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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,June 20,2011 Page 29 Councilmember McGehee suggested that City Manager Malinen be charged with researching shared resources with Falcon Heights or the Lake Johanna Volunteer Fire Department as an alternative to building a new fire station. Councilmember Pust reiterated her appreciation to the Subcommittee; however, to avoid any misunderstanding, opined that the fact remained that there were going to be some tough decisions to make; and while the Subcommittee report identified the problems very thoroughly, it still only identified the hard choices ahead, not an ultimate resolution. Related to the recommendations of the Subcommittee, Mayor Roe noted that this was a "pay as you go" approach for utilities and rolling stock, and would not serve to establish any savings accounts, but fund years 1 through 20, while they would continue to diminish and not grow. Mayor Roe noted that the City Council could discuss the use of reserves for some of the items, but as experienced in the past, that practice was not sustainable over the long-term and would only defer the difficult decisions to be made. Councilmember Pust sought clarification from Finance Director Chris Miller on the median residential properties and potential $588 increase versus the $621 po- tential increase and where that discrepancy came from. Finance Director Miller suggested that it would depend on what year it was meas- ured; and Mayor Roe, as the author, suggested that it depend on whether the me- dian was based on inclusion of removal of the market value homestead credit (MVHC). Councilmember Pust asked that those numbers could be verified and made consis- tent prior to the Subcommittee's next or subsequent reports to ensure the City Council and residents were aware of the actual impacts for taxes and/or fees. Mayor Roe concurred that the information needed consistency and should be standardized for future documentation. In response to Councilmember McGehee's concerns, Finance Director Miller ad- vised that the annual comparisons provided on budget documents were 25% lower than the competition as a community; and identified who that competition was by clarifying that the Roseville tax RATE is 25-30% below peer average (including all sixty-two ((62)) cities in the metropolitan area serving populations over 10,000) with those cities in that peer group having a tax RATE 28% higher than that of Roseville. Councilmember Pust opined that a better comparison would be Roseville over time, since those cities may change and the median value or matching home value