2010-0727 Special City Commission Meeting

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- Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting July 27, 2010 Sunny Isles Beach, Florida State law does not cover for other employees and other officials. Commissioner Goodman said the first time he didn't have a lawyer but the second time he did and they investigated it and maybe that is why that happened, and Mr. Meyers said he can assure him that the State did not have the legal authority to enforce the local rules, and so it is a local ordinance that led to the charges not State law. City Attorney Ottinot clarified the record that at a recent Ethics Commission meeting he left with the impression that the Ethics Commission was going to construe the Ethics Code with respect to the post employment restriction, and based on that impression and after several conversations with Mr. Meyers and Ms. Frigo, it is his belief that our Ethics Code would be presented at the August meeting, opinion wise, by the Ethics and that is why we are here today. He didn't feel a comfort level from speaking to staff at the Ethics Commission with respect to our Code, and he believes that lawyers, when you are speaking of legislation, and the legislative body clearly intends its purpose and the language is clear only to let the legislative party conduct its business not lawyers construing in a way that it is not consistent with the purpose. Therefore, his thinking and why he composed this ordinance was that he didn't get a comfort level from Mr. Meyers, and he would have to reappear again to justify our opposition even though he had written an opinion issued with respect to the same issue, that his opinion, while he may give weight to my opinion may not be final in respect to our Code. There is a general rule oflaw that when you are construing an agency code deference, not great deference, nevertheless, he thinks it is better to have this Commission clearly unequivocally state what the law is in the City of Sunny Isles Beach. Commissioner Brezin asked if we apply this ordinance to a situation and it doesn't hold any teeth, can we be overruled by the County Ordinance, and Mr. Meyers said it appears on its face that there are fewer exceptions in your ordinance than in the County Ordinance, and so no, the County Ordinance would not overrule the City Ordinance. The City Ordinance would be construed on its own because we have already construed the County Ordinance, and it is a completely different set of analysis, we are doing a one and one meeting and the second one at another meeting which we all agreed was a waste of time but that is what is going to happen if it is presented to us. Just to reiterate that Mr. Ottinot is correct, we will give deference to his position, his opinion, but it is not binding on us. Commissioner Scholl said he agrees with this Ordinance and that a cooling off period is important because he thinks this clarification is more of a witness type of a situation as opposed to a lobbyist. We have been very clear that you can't lobby after you have been an employee of the City or an elected official for at least two years. It looks like the clarification here is more and you get involved in proceedings, the fact is from his respective, when somebody leaves the City who used to work here, to a certain extent he thinks they are tainted, and so they could come and advocate on behalf of the City or against the City in a proceeding, either way he thinks their impartiality without a cooling off period is probably questionable. He is glad we are getting this clarity because it was ambiguous, and people are looking for guidance, and these clarifications are warranted. City Attorney Ottinot said in response, while the term lobby is used in the Ordinance, that term is construed to go beyond the traditional lobbyist activities and the opinions of the Ethics Commission support that, and so basically these amendments clarify activities ofthis 6