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City Council Regular Meeting — OS/22/06 DRAFT Minutes - Page 16 requested; and staff was doing a good job projecting annual expenditures; and noted that the staff information provided to the City Council on an interim basis could be relied upon to make informed decisions. Additional discussion included the employee recognition events; City Attorney opinion versus the Attorney General's opinion and ongoing discussions and perspectives and interpretations; and fraud protection procedures and policies in place. Councilmember Pust opined that the audit appeared to support the City Council working on meeting their existing policies, rather than spending substantial time re-examiningthem. Mr. Eichten concurred with Councilmember Pust's interpretation, opining that ongoing procedures were in place; and were provided by the City Council to the City Manager and to staff, as appropriate. Further discussion included trends in rising public safety costs over the last five years, and mostly related to personnel costs; and contingency fund definitions, practices and ceilings. Mr. Miller noted that a separate audit firm would be providing comment on the City's overall credit ratings and reserve policies, scheduled for the June 12,2006 regular City Council meeting. Councilmember Ihlan opined the need for further discussion regarding the employee recognition issue; and the need for the City Council to continue ongoing internal monitoring of controls and anti-fraud policies, noting her preference to build them into the City Council schedule. Councilmember Ihlan sought suggestions from Mr. Eichten for ways to institutionalize those controls. Mr. Eichten noted that the best way was from the terminology from the top (City Council) and their directives to the City Manager, and thus staff; and the tone provided to staf£ Mr. Eichten opined that, from tonight's discussion, and interaction during the audit, he felt confident that the City Council was providing the proper tone to the organization.