General Meeting
June 08, 2010
Minutes
Call to Order by President Sterner at approximately 7:30 PM followed by the pledge of allegiance.
Roll call was made Vice President Mammano who announced that there was a quorum of members present.
Meeting Minutes were provided by e-mail, posted to the web page and were available at the meeting. By a unanimous vote of the members present, the minutes were accepted as presented.
Treasurers report was provided by Tom Welch indicating a working balance of $3,264.40 was available in the General Fund and that the Ascencia CD currently was value at $5,532.21 totaling a net worth of $8,796.61. The Treasurers report was accepted by a unanimous vote of the members present.
The Fort Lauderdale Police Department did not make a report as is customarily done on city-wide issues and crime.
LIGHTHOUSE OF Broward, Kevin Johnston, Development Coordinator provided a brief presentation to the membership about the services provided at their Fort Lauderdale location at 650 N. Andrews Avenue. The objective of this organization is to assist those blind or nearly blind in maintaining a lifre of independence through training and assistance. The membership is invited and encouraged to tour the facility.
PEDESTRIAN SAFETY City Staff were invited to address the concerns of member neighborhoods and residents and to provide an update on the plan being developed and the intended implementations.
Assistant City Manager David Hebert introduced the team and identified what areas they would be covering. Assistant Chief Steve Kinsey provided an overview of the current regulations available for enforcement and a variety of approaches being tested and implemented and others under consideration. He clearly emphasized that all approaches will be budget driven in these challenging economic times. During the first phase of the plan will be enforcement of existing laws, public outreach for education and the testing of signage currently being done on the beach. He defined the most recent state legislation regarding pedestrians in the right of way which was enacted in 2008.
Patrol Officer Juan Figona provided statistics of the current success of the FLPD in enforcement and answered questions regarding pedestrian ways (sidewalks) and how bicycles are allowed to use those areas.
Petula Burke, Public Information Office, provide a number of handouts and defined the program underway for educating children so that they take the information home. There were further discussion as to how this information might be best used in hotels, airports and the like to educate visitors and to assist our international visitors in learning local regulations. The PIO is working on a webpage link that will have information on crosswalks, bicycle and driver safety.
Heslop Daley, Traffic Engineer, advised that because the roads are county input would be required from them. He also indentified possible sources of funding such as grants or money from the parking fund that could be considered.
SPECIAL ELECTION The Council of Fort Lauderdale held a special election to select a recording secretary to complete the existing term of member David Marshall. A nomination was made from the floor on behalf of Bruce Tanner, South Middle River Civic Association. No other candidates applied to run for the position and Bruce Tanner was unanimously elected by the members present.
CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE REPORT Donna Mergenhagen reported that the committee had hired a historian with funds allocated by the city. It Is anticipated that forms will be made available to neighborhoods for information. Additional marketing is being done and the generation and maintenance of a master list of events that will be happing during the centennial year.
AD H OC CODE REFORM Genia Ellis reported for Richard Mancuso and updated the membership on the recent NDRC workshop held by the city on June 2nd. Winter and Company provided a 140 page document that was to reflect the comments and concerns of the residents and to identify a plan and phasing for implementation. The same presentation will be provided to P&Z on June 16th to update that Board and obtain additional information. The general consensus of the very few people that attended the workshop was there was an inadequate amount of time to review the documents before the workshop. Secondly, the data at first review omitted a large number of items initially proposed by the Council and that it appeared to be a relative generic document in part and was offering little or no incentives. It had also a selected form based approach to regulation which was not an approach found acceptable by the Council when last discussed.
The original committee has committed to reviewing the documents and compiling those comments to be sent back to the city. All neighborhoods are encouraged individually to do the same thing. The committee agreed to attempt t have a working document ready by the August board meeting. Each resident is encouraged to go on-line, read the document, and to complete the comment form available for submission.
DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVES each representative present gave an update on what was being done to encourage additional membership in the area and of other events of interest in their district.
NEW BUSINESS
Drew Pickens was commended on the proposed e-newsletter that was used for the most recent meeting to include the agenda. This vehicle provides many new possible uses to get information out during the month. It was also noted that the web address should be added to the form.
Sheri Roberts of Neighborhood Services announced the opening of the new NCIP/BCIP Grant cycle on June 16, 2010. All neighborhoods are encouraged to participate.
Secondly, Ms. Roberts provided a flyer on the upcoming Florida Neighborhood Conference in St. Petersburg and encouraged neighborhoods to take advantage of this opportunity.
Genia Ellis inquired as to whether this Council would be allocating funding to attend this conference as we have in the past. After a spirited discussion, the members present voted to provide $500 each to (two) Council members or alternates to attend, provided they had not used Council funds to attend in the past. The objective is to encourage members who have not attended before to become involved. This passed by a vote of 8 to 2.
Meeting adjourned at 9:18 PM.
Respectfully submitted by Genia Duncan Ellis at the request of Doug Sterner.
