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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDocumentation_Regular_Tab 06C_09/16/2004 MINUTES OF THE SECOND VILLAGE OF TEQUESTA VILLAGECOUNCIL BUDGET PLANNING WORKSHOP MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2004 I. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL The Village of Tequesta Village Council held a second Village Council Budget Planning Workshop meeting at the Tequesta Emergency Operations Center (EOC), Public Safety Facility, 357 Tequesta Drive, Tequesta, Florida, on Monday, August 30, 2004. The meeting was called to order at 2:32 P.M. by Mayor Watkins. A roll call was taken by Acting Village Clerk Betty Laur. The following elected officials were present: Mayor Fat Watkins, Viee Mayor Geraldine Genco, Councilmember Russell J. von Frank; and Councilmember Edward D. Resnik. Councilmember Jim Humpage was absent from the meeting. Also in attendance were Village Manager Michael R. Couzzo, Jr., Assistant Village Manager Bob Garlo, Acting Village Clerk Betty Laur, and Department Heads. II. DISCU5SION OF PROPOSED BUDGET Mayor Watkins announced the Village Council at their first budget workshop had reduced revenues but had not reduced expenditures sufficiently to balance the budget. Councilmember Resnik indicated he went through the budget and �uas able to balance the budget. Mayor Watkins reviewed typos in the description portion of the budget which needed to be corrected. Vice Mayor Genco con�mented the written dialague sometimes had typos but the buc�ge� w�s documented by a spreadsheet, and the general ledger figures had been approved. The summary documents were just summaries and the Council needed to go beyond that in looking at the appropriations from the various funds. The Vice Mayor asked how the entire amount budgeted for sick leave conversion could be gotten rid of if there had been a valid reason for it to be in the budget last time. Assistant Manager Garlo explained a sick time pay down had been done last year, which eradicated overages. Mr. Couzzo explained it was in the budget but was not approved since it was not needed. Vice Mayar Genco asked about t�e amount no longer in the police department, which was being increased in the other departments, to which the response was it was for civilian and executive personnel. The Vice Mayor asked if that didn't put the Village in a bad situation where the union could say we were penalizing union employees. Village Manager Couzzo commented that was certainly a possibility. Vice Mayor Genco MINUTES OF THE SECOND VILLAGE OF TEQUESTA VILLAGECOUNCIL BUDGET PLANNING WORKSHOP MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2004 PAGE 2 asked why we didn't just deal with the police department as a whole instead of individuals. Mr. Couzzo stated that was spoken about at the last meeting. The Vice Mayor responded that it was addressed as general employees versus poliee department; it was not addressed as general employees that were non-contract within the police department. Village Manager Couzzo stated, we could certa.inly do that. Vice Mayor �enco gave as an example 50 employees working within a police department working together and doing similar jobs, contract and non- contract employees, and the Village would be treating people within that department differently, which was different than treating people outside that department differently. Councilmember Resnik stated he specifically brought up at the last meeting that he supported giving all the police officers the same COLA even if it meant going back to them and saying we would like for the one year left to modify your contract to have your COLA equal the rest of the employees, the rest of the general employees and the police department, and he had been aware of the rest of the Councilmembers saying a contract is a contract, and that is it. Vice Mayor Genco commented she thought the problem was it had not been identified to the Couricil that within the police department itself there were non- contract employees who would be treated differently. Her concern was that now � all of a sudden they were looking at different sub-classses, and she did not want a problem to occur between classes within the same department. The Vice IVlayor asked if the Council wanted to think about whether they wanted to make an adjustment, and stated she was afraid of a union problem. There were four general employees plus five dispatchers in the police department that were not covered by the union. The four would benefit from whatever happened with general employees; the five dispatchers would be under a different union-- Communications Workers of Ameriea. Mr. Couzzo indicated 14 police officers would be affected. Vice Mayor Genco commented the amount was $8,250 for the nine employees; staff confirmed for 14 employees the amount would be around $14,000. Councilmember Resnik commented he understood this additional money to cover equitability of COLA within the police department was included in the $17,000 just deleted beeause of consensus at the last meeting. Vice Mayor Genco explained that was inaccurate because this had been represented to the Councii as sick leave conversion. The Vice Mayor indicated General Government No. 160.534.300 on page 16 showed other contractual services not budgeted $36,000, and questioned what that was for. Response was it was for Jack Cory, Public Affairs Consultant. Discussion ensued. It was noted there was $12,000 in other contractual services that could be moved to use toward equality in the police department. A staff member left to pull detail to determine if this could be done. Following further discussion of several accounts, consensus was reached to reduce 160.554.300 books, publications, subscriptions & memberships, by $5,000 to add to the $12,000 cover equality for the police department COLA. Vice Mayor Genco commented the Council now knew that sick leave conversion pay was meant to address the police COLA, and asked why in the last budget the MINUTES OF THE SECOND VILLAGE OF TEQUESTA VILLAGECOUNCIL BUDGET PLANNING WORKSHOP MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2004 PAGE 3 Council was presented with $27,300 for compensated absences and now were being told they did not have to worry about compensated absences. The Vice Mayor expressed concern that information had been presented one way two weeks ago and another way now. Tom Paterno asked if in the future police were getting 3% COLA and general employees were getting 1-1/2% COLA, if the contracts were going to be renegotiated, and asked what the policy was and if ttus was setting a precedent. Vice Mayor Genco stated he was 100% right, but her concern went beyond that--if the union was looking at union employees being penalized she was looking at the union coming back to the Village with litigation. Mr. Paterno asked if the police were getting more, would the Village tell general employees they would be given more, to which Vice Mayor Genco responded, no, what she thought should be done was to make union contracts much closer to what was being done for other employees and not to have disparity between classes. The Vice Mayor stated the Village had a decent relationship v�ith t�ie unions now and she would rather spend $17,000 than jeopardize that relationship. Councilmember Resnik commented that when it came to COLA, that contracting with various agencies, the Village should stipulate tnat the COLA would be in conformance with the Southeast COLA or whatever that was, so everyone received the same COLA. Vice Mayor Genco agreed 100% and if everyone agreed she thought that should be adopted as policy. Village Manager Couzzo commented when contracts were negotiated, the palice department said they did not want to tie it to any regional or national standard. Consensus of the Council was to spend the $17,000. Vice Mayor Genco stated they were waiting for the word from staff they could use the $12,000, and advised to try to do this with a letter of understanding instead of renegotiating, and explain the fairness issue. The Village Manager commented he did not anticipate this being a diff'icult negotiation. Viee Mayor Genco questioned debt service, stating at the last meeting Council had been presented with a hard line number for ambulance principal and interest of $34,820; now they were being told the number was $23,000 plus change, and asked why that changed_ Chief Weinand explained he had checked with the manufacturer and that ambulance was not going to be received until probably March, so the first six months of t�at cost was not needed. Vice Mayor Genco commented at the top under new, the $200,000 from Commissioner Marcus was shown bat it had not been received and at the bot�am the offset expense was shown under capital projects, and expressed the hope that everyone understood that although Mayor Watkins had probably seen the plan, she had not and did not know if the other Councilmembers had seen the plan; but by putting this in the budget the Council was conceptually adopting it without the Council having an opportunity to review it. Councilmember Resnik responded his understanding was the goal was $400,000 and there was $20,000 for the FEC project, for a total of $420,000. Vice Mayor Genco clarified she understood that, MINUTES OF THE SECOND VILLAGE OF TEQUESTA VILLAGECOUNCIL BUDGET PLANNING WORKSHOP MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2004 PAGE 4 but her question was more why chickens were being counted before they were hatched. Village Manager Couzzo commented if in October the Village found out they were not going to get that money, it could be reduced. Finance Director Forsythe commented it could be taken out now. Councilmember Resnik commented the budget was really a planning document which could be adjusted and he had faith the Village would get the money. Mayor VJatkins advised that Commissioner Marcus' office had been contacted to make sure it was okay to put it in the budget. Vice Mayor Genco asked for clarification for her own understanding as to why last year there was an amount in public safety utilities and nothing now. Police Chief Allison confirmed the amount had been moved into the police budgets. Vice Mayor Genco asked if everyone was comfortable in showing the $200,000, and the consensus was yes. The Vice Mayor commented it looked like all capital funds had been used up so as of the end of 2005 more money would have to be found before any more capital projects could be done, and asked if everyone was on the same page with this, to which the response from everyone was yes. Vice Mayor Genco commented she thought policy was that 5% of revenues was always set aside for reserves to be used for emergencies and that was no longer being done, and although there was currently $1 million for a disaster, it was her opinion that needed to be built back up. Councilmember Resnik commented he dic� not disagree, but this year operation and maintenance of the Village was being funded, plus a new Village Hall, plus a new well, plus a lot of other things, but a point should be made of doing it next year. Vice Mayor Genca commented there were other things such as bridge repair, and a lot of expense was being tatcen on which was depleting savings, and asked if this was going to be the Council's philosophy. Councilmember von Frank indicated this was just a projection, to which the Vice Mayor responded the Council was allocating the money now. Councilmember von Frank stated it did not have to be spent. The Vice Mayor stated all of these things would be done this year and 95% of the funds would be spent, and she wanted to make sure, because there had been misunderstandings in the past because the Council did not take time to discuss it. Mayor Watkins expressed her opinion everyone on the Council wanted to be fiscally conservative but she did not think people could be ta�ced when there was a$5 million reserve, and there must be a balance. Vice Mayor Genco explained her opinion was based on what she had learned from Florida League of Cities and from other municipalities. Councilmember Resnik commented last year the Council agreed to maintain designated reserve of $1 million as a base for emergencies, but also had $1.3 million undesignated. Vice Mayor Genco stated a lot of that was encumbered. Mr. Paterno asked if the Vice Mayor was bringing a percentage to the table, to which she responded yes, other municipalities and Florida League of Cities set aside a percentage such as 5% a yeaz to be built up to cover 6 months MINUTES OF THE SECOND VILLAGE OF TEQUESTA VILLAGECOUNCIL BUDGET PLANNING WORKSHOP MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2004 PAGES operations, and a year would be better. Councilmember Resnik stated the Village had almost 50% of their operating budget in reserves. Vice Mayor Genco responded she was trying to make sure everyone understood and was on the same page to build up emergency reserves. Howard Morton stated Hurricane Frances was a category 4 hurricane 5 days out, and that was a reminder. Vice Mayor Genco was discussing philosophy and thought the Village Manager should have pointed this out. Councilmember Resnik commented the Village Manager had been told last year the Council wanted to use reserves to build a Village Hall, and he felt a percentage was needed to go to reserves. The Vice Mayor commented he was with the concept, and the Council needed to direct the manager on the next budget to put more aside. Money coming in was discussed and the Village should come up with good capita.l improvement projects. Mayor Watkins agreed that everyone should be very conscious of what was going on with reserves, and everyone was on the same page. Staff reported the $12,000 and $5,000 discussed earlier was available for the police CQLA. Vice Mayor Genco commented her last item was conceptual and she had spoken with the Village Manager about it, and at one point he agreed with her and at another did not, on separating the planning department and placing it under him and she did not understand why he was doing that. Village Manager Couzzo commented there were three reasons to do it (1) to determine the best way to utilize Jeff as Building Official (2) enhance the level of communication between his office and Community Development, so he would have more hands-on knowledge of what was going on with individual projects, and (3) he had interpreted that the Village Council wanted to be more proactive in a business approach. The Vice Mayor stated she was just confused because he had increased staff and asked for a part-time person to help him, and on the one hand was saying he did not have time but now was taking on two more people to supervise. Village Manager Couzzo respanded he was reorganizing his priorities, and Wendy could take some work off him. and there were some significant planning issues that would happen in the next year and he could have more day-to-day co�nunication with planning. Vice Mayor Genco stated she did not think the communication line was broken and she thought very highly of Carol, and saw her as a good writer. Vice Mayor Genco distributed the report handed to the Council on Bermuda Terrace to everyone and provided one for the Manager and one for the record, and sta.ted it was in error. Carol's calculations had been off. Vice Mayor Genco's calculations had been close to Mr. Horniman's. She stated she would not say it was Carol's fault--it was more the Manager's fault since he had supervised it. Carol did not have planning background and experience and did not have a degree in planning. Vice Chair Genco commented she knew Mr. Newell on other occasions, when there was Bono's and other projects, had come up with very good ways of being cost effective and billing the developer for the MINUTES OF THE SECOND VILLAGE OF TEQUESTA VILLAGECDUNCIL BUDGET PLANNING WORKSHOP MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2004 PAGE 6 costs. He had done that repeatedly and had given the Village the benefit of his 24 years experience and background in helping the Village Council understand these issues. Mayor Watkins commented it was her understanding that Jeff wanted to devote more time as a building inspector. Mr. Newell responded that 3-1/2 years ago when he came to work for the Village, Mr. Capretta had told him when the Village was buiit out he and his department would be gone, and he had known there was that possibility. Mr. Newell reported he still had communication with Carol because he had to know what plans were approved, but he no longer had supervisory authority or control of the planning budget, which went to the Village Manager. The Building Department would become more of an enhanced code enforcement function. Discussion ensued. Mayor Watkins did not see a downside to having the manager involved in both the planning and building for a project. Vice Mayor Genco commented he had told her he did not have enough time and extra people needed to be hired to help him, yet he was taking on an area that would take a lot of time; he was not a planner, he did a lot of things very well but that was not his area of expertise, and it was going to a planner who also did not have the expertise, and the person who had the experti�e was being taken away from the one area where he belonged. The Atlantis project had been a nightmare, and the Council had seen the communications from the Village Attorney on that, which alI came about because the Village IVlanager was dealing outside the Community Development Department, and she did not want issues like that to happen again. Councilmember Resnik commented the Village Manager was charged with executing the operation and management of the Village and the Village staff, and if he felt th� Village would be better served by taking on a couple of temporary part-time people who had great expertise in certain things so that he could take on an area where he thought his expertise was needed, and he thought the manager had had a lot of planning experience over his career, and he should be given the opportunity to adjust his sta.ff and operational focus to see if it produced the results the Council would like. Vice Mayor Genco commented the biggest problem was with projects where he didn't know the code and went ahead and dealt with the developer and then it was found that the code would have allowed building for something else, and he did not know those things, and this would be taking away the ability of someone to insulate the Village from conflicts. Someone absolutely neutral was needed to deal with developers. The Atlantis project was a prime example, where the developer was meeting with the manager and unfortunately, he thought he had a rapport with the manager and didn't understand that the information being given him by the manager was against the Village code. Mayor Watkins commented the Vice Mayor was implying deals were going on with just the manager, and she sat in on the first introduction of these people, which was at least a month ago. Vice Mayor Genco responded Mr. Burckart started making his plans in February and was getting information from the Village, and had spent $200,000 on contracting engineers and landscape architects because they thought they had the okay to go ahead. Vice Mayor Genco advised that Community Development did not receive MINUTES OF THE SECOND VILLAGE OF TEQUESTA VILLAGECOUNCIL BUDGET PLANNING WORKSHOP MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2004 PAGE 7 an application until July 13. Mayor Watkins commented it was important to her to have a good rapport with businesses within the Village, and when developers earne to look at Tequesta as a possible place to build it was publie relations, arid she did not think it ever got beyond that. Vice Mayor Genco commented, look at the application submitted July 13—it included copies from the Village code, and communications, suggested amendments, drainage plans, speaking with ali of the other surrounding municipal authorities, letters of approval, and that was not what a developer did without prior communication with somebody on staff, and there was no prior communication with anyone on staff to give him that kind of information. Vice Mayor Genco explained that she had handled permits for South Florida Water Management and Palm Beach County for almost seven years, and she knew what was involved. What she was trying to avoid was a conflict, which she saw as a clear conflict, and she was trying to protect the Village by maintaining someQne with experience and ability of assessing and protecting it as an intermediary. Vice Mayor Genco stated she felt the manager was a very good representative on behalf of the Village in going out and being personable and soliciting new business, but he did not have the background nor the experienee to be dealing with developers, because the Village needed someone who could also point out the negative things because through experience they knew what those negative things were. Mayor Watkins commented there would come a time in the process for that. Vice Mayor Genco commented you did not undo it after someone had spent a quarter of a million dollars that was the problem. Village Manager Couzzo explained the first time he had occasion to discuss this project with Bill Burckart was at the meeting with the Mayor early in 3uly, and he had been clearly told about a number of hurdles, one of which was high density, and if Mr. Burckart had proceeded ahead he had done it on his own, and he thought he had gone to Community Development for height, etc., before he submitted his application. Mr. Newell ciarified Mr. Burckart appeared after this was all ouer the newspapers. Also, Community Development received phone calls from Gentile and Associates, and they were told there were height and density limitations. Gentile had intimated these issues were addressed, w�iich they weren't, which was basically what created this problem. Manager Couzzo commented Mr. Burckart's optimism as a developer led him to do this. Councilmember Resnik advised he met with Mr. Burckart at Corner Cafe for a presentation, and had listened and specifically looked him in the eye and asked if - anyone told him he had a clear road to this, or any impression he was going to get approval because he had done all this, and his response was absolutely not. Vice Mayor Genco cautioned there should not be discussion about approval or disapproval, the discussion was about a concept and she was trying to keep everybody focused on that. Councilmember Resnik commented Mr. Burckart's focus was on what he thought, and he did not think he was blocked anywhere. Mayor Watkins commented this needed to be brought back to the budget discussion of Community Development, and she had understood Jeff thought this was a good idea. Mr. Newell responded it was the Village Council's decision— MINUTES OF THE SECOND VILLAGE OF TEQUESTA VILLAGECOUNCIL BUDGET PLANNING WORKSHOP MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2004 PAGE 8 he could greatly improve the Building Department and could be in more contact with the community, or if they decided to leave the Department as is that was fine also--either one would work very well. Village Manager Couzzo commented in light of the Vice Mayor's comments he would like to leave the Community Development Department as is this year, and if there was going to be a change ta do it next year—he did not want anyone to have the wrong impression, and continuing in this vein would give the wrang impression, which was unfortunate. The Village Manager stated he was willing to leave it the way it was. He would stay in closer contact with Jeff, Carol, and Jack. Councilmember Resnik commented Jeff had indicated to him that he needed to devote more time to the building process, which he could not do when he was also planning supervisor and building supervisor, with only one helper for the building side. Councilmember Resnik expressed her opinion a planning department consisting of Carol L� backed up by Jack Horniman would work and commented remember there was an organizational chart with the Village Manager at the top supervising all the departments, and he could supervise building as well as pianning. Village Manager Couzzo commented in light of Jeff's comments he would like to suggest that Community Development remain as is and be analyzed throughout the course of the year. Vice Mayor Genco stated she thought it would be easier to manage one department than three people. The Manager agreed. The Vice Mayor stated she was being honest about the perception because she had heard from so many people about that project, and she was greatly concerned about perception. Manager Couzzo commented leaving it as is should avoid perception. Councilmember von Frank commented he thought it was an excellent idea to realign staff function to increase productivity and to try it, and if it did not work then go back. Village IVlanager Couzzo commented timing may not be ideal and this did not preclude Community Development from ceasing to exist as an enterprise fund if everyone was good with that. Mayor Watkins asked if there was consensus to keep Community Development and put it in the general fund. Village Manager stated supervisory would be kept in CD but it would be in the general fur�d. CQUncilmember von Franl� agreed. Councilrnernber Resnik commented he thought it was misguided. Mayar Watkins asked for an update to Council mid-year. Tom Paterno commented he saw Vice Mayor Genco had been able to get a couple - of thousand dollars for somebody else and he was hoping all of the Council together might be able to come up with enough dollars for a pilot camera program. He had looked into it further and found with the new technology it could be purchased for under $20,000 at this point. He had also looked into the possibility of going to the Federal government under some terrorism money to protect the inlet. He would like to get in to the budget some money to start a pilot program to secure this area a little more, helping the police. Mayor Watkins clarified at the last workshop this had been discussed, about putting cameras on Country Club Drive. Mr. Paterno reported he and Mr. Garlo had discussed this MINUTES OF THE SECOND VILLAGE OF TEQUESTA VILLAGECQUNCIL BUDGET PLANNING WORKSHOP MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2004 PAGE 9 with Motorola, who had developed new antennas so it could be wireless, there could be stations anywhere in the Village, with the cost of an antenna for each location only $504. Mayor Watkins stated it would still need to be monitored, so another person would be needed. Mr. Paterno noted right behind the wall of this room they were already recording. Mr. Garlo commented cameras already monitored around tTus facility, and it would basically be the same over a broader area; now technology was less expensive and more user friendly. He and Mr. Paterno had attended a Motorola presentation on full wireless audio and data which were available for anywhere in the Village, and the Village could look at homeland security dollars for that. Mayor Watkins asked if public input should be obtained. Vice Mayor Genco asked that it be put on the Village Council's agenda for public discussion and direct staff to evaluate it and go after grants. Mr. Paterno asked that it be added to the budget. Vice Mayor Genco commented there was enough cushion in the budget, first it needed to be evaluated and money could be allocated by a budget amendment. Mr. Paterno commented there could be hot spots so that the police officers now sitting on Country Club Drive could be on line and be in the comrnunity and do their reports right there. Mayor Watkins commented it would be looked into and asked to get it on the agenda and let staff think about it. Mr. Paterno asked if what they were saying was money couid be found in the budget for this, to which the response was yes with pubiic support. III. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 4:02 p.m. Respectfully submitted, J� ' y R_ � � .f � ` -.' �.,. ''r . . (� / Betty Laur� Acting Village Clerk