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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCRC 10/13/2008 City of Ocoee Minutes of the Charter Review Commission Meeting Held October 13, 2008 Call to Order Chairperson Grafton called the meeting to order at 6:39 p.m., in the Commission Chambers of City Hall, located at 150 N. Lakeshore Drive. Chairperson Grafton gave the invocation and led the pledge of allegiance to the flag. Recording Clerk Moseley called roll and declared a quorum to be present. Roll Call Present: Chairperson Grafton, Vice-Chair McKey, Members Arney and Barnes. Also present were City Clerk Eikenberry, City Attorney Palmer, and Recording Clerk Moseley. Absent: Member Howell (unexcused). Approval of Minutes of October 1. 2008. Member Amev. seconded bv Vice-Chair McKev. moved to approve the Charter Review Commission minutes of October 1. 2008. Motion carried unanimouslv. Review and Discuss List of Items to be Revisited (be1!innim! with Item # 71) Item #71- Section C-59 Topic: Appointment of Members to the Charter Review Commission.. Discussion ensued regarding the motion made at the August 11 th meeting, which was for each member of Commission to appoint one (1) member and the Mayor to appoint two (2) alternate members at large (to fill in for any absent members), subject to the approval of the City Commission as a whole. Item #72 - Section C-59 Topic: Removal; vacancies of the Charter Review Commission. This item was fine as is. Item #73 - Section C-61 Topic: Powers and Duties of the Charter Review Commission. Discussion ensued regarding removal of the word "advisory" from the section; whereas the Charter Review Commission would be able to decide what goes on the ballot without needing the approval of City Commission. City Clerk Eikenberry announced that was an item the board had decided to discuss with City Commission at their joint meeting. Charter Review Commission October 13,2008 Item #74 - Section C-62 Topic: Method of which charter amendments may be proposed to the electors. Member Barnes thought the residents were concerned that the board's suggestions would be rejected by City Commission. He said there were options, such as the initiative and referendum process or the City Commission can make changes to the charter without forming a review board. He did not feel they needed to add anything to that section of the charter. Vice-Chair McKey referred to Section C-19: Initiative and Referendum, which is separate from Section C-62. City Attorney Palmer said there is a statute that allows a citizen's committee to initiate charter amendments. He referred to City Ordinances and Resolutions and said that Section C-19 currently does not include any statutory procedure; therefore, if Section C-19 was eliminated that mechanism provided for in C-19 would be removed as well. Member Barnes inquired if Section C-19 pertained to any type of ordinance or resolution and he was told it did. Vice-Chair McKey declared that citizens have the right to obtain signatures and put an amendment on the ballot themselves, if City Commission does not support the board's recommendations. City Attorney Palmer said they are discussing two different subjects, initiative and referendum for ordinances and charter amendments. Member Barnes said Section C-19 refers to ordinances, but they are talking about changes to the Charter itself, which is already covered by the Florida State Statute. Rosemary Wilsen, 1019 Shady Maple Circle, stated she understands her right to go out and collect 10% of signatures to put something on the ballot. However, her concern is that the Charter Review Commission spends months proposing amendments to the Charter and what if the City Commission rejects those proposals. Vice-Chair Mckey stated that Section C-61 Powers and Duties was an item to be discussed at their joint meeting with City Commission to recommend changing it to allow the Charter Review Commission the authority to go straight to ballot, without City Commission approval. Chairperson Grafton clarified that Item #73, Section C-61 was given to the City Attorney to rewrite and bring back. Item #75 - Section C-65 Topic: Number of Districts It was already decided that this item would be discussed at the joint meeting with City Commission. Item #76 - Section C-65 Topic: Commissioner Keller's comments on the Resign to Run Law Discussion ensued as to why this item was up for review because the Resign to Run Law was covered by State Statute. City Clerk Eikenberry read the past minutes whereas Commissioner Keller commented that it was unfair that citizens on advisory boards had to resign to run for Commission. City Attorney Palmer said he would review the State Statute on that topic and bring it back to the board. City Clerk Eikenberry explained 2 Charter Review Commission October 13,2008 that some advisory boards are not considered "officers" who would need to resign to run. Any board that has autonomous power would, but strictly advisory boards would want to seek opinion on that. Items #77-83 - Sections C-65 through C-68 Topic: Districts These items had already been discussed and did not need to be revisited. Rusty Johnson, 21 Delaware Street, Commissioner for District 3, thought that the next Charter Review Commission would meet too far from now and the city would have grown too much by then. Because of that, he was in favor of making seven districts now to be ready when the growth comes, even if it costs a little money to do. Commissioner Johnson said he believed the board would bring forth what the citizens want so he did not expect to vote any of it down, unless of course it was something that was controversial. Chairperson Grafton explained that the board had discussed triggering a district change once Ocoee's population reaches 40,000. She asked if they would need to reconvene once the population reaches that number, or could it just be put into the charter now to take affect when the number is reached. City Attorney Palmer said that could get complicated, and advised they reconvene when they reach the 40,000 trigger point to amend the charter. City Clerk Eikenberry stated the Districting Committee would also need to reconvene at that point to create the new district boundaries and said there was a whole process to changing districts. Rosemary Wilsen inquired about the cost involved with adding districts and what harm it would be to change that now, rather than waiting for a population growth of 5,000. She said they know there will be growth in the next three years and also have the annexation of the Rose Hill Subdivision to think about. City Clerk Eikenberry said the problem with that was that redistricting has to be based on current numbers and not projected figures. She wondered if the City Attorney could make the charter changes now that are affected by changing to seven districts (housekeeping issues) without having to reconvene, since it was only a matter of changing the districts. Rosemary Wilsen asked if the mayor could be elected from the commission, rather than the citizens, so it would be seven districts and a mayor pro tern elected by City Commission. Member Barnes said they were actually referring to six districts with a mayor elected city-wide. Commissioner Johnson commented that a lot of cities elect their mayor chairman by the board. He said if you have enough commissioners, then you can do that. Consensus of the board was to discuss this item with the Citv Commission at the joint meeting. Member Barnes did not think that change would require a whole rewrite. The big change would only be the manner which the mayor was elected, he would be chosen by the body of commissioners. He would basically still have the same powers and duties. 3 Charter Review Commission October 13, 2008 Vice-Chair McKey said the section of the charter on mayor pro tern would not need to changed. He added that he would like to see the additional two commissioners to be elected city-wide. Commissioner Johnson said all members of commission should be equal; therefore, they should all have localized voting. He said when the commissioners are centralized they have more of a chance to take care of their citizens; it is too tough to spread it all out. Commissioner Keller arrived at 7:35 p.m. Commissioner Keller, District 4, agreed that they should remain centralized and not be elected city-wide to be fair. He was in favor of remaining at a district level. He said he liked the idea of the mayor being appointed by the commission annually, just as the chairman of a board is. That gives everyone an equal shot at running things. He supported having seven districts and electing among themselves the mayor. Consensus of the board was to vrovose changing to seven (7) districts and the commission appointing their own mayor. Item #84 - Section C-71 Topic: Redistricting Chairperson Grafton said changing the districts would not be possible before the next election because they had to change the lines more than four months prior. City Clerk Eikenberry said they would have to determine when the seven member districts would take place so they could reconvene the Redistricting Commission to redraw the lines. Chairperson Grafton said the next census is in 2010 and the figures will come out in 2011. She said they wanted to propose 4 year terms beginning 2012, after the Redistricting Commission reconvenes. City Clerk Eikenberry said that term limit could change with the next election, but the districts would have to wait to change. She said their recommendation for adding two districts would have to give a date of when the change would be effective and the decisions of this board would be voted on in March 2009. Then, the new commissioners would be voted on the election following the change in 2010. Chairperson Grafton said they would not have the figures to work with until 2011. Commissioner Keller said they would not need the current census; they could use a mid- decade census. Discussion ensued. Chairperson Grafton said the clerk informed them that City Commission would like to have the joint meeting at 6 p.m. on November 4th before the regular City Commission meeting. She felt an hour was not enough time to discuss the issues with City Commission. 4 Charter Review Commission October 13, 2008 List of Items to be Discussed with City Commission at Joint Meetine: 1. Section C-9 - City Commission; created; composition, designation, election 2. Section C-12 - Mayor wants to see something added to charter re: "censuring", and interfering with day to day operations of the City. 3. Item #17 - Section C-14 - Commission's involvement in hiring department directors. 4. Item #29 - Section C-19 - Initiative and referendum, simplifying 5. Section C-20 - Powers of the mayor, to recommend an ordinance be passed to list the order of succession, in case the mayor pro tern was not available in an emergency. 6. Item #62 - Section C-46 - Adding two districts 7. Item #73 - Section C-61 - Powers and duties of the mayor 8. Item #74 - Section C-62 - Powers of the Charter Review Commission 9. Section C-65 - Creating seven districts, with mayor elected by members of commission (section 2.03 of model charter) or 6 districts plus mayor elected city wide. Set Next Meetine: Date Chairperson Grafton asked members to read tonight's two handouts from the attorney and Senate Bill 866 on the section of Recall. She felt they did not need to meet on October 29th since the joint meeting has been rescheduled to November 4th; however, she felt they should try to meet at 5p.m. rather than 6 p.m. because one hour was not enough time. City Clerk Eikenberry said she would check with City Commission about meeting at 5 p.m. on November 4th. The board decided they would need one more meeting after the joint meeting with Commission to review their proposed amendments. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m. 5