City Council Minutes 2017 12 18 SP

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City Council Meeting Minutes December 18, 2017 Page 5 of 7 Mayor Muckle proposed the Utility Committee look at some financial information and the two Committees decide what is most valuable to them to help them make policy decisions and have periodic joint meetings Councilmember Keany stated the Utility Committee should sit with staff to determine what information is really needed We should be looking at snow pack projections, the waste hauler contract; we should not be looking at low level details Mayor Pro Tem Lipton agreed with Mayor Muckle. He suggested all financial information be given to the Utility Committee for a 6 -month test drive. Then get together in 6 months and see how the division of responsibility is going. Once per year have the full council look at the policy issues. Councilmember Stolzmann disagreed; she stated financial review should be at the Finance Committee. Finance knows the real time accounting revenue expenditures; we shouldn't separate the functions. Sending the same reports to both committees is a redundancy of effort. Don't see it this addressing any issues that need to be fixed Director Kowar stated he sees the difference as the Finance Committee is what is happening now, the Utility Committee us looking 5 years out for projects and planning. Mayor Pro Tem Lipton stated we can't separate the roles without all the information. He stated he was not sure the Finance Committee wants to look at utility rates at an in- depth level Councilmember Maloney asked what problem we are solving That needs to be defined. He restated his concern that items come to council with no review from either committee and also neither committee has looked at the rate model before we look at budget Finance is looking at profit and loss without any context about the rate model Councilmember Keany the challenge is what is rolling over and what funds are already committed or not Councilmember Maloney stated his concern that no one is looking at the rate model, the financial statements, and budget requests Neither Utility or Finance had the nght or enough information to make a good recommendation. Mayor Muckle stated someone needs to review items before they come to council Councilmember Keany stated one or the other has to be more involved in the process Councilmember Maloney agreed. Councilmember Stolzmann stated there are a lot of areas that collect fee revenue and we should not carve out the utility fees to have a different process. Carving out what the Utility Committee does, doesn't solve the problem and it means the Finance Committee does not look at the fees for our biggest enterprise.