MINUTES OF MEETING
SUNSHINE WATER CONTROL DISTRICT
The regular meeting of the Board of
Supervisors of the Sunshine Water Control District was held on
Present
and constituting a quorum were:
Russell
Parks President
Mary
Macomber Vice
President
Also present
were:
John
Petty Manager
Bruce
Cranmer Attorney
Cedo
DaSilva Engineer
John McKune Engineer
Cory
Selchan Field
Superintendent
Jean
Rugg
Janice
Larned
Darryl
Kisson
Shawn
Sackman SunTrust
Bank
Jackie
Forster City
of
FIRST ORDER OR BUSINESS Roll Call
Mr.
Parks called the meeting to order and Mr. Petty called the roll.
SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS Communication
with City of
Mr. Petty
stated the first item is the communication with the City of
Ms.
Macomber stated I think it is incumbent upon the District to continue the
cooperation that we have enjoyed especially lately with the box cut canal and
all the other issues that we have that we are working in cooperation with. I must tell you I was very taken aback to
have the City Manager of Coral Springs call me at between my office and home
five to six times directly. When I
finally talked to him the first time, which was on January 24, he informed of
the meeting and I listened to what he had to say. He had derogatory remarks about Severn Trent
and said he thought they were falling apart.
He was not necessarily happy with our Supervisors and I thought it was
very inappropriate of him to be saying to me on the telephone. I listened to him, I did not answer, I said
fine I will put it on my calendar, I did not agree to go, I did not share
anything. As soon as I got off the phone
with him I called Mr. Petty and asked what is going on? We are a public body and I am concerned about
having our meetings in the sunshine. I
was very concerned to have Mr. Mike Levinson call me directly. He has called me several times since. The last time he called me he said he
believed there were miscommunications going on, he said he had talked with Mr.
Sobers, he gave me Mr. Sobers telephone number and suggested I should call Mr.
Sobers. He also said our Supervisor had
told “John Burdall” we were not meeting and it sounds like he is trying to make
decisions for our Board, which is certainly not the case because I asked to
have this meeting. I am frankly quite
considered about what the issues are that require the expedition of such a
meeting called not through staff which is the usual and the appropriate method
of setting things up but calling Supervisors directly not once but several
times. I did not return the last several
calls because frankly I had nothing to say to him. I am very, very concerned about why there
seems to be such a push to have a meeting when first of all I did not know if
it was appropriately noticed, we have to meet in the sunshine and there is no
way I was going to go to a meeting unless I am very sure that we were meeting
in compliance with the Sunshine Law of the state of Florida and certainly that
we would have full sunshine amongst ourselves in terms of why this meeting is
being called in the first place. I must
say this troubles me a great deal. We
have our responsibilities and we have be working on our efforts to assuage the
problems Wilma foisted upon us and it has not been easy. Mr. Selchan can attest to that with the work
his guys have tried to do and having gone out to see the actual devastation
myself it is unbelievable. What bothered
me at first were the trees down, but as Mr. Selchan has told me it is not the
major part of the job. Once you get the
trees out you then have to rebuild all of the banks. It further disturbs me in getting into all of
these dynamics Mr. Levinson mentioned
Mr.
Cranmer stated I found about this yesterday from Mr. David Hoyt at Mr. Petty’s
office. Mr. Sam Cohen at the city is
very cordial; we exchanged about ten words about the problem. He left a message with me and I tried to return
it just to tell me what the workshop was going to be about but we never got to
talk. Mr. Levinson never called me.
Ms.
Macomber stated I felt a significant amount of pressure being called so often
by the chief officer of the city of
Mr.
Parks asked what is the issue? That is
what I would like to know.
Ms.
Macomber responded my understanding is with the cleanup not being done
timely.
Mr.
Parks stated it is not going to be done yesterday that is for sure. I went around to look at all of the canals
and it is devastating to look at and like you said it is not just the trees it
is all the stumps that have to come out and all the work to be done on the
canals themselves.
Ms.
Macomber stated we know a lot of those trees are on private property, which we
discussed at our last meeting.
Mr.
Parks asked what are they concerned about?
What do they want us to do?
Mr.
Petty responded I wish it was a straightforward answer. We have talked to them with the same thought
of what are your issues. The first time
we met with them it was what are you doing and what is your program. We explained to them at that time we were
going to be doing the emergency work first and the debris removal second
because it was the program we had worked up with NRCS, not that NRCS controls
the cleanup but we are obligated in our due diligence to work with them so we
can get the taxpayers money back to them if they are entitled to it. Certainly we could have gone ahead and got
the work done but we would have lost the entitlement so part of our process is
to make sure we comply with it. You
District engineer has been very diligent in complying. We signed a document in early January,
submitted it to them, they accepted the document and then told us the program
was no longer funded. There is a new
program they said and you will still be in your current position of number one
seat and we will still commit to you the dollars we committed to you in the
emergency program but we have additional funding. We are going to ask you to come not only to
the emergency removal of debris, which was the debris in the water, but now it
can cover the entire canal and tops of the canal in the removal. Our engineer had a great deal of work to do
now because we are no longer looking at the isolated hot spots that we had seen
basically we are now counting every tree.
He went to every single location and did a broad inventory; it took 4
guys 2 ½ weeks. Going through all of
this as you can imagine you have to walk through this whole issue to find out
bank repair because until the leaves finally came off of the trees nobody knew
the scope of the bank damage. We went
back to them and told them the status and the new items came to rise. The new items were customer responses and the
city is getting quite a few calls and how do the respond to the residents. I said you know our program and the first
thing you do is tell them to call the District offices. The suggestion was we become a second tier
entity to the city and their system but all customer calls go to the city and
their computerized, automated customer service system would them tag each call
and we would be able to evaluate our response to see if we needed any
improvement. I thanked them and told
them I was familiar with the system but I preferred the human touch we
give. The idea of being the second tier
seemed to be predominant in our second discussion. I reiterated we are independent, proud of our
independence and reminded them of the job we had done during the hurricane,
which is keeping the water flowing in the city because their system had gone
down and ours did not. That our guys had
locked themselves in to the structure, we do not have the policy where winds
getting to 45 mph means you leave your post, when winds get that high our guys
lock themselves into their post. Our
guys have done very well and helped clear the streets immediately after the
storm and worked with the city staff and have continued to this day in doing whatever
clearing they can with the limited staff and equipment. They have done a phenomenal amount of
clearing with this limited staff and limited equipment. I met with them just last week and it had
changed a little bit more to where the direction the wanted the Districts to
have was more of customer notification now being the big issue. Before we do work within our canals and areas
they expected us to notify each and every landowner of what we were doing
before we started the work. I told them
we would notify residents when it is appropriate and we will do the work within
our areas as we see fit for the Drainage District and that it would be a nasty
( ) to say before I did any work
within my responsibilities I must first notify anybody within a certain
range. I told them they could not live
with such a policy; they tended to ignore that position and come back with you
must notify the residents. I would like
to work with you on communicating with the residents on what we are doing; in
fact your sister district
In
between that time CSID’s president has gone before the commission to provide
them with information to counteract some of the allegations going on in the
public meetings. He stood his ground and
I think he came out pretty well, but he was out numbered; each commissioner
gave him a shot and took turns doing so.
It was a difficult time he responded I thought very well. I would not think any Board member should be
put in such a position. It is not what
you would do with a peer, it is what you would do with someone you think should
take your direction. I believe the issue
is the independence of the District.
The
last question asked by the Mayor of Coral Springs to the president of CSID was
“you guys back when you started should have been independent then but can you
think of any reason on God’s green earth that now you should remain independent
and not become part of the city?” I can
think of several but I was not the one at the stand. It is difficult to respond to that. It gives me the indication where the
political pressure is on.
Without
having a one on one conversation and an exchange of information this is all
impression. I can tell you we are
continuing our work and we have that to discuss tonight. If it is the Board’s desire to have this
interaction we will set it up for you but I certainly cannot commit you to do
so without talking to you first.
Ms.
Macomber stated in my view we have done everything to work with the city and to
avoid an adversarial position, however it appears contrary to with the
city. I am concerned because we are an
independent entity and I do not know what people think they want to believe but
that is the way it is. Having said that
we have a responsibility to do our duty, which we have done all along and done
it in concert and in cooperation with the city.
I for one have no desire to sit in a bullpen to be lobed at over what
some people conceive as their own opinion as to what should be done.
Mr.
Parks asked why didn’t they come to our meeting?
Mr.
Petty responded they were invited.
Mr.
Parks stated our situation is so much different from what the city had to go
through, where they had to clean the roads so cars could go by and get the
lights back up. Ours is taking care of
the canals, which are entirely different, and much more complicated money wise
and everything else in trying to get this stuff done. We have to pick certain canals first so the
water flows and then after that come what may.
It might be six months it might be eight months.
Mr.
Petty stated I have been second guessing myself with all of this Monday morning
quarterbacking on did we drop the ball.
I talked with our staff at the last meeting because I had gone back and
we had responded quicker than most agencies I know of in this area and we can
prove that by being first in line with NCRS.
NCRS is the only entity that will work with a Drainage District on
cleanup after an emergency, FEMA will not.
Ms.
Macomber stated FEMA still owes us money from the last one.
Mr.
Petty stated we would have the construction under way had we stayed with the
initial program offered to us by NCRS.
You may recall in the first days of this hurricane there were quite a
few agencies running around, some legitimate, some not. We had tapped into some of these people
through the initial meetings after the hurricane that had visited city hall and
were trying to prey off of that group, they tried to prey off us as they saw us
sit in the meeting. Staff talked with
them as representatives of FEMA, staff learned later on they were not
representatives of FEMA and basically we do not know who they are. They had walked staff into a $10,000,000 for
just tree removal period no bank replacements.
Staff was thinking that was the estimate, thankfully they found out the
person walking through there was not a FEMA representative and in checking his
background found there was considerable concern, ended the relationship and got
our engineer involved within the first two weeks. We said we need our engineer to evaluate this
for number one to tell us what the scope of the situation is, tell us what
collective actions they recommend because the engineer is the one who certified
to us before it was operational and we are going to need him to certify it is
operational after. There is no one else
who can give that to you without you having some concerns, all of that
responsibility lies on your engineer. He
has done a Cracker Jack job of going after this knowing this is a fairly new
item for us. We have not been hit with a
hurricane in the history of
Ms.
Macomber stated we worked very well with the city when we did the box cut. It was a very cooperative program. There had been some animosity prior to that,
we got together, we sat down in good faith and we dealt with the issue. I think the message we should to the city at
this point is we are very willing to do the same thing on this issue of what we
are doing here but we need to decide for ourselves. We will take the responsibility of notifying
the citizens as we have done in the past, but I do not feel it is appropriate
to be pushed around by the city at this point.
We are an independent entity and we are trying to do the very best we
can and I think we need to get that message to the city.
Mr.
Petty asked can I ask for the Board’s direction that we continue our
discussions with the city of Coral Springs staff in the spirit of cooperation
and communication so we do not surprise them with anything and any requests for
contact with their elected body be sent through the District manager to bring
to your attention at a regular scheduled meeting.
Ms.
Macomber stated absolutely and we welcome their attendance at our meetings so
they know what we are doing.
Mr.
Petty stated the door is still open for communication.
Mr.
Parks asked are they kept informed of what is going on as far as the cleanup is
concerned?
Mr.
Petty responded yes, sir. We were just
at their offices Thursday of last week to give them the update on the new NRCS
program, the funding and the schedule.
Mr.
Parks asked what it is they do not understand about it?
Mr.
Petty responded I think they get it. I
believe there are issues. As we were
going through the notification we were stopped, they had received it and did
not need any further details. The issue
of notification to residents and the right of entry form came up. The response I gave them was the contract
does not call for us to use private property and if it does use private
property it is something we will work out with the contractor at the time. Our engineer would be there overseeing the
contract and if he has an issue he knows where to bring it back to the office,
we will contact the individual to see if we can get a right of entry or some
other means of getting to the problem.
It was our intent not to go on private property nor to remove any
materials from private property.
Ms.
Macomber stated we talked about it before and the liability issue.
Mr.
Petty stated our standard policy and the policy of drainage districts that
anybody working in a utility easement or right-of-way is you do not go on
private property.
Ms.
Macomber stated I believe you have summarized our intent.
THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS Discussion of
Hurricane Wilma Recovery Program
Mr. Petty stated I
will bring up our afternoon talks with the city of Margate, who I incorrectly
said was calling us to an arbitration meeting but there is a different term for
it. Basically they listed a Florida
Statute that required two government entities who are having a grievance to
come together and discuss the items.
After talking with counsel we attended today’s meeting.
Mr.
Cranmer stated it is a mandatory Chapter 164.
It was just a discussion until they terminated the meeting.
Ms.
Macomber asked does the statute just require that you meet?
Mr.
Cranmer responded yes, as a predicate to a lawsuit. Just when I thought the meeting was getting
productive they closed their books and said this meeting is over. I was absolutely amazed. We were at the point where we were talking
about a one on one risk assessment per site, the engineering aspects of
removing the trees and we were getting into this discussion when they closed
the books. They did not want to solve
the problem.
Ms.
Macomber stated I do not understand.
Mr.
Petty stated counsel had communication with counsel from Margate and counsel
from Margate floated the idea, as you well know, that what they wanted was
access to our property to remove the trees to which we said as a good neighbor
they could have as long as they filled out the form to protect us from any
liability from any suit.
Mr.
Cranmer stated we have done that.
Mr.
Petty stated counsel has been working with counsel of Margate diligently to do
so and counsel from Margate had indicated maybe they had another idea that they
were not going to be coming out and clearing the trees. They floated the idea of possibly becoming a
co-applicant with us with NCRS. We went
to this meeting expecting them to ask if they could become a co-applicant to
enable them to go on site to remove trees and possibly get funding from
NCRS. I have gone through several
different evaluations to say whether we could or could not or what the down
side was or what the upside would be.
During the discussions today they drifted off to a new angle of
something I could not quite ascertain so I asked directly do you wish to come
onto our properties to remove the trees and the city manager was crystal clear
in the city will not come on your property to remove the trees and the city
will not go onto private property to remove trees because it is a liability to
the city he will not tolerate.
Mr.
Cranmer stated this is totally contrary to Mr. Steinfeld. We hammered out an agreement, he made some
changes to it, and we agreed as they we cosmetic changes. They want to go in and do what we call phase
two, more of a cosmetic but occasionally the limbs hanging over houses, that
kind of thing. Our priority is to get
the canals cleaned out so water moves, their priority is people complaining
about trees in the yards. If we shard
our position in line with them our priority one would be distorted and we would
be doing a lot of priority two work.
Mr.
Petty stated plus we already have partners in that.
Mr.
Cranmer stated the city manager essentially as an accurate representation will
not go on that land, our land or anybody’s but yet the city attorney and I
hammered out an agreement to do just that.
Mr.
Petty stated on the issue about the site of the Townhomes of Oriole, thankfully
we have staff whose has such long tenure with the District. We have a long practice of trying to be good
neighbors. Mr. Selchan had kept on file
those incidences which gave him guidance on how to treat certain areas and be a
good neighbor. One item is an article
from 1992, Sunshine Sentinel, Northwest Plus.
It talks about the Australian pines in this area that are now down would
not be cut down at the residents demand.
It stated an owl they liked lived there, wildlife lived there and this
was an amenity for their townhome area.
They took walks in there, they jogged and as you probably know from your
tour we have a dirt road on the top of the bank, on the right side there is a
row of trees God did not plant, on the left side there is a row of trees God
did not plant, we know the District did not plant them and they want this path
as it is. This article basically says these
people had gotten the environmentalist and the Audubon Society involved so the
trees could not only not be removed you could not top them either. We worked on the other side of the canal to
maintain our access to it and the city’s accusation very early on in the
meeting was how did you clear one side and not the other. I said one side did not have an owl in it and
they thought it was a conspiracy which I tried to tell it was not but I do not
think they were buying it.
Mr.
Cranmer stated none of the people at the meeting were familiar with the
article. The people who are now
complaining are the very people who did not want the trees down. The Audubon Society was ready to file a suit
because the horned owl lived in the trees and it was all in the article. I believe that is why they terminated the
meeting at that point or shortly thereafter.
Mr.
Petty stated they then went to a slide of a tree at a angle going onto
property. It is hard to tell diameters
but it looks like a skinny Australian pine of about 6 inches. I think after the hurricane all of us were
taking a chainsaw to trees that size and it not so far off the ground a step
ladder will not get you there. We do not
know why it was not cut over the private property, we can understand why they
are concerned about it.
Mr.
Cranmer stated it is over a shadow box fence.
Mr.
Petty stated they said you will just fluff this off, won’t you and I said each
one will be evaluated on a case by case basis because if there is any
possibility of liability to the District we are going to have to hold back to
talk to the homeowner about cutting from their side and then we will take
ours. It was totally unacceptable to the
city. They expected us to remove all
trees from the area especially those over private property.
Ms.
Macomber asked what happened to the spirit of cooperation and calibration?
Mr.
Cranmer responded they showed us the best 14 slides they had, I looked at them
and said to myself I wish my neighborhood looked like that. If that is their biggest problem why are we
having the meeting.
Mr.
Parks stated they had some of the docks along there that have gone back into
the canal.
Ms.
Macomber stated the fact of the matter is we are already addressing the
issue. It is not as if we are ignoring
it.
Mr.
Petty stated our engineer has specifications ready to go out to bid on
Tuesday. He has a bid time of 15 days.
Mr.
McKune stated the bids will be received on March 2, 2006.
Mr.
Petty stated this means we will be able to award the day after. Our meeting in March is a time we will look
to you to award the contract. I will
defer to Ms. Rugg on the date.
Ms.
Rugg stated March 8, 2006.
Mr.
Petty stated it appears we will be able to react timely. We have quite a few things to discuss tonight
to put in place before that time and we need to walk you through it, but we
wanted to talk to you about some of the issues which are pulling us away from
the work. We will continue to respond to
the City of Margate’s demands that apply to us.
We will keep the Board informed.
The
second step I believe the city said was both Board’s will have to meet.
Mr.
Cranmer stated there is a Chapter 164 which has additional meetings. We had the first meeting and it is up to them
to decide whether they want to have another one, it is called a joint public
meeting. If it is mutually agreed they
can agree to a mediator.
Mr.
Parks asked did the attorney try to contact anybody after the meeting?
Mr.
Cranmer responded no.
Ms.
Macomber stated it seems to me we have the same approach with the City of
Margate as we do with the City of Coral Springs.
Mr.
Parks stated we are so far ahead of this process considering the federal
situation. We are first in line and you
are bidding next week. We have a
$8,000,000 problem with a $800,000 budget and they expect to all be done
yesterday.
Mr.
Petty stated we did repeatedly ask the City of Margate if they would like to do
that work and they repeated they will not do the work under any
circumstances.
Ms.
Macomber stated they do not want to go on private property but they want us
to.
Mr.
Petty stated the magic in that thought process I do not understand.
Mr.
Cranmer stated yet they want us to ratify their agreement tonight.
Mr.
Petty stated they did say they will help us get letters from the owners that
will absolve us of liability.
Mr.
Parks asked why don’t they do that for themselves?
Mr.
Petty responded they would find that unacceptable for themselves but they think
it is perfectly fine for us. I told them
I would have difficulty taking a couple of hundred letters to residents who I
did not know if they were the property owner, especially with the city who is
trying to help me but would hold no obligation.
I told them we will consider the matter if the city will do an
Interlocal Agreement with us, where they will take the liability issue on to
there shoulders, they would not consider the matter.
Ms.
Macomber stated all we can do is show them we are interested in working
cooperatively with them and we are addressing it nicely as best we can.
Mr.
Cranmer stated this is the agreement Mr. Steinfeld and I agreed on. This first draft was sent to Mr. Petty a
couple of weeks ago and there were some very minor almost cosmetic changes we
made at the request of Mr. Steinfeld. I
faxed it to him before the meeting today and he did not have any problems with
it. The City Manager has a problem and I
am not sure they are on the same page.
Ms.
Macomber asked are you recommending we sign it?
Mr.
Cranmer responded yes. The language he
wanted changed and what we did was they do not want to be responsible for
claims caused by any conduct of us. They
do not want to be responsible for restoring the right-of-ways to their prior to
Wilma condition; they want to restore them to the condition they find them at
the time. I did not have a problem with
it and he agreed with it. To show you
how responsive we were the very day Mr. Steinfeld called me on behalf of the
city regarding their desire to have access over our right-of-way. I said funny you should be calling we are
having a meeting tonight, what a coincidence.
We voted at the last meeting to cooperate, the first draft went out to
Mr. Petty he did not have a problem with it, Mr. Steinfeld responded on January
23 with his corrections, it was redrafted on Friday and I apologized to him for
not getting it to him on Friday afternoon when I had it done. The hurricane was in October, he contacts us
in January, January 23 he gave his critique and today we have a completed
agreement that he and I have signed off on.
Mr.
Petty stated we will ask that you accept the permit after review.
Mr.
Cranmer stated we are not responsible for any contract, we are not picking the
contractor.
Ms.
Macomber stated I would be more with a clause stating the city is responsible
for all costs incurred even though there is indemnification.
Mr.
Cranmer stated all we are giving them is the right to go across our land. We are not contracting with anybody they are
going to do it with their people. We are
not waiving our sovereign immunity we are simply giving them the right to cross
over. In fact someone has crossed over
the right-of-way because the photos show a section that has been cleared.
Mr.
Petty stated there was one section cleared.
The dirt road had not been that blocked, most of the trees had fallen
from the other side of the road.
Mr.
Cranmer stated they want to go across the right-of-way to clean out the
backyards. Frankly when I look at these
photographs I do not see any tree limbs which crashed into roofs or even
touched the buildings.
Mr.
Parks stated when I went through a couple of weeks ago there were no trees on
any of the buildings. They might have
been in the yard but they were not on the building.
Mr.
Petty stated reason for asking if the Board would like to take a tour was so
you had a visual reference.
On MOTION by
Ms. Macomber and seconded by Mr. Parks with all in favor the agreement was
approved as amended.
Mr. Petty stated the next item we
want to talk to you about is the handout we gave you. This is a summary of how we expect to pay for
all of this. Basically what we have
shown you is a simplified cash flow. It
does not have the nuts and bolts of how we beat up the bankers, one of which is
here.
It explains the concept of what our
issues are. We have a reserve fund for
replacing pumps of approximately $70,000.
Nobody anticipated this type of an issue and we just finished revamping
our pump houses completely so there was no need for that sum there. We had enough money for the replacement of a
pump or two, Hurricane Wilma had other ideas.
On page two it asks a couple of
questions and gives you some information:
What is a cash flow analysis? Basically it is budgeting. We are trying to get an option here that
gives you the flattest line, no big jumps up or down.
The first graph shows your existing
budget going up 3% each year cost of living.
The second graph is where we discuss
the options and the ways you modify your problems associated with debt is to
mitigate the term, the interest rate and the instrument. Thankfully we have Ms. Janice Larned here who
is a great magician with all three.
In looking at it you have a maroon
line which shows what would happen if you had the full impact on next year’s
assessments of a $6.5 million note with insurance and some insurance. This is would cover the construction we have
thought until this date. The one
criticism I have your engineer, Mr. McKune, is every time I talk to him he
shakes his head and gives me a higher number.
The $6.5 million was to cover $4 million in corrective action and so we
do not get hit with the Monday morning quarterbacking thereafter a $2 million
tree removal program.
I am bringing forth very subtly a
program for the Board to consider which is if we were whacked with $4 million
this year how can we possibly look at those trees as non threatening next
year. We will be going into hurricane
season in the next six months so while we have the tree guys there and instead
of waiting for the City of Coral Springs to enforce an ordinance that is
politically hard to do, even though they have tried. They put the stickers on the door but how do
you kick a guy out for not chopping down a tree. We can go in to clear our area it is our
right, it is our obligation now so if you approve of such a program the maroon
line represents us committing to increasing our assessments to handle the debt
service associated with it. We have
rounded the numbers a tad because we do not the bankers to think they are the
ones getting it, we are dealing with three different issues:
The first one is that our note will
be short term. We want to make it short
term because we want to roll it into a long term instrument. To roll it into a long term instrument requires
the public hearing process. The short
term note does not and we can enter into the agreement so the Board has due
diligence in considering how they want the long term to happen. We can go on commercial paper which is a bank
note or we can certainly do a bond issue.
There are a few other options you
can look at but those are the two main streams that you would consider. The short-term note will give you the luxury
of doing so and having plenty of time to do your public notice requirement
before you entered into a long-term instrument and get all your requirements
according to statute and constitution taken care of. The maroon line again represents entering
into a short-term note rolling it into a long-term note and the effect would hit
in 2007.
Mr. Parks stated we would have a
short-term note.
Mr. Petty stated with capitalized
interest so there would be no payments until it was rolled over into a fixed
term of 1 to 5 years which gives us time to evaluate whatever we want on the
long term end and we expect that to be 15 years. It does sound a little bit complicated but
that is okay because Ms. Larned knows her way around this sticky little brier
patch.
Ms. Macomber stated what I am
understanding you to say is if we embark upon this particular plan not only
will we take care of Wilma we will also take care of other areas that need to
be cleaned that we know of to prevent another like threat.
Mr. Petty stated the most obvious
threat is what we would go after.
The third graft is for the what if
scenario which is where we were last year.
Last year we did not anticipate Wilma, we had just gone through a
hurricane and spent $200,000 on tree removal and figured we were out of the
woods. We no longer have the luxury of
thinking like that after Wilma. The
third graft says if you adopt this as a financial policy, which we believe is
in the best interest of the District and staff is promoting to the Board, this
is how you would address Wilma II.
Through a similar fashion that we addressed Wilma I and you would do it
through assessments. The philosophical
battle going on here is do you tax people to build up a reserve before an
emergency hits or do you use your credit to address the emergency when it does
it. Staff is recommending to you that
you use your credit to do so and that you not tax before it is necessary to do
so. This shows you that even if there is
a Wilma II that happens this summer similar cost of $6 million which we hope
cannot happen because we have the trees down but if there is something else out
there like everybody’s roof ends up in our canals, or cars from a parking lot
or we have a major collapse of a culvert pipe which we do not anticipate at all
or something we cannot see which is why we have this that we would be able to
address it by bringing assessments up to approximately the $200 per unit
range. Certainly that is above your
existing position but it is still enviable across the state of Florida.
Mr. Parks stated these are what ifs.
Mr. Petty stated the third graft is
the extra protection. It really lays
down what we are asking you to do is to adopt a financial policy that allows us
to address Wilma I and the possibility of addressing Wilma II so that we do not
try and second guess ourselves come hurricane season this year. We will have the policy in place, we will
tell our bankers they are not as pretty as we thought they were and we have
others that are calling so that they do not get to set in their places and we
will work the District’s great credit rating to our advantage.
Ms. Macomber asked what do you need
from us this evening?
Mr. Petty responded we would like
you to accept the policy of using the District’s credit instead of building a
reserve. In doing so I believe it tells
all of the interested financial institutions this Board is serious about
raising assessments to the level necessary to pay off the debt.
Ms. Larned stated may I also say it
is adopting plan and a program versus just a reaction and a one time
event. It provides you with the option
of addressing it over a longer-term period in order to minimize the impact to
the property owners.
Mr. Petty stated this will allow us
as staff over the next several months and over the next several years to
communicate with residents who ask the question how do you take care of these
issues. We are now expecting
institutions and infrastructure to last through a storm of Wilma. It used to be batten down the hatches and it
is a dice throw, now it is expected that you not only last through it but your
services do not falter during it.
Mr. Parks asked if we went on the
reserve rather than the credit what are we looking at as far as taxes are
concerned?
Mr. Petty responded if you try to
build up that $6 million the impact would be subject to how long a window did
you think you had before you had the need.
Mr. Parks stated it would be a
continuing thing until you had the reserves.
Mr. Petty stated and you hope
nothing happens for a period of time.
Ms. Larned stated for example you
will have to double your rate in the first year and hold it flat for probably
five or six years in order to have that kind of excess revenue flow into a
reserve and hopefully in that time period you would not have another
event.
Mr. Petty stated if you want to
build up the reserves your assessments would be at almost the same level and
you would carry them for a little bit longer period of time and you would not
be able to address Wilma II until you had built up that revenue.
Ms. Larned stated I might also
mention there is a differentiation between having working capital and reserve
to meet on going operational expense and maintenance, which is usually called a
rainy day fund in addition to the working capital and is where your $70,000
works out very nicely as a nice percentage of the current budget. What becomes certainly a policy decision in
healthy debate is from a catastrophic event.
You want to be in the best credit worthy perspective instead of having
all that cash sit in the bank. While it
is great to have that and there are a lot of professional organizations out
there that use rising property values if you will as way to build their
reserves it goes back to the individual economics of the property owner in
whether or not they are going to get benefit of it during their lifetime. If there is a intergenerational parody, if
you will, if that money is not used.
This approaches it from the perspective of having catastrophic planning
mechanism without having to put the burden on the District property owners
until that event occurs and then you have the credit worthiness, which supports
the financing plan.
On MOTION Ms.
Macomber seconded by Mr. Parks with all in favor to adopt policy as presented
was approved.
Ms. Larned stated I would like to
thank SunTrust for all of the work they have done. We did compare to other programs within the
state through the Florida League of Cities as well as the Florida Association
of Counties and we found this to be a much more favorable plan.
Mr. Petty stated before we do any
actual financing it will come back to the Board. We hope to do that the same day we award the
contract, which is the meeting in March.
Ms. Macomber stated I would like to
thank staff for the work you have done, all of you.
Ms. Larned stated I failed to
introduce Mr. Darryl Kisson, from our office.
He has worked truly put in enormous work in gathering the data, doing
comparisons and working with staff and I am pleased to have him join us this
evening.
Mr. Petty stated I believe our
engineer is ready to give his report.
Mr. McKune stated as you this is
representative of what we have. This is
tough to see but this is Sunshine and all of the red marks means it is a
problem. The cross hatching means it is
a continuous run of things, the bulls eyes are individual points. We have located all of these and we have
calculated the amounts and footages of work area that needs repair. Based on all of the red we have 73,000 feet
of area, roughly 15 miles of canal bank of that 20,000 feet is root balls that
need to be removed and 45,000 feet of canal bank restoration, it is a huge
job. Mr. Petty is exactly right in that
I have been giving him differing numbers of this work and I still cannot give
him a firm number. Quite frankly no one
in this area has done work of this degree in a tight canal system. I spoke to one individual locally who said he
has 143 men coming off of a job that he could put right on to this job. I expect a broad range of prices.
Mr. Cranmer asked how long do you
think it is going to take?
Mr. McKune responded we have given
them 180 days for the contract. That is
the maximum NRCS will allow by their contract.
Mr. Cranmer asked are there
procedures for extensions?
Mr. McKune responded yes. I have spoke with NRCS about it and they said
it is not a problem if you show them good faith that you are trying to do the
job.
Detailed plans have been prepared
and specifications have been written, the advertisement is being sent to the
paper tomorrow.
FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Supervisor’s Request
and Audience Comments
Mr. Cranmer stated I received a
request from Mr. John Sherry of the Florida Legislature. They are doing a survey on the fee structures
of deferred compensation plans. It is a
questionnaire.
FIFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Adjournment
There being no further
business,
On MOTION by
Ms. Macomber seconded by Mr. Parks with all in favor the meeting was
adjourned.
_______________________________ _________________________
Mary Macomber Russell
Parks
Vice President President