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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes September 10, 2002 Page 8 aside for future building improvements and maintenance. He further commented that the City bought the Tires Plus building in 1996 with HRA money and the intent was to take the lease 3 payments to pay the City back. 4 5 Councilmember Sparks asked if the money would be needed if the City needs to rebuild the 6 store. Mr. Morrison indicated Staff had not considered that as an option for the funds at this time. 7 He then said that the property at Apache is a valuable piece of real estate and commented that 8 Staff has not looked at the difference between what the City would get for the property and what 9 the new store would cost or at funding that amount. 10 11 Councilmember Faust commented that he felt this would be a good use for the funds. 12 13 Mr. Mornson indicated there was time for consideration of the proposal as Council has until 14 December to approve the budget. 15 16 Councilmember Sparks indicated she was not comfortable with the recommendation at this time. 17 18 Mayor Hodson indicated he was comfortable with the City Manager's recommendation for how 19 to proceed with the budget. 20 21 Mr. Morrison explained that Council had said it did not want to borrow money to pay for capital 22 equipment and would prefer to use cash on hand and this is Staffs proposal for funding capital 0 equipment. 25 Councilmember Sparks asked if Mr. Morrison felt the recommendation should be reconsidered 26 based on Mr. Miller's letter. Mr. Morrison indicated there was time between now and December 27 for more consideration of the budget. He then said that a pumper truck that is ordered now is not 28 delivered for 12 months, leaving time to look at other funding. 29 30 Councilmember Horst commented that in looking back at other Councils one of the things he 31 noticed is that they were conservative and saved money for rainy days. He then said that he 32 would like to take heed of Mr. Miller's letter and consider setting up reserves for future use. 33 34 Councilmember Thuesen commented that former Councils were very conservative but said one 35 could debate they were conservative at the expense of capital improvements and that is why 36 there are financial difficulties now in funding those capital improvements. He then said that 37 there is a time to save and a time to buy and it is a fine line between the two but sometimes 38 spending a little money now saves you more in the long run. 39 40 Councilmember Horst commented that it is more than capital improvements as it had generally 41 been a policy to keep some in reserve and this Council should bear in mind there may be 42 opportunities to save for future rainy days. He then said that previous Council had money in 43 reserves and this Council voted to use it because it did not look like it would rain, but it did. 44 0 Councilmember Thuesen commented that the reserves grew at a cost to the City's infrastructure.