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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, October 19, 2009 Page 9 Further discussion included staff's provision at the previous meeting of a descrip- tion of service and levels of service; determining what the City wanted to excel at, and those things (i.e., federal and state mandates) that only indicated minimum compliance. Councilmember Johnson recognized Mayor Klausing's ranking system; however, noted that while parks and recreation issues may be listed under quality of life (Rank #3), issues such as broken playground equipment could quickly rise as a safety and health issue (Rank#5). Councilmember Johnson opined that the most important thing was to make sure the priorities were well identified. Additional discussion included clarifying the attachments and making the connec- tion between the specific listings and how the BFO process has evolved to-date based on City Council discussions and information needs; attempts by staff to preserve the integrity of the original Springsted Report and calculations based on the profiles provided to them by specific departments, with staff then breaking it out for more detail and to continue as much transparency as possible; variables in various functions (i.e., elections) and calculations as direct costs, Councilmember Johnson thanked staff and Councilmember Roe for the additional refinement and listing. Councilmember Johnson admitted that he had not origi- nally been supportive of including the additional 2010 budget impact numbers; however, admitted that since that discussion, he had appreciated being able to util- ize the numbers to get a better budgetary picture. Discussion ensued related to how those mandated items ranked in the process ver- sus those non-mandated items; what the tentative total figures represented and compared from 2009 to 2010; difference of $887,730 and the initial City Council task of eliminating that shortfall from the 2010 budget column. Councilmember Pust noted that the proposed shortfall could change based on the additional levy amount factored in as the ceiling amount set in the Preliminary Levy and adjustments the City Council may make to that number, originally based on a nine percent (9%) levy increase. Further discussion related to additional revenue sources that may be identified by the City Council to help bridge the gap; policy considerations versus mechanics; rankings and operational impacts to levels of service as part of the BFO process, based on further discussions with staff of those impacts to service levels. Councilmember Pust opined that everyone was eventually going to have to submit their individual rankings to Mr. Miller, at which time he would provide the com- posite ranks based on those individual perspectives.