2014-0619 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes:Regular City Commission Meeting June 19,2014 City of Sunny Isles Beach,Florida 90-day warning or amnesty program on the part of the officers who will be advanced trained in dealing with the public regarding any violations. The purpose is to basically instruct and inform everyone of this Ordinance that has been passed that no longer permits skateboards along Collins Avenue or Sunny Isles Boulevard. In addition to that, signage must be placed along both Collins Avenue and Sunny Isles Boulevard indicating the violation and any enforcement action that must be taken falls under the jurisdiction of State Statute and properly designated in March 2015. Those are the parameters with which the Police Department would operate as far as warnings and enforcement of this program. Loretta Mufson said she is not in favor of this Ordinance. There have been very few problems with pedestrians and skateboarders sharing the sidewalk,and there have been no police reports regarding this. She travels the City a lot walking and riding her bike and she has never encountered a problem with a skateboarder. Skateboards are one of the few methods of transportation our young population has for getting around. Skateboarding is a vigorous exercise and can be an important role in promoting health and fitness. She noted that the Chief had mentioned an educational program, maybe have that instead of passing this Ordinance. Commissioner Gatto thanked Loretta Mufson but she wanted to address a couple of things. Earlier this year she had pictures of kids on the steps of TD Bank skateboarding right into Collins Avenue. Collins Avenue is way too slim to accommodate skaters and it is a problem. We have baby carriages,walkers with the elderly,bicyclists,etc.but we are really talking about two areas of the City. They can skate in the rest of the areas of the City. They can carry their board to the Skate Park, or use the back streets to get there. The Skate Park is located in the center of town, it is like a hub and kids come from all over, and 80% of the kids who use the Park are not residents here. The skateboarders are on the street anyway, they are on private property, and Epicure and RK are having major problems with it. She doesn't think that is going to stop whether we do this on Collins Avenue or not. It is important that we give our pedestrians, particularly our elderly, a safe way to travel. Vice Mayor Aelion thinks the position of Loretta Mufson is well taken. What is really bothering is that he crisscrosses Collins Avenue a lot during the day and he rarely sees skateboarders there, he sees a lot of bikers on the sidewalks. What is important to note is that statistically,and he had asked the Chief,we have not had instances of physical harm except for the two ladies that came to the meeting and voiced the incidents they had. He agrees with Loretta that it is a vehicular medium and we have a lot of couch potatoes, and it is not an impediment to the walkers along any road. Commissioner Scholl said he was not able to attend the last Commission meeting because his son was graduating from the University and he attended his graduation ceremony. What always concerns him about ordinances is that sometimes they are very difficult to enforce. If we are not very careful about the type of Ordinances that we pass, it makes it very difficult to enforce them and unfortunately it falls on our staff and our Police Department to then try to sort out this enforcement issue. As Vice Mayor Aelion pointed out,bicycles are not included, and so at some point he believes we are reacting to a situation when a citizen came in. He does not think the Ordinance is appropriate for our needs and he thinks there might be an Ordinance that is necessary but the way this one is crafted it seems like it is not going to be enforceable. We are going to create an expectation amongst the public that we are going to be out policing 5