CC02-03-2020MinLONGWOOD CITY COMMISSION
Longwood City Commission Chambers
175 West Warren Avenue
Longwood, Florida
MINUTES
February 3, 2020
6:00 P.M.
Present: Mayor Matt Morgan
Deputy Mayor Brian D. Sackett
Commissioner Abby Shoemaker
Commissioner Richard Drummond
Commissioner Ben Paris
Dan Langley, City Attorney
Michelle Longo, City Clerk
David P. Dowda, Police Chief
Chris Kintner, Community Development Director
Shad Smith, Public Works Director
Lee Ricci, Human Resources Director
Lisa Snead, Financial Services Director
Phil Kersey, Building Official
Kevin Shea, Police Lieutenant
Anjum Mukherjee, Senior Planner
Jared Roberson, Fire Marshal
Sandy Johnson, Executive Assistant
Absent: J. D. Cox, City Manager
1. CALL TO ORDER. Mayor Morgan called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.
2. MOMENT OF SILENT MEDITATION
3. THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. Commissioner Drummond led the Pledge of
Allegiance.
4, COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS. Ms. Longo read the following announcements.
A. The "Downtown Longwood Food Trucks and Artisans Market" will be held
on Thursday, February 6, 2020, from 5:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. at Reiter
Park, 311 West Warren Avenue.
CC 02-03-20/1
B. The "Downtown Longwood Cruise -In" Car Show will be held on Saturday,
February 8, 2020, from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. in the Historic District of
Longwood.
C. The Longwood Community Health Fair will be held on Saturday, February
15, 2020, from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. at the Longwood Community
Building, 200 West Warren Avenue. There will be Health and Wellness
related vendors, food trucks, raffle prize giveaways, and much more. This
is a free event.
5. PROCLAMATIONS / RECOGNITIONS
A. Proclaiming April 1, 2020, as "National Census Day" in the City of
Longwood.
Mayor Morgan read the Proclamation and presented it to Phillip Kaprow,
Chairman and John Horvath, Vice Chairman of the 2020 Census Complete
Count Committee. Photographs were then taken.
B. Presentation of the 40th Annual JOY (Juvenile of the Year) Awards.
Brianna Pacetelli
David St. Clair -Husbands
Kalyn Parker
Tyrone Ross
Riley Nelson
Dana Heberling
Serenity Lowe
Tom Shal-Bar
Kyler Ellis
Geoffrey Borgstrom
Emma Fueger
Altamonte Elementary School
Greenwood Lakes Middle School
Highlands Elementary School
Lake Mary High School
Longwood Elementary School
Lyman High School
Milwee Middle School
Rock Lake Middle School
Winter Springs Elementary School
Winter Springs High School
Woodlands Elementary School
Mayor Morgan read the history of the JOY Awards. Each student was
announced and presented with a framed certificate. Photographs were
then taken.
The Commission recessed at 6:34 p.m. and reconvened at 7:16 p.m.
6. BOARD APPOINTMENTS. None.
7. PUBLIC INPUT
A. Public Participation.
CC 02-03-20/2
1
1
Judi Coad, 1695 Grange Circle, Longwood. She asked how Compassionate
Leave hours are transposed into the recipient's hours and if the rate
awarded to the recipient is by the hour or the value of the hour. She also
asked if hours are donated for hours or if it is an equal cost exchange, or do
we take the value of the hours donated and then look at the recipient's
rate of pay and exchange that way. This latter method would then perhaps
allow a recipient that may make a lesser amount to actually receive more
than 200 hours, which I believe is the maximum amount in the
Compassionate Leave Bank Policy. The formula can also be at a greater cost
to the City if the recipient's rate of pay is greater than the donees and there
would be an added cost to the City of covering taxes. She is curious as to
how the City computes this exchange between employees and if this is the
best practice used.
8. MAYOR AND COMMISSIONERS' REPORT
District #3. Commissioner Paris said last Thursday he attended Seminole County's
Business Expo. It is great to see how much the business community in Seminole
County is thriving. He advised Ms. Coad that he too had the same questions and
concerns about how the Compassionate Leave Bank works. From his
understanding and from reading and talking to the City Manager, the rate comes
from what is donated. If someone making $12 an hour donates an hour's worth of
sick time, the recipient takes the $12 value of that sick time. It is a bit confusing,
but it is set on the actual scale per hour of what is donated.
District #4. Mayor Morgan said the City of Longwood went viral this week when
we became the first Monarch City in Seminole County. He thanked Chief Dowda,
Chris Capizzi, Lori Rice, and everyone who played a part in making this happen. He
said we have tried a multitude of different ways to try and get a new fire station
here in Longwood. It is pretty expensive to do such. We had a meeting with
Senator Simmons a while back and asked him for half of what it would cost to
build a new fire station. Senator Simmons gave us the okay and said it would be
set into motion. Mayor Morgan said he confirmed our request for 1.5 million was
turned in on time before the cut off which was last week. Now we wait. Mayor
Morgan said the Battle of the Food Trucks was awesome and jammed packed
despite it being cold outside. He mentioned the 1-4 Ultimate Project and how they
are funding various approved cities to put up a mural on their respective exits as
part of beautifying 1-4. Altamonte Springs has just been approved for this. He said
he is going to talk to Chief Dowda about the potential for Longwood to do this. He
thinks it is a great idea and can set our city apart from the rest.
District #5. Deputy Mayor Sackett thanked everyone for the cards they sent
regarding his brother's passing. He said he attended the Battle of the Food Trucks.
District #1. Commissioner Shoemaker congratulated Ms. Longo and her
department for having all of the meeting minutes caught up. She attended the
CC 02-03-20/3
Pulled
10.
11.
Coffee with Christmas Dreams and toured the Christmas is Coming Mobile at
Reiter Park. I was so glad I got to see the trailer. It was phenomenal. She said this is
a group that travels in a very well decorated, detail -oriented trailer for children
and families battling life -threatening illnesses. She said she went to the Battle of
the Food Trucks as well and although she did not eat because she was too cold,
her favorite truck was the Cosmo double-decker bus that had homemade ice
cream.
District #2. Commissioner Drummond said he went to the Charter Review
Committee meeting last week. He thanked everyone on the Committee for their
hard work and effort they are putting into it. There has been a lot of time spent
away from the meeting, researching what would be the best course for Longwood
and I am sure they will come up with some great resolutions for us. He also
attended the Battle of the Food Trucks and counted 25 trucks in total. He said he
loved the way it was set up. It was easy to get around and the crowd was
awesome. He was very happy with the way they were utilizing the parking spaces
on Ronald Reagan Boulevard.
ANY ADDITIONS OR DELETIONS TO THE AGENDA.
Mayor Morgan requested to pull Item 10C for separate discussion and move it to
the end of Regular Business.
It was the consensus of the Commission to pull Item 10C and move it to the
end of Regular Business.
CONSENT AGENDA
A. Approve Minutes of January 20, 2020, Regular Meeting.
B. Approve the Monthly Expenditures for January 2020.
C. Approve the donation of vacation and/or sick leave from city personnel
to City Manager, J.D. Cox for medical leave.
Commissioner Drummond moved to approve Items 10A and 10B as
presented. Seconded by Commissioner Shoemaker and carried by a
unanimous roll call vote.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
A. Read by title only and adopt Ordinance No. 19-2169, a Small Scale
Comprehensive Plan Amendment (SPA 01-19).
Mr. Langley read Ordinance No. 19-2169 by title only.
Mr. Kintner presented the Item.
CC 02-03-20/4
Mayor Morgan opened the public hearing. No one spoke in favor or
opposition to Ordinance No. 19-2169.
Commissioner Paris moved to close the public hearing. Seconded
by Commissioner Drummond and carried by a unanimous voice
vote.
Deputy Mayor Sackett moved to approve Ordinance No. 19-2169 as
presented Item 11A. Seconded by Commissioner Drummond and
carried by a unanimous roll call vote.
B. Read by title only, set February 17, 2020, as the second public hearing
date, and approve the first reading of Ordinance No. 20-2170, a General
Longwood Development Code Update.
Mr. Langley read Ordinance No. 20-2170 by title only.
Mr. Kintner presented the Item and reviewed the code changes. He said we
have seen a lot more multi -family and higher story development over the
past few years than we have in any period of the city's history. Given the
proximity of residential development, there is an inevitable conflict
between the two. This Ordinance tries to find a middle ground between
the city's higher -density developments and its existing developments. Most
of the height measurements in the City Code are based on the concept of a
story, which is a habitable level but does not mention a parking structure
underneath and the height of the actual roof. One of the things we are
changing in the Code is the height measured in feet rather than in stories.
One of the benefits to this is being able to talk to residents about what that
height means and compare it to other things in the City. He referenced
Table A in the agenda memo that showed different building heights of
completed or approved buildings in the City. He said the next part we
talked about is increasing setbacks and tie those setbacks to the building
height. You now have a setback under and above 35 feet. This stops a
scenario where you have a land use district setback at 10 feet, which would
not matter if it is a 25-foot tall building but might matter quite a bit more
to a resident if it is a 60 or 70-foot building. We try to tie those things to
their actual impact on the residents. We also talked about changes to how
we handle general landscape. Our biggest concern was requiring more
mature landscaping at planting. There is a lot of variability on how planting
comes in. He mentioned that the planting in different projects and the
public input he received helped reflect changes made in the Code and set
the baseline for what people are required to do. Additionally, there is
language in the Code about works of art, that we are currently under a
moratorium, to come up with a solution on how to approve it. For the
purpose of this Ordinance, we have restored this section and said that
CC 02-03-20/5
works of art can be approved by the City Commission as part of a
resolution moving forward. He noted that staff wants to bring forward a
resolution to the next meeting for discussion where building owners can
donate an art easement to the city and the city would then be able to do a
call to artists for that easement area and evaluate that. We are not
infringing upon the building owner's speech, it is actually government
speech through this easement. You will see this at the next meeting.
Finally, there is a development program in the Code called the Opportunity
Node Overlay Zone (ONOZ). While well-intentioned, it has not been utilized
and has not materially impacted economic development. The primary
incentives to this program are payments from the general fund to the
building and utility funds, as the City is not able to simply waive fees from
those funds. The only way the program is really successful and can be
implemented is by transferring money from the General Fund into those
other funds. With all the pulls on the General Fund, staff did not see that as
positive. Staff is proposing changes to the Longwood Economic
Development Tax Abatement (LEDTA) Program, which is mentioned in
another item on this agenda tonight. These changes will further guide the
City's ability to incentivize desired development using tax abatement,
rather than taking money from the general fund as the ONOZ program
proposed.
Mayor Morgan opened the public hearing. No one spoke in favor or
opposition to Ordinance No. 20-2170.
Deputy Mayor Sackett moved to close the public hearing. Seconded
by Commissioner Drummond and carried by a unanimous voice
vote.
Discussion ensued on the setbacks and the 75-foot minimum for buildings
above 35-foot and adjacent to residential. Deputy Mayor Sackett would like
to see the minimum at 100-foot. Mr. Kintner also pointed out some minor
changes being made to the political sign section.
Deputy Mayor Sackett moved to approve Ordinance No. 20-2170
with an amendment to state buildings over 50-foot high have a 100-
foot setback, and set February 17, 2020 as the second public
hearing date. Motion died for the lack of a second.
Commissioner Paris moved to approve Ordinance No. 20-2170 as
presented and set February 17, 2020 as the second public hearing
date. Seconded by Commissioner Drummond and carried by a four -
to -one (4-1) roll call vote with Deputy Mayor Sackett voting nay.
CC 02-03-20/6
C. Read by title only and adopt Ordinance No. 20-2171 amending Chapter 3 -
Section 3.04 (B.3) the Drug -Free Workplace and Alcohol Policy of the City
of Longwood Policies and Procedures and adds a Substance Abuse Policy
for Commercial Motor Vehicle Operators.
Mr. Langley read Ordinance No. 20-2171 by title only.
Ms. Ricci presented the Item and noted language was added under Section
II Prohibitions, to address a question by Commissioner Shoemaker
regarding employees attending events where alcohol may be served.
Mayor Morgan opened the public hearing. No one spoke in favor or
opposition to Ordinance No. 20-2171.
Commissioner Drummond moved to close the public hearing.
Seconded by Commissioner Paris and carried by a unanimous voice
vote.
Commissioner Drummond moved to adopt Ordinance No. 20-2171
as presented Item 11C. Seconded by Mayor Morgan and carried by
a unanimous roll call vote.
12. REGULAR BUSINESS
A. Read by title only and adopt Resolution No. 20-1517, establishing a
Business Tax Receipt (BTR) Study Committee.
Mr. Langley read Resolution No. 20-1517 by title only.
Mr. Kintner presented the Item. He stated in 2019, the Business Tax
Receipt function moved to the Community Development Department, and
one of the goals following this change was to seek changes to the business
tax schedule and structure. The structure has not been updated in a long
time and the fee schedule is generally out of date related to not only the
actual fees but also the types and categories of businesses. Additionally,
many of the categories in the current schedule have pricing that is based
on the number of employees, which incentivizes businesses to report lower
numbers of employees to pay a lower rate. The primary issue that this
causes for the Economic Development team is that it makes it difficult to
effectively measure the number of employees in the City. Staff is looking to
separate the pricing structure from the number of employees, reduce the
number of overly -specific or outdated categories, incorporate new
business types, and generally update the fee schedule. Making a change to
the fee schedule for business taxes requires the formation of an equity
study commission pursuant to Florida Statutes 205.0535. This committee
has to meet and provide recommendations to the Commission. He said
CC 02-03-20/7
staff has proposed forming a temporary Business Tax Receipt (BTR) Study
Committee along with nine potential members for the Commission's
consideration.
Commissioner Drummond moved to adopt Resolution No. 20-1517
as presented Item 12A. Seconded by Commissioner Shoemaker and
carried by a unanimous roll call vote.
B. Read by title only and adopt Resolution No. 20-1518, amending the
Building Division Fee Schedule.
Mr. Langley read Resolution No. 20-1518 by title only.
Mr. Kintner presented the Item and went over two main changes,
Residential Alterations and Pool Permits. He explained, the Building
Services and Inspections Fund is an enterprise fund which means the fee
schedule must reflect the actual cost of doing business to the extent
possible, per state statutes. Additionally, as the Building Fund is separate
from the General Fund, it is important the permit fees accurately reflect
the cost of staff time to ensure that there is not a situation where the
General Fund would have to supplement the Building Fund at some point in
the future. The standard permit does not come anywhere close to covering
the inspections on it. There are also changes to re -inspection fees,
removing the separate pre -power inspection fee, establishing fees for
Temporary Certificates of Occupancy, and inspections for the Fire Marshall.
Commissioner Drummond moved to adopt Resolution No. 20-1518
as presented Item 12B. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Sackett and
carried by a unanimous roll call vote.
C. Read by title only and adopt Resolution No. 20-1519, establishing an
Emergency Permitting System.
Mr. Langley read Resolution No. 20-1519 by title only.
Mr. Kintner presented the Item. He noted this Resolution establishes a
written emergency policy to get permits during or after emergencies and
natural disasters.
Commissioner Drummond moved to adopt Resolution No. 20-1519
as presented Item 12C. Seconded by Mayor Morgan and carried by
a unanimous roll call vote.
D. Read by title only and adopt Resolution No. 20-1520, amending the
Declared Emergency Compensation Plan.
CC 02-03-20/8
1
Mr. Langley read Resolution No. 20-1520 by title only.
Ms. Ricci presented the Item, went over its changes, and answered
questions. She noted this Resolution limits discretion and provides clarity
on how employees will be compensated when the City is closed during a
declared emergency. The goal is to improve or enhance our likelihood for
future reimbursements with the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA), in the event of a declared emergency.
Discussion ensued on discretion. It was noted FEMA would only have an
issue with those unique pay situations where the City Manager exercised
their discretion. FEMA may or may not reimburse for these unique pay
situations.
Commissioner Drummond moved to adopt Resolution No. 20-1520
as presented Item 12D. Seconded by Deputy Mayor Sackett and
carried by a unanimous roll call vote.
E. Read by title only, set February 17, 2020, as the public hearing date, and
approve the first reading of Ordinance No. 20-2172, which updates the
Longwood Economic Development Tax Abatement (LEDTA) Program.
Mr. Langley read Ordinance No. 20-2172 by title only.
Mr. Kintner presented the Item. He noted staff is recommending updates
to the LEDTA and to funnel everything through this program because it is a
tax abatement rather than a tax rebate. It will provide guidance on the
consideration of applications. This update requires the applicant to provide
more justification for the request, and also provides the City Commission
some criteria to consider the applications.
Commissioner Drummond moved to approve Ordinance No. 20-
2172 and set February 17, 2020 as the public hearing date.
Seconded by Commissioner Shoemaker and carried by a unanimous
roll call vote.
F. City Commission approval of a Memorial Marker variance and allow a
second flat memorial marker at the foot of a gravesite in Phase I, Block
32, Lot C (Old Section) of the Longwood Memorial Gardens be installed.
Commissioner Paris moved to approve the variance and allow a
second flat memorial marker at the foot of a gravesite in Phase I,
Block 32, Lot C of the Longwood Memorial Gardens be installed as
CC 02-03-20/9
presented Item 12F. Seconded by Mayor Morgan and carried by a
unanimous roll call vote.
10C. Approve the donation of vacation and/or sick leave from city personnel
to City Manager, J.D. Cox for medical leave.
Mayor Morgan addressed the Item, stating it creates a conflict of interest
and he is not in favor of approving it.
Mayor Morgan moved to deny the donation of vacation and/or sick
leave from city personnel to City Manager, J.D. Cox. Seconded by
Commissioner Paris.
Deputy Mayor Sackett asked Mr. Langley if this is a conflict of interest.
Mr. Langley said he is not aware of any legal standard. Mayor Morgan sees
it that way and explained his reasons behind that. The City Manager is not
voting on the Item before you. If there were a conflict, he would have to
recuse himself from voting. In the realm of voting conflicts there is not one.
He felt the Mayor may feel this is more awkward.
Mayor Morgan stated he feels it is inappropriate to ask your direct
subordinates to donate hours.
Discussion ensued about the ethics of this request, how it would make
employees feel if they did not donate, the unprecedented amount of time
we do not have the City Manager, as well as, having compassion for the
situation.
Motion carried by a four -to -one (4-1) roll call vote with Deputy
Mayor Sackett voting nay.
Mayor Morgan passed out a document that outlined his concerns regarding
the performance of the City Manager. He stated he has felt this way for a
long time. He said months ago he had called for the City Manager's
employee review and it never happened. He had a meeting with the City
Manager to go over the review so he would understand I wanted it to be a
written review. At that time the City Manager assured me it would
happen, however, that never occurred. He noted his concerns are not
health -related, rather 100% performance -related. He noted what was
passed out was a preliminary resolution calling for the City Manager's
termination. He said he would like to call for a Special Meeting on
Wednesday for the Commission to have time to read the resolution before
they discuss it further.
CC 02-03-20/10
1
1
1
Commissioner Drummond expressed serious issues with Mr. Cox's
performance since he had become City Manager. He has done several
overt acts that he believes are cause for termination and he would like to
further discuss this on Wednesday.
Commissioner Paris stated he has concerns with the City Manager's
performance and would also like to talk about this on Wednesday.
Commissioner Shoemaker asked if we had the option to ask the City
Manager to resign rather than to terminate him.
Discussion ensued on various options to talk about at the Special Meeting
and the time to hold the meeting.
Mr. Langley clarified that the Mayor asked him to prepare the resolution
based on his viewpoints. I do not want you to think this is my viewpoint.
The Mayor told me his thoughts and I put them into words in the
resolution. There is a process that has to be followed in the Charter. This
resolution is the beginning of this process. I will be able to explain this
process at that meeting if that is something you want to talk about.
Mayor Morgan called for a Special Meeting to be held on
Wednesday, February 5, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. It passed by a four -to -
one (4-1) voice vote with Deputy Mayor Sackett voting nay.
13. CITY MANAGER'S REPORT. None.
14. CITY ATTORNEY'S REPORT. None.
15. CITY CLERK'S REPORT. None.
16. ADJOURN. Mayor Morgan adjourned the meeting at 8:17 p.m.
city clerk
Matt Morgan, Mayor
CC 02-03-20/11
C
This Page Left Blank Intentionally.
CC 02-03-20/12