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OKALOOSA
COUNTY
LEAGUE
OF CITIES
EXECUTIVE
BOARD MEETING
MINUTES
Monday, March 1, 2004
CALL
TO ORDER
President
Mayor Glenda Glover called the meeting to order at
12:00
noon
at Two Trees Restaurant in
Fort Walton Beach
.
PRESENT
Mayor
Craig Barker
- Destin
Mayor
Glenda Glover -
Fort Walton Beach
(President)
Councilwoman
Fay Miller - Laurel Hill (
Vic
e President)
Councilman
Al Swihart - Niceville
Mayor
Gary Combs
- Shalimar
Commissioner
Heyward Strong -
Valparaiso
NOT
IN ATTENDANCE
Councilmember
Dutch Payne - Cinco Bayou (Secretary/Treasurer)
Councilmember
Brenda Bush - Crestview
Mayor
John Thomas - Mary Esther
County
Commissioner
Elaine Tucker
- Okaloosa
County
ALSO
PRESENT
Councilman
Russ Young - Mary Esther
Col.
Michael Nowak - Eglin A.F.B.
Mack
Gay - Institute for Senior Professionals
Helen
Spencer, City Clerk -
Fort Walton Beach
MINUTES
It
was moved, seconded and carried unanimously to accept the
January 5, 2004
and
February 2, 2004
minutes as written.
TREASURER'S
REPORT
Mayor
Glover gave the Treasurer’s Report as follows:
Current balance of $3,226.95 as of
March 29, 2004
. The dues have been received from
all of the cities.
UNFINISHED
BUSINESS -
OCLOC
LOGO
Mayor
Glover reported for Councilwoman Bush that if there were going to be four
sections on the logo, she would like to see the memorial represented rather than
just an airplane. Everyone agreed
with the idea. Councilwoman Miller
will take notice to her Council with the suggested change and, if they agree,
she will bring it to the next meeting. It
was asked that the logo be emailed to everyone again since it had been a while
since they had seen the design. This issue will be discussed at the next
meeting.
UNFINISHED
BUSINESS - CLEAN WATER PROJECT
Mayor
Barker reported he reached Jan Delaney with DEP about a workshop dedicated to
the clean water initiative and Mr. Delaney is available on March 24th
and 25th for a lunchtime meeting with this group.
Mayor Combs said he would host the meeting in Shalimar.
Everyone agreed to meet with Jan Delaney on Thursday, March 25th
from
11:30
to
1:30
at the
Shalimar
Town Hall
.
UNFINISHED
BUSINESS - NEW BY-LAWS
Mayor
Glover stated that the Board agreed to make some changes to the By-Laws and any
alteration has to go to the whole membership. The
proposed changes will be brought to the membership during the next Quarterly
dinner meeting. Changes will be made
in Article VI, Section 2 to change the quarterly meeting dates; in Article 7,
Section 2 to change the month of election to October and the month of
installation of officers in January; and in Article 8, Section 1 to change the
word ‘last’ to ‘least’ in the sentence “…at last two additional
members…” It was decided to change Article VII, Section 2 that the Officers
shall be elected in September and be installed in October.
UNFINISHED
BUSINESS - 2004 GOALS (MAYOR COMBS)
Discussion
was held on the list of 2004
OCLOC
Goals prepared by Mayor Combs based on previous discussion.
1.
Support FLOC initiatives to amend Florida Statutes relating to
municipalities’ annexation of enclaves.
2.
Publicize
OCLOC
recreational facilities. Expand
OCLOC
web site to include recreational facilities.
The page would include all county recreational facilities (lists supplied
by the representative from that city) and, perhaps, a brief explanation and
possibly pictures. Possibly produce
a brochure.
3.
Produce and publish
OCLOC
Executive Board Voter’s Guide to be distributed prior to November 2004
election.
4. Pursue and update some standardization of Okaloosa County-wide
sign ordinances.
5.
Develop a program to encourage and assist local city officials in
championing/lobbying for
OCLOC
issues and legislative agendas through County, District and appropriate State
government officials.
6.
Amend league by-laws to establish requirement for an Annual Legislative
Issues Forum and Reception.
It
was moved, seconded and carried unanimously to approve the 2004
OCLOC
Goals list.
Mayor
Combs will have
Tina Smith
post the list to the web site.
NEW
BUSINESS - WEB SITE CONTRACT RENEWAL
It
was moved, seconded and carried unanimously to approve the renewal of the Web
Site Creation and Maintenance Contract/Agreement with
Tina Smith
for the contract period from
April 1, 2004
through
April 1, 2005
for the total contract cost of $600.00.
NEW
BUSINESS - MUNICIPAL RESORT TAX (SB1290) - MAYOR BARKER
Mayor
Barker provided information on a Municipal Resort Tax, Senate Bill 1290, being
sponsored by Senator Clary that will allow
Okaloosa
County
the ability, through referendum of each individual city, to impose a sales tax
on hotel/motel lodging and food and beverage sold at retail, or any combination
thereof.
Mayor
Barker briefed that the legislation has been around since 1967 and there are
currently two counties in south Florida that do this, and there are two or three
cities within each of those two counties that have passed the municipal resort
tax through a public referendum. SB1290
would amend the legislation, Chapter 67-930, to allow incorporated cities within
Okaloosa
County
the ability to hold a public referendum to determine if they want to pass the
sales tax for those items. The
City of
Destin
is pursuing the passage of the Bill because they would like to pass the
municipal resort tax. They are
proposing to pass it on hotel/motels, not on food and beverage sales.
He said other cities in
Okaloosa
County
might find it more beneficial to pass it only on food and beverage if they do
not have a large number of hotels/motels. The
revenues collected from the sales tax can be spent on infrastructure improvement
needs and/or tourism-related items, such as paving and creating new roads, life
guards, implementation of beach safety programs, municipal parking, public parks
property procurement and the like.
Mayor
Glover believes that if you are going to the people with a referendum and asking
them to pass a sales tax on just motels/hotels, it makes it tough when we would
like to go as a team to ask, through referendum, all the cities to pass a
one-cent sales tax on everything that generates many hundreds of thousands of
dollars that would help the cities so much more.
She wondered if it would be hard to go back to the people to ask them to
pass another referendum. Mayor
Barker said this is completely different than a sales tax on automobiles; with
the municipal resort tax, at least from the City of
Destin
’s perspective, 95% of the sales tax will be paid by tourists from other
states, so the money is not coming from the same people.
Mayor
Glover said, psychologically, if you ask this year, in a referendum, for a sales
tax on beds then come back a few months later and ask them to pass another
referendum, it might be something the newspaper will chew the cities up about.
She would rather go for a one-cent sales tax for two years that generates
millions of dollars and let the newspaper chew them up once rather than twice.
Commissioner Swihart mentioned the projected revenues that would have
been collected by all the cities on the sales tax initiative two years ago and
recalled the previous attempt to get a bill prepared, for rural counties with
multiple cities, and to implement it as a demo project that would allow the
cities to call for a referendum on a sales tax, but it was put on the backburner
because the atmosphere was not right.
Commissioner
Swihart suggested substituting the previous bill for Destin’s and ask Senator
Clary if he would sponsor it, then get the cities to work this problem as hard
as we can and have workshops.
Mayor
Barker thought it would be a serious mistake to try to rush it through.
Commissioner Swihart said they would need to strategize how to get it on
the docket for next year.
BEV
KILMER CAMPAIGN
Mayor
Barker distributed petitions for Bev Kilmer who is trying to qualify to be
placed on the ballot through a petition process.
YELLOW
RIVER RESERVOIR
Mayor
Glover mentioned the Yellow River Reservoir study is partly done and asked how
the cities feel about the pipeline and wells that have been committed and the
controversy about
Key West
taking water from the north end of the state and now taking water from the
north end of the county. She asked
if the cities would support the Yellow River Reservoir that is another way to
have plenty of water past 2020.
Councilwoman
Miller stated the north end of the county supports the pipe lines being
installed because they know that the south end of the County needs water and
when that water starts being drawn from the ground their wells will go down,
which means they will need water eventually.
She said they looked at it as bringing in something that would also help
them economically. She said the City
of
Laurel Hill
was very much in favor of the Yellow River Reservoir.
Mayor
Glover asked everyone to think about it and give input at the next meeting.
Commissioner Swihart suggested a representative from the Water Management
District speak at one of the quarterly meetings.
ANNOUNCEMENTS/REPORTS
FROM CITIES
Cinco
Bayou - Councilman Dutch Payne was not in attendance.
Crestview
-
*
Mayor Glover reported that Councilwoman Bush wanted it mentioned that
they have hired an Assistant Planning Manager, Eric Davis.
* April 16th and 17th is
their Relay for Life.
Destin
-
* Harborwalk, an 18-story condominium project,
wants to add more density to the project.
*
The same developer has proposed a 30 plus story three-tower project just
outside city limits of Destin in the unincorporated area of
Okaloosa
County
at Destin Commons.
*
Destin held a program called Step Up Florida put together by the Health
Department to get people to start exercising more.
Fort
Walton Beach -
*
March 16th there will be a Special Council meeting to discuss
the SunQuest Yacht that wants to launch at the Fort Walton Landing, and there
will be discussion on what direction they want the landing to go.
Laurel
Hill -
*
Slowly progressing with their library.
They have gone to finding a place for a temporary library to see how much
interest they have in the city for a library.
They are looking for books and equipment to put in.
If there is a good amount of interest, they will try for a grant next
year.
* Getting everything in a row for the
beginnings of City Hall.
Mary
Esther -
*
There was no one opposed in their elections, so Mayor Thomas and John
Oler remain, and George Crews will return.
*
At the signal meeting, they found out that D.O.T. is taking care of
revising the signals at the intersection of 98 & Doolittle because they
signed a deal with the people who owned the property.
* Still trying to get the “no right turn on
red” lighted.
Niceville
- Councilman Al Swihart left meeting prior to giving report.
Shalimar
-
*
Still spending legal dollars toward fighting a billboard company’s
First Amendment lawsuit against Town’s sign ordinance.
*
Police Force – several recent drug busts primarily from traffic stops
on
Eglin Parkway
. Shalimar does enforce the speed
limits on
Eglin Parkway
and all other streets in the town.
*
Commercial development – Hampton Inns to start construction very soon
(June 2004). The Waffle House being
remodeled and landscaped. Topical
Smoothie Headquarters to be constructed on lot behind RACETRAC.
A temporary Mini Storage facility is being constructed behind AmSouth
Bank. Several new private Law
Offices opened or being opened.
*
Parks/Recreation – Town continues upgrades to Cherokee
Park
– with hope to have grand opening this summer.
Park has a nautical theme. Hours
are sunrise to sunset daily. Directions:
entrance to right on
Cherokee Drive
just past
Town Hall
.
Valparaiso
-
* In high gear on a water tank.
* They are using the same process
Pensacola
uses to pave their streets.
* Expecting a study on a library for
Valparaiso
for the next budget session.
Okaloosa
County
- Commissioner Tucker was not in attendance.
Eglin
Air Force Base -
*
The Kennedy Carrier Battle Group out in the Gulf will be flying missions
into the range in preparation for people to start going overseas.
*
There is a
Summit
coming up 16-18 of March. The Chief
Staff of the AF along with the Commander of the AFMC and probably the Secretary
of the AF will be here, and there will be a dinner at the Sandestin Hilton.
*
The Eglin air show will be 3rd & 4th of April.
The Thunderbirds will be there.
*
Still working on construction at the West Gate.
Mack
Gay with the Institute of Senior Professionals mentioned that ISP, as a group,
represents a broad background and expertise of retired people throughout the
County and one of their main thrusts is to try to integrate planning.
There
is a workshop for the Clean Water Initiative on March 25th at
11:30 a.m.
at
Shalimar
Town Hall
. Asked that a reminder email be
sent March 22nd.
NEXT
MEETING
The
next meeting will be held on Thursday, March 25th at Shalimar
Town Hall at 11:30 a.m.
ADJOURNMENT
Being
no further business, the meeting adjourned at
12:40 p.m.
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