May 20, 2023
Hi Everyone,
Thank you all for your support. Citizen turn out at our city meetings has been amazing. Your participation is essential, and having an impact.
The City of Oak Hill is currently seeking a city administrator. Our current administrator and deputy administrator resigned within days of each other. Monday’s commission meeting will be the last one for our current administrator.
The agenda pack for Monday May 22, 2023 was published this past Wednesday and contains numerous agenda items that if implemented, will impact the way our city conducts its business. On the agenda are four contracts and a memorandum of understanding. The contracts seek to engage certain services for our city, including: tree trimming, removal, and maintenance, pavement services for road, walkway and other surfaces, equipment maintenance, land clearing and hauling services. Another contract seeks to retain and provide payment for an economic development director.
Adoption of the contracts would make these independent contractor’s exclusive providers of the services they offer, to our city. This is not an unusual arrangement for a municipality to seek. What is unusual is the circumstance surrounding the endeavor. With the departure of our city administrator imminent, in fact just days after Monday’s meeting, adoption of these contracts would serve to hobble an incoming administrator by limiting their freedom to conduct city business as they see fit. A potential candidate will see what the commission has done and will realize the restrictions that these actions place upon their ability to setup and perform the job in a way that is best suited to themselves. It sends a loud signal. Adoption of these contracts serve no real purpose to the city in the short term, but stands to jeopardize the quality and quantity of the candidate pool. The incoming administrator should be allowed the autonomy typically afforded professional administrators and managers. For example, selection of our city’s Economic Development Director would be filling a staff position. All decisions regarding staff positions should be left to the incoming city administrator, not the outgoing one.
Another issue that stands out with these four contracts is that not one of them was put out for competitive bid as required by our city ordinance. Oak Hill Ordinance Sec. 2-322 says that “awarding of contracts involving public constructions and improvements must be authorized by the city commission and must adhere to the formal bid and contract procedures contained in this article.” Oak Hill Ordinance Sec. 2-319 – waiver of irregularities states, “as long as the waiver would not adversely affect competitive bidding by placing a bidder in a position of advantage over other bidders or by otherwise undermining the intent of competitive bidding.” Clearly, awarding these no-bid contracts serves to undermine the intent of competitive bidding and fails to comply with the spirit and intent of our city ordinances.
In our modern day, the solicitation of bids is not the cumbersome burden our outgoing administrator claims it to be. Email presents us with the advantage of setting up recipient groups of service providers specific to their specialties. These groups can be solicited for bids with a single click and provide documentation of the effort.
The scope of services outlined in the four contracts should be refined and contain associated pricing. Three of the four contracts make no mention of the cost of services provided and all are open ended with no schedule for review. It’s irresponsible for the commission (stewards of our tax dollars) to enter into a contract with a service provider without knowing how much it will cost the city. People typically don’t buy things when they don’t know what they cost.
The opportunity cost to the city, associated with the adoption of these exclusive contracts include exclusion from “piggybacking” on contracts that other municipalities and the county have with contractors providing like services. Oak Hill Ordinance Sec. 2-329 provides for these types of arrangements. Participation in these opportunities can provide our city with an improved quality of work and significant savings when available. Many contractors who do work for the county and larger municipalities have access to machinery and skill sets that are typically not available to our city due to the size scope of our budget and needs. For example, if Daytona Beach was resurfacing five miles of roadway and was given a quote for asphalt material, our city could potentially piggyback onto that contract and receive the same rate for materials and labor but on a much smaller job, like resurfacing Ridge Road for instance. Giving up this opportunity for convenience is short-sighted.
—————-
Resolution Number: 2023-07 – Temporary Delegation of Member of City Commission Certain Operational Authority of City. This document states that “the city has not been successful in retaining a qualified person to serve as temporary city administrator.” The plan here is to appoint a city commissioner as a temporary city administrator because “the city is in need of someone to assist in the day-to-day operations of the city who is familiar with the city’s operations and how local government works.” By appointing a member of the commission to act as a temporary city administrator, our commission is essentially preventing itself from functioning. Under this circumstance, it would be impossible for the mayor or a commissioner to seek information, guidance or other input from the acting administrator without risking a violation of Florida’s sunshine law. The commission would not be able to provide oversight authority of the administrator as provided for in Sec. – 6.02 of our city charter. I’m not sure if it’s possible for our city to obtain a temporary waiver of the sunshine law or how the dynamic of the commission providing oversite of a duly elected commissioner would work. Perhaps appointing a city officer (economic development director) or employee in lieu of a sitting commissioner, as provided for in Sec, 6.04 of our city charter, would move us closer toward that ever-present goal of working in the best interest of our city and potentially keep us from inadvertently violating Florida’s Sunshine.
——————-
Memorandum of Understanding between City of Oak Hill and Oak Hill Sports Club.
What’s good about this document is that it requires the Sports Club to obtain and maintain liability insurance in the amount of $1 million dollars naming Oak Hill as additionally insured. This acts to protect the city.
The Termination of Agreement Clause contains ambiguous language. It reads that either party may terminate the agreement with 30 days’ notice if necessitated by either philosophical differences or changing goals, or for failure to adhere to the responsibilities outlined above. Who decides what constitutes philosophical differences or changing goals? Must both parties agree or just one? The termination agreement should read: nothing in this agreement shall prevent, limit or otherwise interfere with the right of either party to terminate the agreement at any time with or without reason. This is clear, it protects both parties and leaves nothing to the imagination.
——————-
So that’s about it for new things happening in our city government this month. Despite state law, fulfilment of public records requests has pretty much grinded to halt. This means that updating you on old news is almost impossible. Hopefully we’ll be back on track soon.
The next Oak Hill City Commissioner’s meeting is Monday, May 22, 2023 at city hall. The time is 6:00 PM. We’ve switched from two meetings a month to one. The agenda and agenda pack are available by clicking here.
Please come and let your voice be heard. Your presence and participation are how we hold our commission to account.
As Always, it’s my pleasure to serve you, I appreciate your support. Please let me know what I can do to help. I’m here to represent you…
Joe Catigano
Oak Hill City Commissioner
Seat 3
