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City Manager's 2004 Budget Recommendations Police would function for a second year without a Deputy Police Chief; Administration and the entire city organization would func- tion again without an Assistant city Manager. fo Finance would function more slowly due to the transfer of an FTE to the License Center. License Center operations would improve. Reducing our programming at the Nature Center would he a loss for some school children. Possibly, we can receive even more vol- unteer help from the FORHANC group. Possibly, we can forge a partnership with another agency, such as the Minnesota State Horticultural Society, to help us pay for operating and program costs at the Nature Centen • The Police Department would still operate at full sworn strength (other than the Deputy Police Chien. A restricted outdoor season at the OIL would certainly disappoint speed slaters and some aggressive skate park teenagers, as the closure of the wading Pool would disappoint some care -- givers and children. Fortunately, there are some other places to skate and swim. overall, of the roughly 5,000 programs and services the Parks and recreation Department is proud to sponsor or conduct, approximately 4,900 would still he fully intact and alive. Reducing the number of fire apparatus will trouble some current and former members of the Fire Department. But we will still have lots of apparatus, and on those rare occasions when more appara- tus are needed it is available through mutual aid from other fire departments. Eliminating some insurance coverage puts us at greater risk if a catastrophe strikes. In my experience, using reserves to hack -stop such a highly unlikely event is a good and appropriate alternative and a good and appropriate use of reserves. (It 1s what we did with great success in Mesa.) This approach would allow us to continue to safely invest our reserves and thereby reduce pressure on our tax levy. Yet at the sane time our reserves would be doing "double - duty": they would continue to be an asset earning money and, in addition, we could still liquidate as needed in the unlikely event that a catastrophe strifes. Remember that we still have substantial insurance coverage by paying $200,000 in premiums each year-; I'm not suggesting we go without insurance. I am recommending we rely more on self-insurance (by relying on our own reserves) and less on purchased insurance. we would tap City reserves only 12