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Finance Commission Minutes January 10, 2017 – Draft Minutes Page 4 of 6 Commission would recommend for surplus cash from a budgetary standpoint and if the trends 136 for each account would be lost in this type of transition. 137 138 Chair Schroeder stated these would be things the Commission could talk more about if they 139 decided to move forward with the discussion. 140 141 Finance Director Miller stated this is a long-term dilemma of taking a complex system and 142 simplifying it for others to understand. The City has struggled with this and realizes there are 143 limitations on how far they can go. There are restricted funds, funds for transparency purposes, 144 and management purposes and the City keeps these separated because the City wants to track 145 revenue and expenditures separately and hold people accountable for managing their projects and 146 budgets. If the account is created as Chair Schroeder is stating, then this would create a 147 mechanism for the City to use funds that were raised for a specific purpose to be used for 148 something else. This would be a change for the current culture and mindset of the City. 149 150 Commissioner Bachhuber stated the City would be good stewards if they did use these funds in 151 other areas that may need it rather than leaving it in a fund that does not need it and raising taxes 152 to cover the needs in another area. 153 154 Finance Director Miller stated this would impact the accountability because if a department is 155 working hard to manage and reduce costs the City would use those excess funds for another 156 purpose versus something the department is working towards. 157 158 Commissioner Murray stated changing the way things are reported makes comparing financial 159 statements more difficult. 160 161 Commissioner Hodder stated the number of funds that could be included in this type of fund 162 would be limited to those that are not restricted and this would reduce the amount of funds 163 available for other areas and would only reflect the non-restricted funds surplus or deficit. 164 165 Commissioner Zeller stated this would be a big change in how the City reports and they could 166 look at the General Fund to get this same information without having to do the transferring. 167 168 Chair Schroeder stated this could be added to a future agenda for additional discussion and 169 consideration. 170 171 172 Review Budget Comment Card Content & Layout 173 174 Finance Director Miller stated the Communications staff had put together the information that 175 was sent out. The Council will determine if the City will send another comment card in 2017. 176 He asked the Commission if there would be a better way to package and send out the information 177 and comment card. In 2016 the comment card was included with the budget information and on 178 the City’s website. 179 180