PonceInletFL - 09/08/2009 Special Town Council Minutes

5. Rescinding ~ Council’s Motion to Direct the Elimination of Certain Staff Positions. Mayor Goudie explained the budget process and the discussion regarding the direction from Council to the town manager concerning the elimination of certain positions. He stated that ultimately it is the manager’s responsibility to add, delete, promote or demote employees’ positions. Attorney Cliff Shepard stated that since there was no actual motion made, there is no formal rescission to be made. However, in when one listens to the audio or reviews the minutes, it could be interpreted that Council was giving certain direction to the town manager. Attorney Shepard spoke about the responsibilities of Council and the town manager and referred to his email which was included in the agenda packets. He spoke about why this was built into the Charter, saying that without the day to day knowledge of employees, it is only practical to have the manager, not the Council, be responsible for personnel. Mayor Goudie then stated that it is not appropriate for Council to direct the manager on matters of personnel; although Council can give suggestions or guidance to the manager to review certain numbers in the budget or to even meet a certain goal in the budget but ultimately it is the manager’s choice on how this should be done. Councilmember McCormick said it is very clear that they cannot cherry-pick the personnel, but they can make a policy statement that they would like to keep services rather than a head count. In response to Vice-Mayor Davis’ question about whether Council has done anything wrong, Attorney Shepard stated that technically they have not, but there was discussion that is outside the purview of Council. Mr. Shepard also stated that Council should put their intentions on the record in order to correct this issue. Councilmember Sturno stated that this is micro-management, and it was not Council’s intention to eliminate positions. He felt that Council did overstep their bounds and needed to rescind their direction to eliminate positions. Councilmember Sturno stated that Council can give direction as far as number they want to achieve or a millage rate they want to achieve, but that’s as far as they should go. He also gave credit to the employees from the top down for the work done on the budget. Mayor Goudie stated that he believed the consensus of Council was that it was not their intent to give direction to cut a position. Councilmember McCormick moved that Council provide guidance to the Town Manager to remove all personnel decision items from our direction. Councilmember Sturno seconded the motion and added that it was never in their purview to begin with. Vice-Mayor Davis thanked Mr. Comfort for catching this mis-step, but felt that Council’s job is to impose the millage rate that they feel is important and also to direct that the budget be reduced by a certain sum. She also felt that the motion was too general because Councils decisions are going to ultimately affect personnel. However, the wider view of the budget concerning how much the employees would be making in any one section is Council’s responsibility and asked if it would be appropriate to say, for example, that the Admin budget should be X amount. Mr. Shepard stated that he was not familiar with how the budget was reviewed, but agreed that Council can do what Vice-Mayor Davis suggested. The Vice-Mayor then asked if going line by line over the budget is appropriate. Mr. Shepard replied that it’s not inappropriate, and stated that in trying to get answers as to what makes the numbers in this line item is simply a way to get the details. Mayor Goudie opened the floor for public participation. Vic McClellan, 4327 S. Peninsula Drive, stated that he was not present at the last meeting, but listened to the recording, and said he felt that it is important for Council to clear this issue up. Sandra Christopherson, 14 Kelly Bea Court, felt that this matter should be clarified at this meeting and thanked Mr. Sturno for understanding the issue and said she wished the rest of them would. Mayor Goudie closed public participation. Mayor Goudie stated that going through the budget line item by line item is just a comprehensive budget review and stressed the issue that this type of review was not micromanaging. Councilmember Derr stated that in order to be very precise, she would move that the motion should be amended to be more specific and would also like to see the verbiage in the motion to be taken directly from the Charter. Councilmember McCormick stated he was not open to amending the motion unless they want to be specific about the guidance on the two positions they considered. Mayor Goudie asked Councilmember McCormick if he would like to amend his motion and believed that this was an idea or motion that Council was not going to dictate to the town manager to appoint or remove a town employee. Councilmember McCormick stated no. Ms. Clauss and Ms. Cherbano read back the motion at the request of the Vice-Mayor. Vice-Mayor Davis agreed that it would be more prudent to track the language of the Charter that Council did not intend to dictate the appointment or removal of any town officer or employee at the last meeting. Mayor Goudie said he did not have a problem with the language and would be happy to second the potential amended motion for purposes of discussion. He then clarified that he was talking about the potential amended motion as requested by Ms. Derr and opened the floor to the public. Gary Comfort, 85 Ocean Way Drive, stated he has no problem with amending the motion, and has no problem with the intent of Councilmember McCormick’s original motion. He agrees that the original motion as read back is overly broad. He felt there was a distinction between the original motion and the motion as read back. Ms. Christopherson, 14 Kelly Bea Court, asked for clarification about the original 4-0 vote and asked what it was if it was not a motion. Mayor Goudie replied that it was a consensus. Vice-Mayor Davis explained the process by which the consensus was reached. Jim Hinson, 4745 S. Atlantic Avenue, said that names and positions had to have been discussed, and said that in all of his years on Council, they never discussed eliminating personnel. He was concerned because the two names or positions were out in the public by the afternoon of the meeting. Councilmember Sturno stated there’s a fine line between guidance and direction, and when they give direction or guidance that we’re removing certain positions, that it doesn’t matter what you call it, that it’s still wrong. Mayor Goudie replied that this is what Council is here to discuss and we’ve all agreed that it was not what Council was here to do. Councilmember McCormick stated that they ran through a total list, and those were items that were brought up and he was trying to remove those items from the list of activities that we did on that day. At the Mayor’s request, Ms. Clauss read back the amended motion to include the Charter: Councilmember Derr made a motion to amend the motion on the floor to include the language in the Charter, Section 3.04, regarding appointments and removals, “that the Council nor any of its members shall in any manner dictate the appointment or removal of any Town officers or employees whom the Town Manager or any of his subordinates are empowered to appoint” and seconded by Mayor Goudie. The amendment to the motion PASSED 5-0 with the following votes: Vice-mayor Davis – yes; Mayor Goudie –yes; Councilmember Sturno - yes; Councilmember McCormick - yes; Councilmember Derr - yes. Ms. Clauss informed that the Council should now vote as well on the newly amended motion as read. The amended motion as read PASSED 5-0 with the following votes: Councilmember McCormick –yes; Councilmember Sturno –yes; Councilmember Derr – yes; Vice-mayor Davis – yes; Mayor Goudie – yes.