06/11/2015 CHARTER REVIEW COMMITTEE MEETING
CITY OF CLEARWATER
June 11, 2015
Present: Brian J. Aungst, Jr. Chair
Bud Elias Vice Chair
David E. Allbritton Committee Member
Jane D. Bongo Committee Member
Karen Cunningham Committee Member
Dirk A. Curls Committee Member
Leann J. DuPont Committee Member
David Loyd Committee Member
Rosemarie Kibitlewski Committee Member
William Sturtevant Committee Member
Absent: Nino Accetta Committee Member
George Mantzaris Committee Member
Also Present: Pamela Akin City Attorney
Rosemarie Call City Clerk
Nicole Sprague ORLS Coordinator
The meeting was called to order at 5:47 p.m. at City Hall.
To provide continuity for research, items are in agenda order although not necessarily
discussed in that order.
2. Approval of Minutes
2.1 Approve the minutes of the May 28, 2015 Charter Review Committee Meeting as submitted
in written summation by the City Clerk.
Committee Member Sturtevant moved to approve the minutes of the May 28, 2015
Charter Review Committee meeting. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously
3. New Business
3.1 Guest Speaker: Councilmember Jonson.
Councilmember Jonson reviewed his tenure on the City Council and provided proposed
language regarding annual strategic planning for the committee's consideration. He said he has
been pushing for a formal strategic planning process as other cities that are doing well have
formalized a process that allows council to collaborate on initiatives for the following fiscal year
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and budget accordingly. The city manager would give progress reports during the year to keep
council on track with their priorities, which would enforce completion of projects.
In response to questions, Mr. Jonson said there is a current strategic plan that has 45
different tasks and initiatives, some of which are ongoing, like the Urban Land Institute (ULI)
report and that this council has a less formal project implementation process. A mayor should
be the presiding officer and facilitate discussion and a city manager is only as effective as the
council's vision and direction. Increasing council salaries would help attract younger candidates
because of the time commitment involved. He said he does not believe it matters how many
referendum questions are placed on the ballot.
3.2 Council-Manager Presentation by Beth Rawlins.
Ms. Rawlins said any form of government can work and problems arise from different
personalities on a board. A council-manager form of government provides strong political
leadership through elected officials with a city manager that has strong managerial and
professional skills and serves at the pleasure of the elected body. The policy making rests with
the elected body with day to day operations managed by a city manager. The council-manager
form of government was born in a time when people wanted a scientific approach to
government led by someone who studied and learned it as a profession. The idea was to foster
transparency in politics. The council-manager form is the closest form to the structure of a
corporation. This is the most popular form of government in Florida, 247 out of 410 cities use it.
She said the City of Pensacola is the only city in Florida that successfully converted to strong
mayor form of government and has been struggling with leadership issues. She said the City of
Sarasota has had special interests groups try five times to get a change in form of government
on the ballot. She said the three main reasons to keep a council-manager form of government
is 1) there is a professional instead of a politician in charge of city operations, 2) there is less
potential for corruption and cronyism, and 3) a strong mayor does not provide accountability.
In response to questions, Ms. Rawlins said a strong mayor is accountable only during
their campaign and a city manager is accountable each time he sits before council.. She said a
city manager does not need to start out in a smaller city, but needs to start out in a smaller
position. She said the city would not be keeping in council-manager form if council had input on
the hiring and firing of the police chief, fire chief and assistant city managers.
3.3 Suggested changes regarding Real Property.
The City Attorney reviewed slides that depicted current charter restrictions in relation to
property along the bluff, the city hall site, and areas bordering the Memorial Causeway. In
response to questions she said section 2.01(d)(5)(vi) is a city wide provision.
There was consensus to discuss the proposed changes regarding real property at the
July 9 meeting. Staff was directed to create a list of potential changes in regards to
governance, including council compensation, strong mayor vs. council-manager form of
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government, council input on hiring and firing of assistant city managers, police chief, and fire
chief; increasing the timeframe requirement for charter review, and incorporating
Councilmember Jonson's suggestions.
Chair Aungst explained that a majority vote of the Charter Review Committee would cause a
recommendation to go before the Council for referendum consideration.
4. Citizens to be heard regarding items not on the agenda: None
The meeting was adjourned at 7:21 p.m.
Attest:
.0 C C2
City Clerk
Chair, Charter R view Comniitt e
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