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Regular City Council Meeting <br /> Monday,August 25, 2014 <br /> Page 16 <br /> but clarified that it would still require action by the City Council as part of the <br /> 2015 budget process to ratify those recommendations. <br /> Mayor Roe clarified that resolutions didn't set the annual levy, and confirmation <br /> of those recommendations were on the annual docket for this and future City <br /> Councils. <br /> Specific to raising revenue through increased fees, Councilmember McGehee <br /> asked that the Finance Commission be charged with discussion the pros and cons <br /> of annual bonding for some of these CIP items, particularly infrastructure needs to <br /> avoid repetitive fee increases to pay for them. Recognizing that the City Council <br /> usually had an annual fee review and update provided by staff, Councilmember <br /> McGehee asked if that would be the case this year as well; and sought consensus <br /> interest in having those discussions in light of the large volume of fees or CIP <br /> gaps that seem to be related to Parks and Recreation needs with new facilities <br /> coming on line in 2016 and 2017, even after the $19 million bond issue. Coun- <br /> cilmember McGehee expressed her surprise in seeing such a large amount of un- <br /> funded needs remaining, even through the most recent community survey results <br /> supported the resident interest in retaining the same level of services and pro- <br /> grams as they were currently receiving. However, Councilmember McGehee <br /> opined that the City Council needed to determine how to accomplish that, and of- <br /> ten failed to pay attention to basic infrastructure needs, which she considered es- <br /> sential services, such as consistent and continual water, sewer service and street <br /> infrastructure needs as well. <br /> Regarding the assumptions outlined by Finance Director Miller in his presenta- <br /> tion, particularly Assumption A entitled "The City desires to maintain all existing <br /> programs and services at existing levels;" Councilmember Willmus opined that <br /> question #47 of the latest 2014 community survey conflicted with that assump- <br /> tion. Councilmember Willmus expressed his disappointment that the same survey <br /> format had not been followed over time, and to find the same question he went <br /> back to 1998 and percentage changes from then to the 2014 survey for responses <br /> to that question, with favorable responses for support of a tax increase to maintain <br /> those levels being significantly reduced, and the opposition to a tax increase be- <br /> coming higher over that same time. Councilmember Willmus opined that, as <br /> more residents became aware of proposed 2015 cost and increases, that opposition <br /> number may increase; and therefore it behooved the City Council to begin the <br /> reprioritization process as mentioned by Councilmember McGehee. Coun- <br /> cilmember Willmus advised that this would be a critical or key component mov- <br /> ing forward. <br /> Regarding the bonding proposal, Mayor Roe stated that they still had to be paid, <br /> and a plan of how to pay them needed to be part of the discussion. While bonding <br /> was often used at the state level for infrastructure needs, Mayor Roe clarified that <br /> they also removed debt service as they added more, so the net impact didn't create <br />