HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-18-88 CHARTER REVISION COMMITTEE MEETING HELD AUGUST 18, 1988
The meeting was called to order at 7:55 p.m. by Chairman Beatty
after the board had viewed the videotape of his presentation of
the proposed Charter revisions to City Commission. Rev. Mitchell
led in prayer and pledge of allegiance to the flag.
PRESENT: Chairman Beatty, Members Hendrix, Mitchell, Attorneys
Rosenthal and Mlsna, Acting City Clerk Grafton
ABSENT: Members Pounds and Switzer
APPROVALS
Minutes of the meeting held August 11, 1988 were not available, so
approval was deferred until next meeting.
Chairman Beatty reported that, at his presentation of Articles II,
VI, VII, IX and X to City Commission, he had pointed out that their
suggestions had been incorporated into the revision and positive
comments were made by Commission as well as the press. Commission
had expressed concern regarding Charter review every four years
because of the time, effort, expense and the possible turmoil of .
putting the City through a totally new governmental structure.
Chairman Beatty then suggested that reviewing Charter every ten
kir years and redistricting every four or five years would be
appropriate.
Member Mitchell moved to review the Charter every ten years and
review districting every five years in order to coincide with the
census. Member Hendrix seconded the motion and vote was
unanimous in favor.
Board agreed to continue (as previously considered) to keep
Article X as Charter Review and Article XI as Redistricting rather
than to combine the two in order to keep the issues separate for
clarification to the electors.
Chairman Beatty pointed out that the changes proposed in Articles
X and XI would take effect after the 1990 census data is
available.
REVIEW OF FINAL DRAFT OF ALL ARTICLES (I THRU IX)
Attorney Rosenthal advised that he has reviewed entire Charter and
has few changes. There will be a clean copy provided for the
public hearing scheduled August 22 so that any changes that are
incorporated due to suggestions made by the public will be easy to
see. Chairman Beatty pointed out that he will be giving the same
presentation that night to the public that he gave to Commission.
Attorney Rosenthal noted that everything still has to be put
'rrr together in ordinance form and that he is pleased with the way it
is going together legally. He is matching the terminology
referring to "City of Ocoee" or "the City" consistently rather
than occasionally "municipality of... ", as well as determining
that "Section" is spelled out rather than occasionally "Sec. ".
r
Page 2
Charter Revision Meeting
August 18, 1988
ARTICLE I: This article refers to the geographic boundaries by
ordinance. This ordinance must be located in order to be sure we
do not have any problem there.
The board agreed that they were satisfied with Article I.
ARTICLE II: In Section 7 (Page 11) Attorney Rosenthal said he had
added "...the City Commission determines..." regarding
circumstances, which makes it clear that the City Commission is
the judge regarding the circumstances.
Member Mitchell asked about "...affirmative vote of all members of
City Commission present and voting... ". Attorney Rosenthal said
they would change "all" to "the."
In Section 8 on franchises, Attorney Rosenthal suggested that the
notice provision might be changed to be similar throughout the
Charter in order to reduce the opportunity for staff error.
Chairman Beatty pointed out that the historical precedent in
franchises is thirty days notice advertised four consecutive
weeks, which is really four publications over thirty days and he
prefers to retain that method.
Member Mitchell brought up the matter of "daily newspaper" as
opposd to "newspaper of general circulation" and it was agreed to
delete "daily" in favor of "of general circulation" throughout the
Charter.
In Section 14 on taxation the phrase "Except to the extent
expressly prohibited by the laws of Florida..." has been
relocated from the end to the beginning of the statement.
Attorney Rosenthal suggested, and Board concurred, that the phrase
"and to establish special taxing districts or assessment areas
encompassing all or a portion of the City" should be kept in.
In Section 15 on condemnation of buildings, concerning enforcing
penalties, "by ordinance" has been added. This wording ensures
public notice because of the procedures involved in enacting
ordinances.
In Section 17 on Maintenance of private property, "by ordinance"
was inserted.
In Section 25 (new Section 20) regarding regulation of railroad
crossings, Attorney Rosenthal suggested deleting this entire
section because there were provisions about certain things which
would raise procedural questions and rather than try to rewrite
the whole section it would be appropriate to defer to state
statute. Chairman Beatty expressed concern that he had told
Commission that there were minor enhancements and that his
fir►.
Page 3
Charter Revision Meeting
August 18, 1988
credibility may suffer if it were deleted. Attorney Rosenthal
stated that railroad issues can be dealt with by ordinance as
the need presents itself whether the Charter includes this
provision or not. The board agreed to delete this item.
In Section 21 on license taxes "by ordinance" was added in several
places.
Article III In Section 2 at the end was added "Nothing contained
herein shall be construed to deprive any member of the City
Commission of such member's right to due process under the
Constitution and laws of the State of Florida."
In Section 4 on prohibitions, subparagraph A, "No former member of
the City Commission can..." was changed to "...shall hold any
compensated office." Also was added "...or vacating such member's
office." In subparagraph B on appointments, the phrase was added
"... except as otherwise provided in this Charter or by the laws
of Florida." By way of clarification on what a Commissioner may
or may not say at a Commission meeting, the statement "provided
however, that each member of the City Commission shall be entitled
to express his views pertaining to the appointment and removal of
such officers and employees and to fully and freely discuss such
views with the city manager" was restructured. In subparagraph C
the phrase "...attempt to" was inserted before "influence, by
promising any thing of value" and here was added "to such other
member ". The statement "for the purpose of influencing political
aid or votes" has been changed to "for the purpose of gaining
political aid or influencing votes."
In Section 6 on quorum was added "...and other matters coming
before City Commission for action." The 3 affirmative votes are
limited to ordinances and resolutions. This means if a matter
other than an ordinance or resolution should come before
Commission when only 3 members are present it could carry by a 2
to 1 vote.
In Section 8 there is provision for Commission, should they so
desire, to establish separate compensation for the Mayor Pro Tem
because of the extra responsibilities and duties.
In Section 9, forfeiture of office, the portion which had been
added and identified as subsection (3), (which was: "or is found to
be in violation of any express prohibition of this Charter or any
standard of conduct or code of ethics established by law for
public officials. ") was deleted. The statement "The provisions of
%r.. this Section shall be exercised in accordance with the provisions
of Section 2 of this Article." was put in its place.
Chairman Beatty raised a question regarding filling a vacancy for
6 months and Attorney Rosenthal said that he believes there will
�Irr
Page 4
Charter Revision Meeting
August 18, 1988
be no problem but he will verify.
In Section 11 (3) regarding petitions, a paragraph for
clarification was added: "Each initiative or referendum petition
filed with the city clerk shall comply with the following
requirements and any failure to comply with any one or more of the
following requirements shall render the petition insufficient."
In Section 11 (2) a paragraph was deleted to avoid conflict in
determining whether the forms were sufficient or insufficient.
That paragraph was: "Promptly, after the affidavit of the
petitioners' committee is filed, the city clerk may, at the
committee's request, issue the appropriate petition blanks to the
petitioners' committee."
In Section 11 (4)(a) the number of days the city clerk has to
certify the sufficiency of a petition was changed from 5 to 7.
In Section 11 (5) earlier language raised a question that would
suggest that the simple filing of a referendum petition stopped
the effectiveness of an ordinance even if it was in effect. This
has been clarified: "...the ordinance sought to be reconsidered
shall be suspended from taking effect if it has not already become
effective as of the date of filing the referendum petition." Also
at the end of subsection (5) was added: "The filing of a
referendum petition shall not affect the validity of or
enforcement of the ordinance sought to be reconsidered if such
ordinance is effective on the date of filing such referendum
petition."
In subsection (6)(b) the phrase "except that the city commission
may, in its sole discretion, provide for a special election at an
earlier date..." was deleted.
In Section 12 the word "agreements" was added to the list of
titles, as well as "other" to legal documents. The terminology
regarding the laws of Florida was made consistent throughout.
In Article IV Section 1, "city commission may..." was changed to
... shall appoint a city manager... ". Another sentence was added
to the end of the paragraph: "The city commission may enter into
an employment agreement with the city manager addressing terms and
conditions of employment not inconsistent with or in conflict with
the provision of this Charter." The number of votes required for
removal was changed from 4 to 3 as requested at the last meeting.
In subparagraph 4 the reference to "contract" was changed to
"employment agreement ".
In a discussion regarding the use of "3 votes" as opposed to "a
majority of all members" it was decided to clearly define matter
in Article III.
Page 5
Charter Revision Meeting
August 18, 1988
In Section 4 the grammar was corrected.
In Article V Section 1 was returned to original language and
clarified, and referring to discontinuing or reassigning functions
added: "except by ordinance adopted by the city commission."
In Section 2 the language was cleaned up and subparagraph (3) was
added "or otherwise requested by the city commission or the city
manager." In front of all the responsibilities of the attorney was
put "be consistent with this Charter."
In Section 4 the language was cleaned up.
In Section 5 "prosecutorial" was added to define the prosecutor's
duties.
In Section 6 C "by ordinance" was added. A qualifying sentence
regarding eligibility to serve on personnel board will be added.
In Article VI Section 5 regarding balanced budget, is added "cash
`fir reserves or any other funds as may be available to the city."
In Section 8 subparagraphs c and d were divided: c deals with
transfer of appropriations within departments and d with transfer
of appropriations between departments.
In Article VII subparagraph c is clarified.
In Section 5 the sentencing is simplified thus: "...the
Canvassing Board which will consist of the mayor and the two city
commissioners who were not up for election, such meeting... ". And
a last sentence was added, "A majority of the Canvassing Board
shall constitute a quorum thereof." Also the word "public" was
inserted.
In Section 6 the word "nominated" was changed to "elected."
In Section 7 was added "or any other matter...electors of the... ".
Article VIII is all right as it is.
Article IX was presented to city commission and is all right.
Article X will stand as it is. Attorney Rosenthal recommended
that the next Charter revision committee be appointed for
December 15, 1999 with the thought that the elections will be held
'to in even numbered years and that would give them time to gather
information and make recommendations in a timely manner.
Article XI Section 2 the districting committee will be appointed
every 5 years and "new " does not mean only different people.
'tom,,.
Page 6
Charter Revision Meeting
August 18, 1988
In subparagraph 3 the number of votes necessary was changed from 4
to 3. Member Mitchell asked that this be changed to "majority" in
order to be consistent with the rest of the revision.
In the paragraph dealing with powers and duties of the districting
committee, Chairman Beatty asked that "adding together with other
revelant data available for the establishment of geographic
boundaries" be added, as well as a provision that acceptable
sources of data be determined before research is started.
In subparagraph 4 of districting committee, Chairman Beatty
suggested inserting "reasonable" after such in "such deadlines as
may be established by the city commission.
Section 5 deals with the defining of the city limits, boundaries
of the districts and working out the transition from
representation as we now have it to districting. Chairman Beatty
requested that "for the duration of the commissioner's term of
office" be changed to "current elected term of office."
In subparagraph b the wording will be changed to "the next
election after 1992."
Annexed parcels will be added to the district adjacent to the
annexed parcel.
Article III is Ballot Amendment #1. Section 3 clarifies that each
city commissioner must be a bonafide resident of his district.
,
Attorney Rosenthal explained that at the polls citizens will be
given an opportunity to vote on (1) the single member ballot
which will be amending Sections I and III of Article III of the
Charter and on (2) adopting Article XI. He also said that the
title of the Charter revision ordinance should appear on the
ballot. After some discussion regarding whether it was necessary
for the revision to pass in order for the amendments to pass it
was agreed that the people should have an opportunity to have
either or all as they choose.
ADJOURNMENT
Upon a motion by Member Hendrix and second by Member Mitchell,
meeting was adjourned at 10:20 p.m.
Saw
hairman Beatty
ATT T - City Cler