Next City Council Meeting on Thursday August 3rd

• Appointing Members of the Charter Committee
• New Ordinance on the Operation of Mobile Food Trucks 
• Changing/introducing new fees

• Resolution 57, 2017 which Repeals Resolution 20, 2012 which was deemed to be unconstitutional, and was discussed at last month’s Council meeting.
• Resolution 51, 2017  Lease of Golf Carts with GPS from Club Car, LLC and financed through Leasing 2, Inc. – Replacing the leasing of 86 Yamaha Golf Carts for Sandhill Crane Golf Club with the same number of golf carts from Club Car, LLC due to failure to find a permanent resolution to issues with the carts from Yahama.  
• Renewal of two Purchase awards, for Group Health Insurance Plan (Self-Funded) – Stop Loss Insurance Coverage with Symetra Life Ins Co, and for Independent Auditing Services with Marcum LLP
• Purchase Award for Technical Service Support for EKG/AEDs and Lucas CPR Systems, single source with vendor for $136K
• Purchase Award for Emergency Medical Services – Third-Party Billing Services, openly competed, 5-year contract with option to renew for another 5 years.  $2 million per year.
• Purchase Award for Hospitality Staffing Services for Sandhill Crane Golf Club, openly competed, 5-year contract with option to renew for another 5 years.  $200k per year.
• Purchase Award for  Emergency Food Catering Services (Pre-Event Packaged Meals)  – with bid waiver, for sole source – for $100K per year for 5 years

City Manager Report  – no details listed

• Resolution 44, 2017 – Adoption of the City’s One-Year Annual Action Plan to Obtain Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development  ( HUD) and Amendment to Citizen Participation Plan – the plan must be submitted annually to maintain the grant. The City is eligible to receive approximately $187,726 for fiscal year 2017-2018. 
• Ordinance 17, 2017 – First reading of amendments to Chapter 78, Land Development Regulations to specify regulations pertaining to the operation and sale of food from Mobile Food Trucks within in the City of Palm Beach Gardens.
• Resolution 48, 2017 – Adopting the Fiscal Year 2017/2018 Fees and Charges Schedule – the proposed changes include an Art in Public Places Application Fee, Mobile Food Truck Permit and Renewal Fees, and increases in fees for unnecessary false alarms.
• Resolution 50, 2017 – Appointing Members to the Charter Review Committee –  each council member will nominate members and the entire council will vote on each nominee.  The committee will consist of 5 members who are charged with providing their final report of Charter Change recommendations in October 2017.  The names under consideration are listed in the resolution, which also lists the time-table in order to have any changes on the ballot for March 2018 Uniform Municipal Elections.

Check the agenda to see if any additional items have been added before the meeting here.

Effusive Praise Abounds

After Mayor Marino called for a moment of silence for Fire Rescue Lieutenant Gary Bussey – the City Council Meeting proceeded through numerous recognition events with accompanying picture taking sessions. Items of Resident Interest continued the highlighting of additional city employee accomplishments by Council Member Woods, and proceeded through the City Manager Report where there was even more praise – culminating in the annual City Manager Evaluation – which couldn’t be better.

Interspersed in this love fest was some new City Business. The Consent Agenda, and Resolutions all passed 5:0.

Highlights:

• State Senator Bobby Powell delivered an outstanding power-point presentation summarizing the just completed Legislative Session and pointing out those items of special interest to the City of Palm Beach Gardens. Here is a link.  It is well worth watching for an easy to understand summation.
• Vice-Mayor Marciano asked that Resolution 45, 2017 be pulled from Consent; Planning and Zoning Director Natalie Crowley gave a quick overview of the future Palm Beach Gardens Tri-Rail station area planning, and introduced Kim DeLaney, Director of Strategic Development and Policy for Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council who will serve as the project manager on the strategic plan development. There will be public workshops in the fall – watch for them.
• Council Member Lane requested that the Purchase Award for the new Tennis Center Clubhouse be pulled from Consent. Director of the Purchasing Department Km! Ra and Laura Schuppert, Recreation Director – described the need for an enlarged Clubhouse, explained that the $3 million is covered by the Sales Tax funding, and presented the Council with an animated walk-through of the new Clubhouse.
• Mayor Marino had two proclamations pulled from Consent as well – to recognize two Entrepreneur Score Winners who were given an opportunity to speak about their businesses.
• After a brief overview by Finance Administrator Allan Owens, the Council set the Maximum Millage Rate for fiscal year 2017/2018 to its current Operational Rate of 5.55 mils and slightly decreased .1178 debt service for an overall millage of 5.6678 – which will be used by the County Property Appraiser to send out the Trim Notices in August. This represents a tax increase since property values have appreciated significantly.   (It should be noted that the city has not made the budget proposal detail available to the public yet – so the total dollar amount to be raised in taxes (which expected to be more than 5% over last year) or how it is to be allocated was known only to staff, the council and the budget committee. This effectively precluded any intelligent comment by the public before they set the maximum millage rate. The county, and many other municipalities are much more open and transparent in this regard.) Discussion during the item, and later during Items for Council Action/Discussion was mixed. Vice Mayor Marciano, who had served on the Budget Oversight Committee for five years, asked the Council to individually think about whether there was possible room for at least token relief to the tax-payer. Mayor Marino and Council Member Woods were firm that there was no room for consideration of any such tax relief. The first Public Hearing on the Budget will be on September 7.
• The Council approved the establishment of the Charter Review Committee and Timeline. Resident Iris Scheibl requested that any proposed Charter changes, especially pertaining to something like Elections, be placed on the November 2018 ballot instead of the March Uniform Municipal Elections due to the expected very low turnout in March. Vice-Mayor Marciano replied that he spoke with SOE Bucher and that she rejected November out-right. There was no other discussion. The Council Members will put their nominations for the Charter Review Committee members to staff by July 24th and they will be voted upon in the August 3rd City Council Meeting.
• City Attorney Lohman informed the Council that the City lost on appeal the case with Sears  and that he recommended that the Council repeal Ordinance 20, 2012 which was found to be unconstitutional. The Council will vote on such an ordinance next meeting. The City will be responsible to Sears for legal fees yet to be determined.
• During Public Comment – Tom Cairnes, of the PGA Corridor Association, praised City Manager Ferris and reminded the public of the 9/13 Mobility Around the Gardens event that was mentioned last month.  Tom Murphy of the Police Foundation described the 10th annual Police Foundation Golf Tournament to raise funds for the Police Explorers.

The next council meeting will be held on August 3rd.

 

Next City Council Mtg on July 13 at 7pm

The next City Council Meeting will be on Thursday July 13th at 7pm in City Hall.

Agenda Highlights:

• State Senator Bobby Powell – Legislative Session Wrap-Up
• Set Maximum Millage Rate for FY 2017/2018 Budget
• Establishing the 2017 Charter Review Committee targeting March 2018 Municipal Elections
• Annual Evaluation of City Manager
• Inter-local agreement with Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council for Palm Beach Gardens Station Area – transit oriented development (TOD) Master Plan (on Consent Agenda)

• Resolution 45, 2017 – Interlocal Agreement between Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council and Palm Beach Gardens for Palm Beach Gardens Station Area Transit Oriented Development Master Plan. Funding for the grant includes $30K from Palm Beach Gardens.   Public Input will be collected from Sept-Dec. 2017, with a draft plan in 2017 and a Final Master Plan and Report by March 2018
• Purchase  Award – Operate On-Site Employee Health Clinic – $3.3 Million 5 year contract with option to renew for an additional 5 years – openly competed.  Awarded to Carehome LLC – current operator.
• Purchase Award – Renewal of Agreement for Dental Insurance – $80K – City exercised option to renew for 3 years.
• Purchase Award – Construct Prefabricated and Pre-Engineered Metal Building Shell for Golf Cart Storage Barn – openly competed $171K
• Purchase Award – Mowing and Landscape Services for PGA Flyover and Canal Long-Line Mowing – openly competed, 5 year contract for $1.5 million with option to renew for another 5 years.
• Purchase Award – Alert and Communications System for Fire Rescue Stations 1,3,4,5 – sole source $250K – to match system installed in Station 2.
• Purchase Award – Modifications to Johnson Dairy Rd – piggyback/access contract for $303K
• Purchase Award –  Bleachers Shade Structure for Gardens Park piggyback/access contract for $131K
• Purchase Award – Emergency Food Catering Services – City exercised option to renew $200K contract
• Purchase Award – New Tennis Center Clubhouse  Architectural Services – openly competed $220K
• Purchase Award – Dispatch Consoles for Northcom – piggyback/access contract for $79.7K

City Manager Report  – no details listed

• Resolution 46, 2017 – City Initiated Major Conditional Use approval for constructing a 180′ public safety communications monopole at the northern boundary of Lake Catherine Sportsplex  
• Resolution 41, 2017 – Setting a Maximum Millage Rate of 5.6678 which holds operating millage at 5.5 and with lower .1178 debt service, is less than current year 5.6781.  Also sets first Public Hearing on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017 . (Note – there is no budget detail and the backup material states “The detailed proposed line-item budget will be distributed to Council and the Budget Oversight Review Board under separate cover.”)
• Resolution 49, 2017 – Establishes the 2017 Charter Review Committee and associated duties and timeline, with the assumption of final report to the Council on Oct. 12, 2017, for Council approval of the Referendum Ordinance on Nov. 2, 2017 and Dec. 7, 2017 for placement on the ballot on the March 13, 2017 Uniform Municipal Elections.  (Note – the last two Charter related votes took place on November ballots in 2012 and 2014!)

Council Discussion: 

• City Manager Evaluation

Check the agenda to see if any additional items have been added before the meeting here.