East Lansing officials decided last week to allocate $50,000 from the city's reserve account to pay for a financial analyst to examine the city's financial structure.

The city will pay for several studies to be administered by an analyst in order to determine if changes should be made to the way city officials determine the structure of the budget, council members said.

"The council felt it would be a good idea to look more in depth into the economical structure and the budget of the city," said East Lansing Finance Director Mary Haskell, who came into the position Friday after Gary Murphy's retirement.

But Councilmember Victor Loomis said what the study will be about has not been completely determined and that the idea to hire a financial analyst came from a budget planning session in December, not from recent budget cuts.

Loomis said the purpose of hiring the analyst is because the council needs to see if there are any structural issues involved with determining the budget.

City Manager Ted Staton said the study should be ready to be conducted by August or September.

"I think we'll spend the summer figuring out what questions we want the research to answer," Staton said.

Haskell said the study could be used to find alternative resources of revenue, because the city is experiencing cuts in state funding.

East Lansing receives funding from the state in the form of shared revenue which has been reduced and has caused several budget cuts throughout the city.

The $50,000 was decided by council members to be allocated from the city's reserve account. At their Tuesday meeting, members said the reserve account was still well into the seven-figure range, even after the allocation of $50,000.

Haskell said the allocation reduced the reserve account, but "City Council feels it's that important."

Staton said council members will need effective data in order to assess what the city should continue to do when it comes to budget matters.

A financial analyst has not been chosen, and Loomis said the council will have to "investigate to see who is qualified" for the job.