11/15/2005 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 11/15/2005 part of the general picture of the fiscal health of the community is to know where we stand and to be frequently updated as Mr. Miller regularly asks. If those questions cannot be answered by the time Council is asked to appropriate dollars and spend money for the next year, he doesn't know how Council could vote on that. The legitimate question remains: if we're taking a certain sum of money to fund the government for the first four months of the year, what is the total sum of money available? Mayor O'Grady said he understood, and he does intend to make the connection between carry-over, total revenue, total expenditures with the next budget cycle. But he reiterated that he believed those questions are unrelated to the transfer ordinance. The issue before Council tonight simply moves funds from a place where they are in excess to a place where they are needed because of additional overtime, for example, that was needed to protect the interests of our citizens. He is asking someone from the prevailing group to make a motion to reconsider. We will tackles those other questions soon. Councilman Gareau asked the Mayor if he could provide the answers to the questions by the time of the committee meetings to be held next week. If so, he would make the motion to reconsider. Mayor O'Grady said that was something that is not entirely under his control. However, he would absolutely guarantee to concentrate his efforts to insure those questions are answered by the committee meetings next week. Councilman Gareau made a motion to reconsider the motion to suspend the rules requiring three readings and formal committee review on Ordinance 2005-154. The motion was seconded by Councilman Barker. Roll call: Gareau, yes; Barker, yes; Miller, no; Nashar, yes; Orlowski, yes; Ryan, no; Tallon, yes. The motion to reconsider passed with five yes votes and two no votes. Councilman Gareau made a motion to suspend the rules requiring three readings and formal committee review on Ordinance 2005-154, and the motion was seconded by Councilman Barker. Roll call: Gareau, yes commenting he would incorporate and restate the comments he made previously. The Mayor indicated he would use his best efforts to obtain the answers to the questions, and he hopes Council receives those answers. If not, the issue is going to come back again sooner than we think. He hopes that is not the case as we need to move forward. Roll call continued: Barker, yes with comment that he would still offer the meeting between the Mayor, Finance Director and Finance Committee chairperson to come up with a summary sheet that Council can see every month. Roll call continued: Orlowski, yes; Miller, no with comment that this has been an ongoing problem. It needs to be resolved not only in the short-term basis but on the long-term basis. He asked the Mayor, in his discussions with the Finance Director, that they look at both the short and the long-term resolve so that this embarrassing situation doesn't have to be raised again. Roll call continued: Nashar, yes with comment. Council did approve these funds earlier this year, and it is a transfer of appropriations. He would vote yes to make this transfer complete. Roll call continued: Ryan, no with comment. He thinks that this Council has the power to consider a Charter change that the Finance Director perhaps should report to the Mayor so there would be better direct control. Roll call continued: Tallon, yes with comment. Obviously, there's quite a bit of concern on Council regarding the reporting being received. He voted yes and continues to vote yes based on the Mayor's commitment to get this problem solved. Regarding Mr. Barker's offer of a meeting, he would be more than happy to meet with the Mayor and Finance Director. If this cannot be solved in a ~""`` proper fashion and as soon as possible, it's going to create much larger problems than a 18