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DRAFT Special City Council Work Plan Meeting 1 Monday, February 7, 2011 Page 3 b. Council Member Pust In the absence of Councilmember Pust, Mayor Roe reviewed her written com- ments (Attachment 3.b). c. Council Member McGehee Councilmember McGehee reviewed her three (3) basic initiatives: Civic Engage- ment, Budget, and Planning (Attachment 3.c) and expounded on each of those items. Councilmember McGehee advised that in her suggestion to increase civic en- gagement through creation of task forces to address specific issues, she was speaking for a portion of the community that felt there was a trickle down form of government from the bottom rather than from the top, and opined that it was the City Council's job to listen to and engage residents of Roseville when they had proposals or needed assistance. Councilmember McGehee cited several exam- ples, including multi-family housing issues on Rice Street; and the need to be aware of both positive and negative issues and ideas of neighbors as to what was happening throughout the community and specifically in their neighborhoods. Councilmember McGehee expressed her ongoing frustration with the current an- nual budget process and its lack of transparency; as well as the lack of ability for individual Councilmembers to understand and evaluate day-to-day operations within departments and across the City to find effective ways to keep the budget stagnant and/or reduce the annual budget and levy, using those "found" monies to address infrastructure maintenance and that of programs and services. Councilmember Willmus opined that he did not need a line item budget to make determinations and was willing to work within the budget process and format as agreed upon by a majority of the Council. However, if individual Councilmemb- ers and/or members of the public requested such a format, he opined that they should be able to readily access it. Councilmember McGehee advised that she was not suggesting a line item budget; however, since budget codes were now used, all similar costs be combined (e.g. supplies) as well as by department, or available for individual Councilmembers to do so on their own in evaluating the budget data to make it more clear for their use. Mayor Roe noted that, throughout individual Councilmember comments, there seemed to be a common theme, that the budget process itself needed further refin- ing; and advised that his objective would be to have the information available that worked for all, including past examinations of other clarifications that made sense.