Minutes - Council Work Session - 08/03/1998

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Finance Officer Lund explained that the first page of the 1999 General Fund Budget Request is an overall summary of the entire document. She stated that the revenues and expenditures are shown for each category. The amount between the total revenues and expenditures is $515,363. During the discussion of budget items, Council made the following suggestions: Add 25- year celebration funding - possibly under the Council Contingency Fund. Look at putting funding in the budget for the National Conference. Should the minutes taken by Timesavers be budgeted somewhere other than Administrative Services - for example with the Commissions the minutes are taken for. Find out what the next step is in Records Management. Add retention and retrieval of records - if not for 1999 then for 2000. Carefully review each department to see what may be able to be contracted out. There is $30,000 shown under graveling two streets - a couple of the Councilmembers inquired about paving them. It was commented that the roads should be brought into the modem age. If we are putting money into the streets, it should be done the right way. It was pointed out that the people on the gravel roads should have to pay assessments same as people who are assessed for blacktopping where the City pays for half and the benefited property owner pays for half. It was suggested that the issue of the gravel roads be placed on the Road and Bridge Committee agenda. Council asked that a justification be put on the capital purchases also. With regard to space needs, it was suggested that we look at both a community center and city hall. It seems the only economical way to get the best of both worlds is to have city hall and the community center together. Everyone is doing a multiple use and trying to get more than one agency in there. Look at combined use - maybe an architecture is not needed - maybe a committee is better. Performance based budgeting was briefly talked about but it was agreed that this budget would be a line item budget due to time constraints and new staff. The next work session is scheduled for 5:00 p.m., on Monday, August 17. Miscellaneous Items for Discussion #1: Old Town Hall The private agreement between the City and the First State Bank of Isanti, relating to the Old Town Hall, was noted. Councilmember Haas Steffen expressed a concern that if the work done does not coincide with that history period, the historical value of the old town hall is mined. She asked if they (the bank) brought in a plan to the City for approval. She suggested asking the City Attorney if the City would be able to sue the bank if the historical value of the old town hall is mined. She wanted to know the roles that govern this and suggested maybe we need to get out of this agreement. City Council Wok Session/August 3, 1998 Page 2 of 5