CC Minutes - 10/27/03 Mtg - Laserfiche WebLink

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without objection from the council, approved. Roll call vote; the motion to approve the Consent Calendar, absent Item D, passed by unanimous vote, 8:0. Councilor Kelly thanked Sandy Halonen for attending on behalf of her project, the HOME investment partnership, and wished her luck. Councilor Kelly pointed out that Item D was primarily a bookkeeping function, but called attention to the surplus of $372,000. He thought this raised a policy question regarding staff's suggestion to put the money into the reserve for revenue shortfall. He suggested that an alternative would be to apply some of it to a one-time expense, such a one-time budget bridge for Planning staff, the cattery, or neighborhood matching grants. He asked the City Manager what the appropriate venue would be to consider this. City Manager Dennis Taylor recommended making this sort of decision within the guidelines for building the FY05 budget, so that all of the opportunities for reductions or increased expenditures could be seen within the context of the entire budget and not in only one particular area. He reminded councilors of the relationship between the City's reserves and its ability to maintain bond ratings. Councilor Meisner agreed the most appropriate place to consider ongoing funding was the next budget cycle. He commented that he would be willing to consider at a future date looking at using a portion of this reserve for some true one-time expenditures, but would be opposed to applying it to an ongoing expense. He added that he would consider utilizing some of the remaining funding to assist the Planning Division address land use issues related to hospital clinic siting. Councilor Bettman asked Mr. Taylor to elaborate on how councilors Meisner and Kelly's suggestion to apply one-time funding out of the surplus funding could be implemented. Mr. Taylor responded that the council would be able to examine this possibility when looking at the supplemental budget, but reiterated his suggestion that the allocation of this money be deferred until the entire budget had been set forth. Councilor Bettman commented that this supported her argument against the urban renewal budget as it took projects out of the queue and gave them priority. She also thought she would use this argument when considering additional funding for the LCARA cattery, as it too brought an item outside of the scrutiny of the budget process. She felt the council should look into crafting a way to consider how best to allocate such large amounts of money. Mr. Taylor replied that he hoped the council would adopt the staff recommendation. He reminded the council that the General Fund forecast and multi-year financial plan would be presented at the meeting scheduled for November 17. Councilor Taylor requested staff to make the council aware of all money that was available. Councilor Pap~ asked if it was urgent to act on this issue at the present meeting. Kitty Murdoch, Budget Manager, responded that there were no funds to her knowledge that would have extreme difficulty should the money not be moved prior to action on Supplemental Budget 1. She called it %lean-up" money from the previous year, stating that it had been left over the previous year's bills had been paid. MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 27, 2003 Page 5 Regular Meeting