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12-28-1978 - Special ~ - . o (,) ~ ~~:t.~;l~ I N~':41l.:t "ilJI CITY OF EDGEWATER SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING December ?jJ, 1978 Mayor Christy called the Special Meeting of the City Council to order at 6:00 P,M. in City Hall. ROLL CALL Mayor Robert H. Christy Councilman Louis J. Rotundo Councilman David C. Ledbetter Councilman Walter B. Sikes Councilman Neil J. Asting City Attorney Judson Woods City Clerk John Wharton Police Chief Earl Baugh Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Mayor Christy announced that pursuant to Charter Regulations (Ordinance No. 994, Section 2) he has called this Special Meeting for the purpose of discussing the specific items on the Agenda and to take action (if necessary). Bilis and Accounts Councilman Rotundo asked what the bill to Williams Paint Co. was for. Councilman Ledbetter said that it was for plexiglass for the backhoe. Councilman Sikes made a motion that the Council approve the bills for payment. Councilman Rotundo seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion CARRIED 5-0. The total amount of the bills was $8,352.36. Fire Department Mayor Christy said that this concerned a 50/50 grant from the State Dept. of Forestry for the purchase of hoses and other equipment for the Fire Dept. The Council had approved making an application for this grant and the application has been accepted. The amount is $4,046.00 of which the City will pay half. The money has been budgeted. Councilman Rotundo mad~ a motion that the Council accept this grant on a 50/50 basis. Councilman Ledbetter seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion CARRIED 5-0. Material for Sewer Line Extension on Juniper Councilman Asting made a motion that the Council go out for bids on the material needed to put in this sewer line. Councilman Ledbetter seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion CARRIED 5-0. The Council set January 12, 1979 at 4:00 P.M. for the return of the bids. They will be opened at the January 15, 1979 Council Meeting. City Attorney Mayor Christy said that the Council had received copies of resumes from Mr. McFadden and Mr. Haqglund concerning the position of City Attorney. A Mr. Metz had also contacted the Mayor in regard to this position. . o o Councilman Rotundo made a motion that the Council reinstate Judson Woods as City Attorney. Councilman Sikes seconded the motion. Councilman Asting said that on November 10th Mr. Woods twice stated that he was going to resign. Later he changed his mind. I asked for a legal opinion and because I didn1t agree with Mr. Woodis opinion. he submitted a letter of resignation stating that the Council did not have confidence in his judgement. Everyone can disagree with each other if they choose but that does not mean they have to resign. This could happen again if an opinion is made that we donlt go along with which keeps us rather unbalanced. Councilman Sikes said that he was glad that Mr. Woods is willing to continue to serve the City. We have the bond validation coming up. subdivisions that we need worked out and numerous other problems facing the City. We hire an attorney and when he gives us an opinion. we should abide by whatever the opinion is. We can disagree with it but it puts the attorney in a position where if he had to defend us. he would have to step aside. In this particular case he has already given us an opinion. We hire an attorney. we hire an engineer and we hire accountants to give us professional assistance and we should abide by what they tell us. Councilman Asting said that he had read Mr. Woodis opinion and he does not think that the Attorney was fully aware of all the facts of the situation when he wrote that opinion. Unfortunately, we find out now that the State Attorney's office only investigates criminal matters and we were not implying that the actions we requested an opinion on were criminal. Councilman Sikes said that the information given to Mr. Wharton was. in: some instances. mis-stated and some of it was untrue. Mayor Christy asked if there were any comments from the audience. Mr. Frank Opal questioned whether or not a special meeting to rehire the City Attorney was in order. Mayor Christy said that the motion was in order and called for a vote. Upon roll call the motion CARRIED 3-2. Councilman Asting and Councilman Ledbetter voted NO. Garbage Collection Mayor Christy discussed the problems we have been having with Tomoka Refuse Co. During the past few days. the service has been extremely bad. It became necessary to send out City employees to pick up garbage. We picked up over 30 yards of garbage. The truck had broken down and it was sitting on 442 on Wed. morning at 4:00 A.M. They are not maintaining schedules. He plans to charge them $1.000.00 for the pickups. Attorney Woods said that we have provisions in the contract that says the Council designeee should handle problems with the Tomoka people. The designee~ is the Police Chief. Mayor Christy said that we have been threatened with a law suit. Attorney Woods said that the Council designee should notify the company. by letter. as specified in the contract, that there has been a breach of contract and specify the manner th-which there has been a breach of contract. If within a period of seven days, the contractor has not eliminated the condition considered to be a breach of the contract the designee shall so notify the Council and a hearing shall be set within fifteen days of said notice. Mr. Woods advised the, Council to comply with this section of the contract and get a certified letter out by tomorrow specifying the breaches of the contract. 2 o o Councilman Ledbetter made a motion that the Ordinance of the City of Edgewater be upheld to the letter of the law on this after sundown violation of picking up garbage and that the Chief of Police be instructed to enforce this to the hilt. Councilman Sikes asked if Mr. Ledbetter wanted the Police ~hief to write that we are intending to hold back two days or a $1,000. Councilman Ledbetter said he was not talking about the $500. a day he was talking about picking up garbage at all hours of the n i g ht. Mayor Christy said that the Attorney has said we can legally penalize them for each route. Councilman Sikes said that he should include in his motion that this is a breach of contract and that we intend to withhold $1,000.00 , Attorney Woods said that everything that is a breach of contract should be included for instance, the title to vehicles. Chief Baugh said that the Council did not desi~nate him to work as ~ liaison with Tomoka until almost a year a~ter the contract was signed. However, those papers were never submitted to the City as far as the titles to the trucks or anything of that nature. Councilman Si.kes seconded Councilman Ledbetter's motion. Mr. Walter Gross questioned whether the Council had an alternative if the contract is b~oken. . Mayor Christy said he planned to talk about that. Upon roll call the motion CARRIED 5-0. Mayor Christy gave the Council copies of information on payroll figures for the cost to the City to have drivers and pickup men, if we go into the garbage business. A driver for one year would be $10,037.01 that is including social security, workmen's compo health and pension. For one laborer it would be $9,107.79. He also had figures on the approximate cost of gasoline. Port Orange can take care of some of our garbage, at this time, for a price of $2.00 per cubic yard. We figure about 40 yds. a day, This would cost us for one year $16,640.00. Adding another driver and three more laborers and putting two trucks on the road, with all the expenses would cost the City approximately $81,320.84. Maintenance was not included in that figure but we could add on about~~,OOO to $6 , 00 0 . T hat w 0 u 1 d b r i n g the tot a 1 u p to a r 0 u n d $ 9 0 , 00 0 . 0 u r estimated income is $103,355. The Council discussed these fi~ures and also talked with Mr. Kelbanoff, Florida Gas Co. in the audience. Mr. Klebanoff is waiting to get some figures on the tonnage of garbage a day in Edgewater so that they can figure the costs for the incinerator type garbage disposal that Edgewater and New Smyrna Beach are interested in. Mayor Christy said that we would be able to put quite a few of the employees who used to pick up the garbage back on that job. He also asked Earl Copeland to check with New Smyrna Beach about weighing our trucks before we take them up to Port Orange. Councilman Sikes asked what guarantee we would have as to the cost to get rid of our garbage? We need to be sure that Port Orange won't go up on that price. There was more discussion about equipment and cost. Mr. Walter Gross questioned the difference in the cost to the City and what the City now pays Tomoka Refuse. Councilman Sikes said that we originally made the contract because the City needed time after we had to close our landfill. They could pick up our garbage cheaper than we could do it. 3 o o He reminded the Council that we were still under contract to Tomoka. Mayor Christy said he realized this but he wanted to present some alternative to the Council in case it becomes necessary. Councilman Sikes said that they had checked carefully before ~o find the cost to the City to take trucks up to Tomoka Dump ln Daytona, unload, waiting time, mileage etc. It cost more money than it did to sign a contract with a private concern. Councilman Sikes made a motion that the Council authorize that Mr. Ledbetter and Mr. Copeland check into this further and come back with more detailed information to present to the Council. Mr. Sikes at this point asked the City Attorney if we had the right to do this and didn't Tomoka want to get out of their contract? Mr. Woods said that he did not think there was any question about this. Councilman Sikes continued his motion that this information should be presented to the Council to determine whether we can continue on with our Tomoka contract or to get into the garbage collection business ourselves. Councilman Rotundo seconded the motion. Mr. Woods said that we should get this information as quickly as possible because of the notice period in this breach of contract provision. We want to be set if we meet with their representatives and we decide, at that time, that they are in breach and we are going to stop right then. We want to be able to go into operation. Upon roll call the motion CARRIED 5-0, Councilman Sikes made another motion that in the event it becomes necessary, on an emergency basis, that we have to pick up the qarbage, Mr. Ledbetter as Coordinator of the Street Department and the Mayor along with the Police Chief will have the authorization to use your judgement on a day to day basis. You can advise the rest of the Council of what is being done. Councilman Asting seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion CARRIED 5-0. The City Clerk read the certification of bids received for the Hospitalization proposals. Bids were received from: Crown Life Equitable Life Time Insurance - two proposals (Tumblin and Jer~y,~Walkef) Liberty National Aetna Life & Casualty Life Insurance of Virginia There were representatives at the meeting from Crown Life, Equitable, Time (Tumblin ), Liberty National. The representatives filled in a sheet that compared their policy with the present policy the City has in force now (Prudential). It was also noted how long the quoted rates would be in effect. The Council hopes to make a decision at the next regular meeting but the present policy will stay in effect through Jan. 30. After reviewing the proposals and talking to the representatives that were present, the Council decided to hold a workshop to allow a more careful study of these proposals. The workshop was set for January 3, 1979 at 7:00 P.M. in City Hall. 4 ... o o Councilman Ledbetter made a motion that any action on the hospitaliza- tion be tabled until the regular Council Meeting on January 8, 1979. Councilman Rotundo seconded the motion. Upon roll call the motion CARRIED 5-0. Councilman Asting made a motion that the meeting be adjourned. Councilman Rotundo seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned. MINUTES SUBMITTED BY: Nancy Blazi ATTEST: ~~ Ci lerk J1 Approved thi s 9' ./'day of January, 1979. ~ .~LX2~ Mayor t;/a-- ~ , ~ ~t;; '1.A.. . I ' Counci man ~~~c, Mayor 5 '?/~ (j /~ lt~~ /