January 28th, 2008
Board Meeting Minutes
8TH FLOOR Commission Chamber

CALL TO ORDER by President Genia Ellis at 5:30 PM.

ROLL CALL BY President, all Board members present, except David Marshall - excused.

MEETING MINUTES of December 27th, 2007October 22, 2007 moved and accepted  (Attachment A).

TREASURER'S REPORT- Ron Centamore – Moved and approved as submitted (attachment B)

ANNOUNCEMENTS/GUEST INTRODUCTIONS

The Chair Introduced Mr. Alan Hooper, President of the Ft. Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority (DDA), who made a presentation of the four best possible routes for the proposed North - South Circulator for the proposed Light Rail System (known as the WAVE. Three of the routes propose using the 3rd Ave Bridge and a fourth uses the New River Tunnel. These routes are being brought to the City Commissioners at a work shop on February 5th at noon on the 8th floor in the Conference Room. He went on to request the support of the Council to show up and support moving forward a request for the development of the next steps. It is anticipated to cost in excess of 150,000,000, but the actual City share should be less than $600,000. The first phase will only be within the DDA’s boundaries, but will be operated by Broward County Transit as proposed. They have met with the Broward County Mayor and Ms. Wexler is in support of this and many more sections to connect all of Broward County. (Attachment C – Brochure)

NEW BUSINESS:

1. Agenda for February 12, 2007 is going to be a goal setting format and will require input from all members to be successful. Please ask all neighborhood District representatives to come prepared and get feed back from the other members within each of your associations.  District Representatives are required to contact each association in their District to encourage participation and recommendations.
2. The Chair  made a presentation on attendance at the Hollywood Council of Civic Associations and it was stated that we in Ft. Lauderdale are very fortunate to have the support of most commissioners and Mayor, as in Hollywood it does not appear to be the case. President Ellis will continue to provide to support for them when necessary and maybe the up coming election may change a lot for them.
3. The Ad Hoc – DRC Committee has been defined a little better to include the process of the permitting and DRC. Doug Stern from Progress Village described his issues for delays and in some cases caused project of needed development not to be built. Dr. Hayes made a motion that the DRC Ad Committee concentrated on the Customer service aspect of Permitting from the DRC to CO and to have expected time line of all processes and who is responsible for each department and policies and procedures. The vote was taken and it passed with all in favor except one Board member.
4. The First Crime Walk was a great success that started at the Mizell Center. The next one will be on February 22, 2008 in Progress Village and will start at the Gospel Arena Church at 613 NW 3rd. Ave. The third walk will be on March 21, 2008 for SMRCA, and will start at GLCC at 1717 S. Andrews Ave. All of these are part of the CVC sponsored events to “Safer Neighborhoods” which is a series of 3 Crime Walks with city-wide support requested.  (Attachment D)
5. There will be one more mailing to those members who have renewed and or have joined. District reps are asked to get with Dr. Hayes to find out who these members are, so you can call or meet with them to get on board before the April 1st Deadline.
6. Discuss centered around upcoming City elections and how the Council wanted to approach learning about candidates.  Several options were offered, one being, a Candidate’s Forums which were held in previous elections prior to the Primary and General Elections.  Another thought offered was that each District might hold such an event for their District and include the Mayoral candidates.  President Ellis will be offering the topic for discussion at the upcoming February meeting to establish a committee to commence work on selecting dates and locations that could perhaps be scheduled now.

OLD BUSINESS:

1. Ad Hoc Code reform committee reported by Richard Mancuso that the RFP is out for bid and hopefully in 60 days there will some recommendations by City staff for a vendor to assist in defining the Code Reform Process.
2. The February meeting will also be a forum to present a plaque and small gift to Courtney Crush, Esquire and Mr. Gus Carbonnel, R.A., A.I.A. for their work in the Code reform committee.
3. Flyers were provided and Council Board Members were reminded that we are hosting a plaque dedication for Jennie Brooks and William Dandy at Civic People’s Park, Saturday, February 9, 2008 at 9:00 AM.  All Board Members are urged to attend and support. (Attachment E)
4. There are no other Committee reports.

Meeting Adjouned at 6:53pm