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the council needs to decide on the relationship between revenues and expendi- e tures and arrive at a conclusion specific enough to forward to the City Manager. In order to deal with program reductions at a policy level, he said, the council needs to examine individual line-items. Mr. Holmer said everyone downgrades looking at line-items, but there are some major line- items, such as out-of-state travel and personnel administration, for which there should be some council-designated policies. Ms. Ehrman said there is not a clear enough definition of how the Strategic Financial Plan and the budget process relate to each other. She felt the Strategic Financial Plan should remain static. Ms. Ehrman also said she was confused about what the administration wants from the council and what the public process is. She said she felt the role of government was addressed by ranking the essential services on the ballot. She said she hopes the process proposal can be resolved in one meeting. Ms. Schue said the council needs to figure out which of the combinations of perceptions they can agree upon. She said she is personally tired of ranking items and would find it more helpful to determine what the essential services are and which are nice to have if they can be afforded. She added that the underlying question is what the City should be required to provide in tight financial times. Ms. Schue said she is in favor of giving the City Manager general places to make cuts but feels the council must first come to agree- ment as to what the process should be. Ms. Schue said there are no easy answers, but it seems that being candid about individual perceptions is a good first step. e Mr. Bennett said he agrees that a process can be accomplished in one meeting. He said that even though the council would like to come together, there is still a need to recognize that the different individual philosophies and priorities have not really changed much. He said that assuming individual priorities are still the same, he thinks the best approach in this budget environment is to ask the City Manager to balance the budget and then have the council judge if his solutions make sense from a policy point of view. He said this approach would allow the council to better review the budget. Mr. Bennett said it is not worthwhile to go through line-item cuts in ad- vance. He said that some councilors may have an expertise in looking at line-item budgets, but there is a risk involved because it seems to circum- vent the system we have. He said that is why the City has a strong manage- ment team; the council's job is to worry about the policy side and recognize that priorities in this budget environment are difficult to change. Ms. Bascom said that the Strategic Financial Plan was carried as far as was useful and was valuable because it put basic concepts in place and gave some general direction, such as not going after big revenue increases and looking at user fees as a viable alternative. Mr. Rutan said there is a need to recognize the councilors' different percep- tions of the City Manager's role. He said the council needs to determine at what level the City Manager takes over. He said another necessary thing to do is to work on the operating deficit which, he said, cannot be IImicro- e MINUTES--City Council July 27, 1988 Page 3