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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, November 16, 2009 Page 14 this increase with the current demographic and population levels in Roseville. Mr. Willmus noted that the budget was largely driven and consumed by personnel costs, and suggested that each department be reviewed to see where they had scaled back. Mr. Willmus further addressed the City's recycling program and re- duction in revenue sharing to-date in 2009; and asked if Eureka Recycling has ap- proached the City to renegotiate their contract based on the lack of market de- mand for certain recyclable quantities as addressed Section 5.2 of their contract. City Manager Malinen advised that Eureka had not yet formally approached the City. Dick Houck, Roseville Mr. Houck advised that he took a simplistic approach to the budget: when the economy is up, people spend extra money on extra services; and when the econ- omy was down, the City needed to do the same thing citizens were required to do: to live within your income. Mr. Houck opined that there could not be spending on anything other than essentials; and further opined that no one in the audience would ask for an increase in their income when money was short. Mr. Houck opined that fees are nothing more than taxes; and that even when ap- plied to commercial or retail businesses, those increases trickled down to individ- ual citizens. Mr. Houck opined that the City Council had a moral obligation to keep the budget at close to zero. Gary Grefenberg, 91 Mid Oaks Lane Mr. Grefenberg expressed his pleasure in seeing so many residents from south- west Roseville at tonight's meeting. Mr. Grefenberg agreed with Councilmember Ihlan on the need for line items, and opined that this budget process wasn't very transparent. Mr. Grefenberg opined that overtime was the easiest way to cut budgets, and asked specifically for additional information on overtime costs for all departments. Mr. Grefenberg questioned why the Police Department Admini- stration budget had gone up 46.1 % and a commensurate reduction been realized in the Police Department Patrol budget, with property crimes increasing, while violent crimes had been reduced; and sought justification for cops spending time behind desks rather than in squads or on patrol. Mr. Grefenberg, when asked at the community meetings to rank services, advised that he had ranked the Police Department first, but asked for more detail to justify such a large increase. Mr. Grefenberg asked when salary discussions, union contract re-negotiations, and freezes on discretionary increases would be addressed, even while recogniz- ing that employees are the City's most valuable asset, and was not condoning fir- ing employees; but just seeking additional information to indicate how serious the City was in comparison with other municipalities and their attempts to cut back. Mr. Grefenberg opined that this is the year for being frugal and supported alterna- tive budget processes, while understanding that the process is not perfect, but