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Town of Ponce Inlet
TOWN COUCIL MINUTES
Regular Meeting of August 20, 2009,
Continued on September 17, 2009
1. CALL TO ORDER: Pursuant to proper notice, Mayor Goudie called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers at 4300 South Atlantic Avenue, Ponce Inlet, Florida.
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Mayor Goudie led the attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance.
3. ROLL CALL:
Council present:
Mayor Goudie, Seat #1
Councilmember Derr, Seat #2
Councilmember McCormick, Seat #3
Vice-Mayor Davis, Seat #4
Councilmember Sturno, Seat #5
Staff Members Present:
Ms. Clauss, Interim Town Manager/Town Clerk
Mr. Gunter, General Manager of Public Works
Mr. Joulani, Director of Planning and Development
Mr. Marks, Chief Building Official
Ms. Richard, Development Review Clerk
Chief Scales, Fire Chief
Mr. Shepard, Town Attorney
Chief Thomas, Police Chief
Ms. Yoon, Planner
16. NEW BUSINESS:
B. Real-estate owned (REO) properties. Mayor Goudie had requested this item and explained that there are many properties in Town in some state of foreclosure or disrepair. He saw a presentation by the City of Port St. Lucie regarding their nuisance property ordinance and the results they had gotten from its enforcement. At his request, Mr. Shepard explained that it involves the creation of a “super lien” which trumps mortgages but Mr. Shepard cautioned that he did not believe it would hold up if challenged. With that in mind, he contacted Port St. Lucie and reviewed his findings, saying that the City does recognize that they may have a
problem if there is a legal challenge to the ordinance, and they do have concerns. The City of Maitland has two ordinances to deal with foreclosures and their provisions other than code enforcement include maintaining the property, with the bill being passed along to the bank. He said that the banks are not anxious to complete foreclosures and the real concern is how long these things take to conclude. That said, he would be happy to send the ordinance to staff for review. Mayor Goudie spoke about Lis Pendens, how these properties remain in a state of limbo, and his belief that one of his obligations is to retain property value, asking at what point do we have an obligation to the surrounding property owners. Councilmember McCormick believes we have an obligation for safety issues, beyond that a little civic pride and help from the neighbors, but does not advise turning on the electricity to maintain a pool. He suggested draining the pools
instead. Mayor Goudie and Councilmember Sturno cautioned against draining pools because they can pop out of the ground and Councilmember Sturno suggested another option would be to super-chlorinate pools. Mayor Goudie opened for public comment. Christina Pierce, 66 Inlet Harbor Road, said that she manages condos and gone through a couple of foreclosures and if they planned on super liens, liens are extremely expensive, in addition to the legal fees. She feels it would be a burden to the city. She also feels that maintaining the pools would be too expensive and suggested using mosquito control for pools. Mayor Goudie closed public comment. Mayor Goudie said that he’s disappointed to hear that the attorney feels a super lien may be unenforceable and remains concerned about the properties around those in foreclosure. He feels we should be willing to make some minor repairs to some of these properties. Councilmember McCormick
asked about the ramifications of going on the property. Mr. Shepard said that until a court tells you that you can’t, you can, and he would expect that a court would tell you that you can’t. He spoke about self-help and using code enforcement process, and that clearly they do have the right to make properties safe. It’s also a matter of how big is the problem. Mr. Sturno said we did, in fact, just collect a lien last month. Mayor Goudie opened for public comment. Dave McConnell, 132 Old Carriage, said they have already solved a safety problem on the property next to his, said the lawn has not been mowed by the owner in a year; his neighbor has complained about rats and the neighbors are asking that the Town take over mowing the lawn at least once a month. He said 109 Old Carriage is now unattended and there is a house at 4325 South Peninsula, and said this is setting a behavior pattern. He said they really need the
Town’s help and the neighbors would be really happy. Ginger Bayer, 55 Jennifer Circle, lives next to a house that is in foreclosure and the grass grows high. She said that the house on the other side was formerly in foreclosure and has since been sold and is now being taken care of. She spoke of a house on Peninsula that has grass growing though cars. Christine Pierce, 66 Inlet Harbor, asked whether this is not a code enforcement issue, and letters should be sent or whether the Town can afford to hire someone to cut grass throughout the community where this is an issue. Russ Boner, 59 Beach Street, agrees that this is a problem and asked how many properties are in foreclosure. Mr. Joulani said he believes there are 17 with 5 having pools. He explained the process for monitoring them, including mosquito control. Mr. Boner said that the code enforcement violation and lien if necessary would be the way to proceed to avoid passing
another law that cannot be enforced. He spoke about the fact that the Town currently mows on the north side of Beach Street and feels one solution is to ask Public Works if they could mow the lawns after a violation has been served. Linda Bumpass, 131 Old Carriage, said that Ellen Pagliarulo would have liked to have been here tonight due to because she is on the code enforcement board but couldn’t. She said in addition to the mosquitoes and rats, the raccoons are such a problem they can’t take their garbage out at night. She said that their street is not the only one with a problem, and said if a person was living there and the grass got high, we should fine them. She feels that if the real estate companies won’t take responsibility for the properties in this shape, their sign should have to come down. She spoke about her need to put a deep well in, so her lawn doesn’t look the best, but she does maintain it and asked for
help with the neighboring house. Sandra Christopherson, 14 Kelly Bea Court, said her house is right next to Las Olas and they pleaded for help with maintenance there for a long time and she was told the Town couldn’t do anything. She said that Ms. Blissett finally had the lawn cut. Mayor Goudie closed public comment. Mayor Goudie asked Council if they would support asking Public Works to maintain these lawns. Vice-Mayor Davis asked for input from Public Works. Mr. Joulani said he believed it was something that could be done. Councilmember Derr agreed, if it could be done once a month. She suggested that putting mosquito eating fish in the pools could be looked into. Councilmember Sturno said that those fish are naturally occurring and don’t control mosquitoes one hundred percent. Vice-Mayor Davis said that the mosquito people told us that the fish don’t work due to rain water. She would like to cite
offenders and charge them to get the cost of mowing back, and asked about the Town’s liability if a sprinkler breaks, etc. Mr. Shepard said that the path of least resistance is to ask permission and explained that it is a 30-60 day time frame before code enforcement action can be taken. He said you do have to be cautious and only cure the violation; if you break something, you have the potential to be sued.
Mayor Goudie stated that he is okay with giving direction for Ms. Clauss to have Public Works maintain lawns once a month and if it gets cumbersome, revisit it. All of Council agreed. Ms. Clauss expressed a little concern about doing this in-house because she had recently tasked public works with the janitorial duties for the Town, but will look at it and other options. She has seen in the past where the municipality hired an outside firm and basically had a contract for them to be on stand-by for this. The outside contractor would be responsible for insurance and the Town would pay the contractor and lien the property accordingly.
C. Board Support Study. Councilmember Derr said that she requested this item because it remains a council goal from 2008 and said that council has just looked through the budget for efficiencies and now she felt they should look in more places for these. She asked staff to look for companies that do this type of work – look for inefficiencies and offer recommendations. Mr. Joulani explained that staff contacted four companies and received proposals for $10,000 and $3,800 plus costs. He said the company with the lower cost is most qualified. Councilmember Sturno asked about what might constitute additional costs involved and Ms. Clauss explained.that these could be travel and staff
would aim to limit that to presentation only, as data could be provided for them electronically. Councilmember McCormick said that he didn’t know the boards were broken. Councilmember Derr said that, for example, we pay for two attorneys for the code enforcement board, and feels that we need to take a look at possible solutions and find efficiencies. Mr. Joulani explained his conversation with the companies and the need to look for cost efficiencies; for example, is a code board or a special magistrate the better option. In response to the Mayor’s question, he said that this is done by municipalities and doesn’t believe that this has ever been done here. Mr. Shepard explained the need for two attorneys being needed for the code enforcement board, having one representing the town and one representing the board. He said that a number of his cities use the magistrate system. He explained that system, saying that there
would still be a need for two attorneys, but that towns that having gone to that system have found to be more efficient. Councilmember Derr moved to direct the Manager to undertake this study. Mayor Goudie seconded the motion. Ms. Clauss confirmed that there are funds available within the legislative department for this study. Councilmember McCormick asked if we could look at the special magistrate without paying for the study. Ms. Clauss stated that they could but added that this study would look at a lot of areas and the responsibility structure of all of the Town’s boards and Council and offer ideas for improvement, not just the ones that they may think of. Vice-Mayor Davis asked that this item be tabled in order to research Town ordinances before deciding how to proceed. She would like to be presented with a problem before finding a solution. Councilmember Sturno asked who would do that. Vice-Mayor Davis
volunteered. She also suggested that a staff member speak with the board chairs to get feedback. Mayor Goudie opened for public comment. Tami Lewis, 108 Ponce de Leon Circle, said that she’s glad that there are leftover funds. She said that this would provide a comprehensive overview, but if you feel that it is a single board issue, she said that in 2000, they looked at the special magistrate and decided not to change the system, but suggested that it might be a good idea to revisit it at this time. Russ Boner, 59 Beach Street, said that at that cost, you’re not talking about expenses, you’re going to run up more in expenses. He is opposed to spending the money to do the study and said we should look at paying the board members for their service instead. Dave McConnell, 132 Old Carriage, said he’s not sure we have a problem across all boards, and feels it’s mainly code enforcement and feels that strengthening
the code enforcement officer will go a long way. He said after that, you can look at the special magistrate. He suggested we revitalize code enforcement in the Town. Linda Bumpass, 131 Old Carriage Road, asked who regulates the boards, and thinks that instead of having someone come in who knows nothing about the Town, she thinks the Council should do the examination. Mary Hoss, 12 Kelly Bea Court, currently chair of Board of Adjustment, stated that she has served on the board for 16 years and in all that time, no litigation has been brought because every board member does what is expected. She reads and understands the Codes of this Town, and does not feel they should spend the money on this study. Mayor Goudie closed public comment. Councilmember Derr said she did not wish to imply that the boards do not do a good job, rather she feels that there are some efficiencies that we need to look at, and if we can do internally, great. She
withdrew her motion and Mayor withdrew his second.
D. Replacement of town manager. Councilmember McCormick said he feels we should begin looking for a new town manager. Mayor Goudie agreed that we should start soliciting resumes advertising and that now they should perhaps direct Ms. Clauss to do so. He stated that he wants to see each resume received though – not to have anyone narrow them down or prioritize them. Councilmember Sturno said the Range Riders are retired city managers who provide a very good service and feels that we ought to avail ourselves of their services. Vice-Mayor Davis stated that if we cannot talk Ms. Clauss into taking the job, they should begin to advertise and the new Council would make the appointment (Editor’s note: at Councilmember McCormick’s and Councilmember Sturno’s request at the October 15th meeting, Vice-Mayor Davis later clarified that she meant “the Council” when she said “we” but could only actually speak for herself and therefore meant “I”). She did however feel that she
would have liked to have given Ms. Clauss six months to see if she would like to apply for the job as Vice-Mayor Davis felt that Ms. Clauss would be a first choice candidate. Vice-Mayor Davis stated that if Ms. Clauss is still not interested they should proceed with advertising and suggested they leave it to Ms. Clauss’ discretion as to where to advertise. Mayor Goudie stated that he felt Ms. Clauss should also feel free to contact the Range Riders if she felt she needed any assistance with the advertising. Councilmember Sturno stated that he was never aware that they intended to wait six months to see if Ms. Clauss would like to apply for the job. He stated that Ms. Clauss would be his first choice also but that Ms. Clauss had stated to him previously that she did not want this position and he was concerned that Council was overloading her with so much now and they need to get on with this – adding that he felt that they should have gotten on
with this before now. Councilmember McCormick expressed a concern that there had been an intentional delay in directing Ms. Clauss to advertise for the position of town manager. Mayor Goudie clarified that they had not given any direction on this previously but they were discussing it now (June and July were the only regular Council meetings held prior to this being placed on an agenda and they ran out of time at the August meeting so it is now at the top of the agenda for September). Council directed Ms. Clauss to begin the advertising process.
E. Employee’s maximum personal leave accrual. Councilmember Sturno requested they defer this item until next month. (Editor’s note: Councilmember Sturno later withdrew his request for this item on an agenda.)
F. Installation of sidewalk/speed bumps on Inlet Harbor Road. This item was requested and later removed by Vice-Mayor Davis.
17. ADJOURNMENT. Mayor Goudie adjourned this meeting at approximately 7:15 p.m., announcing the regular meeting scheduled for September 17th, 2009 would begin immediately after.
Respectfully submitted,
Jeaneen P. Clauss, CMC,
Interim Town Manager/Town Clerk
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