Board of Commissioners Workshop Meeting

THE CITY OF MADEIRA BEACH, FLORIDA PUBLIC NOTICE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WORKSHOP MEETING The Board of Commissioners of the City of Madeira Beach, Florida will meet at City Hall, located at 300 Municipal Drive, Madeira Beach, Florida to discuss the agenda items of City Business listed at the time indicated below. 2:00 P.M. Tuesday, Jl!!y 23, 2013 CONFERENCE ROOM CALL TO ORDER: The Meeting was called to order at 2:14 p.m. ROLL CALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Travis Palladeno, Mayor Terry Lister, Vice-Mayor Nancy Hodges, Commissioner District 2 Elaine Poe, Commissioner District 3 Pat Shontz, Commissioner District 4 STAFF PRESENT: Shane Crawford, City Manager (CM) Thomas Trask, City Attorney (CA) Vince Tenaglia, Finance Director (FD) Dave Marsicano, Central Services Director (CSD) Aimee Servedio, City Clerk (CC) ROLL CALL: Commissioner Hodges.................YES Vice-Mayor Lister...........................YES Commissioner Poe ..................... YES Mayor Palladeno ............................YES Commissioner Shontz ..................YES 1. TOPICS FOR JULY 23rd WORKSHOP A. DISCUSSION ON CONSIDERATION OF TWO REGULAR BOC MEETINGS PER MONTH Mayor Palladeno Mayor Palladeno: He specifically wanted this on the agenda after it was brought up in the past. The current meeting schedule allows more time for staff to get the packets and items on the agenda. Furthermore, it permits special meetings Commissioner Poe: Enjoys the current schedule and the City staff has gotten used to it. She is happy with the quality of the packets and doesn't want that sacrificed for another unnecessary meeting. BOC Workshop Meeting 7/23/13  Commissioner Shontz: Doesn't see a reason for another meeting unless to socialize. No reason to have one if it isn't needed. Special meetings necessitate a 24 hour notice period in order to notify the public and they can be called whenever it is required. If it takes a special meeting to get something done, then the BOC and the staff have the ability to call for one. Schedule should be kept as is because 3 meetings don't provide a big enough time window to call special meetings. CM: Appreciates the BOC and they have become "sophisticated" in the way they have conducted their business. Doesn't see the requirement for another meeting Consensus - 1 Regular and 1 Workshop Meeting scheduled per month. Special Meetings are called when necessary. B. DISCUSSION ON INCREASING STORMWATER FEES City Manager CM: Currently the City doesn't know the end-game for storm water and doesn't foresee that Madeira Beach will spend 24 million dollars on storm water. The City is 3 feet above sea level and some flooding is going to have to be tolerated. He has observed a severe engineering issue with how the roads were constructed (re-paving on top of roads without accounting for proper drainage techniques). CM talked to CA and was advised that a consultant was needed to tell the City the impervious ratio for a surface. This ratio will help determine which percentage of the cost of repaving will be covered by a particular party. This study effectively rationalizes the fee that the City will charge and this is important because it can be substantiated legally in court. He doesn't want to raise the fee because the main goal of it for this Fiscal Year would be to raise reserves without having a project behind it to rationalize the increase (if it were raised arbitrarily). He wants to spend $15,000.00 (taken from storm water fund) to hire a consultant. They also look at the cost of maintaining the system and capital improvements that are necessary for other problems that are discovered. Having a consultant tell the City what the correct fee would be {could be $11 or $7.35 hypothetically), rationalizes the change in the storm water user fee. V-M Lister - He wants to quantify the report. Madeira Beach isn't looking for completely dry as that isn't feasible. He doesn't want to see unnecessary dollars spent in order to get the City completely dry when it really doesn't need to be. Wants to ensure that the consultant know what the final goal is. Retention ponds work well if they are engineered properly (fill up and then drain out to the lowest point). CM - It is important to trust the consultant and they have received around 6 responses from the RFP. "Standing water in the road - OK. Having someone's living room flood out because someone drove through a puddle - Not OK". The system needs to pay for itself and thus there needs a fee associated with it. Commissioner Shontz - Asked if there was already a consultant for the storm water and CM said yes. The previous report was for a totally different issue than this one and gave the City a very high end response for what they should do. She then asked CA if this was a good idea and he responded back with YES. This program needs to be sold to the citizens as they just paid a storm water consultant. She is for the other consultant. She doesn't like retention ponds as they create mosquitos, dirt, garbage, and floods. CA- Municipalities cannot tax anyone for specific services. A user fee is the only way that a City can technically raise funds and that is for a system the City itself provides. There needs to be a rational basis to charge for that service. The consultant will come back with a rate based on the impervious surface {rain water that goes through the concrete) and the type of storm water system (on a cost stand point). The sole purpose of the consultant is to establish a rate to operate and maintain the system with reasonable capital improvements over a certain period of time. The rate can change per year based on the findings. Repairs and rates are done by different consultants {found by an RFP BOC Workshop Meeting 7/23/13  Process). This analysis makes it easier to explain to constituents. There is also a possibility to receive credits for retaining water on one's property {retention ponds). Mayor Palladeno: Mentioned that Pinellas County may want to consolidate storm water. Cleaning out the outfalls and having the correct engineering will help a lot of the problems. It's difficult to install pumps for occasions that happened every 2-3 years and there is maintenance for the pumps. Inevitably, the pumps won't work when the City really needs it and if they are installed, the citizens will ask ''why did we spend 24 million on not working pumps"? CM: Asked CA if he could just choose a consultant that the City has already used/is using for another project. CA said that it is permitted. CM stated that RFP's take a lot of staff time and this could expedite process. The plan would be to start in October and it does not need to be correlated with the budget. Consensus is YES to $15,000.00 be spent on a consultant to determine the correct storm water fees. C. DISCUSSION ON INCREASING PARKING FEES City Manager CM: This is the last time that it needs to be brought up. It will go into effect after the BOC approves the Fee & Collection Manual. FD and CM both agree that the monthly and weekly fees also correlate to this increase as it is very cheap at its current rate. He hasn't received any responses {positive or negative) other than from the BOC (which has been positive) and city employees. The fee increase is from $1.00 per hour to $1.50 per hour. The budget and fees will go into effect October 1st, 2013. The monthly fee is $35 which is too low. The same proportion is applied to that as well. The change from the quarter meters to an automated system will increase revenue as people will just charge it to their card and forget about it. The increase in fees weren't budgeted in this year's budget. V-M Lister - Concerned about the businesses on John's Pass's employees who buy up the permits. This increase isn't affecting the citizens of Madeira Beach, only the amount of money that the City is bringing in. With an increased fee, the citizens will want increased services. Consensus is YES for the increase. D. DISCUSSION ON FEES AND COLLECTION PROCEDURE MANUAL City Manager CM: This item is to be tabled for the next workshop. E. DISCUSSION ON NOMINATION FOR CITY BUSINESS RECOGNITION AWARD Mayor Palladeno Mayor Palladeno: Has recommended Waltz' Fish Shack in John's Pass. He has known the cook since he was at Dockside Dave's (over 20 years ago). Waltz' Fish Shack has been written up in national magazines, owners are residents of Madeira Beach, and have been a staple in John's Pass for a long time. V-M - It's a unique place that serves very fresh fish. They are a very deserving establishment. Is also wondering if the City can provide the winning business with a sign that shows they are the Business of the Year. CA says they will find an exception to allow it. The key is nice, but it will be inside and not visible to potential customers. The sign is an outward showcase of their efforts. The sign could be up for 30 days, 60 days or even the whole year. CM: He recommends that they deserve a key to the City in a shadow box and it is a very high recognition. This can be presented whenever is best for the business owner, due to health concerns. CM asks the Mayor if he can contact the BOC Workshop Meeting 7/23/13 owner personally. This will be on the workshop for only one more occasion in order to figure out how exactly to recognize them. F. DISCUSSION ON PLANNING COMMISSION APPOINTMENTS City Manager CM: There was a voting sheet where the potential candidates were ranked and the results are in. There are 6 that are higher than the other 2. Peter Kochileck, Jim Everett, Mike Noble, Marilyn McGinley, Andrew Blazer, Ann Rasmussen will be the new members of the Planning Commission. If they are to be interviewed, please interview all of them. These 6 will accompany Jeff Brown whose term has not yet expired. V-M Lister: Is wondering if the terms can be staggered. CA is checking the code to see if that stipulation is in there. Also the 2 who weren't chosen should be alternates if the chosen members choose that this isn't right for them. CA: The code provides for staggering, and no more than 3 terms should expire in a given year. Planning Commission Members can be reappointed with a vote by the BOC. 2 will be 1-year, 2 will be 2-year, and 2 will be 3-year terms. They will be chosen out of a hat for fairness. The appointments and the picking out of a hat should be done at a regular meeting. BOC wants the CA to pick the names out or possibly someone else (unbiased party). CM: Previous regimes didn't attend to the Commissions as well as the current one and an occasion where more than 3 Commission Members terms are expiring at once will not happen again. G. DISCUSSION ON BIDDING OUT OF RECYCLING CONTRACT City Manager CM: The recycling deal was a sweet-heart deal with the City. The company's rationale was that at some point they will take over solid-waste/all of sanitation. CM has informed them that they will not be receiving that contract. He is not interested in contracting this service out as the confidence with providing the same quality of service isn't there (current solid waste pick-up). The rate increase would have been 33% so it isn't feasible to keep the current company/renew their contract. They also gave in their 6 month notice that they are going to be out by the end of the calendar year. The City must go through an RFP process to ensure that they find the best service. The City gave a $1.54 credit to citizens and CM would like the citizens to now be charged as the fee is going to increase with the new company (not as much as it would have it the City went with the 33% increase). Any company that bids on this is going to know that they are not going to get sanitation for the foreseeable future. To think that the user fee is going to go up by $2-3 is realistic. When the City was giving away the recycling, it was losing $60,000.00 a year. By not having to spend that, it will make a positive impact on the budget. The decision about raising the rates and whom to choose as the new company can be determined when the RFP's come in. Basically the two options are raising the fees or raising the millage rates. Since the millage rates aren't going to be increased, the fees will have to supplement the budget. The decision will be made before Christmas. Consensus is to wait for the RFP's to come in to decide the increase. H. DISCUSSION ON STANDARDIZING CITY PARKS Vice-Mayor Lister V-M Lister: He would like to see all pocket parks "labeled" with signage that promotes uniformity among all parks within Madeira Beach. It doesn't necessarily need to be signage, but the parks should be recognized as being City parks in the City of Madeira Beach. Likes what he sees at the county parks and wants people to know they are in a City park. BOC Workshop Meeting 7/23/13  The goal is the standardization of parks. V-M will also bring back ideas in 30 days to determine the best course of action. Mayor Palladeno: There are grants out there to get recycled benches (made out of recycled material) and there are many other avenues to explore to get those benches. CM: There are available funds to update 2 par1<s. The standardization should be standardized and written down so it can be referred to in the future. He wants to create a plan where the staff can sweep the City can make a uniform recommendation of what needs to be put in. Mayor Palladeno: The park on i 33rd is the showcase park for ihe City of Madeira Beach as it is weil used and utilized for multiple functions. It has ample parking spaces, nice benches, and pavers. CM: Asked for 30 days to look into it. There is money left in this year's budget to do 2 par1<s, but there aren't any budgeted funds in next year's budget for this so the BOC should look into it when reviewing the budget for FY 2013-14. There are 21 parks within the City. 2. ITEMS ON DECK FOR NEXT WORKSHOP CM: Staff recommendation of altering the undergrounding of the utilities project. He purposefully put that off as CM & CSD Marsicano have meetings next week. The Fees & Collection Manual will be updated within the next 60 days. Furthermore, determining the correct way to recognize the Business of the Year recipient is also on the next agenda. Agenda Setting is the last chance to get something on the agenda. The BOC sets the agenda. Envisions that the undergrounding will cost more than expected and not all businesses/establishments will agree to it. CM thinks that the City should use the 3.3 million from the county to "Beautify'' the existing utilities on Gulf Blvd. He just doesn't think that the project can come to fruition. The East-West undergrounding is still possible. There is still a possibility to have to buy some easements. Still wants to bury the utilities at Archibald Par1<. Capital Improvement Plan will be on the next Workshop. 3. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting was adjourned at 3:37 p.m. '3_-_\~~ -- l Date Approved: _ _ 3~ - ,,,,--- Travis Palladeno, Mayor Any person who decides to appeal any decision of the City Commission with respect to any matter considered at this meeting will need a record of 1he proceedings and for such purposes may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made, which record includes 1he testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is to be based. The law does not require the City Clerk to transcribe verbatim minutes; therefore, 1he applicant must make the necessary arrangements with a private reporter or private reporting firm and bear the resulting expense. In accordance with the Americans with Disability Act and F.S. 286.26; any person with a disability requiring reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this meeting should call 727-391- 9951 or fax a written request to 727-399-1131. Posted: July 18, 2013 Televised live on Channel 615 THIS MEETING IS TELEVISED LIVE ON CHANNEL 615 sl BOC Workshop Meeting 7/23/13