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LAKE ELMO CITY COUNCIL BUDGET WORKSHOP DISCUSSIO14 - SEPTEMBER 8, 1993 SU11E1ARY MINUTES Mayor John called budget workshop to order at 7:10 p.m, in the City Council Chambers, PRESENT: John, Johnston, Johnson - 7:30 p.m. Mottaz and Conlin - Also present Banister and TIAC Wacker AGENDA APPROVAL:Letter from Curtiss C. Talcott, 8051 Hill Trail No. Re: Marking of. Public accesses - did not add to the agenda. Agenda approved as presented. BUDGET DISCUSSION: Reviewed budget decreases from August 31st workshop and agreed on the changes of $47,350. The concensus of the Council was to reduce the Budget increase to under 10%. COMPUTER SOFT4dARE: reduce computer software another $10,000, eliminating the and accounting software as it is out of our range for 1994, and leaving $8,000 in budget for an alternative Geobase or Dbase program. STAFF SALARY INCREASES: Mayor John presented a letter from Gov. as rfson requesting local governments to freeze wages for 1994. Banister explained that of the $11,000 increase in salaries, $5,000 has already been committed in 1993.for Buckles and Bouthilet, therefore $6,000 is the most you could reduce budget. Reminded Council there would be nothing in budget for 1994 for any kind of a salary increase or merit increase. Council agreed to reduce Salary increases by $6,000. FIREMEN"S COMPENSATION: Council agreed if they were going to freeze staff salaries, they would also have to freeze firemen's comp. Banister explained that of the $16,500 increase, only $1,950 was due to an increase in pay, $14,550 is a result of additional volunteers and an increase in runs. There was some discussion how to reduce this number - by not having every volunteer answer all medicals, or by not Paying the full $8 for volunteers that don't go out on the call. Nothing was resolved, so reduced budget by only $1,950. RESERVE ADDITIONS: Councilman Johnson was concerned about reducing Reserves, wanted to make sure we added something, and didn't deplete them. Next year (1995) we won't have an Equipment Certificate to pay off in 1994 $94,784, so we must increase the Reserves then. Council agreed to reduce reserve additions: Office Bldg & CIP an additional $5,900; Fire Dept. $14,000; and Public Works and additional $13,000. These decreases totaled $50,850, which would make the Budget increase precentage 9.23% "(under 10%), but the Tax Levy % increase was still 11.52%. Mayor John suggested trying to get the Tax Levy increase under 10% also.