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REGULAR MEETING October 10, 2016 Council to consider in making your decisions are what is appropriate for the position regardless of who the individual holding that position may be. The bargaining units are still in process and will go before the members of the respective Teamsters and FOP bargaining units for those wages. We are trying to make sure that the two (2) percent (2 %) increase that non - bargaining employees can expect are also given to the union members. You may not see that in the base pay because some unions may prefer to recoup that in the things of benefits or retirement. That point has guided the Administration in our determination on what to bring to the Council Public safety continues to be eighty -two (82 %) of the general plus fund. While we are requesting a current funding level for the 2017 PSAP program, at a certain level we will be working in the executive board and operations board to hopefully identify ways to not reach the cap of what we are asking the Council to authorize. In another area where the Administration really heard the Council is the Curbs and Sidewalks program at $1.5 million. We understand that the neighborhoods are a major priority for the Council and we are trying to make good on that. Lastly as we prepare for the 2020 fiscal curb, we are going to be very careful about renewing any positions. Anytime we have a retirement for example we are going to ask ourselves if it makes sense for us to fill that position. It is just one (1) way to make sure we are remaining lean and efficient as a City. Mayor Buttigieg thanked the Council for listening to his presentation and offered to answer any questions. Council President Scott stated we will do two (2) questions per Councilmember fairly quickly because we have a long agenda before us. Councilmember Regina Williams- Preston thanked the Mayor for hearing the Council's request to raise the minimum wages for the City a year ahead of schedule. Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated there are a lot of good things in that presentation and thanked the Mayor for the entirety of his report. She asked how we could get the budget to a two (2) year cycle. When we look at the Administration's staff time and Council time that goes into this it really is an incredible amount of time. That would be a worthwhile conversation to have. This process this year with the Priority Based Budgeting has been terrific and is a great direction. She stated she doesn't believe anyone on the Council is afraid of the heavy work load but the question still needs to be asked if we could drive anything policy -wise downstate to get a change to that. Mayor Buttigieg responded he would be the first to welcome anything we can do to keep the workload associated with budgeting under control. Once we get full blown Priority Based Budgeting in place next year we will be in that much better position to make decisions on a broader horizon and certainly welcome that conversation both here in South Bend and downstate. Councilmember Broden stated one (1) of the resounding questions at the meeting out in the community, albeit though there weren't that many people there, was how do we make this process more open and available on an ongoing basis so it is not a really loaded crunch just in a one (1) month period. We should bring along the public on a quarterly basis. There have been terrific tools developed by the finance folks to make it easier for the public to understand but there has been an intense interest from people on how we are spending our dollars and what we are spending them on. The Administration has done terrific things in that regard but we can always be better. Mayor Buttigieg responded that for us transparency really means not only pushing information out but also making it user friendly. That is why the Administration and Finance Department created the Popular Annual Financial Reports so they don't have to know how to read a CAFR to understand where their money is going. We want to move more in that direction so the information is not only available but also intelligible for the public. Councilmember Broden responder that is terrific, thank you. 4