Less than a week after receiving a list of budget recommendations from the citizen task force, the Albert Lea City Council informally indicated Thursday it supported many of the group’s suggestions. Councilors expressed that their primary goal, just as the task force’s was, is to shift the city’s reliance on local government aid — even if the state does not make drastic cuts to the funding source.

During a council budget retreat Thursday, the group reviewed the recommendations and talked about possibilities.

“The biggest message I think that I got was that they want to overshoot whatever the state’s cuts are,” Albert Lea City Manager Victoria Simonsen said, reflecting on what took place at the workshop. “They want us to start building back reserves to the 50 percent mark and want to put whatever is extra into infrastructure and capital improvement projects.”

Simonsen said she felt strongly that the council wants her to take a look at restructuring city departments as necessary to be the most efficient as possible.

“We want to try and get things planned in anticipation of what the final outcome is going to be, but we have to plan more beyond this, more to a five- or 10-year plan to keep going,” Councilor Larry Anderson said.

“There’s going to be some tough things that will have to be done, but we didn’t take this job knowing it was going to be a cakewalk.”

Anderson said he hopes the city can wean itself off of LGA and budget in a way that is self-sustaining. LGA should be more like a bonus, he noted.

Albert Lea faces cuts of about $500,000 in LGA in 2009 and about $1 million in 2010, under a proposal by Gov. Tim Pawlenty earlier this year. Since hearing those proposals, the city formulated the task force to brainstorm ideas, hosted several ward meetings throughout the city to gather more input and also received ideas from employees.

The budget is typically set in June, July and August of each year.

Simonsen said the plans for 2010 will include restructuring; it will be gradual over the fall and winter months with the goal of having things in place for the new year.

“I believe we’re headed in the right direction, and I believe the residents of Albert Lea will think we are too,” Councilor Ellen Kehr said. “We feel we just have to do some really significant things. We think that’s what the people want is for us to really give it our very best effort to make some significant changes.”

She said the council agreed it would like to become less dependent on LGA so it’s not having to make instantaneous or crisis decisions.

Albert Lea Mayor Mike Murtaugh said the council wants to achieve less dependence on LGA without putting undue burden on taxpayers.

“Once we see what the state Legislature and governor arrive at this session, and what budget reductions we can achieve for 2009 and 2010, we’ll get a better idea on how we can reduce the percentage that LGA contributes to Albert Lea’s general fund revenue.”

Regarding the specifics of the task force’s recommendations, the councilors went through the list item by item.

Kehr said she was encouraged by the suggestions.

“It was conscientious,” she said. “It made a lot of sense, and they really put a lot of hard work into that. It was pretty on target about the things we have to do.

“We would really like to make some significant changes to the budget so that we cannot be tied to this LGA so much, so that every time they do something, we’re sitting with quality of life services or basic services being cut.”

Kehr said the group agreed with a possible quality of life surcharge, which would include things such as mosquito spraying, the fountains on Fountain Lake and the Christmas lights downtown.

They also talked about possible collaborations with the school system, Freeborn County and other entities, to ensure that services are not overlapping. They also discussed the possibility of increased marketing of city facilities to increase their usage and revenue.

On another topic, Simonsen said Alliant Energy came to the city this week and started an energy audit. The group also discussed a volunteer program for the city.

Murtaugh said the group discussed the employee group suggestion of contracting to a citywide garbage service, but the council doesn’t favor looking further at that suggestion at this time.

The city manager said she shared with the group where the city is at year-to-date on savings. If things continue as they are, there will be about $500,000 in savings made this year, she said. These savings come from a variety of sources, including hiring stalls and voluntary retirements.