CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION MEETING SUMMARY MINUTES JANUARY 11, 2017

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1 SUMMARY MINUTES MEMBERS PRESENT: Cynthia Busch Larry Davis David Di Pietro Thomas P. Fabricio H. Collins Forman, Jr. Roslyn Greenberg, via telephone Cynthia Guerra Suzanne Gunzburger James Gray Kane Marilyn Moskowitz Suzette A. Maylor Thomas McDonald, Chair Lori Moseley Burnadette Norris-Weeks Eugene Pettis 1

2 Carlos Reyes Grant Smith Joseph Wells MEMBERS ABSENT: Monica Navarro ALSO PRESENT: Sam Goren, Esquire, Charter Review Commission Legal Counsel Carlos Verney, Executive Director, Charter Review Commission Madison Cerniglia, Assistant Executive Director, Charter Review Commission Pamela Whitmore, Administrative Specialist, Charter Review Commission Mark Journey, Assistant County Attorney, County Attorney s Office Mary Lou Tighe, Executive Director, Broward League of Cities Nancy Cavender, The Laws Group A meeting of the Broward County Charter Review Commission ( Commission ) was held at the Broward County Governmental Center, Room 430, 115 S. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida on January 11, 2017 at 1:30 p.m. (The following is a summary transcript of the meeting.) 2

3 AGENDA ITEM I - CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Members Absent: Monica Navarro AGENDA ITEM II - PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE (THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE WAS LED BY CHAIR MCDONALD) AGENDA ITEM III APPROVAL OF MINUTES SUMMARY MINUTES OF SEPTEMBER 21, 2016, OCTOBER 19, 2016, AND NOVEMBER 9, 2016 S Commissioner Gunzburger made a motion to approve the September 21, 2016 summary minutes. Commissioner Kane seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY Commissioner Gunzburger made a motion to approve the October 19, 2016 summary minutes. Commissioner Moseley seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY 3

4 Commissioner Gunzburger made a motion to approve the November 9, 2016 summary minutes. Commissioner Reyes seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY AGENDA ITEM IV INTRODUCTION OF THOMAS P. FABRICIO AND EUGENE K. PETTIS, CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION APPOINTEES Chair McDonald introduced the two new members of the Charter Review Commission, Thomas P. Fabricio and Eugene K. Pettis. Commissioner Fabricio was appointed by Mayor Sharief and Commissioner Pettis was appointed as the at-large member by all of the County Commissioners. AGENDA ITEM V SUBCOMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS Chair McDonald appointed himself to the Ethics Subcommittee, Commissioner Fabricio was appointed to the Infrastructure Subcommittee, and Commissioner Pettis was appointed to the Governance Subcommittee. The Commission confirmed the Subcommittee appointments. MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY 4

5 AGENDA ITEM VI SUBCOMMITTEE SCHEDULE TIMELINE DISCUSSION; MEETING DATE DISCUSSION Mr. Verney addressed the CRC to discuss a proposed timeline for the remainder of the CRC term. The proposal anticipated that final Subcommittee meeting would take place in October of 2017, recommendations would be forward to the CRC in November of 2017 and continue to be considered in the month of December, in January of 2018 the drafting process for legal counsel would start and continue until March of 2018, in March of 2018 two Public Hearings would take place, from April of 2018 to May of 2018 the CRC would consider the input from the Public Hearings, and finally the recommendations would be forwarded to the County Commission in mid-may of 2018 to meet the required deadline of the first Tuesday in June of Commissioner Gunzburger and others requested that the verbiage used at the end of the proposed timeline be changed from review of recommendations by County Commission to submission of ballot questions to County Commission. Commissioner Norris-Weeks asked when the CRC ballot language needs to be given to the Supervisor of Elections. Questions about the last Subcommittee date arose. Mr. Verney noted that the date is a projected deadline so that legal counsel can start the drafting process. The CRC is required to hold at least two Public Hearings. The members had questions regarding outreach in regards to the Public Hearings. 5

6 The CRC would like to hold more than two Public Hearings in different parts of the County to ensure that more residents will be able to be involved. Suggestions about where to hold Public Hearings were made. Some recommended reaching out and speaking to groups like the League of Women Voters and others suggested larger venues like auditoriums, or other large County facilities, to get larger audiences to attend. Chair McDonald and Mr. Verney noted that they recently met with the Editorial Board of the Sun Sentinel. One topic they touched on was outreach with regards to social media. In addition to the Public Hearings the CRC will provide, they will also roll out a social media campaign to inform the public further about what the CRC is working on. Commissioner Davis suggested that the CRC reach out to the Sun Sentinel to give them the Subcommittee agendas and information so they know what the Subcommittees are discussing. He said the Sun Sentinel will be able to publicize what is going on. Mr. Verney noted that Ms. Brittany Wallman from the Sun Sentinel as well as members of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board are on the CRC notification list, so they do receive all of the agendas and information on the Subcommittees. He noted that CRC staff will continue to engage the Sun Sentinel. Ms. Cerniglia then offered the CRC the opportunity to change Subcommittee meeting dates and times do to issues reaching a quorum in some Subcommittees. The Subcommittee chairs and members agreed to keep the same meeting dates and times. 6

7 AGENDA ITEM VII SPEAKERS AT S Mr. Verney addressed the CRC on the idea of having the County Commissioners speak at the full CRC meetings. He noted that the County Commissioners can speak to a multitude of issues that overlap between the Subcommittees. The CRC identified that they wanted to have the County Commissioners speak to the full CRC starting at the next meeting in February of AGENDA ITEM VIII SUBCOMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION TRANSMITTAL PROCESS Mr. Verney presented a process in which Subcommittees can transmit their recommendations to the full CRC. He said it would be a procedural step for the Subcommittees to take a vote to transmit a recommendation they would like the CRC to consider. The process would require a simple majority of the members present at the meeting to transmit the recommendation to the full CRC. He explained that this process has been brought up because there is currently not a process for this in the Rules of Procedure. Question about the process for the Governance Subcommittee to transmit recommendations were asked because of its unique situation where it has more than the number of people it requires to have a motion for discussion, which would have to take place at the full CRC level for the other Subcommittees. Questions about what the format of the recommendations that are being transmitted to the full CRC will look like. 7

8 Different members noted what these recommendations looked like on previous CRCs. Mr. Goren noted that the recommendations were similar to a resolution with formalized concepts, but not a full resolution. Commissioner Smith asked for a couple of historical examples to review. AGENDA ITEM IX CHAIR REPORT DISCUSSION OF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PERFORMANCE- BASED REVIEW Chair McDonald explained that the Executive Director is entitled to an annual performance-based review. Chair McDonald recommended that he and Commissioner Forman serve on a committee to provide that performance-based review. Commissioner Gunzburger made a motion to approve Chair McDonald and Commissioner Forman as members of the committee to perform the Executive Director s performance-based review. Commissioner Moseley seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY AGENDA ITEM X LEGAL COUNSEL REPORT Mr. Goren explained to the Commission that prepared a memorandum regarding the potential perceived conflict of interest that might occur with regard to some aspects of what the Ethics Subcommittee is currently reviewing. 8

9 He continued to say that secondary legal counsel has been contacted to provide legal counsel for the Ethics Subcommittee on particular issues. The secondary legal counsel comes from Mr. Edward Dion form the Nabors, Giblin, & Nickerson law firm. The issues that Mr. Dion will provide legal counsel on are the creation of an Ethics Commission, whether the County Charter prevails over cities or not, and the potential for the Ethics Code to a Charter provision as opposed to an ordinance. Commissioner Moseley asked that it be made a policy of the Commission to require presentations and backup material to be printed prior to any presentation given to the Commission or Subcommittees. Commissioner Kane noted that at the last Ethics he requested that the League of Cities provide the Ethics Subcommittee members written recommendations toward the Ethics issues. Mr. Verney noted that the League of Cities is preparing those comments. Mr. Goren continued to say that there were a series of bills filed over the past few weeks, one of which was filed by Senator Artiles with regard to Constitutional Officers. The bill addresses a potential Constitutional amendment which would essentially regulate the method of election of the Constitutional Officers to being elected only. AGENDA ITEM XI EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT ATTENDANCE TRACKING Mr. Verney presented an attendance tracking document to the CRC. 9

10 The document showed all of the members present and absent from each meeting for each Subcommittee and full CRC. Mr. Verney stated that the attendance tracking document is a tool. He added that the only requirement of the members is to provide notice if they will miss a meeting. Chair McDonald added that the notice of an absence does help because there have been meetings where they have been waiting to start because they have been waiting for people to show up. AGENDA ITEM XII SUBCOMMITTEE REPORT INFRASTRUCTURE SUBCOMMITTEE Commissioner Smith explained that the purpose of the last Infrastructure Subcommittee meeting was to plan out what the rest of their meetings would look like. He noted that the Subcommittee has taken the approach to look at a lot of different things instead of having a narrow scope like other Subcommittees. He described the areas in which the Subcommittee will be reviewing, which included land use, Central Examining Boards, Board of Rules and Appeals, environmental matters, regionalism, airport, seaport, as well as the direction of the County in terms of urbanism. Commissioner Smith also noted that they asked the legal counsel, Mr. Tolces, to look into the possibility of language related to the unincorporated areas. 10

11 AGENDA ITEM XIII SUBCOMMITTEE REPORT ETHICS SUBCOMMITTEE Commissioner Gunzburger explained that the Ethics Subcommittee had a presentation from the League of Cities by Dan Stermer and Greg Ross and a presentation from Drew Meyers from the County Attorney s Office. She said they discussed issued related to Inspector General s suggestions. She noted that the next Ethics Subcommittee meeting would be taking Monday, January 23, 2017 at 10:00 am. AGENDA ITEM XIV SUBCOMMITTEE REPORT HUMAN SERVICES & PUBLIC SAFETY Commissioner Norris-Weeks stated that the Human Services and Public Safety Subcommittee had not had a meeting since the last full CRC meeting and the last report she gave is documented in the summary minutes from the last full CRC meeting. AGENDA ITEM XV SUBCOMMITTEE REPORT GOVERNANCE SUBCOMMITTEE Commissioner Davis and Mr. Verney stated that the Governance Subcommittee would be meeting Saturday, January 28, 2017 at Anne Kolb Nature Center for a workshop and special meeting. Commissioner Davis invited those that are not on the Governance Subcommittee to attend the workshop. AGENDA ITEM XVI COMMISSIONERS COMMUNICATIONS DISCUSSION The Commissioners did not have non-agenda related items to discuss. 11

12 AGENDA ITEM XVII PUBLIC COMMENT No one from the public made a comment. AGENDA ITEM XVIII ADJOURNEMNT (The meeting concluded at 3:09 p.m.) 12