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SESSION 1306 MINUTES OF THE UNIVERSITY CITY COUNCIL May 17, 1982 At a special budget study meeting of the City Council of University City, held in the Emergency Operations Center of City Hall on Monday, May 17, 1982, Mayor Joseph W. Mooney presided and called the meeting to order at 7:32 p.m. In addition to the Mayor, the following members of the Council were present: Mr. Lawrence Lieberman Mr. Joseph L. Adams, Jr. Mrs. Cynthia Metcalfe Mr. Marvin B. Levy Mr. Paul E. Schoomer Mrs. Betty L. Thompson Also present were City Manager Frank Ollendorff and Director of Finance Michael T. McPhail. The public was invited to attend as observers. The budget was the only subject discussed. I Before the Council began its continuing examination of the budget, Mr. Ollendorff announced that Superintendent of Schools Doughty had asked him to advise the Coun- cil that the now-empty Hanley Jr. High building was being officially advertised for sale. Mr. Ollendorff said he had the answers to a number of questions asked by the Council at the last budget meeting, and he circulated these to Council. He noted that the City's community development funds had been cut rather substantially. In order to partially compensate for this, the City had applied to the'County's special needs fund, but the request for funds was denied. Mr. Ollendorff explained why the re- quest was denied, as outlined in a letter received from the County's Community De- velopment office, which he circulated to the Council. There was discussion on this matter, and it was ascertained that nothing could be done to reverse the ruling at this time, since all the funds have been allocated. However, discussion will con- tinue with St. Louis County, to prevent something similar happening in the future. There was a question as to what amount constituted an adequate fund balance. Mr. Ollendorff noted that the City had changed to an accrual system--that is, payroll is credited to the period in which it is actually earned. On paper, this will cost the City $250,000 (by reducing the fund balance that much), even though no employee is making more money than he did before. He noted that under the new system, the fund balance does not need to be as large as it did in the past, since the fiscal year will start with a clean slate, with no money due for payroll. The Council had asked for a breakdown on ice and roller skating revenue (page B-8). - Mr. Ollendorff said ice skating revenue was expected to be $14,000 and roller skat- ing revenue $6,800. The City Manager noted there were still some unanswered questions, having to do with ambulance bills, long range computer planning, National League of Cities' membership and advertising in the Community News. The last two items are to be on the agenda