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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20060824_TybeeCouncilMinsCouncil Minutes Page 1 of 6 Meeting of 2006-08-24 City Council Minutes Mayor Buelterman called the Consent Agenda meeting to order at 6:30PM on August 24, 2006. Present in addition to Buelterman were Sessions, Wolff, Williams, Doyle and Pearce. Mr. Crone was absent due to illness. Also present were City Manager Schleicher, Assistant City Manager Anderson and City Attorney Hughes. Mayor Buelterman identified the items for the Consent Agenda as; Minutes for August 10, 2006 Amendment to Section 2-3-32 to expand the authority of the Audit Committee Updated Certificate of Delivery of Services with the MPC Policy regarding Video Recording and Production of Meetings Gbiz Contract with GMA Memorandum of Agreement for Memorial Park Movie Series Washington Lobbying Trip on September 13th & 14th-Mayor Buelterman Shore Protection Association’ s Annual Conference Trip for Lou Off/Beach Task Force Mayor Buelterman said he met with the YMCA representatives concerning hiring a replacement for Tiffany Dennis. Ms. Schleicher said she asked Mr. Anderson to be a part of that process as the city representative until the final phase. She said at that time she would step in and be a part of the final decision. Ms. Sessions said this is a human resource issue. She suggested that Jan Fox should participate since she is the director of human resources and also as finance officer she would be in the position to understand all aspects of the city’ s participation. Ms. Schleicher said she would involve Ms. Fox in the process. Mayor Buelterman said the Y requested using the Gym more often and he recommended they bring a proposal to the city for review. Mr. Wolff said perhaps they could cost share in the utilities at the gym. Ms. Sessions said that’ s why it’ s important to have Ms. Fox involved because she understands the financial issues. Mayor Buelterman closed the Agenda Meeting at 6:50PM. Mayor Buelterman called the regular Council Meeting to order at 7:00PM on August 24, 2006. Everyone listed as present during the Agenda Meeting were still in attendance. Mr. Chad Eason representing the Chapel by the Sea Baptist Church gave the invocation and the Tybee Island Memorial Guard posted the colors. Everyone recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Mayor Buelterman thanked Paul Devivo and Devivo Marketing for the donation of the Map to be used on the Pay & Display Meters. Ms. Gladin Chairman of the Ethics Committee gave an update to Council regarding the Page 1 of 7 committee’ s progress towards the Ethics Ordinance. She said the ordinance establishing the Ethics Board was enacted in April of this year. She said it gave them nine months to present a draft ethics ordinance to council. Ms. Gladin said that is the board’ s mission. She requested council’ s input regarding subjects in the rules and guidelines. Ms. Doyle liaison for the YMCA gave an update on hiring a replacement for Tiffany Dennis. She introduced Joel Smoker as the Branch Director and asked for questions from council. Ms. Sessions asked for a timeline on hiring a replacement. Mr. Smoker said they have taken thirty days to collect resumes and there have been a lot of outstanding individuals that have applied from Savannah and surrounding areas. He said the first step is to select the four or five most qualified candidates and set up interviews. He said the Y welcomes all input from the city regarding the selection of the candidates. Ms. Doyle Council Minutes Page 2 of 6 announced the YMCA Tybee Tour of Homes in December to raise funds. She said they are requesting sponsors to help pay for advertising and expenses. She requested council consider being a sponsor and having this put on the agenda for the business meeting in September for a vote. Ms. Doyle gave an update on the Playground Committee. She said the RFP was ready to go out when it was discovered that the grant required a boundary map to show where the playground would be located. She said Ms. Fox was able to send the RFP out without the map by requiring a site visit. She said when the boundary map is completed they will forward it to all participants. She said the bids will be opened on September 18th at 3:00PM at City Hall. Lara Griffith from the Tybee Marine Science Center gave an update on the Sea Turtle Project on Tybee. She said they are having a record year with ten nests on Tybee which is the second most active season on record. She said seven of the ten have hatched so far with 86.8% success rate which is over 20% higher than the State. She said 602 hatchlings have made it to the ocean compared to last year’ s number of 178. She said there are still lighting issues with two nest’ s being disoriented by the lights so they are continuing to educate the public. She said they excavate the nests after they hatch and record the numbers to report to the State. Mr. Wolff thanked Lara and the Marine Science Center volunteers and said they spend a lot of time on the beach making sure this endangered species has a better chance for survival. Tammy Smith said the hatchling rate for Little Tybee is not as successful because of Raccoon degradation but there are two nests left to hatch and she is hoping for a positive outcome. Rusty Fleetwood gave a summary of the tax meeting held by the Tybee Neighbors. He said it was probably the most heavily attended meeting ever held in City Hall. He said they learned that both Senator Eric Johnson and Representative Stephens would support resolutions capping the amount of property assessments. He said also an extra tax on sales at Tybee was favorable to have visitors help pay for the benefits that are enjoyed Page 2 of 7 while visiting. He said Chairman Lakakis said the State owes Chatham County 6 million dollars and that affects everyone’ s taxes. He said Mayor Buelterman said Tybee property owners were taxed far in excess of any amount that would be suggested by our population numbers. He said they found it may be possible to exempt Senior Citizens from school taxes which are the largest share of our property taxes. He said that the Mayor mentioned a special tax district where the taxes collected in a district are spent in the district. He said they heard from the frustrated citizens of Tybee that the whole system of property taxation in Chatham County seems to be breaking down and the method of evaluation is unfair, broken and in need of immediate repair. He said tax relief and reform can be achieved through a coordinated effort. He said the Tybee Neighbors will develop a focus group on September 7th to pursue many of these ideas. Sandi Postle of the Tybee Neighbors Association announced the meeting to be held at City Hall on September 7, 2006 from7:00PM until 9:00PM. City Manager Diane Schleicher announced the reorganization chart for the city. She said the chart reflects the restructure of how city personnel will report. She said it was developed using the way the city conducts business instead of personalities. She said this restructure will encourage more team work and a lot of issues will be worked out together. She said this reorganization is being done immediately because we are going into our budget process and these changes are going to impact the Department Heads responsible for budget planning. Ms. Schleicher also shared a preview of the City’ s new website. Todd Smith said this is a live functioning external site and is not hosted here. He said the design and content are done but there will be training Council Minutes Page 3 of 6 provided to employees that use it. He said departments within the city can log in and maintain their own content. He said we are waiting for the Municipal Code codification to be completed and the Gbiz contract that is on the Agenda tonight for approval is for on line services. He said the site will be hosted in Seattle so whatever weather problems are going on here will not affect it. Council Members requested Action Items be put onto excel sheets with labels reflecting the year of the item. Ms. Williams asked that the list be updated. Mayor Buelterman opened the business meeting with items on the Consent Agenda as follows: Updated Certificate of Delivery of Services with MPC. Set Policy for Video Recording and Production of Meetings. Gbiz Contract Memorial Park Movie Series-Memorandum of Understanding Amendment to Section 2-3-32 to expand the duties of the Audit Committee. Approval of Minutes for August 10, 2006 Washington Lobbying Trip for Mayor Buelterman-September 13th & 14th New Jersey trip for Lou Off to the Shore Protection Association Conference. Page 3 of 7 Paul Wolff moved to approve all items on the Consent Agenda, Ms. Williams seconded, and the vote was unanimous. Ms. Schleicher gave an overview of the Memorial Park Movie Series saying there are 4 separate entities working together to accomplish something positive. She said the four entities are the Tybee Island Parks and Recreation Department, Friends of The Tybee Theater, Tybee Island Arts Association and the Tybee Island YMCA. She said this group sponsors movies in Memorial Park. She said all donations received will be split four ways. She said Pirates of the Caribbean will be shown on October 6th in honor of the Pirates Festival. Mayor Buelterman asked to postpone the discussion on establishing a study group of Tybee Citizens to look into Hurricane Insurance Issues until September 28th. Mr. Wolff requested that council send the Model Buffer Ordinance to the Planning Commission for their review and recommendation. He asked that they focus on buffer averaging that has a 50 foot baseline that can come down to 25 feet with some sort of mitigation on the property. Mr. Wolff moved to send this to Planning Commission for review and recommendations to come back to council at the earliest convenience, Mr. Pearce seconded, and the vote was unanimous. Mr. Wolff asked that the City Manager apply for us to be recognized as a Certified Local Government by the State of Georgia. He said there are only 120 certified local governments in the state and this will give us access to a specific pool of funding for Historic Preservation. He proposed using the money to fund a brochure to be handed out in the zoning department to anyone seeking to move or renovate or tear down a historic structure so they will understand what their options are. He said the qualifications are; we have to have a Historic Preservation Commission which we have had for years; it just hasn’ t been very active. He said he would like to reactivate that with appointees from Council. He said the other requirement is to have an inventory of all the Historic Properties on the Island. He said the Historic Society has completed this. He said we are ready to send off the application. Mr. Cullen Chambers said it is an excellent opportunity for Tybee to get planning experience to help us improve situations like 16th Street and puts us in a pool of funding opportunities. Mr. Wolff moved to apply for this certification, Mr. Pearce seconded, and the vote was unanimous. Mr. Wolff said he met with developers at Ocean Inlet subdivision and Charlie Fenwick the Superintendent of Ft. Pulaski. He said they are trying to develop a Heritage Site on Goat Point which is a piece of the Council Minutes Page 4 of 6 property in the subdivision. He said the developers have already given the city 4 ½ acres and a wedged portion of that goes all the way to the water. He said the developers are proposing to double the size of the wedged portion that goes to the water. He said they also proposed putting the entire Marsh front of their property except for the area needed for a dock, into a perpetual conservation easement and create covenants for their association with the easements protected. He said Page 4 of 7 the developers request the city enter into an agreement to grant access to the Park Service for a portion of the property that goes to the water. He said the park service wants to place on that site one of the actual Rifle Cannons that was used during the siege of Ft. Pulaski. Mr. Wolff requested that council agree in concept to accept the donation of additional land and agree to discuss giving the park service an easement to a portion of this property for the cannon and some signage. Mr. Wolff said Chatham County is in the process of acquiring Battery Halleck across the road at Spanish Hammock which contains 16 acres. He said they hope to bring a part of Ft. Pulaski to Tybee Island so that visitors can appreciate the History here as part of the fort. Mr. Hughes said as long as we are in agreement that we are not acquiring land fill property and can reach an agreement with the Park Service. He said there are existing issues with the park service related to this project. He said this might be an opportunity to resolve everything. Mr. Wolff moved to accept the additional property from the Ocean Inlet Development and enter into discussions with the Park Service to offer them an easement on a portion of that property to use as a Heritage Tourism Site, Mr. Pearce seconded. Ms. Schleicher said Mr. Fenwick said if it cannot be an easement maybe an agreement would work. Mr. Wolff amended his motion to read that it doesn’ t have to be an easement; Mr. Pearce seconded the amended motion. Ms. Sessions expressed concern about who was involved in the discussions. Ms. Schleicher said Mr. Anderson and she will be handling the discussions with the developers as well as Mr. Fenwick in the future and will bring all proposals to Mr. Hughes. Ms. Sessions requested everything be documented as we go forward. The vote was unanimous. Mr. Wolff said the city is way over the top as far as what is going into our treatment plant. He said we have had a busy tourist season and we have a lot of construction going on. He said it is more critical than ever for everyone to follow the conservation effort that was started a couple of years ago. He drew everyone’ s attention to the state mandated water restrictions saying odd numbered addresses can use water outside only on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday from 12:00AM to 10:00AM and 4:00PM to 12:00AM with the even addresses being on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at the same times. He said the restrictions are for washing boats and cars as well as lawn maintenance. He said the city requires rain sensors on irrigation systems. He encouraged everyone that is able to dig a shallow well for irrigation. He also encourages using rain barrels to store runoff from the roof to water lawns with. He said three waterless urinals have been installed in public restrooms at North Beach, 16th Street and the Marine Science Center and they are using zero water. He said they have ordered instant release faucets to go on the sinks. He said they are looking into doing reuse water for irrigation along Bay Street and they are hoping to get the Racquet Club to tie into it. He said they are going forward with an experimental trial of the Meter Reading equipment which should save a lot of water. He said the city is being pro active. Mayor Buelterman asked when the permit increase was filed. Mr. Wolff said the application has been filed. Mr. Williams said he feels they look at Tybee favorably because we are so far out and not connected to anyone else plus all the conservation efforts that we have done in the past have worked. He said they have not only seen an increase in water usage but also at the treatment plant so it is not just Page 4 of 7 outdoor watering that’ s affecting it. It is actually water going down the drain. Mr. Williams said he would call and ask if any efforts have been made towards granting the permit increase request. Ms. Doyle asked if the watering restrictions are printed on the water bills. Ms. Schleicher said they will have that capability when the new folder inserter arrives. Council Minutes Page 5 of 6 Ms. Sessions said a group had talked with Eric Johnson about the crosswalk issue on Tybee and Senator Johnson said we have to keep hounding the DOT. She recommended sending copies of all correspondence to the DOT to Senator Johnson, Burke Day and all other legislators. Ms. Sessions said the letter we received from DOT was insulting and literally brushed us off. She said she wonders if that would have happened had copies been sent out to the legislators. She said if necessary we need to copy the Governor. She asked Ms. Schleicher to draft another letter to everyone at DOT that we need to contact and copy all the legislators on it. Ms. Sessions also asked if everyone supported putting in additional Mobi Mats because of the excellent feedback that was received. She said she wants the most critical areas identified so they can take them under consideration for the mats. She said the only concern expressed was over cleaning the sand off of the mats so she would like to see a schedule initiated to accomplish that. Ms. Schleicher said she was planning to ask council if she could send letters to the Senators and include copies of our letters to DOT and the DOT response in them. She said she had talked with someone higher up in the DOT and he said they did not recommend cross walks because Hwy 80 on Tybee is a thoroughfare. She said she brought to his attention the fact that Hwy 80 ends at the end of Butler. He said he would take the letters from Tybee under consideration and give a response. Ms. Williams suggested sending a video clip by e-mail of Butler Avenue on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Ms. Sessions moved to authorize Ms. Schleicher to send a letter, Mr. Wolff seconded and the vote was unanimous. Ms. Williams gave an update concerning the Skate Park. She said they only had $60,000 in the budget for 2006 and that money was reallocated to the Guard House project. She said she received a copy of the recommendation of the evaluation committee and the clerk would provide copies to council. She said she is hoping they will vote on the type of Skate Park and the Company next month. She said they hope to get started in January after the budget has been approved. Mayor Buelterman asked what the cost was on the recommendation. Ms. Williams said they recommended Grindline at a cost of $240,000 and that’ s for a concrete park. She said they also received proposals for modular parks but our experience with modulars has been bad. She said the concrete is virtually maintenance free. Mr. Pearce moved to approve for 1st and 2nd reading the Tobacco Policy, Mr. Wolff seconded, and the vote was unanimous. Mr. Pearce moved to approve the Dog Park Memorandum of Agreement, Ms. Williams seconded, Ms. Sessions said this agreement is already in place but it was never codified. Page 5 of 6 The vote was Pearce, Williams, Wolff and Sessions in favor and Doyle opposed. Mr. Wolff moved to go into Executive Session to discuss Litigation and Real Estate, Mr. Pearce seconded, and the vote was unanimous. Mr. Wolff moved to end Executive Session, Mr. Pearce seconded, and the vote was unanimous. Ms. Williams asked that council be provided monthly crime reports from the Police Department. Mr. Wolff moved to adjourn, Mr. Pearce seconded and the vote was unanimous. Council Minutes Page 6 of 6 Page 6 of 7