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<br />Councilmember Specht said he believes what Acting Mayor Riley is referring to is that they <br />approved a second maintenance person and some other positions ahead of time. <br /> <br />Acting Mayor Riley said what Councilmember Specht was referring to was part of it. He was also <br />referring to the 3% wage increase they have already agreed upon with the unions. He noted that <br />many of the decisions are heading toward 25-30% have already been made. He stated that this is <br />where he is concerned. He can say he is unhappy with the 25-30%, but he is not sure how much <br />they will have the ability to knock that number down. <br /> <br />Councilmember Woestehoff put it a different way by saying that he thinks Acting Mayor Riley is <br />curious to understand what numbers, at this point, are discretionary. <br /> <br />Finance Director Lund said that a majority of the discretionary is going to come down to the <br />personnel requests. In regard to the 3% in non-union wages, that has not been negotiated. She said <br />some of the capital equipment is also being affected in the property tax levy. She asked if they <br />wanted to use those funds up in regard to what is funding the other capital. She requested the <br />Council give her a better idea of what they are looking for in regard to what is committed versus <br />what falls outside of that. She said the health insurance would need to be negotiated if they change <br />out the single coverage that is not 100% funded. <br /> <br />Councilmember Specht said one thing he thinks they will run into is when people make requests. <br />He said that it comes down to if they spend nothing more, people will still have an increase because <br />their home value is more. He asked how much is actually an increase from the Council rather than <br />an increase due to the value of their home. He added that even if the City reduced its budget, <br />property owners would still have an increase, but it is a matter of how much the Council can cut it <br />while still being efficient to the City. <br /> <br />Finance Director Lund said the main factor it comes down to is the percentage of that tax levy that <br />is contributing to the roads and when that percentage is solved, it will tell them what the additional <br />increase is. <br /> <br />Acting Mayor Riley asked if the requests that have been made will be fairly easy for Finance <br />Director Lund. <br /> <br />Finance Director Lund said that she will just have to do a separate column with the road portion <br />only. <br /> <br />Mayor Pro Tem asked if that would include the discretionary part of it. <br /> <br />Finance Director Lund asked Acting Mayor Riley for a better handle on what he was calling <br />discretionary. She said the personnel costs of non-union are still going to be a large number <br />because there are still many people that are not under union contracts with 3% COLA. <br /> <br />Councilmember Specht said he feels like the next two, personnel requests and capital, are what <br />they can choose to do or not do. <br />City Council Work Session / August 8, 2022 <br />Page 4 of 19 <br /> <br />