Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 11-26-2007 special agenda — reading text

- this was the only place where I had a little tiny bit of input was on number 2, and one other point that the consulting group made that wasn' t made in their recommendation, I agree with their position, by the way, that the Finance Director reports to the City Manager, But don' t go by a point they made which was the function called internal audit. A lot of folks, and a lot of municipalities, a lot of private organizations have this function called internal audit. It' s sometimes a mystery, it' s not a well known function but it happens in all public corporations, That internal audit function reports to the Council, or in the case of a public company to the Board, Those folks can look at the financials and more importantly to process improvements and how things are working and report directly back to the governing body, It' s a very, very, very powerful tool for guys like you guys to use in an organized, non- threatening way, An internal audit organization is with the associates all the time, every day of the week and they work with them on a plan, via a plan to examine processes, metrics, financials and that sort of thing, That was not a recommendation but I believe that is one of the most powerful things that they have in their entire book. Thank you, Mayor - ok, thank you Mr, Woods, Anyone else from the public like to speak on this item number 2, Yes sir? Please identify yourself again. Page 5 Recommendation # 2 cont. Harvey Hall, 276 Beachview Drive - I am under the assumption, and please tell me if I am wrong, that you get a report the Thursday before the City Council meeting on what' s going to happen at the City Council meeting, You get Ms, Shanahan' s reports, no opposition reports, You get a book like this that nobody could probably read in five days, more or less go out and visit all the properties that need to be rezoned or whatever issue you got coming up, My question is, it seems like the City Council is not running nothing, Right over there is running it. Cause you don' t have enough time to do your job and you know just like I do there' s been many issues come between the Council, we have to do something before the next meeting, we have to do something before the next meeting, and you' re all, I don' t want to say your ignorant of the situation but a lot of times you don' t understand all the implications and you' re voting on something that you really don' t know what it is, You only get one side of the story, And this is not, Ms. Shanahan it's nothing against you, I'm just saying the way it's set up, It seems like it' s, that she' s running the Council instead of the Council running her on my part, Thank you, Mayor - thank you sir, Anyone else like to speak on item number 2? OK, yes Ms, Craig? City Attorney - I don' t mean to interrupt but I also can' t leave it like it was where everyone thinks that do is adjust the Charter because Section 19 already in the Charter allows all we can you the rights and the duties to prescribe, distribute and discontinue the functions and duties of departments, boards, authorities and offices. So you do have the authority to set out some of the duties and responsibilities of the Finance Director without making a complete change to the Charter, So I just wanted to mention that you have two different avenues to go by, Mayor - ok, thank you, Mr, Hartwell? Jim Hartwell- thank you sir, Toni along those lines, we can dissolve an officer, that position, is that correct, is that what you said, boards, committees, and officers? City Attorney - you can prescribe, distribute or discontinue the functions and duties of departments, boards, authorities, and offices established, Jim Hartwell - offices, not Charter position, ok, So if there' s a change in the Charter, as in a Charter position, that takes the referendum, correct? City Attorney - yes Jim Hartwell- ok, thank you ma' am, thanks Mr, Mayor. Mayor - Mr, Minich? Mike Minich - so let me understand for myself, is that what you' re telling us is that the Charter, that Section you just read I believe Section 19, gives us the ability or the authority to prescribe the duties of the Finance Director, City Attorney - yes Mike Minich - and I believe, doesn' t the Charter also state that the Finance Director does work under the supervision of the City Manager? Page 6 Recommendation # 2 cont. City Attorney - yes Mike Minich - it seems pretty straight forward, Thank you Mr, Mayor, I have no more questions, Mayor - yes sir, appreciate clarification on this, Anything else on item 2? Questions and discussion turned to recommendations number 3, Recommendation # 2 - Change the formal City organizational chart to reflect the Finance Director as a direct report to the City Manager. Mike Minich - move to approve the City Manager' s recommendation on item number 2, Mike Holmes - second Mayor - okay, Mr, Holmes seconded Mr, Minich' s motion on this, Mr, Minich? Mike Minich - I certainly believe that we know the issues around this, however, I believe that the Charter states that the Finance Director does, in fact, work under the supervision of the City Manager and I believe it' s time to recognize that. Mayor - any other discussion? Ms, Craig? City Attorney - sorry I just have something for clarification, did I miss the recommendation written in the report because this says this is Council' s prerogative. City Manager - that' s my comment City Attorney - and was there further recommendation? City Manager - the recommendation in the report is to change that fonnal reporting Mike Minich - and she agreed City Manager - I agreed with the recommendation Mayor - okay? Any other, yes sir Mr, Miller? Virgil Miller - okay, what is a direct report, what does that entail? Mayor - she supervises Virgil Miller - is that, yeah, but this is Mayor - that' s my opinion; do you want to ask Dr, Long? Page 7 Recommendation # 2 cont. Dr, Long - I can answer that. Typically it involves day to day reporting of whatever is an issue, It also involves conducting perfonnance evaluation for that position, That' s really the telling point in tenns of the direct report, Virgil Miller - well see I have to agree with that because she reports to the Council, this position reports to the Council. The Council detennines her salary increases, And so this direct report is administrative type report and not a financial type report, Mayor - okay Virgil Miller - and I think that's what the Charter says, Mayor - any other, Dr, Pullen? Dr, Pullen - the question I have is, and I will probably refer this to the City Attorney, she just said that we as a Council can outline the duties of the Finance Director, I believe that' s what City Attorney - that' s correct and that would need to be, my suggestion would be to do it by an ordinance so that it' s clearly defined as much as possible, and that would probably help, Because that' s what Section 19 also says, Dr, Pullen - right, and then, so therefore in the ordinance we could, then the Council would still retain control of the evaluations and salary, and actually what her duties are, City Attorney - I can' t answer that because the Charter does not say anything about the duties and evaluation, It says that you' re going to set her salary, But the evaluation can be done by the City Manager, in my opinion, because that' s an administrative duty, Dr, Pullen - correct me if I'm wrong, basically it' s kind of a, it's an unclear, it's clear that we can establish what the duties are, and unfortunately I'm referring to an individual and I should be referring to a position rather than an individual. So we can set the duties of that position? City Attorney - by ordinance, yes Dr, Pullen - by ordinance, yes, Okay Mayor - I think this gets back to why Mr, Hartwell wanted to have it placed for a Charter review on this so we can get this thing squared away once and for all, Jim Hartwell- yes sir Dr, Pullen - but until the Charter, until we get done with that we can do it by ordinance Mayor - and the motion is just to implement item number 2 right now, Mr, Hartwell did you have something else? Jim Hartwell- sir you hit the nail on the head, I was going to say this confusion has got to be straightened in our workshop; it' s got to be one way or the other with some finality, that' s all. Page 8 Recommendation # 2 cont. Mayor - okay, once more because you only get two chances, go ahead, Virgil Miller - that' s what I've been told, I agree with Mr, Hartwell, I think I would rather see this delayed and acted on after we have a chance to review the Charter, Mayor - okay, any other comments? Jim Hartwell- where are we at on the vote please? Mayor - we' re ready to vote now I think Jim Hartwell- could you restate it please? Mayor - it says to change the formal City organizational chart to reflect the Finance Director as a direct report to the City Manager, That' s the recommendation and that was the motion, Jim Hartwell - and a point of clarification, and the Attorney said that would reflect as it is in the Charter, is that correct, by approving this motion, or is it a change to the Charter? City Attorney - I don' t see it as a change to the Charter but you also wouldn' t be changing the fact that you appoint that position as well, Because again the procedures that are in the Charter are regarding finance procedures all together and those are all conducted under the supervision and direction of the City Manager, The Charter says you set the salary of your four Charter Officers, It doesn' t go any further than that and it' s very open, Now, my concern when the motion was made, was this says as a direct report and what does that really mean? And I take it that the City Manager knows what that means, an administrative and reporting because she' s doing it with 13 other departments, So if you all on Council are comfortable with that, then of course it' s going to be her determination of what that means, City Manager - I think the Charter is clear about what the direct reporting relationship is under the, the Charter says that the Finance Director works under the supervision and control of the City Manager, It goes further to say that issues with policy and the financial policy and what not are still subject to the City Manager' s review and approval. Mayor - Mr, Minich? Mike Minich - as a point of clarification that is what I stated, The Charter says that we appoint and the Finance Director works under the supervision of the City Manager, That' s the reason for my motion, That' s what I said after and that' s what I explained, If we want to change the Charter, we can change it but we need to clarify the relationships as pointed out in the Charter now, Mayor - any other comments? Seeing none please vote, And it does pass 4 to 3 with Mr, Miller, Mr, Reeves, and Dr, Pullen voting against it. Dennis Reeves - that' s fine, I meant to vote for it, I must have hit the wrong Mayor - okay well let's re- tally it then, re- set it. Okay, please vote again, Okay, 5 to 2 with Mr, Miller and Dr, Pullen voting against it. Page 9 Recommendation # 2 cont. Dennis Reeves - thank you Mayor Recommendation # 12 - Conduct an annual performance evaluation of the City Clerk position. Mayor - okay, item 12 conduct an annual performance evaluation of the City Clerk position, Mike Minich - move to approve the City Manager' s recommendation City Manager - please understand that that would be