You are posting a comment about... Getting Started As Mayor
The opening days of public service for the City Council, including the new council members and the Mayor, have been packed with activity and meetings. Workshop sessions open to the public and regular council meetings allowing the council to communicate about issues, provide the only opportunity for interchange of ideas between council members.
Florida’s “Sunshine Laws” prohibit discussion of public business between two or more council members. While members can speak with the city manager, the city clerk and the city attorney and staff members, none can serve as a conduit to pass ideas between members.
There is much strength to this system of “open government,” but it also makes difficult quiet discussion of the issues in an attempt to develop a consensus. That can happen, but in the formal setting of an open meeting. It is quite different than the way decisions are made by a CEO and other corporate officers and board members, or the decisions made by Members of Congress and the Executive Branch in Washington.
Many citizens have participated in the three open meetings so far, two workshops and one council meeting. The feedback to council has been very positive with people feeling a positive atmosphere in which differing opinions have been stated and responded to in many instances. One goal I had was to encourage public participation and so far that has been the case.
A big reason is, of course, that important issues are in the process of being discussed—the Comprehensive Plan, the Tra Ponti project, etc. But council has also planned additional workshops including another on Tra Ponti, more on the Comp. Plan, with others likely on the Airport and other significant issues. A Town Hall meeting is scheduled for February. So a commitment to public input is in evidence.
Here are some of what I consider the “highlights” of council activities so far:
1. Council agreed unanimously to ask the State for a six month delay in submitting the Comp. Plan to allow detailed examination of the plan and its vision of more density and height in “villages,” along with other aspects of the plan.
2. Council agreed to ask staff to prepare information about a moratorium on buildings of more than 35 or 45 feet while council considers height limitations for all or parts of the City. This analysis will provide council with information about the process of approval or disapproval of a moratorium.
3. Council voted 5-2 to permit the “Farmer’s Market” to move back to Centennial Park. It was a carefully considered decision, because there were people who wished it to remain in its current place. The majority felt the City, the merchants and the customers would have a more pleasant venue in the park setting.
4. The workshop hearings on the Tra Ponti project proposed for the area between E. Venice and E. Tampa Avenues, from about one-half block east of Business 41 to the Intercoastal Waterway, began with a proposal by developer Michael Miller to reduce the scale of his project to 45 feet, three stories over a garage and to operate the facility as a hotel, rather than the earlier proposal for 80 foot condo/hotel buildings. The council discussed a number of aspects of the project and will continue that discussion with the developer and the public in the next public session. Assuming the council feels all questions have been considered, the proposal will move to a formal council meeting in January for a final vote on the zoning request that is pending.
5. Correspondence has been exchanged between the County Commissioners and the Council on the question of “compatibility” between developments in either jurisdiction which border on the other’s jurisdiction. An agreement has been made to discuss the possibility of developing common standards on this issue in a February Meeting, leading to common language in the Joint Planning Agreement. A specific issue has also been raised by the County Commissioners as to whether a specific development pending approval in the City is consistent with the “compatibility” standard. The city will consider that issue as part of the formal process of review of the project in a public hearing.
I have found the new responsibilities of being Mayor challenging, exciting and rewarding. Relationships between council members have been positive as have relationships with the staff and the public. I think we are off to a good start as a team.
