08-08-2016 Council Special Work session Minutes

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CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL WORK SESSION August 8, 2016 i CITY OF LINO LAKES 2 MINUTES 3 4 DATE August 8, 2016 5 TIME STARTED 7:30 p.m. 6 TIME ENDED 9:30 p.m. 7 MEMBERS PRESENT Council Member Rafferty, Kusterman, 8 Maher, Manthey and Mayor Reinert 9 MEMBERS ABSENT None 10 11 12 Staff members present: City Administrator Jeff Karlson; Public Safety Director Swenson; 13 Community Development Director Grochala; Finance Director Sarah Cotton; Public 14 Services Director DeGardner; City Clerk Julie Bartell. 15 16 2017 Budget Discussion — The council requested that, in the future, the budget 17 documents that they receive should be marked as to when they are updated, for version 18 control. 19 20 When Administrator Karlson asked about a starting point for discussion, Mayor Reinert 21 asked what it would take to get to a 2017 tax rate of 45.985 (what dollar amount)? Ms. 22 Cotton referred to the second page of the packet and indications of the tax capacity rate. 23 Mayor Reinert asked if that figure is a target for the council as a group. The figure of 24 $570,000 was mentioned as needing to be cut, raised or taken from reserves. Council 25 Member Maher suggested her discomfort in continuing to take from the city's reserves. 26 Council Member Rafferty remarked that the reserves are actually the taxpayer's money 27 that the city is holding. The mayor reviewed the use of reserves for the 2016 budget. 28 Ms. Cotton indicated that the 2017 budget as presented does include use of $317,000 29 from the Common Bond Fund to pay for the second year of debt service on the EDA 30 revenue bonds. Mayor Reinert noted that the tax rate was around 39 atone time and that 31 has risen through a combination of spending and loss of value; now the city is growing 32 again and value is being added so that should allow the city to not raise the rate or 33 perhaps even lower the rate. Mayor Reinert suggested that budget discussion is easier 34 with a goal in mind. The current balance in the Closed Bond Fund was reviewed 35 ($800,000+) as well as commitments from that fund. Currently there is no fund balance 36 draw down included in the proposed budget; about $900,000 was included in the 2016 37 budget. The council discussed the schedule for retirement of outstanding bonds. 38 39 Mayor Reinert challenged staff to go through the 2016 budget and identify funds that 40 won't be used or can be saved, as the council did last year. The council will be setting a 41 preliminary budget in September so that allows time for review and discussion as 42 necessary. 43 44 Council Member Manthey called for a review of the council's line item budget; if there is 45 any savings there, it should be identified. Administrator Karlson assured the council that i