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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, August 13,2018 Page 19 Councilmember Laliberte asked if the mental health officer mentioned should be on the list of department head requests not funded. Mr. Trudgeon explained the mental health officer position was not officially sub- mitted this year, and he thought it was pretty clear from earlier discussions with Police Chief Mathwig that it would not be funded. It was not an official request even though Police Chief Mathwig desires it. Councilmember Willmus stated earlier in the meeting, there was discussion with Police Chief Mathwig regarding what it would cost per year to fund a patrol of- ficer and in looking at the mental health position, at some point he would like to have an idea of what that cost would be. Mr. Trudgeon indicated they could provide that cost information when needed. Councilmember Etten asked how confident is staff that they will have$450,000 to stay above their 35%threshold for reserves. Mr. Miller stated Mr. Trudgeon and he discussed this, and determined it will be close to the 35% threshold. They only have the information through June-July and he did not think they would spend the $681,000 that is programmed in. He thought it would be closer to $450,000 based on the trends so far. Moving for- ward, one of the strategies would be to start to wean themselves off further re- serves. But if it looks like they will fall below the 35% floor that the Council es- tablished, before they close the books on 2018, they will have a conversation with the Council regarding moving surplus cash from another fund into the General Fund. He thought that conversation would occur in December or January, if needed. Councilmember Etten stated he would like to hear if there are issues sooner than January. He asked if they should put the preliminary not to exceed higher in case they are not going to make it to 35%. He also asked whether they should provide a cushion now because they will know a lot more in December when they pass the budget. If they have money in reserve pockets that the City does not need, he thinks they should have that conversation sooner. He noted they do not need to raise the levy if they have money sitting in reserves that could be used, unless they have other designations for it. He indicated he would like to have that con- versation by September 24tH Mr. Trudgeon stated they could talk about strategies and where they could poten- tially do that, but staff will not know those numbers until December. Councilmember Etten stated he would like to have preliminary discussion before it is too late to do anything about it. He would like to leave the ability to respond on the table for the Council as long as possible.