MINUTES OF THE STATUTORY SARASOTA CITY COMMISSION MEETING OF APRIL 11, 1997, AT 12:00 P.M. PRESENT: Mayor Mollie Cardamone, Vice Mayor Gene Pillot, Commissioners Jerome Dupree, David Merrill, and Nora Patterson, City Manager David Sollenberger, City Auditor and Clerk Billy Robinson, and City Attorney Richard Taylor ABSENT: None PRESIDING: Mayor Mollie Cardamone Mayor Cardamone called the meeting to order in accordance with Article III, Section 7(a) and Article IX, Section 5(c) of the Charter of the City of Sarasota, at 12:00 p.m. City Auditor and Clerk Robinson gave the Invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. 1. SWEARING IN OF NEWLY ELECTED COMMISSIONERS - THE OATH OF OFFICE ADMINISTERED TO COMMISSIONERS CARDAMONE AND PILLOT (AGENDA ITEM I) #1 (0000) through (0008) Mayor Cardamone stated that the first order of business is the swearing in of the newly elected Commissioners. City Auditor and Clerk Robinson administered the Oath of Office to Commissioners-elect Cardamone and Pillot; and extended congratulations to both. 2. ANNUAL STATE OF THE CITY MESSAGE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CITY CHARTER (AGENDA ITEM II) #1 (0008) through (0638) Mayor Cardamone stated that an annual State of the City Address is required by the new Charter of the City of Sarasota; and thanked Lou Ann Palmer, the Chairman of the Charter Review Committee, for insisting on including the requirement in the new Charter. Mayor Cardamone thanked her husband, Ronald, and her sons, Tom and Greg, for their support during the past year; expressed appreciation to friends and interested residents in attendance to hear the annual State of the City Address and to those who gave their support and encouragement during her past year as Mayor; and thanked the Staff of the City Commission, particularly Kathy Micko, Administrative Assistant to the City Commission, and Linda McCroy, Administrative Secretary. BOOK 41 Page 14434 04/11/97 12:00 P.M. BOOK 41 Page 14435 04/11/97 12:00 P.M. Mayor Cardamone stated that the past year has been wonderful in the City of Sarasota; and delivered the State of the City Address as follows: State Of The City Address April 1997 Our accomplishments some may seem minor but really all are major when you consider our guiding principal to be "a City of urban amenities with small town living and feeling": Charter rewrite and approval and the voters rejected the 4-year, elected-Mayor concept Consolidation of City and County Fire Departments and Communications Departments resulting in a reduction of the operating millage from 5.3 to 3.7 this year creating a potential for 2 mills in 1998/99. (our debt service should remain at approximately 1.08 mills) Annexation of 60 acres adding $219,000 to the general fund and another $50,000 to the enterprise funds such as water, sewer this 96 annexation provides more possibilities for future annexations some of which we will study in the months ahead. DOWNTOWN: Reporter Bob Ardren wrote that he believed no other city of our size in America had realized so many positive things or events in a single year as the City of Sarasota: 3/v00-square-toot new downtown library 57-unit condominium SaraBande now at floor number 7 with a build-out of 18 floors Plans approved for small town house project on Palm Avenue Towles Court an artist live-work community now in completion stage The very imposing, seen from the City limits north and south, Judicial Building of Sarasota County 20-screen movie complex and the rebuilding of Main Plaza nearing its completion for a May opening how unbelievable to see movies returning to downtown! new Walgreens of 13,500 square feet each on U.S. 301 and Fruitville Road and U.S. 41 and Bahia Vista Street and new Eckerds at Tuttle Avenue and Fruitville Road 0,000-square-oot Opera Pavilion adjacent to Opera House, housing offices, a library and community space A beautiful dolphin fountain and the wonderful, fantastic, children's fountain called "A Family Place" - both donated to Island Park for everyone's enjoyment certainly an attraction for more people come to the park TIF (Tax Increment Financing) District had a 5% increase ($25,000,000) this year, maybe the beginning of a trend? OTHER BUSINESS COMMUNITIES: Southgate added a Saks 5th Avenue store and major new construction under way, adding more "upscale" stores bringing some big retail dollars to mainland shoppers - hopefully Sarasota County will be doing streetscape and parking improvements for Siesta Drive Southside Village Streetscape at Osprey Avenue and Hillview Street are complete with an early May celebration already scheduled and another Osprey Avenue development - the opening of a beautiful, new, very successful Publix at Bay Road St. Armands parking problem, greatly reduced - The Circle appears strong and healthy with new renovations and new businesses open Lido Beach A new condominium, L'Elegance, and more redevelopment on one of the World's most beautiful, and somewhat ignored, beaches! Sand for Lido Beach Commissioner Patterson just returned from a lobbying trip to Tallahassee and successtully pulled the issue of sand out of the hands of defeat CENTRAL AVENUE: The Rosemary District is improving with new businesses such as GoodYear and others popping up like mushrooms every week as purchases and clean-ups occur, some using the City's storefront money. The Rosemary Redevelopment Advisory Board is working well and impatient for more successes. Mission Harbor development activities moving forward with a slight delay by early summer we ought to see some real progress NEWTOWN AND DR. M.L.K. (MARTIN LUTHER KING) JR. WAY: Streetscape and rezoning in works - past year spent getting more community consensus, recognizing the importance of the Newtown Task Force, a new Goodwill store, The Boys and Girls Club, and visible improvements in the Leon Avenue neighborhood area. The CBN (Commercial, Business Newtown) zoning passed unanimously with the hope of beginning the renaissance of the Newtown business district BOOK 41 Page 14436 04/11/97 12:00 P.M. BOOK 41 Page 14437 04/11/97 12:00 P.M. PLANNING DEPARTMENT: Working diligently on the Evaluation Appraisal Report of The Comprehensive Plan creating two new elements: 1) Neighborhood and 2) Economic - These are very important in the future development and redevelopment of our City. Planning and other departments, especially the Building and Zoning Department, have been working diligently on the rewrite of our Land Development Regulations - hoped to be done by now, but a little behind schedule CODE ENFORCEMENT: More efforts through additional staff provided more help in dealing with Neighborhood problems performed 13,157 Code Enforcement inspections this year versus 11,087 last year and project more than 17,000 next year (1996/97). The best news out of the Code Enforcement office is the increase in fines paid by offenders: 1993/94 $862 1994/95 $32,291 1995/96 $43,649 1996/97 $26,000 Already collected in 6 months and a projection being made of $52,000! The old adage of spending dollars to make dollars really has provided successful clean-up of our City - especially in neighborhoods! POLICE: Approved an additional traffic unit bringing traffic abatement to a total of seven Police Officers and one Police Sergeant. Also authorized the maintenance of full staffing to keep our Police Department at a maximum employment level. While crime statistics are reduced, improvements still must take place. Nuisance Abatement Board - A great success - just the threat of appearance before this Board has made a difference - a wonderful combination of Code Enforcement and Police efforts. We really need to increase the combined departmental efforts in this and other areas. GILLESPIE PARK: Continues on its path to improvement Police substation built and occupied this year in the park and Junior League/Selby Foundation and Sarasota County opened the very attractive children's playground -= new and rehabilitated homes finished and others started definitely a neighborhood realizing successes out of the combined efforts of neighbors and the city - Still some problems especially with prostitution to solve EAST SARASOTA NEIGHBORHOOD: Moving forward with a plan for redevelopment - trying to deal with absentee landlords and hoping to provide some transitional living experiences or opportunities for families by cooperating with social service agencies - in particular the Salvation Army. BAYOU OAKS: Became an active, demanding neighborhood, working well with departments to plan renovations and improvements in that very large, east of U.S. 41, north of the general area of the Ringling School of Art and Design, learning how to "work the system" in cooperation with North Trail Association, Gateway 2000, the Ringling School of Art and Design, USF/New College, the Newtown Task Force, and the Indian Beach/Sapphire Shores Neighborhood, a real partnership of working-together" to continue the North Trail area improvements. TRAFFIC ABATEMENT: Several efforts took place including the first area-wide project, still being reviewed for revisions and of course controversial - cut through, fast traffic in high volumes is a major problem in residential areas OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY: July 4 th and Offshore Boat Parade brought an excess of 100,000 people downtown. Single biggest day in our history according to police comments and without a single incident - a major highlight for the City of Sarasota was the tremendous national ABC coverage on the evening news with Peter Jennings. The Olympic Commemorative Plaque was unveiled for placement in Island Park on Monday prior to dedicating the Children's Fountain. PARKS AND OTHER AREAS: Regarding parks and park improvements Whitaker Gateway Park plans now complete and first phase looking good, Little Five Points Park is complete and a real pleasure to view as one drives north into the City, Ken Thompson Park Master Plan approved and work ready to begin. Other improvements: 80 new street lights placed throughout the City as needed 4,000 plus feet of sidewalk repaired and installed with 1,100 feet of curbs being replaced Municipal Auditorium new copper roof and operating in a much better financial condition Traffic lights are now pretty well synchronized allowing better traffic flow Sarasota Mobile Home Park - density was reduced from 387 to 340 from January to December 1996 BOOK 41 Page 14438 04/11/97 12:00 P.M. BOOK 41 Page 14439 04/11/97 12:00 P.M. Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall still performing well, had a very successful '96 season, finishing in the black with $887,000 and a new Executive Director recently appointed Sarasota High School and Alta Vista Elementary School have beautiful new campuses and the renovation plans for Tuttle Elementary School and Brookside Middle School will all enhance living in the City as schools are so important to neighborhoods Housing We had 24 rehabilitation loans, helped 61 families to buy, the Community Housing Corporation continued its important work doing in-fill projects with the City including Leon Avenue and Gillespie Park We recognize the importance of Sarasota Bay It was nice to hear the good news of the Sarasota Bay National Estuary Program in announcing the greatly improved water quality north of Siesta Key Bridge, 191 new acres of seagrass beds, the large increase in fish, shrimp and crab population both due to the effectiveness of the wastewater treatment plant. We learned that greater and improved stormwater retention could be realized if we could do a better job with runoff, which the implementation of the Florida Yards Program will help, the Program's restoration projects continue and Hog Creek and the Heritage Trail program has been started. We must continue to worry about neighborhood needs, the areas of concentrated crime activities, schools and job preparedness, economic redevelopment and neighborhood redevelopment, traffic calming, the needs of the Newtown community, and the public housing situation. Bricks and mortar worries for upcoming year must include: the John Ringling Towers, the Ringling Bridge, the downtown bus transfer station and Mission Harbor. Philosophical discussions should include impact fees, the stormwater Interlocal Agreement, welfare reform, minority needs and problems and job quality. The Reliastar Study presented by The Argus Foundation tells us that the metropolitan area (Manatee and Sarasota) ranks first in wealth, 94th in job quality yet first in job creation. These 3 statistics among all the others show a startling contrast between our wealthy, retired and a large number of working poor - we must address this - a major problem in the City and for our City government. HIGHLIGHTS OF MY YEAR: April 12, 1996, I committed myself to several events in my year as Mayor - First, to have four informal Commission meetings - We did have three, with all Commissioners in attendance, the first held at Selby Gardens, the second at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in the Grand Foyer and the third at Mote Marine, which was preceded by four of us taking a delightful and educational boat tour of Sarasota Bay - I really think we had some important conversations, heard each other speak to subjects in a manner impossible in our formal meetings on television we really created a sense of collegiality. Secondly, I also asked that we meet with the County Commission in a joint workshop and am very pleased to say that we had a very friendly and productive get- together late one afternoon at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, looking out at the Bay and feeling just great being Sarasotans! We had a "first ever" Advisory Board reception to provide an official thank you to all members of advisory boards who serve the City = It was a lot of fun and many thank you's were received by attendees who were delighted with the gift and the public appreciation! Another first was the introduction of the Annual Mayor's Neighborhood Award to be given at the Mayor's last Commission meeting recognizing outstanding contributions of citizens - This year the Laurel Park Neighborhood was the winner for all its efforts in developing the conservation district concept, holding a design contest and for being such a terrific successful, involved, "turn-around" neighborhood. For me the two biggest, most fun and most thrilling (sort of goose bumps things) and yet very important to our City was the Olympic Torch Relay Parade on the Fourth of July and the grand opening of the Children's Fountain "A FAMILY PLACE" this week = It was wonderful to see the delight on the faces and hear the shrieks and giggles of the children as the fountain was turned on. It was a real highlight for all of us. We really do live up to our city motto of "We serve with excellence and pride" - Frankly, I see City employees regularly go out of their way to be friendly, professional and proud - you can see and hear it and certainly sense it as one walks through our City and sense the pride of employees. It is important to thank all the citizens of the City who serve on advisory boards, who are active in their neighborhoods, who care about their City - It truly is the citizen involvement that makes the City of Sarasota such a special place to live. We all say thank you! I have thoroughly enjoyed this year as Mayor = I have accepted a very wide range of invitations: picnics and banquets, sports and formal events, parties and social settings, ground breakings and ribbon cuttings, schools and parents' groups, and many, many City business-related meetings. I have learned so much about our community and our citizens as I have tried to answer every phone call and respond to every letter and provide the time to meet with every person or group that requested a meeting. While being a Commissioner, an elected official, is a wonderful opportunity, I cannot tell you how much personal pleasure and pride I have had BOOK 41 Page 14440 04/11/97 12:00 P.M. BOOK 41 Page 14441 04/11/97 12:00 P.M. in being Mayor this year. I thank each of you for selecting me to serve in this position of great honor and I thank the community for making it possible to have such a wonderful year. 3. SELECTION OF MAYOR - SELECTED MAYOR PILLOT (AGENDA ITEM III) #1 (0638) through (0653) Mayor Cardamone stated that nominations will be entertained for Mayor of the City of Sarasota for the year 1997 to 1998. Commissioner Merrill nominated Vice Mayor Pillot as Mayor of the City of Sarasota. Mayor Cardamone asked if there were any additional nominations. Hearing no other nominations, Mayor Cardamone asked City Auditor and Clerk Robinson to proceed with the roll-call vote. Motion carried unanimously (5 to 0): Cardamone, yes; Dupree, yes; Pillot, yes; Merrill, yes; Pillot, yes; Patterson, yes. Mayor Cardamone passed the gavel to Mayor Pillot. 4. REMARKS OF NEWLY SELECTED MAYOR (AGENDA ITEM IV) #1 (0653) through (0735) Mayor Pillot stated that Mayor Cardamone may not have intended to set a model for States of the City Addresses; however, she has, in fact, done so; that Mayor Cardamone has also set a model for Mayors in general, representing the City with grace, pride, expertise and a long history of being part of the community; that no Mayor in his recollection has put forth more time, energy and love into the job; and thanked Mayor Cardamone for the work she did, the leadership she provided and the standard she set for everyone; and asked the audience to join with their applause in thanking Mayor Cardamone. 5. SELECTION OF VICE MAYOR = SELECTED VICE MAYOR DUPREE (AGENDA ITEM V) #1 (0735) through (0753) Mayor Pillot stated nominations will be entertained for Vice Mayor of the City of Sarasota. Commissioner Merrill nominated Commissioner Dupree for Vice Mayor of the City of Sarasota. Mayor Pillot asked if there were any additional nominations. Hearing no other nominations, Mayor Pillot asked City Auditor and Clerk Robinson to proceed with the roll-call vote. Motion carried unanimously (5 to 0): Merrill, yes; Patterson, yes; Pillot, yes; Dupree, yes; Cardamone, yes. 6. REMARKS OF NEWLY SELECTED VICE MAYOR (AGENDA ITEM VI) #1 (0753) through (0770) Vice Mayor Dupree stated that Commissioner Cardamone has done an exceptionally good job and represented the City well as Mayor; and expressed appreciation for his selection as Vice Mayor. 7. REMARKS OF OTHER COMMISSIONERS (AGENDA ITEM VII) #1 (0770) through (0877) COMMISSIONER CARDAMONE: A. gave to Mayor Pillot a list of upcoming events requiring the attention of the Mayor; and stated that future obligations have been held until the selection of the new Mayor. COMMISSIONER MERRILL: A. congratulated Mayor Pillot and Vice Mayor Dupree on their selection. B. stated that Commissioner Cardamone represented the City well as Mayor; that she worked very hard at the job; and thanked Commissioner Cardamone for her efforts. COMMISSIONER PATTERSON: A. thanked Commissioner Cardamone for her effort as Mayor in making the City a better place; and stated that her energy has been appreciated by the residents and her fellow Commissioners. B. stated that a productive year is anticipated serving under the new Mayor. 7. OTHER MATTERS/ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS #1 (0877) through (1034) CITY MANAGER SOLLENBERGER: A. stated that the opportunity to work with Commissioner Cardamone in her capacity as Mayor of the City of Sarasota has been appreciated; that her leadership and participation as she represented the City have been outstanding. B. congratulated Mayor Pillot and Vice Mayor Dupree on behalf of the employees and the Administration. BOOK 41 Page 14442 04/11/97 12:00 P.M. BOOK 41 Page 14443 04/11/97 12:00 P.M. V. PETER SCHNEIDER, DEPUTY CITY MANAGER: A. stated that the previous comments are echoed. CITY ATTORNEY TAYLOR: A. congratulated Commissioner Cardamone on her very good year as Mayor. CITY AUDITOR AND CLERK ROBINSON: A. congratulated Commissioner Cardamone on her year as Mayor and Mayor Pillot and Vice Mayor Dupree on their selection. Mayor Pillot asked the family of Commissioner Cardamone to stand and be recognized; and stated that condolences are expressed to Commissioner Cardamone for the recent loss of her father-in-law. Mayor Pillot thanked everyone who came to assist him in beginning a new year; and stated that friends from the former City now County Fire Department are in attendance; that his wife, Beverly, had to take care of very important family matters but is supportive; and thanked his daughters, Kathy and Mariah, and his son Patrick for their support and for being in attendance. 8. ADJOURN (AGENDA ITEM VIII) #1 (1034) There being no further business, Mayor Pillot adjourned the April 11, 1997, Statutory meeting at 12:43 p.m. SOTA l GENE M. PILLOT, MAYOR ATTEST: a BilWE Rebereson BILLY E ROBINSON, CITY AUDITOR AND CLERK