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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, September 9, 2013 Page 13 Councilmember Willmus stated that he had no objection to using the $400,000 to off-set the levy; however, he agreed that it was not something that the City Coun- cil would want to do year after year and remain sustainable. However, Coun- cilmember Willmus opined that it would provide an opportunity to limit the bur- den on taxpayers, as the City just started to roll into full debt service payments, al- lowing use of the $400,000 to keep the non-debt portion of the levy in pace with inflation. Councilmember Willmus clarified that he was not supportive of rolling the$400,000 into the levy. Councilmember McGehee stated that she would not be supportive of it, as there was no point since the City was still continually underfunding the CIP going for- ward, if the figures provided by Mr. Miller were used to make the fund sustaina- ble by 2020, the City was still not meeting the need, and she didn't see any value in such a proposal. Councilmember McGehee stated that she would support using some of the Recycling Fund reserves,removing $2 per residence in monthly recy- cling payments in addition to spending some reserves to offset impacts to individ- ual homeowners. Under that context, Councilmember McGehee stated that she would be happy to discuss the full $400,000 or any portion thereof; but reiterated her interest in bringing the City back to full funding of a minimum of$275,000 for its CIP. Councilmember Laliberte stated that she would be open to the use of reserves, concurring that it was a more honest way to look at the levy for items needing continuing funding; and seemed more appropriate. Councilmember Laliberte opined that the City's reserves appeared to be healthy, indicating another plan and review of current reserve policy going forward. Councilmember Laliberte stated that she was open to going through each item listed to determine a more honest approach between the levy and cash reserves. Mayor Roe stated that he was not supportive of using reserves for ongoing costs, opining that at some point you eventually had to pay. Mayor Roe stated that he was more comfortable using reserves this year, since reserve funds were healthier, even though they were not all up to the highest point of the current policy range. Mayor Roe stated that he would consider using reserves from the Recycling Fund if that helped with the issue of which reserves were stronger and from where to take the money. However, with $560,000 debt service going on line in 2014, Mayor Roe opined that it did make sense to use reserves for some expenses until 2014, because this City Council would have the ability to follow-through. Etten moved, McGehee seconded, applying $200,000 from cash reserves to the Preliminary Levy, thereby increasing the taxpayer levy by$200,000. Councilmember Willmus spoke in opposition to the motion. Councilmember Willmus noted that the healthy reserve funds were due to overtaxing in the past, creating a level beyond what was needed to build those reserves, he opined that the responsible thing to do is to spend down in some of those accounts. Coun-