Laserfiche WebLink
<br />4) Discretionary & Appropriate Expenses <br /> <br />City Administrator Norman indicated a new draft of the Discretionary Expenditures Policy has <br />been prepared based on Council's last discussion. A couple of items have been removed and <br />item no. 4 has been added. <br /> <br />Councilmember Strommen noted Council had discussed setting an annual cap for community <br />and business relations as part of the budget. ~ <br /> <br />City Administrator Norman suggested this be flushed out further and included in item no. 4. <br /> <br />Councilmember Jeffrey suggested staff review previous costs in this area for the purpose of <br />setting a cap. <br /> <br />Assistant City Administrator Nelson informed Council that there is a budgeted line item for <br />events and meetings in every department budget. Not all of these events relate to training, but <br />this is where it is included in the budget. <br /> <br />City Administrator Norman noted the question is not the funding source, but is how much will be <br />spent. <br /> <br />Councilmember Elvig commented the dollars for these expenditures can be attributed at the <br />beginning of the year. The intent of including this in the policy is to get the spending of public <br />monies for these types of events under Council control. An annual budget can be determined by <br />reviewing the list of events that will be attended and who willbe attending. <br /> <br />Mayor Gamec noted there are events where involvement is paid by another source and there are <br />shared costs with other participants. <br /> <br />Councilmember Jeffrey cautioned on the need to check into the legality of the City's <br />participation in an event being paid for by a different party. <br /> <br />Councilmember Strommen suggested the following changes to item no. 4: "...Participation in <br />certain periodic or annual events becomes is a necessity..;" She suggested a statement be <br />included in this section that the events are sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce or <br />associations that have a relationship with the City. Councilmember Strommen indicated she will <br />be forwarding minor wording changes to City Administrator Norman. <br /> <br />Councilmember Pearson stated staff has done a good job of handling this in the past. Staff <br />knows which events are important to the City and he has no problem with leaving this as it was. <br /> <br />Councilmember Elvig replied the concern is regarding who is making the determination. In <br />order to give staff the legs to stand on it is important to have a policy, although any time a policy <br />is drafted it should remain flexible enough to work with. He agrees that staff has done a nice job <br />with this. <br /> <br />City Council Work Session / October 30, 2006 <br />Page 7 of9 <br />