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01-11-1999 - Workshop CITY COUNCIL OF EDGEWATER WORKSHOP JANUARY 11, 1999 6:00 P.M. COMMUNITY CENTER MINUTES CALL TO ORDER Mayor Allman called the Workshop to order at 6:00 p.m. in the Community Center. ROLL CALL Mayor Randy Allman Present Councilman James Gornto Present Councilman Myron Hammond Present Councilman Gary Roberts Excused Councilwoman Judith Lichter Present City Attorney Nikki Clayton Present City Manager Kenneth Hooper Present City Clerk Susan Wadsworth Present Police Chief Lawrence Schumaker Excused Charter Review Committee members: George Ewing Present Ferdinand Heeb Present Michael Nattress Excused Wolfgang Unger Present Sandy Jones Present Mayor Allman recognized Greg Wood, Executive Director, Volusia Council of Governments. MEETING PURPOSE The purpose of the meeting was to review the Charter Review Committee's final report, including proposed changes to the current Charter and minority reports. They will accept the changes and at the end of that they will be turning over the changes to Staff who will review and add what they feel necessary, after which they will come back to Council to set up a final workshop session between Staff, the Charter Review Committee, and City Council to decide what will and will not be on the referendum to change the Charter. George Ewing, 2923 Royal Palm Drive, thanked all of the members of the Charter Review Committee, Robin Wolf as Secretary, and City Attorney Nikki Clayton. Mr. Ewing stated the reason he agreed to serve was to give the government and particularly City government back to the people. He hopes the present City Council will seriously consider the changes and additions they are submitting. This is your opportunity to give the voters a choice by referendum. Ferd Heeb has agreed to explain some of the changes to the Council when Mr. Ewing is finished with his presentation. He stated Council would have to decide how these changes would be presented to the citizens in ordinance form. He referred Council to Section 303 1 Council Workshop January 11, 1999 Paragraph A & B on Page 2 where they only changed twelve or fifteen words. He then referred Council to Section 308 on Page 4 where they have added words. He then referred Council to Section 313, which is very extensive, and whether you are going to have to pull that out and make it a separate item on a referendum. Mr. Ewing presented a minority report on some of the items that were not voted on by majority. He turned the meeting over to Mr. Heeb. Ferd Heeb, 115 N. Riverside Drive, thanked Councilman Gornto for appointing him to the Committee and allowing him to serve Edgewater. He also commented on the outstanding job done by Robin Wolf. He also thanked City Attorney Nikki Clayton. Mr. Heeb stated they did a lot of work, they studied this Charter and Charters from similar size cities and they studied the model City Charter of the National Civic League. Mr. Heeb presented an overview of what they are recommending. They want to give the citizens of Edgewater a stronger voice in matters concerning the future of the City and to affirm and strengthen the City Manager /Council form of government. He referred to Section 2.02, Section 3.03, Section 3.08, Section 3.09, Section 3.11, and Section 3.13. Mr. Heeb went on to refer to Section 4.11, Section 5.06, and Section 6.07. He stated he hopes they find their Charter amendments acceptable and that they be placed before the citizens at the next general election. Sandy Jones, 1520 Travelers Palm Drive, thanked everyone on the Committee and everyone that has input in their review. She presented a minority report regarding staggered terms. She spoke in favor of staggered terms. Wolf Unger, 1820 Kumquat Drive, thanked everyone and especially City Attorney Clayton. She was very beneficial and very supportive. He presented a minority report regarding the City Council having the authority to override, by a unanimous vote, any specific action or inaction of the City Manager regarding issues of organization and policy. He feels the City Council being directly responsible to the voters should have a higher level of authority than the City Manager. Mr. Ewing then went on to present his minority report. He commented on residency requirements. He would like to put it on the ballot again and let the citizens decide if there should be residency rules or not. He doesn't think the voters read the waiver when they voted two to one for residency. He feels a two -term limit should be considered. He feels they should vote by districts. He also feels the City Council should have the authority by majority vote to hire and fire department heads only which he feels would possibly avoid the constant change in City Managers. 2 Council Workshop January 11, 1999 City Attorney Clayton informed the Council Mr. Nattress would also have a minority report and would be making it available at some point but he did not specify. Councilwoman Lichter asked City Attorney Clayton about Section 2.02 - Annexation. She asked if there is a State Statute that covers an amount of land or just other things. City Attorney Clayton explained there is a State Statute that covers annexation and the procedures by which it is accomplished but it does not have any limit on the acreage. A gentleman in the audience asked if there is a five - percent limitation before you go to referendum. City Attorney Clayton explained on the voluntary annexation, a person who owns a quantity of land can seek to enter jurisdiction and then there is no vote required. If it is an involuntary annexation, you have a certain procedure that is followed. The five - percent limitation is five percent of the landmass for comprehensive plan amendments being major or minor. City Attorney Clayton referred to a scrivener's correction in Section 3.08, Paragraph D. She states net taxable value needs to be further defined and proposed the language of property assessed within the City. Mr. Heeb stated they had assessments in there originally. City Attorney Clayton explained this does not refer to assessment as the limitation it is to identify the net taxable value of property. This doesn't have anything to do with assessment being the key word. It is only the defining term that talks about what property produces the net taxable value. If the property is assessed within the City that will produce a value that net taxable value then becomes the controlling term. Councilwoman Lichter asked Mr. Ewing if he is referring to exceptions for department heads but not the City Manager regarding residency requirement. Mr. Ewing stated that was majority. Mr. Heeb stated Mr. Ewing doesn't agree with that. Mr. Ewing feels the Charter should remain the same without the waiver. Councilwoman Lichter spoke about an example Mr. Ewing presented where a waiver could apply. She feels a very important example would be distance. Mr. Heeb explained the consensus of the Committee was that they would like the Chief Executive Officer of the City and the department heads to live in the City. They agreed to mandate the Chief Executive Officer live within the confines of the City. He spoke of the possibility of someone being promoted to a department head that lives outside the City. They felt they would give Council the ability to waive the requirement for department heads only. He spoke about the residency requirement being a hot topic. He feels they should put it on the ballot. Mr. Heeb addressed Mr. Unger's issue. He feels he has made a very good case for his position. He feels when you hire someone to be your Chief Executive Officer you give him the responsibility for carrying on a job and you are giving him the authority to do that job. 3 Council Workshop January 11, 1999 Mr. Unger agreed with their being a distinct danger with turning department heads into a political entity. He is a firm believer that the bottom line authority needs to be held by the people closest and accountable to the people which is the City Council. Mr. Ewing doesn't want to keep changing City Managers all the time. He thinks Council should have some authority somewhere on department heads. Mayor Allman stated that is something they could bring up at the next workshop once staff has a chance to review all of the proposed changes. Mayor Allman stated the only thing he sees coming into it is croneism and he doesn't feel in a City this size there is any room for that. If you let the Council take care of the department heads, he really believes the croneism factor would come into play. There was a brief discussion regarding Res. 97 -R -28. Councilwoman Lichter feels Ms. Jones' minority report should be given serious consideration regarding staggered terms. Mr. Unger feels staggered terms would have met more favorably with the Committee if there were elections every year. Mr. Unger spoke about the verbiage in Section 3.13 and feels it doesn't make sense. City Attorney Clayton stated she would go back and try to fix the scrivener's error. Mayor Allman asked if there is any citizen input. Dominick Capria, 606 Topside Circle, asked if at the next workshop meeting residents will be able to speak and can he as a resident get a copy of what has been put forward so far from the Committee who he feels has done a good job. Mayor Allman stated yes on both parts. Dick Martinez, 317 Schooner Avenue, feels staggered terms should have been done a long time ago. He feels they provide continuity and less reaction when you have a complete turnover of a Council. He would like to see this considered very seriously and talked about at the next workshop. Doris Hill, 112 Lincoln Road, stated under this City Attorney, City Manager and Council, the City Charter isn't worth the paper it is written on. She spoke of the time spent on the changes to the Charter by the Charter Review Committee. She feels the Council has made their own rules. At least three major sections of the Charter have been ignored so why change it. What is the sense? She feels this is an exercise of utility. The only thing the people can do is vote you out in the next election and elect a law abiding Council or if you do stay in office you will just do what you want anyway. So what difference does it make? Why spend all this time. It is useless. 4 Council Workshop January 11, 1999 Dr. Charles Gebelein, 1730 Umbrella Tree Drive, commented on a copy of a letter he had in the newspaper. He has a problem with bypassing the Charter and feels one needs to consider very carefully in the Charter revision process. He recommended when this is put up to vote by the people it be listed as individual items, not the whole package at one time. He feels staggered terms would be great but only if the City had elections every year. City Manager Hooper explained it would be on the agenda later on in the evening to accept the Charter report. He spoke of the November election and this being the time that whatever occurs is going to be on the ballot. He assumed this was the Committee's desire. He suggested having staff comments at a work session at the March 1 meeting. He suggested scheduling a public meeting to take citizen's input, create a draft, and he likes the idea of having individual items to say yes and no to. This will be sent back to the Charter Review Committee to polish some of the language and bring it back to Council in final ordinance form when the public hearings will be held. This is probably a time period of around July. It was the consensus of Council to proceed as City Manager Hooper explained. Mr. Ewing stated it is still possible to have staggered terms with elections every two years. Mayor Allman stated they would figure that out. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, Councilman Hammond made a motion to adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 6:45 p.m. Minutes submitted by: Lisa Kruckmeyer 5 Council Workshop January 11, 1999