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Defeated council candidate rejects appointment opportunity
By DAVE SHELTON
Article published on Thursday, May 4, 2006 |
BELLEAIR BEACH – Former City Council member Marvin Behm is not among five residents who have asked to be considered for appointment to the City Council.
The vacancy was created in March when council members voiced support for naming former Behm to the seat abandoned by council member Ken Lucci after last month’s city election.
Council member Stan Sofer had suggested the city consider naming Behm to the empty seat since he had finished fourth in votes behind the three new council members who were seated. Behm was elected to the City Council in 2004 and lost re-election in the March election by 25 votes out of the 377 ballots cast in the city.
The council voted last month to see if other qualified candidates might be interested in the seat. Five applications were received.
The applicants are Kathleen A. Mortensen, a 18-year resident; George A. Gevo, a six-year resident; Joe Kane, a six-month resident; Catherine D. Hass, an 18-month resident; and Robert M. Burrell, a four-year resident.
Sofer suggested that the candidates be invited to make a presentation at the council’s next meeting and answer questions about their qualifications and “visions for the future of the city.”
In other action, a public hearing was scheduled for June 5 on a new code adding restrictions to new fences, hedges and walls around homes.
The city council approved the new codes at its May 1 meeting, incorporating Council member Jeff Coulson’s objections last month that it would have prohibited property owners from building courtyards at their front doors.
City Manager Reid Silverboard explained that, in the revised ordinance, a wall, fence or hedge could be raised in a line even with the foundation line closest to the street.
Several questions raised by council members were regulated by other parts of city ordinances, Silverboard explained.
Sofer said he was concerned, for example, with the new code allowing all property owners to erect fences within 3.5 feet of their property line except for those with corner lots. He said a corner lot would be defined as having two front yards where such fences wouldn’t be permitted.
Silverboard said that is restricted by other codes, not the new one being considered.
Mayor Rudy Davis, who eventually cast the only vote against the new codes, said he was concerned with maintaining the city’s restriction against wooden or plastic fences in a front yard.
“We should give some consideration to what the founders of the city set as a standard for us,” he said.
Silverboard said that would be addressed by an architectural design standards ordinance.
“We might get to that some day,” he said. “But that’s not something I think we’re ready for tonight. I think we have to trust people to use common sense.”
Sofer added, “This belongs to the esthetics of the property owner. I don’t think we can dictate the type of materials they use. I’ve seen some very effective wood fences.”
The new code would limit fences and walls to only 4-feet-high in a front yard up to 3.5 feet from the property line. Higher barriers could be erected at the closest building line toward the street.
Adoption of the code will be considered after a public hearing Monday, June 5.
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Article published on Thursday, May 4, 2006
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