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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, August 16, 2010 Page 13 pursue the ranking process, but further opined that it was simply common sense that if there wasn't much development occurring, high budget amounts were be- ing expended for those functions that were not currently being utilized, and should be considered for scaling back. City Manager Malinen noted the "time spent profiles" indicated a considerable amount of staff time for code enforcement efforts benefitting all, and not specifi- cally related to permits or fees, thus staff's proposal to shift $165,000 to the Gen- eral Fund rather than borne solely by the Community Development's fee-based budget. Councilmember Pust observed that the same argument could be applied to Plan- ning activities and their benefit to the overall community. However, Council- member Pust observed that she didn't support reducing planning staff when their expertise would be required once development activities once again became more active as the economy improved. City Manager Malinen agreed to some extent, but significant fees were generated by those activities and were more of a function of the department than code en- forcement. Councilmember Roe sought clarification on the figures for 2010 and 2011 on planning and building code review and permits. Mr. Miller advised that the figures were based on staffing and related costs to per- form those functions; and based on projected building permits for 2011 trending lower than current expenses; and the need to address structural concerns of the budget beyond the proposed $165,000 transfer to the General Fund for code en- forcement expenses. Additional discussion ensued related to matching and carrying forward ex- penses/revenues for 2011; and the need for a much more substantial effort in re- ducing operational costs of the Community Development department if the City Council does not support the recommendation of staff to transfer the $165,000 in code enforcement costs to the General Fund. Councilmember Ihlan spoke in opposition to raising taxes or transfemng code en- forcement from fee-based to tax-supported funds to accommodate reduced fees unable to pay for Community Development staff. Councilmember Ihlan reite- rated that, while a tough decision, the reality was that if activities were down and fees weren't being generated, the obvious place to scale back was in those areas. Councilmember Ihlan questioned the need to fully staff those areas not currently active.