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She continued, Council members were asked to give feedback regarding the process. An email went out to all Council members and asked questions such as, `What was the level of transparency and communication from the Administration as well as the Council? How was citizen involvement?' Citizen involvement is something we really want to work on. The questions also asked about the budget preparation and the quality of the budget hearings. We are going to be looking at the paring of Departments for each budget hearing. It was also clear that we need to receive the information earlier. It is difficult to have an effective level of conversation when the information was given the same day as the hearing. Another area we are looking at are the parameters of positions and salaries. That is a brief overview of our Report. She went on, I would now like to open discussion on the goals and objectives for 2018. I have reached out to Dianna Hess who is the President/Director of the NRC to help us talk about how this Committee can begin to see the level of feedback from the leaderships of our various neighborhood associations. I wanted to get feedback from those associations and we will then put that information together. A meeting has been scheduled for March 29th,2018 and it will be at the public library from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. We will be focusing on the 2018 budget process. Some of the other topics we will discuss are TIF Funds, as that continues to be an area of question and interest. We will have follow up meetings about that as well as tax abatements. We will also talk about CDBG Funds. We will also be reconvening the Utilization Board. We have met with Administration to schedule times to start those conversations as well. Committee Chair White opened the floor to members of the Committee and Council for discussion. Councilmember Tim Scott stated, I know this came up but at the time we were getting ready to vote, there were Council members that wanted to look at a different pay raise scale. I think we should have that meeting soon. I know they are not here and I know you only received feedback from a few Council members. Committee Chair White interjected, Two (2). Councilmember Scott continued, You got my ideas on that. Committee Chair White stated, That is correct. Only you and Councilmember Broden. Councilmember Scott went on, Right, and I think we should have that public meeting on an off- night but give Jen Hockenhull and her staff time to prepare for that. Last term, almost five (5) years ago, it came up last minute from a few Council members as was something that `broke the bank' as far as raises in dollar amounts as opposed to percentages. I think what we need to do is allow the Finance Department to run some scenarios of what that would look like and then present to us. Because if we are going to try and push for something like that,they need to start figuring it out now. I think doing some off-site meetings will be beneficial. Councilmember Jo M. Broden stated, I concur with Councilmember Scott. We need to see what those specific Council members concerns are with regard to salaries and benefits. I think we need to hear what they would like to propose to get there. I do think one (1) of the points that I was 2