MONDAY, APRIL 1, 1996 - 7:00 PM EDT

Mayor McLallen called the meeting to order at 7:06 PM.

ROLL CALL: Mayor McLallen, Mayor Pro Tem Crawford, Council Members Cassis, Clark, Mitzel, Mutch, Schmid

ALSO PRESENT: City Manager Edward F. Kriewall, City Clerk Tonni Bartholomew, Finance Director Les Gibson

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION - None

PROPOSED BUDGET REVIEW:

Mr. Kriewall said the format was new this year and was their attempt to get caught up with the rest of the world in terms of how the Budget looks. We have had Mayor’s Exchange and other exposures and the onset of computers. He said it has been a great opportunity for Lou Martin and Kim Pittl to work on the format.

Mr. Kriewall said they have collected Budgets from other communities and gave Mr. Lou Martin and Ms. Kim Pittl the assignment 4-5months ago to start packaging the Budget into something like this. He said the only thing that will change as we go through this process are some of the numbers, but the format would remain pretty much the same.

Mr. Kriewall said there are probably missing pages, etc., but they should keep in mind that it will be a learning process for everyone and when done, they would have a more readable presentable Budget.

Mr. Kriewall said the meeting really did not address public safety needs, but a report from the Citizens Committee is due next Monday to City Council and we will have a presentation on April 8th to deal with public safety needs and there will be time to make adjustments.

Mr. Kriewall said there are several options open to Council with regard to public safety as we move through this process. One is to wait until a proposal is voted on by the electorate which would be probably in August or November of this year and adjust their public safety funding either in next year’s Budget or they could actually make some adjustments with this particular Budget if they feel there is a general urgency to address public safety at this time. He said they could also adjust mid-year by waiting until their audit comes in which will be about a week or two. He also said there is always going to be a certain amount of general fund balance that could be allocated on a one-time basis. He said so there are a few options available to address public safety.

Mr. Kriewall said the picture is painted as best we can with regard to the other departments and we feel the requests for additional personnel are reasonable.

Mr. Kriewall said the Budget message is that for new Council Members, we have recommended to City Council, for at least six years in a row now, truth and taxation. He said they try to cover all of their inflationary costs and additional new services out of the new growth in the community.

Mr. Kriewall said in other words, our tax base would really enjoy not having to have their tax dollars increased even from an inflationary standpoint. We are really trying to do everything we need to do without raising those taxes at all and that tends to roll along and accumulate. For that reason, you end up with committees like Police and Fire Committees and not being able to address police personnel, etc.

Mr. Kriewall said by rolling the taxes back to prior years truth and taxation levels, we have not been able to address incremental needs of some of those areas. He said you then have to have Police and Fire Committees look at their public safety needs and that is where we are. He said those have been made over the past four to five years and there is nothing wrong with them, but that is just the way it has been approached.

Councilman Schmid said as he read this, we did not address Police and Fire at all and Mr. Kriewall said other than bringing the Assistant Fire Chief back to us.

Councilman Schmid said assumed this Council will put the Police and Fire Committee’s recommendations on the ballot and the rest of the citizens will pass it. He said he found it difficult as to how we are going to proceed with this through the end of the year without having money for police and fire.

Mayor McLallen said there is an appropriation but no documentation.

Mayor McLallen then said the question would be if the information in the Budget is supportive of the proposed numbers that exist here today and is the back-up information you are talking about supportive of the Committee’s request.

Mr. Kriewall said regarding the Police Department, there are three different positions such as staying at the existing level, or incremental staff which will be incorporated in their documents, and then the Police and Fire Committee has not been considered this morning and that would be probably next Monday.

Councilman Schmid asked Mr. Kriewall if he was saying he could live with the present police and fire budget.

Mr. Kriewall said if you want to address the increased police and fire service, such as the committee recommended, he didn’t think it had to be an overnight fix. In other words, he didn’t know if you have to bring up anything for the next Budget and it was a long-range recommendation. He said it needs to be addressed but it isn’t urgent.

Mr. Gibson then referred to material they all have. He said the first item is just a summary of the revenue and then the big number representing 43 1/2% of the total revenue is the property taxes. We have had a couple of inquiries on some of that information and the information on the second page gives a complete work-up of this material.

Mr. Gibson said a couple of other things of interest are that the Consumer Price Index went up 2.8% last year and under Proposal A, that is the most any given property can increase. He referred to the Assessor’s files and said these are the numbers grabbed off of the computer on those and you will see that the market adjustment represents nearly 35 million dollars or 2.34% increase in the assessed values.

Mr. Gibson said the next number down is what Proposal A has done to those numbers and the Assessor is basically keeping track of two numbers, the assessed value and then a second set of numbers under Proposal A. He said you would see quite a difference in the Assessor’s File, and the adjustment was 2.34% and because of that cap on the individual property basis, the amount passed through was just over 1%.

Mr. Gibson said we had some very good numbers on the construction side. He said basically what we do is we take off from Proposal A, numbers as far as using additional tax base and we come down to a new year estimate. He said we came down to a useable tax base of $1,520,000.

Mr. Gibson said the next set of numbers is the Headlee Formula and that compares the total value of last year to the equivalent value of this year.

Councilman Schmid said are you saying the new value is only $285,000 and Mr. Gibson said yes, and new construction was $73,466,400 and about 5%.

Mayor McLallen asked that all of the new construction in town generates new tax dollars to this Budget of only $285,000 and Mr. Gibson said yes.

Councilwoman Cassis said in the revenue back-up, you indicated that the net growth in tax base is $89,000 or a 6% increase, which 15 million is for market adjustment and 74 million for new construction. She asked if that then translates into a General Fund tax base of $285,000 and Mr. Gibson said yes.

Councilwoman Cassis asked if it was correct that new construction is not under the rule of Headlee and Mr. Gibson said that is correct.

Councilwoman Cassis said that is considerable growth in revenue and we are fortunate in the City of Novi to be seeing this kind of growth. Mr. Gibson said it was really 5% and Councilman Schmid asked 5% of what and Mr. Gibson said new construction represents a 5% growth in last year’s tax base or tax property revenues and he discussed further.

Councilman Mitzel indicated then the new value revenue would be greater than $285,000 and with the additional half mill, it would be $321,000.

Councilman Schmid asked how much new money do we have this year as compared to last year short of the half mill.

Mr. Gibson replied $343,000 because of the growth for the General Fund. Councilman Schmid asked the total increase in total dollars with the half mill and Mr. Gibson replied about $760,000.

Councilman Schmid referred to Page 4 Introduction, the last paragraph, the Headlee Amendment and read it to everyone. He asked if this was saying that the growth of the City outstrips the rate of inflation. Mr. Gibson said generally when we talk about the effects of inflation, we are talking about market adjustments and Proposal A was intended to monitor control and the adjustment that is reflected in the taxable base is 1.04%. He said there is another 5% growth in the tax base attributed to new construction.

Mr. Kriewall said we just didn’t pick a number out of the air and we knew we had some needs for several years. He said they just had to eliminate a lot of these needs in prior years . He said he didn’t know where we are going to end up in terms of support for an increase of a half mill but he felt there is a need for it.

Councilman Schmid said one of his concerns in reading the Minutes of the Police and Fire Committee, that they are up to around 3 mills or 3.5 mills, and he was concerned about that committee and their recommendations. Over the years Council has tried to keep the Budget to the growth of the City.

Councilman Schmid said back in 1975-76, and on up through the years, that was one of the battle cries and if they could maintain the growth in a manner that provided a good tax base, we could control our taxes in this City rather than letting it go out of sight so people can’t afford to live here.

Councilman Schmid said he was concerned with the amount of money being spent on computers. He said and yet we are increasing staff because we are getting computers and most of these positions are because we are getting computers. He felt they need to control personnel needs.

Councilwoman Mutch asked if we were not adding anyone new, would we be able to keep up with increased costs? Mr. Gibson did not feel they could. He said one of the things he liked about the new Budget format is that basically it addresses increases and appropriations or expenditures and identifies changes.

Mr. Gibson said in the Appropriations Chapter of the Budget, it does list a great deal of changes and if you look on Page 6, that summarizes the new items in the Budget and you can see the personnel costs of this - six new positions in the General Fund is $334,030. He said the total capital is a million three and we are talking about new revenue of $343,000. He said the answer to your question if no new positions were added to the General Fund, the increase would just cover the costs of the new positions.

Councilwoman Mutch asked even if you did nothing and agreed to the personnel you have, and expecting the costs and materials to increase with the regular inflation, would we be able to keep up and Mr. Gibson said no.

Mr. Gibson said part of the problem is our base is getting so great, and he is talking about a base of million five value of the City, so 80 million dollars is not as significant as it was when that base was one million.

Mayor McLallen said the essential information passed on tonight is that we as a community have experienced an enviable physical growth and have added value to our community and the net gain to the general operating fund is actually very small and it does not generate enough funds to meet current obligations, or to address the demands for services. The option is to come up with what is reasonable and acceptable and to request a half mill.

Mayor McLallen said in line with our history of reasonable prudent tax policy, the proposal is to request a half mill, which will meet our obligations and allow for some form of the proposal as has been presented.

Councilman Crawford discussed capital outlay which includes some things such as police and fire. Mr. Gibson said they have tried to address the capital and it was not normally part of a bond issue, but it does include tearing the roof and foundation etc.

Councilman Clark said assuming a half mill increase and Budget amendment, a half mill will generate approximately how much revenue and Mr. Gibson replied $760,000 for the General Fund. Councilman Clark said so in order to maintain the present level of services, that is what we would need assuming those proposed items are in the proposed Budget that are before us in terms of increased personnel and so on.

Mayor McLallen asked for any other points of information or are there any areas within the Budget that they would like more in-depth documentation.

Councilman Mitzel asked about the details of all the capital, and we have a very basic list of capital in the General Fund, but there is no detail anywhere as to what the capital outlay is.

Councilman Mitzel also asked about pulling out all the computer and data infrastructure type charges. He said the problem is spreading it out amongst the departments that can use it, but he was curious what the grand total would be.

Councilman Mitzel also would like some background information on their memberships such as SEMCOG and RAASOC, etc. He said the format seems like it helps, but when it gets down to making decisions about discretionary spending, he felt they would need some additional backup material.

Councilman Mitzel said he would like information regarding the general salaries and if they have increased. He said for Administration, we initiated that new process last year which he believed would be somewhere in here and should be like a line item for merit and then there would also be a proposed overall percentage. He wasn’t sure if that was already rolled into these figures.

Mr. Kriewall indicated that the performance adjustments would be forthcoming.

Councilman Clark asked Councilman Mitzel if he was asking Mr. Gibson to break down what the outlay would be for computer hardware as opposed to the personnel that might be added and was it two separate items and Councilman Mitzel said one was for the actual hardware and he wanted to get what the Big Picture for the computers would be.

Mr. Gibson indicated he could get that information to him very easily. Councilman Mitzel said then all the other capital.

Mr. Gibson indicated that would be in information available to him and if there is anything missing, to let him know.

Councilwoman Mutch asked what did "removed" or "adjusted" mean? Mr. Kriewall explained what the Administration has removed from departmental requests to balance the Budget.

Councilwoman Mutch asked if Planning was missing and Mr. Gibson replied it was in the mill and would be coming soon.

Mr. Gibson then explained the Appropriation of the Fund Balance. He said we start with the audited number of $2,691,511 and then if you look at the estimated column on the first page, proposed is $13,583,731, so we are saying we are starting with the audited number and anticipating revenues of $13,583,531 and we are anticipating expenditures of $14,051,425 and you go through each of these line items and guess how they are going to finish out June 30, 1996.

Mr. Gibson said so that means using our estimated numbers, we can expect to draw that Fund Balance down by $467,000 and on June 30th we would expect to have a Fund Balance of $223,817. He said as Council would recall, it was decided to maintain a Fund Balance of 10% of the upcoming Budget and then said he comes to a total budget of $13,366,711 and taking 10% of that would be what is set aside that is available to finance this proposed Budget.

Mr. Gibson further explained if you go back to the $2,223,817 and that is what we think the Fund Balance will be on June 30th, we are saying that we want to maintain 10% Fund Balance which is $1,336,275 and anything left which is the $887,046 is available to finance the Police Department.

Councilwoman Mutch asked why wasn’t Parks & Recreation shown in the General Fund. Mr. Gibson said it was very small and what you are seeing in the General Fund is a very small portion of the Parks & Recreation Budget and it has a special millage.

Mr. Gibson said the bulk of the financing for Parks & Recreation comes from the special millage and programs.

Councilwoman Cassis asked if it was fair to say that there is a General Fund subsidy to Parks and Recreation and Mr. Gibson said correct.

COUNCIL BUDGET

Mr. Kriewall said regarding the laptops, we put it in there based on an estimate that our computer people would be able to put it together.

Councilman Clark said he has looked at the tight fiscal constraints that we are talking about and possibly increasing taxes a half mill. He said he can’t see spending $25,000 of their hard earned dollars for laptop computers. He felt this community is not so big that this information can’t be conveyed by phone or by mail. He said if he was a member of the public sitting at the Council table watching someone punch buttons on a laptop computer, he would not be real happy. He felt people come to be heard and as representatives, we are suppose to listen to them.

Councilwoman Cassis said one of the things she had a question about was the $25,000 including laptop, modem and software and would there be a training expense that would be additional. She didn’t think all of us are at the same level of ability to even use laptops in an appropriate fashion, if they were to be purchased. She knows that the computer age is upon us and she knows that the access information process is going at a rate faster than we even believe.

Councilwoman Cassis felt if it was an attempt for Council members to be informed and to have access to information and if they would put that to proper and good use, she would be open to it. She didn’t think it necessarily has a disadvantage in terms of being able to talk together and she felt it was just an information opportunity

Councilwoman Cassis said she was interested in other ancillary costs that may not be considered here so we get the whole picture to what the training might look like, what it might be to redo the Council table in order to allow us to utilize the computer. She asked if that has been looked at.

Mr. Gibson said Mr. Nowicki’s people are looking at this area and it is his understanding that you be hooked up to the network.

Councilman Schmid said he felt this Council was very part-time and he didn’t feel that the computers are justified as yet but they may be someday.

Councilman Crawford said he would like to see someone follow-up on this and see if there may be a savings. He could envision that this might perhaps have all the Ordinances on it and granted we don’t use these every day, but there are a lot of occasions that certainly it would be nice to have updated Ordinances.

Councilman Crawford said he would like to see some demonstration of how we may use this and where the actual savings may be, along with the copy time and staff time and we might be surprised at what they could save.

Councilwoman Mutch agreed with Councilman Crawford. She said regarding the capacity for the laptops, she would question how much of that capacity we are talking about and does that justify the expense involved. She said it was difficult to get past pre-conceptions and technology prejudices, but she felt laptops could be essential tools for their jobs.

Councilman Mitzel said they may wish to look into cost-savings and he has been told that the cost savings alone from having DPW delivering the packets on overtime, would buy each Council Member a laptop every year.

Councilman Mitzel said as far as using the laptop, at first when he got a computer, it was a stand-alone and everything he could use had to be on it because there was no network. He said he loaded up many years of Council minutes and Planning Commission minutes and he ended up filling a hard drive.

Councilman Mitzel said he found it was an extremely useful tool to do research. Late last year, we got switched over to the new network and at the meetings right now, because he has access to the network, he has taken off all of his material on the hard drive to make room for other things, but there are already separate directories set up for each Board and Commission and the City Council minutes are accessible through the City network.

Councilman Mitzel said there is also an on-line Ordinance, and during the meetings he can access the entire book that Mrs. Bartholomew has and do a search and if the word sidewalk were to come up, he could access all the sidewalks in the City Ordinances. He felt things like that would be useful.

Councilman Mitzel said with the GIS system coming up soon, we will be able to pull up maps also with this system. He said they could also get their packets by electronic delivery. He said those were all things that could be useful. He felt the approach to take was a phased implementation, and those of us that are comfortable with this technology can come on line and start using it and help the others who may not want a laptop the first year or so, and that way we can all learn together.

Councilman Crawford said it has all been referenced to the Council and he could envision times at home that you could access information such as minutes. He also agreed with Councilman Clark that if they sat at the table with their laptops and were not listening, it could be a problem.

Councilman Clark said often times, we get into cross conversations and something is this way or that way. He said it may make more work for us when it is supposed to eliminate work and he sees more paper than he did before so there is something wrong. The other problem is he liked the fact that when reading through the documentation, he may notice a question mark around something right on the paper, and he didn’t want to spend hours looking at the screen.

Councilman Clark agreed with Councilman Schmid and this is a part-time position and it is a tremendous expense to taxpayers.

Councilwoman Mutch felt it was a logical time to propose it and you don’t have seven members of Council demanding a personal laptop.

Councilwoman Mutch said in terms of phasing and costs as Councilman Mitzel stated earlier, maybe another approach might be to also take it from those who would like to try this approach and instead of outright buying seven laptop computers, perhaps there is some way City Council members who chose to acquire their own, might have the advantage of buying it back to the City on a scheduled basis.

Councilwoman Mutch said she felt much more comfortable about using a laptop that was hers, and would not feel bad to get it at a reduced price because the City was able to buy it as part of a bigger purchase and have that personal advantage. She felt that would more than compensate for the amount of uncompensated time she puts in being a Council person. She said it would also relieve her of the responsibility to account for every step of its use.

Councilman Crawford said there may be some other ways to do this. He said perhaps two or three might be made available, that if some members found they wanted to use them they could. He assumed that quite a few people have their own personal computers at home, etc., and if the hardware was there and we were able to hook into the network, that would also be a tremendous advantage. He said they could access information at home and he would like to know the cost for that kind of an option.

Councilwoman Cassis felt there are different levels of comfort. She felt they could get back some information about what would be the cost-savings of a laptop and what would be the cost of training to maximize the use. She was looking at coming back with the cost savings and the training needs and what it would be to upgrade the Council table and possibly a phase-in program would be the way to go. She said she was definitely interested.

Councilman Schmid said his position is not a comfort zone and it is cost-effective and he is not worried about his efficiency nor should the City worry about his efficiency. He felt it was a matter of whether it was needed and if not, why get it. He said if he wanted a laptop, he would get one.

Mayor McLallen summarized that the question was if the information to and from Council could be done at an optimal level and would there be any cost-efficiencies open to this Council in an electronic fashion, and that the Council would like information back on that issue.

MANAGER’S BUDGET

Mayor McLallen said the City Manager’s proposed Budget is $285,000 and there are three people in this Department and the increase is relatively minor. She asked the capital outlay and Mr. Kriewall explained the capital outlay was for a vehicle for the Assistant City Manager, whose vehicle is five years old and they are proposing $16,000.

FINANCE BUDGET

Mr. Gibson said we have tried to cut back everywhere we can, so we took our computer person and shipped him to a new department. Councilman Mitzel said that represents one less person and Mr. Gibson replied yes.

Councilman Mitzel asked if he was proposing a new department then and Mr. Gibson said yes. Councilman Mitzel said that would require Council’s authorization by City Charter. Mr. Kriewall said they could leave it under Finance as a Data Processing Section.

Mayor McLallen said technically, if we don’t keep it under Finance, we would have to pass a Resolution to create a new department.

Councilman Schmid said if you moved the Systems Analyst over to Data Processing, what other new positions were there and Mr. Gibson replied there was one new position over the existing position. He explained Mr. Miller is going to be retiring and we will have two positions. He said the workload is a lot and he suspected when Mr. Miller retires, they will have to replace him.

Councilman Mitzel said you want someone side-by-side to train with Mr. Miller while he is still here and Mr. Gibson said yes. Mr. Gibson also indicated he was trying to get the Computer Chairman to speak to Council at some point, which would take about 15 minutes of their time.

Councilman Schmid would question how these positions would enhance their effectiveness and efficiency.

Councilwoman Mutch said before November sometime, the City authorized the purchase of several computers and she asked Mr. Gibson about that. Mr. Gibson said basically almost every department has computers and special applications, along with Lotus spreadsheets and we are now just getting into E-mail. He said we have about 100 PC’s, and we are physically taking care of a 100 PC’s, and it is an unbelievable job.

Councilwoman Cassis asked if he has had contact with Novi Schools and Mr. Gibson said no.

Councilman Mitzel said possibly the Computer Committee could give a quick report and Mr. Gibson said that is what the Chairman of the Computer Committee was going to do and he would bring them up to date on what has been accomplished so far and what is next. Councilwoman Mutch said she would like to hear from that Committee.

Mr. Gibson explained they have had a lot of problems getting this system up and getting applications to interact and there are so many facets to it and police applications and fire applications, and we are just training on E-mail and things that will save us all time.

Councilwoman Mutch asked if some departments were not serviced yet and Mr. Gibson said all the hardware across the board has been installed and most of it has happened within this building and we are trying to get the bugs worked out.

Mayor McLallen asked Mr. Kriewall if he had any comments or directions to give to Administration in preparation for the next time.

Mr. Kriewall indicated the Budget meetings were scheduled some time ago and it was the 1st, 15th, and the 29th and we really need to schedule a few more meetings before the 15th if we could. His recall was that they had wanted to get certain Mondays. Mayor McLallen said unless the Council has any other thoughts for more meetings, the level of information is here and there are two more meetings. Mayor McLallen said it was at Council’s discretion and how comfortable they were with two more meetings or do they want more.

Councilman Mitzel had two points, one if we have questions, we can give them to Administration and Administration will provide all of us the answers to each of our questions. Secondly, he has a class starting tomorrow, every Tuesday and Thursday for the next three months, so he couldn’t attend any meetings on those days.

Councilman Clark said at the next meeting, they should see where they are at and assess the situation and where they need to be.

Mayor McLallen then said they could go home and study this seriously and go through one more meeting and see how quickly or not quickly we can go through this and make a decision.

Councilman Schmid felt it was very important that Department Heads have a chance to address City Council as it is the one time of the year that they have that chance.

Mr. Kriewall said he would like to meet on the 10th. Councilman Schmid said he may have a conflict. Mr. Kriewall said he felt they could accomplish this unless there is debate which may take time.

Councilman Mitzel said they should flag issues that are controversial to us and then say we will discuss those items in the wrap-up sessions.

Mr. Kriewall said they always do it in the month of April and the Budget has to be adopted by the third Monday in May and we allow the week prior for Public Hearing.

Mayor McLallen indicated they would schedule their next Budget sessions for Wednesday, April 10th at 7:30 PM.

Mayor McLallen said if we have done our homework well, and we should be able to manage what the major issues are in a half hour, and for the rest of them, the Library Board, Planning Commission, etc., those really shouldn’t take more than 10-15 minutes because they are pretty straight forward.

Mayor McLallen said we don’t need to re-invent the wheel and these people have spent two months getting this far and we have seen what the dollars are and we can either support the dollars or not support the dollars, but in the past, we have had the tendency to want to start at square one.

Mayor McLallen said the question was are we going to pass the half mill or are we not, and if we are, is it put in here the way we want it or are there things we want to eliminate.

Councilman Crawford agreed with Councilman Schmid and said we need to afford every Department Head the opportunity to come here no matter who they are and some will take longer. They should also bear in mind, what you just said, not to get into re-inventing the wheel because they have spent a lot of time on the Budget. We need to give everyone the same opportunity.

Councilwoman Mutch agreed and she felt it was their one shot and this is the one time to make an annual report and say this is what we have accomplished this year and what we want to do next year. She said she didn’t want to micro-manage the Budget, however, they want to see money spent in certain ways.

Mayor McLallen felt each department should give to Administration a short five minute synopsis of the highlights of their year.

Councilman Mitzel said he didn’t want to do what we did last year which was have a lot of meetings. He said there are two factors and one is how long Administration gives their direction to a quick presentation, and two, how long we talk. He hoped to have far fewer meetings than last year but yet still be fair to people.

Mayor McLallen said at this point now, the next meeting is the April 15th.

Councilman Crawford felt it would take longer and he certainly hoped they don’t conduct themselves as they did last year, but assuming it goes relatively smoothly, he felt it would take perhaps five to six meetings. He still felt a need to hear the Department Heads and we are going to have some major discussion on some of their items and some other items that are not really a Department Head presentation, so he felt it would take quite a few meetings. He didn’t feel they should waste the opportunity for April 10th and he felt they should schedule a meeting on the 10th.

Mayor McLallen said in the meantime, she would work with Administration to see if we can put together a format that addresses the concerns and offers maximum opportunity for everyone.

Councilman Schmid said he remained very concerned that the Budget will not include public safety except for minor items, in fact, this Budget should cover all necessities that the City is going to face. He discussed further and felt it was unfair to eliminate everything out of here which then impacts the rest of the Budget and all the other positions.

Deb Bundoff indicated she was concerned whether or not the City has a standardized form with current price sheets for incidental items that are commonly purchased through the City. She said she realized she didn’t have the full Budget but just on two pages of changes to the base Budget, there is about $45,000 worth of items that she noticed such as telephones, and the figures were anywhere from $150 - $350 and she asked why was there such a big difference. Mr. Kriewall said there was a difference as some are the call direct type phones and some are very simple units.

Mayor McLallen asked if the Budget is available in the Library or the Clerk’s Office and Mr. Kriewall said it would be available tomorrow.

Ms. Bundoff also had some specific issues, and she referred to items such as Department of Public Works/guest chairs and stacking chairs. She said it was listed at $250 per chair for 8 chairs, which seemed expensive. She said they were also asking for 8 stacking chairs and an additional chair and a stationary chair. She was interested why they needed so many chairs.

Ms. Bundoff said under Ordinance Enforcement, there were three work stations and one replacement, and what is the replacement. Mayor McLallen said probably something has reached its functional life and they have to replace it. Ms. Bundoff said as a citizen, it would be nice to know what it is.

Ms. Bundoff also said a mini-pick-up truck for municipal garage was listed and she didn’t know what kind of mini pick-up truck they prefer but they could go to Varsity Ford on Grand River and pick up a pretty nice mini truck for $12,000.

Mr. Kriewall said a lot of times, they will purchase something for much less. Ms. Bundoff felt they could take off about $40,000 off of here. She also said computers were anywhere from $2,000-$3650 a piece and that was a big range.

Mayor McLallen said the Departments will be heard and they will explain all of those items.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business before City Council, the meeting was adjourned at 9:32 P.M.

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Mayor City Clerk

Date Approved __________________

Transcribed by Sharon Hendrian