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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, March 3, 2014 Page 27 Mr. Miller responded that the budget had been packaged in just about every way possible to-date; and while he was familiar with the visual dashboard, he found that residents needed things in a more simplified format than the City Council de- pending on their financial background. However, Mr. Miller opined that such simplification didn't do justice to explain why and how their property taxes may increase. Mr. Miller advised that his research and networking with other cities indicated budget formats and information all over the board; with little consisten- cy and often personalized per municipality. Mr. Miller noted that of utmost inter- est to staff was to encourage the City Council to let staff know what information packages they found important, and what they needed to make good budget deci- sions. Even there, Mr. Miller opined that there was little consensus on that, and staff continued to struggle what information and when to provide it to get individ- ual responses back to staff to develop the City Manager-recommended budget. Mayor Roe suggested one charge to the Finance Commission may be to review budget documents of other cities, and from that point of view, make recommenda- tion on what they found the easiest format or content to work from and provide feedback to staff during the process. Councilmember Willmus recognized staff's frustration and that while he'd seen budgets in many forms, there were individual Councilmembers looking for specif- ic pieces of information or formats. Councilmember Laliberte suggested that the dashboard format may not be helpful when discussing a budget, it could prove helpful as the year progresses to be able to see actual expenditures and revenue to budget projections. Mayor Roe stated that his easiest way to understand the budget was when an overall financial summary of the City was available, showing all expenditures and revenues and then organizing the budget by funds broken down by function. When more detail was available, Mayor Roe stated that he found it more helpful, and the deeper the review, the more detailed notes could become; allowing for both the big picture and other information available throughout the process. 15. City Manager Future Agenda Review City Manager Trudgeon reviewed upcoming meeting agendas, anticipating that the Closed Session to discuss the Mounds View Hamline property would probably be de- ferred to March 24, 2014 due to other agenda items. Mayor Roe suggested including a follow-up with the Finance Commission for April 21; and then schedule other joint meetings with advisory commission going forward. At the request of Councilmember Laliberte in cleaning up ordinance language for con- sistency with other commissions, Mr. Trudgeon suggested April 7, 2014 as a good oppor- tunity to consider those.