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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-02-88 WS .' ." MINUTES OF THE CITY COMMISSION WORKSHOP HELD ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1988 CALL TO ORDER: 6:05 p.m. PRESENT: Mayor Ison, Commissioners Johnson, Hager, and Bateman (arrived at 6:10 p.m.), City Manager Ryan (arrived at 6:15 p.m.), Assistant City Manager Finch, City Attorney Rosenthal, Acting City Clerk Grafton, and Deputy Clerk Resnik. Charter Revision Committee Chairman Beatty arrived at 6:30 p.m. and indicated he was not aware that the meeting time was changed to 6 p.m. Charter Revision Committee member Switzer was also in attendance. ABSENT: Commissioner Dabbs (out of town) REVIEW OF PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE CHARTER - CHAIRMAN BEATTY Review of Article VI Mayor Ison asked for Commission comments Slnce Chairman Beatty had not yet arrived. Since there were no general comments, Mayor Ison started by reviewing the changes made to Article VI. There were no changes to Section 1 and only minor technical enhancements to Sections 2 and 3. There was a change to Section 4 on the budget to include a provision to identify proposed measures to reduce costs and conduct a more economical operation during the fiscal year. Other changes made to Article VI included a new Section 5 that calls for a balanced budget and a provision under Section 7 that would ensure that the public get notice of all budget meetings. Under Section 8 (c), City Manager Ryan suggested that the Commission and Charter Revision Committee add a provision that would allow staff to handle the transfer of funds within the same department and that if a transfer of funds was needed from one department to another, then it would have to be approved by the City Commission. The current Charter would not provide the City Manager any authority to do budget amendments. Commissioner Hager said any tranfers of significant amounts should come before the Commission for approval. Section 8 (c) was changed to read: "At any time during the fiscal year the city manager or city commission may transfer part or all of any unencumbered appropriation balance among programs within a department, office or agency." The last sentence was then broken off into a sub paragraph of its own to read: "The city commission may by ordinance transfer part or all of any unencumbered appropriation balance from one department, office or agency to another." There was some discussion about Section 9 on whether five years for appropriation was enough. If the city wanted to put away money to buy something in the future, they would have to expend that money by the end of the five-year period. . Page 2 City Commission Workshop Meeting August 2, 1988 It was pointed out that that money could, at the end of the five years, be reappropriated for that same use so no change was necessary. A change was made in Section 10 to include the words "in October" to clarify when the City commission would designate depositories for city funds (first sentence). Section 11 was changed to make it align with Florida State Statutes. There were no other major changes to Article VI. Review of Article VII Charter Revision Committee Chairman Beatty asked that Section 1 be tabled until the next joint meeting between the Charter Revision Committee and the City Commission which was to be held on Tuesday, August 16. He explained how the committee had handled the possibility of four-year terms and how ~hey would need to be phased in with irregular terms. Chairman Beatty said four-year terms were chosen rather than three- year terms because with three-year terms, the elections would ~ never coincide with a Presidential election. commissioner Bateman commented that he would like to keep something in Section 3 which referred to the City Clerk being the designated registration officer. There was some discussion that this was deleted because it conflicted with the County's designated Elections Officer. Commissioner Bateman said he basically wanted something in the Charter to let people know that the City was taking an active part i~ the registering of voters. It was decided that this would again be discussed at the next meeting. Section 4 was revised to bring it into alignment with Florida State Statutes. There was discussion under Section 5. Mayor Ison said he felt uncomfortable with the canvassing when he was running for reelection. Mayor Ison said there were also some problems in the past with the Mayor and two commissioners not up for election all getting together at noontime. He asked whether something could be added to say noontime or as soon thereafter. City Attorney Rosenthal said it was not necessary and if the situation ever presented itself where they could not convene at noontime, they could amend the time for a time certain thereafter. --- Mayor Ison had one other change for Article VII, under the new Section 7, where the revision had been made to the last sentence for a voter to cast a vote "by making a cross {xl". Mayor Ison said it was necessary to blacken the square on some voting cards and that this should be revised to read "by making the appropriate physical mark". It was discussed that there would be two public hearings held on the Charter revision during the last two weeks of August. The actual dates would be decided at the Charter Revision Committee meeting to be held on Thursday, August 4, 1988, at 7:30 p.m. - City Attorney Rosenthal said the Charter revisions must be approved for first reading at the first City Commission meeting in September (Tuesday, September 6) and for second reading at the second City commission meeting in September (Tuesday, September 20). - Page 3 City Commission Workshop Meeting August 2, 1988 Review of Article VIII Chairman Beatty said there were no changes to Section 1 and that Section 2 through section 38 under the present Charter had been deleted since they were no longer current under State law. The new Section 2 (old Section 39) was revised to set the maximum bond amount at 25% of the assessed value of taxable property within the City. Under the current Charter, this amount is 50%. A new Section 3 was added under Article VIII at the advice of the City Attorney defining the powers declared additional to State law. e Review of Article IX Chairman Beatty said there were some minor revisions to Section 1 to strengthen the wording. Mayor Ison asked to have the word "substantial" in the first sentence of Section 1 quantified. The Mayor said he would like to see a certain percentage added to the sentence to make it more specific. City Attorney Rosenthal said that such disclosure information was provided for under Florida State statutes and that it would be difficult to place a percentage there since a small percentage in a large company could be very substantial but a large percentage of holdings in a small company may not be. Commissioner Bateman wanted to revise the section so that it did not include an employee in the part where voting was discussed. He said a modification could be made where staff may have a recommendation in a matter and would need to refrain on that recommendation, but not a vote. Commissione~ Bateman also wanted the word Commissioners mentioned if that was what was meant by officer. Sections 2 and 3 were deleted since they were addressed elsewhere in the Charter or were already under State statutes. already addressed It was discussed that there would be two public hearings held on the Charter revision during the last two weeks of August. The actual dates would be decided at the Charter Revision Committee meeting to be held on Thursday, August 4, 1988, at 7:30 p.m. - City Attorney Rosenthal said the Charter revisions must be approved for first reading at the first City Commission meeting in September (Tuesday, September 6) and for second reading at the second City Commission meeting in September (Tuesday, September 20). e e - Page 4 City Commission Workshop Meeting August 2, 1988 Chairman Beatty said he would have the final changes incorporated and would meet again with the City Commission at a workshop to be held on Tuesday, August 16. DISCUSSION ON CHANGE ORDER POLICY - Dennis Finch, Assistant City Manager Assistant City Manager Finch asked if the Commission had any questions or comments on the staff report he had prepared. Commissioner Bateman said he had a problem with justifying the language of the change order policies. Commissioner Bateman questioned why the City bothered going through the bid process if the amounts of those bids were bound to be increased by the change order process. He asked what would keep a contractor from underbidding to get a job knowing that the lower amount could be adjusted with change orders. He said he wondered how lawful it was to have these change orders. Commissioner Bateman also questioned 6. (a) and (b) on the staff report and indicated that he felt it should be the contractor who should have the responsibility for paying monetary damages if that contractor chooses to delay a project while awaiting approval on a change order. He thought the responsibility for project delay should not rest with the City. Assistant City Manager Finch said language could be written into contracts detailing the contractor's responsibilies should a situation such as that arise. Commissioner Bateman said it should especially be written into contracts where a project involved rerouting or slowing down of the usual traffic flow. Assistant City Manager Finch said he shared the Commission's feelings that change orders were not desirable but that he felt some policy was needed since most of the time it was impossible for a contractor to know exactly how much money would be involved in the scope of a project. commissioner Bateman questioned whether the change orders were a result of mistakes by City staff. Assistant City Manager Finch said that sometimes "mistakes" do occur but that was not always the case. Mr. Finch said many times something would be added to the project and would therefore increase the price of the work to be done. There were also other times when the contractors could run into things that were not anticipated and would therefore drive up the cost of the job. City Manager Ryan said the staff would copy all change orders to Commissioners so that they would be aware of any change to e - e Page 5 City Commission Workshop Session August 2, 1988 a project. Commissioner Bateman said he wanted to amend the staff report by striking the words "up to say $2500 or $5000 or" from #6 on the staff report. ADJOURNMENT: 7:15 p.m. ATTEST: D flt~~JL ~ ~QL MAYOR