Aldermen Minutes
MINUTES
MAYOR AND BOARD OF ALDERMEN
CITY OF OCEAN SPRINGS
REGULAR MEETING OF MAY 4, 2010
Be it remembered that the Mayor and Board of Aldermen of the City of Ocean Springs met in a Regular meeting at City Hall in the City of Ocean Springs at 6:00 p.m. on May 4, 2010. Mayor Moran presiding, Aldermen Ross, Gill, McDonnell, Cody, and Denyer were present. Also present were City Clerk Shelly Ferguson and City Attorney John Edwards. Aldermen Dalgo and Hagan were absent at roll call. Alderman Hagan arrived at 6:40 p.m.
Alderman Cody gave the invocation and the Mayor led the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Mayor acknowledged the loss of Sue Mitchell Ray, Executive Administrative Assistant to the Mayor for 18 years. She will missed greatly. In honor of her memory, a power point of her years at City Hall was presented by the staff.
The Mayor requested an amendment to the agenda. Motion was made by Alderman McDonnell, seconded by Alderman Gill and unanimously carried to add an item under Department Reports, Mayor – ARRA Funding for East Beach Sidewalk and to add the Addendum to the Agenda.
PROCLAMATION
The Mayor read a proclamation declaring the week of May 2-8, 2010 as Goodwill Industries International Week (Exhibit 3-a).
The Mayor read a proclamation declaring the week of May 16-22, 2010 as National Public Works Week (Exhibit 3-b).
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Mr. Scott Ratcliff gave the Mayor and Board of Aldermen a copy of the DVD from the Bernard Blackwell All-Star Football game and also reported on the success of the event. He also thanked the Mayor and Board of Aldermen for their financial support.
Mr. James Foster introduced Ms. Lisa Morrison, RPG (Registered Professional Geologist) with Compton Engineering and she will be the new head of their Environmental Department.
Mr. Charles Burns, 1201 Desoto Street, expressed concerns about the three (3) dumpsters in the front of his home; speeding on Desoto Street, State Street and Handy Avenue and asked for a light survey of 1313 Robinson Street. He stated it is a dead end street and having problems with people parking on North end of Handy Street. He also asked to acquire the City’s half of the right of way at the north end of Handy Street.
Mr. Dave Keith, partner with an environmental Consulting company, dealing with very complex shoreline restoration. He offered their services from a local resource in the City dealing with the oil spill in the Gulf.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
Motion was made by Alderman Gill, seconded by Alderman McDonnell and unanimously carried to go into Public Hearings for Lot Cleanings. The Building Official announced the lots at 236 Lover’s Lane; 251 Lover’s Lane and 160 Washington Avenue have been cleaned and the remaining lots have commitments from the property owners’ to have them cleaned by the deadline of August 29, 2010 (Exhibits 4-a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, and j). There were no property owners in attendance.
Motion was made by Alderman McDonnell, seconded by Alderman Cody and unanimously carried to close the Public Hearing on Lot Cleanings.
Motion was made by Alderman McDonnell, seconded by Alderman Cody and unanimously carried to table the Public Hearings for all lot cleanings that have not been cleaned to be considered at the next Board meeting on May 18, 2010.
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Clay Williams, presented the Next Leaders Survey results conducted by the Coast Young Professionals (Exhibit 5-a).
Alderman Hagan arrives at the meeting at 6:40 p.m.
Ms. Carol Jones, 404 Groveland Road, expressed concern with the ongoing drainage and sewer problems in Parktown East Estates. She presented pictures of the flooding in her area after a rain storm. She asked the Board to consider these drainage and sewer problems during next year’s budget process (Exhibit 5-b).
Mr. Louie Peters, association president and board chairman, requested sponsorship for the biggest state organized tennis tournament to be held in Ocean Springs for a 4-day event in June, 2010. Motion was made by Alderman McDonnell, seconded by Alderman Cody and unanimously carried to authorize up to $200.00 each from the Mayor’s Capital Improvement Account; Ward 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 Capital Improvement Accounts and Alderman at Large Capital Improvement Account to advertise city resources at the State Tennis Tournament (Exhibit 5-c). The Parks and Leisure Services Director, Geri Straight, stated she would use $1,000.00 of her advertising budget to allocate to the State Tennis Tournament to be held at Halstead Road Tennis Facility.
CONSENT AGENDA
Motion was made by Alderman Denyer, seconded by Alderman Cody and unanimously carried to accept the Consent Agenda.
DEPARTMENT REPORTS
Mayor – Addendum:
The Mayor asked if the Board wanted to consider donating to the tornado victims. The City Attorney will research how to make a City donation.
Motion was made by Alderman Denyer and seconded by Alderman Cody to request the ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) committee to authorize the Mayor, the Planning Director and the City Attorney to attend the ARRA committee meeting on Thursday to ask to shift the economic stimulus funding originally earmarked for the East Beach sidewalk to the street overlay projects on federally designated roads in the City. Motion carried with Aldermen Gill, McDonnell, Cody, Ross, and Denyer voting aye and Alderman Hagan voting nay. Alderman Dalgo was absent and not voting (Exhibit A-2c).
Community Development and Planning:
Motion was made by Alderman Cody and seconded by Alderman Hagan to adopt Ordinance No. 2010-05 AN AMENDMENT TO ORDINANCE NO. 13-1976 REZONING PROPERTY HEREIN DESCRIBED FROM I-1 TO PUBLIC DISTRICT (Exhibit 8-b). The motion passed with a roll call vote as follows:
Alderman Ross Voted Aye
Alderman Gill Voted Aye
Alderman McDonnell Voted Aye
Alderman Cody Voted Aye
Alderman Denyer Voting Aye
Alderman Dalgo Absent and Not Voting
Alderman Hagan Voting Aye
Motion was made by Alderman Denyer, seconded by Alderman Cody and unanimously carried to adopt the Resolution Setting Guidelines for Traffic Control Devices (8-c).
DEPARTMENT REPORTS
Community Development & Planning – Addendum:
Motion was made by Alderman Cody, seconded by Alderman Gill and unanimously carried to consider the Planning Commission recommendation to approve preliminary plat approval for the Ocean Breeze multi-family town home development at the SE corner at the intersection of Groveland and Deana Roads – Clarence W. Chapman (Exhibit A-2a).
Motion was made by Alderman Hagan, seconded by Alderman Gill and unanimously carried to accept the Planning Commission recommendation to approve preliminary plat approval for the Ocean Breeze multi-family town home development at the SE corner at the intersection of Groveland and Deana Roads – Clarence W. Chapman (Exhibit A-2a).
Motion was made by Alderman Denyer, seconded by Alderman Hagan and unanimously carried to accept the Planning Commission recommendation to approve lot reconfiguration for property located at 3521 Government Street – Elmer Bennet (Exhibit A-2b).
The Mayor gave an update on the oil spill preparations. She has been in contact with BP, County and City officials. She also stated two (2) residents have created a volunteer website and have 6,000 people registered at oilspillvolunteers.com. OSHA has condensed a 40 hour hazmat training down to a 4 hour training. They have contracted with a firm, Tristate, responsible for the oiled wildlife rehabilitation and it would be a two (2) day training. She updated on the boom deployment. There are ongoing meetings concerning the various mechanisms available to local governments to recoup funds spent on the oil spill with funds to be administered by DMR and DEQ. The Mayor stated she will continue to post all new information received on the City’s website and also sending it to the Chamber of Commerce.
ALDERMEN’S FORUM
Alderman Hagan stated the City of Ocean Springs is one of the few coastal municipality’s enforcing the Chapter 17 Special Inspections of the 2006 International Building Code and further stating it is very expensive due to the inspectors having to be on the construction site at all times. The Building Official stated if the Architects and Engineers do not require special inspections, they need to remove them from the plans. He further explained if the special inspections are on the plans, the Building Department is required to enforce them and any time concrete with compressive strength over 2,500, special inspections are required.
Jackson County Supervisor John McKay stated the City was requiring the enforcement of the Chapter 17 Special Inspection for the harbor master office adding an additional $40,000.00 to the $250,000.00 construction budget for the office.
Motion was made by Alderman Cody and seconded by Alderman Gill to treat the harbor master office as a County building and allow the County to do their own inspections on this building contingent on the findings of the City Attorney. Alderman Gill withdrew his second to the motion. After further discussion, motion was made by Alderman Ross to authorize the City to inspect the harbor master office during construction and remove special inspections from the project contingent upon the findings of the City Attorney. The motions were declined as presented.
Motion was made by Alderman Denyer, seconded by Alderman Hagan and unanimously carried to recess the meeting for 5 minutes.
Motion was made by Alderman Denyer, seconded by Alderman Hagan and unanimously carried to come out of recess and return to regular session.
Motion was made by Alderman Denyer, seconded by Alderman Cody to consider the issue concerning the harbor master office until the next Board meeting and task the Building Department to do benchmark of the surrounding cities concerning the Chapter 17 Special Inspections of the International Building Code.
Motion was made by Alderman Ross, seconded by Alderman Hagan and unanimously carried to authorize up to $200.00 from Alderman at Large Capital Improvement Account to authorize advertising city resources at YMCA Strong Kids campaign.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
Motion was made by Alderman Denyer, seconded by Alderman Hagan and unanimously carried to go into closed session to determine the necessity of going into executive session.
The City Clerk returned to the meeting and announced a motion was made by Alderman Denyer, seconded by Alderman Hagan and unanimously carried to remain in executive session to discuss litigation position regarding gulf environmental disaster.
Motion was made by Alderman Cody, seconded by Alderman Ross and unanimously carried to come out of executive session and return to regular session.
Motion was made by Alderman Cody, seconded by Alderman McDonnell and unanimously carried to participate in legal action resulting from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster.
Motion was made by Alderman Hagan, seconded by Alderman Cody and unanimously carried to recess until 6:00 p.m. on May 18, 2010.
Meeting ended at 9:29 p.m.
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City Clerk Mayor
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