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portion of the Budget having to do with the San Mateo County Convention and Visitor's Bureau as he is retained by the Bureau from time to time to provide legal advice. MEMO 6/30/98 Council Member Bain said he agreed with Council Member Leipzig that a Communications Specialist wasn't a good idea. He said that communications is a Council priority, but there were better approaches, such as an unfiltered approach. He recommended that the Council discuss how to break up the $45,000 into pieces, perhaps using $9,000 for televising Council Meetings, and $9,000 for JVSV. Vice Mayor Ruskin said he favored increasing the expenditure to the Chamber based on the services provided to the City. He said the Chamber did almost all of the work in developing the Economic Development Strategy of the City in the area of how the City can best attract, retain and expand business. Vice Mayor Ruskin said the City was not making a donation to the Chamber, it was providing services, and the fees had not changed for years. Vice Mayor Ruskin said he was opposed to hiring a Communications Specialist whose job it was to communicate with the Press. He said people needed to have faith that information was not being distorted nor filtered. He said there are matters that need better communication in the City, such as notices of street work, etc. Vice Mayor Ruskin said the Council needed to discuss this whole issue at length, including the possibility of televising Council Meetings. He said that in today's busy world where most people work, being able to watch the Council Meetings from home might be very helpful. He said that joining JVSV might also be beneficial. Vice Mayor Ruskin agreed that the $45,000 for Communications should be held in the Budget and the matter of improved communications debated at a later date. He spoke in favor of an increase to the Convention and Visitor's Bureau and to any group that performs a valuable function for the City, but not from $30,000 to $80,000. He suggested a more reasonable increase, perhaps to a total of $35,000 or less. Vice Mayor Ruskin said he also agreed that more details with specific items proposed in the Budget should have been provided to Council. He spoke in favor of increasing the Mayor's Fund to take care of emergency requests such as the one from the Cheer Leaders, but recommended a total of $3,000. City Manager Everett explained that the proposed Budget did not contain a specific plan to improve communications, but merely set aside $45,000 for that effort. He said a report with recommendations would be presented to the Council in August, and the decision for the Council at this time was whether or not to leave that amount in for future use as the Council saw fit, or to reduce or increase it. BUDGET STUDY SESSION MINUTE BOOK NO. 57 JUNE 29,1998 MINUTES Page No. 014 PAGE 10