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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, August 11,2014 Page 12 maintenance and making the entire structure unsustainable. As an example of that deferred maintenance or scheduled replacement, Councilmember McGehee noted the many failures experienced over the winter months when residents were unable to receive essential services (e.g. water and sewer services), which she found even more problematic and inappropriate. Councilmember McGehee stated that many of the funds identified as surplus were not actually surplus, but simply reserves to allow the City to maintain its in- frastructure and services and address emergency situations such as occurred over the winter months, and with past summer storms. Councilmember McGehee opined that, while she thought the City Council had been responsible in setting re- serve policies, additional discussions could always take place about the sustaina- bility of reducing those reserves and revise the policies. Councilmember McGe- hee noted that those policies and specific reserve percentages are public docu- ments and available for public review; and invited taxpayers to look at them. Councilmember McGehee compared those reserves to individual savings ac- counts; and further noted that when periodic community surveys are conducted, requesting information from the public on what services they did or did not want, the majority indicated they wanted current service and program levels maintained. Regarding trust issues, Councilmember McGehee agreed that the City Council, as a body, needed to ask for public support by voter referendum on larger expendi- tures; and opined that the City Council had violated that public trust in the most recent bond issue; and therefore, urged the community to hold the City Council responsible to see that the money was spent judiciously and encouraged public comment throughout the year, not just during the budget process. In addressing reserves, Councilmember Willmus noted that the 2014 budget year, $346,000 was used to refund reserves, yet the General Fund reserve still grew by $198,000. Councilmember Willmus noted that, while the City Council had estab- lished target ranges for those reserves, they still needed to do a better job to hold themselves to those targets, opining that there were a number of funds where that target had been exceeded (e.g. License Center, Communication, and General Funds) and further opined that there was more work to be done. Councilmember Willmus noted that he, for one, looked forward to recommenda- tions from the Finance Commission. Councilmember Willmus advised that these are some of the things he'll be looking at moving forward and the upcoming deci- sion-making process on the 2015 budget. Councilmember Willmus noted that he did not support the 2014 budget and levy, opining that a certain segment of the City's employee group was being provided with significant increases beyond the rate of inflation, which the City Council had made a decision in 2010 to forego due to economic issues. When the City Council majority determined in 2014 to backfill some of those increases Councilmember Willmus opined that he did not