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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-04-29 Workshop City Commission Meeting MinutesMINUTES DANIA CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP MEETING APRTL 29, 1997 Present: City Manager: City Clerk: City Attorney: Bob Mikes Jim Cali John Bertino John Etling Bill Hyde Michael Smith Marie Jabalee Frank Adler 1. lnterviews with Growth Management Director candidates *Terry Virta was the first candidate and he offered the following He is a native of Minnesota. Has been in Florida since 1980. He has been a planner for Collier County and St. Lucie County, the Regional Planning Council in Fort Myers and Stuart, and is presently working with St. John's County. He worked in Planning in Minnesota, Georgia and lndiana at the County and City levels. He is very excited about being in planning and his greatest deal of job satisfaction is the opportunity of being able to work with people. He has worked 15 of the last 17 years in South Florida and would like to come back. He has been involved with various grant programs; his experience has been excellent over the years; he has been extremely successful in obtaining every grant he has applied for; he has never had a grant application turned down. He has had a lot of experience in updating and amending codes in a number of jurisdictions; he is no stranger to code amendments and is not fearful to venture into updating or amending the City of Dania's code. He perceives the position of Growth Management Director to be more of an administrative position than technical; he is fully founded in all the technical aspects, but his greatest skills and talents are working with others and accomplishing things together. 1WORKSHOP MEETING APRTL 29, 1997 ROLL CALL: Mayor: Vice Mayor: Commissioners: He has been involved in a lot of lltigation and is willing to take on several hats and accept additional roles. He was involved as the city staff liaison to the Housing Redevelopment Authority when downtown redevelopment was happening in the city of St. Paul. He recently went through a visioning process with the citizens of St. John's County. The comprehensive plans for St. Lucie County and Collier County were done in their entirety during his tenure there. lf offered the job, he would like to give his present employer 4 to 5 weeks notice. He is looking for a salary of $56,000. -Sheryl Bower was the second candidate and offered the following: She has been a planner for 10 years. Her undergraduate degree is in landscape architecture and environmental science. Her first planning job was for the City of Buffalo. She then went to work for Metropolitan Transportation Organization for western New York. From there she was the Assistant Director of Planning in the Town of Hamburg. She then became the Community Development & Planning Director for the City of Dunkirk. She is presently working in the Keys and has been there for the last 16 months. She is interested in Dania because it is a small town and because of the lack of staff, she would be involved in a lot of different areas which she finds challenging. Her greatest amount of job satisfaction is being to help people find the solutions to their problems, and gaining the respect of the community and her peers. She worked on studies for extending the subways in downtown Buffalo. ln the City of Dunkirk she was actively involved in business recruitment and downtown revitalization. She was successful in obtaining a $70,000 grant for a downtown revitalization study. She has had a lot of experience meeting the requirements of HUD for their grants. She felt that all the steps of Florida GroMh Management are basic planning steps. She felt that her position in Monroe County has given her a lot of knowledge in Florida GroMh Management working closely with the Building Department in Plantation Key. She would rely on the other members of the team; namely code enforcement personnel and building personnel, to keep the department running smoothly. She stated that the reason she has had so many different jobs were career moves on her part. 2WORKSHOP MEETING APRTL 29, 1997 She has recently been involved in a redevelopment plan in lslamarado. She is very proficient with zoning codes, she, like anyone else would have to learn Dania's Code by studying it. She would consider herself somewhere in the middle of the technical side and the administrative side of the job. She enjoys working with people but she really enjoys making sure that the system works and she loves planning. She feels very comfortable in leading the Comprehensive Plan update. She felt that if something wasn't working it should be changed. She would be available to start June 2 and would request something under what the last director was making. She felt that Dania had a lot to offer and that she had a lot to offer to Dania. She was very impressed with Dania's determination to provide excellent customer service. *George "Skip" Grkovic was the third candidate and offered the following: He has lived in Broward County for 13 years. He worked six years for the City of Hollywood for the Downtown Redevelopment program. He is currently consulting in planning and development and has been for several years. Most recently he was involved in the marine business and in jewelry manufacturing in Hollywood. Being downsized in the private sector he is very interested in getting back into the public sector in a planning and development role. The aspects of his job that give him the greatest amount of satisfaction are: a sense of accomplishment - seeing things happen, seeing things get done, working with people and the excitement of public sector activity and public policy. Has been involved in intergovernmental grants and aid. He was trained in Colorado in the grantsmanship training program, learning how to prepare, organize and write grants. He has received both state and federal grants. ln his role as Community Development Director in Oakland Park he was responsible for the administration of the department and budget preparation. He was involved in a number of major amendments to the land development code. He was also involved in rezoning the entire city while he was there. He is familiar with the South Florida Building Code and was involved in code enforcement and building and zoning issues in Oakland Park. He has no problem with taking on other roles in addition to that of the Growth Management Director. While in Oakland Park he was assigned the responsibility of dealing with FEMA on the grant administration side of things. aWORKSHOP MEETING APRTL 29, 1997 He would be available now and would require a salary between $50,000 and $55,000 Commissioner Hyde expressed his thought that Skip Grkovic had extremely high technical qualifications and had been involved in a city planning process very similar to Dania and believed he would mesh right in. Commissioner Hyde also felt that Sheryl Bower had all the qualifications and would bring a really different look in. Commissioner Hyde stated that he would lean more toward Sheryl because she would bring some new ideas into Dania, but would support Mr. Grkovic also. Commissioner Bertino thought that Terry Virta had tremendous qualifications, especially with the work he's done with the D.R.l. and the grants and grant writing. Commissioner Bertino thought he would be a real addition to the City of Dania. Commissioner Etling stated that Mr. Virta impressed him with his work in regional planning. Mayor Mikes stated that Mr. Virta would be outstandingly qualified for the comp plan update. Mayor Mikes also thought he would be a hands-on type of person. Mayor Mikes stated that he was uncomfortable with Ms. Bower's and Mr. Grkovic's job turnover. Vice-Mayor Cali expressed his thanks to staff for finding three qualified experienced candidates to choose from. 2. Management Review City Manager Smith reported on some of the accomplishments over the past year, some on-going projects and future goals: Organizational changes such as a new Human Resources Director; the retirement of the Fire Chief thereby eliminating one management position; and the extensive interview process of candidates to replace Will Allen as GroMh Management Director. A number of public improvements; namely the repaving of approximately 1/3 of the streets in the city and the elimination of all the unpaved streets in the City. Public Works' involvement in a beautification program including landscaping throughout the City including the parks and cemetery, and drainage improvements in the SE section of the city. The agreement regarding the FAU Research Facility thereby creating additional revenues for the City and allowing scholarships for young people for the next ten years. 4WORKSHOP MEETING APRTL 29, 1997 The acquisition of a number of grants - the largest being the Preservation 2,000 grant of $7'18,250 to acquire the property just north of the Pier; a grant for $475,000 for sidewalk improvements in the SW and NW areas of the city; a grant for $150,000 forthe renovation ofthe NW 1 Street bridge overthe C-10 canal; and a grant for $81,000 for fencing at the parks and demolition of unsafe structures. * The initiation of the Suggestion Box. * The preparation of informational brochures by some departments about city services * The improvement of communications with citizens by sending mailers and completing a web page. * The Florida Main Street Program. " The Bass Pro project. Fire Department - Deputy Chief Jim Mulford presented a brief history of the department, the goals and accomplishments obtained in 1996, the current projects that are underway, where they would like to be at the end of 1997 and some budget issues. Public Works - Bud Palm, Director of Utilities/Public Works, presented a comparison of projects completed paying overtime to employees as opposed to paying outside contractors to accomplish the same task. Vice-Mayor Cali suggested including additional positions in his upcoming budget in order to eliminate overtime costs. Mr. Palm reported that rehabilitation of sewer lines would be cut down in the upcoming budget to $50,000. Mayor Mikes suggested that the City's grounds work and maintenance be privatized. City ClerUFinance - Marie Jabalee, City Clerk/Finance Director, reported the following: - Audit and State Report has been completed which keeps the City in compliance with the Auditor General. EWORKSHOP MEETING APRTL 29, 1997 . The implementation of an "Excellence in Customer Service Program" throughout the city by training employees in customer service which includes telephone skills, how to deal with the public, how to deal with angry residents and how to defuse hostile situations. Assessment programs for solid waste as well as the EMS and stormwater fees - almost all of the delinquent solid waste fees have been collected. The City has received the GFOA award for the last eight years. Mrs. Jabalee provided the Commission with the 1997-98 budget preparation schedule. Commissioner Hyde suggested that a workshop session for the 1997-98 budget be held approximately 30 days sooner than July 25. Vice-Mayor Cali suggested that somewhere in between the June 16 and June 27 timetable the Commission first review the budgets as submitted by the department heads prior to the City Manager's recommendations. Mrs. Jabalee stated that she would be requesting additional personnel in the next budget. Vice-Mayor Cali suggested reviewing alternate methods of minute preparation. Human Resources - Monica Griffith, Personnel Director, reported that her energy over the past year has been focused in the communications area with employees and training them in customer service. Ms. Griffith stated that one of her major efforts was to communicate and educate employees on their benefits to eliminate lack of understanding and confusion on the part of the employee. Ms. Griffith stated that she put together a Violence in the Workplace policy, trained employee's on defusing hostility, wrote a telephone communications manual, created a Safety Manual, implemented a Safety Committee, finalized the Employee Handbook, and prepared an RFP for an employee classification and pay study. This workshop meeting adjourned c,__(_ M ayo r-Com m iss io n er 7 ity Clerk-Au tor 6WORKSHOP MEETING APRIL 29, 1997