Good evening. We're going to call this initial meeting of the charter committee meeting order manager >> and I will be starting us off uh with the meeting. Uh we have an agenda. Uh we have people watching from
home. It's being broadcast on our website and also the usual ways we broadcast council meetings and uh so when you're speaking please turn on your microphone so they can hear you at home. Uh so the green button means you're you're live and you can see it light up like mine. Uh so initially what we want to do tonight is just do a brief
introduction that select the chair and vice chair then talk about you know what you all going to be looking at as far as items for discussion. Uh we have before you the resolution that that established the committee that was passed by the village council at their last meeting uh regular meeting and then we also have a
copy of the charter uh and so that way you'll be you'll have that to look at. People at home can go online and so everything that you're looking at the people at home can see it. Uh this is the first charter review committee that in several years so it's been a while. So I know most of you are new to this
and so we want to just basically do a brief introduction and talk about the charter. Uh what I've told people is the charter is like our constitution. Uh you have the you the United States level the the constitution then you have statutes. I always say that the constitution is
written in ink and and statutes and pencil. Same with us. The the charter really hasn't changed much. That's like the pin version. The village code is where we like make a lot of changes. So I think that's kind of the attitude I've had towards the charter is it's a it's like the guiding document uh and has
been changed lately but uh anything that happens has you it's in the ordinance I mean the resolution that everything has to be considered by you first then it will go to council then it will go to the voters so it's a three-step process and we have a deadline of May only because we have to get on the ballot and
that's a process there we're not sure how long it will take for youall to reach some decisions obviously depends on how much detail you want to get into uh We expect you to meet probably once a week at least. Uh I've asked have a facilitator at least one of your meetings uh from Abel City East. The people did our comp plan. Uh Jason has
agreed to come in at least help if you need a facilitator. And the Florida League of Cities has agreed to give us some oversight. So if we have any questions or comments, they're going to look at everything we do here. And if you have a question, you know, from that standpoint, uh we didn't want to have to bring our legal counsel in because I
don't think we need it. But if you do, we can always send it up to Tal to League of Cities who has offered to provide staffing for us if we needed it. So, uh, with that, I'll see if you have any questions and we'll get right to the selection of chair and vice chair. Any questions? Okay. And once again, at
home, if you're watching, I guess you can raise your hand once again in the meeting. Uh, we have one member of the public here, Sue Miller, and we have our our village mayor, Don Horton, in the back. I've already gotten notice from a couple of our council. I believe Dev Gillis and Steve Freeman are watching. Uh Sher Mahoney is out of town. I think
Anna's going to be tuning in. Anna Richards. And so the village council is participating, but they're not going to be active. They're just basically watching. Uh so once again, if no questions, we'll go ahead and move to the next order of business. That would be the selection of the chair and the vice chair. So I guess we'll open it up
for nominations from the committee. Just just raise your hand so we can recognize you if you want to make a motion or because we need to have an action item. Are we going for chair or vice chair right now? >> I think probably chair because then the chair can take the meeting over. So, elect the chair first and then the chair
can take over. >> Any any nominations for chair? Any volunteers or I'm not sure how you want to do it? >> I'll nominate uh >> Ty. Sorry. So, nomination is Ty Harris.
>> Is there a second? >> Okay. Any further nominations? Seeing none, without objection, Ty Harris is the chair. I guess let's go and call the role just to be official. So the motion is to select Ty Harris as the chair. Go ahead and call the role.
>> Okay. I didn't see it. >> I did. >> Yeah. Joe Rock. >> Okay. >> This also serves as your roll call, I guess. >> Okay. Um, committee member Roger Young. >> Uh, yes. >> Committee member Joe Roth.
>> Yes. Committee member Craig McBay. >> Yes. >> Committee member Ty Harris >> here. >> This is a yes or no. >> It's a yes or no. >> Yes. >> And Lori Lulan. >> Yes. >> And member uh Susan Raphanelo.
>> Yes. >> And member Richard Black. >> Yes. >> That motion passes seven to zero. >> Congratulations. I'll now officially pass the gavl to our new chair, Ty Harris. Thank you. So, now we're taking nominations for vice chair. Do I hear
any nominations? >> I'll nominate Susan. I think you had already voiced interest. So, >> thank you. >> Yeah. Well, is there a second? >> All right, then I guess we're going to call the role.
>> Okay. All right. Um, committee member Bay, you made the made the motion, so you're first. >> Committee member Young. >> Yes. >> Okay. Uh, Committee Member Lond, >> yes.
>> Committee member Raphanelo, >> yes. >> Committee member Roth, >> yes. >> Committee member Black, >> yes. >> And Chair Harris, >> I'll try not to say here. Yes, >> that passes seven to zero.
The next item, >> the next item on the agenda is village charter and resolution establishing the committee. Ron, is there do we need to read that into the record or we good with that and we can get on to public comment? >> No, I don't think you need to read it. And once again, it's on the website.
There's also a copy here for the people in the audience. And so, and uh we we published it after the the village council passed the resolution. And just briefly for people that are at home that maybe haven't seen it, um what the resolution did, it it basically talks about how we've operated under the
charter since the law was passed in 1997 by the state legislature creating the village. Uh at various points uh since that incorporation of charter reviews recommended some changes that have been submitted in the past uh and that they've now established this committee. It's a seven me seven seven member
committee and to recap uh two are appointed at large by majority vote and those who are Joe Roth and Craig McBay and the rest of you are appointed individually by council members and so that's the seven member committee. Uh they basically uh you you meet at least once a month more often if you decide.
So we've talked maybe initially maybe once a week but uh it could be minimum once a month. They're all open to the public and you're advised you are covered by sunshine. So you're not after this meeting you're not allowed to speak to each other unless it's in a public meeting. So basically make clear that
you're covered by sunshine. Um but the u we're going to take minutes the meetings and it'll be recorded. It's being broadcast live and we are recording it. So if somebody misses one of your friends want to see what happened just tell them to go to the village website and we'll have a video of this meeting.
Uh and then you need you can't miss more than two consecutive meetings without justification. Other than that that you have to prep report monthly to the council uh village council of what you've done and we need the final report no later than May 31st advising the council any recommendations
and when you do make recommendations you're going to need a separate vote on each one. So you you won't be making a slate of things. Each one has to be considered individually. I talked to vice chair and she's already looked at the section subsections. That's kind of the way you probably should look at it is to say I want to talk about
subsection XYZ. Uh and then you would take up discussion and then a vote and then that would go to council and then if approved by council go to the voters. Uh I think that's pretty much it. And once again they're all public record u this will sunset 7 months from the date.
So this is not a perpetual committee like parks and recreation committee for example. Once your work is done the committee will be dissolved. So I think that answers most of them. attached is the uh the the House Bill 1265 that was passed in 1997 which basically created
the village but is the charter. And so when you're looking if you if you can just describe you know what sections you may want to talk about tonight as far as what I think there's been discussion publicly about what you should or shouldn't look at. There's no restriction. You can talk about anything
in the charter you want to but I think there's some things like terms of office for the village council that's pretty common that we know you're going to be talking about. Uh, so you might want to just bring that up. There's other things like height limitations that some people may want or not want to talk about. But once again, now that you're appointed,
you can talk about anything in the charter you want to. You can make change anything, but it still has to go to council and the voters, but there's no restriction as far as what you can or can't do as far as it goes to the charter. And if you have any questions, we're here to answer your questions. But at this point, the ball's in your court.
So I mean I when you look at the agenda, it doesn't seem like we have a lot of leeway right now to discuss substantive issues um tonight, but I would think that we would want to kind of pick the sessions sections we
want to focus on u for the next meeting and maybe lay out some issues that we've heard about that people have discussed. term limits um you know seat versus the top five
compensation hour you know how many years those kind of things I is it appropriate for us to discuss if not in substance but in outline form things so that when we come back at the next meeting we're prepared to to move
forward on >> yeah in response I I think with the initial meeting I think a lot of people weren't really clear what you were we're not going to take up. It's probably one reason it's not a packed house here because you you didn't really have anything out there to talk about at this point. But in going through once again, people that may be watching from home,
I'll go through se real quickly. Section like section one's a short title. That's not my thing. Legislative intent. That's the original intent to create the village. >> Section three is incorporation limits, municipal powers. That's number four. Number five >> is probably the one you're going to look at. village council that has the
composition, qualifications, um the term of office, comp the compensation, expenses, the election of the mayor and vice mayor, their powers and duties. Uh so that's going to be the big one. Section five, uh section six is budget and appropriations. I'm not, you
know, sure there's been a whole lot of discussion about that. I mean, you can look at it. uh charter officers right now there's a yeah you know that's something you can talk about but I'm saying those those are those are some things that you can look at uh they've been in there for a while elections
you're governed by the charter but also by state law so there's some restrictions what you can and can't do for elections for example right you have to follow state law and like qualification of campaign finance laws etc it's not just the village you'd have to follow state law uh so and sec
there's a transition schedule etc So, and looking back, uh, I would say section five is really where you're going to be focusing most your attention. There may be a couple other sections, but people that are watching from home, once again, if you want to go online and see what section 5 is, that's probably going to be where you're
focusing >> most of your attention, but there once again is no restriction on what you can talk about. >> Well, would it be appropriate under the way this agenda is set up for us to actually articulate those issues under section five? Um, I think there's some other sections that we may want to touch
on so that we're prepared for the next meeting to actually have a substantive conversation. >> And and one question, Ron, and I'm a point of order, if you will, along with what Tai is, is talking about with respect to the publication of the agenda and what's appropriate to discuss. I'll note that the resolution itself says at
the first meeting, the committee shall also determine which sections of the charter should be considered for amendment, which is what we're talking about now. But it further then goes on and says the council shall review and approve or approve with revisions the committee's recommendations to consider such sections for amendments and so
shall so instruct the committee prior to its next meeting which raises concern to me of I think we're just I I tend to agree we're supposed to list the the way that notice went out list what we think we would like to be able to discuss
because it seems that the council has reserved for itself the ability to say Oh, you're not going to talk about section six or seven or eight or nine, whatever it may be. >> My >> is that the case or or am I off? >> No, I I think that in in my discussions
both individually with the council and at the public meeting whether it was approved. I didn't sense any any indication from the council of any one to put any restrictions on what you will or won't discuss. So, if it implies that I don't think that would be the right interpretation. uh they have final
approval of whatever you do to put on the ballot%. But as far as saying what you can or cannot discuss. I I don't think there's any restriction on what you you've been duly appointed and now you have leadership on the on this committee. I think you can talk about any section you want to. I'm just saying
as far as relevancy, a lot of sections you wouldn't want to talk about because there's nothing you can do like our our municipal limits. They are what they are, you know, and you're not going to change it. So you can talk about it, but it's not going to be actionable. The actional things I think are the section five and maybe a couple other sections and I think it is good for you to talk
about tonight. There's no restriction because I think it's good for the public. If the public has some input they want to give you individually uh they'll know I I do want to talk about terms. I mean I've already started doing research for example I've looked at other cities of how they elect their members you know whether they have to
run at large whether they are running from a district or against each other for seats that kind of thing. There's some there's some jurisdictions that elect the mayor and they're the mayor as opposed to the chair of the council which is rotates every year. Those are all things I think that the public has already told me they want to hear
discussion on but once again that's your decision about what you want to talk about. Uh you know other things like compensation that could be one meeting that could be like part of one meeting because it's either going to change or it isn't. Um, the terms I think are the
big things because there's been a lot of spirited discussion in the past about having two-year terms with all five being elected in one the same election where you could have a complete turnover. That is some a discussion that's been had. I'd say that's going to be one you're going to have again. Uh,
whether you stagger the terms or not, you know, whether it should be two-year terms, threeear terms, four-ear terms, those I think are all legitimate discussion items that I think the public was going to want to hear about. And I think if you just talk about tonight that that's kind of what you're looking at, then next meeting, let's say next
week's gonna be tough because like a lot some of us will be in Tallahassee. So next week is Florida Keys Day week, >> right? And so you you you might take that in consideration. You can have the meetings whenever meets your approval, but maybe maybe not next week, the week after. schedule another meeting. But that gives people time to look at the
charter, maybe talk to you individually, uh, for you to start getting input from the public and then get into the meat of the of the discussion maybe the week after next. But tonight, you could, it's only 5:46. We start at 5:30. So, I don't think we have any time constraints. And so, if you want to take some time
tonight and just talk, I don't think there's any reason not to do that. I I would like to hear from each member what they've heard is a an issue we need to discuss and then we put a list together and then we kind of break it down to you
know what's a manageable amount for one meeting and what's a manageable amount for the next meeting and then just take it like that we don't need to do any more than that. Is everybody good with that? So, I I
could start with um with Richard and see what what he wants to to put on the list and then go to Joe and Lori and then we'll work to Craig and we'll work to Roger and then Susan and me. I think
that's probably the way to do it. So, Richard, you have the floor, sir. Um, you know, I I think it's the just section five, the village council. Um, I have a number of things to discuss
on that list. Um, that and I I'm sure all of us do as well. So, I think we need to spend um perhaps some time on that even this evening just to discuss to figure out what what parts of that we want to look at instead of us looking at
all of this as a whole. uh just narrowing it down I think is a a smart thing to do. Um and just hearing from people uh in the community I think that's kind of a hot topic. Um and the other thing that keeps coming up is um
the height restrictions. You know that constant reminding people and I've kind of run into them on the street is that um not part of the village council but just the um you know how high can you build is is something people are concerned about here. So
that that's kind of the two main things without going into detail for all of that, >> Joe. >> Okay. So, I I did review this and I haven't had anybody give me any input as of yet. I've kind of figured tonight we
would uh be looking at this as the resolution says to make a list and then that would probably prompt people to come and and and give input on those things. But as we've all stated, section five, uh paragraph 2, term of office, paragraph 5, compensation.
Um this one is uh paragraph 7, it's like subset five. Um, some of these are maybe house cleaning things, maybe some things that
need to be adjusted because of the era that we're in. More of an electronic error versus a print error. There are some things in here that elude to printing and things that we could probably do differently. Um, not something we would probably have to spend a ton of time on. Um, uh, that
shows up in number nine, village records. Um, let's see. Um, I wanted to talk a little bit about referendums uh under section 8 elections.
Um, and then I believe I did highlight the height section as well. We'll just check here for sure. >> Yeah. General provisions paragraph 3 height restrictions. >> Thank you sir
Lori. So, not surprisingly, um Joe mentioned everything that I was thinking of. Um also, although I'd like to include the um responsibilities of mayor, I guess it's called the powers of the
mayor. >> That's it. >> Thank you, Craig. Uh I definitely have similar ones um with elections, you know, with uh terms, you know, that's something we've heard
people talking about a lot. Um you know, with you know, the fact that we could turn over, you know, five council members every every two years is really tough on the staff. So I think um trying to look at that you know I know we just
there was just a referendum for wages just last was the last one or the one before >> last one >> and it got rejected. So, I'm hoping obviously whatever we discuss the public will have some sort of input and get on board with it because it's one thing for
all of us to spend a bunch of time here, but if the public doesn't know what it comes up on a ballot and they just say no, then all our time's wasted. So, I'm hoping we can have a good discussion amongst ourselves with any public and, you know, try to get everybody involved.
So, when if what if something does come on the ballot, you know, people will actually know what they're looking for. I know it's it's tough, you know, for for everybody to read everything that's coming up on the ballot. Um, you know, but hopefully, uh, as it kind of goes through and goes down the down the pipe,
that'll happen. Um, but obviously the and whether or not we're voting for specific seats or the atlarge, I don't know if that's the right term, but you know, picking like a top five. Those those are things that, you know, I've heard people talk about. You know, I've had, you know, I think, you know, we
should look at making some changes as well. Um, you know, I think compensation should be increased, but if that just got rejected last time around, um, then, you know, could always try it again. But I don't think it says in here. It's $300
a month. It says in here, but I don't think that's accurate. >> It's fun, >> which it's uh >> Yeah. Yeah. But it's still I think for the amount of time council members put in, it's uh you put that down to an hour
hourly uh wage, that's that's not much, is it, Don? >> So, um yeah. Yeah. So, those are kind of some of the things that I'm uh interested in looking at. >> Thank you, Roger. >> Well, pretty much the only thing
anybody's talked to me about is section five, the terms and the term limits. And then I think it was 13 uh the precincts. Think if we go at large instead of precincts, that's pretty much where everybody's going. the
height thing like like Richard brought up that only comes up when somebody's trying to talk about building something over you know condos and such and that's not happening here anyway. So pretty much that's it.
>> Thank you Susan. >> Sure. Thank you. Um I echo what's been said about section five. It's pretty much almost not every subsection certainly but almost every um main section 1 2 3 um
5 7 10 11 12. So almost every section of article five or subsection of section five I think has something whether it be large as most people have indicated or
more nitpicky like printing documents um but something something can be looked at there with respect to section six budget and appropriations um one of the frustrations that I have heard from the public is the fact that the village council doesn't have any
requirement to approve a budget until the day before the next fiscal year when the budget would go into place. Um I think that puts undue pressure and lastm minute um nature of everybody, right? Undue pressure on the council because they have no leeway. You've got the next
fiscal year the very next day and they have to do it. I think that could be modified to allow for at least 30 days um with at least a 90-day, for example, proposal from all the staff and village heads that you would need so that the village council would have adequate time to actually review it. I'm going into
more detail than I should. I apologize. I'll stick to just um section six uh part two. Uh the uh section seven under charter officers. Again, it's a charter officer situation.
Um, but I think the village attorney, if the village chooses not to have an actual onstaff village attorney, um, I have had a lot of people expressed concern about outsourcing the village attorney because it is very very
difficult for a council um, especially given the sunshine laws that they would have to confer with each other to properly manage and direct outside counsel who bill on an hourly basis. I don't think it's appropriate for outside
council to have nearly unfettered um billing power as opposed to being if the if there's not a general counsel if you will on staff of the uh village. One thought is to put the day-to-day supervision obviously major decision
authority continues to vest in the council but the day-to-day management and oversight especially for budgetary constraints may fall to the manager. um that sort of not a big thing. I mean, and if we hire a village attorney, he's
still a charter officer. It's more what to do with the outsourcing. Um because right now, technically speaking, the outsourced village attorney is filling a charter officer position, which is just
a little bit odd for a firm to do. Uh section 8, elections, touched upon these already. uh this um whether they should be staggered, the schedule uh the determination of the election to the office, so on and so forth. Uh in
addition to that, certain issues that may require a vote of four instead of a majority of perhaps some major decisions like a million dollar expenditures and above should be a vote of four. um some major variances under the land use comp
plan changes, zoning changes, whether or not that should be something that's a supermajority rather than simple majority. And and there's pros and cons to each way. I recognize that. Um perhaps the height of the millage rate of anything up to 5 mills, that's pretty
high. I agree some petition. Um I'd like to talk about the petitions under that section. Obviously the transition schedule it can stay but it's really mood at this point and you know I don't know height
restrictions we can certainly talk about but I'm not sure how much because it seems to me that most people I've talked to like the 35 height restrictions. So um certainly no higher than that. So I'm not sure how much time that would take. And then of course there's those things
that may not be in our charter yet that we may want to add. um uh residents bill of rights or uh changing the publication requirements. Most municipalities and counties when give it the public at
least 7 days notice of what the agenda items are and the backup material so they can thoughtfully review them. We receive them Friday late afternoon for a Tuesday meeting. Um, and it's and it's been a frustration I know of a lot of people who were like, "Oh, I would have
gone to that meeting had I known, but the backup material wasn't published until Friday afternoon." Um, so going a little bit above and beyond what the minimums of state law require might we might want to address. Those are my initial thoughts.
>> Thank you. All right. So, we've got a bunch of different areas to cover. Most of it is in section five. Should we and before we start public comment because we may want to add but can we get a consensus that maybe we
take section five at the next meeting and then depending on how far we get then either we we keep going on section five or we start moving to the other sections which are more single issue. I was going to suggest that we take two
sections. We we account for two sections at each meeting and then if we only conclude or finish discussing one, then we still have opportunity to move on to the second section. If not, we can pass that on to the following meeting. >> If if we could knock section five out
with some recommendations in in the next meeting, we'd be ahead of the game >> because I think the other things are going to be pretty straightforward. >> Can I suggest se section five? And now I'm forgetting what number it is. It has some corlaries that marry into that.
>> Section eight. >> Eight. Thank you. >> Yeah, we should. >> Can we get a consensus on five and eight um for the next meeting? >> Do we need >> I make a motion to discuss sections five and eight at the following meeting? >> Do we need to have public comment first
before motions? >> Let's let's take public comment now and then we can move on. Do we have Marne? Do we have public comment? >> Um, I don't have anyone signed up. >> Do we have anybody in the audience that would like to make public comment?
>> Yeah. >> None on Zoom either. >> Okay. Seeing none, public comment is closed. We're back to the the disor. >> So, I make a motion that we discuss sections five and eight at our next
meeting whenever we um schedule that. >> Do I hear a second? >> I'll second that. >> Thank you, Marty. Can you call the role? >> Excuse me. Committee member Leon. >> Yes. >> Committee member Roth. >> Yes. >> Committee member Mcbay. >> Yes.
>> Committee member Young. >> Yes. >> Committee member Black. >> Yes. >> And ch uh vice chair Raphanelo. >> Yes. >> And chair Terrace. >> Yes. >> Okay. That motion passes five to zero or excuse me 7 to zero.
Hearing no other business. >> No, we need to discuss when we're going to have a next meeting. >> Okay. Yeah, that's kind of important. >> Would be. >> So, I I would really rather have the staff back in town. Um, and if they're
all going to be in Tallahassee, I would prefer to have the meeting when they're back. But I'd like to hear what everybody else has to say about that. Richard, >> u I I think that's a good idea to have staff back and then also, you know, give
public time to talk to us and look at what we're going to talk about at the next meeting. And I would imagine that I mean, the room is not going to be full, but there will be some people here um to watch. Um as far as meeting times, 5:30 is good for me. No, definitely no
earlier than 5:30. So, oh, I mean, mo most days of the week are fine, >> Joe. >> Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. This time frame is good. Um, Monday is usually fairly decent for me as well.
>> Okay, >> Lori, >> I think we should wait until staff is available and uh Mondays work well with me. Craig. >> Uh, yep. I agree as well. And I'm pretty much out of town next week anyhow. And
also Mondays are usually pretty good for me. >> Roger. >> These days, so >> whatever you want. I'm good. >> Susan. >> Yeah, Mondays work well. And if we skip next week, then the next one um would be Monday, February 9th.
>> And I I think that gives us time to digest five and eight and have some preparation for >> Ron is that work for >> Yeah, I do want to point out February 10th on is a Tuesday. That's the next regular village council meeting, which may be good or bad depending on your
point of view, but that way if you do take some actions, you don't necessarily have to bring it up for consideration, but you maybe give a report the next night to the council of what you're still looking at. I don't know if you'd be voting at that point because you probably still want to get more input, but the February 10th would be the
Tuesday after that Monday would be the next village council meeting. Okay. So, we've got a consensus for February 9th at 5:30 and we're going to discuss sections 5 and 8.
Am I good to adjourn the meeting now? Meeting is adjourned. Thank you.