City Council Minutes 2018 07 12 & 08 02 BUDGET

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City Council Budget Retreat Meeting Minutes July 12 & August 2, 2018 Page 12 of 13 Councilmember Maloney stated we need a rational way to do this. Once we set a policy it obligates us even if have a down turn. Mayor Pro Tem Lipton stated we could give direction for 2019-2020 without creating a policy, just an allocation. He noted once it is policy we have much less flexibility. City Manager Balser stated that would work, but then staff will have to make assumptions for long term models. Councilmember Maloney suggested a zero base approach rather than calculating an inflator. Director Watson stated options can be provided based on the service level Council wants to set. Councilmember Stolzmann stated we need to determine what we want to pay for and what it costs and use that as a basis for the policy. Mayor Pro Tem Lipton suggested taking the 2018 budget allocation based on the transfer and use that as a starting point for the a 19/20 request. Councilmember Stolzmann stated we will need to identify the goals we want to hit with that money. Councilmember Maloney stated we can use that as context for the policy. Director Watson noted the fund is already under water even with the transfer. Councilmember Maloney stated then we will need policy discussion on what our service level expectation is for open space and parks. The consensus was there is not enough time to create a policy for this budget cycle and staff will continue with the current practice for 2019 and spend more time to determine the policy for the next budget cycle. Staff will use the current practice for projections until we have a policy. This will be added to the 2019 Work plan. #2. Direction on the staff recommendation to change the Open Space targeted fund balance. The current policy is to have a targeted fund balance for Open Space acquisition. Staff is recommending eliminating the acquisition target but keep the fund minimum and provide discretion to Council to fund it at a higher level as they chose. Members agreed with the recommendation. #3 The Finance Committee recommends we include a fee inflator to the miscellaneous fees and charges to reflect the increased cost of doing business. Councilmember Stolzmann fine with the idea of this as long as it is clear it is based on the cost of providing services and is only done from time to time to true up the costs. Members were in agreement with the recommendation.