Aldermen Minutes
MINUTES
MAYOR AND BOARD OF ALDERMEN
CITY OF OCEAN SPRINGS
REGULAR MEETING OF NOVEMBER 6, 2007
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 November 6, 2007. Mayor Moran presiding, Aldermen Gill, Lloyd, McDonnell, Weaver, Denyer, Dalgo and Hagan were present. Also present were Interim City Clerk Shelly Ferguson and City Attorney John Edwards.
The Mayor gave the invocation and led the Pledge of Allegiance.
OLD BUSINESS
Mr. David Palmer, son of Ms. Kathy Sweeney, requested a demolition permit for the Charnley House at 509 East Beach (Exhibit 3-a). The Community Development Director explained that he has conferred with the MS Department of Archives and History which has a signed easement for the property from the owner and he requests the Board to direct the City Attorney and himself to review the MDAH documents to see if we are legally able to grant a demolition permit at this time. It may be the case that MDAH has property interest through the easement that would not allow the city to grant the demolition permit. Motion was made by Alderman Denyer, seconded by Alderman Gill and unanimously carried to authorize the City Attorney to research the claim by MDAH that the City cannot legally grant a demolition permit at this time and report back at the next meeting.
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Dave De Sean with Yellow Cab requested that the 1977 Taxicab Ordinance be changed to allow applicants that are residents of Harrison County to be granted a license to operate a Taxi Service. The current ordinance allows only applicants that are residents of Jackson County to be licensed. Catherine Gautier, Taxi Board Chairman, explained that two applications were reviewed at the October meeting of the Taxi Board, there was discussion of vague wording of the ordinance and a time period of ninety days was set to work with the City Attorney to resolve the wording and make a presentation to the Board of Aldermen about any changes to the ordinance. Motion was made by Alderman Gill and seconded by Alderman Denyer to direct the City Attorney to work with the Taxi Board Chairman to consider removing the residency requirement and consider further definitions to the Taxicab Ordinance. Following discussion, motion was withdrawn by Alderman Gill. Motion was made by Alderman Gill and seconded by Alderman McDonnell to change the language of the Taxicab Ordinance to allow applicants living in Jackson and/or Harrison County to be granted a license to operate a Taxi Service. Motion carried with Aldermen Gill, McDonnell, Weaver, Denyer, Dalgo and Hagan voting aye and Alderman Lloyd voting nay.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Mr. Jan Walker announced that the Replant Ocean Springs project has begun, the trees have arrived to be given to the public and are available by application.
Alderman Denyer congratulated Alderman Gill on twenty two years of service, thanked the City employees for their hard work on the Bridge Opening and requested the Deputy Police Chief to report back at the next meeting the possibility of taking Front Beach on festival days when it is deemed necessary and making it two way for boaters to get to the Harbor.
The Mayor thanked the Police, Fire and Public Works Department for their hard work on the Bridge Opening, the Peter Anderson Festival and the visit of the First Lady.
CONSENT AGENDA
Motion was made by Alderman Gill, seconded by Alderman Denyer and unanimously carried to approve the Consent Agenda with the exception of item (b) which was pulled by Alderman Lloyd.
Alderman Lloyd pulled item (b) and said that he was not against the person but not in favor of the position. Motion was made by Alderman Denyer, seconded by Alderman Gill and unanimously carried to authorize the employment of Kristin Holley as Project Coordinator, annual salary $35,000.00, effective November 7, 2007. Motion carried with Aldermen Gill, McDonnell, Weaver, Denyer, Dalgo and Hagan voting aye and Alderman Lloyd voting nay.
DEPARTMENT REPORTS
Mayor
Motion was made by Alderman Weaver, seconded by Alderman Gill and unanimously carried to authorize $1,500.00 to the Gulf Coast Legislative Reception for promotion of resources of the City of Ocean Springs in collaboration with coastal counties (Exhibit 7-a).
Motion was made by Alderman Denyer, seconded by Alderman Hagan and unanimously carried to authorize the Mayor to execute a one year contract with Joe Gill Consulting, LLC for lobbying services (Exhibit 7-b). Alderman Gill left the room for discussion and abstained from voting.
Motion was made by Alderman Denyer, seconded by Alderman Hagan and unanimously carried to authorize the Mayor, the Police Chief and Captain Sweeney to execute appropriate documentation and adopt a Resolution to accept a grant from the Office of Highway Safety for DUI Enforcement (Exhibit 7-c).
Motion was made by Alderman Weaver, seconded by Alderman McDonnell and unanimously carried to authorize contracting with the City Engineer to study the drainage flow around the Community Center, the Police Department and the Senior Citizens Center to be paid by a special hurricane grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Community Development & Planning
Motion was made by Alderman McDonnell and seconded by Alderman Lloyd to adopt Ordinance No. 20-2007 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE 19-2006 – DESIGN REVIEW GUIDELINES FOR INDUSTRIAL, COMMERCIAL AND MULTI-FAMILY STRUCTURES (Exhibit 7-d).
The motion passed with a roll call vote as follows:
Alderman Weaver Voted Aye
Alderman Gill Voted Aye
Alderman McDonnell Voted Aye
Alderman Lloyd Voted Aye
Alderman Denyer Voted Aye
Alderman Dalgo Voted Aye
Alderman Hagan Voted Aye
The Community Development & Planning Director presented options for the Human Resources building changes which are to demolish the current building and replace with the donated cottage or leave the current building as is and place the cottage next to City Hall near the street (Exhibit 7-e). Motion was made by Alderman Hagan and seconded by Alderman Lloyd to keep the current Human Resources building, fix it up and place someone in the cottage where it is currently located or move it to the City Hall campus. Following discussion, motion was withdrawn by Alderman Hagan. Alderman Gill said that the Human Resources building smells of mildew and Alderman Hagan requested that it be inspected for mold and spores. Motion was made by Alderman Hagan and seconded by Alderman Dalgo to explore all the options of keeping both buildings. Motion carried with Aldermen Lloyd, Weaver, Denyer, Dalgo and Hagan voting aye and Aldermen Gill and McDonnell voting nay.
Motion was made by Alderman McDonnell and seconded by Alderman Weaver to accept the cottage to move to the City Hall compound. Motion carried with Aldermen Gill, McDonnell, Weaver and Denyer voting aye and Aldermen Lloyd, Dalgo and Hagan voting nay.
City Attorney
Motion was made by Alderman Hagan, seconded by Alderman McDonnell and unanimously carried to authorize the Mayor to execute a Limited Ingress and Egress document to allow a MEMA cottage to be moved through Freedom Field to be placed behind a home.
ADDENDUM
Motion was made by Alderman Hagan, seconded by Alderman Gill and unanimously carried to accept the Addendum to the Agenda.
Motion was made by Alderman Denyer and seconded by Alderman Gill to authorize placement of MEMA cottages at Gulf Coast Research Lab (Exhibit A-1a). The City Attorney explained that the Gulf Coast Research Lab is state property and does not fall under the jurisdiction of the City. Following discussion, motion was withdrawn by Aldermen Denyer. Motion was made by Alderman Denyer, seconded by Alderman Gill and unanimously carried to remove item (A-1a) from the Addendum.
Motion was made by Alderman Lloyd, seconded by Aldermen Gill and unanimously carried to authorize employment of Dave Crawford as Assistant Building Official, annual salary $42,000.00, effective November 13, 2007 pending successful completion of all pre-employment requirements (Exhibit A-1b).
ALDERMAN’S FORUM
Motion was made by Alderman McDonnell, seconded by Alderman Weaver and unanimously carried to authorize expenditure from the Ward II Capital Improvement Account to place a small plaque on the Elephant Walk fence in memory of Ms. Feline Friar.
Motion was made by Alderman McDonnell, seconded by Alderman Dalgo and unanimously carried to authorize the paving of Indian Trail in the amount of $9,000.00 to the specifications required by the City with input from the public due to the fact that it is a sensitive area with trees that the residents want to be sure are maintained to be paid out of the Public Works budget if funds are available and if not from the Ward II Capital Improvement Account and the Alderman At Large Capital Improvement Account.
Motion was made by Alderman Weaver, seconded by Alderman Hagan and unanimously carried to authorize $300.00 from the Alderman At Large Capital Improvement Account to improve the entrance to Mulberry Grove. Alderman McDonnell abstained from the vote.
Alderman Weaver asked for consideration to clarify the ordinance not to allow liquor licenses in the C4-B Harbor District because it is more of a residential/neighborhood commercial area than highway commercial. Motion was made by Alderman Weaver and seconded by Alderman Lloyd to not allow hard liquor permitting in C4-B. The City Attorney said that he would have to research the ordinances, state statutes and speak to the State Tax Commission regarding alcohol permits. Following further discussion, motion was withdrawn by Alderman Weaver.
Alderman Dalgo asked the Assistant Public Works Director to investigate a crack or a hole on Pabst Road at the entrance to Magnolia Bayou.
Motion was made by Dalgo, seconded by Alderman Hagan and unanimously carried to place a letter of request on the minutes for landscaping in the median at Magnolia Bayou Subdivision with $775.00 to be paid from the Ward V Capital Improvement Account (Exhibit 8-a).
The Mayor announced that the interviews for City Clerk will begin on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 5:00 p.m.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
Motion was made by Alderman Hagan, seconded by Alderman Denyer and unanimously carried to go into closed session to determine the necessity of going into executive session.
The Interim City Clerk returned to the meeting and announced that a motion was made by Alderman Dalgo, seconded by Alderman Denyer and unanimously carried to remain in executive session to discuss current litigation on property.
Motion was made by Alderman Hagan, seconded by Alderman Lloyd and unanimously carried to come out of executive session and return to regular session.
Motion was made by Alderman Gill, seconded by Alderman Hagan and unanimously carried to authorize the City Attorney to resolve a claim suit.
Motion was made by Alderman McDonnell, seconded by Alderman Hagan and unanimously carried to amend the Indian Trail motion to include funding as follows: $5,000.00 from the Ward II Capital Improvement Account, $2,000.00 from the Alderman At Large Capital Improvement Account, $1,000.00 from the Ward V Capital Improvement Account and $1,000.00 from the Mayor’s Capital Improvement Account.
Motion was made by Alderman Hagan, seconded by Alderman Weaver and unanimously carried to recess until 5:00 p.m. on November 12, 2007.
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