2014-0220 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting February 20.2014 City of Sunny Isles Beach,Florida Commissioner Gatto said up front she was very against us funding it and getting involved and then as we progressed and talked about it, she understood the need for us to launch it. She knew that she was voting on not just exploring it but going out and actually hitting the ground running. From the little that she knows and had some peripheral participation in,you are developing a name here and you are putting a lot of man hours against this name along with other things including a logo, a tagline, creating a website, and then you have to file with the IRS. There is a lot of start-up stuff that needs to go on before you can even get into what has been discussed here and she is talking about basic stuff She understands that but she wanted to talk about something that we debated,and there was a little bit of semantics. It is actually defined by Commissioner Levin as the Mayor's proposal which it is, but Ms. Dannheisser and I debated this. Now it is a City project and she thinks that is how we need to view it. This is something that the City is involved in,and yes we are helping to launch it, and she thinks semantics wise,if we continue to call it the Mayor's project we sort of attach the Mayor to it. Mayor Edelcup said he had no pride of ownership of it, and yes he initiated the program but call it whatever you want. Ms. Dannsheisser said again anytime you are creating something, somebody has got to start it. It is somebody's project but then it becomes the City's project. That is what is happening here and next month you are going to see a lot of work that has been done in the last three(3) months in the vein of what Commissioner Gatto is talking about such as the logo, the website, the scheduling, etc. She does want feedback on it, it is not her Foundation, it is yours. Commissioner Scholl said he has no issue if we are asked for feedback but his point is that he does not want to meddle. We are obviously doing the jumpstart funding, and again, he does not disagree, if Commissioner Levin wants to look at something, she is entitled to look at it. Commissioner Levin said from the very first moment that this came to light in the Workshop she never was ready to move ahead with anything and she wanted to hear more and know more. It was always her understanding that Ms.Dannheisser would get involved and look for grants, and then all of a sudden in her mind it morphed to something else. She pointedly asked the Commission at that Workshop,and so this is strictly to do due diligence to see if it is feasible to move ahead and the answer was yes, and she remembers it because she asked the question with intent. Ms. Dannheisser said all of this is part of the feasibility,you won't know if it is going to get launched or not until the end but all of this stuff that we are doing is necessary in order to launch it. That is why it took a consultant rather than staff to do it as it is a lot of work to do. Commissioner Levin said she knows but she does not think the articles and the by-laws were due diligence, that is getting there, that is planning it, that is forming it, that is moving ahead and doing it. Mayor Edelcup said he thinks the main instruction is, and he hopes the Commission totally agrees is that no elected official is to be on that board, and any staff person, and no more money. Ms. Dannheisser said for the sake of transparency she is going to continue to feed all of the information to the Commission, and if you can respond to her and react as you deem appropriate. Mayor Edelcup said that their response would be to just give our comments,not to give approval or disapproval. Ms. Dannheisser said correct, we can't do that out of the Sunshine anyway but she is getting information from the Commission. Commissioner Scholl said he thinks tonight to Commissioner Levin's credit we got clarity,he thinks it was cloudy 25