May 2011 Board
Council of Civic Association
Board Meeting Minutes
May 23, 2011
City Hall, 8th Floor
5:30 PM
1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by President Doug Sterner at 5:30 pm.
2. Attendance: Present were President Sterner, Second Vice President Betty Shelley, Corresponding Secty Donna Mergenhagen, Recording Secty Rochelle Golub, District 1 Rep Linda Nugent, District 2 Rep Shirley Smith, District 3 Rep Joann Kitchen Simmons, District IV Rep Jackie Scott, Chairman of Committees Ron Centamore. Absent were Past President Genia Ellis, 1st VP Marilyn Mammano, and Treasurer Gabriel Ocasio-Davila A quorum was declared. Also in attendance for part of the meeting were Past President Dennis Ulmer and Jorg Hruschka of the Building Officials and Inspectors Education Association of Broward County.
3. Minutes: On motion by Ms. Mergenhagen and second by Ms. Shelley, the Board minutes of April 25, 2011 were unanimously accepted.
4. Treasurer’s Report: Mr. Ocasio-Davila was not in attendance to make a report. Ms. Shelley, in her capacity as chair of the audit committee, presented a report prepared by the immediately preceding Treasurer, Tom Welch, showing that as of March 31, 2011 the ending balance of all accounts was $7,715,44.
In accordance with the By-Laws, there is now a vacancy for the office of Treasurer inasmuch as Mr. Ocasio-Davila has been absent for three consecutive meetings. It was determined that a special election for a new Treasurer would be held at the General Membership Meeting on June 14 2011. The required ten day notice would be sent by the Corresponding Secretary. Nominations will be taken at the meeting.
Currently, Mr. Ocasio-Davila and Ms. Ellis are the signatories to the checking count. The checking account only requires one signature to conduct business. As current President, Mr. Sterner should be a signatory to the checking account. He will contact the bank and make appropriate arrangements to change authorized signatories to hiself and the newy elected Treasurer.
5. The Agenda for the June 14, 2011 General Meeting was presented and discussed. Rep. Gwendolyn Clark-Reed will discuss the privatization of Broward Health. Mr. Sterner noted that the Broward Health CEO had been hesitant to commit to a date to speak to the CFLCA because of unresolved issues surrounding the chapter. He will be offered an opportunity to speak at a later meeting. Ms. Shelley stated that the audit committee would be prepared to report its findings at the June meeting. Ms. Merhagen stated she would give an update on the vote on the by-laws. The Board discussed options on how best to present the proposed changes for a vote by the membership. It was determined that advance written notice would be provided as well as email notice. It was clarified that modifications, amendments and additional changes would not be entertained before the vote.
6. Increasing Council Membership.
• Topic for meetings: Ms. Scott stated her opinion the speakers/topics at the general meetings were not of sufficient interest to the neighborhoods to get them to participate. Mr. Sterner reviewed the meeting schedule to date. The new City Manager was the featured guest at the July meeting. Most likely there would not be an August meeting. The by-laws would be the topic for the October meeting. Depending on the scheduling of local elections, a meeting would be set aside for related topics. The Board brainstormed topics for future meeting. Ms. Scott stated she would work on getting a speaker about greenways for September. Ms. Scott and Ms. Golub volunteered to work on the topic of historic preservation for a future meeting.
• Better Communications: It was determined that Council Corner should commence immediately and that a permanent part of the template would ask neighborhoods to raise the issues that concerned them.
Also with respect to better communications, it was agreed that the website needed major improvements. Ms. Scott and Ms. Golub volunteered to look into it.
It was also decided that we would resume the practice of having name tags at general meetings.
• It was decided that each of the district reps would arrange one or more social events (e.g. wine and cheese party) in the district for neighborhood associations to stimulate contact.
7. The Board unanimously supports CFLCA’s gift to the City in honor of the Centennial to be a new map of the city neighborhoods and districts. The map will cost approximately $500 so it will be brought to the membership for a vote.
8. The recipients of the stipend to attend the Florida Neighborhoods conference will be announced at the June meeting. Inasmuch as no one from District IV requested to go, Ms. Scott was asked to see if there was a person interested in attending who is eligible for the stipend. The Board discussed having a table at the FNC. Materials were discussed. The charge will be $35 – the cost of the table to the sponsor. The idea was favorably received. Several Board members took copies of the current brochure to see if there was an easy way to update it.
9. The Board unanimously approved Marilyn Mammano to serve as the CFLCA representative to the Visioning Committee.
10. Jorg Hruschka announced that the Building Officials and Inspectors Education Association of Broward County approved the creation of the joint govt, business, residential program to provide educational resources about the County Building Department and building permitting.
11. The Board agreed that Ms. Golub should explore with the Charter Revision Board adding a provision to ensure that the Commission and the City Manager be obligated to use plans that are commissioned and adopted to guide decsion-making.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:35pm
Respectfully submitted,
Rochelle Golub
Recording Secretary