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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, September 8, 2014 Page 15 At the request of Councilmember Laliberte, City Manager Trudgeon reviewed the policy previously adopted by the City Council addressing COLA by using several indexes, including the CPI and based on specific calculations as defined. Regarding Item A6 on the Mayor's bench handout, Councilmember Willmus not- ed that he asked on August 25, 2014 that any open positions be identified, if budgeted for but still open in 2014, or if they came open in 2014; and any dollars that could be accounted for and adjusted for the 2015 budget; technically any re- maining funds available in 2015. Mayor Roe noted that any excess funds for vacant positions would go into the re- serve funds. Mayor Roe reiterated that his document provided only operating funds only, with no capital items included in those budget numbers, and noted that an updated ver- sion provided in the future by staff should include updates based on amendments and adjustments made by resolution at tonight's meeting. City Manager Trudgeon advised that staff attempting to provide information needs and different spreadsheets for future discussion, and asked how best to por- tray that information to avoid confusion. By consensus, staff was directed to provide their comments via an updated memo in the form of an RCA and as amended tonight. b. Adopt the 2015 Preliminary HRA Tax Levy At the request of Mayor Roe, Finance Director Miller briefly reviewed the RCA related to the 2015 Preliminary HRA Tax Levy, advising that HRA Executive Di- rector Jeanne Kelsey was also present to respond to any questions of the City Council. At the request of Councilmember Willmus, and as clarified by Mayor Roe, Mr. Miller advised that the residential valuation increases shown on chart on page 1 of the RCA were rounded up or down, with only the median value home price high- lighted and presented as an actual dollar increase versus penny increases; as well as tax amount columns being rounded as well. Councilmember Laliberte questioned the need to build a reserve fund for the HRA since she didn't see any of their services as essential, and while understanding the need for cash flow, she didn't' perceive any situation in which they couldn't come to the City Council for assistance in addressing that cash flow. Therefore, Coun- cilmember Laliberte spoke in support of a zero percent levy for the HRA for 2015.