MINUTES OF MEETING
SUNSHINE WATER CONTROL DISTRICT
A
special meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the Sunshine Water Control
District was held on
Present
and constituting a quorum were:
Mary Macomber President
Dave Hulett Vice
President
Philip Sobers Secretary
Also present were:
Bob Nanni Manager
-
Bruce Cranmer Attorney
Dr. Irving
Rosenbaum New
Community Strategies
John Petty District
Offices, LLC.
John Hunt Wrathell,
Hart, Hunt & Associates
Craig Wrathell Wrathell,
Hart, Hunt & Associates
Michael Szymonowicz Wrathell, Hart, Hunt
& Associates
Ed Goscicki
Bob Koncar
Diane Manza
Brenda Schurz
Pamela Rower
FIRST
ORDER OF BUSINESS Roll
Call
Ms. Macomber called the meeting to order and Mr.
Nanni called the roll.
SECOND
ORDER OF BUSINESS Presentation
and Review of Proposals for Management Services
Mr. Nanni stated
the guidelines are basic. We will have
15 minutes for presentations and 15 minutes for questions. Only the proposers are expected to be in the
room.
Mr. Cramner stated this
meeting was advertised as a public meeting and the Board has the flexibility to
vote and select a candidate. We request
anyone employed by or associated with any of the applicants to please leave the
room. We turned off the microphone so
applicants cannot hear each other’s presentations ahead of time. The Board may decide at the end of all
presentations to call some of you back for follow-questions.
Ms. Macomber stated
at this time, the only individuals in this room are the Board members,
representatives of NCS and members of the public.
A. New
Community Strategies (
Dr. Irving Rosenbaum, President of
New Community Strategies gave a presentation on his company and highlighted the
following:
·
Provides services to Special Districts and
municipalities.
·
Established in 1994.
·
Was the City Manager of Broward County for 25
years.
·
Participated in the incorporation of Weston and
City of Ft. Myers Beach.
·
Strategy is to emphasize the value of single
purpose districts as there is no clear indication in the Florida Statutes of
the value of the purpose and advantage of special districts.
·
Uses cutting edge strategies from the
university and business setting. Takes a
different approach of using different innovations.
·
Feels every district has different
characteristics and demographics.
·
Resident of Broward County for 35 years.
·
Feels the environment has changed with
infrastructure to be replaced and upgraded and resident demands.
·
Serves
the following clients:
o
Coral Bay CDD (
o
o
o
Indian Trail Improvement District (298 Drainage
District)
o
City of
o
o
Town of
o
City of
o
Town of Loxahatchee Groves – Administrative and
Financial Services
o
Town of
o
o
Board of Broward
o
o
City of
o
o
City of
·
Recently added some financial services.
·
Has been offered grant opportunities and
provides training and grant proposal writing services as well as tracking
applications.
·
Works with surrounding
cities, districts and local governments, State of
·
Develops comprehensive
financing strategies and look at alternatives other than conventional bond
issues so the financings can be provided at low costs.
·
Has licensed financial
software to prepare all types of accounting reports. Tailored to meet the GASB requirements.
·
Feels the key to a
successful relationship with a management company is providing information
quickly and responsively.
·
Staff consists of:
o
Mr. Matthew Lipman –
Operations
o
Ms. Mary Dunning – Grants
Coordinator
o
Ms. Kathy Deckert –
Accounting
o
Mr. Matthew Rosenbaum –
Grants Administration & Finance
o
Mr. James DeCocq –
District Manager
o
Ms. Patricia Breslau –
Accounting Support
o
Mr. Christopher Wallace –
Chief of Finance
·
Business Model:
o
Use of budgeting
principles and investments.
o
Providing customer service
to the Board and public.
Ms.
Macomber asked can you review your pricing proposal?
Mr. Rosenbaum responded I based my
pricing proposal on the budget. It is
hard to tell from the budget what work is involved. Based on our experience with other districts,
I priced the management function at $36,000.
The Recording Secretary price may be high, but we did not know how many
meetings you require. One of our Board’s
meets continually. The Financial
Advisory Services involves Mr. Wallace.
Based on what I know about this District, you wanted to look at some
financial alternatives. I anticipate the
District incurring costs for issuing bonds.
I assumed the Board wished to replace the accounting services along with
the management services. Depending on
what has to be done, I gave you an estimate.
All of this is negotiable.
Ms. Macomber asked with the
additional shared personnel, accounting and budget services, is the total cost
$37,500?
Mr. Rosenbaum responded I was trying
to extrapolate what it would cost. I may
have been high but I tried to make an educated guess.
Ms. Macomber asked what is
“Assessment Methodology Preparation”?
Mr. Rosenbaum responded you do not
need these services as you already have your assessments in place.
Mr. Sobers asked what banks have you
been dealing with in the past?
Mr. Rosenbaum responded Bank of
America, Wachovia and Regions.
Mr. Sobers asked what is GASB?
Mr. Rosenbaum responded this stands
for Government Accounting Standards Board.
The Government Finance Officers Association has been revising the
government accounting standards and making changes over the past few
years. These are the standards we abide
by. They change frequently, especially
in the past couple of years.
Mr. Hulett stated in your proposal
you mentioned Mr. DeCocq will serve as District Manager.
Mr. Rosenbaum stated correct.
Mr. Hulett stated you mentioned
communicating the District to the customers.
How do you propose to do so?
Mr. Rosenbaum responded the Board
has to make a decision on the methodology.
In the past, we distributed a newsletter. We also had meetings with the residents so
they could learn about the district. We
can prepare a webpage, if this is the Board’s desire. We used all of these methods. Having public knowledge in the long run is a
great advantage to this Board because the government environment is
challenging.
Mr. Hulett stated I noticed on your
fee structure, under “Other Services” you show an annual assessment for
administration of $2,000. Is this in
addition to your other fees?
Mr. Rosenbaum responded no. This is in case of the special assessment.
Mr. Hulett stated we have shared
personnel expenses. This year we will
have human resources and customer service with CSID. There are 100 employees for the three
districts within
Mr. Rosenbaum responded our firm has
the capability of performing HR functions.
We also have the capability to advise you. If you want us to provide these services, we
have the ability to do so.
Mr. Hulett stated in your proposal,
you propose no subcontractors and you handle everything within your firm.
Mr. Rosenbaum stated everything is
handled within the organization.
Ms. Macomber stated thank you! We appreciate your presentation!
The record will reflect that representatives
of New Community Services left the room.
The record will reflect that representatives
of District Offices, LLC. entered the room.
B. District
Offices, LLC (
Mr. John Petty, President of District
Offices, LLC. gave a presentation on his company and highlighted the following:
·
Formed in March.
·
Staff has combined over 50 years experience in
local government, 25 years plus years in special districts as well as experience
with Sunshine WCD. Has financial experience
with Ms. Janice Moen Larned.
·
Offers
the following:
o
“What You See is What You Get” approach
o
No subcontractors
o
Serves at the pleasure of the Board
o
No multi-year contract.
o
60 day termination
o
Supportive component elements following Gary L.
Moyer principle of having single employees for each department
o
Great networking experience
o
Will obtain “economically feasible” services and
not use “in-house” staff
o
Associated with Fishkind & Associates, a 35
member consulting agency out of
o
Allows their clients to select their own engineers,
attorneys and consultants
o
As a condition of the contract, all work must
be acceptable to the Board
·
Would not see a repeat of what happened at Severn
Trent Services with managers walking away.
·
Priorities
of the District:
o
Canal bank restoration using a geo-sock to
shape the canal banks
o
Hurricane damage restoration
o
Creating a Hydrologic profile: Reports how well
the system performs after 30 years
o
Regional water plant: Current process of removing rainwater as quickly
as possible does not meet SFWMD’s expectations.
The plan is for the groundwater table to be maintained at the highest
level to hold back water in the conservation areas. Increasing the water table another foot will
have a huge impact on water availability.
o
Communication with residents
o
Efficiencies and keeping assessments down by
Interlocal Agreements and relationship with sister districts
o
Veteran staff with Mr. Cory Selchan as Field Superintendent
and Mr. John McKune as CIT (30 years experience). Concerned with Mr. McKune spending more money
than budgeted. Knowledgeable engineers
with CH2M-Hill.
o
Does not feel anything will happen in four
months
Ms. Macomber asked can you review
your fee structure?
Mr. Petty responded we tried to do
the simplest we could in a proposal and offering services at or exceeding the
levels you are currently experiencing at the same price you are currently
paying. We felt the Board could evaluate
what we are offering. We are not asking
for additional money or offering an alternative model. The contract is subject to negotiation and we
serve at the will of the Board. We can
work on capital improvements; work as administrators or as managers. For comparison sake, we wanted to show the
same structure.
Mr. Sobers asked do you intend to
follow the ideals of what Mr. Moyer established?
Mr. Petty responded as much as I
admire Mr. Moyer, who formed my working knowledge of districts, I like to think
I have a new spin on things. I have more
operational experience than Mr. Moyer and my style of management is
different. I get out with the guys and
talk with the engineers. My model is to
provide economies, a business solution; not a bureaucratic one and serve the
Board. My job is to implement the
policies of this Board. I am supposed to
bring options and information to this Board in order for you to make decisions
with the best information at your disposal.
I am not supposed to be the one telling the Board what I think is
best. I may give a recommendation but I
am not a policy man.
Mr. Hulett stated you mentioned you
were not providing accounting services.
Mr. Petty stated we do not have
in-house accounting services. We
currently offer in our proposal the same services you currently have budgeted. The accounting services are provided by
CSID. We do not plan on building an
accounting system in our firm. I watched
this occur for 25 years. We did this because
other agencies did not have governmental accounting experience. This is not the case today. Those services can be purchased under the
current contract. I do not think I can
compete with the big companies.
Mr. Hulett stated you give Fishkind
prominent play in your proposal. What
services do they provide for you?
Mr. Petty responded methodology
services, if there was a change in our Plan of Reclamation. If we change our Plan of Reclamation, which
is what SFWMD is asking us to do now, the current Assessment Methodology may
have to be changed. We will then
recommend to this Board we hire an Independent Financial Analyst, which
Fishkind & Associates is.
Mr. Hulett asked how long were you
the District Manager for Severn Trent Services?
Mr. Petty responded a little over a
year and a half. I spent a period of
time with what turned out to be the biggest construction project we had since
we built this community.
Mr. Hulett stated you made a comment
about Mr. Selchan being a pain.
Mr. Petty stated I have known Mr.
Selchan since 1990. I was a licensed
operator in water and wastewater in the State of
Mr. Sobers stated so this was a
professional comment.
Mr. Petty stated we actually get
along quite well. Mr. Selchan does not
have any problem telling me exactly what he thinks.
Ms. Macomber stated thank you! We appreciate your presentation!
The record will reflect that
representatives of District Offices, LLC. left the room.
The record will reflect that representatives
of Wrathell, Hart, Hunt & Associates entered the room.
C. Wrathell,
Hart, Hunt & Associates, LLC. (
Mr. John Hart, Managing Partner with
Wrathell, Hart, Hunt & Associates highlighted the following:
·
Does not only provide management/financial
services.
·
The firm tries to find ways to work closely
with their clients, especially in times like this, when the budgets are always
under pressure.
·
Looks for ways to find cost effective savings
without taking away services.
·
Recognizes having good relationships and
partnerships takes away fractured energy and brings people together in a common
cause.
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