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Home My WebLink About2010-0810 Special City Commission Meeting - SUMMARY MINUTES Special City Commission Meeting Tuesday, August 10,2010,1:00 p.m. City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida 3~ rt(lU({O A TTENTION ALL LOBBYISTS: CITY LAW REOUIRES YOUR REGISTRATION l __ n. ~-~. , 'V rnnmJ m LOBBYING ACTIVITIES BEFORE CITY STAFF, BOARDS, COMMITTEES OR THE CITY COMMISSION. PLEASE CONTACT THE CITY CLERK FOR FORMS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. AGENDA 1. CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL OF MEMBERS The meeting was called to order by Mayor Edelcup at 1 :00 p.m. with the following officials present: Mayor Norman S. Edelcup Vice Mayor Lewis J. Thaler [via telephone] Commissioner Roslyn Brezin Commissioner Gerry Goodman Commissioner George "Bud" Scholl City Manager Rick Conner City Attorney Hans Ottinot City Clerk Jane A. Hines, CMC Assistant City Attorney Fernando Amuchastegui 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Action: Assistant City Manager/Finance MinaI Shah led the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Mayor Edelcup gave opening remarks of decorum. ORDER OF BUSINESS (Additions/Deletions/Amendments) Request to Add-On: Item 4A. A Resolution establishing a Fact Finding Beach Environmental Committee. Action: Mayor Edelcup noted the above change to the agenda. Commissioner Scholl moved and Commissioner Brezin seconded a motion to approve the above change to the agenda. The motion was approved by a voice vote of 5-0 in favor. 3. ORDINANCES FOR SECOND READING 3A. An Ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, Amending Chapter 33 of the Code of Ordinances Pertaining to Post Employment Restrictions Under the City Ethics Code; Providing for Purpose and Legislative Intent; Providing for Rules of Construction; Providing for Severability; Providing for Applicability; Providing for Inclusion in the Code; Providing for Repealer; Providing for an Effective Date. (First Reading 07/27/1 0) Action: City Clerk Hines read the title, and City Attorney Ottinot reported noting that the City has a right to have a more stringent Ethics Code than the County. Since its incorporation the City has established a stricter two-year post employment restriction with respect to former employees and officials. This ordinance reaffirms and reestablishes the two-year post employment restriction, and also provides the exceptions that are permissible under the law. It also takes the interpretation of our Code out of the hands of the Attorney. Public Speakers: Roxanne Feldman of Becker & Poliakoff, P.A. - Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting August 10,2010 Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Commissioner Goodman noted that he will be leaving office but he will still be an interested citizen of Sunny Isles Beach, and at times he may want to come before the Commission to speak on certain issues, would this be an issue that would affect him for two years. City Attorney Ottinot responded that there is a waiver provision under this Code, and that decision is at the discretion of the Commission, and there are numerous exemptions. Mayor Edelcup said each incident will have to be looked at. City Attorney Ottinot said it is a case by case review of the facts but nevertheless the waiver provision would apply. Roxanne Feldman of Becker and Polikoff said that they object to this ordinance modification because they believe it is specifically aimed at Robert Solera's testimony at the Historic Preservation Board Meeting and Commission Meeting, and they don't believe legally that it can apply retroactively. City Attorney Ottinot said he disagreed, he believes this modification is a reaffirmation of our current Code and reestablishes our principle that any employee or any elected official must sit out two years before appearing as a lobbyist, as a witness, as an attorney before this City Commission or Board. The Commission of Ethics Executive Director who was here at the first meeting, concurred that our Code can be stricter than the County Code and that is the purpose to reaffirm opposition. Mayor Edelcup noted that we had this issue once before us as well with the former City Attorney who had to wait the two-year period before she could come before this Commission. City Attorney Ottinot said the former City Attorney had relied on the County Code, and his legal opinion that was issued in 2006 stated that she could not appear before the City Commission. Commissioner Scholl moved and Commissioner Brezin seconded a motion to adopt the ordinance. Ordinance No. 2010-349 was adopted by a roll call vote of 5-0 in favor. Vote: Commissioner Brezin ~ Commissioner Goodman yes Commissioner Scholl yes Vice Mayor Thaler yes Mayor Edelcup yes 4. RESOLUTIONS 4A. Add-On: A Resolution of the City Commission of the City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, Establishing a Fact Finding Beach Environmental Committee; Providing for Authority of the City Manager and City Attorney to Do All Things Necessary to Effectuate this Resolution; Providing for an Effective Date. Action: [City Clerk's Note: Distributed prior to meeting. See additional action under Item 2. Mayor Edelcup 's opening remarks.] City Clerk Hines read the title, and Mayor Edelcup reported noting that the Committee would serve in a advisory capacity to the City Commission consisting of the Vice Mayor, the City Manager or his designee, and a resident with an interest in the beach environment issues impacting the City. He said the reason for this resolution came about primarily because of a negative article that appeared recently in the newspaper saying that Sunny Isles Beach beaches were not safe to swim in, and we corrected the issue as it related to those findings. Because there has been a series of times 2 - Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting August 10,2010 Sunny Isles Beach, Florida when there has been a pollution problem, he asked the City Attorney to draft this resolution to establish a fact finding committee to primarily find out what is causing this pollution. The committee's purpose is to investigate and find out if there is a on-going issue here in the City that we are made aware of it and what we can do about it, and if there isn't an issue than we can just move on. He recommended that Vice Mayor Thaler, City Manager Conner, and resident Trina Duluc can form this committee and this committee can look into the problems that have occurred with the beach closing and report back to this Commission if there is a significant problem that they need to address more thoroughly. Public Speakers: none Commissioner Scholl said he would like to understand the testing procedures because he understands that they only test in three areas of the County and this happens to be one of those areas. The surrounding municipalities did not get spoken of in the newspaper, not only do we want to find out the cause, but we also want to be crystal clear about how the testing is performed and what the mechanism is for those decisions are as well. Commissioner Brezin moved and Vice Mayor Thaler seconded a motion to approve this resolution. Resolution No. 2010-1595 was adopted by a voice vote of 5-0 in favor. 5. DISCUSSION ITEMS 5A. Add-On: Status on the External Auditor to Perform the Independent Audit. Action: Mayor Edelcup said he knows that we need to pick an External Auditor for the coming Audit, and asked what the status is and when it will be coming before the Commission so that the Auditors can start early in the year. Assistant City Manager Shah said our recently expired audit agreement ended with Fiscal Year 2008/2009, and the City did go out for RFP on June 10, and solicited proposals that were due on July 13,2010 of which we received six proposals. The Audit Committee which was formed last month did meet on two different occasions, one to discuss the written proposals and narrow them dOWfl to two proposers, and on August 5, 2010, they made a presentation to the Committee. The Audit Committee has made a ranking which will be presented at the Special City Commission meeting on September 2,2010. Mayor Edelcup said then that we would set the September 2, 2010 meeting to basically approve who the auditor will be for next year. 6. ADJOURNMENT Commissioner Scholl moved and Commissioner Goodman seconded the motion to adjourn the meeting, and Mayor Edelcup adjourned it at 1: 15 p.m. Respectfully submitted by: ~A-L. Jane A. Hines, CMC, City Clerk Approved by the City Commission on Sept. 16, 2010 ., 3 Preview Page 1 of 1 City of Sunny Isles Beach 18070 Collins Avenue Sunny Isles Beach, Florida 33160 (305) 947-0606 City Hall (305) 949-3113 Fax MEMORANDUM TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Commission FROM: Jane A. Hines, CMC, City Clerk DATE: 9/16/2010 RE: Summary Minutes for the August 10, 2010 Special City Commission Meeting RECOMMENDA TION: Attached for your consideration are the Summary Minutes for the August 10, 2010 Special City Commission Meeting. REASONS: N/A ATTACHMENTS: . Summary Minutes I i http://sibagenda.sibfl.net/agenda/Preview.aspx?ItemID=318&MeetingID=O&MeetingDate... 8/12/20 I 0