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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCRC 08/11/2008 City of Ocoee Minutes of the Charter Review Commission Meeting Held August 11, 2008 Call to Order Chairperson Grafton called the meeting to order at 6:36 p.m. in the Commission Chairperson Grafton Chambers of City Hall, located at 150 N. Lakeshore Drive. gave Recording Clerk Moseley the invocation and led the pledge of allegiance to the flag. called roll and declared a quorum to be present. Roll Call Present: Chairperson Grafton, Vice-Chair McKey, and Member Barnes. Also present were City Clerk Eikenberry, City Attorney Nick Palmer, and Recording Clerk Moseley. Absent: Members Amey and Howell (unexcused) Chairperson Grafton announced that Member Amey had recently suffered the loss of a close friend and had attended his funeral last week. She said she would email her condolences after the meeting. Approval of Minutes of July 30, 2008 Member BarnesVice-Chair McKey , seconded by , moved to approve the minutes of the meeting held July 30, 2008. Motion carried unanimously. Review of the Charter The Charter Review Commission continued to review Articles X and XI of the Ocoee Charter. Article X Charter Review Commission Section C-25. Appointment of members. Chairperson Grafton said that Member Howell had commented at the last meeting that the Charter Review Commission should have the authority to approve proposed changes without the authorization from City Commission. Her only concern was, when they get to Districting and propose more officials, would they want each commissioner to appoint a member to the Charter Review Commission. She thought that making the board consist of more than five (5) City members would increase quorum requirements, which could be a problem. Clerk Eikenberry suggested appointing alternates at large from any district, to fill in for any absent members. Discussion ensued regarding how many members and alternates should be proposed. Charter Review Commission Meeting August 11, 2008 Vice-Chair McKeyMember Barnes , seconded by , moved to revise the wording of Section C-59 to paraphrase that each Commissioner and Mayor will appoint one (1) member to the Charter Review Commission, and the Mayor would choose two (2) alternates at large, subject to the approval of the City Commission as a whole. Motion carried unanimously. Section C-60. Removal; vacancies. City Attorney Palmer handed out copies of two Florida Statutes and one Attorney General’s Opinion. He explained that §166.031(F.S.) includes that the Charter Review Commission may be called together by City Commission at times other than every 10 years in line with the census. Section C-61. Powers and Duties. Vice-Chair McKeyMember Barnes suggested removing the word 'advisory'. said if they chose to do that it would probably require them to reword the entire paragraph. Members discussed authorizing the board to put the charter revisions on referendum themselves, without approval of Commission. The board asked the City Attorney to reword the paragraph for them to review at the next meeting. Vice-Chair McKey said they could work to change the powers and duties, to present their proposal to Commission for review and commenting, but in an effort to go straight to the Supervisor of Elections (SOE) for referendum. Consensus of the board was to change the wording of Sections 61 & 62 to state that the Charter Review Commission shall create recommendations/proposals to the City Commission for comment without need of approval, and ultimately the Charter Review Commission would be responsible for preparing the items for ballot to go to the SOE. City Attorney Palmer said that under §166.031(F.S.), the City Commission City Clerk Eikenberry always has the authority to present its own amendments. asked if the statute allows City Commission to reject one of the amendments City Attorney Palmer made by the Charter Review Commission. said, under the current charter, the City Commission could reject one or all of the amendments City Clerk Eikenberry made. suggested holding a joint session with City Commission to discuss the proposed amendments prior to placing the items on an City Attorney Palmer agenda. stated he would reword the paragraph, per the request of the Charter Review Commission, and bring the draft to the next meeting. That draft would reflect that the City Commission could not selectively pick which amendments would go to the ballot versus the Charter Review Commission. Section C-63. Officers. The board agreed the section was fine as is. Section C-64. Expenses. The board agreed the section was fine as is. 2 Charter Review Commission Meeting August 11, 2008 Article XI, Single-Member Districts Section C-65. Number of districts. The Charter Review Commission reviewed a spreadsheet supplied by the City Clerk, which listed other municipalities of similar size and the number of districts City Clerk Eikenberry they had. suggested they could add something to the section that stated when Ocoee reaches a certain population that they would add two (2) more districts. The board discussed the pros and cons of adding districts. City Clerk Eikenberry recommended asking someone from a city with more districts to attend a meeting to discuss the pros and cons they have experienced. Member Barnes consensus of the board proposed, and it was the , to move to six (6) districts, plus a Mayor, and to discuss the issue at the joint meeting with City Commission to hear their thoughts on the idea. Vice-Chair McKey said several citizens have suggested that he look at changing the City Clerk form of government and asked if that would require a lot more changes. Eikenberry said that changing the form of government would require a charter rewrite. Vice-Chair McKey thought it was too late to get into that at this point as it would require them to start from the beginning. He would want to hear all of the testimonials for and against the idea and they do not have time this year. Consensus of the board was to leave the form of government as it is at this time. Section C-66. Establishment of Districting Commission. Vice-Chair McKey suggested removing the outdated language (original City Clerk Eikenberry appointment dates) from the first paragraph. said that Vice-Chair McKey and Chairperson Grafton would be a housekeeping issue. both were members of the last Districting Commission and agreed it worked effectively without glitches, thanks to the current charter. Consensus of the board was that, if additional districts were added, Section C-66 would City Clerk Eikenberry also need to be updated to reflect those changes. stated that, if the number of districts changed, then the entire charter would need to be updated to reflect those changes throughout. Section C-67. Date of adoption of initial district; and Section C-68. Representation of districts. The board agreed the only change to these sections would be if the number of districts changed, which would fall under the general housekeeping task. Section C-69. District Residency Requirement. Chairperson Grafton recommended they continue requiring each commissioner to live within the district they represent. Consensus of the board was to leave this section as is. 3 Charter Review Commission Meeting August 11, 2008 Section C-70. Annexed territory. The board agreed to leave this section as is. Section C-71. Redistricting. Chairperson Grafton said they could not change the lines less than four months prior to a regular election. End of charter review. City Attorney Palmer went over the pages he passed out, which included two Florida Statutes and one Attorney General Opinion that were in response to some questions asked by the Charter Review Commission at a prior meeting. Question #1 was in reference to Charter Article III City Commission, Section C-19 City Attorney Palmer Initiative and referendum procedures for ordinances. discussed §166.031(F.S.) -Charter amendments, which outlines the procedural requirements for a charter amendment, but does not govern what Section C-19 governs in either proposing or requiring the reconsideration of an adopted ordinance. He said the Attorney General’s Opinion says that is the case and it is up to the City Commission and Charter to say what powers people have in terms of ordinances. That opinion also says that it can be allowed in certain circumstances and not others; for example, it is not allowed for budgetary capital expenditure ordinances. Question #2 was whether there were any statutory requirements regarding recall of City Attorney Palmer elected officials. explained §100.361(F.S.) -Municipal recall, section 11 that it’s the intent that procedures in this statute are uniform to govern the state of Florida, regardless of what the city says. He added the statute also tells how a petition can be filed, etc. Chairperson Grafton asked if the section regarding recall should be removed from the City Attorney Palmer charter, since it is clear in the Florida State Statute. said he would take a look at the charter to see if any changes need to be made due to that Statute and would have City Attorney Rosenthal bring it back to the next meeting. Vice-Chair McKey inquired about Charter Section C-19 regarding petitions and if the City Attorney Palmer procedure would have to follow the State procedure. said not at this time, but it was a section of the charter that they could propose significant changes to be consistent in following procedures set forth in State Statute. Vice-Chair McKey had some questions regarding Charter Article IV, City Manager, and if they should add a paragraph that the City Manager can reside outside of the city. Furthermore, suggested adding a requirement that the City Manager subscribe to ICMA and follow their rules on Code of Ethics. He thought that City Commission could use Chairperson Grafton that as a tool to measure the City Manager’s evaluation. believed 4 Charter Review Commission Meeting August 11, 2008 Eikenberry agreed to supply the contract, as well as a copy of the lCMA Code of Ethics. Vice-Chair McKey said the Code of Ethics could be found on www.ICMA.org for all to review. City Attorney Palmer mentioned that the section of policies and procedures might be a more appropriate place for that item. Consensus of the board was to discuss this issue durinfl the joint meetinfl with City Commission. Review of List of Items to Revisit City Clerk Eikenberry described the list she distributed of items the board wished to revisit. She said the items were listed in chronological orders as discussed, some of them are repeated at two or more meetings. Member Barnes stated that it would be easier to work with the list if it were in order of the Charter section/topic, rather than chronological order, to prevent them from discussing the same issues more than once. He also felt that sections should be removed whereas the board made a consensus to leave as is, and only include those items they needed to discuss further. City Clerk Eikenberry said those can be easily removed and were only added at the previous request of the board. Member Barnes. seconded bv Vice-Chair McKev. moved to have the list be sorted bv topic/section. rather than chron%flica/ order. as well as eliminate the items they had a consensus to leave as is. Motion carried unanimous/v. Member Barnes offered to reorganize the charter checklist for the Board and send it City Clerk Eikenberry to distribute at the next meeting. Comments No comments. Direction to City Attornev and Staff To bring back revised wording to Section C-59, as well as any necessary changes to the Charter to follow the recall procedures of ~ 100.361(F.S.) Set Next Meetine: Date The next meeting was scheduled for August 25,2008. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 8:07 p.m. 5