They Say it is a Part Time Job, But Is It?

We are often reminded that our jobs as mayors and commissioners are "part time," usually during comments on something critical about the elected official. Yes it is true that most of our charters do say it is a "part time" job, but what exactly does that mean?

For most people with a "part time" job that means no more than 30 hours per week, and that they are paid per hour on a regularly set schedule, not by salary. But when applied to elected officials, these limitations do not apply.

Many mayors and commissioners work a lot of hours per week and are more than happy to put them in. But, they come during the night, on weekends and during the middle of the day — when we are supposed to be working our full-time jobs, dealing with family matters or resting. It is often not time-specific and can come anytime, including at 1:30 a.m.

Then there are those who, though it is a "part time" job, put in way over 30 hours per week even though they have another full-time job. Why? Because the job requires it, and the public demands it. Typically, these dedicated individuals sacrifice their time and cut back their full-time job (with loss of income) and time for their families. Still, they have bills and personal matters like everyone else, and are expected to be there at any time.

The concept of "part time" simply doesn't apply.

The point of this is to state that while holding office is legally a "part time" job, in many cases it truly isn't. And it should be recognized as a job for which the concept of "part time" does not apply. After all, the last thing you want is to try to contact your mayor or commissioner to ask them something very important to you, and either you can't reach them, or they tell you that it's only a "part time" job and can't help you right now.

Repaving of Inverrary Blvd.

A lot of complaints have been received about the deterioration of Inverrary Blvd. and NW 70th Ave.  Even though the roads were repaved about 10 years ago.

The problem with the roads have been a result of the excess rains we have received and the extremely high traffic volume on these roads.

Funding has been obtained and the roads are in design.  Since Inverrary Blvd. is a county road, the county must be a part of the process and approve the plans and design.  This time the work on the roads will be more extensive to strengthen the roads so they last longer.

The work, once approved is schedule to begin in 2013.  More information will be posted when available.

LAC Gallery at Lauderhill Arts Center - First International Exhibition of Contemporary Miniprint

Swearing In for New Lauderhill City Commission

On Tuesday, November 20 at 12 noon, three City Commissioners will be sworn in.  Ken Thurston (unopposed), Margaret Bates and Howard Berger will be taking their Oath of Office, all for 4 years terms to expire in 2016.

All are invited to attend.

Groundbreaking of 19th Street Improvements Leading to Lauderhill Middle

Lauderhill Lions Basketball Youth Registration 2012-2013

The Secret for Getting Your Kid into a Top Rated Broward County School

By Sharon Arron Baron of Tamarac Talk  (www.tamaractalk.com) 

My son goes to one of the highest ranked High Schools in Broward County and we don’t even live near the school.

How did we do this? You’re probably thinking that I got special favors from important people I know downtown at the KC Wright building, don’t you?

The truth is, I do know important people, but that didn’t help me one bit.

I got my son in the old fashioned way… by working with the school district.

You see, it’s no secret that parents can reassign their children to another school, but what most parents don’t realize is that you don’t need any special circumstances to do so. In fact, you don’t even need to write an explanation on the application when it asks for a reason. Take it from the parents of our community to find this out for ourselves.

Back in 2010, many of us in our community in Tamarac wanted to get our boundaries changed. The middle and high school were not meeting Annual Yearly Progress (or AYP) and parents were enrolling their children in charter, magnet, private or religious schools. Many just gave up on the public schools.

We believed that having the boundaries changed would give us better performing schools.

Unfortunately, we soon found out that moving boundaries around was not something that would ever be approved by the school board due to fact that it would under-enroll many of our assigned schools.

When representatives with Broward Schools visited our community to speak to us about the boundary issues, they brought up the idea of reassignments. They said that as long as the Broward County school that we applied for had space, and as long as we provided transportation, our reassignment request could be granted.

This was certainly an eyeopener for many of us.

I met with the Demographics & Student Assignments Department at the KC Wright building and discussed this further and found out exactly how reassignments work. Every May 1 through June 15, the reassignment application window opens to allow parents to apply. This is not done on a first come-first serve basis. In fact, it doesn’t matter if your application is sent on May 1 or on midnight June 15. If there are more applicants than spaces, then the applicants are chosen by lottery.

Two years ago, this understanding of how the reassignment process worked allowed us to enroll our daughter into a Tamarac Elementary School that was performing better than our assigned North Lauderdale Elementary School.

Fast forward to this year when our son would be making a transition from private to public school. Our assigned school, Boyd Anderson, was ranked 399 out of 404 High Schools in Florida and rated a D.  Initially we applied for Pompano Beach High School, a magnet school, which ranks 13 in state of Florida and number one in Broward County.

Pompano Beach High School is not a very well-kept secret because over 900 students applied for 300 slots during magnet school enrollment last December. Unfortunately he was not one of the students that won a slot, so we researched other top performing high schools near us and Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, which ranks 20th in the state, would be our next choice.

Last April, Assistant Principal Denise Reed, informed us that Stoneman Douglas would have a decline in their enrollment based on projections from the two feeder middle schools. Hearing this gave us confidence that we might have a shot if we chose it on the reassignment application.

We crossed our fingers and waited.

In July we received the good news that our son’s reassignment to Stoneman Douglas was successful. Yes, it’s an 18 mile trip each way, but thankfully, another child in our community had her reassignment approved and now our families carpool each day.

So remember that anyone can reassign, and you aren’t getting special treatment by changing from your assigned school to a better performing school.  Parents must be proactive and research school rankings, test scores, and overall atmosphere to make sure their child and the school are a good fit.

To find out more about the school, I suggest you take a tour or visit the school like we did. If the school you are interested in does not want to give you a tour, don’t give up. The first time we visited Stoneman Douglas, a receptionist found out that we didn’t live within the boundaries and told both my husband and I that they do not give tours. We were treated like we were an inconvenience and went home.  Fortunately, I was able to get the name of the assistant principal, so that later I was able to get an appointment. If I hadn’t have met with the assistant principal, I wouldn’t have learned more about the school, its curriculum,  and with it, information on the fall enrollment.

Interested in reassigning to another Broward school? If you are willing to do a little research, and more importantly, willing to drive your child to and from that school, here is how the application process works:

• The student reassignment application window will open on May 1 and close on June 15th at midnight. Applications received after June 15 will be considered late and will not be processed.
• Each applicant must have a Broward County Public Schools student identification number in order to apply for a reassignment. If your child is not currently enrolled in a Broward County Public School, please go to your child’s home boundary school to secure a student identification number. This must be done prior to completing a reassignment application.
• Parent(s)/legal guardian(s) have the option to submit either an on-line application or send an application to the Demographics & Student Assignments office in hard copy.
• Only one application per student will be accepted. Duplicate applications will not be processed. No faxed applications will be processed.
• Students applying to kindergarten must be 5 years old by September 1st.
• You will find a list of schools with reassignment seats available when completing the application.
• Schools with available seats will be identified for reassignments based upon capacity at the school to align with Florida legislation regarding Class Size and School Concurrency within the District. Reassignment seats are identified at schools based upon the Permanent Capacity at the site. A reassignment will not be granted if it increases the school’s enrollment beyond the Permanent FISH (Florida Inventory of School Houses) Capacity (Policy 5004.1).
• Please be sure to fill out all sections of the application.

For more information on School Choice:
http://www.broward.k12.fl.us/dsa/school-choice.shtml

For more information on School Reassignments

http://www.broward.k12.fl.us/dsa/reassignments.shtml

Reprinted with permission of Sharon Aron Baron, with our thanks.

Memories in Art: Island Exuberance

Notes of the Commission Meeting of October 29, 2012

On October 29, the Lauderhill City Commission met and the following are notes of interest (all items passed unanimously on a 4-0 vote below, unless otherwise indicated)  NOTE:  Mayor Kaplan was absent due to medical reasons which are not expected to continue:


ORDINANCES & PUBLIC HEARINGS ----- FIRST READING:

1. ORDINANCE NO. 12O-10-149: AMENDING THE LAND DEVELOPMENT REGULATIONS AND ADDRESSING AMUSEMENT OR GAME ROOMS; AMENDING GAME ROOM AS PRIMARY USE, PARAGRAPH C BY EXCEPTING IN THE COMMUNITY COMMERCIAL (CC) AND COMMERCIAL ENTERTAINMENT (CE) ZONING DISTRICTS GAME ROOMS FROM THE SEPARATION STANDARDS BETWEEN SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES BUT NOT OTHER GAME ROOMS AND BINGO PARLORS.

2. ORDINANCE NO. 12O-10-150:   ADDRESSING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE USES AND GROCERY STORES;  TO CHANGE THE DEFINITION OF GROCERY STORE;  BY ADDING GROCERY STORE TO THE LIST OF USES THAT ARE EXEMPTED FROM THE SEPARATION STANDARDS.

3. ORDINANCE NO. 12O-10-151:   APPROVING THE AMENDMENT TO THE SCHEDULE OF RATES, FEES AND CHARGES PURSUANT TO THE FRANCHISE AGREEMENTS WITH REPUBLIC SERVICES OF FLORIDA.

4. ORDINANCE NO. 12O-10-152:   TO INCREASE THE RECYCLING RATES BASED UPON THE CONTRACT WITH ALL SERVICE, INC. TO ADJUST THE COLLECTION COMPONENT OF RECYCLING BY 80% OF THE JUNE CONSUMER PRICE INDEX (CPI) TO ENSURE THAT APPROPRIATE FEES ARE BILLED AND COLLECTED AS REQUIRED BY AGREEMENT.

5. ORDINANCE NO. 12O-10-153:  TO APPROVE AMENDMENTS TO THE WATER AND SEWER AVAILABILITY RATES BASED UPON THE JUNE 2012 CONSUMER PRICE INDEX FOR INFLATION; PROVIDING THAT SAID RATES AND CHARGES ARE NECESSARY TO COVER THE COSTS OF PROVIDING SAID SERVICES AND ARE IMPLEMENTED TO ENABLE THE CITY TO PROCEED WITH ITS 5-YEAR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN.

RESOLUTIONS:

6.  RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-227:  REQUESTING A RESOLUTION BE PASSED IN SUPPORT OF THE E911 COMMUNICATION FUNDING TO BE PROVIDED SOLELY AND FULLY BY THE  COUNTY ONLY AS AN AD VALOREM TAX LEVY (REQUESTED BY MAYOR RICHARD J. KAPLAN).

7.  RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-228:  OPPOSING AMENDMENT 4 TO THE FLORIDA STATE CONSTITUTION WHICH, IF ADOPTED, WOULD CREATE ADDITIONAL INEQUITIES IN FLORIDA'S TAX SYSTEM BY GRANTING CERTAIN TAX BREAKS TO SOME TAXPAYERS AT  THE EXPENSE OF OTHER TAXPAYERS (REQUESTED BY COMMISSIONER M. MARGARET BATES).

8.  RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-229:   OPPOSING AMENDMENT 3 TO THE FLORIDA CONSTITUTION, WHICH REPLACES THE EXISTING STATE REVENUE LIMITS WITH A NEW LIMITATION BASED ON INFLATION AND POPULATION CHANGES AND IS ON THE BALLOT OF THE 2012 GENERAL ELECTION (REQUESTED BY COMMISSIONER M.  MARGARET BATES).


DEES:

9. RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-230:   ACCEPTING THE PROPOSAL FROM KIMLEY-HORN & ASSOCIATES, INC. IN THE AMOUNT OF $38,400.00 TO PROVIDE ENGINEERING SERVICES FOR THE PREPARATION OF PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS OF THE "INVERRARY BOULEVARD RESURFACING PROJECT; PROVIDING OR PAYMENT FROM BUDGET CODE NUMBER 305-351-6525.

10.  RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-231:   APPROVING THE FINAL BROWARD COUNTY INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT FOR THE NATIONAL POLLUTION DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES) MS4 PERMIT; PROVIDING FOR A CITY MATCH IN THE AMOUNT OF $13,612.00 FROM BUDGET CODE NUMBER 450-925-3110.

11.  RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-232:  APPROVING THE AWARD OF BID TO PIONEER CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SERVICES, INC. IN THE AMOUNT OF $84,269.78 FOR THE PERMANENT RESTRIPING OF N.W. 56TH AVENUE FROM OAKLAND PARK BOULEVARD TO N.W. 11TH STREET; PROVIDING FOR PAYMENT FROM BUDGET CODE NUMBER 450-925-6525.

12.  RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-233: APPROVING AMENDMENT NUMBER 2 TO THE EXIGENCY PROJECT AGREEMENT ENTERED INTO BETWEEN THE CITY OF LAUDERHILL AND THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE (NRCS); PROVIDING FOR FEDERAL GRANT FUNDS IN THE REQUESTED AMOUNT OF $55,000.00 IN RELATION TO EMERGENCY WATERSHED PROTECTION MEASURES TO RESTORE DAMAGES SUSTAINED IN THE CITY DUE TO TROPICAL STORM ISAAC; PROVIDING FOR NRCS TO FUND $41,250.00 AND PROVIDING FOR CITY MATCHING FUNDS IN THE AMOUNT OF $13,750.00; PROVIDING FOR PAYMENT FROM BUDGET CODE NUMBER 450-925-6445.

13.  RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-234:   APPROVING THE CONTRACT WITH WEEKLEY ASPHALT PAVING, INC., THE CITY'S APPROVED BIDDER, IN THE AMOUNT OF $836,321.12 FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PROMENADE ALONG STATE ROAD 7/U.S. 441 AT 11TH PLACE TO INCLUDE MINOR ROAD, LIGHTING AND LANDSCAPING IMPROVEMENTS; PROVIDING FOR THE USE OF FEDERAL EARMARK APPROPRIATION FUNDS IN THE AMOUNT OF $678,40.00; PROVIDING THAT THE CITY OF LAUDERHILL HAS ALLOCATED $157,814.82 TOWARD THE PROJECT.

FIRE:

15. RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-238:   APPROVING THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT WITH THE METRO BROWARD PROFFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS LOCAL 3080 EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 1, 2012 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30, 2015.

16.  RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-239:   WAIVING COMPETITIVE BIDDING REQUIREMENTS; APPROVING THE PURCHASE IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $43,958.00 FOR TWO (2) 2013 FORD EXPLORER VEHICLES FOR THE FIRE DEPARTMENT BASED UPON THE CONTRACT ENTERED INTO WITH THE FLORIDA SHERIFF'S ASSOCIATION STATE BID (#11-19-09-07); PROVIDING FOR PAYMENT FROM BUDGET CODE NUMBER 001-305-351.


POLICE:

17. RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-241:   ACCEPTING THE 2012 EDWARD BYRNE JUSTICE ASSISTANCE (JAG) LOCAL SOLICITATION GRANT IN THE NET AMOUNT OF $35,333.00; PROVIDING THAT NO MATCHING FUNDS ARE REQUIRED.

18.  RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-242:   APPROVING THE SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE SCHOOL BOARD OF BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA AND THE CITY OF LAUDERHILL, FLORIDA REGARDING THE ASSIGNMENTS AT LAUDERHILL MIDDLE AND PARKWAY MIDDLE; PROVIDING TERMS, CONDITIONS AND FEES.


QUASI-JUDICIAL MATTERS
QUASI-JUDICIAL MATTERS, FIRST READING:

19. RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-243:   GRANTING TO CASABLANCA GAMEROOM, INC., A SPECIAL EXCEPTION USE DEVELOPMENT ORDER WITH CONDITIONS TO ALLOW THE CONTINUED OPERATION OF A GAME ROOM FOR ADULTS  AT 7301 A. WEST OAKLAND PARK BOULEVARD, LAUDERHILL, FLORIDA.

20.  RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-244:   GRANTING TO THE OWNER, VERO UNLIMITED LLC D/B/A USA AUTO CARE CENTER, A SPECIAL EXCEPTION USE DEVELOPMENT ORDER WITH CONDITIONS TO ALLOW AT 7030 WEST COMMERCIAL BOULEVARD, LAUDERHILL, FLORIDA.

21.  RESOLUTION NO. 12R-10-245:   GRANTING TO OKSCOMMERCIAL & U LLC A SPECIAL EXCEPTION USE DEVELOPMENT ORDER WITH CONDITIONS TO ALLOW IN THE GENERAL COMMERCIAL ZONING DISTRICT A DRIVE-THROUGH LANE AND OUTDOOR SEATING ON A 2.89+ NET ACRE SITE LEGALLY DESCRIBED AS LOTS 25, 26, 28, 29 AND 30, COMMERCIAL BOULEVARD SHOPPES NO. 1.