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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—NOVEMBER 15, 2010 4 Councilmember McClung stated that it would be nice to have a list for those increases. Mayor Harpstead asked where the Council stands on the preliminary Ievy. _ Councilmember Holden responded that she's OK with the 2.4% increase but would like to get it down a little. She mentioned that we currently hold $7,000 for Northwest Youth and Family - Services in case the charitable donations are not sufficient. She suggested that could be eliminated. She also suggested not serving refreshments at community meetings and only sending one person to the state conference in the Finance Department She added that having the Public Works Director do engineering work should result in some savings. City Administrator HIaers stated that he's not sure there will be much savings in having the Public Works Director perform engineering tasks, but there will be improved efficiencies. Councilmember Grant questioned if the Council has agreed to proceed with the Administrative Fines. City Administrator Klaers explained that the Traffic Administrative Fines is on the Council's November 29th agenda. After some discussion, it was the consensus of the Council to support the Traffic Administrative Fines which would result in $11,000 in additional revenue for the City. Councilmember Grant questioned if the 2.4% increase in the levy results in a $50 property tax increase for the median priced home. Finance Director Iverson responded that is correct. Councilmember McClung commented that residents will be seeing increases in the County taxes as well. Arden Hills has healthy fund balances and he doesn't see anything wrong with constraining the City. Councilmember Holmes stated that our increase is conservative and she didn't think Arden Hills should suffer because other entities will be increasing their tax rates. Councilmember Holden commented that with the Administrative Fines revenue at $I1,000 and the elimination of the $7,000 for NYFS,that would take the levy increase under 2%. Councilmember Grant asked how much budget remained unspent at the end of last year. Finance Director Iverson responded that if the City hadn't had to pay the TCAAP developer expense, we would have had$50,000 to $60,000. Discussion ensued regarding the use of reserves or fund balance. The consensus was that Staff could use up to $20,000 in reserves.