2014-0116 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summarc Minmes: Regular City Commission Meeting January 16. 2014 Cinof Sunny Isles Beach. Florida about the workshop was that he really thought that we were thwarting the debate in front of the public on the dais because it is pretty convenient to sit in a room when the public is not watching and the cameras aren't rolling and the newspaper reporter is not sitting there and voice your opinion a certain way. But when you get up here and the cameras are rolling, the newspaper reporter is there and the public is watching on television. all of a sudden you may not be so inclined to voice your opinion or to argue with your colleagues in front of others. A long time ago he said he was not doing these workshops and he doesn't really agree with these workshops and so if you want them great; but in the meantime you are going to have them without him. Now we have an Ordinance that says we want to have a workshop but we want to legislate our behavior when we are in the workshops, which is silly in his opinion. You either have the workshops and they are fair game and the public will have to realize that if they really want to get a beat on everything that is going on they have got to go to two meetings. one on Tuesday and one on Thursday, or you don't have the workshops. Frankly it is the role of staff to answer our questions and it is pretty simple. You read your book and if you have questions you call the City IManager or City Attorney or one of the staff members and you get your questions answered. He does not believe we have to have that meeting and have to have us together to answer those questions together. Unfortunately. he believes it morphed into something which he expected would morph in time which was inappropriate. It was legal but it was not appropriate because the public expects us to get up here and voice our opinions on these things and a lot of times a lot of these issues get tidied up in the workshop before they ever come to this meeting that is really well documented and given proper access to the public. He thinks we should do away with the workshops because he does not think they are necessary. City Attorney Ottinot noted for the record that the zoning matters are not discussed in these workshops. Commissioner Levin said she agrees with Commissioner Scholl. and she agrees that we should discuss these things openly with the public at these meetings and for the most part the items she finds in the agendas are not all that difficult and she does not have a problem picking up a phone and asking somebody if she has a question or perhaps it can be handled in some other manner whereby everybody could have a set time to meet with whoever they need to meet with the Tuesday before rather than have a meeting all together at the workshop. The way it is worded here is that if the workshops were to continue you could not discuss any items at the workshop unless it was on the regular agenda for Thursday's meeting. There is nothing to say that anyone couldn't put something on the agenda for Thursday, discuss it at the workshop, and then take it off of the agenda for the Thursday meeting and so it would never be heard. Vice Nlayor Aelion said in the last four years he has attended most of the workshops and he has found them practical from a conducive of having housekeeping matters addressed and he thinks it would take extra time in a regular Commission meeting. We also addressed at the last workshop the comparative look of the cities that do not have workshops and we heard those adjacent cities stay until sometimes midnight or 1:00 a.m. He sees the practical side of haying the workshops, it is not a necessity but it is conducive to good government and practicality in the execution of our duty. He does not see anything negative in it, it is a public meeting, and everything is recorded. 8