SUPERINTENDENT REVIEW

The follow item was presented during the July 24, 2013 MPRB meeting:

Summary of Salient Points of Evaluation of Superintendent Jayne Miller

In January, 2013, the Park Board retained Olson Consulting Group (OCG), a management consulting firm, to evaluate the performance of Superintendent Jayne Miller for the year 2012 and to set clear goals and objectives for the Superintendent for the year 2013. Dr. Carol Lynn Courtney, Senior Consultant with OCG conducted individual interviews with Park Board Commissioners, completed the evaluation, and presented the evaluation to the Park Board on July 10, 2013. The evaluation was given to the Superintendent by the Board on July 10, 2013.

The following is a summary of the salient points of the evaluation of Superintendent Miller:

Superintendent Miller was evaluated in the following six areas:

1) Communication

Meets to Exceeds Expectations

* Communicates clearly, concisely, and effectively; listens well

* Keeps the Board fully informed

* Could push the Board even harder on different issues

2) Customer Service

Meets to Exceeds Expectations:

* Provides the best possible service to internal and external customers

* Continuing to build strong relationships with board members, City Council and other governing bodies, National Park Service and the community

* Works well with the Board members

* Improved relationships with unions and NAACP

* Building relationships with staff but should spend more time in the field meeting staff

* Concern about inconsistencies at recreation centers but new Assistant Superintendent will be helpful

3) Decision Making/Problem Solving

Meets to Exceeds Expectations

* Uses good judgment in making decisions, resolving issues and completing work

* Strategic, clear about a vision for the MPRB

* Motivated by solving challenging problems and fixing things

*Budgets are in place across the organization for the first time

* Process is a real strength

* Decisive and follows through

* Thoughtful

* Concerns about too many changes at one time

4) Interpersonal Skills

Meets to Exceeds Expectations

* Builds effective relationships with employees, co-workers and customers

* Liked and respected by Board

* Interacts best one-on-one

* Has become less defensive

5) Technical Skills and Knowledge

Meets to Exceeds Expectations

* Demonstrates competence in carrying out job responsibilities

* Is a quick study

* Increased knowledge of Minnesota culture

* Competent in technical aspects of parks and recreation

* Might be helpful for her to attend conferences to further her love of learning

6) Time Management

Meets to Exceeds Expectations

* Manages time and workload effectively

* Is delegating more

* Improved time management

* Deputy Superintendent position should improve time management and filling remaining positions will be helpful

* Is responsive to time critical matters

7) People Management

Meets Expectations

* Effectively manages employees to meet goals and objectives

* Demonstrates strong leadership skills

* Has provided great leadership skills training in Indiana for staff

* Has hired strong leaders

* Has a good relationship with senior staff

* Some board members expressed concerns about staff morale

* Staff seems overworked; she acknowledged that staff is overworked and that she and her team are working on improving the work load level

* Concern that she will be willing to delegate duties to the Deputy Superintendent and to her senior team

Performance of goals set by Board for July 1, 2012-June 30, 2013:

1. Implement departmental goals and performance measures adopted in December 2011 that align with the 2007-2020 Comprehensive Plan, 2011-2013 Strategic Direction and the 2012 Budget Frameworks. The Superintendent is to report quarterly on status of the 2012 departmental goals and performance measures.

Meets to Exceeds Expectations

2. Improve communication within and outside the organization. Address issues identified in the January 2012 Organizational and Environmental Analysis report.

Meets Expectations

3. Strengthen organizational performance. Continue to evaluate and implement recommendations from organizational performance consulting work.

Meets Expectations

4. Continue to strengthen relationships with MPRB employees by being visible and interactive, with particular attention to front line staff. Address issues identified in the January 2012 Organizational and Environmental Analysis report.

Meets Expectations

5. Continue to strengthen outside relationships with other organizations, partners and governmental entities.

Meets to Exceeds Expectations

6. Better define the roles and responsibilities of the Board and the Superintendent so that the overall mission of the organization as a whole is enhanced and supported.

Meets to Exceeds Expectations

Note: Board members had questions about goal # 6 because it is difficult to evaluate.

The following article by Steve Brandt was published July 17, 2013 in the Star Tribune:

Minneapolis considers bridging Lake Calhoun, Lake of the Isles

Photo by Carlos Gonzalez

The concept is to depress Lake Street slightly, then bridge it with a grassy crossing for bikers and pedestrians that would tie together adjacent Isles and Calhoun parkland, while relieving pinch points for recreational congestion at Calhoun’s northern corners.

Summertime’s busiest spot in Minneapolis has park officials considering putting a lid on it.
A Lake Street lid, that is.

That’s the name some are attaching to a bold proposal to install a costly land bridge over the six-lane street at the Lake Calhoun-Lake of the Isles nexus where every day thousands of people head to play.

The concept is to depress Lake Street slightly, then bridge it with a grassy crossing for bikers and pedestrians that would tie together adjacent Isles and Calhoun parkland, while relieving pinch points for recreational congestion at Calhoun’s northern corners.

“Trail safety concerns have become a real issue,” said Bruce Chamberlain, an assistant park superintendent.

The Lake Street Lid emerged at a Park Board design charrette last fall aimed at defining improvements in the north Calhoun-south Isles area for a request for future regional park funding. Its focus was to look at ways to alleviate congestion among walkers, joggers, bikers, patrons of Tin Fish restaurant, and sailors and other boaters, especially in the Calhoun refectory area.

“When the consultants presented that idea, it took our breath away,” said Mike Wilson, a neighborhood representative to the charrette. “We looked at it and said, ‘My gosh, that’s really an excellent solution.’ It’s very doable — as with many things it’s a matter of money.”

How much? One park official’s very preliminary estimate ranges between $15 million and $40 million, depending on length. Three options for how long a segment of Lake might be covered range from 150 feet (half the length of a football field) to 1,200 feet (four football fields long). The most likely location would be where Lake Street runs closest to the Midtown Greenway, a bike-pedestrian path, on the lake’s north end.

Study alone deemed costly

A handful of land bridges have been proposed in the Twin Cities previously but have fallen by the wayside due to cost. Minnehaha Park has one, where a park-highway conflict produced the construction a dozen years ago of a 600-foot-wide wide bridge that carries Minnehaha Parkway over Hwy. 55, and includes parking, paths and a floral garden. But the history of land bridge proposals in Minneapolis is more littered with suggestions than completions.

Chamberlain wants to look at how practical the Calhoun-Isles bridge would be with a $200,000 to $250,000 feasibility study. The water table in the area likely limits how much Lake could be depressed.

The greenway would be put on stilts over the land bridge to make the ground-level connection continuous from Isles shore to Calhoun shore.

Park commissioners reacted cautiously. Board President John Erwin said the feasibility study’s cost alone was “quite a bit of money.” Moreover, with several significant projects already on the drawing boards, commissioners are reluctant to add another to compete for park development money. There’s $21 million in work proposed for Wirth Park, plus $17 million more for redeveloping the Scherer Lumber site on the northeast riverfront. Commissioner Jon Olson made clear he wants a feasibility study and a state bonding request readied for the North Side 94 land bridge proposal, which arose from riverfront planning, before he’s ready to support the competing proposal.

Crowding has intensified at Calhoun’s northeast corner in the summer months. The Midtown Greenway, for example, draws more than 3,000 bikers on a nice summer weekend day, adding to traditional bike path traffic. Both the greenway and Tin Fish restaurant at the refectory have opened since the last redesign of Calhoun 15 years ago. A yacht club has 60 members, a sailing school serves 1,500 youths, and there are boat rentals.

There’s consensus that while a land bridge to reroute some of the intersecting demand is a long-term wish, relief is needed sooner. One idea is to move boating facilities to the lake’s northwest shore, where the parkway could be realigned to create more lakeside space. Another idea is to cantilever a bike-only bridge on the Calhoun side of the bridge that carries Lake over the lagoon between Calhoun and Isles. Still another is to build a path under that bridge on the lagoon’s west side to match one on the east side, so that bike and foot traffic could be separated. But not all of those would fit within the planned bonding request, and altering the lagoon bridge could draw historic preservation objections.

Outside funding helps the cause

Still, the sheer volume of users will be a boost to efforts to fund both short-term and longer-term improvements. The Park Board estimates that the Chain of Lakes Regional Park, which includes Calhoun and Isles, draws 5 million visitors annually, more than any other park in the state.

Lake Street north of Calhoun draws 39,300 vehicles on an average day, making that the second busiest section of Hennepin County road and the busiest county road in Minneapolis.

The county could be a key partner in a land bridge because it controls Lake Street. “While they’re an engineering challenge, they’re not impossible to design, but they are very expensive,” said Jim Grube, the county’s transportation director.

They’ve also been easiest to do where outside funding is available. In Duluth, for example, highway money put Interstate 35 underground for about four-tenths of a mile in two sections. At Target Field, the publicly funded plaza with Kirby Puckett’s statue sits on a land bridge over Interstate 394.
That means that the Park Board will need to seek financial help, as well, facing mounting maintenance and development priorities. “We have to be very clear about what doesn’t get done,” Commissioner Scott Vreeland said.

The following article by Nick Halter was published in the June 24, 2013 issue of the Southwest Journal:

MINNEAPOLIS PARK SYSTEM GETS TOP RANKING

Lake Calhoun is a popular spot for Minneapolis residents

File Photo

A study released June 5 ranks Minneapolis as the best major city for parks in the United States because of its abundance of parkland and investment in green space: http://parkscore.tpl.org/city.php?city=Minneapolis

The second annual study, done by the nonprofit Trust for Public Lands, ranks the largest 50 cities on things like access to parks, park spending and playgrounds. Last year the study only scored the top 40 cities, leaving Minneapolis, the 48th largest, out of the rankings.

“I think the residents of Minneapolis should be proud of this,” said Minneapolis Park Board President John Erwin. “This is just a reflection of the commitment that the citizens in this town have to parks.”

The study found that 94 percent of Minneapolis resident live within a 10-minute walk of a park, one of the highest rates nationwide. Parkland in Minneapolis tops 5,500 acres, or about 15 percent of the city’s land. The city boasts 12 playgrounds per 10,000 residents.

“Minneapolis scored strongly on all ParkScore rating factors,” the TPL wrote in a news release.

Erwin credited the high ranking to a number of factors. When the park system was created, shoreline along lakes and rivers was seen as a place for recreation, so trails and parks were built around it, not houses.

He also said the Park Board strives to provide a park within 6 to 10 blocks of every resident, a goal that has been reached across much of the city, though a couple pockets still remain.

Erwin said downtown still lacks park amenities like ball fields, but the Legislature recently gave the Park Board the authority to levy a fee on new development to help pay for new parks or park upgrades in areas where the city is booming.

At $210 per city resident, or $80 million total, park spending in Minneapolis is ranked high compared to other cities, according to the study.
 
However, park spending includes all money spent on parkland in the city, which would also include federal, state and regional funds used for parks in the city.

Erwin pointed out that the Park Board’s tax levy in 2012 was just under $49 million, for a per capita level of $128.

Minneapolis, with an overall score of 81 out of 100, ranked ahead of New York City (73.5), Boston (72.5), Sacramento (72.5) and last year’s top city, San Francisco (72.5).

The lowest rated cities were Fresno, Louisville, Indianapolis, Charlotte and Mesa.

Fellow Midwestern cities Chicago and Milwaukee ranked 16th and 19th, respectively.