City Council Minutes 2014 06 24 SP

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City Council Special Meeting Minutes June 24, 2014 Page 7 of 14 Council member Loo asked where the funding for open space would come from. Council member Keany explained part of the funding would come from the Open Space and Parks Fund and part from the General Fund. Council member Stolzmann stated her personal opinion of what the community wants, is forparks maintenance to be paid out of the General Fund and open space maintenance be paid out of the Open Space Fund. Council member Lipton stated his initial question was how much money should be paid by the Open Space Fund for maintenance and how much should be paid by the General Fund. He noted over time, the Open Space Fund has paid a larger proportion in order to help with the General Fund budget issues. Council member Stolzmann stated it is confusing when money is transferred in and out of funds and difficult to determine what project is being paid for. She proposed no transfers between funds. City Manager Fleming explained he was looking at how much money is being spent on Parks and Open Space, maintenance, acquisition and development. He noted all of those expenses are legitimately paid for by Open Space and Parks sales tax revenue. The sales tax does not generate enough revenue to cover all the expenses, so it seemed appropriate to show what those expenses are and to show a General Fund transfer to show what was necessary to cover all the expenses. Council member Stolzmann disagreed and stated she views parks and open space as part of services the City provides. City Manager Fleming explained one approach is to preserve the flexibility of the General Fund and to use restricted funds first for restricted purposes and to supplement the fund, when it is low, with General Fund money. Council member Lipton felt a transfer could occur from either fund. He wanted to build up the fund balance and be more aggressive on purchasing open space property. Council member Stolzmann agreed, but felt the way to increase the fund balance is to spend less. Council member Lipton asked where all the unexpended funds go at the end of the year. Finance Director Watson explained those funds go the reserves of the fund where they were budgeted. Council member Lipton suggested those one -time funds be prioritized by City Council for projects or used to build up other fund balances. City Manager Fleming explained every April Council is presented with a budget appropriation to carry over those unexpended funds into the current year's budget. CAPITAL PROJECTS