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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,November 6, 2023 Page 8 she thought if the City could delay some if the increases in utility it would be helpful for the residents. Ms. Pietrick explained in the sanitary sewer fund, staff did cut the Public Works request for capital outlay because the City needs to build reserves and over the course of twenty years it looks like that fund will have significant reserves. The one thing the City's current CIP does not factor in, but the utility rate study did factor in, was inflationary costs. When staff examined where the City had been historically,what the City has been budgeting and what the City has been spending, over the course of the twenty years,it does look significant. The other thing to keep in mind is that the water fund does not look that good and has not hit its minimum reserves so it has to borrow money at year end from the sewer fund. He noted on the financial report,the City cannot report a deficit cash balance and the water fund has had a deficit cash balance since before, she started with the City. Councilmember Schroeder asked how much is being borrowed from the sewer fund, typically. Ms. Pietrick explained when she started it was over two million dollars and the City is now down to three hundred fifty thousand dollars at the end of 2023. Councilmember Schroeder asked if the water fund pays that money back to the sewer fund. Ms. Pietrick explained it does on the very next day. It is a book entry for reporting purposes only because GAAP accounting does not allow the City to report a deficit cash balance. Councilmember Schroeder suggested staff take a harder look at these accounts- especially the sanitary sewer account to make sure it is absolutely necessary to make the increases this year. She is concerned about everything going up for the residents and the City has a lot of people on fixed incomes. Mr. Trudgeon indicated staff will continue to look at this to see what can be done to make the minimal impact of any future rate increases that may need to be done. f. Review Proposed Changes to the Fee Schedule for 2024 City Manager Patrick Trudgeon briefly highlighted this item as detailed in the Request for Council Action and related attachments dated November 6, 2023. Councilmember Etten appreciated the detail and time staff spent on this. He noted certainly some fees are going up, but many fees are going down or disappearing. He appreciated the City was taking the time to be thoughtful about what the actual costs are and reflecting that in this.