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Mayor LeTourneau stated that the Council and staff have been going through that exact process <br /> since May and the Council is at the place where a decision will need to be made to move <br /> forward. He recognized that the budget may not be perfect, but it has to get to a point where the <br /> Council feels comfortable moving forward. <br /> Councilmember Heinrich stated that while she is close to that point, she is still not comfortable. <br /> She asked staff to review the budget again to determine where "wants" could be cut. She stated <br /> that she is not asking call times or level of service to be impacted. <br /> Mayor LeTourneau stated that there is a possibility that the 180-degree view of that is that the <br /> question of wants versus needs has already been asked and responded to. <br /> Councilmember Kuzma stated that this is his seventh year on the Council. He stated that when <br /> he first joined the Council, the staff was in poor shape and overworked and it has taken time for <br /> the Council to receive honest feedback from the staff on their needs and have an honest working <br /> relationship. He stated that there is now a trust factor that has been built between the Council <br /> and staff. He noted that the Council asked for additional cuts and staff provided those cuts to <br /> equate to the directed amount of six percent. He explained that four percent of those increases <br /> were items that were already built into the budget and could not be cut. He stated that he is <br /> comfortable with the six percent levy and was unsure what else would be desired to cut. He <br /> commented that cutting a few thousand dollars on specific line items will not have a large impact <br /> on the overall budget. <br /> City Administrator Ulrich stated that some final adjustments will be made to the budget based on <br /> the discussions. He agreed that there has been a lot of discussion on wants versus needs related <br /> to the personnel requests based on priorities. He stated that the budget is an estimate and will not <br /> be finite. He explained that they do not want to underestimate expenditures or overestimate <br /> revenues. He explained that staff must make their best guess at construction costs and the state <br /> of the economy and therefore some contingencies are built into the budget. He noted that any <br /> surplus budget at the end of the year is allocated into long-term capital funds. <br /> Councilmember Musgrove referenced the employee survey and stated that it seemed that there <br /> were a lot of feelings involved in the responses. She asked if each department has a metric of the <br /> job tasks and duties that would determine if the department is short staffed. <br /> City Administrator Ulrich confirmed that to be true to an extent. He used the example of <br /> Community Development and time for permit review as well as Public Safety and response time. <br /> Councilmember Musgrove used the example of Public Works where certain elements are given <br /> priority over other tasks. She stated that there are instances where there is not enough time or <br /> manpower to accomplish tasks that are considered lowered priority. She referenced the Police <br /> Records Technician position that was removed from the 2020 budget and asked if that would <br /> reappear in the 2021 budget. <br /> Police Chief Katers anticipated that he would include that request in 2021 as a part-time staffing <br /> request. <br /> City Council Work Session/November 18,2019 <br /> Page 10 of 14 <br />