JOINT CITY/COUNTY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
UNOFFICIAL MEETING MINUTES
April 18, 2007
ATTENDEES
Commissioner Michael McLean, Seminole County, Chairman
Commissioner Susan Doerner, City of Casselberry, Vice-Chairman
Commissioner Jon Batman, City of Altamonte
Commissioner Gary Brender, City of Lake Mary
Mayor John Bush, Winter Springs
Marty Chan, PBAS Representative
David Gierach, Sanford C of C
Steve Glazier, Winter Springs Business
Mayor Bob Goff, City of Casselberry
Mayor Russ Hauck, City of Altamonte Springs
Commissioner Carlton Henley, Seminole County
Kim Hengehold, Oviedo C of C
Mayor Linda Kuhn, City of Sanford
Hank Lander, Casselberry C of C
Commissioner Donald Gilmore, Winter Springs
Mayor John Maingot, City of Longwood
Tom Marin, Seminole C of C
Jonathon Moore, Seminole C of C
Commissioner Brian Sackett, Longwood
Mayor Tom Walters, Oviedo
ABSENT
Mayor Thom Greene, Lake Mary
Councilman Dominic Persampiere, City of Oviedo
Commissioner Randy Jones, City of Sanford
The meeting was called to order by Chairman McLean at 3:05 pm.
1. Approval of Minutes
Motion to approve November 15, 2006, minutes by Vice Chairman Doerner. Second by Mayor Maingot. Motion passed unanimously.
Chairman McLean stated that at the last meeting he was appointed Chairman and Commissioner Susan Doerner was appointed Vice-Chairman.
Motion to officially recognize Commissioner McLean as the new Chairman of the Joint City/County Advisory Board by Mayor Goff. Second by Mayor Kuhn. Motion passed unanimously.
Chairman McLean stated the reason the Board is meeting today is to not only consider the update on the initiatives that originally were discussed but to focus in on a relatively small number of initiatives.
Commissioner Henley said the committee needs to determine how many of the recommendations from the sub-committees the Board has officially agreed upon as a committee to take back to the governmental agencies who are actually the policy makers.
Don Fisher, Seminole County Deputy Manager, said the Interim Report is being presented to go over any corrections, clarifications, comments and more specificity to the status of any particular item. After that, notices will be sent out within the week to the various sub-committees to ask very specific questions and update the individual tasks. The information will immediately be distributed to the Joint City/County Advisory Committee and then it will be determined how often it will be updated. April Boswell, Assistant Seminole County Deputy Manager, will be responsible for monitoring the progress of the sub-committees and updating on a monthly or quarterly basis as to the status of the other items.
In the next week Ms. Boswell will send out a specific questionnaire to the sub-committees regarding the status of each item. A copy of the report will be included and the sub-committees will be asked to make comments as to what the next step will be.
3. Presentation of Interim Report – Rafael Montalvo
Rafael Montalvo, UCF, gave an overview of the Interim Report. The report included the comments that were offered by the committee at the November meeting and highlights of the technical sub-committees’ work.
Chairman McLean pointed out that Appendix A, Summary of Collaborative and Cooperative Efforts, really shows how many items are being incorporated among the jurisdictions.
Mr. Montalvo stated some of these items are in full implementation such as the Mosquito Control Program and others are in different levels of development. The report includes the topics the sub-committees addressed and a full summary of the detailed recommendations out of each sub-committee and their next steps. All the recommendations in the Summary of Recommendations have been approved as a joint committee. Some of these items have been referred back to the individual jurisdictions to determine if they wish to participate.
Chairman McLean stated that it would be helpful to know which jurisdictions have taken formal action and which have not.
Mr. Montalvo said the next steps will be different on each issue. Parks and Recreation sub-committee approached all jurisdictions and is proceeding with the participation of those that formally decided. There are some jurisdictions that have not responded yet. Cable Services would be on a city by city basis. Community Development items require taking both the building interlocal and the development review interlocal back to the jurisdictions for approval. Solid Waste is proceeding without formal policy decisions. There is a coordinating body of staff from each jurisdiction that is involved with dealing with those issues. There may be things they decide to do that require policy decisions of their Boards. The street sweeping recommendation is to stay at status quo.
Mr. Montalvo said a written checklist will be provided stating what the next step is on each item.
Mayor Goff brought up the issue of bringing these issues to the city commissions for action. He said the city managers control the activity of staff which each committee member is prohibited from doing. Technical committees need to get city manager approval and cooperation before it goes to the commission for action.
Chairman McLean said this body does have two elected officials from each municipality and the county and the technical committees were approved by each city manager.
Vice-Chairman Doerner stated that there has been some discussion in Casselberry. The issue can be brought up at their next commission meeting. There doesn’t seem to be much of a problem but some of the information has moved fairly slowly, though smoothly through some of the committees.
Commissioner Henley said that city and county managers are not policy makers. They can give direction to staff but they do not make policy. The reason that we turn to the technical committees is because of the knowledge and experience they have and they should come forward with a collective decision. The forming of this committee was sanctioned by each commission so there should not be a problem; however, it is good that Mayor Goff brought the issue up so that each jurisdiction can deal with it as needed.
Chairman McLean asked Mr. Montalvo to finalize the report so that at the next committee meeting it can be determined which of these items are in a position to move forward to the respective commissions.
Mr. Montalvo said that up to four interlocal agreements could potentially be brought back at the next meeting; three from community development and one from stormwater. From the other committees there would be a checklist of what they have recommended and how the different cities have responded.
Motion that each of the technical committees provides an executive summary of each of their meetings and an attendance matrix by Mayor Bush. Second by Mayor Maingot. Motion passed unanimously.
Mr. Lander asked that the presentations be uniform when they are ready to be made to the cities so that each commission is given the same information in the same format.
Mr. Travis Miller, Matrix Consulting Group, gave a Powerpoint presentation of the status of the Fire/EMS Efficiency and Effectiveness Study. Matrix is the firm that was retained to conduct the fire/rescue assessment. The scope of services included two broad areas: Opportunities to improve service delivery using the existing model of six city service delivery providers in Seminole County and for the County to examine opportunities as a result of changing that service delivery model through cooperation to improve efficiency and effectiveness. A draft report should be done by the end of May. The data collection and fact finding portion has been completed and an interim document has been created which is called a Descriptive Profile. This document has been distributed back to the members of that technical committee and the fire chiefs and Matrix have asked for their feedback by the end of this week.
Mr. Miller told the committee that cooperation between the various agencies operates like a countywide service-delivery system already. What is missing is any monetary compensation for agencies that provide more services than others. Other concerns are the response-time data information, disaster preparedness and fire station locations. Matrix will come back with its initial recommendations report that will be made available to the committee at the end of May.
Alan Harris gave an overview of the presentation that was given to the Board of County Commissioners at their March 13, 2007, meeting.
An Emergency Warning System Task Force was formed which included citizens, non-profits organizations (i.e., Red Cross, Salvation Army), a meteorologist from NOAA, representatives from each of the municipalities, the School Board and many of the departments from Seminole County to look at different options for early- warning alert systems.
Of the many options discussed, the task force focused on electronic devices such as message boards, reverse calling system, cell phones, pagers and text-messaging through PDAs along with a public-education campaign which is currently being implemented. The task force also is looking into the distribution of NOAA weather radios (which will be tuned to Seminole County) for older and low-income residents.
The County has secured the rights to a web address – www.prepareseminole.com. The website will include information on preparing for natural disasters, an emergency –preparedness guidebook and the web site will be publicized on billboards. Residents and businesses will be able to sign up for electronic notification through the web site.
The task force is looking into outdoor warning systems (sirens) and moving forward with a scope of work for additional study. To gain further information, a professional engineering company has been hired. A lot of things have to go into the placement of these systems such as topography of land, buildings, weather patterns, and weather events. The study will take six to twelve months to get the results of the research after the scope of work is written. The price for the study is approximately $125,000 to $250,000.
The City of Oviedo is currently moving forward with a bid for the installation of outdoor warning systems.
6. Municipal High-Speed Wireless Systems – Glen Sangiovanni
Mr. Glen Sangiovanni, President, Marketing Resources Inc.(MRI), gave an informational presentation on the implementation and use of wireless technology in the municipal environment. His company offers a full day session on the economic as well as the social advantages of integrating these systems into the municipal structure. MRI can also develop a workable business model and plan which suits the individual needs of each municipal client. The cost of this process would be $15,000.
Chairman McLean suggested that each of the cities and the county, if interested, could split the cost.
Mayor Hauck asked about the public policy issues. He did not understand why government would want to compete with private industry that already provide this type of service
Mr. Sangiovanni said there are three advantages this system could accomplish:
Commissioner Henley asked how much the next phase of study would cost.
Mr. Sangiovanni said it would be in the $150,000 range.
Chairman Henley commented that this presentation is a deviation from the customary process the committee takes. The first step in the process is to decide collectively as a committee whether the item should be brought up for discussion; the second step is to assign it to our technical staffs for basic research and recommendations. He stated that he hoped the Committee did not get in the habit of presenting items this way.
Mr. Marin stated that before the Committee entertains any type of proposal from Mr. Sangiovanni’s company, MRI, a document should be prepared for a scope for work to submit to a minimum of three to five other firms. He said there are many firms out there that specialize in wireless communication and he feels the price that Mr. Sangiovanni quoted to too high.
The Committee will examine all the information and bring it back formally at the June meeting. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 20, 2007.
Being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:17 pm.