December 31, 2010 
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For Brick City Blog, 2010 has been a very good year. Page views nearly tripled and e-mail subscribers doubled in 2010 over where they were in 2009.
I want to thank everyone who has stopped by and let’s keep the conversation going about how to make Chaska an even better place to live, work, and play!
December 23, 2010 0 Comments
Two other thoughts as we head into the holidays:
I hope everyone has a very Happy Holiday season!
December 21, 2010 0 Comments
From the September 2, 2009 Chaska Herald:
Podhradsky said that he foresaw the city’s tax rate remaining at a constant 22.2 percent for at least the next five years after the increase.
Two tax increases in two years, yet we’re still facing a deficit over the next five years. Time to get real about the structural issues in the budget.
December 21, 2010 0 Comments
Last night, the City Council voted 5-0 to approve an increase in the property tax rate designed to keep the 2011 tax levy at the same level as 2010.
Much of the Council’s discussion related to the issue of personnel costs, which have been budgeted to increase 1.5% in 2011. Unfortunately, much of that discussion involved setting up strawmen (that critics were demanding drastic cuts in salary or personnel numbers) and knocking them down.
The city’s budget does nothing to address the long-term financial issues that this city faces. Even with the tax increase, 2012 and the rest of the five-year planning period still projects to have serious deficits that are going to have to be addressed either by further tax increase and/or spending cuts. Holding out hope that development is going to ride to the rescue in 2011 — which the Council seems to be counting on — is a pretty thin strand to grasp. While we all hope that the economy is poised to truly turn around, the stark reality is that the last two economic recoveries have taken far longer than historical post-WWII trend to produce a return to “normal”.
The Council seemingly hasn’t learned from recent experience with the Street Reconstruction Program or Water Rates. Kicking the can down the road doesn’t work. With those programs, the Council waited and waited, then was forced to make dramatic changes (a tax increase for the former and a near-doubling of rates for the latter). Thanks to the inaction of the Council to start addressing these structural issues with the 2011 budget, we’re potentially facing a much larger mess in 2012 and beyond.
When roughly 70% of the city general fund budget goes to personnel costs, you’re going to have to go there to get savings. Everyone appreciates that Chaska has, by and large, excellent city staff who are smart, versatile, and dedicated. But reality is reality. You can’t just wave away (as Mayor Mark Windschitl did) the fact that private sector workers have seen dismal labor market conditions and homeowners are experiencing declining property values. A one-year pay freeze for city employees would not be out of line given the current situation, and in fact, that would be far better than what many employees of other government agencies have been receiving.
It’s critical that Chaska’s financial house get put into order sooner rather than later. In January, the city will unveil the results of the Downtown Master Plan. First looks for some of the ideas on critical downtown blocks were given to the Chaska Herald last week. These ideas look promising, but they are not going to be free. If revitalization of downtown is as important as everyone says it is, then money is going to have to be freed up for these efforts. We’ve got to have the rest of the budget in line in order to be able to effectively address downtown (realizing that said funds will come from multiple sources). Otherwise, all the hard work (and the $83,000 in consulting fees) will go up on the shelf, not to be used.
December 16, 2010 5 Comments
La Quebrada Restauranto Mexicano and Cantina is reported to have opened in the former Chestnuts/Mi Casa location downtown.
I haven’t had a chance to check it out as of yet, but I was wondering what the menu looked like and what prices were, so I thought I would go out and check the website to see what they were offering. It was then I discovered that the restaurant doesn’t have a website.
Say what you will about the downtown business environment and question if you will whether the city has done enough to make it better, but it’s not the city’s fault that downtown restaurants continue to make fundamental errors in how they run their businesses.
If there’s one thing that a restaurant owner who operates in downtown Chaska should have learned by now, it’s that you’ve got to market your restaurant — people aren’t going to just find you. Every failed restaurant in the downtown area recently — with the exception of Pauly’s — didn’t do nearly enough to get its message out.
December 9, 2010 0 Comments
Some notes from around town:
December 8, 2010 0 Comments
Tonight, the Chaska City Council, Chaska Planning Commission, Chaska Parks Commission and Chaska Heritage Preservation Committee will be having a joint meeting at the Chaska Community Center to discuss the initial findings from the Downtown Master Plan process. (A public forum will take place in January, but tonight’s meeting is an open meeting under Minnesota statute.)
How was this communicated to residents?
Front page of the city website? Nope.
A note in the City Council section of the website? Nope.
The City Hall Bulletin? Nope. It lists that the normal meeting of the Planning Commission is canceled, but nothing about this meeting.
An announcement on its Facebook page? Nope.
The only place this meeting is communicated is buried deep in the staff report and in the other business section of the minutes from the 12/6 City Council meeting.
When will City Hall begin to take seriously its responsibility to communicate with residents and make the people part of the process?
December 8, 2010 0 Comments
At Monday’s Chaska City Council meeting, the Council approved changes to the paid personal leave (PPL) policy for all city union and non-union employees. The changes were approved on a 3-1 vote, with Councilor Gino Businaro voting no, and Mayor Mark Windschitl absent due to illness.
These changes provide employees with additional paid personal leave, designed (per City Administrator Matt Podhradsky) to bring Chaska in line with the average of a peer group of 30 cities.
The changes would give an employee an average of about three more days of paid personal leave per year over the first 20 years of employment.
Below is a table showing the breakdown of the new plan versus the current plan. City employees are also expected (assuming the preliminary levy is approved at the December 20 City Council meeting) to get pay raises of 1.5% in 2011.
| Days of Paid Personal Leave | |||
| Years of Service | Current Plan | New Plan | Difference |
| 0 | 15 | 18 | 3 |
| 1 | 15 | 18 | 3 |
| 2 | 15 | 18 | 3 |
| 3 | 15 | 18 | 3 |
| 4 | 15 | 18 | 3 |
| 5 | 15 | 18 | 3 |
| 6 | 20 | 22 | 2 |
| 7 | 20 | 22 | 2 |
| 8 | 20 | 22 | 2 |
| 9 | 20 | 22 | 2 |
| 10 | 20 | 22 | 2 |
| 11 | 21 | 23 | 2 |
| 12 | 22 | 24 | 2 |
| 13 | 23 | 25 | 2 |
| 14 | 24 | 26 | 2 |
| 15 | 25 | 27 | 2 |
| 16 | 25 | 28 | 3 |
| 17 | 25 | 29 | 4 |
| 18 | 25 | 30 | 5 |
| 19 | 25 | 31 | 6 |
| 20 | 30 | 31 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 435 | 492 | 57 |
December 6, 2010 0 Comments
The Truth in Taxation meeting to discuss the city’s proposed increase in the property tax rate is tonight. The General Fund presentation is online, while details for the other funds have not been posted. A final vote on the city budget will be at the December 20 City Council meeting.
In September, the City Council approved a preliminary levy equal to that of last year, which effectively means that property taxes will be raised 6.7% to offset a similar decline in property valuations in 2011.
Under the preliminary levy, the median homeowner in Chaska would see a decline in property taxes of $1 versus a decline of $30 if the tax rate were to stay the same.
Additionally, the plan called for the following cuts:
Unfortunately, the City Council has not gone further and addressed additional expenses that should be looked at. I would propose these additional measures, with the savings going to reduce the tax rate:
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