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City Council Special Study Session — 09/09/04 DRAFT Minutes - Page 5 availability of the stage. City Manager Neal Beets clarified and expanded on his Memo recommendation, Item #2, regarding inflationary costs and projected levies; the City's purchase and provision of goods and services from a taxpayer perspective. Councilmember Schroeder opined that his philosophy was that an annual evaluation of goods and services needed to be performed, not just to automatically and annually increase the levy. Councilmember Maschka concurred with Councilmember Schroeder regarding use of inflationary projections as a benchmark when considering projected levies. Mayor Klausing clarified that, had the expenses not been reduced in the 2004 Budget, the City would be even further behind in the structural Budget situation, based on inflation. Finance Director Miller concurred. Councilmember Ihlan clarified that the impacts of a combined zero-percent levy for the last three years, in addition to state and cumulative inflationary increases, left few alternatives other than increasing the levy. Councilmember Ihlan sought Council consensus on the maximum levy to be considered for submission to Ramsey County by September 15, 2004; recognizing that the proposed levy could then be reduced before final adoption and upon further refinement by the City Council over the next few months. Councilmember Ihlan concurred with a majority of Councilmember Maschka's recommendations, and proposed a 10% levy increase, but questioned whether that percentage was adequate without further reductions in personnel or programs. Councilmember Maschka opined that his interpretation of recent public comment was that it was a quality of life issue; and encouraged staff to seek adequate press coverage to allow people to be informed and to provide input to the City Council on the