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01-13-09 Special/WS Meeting Minutes SPECIAL/WORKSHOP MEETING JANUARY 13, aoo~ A Special/Workshop Meeting of the City Commission of the City of Delray Beach, Florida, was called to order by Mayor Rita Ellis in the First Floor Conference Room at City Hall at 6:00 p.m., on Tuesday, January 13, 2009. Roll call showed: Present - Commissioner Gary P. Eliopoulos Commissioner Fred B. Fetzer Vice Mayor Woodie B. McDuffie Commissioner Mackenson Bernard Absent - None Also present were - David T. Harden, City Manager Doug Smith, Assistant City Manager Robert A. Barcinski, Assistant City Manager Susan A. Ruby, City Attorney Brian Shutt, Assistant City Attorney Chevelle D. Nubin, City Clerk Mayor Rita Ellis called the special meeting to order and announced that there was an agenda item from the Auburn Group regarding The Villages at Delray and that has been requested to be removed from the Agenda. SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA 1. SUPPLEMENTAL CONSULTING SERVICES AGREEMENT/GLATTING JACKSON KERCHER ANGLIN, INC /OLD SCHOOL SQUARE PARK• Consider a Supplemental Consulting Services Agreement with Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, Inc., in an amount not to exceed $23,700 for supplemental consulting services requested by staff relative to the Old School Square Park project. Funding is available from 334-4151-572- 63.59 (General Construction Fund/Improvements Other/Old School Square Park Improvements). Richard Hasko, Director of Environmental Services, stated he met with Mr. Barcinski and Joe Gillie at Old School Square and reviewed the scope that staff requested Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, Inc. Mr. Hasko stated staff looked at how much, if any, of that scope we felt comfortable with doing with our own resources. Mr. Hasko recommended letting Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, Inc. do the FCT Management Report Update and staff feels it is still very important to get the cost estimation for the individual components for the overall Master Plan that will allow Old School Square, Joe Gillie, and his staff to go out and solicit sponsorship for those different components to try and advance the funding and advance the project. Mr. Hasko stated Mr. Gillie felt comfortable in that he had a combination of resources that he could produce the brochure that was talked about. Mr. 01/13/09 Hasko stated staff recommends that particular scope would not be awarded. Staff recommends that the hourly not exceed $9,500.00 for the FCT Management Plan Update and the $7,500.00 for the cost estimation. Mr. Eliopoulos asked how much they have been paid to date. In response, Mr. Hasko stated they have been paid approximately $139,000.00 and explained that the $17,000.00 is for separate services. Mr. Hasko stated this is not a scope that Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, Inc. suggested that we do. He stated 1n the course of meeting with them to review and establish the scope for the design agreement which the Commission will see next week. Mr. Hasko stated these are items that staff felt important to the project and staff asked Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, Inc. to provide this proposal. Mr. Fetzer moved to approve the Supplemental Consulting Services Agreement with Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, Inc. for the Old School Square Park not to exceed $17,000.00, seconded by Mr. McDuffie. Upon roll call the Commission voted as follows: Mr. Fetzer -Yes; Mr. McDuffie -Yes; Mr. Bernard -Yes; Mayor Ellis -Yes; Mr. Eliopoulos -Yes. Said motion passed with a 5 to 0 vote. 2. CONSIDER INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF CITY BONDING PROCEDURES, PRACTICES AND COMMUNICATION PRACTICES (ADDENDUM) Mayor Ellis stated this item is a follow up of the indictment of Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty in relation to some of those underwriting awards. Mayor Ellis stated she 'believes the City Manager provided everyone with a thorough understanding of each of the items that were included in the indictment as it related to Delray Beach. Mayor Ellis recommends using the City's outside counsel to find. the appropriate person that will be able to do a full summary audit in review of those practices. Mr. Fetzer asked who the outside counsel would be that Mayor Ellis is referring to. In response, Mayor Ellis stated the outside counsel would be Leonard Carson, Esquire. Mayor Ellis stated they discussed approximately 6-10 different individuals statewide that Mr. Carson is recommending who would have the credentials to do this investigation and come back to the Commission with a recommendation. Mayor Ellis stated the intention of Mr. Carson is that he would fmd the appropriate person to do the investigation in review of these policies and procedures. Mr. Eliopoulos asked how Mr. Carson will approach that in getting information to the Commission. The City Attorney stated she believes that Mr. Carson will deal directly with the Ciry Commission not through her. The City Attorney stated once Mr. Carson has some idea of who might be a good selection he could bring it back to the Commission for their approval. Mayor Ellis suggested that it could also be ranked as maybe the top two or three and the Commission could have a majority rule. Mayor Ellis stated or the Commission can ask Mr. Carson to come back with who would be the right person to do this and vote it up or down. -2- 01/13/09 Mr. Eliopoulos stated he has been quoted in the newspaper over the weekend with some comments regarding what came out of the indictment of former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty. Mr. Eliopoulos stated he does not recall in his history of Delray Beach this so called "black cloud" that has hovered over us. He stated for this Commission it is unfortunate in the sense that this has been sort of a cloud that has hovered over them for the past two years because the previous Commission did have a $40 million shortfall in Capital Improvement projects. Mr. Eliopoulos stated the paperwork that the US State Attorney's Office of the Southern District came out with on Friday had what he felt were strong allegations towards the City of Delray Beach and clearly appeared to identify the City Manager. Mx. Eliopoulos stated although the papers might have implicated that he does not believe that any law was broken. However, he stated the issue at hand for him is policies, communication and really how we get things done. Mr. Eliopoulos stated he believes that an independent outside looking in can be far and objective with this. He expressed .concern that whatever comes out of this that we address it immediately. Mx. Eliopoulos encouraged the Commission to do whatever they can do to aid in the interviewing and selecting of somebody as quickly as possible. Mr. Fetzer concurs with comments expressed by Commissioner Eliopoulos and stated unfortunately this has cast a cloud of perception about Delray that no one wants. Mr. Fetzer stated he agrees that this needs to be prompt and it needs to be a comprehensive external investigation. He stated the City needs to get someone to do this that has credibility and is knowledgeable about the municipal bond process. Mr. Fetzer stated we need to move promptly and bring some closure to this prior to the new Commission having to tackle something_ like this. Mr. Fetzer stated he fully supports an external investigation. Mr. Eliopoulos suggested the information that is given to the company/individual is the same uiformation that was basically subpoenaed from the Federal investigation that occurred in our city. Mr. Eliopoulos stated whoever the Commission selects he would like them to receive the same information that City staff provided to Federal prosecutors. Mayor Ellis stated just based on the City Manager's response she is not sure that even the State Attorney's office understands the complexity of the bonding and underwriting process which is even more critical that the person who is selected for this investigation fox the City of Delray Beach be even more qualified to be able to come back and provide the City Commission with the information that they can understand in a simplified manner and be able to implement and act upon very quickly. Mr. Eliopoulos asked why we are using Mr. Carson. In response, the City Attorney stated Mr. Carson has been recommended to do the selection because of his expertise in labor law. Mr. McDuffie stated there were 57 pages of allegations of which 4 pages came to rest in the City of Delray Beach. He stated a retrospective look inward into ourselves by someone outside this City is probably the healthiest thing we can do right now. Mr. McDuffie stated after listening to Mr. Carson he identified potentially one dozen people with significant credentials. Mr. McDuffie recommends that Mr. Carson select the top three and let the Commission take a look at the top three and speak to those top three to see if they will -3- 01/13/09 assume the roll. He concurs that this needs to be swift and focused. Mr. McDuffie ,..~ suggested that the Commission set a time certain for a Special Meeting in the Commission Chambers on Tuesday, January 27, 2009. Mr. Eliopoulos stated he would like to expand the list to the top five individuals versus the top three. Mayor Ellis stated the longer the list that is developed the more time it will be before this investigation is actually started. She stated Mr. Carson is capable of coming back to the Commission with a recommendation and would like Mr. Carson to recommend the top two names rattier than go to five. Mr. McDuffie stated he believes if the Commission adds criteria to say that this individual must have resided outside of Delray Beach and outside of Palm Beach County, and has particular bond expertise in their resume, he believes it would shrink the list down very quickly. Mr. Bernard stated being new to the City Commission and not being part of the refinancing of the two bonds and the $40 million bond and being an attorney and immigrant, he has had to grapple with what we should do in regards to this situation. Mr. Bernard stated it is very important for the City to act prudently by doing the internal investigation. He stated when reading the paper and the complaint and listening to the U.S. Attorney it says that there is a culture of corruption and believes that if there is a culture of corruption that exists he believes that his job as a City Commissioner is to figure out exactly where this culture of corruption exists in the City of Delray Beach and make sure that we can uproot it. Mr. Bernard stated he believes we can accomplish this goal if we do an external audit. He stated we may Have contributed into the environment that the citizens, the Commission has created, the City Manager has created, the City Attorney has created or staff has created that has led to some of these practices that has occurred for those past years or has allowed these things to take place. Mr. Bernard stated he believes if the City Manager has created that environment and it is determined that he has created that environment then he deserves to be terminated. In terms of the City's bonding practice, Mr. Bernard stated we need is greater transparency and we need to develop a transparent bidding process. He stated the City may need to terminate their agreement with their bond counsel, with their financial advisors to making sure that the City is properly advised in terms of the City's bonding process. Also, Mr. Bernard stated we also need to check with the City Attorney's office that there is a process that is in place in terms of checking for ethics, violations or conflict checks when the City has these big bids that are taking place. Mr. Bernard stated if the City is giving these bond deals to Bear Stearns or Raymond James the City needs to make sure that there is no conflict of interest or any ethic violations and make sure that our City Attorney is up-to-date and is checking with the Florida Ethics Commission in making sure that we do not end up in the situation that we are in right now. Also, Mr. Bernard stated the City needs to review the industry standards in regards to the bond practice and check to see if the City has been affected in terms of our bond ratings in regards to the situation we are presented with. Mr. Bernard stated the City needs to make sure that all companies have the option of having the opportunity to bid properly in terms of obtaining the bonds and when the City is issuing -4- 01/13/09 them. Mr. Bernard stated there are specific issues that the City Manager must take, in terms of the Finance Department. He stated he is not sure if he wants Mr. Carson to be the one who chooses our outside investigator but feels the City Commission must choose the people they want `to do this external investigation and do it expediently. Mr. Bernard stated the Commission needs to be concerned with facts and issues not allegations. Mr. McDuffie stated he and the City Attorney discussed possible outside counsel as well and asked the City Attorney to explain what the City Commission has to go through to select counsel outside of Mr. Carson. In response, the City Attorney stated the Commission would have to come up with a name that they would want to be their outside counsel because it would not be anyone that she would select or suggest. The City Attorney stated then the Commission would want to make sure that person is someone they feel is qualified to do what Mr. Carson would do. Mr. McDuffie stated he wants to make certain that there is nothing in the process that taints it at all. Mr. McDuffie stated this is not free and there will be a budgetary impact to this. Brief discussion followed by the Commission. Mr. Bernard asked how many outside counsels the City has. The City Attorney stated the City has outside bond counsel, outside labor counsel, occasionally outside counsel on some litigation matters, and pension. Mayor Ellis stated her position is to use Mr. Leonard Carson to narrow a list of candidates to two or three names and bring back to the City Commission next Tuesday Qanuary 20, 2009) for selection. Mr. Bernard stated with the sense of expediency he will support going with Mr. Leonard Carson so that the Commission can get a list of names. Mr. Fetzer stated it is not a critical issue whether there are three names or five names but he just wants the best names. Mr. McDuffie moved to approve to use the City's outside Counsel, Leonard Carson, Esq., to provide the three top names of individuals outside the City of Delray Beach, outside of Pa]m Beach County with bond experience for selection for external review of all bonding procedures, practices, and communication practices within the City of Delray Beach, seconded by Mr. Eliopoulos. Upon roll call the Commission voted as follows: Mr. McDuffie =Yes; Mr. Bernard -Yes; Mayor Ellis -Yes; Mr. Eliopoulos -Yes; Mr. Fetzer - Yes. Said motion passed with a 5 to 0 vote. Mayor Ellis adjourned the Special Meeting at.6:51 p.m. WORKSHOP AGENDA 1. Presentation of Green Task Force Final Report Nancy Schneider, Chair of the Green Task Force, gave a brief PowerPoint presentation and overview of the Green Task Force. She thanked the dedicated members of the Green Task Force and the City liaisons. -5- 01/13/09 Yalmaz Siddiqui, member of the Green Task Force, briefly reviewed the mission of the Green Task Force and showed a film of the Task Force. Mr. Siddiqui discussed the #1 recommendation of the Green Task Force which is that Delray Beach formalizes a ten point green plan with ten objectives. Dan Sloan, member of the Green Task Force, briefly discussed the Sunshine Law and the Green Task Force presented this concept of an electronic bulletin board to the City Commission asking for permission to have the City Attorney get a letter from the State Attorney General authorizing such a bulletin board. Mr. Sloan stated in working with IT, staff, and the City Attorney's office a vendor was found who actually did about 95% of the functionality the Green Task Foxce was looking for in an electronic bulletin board to make sure it was electronically feasible and the electronic bulletin board was approved by the Attorney General. Mr. Sloan stated the electronic bulletin board could also be used for any advisory board workshop meetings not just the Green Task Foxce. Mx. Sloan stated this allows citizen input, will save a lot of gas, paper, and time fox everyone. He stated they are trying to get three separate proposals for providing this and explained that it is free software that needs to be customized to specifically address the needs and requirements of the Sunshine Law. Mr. Sloan stated they should have these proposals in hand in the next 30-60 days and be able to recommend which vendor is most appropriate. Mr. Sloan stated once the vendor is selected he believes it will be a matter of a few weeks before it can be up and running to a test phase and implement it if the Commission decides to authorize a permanent green advisory board or other boards of that nature fox use and great benefit to the Ciry. Mr. Siddiqui stated this has multiple economic benefits and citizen engagement benefits because staff does not need to attend the meetings for hours and citizens can watch what is going on from the comfort of their own home. Mr. Siddiqui recommends that the City Commission review this report and the website. Mayor Ellis commended the Green Task Force for a job well done. 2. Proposed Contractor Prequalification Procedure Richard Hasko, Director of Environmental Services, stated staff has had some problems with the administration of the Capital program with particular projects because of issues with contractors that the City has awarded contracts to primarily on the basis of low bid. Mr. Hasko stated the bid documents typically contain criteria that the contractor will supply with his bid that attempts to give staff some level of information as to the qualifications of the contractor to do the particular kind of work in terms of experience with similar types of projects, etc. Mr. Hasko stated because of the contracting construction economy we are in now we start getting a lot more bids on projects because contractors are trying to stay a float and the level of qualifications starts to get a little loose. Mr. Hasko stated to avoid those types of things staff has proposed a prequalification procedure and tailored Delray Beach to a similar document that is in use in the State of Maine by their Department of Transportation. He stated in order for the contractor to put in a bid on a particular project in any of those types of categories he must be pre-qualified with the City in that category and -6- 01/13/09 if the contractor is not pre-qualified then the City does not accept the bid. Staff will review the applications that are made and verify the information. Mr. Hasko stated they would have a two-month window from August and September where staff would accept applications in preparation in having a list of contractors for the new fiscal year. He stated that would not prevent a contractor from applying for pre-qualification in any of those categories at any point in time at any time of the year. Mr. Hasko stated the reason staff wanted to encourage the two-month window was to minimize the year-round impact on staff that would be reviewing these things. Mr. Hasko stated any contractor can come in and submit his application at any time and there is time certain elements in the program which the contractor has to receive a response. He stated unless and until any contractor is successful and deemed qualified by the City he will not be able to bid any contracts that are coming up. Mr. Hasko stated fox any contractor who is deemed not qualified for any reason there is an appeal process through the City Manager that a contractor can follow. Mayor Ellis asked if staff found more places other than Maine that had this pre-qualification process. In response, Mr. Hasko stated it was hard to find a governmental agency that had a comprehensive pre-qualification program. He stated staff found some municipalities and agencies in the State of Florida that had apre-qualification process. Mr. Hasko stated this is the most comprehensive model and addressed all of the issues of concern. Mr. Eliopoulos asked if the Deputy Director of Construction falls under the Building division or~ the Environmental Services Department (ESD). In response, Mr. Hasko stated this position falls under the Environmental Services Department. Mr. Eliopoulos asked if Mr. Hasko feels that he needs someone in the Building Department who is actually doing other building inspections for ESD. Mr. Hasko stated the list of the Committee is a basic membership of the core representatives of the City and there are provisions where staff can expand that. The City Attorney stated you can add additional categories such as parks to this program. Mr. Hasko stated staff can add categories; however, the most important thing is the actual structure of the program itself and how it gives the City more control over the quality of the contractors who are doing the work. Mr. McDuffie inquired about Miller Park with all the different types of work that has to be done d~ere. Brief discussion between staff and the Commission followed. Mr. Bernard asked how this eleven page application would impact the minority contractors and immigrants. In response, Mr. Hasko stated staff was not looking at the contracting community in that context but they were looking at the contracting community along the lines of a minimum set of qualifications that the City would need for a contractor to provide. Mr. Hasko` stated staff was trying to create a level of playing field for all contractors at the same time! that they were trying to create an environment for the City that they had an extreme level of confidence that any contractor on this list that the City was going to award a job was going to be able to give the City a quality product cost effectively. Mr. Bernard asked Mr. Hasko to reiterate how he will communicate this to the potential contractors. Mr. Hasko stated staff is going to advertise this. -7- 01/13/09 After discussion, it was the consensus of the Commission to place this on next week's City Commission Agenda for adoption. 3. Direction re~ardin~ the Beach Equipment Rental Invitation to Bid Brian Shutt, Assistant City Attorney, stated under Exhibit "A" staff has clarified the term of the bid which is a three year term, worked on the specifications as fax as clarifying the location of the cabanas or the beach equipment, the appearance of the beach, and the employee qualifications. Staff has set minimum fees; the minimum concession fee on an annual basis is $120,000.00 a year. He made reference to Exhibit "B" on page 19 and noted that staff has also added another section entitled "additional amenities". Staff prohibited amenities such as selling sun block or other items on the beach. Mr. Shutt stated the only financial money that would be coming to the City would be the annual concession fee. Mr. Shutt made reference to Exhibit "C" which is the "Cone of Silence" provision. Mr. McDuffie stated he has received questions from two vendors who axe perspective bidders on this that are not quite certain what "amenities" are and this needs to be clarified. Mr. Eliopoulos concurred with comments expressed by Mr. Eliopoulos. Brief discussion continued by the Commission regarding the language in the bid specification regarding the amenities and the City Attorney stated items can be included and excluded. . s Mr. McDuffie suggested that the Commission ask for written questions and respond to the ~ questions. The Ciry Attorney stated the City usually has apre-bid conference where those 3 kinds of questions are asked and answered and this is an appropriate time to do that and then issue a written response to those questions raised by those who attend this pre-bid conference. Mayor Ellis stated attending the pre-bid conference is a requirement to bid. Mr. McDuffie stated that the Commission should just put in there things that they would exclude. The City Manager stated any amenity they offer would have to be approved by the City as part of the award. After brief discussion, the City Attorney suggested that the "Cone of Silence" in this document be from the moment the bids are put out on the street until the bids are opened. The City Commission stated they support the "Cone of Silence" as suggested by the Ciry Attorney. Brief discussion followed by the Commission regarding the amenities and a fixed fee. After discussion, the Commission was okay with not including the amenities and noted they support Exhibit "A". The City Attorney stated the description of the additional amenities are agreements with hotels for amenity charge plans, amenities directly related and used in conjunction with the beach equipment (i.e. towel rentals) and the ability to receive credit cards as payment where each attendant has the ability to give the. customer a receipt that does not require the attendant or other bidder employee to leave the beach. The Ciry Attorney recommends adding towel rentals as an amenity and that it not include any rental of -8- 01/13/09 any personal watercraft or other such motorized equipment. She stated all other questions can be answered at the pre-bid conference. Mr. Bernard inquired about water since there will be no selling of beverages. The City Manager stated this would create a problem with the vendors competing with retail establishments along the beach. The City Attorney also suggested adding language to say "the City at its sole discretion can accept or not accept any amenity submitted." 4. Questions for the Annual Citizen's Roundtable Meeting Doug Smith, Assistant City Manager, stated the Annual Citizen's Roundtable Meeting follows the same format with presentations at the beginning and then moving into the gymnasium for Roundtable discussions. Mr. Smith briefly discussed the questions for the Citizen's Roundtable Meeting and stated he was trying to keep the time as close as possible to one hour. The Commission briefly discussed the timeframe of the meeting and it was suggested that the meeting start at 6:30 p.m. versus 7:00 p.m. Mr. Smith stated this was already published in News for Neighborhoods at 7:00 p.m. and it is on the event calendar for the month of January which would have been in the newsletter that went out in December. The City Clerk stated the advertisement is scheduled to be published on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 for 7:00 p.m. Mayor Ellis adjourned the Special/Workshop Meeting at 8:18 p.m. City Clerk ATTEST: +~~ ~CJe_ MAYOR The undersigned is the City Clerk of the City of Delray Beach, Florida, and the information provided herein is the Minutes of the Special/Workshop Meeting of the City Commission held on Tuesday, January 13, 2009, which Minutes were formally approved and adopted by the City Commission on February 3, 2009. -9- 01/13/09 V ' City Clerk NOTE TO READER: If the Minutes you have received are not completed as indicated above, this means they are not the official Minutes of the City Commission. They will become the official Minutes only after review and approval, which may involve amendments, additions or deletions to the Minutes as set forth above. -10- 01/13/09