CASTLE ROCK — City officials are trying a new way of budgeting this year as they work to trim $200,000 from the 2010 budget.

In past years, the entire council has met in a series of budget workshops and reviewed each department’s budget requests. This year, the council decided to designate a committee to examine the budget and then suggest cuts to the council as a whole. The committee consists of two council members, Mayor Barbara Larsen and the city’s three department heads.

Larsen said she and City Clerk Ryana Covington suggested the change in part because it is so hard to find a time when all five council members and the mayor can attend a lengthy budget meeting. She also hopes this process will be more efficient, Larsen said Monday.

“I think it’s going extraordinarily well,” said Councilman Mike Mask last week. Mask and Earl Queen are the two council representatives. “There’s not as much debate and we get a lot more done in the two or three hours than we would with a full council.”

Greg Marcil initially joined Mask on the committee but then asked for another council member to take his place, Larsen said.

Mask said the committee, which started work in September, has gone over every line item in the budget looking for cuts.

All committee recommendations must still be presented to and approved by the full council in a public meeting. The first such budget workshop is scheduled for Oct. 15 at 2 p.m. in City Hall.

No matter how the budget is approached officials are facing a tough task of cutting roughly $200,000. A $250,000 police levy to help offset some general fund costs failed in August and state auditors chastised the city for a plan to balance it’s 2009 budget by borrowing from other city funds, according to an audit report released in August.

Larsen said her goal was to find a way to make the 2010 cuts without cutting jobs. So far, she said they’ve made good progress but they’re not done and “$200,000 is a lot of money.”

Mask said there are no easy answers but the committee is working hard to balance the books.

It’s going to be a hard transition from what we have to what we’re going to have,” Mask said. “It’s a job nobody wants.”