2012-0419 Regular City Commission Meeting

Home Browse Search

Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting April 19, 2012 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Schulman said they agreed to it and the bottom line is between the bonuses, the transfer fee, the band shell, and the Park improvements that they are committed to, they will be paying the City $5.26 Million, and they are most appreciative that the City Attorney agreed to allow them to at least pay some of that off. Commissioner Scholl said he disagrees with Mr. Schulman, fundamentally he does not have a problem with the City financing the payment of the TDRs, he does have a problem of giving someone an interest free loan, and noted that this would set a precedent. He has a basic issue with this moving forward without an interest payment, he would be willing to support it with a 5% interest computed on the outstanding balance. Mr. Schulman said he gave the City $400,000 more than this Commission approved when they got their Zoning approval, to put in a bigger band shell, the size of the one in Heritage Park, half of which is what they were going to do in Samson Park, and so he is giving the City $400,000 interest up front. Commissioner Scholl said when they gave the City $400,000 they did not say there was linkage to another item, and Mr. Schulman said yes they did. They asked the City Attorney, we would do it but they had a problem of the timing of the payments, did the Commission have flexibility on the timing of those payments, if so, they could do the $400,000, otherwise it had to be less, and so there was linkage. If that is the precedent then it is a good precedent but this developer basically came up with $400,000 over and above as long as he could pay the other thing over time. It was part of an overall deal. Commissioner Aelion said when the site plan approval was brought before the Commission, this issue was addressed by the City Attorney, and City Attorney Ottinot said when the site plan was approved for Chateau Beach, there was in -kind, not monetary contribution, in -kind contribution that Chateau Beach agreed to build a smaller band shell. After approval there was a Workshop held where the Commission directed him to negotiate with Chateau Beach to relocate or fund the band shell at Gateway Park. He didn't have any leverage because they already had approval of the site plan. The Chateau Beach lawyer came to him and said he would work with this and indicated that he wants flexibility in terms of the payment plan, his client was in agreement to give the City as he indicated the $400,000 that would be used to build a bigger band shell at Gateway Park, and in exchange he agreed to develop the payment plan that is before the Commission tonight. Commissioner Scholl said it wasn't presented that way, his issue is that he didn't come back to the Commission and say, okay we are going to agree to this but they will ask for that, and so we agreed to one thing and we created linkage without the Commission being informed about the linkage. He appreciates the fact that the City Attorney is making a deal but if he is going to make a deal that involves hundreds of thousands of dollars and the precedent of the City giving an interest -free loan, we need to understand that. Commissioner Aelion said that this was in a negotiating process, and City Attorney Ottinot said that is correct but in addition he makes sure that any time he is negotiating, he calls each of the Commission individually, and he discloses the term and details of the deal, if there was some details left out he takes personal responsibility. Commissioner Scholl said the detail that was left out was that we would be asked to grant a interest -free loan because when you called him and told him that they had agreed to move the band shell to Gateway Park, he did not say that he is agreeing to give them an interest free 10