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Regarding the General Fund, Mr. Wong said that his department did an annual six-year financial <br />forecast. He said that the latest forecast showed a slight deficit in the next fiscal year and <br />increasingly larger deficits in the future years. He said that a $1.5 million dollar budget reduction <br />was targeted for the next year. He said if that target were achieved, the General Fund would be <br />stabilized for two or three years. He raised concern however, that there were many factors that <br />could upset that equilibrium. <br /> <br />Mr. Wong said that the $1.5 million dollar target was allocated to the departments that were <br />funded by the General Fund. He noted that staff had tried to stay away from any public safety <br />budget cuts since their budget was already very trim. He said that each department had been <br />meeting with budget staff and coming up with strategies to take back to department executives. <br />He said that the strategies would come to the Budget Committee and the City Council in <br />November. <br /> <br />Mr. Wang said that about 60 percent of the General Fund was supported by property taxes. He <br />said that the current property tax system for the City, brought on by Ballot Measure 50, depended <br />on two key variables. The first was Iow inflation and the second was development/growth. He <br />warned that if either of the variables worked against the City, then the property tax system would <br />not be able to generate the funds needed to support City services paid for by the General Fund. <br />He noted that there had been increasing inflation across the board and that development/growth <br />was slowing down. <br /> <br />Mr. Wang predicted that the current revenue structure would have periodic downturns and the <br />City was into one of those downturns until the structure was changed. Mr. Wong said that the <br />kinds of cuts being proposed by staff would have a more severe impact on the public and the <br />users of City services than the budget cuts of four years earlier. He said that there was no <br />flexibility to absorb reductions. <br /> <br />Regarding fiscal year 2001 (FY01), Mr. Wong mentioned that health insurance and fuel costs had <br />gone up unexpectedly. He also mentioned that the City had to make provisions for the Public <br />Utilities Commission ruling that US West/Qwest make rebates to customers. He said that US <br />West/Qwest would not be paying for right-of-way until all of the rebates were paid. <br /> <br />Regarding the next year and beyond, Mr. Wong said that there would be another PERS (Public <br />Employees Retirement System) rate increase. He remarked that there were a number of ballot <br />measures that could affect the City budget. He said that a "big issue" that would have to be dealt <br />with in 2002 was the renewal of the Library Local Operating Levy. He added that there were <br />other budget issues on the horizon. <br /> <br />Chief Hill spoke on police issues. He focused on community-oriented policing, which was an <br />integration of community members to solve community issues. He said that community policing <br />was an ongoing process. <br />Chief Hill said that the department was facing specific problems. The first was time availability of <br />officers. The second issue was the loss of a grant-funded information gathering position. <br /> <br />Chief Hill cited some of the ongoing community policing projects such as the prostitution task <br />force and the Heroin Task Force. Regarding the Safer School Program, Chief Hill said that the <br />crime prevention specialists had been hired and were working. He noted that the department's <br />diversity recruitment and training efforts were ongoing. <br /> <br />MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 27, 2000 Page 3 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />