October 2011 Board
Council of Civic Association
Board Meeting Minutes
October 23, 2011
City Hall, 8th Floor
1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by President Doug Sterner at 5:35 pm.
2. Attendance: Present were President Sterner, Past President Genia Ellis, 1st Vice President Marilyn Mammano, 2nd Vice President Betty Shelley, Corresponding Secty Donna Mergenhagen, Recording Secty Rochelle Golub, Treasurer Madeline Klein, District 1 Rep Linda Nugent, District 2 Rep Shirley Smith, Chairman of Committees Ron Centamore.
3. Minutes: No minutes were circulated by Ms. Golub for the September 26, 2011 Board meeting.
4. Treasurer’s Report: Ms. Klein circulated a written Report of the Treasurer showing an ending balance of $7,827.29 including the accrued interest from the Ascencia CD. The Report was unanimously approved.
5. The Agenda for the November 8, 2011 General Meeting was presented and discussed. Inasmuch as no legislators have confirmed their attendance for the proposed panel about the upcoming state legislative session, it was unanimously decided to postpone the panel until 2012. It was decided that it was a very busy agenda highlighted by the report of the Ad Hoc Code Reform Committee and discussion of the CFLCA response to staff. There was some discussion among the Board Members about staff’s presentation to the P&Z Board and the Board Members’ responses. There was discussion about the meaning of “incentives” and it was decided that the use of that term was misleading and should be replaced by the term “options”. The CLFCA Committee is meeting on October 27 with the Building Dept and is having a meeting to draft its report that same evening. Marilyn Mammano stated that she did not need to make a report on the visioning committee in light of the presentation at the last general meeting. President Sterner reported that there were vacancies for District 3 and 4 representatives and special elections would be required. Dr. Magdalene Lewis has agreed to run for District 3 Representative and Brucie Cummings has a agreed to run for District 4 Representative. Additional nominations will be taken from the floor. President Sterner requested that Corresponding Secty Mergenhagen send out the required notices for the special election.
6. President Sterner raised the timing of the preparing the new city neighborhoods map with commission districts. It was decided to wait until January to see if the Commission would adopt new districts before the January election or knew when the redistricting would occur.
7. The Board decided that in light of the scheduling of the elections for City Commissioners at the end of January, CFLCA would again hold its Candidates Forum in mid-January. While all commissioners are running unopposed at the present time, the filing deadline has not yet passed. It was the majority consensus of that even if all of the commissioners ran unopposed, a Forum is a good idea and has been historically poplar. A committee was formed consisting of Ms. Ellis, Ms. Mammono and Ms. Shelley to plan the Forum. Volunteer to be on the committee will be solicited at the General Meeting.
8. President Sterner asked Ms. Ellis who owned the CFLCA’s URL. She said the Council did. He asked the Treasurer about payments to GAT Media for the website. Ms. Klein stated that the fees for the URL of $38 and a fee to GAT Media of $398 were paid in December for 2011.
9. President Sterner stated that he had arranged for the CFLCA to use a storage closet in the City Manager’s office on the 7th Floor for archival documents and party supplies instead of the closet on the 8th Floor. After some discussion about convenience and privacy, it was unanimously decided that we would use the closet on the 7th floor as the archive and the closet on the 8th floor for party supplies.
10. Ms. Mergenhagen reported that the Tarpon Bend neighborhood has asked for the help and support of the CFLCA regarding the alleged use of part of Hardy Park for a fire station. It was determined that until more specific facts are gathered about the City’s actual intent for land dedicated to Hardy Park, it would be difficult to form a responsible position. However, the general issue of the City’s use of park land for purposes other than as a park is of historical importance to the neighborhoods. As part of the CFLCA’s goal-setting, a draft section on parks had been prepared based on the desires of the neighborhoods. A core concept was no net loss of park land in the event of a taking of park land by the City. It was decided to submit the draft to the membership at the next General Meeting and finalize the Council’s position.
11. Mr. Centamore announced an event hosted by the DFLCA and the DDA On October 25 to highlight the new lights on Riverwalk and the historical buildings open to the public.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:15pm
Respectfully submitted,
Rochelle Golub
Recording Secretary