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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1991-11-18 - City Commission Special Meeting MinutesE 7525 NORTHWEST 88TH AVENUE TAMARAC, FLORIDA 33321-2401 TELEPHONE(305)722-5900 **REVISED 1/14/92 November 13, 1991 NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING CITY COUNCIL OF TAMARAC, FLORIDA There will be a Special Meeting of the City Council on Monday, November 18, 1991, at 9:30 a.m., in the City Council's Conference Room of City Hall, 7525 NW 88 Avenue, Tamarac, Florida. The City Council will consider the following items: 1. MOTION TO ADOPT TemR. esn- #6175 authorizing the appropriate City officials to execute an agreement with Robert S. Walters, AIA, P.A., to provide architectural and engineering services to the City as needed. (Expression of Interest EOI-90-01) (Tabled on 11/13/91) RESOLUTION R-91-210-PASSED 2. MOTION TO ADOPT TeMR,Qrd,__ #1581 on first reading creating a new Section 14--39 of the Code to provide for a definition of motor vehicles and providing for a prohibition of the parking and display of motor vehicles for sale on any public right-of-way on any private property. (Tabled on 11/13/91) FINAL ACTION: TABLED 3. appointing 2 members to the Urban Forestry Committee. EZHAL ACTION: RESOLUTION R-91--211-PASSED APPROVED appointment of Ralph Crawford and Ellen Tomas by City Council. APPROVED appointment of Kelly Carpenter and Ron Egenberger by City Manager. 4• Discussion an%j Possible ACtion, regarding city attorney process. FINAL ACTION: Discussion was held. 5• on proposed Charter amendments. FINAL ACT,I QN : Discussion was held. AN EOUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER POLICY OF NONDISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF HANDICAPPED STATUS 6. - Any member of the public may speak to any issue which is on this meeting notice. Speakers will be limited to three minutes during this item and at public hearings. There will be a thirty (30) minute aggregate time limit for this item, and speakers are encouraged to sign up in advance with the City Clerk prior to their participation. ** 7. Discussion and Possible Action declaring the old mattresses in the Fire Department as surplus. FINAL ACTION: Agendized by Consent. APPROVED. The mattresses are to be donated to any charitable organization. The City Council may consider such other business as may come before it. 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. Carol A. Evans City Clerk CAE/nr City Council Special Meeting 11/18/91/KJ Page 1 CITY OF TAMARAC CITY COUNCIL SPEPIAL MEETING MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1991 CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Abramowitz called this meeting to order on Monday, November 18, 1991 at 9:30 a.m, in Conference Room #1 of Tamarac City Hall, 7525 Northwest 88 Avenue, Tamarac,Florida. Mayor Norman Abramowitz Vice Mayor Dr. H. Tarry Bender Councilwoman Diane Glasser Councilman Henry Schumann Councilman Irving Katz John P. Kelly, City Manager Dina McDermott, Assistant City Manager Chris Carsky, City Attorney Karen Jackson, Secretary **************************************************************** 1. PT authorizing the appropriate City officials to execute an agreement with Robert S. Walters, AIA, P.A., to provide architectural and engineering services to the City as needed. (Expression of Interest EOI-90-01) (Tabled on 11/13/91) RESOLUTION R-91-210--PASSED APPROVED City Attorney Carsky read Temp. Reso. #6175 by title. V/M Bender MOVED to APPROVE Temp. Reso. #6175, SECONDED by C/M Schumann. C/M Katz questioned the rates of pay and the billing rate per hour of Scharf and Associates versus Robert Walters and City Manager Kelly said the rates of pay will differ between firms most of the time. City Manager Kelly said the rate of pay was not, known at the time of the selection process which was based strictly on their credentials. He said the Selection Committee recommendations were made to Council and Council chose both firms to deal with on a rotating basis. Assistant City Manager McDermott said the cost of the various projects will be negotiable. V/M Bender said the purpose for having the two firms is to allow for flexibility if one cannot provide the service when requested. He said every organization has a different overhead; therefore, the contract would need to be negotiated for the best price. City Council Special Meeting 11/18/91/KJ Page 2 Melanie Reynolds, resident, said under Section 7.14 of the Charter and Section 287-055 of the State Statutes, the City is not following the Law. She said Council should do the negotiations and there should be a termination date specified. Assistant City Manager McDermott said there is a termination date in the contract of one year. VOTE: ALL VOTED AYE Mayor Abramowitz said the City Attorney has twenty Ordinances that have been requested by the City or by other individuals. He suggested that a Special meeting be held to review these Ordinances for clarification. V/M Bender said an Ordinance should be written in such a way that the City can enforce it. 2• MQTIQN--_TO ADOPT Temn. Ord. #1581 on first reading creating a new Section 14-39 of the Code to provide for a definition of motor vehicles and providing for a prohibition of the parking and display of motor vehicles for sale on any public right-of-way on any private property. (Tabled on 11/13/91) +•` • •k W.A138219M Mayor Abramowitz suggested that this item be Tabled to the next meeting regarding Ordinances. V/M Bender MOVED to TABLE Temp. Ord. #1581, SECONDED by C/M Schumann. VOTE: ALL VOTED AYE 3. MOTION TO ADOPT Tem,Reso_ #6134 appointing 2 members to the Urban Forestry Committee. SYNOP,JJS OF ACTION- RESOLUTION R-91-211-PASSED APPROVED appointment of Ralph Crawford and Ellen Tomas by City Council. APPROVED appointment of Kelly Carpenter and Ron Egenberger by City Manager. City Attorney Carsky read Temp. Reso. #6134 by title. City Manager Kelly said in order to regain the "Tree City USA" status, the City is required to have an Urban Forestry Committee. He said there are to be two people appointed by Council and two by himself. He said his appointees for this Committee are Kelly Carpenter, Director of Community Development, and Ron Egenberger from Public Services. He said these people will be reviewing, studying and investigating written plans and programs for the tree canopy and forestry within the City. C/M Katz MOVED to APPROVE Temp. Reso. #6134, SECONDED by C/W Glasser. C/W Glasser said there was a question by one of the applicants as to whether or not the meetings would be held during the day or night and City Manager Kelly said in the daytime. C/M Schumann asked if Council needs to appoint two residents and City Manager Kelly agreed. City Council Special Meeting 11/18/91/KJ Page 3 Discussion was held regarding the various applicants and Council unanimously selected Ralph Crawford and Ellen Tomas. C/M Schumann MOVED to APPROVE the appointments, SECONDED by V/M Bender. VOTE: ALL VOTED AYE 4. Discussion and Possible Action regarding city attorney process. SYNOPSIS OF ACTION: Discussion was held. Mayor Abramowitz asked if the appropriate time has elapsed for the response to the ad for applications for City Attorney and City Manager Kelly said, yes. C/W Glasser said she feels that the quality of school is not what is important but the amount of experience. She said Council should shortlist the applications to a maximum of five and conduct personal interviews of these applicants. C/M Katz said he agrees that a shortlisting is necessary. Discussion was held regarding the experience of the various applicants. V/M Bender said when the City advertised for this job, the ad indicated the qualifications; however, many of the applications received did not meet those qualifications. He said some of the applicants did not even type their resumes. C/M Schumann said he has chosen 8 possibilities of which there is one outstanding candidate. He said the ad specifically stated the qualifications the City was interested in, such as a five year membership on the Florida Bar,with municipal and litigation experience. Further discussion was held regarding the various responses. City Manager Kelly said Council should not fault people for trying to get a job. He said the stability of their work experience may not have been of the applicants' choosing, He said consideration should be taken regarding years of experiences and skills. V/M Bender said there should be a two-way interviewing process. Mayor Abramowitz said the attorney does not meet the qualification requirements if he does not have municipal experience. C/M Katz said there are many times in the work place that personality problems occur. He said it is very difficult to shortlist based strictly on resumes and job turnovers. TAPE 2 C/M Katz said all of the applicants indicated that they could provide references upon request. Assistant City Manager McDermott said there are 33 applicants at present. V/M Bender suggested a shortlisting up to five by each Council member and all agreed. Discussion was held regarding the shortlisting and interviewing procedures. C/W Glasser said she objects to limiting the interviewing to only five applicants. She said the procedure should be similar to the interviewing for the Planning Commission. City Council Special Meeting 11/18/91/KJ Page 4 City Manager Kelly explained the procedures the Selection Committee uses to aid in their selection process. C/M Katz asked if Council wants to decide on the procedure for reference checking and Mayor Abramowitz said that could be done at the meeting regarding the shortlisting. 5. Discussion and Possible _Actign on proposed Charter amendments. SYNOPSIS OF ACTION:_ Discussion was held. Mayor Abramowitz said there is a joint meeting of Council and the Charter Board for presentation of the Charter Board's proposed amendments to the Charter and vise versa. He said consideration will be made to all suggestions and discussion will be held. He said the Charter Board Attorney will be present at the meeting. Mayor Abramowitz said the State's Attorney attended a meeting of the Broward League of Cities and said that it is the obligation of the City to explain any referendums to the voters. V/M Bender said he had submitted a list of recommendations on the Financial Procedures of the Charter and Section 7.03 was deleted. He asked if City Attorney Ruf will be publishing any of these submittals and City Attorney Carsky said she would bring them into Council tomorrow. Mayor Abramowitz said most of the major changes would be that the City would be deleting certain articles from the Charter and bringing the Code in conformance with State law. V/M Bender said the Charter requires financial reports and the State requires a different type of reports. He asked why it is necessary for the City Clerk's office to generate additional report requirements to satisfy the Charter when the State reports would be sufficient. Mayor Abramowitz requested that Council provide their priorities for the proposed amendments. C/M Schumann said Capital Improvements, #7.13 and the list of housekeeping items from City Clerk Evans. C/M Katz said Terms of Office, #4.02, Expenses and Compensation, #4.04, Redistricting, #6.03 and Capital Improvements, #7.13. He said the suggestion by City Clerk Evans should be utilized as supplements and divided between the three elections. C/W Glasser referred to the Elections procedures and said she does not agree with the way the Mayor's race runs with Districts #2 and #4 and not with #1 and U . She said the Mayor's race should be alternating. Discussion was held regarding this. City Attorney Carsky said this refers to Terms of Office, #4.02. C/W Glasser said the vacation time of Council, #4.06 is another priority. Mayor Abramowitz said Capital Improvements, #7.13, Terms of Office, #4.02 and Expenses and Compensation are detrimental to the City. V/M Bender said Terms of Offices, #4.02 and Public Bidding, #7.11 and Mayor Abramowitz said Public Bidding, #7.11 was done during the last Referendum. City Council Special Meeting 11/18/91/KJ Page 5 V/M Bender said Utilities and Other Services, #7.18, Expenses and Compensation and Article 5-City Manager, #5.01, 5.02 and 5.04. Mayor Abramowitz referred to Capital Improvements, #7.13. C/M Schumann said if the City wants to spend more than 2.5% for capital improvements, it must go to Referendum. He said the Charter does not state what the 2.5% of the current budget is. He asked if the 2.5% is from the combined TUW and Operating budget or just the Operating budget. C/M Katz referred to the Cooper City Charter Section 5.15 which allows for 5% of the existing current budget and is limited to the General Fund budget. He said he would prefer to keep Tamarac's budgets separate and utilize the Cooper City Charter Section 5.15. Mayor Abramowitz said the Charter does not make that distinction. He asked if the City should use specific language to clarify what the budget indicates and should the percentage be changed. City Attorney Carsky said this would need to be two separate questions on the ballot. Further discussion was held regarding the description of the term "budget". C/M Katz said water and sewer rates can be raised quicker than the ad valorum taxes or what goes into the General Fund. V/M Bender said he feels the Utilities should be combined with the General Fund leaving the 2.5% cap. He said Council can make provisions for excluding from the Fund where the monies do not come from tax dollars. Assistant City Manager McDermott read from Section 7.13 of Carla Coleman's report regarding grant funding. Further discussion was held regarding this. Mayor Abramowitz said there has always been a separation of Utilities East and West and C/M Schumann said this is a syndrome that needs to be obliterated. V/M Bender said the City should be utilizing one set of books. C/W Glasser said she feels the City should combine and have one budget and wherever the money needs to be placed comes from the same place, the City. Mayor Abramowitz asked if this item should be presented to the Charter Board for consideration. CONSENSUS OF OPINION: ALL AGREED TAPE 3 Mayor Abramowitz referred to the Terms of Office. C/W Glasser said she feels the terms of office for the Mayor should be different than the Council terms. She said a possibility would be to change the term of limitation where everyone would be up for election at the same time. Mayor Abramowitz said there are two cities which currently have this and they are creating a Referendum to change this due to it being too difficult. C/M Katz said he feels that the terms of office should be extended City Council Special Meeting 11/18/91/KJ Page 6 and that the original intent for the 1991 Referendum was valid. V/M Bender said the Charter originally had two year terms unlimited and he had recommended at that time that the City change to three year terms unlimited. C/M Schumann agreed with the unlimited three year terms and said the suggestion for everyone running at the same time would place a lesser burden on Staff. Mayor Abramowitz said the limit on terms was put in for political purposes. He said during a joint meeting with the Charter Board, a suggestion was brought forward by the Charter Board that they wanted three year terms, three terms maximum. He said the terms of office are detrimental to the City. Further discussion was held regarding the terms of office. C/W Glasser said there is a consideration of possibly extending the terms and limiting them. Mayor Abramowitz asked how many years it would take to implement everyone running at the same time and City Attorney Carsky said it would take five years. C/W Glasser suggested that the terms of office be addressed in the September or November, 1992 election, especially if it does not affect the March, 1992 election.. Mayor Abramowitz referred to Section 4.04, Expenses and Compensation. He said the Finance Department spends numerous hours calculating the expense reports. He suggested the elimination of the expense reports with the money issued to Council, having them submit the receipts and pay taxes on any leftover monies at the end of the year or return it to the City. C/M Schumann suggested the money be issued to the Mayor and Council and allow them to submit receipts every six months and Mayor Abramowitz said the Charter needs to be changed to reflect this. Discussion was held regarding the various expenses incurred by the Mayor and Council. V/M Bender asked what the procedure was prior to this change made ten years ago and C/M Katz read the previous Charter regarding this. C/M Katz said there are times that the $300 which is allotted to Council for the month is not enough for expenses to do work for the City. He requested a Referendum to increase the salary of Council members to $6,000 and the Mayor to $7,200, including the fact that the $2,000 should be by voucher and the balance should be added to their salary as income. C/W Glasser said she does not see a provision which explains how Council is to report it and when. City Attorney Carsky said the Charter implies that an itemized voucher is needed in order to be reimbursed. V/M Bender suggested that this be agendized for further discussion with the Charter Board. City Attorney Carsky said this could.be done as a lump sum with the balance declared as income. Further discussion was held regarding the expenses and compensation. City Council Special Meeting 11/18/91/KJ Page 7 Mayor Abramowitz referred to 6.03, Redistricting. He asked if C/M Katz's objection was that the decisions made by the Redistricting Committee are final and C/M Katz said, that Attorney Novak for the Charter Board had stated that it was.not in the province of the Charter Board to be involved with the redistricting process because they are not part of the legislative group of the City. C/M Katz said the Charter talks of registered voters. He said there are areas in the City that do not respond during the elections. He suggested that the City do the redistricting by the number of households within the City. Mayor Abramowitz said the easiest way for redistricting is by voter's registration and C/M Katz said that would not be the most equitable. Further discussion was held regarding the redistricting process. TAPE 4 City Manager Kelly said Mr. Jarvis, representative for Tract 24, is requesting a letter of support by Council for the affordable housing project and needs to have this approval in order to submit their application to the State which is due at the State on November 22, 1991. He suggested that this be discussed as soon as possible. Mayor Abramowitz asked if this is the same as an ACLF that had been presented in the past and City Manager Kelly said it is similar but'not the s4me;pibject. .9, Mayor Abrai'nowitz ,said there are many residents in the City who cannot afford to maintain a private home and this would accommodate them. He said this project does not generate traffic or impact the City. Discussion was held regarding the time for this meeting to be held. V/M Bender referred to the U.S. Census. He said he had requested that the City research an original count of the census. He said there have been a number of court cases which challenged the Federal Government where the cities can use the 15% probability of error as a result of the miscounting of the census. He suggested the City should utilize the 15% probability of error and report the adjusted figure to the State. City Manager Kelly said the count of the Federal Census for the City was 44,822 and the State of Florida sent down an estimate which increased the City's census to 46,100. He said in order to challenge the count, the City must be prepared to put up a census team to provide accommodations, travel, expenses and to have the City Staff put together all of the documentation as to why the City's count was in error. V/M Bender said the Census Bureau officially announced that there was a calculated 15% margin of error. He asked why the City cannot use this 15% margin of error in the City's census. City Council Special Meeting 11/18/91/KJ Page 8 7, Discussi2n and Possiblp. Action declaring the old mattresses in the Fire Department as surplus. FINAL ACTION: Agendized by Consent. APPROVED. The mattresses are to be donated to any charitable organization. City Manager Kelly said there are old mattresses in the Fire Department. He said these mattresses need to be declared as surplus. C/W Glasser MOVED to APPROVE that the old mattresses in the Fire Department be declared as surplus and donated to any charitable organization, SECONDED by C/M Katz. VOTE: ALL VOTED AYE 5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION - Any member of the public may speak to any issue which is on this meeting notice. Speakers will be limited to three minutes during this item and at public hearings. There will be a thirty (30) minute aggregate time limit for this item, and speakers are encouraged to sign up in advance with the City Clerk prior to their participation. Mayor Abramowitz OPENED and CLOSED the Public Participation with no response. With no further business, Mayor Abramowitz ADJOURNED this meeting at 12:00 p.m. INORMAN ABRAM( MAYOR CAROL A. EVANS CITY CLERK "This public document was promulgated at a cost of $106 71 or $3.93 per copy to inform the general public, public off"_cers and employees of recent opinions and considerations of the City Council of the City of Tamarac." APPROVED AT MEETING OF -2 a City Clerk