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,
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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,
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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
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Ck: r,,I-LMAN BLI -
COUNCILWOMAN FURTADO
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CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS, WORKSHOP MEETING, 2 -10 -94
COUNCILMAN CLARK
CINDY M. HARVEY, ASSISTANT DEPUTY CITY CLERK
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