08/17/1992 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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e Ms. Bascom raised the issue of the citizen involvement program and said that a majority of citizens supported a cut in the program. The council had decided to deliver the services differently. Ms. Bascom suggested that the council reinforce that message by reducing the $75,000 cost to $50,000. Mr. Boles said that Ms. Bascom was arguing for a Strategy C approach to citizen involvement. He said the citizen involvement process results in higher quality decisions on the part of the City. Mr. Boles said he did not want to lose the opportunity to change the way the program is managed, but he continued to support the level of funding identified in the strategy. He added it would require resources to change the way the program is managed. Until those changes are made, he favored maintaining the current funding. Ms. Ehrman asked Ms. Bascom what she believed the effect of the cut would be. Ms. Bascom said she did not know for sure. She anticipated that the staff and council would spend less time on neighborhood issues as a result. Mr. Nicholson pointed out that the council had agreed to revisit the program and suggested it was "tokenism" to make such a cut. He said that the council should leave the program in place at the current time. Mr. MacDonald agreed. Ms. Bascom moved, seconded by Mr. Robinette, to delete $25,000 from the citizen involvement/neighborhood groups program. Ms. Ehrman said she could not support the motion because she did not know what the cut would entail. She pointed out that one staff member is devoted to the e neighborhood program, and a large part of the budget is for the newsletters. She said that the program had been cut several times over the years. Mr. Green pointed out that as the council discussed doing things differently it had focused on volunteerism. He said that the program was a source of volunteers. Ms. Ehrman added that the council is not precluded from realizing more savings in the program. The motion failed, 7:1. Mr. Nicholson moved, seconded by Ms. Bascom, to add the afford- able housing enhancement to the core and eliminate the portion of the cost intended to support systems development charges (SDCs) for low-income exemptions for a total of $300,000. Responding to a question from Mr. Boles, Mr. Nicholson said that he believed that the SDC dollars had become "magic money." He said that the City had not collected such funds in the recent past. Mr. Nicholson said that no one seemed to be willing to recognize the impact of the SDCs on the capital budgets. He suggested that the proper motion was to support affordable housing at $500,000 and reduce the capital budget by $200,000. He offered his concept as an amendment to his motion. e MINUTES--City Council Work Session August 17, 1992 Page 5 5:30 p.m.