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02-09-18 Roundtable Minutes MINUTES OF ROUNDTABLE OF ATLANTIC BEACH CITY COMMISSION HELD ON FEBRUARY 9, 2018 PRESENT: Mayor Ellen Glasser Commissioner Candace Kelly Commissioner Brittany Norris Commissioner Blythe Waters (arrived at 1:08 p.m.) ALSO: Joe Gerrity, City Manager Kevin Hogencamp, Deputy City Manager Brenna Durden, City Attorney Donna L. Bartle, City Clerk Russell Caffey, Director of Finance ABSENT: Commissioner John Stinson Call to order. Mayor Glasser called the meeting to order at 1:01 p.m. in the Commission Chamber and explained the process for the meeting. The Commissioners and staff present introduced themselves. She recognized the passing of Doc Silver, who ran the pharmacy at the corner of Atlantic and 1St St in Neptune Beach. She also thanked Commissioner Kelly for attending the Legislative Days session on behalf of the Commission, along with Human Resource Director Cathy Berry. 1. Discussion on the following topics: A. Budget 101 City Manager Gerrity stated Director of Finance Russell Caffey would give an overview of how they approach the budget and what they look for. Mr. Caffey distributed a handout of his presentation and gave an overview of the budget and the process of preparing the budget, explaining each slide as he presented them. He further stated it is the responsibility of the Commission to adopt the budget. He explained each of the funds in the budget and how they are restricted. Mayor Glasser questioned where the Tree Protection Fund was. Mr. Caffey stated it was not one of the major funds but he will add it to this next year. He stated they had some problems with the Tree Protection Fund when they switched over to the new One Solution system where they had a couple of entries that should have gone into the Tree Protection Fund but went into the General Fund under the line item for regular tree permits. Upon realizing this, he stated this was corrected. He answered questions from the Commission and City Manager. Discussion ensued regarding the Pension Fund. Mr. Caffey stated their funds have been doing really well the past 2 1/2 years and as of last week they were at 8% for both the Police and General Employee Pension funds although this week we were at 4 '/2%. He stated this far into the year he believes that is okay. He explained assumption rates and believes we are more realistic than other cities on our assumption rates. Mr. Caffey explained who the members of the Pension Board were and their backgrounds. Further discussion ensued. Mr. Caffey answer questions from the Commission. Mayor Glasser asked that the Commission receive regular reports from the Pension Board. Mr. Caffey stated he would discuss this with the two Boards. Following comments from Commissioner Waters, Mr. Caffey stated he would be agreeable to be in the FRS (Florida Retirement System). Commissioner Waters stated in order to move our funds over they would have to be fully funded and the only way to do that would be to bond it out. The way that they currently have debt structured to pay off is different. The reason she looked at moving to FRS is that it is not dependent upon who wants to be on the Board and their financial savvy at the time. She further stated small towns, in general, do not perform as well as bigger funds so you can consistently outperform what we are doing. Discussion ensued. Mayor Glasser asked, if they wanted to do this tomorrow, what dollar amount would they be talking about to bond it out. Mr. Caffey stated, for the police it is $4 million but he was not sure off the top of his head what it would be for the general. Discussion ensued about whether the FRS is still accepting local government retirement plans into their system. Mr. Caffey answered questions from the Commission. Mr. Caffey explained the City has approximately $4 million in debt and, in 2028, ours will be paid out and in 2032 the City will be completely out of debt. Mr. Caffey clarified that the pension funding is 75% for the general employees and 68%for police. Discussion of reserves and what they should be used for ensued. Mr. Gerrity stated reserves should not be used for operating costs that occur on a regular basis,but for non-recurring single expense costs. Discussion regarding how much should be in reserve and what is required ensued. Mr. Caffey and Mr. Gerrity answered questions. Commissioner Norris suggested setting aside a portion of the surplus in reserves solely for emergency use, such as hurricane issues. Commissioner Waters stated they do not collect taxes to do nothing with them, especially to not earn interest on them. She asked if they should be paying down debt faster, making smart acquisitions for the City, or making infrastructure investments. She stated she believes if there is money in reserves that is beyond the 25%, people start asking what they are doing with their tax dollars. If that money should not be spent, they need to make an Ordinance that says they need more in reserve, because the City is consciously not spending it. Mayor Glasser agreed. Commissioner Kelly stated she believes they should wait until they get the stormwater survey. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Waters reiterated the first question they are asking is what should reserves be and the second question is what should they do with anything they are not going to restrict in reserves. B. Property Acquisitions Mayor Glasser explained this discussion will be related to property acquisitions. Mr. Gerrity stated he has discussed with each of the Commissioners the potential acquisition of Selva Preserve and Johnston Island. He stated all of the appraisals are in and, with Johnston Island, he has given that information to the representative of the owner and he will get back to him. He believes they should see the plat before they talk to the owners of Selva Preserve about'any possible acquisition. He stated he will need guidance from the Commission about how to proceed regarding negotiations. Discussion ensued regarding property acquisitions, in general. Mr. Gerrity suggested looking at the properties together and having a meeting the first week in May after they hear about the Selva Plat. Commissioner Waters stated they need to speak with Councilpersons Gulliford and Boyer as they talk about these projects because the City of Jacksonville may be willing to help us fund. She stated they are both vested in seeing some City of Jacksonville money on this project. Discussion ensued. -2- Commissioner Kelly asked how close we are to a Parks Master Plan. Director of Planning and Community Development Shane Corbin stated he believes they could do a plan in house but does not know what their capabilities are regarding cost projections. They could get people together in groups and gather content for what they would like to see as well as the Commission's visioning. Mr. Gerrity stated he would like to sit down with Mr. Corbin and discuss exactly how they should proceed. Mr. Corbin stated this plan could take six months to a year to complete. Mr. Gerrity stated they will bring an update to the Commission toward the end of March. Further discussion ensued. Mr. Gerrity stated the property acquisitions will also be discussed at the Commission meeting on Monday. C. Public Comments City Attorney Durden stated public comments should be allowed at every meeting. She has gathered information over the last year about 15-20 different sets of rules from different local governments about whether they allow 3 minutes or 5 minutes; when do they allow it, etc. She stated regardless, it should be allowed at every meeting and not just the City Commission meetings. It is now required by Statute that whenever the Commission takes action that there has to be some opportunity for public comments on that topic within a reasonable period of time prior to the Commission taking action. When they have had two readings of ordinances, as long as there has been an opportunity for the public comment at the first reading, it is satisfactory and fulfills the requirement. If they have the public hearing at the second reading, which has been our practice, then obviously you are going to have to allow public comment again during that public hearing. It is now set out in Statute and there is myriad of ways the local governments have set this. The other important thing is that, in the Statute, there is presumption of meeting the requirements of the Statute if a local government has adopted rules. Most local governments adopt their rules by resolutions and, therefore, they are more easily revised. Ours are set out as part of the Ordinance Code so to change those requires law. That is something else for us to consider. It is very important when our Commission votes on something that there clearly be an opportunity for the public to make a comment prior to that action. She reiterated she has been gathering material over a year and would like to add this to another roundtable or workshop. Mayor Glasser agreed, stating she would rather not spend a lot of time in the Commission meetings discussing these procedural things because it takes time. She stated this has come up in recent meetings and she does not want there to be an impression that we are trying to inhibit public comments. She asked if there is a problem with limiting people to 3 as opposed to 5 minutes. City Attorney Durden stated that was not a problem. Commissioner Norris stated since it is currently an ordinance they would have to make an ordinance to nullify the other ordinance and then pass a resolution going forward with how they would want to do that. City Clerk Bartle asked whether she was talking about the Rules of Order or public comments, as they do not have anything in writing about public comments. D. Community Outreach Mayor Glasser stated, in visiting all the churches in the community and some of the service agencies and non-profits, there seems to be a disconnect between those agencies. She stated, for instance, none of the churches that support BEAM are in Atlantic Beach. She stated, although the City is not in the social service business, it would be nice to host something such as a meet and greet. She stated Mr. Gerrity explained that would have to be done as a Commission so she would like to propose this so they can identify those resources in our community and their needs. Discussion ensued and the Commissioners present were agreeable to setting up this meeting. Mayor Glasser stated she would take the lead on this. -3- E. Video Streaming Mayor Glasser stated she believes the Commission needs to provide staff with some guidance about their expectations related to the number of meetings streamed. She stated whether a meeting is going to be recorded or not should be posted for the citizens' information. Mr. Gerrity stated there are options available to do Facebook as well as work with our Swagit connection. He requested that the Commission tell him what they want video streamed, then he could come back with the details. He stated the base rate they pay currently is $695/month which includes 30 meetings/year. He stated additional meetings are $150/meeting. There was a discussion about live streaming, videotaping and audio recording. City Clerk Bartle explained that audio files can be put on an FTP site and linked to a page on our website and that is currently being done for the Environmental Stewardship Committee and Parking and Pedestrian Safety Advisory Resource Committee. Mr. Gerrity further explained the pricing from Swagit. Deputy City Manager Kevin Hogencamp reported the numbers of viewers, explaining 50+ people on average will view a meeting live and that same meeting will get watched another 25-75 times. Discussion ensued about pricing, expanding the current contract to add more meetings, and Facebook. Mayor Glasser stated she is hearing from the Commission that they want to go up to 50 meetings and possibly do the add-on for Facebook. She stated they need to put something on the website that states what we record and what we do not record. Ms. Bartle explained the statement that she puts on the agenda letting people know the meeting is being live streamed. Mayor Glasser suggested putting a statement on the meeting video page stating what is recorded. Ms. Bartle noted she can have something added. Mr. Gerrity asked what Board meetings they want to have live streamed. There was further discussion. Ms. Bartle expressed concern that the video does not provide a lot of benefit compared to the audio, because the camera is not being switched to who is talking and the focus is limited. Mayor Glasser asked Mr. Hogencamp to put something together as far as which committees they should be adding. Mr. Hogencamp stated he will work with the City Manager and City Clerk and put together a report. Mayor Glasser summed up that although they did not decide anything today they are committed to providing more access to more meetings and using Facebook in addition. F. Pledge Mayor Glasser stated the pledge was put together by Commissioner Norris and had her explain. Commissioner Norris explained the pledge. Mayor Glasser stated they should change "intent to adjourn ..." to "desire" and add, to be committed to working things through our existing staff when possible. She stated they should not go out and try to fix things themselves. Commissioner Norris stated she will make the edits and send it to the City Attorney for a final review and then possibly take a pledge out loud at a Commission meeting. Mayor Glasser stated since they are now talking about a resolution, she suggested changing, "Make a conscious effort to conduct all Commission business in a prompt and succinct manner" and leave the time off of it; and add"to adjourn regular meetings on a timely basis." G. Invocation and Newsletter Schedule Mayor Glasser explained the schedule listed is for Commissioners to find someone to come and give the invocation. She asked City Attorney Durden to comment on the legal aspects. Commissioner Kelly stated the invocation is meant to lend gravity to the occasion and reflect values, long part of the nation's heritage, with a prayer that is solemn and respectful in tone that invites the lawmakers to reflect upon shared ideals and common end before they embark on the fractious business of governing. City Attorney Durden stated -4- this is one of the most extremely sensitive topics they can address as a local government and believes they could use the Town of Greece, NY as a model to what they do. She quoted from her handout "the analysis of this case by the Supreme Court would be very different if town board members directed the public to participate in the prayers, singled out dissidents for opprobrium, or indicated that their decisions might be influenced by a person's acquiescence in the prayer opportunity." She stated by following what the Town of Greece did by inviting members of the clergy or members of the meditation or a spiritual group, the idea is to create a list. She stated she believes they need to identify somebody, maybe Mr. Hogencamp who knows the community and already has a lot of outreach, to be the keeper and developer of the list. She stated as long as they maintain a policy of nondiscrimination, the Constitution does require the City to search beyond its borders in an effort to achieve balancing. She stated that is an important part of creating that list. She stated when it comes to their turn, the Commissioners should try to use the list. She stated she would like to see the list developed within a month. She stated they can give names and contacts to Mr. Hogencamp to help create the list. She stated the names do not have to be limited to Atlantic Beach. Discussion ensued. Ms. Durden stated she would advise the Commissioners not to choose the same person each time it is their turn. She reminded them that in the Town of Greece, one of the things that was complained about by the plaintiff was that the majority of the time the people who came to give the invocation were Christian-based and there was a real concern about that. She stated the Court said as long as you don't discriminate you don't have to have a religious balancing. She stated it is really important to not preview or say what the message can be. She further stated the Commission cannot allow the invocation giver to face the audience, it is not for them; nor can the Commission ask the public to participate, i.e. ask them to please rise. Discussion ensued. Mayor Glasser asked that the Commission note the Newsletter schedule. There was a short discussion about coyotes. 2. Courtesy of the Floor Mayor Glasser opened the Courtesy of the Floor to Visitors. She welcomed the audience and explained the process for public comments. Sally Clemens,Atlantic Beach, addressed the five-minute public comment stating she believes people keep repeating themselves. She stated she would like to limit comments to 3 minutes but does like the form they fill out. She believes Mr. Caffey gave an excellent Budget 101 and believes it was the auditors who suggested we have that 25% in reserve. She believes to invite invocation speakers is a good idea because it will help the community outreach. She stated Johnston Island has no water or electricity and she opposes the City putting condos there. She stated she lives across from Johansen Park and noticed in the Tree Fund they are supposed to plant more trees. She stated it is stark right now and leaves no room for animals and birds and she does not want grass there. She stated to enter the door inside the Police Department you now have to have your fingerprints taken by the City of Jacksonville. She believes they should take our fingerprints here locally. No one else spoke, so Mayor Glasser closed the Courtesy of the Floor to Visitors. Further discussion ensued regarding coyotes and whether they should put an article in the Newsletter. Adjournment -5- There being no further discussion by the City Commission, Mayor Glasser declared the meeting adjourned at 3:44 p.m. GI ATTEST Ellen Glasser Mayor/Presiding Officer Donna L. Bartle, CMC City Clerk -6-