City Commission Meeting Summary - June 10, 2009
The City Commission met in regular session and took the following action (with Commissioners Mustian and Katz absent):
Item 1 - Mayor Marks presented a proclamation honoring June 2009 as National Caribbean American Heritage Month in the City of Tallahassee with the following individuals joining him at the podium:
- Dr. Jan DeCosmo
- Dr. David Keen
- Dr. Hugh Lunan
- Ms. Zita Magloire
- Ms. Kara Palmer
- Mr. Denis Perrott
- Mr. Gilbert Queeley
- Mrs. Pamela Ridley
- Dr. Dennis Ridley
- Dr. Verian Thomas
Item 2 - Mayor Marks, joined by General Manager of Underground Utilities Mike Tadros, Utilities Marketing Director Lorin Pratt, and Waterdrop, presented certificates recognizing the following Water Conservation Poster Contest winners:
- Honorable Mention: Kyle Howard, a student in Ms. Messeroll's class at Kate Sullivan Elementary
- Third Place: Jessica Watley, a student in Ms. Morris' class at Desoto Trail Elementary
- Second Place: Jaclyn Weinell, a student in Ms. Millard's class at W.T. Moore Elementary
- First Place and Third Place in the state competition: Donovan Duchene, a student in Ms. Teel's class at Buck Lake Elementary
Item 2.1 - Chief Information Systems Officer Don DeLoach presented the 2009 Public Technology Institute (PTI) Significant Achievement Award in the Web & E-Government Services category for cities with similar populations to Commissioner Andrew Gillum for his role in initiating the Digital Harmony Program, which provides Nims Middle School students with computers to further their education.
Also appearing before the Commission relative to this achievement were Mayor Marks, Commissioner Aide Angie Whitaker, Jason Stamm of Go Beyond, LLC. and representatives from Nims Middle School.
Items 3-4 and 6-11 - Voted 3-0 (Commissioners Mustian and Katz absent) to approve the staff's recommendations presented in Consent Agenda Items 3-4 and 6-11, taking the following action:
Item 3 - Approved the reappointments of William Moor, of Capital City Bank; Andrew Reiss, of Epicurean Partners, Ltd.; Thornton Williams, of Williams Wilson & Sexton, P.A., to serve on the Downtown Improvement Authority (DIA) Board to terms expiring June 2012 (recommended by Mayor Marks)
Item 4 - Approved the award and execution of a three-year contract for citywide ready concrete, mix in accordance with the terms and conditions of Bid No. 0092-09-VA-BC, with Couch Ready Mix, low bidder meeting specifications, for an estimated expenditure of $370,000 over the life of the contract (Option 1 recommended by DMA/Procurement Services)
Item 5 - PULLED FOR DISCUSSION AND A SEPARATE VOTE a recommendation to approve the submittal of a joint City-County application for the FY2009 Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) and FY2009 Recovery Act JAG Grant (brought forward by the Tallahassee Police Department [TPD])
Item 6 - Adopted Resolution No. 09-R-13, authorizing an Electric Utility easement from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), necessary to construct new electric distribution facilities, including a transformer, to provide power to the First District Court of Appeals, which was under construction on Esplanade Way and Drayton Drive, in Southwood (Option 1 recommended by the Assistant to the City Manager)
Item 7 - Approved the Selection committee's ranking for continuing consulting civil engineering services, RFQ 0007-09-ER-RC, and authorized the City Manager to execute the related three-year general contracts with the top ten (10) ranked firms, including the following (recommended by Public Works/Project Management):
- George & Associates Consulting Engineers, Inc.
- Dyer, Riddle, Mills & Precourt, Inc.
- The LPA Group, Inc.
- GPI Southeast, Inc.
- American Consulting Engineers of Florida, LLC
- H. W. Lochner, Inc.
- Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan d/b/a PBSJ
- GGI, LLC d/b/a Genesis Group
- Kimley-Horn & Associates, Inc.
- Reynolds, Smith and Hills, Inc.
Item 8 - Approved the submission and expenditure of the FY2009/2010 Florida Commission for the Transportation Disadvantaged Trip & Equipment Grant and execution of all documents, providing $405,253 in funding with no required City match for StarMetro, as the designated Community Transportation Coordinator (CTC) for Leon County, to provide non-sponsored transportation services to citizens traveling within Leon County (Option 1 recommended by StarMetro/Paratransit Operations)
Item 9 - Approved the three-year Medicaid Waiver Service Agreement with the Agency for Persons with Disabilities and the execution of all related documents, providing funding to cover transportation costs for the riders to StarMetro as the designated CTC for Leon County (Option 1 recommended by StarMetro)
Item 10 - Introduced Ordinance No. 09-O-30, which would modify Section 14 of the City Charter to remove language calling for a special municipal election to be held for the purpose of filling an unanticipated city Commission vacancy (Option 1); and readopted City Commission Policy 144 - Filling Unanticipated City Commission Vacancies; City Charter Language, with a revision that provides that, if two or more Commissioners have the same seniority, those Commissioners will nominate in the order that they last served as mayor pro-tem, starting with the current mayor pro-tem (Option 2), and scheduled the ordinance for public hearing on June 24, 2009 (recommended by the City Treasurer-Clerk and the City Attorney)
Item 11 - Approved the minutes of the City Commission Regular Meetings of April 7, 2009 and April 22, 2009 (recommended by the City Treasurer-Clerk/Records Management)
Item 5, pulled from Consent - Voted 3-0 (Commissioners Mustian and Katz absent) to approve the submittal of a joint City-County application for the FY2009 Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) and FY2009 Recovery Act JAG Grant based on the recommended allocations of funding, for grant awards totaling $1,036,785 with no required City match, and the scheduling of a public hearing on June 24, 2009 to meet Federal program requirements, subject to the Commission having the flexibility to reallocate the funds to include addressing some other needed purpose (Option 1 recommended by the Tallahassee Police Department [TPD] as amended)
Commissioner Gillum clarified with Police Chief Dennis Jones that, with City Commission approval, the use of these grant funds could be adjusted to re-allocate some of the funds for programmatic areas to address the simmering problem of gang activities. Chief Jones also advised that TPD was pursuing other grant funds that were available specifically for addressing gangs.
Item 12 - Received an update report on the April 28, 2009 Wakulla Springs Symposium, presented by Charles Pattison, FAICP, President of 1000 Friends of Florida (brought forward by Commissioner Lightsey)
Wakulla County Commissioner Howard Kessler appeared before the Commission in support of this item and thanked the City Commission for is commitment to protecting the area's water resources and Wakulla Springs.
Items 13-15 and 20 - By consensus, introduced Ordinances Nos. 09-Z-26, 09-O-27, 09-O-28 and 09-O-20, and set the ordinances for public hearings as recommended:
Item 13 was a staff recommendation to introduce Ordinance No. 09-Z-26, which would rezone approximately 0.73 acres located AT 2500 Springhill Road from M-1 (Light Industrial) to the CP (Commercial Parkway) Zoning District (PRZ #090008) (applicant: Mr. Seongjong Hong); and set the ordinance for public hearing on August 26, 2009 (Option 1 recommended by Planning)
Item 14 was a staff recommendation to introduce Ordinance No. 09-O-27, which would amend Tallahassee Land Development Code, Chapter 10, to create the Government Operational-1 and Government Operational-2 Zoning Districts, and set the ordinance for public hearings on August 26 and October 28, 2009 (Option 1 recommended by Planning)
Item 15 was a staff recommendation to introduce Ordinance No. 09-O-28, which would revise Ordinance No. 07-O-29AA to eliminate the registration and inspection requirements for golf carts on designated streets in Southwood, and leave all other aspects of the ordinance intact so that safety and age requirements can be enforced at the discretion of the enforcement agencies, and set the ordinance for public hearing on June 24, 2009 (Option 1 recommended by the City Treasurer-Clerk/Revenue Collection Administrator).
Item 20 was a staff recommendation to introduce Ordinance No. 09-O-20, which would amend the City's existing fire services fee ordinance to reflect the newly negotiated interlocal agreement with Leon County, and set the ordinance for public hearing on June 24, 2009 (recommended by the Department of Management and Administration [DMA]). (see continuation of Item 20 below)
Item 16 - Received an End of Session Report from the City's State Lobbying Team, presented by City Lobbyists Ron Book and Sean Pittman, on the successes and challenges of the State's 2009 Legislative Session, and a brief overview from City Legislative Liaison Carrie Blanchard on the Federal 2009 Legislative Session (brought forward by the Mayor's Office/Intergovernmental Relations)
Mayor Marks reported that Ms. Blanchard would be attending a meeting of the stimulus funds coordinators in Washington, D.C. on June 14, 2009, and he confirmed that none of the funds authorized by the Commission to address these issues had been used to hire another lobbyist.
Commissioner Lightsey requested a chart on stimulus funds that the City had applied for and what stimulus funds were available.
Item 17 - Received a Power Point presentation on the Nova 2010 Plan by StarMetro Director Ron Garrison, and voted 3-0 (Commissioners Mustian and Katz absent) to authorize staff to work with the General Planning Consultant to continue to develop and analyze the Nova 2010 Plan through public surveys, listening sessions and analysis -- for the creation of a decentralized bus route structure that would distribute transit services along major roadways in Tallahassee, with several routes not serving the downtown so that passengers would receive greater frequency of service and a system more closely resembling contemporary vehicular travel patterns rather than the current hub-and-spoke system, which would be brought to the Commission for approval in November 2009 or January 2010, for implementation shortly thereafter (Option 1 recommended by StarMetro/Transit Planning)
Commissioner Lightsey requested that an agenda item be sent through CRTPA and Public Works to prioritize the new segments of sidewalks that would be needed
City Treasurer-Clerk Herndon advised that Chairman of the Transit Advisory Committee Greg Thompson had requested that the Commission be informed of the Committee's full support for this item.
Item 18 - Voted 3-0 (Commissioners Mustian and Katz absent) to approve and authorize the City Manager or her designee to execute an amendment to the Florida State University (FSU) "Seminole Express" agreement, providing the City with a total of $2,027,378 in funding for the transit system for FY2010, which was a decrease of 7% from the 2008-2009 agreement and was directly associated with the decrease in fuel prices (Option 1 recommended by StarMetro/Transit Planning)
Commissioner Lightsey clarified with Mr. Garrison that the cost of oil was built into the current multi-year contract so that the cost of service was covered.
Mr. Garrison also advised that students at Florida A & M University, FSU and Tallahassee Community College would all be using fare cards for the first time.
Item 19 - Voted 3-0 (Commissioners Mustian and Katz absent) to approve participation in Phase I of a regional On-site Treatment Disposal Systems (OSTDS) Alternatives and Management Feasibility Study, and authorize funding in the amount of $20,000 from Wastewater Project No. 09057 (Option 1 recommended by Underground Utilities/Water Resources Engineering)
Commissioner Lightsey clarified that this item would be presented to Leon County and Wakulla County governments as well to fund this Phase I regional study on management alternatives for septic tanks, with each government providing $20,000 for the study.
Water Resources Engineering Director John Buss clarified that with each of the three local governments contributing $20,000, the total cost of Phase I will be $60,000. He advised that the first phase would establish a regional consortium that could pursue grants in subsequent stages of the study.
Item 20 - Received an overview of the negotiations on the Fire Services Assessment Program, replacing the existing contract expiring June 30, 2009, presented by DMA Director Raoul Lavin; received a briefing on the updated methodology that was used, presented by Ms. Camille Tharpe, of GSG Services Group; thanked Ms. Tharpe for her involvement in the negotiations; and thanked and commended Commissioner Gillum and the staff who were involved (see introduction of ordinance above)
Voted 3-0 (Commissioners Mustian and Katz absent) to adopt Resolution No. 09-R-10, amending the Fire Services Assessments and Fees effective October 1, 2009 contingent upon the adoption of Ordinance No. 09-O-20 (Option 1 recommended by DMA)
Congratulated Fire Chief Cindy Dick on receiving the statewide Glass Ceiling Award
Item 20.1 - Provided feedback on a proposed voluntary separation incentive program, and directed staff to formalize and bring back a separation incentive package at the June 18, 2008 Budget Workshop (Option 1 recommended by DMA)
Environmental and Energy Resources Target Issue Committee Update - Commissioner Lightsey provided an update on activities of the Committee, indicating that the Advanced Wastewater Treatment Project was on track with primary focus on the T. P. Smith AWT improvements and designs for TPS WPI and WP2A at 90%; she commended staff on making some training improvements at TPS Plant that brought the nutrient quota down to nine (9), allowing some flexibility for the future. She stated that the MBE quotas were being met or exceeded, and advised that another update would be provided in six months.
CTC:RM:ecg:06-10-09