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Regular City Council Meeting <br /> Monday, April 22, 2013 <br /> Page 12 <br /> Acting City Manager Miller briefly reviewed the updated City Council budget <br /> program priorities, advising that this iteration included input as received from 2 of <br /> the 5 Councilmembers having submitted their rankings. <br /> At the request of Acting Mayor Willmus, Mr. Miller advised that, while not hav- <br /> ing highlighted where those changes occurred from the previous iteration, there <br /> were just a few ranking changes within organizational management areas. <br /> Councilmember Etten advised that his changes were not significant, and were re- <br /> vised based on discussions held at the last meeting after he had a better under- <br /> standing from staff and fellow Councilmembers on various items, estimated be- <br /> tween 6-8 programs. <br /> Councilmember Laliberte drew attention to line 17 of the RCA summary, and <br /> thanked Mr. Miller for providing that assessment and observations, allowing her <br /> to have a better perspective and providing guidelines on how to move forward. <br /> Acting Mayor Willmus expressed his past and ongoing struggles in the process of <br /> using these materials to draw the line and limit discussions to items below that <br /> line. Acting Mayor Willmus opined that more consideration was needed for items <br /> above the line, or disregarding the line completely to review and determine the ac- <br /> tual and desired levels of service. Acting Mayor Willmus noted comments <br /> touched upon by Police Chief Mathwig at the last meeting regarding the various <br /> components of a specific program or position (e.g. Community Service Officer) <br /> and other duties they entailed. Acting Mayor Willmus suggested that a broader <br /> discussion was needed on many other items as well for everyone's benefit. Act- <br /> ing Mayor Willmus questioned if other variables were needed to measure the lev- <br /> el of service, such as the Pavement Management Program and use of the current <br /> Street Quality Index, and whether that was relevant, seeking future comment from <br /> staff based on their perspective. <br /> Along the line of the Street Index, Councilmember McGehee noted questioned di- <br /> rected to her from residents regarding the vehicle replacement cycle and that level <br /> of services, questioning whether it was important to have vehicles that look good <br /> or if other considerations were taken into account as well. <br /> Acting Mayor Willmus suggested that this could be a component of future discus- <br /> sions as well. <br /> Acting City Manager Miller noted that, when this ranking approach was initiated <br /> in 2009, with budget categories by program, the intent had been that the level of <br /> service discussion would occur. However, Mr. Miller noted that unfortunately the <br /> process had not yet evolved to that point. While some components were less of a <br /> challenge, Mr. Miller noted that there were limitations created during each budget <br /> process, for staff to determine the information needs of the City Council and how <br />