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Mr. Crow noted that a number of Council have had the opportunity to meet with the <br />City Manager and staff and appreciated the time they provided. He stated that some <br />of the numbers have changed and could not get these new numbers until 3:00 p.m. <br />this day. Mr. Crow said he has a number of questions that he supposed his <br />colleagues would rather have him spend time asking Mr. Walker and staff off-line <br />rather than this evening. He said the City had plenty of time to approve the budget <br />that would allow Council the opportunity to spend a little more time with Mr. Walker <br />and staff to understand some of the changes that have been made. <br /> <br />Mayor Welsch noted that however the Council decided was fine with her but would like <br />to be on record saying, “We have held five study sessions on the budget with the <br />Council. We have had six public meetings and a public hearing on this budget. When <br />Mr. Walker came into office as City Manager, he has set up a budget review process <br />that has never been in place in this City before and I think we have had sufficient time <br />to discuss with our colleagues and each other”. Mayor Welsch pointed out that the <br />new numbers that were received from Mr. Walker today were in response to requests <br />that were just made by some councilmembers earlier today. <br /> <br />Ms. Carr praised Mr. Walker for the wonderful job he has done in putting this budget <br />together and in going out to the public to talk about it. She said it takes some time to <br />digest the aggregate numbers which were not always clear. Ms. Carr noted that Mr. <br />Walker has made every effort to answer every one of her questions but she still found <br />herself struggling to understand some of the things. She had a list of questions, a lot <br />of them to do with the reserves and a lot of them to do with the supposed surplus. Ms. <br />Carr said she would take the two weeks to get the questions answered and to <br />understand it so she could tell her constituents that she does understand where the <br />City is spending the money and the priorities. Ms. Carr said if Council decided they <br />must rush to judgment this evening then she would be happy to ask all of her <br />questions here even if it took all night for her to understand. <br /> <br />Mayor Welsch noted for the record, “Mr. Walker presented Council with a draft budget <br />on February 25, 2013”. <br /> <br />Mr. Price said as a courtesy, he would extend that to his colleague for that request but <br />for him in the end he will stand firm on what he considers very important which is <br />maintenance issues of unimproved streets. He stated this related to not holding <br />money in reserves, when it could be spent on street maintenance because the public <br />has given the City that money and should in turn spend that money to maintain a <br />quality of streets that University City deserves. He said the quality of the streets <br />maintains the integrity of the City itself. <br /> <br />Mr. Sharpe said he had full sympathy with Ms. Carr with the idea saying she needed <br />the two weeks to get some things together that she does not understand at this <br />juncture. He appreciated the fact that she said Mr. Walker has given her all the <br />information that she has requested. He said he has asked Mr. Walker all of the <br />questions he needed to ask, so he was ready this evening to pass the budget. <br /> <br />Mayor Welsch stated the motion on the floor was to delay consideration of the Fiscal <br />Year 2014 budget until the Council’s next meeting. <br /> <br />9 <br /> <br /> <br />