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Regular City Council Meeting <br />September 4,2003 <br />Page 10 <br /> <br />Mayor Fendley advised that the City Council needs to keep focused on coming <br />back with a comparable plan for less money. He said the Council has an <br />obligation to the taxpayers, as they do to the employees, to provide good health <br />coverage and a living wage in return for what they are doing, but they have an <br />obligation to the citizens to keep the taxes down and the corporations that are <br />trying to come into the city to keep the taxes down to attract people. It is kind <br />of an all-encompassing thing; they have a lot of different issues and they have <br />to look at all of them. <br /> <br />Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy said in lieu of what has got to be done eventually, if <br />they could take the budget that is in front of them and work with it and what <br />they are proposing to do with benefits, that can't be done in one to three months <br />to get a good plan that will suit the employees. He said it is going to take some <br />studying and it is going to take more than Councilman Bell, Councilman Guest, <br />and himself. Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy said he felt that it is going to take some <br />outside help to form a plan and get something concrete that the employees will <br />be satisfied with and something that the Council could work with. Mr. <br />Anderson said it needs to be studied regardless of what the Council wants to do. <br />Otherwise, it needs to be looked at to get a grip on it. Mayor Pro Tem <br />McCarthy said he would like to see one or two human resource type people <br />involved. <br /> <br />Mayor Fendley advised that the Council needs to decide what number to place <br />in the budget for the line item for health care and then go outside and get that <br />person to look and work with Mr. Anderson and get proposals to see if the city <br />can streamline the plan, but still keep it affordable for everyone. <br /> <br />Mr. Anderson requested that he be given until the first of the year because the <br />city's fiscal year closes on September 30, 2003, and the auditors will be in and <br />they are also having to report on the GASB34 for the first time. He said he is <br />as busy with the auditors for two months as he has been with the budget. <br /> <br />After further discussion, it was the consensus of the City Council to place the <br /> <br /> <br />