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10/29/2003 Executive Closed Session 10/15103 2003/272 Monroe County Tax Collector, Danise D. Henriquez presented the Board with the Tax Collector's excess fees check. Ms. Henriquez also informed the Board that as of October 1, 2003, her office had taken over the Key Largo Office for issuance drivers licenses. The Tax Collector now serves the Key West, Marathon and Key Largo offices for driver's licenses. COMMISSIONERS' ITEMS Mayor Spehar discussed her item concerning direction to staff to start negotiations with the City of Key West to create a Homeless Safe Zone under the west end of the Monroe County Detention Center. Facility hours are proposed to be from early evening to early morning. The following individuals addressed the Board: Sloan Bashinsky, Joanne Alexander, representing Sunset Marina; Gwen Rodriguez, Peter Batty, Assistant City Manager John Jones; and Monroe County Jail Captain Tommy Taylor. Mr. Roberts also addressed the Board. After discussion, motion was made by Commissioner McCoy and seconded by Commissioner Rice appointing Commissioner Rice as the Board's point person on this matter. Motion carried unanimously. Mayor Spehar requested the status of bids on the County's group health insurance program. Mr. Roberts addressed the Board. COUNTY ATTORNEY Mr. Collins addressed the Board. Motion was made by Commissioner Rice and seconded by Commissioner Neugent to reopen the agenda. Motion carried unanimously. Growth Management Litigation Counsel, James T. Hendrick addressed the Board and requested that the Board schedule a closed attorney-client session in accordance with F. S. Section 286-011(8) for the purpose of obtaining Board direction on the following: 1.) Negotiating litigation strategy to discuss Galleon Bay v. Monroe County; and, 2.) Mediation guidance on Industrial Communications & Electronics v. Monroe County. Present at the session will be the Board, County Administrator, County Attorney, Mr. Hendrick, Ms. Cabanas, Land Authority Director Mark Rosch, Land Authority Counsel Larry Erskine, and a consultant for Industrial Communications & Electronics. Motion was made by Commissioner Nelson and seconded by Commissioner Neugent that the above matter be scheduled. Motion carried unanimously. Motion was made by Commissioner Rice and seconded by Commissioner Neugent to hold the closed attorney-client session on Wednesday, October 29,2003 at 10:00 AM at the Harvey Government Center in Key West. Motion carried unanimously. PUBLIC HEARINGS A Public Hearing was held concerning amending Section 9.5-309 and Section 9.5-367, Monroe County Code, clarifying how the height of fences is measured and allowing fences in residential areas to exceed 3 feet within the clear sight triangle if they are set back a minimum of 10 feet from the edge of the pavement; Providing for Severability; Providing for the repeal of all Ordinances inconsistent herewith; Providing for incorporation into the Monroe County Code of Ordinances; and Providing an effective date. There was no public input. Mr. McGarry addressed Page 1 of 1 Pam Hancock From: To: Cc: "S h iIIinger -Bob" <Sh ill i nger -Bob@MonroeCounty-FL.Gov> "Pam Hancock" <phancock@monroe-clerk.com> "Belle Desantis" <idesantis@monroe-clerk.com>; "Rainer-Debra" <Rainer- Debra@MonroeCounty-FL.Gov> Wednesday, May 28, 2008 3:44 PM RE: Ciosed Session Sent: Subject: Both matters are resolved. The transcripts should be placed with the public records. Bob Shillinger Chief Assistant County Attorney Monroe County Attorney's Office 1111 12th Street, Suite 408 Key West, FL 33040 (305) 292-3470 (305) 292-3516 (facsimile) Please note that F'lorida has a broad public records law and that any communication with the County could be considered a public record. If you do not wish for your email address to become a public record, use the telephone or some other method of conveying your message. From: Pam Hancock [mailto:phancock@monroe-c1erk.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 3:28 PM To: Shillinger-Bob Cc: Belle Desantis Subject: Closed Session Hi Bob, We have two Closed Session transcripts that we have not scanned as we have not received any documentation from you stating that the matters have been settled. They are: Industrial Communications & Electronics v. Monroe County; and Monroe County v. Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan (2 copies). Do you want our office to maintain these or send them back to you until they are settled? Thanks. 5/29/2008 . \ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 , 13 \ 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 --- ORIGINAL 1 COUNTY COMMISSION FOR MONROE COUNTY, FLORIDA CLOSED EXECUTIVE SESSION REGARDING THE MATTER OF INDUSTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS & ELECTRONICS V. MONROE COUNTY PROCEEDINGS As reported by Amy Landry, Registered Professional Reporter and Notary Public, at Harvey Government Center, 1200 Truman Avenue, Key West, Florida; October 29, 2003, commencing at 10:08 a.m. AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 2 1 A P PEA RAN C E S: 2 MAYOR DIXIE SPEHAR COMMISSIONER CHARLES McCOY 3 COMMISSIONER GEORGE NEUGENT COMMISSIONER DAVID RICE 4 COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR JAMES ROBERTS 5 CHIEF ASSISTANT COUNTY ATTORNEY ROBERT WOLFE, ESQUIRE 6 502 Whitehead Street Key West, Florida 33040 7 On Behalf of Monroe County 8 JAMES T. HENDRICK, ESQUIRE KAREN K. CABANAS, ESQUIRE 9 Morgan & Hendrick 317 Whitehead Street 10 Key West, Florida 33040 On Behalf of the Monroe County. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 3 1 (WHEREUPON, the following proceedings were had:) 2 MR. HENDRICK: The next item, with the same 3 individuals present, that is: County Administrator James 4 Roberts; Chief Assistant County Attorney Rob Wolfe; Growth 5 Management Counsel Karen Cabanas; Jim Hendrick, myself, 6 Litigation Counsel; and all members of the Board except 7 Commissioner Murray Nelson, who is absent. 8 It will be ICE v. Monroe County, Industrial 9 Communications. And Ms. Cabanas will give you that 10 presentation. 11 MS. CABANAS: Brief background. The ICE case is 12 involving the formerly proposed 970-foot wireless tower on 13 Cudjoe Key that I'm sure you all remember. When that 14 application was pending, you passed the moratorium. We 15 extended the moratorium. They filed in state court. We won 16 in state court. And the validity of the moratorium was 17 upheld. 18 They moved on to federal court and filed 19 essentially the same claims. They did not for some reason 20 attack the new wireless tower regulations that were adopted. 21 They were still attacking only the moratorium. 22 In federal court, we won at the trial level on our 23 motion to dismiss, basically on procedural issues in that 24 they failed to reserve their federal claims in state court 25 and essentially were bringing the same claims. AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 4 1 The status of the case right now is that it is on 2 appeal in the 11th circuit court of appeals. The 3 plaintiff's brief has been filed. The County's answer brief 4 has been virtually finished. There is court-ordered 5 mediation when you are on appeal in the 11th circuit, 6 mandatory mediation that we do over the telephone. Each 7 side submits a statement to the mediator. Mine of course 8 was, "We are very confident in our position, and we saw no 9 reason or incentives to settle the case." 10 Their position through mediation, which of course 11 everything that's disclosed in mediation is confidential. 12 Their position was -- which was news to both Tim McGarry and 13 I, who were participating in the mediation, was that the 14 Coast Guard -- according to the plaintiffs, that the Coast 15 Guard is planning to build a 1400-foot tower somewhere in 16 the middle Keys. And that if the Coast Guard builds their 17 tower, there is not going to be any co-location on it. It's 18 just going to be their tower, and that's it. It's part of a 19 national security program. 20 And according to them, what they need the tower 21 for is called the Rescue 21 program, where basically they 22 have the tower in the upper and lower Keys, and they need to 23 have one in the middle. When somebody is lost at sea and 24 hits their VHF radio, they can pick up much better where 25 that click is coming from with the triangulation. AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 5 1 In mediation, they said they were going to get a 2 letter from the Coast Guard basically verifying to us that 3 this in fact is taking place. To date, I have received no 4 such letter. 5 Growth management did have staff -- you know, 6 without disclosing all this information I got through 7 mediation, we had staff call the Coast Guard and ask about, 8 you know, "What are your plans as to wireless towers in the 9 county?" Their response was that they were planning within 10 a two-year period a 900-foot tower somewhere in the lower 11 Keys, I believe on Sugarloaf. 12 Plaintiff's position is, of course, that, "Our 13 970-foot tower is better than the 1400-foot one because if 14 we do ours, it's private. The sheriff can put his 15 information on it. We can do co-location. It's going to be 16 a better deal." 17 Now, I was also told by the plaintiffs that they 18 had spoken to each commissioner and that they were confident 19 that they had the votes for this settlement. Now, with of 20 course all the opposition that went on when this tower was 21 initially proposed, I decided to bring this to us in 22 executive session, since we were already going to be here, 23 rather than dump a settlement in front of you and have a 24 room full of people, and it being a settlement you didn't 25 want to see. AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6 Basically the direction I'm asking from you is, do you want to see a settlement proposal on an agenda for a vote? COMMISSIONER McCOY: Can I ask you the time frame when they discussed this with the commissioners? MS. CABANAS: I do not know what the alleged time frame was. I was simply told by their counsel that he had basically gone around and lobbied and was confident that the commission would approve the settlement. COMMISSIONER McCOY: I remember no conversations with anyone. COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: I have had no conversations. COMMISSIONER RICE: Who is the counsel? MS. CABANAS: David Horan is their counsel. COMMISSIONER RICE: I was afraid of that. MS. CABANAS: I've had this happen before with No Name Key, where I was told, "I have the votes for it." And it was something you would rather not have had a room full of people for. COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: I would like to point out, I don't know if the other commissioners were on the commission at the time that this was an issue that was discussed at this County Commission level. But I assure you that Ms. Cabanas is correct that this place will be AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 7 1 absolutely full of people in opposition to that tower ever 2 being built. 3 MAYOR SPEHAR: Right. The meeting in Sugarloaf, 4 do you remember that? 5 COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: Geez, I remember them all. 6 MAYOR SPEHAR: Karen, you said that you saw no 7 reason to settle. What is the minimum that we could offer? 8 MS. CABANAS: Well, they want to build their 9 tower. I don't think they have any interest in a monetary 10 settlement. I would not advise you to propose any monetary 11 settlement. I'm very confident in our legal position. The 12 only reason I brought this issue to you was that I saw some 13 merit to their argument that, you know, "If there is going 14 to be a 1400-foot tower, ours is better. Other things can 15 happen on it." I just wanted to make you aware that that 16 was a proposal that was brought to me in mediation. 17 COMMISSIONER McCOY: If I understand you 18 correctly, you're talking now, they are both about 900-foot 19 towers? 20 MS. CABANAS: Right. The information we got 21 directly from the Coast Guard is they are considering a 900. 22 COMMISSIONER McCOY: Is there something that can 23 be worked out between both of them being used on the tower; 24 that the Coast Guard would accept this and just have a 25 repeater or whatever they want to put on that thing? AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 8 MS. CABANAS: I spoke to them about that. Their position was, "We can only put what we need on it, if it's our tower." Because if it's the Coast Guard's tower and only theirs, that's all that's going to be on it. COMMISSIONER McCOY: The question was whether if the private company built the tower -- the sheriff has told me repeatedly that he needs more towers. He needs some communications. MS. CABANAS: Right. COMMISSIONER McCOY: If they did it and said they would allow then the Coast Guard to put their equipment on there, also, would this satisfy the problem? Since there is only going to be one tower, and it belongs to the Coast Guard solely, or is it one that the Coast Guard could use? I think we probably should have some kind of information like that. And everybody else could be using one tower. There is no limit to how many antennas you're going to put on that thing. MS. CABANAS: Right. That was basically their proposal is, "Let us privately build the tower. Let the Coast Guard put their stuff on our tower." COMMISSIONER McCOY: Has that been pursued? MS. CABANAS: Right. That's basically the proposal they want to bring in front of you. COMMISSIONER RICE: We don't know what the Coast AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 9 Guard's answer to that would be; correct? MS. CABANAS: Correct. COMMISSIONER RICE: I guess the issue is, Do we have one tower or two towers? And mutual use certainly seems to make sense. It seems like we need that information from the Coast Guard. MS. CABANAS: Yeah. They keep promising me a letter from them, and I still have gotten nothing. COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: There seems to be a tremendous proliferation of tower building going on throughout this county. Cell towers, et cetera. Is there any communication between the people that are building these towers? Because I find them extremely unsightly, and they seem to be going up everywhere. Is there anything that we can do legally to put all these people to the table and make them comprehensive in their approach to getting the necessary electronic communications that's needed down here? MS. CABANAS: I don't know if they would be feasible or not. The Federal Telecommunications Act is pretty specific about, you know, not being able to discriminate against certain technologies or certain providers. We would have to look at that act to see if that's something that we could pass an ordinance as to. COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: Well, I think there is AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 10 1 probably -- because I see these battles going on in other 2 states. And there's got to be some case study or law that 3 we could use to maybe do this. Because if not, I can assure 4 you, this is going to be one hot political issue. 5 But I also agree, if I interpreted Commissioner 6 Rice's direction, that we would be better off if there were 7 one tower instead of two towers. And-- 8 MS. CABANAS: Well, there is only going to be one 9 tower, regardless. I mean, under our ordinance, nothing 10 over 199 feet can go up at all. 11 MAYOR SPEHAR: But if we allow a private company 12 to do one at 970, then doesn't that open the door for other 13 people? Even though we're saying that it would be sharing 14 with the military, if we do that, then we have opened the 15 door for other people to take us to court, because we did 16 allow ICE to do it. 17 MS. CABANAS: I don't believe it would set any 18 sort of negative precedent. They were in a very unique 19 situation in that they were the only applicant who actually 20 had an application pending at the time we passed the 21 moratorium and adopted the new regulations. And it would be 22 approved pursuant to a settlement. So there would be no 23 precedence problem with allowing that to happen. 24 COMMISSIONER RICE: Karen, let me back up just a 25 second. I heard you say that there would not be a tower of AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 11 that height because our ordinance prohibits it. Does that mean that if the military wanted to put up a tower, they have to adhere to our ordinance? MS. CABANAS: They do not. COMMISSIONER RICE: That's what I thought. MS. CABANAS: The Coast Guard can basically do what they want to do. COMMISSIONER RICE: So we will have a tower taller than that, if they decide to do it. MS. CABANAS: You could, yes. COMMISSIONER RICE: And I believe there is some legislation that either was or is being considered right now to remove all decision-making regarding towers from local jurisdiction. MS. CABANAS: Pending federal legislation? COMMISSIONER RICE: Yes. MS. CABANAS: That would not surprise me. They have a very good lobbying system, similar to the billboard companies. COMMISSIONER RICE: I for one would really appreciate pursuing further the idea that Commissioner McCoy brought up, which is private tower joint use. Would the Coast Guard be able to and willing to participate in the use of that tower, rather than two towers? Then I think we would be in a better position to think about this. AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 --.~- 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 12 MAYOR SPEHAR: But that does not prevent the Coast Guard or any other military group down here to turn around and build another tower. COMMISSIONER RICE: that what you said? MAYOR SPEHAR: No, it doesn't prevent them, ICE. COMMISSIONER RICE: Oh, absolutely. My understanding is if they want to make us look like a porcupine, they are able to do that. And it Sounds like with their plans, they are going to put up a taller tower. So we are going to have at least one more, from what I It doesn't permit them to; is understand. MS. CABANAS: How would you feel about if I were to get some more specific information from the Coast Guard on that issue, if they would be willing to use the private one? COMMISSIONER McCOY: I think that's a minimum of what we're looking for right now. See all the ramifications of this, come back with a package, and put a lot of this load on the attorney for the private company to do a lot of this research. He has good ways of getting into the military mind. MS. CABANAS: There is no problem with getting the case delayed through the mediator. He has full authority to keep postponing our briefs while we negotiate. AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 13 1 If in fact the Coast Guard is willing to use ICE's 2 tower, would you want to hold another executive session, or 3 would you want me to go ahead and bring that settlement 4 package to you? 5 COMMISSIONER McCOY: I think at that time we 6 probably, my opinion, could just go right to the conclusion 7 of it and satisfy it, if everybody was in agreement there. 8 With the full understanding that there is going to be -- we 9 would have to have some kind of assurance that there was 10 going to be the need for this tower. And whether it 11 included Coast Guard, local defense, or whatever they wanted 12 to attach to it, it would have to be some kind of provision 13 where the military would have full access to use this thing. 14 And the County would have access to it. The sheriff very 15 much wants an antenna there. 16 MAYOR SPEHAR: When you bring this back, as the 17 package, the public is going to rebel tremendously. You 18 know they 19 COMMISSIONER RICE: Well, here is how I would like 20 it presented at that time, if indeed this is the case. It 21 is a fact we are going to have a tower. Do we want one or 22 do we want two? Or can we minimize and have joint use? 23 There is -- if there is no option that says -- if we are 24 going to have a tower, then I would prefer to have one, and 25 I would prefer the public saw it that way from the very AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 14 1 beginning, as the choices between one and two. 2 MS. CABANAS: No, either way you are only going to 3 have one. Because either you're going to allow the 4 settlement and the Coast Guard is going to use ICE's tower, 5 and/or the Coast Guard is going to do their tower. The only 6 way ICE is going to get it is through the settlement or if 7 they win their case. 8 MAYOR SPEHAR: And ICE can't have shorter towers 9 and arch from one to the next to the next? 10 MS. CABANAS: Apparently not, because of the 11 technology they are using, which is what the count under the 12 Telecommunications Act is. We are discriminating against 13 their technology. Apparently they need the high tower 14 because the signal has to go directly to it, as opposed to 15 jumping from tower to tower. 16 COMMISSIONER RICE: I don't know of anything that 17 would prevent the military from coming in here two years 18 from now. 19 MS. CABANAS: Correct. The military can put up as 20 many as they want. 21 COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: If ICE doesn't get one, 22 period, end of story. The Coast Guard gets that. That's 23 one tower. 24 MAYOR SPEHAR: Or 20. 25 COMMISSIONER RICE: How can we deny ICE because AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 15 the military is going to put up a tower? That doesn't seem sufficient to pivot our entire decision-making process on that. And to say there is only going to be one tower, we could permit joint use with ICE, and six months later the military could put up a tower wherever they like. That's more than one tower. MS. CABANAS: Correct, yes. COMMISSIONER McCOY: The visual obscenity is going to be there, whoever owns the tower. But it will have to be controlled and designed in a specific way. At this time, we probably then should go to the state and to the federal government and say, "This is what we intend to do. Is this going to satisfy the reasonable needs of the military in the foreseeable future?" Homeland defense is another one of these things. It happens to be run right now in this area by a Coast Guard admiral. So we can talk about these things of homeland defense and everything, and the future needs, and make sure that if we are going to put an obscene thing on the horizon that it satisfies all the future needs of the military and any other agency that would have jurisdiction to put one up, regardless of whether we approved or disapproved. COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: Well, I would just remind you that they were going to do missile testing at one point in time in the Keys, and that didn't happen. So it's not a AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 16 1 "fait du complait" if the military wants to do it. It 2 depends on what kind of public outroar takes place. 3 The other thing that I would point out, ICE wants 4 to build a 970-foot tower in a tower -- what do you call it, 5 where there is a bunch of towers already. If the Coast 6 Guard starts talking about putting one on Sugarloaf, I'm 7 sure the Sugarloaf residents are going to have a serious 8 problem with that. 9 And I would think that possibly we might get our 10 lobbyist in Washington looking at what the Coast Guard is 11 planning. Certainly if it's a homeland defense scenario, 12 and they can prove need, then certainly we will probably 13 lose that battle. But outside of that, I would think that 14 the public will have some say-so in it. 15 MS. CABANAS: The Audubon Society has been 16 following the case throughout the course of it. I think 17 with as many federal bird sanctuaries as we have here 18 that was the issue, was the birds flying into towers. Of 19 course, there is the potential for some lobbying there. You 20 know, for instance, some exemption in the Telecommunications 21 Act for, you know, areas that are federal sanctuaries. You 22 have to link that federal jurisdiction together. 23 COMMISSIONER NEUGENT: And there are enough 24 environmental groups with loud voices in Washington that 25 will join in on that. I'm sure the Sierra Club, the Audubon AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 17 I Society. We saw them all at those meetings in conjunction 2 with residential 3 MS. CABANAS: Yeah, it would take some sort of 4 federal legislation to make sure we are not going to have a 5 series of these tall towers. 6 MAYOR SPEHAR: But they will come back again when 7 you present this at a meeting. They are going to come 8 against us and our decision as well. They strongly opposed 9 it. 10 MS. CABANAS: I can get the more specific 11 information from the Coast Guard to verify a lot of these 12 things and get with you individually. I guess I could poll 13 you individually to see if you want something put on an 14 agenda, rather than just dump it on you. 15 MAYOR SPEHAR: Is that okay with you? 16 COMMISSIONER McCOY: Do you have all the 17 information you need now, Ms. Cabanas? 18 MS. CABANAS: I do. 19 COMMISSIONER McCOY: Then can we conclude this 20 thing? 21 MAYOR SPEHAR: This closed session is now 22 terminated, and we -- well, I will entertain a motion for 23 adjournment. 24 COMMISSIONER RICE: I believe the County 25 Administrator has a comment or question. AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 18 1 MR. ROBERTS: I understand my direction is to 2 work with our Washington representative and see if he can 3 determine what military proposals for towers might be 4 existing in the Keys. 5 MAYOR SPEHAR: (The mayor nodded.) 6 MR. ROBERTS: I will take care of that. 7 COMMISSIONER RICE: Should we broaden that to say, 8 pending federal legislation? 9 MR. ROBERTS: Yes. And I do recall about a year 10 ago a case that was in Washington to remove tower location 11 from local growth management controls. 12 COMMISSIONER RICE: Right. I believe I have a 13 file on that. 14 MAYOR SPEHAR: All right. Shall we have a motion 15 for adjournment? 16 COMMISSIONER RICE: So moved. 17 MAYOR SPEHAR: We are adjourned. 18 (The proceedings concluded at 11:05 a.m.) 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ~- 25 19 C E R T I F I CAT E STATE OF FLORIDA COUNTY OF MONROE I, Amy Landry, Registered Professional Reporter, do HEREBY CERTIFY that I was authorized to and did stenographically report the foregoing proceedings and that the transcript is a true record. Dated this fB'f6 day of 1)-ert"1MJ.,M~ ,2003. ~ ~L Amy L~, RPR If Court Reporting Servlces P.O. Box 6484 Key West FL 33041-6484 AMY LANDRY REPORTING 305.294.0816