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HomeMy WebLinkAbout6-3-15 IRC LAGOON COALITION MinutesINDIAN RIVER COUNTY LAGOON COALITION MINUTES WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015 — 3 PM SEBASTIAN CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS SEBASTIAN CITY HALL 1225 MAIN STREET SEBASTIAN, FLORIDA Presiding Chair, Mayor Richard Gillmor called the Meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. 2. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. 3. ROLL CALL Members Present: Mayor Susan Adams, City of Fellsmere Mayor Richard Winger, City of Vero Beach Mayor Richard Gillmor, City of Sebastian Also Present: Vice Mayor Joel Tyson — City of Fellsmere Alternate Ruth Stanbridge, Indian River County Historian City of Sebastian Attorney, Robert A. Ginsburg City of Sebastian City Clerk, Sally Maio 4. NEW BUSINESS A. Select Chair and Vice Chair Mayor Winger nominated Mayor Gillmor as Chair and Mayor Adams seconded the nomination. Being no other nominations for Chair, Mayor Gillmor was appointed Chair. Mayor Gillmor nominated Mayor Adams as Vice Chair and Mayor Winger seconded the nomination. Being no other nominations, Mayor Adams was appointed Vice Chair. Mayor Winger will act as alternate. B. Request Seat on Indian River Lagoon Council MOTION by Mayor Adams and SECOND by Mayor Gillmor to request a seat on the Indian River Lagoon Council. Passed 3-0 on a roll call vote. Mayor Gillmor said he will present the request to the Indian River Lagoon Council for a seat on Friday, June 5t". In response to Mayor Adams, Mayor Gillmor said he had positive responses from the IR Lagoon Council Members, but that the Council Attorney said that the request has to go back to the individual County Commissions, so it looks like it may be a long drawn out process, though initially it will probably get a positive response. He said as it goes before Volusia, Brevard, Martin and St. Lucie County Commissions he or all or one of the Coalition members can attend, noting that Martin and St. Lucie Counties had already voted on the interlocal agreement creating the IR Lagoon Council when Indian River County was included, though Brevard and Volusia voted on it after Indian River County pulled out, and, in theory, it can be argued that Martin and St. Lucie had already voted to allow Indian River County in and just because the County bowed out shouldn't we have a seat. He noted the initial formation of this probably won't gel until October 1 st Indian River Lagoon Coalition Meeting June 3, 2015 Page Two C. Determine Meeting Schedule Mayor Gillmor said he would not anticipate needing to meet more than quarterly unless there is something pressing. Mayor Winger said he would view it, provided we are granted a seat, that as opportunities for funding or remedial action come up, Mayor Gillmor would bring it back to Mayor Adams and him, and they would take it back to their respective governments. Mayor Gillmor said once the Lagoon Council is set up the staff will basically run it, but the elected body will vote on how the money is purposed out, and as opportunities arise he would see that as the opportunity to say we have x amount of dollars available and this is the parameters, and we are working for anything that is going to help the lagoon, such as storm water and wastewater treatment, fertilizer application, etc. He said there are multi levels of pollution coming from agriculture, residential fertilizer application, septic tanks and freshwater discharges, and depending on where you are in the lagoon, there are a number of nutrient sources we have to address. Mayor Gillmor noted there had been one dissenting vote from Sebastian because it was stated our only purpose was to request a seat, and then read from the Coalition Interlocal Agreement paragraph 6: Coalition Purpose. The purpose of the Coalition is to represent the interests of the Parties and the Indian River County area by participation on the IRL Council, upon approval of that body, through the Coalition's designated representative and to otherwise further the interests of the Parties in the restoration and protection of the Indian River Lagoon." He then said he sees that this coalition has a dual purpose, first to seek representation on the Lagoon Council, and to further the interest of the parties, who are the cities, in the restoration and protection of the Indian River Lagoon, and the greatest value is the cities working together on a common problem, in the same boat, pulling in the same direction. Mayor Winger asked if this Interlocal Agreement is sufficient for this group of three or do we need a two or three page by-laws. The City Attorney said as he views it, the initial responsibility of this Coalition is to get membership on the Indian River Lagoon Council, the main emphasis. He said he should have talked to the other attorneys but his purpose in being here is that the meeting is being conducted in Sebastian and if held elsewhere, that City's Attorney would be there. He continued that the other responsibilities of the Coalition are, assuming they get a seat on the Council, to be prepared to discuss what should be the position of the Coalition representative on the Council, and it may be that the representative will come back to the Coalition with the pending Council agenda and discuss their position or something along those lines. He said to go beyond that, Sebastian has a Natural Resources Board and Parks and Recreation Board, was not sure whether the other cities had boards like this, and those boards could also inform you as to what they think about issues on the Council agenda. Mayor Winger said the Vero Beach City Attorney gave him a copy of the Treasure Coast Regional League of Cities by-laws as a blueprint, by-laws could be put off until such time as we acquire a seat, and any of the City Attorneys could do it, we could incorporate paragraph 6 as one of the whereas clauses, and reiterated it would be useful to commit to three or four pages of verbiage as to what the Coalition's responsibilities, constraints and 2 Indian River Lagoon Coalition Meeting June 3, 2015 Page Three Purpose, how we dissolve, and who the officers are, though if we are not granted a seat, by-laws would be a waste of time. He said Vero Beach does not have anyone who works in the environment, has a Utilities Commission and Planning and Zoning, but no parallel organization whatsoever, so in a sense this group of three would be filling that function for Vero Beach. He said he did not know if we needed any more boards, because Vero Beach has over 14 as it is. He then proposed at such time as we are granted a seat, one of us is elected, then come back and meet again, where a draft by-laws document can be presented, then taken back to their respective Councils after we have edited it. Mayor Gillmor said he was not so sure because it states in paragraph 5 "Organization; Bylaws. The Coalition shall be a corporation not for profit and shall adopt by-laws designating the officers of the Coalition and providing for the conduct of its business. The Coalition shall take all other action necessary or required by law for its formation." He asked, once the paperwork on this Agreement is recorded, which will be Friday, if the Coalition would then be a separate entity. Mr. Ginsburg responded that was a difficult question, that he talked to Vero Beach City Attorney Wayne Coment in the last couple of months while this was being prepared for the individual Councils to form the Coalition, and what he read was talking about a corporation not-for-profit, part of the State law the way they look at Interlocal Agreements in the particular Statute section we are going under at this point, and he believed they came to the conclusion that we did not have to do those things, that once we formed the Coalition that served the purpose and substantially complied with the statutory requirement, we were not going to go through the whole rigmarole of getting a separate corporation and having to meet all the requirements of a non-profit and filing each year. He said he would check with Attorney Coment because this document was prepared mostly by him. Mayor Winger said he believed Attorney Coment envisioned we would be a corporation not-for-profit, we would adopt three or four page by-laws, and that would be the end of it. Mayor Gillmor said he could see that there is value in that and we don't need to do that until we get the seat and we could get that on a later agenda. He said he believed we have consensus on that. Mayor Adams said that respective City Attorneys could have suggested by-laws that could be adopted rather quickly at the time that it becomes needed. Mayor Winger reported that while Vero Beach is working on the step system, yesterday they selected a firm to guide them in establishing a storm water utility, which is badly needed because currently only 37% of outfalls are baffled and it will take 19 years to get to 67% so they have a monumental problem. He said they have a grant for a project in McCansh Park in Old Town for one-third of the project cost and have to come up with the other $500K to do the remedial action needed and could use significant help with that. He said their goal has been to get to the 67% in five years rather than 19 years, which would help their situation a whole lot. He explained their intent is rather than putting in open drains, to install large rubber and asphalt composite mats in the streets to allow water to flow through and use their street sweeper to do 90% of the work of the baffle boxes, but it will cost a fortune because some of their infrastructure is 1920s. He said this will make a material difference along with the work on the step system to work their way out of septic Indian River Lagoon Coalition Meeting June 3, 2015 Page Four systems. He said they hope to gain some clout to get funding and expert advice to help them to move forward on the outfall problem. Mayor Gillmor said putting in third generation baffle boxes is not cheap and Sebastian has put in three or four so far and have three to five yet to be installed, and had they known there would be money left over in the last cycle from the NEP, they would have requested funding for baffle boxes in addition to money they requested for oyster mats, which they received. Mayor Winger said they are counting on Mayor Gillmor to alert him and Mayor Adams when they need to put in for that. Mayor Gillmor said it is about staying on top of it. D. Discussion Re: Citizen Advisory Boards Mayor Gillmor said at this time he would like to discuss Citizen Advisory Boards and invited Ruth Stanbridge, County Historian, to come to the podium. Ms. Stanbridge said it is very important that we continue cleaning up the Lagoon, that when she served as County Commissioner many years ago that was their goal, noting Mayor Adam's mother, former County Commissioner Fran Adams, called her the storm water queen. She said once you get immersed in this you cannot let it go, because you see how very important it is. She said there is a lot of talent and expertise around the County, and if your County opts out then your citizens in the County would step forth if you put that citizens' group into effect. She said there are retired and active scientists in all sorts of fields that would step forth to help you out. She advised them to go back in history to see how this all started with the Indian River Farms District, the St. Johns and the Fellsmere area of the water control districts, how they were cutting ditches in the 40s, 50s and 60s and moving water like the Kissimmee River, to see how you then move forward. Mayor Gillmor said he talked to Interim Director, Maurice Sterling, and they had citizen advisory boards for the NEP and it is their intent to have a citizen advisory board for the Indian River Lagoon Council, so he said make sure you have people who can serve on that board, and Mayor Gillmor said we can have a citizens advisory board which can assist the Coalition as well. Mayor Adams asked if he would like them to put together a short list of people who might be willing or good candidates to serve, for when they get a seat. Mayor Gillmor said it might be a little premature but hopefully if we do get a seat it would be good to have folks from Indian River County so they can also provide it to the Council where they also might serve. Mayor Winger said he could think of good people who have expertise in the Lagoon who might be available. Mayor Adams said she would assume at our next meeting we would know more about our status on getting a seat, and at that point we can have further discussion of a citizen advisory board. Mayor Gillmor asked if they wanted to set a date for the next meeting. 11