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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCitySlick_April_2014by Krystal Caron, Communications Coordinator In May, the Edina Police Department will lose nearly 100 years of experience. Since the Public Employees Retirement As- sociation changed its regulations related to re- tirements and pension plans of public safety personnel, officers throughout Min- nesota are opting to retire early. It’s a loss that is hitting the Edina Police Department hard. Sgt. Vik Konters, Detective Tom McKenzie and Sgt. Scott Kuyper will retire the end of May. “We typically hire one to two officers a year. This year, we’re going to be hiring seven,” said Police Chief Dave Nelson. “That’s a lot of experience walking out the door. It’s going to be tough [to lose these officers].” Konters and Kuyper both began their careers as Community Service Officers with the City of Edina. They left to grow their experience levels, but eventually came back to Edina. “I knew the people and you knew they were good. I wanted to work here originally, but I didn’t have the experience,” said Konters. Konters and Kuyper returned to Edina in 1988 and have been with the Department for the last 25 years. McKenzie has been a Police Officer since 1985 and an officer for Edina since 1991. “It all blurs together,” said McKenzie, looking back at his career. “I’ll be out at events and I’ll have parents with their kids come up to me and tell me I was their D.A.R.E. officer.” “It will be a great loss of law enforcement experience with these three officers retiring,” remarked Nelson. “As a Chief, I will miss their knowledge, dedication, men- toring skills and professionalism. On a personal note, I will miss the cama- raderie, jocularities, daily conversations and just seeing them on a day-to- day basis for the last 20 years.” Each of these officers has a lot of achievements of which to be proud. Konters feels most proud to reach the rank of Sergeant. “I think my dad would be grinning if he knew [that I became Sergeant],” he said. “My biggest achievement is having a little bit of impact on training our younger generation of officers to take over both the service and leadership roles here,” said Kuyper. “I would advise [new officers] to tap into the officers who have seniority around here [and learn more about] how we got to where we are.” It wasn’t hard for any of the retirees to put a finger on what they’ll miss the most. They all agree it will be toughest to leave the people behind. CITYSLICK p1 A newsletter for the City Council and employees of the City of Edina INSIDE THIS ISSUE 2 Around The Water Cooler 3 Staff Notes 4 Employee Milestones 4 Techy Tidbits 4|11|2014 Edina Police Department to Lose a Century of Experience April 11, David, Edina Liquor April 11, Lynette, Communications & Technology Services April 12, Travis, Public Works April 12, David, Police April 14, Kris, Community Development April 14, Dave, Fire-Rescue & Inspections April 16, Jason, Public Works April 16, Amanda, Braemar Arena April 17, John, Public Works April 17, Kaylin, Communications & Technology Services April 19, Mark, Public Works Detective Tom McKenzie, Sgt. Scott Kuyper and Sgt. Vik Konters will retire the end of May. Ph o t o b y K r y s t a l C a r o n Continued on Page 4 ... Following is a summary of some of the projects of some departments, divisions and facilities. Other areas of the City will be featured in upcoming issues. Communications & Technology Services The Communications & Technology Services Department has hired Geographic Tech- nologies Group (GTG) to evaluate the City’s existing GIS capabilities and help create a vision for a scalable and sustainable system that promotes effective and innovative use of geospatial technology throughout the orga- nization. As part of the needs assessment, GTG will also evaluate the City’s existing relationship with LOGIS for some of its GIS services. The needs assessment should be complete in about eight weeks. GTG is com- pleting a similar project for the City of Eagan. GTG will be on site May 5-7. In advance of their visit, a survey will be sent to employees so that GTG comes in with a basic under- standing of Edina’s GIS understanding and use. All employees are encouraged to complete the survey. Fire-Rescue & Inspections On Thursday, April 3, the Edina Fire De- partment was called to the 6300 block of York Avenue on reports of smoke in the hallway. Once they arrived at the scene, firefighters found that the small fire contained in a storage closet had already smoldered out. It’s im- portant to note that the residents who reported the fire did the right thing by calling 9-1-1 as soon as they noticed smoke. They did not try to investigate where the smoke was coming from by opening doors. Doing so could have fed the fire oxygen to ignite it once again. The Building Inspections Division recently implemented an Automated Call Distribution system for its main phone line. This new system has callers held in a queue rather than ringing back to the City Hall receptionist if unanswered. Callers hear their place in line and are offered the option to leave a voicemail if they do not want to wait to speak with someone. It will allow staff to understand what their true call volume is at any point in time. The agents (Jackie Onischuk and Judy Laufenburger) visually see what their totals are on their computer screen. Over the first five full business days of using the system, the Building Inspections Division main line received 502 calls for a total talk time of 9 hours and 38 minutes. These numbers will become especially useful as the construction season gets in full swing. Police K-9 Blade recently received a bullet and stab protective vest thanks to the efforts of Vested Interest in K-9s, a non-profit based in Mas- sachusetts. A successful fundraiser hosted by the non-profit in St. Paul last fall brought in enough money to purchase vests for more than 10 Minnesota K-9s. Each vest costs $950 and has a five-year warranty. Since Vested In- terest in K9s was founded in 2009, they have provided lifesaving body armor for more than 580 police K-9s. This is Blade’s first vest since he started with the Department in 2010. On March 23, Officers Jason Behr and Mike Seeger along with their partners K-9 Blade and K-9 Diesel participated in the 2014 Region 12 Narcotics Trials in Anoka, Minn., where they took third place in the region! The teams are looking forward to the 2014 National K-9 Detector Trials hosted by the Edina Police Department and Minneapolis-St. Paul Interna- tional Airport Police Department from May 4-7. City staff is invited to join the Edina Police Department, along with dozens of other law enforcement agencies, 7 p.m. Monday, May 5 for a K-9 demonstration at Kulhman Stadium, 5701 Normandale Road. Bring along your family and friends, because the demonstration is open to the public! CITYSLICK p2 AROUND THEWATER COOLER Lt. Jeff Elasky has returned home after graduating from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va. He took park in the 10-week program, known for its academic excellence, to hone his skills in advanced investigative, man- agement and fitness training. Elasky was one of 221 law enforcement officers to graduate this year. His class included officers from 47 states, the District of Columbia, 23 countries, five military organi- zations and two federal civilian organizations. Elasky’s par- ticipation in the program follows Police Chief Dave Nelson, who graduated from the Academy in 2009. Ryan Pankratz began work for the Edina Police Department as Police Officer April 2. Pankratz previously worked as a Police Officer for the City of Rob- binsdale, and prior to that worked as a Community Service Officer for the City of Owatonna and a Special Deputy for Steele County Sheriff’s Office. Pankratz holds a bachelor’s degree in Law Enforcement from Metro- politan State University. Cassi McMayer began work for the Human Resources Department as Benefits Specialist April 7. McMayer most recently worked as Human Re- sources Director for Orion Associates since 2000. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Social Studies Education from St. Olaf College. Police Officers Joel Moore and Dave Lindman received the Justice Award from the United States Attorney’s Office for their hard work and dedication to a financial fraud case with interna- tional ties. U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger presented the of- ficers with the accolade March 25 at the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. The award was given to 21 re- cipients who were instrumental in the success of “Op- eration Starburst.” At the awards presentation, Police Chief Dave Nelson also accepted a check for $35,762.92 from for- feitures collected in the case. Nelson said he’d like to use the money to purchase light bars for the squad cars. CITYSLICK p3 STAFF NOTES After a dozen years serving on the Edina Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team, Sgt. Nate Mendel was rec- ognized for his contributions. On March 11, Police Chief David Nelson awarded Mendel with a Distinguished Service Award for his time serving as a team member and leader of the City of Edina Police Department’s SWAT team from 2002 to 2014. Ricky Harr began his new role as Police Officer April 3. He served as Com- munity Service Officer for the Edina Police Department since 2012. Harr holds a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from the University of St. Thomas. David Fisher began work for the Fire- Rescue & Inspections Department as Chief Building Official March 17. Most recently he held that same position at the City of Maplewood. Prior to his position in Maplewood, he served as a Housing or Building Inspector for Hennepin County and the cities of Brooklyn Center, Champlin and Brooklyn Park. He earned an associate degree in Building Inspection Technology from North Hennepin Community College and a bachelor’s degree in Organization Behavior & Communications from Concordia University. Carrie Domino began work for the Human Resources Department as Payroll Specialist March 24. Domino previously worked as Human Resources and Benefit Eligibility Coordinator for The Araz Group. Domino holds a bach- elor’s degree in Human Resource Man- agement and Spanish from the University of Minnesota Duluth. At a March 31 awards banquet in St. Cloud, Minn., Sgt. Scott Kuyper was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Special Operations Training As- sociation (SOTA) of the Upper Midwest for his time spent on the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team. While serving as SWAT team leader for the last 12 years, Kuyper also instructed other SWAT members in the areas of use of force, defensive tactics and firearms. In ad- dition, he served as a SOTA board member from 2003 to 2006. At the same banquet, Officer Darin Cizek also came home with an award. Cizek was named “Top Sniper” for winning a SOTA regional sniper shooting competition. “I counted 165 people from the Police Department who I’ve worked with, including three dogs. Every person here had their own story and I’m going to miss hearing stories from everyone. You do take a little piece of everyone you come in contact with here with you,” said McKenzie. The three retirees plan on spending more time with their families. Konters will be enjoying family time with his wife, Kristine, and children, Aleksandars and Laura. “I want to get back to some of the charitable organizations that have helped me through my career, in particular Feed My Starving Children and Salvation Army,” he said. Kuyper and his wife, Anne, look forward to doing a great deal of traveling and spending more time with friends and family. “I haven’t decided what I want to do when I grow up. We’re going to let life come to us and see what the next chapter is going to be,” said McKenzie. McKenzie and his wife, Lori, have four children: TJ, Cortney, Riley and Casey. He added with a laugh, “I’m going to wage war on the dandelions in my yard.” CITYSLICK p4 Take Advantage of Windows 7 Features by Nick Lovejoy, I.T. Specialist There are a number of features in Windows 7 to make navi- gating faster and more con- venient. Here are a few of them: 1.Peek gives you the power of X-ray vision, so you can see past your open windows straight to your desktop. Hover your curser over the rectangle at the end of the taskbar and watch open windows instantly turn transparent, revealing all your desktop icons. 2. Snap is a quick way to resize open windows. Simply drag them to the edges of your screen. Depending on where you drag a window, you can make it expand ver- tically, take up the entire screen or appear side-by-side with another window. To use the snap feature, drag the title bar of a window to the left or right side of the screen until an outline of the expanded window appears. 3. Open a second in- stance of Excel, Word or Internet Explorer open by holding shift and clicking on an item on the taskbar. Combine this feature and the snap feature to open multiple documents and then arrange them side by side. 4. Hold the Windows key and press the number. (The numbers do not appear, but the first icon is “one,” the second is “two” and so forth) to open the corresponding application on your taskbar. For more information, contact I.T. staff at 952-903-5711 or helpdesk@EdinaMN.gov. TECHY TIDBITS “Retirements” Continued from Page 1 ...EMPLOYEE MILESTONES Matt Egan, Public Works, 15 years. (April 19, 1999) Craig Essig, Fire-Rescue & Inspections, 15 years. (April 26, 1999) David Tomko, Edina Liquor, 15 years. (April 12, 1999) Joel Forseth, Fire-Rescue & Inspections, 20 years. (April 1, 1994) Join us for Mobile Device Users’ Group 9 a.m. Mayor’s Conference Room Friday, April 25 Friday, June 27 Friday, August 29 Friday, October 31 Edina City Hall Do you have a mobile device? Do you use mobile apps? Want to learn more? Whether you use an iOS device such as an iPhone or iPad or an Android device, get together with other mobile device users in an informal setting to talk about your use. Get ideas for apps to use for work and play!