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Minutes 10-16-99CITY COMMISSION STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION WORKSHOP HELD IN THE LIBRARY PROGRAM ROOM ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1999 ALSO PRESENT: Dale Sugerman, Assistant City Manager Arthur Lee, Human Resources Manager PRESENT: Mayor Gerald Broening ViCe Mayor Henderson Tillman Mayor Pro Tem William Sherman C¢~mmissioner Nellie Denahan C¢~mmissioner Ron Weiland FI~CILITATOR: Dr Lance deHaven-Smith, Ph.D. Dr deHaven-Smith distributed a summary that he prepared last night to the C(Immissioners and asked them if they had any problems with any specific item on the summary. Tf~ere were no questions regarding Item 1 Item 2: C( w( m~ M; ~mmissioner Denahan referred to the last sentence of Item 2 and questioned if the ~rd "given" should read "received" and that the sentence should read the "Council ;mbers have not received"... A discussion on responsibility took place. tyor Broening said when he took office he had no resources to turn to for assistance cept the charter and the previous history of the City. He said he recognized the ferences after speaking with former mayors, but had no one to turn to for guidance, except the City Manager and the City Attorney. He pointed out there were no other d¢cuments that could have helped him. Dr ItE T~ th~ re~ of m~ th~ · deHaven-Smith said that orientation should be made a condition for future ~mmiSsioners. Commissioner Weiland said he read the charter thoroughly, but did understand everything in it. m3: e Commissioners reviewed Item 3. Commissioner Weiland said that when recess is lied during a meeting, the time should be adhered to. Commissioner Denahan said tt a "brief recess" should be a recess. Vice Mayor Tillman did not see the need for a ;ess and felt this only bogged down the meetings. Discussion ensued on the timing recesses. Commissioner Denahan said she has a problem about getting up during a .~eting and would like a specific time set for a break. Commissioner Weiland said if meeting was a short meeting, there is no need for a break. If the meeting were a MEETING MINUTES cITY COMMISSION STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER 16, 1999 long meeting, then a break should be taken. It was decided that when a break is requested that it be done by motion and voted upon. Mayor Pro Tem Sherman said that the Commissioners should meet with the City Manager on the same day as the Commission meeting. Commissioner Weiland suggested meeting with the City Manager on a Friday so that if anything new took place prior to a Tuesday meeting, they could be notified in advance of the meeting. COmmissioner Denahan said that a good leader should communicate effectively. Dr. deHaven-Smith pointed out that the City has been operating informally and a lot of operations need to be formalized. He agreed that all Commissioners should meet with the City Manager on the same day, but a few days in advance of the meeting. Commissioner Denahan was not certain if this was the way to go, to which COmmissioner Weiland concurred. Sometimes the individual meetings can take uPWards of two hours and it was not be possible to fit five people in. DiScussion took place about having an agenda meeting prior to the regular meeting. Vi~e Mayor Tillman said this would mean that the public could come in. Vice Mayor Tiilman noted that when the Commissioners meet with the City Manager it is not only to discuss the agenda, but also is for other issues pertaining to that particular COmmissioner only. Mr. Sugerman said that a lot of cities regularly hold agenda workshops and felt the C~mmission should adopt this procedure. Mr. Sugerman also said if the meetings were going to be run as close to Robert's Rules as possible, you don't walk anything through the agenda. Mayor Broening said the City's Agenda is a carbon copy of the County's Agenda. He noted that if a Commissioner had an important item, it could be brought up at the agenda workshop and be added to the agenda at that time. M;~yor Pro Tem Sherman asked if the Commissioners would continue their individual m~.~etings, plus the agenda workshop and it was decided to have both. M~' Sugerman pointed out that under Robert's Rules of Order the Mayor is the Chair ar~l the Chair runs the meeting and keeps the decorum. He makes sure the meeting follows Robert's Rules. The Mayor sets the direction that the City-making process will tal;e and the Commission determines whether or not the Mayor is choosing the right path. Mr. Sugerman also felt it would be a good idea to have a workshop on the open m~.~eting law and public records law. An open meeting's law ("government in the sunshine") does not mean that people can speak on every subject, but only that the public has a right to hear and see. He also pointed out that "Public Audience" is ol:tional and is not required. Dr. deHaven-Smith concurred that the Commission should hcld this workshop which could be given by Mr. Sugerman. TI' e next item presented was the role of the Commission with staff and how staff reacts to the Commission. Dr. deHaven-Smith suggested that the Commission attend a staff 2 MEETING MINUTES CITY COMMISSION STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER 16, '1999 meeting in order to explain their role, which is for their feedback. Staff needs to understand that the Commissioners have responsibilities and likes. There needs to be a lot better communication. Mr. Lee said that before the roles of staff versus the rolls of the Commission are discussed, he agrees with Mr. Sugerman that communication has not been at the level it should be. There have been times that he has been unclear as to what the COmmission has requested from staff. He suggested that there should be some middle leadership between the Commission and the City Manager. He too feels there has been micromanaging. Mr. Lee said when he was with Palm Beach County, they passed a iuling that the County Commissioners could not interfere with staff directly. City Manager Discussion M~. Lee recalled from the first Commission meeting on April 6th, the Commission voted toi appoint a City Manager, but there was not the necessary majority at that time to appoint the City Manager. It was agreed to hold a workshop to determine what m~thodology would be employed to make the selection. Issues were discussed at the workshop such as using a national search versus the Human Resource Department to conduct the search. There was discussion about costs at that time and in order to limit th~ amount of money to be spent, the Commission agreed to allow the national search in conjunction with Human Resources to do the search. The roles of each were eStablished. It was agreed that the national search firm would do the national search and HR would conduct the search in their normal prOcedures, which includes posting a notice on the board, recruiting through journals and professional sources that HR uSUally uses. Therefore this method resulted in two lists, from which the top ten names would be selected. From the top ten, the list would be reduced to the top five at another workshop. COmmissioner Weiland said he recently learned there are some small groups that can sqPply the City with minority candidates and asked Mr. Lee if any of these organizations haid been contacted? Mr. Lee said HR did not contact these organizations, but was un!certain about Mercer. COmmissioner Denahan said the City Manager selection was a political issue and the C~mmission was expected to make an immediate selection. Discussion ensued on the 4-! vote necessary to elect a City Manager versus a 3-2 vote. Vi~e Mayor Tillman felt that the public sees the 4-1 vote as deceiving since everything is voled with a 3-2 vote. With the 3-2 vote, the minority becomes the majority factor with regard to the City Manager vote. Dr. deHaven-Smith agreed with Vice Mayor Tillman's int~rpretation of the voting· It was agreed that this voting discrepancy needs to be changed. 3 MEETING MINUTES CITY COMMISSION STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER 16, 1999 Dr. deHaven-Smith distributed to the Commissioners options for procedures to use in hiring the City Manager. The Commissioners were asked to review the procedures and determine that all options have been listed. Each option was reviewed. (Unfortunately, the typist was unable to decipher all the options that were stated.) v' v' v' v' Mi Sr mi th~ int Dr. deHaven-Smith said it is important that the Commission express its gratitude to Mr. Hawkins for his value to the City. To do a quick search and not necessarily start all over again. Start over right now. Find somebody on staff now. · Lee asked for clarification on the affirmative action/minority candidate. Dr. deHaven- ~ith said that if it is important to the City to have a minority City Manager and the nority in the position currently does not have the level of education, then a minority tt meets the qualifications should be sought. Dr. deHaven-Smith said this is his erpretation, and finding a minority candidate ks one solution. Vitae Mayor Tillman said that while the new search is being undertaken, the Interim City M;~nager should remain in place. Dr. deHaven-Smith said the important thing is to re, solve the recruitment process and the Interim City Manager may not even be an Cbmmissioner Denahan said that Mr. Hawkins announced at the staff meeting ye~sterday that he was no longer interested in the City Manager position, however, Mr. hHewkins did not inform her. Commissioner Denahan also said that Mr. Hawkins stated ~ had informed the Commissioners. She asked if Mr. Hawkins was stepping down from th~ Interim City Manager position and was informed he was not. It was uncertain if Mr. H~ CO ~wkins had in fact stated that he had informed any of the Commissioners. Mr. german said he believed that Mr. Hawkins said yesterday and the day before that he ~s not interested in the City Manager position. ~yor Pro Tem Sherman requested that "define a good candidate" be added to the nsiderations. M~yor Broening also suggested using networking. Dr. deHaven.Smith said he would suggest expanding the advertising and contacting people. Mayor Pro Tom Sherman said that the Commission cannot blame HR for what h~ppened, and it was the responsibility of the Commission. The Commission should d~termine the number it wants for finalists. Staff should advertise in the Lea§ue of 4 MEETING MINUTES CITY COMMISSION STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER 16, 1999 Cities' bulletins and other appropriate publications and the Commission should take it frOm start to finish. Dr,. deHaven-Smith said the Commission should assume that Mr. Hawkins is still in the rubning since no official withdrawal has been received. He felt that both Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Stunson have had a difficult time and the Commissioners should put all the water under the dam to become an effective working group. COmmissioner Weiland also mentioned Mr. McLemore who was never interviewed, but had a good resume. Mayor Pro Tem Sherman explained why Mr. McLemore, City Manager for Winter Springs did not make the interview date because of a prior cc~rnmitment. Commissioner Weiland stated that if Mr. Stunson had been hired, he might have received an unfair deal from the people who supported Mr. Hawkins because they felt he was pushed out. i COmmissioner Denahan asked if there is a need to know why Mayor Broening and M;]yor Pro Tem Sherman changed their opinion to vote for Mr. Stunson the second tinge. Mayor Pro Tem Sherman said the best way to clean this up is to start over with a ful and complete agreement as to what the Commission is looking for in a City M; ~nager. There were no guidelines the first time and feelings became involved in the d6 ac~ th, C( tr~ thi S6 SO ar' C( a Le de hc qu fir, M~ Pr A.~ i cision making. Mayor Pro Tem Sherman said that first the Commissioners should ree on what they want for the next City Manager. Dr. deHaven-Smith agreed this was way to proceed. ~mmissioner Weiland said that he was told at a Saturday church meeting not to even to change the qualifications to exclude Wilfred Hawkins. Vice Mayor Tillman said all s Commission can do is what is fair. Vice Mayor Tillman said he did not care what ctor of the community people come from. What this Commission needs to do is mething fair and equitable. We need to agree on what we want for a City Manager d then to do it right. Everyone knows the situation was flawed and this time the ~mmission will do it right. ~mmissioner Denahan said the Board needs to find out what the qualifications are for ,~ity Manager in Palm Beach County and this information can be obtained from the ague of Cities. We did not have this information when the parameters were first cided upon. Commissioner Weiland also felt the Commissioners never found out w Tony Smith left Riviera Beach. We were told he was fired and others said he had it and he had concerns about this. Dr. deHaven-Smith said a City Manager getting .~d is common and is not a big issue. ]yor Pro Tem Sherman said he went with Mr. Hawkins because he felt he could ndle the job and changed his vote in the interest of the City to end the issue. Mayor 3 Tem Sherman suggested making Mr. Sugerman City Manager and Mr. Hawkins sistant City Manager. This would allow Mr. Hawkins an opportunity to gain 5 MEETING MINUTES CITY COMMISSION STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER 16, '1999 experience and education. Commissioner Denahan said Mr. Sugerman indicated to her that he is not interested in the position. COmmissioner Weiland asked Mr. Sugerman after the budget meeting why his resume wasn't in the group and Mr. Sugerman told him he wasn't interested in the job, Mr. SUgerman said he likes his job and feels he is effective doing what he does. Mayor Pro TOm Sherman felt that if each Commissioner approached Mr. Sugerman individually he would consider it seriously and told him they would support him. Vice Mayor Tillman said this is not the way to choose a City Manager. He felt you couldn't start to poll the COmmissioners on whom they would like for a City Manager. Vice Mayor Tillman said if the Commission took this approach it would be a step backwards. Commissioner Denahan said that Mr. Sugerman would only be the City Manager on an interim basis. Commissioner Weiland said when he was asked to be Interim City Manager, he held the City hostage. Commissioner Denahan said this was not true and the Commission never negotiated with him. COmmissioner Weiland said he heard that Mr. Sugerman would do the job if he were offered "X" amount of dollars. Therefore, Wilfred Hawkins stepped up and said he would do the job. Commissioner Weiland said that using the AFE philosophy, Mr. SUgerman was not being a team player. : Mayor Broening said that Dale Sugerman is a City resource that we should be glad to h~'ve and we should do whatever we can to keep him. Mayor Broening believes in hi~ing from within and he put Mr. Hawkins at the top of the list because he was from wiihin. Mayor Broening said he marked Mr. Sugerman Iow on two items; one his loyalty was suspect and teamwork was suspect. Mayor Broening didn't understand Mr. Sggerman's actions if he was at all interested. Mayor Broening said he thought if Mr. S~german didn't want the job he should have said so, instead of making it high price and making his loyalty appear suspect. COmmissioner Denahan felt the communication flow had a major breakdown with the previous leadership. The City Manager failed to give the Commissioners proper communication. Commissioner Denahan said Mr. Sugerman did not want the position, but would have been happy to step up to the plate and because the City was so short of Department Heads, he felt that he should be compensated for the additional workload anid stress. Mr. Sugerman did not want to be an Interim City Manager for one or two ' r Yea s. Mr. Sugerman informed Commissioner Denahan that she was the only one who was given the full explanation. The Mayor at the time was vehemently opposed to the figure, but never discussed this with Mr. Sugerman. Mr. Sugerman withdrew his request. Commissioner Denahan said Mr. Sugerman is an excellent team player and his request was never negotiated. 6 MEETING MINUTES CITY COMMISSION STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER 16, 1999 Commissioner Weiland stated he has always been impressed with any presentation that Mr. Sugerman has made to the Commission and the public. In summary, Dr. deHaven-Smith stated that Mr. Sugerman is a possibility, but he felt that the Mayor and Vice Mayor would not be happy. Mayor Broening said he has mixed feelings and it is his perception that led him to this decision. Mayor Pro Tem Sherman noted that Mr. Sugerman has a Master's Degree and many years experience as a City Manager and he knows this City, whereas any one new coming in would have to learn the City. Mayor Pro Tem Sherman would like the Commission to consider offering Mr. SUgerman the City Manager's position. Mayor Pro Tem Sherman would like to make Mir. Hawkins the Assistant City Manager to allow him to gain the needed experience and education and to compensate Mr. Hawkins by bringing his salary up to the Assistant Manager level. Vice Mayor Tillman said this is totally unacceptable to him. Dr. dehaven-Smith said this creates a negative if Mr. Sugerman were to be considered for the position. political Acceptability Dh deHaven-Smith said that hiring Mr. Stunson gives the Commission a political pr°blem. Mayor Broening said there is a strong element in the Community that is against Mr. Stunson and he feels this would remain. With regard to hiring Mr. McLemore, Commissioner Denahan said there is a feeling that the old pool is outdated and the water was tainted. We need to start ail over. Cgmmissioner Weiland liked Mr. McLemore's resume and said he deserves another Io~k. Commissioner Denahan suggested inviting Mr. Stunson and Mr. McLemore to reapply. Discussion took place on whether the entire process should be COmmissioner Weiland said this would involve more money to be spent. started over. Dr: deHaven-Smith noted that the Commission would now continue their search for a new City Manager through additional advertising and will be very aggressive on searching out an affirmative action candidate. There will be no discrimination either way on M~ sb Br~ de ce a final decision has been made and there will be a new culling process. ~yor Broening asked if the existing job description for the City Manager was used? .mmissioner Denahan replied that the language created very wide parameters. She ~lgested using the DMG Study for the job description, as well as the Charter that ~tes what the position requires in order to make the parameters appropriate. Mayor )ening said that the Commission should not rely on the broad City Manager job scription. Dr. deHaven-Smith said that the consulting firm should have forced this 7 MEETING MINUTES Cl~ COMMISSION STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER 16, 1999 issue in the beginning, but because the responsibility was divided between them and the City's HR Department, it was left open. The Commission next discussed what role they will play in hiring the City Manager. D~. deHaven-Smith asked if the Commission wanted to hire a headhunter firm or did they want to use Human Resources. But don't mix them. Commissioner Denahan said there are three choices: a national firm could be used, a local headhunter, or use HR. He pointed out if a headhunter is used, it is going to cost money, but the advantage is it is quick. C( g~ Br in1 ar dc ~mmissioner Denahan is in favor of using a local headhunter and stated last time ~en this was suggested, the Commission was not in favor of it. Dr. deHaven-Smith ve examples of how headhunters operate in finding qualified candidates. Mayor aening pointed out that headhunters are like networking and they keep a network of ormation and know whom to look for. A search firm, however, only uses a database d gives you a raw list of City Managers and then asks for resumes. Headhunters n't look at resumes. The know the candidate before they begin looking. Therefore, the Commission in its search will - v'i use a specialized headhunter at a reasonable price; and i v' ii use aggressive affirmative action. After discussion it was decided to raise the salary for City Manager and Commissioner D~nahan said the Commission shou d be more open-minded when it comes to the previous salary of $90,000. T§erefore, the Commissioners agreed - v' to increase the salary of the City Manager to $110,000.00. The next issue discussed was the criteria of the educational level for the City Manager add the type of Master's Degree necessary for the position. Topics discussed were ~ experience local knowledge  e ducational level policy expertise viSions 20/20 MEETING MINUTES CITY COMMISSION STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER 16, 1999 Dr. deHaven-Smith felt that there is a lot of work ahead for the Commission. The City has an opportunity to be an economic force in Palm Beach County. It will be necessary to hire experts to bring these plans to fruition. The Commission needs to be cognizant in ikeeping the community involved. Dr. deHaven-Smith also suggested that some type of forum on civic culture should be held in which the Chamber of Commerce, various churches and others should participate. COmmissioner Denahan also felt stability should be a consideration for the job. This shows the candidate's ability to be an effective communicator, especially in light of the City's term limits. v'i Bachelor's Degree is mandatory ," i Five years of City Manager experience v' Seven/eight years of Assistant City Manager experience v' Job stability D~. deHaven-Smith said that if the City Manager experience is limited to a city of comparable size or larger than Boynton Beach, this would rule out a great many candidates. D!. deHaven-Smith said he would be providing the Commissioners with a report plus backup setting forth what was accomplished today. The report will also include the decisions that were made for the continuation of the City Manager search. iM~yor Broening requested discussing how this Commission should go about ~p. lementing the Visions 20/20. Mayor Broening questioned if the original 100 people that wrote the plan should be brought back in. CommissiOner Denahan noted that last year an anniversary meeting for Visions 20/20 took place at United Way and this could be done again. Vi, gc S6 nE fu~ Vi C( cc fu~ C( fin m{ ;e Mayor Tillman said if another meeting is held, this time it will be for what we are ing to do. To implement the specifics of the Visions 20/20 Plan, there needs to be a ries of neighborhood public meetings to determine what is going to go into each ighborhood. Mayor Broening said there needs to be a Master Plan and staff must be · nished with proper direction. Dr. deHaven-Smith suggested having the original ~ions 20/20 Steering Committee meet and to get them involved again. ~mmissioner Denahan said it is important to show success stories, instead of ntinuing to present grandiose plans. Mayor Broening also said the question of lding the CRA needs to be addressed. Mayor Broening said if the plans of Visions /20 are implemented, it will cost in the tens of millions of dollars range. ~mmissioner Denahan said she requested that at each CRA meeting the monthly ancial statements should be available. Commissioner Weiland said he asks at every .~eting how much money there is in the CRA, but he never gets an answer. Vice 9 MEETING MINUTES Cl~ COMMISSION STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER 16, 1999 Mayor Tillman pointed out that if money is being spent, people need to see the results and to see how the community is benefiting. He would like to see ,more quick victory projects and suggested the Commission look at things that could be done right now. i · · Commissioner Weiland would like to see more CRA workshops held and acknowledged the CRA needs help in moving forward. Mayor Pro Tem Sherman said that just b~cause the CRA hasn't had more meetings, doesn't mean they can't do the job. We need to see if we can do it ourselves before getting two new people involved. C~mmissioner Weiland said the Commission needs to commit to spending more time or the CRA. MayOr Broening noted even if two new members were added and could a~sist with policy decisions, it still must rely on a professional staff. Most independent Cl~,'s have a CRA Director and an independent staff. Discussion took place on the tin~ing of adding two new members to the CRA. Mayor Broening would like the new CI~, Director to participate in the selection of the new CRA Board members. Vi M, th, Sr to~ C( m~ CC M~ ac th, ur ch is .:e Mayor Tillman said one of the greatest challenges to the CRA is the park issue. ~mmissioner Denahan would like to see some additional expertise. However, Vice yor Tillman did not think this was necessary. Commissioner Denahan did not think .~ CRA could move forward without the addition of two new members. Dr. deHaven- nith said that no decision should be made today and the only thing that could be done Jay is the process for making a decision. ~mmissioner Denahan thinks the public perceives the Commission as being unable to ~ke a decision and is waffling. The CRA makes a decision and agrees with a nsensus and then when it has to be voted upon, the vote is no longer there. Vice ~yor Tillman said he felt this decision needed to be looked at again because the two ditional members would be in office longer than the Commission. He wants to see o additional persons on the CRA, but wants to look at it more and does not consider .~se actions as waffling. Commissioner Denahan said it would be a lot easier to derstand why a Commissioner changes his or her mind by articulating why they are anging their minds. She thinks in order to be an adhesive group articulating decisions important. Dr to, th, Di rel thl · deHaven-Smith suggested that the Commission reconvene in another session like Jay's and look over his report and determine where the Commission is at that time on .~se issues. ~cussion took place on when to inform the public about the decisions made today larding the City Manager search. It was determined to add this to the next agenda 'the next City Commission meeting. The announcement would be succinc_,t. ,mmissioner Denahan wou~d like the announcement to be part of the City Manager s )ort. Mayor Broening said this is something the Commission should announce, not City Manager. 10 MEETING MINUTES CITY COMMISSION STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA OCTOBER '16, '1999 The Commissioners further discussed how they would handle the public audience portions of the meetings and to stick to the 3-minute time limit and not to get involved in any debates. Vice Mayor Tillman said that it would be announced that people could only speak on subjects that are not on the agenda and any one who attempts to speak on an agenda item will be asked to sit down. T( summarize - Agenda meetings will be held. Robert's Rules of Order will be strictly adhered to. Commissioner Denahan asked to be called on last to speak. Strict criteria for the City Manager search have been determined. The Commissioners will review the resumes to determine which ones meet the criteria, All Commissioners will be active in the culling process. Dr. deHaven-Smith will write and submit a report. This concluded the strategic planning session. ATTEST: lerk B~rbara M. Madden Rbcording Secretary (Transcribed from 4 tapes) TI SE CITY~//~OF, OYNT, B H ¢ryor Vl~e Mayor Mayor Pro Tom Commissioner ,e quality of the tapes was extremely poor and at times inaudible. The Recording ~cretary tried to transcribe as much information as possible. 11 October 18, 1999 Mayor and Commissioners City of Boynton Beach Boynton Beach, Florida Sent by Fax to Joyce Costello. Hard copy to follow. iDear Mayor and Commissioners, You did a great job last Friday and Saturday in working through some difficult issues. I have no Idoubt that you will be able to move forward successfully with the City Manager search and take the actions on which you agreed at the Workshop. iMy report is attached. It includes three lists of steps you have decided on, plus my own i°bservations and: recommendations. For your meeting Tuesday night, you may want to refer to Pages eight and nine, which address the search for a new City Manager. You could probably just read these pages into the minutes of the meeting. I hope that I have captured all of the key points at the Workshop. I would have preferred to have circulated the report first as a draft, but there really is not time for this given the circumstances and your need to have it by Tuesday. Thank you for your diligence and good humor at the workshop, and for allowing me to help guide the discussion. Please contact me if I can be of any further assistance. Sincerely, Lance deHaven-Smith, Ph.D. Municipal Governance in Boynton Beach, Florida Lance deHaven-Smith October 18, 1999 Contents Introduction The Politics of Historic Coastal Cities The Special Challenges in Boynton Beach The Search for a New City Manager Decision-Making Reforms Follow-up Activities Municipal Governance in Boynton Beach, Florida Lance deHaven-Smith, Ph.D. Introduction This report offers observations, conclusions, and recommendations about municipal governance in Boynton Beach, Florida. The report is based on background materials, interviews with staff and elected officials, responses from a written questionnaire, and a one-and-one-half day workshop with the Mayor and City Commissioners. The workshop took place on October 15-16, 1999. The aims of the research and the workshop were to (1) assist the City Commission in overcoming an impasse in its effort to decide whom to hire as Boynton's new City Manager; (2) determine how and why the impasse had come about; (3) help the Commissioners understand and deal with any community pressures or divisions that might be underlying their difficulties iwith decision-making; (4) work with Commissioners to improve their political relationships and discourse; and (5) try to arrive at procedural reforms to enhance city governance. !The Politics of Historic Coastal Cities Boynton Beach could be one of Florida's premier communities, but it is hampered by political divisions within the electorate. The third largest city in Palm Beach County, Boynton is Situated along the Intracoastal Waterway midway between Boca Raton to the south and West Palm Beach to the north. The city's size and geographic centrality destine it to become an important economic hub on Florida's southeast coast. In fact, it is beginning to show signs of the :ind of renaissance seen already in Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, and West Palm. Clearly, Boynton has many of the same characteristics shared by these other, very successful coastal cities, and it too should be able to achieve their level of economic prosperity and urban vitality. However, before Boynton will be able to redevelop successfully, it will have to undergo the same type of political transformation that preceded the rebirth of these other coastal municipalities to its north and south. Boynton's biggest challenge is to come together as a community and form a strong political will on taxation, spending, land use, and related policies necessary for attracting business, tourism, and residential gentrification. Unfortunately, coming to agreement on such policies is not easy, especially for older coastal cities along the Treasure Coast. The political difficulty stems largely from the manner in which the costs and benefits of urban redevelopment are distributed across the population at different stages of the redevelopment process. Until redevelopment is well along, affluent sections of the city will tend to feel that they are carrying many of the costs of redevelopment while reaping few benefits; eventually, property values will rise throughout the city and will give these property owners big returns on their investments, but this takes years. Similarly, as redevelopment occurs, residents of older, impoverished areas of the city may come to believe, sometimes with justification, that they are being pushed out of their neighborhoods just to make way for stores or public facilities. At the same time, business owners can start to feel unfairly burdened when their normal routines are disrupted by roads being repaved, rerouted, or widened. In short, each segment of the community is fully aware of the hardships it itself is bearing during the city's transformation, but none fully appreciates the hardships being endured by others, and none can easily envision the long term benefits for the city in general or for future generations. Hence Boynton's leaders will const.antly find it hard to muster sufficient community cohesion and political will to initiate redevelopment projects and stick with them as problems, delays, and inconveniences are inevitably encountered. The Special Challenges in Boynton Beach Boynton Beach may be starting more slowly on redevelopment than many nearby cities because Boynton's demographic mix makes community cohesion particularly difficult to achieve and maintain. It is an understatement to say that the Boynton Beach City Commission is in a challenging political environment. The community has a large African-American population with historic grievances, and a large retiree population from the Northeast which has a culture of assertiveness and past experience with strong-mayor systems of city government. Boynton Beach has also been negatively impacted by sprawling development around it, which has contributed to urban blight and other problems. Like other coastal cities that have not seen much new commercial development in the older parts of town, the tax base in Boynton is stressed because moderately priced residential development, which predominates in much of the city, does not generate revenues adequate to pay the costs of the services and facilities required to serve it. Moreover, the City Charter makes it almost impossible to cultivate strong, experienced political leadership. Boynton Beach has a standard council-manager system of city government, with four commissioners and a popularly elected mayor. The Mayor and the Commissioners are !all elected at large, although the Commissioners must live in set districts. The city's elected officials are oiten inexperienced, because the Charter has short commissioner terms (two years), !and a two-term limit. Contributing to the challenges facing the City Commission, Boynton Beach has developed over the past several years a culture that does not appreciate the limited, policy-setting role of the City Commission. This culture, which is in conflict with the legal requirements of the Charter, grew from many sources: the strong-mayor traditions of residents from the Northeast; the influence of a prior Mayor who exerted inordinate influence over the staf~ and turnover and inexperience among Boynton's recent city managers. As it stands, the community's civic culture mitigates against the proper functioning of a council-manager form of municipal governance. Exacerbating the confusion, the nomenclature used in the City Charter to describe the city's legislative body is misleading; the council is called a "Commission," which causes residents-especially those from northeastern states-to believe that Commissioners, like the Commissioners of Police, etc., in many large cities, have direct control over city departments. Moreover, Commission members have not received sufficient instruction and orientation to the council-manager system. Yet another problem with the city's politics-and perhaps the most serious-is the failure of Boynton's top community leaders to forge shared goals and a common sense of purpose. Leaders from each segment of the community-business, retirement, minority, neighborhoods, etc.-appear to operate independently and to harbor suspicions about one another's motives. This is not the fault of the city government. The City has taken positive action to try to foster a Stronger civic culture. Vision 2020, a consensus-building and agenda-setting process facilitated ~y Florida Atlantic University, has given Boynton some much-needed direction and unity, and 4 the City Commission and staffhave been following through on projects called for in the Vision 2020.policy statement. But the community's most active leaders remained divided, and a few power brokers are thought to be constantly competing behind the scenes to control Commission decision-makers. Continued effort by the City government along the lines of Vision 2020 is needed, but at some point the only real solution to Boynton's political disabilities is for the best citizens to step forward, accept responsibility for the city's future, and bring the power brokers into line. The City Manager Search Because of Boynton's challenging political environment and culture, the City Commission has found it difficult to resolves issues collegially, particularly when the issues at stake have been highly visible, controversial, or unexpected. Searching for a new City Manager has been all three. Hence it is not surprising that the search has caused the Commission to splinter. The search process was conducted properly from a technical point of view, but it had a buik-in political flaw from the start. The problem was that a 3-2 vote on the Commission could decide on the search process and the job requirements, but a 4-1 vote is required to actually make a hiring decision. When the search began, the Commissioners were already divided three-to-two over the kind of city manager they were seeking. Unfortunately, this division was left to some extent unstated and certainly unresolved, and it became embedded in the manager profile used to advertise the search. In the profile, the education and experience required of applicants were set ~uite low, but the manager profile indicated that the Commission preferred candidates with much higher qualifications in these areas. These flaws in the process were further compounded by the use o~two search units-a recruiting firm as well as Boynton Beach Human Relations. In fact, the use of two units itself probably reflected the Commission division evident at the start of the search. Although Boynton Beach has made significant progress in a number of areas over the past six months, the Commission's positive steps have been overshadowed by the problems in the search process for the City Manager. One of the most important achievements is progress on developing the marina. The effort to achieve this began almost a decade ago or longer, and it has finally been brought to fruition. Personal relations between Commission members have become strained by the stresses of the search, the negative publicity, the weaknesses of the Charter, etc. But the situation could be much, much worse. The Commission has managed to keep moving forward on projects, its members have remained committed to the best interests of the City, and there are no animosities that cannot be overcome. The key to improved personal relations is learning from the experience of the past six months, changing behavior and procedures to assure that problems do not recur, and taking steps to deal with the weaknesses of the Charter, the training and orientation given to new Commission members, the culture of the staff, and so on. If these things can be done, the difficulties of the recent past will be turned into a benefit rather than a detriment for the city, and lasting improvements will be made to the city's government and civic culture. 6 i Decision-Making Reforms The City Commission reached agreement on steps to be taken in three areas: decision- making, hiring a new City Manager, and strengthening the civic culture of the community and the council-manager culture of the city government. The City Commissioners agreed to make the following changes to improve commission decision-making and administrative follow-through: Running meetings strictly according to Roberts Rules of Order. This includes starting meetings on time and returning from breaks on time. Developing a clear process for how the City Manager will communicate with individual Commissioners and the Mayor to assure that there are no differential flows of information. A checklist of the information to be regularly provided will be developed. Also, the weekly individual meetings between the Commission members and the City Manager will be arranged to all occur on a single day (Friday). Commission members will work to communicate through the City Manager to bring up issues and process them before they ever reach the Commission's public meetings. This does not mean violating the state's Sunshine laws; it means alerting everyone to what is coming up, finding out what information will be needed to make a decision, giving time for adequate staff input, and so on. Commission members will take care to keep a clear line between the Commission and the Administration; to recognize the Mayor's role in directing Commission meetings; to beware both of dysfunctional political pressures being placed on the Commission by elements of the community; and to guard against and take active steps to counteract the inevitable tendency of staffto be less responsive to some members than to others and to unconsciously play one member off against another. Commission Members will stick together, behave with formality and restraint in their public meetings, process their concerns through staff, and avoid bringing surprises into meetings. During the alternating weeks when there is no City Commission meeting, the Commission will hold an Agenda Meeting or Workshop to go over the agenda for the next week. The purpose of the Agenda Workshop will be to add or delete items from the proposed agenda, to identify any information that Commissioners and the Mayor may need in advance of the meeting, to alert one another to concerns, and so on. Additions to the agenda will no longer be permitted on the night of regular Commission Meetings. One of the main goals of the Commission is to take greater control over the direction of City government. A retreat or workshop involving the top staff will be conducted to explain this to the city's administrators and to obtain their feedback on how to accomplish this objective, which is entirely legitimate and worthy of the staff's full support. The Commission and staffwill work together to clarify their roles, to place the Commission clearly in charge of policy, and to give the staff enough leeway and support to implement the Commission's policies. Hiring a New City Manager The impasse reached in the search for a new City Manager centered on the question of how much weight to give to different candidate characteristics. Some Commission members gave great weight to formal, higher education and to prior experience in the position of city manager. Others gave much more weight to familiarity with Boynton Beach and to the candidates' ability to communicate well with the city's African-American community. This tifferential weighting, along with the very different characteristics of the top candidates in the pool, left the Commission as a whole in the position of having to sacrifice one set of iqualifications for another, and this led to an impasse. My recommendation to the Commission was to raise the requkements for applicants, and to extend the search in an effort to find candidates whose background and qualifications would be strong in ail areas. The Commission considered all the options available to it and evaluated each option individually with respect to a number of factors. The Commissioners agreed to extend the search to allow time to update and expand the Pool of applicants, and to allow extraordinary efforts to be made to locate additional minority ~andidates. The Commission plans to hire a recruitment consultant or "headhunter" who Specializes in recruiting city managers. The headhunter will be instructed to find the best :andidates on the market and to take special steps to advertise the position to women and minorities. The Mayor and Commissioners understand that this will entail additional costs for the search process, but they recognize that such costs are small in comparison to the benefits that will be derived from bringing the search to a successful completion. The Mayor and Commissioners also decided to be clearer about their expectations regarding the applicants' qualifications for the job. They want the new City Manager to meet the following requirements. He or she must have at least a Master's Degree in Public Administration or an equivalent degree in another field. Roughly 80 percent of Florida city managers have an MPA, and this level of formal education is needed to assure that the Manager will have technical skills essential for the job. He or she must have experience with a council-manager form of municipal government. Experience with this particular form of government is crucial because it is the form in Boynton Beach, and Boynton's governance has suffered from confusion about how this system should work. He or she must have at least five years experience as a city manager, or seven years experience as an assistant city manager. Again, experience with city management at the highest level, rather than just experience as a department head or in another area of public administration, is essential because of B oynton's need for a seasoned professional who can help bring the city government's culture back into line with the council-manager system. He or she must have a demonstrated history of job stability. Turnover among city managers every five years or so is fairly normal, but the Commission wants to make sure that the new manager has been persistent and has succeeded in past jobs. Follow-up Activities At the end of the workshop, the Mayor and Commissioners discussed possible follow-up activities and new initiatives to strengthen Boynton's political and civic culture. Agreement was reached to take the following actions: The Mayor and Commissioners would like staffto organize a workshop on Robert's Rules of Order. The workshop might also include information on the council-manager form of municipal government. As previously stated, a retreat or workshop involving the top staffwill be conducted to allow the Mayor and Commissioners to explain their goal of taking greater control of city policy making. A Neighborhood Leadership Summit will be held to take Vision 2020 to the next level of community participation. New neighborhood groups have been organized by the City government, and existing groups have been alerted to the City's desire for their input. The Summit will (1) allow the city's public officials to explain how a master plan is being developed for Boynton Beach; (2) give the organizers of Vision 2020 an opportunity to describe the Vision 2020 policy statement to the neighborhood leaders; and (3) obtain input from the neighborhood leaders on the process to be used to involve each neighborhood in the master-planning process. The Mayor and City Commissioners will reconvene periodically to assess their progress in carrying out the commitments listed above, and to decide if any mid-course corrections are needed. Conclusion Despite these important agreements, procedural changes, and plans, the Mayor and City Commissioners face many barriers to changing present patterns of interaction within and between the community, the City administration, and the Commission. Probably the greatest difficulty is having to do so much at once. The Commission should ask the City Manager to appoint a single staff member to keep everyone on track and to give the Commission regular reports on progress. Probably the best staff member for this is either the City Manager or the Assistant City Manager. 10