Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 04-08-08 regular agenda — reading text

on Saturday, March 15, 2008 from 8: 00 a. m. to 2: 00 p. m. at the Fort Walton Beach Senior Citizens Center located at 31 Memorial Parkway, SW, with the following present: Mayor Mike Anderson Councilmen: Mike Holmes, Virgil Miller, Dennis Reeves, Bill Garvie, Dr. Wayne Pullen, Him Hartwell, and Mike Minich Super Focus Group: Dean Covey, Tracy Garvie, Dick Gercak, Beth Holmes, Robert Jones, Tom Rice, Ray Seip, and Kabe Woods Also Present: Joyce Shanahan, City Manager; Helen Spencer, City Clerk; Finance Director ( position vacant); Toni Craig, City Attorney; and Department Directors Facilitator: Dr, Herb Marlowe, Jr., Ph. D. PURPOSE Strategic Planning Meeting —Strategic Assessment facilitated by Dr. Herb Marlowe. CALL,TO ORDER The Mayor called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE The Mayor led in the Pledge of Allegiance.. STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT Dr. Marlowe went over the process and purpose of the session today to discuss the various issues facing the City and potential approaches. He mentioned the challenge is to get a pathway from where City government is to the community vision; what they are trying to .be and what City government needs to do, what role it needs to take and what actions it needs to get there. He mentioned there are known issues such as limited population growth, high growth in the north County and surrounding regions over time, water issues, and transportation issues; but what will be discussed today will be the cloud of uncertainty and rethinking City government. Dr. Marlowe gave a broad view of the topics for discussion: services, governance, technology, revenues, structure, and Human Resources practices. He acknowledged there is a financial challenge facing the City and went over the current General Fund expenditures. He discussed the current financial challenges, future financial challenges, and beyond the financial challenge of property tax reform, property devaluation, and State economic slow down. He also discussed the gap in economic, environment, and social realities. Dr. Marlowe generated discussion on restructuring of City government. Discussion on the pros and cons of outsourcing included thoughts on the economy of scale, the investment involved; allows focus on core competency and improvement in areas done well; lease back the sale of property; employee leasing; quality control; contract management over a multi -year period; protection of employees; the pools of outsourcing available; and use of available free sources. Discussion on large scale restructuring included thoughts on pooling of resources for motor pooling and consolidation of transportation; and keeping in -house what is done best and subcontract the rest. Jim Tucker, 590 L' Ombre Court NE, endorsed the consolidation of services with the Sheriff's Office, and suggested the City first look at the Police and Fire services. 58 Strategic Planning Session 3 -15 -08 STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT cont. Technology - Discussion on technology included thoughts on productivity and efficiency through technology, e-government, and automation of process; look at available technology and buy into someone else' s technology; and a cost benefit analysis and cost savings over a period of time. Human Resources Practices - Discussion on alternative Human Resources practices included thoughts on new approaches to benefits; lump sum bonus in lieu of step increase; and look at defined contribution vs, defined benefit program. RECESS The morning session took a break at 9:30 a. m. RECONVENE The morning session reconvened at 9: 55 a.m. Revenues - Kabe Woods gave a brief overview on tax reform proposals being discussed by the Tax Budget Reform Commission for the November ballot to limit government at 3% plus the population growth. Discussion on revenues included thoughts on impact fees for development; user fees for services; preferential fees for residents; fee to penalize negative behavior; and aging residents no longer on the tax rolls. Services — Discussion on services included thoughts on the basic public health and safety such as police, fire, EMS and the time limits and response times for expectations; the core infrastructure and essential services such as roads, water, sewer, stormwater, and solid waste; the regulatory frame work for the rules such as code enforcement and predictability and fairness of the rules and regulations; the quality of life infrastructure such as sidewalks, street lights, parks; quality of life services such as recreation programs and explore partnership with other communities and entities to provide services, close or sell some facilities; the support functions such as Finance, IT, procurement; and the need for an educational process for more public responsibility; the mind set to improve /maintain quantity and quality of level of service while lowering costs; and streamline the process. Organizational Culture — discussion on the organizational culture included thoughts on competition and continuous improvement; a reward program to employees for cost saving ideas; an informal suggestion program for Council' s review; internal performance benchmarks for everyone; a tiered COLA; competitive pricing; crosstraining, multi -tasking; core competencies and focus on areas need to build, keep, outsource, or cut; and be more competitive in price. RECAP Dr. Marlowe summed up the two messages he heard during the session is that the manager needs to be creative and look at all the deficiencies in all the departments in order to say they are doing this as well as it can humanly be done within constraints and once satisfied with that if there is still a gap that cannot be filled, the challenge will be to decide which services will be reduced at some level and maybe a reduction as opposed to elimination, or elimination. Further comments included the need for accountability, communication, smart growth, planned growth, more confidence in Council and Administration, to work together to make hard decisions, credibility, an informed public, to maintain basic services, to place burden on Department Heads to develop ideas on how to be more efficient, Council make policy decisions and let the City Manager and staff take care of the day to day operation, and Council to move forward and show a united front. BREAK The morning session broke for lunch at 12:05 a.m. Strategic Planning Session 3 -15 -08 59 RECONVENE The afternoon session reconvened at 12:45 p.m. Governance — Discussion on Council' s role in the governance included comments on the need for leadership, to put things in the past and move forward in a united front; to impose upon the City Manager and Department Heads to look at a certain percentage to look at cuts in manpower, materials, and money, and then have them let Council know what the impact will be to services; Council to give guidance to staff and allow them to develop a plan; Council to step back and work through the City Manager with suggestions or requests; may need to develop a process or set a policy that if a request for information will take more than a certain amount of time it needs to be reconsidered or go through Council to expend staff time; need for trust between Council and the City Manager and Department Heads; Council to be conscious of the perception given on requests made for information; Council should lead by example, work as a collective body, and recognize the line between making policy decisions and administrative duties; and Council to be less critical and judgmental and respect each other's individual style. ADJOURNMENT Being no further business, the session adjourned at 2:00 p.m. APPROVED: MAYOR: ATTEST: CITY CLERK ddm  61 MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING CHARTER REVIEW OF THE CITY OF FORT WALTON BEACH, FLORIDA MARCH 18, 2008 INTRODUCTION A Council Workshop Meeting of the City Council of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, was held on Tuesday, March 18, 2008, at 5: 30 p.m. with the following members present: Mayor Mike Anderson Councilmen: Mike Holmes; Virgil Miller; Dennis Reeves; Bill Garvie; Dr. Wayne Pullen; Jim Hartwell (arrived 5: 40 pm); and Mike Minich, Mayor Pro Tern Also Present: Joyce Shanahan, City Manager; Helen Spencer, City Clerk; Finance Director position vacant); Toni Craig, City Attorney (arrived 6: 17 pm); and Department Directors PURPOSE Charter Review: Title III Administration. CALL TO ORDER The Mayor called the meeting to order. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE The Mayor led in the Pledge of Allegiance. CHARTER REVIEW The City Manager briefly mentioned at the last meeting the issues identified for further review or discussion are the limit on number of terms for City Council, the regular and special meetings of Council, and quorum, compelling attendance of members. She noted the section of the Code on the agenda for discussion tonight is Title III Administration. TITLE III. ADMINISTRATION Section 13 City manager; acting manager; assistant manager; appointment, qualifications and salary Discussion was held on confusion over the appointment of an acting city manager, whether or not an acting city manager, if appointed by Council, would report to Council; and whether or not Council would have access to an acting city manager during the City Manager' s absence. The City Manager expressed her interpretation that an acting city manager would be if the City Manager position became vacant then Council would need to appoint someone in an acting capacity, not for a temporary period of time for vacation, out of town travel, or brief illness. She said it is different when the City Manager is on vacation or out of town and designates someone to act in her absence and that individual would contact her if an issue needs her attention and she would interact with Council, but she did not see any problem with any interaction between Council and an acting city manager in her absence. It was mentioned that Section 3. 03 of the Model Charter has cleaner language on an Acting City Manager. There were no changes for Section 13. C• Council Workshop 3 -18 -08 CHARTER REVIEW cont. Section 14 City manager; responsibility; powers of appointment and removal There were no changes for Section 14. Section 15 Removal of officers and employees; civil service employees; procedure Discussion included reference to civil service employees and whether or not it was needed since the City does not have a civil service board and the City has a grievance procedure in place, and i whether or not to include in the Charter that Council review the personnel policy. The City Attorney will be asked if editorial changes can be made or if it will require a referendum. The City Manager was requested to provide a recommendation to Council on whether or not the Section needs to be rewritten. Section 15 was identified for discussion at the final workshop. Section