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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-06-20 - City Commission Special Workshop Meeting MinutesCITY OF TAMARAC SPECIAL CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013 CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Talabisco called the Special Workshop of the City Commission to order at 9:07 a.m. on Thursday, June 20, 2013 at the Colony West Country Club, 6800 NW 88'h Avenue, Tamarac, FL, 33321. ROLL CALL: Mayor Beth Talabisco, Vice Mayor Harry Dressler, Commissioner Pamela Bushnell, Commissioner Patricia Atkins -Grad and Commissioner Diane Glasser were in attendance. .Also in attendance were City Manager Michael C. Cernech, Assistant City Manager Diane Phillips, Assistant City Attorney David Tolces, Interim City Clerk Patricia Teufel, Financial Services Director Mark Mason, Parks & Recreation Director Greg Warner, BSO Captain Neal Glassman, Chief Building Official/Director Claudio Grande, Public Services Director Jack Strain, Information Technology Director Levent Sucuoglu, Community Development Director Jennifer Bramley, Fire Chief Mike Burton, Human Resources Director Maria Swanson, Assistant Public Works Director John Doherty, Public Information & Media Specialist Elise Boston, Economic Development Manager Ana Zeinieh, Planning & Zoning Manager Frank Zickar and Controller Christine Cajuste. City Manager Cernech said we went through the budget yesterday and went through an enormous amount of information. City Manager Cernech said there were not a lot of questions and he asked if, after thinking about it overnight, the Commission had questions that staff could address. Mayor Talabisco said the subject of security has been an issue over the years and yesterday staff touched on a security consultant and asked City Manager Cernech to expand on that subject. City Manager Cernech replied that we are doing a number of things and we are working with Captain Glassman who has already had someone come in and do an assessment of city facilities and IT is also working on computer and surveillance systems. We have some money budgeted in Public Services for some capital improvements to City Hall and some other facilities. Captain Glassman said that he has people in BSO Strategic Development that have been trained by Homeland Security to conduct security surveys and we have already had someone come out and do an assessment and should have a comprehensive report within the next two weeks. Captain Glassman said they also have another individual who teaches an Active Shooter Course to train people to assess possible threats. Mayor Talabisco asked when these security improvements would be implemented and City Manager Cernech responded the first thing we need to figure out is what we need to do about surveillance systems, however, we are already working on it as it is a priority for staff. Commissioner Glasser said that at one point we had a security guard in City Hall and is this something that we might do again and City Manager Cernech said that is something we may need to go back to. Commissioner Bushnell asked why the cost of one fire station was $3 million and the other is less than $2 million. City Manager Cernech responded that the reconstruction of Fire Station 78 will be considerably larger than the one that will be built on University Drive. Fire Station 78 will be a two story building while the station on University Dr. will be smaller as we currently envision EMS only at that facility; however, we have not established the ultimate answer to that yet and we will have that conversation before it comes back to the Commission for a decision. There was a brief discussion regarding the possible location of the station on University Drive. Commissioner Bushnell asked about the addition of a groundskeeper position and Public Services Director Strain replied that we are at the point where we will need more individuals to help maintain the Page 1 of 3 SPECIAL COMMISSION WORKSHOP MEETING June 20, 2013 additional park. Commissioner Atkins -Grad talked about the Property Appraiser's Office raising fees and City Manager Cernech said staff would look into that. City Manager Cernech said we will not be adopting this budget until September and if the Commission has any questions to feel free to contact him. Community Development Director Bramley said there are two major projects to review today, the Corridor Study and Tamarac Village; what we have before the Commission is the final draft of the Corridor Study and staff is looking for comments and input from the Commission. Community Development Director Bramley said the study will eventually come before the Commission for adoption. Bruce Reed, Director of Landscape Architecture Division of Keith and Schnars and Shea Hansen, Project Manager for the Landscape Architecture Division of Keith and Schnars appeared and gave a presentation, a copy of which is on file in the City Clerk's Office. Mr. Reed, Ms. Hansen and staff responded to questions and concerns from the Commission and after much discussion it was decided that at this time the Commission would focus on the building of buffer walls as that is something that we can afford to do now that would have an immediate impact on the communities and the rest can wait as they are more complicated. City Manager Cernech said we will not be choosing the type of walls today but staff needs to get a sense of what locations are priorities for the Commission. There was a break in the meeting between 10:40 a.m. and 10:49 a.m. Community Development Director Bramley went over the list of the top 10 sites identified in the study, discussed the methodology used to identify the sites and added that those walls are buildable with existing conditions. Staff responded to questions from the Commission and after discussion each Commission member provided their top priorities for the placement of walls in — their communities. Rebecca Travis, Principal and David Mathews, Vice President of Mathews Consulting and Nicholas Mihelich, Principal of Urban Design Kilday Studios appeared and gave an Engineering Project Update on Tamarac Village, a copy of which is on file in the City Clerk's Office. Ms. Travis, Mr. Mathews and Staff addressed questions from the Commission. City Manager Cernech said staff will look into an alternate ingress and egress for the Hampton Hills development, there is a fire lane to the west that leads to the Aquatic Center that could be reconfigured as an ingress and egress for the Hampton Hills development. The meeting recessed for lunch at 12:11 p.m. and reconvened at 12:57 p.m. Bob Koch, President of Group 1, appeared and said that they have been working thru the concerns that were expressed at the last meeting and provided the Commission with an updated progress report. Mr. Koch said that moving forward their first concern is the ownership of the land; second concern is funding and last the design. Once these have been completed they will make application for Land use/site plan approval; begin public awareness promotion and produce promotional packages and begin formal investment solicitations. Mr. Koch provided the Commission with copies of the Draft Design Guidelines for Tamarac Village for their review, a copy of which is on file in the City Clerk's office along with a copy of the progress report. Financial Services Director Mark Mason gave a presentation/update on the Land Trust and Community Development District, a copy of which is on file in the City Clerk's Office. Financial Services Director Mason said there would be a resolution for the Land Trust on the July 10'h —' agenda after which they will hire staff to manage the Community Development District application and expects to have approval for the CDD ordinance sometime between September 2013 and Page 2 of 3 SPECIAL COMMISSION WORKSHOP MEETING June 20, 2013 December 2013. Assistant City Attorney Tolces and Financial Services Director Mason responded to questions from the Commission. There was a break in the meeting between 1:44 p.m. and 2:01 p.m. City Manager Cernech said we have gone through two meetings and staff has received direction from the Commission as what we need to do next. Mr. Cernech said there will be a flurry of activity based on what has been discussed the last two days. The Land Trust will be on the agenda for the July 8th workshop and July 10th meeting and while the Commission is on hiatus, staff will be working on the CDD and bring it back to the Commission thereafter. The Commission has seen the construction timeline from Mathews Consulting which would be consistent with the construction timelines for the other projects we talked about if we get the projects approved now. Mr. Cernech said we have been having regular meetings with the consultants and we will now accelerate that and have additional regular meetings in order to facilitate approving the Town Village concept. City Manager Cernech said the Commission saw the presentation this morning about the Corridor Study which contains walls, gateways and streetscape development. This realistically is about a 10 year project. The streetscape and the gateway aspects of the Study will be broken up and brought back to the Commission sometime in the fall. City Manager Cernech said walls are what the Commission is interested in and are a priority. The Study provided a cost estimate for the construction of walls and what staff needs now is direction as what millage rate to advertise on July 10th, this is the only decision the Commission needs to make regarding the budget before September. Once we advertise the millage rate we can always come down from that rate but you cannot exceed that rate. Yesterday we talked about leaving the millage rate where it was and taking the additional revenue and putting it towards some sort of investment in the community that would have a more immediate impact. We also talked about our Solid Waste Fee and possibly leaving that where it is and taking the additional revenue that is generated and putting it towards some more immediate projects. Mr. Cernech said it is our expectation to lower the Stormwater fee, the Fire Rescue fee remains the same and the Wastewater charges will be adjusted in accordance with the Ordinance. Mr. Cernech said if it is the Commission's decision to leave the millage rate where it is and the Solid Waste Fee where it is, the construction of walls will certainly be impacted by that quickly. Mr. Cernech said walls are not the only thing that could have an immediate impact as we have not talked about anything else that the Commission might want to utilize the funds on that would have an impact on the community. Mr. Cernech then asked the Commission if they wanted to leave the millage rate where it is and all were in agreement to leave the millage rate as it is. City Manager Cernech said that if there were any other projects they would be interested in this is the opportunity to address those interests. City Manager Cernech addressed a few questions from the Commission. There being no further business to come before the City Commission, Mayor Talabisco adjourned the meetinqp�1t9:4h8,p,m. or- TA4f w ESTABLISHED* Q Patricia Teufel, 1963 : Q Interim Cityeerk 01. 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