Agenda Packets - 2011/07/05 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Item No: 3 Meeting Date: July 5, 2011 Type of Business: Work Session City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: James Ericson, City Administrator Item Title/Subject: Continued Council Discussion about Services Provided by the City Introduction: At the Council / Staff retreat held at Random Park on February 15, the City Council expressed a desire to review and examine the many services performed / provided by City departments as a first step toward delineation of those services considered to be essential, or “core” to the City’s mission and purpose. At the March work session, Staff presented the Council with a list of general service delivery areas as well as a more detailed list of services provided by department. The majority of the Council members agreed to review the detailed list and determine which of the identified services were essential, somewhat essential or non-essential. The Council reviewed the resulting matrix of ranked services, requesting additional information from staff regarding which of the services were supported by fees and which were required by mandate of the City Charter, county, state, federal or other jurisdictional requirements. The attached matrix of ranked services has been updated to indicate whether the service is fee supported and/or mandated. Discussion: The services are grouped by department. For each service area identified, there are numerous administrative and support functions such as answering phones, communication or responding to residents’ questions which are not identified. The list is intended to be a comprehensive representation of all services provided, however it may be the case that a service was inadvertently left off. The only services that were not ranked are those that were added prior to the April work session, which are as follows: * Operation of the Community Center * Recreation Programming * Summer Parks Program * Fitness Center * Event Center and meeting room rentals It should be noted again that while all services are identified, not all services are supported by the General Fund. Many services (water, sanitary, cable related, to name a few) are outside of the general fund and thus somewhat immune from the consequences and impacts of budget cuts, reduced intergovernmental aid, levy limits or levy freezes, etc. Some other services, while within the general fund, may receive funding or reimbursement from outside sources or agencies, and these are also included undifferentiated from all other City services. The addition of the “supported by fees” column to the matrix will help distinguish these service types.