Exh 9AGENDA ITEM 9
FEBRUARY Z4, 2003
February 18, 2003
MEMORANDUM
TO: The Honorable Mayor
and Members of the City Commission
FROM: Jim Hanson
SUBJECT: City Managers Report
Cable TV Franchise Status; Two significant things have occurred since the last report
to the Commission on the status of the cable TV franchise negotiations. The first is the
receipt of a considerable amount of information from Comcast Cable Communications,
Inc in response to a questionnaire that was sent to them in December 2002. It contains
information about the corporation, the cable system, the past outage records (when the
system was owned by AT&T), customer policies and other information. A copy is
available in City Hall.
Secondly, the City of Jacksonville has reached an agreement with Comcast about past
problems with the cable TV service and amendments to their franchise agreement.
The next step will be to review the provisions of the Jacksonville agreement for their
applicability and advisability for incorporation into the Atlantic Beach franchise. Once
this is done, direct negotiations can be started with Comcast on these points. The other
beach cities have indicated a desire to work with Atlantic Beach in resolving the same
issues for their cities.
Travel and Per Diem Allowances; The Florida League of Cities has advised members
of a recent opinion issued by the Florida Attorney General that the State mandated
mileage and per diem allowances apply to municipal governments. Many (most?) cities
in Florida have relied upon their home rule powers to adopt their own per diem and travel
allowances in the past, including Atlantic Beach. The League of Cities has pointed out
that the Attorney General's opinions are not considered to be law and are not binding in
court. In order to avoid potential court challenges to municipal per diem and travel
allowance policies, a clear statement from the legislature is being sought on this point.
Staff does not recommend any changes to our travel and per diem allowances until a clear
statement from the legislature is obtained. A comparison of these follows:
AGENDA ITEM 9
FEBRUARY 24, 2003
Citv State
Mileage (per mile) $.36 $.29
Meals:
Breakfast $7.00 $3.00
Lunch $8.00 $6.00
Dinner 15.00 12.00
$30.00 $21.00
Women's Tennis League; Sandra Phillips, the tennis instructor who has leased Russell
Park tennis facilities from the City to provide tennis lesions, is attempting to establish a
ladies tennis team that would be part of the Ladies Working Tennis League in the
Jacksonville area. The season runs from September until May each year. Team practice
would utilize a couple of the courts one night per week and several of the courts for
competition play during several Saturday afternoons. Staff does not anticipate any
significant conflict with existing users at Russell Park.
Workshons/Meetings; Several upcoming meetings for the City Commissioners are as
follows;
Strategic Planning; Wednesday, March S, 2003, 5:00 pm, Sea Turtle Inn
Strategic Planning; Thursday, March 6, 2003, 5:00 pm, Sea Turtle Inn
Workshop on Water/Sewer Rate Restructuring; Monday, March 10, 2003, 5:00 pm
City Commission Chambers
Union Election; The State Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC) has notified
the City of amail-in election for Atlantic Beach employees to consider the creation of
two new unions. The City presently has two unions; Public Works and Police. The new
proposed units include one for supervisors of which there are 1 S potential members and a
white collar unit of which there are 29 potential members. The two new unions would be
affiliated with the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), the same as
the Public Works union. Most other City employees are already included in one of the
other bargaining units except for Department Heads and some Administrative Assistants.
Ballots will be mailed out to employees by PERC on March S`t' with a deadline for return
of March 26~`.