2014-0619 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting June 19,2014 City of Sunny Isles Beach,Florida have a clear law like that you have to follow it, and if you don't follow it then there is a personal liability that comes with it. He is in the process of drafting a memo that will give you the parameters. There is an example where a candidate cannot place a political sign on a fence at a Park,the law allows to regulate that different then distribution of literature because the law considers that freedom of speech. He will give the Commission a legal memorandum outlining what you can do and what you cannot do, based on the facts. Another example is that the Government Center is used as a Polling Precinct and under the County rules campaigning has to be 100 feet away. What occurs is that sometimes that is violated, sometimes you have volunteers placing signs on property and due to the nature of the Election,the City is caught in a hard place when dealing with that kind of enforcement. Mayor Edelcup said he understands the position of our City Attorney but he also understands what we collectively have been in agreement with all of the candidates that have run since the City's inception. Commissioner Gatto is right, in prior years we all agreed whether by law or not to respect one and other and not to chastise visitors to our public events by bombarding them with literature. It was an understanding since we knew that the law was there but yet we didn't really want to subject our residents to it and so we all agreed not to do it. He also went to the City Attorney to ask if there was any way we can create a law that would take our judgment and turn it into law. Getting no favorable legal opinion from our City Attorney,he is appealing to all the candidates again in light of good sportsmanship and also civic responsibility and laws of ethics, that we try to respect each other by not having all this campaign literature take place within our Parks. There is plenty of time and opportunity for people to get that literature either by mail or out on the street but certainly not in our Parks. It has worked for the last 16-.17 years since he has been running on this Commission, and he would hope that in the future it would run the same way. And so he supports the frustration that Commissioner Gatto has expressed, and he is at the point of just appealing to the candidates this year to follow up with what we have done in the past and not hand out literature at public events at the Park even knowing that the law would permit it but we collectively feel that it would be in the best interest of our residents not to have it done in our Parks. Commissioner Scholl said as Commissioner Gatto mentioned,he is also a candidate for Mayor and it is interesting, a lot of times we have got to kind of hold ourselves above what is legal. He thinks in this case whether it is Lew Thaler or any other candidate to put a bunch of people at a public event and hand out political paraphernalia is bad. He has never done it, and he chose not to do it last Sunday. It is hard to legislate responsible and respectful behavior, he does not think we can legislate that. We have got to leave that up to individuals. Ultimately the public is going to defy it,they are going to look at how candidates conduct themselves and they are going to say this is the kind of person I want in City Hall or don't want in City Hall. He thinks Commissioner Gatto brings up a good point though is that unfortunately in the past, it seemed more like a rule than an agreement. It is interesting that this time around we are getting the straight story which we appreciate. But he thinks it is up to the candidates as the Mayor points out, to show the public that they are going to be respectful of their time in an event like a Father's Day event for families. Vice Mayor Aelion said on that point,a precedence has been created since the inception of the City, and what his colleagues just mentioned due to the precedence that has been created, action was taken against people supporting it. Since we live in a land of laws that if it was 16