Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Councilor Bettman averred that the reconciliation was not specific to the way the budget was looked at. She asserted that it was “just numbers” and the justification were “always just in terms of … doing this to be consistent with the budgeting process.” She wanted to see a breakdown of the $12.9 million. She understood that some of the funds that had beginning working capital that turned out to be higher than necessary were not General Fund. She asserted that the money was being “funneled” back into the departments. Ms. Murdoch said she was unsure how she could quickly satisfy that requirement in that there were thousands of transactions. She related that she and her staff had worked long hours on it. Councilor Bettman questioned whether the $12.9 million could really represent “thousands of transactions.” Ms. Murdoch reaffirmed that this was so. She asked what information would satisfy Councilor Bettman’s concerns. She explained that the Finance Division had journals with hundreds of lines of beginning working capital adjustments. She said the City had “many, many” purchase orders; the purchase order encumbrance reconciliation took all of the outstanding purchase orders and looked at what was actually spent and what the balances were. She stated that staff tried to inform the council by each fund what each of those encumbrance balances were, but if the councilor wished to know where every one of the encumbrances went back in each department it would be time consuming. Councilor Bettman averred that she was not interested in the encumbrances. She said she would be happy if staff indicated that two-thirds of the money was to pay for projects that were planned and funded in 2007, but the money was not expended in 2007. Ms. Murdoch responded that this was what staff attempted to do in the transaction summary by showing every fund, every capital carryover reconciliation, beginning working capital reconciliation, and so on. Councilor Bettman observed that there had been an increase of $1.236 million in the Telecom Fund. She wanted to know if this was money that was appropriated for something, and did not get expended, or was additional money. Ms. Murdoch replied that $701,202 of that amount was the result of the beginning working capital reconciliation and the encumbrance estimate reconciliation. She further explained that $307,000 was the result of capital projects to complete the satellite radio receiver site upgrade approved on Fiscal Year (FY) 07 Supplemental Budget 1. Councilor Bettman averred that there was no reason that the unencumbered money from the Telecom Fund could not be put into the reserve for revenue shortfall. Ms. Murdoch stated that there was $1 million in existing appropriation, or previously authorized telecom projects, which was not being reappropriated out of the $1.2 million. She said staff tried with every fund to inform the council as to what exactly was happening with the money. She welcomed any specific questions. Mayor Piercy closed the City Council meeting and convened a meeting of the Eugene Urban Renewal Agency at 9:17 p.m. MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 10, 2007 Page 10 Regular Meeting