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Regular City Council Meeting <br /> Monday,January 27, 2014 <br /> Page 9 <br /> Councilmember Willmus echoed many of Councilmember McGehee's comments, <br /> bearing in mind that this commission would be advisory to the City Council, and <br /> where those duties were stated otherwise, corrections needed to be made. <br /> Councilmember Etten concurred with the comments of Councilmember McGehee <br /> related to the Community Engagement Commission; that some of those duties <br /> went over the line of the function of an advisory commission. <br /> Finance Commission <br /> Councilmember Etten suggested the addition of another item in Section 207.04 <br /> Duties and Functions: "Reporting methods and communication to make yearly <br /> budgeting processes and documents more open and understandable for the pub- <br /> lic;" to encourage more transparency, with the intent for someone with a back- <br /> ground knowledge in finance to make the documents and process more easily un- <br /> derstood by the general public. <br /> Regarding the cost benefit analysis proposal of Councilmembers McGehee and <br /> Willmus, Councilmember Etten expressed some concern, questioning how the <br /> timing would work; and while he concurred that this should always be part of the <br /> evaluation and consideration of any proposal, he opined that it would take a lot of <br /> staff time and may be hard to task a commission to put every project under such <br /> scrutiny. <br /> General Comments <br /> Regarding the number of members being seven versus five, Councilmember Etten <br /> noted that the City Council majority had agreed with seven members for the <br /> PWETC, as well as seven members for the Community Engagement Commission <br /> to allow sufficient people to attend events. Councilmember Etten spoke in sup- <br /> port of seven members for each commission to round things out; however, from <br /> his perspective, he noted that Finance Commission had been proposed at five <br /> members based on the specificity due to the preferred professional background. <br /> Finance Commission <br /> Councilmember McGehee spoke in support of Councilmember Etten's addition of <br /> Item D to address clarity and transparency; and spoke in support of his recollec- <br /> tion of the number of members for each respective commission. <br /> Councilmember McGehee reiterated her interest in a cost benefit analysis, clarify- <br /> ing that she was not intending a formulaic form to plug in numbers, either by staff <br /> or the commission; but for major projects (e.g. Target or WalMart as examples), <br /> and a review of additional city services that would need to be provided Coun- <br /> cilmember McGehee opined that there were a lot of things that would be support- <br /> ed in the community that weren't necessarily on the plus side of the ledger, but <br /> may be needed for a well-rounded community; and this would be addressed with <br />