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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—APRIL 21, 2014 5 Councilmember McClung reported that the applicant was aware of the deadlines and for this reason, he does not support the proposed change. Councilmember Werner was in favor of extending the Phase II and Phase III deadlines. Mayor Grant commented that it would be within the City's right to have the applicant reapply. Councilmember Holden was willing to compromise and suggested that both of the existing deadline requirements be no later than June 1, 2014, with the understanding that the applicant could request an extension. Mayor Grant suggested that this be moved to July 1, 2014. There was Council consensus on this change. Mayor Grant questioned how the Council wanted to proceed with the second amendment to the development agreement. City Attorney Jamnik suggested that the Council wait on the second amendment and address it if the applicant requests an extension. The matter could be reviewed by Council at that time. The Council agreed with this recommendation. Staff was directed to bring this item back to the Council as a Consent Item extending the deadline applications for Phase II and Phase III to July 1, 2014. B. 2014 Preliminary Budget Parameters Director of Finance and Administrative Services Iverson explained that staff has identified a number of factors that will influence the 2015 Budget. Some of the factors are as follows: • Tax Levy— what is the Council's comfort level? Last year it was a 3.0% increase. A 1% levy increase translates to approximately$30,000. • Overall budget changes—preferences/limits? • Personnel. • Salaries and Benefits. We are currently undergoing a Compensation Study which will give us some good data to consider around the time of our budget discussions in August (this data will take into account our benefits with the salaries as a total package when doing comparisons). • Increase in employee benefits costs (health and dental). We do not have preliminary numbers for these costs yet, but will be getting these in the next few months. The City participates in the Lake Country Service Cooperative health insurance pool. There are about 60 City, County and other Governmental Agencies that participate in this pool. The current City contribution towards health and dental is $699.61 per month. In 2013 the City discontinued the Co-Pay Plan and added another high-deductible plan and added a third high-deductible that complies with the new Health Care Act just to be safe (this is a very high deductible and the Co-op allowed members to add this for compliance purposes). Over the past few years, the City has equally shared rate increases with the employees.