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
Philip
Sobers Secretary
Also present
were:
John
Petty Manager
Bruce
Cranmer Attorney
John McKune Engineer
Cory
Selchan Field
Superintendent
Jeanne
Rugg
FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS Roll Call
Mr.
Petty called the meeting to order and called the roll.
SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS Award of Contract
Mr.
Petty stated this is a special meeting, and the intention of this meeting is to
cover any matters necessary to conduct cleanup and repair of damages caused by Hurricane
Wilma as expeditiously as possible.
It
says award of contract, but what we are actually considering is our apparent
low bidder we awarded at the last meeting being able to fulfill the obligations
of the contract in a timely manner.
Friday, at
Mr. McKune stated he was given until
close of business this past Friday to provide a Performance Bond, Payment Bond
and Certificate of Insurance and he did get it in on Friday. We talked with the contractor Friday
afternoon and he is prepared to work. I
told him there will be a preconstruction meeting either tomorrow or Wednesday
and he said he would be prepared to be in the field right after.
Mr.
Cranmer asked do we have a preference of where he will commence work?
Mr.
Petty responded we have some priorities, one of which is the east outfall
canal. Our outfall canals, as everyone
knows, are critical. We just had three
inches of rain and a tornado or two, so rainfall events are certainly on our
minds. We want to make sure our outfalls
are clear and then work on other priorities as the engineer sees fit. The contractor has to be given some leeway on
his construction schedule which allows him to move along as he saw fit during
the bid so we do not get additional charges, but certainly we can give him a
priority of the east outfall, which is our intent.
Mr.
McKune stated we discussed priorities with him and he said where ever we wanted
him to start he would.
Mr.
Sobers asked as part of those priorities what about our neighbors to the east?
Mr.
Petty responded the east outfall will be one which will impact them the
soonest, and as we said during our meeting at Margate, we talked about how once
we get a contractor, in the vicinity he will do all the removal at once and not
come back. We are finding with our contractors in our sister Districts the
contractor does not like to mobilize twice to the same location. Even if we are removing stuff from our canal,
which is our priority, to go over into our maintenance road and remove material
while he is there, is what he should do.
We think we will be able to address the situation with the group of
people who have, you know, voiced certain concerns to this District very
soon. We are not asking for any action
on this matter from the Board because we are not requesting you award to the
next lowest bidder, since this one has complied. I can tell you the upside is we have two
contractors now working in the City of Coral Springs; one for Coral Springs
Improvement District, Arbor Tree, and then for us, Miami Environmental; I kind
of like the idea of having two. There is
no such thing as a pure contractor so to speak they all have their
difficulties. I like the idea of having
two to move back and forth from.
Mr.
Parks asked can we do that?
Mr.
Petty responded yes, sir. If there is
any trouble with our contractor, if he fails any of the obligations of the
contract our engineer has been instructed by staff to be monitoring it very
closely and to bring it to our attention and we will institute action as deemed
necessary. We do not anticipate any
other than the normal contractor woes, it is fairly standard. We will work with them to the best of our
ability.
Mr.
Cranmer stated I recommend Board approval for the Attorney to notify the City
of
Mr.
Petty stated I just want to let you know we are also in contact with the
Manager’s office at the City of
Mr.
Sobers stated according to schedule work should commence on Monday, April 3rd.
Mr.
Petty stated we should have a significant amount of work done by the May 1st
date. President Parks, we have not
summarized our meeting with the City of
Mr.
Sobers stated it is also advantageous next week is daylight savings time, and we
can get some additional work done. Has there
been established a start time and end time of the day in terms of a noise
ordinance?
Mr.
Petty responded there is a noise ordinance or a construction time period which
is allowed in the City of
Mr.
Parks stated I believe it is
Mr.
Petty stated we have seen with the other contractor as light is not really
available at 7:00 a.m., they do not get started before that time, and supper
time usually pulls them out before too much of the evening goes by.
Mr.
Parks asked what was the problem in the beginning with this; I did not
recognize your facts you sent to me too well?
Mr.
McKune responded they did recognize them but they were slow to respond.
Mr.
Petty stated we ran financials on this group.
The financials came back sound. As
long as they got the paperwork done we felt better they were here. Their construction techniques are not unusual
for the tree removal business. They are
not as unique as Arbor Tree with their barge ability but they do have a barge,
and we will be working with them on all their concerns about access, because as
you know getting into some of our canals is tough.
Mr.
Sobers stated I am surprised tonight a representative for the contractor is not
in attendance, it is a lot of money.
Mr.
Petty stated I cannot hold it against them.
I can tell you a lot of contracts have been let by your sister District
where the contract has not shown up. I
have seen utility contracts Mr. McKune has done for CSID for larger numbers
where he has not shown up. I think they
leave the politics to the politicians and they do the work mostly by attention
to the engineer. Mr. Sobers is there
anything you would like to bring to the Board’s attention on the City of
Mr.
Sobers responded I thought you did a great job standing up to the verbal
pellets. I think we got our point across
establishing confidence.
Mr.
Petty stated for a City of
Mr.
Parks asked did the Board know the City Manager walked out of the meeting the
first time, were they aware of this?
Mr.
Petty responded we did not bring it up. As
a matter of fact we made a point of trying to stay away from the past, to try
and work on a positive resolution for the future. One of the points where I made one of my
statements was when Mr. Tobin remarked on the last ten years, and made
accusations of a ten-year abusive history.
I asked if they wanted to work on the past or if they work on the
future. They said they wanted to go
ahead, so we moved on.
Mr.
Cranmer stated the City Attorney started the meeting by saying they had a slide
presentation which would inflame the audience, but he had received faithful
communications from you prior to the meeting, so he turned the floor right over
to you and he completely disarmed most of the audience.
Mr.
Petty stated I can tell you most of their actions are still ongoing. They still reserve the right to come after us
with a lawsuit, although that may be difficult for them to do, and they still
have their bill pending at the State level.
I can tell you your special counsel is working on it and you actually
have two, one is statutory, Mr. Van Assenderp who is looking at the issue of
safeguarding the District in future events from any nuisance bills which we
feel this resembles. If there is reason
to merge with local government that makes sense certainly it should be considered
but to do so under threat without due diligence is what I would consider to be
a nuisance and we are looking for Mr. Van Assenderp to see what he can do with
Florida statutes in making special Districts a little more secure. We were created by the State and we do not
believe we should be disillusioned at the whim of a political issue. He is looking into it and Mr. Book is looking
at the bill itself, and from both we are getting very favorable reports. They do not believe the bill is going to go
much further and Mr. Van Assenderp believes he will be able to address the
statutory issue.
Mr.
Cranmer stated it says upon the expiration of these terms the City of
Mr.
Petty stated there are a couple of points in the bill which staff has remarked
on to the Governor’s Office, who has contacted our counsel to ask questions about
the bill and counsel has responded, staff has responded with a little bit of
history. I think Mr. Van Assenderp will
be responding to the statutory issues.
So far I think we have a good response going and a good dialogue
going. I believe locally we do not have
the budget or the staff to compete with the local municipalities and I believe
it to be impossible to try to have a fair discussion of the issues. We are just overmatched. It is only at the State level that I feel we
have a fighting chance, and that is
always the way it is been with special Districts
that are focused on their single purpose.
Unless
there is any further discussion we will move on to the next item.
Mr. Parks stated you mentioned
before a letter should be sent to Margate to tell them what is happening.
Mr. Petty stated we will call them
direct, sir. We are on good
communications with the current City Manager, or acting City Manager, and I
believe counsel has a good rapport.
Mr. Cranmer stated we met over some
housekeeping details, notification and that kind of thing. I think he is acting in good faith and the
Assistant City Manager was productive.
Mr. Petty stated yes, he was. Their City Manager, by the way, is in the
hospital with a health concern.
THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration of
Resolution for Loan Agreement
Mr.
Petty stated the next item is a resolution talking about the note where we are
looking to acquire $6.7 million for cleanup of Hurricane Wilma,
re-stabilization of our banks, and also what we have talked about in the past,
which is a tree removal program. Over
half the trees are still standing in our District, and after we have spent this
money this year removing those which have fallen, we owe it to our residents to
look at any trees standing as a possible threat to the drainage system. We are going to talk about it a little bit
more.
However,
first I would like you to take a look at the loan agreement. These are the conditions we talked about
before, which the Board has already approved.
Ms. Janice Larned has increased the amount from $6.35 million to $6.7
million to cover any possibilities based on some prices received by your sister
District on the removal of standing trees.
The contract came in considerably higher than what we anticipated and we
adjusted the amount with SunTrust accordingly.
If you recall this is for a short-term note which will be rolled over
into some other mechanism as we see fit when we do our budgets. October 1 is the date we would roll this into
a one, two, three, four or five year note, or even longer. We can roll this into a long-term note, which
is what we anticipate.
Mr.
Sobers asked what is your maximum term limit?
Mr.
Petty responded 15 years is what we have discussed with this particular vendor,
which is SunTrust. We have the option of
going up to 30 years if we do a bond. We
have looked at cash flow analysis for this District which we shared with you at
the last meeting, or the meeting before, which basically says the $6 million up
to $6.5 million can be handled over a 15 year term with an increase of
assessments of about 55%. We feel we
will be able to handle the removal, repair work, as well as a tree program and
still stay fairly close to our historical level, which is about $100. Actually you have stayed quite below $100,
but I am going to try to keep the number higher in reference as we go closer to
$155.
This
resolution will be the start of the loan process and we are asking the Board to
approve.
Mr. Sobers
moved to approve Resolution 2006-3 in an amount not to exceed $6.7 million and 15-year
maturity.
Mr.
Sobers asked are any capital improvements being explored as an option?
Mr.
Petty responded if I could, before you adopt the change, some of this work is
considered to be maintenance. The tree
removal, for example, of healthy trees is considered to be maintenance. We are asking for the capital improvement
which is the removal of downed trees and reshaping of the banks which is
considered capital improvements, we believe, and removing the healthy trees
will be maintenance. We would like the
Board to approve it based on both.
Mr.
Parks stated the maintenance was approved quite a while ago, with the
Australian Pines especially.
Mr.
Petty stated we have been doing it section by section. This will be a fast track program, and we will
bring it back to the Board once we bid the job before we award. This is acquiring the money so we can do it. Remember with this note we can prepay without
penalty at any time. Whatever parts of
this money we do not need for expenses, we will send back to SunTrust and will
not have to pay a penalty.
On MOTION by Mr.
Sobers and seconded by Mr. Parks with all in favor Resolution 2006-3 the Loan
Agreement in an amount not to exceed $6.7 million and 15 year maturity for
capital improvement and maintenance was adopted.
Mr. Petty stated this is a heck of an instrument and is the first time we have been able to do this since I have been in this business
STAFF REPORTS Staff Reports
A. Attorney
Mr.
Cranmer stated other than my very productive sessions with Mr. VanAssenderp;
Ms. Mary Tanner, from the Governor’s office, wanted a letter from me and I ran
it by Mr. Petty and Mr. Van Assenderp.
Mr. Petty did a more detailed letter.
I think we know what the Governor wants to see and what the prefaces
are. The only other thing I would bring
up, and I do not know if this is the appropriate time, the fee I have been
getting since I started in this position in 1993/1994 has not been changed
since 1982.
Mr. Petty stated I am sorry but it
is typical of Sunshine Water Control.
Mr. Cranmer stated well some city
managers might say that, and what I propose is a 50% increase.
Mr. Petty stated we are asking
counsel to do above and beyond normal work on this special project. I believe the billings should be adjusted
accordingly and we can pay it. We have
funds earmarked out of this loan for such costs for counsel, and when we do the
budget in our May meeting we can look at the annual fee as a retainer. I certainly think his fee should be updated
to at least the last decade. I can tell
you a typical attorney fees are around $300 an hour or more. I believe the fee in place is somewhere
around $150 - $175 an hour basis probably.
Mr. Cranmer stated when I signed on
it was $500 per month retainer with the exception being litigation, and what
ever has come up I have never billed the District. Fortunately there has not been any litigation
to refer out other than one case which was referred out, the homemade kid dock
issue where we educated the insurance defense counsel and had the case taken
care of. It is the only one I can think
of and this pending issue here I have been in contact with the adjuster for
your carrier.
Mr. Parks stated I think we probably
all agree there is extra over what you have normally done.
Mr. Petty stated since he brought it
up and I am starting to run the numbers in my head, we actually save a few
bucks if we just raise him up by 50%.
Mr. Parks asked will it come up in
May?
Mr. Petty responded we can make the
adjustment at this meeting and make a budget amendment later on in the year.
Mr. Sobers asked are these fees
ordinarily set locally or pursuant to Florida Statutes?
Mr. Petty responded neither. They are set by this Board.
Mr. Sobers asked does it include the
Supervisor’s fee?
Mr. Petty responded not the Supervisor’s fee; those are controlled by statute. The attorney, by statute, you must decide on based on qualifications. The price is whatever you can negotiate to get the best qualified attorney you can. I think we have a very qualified counsel. It is very reasonable to ask for a 50% increase at this time based on the work he is doing, which will continue for the next several months, and then for us to consider putting it as a standard in the budget and considering it on an annual basis.
On MOTION by Mr.
Sobers seconded by Mr. Parks with all in favor a minimum 50% immediate increase
in Attorney’s fees was approved.
Mr. Petty asked do you have anything
further?
Mr. Cranmer asked do I also have
authority to copy the City Manager of Coral Springs on our progress report?
Mr. Petty responded I believe you have that direction from the Board.
B. Superintendent
Mr.
Petty stated I have discussion tonight only, I am not asking for action.
It is our intent
to work with the Board on a tree policy for our right-of-ways. We are going to talk a little bit about the
two programs staff has come up with for you to use as your basis. Of course we can modify and once we adopt a
tree program, assuming it means removal of any existing healthy trees it is
what we will use the second part of our note for we just approved at the
meeting.
The first option is, we call it
green space, no bushes or trees basically from the edge of right-of-way to edge
of right-of-way. You will allow nothing
but sod. It is the one preferred by your
superintendent of field operations. I do
not have a preference based on my love of trees or bushes but based on what I
believe the residents are going to ask.
This program is very easy to do.
You just clear everything within the right-of-way. The engineer can spec it very well and he can
oversee it very well. It causes staff no
additional work whatsoever other than, of course, you just took down my
tree. It is a very viable program. There are a couple of downsides, but the pluses
are evident. We will not have any issues
during our next storm.
Mr. Sobers asked what is the
distance between the two arrows?
Mr. Petty responded it varies
considerably. The 14 feet was for NRCS
which is not our easements. As our
engineer has taken great time to explain to me; our canals which are within the
right-of-way are not center of the right-of-way. They are either going to right or left of the
center line, which will leave you typically a wide spot on one side and a very
narrow spot on the other. In some cases
I believe, an example is 20 feet of easement on one side and five feet of
easement on the other.
Mr. Cranmer asked is this from
natural erosion or creation?
Mr. Petty responded it was from the
way it was constructed. You put your
heavy equipment on this side and dug your hole, dropped your dirt, they hauled
it of, and you will dig out almost to the edge. In some areas such as box cuts I do not even
know if you have got that.
Mr.
Selchan stated maybe a few.
Mr.
Petty stated it was basically dig it and work backwards.
Mr.
Selchan stated correct.
Mr.
Petty stated the easements vary and is why we just have from right-of-way line
to right-of-way line, and in some cases right up to the bank. Again it gives the contractor very clear
instructions and we know what we are doing. The other option will be one which allows
certain plants to stay in the right-of-way under permit conditions. I have a couple of pictures to give you an
example. This is right up the street,
and if you notice there are these trees planted next to one of those concrete
walls next to a shopping center as a required buffer. For some reason it has historically been the
buffer was planted in what we consider the right-of-way. Now it is just 20 to 25 years worth of what
has happened. I cannot tell you how or
why or what the concept was from a maintenance perspective, although I am sure
we never gave it consideration or permitted it, because there has not been any
policy anybody remembers, and we go back quite a way. This is an example of mostly green space, but
as you notice, or you may not, as you get closer to the fence here and then
some ornamental trees planted just on the other side of the fence, which will
be within our right-of-way. While this
is mostly green space as well, you will notice again they are planting hedges
next to their fence as a border, which is fairly common. We have ornamentals, we have hedges and we
have both trees and ornamental. The
display basically tells you what is going on and we will remove any
non-ornamental which will basically be any Australian Pines, Brazilian Pepper, Willow,
or any tree we think will cause us a problem during a storm. If a coconut tree falls into the canal during
a storm, I do not think we have a big issue but as staff has mentioned they
could have a Fichus hedge this tall. If it
is done by permit we have a way of going back, I believe. You are talking about increased duties of the
staff to appease the residents’ need to have ornamentals. As a resident, I am going to tell you I would
probably lean towards this one, because I want the residents to feel we are
servicing them without putting demands on them.
Mr. Parks asked on the one you are
talking about there, is it wide enough for them to get a vehicle in to do
maintenance?
Mr. Petty responded if it is by
permit it will say if we have to come through to do any maintenance, your tree
is at your own peril, we will knock it down.
If it falls down during a storm it is at your cost. Any erosion cost to the bank is at your cost
as well and if I have a permit I have a way of either charging them if they do
not do it, do the work myself, or asking them to do it.
Mr. Cranmer stated it sounds like
the dock issue. We are going to permit
it, regulate it, and we have most of the people looking at us.
Mr. Petty stated if we go back in a
tree removal policy we can do so. The
only District who has done so in the area is a little District called Coral Bay,
and it was one I was running at the time, it had got to rather large
proportions, we had to do some erosion control and we could not get back
in. We worked very hard on a policy over
a long period of time working with the residents to the best of our ability and
it does get to be an issue. Residents
will come back to defend what they believe to be their property. When I did go back with our crews to clear
the area, we made sure a police officer was present, because there were threats
on the contractors. On this particular
one the only other downside I will say is apparent to me at this time is if you
make it all grass it is quite possible a lot of residents will want you to
maintain it. They will see it as your
property, which it is, and in a lot of cases we own it, it is not just an easement,
and we will say it is yours to maintain and we are in the mowing business for a
hundred miles of canals. Mr. Selchan
feels he can handle the mowing through a contractor.
Mr. Selchan stated there is a city
ordinance which says the homeowner is responsible to the water’s edge. It is the same as the right-of-way in front of
your home you maintain. They are pretty
good about enforcing it as long as it is grass.
Once it becomes wooden material then it is well, when we bought the
house it was there, we cannot make them cut it down. But if it is grass they will make them mow it
just like if you do not mow your front yard they will come and cite you and
say, please mow it. I believe with the
grass we would be safer than if there is wooden material. I personally believe it is going to lead to
more maintenance in the future. They
will not maintain it the way you ask them, even if they have a permit and if
that resident moves, the next resident may not follow the rules of the permit
or even be aware of the permit. I
personally believe it will be easier for me, as the field person, who has to
physically do the work and get the equipment out there if there was nice green
path. If someone gets out there I know
right away out where he does not belong. We do not have to worry about if one guy sees
another guy putting something up, he does not know he got a permit; he just
sees he has something out there. I find
for my job it would be very difficult for me to regulate it – who has a permit,
who does not have a permit, what you are going to allow, what you are not going
to allow. As Mr. Petty said, one coconut
tree won’t be a problem, but if everyone has coconut trees it is going to be a
problem; that is my personal opinion.
Mr. Petty stated it is a valid viewpoint,
and one for you to consider.
Mr. Cranmer stated but you can
permit and place it in record.
Mr. Selchan stated nine times out of
ten when I run into a problem on a right-of-way with a tree or a bush or a
fence, the homeowner says it was like that when I bought it and I do not want
the responsibility of cutting it down or maintaining it and I bought the house
because I love the tree.
Mr. Petty stated let me give you the
counterpoint, after 30 years of, this is not a new ordinance by the way, this
was created by the city founders, the whole concept of the city founders who
also created this District was it would be maintained by the landowners, so we would
not be in the mowing business and therefore we would keep costs down; we will
have 50,000 people mowing the grass for us.
We just awarded a contract for $3.5 million based on the efficiency of
the City of Coral Springs enforcing it.
I have read through reams of letters demanding the city enforce it. A confrontation with residents where we have
called the city to back us up, where we have gotten into litigation over this
issue in the past, where we have gotten into this charge of we are going to
make you a dependent District, as we currently are in, and we have no ability
to make the city enforce the ordinance based on the history. We are currently with the City of Margate in
a lawsuit which asks the City of Coral Springs to control us. The City of Coral
Springs is supporting the bill, and they are very well aware of this ordinance
requiring maintenance down to water’s edge, and they know the people in Margate
in the Oriole complex are responsible for maintaining down to water’s edge, and
we are not getting any satisfaction there.
I would not think we will get satisfaction in the future. Regardless of what policy I think you decide
on; it will be based or have to be based on your ability to enforce it based on
your maintenance of your right-of-way versus any ordinance of the city.
Mr. Parks stated you had a lot of
problems from box cut canals.
Mr. Selchan stated I think most of
the letters he is referring to, and a lot of what, he is referring to, is the
box cut canals and with cooperation from the City. When Mr. Roger Moore was here we got a couple
of the city officials to listen to us about our concerns and based on some of
what Mr. Petty says, the lack of enforcement, nobody paid any attention to
this, so do not put it all on our plate and we will not put it all on your
plate, and we work together to resolve it.
The city has assured me more than once, different personnel from the
city, they would like to work with us; we just need dialogue to work
together. I think it is more reasonable
to ask the city to help us enforce someone mowing their grass than to ask them
to cut their hedge or trim their giant tree or do any other more costly type
maintenance. Mowing your grass is a
reasonable request I think I can ask the city to cite them if they did not do
it on their own, and I believe if it was a clean maintenance area with nothing
but grass it will be much easier for someone to look down to see someone is not
maintaining it rather than if it is covered by material and you cannot see
halfway down the canal. You do not know,
the city does not know, I do not know – no one sees they are not maintaining it
and I think is where we are. They
started with a little bush, then another little bush, then a tree, that bush
turned into a tree and it just accelerated. Once one person encroached, the others started
encroaching and pretty soon everyone is out on the property. We found out after recent events of Wilma it
becomes a maintenance nightmare to try to get equipment and so on and so forth
in that situation. Even though, as Mr.
Petty stated, you can have a permit and you go back to them and say, but you
are still the one who has to take the action to move it and do what you have to
in an emergency situation, they are not going to do it immediately.
Mr. Sobers stated in view of the
fact our right-of-way has to be maintained if it is just grass it eliminates a
lot of liability from us.
Mr. Selchan stated as Mr. Petty said
we have to maintain it.
Mr. Petty stated I wish it was that
logical. I can give you, unfortunately,
my experience covers both spectrums, I have done drainage Districts and probably
the only one amongst the Districts here who has done that – gone in and removed
trees in the right-of-way, and allowed permitted trees to stay, the only
example I know of. I can cite you an
example of a District who was all grass, East Broward Water Control District,
and it is one of the most attacked Districts I can think of, besides us. Multiple municipalities have been trying to
disband it or make it dependent for at least eight years over the issue of you do
not maintain it, the grass grows high, it looks like trash. They want it manicured like their yard. You have 20 feet, he is not going to mow 20 feet, you can not put
a fence back there, you will not allow him to do anything back there, it is yours;
you have to maintain it. They are
in the mowing business and they mow four times a year – rough cut mowing. They are taken to task because it does not
look manicured for a period of time and is why I give you the example that if it
is a green way you may have to maintain it.
As you can tell these are both divergent view and both sides have fairly
logical arguments for deciding it.
Either way has ramifications. One
if you leave the permitted trees, you have trees which may fall during a
storm. I cannot think of a year the District
has been in existence that you have not but you would see that in the
future. If you turn it into a greenway,
you have a possibility residents would be upset with you for removing some of
their trees, and you may end up being in a maintenance business, because unlike
Mr. Selchan’s relationship with some of the field personnel, mine is directly
with the city officials and management, and I have no illusions to a long-term
commitment to enforcing of that material.
The city has very complex laws it enforces on every homeowner. I do not know if you have been cited in your
neighborhood. I have been cited in mine
for not having a cover around my air conditioner, even though I bought it in
1976 and there was nothing there. They
cited me for my tree house in my back yard, which I successfully defended, but
they are enforcing a lot of the deed restrictions they have accepted from WCI,
as a master homeowner association, which is a very unique position, a very
complex set of issues. I do not believe
this is beyond the city’s ability to monitor permitted trees, but again there
are pluses and negatives on both sides. Mr.
Selchan has been here for 24+ years, and has done a heck of a job for you. I am not going to stop him from speaking in
that regard. I think his point is valid,
so again we want you all to think about it, and we will come back to you at the
next meeting, and we will talk some
more.
Mr. Parks stated I can understand
Mr. Selchan’s point very well. There are
going to be a lot of complaints from citizens.
Mr. Petty stated one thing we can
not lose sight of no matter which one we pick is we are a drainage District; we
are only authorized to work on drainage and spend money on drainage. It is
going to be an issue as we look at various alternatives. I can tell you the thought of saying let’s go
after just nuisance trees or exotic trees will be a problem because we are not
empowered to do it. We are empowered to
maintain our right-of-way for drainage to what we think is fit for maintaining
that right-of-way of drainage.
Mr. Cranmer stated a nuisance tree
is going stress our equipment or could conceivably do so.
Mr. Petty stated if you could define
nuisance trees in that fashion.
Mr. Cranmer stated not nuisance per
se, it is we cannot get a barge in there as our definition versus nuisance
tree.
Mr. Petty stated people can come in
with other definitions for ornamental and it is not a tree which is damaging to
a drainage system. Trees do help
stabilize the bank. We have 20 some odd
years, almost 30 years of testimony talking about the benefits of trees if
planted correctly, are of benefit to a canal system in stabilizing the bank
because of the root structure. As Mr.
Selchan knows well, if they are planted anywhere near the water line and the
water comes up and rots the root ball well then they are not anything but
giving you grief now. Australian Pines,
we have professionals, and we have reports from those professionals who say if
it is planted above the water line it is no more susceptible to wind damage than
any other tree.
Mr. Cranmer stated the city attorney
of Margate hired an arborist.
Mr. Petty stated they went to the
University of Florida and got counsel.
Mr. Parks stated plus the fact some
of those canals get the debris from the trees all along the edge of them, not
the major canals, but the smaller ones like behind the school, and we have to
look at that. That is a lot of work to
cut all those trees, and the very expensive thing is going to be to cut all
those trees out, because if you do it on one you have to do it on all of them.
Mr. Petty stated that is why we are
coming to you for a policy, because it is time we fix it, and you are right, it
may be a policy where we do green spaces in certain areas, and like we saw in
the picture where you have buffer trees, that is a conundrum for us because we
may have to make an exception for that in our policy, because if we go after
this it could mean the city will have difficulty with it. They require a buffer.
Mr. Selchan stated I will make a
final comment and I will shut up about that.
The last statement you made about comments and complaints; we expected a
lot of complaints from the box cuts for tree removal also and to my knowledge
we received none about the trees being removed. There were some complaints about you damaged
my fence, or the driveway – construction complaints. But there were no complaints about the tree
removal and most people were very pleased, happy and excited about the way it
looks now. The feedback I received was
all upbeat.
Mr. Petty stated I can give
counterpoint, but I am sure you already know what it is going to be.
Mr. Sobers stated perhaps we should
consider, based on varying locations, whether some areas need to have a
greenway and some areas have trees.
Mr. Parks stated we may want to make
a distinction that near commercial areas where buffer is required as part of
the building permit, we allow it. But on
private residences, we do not. There are
all types of options between these two that you can pick. You can pick a maximum amount - for the one
that we did in Coral Bay – it had very distinctive specifications such as you can
not have trees above X height unless they were palm trees. You can not have hedges above X height, and
certain hedges like Fichus were not allowed.
It was a very specific policy and we spent a good six months doing it
with a lot of input from the residents.
Mr. Parks stated the major canals
should be cleared.
Mr. Petty stated I think you have a
very strong case on the outfalls, although there was a tree-replanting program
this District offered on the east outfall to certain residents after we did
clear. We had trees available to them and
they had a shopping list they could purchase from.
Mr. Selchan stated we allowed them
20 feet from their property line out by permit and as Mr. Petty said it is very
structured as to what you could plant as they had a specific list of plants you
were allowed to plant which obviously were never going to grow into a large
tree. Most were shrubbery and flowering
trees which will not grow into a large tree.
Again, as Mr. Petty said, it was by permit and if we need access we can
take it out, but again, we will assume the cost. If we need to go through they are not going
to pay for it. It is not at their cost, but ours.
Mr. Sobers stated perhaps in light
of the Hurricane that just happened, maybe Mr. Selchan and the folks at the
city can revisit the statute in terms of tweaking what needs to be done.
Mr. Petty stated I can tell you it
is a good suggestion, and of course communicating with the city is something we
hope to do in the future, as well or better than we have done in the past. The issue here is going to be how you can
enforce an ordinance which requires a homeowner to maintain a piece of property
he does not own. As Mr. Selchan states
there is a right-of-way in the front yard, and it is a public right-of-way. The right-of-way in the backyard describing a
canal I believe will put Mr. Cranmer to the test trying to defend it as a right-of-way
since there is no right-of-way access.
Nobody can travel the area, it is not for pedestrian use, it is not for
vehicular use; it is for water. As such
calling it a right-of-way, which we do for this ordinance, is difficult for an
enforcement action of the city. If you
can imagine the city trying to go to a homeowner, and you saw some of these,
these are not box cut canals, these are some of the newer homes right here in
Maplewood, and they are planting out here.
To try to get the city to go back there and cite this landowner, you can
imagine their position, it would be difficult, especially if the homeowner knew
anybody, or God forbid be an attorney.
He may tell them, come and get me, and for the city to try and get
somebody out of their home for failing to do as the ordinance prescribes, could
be difficult, if not impossible.
Mr. Cranmer stated Northern states
have similar sidewalk ordinances.
Mr. Petty stated again it is for
pedestrian right-of-way, and we keep calling our area a right-of-way and I do
not know legally if Mr. Cranmer could defend it in court because this issue has
been one of the sticking points in the past; when push came to shove nobody
wanted to go to court on the issue. Certainly
we need more time to dwell on this. We
will take as much time as necessary as you know, or as I should tell you so you
know, staff will be harassing the engineer to rush out a bid for removal for
all standing trees within our rights of way to bring back a cost for you to
consider this along with the cost. It may
be the costs are such we can only do a partial program. It could be we come up with an experimental
program to see how the residents take it in an area and then move slowly from
there. The idea of trying to get all the
trees down before the forthcoming Hurricane season I do not believe is prudent. It took 47 years for this event to happen. I
think we could live with a couple more trees down should another Hurricane like
what happened last year, not Wilma, but the ones before it, come through, and
even if one of Wilma’s size comes through, I think the tree removal program
will be close to what we are paying for what Wilma caused already. Financially speaking I do not think we are going
to have too much trouble.
Mr. Cranmer stated Wilma took down
most of the weak trees.
Mr. Petty stated we believe so. Most of the trees with rotted root balls near
the water are down, the rest are now above the water line and are healthy
trees.
The next item I have to bring to
your attention is we will be putting door hangers, once construction starts,
ahead of the contractor. The door
hangers will have questions and answers such as, are you going to take down my
trees, and the answer is, we will be taking down all damaged trees in the right-of-way
caused by Hurricane Wilma, and any healthy trees which stop construction
equipment from accessing the area. Other
than that we will not be taking down any healthy trees. Our NRCS agreement, where we get hopefully
$.75 on the dollar reimbursement, does not allow us to go after healthy trees
unless they are in the way of our construction equipment and access. It is going
to ask, what about my irrigation system, and we are going to say, well if you
want to keep it, move it because we are going to be back there working on
it. We have no money set aside to try to
pay for private property which has crossed our property.
Mr. Sobers asked how soon do you
anticipate these door hangers to be done?
Mr. Petty responded we actually have
them in print for a sister District. We
have a draft of the cover letter which says we are the Sunshine Water Control District. We are doing this construction program.
Mr. Sobers asked can I get a copy of
the door hanger, please?
Mr. Petty responded certainly sir.
Mr. Sobers stated it also brings to
mind once the average person sees the door hanger when they return from work
they will be calling.
Mr. Petty stated we have a pretty
good experience, we have some good experience with Coral Springs Improvement District,
which started what about three weeks ago. The first location was back here by
Home Depot and the apartments who we notified personally and worked with the
property manager of the complex and the commercial area was taken care by the
wall, so we did not have to worry about that.
As we moved out, the door hangers would go out a couple of days before
the contractor. What we do is send out
all of our drainage people from both Districts, well actually from all four, to
kind of be a public service as we go about.
Because you going to get the elderly who says I can not lift that light
up, I do not have time, and our guys will help to the best of their ability,
although we will not expend funds, but they can certainly help out and tell
them who can do the job in the area and what is the best thought they can come
up with. We are able to get the door
hangers out ahead of them. The response
so far has been from residents who are generally happy to see the removal of
debris. Their systems are already
damaged from the downed trees and they are waiting to turn them on, so most of
them are very happy to see us go back there.
For those who have working systems, we tell them that if we do
construction back there, to relay another three inch suction line into the
canal is probably easier than anything else.
Just wait and redo it, call your irrigation person, he will do it.
Mr. Parks asked if there has been
some resistance by residents on the outfall canals.
Mr. Selchan responded very
little. They did not like the thought of
their trees being removed but once they are down and the grass is planted and
it starts to rain, it looks very nice.
With the irrigation, as long as I have been here, you go out there at
your own risk and most people understand, they know they are not
permitted. We do not allow it they just
do it. It is an issue which has never
been addressed.
Mr. Petty stated it is a good
neighbor policy. We do not mind being a
good neighbor; we do not guarantee the supply of water. If they wish to go to this public water body
to gain water and go across our property at their own risk, we have chosen to
ignore it and we will do so now. It has
been the policy of your sister District. I suggest it will be one for ours as
well.
Mr. Parks stated about 25 years ago
we had a lot of problems with Coral Springs Country Club putting aquatic stuff
in the water and the lakes. People were
using the water in the lakes to sprinkle their yards and it killed their
grass. I do not know how many hundreds
of homes lost their grass on account of it.
Mr. Petty stated we have those
questions and answers on the back to tell them what we are doing and why, how
long the construction period is about, and give them a call number so they have
somebody to talk to. So far the calls
have been inquisitive but cooperative.
Most of the people here in Coral Springs have no trouble at all doing
the right thing.
Next item as I think I have told
you, we will be harassing Mr. McKune, who would like to have more time to do
the specifications, but we would like to get the back to you for consideration
as soon as possible for the removal of trees. It would be nice if we could wait
until all the trees have been removed by Miami Environmental, but I do not
think we have that much time
B. Engineer
There being no
report the next item followed.
FIFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Supervisor’s
Requests and Audience Comments
There not being any, the next item followed.
SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Adjournment
There being no further business,
On MOTION by
Mr. Parks seconded by Mr. Sobers with all in favor the meeting was adjourned at
7:36 pm
Philip Sobers Russell Parks
Secretary President