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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-30-96 WS . MINUTES OF THE JOINT CITY COMMISSION MEETING APOPKAlOCOEEIWINTER GARDEN HELD MAY 30, 1996 Mayor Quesinberry called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. in the Winter Garden Commissioner Chambers. Mayor Land offered the prayer and Mayor Vandergrift led the pledge of allegiance and asked each mayor to open his own city's session. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL OF EACH CITY COMMISSION CITY OF APOPKA - Mayor Land CITY OF OCOEE - Mayor Vandergrift CITY OF WINTER GARDEN - Mayor Quesinberry PRESENT: City of Apopka: Mayor Land introduced Commissioners Arrowsmith, Dean, Holmes and Johnson. Also present were Assistant City Administrators Douglas and Anderson. City of Ocoee: Mayor Vandergrift introduced Commissioners Gleason, Glass, Anderson and Johnson. Also present were City Attorney Rosenthal, Police Chief Mark, Fire Chief Strosnider, Planning Director Wagner, Planner Horne, City Manager Shapiro and City Clerk Grafton. City of Winter Garden: Mayor Quesinberry introduced Commissioners Youngblood, Jowers, Anderson and Rees. Also present were City Attorney Hardeman, City Manager Holden and City Clerk Pryor. . Six Cents Local Option Gas Tax - City of Apopka, Jack Douglas and City ofOcoee, Paul E. Rosenthal Winter Garden City Manager Holden introduced the discussion of the joint issues. Apopka Assistant Administrator Douglas reviewed the issue of the local option gas tax and the agreement proposed by Orange County Chairman Chapin regarding assisting Orlando and the other cities with a hold harmless agreement. He recapped the efforts at lobbying regarding this issue and the passing of the bill which stated distribution of the gas tax must be done according to population. He commended Commissioner Youngblood and Commissioner Gleason for their work in assisting with this issue. Mayor Land read a letter from Orlando Mayor Hood that had been brought by Commissioner Glass, who disclaimed having any part in writing the letter. . Attorney Rosenthal advised that even before the City of Orlando legal department issued its opinion he was asked by Mr. Shapiro and the managers of the other cities to look at potential legal issues that might be raised in the attack against the legislation, so they were looking at this when Orlando raised their letter. He said it was probably fair to say the headline in the Orlando Sentinel was not an accurate summary of the conclusions they reached in their opinion. They areas they tried to look at are there issues that can be raised by Orlando or whoever else might choose to challenge this legislation so they could be proactive and not sit back and get caught unaware. They did the analysis and tried to identify issues. There probably were more unknowns that knowns in terms of what path they might go down if they got involved in litigation on this. He introduced Attorney John Hamilton from his office to give specifics of the legislation. . . . JOINT CITY COMMISSION MEETING APOPKAlOCOEEIWINTER GARDEN MAY 30,1996 Attorney Hamilton reviewed the opmlOn included in the packet. He said the argument proffered by the City of Orlando was that the recent act was local legislation and prohibited by the Florida Constitution. The burden of proof would be on Orlando. He indicated the three options laid out by the Orlando legal department. Discussion followed. Commissioner Gleason said Attorney Juarez, represented them on the issue. Through Attorney Juarez's contacts, others had looked at it, and the issue that needed to be raised was whether there is another county like Orange County. Attorney Juarez said if this could be challenged on a technicality that he did not follow the proper procedures, he would take the case back at no additional charge to the three cities and clean up the loose ends. This could be resolved in the next legislative session prior to October 1997 when the money would be distributed. Commissioner Youngblood said Senator Ostalkewicz brought up that this was an equity issue. Mayor Land asked what the difference was between a local bill and what is done in Tallahassee all the time. Attorney Hamilton said he had not called it a local bill, but the City of Orlando was trying to assert it was a local bill. Mayor Land said it was then possible that the City of Orlando would not prevail, and Attorney Hamilton concurred. Mayor Land asked if it possibly could go into effect in July 1996, and Attorney Hamilton said yes. Mayor Land asked about a time limit on the challenge, and Attorney Hamilton said he was not sure. Discussion followed. Mayor Vandergrift pointed out that a statement was made that the City of Orlando was going to lose $2 million relative to the local option gas tax. He wanted to make it clear that the smaller cities had been losing money for years to the City of Orlando and Orange County, and they were trying to adjust for the cities. Mayor Land indicated that when cities get groups that say they are not getting their fair share of taxes, they can be sued with a class action suit. He asked if the cities could bring a class action suit. Attorney Rosenthal responded. Commissioner Gleason asked if Orange and Orlando could enter into an interlocal agreement based on any formula they wanted and impose it on the other cities. Attorney Hamilton responded. Discussion followed. Mr. Douglas referred to a handout of two documents, one of which was a letter. The other was the latest proposal for distribution of the tax, which he explained. Mayor Vandergrift asked if an individual consensus of the panel should be reached, and Mr. Douglas and Apopka Commissioner Johnson suggested waiting. Commissioner Glass said he had been lobbied by 2 . . . JOINT CITY COMMISSION MEETING APOPKAlOCOEEIWINTER GARDEN MAY 30,1996 the City of Orlando, who indicated they were willing to go to the mat on litigation. To that he had replied that it would tie up the lion's share oftheir money. He said they indicated they would really prefer to negotiate this. He said he was not privy to the negotiations, but his feeling was that the cities could do better than this most recent proposal. Commissioner Youngblood said he thought Orange County had been honorable in their dealings with the cities thus far. He felt the cities should go forward and keep it on the table and look at it from the standpoint that Orange County wanted to see this resolved in the best interest of everyone. Discussion followed. Mayor Land said there had been a commitment of $20,000 to Attorney Juarez on behalf of the three cities to carry them to December 31. He agreed to go for $20,000 starting in January to get them through the next legislative session subject to its being in the individual budgets. Tax Equalization Issues: Background Mr. Douglas explained the issue of tax equalization and deferred to Mayor Land. Mayor Land gave the background on the sheriff and fire department MSTUs. He referred to a letter he wrote to a number of mayors (not in City Clerk's packet). He explained what the County had intended to do relative to taxes in incorporated and unincorporated Orange County and gave the history of tax equalization. He explained the makeup of the committee and said the goal of the committee was to have something prepared for next year's budget. He said the sheriff had put the cities on notice that they would responsible for school crossing guards. He said the thought had been that it came from the general tax. He was told by someone from the County that it came out of the sheriffs MSTU. He said that needed to be watched. He referred to another letter (not in City Clerk's packet) regarding fire coverage and the need to watch for possible double taxation. Tax Equalization Issues: Fire Protection Issues Mr. Holden said the timetable regarding fire protection issues had not been set. Apopka Assistant City Administrator Anderson gave a brief outline regarding fire protection. He said the goal was the best fire protection at the lowest cost. He said some economies could be gained by cooperation among the three cities and buying in quantities. He suggested joint training and trying to put stations where they could help another cities and have cost-sharing. He felt there were services (hazardous material, heavy rescue, etc.) in fire service that could be shared. Another area of discussion was communications and the problem of the County-assigned frequency. 3 . . . JOINT CITY COMMISSION MEETING APOPKA/OCOEEIWINTER GARDEN MAY 30,1996 In October the process of collecting funds for the 911 system began. There had been several meetings with the 911 coordinator to see how much money was available and was being collected. Three different budgets had been presented as a result of the inquiries, and there were still questions about some of the figures. He said each budget had escalated, and there were concerns about the expenditures. Mr. Holden talked about the inequities in the fire dispatch system. One of the first difficulties they had was getting the dispatch system programmed properly. He said there had been a case when an Ocoee unit four miles farther from a fire than a Winter Garden unit was dispatched. He said as part of the tax equalization issue was doing what was best for the taxpayers at the least cost. He strongly supported continued discussions with professionals on how to do that. Recess 8:55 p.m. to 9:10 p.m. Tax Equalization Issues: Law Enforcement Issues Because Winter Garden Police Chief Yawn was called away in the line of duty, Mr. Holden gave his report. He said he thought each of the cities had been looking at a list of about 16 assertions that were made by the sheriffs office about what the sheriff did for the cities. Winter Garden said they were looking at squaring off within the reserve area and taking in the enclaves providing the service and having the sheriff pay the City of Winter from its MSTU. He said Winter Garden could do it cheaper. John Ross, Attorney, talked about the problems in prosecuting ordinances. He said there was a need for a vote from the cities for him to proceed to the Clerk of the Court to pursue ordinance prosecution. He said he needed a strong letter to present. He said there were no longer municipal courts, only county courts. Due to new legislation, there was an opportunity to prosecute ordinances without a prosecutor, but contact with the Clerk of the Court was necessary. He went over three categories of ordinances: (1) Parking. He said the cities would probably want to copy Orlando's ordinance since it had been tried and tested. A judge was not going to go through a number of different ordinances and would be more receptive to a uniform ordinance. At present, there is an administrative hearing officer program for moving violations. There is no prosecutor, the ticketing officer presents case, the officer lets the defendant speak, then asks questions and renders a verdict. This same procedure was going to be available for parking tickets. (2) Quasi-criminal, i.e., ordinance that are on the books that provide up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. Those cases need a prosecutor, but the cities needed to narrow the field to five to six ordinances that were problems, e.g., urinating in public, open container, etc. Judges were letting 4 . . . JOINT CITY COMMISSION MEETING APOPKAlOCOEEIWINTER GARDEN MAY 30,1996 offenders plea to the arrest affidavit so that about 85% of the time the purpose was achieved. He said a data file could be set up so that the cities could go after someone, if appropriate, instead of letting him plea. (3) Code enforcement. A change in state law allowed municipalities to issue citations which are answerable in county court. The code enforcement officer is the prosecutor, and the same procedure is followed as in administrative hearing. Approximately 85-90% of the violators pay when they know they have to go to court. A citation should be the alternative if no progress is achieved with the violator. Ocoee Police Chief Mark referred to 318.21 Disposition of Civil Penalties. He asked about a deputy writing a ticket in a municipality and the disposition of fines. Mr. Ross said a public records request could be made to determine where the tickets were written. Discussion followed regarding prosecution of parking tickets. Prisoner Transfer to O.C. Jail Issues Chief Mark said the calculation in their information should be $756,000 instead of $748,000 because of adding workers' compensation figures. He referred to the memo and said it was not feasible to go into the issue at that time. He felt the County should provide assistance to the police departments and that the County had dropped ball. He said Corrections was run by Orange County. Planning Issues for West Orange County Mr. Shapiro deferred to Ocoee Planning Director Wagner. Mr. Wagner referred to the memo available in packet and listed five problems he saw in West Orange County: (1) continuing problem with sprawl; (2) "turf wars" such as Belmere on Maguire Road. He said there was a trend on the part of Orange County to pick up parcels on the edges of cities and maintain them in the county with urban densities; (3) school board lack of communication; (4) transportation, i.e., lack of awareness on the part of the State with a need for higher projections of traffic in state planning; and (5) the difference in the way the County handles concurrency. Growth occurs in the County. The cities get the growth but not the fees. Commissioner Gleason said the school board impact fees were being collected to build schools anywhere in Orange County. He said that could negatively impact cities and suggested a possible. joint effort to get the school board to enter negotiations that allowed developers in the communities to start planning better for schools. Orange County was projecting a $2 billion need over ten years for schools, and he would like a partnership. 5 ~ e ~. . JOINT CITY COMMISSION MEETING APOPKA/OCOEEIWINTER GARDEN MAY 30,1996 Mr. Shapiro said preliminary development plans had routinely been given to the school board with the question of a desire for them to participate. He said there never had been a response from school board with plans for schools. After the fact, the school board would request wider roads and plan for schools after the price of the land had increased. Mayor Vandergrift suggested a joint meeting of the cities with school board to explain what was happening in areas regarding growth. He said they needed to readjust their thinking and cooperate. He said more taxes money is allocated to the school board than to the entire county. Commissioner Graham spoke of the Council of Local Governments and said the school board attended. Discussion followed. General Discussion Mr. Holden introduced the Winter Garden Finance Director, Teri Collins. He brought up the issue of cellular and pes towers. He said discussion would have to be delayed until there was an ordinance. He indicated Orlando had a model ordinance. He said this issue would affect all three cities. Primeco went to Winter Garden in the form of Florida Power saying they wanted to put up a tower on the substation at the comer of Dillard Street and Story Road. Winter Garden stopped it. Mayor Vandergrift pressed for a meeting with the school board and said he would move to call another meeting within three months. It was agreed that the Apopka city attorney would contact the school board. Mr. Shapiro suggested each of the mayors contact the board members representing their cities personally and ask for participation at the meeting. Mayor Land thanked Winter Garden for hosting the meeting and suggested the next meeting be held to discuss lake Apopka. The city staffs were to determine the next meeting. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 9:55 p.m. APPROVED City ofOcoee ;5'S'~.a~. S. Scott Vandergrift, Mayor 6