That's why the city council voted on March 25 to cancel the community budget meetings scheduled for April 15 and 16. The agenda for those meetings was to discuss rental rates, in-lieu fees and inter-fund transfers. LaSala said these issues will be addressed at public meetings in late April.

At the city council meeting, LaSala and Mary Bradley, director of finance for the city, presented proposed cuts to rental rates, in-lieu fees and inter-fund transfers, but the council didn't accept or reject LaSala's proposals.

Rental rates are overhead charges and operating costs associated with maintaining vehicles, equipment, city office space, furniture and information technology programs.

According to Bradley, reducing the amount of vehicles in the city's fleet would reduce maintenance costs for city vehicles. Bradley said, "Reduction in the size of the fleet is more cost-effective than extending the useful lives of vehicles."

The proposal asked for significant reductions in the number of "take home" cars assigned to public safety personnel and public works employees.

LaSala explained that because the city will be cutting service levels, it will be laying off employees and the need for cars for city staff will be reduced. This will be discussed at the end of April.

In-lieu fees and inter-fund transfers are directly related to how different operating bodies of the city, such as the solid waste program, pay for their administrative costs. "The trick is to make sure all the [programs] pay for their own costs," said Bradley.

The city's utility funds work like a business and should be covering their own costs from fees that Sunnyvale residents pay, with no profit, Bradley said.

But the city's payroll department handles the billing for utilities. LaSala's proposal will charge the utility funds for such administrative work. Bradley assures residents that their utility bills will not reflect the change.

Bradley said, "Frankly, most citizens don't care because it's strictly accounting and because it doesn't directly affect the citizens."

The proposed changes would net the city between $445,000 and $535,000, and this figure will increase with service-level cuts, said LaSala.

Because rental rates and service levels are so closely tied and because in-lieu fees and inter-fund transfers have no direct impact on residents, having two separate community meetings to discuss those issues would not be cost-effective, LaSala said and the council agreed.