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HomeMy WebLinkAbout627 - MINUTES - City Commission MINUTES OF WORKSHOP MEETING DANIA BEACH CITY COMMISSION CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2004 - 6:00 P.M. l. Call to Order Mayor McElyea called the workshop to order at 6:00 p.m. 2. Roll Call Present: Mayor: C.K.McElyea Vice-Mayor: Bob Mikes Commissioners: Bob Anton Robert Chunn Patricia Flury City Manager: Ivan Pato City Attorney: Thomas Ansbro City Clerk: Louise Stilson • Charter Review Board Members: John Bertino Kurt Ely Gary Luedtke 3. General Discussion Kurt Ely questioned why all items would go to referendum. City Attorney Ansbro responded anything the Commission wants to send to the electorate can go to referendum. Secondly, anything that proposes to amend the terms of the elected officials, or how they are elected would have to go to referendum. The way it operates is once you say shall this Charter with all the revisions be approved, and the voters vote for that, State Law says it stays that way until anything that we want to amend goes back to the voters to amend. Commissioner Flury clarified if the Commission does not approve that referendum question, the Charter would be able to be changed without referendum. Mr. Bertino had concerns about locking everything into a referendum vote. Mr. Ely had concerns about not being able to make changes without going to referendum in the G.*' future. Vice-Mayor Mikes commented this would provide protection to the citizens from future Commissions who might try to sell City property. Mr. Bertino commented if you chisel something in stone today, you have to wait until referendum to change them again. Vice-Mayor Mikes remarked you were an Advisory Board to us, but we make the decisions. We have not always had responsible Commissioners. He stated he will suggest a 4/5th vote by the Commission on future airport agreements between the City of Dania and Broward County. Commissioner Flury would like a sense of how we will do things tonight. If Item #4 is going to be the will of the Commission, and she is not sure which way she will go on it, then, she is guaranteeing that she is reviewing the Charter word by word and hoped that everyone else was doing the same. If we are going to chisel something is stone, we better make sure we know what we are doing. Commissioner Anton disagrees with setting the Charter in stone; however, he does favor setting the airport expansion with a 4/5th vote, as well as selling City property. Mr. Ely commented the time frame for placing items on the March 2005 ballot is extremely tight. • City Attorney Ansbro advised if we pick out the things we wish to submit by March, the rest could be changed by Ordinance over a period of several months. Vice-Mayor Mikes thinks there should be a method for evaluating the City Manager included in the Charter and decided by referendum. He is suggesting after a City Manager has received a satisfactory evaluation and served over a year, except for cause, he cannot be removed without a 4/5th vote until his next evaluation, and a period of time after that to correct that and be reevaluated; then if he does not pass, it is a 3/51h vote to terminate him. City Manager Pato suggested a period of six months after receiving an unsatisfactory review. Method of Election Vice-Mayor Mikes asked the Board if they looked at the faults of the current system and alternatives. Mr. Bertino responded the fault with the current system is the fact that if somebody runs for office, you run against everyone. When you run, you are not running against a person because you didn't like the person's politics or decisions and you think you can do a better job; you are running against everybody that is an incumbent and everybody else that is running against the incumbent. It makes it too fragmented for people to zero in on the issues. It was decided that geographic districts would not work because of the size of the City. By running for seats, the incumbent would have to stand and be counted for their actions. • Minutes of Workshop Meeting 2 Dania Beach City Commission Charter Review Committee Recommendations Thursday,November 4,2004—6:00 p.m. . Vice-Mayor Mikes questioned if they looked at the length of terms. He remarked four years is a long time and people's performance varies a lot over that period of time. He asked if they looked at shortening the term. Mr. Bertino responded yes. The recommendation of the Committee was for an elected Mayor with a two year term, so that every two years you are electing a polarity on the Commission. Vice-Mayor Mikes is concerned about diversity in the Mayor's seat. He wondered if tying up the Mayor's seat for a longer period of time would take away something from diversity and allow certain groups to make it more difficult for them to serve as Mayor. Mr. Bertino responded it used to be a two year term for the Mayor. The argument for the two year seat is somebody becomes a newly-elected Mayor and it takes them six months to learn the job. Then they only have six months in the job to be an effective Mayor of the City. He remarked if you let a Mayor remain for two years, many times they take powers, or have powers that are perceived, to be more than a City Commissioner and they are not more than a City Commissioner. By keeping it to one year, you do not have a person go off on a power trip. Vice-Mayor Mikes remarked there have been people in the Mayor position who received the highest votes but did not perform the way people expected them to perform. Mr. Bertino remarked in his opinion, if you have an elected two year Mayor, he is going to be more powerful and have more power in their seat than the other Commissioners. • Commissioner Flury reminded the Commission they are not making a decision for a one-year or two-year term; they are making the decision to put it on referendum for the people to decide. She commented that many people in the community have been very vocal on this issue and it does not matter what she thinks. What matters is do we want to put this on referendum for the people to decide. She also thinks we have to be careful because we cannot craft the Charter with the understanding there will be five idiots up here. We are talking about creating a Charter in an environment of distrust and it is a bad thing that we are doing. She thinks we need to make some assumptions that we will have reasonably honest people up here most of the time. It offends her that we want to create a Charter without any balance. Commissioner Anton remarked he does not see a problem with the current system and the way it is working. As far as letting the public decide, he thinks the public is going to look to us to be responsible on what the public should look at and vote on. Some things we should be dealing with and we should be handling, in his opinion. Vice-Mayor Mikes has not heard an overwhelming concern from residents on the issue of the Charter. He has heard a lot of objections to eliminating the Primary election. It is our obligation to come up with the best alternatives for the City. The foundation of a City is its Charter and certain things need to be in stone and you can rate the past performance of previous elected officials very simply by the way we rated the performance of the founding fathers of this country. He agreed with Commissioner Anton that the current system works well. He remarked he wants to leave something permanent in this City when he leaves this Commission. Minutes of Workshop Meeting 3 Dania Beach City Commission Charter Review Committee Recommendations Thursday,November 4,2004—6:00 p.m. Mr. Ely suggested the Commission take a poll to decide what they want to send to referendum. 4. Review of Proposed Referendum Questions Question #1 Providing for Election of Commission by Seats Vice-Mayor Mikes prefers to leave things as they are until we know what the airport will do to our City. Commissioner Anton likes the way it is now and does not see any sense in changing it. Commissioner Chunn does not care what we change in the Charter. He thinks one of the key things we need is to have people with integrity and honesty. He prefers to stay as we are. Commissioner Flury has a problem because we appointed a Committee and we are not taking their recommendations. She is not in favor of seats, but thinks we should take the recommendations of the Committee. Vice-Mayor Mikes supports not making changes for the next four years. • Mayor McElyea is in favor of running for seats, but will vote for keeping things the way we have it now. He remembered there used to be an Ordinance that required the Mayor to have at least one year of experience as a Commissioner before being Mayor. He suggested this might be something the Commission look at again. Vice-Mayor Mikes added we could tweak the system and say that the high vote getter and the second vote getter, if the first high vote getter has not served in previous office, the runner-up takes the first term as Mayor until that person gets one year experience. But that person would have to have one year experience. City Attorney Ansbro questioned how it would work if the second vote getter had no experience. Vice-Mayor Mikes responded you would have to revert to the high vote getter. Commissioner Chunn commented he did not think that was necessary. From his own experience, if we are sitting up here and we are fair to each other and we care about each other, it would not make a difference if the person was new or not new. We can make that person feel just as comfortable as someone with experience. It is not that big of a deal in some instances. City Attorney Ansbro confirmed question#1 will not be placed on the referendum ballot. • Minutes of Workshop Meeting 4 Dania Beach City Commission Charter Review Committee Recommendations Thursday,November 4, 2004—6:00 p.m. Question #2 Creating Designated Office of Mayor with Two Year Term City Attorney Ansbro explained it would be different from what we currently have. The Mayor would run for a two year term and the Vice-Mayor is elected by the Commission. The second year, the same thing happens. The person who was the Vice-Mayor could serve again, if elected by the Commission. Vice-Mayor Mikes sees a problem with an elected Mayor if three of the most qualified people decide to run for Mayor and you knock out two of the best potential Commissioners and you get second-class people for the Commissioners, because only the best will run for the Mayor seat. Commissioner Anton remarked he was uncomfortable in the position of.Mayor at first, but personally does not have a problem with the top vote getter being the Mayor for two years. The public has the right to decide who their Mayor is and if the public knows their top vote getter gets the most votes in this City, by popularity or majority, that's the way it should be. He does not support the question as it is written. Commissioner Flury did not understand what Commissioner Anton was saying. Commissioner Anton responded he prefers to stay with the system we have with the exception of increasing the Mayor's term for two years. He wants to stay with the system we have with the Mayor being the person who gets the most votes in every election but staying as Mayor for two years. He opposes a Mayor seat. He thinks the public has a right to select their Mayor; he does not like the idea of them running every two years; he does not like the idea of voting for a Mayor every two years because he thinks there is some propensity for abuse and for a power grab even though it may only be perceptive. Commissioner Flury does not like that at all because if you think a Mayor should stay for two years, it is her opinion that the Mayor should be accountable to the public and should be able to speak to the public about how they perceive the role of the Mayor, or their goals. Just to elect someone because they are the most popular amongst the pack and they end up being Mayor for two years could be a mistake because wasn't that the way it used to be. Mayor McElyea liked the idea of having the Mayor run every two years because there would always be three people running for office. Mr. Bertino suggested starting an election with three people running and the low vote getter that wins would get a two year term. The next two years you have three people running and the low person gets a two year term. Vice-Mayor Mikes likes that idea because it gives the voters three seats and he would support it. He thinks it gives voters more control; the other thing he would have tried is to go to three year terms, but this is better because it takes the current system and just tweaks it a little bit. Commissioner Flury asked what would happen with the Mayor in that instance. Minutes of Workshop Meeting 5 Dania Beach City Commission Charter Review Committee Recommendations Thursday,November 4, 2004—6:00 p.m. Mr. Ely responded it would be the same thing they do now. The high vote getter would be the Mayor. Mr. Luedtke tried to bring the conversation back to what the Charter Board talked about in having the Mayor run for a two year term. The Mayor runs as the leader of the City, so it is different than running for City Commission. Commissioner Anton remarked the problem is there may be three excellent candidates who run for Mayor that really belong on the Commission, so you will only end up with one of those candidates, and he has a problem with that. Commissioner Chunn has no problem with the current system, but will go along with the will of the Commission. Vice-Mayor Mikes commented when you make the Mayor seat more than one year, it becomes more than ceremonial to the person and it becomes a strong Mayor-type thing and the people in this City do not want that. They want five people elected because often there are very diverse interests. He tends to lean toward one year terms. Commissioner Flury remarked Vice-Mayor Mikes said the people don't want a two year term. She doesn't know if the people do or don't, but good points have been made on each side. She does not know any other city in Broward County that only has a one year Mayor and thinks a little continuity would be better for the City. It does not matter to her but she is not opposed to letting the people decide. Vice-Mayor Mikes remarked he thinks there is more diversity of views and it is a more ceremonial position, and he thinks we start to remove certain groups from representation when we start adding years to the Mayor's seat. Mayor McElyea likes the idea of not a strong Mayor, but he likes a two year Mayor. This question will not appear on the March 2005 ballot. Mr. Ely asked about the four years for two and two years for one. Mayor McElyea responded leave it alone. Commissioner Anton responded there is no reason why they can't add something to this that would require a referendum. Vice-Mayor Mikes responded he would support it because he has seen situations where people have not kept their promises. He likes the idea that every two years we get to address the majority of the Commission. He supports the third seat being only a two year term. Minutes of Workshop Meeting 6 Dania Beach City Commission Charter Review Committee Recommendations Thursday,November 4,2004—6:00 p.m. City Attorney Ansbro pointed out it would not be effective until March 2009. He suggested the Commission poll themselves to see if there is support for this. Commissioner Flury commented she does not understand the value of it. You can have a bad person on the Commission for two years just as you can have a bad person for four years. It doesn't mean that the lowest vote getter is always going to be the bad person. She does not like the idea of someone having to run every two years because they need to collect money for it and you never know who they are indebted to, and they are more interested in getting reelected than doing their job. She does not like elections every two years, in general. Commissioner Chunn remarked it could backfire on you too. You could have two people elected that are very supportive of the Commission and then you get the third person out and two new people come in that are just the opposite. Vice-Mayor Mikes sees that it gives more power to the voters. Yes, it is a hardship for the person who has to run but he is asking for accountability. The point is a majority of the Commission will come up every two years. Commissioner Anton asked how it would effect the eight year term. It makes no sense to do that. We already said by consensus that we want to stay the same, though he does like the idea of the three and the ability to change the voting power on the Commission if there is a problem. He is not sure this is the right way to do it. He does not think this is the way to go. The Commission consensus was to leave this suggestion alone. Question #3 Modification of Term Limits The Commission unanimously agreed not to place this question on the referendum. Question #4 Amendments are to Create New Charter The Commission agreed this would be the last question discussed. Question #5 Planning and Zoning Board, Library Board and Park and Recreation Board City Attorney Ansbro advised this question would need to go to referendum because the Statute says if you do anything with Appointed Boards it needs to be by referendum. He recommended the Commission take this out of the Charter and move it into the Code of Ordinances. • Minutes of Workshop Meeting 7 Dania Beach City Commission Charter Review Committee Recommendations Thursday,November 4,2004—6:00 p.m. The Commission unanimously agreed with the City Attorney's recommendation, but suggested the verbiage be rewritten to make it clearer. Question #6 Initiative, Referendum City Attorney Ansbro commented we talked about this at the last meeting. He proposed this Initiative and Referendum section because the newer cities have this in their Charters. It takes the archaic one from 1969 out of the Charter and makes it conform with State Law which was adopted in 1973. It just cleans it up. Vice-Mayor Mikes remarked it is a very poor Initiative. The language is terrible; the timeframes make it extremely difficult for it to be doable; and it is not citizen friendly. He remarked he understands Mr. Leed's concerns from the first meeting. City Attorney Ansbro will research the law further. The Commission consensus was that this item needs to be reworked. Question #7 • Charter Review Board The Commission unanimously agreed to place this question on the referendum. Vice—Mayor Mikes suggested the Board be appointed at a maximum of eight year intervals. Mr. Bertino questioned if it would be an Advisory Board, or if they would have the authority to place items on the referendum without going through the City Commission. City Attorney Ansbro responded the Commission cannot delegate its legislative authority and advised all items required City Commission approval. Question #8 Filling of Vacancies in the City Commission The Commission unanimously agreed to place this question on the referendum. Question #9 Right of Department Heads and Directors to Appeal to Civil Service Board The Commission unanimously agreed not to place this question on the referendum. • Minutes of Workshop Meeting $ Dania Beach City Commission Charter Review Committee Recommendations Thursday,November 4, 2004—6:00 p.m. • Question #10 Prohibition of Discrimination The Commission unanimously agreed to place this question on the referendum. Question #11 Office of the City Clerk City Manager Pato thought this was covered at the last meeting and the Commission was opposed to it. Commissioners Anton and Flury are still opposed to it. Mr. Bertino reminded the Commission that the Board put this in because the City Clerk is the keeper of the books and information, and to make sure that all five Commissioners have equal access and ability to get information about the City because the City Clerk is directly responsible to those five Commissioners and not to the City Manager. Commissioner Anton thinks it is more important to keep the politics as far away from the Department Heads as possible. He does not have a problem with the way it works now. Vice-Mayor Mikes has mixed emotions on the issue. He thinks the position should report to the City Manager but maybe the salary evaluation should be done by the City Commission. City Manager Pato commented the present system works quite well especially since we have an effective performance evaluation system. By having the City Commission do the evaluation it would require five performance evaluations to be done on the City Clerk before that person could qualify for a raise. The Commission already controls the salary through the Budget process. Commissioner Flury commented the provision in the Charter that says the City Commission shall not do business with employees could be modified to exclude the City Clerk. This would provide the Commission with access to the City Clerk. Vice-Mayor Mikes agrees with Commissioner Flury on changing the language to allow appropriate access to the City Commissioners. Commissioner Anton questioned if it should include all Department Heads. Commissioner Flury did not think we should deal with that question now, only the City Clerk for the referendum. Commissioner Chunn questioned why they should exclude all the Department Heads. • Minutes of Workshop Meeting 9 Dania Beach City Commission Charter Review Committee Recommendations Thursday,November 4, 2004—6:00 p.m. Commissioner Flury remarked we are on a referendum that deals with the City Clerk. Let's deal with this issue and we can wait to deal with the Department Heads. The consensus of the City Commission was to delete this question. 5. Discussion City Attorney Ansbro asked the Commission if there were any other items they wished to discuss. Vice-Mayor Mikes would like a ballot item that says any County/City airport agreements that affect neighboring communities be approved by a 4/5th vote of the City Commission. He would also like any contracts, use of services, or modification to contracts exceeding $1M to require a 4/5th vote of the City Commission. Vice-Mayor Mikes commented the Commission has to agree on how to evaluate the City Manager. This would be the procedure for removal without cause to require a 4/5th vote unless the City Manager has served less than one year in that position. If the City Manager has served a year and has received a satisfactory evaluation, then it will require a 4/5th vote to remove that City Manager until such time as his annual evaluation comes up negative, then that City Manager shall be given six months to correct the deficiencies and if at that point and time there is still a review that says negative, then a 3/5th vote will remove that City Manager. He commented this • would be separate from a contract. Commissioner Flury remarked we have to define satisfactory performance. She still thinks the provision of the City Manager's term expiring at election time will prevent the City from obtaining a professional City Manager. Commissioner Anton agrees with Commissioner Flury on this issue. City Attorney Ansbro commented that a contract will have whatever terms you negotiate as to cause for removal. Vice-Mayor Mikes remarked the intent of his proposal is that it takes a supermajority vote to terminate the City Manager. You will be able to attract people; you will just have to compensate them in other ways. His intent for the contract for new upcoming City Managers is independent of this. Commissioner Anton wanted it on the record that he agrees with what Vice-Mayor Mikes is saying, but what if we give a contract. Would it supercede the Charter? City Attorney Ansbro responded the current provision, which is amendable by Ordinance, says no contract will extend beyond the next election. This provision will say outside of a contract, you will do all these benchmarks and has nothing to do with an election. He advised the Commission still has to address the issue if a contract expires at the election. Minutes of Workshop Meeting 10 Dania Beach City Commission Charter Review Committee Recommendations Thursday,November 4,2004—6:00 p.m. • Mayor McElyea does not believe in a contract for a City Manager, or any City employee. City Manager Pato commented that what Vice-Mayor Mikes is proposing is a good step at taking the politics out of the City Manager's office through a good performance evaluation system. He thinks a 4/5th vote makes sense and will attract a better candidate with those conditions. He remarked it has been a trend throughout the country for years, and a contract is a standard way of doing business. In his professional opinion, the City will have a difficult time in attracting someone without a contract that isn't tied in to an election process. You are forcing a City Manager to run for office every two years and it is not right. You will not get the candidate you are looking for unless you fix that. This is the only City in Broward County that has a City Manager without a contract. He is not asking for a contract, but the next person will. He advised that most contracts do not have an ending date, but they do have a 6-9 month severance package. Vice-Mayor Mikes asked if they had a consensus. Commissioners Anton and Flury agreed that it would go in the Charter. City Attorney Ansbro will develop a referendum question. Vice-Mayor Mikes wants it to go to referendum to be included in the Charter and only to be changed by referendum vote. This is to provide protection to the City Manager. Commissioner Anton agrees but thinks the one section should be taken out of Charter that states the City Manager's contract expires at the next municipal election. Commissioner Flury suggested the contract be subject to review at the next municipal election. Vice-Mayor Mikes would not have a problem extending it to the next regular evaluation of the City Manager. City Attorney Ansbro will draft the verbiage for Vice-Mayor Mikes to review. Mr. Ely questioned Article 4, Emergency Ordinances. The section requires a two-thirds vote of the City Commission. He pointed out it was impossible to have a two-thirds vote of the City Commission. City Attorney Ansbro responded this is from a Statute since Home Rule. The Statute says two- thirds which means in translates in our case to four-fifths. The consensus of the Commission was to change the wording to read two-thirds or better. Minutes of Workshop Meeting 11 Dania Beach City Commission Charter Review Committee Recommendations Thursday,November 4, 2004—6:00 p.m. 5. Adjournment • Mayor McElyea adjourned the meeting at 8:44 p.m. CITY OF DANIA BEACH r - ATTEST: C. K. M E YEA MAYOR-COM SSIONER `LOUISE STILSON ---CITY CLERK APPROVED: November 23, 2004 • • Minutes of Workshop Meeting 12 Dania Beach City Commission Charter Review Committee Recommendations Thursday,November 4,2004—6:00 p.m.