Notes: Council 5.08.08

May 8 City Council meeting notes:

Wow. Thursday night’s City Council meeting included a three-hour and ten-minute-long discussion of a building in North Hill, a seemingly impromptu (not) appointment of a new city attorney, and a request for the council to evaluate City Manager Tom Bonfield.

Deputy Mayor John Jerralds was absent from the meeting. City Attorney John Fleming was about five minutes late, and Councilman Marty Donovan was just over 10 minutes late.
The North Hill building that prompted such long and fierce debate is located at 9 West Desoto St.

Rodney Rich & Co., an insurance and investment consulting firm on Intendencia that wished to move within North Hill, had been given the go-ahead from the city’s planning and architectural review boards.

A quasi-judicial hearing was conducted on whether to make the residential site commercial. The property lies on a line between PR1 and PR2—single and multi-family residential.
Bank of America holds the title to the home.

Chad Rich, Rodney Rich’s son, represented his father at the meeting.

Twenty to thirty North Hill residents opposed to the action, including Dr. Jimmy Jones and North Hill Preservation Association presidents and past presidents, also attended the meeting and spoke.

Mayor John Fogg said state law prohibited him from limiting the amount of time people spoke during the quasi-judicial hearing. He reduced from five to three minutes the time allowed for audience members to speak during open forum later in the meeting.
Before the judicial hearing, Fogg also said they had done an investigation of ex parte communication, of which there had been a great deal, and they determined it is allowable as long as it is disclosed.

Councilman Jack Nobles recused himself, citing a conflict of interest with the Bank of Pensacola.

The mayor and nearly all of the council members said they had been contacted by parties on both sides of the issue. They added, though, that they would make their decision solely on the evidence presented.

Jewel Cannada-Wynn said she was in dialogue with one of the parties three weeks prior, when that person knew of the upcoming hearing but she did not. Other council members may have been in that situation as well.

Sherry Morris, planning services administrator for the city, gave a presentation and said the property, with its zoning under multi-family residential, is permitted under conditional uses and “is not in conflict with our comprehensive plan.”

Other standards for commercialization of the property were also okay, Morris said. “There are mixed uses in this block.”
A sticking point, though, were the parking spaces. Chad Rich had proposed nine spots around the building, including one in the front yard and a bike rack.

A neighbor said it would be very difficult to navigate an SUV into a space behind the building. Rich said the company has eight employees, and they, on average, have two people per day visit the office.
Councilman Marty Donovan, who works in real estate, pointed out that if it’s a 36,000 square-foot building there needs to be 12 parking spaces, one for each 300 sq. ft. The city staff had reduced the number required based on deducted square footage to be used for storage space.

“This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me,” Donovan said.

Council members also questioned who would know if the business didn’t use the space for storage.

“This is not a rezoning of this property whatsoever,” Rich told the council. “We will be totally compatible, and have little or no impact on this neighborhood.”

Rich pointed to the other nearby businesses, a law office and an accountant, that face Palafox, not inside the neighborhood. Rich also sent a letter to council members this week and, when he spoke, he cited numbers and data on the neighbors for and against the proposal.

City Attorney John Fleming told the council to disregard the letter and that verbal information.

All told, that’s an awful lot for the council members to disregard.
Several of the North Hill neighbors expressed concern about their homes significantly losing value.

Leslie Vilardi, a past president and board member of the North Hill Preservation Association, who is also a realtor, said she had been told by certified property appraisers that her home would lose value if bordered by businesses on three sides.

Fleming said that is heresay unless they hear from the appraisers themselves.
Vilardi also talked about kids who play in a nearby park, and how approving the petition would allow for possible (commercial) creepage in a historical neighborhood.

The neighbor also said the city’s planning board twice denied similar proposals in East Hill. “They protected East Hill. Why aren’t they going to protect us?” Vilardi said.

Councilman P.C. Wu said he went with his wife to Vilardi’s house, and he could hear her kids playing in the backyard but couldn’t see them.

“Does that have anything to do with the value of my house?” Vilardi asked.

“I wish I didn’t know half the people sitting out there (in the audience),” Wu said.

Preservation Association president Bessann Watson said the issue is about land use, not whether or not Rodney Rich & Co. would be a good neighbor.

Looking at the zoning, Watson said, “It was clearly intended to be a residential area.” Because of its history, she added, “it was not designed for an automobile, much less 12.

“It’s not conducive and it doesn’t work.”

Hall disclosed he is a lapsed member of the North Hill Preservation Association, which he said he joined, in part, for two free trees.

But Hall said his objectivity wouldn’t be skewed and the council concurred.

Councilman Ronald Townsend talked about encroachment in the neighborhood, and Hall expressed concern about future owners of the property.

“I must be true to my desire to protect neighborhoods,” Cannada-Wynn said.

Donovan, who works in real estate, said he has converted North Hill homes into office space. “I personally don’t think it hurts the neighborhood if it’s done in the right way,” he said.

But regarding the need for a parking space for every 300 square-feet of space, Donovan said: “I don’t think you can fudge on that fact. And that is a fact. Really, it’s disappointing to me that it got this far.”

Fogg said the business would undermine the preservation of the historical neighborhood and set a precedent for multi-family residential zoned properties.

In the end, the petition failed 3-5, with Councilmen Mike DeSorbo, Mike Wiggins and Wu voting in favor of it.

In other council business, and yes, there was some, all but one item from Monday’s committee meetings were approved unanimously.
Among the approvals was to award an over $990,773 contract to Roads Inc. for street rehabilitation.

Hall said he had reached out to a losing bidder that is FDOT pre-certified and bondable. “We’re opening ourselves up to some financial liability if (Roads Inc.) defaults,” Hall said.

But the item passed unanimously, as did a resolution to amend the FY 2008 budget to begin implementing the 30-month budget plan.

Now, here comes the bombshell—the Committee of the Whole item on the process for selecting a new city attorney to serve after Fleming retires.

Out of the nine candidates, several of whom live out of town, council members debated back and forth about whether to assign each one a number and go with a grid system or to just choose their top 4 and not take time to score those who won’t be considered.

With the numerical system, Fogg said they would go by the sums, but DeSorbo said they would choose the candidate by who has the most Number 1’s.

Nobles and others said the issue was getting way too complicated.
Then, around 10:30 p.m., DeSorbo said they should keep it “simple” and just name assistant city attorney Rusty Wells to the post.

Interestingly, Wells was in the audience.

The vote passed 6-3, with Hall, Donovan and Cannada-Wynn dissenting.

“You know what? That took me completely by surprise,” Fogg said right after the vote.

Then, in the unfinished business portion of the meeting, DeSorbo asked for a time (soon) to negotiate an agreement with Wells, the new city attorney.

Cannada-Wynn asked if the city staff will notify the other candidates, and Bonfield said yes, that’s procedure.

Cannada-Wynn also asked for an update on the city’s recycling efforts, considering ECUA’s new voluntary program.
Bonfield said the city is still in talks about consolidation. But the city is also, he added, working with the county to initiate a trial program in East Hill that could begin this summer.

The councilwoman also expressed concern about a party involved in the quasi-judicial hearing contacting her weeks before it.

“They knew it was coming up,” Cannada-Wynn said. “I had no idea. I just find myself at odds here.”

Bonfield said they’ll develop a system to let council members know as soon as an application is made.

With the three-minute rule in effect for open forum speakers, two members of the audience spoke.

Diane Mack, of the Pensacola Budget Study Group, spoke about a written proposal that was distributed to council members. The proposal asks that the City Council develop and implement a process for regular periodic evaluations of Bonfield.

None of the council members responded.

Diana Hall, Sam Hall’s wife, was the sole speaker to voice displeasure over how the council chose the new city attorney.
I just can’t believe you took 30 seconds to make a decision that important, Diana said. “I can’t believe that it wasn’t already planned.”

“We have the sole and exclusive authority,” Fogg said.
“I’m just absolutely delighted that we at least advertised for this position,” Sam Hall said.

DeSorbo said his concern had been that the process was going to “drag on and on.” He also said some of the short-listed people would be at the city’s expense, like with their travel.

“I had no idea if (Rusty Wells’ appointment) was going to be supported by the majority of the council or not,” DeSorbo said.