCIL, Medicine Lake MEETING, Plymouth Creek Council Chambers 7:00 PM PUBLIC Room Center SAFETY ADVISORY BOARD, Police Dept. Library 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 6:00 PM MILLENNIUM GARDEN GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY, Plymouth Creek Center 7:30 AM LOCAL BUSINESS COUNCIL, Radisson Hotel 7:00 PM REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING, Council Chambers 7:00 PM PACT - Bass Lake Room 27 28 29 30 31 Jun 2001 S M T W T F S MEMORIAL DAY (Observed) - City Offices 7:00 PM YOUTH ADVISORY 1 2 Closed COUNCIL, Medicine Lake Room 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 modified on 3/9/2001 Grading the States A Management Report Card BY KATHERINE BARRETT AND RICHARD GREENE WITH MICHELE MARIANI wo years isn't very long in the life of a state or in the evolution of public policy. And yet a surprising amount has changed across the country since the first installment of the Government Performance Project appeared in the pages of this magazine in February of 1999. States that seemed scarcely to know what work -force planning was two years ago are starting to practice it with confi- dence and skill. States that seemed at the forefront of technological advancement in 1999 have struggled to keep their momen- tum, and others are emerging to set the pace of innovation. And states that seemed hopeless in almost every category the last time are boasting of their commit- ment to modernization. Alabama had the worst grades among the fifty states in 1999, with a D average. Its newly elected governor vowed there would be improvement—and there has been. Alabama's grade in the current survey rose in four of the five areas the GPP covers. True, the state still weighs in with a C- average—hardly a candidate for the dean's ' list --but the important thing is the move- ment. Four states led the nation in 1999 with average grades of A-. They were Missouri, Utah, Virginia and Washington. Missouri and Virginia slipped a bit, but Utah and Washington remain at the top of the list—and Michigan has joined them there. This round of evaluating government performance will not be the last. If all goes as planned, this project—a collaboration between Governing and the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts—will be repeated at regular intervals in the future. 20 G O V E RN ING February2001 Current period 1 given sei or count for even better of state rep a period ing; it sh things c storm cic Given best -mar criticism reporter: Maxwell cooperat eight of tl vey instr covered - capital i resources and infoi Officials f ticipated interview bulk of t the pages Govern conducte 1,000 int the pa months, both insid side gov including officers, n personnel technolog agement ities anti .tion— academic, aides and 1 2001 tives of government research groups. Indi- vidual states sent in boxloads of docu- ments, which were evaluated by graduate students at Maxwell, and that information was added to the mix. The expanding use of the Internet by states also made more information available. One warning: Changes in grades do not necessarily represent an absolute rise or fall in level of performance. Several other fac- tors weighed in, including the following: • In human resources, managing for results and information technology, a great deal of management progress has been made throughout the country over the past couple of years. The bar has risen. A state could show tangible improvement in these areas and still receive the same grade as two years ago. And states that made no improvement, overall, could actually see their grade drop. In 1999, for example, only a few states were doing serious work -force planning. Those that did it stood out from the pack in human resources. This year, far more states are involved in the effort, so a state doing precisely the same thing it did in 1999 could receive less credit. • Both in 1999 and this year, we have given credit for momentum—achieve- ments promised by the states in coming years. States that were given hearty credit for promises two years ago, but failed to achieve those goals, could easily see their grades drop, even if they remained just as well managed in other ways. • An entirely new body of informa- tion was added to our grades for cap, italmanagement. Two years ago, the grades were based almost entirely on management of government facilities. This time around, we also examined transportation. This helped some grades, and hurt others. • No matter how much effort is made to focus on documents and objective criteria, the process is depen- dent to some extent on the individuals who provide the information. States with outgoing administrations a couple of years ago sometimes tended to be more negative about their management than those with ongoing adminis- BILL aGUMO iu MATION trations. While this makes year-to-year comparisons more difficult, such anomalies will lose their impact as the project rolls on and there's a broader base of information upon which to ground conclusions. • Finally, this process is an evolving one. We were able to uncover informa- tion in some states—both positive and negative—that we simply didn't find two years ago. While we made every effort not to change criteria in any dramatic ways, there were states whose grades were affected by the availability of new types of information. Ever since the Government Perfor- mance Project began, its staff has attempted—not always successfully—to make the point that we are not fixing praise or blame on any single institution or player in state government. In a number Of states, the local press corps seems intent on attributing bad grades to the gover- nor—despite clear indications that the fault belongs more to the legislative branch, or the citizenry. This year, we even held God somewhat responsible for management problems in North Carolina. And performance in one subject area frequently has its impact on the grade in another. Financial management grades suf- fer when information technology is inade- quate. The same is true for grades in human resources and capital management. Similarly, states that do a terrific job at managing for results often do better in managing their finances and planning for their work force. And the interplay between financial management and capital management is inescapable. If a state has an unsustainable debt burden, that impacts the financial management side. But if the debt generally came from too much build- ing, capital management takes a hit as well. Finally, upon re -reading the 1999 GPP issue, there are two paragraphs that hold every bit as true now as then. It seems worthwhile repeating them, as they speak well to the underlying philosophy for this whole project: "Despite our best efforts and inten- tions," we wrote, "there's little doubt that some states haven't gotten the grades they deserve—in. one direction or the other. The academic and journalistic resources devoted to this project were enormous, but they were not infinite and we would never claim that the judgments are per- fect. The whole process is a mixture of sci- ence and art, and the best one can gen- uinely claim for the result is cautious optimism. Improvements will be made. Lessons will be learned. "And all of us on both sides will be held accountable." ■ Financial Management IT'S TEMPTING TO ASSUMEone-time 50 -STATE revenue to balance its that the way things are is the ; AVERAGE ever -precarious budget. Illinois way they've always been. Ask a GRADE - was saddled with more than teenager how he or she could half -a -billion dollars in unpaid have existed without CD players bills. And Massachusetts wound and computers, and likely as not, IB up fiscal year 1990 with a $1.2 you'll be rewarded with a look billion deficit, and demands for that says, "You mean, there were such continued growth "eating us alive," as a days?" budget officer reported at the time. So, as we declare a nationwide trend Now, just as it's easy for Bill Gates to be toward fiscal conservatism—in both a charitable sort of a guy, it's not so hard Democratic and Republican states—it's for states to act fiscally sensible when worthwhile remembering that just a scant they've been through a series of years in decade ago, the world was a different which one of the biggest problems has been place. Everyone didn't have a desktop keeping up with ever-increasing revenues. computer. People still occasionally lis- But there's ample reason to believe that tened to vinyl records. And Rhode Island states have genuinely got fiscal religion—in had to close state offices because over- ways they didn't have during past periods of spending on programs kept the govern- surplus. Recall that the states were raking ment from paying its employees. New in cash through much of the 1980s as well, York used a couple of billion dollars in and they didn't seem to manage 'their February 2001 G O. V E R N I N G 21 finances rationally then. That's the main reason many of them suffered so badly in the recession that hit around 1990. They aren't repeating those mistakes. Today, if there's one concept that budget officers from most states hold close to their hearts, it's the significance of struc- tural balance. They are simply not going to build up permanent spending to levels that will be unsustainable when times turn sour again. "We're really very good about not using one-time revenue for ongoing expenditures," says Nan Madden, director of the Minnesota Budget Project. "The Department of Finance is very clear about that." Don Langston, policy coordinator for finance and economic analysis in Florida, says essentially the same thing. "We balance on a recurring basis and that's how we avoid structural problems." Even in a poor state such as Mississippi, controls are in place. First of all, the state isn't allowed to budget more than 98 per- cent of projected revenues. Occasionally, it needs to appropriate one-time money to balance a budget. But, when that hap- pens, it is careful to identify a revenue stream that will be picking up the expense in the following year. There are states that break the rules, of course; sometimes because legislators haven't quite gotten the message. In Wis- consin last year, the legislature decided to spend $475 million more than was coming in and then went home in June. John Montgomery, the deputy state budget director, was not a happy Badger. "We're not pleased by that," he says. "We said there was a problem, and our job is tougher because of it." AS MUCH AS most states deserve credit for dealing reasonably with the benefits of a booming economy, there's a more mixed picture when it comes to two relatively new sources of income: money from the tobacco settlement with the big cigarette companies, and cash from a complicated wrinkle in Medicaid payments. Of course, there's been a fair amount of debate about the proper way to spend the $246 billion that the states are expected to receive over the next quarter-century in the tobacco settlement (see Governing, Octo= ber 2000), but that's a matter of policy. Fis- cally, the question is whether or not to treat this money as an endless source of new funds, as a one-time windfall or as some- thing in between. The factors involved are complex. First of all, the actual dollar amount received will be based on how much profit the cigarette companies make. That leaves the states in a kind of Match - 22. If they persuade people to stop smok- ing—which is at least part of what the money is for—they'll get less in the future. Then, too, there is always the possibility that tobacco companies might not be able to afford to pay up in future years. Massachusetts has taken the high road here. Most of its tobacco money was placed in a trust fund and none can be used to supplant or replace any other state obliga- tions. California, on the other hand, has decided simply to dump its tobacco money into the general fund, with no immediate decisions as to how it will be spent. Then there's the Medicaid/Medicare sit- uation. Details are a little arcane, but in essence it amounts to the idea that states get more federal reimbursement for vari- ous services, including nursing home beds, from the Medicare program (which mainly provides aid to the elderly) than they do from Medicaid (which generally helps the poor). For about seven years, a growing number of states put in for the cost of these services under Medicare reimbursement limits and then paid for them at lower Medicaid rates. And they got away with it. This resulted in a neat profit for 25 states, which knew they were getting away with murder. It's a "money-laundering scheme," as one Minnesota official readily admits. The way things stand, it appears the feds are going to let the states that have been at this for a while keep doing it for a few years, while stopping new "launderers." But the funding will likely disappear in the next five years or so, creating a significant budgetary gap for states that have depended on it, including Michigan, Illinois and New York. States that steered clear of this device may have deprived themselves of some free money, but at least they won't have. to Governing.com worry about finding a way to replace it. "We have tried to keep ourselves out of such schemes," reports one Ohio official. NOTWITHSTANDING a few question- able ploys like that one, financial manage- ment information gathered for the GPP reveals generally positive trends. A few examples: • Rainy day funds: A growing number of states have used flush times to prepare for bad ones, and only a handful lack some kind of formal bankroll to deal with con- tingencies. Michigan, Florida, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Ohio all have more than 5 percent of general fund revenues set aside. Illinois, New York and California, with long histories of ignoring the need for rainy day funds, now have begun putting cash in. California bud- geters used to argue that they maintained a $1 billion year-end balance, and that was just as good as a rainy day fund. At the time they had triple-A bond ratings. Then the recession hit, the billion dollars disappeared and the ratings cascaded downwards. Finally, starring from scratch in 1998, the state managed within two years to create a true rainy day fund and sock away 2.4 percent of general fund rev- enues. • Long-term planning: While long-term estimates aren't easy to make, they inform legislators about potential future obstacles. The use of this practice is mixed, as is the skill with which it's done. Some states, such as Pennsylvania, Virginia and Mis- souri, have been doing it for awhile. Oth- ers, such as Idaho, Arkansas and Okla- homa, still focus on the short term. But the number engaged in this practice is grow- ing. Maine started in 1996, and budget director Jack Nicholas says he's become a true believer. "I think it has changed the dynamic of the budget process," he says, "and it has become a very serious focus of the governor, the appropriation committee and the legislative leadership. We don't get too far out on a limb in how we deploy and allocate our resources." • Financial reporting: The number of states in compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles has been growing, slowly but surely. The last hold- out, Kansas, finally decided to join the club last year. One area in which the states could use substantial improvement is contracting. Even though they are contracting out a growing number of jobs and services, RV there's a propensity to forget that these deals remain state responsibility after the contract is signed. A number of states are adding performance criteria to their con- tracts, but many still focus fundamentally on due dates and dollars. All of these trends taken as a whole paint a rather rosy financial picture. But the most important question of all remains: What will happen when the economy turns? A number of states, including Florida, Michigan, Minnesota and New York, have enthusiastically given surplus tax dollars back to citizens. And there's a solid foundation to the idea that taxpayers deserve to spend their own money when the state doesn't really need it for ongoing operations. But ultimately, it's a lot harder to raise taxes than it is to cut them. And when the money stops rolling in, the capacity of these and other states to keep budgets in balance, without resorting to the nasty little tricks of years past, is impos- sible to measure for now. ■ Capital Management ROADS, BRIDGES and build- for of DOT lauded for properly ing construction are one field of 50 -STATE maintaining a bridge? On the government in which states AVERAGE GRADE other hand, if the prison is don't get a whole lot of attention delayed and the result is over - unless they've done something crowding, headlines follow. And wrong. When was the last time if a bridge collapses, that, too, you heard a governor praised 1 11 will make quite a splash, in the because his state finished a prison -build- newspapers and otherwise. ing project on time? Or heard the direc- If good capital management is some - Strategic Public Sector Negotiation, May 21-25, 2001 - SPSN is a powerful and fast -paced short program which uses top Harvard faculty to help experienced executives move to new levels of negotiation skill, add strategic dimensions to their negotiations, and strengthen their analytic abilities to produce successful and lasting agreements. Designed for those at the public-private interface, each year SPSN gathers distinguished executives from governments, corporations, NGOs and international organiza- tions—those who must produce formal agreements or contracts, structure complex financial transactions, resolve disputes, or negotiate within their organizations for authority and resources. The tightly organized session moves from simple negotiation exercises to complex strategic multi-party agreements. The actual negotiation exercises and role playing help executives internalize the tactical skills needed to produce successful agreements. For brochure and application, please contact. Enrollment Services,.Phone: (617) 496-0484, ext. 196 email: KSG ExecEd®Harvard.edu Internet: www.execprog.org HARVARD. UNIVERSITY JOHN F. KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT February 2001 G O V E R N I N G 23 thing of a thankless job, the avoidance of disastrous capital management is all but essential. This year, the results were some- thing of a mixed bag; with 20 states see- ing their grades go up, 21 coming down and nine staying the same. The grades have been influenced somewhat by the fact that this year, for the first time, we considered transportation as part of the evaluation mix; in the past, the focus was almost entirely on facilities. Over the last few years, with budgets growing more comfortable, many states have finally begun to address gargantuan repair backlogs that were allowed to accu- mulate in less flush times. Projects requir- ing reconstruction of buildings and roads—the result of too little routine maintenance 10 years ago—have been among the most popular. Illinois recently kicked off a five-year program that includes billions for repairs. "Maintenance needs had been neglected," admits Marcia Armstrong, division chief of capital pro- grams within the Bureau of the Budget. States also have gotten creative in handing out the funds. Some allocate maintenance money centrally—to avoid the agencies' tendency to use the dollars for pet purposes. Wisconsin's State Build- ing Commission, for example, controls funds for large maintenance projects. For projects costing less than $100,000, the state's Small Projects Program delivers funding within about 72 hours of a proj- ect's identification. The old bureaucratic approval process has been streamlined, and problems are addressed before they become crises. Although many states rely on'agency. . 24 G O V E R N 114 G February 2001 rent to generate a pool of maintenance funds, some have established other dedi- cated streams of funding. Utah is the leader in this group, with a state law requiring that 0.9 percent of the replace- ment cost of its facilities be set aside for maintenance. Indiana has developed replacement fund reserves for new build- ings, and Virginia keeps a statewide main- tenance reserve fund. States are also realizing that they need better information to make sound funding decisions. One piece of this information, missing in many places, is an estimate of deferred maintenance. Some states don't bother to attempt such an effort out of fear that they'll never have the funds to bring the balance to zero. "The number gets so horrendous that it scares every- body," says William Watts, chief of the Kansas Department of Transportation's Office of Management and Budget. Minnesota is one state that has forged ahead in its attempt to calculate the main- tenance backlog, even though it knows there is an ugly monster behind the door. It's already identified $1.5 billion in deferred maintenance, and readily admits that figure may be just the tip of the "ice- berg." Planning, while emphasized for new projects, is equally important for mainte- nance, although it's in much shorter sup- ply. The first step toward that effort is the creation of accurate inventories laden with comparative data. Oregon's agencies conducted condition assessments, for example, but they couldn't be compared statewide. So the state is creating a com- prehensive inventory that should result ,�p t in better ability to plan for and prioritize its repairs in the future. A recent Con- necticut auditor's report declared that the state's lack of a comprehensive inventory system was costing more than .vould be required to implement such a tool. A nationwide push is on the horizon: The Governmental Accounting Stan- dards Board recently issued its Statement No. 34, which will require states to account for their capital assets and long- term liabilities, including buildings, roads, bridges and general obligation debt. A number of states complained vigorously that this was an overly expensive process and that the GASB board members had gone off the deep end in passing this rul- ing. But it is forcing some, for the first time, to really begin to understand their assets. The first states will begin reporting these facts in FY2002, and the last will come on board in FY2004. Massachusetts, Hawaii and Tennessee are among the states that acknowledge the change GASB 34 will cause. To be sure, the drive toward better maintenance isn't universal. Some states, such as Alaska and Hawaii, simply haven't benefited from booming economies and thus haven't had the same opportunity to pump extra funds into repairs and recon- struction. Hawaii estimates a $640 million backlog in school repairs alone. Other states still either lack the information to do maintenance properly, or the desire to fund what they know should be done. This is even more troublesome in good economic times than bad ones. Among the states that fall into this group, to some extent, are Kansas, Mississippi and Okla- homa. In some states, the legislature is at fault. In Florida, special maintenance funding recommended by the governor was turned down by the legislature. New Mexico has a�Public Building Repair Fund, designed to collect agency rents and provide a des- ignated stream of maintenance money. But the legislature has never funded it according to its original formula. Instead, the fund competes with new construction projects for budget monies. THE ECONOMIC BOOM has had twin effects on construction. On the one hand, it's led to more of it. But with architects, engineers and contractors stretched thin, demand is driving up costs and schedules are slipping. Particularly active construc- tion zones cause problems for their neigh- Governing.com bors, with Massachusetts' Big Dig project pulling workers from other New England states and Las Vegas' glitzy boom attract- ing workers from across the West. This means that smart management is more important than ever. Project deliv- ery methods other than the traditional "design, bid, build" were just creeping onto the horizon two years ago, but they're being used widely today. Many states have passed laws allowing design - build, which allows the builder to start construction before the design phase is completed and thus speeds the process. A $1.6 billion highway project in Utah is expected to save more than five years' construction time by using design -build. Washington State uses "infrastructure accounts" to encourage agencies to fin- ish projects under budget. Money left in the project account after completion can be used to fund infrastructure improve- ments—other than new construction— that the agency identifies as priority needs. Even as project management grows in importance, more states now recognize the benefit of long-term statewide plan- ning. Two years ago, Texas decided to begin writing a two-year statewide capital plan, a significant improvement over not having one at all. But when the state started the process, it realized two years was too short a period and decided to write a five-year plan instead. Meanwhile, policy toward roads, bridges and other transportation -related assets—covered for the first time in this GPP report—follows some of the same trends as with general facilities. Mainte- nance has been emphasized over expan- sion, and many transportation depart- ments were forerunners of design -build methodology. But transportation works under a dif- ferent set of rules, which sets its capital programs apart. State funds are usually derived from gas taxes, making trans- portation budgets at least generally pre- dictable. Federal Highway Administra- tion funding comprises a large chunk of the money for road and bridge projects. With those funds come federal require- ments. Each state transportation agency must write a Transportation Improve- ment Program, comprised of the plans from smaller regional planning organiza- tions. Public involvement, crucial for all cap- ital projects, is required by the feds for transportation. Most states do a good job here, and some have even found room for innovation. Arizona surveys its state's dri- vers, and Missouri officials conduct focus groups while driving the highways. Con- sidering that transportation projects often account for the bulk of a state's capital program, making sure the public is on board is a good idea. Of course, the current good times aren't going to roll on forever. And as any capital manager will tell you, this province is often the first one cut when the econ- omy turns south. Road maintenance can be ignored for years before Volkswagens start falling into potholes. And then the expense is many times what it would have been if the work had been done in a timely way. Will the states that have made progress in this area continue to see the wisdom of their current ways—even when it hurts more to come up with the neces- sary cash? Stay tuned. ■ Human Resources. V p IN MOST AREAS of govern -50 -STATE hired applicants by rating them at ment, economic boom times AVERAGE 4 on a scale of 1-10. It's true that make all sorts of desirable things GRADE Utah managers tend to hold possible. States put money away themselves, and their workers, to for a rainy day. They make long- Bconstruction high standards. But that's still a delayed investments in capital discouraging figure. "We are get- and technology. ting more and more reports from Only when it comes to human resources is agencies stating that positions are staying there a troubling price to be paid for pros- vacant for longer periods of time, not for perity. In human resources, good times lack of applicants, but for lack of qualified tend to create crisis. applicants," the state reported to us in its There's nothing mysterious about this. GPP survey. The better the national economy, the Just like the old fairy tale of the man who harder it is for government to hire and was so skinny he didn't have the strength retain qualified workers. Rare is the state to eat, some state personnel departments that can compete with private -sector can't hire enough people to effectively hire salaries, and when unemployment is at 3 people. In Vermont, says HR official Rosa - percent or less—as it has been in many mond Noyes Conklin, "we need to focus on states the past couple of years—it's not just compensation issues, where we have big a question of hiring the best and the bright- problems. And the job heading up that est; it's an issue of fording bodies to fill jobs. area was vacant for about a year [when the Utah, which has one of the lowest state gave up]. I couldn't find anyone who unemployment rates in the country, wanted to work for this money." recently assessed the quality of its newly Two years ago, the worker shortage existed mainly in information tech- nology. Now the list of problem cate- gories has grown. Along with IT workers, nurses, engineers and cor- rections personnel are at the top of the list, followed by accountants, audi- tors and other financial managers. In some spots cleri- cal workers—par- ticularly those who don't run screaming from desktop com- puters—are in very short supply. Of course, the private sector is the most significant Rated higher than the 3 largest PBMs * competitor, but for -- ^^+ -_-• some jobs, states are In Pharmacy Benefit Management busily poaching on NATIONAL MEDICAL HEALTH CARD SYSTEMS, INC. one another. Col - 26 Harbor Park Drive, Port WashbVon, NY 1.utsi • 1-718-767-70020445 11050 orado, for instance, a,lsiae NY slate 100.6453332 ft Y State has residency re- • swoe PBMI Survey 2006 quirements for its employees. But it's been hard-pressed to find correctional workers and it has some prisons right near its borders with Nebraska and Kansas. So it lifted the residency requirement on correc- tional workers and now raids Nebraska and Kansas. Similarly, buses from Oregon travel across the border to Idaho to provide trans- portation for prison workers. "Our main prison is in Boise," says Ann Heilman, administrator of Idaho's division of human resources. "The state of Oregon has opened a prison 50 or 60 miles away and they are intent on getting our trained correctional officers. They are at every job fair, compet- ing side by side with us for employees." BUT POACHING can only get you so far. Most states are trying to deal with the tight job climate through innovation of one kind or another. Traditional civil ser- vice practices worked under the assump- tion that state jobs were a prize to be offered to the best competitor. Changing that mind -set is at the core of many improvements in HR practices. New Mexico, Washington and a num- ber of other states, for example, are shifting away from so-called "minimum qualifica- tions" to "desirable qualifications." The idea is extremely simple: Don't screen out workers who can do a job just because they don't have the formal credentials. They can always be trained. "You don't want to be screening people out that could be good candidates," says Doug Pine, director of recruitment services in Vermont. "I'd do away with minimum qualifications alto- gether if I had my druthers." New Mexico has done just that. Other states have stepped up their advertising and marketing (although many still report that advertising is an area for which dollars are scarce). Maryland plan a campaign highlighting jobs in state gov- ernment that few people think about, such as geologists, archaeologists and helicopter pilots. "That will get people's attention," says Andrea Fulton, executive director of Maryland's Office of Personnel and Bene- fits. Indiana hired an ad agency to develop a "brand -image campaign" to use in adver- tising the state as an employer; rather like those ads that run during the Super Bowl that don't actually sell products, buc hype the corporate sponsors. Once a state has actually hired some- one, the next step, of course, is to keep them on the payroll. In Pennsylvania, when new personnel workers are hired, they find themselves introduced to the 26 G O V E R N I N G February. 2001 Governing.com Buzzword PageVt '.'I A guide to words and phrases you won't be able to escape N FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT limited list k include thi ■ Cash management: The way a state invests and oth- . then refers erwise handles the money in its treasury. Good cash man- etc �. agement means investing available dollars to achieve 'i ted by good returns with an acceptable amount bok; and ■pay for pE �, maintaining effective oversight to the process ` " `levels to tb �Ile:r`eading through this report. i li, is for job openings; they often y o 0 names (states withsuch lists are k : ,wing a "rule of three,' "rule of $r," fo ance: A means of tying employee pay . -1if work delivered10_0`�` % acco ated u bill, that shows gram or project ® GAAP: General body of un'60 r lh�' ■ Work -force planning: An e tlning� sonnel needs and to make'surt )er- et. February 2001 G O V E R N I N G 27 '.'I pends MANAGING FOR he pro- k ■ Benchmarks Goals against which a S., This 'i ted by ® Input measures: The si-", and used to deliver.a product or se � . {, d � ® Output measures e )er- et. February 2001 G O V E R N I N G 27 civic equivalent of Big Brothers and Big Sisters that colleges have long assigned to freshmen. The idea is to ease the new folks into state employment with a guaranteed friendly face. Massachusetts has focused on family -friendly policies—for. example, vouchers for child and elder care. Another significant trend in many states is for central HR offices to shed their old control orientation and become consulting operations—there to help the line. agencies when they're needed. This goes hand in hand with efforts to give agencies more flexibility in making their own decisions --whether in hiring, pay levels or rewards for superior performance. It should surprise no one that there are I attendant to every reform. Even the rigid, much -hated civil service regulations of past decades served the purpose of stamping out the worst abuses of political patronage. And although there's no sign that patronage is on the rise these days, that's always a chance the states take when they loosen things up. What's more, devolution of responsibility to the agency level often means that wealthier agencies can "pick on" their punier counterparts. "There are `have' and `have-not' agen- cies,". says Norma Middleton, director of classification and management training in Utah. "That's a problem with our com- pensation system. Agencies that are `haves' have been known to take employ- ees from agencies that aren't " In virtually every state, however, the demand for reform currently outweighs the risk. Classification systems in some states are being winnowed down from thousands of titles to hundreds. Pay for performance, although still controversial, is a hot topic. Improved performance appraisal is a common goal. And aggres- sive use of probationary periods has helped some states to hire more freely, with less fear of saddling themselves with incompetents. (Of course, there can be hitches. In both New Jersey and Califor- nia, it is very difficult to terminate any- one during probation). Through all these efforts, two major trends have emerged as dominant over the past couple of years: work -force plan- ning and improved training. Two years ago, work -force planning— making some effort to predict future needs and changes in the employee base and then to prepare for them was barely recognized in many states. Now fewer than 20 states say they have no work -force plan. Of those, the majority identify it as a need. "Everyone I talk to is seeing the same thing, this baby boomer turnover and the short labor mar- ket," says Julia Graham, special assistant to Washington's director . of personnel. "Work -force planning is on everyone's mind and they're working on it." Training is somewhat harder to get a handle on because data is so poor, but anecdotal evidence indicates that almost every state has used fast-growing tax rev- enues to boost its training capacity. Mis- souri is a good case in point. It has more than doubled its investment in training, from 1 percent of general fund revenues to 2.5 percent. As one official there com- ments, the days are gone when "training was perceived as an expense, not an investment." Don't misunderstand. The states are hardly moving in lockstep toward some generally agreed upon human resources system. This is an area in which there remains a real diversity in practice and philosophy. Some states, such as Illinois, continue to believe that one of the best ways to allocate new positions fairly is through tests. Others, including Georgia and Iowa, are just as convinced that tests are counterproductive. There's no nation- wide agreement on whether to accept applications on an ongoing basis or just for positions that are open. Iowa, for example, recruits only for open positions, while Washington is moving toward more con- tinuous recruitment activities. Such differences of strategy are proba- bly good news. Managing finances, capi- tal and computers can be a daunting task. But there's nothing quite as tricky as working with people. The more variation and experimentation, and the less adher- ence to strict principles, the greater the likelihood that states will hit upon gen- uinely good ideas. The hope is that those are the ones that will become popular. ■ Managing for Result's HARRY HATRY, director of the Urban Institute's public manage- 50 ment program, was one of the AVE nation's first advocates of manag- GI ing for results. He remains one of the concept's leading supporters. Yet for years hes warned that one of the biggest challenges to the use of per- formance measurement and other manag- ing -for -results techniques was the potential ATE for overexpectation. If MFR was 1GE sold as a panacea, disappoint- ment would lead to disillusion- ment, dismay and finally the death of the process. With T Iatry's admonitions.in mind, it's good news that the states that have been leading the country in this discipline are among the quickest to report that it's not silver bullet. Utah, for 28 G O V E R N I N G February 2001 Governing.com example, has been in the MFR business for a long time. Listen to Lynne Ward, direc- tor of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget: "We see it as just another tool to manage. It's funny, because we get calls from other states ... and they think we have all this information that's put into a com- puter, and then the outcome is a budget or set policy. Our attitude is it's just another way of getting information." This is not to say that managing for results has stalled. In fact, in a majority of states, efforts are moving forward to come up with better measures and to utilize them in the best way possible. Strategic planning, too, is an evolving form. Not only do more and more states have entity - wide plans—South Carolina and Illinois among the most recent entrants—but efforts in the agencies have been getting better as training efforts pay off and years of experience improve the process. just a couple of years ago, Alabama was the national poster child for pathetic MFR efforts. Some agencies that were required to fill out a performance -related form every quarter just kept copying the previ- ous quarter's form over and over again. That was a sure-fire way to guarantee that they wouldn't show any improvement. But nobody seemed to notice. Now, according to the state's finance director, Henry C. Mabry III, "we are start- ing, and we're trying to build a foundation to do it right. Our new process is not per- fect. But we're really trying to determine a `best practices' way of implementing this process in each department." Pilots are popping up in Alabama like flowers in the spring, and the state and its agencies are producing their first strategic plans. In fact, among the 50 states, there's no longer a single one that denies the utility of managing for results. There's just a wide disparity of opinion about the best approaches to take. Georgia, for example, has decided to center its efforts almost exclusively on outcome measures—efforts to see the actual results of programs, rather than just the amount of work accom- plished. When inputs and outcomes get mixed together, one state official says, "outcome measures fall by the wayside and are rarely developed or measured. By con- centrating on the `bottom line' effective- ness, we have thus far avoided this type of measurement overkill." WiI Georgia at one extreme, there are far more states that are concerned about the limitations of outcome measurement; they are concerned about holding single agencies accountable for broad ranges of result. After all, a measure such as "reduc- ing crime" can just as easily be the province of the state's schools as its pris- ons. So, they proudly point to so-called "families of measures." "A year or two ago, we were asking agencies if they had performance mea- sures at all," says Lou Kompare, executive director of the Center for Effective Gov- ernment in Tennessee. "Now we've edu- cated people to ask if they have a well- rounded family of measures including outcome measures and outputs in which they're actually counting things. They're understanding the value of the full array." Then there's Pennsylvania. Although the Keystone State uses some outcome measures and accepts their utility, the basic emphasis here is on straightforward outputs. That's in large part because, more than most other states, Pennsylva- nia's executive branch really uses its mea- sures to budget. "We can hold our man- agers more accountable on the outputs when we create their budget," says one high-ranking official there. "If we hold them accountable for outcomes, they'll spend all their time explaining why they didn't get where they wanted to go." NOT SURPRISINGLY, the more seri- ously performance measures are taken, the more contentious the process of devel- oping them often becomes. One legisla- tor may think the primary goal of the state prisons is to punish criminals severely. Another may believe it's to rehabilitate. There's no simple way to come up with a measure that both will buy in to. Few states have worked more resolutely than Louisiana to get MFR efforts up to speed. Yet planning officer Carolyn Lane reports that, "just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the usefulness or mean- ingfulness of a performance indicator may vary from user to user." Although this may be frustrating for some, the fact is that debates over measures can be one of the most valuable products of the MFR process. When state officials are forced to say what they really want a program to produce, the program benefits. As states grapple with the question of what sorts of measures to use—and pre- cisely what the measures will be—there are a number of other fronts in which progress is necessary. More states than ever before are now seeking to ensure that the measures they produce are accurate: Louisiana, Texas, Virginia and a few oth- ers are national leaders here. But in many states, validation of performance data is still largely unknown. Perhaps the weakest element in most states is the process of communicating performance information to citizens. Some don't even try. They publish their measures in the budget; and perhaps on the Web site, but the public may or may not know the information even exists. Louisiana's Lane admits, "maybe we should devote a little more time to mar- keting. We put it out there, and we're kind of waiting for people to find it." I ■ February 2001 G O V E R N I N G 29 Information Technology FOR MILLIONS of Americans, SO -STATE ware are keys to IT success. And the memory of the Y2K bug has AVERAGE that requires good strategic plan, joined a mental list of swine flu- GRADE ning, as well as an emphasis on like disasters that never came to standardization of procure - pass. But for many information ments. Two years ago, Kansas technology managers in the had no formal written standards states, Y2K was a godsend—sort governing the in of technol- of as if boll weevil eggs were suddenly dis- ogy its agencies could purchase. Now it covered to be a cancer cure. has an enterprise -wide IT architecture for The most dramatic impact was that a all three branches of government (still a number of chief information officers got relative rarity in a world in which courts loads of money for new equipment. Tech- and legislative offices sometimes resist the nology budgets swelled in order to replace idea that they live in the same state as the finance and human resource IT systems executive branch). that had been deemed likely to self- Efforts to standardize have been accel- destruct at the tum of 2000, perhaps fort- erating in most places for a few years now. ing employees to miss paychecks. "The But more recently, emphasis has expanded best thing that ever happened to me was to include central controls over project Y2K..." says Don Heiman, Kansas' CIO. management. Far more states now require "I had this big infusion of. dollars. I was agencies to develop cost -benefit justifica- finally empowered with a lot of dough." tions for new projects than were doing so Over the past few years, Kansas has spent just a year ago. in the neighborhood of $400 million to The next step, of course, is for more of flush away old technology. them to check back with the agencies after But in Kansas, as in many other states, the projects are completed to make sure the big bucks spent on new systems will the promised benefits were actually deliv- not be the most important impact of Y2K. ered. Pennsylvania is a leader here. In that More significant in the long run will be state, according to one official, agencies are the fact that it pushed states, harder than required "to demonstrate the expected sav- any consultant's report ever could, to ings, reduction in personnel, improved per - think of technology management as an formance, etc. promised in their initial pro - entity -wide issue. ject proposal." What if they don't deliver? This is critical. Statewide compatibility "You don't receive money in subsequent and integration of both software and hard- years' requests," he explains. That's the 30 G O V E R N I N G February 2001 kind of hangman's noose that really gets an agency's attention. Then there's the accelerating trend toward central tracking of the actual implementation of new technology. Ohio, for example, never did anything like this. Then, when Y2K appeared on the horizon, the state developed something called the Y2K Competency Center, to make certain that all its agencies were moving ahead on plans to avert breakdowns. Post -Y2K, the state didn't shut the doors on the new cen- ter. The name just changed to the "Enter- prise Project Management Office." "Obviously, we found major benefits in having an entity oversee projects, which we hadn't done," says Ohio CIO Gregory Jackson. "We wanted to continue that concept; we wanted to establish statewide project -management standards. The sell- ing point to agencies is that we provide tools and training for them. The other side of the coin is we're going to be watching over your back." Many other states are heading in the same direction. "We ended up tracking every single project going on in state gov- emment for Y2K," says Dick Hinckley, Maine's director of information service. "For everything—no matter what size." With that in place, Maine is now hard at work centralizing its -project management for future efforts. This is great news. Virtually every CIO can tell stories of IT projects that went overtime or over budget for lack of effec- tive central oversight. Few examples make the point more clearly than an effort in Massachusetts to create an integrated case -management system for the state's district attorneys. Turned out that trying to get 12 separately elected DAs all to subscribe to the same plan was like trying to get 12 clocks to strike midnight at pre- cisely the same moment. The project ulti- mately foundered and was brought to a halt. About $1.5 million was wasted. Right now, the state has 10 DAs on one system and two on another. THE MOVE to entity -wide IT manage- ment across the country couldn't have come at a more propitious -moment. The Internet, by its nature, breaks down artifi- cial walls, and states are taking advantage of that capacity to bring agencies together into one compatible whole. In the past, visitors to many state Web sites were like tum -of -the -century New Yorkers who went to one store for fish, Governing.com another for meat and another for bread. Worse yet, given the often bizarre way that government services are divided across agency lines, it could be a daunting task to figure out which agency was responsible for which activity—in effect, you might have to go looking in the back shelves of the fish market to find a jar of pickles. That's being replaced, from coast to coast, with so-called portals. This is the supermarket model, in which vast quan- tities of information and services are all available in one well -lit place, with well - marked electronic aisles. Pam Ahrens, director of Idaho's Department of Administration, puts it succinctly: "The portal concept assists cit- izens in translating the maze of govern- ment, and makes it easier for citizens and others to link specifically to services or information they are seeking." Among the many states that have developed some form of portal are Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, and Utah. New York is entering the field this month. And a gallery of oth- ers is heading in that direction. An argument can even be advanced that the thought process required to develop these portals—and to arrange state services in an intuitively sensible fashion—will have a positive ripple effect. It may just drive states toward the kind of managing for results that focuses on actual service to citizens, regardless of agency fiefdoms. Clearly, as more states make electronic commerce one of their prime goals, ease of Internet use becomes essential. Two years ago, there were only a handful of genuine online transactions provided by the states. You could renew a hunting license that way in a few places, but not too much else. Now it's just a handful of states that don't have some Internet transactions available online. In Alaska, for example, citizens can go to the state's homepages and renew dri- ver's licenses, apply for jobs, purchase fish- ing and hunting permits, estimate child sup- port payments, make reservations on state ferries, file campaign spending and contri- bution reports, even apply for annual divi- dends from the Alaska permanent fund. "It is viewed as critical to the efficient opera- tion of our state government," says Fran Ulmer, Alaska's lieutenant governor. In Missouri, says former CIO Mike Benzen, "we actually defined every trans- action in state government that's a Web candidate; what will it cost, what will it save the taxpayer, the state. And then we prioritized them." States are moving their business online so fast that even listing the trend-setters is hazardous. Yesterday's laggard is tomor- row's leader. Among all the categories the GPP covers, rapid change is greatest in information technology. That's both the thrill and challenge of managing in an area where the Red Queen's admonition in Alice in Wonderland—to move faster just in order to stay in place—is a truism. Careful readers of that book might also recall the rest of that passage, and how it may apply to many CIOs. As Lewis Car- roll wrote, the Queen's argument was that "if something wasn't done about it in less than no time, she'd have everybody exe- cuted all round. (It was this last remark that had made the whole party look so grave and anxious)" ■ Your Solution. MERDAS geographic imaging made simple As government employees and elected officials, your community expects sound decisions regarding how their ERDAS Worldwide Headquarters tax dollars are spent. When your budget is tight or shrinking, how do you gather the most current information Toll Free: +1877 -GO ERDAS (463-7327) to support decisions that strike the right balance for your community? Phone: +1404-248-9000 Fax: +1404-248-9400 An affordable solution to your challenge is geographic imaging by ERDAS`. Since 1978, imagery users have turned Email: info@erdas.com to ERDAS for easy-to-use software solutions that transform high-resolution satellite imagery, aerial photos and any ERDAS in Europe, Africa, Middle East other type of geographic imagery into useful information. Geographic imaging gives you access to current and Phone: +441223-881774 accurate information that supports your decisions, and effectively communicates the changes and assets within Fax: +441223-880160 your communities, in highly visual and realistic presentations. ERDAS has your solution. Call us today or visit us Email: eame@erdas.com online at www.erda.t.com/imtgow. All Other Worldwide Inquiries Copyright ®1001 ERDAS, Inc. All rights reserved. ERDAS is a registered trademark and Geographic Imaging Made Simple is a service mark of Phone: +1404-248-9000 ERDAS, Inc Other brands and product names are the properties of their respective owners Fax +1404-248-9400 Email: info@erdas.com How We Grade Them DOWN DEEP, the only people who really like grades are those who get all As. And there aren't too many of those. In fact, if the authors of the Govern- ment Performance Project had their choice, they'd eliminate the grades alto- gether, and focus on the narrative portions that follow. Unfortunately, there's a huge likelihood that were that the case, nobody much would read the narrative writeups. What's more, the grades do provide an easy means for states to benchmark upon those who are leaders in various elements of government management. So, grades it is. The introduction found on page 20 of this issue gives some insight into the vagaries of the system; and into why certain grades changed in the ways they did. Following is the basic guide to how the GPP does the research and eval- uation that culminates in those grades: The process all begins with the design of a survey instrument. This task largely falls to academics associated with the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, and partners they have brought in from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Five separate surveys were sent out to all 50 states in conjunction with this effort, one for each area covered. The surveys are based, as much as possible, on a series of criteria for these topics that were devel- oped several years ago, and have been modified somewhat since. The most sig- nificant change this year was in Capital Management, where transportation was added to the mix. As the surveys pour in, researchers at Maxwell code the responses in such a way that they can be dispassionately analyzed and reviewed. In addi- tion, they pore through stacks of supplementary documents that help clarify the surveys. The documents help to prevent the states from either over- stating or under -stating the quality of their activities. As this process moves for- ward, the academics pass along the fruits of their labor to journal- ists at Governing. The journalists take a very different approach. They, too, begin by carefully reading the surveys as well as the document -based information procured at Maxwell. But their evaluations are based on hundreds of interviews with officials in the states. Some of these sources turn out to be the same men and women who filled out the surveys. Efforts are made to utilize interviews in one area of evaluation to help get more information about another. For example, the final word on the utility of human resource technology doesn't usually come from the IT people in a state but from the personnel department. Goveming staff also utilize a variety of sources outside the governments. One staffer, for example, spent many weeks interviewing government research groups and academics across the country. Data are also obtained from the bond rating agen- cies—Moody's, Fitch, and Standard & Poor's—and from the National Association of State Budget Officers, the Government Finance Officers Association and other state government -related organizations. Then, as deadlines approach, the aca- demics and the journalists meet to discuss the grades. In a remarkably high percent- age of cases, the two groups come to simi- lar conclusions. In others, the differences are easily explained (often by the fact that the journalists had somewhat more up-to- date material with which to work). In yet a third group, disagreements are more pro- found, and require a fresh look by both sides to determine precisely where the dif- ferences are and how they can be resolved. In most cases, that is done with- out too much pain. However, at the end of the day, there were some instances in which the acade- mic and journalistic approaches simply could not be made to mesh. In those cases, the grades in this report's pages are the responsibility of Gmeming editors and staffers as informed by the academic analysis. The final stage of this year-long process is fact -checking the entire package. While sources are not given advance word about their grades, the write-ups that accom- pany them—and provide substantial underpinnings to the grades—are care- fully reviewed. Changes are made to the BILL CGUANoILLUMnnM Governing.com text, and, where a factual change impacts the grade, that changes as well. Of course, some readers will challenge the published evaluations. There are gen- erally three major reasons why this will happen: 1) The GPP analysis was incorrect, or based on incorrect information in the sur- vey or other sources. 2) The reader has a bias for or against a government that fuels his or her senti- ments. 3) There is a basic disagreement about the criteria used, which underlie this entire process. IN AN EFFORT to facilitate readers' understanding of the criteria, following are the essential ones used: 0 Does the government have a multi- year perspective on budgeting, including: meaningful revenue and expenditure esti- mates; long-term revenue and expendi- ture estimates; and measures to gauge future fiscal impact of financial decisions? © Does the government have mecha- nisms that preserve stability and fiscal health, including: structural -balance between revenues and expenditures; use of contingency -planning devices such as rainy day funds; appropriate management of long-term liabilities; rational invest- ment and cash management policies? © Does the government provide suffi- cient financial information to policy mak- ers, managers and citizens, including: accurate and thorough financial reports; useful financial data; a means for commu- nicating budgetary and financial data to citizens; timely financial reporting; the capacity to gauge the cost of delivering programs or services; a budget that is delivered on time? M Does the government have appropri- ate control over financial operations, including: sufficient control over expendi- tures; appropriate managerial flexibility; solid management of procurement, including contracts? CAPITAL MANAGEMENT 0 Does the government conduct a thor- ough analysis of future needs, including: a formal capital plan that coordinates and prioritizes capital activities; a multi-year linkage between operating and capital budgeting; a multi-year linkage between strategic planning and capital budgeting; sufficient data to support analysis? © Does government adequately monitor and evaluate projects through their imple- mentation at both the entity -wide and agency levels? © Does the government conduct appro- priate maintenance of capital assets with sufficient data to adequately plan for suf- ficient maintenance and funding? RESOURCIS 0 Does the government conduct strate- gic analysis of present and future human resource needs (work -force planning)? © Can the government obtain the employees it needs by hiring in a timely manner and giving managers appropriate discretion in hiring and conducting effec- tive recruiting efforts? © Is the government able to maintain an appropriately skilled work force by: con- ducting appropriate training; retaining skilled employees; and disciplining or termi- nating employees without undue con- straints? M Can the government motivate employ- ees to perform effectively by: rewarding superior performance through cash or non- cash incentives; evaluating the perfor- mance of employees effectively; providing sufficient opportunity for employee feed- back; maintaining productive labor-man- agement relations? 0 Does the government have a civil ser- vice structure that supports its ability to achieve work -force goals including: a clas- sification system that is coherent and of appropriate size; personnel policies that per- mit flexibility in civil service and pay struc- ture; and good communications of human resource policies and goals to employees? MANAGING FOR RESULTS B Does the government engage in results -oriented strategic planning in which: strategic objectives are identified and provide a clear purpose; government leadership effectively communicates objectives to employees; government plans are responsive to input from citizen and other stakeholders, including employ- ees; agency _plans are coordinated with central government plans? © Does the government develop indica- tors and evaluative data that can measure progress toward results and accomplish- ments and does it take steps to ensure that this data is valid and accurate? © Do leaders and managers use results data for policy making, budgeting, man- agement and evaluation of progress? 0 Are there organizations within the government whose responsibility it is to evaluate programs or agencies and are their conclusions utilized? 0 Does government communicate the results of its activities to stakeholders? INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 0 Do government -wide and agency -level information technology systems provide information that adequately supports managers' needs and strategic goals? 0 Do government information technol- ogy systems form a coherent architecture and are strategies in place to support pre- sent and future coherence in architecture? © Does the government conduct mean- ingful multi-year technology planning, including: an information technology planning process that is sufficiently cen- tralized; providing managers appropriate input into the planning process; creating government -wide and agency IT plans? 0 Is information technology training ade- quate for end-users and technology spe- cialists? M Can the government evaluate and vali- date the extent to which information tech- nology system benefits justify investment? M Can needed IT systems be procured in a timely manner with appropriate controls to prevent going over budget? M Do IT systems support the govern- ment's ability to communicate with and provide services to its citizens? February 2001 GOVERNING 33 Grades Then and Now Z-la 1 The governorship, the Senate and the House are each held by a different politi- cal party in Minnesota, so consensus is in relatively short supply. When the state faced a stalemate over what to do with its surplus, leaders split the extra cash three ways and allowed each legislative Cham, ber and the governor to control an equal share of the money. (Sort of like King Solomon, if he had cut the baby in thirds) . It's at a time like this that institutional- ized management systems become most important, and that is where Minnesota shines. It pays close attention to its struc- tural balance, engages in well-publicized long-term planning, undertakes solid financial reporting, and has good debt - management and investment policies. Revenue estimates have been extremely conservative here, with income tax flowing in much faster than antici- pated year after year. While it's far better to have those estimates too high than the other way around, it does lead to com- plaints that fiscal planners deliberately err on the conservative side. Minnesota goes to extensive lengths to evaluate the condition of its capital assets. A few years ago, the legislative auditor estimated deferred maintenance to be in the $300 million to $600 million range. That sounded like an alarming amount of money, but at least the state had some idea where it stood. The most recent esti- mate of deferred maintenance, which includes bringing facilities up to current code, is in the $1.5 billion range. Except for that backlog, Minnesota is strong in capital management. It has one of the strongest executive planning processes in the country. Agencies submit six-year capital plans to the department of finance. Their requests explain the project need, the scope and scheduling informa- tion. Projects are evaluated through a detailed scoring system before they're approved. Agencies with similar interests are encouraged to develop joint plans. Once under way, facilities and roads proj- ects are well monitored and evaluated, and most come in on time and on budget. HUMAN RESOURCES C+ Hiring systems are in transition in Min- nesota. Managers are still dependent on a lot of paper, sending out printed job bul- letins and transmitting applications by mail. But the state is moving toward bet- ter use of automation and new employee - selection techniques. Many agencies have done their own work -force planning, but more centralized effort is needed. That isn't easy in Min- nesota, where agencies' insistence on autonomy can hamper statewide manage- ment efforts. Agency independence also is an issue in recruiting: It's not unusual for various agencies and the central personnel office to discover that they've all signed up for the same job fair, and are, in effect, competing with one another. Training is good and there are interest- ing experiments at measuring and reward- ing performance. "We call ourselves the land of 10,000 pilots," says Ann Schluter, of the Department of Employee Relations. •• The Ventura administration has issued what it calls The Big Plan (which some- how sounds appropriate for Ventura). The Plan is made up of 29 initiatives grouped around four key components: healthy vital communities; self-sufficient people; service not systems; and Minnesota as a world competitor. The administration used hundreds of citizen advisory groups to help shape the document. The Big Plan sets direction for individ- ual department plans, now required for the first time in Minnesota government. More than in many other states, these agency plans are clearly tied into the entity -wide effort. If they don't fit, they get rewritten. The Department of Revenue, for example, spent some of last fall revising its plan to better reflect the governor's initiatives. The old short-term agency perfor- mance reports, meanwhile, have been eliminated. In their place, departments now must submit performance informa- tion in their biennial budgets, as well as in support of their long-term strategic plans. The measures in the Big Plan itself are specific and detailed, but they don't offer specific performance targets. In sum, strategic planning in Minnesota is being done at a very high level, and per- formance measures are being developed and used by departments. Whether the legislature will make effective use of them is still very much in question. Agencies in Minnesota have a plethora of IT systems to help them deliver services. There are customized systems for fleet management, agricultural licensing, cor- rections and nursing home management. Nearly 3,000 social workers, case aides and human services staffers use IT to track cases involving more than 260,000 persons annually. County social service workers automate routine manual tasks and use department systems to determine client needs and generate information relatively quickly. The entity -wide systems here are in similarly good shape, and deliver informa- tion to agency managers in a timely way through a data warehouse that incorpo- rates all accounting, human resources and payroll data. But while the state provides much information online, it's not a national leader in electronic transactions. "Mostly, we don't have the support from the legis- lature that we need," says Debra Bean, the state's director of emerging technologies. "The legislature has not made that move to understand that technology is expen- sive and it's a new way of doing business." Unfortunately, even if the money becomes available, the state's procure- ment process is very slow. The IT person- nel move quickly, but the legal and pro- curement people tend to nitpick every word in a contract, getting overly involved in the actual technology decisions. 70 GOVERNING February 2001 Governing.com DATE: March 8, 2001 TO: City Council fi FROM: Eric J. Blank, Director, Parks and Recreation SUBJECT: Council Update - Ice Center A pre -construction meeting dealing with the new dehumidification system at the Plymouth Ice Center was held on Wednesday, March 7. Fisher Sheet Metal, the contractor responsible for the overall work, has indicated that work will begin on Monday, March 12, and shall be substantially completed by May 1. All of the air duct material has arrived and is currently stored inside the arena as are a number of other critical items which have also been shipped to the site. The actual dehumidification units will be arriving via transport Wednesday of next week. The contractor intends to start work each morning at 6 a.m. inside the building and will be completed by 3 p.m. At this time, we anticipate that all the work will be completed without any disruption or cancelling of recreational events inside the arena. I will keep you informed as further progress is made on this work. EB/np cc: Bill Abel, Ice Center Manager MEMO CITY OF PLYMOUTH 3400 Plymouth Boulevard Plymouth, MN 55447 DATE: March 7, 2001 TO: Dwight D. Johns) City Manager FROM: Fred G. Moore-, P.E., Director of Public Works SUBJECT: FINAL PLANS FOR 2001 STREET RECONSTRUCTION PROJECTS MAPLEDELL/MAPLE CREEK AREA MAGNOLIA LANE CITY PROJECT NO.'S 1001 AND 1005 Attached is a copy of a letter sent to the property owners within the two areas for our proposed 2001 Street Reconstruction Projects. The Design Engineering Division will have the plans complete within ten days to two weeks. The letter informs residents of an open house on Thursday, March 22 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. to review the plans. They can also review the plans after March 22 during normal working hours at the Engineering Department. We plan to present the plans to the City Council at their meeting on March 27 for approval and advertising for bids. If we receive input from residents that require plan revisions, we can make them before bids are received. Please let me know if there are any questions. attachment RApw\Engineering\PR01ECTS\2000 - 2009\1001\Memos\Fn1P1ns_2001_Mem.doc Z- 2b March 6, 2001 «Line l» <<Line2» Line3» <<Line4» <<LineS» SUBJECT: 2001 STREET RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT PUBLIC MEETINGS TO REVIEW CONSTRUCTION PLANS CITY PROJECT NO. 1001 & 1005 Dear Plymouth Resident: This letter is intended to update you on the status of the 2001 Street Reconstruction Project. As you may be aware, streets in your area are planned for reconstruction in the summer of 2001. This year's project is broken down into two areas. The Mapledell/Maple Creek Area is located east of Dunkirk Lane and south of 31S` Avenue extending to and including Zanzibar Lane and 26`h Avenue. The Magnolia Lane Area is located along Magnolia Lane just north of Sunset Trail. The construction plans for the project are nearing completion and we would like to invite you to view the plans at an open house format public meeting we have scheduled. Interested residents may review the draft construction plans any time between 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM on Thursday, March 22"d, 2001. Members from the project design team will be available at the meeting to answer your questions and discuss your concerns. A formal presentation will not be made at the meeting. The meeting will be held in the City Hall Employee Lunch Room located at 3400 Plymouth Boulevard. If you are unable to attend the meeting the plans will also be available for review after March 22"`x, 2001 at the Engineering Department located in the lower level of City Hall during regular business hours. Following these meetings the plans will then be presented to the City Council for approval and authorization to solicit bids for the project. We anticipate opening bids this spring with construction to start soon thereafter. After the project is complete and final construction costs are determined, the final assessment amounts based on the project costs will be calculated. Once these final costs are determined you will receive a notice with the new assessment amount as well as the date and time for the assessment hearing. Although not yet scheduled, we anticipate the assessment will be in late in the fall, 2001. City staff will be contacting property owners where easements are required. In addition we will be requesting right of entry permission from some residents to allow minor grading and driveway construction beyond the right of way. The work will be limited to what is necessary to blend the project work in better with the surrounding lots. D: \TEMP\planviewmeet.doc These meeting also give us another opportunity to gather information from residents on specific details to be addressed during construction. Sump discharges and locations of sprinkler systems or buried electric dog fencing systems, are examples of the type of information which is critical for us to know about before construction begins. Special access requirements such as business schedules, medical requirements, and special events are also helpful. We have received this type of information from many residents already. If there are items that have not been given to us previously we would appreciate receiving the information as soon as possible. Thank you once again for your patience throughout the design process. We will continue to do our best to keep you informed of the project phases as they are occurring. If you have any questions, please contact me at (763) 509-5538. I look forward to seeing you on the 22"d Sincerely, Steven G. Bot Civil Engineer cc: Fred G. Moore, Director of Public Works Daniel L. Faulkner, City Engineer Ronald S. Quanbeck, Assistant City Engineer Steve Deuth, Senior Engineering Tech. — Acquisitions City Council DATEMP\planviewmeet. doc DATE: March 9, 2001 TO: Dwight Johnson, City Manager FROM: Anne" `r�Cty Development Develo ment Director SUBJECT: Hennepin County Adult Correctional Facility (HCACF) Population Report Hennepin County Community Corrections staff has submitted their monthly report on average daily population for the month of February 2001. The average daily population reported for the Plymouth facility in February was 521, less than the occupancy limit of 601 set by the Conditional Use Permit. The chart below shows the average monthly population since we began receiving reports in June of 1998. HCACF Monthly Population Report 700 u..-., { 600 = 500 �j 400 p CUP Limit m c 300 N A\,erage Count m Q 200 100 0 0o rn co co rn rn rn rn M M o rn rn M M o 0 0 0 0 0 0 N N (n (n Month/Year -f- 3 4 Minutes of the Park and Recreation Advisory Commission Meeting February 8, 2001 Page 6 Present: Chair Anderson, Commissioners Fiemann, Musliner, Singer, Thompson; staff Bisek, Blank, Busch, Pederson; Councilmember Hewitt, Planning Commissioner Neset Absent: Commissioner Meyer 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Anderson called the February meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. in the Council Chambers. Election of Chair and Vice Chair. Commissioner Singer nominated Anderson for Chair and Fiemann for Vice Chair. Commissioner Musliner seconded. All ayes. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Commissioner Musliner corrected the January minutes to read that she thanked Sara Mittelstaedt along with Karol Greupner and Mark Wahl for helping judge art work at the elementary schools. A motion was made by Commissioner Singer and seconded by Commissioner Fiemann to approve the minutes of the January meeting as corrected. The motion carried with all ayes. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. None. b. Staff. Mary thanked those who volunteered at Fire and Ice. She thinks attendance was down slightly, maybe due to gray and damp weather. She said that she and Karol Greupner would be working on the Millennium Garden mission and goals statements for presentation next month. One new project, if the City Council approves it, is an electronic billboard on the corner to the west of the Ice Center along Plymouth Boulevard. It will be used to promote city special events, activities going on at the Ice Center, etc. Commissioner Fiemann thinks the electronic billboard is a good idea. Mary stated that we are currently working on the April issue of Plymouth Leisure Times. Commissioner Singer asked about new programs for the summer. Mary said we may offer cooking classes at the Plymouth Creek Center. We are waiting for confirmation from the caterer. There will be a Mother's Day Tea, an art series for school age kids that will feature Star Wars, Harry Potter, nature books, etc. The art instructor is also going to do some activities for adults. Regina Callies is putting together at least five teen activities. The kick—off is going to be roller-skating at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Also coming up soon is the Yard and Garden Expo, which is being done in conjunction with the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and the State Horticulture Society. There will be an exhibit hall to promote sustainable gardening. c. Others. There were no other visitors. PRAC Minutes/February 2001 Page 7 1 3 4. PAST COUNCIL ACTION The City Council approved an increase in the park dedication fees to $2,000 per unit. Commercial fees went from $6,100 to $7,000 per acre. Director Blank said the long term goal is to have the park system finished by the time the City runs out of available housing. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Review comprehensive plan — Barry Warner, SRF. This has been postponed until the April meeting. b. Millennium Garden update. Planning moves forward and we continue to fund raise. The Wings Soccer Association is donating $500. The Plymouth Soccer Association also responded to an invitation from the Mayor to donate to the Garden. The deadline to buy bricks will likely be sometime in May. A lot of the fundraising is in the form of in—kind services. Hedberg Aggregate is interested in the project in terms of helping construct waterfalls. Possible groundbreaking dates are May 5 or May 21. Commissioners preferred May 21. c. Comprehensive plan update. Director Blank stated that we submitted a grant for the Northwest Greenway, and we are waiting to hear on that. A biological study of all the prairies, wetlands, trees, etc., will be done. The grant will not be final until June l st. We are hoping to get $21,000. d. Hilde Performance Center. Director Blank distributed a design drawing and said the performance center may have a semi—orchestra pit and a full basement. He also had two pictures, one showing a soft roof and the other a hard roof. The construction manager has done detailed budgets on the construction. If you build an on—slab without a basement, it's $1,000,000; with basement, the cost is $1.2 million. Commissioner Singer wanted to verify that PRAC would be notified when the neighborhood meetings are scheduled for discussing this project. Director Blank said they would be open—house style. The actual building design will be reviewed and approved by PRAC. Director Blank said he told the Civic League that he would be hard pressed to go ahead on this project without building a basement. Director Blank has asked the Council for a work session on this project, which might take place before the next PRAC meeting. e. Approval 2000 annual report. Director Blank reviewed the 2001 work plan. Last Tuesday, the City Council reviewed their goals and objectives for the coming year. They want PRAC to look at adding a third sheet of ice, improving the parking at LifeTime Fitness, the acquisition of the 10th playfield, the Northwest Greenway, Hilde Performance Center, and the Millennium Garden. Karol and Mary are working on the art in public spaces policy. Director Blank stated that the Elm Creek sewer is coming down from Maple Grove and will go right through the Elm Creek golf course. There will be a feasibility study on a third sheet of ice and the parking at LifeTime. COMMISSIONER SINGER MOVED TO ACCEPT THE 2000 ANNUAL REPORT AND FORWARD IT TO THE CITY COUNCIL. COMMISSIONER THOMPSON SECONDED. MOTION CARRIED WITH ALL AYES. PRAC Minutes/February 2001 Page 8 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Review Plymouth Creek Center fees and policies for 2001. Rick explained that some of the figures had changed since the staff report was sent out in the PRAC packet. He said when fees initially were set, he did an extensive study of other community centers, hotels, meeting rooms, banquet hall facilities, etc., and came up with rates at that time. Over the past nine months however, he discovered that some of these rates are not working well for the Plymouth Creek Center. He explained that any new rates approved tonight would begin as soon as the Council approves them. The full Plymouth room rates for residents will not change, although Rick feels they are too low. He is proposing raising the non- resident weekend rate by $50. Non—profit Plymouth groups get one free meeting per month. The majority of the rentals have been by corporate groups. Rick said our main competitors are the Medina Ballroom, the Radisson, etc. They are charging more than we are, and Rick believes we have a much nicer facility. In the main ballroom, there is a large movie screen and a projection TV called Dreamvision, an $8,000 unit. It is state of the art equipment that is very sensitive and would cost a lot to replace. Rick is proposing that people using the full Plymouth room would get all the electronic equipment for $100/day. Rick stated that if someone is having a small meeting, they can bring in their own food, like cookies, snacks, donuts, etc., but if they are serving a full meal, they are to use our, on-site caterer. Commissioner Thompson asked how people use the half ballroom, quarter ballroom, Fireside room, etc., and she asked for some clarification on the rates for rooms other than the full ballroom. Rick said the Fireside room is mainly for seniors during the day. The quarter Plymouth room is used for meetings, and the seniors use it for dances, etc. He explained that we do not rent the quarter or half Plymouth room very often. Commissioner Singer said she thinks the price on the Fireside Room is very reasonable. Staff clarified for Commissioner Thompson that seniors have free use of the Plymouth Creek Center at all times. Rick said if you exclude the full Plymouth room, at least three quarters of the other rentals are by corporations. Commissioner Singer asked about charges for the LCD projector when only half of the room is rented. Rick said it would be $100 whether you rented half or the full ballroom. Chair Anderson asked about the capacity of the ballroom and Rick stated that it seats 350. CHAIR ANDERSON MOVED TO ACCEPT THE FEES AND POLICES AS PRESENTED BY STAFF. COMMISSIONER SINGER SECONDED. Commissioner Singer than had some suggestions for general rules. Under No. 4, she suggested adding the words "after that time" to the sentence about charges being assessed in hourly amounts, so that people know they are being charged beginning at 12:15 a.m. She also thought those words needed to be added to weeknight rentals that go past 10:15 p.m. Rick said the problem stems from the free groups staying past the closing time. Commissioners discussed sending someone around to tell them they have to leave, or to turn off the lights to get the message across. They also discussed the possibility that if you tell rental groups they are going to be charged extra if they stay past the curfew that this might encourage them to stay late, rather than get them to leave at the established closing time. Chair Anderson withdrew his motion. COMMISSIONER SINGER MOVED TO RECOMMEND THAT THE SENTENCE UNDER NUMBER 4 OF GENERAL RULES ABOUT ASSESSING AN HOURLY AMOUNT BE DROPPED ALTOGETHER. COMMISSIONER MUSLINER ADDED THAT THE WORDS "WALK THRU' UNDER THE DECORATION SECTION, PAGE 4, ITEM 4, BE CHANGED TO "WALK PRAC Minutes/February 2001 Page 9 1 - 3d THROUGH." FIEMANN SECONDED AMENDED MOTION. MOTION CARRIED WITH ALL AYES. Director Blank asked Rick to give an update on dome rentals. Rick said they are up $8,000 this year from last year. The dome is booked constantly. There's a North Central soccer group that was renting in Stillwater that came in a couple of months ago and took all the late night times and early morning times on Sundays. We still have a lot of use from the three main Plymouth soccer associations, plus a big club from Hopkins. Rugby is also a big user. They come right after school two or three days a week. Walking continues to be very popular. It is now free at all times. Dropping the fee has created a lot of good will. The heating bill for the fieldhouse last month was $15,000. Last year the revenue for the six-month period that the dome is in place was $200,000. This year Rick is estimating it at between $230,000 and $240,000. The golf netting went up in November. Golf is offered on Tuesdays & Wednesdays from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Half a dozen to a dozen people are golfing during those times. The hours are limited this year. We may try to offer some evening hours next year. Rick stated that we are getting more and more requests from people who come in during the day to walk, and they want their children to be able to play in the dome at the same time. We now offer two afternoons a week from 1-2:30 of open play, where kids can throw Frisbees, kick soccer balls, etc., while the parents walk the track. Rick said prior to offering the open playtime, parents would come to walk and instead of keeping an eye on their kids, they would allow them to roam the rest of the Plymouth Creek Center without supervision. Maybe next year some hours could be set aside when half of the dome would become an indoor playground with some inflatable objects, like slides, Director Blank stated. 7. COMMISSION PRESENTATION None. 8. STAFF COMMUNICATION The Ice Center is going to host one of the women's world hockey championship games — Germany vs. China on Thursday, April 5. These teams will be in Salt Lake City next year for the Olympics. The teams will be here to practice the day before the game. This is a chance to attract young female hockey players to the arena. 9. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m. " DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE MINUTES — MEETING NO. 103 Monday, February 12, 2001, 7:00 p.m. Members Present Kathy Osborne, Connie Fortin, Terri Goodfellow -Heyer, Karen Haht, Chris Graham Members Absent Bruce Larson and Terry Jaffoni Others/Staff Present Ginny Black, City Council Liaison Fred Moore, Director of Public Works Shane Missaghi, Engineering Department Margie Vigoren, Solid Waste Coordinator Patty Hillstrom, Secretary Call to Order Ms. Osborne brought the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Introductions Introductions were made by Solid Waste Coordinator Margie Vigoren and the new EQC member, Chris Graham. Ms. Vigoren explained to the group that she will be adding three days to her schedule at the City and will be helping Shane with water quality education issues. Minutes It was moved by Karen Haht, seconded by Connie Fortin and unanimously approved by the committee that the minutes for Meeting No. 102, January 10, 2001, be approved as written. Medicine Lake Ms. Haht reported that issues and priorities of Medicine Lake were Watershed discussed at the last meeting on February 1, 2001 and that she is pleased Subcommittee with the work that the subcommittee is doing. Matching the funds Update available with solutions and the education plan will be the focus of the next Medicine Lake Watershed Subcommittee (MLWS) meeting on February 22, 2001. The MLWS members will be mailed a copy of the problems and solutions plus a list of objectives for Medicine Lake. Each member will individually evaluate the solutions and send their comments back to the City by February 16, 2001. The material will then be compiled and provided to the members before their next meeting on February 22, 2001. Ms. Haht spoke with Ms. Wilcox concerning her absence at the last two meetings. Ms. Wilcox is sorry she was unable to attend the meetings but will be at the next meeting. Ms. Osborne asked Ms. Vigoren if she Page 1 of 4 D: ITEMP1021201.doc I- ��2 would be available for the MLWS meeting if Ms. Wilcox is unable to attend. Ms. Haht reported that AMLAC members were so impressed with Steve McComas' presentation at the last MLWS meeting that they have enlisted him to speak at the Medicine Lake City Hall on February 21, 2001 at 7-9:00 p.m. Councilmember Black stated that the City Council would also like to hear Mr. McComas speak. The Council is interested in a joint session with Mr. McComas, the City Council and the EQC that could be televised for the public. This meeting will be scheduled when the MLWS report is due to the City Council and Mr. Missaghi will keep Mr. McComas updated so he can work the session into his schedule. Mr. Missaghi stated that the first draft of recommendations are scheduled for completion in March or April and should be on the EQC agenda in May. Environmental Mr. Moore will direct City staff to design a nomination form and Champion develop criteria for nominations for the Environmental Champion Program. Parkers Lake The following update of the Parkers Lake activities which are a part of the Surface Water Management Plan were given by Mr. Missaghi: • Bonestroo, Rosene, Anderlik and Assoc., Inc. and Steve McComas are developing a watershed and lake model for Parkers Lake. • Short, Elliott, Hendrickson, Inc. is preparing a feasibility study for routing surface water on the south side of Parkers Lake through a water quality pond before entering the lake. The project will be constructed this year. • Surface water quality testing has shown a phosphorus level of 30 parts per million in Parkers Lake. • Ms. Vigoren distributed a rough draft of a newsletter that will go to all residents in the Parkers lake watershed and subwatersheds a number of times during the year. Native Plant Model Ms. Fortin suggested a portion of her yard and a portion of park property Sites that runs along side her yard as a possible site for native planting. She will meet with Paul Buck, Forester, on February 13`h to discuss the proj ect. Ms. Osborne suggested a one and one half acre of City property in Plymouth Creek Park that is currently just mowed. Ms. Fortin and Ms. Osborne would like to see both sites used as an educational showcase and were concerned with funding for these proj ects. Page 2 of 4 D: ITEMP1021201.doc Ms. Goodfellow -Heyer expressed the need to fit the natural planting area with the existing neighborhood. Lawn Fertilizer Ms. Vigoren explained a letter that will be going out to area stores Subcommittee selling fertilizer requesting their help educating the public on Plymouth's fertilizer ordinance. The stores are offered the opportunity to have their store name on a City brochure that will be sent to all residents in the City. Stores wishing to participate need to offer phosphorus free fertilizer to their customers, post an informational sign provided by the City and return form to the City by March 2, 2001. A follow-up letter will be sent to businesses and a suggestion was made to spot check the businesses. Plymouth Yard & Ms. Vigoren gave the members a brief overview of the Yard & Garden Garden Expo Expo that will be held on March 24, 2001 at the Plymouth Creek Center from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Ms. Osborne volunteered to work at the EQC booth. Councilmember Black and Ms. Fortin will be available after other commitments. An email will be sent to all EQC members closer to the event date to see if anyone else will be available to help. 2000 Annual Report The 2000 Annual Report and 2001 Annual Plan will be on the City and 2001 Annual Council agenda for February 13, 2001, and should be approved and Plan adopted. 2001 Environmental Ms. Vigoren displayed a flyer designed by the principal of Pilgrim Lane Fair Elementary School for the 2001 Environmental Fair which will be held on March 30, 2001 in conjunction with the schools project fair. Board and Ms. Osborne informed everyone of the Board and Commission Commission Reception that will be held at 6:30 p.m. on March 6, 2001 at Plymouth Reception Creek Center. Wetland Monitoring Tim Reese, Hennepin Conservation District, contacted Ms. Vigoren regarding the City of Plymouth's participation in a program utilizing volunteers for wetland monitoring. This program involves two sessions of training for volunteers which would take place at the MN Pollution Control Agency on May 9 or 10 and June 2. Mr. Barten stated that the county may be involved in this program. Ms. Haht will inform the MLWS and Mr. Missaghi will email those he thinks may be interested in volunteering for this program. Page 3 of 4 D: ITEMP1011201.doc Surface Water Fee Mr. Moore noted the Special City Council meeting on Tuesday, February 13, 2001, regarding the proposed Surface Water Utility Fee and that the City Council may ask for EQC direction. He also handed out a copy of the staff report for the meeting. The following are the main points for discussion: • Are the correct properties targeted for inclusion in the surface water utility? • Are these properties organized into the correct categories? • Does the utility impose the correct fee for surface water services? Mr. Missaghi will update the EQC at the next meeting. Tree Ordinance Councilmember Black stated that a gentleman has been attending recent City Council meetings and he is concerned about trees being taken down for development. The City Council suggested that he attend an EQC meeting. Mr. Missaghi will arrange for a presentation from a Community Development staff member and Paul Buck, Forester, to explain the current tree preservation ordinance and discussion regarding the need to update the ordinance. This will take place at the next EQC meeting. The EQC will review the ordinance and make any recommendations for change to the City Council. Election of Officers It was moved by Connie Fortin, seconded by Karen Haht and unanimously approved by the committee to elect Kathy Osborne as Chair and Bruce Larson as Vice Chair of the EQC for a one year term. Next Meeting The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 14, 2001 at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 8:38 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Patty Hillstrom Page 4 of 4 D: ITEMP1021201.doc Z -3C YOUTH ADVISORY COUNCIL MINUTES OF MEETING FEBRUARY 20, 2001 Council Members Present Absent Katie Bonneville Brianna Cohen Katelyn Donnelly Patrick Hartung Jameson Johnson, Co—Chair Eric Jungels, Jr., CICC Liaison Paul Lenhardt, Co—Chair Amy Nagengast, Alternate Alison Rapacz The meeting was called to order by Jameson Johnson at 7:10 PM. Also present were Councilmember Judy Johnson, City Manager Dwight Johnson, and Deputy City Clerk Kurt Hoffman. The agenda was amended to include a discussion of the 2000 Annual Report and the 2001 Work Plan, as well as proposed legislative issues relating to blood alcohol levels and alcohol sales. Minutes The minutes of the February 5 meeting were approved. Subcommittee Updates Youth Activities: Youth activities flyers produced by the Park and Recreation Department were distributed to Council members. Amy, Katie, and Brianna took copies for distribution at area schools, including Fourth Baptist and West Lutheran. Jameson reported that the activities listed in the flyer would be referred to in an article he will write for the Trojan Tribune. Staff will also send a copy of the flyer to the CICC and the Communities Ahead group. Jameson will also submit a copy of the article to the Sun Sailor. Music/Concert/Teen Programs: Following discussion, Council members agreed to channel energies into planning youth events at the June League of Minnesota Cities conference in June. Coffeehouse/youth center interests: Alison will contact subcommittee members to schedule a meeting. Explorers Project: In Patrick's absence, no report was available. Youth Town Forum: An e—mail communiqud from Archana Balas reported that a tentative date of Thursday, April 26 has been set. Members are awaiting confirmation from the Plymouth Creek Center for use of the site on that date. Archana wrote that there is some interest in using the youth town forum to award the youth service citations. Youth Advisory Council 2 February 20, 2001 Meeting Page 2 Youth Service Awards: In Eric's absence no report was available. Roller Disco Event Council members discussed publicity plans for the event, and will contact Cable 12 News, Fox 29' s Lowdown program, and KARE I I's Whatever for possible mentions. League of Minnesota Cities June Conference Council members discussed plans for an ice breaker event at the Conference. Judy Johnson suggested consideration of the use of the DECC or Grandma's for a dance event. She agreed to check into those possible sites. She also advised Council members begin seeking possible chaperones for their stay in Duluth. Motion was made by Paul Lenhardt, seconded by Jameson Johnson, to request that funds in the City's Youth Advisory Council budget be applied to the Youth Advisory Council's attendance and events at the League of Minnesota Cities Conference in Duluth. The motion was approved unanimously. Other Discussion Council members unanimously approved the 2000 Annual Report and 2001 Work Plan. Council members discussed the possibility of using the Fireside Room at Plymouth Creek Center for selected youth activities night. They agreed to consider touring the Maple Grove Community Center at a future date to see how that city arranges for youth activities. Council members reviewed correspondence from the meeting packet and discussed a City proposal for a skate park behind the Plymouth Ice Center. Council members received an update on proposals in the legislature regarding the sale of alcohol in supermarkets, and the lower blood levels allowed. Judy reported that the League of Minnesota Cities has adopted a policy supporting the reduced allowable .08 alcohol blood level. The meeting adj ourned at 8:10 PM. NEXT MEETING: MONDAY, MARCH 5,7:00 PM MEDICINE LAKE ROOM March 2, 2001 Earl J. Heinrich 17135 - 91h Avenue Plymouth, MN 55447 SUBJECT: SNOW PLOWING Dear Earl: CITY OF PLYMOUTR I am responding to your email dated February 18, 2001 addressed to the Mayor and Councilmembers. As Public Works Director, the street division is one of the many divisions that is part of my responsibility. The Plymouth City Council has established the City's policy with regard to snow removal. That policy states that residential streets, such as 91h Avenue where you live, is only plowed after a two and one-half inch snowfall. Our major and secondary roads are provided a much higher type of service. The reason for this is that they have a substantial greater traffic volume than our residential streets. Typically all residents are within four to five blocks of a major type road which receives a higher service. This is the reason 9th Avenue is not plowed after each snowfall. As we are all aware, this winter we have had above average snowfalls (66" to date) and over 100 consecutive days where the temperature has not been above 40 degrees to melt the snow we have received. Also, in addition to snow, there have been three occasions where we have received rain prior to the start of the snow. It is for this reason that most of our residential streets are snow packed and contain ruts from vehicles. Beginning Thursday we finally started to have some warmer weather and sunshine which is helping to melt some of the snow pack on the streets. We continue to work on our street system with our equipment which can scrape the hard ice. Because of the City's concern for the environment, we do not use large quantities of salt on residential roads because of the negative impacts to adjacent waters such as Gleason Lake in your neighborhood. Also, the area where you live is a beautiful wooded area but this keeps the street in shade most of the time and the sun is not as beneficial as in open areas. We will continue to work on 9th Avenue and our other residential streets until the snow is removed from our efforts or weather conditions. Sincerely, Fred G. Moore, P.E. Director of Public Works cc: Dwight D. Johnson, City Manager Mayor and City Council PLYMOUTH A Bcautifuil)rC\Ertft�Q�{i1GG ENEPAU[.TRSIFRED\2001Weinrich 3 2 91.doc 3400 PLYMOUTH BOULEVARD • PLYMOUTH, MINNESOTA 55447-1482 • TELEPHONE (612) 509-5000 00�-Wo. www.d.plymouth.mmus i Fred Moore From: Judy Johnson Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 3:51 PM To: 'EHEINR007@aol.com ' Cc: Fred Moore; Dwight Johnson Subject: RE: Snow Plowing? Dear Mr. Heinrich, Thank you for your email regarding plowing problems. I am sorry I didn't respond sooner, but I was having computer problems. I will check with our public works director, Fred Moore, to see what can be done to help improve the situation. I will have someone repsond to you shortly from our city staff. Judy Johnson Council Member At Large -----Original Message ----- From: EHEINR007@aol.com To: jtierney@ci.plymouth.mn.us; kslavik@ci.plymouth.mn.us; jjohnson@ci.plymouth.mn.us; sharstad@ci.plymouth.mn.us Cc: EHEINR007@aol.com Sent: 2/18/01 1:10 PM Subject: Snow Plowing? I have lived on 9th Av. N. in Plymouth all my life (38+ years). This winter the snow plowing is the worst I or my mother can remember. You claim to have a parking ban ordinance in effect until the streets are plowed to the curb, but our street (and others in our area off of Cty. Rd. 101 in SW Plymouth) has never been plowed to the curb all winter. After the second major snowfall of the winter our street wasn't even plowed for a whole week. There are ruts 3-4" deep on parts of our street that make it difficult for two cars to come abreast without problems. Just yesterday someone in an SUV went off the road and hit a telephone pole. I don't know the cause, whether it was ice on the road, crowding or what, but our street is in sorry shape. Our neighbor says he helped one of your police PSO's get their truck unstuck on our street a month or so ago. The postal trucks have special difficulty due to the lack of plowing, as the part of the road they need to drive on is either barely plowed or unplowed in many places. Thank You Earl J. Heinrich eheinr007@aol.com 17135 9th Av. N. 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