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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,March 25,2013 Page 32 Regarding priority ranking, Mayor Roe sought clarification on the potential budg- et impact, whether for the big picture or department-specific priorities for person- nel and budget impacts at this point. Mayor Roe opined that, at this point and un- til the City Manager-recommended budget was presented, it remained an un- known to the City Council and made it difficult for staff to provide a budget and personnel impacts without the benefit of prioritization. However, if the revenue portion is related to income associated with a specific program, Mayor Roe opined that it could be a beneficial component to have available. Mayor Roe questioned how Department Heads would know how to rank items within their department until receiving City Council priorities. Councilmember Etten opined that this was not the intent of the recommendations made by him and Councilmember McGehee. Councilmember McGehee suggested having the budget impacts identified by staff early in the process. Mayor Roe opined that he could not support that, since it required a lot of staff to make recommendations before receiving City Council directives/goals, and re- quired the City Manager-recommended budget to be delivered early in the process as well, without having all the components available. Councilmember Laliberte, when first listening to Councilmember Etten's recom- mendations, advised that she understood the document to be dynamic or living, and as discussions ensued, other columns would be filled in that didn't need to be populated at this stage in the process. Councilmember Etten spoke in support of that concept. Mayor Roe stated that it may be safe to say where the strategic plan plugged into the process at this stage and change it as the process moved forward. City Manager Malinen reiterated that, once individual Councilmembers devel- oped their priorities it would provide staff with an understanding of the City Council direction and funding potential, or how much of a tax levy if any they would support. Mr. Malinen advised that this would drive how staff ranked and determined lower level priorities. Mayor Roe reiterated the process: prioritize, establish a preliminary comfort level for a levy, and generation of a City Manager-recommended budget. City Manager Malinen concurred with that process overview.