Council asks for detailed reserve and transfer schedules before finalizing budget

Council members expressed concern about the city’s reserve levels and internal transfers during budget deliberations on Sept. 14, asking staff to return with a concise schedule showing each fund’s policy target, beginning balance, proposed ending balance and any planned transfers.

One council member questioned whether the health‑insurance reserve ($6 million target) kept pace with rising claims and suggested revisiting the reserve policy; another flagged fleet and risk-management reserves that may have been drawn below targets. Staff agreed to re-run cash-flow and reserve schedules and to present a simple, fund-by-fund summary at the next meeting.

Mayor and council emphasized they did not want to use one-time reserve draw-downs to fund recurring expenditures and asked staff to identify where transfers might have been double-booked in prior budgets.