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2021-02-16 Handwritten MinutesCITY OF OKEECHOBEE, FLORIDA FEBRUARY 16, 2021, REGULAR MEETING HANDWRITTEN MINUTES BY L. GAMIOTEA I. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Watford called the regular meeting of the City Council for the City of Okeechobee to order on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, at 6:00 P.M. in the City Council Chambers, located at 55 Southeast 3rd Avenue, Room 200, Okeechobee, Florida. Watford, mother in ICU, may need a short recess if call is received - The invocation was offered by Mayor Watford; followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by Clark. II. ATTENDANCE MAYOR & CITY COUNCIL ATTENDANCE THOSE PRESENT WERE: Mayor powling R. Watford, Jr. Council Member Clark Council Member Keefe by Clerk Gamiotea. Council Member Wes Abney Council Member Jarriel Staff in attendance: City Attorney John Fumero City Administrator Marcos MontesDeOca City Clerk Lane Gamiotea Deputy City Clerk Bobbie Jenkins Executive Assistant Robin Brock Other staff in attendance: Police Major Hagan Finance Director Riedel III. AGENDA AND PUBLIC COMMENTS A. Mayor Watford asked whether there were any agenda items to be added, deferred, or withdrawn. There were none. B. Motion by Council Member , seconded by Council Member to approve the agenda as presented. VOTE: Mayor Watford Yea, Council Members Abney Yea, Clark Yea, Jarriel Yea, Keefe Yea. Motion Carried. C. There was one agenda item forms or comment cards submitted for public participation for any issues not on the agenda. Kailey King extend invitation sent in the week, grant to bring econ dev training to our area. Its for elected officials. April 1, 2021. COVID measures put in place. *request a copy of the email she sent to the mayor & council* Keefe — documents will be sent out ahead of time, and the agenda, 3 hours class, company doing training has already come before, in 2018. DW, thank you and look forward to it. IV. PRESENTATIONS AND PROCLAMATIONS A. Mayor Watford proclaimed the week of February 21 through 27, 2021 as "Engineers Week." He presented the document to engineers, Administrator MontesDeOca and Mr. Steve Dobbs, which was read into the record as follows: "Whereas, engineers design, construct, and maintain the infrastructure and facilities that contribute to a high quality of life for all residents of the City of Okeechobee; and Whereas, the City of Okeechobee growth depends on engineers executing innovative, creative, and high-quality solutions to technical problems; and Whereas, the purpose of the Florida Engineering Society is to advance the public welfare, promote the professional, social and economic interests of the engineering professions, and stimulate and develop professional concepts amount all engineers through education and excellence in practice; and Whereas, members of the Florida Engineering Society and the Florida Institute of Consulting Engineers are making strides to interact with the engineering education sector to prepare future engineers to maintain our economic leadership and quality of life; and Whereas, it is important that we recognize and honor the continuing contributions of America's engineers. Now Therefore, I, Dowling R. Watford, Jr., by virtue of the authority vested in me as Mayor of the City of Okeechobee, Florida, do hereby proclaim February 21 through 27, 2021 as `Engineers Week' in the City of Okeechobee." L. Gamiotea Handwritten Minutes, February 16, 2021, Page 1 of4 Photo taken by R. Brock. MDO, past president engineering class, hot spots in the park. State wide funding, something that started here will be going statewide. V. CONSENT AGENDA Motion by Council Member Clark, seconded by Council Member Jarriel to approve consent agenda items A[January 2021 Warrant Register, General Fund $738,028.30, Public Facilities Improvement Fund $29,966.04, and Capital Improvement Projects Fund $93.34], B[Re-appoint Mr. Tommy Clay as the regular member (term ending March 1, 2025) and Mr. Jeff Fadley as the alternate member (term ending March 1, 2023) to the Okeechobee Utility Authority Board of Directors (Exhibit 1)]; and C[disposal of obsolete surplus equipment that is no longer needed by the City (Exhibit 2): Asset No. 63 1997 Ford F150 Truck Vehicle Identification No. (VIN) 1 FTDF17WXVNC96963; Asset No. 859 2011 Ford Crown Victoria VIN 2FABP7BVOBX135155; Asset No. 899 Dell mobile workstation Model No. M2800; Asset No. 714 25-foot christmas tree with lights; (4) filing cabinets; 20-foot Communications VHF or UHF Fiber Glass Collinear Gain Base Station Antenna; (8) various computer towers; Auto Data Base; (2) small filing cabinets; Multi-line phone system; small bookshelf; 2009 black Dodge Charger VIN 2B3AA4CT1AH163995]. VOTE: Mayor Watford Yea, Council Members Abney Yea, Clark Yea, Jarriel Yea, Keefe Yea. Motion Carried. VI. NEW BUSINESS A. Donation of new well in Veterans Park by American Drilling (Exhibit 3). PW Director Allen received a letter from Frank DeCarlo with American Drilling Services, Inc. requesting permission to drill a new four-inch PVC well and install a submersible pump and tank in Veterans Park. The existing well, pump and pressure tank will be abandoned and removed. American Drilling is graciously offering this as a donation which is valued at $7,800.00. MDO, moving the well from the center of the park to the side, pump being donated, wont interFere with future plans. Motion by Council Member Keefe, seconded by Council Member Clark to accept a donation of a new well in Veterans Park by American Drilling Services, Inc. WA, where? MDO next to the current electrical system that's there now. VOTE: Mayor Watford Yea, Council Members Abney Yea, Clark Yea, Jarriel Yea, Keefe Yea. Motion Carried. B. Introduction of Okeechobee County School Board Buddy Mentoring Program by Director of Grants & Special Programs, Heather pobbs (Exhibit 4). Heather pobbs, appeared before the Council and distributed a flyer regarding the program. BUDDY = Building Up Diverse & Dynamic Youth. Okeechobee is a title 1 school. Committed to providing mentoring to every child. Fill out application through website, facilitate good matches between the mentor and mentees. 12 hours training broken down in 3 hours blocks. Only during school time and hours. 1 30 min session 1 time per week. Regular and frequent sessions are key. Make some connections with family if at all possible. Hopefully introduction has piqued your interest. Share information to anyone. DW other organizations that seek mentors and struggle with getting volunteers. Doesn't sound like a lot but can be. Anticipate you can fill your spot? HD, students with most need filled first, less need will be filled by campus personnel. Take stock is specific to high schoolers. 5t" graders only for right now. WA goal for number? HD 1 for every kid, we have enough for almost all most need. Foster grandparents are stepping up, focus is at central elementary. BJ, just during school year? Yes. DW good luck, sounds like a great program. HD, 5th grade in particular because of the issues that face that age. DW hope its successful. L. Gamiotea Handwritten Minutes, February 16, 2021, Page 2 of 4 C. Consider settlement proposal in the case of City of Okeechobee, Florida v. Gloria Rodriquez, et.al., Case Number: 47 2020 CC 000 190 CC AX MX (Exhibit 5) BP, owner made attempts. 50% of the lien plus attorney costs and fees. DW something we can accept? JF at your discretion. Motion by Council Member Clark , seconded by Council Member Keefe [Code Enforcement Case No. 18-043j. DW, Location? 914 NW 2"d Street, 34972 VOTE: Mayor Watford Yea, Council Members Abney Yea, Clark Yea, Jarriel Yea, Keefe Yea. Motion Carried. D. Discuss the semi-annual Town Hall meeting date, time, and location (Exhibit 6). BJ I called Robin to put it on the agenda, said it was already on. Like to see a crowd, like to have it at OFC, think we can make it exciting. Tell everyone in the city, what we have planned in the city, exciting things to tell the people about things that are coming in. Uplifting the city, Administrator should be able to tell people whats going on. DW, update at the beginning? BJ, however you can do it. But we have charter and flagler park. Lets make it exciting and tell people what we have planned. March 22 is there a better date. Hold it in the evening. MC — town hall candidate forum? DW — to attorney, can we have it? MC — hold it like other forums. JF— MDO — coordinate with Ec Council to host? BK handle it on our end just us, not greater county. Moderateor and time. Give opportunity to address audience. BK town hall meeting first. WA — have on agend to do anything? JT — no sir. Town hall first Political foruem, questions screened. Community members 3 min opening and then 2 min closing statement DW enough publicity without having to put the display advertisitng. What we're doing will work. WOKC broadcast live, cost at next meeting. VII. CITY UPDATE JF — focus was form of government, 3 hour lively meeting, current form that we have at the city, hybrid is what we have here. Early 1900 common for city council to have a management role, each council member. Didn't come to a consensus, many things that will drive other areras will be this. Shouldn't we talk to council first. You want them to come up with their ideas then council is the ultimate decider before voters. Rewriting code and magistrate ordinances. Giving magistrate authority to give fine reduction requests. As it picks up its not efficient, you will always have authority on high provide cases. Admin fee to $50. City attorney instituate foreclosure after 90 days from date of lien in place. It will not be brought back to council in the future. Improve efficiency on how code enforcement works. Townhall consider at least 1 of the items as talking about the charter. Fumero to give a presentation at that meeting. Admin give update on the projects. VIII. COUNCIL COMMENTS WA, the BIS status? MDO will be here Mar 5 for final installation and training. Escribe is up and ready. BJ — exciting time to live in okeeehocbee. L. Gamiotea Handwritten Minutes, February 16, 2021, Page 3 of4 BK — pass excitement on to listeners at WOKC with Billy Dean. Citizen talk about drainage issues, passed on the Public Works, update on time frame on 3 firms with OUA that they've used in the past, 1 declined, 1 not responsive. Reached out to another firm that working with FDOT on 70 right now. Lines are 50 year life span. Want sick hole fixed. MDO no gaskets, 2 concrete pipes put together. MC — after comments about COVID vaccinations, long line but happy about it. Publix and Walmart having the vaccinations. Calling people for appointments who sign up on the state website. Hats off to Terry Burroughs for getting this done. DW last Friday did another mass vaccination by appointment only. Another this Friday cancelled, due to weather, can't get the vaccinations out. For council information, Tiffany Collins no longer our health director. Interim Health Director at this time, don't remember his name. Healthy Start Board — pregnancies are up because of COVID. TDC — let everyone know, Bass Pro bringing in the johnny morse tournament, had so many, 250 boat, 500 people will be here speckled perch weekend. Rodeo is also that weekend. Anyone wants to help with that you can volunteer. DW exciting tournament, bass pro's committee to okee tanie, exciting for our community. DW, Andrea from Healthy Start, OYGBN, FL health center many mothers and they will not be handling those services in the future. May be an issue there. Lost 1 doctor that supported the program. IX. The meeting was adjourned by Mayor Watford at 6:48 P.M. L. Gamiotea Handwritten Minutes, February 16, 2021, Page 4 of 4 d' i CITY OF OKEECHOBEE, FLORIDA FEBRUARY 16, 2021, REGULAR MEETING HANDWRITTEN MINUTES BY BOBBIE .IENKINS I. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Watford called the regular meeting of the City Council for the City of Okeechobee to order on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, at 6:00 P.M. in the City Council Chambers, located at 55 Southeast 3rd Avenue, Room 200, Okeechobee, Florida. Like to ask councils indulgence, mother in iCU, not expecting any calls, but if I get a call, take a short recess. Absolutely. The invocation was offered by MC . � ATTENDANCE Mayor powling R. Watford, Jr. Council Member Wes Abney Council Member Clark Council Member Jarriel Council Member Keefe DW , followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by PRESENT ABSENT _x_ _x_ x x x City Attorney John Fumero _x_ City Administrator Marcos MontesDeOca _x_ City Clerk Lane Gamiotea _x_ Deputy City Clerk Bobbie Jenkins _x_ Executive Assistant Robin Brock x III. AGENDA AND PUBLIC COMMENTS A. Mayor Watford asked whether there were any agenda items to be added, deferred, or withdrawn; none. B. Motion by Council Member wa_, seconded by Council Member _bj_ to approve the agenda as presented. Mayor Watford Y, Council Members Abney_Y_, Clark Y_, Jarriel_Y_, Keefe Y . Motion Carried. C. There were one agenda item forms or comment cards submitted for public participation for any issues not on the agenda. Kaylee King on the elected officials training. First of all I'm Kaylee king, Okeechobee economic development corporation, wanted to extend to you again the invitation I sent earlier in the week, working with FARA, received a grant to bring economic development training to the area, targeted towards elected officials, any of you like to attend that. (sent to email) Date: 4/1/21. Not very long, had someone ask about COVID precautions, training done at IRSC special precautions at their facility. B. Jenkins Handwritten Minutes, February 16, 2021, Page 1 of 6 i 1 BK-documents distributed ahead of time. KK-want to get the date out there, due to planning. Once we get a set agenda. 3-hour class, what could potentially be on the agenda. Company has already come and did the training in 2018. Some of you may have already attended. IV. PRESENTATIONS AND PROCLAMATIONS Mayor Watford proclaimed the week of February 21 through 27, 2021 as "Engineers Week." He presented the document to Administrator MontesDeOca and Mr. Steve Dobbs, which was read into the record as follows: "Whereas, engineers design, construct, and maintain the infrastructure and facilities that contribute to a high quality of life for all residents of the City of Okeechobee; and Whereas, the City of Okeechobee growth depends on engineers executing innovative, creative, and high-quality solutions to technical problems; and Whereas, the purpose of the Florida Engineering Society is to advance the public welfare, promote the professional, social and economic interests of the engineering professions, and stimulate and develop professional concepts amount all engineers through education and excellence in practice; and Whereas, members of the Florida Engineering Society and the Florida Institute of Consulting Engineers are making strides to interact with the engineering education sector to prepare future engineers to maintain our economic leadership and quality of life; and Whereas, it is important that we recognize and honor the continuing contributions of America's engineers. Now Therefore, I, Dowling R. Watford, Jr., by virtue of the authority vested in me as Mayor of the City of Okeechobee, Florida, do hereby proclaim February 21 through 27, 2021 as `Engineers Week' in the City of Okeechobee." MDO-this is my other hat, thank you for entertaining, past state president for the Florida Engineering Society. Something I'm very proud of, treasure coast chapter. Reinvigorated all chapters to proclaim this week. Past president has the leadership class assisting us with installing wi-fi in parks. Starts here but will be going statewide with the project. V. CONSENT AGENDA Motion by Council Member MC , seconded by Council Member BJ to approve consent agenda items A[January 2021 Warrant Register, General Fund $738,028.30, Public Facilities Improvement Fund $29,966.04, and Capital Improvement Projects Fund $93.34], B[Re-appoint Mr. Tommy Clay as the regular member (term ending March 1, 2025) and Mr. Jeff Fadley as the alternate member (term ending March 1, 2023) to the Okeechobee Utility Authority Board of Directors (Exhibit 1)] and C[disposal of obsolete surplus equipment that is no longer needed by the City (Exhibit 2): Asset No. 63 1997 Ford F150 Truck Vehicle Identification No. (VIN) 1 FTDF17WXVNC96963; Asset No. 859 2011 Ford Crown Victoria VIN 2FABP7BVOBX135155; Asset No. 899 Dell mobile workstation Model No. M2800; Asset No. 714 25-foot christmas tree with lights; (4) filing cabinets; 20-foot Communications VHF or UHF Fiber Glass Collinear Gain Base Station Antenna; (8) various computer towers; Auto Data Base; (2) small filing cabinets; Multi-line phone system; small bookshelf; 2009 black Dodge Charger VIN 2B3AA4CT1AH163995]. Mayor Watford Y_, Council Members Abney_Y_, Clark_Y_, Jarriel Y, Keefe Y . Motion Carried. VI. NEW BUSINESS A. Donation of new well in Veterans Park by American Drilling (Exhibit 3). B. Jenkins Handwritten Minutes, February 16, 2021, Page 2 of 6 Motion by Council Member BK , seconded by Council Member WA to accept a donation of a new well in Veterans Park by American Drilling Services, Inc. PW Director Allen received a letter from Frank DeCarlo with American Drilling Services, Inc. requesting permission to drill a new four-inch PVC well and install a submersible pump and tank in Veterans Park. The existing well, pump and pressure tank will be abandoned and removed. American Drilling is graciously offering this as a donation which is valued at $7,800.00. MDO-FPDRAC getting formed, Gregg Maynard has been working to this. Relocate and push to the side beside electrical, brins the park open, well is faulty now. Opens the canvas up for the committee. Discussion: WA-make sure this isn't going to get in the way of the FPDRAC. Mayor WatFord Y_, Council Members Abney_Y_, Clark Y_, Jarriel Y, Keefe Y . Motion Carried. B. Introduction of Okeechobee County School Board Buddy Mentoring Program by Director of Grants & Special Programs, Heather pobbs (Exhibit 4). Heather pobbs, Director of Grants and Special Programs - I am here to introduce our new initiative. BUDDY building up diverse and dynamic youth. Students need mentor, hopefully me speaking to you today will motivate you. Mentors impact lives, more likely to participate in extracurriculars and attend college. Okeechobee is a title I district; income is low enough for the government to provide additional funds. 54-77% poverty level. To help address those needs, committed to providing a mentor for every child. Starting with CES 5t" grade. Fill out an application, volunteer app through the school board website. Reference check, fingerprints, background check, face to face interview. Fill out questionnaire. 12-hour training provided broken down into 3 4-hour blocks plus a manual. Meet with them on campus during school hours. 1 30-minute session once a week. Regular and frequent meetings is what makes the difference. Encouraged to stick around for a year and make connection with students' families. Addressing COVID, hopefully this has piqued your interest. Again, if you could share this information. Extra copies were provided. Dw-other organizations that seek mentors that really struggle to get volunteers. It doesn't sound like a lot but it is I the scheme of things. Anticipate to fill the mentor spots? HD-address the students with the most need, the students with less need will be handled by staff on campus. DW-this doesn't compet3e with take stock or big brothers/sisters. HD-this is part of the district strategic plan, they wanted to provide mentoring services. Right now it's just 5t" grade. WA-goal for a number of inentors? HD-eventually one for every kid. I believe we've already got enough for the needy students in 5t" grade. Foster grandparents have signed up and interviewed, continue working in existing school. Main focus is at CES right now. BJ-just during the school year. H D-yes. DW thank you and it sounds like a great program. I have done this in the past, but don't know how successful I was. B. Jenkins Handwritten Minutes, February 16, 2021, Page 3 of 6 HD-5t" grade in particular start facing difficult times in middle school. Hope to catch them before they run into those issues. C. Consider settlement proposal in the case of City of Okeechobee, Florida v. Gloria Rodriquez, et.al., Case Number: 47 2020 CC 000 190 CC AX MX (Exhibit 5) [Code Enforcement Case No. 18-043]. Motion by Council Member MC , seconded by Council Member BK RP-this case started in Code Enforcement, derelict buildings attempted to clean up, unsuccessful. Offered 5,000 which recommend council accept the offer. DW-we can accept? JF-absolutely, council discretion. DW-where is the property MC-914 NW 2nd WA-half of the lien balance? JF-half of the lien balance $14800 (7 included attorney's fees, 50% of lien plus $5000. We Mayor WatFord_Y_, Council Members Abney Y_, Clark Y_, Jarriel Y , Keefe Y . Motion Carried. D. Discuss the semi-annual Town Hall meeting date, time, and location (Exhibit 6). DW-continue town hall meetings, change formats, attendance has not been very good. BJ-I'm glad it's on the agenda. I'm very excited about it, continue with it, freshman campus. I would like to see a big crowd, see the questions we had originally. Be able to have a reply with someone up front that is familiar. Don't want to debate or argue. Tell everyone in the city, what's going on, what we have planned. Exciting things, wawa burger king, racetrac, high end car wash, gas station across from theatre new cell phone, remodel of la granja building. Upgrading the city, we can make it exciting, admin should be able to tell us what's coming in. DW-a little update of what's going on before we start BJ-we have an election coming up, CCRAC hard at work, FPDRAC, exciting times in Okeechobee, mayor gives us an update, state of Okeechobee, lets' make it exciting, bring them out, don't want people to ask what's going on on facebook. DW-clerks memo is booked but 3/22 is available. Is that a good day for everyone? No objections to date. OFC auditorium, evening at 6PM, MC-since we have 4 people running for election, could we not incorporate like a candidate forum the same night? DW-ask legal MC-separate it, suggest we have it the same night, I think if we incorporate both, you'll get a crowd. Plus they can ask questions of the candidates. J F-ok DW-between the clerk and the attorney/administrator to work out details. TH Meeting first then have the candidate forum? MDO-are we going to do the forum or coordinate with ECOK. BK-don't think it would be difficult to handle it on our end. It's just us. Only 4 candidates. Give them an opportunity to address the audience. WA-did the ECOK have on the agenda to do anything. B. Jenkins Handwritten Minutes, February 16, 2021, Page 4 of 6 JT-no MC-is this the only date we can go to the campus. CC-teacher workday, other time is spring break and show week. VBM ballots processed. MDO-TH introduction candidates, tentative time limit Dw-TH first, then take questions? CC-take questions there or that night DW-that night, get some volunteers to screen those questions. 3-minute opening statement, 2 minutes closing statement CC advertising direction, normal legal, make flyers, social media is best means, local media, in lieu of doing the very expensive display ads. DW-I think if we're having the candidate forum, local news and radio will have enough publicity. Candidates gives them incentives to publicize and get people there. WA-looking on here, radio station is not on the list here, great idea to have them, have them at the event as well to broadcast? Follow up please DW-normally have to have someone sponsor that. CC-to get cost and present at next meeting. VII. CITY UPDATE JF-some of you know very substantive and lively CCRAC meeting, 3 hours that took place. Meaningful discussion which was the focus is the form of government strong mayor to strong manager form of government and a bunch of variations, current form which is hybrid that has developed over many years, remnant of the early 1900s, it was common to the CC have a management role, fin dept CM X, there's a bit of that remnant here, hiring and firing authority . Picking up that conversation at the next meeting. The decision that will drive what goes into the charter, one thing I heard a lot at the meeting was shouldn't we talk to council first, we told them that the council wants to hear what they want. We have drafted, or rewriting the code enforcement ordinance, presented at the next council meeting. Giving the magistrate the authority to approve fine reductions, not efficient to have people come before the council for a fine request. Always have the authority on a high-profile matter. Discuss increasing administrative fee from $25 to $50, also giving the city attorney the authority to institute foreclosure proceedings after 90 days of the date the lien filed. Improving the efficiency of the program. Everything is working very well. So this is chapter 18 of the code of ordinances. TH meeting you may want to consider talking about the charter, park, etc. DW-good idea to have MDO to talk about permits, city attorney gives an update on the charter. VIII. COUNCIL COMMENTS Wa-the BIS system has more equip9ment. MDO-they will be here March 5t" for final installation and training. Escribe has everything now. BIS is extremely busy. BJ-exciting time to live in Okeechobee, looking forward to the meeting BK-take BJ to Billy dean to draw a big crowd. Appreciate his excitement. Well wishes and prayers for your mother, and we spoke about, I had a citizen talk about some drainage issues via email and passed it on to PW director. Reminded me of sinkhole by school board. DA-we have spoken with OUA, 3 firms used in the past for the lining work, one declined, one came out, third one non-responsive. Lining work for FDOT to get a second price so its covered. Moving forward, line the 36" pipe, hopefully alleviate the problem. 50-year life span. Yeah I want that to be off our plates and its been problematic. B. Jenkins Handwritten Minutes, February 16, 2021, Page 5 of 6 MDO=just put two concrete pipes together and its starting to sag, lining is more cost efficient. MC-comments after covid vaccinations, received 500 vaccines, getting a lot of calls, publix walmart, calling people if you apply on the state application, they are calling people for appointments, hats off to terry burroughs who spear headed this, god send to get the elderly vaccinated. DW-last friday did another round of vaccinations, went very smooth. Vaccines are not getting shipped out due to the weather. But you're right, making progress MC-stuck in the cold. DW-tiffany collins is no longer the county health officer, she has a state position, have an interim director at the moment. MC-I'm also on the health start board, pregnancy is up, healthy start is very active. Great organization for high risk mothers. TDC just to let everyone know, I'm sure people who read the newspaper, Johnny Morris fishing tournament brought in by bass pro. 250 boat 2-member team, including Johnny Morris to fish the lake. There will be so many people here for the rodeo and tournament. They're not going to have anyone available to help with the parade. DW-that's an exciting tournament. MC-the county wants to roll out the red carpet because of bass pro's commitment to Okee Tantie. DW-healthy start Andrea talked to me the other day, we're going to have an issue with the OBGYN, the FCHC will not be providing those services in the future. Private practitioner willing to step up. We have a sever issue. IX. The meeting was adjourned at 648 P.M. B. Jenkins Handwritten Minutes, February 16, 2021, Page 6 of 6