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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,January 23,2017 Page 25 Councilmember McGehee opined that she didn't think the activities undertaken and the discussions by the City Council at the December 5, 2016 meeting regard- ing the 2017 budget were transparent for the public or for some individual coun- cil members. Rather than setting a not-to-exceed levy number, Councilmember McGehee suggested using a similar process to that used for the CIP, i.e. as those numbers became available. along with having the City Manager and staff look out ahead with the Community Development Department and Economic Develop- ment Authority for anticipated development or redevelopment activities and to an- ticipate future and ongoing expenses. She noted as an example that there was al- so no current program in place for the annual miles of pathway created and for their ongoing maintenance and ultimate replacement. She asserted that there was something wrong with how the inclusion of ongoing maintenance, or lack thereof, functioned in the City Council budget process Mayor Roe sought to clarify that it was not his recommendation to set a not-to- exceed levy,but only to provide staff early in the process the Council's preferred target for any levy increase. Mayor Roe further clarified that this was only one component of the budget process, and didn't take into account staff's perspective and internal information. By providing this information early in consideration of potential impact on the taxpayer, Mayor Roe opined that it would serve as an im- portant piece to get the information on the table early in the process. Mayor Roe reiterated that this was not intended to be the final number,but if insight is availa- ble to provide at that time, it could serve the overall process, including whether or not maintenance funds were being provided for mileage of sidewalks. Councilmember Willmus stated his wholehearted agreement with Mayor Roe's approach. However, Councilmember Willmus noted it could cut both ways, if the City Council felt additional employees were needed in a given area, the City Manager needed to be aware of that earlier versus later in the process. Regarding last year's decision-making, and specific to use of reserve fund balance and the Finance Commission's review of those reserves, Councilmember Willmus noted the jump in some of those reserves later in the year, with projections actually re- ceived in the meeting materials three days before the December 5, 2016 meeting on the final budget. Councilmember Willmus noted that this created an obvious difference in budget carryover funds and projections; and suggested research on ways for the city to track those annually for better information. As alluded to by Finance Director Miller in past discussions, Councilmember Willmus noted his suggestion for creating a fund to track that annual carryover. Also, Councilmem- ber Willmus clarified that the notion by some of his Council colleagues that utiliz- ing prior year reserves needed to be paid back in subsequent years was not accu- rate. If the Finance Commission weighs in earlier, Councilmember Willmus agreed that the City Manager and his staff would have a better indication of where individual council members were at in setting the next year's levy, creating a bet- ter overall budget process.