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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, December 5, 2016 Page 19 should be for thoughtful budgeting. Councilmember Etten reiterated that he didn't support using money for ongoing budget allocations to reduce the levy with a one-time shot. Councilmember Willmus clarified that with his next proposal, the city still had the ability to allocate as much as $518,000 toward CIP needs. Councilmember Etten opined that it still didn't address nor was it relevant to the philosophical question of how much was proposed for use for ongoing expenses. Even if $900,000 was allocated to CIP from these reserves, Councilmember Etten noted that there was still a need of $20 million in the CIP over the next twenty years, and one way or the other, they were still taxpayer dollars. While Coun- cilmember Willmus' proposal may avoid a budget shift by reducing the levy per- centage now, Councilmember Etten opined that the city would simply have to pay far it at one point, and it will come due. Councilmember Laliberte asked Councilmember Willmus to clarify the $518,000 proposed by him as part of the next discussion. Councilmember Willmus clarified that his proposal would be to use $406,000 from the carry forward funds to offset the levy, with a remaining $300,000 still remaining unallocated from TIF. Assuming City Manager Trudgeon's recommended 2.75% COLA for 2017 was not chosen randomly, Mayar Roe asked City Manager Trudgeon to address the ra- tionale behind his recommendation. City Manager Trudgeon noted references by individual council members already related to the previous compensation study findings with a number of employees significantly below peer comparisons; and the City Council's policy established in 2013 for Roseville city employees set at 98% of the average. With that policy in mind, Mr. Trudgeon reported that current comparisons to peer communities indi- cated that Roseville had still fallen behind the average at 1.45%, or approximately 96% of the policy guidelines. For 2017, Mr. Trudgeon reported that average COLA for peer communities was 2.56%; and in consideration of current policy guidelines using CPI and ECI indexes, compensation studies, peer city and em- ployee market comparisons, recommended that the City Council reconsider and avoid further slippage with a 2°/o COLA, even if not fully supporting his recom- mendation of 2.75%. City Manager Trudgeon noted this was also a fairness or equity issue with real numbers for union and non-union employees; with non-union employees continu- ing behind union employees; with a 2% COLA only further increasing that dispar- ity. Mr. Trudgeon also cautioned that the city was required to abide by state law regarding pay equity requirements for the male/female pay equity, with signifi-