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<br />Councilmember Strommen noted the City does not have control over the slowdown and growth, <br />but they are managing what they have control over, which should reflect favorably. <br /> <br />Mayor Gamec inquired about the City's bond rating. <br /> <br />Mr. Donna replied he would be surprised if the rating would change because of going through <br />this. With the rating process less than six months ago they talked about the overall local <br />economy and how that is progressing. The rating agency knows what is happening here, and it <br />will not be a surprise to them that growth has slowed down. The agency will want to know how <br />the City is managing that internally and if they have the flexibility to go through that. <br /> <br />Mayor Gamec asked if there would be another bond sale with the restructure. <br /> <br />Mr. Donna replied this would go out in the capital market. Federal law allows the City to <br />advance refund a bond issue once, but it only pertains to the callable maturities. This would be <br />refunding maturities that are not callable, so the City still reserves the ability to refinance the <br />balance of the debt in 2014 to save money. <br /> <br />Interim City Administrator Nelson indicated Mr. Donna and Finance Officer Lund will work on <br />this restructure. It will need to go through the EDA. <br /> <br />Finance Officer Lund stated the bond sale will be presented to Council. <br /> <br />Interim City Administrator Nelson stated community programs have been funded through the <br />General Fund with the exception of the Anoka Aquatic Center. Historically, charitable gambling <br />funds have been used to fund improvements within City parks and the Anoka Aquatic Center <br />contribution. Staff has discussed whether there is an interest in funding more programming from <br />this fund. The use of this fund for other programs would have an impact on its availability for <br />park improvement programs. When they start to look at some of these items that go into the <br />General Fund it is significant. Staff would like to look at whether there are other funding <br />mechanisms to get some of this done. Discussion is needed regarding the funding request from <br />Alexandra House and Youth First. It is not known at this time what the situation will be with <br />Youth First. Ms. Nelson asked if there is interest on behalf of the Council to look at the policy of <br />how charitable gambling funds are used and extending it to broader program use, understanding <br />it has an impact on park programs. <br /> <br />Council expressed support in a 2007 budget amendment to include programming support from <br />charitable gambling funds in the amount of $47,544. Council and staff discussed the following <br />in relation to extending the use of charitable gambling funds to a broader program use: <br />· The fund will increase due to the additional 2% that will go into the fund as a result of the <br />change to the charitable gambling ordinance <br />· Consideration of a policy change should include a determination of the portion for parks <br />and the portion for programming. <br /> <br />Interim City Administrator Nelson indicated a policy discussion will be presented to the Council <br />and staff will proceed with the 2007 budget amendment. <br /> <br />City Council Work Session I July 31, 2007 <br />Page 15 of 18 <br />