CC01-21-13MinLONGWOOD CITY COMMISSION
Longwood City Commission Chambers
175 West Warren Avenue
Longwood, Florida
MINUTES
JANUARY 21, 2013
7:00 P.M.
Present: Mayor Brian D. Sackett
Deputy Mayor John C. Maingot
Commissioner Joe Durso
Commissioner Bob Cortes
Commissioner H.G. "Butch" Bundy
Dan Langley, City Attorney
Jon C. Williams, City Administrator
Sarah M. Mirus, City Clerk
Troy Hickson, Police Chief
Randy Lamb, Building Official
Chris Kintner, Planner/Stormwater
Sheryl Bower, Director of Community Services
Fran Meli, Director of Leisure Services
Lillian Sexton, Fire Marshal
Bill Gulbrandsen, Fire Chief
Wanda Broadway, Human Resources Manager
Pamela Barclay, Director of Financial Services
Michelle Longo, Executive Assistant to City Administrator
1. CALL TO ORDER. Mayor Sackett called the meeting to order at 7:00
p.m.
2. A moment of SILENT MEDITATION was followed by the PLEDGE
OF ALLEGIANCE.
3. COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS. None.
4. RECOGNITIONS/PROCLAMATIONS.
A. District #2 Presentation of the Business Person of the Month
Award for January 2013 to C. Glenn Williams, President of
Bell Performance, Inc., located at 1340 Bennett Drive.
C Commissioner Durso stated because there was not a Commission
Meeting at the first of this month, he went out to the business and
presented the Award. He said he sent the photographs to Ms.
Mirus.
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Ms. Mirus stated the photographs were placed on the City's
website.
Commissioner Durso then read a brief biography on C. Glenn
Williams, President of Bell Performance, Inc.
B. Presentation of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Good Citizenship
Award to Mr. Willie Wright, III.
Deputy Mayor Maingot read a Proclamation recognizing Mr.
Willie Wright, III and presented him with the Martin Luther King,
Jr. Good Citizenship Award. Photographs were then taken.
Mayor Sackett stated he had nominated Mr. Kevin and Mrs.
Barbara Albright for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Good Citizenship
Award.. But they thought about it, and with all that they do for the
community, the recognition was not why they do things. They
humbly said thank you, but no thank you. He said he appreciates
this kind of people living in the City of Longwood.
5. BOARD APPOINTMENTS.
A. District #5 Nomination to the Parks and Recreation Advisory
Board.
Mayor Sackett nominated Ms. Arlene Gilman, 993 Burlwood
Court, to be appointed to the Parks and Recreation Advisory
Board. Nomination carried by a unanimous voice vote.
6. PUBLIC INPUT.
A. . Public Participation.
Mayor Sackett called Mr. Brett Blackadar forward to speak at the
request of the City Administrator for Item 11A.
Brett Blackadar, P.E., Seminole County Engineer, 100 East lst
Street, Sanford, 32771, stated when the 2001 sales tax was passed,
there were three (3) different projects. He said they were State
Road 434 from Montgomery Road to Interstate-4, Interstate-4 to
Rangeline Road, and Rangeline Road to Ronald Reagan Boulevard
(County Road 427). He said all three (3) of those projects were
widening from four (4) lanes to six (6) lanes. He said the Project
Development and Engineering (PD & E) Study was done at the
same time by Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) in
2001, recommending widening. The first two (2) sections, the
County ended up cost sharing between fifty (50%) to sixty five
(65%) percent between those two (2) projects, with FDOT and
different funds. Even with that, the price escalated so much in
right-of-way cost construction that they found themselves out of
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funds by the time they got to the last section, from Rangeline Road
to Ronald Reagan Boulevard (County Road 427). He said the
other issue was the cost of that one (1) mile section, with design
right-of-way acquisition construction was about $74 million,
according to the estimate. That number might be high because of
the economy changing a little bit, but when they go through that
section, they will see the right-of-way actually narrows so the
impact to the businesses was severe. He said they looked at this a
couple of years ago from a traffic study and found out that if they
just did intersection improvements at Rangeline Road, which was
being taken care of with the projects under construction now,
Florida Central Parkway and then the intersection improvements at
Ronald Reagan Boulevard (County Road 427), they have got about
eighty (80%) percent of the operational benefit for about twenty
(20%) to twenty five (25%) percent of the cost. He said they have
been moving in that direction for the last couple of years, but they
started having discussions with the City last year. He said this was
still on the MetroPlan as a widening project, if anyone was still
interested in seeing this project get widened. He said he talked
with the District County Commissioner, Carlton Henley, and some
other Commissioners and no one was really objecting to changing
this to an intersection improvement project. He said he was
meeting tomorrow with a funding work session with the Board and
will bring this up. He said he thinks the Board will agree to make
this an intersection project. He also said Ms. Bower made a good
comment about trying to add some other projects. He said he
talked with FDOT, who said that cannot be done with MetroPlan's
formal process, but always worth asking about. He asked for
questions.
Mayor Sackett said they learned that $74 million basically would
take business acquisitions, and as Commissioner Bundy has said
before, if they take those buildings away, what were behind were
warehouses, which was a whole different look than what they
want. He said their assurances with that $74 million was kind of
being ill -spent and said twenty (20%) percent of that would take
care of eighty (80%) percent of the traffic.
Mr. Blackadar said they have already funded the Florida Central
Parkway intersection, which was the smaller of the two (2). He
noted what was left was about $7 million to $8 million for Ronald
Reagan Boulevard (County Road 427). He said what they were
also interested in doing was looking at the whole corridor. He said
they would like to extend to US Highway 17-92 and look at what
other improvements could be done that were multi -motor
operational to support SunRail. He said they do not know what the
total estimate was right now, but their guess was it was quite a bit
less than $74 million, and they could do a lot more improvements.
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Mayor Sackett said he sees this as Item 11 B, so they will have
questions now and then a motion.
Discussion was held regarding the current and future service level
of the roads and the costs for the improvement of the roads.
Commissioner Cortes thanked Mr. Blackadar for bringing this so
quickly to them and said he appreciated what improvements were
going to be done for the money. He asked if this moves forward,
how soon the Ronald Reagan Boulevard (County Road 427)
intersection project would be projected to be completed.
Mr. Blackadar said right now if it goes back on the prioritize list,
the next opportunity would be in the fifth year of FDOT's next
work program, which would be 2019. He said the County has
started another discussion about another sales tax, and if a sales tax
was passed, there was certainly an opportunity for them to fund
sooner than that.
Commissioner Cortes asked if they would drop from the current
six (6), or would they move up a little bit.
Mr. Blackadar said the number one (1) and two (2) projects were
funded in the work program, so they would move up at four (4). It
would be the second Seminole County Project on the list after the
four (4) to six (6) projects, so the FDOT gives District 5 about fifty
(50%) percent of the money goes to MetroPlan, and about twenty-
three (23%) percent of the money goes to Seminole County, so
they can kind of work the numbers. It is about $80 million or $90
million a year, so it was unlikely that two (2) projects get funded in
the same year. He stated they were probably talking about year
2020 or 2021 before that got funded in the work program, unless
they fund it or partially fund it.
Commissioner Cortes said his concern was that when FDOT did
the original taking, they damaged the property on the south side.
He said if they leave it like this, they were going to be stuck with
blighted properties along State Road 434 from Rangeline Road to
Ronald Reagan Boulevard (County Road 427), with no means or
ways of getting it corrected in the near future. He said what FDOT
did prior to this was damage those parcels of land, making them
somewhat unusable, and there was no incentive for economic
redevelopment with that. He said if they go with this, they pretty
much cancel any hopes of getting that redeveloped any time within
the next twenty (20) years.
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Mr. Blackadar asked if they were damaged when they were
widened from a two (2) to a four (4) lane.
Commissioner Cortes responded in the affirmative.
Mr. Blackadar said they get a lot of telephone calls from
businesses because they were in limbo because they know the six
(6) lane was still out there, so he said they were making a point by
not going forward with a six (6) lane because those businesses
know what was ahead of them. He said right now it was still on
the priority list and was still being discussed. So if you update the
PD & E Study and they say they no longer needed the six (6) lane,
they were going to operational improvements, then that was off the
table, and they can tell people it was not funded now, but it could
be in the future. He thinks this was better for the businesses to
know this was not happening right now.
Commissioner Cortes said most of those properties were in code
violation right now and has to be redeveloped and torn down and
to unite parcels to try to make something out of it.
Mayor Sackett said that was their understanding where the $70
million would come, because they came with non -compliant
parking spaces. He said they have made agreements with them a
dozen years ago or so.
Commissioner Bundy said actually it was longer than that when
they said that and there were not any grievances stated at that time.
He said they now have an eminent domain ordinance, which was to
protect them as well as the property owners. He said one thing was
the stability of it. Even if they decide they want to keep it on the
funding list, it was still going to be a long time before it gets
funded. He said he cannot reiterate it enough because he brought it
up when they discussed this the last time, to suggest everybody go
a block in from those parcels on State Road 434 and look at what
they have got there. He said if they think what was on State Road
434 was bad now, look one (1) lot, two (2) lots or two (2) parcels
behind what was there. It was metal warehouses. It was things
that could not possibly be built today, but unless they were going
to go into some eminent domain taking, which he said he does not
think anybody here was in favor of, they were going to be there.
He said there were a couple of parcels th4t were looked at one
point by a developer to buy up several smaller parcels and combine
them. He said they may have an opportunity like they were doing
for the SunRa.il with some funding, in buying up some of the less
expensive properties to the back and do it like a regional
stormwater area because that was where the biggest problem in
these parcels was coming from. Nobody can take that property and
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do anything with it because there was not enough room to make it
economically viable and meet the parking and stormwater
requirements because most of those properties were developed
before St. John's Water Management was anybody's thought. He
said if they were leaving the door open to some possibility of some
funds and looking at it from a transit -oriented, multi -model
improvements, he said he would have no problem with doing it this
way.
Deputy Mayor Maingot welcomed Mr. Blackadar and asked him if
he was aware of a possibility of a development at the corner of
State Road 434 and Ronald Reagan Boulevard (County Road 427).
Mr. Blackadar said he knows there has been some discussion.
Deputy Mayor Maingot said his point was that they have to ensure
that they keep any such development/developers aware of the
taking, so when they were citing their building that they do not
come later and have to have it torn up later.
Mr. Blackadar said they have had some people come in over the
past three (3) or four (4) years for that quarter, and they have
provided all the preliminary plans. There was a historical twelve
(12') foot roadway easement on that property.
Deputy Mayor Maingot said he just wanted to make sure they were
working together on that. He said he was going back a few years
when they were the right hand man to his former boss. He asked
him if he remembers the name of Longwood Boulevard being
suggested and talked about. He said Longwood Boulevard was
going to be the name of that roadway from Interstate-4 going all
the way through to US Highway 17-92, with State Road 434
becoming Longwood Boulevard. He said one of the things they
spoke about many times was how they did not want all the
spaghetti -type wiring running across the roadway. That was going
to be put underground, as opposed to the heavy stuff. He then said
secondly and equally important was the medians around that
roadway all the way from Interstate-4 to the extent which they
were going forward with the construction and widening. The
medians have sleeves placed appropriately from the side of the
road where the water supply was entering into the actual median
itself for subsequent irrigation and/or lighting purposes so that they
can work with them in beautifying that median, rather than leaving
it complete Bahia or something else coming through the City. He
asked Mr. Blackadar if he was aware of that.
Mr. Blackadar said on the utility lines they gave some quotes, and
he thinks a decision was made by the City staff to not move
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forward with that because of the cost.
Deputy Mayor Maingot asked what cost was that, the cost of
putting in varying utility lines.
Mr. Blackadar responded in the affirmative. He said the utility
sleeves were in the plan, so they were constructing those as far as
the project.
Deputy Mayor Maingot asked what size sleeve were they using
and suggested being able to have at least two (2) one (1") inch
mains going through and also enough room for a conduit to carry
electricity through it at the same time. It would be much more
effective and one (1/10) tenth of the cost being done up front
before any of the paving on the roadway was done, as opposed to
having to drill and whipstock underneath to bring it up at $5,000 a
shot. He stated they don't want to go there.
Mr. Blackadar said he would check it out and if they are not big
enough, that was not a big expense. He said they did upgrade the
mast arm of that project, and they also stamped brick wherever
there was a concrete separator, they stamped those with brick, so
they were upgrading the aesthetics. He said the pond was also
under their authority, and there was an agreement between them
and FDOT being worked out to upgrade the landscaping as well.
He said after construction, he said the intention was to put a good
soil back into the construction, so they can come back with a
separate contractor and provide landscaping.
Deputy Mayor Maingot asked what kind of soil they were going to
fill the medians with, not lime rock, he hoped.
Commissioner Bundy moved to approve. Seconded by
Commissioner Cortes and carried by a unanimous roll call
vote.
Willie Wright, General Manager of Cory Fairbanks Mazda, 400
US Highway 17-92, said as of right now their temporary -use
permit to have their tent up was getting ready to expire. He said he
would like to have it extended while they go through construction
at the dealership.
Commissioner Bundy said it came to Ms. Bower too late to get it
on the Agenda, so he asked if they could discuss this now.
Ms. Bower said she had no problems with it.
Commissioner Bundy moved to approve a ninety (90) day
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extension on the temporary -use permit. Seconded by
Commissioner Cortes.
The Commission had agreed to handle this matter under
Commissioner Bundy's Report.
Commissioner Bundy withdrew his motion. Seconded was
withdrawn by Commissioner Cortes.
7. MAYOR AND COMMISSIONERS' REPORT.
District #3. Commissioner Cortes said they had 170 cars at the Car Show
this past weekend. He said it was getting better and easier to work with.
He noted the sponsorships were coming in and having the Community
Building parking lot available has made it so much nicer.
District #4.
Commissioner Bundy moved the same motion as he had
made earlier. Seconded by Commissioner Cortes and
carried by a unanimous roll call vote.
Commissioner Bundy said on Friday, January 25,0' was Connolly's two
year (2) anniversary, and they asked him to extend an invitation to all the
Commissioners and will start around 8:00 p.m. He stated the Mayor was
going to do a Proclamation to support him and they will present it to him
at that time.
Commissioner Bundy said regarding the Early Learning Coalition the
building was very close to opening. He said City staff has worked very
close with them, and the Early Learning staff wants everyone to know
how great it was to work with them. He said there will be twenty-seven
(27) or twenty-eight (28) people when they were done and operating, all
new jobs to the City. He noted there would be a ribbon cutting sometime
in February.
District #5. Mayor Sackett said it was a wonderful Car Show and the
weather was perfect. He noted Winsor Manor has a meeting with him on
Wednesday, and a celebration meeting next Monday honoring people who
do good things in their community, and regarding their entranceway on
State Road 434, with them funding it all.
Mayor Sackett said the Rezoning Meeting was also on Wednesday
evening. It was the School Board's Work Session on the North Zone,
which was Woodlands Elementary School and Winter Springs Elementary
School. He said Winter Springs did not agree with Woodlands on any of
the plans, so they will see what happens. He said the Citizens on Patrol
(COPS) Program putout a flier and their third session was getting ready to
start and was about double the amount already in the program.
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Mayor Sackett said he went to a celebration of Buddy Ball and Bright
House Networks was there and said they have a goal of bannerizing every
field that was within this Tri-County Area, and wanted to meet with him
about Candyland as far as the tarp situation for protecting spectators, and
as long as they put their banner on a fence they will be fine. They were
looking to support youth sports throughout the County. He noted the
person who runs Longwood Babe Ruth Baseball was retiring, and it has
been suggested that they name a field after him or some sort of recognition
for him. His name is Mr. Warren Brown, and there have been 600
children per year, 7,200 children over time. He said it was amazing, and
he said he almost thinks a plaque was not enough with his commitment to
children over the many years. He asked for some ideas or support for this.
Deputy Mayor Maingot said he thought maybe a baseball/softball field
where all the action takes place, and he said he does not have a problem in
supporting that.
Mayor Sackett said the present Candyland sign was kind of worn and old.
Commissioner Cortes said they could get Bright House to put up a
scoreboard, name it and the field Warren Brown together.
Commissioner Bundy said he has a real aversion to naming anything after
anybody that taxpayers have funded, but Mr. Brown has done a lot of stuff
and raised a lot of money. He said he still would prefer a nice bronze
plaque on a pedestal near there, but he will go with the majority.
Commissioner Durso said he had no objection to doing it. He said to
focus on some of their activities, they need to start to rename a lot of
things. He wanted to know why they were still calling the Park Candyland
Park instead of giving it a more appropriate name to give it a more
baseball feel to it. He said they were using all kinds of things at
Longwood Elementary School now, and they will be shifting a lot of those
things, so why they were not looking at every opportunity — and he said
quite honestly, he knows they do not like to name things after people, but
if Bright House Networks wanted to come in and build them a brand new
baseball stadium, he said he was perfectly okay with Bright House Park.
It was all about the quality of service they were able to provide to the
constituents, and if that will help get them there, so be it. He said Mr.
Brown has done a tremendous job and put in so much of his personal time
and life into it, so he has no objection to it.
Mayor Sackett said then they will move forward with the field name.
Commissioner Bundy asked if they were going to rename all of them or
the major park for the big ball field so that way other people can do as
much as he can and that will give them other fields.
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Commissioner Cortes said he thinks it was appropriate that it should be
one (1) field.
Mayor Sackett said he would meet with people to see what they can do
and pursue naming the field or a plaque.
It was the consensus of the Commission to pursue naming the field or a
plaque.
Mayor Sackett also said he would like to have an informational meeting to
see where they were on various projects and to put the information on the
website so everyone can see where everything stands right now on these
projects.
District #1. Deputy Mayor Maingot said the Primrose School of
Longwood at Wekiva was inaugurated by the Mayor, Commissioner
Durso and himself, and it was great. He said it was a fantastic School,
extremely well laid out, developed and appointed. He said the consensus
was that they need to move the City forward and beyond, and they
hopefully will do that. He said the School was very impressive in every
way.
Deputy Mayor Maingot said he has observed while driving through the
City that all numbers on buildings should be boldly placed so police and
fire can identify the numbers when on an emergency call. He said there
were many, many businesses and homes that do not have those numbers
anywhere. He said sometimes they were in the wrong place.
Deputy Mayor Maingot said on January 9P, he represented the City at the
Council of Local Governments in Seminole County (CALNO) Meeting,
and on January 10t', he met with the Tourism Advisory Board for
Seminole County, and the Primrose School opening on January IP.
District #2. Commissioner Durso said on behalf of the Rotary Club of
Longwood, he wanted to thank the City for all the support of the
Community Garden. There has been a significant reduction in the number
of donations and food and clothing items that The Sharing Center has
received. They were leaning more and more on that Garden, and it was
being more and more productive. They pulled a five (5) pound sweet
potato from it, so they were definitely getting their money's worth out of
that Garden and wanted him to pass along a proper thank you. He said the
Tri-County League of Cities has taken a more aggressive tone
legislatively, led by Ms. Kathy Till. She has organized a really strong
legislative effort along the three (3) counties. At the last meeting, he was
sworn -in as the Vice President of the Tri-County League, so he will be
serving as President come January. He wanted to let them know as those
legislative things come from Ms. Till, they will make sure they get them
distributed to all the Commissioners so they can move forward in a more
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organized manner. He wanted to let the Commission know that he was
appointed to something called the Value Pricing Committee. He said
MetroPlan has created this Committee to look at funding for congestion on
the roadways. He said there have been articles written about Lexus Lanes
and how they were thinking for charging for use of Interstate-4 and
charges for different times of day on toll roads, etc. This was the
Committee that has been assigned to do it. The meeting had a lot of
engineers and developers, some MetroPlan staff, and some City staff, and
they were looking for some new funding mechanisms to pay for
transportation due to congestion. He said Central Florida was growing
rapidly, and with SunRail coming it was going to grow even more rapidly
along Interstate-4, and if they do not understand the problem and some of
the solutions, they will really be stuck. Transportation was one of those
things that will always require some form of funding from the government
body.
Commissioner Durso said he had mentioned several times last year about
the safety issue and how the streets in the area were generally very dark in
the middle of the night. He said he would like permission from the
Commission to start developing some ideas and concepts they might be
able to bring back to see if they can help solve that problem. He said there
would be some energy efficiency things involved, and there were some
cost things involved, and before they move forward, there were some
things he would like permission to do some homework. He stated he
wanted to commit staff time to working with some of the vendors.
Mayor Sackett said they were asking for approval for Commissioner
Durso to move forward with lighting safety issues and networking with
those who can help out.
Commissioner Bundy said they needed to be talking about lighting
districts, because at a minimum they were talking about several hundred
thousand dollars.
Commissioner Durso said that was what he brought up, and without
hesitation the folks from Siemens Corporation and from the lighting
company said there were all different types of programs with these light
systems that actually reduce the cost so much, that they pay for the
systems out of the savings until they were done, and then they were yours.
Mayor Sackett said Commissioner Durso was looking to pursue this.
It was a consensus of the Commission to allow Commissioner Durso to
look into street lighting for the City.
Deputy Mayor Maingot said he wanted to give kudos to Corporeal Travis
Grimm of the Longwood Police Department for solving the school
burglaries and vandalism, both at Lyman High School and Lake Brantley
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High School. He wanted to convey their sincere thanks and
congratulations conveyed on behalf of the Commission on a job well done.
8. ANY ADDITIONS OR DELETIONS TO THE AGENDA. None.
9. CONSENT AGENDA.
A. Approve Minutes of the December 3, 2012 Regular Meeting
and the Minutes of the December 17, 2012 Regular Meeting.
B. Approve the Monthly Expenditures for December 2012 and
January 2013.
C. Approve the Monthly Financial Report for December 2012.
D. Approve a Historic District Matching Grant Application from
Sunner & Sunner in the amount of $2,475 for the property
located at 152 West Warren Avenue.
E. Approve to waive the formal bid process, authorize the City
Administrator to negotiate a contract and issue a purchase
order in the amount of $37,025 to Welbro Building
Corporation for the installation of the 8" gravity sewer main
and associated structures on Longwood Street in the vicinity of
the SunRail platform.
Commissioner Durso moved to approve the Consent
Agenda as presented. Seconded by Commissioner Bundy
and carried by a unanimous roll call vote.
10. PUBLIC HEARINGS. None.
11. REGULAR BUSINESS.
A. Read by title only, set February 4, 2013 as the public hearing
date and approve the first reading of Ordinance No.12-2001,
which amends the Longwood City Code to provide more
flexibility with temporary -use permits (TUP) and with
temporary signage associated with TUPs.
Mr. Langley read Ordinance No. 12-2001 by title only.
Commissioner Bundy moved to approve Ordinance No. 12-
2001 at the first reading and set February 4, 2013 as the
public hearing date. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Maingot
and carried by a unanimous roll call vote.
B. Discuss and authorize City staff to work with Seminole County
Government to revise the widening project on State Road 434
from Rangeline Road to Ronald Reagan Boulevard (County
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Road 427) as part of the upcoming 2013 MetroPlan Orlando
Prioritized Project process.
This Item was discussed under Item 6 A, Public Participation.
C. Approve the City Administrator and the City Attorney to
pursue the legal contract and leasing arrangements for
releasing the three (3) vehicles as identified to the City of Belle
Isle. Should such an agreement not be reached for any reason,
City staff requests authorization to list these vehicles with a
nationwide fire apparatus broker.
Mr. Langley said in the interest of full disclosure, his Partner, Mr.
John Bennett was representing the City of Belle Isle since 1972.
He said he understands Mr. Williams will probably be negotiating
the major terms of the deal. He said he feels comfortable
representing the City, and his Partner has the same issues
representing the Cities. He said he would ask that they give him
the same ability to represent the City through a conflict waiver that
he independently needs to evaluate his role and whether he feels
comfortable with any role he was asked to take in such a contract
negotiation or drafting standpoint.
Mr. Williams said he was asked where he stands on that and he
said he was the primary negotiator of contracting, and Mr. Langley
would look at the legal sufficiency of the documents that were
prepared and their certain language that was going to be applicable
to both the City of Longwood and the City of Belle Isle.
Commissioner Bundy said if he was not mistaken, Mr. Langley
was the City Attorney when they sold Belle Isle some police cars,
and does not think anything came up on that.
Commissioner Bundy moved to approve Item C as
presented. Seconded by Commissioner Durso.
Deputy Mayor Maingot said he read this carefully. He said if
Belle Isle were to default or to change their decision on their lease
or purchase prior to October 1", then they will have to pay the City
of Longwood $37,500, plus compensation for any damage done to
the equipment in the interim. He said he sees this as an
opportunity to where things could possibly fall apart — not in the
negotiations, but looking at it from a point of doing his fiduciary
responsibility, they were giving them $125,000 credit with three
(3) pieces of equipment and hoping that they will meet their
obligations. He says they need to provide themselves with a bit of
CYA. He said his second observation was the sale or lease of
these vehicles providing working capital to allow for upgrades for
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existing fleet of fire and emergency medical services (EMS)
vehicles to improve dependability and reliability for emergency
response. He said he honestly thought that the vehicles they
purchased were the top of the line and met all specifications and all
requirements. Why were they looking to take additional money to
upgrade those vehicles when they were brand new units, top of the
line units. He said his recommendation would be that whatever
money they get from these vehicles, lease or sale, that they take
that and pay down the principal on the tremendous mortgage
system they have at Sun Trust for these new vehicles. He feels that
was a better utilization for these funds rather than utilizing them as
additional expenditure to allow upgrades. If the vehicles meet all
those standards, they do not need to do that.
Mayor Sackett said the question was, when those vehicles came up
when they bought the new ones, what was the discussion they had
as to what that revenue would do from selling those.
Mr. Williams said the revenue that they were describing with this
Agenda Item was not applicable to any of the new vehicles that
they have purchased. He said those were the top of the line
vehicles. He said the deficiencies they were trying to correct with
this revenue dates back to the 2007 Chevrolet ambulances that
were purchased some time ago, and that was identified during the
budget process when the Chief requested an upgrade to re-
chasseing one (1) of those vehicles. So they would take the
revenues from the sale of these assets and dedicate it to upgrading
a 2007 ambulance by re-chasseing it.
Deputy Mayor Maingot said so they would have three (3) medical
transports.
Mr. Williams said they would have two (2) primary transports and
one (1) back up.
Mayor Sackett said that was what was part of their July and
August, September and October budget meetings. That was what
they discussed as to where this money was going to go.
Commissioner Bundy said if they will recall, that was exactly their
discussions because the Chief wanted them to do it this year, and
they said no, they were not going to spend that kind of funds on
this. But, taking this equipment and selling it to someone else,
would create some capital for the program to upgrade. They may
be top of the line and state of the art pieces of equipment — and
they are. But they were down for service. When they were down
for service, they depend on Seminole County to cover the residents
if they do not have a backup. He said he much prefers to spend
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this money that they were generating from this equipment to
replace this equipment. He said he thinks that was a better
utilization of the funds they were using than anything else they
could come up with, because he said he would rather have staff
being able to respond to the residents than depending on Seminole
County to respond, which has probably a two (2) to three (3) time
response time than what they have. As far as the first comments
about Belle Isle, $37,000 was basically what they have to cover to
utilize the equipment from now to October 1 St, and they have to be
responsible. If another city in the Tri-County area agrees to make
a commitment and agrees to this agreement, he said he would be
extremely upset.
Deputy Mayor Maingot said he would definitely say he agrees with
what Commissioner Bundy has said, but the description was not
clear how those funds were going to be utilized. It has not been
clarified. He also said the first payment of $37,000 will be due
October 1st. That was nine (9) months from now, and they have to
hold until then to get $37,000. He said his recommendation was
they have something in the agreement to cover themselves if
something happens that they have no control over.
Commissioner Cortes said for the record, he has been with the
L Chief to Sanford and seen some of this retro, and has been with the
Chief in discussing some of these retro-fits and was well aware of
what he was doing and supports him. The potential savings was
incredible, and the product they would get was more than better.
He said as a truck man himself, he wants to make sure they have
top of the line equipment. He has asked the Administrator to make
sure they do not let go of one (1) of the ambulances until they have
all the retro-fits done. That way they will not be without a backup.
Motion carried by a unanimous roll call vote.
12. CITY ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT.
Mr. Williams said, at a recent Longwood Area Chamber meeting, the topic
of beautification and signage was discussed along the corridors of State
Road 434 and US Highway 17-92. Of specific interest was the idea of
creating a forum of business owners to evaluate options and proposed
ideas. He said if the Commission was okay with staff continuing to work
with the local area Chamber, they will continue to participate in those
forums and helping the business owners of those forums come up with
some good ideas about beautification and signs.
Commissioner Durso said he supports this because he does not think there
was much with communication with business owners.
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Mayor Sackett said similarly, it was what was going on with that Historic
District signage, so he agrees that it was something on which they need to
move forward.
Commissioner Bundy said he was in favor of working with the group on
this. He said this does not get their hopes up that anything was going to
happen quickly because they have a lot of road construction going on and
it would not make a lot of sense to put a whole lot of stuff up and have
FDOT or the County come along and knock it down with their
construction.
Deputy Mayor Maingot said he wondered if any of them had noticed the
condition of the property which used to be a car wash on State Road 434.
Everything there was severely overgrown. It looks like a real piece of
trash and junk, right on the main thoroughfare. He was asking it to be
looked at, as soon as possible (ASAP).
Mr. Williams stated it was already being addressed.
Mr. Williams said secondly, there are two (2) timelines for construction
activities. The first one was provided by Atlantic Civil Construction
Corporation and was related to the timelines for the street improvements
along Florida Avenue, Wilma Street, West Jessup Avenue, and 1 St Place.
He said they will be starting a pre -construction meeting on January 31 st,
and the actual construction was set to begin in March and will not
conclude until next year.
Mr. Williams said the second item attached was a Reiter Park construction
timeline. He said they short listed three (3) contractors at the December
17th Meeting, and since then they have obtained the construction plans and
those have been distributed to the contractors, so they can begin to identify
materials and pricing. He said they were waiting for approval from the St.
John's Water Management for a permit modification. He said they have
to develop an official bid package and send it to the Attorney for his
review, and then they have the timeframe to prepare an individual bid. He
stated that was an estimated timeline and assumed a worst case scenario in
preparing that timeline, and they will do their best to meet it and/or exceed
the timeline.
Mayor Sackett asked about the Easter Egg Hunt.
Mr. Williams said it was still being planned for Reiter Park.
Mr. Williams said regarding the budget strategy session, he would like to
meet before a regular Commission Meeting on February 18th at 4:30 p.m.
and meet for about two (2) hours to kick-off planning for next year's
budget. He stated he would reach out and verify that date.
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Mayor Sackett suggested doing it on a Monday that was not a Commission
meeting.
Mr. Williams said he did not want to have meeting -after -meeting for the
Commission.
Mayor Sackett said let's do it on February 25th instead.
Mr. Williams introduced the new Building Official, Mr. Randy Lamb,
who was in the audience tonight and he welcomed him.
Commissioner Bundy asked Mr. Williams about the street paving and the
longevity of it. He said twenty (20) months was a long time. He said he
did not want to see those areas torn up for almost two (2) years.
Mr. Williams said he will discuss this at the pre -construction meetings.
13. CITY ATTORNEY'S REPORT. No report.
14. CITY CLERK'S REPORT.
Ms. Mirus reported the Juvenile of the Year (JOY) Awards would be on
the next Agenda and Winter Springs Elementary School would be
included. She also advised she would be placing on the next Agenda
nominations for the Charter Advisory Committee.
15. ADJOURN. Mayor Sackett adjourned thXq 0ting at 8:22 p.m.
Brian D. Sackett, M_y6r
ATTEST:
Sarah M. Mirus, MMC, MBA, City Clerk
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