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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHPB Minutes 2016-0316SUMMARY MINUTES City of Sunny Isles Beach Historic Preservation Board Meeting 18070 Collins Avenue, 1 st Floor Meeting Room Wednesday, March 16, 2016, 6:00 p.m. 1. Call to Order by Chairperson: Action: Chairperson Ari Steiger called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m., and each Member introduced themselves. The following Board Members and City Officials were present: Committee Members: Ari Steiger, Chair Shari Blank Dione Del Monico Natalie Minervina Warren J. Stamm Steve Trattner (via telephone) City Officials: Deputy City Attorney Fernando Amuchastegui Consultant Ellen J. Uguccioni City Clerk Jane A. Hines, MMC City Attorney Hans Ottinot City Photographer David Gartner City Liaison: Planning & Zoning Administrator Claudia Hasbun Absent: Maynard Mast (Excused Absence: Conflict HOA Meeting) 2. Approval of Minutes of the September 16, 2015 Historic Preservation Board Meeting. Action: Shari Blank moved and Warren Stamm seconded a motion to approve the above- mentioned summary minutes. The motion was approved by a voice vote of 6-0-1 [Maynard Mast absent] in favor. 3. A Presentation/Discussion on "Ethics and the Sunshine Law" by City Attorney Hans Ottinot. Action: [City Clerk's Note: The "Florida Sunshine Law "presentation outline was distributed to the members prior to the meeting.] City Attorney Ottinot and Deputy City Attorney Amuchastegui reported on the "Florida Sunshine Law" as it pertains to the Board members. The "Ethics" portion and "Public Records" will be discussed at another meeting. City Attorney Ottinot said the Sunshine Law means that this Board or any member of the Commission cannot discuss any matter that you intend to vote on outside the public. The meeting must be noticed, and notice must be reasonable, generally the law requires at least 48 hours. Also, you must have the City Clerk or someone that can tape minutes. Another requirement, the first thing this Board did was to approve minutes. Individual members can speak with the Commission but not more than one member or it is a violation of the Sunshine Law. You can have lunch with each other but you cannot discuss anything that you may vote on. As an example, there is a potential property that this Board wants to designate, you can visit that property by yourself but you cannot visit that property with another member. Another example, bus tours, he would not recommend that any committee take a bus tour of a potential site because it could be a potential violation of the Sunshine Law. Summary Minutes: 2016-0316 HPB Mtg Page 1 of 5 Deputy City Attorney Amuchastegui noted the handout of tonight's presentation and gave some basic examples of potential violations. On page 6, there are some situations that are applicable to members of the Commission and Historic Preservation Board members. If you were to prepare a written report and distribute it amongst yourselves, or if one of the members were to issue a written report by email and you were to discuss it amongst yourselves, it would trigger the Sunshine Law. That is why you had an email from the City Clerk a few days ago where she gave you some of the reports to be discussed tonight and said do not discuss these prior to the meeting scheduled for tonight. If two or more members of the Board are participating in a telephone conversation and they are discussing an issue that may foreseeably appear before you as members of the Historic Preservation Board, it would trigger the Sunshine Law. Now everything is done by email and so the same rules apply, the same Sunshine Laws concerns are applicable if you are exchanging emails and in those emails two or more of you are discussing an item that could foreseeably come before the Historic Preservation Board. Another situation is if you are using the liaison to the Board as kind of a surrogate to transmit your opinions and to circulate those with another member of the Board, that would also trigger the Sunshine Law. City Attorney Ottinot noted it doesn't have to be just the liaison, it could be anyone. Deputy City Attorney Amuchastegui said there are two more situations in which the Sunshine Law would apply on pages 7 and 8 of the outline. Again, just like the City Commissioners, you as members of the Historic Preservation Board are subject to the requirements of the Sunshine Law. That does not preclude you from interacting with a member of another board, like the City Advisory Committee, but you just can't interact with another member of the Historic Preservation Board about any issue that may foreseeably come before you as a member of the Board. Also, if two or more of you were to appear before a Condo Association where there is a candidate political forum, you are not precluded from attending it but again you just simply cannot comment or interact on any issues that would foreseeably come before you. The Sunshine Law does not prevent you as Board members from having two or more of you appear at a social event, you just simply cannot discuss any issue that would foreseeably come before you as members of the Historic Preservation Board. Deputy City Attorney Amuchastegui said there are penalties for violating the Sunshine Law on page 12 of the outline, there are criminal and noncriminal violations. For criminal violations, if knowing it is a violation of the Sunshine Law, that is a second degree misdemeanor and it is punishable by a term of imprisonment up to 60 days and/or a $500 fine. Noncriminal infractions would be punishable by a fine of $500. If you as Board members were sued for violations of the Sunshine Law, it could result in any action taken by you to be void. Somebody who is claiming a violation of the Sunshine Law could file a lawsuit against you, it could be very expensive to defend, and that is why we are bringing this Sunshine Law to you to make you aware of these potential legal ramifications. 4. A Report by Consultant Ellen Uguccioni concerning the Historic Preservation Board Annual Report to Miami -Dade County. Action: Consultant Uguccioni reported acknowledging Liaison Claudia Hasbun who is the Director of Planning and Zoning, compiled the Annual Report. Every year Miami -Dade County requires every municipality in the County who is not under their specific purview to report on Summary Minutes: 2016-0316 HPB Mtg Page 2 of 5 what they did over the preceding year. What does that mean not under their purview? When the County adopted an Ordinance to create the Historic Preservation Board, the County said okay you can be under us or you can have your own Board. In most cities they began their own Historic Preservation Board, Coral Gables, Miami, Sunny Isles Beach, and others, Homestead has one now. They have to report to Kathleen Kauffman, who is the Miami -Dade Preservation Officer, on what they did the preceding year so that she knows as Director of Historic Preservation that you are not just in name only, and so these reports in addition to the minutes tells her what kind of board this is. We had a few things happen this past year, our dear friend Richard C. Schulman, who was our City Historian and Liaison to the Board, passed away. We talked about the Fishing Pier. We changed the Ordinance which has not been done in a long time to include objects as opposed to structured buildings. Now we have something called an object which can be an artistic sculpture. It has been a very prolific year for the Board. We have had some good discussions on how you would like to see things done here and some of the far reaching consequences of what you do here. 5. Status Update on the Proposed Designation of the Sahara Camels and the Two (2) Monaco Signs. Action: [City Clerk's Note: Two proposals from sign companies were distributed prior to the meeting.] City Liaison Hasbun reported on the reports/proposals from two sign companies, Advanced Multi Sign and Future Sign & Services, to evaluate the restoration of the two Monaco signs. Both companies said they were too damaged to be restored, however, they can be duplicated at a cost of up to $9,523.00. Shari Blank moved and Dione Del Monico seconded a motion to just let the Monaco Signs go. The motion was approved by a voice vote of 6-0-1 [Maynard Mast absent] in favor. Deputy City Attorney Amuchdstegui reported that the current owners of the Sahara Beach Club are managed by a Board of Directors who, at this time, are opposed to the designation of the camels. Their belief is that they just want to enjoy the camels as long as they can, and so it may be advisable to the Board to wait until such time as the title to that property transfers to the Dezers. Chairperson Steiger said he spoke to Michael Dezer last week who said they are donating the camels to the City. City Attorney Ottinot said we contacted the Association and they adamantly opposed designation of the camels. Warren Stamm said they are not currently under any obligation to keep the camels, and City Attorney Ottinot said no, not legally. Chairperson Steiger said if we declare them as historic then what, and City Attorney Ottinot said then it would not be an issue. Shari Blank said if we go to court and go through the legal process. Chairperson Steiger said we should wait until they donate them to the City. City Attorney Ottinot said we have a verbal commitment from the Dezers who have half ownership of the property and so his recommendation is to wait for them. Steve Trattner said he would have to imagine if they are under contract with the buyer they are probably not permitted to sell off or give away any of the assets, right? City Attorney Ottinot said this is a condo buyout issue, and Warren Stamm explained that these are individual condo units and is subject to the acquisition of the majority of the unit owners interest in order to designate or donate, and also to terminate the condominium. Under Florida Statutes Section 718 there are requirements for how much of the ownership has to be Summary Minutes: 2016-0316 HPB Mtg Page 3 of 5 acquired before the condominium can be terminated, and that is the objective of the owner to be, and so it is going to take a bit more time. Shari Blank moved and Dione Del Monico seconded a motion to wait on the camels until we have ownership clarification. The motion was approved by a voice vote of 6-0-1 [Maynard Mast absent] in favor. 6. Report/Discussion on the "Sunny Isles Beach History Books" by David Gartner. Action: Photographer David Gartner said the History Books are in pretty good shape, they are from the City's incorporation in 1997 and he is bringing them up to date. The City has a television channel, and he was thinking that possibly we could show the History Books on the channel. It may be very interesting for people to see what has happened since the City's beginning. Dione Del Monico asked what that would entail to transmit it onto digital? David said we could video tape them or take pictures by each year. Dione Del Monico asked if there would be costs that we would have to approve, and he said no he doesn't think there will be a cost, it would just be part of his j ob. Liaison Hasbun said the Board can direct us to bring this idea to the City Manager for approval, and it could be a video to be placed on CATV. David said he is just saying that there are a lot of things in the History Books that people would enjoy rather than they sit on a shelf and no one seeing them. The Board thought it was a good idea. City Attorney Ottinot said the Board can make a motion and probably have David come back to show us what he can do with the Books. Dione asked David if he would just do across the board everything or would you edit and tape it? David said he wasn't ready for this tonight because it was just an idea to bring to the Board. Maybe if we had a slide show, this way we can tape the shots and put it on. Dione said she thinks it is an interesting idea, and it needs to be refined and lot of details pinned down but she thinks it is a fine idea to start with. David Gartner also showed an example of reproducing pictures on a metal board which may work for the Pier. Chairperson Steiger said we had a motion at the last meeting to put a sign on the Pier, and that is a good idea. David said you will want to put it under some sort of protection because these are metal. What he is saying is that it may be good to use metal in the future on anything that you may be thinking about. Consultant Uguccioni said she had fun going through the scrap books and they are amazing, and the way you became your own City is fascinating. There are a lot of newspaper articles in addition to photographs in the books. Dione Del Monico said rather than trying to post a whole article, to choose excerpts that are poignant and concise and using that to augment the photos because she thinks visually people want to see photos more than to read on the television. The Board asked David to bring one of the History Books to the next meeting. Shari Blank moved and Dione Del Monico seconded a motion for David Gartner to explore the idea of putting the City's History Books on the television channel. The motion was approved by a voice vote of 6-0-1 [Maynard Mast absent] in favor. Summary Minutes: 2016-0316 HPB Mtg Page 4 of 5 7. Old Business. None 8. New Business. None 9. Date and Time of Next Meeting. • Action: After discussion it was decided to schedule the next meeting on Wednesday, May 18, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. 10. Adjournment. Action: Shari Blank moved and Warren Stamm seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting, and Chairperson Steiger adjourned it at 6:30 p.m. f ,.R&spectfulfy submitted, AJanfe May 18, 2016 ines, MMC, City Clerk Date Summary Minutes: 2016-0316 HPB Mtg Page 5 of 5