2011-0906 Special City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Special City Commission Meeting September 6, 2011 First Budget Hearing Sunny Isles Beach, Florida plants with a smaller one. Vice Mayor Thaler said the City doesn't look nearly the way it did a year ago, even the area by Golden Shores, he has received calls from residents saying how bad it looks. The Lehman Causeway entrance is overgrown, the lights don't reflect on our sign, and he knows we changed companies but somebody has to sit down with them. City Manager Cohen said we have changed companies and we are still trying to get them to get with the program, and if they don't we will go out again to bid. It is a learning curve that we have in some areas, the drainage swale area by Golden Shores is a good example. That area is a unique one to take care of because often times it is underwater designed as a drainage retention area, and there are rocks there preventing us from going in with certain types of equipment. He and Public Works Director Batista went down there the other day while it was raining, and were looking at now we can make it easier to maintain. The entranceway at Lehman Causeway should look great now as Commissioner Aelion first brought it to his attention about a month ago, and Commissioner Aelion said yes, it was cut and the sign can now be seen. City Manager Cohen said we are trying to be more mindful, just this morning we did a review on our signage, and one of the things we looked at was lighting for our signage. Weare trying to introduce a different work philosophy to staff, and it takes time but we are moving in a positive direction. Commissioner Aelion said when you enter the City from the Lehman Causeway on your right is a line of Palm Trees lit up at night, and in contrast to that the light that reflects on the Palm Trees along Sunny Isles Boulevard are very impressive, and he had asked staff that the angle of the light reflects not up but to the immediate bark of the tree and that was never addressed. City Manager Cohen said that is actually on his To-Do List, during the first week on the job, he and the Mayor took a tour of the City, and that is one of the specific things he had addressed during that tour. However that has not been as much of a priority as some of the other items that he pointed out, and he is knocking items off from the List one by one. Vice Mayor Thaler said that it was corrected once but not properly as they put in the wrong lights, they tried to manipulate the lights that were put in, and they did raise it about halfway up the tree. City Manager Cohen said what he gave the Commission was a whole bunch of reasons why everything isn't being done at once, the bottom line is that we will get to a point where you won't have a thing to complain about, but there is a learning curve that we are all mounting, and we are trying to get to a point where we can be proactive and not reactive. Vice Mayor Thaler said new signs were put on the beach telling people what they can't do, but there still are no dog signs. City Manager Cohen said we are reserving those dog signs for the new garbage bins coming in, we have 80 new bins that the Commission will be considering for approval, and the dog signs are going on them. 4. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Edelcup adjourned the meeting at 7:27 p.m. Respectfully submitted by:' . Approved by the City Commission on Oct. 20f20 11 ~~~" A Jane A. Hines, CMC, City Clerk 11