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Professional services vs. Consultine services From a citywide budget perspective, the City contracts for approximately $730,000 annually for professional and consulting services. Approximately $650,000 or 89%of this can be categorized as contractual services that have been separately approved by the Council independent of the annual budgeting process. These types of services include; City Attorney, Prosecuting Attorney, custodial services, software technical support, independent financial audit, leaf pickup program, etc. Within the $730,000 figure reported above, approximately $78,000 is earmarked for the hiring of consulting services that are project or issue-specific. These types of services include; traffic studies, infrastructure design, general community and park planning, and demographic studies. Recurrin� vs. Non-RecurrinQ The contractual services noted above are generally recurring in nature, and were typically awarded as part of a long-term contract and/or competitive bid process. In contrast, project or issue-specific consulting services are somewhat non-recurring in nature in that they are predicated on the types of development or redevelopment occurring in the City. Project or issue- specific items present challenges in trying to secure consulting services on a competitive bid basis. Typically, these types of services are selected based upon a firm's expertise and availability, in addition to cost. Time Sensitive vs. Non-Time Sensitive It's important to acknowledge that some of the City's project or issue-specific needs are time sensitive in nature. For example, if the City is named in a lawsuit, a fairly rapid response is typically called for. In addition, land use issues oftentimes call for City actions within 60-120 days. These types of situations do not always lend themselves well to a formal selection process, and given the limited Council meeting dates, it's sometimes problematic to seek specific City Council approval in a timely manner. In these instances, utilizing monies appropriated within a Council-approvedbudget offer a more practical approach. Defined vs. Non-Defined While most of the City's professional and consulting needs are reasonably defined, some are more open-ended. For example, designing the County Road B2 Pathway has a well-defined starting point and ending point. In contrast, assessing the environmental impacts of a contaminated site is difficult to pinpoint from a consulting need standpoint. The breadth and depth of an environmental review depends on a myriad of factors many of which are unknown at the start. In these types of circumstances, an estimate of the scope of services needed as well as the expected costs may be difficult to arrive at. Defending the City in a lawsuit is similar. Much of what an attorney has to do to defend the City depends on how the plaintiff and the plaintiffs attorney choose to handle the lawsuit. �