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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-05-18 - City Commission Joint Special Meeting MinutesMAIL REPLY TO: P.O. BOX 25010 "TAMARAC, FLORIDA 33320 5811 N0RTIHWEST 88TH AVENUE TAMARAC, FLORIDA 3332.1 TELEPHONE (305) 722-5900 May 16, 1983 NOTICE OF JOINT WORKSHOP MEETING Please be advised that at the request of the Code Advisory Commission, Mayor Falck has arranged for a Joint Workshop Meeting with the agreement of the Charter Board Chairman, The Joint Workshop Meeting of the Council, Charter Board and the Code Advisory Commission will be held on Wednesday, May 18, 1983, at 3:30 P.M. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 5811 NW 88 Avenue, Tamarac, Florida. The public is invited to attend, -a Mari1y er lholf City Clerk Pursuant to Chapter 80.105 of Florida Law, Senate [till No. 368! If a person decides to appeal any decision made by the City Council with respect to any matter considered at such meeting or hearing, he will need a record the proceedings and for such purpose, he may need to ensure that a verbatim record includes the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is to be based. CITY OF TAMARAC, FLORIDA JOINT WORKSHOP MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL, CHARTER BOARD AND THE CODE ADVISORY COMMISSION May 18, 1983 CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Walter W. Falck called the meeting to order at 3:30 P.M. on Wednesday, May 18, 1983, in the Council Chambers at City Hall. ROLL CALL: PRESENT: CITY COUNCIL CHARTER BOARD CODE ADVISORY COMMISSION: Mayor Walter W. Falck Vice Mayor Helen Massaro Councilman Philip B. Kravitz Councilman David E. Krantz Councilman Jack Stelzer Sydney Stein, Chairman Melanie Reynolds Alice Norian Irving Epstein Moni Avidon Oscar Tucker, Chairman Harry Goldman Harry Rosenfeld Carl Alper Absent and Excused: Ray Kaliski - Code Advisory Commission Mayor Falck read the call into the record and said the purpose of this meeting is to clarify any misunderstanding concerning allegations by the Charter Board that the Code Advisory Commission has held meetings in violation of the Sunshine Law. Mr. Tucker, Chairman of the Code Advisory Commission, said every board and committee in the City works as volunteers including the Council, since their salary is merely a token. He referred to a memo sent by 5yd Stein, Chairman of the Charter Board, to Mayor and Council which said, "To our knowledge, the Advisory Code Study Committee does not meet in City Hall and does not publish any notice of their meetings. It is our opinion that the Commission should meet in City Hall and that notice of such meetings be made public". Mr. Tucker said this is a judgmental declaration that is a complete falsehood and libelous. He said he received a memo from C/M Krantz dated 4/13/83 which was directed to Syd Stein, which stated that over the past few months he had attended two meetings of the Code Advisory Commission and both were in the West Conference Room. Mr. Tucker said neither he nor members of the Commission were given an opportunity to refute Mr. Stein's accusations. He referred totheminutes of a Charter Board meeting held 4/8/83 in which Mr. Stein said that "the Code Advisory Commission does not meet in City Hall nor any building owned by the City and the public is never given notice of such meetings". Mr. Stein requested that Mayor and Council change the situation immediately and that, if they do not, the Charter Board will declare that committee unconstitutional as they are violating the Charter. Mr. Tucker said the assumption of power by the Charter Board to declare another board unconstitutional is unheard of in the history of this City. He said in these same minutes, Mrs. Reynolds contradicted Mr. Stein by saying, "the Code Advisory Board did advertise their last meeting which was in January, when Mr. Tucker assumed the role of Chairman". Fie said there has been no proof presented by the Charter Board that there were meetings held anywhere but City Hall. Mr. Tucker said this committee operates at the pleasure of Council and has no other superior and there is no place in the Charter where the Charter Board is given the right to supervise and direct another committee with respect to its duties. Mr. Alper said that Melanie Reynolds, member of the Charter Board, said that the Code Advisory Commission does not always meet at City Hall during a Charter Board meeting held 3/26/83. 5/18/83 /pm Mr. Alper referred to another meeting of the Charter Board on 6/12/79 when a statement of similar quality was made and the Chairman said she had made a statement at a previous meeting which he took literally and he questioned if she knew her statement was false and she replied affirmatively. Mr. Alper said it is the duty of all members of the Charter Board to uphold the Charter. Mr. Stein admonished the character assassination and refuted Mr. Tucker's comment that accusations made by the Charter Board were libelous. He said on reviewing the minutes of the Code Advisory Commission, it revealed that they met on 10/30/79, 12/11/79, 1/15/80, 11/19/81, 11/16/82, 1/17/83 and, since this time, they have had regular meetings. He said he would conclude from this that either they have not met other than these times or that there are no minutes of their meetings. Fie said there have been corrected suggestions at various dates which have no correlation to these dates. He questioned how these suggestions came about. He said Mr. Tucker was given an invitation to conference with the Charter Board, as was nearly every other committee, and the Chairman refused and took this procedure instead. Mr. Stein said these two boards are not equal since Charter Board is an elected board and the Code Advisory Commission is an appointed board serving at the pleasure of Council. He said the Charter Board has a right to review any accusation of impropriety by any official or committee in this City. He said he had asked both the City Manager and the City Clerk for the calendars of this time to see the notices of these meetings of the Code Advisory Commission and he has yet to get them. Alice Norian said when she was a member of the Code Advisory Commission, there was seldom a meeting and Oscar Tucker made a point of repeating exactly what the purpose of the Code Advisory Commission was because there were questions regarding the activities. Mr. Stein put in the record a paragraph from the minutes of the Charter Board meeting of 3/22/83 which stated: "Mr. Stein said he has the Resolution which created the Code Advisory Commission and he does not know whether it is illegal to meet outside of City Hall. However, meetings should be at City Hall and have representatives from all districts. Mr. Tucker said the first he heard he was invited to meet with the Charter Board was 4/14/83 in the form of a memo from the secretary of the Charter Board. He said before this memo was issued, the Charter Board had already made their Judgmental declaration that the Code Advisory Commission was in violation. He said when he received this memo, he addressed a memo to Mrs. Norian which stated that he would be pleased to arrange a joint conference on a mutually agreeable date upon appropriate conditions. He said he went on to request she furnish him with the following information: 1. the purpose and agenda of such conference 2. the relevant details of the request made at your Board's meeting of 4/8/83 He said he stated in%the memo that upon receipt of the above information he would transfer same for consideration by the Commission memhPrrt, HP said he then received a memo of 4/28/83 from the Chairman of the Charter Board which said that regular Charter Board meetings are held the second Friday at 9:00 A.M. and the fourth Tuesday at 7:30 P.M. of each month in Council Chambers and requested that he indicate a date convenient to him. Mr. Stein said the record shows that they sent the memos requesting Mr. Tucker's presence and he repeated his question about where and when this work was done by this Commission. Mr. Tucker said this commission has been in existence since 1977 and they have made numerous contributions to the Code. Fie said there came a time when it was decided that since the codifiers were doing the basic work, they should wait until the codifier issued supplements. Fie said they also, at times, wrote legislation at the request of the Mayor and other members of Council and sometimes several times a year the codifiers would issue supplements. Fie said these supplements would be distributed to all of the members and usually meetings were called to consider the important features of these supplements. - 2 - 5/18/83 /pm Mr. Tucker said at these meetings various duties would be assioned to write any recommendations to Mayor and Council as to suggestions with respect to those supplements. Each member of the Code Advisory Committee was empowered and authorized to send further suggestions to ape Council. He said if Mr. Stein has a specific memorandum he would try to give an explanation and Mr. Stein asked if it were true that the only meeting they held in 1981 was on 11/19, Mr. Tucker said this may be so he was unsure at the moment. Mr. Stein said he had, as a result of that meeting, on 12/7/81, suggestions for supplement. He said, however, on 6/2/81 Mr. Tucker issued a list of suggestions for supplements and he questioned how these came about since there was no meeting. Mr. Tucker said he went to City Hall and dictated a memo to Mrs. Bernhardt and sent copies of that memo to other members of the Committee asking them to submit any comments. Mr. Stein said in reading the minutes of this committee, he sees no democratic form in any of the meetings since nothing is put up to the members to vote and there is no input by any other member except the Chairman or, in some cases, the one person who did the review. Mr. Stein referred to a memo of 6/2/81 and he asked when this came about and at what meeting it happened. Mr. Tucker said at that time there were 3 members on the committee and one would undertake to submit a memo to the Council with the understanding that the other 2 members could issue or submit supplemental memos. He said there was no necessity for a meeting because the Chairman decided there was none. Mr. Stein said Mr. Tucker's statement supports his accusation that the minutes that are in City Hall do not reflect the work of this committee. He said the committee has done a great deal of work to Mr. Tucker's credit, however, his problem is that it is not being done under the statutes of the State or the Charter of this City. He said Mr. Tucker has no right to say it is not important to have a meeting as to the suggestions. He said those members were appointed by the City Council and should have the right to give input. He challenged Mr. Tucker to show him anywhere in the minutes where discussion is shown or a vote taken. Mr. Tucker said, after examining a set of minutes, there was discussion by the four people present at that meeting and the person who submitted actually gave great detail of his work which was approved by the committee. Mr. Stein asked where the voting is shown in the minutes and Mr. Tucker said there was no vote necessary. He asked Mr. Tucker if it were true that his committee did not meet for close to two years and Mr. Tucker said whether they did or did not meet for a year has nothing to do with meeting secretly. Carl Alper said the record should show that the committee meets only when they get, from the City Clerk, an Ordinance and a notice of a meeting. He said this is sporadic and that is why there are not monthly meetings scheduled and no paper left the Code Advisory Committee without the full agreement of everyone in attendance. C/M Stelzer suggested Council has heard enough discussion on both sides and should make some sort of decision. C/M Kravitz said he knows that on several occasions the Council secretary was on the phone for long periods of time and afterwards there were either minutes, memos, letters, etc. in reference to the Code Advisory Committee. He said he does not remember seeing any minutes or notices of actual meetings and approximately October, 1982 he brought up, at a Pre -Agenda meeting, the question of why there is no Council liaison to this committee and why they are not meeting and Mayor Falck said he would investigate this. He said he also mentioned that every committee must elect a chairman -and he has never seen where Oscar Tucker was elected Chairman. He said he received minutes recently of the meeting of 5/9/83 which states that he was elected Chairman but the committee was not yet appointed. - 3 - 5/18/83 /pm Mr. Tucker read from the minutes of the Code Advisory Committee dated 5/9/83 which stated that he said he was trying to get a replacement for himself as Chairman of the committee for 2 years due to his health. He said Mr. Alper said he would take over and asked Mr. Tucker to write out the duties and obligations of the Chairman and Mr. Tucker agreed to do that. Jon Henning asked that it be put in the record which minutes are beinr referred to during the discussions and Mr. Stein said: the Code Advisory Minutes of January, 1980, the Code suggestions of a meetina.of 6/2/81, 11/16/82. 1/17/83 and 5/9/83. C/M Krantz said for the record he'attended two meetings of the Code Advisory Committee and he found they work very hard for the City. He said both Charter Board and the Code Advisory Commission are doing excellent work for the City and he hoped that there will be a unity reached for the good of the City. Harry Rosenfeld said it was his belief that the sole purpose of this meeting was to ascertain if there were any violations of the Sunshine Law and he has been a member for over 6 years and every meeting he attended was in this building and based upon notice on the bulletin board in this building. Melanie Reynolds said one of the difficulties is that they do not know how this committee is supposed to work. Harold Goldman said he was just appointed about 6 months ago and during that time, every meeting that he attended was by written notice by the City. Mayor Falck said it seems there is room for improvement in all areas. He said he asked the City Attorney prior to the meeting to make some observations to him and he suggested that these be distributed to members of Council and staff, members of the Charter Board and the Code Advisory Board. He said he would like everyone to take these observations and review them at their convenience and, hopefully, there can be another meeting with a better understanding of what the Code Advisory Committee is about. He said if there were violations, he is certain they were unintentional. Mayor Falck adjourned the meeting at 4:45 P.M. qSISTANT CITY CLERK This public document was promulgated at a cost of $ MJ, ��Z or $ 1,92 per copy, to inform the general public and public officers and employees about recent opinions and considerations by the City Council of the City of Tamarac. - 4 - 5/18/83 /pm