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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Council 021094CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS FEBRUARY 10, 1994 The Workshop Meeting of the City of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, was called to order by Mayor Russo at 7:30 P.M. in the Assembly Room of the Municipal Complex, 10500 North Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. ROLL CALL The Assistant Deputy City Clerk called the roll and present were Mayor Russo, Vice Mayor Monroe, r Councilwoman Furtado and Councilman Clark. Councilman Jablin arrived at 7:35 P.M. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION MUNICIPAL GOLF COURSE MANAGEMENT BIDS PRESENTATION Kent Olson, Finance Director, stated that a total of five bidders had submitted proposals for management of the Palm Beach Gardens Municipal Golf Course; however, only two out of the five, Dubin & Associates and PGA National, met the objectives and scope of the RFP to contract out the management of the Golf Course. DUBIN & ASSOCIATES Brahm Dubin, President of Dubin & Associates, outlined his company's qualifications, gave a slide presentation, and emphasized that under their management the golf course would be a municipal course for the city residents. They would offer several types of programs including free golf CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS, WORKSHOP MEETING, 2 -10 -94 2 programs for middle schools. Questions raised by the Council members included whether the course was playable at a municipal course level, which Mr. Dubin assured them it was, but he believed the image of the course would need to be changed I through proper marketing to attract players that have not used the course because of its current image of being a difficult course to play. Mayor Russo voiced his concern that this proposal included refinancing of the present golf course debt with an additional $500,000 required for improvements. PGA National Mr. Colin Wright, President of PGA National Golf Club, reported his company had conducted a study of the Palm Beach Gardens Municipal Golf Course from which they learned the course was very good but the management needed improvement. If their company were the management company, they would send hotel guests that the PGA National Golf Course could not accommodate to the City's course. John Gardner, Director of Golf Operations at the PGA National Golf Club, stated minor improvements would be necessary and that fees needed to be higher. Their company would also provide several programs for residents. In response to Councilman Jablin's question about their experience in managing p CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS, WORKSHOP MEETING, 2 -10 -94 3 municipal courses, Mr. Wright explained their company manages courses in other states that are not owned by municipalities but are managed similar to the way they would manage the City's course, as public facilities and not under a membership program. Mayor Russo stated the two qualified proposals would take very different directions. Dubin & Associates, who are very experienced in managing t municipal golf courses, would create a quality municipal golf course, and PGA National Golf Club's proposal would create a professional golf club. The City Council would face a decision of which would be more successful for the City and which p would the residents want? In order to have input from golfers as well as non - golfers, it was the consensus of the City Council to have the newspapers inform the residents and also to have the City Manager notify those residents who had expressed an interest in contributing their ideas i regarding the Golf Course that the proposals were at City Hall and invite them to come in, go over them, and put their ideas in writing during the next week, and to have a resolution as to a decision between the two proposals on the agenda at the next City Council meeting. CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS, WORKSHOP MEETING, 2 -10 -94 4 REVISIONS TO FLORIDA STATUTES FOR OCCUPATIONAL LICENSES It was the consensus of the City Council to implement the required Section 205.0535 of Florida Statutes Chapter 205, "Occupational License Tax Act," which had been recently changed so that it would permit local governments to increase the Occupational License Tax by up to 5% every other year, by the appointment of an Equity Study Commission made up of five representatives of the City's business community. This Commission would recommend a classification system and rate structure for the City's occupational license taxes, and would give the Council an opportunity to act on this matter before licenses are due on October 1, 1994. CHARTER REVISIONS RECOMMENDATION City Attorney Tom Baird, Chairman of the committee that had studied the City Charter, reported there had been two recommendations by the committee, a finance ordinance, consisting of a substantial number of changes to the financing charter, and the separate charter revisions; and that the consensus of the committee was that the Council move forward concurrently with these two items, however, the ordinance could be passed first, rather than i •1 1 CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS, WORKSHOP MEETING, 2 -10 -94 5 waiting until a referendum would be held regarding the charter amendments. He stated the committee's goals in the proposed charter revisions were to create a clear council manager system in the city manager's absence, to replace the current merit system with a personnel code, and to review the City charter every 5 years. It was the consensus of the Council to accept the committee's recommendation to make the changes to the finance system by ordinance rather than by charter amendment. Consensus of the Council was to accept 3 -year terms for City Council members but to wait until Mayor Russo could be present to decide whether to have term limits; to accept a plurality of votes cast in general or special elections which would save costs of run -off elections; to switch paragraph (a) and paragraph (b) of Article VI, Section 6 -1; to change the form of Section 6 -2, Items B -1, B -2, B -4 and B -5 to begin with the word "to ". Vice Mayor Monroe suggested wording that would appoint one assistant city attorney as deputy to act as second in command in the absence of the City Attorney. Attorney Baird explained the differences in the operation of the current merit system with the proposed personnel code. He stated that the charter and City code have established a I CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS, WORKSHOP MEETING, 2 -10 -94 6 merit system board of lay persons from the community who consider grievances from city employees at a hearing, and vote whether to uphold the grievance. The City Manager then has the power to accept or reject the merit board's recommendations. The merit board could create an unfavorable record for the City Manager who has the responsibility of hiring, firing, and disciplining the City employees. The new procedure would be an internal grievance system which would begin with a supervisor and progress up the ladder to the City Manager, and would eliminate a public forum being held before a civil rights trial. PGA LANDSCAPE PLAN City Manager Herakovich and Vice Mayor Monroe extended their thanks to members of the task force for their time and efforts. Rich Walton presented an overview of the proposed master plan and stated all required guidelines had been met; major alterations from the plan originally presented to the City Council were the use of more inexpensive lower maintenance native plant materials, and a single irrigation source for the entire plan. The initial landscape installation as proposed would be that Northern Palm Beach County Water Control District would install all landscape materials from CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS, WORKSHOP MEETING, 2 -10 -94 Military Trail to the Turnpike from the inside of the sidewalk across the median to the inside of the sidewalk or pathway on the other side, which would also include the entire 55 -foot buffer on the south side of PGA Boulevard west of Central Boulevard, with future developers to be required to landscape their own property. Maintenance for this Installation, except for the 55 -foot buffer areas on the south Side of PGA Boulevard, would revert to the City after one year. Dave Woodward, Urban Design Studio, presented a synopsis of the landscaping for the proposed master plan. Councilman Clark questioned whether extra expense for landscaping on the inside of the sidewalks would be visible against the backdrop of tall Maleucla trees. Mr. Woodward felt the extra landscaping would help to visually block out these trees. Councilman Clark stated he would like to consider the addition of color similar to that proposed for the BallenIsles entrance for other properties along PGA Boulevard as they were developed. In response to a suggestion by Councilman Jablin that a landscaping bank or agreement be established to recoup the initial cost of landscaping at a later date, Vice Mayor Monroe stated in the past there had been a fee per foot, 7 1 CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS, WORKSHOP MEETING, 2 -10 -94 which should be resurrected. Vice Mayor Monroe voiced her concern with landscaping maintenance in the medians. Mr. Woodward stated the palette was very low maintenance because of the lack of small shrubs, and the use of mulch and saw palmetto. Gardens of Woodberry resident Louise Meade voiced her frustration that the City could not finance a wall along PGA Boulevard to protect the Gardens of Woodberry homes adjacent to PGA Boulevard from traffic. It was determined that Gardens of Woodberry homeowners association was working on this problem. Mr. Woodward stated completion of the road contract was anticipated by September 1, and the landscape contract would need to start before September 1 in order to be concluded by October, 1994. Direction to staff for funding landscaping along the sidewalk on the north side of the road was to initially keep the landscaping simple by planting only the slower growing trees. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at ID-30 P.M. APPROVAL MAYOR RUSSO VICE MAYOR MONROE J- Ck: r,,I-LMAN BLI - COUNCILWOMAN FURTADO 8 CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS, WORKSHOP MEETING, 2 -10 -94 COUNCILMAN CLARK CINDY M. HARVEY, ASSISTANT DEPUTY CITY CLERK 9