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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,August 22,2011 Page 19 Councilmember Johnson expressed his appreciation for Councilmember McGe- hee's sentiments; however, he opined that he didn't know how to get past the levy limit. City Manager Malinen clarified that the most recent legislative session had elimi- nated levy limits. Councilmember Pust opined that, while there were no longer levy limits, people were still limited in what they could realistically pay; and noted that when the CIP Task Force was operating and making their assumptions, the 3.9% levy cap was still intact. Councilmember Willmus, responding to Councilmember McGehee, thanked her for going through that research process. In addressing the surveys, Council- member Willmus opined that the City Council needed to more thoroughly inves- tigate those items that the surveys indicated residents no longer felt necessary; and those things that had little or no customer impact; or ways to do things differently at City Hall. Councilmember McGehee opined that the way things had been done since 2003 was to habitually continue cutting programs, services and staff; all of which have impacted and jeopardized the City's infrastructure, fire stations, and parks system. In her efforts to communicate with the public, Councilmember McGehee advised that she has continued to suggest moving forward with a citizen task force to look at all programs and services, and providing evaluation reports to the City Council. Councilmember McGehee suggested that the Human Rights Commission's devel- opment of neighborhood groups may be a good venue for such a project. Ongoing discussion included annual increases in the City budget and levy and no decreases, as detailed in the annual budget documents and recent staff memoran- da; annual inflation; reduced property values and lost revenue; ever increasing employee health care costs; and increased material and supply costs. Mayor Roe thanked Councilmembers for their discussion and the good points brought up. Mayor Roe noted that the 2010 big ticket items included $450,000 to cover mon- ey that the City never received back from the State of MN, on an increase of$1.4 million; and another $400,000 to get back to a level of funding some vehicle re- placement needs, in addition to additional debt for the ice arena that year. Mayor Roe opined that it was not always easy to equate the levy increase with a budget; and further opined that it had remained pretty flat or decreasing during his tenure on the City Council; with the message clearly received annually from the City's Finance Director that the inflationary factor was not as big in some years as in others.