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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, February 28,2011 Page 26 At the request of Councilmember Pust, Mayor Roe confirmed that Department Heads would submit their specific department needs to inform the City Council's prioritization. Councilmember McGehee concurred with Councilmember Willmus that she had no need to reset the ranking process; and was happy to use existing priorities whether set by a previous City Council or staff. Councilmember McGehee spoke in support of pursuing the exercises suggested by Councilmember Johnson. Councilmember McGehee opined that the City's past budgets and levies had moved way beyond the cost of inflation; and suggested that this was a good op- portunity for staff to take a flat percent and adjust resources accordingly through internal adjustments, sharing of staff, and reconsidering services that should or shouldn't be available. Councilmember Willmus suggested that the City Council use two (2) of their three (3) meetings each month and reserve it for the budget process alone, rather than attempting these discussions so late at night. Mayor Roe suggested that significant time be set aside as an agenda item on up- coming agendas for further discussion, suggesting March 28, 2011 at the soonest, since the other two meetings were filled with interviews. Mayor Roe noted that adoption of the calendar could be delayed, but that discussion was needed in the future, and early on in the agenda. Mayor Roe suggested, at the prompting of Councilmember McGehee, that indi- vidual Councilmembers submit their thoughts on methodology and other issues in writing for inclusion and discussion in that meeting packet. Councilmember Willmus opined that the City Council needed to lock themselves in a room until they achieved resolution. Mayor Roe advised that he would work with City Manager Malinen to achieve a minimum of one hour on a future agenda to continue this discussion. City Manager Malinen sought clarification on how staff should proceed: using last year's priorities as a tool, both for tax-supported and non-tax supported priori- ties, pursue an exercise on what it would take to achieve a zero percent levy and budget; as well as a minus 10%levy. Mayor Roe clarified that the list of priorities were based on tax-supported pro- grams. City Manager Malinen noted that staff may be able to provide some sense of what that means, with some being inflationary and some personnel-related.