Minutes - Council Work Session - 01/10/2012

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General Levy, but also the HRA levy, which may reach the Mayor's goal of $500,000. He noted there are also TIF Districts coming off line that will increase revenue. Councilmember Tossey stated he thinks the Council can reach the Mayor's budget reduction goal and is willing to debate the Mayor's other recommendations. Councilmember Backous asked what had changed in the last five weeks since the City adopted the budget. Mayor Ramsey stated the Council has solved the budget for 2012 and he was looking at the following year's budget. Councilmember Backous stated while the City could save a lot of money by firing staff, it still has to do business. He found nothing wrong with bringing up the need to address budget shortfalls and didn't disagree the Council should study job descriptions and cuts, but it has to assure it does not "cripple" the City. Councilmember Backous agreed with the suggestion of Councilmember Tossey to also look at the HRA levy. He supported taking the time to study the Mayor's recommendation and all proposals, including the termination of the Landform contract and backfilling with staff. An option would be to use Landform on a per project basis instead of paying $15,000 per month. Councilmember McGlone pointed out the Mayor had intended to bring forward his recommendations five weeks ago. Mayor Ramsey confirmed that was the case but he realized the error of his ways that it could not be pushed without staff support. Councilmember McGlone noted the Landform contract ends in March. Councilmember Elvig stated the issue is process and going through a relevant study that also looks at impact to services. He agreed with Councilmember Tossey to also look at funds coming on board and indicated he would like to see a performa sheet. Councilmember Tossey stated he wants to see administrative cuts and thinks some positions should not have been filled in the first place because the demand for those services was not present. He supported discussing the City Administrator's proposal regarding accountability issues within the Public Works Department through a Customer Request Management system. Councilmember Tossey stated this type of system is a good idea to allow feedback from citizens and the ability to issue a trouble ticket and check the progress being made. He indicated that if the Council was not supportive of the City Administrator's proposal, he was inclined to support the Mayor's recommendation. Councilmember Backous agreed with the need to study any and all proposals but that information needs to be on the table. He agreed the Council should have studied the jobs a long time ago but it cannot just be assumed that the position is not needed. The Council needs to know what it is doing and maybe an overlap is intentional. City Council Work Session / January 10, 2012 Page 10 of 13