City Council Minutes 2017 12 18 SP

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City Council Meeting Minutes December 18, 2017 Page 4 of 7 Councilmember Loo noted a lot of the CIP projects do go through committees noting parks items This is generally staff driven, staff creates a list and asks the boards what they think or support. It is a more general level, but there is some input from a committee. Mayor Pro Tem Lipton stated the Utility Committee is not the same as a citizen committee. The original argument might have been that utility rates/projects are so significant, that it does deserve some different level of oversight. There are years where some impacts of the utility, either financially or regulatory, are bigger Mayor Muckle stated the Utility Committee does provide value We shouldn't fold the two together or you get a small number of people having great influence on the budget when that should be left to the full council. We should use the Utility Committee for spending time on understanding the utilities Councilmember Stolzmann stated the information that needs to be discussed for a big budget amendment is really financial and should be reviewed at the Finance Committee. Councilmember Keany stated the Water Committee used to really be about water rights and drought response and it only met as needed to discuss acquisitions. Mayor Muckle stated both Committees have grown in their roles, now we need to identify what each will be doing. Councilmember Maloney stated there needs to be one group to put the finances into context when determining utility rates and expenses. Councilmember Keany stated the Council needs to define a better policy for fee recovery across the City. Councilmember Maloney stated between the two Committees it seems no one has the right information they need for decision making; we need to define what we need from staff. Councilmember Loo stated the personalities of the Council have changed drastically, we are demanding more This affected the Committees and what they want. We need to determine 1) what will make us happy and 2) what will it take for staff to provide that information. If we are asking for so much information we may need more staff We need to know what is doable with the resources we have It needs to be clear what information they need and we need to know what the goal of each committee is. She suggested perhaps the Committees should meet together periodically.