The Tuesday, March 4th, 2025 meeting of the Eden Prairie City Council is now called to order. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It's customary during this u beginning part of the meeting for me to read an open podium invitation to our residents. Open podium is an opportunity for Eden Prairie residents to address the city council on issues related to Eden Prairie city government. These open podium times occur prior to each council meeting. The meetings typically occur the first and third Tuesday of each month. Open podiums occur from 6:30 to 6:55 right here in the council chamber. If you wish to speak at open podium, please do contact the city manager's office at 952-9498412 by noon of the meeting date with your name, phone number, and subject matter. Open podium is not recorded or televised. If you have questions about open podium, please do contact the city manager's office. All right. Uh we have no proclamations and presentations this evening. Um, so we can move right into approving the agenda. Is there uh are there any uh additions, any uh council member reports? If not, if someone wants to make a motion uh to approve the agenda as listed, I'll move to approve the agenda. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I opposed. We have two minutes to approve the workshop held back on February 18th and the council meeting. Uh council, any uh corrections, additions, anything you want to raise uh as a concern? If not, is there a motion to approve both the workshop and the council meeting? Move to approve the following city council minutes. City council workshop held Tuesday, February 18, 2025. City council meeting held Tuesday, February 18, 2025. Is there a second? Second. Further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. We have um looks like what 10 items on the consent calendar A through I. Uh council, any uh items you wish to uh pull to have a little bit more discussion on or ask more questions? If not, is there a motion to approve consent calendar items A through I? Move to approve items A through I on the consent calendar. Is there a second? Second. Further discussion. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Mr. Gacho. We have one public hearing this evening. I'll turn it over to you. We do. Thank you, mayor. We have a development proposal for the Highway 5 business center at by uh Endeavor Development. And the applicant here is requesting to build a 52,000 square foot speculative speculative building on the property located on south of Venture Lane north of Highway 5 in Wallace Road. And for a lot of us, that is the um for everyone familiar, it's a 4 acre parcel that is a long been held by Mandot. Um goes it goes way back to the Highway 212 um construction that has been excess property that they've held for a long time. that has been a potential piece of of development property. And just this past year, the applicant here uh purchased that property with the intent of building a um modern um new flex office warehouse space. So, they will come forward uh with their proposal um to present to you. The planning commission heard this proposal at their February 10th meeting and unanimously uh recommended approval uh to the city council. So the applicant is here to present their project and their plans to the city council and then the staff and the applicant could answer any questions that the council or the public has. Please come forward. And while you're doing that, Mr. um what's your best guess um why it's been this many years that this parcel has remained a remnant? That's a really good question, mayor. I think it's been up for sale on a number of occasions and um Mandot has not been able to find a buyer till now. So, it wasn't anything Mandot was not uh willing to sell or they had pulled it off the market, nothing like that. They may have had on the market um on and off the market on a number of different occasions, but I guess I can't speak to you know, was the final price that they sold it for different than maybe what they thought they would sell it for a decade ago? I'm not sure. That's a good question, but I'm I'm not sure. Okay. Thank you. Welcome. Give your name, um, address, and maybe company you work for. Yeah, my name is Evan Matson. I'm here representing the applicant. My address is 5800 American Boulevard West, Bloomington. Can you hear me? Okay. Sorry, a little louder. All right. Um, so I guess to speak a little bit about the history, we acquired the property back in September. It was up for auction from MDOT for about a year. Um, so we acquired it um on that time frame. I'm not sure if there was further history beyond that. Um, in the late 1990s, uh, three outdoor storage industrial buildings were taken down uh to make way for that intersection intersection. So that's some of the the site history that existed previously. Uh with that I can start with our presentation. So here is a rendering of the project. As was mentioned it's a 50,000 foot modern business center built on a speculative basis. This is a view of the western elevation. So a little bit about us. We've been here previously presenting on Nexus at Opus Park. Uh we're a local developer. We like to build projects of this nature in fill that we think will be really beneficial for the community. Uh this is a speculative project, so there's not currently a tenant on hand. And we feel like that's a little bit of our specialty is projects like this, identifying a location, bringing in users to the city, and um creating a project that we can all be proud of. Uh here are a couple highlights of the project that detail the request and the application. Uh so as was mentioned, we acquired the property in September from MNDOT. Uh it was previously zoned as rightaway. So part of our request is to plat the lot because it's currently unplatted. Um we're proposing to develop a 52,000 square foot business center. Um we're also requesting to reszone to Flex Service. Um so for those of you who are unfamiliar, flex service is a new zoning type. The entire immediate area is guided for flex service. Um so request is consistent with the guiding uh the Aspire 2040 plan. Here is an aerial of the site. You can see its location there on the southwest corner of Venture Lane and Martin Drive. It's a 3.9 acre parcel. Um has some topography. So we worked a lot on the design there to figure out a solution that would allow for development. I think that's a contributing factor on why it potentially sat for a while. There's some topography there that we had to really work through. Um, it's currently zoned as IGN. Um, it it defaulted back to Gen after we acquired it from MNDOT because we um can't own a rightaway parcel. So, here is a view of the site plan. You'll see that we have an entrance on the west and car parking along the west. There is a truck court along the east. Um we are very diligent in trying to uh locate the site elements as best we could with topography. Um we are using locally sourced materials. Um as far as sustainability goes, we feel like repurposing and reutilizing materials is really the best thing you can do. Um so our previous proposal and presentation that we presented next to Park um there is materials that will be reclaimed from that project and utilized on this project. So that's something we're proud um to be incorporating. Um it's set up for EV vehicles. There's a question asked at the planning commission about how we plan to expand uh EV EV vehicle parking and we feel very confident our proposal and our project by um having the ability to expand that due to switch gear that we're installing. Um we paid particular attention to the landscaping plan as was noted. This is a very highly visible site and we wanted to um plant really premium plantings along the areas that are really highly visible. Um premium meaning uh larger, more mature upfront day one so that there isn't as much of a transition period. So we worked with city staff on that. Here is uh the exterior um elevations and material finish key. So, the facade will be painted pre-cast with a stone veneer and uh metal canopies and window window frames. Um moving from the top to west elevation down to the south elevation which will border Highway 5. Once again, here you saw at the beginning, but here's a rendering of the project from the west. Um, and we we we share these images because we feel like renderings aren't always representative of what the project will look like. And so these are character images that will show uh the color selection as well as the materials that will be utilized. So that's why we include them on this presentation. Uh, a couple sample interior images. Because it's built on spec, we wanted to show you um what a tenant may ultimately build out. Uh to summarize, we're requesting reszone to flex service and preliminary plat approvals. Uh flex service zoning is consistent with the 2040 guide plan. Uh the preliminary plat is requested because we are reclaiming the site for MDOT. It's required. Um and we're seeking to revitalize the reclaimed Mandotaway and go forward with our present or our project. And with that, I welcome any questions. Council, we can ask questions at different points. Uh this is not a bad time since we've got the proponent standing there. So, Council Member Nelson, go ahead. I have one question. Is this building going to be either solar capable or solar ready? Yes. So, our structure will be able to support solar. It will not be installed up front. Um, but it will have the capability for a tenant to accommodate that down the road. Okay. So, it will have, you know, all the electric available and stuff that they would need to hook into and other such things. Yep. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Do you ever participate when you're dealing with a potential leasey in incentivizing or encouraging I realize there's money that has to I mean it has to fall back I guess on a tenant but um it it would be great if we could get more uh tenants possibly seeing the financial advantage if there was one and if an owner was able to somehow participate in that process. I'm I'm throwing out something we really haven't chatted a whole lot about um outside of the context of a building coming before us, but have you given thought to that as the company you represent? Yeah, so we've worked with a couple of groups and explored opportunities. Um we feel like a a great opportunity is the EDA program to explore different incentives through um rebates and programs and along that manner. So we're pursuing that with this project as part of our development agreement. We're enrolling in that process. Is that a federal program? Uh, no. It's a uh I'm just just saying because it may not exist. Yeah. In a week. Um, okay. Council. Um, anything else before we open it up to a public hearing? We can always pull the proponent back up. Okay. Thank you. Just stay near and um, appreciate that. So, um, anyone in the audience, this is a public hearing. Is there anyone that uh wishes to address the city council on our Highway 5 business center by Endeavor Development? Please come forward and state your name and address. Council, again, um well, it's close to public hearing, but again, if you think that this is a fairly straightforward project and you want to go ahead and uh make the entire motion, we can still have a comment and question time. Is that is that appropriate? If so, I don't see any um negative uh head movements. So, Lisa, you were nodding there. Do you want to go ahead and make um make some motion? Sure. I'll move to approve the first reading of an ordinance for a zoning district change from I general to flex service on 3.98 acres and adopt a resolution for a prel pre preliminary plaque combining several tracks into one lot on 3.98 acres and adopt a resolution for findings of fact in support of park dedication fees and direct staff to prepare development agreement incorporating staff and commission recommendations and council conditions and authorize the issuance of an early land alteration permit for Highway 5 business center at the request of the developer subject to the conditions outlined in the permit. Sir, second. All right, council. Um, the public hearing has been closed. Um, any further questions you have, comments of staff andor proponent? I just have one question. What you what is your estimation in terms of number of employees will be uh in this facility? That's always the most difficult question to answer on a speculative project. But I think uh a good gauge is looking at the you can just give the law and I'm just curious how many people will be employed there, right? Yeah. And yeah, so I I guess I would answer that by saying generally we have a range of 10 to 15% office. So you're having approximately uh 20 to 40 employees of that nature somewhere somewhere in that range of that building. Um I think when you look at our portfolio of projects we've developed um that would be roughly what we anticipate. Yeah. And you have 60 parking spots. Is that something around there? Yeah. So, so will be 40 to 60 employees. That's good. That's that's exactly us thinking about. Thank you. Yeah. Appreciate it. Yeah. Don't run off to a second. Um, so the only emails we got were from a couple neighbors up northwest. Um, significant I border the viewshed, but a significant distance. I don't even know, a thousand feet maybe more. But their concern was that right now it's this treed area that blocks in in essence the both view and also the noise I think was the point of the email. Um I I well number one I think the building itself will likely create even more of a noise block than the current trees did. So I think that issue um is reasonably dealt with. But in terms of the the tree issue, it looks like you have really good planting. Did and I'm assuming with staff's input, you actually maybe looked at more trees on any area like on the northwest that would face thousand feet away again. Uh any neighborhood developments, was that a strategic thing to where you place trees or did you just you don't have a whole lot of room. I mean, you just got the perimeter of the whole project, but was that was that part of maybe what you strategized? Yeah. So, I guess to discuss the trees in particular, we spent a more time than typical on this project just because it's it's visible from all four um right sides of the the property line. It it's an extremely visible site and we wanted to make sure that whatever we were putting in fit in with the neighborhood as well as the surrounding community in the long term. And so I think when you look at the plantings that are on the landscaping plan, um once they have really established and grown out, they'll provide a premium to what's on site currently. We're including blaze maples, other ornamental trees of that nature. So they're really more premium quality trees. What's on site is more volunteer trees. So as I mentioned previously, this site was um previously an outdoor storage. There's three different smaller industrial buildings and those were demolished. Um, and the trees that are on site now are are cottonwoods or lesser quality trees. So, we feel like in the long term the trees that will be planted um will really be a benefit to the community because they'll be of better quality. Great. No, you answered that. Thank you. And I would only say to Julie and staff that I know um when we have our tree buy program, I think that's through park and wreck, I'm not sure. Um we no longer sell maples because our city is way over planted in maples. Um and I know Autumn Blaze was the whatever out of the University of Minnesota, wasn't it? But it's a new maple as of 30 years ago or so, but we planted a lot of those. And I just when I just noticed you've got seven of those on there. And I think it's almost the number one uh type of tree. But my only thought would be be consistent with also what we're doing with our tree by program trying to uh push out various species just to keep our urban forest healthier, but that's just a by thought. Yeah. Sorry, I was I wasn't aware of that program. I apologize. Yeah. Well, we offer out to our residents, not unlimited, but um what do we sell? Four 600 or something a year and you can buy two 500. Oh, it's in the ballpark. Um, and you can buy each resident if they got in there early enough could buy two. So, um, but we don't sell maples. So, I thought that was interesting to see maples really on any of our replanting programs anymore just because we're worried about um an overabundance of maples in our city if a maple disease were to come through. Okay. Thank you. Um, any council, anything else? Yes. No, one thing I'm I'm just looking at the demo map right now. Yeah, this is just a comment. Um, you know, it's a unique shaped property and I see exactly why you having to build where you're building to make it fit for the propert. Looks like the building's custom fit almost, you know, for the property itself. But gosh, uh, you know, it's it's just one of those things you you're looking at about a hundred trees gone. Yeah. You know, and it's meant as a comment only because I do understand. I was I was just looking at many different ways where you could position it any differently. You really can on that property, you know, and it's a tough decision for Yeah. And um, a key driver of of that was we we tried to relocate elements as much as we could. So it may not be apparent all the iterations that we did, but for example, we moved the storm water pond five feet north, which was the absolute maximum that we could, which will result in, I believe, three to four extra premium height trees remaining on site. So we were down in the weeds granular level trying to resolve some of those issues as much as we could. Well, it's it's good that you gave that much thought into it on it. Uh because I can't really see any other way you could have positioned that building and accomplished it. And Mark, you raised a good point that when you um without knowing the process that our staff and proponent went through, I'm sure painstakingly hours in this that when you look at it at this stage, you just wonder why didn't you move the building that way? But if you compare the topography map of the original to what is now and you look at the higher parts where the building is that you got to move that dirt somewhere, they literally changed the topography of the entire site to get that flat area for a building. So yeah, um no doubt about it. Yeah. Anyway, so I I trust um yeah, I certainly trust proponents, but I trust our staff, too, that um that they they knew about all this and they know what they're doing. But so do you, Mark. So I I appreciate that. Council, any um anything else? If not, are we ready to vote? We've had a motion and a second. So all those in favor say I. I opposed. All right. Welcome to Eden Prairie with your spec building. Um appreciate you being here. All right. Um, now we're moving to our um kind of one of our more enjoyable parts of the year is when we appoint our uh residents to our commissions and boards. Do payment of claims. Like I said, moving on to payment of claims. I got anxious. It was it was it's one of the fun times of the year. Payment of claims. Not that that's not exciting. Um payment of claims is when we approve all the checks or all the money, the expenses that went out between now and our last meeting. And that does need to be approved. I guess I could have moved it around, but you are correct. Payment of claims. Council, any items you wish to uh learn more about or question? If not, is there a motion to approve payment of claims? Move to approve the payment of claim as submitted. Is there a second? Second. Roll call. Council member Fryberg. I. Council member Nion. I. Council member Nelson. I. Council member Tumi. Hi. Mayor Case. Hi. Okay. Am I forgetting anything else? Can we Okay, we're going to move on now to appointments. I was just thinking of the excitement of this. All right. So, council, I what I'd suggest um is that Lisa, you just start with the flying cloud and we'll just move on to skip me. Move on down the line. Start back with Lisa and Yep. Is that okay? So, um if you want to begin the motion, we'll all participate in the motion. One person will second it. We'll take a vote. Um proceed. Lisa, sir. I'll move to appoint to Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission Mark Mohack with a term ending March 31st, 2028 and appoint the Heritage Preservation Commission Andy Ludovisi Ludovi Prima Ceini and Lisa RDE with the term ending March 31st, 2028. appoint to the human rights and diversity commission Shelanda Barry, Daniel Burton Hasselig, Brenda Foffne, Bob Khan, Jodie Knight, and Wendy Russo with terms ending March 31, 2028 and appoint to the parks and recreation commission Pedro Curry Sana Alasar um Garrett Hailey apologize. ologize if I mispronounce and Lisa Nichols with terms ending March 31st 2028 and appoint to the planning commission Daniel Gro Kirk and Frank Sherwood with terms ending March 31st 2028 and appoint the sustainability commission Tim Connors Daniel Hendrickson and Alexis Junker with term ending March 31st 2028 so one person to Second it. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. So, Mr. Gro, I probably should have turned A over to you, but I will turn B just in case there's other things to say about the board of appeal and equalization. Thank you, mayor. And if I could too, I want to talk briefly about A because I think it's important for the public and those watching uh to know that I think we had uh close to 40 people apply for these commission seats. And I think you read about 20 names. And of the 20 names, I believe nine of the names were reappointments because there are people that um like to reup for a second term. And if you want a third term, you need unanimous approval and and there were some that were not reappointed. Um but I mean that's that's a lot of interest in wanting to be a part of the city in civic engagement and it's unfortunate that there's not always room for everybody and I think you said this at the interviews. Uh that's the other thing I should mention. You said this at the interviews because you as a city council uh personally interview all these people. Not every city council interviews every person applying for a commission. You're probably used to that. It's something that's been part of Eden Prairie for decades, but that doesn't happen in every city. You actually took a full evening and interviewed um all of those 40 people and then um were able to choose the the names that you just read. So again, we encourage people to apply in future years because there are always openings and we have other avenues for engagement. We talked about the city government academy, but I just wanted to mention that um we really like to see all those people applying and that you personally interview them, but um there isn't room for all of them each and every year. On the board of appeal mayors, you mentioned the one coming up. This is different because these are appointments that are made um for basically the per one purpose for one meeting typically sometimes two meetings and that is to consider any appeals that there might be to value assessments at Eden Prairie. So people will get their property tax and property value statements and they have an opportunity to question um the value and quite frankly it doesn't need to even get to the board of appeal. Anybody can call and discuss their value with any of our appraisers or assessing staff at any time, but there could be a point where the the board of appeal, which is made up of experts um in the real estate field, people that are certified appraisers, would hear those appeal and take action on those um on behalf of the council. So annually you need to appoint um five people to do that uh specialized um service and those are the five people that we're asking you to appoint tonight for a service that would run now through the end of May. And I don't think I heard you say this but one is a broker real estate broker of the five others are all expert um one is an real estate salesperson. Did you say this? I don't think so. And three are real estate residential appraisers. So, a lot of expertise on that. So, if somebody comes and says, "My house was appraised at 580 and I think it's only worth 350." We've got experts that can say, "Well, your neighbors sold for 580, you know, whatever." They can help uh educate. They do. Yeah. All right. Council, any um further um conversation, discussion about this or someone want to make a motion? Move to appoint to the local board of appeal and equalization Lyndon Moquis, Nate Thompson, Steve Tusman, Mark Hoffman, and Daniel Simmonson for the period of March 4th, 2025 through March 31st, 2025. May 31st. Oh, I'm sorry. May 31st, 2025 or until the board of appeal equalization completes its work. Great. Is there a second? Second. Discussion. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. All right. Um well, I'll turn it back Mr. Gro in case there's anything else you wanted to add. But um the chairs and vice chairs. Yeah. I'll be I'll be quick. Mayor and Council, you also do appoint chairs and vice chairs to these commissions, and most of these uh people have been in these positions previously, but there are a few new people willing to step up and a few vice chair roles. So, um I think we ended um with PG. Should we just go down again, starting with Kathy uh appointing um the chair and vice chair of the Flying Cloud, and then we'll go bullet by bullet, different people. Appoint Daniel Daniel Dorothson, chair, and Mark Warhawk, vice chair of the Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission. Mark appoints Stephen Schumacher, chair, and Paul Thorp, vice chair of the Heritage Preservation Commission. And appoint Patrice Ericson, chair, and Pedro Curry, vice chair of the parks, Recreation, Natural Resources Commission. Appoint Andrew Piper, chair. Trish Duncan, vice chair for the planning commission. And appoint Erin Puk, chair, and Cindy Kaufman, vice chair of the sustainability commission. Point Gregory Leaper, chair, and Barbara Khan, vice chair of the human rights and diversity commission. Great. Is there one person that would second it? Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I opposed. Uh just maybe a brief note of gratitude from all of us to all of our residents that are willing to take time and serve their community and serve us, help us as a council. We I think we're five fairly smart people, but we certainly do not. We're far from knowing everything. And so we appoint these experts and people that have time in many cases that can help advise us and put time in to serve our residents. So, thank you on behalf of the council. U me, myself, I we really appreciate all that you do. So, thank you. All right. As a city council, we are what's called a statutory plan B form of government here in the state of Minnesota. Meaning that we as a council hire just one person, the city manager. And that city manager, whether he or she in this case, he uh goes out and hires the people to um address the the wants, desires, and direction that the council gives him. Um 270, 300 full-time, 600 700 seasonal, part-time. I always say around a thousand, but that you um employ and are responsible for um through your cabinet and etc. But ultimately, it's you. So we as um a board have one employee and that's Rick Etcho. So every year it's our responsibility to evaluate our one employee and make determination whether he has met the goals and expectations that we've had for him and then adjust make a salary adjustment um and then present that out to the public vote on it and then uh send him on his way to to again go do the work that that we direct him. Um we because it's an employee situation, we meet in close session. That's legal. Uh this council has to meet in open public session for every single meeting we ever have except uh meetings have anything to do with legal issues, lawsuits, etc. and or employee relations. We have one employee. So we did meet in close session after our last meeting. U gave um our city manager a performance review. uh went over all the information I'm going to read to you momentarily with him. Uh set his salary. We had lots of uh input and advice and we um looked at the salary adjustments of uh city managers around us uh with the idea that we both want to keep our city manager. You'll see in a moment when I read this, we think he's doing an amazing job. Uh but we also want to be um uh fair and um responsible to our residents as we set the one salary that we can control. We control I guess other salaries through the budget but directly with our one employees. So what I'd like to do now is to read um the statement that um is a result of the summary of our closed session from our last meeting. This is a summary of city manager performance review and approval of 2025 compensation. Um, you'll have a requested action. When I'm completed reading this, someone will make a motion, second it, and we'll vote on it. So, here's the summary. The city manager's contract provides for an annual performance review by the city council in conjunction with a salary review. At its meeting on February 18th, 2025, the city council held a closed session to evaluate the performance of the city manager for the prior year. In that closed session, Mr. Get summarized his own the city and the city's accomplishments or at least his own role in that in 2024 under his leadership including the adoption of a budget with one of the lowest tax levy increases in the metro area and the continuence of the city's AAA bond rating which brings tangible value to the city. Mr. Gel also highlighted progress and achievements on department work plans, major infrastructure and development projects. the police department remodel project, the fire staffing study, the new long-term lease for flying cloud fields, sustainability efforts, community engagement. Mr. Gel also described his collaboration with other city managers and his varied mentorship activities. The council then discussed Mr. Gel's performance, giving him overwhelmingly positive reviews. They highlighted we his financial management of the city including the city's AAA bond rating and a budget that maintains a high level of city services with the low tax levy. The noted um we noted his responsiveness to council and community concerns and the positive work environment that he fosters here at the city. Each council member praised his excellent work and performance and superb communication, leadership and management skills. We all expressed that the city is very fortunate to have him. We the council then discussed Mr. Gro's salary considering his excellent performance review. Council determined to increase Mr. Gro's base salary by 4.3% which results in a base salary of $240,000 and to provide 20,000 additional in employee health insurance premiums and deferred compensation. Let's go ahead and make the motion and second. And if anyone wants to speak or add anything, you don't have to. Um, you're certainly welcome to. Is there someone that would make a motion to approve this 4.3% increase in salary for the year 2025? move to approve a 4.3% increase in the city manager's salary for 2025 and once again provide an additional 20,000 in employee health insurance and premiums and deferred compensation. Is there a second? Second. I think we'll go ahead and take the vote and then if anyone wants to say anything um any further discussion just on the motion itself if not then all those in favor say I. I opposed. Is there anyone that wants to add anything um to what I read or your personal perception or opinion? You don't have to. Yes. No, Kathy. Oh, Kathy, I wanted to say, you know, thank you publicly um for the job that you do for this city. Um citizens that contact me are very pleased with the in Prairie. They're happy to live here and raise their children here. it's safe, but they have a police department that re, you know, really looks carefully at residents and represents them. They're they're good police. Same with fire. Um, our parks are wellkept up and families and individuals appreciate that and um, you've done a wonderful job for us over the past and we know you'll do a wonderful job in the future, but we do want to thank you, Council Member Nan. Well, thank you. Um I think uh mayor already highlighted that one of the most important part is the financial stability of the our city and maintaining the budget maintaining low. So I'm not going to repeat that and just want to say thank you. It's we all worried about but I do want to highlight a couple other things that so far we have not mentioned. Um, Rick, your communication skill. I mean, I really admire that the way you communicate with us, communicate with the employees. When I even text on a Sunday afternoon, you respond back and that's just just I I didn't know that you you get to him on a Sunday and he gets back to you. I get I get I get him. I he responds. He jumps. Now we all know and thank you. Really appreciate it. Uh the other aspect I look at is the employee morale. I think we really have a great your employees like you. Um we we we we're all looking around right now just to make sure right. Yes. Yes. Yes. Say yes. And and we also want the best place to work and so on. That doesn't come free. That's really related to uh your your lead leadership. And the other part is community outreach. And I'm a big fan of like July 4th and you've finally listened to uh Lisa and we actually even have a drone now. Drone. See you listen to the city man city council you know people first coffee with the cop town hall city open house government academy. I mean, you you really embraced the our our city in many ways that we have an ability to listen to our residents, their concerns and and you run an awesome city and thank you for that. I'm not done yet. And and another part I want to say the strategy. You really in sync with city council strategy. You know, we care about the city council priority. the low tax. Uh we like to have a high services, right? A good financial stability, sustainability. You saw today that Kathy was asking um about the proponent about, you know, is it able to put the um solar on the roof, solar on the roof, right? Affordable housing initiatives and and so on. I mean it just just you do really understand what we want and you're trying to execute that and thank you so much. Um the I think the last part I know a couple more last one of the part is I want to say the respect from other cities you know when we go to different meetings to different places and when you say you know Eduri we get ghetto you know people just love outside Eden Prairie you know all the other city managers and commissioners they look look up to you and I think you won some award yeah an award the award on that. So, best city manager in the whole state. So, that just just awesome. Make us proud when we walk around with you. Right. So, thank you. And I think overall, Rick, um I think you're an outstanding city manager. I'm I'm proud to be in city council member working with you. And I think I think I hope you continue this excellent and hope us you know help us to maintain the low tax and high services the delicate balance of both we are not saying always have to be low right so we all know um and uh I'm very happy with your performance I hope you are as well and I just want to say take the time and thank you for all your hard work well said well summarized Um, anything else? May Mark and then Lisa or Lisa? Sure. No, Mark. Go ahead. Thank you very much, Mayor. Um, one thing that really comes to mind when describing uh Rick Eshaw, city manager, is a very very unique balance of communication and leadership. It's rare in politics. It's rare in uh, you know, in government. It's very very rare, you know, in business, but he has a very unique balance between the two. He's, if not the absolute most capable, he's right up there as far as the best Minnesota has as far as in his position on it. I've been very proud of working with you uh these last six years. Uh, one of the things I can always count on is I can contact him. He's very accessible. When a con one of our constituents has a question or problem I can't answer, I'll call upon Rick and I know it's getting taken care of. If he doesn't address it directly, he'll have someone address it and I hear it time and time again. Thank you. You know, it's a rare privilege to work with someone like you, Lisa. I'm good. No, I'm just kidding. Um, I agree with everything that was said up here tonight and we are so fortunate to have you in our city as one as our as our, you know, award-winning city manager. So, thank you. And, um, it's he works with all of us. We all have very different personalities, so that's good, too, right? I mean, um, and you're you're extremely, like Mark said, accessible and and patient, and I really appreciate it. Thank you. Wow. Um, I had not intended that everyone would speak and I'm so thrilled you did. So, thank you. And and everyone gave such um it was all consistent but nonetheless varied. So, uh and it did well represent our feelings about Rick and the idea that we um hear it all the time from our residents. So I you know people all the time literally I mean all the time if they see me randomly in the store you can imagine what they ask first how's Eden Prairie that's like the question and how do you answer that you know in in in two words except that I always do say and it's so true we are in a really good place right now and I can say that relative to other cities other mayors I talked to um we have some great neighbors they're in they're in a good physician often too, but they have issues and problems we just don't have right now. Um, we have great city manager, great staff, uh, great services, great amenities, a great council right now. I I bet of all the mayors I've chatted with in the last three to four years, we have least less issues between us. We get along well. we and that's so rare today in politics to have different viewpoints and even different political perspectives and have us all get along and and respect each other so well and I I credit you with that. I mean, you're you are in that, as I think Mark said, I'm not sure everyone may be, but you're in that leadership position that uh you carry a lot of the weight of make of of go-betweens, of liaisoning, of making sure that staff is um connecting well with council and that individual council members connect well with each other and just you have a lot on your plate and you do it so well. So, uh you're very deserving. The last thing I just wanted to say is that you're just not new anymore. I mean when we brought you here in 2011 12 something I mean you were still you still had 15 18 years under your belt but you had some smaller cities now is it 28 years or 30 years as a city manager something a lot 29 um and you're a seasoned you don't look it you're a seasoned uh city manager well respected around the state when you won the city manager of the state award people stood up and you know it was a surprise to you and gave you a standing ovation I mean, you're just well respected and and like like all of us, like you said, we're proud of you. It's like, yep, that's our our city manager. So, it's not that um no city manager in the state of Minnesota really can be paid what they're valued at in terms of keeping them from going to Wisconsin or Iowa. I mean, you jump to other states and you get city manager salaries of 300, 350, 400 down in Illinois. No, no city in Minnesota is doing that. But we we don't want to underpay you. Um and I feel like we're in that ballpark of the top three salaries in the state in terms of base salary. You deserve number one. Um and so we want to keep you in that area that um makes you feel adequately fairly compensated and we want to be able to say thank you with great gratitude to the job that you do. So, I feel like we're representing well our residents with this um performance review and subsequent salary that we've um given you for the year 2025. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um do you want to say anything? Fine. Just it's uh it's you don't have to, but you may It's snowing outside. Okay. All right. Is there any other business to come before the council this evening? If not, is there a motion to adjurnn? Move to adjourn the city council meeting. Is there a second? Second. Second. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. This meeting is adjourned.