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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC 1981-04-07 MinutesPREPARED BY THE OFF -ICE OF Tiff. CITY CLERK CITY HALL RALPH G, ONGIE CITY CLERK I A MOTION TO CONTINUE THE: CITY COMTSSION MEETING FOR THE' SELECTION OF A CITY MANAGER TO APRIL 8, 1981. AT 9.00 A.M. bt. QRDINANCE 0f, PAS N0, RESOLUTIo;N No. �1-9- l-6 On the 7th day of April, 1981, the City rnmmission of Miami Florida+ met at its regular meetine place in said city it gnPcipl geesion to consider business of public import, namely selection of City Manager. The meeting was called to order at 9:28 A.M., by Commissioner Gibson Ferre with the following members of the Commission found to be present: Commissioner J. L. Plummer, Jr. Commissioner Joe Carollo Commissioner Armando Lacasa Vice -Mayor (Rev.) Theodore R. Gibson ABSENT: Mayor Maurice A. Ferre ALSO PRESENT: R. L. Fosmoen, City Manager George F. Knox, City Attorney _ Ralph G. Ongie, City Clerk Matty Hirai, Assistant City Clerk An invocation was delivered by Reverend Theodore R. Gibson, who then led those present in a pledge of allegiance to the flag. Father Gibson: Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to announce that the Mayor called me this morning, that he is suffering from a case of, what is that, virus? Mr. Plummer: Stomach virus. Father Gibson: And that he would not be able to be here this morning. You may know that the meeting this morning is called only for the purpose of casting our ballot for the City Manager. My understanding further is that the Mayor would like to suggest that we put off or delay any voting for a Manager until a meeting of April the 23rd, that is after the meeting of April the 23rd. My response to the Mayor was that I would convey to you, the members of the Commission what his desire was and is. That I felt certain that neither member of the Commission would want to pursue a meeting today due to his illness. But what happens after that would be anybody's guess. I now turn the meeting over to all of us that we may express ourselves and tell where we are and what we want. All right. Mr. Plummer: Mr. Vice -Mayor, being the oldest member of longevity, I'll take the prerogative and say to you that in the 11 years that I have served on this Commission it has always been the common courtesy extended, as we did to you and twice as I have been a member of this Commission, without a full Commission that the matter of the vote be continued. And I would hope that that courtesy would prevail this morning. I would further state, Mr. Vice -Mayor, that as far as I'm concerned, the most important issue before this�Commission is in fact the selection of the captain of our ship which has been floundering without question. It would be my hope and desire that Thursday, and the Mayor did indicate to me this morning the possibility that he would be returning on Thursday, that at. least the sole s not the first Father Gibson: All right, gentlemen, let me hear you. WE want to do what is the will of the majority. Mr. Plummer: Mr. Vice -Mayor, let me further expound and to tell you that regardless of what happens I think could be handled in an hour. Whether or not we deadlock again, whether we select a Manager, or we make an alternate decision. That's why I'm suggesting we start the meeting at 8:00 o'cicok and that we we can still have our full agenda for the day. Father Gibson: All right, gentlemen, Don't everybody speak at once. Mr. Carollo: The reason I requested that this meeting would be held today, and I made the motion for this meeting to be held today was that I felt that we needed a separate meeting for the sot, purpose ur selecting a Cite Manager. It seems that we're not going to be able to reach an agreement in half an hour or an hour, therefore, I felt that if we took a whole day and locked ourselves up in these Commission Chambers for a whole .lay if needed, I felt that the possibility was that we would end up with a City Manager before the day would be over. I'm not in agreement of selecting a Thursday, a day that we have a regular Commission meeting, and a very long one at that, as the day that we are going to meet again for the selection of the City Manager. We tried it the last Commission meeting, we all know what happened. So I'm in favor of just picking a day by itself and going through the process that I had hoped we could have gone through today. Mr. Plummer: Well Mr. Vice -Mayor, Mr. Carollo, I hope that you understood what I said. If need be, cancel the agenda for Thursday. I agree with you, okay? What I'm saying is that the next time this Commission convenes, the first priority of business should be the selection of a Manager. And I would prefer to do it tomorrow, or Saturday. I'm available Sunday, I'm available any time. And I agree with you, that it would be best if we do it as a sole item, but we're having difficulty accomplishing that. And I'm in favor, Mr. Vice -Mayor, if we have to cancel the whole agenda on Thursday until we get this item accomplished. Mr. Carollo: Well, it might not be as easy as it sounds, J. L., in cancelling the agenda on Thursday. I would hope we would get some feedback from the administration on that. Father Gibson: Mr. Lacasa. Mr. Lacasa: Well, I believe that the suggestion of cancelling the agenda, we have to check with the administration if there is any emergency on the agenda, if there is any emergency on the agenda, if there is any particular reason why we cannot do that. We need the input from tnem as far as that is concerned. I do believe that the appointment of the City Manager is of such importance, that by itself warrants to have just one day without any other matters to be considered and in view of past experience, we know that this won't be an easy task. So therefore, I do agree with the statement by Commissioner Carollo that it should be one day dedicated only to the City Manager and I stand ready to go for any day that will accomodate every member of the Commission. Father Gibson: Well, let me tell you where I am. The last time we met was, what? March, what was that? March 17th. Saint Patricks Day. We had from Saint Patricks day to now, this is Tuesday before Palm Sunday. Whatever that means. And either you know your candidate or you don't know him. Now I'm not speaking for you, sir, and I'm not speaking for, I'm not speaking for you. ;I'm speaking for this guy, Theodore Gibson. Either you know your candidate or you don't know him. I don't know any more about the candidate now then I will know on another day. Unless something comes up I don't know about it. But if I am going to take the record as J. L. Plummer suggested that we do, I've taken the record _I ti Fathet Gibson (continued): the tecotd and I've looked at it. Now$ I want to say to the Commission, I run an institution and, you know, I understand: I dont' think some of you all understand. If you, if you say that you're going to elect you a Manager, on Thursday the buck stops there. Do you understand what I'm talking about?Do you all understand what I'm saying? Or don't you. Of course, I don't have to get an answer but I hope ... I'm saying to you...I'm like Plummer. I iust believe that this ship needs a captain. The staff is demoralized, the institution is floundering, and I am for getting a Manager. Mr. Plummer: Well Father, Saint Patricks Day didn't work, Palm Sunday is out. Maybe on the third day, he'll rise from the dead and once again sit at the right hand of the Mayor. Mr. Carollo: Well, you're the undertaker, you should know. Father Gibson: Let we ask. Are you telling me the reason we need a special day is to discuss the merits and demerits of the man? Mr. Plummer: No, have a vote. Father Gibson: Is that what you're telling me? Are we going to be meeting to discuss the merits and demerits of each candidate, or are we going to be meeting and at the same time we can vote. Mr. Carollo: I think we're talking about a combination of all those things, Father. Number one, I think we should bring out the qualifications of each candidate, their background, their past services. At the same time, I'm under the impression that each member of the Commission has a candidate that's probably their favorite candidate, the one they think is better suited for the job. At the same time, I'm sure that all of us feel that there are other candidates that are qualified for the job. The problem we've been having is that no one candidate has gotten the consensus of any three of us. So that if that is still the case, then by locking ourselves up for a full day in these Commission Chambers, I would hope that at some time during that day at least three of us would come to a conclusion with one of those two candidates, whether it was our first choice, or second choice or third choice, but that we would come to a conclusion so that we then in deed could have a captain of our ship, a permanent captain. Mr. Plummer: Well, look, do you want to meet on Saturday? You don't want to meet on Thursday, let's meet on Saturday. Father Gibson: I have no problem, Mr. Carollo: J. L., the problem that I have is I have to work for a living and I have to be out of town that weekend. I probably will come back some time during the middle of next week. Mr. Plummer: How about Friday? Mr. Carollo: So you could pick whatever day you would like outside of that. Mr. Plummer: How about Friday. Mr. Carollo: Friday will be all right with me. Mr. Plummer: This Friday. We'll call it Good Friday. The Mayor will not be here? (INAUDIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENT PLACED OUTSIDE OF THE PUBLIC RECORD) Mr. Plummer: Then I'll go back to Thursday. Is it true, Marie, that tbo real problem with the Mayor is the rabbit died? � n i E� 7 i Mt, Plummer: Mr. Vice -Mayor, I'll offer a motion that the selection of .. the Manager be put off until Thursday morning April the 9th at 8:00 A.M. ` father Gibson: All right. Do I hear a second? Do I hear a second? Mr. Lacasa: Does that mean, J. L., that we're going to cancel the agenda? Mr. Plummer: Not necessarily. That's why I'm making it at 8:00 o'clock. It will give us a full hour before the regular agenda. Mr. Lacasa: But how do you think we are going to accomplish in one hour what we have not been able to accomplish in how many months? Mr. Plummer: Well Mr. Lacasa. I'm not supposed to lobby because both of us are out of order without a second for discussion. But if you will recall our last meeting, even though we were not successful, we did accomplish that meeting in less than a half hour. We did stalemate and if we could possible stalemate again, you're looking at 30 minutes. Father Gibson: Mr. Lacasa, since Mr. Pluunier made the motion, and I'm the presiding officer and you're the next in command, I'll turn over to you to preside. I want to second his motion. Mr. Lacasa: Okay. There is a motion and there is a second. The motion is that we meet at 8:00 o'cicock next Thursday... Mr.Plummer: No, this Thursday. Father Gibson: Thursday the 9th. Whether that's next ... the 9th Mr. Lacasa: The 9th, this coming Thursday, the 9th for the purpose of appointing the City Manager. Further discussion? Please call the roll. MOTION DEFEATED. On motion by Commissioner Plummer and seconded by Commissioner Gibson, the foregoing motion was defeated by the following vote: AYES: Commissioner J. L. Plummer, Jr. Vice -Mayor (Rev.) Theodore R. Gibson NOES: Commissioner Joe Carollo Commissioner Armando Lacasa ABSENT: Mayor Maurice A. Ferre ON ROLL CALL: Mr. Carollo: I have to vote no because I think this is something so important that it's going to take much more than an hour to discuss. This is the main reason why we're meeting today and picked this whole day to meet. Mr. Lacasa: I vote no for the same reason. I think that this thing warrants that we spend as much time as necessary in determining who the next City Manager is. I doubt very much that by meeting at 8:00 o'clock Thrusday we will accomplish that by 9:00 or 9:30 and we'll be in the same type of situation, we'll be stalmated and we won't get to any place. Father Gibson: All right, let me make a suggestion. The Mayor has the intestenial flu. If anybody up here knows about sickness, I do. I'ta sure by tomorrow he ought to be all right. Why don't you have your meeting tomorrow? I'd just sooner take enough sick time out and come here tomorrow and have that meeting. I have no problem. He's going to be out of town Friday. We'rp going to have to meet on Thursday which would be a joint and you don't want that, so I can come back here tomorrow morning. Mr. Lacasa: Is that a motion, Father? l father Gibson: I'll let you preside in my stead. I move that we call a f. tieeting tomorrow morning for the purpose of selecting a Manager, Mr. Carollo: I have no problem with that motion, Father Gibson, the whole point is if the Mayor is not well by tomorrow, then we're going to be back in the same situation again, so... r, Father Gibson: Let him tell me he's sick. Mr. Carollo: Whatever, you know, you would like to do as far as tomorrow goes, I'll be more than happy to second it. Father Gibson: Let him tell me he's sick tomorrow. That's his problem, I can't make the decision for him. You know, I'm Theodore, I know when I'm sick. The Mayor says he's sick tomorrow, I'd be willing to come right here at 8:00 o'clock or 9:00 o'clock, and if he is sick, you know, I'll be willing to go back home say the Mayor's sick. Mr. Plummer: Well Father, may I suggest I have no problem with that. The only problem I have is trying to make a living, as Mr. Carollo says, and I would appreciate if that meeting could start at... Mr. Carollo: Plummer is going to take more money from the dead Mr. Plummer: Unless you want to hold a meeting at Woodlawn Cemetary which at this point might be appropriate, I would appreciate that meeting starting at 1:00 o'clock if no one has any problem with that. Father Gibson: I have no problem. Mr. Lacasa: I have to check that. Mr. Carollo: As long as we don't make it at 3:00 o'clock, 1:00 o'clock is fine. Mr.. Plummer: I can't check with my people, they don't talk. Mr. Lacasa: Father, I could make it in the morning, but I cannot make it in the afternoon. .. „__ , 4-1-* 7_ 1._ opt toeether with the living and work Father Gibson: All right. Ladies and gentlemen, we are glad that you came, yet we are sorry that we were not able to do the thing for which we were assembled. Please come back tomorrow morning at 9:00 o'clock, and hopefully, we will have accomplished it. THEREUPON, THE CITY CO%IASISSION RECESSED AT 9:50 A.M. MATTY HIRAI Assistant City Clerk r)6 {:81