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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, December 2, 2019 Page 4 staff salaries, mainly the Assistant City Manager and the Deputy Clerk since those two are involved in communications, out of the communications fund. Under the 2020 budget, that money is being put back under the general levy to help, which is forty to fifty thousand dollars' worth. The city is also funding capital im- provements out of the general facilities fund and no longer drawing down for cap- ital needs from the communications fund. That does help the city get another year to sort things out as far as the future funding and the communications operations. He noted nothing is saying that the city communication work has to be funded out of the communications budget. There are other sources of funds but he thought, as he pledged to the Council and has been discussed individually and at Council meetings, staff and the Council need to look at the city's communications func- tion and make sure the city is doing what it needs to do. Recently, the strategic communication plan was approved and he would personally like some time to work through some scenarios, look at the city participation with CTV, look at everything that is done at the city, look at staffing, all those types of things to make sure the city can properly position itself and not make purely a financial de- cision, which is very important, but also make that financial decision in context with the city's operational needs. His intention is certainly in the first quarter to bring back discussion, start having some of those conversations with the Council, see where the city is at. He did think the city can get to a resolution fairly quick in 2020, assuming everyone can agree on a pathway. Some things can then be implemented in 2020, if the Council wishes to do that. The way the budget is pre- sented here gives staff the ability to take a year, if it takes that long, to find the best possible way going forward. Mr. Trudgeon urged the Council to consider providing some opportunity for staff to explore this a little further and make sure that if financial decisions are being made which will impact the organizations concerning communications, that staff and the Council can make those decisions together. Councilmember Willmus indicated Mayor Roe suggested stepping back and get- ting the city away from deficit spending in this area. He wondered if the two-year approach the Mayor suggested also provides more incentive to look at this in a lit- tle faster process, move it along while still providing staff the opportunity to look at other options. Mr. Trudgeon indicated that would certainly motivate that discussion quicker per- haps but at the same time, he would be worried about the operational impact. If $50,000 were to be taken out of the budget, it means he would need to cut $50,000 from the operations. This is the first time this discussion has come up and he is not prepared to know where that would come from. He was sure it could be found but after getting past the website and newsletter costs, then it would be personnel. He thought those types of cuts could have a major impact that need to be thought through. He was not sure that would necessarily give them a very clear sense of direction because staff would still need to find some