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

aye unanimously. Mayor called for the Ordinances~ Mr. Miller said as to the two ordinances they had before them on the agenda he , raised a point of order and asked Jor clarification from the chair. H~ said in the past wh~ n , they had an ordi nance to come up for a t reading it had been the result of fir-s~ a motion by a Counci lman that that area of i nformiitiorr^ or i deaor concept would be a subject of an ordinance reading. He noted th~se two had gotten to the agenda by that vehicle and he raised the point of order that they had established a process by which first reading of ordinances have resulted by being placed as an agenda item by a motion approved by Council at a . priormeeting and that had not happened on these two ordinances. Mr. Miller said he meant that Council had not said they would consider that subject matter as a first reading at a subsequent meeting; he said every ordinance during his time on the Council up until now that had came that way. He noticed one was out of a committee and one was out of the Staff he presumed and neither had been placed as an agenda item by a member of Council. He said they had a very liberal attitude and he was not saying they should not consider them, but he thought they ought to be consistent and that ordinances placed for first reading ought to be as a result of the concept of having that subject matter placed on first reading by a motion of Council, indicating they could make a motion that night to have them placed on the next meeting agenda for a first reading. Mrs. Thornber said she believed the one on the wrecker committee had been worked on for quite a while and was not a new item.  5- 25- 82 083 Mr. Baughman said the criteria that concerned him was to have an ordinance crop up for first reading with which nobody knew anything about and that was not the case in either one of those. There had been a lot of committee work and discussion at the Council table on the other and he felt both were proper to be read on first reading. He said he would agree with Mr. Miller if they had cropped up and they had never heard of them before. Mr. Miller agreed that the subject matter was appropriate matter for discussion that evening. He said if they were going to have in a non- emergencyS'ituation a first ordinance reading then they should not find that out when they got their 1 agenda. Mr. Baughman said from that point of view they were well protected because in the case of these they had them a minimum of two weeks. Mr. Miller felt they should have a clear rule and everybody knows what the rules are. He said hls point was that these two items had not followed the normal format. The Mayor asked for advice from the City Attorney. The Attorney said it was typical procedure under Roberts Rules of Order for the Chairman to set an agenda; the Chairman can be assisted in setting that agenda by anybody' s advice they wish to solicit; the Chairman did not have to accept it. The Attorney said when the meeting begins and someone says I have an item that I suggested to the Chairman and the Chairman did not put it on the agenda then that person could move that it be placed on the agenda and it could be placed on the agenda by majority vote. He remarked that Resolution 82- 23 di'd not come from anybody on the Council; it came from the Staff. He said he had never heard of a situation that would say before you could read "ltthe first time you had to have a motion. Mr. Miller said that had been a practice as it related to ordinances and he did not inter- change ordinances' and resolutions because he recognized they had a great deal of resolution acttvity directly from the staff of a routine housekeeping nature. The Mayor announced that they would proceed to consider Ordinance 653. 2 ORDINANCE 653. 2 The City Attorney read Ordinance 653. 2 on 1st reading hy title: ' An Ordinance rescinding Ordinance 653. 1 ( Sections 21A- 20 and 21A- 20. l)of the Code of Ordinances) and defini.ng the operation of wreckers and wrecker companies repealing any conflicting provisions of the Code of Ordinances, providing the effective date hereof. Mr. Grant moved for approval on 1st reading. Motion seconded by Mr. Franklin. Mrs. Thornber asked a question,. about Section 1 ( f) what the last' clause meant. Mr. Grant read ' the section and explained it. Barry Stephens of BeeLine indicated that had . happeaed to him' a few days ago - the situation mentioneld in that section., ' Mr. Grant said there Was one aspect '( mentioning theyhidparticipatlon from the companies involved and when was in the ordinance was a concensus. of that group)- since they had done the ordinance there had been an item come up he quoted an incident to illustrate ofa Friday eventng acctdent where the individuals did not recover their personal effects such' as glasses, wa11ets, I checkbooks, etc. He noted these individuals had to get nome on Saturday. According to the ordinance procedure they could only get their personal effects. at 9 a. m. the following Monday morning. He felt there should be some sort of provision to cover this type incident. He said he nad discussed it with the City Manager and understood the Manager h.ad discussed it with. the City Attorney. He asked for comments from anyone who had any ideas on this subject. The City Attorney said he was not sure tn.ateverytning nad been covered in this one ordinance and he felt that Council should allow someone in the City to pass rules and regulations that might supplement the ordinance. He distri.buted a proposed amendment which would give the Chief of Ponce upon the approval of the City Manager the authority to pass additional rules and regulations making the assumption they must be in writing and that they must be distributed to the people r 5- 25- 82 084 who are affected by them; they could then become a part of t~e ordinance. He said his proposed amendment identified responsibi; ity for personal property located in an automobile when it is picked up by a wrecker service, WhlCh says as does the Florida General Law that the personal property will be the responsibility of the person in whose possession and custody that automobile is; saying how the wrecker service would go about allowing a person to obtain his personal property and when that should be done. He distributed the two items to the Council for their review. Mr. Miller did not agree with the Council delegating their legislative authority which meant he would vote to their delegating authority to create regulatdons. The Attorney said they could add the words with the consent of the City Council, but it would allow someone the response time if he needed to make a rule or regulation to make it, to distribute it and then have it approved by Council. Mr. Miller said Council could pass it as an emergency, if it were that compelling. Mr. Grant said he had trouble with the second thing, each license operator shall be responsible to the owner of each vehicle for any personal property located in the vehicle for such a period of time as the wrecker operator has custody of the vehicle. He quoted further the the owner shall be permitted to follow the vehicle to the impound area and may be allowed to remove personal property either prior towhen the vehicle is picked up or at the time of deposit of the impound area - he felt that should be implicit and they did not need to talk to that, but alternatively the owner shall be allowed to remove personal property from the automobile during ordinary business hours of wrecker service or otherwise as may be agreab.le between the wrecker service operator and the owner. He said according to the case he had cited, this would not be the answer. Mr. Grant supported the procedure used by the State Police; the officer in charge of the accident is responsible for any personal effects that may be left in vehicles when the owners leave the scene and to make sure the vehicles are cleared before the wrecker operator takes them over. He felt it would be a simple matter that the personal items be taken to the police station where they could be identified and picked up, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at the convenience of the owners. Acting Chief Neyendorf said he was not aware that the Highway Patrol did this but it would cause a lot of trouble for that officer assuming a lot more responsibility than he should at the scene. He felt it would add a burden onto the Police Department. Mr. Grant reminded Council that the way the ordinance was now written the wrecker operator could refuse to .accommodate the owner from rive o' clock on Friday afternoon until nine o' clock on Monday morning. Mr. McClellan said there might be a difference between personal effects and personal belongings. He said the FHP would take the person' s personal I effects, I D s, bi llfo 1 d, money, checkbooks, etc. of areal personal matter and the other items stay with the car. He said the incident being discussed put the man in a hardship because he could not get his checkbook. Barry Stephens, Beeline, said he was involved in that situ.ation and he suggested that on Saturdays from about 11 a. m. until 3 p. m. and on Sundays from 11 a. m. until 3 p. m. , for persons to pick up their belongings. He felt they should try to help the tourists as much as you can because they do need to get home many times on the weekends. Mr. Miller asked if they were really ready for a first reading on the ordinance that night. He noted the committee had done a lot of work but he felt a vote was premature. Mr. Grant withdrew his motion. The City Attorney said he had one other proposal that might make the ordinance more streamlined. Mr. Miller said he was concerned about Council' s  5- 25- 82 085 WRECKER ORDINANCE, continued ability to limit opportunity to serve on the rotary list connecting that in some way with being within the city or within a certain radius. He felt that was an area for serious consideration. The Attorney discussed portions of the ordinance with some of the wrecker owners in the audience. He also mentioned other cities used instead of an item by item rotation list a daily or every 2 or 3 day rotation list. I Bob Cunningham said it would not have worked the number of accidents - they were all busy. previous weekend because of the Charlie Land, Julianls AutoBody said he spoke