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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, December 3, 2018 Page 8 ly considers the value of that space and does something that is less than the $595,000 but more than$55,000. Councilmember Laliberte agreed with everything being said and thought it would be very transparent to have the column in the spreadsheet. Mayor Roe offered an opportunity for public comment, with no one coming for- ward. Councilmember Laliberte stated when the preliminary budget and levy were set earlier in the year, there was discussion about reducing the reliance on reserves. The Council talked about doing it over a three-year or two-year period and at that time, she made it clear she was in favor of doing it over three years and this item is reflecting and built using a two-year period. She wondered if anyone else on the Council wanted to discuss this further. Mayor Roe believed the levy amount includes approximately $113,800 to account for doing it in two years versus three years. If the City were to go to the three- year approach, the levy could go down theoretically by the $113,800. Councilmember Etten stated he did bring that forward and the reason why he pushed for that is the City was looking to be trending toward the 35% bottom of what the City wanted for reserves. There is now a projection putting the City $200,000 below that amount in 2018. Even if the City hits the rosiest of projec- tions of doing better than that, the City will end up at about $100,000 above the 35% but are projected to use an additional $340,000 of reserves in the budget for next year. The City will then end up approximately $240,000 in the hole. He could not imagine making that deficit worse by decreasing the levy. The City Council needs to take the steps needed in order to not rely on using the reserves in the General Fund that the City does not have much funds. He would prefer to have the two-year plan that is in place because it puts the City closer to budgeting evenly instead of relying on reserves that the City is running out of Councilmember McGehee concurred with Councilmember Etten. She thought it was very important that the City get out of this hole and the pattern of using re- serve funds to balance the operating budget. Councilmember Willmus stated with respect to the conversation, he thought the entire Council was in the agreement of stepping back and weaning the City of use of reserves for ongoing operational expenses and he thought the Council was all in agreement with that is the direction the City should go. He was interested in pursuing the three-year option with respect to all of the other things going on the City is doing with utility rates, what the Council is seeing elsewhere in the Com- munity, and impacts that are being felt with other agencies as well. Something that is very important to him as the Council goes forward is to have a better un-