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

this Citythou~  JlW~' ' 11 ' ii 076 5- 25- 82 PUBLIC SAFETY DEPT. STUDY PROPOSAL, continued he would certainly move in that direction because he was somewhat disenchanted with the fact that the people are powerless to a great extent over their government. He said his thinking was that a balance between those two positions would be for this Council to be able to ratify the top department heads; he didn' t mean for them to interview them and hire them and go through that process; he was talking about a slight change in the ordinances of the City so the Council does have some say at the point of who will be hired and who is not acceptable. The Mayor said to Mr. Baughman whether they agreed or disagreed they could not discuss it; it was not on the agenda and they were forbidden to have anything to do with the hiring so they would not go into that discussion that night. Mr. Miller said the slot for the Public Safety Director was there in the ordinances now and it seemed to him the analysis the Manager had given them was sound and he had confidence in him. He said if anyone had any question about their confidence in the City Manager he guessed they should lay that on the table, saying he had his. Mr. Miller said he thought his presentation made reason to him; it seemed sound as regards- that slot. Mr. Miller said it was not filled now and was not causing the City any harm, and if it were not appropriated by the Council it would not be filled in the future, but if it got to the point where the City was compelled to fill it or if it gets to the point that the Manager makes a recommendation to fill it and they concur with that by funding, that was how to control the issue. Mr. Grant asked the City Attorney concerning the City Manager' s recommendation~ if he had discussed it with him. The Attorney said he had not but thought he had pretty well discerned from the discussion what the issues were. Mr. Grant asked the Attorney if there were any comments relevent to his proposal. The Attorney said as he understood the issue had to do with whether or not there is a permament police chief/ public safety director hired at this point with the understanding that he fills both slots for the time being and that if for the reason of a federal court imposition that we could do nothing about there is a requirement that one of them be filled by Mr. Ray, then this man still has a job and can stay with the City and as he understood if it were any other way, there would be no way you could attract a qualified candidate to take the position. The Attorney said one of the reasons the position he knew he recommended to Mr. Sprague quite some time ago to be filled - he concurred in the Council IS recommendation to Mr. Sprague - that the position not be filled permanently and he knew that discussions back in August, 1981 were that it really didn' t make sinse to fill permanently until there was some resolution of the issue pending with the thought that within 90 days or so the matter would be resolved. Mr. Baughman 9aid that brought up; or sounded to him, basically in the last comments the City Manager had that it might be better for them to leave the situation as it was until they resolve the court suit and he thought it a shame that the court suit continues to affect the operation of the City but nevertheless. Mr. Bishop said as things stood if the City Manager felt he needed to do somthing he would support him since he was appointed City Manager it was his game to manage the City. The Mayor asked if she had a motion. Mr. Miller said nODe was appropriate; the Manager was just reporting to them what he was going to do. He was giving them that courtesy. The Mayor asked the Manager if he wanted anything, because Council had nothing to do with hiring and firing. The Manager said along those lin~s they did need to take a look at the ordinances because he thought there were some very serious errors in them as far as classifications  077 5- 25~ 82 PUBLIC S,l\ FETY, DEPT-. S! UDY PROPOSAL, CONTINUED were concerned and in essence there were two positions in the city period at this point. Mayor asked the Manager if they might hold with item c and get back to Mr. Smith , who had returned to the meeting with the Attorney regarding his Brooks Street proposal. I The Attorney said they had discussed the matter of the comprehensive plan and he thought they probably concluded that group element of the plan was most vague as they had expected. He said there were plans on file with the City in the form of the executive sunrnary of the RDA comprehensive plan which shows that Brooks Street is a 4- lane highway. He said Mr. Smith was very generous in concluding with him that it really didn' t make a lot of sense for the city to approve a building plan which would place a building in the middle of a 4~ laneroad and at the same time Mr. Smith is correct that obviously he is being held up and they did not know his time calendar but apparently that was a problem to him. The Attorney said it would be possible for the City to approve in concept Mr. Smith; s project as it is presented to them without variances upon a condition that no building or any part of a building would be constructed with 51' of the Brooks St. line. The Attorney said if that were done, in talking with the Public Works Director and theRDA director they were satisfied that it would not violate the comprehensive plan; that would also allow without any variances Mr. Smith to have the permission he needs to go ahead with his construction and in fact at that point he was not completely certain that there was a requirement for Council' s conceptual approval but in any event, so long as there was no objection he would grant that conceptual approval assuming that compromise was acceptable to Council. He had told Mr. Smith, that in the interim if within the next week or so he decides he wants to go back to the Board of Adjustment by requesting them to hold a special meeting to address the subject of his variances and at some point substitute plans. Mr. Miller moved that Council reconsider the motion made earlier. Motion seconded by Mr. Thornber and carried unanimously. Mr. Bishop moved that they approve the project conceptually with the stipulation the City Attorney made of the 5' 11. Motion seconded by Mr. Baughman. Mr. Miller asked if any other conditions needed to be in the motion. Mr. Chesser read something they had written up during their discussion: " Conceptual approval be granted to the project as presented however, without variances and with the condition that no building or part of a building be permanently constructed closer than 51' from the Brooks Street the exisitng property line). Mr. Bishop and Mr. Baughman accepted that in the motion. The motion carried unanimously. It was noted the an ordinance study was probably in order to avoid such future incidents. 1 Meeting recessed at 9: 05 and reconvened at 9: 15. The City Manager commented in regard to Mr. Baughman' s comments, saying he guessed some could consider the City Manager' s position as being a dictatorship, however, the International City Manager' s Association did not; he noted the Police Chief' s Association had put together a booklet and it outlined the particular method that he protrayed to them earlier; saying it was their recommendation of a procedure for hiring a police chief. He said at the same time that also got the Council involved so they could see that their City Manager was doing a proper job without taking advantage of his position. He noted the following ordinance that was coming up later on did the same thing. He said in that way if they found a City Manager who believed in a dictatorship and wanted to take advantage of it  11.,.,. 8" 1 ;- 5- 25- 82 078 CITY MANAGER' S COMMENTS, continued. they could spot that before he got in too deep and could possibly take action to relieve him of his job. Mr. Baughman asked the City Manager to please understand his viewpoints, and they were strong, but they were not critical of him ( Mr. Bechtel) they were critical of the ordinances the way they were set up. He said it was not Mr. Bechtel' s fault, that he had come in after the fact but Mr. Baughman said he did feel strongly about it and had done so for seven, eight, or nine years. He said it was not a criticism of Mr. Bechtel and he certainly did not intend that. The City Manager said he was just saying the manner or the way he had attempted to handle was so that the Council themselves could make sure that the City Manager was not taking advantage of his position and he said he felt it was good to have a healthy discussion. Mr. Miller said he was going to hope and presume that the City Manager would not feel that their faiJure to participate in the manner the Manager had outlined that he felt was receptive to; it would not be offensive to the Manager if they interpreted the code to say they were prohibited from taking even that action and he ~ rsonally did. He said he wanted to let the Manager know; sayinghe personally would not IJdrticipate even to the degree that he had outlined and invited the Council to do and he, himself perceived that to be a violation of the Charter. The Mayor said she felt this was personal matter each of the members of Council would have to decide. She said as long as the Manager asked for no input, she felt they were not in any way violating the Charter. Mr. Baughman said one point must be very clear; he said if you read the Charter as it pertained to city employees, it did not say that the City Council had no right to be interested in order to provide reconmendations to the City Manager; it said the Council would deal with that part of his job through him. Mr. Baughman said it did not say they the Council would not deal with it at all. He said it said they would deal with it through the City Manager. Mr. Baughman said when you took two or three areas of it, it became kind of a gray area, because one said one kind of thin9-6t. one kind of .another, but the word used was " through." Mr. Baughman thought it certainly was proper for him to discuss it with him if he so choose. The City Manager said the Council were the ears of the community and he wished to take advantage of that if he could. FIRE Mrs. Thornber asked that the minutes reflect that tbey were aware that this FIGHTERS was Fire Fighters Appreciation Week. The Mayor indicated agreement in appreciat-,