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Home My Public Portal About01-30-02 Charter Revision Commission.tifMINUTES CHARTER REVISION COMMISSION VILLAGE OF KEY BISCAYNE, FLORIDA WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2002 COUNCIL CHAMBER 85 WEST MCINTYRE STREET, SECOND FLOOR The meeting was called to order by the Chairman at 7 05 p m Present were Commission Members Stuart D Ames Michael Kelly, Luis Lauredo, Vice Chairman Michael Kahn and Chairman Martha F Broucek Also present were Village Manager C Samuel Kissinger, Village Clerk Conchita H Alvarez and Village Attorneys Richard Weiss and Tony Recio Chairman Broucek led the Pledge of Allegiance Commissioner Ames made a motion to approve the minutes of the January 17, 2002 meeting Commissioner Lauredo requested that an error in Section 2 02 be corrected to reflect a 4-1 vote and the words "approval of the Council" in the body of the provision would not be underlined The motion was seconded by Vice Chairman Kahn The minutes, as amended, were approved by a 4-1 voice vote The vote was as follows Commissioners Ames, Kelly, Vice Chairman Kahn and Chairman Broucek voting Yes Commissioner Lauredo voting No Chairman Broucek addressed the Commission regarding the importance of setting the schedule of future meetings of the Charter Revision Commission After extensive discussion by the Commission, the schedule of future meetings was set as follows Thursday, February 7, 2002 Thursday, February 21, 2002 Thursday, February 28, 2002 Thursday, March 7, 2002 1 of January 30 2002 Conchita Suarez, 201 Crandon Boulevard, John Festa, 695 Harbor Lane, Pat Weinman, 940 Manner Drive addressed the Commission The proposed language for Section 2 02 is as follows Section 2 02 Mayor and Vice Mayor (a) Mayor The Mayor shall preside at meetings of the Council, be a voting member of the Council, and name Council Committees from among members of the Council The Mayor shall appoint members of the Village boards, agencies, and committees created pursuant to Section 4 12. with pnor notification, input from, and approval of the Council The Mayor shall be recognized as head of Village government for all ceremonial purposes and for purposes of military law, for service of process, execution of duly authonzed contracts, deeds and other documents, and as the Village official designated to represent the Village in all dealings with other governmental entities The Mayor shall annually present a state of the Village message and, after approval of the budget by the Council, an annual budget message Vice Chairman Kahn suggested to insert "and" before "be a voting member", insert a penod after "Council" and delete ` and name Council Committees from among members of the Council" John Festa, 695 Harbor Lane and Pat Weinman, 940 Manner Drive addressed the Commission regarding Committees Members Ames suggested to delete "with" before Section 4 12, insert "subject to" instead of "with pnor" Member Kelly suggested that the attorney draft two provisions reflecting the process for appointing committee members 1) Mayor notified Council that he intends to appoint members, 2) Mayor seeks input from the Council, 3) Mayor appoints committee members (appointments are not limited to those that the Council has offered) , 4) Council approves or disapproves Mayor's selections While both provisions will reflect this information, one will include provision for Council Committees and one will not The attorney was instructed to draft language in Section 2 02 to reflect the two versions, with regards to Council Committees, proposed by the Commission Commissioner Lauredo addressed the Commission regarding the presentation of a budget message by the Mayor expressing his opposition to the language "after approval of the budget by the Council" Commissioner Kahn made a motion to insert a penod after the word "message" and delete the remainder of the sentence The motion was seconded by Commissioner Lauredo and failed by a 2-3 voice vote The vote was as follows Commissioner Lauredo and Vice Chairman Kahn voting Yes 2 of 6 January 30, 2002 Commissioners Ames, Kelly and Chairman Broucek voting No Commissioner Kelly made a motion to accept the last sentence as presented in the Attorney's suggestion The motion was seconded by Commissioners Ames and approved by a 4-1 voice vote The vote was as follows Commissioners Ames, Kelly, Vice Chairman Kahn and Chairman Broucek voting Yes Commisisoner Lauredo voting No The proposed language for Section 2 03 is as follows Section 2 03 Election and term of office Each Councilmember and the Mayor shall be elected at - large by the electors of the Village in the manner provided in Article V of this Charter The Mayor shall be elected for a two (2) year term Each Councilmember shall be elected for two (2) year term No person shall serve as Mayor for more than two (2) consecutive elected terms, and no person may serve on the Council, or as any combination of Mayor and Council Member, for more than -eight -01) six (6) consecutive years Commissioners expressed general consensus that elections every year were problematic Isabel Gambino, 676 Ridgewood Road and Pat Weinman 240 Manner Drive and John Festa, 695 Harbor Lane addressed the Council Vice Chairman Kahn made a motion to amend Section 2 03 Election and term of office changing the terms to three (3) two (2) year terms for Mayor and Council, an election every other year with no staggenng terms The motion was seconded by Commissioner Lauredo and approved by a 4-1 voice vote The vote was as follows Commissioners Kelly, Lauredo, Vice Chairman Kahn and Chairman Broucek voting Yes Commissioner Ames voting No Commissioner Ames suggested three (3) year terms with groups of two (2) Councilmembers elected each year in a staggered format The other commissioners did not support this proposal Vice Chairman Kahn made a motion to reduce the number of Councilmembers to five (5), including the Mayor The motion was seconded by Commissioner Lauredo and failed by a 2-3 voice vote The vote was as follows Commissioner Lauredo and Vice Chairman Kahn voting Yes Commissioners Ames, Kelly and Chairman Broucek voting No Commissioner Ames discussed the possibility of voting for specific seats The Commission did not act on this discussion and expressed a general desire to keep the at -large voting scheme Richard Gregone, Key Biscayne addressed the Council 3of6 January 30 2002 Since Section 2 03 was changed, Section 5 01 needs to be redrafted Sec 2 05 Vacancies, forfeiture of office, filling of vacancies No discussion Sec 2 06 Recall No discussion Sec 2 07 No compensation, reimbursement for expenses There was discussion from the public and the Commissioners but no changes were suggested for this section Ed Meyer, 100 Sunnse Dnve and Michelle Barnett, 355 West Wood Dnve and John Festa, 695 Harbor Lane and Richard Gregone addressed the Commission regarding Section 2 07 Sec 3 01 Village Manager John Festa, 695 Harbor Lane, Conchita Suarez, 201 Crandon Boulevard, Linda Davitian, 720 Myrtlewood Lane and Richard Gregone, Key Biscayne addressed the Commission regarding Section 2 07 The matter was discussed at length, but the Commission decided against making any changes to this section Sec 3 02 Appointment, removal, compensation No discussion Sec 3 03 Powers and duties of the Village Manager Ed Meyer, 100 Sunnse Drive and Richard Gregone, Key Biscayne addressed the Commission regarding the Manager should not have control over the police chief and fire chief The matter was discussed at length, but the Commission decided against making any changes to section 3 03 Sec 3 04 Village Clerk No discussion Sec 3 05 Village Attorney There was public comment regarding having a permanent Village Attorney rather than a law firm and regarding a possible conflict of interest in having the same firm counsel the Village Council and represent the Village in litigation Commissioner Ames explained that the legal profession's code of ethics required the Village Attorney to disclose and avoid conflicts of that nature Chairman Broucek expressed satisfaction with the commitment, work, and fees of the Village Attorney 4of6 January 30 2002 Commissioner Lauredo stated that the Charter provision already allowed the Village to hire an individual attorney if the Council so desired and advised that this Commission was not the proper forum for this discussion Richard Gregone, Key Biscayne and Conchita Suarez, 201 Crandon Boulevard addressed the Commission regarding section 3 05 Sec 3 06 Village code of administrative regulations No discussion Sec 3 07 Expenditure of Village funds There was extensive discussion regarding the expenditure of Village funds for expressing views pnor to a referendum election Commissioner Lauredo made a motion to prohibit the expenditure of public funds on expressing the Council's viewpoint when a referendum issue is on the ballot The motion died for lack of a second Commissioner Ames made a motion to instruct the Attorney to draft some sample language to include the following parameters equal -expenditure provision whereby, pnor to a referendum election, if the Council decides to spend public funds on a statement of position or persuasion for a particular issue, that the minonty opinion of the Council, if there is one, has the opportunity to draft and mail out the same size position statement The motion was seconded by Commissioner Kelly and approved by a 4-1 voice vote The vote was as follows Commissioners Ames, Kelly, Vice Chairman Kahn and Chairman Broucek voting Yes Commissioner Lauredo voting No Linda Davitian, 720 Myrtlewood Lane, Richard Gregone, Key Biscayne and John Festa, 695 Harbor Lane addressed the Commission regarding Section 3 07 Commissioner Lauredo expressed his opposition to the expenditure of public funds on expressing the Council's viewpoint when a referendum issue is on the ballot The next meeting of the Charter Revision Commission will be on Thursday, February 7, 2002 at 7 00 p m in the Council Chamber The discussion will begin with Sec 3 08 Competitive bid requirement The meeting was adjourned at 11 00 p m 5of6 January 30 2002 ectfully sub Conchita H Alvarez, CMC Village Clerk Approved by the Commission this 7t day of February , 200 4:3-*9-/-e-Je ------- '4-1-16 Martha F Broucek Chairman IF A PERSON DECIDES TO APPEAL ANY DECISION MADE BY THE CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION WITH RESPECT TO ANY MATTER CONSIDERED AT A MEETING, THAT PERSON WILL NEED A RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS AND, FOR SUCH PURPOSE, MAY NEED TO ENSURE THAT A VERBATIM RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS IS MADE, WHICH RECORD INCLUDES THE TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE UPON WHICH THE APPEAL IS TO BE BASED 6of6