HomeMy WebLinkAbout1994-06-06 - City Commission Workshop Meeting MinutesCity Council Workshop Meeting *Revised 6/16/94
6/06/94/KR *Revised 7/27/94
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CITY OF TAMARAC
CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP
MONDAY, JUNE 6, 1994
CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Norman Abramowitz called this meeting to
order on Monday, June 6, 1994, at 10:00 a.m. in Conference Room #1
of Tamarac City Hall, 7525 Northwest 88th Avenue, Tamarac,
Florida.
PRESENT:
ABSENT:
Mayor Norman Abramowitz
Vice Mayor Irving Katz
Councilwoman Sharon Machek
Councilman Larry Mishkin
Councilman Joseph Schreiber
ALSO PRESENT:
Robert S. Noe, Jr., City Manager
Mitchell S. Kraft, City Attorney
Carol A. Evans, CIVIC, City Clerk
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1. Chartgr Amendments
Mayor Abramowitz said he called Jane Carroll's office on Friday,
June 3, 1994 and asked them to reserve room for the City of
Tamarac for at least four Charter amendments and possibly five. He
stated that the indication from her office was that this could be a
very busy election and space was not certain.
1.a. Temporary Ordinance #1683, Revision #2 & Revision
#3 to place a Charter Amendment on the September 8, 1994,
ballot to change the Charter Board from an elected to an
appointed board.
Mayor Abramowitz said the first Ordinance revision dealt with
changing the Charter Board from an elected to an appointed board.
He stated these items would come before the City Council at the
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next election and now was the chance to make final revisions and
changes. He said the intent of the Council was to put before the
public the question of whether the Charter Board should be an
appointed body instead of an elected body.
Mayor Abramowitz asked the Council for consensus.
CONSENSUS OF OPINION:
ALL AGREED
Mayor Abramowitz stated the second item concerned the method by
which the appointed members of the Board were chosen.
V/M Katz said in previous years all appointments were done by
majority vote of Council. He stated his original intent, when he
suggested the revision, was to have appointments and removals by
majority vote of Council and to have each district represented.
V/M Katz stated he hoped the Mayor would defer to the entire
Council for majority vote for an At -Large member of the Charter
Board.
Mayor Abramowitz said he made a suggestion to the Council to
proceed in this manner in order to take the politics out of the
Charter Board. He said he had received numerous calls from
individuals stating this would only increase the political aspect of
what the Council was doing.
Mayor Abramowitz said the only way to remove the politics, to the
best of the Council's ability, would be to appoint Charter Board by
Council action and majority vote.
V/M Katz stated his desire to have every district represented on all
boards and committees.
Mayor Abramowitz stated the removal of a Charter Board member
should be done by majority vote of Council. Discussion took place
regarding scenarios of appointments.
Mayor Abramowitz said a Council person from a specific district
would make a suggestion for that district and any other Council
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person would be allowed to also make a nomination for that district.
Further discussion took place regarding appointment scenarios.
Attorney Kraft asked what the term of office for the appointments
would be for the Charter Board. Mayor Abramowitz said he did not
think one year was long enough.
C/W Machek said she foresaw in the future having the Charter Board
meet every three or four years and thus one year terms would make
sense.
Mayor Abramowitz said getting everyone to be finished at the same
time would be difficult. He asked for a consensus for three year
terms.
CONSENSUS OF OPINION: ALL AGREED
Attorney Kraft said he would make the revisions.
Mayor Abramowitz said three members of the Charter Board would
be up for election in 1995. He suggested, if the referendum passed,
appointing the first three to a term ending when the other two
members' terms were completed in 1996. At that point, all five
members could be appointed to the Charter Board and their terms of
office would coincide.
V/M Katz asked if the members could offer their resignation and
then be reappointed. Mayor Abramowitz said there would be people
who would not resign.
Mayor Abramowitz said if the referendum passed, transitional
appointments could be made until the other two terms were
completed.
Mr. Kraft suggested stating in his revisions that District's 1, 3, and
At -Large would be appointed to terms until ending in 1996.
C/M Mishkin suggested having staggering terms .to end the transition
problem. Mayor Abramowitz said he thought the smartest think to do
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would be to have everyone start and finish at the same time.
Discussion took place regarding three year terms.
Mr. Noe questioned why the term had to be in the Charter. Mayor
Abramowitz stated he wanted every bit of information that the
public should know included in the Charter before they make a
decision.
Mr. Noe stated he thought the thrust should be to clean up the
Charter as much as possible and make it simple like the U.S.
Constitution. Mayor Abramowitz said he felt anything that could be
put into the Charter to make it more understandable to the public
belonged in it.
CONSENSUS OF OPINION:
ALL AGREED
1.b. Temporary Ordinance #1684 to place a Charter Amendment
on the September 8, 1994, ballot to eliminate Charter Board
appointments to the Redistricting Committee and to reduce the
number of Redistricting Committee members.
Mayor Abramowitz asked Mr. Kraft what the Charter said about the
number of members on the Redistricting Committee. Mr. Kraft
stated the Charter currently provided for nine members, four
appointed by the Council, four appointed by the Charter Board and
one appointed by the committee itself. Discussion was held
regarding the number of Redistricting Committee members.
Mr. Kraft stated, with the revision, the number of members of the
Redistricting Committee would be reduced from nine to five and the
number of votes needed to adopt a report would be reduced from five
to three.
CONSENSUS OF OPINION:
ALL AGREED
Discussion took place regarding who had the final say on the
Redistricting Committee.
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1.c. Temporary Ordinance #1654 to place a Charter Amendment
on the September 8, 1994, ballot to change the method of
determining Mayor and Councilmember salaries.
Mayor Abramowitz said there were graphs available showing
salaries of elected officials in other cities. Discussion took place
regarding the job and age of Councilpeople.
C/W Machek verified Mayor Abramowitz's statement about her
financial structure being limited.
Mayor Abramowitz said he felt the method used in the proposed
Ordinance was fair and intelligent. He stated as the City grew the
responsibilities of the Councilmen grew and their work would get
longer and harder.
V/M Katz said the formula the proposed salaries was set up on was
formed by the State Legislature and used by County Commissioners
and many other cities to fund salaries. He stated the amount of time
he spent doing the City's work averaged approximately thirty hours
per week.
Discussion took place regarding salaries.
CONSENSUS OF OPINION:
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1.d. Temporary Ordinance #1 f $9 to place a Charter
Amendment on the September 8,1994, ballot to change City Council
to City Commission and Councilmembers to Commissioners.
Mayor Abramowitz said he received calls regarding the expense that
would be incurred by changing from City Council to City Commission.
He stated the Council would not throw everything away that said
City Council but would probably change the name plaques in the
Council Chamber.
CONSENSUS OF OPINION: ALL AGREED
2. Cable Television - Customer Service.
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Mayor Abramowitz stated, in a letter received from Mr. Liebowitz,
he indicated that when a new franchise application and/or Ordinance
came into effect in this City and there were service agreements or
mandates in the new Ordinance, anyone who held a franchise would
have 90 days to meet the specifications of the service part of the
new Ordinance. Mr. Kraft agreed with Mayor Abramowitz's
statement.
I-r_uo W
Mayor Abramowitz asked the Council to review the proposed
Ordinance and decide if the proposed mandated services would be
commanded of Continental if the Ordinance was passed.
V/M Katz asked if a new franchise agreement would be more
stringent than what currently was in place, why would it not be in
everyone's best interest to enforce it. Discussion took place
regarding stipulations of the proposed Ordinance.
Mr. Kraft stated he gathered comments of staff as well as his own
and sent them to Liebowitz for input and review and will meet once
they have had a chance to read them over.
Mayor Abramowitz stated there was another party interested in a
cable franchise in Tamarac.
Mayor Abramowitz stated he did not feel a $3,500 non-refundable
application fee that would be credited towards the franchise fee
was enough. He said if a prospective franchiser was not legitimate
they would not come up with $3,500. Discussion took place
regarding an appropriate amount for an application fee.
Mayor Abramowitz said the City Council needed to determine how
much a franchise was worth.
Mayor Abramowitz said he hoped the next workshop could be aimed
toward the proposed Cable Television franchise agreement. V/M
Katz expressed his hope that the workshop would be held when all
members of Council could attend.
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Mayor Abramowitz said he understood V/M Katz's point but Council
meetings and workshops were always held on Mondays and he hoped
all Council members could make the meetings.
City Manager Noe said the City was always looking for new revenue
sources. He said the application fee should be just an application
fee because processing each application would take money and would
be done whether the applicant got the franchise or not. He said he
would like to separate the franchise and application fees so the City
would get both and one would not count for the other.
Mayor Abramowitz did not agree with Mr. Noe because if an applicant
did not get a franchise, the money they put up would be non-
refundable. He stated if the applicant would get a franchise he
hoped the franchise fee would be to the point where the City would
not have to subsidize it.
Mayor Abramowitz stated he did not want to dissuade anyone from
coming into the City and providing Cable Service.
V/M Katz voiced his concern that the amount of revenue from Cable
franchises would be the same even if ten franchises were in the
City. He said he did not foresee many more people subscribing to
Cable than those who already have it. Mayor Abramowitz said if the
price would go up then that was how the City would get it's three
percent.
V/M Katz said in the future Southern Bell may be allowed to provide
Cable Service. He said right now they do not have to pay a franchise
fee to the City according to the law.
V/M Katz said the City was losing money from FP&L because people
had decided to save money by shutting off their electricity for a few
hours a day. He stated the amount of revenue that had been reduced
from this had to be made up somewhere else.
V/M Katz said the same thing would happen when Southern Bell,
AT&T or another provider of that nature came in and provided a
service and the franchise fee would not be applicable towards them.
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He said the City had better start looking for another way to get the
money from those providers.
Mayor Abramowitz said Tamarac was in serious trouble up until a
year and a half ago. He said the lack of development kept the City
alive. He stated the Ad Valorem taxes paid 18% of the City's
expenses and last year the City lost $27 million in assessed
valuation.
Mayor Abramowitz said his colleagues could not understand how
Tamarac got by with only a 3% tax on Cable TV and no Utility Tax. He
said the world had changed and the City was mandated to do services
now that they did not have to do before.
Mayor Abramowitz said Tamarac had the cheapest rates in resource
recovery and garbage in Broward County. He said when the Broward
County Commission charges the City close to $1.80 a month for a
single family home and about $1.40 for a multi -family home, the
public will be upset but Tamarac will be forced to do this.
Mayor Abramowitz said a suggestion was made at a Resource
Recovery Board meeting that every City in Broward County
contribute $5,000 to get the top people in the country to review the
arrangement made with Waste Management and with Wheel-A-
Brator. Discussion was held regarding sources of waste collection
in Tamarac.
V/M Katz said the problem was that there were different scales
depending on who was pocketing the money. He said Waste
Management would dump at their site instead of taking it to Wheel-
A-Brator. He said when hurricane debris was hauled from Dade and
Monroe Counties, Dade County charged an additional fee to Waste
Management's and the total was still less than what the City Council
paid. Further discussion was held regarding garbage.
C/W Machek asked for information regarding the history of
Woodmont Gardens ACLF and Mayor Abramowitz discussed the
history.
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Mr. Kraft said it was the view of Howard Whitaker that the City
could not be held liable for bond default. Further discussion was
held regarding the bonds.
Mayor Abramowitz said there was a very serious situation regarding
the revenue of the City. He stated when the City Manager told the
Council there was a surplus he did not state the reason was because
there were a number of unfilled positions within the City. He said
he felt Tamarac was at its crossroads.
Mayor Abramowitz stated he had received a guarantee that when City
Council would put a shovel in the ground in Land Section 7, Pritzger
would do the same.
He said in the event the extension of DRI collapsed he wanted the
City Attorney to have documentation available. Vice Mayor Katz said
there was no problem with that and the group would forfeit their DRI
if it collapsed. Discussion followed regarding Land Section 7.
City Manager Noe stated he did not know if any members of City
Council had sensitivity towards Hollywood but the person who
emerged for the job of Budget Officer was an employee from
Hollywood.
Mayor Abramowitz said he understood the subject was very
sensitive. He said he had confidence in Mr. Noe's ability to pick an
individual capable of fulfilling their perspective duties and he did
not care where the person came from.
C/M Mishkin and V/M Katz said they concurred with what Mayor
Abramowitz had stated.
Mayor Abramowitz said Mr. Hawthorne, a recent hiree of Mr. Noe's,
seemed to be well received in the Finance Department. He said he
wanted to form his own opinion of new employees.
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With no further business, Mayor Abramowitz ADJOURNED the
meeting at 1 1:30 a.m.
Carol A. Evans, CIVIC
City Clerk
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