CITY OF NORTH LAUDERDALE

COMMISSION MEETING

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2008

EXECUTIVE SESSION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING

COMMISSION MEETING

MINUTES

The North Lauderdale City Commission met on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at the Municipal Complex. The meeting convened at 7:02 p.m.

1. INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – Commissioner Moyle gave the invocation.

2. ROLL CALL – All present.

Mayor Jack Brady

Vice Mayor John R. Cangemi

Commissioner Gary Frankel

Commissioner Rich Moyle

Commissioner David G. Hilton

City Manager Richard D. Sala

City Attorney Samuel S. Goren

Interim City Clerk Patricia Vancheri

3. MINUTES – There were no minutes submitted for approval.

4. PRESENTATIONS - None

5. PROCLAMATIONS - None

6. PUBLIC DISCUSSION

Brenda Edwards – Ms. Edwards addressed the Commission to thank them on behalf of the Miss Broward County Pageant and share the news that they have acquired a very significant grant from a benefactor and will be awarding $20,000.00 in scholarships this year. She said they will also be holding their pageant at the Miniacci Center at the Nova Southeaster University and are very excited, so she wanted to tell the Commission personally that this could not have happened without the support of the City of North Lauderdale. Ms. Edwards reminded the Commission that four years ago they started in the North Lauderdale gym with four girls and were not a part of Miss Broward County, but now they are, and are the number one scholarship in the State of Florida in terms of their total funds. Ms. Edwards further said it has been an incredible turn of events and thanked the Commission and the Parks and Recreation Department for all they have done over the past four years. She said she will make arrangements for the City of North Lauderdale Commission and staff to attend the pageant in the near future. Mayor Brady commended Ms. Edwards for all the hard work she does. Further Ms. Edwards commented that they have 26 girls in one division and about 9 girls in the teen division. She said each winner will receive a $5,000.00 scholarship and another $5,000.00 will be split amongst the runners-up.

7. QUASI-JUDICIAL ITEMS - None

8. ORDINANCES SECOND READING - None

9. CONSENT AGENDA

Commissioner Frankel made a motion to read consent agenda. No items were pulled. Seconded by Vice Mayor Cangemi.

Attorney read:

a. RESOLUTION: Change in Signatories – State Board of Administration

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF NORTH LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER TO AMEND THE LIST OF AUTHORIZED USERS FOR ALL STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION, LOCAL GOVERNMENT SURPLUS FUNDS INVESTMENT POOL ACCOUNTS AS SET FORTH ON THE INVESTMENT POOL SYSTEMS INPUT DOCUMENT FORM, AND, PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.

RESOLUTION NO. 08-02-5306

b. RESOLUTION: Change in Signatories – Bank of New York Safekeeping Account

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF NORTH LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER TO AMEND THE LIST OF AUTHORIZED USERS FOR ALL BANK OF NEW YORK ACCOUNTS AS SET FORTH ON THE CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORIZED PERSONS, AND, PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.

RESOLUTION NO. 08-02-5307

c. RESOLUTION: Change in Signatories – SunTrust Bank

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF NORTH LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER TO AMEND THE LIST OF AUTHORIZED USERS FOR ALL SUNTRUST ACCOUNTS AS SET FORTH ON THE DEPOSIT ACCOUNT RESOLUTION AND AUTHORIZATION FOR BUSINESS ENTITIES, THE BUSINESS ACCOUNT SIGNATURE CARD, AND SCHEDULE A TO FUNDS TRANSFER AGREEMENT, AND, PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.

RESOLUTION NO. 08-02-5308

Commissioner Moyle moved to approve as read. Seconded by Commissioner Frankel. Clerk polled Commission. All yes.

CONSENT AGENDA ADOPTED AND APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY

10. OTHER BUSINESS - None

11. REPORTS

a. School Crossing Guards Contract – Update and consensus on future direction

Chief Lou Cavallo reported that he and Assistant City Manager, Ambreen Bhatty, had been reviewing the current Crossing Guard contract and looking at cost effectiveness. Chief Cavallo said an option would be to go out on the street to other companies, but research showed that there were only two other companies who provide this service and both are more expensive that current costs. He stated another option would be to do it “in house” like they did years ago, by hiring city employees and being under city control, which would require hiring a full time supervisor. Further he stated he does not think this is a viable option because of difficulties they had in the past of maintaining these employees. Chief Cavallo said the option he recommends is to re-negotiate the current contract with Staffing Connection, and that they have reviewed contracts this company has with other cities, which is quire a few, and believes they could possibly achieve cost savings if the current contract were revised, such as revising staffing and hours. He also stated that they have reviewed the Charter Schools and they are paying for their crossing guards which will be a nice savings next year. Chief Cavallo said the Assistant City Manager would like to meet with the current company and re-negotiate the contract.

Commissioner Moyle made a motion to direct the Assistant City Manager to re-negotiate the current contract. Commissioner Frankel seconded the motion. All in favor.

12. COMMISSION COMMENTS

a. Request from Boys and Girls Club to waive False Alarm Fees in the amount of $525.00

Commissioner Frankel made a motion to waive the false alarm fees. Commissioner Moyle seconded the motion and made a recommendation.

Commissioner Moyle said the motion detectors used by the Boys and Girls Club are unreliable, and suggested getting glass-break protectors to eliminate false alarms. Further he said they may also want to install video cameras around the most vulnerable places. City Manager Sala said the Boys and Girls Club maybe could work with BSO to find something that would work for both of them. Mr. Sala further indicated the backup provided which is a record of all the false alarm notices, which does take a lot of police and staff time. Mayor Brady recommended revising the motion to include the removal of motion detectors and replacing it with glass-break protectors and video cameras. Mr. Sala added at the Boys and Girls Club’s expense. Commissioner Moyle said the Boys and Girls Club is desperately seeking donations of services or items for an auction. Commissioner Hilton commented that he is a supporter of the Boys and Girls Club and said they are a great organization and does a lot for the City, but the City just waived permit fees and are now asked to waive false alarm fees and we don’t do this for any other business in the City. He said they were aware of the problem before the fees amounted to $525.00 and commented that if it were another business we would say no and would we waive it for other businesses that may ask?. Mayor Brady said this is a charity, not a business. Commissioner Frankel said if they agree to the stipulation to improve things, we could be forgiving now. Commissioner Moyle said we are asking them to improve their system so that this doesn’t happen again. Commissioner Hilton said it will cost a lot more to improve the system, rather than pay the alarm fees.

The motion on the table was to waive the false alarm fees with the recommendation that the Boy’s and Girl’s Club improve their system. Clerk polled Commission.

Commission vote:

Mayor Brady ___Yes__

Vice Mayor Cangemi ___Yes__

Commissioner Frankel ___Yes__

Commissioner Hilton ___No __

Commissioner Moyle ___Yes__

MOTION APPROVED ON A 4-1 VOTE

Commissioner Frankel spoke on the subject of Highland Court off the Boulevard of Champions. He said this is a 37 year old neighborhood and things keep coming up. He said this is an ingress/egress and needs some infrastructure work to pipe water from drainage and rainwater out to a canal and the pipes underground are probably ready to corrode and put about 40 homes out of water and sewer soon. Commissioner Frankel commented that the people who live there would not know how to fix the problem. He said it could amount to a couple hundred thousand dollars of infrastructure. Further, he said there is no homeowner’s association. He said to fix it you have to get them to dedicate pieces of their lots to make it a legal road and then the City may be able to work on it. Public Works Director, Mike Shields, said that all the property lines come together and cross the road, so they would have to dedicate easements where the roadway is before the City could maintain it. He said there are a lot of issues. Mr. Shields said he has met with people several times but could only get a few people together. He said it would require approximately half a million dollars to do the work and in the past it did not qualify for CDBG funding. Mr. Shields said in the past the City did some repair work and the City did not recover funds for that. Mayor Brady said that to get results the property owners would have to get together. City Attorney Goren offered his assistance in helping them, but said he is concerned that under the current financial situation and constitutional impediments, you cannot think about spending public dollars on privately owned property. Further Attorney Goren said he could try to offer options to them. Mr. Sala commented that perhaps Community Development could get a list of addresses of the tenants or owners in Highlands of Tam O’Shanter and have legal counsel prepare a questionnaire letter that asks key questions to see what we are dealing with, it may be a starting point, and staff could be working on numbers and ideas that we would need to do to pull it all together at some point. Mr. Sala said we would be willing to work with them but we need to hear from them.

Commissioner Hilton posed a question to Public Works Director, Mike Shields, regarding the last bank of lights on 81^st. Mr. Shields replied that FPL needed an easement from the City, which was given to them and FPL gave the timeline of March 5^th-8^th to complete it.

Commissioner Moyle handed out an article pertaining to ethics and said there would be no ethical problems if everyone followed the example of President Grover Cleveland.

13. CITY MANAGER COMMENTS

Mr. Sala said they took the components from the Design/Build that was tabled from last week is moved to the next meeting on the 11^th and will be part of the overall meeting and their will be presentations.

14. CITY ATTORNEY COMMENTS

a. Imperial Estates (560 N. State Road 7) Non-Conforming Use Issues

City Attorney Goren briefed the Commission on the current status of the Imperial Estates project. He said Imperial Estates was a mobile home park, properly zoned and land-used for that purpose. Mr. Goren said they came to the Commission and requested a change of land use and a change of zoning to allow for multi-family residential either for sale or for rent on the premise that they were going to market the property for that purpose. Mr. Goren stated that the City Commission bent over backwards to assist them, staff was co-operative and respectful and got the appropriate entities of government to review quickly all the applicants’ requests. The applicant got what it wanted; a property which was zoned for a specific multi-family use with a zoning which correlated with the land use. Mr. Goren said at the same time, by law under the City’s Code, whatever was on the property at the time of the re-zoning was called and has become a legal non-conforming use. Unfortunately, Mr. Goren stated, the economy changed, and the market changed and they could not sell what they sought to sell. They have asked the City Manager to permit to allow the facility to either be operated as a mobile home park indefinitely, by adding units or fixing up units, which the Code precludes, or allowing the property to be sold to a third party on the premise that they would operate it as a mobile home park until the market changes. Mr. Goren said the City has received from counsel for Cornerstone a demand alleging violations of certain constitutional rights. Mr. Goren state that he has offered several options which were refused and the City Manager and he are unable to do anything other than work with the developer who owns the property to do what the law allows for, which is to operate as a mobile home park as a legal non-conforming use, but not to add units or replace damaged units. Mr. Goren said this is the best advice and status he could provide at this time.

Mr. Goren went on to say he is preparing a memo regarding House Bill 991 which was filed, known as the Voice of the People Act, a very unique statute which changes the law with regard to Sunshine under Chapter 286 to require some interesting, unique and challenging obligations to be placed on local governments, if it passes, regarding public access to the public meeting.

Another memo Mr. Goren provided the Commission was regarding sex offender, Albert Thomas, and attached to his memo is an Order signed by Judge Bidwell, authorizing him to reside at 1131 S.W. 73 Avenue, which City Staff and Police are aware of, which is contrary to the City’s Ordinance.

15. ADJOURNMENT – There being no further business to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Patricia Vancheri

Interim City Clerk