HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-06-19 - City Commission Special Management Retreat Meeting MinutesCITY OF TAMARAC
SPECIAL MANAGEMENT RETREAT
TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2018
CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Dressler called the Special Workshop of the City Commission to
order at 9:01 a.m. on Tuesday, June 19, 2018 at the Colony West Golf Club, 6800 NW 88tn
Avenue, Tamarac, FL, 33321.
ROLL CALL: Mayor Harry Dressler, Vice Mayor Michelle J. Gomez, Commissioner Julie
Fishman and Commissioner Debra Placko were in attendance. Commissioner Marlon Bolton
joined the meeting at 9:05 a.m.
Also in attendance were City Manager Michael C. Cernech, Assistant City Manager Kathleen
Gunn, City Attorney Samuel S. Goren, City Clerk Patricia Teufel, Financial Services Director
Mark Mason, Parks & Recreation Director Greg Warner, BSO Captain Neal Glassman,
Building Official Claudio Grande, Public Services Director Jack Strain, Information
Technology Director Levent Sucuoglu, Community Development Director Maxine Calloway,
Fire Chief Percy Sayles, Human Resources Director Lerenzo Calhoun, Public Information &
Media Specialist Elise Boston and Assistant to the City Manager Laura Karpaviciute.
City Manager Cernech introduced Ron Holifield and Mike Mowery of Strategic Government
Resources who would be leading the retreat and talking to you about leadership. City
Manager Cernech said we just finished the surveys and we will have Strategic Planning in
January or February at which time we will be working on the budget for FY 2019. City
Manager Cernech said we are taking a different approach and have asked some experts to
come in to talk to the Commission about leadership because it is a collective exercise and we
need to be on the same page about leadership. We want to continue and set the right tone
for leadership for the future.
Mr. Mowery said it is good to be here and it is an honor to work with staff. Mr. Mowery began
the presentation, a copy of which is on file in the City Clerk's Office, with a video by Simon
Sinek on "How Great Leaders Inspire Action". After the video there was a discussion on
vision, goals and good governance principles. Mr. Mowery then formed groups of 3 or 4
individuals to discuss the "What's Our Why" and "Other Take Aways". Recording of the
session was paused at 9:27 a.m. while the groups met and then recording was resumed at
9:36 a.m. at which time Mr. Mowery asked the groups what "Whys" and "Take Aways" they
came up with. A discussion ensued about the items that the groups presented.
Mr. Holifield talked about Good Governance, System Theory and Servant Leadership Values.
Mr. Holifield said a guiding principle is "It's not about me and not about now". Mr. Holifield
said 20% of the people will hate you, 20% will love you no matter what you do and the other
60% are in the middle and don't care, and the 60% is what elected officials will ignore.
Elected Officials need to listen better to become more effective, and in a way that gets you
credibility and the more you engage the more you legitimize.
Mayor Dressler recessed the meeting at 10:52 a.m. and reconvened the meeting at 11.06
with all present as before.
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Mr. Holifield talked about Strategic Planning and the challenges to creating a unified Strategic
Vision. Mr. Holifield said don't ever disrespect another Commission member to the
community. Mr. Holifield then spoke about major governance challenges and the top 10
governance challenges by Board Chairs and the top 10 challenges identified by CEO's. Mr.
Holifield went on to say that the #1 mistake staff does is preparing agenda items without
equipping the Commission with the information about the items so they can go out in the
community and discuss what they voted on. Mr. Holifield said effective governance requires
healthy deliberation, thoughtful deliberation and requires sincere humility and talked about
the roles and responsibilities of commission members.
Mayor Dressler recessed the meeting at 12.50 p.m. for lunch and reconvened the meeting at
1:28 p.m. with all present as before, except for Commissioner Bolton.
Mr. Mowery gave the Commission an exercise -on policy scale. Recording was paused during
the exercise at 1:31 p.m. and resumed at 1:41 p.m. at which time the Commission discussed
their scores/results. There was a discussion regarding civility on the dais and Mr. Mowery
said there should be a policy about the roles of the commission members.
Mayor Dressier recessed the meeting at 2:37 p.m. Commissioner Bolton joined the meeting
at 2:44 p.m. and Mayor Dressler reconvened the meeting at 2:48 p.m. Commissioner Bolton
left the meeting at 2:50 p.m. and returned at 3:03 p.m.
Mr. Mowery continued with the presentation and said the first task of a leader is to define
reality and the second is to say, "thank you". Mr. Mowery showed a video of a weatherman
disrespecting his peers on air. Mr. Mowery talked about the five dysfunctions of a team and
ended by saying that a team becomes a team when everyone is pulling in the same direction.
There was a discussion on how to build a cycle of trust. Mr. Mowery asked everyone to
answer three questions and then share them with the group: 1) Where were you born; 2) How
many siblings in your family and where were you in the mix; and 3) What was your biggest
challenge growing up. Recording of this exercise was paused at 3:31 p.m. and resumed at
3:37 p.m. Mr. Mowery opined that "a team is bigger than me and the team comes over me".
Mr. Holifield said don't lose focus on where we are as an organization; noted that this is not
rocket science, but you need courage; everyone needs to own the success of the team;
predictable input creates predictable outcome and reminded everyone that we do have a
nationally recognized City, City Manager and staff.
City Manager Cernech thanked Mr. Mowery and Mr. Holifield for moderating the management
retreat today and said he had the benefit of working with them in the past and is very pleased
with the way things went today. City Manager Cernech said he appreciates the effort
everyone put forth today. City Manager Cernech said he believes we perform at a very high
level and the 13 or 14 years of surveys validates this. Improvement is difficult because it is
incremental, and we have to remain focused on this as we have always been able to do this,
and we can continue this going forward. City Manager Cernech said we appreciate the desire
to improve Tamarac for our residents and this responsibility we have is a great and
tremendous responsibility and can be a burden. We try constantly to provide exceptional
customer service.
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City Manager Cernech thanked the Commission for being here today and Mr. Mowery and
Mr. Holifield for helping.
City Manager Cernech said we will be back here tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. for the Special
Commission Meeting and the Budget Workshop. City Manager Cernech said Fred, the
General Manager for Colony West, has offered to show the new greens on the golf course to
the Commission. City Manager Cernech briefly went over the reason for the Special
Commission Meeting tomorrow morning.
There being no further business to come before the City Commission, Mayor Dressler
adjourned the meeting at 4:20 p.m.
A M A r?
ESQP\9rs 'O
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atricia Teufel,
City Clerk
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