##VIDEO ID:78iriHUcaVU## e e e e check check one two e e e for e e e e e good evening thank you for joining us tonight for the vi Council orientation we're really excited to have you here um we are excited to have our new council members uh Mr Don Horton Miss deep Gillis Mr Steve fredman and our returning vice mayor Sharon Mahoney there in the back um thank you all for coming um yeah yeah we wanted to run this meeting as a public meeting so that everyone can find out what we're um the information that we're giving to our new Council and we thank you for coming you might be wondering why we're doing it so near after the election and before the first meeting of the new Council on the 19th but we thought that it would be a good idea to um kind of overload everyone with information right at the front end so give you a couple of weeks to kind of digest things and ask questions of um of staff so that we can help you through with whatever you need to know so we have a our plan tonight is to go through um all the department heads are going to have about a five minutes um they're going to do a presentation and it's kind of it's five minutes for questions and answers so um it's going to be pretty short and sweet everybody once they get through they are going to be free to leave um when we get to uh Village Attorney John quick John has another PowerPoint presentation that's going to take roughly an hour and he's going to go through all that really important legal stuff and then I will be back up to talk more about what the village clerk does to support Council and we will wind things up with our village manager Rob Cole um going over the things that he would like to go over as well so without further Ado we can get started um the uh Jennifer Bo brand our power Landing director is going to come up first thanks good evening first of all congratulations to all the electeds uh can't wait to work with all of you I'm very excited for this uh start of this new chapter in the village it's going to be an exciting time so my name is Jennifer dor and I'm the planning director for the village of I manag the um I don't know if my slide is am I supposed to do this I'm sorry I didn't know we were in charge sorry okay um I manag the planning department and the code enforcement department um the planing department has um nine full-time staff members um right now that includes two vacancies in that department and we have the code department has three full-time staff members um the plane Department um is responsible for administering the Land Development regulations which is uh the ldrs the chapter 30 of the village code uh in that process we review and process development permits um in order to administer those ldrs we're also responsible for developing imp planting uring compliance with The Village's comprehensive plan um and just a quick note on that we are about to embark on a uh process to update the comprehensive plan with a consultant um that we just hired ail City East so we're hoping to get you all involved in that shortly that's going to kick off uh probably in about a week and a half to two weeks so that's going to get started real soon um we are also responsible for developing and implementing and ensuring comp I already just said that sorry um the planning staff also acts as liaison to numerous Village citizen committees including the LPA the local planning agency the workforce affordable housing committee and the historic preservation committee so we staff all three of those and then any others as we might need um we also provide oversight and protection to The Village's environmental regulations and resources and we provide information and assistance to property owners and to the public so that's sort of a basic overview of what the department does I mean we do lots of other things we do carry out long range planning projects we've got a list of things that we've been tasked with that are still on our board that we're trying to work through but you know I'm here to answer any questions you might have about planning I don't know if this is is this for questions and answers Barney or no okay um but I my number is you can call well you can't call me you can call Rob at any time and he can get questions answered through to me to answer to you and i' be happy to talk to you a little bit about more what we do but that's just sort of an overview of planning and code does so thank you and I look forward to working with all of you next up is Sheila Den Court good evening new council members I'm Sheila Den court Chief Building official and flood flood plane manager and director of Building Services um our primary duty is our primary duty of the building department is to enforce the Florida building code and ensure that all buildings are constructed to a reasonable level of safety public health and general welfare um in addition to enforcing the Florida building code the department also enforces the provisions outlined in our flood plane management ordinance now how do we do this uh we do this by reviewing plans issuing permits conducting inspections and issuing certificates of occupancy um currently the department runs with a 10 full-time employees including three contract positions um that are outsourced to private provider vendors um a little bit about the budgeting process for the building department because it's a little different than some of our other departments so we operate as a special fund which is very similar to an Enterprise fund the revenues received from the building permits are used exclusively to fund the department and no funds are received through property taxes or the general fund um I guess are we doing questions or nose all right I guess that's a no so next up is Lieutenant sprinkle congratulations um Lieutenant sprinkle with mon County Sheriff's Office I'm the station Commander for theom district our captain is currently on leave or she be here that's captain station Commander so in your booklets I left you with copies of what we provide to the city of Marathon to their manager and what I like to call it a monthly so look it over if you like it and you want one we can provide that to the manager to pass along to you we are currently fully staffed we have 16 members not including myself and the captain Deputy Julian Garcia is still he's making great progress um each shift has one sergeant and three deputies and that includes the mil back here to assist and protect any questions your booklet it's there should be two of them two examples and that's examples that we provide or that's an example that was given to the Village good evening everyone and congratulations new council members I'm Pete frza I'm the environmental resources manager been in the position a little over six years now uh some of the uh projects I'm working on to summarize I'm the project manager for The Village's environmental projects I work with the agencies and other Consultants involved with those projects one of the things that I'm leading is managing the canal restoration program for the village uh we have a a pretty specific list a prioritized list of canals that we are looking to restore uh there 63 canals within the village so we're working through that list uh I think we're doing a pretty good job with that um um let's see so I also we also have a pretty robust water quality monitoring program and also a benthic monitoring program which is run by Consultants so I'm also overseeing that work uh so another one of the reasons we are doing Canal restoration other than to improve the water quality is because it's a requirement or a task within The Village's uh work plan within the area of critical State concern program so it is a requirement and just kind of checking out those boxes with the work program as well um let's see I also represent the village on the national Marine sanctuary's water quality Protection Program and also their um well not their Sanctuary advisory Council but I do want to mention the Village Council does have a seat at both the sanctuary's water quality Protection Program and their Sanctuary advisory Council so that's a if any either of you anyone is interested in one of those seats please let me know so I also over see the Land Management of our conservation properties uh the village does have a number of properties that were purchased with funding through the state through the state's Florida communities trust program and with that program are management plans and within those management plans are obligations or requirements that we that we have to fulfill um so going through those um obligations trying to get projects done a lot of those do involve capital projects we have two of those going on right now one's at the green turtle hammock nature preserve the other is at the plantation tropical preserve we also conduct invasive plant Management on those conservation properties so that's something else I oversee we work with a vendor that that con completes our invasive plant management there are if we don't control the invasives they will be on every one of our properties that's just the the reality of today so we try and stay on top of that I also oversee the Nearshore water regulatory issues for example such things things as our maintaining our slow speed zones and then also vessel exclusion zones I think you're going to have potentially new one of those coming up during your term or sometime relatively soon uh I also complete habitat restoration projects we have a fund it's essentially a mitigation fund where we restoring habitats that fund comes from fees from development impacts and code enforcement violations goes into a fund it is now called the habitat restoration fund and we we are completing planning planning projects um want more trees in the village I think everyone wants that we've had pretty good support from the council with the use of those funds and and I really hope that we can have continued support for that because I think uh you know getting these habitat project restoration projects done is important and just to summarize any other General environmental or conservation type issues can come my way as as well too such things as our our sea turtle issues and sea turtle protection and with that I'll wrap up unless there's questions no okay all right so Jamie is the next up thank you congratulations again um Jamie Terry and I have a HR assistant Lindsay babo so you guys will get to know her as well um but basically HR serves all uh Village employes as well well as counsel for any needs that you have related to your payroll or taxes or whatever that might be the things that you would ask me for um also for doing evaluations on the village manager position you'll be involved in those um the employee life cycle is basically anything from the recruitment all the way through offboarding so we handle everything from posting the job getting the applicants the candidates and all the way through their life cycle or their tenure with the village uh Regulatory Compliance training HR programs um drug and alcohol procedures those kind of things we handle uh we're responsible for payroll um and administering the benefits we're responsible for anything related to Labor Relations or employee relations so basically anything that happens in the employee life cycle we are responsible for so and I'm a resource for multiple things through Rob um but you can come see me for anything you need any questions of HR yet and I will have your uh new hire paperwork and stuff like that for um your W4 and your direct deposit is basically the only thing I need from you guys so you're already in the system because you were here before but you're already in the system but I will be getting that to you through email and then you can get it back and that'll be your onboarding basically um any burning questions other than all right Lisa good evening everyone uh congratulations to all of the new council members look forward to working with you I'm Lisa Lynch the finance director for the Village um I'm probably the shortest term director that's been here I've been here six months now so I'm still getting used to everything and the process of everything um we do handle uh quite a bit in finance but just to summarize a few things that we do um as as we just got through with the annual budget that's a long process and you'll be heavily involved in that we will have um we have a couple of budget hearings that are done in like September and we have workshops that we'll be doing in the summer probably July or August you'll be involved in all of that um you know so it is quite a long process from getting what the you know the adum um the tax rate the millage rate um that's that's a lot of fun and uh we'll be doing that and the budget hearing so it's a about a three month process three or four month process as far as you know when you'll be involved that kind of thing um let's see and then we let the annual Financial audit we also do that we've kicked off that with our Auditors uh their new last year uh csnl Chris Smith Leonard um and they are very good they um come down and in December they're going to come down just for a meet and greet type of thing and um get to meet me and everything and then they send us requests to um you know perform the audit um they've already started doing that they have a SharePoint type of um server where we just upload items onto that um the audit is um due nine months after year end so it's due by June 30th but again they have to start early because they have to work their schedule around you know other clients that they have they they don't just do us so um we'll work with them on that we also handle the accounts payable for the whole village uh so everybody turns in their invoices to us uh we get those paid on a weekly basis we do check usually on Thursdays once a week um if there are emergencies we can accommodate those um you know anything special uh but normally we just do it once a week uh we also do wires for larger invoice amounts uh let's see and then we also do um we're responsible for the grant Administration so Pete has um his grants we have some through fire rescue we have some through Wastewater um you know and FEMA all the FEA when there's a hurricane we handle those type of things so grants is is a pretty big U process and we you know we're fully involved in that from the writing of the grant not well we don't do the writing of the grants we do the administration of them quarterly reporting and that type of things and reimbursements and then also we handle purchasing um village staff will input their purchase requisitions we turn that into a purchase order then we keep up with that uh when they invoices that go against that purchase order um we do that through our encode system and we also handle requests for proposals um those are also handled in finance um that's basically the majority of the things we do but we do different things like cashiering taking in the receipts and the cash for the park when they have gate receipts and that type of thing um you know we get that on a daily basis make deposits to the bank that kind of thing so it's it it's an all-encompassing you know finance and we it's only about five of us that um handle all of that so it's a pretty big job but I think our staff does a great job and that's all I have thank you sure that's a great question there's a lot um Pete do you know how many grants you have currently five we don't currently have he has five just in his area um how many you have three four see that there so Terry for fire has four uh we also have you have five okay I'm glad you guys all know that this is great and you have one Maria and AJ has five you said and then um we don't have any I don't think we currently have any ongoing hurricane well except for the new ones that we started we did do some mutual aid for uh one of the Hurricanes Terry guy out uh but I think we just got the last hurricane Irma payment just this year so hopefully that one's done um and then I don't know there may be a couple of other stragglers but I think that's about it all right sure good evening conso welcome back um congratulations everybody my name is Ramon novaro um I maintain the network um I'm also responsible for the cyber security um um vulnerabilities we monitor their Network um we also protect pretty much the village with cyber security and all the other stuff that's going around in the world um Vince I'm Vince tarv systems engineer I'm responsible for all the servers and computers and everything that runs the village my own keeps the perimeter secure I keep everything inside secure um I'm also responsible for the AV Department that produces these uh meetings and uh we're in the process of installing new microphones I want to apologize we only have one microphone tonight but they're going to be finishing up tomorrow so uh anybody that comes up here please make sure you're speak into the mic so everybody in Zoom land and everywhere else can hear you and uh do you have any questions we also have Frank in the back he's the AV he's the booth guy and uh we we uh have uh Susan with City View thank you all right good evening uh I'm AJ angel I'm the director of Public Works and Wastewater here I've been with Al marada for just coming on nine years um in the public work side of it we handle all Transportation roadway maintenance um outside of US1 uh we do do fdot's maintenance uh for landscaping um and the bike path area along the US1 Corridor but we also handle storm water uh waste um all the parks excluding Founders Park so everything outside of Founders Park uh comes and falls on us uh we handle all RightWay permits and um projects and things like that outside of it uh all of our capital projects our Fleet M or Fleet Management Building Maintenance um all the other properties and conservation properties where weeat on all the maintenance for those um we also act as a liaison between uh us and do D and then all the other utilities FKA FK um in public works we have a staff of 18 um and that handles all of our maintenance outside of Founders parks and all the other building maintenance um moving on to Wastewater we have a a staff of seven um two of us from Public Works work both on public works and Wastewater uh but we do have a staff of of seven one operations manager and uh we handle the maintenance um of the Wastewater collection system and the operation um all of the Wastewater affluent pumps we just collected we sent it to kargo for treatment um that includes uh our major major parts of our system are the six vacuum pump stations and roughly 500 grinder pump stations at residence that we maintain you have any questions hello everyone um congratulations to the new Council I look forward to working with you my name is Maria vatti I've been employee of the village of Island marada for 24 years um Proud to be an employee here um been director of Founders Park for seven and I look at my uh job as uh being the director of fun and that's um what we try to do here um my job here is there's a lot to it I'm the administrative and operational responsibility as Founders part that's my main responsibility um I have a great team that supports me with this um is a 40 acre Park so we provide a lot of activities and a lot of programs my staff includes 18 full-time employees and they are from Park staff to lifeguards and maintenance so we have a quite a large staff here to support this entire park um along with my responsibilities are budget preparation and administration so my staff uh we all work together on our budget every year and um the bug what we do is work hard to um have a strong budget to support all our programs and events and and so forth everything that we do here uh coordination and implementation of events programs and Facilities that's our main responsibility here and that goes and most of you all know how all the events that we put on here the park staff we put on a lot of the events ourselves everything from the trunk Retreat to July 4th it helps with the rotary uh uh program there we also do a um egg hunt and this Friday we are putting on Beats on the bay our first uh concert for the season so we do a lot of special events um programs and facility usage so we U again we put on we do a lot for the community um personnel management um again that's big part of what I do here is that we have um again 18 fulltime employes and about 10 to 15 parttime so um a lot it takes a lot of staff to run the park and everyone does a great job here and also um what what big responsibility is is uh project management for our capital projects and general maintenance for the park we currently have um about four major capital projects that are going to be going on this SE season right now they're putting in the solar light so happening pool operations that we were going to be renovating our pool that's a big project that will be coming up also a new playground facility that is another and that's a grant project and also um do we have one more can't think of it right now but it'll come to me but so we do have a lot of capital projects that happen and um so there's a lot going on and we hope that you come out and enjoy all our events and if you ever have any questions uh you know my offices and you can also go through live so any questions no great uh next person is Lisa with the marina thank you hello everyone congratulations um I work at the marina I run the marina basically is met some bolts of it I've been here for 18 years I've been the head doc Master at the marina for 12 um I also oversee the buoy program and you know manage all the staff that we have um that's about it dayto day operations of the marina is the nuts and bolts of everybody so um short and sweet I don't know who's next Maria took the paper and the one and only Terry I totally had a better picture picked out that didn't have my third chin showing but uh whatever I guess marne's messing with me um so I'm Terry AEL fire chief here uh 25 years with the depart uh with uh alamada Village islands and 30 years with alamada fire uh we're the largest Department within the The Village we have 42 full-time staff we have five that are on call about a dozen maybe 15 volunteers it kind of es and flows that uh come and go um for varying reasons sometimes they just want to support sometimes they're trying to get a job so they want to find out if this is their Niche or not so the the volunteers kind of come and go we used to be more volunteer used to be all volunteer actually when I started um but our demographics in our community have changed so as that changes unfortunately so to our responsibility so now we're mostly a paid department but we do have volunteer still so what do I do um I wash a lot of fire trucks and I don't pet dogs we don't play video games um that's what everybody thinks and that's not accurate so we run for fire and EMS obviously we run the fire calls we run the EMS calls motor vehicle accidents um we still have some structure fires yes most of it's made out of concrete but stuff inside still does burn us one we run a fair amount of Hazmat calls out there because everything going up and down that Highway that supplies this entire County including the military bases on the end traverses through US EMS calls obviously is about 70% of our call volume public assists and uh stuff of that nature helping helping people welfare checks that's another very large number we implemented our boat program this year which is just getting off the ground uh we onboard our own Academy so when we get people they come to us fully trained we spend the next four weeks actually bringing them up to this is how alamada does it so we bring them up to our speed um and we train and then we train and then we train some more because we don't run a whole lot of calls we only run about 17 1800 calls a year so in order to maintain our proficiency we get that through lots of training whether it's in-house or whether we get them out of house um fire prevention uh we don't have a lot of fires why because it's made out of concrete but also because Mark and the staff do their job if they do their job and try to eliminate stuff that can cause issues and cause fires and prevent them from the very beginning that's what we'd rather see anyway so we do a lot of Life Safety permitting we do a lot of safety inspections we do site plan approvals with for those horrible developers um he does about 400 different vacation rentals because they never pass the first time we do pre-fire planning on every commercial structure within the village and then we also up to Mark and and my office as well to do interpretations when it comes to the Life Safety Code and proper implementation of that we do Emergency Management that's planning for the hurricanes and the wh ifs and cyber attacks with with uh our it guys we coordinate with that that actually falls under Emergency Management as well so whenever that training comes up we go at it also may I say no single Department up department head up here does it solo we all work so well with everybody we we never tackle any project by ourselves we always include other department heads because it takes a village truly for us all to function so we never go at any of this alone we're always bouncing off other department heads because somebody might know something more than us so we rely on on the network that we've created here um Emergency Management something that you guys will see coming at you soon after Finance does my RFP and then it comes back to the committee and then it goes to you guys for Council is our comprehensive emergency management plan is is getting revisions this year so you'll be seeing those re rewrites um we do County coordinations Rob and I and bunch of the staff have been for the past four days doing coordinations for Raphael even though it's way the heck out that way somewhere we were still doing coordinating calls because the lower end of our County was seeing some effects so we all play in the same sandbox we do tons of instant command structure training IC training we do hurricane drills and then for those that want to get back early we also coordinate the early re-entry training so that you can come back not be a burden to our community help yourself and then help your neighbor and then all those people become Force multipliers for us as a community to respond and and get back to some sort of normaly huge thing of what we do is community outreach uh we do CPR training every month we do babysitting courses for uh groups whenever they ask for it we do stop the bleed training for groups everywhere our CPR also includes that we also do that in all of our schools we do ham radio training so we've got backups it doesn't need internet for ham radio to work so we've got ham radios in our EOC uh we've got people that can work it we do Fire Safety Week in the school we just wrapped that up you may have seen some of our social media blasts uh we read to the kids to the preschool rers we want to be upfront and and personal with all these guys we do lots of Outreach also with the Children's Shelter down down on High Point Road um want to keep them from taking the bad path let's show them that fire and police are not bad we work really well with them we do do a group group uh activities with them so that's that's one of my favorites uh we do tons of stuff on The Old Road in alamada proper we do the Fourth of July with Maria and we support that the 911 ceremony Monday the veteran ceremony art under the FKS the seafood Fest gigantic nautical Market 5Ks and 10ks there's a 10K coming up you guys should get out there and run it it's over the bridge beautiful view it's kind of weird if you stop moving the bridge shakes just saying as long as you're running you're golden um Toys for Tots you'll be seeing those boxes coming out real soon this County per capita collects more toys than any other County in the country just so you guys know so our community is absolutely amazing we help support that and December 15th is the Santa parade we'll be colle with the Marines for Toys for Tots then and then that week we'll be giving them out throughout the county every toy raised in the county stays in this County just so you guys know um let's see we go to Every football game van you're at most of them as well shaking that really annoying Bell but I love the spirit brother um we go to all the chamber events we support alligator light swim this year we did it with our boat and we had two saves thank you very much um beats on the bay with Maria we come out we support that this weekend this Friday as a Jimmy Buffett tribute band y'all should come out and they've got local talent that are opening up please come on out um working agreements we have tons of working agreements both internally and externally some of our external working agreements that we have is with University of Miami uh Gordon center of research and the Sylvester Cancer Institute we're more prone to cancer As A Firefighter than most average jobs so we kind of keep that one tight to us uh we work with the Florida Keys College Braxton College Broward College Miami Dade College Florida State Fire College Florida fire Marshall's office Florida Keys Health ready Coalition which is countywide it's pretty awesome if you're not familiar Google it um it does a lot of good in coordination countywide kind of like we do here as a staff they do it for anybody that has anything to do with any sort of Health Care throughout the county um have agreements with American Heart Association in AI ASI as well um there's a ton more I could talk I could talk forever all night and I talk really fast so I know there's a lot going at you um if you want to know anything else about my department I highly encourage you to go to the August 21st um budget Workshop number one starts at 620 ends at 650 it goes over a lot of what we do and a lot of stuff that we've got in the queue big projects that I've got coming at you guys um grants that are coming at you guys that you might see as as uh policy makers and stuff of that nature yes it's 30 minutes but you'll learn a lot about what our department does and uh what we try to achieve in our community so with that I'm going to wrap it up do you guys have any questions I know I talked a lot right Rock that's a last staff member so I'm out of here thank you guys all right good evening everyone um first of all congratulations to all of our newly elected officials uh look forward to working with all of you um I know we've got some exciting things on the horizon um that all of our department heads have have touched on a little bit today uh I'm John quick I serve as the village attorney I'm with the law firm of we serota healthman so while you see me on the deis and the public sees me on the de at the meetings you have access to my entire firm um on whatever the firm whatever the needs of the village might be so uh we have a number of uh Specialists um some that you all may be interested in uh we have ethics um Specialists I mean that's something that is you know I would always encourage you all if you have a question on anything Florida ethics related it's always better to call first than to call afterwards um and uh you have access to that we have uh specialized land use attorneys um uh real estate attorneys we handled a number a few real estate uh transactions recently U some highly publicized ones that that the village purchased recently um we handle basically any any anything that is potentially legal touches on comes through um The Village attorney's office so we work with all departments we we work with all of the council members um the V The Village attorney is one of your two Charter officers um uh the village attorney as well as the village managers so we are actually direct employees of the Village Council um whereas everyone else falls under um well predominantly Under The Village manager's office obviously anyone in my firm would fall under the village attorney's office uh I do have a presid presentation um you know you note that it it says uh I'm getting a little more than five minutes it has me as an hour I will talk quickly um uh but I do there are a number of things I want to touch base with just because um for those of you uh who are new to to the village and those of you who are returning there are the way government works not just in Florida but particularly in Florida isn't always um uh the way that those of us coming from the Private Industry would normally uh would something we'd be used to so I do want to make sure um before you guys get sworn in that uh that we touch on some of these things because from day one um these These are issues you are going to have to deal with and in fact um I did reach out to all of you after your election and there are even laws that you are subject to now namely the Sunshine Law that even though you haven't been sworn in yet um that's something that that um that already applies to you so I like I said I will go quickly uh as quickly as possible because I know I don't want to keep everybody here too long um oh oh it's not working okay my presentation I do believe is in there I think it's immediately after um the uh the the the presentation we were just looking at in addition there is a binder that um I put together that that includes a number of things um some of them um that you know I would encourage you to take a look at particularly your Village Council procedures those are the procedures that the council has enacted on itself as to how you all operate I'll go through some of those touches on things like you know the order of presentation of things agenda deadlines uh public comment I mean so those are things that I would encourage you to look at there's even a seating arrangement in terms of who sits where with the mayor the vice mayor uh and whatnot so you I would encourage you to look at that that way if there's any changes you all may want to make um if the majority of the council approves that that's something you could do but uh those are going to be you know that's going to directly impact you in your meetings so I would encourage you to take a look at those um there's also a list of pending litigation I I try to send around quarterly updates on uh litigation uh the village is involved in so one of the tabs is the most recent update um uh which did come in August and then at the last tab there's there's contact information for me and some of my partners um in in terms of people you might come in might deal with from we serota as our cell phone numbers on there as well as our assistants in case you're you need to reach out directly to them uh so first and foremost this is kind of the most basic thing um is you know what form of government are we the village is a council manager form of government there's different forms of government there's a strong mayor form of government The Village through which Charter has elected to be a council um manager form of government what that means is you as the council think of it as a corporation you are the board of directors your managers your CEO so your manager is making your day-to-day decisions your manager is handling um you know whatever Authority is granted to him he has purchasing Authority which will go over up to uh just shy of $25,000 he handles the hiring the firing all of that stuff you all set the policy you make the decisions um you employ the manager you employ The Village attorney um and then you also will be involved in what we'll touch on which are Quasi judicial items as well which are not purely legislative decisions uh or discretionary those are going to be based upon the record and and certain standards of review um next slide so again again just very Bas the first few things are going to be very basic five members of The Village you have two terms the original term limit was uh eight consecutive years as I'm sure you all are aware starting in the 2024 election uh that term limit is going to be eight years cumulative not it doesn't matter matter if it was consecutive or not um that is not yet in your Charter because the election hasn't been certified yet but uh once it's certified which which should be happening in the next week or so um that will will become the the charter so starting with with you all the the new um term limit is going to be uh eight cumulative years uh next slide um again this is uh so you the village as you all know doesn't elect by the the residents elect the mayor uh you all elect five council members and you elect amongst yourselves a mayor so what does the mayor do the mayor presides over Council meetings effectively serves as the chair of the coun of the meetings um is the ceremonial head of the government uh mayor will will execute all ordinances and resolutions um uh and then in the absence obviously the the vice mayor will fill that role um and then the village uh the mayor is recognized as the head of the government so um he or she can be served with process if there is litigation or any sort of subpoena that they can always call me and we can figure that out so they don't bother you at home that's what I always encourage so um so yes so that that is the role of your mayor um doesn't really have any additional superpowers uh the mayor can also uh call special meetings in in his or her absence the vice mayor can or uh the majority of your council members can call special meetings as well um next slide uh now this is what I was touching on before the The Village Council you you all have all of the powers you make the decision well the majority of you make the decisions um there are five of you so if all five of you are present whatever the three of you three who vote Yes on something or vote no on something you make the decision as the majority um there are some instances where a super majority is required but you know th those are um specific instances you set the policy of the village if you want the policy to be um you know acquire more hammock space that was something we had heard at the uh with the last Council uh if the majority of you want to do that that's a directive that you that you can give as a policy and you give that uh directive to your manager and then your manager will effectuate whatever that policy might be um you adopt any ordinances you adopt any resolutions resolutions require one reading ordinances require two readings um ordinances are effectively the law of the village they go into your code and um so those ones are are a little bit more difficult to change I mean anything can be changed as long as it doesn't violate the law but it would require additional two readings um there is a um exception where if your ordinance says a and after first reading you change it to be something completely different and instead of a it's blue um you would need to go back back through and you would have to have another first reading again um because you've made such a significant change um at second reading um and again as I as I mentioned the Village Council employees two charter members The Village Charter um uh employees Village manager and the village attorney uh next slide uh you also as we saw within the the uh last month or so you adopt a village budget uh that's something that happens annually I won't go into all the details but there are very specific statutory requirements for the adoption of the budget including when it can happen how it can happen um what the votes are there are very specific statutory requirements again we those are things that we we can get into if we need to uh during budget season I won't touch on it now but that is a uh obviously a very important role that the Village Council plays uh that that impacts um the everything for the the following year uh you also have jurisdiction over zoning matters um certain variances and uh there are um reviews of um decisions rendered by building and Zoning there are administrative appeals that can be can be taken before you all and uh the council will will make determinations on those administrative appeals based upon the standards set forth in the code uh as well as the uh the evidence that's presented before you at those times or at that time next Slide the council Authority with regard to purchasing Authority the the council has vested the manager with purchasing Authority um uh that is less than $25,000 so anything that is greater or equal to $25,000 will need to come back before the council that also includes contracts that if you have three contracts with the same vendor that are um $10,000 each for that third contract it's going to need to come back before for the council because it includes the accumul accumulation of the uh the amount spent during that calendar year um any requests for proposals um related to uh design build Services that's going to come before you all um now your village manager though has the authority to issue rules policies and procedures governing the purchase of materials and we do have a procurement policy uh that is in place it obviously has to comply with the code in terms of the purchasing limits uh and whatnot but we do have that and that is something that is vested with your uh with your manager um next slide well looks like we might be might have not come through but this one relates to departments and just that your departments are uh responsible for your day-to-day management of contracts um your manager will work with your department heads to uh resolve any contract issues obviously elected officials you all can inquire uh of issues related to particular contract uh matters of concern I would I would stress to to go through your manager um because you do have a policy you do have a Prohibition in the village in terms of um um what's the term I'm thinking but basically interfering with with staff I don't think that's the exact term but so I would encourage you to go through the manager uh you can obviously reach out to me as well um and that way your manager also knows everything that might be potentially going on uh and issues that might be um might come up next slide I guess I must have uh I didn't know I did that [Laughter] so um so your limits of authority so um this I I have I'm going to touch on this a little bit in a little bit more detail as well in terms of uh ethics laws um but there one thing just to make to in terms of limits of authority obviously there there are prohibitions on misuse of of official positions um that relates to trying to get special benef you know trying to get special benefits for yourself um uh or others unless it's you know permitted by uh by law so I I'll touch on that a little bit more but I I did want to mention it in this section as well uh next slide um your Charter as well this is what I was referring to before your Charter limits the ability of council to uh participate or interfere with the administration of the government government that was why I recommended um if you have issues or questions or you want to inquire about something um you know go through the manager you know contact me obviously you all live here you know if you have an issue if you have your own property and you're going through with a building permit you are allowed to uh address things that that are your own property uh I mean I know if you're going through a rezoning those are things you you can do I mean because that is is personal to you you're not that's not really looked at interfering um under under the charter um so I I you know if you do have instances where if you have something that is personal to you I that would not fall under that um uh would not fall under that that that section under our Charter it um talks about a violation of that section as being considered malfeasant um within the Florida Statutes uh so I just I just mentioned that so that you all know that there um you know there is a a state statute behind that if uh if somebody believes you have violated it um next slide uh this one relates to the council meetings uh our current schedule is uh uh Tuesday and Thursday it's set based on the second Thursday of every month and then you know this is the the lawyer and me who who had written this the immediate proceeding Tuesday at at 5:30 and the reason for that is sometimes the second Thursday is is preceded by the first Tuesday so uh if uh in the back I know that Marne put in your um notebook uh a schedule of um proposed dates for Council meetings and this is based upon uh this the current schedule um of this of the Tuesday Thursday setup that that we are on Council meetings are live streamed I'm sure you all have watched them uh public has ability to access it public has the ability to uh and I'll get into remote attendance as well but the public has the ability to attend remotely um with the exception of participation in during quasi judicial um proceedings your agenda under this again this comes from your um meeting procedures your agenda items will be provided to the council six days before the council meeting um and all of you are are afforded the opportunity to have briefings and I would encourage you to have briefings briefings can be um usually the way we do it is uh you know we have the manager myself and whatever potential department heads are there with the agenda items it can be as formal as or as informal as you like but I would encourage you to to have those briefings because you can really dive into um some of the issues that some that sometimes it's a little more difficult or a little more Awkward to do on the deis itself um and um and you can ask as many questions or or as little as few questions as you as you might like so I I would encourage you to do that um next slide uh this is again Basics you have majority of your Council constitutes a quorum so there's five Council seats three of you need to be present in order for there to be a a quorum um that means physically present in Florida you have to have three physically present so you can't have two physical and then a third one in remote attendance to um to create a quorum during the covid um when everything was remote that uh requirement was waved uh but that that waiver has has long since expired so you need to at least have three physically present for your Quorum and unless you have that you cannot take action it would just be considered a workshop where you can discuss because it's publicly noticed but you can't take any action um if you want to take action it has to be by an affir affirmative vote of the council and uh majority uh majority would Prevail so um it is based upon again there are some exceptions but generally it's based upon the majority of those that are present um so if three are present two say yes one says no that would uh that would carry the day there are some exceptions that um require either a super majority of vote um or there are some exceptions that require a um a majority of the full Council so even if the full Council isn't here there's five of you say only three of you are present if that vote required a majority of the full Council to approve it then all three that were were present in that example would have to unanimously agree uh agree on that um again your formal way your ways of taking formal action are ordinance resolution and motion uh we do have discussion items uh as I'm sure you all have seen and those are ways that that you can give guidance to uh staff and but in those instances with there's guidance given we will bring back a formal um whatever it might be whether it's a directive to uh try to acquire something we will bring back something for formal action because the the council will have to uh formally approve whatever that that guidance was um next slide and I touched on this before with regard to special meetings in terms of the the mayor's Powers so I won't really go over it this is in in your Charter May mayor can call it um in his or her absence the vice mayor can call it or the majority of uh of council can call it so if there is a council member who wants to have a special meeting to discuss you know whatever it might be the way I would recommend you do it reach out to to Marne and the clerk's office say I'd like to have a special meeting meeting on X on such and such day Marty can see if there are two other council members who would agree or if the mayor would agree uh who who can call it without having to require the majority we need 72 hours public notice for for any special meeting uh so just keep that in mind uh next slide and this this is going to have to do with the seating arrangements again this is this is in your Council procedure so you all can change this but right now this is what it is your mayor sits in the middle of the Das your vice mayor sits uh immediately to his or her left and then uh immediately to the vice mayor's left is a seat for council member and then immediately to the two seats immediately to the right of the mayor are for the other two uh council members so the only ones that are set in stone are mayor and vice mayor and then the other the three who are not mayor vice mayor um you all can can figure it out and if not we can flip coins or or or whatnot but um uh so we do have that also on the Das with you will be uh Rob as the manager be will be next to council member I'll be next to him and then usually it's the uh the planning director and then the clerk sometimes depending on the issue uh the budget the finance director might be in place of the planning director or something along those lines um remote next slide is on remote attendance I want to make sure you all are aware of this you do have the ability to attend remotely um it's built into a resolution by the council um that was passed in 2021 or 2020 I can't remember it was uh pass few years ago 2021 you only one council member on our current resolution can attend remotely it's first come first Ser basis you submit the request in writing to the mayor I would copy the the clerk as well um and um you just say I need to attend uh remotely and you know that's something that uh uh that can be granted one of the requirements is you have to be plainly visible so your camera needs to be on and if you are the mayor um you cannot chair the meeting because you are in remote attendance the only issue is um quasi judicial matters um you can participate under our remote policy but you cannot vote uh on quasa judicial matters if you are remote um next slide is going to be public comment uh right now we have three minutes per speaker uh you get five minutes if you're representing an association or group um that the the current setup is and uh and I know that with the last Council there was some debate over public comment was it seemed to be a debate at every every council meeting um so I would encourage you all to um I was say speak but speak at a publicly noticed meeting about how you would like to handle public comment in terms of timing when uh in terms of you know there's no you know there are certain instances where comment is not required like if we have a um uh like a briefing just a you know manager discussion item where you know the manager wants to update you on a discussion he had with f do or Commerce and just to give you an update there's no real action to be taken there's no public require public comment that's required for that doesn't mean you can't and but that's why I said I'd encourage you all to come to that determination now so that we're not deciding it every time on the day is um you know how we might want to do that and that again right now under your Council procedures um they don't have the ability to speak during those time periods again but you all can change that to to however you prefer uh Council meetings um uh under the code can't go later than 10 pm or they have to adjourn no later than 10 p.m unless there is a motion made by a council member to extend and it the extension is uh for 30 minute maximum so you know if we get to 955 you know you'll usually see Marne kind of waving and you know that reminder you we we need a motion to extend if you want to keep uh uh keep moving forward so uh just you know keep that in mind U next slide uh you know we touched on this I'll go really fast again this is just department heads again hired by Rob um manag you know overseen by Rob and he's the liaison with the department heads when it comes to um issues that may come forward so you know if you want to speak uh with Rob about anything related to um you know any of the department heads who have come up and and spoken you know if you have ideas or whatnot I I recommend you know speak with Rob and then you know he can get together and uh and then you all can can you know work on work out whatever those uh those items are uh next slide um and then this this is where you know if you're not uh if you haven't been in government before in Florida this is where it gets kind of frustrating I think for you all which is the Sunshine Law uh the sunshine law has been in place since 1967 it applies to officials and appointed boards um it applies to your to advisory boards who participate in the decision-making process or make recommendations so our advisory boards are subject to the Sunshine Law as well uh next slide and the Sunshine Law what that means is if you all want to talk about anything that might potentially come before you as a council it has to be at a publicly noticed meeting um and you have to give reasonable notice minutes have to be taken um and uh and if they if they are recorded if there's an audio a video or audio recording all of that becomes public record so if you council member a and council member B want to talk about uh an idea to promote um local business growth or or something like that it has to be at a publicly noticed meeting it doesn't mean that it has to be at the council meeting um I I always tell Council uh council members whenever I can it just has to be publicly noticed so if two of you want to talk talk about some idea that you had during the campaign when you were not subject to the Sunshine Law just call up Marne and say we want to meet and we'd like to meet you know to talk about you know council member A and B would like to meet to talk about whatever it is and Marne can notice it it will be a public meeting it is open to the public but it is a public meeting and that allows you to to speak directly with each other so you don't have to wait to the until the council meetings you don't have so if you know we we're going to meet on November 19th you don't have to wait again then until December 10th to speak if you'd like but it needs to be publicly noticed and that's something that that Marne can can take care of um next slide uh again this i' I've kind of gone over this already when does it apply you have you have two or more council members or board members uh uh that are meeting now this applies to if you're on the same uh board so it would apply to you as council members with council members but it doesn't prohibit you from talking to um say Carolyn Whitman who's on she's the chair of the Parks and Recreation board you all are not on the same board as her so it would not prevent you from talking to her if you wanted to talk to her about some ideas that you or she have about how to you know use our Parks or improve our Park our parks and open space so but it would apply to members of the the Parks and Recreation committee obviously from speaking with each other um and again it doesn't mean that the item has to be pending before you it just means that it applies if it could foreseeably come before the council for Action so if you know we've got a comp plan rewrite that's we're going to be going through that's already been dealt with it's not coming back for a while because that process is going to take a while any discussion about that amongst you all would still apply because that will be coming uh back before you all uh at some point point in the future uh next slide again this is this is quick meetings have to take place in public buildings um and uh you know it needs to be the the law the court want construes it so as to um air on the side of uh uh as much access for the public as possible so they want to avoid a chilling effect like like having at a at your you know your your private home unless you're willing to open your private home for you know public space which more power to if you will I'm not willing [Laughter] to um next slide uh this has to do with voting uh you cannot vote by secret ballot that doesn't mean we can't do written votes but if you do written votes and and if if you recall I've uh we've done it a couple times over the past year or two the votes have to be written you have to put your name on the votes and those votes become public record and they are accessible to any member of the public should he or she request it and I'll get into public records uh in a little bit too so your votes have to be public whether it's done openly right then or in writing it has to be public at some point um and uh next slide now this has to do with um you know prior organizations you were involved in you can still be involved in your social and Civic or or other organizations you're involved in um you don't need to stop doing that but if those social organizations come before the board and you know one thought I have is you know we have we've had in the past charitable giving and we've had organizations request funds for for for the village for charitable giving if you are involved in those um uh you should not be discussing those issues during the with the organizations at the time and and in certain instances and we'll get into voting conflicts in certain instances you may also need to disclose U or avoid uh voting on them next slide there are some exemptions to um uh the Sunshine Law attorney client sessions are are exempt but they are limited they are limited to pending litigation not not threatened litigation it is limited to pending litigation so if somebody has a lawsuit against the village we can meet privately we have to notice it you you open the meeting and you say you know we're here on an attorney client session these people the statute restricts who can be there it has to be the councel the lawyer or lawyers depending on what it involves the manager and then there's a court reporter and there's a court reporter because all the whole transcript is going to be taken and transcribed and when that case is over it it becomes a public record if anybody wants to see it uh security sessions if we're talking about security issues um obvious for obvious reasons that that can be can be done in private because we don't want you know the bad guys getting to know you know our you know security vulnerabilities that we might be talking about and uh some another issue that that you guys will be dealing with is collective bargaining sessions uh collective bargaining sessions um when can are available when there is actual uh pending collective bargaining negotiations the the statutory restrictions or or requirements aren't quite as strict as they are for the attorney client litigation sessions um but there are um that is Guided by Statute as well um next slide and this is just so you all know that you know the Sunshine Law does have some teeth um if you violate the Sunshine Law now again you have to knowingly violate the Sunshine Law um if you violate it it's punishable um up to a second degree misdemeanor with up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine um if it's a VI ation without knowledge it's punishable through a non-criminal infraction with a fine up to $500 U next slide um this is going to be public records um just what I would recommend anything that is Village business is a public record under the current law it doesn't matter what device it's on it doesn't matter if it was sent to your private email and somebody emails you and says you know I would like you to pass this you know this resolution ution or this ordinance if it's sent to your private email but it is about Village business it is still a public record um you all will be getting Village emails um what I would recommend is if somebody texts you uh somebody emails you or or or anything like that forward it to the clerk and then it's on the V it's on the village system so if we get a public records request we can search for it in the village system and we don't have to bother you all and say do you have it I mean we will check obviously to make sure but if you say I forward everything to the clerk whenever I get it then we say okay great we know it's on our system we don't have to bother you any longer um so I would definitely recommend anytime if you're communicating and because people inevitably have your private email and they you know they're not they don't realize that this public records requirement is there if they communicate with you I would just forward it to Marne or you can always when you if you reply to them copy your own Village email address and then that way it's in the village system and again we don't have to bother you and you can just say when we if we get a public records request as a matter of course I always send it to the Village so I would not have anything that you don't already have um next slide um I think I went over all of this stuff um the only thing I would say is is the Florida courts are the same thing if there is any doubt about whether the um sunshine or the public records law applies Court's eror on the side of it it applying so they will they will if there's doubt they will find that the public records law applies um next slide um these are just the requirements again the custodian needs to uh maintain the records the official Village custodian is is Marne The Village clerk um but like I said if you get them to your private email we don't have access to that or if you get it to you know a text to your private cell phone that's why I say if you forward to to her it's care of and it's not something that you have to think about again um next slide this is just again more about the custodial requirements um obviously there's a backup c c custodian which is the Deputy clerk uh in marne's office as well um next slide there are just some points to note that uh and this is this is for the public as well it's important for them to note that the The Village can impose some conditions on inspection and copying of Records so if there is a large time commitment that's involved if there's a large expense The Village can uh impose conditions and say um we can do that but there is a a copying expense of x amount or it's going to require because of the size of the request it's going to require two to three hours to go through these 700 pages of documents to see if there's exemptions or confidentiality because there are stat there are a number of statutory exemptions and confidentiality um uh Provisions in there so those are just some things just so that that the council and the and the public are aware that you can impose some conditions we can't say no you can't get it we can't say you know why do you want it and we don't like the reason you want it um but we can say this is going to cost a lot of money and you know we need a prepayment of uh of some amount um next slide and uh again this this has to do with timing I mean again uh it doesn't have to be immediately produced but we need to do it within a reasonable time and and reasonable time depends on the request if the request is for you know one document that's easily accessible and we can get it right away you know a 30-day time to respond unless we're un inundated by other public records requests would probably not be be deemed to be reasonable but you know in certain circumstances it could be if we're inundated by you know crazy public records request um and but other times it it might take longer depending on the size of the request next slide uh This what I talked to again about before the administrative costs uh general rule is if if if it's going to be 30 minutes or more um of administrative time spent then then the village you you could expect the village to um request administrative costs and prepayments of that um next slide and this is something I touched on the requestor under Florida law requestor doesn't have to State even even who's making the request it can be uh it can be done Anonymous um we can't require that they sign something do anything and um they don't have to make it in person and they don't have to tell us why they want to I mean it can be somebody from Indiana and says you know I'd like a record of all of your contracts with solid Solid Waste handlers for the last 10 years we don't have to ask them why somebody from Indiana would want that we're under an obligation to give it to them um next slide um that's what I was touching on on there the first point the next Point uh again the village can the person can ask to inspect the record it doesn't they don't have to um just get a copy of it they can say you know I'd like to I'd like to inspect it um and and that's that's okay and they're not limited by the number of public records requests um that that they can make if there's requester um next Point our next slide uh talks about again this talked about we can't object if it's overly broad I mean I don't want to invite overly broad requests but if somebody makes them we have to comply with them now you're going to probably that administrative fee is going to kick in and it's probably going to be pretty high um but we can ask as the village we are allowed to ask somebody to clarify the request if the request is not clear um or they send in a request and we know it's going to bring back thousands of documents we can say this is going to bring back thousands of documents because there's no time limitation on it would would you like to limit the time or or something like that so we can seek clarification from from the requester um next slide I might have this one in twice sorry next slide uh so just you know sum up public records we've got a uniform procedure um everything is handled through Mar's office she does a a wonderful job of doing it um and we comply with with all the requirements of the of the law and if if Marne is on a well-deserved vacation um we do have an alternate through through the deputy clerk um we acknowledge next slide uh we acknowledge receipt of every public records request um and uh we record every public records request Marne has a system that she goes through for all of the the records requests um and then we also ensure that they're not reviewed or they're not sorry not released until they're reviewed for exemption and confidentiality because just so you all know there are certain things that are uh should not be produced I mean uh security camera information um there's there's exemptions for confidentiality exemptions for addresses of police officers uh things like that bank information uh there are a number of things so all of that is is reviewed before before it goes out to the requester um and I don't hopefully I don't need to say this but I I will reiterate it the village is always looking to be helpful when it comes to responding to public records requests we know what our duty is and we're trying to be helpful we're not trying to delay we're we're trying to get you whatever it is you you might be looking for uh next slide uh will provide just some of the public records which I talked about soal Security numbers medical records Student Records uh personal information uh if there's an active criminal in investigation um uh that would be would be exempt while it's active um next slide uh and then these are uh some of the there are penalties when it comes to uh public records um if somebody knowingly VI again it has to be knowingly for criminal if they knowingly violate the the law um they uh could be subject to suspension or removal um and and they could be found to commit a first-degree misdemeanor uh which is sub up to a year in jail uh an a $1,000 fine non-criminal infraction would be a $500 fine um there are also our availability of the civil suit against the village if we don't comply and if the request is successful uh the village can be ordered to pay their attorney's fees um as well uh another next slide this deals with social media I just want to make sure you all are aware social media interactions also are subject to public records and sunshine um you cannot get around that so I just mentioned it because I want to make sure uh you know to you to be mindful as I put up there used properly you know social media has a lot of benefits and can really promote transparency can can really uh you can engage the public that way in in ways that might be a little more difficult um uh without social media but just be careful um you be careful with uh you know we've all seen social media there there are sometimes offensive messages um you know just avoid liking it or uh because that could be seen as endorsement of you in your official capacity as a village uh as a village elected official um same thing if you have a private account um and if you're using it for public purposes um it can be uh deemed a public record um and then I also point I don't know if anybody you I don't even have social media but I understand that there are people who manage other people's social media networks so even if you have have someone who manages your social media networks you still have oversight responsibility as an elected official um next slide uh and again this is um this goes to what I was talking about before in terms of the the Sunshine Law it still applies on social media you you um you cannot be messaging each other on social media anymore than you can be you know privately meeting with them to talk about um issue that that might come before you all so uh just remember social media uh Sunshine Law uh still applies uh next slide uh and this was an example I I I took out the name of the the this not an example from Mila marada uh this is an example uh elsewhere uh you had John Doe asked his friends on his Facebook page to contact another council member to support a measure um and one of his friends included a council member and that Council member responded and indicated that they supported the initiative that is a communication between the two council members so be careful I know it's social media is very easy to communicate and it's wonderful um but just just remember in the arena of as a public official there's some additional uh obligations that that fall upon you um next slide actually this just goes into what I was talking about before that your records might constitute a public record depending on how uh they were utilized what they deal with so just keep that in mind if you have questions about anything call me call Marne we can advise you uh on on public records issues uh as well as um on Sunshine Law issues um next next slide um and uh this this just not I guess I'm trying to gild aily a little bit on there it's just you know exercise caution it it's a great platform for you all to use it's wonderful but just exercise caution uh when doing so um and then we'll get into the last few slides here uh which are going to be on voting issues so you will have things that come before you on a number of issues if you have a what's called a special gain or loss um and Florida law looks at that as a economic benefit or harm so an economic gain or loss that applies either uniquely to you or to a small subass of which you belong you will have you have a voting conflict under Florida law excuse me and you will need to recuse yourself from that vote and generally as I mentioned at the bottom if if you make up uh 1% or more of the class that's what they will look at that you will have a voting conflict so if if it's you and three other people and you and there's a special gain or loss that might come of it you that would apply to you if it's you and 500 other people or if it's you and 2,000 other uh residents you know it's getting diluted and and you know the likelihood of of the voting conflict applying to uh is lessened or or nullified but again if any of those issues call me uh I I can advise or I have a a partner by the name of Robert Meyers who ethics is what he does he goes around the state uh in fact you all will have to take an Ethics seminar um he is Speaker of a lot of those ethics seminars and we will you know you will have access to him um and you if I can't answer it I can either ask him or I can have him you know connect him with you so if you have any questions about any item that might come before you on voting issues please talk to us first like I said it's always better to talk to us before then after um next slide um the this is what I was talking about before I've already touched on this um as to what a gain or loss means this is all dealt with in in Florida Florida Statutes and and interpreted under the by the commission on ethics um and in case law so uh this is just reiterating what I just told you next slide some things to consider is when you're looking at voting conflicts look at the type of action it is there's quasa judicial action which is um uh you know going to be generally a zoning action that's going to you are going to be bound by the record that's before you there are certain there are um standards of review for that and then there's purely legislative decisions which do we want to enter into this contract or not yes or no so you know we those are things that we can talk about in terms of if if you ever get to that point um scope of impact that deals again with um you know whether you fall within that class or not um and um the measure of uh economic benefit or loss is it tangible is it measurable that's one thing that's required it has to be a tangible economic benefit of law or loss and it has to be measurable otherwise you don't fall within that if it's if it's just some potential future harm that you can't put any value on uh at least under the under the law as it currently stands that that's not something that that would apply but again call us we we are happy to to talk you through it I mean sometimes it's it's just a quick two minute phone call I can answer your question really quick and you can move on and it's not an issue other times depending on how intricate it is it might be a little bit more uh entailed uh next slide this is just the process for for what happens if you have a voting conflict prior to the vote you have to State the nature of your conflict you abstain from voting and then you complete uh a form 8B and you will file that with with Marne with the village clerk uh the form has to you you have to State uh your conflict and obstain obviously before the vote the um the form has to be filed within 15 days of the vote um I would encourage you to do it before no reason to wait but you do have a buffer especially if sometimes you're you're not thinking about it necessarily and then but then when you sit down on the Das you realize and you're focused on it and you realize uh that you have a conflict so you you can file that form within within 15 days um if you're absent from the meeting or or if you're absent from that portion of the meeting uh you don't have to file because obviously you're not there for the vote so um you don't have a voting conflict if you're not present um and um uh you uh so if you um if you sit out of the item um uh you can you can participate in the discussion um but you still have a voting conflict and you still have to file the form even if you if you don't so uh there is um so so you know again we can deal with those as they come up if they come up you don't have a legal duty to abstain due to an appearance of conflict or an appearance of bias you can though if you say you know what this is a longtime friend of mine and it just doesn't look right just just let us know and you you can abstain from voting you're not required to whereas if you get this if you have a special economic benefit or loss you are required to abstain if there's an appearance you're not required to but you can the the the law does allow you to do that um next slide um it's what I just said and uh two more which just deals with gifts so the next slide um you as elected officials now are not allowed to with some exceptions which I'll deal with on the next slide um yeah are wait go back sorry um you're not allowed to solicit or accept anything um uh if it would if you taken with the understanding that it will influence uh you you also have a threshold for reporting gifts which is $100 so if you receive a gift and somebody gives you a bottle of champagne that is more than $100 you you need to report that um uh as a as through the gift reporting requirements it also applies to um if you have a uh a gift multiple gifts um within the the same quarter and in that by quarter I mean calendar year within the same quarter that total more than $100 you would need to to report that if it's from the same donor um I would say what I put on there valuation and calculation is not always as easy as it sounds um The Village does have a um uh an attorney on retainer by the name of Mark Heron that the village retained before in terms of for filing um your uh disclosures your ethical disclosures um these are things that will be at your disposal as well if you need to if you need assistance with calculating and how to um disclose a gift again you can talk to us we you know that's something that that we can help with but there is a specific attorney that um the council retained for individual items because they're they're not really Council related items for the for the village attorney although we can give guidance but there are specific ethical items but there is obviously a benefit to the to the Village that's derived from from you complying uh next slide is just to go over some exceptions political contributions uh you know four of you just went through a campaign congratulations to the vice mayor for not having to go through a campaign um political contributions if you're going through a campaign those don't count uh family members uh if they're in your household they give you a birthday present doesn't does not apply a private employer gives you a holiday uh gift that doesn't apply if you get awards for professional Awards won't apply books things like that gifts solicited um in your official duties but used for a municipal public purpose say uh Coral Shores girls soccer team wins the state championship and they come and they present the uh the mayor with a framed soccer jersey that's signed by the whole team and it's to be hung in Village Hall and recognition of uh of this great achievement that would not be a gift that would have you that's being given to the Village but obviously it's being given to in that example is being given to the to the mayor um you're still able to get publicly advertised offers um that are available to the general public because that's that's not related to your uh employment as a as an elected official and then if you go to any educational events um you know there are seminars and things like that around the state uh those would not be um the costs associated with attending uh would not not be uh uh considered gifts as long as there's a governmental purpose behind it um if it's going to the casino and learning how the slot machine works because you guys that's something that you want to do I don't and chances are that's not going to be considered a governmental purpose here in Isa Mara but if you go to a um resiliency uh seminar or or environmental seminar that would would likely be considered governmental purpose so uh hopefully I spoke quickly enough and I didn't take up too much of your time um but I there are things that I wanted to to touch on because um it's important that you know before because after if if there's an issue afterwards it's a lot harder to unwind uh than it is for us to deal with right up front so um I'm happy to answer any questions um if there's any specific legal questions that that you have I would say let's have those disc individually um so that they're not had in the in the public sphere um and uh but you have my cell phone um it's it's in the U the binder that I included um feel free to reach me I'm I'm always available on my cell phone um and uh and happy to chat about any of the issues that that might come up so uh if you have any questions for today I'm happy to address them otherwise I will turn it over to Marney thank you okay that was a great overview of our legal responsibilities from Mr Quick um some of the things that he touched on though I will um add to so um I am the coord ethics coordinator for the village I will be contacting you with opportunities to take your annual mandatory um forour ethics training um a lot of those opportunities come through the Florida leag of cities um we do also uh have the Florida Institute of government has an online course that's interactive um so that's Al also available but I'll be reaching out to you um about those opportunities and also I'll be in touch about your uh annual Financial disclosure which is um required with the Florida Commission of Ethics due uh July 1 of every year um as John mentioned I am the public records coordinator um and you know just to reiterate what he said um best to send any Village business to me um so you know I would suggest if anything comes to your um village Village email address or your um village issu cell phone we have access to those but anything coming to a personal we don't um so you want to make sure that we have that because does become a public record and if there is a public record request that requests those materials it's a lot easier for you to um handle that if they're all coming to the same place so that's strongly recommended um I am blind copied on all emails coming to council members email Village email addresses um the reason for that is a longstanding practice to ensure transparency and gives us an opportunity to get on top of um anything that might be relevant information for the village manager to know so you know I'm not there to buy on your emails I generally don't even look at them if I see that there's something that you know isn't any of my business it's none of my business and I don't care but you know if anything does affect the village it's important that the village manager is brought in so that is just a heads up that that's what's happening um I use just Foya as our um format our software to do our public records requests um it's a good program because uh what I like about it is that we can set all of the um incom or the documents that we are putting out to be part of a public archive so you can go on to just Foya on to our just Foya page and if you look there's you know 4 some odd requests that you can just look through the materials that have already been provided to other folks so it's a good place to go to like start searching for something especially if it's something that might be uh a common request so that stuff's already out there and that's what I love about it um like John mentioned public records requests do not have to uh they can be completely Anonymous somebody can call me and just say I want to put in a public records request for this and if they don't want to give me any contact information that's great I'll put it right into just Foya and I'll say here is your request number here is your security key um you can contact us if you want but you can go in and just enter those that information and check yourself and then the material will be there so we do enter all of the verbal and emailed requests into just Foya to make sure that like I say everything's in one place um I am also responsible for uh Council manage Council agenda management so all of the department heads will be making their own um Council items you know doing their own res resolutions and all that and they're putting their documentation in but um I kind of coordinate it uh make sure it's formatted all nice and pretty get make sure it gets published um one thing that is important to know is that by the time it um becomes public items have gone through several um layers of workflow so the finance director has seen them the City attorney Village attorney has seen them the village manager has seen them um so there and along that opportunity there everyone can you know make changes or request changes and nothing gets finalized until we're satisfied that it's ready to go out to the council into the public um one of other things that we have with our um new handy dandy uh Civic clerk agenda management software is that there is a nice board portal um council member jolen used it during this last Council session and it's a really nice way to not have to have the big book that's available to you training is available um it will be in touch with uh to get you your cell phone and your email address um most likely they'll be looking at providing you with a laptop or a tablet to um use for civic clerk for the board portal if that's what you would like to do um we want to make that everyone has whatever they need to officially um do their duties uh we don't you know we want to make it easy technology and training is available um one of the other things as you all know I am the uh elections qualifying officer so I do work very closely with the supervisor of elections um I'm also the election coordinator so although we do not um Minister elections at the local level here in Florida um I spent 15 years in Michigan doing just exactly that so I was super excited on Tuesday not to have to wake up at 4:30 in the morning and be to work by 5:30 to stay there until the cows come home which is you know it's a lot of work and you know so I give it to Joyce Griffin she is amazing she's done such an amazing job over the last 40 years um it's going to be a lot different uh with her gone just because she's so entrenched in the position I'm looking forward to working with uh supervisor hodies I have met her several times and you know feel confident that we're going to be going into a good relationship with her as well um the supervisor of elections actually does not have to um administer our elections so I have no reason to expect that relationship to change but if it does as I said I spent 15 years doing it and it's not going to be a problem um so see we got here um I'm also your travel coordinator so what that means is you know if you are going to be traveling on Village business um I'm going to be making those arrangements for you so the Florida Le of cities hosts a number of events throughout the year conferences and workshops and such and um when those opportunities come through you'll you'll get them in your village email address but you'll be getting them from me to to to kind of follow up um and when you do decide that you are want to travel on behalf of the village for those opportunities I would be the one who would be um making and paying for the registration uh making your hotel Arrangements um you know uh if it's like Florida Keys day which is held up in Tallahassee I'm the one who's booking the flights for you so those are all great opportunities um Florida key day has not yet been um ifed with the date it's usually in in uh January because it does have to take place before the uh State Legislature starts their session which I do believe is in March so um be on the lookout for that opportunity coming soon um I also do a number of administrative duties in support of the Village Council so I do attend all the meetings as you all know transcribe the minutes um I also process resolutions and agreements and ordinances create the Public Notices um attest to official documents along with the mayor and the village attorney and I provide any other administrative support as needed to the council so in primarily when you are contacting the village you're going through Rob um and that is the the that is the flow of command but there are administrative things that I can help you with that you don't need to trouble him with so you know feel free to contact me directly and if it's something that I think Rob needs to know about I will make sure that he does um I also provide notary services so if anybody needs a notary um I'm the place to come uh the last thing I wanted to talk about a little bit was committee oversight so we do have our Civic or excuse me our citizens advisory committees we do have seven committees and um they are governed under ordinance 2305 um which has um added a council liaison to each committee so we have committees and each one um now requires a council the aison so that's a conversation that you know we're going to probably have the uh Council talking about sooner rather than later so that um help get up to speed um it's not required or even recommended for the liaison to attend the meetings of these uh committees just so that they feel like they can speak freely and that they don't have um feeling like there's a council member sitting there so you know you you can but it's not required and you know like I say we don't necessarily recommend it but um that will all come later and um once those Council liaison appointments are made we connect you with the staff liaison who'll bring you up to speed and um think that's most of what I had I wanted to go over a little bit of the stuff that I have in the binder for you so you know we love binders so um we have the proposed meeting dates for 2025 in there um as a council if you decide to change those of course we'll change them but um you're going to be seeing these uh in December um to come up to be officially um you know officially adopted for the year's meeting schedule and that does not mean that dates can't still change if something comes up over the course of the year and you need to uh request a a meeting to be held on a different date um we work through that process together and um I can take care of that for you um I've also got in your binders um some of the things that John did talk about I've got the uh Florida Sunshine Amendment law and ethics law in the binders as well so you're kind of getting a double on that one but um there's also under tab seven uh it says resources in your uh table of contents and what that primarily is is uh memos and and um lists of Duties that some of us directors have put in there uh when we put together this presentation we asked everybody for five bullet points but if they wanted to uh provide more information and some of us did most of what I'm talking about right now is in there um Rob John uh AJ has put something in there Fire's got some stuff in there and those are just extra resources also in that section just before the little blue tab um is is the um police report that Lieutenant sprinkle was talking about so you know if she if you look at that and find that to be of value to you that one uh example that she has is from Marathon but um we can absolutely do that for you we want to do everything we possibly can to make your um job easier because it it's a lot you know you're going to be overwhelmed at times and our job is to help you uh help you through that process um one of the things that can help you through that process as I believe it was John mentioned is the uh Council briefings so prior to every council meeting like you said they can you'll get together with the manager the bu's attorney any department heads who might be involved in that agenda that can help um answer more questions so that the when you get to the meeting it's more of a um you know it's an easier process to go through when when you already are aware of what the um what everything is and what the impact is uh one last thing I wanted to explain was the canvas process so although um pretty uh clear who our C council members are the actual canvas takes place um uh 10 days after the election which is required by state law to allow for any uh milit overseas ballots to come in and still be counted so it there may be a slight change in the actual numbers by the time the official results come in but I received those um in the late afternoon of Friday November 15th um so the state law is that the county canvas is the official canvas however we have a requirement in our Charter to have um our canvasing board meet so our canvasing board will be meeting on Monday morning at 8:30 um and what we will basically be doing is acknowledging the um acknowledging the receipt of the official totals um the charter also requires that the members of the committee be uh council members who are not running for reelection so council members Greg Rosenthal and jolen will be working with me at that uh canvas so pardon the outgoing council members so Henry Elizabeth and Mark yeah yeah so needs to be at least three people the clerk is the chair RAB will be attending as well he's not required to but you know getting gang back together and um so then once that's done it's official so you can you will be officially uh C council members as of Friday November 15th we go through all of the um formalities and then judge uh Sharon Hamilton will be squaring you all in at the um November 19th meeting and you'll also be um selecting your mayor and vice mayor at that time and that's all I have and I'll turn over to Rob unless anyone's got any questions for me okay thank you hi everyone um now you've been congratulated several times uh for your having one election and reelection but I wanted to on behalf of all of our staff U congratulate you for your election and your reelection and to thank you for your service to the is of community uh being an elected official in any Community is a very tough job some of you have uh firsthand experience in that some of you are coming into it for the first time it's a very challenging position uh some of the decisions you'll make will be very easy mom and apple pie other ones will be a lot more difficult for you to uh to make so I I really have a great sense of appreciation for people who come to public service and want to acknowledge on behalf of our staff both our our new officials and our existing ones so that having been said I'll work through my presentation kind of rapidly here it's been a long night I know you guys have been very patient and a lot of information's been thrown at you uh one of the key things that I do as a village manager is to implement Village Council policies John spoke to it earlier it's a critical component of professional City management I run the day-to-day operations of the village and really work hard with our expert staff to to diligently Implement policies that a uh a quorum of the board decide uh that they want to achieve within a a certain timeline so you'll see that our staff Will Row in the right direction and they'll work very hard and will'll be again implementing uh The Village Council policies as uh as we have capability and resources to do so as part of that we provide complete and objective analysis in order to help you make important decisions you need good information so what we try to do as staff is to assemble that information make it as clear and concise as we possibly can and provide professional recommendations you're fortunate to have in your Charter officers a couple of people who are very very experienced we have depth and breth of experience both on the legal side and on the professional City management side uh because we try to make uh well supported recommendations uh does not mean you're bound to accept them uh our responsibility is to provide you with the information that we think you need and that will help you uh reach the determinations that you're going to be asked to make on a routine basis after we've done that and provided our recommendation if you have different viewpoints or perspectives as a group on Council it's our position and our responsibility to implement whatever those decisions are another thing I do is prepare budget for Council uh consideration you heard some of our staff talk about their departmental budgets uh we're going to be looking at our budget process process continuously to improve it we want to make sure that we uh provide sufficient time for Council to ask all the questions that they need to ask that we have our department heads preparing and advancing well-defended budget proposals and that we uh have a budget document ultimately that reflects industry best practices so one of our objectives really would be to have a a gfoa as the government Finance Officers Association distinguished budget presentation award so that may not come for the next budget but if not the one thereafter and while it is an Accolade and a recognition it really is much more than that because there is a very intense rubric of Professional Standards that have to be met in order to be able to achieve uh that level of recognition so you'll see over time that we're working with you us heading in the direction of of making sure that we have a sufficient level of public transparency and a very sound budget process that not only helps you make decisions and helps the community to advance goals that they're interested and advancing but also again adheres to Industry best practices another thing I do is uh Faithfully discharge Charter roles and responsibilities there's a number of roles and responsibilities I have under the charter um primarily most of them that are listed there are operational organizational oversight staff uh hiring firing uh and evaluation all of those types of things and importantly I maintain political neutrality one of the things that we want to be sure to do is with all of the viewpoints and perspectives that sometimes you end up with on a Village Council is I want to make sure that everyone has the same information I don't want to be in a position organizationally to where certain individuals hold the cards and are able to make better informed decisions than their peers on the council everyone should have the same information that the others have so that we can uh discuss that openly and transparen and and Empower everyone to Be an Effective participant in whatever conversations we're having that's one of the reasons why you'll hear staff say well you know if you have uh requests or needs Channel them through the mag so I can get them back out to staff bring the response back to from staff and send it out to council because when I do that I make sure that every member of council receives that same information that was requested by one or two council members so that they're aware of that landscape and can include in their discussion and their evaluation of particular topics um the the full bread of information that each of the other council members has it's it's a very critically important task um and as part of political neutrality not only do I adhere to the state requirements for ethics but I also uh firmly adhere to the international City County management association's code of ethics uh we have a great deal of emphasis on that in the professional City management industry as they do in the legal uh sector and you'll see that your public uh servants here at the Village U strongly embrace all ethical standards that apply to our roles and responsibilities as public servant so with that having been said um I'll will mention one last thing I do offer to all of our council members the opportunity to have one-on ones if you're interested in one-on-one meetings call me anytime we can put a a set one on calendar or we can come in and discuss anything that you would like to discuss there's really no limit to it and I'll be uh providing my best uh solution to each of those issues that you might bring to our atten so if you interested in that we can put something on Outlook on a recurring meeting or again ad hoc basis give me a call you I'll make sure that I'm available so any questions no okay very well with that I think we're all done for the evening then folks really appreciate you taking time from your schedules you know you have family at home I'm sure but uh we're we're looking really forward to working with each of you e e