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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1990-10-31 - City Commission Workshop Meeting MinutesCITY OF TAMARAC CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP COUNCIL MEETING WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1990 Wk& To.QRDER: Mayor Abramowitz called this meeting to Order on Wednesday, October 31, 1990 at 9:30 A.M. in Conference Room $1. gR�SENT• Mayor Norman Abramowitz Vice Mayor Bruce Hoffman Councilman Dr. H. Larry Bender Councilman Henry Rohr Councilman Henry Schumann John P. Kelly, City Manager Alan Ruf, City Attorney (entered at 9:55 A.M.) Patricia Marcurio, Office Manager, City Clerk's Office Karen Jackson, Secretary Mayor Abramowitz said the purpose of this meeting is to review Charter Amendments. C/M Rohr suggested going back to the original review where Council categorized priorities two and three which would expedite this meeting. Mayor Abramowitz said to prioritize the Council's feelings on the balance of the Charter. He said Priorities 1 and 2 were established along with Housekeeping. He said Priority 1 was acted upon and Council is, at present, ready to establish priorities again. He said putting too many items on a Referendum is not the proper way to accomplish this task. He said he has compiled a list of priorities as follows: 1) Compensation and Expenses: Section 4.04 2) Vacancies - Forfeiture: Section 4.05 3) Redistricting: Section 6.01 and 6.03 and 6.07 4) Arrangement for Elections: Section 6.09 5) Financial Procedures: Article VII 6) Requirements for Referendum: Section 7.13 through 7.18 7) Charter Board: Article VIII V/M Hoffman said his considerations for priority are as follows: 1) Redistricting: Section 6.03 2) Appointments: Section 4.05 3) Expenses: Section 4.04 4) Housekeeping Item -Oath of Office: Section 5.05 5) Charter Board: Section 8.02 6) Removal from Office: Section 12.03 7) Residential Growth: Section 12.06 Mayor Abramowitz said this meeting should prioritize for the referendum for the next election. C/M Bender referred to Section 5.01, City Manager. C/M Rohr suggested that the items that were not handled during the last workshop regarding the Charter should be handled today. Discussion was held over the prioritizing of Amendments and establishing a list for priority. Mayor Abramowitz said the list of priorities is established by Council. Page 1 City Council Workshop 10/31/90/KJ Ppmpenpption jand _ f,Myrenaee: $potion f.04 C/M Bender said this needs to be discussed because the City is spending 2 to 3 times as much money to maintain records and he feels it is a priority. Section 4.04 of the Charter was considered to be a priority item ty Council. CONSENSUS Or COUNCIL: ALL VOTED AYN rqr; aeitur,e of P,ff*ce and V-JJ�*nQ pf. VagAtpcIAIR! Sept-iRA 4-OA Section 4.05 of the Charter was considered to not be a priority item by Council. CONSENSUS OF COUNCIL: V/M Hoffman - AYB C/M Bender - NAY C/M Schumann -- NAY C/M Rohr - NAY Mayor Abramowitz - AY$ "diatrir-tjpq: Sect4,pn 6_03 City Manager Kelly suggested holding the housekeeping items fox another meeting at a later date. Section 6.03 of the Charter was considered to be a priority item by Council. CONSENSUS Or COUNCIL: V/M Hoffman - AYE C/M Bender - AYE C/M Schumann - NAY C/M Rohr - AYE Mayor Abramowitz - AYS ArrangpAppt for AXactione: Section 6_Qq Section 6.09 of the Charter was considered to be a priority item by Council. CONSENSUS OF COUNCIL: ALL VOTED AYE ri,pancial_Y,Fopeduraa : $tgt�Qn 7.09 Mayor Abramowitz said this needs to be examined carefully. V/M Hoffman said a report needs to be attained from Mary Blasi, Finance Director, and City Attorney Ruf. City Manager Kelly said he has the report. Aftqpiramant _for pmjgprend"m,,- , Section 7, �3 _throughh Recti" 7,111 Mayor Abramowitz said this should be on the referendum and concerns the 2-1/2%. He said legal advice has been obtained from the City Attorney and has been acted upon. He said this needs to be discussed in detail. Section 7.13 through 7.18 of the Charter was considered to be a priority item by Council. CONSENSUS OF COUNCIL: ALL VOTED AYN Qpjt.hof Office: A �oql &,,QA Discussion was held regarding this being a housekeeping item. Discussion was held regarding administration of the Oath of Office being done by the City Manager or the City Clerk and the legal stipulations. Page 2 �_- City Council Workshop 10/31/90/KJ Section 5.05 of the Charter was considered to be a priority item by Council. CONSENSUS OF COUNCIL: ALL VOTED AYE 1jamoval _ from_- _0 f no - Section - 12 _ 03 Discussion was held regarding the rewording of the description of Section 12.03. Mayor Abramowitz advised City Attorney Ruf to look into rewording Section 12.03 for a better description. Mayor Abramowitz asked if Section 12.06 was deleted from the Charter what types of problems would be derived from future litigations. City Attorney Ruf said if this was ever challenged, it would be good to have something in the Charter and he recommended not removing Section 12.06 from the Charter. V/M Hoffman said the Charter should be lean and anything that is covered under the State Statutes need not be in the Charter. He said State Law takes precedence over all. City Attorney Ruf said the Charter can be more restrictive in some areas than the State Statutes. V/M Hoffman said.this can also be done by Ordinance. He said when the State Law changes, so does the City. C/M Rohr said there are several Sections in the Charter that are controlled by the State and he recommended entering a statement, "This shall be controlled by State Law". Section 12.06 of the Charter was considered not to be a priority item by Council. CONSENSUS OF COUNCIL: ALL VOTED AYE Mayor Abramowitz said he does not agree with everything that is recommended under Section 5.01 and Section 5.03, but this needs to be reviewed. - C/M Rohr suggested reviewing the Department Heads section. C/M Bender noted Article 10, Page 21 regarding the City Clerk. V/M Hoffman suggested leaving the City Manager's function alone. He said the only provision not understood is where the Chief Building official was removed from the City Manager's control. Mayor Abramowitz suggested reviewing this for the next meeting for information. Page 8, Article 5 regarding the City Manager, of the Charter was considered to be a priority item by Council following information gathered by the City Attorney and City Manager. CONSENSUS OF COUNCIL: ALL VOTED AYE City Manager Kelly requested a discussion regarding the feelings of Mayor Abramowitz and Council regarding Article 5. Discussion was held regarding the Chief Building Official and his authority with the City Manager. l Page 3 City Council Workshop 10/31/90/KJ Melanie Reynolds, resident, said under the South Florida Building Code, Section 71.575, it says the City Council is finally responsible for building defects. V/M Hoffman thanked Ms. Reynolds for her information and asked City Attorney Ruf to pursue this information. City Attorney Ruf said there was some historical concern about the Chief Building Official. *nDITSONAL -TTZMS City Manager Kelly said Mary Blasi, Finance Director, would like to relocate her office to centralize her functions. He said he strongly endorses this relocation which will be as follows: 1) City Attorney Ruf will move into what is currently his Conference Room. 2) Dina McDermott will relocate into City Attorney Ruf's eftice. 3) The Internal Auditor will move into Dina McDermott's office. City Manager Kelly said all of these moves will be contingent upon whether Mary Blasi moves her operation or not. 4) Mary Blasi is looking to consolidate all of her people closer together. 5) Personnel, which operates closely with Finance, will relocate to the front (currently Finance). 6) Kelly Carpenter's department, Community Development, wculd relocate into the Personnel Offices. 7) Code Enforcement would move into the current Community Development area. C/M Bender asked if this would require additional money to make these moves. City Manager Kelly said from an efficiency view, these moves would be beneficial.. He said if this would cost more money than would be saved, it will not be pursued. Mayor Abramowitz said he cannot see anybody objecting to an increased performance of any department. He said a physical move is in order if it is well thought out and if it does not spend money. He said there is enough furniture in the building to supply most everything required. City Manager Kelly said Gary Jordan of Data Processing, is very competent and proficient and is capable of transferring the wiring for the computer systems. He said in terms of the desks, most would ,not need to be moved, just the contents. He said the telephone line transfers can be handled in house. He said he has a project management program he has worked with. He said Peter Mack, Mary Blasi and Michael Couzzo are very much involved. Mayor Abramowitz said there are two departments that require attention and V/M Hoffman agreed. Mayor Abramowitz said an expression of interest was announced at e Council meeting regarding conduct in the Chambers and he reminded City Attorney Ruf to prepare an Ordinance regarding this. He said a suggestion was made to address the filing fees of the City regarding elected officials. City Manager Kelly said he has a report from the surrounding cities. Mayor Abramowitz said the street lighting Referendum has been passed and he instructed City Manager Kelly to begin getting the financial data Page 4\/ City Council Workshop 10/31/90/KJ I� 1 regarding the costs involved in securing the funding and bring before Council. Mayor Abramowitz said November 27, 1990 is the opening of the Multi - Purpose Center. He said there have been requests regarding adult community meeting places. He said in most condo associations, if an organization is a National Organization, they are not allowed to meet in the condo associations. He said there have been requests by the residents to provide a meeting place for the adult community. He asked Council to consider the old recreation center with a few dollars spent to refurbish it for use as an Adult Recreation Center to be used as a meeting place for the community. He said Council needs to determine what the charges will be, what the costs will be and how it will be worked. He said a workshop will be needed for discussion regarding this after the information is received from City Manager Kelly. V/M Hoffman said the City maintains a lot of public property and he asked if the City charges fees for the individual youth leagues to use the facilities. He asked why anyone, should be charged. He said if the youth do not have to pay, why should the adults. He asked if only the youth would be using the Multi -Purpose Center or will it be used by everyone. Mayor Abramowitz said adults and seniors can use the Multi -Purpose Center and the youth can use the old recreation center. He said he would like the adults to have their own place to identify with. V/M Hoffman agreed and said they should have the use of the facility at no charge. Mayor'Abramowitz said there are a few problems. He said the recreation ce#er is set up to make two individual meeting rooms. He said the front-Aas the=kitchen, which everyone requests to use and the back has no ,kitchen . Discussion was held regarding the recreation center. V/M Hoffman suggested considering whether or not to have fees. Mayor Abramowitz said no one is looking to make money on the adult community. He said the only problem foreseen is the determination of the equity of all the organizations. He said the difference is that a lot of the larger organizations pay higher monies and need a larger place. C/M Bender said research needs to be done on how other cities handle this situation and decisions can be made from that point. C/M Rohr said most condos permit national organizations to meet in their clubhouses if it is restricted to the residents in that condo. He asked for research from the individual condos also. Irving Lopatey, resident of Kings Point, said the recreational center at Kings Point does not belong to the residents. He said Lime Bay's recreational facilities belong to the residents, which in their by-laws states that national organizations can hold meetings, board -approved, providing there are no outside members. David Krantz, resident, said there are restrictions against ethnic and religious organizations. Discussion was held regarding the clubhouse restrictions. City Attorney Ruf said historically and reasonably, user fees in the area of recreation is standard in many city budgets. Mayor Abramowitz said there is an after -school program in the City for which the City charges fees. V/M Hoffman said the fee is to cover personnel and equipment. Page 5 --/ City Council Workshop 10/31/90/KJ Mayor Abramowitz said he has no objection to clean up the recreation center. He said problems can occur if rules and regulations are not applied. V/M Hoffman said he opposes any fee for the use of a public facility for adults when the youth are not charged. He said he does not advocate charging the youth either. He said it should work the same for a U . C/M Bender said the Parks and Recreation Department's budget should assume the responsibility of taking care of these facilities. He said research should be done regarding how much money is involved. V/M Hoffman said a major revision of the Sign Ordinance is in the enforcement stages. He said people are now being forced to follow the Ordinance. He said some of the problems have been reviewed with the Building Department, City Attorney and the Code Enforcement Department. He said he has requested City Attorney Ruf to prepare certain suggestive changes in the Ordinance as follows: 1) Certain types of printing allowed as long as the color is uniform with the rest of the shopping plaza, 2) New people must adhere to the criteria of the Ordinance, 3) Require everyone to adhere to color standards. V/M Hoffman said at present the Code Enforcement Department is issuing citations based on the Ordinance. He suggested holding a workshop for discussion. Mayor Abramowitz said a workshop will be held after City Attorney Ruf gathers the information needed regarding the Sign Ordinance. With no further business to discuss, Mayor Abramowitz ADJDDRNMD this meeting at 11:00 A.M. w CAROL A. EVANS - „` CITY CLERK "This public document was promulgated at a cost of $85.46 or $1.9D per copy to inform the general public, public officers and employees Df recent opinions and considerations of the City Council of the City of Tamarac." Page 6 City Council Workshop 10/31/90/KJ 1 1