Fort Walton Beach Council minutes — 05-25-1982 Regular — reading text

been 4 so far on Sunday but they dtd CQme up afld to his knowledge from a survey he had done of several other cemeteries.,. that very few if any had any on Sundays or legal holidays. He said a let did have them on Saturdays, some charged extra and some do not.. He said he had disclI:s ed th.is with the McLaughl in Funeral Home and they had taken _ no st- anctto push. ttbut they sai.d they would go along with it. The Director said someone had' tobe here on Saturday or a Sunday in case someone calls; they might: Aot beWElrking but ane has to be home in case there are ca 11 s. They call to be met at the cemetery to make arrangements for a funeral. He felt it needed tone looked into. The DirectQr said some cemeteries charge a fee. wbether a family buys; a plot Gr not if they have to meet with them on a weekend to discuss. a purchase. He also noted there had been a pauper burial which they had tried to get ~ et at an earlier date, which included giving the $ 2QO. Q@ DlJrtal s.pace. , : Mr. Miller moved that thQyeliml'at~ Sunday and legal holidays burials. Motion I seconded by Mr.. Grant. Mr. l3aug.b.marl siid he would hive to vote. against it because he thought ' it more impQrtant to vote wtth the r:teds of the people i.n the City, the 22. 000. Mr. franklin agreed. Voting aye to the motion: Miller, Thornber, Grant. Voting mayta the motion: Baughman, Franklin, Bishop. Mayor voted nay and the. motiiilA' carried. REPORT ON CEDAR AVENUE APARTMENTS ~ VARIANCES & PLANNING BOARD REASONING Manager noted each had received the detailed report, however, it was noted that the request to change to condominiums had been wtthdrawn. r' 5- 25- 82 074 PRESENTATION OF PUBLIC SAFETY pEPT. STUDY pROPOSAL City Manager noted each member of Council had gotten a copy of the proposal by J. P. Morgan, a Public. Safety Consultant, which listed three improvement alternatives. He noted . he had studied this matter for fi ve months on what to do to get rid of the apprehens i on of a good many of the people and try to come up, with something solid so people will know what is going to happen and get dtbehind us and get the show on the road. He sai d there were a number of ways; he sai d all were aware of the 1 awsuit of Tommy Ray that invo.lved this particular decision, saying he did not know what the courts were going to say. They might say that Mr. Ray would be re-; nstated as Police Chief in the City of Fort Walton Beach or not; he did not know. He said with that in mind it put him in a considerable bind as to how to come up with a permanent Police Chief or Public Safety Director either one. He said he had looked at all the possibilities and he felt at that point that what hew0uld do would ask for help from three top law enforcement officials here in the State and he did not have names at that point; to sit on a board, a review board. At the same time he proposed to advertise this position nationally and have all of those app 1 i cat ions turned over to that part i cu lar board for them to go through along with himself, and pick those applicants that would most meet the needs of the City. He said that Board, after talking to himself, talking to whoever may wish to talk to them, the Council, employees, anyone to try to determine what the City itself needs and wants in a Police Chief and to form a block of:~ questionsto indicate what the makeup is of the prospects of what we are loakingfor in a chief - the whole nine yards, and then set an interview with those prospective chiefs and probably and preferably with the Mayor and Council present. He noted the Council of course could not have any input as far as the questioning but at that point the Council would be able to determine whether that Board was doing their job and whether their City Manager was doing his job. The Council would have a chance to see a presentation by each of the candidates. He said it could very well mean that the people we have here right now on board might be the top candidate or whatever; he said regardless it was the City Manager' s decision and the City Manager himself after tak,ing the recommendations. of the Board would make that decision. The Manager said there were and still were the best he could determine from the best he could determine from working with the codes and researching the minutes for the last nine months or a year or so, two positions, one Public Safety' Director and one, Police Chief. He said he would advertise for one' position and one position in a sense being both so that if we were required by the courts to place Tommy Ray back on board you would have two positions open on the books; at the same time you would be having one person to handle that particular job now. He said we needed to get in behind this. He said that was his proposal and he didn' t know if there were any input necessary from the Mayor and Council; he would welcome their comments, but he planned to proceed probably beginning the following day. Mr. Grant asked about the City Attorney' s comments on this from the position of legality. The Mayor asked if this could be held until the Attorney returned to the meeting from his discussion with Mr. Smith. Mr. Miller asked the Manager if he had abandoned the idea of the study. The Manager said the consultant gave three alternates and in essence he had received a very brief study. Mr. Miller asked if he were referring to the improvement strategy. Mr. Franklin said he spoke to the City Manager very briefly on the subject, and asked how the Council would feel if the Public Safety Director slot were deleted and a personnel department established within the City. A  5- 82 25",, 075 PUBLIC SAFETYDEPT. STVD~ PROrOSAL" conttnued personnel director .who cou d handle various personnel problems an ''€ xpert on union matters, expert on g ievances to give the City Manager a hand in that respect rather than have a pub li c safety di rector. The Mayor askedMr. l3echte 1 how he would feel about th t. The City Manager said his feeling was th,at the City needed a personne director very badly to begin with, ' however, at the 5ame ttme -th- e, City sti,l l n eded ' permanent police chief or/ and wha~ ever Public Safety Director - to make a decision. I Mr. Baughman said he had not' really addressed a personnel director and that sounded like a good idea and he would want to have the City Manager' s input, but he was not in favor of continuing the slot of public safety director. He said he cons i dered it a layer of bu-reaucracy i nbetween two vital departments and between the City Manager and he thought it was an area that the City Manager should be dealing with directly and he said he had talked to the City Manager about this. Mr. Baughman thought that both individuals were and should be strong department heads and he thought they should be answerable directly to the City Manager and not through another layer of bureaucracy. He said the other thing was that that layer of bureaucracy always costs a very substantial salary and he was not saying that those gentlemen were not worth substantial salaries, they were, but if you have supervisor inbetween two chiefs and the City Manager you were talking about probably $ 10, 000. 00 a year more and he did not see the need for it in a city our size. Mr. Baughman said he felt we had a City Manager that was capable by far of supervising those departments within the framework, particularly the administration and the management. Mr. Baughman said he felt they had the right men now in that department now who could handle the technical and professional jobs that they are required to do and personally he thought that was all that was needed. The City Manager said the City might be required to place Tommy Ray back to work and at the same time we needed a permanent person on board now, whatever you call it, Police Chief or Public Safety Director, he felt we needed one now. Mr. Baughman said at some point he thought we had to in the administration of this City put that stuff behind us. He said if some months or years down the road the court should put the man back to work then they might have to come back and re- juggle these things but he thought it was time to put it behind us and move ahead li ke it was over and done wi th. Mr. Baughman sai d we cou 1 d not continue to run the city by dodging and ducking and running scared about what the court mayor may not do, ultimately they could not control what they do. He said they could only hope for a right and just decision. The City Manager said in essence he agreeijwith what Mr. Baughman said but what he was trying to get at was that we can' t put the past behind us; it could face us in the future. The Manager said if they approached it from the angle that there would be one position there, then he would say a person would have to be a complete fool whether he is on board here now or whether he isn' t to accept the position as permanent because the courts may in a sense eliminate it - the courts might require that Tommy Ray be put back to work where it might be that chief might be out and consequently, with that in mind, I he didn' t think could get anyone who was qualified and really looking for a job a permanent job to be here for any length of time. would put in ~ n application for the position. there was room fora permanent spot. He didn' t think anybody Mr. Miller said unless he knew Mrs. Thornber said one of the things they did when. they hired Mr. Bechtel, the City Manager, was to trust his judgement and she felt this was something they had to do now. Mr. Baughman said his viewpoint was that as he had stated before and he had talked to the City Manager was that the ordinances of this City leave the City Manager' s slot essentially a dictatorship with Council almost with no power in behalf of the people and he was not at that time in favor of moving away from the City Manager form of government, although if there were not some other way to put some power back in the hands of the people of