SR7 Extension Design Project Public Meeting on June 3rd

FYI – for those of you impacted by or wanting to know more about the proposed State Route 7 Extension, click here to see the flyer that was circulated to local elected officials along with the meeting notice.

Next City Council Meeting on Thursday, June 4th at 7pm

The next City Council Meeting will be this Thursday, June 4 at 7pm at City Hall.

Presentations

• There will be a presentation on Project Bruin (which is on the Consent Agenda)

Consent Agenda includes

• Project Bruin – which is requesting $350,000 from the Quick Action Closing Fund – in exchange for a Capital Investment of $1,895,000 by 12/31/16 and retaining 473 existing employees and creating 178 new jobs with an average wage of $83,000.
• Two Purchase Awards – One for annual asphalt milling and resurfacing services for 2015 in the amount not to exceed $558,370, which is a piggyback on a competitively bid contract with the Village of Wellington; the second is also a Piggyback on a Miami/Dade contract for Employee Benefits Consulting Services in the amount of $210,000.

Public Hearings include:

• 2nd reading of Ordinance 4, 2015 (Replacing Chapter 62) and Ordinance 9, 2015 (Replacing Chapter 70) and it’s related Resolution revising schedules and fees related to Chapter 70
• Ordinances 7 and 8, 2015, 1st Reading – related to a temporary change in the Municipal Election date for 2016 (in order to coincide with the March 22 Federal Presidential Primary Election) and adjusting the Candidate Qualifying Period, affected by the change.
• Ordinance 10, 2015 transfers approximately $5.5 Million from the General Fund Budget Stabilization Reserve Account, leaving a balance of $462K, and using the transfers for: Supplemental appropriation for Golf Course Clubhouse, Additional payment towards unfunded public safety liabilities, Supplemental appropriation for City Park, Supplemental appropriation for Police Tactical Training Facility. Unassigned General Fund Reserves are unaffected, and will remain at $23,066,106
• Resolution 11, 2015 – Seacoast Banking Center signage changes
• Resolution 20, 2015 – Church in the Gardens – Art in Public Places approval of  a seven and one-half (7 %) foot tall statue of Jesus Christ Ascending to Heaven.
• Resolution 24, 2015 – a site plan amendment to allow for the build out of Phase II of the La Posada Senior Assisted Living Facility

Items for Council Action/Discussion 

• The two items that were on the May Agenda and not discussed are once again on the agenda – Citizen Survey Results and North County District Park.

The agenda (with links to full detail) can be found here.  Check the agenda to see if any additional items have been added before the meeting.

See a summary of the May Council Meeting as well as the latest Martino Minute on the PBG Watch website.

We get the government we deserve – and it’s up to us to watch what they do.  Hope you can make it.  If you can’t make the meeting try and watch live-streaming or on-demand.

No to All Aboard Florida Bonds; Yes to everything else

All council members were  present.  Mr. Russo commented he may not be able to stay the entire meeting due to medical problems at home.

Council chambers were filled for the Frenchman’s Creek and Frenchman’s Reserve presentation.  Jane Feinstein and Mik Fernanandi  presented their arguments against All Aboard Florida (AAF), mentioning the lack of transparency with AAF and DOT.  Noise, vibrations, expected slower response times and possible hazardous waste issues with the expected increase in freight trips were also discussed.  They requested the council write a letter objecting to the issuing of bonds.  There are claims that peoples’ rights have been violated because many people have objected to the “bullet” train but that AFF and the DOT said “no local residents have objected.”  They mentioned that a Jupiter and PBG resident have filed lawsuit.

Ali Soule, representative for AAF, spoke for 3 minutes after that presentation in favor of AAF. Two other people spoke in favor of AFF. 5 residents voiced their opinion against AFF. It was a hot topic and the Mayor had to quiet the crowd several times. A motion was made and accepted to send a letter out against issuing the bonds.

Fl. Representative Pat Rooney gave an update on the latest legislative session noting that they ended 3 days early.  No progress was made on the budget and there is a special session scheduled to meet again 6/1/15 through 6/20/15 to discuss the budget and the expansion issues with Medicare/Medicaid.  Mr. Rooney also spoke about the 750K funding for the C17 canal.  Legislation on sober homes is also being discussed

The annual Audit report was given by Marcum LLP.  Their representative, Enrique Llerena  gave the report noting there were no deficiencies and noted that the staff did a great job providing the information.

City Manager proclaimed May 24 Sherri Pla day. The African American Golfers Association acknowledged Sherri as their 1st award recipient for her involvement in promoting golf.

The Consent Agenda was approved 5-0.

Ordinance 4, 2015  repealing and rewriting Chapter 62 (regulations that govern the use of city streets, swales, right of way and public places) was passed 5-0.

Ordinance 9, 2019 repealing and rewriting Chapter 70 (traffic and vehicles) also passed 5-0.  Note that Resolution 19 is a companion item and will require council action on the 2nd reading next month.

Ordinance 5, 2015 (2nd reading) 10 year water supply facilities work plan was passed 5-0.

Ordinance 6, 2015 (2nd reading) Mirasol club renovations passed 5-0.  The companion item Resolution 16, 2015 for additional parking also passed 5-0.

Resolution 18, 2015 to allow a 2000 sq. ft. restaurant and drive thru to be build had some 5 residents that spoke against the resolution. The Brocks changed the hours of operation after council expressed concern. The resolution passed 5-0.

Resolution 17, 2015 Appointment of regular members to the Police pension board passed 5-0 after all persons mentioned were approved by council.

Resolution 21, 2015 Eminent domain of 8511 40th Terrace North for a utility water line was combined with Resolution 22, 2015 the eminent domain to acquire a parcel of land at 8342 Sunset Drive.  Todd Engle presented a slide show on the reasons for the taking.  Carol Courtney spoke at the public comment.  She noted that there were several very old trees, one in particular that was estimated by arborist to be approximately 250 years old.  Carol stated she had spoken to the city forester and the day before and he said he was not aware of the issues with the trees.  Michelle Ball spoke about the close proximity of the cul-de-sac to her home.  Kevin Easton spoke about the problems in communication and the attempts to get all interested parties, like the city forester, fire chief, etc. to meet on site to develop a plan that works best for the neighborhood.  Kevin requested to show some slides presenting his ideas to tweak the current design to save the trees and keep the “gardens” charm that he has enjoyed since purchasing his home (1989.)  That request was denied.  Council instructed the City Engineer to work with Mr. Easton to see if his proposals could be incorporated and to try and save the trees.  The Council passed both resolutions 5-0.

The council meeting concluded at 10:30.

Next City Council Meeting on May 7 at 7pm

The next City Council Meeting will be this Thursday, May 7 at 7pm at City Hall.  It is a very full agenda with many topics of interest.

Announcements/Presentations includes a Legislative Update by Representative Pat Rooney, the 2014 Annual Audit Report and a topic regarding All Aboard Florida and residents of Frenchman’s Creek and Frenchman’s Reserve.

Public Hearings and Resolutions include amending Chapter 62 (Streets, Sidewalks and Certain Public Places) making property owners share in responsibility of swales/right of way maintenance , amending Chapter 70 (Traffic and Vehicles) The proposed new ordinance would provide the City with a new set of parking regulations and the repeal of Article VI. Dangerous Intersection Safety regarding the use of unmanned image capture technologies. , Revising Schedule of Fees and Charges, amending Donald Ross Village PUD, Condemnation and Eminent Domain Proceedings on 2 parcels (Sunset Drive and 40th Terrace) as well as 2nd reading on several items.

Council Action/Discussion will also include discussion of the Citizen Survey Results and a discussion on North County District Park.

The agenda (with links to full detail) can be found here.  Check the agenda to see if any additional items have been added before the meeting.

Let’s Be Honest about the “Biotech Cluster”

Yesterday, the Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to void their interest in the deed restriction that would have prevented “Project Diamond”, the UTC techonology showcase proposed within the “biotech campus” on the Briger tract.  The other government players – Palm Beach Gardens and the state (represented strangely enough by FDEP), concur.  Scripps, while disagreeing that this is an appropriate use, is not strongly objecting.  Kolter (of course), the NPBC Chamber and the Economic Council are all strong supporters.

As part of the complex and expensive (to the taxpayer) deal that brought Scripps to Jupiter, 100 acres adjacent to I-95 was set aside for use only by biotech related enterprises, all part of the vision for a “biotech cluster” in Northern Palm Beach County.

It would seem the deed restriction standing in the way of the UTC project has been cleverly sidestepped by the BCC and the other government players.  They are not “ending the Biotech era” and blowing up the restriction you see, just making a one-time exception in a way in which Scripps cannot object. In Commissioner Hal Valeche’s words:  “You get a bird in the hand like this, it doesn’t come along that often.”

UTC, being an excessively green “smart building”, that “fits the vision of high tech enterprise” may end up being similar to a biotech campus in meeting the 2003 goals, but avoiding the restriction is tacit agreement that the whole vision of the Scripps Project was flawed.  “We’re not giving up on bioscience or biotechnology,” said Commissioner Melissa McKinlay.  Surely not.

The Scripps Project, by most measures, has been a failure.  Although Scripps itself has met their committment in terms of jobs created, the 40,000 related jobs promised when the deal was done have not materialized.  The amount of public money that was spent to bring Scripps to Jupiter exceeded $1M for each job actually created.

The UTC HQ project will be a fine addition to the county and the city, although the amount of cash and tax avoidance they are being given is distasteful to one who believes in free markets and fiscal responsibility.  Clearing the way for them with a deed “exception” though is not being honest.  Let’s just acknowledge that the Biotech vision was a failure and move on.

Maybe when Kolter brings their next non-biotech project forward they will finally admit it.

See:   County OKs UTC HQ near Scripps

Good Old Boys’ Actions Show Why Term Limits Passed

Term Limits pervaded the April City Council Meeting from start to finish, with some City business thrown in for good measure.

Up first on the agenda was the annual reorganization vote – selecting Mayor and Vice Mayor. Palm Beach Gardens has a Council-Manager form of  government so the position of Mayor is largely ceremonial, not elected by the residents. The Mayor does serve as chair of the monthly City Council meetings though, and influences how business is conducted.

The Mayor and Vice Mayor positions have been held by all on the council except for newest member (elected in 2010) Marcie Tinsley.  So one could reasonably assume that Mrs. Tinsley, who has not held either office, should get her turn as Mayor or Vice-Mayor, since like Mr. Jablin (who has held both positions many times) and Mr. Premuroso (the incumbent mayor) – they all have 2 years left on their final term-limited term.  She is certainly qualified, but this Council being essentially a “boy’s club”, she was not even discussed for Mayor, and her nomination for vice-Mayor by Bert Premuroso was cast aside with patronizing ease.

David Levy nominated Eric Jablin for Mayor. The ensuing convoluted discussion rationalized his election as if it had always been a done deal, and he became Mayor on a 5:0 vote.

A prevailing assumption by the Council, for several months now, since term limits were first placed on the ballot, is that Levy is eligible for another term (because he resigned for a few months to run as County Commissioner) and that he obviously will be re-elected without any opposition. He could then have another opportunity to be Vice-Mayor or Mayor. But somehow, in even more tortured debate, the men on the Council decided that Levy needed to be the Vice-Mayor to afford continuity on the Council and ensure the city didn’t collapse as the board turned over. While nominated by Premuroso, Tinsley received no support, even from him, as she argued gamely on why she should be Vice-Mayor; Levy was elected 4:1. The arrogance of the discussion was overwhelming; we highly encourage the Council to watch the entire meeting themselves and understand why people voted for Term Limits. 

Term Limits arose again during Items of Resident Interest.  The North Palm Beach Blog of the PB Post had an article earlier in the day suggesting rumors that the Council would take action to over-ride the Term Limits charter change voters supported with 79% of the vote.  68% voted for it to be retroactively applied to the current Council.   While Council member Russo suggested that such an action, taken by the Council, would be a slap in the face of the voters – it was clear that there were others on the Council who did not agree.  Later in the evening, the ‘new’ Mayor suggested that the folks who are against term-limits come in force to Council meetings, thus giving the Council a rationale to take some action to reverse the ballot amendment.

Resident Mark Marciano, speaking during Public Comment on several topics, suggested that the Council should tackle Term Limits, and that the 2 3-year terms, as passed, were ‘not only short-sighted, but even dangerous’. He reiterated a drumbeat, heard mostly by electeds, that people didn’t know what they were voting for, and were just expressing frustration that Congress doesn’t have term limits.

Finally – the last item on the agenda was the City Manager Contract Extension. In previous discussions on the topic, the contract, expiring in 2016, was proposed to be extended by 2 years to 2018. But suddenly, Mayor Jablin proposed a 5-year extension to 2020 – once again citing Term Limits as the reason this had to be done. The clueless new Council that will exist from 2017 on, will destroy the city without the continuity provided by the current City Manager. Normally, Russo said, 5 years is too long to extend the contract – but Term Limits overrides such need for caution. Tinsley encouraged that the time be used for a succession plan for City Manager Ferris’ retirement; Russo said the same. The extension passed 5:0.

As to the Business:

• Kudos to Riverside Enrichment Center for receiving Apple Accreditation 
• Kudos to Km! Ra, the City’s Purchasing Director for being awarded a 2015 UPPCC Agency Certificate 
• City’s Resident Opinion Survey – 400 residents were surveyed in January 2015 and results were compared with the survey conducted in 2006 – with a sampling error of 4.9%. 96% would recommend living in Palm Beach Gardens and cited Family, Weather, and Shopping/Restaurants as why they live here. The results will be posted on the City website on Monday.  Here is the PB Post’s article on the survey.
• Mirasol ClubHouse expansion passed 5:0 on First Reading
• Purchasing rather than leasing Golfcourse Maintenance Equipment passed 5:0
• Council appointments to external and internal boards remained unchanged except for one that requires the Mayor’s participation.

Next PB Gardens City Council this Thursday, April 2nd

The next City Council Meeting will be this Thursday, April 2nd at 7pm at City Hall.

Note that at the beginning of the agenda is the annual ‘Reorganization‘ with the Council voting for Mayor and Vice Mayor.  At the end of the meeting, during Items for Council Action/Discussion, the Council will discuss and vote on Extension of City Manager Contract – a subject from last July and September meetings.

The Consent Agenda includes:

• Purchase Award for $110K for aquatic vegetation and exotic species management service – openly bid.
• Purchase award for Tires not to exceed $300K – piggyback award to Florida Sheriffs Association contract; has been doing so for many years

The Regular Agenda includes:

• Ordinance 2, 2015 –  Second Reading: An amendment to the Fiscal Year 2014/15 budget
• Ordinance 6, 2015 and companion Resolution 16, 2015 relates to expansion of the Mirasol Clubhouse and parking.
• Resolution 15, 2015 is a purchase award to Wesco Turf for $378K for special golf course mowers and specialized turf equipment through an existing State contract.

Items for Council Action/Discussion also includes assigning Council member responsibilities for various internal and external boards.

The agenda (with links to full detail) can be found here.  Check the agenda to see if any additional items have been added before the meeting.

See a summary of the March Council Meeting as well as the latest two Martino Minutes (on the new logo and the Banyan Tree PUD vote) on the PBG Watch website.

We get the government we deserve – and it’s up to us to watch what they do.  Hope you can make it.  If you can’t make the meeting try and watch live-streaming or on-demand.

Palm Beach Post: Scripps opens door on land use

No Drive-through for Banyan Tree PUD… for now

Although last on the agenda, Resolution 13, 2015 garnered the most public comment – with many residents from Lake Catherine in attendance and 11 folks voicing their concerns with the developer’s plans for Banyan Tree PUD Phase II (aka Northlake Gardens) at the northwest corner of MacArthur Boulevard and Northlake.  Among the issues were traffic, noise, lighting, and safety for the children going to/fro the nearby schools. Along with the public comment, a petition signed by 182 of the home owners was submitted. Council member Levy spoke first and voiced his concern with the proposed drive-through for a small 1000 square foot business. The rest of the council joined in saying there was much to like about the proposed site plan but they too were uncomfortable with the drive-through. Both the developer and the owner asked that the drive-through be approved in order to enhance the ability to attract businesses for the rear building which would be all but invisible from view. They suggested that the council would have final approval of the lessee at a future date. The council disagreed and voted unanimously to approve the plan without the drive-through.  They would be open to future modifications (eg the drive through) after they know what the proposed business would be. Vote 5:0

Despite a request to bring Project Diamond (Resolution 14, 2015) to the Regular Agenda, it remained in Consent and economic incentives were passed without discussion.  See Where’ s the Sunshine?

Tom Cairnes, of the PGA Corridor, spoke on Ordinance 1, 2015 – disagreeing with the proposed regulations as not going far enough.  The Corridor believes that no human signage should be permitted in Palm Beach Gardens. The council replied by saying that currently there are no regulations in place, so that this is an improvement. Vote 5:0

The other two Ordinances – Ordinance 3, 2015 (gas station signage) and Ordinance 5, 2015 1st reading (10-year water supply facilities work plan) passed 5:0 as well.

Police Chief Stepp made his 2014 Police Department Summary Report – with outstanding statistics. Crime has been down for 3 years in a row and is at the lowest rate since 1987. Since many of the crimes are DUIs and shop-lifting, the likelihood of being a victim of crime in our city is very low. Frog-et Me Not continues to be an award-winning program. Read the excellent report here .

All on the council expressed their regret and condolences on the recent passing of North Palm Beach Gardens City Councilman and veteran, William Manuel.  A moment of silence was held.

Project Diamond added on Consent Agenda?

(correction – resolution is resolution 14, 2015 not resolution 15, 2015 – typo)

The next City Council Meeting will be tonight Thursday, March 5th at 7pm at City Hall.

Is United Technologies on Briger tract an appropriate subject for Consent Agenda?

Resolution 14, 2015 (read it here)  was added to the Consent Agenda sometime after my email on Monday.   Read the Post’s article entitled Sources: Firm eyes Gardens expansion.

“United Technologies is looking to buy property on the Briger tract in Palm Beach Gardens to build a 280,000-square-foot office complex, where the Fortune 500 company plans to move a significant portion of its Carrier Air Conditioning and Otis Elevator subsidiaries into a regional headquarters, according to knowledgeable sources.

Palm Beach Gardens and Palm Beach County are poised to offer major incentives packages to secure the deal for the $115 million complex, which would employ 450 with an average minimum wage of $85,000. ”

By our calculations, approval of this resolution commits the city to over $5M over 10 years at the current combined millage rate of 5.8315 on a $115M project.  That consists of property tax forgiveness of $671K per year in the first 5 years and $335K in the next 5, in addition to the direct payment of the “jobs incentive” of $630K.

But  “Plans are to buy the site from Kolter Group, which owns the 681-acre Briger tract.  But there’s a hitch: The Briger land is one of a number of properties zoned for biotech development in northern Palm Beach County.

A source close to the deal said he believes a technology or headquarters use is permitted on the land. But Jim Mize, the chief assistant county attorney who led the team that wrote the covenants governing the tract, said that the 100 acres now controlled by Kolter are restricted to industries “directly supportive” of biotech research. That restriction doesn’t expire until at least 2021, Mize said Wednesday. ”

The agenda (with links to full detail) can be found here.  Check the agenda to see if any additional items have been added before the meeting (which certainly was the case today!)

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