Board of Commissioners Workshop Meeting w/Budget Review Committee & Civil Service Commission

MINUTES BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS JOINT WORKSHOP MEETING WITH BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE & CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION JULY 22, 2019 3:00 P.M. A Joint Workshop meeting of the City of Madeira Beach Board of Commissioners with the Budget Review Committee and Civil Service Commission was held at 3:00 p.m. on July 22, 2019 in the Patricia Shontz Commission Chambers at City Hall, located at 300 Municipal Drive, Madeira Beach, Florida. BOC MEMBERS PRESENT: Maggi Black, Mayor Deby Weinstein, Comm issioner District 1 Nancy Hodges, Vice-Mayor/Commissioner District 2 Doug Andrews, Commissioner, District 3 John Douthirt, Commissioner District 4 BOC MEMBERS ABSENT: CITY STAFF PRESENT: Robert J. Daniels, Interim C ity Manager Clara VanBlargan, City Clerk Andrea Gamble, Deputy Clerk Ralf Brookes, City Attorney BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Tom Edwards, Doreen Moore, Roger Pryor; Linda Hein; Freda Brooks CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION: Linda Hein; John Hendricks (Meeting video started at Agenda Item 4.A.) 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Black called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL City Clerk Clara VanBlargan called the roll. 3. PUBLIC COMMENT There were no public comments. 4. TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION July 22, 2019, BOC Joint Workshop Meeting Page 1 of 6  A. Cyber Security Update - Nate Freeman, The Network People Elias Leslie, Director of Network and Security, showed a PowerPoint presentation providing an update on Cyber Security. He said email is the highest threat vector. Employee security training is important because the users are the first line of defense. It does not matter how many systems are in place, employees must be trained not to click on the wrong link. The next steps would call for advanced training on new threats and custom user training. The City has one of the best backup products. It backs up every hour and on the weekends. There is a mechanism in place to prevent malware from infecting backup data. It can also detect ransomware and will alert the system. It backs up locally first and then offsite at least nightly. If there was a disaster, the City would be able to remote into the servers on the East and West Coasts and continue working. Mr. Leslie responded to questions. Director Pierce explained that the cyber security contract is approved every six months and each contract includes a report. The cost for six months is $20,400 and the cost for the full year is $40,800. The cost will remain the same. B. FY2020 Budget Draft Document and recommendations from Budget Review Committee Finance Director Walt Pierce provided an overview of work that had been done on the budget to date, which included various things in the department's operational budget. He discussed the $15,000,000 Capital Improvement Revenue Bond the Board recently approved and the need to increase the millage rate. He said Al Carrier is going to see if SWFWMD can provide grants for a portion of the $15,000,000 loan. They may try pushing some of the projects back because it takes time to get money from SWFWMD. Commissioner Andrews said citizens are not in favor of increasing the millage rate. People had the impression that the fund was robust and could fund the payment to pay back the $15,000,000 loan. Director Pierce said the $15,000,000 loan will only take care of half the storm water problems. They will need to find ways to pay for the rest down the road. Commissioner Douthirt mentioned that every time they have an agenda item there is no fiscal impact tied to it and going forward that needs to be listed. The Commission needs to look at long-term fiscal impacts to projects. Interim City Manager Robert Daniels said staff will not bring anything forward unless there is a funding source attached to it. Lots of jurisdictions have been getting state funding. In the future everything will be well documented. Director Pierce said the Board had tasked staff to move forward to find funding for the project. July 22, 2019, BOC Joint Workshop Meeting Page 2 of6  Commissioner Weinstein said they received very detailed reports in June regarding the projects. They had discussed raising the millage rate. The longer they wait on those projects, the construction costs will continue to increase. Following discussion on the item, Mayor Black called for a ten-minute recess. C. City of Madeira Beach's Personnel Policies/Rules and Regulations - Karen Paulsen, HR Coordinator HR Coordinator Karen Paulson reviewed the item and said the handbook had not been updated since 2014. The recommendation is for the Board to approve moving forward with the second reading of the ordinance updating the policy. Commissioner Andrews said he had seen different copies of the personnel manual and asked why Article X, Disciplinary Action, had been stricken from the one he is reviewing now. It was not removed from the others. That is a section that needs to remain in the handbook. The City's employment attorney, Tom Gonzalez, explained that the City Charter allows the City Manager to make changes to the policy and that change was one of them. Commissioner Andrews asked the members of the Civil Service Commission that were present if they were aware that Article X had been removed. John Hendricks, Chair of the Civil Service Commission, said they had not discussed removing it. Commissioner Andrews explained that removing Article X is doing away with all their disciplinary rules. They are giving ultimate power to the City Manager to do what he wants to do without any checks or balances. The Civil Service Commission reports to the City Manager and this includes grievance matters. He asked that Article X be put back in. Interim City Manager Robert Daniels recommended reinstating the language. He said there is language in the City Charter that provides for city manager powers. The voters would be the ones to change it. Commissioner Douthirt said right now, they cannot change the Charter. Attorney Gonzalez said the Board needed to approve the proposed rule changes. Commissioner Douthirt said the new City Manager needed time to review the rules. Interim City Manager Daniels said the policy will go back to the Civil Service Commission and then he will bring it back to the Board. Following discussion, the Board consented to Mr. Daniels taking the personnel policy back to the Civil Service Commission and bringing it back to the Board for approval. Mayor Black opened to public comment. Robert Preston, 425 S. Bayshore Drive, commented that the employees needed support behind them. Other organizations have a union or an association to help them in cases of wrongful termination. July 22, 2019, BOC Joint Workshop Meeting Page 3 of 6  D. Recent Submittal of a Request for a Legal Opinion from Florida Attorney General's Office by a Commissioner - Vice Mayor Nancy Hodges Commissioner Hodges said she had asked that the item be brought to a workshop for discussion. She was surprised when getting the information (copy of Commissioner Weinstein's letter mailed to the Florida Attorney General's Office and their emailed response to Commissioner Weinstein regarding that letter, which is a public record on file with the City Clerk). If there is a problem with the City Clerk, that information needed to be brought to the Board for discussion by all five members of the Board because all five members of the Board are the boss of the City Clerk. This is something that should have been brought out before anything else was done if there was a problem. She would like to know exactly where they are with this, the reasoning for it, and why the Board was not notified that there was a problem. It needed to be discussed and fixed, so they could move on. City Attorney Ralf Brookes said the Attorney General had written back to Commissioner Weinstein and stated that they will not issue opinions on something that has already happened in the past. You can only ask for an opinion about something you want to do in the future and not something that has already happened. The Attorney General also said for them to answer a question it should come from a majority of the Board and not from an individual Commissioner. In talking to the Assistant Attorney General, Teresa Mussetto, before she sent the email (July 8, 2019 emailed response to Commissioner Weinstein, which is a public record on file with the City Clerk), she said that in some Attorney General Opinions there is a limited exception and that is if you want to take an action as an individual Commissioner and you haven't done it yet, and you are not sure, and you have already gone to your city or county attorney, but you still want more advice then you can ask about your own future actions, but not someone else's. You can do that as an individual Commissioner. With that said, Commissioner Weinstein had indicated to him that she did not wish to pursue an Attorney General Opinion anymore and she couldn't anyway because it is a past action, and as an individual Commissioner she had phrased the question not about her own actions but about past actions that did not involve herself. Commissioner Weinstein said she had asked some very good questions and it was not directed at any one person, it was directed at what they should hopefully do in the future as elected officials because they want to do the best by their City. It was materials that were distributed, and it was not significant of any one individual. She only wanted the materials to be looked at and she had made that quite clear. It might have been misinterpreted, but she does not think it was misinterpreted by the Attorney General's office, they just were not wanting to address what she was looking for. The City Attorney suggested that in the future, if they wanted to distribute materials they could give it to the Clerk and the Clerk will send it around to them with a "Please do not respond or reply to all!" message because of the Sunshine Law. That becomes a public record unless there is a limited exception. July 22, 2019, BOC Joint Workshop Meeting Page 4 of6  The Interim City Manager said it needed to be addressed in the BOC Handbook so this Commission and future Commissions will know how to handle situations to get information. The City Attorney suggested putting a procedure in the handbook for requesting a legal opinion and for an Attorney General Opinion. The request for a legal opinion is to be directed to the City Attorney and a request for an Attorney General opinion will be brought to the Board of Commissioners for discussion and a vote prior to submitting the request unless it involves a future action of an individual Commissioner and that would be requested by the individual Commissioner only. The Attorney General is there to give guidance on future actions and not to judicate on past actions. Commissioner Andrews said Commissioner Weinstein's letter was very specific. It pointed out two specific people. He is not owed an apology, but Clara (City Clerk) deserves one. After their Ethics training (on July 16, 2019), he spent a few minutes talking to Attorney Gray, who gave the training, about Board members making mistakes. He asked Attorney Gray what his responsibility would be for the actions of the other Commissioners and the Mayor. Attorney Gray said the Ethics Commission is not there to police anybody and they do not want to hear about it. If there is an action deemed inappropriate, the method to solve it is to bring it to the Board for discussion. They want the Board to be able to legislate and police themselves. The issue is hashed out at the meeting. That is why the Attorney General said what she did in this case. They needed Board approval to send a letter like that and that it be sent certified mail, paid for by the City. They opened the letter because it looked like it was from the City. Clara deserves an apology. She does an amazing job here and to call her out on something like that specifically, and that letter becoming public, is not right. City Clerk Clara VanBlargan said if requesting an opinion from the Attorney General, what is said in the letter should be factual. She read two statements made in the letter that were not correct: Paragraph 6 states, "The Commissioner's request was submitted in person to the City Clerk on April 11, 2019. The City Clerk hand delivered the sole copy of the request to the City Manager on the same day, April 11, 2019, and did not keep a copy." Paragraph 5 states, "The employee resigned before any investigation of the employee was opened or conducted at the City of Madeira Beach." The City Clerk said a copy of the letter was given to Karen (Karen Paulson, HR Coordinator) and to the City Manager (former city manager Jonathan Evans) upon receiving it. The original was filed as the public record in the City Clerk's office. Karen provided a copy of the letter she had signed, and date stamped on the day she received it to show as confirmation that a copy of the letter had been given to her. Karen also provided emailed confirmation to her that the issue was looked into after they received a copy of the April 11, 2019 letter, and that they did r~eive additional information that July 22, 2019, BOC Joint Workshop Meeting Page 5 of6  they had not received originally (from the City of Largo) when hiring Chaz Jordan, and after they had spoken to him the next day about it, he resigned. Mayor Black opened to public comment. Helen Price, 13319 Boca Ciega Avenue, welcomed Mr. Daniels to the City. She commented that she was disappointed that Commissioner Weinstein took it upon herself to send an opinion request to the Attorney General of the State of Florida regarding alleged actions of a fellow Commissioner and their Clerk. She would like to ask if Commissioner Weinstein had spoken to or had counseled Ms. VanBlargan before she sent that letter because it did not sound like she had, and if she had, she would not have put a representation in there claiming that Clara (C lara VanBlargan, City Clerk) did not keep a copy of a document. She is their Clerk and one of the minimum requirements of her job is to keep copies of things and she is their records custodian. Ms. Price asked the purpose of the letter and the misrepresentation. Was is to make their Clerk to appear inept, was it to embanass her, and maybe to get her to resign like the Mayor has been trying to get her to resign for the last few weeks? Why unilaterally send a letter to Tallahassee with fal se facts that further diminishes the reputation of their happy little beach town? Ms. Price said she was happy to hear that she did not want to resend it because the opinion received from the Attorney General would be based on false facts and it would be completely useless. What makes it worse is that they have a Commissioner writing badly about another Commissioner and writing badly about their Clerk without the facts, and her understanding is that their own City Attorney knew that C lara kept copies and he still blessed the letter that went out. She questions that. T hey need to be a little happier around there, be a little forthcoming and not try to do things behind people's back to hurt them, and not try ruining their reputation. Mayor Black closed public comment. 5. ADJOURNMENT Commissioner Douthirt motioned to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Andrews seconded the motion and the Mayor adjourned the meeting at 7: 14 p.m . .:. July 22, 2019, BOC Joint Workshop Meeting Page 6 of 6