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HomeMy WebLinkAbout_1998 09 21 City Commission Special Minutes SPECIAL MEETING CITY COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 21, 1998 The Special Meeting of the City Commission was called to order by Mayor Paul P. Partyka at 6:30 p.m. ROLL CALL: Mayor Paul P. Partyka, present Deputy Mayor Cindy Gennell, present City Manager Ronald W. McLemore, present Attorney Robert Guthrie, present COMMISSIONERS: Robert S. Miller, present Michael S. Blake, present Ed Martinez, Jr., present David McLeod, present (6:45p.m) II. Closed Executive Session: Attorney Guthrie stated that the first executive session that he is recommending is in the case of The City of Winter Springs v. Gladding, Lopez, Kurcher, et.al and John B. Webb and Associates, case no. 96-732-CA-09B, pending in Seminole County in the 18th Judicial Circuit and stated that the session is today the 21 st of September, 6:30 here in City Hall and stated that he estimates the session will not exceed one hour. Persons expected to attend are: Mayor Paul P. Partyka, Deputy Mayor Cindy Gennell, Commissioners Robert Miller, Michael Blake, Ed Martinez, David McLeod, City Attorney Robert Guthrie, outside council Bernard 1. Martin, and City Manager Ronald W. McLemore. Attorney Guthrie stated there is a court report to transcribe the minutes and said the executive session will be made public at the conclusion of this case. Attorney Guthrie stated the second executive session is regarding Administrative Hearing relating to the pending cases that have been consolidated it is: Seminole County, The City of Oviedo, McKinley's Mill Homeowners Association, Grey Wilson, Valerie ElJ amil and Regina Bearswell v. The City of Winter Springs and the Department of Community Affairs, case no. DOAH-98-3788-GM, 98-3789-GM, 98-3790-GM. The executive session will following the first immediately here in City Hall and stated that he doesn't expect this session to exceed one hour and persons expected to attend are: Mayor Paul P. Partyka, Deputy Mayor Cindy Gennell, Commissioners Robert Miller, Michael Blake, Ed Martinez, David McLeod, City Attorney Robert Guthrie and City Manager Ronald McLemore. Attorney Guthrie stated that there will be a court reporter and a transcript will become part of the public record upon conclusion of the litigation. Attorney Guthrie stated that special council Bernard Martin will not be present for this seSSIOn. Mayor Partyka recessed the Special Meeting at 6:40 p.m. Mayor Partyka reconvened the Special Meeting at 8:40 p.m. Special Meeting City Commission September 21. 1998 97-98-43 Page 2 Mayor Partyka stated that the two points scheduled for today is to finish the executive session, any final remarks pertaining to that and then the third item on the agenda, the Discussion of the Tuscawilla Lighting and Beautification District Questions. Mayor Partyka said we will first start with the suit of The City of Winter Springs v. Gladding et. al. and John B. Webb and Associates. Attorney Guthrie said that executive session concluded at 7:20 p.m. and based on consultation with outside council, said he recommends the City take advantage of procedural mechanism and file an offer of judgement in that case and the amount recommended is $8,500 and that can be filed and we will see if that moves the defendants to any kind of settlement and said he needs the Commission's endorsement ofthat. Motion was made Commissioner Blake to approve Attorney Guthrie's recommendations (stated above). Seconded by Commissioner Martinez. Discussion. Vote: Commissioner Martinez: aye; Commissioner McLeod: aye; Commissioner Blake: aye; Commissioner Miller: absent for vote; Commissioner Gennell: aye. Motion passes. Commissioner Blake said to point out for the record that the settlement offer just discussed is that the City would receive those funds. Attorney Guthrie said correct, and explained what an offer of judgement is and that is: the City files a motion with the Court, called a settlement offer, saying we will settle the case for that amount. The defendant, in this case Webb, we will drop the Gladding interest from this as defendants, the Webb interest could accept that within 30 days and stated if they don't accept it and we incur additional attorney's fees that result from a judgement, we can seek attorney's fees from them. Commissioner Blake stated that he wanted to be sure that it was clear to everybody which direction the money would be flowing. Mayor Partyka said next is the second executive session. Attorney Guthrie said this is the consolidated cases of Seminole County, City of Oviedo and McKinley's Mill Homeowners Association, and residents against The City of Winter Springs and the Department of Community Affairs, it is a division of Administrative Hearings case and said basically we discussed various issues and said one issue is to counter a proposal from the City and the County regarding disposition of this case and make an offer to them that if they'll dismiss their petition, we will continue with our action and that is to adopt a Comprehensive Plan Amendment indicating we will not seek involuntary annexations east of the urban service line, voluntaries are permissible. We would open negations with regard to that area and the area north of the City of Oviedo with regard to whether we would adopt a Plan Amendment that would control voluntary or involuntary annexations in that area; and that we would propose a process where we entered into negotiations, discussions, where we would address issues that confronts the Special Meeting City Commission September 21. 1998 97-98-43 Page 3 City of Winter Springs and the City of Oviedo and common areas, where we could have an agreement as to how annexations would occur, both in this area directly east of the Battleridge property and in the areas south of the City of Oviedo and southeast of the City of Winter Springs. We would direct a time frame by which we would commence those negotiations and with the objective of crafting an agreement as soon as possible, a J.P.A. that would address annexation issues in a fair way between the two Cities. Attorney Guthrie said the time frames talked about is that they would be commenced within 120 days. Motion was made by Commissioner Martinez to direct Attorney Guthrie to relay the above mention to Seminole County and to the City of Oviedo. Seconded by Commissioner Blake. Discussion. Commissioner McLeod asked if there will be mentioned how many meeting there will be. Mayor Partyka said we clarify that by saying that our goal is to get the Joint Planning Agreement where we are both in agreement on all the key issues; so if that takes one meeting or ten meetings that would be the goal. Manager McLemore stated and highlight specifically that it has to accommodate a strategy that would preserve the Black Hammock lifestyle. Vote: Commissioner Miller: aye; Commissioner Blake: aye; Commissioner Martinez: aye; Commissioner Gennell: aye; Commissioner McLeod: aye. Motion passes. Attorney Guthrie said since the County Commission meets tomorrow, he will go and craft the letter and see if he can get it to the County first thing in the morning, to see if they (the County) wants to consider this tomorrow. Commissioner Martinez stated for the record that some time ago when he was nominated to become a member of the Tuscawilla Homeowners Association an issue of conflict arose and said he is happy to report that the Commission on Ethics and Attorney Guthrie's report says there is no conflict involved. Attorney Guthrie said the Commission on Ethics opinions haven't found conflicts in this situation but stated we all have to be careful when voting and said Commissioner Martinez could seek an opinion stating his own case ifhe wanted. III. Discussion ofthe Tuscawilla Lighting and Beautification District Questions: Manager McLemore said the purpose of this item is provide the public any opportunity to comment on the answers that we had given to the questions they had asked. Manager McLemore said the lack of showing tonight, said he is not sure if that demonstrates that they didn't like the weather or they were totally satisfied with the questions. Manager McLemore said that this meeting was really for them. Mayor Partyka asked if there were any questions from the Commission in terms of anything here or does the Commission want to wait until we hear from the public. The Commission determined they would hear from the public first. Mayor Partyka asked if anyone present wanted to speak on this subject. Special Meeting City Commission September 21. 1998 97-98-43 Page 4 No one present wanted to speak. Commissioner McLeod said in the original Draft there were answers that said "this will be covered later" and asked if it was covered in this document. Manager McLemore said he reference the question numbers where to find the answer. Commissioner McLeod said he keeps getting questions regarding Home Rule and Florida Statutes and said that Home Rule really covers this and said he has gotten calls where people said the examples were based on sewer lines and water lines and said in that instance you can see where the Home Rule applies but asked how this applies to the Beautification District. Manager McLemore said it applies exactly the same way except that the cost allocation method may be different. Commissioner McLeod said so this definitely has been researched. Manager McLemore said yes. Commissioner Gennell commented that one of the Commission's normal critics from the Tuscawilla area, commended the Commission (to Commissioner Gennell) on their selection of Board members for the Beautification Advisory Board. Commissioner Miller said he put all his comments in writing on a copy of the document and gave it to the City Manager. Commissioner Miller said he assumes that the other Commissioners have done the same and it is his assumption that there will be another version coming out maybe Friday of this week, so that we can look at and be done on Monday or is this the final copy. Mayor Partyka said we need to clarify that, we were suppose to have comments from the Commissioners if they had any, and based on the comments, the City Manager would either incorporate those, clarify those or advise the Commission on what is going to be done. Manager McLemore said his understanding was that we would hear from the public and the Commission and if the Commission wanted to clarify, change or amend anything we would clarify the document and we would have it here available for anyone who wanted to come and get the final revised version. Commissioner Miller asked if his comments would be incorporated and made available sometime this week or before the next meeting. Manager McLemore stated he doesn't plan to do anything with the comments unless the Commission directs him to. Special Meeting City Commission September 21.1998 97-98-43 Page 5 Commissioner Miller said when it is decided on what will be done with it, he thinks that some of the comments that he had were more in the vain of clarification of questions that keep coming up over and over again. Discussion. Mayor Partyka said he has read the comments in detail and said he understands everything and said he will make the assumption that if the Commissioners had nothing to add that they either understood it or they felt it was adequate. Mayor Partyka the whole point of all these issues and questions are that the people out there will have to read it or try to understand it and read it again and ask some questions, but this (to him) answers a lot of those questions. Mayor Partyka said the last step would be that the City Manager would then take comments from the Commission and said if there are any comments that would really add to the answer then he (Manager) would incorporate those. Discussion. Commissioner Gennell said if it takes a motion regarding the issue of the appropriateness of a deliberative body debating an issue, then she so moves. Seconded by Commissioner Miller. Mayor Partyka said that motion is out of order, it is redundant, there is time for debate on any issue. Discussion. Commissioner Gennell asked if Commissioner Miller's comments were on the draft the Commission was given or on the final document that was sent out. Commissioner Miller stated his comments were made on the original draft because he was not aware that it would be redone and mailed out on Monday. Commissioner Gennell asked the City Manager ifthere is a timetable for this and said she assumes we are in a position to bring forth an ordinance for the beautification district. Manager McLemore said there be no ordinance, there will be a resolution and said that a resolution has to be brought forth calling for the first hearing and that time frame will be sometime in November or December or January, or it could go as late as June; it is all contingent upon how long it will take the Advisory Committee to get their recommendation back to the Commission. Commissioner Gennell said then the time frame is when the Advisory Committee gets the information back to the Commission and asked if that will be presented at a Public Hearing or will the Commission just be given the paper work. Manager McLemore said he will recommend to the Advisory Board that they present the recommendations to the Commission at a Public Meeting. Commissioner Gennell said following that then if it's appropriate we will then ask for a resolution at a following meeting. Manager McLemore said that is correct. Special Meeting City Commission September 21. 1998 97-98-43 Page 6 Commissioner Gennell said one of her concerns is that a large effort in the form of these questions and answers was in response to an endless number of questions that the Commission received from a certain segment of the pubic concerned with these issues and despite the fact that the Commission had a public meeting and took the questions and took them under consideration and deliberated and answered them completely, Commissioner Gennell said she doesn't want the Commission to have to sit here for the next two or three months under public input and entertain further questions and use up hours of the Commission's time when the Commission has really important issues to deal with so if there is a way that this Commission can come to a consensus or the Mayor can (in his authority) to decide to refer any and all of this issue's questions either to the Advisory Board or to those public hearings that will concern this, said she thinks it would save the Commission a tremendous amount of time. Mayor Partyka said his plan was that once the Commission agreed to the final document that the Commission would make the document available and if someone had a question refer them to the document. Commissioner Gennell said if there was a question that was not in the document, then she would just assume refer the person to the Advisor Committee or come back to the Commission at the appropriate time. Commissioner Gennell said she gave her comments to the City Manager and said if she understood correctly, the document would be revised then it would be sent out to the 70 people and any further distribution of the document would be something that would be available at City Hall to be picked up and reviewed. Mayor Partyka said the point of this meeting was that will be determined as a group what is the best way of doing that. Manger McLemore said he needs direction from the Commission as what they want him to do with the document. Commissioner Gennell said before any further action is taken with the document, she would invite the City Manager to do a final revision of the document. Manager McLemore said he needs to do a final revision. Commissioner McLeod asked that the questions be sorted out with an index so if someone had a question regarding "lighting" they will know where to find it. Discussion. Manager McLemore said yes. Commissioner McLeod said he continues to read from a gentleman named Mr. Scott, that this Commission is doing something wrong regarding this and he mentioned that the Commission will be "slammed" with a lawsuit in the amount of $300,000 and asked what merit does this have and said he would like to get a written reply from the Attorney as to what the gentleman is referring to. Commissioner McLeod said in the latest memo Mr. Special Meeting City Commission September 21. 1998 97-98-43 Page 7 Scott says that we can have any of his documents and tapes and so forth that he has sent to the Attorney General and said he would like to know what those are. Commissioner McLeod said this kind of "stuff' really undermines, if there's nothing there, undermines what this Commission is trying to do and what the Homeowners of Tuscawilla are trying to do. Commissioner McLeod asked the City Manager to get the Commission a written reply back from the Attorney as to what is Mr. Scott talking about, what rule are we talking about, where am I (McLeod) personally liable for spending $300,000. Commissioner McLeod said if there is no merit to what Mr. Scott is talking about, he also wants that in writing from our legal staff that there is nothing that exists. Discussion. Commissioner Gennell suggested that the Attorney contact Mr. Scott by letter rather than by phone. It was the consensus of the Commission that the Attorney look into this and give the Commission a written reply to Mr. Scott's recent letter and some of his other issues. Commissioner Martinez said he would like to commend the Mayor and the City Manager and especially the Manager who had to work so hard to put this package together to please the group who requested the answers to their questions. Commissioner Martinez stated it is time we put this to rest and do not cause the Manager and his Staff to continue to write and rewrite answers to questions that have been given here. There is a body that was put together by this Commission, known as the Beautification Board and they meet every Tuesday night and if the people have questions they should come to the Board because they can give them more answers than we have information for, because they (the Board) are dealing with the subject matter first hand and they are preparing documents to submit to us for approval on the Beautification District. Commissioner Blake said the public has had more than too many opportunities to have their questions asked and answered and said he thinks the document goes well beyond the call of virtually any entity to give those nay-sayers that may exist or people with legitimate questions who may take a little additional time to understand an issue as complex as this truly is; a chance to have their questions aired in a forum. Commissioner Blake said there can be ten revisions or zero revisions but it will not change the fact that next Monday there will be people who come before this body and complain about the answers, complain about the questions, disagree with them, find other areas perhaps that they didn't ask at one of the previous opportunities, and said it will never be "put to bed" and stated that he thinks we already have gone overboard in expense and time and said if someone comes up with a new questions that is legitimate in nature that has not been previously address, said he would like to hear it and said he would direct Staff to get answers to those questions, but as far as these questions go, he is satisfied with them. Manager McLemore said he would like to clarify his direction and that is to review the Commission's comments, refine any changes that are needed and make the document Special Meeting City Commission September 21. 1998 97-98-43 Page 8 available to the public here at City Hall and asked the Commission if it was their decision to not mail anything out but to make it available at City Hall. It was determined that the document would be mailed to the 70 people that attended the public meeting and that the document would be made available to anyone who wanted a copy here at City Hall at no cost. The Commission also stated that they would like to have it mentioned in the City's newsletter and on the water bills that the document is available. Commissioner Gennell asked the Mayor that at any future meeting if people come and want to ask any questions about the Beautification to direct the people to pick up the document and read it and if there is a question that they have that is not addressed then write it down and either give it to the City Manager or the City Clerk. Manager McLemore asked the Commission for latitude to incorporate what he sees fit from the Commissioners comments. The Commission was in agreement to this. Commissioner McLeod again asked for an index. Manager McLemore said the purpose of the questions was to answer a specific group of people who had demonstrated concerns and issues with the proposal, and said the dilemma with this document is that this is not a document (in his opinion) that is put out in general circulation to the public as the final answer to all of the issues that are out there. Manager McLemore said there will be a point in time when we need to reframe these issues in a way that results in information. Manager McLemore said you don't debate positions and said all we have done with this document is debate positions and said you don't debate positions when you get to the point where you want to present this position in the most positive way, and said at a point in time we will create another document for public consumption that reframes these issues in a different way and will give a lot more information and more useful information with a lot less number of questions. Commissioner Martinez mentioned that he was directed to go to the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council and bring back a report on the status of our City and stated that the issue was tabled and said he has a report from the September 14th meeting of the Blue Ribbon Committee where the following motion was put on the floor "All Cities should be non-voting members automatically with full rights to participate except for voting" and stated that the vote was seconded and the motion carried. Commissioner Martinez stated that means we will no longer have a vote in the E.C.F.R.P.C. even this was postponed and said he feels it is a ploy to keep our money and said he will leave it up to the Commission if they want to remain. Commissioner Martinez read a letter he received from Ms. Glenn thanking the Commission for letting her appear before the Commission at the last meeting. Special Meeting City Commission September 21. 1998 97-98-43 Page 9 Discussion on this subject. Mayor Partyka said the Commission will hear this as an agenda item at the next meeting. The meeting adjourned at 9:41 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, ~~%~U, Margo M. Hopkins-Pierce, CMC City Clerk APPROVED: I j. PAUL P. PARTYKA,