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Regular City Council Meeting <br /> Monday, May 15, 2023 <br /> Page 2 <br /> Minnetonka more similar to Roseville. He noted there was discussion about <br /> Minnetonka's expenditures,but those expenditures were well within the range. He <br /> indicated if this list were to stick to ten cities, he would pull off Coon Rapids <br /> because of how far out the city is, Coon Rapids has ten thousand more people than <br /> Roseville, and the expenditures per capita is at the very bottom of the range. The <br /> other piece that he liked about Minnetonka is that their senior population lined up <br /> and because of the major retail fell into that window for the commercial retail <br /> volume piece. He noted a lot of the cities listed in green actually do not fall within <br /> that window so once dialed in, Minnetonka is one that does meet some of those <br /> other criteria. <br /> Councilmember Strahan explained as someone who has worked as an HR Director, <br /> recruiting for Minnetonka, she felt that the wages were not comparable. She <br /> explained that at the time she had direct care homes that she was staffing in St. Paul <br /> and Minneapolis and Golden Valley and Minnetonka, there was nothing about it <br /> that was the same when it came to stock of people seeking jobs. She did not see <br /> that it would fall in a compensation study to be a comparable piece to Roseville <br /> because she would have to look for people in a whole different way. Also, for the <br /> people who were seeking jobs, it was just a very different expectation financially, <br /> and benefit wise and she did not see that as being comparable. She did note that in <br /> Coon Rapids there is actually quite a retail center that serves a lot of northern <br /> suburbs, like Blaine and Andover. Maybe not in numbers as much and Coon <br /> Rapids tends to be closer to the diversity piece and to what Roseville would <br /> compare to. Coon Rapids is also a community that has changed a lot and she did <br /> not see that in Minnetonka. <br /> Mayor Roe noted Roseville is looking to compare the city employees in <br /> Minnetonka with Roseville's in terms of the compensation comparison so he would <br /> tend to agree that the per capita,actual resident income will be out of whack perhaps <br /> with that. But, he noted it is quite a large community and there may be some <br /> perception there as well in terms of Minnetonka because it does cover a lot of <br /> ground. He thought there was a range of types of housing and demographics in that <br /> community. He would not be opposed to either one of the cities (Minnetonka or <br /> Coon Rapids) staying or being added to the list. He was not sure that ten cities has <br /> to be the number and at the previous meeting he was an advocate for more being <br /> better rather than fewer. He would tend to think that Minnetonka made sense to <br /> keep on the list, especially when Edina is on the list and anything that might be said <br /> about Minnetonka could be said about Edina in terms of any category that may <br /> come up. <br /> Councilmember Groff indicated he could see the pros and cons on both of those <br /> arguments. He looks at it more from the side of real estate and he knew that is not <br /> exactly what the City is doing but he goes to that naturally. When he thinks of <br /> people looking for housing, they do not usually look in Coon Rapids as a <br /> comparable city but looks at Richfield as a comparable city. The person looking <br />