(people chatting)
- City commission
meeting, August 28, 2018.
We will call a new face to the podium
to give our invocation.
Danny Slavich, am I
pronouncing that correctly?
Of Cross United Church.
- Let's pray together.
Father in heaven, maker
of heaven and earth,
I acknowledge and thank
you for establishing
the authority of this body for the purpose
of promoting the common good of this city.
Thank you for each person
who's here to serve,
dedicating their time
and their mental equity
to making Lighthouse Point
a great place to live
and a great place to work.
I ask that you would give each person,
each member of this
body clarity and wisdom
as they think through the business
that's before them this evening.
Give each one a steady
hand to vote with integrity
and a humble heart to
serve with faithfulness.
Thank you for those who have gathered here
as employees and residents of the city.
I ask you would give them the same
humility, kindness, courage, and wisdom.
Please use this evening's proceedings
to make the city of Lighthouse Point
an ever increasingly great place to live,
a place of justice, peace, and prosperity.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
- [Group] Amen.
- Call the meeting to order.
We'll do the pledge to the flag.
- [Group] I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the republic for which it stands.
One nation, under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
- Actually, everybody's
in here voting, right?
- Yes.
- All right.
- You've got seven minutes.
- All right, you've got
seven minutes if you haven't.
- If you wanna get a third time.
- Madam Clerk, roll call please.
- Mayor Troast.
- Here.
- Commission President Joffee.
- Here.
- Commission Vice-President Maucker.
- Here.
- Commissioner Johnson.
- Here.
- Commissioner Long.
- Here.
- Commissioner Van Buskirk.
- Here.
- City Attorney Cirullo.
- Here.
- City Administrator Lavisky.
- Here.
- Finance Director DiPaolo.
- Here.
- Fire Chief Gilmartin.
- Here.
- Library Director Keyes.
- Here.
- Police Chief Licata.
- Here.
- Public Works Director Schramm.
- Here.
- Recreation Director Lysengen.
- Here.
- Okay, they're all accounted for.
- We have three proclamations tonight.
All will be given by Mayor Troast.
Without further ado.
- I think it's appropriate
we have this one today
on the day we're having
the primary elections.
The first proclamation is
that a special election
of the city of Lighthouse Point, Florida,
at which all qualified electors will vote
on a referendum to determine whether
there shall be issued general obligation
bonds of the city for charter amendments
related to term lengths and limits
of elected officials,
planning and zoning board matters,
and the date and time of the annual
city commissioner
reorganizational meetings,
is to be held on Tuesday,
November 6th, 2018
in all regular Broward
County polling places
in Lighthouse Point, Florida.
Polls shall open at 7
a.m. and close 7 p.m.
Applications for Lighthouse Point
special election vote by mail ballots
may be obtained through the Broward County
Supervisor of Elections office
for those qualified electors who request
to vote by mail.
Pursuant to the provisions of the laws
of the state of Florida and the laws
of the city of Lighthouse Point,
only those citizens over the age of 18
who are residents of the state of Florida
and of the city of Lighthouse Point
and who have registered
in the registration books
for the city of Lighthouse
Point as qualified electors
shall be entitled to vote.
Those residents qualified to vote
who have not previously registered
should do so at once
with the Broward County
Supervisor of Elections.
You can apply to register to vote
in the following ways.
At any county Supervisor
of Elections office,
online at registertovoteflorida.gov,
at any office that
provides public assistance
during their regular business hours,
by mail, or in person.
The registration books shall be open
until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 9, 2018.
The second proclamation is to recognize
Victoria Burgess, Burgess, I'm sorry.
Whereas Victoria Burgess
is a former resident
of Lighthouse Point and a supporter
of the Women's Sports Foundation,
and whereas the Women's Sports Foundation
was established in 1974
to advance the lives
of women and girls through
sports and physical activity.
Whereas to raise awareness of
women's equality in sports,
Victoria attempted to set a world record
by being the first female to paddleboard
from Cuba to Key West,
and whereas on June 27th, 2018
Ms. Burgess completed the journey,
paddling 115 miles in
27 hours and 48 minutes.
Whereas the city of Lighthouse Point
wishes to recognize Victoria Burgess
for her extraordinary efforts.
Now, therefore I, Glenn Troast,
by the authority vested in me
as the mayor of the city
of Lighthouse Point,
do hereby proclaim August 28th, 2018
as Victoria Burgess day in the city
of Lighthouse Point, Florida.
(audience applause)
And Ms. Burgess is here?
- I tried paddleboarding last weekend.
- I couldn't even stand up on the board.
- Well, just in case, if you don't mind,
interesting thing is she had a tracker
on her so everybody could
track her as she went out.
Not even four miles into
it she lost her tracker,
so I said to her, I said
how did your parents,
her mom and dad who
still live in the city,
I asked 'em how she did it,
and she said man, they were pretty upset.
She said, but luckily I didn't lose it
in the middle of the night
goin' across the street.
But I just find it amazing.
I mean, it was 27 hours,
through the night,
all on the paddleboard, and I mean,
I've seen her out there.
She puts a water backpack on,
she's goin' for 12, 13, 14 hours straight
just to warm up and do this thing.
It's a really amazing thing
and it's a great thing
to show specifically the young ladies
that pretty much anything, you know,
a man can do, as long as
you put your mind to it,
you can do, so Victoria thank you,
specifically on behalf of
me having two daughters,
and I could say that
it was very impressive
and my daughters were very in awe of you,
so congratulations.
- Yes, congratulations.
(audience applause)
- I have one more proclamation,
and this one I'm very honored
to make as well this evening.
Whereas the city of Lighthouse
Point in the state of Florida
has always supported its
military veteran population.
Whereas the Purple Heart is the oldest
military decoration in present use
and was initially created as the badge
of military merit by
George Washington in 1782.
Whereas the Purple Heart was the first
American service award or decoration
made available to the common soldier
and is specifically awarded to members
of the United States Armed Forces
who have been wounded or
paid the ultimate sacrifice
in combat with a declared enemy
of the United States of America,
and whereas the mission
of the military order
of the Purple Heart is to foster
an environment of goodwill among
the combat wounded veteran members
and their families, promote patriotism,
support legislative initiatives,
and most importantly,
make sure we never forget.
Whereas the city of Lighthouse Point
has a large, highly
decorated veteran population
including numerous
Purple Heart recipients,
and whereas the city of Lighthouse Point
appreciates the sacrifices
our Purple Heart
recipients made in defending our freedoms
and believe it is important
that we acknowledge
them for their courage and show them
the honor and support they have earned.
Now therefore I, Glenn Troast,
by the authority vested in me
as the mayor of Lighthouse Point, Florida,
do hereby proclaim the
city of Lighthouse Point
as a Purple Heart City.
(audience applause)
- On behalf of chapter 133 of
the Disabled American Veterans
I'd like to present this Purple Heart flag
to the city to be flown on any and all
very special holidays,
Veteran's Day, Memorial Day,
Purple Heart Day, August the
8th, and when appropriate.
We appreciate this and we
thank you for your support.
- By the way, this is part
of Troast's continuing
effort to keep putting
more flags up (mumbles).
(audience laughing)
That's a beautiful shot, thank you.
- Thank you.
(audience applause)
- I left John a copy of an email
that explains how to get
parking signs that state
parking for Purple Heart recipients only.
They're provided for
free under the condition
that once it's installed you take a photo
and send it back to the
originator of the signs,
so you have that information.
Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- And a special shout out to Chuck,
who is a major asset to this city.
(audience applause)
- Everybody can leave except you.
- I'm gonna go vote.
- Thank you, thank you
everybody for comin'.
- Thank you.
- The next item on our agenda is approval
of the minutes of the regular September,
July 10th, 2018 meeting.
I assume the commissioners
got a chance to review?
- We have and if there are
no questions or comments
I would offer a motion
to approve the minutes.
- Got a motion to approve,
second by Commissioner Johnson.
All in favor?
- [All] Aye.
- Opposed, motion passes five zero.
- Finance Director DiPaolo,
Treasurer's Report, please.
- Good evening.
General fund has $1,090,473.90.
Cleanup deposits $30,400.
Garbage and trash fund $817,183.99.
Special purpose fund $2,916,059.92.
Storm water utility fund $312,523.64.
Debt service fund $14,938.68.
(background noise drowns
out speaker) $5,483,748.00
General fund encumbrances $189,640.97.
Total all funds $10,854,969.10.
- Questions for our Finance Director?
Thanks Frank.
- No problem.
- Now we've come to the in our meeting
where we have public comments or requests
regarding agenda items.
If you are here to speak
on one of the items
on our agenda tonight, come forward,
state your name and address,
and you will have three minutes to speak.
Mr. Benz.
- Hello, thank you all for your time spent
and your good directions
and successes of the prior meetings.
- Say that again, Leo.
Leo, say that again.
(people chatting)
- Northeast 31st Avenue.
No, I'm concerned a little bit about
resolution number seven, has
to do with the IBIS Bridge.
From my memory and reading,
my contract for our last
bridge project was fairly good,
but somehow or other we got wound up
in all this litigation
over the water damage,
so whatever needs to be done to cure that
or to avoid that the next time,
we really need to make
sure that that's done.
- Well, good.
- Thank you.
- And thank you all again.
A lot of good things, most everything.
It's a big project and it's
gonna be a tough battle.
- I do have to say something, Leo,
you did give me a scare this morning
when I got your email
because I did misread it.
Leo's daughters had given him a present.
- Yes, I have a (mumbles)
- And so Leo sent me an email this morning
about fire and rescue
showing up at his house
and I misread it thinking he was injured.
So I called him right away,
and it turns out he wasn't injured,
he had taken a shower and
his little alert button
had hit the floor and
he didn't hear it go off
and his daughters, when
they got a phone call,
made the call to fire and rescue
and Leo was very complimentary of them.
I hope they didn't get
you out of the shower
but he said he was amazed
at how fast they got there.
- No, it was all over,
I mean, they had come,
and I think they had brought
stretchers and things
to my front door and by the
time I got out of the shower
it was all gone, so
that was quick service.
- That's what we strive for
here in Lighthouse Point.
- And I may well owe you a fee.
(laughing)
- Don't worry about it.
- Thank you Mr. Benz,
any other public comments
regarding agenda items?
Seeing none, hearing none
we'll close public comments.
Reports from city administration,
we have a report from
our city Administrator,
John Lavisky.
- Yes sir, Mr. President
and Commissioners,
the Mayor and I would like to bring
to your attention that
our city clerk Jennifer Oh
has earned the designation
of Certified Municipal Clerk
and it was awarded by the International
Institute of Municipal Clerks.
A Certified Municipal Clerk
designation is awarded
to Municipal Clerks who complete extensive
education requirements and have a record
of significant contributions
to a local government.
Now, Jennifer's been
here a number of years
and she's worked in the Fire Department,
the Police Department,
the Building Department,
and now the City Clerk's Office.
I think we all can agree that Jennifer
does an excellent job as City Clerk
and we are very proud of
her commitment to the city
and of her professional development.
It's appropriate to
recognize her achievement.
(audience applause)
- She didn't know that was coming
so that's why her face just turned
a couple different shades darker.
- I'm gonna take President's
privilege on this.
Jennifer Oh is basically
the face of our city
for a lot of residents
and it is not an easy job.
It is a job that involves
a lot of juggling,
a lot of requests, maybe
from a city commissioner
that emails randomly or makes a call
or asks for something and,
I'm talking about myself,
and Jennifer always
amazes me is her ability
to get the information
quickly, get it accurately,
keep us all organized.
She anticipates things,
she is first class,
top notch and one of the reasons why
this entire city, including
all our department heads
and everybody up here
is able to do their job,
so I have to say that because I am always
thoroughly impressed by Jennifer.
- Thank you.
(audience applause)
- No department reports.
- I have a couple things.
- They're not on here so you can't do 'em.
- Oh, it's not on there, okay.
I wanted to give everybody an
update the Marathon station
and the purchases of 2101
ME 36th Street property
and the adjacent C-store property.
We have cleared all due
diligence on the property.
We've gotten a clean bill
of health on everything,
we've cleared the appraisal,
and as part of going through
the diligence process
we ended up extending the diligence period
to September 7th so we
could get all the work done.
Mr. Wider happened to spend
most of the summer in Maine,
which kind of helped delay some things,
but he has been very cooperative
in getting us through everything
and presently we are scheduled to close
on or about September 24th.
- Excellent.
- Okay, and then the second thing I have.
Jennifer do you have somethin'
to put up on the screen for us?
- The TV on?
- Well this summer John
and I have worked with
our architect on some renderings
of where, of what our
project might look like
and this is going to be part of our
education process but I wanted to
show everybody the renderings
we've come up with.
This is rendering of the fire station.
They're using a lighthouse motif,
that's why the top is glass,
to give that lighthouse effect
and that is a view if you were
standing east looking
towards the northwest.
The next one, Jennifer, please.
Here's another view looking
from the west towards the northeast
of what it would look like.
That's going to be a
drive through station.
Very creative rendering that
they've come up with so far.
Okay, then we have another rendering.
This is the community center/public works
emergency operations building
because we're going to be using that
dual purposes in an emergency.
We've put places in so we'd have
sleeping quarters in there and showers
for our public works employees
when they're working hard on any emergency
we have in the city,
whether it be hurricane
or something else, Jennifer the next one.
That's another view looking at it.
Okay, next one.
This is the public works safety fleet,
public safety fleet maintenance building
that's going to be built and that's
where all of our public safety vehicles
as well as public works buildings
and that's going to be going
where the existing
public works building is,
formerly known as the craft center,
and, so that's going to be
on corner of Dan Witt Park.
And then the next one, this
is a view of both buildings,
including the part of the revitalization
of the building across the street
which houses the public works offices
and then last, but not least,
since the library project
is not a building,
it is a interior project,
so that is going to be the
anticipated floor plan.
They are going to do a 3-D rendering,
it's just not complete yet,
of what it will look like,
so you will have a view
of what it will look like
as if you're standing
looking into that area.
So all of this will become
part of the education process,
the PowerPoint slides are predominantly,
probably about 75 percent of the way done.
- Where's the recreation building?
- I'm sorry?
- Where's the recreation building?
- That's the community center.
- Oh, that's the one that
was the community center?
- Yes.
- That one.
- That one.
- Ah.
- Is that one story or two?
- One story.
- Right, and then public works is in--
- Right, public works is, right.
Is the left hand side where
the snack bar would be?
- Check, it's towards the left, yes.
That's looking at it from the field.
Jennifer, would you go back one more?
And that's looking at
it from the parking lot.
- Yeah, not to get too
far ahead of ourselves,
but we've had some folks, for instance,
Lou at the Red Fox would
like to put the rendering
of the fire station in his restaurant
to gin up some publicity.
- He's spoken to me
about it and I told him
as soon as we have somethin' put together,
so I didn't wanna give him something
before the commission had something.
- Okay, and I would recommend maybe
not all of the buildings,
'cause it would confuse people.
The fire station is right
next to his restaurant,
might make it a little
more simple, maybe not.
- We'll probably give him a couple
different renderings he can put up.
- Be like a road show.
- Yeah, I wanna talk to him because
at one point Lou had asked about
putting it up on the TV screens
and at another point
he asked for an actual
blown up print that he could put up,
so I've gotta talk to him and find out
which one he prefers.
- Just a quick question on that.
Do we extend our parking?
- Well again, this is a rendering
of what it may look like.
The actual architecture
plans may change slightly.
- It looks nice, for everything else
I figured out where it was,
but that was a little--
- There will be changes
to the parking lot.
- Okay, adding?
- Hopefully adding some space, yes.
- Mr. Van Buskirk.
- I just, I mean, I don't know
if you wanna ask this later,
but I had a discussion before,
we knew prior to this meeting was supposed
to be an educational seminar for our CEUs
and also so we could talk intelligent
but without going against
any of the sunshine--
- If you'll hold one second,
the city attorney's probably gonna
have a question on that during his report.
- Okay, perfect, all right.
It's next on the, I
didn't see it up there,
but I perfectly would like
to hear about it, though.
- Okay, anything else?
- It's exciting stuff.
- It is, so--
- Hopefully in the next
week or so we'll have
a full PowerPoint available for all of us
to take a look at, but there's
a lot more slides than this,
but given the time constraints,
I just selected a few out of it.
John and I went through this
morning and went over this.
- Okay, reports, next item,
reports from the City Attorney.
- As Commissioner Van
Buskirk said we were gonna,
originally had scheduled before tonight
to have an ethics
presentation where you had
requested the focus be
on educating or advising
on advocacy versus
education in the context
of the upcoming election
and so the question
put to the commission
tonight as we were not able
to do it tonight because of the scheduling
necessity of the workshop,
so would you like to schedule it,
have to set a date to
reschedule that workshop.
Your next meeting is on
September 12th, I believe it is.
- Yes.
- If you wanted to do it
before that meeting we could.
- Are you thinking about an hour?
- Yeah, we can make it an hour.
Give you at least an hour of ethics,
maybe come in at 5:30,
or maybe 5:15 to 6:15,
5:30 to 6:30, whenever, I don't think
you're gonna need much more
than an hour on that topic.
If you wanna have a two hour--
- What time does that
meeting start that night?
- 6:30, there's a city budget workshop.
- That's what I wanted to make
sure it can happen at 5:30.
- I'm fine with doing it.
- Do we wanna do two
hours of continuing ed
that night and that way we
can get all of our (mumbles)
out of the way for anyone that's missing?
- I have all mine already.
- Me too.
- I don't have all mine.
- I don't have all mine,
I've got two hours left.
- I have mine but I
prefer to hear exactly--
- Yeah, for an hour.
- For an hour I would like
to hear the information--
- Why don't we do an hour of,
why don't we plan on two
hours and then we could
do one on education and
one on dealer's choice?
- So Mike, can we do one
at 4:30 for an hour--
- Can we do general
ethics at 4:30 and then
the focus on education
verses advocacy at 5:30?
- Yep, does that work for everybody?
- Yep.
- Yeah.
- Mike, good for you?
You okay with that?
- Yeah.
- 4:30?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
Okay, thank you.
Mr. City Attorney, our next planning
and zoning board meeting is September 4th,
there is gonna be a meeting, right?
There is still gonna
be a meeting that day?
- Say that again?
- September 4th, that's
just not gonna be one on,
that at the yacht club
originally but they moved it,
so I just wanted to make sure
that meeting is still happening.
(background noise drowns out speaker)
- We do have an item on
the September 4th agenda
so we will have that meeting.
- Okay, September 4th next
planning and zoning meeting,
code enforcement October 16th,
community appearance October 20th,
special magistrate September 5th,
marina advisory November 1st.
There is no unfinished business.
The first item of new business
is health insurance
coverage for city employees
effective October 1st, 2018.
Finance Director DiPaolo.
- Thank you.
The city provides health insurance
to all full time employees.
All employees have to enroll in coverage
or show proof of why
they're waiving coverage,
because they have insurance elsewhere.
So each year our agent
of record for the city,
Garrun Group, they do a
competitive bid process
in the summer time to
obtain renewal quotes
from our current carrier as well as
competing quotes from other
carriers in the market.
Sometimes we get good
quotes, sometimes we don't,
and this year we received proposals from,
in addition to our current carrier,
we received proposals from
AvMed, Cigna, and Aetna.
On the agenda item
you'll notice that AvMed
came back with a 13.9 percent decrease
compared to what we actually pay right now
and Cigna came back with
a 4.3 percent decrease
compared to our current cost.
Aetna, they ultimately came
back with a one percent
decrease compared to current cost.
The difference between
the plans, you know,
it's like everything, the
devil's in the details.
The AvMed plan, the network
is extremely limited
compared to United Healthcare,
which is what we have now.
They are very regional.
Most of Florida coverage,
some areas not covered,
a lot of out of network
areas and the out of network
coverage is not very good at all
as far as what the plan pays for,
so although it is a savings to the city
and potentially to the employees,
that would not be the
best option for the city.
It would be a severe reduction of benefits
from what employees currently enjoy.
Additionally it's a gatekeeper network.
You can't just get anything,
any kind of test or
procedure done at any time,
which is sort of what we can
do now with our current plan.
There really are no obstacles or hurdles
to getting healthcare.
With the AvMed plan there are a lot
of obstacles and they really control
and regulate the administration
of the healthcare
and it makes it very difficult for people,
so we, you know, in
discussions with our agents
at Garrun Group they agreed that that was
probably not the best fit for the city.
The plan for Cigna,
again, offers additional
reduction in cost, however,
when we look at the subsidy,
how it works for what people
pay for the insurance,
it actually would cost some employees
more money to have family coverage,
so it's not an equitable renewal.
We really couldn't do
that for our employees,
where some would get a
savings and a large number
of people that have family coverage
would actually pay more money.
Additionally, their plans are comparable,
their network is pretty comparable,
but again, we just don't,
just wouldn't really work for
us with our current structure.
The other thing I'll say
about when other companies
come in with a nice quote for us
where it's very attractive
and they say yeah,
we're gonna lower you 13
percent or four percent,
the problem is they don't know
the city's claims experience.
Our current carrier does.
They know the claims we have,
they know what the plan,
what it's costing them to insure us.
If other people quote
us a very low premium,
chances are that they're not
really taking into account
the health issues that
some of our covered people
have and after a year
of us being on the plan
they could come back with a very large,
substantial increase that would actually
wipe out the savings that we got
and then add more cost to it.
So there's always a risk
in switching carriers,
it would really have to be the right fit
at the right time and it
would have to work out
very well for everybody for us to switch.
So at this time we're recommending
that we continue with Florida
Municipal Insurance Trust
with United Healthcare plans,
it's a one percent savings in premium
compared to our current
cost and I'd recommend
that by motion the city
commission authorize renewal
of this coverage for fiscal year 2018-19.
I'd be happy to answer any questions.
- I'm kind of surprised the two,
the bigger ones in the state of Florida's
Humana and Florida Blue,
but they're not
participating at all on this?
- Well, Kristen from Garrun Group is here.
Did we receive any?
I didn't think so.
- Humana's commercial business
is not robust anymore.
They're movin' out of
the commercial market.
- And typically don't the other people
who are bidding have access
to the previous medical
complications or anything
else that's happenin' there?
- No.
- Any other questions?
Seeing none, hearing
none, we need a motion
so we can do this by motion.
- I'd like to make a motion to accept the,
as recommended by city administration,
to accept our current insurer, FMIT,
as the insurance group,
effective coverage
start October 1st, 2018.
- Second that motion.
- We have a motion and a
second. All in favor say aye.
- [All] Aye.
- Opposed, motion passes five zero.
Thank you, Frank.
- Thank you.
- Next item of new business.
Waive the bid process to purchase
three 2019 Ford Interceptor SUV vehicles
using Florida Sheriff Association to bid,
and one 2019 Chevy Impala.
- Good evening, Commissioners.
As we do every year we're
asking that you waive
the bid process for three
2019 Ford Interceptor
SUV vehicles utilized in the
Florida Sheriff Association
contract and one 2019
Chevy Impala utilized
in the National Joint
Powers Alliance bid award.
The proposed 2018-19 budget,
our general fund budget
and our forfeiture budget,
that includes the funds
that you approved
earlier this year in June
for the purchase of these four vehicles
and they will replace
high mileage vehicles
that have exceeded their useful life
in the police department.
Based on state contract
pricing it's been customary
to waive the bid process for the purchase
of the vehicles and
piggyback off the Florida
Sheriff Association contract,
which has historically
been the lower bidder.
The FSA contract provides the lowest price
for the 2019 Utility
vehicles and in the case
of the Chevy Impala,
we are utilizing the National
Joint Powers Alliance
contract which is providing
the better pricing on the Chevy Impala.
The following pricing is provided
by Allan Jay Automotive Network,
who is the vendor for the state of Florida
and our region and the
prices are listed there,
that the three 2019
Interceptor utility vehicles
are $93,492.75 and the
Chevy Impala is $26,921.25.
I'll give you the information
on the surplus vehicles momentarily.
It's important to note that Ford,
normally we put in for these
vehicles after October 1st,
but Ford is now accepting orders
for the 2019 Ford Interceptor utility
vehicles at 2018 pricing if we can get
the order submitted by September 1st.
It's kind of a timing issue this year.
Ford is doing away with the
manufacture of their cars,
focusing their attention on their SUVs
and there's been such a
demand for the vehicles
that they're looking to
get these orders in early.
If we don't get them in by this date
and it's not until
sometime after October 1st
it could be eight months to a year
before we get the vehicles.
Typically it takes four to five months.
The three 2019 Interceptor
utility vehicles,
as stated, are coming
from the general fund.
The purchase of the Chevy Impala will come
from forfeiture funds.
We're recommending that
the city commission
take the following action by motion.
Waive the bid process and
authorize the purchase
of three 2019 Ford
Interceptor utility vehicles
from Allan Jay Automotive for $93,492.75,
utilizing the Florida
Sheriff Association contract,
utilizing future needs purchase financing,
and waive the bid process
and authorize the purchase
of one 2019 Chevy Impala from Allan Jay
Automotive Network at
a cost of $26,921.25,
utilizing the National Joint
Power Alliance contract,
utilizing federal forfeiture funds.
In addition we're also recommending
that you declare the following
vehicles as surplus property.
I'm not gonna spell it all out,
but there's three 2010 Ford
Crown Victoria vehicles,
the VIN numbers noted,
and one 2008 Ford Taurus.
Incidentally, we are
now gonna be rid of all
of the Ford Crown Victoria vehicles.
- Are the Crown Vics worth anything?
- I mean, we've been getting
some decent money for 'em.
You know, these are now
over 100,000 mile vehicles
and they're almost 10 years old,
so, you know, we may get
1,200 to 1,500 bucks for 'em.
- Really.
- I just saw Miami Police had one
painted to match Winwood and they were
using it as a car in the Winwood area
for, you know, community
relations and everything.
I don't know if Becky might want one
to, you know, paint up for use
in the park for community relations.
Give up her Explorer or somethin'.
- Hell, no.
(laughing)
- Mr. City Attorney, should we do these
by separate motion, do it all together?
- You can do 'em all together,
you know, unless there's any concern
with either one of the bid processes
because they both have to be waivered,
excuse me, they have to be unanimous,
so unless there's any concern by anybody
it can be a single motion.
- Including the surplus?
- Yes.
- Okay, commissioners, any
questions for the chief?
- There are no questions.
- Mike is sneezing.
- Sorry, I have one quick question.
You said that the three Interceptors
are coming out of the general fund.
Were those budgeted items?
- Yes.
- All right, having no further questions
I would offer a motion
to waive the bid process
and purchase three 2019 Ford
Interceptor SUV vehicles
and one 2019 Chevy Impala as well as
declaring three vehicles
as described by the chief as surplus.
- The motion is--
- It was four vehicles.
- I'm sorry, four vehicles,
as described by the chief, as surplus.
- We have a motion.
- Second.
- We have a motion and second.
All in favor say aye.
- [All] Aye.
- Opposed, motion passes five zero.
Thank you Chief.
On our agenda, new
business item number three.
Consider declaring public works truck,
old number 412, apparently,
as surplus property.
Couldn't get one more year out of it?
- Did I put old in there?
- No, it's just 1992, so I added--
- We could get another
year if it was running.
- Fair enough.
- So the Public Works Department has
a 1992 GMC 3500 flatbed truck.
It's at the end of its lifespan.
It has served as tripper truck,
general hauling and maintenance vehicle,
and presently as the water tanker truck,
so I have a list here of
the things wrong with it.
When it had brake issues, which is what
took it off the road 'cause it was unsafe,
I had the city mechanic go through it
and without spending a
thousand dollars of his time,
gimme a quick, short litany
of other issues that it had.
Those are listed here.
A rough estimate for repairs
to make it road worthy
is 13 to $17,000.
Kelly Blue Book was 1,500
to 2,700 for fair condition,
but they don't offer poor and no running,
so it's probably lower than that.
- And no brakes.
- So I have an estimated
$1,200 for auction.
That could be optimistic,
but there's a lot of steel
and that's recyclable as well.
On a positive note, we purchased
a water trailer this year
and it's much more versatile.
We can tow it with almost
all of our pickup trucks.
So at this time I would recommend
the city commission declare
public works truck 412,
1992 GMC 3500 flatbed, as
surplus property to sell,
trade, or auction with the
approval of city administration.
- I can make that motion.
- We have a motion.
- I'll second it.
- We have a motion, we have a
second. All in favor say aye.
- [All] Aye.
- Opposed, motion passes five zero.
- Thank you.
- On to ordinances, first
reading of an ordinance
amending the Florida Municipal Trust Fund
defined benefit plans,
the trust for police
officers and firefighters.
They have a collective
bargaining agreement
with Metro Broward
Firefighters Local 3080.
City Attorney Cirullo.
- This is an ordinance
to amend the trust fund
so that it would allow the
changes to current plan.
I don't know if you have any questions,
that would be for Mr. Lavisky to answer.
- Questions?
- I just had a question.
How long, I mean,
looking through all this,
I know that there's a process behind it.
How long of a process is
it gonna take, roughly,
that you're hearin' from the state
and for us to start with
this, we're lookin' into.
- This is the first
reading of the ordinance
and we're gonna bring it back
on September the 12th
for the second reading.
There's also gonna be a resolution
that you have to pass that is kind of,
we'll send to FRS to tell
FRS, yes we are joining FRS.
So this ordinance modifies the plan.
We have a collective bargaining agreement,
now we have to have reso
to tell FRS we are joining.
We've gotta send ballots
out to the members
to see what they wanna do,
whether they wanna join FRS or not.
It's not a secret ballot,
should be a quick process.
If everything goes perfect,
everything goes perfect
we could be finished by 1 October.
- Oh wow.
- With the firefighters
enrolled and start paying in,
and that's a very fast train
that nothing holds us up.
But now the police officers
is gonna be different,
'cause they're (mumbles).
- And I'll just add that Frank has already
uploaded all of the
employee information to FRS,
so they have that already,
so it's just a matter of doin' the steps.
- Right.
- Commissioner Maucker,
we need a motion to read.
You wanna get that out of the way?
- Yeah, I'll do a motion to read.
- Second.
- An ordinance of the city commission
of the city of Lighthouse Point, Florida
providing for modifications for Florida
Municipal Trust Fund defined benefit plan,
in trust for the police
officers and firefighters
of the city of Lighthouse
Point adoption agreement,
providing for conflict,
serviceability, and effective date.
- Yeah, as I understand,
during the discussions,
there was some talk about FRS doesn't just
rubber stamp your approval,
you just can't go in it, you
have to meet certain criteria.
Is this the process that we
use to meet that criteria?
- Yes, that's correct.
This ordinance has been routed through
the Florida League of
Cities and also through FRS,
so we're workin' with
Jim Krausen's office,
David Miller, a lawyer
at Jim Krausen's office,
he is a pension expert and he's walkin'
us through the entire process.
- Okay, good, so there's no sneaky thing
after that could trip us up.
- If there is we don't know about it
and FRS has been very, I mean,
they've been very responsive
through this process.
- Good, okay, that answers my question.
- Just a quick question.
When we have our second reading
will we have the resolution
right after that?
- Yes, yes.
- So it'll be same day, perfect.
- With all that being said,
I'd offer a motion to
approve resolution 2018 0967
providing for modifications
for the Florida
Municipal Trust Fund defined benefit plan,
in trust for the police
officers and firefighters
of the city adopted agreement,
providing for conflict,
providing for serviceability,
and providing effective date.
- We have a motion and a
second by Commissioner Johnson.
All in favor?
- [All] Aye.
- Opposed, motion passes five zero.
On to resolutions.
The next item is a resolution approving
an second amended and restated solid waste
and recycling collection contract
with Waste Management, Inc. of Florida.
Agenda items five and six
both involve Waste Management.
I am going to, as I've done in the past,
recuse myself on those items.
My wife, as I've disclosed before,
is an attorney with the law firm
of Holland and Knight and provides
legal services to Waste Management,
so I'm gonna recuse myself.
I will pass, and I have filled out
the appropriate form, eight, I believe,
and I will pass the gavel to the capable
and competent hands of
Vice-President Maucker
to preside over these items.
- Thank you, Mr. President,
and I will return it to you
depending on your behavior going forward.
- I've been a good boy so far.
- Based on your conduct so far
I say you've got a good chance.
- Thank you.
- All right, we need a motion to read.
- Motion to read.
- Second.
- A resolution of the city commission
of the city of Lighthouse Point, Florida
approving and authorizing the proper
city officials to execute
a second amendment
to the amended and restated solid waste
and recycling collection contract
with Waste Management, Inc. of Florida
and providing for an effective date.
All right, are there any questions?
Comments, anybody, on this resolution?
Hearing none, do we have a motion
to approve this resolution?
- Motion to approve resolution 2018-2211.
- I'll second.
- All right, we have a
motion, we have a second.
All those that approve
please signify by saying aye.
- [All] Aye.
- Opposed, hearing
none, resolution passed.
Okay, so we're gonna go to number six
and we have agenda item number six,
waive the bid process and adopt
another resolution for recycling services.
Do we have a motion to
read the resolution?
- I'll make a motion to read.
- Second.
- A resolution of the city commission
of the city of Lighthouse Point, Florida
approving and authorizing
the proper city officials
to execute a recycling services agreement
with Waste Management, Inc. of Florida
and providing for an effective date.
Just for the record, just a note.
If you pass this
resolution it is operating
also to waive the bid process
to do recycling services
with Waste Management
so this would need to be unanimous.
- All right, Sandy.
- Yeah, I just wanna know if we could,
in our newsletter or on
our website or something,
be very specific over exactly what needs
to go in that recycling because so much
has come up recently in last months
showing that some of the things
that we thought were fine to recycle,
you can't recycle.
And also I wanted to know,
what's the degree,
because there's a penalty
if you put too much dirty stuff in there,
what exactly do you have to do with them
to make them clean enough to recycle,
like if you have a jar of spaghetti sauce,
do you actually have to wash it,
do all that stuff with it?
So I would just like to see that clarified
so that people that have
questions like I have
would be able to know
just what you have to do
and I saw somewhere
where you're not supposed
to put bottles in with labels on 'em,
but almost every bottle has a label,
so do you have to soak the label off
before you put the bottle in?
So if we could just get
a really specific thing
from Waste Management, exact, specific,
and put it on, like I said, our website
or the newsletter so that people know.
- John, how would we do that?
- You don't put dirty things in there.
- We have an insert
going in the newsletter
going out and we've
uploaded more information
on the website and the
question about whether
you should clean out a jar.
Well, jars break and if
there's residue in the jar
and it breaks you can
contaminate the material
'cause you're mixing glass and
paper, everything together.
- What about the labels on the jars?
- I've never heard of that before.
- I don't know where I saw it.
- Well, I was always under the impression
that it kind of gets crushed and pulped
and washed and everything else
but the oils were the problem.
The pizza box is the
part that surprised me.
- It's single string so it's all together
as it goes to the plant
and if somethin' breaks
when it's in the truck or in the--
- So if you leave that
half filled Coke bottle in
and it gets crushed in the
truck guess what happens?
- But if you put like a can of soda
or a can of beer and you rinse it out
you don't have to put soap and--
- No.
- You know, go really waste
a whole bunch of water.
Just as long as it's rinsed.
- Well, we'll trust John
to get that information
inserted as stated so we
can clarify the best we can.
Van Buskirk?
- I mean, I saw a couple, and we all know
that other cities have been going
through this recycling issue.
There was a, Waste Management
assisted in putting out a,
I wanna say it was about
a five minute clip on,
basically like a video. I
thought it was pretty good.
I don't necessarily know
how we get it out there.
I mean, I don't know, you have it, okay.
I thought it was a very good little clip,
I mean, it was really informative,
they didn't have to read through it,
it was somethin' that
you could always look up.
I actually think it's on
YouTube permanently also,
but if we could find
some way to attach that
to the city's website so
people that are looking on
can say okay, and it was kind of catchy,
it was little, they did a good job.
- Included in this
agreement is advertisement,
or education that the city
and Waste Management's
gonna participate in together.
- And the styrofoam, what's
on the bottom of those things
of which of those things really can go in,
in your doggy bags, which can
really go into the recycling?
Because I thought there
were certain symbols
that said you could but then in Deerfield
they were saying that you can't
and then also plastic bags.
I know you can't put
the Publix plastic bags,
but I see, like Bed, Bath, and Beyond
gives you a plastic bag and right on it
it says please recycle this bag.
So is it all plastic bags that you--
- They don't want plastic
bags in the containers,
they don't want styrofoam
in the containers.
- So none of those, even
though they have that thing
on it that supposedly means it's okay.
- Luigi Pace is here
from Waste Management.
He can answer all of these questions.
- I can answer some of 'em.
- Yes.
- Good evening, Luigi Pace
with Waste Management.
Plastic bags are very bad for the system.
They tangle up all the
gears and the star screen
and then you have to shut
down the entire plant
in order to clean that out.
- And then what about
the supposed recycles
on the doggy bag thingies they
have like a triangle on this.
- In all the information
we're gonna pass along
it's gonna tell you exactly
which material can go in there.
Styrofoam is bad, there's
no market for that.
- So even though it has
the recycle symbol on it
it's not--
- Yes sir.
- And I think there's confusion with that
because I used to always wash 'em out
and put those in 'cause
I thought they were okay.
- If it's the styrofoam
we just can't take it.
- So let's educate everybody
so we can make your job easier.
- And we've got a ton of
material and the videos
and all that, we can put it on the website
if that's what you wish to do
and work to get that
information out to everybody.
- Great, all right, thank you.
- You're welcome.
- Okay, after that very helpful discussion
do we have any further before
somebody offers a motion?
- I make a motion to waive the bid process
and adopt the resolution approving
the recycling services agreement between
the city of Lighthouse Point
and Waste Management, Inc.
- Second.
- All right, we have a
motion and we have a second.
All those in favor please
signify by voting aye.
- [All] Aye.
- Any opposed?
Okay, is there anything
else on Waste Management
that we can't hand over to Jason?
- No, but you're doin' great, keep it up.
- Well, maybe we'll just go through
this thing and whip it out.
I'm going to turn back
over to Mr. President, sir.
- On to agenda item number seven,
a resolution approving
a highway maintenance
memorandum of agreement for
the IBIS bridge replacement
located on Northeast 23rd Avenue
between 29th and 30th streets.
(background noise drowns out speaker)
- Yes sir, and I can't wait for that
YouTube video to be up there.
I'll tell people please watch
the video without confusion.
- So the Florida Department
of Transportation,
as we all know, is gonna replace
the bridge over the IBIS waterway.
Design and pre-construction
activities are underway.
The construction is still scheduled
to begin in July of 2019.
The project is funded by the department
and it's part of their
bridge replacement program.
As part of us getting the bridge
they require maintenance
memorandum of agreement,
which basically gives the FDOT permission,
and their contractors permission,
to work in the city right of way
to construct the project and we also agree
to maintain the infrastructure
perpetually afterwards.
So what you have before
you is the resolution
and maintenance memorandum
of agreement as attachments.
Presently there's no financial impact.
There will be once we start
maintaining it after it's built.
So at this point I recommend
the city commission
approve the resolution adopting
the highway maintenance
memorandum of agreement
with the Department of Transportation
and authorized city administrator
to execute the agreement.
- Commissioners, do we
have a motion to read?
- I'll offer a motion to read.
- Second.
- A resolution of the city commission
of the city of Lighthouse Point, Florida
approving the highway maintenance
memorandum of agreement
from the state of Florida
Department of Transportation
for project 43435915201
for the reconstruction of the IBIS bridge
number 867202 located
at Northeast 23rd Avenue
between Northeast 29th Street
and Northeast 30th Street,
providing for conflicts,
serviceability, and effective date.
- Commissioners, just
to Mr. Benson's point,
then we'll take questions,
but just to frame it, this is not,
by my observation, the actual contract
for the construction of the bridge,
it simply allows the eventual contractor
permission to get on city property,
do the job, and then once
they finish building it,
it's our problem, it's our bridge,
and we gotta deal with it.
- That's correct.
- So this won't be the contract,
but to Mr. Benson's point,
that contract will be heavily scrutinized
and we'll try and put all
the bells and whistles
on it that we can this time around.
- Commissioner, is there anything further?
- That's very important.
- Other than I live one house away
from this project, so I agree.
- To Mr. Benson's point, though,
I have yet to find a contract,
and if I can write one that literally
allows you to just reach
into somebody's bank account
and take the money that
you think is theirs,
so I think that's the litigation
we're kind of going through right now.
We have a contract, we believe our rights
were (mumbles) on that contract,
but we unfortunately have
to go through the process,
but that doesn't mean eventual contracts
should not be scrutinized, so--
- Can we change the contract
when it's FDOT that's doing it?
- I don't think we can.
- We have to do what they,
they're the ones hired
the minority contractor
last time that caused all the problems,
but it's their thing, not ours.
- That's correct, we do not have a say
in the selection of the contractor.
- Commissioner, is there anything
further on this, questions?
- No, now that you beat it to death
I would offer a motion to pass
resolution 2018 2213 approving
the highway maintenance
moratorium agreement.
- Memorandum.
- Memorandum, I'm sorry.
- I'm gonna get you new glasses.
- We have a motion, we have
a second. All in favor?
- [All] Aye.
- Motion passes five zero.
Thank you, Chuck.
Oh, you're up again.
- I'm up.
- Drainage infrastructure inspection,
cleaning, and repair, RFP 2018 0007.
- Yes sir, thank you again.
Regular cleaning, inspections, and repairs
are necessary for our drainage system.
Additionally we are
required to do this work
to retain our storm
water co-permitee status
with Broward County with the
drainage permit with the state
and also keeping our systems clean
and functioning properly helps keep
our surface waters clean, so we,
in an effort to make a proactive approach
towards this maintenance and repairs,
we advertised an RFP, request
for proposal back in June,
and a selection committee was formed,
and we received the following bids
as a response to our RFP.
Envirowaste Services
Group, just to backtrack,
we advertised some basic line items
that we anticipate are gonna
be needed for cleaning,
maintenance and repairs and this is how
they responded to that.
There were some linear footages
for different sized pipes,
different liners, different
cleaning activities,
different sized pipes
(background noise drowns
out speaker) and everything,
so each company bid based
on their in house prices.
Envirowaste Services Group $179,309.50.
Hinterland Group from
Riviera Beach, $188,718.
Insituform Technologies
from Cheserfield, Missouri,
where they're based, $352,873.
Layne Inliner from Sanford,
Florida, $184,974.10
Ric-Man Construction of Florida
in Deerfield Beach, $211,293.
Shenline LLC of Pompano
Beach, $176,016.04,
and Vac Vision Environmental
from Tampa, $249,941.
So we had three bids
that were fairly close
to each other for low bids,
so rather than just base it off of what
was in the RFP we asked the city engineer
to come up with a real project,
basically right out here, 38th Street,
there are some drainage issues there.
There's eight basins, and what do we have,
over a thousand feet of drainage pipe
that's in need of repair and lining.
And so we wrote up a scope and we went
to these three lower bids and we based
that job on their prices
and the city engineer
did an analysis and Shenline LLC,
for them to do the job would be $119,210.
Layne Inliner, $125,310.
And Envirowaste Group
would be $158,505.05,
so based on those
numbers in a real project
and the other data we assembled,
I'm here tonight to recommend
the selection of Shenline LLC
as the lowest, most responsive bidder
and authorize the expenditure of funds
in the amount of approximately
$100,000 per year
for this maintenance
and cleaning activities
from the storm water fund and authorize
the appropriate city officials
to execute the documents.
- Motion to read?
- I'll offer a motion to read.
- Second.
- A resolution of the city commission
of the city of Lighthouse Point, Florida
awarding the bid to
Shenline LLC and to approve
an agreement for drainage infrastructure
inspection, cleaning, and
repair, RFP number 2018 007,
authorizing the expenditure of funds,
authorizing the appropriate city officials
to execute the agreement
and all necessary documents
and provide for an effective date.
- Discussion, commissioners?
- Motion to pass.
- Second.
- We have a motion and second.
All in favor say aye.
- [All] Aye.
- Opposed, motion passes five zero.
Thank you.
- Thank you very much.
- And Chuck, quickly, right
by my house, 25th Street--
- Right.
- There's a little hole that's starting
in the middle of that
area between two drains.
- Oh, on the side street right in front
of your house and 25th Street, okay,
I'll look at it tomorrow.
- Yeah, those two drains,
right in the middle,
it's startin' to--
- In the middle of the road.
- Concave between the two of 'em.
- Okay, thank you.
- Thank you, Chuck.
Item number nine, an item that I think
everybody is happy to see,
resolution approving a
collective bargaining agreement
between the city of Lighthouse Point
and the Broward County Police
Benevolent Association.
City Administrator Lavisky.
- Mr. President, Commissioners,
the Broward County PBA
has ratified the contract
and now it's up to the city commission
to approve it before it's adopted.
The agreement is
effective 1 October, 2018.
It has a one percent base
increase beginning then.
Second year of the contract a
one percent base pay increase
and the third year of the
agreement's a two percent
base pay increase.
The changes to the pension are similar
to what the fire department agreed to.
There's one small change on
their inservice distribution.
The police officers are
guaranteed a minimum of four years
and the most they could get
of inservice distribution
is six years, where the
firefighters agreed to no minimum,
but the most they can get is seven
years inservice distribution.
There's also a change
in the market adjustment
in lieu of take home cars.
The payment is $3,000 a year,
now it's gonna go up to
$3,600 the first year
and then the second year it'll be $3,900
and then the third year it'll be $3,900.
Other than that it's pretty much
what the fire department agreed to.
We request the city commission
adopt a resolution approving
the collective bargain
agreement with the PBA.
- Motion to read?
- Second.
- No, I need a motion to read,
I can't make any motion--
- Oh, I--
- So, motion to read?
- I'll first it, second,
third, whatever it takes.
- I think that's a submission of record.
We'll go with motion made
by Commissioner Maucker,
seconded by Commissioner Long.
- A resolution of the city commission
of the city of Lighthouse Point, Florida
approving the collective
bargaining agreement
between the city of Lighthouse Point
and the Broward County Police
Benevolent Association, PBA,
which agreement shall be
effective October 1, 2018
and shall remain in full
force and effect through
September 30, 2021 and
providing for an effective date.
- Commissioners, Mr. Maucker,
is there a favored nations clause?
- There is one in the
firefighter contract.
There is not one in the police contract.
- Okay.
- What does that mean?
- It means that if one gets it the other--
- Me too.
- It's called a me too clause.
- If they think somethin's
better they get to
evaluate and vote on whether they think
it's better or not.
- The firefighters can ask for something
identical to the police
department if they so wish.
- Correct.
- Okay, is there any further discussion?
If not, I'll offer a
motion to pass resolution
approving the collective
bargaining agreement
between the city and the Broward
Police Benevolent Association.
- I'll second.
- We have a motion and a
second. All in favor say aye.
- [All] Aye.
- Opposed, motion passes five zero.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Amen.
- It's interesting to (mumbles)
- All right, final item on the agenda.
Resolution recognizing
the 50th anniversary
of constitutional home rule.
- Mr. President, members
of the city commission,
it's the standard (mumbles) promotion
of Florida's home rule,
which was voted in by Florida voters
in November of 1968 and implemented with
the Home Rule Act, which
was a few years later,
but we all recognize that as about 1973,
but regardless, the
constitution was passed
with this and this resolution, I guess,
honors that, acknowledges that,
and provides that we will continue
to pursue all of the rights of home rule
on behalf of the residents of
the city of Lighthouse Point.
- We have a motion to read?
- I'll make a motion.
- Motion to read by Commissioner Johnson.
- Second.
- A resolution of the city commission
of the city of Lighthouse Point, Florida
honoring 50 years of municipal home rule
in the Florida constitution
and committing to an
educational initiative
to help Floridians to
understand the beneficial right
and provide for an effective date.
- Discussion?
- Motion to pass.
- Second.
- We have a motion, we have a second
on resolution 2018 2216.
All in favor?
- [All] Aye.
- Opposed, motion passes five zero.
That brings us to the
end of our agenda items.
We come to public comments
and requests from the floor.
Unlike the first part of the meeting
this can be for anything,
so if you would like to
address the commission
on anything that's on your
mind please come forward,
state your name and address
and you'll have three minutes to speak.
Batter up.
- Good evening everybody.
Jim Terlizzi 3810 27th Avenue.
My sole purpose here is to say thank you
to the Mayor and Commission for your help
with FPNL, the situation involving
several hundred homes has
been greatly resolved.
I understand they have installed
the underground lines and done
a lot of tree trimming, et cetera.
It's not complete, but
it's far better than it was
and it's thanks to you
people that got them started
and they say they are continuing.
I spoke with Mr. Hogans recently
and he told me that they're
still working on it,
but it's a lot better, and thank you all.
- Thank you.
- Thanks, Jim.
- What kind of underground lines?
- Did you, one second.
- No, I just wondered what
kind of underground lines.
- Did they do it to your house, Jim?
- No, this was over at
the 44th Street area.
Underground lines that were suffering
from saltwater intrusion.
They tell me now about a month ago
they finally replaced those lines.
- Right, what happened is the glue
that holds the conduit
together had broken down
and water got into it and saltwater
and electricity don't
do real well together,
and that's, they went in and they
had 'em do some digging.
The other thing I noticed over there, Jim,
is that they have done a tremendous
amount of tree trimming--
- Yes, they have, I agree.
And thank you again.
If it wasn't for you
folks getting involved
it might have happened--
- You bringing it to our
attention, so thank you.
- Thank you.
- Sorry to interrupt, go ahead.
- No worries, Danny Slavich,
2131 Northeast 33rd Street.
Just introducing myself formally.
I am the pastor of Cross United Church.
We're a new church and don't actually
have a physical location but we're gonna
be meeting at Trinity Church
starting on September 9th and we're
just really here to do what you all
are here to do and that's just to
serve the city in any way we can.
I'm a newcomer, relatively speaking,
to Lighthouse Point, my
wife is a longtime resident.
Her grandparents moved here in 1958
and so we're just grateful to be here
alongside you all and
just wanted to say hello
and so you would know who
was offering invocation.
Thank you to Commissioner
Buskirk for inviting me
and looking forward to
serving alongside you.
- Danny, are you affiliated
with the Cross Church
that's up in Deerfield off of 2nd?
- We're not, no.
- You're not, okay.
- Just the name, okay, got it.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- Welcome to the city.
Any other public comments?
Seeing none, hearing none,
we'll close public comment.
Communications from commissioners.
Who'd like to go first?
Anyone, Commissioner Van Buskirk.
- Sure, I'll go for it.
A couple things, I don't know
if anybody noticed today,
actually I went to go vote this afternoon
and they ran out of ballots for the city,
so I thought that was kind of interesting.
They utilized their automated system.
It was the first time they ever had to use
that automated system
here and the gentleman
broke out the book, the
manual, and we did it together,
so it was kind of interesting.
I just hope in the future, you know,
as we come up on our big referendum
comin' up here in
November that we hopefully
don't have an issue where we're doing
multiple different styles of balloting
'cause it is a little nerve wracking
when you walk in and they go yeah,
we're all out of your type of ballot.
- Is that at the yacht club?
- No, I voted here.
- 'Cause I just got a text from a resident
who said they ran out of Republican
ballots at the yacht club.
- Yes, it was as of in here
'cause I do vote Republican,
they ran out of Republican,
yeah, I asked the same exact question.
They said they brought
the same amount for both.
I said okay.
- Listen, if you were
no political preference
that wouldn't have been a problem.
- There was a stack of 'em like that big.
It wasn't even opened yet,
there was still plastic on it.
But I just, I wanted to bring that up
because it was important,
the fact that we need to make sure
that comin' up here in the near future
that they have plenty of
election ballots for us.
- What can we do about that?
- I was gonna ask Mike, is there someone
in your office that can
reach out to the SOE's office
and find out what's
goin' on, I don't know--
- That's not cool.
- Yeah, I can--
- Yeah, that's terrible.
- I can figure out a way
to talk with somebody.
I mean--
- Maybe even if it's counsel for the SOE.
This shouldn't happen.
I voted by mail this go round
and my wife actually received two ballots.
- Did she vote for both--
- I'll be honest, it
was both the same party.
- It was very interesting
'cause the gentleman said
well, I haven't used this system--
- What time of day was that?
- 4:30, before I came
in here for our meeting.
- Oh my gosh.
- I mean he had to break out the book.
He went through the whole entire thing,
it seemed all good, but again,
it was just very odd that you'd have to
go ahead and vote like that.
Secondly, I actually brought somethin' up
to John Lavisky the other day
on a discussion, we have a timeline,
however you wanna phrase it,
5050 North Federal Highway.
Basically we've been under construction
for almost three years over there
at the communications company.
I know that we had to
do some infrastructure
work there and then we
had some drainage issues.
I know they removed Australian pines,
but that building has legitimately
been under construction for three years.
You know, we, not even
two and a half years ago,
if I recall correctly, we put an ordinance
into effect to make sure that we had
our homeowners, they were not burdened
by their next door
neighbors under construction
for two, three, four, five, six years.
Some of the residents were takin' up to
eight or nine years to build a house.
I think we need to look into,
the fact is, in a
reasonable time, obviously,
that we are able to push somebody
to finish the construction specifically
over at that 5050 building.
'Cause I looked the other day,
I thought oh, maybe they're getting close,
and then yesterday the
doors were wide open
and there's not even a roof on the place
and I was like, wow, I
mean, that's a long time
for us to be, and that is part of our
very small frontage of the city
and to start off by lookin' at that,
the city, I think, is
definitely a drawback.
So I really wanted to think if we wanted
to talk about it or at least review it
if everybody's interested,
we might put somethin' on the discussion
to talk about whether we wanna
have a timeframe for construction
on commercial properties,
so that's one of the things
I just wanted to bring up.
- I mean I know we had
the issue with permits
and how long they could
go without being redone.
It doesn't look like
they've done anything,
I mean, the rest of the
property's been renovated,
at least the front of it,
of the shopping center,
so what is going on with
the actual building?
- There are two different owners--
- Right, so this is has been segregated
into just this piece
here, nothin's happening.
- Well, I'm not going to,
I'm not defending them,
I wish the building was finished.
The way the ordinance was written
was it affected single
family homes and duplexes
and commercial properties that didn't
have to go to the
planning and zoning board,
the time limits on, so somebody at 5070
who's doin' that work,
they have, that ordinance
is applicable to them.
The way the ordinance was written
is a building like 5050,
the planning and zoning
board puts a time limit
requirement on them, which they can,
which they can do, they can
put a construction limit
on them, so that's in the ordinance now.
I believe this project
predates that ordinance
'cause it's been goin' on forever.
I know, too, anytime there's a disaster,
somethin' happens in the state
and there's a declared emergency,
and Mike can talk better about this,
building permits are extended too.
It's, I think it's very
difficult sometimes
to regulate the time of construction
of commercial buildings.
- Well, yeah, the
declaration of emergencies,
if there's ever one
declared for whatever reason
in your county then
everything gets extended
based on the length of that
declaration of emergency
plus 180 days.
- Isn't there a question of how long
and when it starts, I remember--
- What, it's a question of
when the extension starts--
- Yeah, I just remember there was some--
- Well, the part that, we get overlapping
declarations of emergency, for example,
there was a declaration of emergency
last year where it was to allow,
because of all the rain in the
fields down in south Florida,
they lifted the weight limits for trucks
on the interstates so they
could haul the fruits out,
the vegetables out, and
they listed all the counties
that it applied to.
It had nothin' to do with redevelopment
or building permits in Lighthouse Point,
but under the statute that extended
the building permits in Lighthouse Point
because that statute is
not narrowly tailored
to natural disasters that directly affect
the site plan approval
or the building permit
or anything else, so, you know,
the green algae, if we happen to fall
within that emergency someday,
if it comes all the way up,
that'll extend building permits
and site plans in Broward County,
just the way that statute's written,
so we have to work within that system.
In Palm Beach County, for example,
on their website, tells
you that several hundred
days of extensions based
on all the emergencies
they've had with Lake
Okeechobee and everything else,
but we can look into that
issue and see what's going on.
- We've had three declared emergencies
that I can recall in the last two years.
And that's a year and a half
of extensions right there.
- But also what has actually been done?
This obviously has nothing to do
with a declared emergency.
What has actually been done
on that building in the last two years?
We forced 'em to put a fence up.
- It's under construction.
- Under construction means
somethin's happening.
- There's no top on it, there's no siding.
- Commissioner, other than having
a construction fence up and
them having active permits,
unless they're doin'
somethin' makin' a nuisance
or makin' noise, it's
a construction project
and we can't force 'em to move any faster.
- But they're not moving at all.
That's my question, has anything
been done that you've seen?
- It seems like we get a
lot and then it stops again.
- Yeah, I mean, all I
know is the other day
when I drove by and I saw the doors open
there was no roof on
the place, I was like--
- Yeah, that's been that
way for a long time.
- I'm like, there's still
no roof on this place?
I thought to myself, it's a look,
it's all about bein', you know,
like we wanted the folks
on the residential side,
we wanted to have somebody that came out
and made sure that we were
held accountable to our neighbors.
- To your point, I
think if we were to pass
some sort of ordinance that
would apply to that building
we can't do it now, we can't right now.
Not to that building, so, I
mean we're stuck with that,
but to your point, we want
to avoid that going forward.
- That's all I ask.
- Do we want, I think
it makes logical sense
to at least consider having
a discussion item on,
it's not something we're
gonna bang out now, but,
Commissioner Johnson.
- Can't we just call the developer
and ask what's happening?
- The developer is,
it's, they're overseas,
they're just not connected, the contractor
and developer have been
goin' back and forth.
They don't know really what they wanted.
They redesigned the building.
I mean, it's a bad situation
and our hands, as a city, are tied.
- If we passed something and they
came in with different
permits or plan changes,
wouldn't that then fall
under this new code
if we were to do that?
- If they came in with somethin'
that required approvals then it could,
depending on what the
ordinance says and whatnot.
But yeah, do you wanna discuss it
and give us some direction
of how you'd like
us to consider something,
but theoretically if they had to come in
for a whole new application,
whatever rights they had under the ones
that pre-existed the ordinance
they'd walk away from by
asking for new relief.
- But if nothing has
been done on this thing
couldn't we consider it
an abandoned building?
- They push dirt around
periodically, Mike.
- I mean, again, we haven't seen it.
We just see the fence up.
Obviously it's gonna be affecting
the livelihood of businesses next to it,
which is again, it's
that building that's now
causing them financial
hardship, it is an eyesore,
and we've been dealing with that eyesore
for probably 15, 20 years now.
When it was Thomasville, Ethan
Allen, or whatever it was--
- It was Ethan Allens.
- And nothing really is getting done,
so whatever games they're playing,
it's just not being done.
- When they (mumbles),
I'm not defending them,
I'm just telling you the way it is,
or advising, the Florida building code,
if you have a permit and
you call an inspection,
it's automatically
extended for six months.
That's how permits work.
You call an inspection,
you're doin' some work,
it's extended for six months.
- Not just in an emergency, in general.
- It's a shell with no roof,
what could they actually
have to have inspected?
- Let's see if Commissioner Maucker--
- What I'm suggesting is
forget the formal stuff,
'cause that's gonna take forever.
A phone call that says
to somebody responsible,
look, the city's gettin'
pretty upset about this
and they're gonna end up passing a formal
ordinance that's gonna really give you
a difficult time so how 'bout givin' us
some answers on what you're doing
and what's the timeframe
that you could finish
this up without us going
into a formal ordinance,
at least at this point,
just letting them know
the city's not happy
with this and they're
gonna do something about it
if you don't show some
signs of goin' forward.
- Yeah, I just--
- And in the meantime
should we move forward
with a possible ordinance?
- I would say let's see what John gets--
- Yeah, I'm fine with having a discussion,
I mean, we wanna--
- We wanna be proactive but I think
we need to let them know the city's not
gonna sit around forever.
- I guess, I take you at your word.
I know you're frustrated by this,
you're not defending them, I just,
it feels wrong that we have no,
that that building can
be under construction
for perpetuity, that's basically what
you're kind of telling us.
That doesn't seem right.
- I'm just thinkin' out loud.
- I could be wrong, the City Attorney
could tell me I'm wrong,
but that's how I understand
the Florida building code.
- All right.
- If we call a permit
inspection it extends permits
and that is a clause
with the building code
that I guess a lot of
contractors probably know about,
that property owners know about.
- All right, Commissioner Van Buskirk,
you had another item?
- We're gonna have this,
put this on the agenda
for further discussion.
I can't say it as eloquently
as you did previously,
in a previous meeting, but I think
it also ties into the fact that as we look
at a larger project in the city
that we do put time restraints
or building constraints on folks
that make sure that
they do the right thing,
so I think that that
all could tie together.
- I can think of a project that we
talked about tonight that we may--
- Like I said, I can't say
it as eloquently as you did,
but absolutely, it's
somethin' we should all
really be payin' attention to,
so I'm gonna skip the
last portion, I think.
- Okay, all right, anything else?
Commissioner Maucker?
- Yeah, a ticklish topic and I don't mean
to prolong the discussion but it's come up
and I wanna raise it at least so we can
have a little quick discussion.
With the advent of a new fire station,
some people are claiming that they
were promised if a new
fire station came along
that they were going to get fuel delivery
of gasoline to dockside and some
of these folks are
buying tens of thousands
of gallons so it's a lot of money.
And some are claiming,
whether it's accurate or not,
that they were told
when a new fire station
was built that we would begin to allow
fuel to be delivered.
I've talked to the fire chief about it
and obviously he knows, some
people have talked to him.
I've heard other people talk about it.
I just think we need to
clarify to our residents.
I don't know what in the
world a new fire station
would mean in terms of fuel delivery,
it's always been a question
of firefighting and so forth,
but anyway, it's cropped up again
and in some circles very false motives
have been put to it,
like we're being influenced
by sellers of fuel
and that type of thing,
but it's out there,
it's gonna crop up and others are claiming
well, I'll vote for a fire station
as long as we're now
gonna get, as promised,
fuel delivery of gasoline.
So it's out there, somehow
we're gonna need to address it,
I'm sure you've heard it, John,
I know Glenn and I have talked about it,
but it's out there.
It came up at an Exchange
Club meeting the other day
and it's percolating,
so we need to be ready
to answer that question if, you know,
other, many people are claiming
that other cities our size,
with our capabilities,
are allowing fuel, why can't
we let fuel be delivered?
Some people are going
across the property line
to Pompano to get it,
and again, we're talking
tens of thousands of gallons
so you're talkin' a lot of money
and they brought it up again,
so I'm bringing it up
for everybody to be aware
and make sure we have
got the right answers
when somebody claims we're doing
this for nefarious reasons.
- All right, anybody else?
I have one other item.
I'm getting, as I'm sure all of us are,
questions, back to the bond,
we've announced the election.
I'm just gettin' a lot of
questions about the bond
and I don't, well, the
first question I'm getting,
just to bring up for discussion and topic,
which I think is a good one,
the people that really
know about construction
and know about these type
of facilities and buildings
are asking me if this bond passes
and the green light is
given to do all these
wonderful projects, would the city
be retaining the services of some sort of
professional or project manager
to kind of quarterback it all?
And it seemed like a logical explanation--
- John and I just had this discussion.
- Okay, because it seemed like
it made a lot of sense and I didn't
have the answer and so, is that a yes?
- Yes.
(laughing)
What we'll be doing is, this'll have to
go through a whole process, CCNA,
in terms of getting the construction done,
hiring the contractor,
hiring the architect,
designing the facility--
- Making sure it's done
on time and on budget
and on schedule.
- All of this has to be done and part
of the process is that someone
needs to put in design criteria
to hire someone to do the design criteria,
then they can't bid on the project,
but they assist the city on all of these
other phases.
- But they would be a project,
this person would become
the project manager.
- Yes, they'd represent
us, they represent us.
- That is good to hear,
I thought it was logical.
I think it probably costs money,
but probably money well spent
because--
- Well, a lot of times it
can save you money too,
because there's a design
build aspect to it.
- Don't they call it value engineering?
- That's a separate phase
of that process, yes.
- Correct, yeah, 'cause
that's one of the things,
I know one of our residents brought it up
to make sure that when we
do put this out, you know,
with the bond, that we
do have value engineering
and make sure that we
are getting the value
for the engineering cost and makin' sure
they help us stay within range and say
where we can save money
here and do the right things
to make sure it's cheaper.
- Well, but you've gotta be careful
with value engineering
because there is a project
going on at a local
church in town right now
that they value engineered it
and it turned out the trusses that they
value engineered don't
meet the design criteria
and they had to go back to square one
on the roof trusses, so
it's a sticky wicket,
is what it comes down to,
but that's why you get an overall
project manager that kind of quarterbacks
you through all those processes.
- That's good to hear.
I'm gonna start educating on that topic,
and the only other thing I do wanna say
to get it off my chest and I'm not
meaning this as a criticism
'cause I know everybody in administration
has been very busy whether it's pensions,
bonds, yacht clubs, I, we've
got two months to educate.
I need numbers, I need information,
people are hungry for the information,
so please get us that stuff
'cause I wanna start answering questions
giving accurate information.
We all need to--
- You have a budget already.
- I have a budget, but, you know,
millage numbers, millage
increases per hundred thousand.
I know we talked about it with Frank,
but I'd like to see it in this,
I mean, I know you're
saying it's 70 percent of,
I'm not being critical, I promise,
but we've got two months and
I just, we need to start.
- Mm-hmm.
- Today.
- Okay.
- So I just wanted to
get, if I can get it,
but I just wanted to get that out there
because if you really think about it,
it's less than two months
because mail in voting,
early voting, all that kind
of stuff is gonna start
and it's gonna be a critical two months.
I know there's a sweet spot with getting
the information out and
getting people excited
and I think we're there, so
that's all I wanted to say.
I appreciate, I do
appreciate all the hard work
'cause I know it's not easy, both of you.
- Quick thing, we talked about closing
on the local Marathon station.
Did we absorb the leases for the,
'cause I know one of them
was a storage facility,
the Lighthouse Point Farms.
Is that a revenue source for us?
- Well, the storage facility leases
will be terminated prior to our closing.
- Okay.
- And they're, like, handshake deals.
- Will we have a staff
of lawyers going stuff
will be removed, all that kind of stuff?
- We have lawyers taking care
of all of that stuff, yes,
and then as far as the
C-store is concerned,
that lease is on a month
to month basis now,
so we will be meeting with the individual
that is operating that facility
and hopefully working out a timeframe
that they will leave
that will be mutually,
'cause we don't wanna have to get into
an eviction proceeding with somebody,
so they know that it's
being sold to the city,
Mr. Leonard told me last week that he's
already had the conversation with them,
so they know they're
going to have to leave.
I think a reasonable goal would be
the end of December for that to happen,
because don't forget, if
you allow the property
to continue to be leased then the city's
responsible for collection
and remitting of sales taxes,
the city's responsible
for the property taxes
on that particular parcel,
it gets very complicated.
So--
- We're not landlords.
- We don't wanna be in
the landlord business
is what it comes down to,
so I'm thinking a three month period
is a reasonable period
for someone to plan.
I'm not opposed if it laps
over a period of time,
but we're gonna have
to have that discussion
and I asked Jay to have the discussion
with the tenant and he
told me he already had.
- Okay.
Mr. Johnson, anything over there?
- No.
- Okay, anything else?
I believe that means we are adjourned.
Welcome back.
