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Minutes 12-14-05 MINUTES OF THE VETERANS ADVISORY COMMISSION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2005 AT 10:00 A.M. CITY HALL, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA Present: Thomas Kaiser, Chairman Robert Zimmerman, Vice Chairman William Kull Morris Boruck Cramer Hegeman Lester McKenzie Stanley Gavlik, Alternate Stuart Preston, Alternate Harvey Oyer, Alternate Carisse LeJeune, Board Liaison Call to Order Chairman Kaiser called the meeting to order at 10:12 a.m. Chairman Kaiser welcomed the members to the meeting and indicated they have a member at the doctors, another who will be late and a third, Greg Emery, who resigned. II. Pledge of Allegiance Robert Zimmerman led the Pledge to the Flag. III. Invocation Chairman Kaiser announced all the meetings will be opened and closed with a prayer and gave the invocation. IV. Roll Call The Secretary called the Roll. A quorum was present. V. Agenda Approval Ms. LeJeune explained parliamentary procedure and clarified if there are any additions, deletions or changes to the agenda, they would be addressed under Agenda Approval. Chairman Kaiser asked the members to review the agenda and explained the first nine items on the agenda are the important items, and after that, Business Items will be changing from time to time. Meeting Minutes Veterans Advisory Commission Boynton Beach, Florida December 14, 2005 Ms. LeJeune added if there is any new business that a member wants to discuss that is not on the agenda, it should be stated under the Agenda Approval portion of the agenda and it would be added under New Business Items. Harvey Oyer suggested making a motion to waive the requirement of adding new business items at this point in the agenda and adding them when they get to the New Business Items section of the agenda. Chairman Kaiser clarified that is how the veterans organizations operate their meetings. He recommended they stay with the procedure the veterans use and bring up new business when they get to the New Business Items section of the agenda. Motion A motion was made by Robert Zimmerman, seconded by Larry Goldgeier to bring up new business under New Business Items. Chairman Kaiser called for discussion on the motion. There were no comments received. The motion passed unanimously. VI. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Chairman Kaiser read the minutes into the record and noted the minutes should be corrected to reflect a change on page 2, paragraph 1, sentence 1 since there were six individuals present and Stuart Preston sat in and voted, making the vote five to two as opposed to the minutes presently reading the vote was three to two. Chairman Kaiser also indicated that Alternate, Stanley Gavlick was on vacation and was noted as absent. Chairman Kaiser had submitted a list of ten honorary members and inquired if the honorary members who submitted applications received minutes. Ms. LeJeune conferred with the Recording Secretary and responded they did not. Ms. LeJeune recounted the agenda item for the honorary members was prepared and succinctly pulled. There were changes to the Ordinance which outlined the criteria for honorary membership and the honorary member requests would go along with the Ordinance changes. Ms. LeJeune clarified at present there are no honorary members because the way the Ordinance reads is honorary members must be approved by the City Commission. The changes requested in the Ordinance are honorary members could be accepted and approved solely by the Veterans Advisory Commission (VAC). Motion A motion was made by Mr. Boruck to accept the minutes as read with the one correction as it pertained to the vote for the Chairman. 2 Meeting Minutes Veterans Advisory Commission Boynton Beach, Florida December 14, 2005 Mr. Gavlick clarified he was absent for the last meeting and not on vacation. He notified the City that he was chairman for a fundraiser for the Lions Club that day. Commissioner Ensler joined the meeting at 10:36 A.M. Chairman Kaiser announced everyone will receive notification of the next meeting. Ms. LeJeune clarified the City Clerk notifies individuals listed as the board members. Chairman Kaiser stated members and alternates should receive notification. He explained the individuals assembled today are members, alternates or honorary members. When the honorary member list is done, Chairman Kaiser requested honorary members be notified as well. Vote Mr. Kull seconded the motion to accept the minutes as corrected and the motion carried unanimously. VII. COMMENTS BY CHAIR Chairman Kaiser commented the VAC will ask for comments from visitors but did not feel a Commissioner should be treated like a visitor, but as a brother. VIII. COMMENTS FROM VISITORS Commissioner Ensler announced he would like to address Item C. He expressed he thought he could be of service with his knowledge of veterans and of the City. He indicated when the VAC gets to Item C, if they would pass a resolution that people on the City Commission can join in the conversation, then he could join in as appropriate. IX. BUSINESS ITEMS: a. Resignation of Greg Emery Chairman Kaiser announced Mr. Emery had a scheduling conflict and resigned his position. Mr. Cramer Hegeman has replaced Mr. Emery. b. Applications for Membership Chairman Kaiser indicated there is one alternate position open and an individual by the name of Tom Krabill put in an application. Ms. LeJeune confirmed the application was received. Commissioner Ensler stated Commissioner Ferguson has the next appointment and whoever applies will be one of the people chosen by the City Commission at that time. 3 Meeting Minutes Veterans Advisory Commission Boynton Beach, Florida December 14, 2005 c. Resolution allowing members of the Boynton Beach City Commission to participate in Veterans Advisory Board discussions. Motion A motion was made by Mr. Kull, seconded by Mr. Hegeman to accept the right of any City Commissioner to speak at the VAC. A vote was taken and unanimously carried. It was noted the Mayor is a member of the City Commission. d. Resolution to open Honorary Membership to twelve (12) persons with no restrictions as to where they live. Chairman Kaiser introduced the item and asked for a motion. Motion A motion was made by Mr. Hegemen, seconded by Mr. McKenzie to open the honorary membership to 12. Chairman Kaiser called for discussion. Harvey Oyer pointed out there is a woman, Hulda Girtman whose son was killed in Vietnam, and thought it would be a good gesture to recognize a gold star mother who was born in Boynton, whose son was born in Boynton and is also buried in Boynton. Vote There was a vote on the motion which passed unanimously. Commissioner Ensler explained the need for the Resolution and indicated what happened was the City has not had honorary members before and there was confusion on the issue. He added they will need another motion on this and at present, every application has to go through the City Clerk's Office, who checks to ensure the criteria is met. Consequently, Admiral Morris received a letter that said he was not qualified. He commented he gave Admiral Morris a rewrite of the Ordinance that all honorary members will go right from the VAC to the City Commission and not through the City Clerk's office. He indicated that would be the second motion needed. Commissioner Ensler explained there currently are five honorary members and was concerned how the City Commission might react if the number were raised to 12. He asked who the members were that they want to have now. If the number is 10 but they might want more later on, he suggested leaving it at 10. If there is a list of 12 names, he suggested putting those names forward and explaining why the increase from 5 to 12 is needed. He was concerned about a negative reaction from the City Commission with having so many honorary members. There was discussion with Chairman Kaiser why the City Commission had to get involved with how many honorary members there could be when it 4 Meeting Minutes Veterans Advisory Commission Boynton Beach, Florida December 14, 2005 was a VAC decision. Chairman Ensler responded it was because that is part of the City Commission's function and there was an Ordinance that created the VAC. Chairman Ensler asked for the justification for the increase. Ms. LeJeune explained procedurally applications go directly to the City Clerk and the Clerk's Office has been acting correctly in accordance with the Ordinance that was approved by the City Commission. She explained the Ordinance set definite criteria for honorary members. If the Board wants to add it's own honorary members in, and waive the existing criteria, then an agenda item needs to go before the City Commission making that request, but up to this point, the Clerk has acted in accordance with the provisions of the Ordinance. Commissioner Ensler explained the reason why Admiral Morris couldn't be a member of the V AC was the requirement to be a registered voter in Palm Beach County. The resolution that has been drafted and sent to Chairman Kaiser eliminates those kinds of restrictions to be an honorary member. Commissioner Ensler asked that in lieu of the other motion that was passed, change it to another motion to approve a modification to the current Ordinance that increases the number to 10 and allows honorary members to live anywhere and it does not have to go through the City Clerk but directly from the VAC to the City Commission. This would clean up the whole problem. The resolution had already been drafted. Chairman Kaiser stated this is Item D and the motion should be made as an alternate motion; the original motion will stand down. Chairman Kaiser asked the original motion to be withdrawn which would open up the membership to 12 since 10 has already been voted in. It will be their option later on to add additional members, and to avoid confusion by the City Clerk, they will take care of notification. Motion A motion was made by Mr. Boruck, seconded by Mr. Preston to correct the resolution, in reference to the honorary members to read 10 persons with no restriction on where they live. There was no further discussion on the motion. A vote was taken and the motion unanimously carried. Chairman Kaiser noted Item D would be changed to 10 honorary members and asked Mr. Hegemen to get an application to Ms. Girtman. Commissioner Ensler indicated that right now there is only one honorary member approved by the City Commission. He advised there needs to be a list of nine more people to be brought before the City Commission to be voted on. Ms. LeJeune clarified there are no honorary members approved at this time by the City Commission and gave the list Chairman Kaiser originally provided to her 5 Meeting Minutes Veterans Advisory Commission Boynton Beach, Florida December 14,2005 back to Chairman Kaiser. The names on the list were: Angelina Milano, Larry Goldgeier, Marvin Liebensohn, Jerry Jones, Wilbur Jean Sims, Bill Andrea, Marilyn Hughes of the American Legion, Rear Admiral Tom Morris and General Erzicks. The General's application will be held in abeyance due to illness. The gold star mother, Hulda Girtman. and AI Rattan will be added for a total of 10 members. Motion A motion was made by Mr. Hegemen and Mr. McKenzie to nominate the names on the list. A vote was taken and passed unanimously. Ms. LeJeune announced she received an advisory board application for Mr. Buckner and Mr. Krabill which were processed and will be before the next Commission meeting. She indicated Mr. Buckner does not have veterans affiliations listed. Chairman Kaiser indicated he is post commander of the American Legion Post 164. Ms. LeJeune will forward the application on to the City Clerk's Office. e. Eternal Flame Memorial i. Discussion Chairman Kaiser discussed the above and commented the VAC needs to determine how much money there is in order to advertise for designs. Commissioner Ensler explained the City Commission has approved $30K this year for a memorial and he contributed $5K of his funds from last year, (based on what the City of Tamarac spent for their memorial.) Commissioner Ensler pointed out the $35K does not include the cost of getting a site prepared which is a separate budget. Commissioner Ensler indicated they need to do more than discuss just the monument. The Eternal Flame will go on a piece of land which most likely will be a City park or recreation area. Because it is a park, any recommendation from this Commission needs to be agreed upon by the Parks and Recreation Board and from there it will go to the City Commission as a combined recommendation. Commissioner Ensler suggested a member of this Board be present to make the recommendation to the Recreation and Parks Board. Commissioner Ensler counseled it is important to name a site because they don't know what the site preparation will be and requested the recommendation be in the form of a motion. He also requested another motion to ask the City Commission to call for designs. Chairman Kaiser reviewed the City has designated the property on Ocean Avenue near 4th Street as a Veteran's Park. He indicated it is centrally located and can be an intricate part of the downtown renovation. To have a monument in 6 Meeting Minutes Veterans Advisory Commission Boynton Beach, Florida December 14, 2005 the middle of Boynton Beach would be a significant enhancement, in an area that would be a busy part of Boynton Beach. Commissioner Ensler had some drawings to show the VAC of the park design and indicated presently, the park where the memorial now sits is being redeveloped for another clubhouse. He noted the land that Chairman Kaiser spoke of, is open and available. Commissioner Ensler mentioned he had discussions with people at CRA about expanding that park and that he would like to see the park expanded to Boynton Beach Boulevard. Commissioner Ensler also remarked he went to Denver and there are a few streets that are walking streets without any car traffic, only a trolley. He explained they would like to see Ocean Avenue to City Hall as a walking street. Commissioner Ensler reviewed the drawing and elaborated the cost for the site preparation is not significant. He added at some point, the City Commission will need to put monies in it's budget to redevelop the entire site. Once a master plan is developed, they can go back to the City Commission for money to develop the entire site which would be a park solely dedicated to veterans. Chairman Kaiser concluded the scope of the project is large and they will start with a monument in the corner. Harvey Oyer commented on the way the land has been maintained. A landscape architect advised him the trees can be removed and replaced with other trees that have flowers or nuts as opposed to berries which makes sitting on the benches impossible. A water fountain with lights could be used. Chairman Kaiser believed downtown would be a better location and asked if anyone had another site. Commissioner Ensler recommended in order to keep the memorial moving along, the VAC should approve the one little piece of the park at this time. Motion A motion was made by Mr. Gavlick, seconded by Mr. McKenzie to keep the Veterans Memorial Park as the target site for the monument they want to build. A vote was taken and the motion unanimously passed. Commissioner Ensler recommended another motion showing the location on the drawing as a good location. ii. Site Location Motion A motion was made by Mr. Kull, seconded by Mr. Preston, to ask the City to use the site called Veterans Memorial Park to begin the project. A vote was taken and the motion unanimously carried. 7 Meeting Minutes Veterans Advisory Commission Boynton Beach, Florida December 14,2005 iii. Request City to call for designs of Memorial Motion A motion was made by Mr. Kull, seconded by Mr. Preston that the City call for designs on the memorial for the SW corner of the Veterans Memorial Park. A vote was taken and the motion unanimously carried f. Memorial at American Legion Post 164 Chairman Kaiser gave a history of the project and requested discussion on this item. The American Legion has collected about $1,600 to $1,700 for this project and will use the traffic island with the flagpole already in place as the memorial site. Commissioner Ensler commented it makes sense to put it in the center of the circle there. There is a boulder with a plaque on it at present, which should be raised because nobody can really see it. He recommended the members view the site and determine what they want to do with the property. Chairman Kaiser suggested the members put out a call for photographs of similar types of sites and then the City Commission can be approached for funding, if the cost factor would be high. Chairman Kaiser requested it go on record the American Legion was the originator of this idea. He noted the project has gotten very large and emphasized the American Legion would not be left out of the plans. The American Legion has shown good faith by going out and collecting funds for the project. Chairman Kaiser requested the members get some pictures and cost factors on the memorial so a presentation can be made at the next meeting. g. Resolution to memorialize 1-95 to POW-MIA Memorial Highway Chairman Kaiser announced from Montauk Point on Long Island, New York all the way through to New Jersey, there are three foot signs in dove gray saying POW-MIA Memorial Highway. A person's name, organization, post, or whoever sponsored the sign, are named on the sign. There is no cost to the state. Chairman Kaiser just received an application from the State of New York American Legion to complete, asking the State of New York American Legion to back this project Chairman Kaiser stated every municipality was happy to have the sign. It was noted the City would need to put up the poles for the signs and the signs would be supplied by the VAC. Motion A motion was made by Mr. Zimmerman, seconded by Mr. Boruck to support the concept of having 1-95 memorialized into POW-MIA Memorial Highway. Commissioner Ensler conveyed Representative Hasner advised that in order to make the project happen, a municipality has to officially make the request to the state. Once the request goes to the City Commission, they will then vote on it and the request to the state can then be made. It was agreed a member of the 8 Meeting Minutes Veterans Advisory Commission Boynton Beach, Florida December 14, 2005 VAC should contact every county along the 1-95 corridor to get the project going, but it would start with Boynton Beach. Vote A vote was taken on the motion which was unanimous. Ms. LeJeune explained if the City of Boynton Beach would make the request to the state, it would need to go before the City Commission as an agenda item. She will need verbiage and backup. The correspondence from Representative Hasner will be used and she will put together the agenda item. h. Holiday Schedule for 2006 i. Four Chaplains: February 5, 2006 Chairman Kaiser announced the time has been changed for the Four Chaplains Day Ceremony from 7 p.m. to 3 p.m., and would be at Temple Beth Kodesh in order not to conflict with the Super Bowl. This will be a one-hour ceremony followed by coffee and cake. Commissioner Ensler asked if the VAC wanted the City to do anything such as a formal announcement. He indicated the V AC needs to figure out what they want the City to do. Chairman Kaiser professed it would be nice if the City gave a framed acknowledgement to Mr. Epstein who was on the ship, Dorchester, and survived Pearl Harbor, as well as the proclamation they normally get for the Four Chaplains Day. He stated if Mr. Epstein chooses to be at the function, the press should attend. Chairman Kaiser will invite Mr. Epstein. Commissioner Ensler indicated the VAC needs a motion to request the City prepare a proclamation proclaiming February 5, 2006 as Four Chaplains Day, and for the City to prepare a Special Recognition Proclamation. Motion A motion was made by Mr. Hegeman, seconded by Mr. Gavlick to ask the City of Boynton Beach to support the Four Chaplains Day by Proclamation, declaring February 5, 2006 as Four Chaplains Day. The motion passed unanimously. Motion A motion was made by Mr. Boruck, seconded by Mr. Kull that the City present a certificate to Ben Epstein. A vote was taken and the motion carried unanimously. Commissioner Ensler recommended a little write up needs to be given to Ms. LeJeune so the certificate can be prepared. Ms. LeJeune reviewed the events of the meeting and declared the proclamation is not a problem. For the certificate, everything that will go into the presentation 9 Meeting Minutes Veterans Advisory Commission Boynton Beach, Florida December 14, 2005 needs to be given to her. In reference to the City making a request to the State for the 1-95 POW-MIA Memorialization, she will await the information to be given to her. For the Veterans Park request, if the VAC wants the request to go through the Recreation and Parks Department first for coordination, then an agenda item is not needed at the point. She explained the next meeting of the Recreation and Parks Board is January 23rd at 6:30 p.m., and then from there she can prepare an agenda item. Commissioner Ensler recommended Chairman Kaiser contact Wally Majors and also the Arts Commission. Ms. LeJeune clarified all information pertaining to any agenda items needs to be given to her to effect the request. ii. Memorial Day: May 28, 2006 Chairman Kaiser announced May 28th is their Memorial Day Ceremony which will be held at the cemetery on Seacrest and Woolbright at 2 p.m. The veterans will decorate the cemetery with flags and crosses and the City will supply the tent and chairs. iii. Veterans Day: November 5 or 11, 2006 Chairman Kaiser indicated sometimes some of the veterans cannot attend events on Saturdays and historically, the organization has always had the ceremony the Sunday before. He requested the V AC determine which day they will use to hold their ceremony. Motion Mr. Boruck made a motion to stay with the 5th of November, seconded by Mr. Kull. A vote was taken and the motion unanimously passed. There was discussion and consensus that November 11th would be used as a rain date if necessary, since the 11th is traditionally Armistice Day. x. NEW BUSINESS ITEMS There was no new business. XI. BENEDICTION, MOMENT OF SILENT PRAYER The Benediction was led by Chairman Kaiser followed by the observance of a moment of silent prayer. Motion Chairman Kaiser made a motion to cancel the January meeting and go for the 2nd week in February for the next Commission meeting. This would be February 8th at 10 a.m. 10 Meeting Minutes Veterans Advisory Commission Boynton Beach, Florida December 14, 2005 Ms. LeJeune asked if there was general consensus that the VAC does not want to use the City Commission Chambers, so she can set them up in the Library. Commissioner Ensler answered he would like to meet anywhere there is a table they can sit around. The hand salute was made before adjournment. Mr. Gavlik asked if they were going to have a meeting before the 10 a.m. meeting. Chairman Kaiser responded that is normal and he will contact him. Mr. Gavlick inquired who would arrange for the meeting. Commissioner Ensler would speak to Chairman Kaiser about that. Ms. LeJeune asked if the V AC would be holding that meeting on City Hall premises so she could reserve a meeting room one hour early. Ms. LeJeune asked the V AC to let her know what they will need for meeting arrangements. ADJOURNMENT There was no other business; the meeting adjourned by consensus at 11 :53 a.m. Respectfully Submitted, 11