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HomeMy WebLinkAbout_2005 07 05 City Commission Special Minutes CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING JULY 5, 2005 CALL TO ORDER The Special Meeting of Monday, July 5, 2005 of the City Commission was called to order by Mayor John F. Bush at 6:31 p.m. in the Commission Chambers of the Municipal Building (City Hall, 1126 East State Road 434, Winter Springs, Florida 32708). ROLL CALL: Mayor John F. Bush, present Deputy Mayor Michael S. Blake, arrived at 6:37 p.m. Commissioner Robert S. Miller, present Commissioner Donald A. Gilmore, present Commissioner Sally McGinnis, present Commissioner Joanne M. Krebs, present City Manager Ronald W. McLemore, present City Attorney Anthony A. Garganese, absent Mayor Bush led the Pledge of Allegiance. INFORMATIONAL AGENDA INFORMATIONAL 300. Information Services Department Presentation Of Initial Wireless Broadband Feasibility Report With Discussion On How The Commission Would Like To Proceed. Mr. Jonathan Baltuch, MRI (Marketing Resources, Inc.), 608 Gardenia Drive, Venice, Florida: presented his opening remarks to the City Commission on this Agenda Item. Deputy Mayor Michael S. Blake arrived at 6:37 p.m. Discussion ensued on other similar programs; speed of service; and competition factors. Tape l/Side B Further discussion ensued on potential costs. CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING - JULY 5,2005 PAGE 2 OF 5 Commissioner Robert S. Miller asked about implementation time frames. Mr. Baltuch explained, "If you said, from starting today, if you wanted to go through - a program to go through the process of investigation and writing reports - you could probably have a system up and running in between eight (8) and twelve (12) months." Mr. Baltuch added, "I think it is three (3) to four (4) months to get through a minimum of public process of having enough Workshops and talking to people and - building the information base you need, then it is probably another month or time to mull it around and the actual time to deploy the system is only about probably four (4) to five (5) months." With further discussion on the costs, Mr. Baltuch suggested the individual household costs would be "Three dollars ($3.00) a month." So you are telling me that the service then can be done for four (4) or five dollars ($5.00) a month?" City Manager Ronald W. McLemore added, "Totally?" Mr. Baltuch said, "Yes." Manager McLemore then spoke of business models. Further discussion. Manager McLemore suggested, "The stranded cost issue is an important issue to me and it's a reason I - asked the first question to go back to - the best model to me from risk analysis is one that shifts the burden to somebody else. And that would be ideal if the City could have someone provide the service to do all the expenditures themselves and then we would be in a position of providing some kind of franchise or some inducement to get them here. Why would we want to be in the business?" Mr. Baltuch stated, "What I would advise you is the best course of action is - (a) if we say we think we want to do something, would be to go to these next levels, gather this information, build a grass roots understanding from the public, build all the information and then at the very end, you may say we know now what we want to do or we want to bring people in and have them bid it or do a R.F.P. (Request for Proposal) for somebody, but I don't think you're there yet with enough information, but that may be where you end up going." Deputy Mayor Blake left the Commission Chambers at 7:48 p.m. Mr. Baltuch added, "Let me point out one more thing on stranded cost is you also can do a Lease system and I throw that out because HP (Hewlett-Packard) does offer that service and they did offer it to St. Cloud, but since St. Cloud happened to have an Economic Development Fund - they actually preferred to pay cash; but they actually will lease you a system for five (5) years and just pay an annual fee, so you have trapped costs." CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING - JULY 5, 2005 PAGE30FS Manager McLemore asked Mr. Baltuch, "Do you know anything about the cost of that as compared to..." Mr. Baltuch said, "...1 can get numbers." Manager McLemore noted, "That is an interesting point." Next, Manager McLemore asked Mr. Baltuch, "What are the normal next steps?" Mr. Baltuch responded, "Would be for the Commission to decide that yes, we seriously want to consider this and then it would be - put together a Business Plan and go through the Public Workshop process, these series of what we call - possibles, where you bring together community leaders and others within the community to get their input and it's more than just their input though. It's really a multi-day process where you educate them and then with the knowledge that they have, they then give input back." Mr. Baltuch added, "Gather together that information and it would probably be in a city this size, probably two (2) or three (3) two (2)-day sessions which would be done by us if you hired us and HP (Hewlett-Packard)." Furthermore, Mr. Baltuch noted, "When you get to that stage if you'd like, we can certainly provide you with a Proposal for that - to do that; and we are in an open contract right now with Hewlett-Packard with the City of St. Cloud so you could piggy back on that as well." Deputy Mayor Blake returned to the Commission Chambers at 7:55 p.m. Manager McLemore then said to Mr. Baltuch, "What would be the cost of that next step?" Mr. Baltuch replied, "I'd have to get back to you with that. I think what we would do is give you a scope of work, and an outline and a price, and I could probably get that to you within two (2) weeks." Deputy Mayor Blake noted, "The right number based on all of the assumptions that you have built into here and that is a mountain of assumptions - the right number is five - ($5.00) a month. That is on a ten (10) year note - which I would not Vote to go anything longer than ten (10) years." Deputy Mayor Blake added, "If we were going to charge - I would endeavor to grow the system and pay the Note off faster as opposed to slower." Further discussion. Deputy Mayor Blake noted, "I absolutely believe we should begin going down this road." Tape 2/Side A Commissioner Joanne M. Krebs noted, "I would like to move forward. I also would like the opportunity to hear from - second opinions and things like that - and what is available. Maybe there are - you mentioned you wanted to partner with, I think it was Sprint, but they turned you down." CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING - JULY 5, 2005 PAGE 4 OF 5 With further brief discussion, Commissioner Krebs inquired, "How do we find out if there is somebody out there that wants to partner with us?" Mr. Baltuch noted, "I would recommend that you go through the preliminary process first because you wouldn't know what the RF.P. (Request for Proposal) would be like until you get to that stage, but I would say that at the end of let's say a three (3) or four (4) month period and all this information that's gathered, you then will have choices, and you may indeed just decide to go to a public RF.P. (Request for Proposal) at that stage and invite people in and various models, but you will dictate the model with the knowledge of what you're really looking for." Commissioner Krebs added, "I would like to move forward then." Mayor Blake asked whether Telecom providers had inquired about this proposed project and added, "I do think we should do the RF.P. (Request for Proposal) process and I think we have to open it up and I stated it publicly before - if a provider wants to come in here and give us the appropriate level of service at the appropriate pricing, and takes care of all our citizens in Winter Springs, then I am absolutely willing to allow them to take on any risk." Commissioner Sally McGinnis commented, "Yes, I would like to go to the next step that would include leasing options." Commissioner Donald A. Gilmore remarked, "I think we should proceed with the RF.P. (Request for Proposal)." Commissioner Miller stated, "I agree with everything said on this dais." Mayor Bush summarized what Mr. Baltuch had stated, "You would recommend that we would look at this as if we were going to do the whole thing ourselves..." Mr. Baltuch said, ".. .Correct." Mayor Bush continued, "And then use that as the baseline at which then to maybe put an RF.P. (Request for Proposal) out there, so we will know - how much profit we want them to make, if we are going to give it to somebody else." Mr. Baltuch added, "That's exactly right." Discussion ensued on a possible Motion. Manager McLemore said to Mr. Baltuch, "They have a Meeting next Monday night - which I could prepare the Agenda Monday and get it to them, or up to Monday." With further brief discussion, Mr. Baltuch said, "I will get you something Monday." Mayor Bush summarized, "The Manager has Consensus then to move forward with this and present it at the next Regular Scheduled Meeting." . ADJOURNMENT Mayor Bush adjourned the Special Meeting at 8: 11 p.m. l,SPcrFULLY SUBMI1TED: I l\. .~ ~ ~ . -LORENZO-LUACES, CMC CIJY''C~LERK ,/ APPROVED: NOTE: These Minutes were approved at the J u 1 y 11 CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING - JULY 5, 2005 PAGE 5 OF 5 , 2005 Regular City Commission Meeting.