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Minutes 02-02-04MINUTES OF THE SENIOR ADVISORY BOARD MEETING HELD AT THE SENIOR CENTER, 1021 SOUTH FEDERAL HIGHWAY, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2004 AT 3:00 P.M. Present Jeanne Hasty, Chair Lillian Bruzzese Denise Chamberlain Elizabeth Jenkins Joan White Christine Wilson Rose Love, Alternate Betty Spinelli, Alternate Assistant City Attorney, David Tolces Steve Lulkin, Recreation Supervisor Absent Olive Field 1. Call to Order Chair Hasty called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. and welcomed Ms. Margaret Murphy, the liaison from the Recreation & Parks Board. 2. Roll Call The Recording Secretary called the roll and declared that a quorum was present. 3. Pledge of Allegiance The members recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. 4. Approval of Agenda Chair Hasty stated that the agenda was the usual one and no one made any changes. 5. Approval of Minutes, January 5, 2004 The minutes were approved as written. 6. Chair Comments Chair Hasty reported that her term as Chairperson was coming to an end in March, so this would be her last meeting. Since she was moving up north in May, she would not be reapplying. She stated that Ms. Chamberlain offered to serve as Chairperson if no Meeting Minutes Senior Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida February 2, 2004 one else wished to do so. Ms. Jenkins had previously expressed willingness to serve as Vice Chair, but advised Chair Hasty that this would no longer be possible. Chair Hasty reminded all the Board members whose terms were expiring in April that they must reapply (Denise Chamberlain, Elizabeth Jenkins, Rose Love (Alt.) and Betty Spinelli (Alt.) if they wished to continue to serve on the Board. Chair Hasty believes that Ms. Field plans to submit a letter of resignation. The Board discussed doing the nominations for Chair and Vice Chair at this meeting and voting at the April meeting and then decided to defer the nominations until the end of the meeting. Chair Hasty thanked everyone for the cooperation they had shown during her two years as Board Chairperson. Chair Hasty advised that she had gotten a lot of information from Palm Tran about bus transportation for the seniors and the disabled and she would give it to Ms. Chamberlain at the end of the meeting. They have a good service with a $5.00 round trip if a person is under the age of 80 and free if a person is over 80. Chair Hasty and Ms. Brenda Burbank spoke at the Leisureville AARP meeting regarding the bus and the senior center and they were warmly received. Unfortunately, no volunteers for the Shopper Hopper came forward to volunteer their assistance. Chair Hasty commended the City's wonderful bus drivers, who were kind, considerate, and always do a great deal over and above the call of duty. They are patient and helpful. 7. New Business City Attorney Presentation - Sunshine Law Assistant City Attorney, David Tolces, explained that the City Attorney had requested that all the City Boards be provided with updates on three areas of Florida law dealing with Boards as follows: (1) the Sunshine Law; (2) the Public Records Law; and (3) the Code of Ethics. Prior to Attorney Tolces beginning his presentation, he distributed a copy of pertinent provisions of the Florida Statutes. The Sunshine Law provides that all public meetings and records be open to the public. Attorney Tolces explained that the Recreation & Park Board is a public body of the City of Boynton Beach. Therefore, the provisions of Section 286.011 of the Florida Statutes govern this Board. This statute provides access for the citizens to their government. This applies to any meeting or gathering of any two or more members of the same board to discuss a matter that would deal with any action that might come before the 2 Meeting Minutes Senior Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida February 2, 2004 Board that required some kind of action. The members will make decisions based on the information presented to them and not on any outside influences. Meetings must be noticed publicly and minutes must be taken. The Recreation & Park Board meetings are noticed by the City Clerk's Office and that office provides the Recording Secretary to take the minutes of the meeting. Two or members are discouraged from discussing any Board issues among themselves. If two or more Board members discuss anything among themselves outside of the meeting, they could be found to be in violation of the Sunshine Laws. The law provides for certain non-criminal penalties to be imposed up to $500 and under some circumstances, criminal penalties could be imposed as a misdemeanor. Attorney Tolces also noted that the law provides that all minutes of the meeting are to be available for public inspection. Sometimes written communication among Board members, including E-mail, could also be considered a violation of the Sunshine Law. All meetings must be open to the public, with the doors open, and anybody can come in. The Board is prohibited from meeting in a private place where access has to be secured from a security guard to enter. · Reasonable notice is at least 24 hours, but normally 72 hours or more is provided. · Minutes must be available to the public for review at anytime. The Public Records Law is covered in Section 119.011(1) of the Florida Statutes. Section 1 .A. states that all public records are open and available to the public unless an exemption is provided. Anything that Board members see and possess as it relates to the functions, duties and actions of this Board is considered a public record and must be made available to the public for inspection. Therefore, all the information in the agenda packet or any correspondence or letters received regarding any issues is public record. If any Board member receives any kind of communication from anyone associated with a matter that would be coming before the Board, this is also public record and should be forwarded to the Board Liaison for distribution to the other Board members. A copy must be given to the City Clerk's office as well, who will maintain the information in accordance with the records management laws of the State. Attorney Tolces remarked that the notes taken by Board members during a meeting were also considered public record and would have to be produced if requested. All requests for public records should be submitted to the City Clerk's Office. That office will contact the appropriate department or individual to ensure that the request is responded to in a timely manner. There are also potential civil and criminal penalties for not complying with the Public Records Act. If a person files suit against the City for failure to produce public records and the court finds that the City did violate the Public Records Act, the City would be liable for the attorney fees for that individual. 3 Meeting Minutes Senior Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida February 2, 2004 Ethics In Government is covered in Chapter 112 of the State of Florida Statutes that deals with the Board's obligation to vote as a member of a public body. Section112.3143 provides in detail the Board's obligation on voting unless a member has a conflict. A conflict usually occurs when a Board member would personally gain or lose financially, or a relative, family member, business partner, or associate would also stand to gain or lose financially from a matter before the Board. This is the only time a member may abstain from voting. Forms are provided by the City Clerk's Office that must be completed and filed when a member abstains from voting and the reason for abstaining must be listed. The forms must be completed within fifteen days of the vote. The reason for the Code of Ethics is to avoid any appearance of impropriety. If any Board member has any question on whether they should vote on a matter because of a potential conflict, they should contact the City Attorney's Office. Because the City Attorney's Office represents the City and the Boards, but not the individual members of the Boards, if any member feels that they may have done something, contrary to the City Attorney's advice, it would be beneficial to obtain their own attorney in those instances. Attorney Tolces explained that the City Attorney's office is always available to answer any questions and can be contacted at 561-742-6050. Attorney Tolces gave practical examples of some of the points in his presentation, saying that a Board member could call another Board member and ask if they were going to the meeting, but could not ask that person how they planned to vote on a certain issue before the Board. If the Board members refrain from discussing Board business outside the confines of the Board meeting, they can avoid trouble and any appearance of impropriety. Also, A person cannot be used as a conduit to get information to another Board member. For example, you cannot ask Steve Lulkin to call another Board member to see how they are going to vote on an issue and provide you with that information. Attorney Tolces advised that a Board member could speak with anyone else who was not on the Board about any issue that had or would be coming before the Board. Chair Hasty offered an example of where she might call a Board member and ask if she would be interested in running for Chair or Vice Chair. Attorney Tolces stated that this would be all right as long as she did not call them and say, "If you run for Chair, I will vote for you." Attorney Tolces reminded the Board members that if they had agenda packets, each Board member had to receive exactly the same information. If there is something that would be of interest to the entire Board, a Board member could ask the City Clerk's office to copy that and forward it to the Board Liaison for distribution at the Board's next meeting, for example. 4 Meeting Minutes Senior Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida February 2, 2004 Attorney Tolces said that agendas had to be available in a reasonable amount of time before a planned meeting. The City Clerk's office posts the notice of the meetings in the lobby of City Hall. Chair Hasty and the Board members thanked Attorney Tolces for his very informative presentation. Board Nominations Motion A motion was made to have nominations for Chair and Vice Chair at this meeting. The motion was seconded by Ms. Jenkins and passed unanimously. Ms. Bruzzese nominated Denise Chamberlain for Chair. Ms. White seconded the nomination. Chair Hasty asked Ms. Chamberlain if she would be willing to accept the position of Chair, and Ms. Chamberlain responded affirmatively. Ms. Jenkins nominated Rose Love for Vice Chair. Ms. Chamberlain seconded the nomination. Since Ms. Love is an Alternate Board member, the nomination was withdrawn. It was mentioned that if Ms. Love reapplies and is appointed for another term, the Commission might very well appoint her as a regular Board member. Also, if Ms. Field does not reapply and since Chair Hasty will not be reapplying, the Commission will have to appoint two new regular Board members. In lioht of Chair Hasty's term endinq on March 31 and her announcement that sh~- was leaving the area and would not reapply, the Board unanimously decided hold the election for Chair today and to defer the election for Vice Chair until th~ April meeting. The Chair will be Denise Chamberlain, by unanimous acclamation, and she will assume the office as of April 1, 2004 (assuming that Ms. Chamberlain applies and is reappointed to the Board.) A question arose as to whether Board members on this Board had to be 55 years of age or over, but when Ms. Chamberlain checked the Board's Ordinance, she determined that there was no mention made of age. Several people felt that being age 55 or over was important and should be a requirement for serving on the Senior Advisory Board. 8. Old Business The Board has been discussing identifying homebound seniors who might be in need of transportation and other senior services and unaware of the services provided. The Shopper Hopper is available for people who are mobile. This project seeks to identify those seniors who are not as mobile and who might be in need of transportation or other services for seniors. For example, Mae Volen provides transportation and food services in South Palm Beach County extending northwards to Hypoluxo Road, and many 5 Meeting Minutes Senior Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida February 2, 2004 people are probably unaware of that. Determining the number of people who need transportation and other services would also assist in a grant application for the purchase of a bus for Boynton Beach's seniors. Enlisting the aid of the key contacts at rental complexes and homeowners' associations to post the notice of the Open House will also help to identify seniors who are in need of more information about the services that are available to them. The Senior Advisory Board is working on this in four phases: 1) Preparing a packet of information to be distributed to block captains or homeowners' association presidents or management companies at a forum to be held at the Senior Center; 2) Notifying the block captains/homeowners' association presidents of this meeting through the water bill; 3) Compiling the results and determining the number of homebound seniors in need of transportation and services; 4) Applying for a grant to purchase a bus to use for transporting seniors to and from medical appointments. The Board will hold an Open House at the Senior Center where they will present all the information that is available about transportation and other services for seniors through the Senior Center or elsewhere in the City/County. They hope that this will help to give staff a better idea of how many seniors are homebound and in need of senior services. It was originally planned for June, but the Board is now considering January 2005. This meeting might be held at a place like the Civic Center. In reference to the Open House meeting notice on the water bills, it was noted that many rental complexes only receive one utility bill and the residents do not ever see a water bill. Ms. Chamberlain stated that they were trying to reach seniors who were not living in big developments such as Leisureville, because she believed that most developments of this type had some kind of arrangement to take care of "their own." Others felt that this would be leaving a lot of people out since not all developments did this. Mr. Lulkin stated that doing flyers was still an option. The Board thought that the people who actually receive the water bills should be asked to pass the information along to the individual homeowners through their individual newsletters. Mr. Lulkin will determine when and if the information can be put on the water bills. He will also get a list of all associations and rentals in the City and provide it to Ms. Chamberlain by the Board's next meeting on April 5. The members will participate by selecting approximately twenty associations/rentals to call to ask them to put an invitation to the Open House in their newsletters or post if they did not have newsletters. Ms. Chamberlain suggested that she work with Mr. Lulkin to come up with a form letter for the water bills and one to go to all the associations/rentals who only get one bill. The letter to the associations and rentals would say something like, "We would like you to put this notice for the Open House in your newsletter." The Board can discuss and confirm the letter at its April meeting. Once they see the list and divide it up, they can continue to work on this at the June meeting. 6 Meeting Minutes Senior Advisory Board Boynton Beach, Florida February 2, 2004 Chair Hasty provided a homeowners' association list with key contact persons, which meant that all that was needed was information on the rental complexes. The flyer idea was raised again, since it would eliminate the postage for letters. Another idea surfaced of just putting a notice on the water bill for the general population and then adding a special note to the people who were receiving a water bill for a whole complex asking them to either put the information in their newsletter or post it. This would save on postage costs. The idea of having a flyer attachment to the water bill was also broached. Ms. Jenkins asked about the possibility of the Board members being supplied with permanent nametags that they could wear. 8. Next Meeting The next meeting will be on April 5 at the Senior Center. 9. Adjournment Since there was no further business before the Board, the meeting was duly adjourned at 4:15 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Susan Collins Recording Secretary (020404)