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Regular City Council Meeting <br />Monday, August 16, 2010 <br />Page 12 <br />At the request of Councilmember Roe, Mr. Miller volunteered to provide addi- <br />tional information to the City Council on capital investments over a ten (10) year <br />average. <br />Councilmember Roe opined that if the City Council was looking to cut other areas <br />in the Community Development area that are fee-funded, but remain unfunded at <br />this time, even with the shift in code enforcement to the General Fund, it was pru- <br />dent to prioritize those remaining items to determine if the budget could be realis- <br />tically reduced or savings found. Councilmember Roe further opined that such <br />prioritization by the City Council would provide guidance to staff in making deci- <br />sions and/or recommendations. Councilmember Roe further noted that fees for <br />City functions listed in Attachment B were impacted and that some areas may not <br />be able to achieve savings (e.g. water and other enterprise funds) that would pro- <br />vide additional levy funds for other functions in tax-supported funds. Council- <br />member Roe suggested that, if the proposal was to save money in the Community <br />Development Department by keeping code enforcement out of the tax-supported <br />side of the ledger, the City Council should provide rankings to see if those savings <br />could be achieved. <br />Mayor Klausing questioned Councilmember Roe, if his interpretation was that by <br />moving fee-supported items to the General Fund supported revenue due to a lack <br />of funds, if only those funds were ranked, they would be ranked against each oth- <br />er as part of the overall budget ranking. <br />Councilmember Roe responded affirmatively; clarifying that when ranking any- <br />thing, you provided it with a numerical rank related to that of tax supported func- <br />tions, no matter its funding source; and that this option was taking something - <br />code enforcement -currently supported by fees rather than General Fund tax-levy <br />supported; and that further determination would be based on whether it was total- <br />ly or proportionately fee supported; recognizing that Community Development <br />activities were funded by fees, and that if code enforcement remains under that <br />fee-supported system, another area of the department may need to be reduced or <br />ranked lower to provide sufficient funds for code enforcement. <br />City Manager Malinen also noted that fees were specific to the service provided, <br />and that if the service was a mandatory classification, such as Electrical Inspec- <br />tions, the City still had to make that inspection and could not reduce that level of <br />service. <br />Councilmember Ihlan noted the breakdown of the Community Development <br />budget and percentage assigned to planning, and economic development and/or <br />redevelopment based on building permit review and improvements. Council- <br />member Ihlan opined that, if those activities were down, the first thing to scale <br />back on was those categories. Councilmember Ihlan expressed her willingness to <br />