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Finance Officer Lund explained the problem is if developers see that the City is collecting a fee <br />for park maintenance they will say that they are installing the park and building the residential <br />properties whose tax dollars should pay for the maintenance. <br /> <br />Councilmelnber Cook stated that throughout the history of the City they have installed parks at <br />the developer's expense, but at some point they will no longer have developer money to cover <br />these cost. The Council will have to designate money in the general fund to pay for maintenance <br />of parks and replacement of aged park equipment. <br /> <br />City Administrator Norman replied that it was a good argument and as a developing City they <br />will have to set aside money for maintenance. It is a difficult issue to talk about this year because <br />the State put a levy freeze on cities. <br /> <br />Finance Officer Lund noted that if the City were to replace a playground that would be a capital <br />item not a maintenance issue. <br /> <br />Mayor Gamec agreed that the City needed to look at increasing funds in the general fund for <br />maintenance of parks. <br /> <br />Finance Officer Lund explained that in the future, in a non-levy year, the Council could increase <br />the amount designated for park maintenance. <br /> <br />Councilmember Cook noted that he was not suggesting that they increase the budget for 2004, <br />but he does not want to take away funds from capital items for maintenance. <br /> <br />Finance Officer Lund stated that a lot of cities do create a specific fund to place money in that is <br />collected through the general fund to cover long-term maintenance costs. <br /> <br />Councihnember Elvig stated that he agreed that they will have to start creating some sort of <br />maintenance fund, but those are all things they will grow into. In regards to the 2004 budget he <br />inquired if staff had calculated what the permit increases would do for the 2004 budget. <br /> <br />Finance Officer Lund replied no. <br /> <br />Councilmember Elvig inquired as to what the next process was to move forward with the budget. <br /> <br />Finance Officer Lund explained that currently the budget is balanced so it would come before the <br />Council for adoption on December 9th. <br /> <br />Councilmember Elvig inquired as to when they would look at the assumptions again for the 2004 <br />budget since they were just made aware of additional development that is going to be happening <br />immediately. <br /> <br />Finance Officer Lund explained that any development that starts this year would go into the 2003 <br />general fund. <br /> <br />City Council Budget Work Session/November 10, 2003 <br /> Page 2 of 4 <br /> <br /> <br />