"We have to make some tough decisions. We will have to find a million dollars to cut," Mayor Kathleen King said.

She said that the council would talk about priorities and decide on what to fund and what not to fund.

City Manager Dave Anderson calls it the new normal. Vice Mayor Norman Kline calls it a new level of playing field.

"Do we dip into reserves in times of an economic crisis? If we do, how long do we do it for?" Kline said.

King expects a full house at the study sessions. "Every stakeholder in the city is going to show up. Their future is being decided," she said.

Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith said that the council might look into reduced funding for some commissions or even cutting some staff. "Our budget has to match our revenue," she said.

The decision to sell the North Campus might have made the task of the council a little bit easier.

"We have a lot more wiggle room now," Kline said.

He indicated that once the campus was sold and the money added to the city reserves, the council could take a few more risks.

"The golden rule is never to spend one-time money on ongoing operations. It is like selling your house to pay the electric bill," Kline said. "We cannot use the money for salaries. Neither can we use it for ongoing operations."

The city hopes to make anywhere between $5 million and $9 million on the sale of the North Campus.

"Some money could go into pavement management," Kline said.

"The Saratoga Senior Center has made the case for extra space in the last few weeks. There might be a legitimate need to build some capital infrastructure and give them more space. They need a large room. They did not need a $7 million campus," Kline said.

He said that buying the campus was a worthwhile effort at that time of the purchase. But since it did not work out, it made sense to retrieve the money.

The person on the council most distressed by the sale of the North Campus seemed to be Ann Waltonsmith.

"I hope that when we sell the property, we just spend the interest we make from the amount and not the corpus," she said. "It does not make sense to sell off city property."

Mayor Kathleen King said that she wanted the money to be used as capital investment.

"For a third consecutive year, we will have to make some tough decisions. It hurts to be a minimum services city. I wish we could be like Los Gatos and have a much bigger budget," King said.

The special study sessions of the Saratoga City Council will be held on March 2 and 8 at 5 p.m. The first session will be held at the Adult Day Care Center, and the second will be held at the Senior Center. Both centers are at 19655 Allendale Ave. For more information, call the city offices at 408.868.1200.