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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, November 23, 2009 Page 8 Mayor Klausing sought an opinion from City Attorney Scott Anderson related to Councilmember Ihlan's Data Practices request; and whether information could be demanded that had not been created. City Attorney Anderson advised that the City was required to provide information requested, but was not required to create data not already in existence. Councilmember Pust asked Councilmember Ihlan to clarify her specific request; noting that she was using 2008 budget proposals for her reference in reviewing the 2010 budget breakdowns. Councilmember Ihlan, via her laptop at the bench, referenced information on the City website identified under "Departments;" "Finance and Budgets and Annual Reports;" as "2009 Budget Work Paper # 1 and #2" that provided more detail by department. Councilmember Ihlan noted that she was hearing that the 2009 budget worksheet contained a lot of the same values in 2010, and in that case, shouldn't be that difficult to note those line items that had changed, for the sake of transparency and giving the City Council data that it needed to scrutinize depart- ments. Councilmember Ihlan reiterated that this was the third time she'd re- quested the data; and if the process was not transparent, it didn't allow the City Council to do their job; and that if only a few changes were indicated, that staff make those changes within that detailed format as used in previous years. Councilmember Pust noted that she had that detailed document from 2007 and 2008, and questioned Finance Director Miller on whether that information was available to staff internally, or if it would require him to manipulate additional data; and how much additional time those further calculations would require. Mr. Miller advised that he could extract out changes, and any additions or dele- tions and allocate them; however, he noted that anything with personnel costs at- tached would need to be allocated 160 different ways; and clarified his comment that the 2010 line items didn't exist since staff has not made those allocations, pending City Council directives. Mr. Miller advised that he would need to create and/or update formulas; and suspected it would take him several days to do so. Councilmember Roe clarified that the reason staff had not prepared that detail this year to-date was based on staff awaiting City Council direction at tonight's meet- ing; at which time the information would be provided as information at the Truth in Taxation hearing and then come together for final levy and budget decisions by year-end. Mr. Miller concurred with Councilmember Roe; opining that if using the budget process used in previous years, that part of the process would be completed by now; however, advised that staff was waiting for the City Council to make final decisions, allowing staff to allocate costs; atime-consuming process requiring