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CC04-02-2018MinLONGWOOD CITY COMMISSION Longwood City Commission Chambers 175 West Warren Avenue Longwood, Florida MINUTES April 2, 2018 6:00 P.M. Present: Mayor Ben Paris Deputy Mayor Richard Drummond Commissioner Abby Shoemaker Commissioner Matt Morgan Commissioner Brian D. Sackett Dan Langley, City Attorney David P. Dowda, Acting City Manager Michelle Longo, City Clerk Clint Gioielli, Acting Police Chief Chris Kintner.,'Community Development Director Chris Capizzi, Leisure Services Director Richard Kornbluh, Division Manager Utilities Magdala Ridore, Human Resources Generalist 1. CALL TO ORDER. Mayor Paris called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. 2. MOMENT OF SILENT MEDITATION 3. THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 4. COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS. Ms. Longo read the following announcements. A. Registration for the Longwood Summer Camp will begin on Monday, April 2, 2018 for Longwood Residents only and on Monday, April 9, 2018 for Non -Residents.. Registration forms will be accepted from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. at the Longwood Community Building, 200 West Warren Avenue. B. The "Downtown Longwood Food Trucks" will be held on Thursday, April 12, 2018 from 5:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. atthe corner of Ronald Reagan Boulevard and West Church Avenue. C. The "Downtown Longwood Cruise -In" Car Show will be held on Saturday, April 14, 2018 from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. in CC 04-02-18/1 the Historic District of Longwood located off of Church Avenue. 5. PROCLAMATIONS / RECOGNITIONS A. Nomination of the Beautification Award. Commissioner Sackett nominated the Bank of America at 1145 West State Road 434 for the Beautification Award. Nomination carried by a unanimous voice vote. Commissioner Morgan had also suggested BayRidge Sushi and it was discussed they have been a recipient of this award. 6. BOARD APPOINTMENTS. None. 7. PUBLIC INPUT A. Public Participation. Charles& Kristin -Lane, 196 14t' Avenue, Longwood. Mrs. Lane said they came as a team to thank the Commissioners, City of Longwood Law Enforcement and Code Enforcement. She said it started out as an email complaint. We started out last week with two flat tires at our residence, my daughters and mine. We are at the end of a subdivision of Oakmont Reserve. She said we have a new subdivision going in with big $400,000 houses, which are great, but we are starting to see the pains of this. Over the last year, we have counted 16 tires between us and neighbors that are losing tires. There is also a concern about the big trucks for speeding, so I sent out an email to our Commissioners. Within a half hour, I heard from Commissioner Morgan, Commissioner Sackett, Commissioner Shoemaker who immediately .forwarded emails to Acting City Manager Dowda, and had responses all before I went to bed, saying we would have this looked into. By that morning, Mr. Lane said he personally saw Commissioner Morgan and Commissioner Drummond who were very concerned and interested as to what was going on. He thinks both of them observed a little of what we were talking about. He said there are a lot of large trucks that are moving at an estimated 40 to 50 mph in our 20 mph zone. By that morning, he saw those two Commissioners, and he heard from Acting City Manager Dowda. He personally came out as well, and also Lt. Ryan Bruce came out. They all went up and down the streets, looked at our concerns, and ran traffic control. We have several highly visible street signs now that clearly indicate the 20 mph, and this has happened just from that letter Friday until today. We have had officers out there every day, including Acting Police Chief Gioielli, who helped with traffic control. He said we can't thank you all enough because in just three or four days, it is amazing the difference and the impact we have noticed. We have children on the road and some handicapped individuals who have to cross the street for their mail. This is a big issue for us, we wanted to say thank you. CC 04-02-18/2 8. MAYOR AND COMMISSIONERS' REPORT District #5. Commissioner Sackett said the Bunny Breakfast was a fantastic job put on by our local church, with the support of a radio station, and city staff, and was very well attended. He did Easter basket judging and estimated there were about 5,000 people at the Easter Egg Hunt. He said there were 10,000 eggs hidden, as well as exhibits, food, an alligator, and it was a great, family -friendly day. He met with a local Boy Scout group of about 15, and he tasked them with finding all the dark spots in our City, and they told him they would have that done within two months. He noted that Chris Capizzi, along with Ryan Rinaldo, are doing an outstanding job of bringing people to our City. He said a_ reporter told him that the Farmers. Market we have is the best around. He goes there for the veggies, fish, and now the flowers are coming in. Parks and Recreation is doing a fantastic job. He said Mr. Capizzi, Mr. Rinaldo, Ms. Alt -Bowes and Mr. Black are spread all over in different places, and he feels they need to be put in a solid area. He said bringing people to Longwood on a continual basis when we are going to open a major park that has concerts in it, let's get our staff organized. I know Mr. Black looks after mowing and I still think the contract might be too big, especially when I heard the Dog Splash feature was being held up because Public Works just couldn't get to it. I understand it was $5,000 originally, when it should have been $2,000, where all the people who attend the park to freshen up their dogs when they are done. That money came out of the Parks and Recreation fundraising budget. He said when we made a deal to put a wash station in and we knew about what it would cost, I don't want to see Parks and Recreation fundraising for that anymore. They have the Chili Cook -off and other things, and if it is a $2,000 or $3,000 difference, I would rather see it come out of our general fund, if that is a doable thing. He asked if he can make that a motion. Mayor Paris said he would like to see staff put something together for the next meeting and include some accessible funding in the budget for this year to make sure they have some accessible funds they can use. Commissioner Sackett said he agrees, so at the next meeting, that will be doable. Commissioner Sackett said we have 156 people that work for the City, and I have no idea any more what buildings people are in. When I saw that in our interview, I wondered how does the coordination of this work, so he would like to see a list of who is where, and what department they work for. He stated if we are going to prepare a good budget we need to know what comes out of what account. He said Code Enforcement is entirely too small. We have one Code Enforcement officer. He said he sees lots of code violations, particularly on the weekends, and I wish we could address that with another staff member taking on that responsibility. He was saddened to learn that Saturday was the last day for Mr. Orange to be CC 04-02-18/3 with CERT. He remembers a few years back when COPs and CERT was developed, and that chain of who is who and who does what, he thinks we have lost our focus. He thinks COPs and our CERT team, which helps our fire department are down to a low number of six from twenty-four. He said that is not a team that can help our firefighters when that day comes, so I want the glory days of CERT back. He said I want COPs to do what they are doing as separate functions under the City Manager or Fire Chief and Police Chief so they can do what they are supposed to do. Cops have lots of vehicles and space at the portables next to the Fire Station. We have to get CERT back up to where they belong. His understanding they were $10,000 to the good, and now, they are almost $3,000 in the hole. He stated, I don't know where that money went. He would like an update on that within the next month, if that is doable. He said when we have our new City Manager, he would like to invite that list of businesses we have that are exemplary in our City, to come and say hello to our new City Manager. He would like them to know we are celebrating and would like you to touch base with our new City Manager. District #1. Commissioner Shoemaker said the Commission has been exceptionally busy these last couple of weeks concerning ourselves with many items of hiring a new City Manager. She said I have received phone calls and emails from citizens concerning customer service, safety and traffic. That includes the Lanes, and thank you so much for reassuring us everything was handled, because we assume it has been because we have Chief Dowda at the helm, so we know he will take care of things. It is very nice and comforting to know, for sure. She said one complaint I received was from a business owner that was concerned about the lack of professionalism in customer service he has been receiving from the City. None of us are perfect, but he stated repeatedly that he reached voice mail, and phone calls were not being returned. She said pretty, much, the majority of us do not like to reach voice mail, and there are times voice mail cannot be avoided. A couple of months ago, I complimented our Utility Billing Department about their professionalism and great customer service I personally received. Not only did I hang up on a voice mail when I called once, but I called back, and a person answered and I discussed my situation with my Occupational License. However, I was called back from the Utility Department stating they had a missed call, and could they help me. That is true customer service. I am hoping the good customer service I received is what we have more of than the poor customer service that I am told someone else received. I'm just telling you what I was told, and hope this is a positive trend citywide, and business owners and residents in the City of Longwood can begin to compliment our customer service rather than have negative experiences and comments. District #2. Deputy Mayor Drummond thanked the Lanes for coming to the meeting said I am glad we were able to start the resolution of your problem. CC 04-02-18/4 1 District U. Mayor Paris said the Commissioners have been very busy. For anyone who has not been paying attention, we have been going through the process of interviewing our new City Manager, and he would like to see him here much quicker than May or June. He said to really rate Parks and Recreations duties, I was at the BarkFest last Saturday. It was very well attended and very well put together, and I was surprised by the addition of the Cutest Dog Award. It will have a plaque permanently on the fence. He said it was a huge hit, and got a lot of attention. I think our Cutest Dog Competition is going to get bigger each year after people saw that. The award has gone up on the fence for all to see. It was a very nice touch, and it will be up there forever. This year it was a cute little Pug, but not Commissioner Morgan's dog. He said Parks really does a very nice job, and maybe we can find.some available space on this side of the -tracks near City Hall. He said he knows the Longwood Historic Inn has some spots, and maybe we can take a look at that. I am sure staff will find a good resolution to make sure we have the most efficient and functioning City as we can possibly have. District #4. Commissioner Morgan said on Wednesday, March 211, I attended, as a celebrity guest judge along with DJ Johnny Magic of 106.7 FM at Brookdale Island Senior Center something called Smoke Wars, which is a Bar-B-Q competition amongst all the Brookdale's here in Central Florida. He said it was a very cool event and very well attended by our locals here in Longwood. I thought Longwood did a great job of representing their chapter of Brookdale. He said on Saturday, March 24tn, I took part in our Police Charity Kick -Ball Game at Central Winds Park. Our police continue to do a great job of getting out into the community and really being role models to little kids out there. They go above and beyond the extra mile. That same day, I also attended Longwood Cutest Dog Contest, where my dog, Casper, got completely screwed over. He said on March 26t', I had a Barrington Special Assessment Neighborhood Meeting. He thanked Mrs. Judy Coad for leading the way for that, along with Director Lisa Snead. We had a City Commission Work Session going over our budget and being transparent. One of the things I thought was very necessary was getting a new Fire Department up and running, and putting money toward our police getting fairly paid versus our neighboring cities. Also, things dealing with our environment, such as replanting trees every time we cut one up or take one out due to construction. He said we are land locked here in Longwood, but I think when we have situations arise when we could replant trees, we need to do a better job of it. He said on Tuesday, March 27t', I spoke at Rock Lake Middle School about who you surround yourself with. I lent to that conversation topic, perception versus reality. He said who these children go out there with and who they are hanging out with, setting the tone. It is not always fair, but it is how the world works. He shared his experiences CC 04-02-18/5 9. with how I myself as a child- and youth, had a lot of issues with that and learned how to outgrow it and how to surround myself with nothing but winners. I am here today because of that. He -said I had a meeting at Longwood Elementary School with Pastor Eric Scholten of First Baptist Church of Longwood, an incredible man, and I had a great conversation with him. Originally, last month I had a meeting with Longwood Elementary because they wanted to scale back and move a lot of the woods area that borders a lot of that lake. He said they have an outdoor art class there that is very forward thinking and progressive, and it encourages artistic behaviors and things of that nature. They wanted to know what the City could do to move some of the trees and brush out of the way so these children can see this beautiful lake and be inspired. But, little do they know, it cost around $50,000 and $100,000 to do so. So Pastor Scholten wanted to know if he could volunteer 15 to 30 people, and his reaction was priceless, because it is that big of a job. He wanted to ask Acting City Manager Dowda if he could meet with me and someone from Public Works to put a professional eye on this to see if we could clear a little lot close by that outdoor art class, and get an opinion from a professional. Acting City Manager Dowda said absolutely. He will make an appointment with Mr. Smith to come out and meet with you and whoever you choose to invite to see what it would look like. Commissioner Morgan said on March 29t', was a cake bake at Woodlands Elementary for Cub Scouts. Previous to that, I had Mayor Ben Paris' re- election kick-off dinner. He thanked everyone for attending that. He said on this past Friday, he, Commissioner Shoemaker, Commissioner Sackett were in on this email with the Lanes. The following day, Deputy Mayor Drummond and I were like fighting it out to help our fellow citizens. I thought that was awesome. For years I have heard the exact opposite. He said those of you that elected us into office, we are living up to what we said we were going to do. Saturday, beside my son Jackson getting his first base hit all by himself without my help, we had our Easter Egg Hunt here in the Historic District. He said I thought they did an amazing job. Like Commissioner Sackett said, it was incredibly well attended, but what I keep going back to is creating social, and in the future, economic magnets here within the City. Any time we get an opportunity to invite friends and family and outsiders from other cities to our City, you see what happens. He said they come back and spend their money at our local establishments. We need to continue to do that, and this was a prime example of that. He announced on Tuesday, April 3rd, there will a ribbon - cutting at Jamaica Garden Restaurant, 203 West State Road 434. He encouraged everyone to come and welcome this new business to our community and show them that Longwood love. ANY ADDITIONS OR DELETIONS TO THE AGENDA. None. CC 04-02-18/6 10. CONSENT AGENDA A. Approve Minutes of the March 14, 2018 Special Meeting and the March 19, 2018 Regular Meeting. B. Approve the Monthly Expenditures for March 2018. Commissioner Sackett moved to approve Items l0A and 1013 as presented. Seconded by Commissioner Shoemaker and carried by a unanimous roll call vote. 11. PUBLIC HEARINGS A. Read by title only and adopt Ordinance No. 18-2138 authorizing an Easement Agreement with Embarq Florida, Inc. d/b/a CenturyLink at 235 West Church Avenue. Mr. Langley read Ordinance No. 18-2138 by title only. Mayor Paris opened the public hearing. No one spoke in favor or opposition to Ordinance No. 18-2138. Commissioner Shoemaker moved to close the public hearing. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Drummond and carried by a unanimous voice vote. Commissioner Sackett moved to adopt Ordinance No. 18- 2138 as presented Item 11A. Seconded by Commissioner Morgan and carried by a unanimous roll call vote. 12. REGULAR BUSINESS A. Read by title only and adopt Resolution No. 18-1461, providing for a temporary extension of the Backyard Chicken Pilot Program while staff prepares a permanent ordinance. Mr. Langley read Resolution No. 18-1461 by title only. Mr. Kintner presented the Item and answered questions. Commissioner Shoemaker moved to adopt Resolution No. 18-1461 as presented Item 12A. Seconded by Commissioner Morgan and carried by a four -to -one (4-1) roll call vote with Commissioner Sackett voting nay. B. Commission discussion on Mr. Cox's counter -proposal Employment Agreement for the City Manager position. Mr. Langley went over the counter -proposal for Mr. Cox's employment agreement as City Manager. He said we had a Special Commission Meeting last Wednesday, and during that CC 04-02-18/7 meeting you decided on a top candidate for the City Manager position, which is J.D. Cox. As part of that discussion and some decisions you made at that Special Meeting, you directed me to incorporate some changes to draft an employment agreement and present that to Mr. Cox as an offer of employment. He said I did so that evening, and on the following day, Thursday, March 29t', I had a lot of phone calls with Mr. Cox, and he seemed very happy and very excited about the possibility of being the City Manager of Longwood. He did have some counter proposals that he wanted to make. I then took his counter proposal and put it into the employment agreement, and also created a red line so you could see what changes he is requesting to the agreement. He said I understand he probably talked to some or all of you, but I did talk to him quite a bit on Thursday. What you have in the Agenda Packet is the red line that shows the changes that he is asking for, and also a_clean version of the agreement. I sent you an email on Thursday afternoon outlining the major changes, and if you have any questions about any of those, feel free to ask me. I am happy to also point them out if you want me to. They are pretty straight forward on the salary, severance pay, the administrative leave, and on the relocation reimbursement items. He said there are some blanks in this agreement, but the blanks are pretty much when he starts, when the appointment is effective. There was really no decision on that yet. My understanding is Mr. Cox is excited and willing to come as early as possible. If he comes before he actually makes the move, I think he is looking for some sort of reimbursement for temporary living expenses or housing. Mayor Paris said most of what he came back with was what I would consider to be pretty regular. Everything was right within what we were already negotiating and talking about. I don't see anything that jumps out at me as being a hard no on my side. I would like to get Mr. Cox here as soon as possible, and if we can get this agreement decided on this evening, I do seriously consider that the Commission discuss further temporarily getting him down here and have him at his own expense and us reimbursing him, or set something up through Human Resources. He said I would like to get Mr. Cox in his office while we still have part of our contract with Jon Williams, and we still have Chief Dowda fresh and share some information with him. I am personally okay with this, but would like to hear from the other Commissioners. Commissioner Sackett -said first, a big thank you to our attorney. He was on the phone non-stop with Mr. Cox. Mr. Cox did call me, and I did say welcome to our village. He stated, the salary, 20 weeks, the 80 hours, the relocation, I am not surprised by that. He asked Mr. Langley if the car still says something about leasing. CC 04-02-18/8 Mr. Langley said it says the City is to provide an owned or leased vehicle for the City Manager's use. Commissioner Sackett said there is no change in that he said he wants to use his own car, so there is no counter proposal regarding that. So he was fine with that. He said he appreciated the memo from the City Clerk about what other City Managers make within our area, $130,000 is less, and in some cases, substantially less. Our city population is different, our needs are different, and we have lots of things_ going on, which makes us even a better different, but I am okay with the numbers. Commissioner Morgan said so far everything on this is still within the ballpark and what they expected. Commissioner Shoemaker said I am not.a fan of $130,000. She stated, we all agreed to $125,000. I will welcome Mr. Cox and vote yes, but I am not a fan of that. Additionally, we discussed at length taking it down to 16 weeks from our senior councilman up here. I am okay with that, but less of not a fan, and the 80 hours of paid administrative leave, I talked with Ms. Ricci, he gets 40 anyway, so we are really only giving him 40. She said I am okay with the reimbursement. The biggest thing is I am not a fan of the negotiation to $130,000, but I'll live with it. Deputy Mayor Drummond said this took me by surprise. He said I didn't expect a counter-offer, and I don't want to start out in an adversarial position with our new City Manager. I thought we negotiated or talked an offer to a fair contract. I feel like it is not right he can watch everything we are talking about. There are no secrets. Looking at the salaries of the other City Managers in the area, it ranges all the way from $180,000 to $150,000, and the cities are quite larger than ours with larger budgets and pointed out their lengths of service. I don't want to lose Mr. Cox because I think he is going to do a great job for us, and we are going to make him earn every penny of it. Commissioner Sackett said he believes when we were presented with the salaries of the other City Commissioners, we heard things like $105,000 and $115,000, and when we received the newer information, the range was $1%000 to $175,000, quite large. My feeling is the information that was discussed with that lower range from our people, but getting us back in line, we are close to population to Lake Mary, and Lake Mary's manager makes $155,000 after six years of service, but Mr. Cox has had many years of service to three other areas. This is a man who knows what he is doing. Service in years is nice, but I am 39 years in teaching, so maybe don't offer freshness, they go with status quo. CC 04-02-18/9 When I look at years of service, I think he is in the same boat as many of them. I expected this and you always come back with a counter to up the offer. Commissioner Morgan said this is what this comes down to. This is the City Manager's way of backing themselves up, but we also need to protect ourselves as well. In listening to Commissioners Shoemaker and Drummond, and listening to my gut.as well,do we want to lose J.D. Cox over $5,000 in salary? I'll be very honest, the top four we had were amazing and my first choice was Murphy. He mentioned, we can go in a different route. Commissioner Shoemaker said she was good. She just wanted it on record she was not really comfortable with the $130,000. That is the biggest issue I have. Six months later, we can review and raise, but I just wanted to put it out, but I have reservations. Commissioner Sackett said I did misspeak. Lake Mary is six years in, and the salary is $170,000. Mayor Paris made a motion to approve all the requests that Mr. Cox suggested in his counter -proposal. Seconded by Commissioner Shoemaker. Commissioner Sackett said he would like to see a start date of April 30th at the latest. Mr. Langley said he would suggest a specific appointment date, or that be decided next. He said that does need to be decided soon. You can approve the appointment agreement as amended through the counter offer, but then we would need to make an appointment contingent upon the execution. of this agreement. Mayor Paris said we are not going to set a date yet. We will do that immediately after the next motion. Motion carried by a unanimous roll call vote. Commissioner Sackett said he knows moving from Nebraska will take some but we probably can get him'in position by April 16t', which is our next -meeting. He said April 30th would be my latest date. Mayor Paris said he agrees, but we may have to reimburse Mr. Cox for some temporary housing if we can get him down earlier by the 16th. He called for a five minute recess to call Mr. Cox to verify that he can be here by April 16th CC 04-02-18/10 Mr. Langley clarified it that was a motion. Commissioner Sackett moved to appoint Mr. Cox effective in the morning on April 16, 2018. Seconded by Commissioner Morgan. Mr. Langley suggested the Commission may want to take recess and confirm with Mr. Cox he can start on that date. Mayor Paris said he will take a five minute recess to see if they can contact Mr. Cox. The Commission recessed at 6:49 p.m. and reconvened at 6:58 p.m. Mayor Paris stated, Mr. Cox is prepared to be here on April .16tn for us, but he would need roughly 30 days of temporary housing before he could get everything buttoned up and get down here. He said we checked that Mr. Williams' professional service agreement ends the end of April, so if we want to have any overlapping time with Mr. Williams, we need to take that into consideration. Otherwise, we need to forego it and give the full 30 days for Mr. Cox to come down here, putting him here the beginning of May. Mr. Cox indicated that he did intend to move into the City of Longwood proper. Commissioner Shoemaker asked, for temporary lodging, is it a possibility we could pay to rent one of the apartments by the SunRail Station for 30 days. She said that may be less than a hotel. Mayor Paris said he doesn't know the logistics behind that. We may have to allow staff to find accommodations to set up. He said Ms. Ricci isn't here this evening, but I would look to staff to find the most cost effective way to comfortably house our City Manager somewhere that is readily accessible to the City of Longwood. He said we can rely on staff to come up with that and to move forward. He asked, do we want to house Mr. Cox for 30 days while he gets his family down here and have him start on the 16t'. Deputy Mayor Drummond said he thinks we should give him the 30 days to get his affairs in order and time to move down here. He said I don't know if that two weeks is going to make a giant difference and whether Mr. Williams will be able to impart that much knowledge in two weeks to make it worth the extra expense. I am in favor of giving him 30 days. Commissioner Morgan said he agrees with giving him 30 days. CC 04-02-18/11 13. 14. 15. 16. Commissioner Sackett said he would rather say get your things in order and have him here by April 30t'. Mayor Paris asked Mr. Langley if we should set this date for April 30t', and if he can't make it, you can get back to us, or should we just set this as an arbitrary date. Mr. Langley said I think you need to set a date for the appointment because there needs to be a clear transition between the Acting City Manager and the City Manager you are going to hire. He said if you approve a specific date and Mr. Cox comes back and says I'm sorry, I can't make that date. We can reconvene -either at the next regular meeting or a special meeting, and we can adjust that date if we need to. Original Motion was amended and restated. Commissioner Sackett moved to appoint J.D. Cox as City Manager effective April 30t' with the Employment Agreement as previously approved by the Commission. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Drummond- and carried by a unanimous roll call vote. ACTING CITY MANAGER'.S REPORT Mr. Dowda said he wanted to remind the Commission he sent out an email with the invitation to the Boy Scout Dinner. He said we made a donation to the Boy Scouts, which resulted in securing a table at their upcoming auction on April 23ra at 6:00 p.m. He also wanted to let the Commission know that, based on an earlier email, we are very close to closing negotiations with the Teamsters. I hope they will be taking a vote this week, and I will be able to bring something back to the Commission to receive your approval. Last thing, I wanted to let you know that on April 10t', myself, Chief Peters, and Ms. Ricci will be sitting down with the IAFF, the Firefighters Union to accept their initial proposal. Those negotiations will begin in earnest on April 10t'. CITY ATTORNEYS REPORT. No report. CITY CLERK'S REPORT Ms. Longo reminded the Commission of the Ribbon Cutting for Jamaica Gardens Restaurant advising it would begin at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 3, 2018. r ADJOURN. Mayor Paris adjourned the meeting at 7:06 p.m. CC 04-02-18/12 1 - - City Cleric 7 i � W�w Wp . CC 04-02-18/13 1 This Page Left Blank Intentionally. 1 1 CC 04-02-18/14