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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,June 03,2013 Page 4 cilmember Laliberte opined that at some point it she would like a discussion on how comparable cities are chosen, recognizing that comparisons are done for all kinds of purposes. Councilmember Laliberte questioned the validity of establish- ing a standard for cities used consistently for comparisons purposes that most rep- licated the demographics of Roseville, including age and working salary levels, as well as city structure and more representation of cities within Ramsey County. Mayor Roe noted that a standard would depend on what was trying to be meas- ured, with demographics sometimes having more or less of a factor; and ques- tioned if such a standard would suffice. Councilmember Laliberte recognized those constraints; however, she noted that the discussion involved taxpayers paying for City Council decisions; and compa- rable cities needed to include that consideration for the ability of taxpayers to pay for those decisions. Councilmember McGehee asked Interim City Manager Trudgeon, when that dis- cussion was held, that the cities used for comparison were consistent with the same benchmark rather than shifting them around (e.g. taxpayer issues, de- mographics, fire-related issues, etc.) to fit a particular scenario. For example, Councilmember McGehee suggested that for a fire-related study, a bank of cities with fire department structures similar to that of Roseville, with the same level of commercial and retail development would be useful to have. Councilmember McGehee opined that the concern always came up from the public related to fi- nancial concerns and comparisons with other cities to justify Roseville's "low" tax rates. Councilmember Willmus noted that the former City Manager justified the use of peer groups based on those cities that were exclusively members of the Interna- tional City Manager's Association (ICMA); and spoke in support of more varia- bles in those peer groups when comparing and reviewing services and functions. Mayor Roe noted that another consideration was that there were not always a lot of other cities doing the same kind of benchmark measurements. However, Mayor Roe noted that with the recent efforts of the Minnesota State Auditor, a greater pool should become available with cities incented to perform those meas- urements. In his research and review of budget documents across communities, Mayor Roe noted that many cities were doing some form of performance meas- urement, but not necessarily sharing it with other agencies (e.g. Cities of Burns- ville and Maplewood); and it would be a matter of determining how to achieve a standard report for that information. Mayor Roe suggested that this might be a function of the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) or other groups for track- ing/reporting of that data. Mayor Roe concurred that it made sense to have good benchmarks for decision-making; and opined that it should also include median incomes, one comment he'd heard from the public. Even though comparisons to