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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07/27/1988 Meeting e M I NUT E S City Council Jacobs Room--Hult Center July 27, 1988 5 p.m. PRESENT: Freeman Holmer, Ruth Bascom, Debra Ehrman, Cynthia Wooten, Jeffrey Miller, Emily Schue, Roger Rutan, Rob Bennett. 1. INTRODUCTION/REVIEW OF AGENDA Sharon Thorne shared a summary of the information and comments provided by councilors regarding the financial planning process. Ms. Thorne said the process resulted in differing perceptions of the agree- ments reached about the financial plan before going into the Budget Committee process. For example, some councilors felt that the council had committed to program reductions spelled out in the plan, while others were assuming public input could influence the proposed reductions. Ms. Thorne said the consensus seemed to be one of frustration and disappointment with the new e process. Ms. Thorne added, however, that there were some significant in- sights gained by this process. Ms. Thorne said there were many significant flaws identified. Many council- ors said there was a lack of specific program information and knowledge in order to feel good about the rankings, and the ballot set-up made it diffi- cult to know the impact and relationship between programs. Some councilors also felt the ballot attempted to operate at both a policy and implementation level. Councilors also commented that the increments were too large, the lack of shared ~riorities caused problems, and the process lacked guidance and input from management. Ms. Thorne said the budget process for FY90 begins in October, and another issue that may have impact on the group dynamics of the council is the tran- sition to new leadership and new members in November. Ms. Thorne summarized by saying that the council seemed to want to remain in the role of establishing a financial planning policy framework that can give direction to the management for implementation through the budget process. She said the last year1s process did not adequately enable the council to operate at that level, so they need to get back to an appropriate starting point in order to begin. Ms. Thorne suggested that each councilor begin by sharing his or her current feelings and thoughts regarding the financial planning process. A discussion e MINUTES--City Council July 27, 1988 Page 1 of the ground rules could follow, and then Ms. Thorne will recommend a four- e step process to use. II. "ROUND THE GROUP" DISCUSSION Mr. Rutan asked if the council really wants to have this kind of discussion prior to the budget process. Ms. Wooten said what is needed is a one-session discussion about a process proposal where the council can come to an agree- ment on how to give the City Manager specific and clear direction on what the council wants. She said she was not in favor of having several sessions to go through ranking and prioritizing specific projects and programs. Ms. Bascom said it might be interesting to follow Ms. Thorne's agenda and air any disagreements before leaping into specific proposals. Mr. Rutan said he would envision having the City Manager telling the council if sessions were needed before going to the Budget Committee. Mr. Miller said he hopes the council can come to a resolution as to what the City should look like after the budget process. For example, he said there are some areas that need more money to maintain an adequate service level. He said he was concerned on how to bring these types of items to the table for discussion. Ms. Bascom said that Mr. Miller feels the Public Safety Department needs more funding, but, based on last year's prioritization process, the council seems to feel that it was adequately funded and has said so in a number of related e actions. Mr. Rutan said he feels the council needs to go back to square one and agree on the role of government in this City, including which services should be provided and at what level. Mr. Rutan said another necessary discussion is the role of the City Manager and the City Council in that process. Some councilors are in favor of giving large amounts of responsibility to the City Manager, he said, while others would like the council to be more closely involved in individual programs and cuts. He said he personally favors getting out of looking at individual line-items. The council should look at programs and set policies and provide the City Manager clear direction. Mr. Rutan said this process seems as if it were intended to divide the coun- cil and should not be so. He said these are not men versus women issues, and the council needs to come closer together to resolve any difficulties. Mr. Rutan said that only when these things are agreed upon, then the council should talk about a proce~s on how to get there, such as any changes to the Budget Committee process. Mr. Holmer said a conclusion is needed to bring the council together. He said the first policy question is whether there is a fiscal problem with continuing as the City is presently going. If so, then as a policy decision - MINUTES--City Council July 27, 1988 Page 2 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 solved" and must be addressed over a long period of time. Mr. Holmer said e the council also needs to discuss what the staff perceives to be shortages in revenue necessary to continue services. He said if the council does not tell the City Manager how to approach this issue, they may be abdicating their responsibility by letting him make the solution. III. GROUND RULES Ms. Thorne suggested that the council now discuss ground rules for the pro- cess proposal. Mr. Miller said the regular council ground rules should be sufficient. Ms. Wooten said the council is generally civil, but it is real- istic to expect disagreements. Ms. Ehrman said a major difference this year is a shift in council dynamics that will change some budget committee deci- sions. Mr. Miller remarked that all of the council was not present on sever- al occasions. Mr. Rutan suggested that the council conduct this business in the same manner as it does the rest of its business. Ms. Thorne summarized the council.s informal agreements which include having everyone present for key decisions, clarifying assumptions before moving on, and conducting this business like other typical council business. Mr. Holmer remarked that he would like the mayor to be present at the August 11 meeting. Mr. Miller agreed that he could help in the process. Ms. Ehrman said it is not essential that the mayor be there. Ms. Schue pointed out that any discussion about the appropriate role of e public input has been omitted. Ms. Wooten said that future councilor Shawn Boles has said that he is in favor of sampling the public and using the results as a guide. Ms. Bascom said it does not seem necessary to bring the public in too soon. Mr. Rutan said it is appropriate to have public input, but a major question is at what point. Mr. Miller said it is important to differentiate between the public and special interests. Ms. Bascom said that in a City Manager form of government, 'the management should have a level of expertise and elected officials should have a working knowledge of what the public wants. She said it is not necessary to check with the public at every point along the way. The council took a 30 minute dinner break at 6:30 p.m. Ms. Thorne said the rationale behind the new proposed financial planning process is to keep the council in its role of setting policies for the City's service areas. She said the frameworks established by the City Council provide the City Manager with a direction to work from. The process also leaves open the possibility of managing financial issues in a variety of ways. The process proposed by Ms. Thorne is as follows: 1. Council determines list of key service areas; 2. City Manager prepares policy framework ideas for each area; e MINUTES--City Council July 27, 1988 Page 4 e 3. Council discusses, reacts, and decides on budget policies; 4. End result: A list of policy statements for each key service area. Ms. Thorne said she envisions 10 to 15 separate policy ideas under each key service area. Ms. Wooten said the crucial questions facing the council are how to decide these policies and what the policies mean. Mr. Rutan affirmed that the City Manager will use the policy statements to prepare the next budget. Mr. Gleason said that is correct, although he said the broader issue the council is working on cannot be solved in the next budget period. Mr. Holmer pointed out there are no references to revenues in the proposal. Mr. Gleason said he assumes the council will consider policies that speak to both revenues and program design. Ms. Ehrman said she envisions a separate work session on each key area. Mr. Gleason said he would try to draft a budget that reflects the council.s concerns around each topic as well as staff1s judgment. The part he does not understand is how to fit the policy-making within the established budget sequence. e Mr. Miller said he likes how the proposal addresses the issues. However, he said any of the policy issues could take a significant amount of time. Ms. Wooten noted that a great deal of work has already gone into developing policies such as the Economic Development Plan. She said any future policies should include a review of what has already been done in that area. She said all too often council policies do not reflect what has already taken place. Mr. Bennett asked rhetorically if there is a value in reviewing the policies on a comprehensive basis. He said he likes the proposal and the fact that in the meantime the council can ask the City Manager to review the existing budget dollars. Mr. Rutan said he supports the proposal and would like to pursue it. What the process doesn't do, he said, is convert itself into an actual budget. He predicted there will still be issues in specific areas that will generate debate among the council. Mr. Rutan said the policy also doesn't clearly state to what degree the City Manager will do the budget work. He added the key service area list should include a section on new or enhanced revenues. Mr. Bennett said he would like to address the revenue question separately, although at the same time. He said he is not sure the City Manager would have enough information to develop revenue policy frameworks. He also hopes the policy frameworks encompass policy work that has already been completed. e MINUTES--City Council July 27, 1988 Page 5 ----- Ms. Schue pointed out the process does not include a way to determine policy e priorities. However, she said she likes the proposal and thinks the council should give it a try. Ms. Thorne said the process is designed so that priorities can work them- selves out during the third phase. She said she is not sure how it helps the council to address those issues at the front end of the process. Mr. Holmer said the proposal is not a satisfactory financial planning tool because it does not include revenues. He said it is fine to have the City Manager prepare policy framework ideas as long as they are specific enough to allow the council to make decisions. He said he is unsure whether the pro- cess has identified the kinds of items that need to be included. Ms. Ehrman suggested the process could include an end session that looks at how all the policies fit together. Ms. Wooten reiterated that the council needs to decide if it is bound by the process and the decisions it reaches. She said the council also needs to consider where the public process fits in. Mr. Rutan asked Mr. Holmer why he does not support the proposal. Mr. Holmer responded that the proposal has not defined what the policy framework ideas are. Moreover, he said he would need costs for each of the framework ideas before he can make a decision. Ms. Bascom said she understood the proposal to mean that the council deter- mines what the policies should be and the City Manager assigns the specific budget amounts. e Mr. Bennett said he hopes the process can stay away from identifying specif- ics such as mall maintenance, staff traveling and training. He said he can support the process as long as staff is working on other creative alterna- tives to the projected $6 million shortfall. Mr. Gleason said there is a large gap between what Mr. Holmer would like and what Mr. Rutan is after. He said he cannot work at both of those levels simultaneously. Mr. Holmer said he agrees with Mr. Bennett that the process should not be "nickel and dimed." However, he said he would like to rely on staff to propose politically sensitive recommendations on how the budget should be balanced. Ms. Bascom raised concerns over how time consuming the process will be. Ms. Ehrman pointed out the process will only have to be done once. Mr. Gleason said he is not sure how long the process will take since it has never been done before. He said staff will most likely come up with proposals that r.iffer in detail from each other. Mr. Rutan noted there will be some areas such as construction of a new library where the council will want to be more c;pecifi c. Mr. Miller affirmed that staff will make use of previous policy studies. Mr. Gleason said that ;s already done to a large extent. e MINUTES--City Council July 27, 1988 Page 6 e Mr. Holmer asked how the council will be able to judge the policy recommenda- tions without a financial perspective. Mr. Gleason said he is working from the assumption that the council wants to balance the budget over a six-year time period; that half of the money will come from revenues and half from cuts; that programs should be redesigned, if possible, and revenues should be focused on user fees; and that no additional services should be added. Mr. Gleason said he is also operating under the assumption that policy initia- tives are not appropriate for this process. In response to a question from Mr. Bennett, Mr. Gleason said staff will also draft a balanced budget that has no new major revenue sources. He said staff will most likely be able to present the council with a preliminary budget reading by November 1988. At that point, the council can determine whether the policy statements are realistic. Mr. Holmer asked what this will do to the overall budget review process. Mr. Wong said the council might be able to receive a budget in late April or May under the new proposal. Mr. Holmer asked where the Budget Committee will fit into the new process. Ms. Wooten said the has not heard any proposals that would change the Budget Committee's current role. Mr. Bennett said the council should define at the outset how much the policy decisions mean to the council. Ms. Wooten said this raises the same question that came up during the last budget process: is the council binding itself and the Budget Committee to the policy posi- tions? e Mr. Miller said policy setting is the job of the council, not the Budget Committee. Mr. Rutan said the Budget Committee would hopefully interpret the council.s policies as general guidelines. He said the Budget Committee will take the general policy statements and the specific budget dollars and recon- cile the two. He said the lay members of the Budget Committee will hopefully realize that the council has spent a Significant amount of time researching the budget policies. Ms. Wooten left the meeting at 8:15 p.m. Ms. Bascom questioned the level of detail that has traditionally been used with the Budget Committee. She suggested that staff bring back a proposal for improving the Budget Committee process. Ms. Ehrman said improving the process should be done with input from the whole Budget Committee. Ms. Thorne said the Budget Committee's role is difficult to determine until the process reaches the third stage. She summarized that the council has generally agreed on the level of specificity within the process, and that the role of the Budget Committee is still unresolved. She asked each councilor to state his or her feelings about the proposal. Mr. Rutan said he likes the process. Mr. Holmer expressed reservations about e MINUTES--City Council July 27, 1988 Page 7 the proposal because the council may get too far along in the process and e discover it is flawed. Mr. Miller said it is a good beginning, although he questioned the amount of staff time required. Ms. Schue said she would like to try the proposal. However, she recommended that a public input process occur at the end of the third stage. Mr. Bennett said he shares Ms. Schue1s feelings. Ms. Bascom said she is wary about the proposal. Ms. Ehrman said she is optimistic about the proposal's chances for improving on last year's process. Mr. Rutan made several recommendations to the key service areas: 1) Public Safety should be separated into three categories, Police, Fire, and Courts; 2) Cultural Services should be considered under Parks and Recreation; 3) Human Resources and Risk Services should be added; 4) a new and/or enhanced revenue area should be added. Mr. Holmer added that a separate area should be made for the downtown Eugene issue. Mr. Rutan suggested that staff brief incoming council member Shawn Boles on tonight's discussion. The council agreed it did not need to meet August 11. The meeting was adjourned at 8:33 p.m. Respectfully submitted, ~Hl: e ... - ~.,')t ~."., Micheal D. Gleason City Manager (Recorded by John Makosky and Todd Nissen) mncc072788 e MINUTES--City Council July 27, 1988 Page 8