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11/16/1988 CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE MINUTES November 16, 1988 The Charter Review Committee met at City Hall on Wednesday, November 16, 1988, at 6:30 P.M. with the following members present: Trish Muscarella, Chairman John Tsacrios, Vice-Chairman Ron Crawford Mary Lou Dobbs Joanne Faruggia Roy May Carol Nielsen Vic Spoto Marian Justice Jackie Tobin, arriving at 6:37 P.M. Also present: Cynthia E. Goudeau, City Clerk Minutes of November 2, 1988. John Tsacrios moved to approve the minutes as submitted. The motion was duly seconded. Upon the vote being taken, Members Tsacrios, Crawford, Dobbs, Faruggia, May, Nielsen, Spoto, and Justice voted "aye." Chairman Muscarella abstained. Member Tobin absent. Motion carried. Finalization of Article II - Legislative. Discussion ensued regarding the $7,500 limitation on purchases without approval of the City Commission in Section 2.01(d)(2). A suggestion had been made that the limitation be increased to $10,000. Concerns were expressed that the expenditures of money were not scrutinized closely enough. It was stated that the proposal should be supported as there will be a savings to the citizens in staff time not being taken for items that generally are placed on the consent agenda when presented to the Commission. It was stated that it would be the City Manager's responsibility to monitor expenditure of these funds. John Tsacrios moved to amend Section 2.01(d)(2) to change $7,500 to $10,000. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. Section 2.01(d)(4) - Surplus Property - Recommendation had been made by the City Attorney that the language be amended clarifying what is meant by disposal as under the current charter the lease of City property also requires that it be declared surplus. Mary Lou Dobbs moved to amend Section 2.01(d)(4) by changing the first sentence striking the fourth word "disposal" and adding the following: "sale or to the lease for a term longer than three years." The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. It was stated that the rationale for this change was to clarify the language as "disposal" was too vague, and also to cut cost for short term leases in that no public hearing would need to be held to declare the property surplus. Discussion ensued regarding the verbage requiring the question be placed on the ballot and be presented to the voters at referendum. " By referendum, and at a public referendum" are used throughout the document. John Tsacrios moved to use the verbage "at referendum" in the Charter. The motion was duly seconded. Upon the vote being taken, Members Muscarella, Crawford, Faruggia, Justice, Nielsen, and Spoto voted "aye." Members May, Tsacrios, Tobin, and Dobbs voted "nay." Motion carried. Jackie Tobin moved to amend the second paragraph of Section 2.01(d)(4) to delete the "s" in the word "hearings" in the fifth line and to change "have" to "has." The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. Discussion ensued regarding further provisions of Section 2.01(d)(4) in regard to leases of real property. It was suggested that due to the changes made earlier that the paragraph beginning "leases of real property" be amended to include the power that the Commission has to lease property up to three years. Jackie Tobin moved to amend the paragraph regarding leases of real property to insert the sentence "The Commission has the power to lease municipal real property for three years or less without declaring it surplus." The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. Further discussion ensued regarding leases of real property in that it had been recommended that the term of the lease that could be approved prior to a referendum being required, be increased. John Tsacrios moved to amend this paragraph striking the words at the beginning of the first sentence "except for property located in an industrial park" and changing "fifteen years" to "thirty years." The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. It was indicated that the rationale for this change is that fifteen years is not long enough for a major project in which the leasee is expected to invest a sizeable amount of money. Discussion ensued regarding the need to amend the paragraph regarding industrial park property. It was the consensus of the Committee to leave as is as they felt the provison for the four-fifths vote of the Commission and a rent escalation clause were needed. Article V - Planning & Zoning. Previous Committee action had moved this section to the duties portion of Article II. At that time, they had requested the appropriate language from the Planning Director. The Planning Director has responded that she did not feel it was appropriate to place it under duties as it is a power as opposed to a duty. She did submit recommended language for changing the current article. Discussion ensued regarding whether or not the verbage "and restrict land development" contained in the Planning Director's recommendation was too harsh. Roy May moved to amend Article V, Planning and Zoning, to read as follows: "The Commission is authorized to regulate the comprehensive planning and zoning of the City and restrict land development in the manner provided by law." The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. Mary Lou Dobbs moved to delete this provision from the duties section under Article II. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. Section 7.02 - Charter Review Committee. A recommendation had been made that consideration be given to reducing the number of members required on the Charter Review Committee from ten. Discussion ensued regarding the need for as much input as possible into an important issue such as charter review. Concerns were expressed regarding time frames allowed for this work and whether or not there needed to be a definite time frame established for appointment of the Committees. Ron Crawford moved to amend the first sentence of Section 7.02 to read "The Commission shall appoint a Charter Review Advisory Committee in January 1994 and at least every five years thereafter provided the appointments are made in January of a year preceeding a City election." The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. The Committee recessed from 7:46 P.M. to 7:55 P.M. Article VIII - Nomination and Elections. Section 8.04 Nomination - Recommendations had been made that consideration be given to amending the filing fee of $25 and the 250 petition cards that have to be submitted in order to qualify for office. The City Clerk indicated that 250 signatures is not a significant number considering the City of Clearwater has approximately 60,000 voters. The $25 filing fee is also not an exorbitant amount, and now that the code has been changed to require that the filing fee come from the campaign fund as opposed to personal funds of the candidate. Discussion ensued regarding the need to amend this and whether or not the petitions were necessary. A question was raised regarding the type of government existing in Clearwater and whether or not "Commission" was a misnomer. Mrs. Dobbs indicated that through her work with the League of Women Voters she had information regarding the different forms of government and it was the consensus this information be provided to the Committee prior to their next meeting. Further discussion ensued regarding a change to Section 8.04 and whether or not the filing fee and number of petitions should be raised. It was indicated that the signatures on petitions should be eliminated as a person interested in being a Commissioner should have to put forth some effort to be placed on the ballot. Ron Crawford moved to amend the filing fee from $25 to $50 and to increase the number of signatures required from 250 to 500. The motion was duly seconded. Upon the vote being taken, Members Tsacrios, Crawford, Justice, Nielsen, and Spoto voted "aye." Members Faruggia, Dobbs, May, Muscarella, and Tobin voted "nay." Motion failed due to a tie. Mr. May indicated that he had objected to the increase in the number of petition cards. Roy May moved to amend Section 8.04 increasing the filing fee from $25 to $50 and leaving the 250 signatures required. Motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. Jackie Tobin moved to amend Section 8.04, sixth sentence, changing the residency requirement from one year to two years. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. It was stated that Section 8.05(b) had already been amended regarding the change that accommodates the three-year terms, that the section will now read "regular City election shall be held on the second Tuesday in March of each year in which a Commission term expires." The City Clerk indicated that she will have a recommendation regarding Section 8.05(d), Canvassing Board, as there have been some difficulties when questions are placed on a County ballot. Article IX - Fiscal Management Procedure. A recommendation had been made by Dan Deignan, Finance Director, that the provision requiring revenue bonds in excess of $1 million be placed on a referendum be amended to increase the limitation to $2 million. The Committee had requested information regarding other municipalities' procedures and the information that Mr. Deignan obtained was that other communities do not have a limitation on revenue bonds. Discussion ensued regarding whether or not this provision should be eliminated or whether it should be raised to $2 million. Vic Spoto moved to increase the $1 million limitation to $2 million. The motion was duly seconded. Upon the vote being taken, Members Muscarella, Tsacrios, Crawford, Dobbs, Faruggia, Nielsen, Spoto, Justice, and Tobin voted "aye." Member May voted "nay." Motion carried. It was the consensus of the Committee to discuss the recommendation to eliminate this requirement altogether at the next meeting. The Chairman expressed concerns regarding the wording of the first sentence of Article IX. This sentence had been moved to Article II by the Committee previously and required that within three months of the adoption of the Charter that an ordinance be adopted regarding fiscal management. It was questioned whether or not this was necessary. The City Clerk is to provide information regarding the fiscal management ordinance that was adopted. It was the consensus of the Committee to review all the changes they have made thus far and discussed possible changes in format at the next meeting. The meeting adjourned at 9:06 P.M.