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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1991-12-10 - City Commission Regular Meeting MinutesCITY OF TAMARAC 7525 Northwest 88 Avenue Tamarac, Florida 33321-2401 Phone (305) 722-5900 Fax (305) 722-4509 December 2, 1991 NOTICE OF WORKSHOP MEETING CITY COUNCIL OF TAMARAC, FLORIDA There will be a Workshop Meeting of the City Council on Tuesday, December 10, 1991 in Conference Room #1 of City Hall, 7525 NW 88 Avenue, Tamarac, Florida. The purpose of this meeting is to interview candidates for the position of City Attorney as follows: 9:00 a.m. - Jeffrey D. Olson 10:00 a.m. - Rafael E. Suarez -Rivas 11:00 a.m. - Alan Fallik All meetings are open to the public. In the event this agenda must be revised, such revised copies will be available to the public at the City Council meeting. Oartol A. Evans City Clerk CAE/nr THE CITY OF TAMARAC IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER AND DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE ON THE BASIS OF HANDICAPPED STATUS City Council. Workshop 12/10/91/elo Page 1 CITY OF TAMARAC, FLORIDA CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1991 CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Abramowitz called this workshop to order on Tuesday, December 10, 1991 at 9:00 a.m. in Conference Room # 1 of City Hall, 7525 Northwest 88 Avenue, Tamarac, Florida. PRESENT: Mayor Norman Abramowitz Vice Mayor Dr. H. Larry Bender Councilwoman Diane Glasser Councilman Irving Katz Councilman Henry Schumann VA men010**4ki4IF John P. Kelly, City Manager Carol A. Evans, City Clerk Peter M. Mack, Personnel Director Ellen Wood, Secretary Mayor Abramowitz said the purpose of this workshop is to interview candidates for the position of City Attorney. Mayor Abramowitz introduced JEFFREY D. OLSON, the first applicant. C/W Glasser asked if Mr. Olson had fulfilled 5 years as a City Attorney. Mr. Olson said he has had 5 years of municipal experience. He said he has worked with a city for 5 1/2 years. He said he has been the Assistant City Attorney for 4 years and prior to that was a full time law clerk. He said he was also a member of the Florida Bar. He said he has not been an attorney for 5 years. He said he feels he is amply qualified and appreciates the City of Tamarac giving him this opportunity today. C/W Glasser asked when Mr. Olson would be available if Council decided he was the applicant for the position. Mr. Olson said 3 weeks from the date of appointment. C/M Katz asked if Mr. Olson was the attorney of record in the litigation cases he handled for the City of Sunrise. Mr. Olson said John Henning, City Attorney, would be the Attorney of record and he was co -counsel. He said he went to Court, did all the pleadings and arguing the motions. He said there are other cases where he and Mr. Henning have worked in conjunction, such as on the defense of the Charter Referendum that changed the form of government in Sunrise. He said he did all of the pleadings and all of the briefs. He said the court time was minimal in that case. He said Mr. Henning argued that case but he laid out the arguments at the trial court level and at the Fourth District Court of Appeal. He said he currently handles all the City forfeiture work. He said he has been responsible for the City receiving $60,000.00 in forfeiture funds. C/M Katz asked if Sunrise has a Risk Manager and Mr. Olson said, yes. Mr. Olson said the City is self -insured so Tort claims go through an adjustor hired by the League of Cities, which is the insurance carrier. He said he has advised the Risk Manager in certain claims. He said they had an Inverse Condemnation lawsuit, which was excluded from insurance coverage, so the city handled that defense. He said he was City Council Workshop 12/10/91/elo Page 2 the primary attorney in the office to handle that suit. He said the suit did settle, which was a City Commission decision. V/M Bender asked if Mr. Olson handles subrogation or if the Risk Manager handles it. Mr. Olson said they have not had the opportunity to subrogate against anyone. He said when the insurance carrier is defending the City, they are making the decisions as to how to handle the case. He said most of the cases that involve damages are handled through the insurance cases. Mr. Olson said Sunrise is self -insured through the Municipal League of Cities Self -Insurance Program, so all the cities that belong to that are self -insured. V/M Bender asked to what level are they self -insured and Mr. Olson said $2 million in coverage. V/M Bender asked if Mr. Olson was retained as the attorney, at what point would he consider having to subcontract out legal cases due to not being able to handle it. Mr. Olson said he has had the opportunity to work with Mr. Henning, who was the attorney for Tamarac and he knows Mr. Applegate and Mr. Doody. He said he has talked to them about the operations of the office in the past and their workload. He said they have had no problems staying busy. He said Tamarac has kept their full time City Attorneys very busy. He said Tamarac has some sort of self-insurance so the City is anticipating that the full time in-house attorney would handle some of the litigation. He said keeping in mind that this is a one man operation, the City would have to decide how they want to devote the attorney's time. He said if the past City Attorneys have been doing something that will no longer be done it would make available additional time to do other things such as litigation. He said he would need a sense of what the City is expecting from the Attorney. He said he cannot give a direct answer because he is not in the seat and does not know the expectations. He said it is possible, depending on the nature of the cases that the City has, that the full time in-house counsel could do some of that work but he cannot commit and say that he could do all of it because he does not know the workload. V/M Bender said if the City hires an attorney, that attorney should not indiscriminately subcontract out the litigation. He said the City would not be any better off then they were in the past. He said the City is trying to reduce its overhead. He said the attorney would have to assume more responsibility. He said a problem is that the City's law office spends a good deal of time on research and he feels the City needs a law clerk to do the leg work, which would allow the attorney to do the actual legal work. He said Mr. Doody checked out all the details, depriving the City of time to act as the attorney. Mr. Olson said he is also a stickler for detail. He said he can appreciate that the City has a need for additional help, either a Law Clerk or an Assistant City Attorney. He said a Law Clerk is good but the problem is that he would have to be supervised and the work product has to be reviewed. He said there is not as much savings there as one might think. He said an advantage of having someone in-house who has a broad range of experience in municipal government, like himself, is that he has been exposed. He said he likes to research when he is asked for a legal opinion but if he knows the answer, then he does not have to look it up. He said this is an age of specialization but a municipal attorney cannot be a specialist because there are too many things he has to have his hands into. V/M Bender said the City would like to have an Ordinance done V City Council Workshop 12/10/91/elo Page 3 within a reasonable time frame. Mr. Olson said when someone in the City of Sunrise wants something done they come to him. He said a simple Ordinance does not take 2 months; however, rewriting a pension Ordinance, it would not take place overnight. C/M Schumann asked in addition to golf, bowling and photo- graphy, do you have any other outside personal interests. Mr. Olson said his children and the Dolphins. C/M Schumann asked Mr. Olson why he prefers municipal law to a general practice. Mr. Olson said he has a journalism degree and wanted to be a governmental affairs reporter. He said he worked with the Broward Times, which is now called the Miami Herald Neighbors and he became a newspaper reporter. He said his first beat was Tamarac City Hall in 1977. He said the first public official he interviewed was Ed Gross, City Manager at the time. He said as a reporter and as news editor, he was exposed to municipal government through attending meetings and interviews with officials in West Broward. He said he loved what he was doing and being an observer and learning about what local government does. Mr. Olson said he went to graduate school and received a masters in Public Administration at FAU. He said he was one of the top three students in the program. He said in 1983, he decided to end his journalism career and go to law school. He said at that time he set a goal for himself to become a City Attorney. He said he does not want to do anything else. C/M Schumann asked Mr. Olson if, as an Assistant City Attorney in Sunrise, there are any restrictions regarding practicing private cases outside and Mr. Olson said it was prohibited. C/M Schumann asked Mr. Olson if he came to Tamarac would it be a problem and Mr. Olson said, no. Mr. Olson said he cannot imagine having the time to do anything else. Mayor Abramowitz asked if Mr. Olson has been involved in labor relations and negotiations. Mr. Olson said he has been involved in advising the Personnel Department on issues. He said in Sunrise there is outside Counsel to handle labor negotiations. He said Sunrise has 4 Unions and almost 900 employees; historically, the Commission had felt more comfortable having an expert handle labor negotiations. Mayor Abramowitz asked Mr. Olson what would be necessary as far as staffing is concerned. Mr. Olson said a full time attorney would need a good full- time legal secretary and someone to cover the phones when the secretary is not available. He said beyond that he does not feel that he is in the position to map out a plan beyond that. He said the attorney, full-time secretary and somebody on a part-time basis to cover when the secretary is not around should get the office by. Mayor Abramowitz asked if Mr.Olson's background covers real property such as purchases, taking over and selling. Mr. Olson said Sunrise just closed on the purchase of a piece of property that used to be Scarlet O'Hara Restaurant. He said Alan Ruf was hired to do the closing because real estate deals and closings are not something that City Attorney's generally do. He said one reason is that as a buyer, an attorney is needed that can render a title opinion and is an agent for an insurance company and can issue a title policy. City Council Workshop 12/10/91/elo Page 4 He said City Attorneys do not have relationships with title companies. He said for the small amount of dollars that are involved with real estate transactions it is not cost effective. Mayor Abramowitz asked who takes care of the forfeitures. Mr.Olson said they have not had the opportunity to seize any real property. He said forfeiture is a good opportunity for him to get into the courthouse but it is not a major portion of what he does. City Manager Kelly asked what takes up most of Mr. Olson's time in Sunrise. Mr. Olson said he is fairly spread out. He said he advises a number of department heads and is involved in a number of issues for different Commissioners. He said he deals with Code Enforcement and has been their advisor for the last 4 years. He said he has re -written Ordinances pertaining to Code Enforcement. He said he is involved in Utilities and the Finance Department, Commission and Manager in dealings with finance. He said with sales tax revenues shrinking and greater and greater pressure being placed on the Ad Valorem tax rate, cities need to be looking for other sources of revenue. He said he wrote a 50 page analysis that formed the basis of Sunrise adopting fire and police impact fees. He said he wrote the Ordinances and they were implemented in 1989. He said since that time the City has raised a million dollars from the fees. He said he is involved now in doing a report on interim service fees which is going to raise another 2 to 3 hundred thousand dollars. He said he will be working on a recreation impact fee Ordinance for Sunrise. He said it is one area in which he has developed some specialization. He said he advised the Commission to enact a $50.00 processing fee for Occupational Licenses, both initial application and renewal and it has raised $75,000.00 the last two years. City Manager Kelly asked if the City Attorney's office in Sunrise was involved with grievances. Mr. Olson said the Personnel Director handles the grievances unless it gets to arbitration. He said the things that go into handling labor relations matters are not much different than other things that a City Attorney does. He said he has been involved in negotiations in a number of issues, inter- preting contracts and negotiating contracts. He said he has a general knowledge of labor law. City Manager Kelly asked Mr. Olson if he drafted the gas franchise and Mr. Olson said, yes. Mr. Olson said Sunrise has service agreements with other cities to provide them with water and sewer services and do not consider them franchises but inter -local agreements. He said they have franchises from other utilities, such as Southern Bell and Florida Power & Light, that are getting ready to expire and will have to be looked into. City Manager Kelly asked Mr. Olson about taxing districts. Mr. Olson said Sunrise has a variety of taxing districts from the recreation districts to the Sawgrass Mills Mall. He said he was involved in many areas with Sawgrass Mills including fees. He said $300,000.00 was collected from the mall in police and fire impact fees because it was established before the mall was built. C/W Glasser asked why Sunrise had to raise taxes. Mr. Olson said one of the reasons was because the City for a long time was living off of now determined, illegal sources of revenue. He said Sunrise was taxing Bonaventure and had to give the money back. He said he uncovered that and his major 10 V City Council Workshop 12/10/91/elo Page 5 r� Tape 2 accomplishment with that from the City's perspective was that they were not penalized or charged interest from the county. He said the City had problems with the way an auditor was classifying certain revenues. He said the impact fee Ordinances have hopefully taken pressure off the City enough that they will not have to raise taxes more. He said in the future, the tax rate should potentially come down in Sunrise. He said Sunrise has sources of revenue, especially in the utility area, that could help the City in the future. C/W Glasser asked what equipment would be needed in the office and Mr. Olson said a law library. C/W Glasser asked why 'Mr. Olson wants to take on the challenge of Tamarac. Mr. Olson said in 1983 when he decided not to be a journalist anymore, he set the goal to become a City Attorney. He said he has the experience to take the position on. He said he is not in a hurry to leave the City of Sunrise because he enjoys what he does and the other employees and Commissioners. He said he is familiar with Tamarac's history and geography. He said he would be comfortable in Tamarac and, hopefully, Council would be comfortable with him for a bond of trust. C/M Katz asked about the interim service fees ordinance and if, out of necessity, it would have to wait for the State to approve. Mr. Olson said it is within the powers of a municipality under its broad municipal home rule powers to enact interim service fees. He said the fact that the State is considering enacting such a fee is indicative of the fact that cities can do likewise. He said a city can enact legislation on anything that the state can act on. He said this should be a good source of revenue for the City of Sunrise. C/M Katz asked if Mr. Olson had a problem with the difference between residential and commercial interim service fees, such as Certificate of Occupancy or a Certificate of Completion and when to collect the interim service fees. Mr. Olson said the Ordinance in Sunrise calls for the fees to be collected before the issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy. He said it could have been made on issuance of a building permit. He said it is more appropriate to collect the interim service fees before the issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy because that is the point that governs going on the tax roll. C/M Katz asked Mr. Olson if he has experience in annexation. Mr. Olson said the major annexations that took place in Sunrise were before he was there including the failed Bonaventure annexation that was attempted twice. He said Sunrise has been involved in several annexations. He said they annexed certain areas and excluded six individual homesites in a subdivision. He said they attempted to have those individuals annexed into Sunrise through a local, bill which was presented to a Broward County Legislative Delegation and they turned it down. He said it was unfortunate for the residents. He said that case is what the City's involvement has been in the last few years. C/M Katz asked if Mr. Olson had any contact or direct dealings with the County or any other municipality. Mr. Olson said he has not negotiated any type of territory swap. V/M Bender asked what salary Mr. Olson expects and what does `�/ City Council Workshop 12/10/91/elo Page 6 the benefit package add up to in dollars. Mr. Olson said low to mid $60,000.00 with benefits being roughly equal to what he has now. He said Sunrise is generous with benefits but he does not know the dollar worth. He said City Attorneys generally get a basic package of $ 7,500.00 a year in deferred compensation and a $ 3,600.00 car allowance or a variation of that. He said if there was a major short- coming in the benefit package in Tamarac he would probably want to look at that. V/M Bender said before the City raises taxes, it should be determined that the City is getting every dollar that they should be getting. He said he feels that franchise agreements have a great possibility of gaining revenue. Mr. Olson asked if an auditor is being hired and V/M Bender said Tamarac is trying to hire someone who specializes in auditing for conformance. V/M Bender said he wants the City Attorney to be bright enough to look at these things. He said some franchise agreements in this City are 20 to 25 years old and have never been reviewed. He said there was a time the City annexed 3,000 people and the franchise individuals were not notified so the City lost 6 months revenue. He said the City Attorney should look at these things periodically. Mr. Olson said Sunrise also has some very old Utility Purchase Agreements and the City does not have a full time Contract Administrator so no one has been responsible for reviewing those agreements and doing what V/M Bender is suggesting. He said he reviewed a Utility Purchase Agreement about a year ago to calculate certain payments that were still due to the former owners of the Utilities and dis- covered that there was a million dollar payment in it that Sunrise was entitled to. He said starting this year the City deducts $200,000.00 from the payments the City owes them this year. He said this is an example of what V/M Bender is talking about. He said this is one of his strengths. He said an Attorney needs to be involved on a daily basis of every- thing that goes on so he is in a position to find out these things. C/M Schumann asked if a litigation case came into Sunrise now, what would be the determining factor as to whether it would be handled in-house or farmed out. Mr. Olson said the easy determination is that if it is a tort claim or civil rights claim it is automatically assigned to insurance. He said contract actions or anything else that falls outside insurance coverage depends on what is at issue. He said 3 lawsuits were filed in the last year involving utility issues. He said the City has refused to maintain the status quo of what has been in the City for years and are now making people pay for the services they get. He said this has rubbed people the wrong way and they file law suits that at issue, potentially, are millions of dollars in utility revenue. He said the City does not feel comfortable doing that and have retained a special Utilities Counsel to handle the defense. He said it is basically the dollars involved that determine whether the case stays in-house. He said the City is being sued by a nightclub because they want the dancers to adhere to a dress code and it is being handled in house. He said they also handle the Charter challenge in house. He said challenges to Ordinances, the Charter and Election matters are more appropriately done in-house because they were probably involved in advising the Commission originally. C/M Schumann asked Mr. Olson if he had any further questions and Mr. Olson said not at this time. City Manager Kelly said Mr. Olson stated he was pursuing some a/ City Council Workshop 12/10/91/elo Page 7 options or courses of action by the City to secure more revenues through utilities that he could not divulge. He asked if the options might be available to other cities. Mr. Olson said, yes. He said Sunrise is involved with some lawsuits with large utility customers but one area that should be explored is whether the City is compensating the general fund for the services general government provides to the City's utilities. He said this is probably being done through direct cost allocations. He said beyond that there is an opportunity to use surplus revenue from the City Utility system in the general fund if the Bond Ordinance is written correctly. Mayor Abramowitz thanked Mr. Olson for an interesting inter- view and sharing his views with Council. Mayor Abramowitz called a 5 minute recess at 10:05 a.m. Mayor Abramowitz called the meeting back to order at 10:10 a.m. and indicated that all the people present before are present now. He introduced RAFAEL E. SUAREZ-RIVAS. C/M Schumann asked when Mr. Rivas passed the bar and Mr. Rivas said April, 1980. C/M Schumann asked Mr. Rivas what personal interests he has on the outside. Mr. Rivas said his family, bicycling, going to the park, swimming, music and reading. C/M Schumann asked if Mr. Rivas preferred municipal law to a general practice and if so why. Mr. Rivas said he prefers municipal law. He said he was in a private practice before going governmental. He said he found that the governmental side had more of a focus. He said he likes working for the good of the community and city. He said it has more of a goal than a general civil practice. He said municipal law is a very fascinating area with bidding, zoning and legislation. C/M Schumann asked Mr. Rivas when he was with the City of Miramar did he handle litigation or did it go to outside Counsel. Mr. Rivas said half and half. He said he handled important governmental disputes such as litigation involving a pension ordinance with the City. He said there was a case regarding the impact of Joe Robbie Development on the City of Miramar which he handled. He said there was a case with the State of Florida regarding Miramar's comprehensive plan which resulted in the plan being certified and accepted by the State. He said he also handled labor grievances. He said governmental, labor and employee related cases were handled by him. He said he also handled some workers comp. He said the routine day to day things he did not handle. C/M Schumann asked if Miramar had a Risk Manager. Mr. Rivas said when he started with the City there was a Finance Director serving as Risk Manager. When he left the City, the Finance Director was no longer in that role and there was a person that was just the Risk Manager. He said as City Attorney he worked closely with the Finance Director and later with the Risk Manager in trying to avoid contravening a claim. He said on a PI case he looked at the evidence and spoke to the adjustors and was intimately involved in any settlements. He said he worked out fee arrangements with outside counsel. He said he worked very closely with the Risk Management Division. C/M Schumann asked his settlement authority prior to going to i City Council Workshop 12/10/91/elo Page 8 Council and Mr. Rivas said $4,500.00 and if it was over that it went to Council for approval. V/M Katz asked if Mr. Rivas had any experience with zoning or annexation other than the Comprehensive Plan. Mr. Rivas said he dealt with the Environmental Resource Department regarding gas leakage at one of the municipal facilities. He said Miramar had to go to the County with Comprehensive Land Amendments. He said that he dealt with routine zoning in that he was the attorney for the Zoning Board which served as a local land planning agency. He said he has done special exceptions, variances and amendments to the Zoning Ordinance. He said zoning was one of his areas of greatest activity in Miramar. He said in Miami, he worked with zoning from time to time. C/M Katz asked if Mr. Rivas had any direct annexation process with the County or trading City property with the County. Mr. Rivas said, no, but he is familar with the annexation statute. He said he has done research on it and written legal opinions on it for Miami. C/M Katz said Mr. Rivas in his private practice has had relationships with real estate closings with problems of buy/sell. He asked Mr. Rivas if he did negotiations as well as grievances. Mr. Rivas said in Miramar, he handles collective bargaining with the Personnel Director and other City Staff and they negotiated an agreement and/or contract. He said the Fire- fighter Union was the most difficult. He said he dealt with grievances regarding overtime and discipline. He said he handled the closing of the Temple property. He said he handled the closing when the City bought land intended for the water plant. He said in Miami, he was the attorney for the Housing Agency so he did those closings for various multi -family projects. C/M Katz asked Mr. Rivas if he was familar with Community Redevelopment and Mr. Rivas said he is familar with the Community Redevelopment Act in the City of Miami Beach. He said in his first governmental job, he worked extensively with the Community Redevelopment Agency, Chapter 163, F.S., in so far as handling their meetings and the community re- development trust fund, financing and amendments. C/M Katz asked if he was aware that Statute 163 allows for the formulation of an agency providing blight can be proved. He said Tamarac does not have a blighted area but could Mr. Rivas see a way of complying with the Statute as it exists so that Tamarac could become a member or have a separate corporation. Mr. Rivas said, yes, there has to be blight or a slum area. He said it has to have certain definitions. He said it is a good question. He said the special assessment Statute 170 was amended to allow cities to do special assessments for business districts that are somewhat depressed. He said the best answer he can give is that he would look at Chapter 163 to try to fashion a way that Tamarac's interest could fit into the Statute. He said he would not be comfortable pondering that without the statute in front of him to look at and study. C/W Glasser asked what the population of Miramar is and Mr. Rivas said about 42,000. C/W Glasser said Mr. Rivas is now employed in a private office and asked if he was willing to leave that to come work for the City. r' Mr. Rivas said his hope is that consideration would be given (� City Council Workshop 12/10/91/elo Page 9 to having him be the City Attorney in affiliation with the firm. He said it is a good firm and has a wealth of experience. He said if that is not a possibility, he has an open mind and that is why he is here. C/W Glasser asked if he realizes that the attorney on board now is a firm and the City is looking in the direction of a full time attorney. She said Mr. Rivas comes very well recommended from Miramar. She said Miramar is going to a part time office and asked Mr. Rivas if there was any particular reason. Mr. Rivas said Miramar has a tight tax budget of about $15.6 million and finances are strained. He said this is a cross saving method for the City. C/W Glasser asked if the $80,000.00 he earned in Miramar was the entire package and Mr. Rivas said that was his salary. He said the benefits in Miramar far outweighed Miami. C/W Glasser asked as a City Attorney what type of personnel and equipment would be required. Mr. Rivas said a basic library, 2nd series Southern Reporter, Florida Statutes, a Legal Reference Book on zoning and personnel, a labor law reporter and a zoning law reporter would be needed. He said the secretary would need a computer system, dictation equipment, fax and copier. He said he would need a full time legal secretary and a part time legal clerk that could be a student if there is a great flow of work. Mayor Abramowitz asked Mr. Rivas if he was the man Council wanted, what would he want in regards to salary and benefits. ape 3 Mr. Rivas said he is not in this for the money, that it is done for a sense of community purpose and accomplishment. He said he would look for a salary comparable to $80,000.00 as he had in Miramar and 12% of salary city contribution to a 401 plan, group insurance and a car allowance. He said he would want an agreement contract with a severance clause. Mayor Abramowitz asked in Miramar as a one man office, what percentage of cases was handled in house. Mr. Rivas said about 75% was handled in-house and 25% farmed out. He said the office work, day to day things, legislation, boards and much of the litigation was handled by him. He said PI cases went outside the City. He said on difficult cases, an attorney is sometimes retained to advise him. Mayor Abramowitz asked if that percentage was the same until Mr. Rivas left the City because growth can sometimes promote problems and Mr. Rivas said he thinks that percentage applied until the time he left. He said Miramar had activity in Land Use and pure municipal law such as Sunshine law issues, ethic issues, conflict of interest, ordinance and Charter issues. V/M Bender asked what the legal department budget was and Mr. Rivas said the Budget was about $190,000.00 a year for himself, a secretary, salary and benefits, books and member- ships. V/M Bender asked what amount of money the 25% represents and Mr. Rivas said $20,000.00 to $30,000.00 a year. V/M Bender asked what is taken into consideration in deter- mining what is given to someone else to handle. Mr. Rivas said the City Attorney is to go on competence, merit, recognizability and fee cost. He said the work given out was not generally to people he knew but those that were City Council Workshop 12/10/91/elo Page 10 local., accessible and the best at what they did. C/M Schumann asked if Miramar was self -insured and Mr. Rivas said, yes. Mr. Rivas said when he first started with the City they were part of the Florida League of Cities insurance pool. He said certain studies were done by the Finance Department that in terms of the claims experience of Miramar what it actually had to pay out and how many claims it had more expensive than having a self-insurance program. He said with the Florida League, Miramar was paying out about $800,000.00 a year in insurance with the assurance, the losses and payouts something like $500,000.00. He said there was a savings for the City when they did this. C/M Schumann asked Mr. Rivas why he would consider coming to work for the City of Tamarac and Mr. Rivas said because it is a nice city, has a good reputation and a citizenry he can relate to. He said he has a sensitivity to elderly people and can relate to them. He said it is also a family type community. Mr. Rivas said he brought a copy of Miramar's Charter which is the most important legislation he has ever done. He said he also brought in a copy of the final judgment of a major case he did in Miramar. C/M Katz asked if the City retained Mr. Rivas, or the company he is affiliated with, would the billing time be on a salary basis and would the benefit package come from the organization he is with and would the City have any other liability or recourse to the organization other than a one time fee per year. Mr. Rivas said subject to negotiation, the City would pay the firm a base fee, either a retainer or hourly or a combination. He said the firm is responsible for the designated City Attorney's salary and benefits. He said the City's liability would not be to the individual. He said the City would be liable to the firm to pay the fee agreed upon. C/M Schumann said in essence he would be an independent contractor and Mr. Rivas said, yes. Mr. Rivas said he brought a brochure of the firm if Council is interested. C/W Glasser said this is more or less what Miramar is looking for and she asked Mr. Rivas why he did not offer it to them. Mr. Rivas said he could not come up with an arrangement with Miramar. C/W Glasser asked Mr. Rivas, career wise, what are his long term goals and Mr. Rivas said he would like to continue in the area he is in, public sector law, whether it be as an employee of a City or otherwise. He said he would like to be in a stable situation that will be long term and growing in it until he masters it. City Manager Kelly asked if Miramar had its own utility operation. Mr. Rivas said that Miramar was now in the process of building a water plant. He said it does have an old water plant but it is at capacity and cannot do any more flows. He said it buys its wastewater from Hollywood with a long term agreement. He said Miramar is trying to get the same type of agreement for West Miramar with Pembroke Pines for waste- water. He said utilities is the biggest problem in that city right now. City Manager Kelly asked Mr. Rivas if he worked with or prepared franchise agreements and Mr. Rivas said most of them were in existence when he got there. Mr. Rivas said in Miami, City Council Workshop 12/10/91/elo Page 11 he prepared amendments to a,bus bench franchise agreement and amendments to the Southern Bell agreement in regards to the public service tax rate base. City Manager Kelly asked Mr. Rivas if he is familiar with the American Disability Act and Mr. Rivas said he is familiar with it in as far as he read the act and has followed articles on it closely. He said it is a recent act and he has not come face to face with its impact yet. City Manager Kelly asked about special taxing districts. Mr. Rivas said he is familiar with how to do special assessments, how to set them up, how to levy them, how to do an assessment role, how to come up with an equitable figure, how to have a public hearing on the levy and how to do the necessary legislation. He said in Miami there were special tax districts set up in the design districts, for street lights and for storm water. Mr. Rivas said the new utility plant is going to be funded by special assessments and special assessment bonds. He said it will be a special assessment revenue fund paid from the revenues of the Utility Plant. Mayor Abramowitz thanked Mr. Rivas for coming. Mayor Abramowitz called for a 5 minute recess at 11:03 a.m. and reconvened the meeting at 11:08 a.m. with all the Council members present. Mayor Abramowitz introduced ALAN FALLICK. C/M Schumann asked Mr. Fallik why he preferred municipal law to general practice. Mr. Fallik said right out of law school he worked for a legal aid agency representing poor people in civil matters only and he felt after 4 years that the agency was becoming too active in suing governmental agencies so he went into private practice. He said private practice is more like private business where it is more important to collect the fees then it is to do the job right. He said he was not going to succeed because he did not have the sense of collecting the fees and still making the clients happy. He said his first job in the municipal field was in Hallandale as the assistant City Attorney and from there he went to Lake Worth as a City Attorney and he loves it. He said it is exciting, dynamic and interesting. He said he has a good relationship with all the Council members in Lake Worth. He said Tamarac has a better location and could advance him financially. Mr. Fallik said the year round population in Lake Worth is 28,000 and the budget is around $70 million because they have an electric utility that is a big money maker. He said Lake Worth has its own power plant and electric utility. C/M Schumann asked if Lake Worth was self -insured. Mr. Fallik said Lake Worth is a member of a 7 city fund administered by an outside firm and that firm hires attorneys. He said he does not regularly defend the City in tort actions. He said he did tort litigations before he became City Attorney. He said the Administrator of this fund serves as Risk Manager and serves 7 cities. V/M Bender asked the legal budget in Lake Worth and Mr. Fallik said it is about $200,000.00. V/M Bender asked Mr. Fallik how he makes the determination of whether to handle a case or contract it out and, also, what percentage is contracted out. Mr. Fallik said he does not make the decision to contract a case out. He said most labor law matters were not handled by City Council Workshop 12/10/91/elo Page 12 the City Attorney but by outside Counsel when he began the position. He said now, he took these cases over. He said he handles negotiations with the Unions. He said he handles about 95% of the labor law. He said the police department still likes to use an outside firm because they feel the Union files fewer grievances because they have to face an international law firm. He said they use Ruf & Carsky to advise the Code Enforcement Board. V/M Bender asked about the legal expenditures of the City. Mr. Fallik said when the police department used the outside firm, it comes out of their budget. He said the Utility Department has a firm to deal with the Public Service Commission and the electric utility. V/M Bender said the City has specialties where legal assistance is needed that specialize in the areas. C/M Katz asked if Mr. Fallik has done annexation, zoning procedures and comprehensive land use. Mr. Fallik said they have solved some of their problems with the DCA and are working on others. He said they have never been to litigation on these matters. He said at the moment they have a comprehensive plan that is fully approved by DCA. He said they have amendments on which the DCA is still questioning technical points. Mr. Fallik said they just did an annexation which resulted in a referendum procedure under the City Charter. He said any Ordinance that is passed can be subjected to a referendum and the annexation was overturned by the referendum. He said he advised the Commission that the whole procedure was invalid and if they refused to place it on the ballot, it could have withstood the court challenge. He said the Commission felt they wanted to go with the wi.11,of the people. He said the people voted 85% to repeal the Ordinance. C/M Katz asked if Mr. Fallik prepared the annexation and if it was from the County and Mr. Fallik said, yes. Mr. Fallik said he also handled the referendum. C/M Katz asked if Lake Worth has any special taxing districts. Mr. Fallik said they have a Community Re -development Agency. He said when he started with the City, they had a Downtown Development Authority which was clearly a special taxing district and it was abolished by the State Legislature. He said they also had a Utility Authority at one time which was a separate entity that ran the Utility Department. He said this was also abolished. He said at the moment the City does not have any true special taxing districts. C/M Katz asked if they had Enterprise Zones and Mr. Fallik said he was told that they did but in his 6 years of service it has never come up. He said he does not know that it is currently implemented. C/M Katz asked what salary structure Mr. Fallik was seeking. Mr. Fallik said he is now receiving $64,600.00, deferred compensation of $7,500.00 and benefits. He said he has a good relationship with the City. He said he would leave the City for $70,000.00 or $75,000.00. He said that he does a tremendous amount of work for the City. C/W Glasser asked if there is potential growth in Lake Worth. Mr. Fallik said that was the annexation he was just discussing. He said the City was annexing 160 acres and the City was placing the entire future of the City on this and it I / City Council Workshop 12/10/91/elo Page 13 was voted down. He said the City -is in a terrible financial situation at the moment. He said the City has about 600 employees and none of them will get a raise this year. C/W Glasser asked Mr. Fallik if he was chosen to be Tamarac's City Attorney, what would he need in terms of personnel and equipment. Mr. Fallik said when he started in Lake Worth there was money in the budget for an assistant and he did not fill this position for an extended period of time until he realized what his workload was. He said he did not know if he could answer this question until he knows how many Boards he would be expected to advise. He said eventually an assistant might be necessary. He said he would need a secretary. He said he does not know how to use a computer. He said he would like a library so that he does not have to run to the court house. C/W Glasses asked Mr. Fallik what his long term goals are and Mr. Fallik said to be a City Attorney in a larger City or County. Tape 4 Mayor Abramowitz said the City of Tamarac does not frequently change Attorneys. He said he is pleased that Mr. Fallik's history shows 6 years in the same place. He said Tamarac shares the same problems as other cities and it also has many wonderful things going on that make Tamarac different. He said the City Council is not dissatisfied with its representation but that the City needs more representation then it is getting. He said this City is accustomed to someone who handles most of the cases and does not constantly need experts. He asked if Mr. Fallik had any questions. Mr. Fallik said Tamarac has a Charter form of government similar to Lake Worth. He said he knows Alan Ruf and Chris Carsky. He asked if Tamarac was self -insured and the Mayor said yes. Mr. Fallik asked if not having the police department has been positive for the City and Mayor Abramowitz said it is as positive as it can get. Mr. Fallik said if the Charter Board has its own attorney and Mayor Abramowitz said, yes. Mr. Fallik asked if there were evening meetings of the Boards and Mayor Abramowitz said Code Enforcement is the only night Board that needs legal representation. City Manager Kelly asked if there were 600 employees and a $70 million budget, what was the tax rate of Lake Worth. Mr. Fallik said the most recent millage is over 8. He said the electric utility donates $7 million to the general fund every year. He said the last few years, the property values have gone down, which is why the millage rate goes up. He said the Utility Department, which is water, sewer and electric, extends to a wide area outside the City. He said they have a utility tax of about 10%. Mayor Abramowitz asked why the City Council put the annexation on referendum. Mr. Fallik said it was a voluntary annexation but the Charter has a provision that allows the people to submit a petition for referendum after any Ordinance is passed. He said his legal opinion was that this did not have to be placed on the ballot. He said they had the required number of signatures but his opinion is that State law on annexation takes precedence. He said this is all politics. City Manager Kelly asked about inter -local agreements with / City Council Workshop 12/10/91/elo Page 14 1-1 other municipalities or areas being served by utilities. Mr. Fallik said they do not need inter -local agreements. He said it is mostly unincorporated areas that electricity is provided to. He said they are allowed by State law to impose a surcharge on non-residents for electric and water. He said the surcharge is imposed. C/M Schumann asked out of the $70 million total budget, how much is in the general fund budget and Mr. Fallik said about $20 million. C/M Katz asked out of the 600 employees, what percent delegates utilities and Mr. Fallik said utilities is close to half of the number of employees. He said the golf course has a separate enterprising fund and public works has a separate fund for garbage collection. He said they own the equipment and do their own collections. Mayor Abramowitz asked how long until Mr. Fallik could start if chosen and Mr. Fallik said his contract requires 30 days notice and he would want to live up to those terms. Mayor Abramowitz asked if Mr. Fallik had a problem not doing any outside legal work and Mr. Fallik said, no. Mayor Abramowitz thanked Mr. Fallik for coming. Mayor Abramowitz said December 18, 1991 is a Joint Meeting of the Charter Board and City Council at 10:00 a.m. He asked City Manager Kelly to make sure the meeting was posted. He said at this meeting Council should be ready to vote on what will be on referendum. He said closing date for submittal is January 19, 1992. He said the language has to be written and then come back to Council for consideration. With no further business, Mayor Abramowitz ADJOURNED this meeting at 11:45 a.m. �e4 CAROL A. EVANS CITY CLERK I I