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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,August 27, 2012 Page 16 Finance Director Miller advised that this peer group was that commonly used for comparison purposes throughout the metropolitan area and included all cit- ies in the metropolitan area of 10,000 or more in population. Mr. Miller con- curred that that peer group did not necessary provide similar situations to infra- structure condition and age, housing stock age and mix; and that at the City Council's direction tighter criteria for a comparison group could be arranged for over time. Mr. Miller advised that the data currently used for this peer group had been established by the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) for common comparison data from city to city. At the request of Councilmember Willmus, Mr. Miller advised that the source for that data was by a third party provided to the LMC; with the LMC encapsu- lating that information. Mr. Miller advised that, if a different comparison group was preferred outside the LMC service, it would obviously be more labor intensive than the current data group used, but staff would be willing to facilitate gathering that infor- mation if the City Council wished to explore such an option. Mayor Roe noted that the City Council would need to consider cost versus ben- efit in considering another option. b. Budget Discussion Mayor Roe sought initial City Council feedback on the proposed City-Manager recommended 2013 Budget in light of the not-to-exceed preliminary adoption at the September 10, 2012 meeting. Councilmember Pust asked, for the next discussion, and as detailed on page 2 of the RCA listing the four (4) new items adding up to $181, 720 over and above the preliminary 2013 budget set in December of 2011; a corresponding chart showing what requests were funded by department at the request of each De- partment Head during the interim, but were not actually processed as they were found not to be needed, and subsequently cut from expenditures versus those requested by Department Heads but not included in the City Manager- recommended budget, as considered not high enough in priority in the overall scheme. In other words, did the City Manager-recommended budget include the entire Department Head "wish list" or were there things that didn't make the fi- nal cut. Councilmember Pust advised that she would like further clarification and narrative from City Manager Malinen on those items; as well as savings from planned expenditures not coming to fruition in 2012. Councilmember Pust clarified with Mr. Miller that the 80% of median value home values and decline in values of Roseville residential properties was based