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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, March 18, 2019 Page 6 Councilmember Groff stated as he was reading through the information it was noted MNLARS would perhaps reimburse some of those funds and he wondered if there was an update on where that is at. Mr. Miller stated a couple of bills have been introduced and moved through some committees but that is as far as those bills have gotten at this point. Councilmember Groff thought because this could affect the City credit rating, it was crucial to get this addressed tonight. Mayor Roe offered an opportunity for public comment. Public Comment Finance Commissioner Chair Schroeder and Commissioners Murray and Reif ap- peared before the Council. Chair Schroeder believed the City Council had the history of the Finance Com- mission minutes as the Commission has have been working on this for approxi- mately eighteen months. She believed the issue with the General Fund being be- low target reserve is actually a reason to create this fund. With the planned deficit in the budget the Finance Commission knew that the General Fund could go be- low the target. Some of the other funds were over target and those funds, if there was a cash carry forward, would flow into the cash carry over and then the Coun- cil would need to move the correction to the General Fund to fix it. This would be very straight forward. Chair Schroeder stated the Finance Commission has recommended removing the Capital from the Operating portion of each of these funds as well as the cash ac- cumulated over the years for the long-term projects in the departments. When looking at the overages in some of the different funds, it makes a person ask why money is being stockpiled. Most of the reasons are verbal and not transparent. This would eliminate the need to have cash build up in each department making it easier to see the true over and under of the operating budget itself. Chair Schroeder stated when the Finance Commission was created, better trans- parency was one of the concerns the Council gave to the Commission. Chair Schroeder stated the departments would still be accountable for their budg- ets and CIP with this. This is one City and the cash flow needs to be viewed that way. If each department planned their own budget and CIP, then there is no need to stockpile the cash for future projects, as it would be covered in the process. The detail by department would be more transparent, would still be tracked, and would not lose the detail by department but would actually gain more because it