2016-0616 Regular City Commission Meeting

Home Browse Search

Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting June 16,2016 City of Sunny Isles Beach,Florida Commissioner Levin said she also believes that the Social Seniors Group is very important to the community. She has actually attended a few of the events herself and she sees how everybody gets excited by them and how much fun that everybody has, and they talk and socialize. She does have a couple of questions: the$2,500 that we withheld,are we going to be giving it to the Group? City Manager Russo said yes. Commissioner Levin asked for clarification from the City Attorney, Item No. 1, are we requiring that they spend $5,000 of the money or should it be up to $5,000, they would not spend more than $5,000. City Manager Russo said it is already that way. Commissioner Levin said$10,000 in the scheme of our budget is not a lot of money but we still have a judiciary duty to spend it in a certain way and look after it in a certain way. She does not believe that any of the requirements that we are making are onerous because it is a business,it is a corporation,not-for-profit but it is a corporation nevertheless. She thinks that the things we are asking are not out of the ordinary, and she does not think it will be an undue burden on the Social Seniors to comply. Vice Mayor Gatto said she had been a very early champion of this organization. She is sure that Dennis remembers the hours she spent on the phone at home encouraging him to create this not-for-profit,but she has been disappointed the way it has been managed this year. She is glad the Mayor clarified what was going on here because she thinks to the outside world it sounds like we are going to stop funding and we are not going to support the Social Seniors any more. Without getting into detail there is a lot of things that happened this year that are very disappointing and primarily those funds that were overspent and were spent to specifically take care of one person's problem, she was very angry when she heard about it. She was also angry to hear that all the Board members unanimously voted for that. Vice Mayor Gatto said she feels that it should not be a problem getting the names and addresses for all the members,and maybe now is the time to start. It would be a great idea to start a data base that would distinguish who are SIB residents versus outside residents. One of the other areas that she was disappointed in was hearing that the Social Seniors are promoting their programs in comparison with the City's and how much better they are, and that is not what that is supposed to be about. We are supposed to support each other and we have agreed upon that up front. With that she would like to propose that the President continues to do the great job that he is doing in organizing trips because this is really about maintaining the wonderful trips and the comradery and all the good things that the organization has to offer but then she would like to propose that he no longer have any financial interactions in the organization. In other words no interaction at all in terms of overseeing the funds. She would like to open that up for discussion. Commissioner Aelion said he understands the sentiments of our Vice Mayor however it is his opinion that we cannot dictate the parameters in which the Board is run. It is not our place to define it. He thinks the new guidelines added are very effective and he thanked the City Manager and the Mayor for this and it will lead to more oversight. Mayor Scholl said the only thing he would suggest is that like Commissioner Aelion was pointing out, we understand where you are coming from but he doesn't think we have the authority to reach into another organization and tell them the responsibilities of their officers. Commissioner Goldman said she would agree with that, she thinks these guidelines, as 9