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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHPB Minutes 2016-0518SUMMARY MINUTES City of Sunny Isles Beach Historic Preservation Board Meeting 18070 Collins Avenue, 1St Floor Meeting Room Wednesday, May 18, 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: City Officials: Ari Steiger, Chair Deputy City Attorney Fernando Amuchdstegui Shari Blank Consultant Ellen J. Uguccioni Dione Del Monico City Attorney Hans Ottinot Maynard Mast City Clerk Jane A. Hines, MMC Natalie Minervina City Photographer David Gartner Warren J. Stamm (via telephone) Steve Trattner City Liaison: Planning & Zoning Administrator Claudia Hasbun 2. Approval of Minutes of the March 16, 2016 Historic Preservation Board Meeting. Action: Shari Blank moved and Maynard Mast seconded a motion to approve the above- mentioned summary minutes. The motion was approved by a voice vote of 7-0 in favor. [City Clerk's Note: The Board heard Item 3 before Item 2.] 3. A Presentation/Discussion on "Ethics and the Sunshine Law" by City Attorney Hans Ottinot. Action: [City Clerk's Note: The Ethics Law: "Gift Laws and Conflict of Interest Law" PowerPointpresentation outline was distributed to the members at the meeting.] City Attorney Ottinot and Deputy City Attorney Amuchdstegui provided a PowerPoint presentation on "Florida Ethics Law" as it pertains to the Board members. City Attorney Ottinot said the City has an obligation to ensure good governance by protecting the honesty, integrity and transparency of the City. By having strong Ethics laws, the City maintains a high standard of ethical conduct and behavior for all City employees, City officials, and City Advisory Board members which include the Historic Preservation Board. When in doubt about the Ethics Code, contact the City Attorney. He reported on the Gift Laws noting that Board members cannot solicit gifts, or accept any gifts from vendors, lobbyists, or principals of lobbyists over $100. However, for gifts over $100 in value, not from lobbyists or vendors in some circumstances, you must disclose those gifts and fill out a "Gift Disclosure" form and file it with the City Clerk. Gifts from family members are exempted gifts. Deputy City Attorney Amuchdstegui reported on a "Conflict of Interest" which is also a part of the Ethics Code. The definition of a conflict is defined under Florida Law and it is a pretty broad definition: "situation in which regard for a private interest tends to lead to a disregard of a Summary Minutes: 2016-0518 HPB Mtg Page 1 of 4 public duty or interest." Section 112.312(8), Florida Statutes. A conflict of interest involves a direct or indirect benefit to a City employee that conflicts with the employee's duties and responsibilities. Conflicts of interests can be real or they can simply give the appearance of impropriety, and should be avoided under either situation. City Attorney Ottinot clarified certain situations could be allowed under certain circumstances and facts. Deputy City Attorney Amuchastegui noted that these rules apply to employees and to Board members alike. The one thing about the conflict of interest, they are not just looking at whether any money is being exchanged or whether there is any quid pro quo, the conflict of interest would also apply to situations where you as a Board member are about to take a vote on an issue. In this situation, even though that employee relationship may be permissible, that Board member can work with the developer, they cannot vote on any matters that involves the developer. On the vote you would have to recuse yourself. City Attorney Ottinot said if there is a conflict, and in fact the City Clerk has a Conflict of Interest Form that we have to file, you have to verbally disclose the conflict, and you have to walk out of the meeting room. If you have any questions or issues in the future, call the City Attorney's Office. [City Clerk's Note: The Board heard Item 2 after Item 3.] 4. Report /Discussion on the "Sunny Isles Beach History Books" by Photographer David Gartner. Action: Claudia Hasbun said David Gartner is here with two history books and is looking for guidance from the Board. Photographer David Gartner presented two (2) of the history books, the original one encompassing 1996 through 1997, and the latest one. The first book has original photographs and various articles relating to the City. The paper is of poor quality and the events are not in chronological order, and hard to follow. The latest book that he is still working on is for 2014 through 2015 and contains acid -free high quality paper, printed digital photographs, includes everything that has happened in the City, and is in chronological order. He has not ordered the plates yet. It is an easier flow, and the digital photographs are sharper and more color enhanced. Dione Del Monico said then that the idea would be to take a full page and put them on the TV Channel? David said we are not sure but he tried to shoot it as a photograph, and as a photograph it does not work as well. If you use video with someone speaking and actually telling the story that would really work. Shari Blank said then still put the captions underneath not really telling the true story. David said you can go from one page to the other page and it is a tremendously interesting thing to put it on the Cable Channel. Chair Steiger said that is going to be a lot of time and money. Dione said the narration is much more involved than a photo with caption, and that it is lovely but do we have the resources and the time to do something like that? Is it really worthwhile to do this? Shari said exactly, somebody would have to create a complete narration and then you would have to get somebody with a great voice that does that kind of thing. Steve Trattner said it would be great for historical reference, this is stuff that can be forgotten. Shari asked if he took digital of original pictures? David said he got it off of the computer, it is in a library of photography and so he is going from each month and what was important in that month will be in here. Chair Steiger noted the first book was Richard Schulman's project. David said yes and there are original pictures in it. He does not have original pictures going back that Summary Minutes: 2016-0518 HPB Mtg Page 2 of 4 far. Claudia Hasbun said we need guidance from the Board, as mentioned it will take a lot of time and effort, if we should begin to revitalize the old books, but the later books are more convenient. Chair Steiger said he thinks we should first evaluate all the original books and when you are going to be ready with this, and then we will continue with it. David said he will continue keeping the history. He has not kept the books completely up to date yet, he is up to October of 2015, and he started at 2014. Dione asked who puts the public channel up, and is there a place for this? What do we do now on the public channel? Liaison Hasbun said not the channel but the website. We know we would have a pretty high audience on the website and so everything will have to be done professionally for a new prime product. An audience member said she would be interested in this project to know what has happened in the City. Steve Trattner said that is what they are discussing to create it into a video format so it can be shared more easily on the internet, and replayed on the cable channel. Natalie Minervina said she thinks the audience member met that people her age would not go to a cable channel, they would go to the website and social media. Dione said then in her opinion the books are great for historical record keeping but then you take the person who is responsible for the Facebook page or the website, and use it as a reference. Then they take what they want that they think is important and create something that is applicable for the social media. And so you are continuing with these books and updating them is great and it should be done because that is really the primary resource for whoever wants to then come in and take that and do more with it, whatever it is going to be. Whether we make it the story of Sunny Isles Beach a book, or a website, or a Facebook page, whatever, this is the primary resource. David said absolutely, by doing that book and having it with a little script, it would be maybe ten or twenty minutes. Ellen Uguccioni said she wanted to let the Board know that the National Register has an ominous requirement for photographs for the National Register and now they have gone to digital, this is acid free paper so it has helped preserve it, but ultimately it should be digitized. Also she was thinking in terms of, and there are so many ways to approach this as was noted, but one way other than chronologically is thematically, for when we were talking about times and that kind of thing. That can be broken up into possible increments that are doable. David said what Ellen just said is very important, once we digitize everything, it will always be there because if you take a look at the color of this paper and take a look of the color of the original book, it is faded. If we digitalize it, it is not going to go bad. Chair Steiger said is there a project for digitalized? Claudia said if you decide to do it, we can break it down into phases, and the first phase will be to redo the older books, and incorporating those ideas and then go on to the second phase. Dione said yes, it sounds like the older ones need reorganization at the least, and then when you are doing that then you digitize it. Claudia said we need to decide in which order we will put it in, chronologically or thematically. Chair Steiger said we don't have much on the old ones, whatever we have is pictures, there is not written items, right? David said there are some newspaper articles, etc., and that is what he is trying to get now from whatever is happening in 2015, 2016, and 2017, and so we can put it in this form. Chair Steiger said he thinks the older book would be more interesting than the new one because that is when the City started. There is more of a story there. City Attorney Ottinot said he thinks the Commission may be inclined to support this Summary Minutes: 2016-0518 HPB Mtg Page 3 of 4 project as the 20th Anniversary is next year. Chair Steiger asked if the whole process can be done in one year, and City Attorney Ottinot said you do what you can do. Ellen said the State of Florida has two (2) categories of grants, and she believes matching grants which go up to $50,000. You have to match it but the idea being you can double your money with that kind of grant. She will do some research. Shari Blank moved and Warren Stamm seconded a motion for David Gartner to continue with the books and come back to the Board with more information on how we can proceed. The motion was approved by a voice vote of 7-0 in favor. 5. Old Business. None 6. New Business. None 7. Date and Time of Next Meeting. • Action: After discussion it was decided to schedule the next meeting on Wednesday, September 14, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. 8. Adjournment. Action: Shari Blank moved and Steve Trattner seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting, and Chairperson Steiger adjourned it at 6:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jane A. Thnes, MMC, City Clerk F Summary Minutes: 2016-0518 HPB Mtg Page 4 of 4 September 14, 2016 Date