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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,November 21, 2011 Page 10 Additional discussion included lack of unanimous consensus among Task Force members as well as GLWMO Board members; reference to the City Attorney's comments and recommendations included in the meeting packet materials specific to member cities retaining their right to set a budget, and the City Attorney inter- pretation of the proposed JPA where the GLWMO would submit a budget to member cities for their comment, but the GLWMO retaining ultimate rights to es- tablish its own budget, pending a binding arbitration procedure for all parties in appealing those budgets and associated costs for such binding arbitration. Mayor Roe noted the need for a City Council policy discussion on whether an ar- bitration process was the best way to make budget decisions and questioned if the GLWMO Board had thought that through. Mr. Miller advised that the revised JPA was acceptable to BWSR allowing the GLWMO Board to keep control of annual budgets. Mayor Roe noted that a potential merger would relinquish local control by mem- ber cities over the budget. Further discussion included how member cities could negotiate the JPA; compari- son with existing organizations for a potential merger and how they would ad- dress member city preferences for water quality issues; ability of each organiza- tional option to levy funds with varying degrees of how those funds would be spend and the local control available in that expenditure and for projects to be un- dertaken; make-up of the VLAWMO with its Board made up of one Coun- cilmember from each of its six (6) member cities; and costs to taxpayers for each of the three (3) options. Councilmember Johnson expressed appreciation to the GLWMO Board for their time and their presentation; as well as their candid approach with the majority and minority positions and recommendations. However, Councilmember noted that he hadn't heard the value for Roseville citizens in creating an Improved GLWMO versus merging with another organization. Councilmember Johnson noted that water quality would be protected under any of the three (3) options; and he had yet to see what would set apart an Improved GLWMO versus a merger; or how remaining independent would be to the advantage and provide a return on that in- vestment by member cities to its constituency. Mr. Miller responded that, of course, the overall goal was to protect the GLWMO's water quality for its residents; and that in merging with a broader or- ganization, in some instances, money collected from within GLWMO boundaries may be used to support water resources outside those boundaries; specifically any project(s) downstream from the GLWMO and not specific to water bodies within the GLWMO itself.