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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-17-87 . MINUTES OF CITY COMMISSION MEETING HELD ON NOVEMBER 17, 1987 Mayor Ison called the meeting to order at 7:45 p.m. He explained that the Commission had two previous meetings and that was the reason for the late start. Mayor lson led in prayer and the pledge of allegiance to the flag. PRESENT: Mayor lson; Commissioners Johnson, Dabbs, and Hager; City Manager Ryan; City Attorney Linda City Clerk Catron; Planning Director Wagner; City Kelley; Water Department Supervisor Cockrell; and financial consultant Stanley Cohen. Bateman, Barnby; Engineer special A8SENT: None PRESENTATIONS AND PROCLAMATIONS - Maria Snider, 2 Floral Street, told the Commission that she was a relatively new resident in Ocoee and that she and two of her friends had Just opened a shop in Ocoee on Bluford Avenue called "The Treasure Loft". Ms. Snider said she wanted to thank the people 0% Ocoee for making her feel so welcome. She presented the Mayor and Commissioners with a replica of a ceramic eagle that was to be presented to President Reagan. Ms. Snider said both eagles were identical except for size, and that they were the only two like them made. She said the eagle was crafted by Sally Blackwell, and the base stand was made by Mark Pollack. The inscription on the stand reads "As the eagle soars, so does the spirit of Ocoee." The third partner in the company was Earlene Miller. Dave Outlaw of Wescar, introduced the new owners of the parcel of land North of Hackney Prairie Road to the Mayor and Commissioners. The purchasers of the BelRoy Property, Gary Russell, Bruce Milray, and John Stimpson, Jr., were in the audience. Mr. Russell spoke on behalf of the purchasers and said they looked forward to doing business with the City of Ocoee. APPROVALS - CONSENT AGENDA Commissioner Hager moved to approve the items on the Consent Agenda, Commissioner Dabbs seconded, and approval was unanimous. Items approved were as follows: A - Regular Commission Meeting Minutes of November 3, 1987; B - Special Session Commission Meeting Minutes of October 19, 1987; and C - Special Session Commission Meeting Minutes of November 10, 1987. e 1 - . Page 2 City Commission Meeting November 17, 1987 OLD BUSINESS Special St.aff Report.s Cit.y Engineer - Tom Kelley Bowness Road - Stetus Report. City Engineer Kelley said the Staff met with property owners who had drainage concerns and those issues were being worked out. Mr. Kelley said the documents for the other property owners were being drawn up by the City Attorney. Attorney Barnby said the documents would be ready in about one week. - Reaolut.ion 87-16 and R..olut.ion 87-17 - Ut.ility Relocation Agreement.s City Engineer Kelley read the proposed resolutions by title only. The resolutions authorized execution of utility agreements for the adJustment, change, or relocation of certain utilities within the right-of-way limits of Highway 50 and Maguire and Highway 50 and Bluford. City Engineer Kelley said approval by the Commission would allow City Staff to move ahead with the proJect. Commissioner Hager moved to approve Resolution 87-16, Commissioner Bateman seconded, and approval was unanimous. Commissioner Dabbs moved to approve Resolution 87-17, Commissioner Johnson seconded, and approval was unanimous. Construction Bids for "Old Town" - Statu. Report City Engineer Kelley said the bids for the downtown area water distribution system improvements were opened Monday, November 16. Mr. Kelley said the seven bids ranged from a high of $280,670.41 to a low bid of $183,035.00. Travis Williams Construction Company was the low bid. City Manager Ryan reminded the Commission that the bid was substantially below the $300,000.00 set aside for the proJect. City Engineer Kelley requested that the Commission give Staff the approval to move ahead with the proJect. City Manager Ryan said the funds were available. Mr. Kelley proposed starting the proJect in two weeks with an estimated completion time of 90 days. The Commission directed Staff to make all the necessary investigations into the Travis Williams Company before the City awarded the contract. City Engineer Kelley said Staff had already conducted a thorough investigation. Commissioner Johnson moved to approve the awarding of the contract to Travis Williams Construction Company, the low bidder, subJect to City Manager Ryan's final investigation of the company, Commissioner Bateman seconded, and approval was unanimous. tit 2 ,-~ . Page 3 City Commission Meeting November 17, 1987 Bidding Process for Force Main t.o Phase Out. the West Orange Wast.ewat.er Treat.ment. Plant. - St.at.us Report City Engineer Kelley said the design had been completed and that the Staff estimated the cost of the proJect at $207,000. Mr. Kelley said it was impossible to predict growth and therefore some of the utilities would probably end up having to be relocated some time in the future. He said there was no "safest place" to put them. Mr. Kelley said the advertisement to secure bids ran on Sunday and the bids would be opened on Friday, December 4. Mr. Kelley said Staff would have a recommendation of award to present to the Commission at the December 15 meeting. e Other Buaineas - Cit.y Engineer Kelley City Engineer Kelley said Mr. Doss approached the City Staff with a concern about the widening of Kissimmee Avenue. The right-of-way was different than what was shown on the Plantation Sysco report. Mr. Kelley said he would bring an engineering report to the next Commission Meeting on Tuesday, December 1, to propose a solution. City Engineer Kelley said his engineering report would also outline solutions for the drainage problems on Bluford and McKey as well. e Mr. Kelley said the item regarding Cabellero Court placed under New Business on the Agenda was actually Old Business. He said the drainage problems with Lake Peach and Lake Moxie could be solved by extending pipes into the lakes and creating a stormwater retention pond. Mr. Kelley estimated the cost of the proJect at $65,000.00, but said the cost would depend on whether the Job was put out to bid or completed by City employees. Mayor Ison asked City Manager Ryan if the City could handle the proJect with the present Staff, or if it would be more feasible to bid the proJect out. City Manager Ryan said with the Staff1s current workload, it would be best to send the proJect out for bids. Mayor Ison directed City Engineer to consult with Street Department Supervisor Buddy Elmore to coordinate the proJect. Mr. Kelley said the Staff was looking to proceed with the proJect and requested direction from the Commission. Commissioner Dabbs said the important thing was to make sure the proJect was done correctly the first time and was comfortable authorizing City Manager Ryan to proceed with the proJect as he saw fit. Commissioner Bateman asked to have the proJected expenses drawn up two ways: one if sent out for bids and the other if done internally. Commissioner Bateman said he would like to see the Staff complete the proJect, if pOSSible. Commissioner Dabbs asked if it was critical for the proJect to be completed immediately. City Engineer 3 . Page 4 City Commission Meeting November 17, 1987 Kelley said no but City Manager Ryan and Mayor Ison disagreed with Mr. Kelley and felt that the proJect needed to be completed as soon as possible because the property owners were getting impatient and one property owner was threatening to sue the City. Mr. Ryan said the owner had cooperated with the City and the City should respond by getting the Job done. Commissioner Johnson moved to approve the bidding out of the Job, Commissioner Bateman seconded, and approval was unanimous. Commissioner Bateman commented that he would have liked to have seen some written information on the issue before being asked to come to a decision. City Engineer Kelley said he had one further was to let the Commission know he would specifications for the East-West Expressway the Staff so that they could be hung in City by the Commission, aa well as residents. comment and that be leaving the extension with Hall for review e Public Hearings Cable Television Updet.e Rick D'Louhy, Cablevision Industries, gave the Commission a progress report of what had happened since he last addressed the Commission in October. Mr. D'Louhy introduced John Jerose who had recently Joined the company as Central Florida District Manager, and also handed the Mayor and Commissioners a written progress report for them to review. Mayor Ison asked Mr. D'Louhy what the business hours were for his company in regards to service inquiries. Mr. D'Louhy said the telephones are answered from 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturdays. Calls made to the company at times other than those listed above are handled through an answering service that takes the necessary information from the caller. Mr. D'Louhy said the company guaranteed a response to a problem within a 24 hour period, which he said was standard response time for the industry. Mr. D'Louhy said a neighborhood outage, as opposed to an outage in one home only, would most likely receive a quicker response. Mr. D'Louhy also told the Commission that the company was working on providing public emergency capability which would allow the City officials to override regular service to send a message to residents in the case of a public emergency. . Commissioner Hager told Mr. D'Louhy that there was an outage in his neighborhood about two weeks ago, and that some residents called him to complain about the outage and the fact that they couldn't get through on the telephone. 4 . Page 5 City Commission Meeting November 17, 1987 He also tried to call the cable company and the line was busy for about 30 minutes. Commissioner Hager said he appreciated the message the company had been running along the bottom of the screen apologizing for any interuptions in service, but that the phones were still a problem. Commissioner Bateman asked Mr. D'Louhy when the improvements to the system would be completed. Mr. D'Louhy said it would be sometime in December. Commissioner Dabbs said he was discouraged that it had taken all of 1987 to get to this point. He said it was almost intolerable that six months later, the company was still having telephone problems. Commissioner Dabbs said he appreciated the improvements being made in the field but that he could see no progress with the telephone system, even though it was a new system. Commissioner Johnson said it was hard to believe that someone in the communication industry still could not communicate. He also agreed that the improvements in the field seemed to be going well but that the most basic problem (the telephones) had still not been resolved. e Mayor Ison announced that Victoria Graver of 706 Nicole Boulevard had asked permission to approach the Commission. Ms. Graver said she conducted her own survey of area neighbors and found that they were unhappy with the present cable service for several reasons. She said they were promised, but did not receive, additional channels. She said new wiring was recently installed, but now several people had double images on Channels 2 and 3. Ms. Graver said the cable company did not offer certain programs in Ocoee that other area cities and towns were watching, including a program made at an Ocoee school. Ms. Graver told the Commission that she was disappointed with Cablevision and felt she was paying top dollar for a poor quality cable service with frequent outages. She said she thought an additional company would provide the competition needed to make Cablevision Industries provide better quality and better quantity of channels. e Mayor Ison said the telephone system problem could be easily solved by installing a system with reporting status information capability. He said it was obvious that the new system the company had installed was not adequate. Mayor Ison asked Mr. D'Louhy to get the home phone numbers of all management personnel at Cablevision Industries so that the Commission could reach them at home if the telephone lines for the company were busy. Mayor Ison recommended that they carry beepers and have car phones as well. Mr. D'Louhy 5 ~- . r .~ . . Page 6 City Commission Meeting November 17, 1987 said he would get the home phone numbers of management to City Manager Ryan within a day or two. Commissioner Bateman asked Mr. D'Louhy if he had considered staggering the bills that were sent out in order to better accomodate people who call with questions on their bills. He said that with a staggered billing system, the phone lines would be less likely to Jam with calls and customers would be able to get their problems resolved. Mayor Ison said the public hearing would be continued to Tuesday, December 15. Public Hearing and Second Reading Ordinance 1014, Amending Ordinance 944 Mayor Ison explained that in filing Ordinance 944 with Orange County, it was discovered that the wrong Section number was placed in the Ordinance. It should have read Section 31, but was passed by the Commission as Section 32. Ordinance 1014 was therefore being presented to the Commission to amend Ordinance 944. Commissioner Johnson moved to approve Ordinance 1014 amending Ordinance 994, Commissioner Hager seconded and approval was unanimous. Public Hearings - Developer Agreement.. Vo.s - Case 23C-S7 City Attorney Barnby said her of~ice had made some minor changes to the boiler plate language in the Developers Agreements in order to concur with State statutes. Mr. Grover Voss said the Agreement assumed that the realignment o~ Johio Shores Road would shi~t the road to the west but it could also end up shi~ted to the east. City Planner Wagner said the Agreement was acknowledging that a realignment would occur, but that it was not speci~ied at this time whether it would be to the west or to the east. Commissioner Dabbs asked the Sta~~ about the need ~or three access points along Silver Star Road in addition to the Johio Shores Road access. He said he thought it was one road too many. City Manager Ryan reminded the Mayor and Commissioners that these Agreements contained only general guidelines and that the actual site plans could be years away from occurring. Mayor Ison asked the Commission how complex they wanted these Developers Agreements to be. City Manager Ryan said it was good to point out general areas of concern in order to send out a signal to the developers. Commissioner Dabbs asked Attorney Barnby ~or direction and she warned the Commission about getting into specifics on zoning. Commissioner Hager said he met with City Planner Wagner because he was told to let Staf~ know his ~eelings regarding the individual Developers Agreements. 6 e Page 7 City Commission Meeting November 17, 1987 R. Terry - Ca.e 24C-S7 John Wousler o~ Zom Companies said the zoning discussions had caught him by surprise. Mr. Wousler said he was sending the proposal to the Florida Department o~ Transportation and that if approved, the State would be giving its approval on continuing Johio Shores Road as it was and not moving it either east or west. Mayor Ison said there would be workshop sessions held on each o~ the Developers Agreements so they could be studied more closely on an individual basis and discuss such issues. Dill - Ca.e 25C-S7 & 24R-87 Mr. Dill said he liked the idea o~ a workshop session and would get with Sta~f on any concerns the City had before he came be~ore the Commission. Cafliach - Ca.e 26C-87 & 25R-87 There were no public or Commission comments. The Mayor said the case would be discussed at a workshop session in the near future. e Newberg - Ca.. 27C-87 & 26R-87 Jim Huckeba of Renaissance Investments said he would be submitting his comments on the present Developers Agreement. He had no other comments at that time. There were no Commission comments. Goodman - Ca.. 2SC-87 & 27R-S7 There were no public or Commission comments. The Mayor said the case would be discussed at a workshop session in the near future. For reference during the Commission Meetings, Commissioner Bateman suggested making an extra copy of the Developer Agreements/Commission packet available to the public so people could follow along easier. e Ot.her 8uain..a Amendment. t.o Tri-Count.y Airport Agreement. Mr. William Lutrick, Assistant Deputy Director, Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, said the existing agreement between Ocoee, Apopka, and Winter Garden dated back to 1982. This Amendment would allow the West Orange Reliever Airport Advisory Committee to seek State and Federal grant money at a level that would be crucial to maximize funds for the building of the airport. Mayor Ison said the reliever airport issue was important enough to have a representative ~rom each local government sit on a West Orange Reliever Airport advisory committee. Commissioner Bateman moved to attempt to 7 e Page 8 City Commission Meeting November 17, 1987 get a representative from each local government to serve on an advisory committee, with input from citizens, Commissioner Dabbs seconded, and approval was unanimous. e Bu. Service Update Janet Resnik gave a brief history on the research that had been done on the bus service. Ms. Resnik said she spoke with Mary Hough, Assistant General Manager, Tri County Transit Authority. Ms. Hough said her organization would need a formal proposal from the City before the Transit Authority could tell the City whether State or Federal funds were available. Ms. Resnik said the Tri County bus service would have cost the City about S180,OOO. Because the City had only allocated S25,OOO for the first six months, and because Winter Garden does not have any funds to allocate to such a service at this time, an alternate bus service was proposed. This new service would run on a "demand-response" system, with residents calling City Hall to set up rides. The maJor expense would be the purchase of a used is-passenger van. The service would use present City Staff to drive the van and insurance, gas, and maintenance would be the other costs involved. Administrative costs for marketing and printing materials would be nominal. Mayor Ison said the proposal was a good one and would at least allow the service to get off the ground. Commissioner Johnson agreed that the bus service was long overdue and it would be a good investment for at least six months to see how it went. Jack Eyring, 1901 Adair Street - #29, said he preferred a regularly scheduled route so people would know when they could expect a ride. Mayor Ison explained that running that type of service would be too expensive. He said the Staff would track ridership during the six month trial period to see whether or not regularly scheduled trips would be beneficial. Mayor Ison said the proposed service should work well since people can call for a ride and be picked up and dropped off where they want rather than having to get from a bus stop to where they actually wanted to go. Darrel Irwin, 1901 Adair Street - #35, said he didn't think Tri County Transit Authority was doing its Job. He said they should provide some service to the area since Ocoee residents tax monies go to fund the Transit Authority. e Commissioner Bateman said the City might want to lease a van rather than buying one in case the service ends after six months. The issue of operating the service on Saturdays was also discussed. It was decided that the City Staff would pursue the purchase of a 15-passenger, used van and finalize 8 e Page 9 City Commission Meeting November 17, 1987 the other administrative details. The bids on the vans and the other information was to be presented to the Commission at the Commission Meeting on Tuesday, December 15. Commissioner Johnson moved to approve the proposal as amended by discussions, Commissioner Bateman seconded, and approval was unanimous. COMMENTS FROM CITIZENS/PUBLIC There were no comments from citizens or the public. NEW BUSINESS Appointment t.o Replace Phyllis Olmstead to Code Enforcement Board Commissioner Johnson said Phyllis Olmstead had resigned from the Code Enforcement Board because she recently moved out of Ocoee. Mayor Ison asked if any of the Commissioners had a nomination they wanted to make for a replacement for Ms. Olmstead. Commissioner Johnson asked that the nomination be tabled to the next Commission Meeting. e REPORTS AND INFORMATION - Cit.y Manager City Manager Ryan said once again the follow-up agenda required two pages because of a long list of continuing items. Commissioner Dabbs asked about the RFP on Clark Road. City Manager Ryan said it was in the process of being advertised and it would be on the December 15 Commission Meeting Agenda for acceptance and awarding of bids. Commissioner Johnson asked if Staff had looked into the Charter Revision. City Clerk Catron said she had spoken with Betty Carter and that because of the timetable, it could not be placed on the March ballot. She suggested they appoint the Committee and possibly be ready by the Primary Election in September. City Attorney Barnby said she urged the City to have the City Attorney sit in on any initial meetings to help with guidelines. City Manager Ryan said the Commission should start thinking of people they want to nominate for the Ocoee Cemetery Advisory Committee. Commissioner Johnson said to put it on the next Commission Meeting Agenda and that the Commission could bring their nominations then. Commissioner Bateman wanted to thank City Manager Ryan and Street Department Supervisor Buddy Elmore for the Job they did cleaning up the cemetery. e CITY ATTORNEY Linda Barnby said she had no comment other than that she was working on the Youngblood contract and the title search was 9 e Page 10 City Commission Meeting November 17, 1987 being completed. COMMENTS FROM COMMISSIONERS Commissioner Hager said he also wanted to thank City Manager Ryan and Street Department Supervisor Elmore for the good Job they did in coordinating the clean-up of the cemetery. Commissioner Bateman reminded the Commission that the West Orange Chamber of Commerce was meeting Thursday morning at 7:30 and that Senator Stuart and Representative Webster would be there. Mayor Ison told Commissioner Bateman that he had spoken with the owner of the new Orange Tree Cinema and that Mr. Nathan Dykgraaf said he would allow the West Orange Chamber of Commerce and other civic groups to have meetings at the theatre on Maguire Road. Commissioner Johnson proposed to the Commission that they consider buying M&M Utilities. Commissioner Johnson said City Manager Ryan should meet with the owners and see if the company could be acquired in an easy fashion. e Commissioner Dabbs commented that if the City was to be in the sewer business, and developments and commercial sites were to be approved, then the City should consider having a Master Transportation Plan. City Manager Ryan said Staff could get a request for proposals if the Commission desired and have traffic engineering firms respond. There was a concensus to draw up a request for proposals. ADJOURNMENT: 11:30 p.m. :::1 L r a4~ MAYOR ATTEST: CITY CLERK e 10