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Minutes 11-29-01 (2)JOINT CITY COMMISSION AND CEMETERY BOARD WORKSHOP HELD IN THE LIBRARY PROGRAM ROOM ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2001 AT 4:30 P.M. BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA City Commission Also Present Gerald Broening, Mayor Ron Weiland, Vice Mayor Mike Ferguson, Commissioner Chadie Fisher, Commissioner Mack McCray, Commissioner Kud Bressner, City Manager Jim Cherof, City Attorney Cemetery Board David Nyquist, Chairman Janet prainito, Secretary Teresa Frazier Tereesa Padgett Ods Walker John Tined (arrived~ate) I. CALL TO ORDER & INTRODUCTION Mayor Broening called the meeting to order at 4:39 p.m. and stated that the purpose of the meeting was to establish a dialogue with the Cemetery Board that addressed the current status of the cemetery and its future direction. II. OPEN DISCUSSION Chair Nyq uist stated that the Board had asked for this meeting several months ago and that their only concern was the expansion of the cemetery at Boynton Beach Memorial Park. This is the only item they wished to discuss at this meeting. Mayor Broening stated that they could start with that issue. Chair Nyquist offered to distribute a one-page summary of excerpts from past meetings to the Commissioners. Mayor Broening preferred to focus on the current situation and obtain a clear understanding of it. He wanted to know where the responsibilities of the Cemetery Board and the City Commission begin and end and ne wanted to explore the current cemetery operation and funding from today's perspective. Mr. Cherof reported that the last Commission action, Ordinance 98-22j did two things. It abolished the Cemetery Trust itself and transferred those funds to a City fund and it also abolished the Board of Trustees. It did not abolish the Board of Governors. What survived in that last Ordinance was a description of the general powers of the Board which is 1) to establish rules and regulations for the management and control of the cemetery and the mausoleum and 2) to conduc~ business consistent with the stated purpose of cemeteries which is in the General Provisions contained in the Code of OrdinanCes. The Board is empowered to deal with the day-to-day rules and regulations and operational aspects but the City controls the funds and, in most cases, the manpower necessary to do that. Meeting Minutes Joint City Commission/Cemetery Board Meeting Boynton Beach, Florida November 29, 2001 Mayor Broening understood that the Cemetery Trust Fund is dedicated solely to cemetery operations and perpetual maintenance of the existing cemeteries and may not be used for capital purposes. Mr. Cherof commented that this was correct and [hat it had been established by Ordinance. Mr. Bressner stated there was $3.8M available for perpetual care and maintenance and the dilemma was that these funds were not available for expansion. He did not know if there was any legal way to include the purpose of expansion. Mr. Cheref responded that if the Commission so desired, an Ordinance could be written that allowed some of the Trust Fund monies to be used for expansion purposes. Mayor Broening noted that the 'issue was finding a way to expand the cemetery for the future and that how to get there was the basis for the dialogue established at this meeting. Mayor Broening expressed the City Commission's commitment to assist in the resolution of this issue. Ms. Tereesa Padgett of the Cemetery Board stated that she had been on the Cemetery Board since 1959 and that it was always understood that the expansion of the cemetery to the west would take place one day. This was based on the support of earlier Commissions. She asked for an opportunity to share the excerpts from meeting minutes from the past [hat embodied discussions of this concept. Mayor Broening received and distributed the excerpts to the City Commission. Ms. Padgett advised that the Recreation Department and Water Departments were aware of it. The Cemetery Board did not want to wait until there was no room in the cemetery and have no place to bury the City's dead f the Cemetery:Board does not work for expansion of the cemetery, and if the City does not help the~ do it, it will not get done. She thought the residents of this City were entitled to be buried in the City and could not conceive of any City in this day and age that would not provide a place to bury its dead. Ms. Padgett commented that the idea of having a Fund to take care of the maintenance of the cemetery was to allow the interest to build up so that when there were no more taxpayers putting money into the Fund through lot sales, money would still be available for the maintenance function in perpetuity. Ms. Padgett commented on the cemetery funds going into the City's funds, saying that they were splitting funds all the time and that it was not as if the City was paying all the expenses of the cemetery. The BC~ard has never been able to get an itemized budget of what it actually costs to operate the two cemeteries - not what it costs the Recreation & Parks Department and not what i;t costs the General Fund -- but the actual expenses. She stated that if anyone had tl~at, the Cemetery Board would like to have it. Mr. Bressner believed that this [~ad b,een prepared and was available and that was how he calculated how much of a subsidy the GeneFal' Fund had provided"~cr the last three years. Ms. Padgett stated tl~at the Cemetery Board d d not agree with those figures but that they could not prove it so they could not argue about it. Ms. Padgett advised that Ms. Reese had told the Board at its last meeting that the Finance Department would be providing itemized statements and they were looking forward to knowing exactly what it costs to run [he cemetery. Mr. Bressner thought this had been in the budget for this year. Ms. Reese said that when they prepared the budget this year, they did estimated costs for the cemetery based on costs prov ded by John Wildner. If the figure was, for example, $17,000 for an item, there might not be invoices to match that exactly because Mr· Wildner's department did the ordering. 2 Meeting Minutes Joint City Commission/Cemetery Board Meeting Boynton Beach, Florida November 29, 2001 Commissioner McCray recalled his own Cemetery Board experience an~ stated that [hey sometimes got reports too long after the fact and asked the Board how that was going today. Ms. Padgett replied that mostofthe time the reports were up-to-date. Chair Nyquist stated that they had already noted that the budgeted amounts will be over-run r~f~rrng to L ne Item 52-75 "Equipment Parts & Supplies", which has a manager's estimate of $1,500 and an October expenditure of $401. When the money was gone, he did not know how the individual accounts would be funded. He did feel that things would be better when the new system instituted by the Finance Department was ~n place. Mr. Bressner responded that the money would come from the Trust Fund. Ms. Reese noted that the Cemetery Board's budget has $189K to be used for contingencies and that money would be transferred from this to individual accounts as needed. Mayor Breening reminded the participants that the issue on the table was that of burying the City's dead and what was going to be done about expansion of the cemetery or cemeteries. He mentioned that the Little League Ballpark to the west has some wellfields. He did not know if Uttle League park could move somewhere else but he did not want to see any cemetery expansion unt~il Little League Park had been relocated. The potential exists to relocate Little League Park but there are no specific plans or any timetable to accomplish it. At some point in time the City might be required to shut down the eastern wells but he did not know when that might be. He believed that what was m~ssing was a comprehensive plan that included all of the elements that are necessary to accommodate all of the very essentia~ requirements. He believed that the Cemetery Board needed to come up With some policy decisions. Mr. Bressner felt there were two policy issues - one on the Cemetery Board's side and one on the City Commission side. On the Commission side, the Cemetery Board needs to direct the City Commission to look at alternative sites for the Little League Field, if the Board chooses to do that. Mayor Broening thought they should direct the City Commission to seek alternative sites for cemeteries, not necessarily including Little League Fiele He also noted that Sara Simms was currently underutilized. Mr. Bressner stated that the Cemetery Board needed to make some policy decisions, spelling out whether it wanted to: 1) consider multiple interments, 2) reconfigure the roadways ~n Boynton Beach Memorial to free up space, 3) consider restricting burials to City residents, or 4) upgrade Sara Simms and reactivate it. Ms. Padgett reported that work on the Sara Simms enhancements ane discussions on limiting burials to City residents were both underway at this time. As to multiple interments, Ms. Padgett believes that water would be hit at six feet in th~s area. Mr. Wildner noted that they had not hit water at six feet in recent burials. Chair Nyquist stated that if another cemetery were opened, it would require another crew and another Fund would have to be established. He believed that expanding to the west was the most logical step. Mayor Broening did not think another Fund would have to be established because the existing Ordinance stated "cemeteries" (plural). Chair Nyquist thought this referred to Boynton Beach Memorial Park and Sara Simms. Mayor Broening said the Ordinance could be changed but the Fund would not have to change. He agreed that it would, take additional people to maintain a new cemetery and that this had not been costed. Meeting Minutes Joint City Commission/Cemetery Board Meeting Boynton Beach, Florida November 29, 2001 Chair Nyquist stated that even if the Board came up with some stopgaps right now, it would take several years to get expansion, to the west or somewhere else. That is why the Cemetery Board had been asking for years for some guidance. They wanted to be told whether or not they were going to be able to expand into the Little League Park land and if not, they wished to know why not. Ms. Padgett stated that they did not expect a decision at this meeting. Commissioner McCray asked when the cemetery would be full and Chair Nyquist stated that it would probably be full within the next five years. Mayor Broening asked if this included utilizing Sara Simms and Chair Nyquist did not believe that it did. Mayor Broening thought the Ceme[ery Board would have to give serious consideration to upgrading and marketing Sara Simms Memorial Gardens and he believed that this would be the responsible thing to do. Commissioner McCray spoke about the issue of limiting burials to residents only. He believed that if someone already had loved ones buried there, they would want to be buried near them, even if they had moved out of the area. Chair Nyquist thought this would be like a non-resident situation since they had moved out of the area. Ms. Padgett stated that they had always tried to keep an eye on expenditures because they wanted the Fund to last and handle the care of the graves in perpetuity. They had promised perpetual maintenance to the people that had bought lots and they strongly believed that this must continue. When there ~s no longer any money going into the Fund, the cemetery will fall into neglect and they did not want to see that happen in Boynton Beach. Commissioner McCray noted that the Department of Veterans Affairs was planning to build a Veteran's cemetery out west in Palm Beach County and that the Cemetery Board m~gt~t wish to take this under consideration in their discussion of alternatives. Vice Mayor Weiland noted that there was land available across the street and in the vicinity of the cemetery that was potentially available for a cemetery without using Little League Park and that this option could be explored. Chair Nyquis! wanted information about the active wellfields and environmental regulations. Mayor Broening stated that on the face of it there were restrictions on interments within a certain distance of active wells but deferred to a technical expert on the matter. Mr. Bressner noted that he had seen discussions from 1994 when the issue had been discussed with the City Manager at the time, Mr. Scott Miller. Chair Nyquist thought someone had mentioned a Wellfield Protection Act. He had tried to research it and could not find it. Mayor Broening said he Would like to know too/"Mayor Broening understood that the City must, if it was going to stay in the Cemetery business, improve its capacity and he thought the problem would Pe perennial. He lacked certainty, however, on issues such as the law regarding the proximity of burial sites to active water wells. Mr. Bressner indicated that the Utilities staff had stated that there are regulations prohibiting that. The Utilities Department did not have a representative at this meeting. Chair Nyquist asked for a copy of the regulations covering wellfields and burials and Mr. Bressner offered to get them. 4 Meeting Minutes Joint City Commission/Cemetery Board Meeting Boynton Beach, Florida November 29, 2001 Mayor Broening stated that the City Commission was looking to the Cemetery Board to come up with a set of alternatives about expansion. He also believed that at some point in the future, the eastern wells might dry up but that the time for this was uncertain and dependent on the western wells expanding to accommodate the City's requirements. If the expansion to the Little League Park land were to be allowed, it would have to be done seamlessly, so as not to disturb another very vital community component, the City's youth. No one on the City Commission has any firm idea of when any of the above will happen. Mayor Broening asked the Cemetery Board to look at alternatives. He asked staff to give the City Commission and the Cemetery Board deflniteinformation on the wells. He also asked staff to advise when the existing ballfields might be able to move to another appropriate location or whether the ballfields should be moved at all. Chair Nyquist said that the safety factor should be taken into consideration in that the traff~c had greatly increased on Woolbright Road from wnen the ballfields were first established. Commissioner McCray said that the City Commission was looking to the Cemetery Board tO give the City Corem ssion direction. He suggested that the Board contact other cities to find out what they had done about this prob em and to come back and share their information with the City Commission. The~, had been put on the Board because they were experts in that field and the City Commission was looking .to them for guidance so it could make an informed decision on the matter. Mr. Bressner asked whether the Cemetery Board and the City Commission should be working on lobbying for the earliest possible establishment of the veteran's cemetery. Mayor Broening thought this was an excellent point and that it would definitely preserve some space. Mr. Bressner distributed a report prepared, by Ms. Betty Sangi in the City Clerk's Office detailing the number of spaces at Boynton Memodal Park. There are 5,098 spaces that are occupied (969 of which are occupied by veterans); 1,544 are reserved; and 1,216 are available. If the Veteran's cemetery goes forward, there might be an opportunity to offer inducements rot the people who have reserved Jots (but have not used them) to move to the Veteran's cemetery. This wouJd recycle some lots that had been reserved and make them available for others to use. III. CONCLUDING REMARKS Mayor Broening said that the Commission was willing to work on this. They wanted the Cemetery Board to give them some options. They also requested that staff give them both some concrete information and options. He thought this Commission would move on this at least in the next year. Commissioner McCray guaranteed the Board that the next time they requested a meeting, it would not take two years to achieve it. Chair Nyquist said the meeting had been informative and was a good first step towards solving the problem. Mayor Broening affirmed that the workshop had been good and that it had allowed for candid discussion. He appreciated the Cemetery Board's coming to the meeting and apologized rot this Commission or any previous one that might have seemed to ignore Meeting Minutes Joint City Commission/Cemetery Board Meeting Boynton Beach, Florida November 29, 2001 the Cemetery Board. He assured them that the City Commission was concerned about this matter and would work towards resolving it. Commissioner McCray expressed appreciation to the Cemetery Board members for their dedicated volunteer service on the Board. He realized that Board membership required commitment and dedication and praised them for being so conscientious about their Board duties. Mayor Broenin§ echoed this sentiment, [hanking them most sincerely for [heir efforts. Chair Nyquist stated that the Cemetery Board took their duties seriously and wished to preserve something for the i~uture. They looked forward to meeting with the City Commission again. There being no further business to come before the meeting, the meeting adjourned at 5:20 p.m. ATTEST: Susan Collins Recording Secretary (one tape) (12/5/01) CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH Commissioner ~ ~-- 6