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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1993-08-17 - City Commission Workshop Meeting MinutesCity Council Workshop Meeting 08/17/93/KJ Page 1 CITY OF TAMARAC CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1993 CALL TO ORpZA; Mayor Bender called this meeting to order on Tuesday, August 17, 1993 at 9:00 a.m. in the Conference Room #1 of City Hall. Mayor H. Larry Bender Vice Mayor Irving Katz Councilman Norman Abramowitz Councilman Henry Schumann Councilman Joseph Schreiber John P. Kelly, City Manager Dina McDermott, Assistant City Manager Mitchell Kraft, City Attorney Thelma Fagelbaum, Deputy Finance Director Karen Willard, Comptroller Michael Couzzo, Assistant City Manager/Director of Public Services Larry DuPre, Personnel Director Mike Vonder Meulen, Senior Planner Gordon Sparks, Deputy City Engineer Karen Jackson, Secretary Mayor Bender added Item 4 to the agenda and stated that the item would be taken out of sequence due to the number of people present for this item. 4. DISCUSSION regarding the crossing guards. Mr. Kelly said during the previous Council meeting, Council indicated that more information was needed regarding the proposed contract for crossing guards to get a feel of what was taking place. He said Mr. DuPre has completed most of this work and would like to give Council an update. Larry DuPre, Personnel Director, said some of the contract requirements have been revised. He said he will be meeting with the City Attorney to review these changes following the meeting. Mr. DuPre said this contract came about because of the City's concerns that the Code Enforcement Officers are spending a lot of time working as School Crossing Guards. He said the absenteeism record has been excessive with absences totaling 266 man hours in a three-month period equaling 88 days if divided by the three hours per day that they normally work. Mr. DuPre said the City searched for someone to provide a service that would allow the City to no longer use Code Enforcement Officers as School Crossing Guards, eliminate the general liability to the City, and worker's compensation. He said the City also wanted to ensure that the company which was chosen would offer positions to every present School Crossing Guard, that no one would lose their job and that only Tamarac residents would be recruited to fill these positions. Mr. DuPre said it was also requested that the School Crossing Guards would be permanently assigned to their station so that the children could develop a relationship of trust with the guards. He said the guards presently working a particular post would be retained at that post. He said the City would have the opportunity City Council Workshop Meeting 08/17/93/KJ Page 2 to review the performance and,be able to terminate the contract if the services they provided were not sufficient. He said it appears that these concerns have been satisfied. Mr. DuPre said he has spoken with Bill Bell, Principal of Tamarac Elementary, regarding this and it is his understanding that Mr. Bell's concerns have also been met. Mr. DuPre said there are 3 or 4 School Crossing Guards that are currently being paid $8.50 per hour. He said if a new company takes this over, their salary will be cut in half and the other 8 will remain at their current salary. C/M Abramowitz said this is not a new situation. He said this happened in the past couple of years. He said during previous meetings there were statements made by concerned parents regarding fairness. Discussion was held regarding this. C/M Abramowitz said he wants the City to have the ability to terminate this contract if the appropriate service is not received. He said it is Council's responsibility to the health, safety and welfare of the residents in the City. V/M Katz said the exposure to the City in any case, would cost the City an inordinate amount of money, due to being the employer of the School Crossing Guards if there is any hint of negligence. Mr. Kraft said the issue of claims bills is not easily put through the Legislature, but it has been known to happen. He said the City does have a certain amount of exposure with the School Crossing Guards if they work directly for the City as well as if they work for an outside company. He said the City will be writing a contract in such a way that they are independent contractors and will try to minimize the City's exposure. He advised Council not to think that by hiring an outside contractor that the City is removed from liability completely. C/M Schreiber asked if the City will have a Hold Harmless Agreement and Mr. Kraft said the City will have a Hold Harmless Agreement and insurance. He said these are all things which need to be worked into the contract. V/M Katz asked if consideration has been given to the right to terminate an individual, which he would like in the contract. Mr. Kraft said the ways in which the City maintains this as an independent contractor are the details of the contract. He said the final result of the contract is what deciphers an independent contractor relationship. He said if the City starts to control the details of the relationship, such as who is hired, their station and other such items, then the relationship can be pierced and the City could be in a master/servant relationship and the City would lose all of those protections. V/M Katz said his concern would be if there was a problem with a particular guard and the contractor is performing satisfactorily, there needs to be a review and there has to be a way to state to the contractor that this guard is not performing properly. Mr. Kelly said this scenario applies to every contractor that currently works for the City. He said if an engineering firm is working for the City and the City is unhappy with an individual working for the firm, the City speaks with the President of the firm and requests a different individual. V/M Katz asked who would provide the training for the Crossing Guards. Mr. DuPre said under the proposed agreement, prior to the Wednesday night Council meeting, it was under the City of Pompano 1 F 7 i LJ 1 City Council Workshop Meeting 08/17/93/KJ Page 3 contract, which the City would piggyback onto. He said the City of Pompano has a Police Department and part of their contract provides for their Police Department to train the guards. He said it is believed that if the guards are trained by the City, the City would accept the liability for their actions. Mr. DuPre said this would allow for the individual to claim that he was not trained properly. He said the proposed contract is going to state that the company will be responsible for the training. Discussion was held regarding this. C/M Schreiber said based on the information that the Personnel Director has indicated, it is incumbent upon Council to seriously consider going into this outside contract. He said the only concern he has refers to the three crossing guards who are currently being paid $8.50 per hour. He suggested that the City make an allowance for these three guards and possibly increase the $4.25 to $6.00 or a reasonable amount. C/M Schreiber said there is no need for a crossing guard at the overpass on University Drive. He said Council may want to consider other areas that do need crossing guards in the future. C/M Schumann asked how many crossing guards would be on duty per day and Mr. DuPre said eleven with one supervisor. C/M Schumann said he would like to see a contract bond with specific performance running to the favor of the City by the contractor if the City goes into this. Mr. DuPre said Pompano does not have a lot in the way of protection in their contract and all agreed. Mayor Bender asked what the City has done to correct the situation using its own crossing guards. He asked if this is a situation that is beyond correction. Mr. Kelly said the situation was evaluated, but it never resolved the key issue of the City's liability exposure. He said it would cost the City a small amount of money to hire a few more crossing guards, but the liability to the City is costly. Mr. DuPre said the City considered moving the crossing guards under the Risk Management Department, but this would be quite an administrative task due to the absenteeism and having people on standby. He said it was also considered to place them under the Recreation Department, but no matter where the City looked at moving them, the exposure and the administrative task as opposed to the dollars to be spent to have a person supervise them daily, was not feasible. Mayor Bender asked if it is possible to hire temporary employees from temporary agencies. Mr. Kraft said these people would have to have the proper training. Mr. DuPre said he has discussed this with the temporary employment agencies but there are problems with this. He said this is when the worse fears of the School Board and the residents of Tamarac are realized. He said at present, there are no companies which have Tamarac residents as temporaries and their people do not know the traffic flow or the children in Tamarac, which is the least viable of options. C/M Abramowitz said the amount of absenteeism of the crossing guards is what disturbs him the most. Discussion was held regarding the history of the crossing guard program. C/M Abramowitz said as an elected official, he has the obligation City Council Workshop Meetingµ 08/17/93/KJ Page 4 to look at the ramifications of what occurs and the exposure to the City. He said Council is extremely concerned about the children. He said the City cannot allow the Code Enforcement officers to continue doing crossing guard duty due to absenteeism because they are unable to do their own work. Maureen Miller, resident, stated the reasons that various crossing guards were absent. She said the intersection at Bailey Road is shared by Tamarac and North Lauderdale and is a liability issue. C/M Abramowitz said a crossing guard is stationed there at the request of the Broward County School Board. Ms. Miller suggested that North Lauderdale provide the crossing guard at this intersection. Mr. DUPre said the City has written a letter to the Broward County Traffic Engineering Department regarding the fact that the School Board wants the crossing guard at this location and that it is believed that North Lauderdale should provide this guard. Further discussion was held regarding the reasons for the absences of the various crossing guards and the reduction of their salaries upon returning to work. Mr. Kelly said Council adopted the salary rate of $4.25 per hour for crossing guards and Staff was directed to reduce the salaries as people left their jobs. Further discussion was held regarding this. Discussion was held regarding the Code Enforcement officers being trained as crossing guards. Ms. Miller said her concern is that if the City wants to privatize, it would only be fair that the crossing guards who are currently making $8.50 per hour, maintain the current rate of pay upon privatization. Mayor Bender asked if it would be possible for the City to provide a subsidy to the three individuals who are currently making $8.50 per hour upon privatization. He said the contractor does not want to pay the crossing guards this amount of money. He asked if there would be a liability issue involved with this. Mr. Kraft said if the City is going to privatize, then this should be done, but if the City is going to be paying a supplement to various crossing guards, they would clearly be City employees and the City would lose whatever protection against liability it may have had. He said he has not had any negotiations with this contractor to present, but specific situations may be negotiated. He said as far as the City dictating who should be paid what should be a detail that the City avoid. Mr. DuPre explained the situation involving the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) stipulations and regulations. He recommended that the City is careful regarding these issues. Further discussion was held regarding this. Mayor Bender requested that the City Attorney review the proposed contract and provide Council with the information. Mary Trautman, resident and Supervisor of Crossing Guards, requested that the City consider hiring two or three crossing guards at a little higher rate and allow them to try to work out the problems currently at hand prior to privatization. C/M Schreiber said this is overlooking the reason for privatizing which is to eliminate the liability exposure of the City. He said the City has been very fortunate in the past with this, but the exposure remains. City Council Workshop Meeting 08/17/93/KJ Page 5 TAPE 2 Further discussion was held regarding the crossing guards. V/M Katz said Council understands the position of the parents on this issue. He said anyone who wants to work as a crossing guard may apply to this agency and will be considered for the job. He said the monetary situation should be a part of the negotiation posture and the Council's decision. Mayor Bender said the City recently did a survey of crossing guard salaries from various agencies. He said this information is available for review. He said the City of Tamarac paid one of the highest rates in the survey. Ms. Trautman said she and Code Enforcement Officer Millie Hammel contacted the area cities regarding the crossing guard salaries. Mr. DuPre said usually salary surveys are done by the Personnel Department because they tend to have a more unbiased view. He said there is always a danger in doing salary surveys. Cindy Cohen, resident, expressed her opinions regarding the crossing guard situation. Mr. Kelly said Staff will prepare a package which will address the concerns of Council for review at the next Council meeting. C/M Abramowitz requested that Council receive the proposed contract in ample time for review. Mayor Bender suggested that the proposed contract be made available to others. 1. CO1�L�TION of the 1993/94 budget review workshops and City overview of the budget. City Attorney - Page 35 Mr. Kelly said the bulk of the recommended budget for this under Line Item 309 and 312, is where the increase under Labor Relations and Legal Services is involved. Mr. Kraft said he reviewed the budget from the last time Labor Relations occurred and the Legal Services has increased due to matters which have been handled out of the City Attorney's office regarding litigation and prosecution services. Mr. Kelly said Mr. Kraft could have left this in the Personnel area but it was felt that it would be more appropriate under the City Attorney's budget. C/M Abramowitz asked if this is the same salary as when the City Attorney was hired and Mr. Kelly said, no. C/M Abramowitz referred to Marion Swenson's position. Mr. Kraft said Ms. Swenson was hired as a legal secretary at $24,000.00 and was increased during the last budget to $24,960.00. He said he has proposed that she be reclassified as a Paralegal to a salary of $26,961.00. He said she is a Certified Paralegal from Barry University and is the only other employee in the office and does far more than a Secretary. Mr. Kraft said she functions as a true Paralegal and is involved in the discovery flow, interrogatories, requests for production, drafts letters and makes phone calls on behalf of the department. Mr. Kraft said his proposal was $28,961.00, which is in keeping with the salary survey of similar positions in other attorneys City Council Workshop Meeting 08/17/93/KJ Page 6 offices. C/M Abramowitz asked what her current salary is and Mr. Kraft said she currently makes $24,960.00. Mr. Kelly said he denied all reclassifications throughout the City, but conceded on $2,300.00 for this position because it is somewhat out of his purview. He said Ms. Swenson does work directly with the City Attorney, who is an appointed official. He said his concern in giving this amount of an increase which was inordinate. Further discussion was held regarding the work done by Ms. Swenson in the City Attorney's office and the proposed reclassification and salary increase. Mr. Kelly said the City is currently involved with labor negotiations and is not a good time to make reclassifications. C/M Abramowitz said if Ms. Swenson is doing a Paralegal's job, then change her job classification to a Paralegal. Mr. Kraft said his job is not to make anyone's bargaining position worse, but is to help alleviate some of the problems that the City faces. He said the City Attorney's staff is not a comparable staff with Union negotiations. Mayor Bender said the Paralegal position has the ability to recoup money for the City. Mr. Kraft said Ms. Swenson has saved the City an abundant amount of money in legal fees for special counsel by having her coordinate the legal documents. C/M Schreiber said he has no objections to raising some salaries providing that more productivity can be achieved by that person. He said he would like to see the City Attorney's office do more litigation. He said 95% of the lawsuits are settled and not tried. Mayor Bender said the City Attorney does not have the time to do litigation. He said he is finding that a lot of correspondence being generated by the City Attorney's office for Council is useless and Council needs to stop sending the Attorney requests to investigate everything so that he will have the time to do what he is supposed to do. Further discussion was held regarding this. Mr. Kraft said litigation is very time consuming for a one -person law office. He said litigation is one of the more enjoyable activities of being an attorney. He said he had told Council when he was being considered for hire that his job is not to save the City money, but to make sure the City is represented and he is not able to tell Council that he can do everything. He said he has taken a more active role in special counsel cases. He said there are several big cases pending which are also quite time consuming. Mayor Bender said Council needs to be a little more prudent when generating their requests to the City Attorney. He said it behooves everyone to do a little research on their own and if it is still not clarified, then write a letter. Mr. Kelly said the budget proposal Council has before them reflects a 10% increase for Ms. Swenson. He said no other confidentials are getting an increase at all. He recommended that Council provide the 10% increase. He said he is prepared to support the Attorney's proposal for a reclassification for the total amount that he is requesting, but it is inappropriate at this time and recommended that Council defer it until after the negotiations. Mr. Kraft requested that Council give consideration for the City Council Workshop Me4tiftqih 08/17/93/KJ Page 7 reclassification at this time. C/M Schreiber referred to Item #329-Prosecution Services and questioned the recommendation for $20,000.00 for this year and the actual encumbrance till June was $1,795.00. He asked if the City needs the $20,000.00 encumbered. Mr. Kraft said Legal Services and Prosecution Services should be lumped together as one because it seems that he moves money from one account to the other to pay legal bills at the end of the year. Further discussion was held regarding this. V/M Katz asked if there are any legal expenses contributed to Risk Management and Mr. Kraft said some of the legal expenses are paid on the liability cases from the Risk Management budget. V/M Katz asked who has the right to authorize legal expenditures from the Risk Management budget and Mr. Kelly said the City Attorney and the Risk Manager have the authorization to sign off on the bills. Mayor Bender recommended that a record be maintained of the costs by the Risk Manager. C/M Abramowitz suggested that the reclassification of Ms. Swenson be done at this time. He also recommended the 10% increase with a 90 day review and six month probationary period with a possible escalation later. Discussion was held regarding the proposed salary increase and reclassification. Mayor Bender asked where the dollar amount was generated for the reclassification and Mr. Kraft said the amount of $28,961.00 came from the Personnel Director for the job classification. Mayor Bender asked for an Expression of Interest on this item. C/M Schreiber said he wanted to secure the City Manager's position which Mr. Kelly felt was an exposure for the labor negotiations. He said he is not opposed to the amount and the reclassification. C/M Schumann and C/M Abramowitz agreed to go with the reclassification. Mr. Kelly said listed are potential adjustments Council was looking to consider. He said there are $49,000.00 worth of modifications needed to be done in order to comply with the ADA Building Requirement Act. Mr. Kelly said there was discussion regarding the Social Services bus. He said the City can do a 5 year lease/purchase between $8,240.00 and $25,000.00 depending on what the City gets. Mr. Kelly said the showmobile lease/purchase can be done for $8,240.00. He said the street sweeper can be included in the Storm Water Management Utility District if this is approved by Council. Mr. Kelly said these will bring the budget to approximately a 5% increase, depending on what the Council approved. He said at present there is a 15% increase but if Council approved the Water Management District, there will be a 5% increase. He said if the above items are removed from the proposed budget an adjusted roll back increase will remain of 3.87% and there will be an increase over the current millage of 2.47%. C/M Abramowitz asked if the ADA requirements are mandatory and Mr. Kelly said they have to be done somehow. C/M Schreiber asked if all of these requirements have to be done City Council Workshop Meeting 08/17/93/KJ Page 8 during this fiscal year. Mr. Kelly said Council controls the budget but something has to be done. C/M Abramowitz said he would like to get a handle on the Social Services bus. Mayor Bender said he checked into this. He said the bus is available and it behooves the City to explore this for all of the facts. C/M Abramowitz said the showmobile is something that the City needs and is a very valuable asset. He said there are brochures on the street sweeper to be reviewed. Mr. Kelly said the current budget would be an increase of 2.47%, but if the potentials are added in, there would be an increase of 5.1%. TAPE 3 Further discussion was held regarding the potential budget items. Mr. Kelly said the street sweeper would go under the Stormwater Management Utility District, which would not affect the budget. He said the $49,000.00 will and the $8,240.00 for the lease/purchase for the showmobile will affect it and whatever is done with the Social Services bus. C/M Schumann asked if $2.00 per month on the water bill is going to cover the Stormwater Management and Mr. Kelly said, yes. Discussion was held regarding the County's proposal for canal maintenance. Mr. Kelly said with what was just discussed, ADA Building Requirements are $49,000.00, the showmobile will be a lease/purchase of $8,240.00, which leaves, within the framework of the $76,902.00 which was subtracted, $19,662.00 to be applied to the purchase or lease of the Social Services bus which comes back to the 5.1% increase. C/M Abramowitz asked what the cost would be associated with driving the bus. Mr. Kelly said the City currently has drivers. Further discussion was held regarding this. Mayor Bender asked what the total dollar figure is and Mr. Kelly said the money going back in would be $76,902.00. Discussion was held regarding the possible various annual tax increases. Mr. Kelly said if Council approves going with this budget, the millage rate would be 5.1% and the annual tax increase would be $17.90 to someone with a $25,000 home. Mayor Bender asked how much the millage would decrease if the City utilized the $100,000.00 from FP&L and Mr. Kelly said approximately 1..5%. Mayor Bender said it behooves the City to take $100,000.00 from the FP&L Reserve Fund and add it to the budget for balancing. He said the City may receive additional monies throughout the year from the cable and electric companies, based upon the MAS audit. He said the City is entitled to take $250,000.00 from the FP&L Escrow Account and the City is able to take $125,000.00 immediately because the City has already complied with all of the requirements to do this. E L 1 City Council Workshop MeetingOz,ux�a; 08/17/93/KJ Page 9 Mayor Bender recommended that the City use $100,000.00 of this money and reduce the percentage of the millage. Ms. Fagelbaum said she would meet with the Mayor to review this. V/M Katz said the City has not had a major emergency to date and the City does not have the money to fund an emergency. He said Council is looking to deplete it's Reserve Fund. He asked where the money would come from if an emergency occurs. Discussion was held regarding this. C/M Abramowitz questioned the City's right to utilize this money. C/M Schumann said the City has $125,000.00 to use according to the contract. V/M Katz said for the sake of reducing the millage, the City will be left without funds for an emergency situation. Further discussion was held regarding this. C/M Abramowitz said 28% of the people in the City pay no tax at all and 58% to 60% of the people pay less than $100.00 per year to the City of Tamarac. He said a utility tax would provide that everyone in the City will pay. C/M Schumann said a 5% increase is not something to lose sleep over. He said everything today is rising and people know it. He said 5% on the Tamarac tax rate is nothing. He recommended a 5% utility tax be created and reduce the ad valorem, which would include everyone paying the taxes. Further discussion was held. C/M Schumann said he finds nothing wrong with the 5 or 6% ad valorem increase. V/M Katz said he would not want to do more than what has been done at present and C/M Abramowitz agreed. 2. DISCUSSION regarding the Stormwater Management Utility District proposal. C/M Abramowitz recommended that the City establish the Stormwater Management Utility District, with the proviso that prior to his voting on this, it would have to be an Enterprise Fund and Mr. Kelly said it is. C/M Abramowitz requested the three classifications upon which the City can utilize this. Mr. Kelly said the Stormwater Management Utility District program covers more than canals, but also the runoff and pollutants that affect the stormwater. He said everyone is affected by the stormwater. Mike Couzzo, Director of Public Services, said in the budget there was a list of items that are currently operational and travel expenditures that are being proposed for next year that will be funded from the generation of revenues from this account. Mr. Couzzo said the City will be additionally generating more revenues and those could be utilized to supplement the current maintenance of the canal program by contracting it out. He said there have been a number of different companies contacted and a variety of proposals have been received as to how to treat the existing condition which could range up to $500,000.00 next year. Mr. Couzzo said an engineering report was presented to Mr. Kelly which identifies three different means in which to generate the City Council Workshop Meeting,, 08/17/93/KJ Page 10 revenue from three different types of categories: residential, improved properties and non -improved properties. C/M Abramowitz asked why the non -improved properties cannot be identified as vacant land and Mr. Couzzo said there may be some land that has been altered slightly but may still be vacant. Mr. Couzzo said there are three different fee structures associated with the different categories. Discussion was held regarding the definition of vacant property. C/M Abramowitz asked if every property is included in this and Mr. Couzzo said, yes. C/M Abramowitz asked if there is anyone escaping this and Mr. Couzzo said the schools, religious organizations and governmental agencies may or may not be included. Mayor Bender said Council should give direction to proceed with this and then have the City Manager pursue more information for Council's review and ALL AGREED. Mr. Kelly said the method of assessment will be refined and brought back to Council for review. Mr. Kelly said Council needs to hold a meeting for a Motion to Approve $5,000.00 for the purchase of chemicals for aquatic weed control. He said the City is getting low on the chemicals needed to continue the treatment of the canals. C/M Abramowitz said there was a request brought to the Board of Directors of the Broward League of Cities from the City of Fort Lauderdale for a change in the allocation of the proposed new gas tax. He said support from the Broward League for this is not going to happen. He said on August 24, 1993, at the Fort Lauderdale City Hall Commission Chambers, a meeting will be held regarding the gas tax proposal. Discussion was held regarding this. 3. 21SCfSION regarding the Pulte Homes project. Mr. Kelly said Council should have received a letter from Tim Hernandez of Pulte Homes asking for assistance in moving some text amendments and site plans through the City processes. Mike Vonder Meulen, Senior Planner, said Pulte Homes has two major developments pending site plan approval at the City Council level. He said the reason they have not been brought forward to date is due to Pulte Homes requesting that the fees be changed from the time of payment at the time of final_ site plan approval to other appropriate times, such as obtaining engineering permits or building permits. Mr. Vonder Meulen said the local traffic impact fees have been brought before Council and all of the additional fees, water and sewer, potable water and other engineering -type fees, will be piggy -backed along with this. He said he has copies of a draft ordinance which has been revised to meet the requirements. He said there will be additional changes to some of the wording to address some of the concerns of the Engineering Department. Mr. Vonder Meulen said this delays the payment of fees and a Developer's Agreement will be created showing the phasing of the fees and how they will be broken down. C/M Abramowitz asked what the proposal is and Staff's recommendations. Mr. Vonder Meulen said Staff would recommend approval of this. He said the change is not in the sum or a reduction of fees, but is City Council Workshop Meeting4 08/17/93/KJ Page 11 at the time that they make payment. He said this proposal is for payments to be made which are broken down into increments of 25 units instead of at final site plan approval,. V/M Katz asked at what phase construction will this take place or what phase of completion of the site plan. Mr. Vonder Meulen said it would be prior to the issuance of a building permit. C/M Abramowitz asked what gets paid prior to the issuance of a building permit. Mr. Vonder Meulen said a minimum of the fees, meaning whatever is in Phase I of the particular project. V/M Katz said this is a misquote. He said it is not a minimum of the fees, but is all of the fees that are due to that point. Discussion was held regarding this. C/M Abramowitz asked if there is a way to guarantee completion of the project if the developer has difficulty selling the units he already built and does not build more at this time. Mr. Vonder Meulen said there are no guarantees that he would complete the job, even if the fees were paid up front. C/M Abramowitz asked if there is a way to guarantee that he finish what he begins. He asked if there is a possibility of having the property as escrow versus a non-payment. Mr. Kraft said there could be a bond against the completion of the job. C/M Schreiber said Pulte Homes is asking the City to finance them. He said Pulte Homes is a major builder. He said letting them pay in this manner may affect the.budget in the future. C/M Abramowitz asked if the City will give a proposed developer an opportunity to come into the City and begin a project without putting up the appropriate fees. C/M Schreiber asked how this would affect other developers. He said once this is done for Pulte Homes, it would have to be done for others. He asked how this will affect the City financially. C/M Abramowitz said the City cannot spend what it does not have. V/M Katz said there are four major land owners in the City, Pulte Homes, Lennar Homes, Leadership Housing and Land Section 7. He asked what happens to the DRI in Land Section South if the Code is to be changed for this. Further discussion was held regarding this. V/M Katz asked which section of the Code would have to be amended if there was an owner in Land Section 7. Mr. Vonder Meulen said the impact fees are collected due to the building units causing an impact. He said if those homes are not going to be developed, then there is no impact and no reason to collect those fees. TAPE 4 C/M Schreiber said the fees are collected at the time of the site plan approval at present. Mr. Vonder Meulen said to try to draw a comparison, there is Lennar Homes, who has Kings Point, which has over 5,000 units; however, Lennar Homes does not pay the City impact fees for 5,400 City Council Workshop Meeting 08/17/93/KJ Page 12 units at present. He said Lennar'Homes has broken their project down into sub -projects, such as Malvern, Lombardy and so on. He said Lennar Homes pays their impact fees based on these projects. Mr. Vonder Meulen said Pulte Homes has a different land situation and land configuration. He said they plan on constructing over 1,300 units; however, they do not want to pay the impact fees up front. He said they would like to break their project into sub- projects similar to Lennar Homes. He said the City does not recognize this because it is one large land parcel and they are site planning it all at once. He said it will take seven to ten years to complete the project that they are proposing. Mr. Vonder Meulen referred to the concerns regarding Land Section 7 and its impact fees. He said the City has addressed the 25 residential units in the Ordinance, but did not address commercial or industrial concerns. He said if a commercial or industrial developer comes in and site plans more than one building at a time, that person would have to pay the impact fees on all buildings on that site plan at that time; however, they can approach the City with one building at a time and pay the impact fees on those buildings. Mr. Vonder Meulen said if they do bring in the site plans for the entire south half of Land Section 7 and they would like to see a breakdown in fees, they will have to come back to the City and amend the Ordinance on a per -building basis. He said at this time, they can do it, at their option, doing one building at a time, or come in and pay it all at once. C/M Abramowitz said this seems that this could be a big help to someone looking to come into the City for development and Mr. Vander Meulen agreed. C/M Abramowitz asked if there is a way for the City to cover itself and not be a victim of incomplete work by a developer. Mr. Kraft said Council needs to be aware that there are risks involved. C/M Abramowitz asked if there is a possibility to do an Ordinance strictly for Pulte. Mr. Kraft said if there is something unique about the property or the situation but the Ordinance will affect everyone equally. C/M Abramowitz said the City had approximately $400,000.00 worth of fines against Leadership Housing at one time. He asked if these fines were eliminated or did they exist prior to the sale of the property to Pulte Homes and can this be taken as extenuating circumstances. Discussion was held regarding this. Mayor Sender asked why this cannot be handled as a Resolution rather than an Ordinance. Mr. Kraft said if a unique situation is needed for Pulte Homes, this could be done by Resolution, but then other companies will want the same Resolution. Discussion was held regarding this. Mr. Kraft said an Ordinance will amend the Code. He said in order to avoid litigation, the Ordinances are drafted to treat everyone equal from the beginning. C/M Abramowitz asked if there is anything wrong with limiting this to residential property. Mr. Kraft said that is a rational distinction. He asked if Staff contemplates this as being residential and commercial. Mr. Vonder Meulen said it only encompasses residential. He said City Council Workshop Meeting V 08/17/93/KJ Page 13 the Section of the Code being discussed is Section 1.01, the Phase Development. He said there are different types of phasing and in this phasing, it is 25%. He said this entails only 25 residential dwelling units. He said there are no amendments to the Phasing Section of the Code in reference to commercial and industrial. Mr. Vonder Meulen said a developer has the option of coming into the City with a site plan of one commercial building at a time. He said if the developer prefers to come in with four or five at a time, those fees would have to be paid up front, unless the Section of the Code regarding this is amended. Further discussion was held regarding this. C/M Abramowitz said he has no problem giving some relief to the developer under these circumstances. Mr. Kelly said Pulte Homes is a nationwide company and dwarfs Lennar Homes. C/M Abramowitz said he is opposed to closing off the ingress and egress to Southgate Boulevard. He said he spoke with Mr. Hernandez and asked him how this would affect the project and he said he did not have much problem with it. He said Mr. Hernandez stated that it would cost them a couple of units. C/M Abramowitz said Pulte Homes does not own Section 6. He recommended that the barricades be moved 25 feet west of where they currently are for the same situation. He said it is not feasible to have 17 ingresses and egresses on NW 108 Terrace. Mr. Vonder Meulen said Staff had requested that Pulte Homes apply for the vacation of that portion of Southgate Boulevard, which abuts their property. He said the Community Development Department created an application to vacate Southgate Boulevard from NW 103 Avenue, so that there would not be any dead end situation and the nuisance situation which currently exists at this location. He said the applications are in process at this time. He said Southgate Boulevard would be serving 280 townhomes within the Pulte development. Discussion was held regarding the Pulte and Lennar traffic impact to the area. Mr. Vonder Meulen said the application for the vacation can be amended to vacate those portions of Southgate Boulevard from the Pulte entrances to the Sawgrass Expressway. He said there is no reason for the land or the road to be there. He said Pulte Homes is making the recommendations to vacate that. Further discussion was held regarding this. C/M Abramowitz said there are 17 ingresses and egresses on NW 108 Avenue and whatever Council can do to alleviate this should be done. Mr. Kelly asked if Council is ready to move ahead on the request by Mr. Hernandez for assistance with these amendments. Mr. Vonder Meulen said his concern regarding the Ordinance is that there are State requirements because the City is amending the Land Development Code. He said the City has to advertise approximately seven days prior to the first reading and then approximately two weeks must be between the first and second readings and then approximately five days prior to the second reading, another advertisement is done. He said these meetings must take place after 5:00 p.m. and, if this is done on the regular Council meeting schedule, October is the earliest date for completion of the process. C/M Abramowitz recommended that Council go ahead with this but he wanted to be sure that Southgate Boulevard has an ingress and egress there. Discussion was held regarding the scheduling of this. City Council Workshop Meeting: 08/17/93/KJ Page 14 EXPRESSION or INTEREST: ALL AGREED Mr. Vonder Meulen said Pulte Homes is going to be paying over $100,000.00 in local traffic impact fees. He said this money is not being scheduled in with the Hiatus Road project because it is coming in after all of the decisions were made on that. He said that money is there. Mr. Vonder Meulen said Lennar Homes is making vast improvements on the landscape medians and have created a theme throughout the Kings Point area and this is next to it. He said Staff is requesting an agreement with Pulte Homes to use those traffic impact fees to improve the medians, curbing, landscaping and irrigation. C/M Schreiber asked where this would be located. Mr. Vonder Meulen said one side is committed by Lennar Homes; however, the other side will not be completed. C/M Schreiber said Lennar has made an agreement with the City to do some of this work. Ms. McDermott said Lennar is doing a couple of miles of this but there is a gap, which is Pulte. Further discussion was held regarding this. Ms. McDermott said Lennar is working with Planning and the City Manager's office on the design of their portion of Nob Hill Road and all of NW 108 Terrace. She said they are trying to fast track the process. She said the Nob Hill portion is involved with Broward County and the City is trying to help with Broward County to fast track the paperwork because there are certain maintenance agreements involved. She said the concern Staff has is that there is a section of land that abuts the Pulte property, along NW 108 Terrace, south of the Lennar projects. Ms. McDermott said the City is trying to push Pulte Homes to complete that section and continue along this line. C/M Abramowitz recommended this be done. Mayor Bender referred to the letter received from Continental Cablevision on their new prices. He said eight items on the list have been increased, three items have decreased and three items have remained the same. He said Bob Steinert of Continental Cablevision met with him and requested that the City not try to control the rates. Mayor Bender said no timeframe is indicated for the rate increase. Further discussion was held regarding the cable service. C/M Abramowitz said Mr. Steinert has stated that this is 100% in line with FCC regulations. C/M Schumann said the information he has been reading about the FCC is that they are looking to reduce the rates. Mr. Kraft said the Resolution directing him to file the request to regulate with FCC cannot be filed before September 1, 1993. With no further business, Mayor Bender ADJOURNED this meeting at 11:50 a.m. CAROL A. EVANS, CMC CITY CLERK