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HomeMy WebLinkAbout86403 - MINUTES - City Commission MINUTES OF SPECIAL MEETING, CITY COMMISSION, CITY OF DANIA, FLORIDA; HELD d MARCH 27, 1964. The City Commission of the City of Dania, Florida met in Special Session in the Commission Room at the City Hall. PRESENT WERE: MAYOR COMMISSIONER VERA L. HILL • COMMISSIONERS R. L. GRAMMER VIRGIL L. TARPLEY JOSEPH D. THORNTON CITY ATTORNEY CLARKE WALDEN CHIEF OF POLICE MONTIE F. SMITH CITY CLERK MARY THORNHILL • The meeting was called to order at 8:00 A. M. by Mayor Hill for the purpose of discussing the appointment of the City Manager. Commissioner Grammer: I would like to start off by saying that Mr. Tarpley and I were appointed acting and assistant acting city managers, and I think we are due the courtesy of either being fired or that you accept our resign- ations before we hire another city manager. I think the hiring last night was done a little too fast, because I think we aere at least entitled to that for volunteering our services to the City. The man that was hired last night did not submit an application. His name * was put up and voted on, I do not know him or anything about him. I asked' him for an application over a month ago and he said he would give us one, it was never received at city hall. We have two other men that submitted applications and they were under consideration at the time. Neither one of these men had a chance of even being voted on. In my personal opinion the other two men are more qualified than the one we hired. • A motion was made by Commissioner Tarpley that Lester E. Culverson not be hired as City Manager. Commissioner Grammer: I will second the motion for the purpose of consider- ing the other two men before we hire any one. Mayor Hill called for a vote on the motion.. It was as follows: Grammer Yes Tarpley Yes Thornton No • Hill No A motion was made by Commissioner Tarpley that Ralph Smith be hired as City Manager. Commissioner Thornton: You have not fired the other man, how can you hire • another one. Commissioner Tarpley: We were not fired either, and you hired some one else. Commissioner Thornton: Mr. Walden, do we not have to fire the other man before hiring another one? • Attorney Walden: Your motion would be to hire the new man and discharge the one hired yesterday. Commissioner Grammer: This man is not officially hired until 8:30 this morn- ing. I do not think he has to be fired as he has not officially taken office. • I think Commissioner Tarpley's motion is in order and that he has every right to put a man's name up for a vote. Commissioner Tarpley: Has the resolution hiring the oth er man been drawn yet? sir -1- 0 Attorney Walden: No. . Commissioner Tarpley: Then he has not been hired. Attorney Walden: Let me say this -- it is implied every time you make a motion to hire a city manager, the existing one, if you have one, is dis- charged. That is why I said last night when this motion was made hiring Mr. Culverson-- it is implied and you will see when the resolution is drawn that any existing manager or acting manager be relieved of their duties. That is my opinion as it is a standard form resolution. It also states at the bottom of the resolution that all resolutions in conflict are repealed to the extent of that conflict. That is why I said last night when the motion was made to hire this man that it is implied that the exiiting manager be relieved. By the same token, if you move to hire some one else this morning, it is implied that any one else you have in 40 office will be relieved. Commissioner Grammer: I will second Mr. Tarpley's motion on hiring Ralph Smith as City manager. Commissioner Thornton: I do not see any use in this, it is just taking up a lot of time. But since we have a motion on the floor and they want to vote on it, they can go ahead and vote. But the man in my opinion is hired and as far as I am concerned he is going to stay hired. Commissioner Grammer: I would like to say this-- we had the three men under consideration. Just for the record I would like to know why we cannot let the people know who was for hiring each one and-who was against hiring each one. We have talked to all the men and I think they deserve the courtesy of seeing why they were not hired. They should have their names put on the floor and voted on. Commissioner Thornton: I am not going to argue, you can put their names on the floor. Every man is entitled to his opinion as to who he thinks is best qualified. In this case I think the man we hired is the best qualified and therefore I voted for him. Commissioner Grammer: I am going to say this for the record. You say you think this man is the best qualified. Up until two nights ago you had never met the man and I know there is not an application on him. I do not see personally how you can say this man is the best qualified. Commissioner Thornton: You do not have to see I am the one voting, you can vote for who you want to. You are also entitled to your personal opinion the same as I am. If you think you are going to tell me who to vote for you are wrong. Commissioner Grammer: I am not telling you who to vote for,. this is a free country, but I cannot see how any commissioner can say a man is qualified when he has never met the man or seen an application on him. Commissioner Thornton:. There are a lot of things you may not see or may not understand. I don't have to explain anything to you and if you dontt under :r stand it I feel sorry for you. Commissioner Grammer: I don't want you to explain anything to me Mr. Thorn s ton, I just want the public to be informed. Commissioner Thornton: How are you going to hire another man without firing the one you huc? Commissioner Grammer: You dontt have to, you did not fire us. P: Commissioner Thornton: If you want to get fired we can do that too. Attorney Walden: You can hire a man, but by the same token you can specific- ally show it in your motion to bring it out, although I think it is implied that Mr. Culverson is out. Whether you want to make such a lengthy motion or not, I,do not know. That is my opinion on it. -2- m Commissioner Tarpley: The man will not be hired officially until 8:30 this morning. You received three votes to hire him I will admit. • Commissioner Grammer: If this man is voted in he will succeed the man that was voted in last night. To get the record .straight. I listened to the tape of the meeting last night. Mr. Young asked me what time I usually got to the city hall and I told him about 8:30. He then said I think the man should come in at 8:30 in the morning and start work instead of Monday. • Attorney Walden: If there is no further discussion let me make a suggestion that you vote on the motion and if it passes by three votes we can work out the details as to what to do and when the man goes to work and other details. Before going into this let's see if the motion passes. Anything three com- missioners want to do up here they can do. That is the way the Charter is • written. Mayor Hill called for a vote on the motion. It was as follows: Grammer Yes Tarpley Yes • Thornton No Hill No A motion was made by Commissioner Tarpley that William Carney be appointed City Manager. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Grammer. • Commissioner Tarpley: Here is a man like Mr. Smith, that has lived in this area a number of years. He served on the council in Miramar, which has grown from a cow pasture to a thriving city in a very short time. He was ' the utility commissioner.'and was instrumental in putting in a sewer disposal system, storm sewers, streets and sidewalks. He worked with heavy construct- ion companies in South Florida for the past ten years. The man you hired has no experience at all, so I feel Mr. Carney is far superior to Mr. Culver- son. We have a qualified man here, why don't we hire him instead of taking a pig in a poke. Commissioner Thornton: As far as a qualified man Mr. Tarpley, we have al- ready hired one. • Commissioner Tarpley:. I know these two men are qualified and I do not know that the other one is. All I know is what I read on a piece of paper and you can put some fancy words on a piece .of paper. You put him out on the street, what is he going to do? Commissioner Grammer: I would like to comment .on that too. I heard the man that was hired has not worked in this area in the last seven or `eight years. Just for my own information I found out, where he lived. I looked in the City Directory and found he worked for some -land company out in the Everglades. He misrepresented himself, to me because he said he had not worked in this area. I feel this way-- It is hard for me as a commissioner to work with a man such as this for a city manager. I have been hoping we could get one that we could work with: I-ask him for an application and he said he would submit one and he never did... If a man does not want to co- operate before he gets the job how can I sit here and think he is going to cooperate after he gets the job. Commissioner Tarpley: I feel the same way. Mayor Hill called for a roll call vote on the motion. It was as follows: Grammer Yes Tarpley Yes Thornton No Hill No Commissioner Grammer: The reason I seconded the motion last night to hire ??' this man was to get it on the floor for discussion and it was not discussed. -3 • Attorney Walden: As far as the motion is concerned, I think it is a valid motion and it was seconded properly. Whatever the reason for the second it got on the floor for consideration and the mayor asked if there was any dis-cussion, and when there was none it was voted on and passed. Let me just say this -- in the charter, and to my knowledge the general laws of this state, we have nothing that says we will follow any set parliamentary pro- cedure. It is implied and implicit that we follow whatever procedure that requires that every one voice an opinion. As far as how we vote on things it says we act by majority. There has to be some way it is presented to • you so you can vote on it. Commissioner Tarpley: In my opinion this is what occurred here last night. It is just like advertising for bids on streets. Every one submits a bid in writing and you have a local man here that does not submit a bid and he comes up and findsout what the lowest bid is and comes in and says I will • do it for $5.00 less. So why ask for sealed bids on projects if you ask for applications on a city manager and every one else except the man you hired submitted an application, it boils down to the same thing. Commissioner Grammer: I do not know whether this man is qualified or not. • Commissioner Tarpley: We advertised for applications for city manager the same as we do streets or anything else. The men that submitted applications were not even considered. Commissioner Thornton: The Charter does not say you accept bids that wat. • Commissioner Grammer: I don't think Mr. Tarpley is talking about the legal part of it, just on general principles. It was in all the papers we were accepting applications and the people that went to the trouble of submit- ting applications and references were not given any consideration whatsoever. We hired a man that we picked up just because he came in and said I am this and that without submitting something in writing on his qualifications. We • have hired a man that we know nothing about, and I cannot see how we can be expected to work with him. Commissioner Tarpley: I think the people in Dania are going to take a dim view of this when they read in the paper a man has been hired that has not submitted an application and that the commissioners knew nothing about him • before he was hired. We have eight men that submitted applications and they were absolutely ignored. Commissioner Thornton: They were not ignored. Commissioner Tarpley: They were not brought up on the floor here last night. • Commissioner Thornton: . They do not have to be brought up on the floor. You could have brought up any one you wanted to for consideration. Commissioner Tarpley: I did not h are an opportunity to. • Commissioner Thornton: You did not need to bring them up after a man was hired by the majority of the commission..' If you had wanted to discuss it) the mayor very plainly called for any discussion and. waited for it. Commissioner Tarpley: I did not want to discuss that man. • Commissioner Thornton: There was a motion made and seconded to hire a man and the majority of the commission did just that. Commissioner Tarpley: The mayor sould have called for recommendations last night inasmuch as three men were under. consideration. • Mayor Hill: I beg your pardon about that. I do not have to call for recom- mendations. He was hired by a majority of the commission as of March 27. -4- Commissioner Grammer: I am going to say this -- We had a conference amoung the five commissioners. If we cannot get anything out of a conference I don't see any need of wasting the commissioners time. The man that was hired had the lowest vote amoung the five commissioners. The other two that were not given any consideration last night had a tie vote amoung the commissioners. I do not see any reason to have a conference if the vote is going to be just backwards from the one taken at the conference. So from now on let's just come up here and get it on the floor and settle it ® right here and not have any conferences. ,In fact, I will put that in the form of a motion. Commissioner Tarpley: I will second that motion. Commissioner Thornton: There is nothing that you cannot bring out on the A floor and discuss. Commissioner Tarpley: We are going to bring it out from now on. Commissioner Thornton: I don't have to agree with you. Commissioner Tarpley: I don't care whether you agree with it or not, I am going to vote the way I want to vote. You or nobody else is going to tell me how to vote. Commissioner Thornton: I am glad to hear you say that. I hope you really stick by it, because I know you have made statements in the past that you * did not stick by. I am glad you are putting it on record so it will be here, and if you will give me the courtesy I would like to make a state= ment too. When I started to speak before I was so rudely interrupted, and I think I am entitled to my opinion the same as any one else is entitled to theirs. I think there are some things .that need to be discussed other than up here on the floor, then I am going to stick.by that decision. If at all poss- ible, when something like this comes up I am going to discuss it before it before it gets up here on the floor. O Commissioner Grammer: I am going to agree with that. But if the five com- missioners are together having a discussion and they can vote the way they feel amoung themselves and then get up here and change their vote, how do the world can you figure out what is going to happen here, so what is the use of having a discussion if you are not going to stick by the decision you think you made. Mayor Hill: Commissioner Grammer I think when we discussed these men .the t. other night we all had our personal opinion. As I have stated before, and I will state again, I put up a man's nameand I stuck by him, but I lost. Y We all said we could take the three men and put them in a bag and pull out one and they would all three be equally qualified. I lost my man the other night so I swung. to'another man for the sake of trying to pick a city managerfor the City of Dania. I was willing to con- cede my man so we could get ahead with some other business. Every one else started to pass so I passed too. That is how it happened, so don't say we voted for one man and did not back him, because that is why I swung . to another man to try to get together on a man so we could picg a city man- ager. Commissioner Tarpley: You did not eliminate any of the men last night. V: They were still all three under consideration. Commissioner Thornton: They were all three under consideration last night when the motion was made. • Commissioner Tarpley: They were not under consideration the way the motion was made and voted on. • Commissioner Thornton: That is your opinion and you are entitled to it. In my opinion they were still under consideration and you cannot change it. Mayor Hill called for a vote on the motion. It was as follows: Grammer Yes • Tarpley Yes Thornton No Hill No There being no further business, the meeting adjourned. • • MANY,7H ORNHILL CITY CLERK-AUDITOR • r VERA L. HILL MAYOR-COMMISSIONER • • • • • _6_