City Council Minutes 2014 10 14 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

City Council Meeting Minutes October 14, 2014 Page 4 of 23 some other economic events) the City would be in a fiscally stressful situation pushing the City below its 15% reserve policy for the General Fund unless the Council reverses the commitments being asked as part of the budget proposal. He stated the staff submitted a balanced budget on paper, but recent experiences suggest this budget may not be balanced in reality. He would rather take a more conservative path and not approve a budget that could easily be required to make reductions later. He proposed to make reductions in the proposed spending now with an eye on increasing spending after the Council has better information about the following factors: 1) The 2014 roll -overs on allocated budgets; 2) Improved and more concise testaments on significant capital projects in their design or construction this fiscal year, including closeout information for the most significant projects. 3) The revenue estimates for 2014. 4) The first and second quarter revenue and spending estimates for 2015. He would rather be in a position of adding to the budget into the fiscal year than making reductions during the middle of the fiscal year. He voiced his belief the Council could make a commitment to an operational budget, but he would prefer not to implement several until the middle or late into the fiscal year. The savings on delaying some of the initiatives would enhance the fund balances. Items could be put into late 2015 or in 2016. He stated he would be more comfortable with a conservative rollout and stated the initiatives not in the category of quality of life, be pushed out until later in the year. Council member Stolzmann agreed with Council member Lipton's comments and felt they were excellent points. She commented the budget was a great step forward toward formatting and a lot of good work and voiced her appreciation. She also thought there were things that could be done to make it better. She requested more specific goals for each division and suggested the goals which are met should be italicized. She stated the goals should be of high level and target the department goals for the year. She felt the revenues and the line item expenditures for the departments should follow the department summaries in order to see how it ties into the revenue. She voiced her appreciation for all the work on the budget. Mayor Muckle agreed with many of the comments voiced by other Council members. He liked the format of looking at goals for each department. He agreed this process will make next year's budget process easier. He noted there are a lot of large projects the City is committed to and was concerned over the general fund balance. He supported Council members Lipton and Stolzmann's perspective. PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES DEPARTMENT Council member Loo noted the metric was very difficult to understand and would also be difficult for the public to read and understand it. She was not sure this metric worked in a public document. She addressed the asset management at a business risk of 70,