08-26-2019 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION DRAFT 2 Mayor Reinert asked about the two positions requested by the Police Department. The 46 impact of cutting those would be $90,000 but one of the new positions wouldn’t begin 47 until November. 48 49 Ms. Cotton pointed out the actual increase in expenditures is 4.7%. Much of the impact 50 is related to the past use of reserves in the budget. 51 52 Staff and the council discussed the Closed Bond Fund. The Finance Director pointed out 53 that reserve use in the 2019 budget was from the General Fund and not the Closed Bond 54 Fund. 55 56 Ms. Cotton noted that the City’s policy is to maintain a fifty percent fund reserve and 57 funding above the fifty percent threshold has been earmarked for certain projects. 58 59 Staff offered the possibility of unassigning those reserve funds to bring down the budget. 60 They discussed how the funds have been assigned. Council Member Maher remarked 61 that the council has to consider wants versus needs. 62 63 Mayor Reinert remarked that he pays specific attention to the tax rate because that is the 64 real indicator of what people pay beyond valuations increases. 65 66 Mayor Reinert recommends further review, either by staff or council, to bring down the 67 proposed budget. Specific scrutiny is called for. 68 69 Council Member Manthey suggested giving staff a target such as eight percent, the 70 amount of the valuation increase. 71 72 Council Member Stoesz wondered if a temporary hiring freeze is in order. Community 73 Development Director Grochala noted that there’s already been an offer on the 74 Environmental Coordinator position. Public Safety Director Swenson noted that, if a 75 hiring freeze is instituted, the position of paid on call firefighter should be discussed 76 because it would be a significant disadvantage to stop hiring in that area. 77 78 Mayor Reinert remarked that he isn’t tuned in on a number (like reaching 8%) but rather 79 looking at specifics. 80 81 Administrator Karlson remarked that, beyond increasing employee wages, the council has 82 in the past few years chosen to provide new funding in the base budget to parks, trails and 83 road reconstruction. That has leant itself to increasing levied funds and is built into this 84 budget as well. Community Development Director Grochala remarked that perhaps the 85 change from $600,000 in reserves to zero is too much; one possibility would be to utilize 86 the Closed Bond Fund for the parks funding as seed money. 87 88 The next budget session will be held at 5:00 p.m. on August 26. 89 90