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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, December 9,2013 Page 19 levies moving forward and not significantly affecting the Reserve Funds to a great extent. At the request of Mayor Roe, Councilmember Etten confirmed that he was advo- cating an additional $25,000 annual transfer from the License Center profits. Councilmember McGehee questioned why, if the intent was for saving rent mon- ey, why the License Center was not moved into the space vacated by the Fire De- partment, even though it wasn't very convenient for that purpose, but available funds should be sufficient for remodeling versus a standalone facility. Coun- cilmember McGehee further suggested that the License Center could be incorpo- rated with one of the proposed park buildings. At the request of Councilmember Willmus, Councilmember Etten noted his con- sistency in preferring to not use budget reserves for ongoing expenses; and opined that employee wages or benefits were not going to decrease, and perhaps in lieu of using some reserves, which he may be amenable to some extent, he thought it made more sense to borrow from one spot toward another (e.g. License Center profits transferred to the General Fund), and to not make things even further out of balance in the future by only using reserves. Councilmember Laliberte expressed her concerns in what reserves were proposed to be used for; while recognizing that 43% reserves were healthy, she opined that those reserves should be used for one-time emergencies, like the recent summer storm. While recognizing that there was some built in contingency, Coun- cilmember Laliberte questioned why staff was quick to recommend reserves when in the past they had expressed caution to the City Council in them doing so. In defense of staff, Mayor Roe clarified that the City Council directed staff to use $430,000 in reserves at their September 2013 meeting. Councilmember Laliberte recognized that, noting that she was also not supportive of that majority action at that time. Councilmember Laliberte opined that reserves should not be used for ongoing expenses, such as the Volunteer Coordinator posi- tion as an example, even though she believed in the value of the position. When providing direction to the Interim City Manager at past meetings seeking to make sure all Department Heads were on board with the position, and whether or not they would be willing to put some skin in the game to fund this position, when it was brought back by staff, they didn't indicate any such financial involvement in funding the position. While this was an addition to the budget and something everyone believed in, Councilmember Laliberte expressed disappointment that there wasn't enough of an attempt for staff to cut spending or find other ways to fund the position or other things beyond going into reserves; and questioned if that should be an option simply because the reserves were available.