1997-03-18 Regular Meeting320
FIX
B.
CITY OF OKEECHOBEE
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING
SUMMARY OF COUNCIL ACTION
Call Meeting to order on March 18, 1997.
Invocation offered by Reverend John Paul Ziegler;
Pledge of Allegiance led by Mayor Kirk.
C. Mayor and Council Attendance:
Mayor James E. Kirk
Council Member Noel A. Chandler
Council Member Lowry Markham
Council Member Robert Oliver
Council Member Dowling R. Watford, Jr.
Staff Attendance:
City Attorney John R. Cook
City Administrator John J. Drago
City Clerk Bonnie S. Thomas
Deputy Clerk S. Lane Gamiotea
Mayor Kirk called the meeting to order on March 18, 1997 at 7:00 p.m.
Reverend J.P. Ziegler offered the invocation;
Mayor Kirk led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Clerk Thomas called the roll:
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
D. Motion to dispense with the reading and approve the Sum- Council Member Chandler moved to dispense with the reading and approve the
mary of Council Action for the regular meeting of February Summary of Council Action for the regular meeting of February 18, 1997; seconded by
18, 1997. 1 Council Member Oliver.
KIRK
CHANDLER
MARKHAM
OLIVER
WATFORD
MOTION CARRIED.
PAGE 1 OF 12
I
321
MARCH 18, 1997 - REGULAR MEETING - PAGE 2 OF 12
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E. Motion to approve Warrant Register for February, 1997 in
Council Member Watford moved to approve Warrant Registers for February, 1997 in the
the amount of $83,511.56.
amount of eighty-three thousand, five hundred eleven dollars, fifty-six cents
($83,511.56); seconded by Council Members Oliver and Markham.
Council Member Markham questioned the thousand dollar expenditure to Attorney Bill
Zvara, Bond Counsel and why the City Attorney did not do this. Administrator Drago
explained it was strictly to draw up the proper documents to show this was a non-taxable
purchase and that due to intricacies with tax law and finance law Attorney Zvara is
always used since there are certain areas of the law that Attorney Cook is not
comfortable with.
KIRK
X
CHANDLER
X
MARKHAM
X
OLIVER
X
WATFORD
X
MOTION CARRIED.
REQUEST FOR THE ADDITION, DEFERRAL OR
Mayor Kirk asked if there were any requests for additions, deferrals or withdrawals of
WITHDRAWAL OF ITEMS ON TODAY'S AGENDA.
items on today's agenda. Council Member Oliver requested to add an item under new
business to discuss the City Administrator's job performance. Mayor Kirk added the item
as number seven.
F. NEW BUSINESS
1. Hear from Burton Conner - The Honorable Burton
Attorney Burton Conner addressed the Mayor and Council thanking them for their letters
Connor.
to the governor in support of his nomination as Circuit Judge. He was successful and the
local representative to the Florida Bar Board of Governors told him he had some very
strong community support. His first day on the bench will be Monday, March 31 st. The
actual robing ceremony will be at the court house, April 2nd at 4:00 p.m. and he
extended an invitation to everyone.
322
MARCH 19 1997 - REGULAR MEETING - PAGE 3 OF 12
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F. NEW BUSINESS
1. Hear from Burton Conner continued.
Attorney Conner further explained that he will be first assigned to Juvenile and Family
Court in Indian River County. He explained he understood that the idea was to have a
resident circuit judge but the reality is, on an appointed situation, if someone decides to
run against him he would face an election next year and that would mean a four county
area race with Okeechobee only having one -tenth of the voters. By him spending time
on the coast it will give him some exposure should he have to run next year. The Mayor
and Council thanked Attorney Conner for his invitation and wished him well on his new
endeavor.
2. Presentation of Proclamations - Mayor Kirk.
Juvenile Justice Week Proclamation was read in it's entirety by Mayor KIRK and
presented to School Board Member Gay Carlton:
"WHEREAS, the state's juvenile crime problem has ramifications far beyond the juvenile justice system and
affects the health and integrity of the state's business, community, education, and family institutions; and
WHEREAS, the state as well as the City of Okeechobee must therefore employ a comprehensive strategy
to address the problem of juvenile crime if the problem is to be effectively solved; and
WHEREAS, statewide there has been an increase in the number of youths committed for delinquency in the
last fiscal year; and
WHEREAS, the City of Okeechobee will not tolerate the criminal activities of our youth; and
WHEREAS, the citizens of the community need to have a heightened awareness of juvenile justice issues;
and
WHEREAS, the City of Okeechobee will work with the Department of Juvenile Justice and local businesses
on programs for the prevention and intervention of juvenile justice;
NOW, THEREFORE, the Board of City Commissioners of Okeechobee County does hereby PROCLAIM the
week of March 24 through March 28, 1997 as JUVENILE JUSTICE WEEK in the City of Okeechobee, and
urge all citizens of our community to take part in stopping or preventive juvenile delinquency and to make a
conscious effort to learn more about the programs for prevention and intervention."
Ms. Carlton thanked the Mayor and Council and presented them with an agenda of
activities for Juvenile Justice Week and asked them to attend all they could.
323
MARCH 18, 1997 -REGULAR MEETING -PAGE 4 OF 12
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F. NEW BUSINESS
2. Presentation of Proclamations continued.
The Child Abuse Prevention Month Proclamation was presented next and read by Mayor
Kirk in it's entirety, there was no one present to receive this proclamation:
"WHEREAS, child abuse and neglect is a serious and growing problem affecting more than two million of our
nation's children annually and over 3,500 of children locally; and
WHEREAS, the societal malignancy called child abuse and neglect respects no racial, religious, class, or
geographical boundaries, and, in fact, has been declared a national emergency; and
WHEREAS, the Exchange Club CAS.T.L.E. of the Treasure Coast, Inc., Tri County Tec, Center for Children
in Crisis, Hibiscus Children's Center and Children's Home Society through their support of parent aide
programs, parenting classes and educational programs, are make significant progress in stopping this crime
against our nations and community's children and families;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, James E. KIRK, Mayor of the City of Okeechobee do hereby proclaim the entire
month of April,1997 shall be observed as CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION month of the City of Okeechobee,
and I urge all citizens to use this time to better understand, recognize, and respond to this grievous problem;
AND, FURTHER, I congratulate the above mentioned agencies for their continued success in helping families
break free from the cycle of child abuse."
The American Red Cross Day Proclamation was presented last and read by Mayor KIRK
in it's entirety, there was no one present to receive the proclamation:
"WHEREAS, the City of Okeechobee has numerous American Red Cross volunteers who have
demonstrated their value in public assistance by providing disaster relief; and
WHEREAS, these American Red Cross volunteers donate these services free of charge, in the interest of
the citizens of the City as well as the world; and
WHEREAS, this year's Okeechobee Chapter American Red Cross Day will take place on April 5 1997;
NOW, THEREFORE,1, James E. KIRK, Mayor of the city of Okeechobee, proclaim the day of April 5, 1997,
as AMERICAN RED CROSS DAY in recognition of this important emergency preparedness agency, and call
upon all citizens to pay appropriate tribute to the American Red Cross of our City."
Mayor Kirk instructed Administrator Drago to mail the two proclamations to the
appropriate parties.
324
MARCH 18, 1997 - REGULAR MEETING - PAGE 5 OF 12
F. NEW BUSINESS
3. Motion to approve the following employees to the Council Member Watford moved to approve the following employees to the City
City Grievance Committee: Fire Department -Jeff Grievance Committee: Fire Department -Jeff Baugh/Alternate-Billy Douglas; Police
Baugh/Alternate-Billy Douglas; Police Department- Department -Kelley Ammons/Alternate-Gene O'Neill; Administration/Finance/ General
Kelley Ammons/Alternate-Gene O'Neill; Service/Clerk's Office -Lane Gamiotea/Alternate-Nina Borenstein; Public Works
Administration/Finance/ General Service/Clerk's Department -Cleveland Lamb/Alternate-Shane Brumley; seconded by Council Member
Office -Lane Gamiotea/Alternate-Nina Borenstein; Oliver.
Public Works Department -Cleveland
Lamb/Alternate-Shane Brumley - City Clerk - (Exhibit KIRK
CHANDLER
MARKHAM
OLIVER
WATFORD
MOTION CARRIED.
4. Motion to approve an extension to the street Administrator Drago began discussion concerning the extension of the street sweeping
sweeping contract with P. F. Gomez Construction in contract with P.F. Gomez Construction explaining that the City would have to extend the
the amount of $2,427.50 per month - City contract on a month to month basis for an increased amount until the bids for a new
Administrator. contract could be sent out and awarded. He further explained that Public Works Director
Elders had spoken with a local contractor and he has indicated that he is willing to
upgrade his equipment and bid on this contract.
Council Member Markham stated his concerns over the fact that he did not receive any
back up material explaining why this contract had to be renewed on a month to month
basis nor any reason for the increase in cost and questioned Administrator Drago about
not taking care of this at least two months ago so that a decision did not have to be made
within fourteen days of the Gomez Contract expiring.
Council Member Watford agreed with Council Member Markham and commented that
it was unfortunate that this is another one of those situations where we are forced into
a box because the time is up and reminded the Council of this same problem with the
worker's compensation insurance contract that expired the same night the Council had
to vote on a renewal.
X
X
X
X
X
325
MARCH 18, 1997 -REGULAR MEETING -PAGE 6 OF 12
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F. NEW BUSINESS
4. Motion to approve an extension to the street
Administrator Drago explained to the Council that there was a time delay in
sweeping contract with P.F. Gomez Construction in
communications with the local contractor. Mayor Kirk commended both the Administrator
the amount of $2,427.50 per month continued.
and Public Works Director for working with the local bidder but he stated he also had to
recognize the point that was raised by Council Member Markham and felt it would
behoove the Administrator to give the Council more time in the future.
Council Member Markham stated the other problem he had with this item is that it does
not give a deadline for how long the contract will be extended. Administrator Drago
recommended ninety days.
Discussion ensued. Council Member Watford moved to approve an extension of the
street sweeping contract with P F Gomez Construction in the amount of two
thousand, four hundred twenty-seven dollars, fifty cents ($2 427.50) per month for
up to 90 days for the purpose of bidding the street sweeping contract, seconded
by Council Member Markham.
Council Member Watford also suggested and Council agreed that level of service, the
type of machine to be used and making sure the corners of the streets are done should
all be addressed during the award of a bid for a new contract.
KIRK
X
X
CHANDLER
X
MARKHAM
X
OLIVER
X
WATFORD
MOTION CARRIED.
Lengthy discussion ensued on item four and a verbatim of this item is on file in the
Clerk's Office.
326
MARCH 18, 1997 - REGULAR MEETING - PAGE 7 OF 12
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F. NEW BUSINESS
Administrator Drago informed the Council that they are going to be faced with a policy
5. Discuss the 441 widening project - City
decision when the Department of Transportation (DOT) widens Highway 441 North. The
Administrator.
preliminary plan indicates that most of the right of way "taking" is going to be on the West
side of Highway 441 North. Some of the businesses are not going to be impacted but
some are. Where the impact is going to come from is how much of the right of way they
take in relationship to how much is left in the front of the property for set backs and
parking. If DOT takes some of the front of the property where it would leave the building
technically encroaching the setbacks and/or not enough parking. The Council has to
decide if DOT has to take the property whole or just acknowledge the fact that it is not
in compliance with the zoning regulations and if anything happens -to the building, then
when they go to relocate it then it has to be put on the property according to zoning
regulations.
Council and staff discussed this issue at length and expressed concern about what the
outcome of their decision might be. Council instructed Administrator Drago to get
copies of the preliminary maps from DOT showing right of ways and property that
they propose to purchase for the Highway 441 North widening proiect so that they
can see exactly how many businesses are going to be effected; have this by the
next meeting so the Council can discuss it and be better informed before making
a decision.
6. Discuss Fire Department - Councilman Markham.
Council Member Markham began his discussion concerning the Fire Department by
stating, the first item he would like to bring up would be the memorandum of the February
Status Report from the Administrator to Council on Wal-Mart were Administrator Drago
said that Chief Tomey was the stumbling block on the issues that were taking place. He
met with Mr. Bennett and Chief Tomey and it did not take but probably fifteen minutes
to clear that problem up. If Administrator Drago had been working more with the Chief,
he thought, on that project, instead of against him, from what he could see, this problem
would not have occurred and he would not have been involved with it. The only problem
that Chief Tomey had was he did not understand exactly the formality that the processing
was through Mr. Bennett. As soon as Mr. Bennett explained it, Chief Tomey had no
problem and then Mr. Bennett could write the letter and approve everything we got done.
327
MARCH 18,1997 - REGULAR MEETING - PAGE 8 OF 12
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F. NEW BUSINESS
6. Discuss Fire Department continued.
Council Member Markham continued that the whole memorandum was saying the Fire
Department was holding it up (Wal-Mart), but really if it had been handled with both
parties talking there would not have been a memorandum. It would have been taken care
of and he would not have been involved in it. He wanted the rest of the Council to
understand that.
The City is not the last ones to get finished with the Wal-Mart project. The Department
of Transportation and South Florida Water Management District turned their stuff in so
everything is on the go for Wal-Mart to carry on their next step in purchasing the land.
The memorandum (March 14th Status Report) said that we have just got to wait on the
purchasing of the land and then being annexed into the City.
The next item Council Member Markham brought up was overtime in the Fire
Department. He explained that since the Council kept getting memorandums with
amounts of the overtime the Fire Department was using without any explanation of why,
he met with Chief Tomey to question him on the overtime. He also explained that if the
Council looked at the amount of vacation time that is on the books for the fire department
they would be able to see that it would take $16,000.00 in overtime just to cover that
leave. Then there's sick leave that cannot be foreseen and the Fire Department get's "K-
+Day's". He felt that the Administrator who prepares the budget should have looked at
these items before the budget was adopted and he did not understand why the
Administrator was not assisting this particular Department Head with this budget problem
since he was under the impression that was one of the Administrator's duties, to assist
the Department Heads.
Chief Tomey explained to the Council that firefighters work on average a fifty-six hour
work week. Their shifts are twenty-four hours on and forty-eight hours off. One day to a
firefighter is twenty-four hours, unlike a regular employee, which is eight hours. In
addition to annual leave, sick leave and "Kelly Days", if a firefighter works over two
hundred twelve hours within a twenty-eight day cycle, anything over that amount must
be paid as overtime.
328
MARCH 18, 1997 -REGULAR MEETING -PAGE 9 OF 12
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F. NEW BUSINESS
6. Discuss Fire Department continued.
Chief Tomey continued, when a fireman is out for the day he calls in another fireman who
is off to come in and work the first twelve hours of the shift and a volunteer is called in
to work the last twelve hours of the shift at forty dollars per day. Half of the amount of
time that was used in overtime was consumed by volunteers.
Mayor Kirk and Council Member Watford expressed their concerns that the amount of
money for overtime should have been addressed during the budget process. They both
stressed to Chief Tomey the importance of working within this system and expected him
to be responsible for his department and budget.
Chief Tomey commented that he had requested twenty thousand dollars ($20,000.00)
in his budget for overtime and when the budget process began when the Department
Heads meet with the Administrator and Mayor or appointee the Administrator had
reduced the amount to the previous years' of twelve thousand dollars ($12,000.00). He
did not appeal that amount of money to the Council because the Administrator had
always instructed the Department Heads that the top half of the budget was to be
handled by him and the bottom half which are the operating expenditures would be their
responsibility. However, he agreed that he had learned a lesson and would appeal any
items in his budget that he did not feel he could live within from now on.
Mayor Kirk instructed Chief Tomey to prepare the information as suggested by
Council Member Watford when he expressed his concem which is: "come up with
alternate solutions and your recommendations on how this should be handled; you
need to seriously consider if you are going to or willing to be that third man on the
crew and back that up with some other type of back-up,• you need to look at your
equipment and be ready to respond to equipment needs of the City. to solve the
communication problem by perhaps either the Mayor, or he could appoint
someone else to be the liaison between the Council and the Fire Department and
the Administrator to get this department back where it needs to be".
329
MARCH 18, 1997 -REGULAR MEETING -PAGE 10 OF 12
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F. NEW BUSINESS
6. Discuss Fire Department continued.
Council Member Oliver and Chandler wanted to make sure everyone understood this
situation with the Fire Department is not one sided, that the Administrator is equally to
blame for the breakdown of communication. They also commented on the Administrators
"intimidating" management style he uses as leadership not only toward the Fire
Department but to all City Departments and Department Heads.
Mayor Kirk also instructed Administrator Drago and Chief Tomey to set a meeting
for the two of them to have a professional conversation and get their problems
straightened out and warned them if they did not he could find a solution for them.
Chief Tomey commented to the Council that he would work out whatever they wanted
him to and would put forth a good effort but that the Administrator was going to have to
meet him half way.
The discussion on item six was very lengthy. A verbatim of the discussion is on file in the
Clerk's Office.
ITEM ADDED TO THE AGENDA:
Council Member Oliver stated he wanted to discuss the City Administrator's job
7. Discuss City Administrator's Job Performance -
performance specifically the type of leadership he uses at City Hall. As most of the
Council Member Oliver.
issues were touched upon during the discussion on the Fire Department such as
intimidating the Department Heads, lack of communication with the Department Heads,
the fact that morale at City Hall among the employees is at a low, the "jokes" that are
played on employees and the latest issue of opening the City Clerk's outgoing mail. He
stated that from time to time different departments are in direct conflict with the City
Administrator, a few months ago it was the Finance Department. The Department Head
resigned and now it is the Fire Department and it makes you wonder if it is all the
Department Heads one at a time or is just one particular person.
j
Council Member Chandler also commented on another issue of the Administrator
causing dissension in the work force but chose not to bring it up for discussion at this
time. Discussion ensued between the Council, Council Member Chandler moved to
terminate Mr. Drago's contract with cause: seconded by Council Member Oliver.
330
MARCH 18, 1997 -REGULAR MEETING -PAGE 11 OF 12
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F. NEW BUSINESS
7. Discuss City Administrator's Job Performance
Council asked if there was a need to provide burdens of proof or evidence at this time.
continued.
Attorney Cook responded that the Council would need to refer to the new handbook as
to what constitutes cause. Council Member Chandler stated his reasons for cause were
being dishonest with the workforce and causing dissension between the departments,
Department Heads and employees, both of those are in the new handbook.
Attorney Cook advised further that he did not feel those items were strong enough to
substantiate cause with there not being any documented complaint about Administrator
Drago's performance by any employee. Items such as theft of City property or
embezzlement of funds would be.
Discussion ensued. Council Member Oliver withdrew his second to the motion. Council
Member Chandler withdrew his motion off the floor.
Council Member Chandler then moved to terminate Mr. Drago's contract without
cause and pay him ninety days severance pay, seconded by Council Member
Oliver.
Mayor Kirk expressed his concern over the quickness of this issue and the fact that it
was not a regular agenda item. Council Member Watford and Mayor Kirk discussed this
at length.
Council Member Watford moved to table this item until the next meeting. Mayor Kirk
called for a second three times. Motion died for lack of second.
Council Member Watford continued expressing his concerns to Council Members
Chandler and Oliver to postpone the vote on this item until it could be placed on a
regular agenda.
331
F. NEW BUSINESS
7. Discuss City Administrator's Job Performance
continued.
Adjournment - Mayor Kirk.
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE AND BE ADVISED that if a person decides to appeal
any decision made by the City Council with respect to any matter considered at
this meeting, he/she may need to insure that a verbatim record of the proceeding
is made, which record includes the testimony and evidence upon which the
appeal is to be based. A tape recording of this meeting is on fi in the City Clerk's
Office.
James E. Kirk
ATTEST: Mayor
Z,nnie S. Thomas, CMC
City Clerk
MARCH 18, 1997 - REGULAR MEETING - PAGE 12 OF 12
Council Member Oliver moved to table the motion until the next regular scheduled
meeting; seconded by Council Member Watford.
KIRK
CHANDLER
MARKHAM
OLIVER
WATFORD
MOTION CARRIED.
The discussion on item seven was very lengthy. A verbatim of the discussion is on file
in the Clerk's Office.
There being no further items on the agenda, Mayor Kirk adjourned the meeting at 11:06
p.m.
X
X
X
X
X
CITY OF OKEECHOBEE
3/18/96 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING
HANDWRITTEN MINUTES
A. Call meeting to order: �il1�z�;al�2 6 >i(EN177 0
B. Invocation:k,. ; Pledge: li L
C. Mayor & Council attendance: PRESENT ABSENT
Mayor Kirk
Councilman Chandler
Councilman Markham
Councilman Oliver
Councilman Watford `
Attorney Cook
Administrator Drago
Clerk Thomas
Deputy Clerk Gamiotea
D. Council Member 1, moved to dispense with reading and approve the Summary of Council
Action for the Regular meeting of February 18, 1996; seconded by Council Member C k
VOTE:
YES NO ABSENT
KIRK
CHANDLER
MARKHAM r
OLIVER i
WATFORD r.-
MOTION: ARRIED/DENIED
DISCUSSION:
E. Council Member moved to approve Warrant Registers for February, 1997 in the amount
of eighty-three thousand, five hundred eleven dollars, fifty-six cents ($83,511.56); seconded by
Council Member Ro uf&.
DISCUSSION:
MARKHAM, the Administrator on what we paid the $1000.00 for the bond counsel on $250,000 to
research? DRAGO, the $1000. was for the bond counsel to draw up the proper loan documents for the
City to sign for the $250,000 borrowing for the fire truck that encompassed not only the proper loan
documents but it also included the IRS forms and necessary forms and the necessary forms for the
division of bonds in Tallahassee to prove that it was a tax exempt issue rather than a taxable issue.
MARKHAM, then we're bonded? Are we bonded? Or was it just to draw up the plans, the papers for the
IRS and all this kind of stuff? DRAGO, it was strictly to draw up the proper documents so that if the bank
auditor were to go to Big Lake Bank or if our auditor were to look at our paper work or if the division of
bonds were to look at the documents or IRS they would all conclude that that was a non-taxable issue
that the City of Okeechobee has the authority to borrow the money. The way the documents were
structured in the beginning, it was for a private firm and if anybody were look at the documents they
would have claimed that to be a taxable issue and therefore the city would have been subjected to higher
payments. MARKHAM, our attorney can't draw up that, it has to go through a bond counsel? DRAGO,
well there's a lot of intricacies with tax law and finance law, in the past the city has used Mr. Zvara, Mr.
Cook is aware of that, Mr. Cook does double check the documents but Mr. Cook has told the City
Council before on several occasions there are certain areas of the law he is not comfortable with and
therefore rely on another attorney to do the specialized work. WATFORD, Mr. Chairman I had
1
questioned that item also and had spoken with Mr. Drago this afternoon about it and I agree with
Councilman MARKHAM, I think that this is normally something that we would not have done. I think
there's maybe two special circumstances involved in this. I don't know that I exactly agree with the
expenditure or not but I guess that I can see the reasoning behind it #1 is the institution that received
this or issued the loan is not one that we normally deal with nor is it one that, it's a local institution and
probably had not done any of this before so that's a special circumstances, plus the time element
involved I guess has to play into that. I would rather had seen that burden put upon the financial
institution to provide the necessary documents and forms that are needed but I guess I can see that
there were some special circumstances I think normally the financial institution, and Mr. Drago indicated
that the first times we did the lease on the cars we incurred some expense similar to this and then from
then on we didn't incur any and hopefully we wont be buying any thing else that big for awhile. That was
a good point though. KIRK, yes it was an excellent point.
VOTE:
YES NO ABSENT
KIRK
CHANDLER
O'CONNOR +/
OLIVER
WATFORD
MOTION: (f RRIED%DENIED
J
REQUEST FOR THE ADDITION, DEFERRAL OR WITHDRAWAL OF ITEMS ON TODAY'S AGENDA.
OLIVER, yes I'd like to add, Discuss the City Administrator. KIRK, just in general? OLIVER,
Performance. KIRK, ok we'll put that at the end of the agenda, item #7.
F. NEW BUSINESS
1. Hear from Burton Conner - The Honorable Burton Conner. - `�(dJC� c° U ff 0"JAC '
Burton Conner, good evening, Mayor KIRK and Councilmen I just want to personally thank each and
every one of you for the letters of support to the governor in support of my nomination as the circuit
judge, I am sure all of you are aware that I was successful, the local representative to the Florida Bar
Board of Governors told me I definitely had an advantage over the other 3 candidates in the sense that
I had some very strong community support and that's evident by the fact that both the City Council and
County Commission all the members of both boards sent letters in support and without it quite honestly
Okeechobee would not have a resident circuit judge there's just not way with 1/10 of the voting
population in a 4 county area that an attorney from Okeechobee can try to run against in a popular
general election and get elected as a circuit judge. My first day on the bench will be Monday March 31 st,
the actual robing ceremony will be at the Court House, April 2nd at 4 in the afternoon, hopefully each
of you will received your invitations that will be going out I would very much appreciate it if you could
attend. My first assignment is going to be juvenile and family court in Indian River County. I know that
the idea was to have a resident circuit judge but the reality is on an appointed situation if someone
decides to run against me I face an election next year and that means a 4 county area race so if I can
spend some time on the coast for the next year and a half and get some exposure then hopefully I can
stave off deciding to run against me or if they run against me successfully be able to win on that. So I'm
not exactly sure when I will be able to be reassigned and spend time in Okeechobee I think it will
probably the year after next. But again I just to personally thank each of you for the letters of support and
tell you that I'm going to try the best job I can on the bench representing this county, thank you very
much. WATFORD, (jokingly) you didn't get a chance read any of those letters did you? Burton, a few
people faxed them to me but not everyone, obviously I didn't get yours Dowling, but non the less, you
know they say in politics it doesn't necessary matter if it's negative as long as the names out there is
what counts. Thank you.
2. Presentation of Proclamations - Mayor KIRK.
Juvenile Justice Week Proclamation was read in it's entirety by Mayor KIRK and presented to School
2
Board Member Gay Carlton. -
"WHEREAS, the state's juvenile crime problem has ramifications far beyond the juvenile justice system
and affects the health and integrity of the state's business, community, education, and family institutions;
and
WHEREAS, the state as well as the City of Okeechobee must therefore employ a comprehensive
strategy to address the problem of juvenile crime if the problem is to be effectively solved; and
WHEREAS, statewide there has been an increase in the number of youths committed for delinquency
in the last fiscal year; and
WHEREAS, the City of Okeechobee will not tolerate the criminal activities of our youth; and
WHEREAS, the citizens of the community need to have a heightened awareness of juvenile justice
issues; and
WHEREAS, the City of Okeechobee will work with the Department of Juvenile Justice and local
businesses on programs for the prevention and intervention of juvenile justice;
NOW, THEREFORE, the Board of City Commissioners of Okeechobee County does hereby PROCLAIM
the week of March 24 through March 28, 1997 as JUVENILE JUSTICE WEEK in the City of
Okeechobee, and urge all citizens of our community to take part in stopping or preventive juvenile
delinquency and to make a conscious effort to learn more about the programs for prevention and
intervention."
Ms. Carlton, I gave you a list of the activities that will be going on during juvenile justice week, and the
biggest thing that we are going to have is our town meeting and we'll be set up on the same format that
the local government is set on. The ........... kids that are involved will be the runners, some of the kids
from the Eckerd Youth Center will be ........... thank you.
The Child Abuse Prevention Month Proclamation was presented next and read by Mayor KIRK read it
in it's entirety, there was no one present to receive this proclamation:
"WHEREAS, child abuse and neglect is a serious and growing problem affecting more than two million
of our nation's children annually and over 3,500 of children locally; and
WHEREAS, the societal malignancy called child abuse and neglect respects no racial, religious, class,
or geographical boundaries, and, in fact, has been declared a national emergency; and
WHEREAS, the Exchange Club C.A.S.T.L.E. of the Treasure Coast, Inc., Tri County Tec, Center for
Children in Crisis, Hibiscus Children's Center and Children's Home Society through their support of
parent aide programs, parenting classes and educational programs, are make significant progress in
stopping this crime against our nations and community's children and families;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, James E. KIRK, Mayor of the City of Okeechobee do hereby proclaim the entire
month of April, 1997 shall be observed as CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION month of the City of
Okeechobee, and I urge all citizens to use this time to better understand, recognize, and respond to this
grievous problem;
AND, FURTHER, I congratulate the above mentioned agencies for their continued success in helping
families break free from the cycle of child abuse."
The American Red Cross Day Proclamation was presented last and read by Mayor KIRK in it's entirety,
there was no one present to receive the proclamation:
"WHEREAS, the City of Okeechobee has numerous American Red Cross volunteers who have
demonstrated their value in public assistance by providing disaster relief; and
3
WHEREAS, these American Red Cross volunteers donate these services free of charge, in the interest
of the citizens of the City as well as the world; and
WHEREAS, this year's Okeechobee Chapter American Red Cross Day will take place on April 5 1997;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, James E. KIRK, Mayor of the city of Okeechobee, proclaim the day of April 5,
1997, as AMERICAN RED CROSS DAY in recognition of this important emergency preparedness
agency, and call upon all citizens to pay appropriate tribute to the American Red Cross of our City."
Mayor KIRK instructed Administrator Drago to mail the two proclamations to the appropriate parties.
3. Council Member i C,,- moved to approve the following employees to the City Grievance
Committee: Fire Department -Jeff Baugh/Alternate-Billy Douglas; Police Department -Kelley
Ammons/Alternate-Gene O'Neill; Administration/Finance/ General Service/Clerk's Office -Lane
Gamiotea/Alternate-Nina Borenstein; Public Works Department -Cleveland Lamb/Alternate-Shane
Brumley - City Clerk - (Exhibit 1); seconded by Council Member m ',L
VOTE:
YES NO ABSENT
KIRK
CHANDLER Y
MARKHAM
OLIVER v
WATFORD
MOTION: VIUUR�D/DENIED
;< 1 E+tip -�f't fi2i�
DISCUSSION:
tick
4. DRAGO, the street sweeping contract is up the end of March, Chuck has had some conversations
with the local contractor and it appears a local contractor is willing to upgrade his current piece of
equipment in order to meet the requirements of the city to sweep the streets, so in order for us to give
him an opportunity to bid we need to extend the current contract on a monthly basis so that we can
continue to meet our obligations with DOT and we are under contract with DOT to sweep some of their
streets.
WATFORD, so this is a one month extension? DRAGO, No, it's going to be on a month to month basis
until the bids get sent out and comes back and then the Council awards the bid. Gomez could come back
low again but our numbers indicate the local should come in low.
MARKHAM, is this up for discussion? KIRK, we can discuss it now sure. MARKHAM, how long have we
been doing business with Gomez? DRAGO, 5 years. MARKHAM, has it been 5 year contract with them
or? DRAGO, it's been a 3 year contract with 2 year options to renew which is already been up.
MARKHAM, their contract is up with us when? DRAGO, March 31 st. MARKHAM, so your asking for an
increase? DRAGO, this particular amount does include an increase, he's already requested an increase
so that triggered us to go back out into the market place and again Chuck went to one of the locals who
had a street sweeping machine and he indicated that he would upgrade it to the city requirements. It
appears if the bids were sent out and come back that he would be low, now if he indicated to Chuck that
he was not interested in sweeping the streets then my second recommendation would have been to
extend Gomez's contract for 3 years at a fixed cost because Gomez was cheaper. MARKHAM, if this was
coming up the end of this month why didn't we go ahead and look at this a month ago so we wouldn't
have it come right up to the due date? DRAGO, well Chuck had some I don't want to say problems but
he tried to get in contact with the local guy and then we brought some other outsiders in to get a price
feel for where the pricing was going to be and as I said before if the local didn't decide that he wanted
to upgrade his equipment then my second recommendation to the Council would have been to extend
this contract for at least 3 additional years at the fixed price cause the other ones come in much higher.
MARKHAM, what I have a problem with is when I got this agenda all I had was a price there asking to
approve $2427.50, nothing to show me what it was for so I had to do some research on my own to find
4
out why we were having to do this and why it had to be done right now and I just, to look out for the city
we have to do it, but if we disagree with it then the people don't do it so it puts me in the position of
either I do what you put out in front of me or we don't get any street sweeping done and especially when
the contract is over March 31 st. If we knew the contract was going over March 31 st why didn't we bring
this up a month ago and take care of it? I just don't see why we have to do everything right on the end
of every birthday date. DRAGO, well again, Chuck tried to get in contact with the local to try to determine
if he was interested, I think he took him out once or twice to look at the situation to determine if he was
interested in doing it and we did bring in some others from outside so we could get a feel where the
pricing was as far as the research work is concerned I was available to answer those concerns that you
had about the contract, due date, difference in pricing, etc. but I was never contacted by any city
councilman. MARKHAM, maybe the other city councilmen already know about all of this but when I get
something and it doesn't have any information in that thing either somebody doesn't want me to know
or I've got to look it up myself and I just don't appreciate getting numbers thrown at me without knowing
any background on what's going on. There's been 2 extensions on this for the 4th and 5th year so
somebody was aware of every year that it came up so when the last year came up or the 7th year surely
this could have been looked at 2 months ago and put out bids at that time and then the bid would be in
at that time and I don't think it's Chuck's place to put out bids or bring this up I think it's the
administrator's place.
KIRK, when did you start working on this? (No response) Did you say you were getting quotes that
higher than Gomez? DRAGO, yes. MARKHAM, and lower? DRAGO, no the only lowest one so far and
it's predicated on whether or not he upgrades his machinery was the local man and that's only a ball park
figure he gave us that was not an exact figure but it gave us an idea that if we were to send it out for bids
he should come in lower and he also indicated that if it was longer than 3 years it would be even lower,
isn't that correct Chuck? CHUCK, yes. MARKHAM, these are verbal bids, they're not contract bids?
CHUCK, no they're telephone quotes, they fax the quotes in and basically it took over a month to get
that. MARKHAM, Mr. Mayor my opinion would be that we set a definite time on how long we're going to
extend this amount until we got a bid in here or go ahead and let this one person do it. If you just do an
extension on it there's no time on this thing, it doesn't say anything about a time extension or anything.
KIRK, how long do you expect Mr. Administrator that this will take to get something from the local
person? DRAGO, I would say that we have to leave the bids out at least 30 days I know there were a
couple of other people that came in to town and picked up maps from Chuck that we haven't heard from
there's a possibility they may come back into town and look at it and bid so if you feel comfortable with
a time frame I'd put probably no more than 90 days.
KIRK, if we were not going out of our way to accommodate the local person that's trying to get a bid in
here would this expedite the process? DRAGO, yes because my recommendation would have been to
extend this contract for 3 years at a fixed price because 5 years ago this company was the lowest. KIRK,
do we feel they're the lowest know? Are you basing that on something? DRAGO, they're not the lowest
now because the local guy indicated a lower figure. KIRK, but I'm saying leave out the local guy.
DRAGO, yes he's low. KIRK, so then what we're saying is we're struggling with this to extend it to give
a local person a chance to get the city's business, I commend you for that, I don't see a negative there,
I think every dime we spend here is a dime well spent. I do think you might could have informed the
Council a little earlier. DRAGO, I don't have and I can go get it but I think in one of my status reports
indicated that Chuck and I were looking into the street sweeping bids. MARKHAM, yes you did but you
didn't give us any idea of when that birthday date was going to be on it, the year ending you just made
a quote that you were looking into getting bids but it didn't tell us when it had to be. KIRK, I would
suggest if this a problem for the Council that you drop the local bidder and make a recommendation that
it go for 3 years. MARKHAM, I disagree I don't see how you can just cancel out a local person .... . KIRK,
that was Council MARKHAM my point and comment before to the Administrator it sounds like, first I
agree with what you said we should have know before hand this is not enough time but he's telling us
he would be ready tonight for recommendation were we not fooling with the local guy. MARKHAM, Chuck
on your quotes who turned in the first bid, do you have the dates on those on when they were turned in?
CHUCK, Gomez turned his in on 1/28, Charlie's Tree Service 2/13, Sweeping Corporation 3/3.
MARKHAM, Feb 13th till now, that's not late if you didn't put a time limit on there. DRAGO, but Chuck
wasn't there a couple more that came into town? CHUCK, there was 2, Sweeping Corporation, there was
another one and we haven't heard from them.
KIRK, when did we put this out? No response. KIRK, I mean these people are bidding why are they
5
giving us quotes? DRAGO, well because we wanted to get a feel for the pricing, we knew 5 years ago
that Gomez was the lowest of all the ones that submitted bids, we went back to the same companies,
as a matter of fact one company we went back to the 2nd time, didn't they quote $75,000? CHUCK, yes
the sweeping corporation. DRAGO, so that gave us a feel for where the pricing was going to be and you
know Okeechobee doesn't sit in an area where it's very competitive in this line of work so we have to
be careful that we don't put ourselves in the position where Gomez can come in and know kind of where
the pricing is, get his prices up higher but still be lower. KIRK, but would you know get written bids from
these people? DRAGO, I would get written bids from the people now that the local has indicated he
wants the bid because he's willing to upgrade his equipment, yes I would, but if he indicated to Chuck
he was not going to do it or at least didn't come in at the price he told Chuck he would come in at then
my recommendation would have been to extend this one for 3 years at a fixed price because he still
would have been lower.
WATFORD, I see the both points, I certainly see the reasoning and l agree with Councilman MARKHAM,
it's unfortunate that we didn't have this two months ago and we could have said yeah bid it and it would
have been ready to go and that's the unfortunate part but as I say I see the reasoning and understand
that it's just unfortunate that it's another one of those situations where we were forced into a box because
the time is up, we did that once on insurance and some other items and I think it's just unfortunate that
our timing can't be a little better. And I know Councilman Oliver when he first came on board had asked
for a calendar and I think we've received that but I honestly don't know where mine is but I wish I did so
we could have dealt with this a little better. I do remember...
Bill OSTERMAN, Mr. Mayor? KIRK, was you through? WATFORD, yeah I'm through. OSTERMAN, is
there some sort of ordinance that requires the service to be done? I don't know if you've ever watched
the street sweeping but I got a line of cars down there on 441 and I would pay a little bit of extra taxes
every year for you to stop sweeping because all I see when they go by is a huge cloud of dust go back
in the air and settle back down. If you want you can talk to Willard Mays he has the same thing he goes
out and curses the guy out if he sees him within 2 blocks of his place I mean is this a service we really
need? We got the wind blowing, it does the same thing. KIRK, are we required to do this by anyone?
DRAGO, no if you decide you didn't want to do it we'd just go back and amend the DOT contract right
Chuck we don't have to do it for DOT? KIRK, does DOT pay us? DRAGO, oh yeah. WATFORD, we have
a grant or contract with DOT. KIRK, that's why I'm digging I thought there was something. CHUCK, I think
you need to look outside the City Limits where the sweeping stops and road continues. OSTERMAN,
that's where the sidewalks end also, I walk that route to work almost every morning, they don't sweep
the sidewalks but when they get done they sure need swept. KIRK, well we need difentily to give
direction here and I will commend both of you for going out of the way to accommodate the local guy but
also have to recognize the point that was raised by Councilman MARKHAM I think it would behoove
you to give us more time the next time. No matter what the Council decides to do with this I think when
we did this thing several years ago I remember it was a hassle at that time and there was complaints and
I don't remember us having people lined up to bid on it but I still think you could have done this on a
more timely fashion and I would certainly hope you would do that in the future. I think we need to decide
whether it's worth extending it for 90 days and give the local person an option or not because we've been
told that the current contractor has the lowest quote that we can get and when you go out for bids your
going to get the same thing.
Council Member OJ' moved to approve an extension to (of) the street sweeping contract
with P.F. Gomez Construction in the amount of two thousand, four hundred twenty-seven dollars,
fifty cents ($2,427.50) per month (for up to 90 days for the purpose of bidding the street sweeping
contract)- City Administrator; seconded by Council Member
WATFORD, I'd like to address one other item and that's in the level of service I know that, and
remember when we had our own street sweeping machine and we kind of tend to just swirl it around as
we went by and then when we contracted with this company they have supposedly a vacuum type thing
as I understand it or something so we must have some problem or something with how that is being done
so I think maybe we need to address that problem also. And I've seen it when we did it ourselves and
I know how that worked and but we may need to address the type of service or maybe there is something
wrong with the machine or maybe there's a newer type of machine out there that we need to specify we
need ours done with, I don't know all the ends and outs, but there is perhaps a problem there. KIRK, I
remember we got a lot of complaints when we were doing it. WATFORD, boy we did, we don't near the
rel
complaints now I will admit that, we don't get near the complaints we use to, and I 've seen the gutters
when they weren't swept at all and it does look better when their swept, the other thing we need to
address is the corners because they don't get the corners, I don't know maybe the machine doesn't work
good up to the corners and as I've walked around town sometimes I've noticed the corners, I don't know
if we need to do that or and we can re -address it at that time whether we want to do it or not I mean just
cause we bid it out doesn't necessarily, so that maybe something each of us want to investigate. KIRK,
can we not address level of service in this process? DRAGO, I think Chuck can tell you it's predicated
on the type of equipment. CHUCK, you've got different, it all depends on who you talk to, before
everybody was going to the vacuum, I talked to now they are against the vacuum because
they've I talked with to see what they were using and called around to see
what everybody was using I've seen them in the movies in New York
City and stuff like that. WATFORD, that might work. KIRK, my fear here CHUCK is we don't want to go
back to something similar to what we had because everyone of us is going to get call after call after call.
CHUCK, we've had very little, he's probably the 2nd or 3rd person's that's complained, since we've been
into this, Mr. Altobello, he complains when the leaves start falling over in front of his place, and we've
had very little complaints. KIRK, well I know we all got it when we was doing it ourselves. WATFORD,
it has been better and I hope we're not giving the impression that . KIRK, I hope we don't
either, you can let us know at the next meeting what you've turned tape 1 to side b WATFORD, I don't
think we'd necessarily need to know that at the next meeting I think we would want to know that before
we award the bid. KIRK, make sure we're award somebody that's going to do that type. Yeah that's a
good point.
VOTE:
YES NO ABSENT
KIRK
CHANDLER
OLIVER
WATFORD
MOTION: CARRIE-b/DENIED
i�5. Discuss the 441 widening project -City Administrator.
DRAGO, the Council's going to be faced with a policy decision when DOT decides to widen 441. The
preliminary plan and I do mean preliminary, indicates that most of the road "taking" or right of way taking
is goinc to be on tM West side of 441 (North) some of the businesses are not going to be impact but
some are where the impact is going to come is from how much of the right of way they take in
relationship to how much is left in the front of the property for set backs and parking. I guess the plans
appear to be that the more north you go the wider the "take" is. When you get into the County it kind of
jumps back on the East side, then back on the West side. So the policy decision the Council is faced
with is if they take some of the front of the property where it would leave the building technically
encroaching the setbacks then you tell DOT that DOT needs to take the property whole or just
acknowledge the fact that it is in the setback and if anything happens to the building then when they go
to relocate it then it has to be put on the property according to the set backs. The same with parking,
there is a possibility that some of the taking could take up some of the parking which would leave less
parking in relationship to the occupancy use of the building. So then again the question becomes you
tell DOT you make the property owner whole or do you allow for the reduced parking predicated on the
fact that if the business were to change or something were to happen then they would put it back the way
it's suppose to be. That's going to effect DOT's decision as to how much they buy, how much their going
to spend and of coarse my concern is if they don't buy all the property and they leave'/2 of it then your
going to be left with property along 441 that's non -develop able at all, owned by a private property owner
and he's going to be coming back saying well I can't do anything with my property because your zoning
code says I can't do it, can't buy anybody from the back or the sides because that would have already
been done the same way.
WATFORD, isn't this similar to what we had though on 70 West? DRAGO, well t found out now that if
the Council adopts the policy that says DOT you have to make the property owner whole we're not going
rr to accept encroachments and set backs, we're not going to accept changes in parking requirements, now
that's going to force DOT to either go through with the project or abandon the project. So on SR 70 you
could put DOT in the position to either buy all the property because your going to tell them it's got to be
whole or nothing, look at the split pair which was recommended by Council or they could abandon
widening SR 70 in the City Limits, I don't think they're that far along, with DOT, I think they are committed
to do it but they like to know what the Council's policy will be. WATFORD, I guess I was just under the
impression, I know some of the business owners in that situation, as I understand the process that if they
make you an offer or something if you don't accept that offer then it automatically goes to some type of
arbitration or something of that, then that's when that would come into play, you know, well my property
is not going to be worth anything because I don't have any more parking left or I can't expand or
whatever the situation is. DRAGO, yeah but see if the Council adopts a policy that says, it's whole,
everything has to meet code or not meet, then that actually puts the ouis on DOT to either do it that way
or not do it. Now the City of Naples & Boca Raton have a policy that says, DOT you have to leave it
whole, so there's some road widening projects that DOT won't do in those cities because of the cost. And
that's find -with the cities, that's why they adopted the policy go DOT now is starting to send some
appraisers in here, looking at the properties along 441 so before long and I don't know what the time
frame is I think they're probably, what a year or 2 away before they start construction Chuck? CHUCK,
North on 441? Between 2 and 3 years. DRAGO, so the Council now has enough time now to determine
how do they want to handle 441, you may want to handle 441 one way and then when 70 comes around
you may want to change your policy. OSTERMAN, isn't there some 0 lot line buildings on the west side
of 441? I think the Carlton building? DRAGO, yeah but in some commercial districts that's permissible
up to the sidewalk. OSTERMAN, well I know it's permissible but I mean.... DRAGO, well the Carlton
Building that's already 4 lane, I'm talking about from the railroad track North. Take the Close building,
they're going to take the drainage ditch, landscaping, and could take some of his parking lot, now there's
a perfect example there's no property in the back so if you tell DOT you got to make it whole then my
concern is DOT are you going to buy the whole building out and then what are you going to do with the
building? Are you going to let it sit there and deteriate and make it look a blighted area and now that gets
into the City's codes and setback requirements and those types of things. There's a couple of buildings
that are going to be touched that's for sure, but then the property will want to know well, if they take the
front '/ of my building can I rebuild on the back half and still leave it without having to more the whole
thing? So that's another question that has to be answered also. MARKHAM, Mr. Close is thinking about
building another place across the street, is he aware of the widening? DRAGO, he's aware of the
widening but DOT hadn't made known where they were going to take the property, they didn't know
exactly which side of the street they were going to take the property, now they have a preliminary
drawing that says they're going to take it on the West side of city, now if he was to build on the East side
he's ok, cause DOT's got enough right of way on the East side but they're taking the West side where
he just put up that building and at the time when he put it up DOT couldn't tell him what side of the road
they were going to take the property so he had to build it according to the city's specifications which he
did, but he's going to loose that drainage ditch, landscaping and could loose some of the parking lot.
Now when you go further North that teal building, whatever that teal building is, that thing, part of that
will go, then DOT is going to buy some pieces of property around 12th and 13th for retention like they
did on the other side of the bridge. MARKHAM, so they're going to take all the property on one side of
the road then? DRAGO, in the city, that's tentative. MARKHAM, instead of taking it off of both sides.
WATFORD, so if I were a property owner what would I want, I would woot them to buy the whole thing.
Kirk, so would I. MARKHAM, and if you loose all your parking spots. WATFORD, or part of it or enough
of it that it effects how much business you can do or it takes part of your building, I'd want them to take
it all. I mean I would think, as a city, I guess we would probably want, and I'm thinking out loud here,
wont that too because as the Administrator said if they take part of a building or something you wouldn't
want to wrestle with the question, well what do we do with the rest of it. MARKHAM, You couldn't do
anything with it. WATFORD, right then as he said DOT would need to have some plan to tear down
whatever they is not usable. MARKHAM, Mr. Close just built on the wrong side of the road first.
WATFORD, well maybe not, for him. KIRK, I think this is not a decision we have to make tonight but
think we need to be very careful. WATFORD, Oh extremely. KIRK, Because we could just about put
somebody out of business. WATFORD, or we could stop if the cost and I understood what the
administrator said if the cost was so prohibited then they say well we just cant afford to do this right now
it's going to be put off and by the same token you don't want that to happen because we all want 441-
4 lane and sidewalks that way so we... OLIVER, we have to be careful. WATFORD, would have to be
very careful. I mean it's nice to say I'd like for them to buy it all... DRAGO, but I don't think they will, on
some of that property they've indicated they will only buy enough of what they need and leave the rest.
My concern is whatever is left might not be big enough to do anything with. WATFORD, that's why it
seems like the arbitration situation is for all it's faults is probably better because then it's a case by case
you know. CHANDLER, can you recommend they take a little from both sides? DRAGO, well I don't
think, you probably could, that's what we did up there, but now what may force them to change their mind
is if you establish a policy that says to leave the property owners whole and then they may take a look
at the other side. WATFORD, but the property owner still has that option, he doesn't have to accept I'm
going to buy 50 ft of your property or something or 100 ft of your property, as I understand it he still has
the option to say well wait a minute that's not enough money or I don't know exactly what grounds they
can do that. DRAGO, well he would only have that if you establish a policy that says we'll cooperate with
the property owner and let them stay with the current occupancy, we'll use a restaurant as an example,
it's 1 parking space for every 3 seats, so is there was a restaurant along 441 and they were to take part
of the parking lot and then he encroached in the set back which means he's not whole so he's got to
move the whole building back then the comp plan says you can't use more than 85% then he may not
have enough room to have his restaurant put on that property he would have to change the use or sell
it to a different person that the parking requirements could be 1 space for every 5 rather than 1 every
3. WATFORD, but isn't that one of the factors that's into there like how much future business that you
would have lost, I guess from what your saying is, if we said yeah we'll work with them, basically that
kind of leaves us out of it cause then they can still use this process if they feel like they need more
money, is that what I'm hearing? DRAGO, no, either way they've got to deal with DOT as far as the
money is concerned, the thing is do you want all the properties to conform with the city code, that is if
it's 20 ft frontage setback, that means all buildings have got to be set back 20 ft, so if DOT takes'/ of
that parking lot and now the building is only 5 ft then you tell DOT I'm sorry that buildings got to back 15
ft, well he may not have enough room in the back of the property to move it back 15 ft and then provide
all the parking, so therefore he goes to DOT and say hey you can't make me whole you've got to buy
the whole thing. The DOT says ok I'll do that or like Mr. CHANDLER said they may take a look at taking
some from the East side. But your still faced with the same situation, it they don't have enough right of
way on both sides and they've got to take it then you could effect both sides of the street.
KIRK, what happens if they go to arbitration and they can't agree in arbitration? DRAGO, it's normally
settled by a judge. COOK, you have a trial. WATFORD, as I understand it very few of them ever go to
trail. KIRK, I didn't even know what would happen that's the reason I asked. When do they need to know
from us? DRAGO, I think the sooner that you establish a policy the sooner they understand what it is and
it will give them plenty of time if they want to a, go forward with the project, cause they may decide
against it, that's a possibility, look at both sides of road or determine which businesses are going to be
the most effected and how much is that going to cost. It would be unfair I guess to wait until the "witching
hour' and tell DOT to wait a minute and just put everything on hold we're going to discuss this and they
have everything already planned so I think in this case we need to tell them well in advance this is what
our policy is going to be.
KIRK, I'm just sitting here thinking if I was a business owner and coarse again I guess they're going to
have fight with DOT aren't they? DRAGO, yes but the thing is some of them you've got pros and cons,
you run the risk that they get their property built out they may not want to relocate their business in the
city, build again, they may go to the county, or they may just like the Dairy not bother to go at all, there's
pros and cons to it. CHUCK, DOT's plans for 441 North is 90% completed it will be this next year that
they'll start trying to purchase the properties. OSTERMAN, I think one question you'll have to decide is
I don't think it's so much a question of cutting off the front of a building but are you going to let these
people operate businesses that are not in compliance with the LDR's that's the basic question, if you're
going to continue to let them try to operate without the proper set backs, without the proper parking,
without the property buffer and greenery then I think that's because if
someone's driveway they're not going to have room for the landscaping and buffer and
setbacks and everything. WATFORD, haven't we historically as a city, as a nation, particularly as a city
and as a county, haven't we historically held to the fact that if you were there first and you hear the term
all the time grand fathered in and you can stay there until you needed to rebuild or expand or you know
the use changed as he said from a restaurant, haven't we as a society kind of always subscribed to that.
OSTERMAN, haven't always had the LDR's Dowling and then the question there when
I was building there and I want to buy it the LDR's . WATFORD, it's
the same theory as some of the lots in the city that are platted that are to small, they're grand fathered
in so you can. OSTERMAN, that's going the other way, . WATFORD, right and so.
DRAGO, but even with the 50 ft lots the property owner still has to meet the set back requirements.
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WATFORD, that's true. KIRK, there's no easy answer here. Do we want to make a decision tonight?
OLIVER, can we see if we can gather more information and see if we can discuss it again. KIRK, this
sounds like there's, to me, there is no good decision, just the least painful. TWYLA VALENTINE, do you
have any kind of a concept or idea of exactly how many property owners could be effected by this in that
group your talking about because that's a relatively short distance from the railroad track to the city
limits, right? DRAGO, no I don't know the number. KIRK, I think that would help us too. The only thing
that bothers me there, if it just effected 1 business and I was that person I think I'd be very unhappy if
you told me I couldn't do business there especially, you mentioned the Close. OLIVER, it doesn't look
like there's anything on the East side of that street is there? DRAGO, there's a little strip shopping
center, use to be an automotive place, gas company, Jetsons, and the rest of that is vacant property.
KIRK, so why don't they look at that? DRAGO, I think they look at the road alignment all the way up and
down, they don't just look in the city they look in the county too. It stays on the East side. KIRK, it's
almost like that invisible line on the demographics, right. DRAGO, exactly and then it jumps over to the
East and comes back again. KIRK, I'd like to know how many it effects and how much it effects them.
Cook, CHUCK doesn't the department have a like you said 90% of the engineer drawings already issued
to show the proposed right of way (right.) And if we had benefit of that drawing you can see exactly what
properties are effected and how far back. CHUCK, we've got those. DRAGO, yeah but those drawings
don't indicated each property it just has a white line with the road details. Cook, but you could overlay
roughly the properties that would be effected onto that map. DRAGO, I can go back because when a guy
was in my office he had the map with the overlay on the property so that's that I have to get. Cook, I
understand they're all done in metric now though is that right. CHUCK, a lot of them yes. KIRK, I think
that would help me if I could see what we were talking about, that's kind of abstract to sit up here and
no know what your doing to the property owners but your saying we need to do this soon we don't want
to wait, can you have this at the next meeting? DRAGO, I can call the DOT and find out the appraiser
that's working on it to get a copy of those drawings. KIRK, how does everybody else feel do you think
we need that. (Council all said yes) Okay, I don't think we need a motion here we'll just instruct you to
have this available for us at the next meeting and have this back on the agenda and discuss it with better
or be better informed before we make a decision, is there anybody in disagreement with that? Okay
that's what we'll do.
6. Discuss Fire Department - Councilman Markham.
MARKHAM, on the memos we got the last 3 months, I'd like to bring up the council on a couple of things
that have happened and then discuss some things with the council on Mr. Drago. The first thing that I'd
like to bring up would be the WalMart were the administrator said that the fire chief was the stumbling
block on the issues that was being taken place. I went with Mr. Bennett and met with the chief and it
didn't take us but probably 15 minutes to clear that problem up, if Mr. Drago had been working more with
the chief I think on that project instead of against him from what I see that this problem wouldn't have
L occurred and I wouldn't have been involved with it. The only problem that the chief had was he did not
understand exactly the formality that processing was through Mr. Bennett. As soon as Mr. Bennett
explained that problem the chief had no problem and then Mr. Bennett could write the letter and approve
everything we got done. The whole memo and everything was saying the fire department was holding
it up but really if it had been handled with both parties talking there wouldn't have been a memo, it would
have been taken care of and I wouldn't had been involved in it Mr. Mayor and I wanted the rest of the
council to understand that. We get these memos and if I go in and handle a situation like that the rest
of you don't know exactly what happened because of not being able to communicate amongst ourselves.
That's just one of them I wanted to bring out. If anybody has any discussion on it but we weren't the last
ones to get finished with that, DOT and SFWMD turned their stuff in so everything is on the go for
WalMart to carry on their next step in purchasing the land and like the memo said we just got on
purchasing the land and being annexed into the city.
The next thing I'd like to discuss is we keep getting the memo's on overtime on the fire department, we
got one in January, February and one this month, the first one we got since I was the new man on the
block and I guess I have to learn the old way and researching it and find out for myself how things work
I went to the chief and asked him why are you going over on your overtime on your men. And he sat
down and explained to me how his overtime worked and how the vacation that we give these men every
year come about and from the time that I talked to him and kind of saw what he was doing and the
amount of men that he has and the vacation that those men, that we give to them, the city councilmen,
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there's no way that he can stay within his budget and that can be seen from the first day of the year.
KIRK, do we have any idea how much of this thirty some thousand dollars is vacation? MARKHAM, part
of it is estimated when the men are out, is $16,000. plus and then you have personal days and that's an
unknown figure of what your going to use there. Then all these hours that are being told to us, they've
accumulated 1356 hours of overtime, well 612 hours of those are volunteer fireman that come in and
work and they work at $40 a day, so 612 hours of that at 51 days is only $2,040. So your volunteers are
almost picking up half the slack of all the time that's put in. So the other time is with the fireman picking
up overtime for the guys who are on vacation that we gave them anyway. I don't see how we can set a
budget up on the fire department at $12,000 a year when we know automatically the vacation time is
going to get $16,000 plus. And then put memos out complaining about it all the time, unless I don't see
something.
KIRK, my first reaction on the budget part would be simply that somebody should be yelling and
complaining there because if I go over in my budget at my school anything near like this I wouldn't be
there next year. I live within my budget. MARKHAM, but if you put the budget to where you know it's
going to go over. KIRK, I'm going to say something before it gets that far if it effects me.
WATFORD, can I say something. KIRK, well let me ask a question here first cause this is starting to get
my attention, we got how many employee's in the fire department, full time people (10) not counting the
chief (9), we got 9 and how many weeks vacation do they get a year (2) so if everybody's had their
vacation. TOMEY, one gets 3 weeks. KIRK, so if everybody's taken their vacation and we're paying them
a $1,000 a week that would be $21,000 in overtime so then that means we should have just about all
vacations completely out of the way is that correct, would that be a true assumption? Has everybody had
their vacation in the fire department? TOMEY, no you also got sick time in that. KIRK, in that $16,000?
TOMEY, $16,000? KIRK, I got this from Councilman Markham. MARKHAM, the $16,000 would just be
the vacation time.
KIRK, that's what I'm saying, how many weeks of vacation is in this $16,000 for 9 men that's a lot of
vacation is what I'm saying, but we're saying we don't have all their vacation. TOMEY, what you don't
understand is that $16,000 is time and a half money paid to fill in for a guy while he's on vacation, but
you got to remember one thing when my men vacation, if they take 2 weeks vacation it's a minimum of
96 hours if he takes a vacation in a week that he has 3 shifts in that week then that 96 hours moves to
120 hours overtime. A workday to my men is 24 hours not 8 hours. You can't figure like you do
everything else on 8 hours it's 24 hours, if they call in sick it's 24 hours if they take 2 days off sick that's
48 hours, not 40 hours like a regular employees takes off a week. Personalty days that you give them
is 48 hours to my personnel not 16 hours like everyone else. When you sit down and figure that
that's where you come up with your hours.
KIRK, when you go on duty your on for 24 hours? TOMEY these me right here are on duty for 24 hours.
KIRK, and your on duty for 24 hours. TOMEY, no sir I'm on for 8 hours. KIRK, oh I misunderstood you
I thought you said when I went on duty it's for 24 hours. TOMEY, I meant my men not me, I'm sorry.
KIRK, they got 24 on and what off? TOMEY, 48. KIRK, and 48 off okay, what is the average salary Keith
of a guy in your department? The $16,000 is bothering me so I need to clear this up in my mind. TOMEY,
the way I figured it was $11.70 an hour average. KIRK, okay so lets say $12.00 and what do you
consider a week, how many hours? TOMEY, we pay on a 56 hour work week, that's average. KIRK, so
that's $672. a week, am I doing that right? TOMEY, I don't have any idea. KIRK, that would be your
average salary of your people? $600, $700 a week? TOMEY, overtime, that's time and a half, $11.70
is time and a half. KIRK, the $12.00 is time and a half. So $672. we'll say $670. because I rounded up
from 11 to 12, if I multiply that by 21 that probably will do it. Based on this you should have a couple of
people that does not have their entire vacation in already. TOMEY, yeah I'm sure there isn't and again
Mayor even though. KIRK, would you consider that a fair statement that 7 out of 9 men have all their
vacation time used up? TOMEY, they've got more vacation time than 2 weeks, as far as the hours of —?—
firefighter Sanders had to take off 4 shifts in order get it down below 240 hours so I have firefighters that
have over a 100 and some hours in vacation time. Lt. Baugh still has 186 vacation hours and should he
decide to take it this year he can take it. WATFORD, _?_. MARKHAM, you can't hold it against them
cause you gave them the vacation. KIRK, they get what we give them that's right, I don't have an
argument there. MARKHAM, you give it to them and then turn around and argue the point that they got
to pay somebody to take their place after you gave them their time off.
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WATFORD, can I just make just a comment, I guess we all knew this was going to be on the agenda so
we were prepared for discussions. I just find it real interesting that all of a sudden vacations a big deal
and chief I sat right in there with you on this when we were discussing the budget remember I sat in for
the mayor and I guess this is one of my pet subjects and that's one thing I asked you and other
department heads, you weren't' the only one, but I asked you about this and to the best of my
recollection this is the first time that I've heard that all of a sudden vacations are such a big part of the
problem you know and we've discussed this several times at meetings this subject has come up and this
is the first time that I've heard, Oh well it's because of vacations, if that were the case when we hold our
budget hearings somebody should have said wait a minute this just wont work. I've got more vacation
time, I've got to give more vacation time than this, or someone should have said as the mayor I think is
probably trying to figure out wait a minute instead of, we've got so much vacation time here's my
recommendation we need to do this, we need to hire another employee that that's all he does or that
covers or some other solution. What I was told was days off and things like that and schools and people
went to school we had to cover.
TO , you sure 8o, yes sir. WATFORD, and that was, so I was shocked when Councilman Markham
brought up vacations because I thought we'd be discussing when all the guys went schools because
that's the impression I had been given, the big reason for the overtime and I'll just make this comment,
the other thing if you'll remember I discussed with you is about and I think it needs to be thrown into this
mess somewhere is you covering a shift or part of a shift or some of a shift and I don't think that's being
done at all, I guess I'm just astounded that all of a sudden and we've been giving vacations ever since
the city's been here and all of a sudden that's the big problem with overtime.
MARKHAM, that's where so much of your overtime comes in. TOMEY, back in Oct 23, 1996 1 sent the
City Council a memorandum explaining everything to them whether you got it or not I don't know, not
only overtime we also have what they call a 207 K time which is what we call _?_ if you work over 212
hours in a 28 day cycle you must pay them overtime, every shift I have work over 212 hours, 1 shift will
T work 216 which is 4 hours overtime turned to tape 2 side a 233 hours which is one that gets the Kelly
day cycle and you either pay 24 hours or Kelly day, they get Kelly day I pay a man to come in the first
12 overtime and pay a volunteer $40 for the second 12 hours and save the city 12 hours overtime, that's
how I work the Kelly days, anytime a firefighter calls in sick that's 24 hours and I've always tried to work
it to where I only pay overtime for the first 12, the second 12 is worked by a volunteer.
WATFORD does it have to be 24 hours? TOMEY, if he calls in sick he's out 24 hours (does he have to
be?) Yeah I don't see why he wouldn't if I was sick this morning I'd be sick in the afternoon, if a regular
employee, that works 8 hours a day was to call in sick in the morning and then at 11-.00 say well I feel
good I'm going to go in at 1 p.m. WATFORD, he can do that. TOMEY, they can do that to. WATFORD,
well you keep saying it's a day like they have to do it. TOMEY, no, I agree with you they could come in
at say 5:00.
KIRK, I'd like to direct a question to Councilman Watford, I didn't sit in the budget process this year so
I'd like to ask you when you were going through the budget process and a budget was given for the
different departments, did any department in the city say I can't live with that budget, we can't make it,
I'm going to have more overtime than that or I'm going to need more of anything that's been given to me
here, did anybody say they couldn't live within my budget? WATFORD, to the best of my recollection
and it's been some time ago but I don't recall anybody saying that no sir and I do remember talking with
chief about, I mean we had quite a discussion.
TOMEY, I asked for $20,000 this year for overtime and I was totally unaware that I was not going to get
$20,000 until I walked into Mr. Drago's office with you there and he handed me my budget with $12,000
in it. KIRK, how much have you used now? TOMEY, probably right at $12,000. MARKHAM, $11,900.
WATFORD, just to refresh my memory in our discussion though you didn't, I don't remember the word
that this was a particular problem, vacations, I remember you talking about schools. TOMEY, no we did
not narrow down to anyone thing because the overtime _?_. WATFORD, and I don't recall to answer the
mayor's questions I don't recall you saying to me this just wont work or this is just unacceptable or
anything to that, I don't recall those words. TOMEY, I don't think I used the word unacceptable but I did
point out that I had asked for $20,000 in the budget. WATFORD, okay granted you may have done that
just like other department heads said I asked for $10,000 here, I just didn't want to answer the mayor
incorrectly. TOMEY, the top part of our budget we have no control over.
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KIRK, I would certainly think that in the future if we're proposing to you a budget that you can't life within,
my understanding of the process that I tried to help develop, is correct, then you have a right to appeal
that part to the city council as a whole.
TOMEY, if I would have known that the memorandums would have been written as they have been
written. KIRK, I'm not talking about memorandums, no, no, hold it, I'm talking about your budget, it don't
have anything to do about memorandum, what I'm saying is if you couldn't make it with that $12,000. You
should have brought that to this council and we're in total disagreement here and here is the reason why
and backed it up and you don't just say take the 12 and then go spend 30 that's just totally unacceptable
Keith, appeal it up here, that's why when we went through this and we've tried to set up a budget process
that as I worked with this this is what I wanted done cause we're not going to always whether it's me or
whoever else is sitting in the center or another councilman that sits in the budget process if a department
head does not agree with what it happening on their budget the procedure is to appeal that to the council
and let the council discuss that item. And I wish you would have done that so we could understand, for
me this is quite difficult because I don't understand the days on and the days off and don't profess to but
I certainly would hope that in the future that if we're throwing a figure out there and that's totally and you
know you can't live with it then you need to bring it here and say we are at an impasse here I do not
agree with these guys because that's part of the budget process you have a right to bring that to us,
does everybody not have that understanding?
OLIVER, I have a questions, haven't you been told on occasion don't even bother putting down capital
equipment that you know your going to need because we're not going to buy any capital this year? Aren't
you turned down in advance? TOMEY, yes. right, there's certain times that we get turned down prior
coming to the council and I agree with what your saying mayor I should have appealed that before the
city council. KIRK, absolutely, you still may get told no when it comes here.
TOMEY, I understand that, but a lot of times, what's the proper word here, I can come to the council like
I am tonight appealing this but I know that if I do that me and my department is going to suffer from the
city administrator because I'll come to you one night and talk to you and you all will give me or not give
me and that's only one night and I deal with him on a day to day basis. KIRK, well I don't agree with that,
but the times, and I've been in those meetings when not only you but other department heads have been
told no it's a waste of time to submit something there was a time when you asked for the fire truck the
first time in fact I think 2 years in a row I may have told you don't do it, it wont fly this year okay, you still
could have appealed it up here but I think it wouldn't have flown and I was giving you what I felt was the
feel of the council but you had that right to appeal it but to compare that to a budget for dollars spent on
salaries and overtime that you absolutely know you can't live within that to me is not acceptable but all
you got to do to correct that is next time just tell if it's me and the administrator or if it's councilman
Watford or councilman Markham and the administrator whoever is doing it just say I don't agree with you
guys so I'm going to appeal this part to the council.
TOMEY, if you'll remember 2 years ago I brought up, you were in the office with Mr. Drago we had
$12,000 and I said well I don't think $12,000 will do it because of certain things that were going to come
up, I was under the impression then that we were going to go by last years budget and see how much
it was going to take in the budget for this overtime and correct it when it was passed in the budget and
it was not correct it and again mayor as I said I can deal with you all one night or two nights a month, I
have to deal with Mr. Drago all the time. KIRK, I don't think that any department head in this city has to
worry about their job Keith as long as their doing their job because the bottom line it we're still the city
council no matter, the faces my change from election to election but it's still the city council but you need
to stand your ground the next time.
MARKHAM, Mr. Mayor I felt that the administrator, I've only been here 3 months and I researched and
found this information, the overtime, the administrator I feel was not even trying to figure out or find
anyway of reasoning why those _?_ are being overtime all he was willing to do was put out memos and
tell us these overtimes, why doesn't the administrator want to work with the department heads and figure
out their problems? That was a problem that should have been look at and nobody wanted to look at,
I'm no genius but it only took me 2 months to figure it out why your overtime was going overtime so much
and why we were getting these memos. KIRK, and you came up with vacations? MARKHAM, yes. KIRK,
in a conversation with the budget person from this council, councilman Watford, our expert did not
mention the word vacation or this money, I don't understand that. MARKHAM, who's the expert? KIRK,
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the man standing right there, he's the fire chief, he's not the fire chief, this is the fire chief.
MARKHAM, yes but the administrator should be working with the department heads on knowing what
their budget is and why it's over. TOMEY, if I had known prior to that meeting coming in with Councilman
Watford and administrator that that overtime was going to stay at $12,000 the memorandums you all got
10/23 when I figured _?_ I would have been prepared at that time but I didn't see my budget that I
submitted to Mr. Drago until that day when I walked in and Mr. Watford was sitting there so when you
don't know. WATFORD, but we had budget hearings after that. TOMEY, you had budget hearing less
than a week before you passed the budget.
KIRK, you have responsibility to run your department you have a responsibility to stand up and tell us
if we're not giving you sufficient money. TOMEY, I agree with you. KIRK, and that is the total point I'm
trying to make here, else wise lets just let the city council do the budget just like we use to and if you
want a hose we'll say here's $30. go buy a hose, we don't want to regress back to that, that's going
backwards, and Keith I'm not picking on you, this is no different for you than it is for any department
head, if we're giving you a budget that you absolutely know that you cannot function under you've got
to appeal it.
TOMEY, Mayor I agree with you, but I don't know how many times I've been told by the administrator the
top half of that budget he takes care of the bottom part the department head takes care of. KIRK, so if
you can't live with it your just going to pass it on and go over your budget. TOMEY, the way he's
explained it to me, yes, I asked for 20 he put 12 in there and again I say if I had known prior to that
meeting that he was going to cut me back to 12 1 would have been prepared to answer Mr. Watford's
question like I've answered them here tonight and I'd had that documentation with me.
KIRK, well I've got something else that I've got to say Keith before you sit down one of the things that
makes this a sore point with me is that when we were arguing well discussing, the council and back and
forth with you to about purchasing this new truck, I asked you because I went against a couple of people
up here that didn't want this new truck and I relied on what you said and I asked you in this discussion
that we had something of the fact, okay now this is what you need to fight fires in the city that will put you
where you need to be and I got a yes. I mean the trucks not even here and you turn around and I think
what you asked for was 3 men and 2 more pieces of equipment. TOMEY, I originally asked for 3 pieces
of equipment Mayor and you asked me if I could get away with one for right now, way back up to about
a year and a half ago and I said yes if one is all I can have, yes I'll work with one, you asked me which
one and I said the class a pumper, the class a pumper did solve the problem with the pumper. KIRK, how
many more $200,000 pieces of equipment are we going to have to buy? TOMEY, I originally asked for
$450,000 for 3 pieces of equipment.
KIRK, I think did everybody get a copy of this letter from the county wanting to meet with us about
services? I certainly think it's time for a workshop.
OSTERMAN, Mr. Mayor could I ask a question, vacation was made an issue, how many vacation, as I
understand this from listening to the conversation, the chiefs over his budget as far as overtime
how many vacation hours does that actually expend? KIRK, I don't have any idea. OSTERMAN, I do,
40. KIRK, 40?. OSTERMAN, 40. That I could find a record of so you have a real problem if that's true,
I'm just going by public record. KIRK, surely that's not true.
MARKHAM, no that's, what you're going by. TOMEY, 10/11 /96 24 hours, 10/15/96 24 hours, 10/17/96
24 hours. MARKHAM, on this thing, when we got this, see they didn't even put down vacation time, on
this right here, you can't read this and tell anything by it because they (administration) don't put all the
figures in here to me, if you don't have all the figures then you can't come up with the right numbers so
under vacation time and holiday pay they were putting zero and it was looking like all we we're doing is
men going overtime all the time, if you don't have all the numbers you can't come up with the right
figures. KIRK, I'll agree with that. MARKHAM, so these things that we were getting (from administrator)
don't mean nothing, how can you get figures from something that don't give you all the numbers? KIRK,
you can't debate that.
WATFORD, it gives you overtime. MARKHAM, it just gives you straight overtime, you can't figure
because. WATFORD, you don't know why that overtime is here. MARKHAM, an off set will be vacation
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time, it's going to off set some of those numbers.
TOMEY, and part of that overtime will be for the 207 k and what you all got is I pay overtime every 28
days which is 4 weeks all the other departments pays overtime on a weekly basis so _?_ then you need
to take 4 weeks of overtime through the whole city and compare it to mine, I'm not saying that will make
a difference, I'm just saying the way it's been done, the way it's been shown to you gentlemen is that I
might had 178 overtime, that was not in one week, that was a 4 week period, 28 days, the police
department and other departments which is for 1 week of overtime.
OSTERMAN, I just saw that Jerome Smith was the only employee that has vacation, 40 hours. MOBLEY,
he's mine. OSTERMAN, huh? MOBLEY, he's in my department. TOMEY, you've got the wrong
department.
WATFORD, Mr. Chairman, not to belabor the point but. KIRK, I want Keith to understand this is not a
let's all bash Keith I think we're struggling for an understanding here. MARKHAM, yes that's what
brought it up for is just for understanding why are we getting all these memos with these overtimes.
WATFORD, well because he's over, we should be getting them. MARKHAM, yeah we should but there
should be an explanation for it not just he's over. And I'm new up here and I guess I'm learning all this
stuff but it sure looks like, you can't win in a situation of $12,000 a year budget when your going to go
over $16,000 automatically plus.
WATFORD, okay Keith, are there any other options for the overtime, are you aware of any other options,
have you explored any other options? Cause you know we've been upset about overtime I don't think
you can deny that. TOMEY, I know you have. Not unless you put on more personnel, I had talked with
Councilman Chandler about hiring 1 person for the rest of the year as a "floater" that would cut back on
some of the over time.
WATFORD, and I'm going to ask you this question again and I know what answer I'm going to get, but
why can't you be that 3rd man on the shift? TOMEY, because I am the 4th man on a fire scene, please
let me finish. WATFORD, I didn't interrupt I was just shaking my head, I'm aloud to do that I wasn't
interrupting. TOMEY, okay I am not like, my position as fire chief is not like chief Mobley's position as
police chief, chief Mobley pulls up on, I'm sorry for using you Larry, pulls up on a murder scene on a
accident or something like that he does not take over that scene, that detective has the murder scene,
that patrolman has the accident scene, in the fire service when I arrive upon on a structure or a major
incident, I am automatically the commander, the person in charge, my Lt. is not given the option of
whether to put me in charge or not I am the ranking officer there so I'm already in charge, also NFPA,
ISO both of them states that you should have 4 men on a fire scene prior to entering a burning building,
_?_ unless it is a life threatening situation, I know I've made this comment in the past and it's brought
to my attention that that's not a state statute, I agree with that.
I have called up John Cook and asked him, even though this is not a state statute, but a written
recommendation if we violate that and somebody gets hurt we sent somebody in a burning building with
what they call 2 people in and 2 people out, we'd be liable? He said yes we would be. ISO wants 4
people on a fire scene prior to entering that state that I can be that 4th person and that's the way I've
always worked it I'm that 4th person, they have a structure fire, they have some _?_ just as soon as I go
10-8 on the radio they know, I'm within 2-3 minutes to getting there, if I pull a shift with these 2
gentlemen here, I don't have that 4th person coming, now if we go to a structure fire and it take a
volunteer or another paid man to come in off duty as I do because I have my radio in my car 5 minutes
to get there, I'm going to have to stand outside that house and watch it burn for 5 minutes before we go
in there to put it out, I'm not going to tell a resident that I've got to watch their house burn for 5 minutes,
that's the difference comes, it's not that I'm not capable of doing it I'm state certified the same as these
gentlemen sitting here are, I can do the same thing they can do but the way the fire service is govern,
it's different than the other services are.
WATFORD, what do you do when your on vacation? Who's the 4th person? TOMEY, I generally leave
my radio in my car with one of the Lt., they rotate it back and forth, like if Lt. Baugh is on, Lt. Douglas
gets it, then it rotates to Smith and Baugh. WATFORD, if their on the scene of the fire and one of your
LT. is in charge he's still fighting the fire, correct? TOMEY, correct. WATFORD, even though he's in
charge? TOMEY, correct. WATFORD, so when you come up and your in charge you can still do
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somethingto fight the fire? TOMEY, I generally work the outside take care of everything,the eo le and
9 9 Y people
all.
WATFORD, but you can work the fire even though your in charge. TOMEY, right, if anything was to
happen to one these gentlemen inside that building, yes I can bunker up and help get him out okay, this
is where their coming from and why they say you've got to have 2 in and 2 out, you have 2 people in the
building you've got to have 2 people on the outside, I've always been that 4th person. WATFORD, what
in your estimation do you always go inside a burning building? TOMEY, I've never had anybody get hurt
inside one where I had to go in and get them out. WATFORD, no I said when you arrive at a fire, does
a fireman always go inside a building, every time a building's on fire does that necessarily mean a
firemen going to go inside a burning building, let me rephrase the question, under what circumstances
do you go into a burning building?
TOMEY, lets say we pulled up to your house tonight, the back bedroom is burning or part of the house,
we would go inside to put that fire out, from the inside. WATFORD, from the inside? TOMEY, inside, it
use to be the old theory where you'd run up to the windows stick the hose in it and flip it around, we'll
they've figured out that shoves the fire through the house, now the theory is you go inside the house and
shove the fire outside through the windows. WATFORD, so it depends on where the fire it, if the roof is
on fire you don't go inside the building. TOMEY, no if the roof's ready to fall in no you don't. WATFORD,
or if another area of the house is on fire you wouldn't necessarily go inside only if the fire where.
TOMEY, _?_ if only half the house is involved yes they go inside.
OSTERMAN, Mr. Mayor I'm serious about this, I think what I'd like to do is simplify this, back home we
use to have a lot of volunteer fire departments and one of the big events on the 4th of July was _?_ put
a barrel in the center that had a hoop on it and then you'd have the opposing fire teams you know, they'd
call it a water battle to see who could drive the barrel to the other end and what you've got here is the
same thing, you've got a water battle going on between Mr. Drago and Fire Chief Mr. Tomey except their
not using hoses it's called something else. But it just looks to me _?_ and I hear it and I see it I've over
heard conversations cause I think that your going to have to make a decision sooner or later that your
either going to fire Mr. Drago or fire Mr. Tomey. Cause I don't think they will ever get along.
WATFORD, or both. OLIVER, I definently think there is a failure to communicate, I think that if two
people work together on overtime, it's kind of hard to know exactly what is said but from listening from
the chief, he asked for more overtime and doesn't get it initially up front so perhaps when that discussion
first comes about with the city administrator and fire chief we could explore other options like additional
help extra firemen to reduce overtime or to look at other options but there is a total breakdown it sounds
like.
WATFORD, well if I can add one thing, and I've talked quite a bit with Keith, it seems like every time we
do something with the fire department it blows up on us. If we're talking about, opening the bids for this
fire truck was the biggest fiasco that I've been involved in in how ever many years I've been here. That
was absolutely and I know we're getting into past history and perhaps we shouldn't, it was one of the
most uncomfortable positions I've ever been put in by city employees as a city councilman and I guess
I blame myself for letting myself get in that position but I thought I was doing the right thing but it seems
like every time and I agree with the mayor, when I received that memo, we fought for that truck, we really
fought for it, whether we all want to admit that or not we fought over that truck and we fought for that
truck as it turned out and then to receive a memo, I don't remember how many days, it didn't seem very
long that oh by the way, we asked, we even said there will not be anymore capital expenditures for at
least the next 5 years and then we get a memo, oh by the way we need this, I went through the ceiling
when we got that, that was just unbelievable and we asked which pieces of equipment, we buy a new
one, we assume we're going to get rid of one of the older trucks and I don't know, are we sure what truck
we're going to get rid of yet or do we know?
TOMEY, can I address the statement he just made, to start out with, when I gave you the first
memorandum back in, two years ago asking for 3 pieces of equipment I was under the impression that
the council understood that I still needed 3 pieces of equipment even if I was only going to buy 1. If I had
known that night that that was going to come up, that capital outlay, again I could have been prepared
to address that, at that same council meeting that that was brought up about, I went to the city
administrator and I asked him what's going to be discussed tonight, you were one the agenda for
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payment of the truck, please let me finish. WATFORD, I wasn't interrupting you I'm aloud to shake my
head, that is aloud Keith, I'm sorry.
TOMEY, okay I'm sorry, anyhow and I went to the city administrator down in the lounge, I said what are
you going to discuss, he said I don't know maybe they're going to pay for your fire truck with S & H green
stamps, I don't know, go talk to Councilman Watford he's on the agenda, so I left then and went to the
Ford Motor Company and asked Councilman Watford, what are you going to discuss tonight on the
financing of the fire truck, he didn't know _?_ we all came up here that night, I was the only one sitting
out here, I knew you were asked what are you going to do, at that time the city administrator brought up
about his plan of $100,000, no more capital outlay and all of that, the whole nine yards he spelled out.
That caught me totally off guard. The memorandums your talking about that you got immediately
following that was my answer to what went on at that council meeting that nobody had an agenda packet
on and nobody knew what was going on and as far as the 3 year plan, I believe Mayor one day when
I was at your office talking to you, you said I should make up a 3 year plan and if the city council agreed
to it then it didn't make a difference if it was in the capital outlay or not, that's where the 3 year plan
comes in, I don't mind answering any of your questions, don't mind answering anybodies questions, but
if I don't know before I walk into a meeting what's going to happen I cannot defend it, just like that night,
if I had known that that was going to come up with the $100,000, the radios, computers and all that
would have brought it up that night and told you all, I would have had the stuff with me where I could
have showed you.
KIRK, I'm not sure your answering. WATFORD, yeah that wasn't the question I asked, but, did you forget
about that memorandum until about a week later? And then wrote another one? TOMEY, no.
WATFORD, well when we asked, when we said that that night why in the world didn't you say, fellow's
remember I wrote you a memo. TOMEY, no I wrote you that memo after that meeting. WATFORD, that's
just anther example of things that happen, the question was though, do we know which truck or pieces
of equipment we're going to keep or are we going to keep them all?
TOMEY, I was under the impression we were going to workshop that after we got not new truck in
service, right now I would say you're not going to get rid of any of them until the ISO rating. After the ISO
rating comes and goes lets have a workshop sit down and explain what we're going to do and work it
out. WATFORD, if you had to recommend right this minute which one would you recommend?
TOMEY, I wouldn't recommend any of them. WATFORD, if you had to, if the city council said, we are
going to get rid of a truck which one would you get rid of. TOMEY, to pull one just off the top of my head,
no. KIRK, don't we have one more truck than we had? TOMEY, we're back to 4 trucks and we had 4
truck. WATFORD, cause we got rid of one. TOMEY, we got rid of the military truck, we're back with
exactly what we've had which is _?_ since 19_?_
CHANDLER, when is the ISO rating coming up? TOMEY, end of this month, first of next month
COOK, I just wanted to clear up when Councilman Watford was talking to the Chief about why he didn't,
3rd man right, the Chief did come to me on that question on the standards, firefighter standards and just
so we're clear on this, if our department did not follow those standards and someone got hurt certainly
in any lawsuit they could bring up that point, are you aware of these standards, yes, why did you not
follow them. Well we haven't adopted them in the city we just didn't do it, just like under our present
building code if we approve a set of plans and the wall fell in and hurt somebody a lawyer could say are
you aware in New York State that they have this type of regulation, sure, but we don't follow that, so I
think in answer to the Chief's question is certainly a good thing if we can do that to follow them, if we
haven't adopted them nothing says we have to follow the "format on the scene" rules. I didn't want
anyone to be under the impression that yeah if we don't follow those standards it automatically makes
us liable somehow. WATFORD, or that it's illegal. COOK, no it's not. OLIVER, but it would probably put
us in a better legal position if we did follow them. COOK, certainly if we can afford to do it yes.
WATFORD, just like if you had more pieces of equipment or could pump more water or something.
WATFORD, Mr. Chairman I think that apparently this discussion is basically about overtime. I've said
this before, I think it is a symptom of other situations and problems that we have there in regards to the
fire department. I'm not pointing the finger at anybody I just think we have some problems there that I
think, urgently need to be addressed.
17
OLIVER, do you feel those problems are fire department specific I mean they are the only department?
WATFORD, at the present time they are yes sir in my opinion. In the past it has rotated from time to time,
you have problems with other departments, I think right now the problem we have, or our most serious,
since we don't have water and sewer anymore we don't hardly have any problems but I think it's a
serious problem and I know what your getting at and yeah there's two sides to it without a doubt there's
two sides to it. But I think the overwhelming, every time something happens, anytime we discuss
something with the fire department something back fires. "Well we weren't told", "Oh I forgot" And I'll just
blame Keith because he's the head of that department. Every time something happens, "Oh I wasn't
prepared for that" or "if I'd have known you were going to discuss that" or you know I hate to say it but,
just like the question I just asked and I know that's a tough question but I feel that knowing his
department and what equipment he has, when I asked him that question what truck would you get rid
of he should have been able to say well I don't want to get rid of any of them but if I have to it will be
truck number 10 because the pumper on it is 35 years old and it only pumps at 50% efficiency so
therefore that is my least valuable piece of equipment and that is the one I would get rid of.
I mean wouldn't you expect that out of a department head. Like if I asked Larry, and I'm going to use you
for an example Larry, I'm sorry, but if I asked Larry you got 20 police cars over there, we're going to have
to cut that down you know to 15, how are you, which 5 are you going to let go or Chuck you've got to
many trucks, your going to have to give up 1 truck which one is it, and he may say gosh I've got one that
the mechanic uses and he basically uses it to go get parts and I want to keep mine cause I don't want
to walk so that's the one I'm going to give up, at least he'd have some reasoning for it and he should be
about to do that.
OLIVER, yeah but you know what the same thing happens to the fire chief that happens to the city
council, we get information at the last minute. For instance tonight, we discussed the sweeping contract
that we don't know anything about, we get last minute information, we make decisions on insurance on
the last day of the policy year, and that's not good procedure, he get's the same thing, he' walks in here
and there's things on the status report that he doesn't even know about that's about him.
WATFORD, yeah okay and I agree with that and I assume that's what's going to be discussed on item
number seven and I will be ready, welling and able to discuss that but the same things happening now
that happens many other times. And I agree part of the problem is with the administration, there's no
doubt in my mind about that. I agree with that, however, we have the same problem with the
administrator with the police department, the administrator with the public works department, the
administrator with the clerk's office and we all are well aware there are problems there. The police
department to the best of my knowledge is functioning very well, I haven't received any complaints or
very few as far as I can tell as I look at the budget everything looks okay, same thing with public works
Z/ department, I'm not aware of any major problems or equipment failures or holes in the road or those
B types things tumed tape 2 to side b cannot say that, I honestly cannot say that, that everything is going
along as it should and it's just one thing after another, it's excuse the quote, "it's one fire after another"
and just like the deal Keith said I came in here or when he met with me I didn't know that was going to
be, I just got that piece of paper and I agree that that's probably not real fair.
However, I do think that he should know his department well enough to have been able to say wait a
minute I have more vacation time, I need more than that just for vacation time, if he couldn't think of it
that quick and I agree that may be, we have the budget hearings after that, several days and there was
ample time to look at that and say, cause I mentioned overtime, I mean there's no doubt in my mind that
Chief Tomey knew that I was concerned about overtime, I don't know if he knew anybody else was, he
knew I was concerned, Chief Mobley knew I was concerned and Chuck knew I was concerned about
overtime. I think that I am correct when I mentioned overtime to everybody or those particularly those
two gentlemen. The fire department is where it is the worse or the biggest problems, lets put it that way,
it's not the worse. So he had ample knowledge, this is a problem spot, I agree with the mayor, cause I
don't know how much $12,000 will cover the fire department for overtime I don't know how much it will
do for the police department or any other department but he should know and he should stand up and
tell us look this just wont work or whatever the reasons are. I know how things work, I've been here long
enough to know how things work. We all have to work within the system, I think we're to a point we're
it's serious, I really do, and Mr. Osterman had solutions and may be one of those or a combination of
the two is what it needs to be done I don't know but I think it's serious and I think somehow we're going
to have to solve it and I've talked with Keith quite extensively especially after those bids were opened
""11f)
and I think he'll admit that and I know his feeling and it wasn't' real good and I told him I was sorry to
hear the feeling that he had and I guess that's what really put my mind in motion is hey we've got a
serious problem here. We've all worked places where we don't get along with everybody or you don't
feel like you don't get a fair shake and sometimes you leave places for those reasons.
OLIVER, but wasn't it just a few months ago we had a giant problem with the finance department?
WATFORD, that is correct. OLIVER, so it makes you wonder is it a problem with all the department
heads one at a time?
WATFORD, it possibly could be, I think that one, there was probably two sides to that one too, but I think
we had the wrong person in that position, personally, that's my personal opinion, I'll probably get another
letter in the mail or I'll get a letter to the editor or something for that but that's my personal opinion, I think
we had the wrong person in there. KIRK, you'll be the one being unprofessional this time instead of me.
WATFORD, thank you, and that's nothing against that individual, that individual is very intelligent has
a lot of skills, I don't think he was the person for that position at this time in history, may be 10 years from
now he would be great for that position but I don't think he was the person for that position in that
instance and there were other circumstances absolutely but I don't think that was the person, but I think
Chief Tomey has got to learn to work with us and you talk about communication I think Keith has got to
learn to communicate with us better. Because like I say, between the truck and now the overtime tome
that's two serious things that have popped up as a surprise to us and when there was ample opportunity
in a council meeting to correct the erroneous assumptions we had as a council. When we left that
meeting that night we all thought we bought a fire truck this is the last one we're going to buy for a long
time maybe you didn't have that opinion and from what the mayor has said I know he did. KIRK, I
defiantly did. WATFORD, when we left that meeting I thought boy we've solved all our problems in the
fire department, we're set to go and then boom by the way.
MARKHAM, the administrator knowing that the budget was going to be over should have worked, in my
opinion, should have worked with the chief on trying to find monies to take up the slack, the vehicle
aghast system that he has made a memo on, he found $12,000 there in the budget somewhere to buy
the aghast system of $5,200 and that left $6,800 he could have put toward the overtime part and tried
to help solve the problem instead of creating a more problem with these memos we keep getting. Which
I want to be told what's going on and I've told the administrator that I want to know what's going on. But
just like the street sweeping I don't want to know when I get up here I want to know prior to sitting up
here. So if he found $12,000 to put an aghast system in then he should have worked in my opinion with
the chief in finding the money that would take up slack in some of the overtime. And I know the overtime
is a sore subject and I wasn't here when ya'll did the budget and I wasn't here when ya'll did the truck
but I've tried to bring myself up to speed on what was going on the best I can and by asking questions
and talking to different people. I always thought the administrator is suppose to assist the department
heads. That right there is an example to me, he found $12,000 if he knew we was going to go over why
didn't he assist him in finding other monies to take that problem.
WATFORD, well I don't think that's the answer. MARKHAM, I know it's not the answer but we don't have
anybody assisting this department head person in solving the problem all we have is memos coming to
us telling us what is wrong, there's nobody correcting it.
WATFORD, I think that's what we're trying to do. I disagree that the administrator should, we're going
to have to find money to pay the overtime, there's no doubt about that because obviously if we've
already spent all of our money for overtime in the fire department we're going to have to find some more
money some where. MARKHAM, well there's $12,000 right there.
WATFORD, I know that's what I say we're going to have to find it some where. MARKHAM, that means
it wont be over the bottom line budget if you use that $12,000 there. WATFORD, but the point is, we
shouldn't MARKHAM, we shouldn't have to find it. WATFORD, have to find it, we should have been told
up front look this wont cover my overtime but we should also and I guess we have a real philosophical
difference between the fire chief and I over the overtime and how there's other solutions to it and how
it can be corrected. My point is we probably need to look at not having as much overtime. To me that's.
MARKHAM, there needs to be a solution for it and if it's hiring another man who's a swing man or.
19
WATFORD, your going to have to find money for that then. MARKHAM, the same amount of money that
your finding to pay that overtime you'd have to find to subsidize that man's income.
OSTERMAN, how about the $40 volunteers? MARKHAM, we're using them already. OSTERMAN, then
use them some more. MARKHAM, he uses them whenever he can, he used them almost half of all the
hours he's got now. OSTERMAN, I'd like to say one more thing, I made a shock statement awhile ago
and what it appears like because of the way the city's charter is set up and Mr. Drago doesn't have any
authority over Mr. Tomey and vice versa, then there's no doubt in my mind if these two could some how
sit down and work together they could work this thing out because they're both fine people and instead
of being in that water battle to see who's going to come out on top, I just think that it could be worked
out cause it's effecting a lot more than just the fire department. WATFORD, absolutely. OSTERMAN,
there's a moral problem that's going through the whole city. KIRK, that's to bad cause we fought real
hard to get rid of that.
CHANDLER, Mr. Mayor, I've probably worked more than anybody else with this fire truck deal and I've
read a lot of things, Chief and I and Mr. Drago sat up here and I watched him fight over and over and
over they couldn't agree on anything. So I made the decision, here's what we're going to do, we're going
to go down there and that's going to be final, that's what was done on the specs. If I hadn't have done
that we still wouldn't have agreed. They can't get along. I don't know if he (Drago) wants to be a fire chief
or if he (Keith) wants to be an administrator or whatever.
This deal about the aghast system. That's been bothering me ever since Mr. Drago told my why the
aghast system was here compared to why they (fire department) told me the aghast system was here,
it don't match. That's bothered me ever since, I don't rant and rave and carry on like some people do but
I've pondered that for a while and what they (fire department) heard it was for was totally different from
what he said he (Drago) got it for and that's dishonestly with the work force. That cause dissension
between those guys (fire fighters in attendance) right there everyone of them. They (fire department)
were under the impression that somebody in their department ratted on somebody about the aghast
system. That's bothered me ever since.
The way he (Drago) purchases things, he, Ord #584, 1 read that, he can anyway he want's to move it
around to suit him, but it's (purchases) got to follow the guidelines of 584. KIRK, who are you talking
about he now? CHANDLER, Mr. Drago. And in the code of ordinances you can do it (send bids out) in
10 calendar days but he's got (in the purchasing manuel) 60 days anything over $7500 and I don't see
why it wouldn't be fair to everybody (bidders) if they done it in 10 days, just say you got 10 days to get
it done, so get it done. Right now we got that bid (for fire truck equipment) coming back in on April 9th
which our meeting should be April 8th (April 1st), it should have been in before that, it could be in 10
days and still can be.
There is so much dissension between Mr. Drago and the Fire Department not just Chief Tomey but the
fire department and I've heard it from day one. Not only have I heard it from there, downstairs I've heard
a lot of it the dissension that's been brought on by him (Drago). I've pondered on what to do with ti how
to work it. But when I found out the reason he got the aghast system and it was totally different that what
they (fire department) said.
KIRK, so who was right? CHANDLER, what do you mean who was right? KIRK, as to why we got it, you
were hearing 2 stories as to why we bought it. CHANDLER, the reason we bought it is because he
(Drago) signed a card at a convention and won it. So actually we didn't absolutely need it. That's what
he told me. And he said that OSHA had done it. Mr. Drago told them that OSHA was down here doing
it because somebody in there department turned it in on account of aghaust fumes. I did not handle that
by myself and I still don't but ever since, if your going to build a fire you might as well build a good one.
TOMEY, on the aghaust system, I looked out at the bay one day and Mr. Drago and a lady and
gentlemen were standing out there so I walked out and asked him what he was doing and he said that
they were from OSHA and that somebody had called and complained about the aghast fumes in the bays
out front so that's basically all that was said that day.
Then about 2 weeks later up here in a staff meeting he (Drago) brought up about how he had done a
lot of this and that to solve this OSHA problem and that if I could find $5200 in my budget that we could
P
put this aghast system in and solve the problem with OSHA well I just thought that was what it about but
I didn't have the $5200 in the line items that I take care of. So I sent him back a memorandum saying
that I really don't have the money and did OSHA really want us to do it now or wait until budget time.
The next thing I knew Nina calls me up and says Mr. Drago had her go over my budget and she found
some money somewhere and could we take it out of that? And I said it doesn't make any difference to
me if OSHA says we got to have it and it will help the health of the guys in my department I want it put
in. I didn't know until quite a few weeks later then when Councilman Chandler and I were talking about
it and that he (Drago) had won this system $4600 worth at the one of the _?_ I think in January but it was
going to cost the city $5200 to get the $4600 he won in it. Why didn't he just come to me back then and
say hey Chief I won this here can we use it, if we can lets get it put in, I'd have done it. Again if it helps
the health of my department. But that's not the way he handled it. He doesn't handle with me on
anything.
KIRK, why would you spend $5000 out of your budget when your going to be $12,000 short in overtime?
TOMEY, I agree with you mayor but I thought I had to because OSHA was in here and requiring me to
put that system in. OLIVER, and you were told by who? TOMEY, by John Drago. I asked the lady for a
card and I was told that Mr. Drago had their cards and stuff like that. I called the company he
recommended and I had been told the system wouldn't fit in our bays because there's not enough room
for the trucks. I was only trying to make sure the system would fit. That's all, to make sure it worked. The
next staff meeting he (Drago) gave me a direct order not to call them people not to bother them because
he was going to handle it, members of the staff that were there can tell you that's exactly what he told
me. He gave me a direct order not to call them.
CHANDLER, I'm also a little aggrieved about our equipment not being here on that fire truck when it got
here. I was under the impression it would here when the fire truck got here. And there's been a lot of
water under the bridge since then but there hasn't been 100% (by Drago) to get that equipment here
either. There's just not that much effort given out to get this new equipment put on this new truck. It's
sitting down there right now can't even go to a fire legally.
KIRK, and in your opinion who's fault is that? CHANDLER, that's his (Drago) fault Mr. Mayor. He could
have made more effort to get this stuff quicker there's no doubt in my mind he (Drago) makes mistakes
but if he (Drago) is going to be his (Keith) boss he (Drago) should say this is what you should do, go
ahead and do and get it here. Now he's (Drago) put it (equipment bid) off until April 9th before we can
get the bids back, we're going to have to wait until the 2nd meeting in April to even award it and that's
going to go another month. But it does say in the ordinance (unlike the purchasing manuel) that we (the
city) can do it (have bids out) in 10 calendar days, not 60. His (Drago's) says (purchasing manuel) 60.
I didn't even know he (Drago) had one till I found out the other day that he had a different one
(purchasing manuel) that he made up. I should have gotten a copy of it and every one of you should
have gotten a copy of it on what the purchasing should be. It's (Drago's purchasing manuel) not in direct
guidelines with what our ordinance says. He (Drago) made some minor changes (to the ordinance when
putting it in purchasing manuel form). But I wasn't aware of that since I didn't have a copy of it. That's
why I thought you had to wait 60 days to get anything. But when I started reading my code of ordinances
you can do it in 10 days. So he (Drago) hasn't put 100% effort into getting our equipment for that new
truck. I think about 6 months ago that's what I wanted done, for that equipment to be sitting down there
to be put on that truck when it got here.
DRAGO, first of all the aghast system has not been purchased and I don't intend to purchase it. Mr.
Candler is correct in the status report I did win the aghast system, Chief Tomey is also correct on what
he told you now I will have to admit I've been accused of people not understanding my humor and that
was probably an instance where that was taken to far. Somewhere along the line I should have went to
Keith and said you know that was my humor and really this is what happened so I apologize to Keith for
that.
As far as the equipment specifications are concerned I would have easily made the bid time shorter all
somebody had to do, Mr. Chandler or Keith, was to say look I know we normally leave it out 30 days you
know I'm willing to accept whatever happens if you leave it out 10 or 20 days, not a problem, but
normally it's 30 days and I would hope Mr. Chandler that you would agree with me that those specs
21
should have been given to me earlier that what when they did. CHANDLER, I agree with you on that one.
DRAGO, okay and I would also hope Mr. Chandler would have to agree that the minute I got them I sent
them out, I didn't dilly daily. And also when they came back the Chief and Mr. Chandler had the option
of taking the best bid that was bid or rebid it. And also I put out the time rather than coming in at 3:00
and made it 4:00 because the last time we had a problem with UPS coming after 3:00.
CHANDLER, he (Drago) didn't dilly dally about it getting them out when you got it put you could have
put down 10 days instead of 30. DRAGO, Noel, as many times as you've been in my office and Keith
once and a while comes up there you know or you should know that if you asked me to put it out for 10
days I'd have done it. It would have been no problem to me.
CHANDLER, but it was also made mention that the equipment would be here when the truck got here,
you didn't make a 100% effort to get that done and you knew the 10 days could have been done.
DRAGO, well first of all the 10 days is the lead time to advertise. CHANDLER, exactly. DRAGO, okay.
CHANDLER, _ — bids open the one that _ — bids open. DRAGO, right that is correct. CHANDLER, —?-
10 days. DRAGO, that's true but the bids are normally sent out prior to the 10 days that's just the
advertiseing time frame so somebody can at least see the adverstisement and got 10 days to respond.
CHANDLER, if you sent out a bid that the opening is going to be in 10 days to look at they ought to be
back in 10 days. DRAGO, not necessarily so because a lot of them have to be mailed, a lot of them you
can't meet the time frame on when the ads have to be in in order to meet the 10th days unless you start
before hand. CHANDLER, if they (bidders) wanted it in fast enough they could do it. DRAGO, I'm not
arguing with you on that one you're absolutely right.
KIRK, so what is the solution to avoid this fiasco in the future? The fire truck is a nice looking fire truck,
looks pretty, I assume it's probably a good one, I don't know but I see what appears to be some lack of
communication on both parts and I think that's what Noel said. I still and will have until the next budget
process comes and goes will have a problem with anybody not speaking for their budget. You probably
would have got the money Keith if you'd have asked for it on the overtime.
TOMEY, well I've learned a lesson tonight. I'm going to deal with you guys (Council) once or twice a
month and take whatever he (DRAGO) passes out, rather than go through what we've gone through
tonight. KIRK, what's once or twice a month I'm talking about once or twice a year in your budget process
there, you should have appealed to us that you needed, or that wasn't half what you needed for your
overtime and you needed that in your budget and at that point I'm sure somebody up here would have
said justify it and then we would have better understood what we were even dealing with.
I don't know what's going on over here, Noel sounds like that you're aware that they're not
communicating well with each other is what it sounds like to me I don't know, is that right?
CHANDLER, that's very right. It's not the communication it's his, from what I've been gathering, he's
(Drago) on the fire department totally. He could have went over there and told them that it wasn't right
that he was kidding or joking whatever, he left it alone, so that meant all them guys (fire fighters) in there
was wondering who told on who. It even trickled over to the County, said the County done it (called
OSHA). So that's several months, days, weeks, whatever that these 3 different shifts (of the fire fighters)
was wondering who told on who but these men were wondering who on the inside was doing what. They
were not trusting each other.
WATFORD, if I can say something here. KIRK, jump in cause I'm not sure were going anywhere.
WATFORD, I always hate this stuff, I've been told, we have a saying at our shop, that "oh I've been" gets
us in more trouble than anybody else because I've been told this, and I hate those things. I hate it when
somebody comes to me and says well so and so said something. I'm going to go to that person and I'll
ask them and I've asked probably a lot of people in this room a lot of hard questions sometimes cause
I'll ask them well did you say that? Or what did you say? And I think we need to stop all this junk about
and we have it in our shop to and I'm sure with our employees and everybody that has a lot of
employees you have all that, rumors and everybody talking about everybody else and we have it to and
we don't have very many employees so I usually tell them well I don't put any stock in any gossip or
stories and go to the source and find out or go to your supervisor and find out and they should find out
for you. I think we have some.
22
I don't know how to solve this and I think that's what we need to et down to, how are we going to solve
9 9 9
this. I think the overtime is very serious, I think it's extremely serious, I think that we should instruct the
fire chief between now and next meeting to come up with alternate solutions and his
recommendations on how this should be handled I think he needs to serious consider if he's
-going to or willing to be that 3rd man on the crew and back that up with some other type of back-
up but I think he really needs to do that, I think he really, really, really needs to look at his
equipment and be ready to respond to equipment needs of the city and I think that's the most
immediate things I think he should, to solve this communication problem perhaps that either the
Mayor or if he wants to appoint someone else another councilman or something needs to be the
liaison or something between the council and the fire department and the administrator to get this
department back where it needs to be.
I think we have all been extremely proud of our fire department for as many years as I can remember
and that even before I got on here I remember when Olin Godwin was the Chief and there's some people
in this room that have been involved in it a lot longer than I have and I think we've always been very
proud of it and I think we're at a very low point right now and we should be at a very high point with the
good publicity that we've gotten recently particularly with the truck. I think those items would perhaps
eliminate perhaps the immediate problem we have and I think that Chief and he knows what I'm
talking about he needs to cause we've had this discussion, needs to examine what options he
wants to pursue.
I used a different term than Mr. Osterman used I used the term spitting contest and I think you'll recall
that term I used with you. We all have different perceptions cause Councilman Chandler has a certain
perception because of his contacts with all the parties involved and I have certain perceptions and
know things that I was told that you don't know and you know things that you were told that I have no
idea of what was said or what's going on but I think Keith does need to examine that and certainly work
within the system, I'm not saying the system is right, I'm saying that he needs to work in it. Do you want
that in a motion?
KIRK, well, if I might comment, I don't understand why if there's a communication problem here between
these two men and we've kind of zeroed in on that as part of the problem, that they can't sit down and
talk it out and solve it. I don't think that it would be to anyone's advantage for us to solve it. Cause the
answer would be very simple. A solution would be very simple.
OLIVER, well I think part of the problem is the style of management that sometimes is used is
intimidation over a department head, from the city administrator to the department head; he intimidates
the department head. I've said before we do it to the finance people until we finally get them to resign
and now we're working on the fire chief and I don't know who's next but I think that's the way "we" work,
"we" keep them in the dark, "we" don't give them all the correct information until the last minute and then
we put them up for public reticual at a City Council Meeting, which we've done here.
KIRK, that was not the purpose of this. Of the things I've said was not to reticule him, I have a lot of
respect for the Chief and I think that he probably will remember that I was one of th eones that pushed
for higher salaries for his people because when I came to this Council they were grossly underpaid, their
still underpaid but they were grossly underpaid then.
But it's his department and I think he needs to run it. I had this conversation with every department head
6 years ago and asked them to run their own department and told them if you can't run your department
you need to get out of it. If you are afraid of you job, you can't do it. I don't understand, I spend 2 years
trying to stop the friction and the back talking that was going on and was so proud when we reached a
level where I felt like this had stopped and then I had a department head call me and give me a big
trashey piece of gossip a week later on the telephone and I told them I just blank didn't want to hear it.
If they've got a problem they need to sit down and work it out and if they can't work it out then we'll work
it out for them. In my job I've got responsibilities and I make the decisions and I suffer the consequences
for it. But I'll tell you right now, I have to do everything within the budget and the rules that's handed
down. And if I'm asked a question about that facility I can answer it for you. It wont take me a long, long
time if I don't have it on the tip of my tongue to get it. But I have to get along with the one person that
have to answer to. Now, I'm not sure, under our structure does the Chief answer to the Administrator?
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OSTERMAN, no. TOMEY & MOBLEY, yes. THOMAS, you betcha. KIRK, well that's beside the point
what I would like to see come out of this is the two of them sit down.
OLIVER, is the answer yes? I think the answer is yes isn't it? CHANDLER, yes it is. KIRK, so he can tell
him what to do and what not to do? CHANDLER, yes. OSTERMAN, and what if he wont do it? KIRK, can
he fire him if he wont don't it? CHANDLER, he can't fire him. KIRK, my boss can fire me if I don't do what
he tells me. CHANDLER, but he can't fire him we have to. OSTERMAN, that's right, so how can he
intimidate him when _?_ neither one can fire the other, the only way I can see intimidation is if you can
cause a man to lose his job and I know _?_ just from what I've observed, John Drago's out of work, 3
to 2, 1 can count, so who's intimidating who? So if that doesn't work, the problem is there. OLIVER,
certainly it works. OSTERMAN, your the boss here but you can't talk amongst yourselves because of
the lousy sunshine law except at a meeting like this and then when you get home you think of something
you would have wanted to say and you can't do it then, it's against the law, it's a screwy system.
KIRK, I'm going to make this comment for Keith and then I'm going to leave Keith along cause I've picked
on him enough. But Keith I think told you months ago in a conversation that I was sitting talking to you
that, it's been several months ago, if you, the fire department is on the agenda, you come to the meeting
prepared. If that was my department and it does not say what we're going to talk about, I'm going to
come prepared to answer questions within my knowledge and range of ability if that's my department and
you should be able to do that. And not just you but all departments.
I'm not so sure at times that as a council we shouldn't have you except that we need the department
heads expertise at times, I hate for you to even have to attend these meetings, I really do, I hate for all
the department heads to have to attend these meetings but there are sometimes we need to ask you for
stuff that we don't understand. I'm not a policeman and I'm not an expert in it and I'm not a fireman and
I'm not an expert in that and I don't think anybody else is so there's lots of times that we have to rely on
what you tell us and for that part I'm thankful your here all of you when we need to ask questions, Chuck
gets asked a lot of questions from us from time to time but I think you two gentlemen need to sit down
and talk to each other and see if you've got a problem and if you have see if it can't be corrected. I really
would think that you should be able to do that.
I'd hate to think that we are regressing back to where we were quite a few years ago and if your honest
with yourselves when you stop and think and there's 3 department heads sitting out here, if you stop and
think there was a lot of this stuff going on several years ago, I don't think it was a very pleasant place
to work because everybody was talking about everybody else and going behind everybody else's back
and saying things about them and the department head that called me after I thought everything was
solved said that somebody else told him that somebody else told him that somebody said this. Now if
that was a middle school student I'd bend them over the desk and bust their rear end with a paddle.
That's a bunch of garbage and that's the kind of stuff we were dealing with and it almost looks like we're
headed back in the same direction. Where is the adult communication here? That would be my
suggestion to this Council, is we tell these two people sit down if they got a problem work it out.
OLIVER, you know, I want to make sure that we understand that it is not just all on one side, we had one
status report, I don't have it in front of me, but it was from the Administrator that more or less said that
he couldn't work with the Fire Chief, do you recall that status report? It was more or less like a him or
me memo. Does anybody have that status report? WATFORD, it was one that said something about
control or. OLIVER, yeah, yeah.
�3'
KIRK, I'm telling you and I'm going back to what I said before that turned to tape 3 side a John Drago
and meetings behind closed doors that can't be solved by Keith and meetings behind closed and it can't
be solved by either one of us in meetings behind closed doors and if you think that I've not been up here
long enough to realize that some of this has gone on you need to evaluate you own self because there's
been some closed door meetings here gentlemen, ok, this has not been just opened up and discussed
tonight, these 2 guys need to get together and see if they can work it out, if they can't I can give you a
solution boy. I can flat give you a solution.
OLIVER, on February 3rd status report it said, I'm not sure, this is from the administrator to us, it says
I'm not sure that even with proper controls that the mayor or a council member can achieve a team
member attitude from the Chief. If the public or other city employees can see that the Fire Chief can
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operate outside of the chain of command rules and regulations the will conclude that the to and their
9 Y Y
actions that the Fire Chief is acceptable to the City Council. I mean what I'm saying is I don't think we're,
the City Administrator is giving the Fire Chief a fair chance either.
KIRK, I didn't say it was a one way street. OLIVER, okay that's all, but we didn't address that back in
February we let that kind of fester and I also think that when we have status reports like this about
individuals or department heads specifically they ought to know what's going on. KIRK, well what kind
of agenda do you want us to start preparing? This says discuss fire department, would you want then
Councilman Markham to list down all the questions he's going to ask?
OLIVER, No I would suggest that the status report that is given to us is given to the department heads
that have something about them in there rather than a finance director coming up here and finding out
there's a whole bunch of stuff in the status report that he is not aware of at all until the meeting or the
same as the Police Chief or Fire Chief or anyone else. KIRK, I don't think the status reports normally get
discussed that night do they? So we're not putting anybody on the spot from that, in fact I don't even
like the status reports and you know that. OLIVER, oh I know you fought that. KIRK, but it's a personal
thing okay. OLIVER, I know and I still don't understand that. KIRK, well it's fueling some of this stuff
we're talking about right now. We've got some communication going and it's not accomplished anything
except add a little more fuel to a fire, that's what this communication's done, I don't think, I think your
intent was good but I don't think it's accomplished what we hoped it would. OLIVER, perhaps if the status
report last month said that next month we're going to talk about a street sweeping contract that might
have been something that could have been added in that status report. KIRK, okay, yeah go ahead
Keith.
TOMEY, I'd just like to commit on the status report I don't thin _?_ I'm sorry I just don't think _ — his
management style that we have _?_ 9 out of 10 times if he wants something from my department he gets
his secretary to call me, he does not call me, I call him, I don't have my secretary call him and ask him
_ — life's a two way street, I'll meet him half way but he's got to meet me half way he has _?_ I'll work
out whatever you all want me to but there has to be equal participation from both sides, not it's this way
or it's way.
KIRK, Keith and I feel like I need to say this, if you've been "beat up" on tonight let me apologize to you
because that was defiantly not the intent, not from my part, but there were things that was bothering me
and maybe I should have just come and got you and took you off to the side somewhere and laid into
and told you about these things that's bothering me and I may still do that I may still get with you and go
over some of the things, but it's nothing that can't be corrected, I'm still proud of the Fire Department,
but this kind of stuff we've got going on here and this miss communication and this fact that when this
councilman asked a question, if your here I do expect you to be able to give him an answer or something
that will satisfy the question. Because when Councilman Watford, I don't want to get off on another
tangent but he asked a question and you asked it without ever answering it, you never did answer the
question he asked. And I know your knowledgeable, if I didn't think you were knowledgeable I wouldn't
have voted for that dadgone fire truck to start with and you need to understand that and I think you
understand that, I wanted to follow, I think the Administrator or somebody over here was talking about
going with refurbished and we talked about Councilman Oliver talked about a commercial, but I would
not do that because your recommendation was to go with the new truck and you need to reflect on that,
that we do support your expertise and we do respect them but some of the stuff with, when he got that
request, I probably was more upset than he was because I specifically asked and thought we had it
solved and I did tell you that once, that we needed to get a plan together because we need to know
where your going with the fire department, because your equipment unfortunately is very expensive and
we're not a big city.
TOMEY, and very old, it's hard to even find parts for it most of the time. KIRK, we understand some of
that, I still don't know all about firefighting and I never will, I'm to old to learn that but I just want you to
understand that. TOMEY, I didn't feel like I was being "beat up" on and I didn't mean that when I made
that statement, it's got to be a two way street.
KIRK, well I think it has to be a two way street between the 2 of you and somehow, I'm open to whatever
the Council says but I think you guys ought to go to lunch together and have a nice long talk or
something or go in one of your offices and close the door and have a nice long talk and I do mean that
25
1 a nice long professional talk, I don't mean that in a bad way, I mean that in a good way and open up the
lines of communication between the two of you cause if you don't nothing good can come out of this if
that doesn't happen. I'll still complain about some of these things on here but I'll complain the rest of the
time to you if it effects the fire department and that's what I should have done, I should have come to you
but that's neither here nor there. What do you want to do here.
MARKHAM, I just wanted to make people, Councilmen, aware of why and like Mr. Watford said he wasn't
aware of that situation. WATFORD, but that's not all of it. MARKHAM, no. But that's by me being on the
agenda that's what I wanted do was make everybody aware of it because of all the memos on it.
KIRK, I think and this is just my personal opinion, I think it's like a jigsaw puzzle and your putting it
together. I think if we took each Councilman's pieces of this picture and put it together to get a picture
it would be a totally different picture than any of us see because I don't think all of us are operating the
same perimeters I really don't. This turned into a lot more than I had anticipated but Keith's going to
address the overtime for us and we need to look at it. WATFORD, he is going to? KIRK, I think aren't
you? Yeah, didn't you ask him to?
WATFORD, well that wasn't clarified, in fact, I move that the Fire Chief be directed to KIRK, you don't
need a motion we can just direct him to do that. WATFORD, okay well I hope, I request that you direct
him to do that. TOMEY, I took it that I was suppose to. KIRK, Because it needs to be addressed so that
it doesn't' become a problem for us on down the road. I think that's all that really needs to be said, I think
we've asked some very hard questions here and those of us remember when we use to not have
agenda's that's why we got away from them, not having them, that's why we went to an agenda. OLIVER,
status reports? KIRK, no agenda, we use to operate without an agenda. WATFORD, we had an agenda
but you could add on to it, each Councilman could bring up anything he wanted to bring up. KIRK, it was
fair game after the agenda was over. WATFORD, right.
KIRK, and this almost reminded me of that cause this got a little rough and I'm certainly am glad that
when I look out into the audience that it's all people that we know and that we don't have any visitors in
here thinking this is the way the city operates and the way the City Council does business because we
don't normally do this and we're at a time when we should have peace and harmony, I think we got rid
of the biggest headache we ever had when we got rid of the utilities. I think we need to be care not to
create issues, all of us, employees of the city to, and I think these guys need to sit down and have a
heart to heart talk, I mean surely that can be accomplished in this day and time by 2 adults can sit down
and talk and solve whatever differences they have or if nothing else agree to disagree and show respect
for each other, I don't think that's asking a whole lot. Does anybody feel that's asking to much? If they
meet somewhere and sit down and talk, you know. Maybe this will solve some of the problems, we've
still got some problems that's going to have to be addressed but we can do that, we can do that. Do we
want to direct these 2 guys to do this or just suggest this, I don't know do direct 2 people to do that
what's, is that good or bad.
OLIVER, just ask them. KIRK, just ask them to okay. Well one of you guys needs to call the other one
and make an appointment or the 2 of you to get together and talk and I'm going to call both of you before
the next council meeting ask you if it happened and I'm going to ask each one of you for your version
of what happened and let's put this to rest. I learned some things tonight that I didn't know were
problems so we need to stop this, we're to small in -fighting so that's how I'd like to leave this, so, you're
frowning so jump in.
WATFORD, I'm debating on whether I ought to say something else here, sometimes your better off not
saying anything.
KIRK, does anybody not think this is a good idea, do you think this is not a good idea?
WATFORD, no I think that's a good idea but we have another problem that's related to that but I don't
know if I'm ready to fight that battle so I'm going to pass on that one. OLIVER, oh go for it.
KIRK, have we covered everything. MARKHAM, yes sir. KIRK, on item 7 to your satisfaction?
DRAGO, what about the workshop? KIRK, do you want a workshop with the County? WATFORD, is it
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1 time to do that or should we wait for their, is that premature or should we wait till they get their study
done? DRAGO, I think the letter said they wanted to discuss the fire protection system to see if you want
to buy into the consultant work and maybe hear what idea's they had. OLIVER, I think we should
workshop with them.
KIRK, there's some things I don't quite understand in here but I guess in a workshop we could get that
cleared up, declination of service area and establishment of service levels but a workshop could answer
all that, so if that's what ya'll want I'm flexible on that part. WATFORD, they asked for a meeting I asked
we can't turn them down. KIRK, do they have a date in mind here? DRAGO, no I think that if the Council
knows of some dates that they can meet, I can go back to Mr. Long and say here's some dates, check
with the County Commission.
OLIVER, how soon are we talking about? DRAGO, I don't know I guess to them the sooner the better
because I'm sure that they would want to get a feel for the Council's willing to look at service areas, cost
_?_ shared services however their proposing to do it so that Mr. Long can I guess instruct the
consultants as to what the scope of services would be to get a price factor. I'm sure Mr. Long has some
concepts in mind he want's to share with the Council to see if your agreeable to it. KIRK, I would assume
that would be true since they asked for a workshop. How are we going to get together on a date?
DRAGO, I can call each councilman and ask which day.
OLIVER, how about next Tuesday night? WATFORD, County Zoning Board Meeting. TWYLA, next
Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. you've got the Planning Board Meeting, Juvenile Justice Town Meeting and
you got SFWMD giving an update on SWIM Plan, all at 7.00 p.m.
OLIVER, Thursday the 27th? KIRK, that's the Thursday before Good Friday, is everybody going to be
in town? I'll be here but their may be some of you that.
DRAGO, Twyla was saying the County Commission anticipated an April date so at this time maybe.
OLIVER, why don't we contact them and come up with some dates and get back to us? KIRK, yeah.
Indicate we are interested in meeting with them.
That's it that's the last item on the agenda so we're. OLIVER, well we're going to discuss the City
Administrator but I. KIRK, oh I'm sorry. WATFORD, you missed his comment, he said did that satisfy.
KIRK, I asked if that satisfied number seven, but if there's more, I've not hit the gavel so.
27
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ITEM ADDED TO THE AGENDA:
7. Discuss the City Administrator's Job Performance - Council Member Oliver.
OLIVER, I think we've hit on every issue just about, I just feel like that it's more than just the fire
department that's having a problem in communicating with the city administrator, there was even an
issue of mail being open.
KIRK, I think if you. OLIVER, I read the letter. KIRK, okay. OLIVER, but I'm not sure that totally
addresses it, it was opeWWthe City Clerk's mail. KIRK, if you want that on the floor, I will discuss that
on the floor, but I talked to the parties involved in this and there were 3 of them, 3 people involved and
addressed this with the Clerk and I thought to her satisfaction I thought, maybe or maybe not, but if you
want that on the floor I'll tell you just exactly what happened and who said what and my memory is that
good and I did what I thought I should do as the mayor. OLIVER, ok well I just looked at it, we just got
it tonight so I. KIRK, I was a little careful about putting names in that memo because I don't feel that that
was necessary because there were 3 parties involved in this and I really feel like it answers for itself. But
you want it out here.
OLIVER, no that's fine I think we just need to make sure that we understand that it's MORE than a fire
department issue with the City Administrator, I think that from time to time different departments are in
direct conflict with the city administrator and we need to keep that in mind. I think we've hit on most all
the issues tonight. KIRK, I think probably that's correct cause he's sitting at the top. I can't think of
anybody that's running an organization that's got a bunch of people in it, sitting at the tops not in direct
conflict with somebody sometimes.
OLIVER, right now it just seems like it's been the fire department for a period of time, I don't know 6, 8
months or something, it's been like the fire department, the fire department, the fire department. And
some of it I think is justified and some of it I don't think is justified.
KIRK, well the things I've discussed I don't think had anything to do with the memos. But I know that
things were discussed that had to do with them but anyway I don't want us to start digging this back up
again I was ready to get us out of here.
OSTERMAN, before you adjourn, _?_, having an interest in the City I'd like to compliment the City
Council, Mr. Drago and his staff for some of the improvements that are taking place around town,
especially around city hall here and some of the median work that's going on and if this is an example
of what's going to happen downtown I think we're on the right track _?_ coarse you people mostly hear
complaints about _?_ and Mr. Drago and many of his staff that's _?_, as far as Chief Tomey is
concerned that's a good looking truck, enjoyed seeing it in the St. Patrick Day Parade.
KIRK, Bob I don't know if I answered that. OLIVER, I think we I4elged it over when talking about the fire
department and other issues and that I just wanted to get the picture _?_.
CHANDLER, I've got one more item on number seven, there's one more thing that Mr. Drago done that
I'm not going to say what he done but. Wit upset me to know end if
I'd been that party he physically wouldn't be here today, and I know this lady because I go to church with
her.
OSTERMAN, I don't think that's fair. I think if you brought it up you ought to have to say what it is.
CHANDLER, I don't. OSTERMAN, you don't? CHANDLER, nope. OSTERMAN, shouldn't be brought up
then.
CHANDLER, you think I ought to bring it up? It's pretty damaging, it bothered me, this letter opening
bothered me, but this other thing bothered me worse. I know what I'd have done if I was that person, I'd
have come unglued.
WATFORD, Mr. Chairman I've been on a lot of these discussions and I've instigated my share of them
I guess I would Councilman Chandler I can certainly appreciate the severity of this situation, I don't know
what it is, but, and I appreciate his, but I would strongly suggest if that person that was, what's the term
28
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aggrieved or harmed or whatever they were, I would encourage him to encourage them to bring it to the
Council or.
CHANDLER, it was brought to the department head, he told me she didn't want to say anything because
of it coming back on her with the way he (Drago) does.
WATFORD, I've been in those situations before too and I've been that very chair, I think and have
struggled with the same dilemma you are and I had the person sitting in the audience who could have
substantiated my concerns and that person, I gave them opportunity and they did not come forward and
I got that limb sawed off behind me so I would sure encourage you.
CHANDLER, having said that, I've been upset with him for a pretty good while and Chief too because
you were talking about getting these 2 people sitting down together, they'll sit there and cross their arms
and look at each other and would not discuss anything, I went through that whole 9 yards with them on
this fire truck. Nothing he came up with satisfied him cause he had it in his mind, totally in his mind to
buy 2 refurbished trucks, period. He wouldn't listen to him on anything he said or came up with. He
(Drago) has caused dissension downstairs, he's just as bad as the rest of them about going behind each
others coat tails, today, I don't know what happened 3 years ago but he was the administrator then too.
KIRK, I know what happened then. CHANDLER, it's still happening today, every time I come through this
office, upstairs or downstairs or over here it's always something, always.
KIRK, Councilman Chandler the only thing that I can do safe from my standpoint, I would strongly
suggest just from me as one person on this council that it would be in the best interest of both of these
gentlemen to sit down and talk with each other and it be real.
CHANDLER, I don't think that can happen Mayor, I honestly don't think these 2 gentlemen can sit down
and have a decent conversation.
KIRK, then I think this Council will have to deal with it.
CHANDLER, alright, i make a motion that we terminate Mr. Drago's contract; and there is with cause.
COOK, that was my next question you have to decide if it is with cause or without because it effects the
vote under his contract. CHANDLER, there is cause.
KIRK, okay, I've got a motion on the floor to terminate Mr. Drago's contract. WATFORD, with cause.
OLIVER, with cause or without cause? CHANDLER, with cause. OLIVER, I'll second it.
KIRK, I have a motion and a second on the floor to terminate the contract with cause, do you discuss.
OLIVER, do you discuss cause? WATFORD, you better. COOK, you better because if you don't Mr.
Drago's got contractual rights under his contract that he will exercise I can assure.
CHANDLER, the first cause is him being dishonest with the workforce about this aqjr6t system. I mean
how many do I have to have?
COOK, only need one if it's sufficient. CHANDLER, alright then, that's in the handbook. KIRK, is that it
Councilman Chandler? CHANDLER, if that's all I've got to have.
WATFORD, I'm sorry I didn't understand the question. KIRK, does any one else have any discussion
on this item.
WATFORD, I've been through a couple of these Mr. Mayor. You have some real serious concerns with
this and I think that we really need to ask the attorney how we need to proceed with cause and do we
need or are there any burdens of proof of evidence that needs to be presented or is it just our opinion
at this point?
COOK, well under the, to determine cause, you would probably have to refer back to the new handbook
as to what constitutes cause with the employees and if this council were to base it's decision tonight on
W
cause because Mr. Drago told the Fire Chief that OSHA required the fan when in truth in fact he thought
he was joking with them, pulling his chain or whatever you want to call it, I would in my own mind strongly
advise that you not consider that cause.
CHANDLER, what about him causing a $5200 deficit in that budget? COOK, I thought he indicated
nothing was purchased. CHANDLER, yeah but nobody said it wasn't going to be purchased.
KIRK, you did say it wasn't going to be purchased didn't you? CHANDLER, tonight he did.
OLIVER, we could change the motion to terminate the city administrator's contract without reasonable
cause, pay 90 days severance pay and any earned leave if we had 4 votes. COOK, that's true. OLIVER,
and that way you wouldn't have to prove cause, just the will of the Council with a 4/5ths vote.
KIRK, so it's your opinion based on the IbbAst part. CHANDLER, and the dissension caused between
the departments and department heads and employees. They (fire fighters) couldn't trust each other
because they didn't know who was telling what, he gave them _?_ that it was OSHA so they yr not
trusting each other so that's dissension. -ell, '
COOK, the problem that I have with it is that and apparently I don't hear any of these things in my job
with the city but you got a few city employees and the council members casting their versions of who said
what, I'm not happy and he doesn't trust me, and I don't trust him but to knowledge, if I last another
meeting I'll be here starting my 9th year, I don't know of any documented complaint about Mr. Drago's
performance by any employee of the city that's come before this council and like I say there may be tons
of back room talk and complaints by employees among themselves but when, if you use these grounds
as a basis for cause tonight when their really in his personnel record in the city no documented
complaints or series of complaints I think your -,on pretty thin ice.
CHANDLER, what would be a good cause? A paper trail of complaints? COOK, if your trying to get it
down to one concrete reason certainly theft of city property, embezzlement of some money, one act is
certainly by itself serious enough to.
CHANDLER, from what I read in that handbook any of those items I just mentioned is good enough for
dismissal, any of them in our handbook. I think we should go by our handbook not by a paper trail and
how many people's been talking about him or not talking about him but just any of those items, causes
for dismissal.
COOK, that's your prerogative I'm just telling you without a documented history of these types of
violations by Mr. Drago.
CHANDLER, twhe don't repeatedly do the same thing he goes to different departments.
OLIVER, if I withdrew my second and you changed your motion to say without reasonable cause and
pay the 90 days severance pay we could vote on that if your interested in changing the motion.
CHANDLER, I'll amend my motion. OLIVER, I withdraw my second.
KIRK, so the motion was withdrawn and the second was withdrawn.
CHANDLER, I make a motion we terminate his contract without cause and pay him 90 days severance
pay. OLIVER, second.
KIRK, okay I have a motion to terminate the city administrator's contract without cause in accordance
with his contract. Do you have discussion on that.
WATFORD, just so we'll know, do we know the amount of money we're talking about?
OLIVER, 90 days pay and any earned leave. CHANDLER, annual leave and sick leave. OLIVER,
$30,000.
WATFORD, your saying that's the amount? OLIVER, yes sir. KIRK, $30,000? How did you come up with
30
that just as a point of reference?
OLIVER, I just asked. KIRK, who? OLIVER, I got the information from the personnel office on the amount
of accrued days. KIRK, so you had this information before you came in here? OLIVER, yes. KIRK, okay,
under the circumstances I'm going to comment, I feel like we're on shaky ground, I don't like the way this
is happening, I defiantly wont vote for it, but you certainly have a right as a council to vote however you
feel, but I'll call for further discussion.
WATFORD, would you clarify that? KIRK, on as to how? WATFORD, as to why we're on shaky ground,
you feel like it should have been on the agenda? KIRK, well I think that, I don't want to say, I think we
probably beat up on the fire chief more than we did the administrator and I don't see a motion in here
for him and I wouldn't vote for one if we had one cause I don't think there's cause for that; I don't think
there's cause for him to be dismissed, it also bothers me that we checked into this before we came into
the meeting today to find out what or at least Councilman Oliver did as to what the pay off would be to
get rid of him so I would assume. OLIVER, I don't think that the pay out amount is. KIRK, it wouldn't
matter if it was $300,000 or $3 it makes me feel like we just set up an ambush.
OLIVER, no, what happened was I was prepared to let it drop and the Councilman Chandler pursued
ti a little more I felt that there was no support on the Council for my feelings, then I changed my feelings
tonight.
CHANDLER, I can assure you I haven't talked with him at all. KIRK, no I didn't say that, no, no, no, no.
OLIVER, I changed my feelings after Councilman Chandlers motion. CHANDLER, I've done all my
research in house right here. KIRK, no that wasn't what I said, I think when you get the minutes, go back
and you'll see that I did not say nor imply that. WATFORD, I didn't take it that way, I took it, you know
because I. KIRK, if he would have asked me what the amount was and I would have answered it to the
dime that means that I would have already checked this out and come in here prepared to do this
tonight, and I find that a very strange situation, but that's neither here nor there and the Council's going
to have to vote so.
CHANDLER, that's why I wish we didn't have the sunshine law so we could discuss this before we came
in here. KIRK, there's been over the past 8 years there's been lots of time I wished we didn't have the
sunshine law, but we do and we have to try to operate within it and it's very difficult at times, but I'm just
one vote.
WATFORD, you know I think we're in a tough spot to be in cause this is one of the rare times when it
will take 4 votes to pass this motion and I would like to ask the 2, the maker and the second if they would
be willing to put that on as an agenda item at like the next meeting? Or what that alleviate the concerns?
CHANDLER, what's going to change? KIRK, it wouldn't change my concern cause I think the decision.
CHANDLER, we still can't discuss it before the next meeting. KIRK, no, none of us can discuss it. 1 said
my part I think your going about it the wrong way, I don't think what we're doing is correct.
WATFORD, Mr. Mayor can I pursue this a little further with you? KIRK, sure go ahead. WATFORD, and
you know that I've been through this a couple of times, and I wasn't here when Mr. Fellows resigned, did
he resign? The administrative assistant or whatever his title was but anyway, and we deal with a lot of
touchy issues up here, this is the most, when your firing someone that's as personal as it gets, salaries
are very personal but this is turned tape 3 to side b as a councilman if you were concerned about this
or felt strongly about this issue how would you go about pursuing that?
KIRK, I'm going to answer you the best way I know how, I've not seen one thing here that convinces me,
not one thing, that he's done anything that he should be fired for. If I were planning on dismissing him
I would have come into this meeting and I would have known to the penny what it took to let him go and
been able to answer that, and that bothers me. There is nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that
at all but it bothers me. I don't' know that he has any ramifications at all under his contract if we do it
without cause, the attorney will have to answer that but I'm a little surprised that this is happening _?_
under the circumstances tonight, I consider him down right ambushed, _?_ the fire chief a real bad time
tonight with the questions we asked him and we didn't pursue anything there. I don't see anything that's
being said here, that aghast system or dissension that I can hang a hat on that I think _?_ he's done a
31
good job for this city and I will defend the job that's he's done with this city, if I take a balance sheet out
and put pluses and minus down for what he's done and what his short comings are, I think he'll come
out of the positive side of the ledger. I'm surprised only by the quickness of this not that it would happen,
but by the quickness of it.
OLIVER, we discussed it for over an hour, didn't you feel the tension? KIRK, I felt tension on the Chief
to but I didn't think anybody was going to move to have him fired and wouldn't vote for it if you did cause
I. OLIVER, I didn't think it was a fire department issue I think it is a City Wide issue. KIRK, what would
it take to buy Chief Tomey out? OLIVER, I haven't got a clue. KIRK, okay.
WATFORD, Mr. Chairman I don't mean to belabor the point but I guess what I was getting at more than
reasons or.
KIRK, you don't have to have a reason without cause. WATFORD, I know that, I know that, but in your
own mind, I think you would have to have some reason if you were going to vote for a motion like this
in your own mind you would have to have some reasons. KIRK, somebody's going to have to give me
cause. WATFORD, yeah, I'm not trying to convince you, I'm not trying to convince you. KIRK, but I'm
trying to answer you, somebody would have to give me cause, don't ask me to vote to fire someone
without cause or with or without cause without presenting some real cause to me, to me that's not cause.
But you don't need my vote. WATFORD, I'm well aware of that Mr. Mayor, my concern is, not how this
vote's going to come out, my concern is what should the procedure be if I as a councilman and
apparently Councilman Oliver and Chandler are quite upset about events that have happened so
something that has happened over a period of time I don't know but if you were in their shoes how would
you have pursued it? Would you put it on the agenda?
OLIVER, call up the city administrator and say please put it on the agenda the termination of the city
administrator?
KIRK, I probably would have put it on the agenda. I had every right under the rules that we follow here
to not even let this on the agenda because it's not an emergency and we let stuff on there all the time
but if it's not an emergency I have a right to say no and if I would have thought that this was moving in
the direction that we were going to terminate somebody whether it was him or anybody else and adding
it to the agenda items, absolutely no. I think this place _?_ and I'm not sure that would serve a purpose
either.
WATFORD, well that was my question and that's why I asked them and if you. CHANDLER, how are we
going to let you know? KIRK, you don't have to let me know. WATFORD, to table this or put it on the
agenda for like the next meeting would that alleviate some of the concern, I mean you can't alleviate it
all now cause the cat's out of the bag or something. KIRK, no it's not because unless somebody can
give me, I don't see a reason here. WATFORD, I'm not talking about voting on the motion I'm talking
about, would it alleviate the concern you have, whether you vote yes or no that's up to you and I certainly
don't want to try to convince you one way or the other, would it alleviate your concern if this was on the
agenda for the next meeting rather than voted on tonight so that it's on the agenda rather than as you
say, an ambush, cause I don't know if you want to allow and I can't speak, and I don't know what I'd do
if I were in your position right now, I wouldn't want to be there but I don't want to allow or ask the
administrator if he wanted to commit or if he wanted to you know, so you see what I'm saying, if you
wanted to do that, as we just, we already heard one complaint that we bring up things and don't give
them time to prepare and this is pretty serious so would you want to give the administrator time to
prepare any statement or any, do you see what I'm getting at? And there's other reasons to you may
want to get input from other people or the public or anybody else.
KIRK I don't know that, I might feel better about that but I don't anticipate that changing the outcome, I
think that the four votes are here, I think. I think that no matter what we do that we're all going to learn
a valuable lesson from it and I'll remind us of that at a later date.
OSTERMAN, just from a monetary view point of this and also a legal question that could come up
wouldn't it make everybody more comfortable _ — if these aggrieved parties came before the Council
and made their charges instead of allegations, un-named allegations _?_ can give the accused a chance
to answer and then make a decision and then do it with cause rather than without cause and say the
32
severance pay. I don't think anybody with any amount of compassion would rather fire someone without
cause than they would someone with cause. I mean I know you can do it with a super majority, he serves
at your pleasure but when it comes to allegations made or hints of allegations rather and no allegations
other than he's hard to get along with according to some people. And god knows I went around and
around with him for years but I can see some good also taking place around here. I think we're on an
up here, this is going to be more than just firing somebody it's going to be replacing somebody and I
think some consideration has to be given to that to. _?_ maybe you'll be doing him a favor of firing him
without cause and paying him the severance I don't know, it sure doesn't sit right with me, I just don't see
firing somebody without giving them a reason for it. And I know you can do it and I know it's in the
Charter (clarification it's in the ordinance not charter).
KIRK, in my life I've hired and fired a lot of people but I never fired anybody that I couldn't look them in
the eye and tell them why and I can't look him in the eye and tell him that I would vote for him to go and
justify it. I can't justify it to myself so I know I can't justify it to him but I'm one vote so we can proceed
how the other 4 people want to proceed. I think we're going to end up like the TV commercial, you can
pay me now or pay me later and I got a feeling we're going to pay later. So with that I think I've said all
I need to say. Any other questions or comments.
COOK, I've sat up here repeatedly over the years that I've been up here, I'm not elected by anybody to
do anything so I don't express my personal opinions but I think I should here because I've told Mr. Drago
to his face and I've told anybody who's asked me about Mr. Drago, yeah I don't think that he always
deals real well with people with the way he accomplishes things. But the bottom line is that he's done
a lot of good for this city and he's continuing to do a lot of good projects for this city and I agree with Mr.
Osterman and the Mayor it's very unfair for this council to choose to fire him tonight at the end of a
discussion about why he and the fire chief can't sit down and talk when the council's certainly willing to
give the chief every benefit to improve his performance but not afford Mr. Drago the same opportunity.
That's all I've got to say.
WATFORD, is there any interest then in putting this as an agenda item at the next meeting or not?
KIRK, the only thing this would do; OLIVER, is bring a circus; KIRK, oh we'd have a crowd the only thing
this would do is let each person think about it before it happens, this is quick, I totally was not prepared
for anything like this. Maybe nobody was. And I'm not sure how our administrator would feel about
putting it on the agenda and turning it into a 3 ring circus because we probably would need the TV's
hooked up downstairs, I think we'd have a crowd of people down here. That's just the nature of humans.
Everybody wants to see the wreck when it happens so I don't know that he would want this or answer
that but I certainly concur with what the attorney said. I think that if we're going to set a precedent here
realize we're setting it and be willing to live with it.
OLIVER, what precedent is that? KIRK, as far as I'm concern Councilman Oliver this came out of no
where, I see no basis for it, other than the fact that we have the right to do it, we do have that right. We
have a right to fire any employee I guess in the city do we not.
CHANDLER, upon reading my handbook I thought I had cause apparently I couldn't go to each one of
you and tell you what I want to do and when I want to do it so it had to come up, I was going to discuss
it on this fire department deal but he came up and put another thing on the agenda so I thought I'd wait
until that, I was going to bring it up on this fire department deal on how he and chief do not get along.
It's not that they just can't get along it's how he treats people. He is an intimidator from day one. I've
seen it to many times, it's just not communication between him and chief, I realize it's hard for other
people to get up and say what they want to say because of the effect it might have on them but maybe
it's time they take a stand and do that.
WATFORD, Mr. Mayor I certain can understand your concerns and under the rules we've been operating
under you wouldn't have had to have the motion on there it would have been nice if number seven had
been on the agenda when we received our packet.
KIRK, and it would have been nice if it said discuss his employment or performance. WATFORD, or
something to that effect, sometimes. KIRK, it still don't mean I would vote for it, it would depend on what
was said and I've not seen anything here. And if I interrupted you I'm sorry. WATFORD, no I was
33
.7
rambling any ways. Another one of those tough ones.
KIRK, well let me see if I can help, not for voting purposes but for comfort level I would rather see it on
the agenda and we will have a zoo.
WATFORD, as with any other item we can limit the discussion, the chair does have that authority. I ask
again for the maker and the second if there's any interest in adding that as an agenda item. I guess
technically if there were a motion to table it would table, if the motion to table stated for the next meeting
it would automatically be there. I move we table this motion until the next regular city council meeting.
KIRK, I have a motion to table, is there a second? (No response) That's first call, I have a motion is there
a second? (No response) that's second call, third and final call, do I have a motion to table? Motion died
for lack of second.
WATFORD, what is our procedure then Mr. Mayor if this motion were to pass does that go into effect
immediately? Then I assume who takes control then or do we have to appoint someone? Or would the
Mayor kind of assume some other duties, how would that work?
COOK, the better procedure would be to appoint an interim. OLIVER, could we appoint the City Clerk
as interim administrator? COOK, there would be no problem with that. Her duties are outlined in the
charter and can assume such other duties the council may impose.
KIRK, I still would like to see this on the agenda. I still feel like unless I hear some things that I'm not
aware of that I still would not vote for it but I certainly would feel better if it was on the agenda. I'm very
uncomfortable that I allowed this to get on the agenda.
WATFORD, how bout if we had a special meeting or something to consider this.
OLIVER, the only reason I feel like that if we do that we're going to have a lot of accusations and people
coming forth, Councilman Chandler mentioned some thing that happened and I'm not sure about that
item, and really am not sure what that thing was but I don't know that you want to drag a lot of people
in.
WATFORD, well I remind you that the motion is for without cause, so therefore as far as.
OLIVER, but what the mayor said was he would feel comfortable, he could not feel comfortable unless
he had a good reason.
KIRK, chances of, probably your not going to change my vote, I'm going to say that
WATFORD, I'm not concerned about his vote, I'm concerned about the issue of the agenda and bringing
up items that aren't on, that's my concern, I'm not concerned about, the Mayor will vote however, I have
enough confidence and served with him long enough to know he'll vote however he feels lead to vote
and he'll make up his own my. My concern is and I'm sharing it because I've been through the other too,
fact, I've been part of the other. I learned a lot and we've all mellowed over time but I share my concern
with the issue of not being placed on the agenda, I share that concern, and that's why I guess I'm sort
of PLEADING and I think you know, if the meeting should turn into something like that the mayor has the
authority and right to control and I've seen the mayor do that and he can control the meeting and if it
were to turn into that and none of us wont that type atmosphere, I certainly do not but I do SHARE the
concern and respect the Mayor's concern had there been some issue of even if it had been just
performance or the position. If you remember and I think we had the finance, was that on the agenda?
There was some discussion, it wasn't like if just came out of no where, I hope it was when we discussed
that, Lane's looking at me like.
OLIVER, I don't believe it was I wasn't here when the finances were moved.
WATFORD, at any rate it may have been added because that was kind of an emergency we felt that it
was anyway, but I share.
W
0
OLIVER, okay what would it take to get on a separate meeting then? KIRK, you want it on a separate
or the next meeting? WATFORD, I think a motion to table and set it for a special meeting would suffice
if we specified if what, you can't discuss a motion to table so you better have a good date in mind. You
have to have time to advertise.
THOMAS, and the subject matter. OLIVER, but if it was just a regular scheduled meeting it could be just
an agenda item. KIRK, yes and you don't have to advertise that subject. WATFORD, but I guarantee
everybody will know. KIRK, I'm sure. WATFORD, 8:00 in the morning. OLIVER, 11:15 p.m. tonight. KIRK
we need to pursue something. OLIVER, okay I'll make your day in interest of fairness if that's what you
want to call it, I'll make a motion to table it until our next regular scheduled meeting.
WATFORD, second.
KIRK, I have a motion and a second to table all in favor of the motion:
Vote: Kirk - aye.
Chandler - nay
Markham - aye
Oliver - aye
Watford - aye
Motion Carried.
ADJOURNMENT: Mayor Kirk 11:06 p.m.
35
CITY OF OKEECHOBEE
3/1.8/96 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING
HANDWRITTEN MINUTES
A. Call meeting to order:
�d
B. Invocation: ; Pledge:
C. Mayor & Council attendance: PRESENT ABSENT
Mayor Kirk
Councilman Chandler
Councilman
Councilman Oliver
Councilman Watford
Attorney Cook
Administrator Drago
Clerk Thomas �L
Deputy Clerk Gamiotea
D. Council Member moved to dispense with reading and approve the Summary of
Council A tion for the Regular meeting of February 18, 1996; seconded by Council
Member
VOTE:
YES NO ABSENT
KIRK
CHANDLER
O'CONNOR
OLIVER
WATFORD
MOTION: AARRIE�VDENIED
DISCUSSION:
E. Council Member X� k,' moved to approve Warrant Registers for February, 1997 in the
amount of eighty-three thousand, five hundred eleven dollars, fifty-six cents ($83,511.56);
seconded by Council Member �.
VOTE:
YES NO ABSENT
KIRK
CHANDLER
O'CONNOR
OLIVER
WATFORD
MOTION: ARID/DENIED
D�. •
6�rO7
!� i •
r
REQUEST FOI� THE ADD'ITCIC45r, DE6FIE Z0'W THPFMWAIL
,,. ,
at
F. NEW BUSINESS
Hear from the Honorable Burton Connor.
2. Presentation of Proclamation - Mayor Kirk.
3
3. Council Member moved to approve the following employees to the City
Grievance Committee: Fire Department -Jeff Baugh/Alternate-Billy Douglas; Police
Department -Kelley Ammons/Alternate-Gene O'Neill, Administration/Finance/
General Service/Clerk's Office -Lane Gamiotea/Alternate-Nina Borenstein; Public
Works Department -Cleveland Lamb/Alternate-Shane Brumley - City Clerk - (Exhibit
1); seconded by Council Member —.
VOTE: DISCUSSION:
YES NO -ABSENT
KIRK
CHANDLER
O'CONNOR
OLIVER
WATFORD
MOTION: C I /DENIED
4. Council Member __ moved to approve an extension to the street sweeping
contract with P.F. Gomez Construction in the amount of two thousand, four hundred
twenty-seven dollars, fifty cent ($2,427.50) per month - City Administrator;
seconded by Council Member
c,�G�rA
VOTE: (,()_ ��-r c �ise.�.e� DISCUSSION:
KIRK
CHANDLER
O'CONNOR
tAJ
YES NO ABSENT
OLIVER Jt,�- Lr --p `31
WAT FORD (0-
MOTION: C GRI/DENIED
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5. Discuss the 441 widening project - City Administrator.
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You are cordially invited to attend
the Investiture of
BURTON CORNELL CONNF,R
as Circuit Court Judge
Nineteenth .Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida
Wednesday, April 2, 1997, at 4:00 p.m.
OKEECHOBEE COUNTY COURTHOUSF
304 Northwest Second Street, Okeechobee, Florida
Reception will immediately follow the Investiture
LAKE OKEECHOBEF, RESO11'r KOA CONVENTION CF,NTER
4276 highway 441 South, Okeechobee, 11orida
WHERE.4s, the state's juvenile crime problem has ramifications far beyond the juvenile
justice system and affects the health and integrity of the state's business, community.
education, and family institutions; and
WHEREas, the state as well as the City of Okeechobee must therefore employ a
comprehensive strategy to address the problem of juvenile crime if the problem is to be
effectively solved; and
WHEREts, statewide there has been an increase in the number of youths committed for
delinquency in the last fiscal year; and
WHEREAS, the City of Okeechobee will not tolerate the criminal activities of our youth,
and
WHERE4.S, the citizens of the community need to have a heightened awareness of
juvenile justice issues; and
WHExF--ts, the City of Okeechobee will work with the Department of Juvenile Justice and
local businesses on programs for the prevention and intervention of juvenile justice;
Now, 7HEREFoRE, the Board of City Commissioners of Okeechobee County does hereby
PROCL 4, at the week of March 24 through March 28, 1997, as
JUVENILE JUSTICE WEEK
in the city of Okeechobee, and urge all citizens of our community to take part in stopping or
preventing juvenile delinquency and to make a conscious effort to learn more about the
programs for prevention and intervention. _Ar .,
James Kirk, Mayor
City of Okeechobee
Bonnie Thomas
City Clerk
UVc"Ilc 114
cc wee
march 241 - MArcli 281h
March 25t1i - Town► Meeting
O.H.S. Lecture Hall
7 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Panel:
jubge ShideM Brehm» Okeechobee Countvi Court Jubge
Sheriff Eb Miller Okeechobee Counttl Sheriffs Departwlent
Chief Lam{ Moblem Okeechobee City Police Department
Bruce Colton+ State Attorney
District 19
Vern Melvin juvenile justice Manager
Deparrment juvenile justice District is
Mark Bekwile Okeechobee Counttl juvenile justice Council
Presibent
Ma,4or Jim Kirk Moberator for The Town Meeting
OPEN HOVSF-
March 26th 12 p.m. - 2 P.M.
Communit4 Intervention Program
fob Northwest 3rb Street
Richarb Green, Director
March 2701 11 p.m. - 1 p.m.
£ekerb Youth Development Center
7200 H" 441 North
Paul Timko
CommuniN Affairs Director
March 27th i0 A.M. - 11 A.M.
Eckerb intensive NAlf-wa,4 House
7200 H" 44i North
Steve Bushore, Center Director
March 27th 3 p.m. - > P.M.
frienbs of Youth Meworing Program
610 Southwest 2nb Avenue
Laurie Stephen, Prosram Coorbinator
WHEREAS, the City of Okeechobee has numerous American Red Cross volunteers
who have demonstrated their value in public assistance by providing disaster relief
and
WHEREAS, these American Red Cross volunteers donate these services ftee of
charge, in the interest of the citizens of the City as well as the world; and
WHEREAS, this year 's Okeechobee Chapter American Red Cross Dab will take
place on April S, 1997;
NOW, THEREFORE, 1, Jarnes F,. Kirk, Mayor o%the City o/'okeechonee, proclaim
the dal- cJ'AAril S, 1997, as
AMERICAN RED CROSS IAA Y
In recognition of this important emergency, preparedness agency, and call upon all
citizens to pay appropriate tribute to the American Red Cross of our Citv.
�l,t tt�ititc�i
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hezfuntL) ift nt!j
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t)A f L _....____.'-'
WHEREAS, child abuse and neglect is a serious and growing problem affecting more than two
million of our nation's children annually and over 3,500 of children locally; and
WHEREAS, the societal malignancy called child abuse and neglect respects no racial, religious,
class, or geographical boundaries, and, in fact, has been declared a national emergency; and
WHEREAS, the Exchange Club C.A. S. T.L. E. of the Treasure Coast, Inc., Tri County Tec, Center
for Children in Crisis, Hibiscus Children's Center and Children's Home Society through their
support of parent aide programs, parenting classes and educational programs, are making
significant progress in stopping this crimo against our nations and community's children and
families, -
NOW, THEREFORE, I James E. Kirk, Mayor of the City of Okeechobee do hereby proclaim the
entire month of April, 1997 shall be observed as CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION month in the City
of Okeechobee, and I urge all citizens to use this time to better understand, recognize, and
respond to this grievous problem, -
AND, FURTHER, I congratulate the above -mentioned agencies for their continued success in
helping families break free from the cycle of child abuse.
witn:iI
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,
lzeieunto set my
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E-1
CITY
F OKEECHOBEE
Office of the City Clerk & Personnel
MEMORANDUM
TO: John J. Drago, City Administrator
THRU:
FROM: Bonnie S. Thomas, City Clerk/Personnel Administrate
a---�—
/Ig
DATE: February 24, 1997
SUBJECT: March 4th
Agenda Item
Please place on the March 4th City Council Agenda an item for the City Council to approve the 1997
City Grievance Committee:
Jeff Baugh...........................................Fire Department
Alternate - Bill Douglas
Kelley Ammons.....................................Police Department
Alternate - Gene O'Neill
Lane Gamiotea..............Admin/Finance/Gen Serv/Clerk's Offices
Alternate - Nina Borenstein
Cleveland Lamb ......................Public Works Department
Alternate - Shane Brumley
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
TO:
FROM:
CITY OF OKEECHOBEE
MEMORANDUM
Mayor and City Council
John J. Drago, City Administrator
DATE: March 14, 1997
SUBJECT: Status Report
1. Government Services Television Network came to the City to interview City officials
and employees about our Single Salary Plan. Mayor Kirk, Lola Parker, Lydia Jean
Williams, Chief Mobley, Police Officer Bob Peterson and I were interviewed. This
program will be seen by local governments throughout the United States and Canada.
2. The City issued a Notice of Intent to issue a permit to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart now can
close on the Hendry property. After the closing, Wal-Mart can have their property
annexed into the City.
3. The County gave me a copy of the proposals from the five fire consultants.
4. Enclosed are copies of the payroll sheets for budget year October, 1996 to date,
showing the overtime for the Fire Department.
5. The City requested a 45 day extension to our Downtown Grant in order for the
Genesis Group to finish the plans and be ready to bid the project by the end of April.
6. Bids have been advertised for the communication equipment and the allied fire
equipment. Bid opening is April 9th.
1
7. The American Legion is currently working on a master plan for Park No. 1. They plan
to install various pieces of military equipment in conjunction with the monuments. I
suggested to the Legion to have the Council review the final plan to determine if it
blends with the downtown project.
JJD:nb
Enclosure
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IN SERVICE TO SERVE YOU
October 9, 1996
FIRE
EQUIPMENT
INC.
Chief Keith Tomey
Okeechobee Fire Department
55 SE 3Rd Street
Okeechobee, FL 34974
Dear Chief Tomey,
Listed below is all items discussed and clarified at our pre_ -construction conference held
October 2 & 3:
CHASSIS REVIEW
1. GVWR rating to be increased to 43,000 pounds.
2. Load manager to control the following items in sequence;
a. Air conditioning and heater
b. Rear scene lights
c. Perimeter scene lights
d. Step lights
3. High idle to be manually operable from inside the cab. An interlock system will be
provided the prevent the activation of high idle with the pump engaged. Low voltage
alarms will be provided in the cab and at the pump operator's position.
4. Air horns to be located outside of frame extension to increase front hose tray capacity
above specification requirements.
5. Cab roof over the crew cab area shall be raised 12" to provide additional headroom in
crew cab and provide easier egress with SCBA.
6. Front jump line piping and valve to be 2". Swivel to be located next to center tray
right side.
7. Light bar to be a Code 3 5400AL with two PIERCER traffic moving lights. Light bar
shall have eight 50 watt rotators and two diamond mirror to provide front and side
penetration.
S. Backboard storage shall be provided on the rear of the cab. The compartment will be
approximately 74" long x 34" high x 3" wide.
9. Hard suction hose to be stored one (1) each side of high side compartments.
10. Stainless steel to be provided over top of rear side compartment at rear where hose
will be exiting the hose bed.
11. Lettering and striping layout to be per print provided.
F17-vn
II+ I:� _-
2904 59th AVENUE DRIVE EAST - BRADENTON, FLORIDA 34203
(813) 756-7779 - Long Distance Call: 1-800-228-8368 - FAX: 1-813-756-2598
Okeechobee Fire Department
Chief Keith Tomey
Page 2
:•��M
1. One (1) roll -out tray to be located in compartment "C" floor mounted and one (1)
shall be located in compartment "G" mounted on an adjustable track.
2. To provide easier to load and deploy 1 1/4" crosslays, the 21/2" crosslay preconnect
shall be moved to the right side froward section of the rear hose bed. The capacity be
increased from 150 feet to 300' feet for longer deployments.
3. One (1) pair of rear hose loading lights shall be provided. They shall be 7" rectangular
and located above the rear taillight assemblies. They shall be switched from the cab.
4. Pull -down straps shall be provided on the lift -up doors each side above the rear
wheels.
5. Adjustable shelves shall be located (1) A upper area, (1) C upper area, (1) D,E,F,and
G.
6. Pump panel microphone box to be minimum of 8"deep.
7. Generator stop/start to be located at pump operator's panel. Each quartz light shall be
switched at the light head and from the breaker panel. Breaker panel to be located in
the rear generator compartment.
8. Two (2) pike pole tubes will be provided in the rear ladder storage compartment.
9. Two (2) rear tow hooks shall be provided in place of CRS bar to increase the angle of
departure. Tow hooks to exceed pulling capacity of the CRS bar.
Please review these clarifications and sign one copy and return to me for my files. A
revised print will be provided in the next 30 days. We greatly appreciate your business
and look forward to delivering your new Pierce Saber Pumper.
Sincerely,
Ten-8 Fire Equipment Inc.
representing
rce M nufacturing Inc.
cal- I
Jo
Sales Re sentative
/a-u.-9y..
Approved by ust er Date
/ OKEf
,�► of ch0
+ e-
_City of Okeechobee
LOR10'�/1
March 18, 1997
Mr. Will Priester
1007 North Federal Highway
Suite 68
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33304
Dear Mr. Priester:
The City of Okeechobee is pleased to hear that you may be interested in moving
to our City. There is a great need for a grocery store in the Northshore Plaza area and any
assistance that we can provide to you we would be happy to do so.
The City of Okeechobee is growing and we look forward to having diversity of all
types of establishments in Okeechobee.
OR
Please do not hesitate to contact me if we can be of any help to you.
Si
erely,
i
Dowling R. Waf ord, Jr.
City Councilman
55 S.E. Third Avenue • Okeechobee, Florida 34974.2932 • (941) 763.3372 • Fax: (941) 763-1686
Board of County Cominissroners
Okeechobee Cotml1,
March 14, 1997
Mr. John Drago, City
Ci t,, of Okeecho:..ee
55 SE 3rd Avenue
Okeechobee, FL 34974
Dear John:
Administrator
\,\\1111111 A11/11j /
1/
= p i
iSVA .
304 N.W. 2nd Street, Room 106
OKEECHOBEE, FLORIDA
(941)763-6441
FAX N (941) 763-952.9
Yesterday, the Board of County Commissioners requested that I
coordinate with you to schedule a joint workshop with the City
Council at the HRS building to discuss fire protection service
delivery. In -that a consultant will soon be engaged to assist with
delineation of service area boundaries, establishment of service
level(s) and identification of the most equitable means of funding
service delivery, this is an opportune time to discuss related
issues of mutual concern as well as the extent to which the City
wishes to participate in this effort.
Please contact me at your earliest convenience to schedule a
mutually -acceptable date for this meeting.
Sincerely,
George A. Long
County Administrator
cc: BOCC
Mayor_ Kirk
David E. Hazellief Gene Woods Clif Betts, Jr. John W. Abney, Sr. Clois J. Harvey George ALong
District I District 2 District 3 District 4 District 5 C—Tilty Administrator