Monthly Archives: February 2012

February 2012 Board

 in Minutes - Board Meeting by (updated 4489 days ago)

Council of Civic Association
Board Meeting Minutes
February 27, 2012
City Hall, 8th Floor

1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by President Doug Sterner at 5:35 pm.

2. Attendance: All present except 1st Vice President Marilyn Mammano, Treasurer Madeline Klein, and District 3 Rep Dr. M. Lewis. District IV Rep Brucie Cummings arrived after the start of the meeting..

3. Minutes: The minutes for the December 2011, as amended by Past President Genia Ellis to include the date November 21, 2011 for the prior meeting minutes referred therein, and the January 2012 Board meetings were unanimously approved.

4. Treasurer’s Report: Mr. Sterner circulated the Treasurer’s Report by Ms. Klein showing an ending balance of February 27, 2012 of $7,904.90. The Report was unanimously approved.

5. Mr. Sterner noted that there was no speaker scheduled for the March General Meeting. It was agreed that we would attempt to get Gene Dempsey to talk about the white fly problems the City was experiencing and/or Bob Wolf from The County Appraisers Office. Other topics that we will pursue for future meetings include a transportation forum, a conversation with the county commissioners about City concerns, a forum about beach issues including the Swimming Hall of Fame, parking and Mahia Mar, and a report from the Parks and Recreation Department.

6. David Isharq from Radio Station WIOD 610 made a presentation to the Board about advertising on the station or buying time to broadcast meetings. The Board agreed to invite Mr. Isharq to present a written proposal for consideration.

7. Mr. Sterner reported on the progress of upgrading the planned painting of the City’s water tower as part of Waterworks 2011. The City is applying for a grant from the Community Foundation of Broward to fund the additional cost of the project. CFLCA will function, as agreed, as the liaison between the City and the neighborhoods for solicited opinions and comments on the design selected. A professional artist will be required to qualify for the grant.

8. Ms. Cummings raised the issue of whether the CFLCA should take a formal written position on the Commission’s decision to hire City Atty Harry Stewart on a month-to month basis until his replacement is hired. After a spirited discussion, it was decided that while individuals could certainly express their concerns to the Commission, the Council would wait and see how the quickly a replacement was selected before taking an official position.

9. Mr. Sterner announced that a donation had been made to the Council by Marilyn Markus in honor of Richard Mancuso. That triggered a discussion of whether the Council should do something to recognize his contributions to the CFLCA at this time of his death. Corresponding Secty Donna Mergenhagen raise the idea of a “Sunshine Fund” and a committee to recommend policies in this area and implement that policy. Others feared that it would be too hard to uniformly implement a policy and feelings could be hurt if someone’s life cycle event was inadvertently overlooked. At least with respect to Board Members’ deaths, it was decided that the Council should do something appropriate on a case by case basis. Ms. Cummings suggested buying bricks on Riverwalk. It was unanimously approved to do so with Ms. Ellis’s caveat that the message be “in honor of…” and not “in memory of…”.

10. Time Capsule. Ms. Mergenhagen reported that we are still waiting on the City to adopt a business plan for the project.

11. St Patrick’s Day Parade. Second Vice President Shelley volunteered to be the CFLCA captain representing us at the Parade informational meeting. There appears to be less response to participate given the March 10th versus March 17th date.

12. Mr. Sterner reported that planning staff has not scheduled a second meeting to finish the presentation of the Council’s ad hoc reform committee. Staff responded well to the initial presentation.

13. Ms. Ellis announced that there will be a planting event on March 31, 2012 at 8am at the Women’s Club in Stranahan Park.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:25 pm

Respectfully submitted,
Rochelle Golub
Recording Secretary

February 2012 General

 in Minutes - General Meeting by (updated 4489 days ago)

Council of Fort Lauderdale Civic Associations
General Meeting
February 14, 2012
City Hall- 8th Floor Conference Room

1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by First Vice President Marilyn Mammano at 7:30 pm followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

2. Attendance: First Vice President Marilyn Mammano took the roll and declared a quorum.

3. Minutes: The review and acceptance of the January 10, 2012 minutes were tabled.

4. Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Madeline Klein distributed the Report showing an ending balance as of January 31, 2012 of $7,370.66. The Report was unanimously approved upon a motion by Betty Shelley and a second by Jackson Boren.

5. FLPD Police Report: Captain Lou Alvarez provided this month’s report. He reported that overall crime was declining but daytime burglaries were up. He stated that special details had been implemented in the past month and proved effective. He urged neighborhoods to contact NAT Teams for faster responses about solutions to neighborhood problems and answers to questions.

6. Guest Speaker: Assistant City Manager Susan Torriente made a presentation about the Draft Regional Climate Action Plan developed by the Southeast Florida Regional Compact Climate Committee consisting of representatives from Monroe, Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties. These four counties recognized the importance of planning for the effect of climate change and realized that they could have more impact in Tallahassee if they banded together as a Compact. The Compact represents over 5.6 million residents. Fort Lauderdale alone has seven miles of beaches and 300 miles of canals. The Plan is a five year plan that seeks to integrate efforts through existing agencies and infrastructures. There are about 100 recommendations in the Plan, including the implementation and funding of projects. The Plan is in the comment stage through March 16, 2012 and Ms. Torriente urged the neighborhoods to review and make comments. The Plan can be found at www.southeastfloridaclimatecompact.org.

Paramedic Chief Joanne Lorber also made a presentation at the meeting about emergency preparedness for county residents at risk. She distributed an informational handout that can be found at www.broward.org/AtRisk/Pages/Default.aspx. Ms. Mammano also raised the importance of registering with the City’s Code Red project which can be accessed from the City’s website.

7. Committee Reports:

• Centennial Time Capsule: Corresponding Secretary Donna Mergenhagen reported that the date to close the time capsule has been moved by the City to Memorial Day. The capsule will be displayed in the lobby of City Hall and is intended to be opened in 25 years. Individuals, neighborhoods, businesses, schools, organizations will be encouraged to participate. The cost of submissions will be kept low to encourage participation: submissions the size of a business envelope can be purchased for $5 and the size of a standard manila envelope (approx. 9 X 12) can be purchased for $15. Ideas for the types of things that can be submitted will be included in fliers and on a website. It is envisioned that there will be a 30 day window for the acceptance of submissions. CFLCA s waiting for the green light from the City to proceed.
• Charter Revision: Recording Secretary Rochelle Golub stated that at the last Committee possible revisions to the provisions on elections was discussed. She restated that the Committee was contemplating potential changes in four areas as directed by the Commission.
• Membership: Ms. Mammano stated that membership applications and renewals were being resent.

8. For the Good of the Community. CLFCA took time to remember Richard Mancuso who died after a long illness. Ms. Shelley spoke and others contributed stories and memories and observations about Mr. Mancuso. He was praised as a man of dignity who was dedicated to making the City a better place for all its residents. He worked tirelessly on the Ad Hoc Code Reform Project and it was suggested that the resulting document be dedicated to him. The position of Chairman of Committees of CLFCA was created for him because of his interest and involvement of Council activities. At the service held for him, his love of music and poetry and his songwriting was highlighted with a recording of a song he had written played at the end of the service. The City has made a proclamation for Richard and has named him Citizen of the Year. Those interested can make contributions to the Richard J. Fox Foundation for Prostate Cancer, P.O. Box 25581, Washington, D.C., 20027.

In addition, a number of upcoming community events were announced including the Victoria Park Spring Clean Up on March 10 which is the same day as the City of Fort Lauderdale St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Event sponsors were encouraged to send electronic fliers to Ms. Mergenhagen who would email them to all of the Council members for distribution to the neighborhoods.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:55 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Rochelle Golub
Recording Secretary