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. . . - - I the City is required to do under the MOUs, he wanted that to be accomplished by holding I I '--- the gross expenditures to 2%; not hold each separate department budget to 2%, but their combined budgets to a maximum of2%. City Manager Everett concurred. Mayor Hartuett stated that it was his sense ITom the short time he had been on the Council and had followed the City's business very closely that "we really are at the stage where .....we have trimmed about as far as we can. When we talk about fat in government we are not talking about fat we are talking about priorities. While we always have to be on the lookout for places we can save and do a job better for less,....if we are going to cut, it has to be in connection with priorities. And where we have money to spend it has to be in connection with priorities. That is why the overlay (on Expenditure and Revenue guidelines) is so important." Mayor Hartnett referring to Expenditure Guidelines 2) said if a change in service levels does not negatively impact the Council's priorities which "includes our City looking good", and "we could save money without a significant difference" then he would be interested in looking into those guidelines. Referring to 3) evaluating impacts and merging of services, Mayor Hartnett said it was important to always look at better ways of doing things, but now it was important to pay particular attention to how it saves the City money. He added that he hoped staff would also find other services to add to the list. In response to Mayor Hartnett's questions regarding benchmarking, City Manager - Everett said it was looking at the way things are done in the private sector and "we think it will drive us to be better." Mayor Hartnett said he was concerned with "contracting-in" and whether it makes good economic sense for the City. He said that he wanted its purpose "to make money for the City" stated in the guidelines. Referring to Revenue guidelines, Mayor Hartnett made the following comments: A) NPDES Fees. Mayor Hartnett said he had voted against them last year but had said at the time, the need for NPDES fees would be reviewed in the future. He believed it was extremely important that the Council send a clear message earlier rather than later whether the Council was serious about considering an issue. A lot of effort went into the NPDES process last time under an assumption that the Council was favorable to imposing something, and just the details needed to be worked out. "If we are likely not favorable to imposing something....then I don't think we ought to waste time having people look at it.....1t is just not worth the time and effort for the staff and us to deal with it if it is not likely that we will adopt something." Mayor Hartnett said that for a whole variety of reasons he would likely vote to have an NPDES fee, but he would want to be comfortable with the details and do it right. I '-- MINUTE BOOK NO. 54 Regular Meeting Minutes Page No. 103 February 26, 1996 Page 15