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Home My WebLink AboutCity Council - 04/07/2026 - WorkshopEden Prairie City Council Workshop Minutes Approved 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, 2026 City Center Heritage Rooms, Council Chambers 8080 Mitchell Road Eden Prairie, MN 55344 ATTENDEES City Council Members: Mayor Ron Case, Council Members Kathy Nelson, Mark Freiberg, PG Narayanan, and Lisa Toomey City Staﬀ: City Manager Rick Getschow, Public Works Director Robert Ellis, Community Development Director Julie Klima, Parks and Recreation Director Amy Markle, Police Chief Matt Sackett, Fire Chief Scott Gerber, Administrative Services/HR Director Alecia Rose, Communications Manager Joyce Lorenz, City Attorney Maggie Neuville, and Recorder Sara Potter WORKSHOP AGENDA 4:30 p.m. Mobile Command Center Tour (City Center Parking Lot) 5:30 p.m. Heritage Rooms 1. Elections Overview – City Clerk David Teigland Getschow introduced City Clerk David Teigland to provide an elections overview. Teigland explained his presentation is focused on important items, law changes, and key dates. Minnesota voters can begin voting absentee by mail or in person 46 days prior to an election. This is the longest period of any State. This year June 26 is the ﬁrst day absentee voting begins for the August 11 State Primary election. Direct balloting begins 18 days prior to the election, where voters insert their ballot directly into the tabulator. Candidate ﬁling for Mayor and Council Members is July 14 to 28. Case asked why the ﬁling period for Mayor and Council Members is earlier. Teigland conﬁrmed the window used to end on primary election day but was moved earlier to give City Clerks additional time. Teigland provided an overview of key dates for the November 3 general election. Absentee voting by mail or in person begins September 18. In person absentee voting will be available in the Council Chambers every business day including weekends leading up to the general election. Extended voting hours will be oﬀered the week before the general election. Candidates now must be 21 years of age and show proof of identity and residence. The election day ballot drop-oﬀ deadline is now 5 p.m. Teigland summarized races that may be included on the primary election ballot. There are ﬁve races where an incumbent is not re-running, likely resulting in a primary. Senator Amy Klobuchar has indicated her intent to run for governor, if successful there would be a special election in 2027 to ﬁll her senate seat. Many people think presidential year elections are the big years, but all State races are on midterm ballots. The November general election ballot will have all the primary races in addition to the Mayor, Council Members, School Board, Three Rivers Park District Board, and Judicial races. Teigland displayed a boundary map of Eden Prairie. Not every Eden Prairie resident will see the same races on their ballot. Teigland explained the precincts, US house districts, state senate districts, county commission districts, and school district boundaries within Eden Prairie. Narayanan asked if the City receives State or Federal money for hosting elections. Teigland noted the City receives some money from the County, but it doesn’t completely oﬀset the cost of administering the elections. Teigland explained the important role of election judges. Election Judges have many responsibilities and long days. Set up begins at six a.m., and election judges stay after polls close at eight p.m. to complete paperwork. Each precinct location has a head judge, one or two assistant judges, and 12 to 18 election judges. More than 400 judges serve in the primary and general elections. Some tasks must be completed by two judges of diﬀerent political parties, requiring party balance. High school students aged 16 or 17 can serve as student judges. The Streets team delivers all the election equipment the day before election day and collects all equipment the following day. Teigland explained voting requirements in Minnesota. To vote you must be a U.S. citizen, 18 years old on election day, a resident of the State for 20 days, not currently incarcerated for a felony conviction, and not found incompetent to vote by a court. To register to vote, you must prove your identity and residence. A drivers license satisﬁes both requirements. Voters agree to the voter oath aﬃrming they are a citizen and are 18 years old by election day. Providing false information under the voter’s oath is a felony. Voter fraud occurrences are extremely low. Other ways to register include vouching, where a registered voter may vouch under oath for a new voter, and your name appearing on a student housing list provided by a college or university. Teigland noted the City provides Health Care Facility voting at Flagstone, where a team is sent to help residents who can’t travel vote. Narayanan asked how many healthcare facilities are visited for voting. Teigland conﬁrmed only Flagstone due to the size and number of residents. Narayanan asked if other facilities should be considered based on need. Teigland conﬁrmed the City is required and happy to do Flagstone, adding more would depend on team bandwidth. Teigland works with other facilities and can see if health care facility voting makes sense. Assistance voting by mail can always be provided. Teigland explained the chain of custody for ballots. The elections team maintains records for exactly how many voted and not voted ballots there are. Every ballot throughout Eden Prairie returns to City Center at the end of election day. They are retained for 22 months in case of recount. Three to four percent of all precincts in a County are chosen for audit. Two Eden Prairie precincts were chosen in 2024, where the presidential and U.S. House races were counted by hand to ensure results matched the machine count. Eden Prairie was also chosen for an additional State post-election performance review. Election equipment is tested prior to elections, and a public notice is posted welcoming the public to observe. Narayanan thanked Teigland for answering questions while he was running for oﬃce. Case asked if any jurisdictions have a completely electronic process. Teigland conﬁrmed while some jurisdictions are completely electronic, most have moved away as it’s diﬃcult to audit. Narayanan asked how long it takes to transmit results after polls close at 8 p.m. Teigland notes a few reports need to be run, and then the results are modemed to Hennepin County. There is a delay in results appearing on the Secretary of State website as some counties don’t send electronic results. Case asked if it’s possible to see precinct results prior to their delivery to the county. Teigland answered precinct results would only include in person voters on election day, and would be incomplete without absentee in person and mail in voting. The Council thanked Teigland for his time and presentation. 2. New Private Wells Ellis stated tonight’s discussion would not aﬀect any current wells in Eden Prairie, only new wells. Ellis gave an overview of who regulates wells. The MN Department of Health issues permits for construction. If the gallons extracted annually is greater than one million, a permit is also needed from the MN Department of Natural Resources. State statute allows local governments to add a permitting process. The two most predominant reasons to regulate are protecting groundwater resources and preventing groundwater contamination. Most wells in the City are drawing from the Jordan Prairie Duchaine aquifer and are 100 to 400 feet in depth. Availability of water in the aquifer has been a topic of conversation as government considers ways to prevent contamination and over withdrawal. Ellis explained the City has 17 wells. When Minnetonka is operating a certain well, Eden Prairie can tell as production is aﬀected. Narayanan asked if Eden Prairie would be aﬀected by an increase of Minnetonka residents. Ellis conﬁrmed Eden Prairie would be aﬀected as the aquifer ﬂows from Northwest to Southeast. Freiberg asked how many wells were drilled last year. Ellis conﬁrmed only a handful. There was a time period where dozens of wells were drilled per year. Each new well introduces a contamination point. Narayanan asked if the City completes inspections. Ellis conﬁrmed the City does not inspect. The Minnesota Department of Health has the authority to do inspections, but Ellis didn’t know if it was a heavily monitored area. Ellis explained many diﬀerent parties compete for aquifer resources such as data centers, water bottle manufacturing companies, and other industrial companies needing large amounts of water. Narayanan asked if data centers could use lake water for cooling. Ellis conﬁrmed it’s possible but not economical. Cooling with electricity is also an option but it’s usually cheaper to drill a well. Getschow noted data centers have brought up a land use issue. Klima explained the City’s zoning ordinance is silent on data centers. Communities are adopting regulations to address data centers including restricting them to certain areas or restricting number of square feet or megawatts. Klima asked if the Council would be interested in staﬀ researching and proposing regulations on data centers. The Council provided their agreement. Ellis displayed a map of aquifer vulnerability in the metro area and the travel time for a pollutant to contaminate the aquifer. Most of Eden Prairie is medium vulnerability, meaning it would take a pollutant years to decades to reach the aquifer. Drilling a well decreases contamination time to hours or minutes. The City has 441 known and permitted residential, commercial, and industrial wells. Most were drilled in the 1960s through 1980s prior to widespread City water availability. Only ten new wells have been drilled in the past decade. Narayanan asked why the City doesn’t use lake water. Ellis conﬁrmed it wouldn’t make economic or environmental sense. Treatment costs would be much higher, and it would be detrimental to the lake. Ellis displayed a list of cities or counties with well regulations. Narayanan asked for Ellis’ opinion on prohibiting new wells. Ellis noted it makes sense from a groundwater protection and preservation stance. The City could allow exceptions for properties not within a reasonable diﬀerence from City water. Certain wells for geothermal elevator borings, landﬁll recovery, groundwater monitoring wells, and school athletic ﬁeld irrigations could still be allowed. All existing wells would be grandfathered in. Narayanan asked if there is a process to close down a well. Ellis conﬁrmed a permit from the department of health should be obtained to seal the well, however he suspects they are often abandoned and forgotten about. Ellis requested feedback from the Council regarding Staﬀ researching prohibition on new wells. The Council provided their general agreement and discussed requiring well inspections when a property is sold. Case asked if any Cities have mandatory well sealing at the time of property sale. Ellis noted he’d have to research. Case asked Ellis to create a few proposals including options that address the issues discussed, including how to handle a property sale with a well. The Council provided their agreement. Council Chambers 3. Open Podium 4. Adjournment