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the Missouri Municipal League and the St. Louis County Municipal League memberships. She <br />also asked as to how much money the City has paid in the last fiscal year on law suits. <br /> <br />Edward McCarthy, 7101 Princeton <br />Mr. McCarthy asked if AT&T U-Verse is charging a $1.00 fee on his bill. Ms. Watson stated <br />they were on U-Verse but AT&T is doing it voluntarily as Charter is doing it according to <br />contract. He noted the Library has allocated to interest income of around $50,000 and they <br />have no money and wanted to know where they are saving. He said some of the other funds <br />as the Sewer Lateral fund have less interest so thought the allocation was incorrect. Mr. <br />McCarthy stated that the City’s policy of having the top twenty percent of the salaries in the <br />County is bad policy. Lastly he asked if Public Works was allocated a million dollars does <br />Public Works have to spend a million dollars. He wondered if they cut corners as in fixing <br />streets, they really would be shorting the residents. Ms. Watson believed they are spending <br />their entire budget. <br /> <br />Rosalyn Borg, 7820 Cornell <br />Ms. Borg asked for clarification on hand-out and thought it would help if she knew the City’s <br />priorities. She thought the City should budget only what is absolutely necessary. She asked <br />where CALOP’s funding came from and Ms. Watson said that was the dollar on the cable bill. <br />Ms. Borg asked who made up the deficit in CALOP’s budget and Ms. Watson told her they <br />used their reserves. She noted that Ms. Watson’s examples of a tax on a $200,000 house was <br />$2,746 but felt this was low and if it was used as an estimate it would be understating income. <br />She said her house was appraised at $260,000 and her tax bill was $4,000. Ms. Borg thought <br />the City had a generous and liberal benefit policy for City employees. She said that her <br />employees had to pay a significant part of their health insurance. She thought maybe the <br />employees could assume a larger share. Ms. Watson said the police and fire pay five percent <br />toward their retirement plan and non-uniform pay three percent toward their retirement. On <br />health insurance the employee pays fifteen percent and those choosing family plans pay <br />twenty-five percent of the rates plus all pay a $250 deductible and the co-pay amount on <br />prescriptions and office visits was raised. She noted the employees have received two years of <br />increase along with the deductible increase and no salary increase. Ms. Borg asked about <br />items under future evaluation; the closing of the Community Center or Heman Park pool and <br />said staff needs to evaluate when it is used and maybe reduce time to correspond when it is <br />most used or charging a larger fee. Ms. Watson said the center is very active on the weekends <br />and recently has been renting it more. Ms. Borg said the estimate of outsourcing trash pickup <br />to a private hauler is wrong as she use to be a hauler and felt there would not be a savings. <br />She also notice a savings listed as reducing salting streets in the winter and she noted that in <br />the twenty-two years she has lived here, her street has never been salted. Ms. Borg felt that <br />turning responsibilities over to the residents would result in a messy city as there will be some <br />that won’t do it. <br /> <br />Deb Carlin, 7132 Washington <br />Ms. Carlin said she wants to live in an area that is safe. She wants good police protection and <br />a really good fire department. Ms. Carlin noted that the City’s infrastructure and safety remain <br />a priority. She asked how much was the City Manager paid upon leaving and Mayor Pro-Tem <br />Sharpe said she was basically paid, honoring her contract, plus vacation days accumulated. <br /> <br />Donna Leach-Heimos, 7700 Amherst Ave. <br />Ms. Leach-Heimos said $120,000 that was allocated for streets and curbs suggestion of being <br />turned back to the residents to pay noted this land is considered to be an easement. She said <br /> <br /> 4 <br /> <br />