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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, March 18, 2019 Page 5 even if the Council were take more than the amount that is above the high level,it is not necessarily putting the City in a dire situation unless the low level limit is approached. Mr. Miller stated that was correct but with a cautionary note that going into 2018 the General Fund was at thirty-nine percent and plummeted all the way down to thirty-two percent in one fiscal year. The same economic realities could hit the City in other funds as well if the City is not careful. Councilmember Willmus stated he would be interested in hearing from the Chair of the Finance Commission and her perspective on this given the amount of work the Commission had put into bringing forward their recommendation. Councilmember Willmus stated given some of the things the City had going on over the course of the last year with the General Fund, one of the things the Council did do was take and expend money to acquire an asset. That in and of it- self is not an ongoing expense but was a consideration from his perspective as well. Councilmember Etten stated if the City were to make a transfer to make the 2018 General Reserve fit into the thirty-five to forty-five percent range, what is the tim- ing needed and when are the 2018 books officially closed. Mr. Miller stated the auditors are at City Hall this week and looking for prelimi- nary financial statements now. He noted this conversation was originally sched- uled for February, but he did not think there was a full Council at that time, so it was postponed to March. Councilmember Etten stated the August 16, 2018 Council packet, showed the IT Fund above limit when there was a twenty-five percent reserve level at $401,000 and by September 11th it dropped to fifteen percent, but the amount above had gone under $267,000 in a month. He would have expected the number to go the other way as the high end dropped. In the report received for the meeting tonight, the fund is at $169,000 with the caveat that it now notes an additional $50,000 was taken out for CIP needs. Once taken out, the amount of cash available is al- most the same going across these things but the number keeps dropping precipi- tously outside of just the $50,000 number. He asked Mr. Miller for an explana- tion of the big change since September 2018. Mr. Miller stated he felt at a disadvantage because he did not have the August 16th presentation report being referenced. He stated there was an additional emphasis on making sure the City did not short change what was needed for the Capital Re- placement Program. He stated staff recalibrated how much was available to make sure the CIP was fully funded. Mr. Miller indicated he would look into this and follow up with Council on it.