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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010 04 14 Draft Final Report April 13, 2010 Winter Springs Ad Hoc Charter Review Committee The attached Draft Final Report was emailed from Anthony A. Garganese's office on April 13, 2010 and forwarded to each of the Committee Members for their review at the next Meeting on Thursday, April 15, 2010. DRAFT WINTER SPRINGS AD HOC CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE DRAFT FINAL REPORT INTRODUCTION This Final Report is presented to the City Commission of Winter Springs pursuant to Resolution 2010 -04, which initiated a comprehensive review of the existing City Charter. The City Commission appointed an ad hoc charter review committee consisting of eleven (11) city electors to conduct the comprehensive review and make recommendations for changes deemed advisable. The members of the Winter Springs Ad Hoc Charter Review Committee ( "Charter Review Committee" or "Committee ") are: George Acha Pamela Carroll Tom Freeman Steve Glazier Beth King Charles Lacey George Markward Bill Poe John Ryser Helga Schwarz Sandy Traeger Anthony Garganese, City Attorney, served as the facilitator and legal advisor for the process. Kevin Smith, City Manager, and Andrea Lorenzo - Luaces, City Clerk, served as technical advisors to the Charter Review Committee along with the City Department Heads. The Charter Review Committee met 6 times between February 18 and April 15, 2010. All meetings were publicly noticed with opportunities for citizens to speak at each. Additionally, two citizens submitted written comments to the Charter Review Committee. All verbal and written comments received by the Charter Review Committee were considered and acted on accordingly. PROCESS The City Commission directed that the Charter Review Committee conduct a comprehensive review of the existing Charter to: • Evaluate and make recommendations on whether the provisions of the City Charter are substantially consistent with the Model City Charter, 8 Edition, published by the National Civic League, and if not, whether the City Charter should be amended to be substantially consistent with the Model City Charter, 8 Edition or remain the same. • Evaluate and make recommendations on specific City Charter provisions specifically identified by the City Commission. • Propose any amendments to the City Charter not otherwise specifically addressed. 1 DRAFT The following recommendations were approved by the Charter Review Committee for submission to the City Commission and transmission to the citizens of the City of Winter Springs. 1. Section 2.03. Annexation Procedure. The Committee determined that this section should simply reflect that annexations are governed by Florida law. Therefore, all superfluous language was removed and the Committee recommends that the current Section 2.03 be revised to read as follows: The commission of the City of Winter Springs, Florida, may annex land to the territorial limits of the municipality in accordance with the procedures set forth in Chapter 171, Florida Statutes as it now exists or as it may be renumbered or amended 2. Section 4.01(a) Composition and Section 4.02(a) Number of districts. The Committee had extensive debate regarding the composition of the City Commission. The debate resulted in a close majority and minority view point. Manority view (received five votes): The Committee recommends that the City Commission be comprised of four (4) district Commissioners and a voting Mayor. The Mayor and each Commissioner would be elected at large. The mayor would not have veto power. Minority view (received four votes): Maintain the status quo (five Commissioners and a nonvoting Mayor), but increase the Mayor's veto power to include resolutions excluding budget resolutions. The Committee also notes that in addition to the above - referenced vote regarding the composition of the City Commission, it considered a single member district voting scheme whereby Commissioners would be required to reside within, and be elected from within, a single district. In other words, Commissioners would no longer be elected at large. However, this single member district voting scheme failed by a five -four vote. 3. Section 4.01(b) Eli ibility. Section 4.01(b), dealing with eligibility of commissioner and mayoral candidates, currently references the City Code, which contains qualifications for candidates for Mayor and Commissioner. The Committee believes that the qualification requirements for candidates running for Mayor and Commissioner should be incorporated verbatim in the City Charter so the requirements can not be amended by the City Commission by ordinance. Therefore, the Committee recommends that the language of Section 2 -87 of the City Code, regarding residency and other qualifications, be inserted into the Charter. 2 DRAFT The Committee further recommends that the Charter reference to Section 2 -87 of the City Code be deleted. 4. Section. 4.01 Composition; qualification of members; and commission districts. The Committee recommends that reference to terms of office be removed and restated in section 4.03 so that the terms of office are only stated in one place in the Charter. 5. Section 4.03 Election and Terms. The Committee believes that a newly elected Mayor or Commissioner should take office as soon as possible after an election. Therefore, the Committee recommends that the Charter provide that newly elected officials will take office at next regular or special City Commission meeting (instead of the first Monday after December 1 as currently provided in Section 4.01). 6. Section 4.05 Mayor. The Committee believes that if a vacancy in the Mayor position occurs, the City Commission should determine at the time of the vacancy who should be appointed to serve as the Mayor until the next election. The Committee does not support having the Deputy Mayor automatically fill a vacancy in the position of Mayor. Therefore, the Committee recommends that a vacancy in the Mayor's position be filled in the same manner as any vacant position on the City Commission, per the recommended revised Section 4.08. 7. Section 4.08 (c) Vacancies; forfeitures of office; filling of vacancies. When a vacancy in the position of Mayor or Commissioner occurs, the Committee supports requiring the Commission to appoint a person to fill the vacancy within a certain defined time period. In addition, the Committee believes that the appointee shall only serve until the next regular election, at which time the voters can elect someone to fill the vacancy for the unexpired terms or for a new term. Therefore, the Committee recommends that the Commission make appointments to fill vacancies within two regular meetings following the creation of the vacancy. A Commission appointee would fill a vacant office only until the next regularly scheduled election. In the event of a vacancy, the Mayor's position would also be filled in the same manner as a vacant Commissioner's seat is filled. 8. Charter Officers (Sections 4.10, 5.01, 5.02 and 6.02) The Committee believes that the City Commission should have the flexibility of hiring and terminating charter officers by a simple majority vote. Therefore, the Committee recommends amending the provisions of the Charter related to the city clerk, city manager, and city attorney to allow the City Commission to hire and terminate said 3 DRAFT charter officers by majority vote (3 votes), rather than the current super- majority vote (4 votes). 9. Section 4.10 City Clerk. In addition to amending the hiring and terminating vote requirement, the Committee recommends adding language to Section 4.10 providing that the City Commission will set the compensation of the City Clerk. The Committee believes it makes sense to expressly provide this requirement in the City Charter because the existing Charter is silent on this issue, and compensation of the City Clerk has historically been established by the City Commission. 10. Section 4.11 Investigations. The City Attorney recommended to the Committee that this section be updated to comply with Florida law relative to the 60 day maximum term of imprisonment for violating a municipal ordinance. Therefore, the Committee recommends that this section be amended to change the term for imprisonment from 90 days to 60 days to comply with state statutes. 11. Section 4.12 Independent Audits. Section 4.12 authorizes the Commission to provide for an independent audit of all city accounts and for such more frequent audits as it deems necessary. Recognizing that the City is required to conduct annual audits every fiscal year, the Committee recommends that this section be revised to require annual independent audits each fiscal year. Additionally, the Committee believes this section is more appropriately placed under Article VII because it is related to Financial Procedures. Therefore, the Committee recommends moving Section 4.12, as amended, to a new Section 7.08 (for purposes of keeping financial procedures together in one section). 12. Section 4.14. Actions requiring an ordinance. The Committee proposes one minor technical legal change for purposes of recognizing that public utility rates should be established by ordinance unless otherwise provided by law. In many cases, the City does not regulate the rates of public utilities because the City is pre - empted by law from doing so. Therefore, the Committee recommended a slight amendment clarifying this pre - emption. Section 4.14(5) would be revised as follows: Regulate the rate charged for its services by the public utility, except as provided by law; - - - . - - _ .. :. - . ..: • 4 DRAFT 13. Section 4.15. Ordinances in general. While Florida law provides the procedures for adopting emergency ordinances, the Committee believes that the City Charter should expressly provide for the adoption of emergency ordinances. Further, the Committee believes that emergency ordinances should be for a limited duration consistent with the provisions of the Model City Charter, 8 Edition. Therefore, the Committee recommends that a new subparagraph (d) be added to Section 4.15, which would provide an automatic sunset of emergency ordinances after 60 days if not re- enacted or repealed. The following language is recommended: (d) Emergency Ordinances. Emergency ordinances may be adopted by the city commission in accordance with law. Every emergency ordinance shall automatically stand repealed as of the sixty -first day following the date on which it was adopted unless repealed sooner by the commission. Nothing herein shall prevent re- enactment of the ordinance in the manner specified in this subsection if the emergency still exists. 14. Section 5.03 Powers and duties of the city manager. The Committee believes that the City Charter should not enumerate the powers of the City Manager. Rather, the Committee believes that the City manager's powers should be established by the City Commission, as the City Commission deems appropriate. Therefore, the Committee recommends that all specific duties and responsibilities of City Manager should be stricken and replaced with: "The city manager will perform all duties and responsibilities as specified in city manager's job description with the City or as may be required by the Commission." Although not recommended to be placed in the City Charter, the Committee also recommends that the City Commission include the authority to hire and fire City staff in the City Manager's job description. 15. Section 5.04 Acting City Manager. In reviewing this section, the Committee realized that it required the City Manager to appoint a "qualified" officer of the City to serve as an acting city manager, but the same requirement does not currently expressly exist for the City Commission appointment of the same. While this requirement implicitly exists per the City Charter, the omission creates an ambiguity which should be addressed. Therefore, the Committee recommends that the word "qualified" be added to last sentence of Section 5.04, as follows: During such absence or disability the commission may revoke such designation at any time and appoint another qualified officer of the city to serve until the manager shall return or his disability shall cease. 5 DRAFT 16. Section 6.02 City Attorney. The Committee understands that the Model City Charter and the City Charter recognizes the City Attorney as the City's chief legal officer. However, the Committee also understands that in some situations the City Attorney can not represent the City for a variety of reasons such as conflict situations, statutory reasons, and when special counsel is required for special matters. Therefore, the Committee recommends that the word "all" be deleted from the last sentence of Section 6.02 (a), as follows: The city attorney shall represent the city in all legal proceedings and shall perform such duties as provided by this Charter, by the commission, or by law. 17. Section 7.07(d) Transfer of Appropriations. Because the City Commission is ultimately responsible for the City Budget, the Committee believes that the City Commission should be required to establish guidelines for the City Manager relative to the transfer of unencumbered appropriations among programs within a department, office, or agency. 18. Section 12.01 Powers generally; and Section 3.01 Powers of the City, Generally. The Committee recommends that Sections 12.01 and 3.01 be combined so that all of the stated general powers of the City are set forth in one place. Said powers should be stated at the beginning of the City Charter. Therefore, Article XII will be deleted and merged into section 3.01. ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS • The City Charter should be made gender neutral. • If the Commission accepts the recommended revisions to reduce the number of commission districts from 5 to 4, and to make the Mayor a full voting member of the Commission, the Committee recognizes that the City Commission will need to adopt transitional provisions to implement this change in the composition of the governing body. This implementation of this transition should be left to the City Commission's discretion within a reasonable period of time. 6 DRAFT IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES The Charter Review Committee recommends that the proposed recommendations be submitted to the electorate at the city election in November, 2010. The Charter Review Committee further suggests that the charter amendments be submitted as a series of ballot questions, grouping like issues to minimize the number of questions. In order to assure that the voters of the City of Winter Springs fully understand the proposed charter amendments, the Charter Review Committee recommends that the City Commission provide an extensive community education program that meets the requirements of Florida law. At a minimum the program should consist of the following: printed informational brochures (possibly mailed with utility bills); town hall meetings (held on nights and weekends); access to copies of the revised charter, information on the city website; information in newspapers of general circulation; and a speakers' bureau to inform voters of the proposed changes. This Report of the Charter Review Committee is respectfully submitted to the City Commission on this day of April, 2010. Charles Lacey, Chairman Attachment: Revised Charter 7