MINUTES
OF MEETING
CORAL
SPRINGS
IMPROVEMENT
DISTRICT
The regular meeting of the
Board of Supervisors of the Coral Springs Improvement District was held on
Present and constituting a quorum
were:
Bob Fennell President
Glen Hanks Vice President
Sharon Zich Secretary
Also present were:
John Petty Manager
Dennis Lyles Attorney
John McKune Engineer
Jean M. Rugg
Janice Moen Larned
Randy Fredericks Field
Supervisor
Doug Hyche District Staff
Mr.
Fennell called the meeting to order and Mr. Petty called the roll.
Mr.
Fennell stated at this time, we will take audience comments on the tree removal
issue.
Mr.
Richard Gaunt stated I live on NW 2nd Manor. The difference between the canal and my
boundary is fairly small. I am concerned
because there is 12 feet between my flower bed and the water line. I constructed a wall, which I received your
permission to do. I am concerned you are
going to remove my flower bed.
Mr.
Fennell asked did you receive a letter in the mail from us regarding what we
are going to do?
Mr.
Gaunt responded yes.
Mr. Fennell stated we did not have
much of a chance to explain in detail what we are doing and why we are doing
it. I have lived in Shadow Wood since
1979, which is the eastern part of
Westinghouse did a good job by
bringing in an engineering group who looked at both the east and west
basins. We are surrounded by canals on
all sides and are dependent upon a pump station and a certain area being built
up so we can get flow to the ground.
Then we hope we do not get much rain while we are trying to pump out the
water. There was a model from 30 years
ago when there was nothing here but a plan.
Since that time, the community was built out and we have less area. All the trees next to the canal grew very
tall and are now a hazard. With
Hurricane Wilma, we had a good demonstration of what can happen in a wind
storm. We came back and had our
engineers run a computer study on what will happen to our areas if we have a 10
year, 15 year or 100 year rain. We
performed some “what-if” scenarios such as what happens to the water if a tree falls
and blocks these canals. The engineers
came back with some surprising answers.
It turned out we have to be careful about anything falling into these
canals and blocking the right-of-way.
They also found out not just the
canal area was affected. The city and
others have permits in private areas.
There is also drainage under the road CSID is not responsible for. However, if they get blocked we can be in
serious trouble. We came back with a
strong recommendation from our engineering company who said, “We need to make
sure these canals are free, ready to flow and do not get blocked”. At Mr. Hanks suggestion, we brought in an
Arborist to tell us about these trees and where they should go. After we removed the trees, the Arborist
surveyed our area and looked at what we still have.
The
Arborist came back and said, “If the tree is going to have a chance standing up
in a hurricane, the root ball has to be big and wide as it is high and
deep.” Unfortunately for most of the
area around here you can plant it wide but not deep. You also do not want any imbalances around
the root ball. One way to get this is to
plant a Mango or Cypress Tree next to a canal, which can absorb the water. Any other tree than those trees, the roots
will die. I saw a tree fall backwards
off the canal and onto a house. This was
because the tree did not have even roots.
The third problem is all of our banks are made of coral. There is no dirt for the roots to adhere to
and the canals are made so the high water mark goes to the top of the
canal. This is how these drainage canals
were designed. When this happens, the
water comes in and becomes supersaturated.
His recommendation is not to plant trees in the canal right-of-way because
they not only block the canals but are a danger to the homeowners. Despite the problem we normally have with
trees, they are even a bigger danger than we thought. You may get some advantage by the fact the
canals often angled and hope they fall in the water but there is a real issue
if the roots are not there. A real weak
point for the tree is growing backwards towards the property owners house.
The
Arborist gave us some recommendations for trees good for
Mr.
Hanks asked what does the city say about maintaining property owned by a homeowner?
Mr. Fennell responded in the past,
the landowner is supposed to maintain their property down to the water’s edge
and keep it to the shape of where water will flow.
Ms. Linda White stated most of our
homeowners take impeccable care of their yards.
Mr. Hanks asked are you in the Oaks?
Ms. White responded I live on NW 2nd
Manor.
Mr. Fennell stated we have some troublesome
areas such as the commercial property.
In some cases, in the commercial areas there was supposed to be a tree
barrier. However, instead of planting
the trees on the commercial property side, they planted the trees along the
canals and never maintained them. We had
an amazing amount of difficulty from them.
We also have homeowners who tried to maintain their property as well as they
could, but were not aware of some of these issues such as how dangerous the
trees are.
Ms. White stated all it takes is
common sense.
Mr. Gaunt stated the majority of
homeowners are looking for selective removal.
Mr. Hanks stated at the last meeting,
we approved the removal of trees listed on the city’s exotic invasive or pest
species list such as Maleaucca’s and Australian Pines. If you were building a new house, under city
code you have to remove those trees. We
are just trying to remove the bad species of trees identified as pest
plants. They are either identified as a
pest because they have weak wood or aggressive roots. We also wanted to take a look at native and ornamental
species trees within the District right-of-way.
If your Firebrush Tree is located on private property, we are not
touching it.
Ms. White asked where does the
District right-of-way from the edge of the canal go to?
Mr. Hanks responded it varies
depending on the location of the subdivision.
Ms. White stated we purchased our
home five years ago and lost a couple of feet in our backyard in the last five
years. As every year goes by or there
are more storms, we lose more property in our backyard. We want to do the same thing as our neighbor,
which is to build it up slightly so we have more of a buffer zone.
Mr. Hanks stated we need to take a
look at the plat for your area to see what lot you are on and where the
District right-of-way is. Hopefully we
have some indication of where the canal is.
Mr. Petty stated this certainly is a
way we can check it, although any requests from homeowners do not incur costs
by the District to do the survey work.
We refer them to the Property Appraiser.
You can measure from the back of your house but we certainly can do it.
Mr. Hanks stated if you have a
reference point within your property, you could measure it out.
Ms. White stated we would like some
piece of mind. I think I speak for
everyone when I say you are bringing in a bulldozer to go all the way around
the canal and remove all trees that could potentially fall down into the
canal.
Mr. Petty stated we have been
talking to the city about this matter because they are more politically
sensitive than we are and the residents receive a broader response. We understand the residents need to
understand why we are doing this and what is occurring. We are going after these non-ornamental,
nuisance or exotic trees, which are the Australian Pines, Florida Holly or
Brazilian Pepper Trees. We are seeking a
permit to remove the Ficus Trees at the same time under this current
contract. We have many old Ficus Trees
in the commercial areas we want to remove.
Mr. Glen Dworkin asked commercial or
residential?
Mr. Petty responded mostly
commercial but some residential within our right-of-way. There are going to be guys back there with
chain saws and large equipment. The right-of-way
is for our access. If I need to get a
piece of equipment through an area you planted in, we are going to drive
through there. This is part of the
reason why the right-of-way is as big as it is and the water is only a certain
percentage. This first phase is not to
take down everything but as we bring in equipment to maintain the canal, we are
going to drive over some of this material, even though the tree is not on your
property. This is the only way we can
get in.
Ms. White stated you explained this
fairly well in your letter.
Mr. Gaunt stated you are losing land
and will encroach on our land to get to your right-of-way.
Mr. Fennell stated this was an issue
the engineering firm brought up and one of the reasons why; it was not a
question of us cutting down trees. We
actually had significant issues with these trees because when they fall over,
they take part of the bank with them.
Another way to remove them rather than pulling them out, is to flat cut
them the best we could so they will not tear up the bank. You are correct. Erosion is an issue and is becoming a
problem. It is something we are
concerned about, although we are not to that point in Shadow Wood where we have
this issue. However, this may be an
issue in the older part of Coral Springs.
We will actually have to go back and re-dredge those canals and rebuild
the banks. We will do this when
necessary.
Mr. Dworkin stated Mr. Petty said
Phase 1 was to remove the nuisance trees.
What is Phase 2 and will there be any other phases?
Mr. Petty responded the intention is
to clear the canals of anything dangerous to the drainage system which can
cause flooding. This is our intent.
Ms. White asked anything under the
water?
Mr. Petty responded anything that
can hurt the hydraulic of the water. We
have a model for blockage in the pipes.
Mr. Hanks stated first we have to
obtain a permit from the City of Coral Springs for removal of the non-evasive trees. Then we have to look at them on a case by
case basis to decide whether or not they are a danger to the flow. Would we have to do anything to compensate
for the loss of those trees?
Mr. Petty responded we are talking
with the city about “what if” scenarios.
Mr. McKune is working on the current phase, which is an application for
the trees not requiring a permit or compensation or mitigation, with the
exception of the Ficus Trees which have some value.
Mr. Fennell stated we ran hydraulic
models and the engineers told us what the problems were going to be and what
flooding issues we could run into if in fact we blocked off any of these
canals. There are some real issues
here. We have two Drainage
Districts. University Drive is the
dividing line to Royal Palm Boulevard for the east side, which is one Drainage
District. There is another Drainage
District on the west side. Each one has
separate basins with different and unique problems. The west side has more going for it because
of Lake Coral Springs, which is a place to store more water. Our canals run down to a pump station. Where I live near the park there is a street
and if you block the water flow through Shadow Wood to Ramblewood and into
Royal Palm Boulevard, it will flood the entire area. Not only do we have problems with trees but
we need to go back to see if we need to do reconstruction of the canals. I would love to talk to SFWMD about how much
water we can pump out but we are legally bound by how much water we can draw
out of the canals during a flood situation.
They will only permit us to take so much out. At this point, it is a race between the water
rising and local flooding.
Another
problem is some pipes are not being maintained for 30 years. If a pipe gets blocked, you will have 100
different little floods all over the city.
Our hydraulic Study showed us we have a clear and present danger for
flooding. Furthermore, our Arborist
informed us planting trees in the canals is the wrong place to plant them as they
do not survive well.
Mr. Dworkin asked when did you determine
you had a problem with flooding? Was it
recent?
Mr. Fennell responded the area built
out and there are three places where the water drains. One place is where we store water. This is what prevents us from flooding and
the fact we have canals around the area.
Some canals run sideways like the C-14 or some drainage canals come down
from the areas north of us. If those
caved in, we also flood. Up until now,
the dangers we had during storms have not been very bad. We had a few trees in the water, which our
crews removed. The city had more of a
problem than we did. This last storm
showed us for sure the canopy grew out of control and was too big. We wondered whether this problem actually
happened and how come it never happened before.
This is when we commissioned a study to do a complete hydraulic modeling
of both areas in our District to find out what would really happen. When it came back, it gave us a
surprise.
Mr. Dworkin stated in all the time I
have been living here, you never sent the residents a letter for cutting down
plants. We request selective removal of
the trees.
Ms. White stated not just a blanket
decision to take everything out.
Mr. Gaunt stated in other words, if
you can drive a pickup truck along there, it should be enough for you to
manage.
Mr. Fennell stated you need to make
sure these trees do not fall in the water.
Can you guarantee it?
Mr. Dworkin responded we can handle
them ourselves. We took care of the lake
in the southeast part of Coral Springs ourselves.
Mr. Hanks stated another reason we
want to maintain more than just a 12’ strip is to address the erosion problem. Eventually at some point we recognize we are
going to have to get back in with heavy equipment to do some bank
restoration. It all comes down to time
and money of when we do it and where we get the money. Restricting heavy equipment to a 12’ area is
going to create some problems in the future as far as maintenance activities.
Mr. Gaunt stated in my case, if you remove
more than 12’, you will be on my property.
Mr. Hanks stated if you have a five
foot strip of District right-of-way between the edge of water and your property,
this is all we are going to be able to touch.
Mr. Fennell stated a couple of
canals were cut back. You are referring
to the areas north of us. They came in a
couple of years ago and finally cleared out the canals. So far, the reactions have generally been
strong and prevented cutting in the past.
It has not been balanced enough with the inordinate danger to us
all. The worst thing happening to us is
we flood out. We can take a lot of wind
damage and trees down but if each of us has six inches of water in our house,
all of the carpet will be gone and you will have to rebuild. If you are looking at the greater damage,
this is probably it. This is because it
is in the flood plane.
Mr. Hanks stated if you flood out,
you are going to have sewage mixing with the flood waters.
Mr. Gaunt asked can we get a
guarantee before they start work that someone will knock on our door and say,
“We would like to remove some of your trees”?
Mr. Hanks responded you addressed
some specific concerns.
Mr. Petty stated it is the
District’s responsibility to handle flooding.
While I understand your need to want to know more, we will certainly
take your name and contact information and tell you when we have a public
meeting. We plan on having two meetings
to discuss this matter further. We would
be happy to talk to you any time you have a concern. We put out door hangers and plan on putting
out additional door hangers when our contractors are nearby. We cannot make any guarantees. We have to be able to do our job when the
need arises, whether or not we can get a hold of you. I will make sure you receive all the
information we have.
Mr. Gaunt asked is there any way to
get someone on-site at the time they intend to do the work?
Mr. Petty responded our engineer is
going to be on-site with their crews and behind them a couple of our field
employees will be doing customer service.
Watching this contractor will be two sets of eyes. If you have an issue, they are going to try
to answer your questions. However, by
the time the contractor gets out there, there will not be any time for you to
move things around. This is why we sent
out the door hangers.
Mr. Hanks asked are they going to
come through the first round to take care of the exotics?
Mr. Petty responded yes.
Mr. Hanks stated they will not touch
the native species.
Ms. White asked will there be
general notification of the time and date you are planning to be back there?
Mr. Petty stated responded we intend
on putting out another door hanger when the contractor is nearby but I cannot
put it out within 24 hours with a guarantee.
He may go out and come back because of weather and mechanical problems.
Ms. White asked will you
automatically notifying everyone in the area when there is another public
meeting to discuss any other issues regarding this matter?
Mr. Petty responded yes. It is our intent to advertise a meeting in
the Sun Sentinel in the public notices section of the newspaper. We are hoping to have the meeting at a
library or hotel. The schools are not
answering their phones because it is the first day of school. We are looking at five locations including
the City Center if they will cut us a deal because it is somewhat pricy. We are hoping to have two public hearings so
residents understand this issue, particularly planting anything on the
slope. Everything on the slope is going
to fail, no doubt about it. When I raise
the water table, and I will, every root ball is going to try to hold itself up
in a bowl of water.
Mr. Hanks stated we have been lucky
with the last three storms as they were dry storms. The problem is with a wet storm dumping 10
inches or more rain.
Mr. Dworkin stated now you are
saying everything on the bank is at risk of being removed irrespective of where
our boundary line is.
Mr. Petty stated the right-of-way line
goes past the top of bank. Your land
goes up to your building pad but when we dug the canals we stopped at elevation
10.5’ and your pad is typically 12’ or higher.
We consider this to be top of bank.
By design, the water management system is supposed to let water rise in
the canal until it gets to this level. This
is the maximum storm we can handle with our pumps. Everything planted from 10.5’ down will
fail. Eventually it is going to fail by
design.
Mr. Dworkin asked where is the water
line today?
Mr. McKune responded it depends on
the water but usually it is 6.5’ to 7’.
Mr. Dworkin stated I have lived here
for 25 years and have not seen it happen.
Mr. Petty stated we received 17” of
rain with a no name storm, which raised the water table all the way up. The engineer can tell you under these design
criteria with the hydraulic model we built on the computer, it does everything
but hand calculations but gives you the ability to say, “What-if”. The report talks about the speed of the water
and other items which are probably useful to you as well.
Mr. Dworkin asked are you saying
everything slanted along the bank goes to 20’ to 30’?
Mr. Petty responded everything goes
to the elevation of control, which is 10.5’, the elevation above sea
level. Everything below 10.5’ is part of
our system, which will be inundated with water by design at some point. Any trees planted in there will fail.
Mr. Hanks stated if a great deal of
water is dumped during a storm and your ground becomes saturated, the soil
becomes weaker. If you ever walked
across muddy ground when it is wet, if you jump on it, it flattens out in one
place and feels spongy. As a tree blows
and starts hitting roots, at some point it will fall over.
Mr. Dworkin stated this is why you
need selective removal. A Cypress Tree will
not do this. Not only that, Cypress
Trees keep the soil from eroding as they grow roots at the bank.
Mr. Fennell stated they have one big
flaw, which is they rot from the inside out.
I had three Cypress Trees in my yard.
They are not very strong and actually end up with a hollow core.
A resident stated we are tying to
get a definition of the easement. If we
get to 10.5’ and the erosion is bad, the water can go anywhere from 12’ to 20’
to get to the 10.5’ elevation level.
What is the maximum?
Mr. Hanks responded the maximum does
not change. It is whatever the right-of-way
is specified per the plat or deed. Where
your property ends on your deed is the end of your property and rest is
District property. It has nothing to do
where the water level falls. This is my
understanding.
Mr. Dworkin asked in Phase 2, are
you going to clear out everything in the area?
Mr. Petty responded Phase 2 has not
been decided and is still under discussion.
We hope to have public meetings to talk to the residents about our
concerns and get their feedback. The
Board has not made a decision.
Mr. Hanks stated keep in mind, we
are trying to balance your desire to save your tree with the need for providing
flood protection to the overall community.
This is what we are trying to strike a balance on. If we do not do anything and we have another
hurricane, all of the trees will go back into the canals and we will have
another horrendous bill for hurricane damage.
Mr. Fennell stated we are going to
have to double our assessment this year just for this reason.
Mr. Dworkin stated in our
subdivision, the homeowners took care of their own trees.
Mr. Petty stated for the homeowners
who did that after the hurricane, thank you very much. We were very appreciative of those homeowners
who understood their responsibility.
However, the damage was so extensive it was beyond so many people’s
capabilities.
Mr. Fennell stated the area around
the corner towards the mall was a disaster.
Mr. Hanks stated when you get
Australian Pines 30’ to 40’ high, it is a disaster.
Mr. Petty stated that is precisely
why this Board decided to go after the ones that were a priority. We wish to take public input and evaluate the
situation again. A second phase has not
been decided on. Our concern is still
the same regarding whether or not we are going to cause a flood concern. Right now, we want to see what the impact
is. This is why our contractor is taking
out those species. We consider Ficus
Trees to be an additional concern for us because after the storm we saw so many
of these trees down and the damage they caused to the bank was
unbelievable. It took 500’ to 700’ of
bank away.
Mr. Hanks stated we do not have a
target set on your Cypress Trees. I
prefer we make every effort to preserve what we have. We lost so much already. We value your input but we are also looking
out for the overall community and what we can do to protect everyone.
Mr. Dworkin stated the selectiveness
issue seems to be fairly vague. What
concerns most of us is who is going to be doing the selection, what are the
guidelines at that time and day of the week, etc.?
Mr. Hanks responded as far as the
first phase of removal, my understanding is we are going after only those trees
listed on the city’s nuisance species list, which is listed in certain sections
of the city code. You can contact the
City Forester to find out if there is a certain species list.
Mr. Petty stated the selective part
was requested by the residents. You did
not hear this from us. We are not selectively
removing trees. We are going after
non-ornamentals, referred to as nuisance or exotic trees. There are four varieties; Maleaucca, Florida
Holly, Australian Pine and Ficus Trees. We
want to hold at least two Town Hall style hearings. This is our intent and what this Board
instructed staff to do. The Board is
continuing its discussions with the city and it’s Arborist on their own.
Mr. Hanks asked as we go through the
first phase, will we be recording which trees are native or ornamentals falling
within the area of concern?
Mr. Petty responded getting back in
there may cause some trees to be removed.
Therefore, the impact has to be after removal of these trees when the
engineer will re-evaluate and tell the Board what its exposure is on, whether
there is 10 to 20 percent left. We are
currently estimating 50 percent of the trees there before Hurricane Wilma were
still there after the storm.
Mr. Hanks asked how many trees are
on the nuisance species list?
Mr. McKune responded the majority
are Ficus Trees. This is the problem we
are currently having with the city.
After the nuisance trees are removed, they have been keeping records of
each property and what those remaining trees are you may want to save. When we are done with this phase, hopefully
we will know what is on each property.
Mr. Dworkin stated saving them is
not a concern because it does not meet the criteria of nuisance trees. Are we cutting trees that are no longer
nuisance trees?
Mr. Fennell responded we might. If they are in a right-of-way, it is probably
our responsibility to remove it.
Mr. Dworkin stated I spent $1,200
removing what I considered to be nuisance trees after the hurricane.
Mr. Fennell stated there was a big
discussion about who should be paying for those trees. Frankly it is for the greater good of the
community. Some people are saying, “He
knew better than that to plant it there”, “Why are you and I paying an extra
$100 next year to help him remove a tree he should have removed”. However, we have been able to put this
aside. There is a real safety
issue. It is not just speculative. Frankly we are going to go over it again in
the models. There is a real danger. I think there was a lesson learned in New
Orleans. Why do you think New Orleans
flooded?
Mr. Hanks responded due to bad
design.
Mr. Fennell asked did they know
about it?
Mr. Hanks responded yes.
Mr. Fennell asked did they fix it?
Mr. Hanks responded no.
Mr. Fennell asked did they have
local Boards like we have as well as the Army Corps of Engineers? They could have done something but for a
variety of different reasons, whether aesthetics or something else, they did
not do anything. You and I are in this same
position. As the area built up the
drainage problems became worse and these trees keep growing every year. These are not the small trees I planted in
front of my yard in 1979. One tree came
down on top of my house and caused $3,000 worth of damage to my car. When you are talking about canopy, no one
talks about the city getting destroyed or a tree coming down on top of your
house.
Mr. Hanks stated in 1995, SFWMD went
through a complete building code revision.
You cannot build your home the same way it was built in 1975. There is a whole new building code because
lessons were learned as a result of Hurricane Andrew. Now they are looking at the code saying, “We have
to improve the code due to Hurricanes Frances, Jeanne and Wilma”. I am not looking to take out everyone’s
trees. I do not want to do it. I love trees but we need to improve how we
operated in the past.
A resident stated after Hurricane
Andrew, nothing was done.
Mr. Fennell stated actually the
South Florida Building Code was improved because of Hurricane Andrew. Unfortunately the northern part of the state,
which believed itself to be immune from hurricanes will not establish the same
laws. They do not have the same laws and
they need to. There is nothing to say a
hurricane cannot hit Jacksonville. It
certainly can. Rather than react to New
Orleans and try to rebuild infrastructure that is not there, we are trying to determine
the best thing we can do to ensure a close call teaches us some lessons. You are actually better not having the
canal. The problem is the concrete proof
does not come until after you destroy the city.
We are trying to now say, “We saw some things that told us we should
have been more rigorous in the past.” Perhaps
we should have been clearing these trees beforehand and working closer with the
city to make sure the trees are planted in the right spots and are the right
type. I agree with you. In the future, we will periodically be
sending pamphlets to each resident in the District regarding what types of trees
need to planted, where they need to be planted and what to look out for. Frankly, it is not just the canals that are
in danger but your houses are in danger too.
The debris coming from my Black Olive Tree, which was 40’ to 50’ blew
across my house.
Mr. Hanks stated which is not a
native tree.
Mr. Fennell stated it was an approved
tree yesterday.
Mr. Hanks stated the residents need
to plant more Red Maples or Cypress Trees, which live in the water.
Mr. John Sirko asked have you
engaged a contractor for Phase 1?
Mr. Fennell responded we have two
contractors.
Mr. Sirko asked were they paid and
if so, how were they paid? Are they paid
by the volume they remove or what you tell them to remove? In other words, will they be aggressive in
taking out the trees because they are going to be paid to do so.
Mr. Petty responded they will be
authorized to remove everything designated by our engineer. Our field staff will be on-site as well.
Mr. Sirko asked will the engineer
identify the trees and tag them with colored ribbons?
Mr. Petty responded we will hold the
contractor responsible. If an ornamental
tree is removed, which is not on the nuisance list, the contractor will be held
accountable. We will be held accountable
by you the homeowner and we will hold our contractor accountable for the
contract. If you are looking for anything
better than this, I do not know if I can offer it to you.
Mr. Sirko asked are they paid by the
volume of trees?
Mr. Petty responded no.
Mr. Fennell stated the contractor we
are using is the same one who removed the trees the first time around. He also took care of the streets in the south
part of Coral Springs. This is a known
contractor.
Mr. Petty stated Stiles submitted
the lowest bid on this project; however, Arbor Tree did the clearing. Our engineers are monitoring the job to make
sure it is in compliance. In order for
them to be in compliance, they must go after the four species of trees I
referenced earlier.
Mr. Sirko stated you are also
clearing away anything in the way of getting to those species.
Mr. Petty stated correct.
Mr. Sirko asked are you going to
take pictures and measurements?
Mr. Petty responded no, but
certainly feel free to do so and do whatever you need to in order to protect
your property. If you have any special
concerns, please call the District Office.
Staff is going to be on-site and we will be watchful. I do not live on a canal but if there is something
you want us to watch over, please call us and Mr. Fredricks and his crew will
be happy to talk to you.
Mr. Sirko stated as long as the
trees are going to be tagged prior to their removal so we can see what is being
targeted, I am satisfied.
Mr. Petty stated they are not going
to be tagged.
Mr. Dworkin asked how do they know
what to remove?
Mr. Petty responded they have an
Arborist on staff.
Mr. Hanks stated the Arborist will
be identifying the trees.
Mr. McKune stated there are many
people who do not want red “x’s” on their trees. They may or may not come out depending upon
the final negotiation with the city based on the permits we receive. When the nuisance trees are removed, we are
instructing our people to locate each tree in regards to its distance from the
edge of the water on each property, the size of the tree and the type of
tree. When we are done, we are going to
know what is there.
Mr. Dworkin stated I am worried
about the ornamental trees.
Mr. McKune responded those are the
only ones that should be left when we are completed with Phase 1. The question remains is whether I am too
close to the water.
Mr. Hanks stated if you look at your
survey, you will see set back lines from the rear. Use a tape measure and you will know whether
or not you are too close. Typically the
city did not allow residential construction right up to the rear property
line. Therefore, there is likely to be
at least a 15’ set back from your structure to your rear property line.
Mr. Petty stated unless your
structure has a screen enclosure around the pool.
Mr. Dworkin stated it does.
Mr. Hanks stated this would also
fall within the set back requirements.
Mr. Petty stated the city gave some
exceptions in the early years in order to sell the lots.
Mr. Dworkin asked how big is the
easement?
Mr. Hanks responded we are not
talking about the easement. We are
referring to District property.
Mr. Dworkin asked how wide is the
District property?
Mr. Petty responded it varies
according to the street. We do not have
the blueprints with us. Your survey
gives you better information than most and is available online.
Mr. Dworkin stated on my property I
have an easement but beyond the easement there is a District right-of-way.
Mr. Petty stated in many easements,
there will be telephone and cable TV lines.
This is the easement they are referring to.
Mr. Fennell stated in closing, we
are trying to balance public safety against the aesthetics of the city. We should have been more rigorous about this
in the past. I think we need to do more
education and sharing of information with residents of the District regarding
where they should be planting and what type of trees to plant to prevent these
problems in the future. We are one of
the few people who have a hydraulic study.
When this problem came up, I said I would call SFWMD to find out what is
going on in my area and what our real probabilities of flooding are. The answer came back that no one knew
anything. They asked us who originally
designed the property and when we said Gee & Jensen, they said, “This is
where we obtained our information from”.
No one looked at it in 30 years.
All the other agencies had not either.
We actually have one of the best studies around currently. Our goal is to keep our area beautiful. We will be having additional meetings.
A resident asked are Palm Trees a
native plant?
Mr. Fennell responded it depends on
where they are located.
Mr. Hanks stated they are not on the
exotic list.
Mr. Fennell stated keep them away
from the edge of the bank.
The resident stated I have a Pine
Tree 17’ to 18’ from the water’s edge.
Mr. Petty stated this is a fairly
strong plant according to Arborist.
Mr. Hanks stated there was an
article in the Sun Sentinel about the six worst and best trees. Queen Palm was among the six worst trees for
hurricane resistance.
Mr. Petty stated mine went down.
Mr. Hanks stated Sabal Palms and
Foxtail Palms are listed among the six best.
The resident stated I have two 20
year old Queen Palm Trees but they are 17’ to 18’ from the water’s edge. Will they be removed?
Mr. Hanks responded they may or may
not.
Mr. Fennell stated we need to do
something about this. The engineering
study and the report from the Arborist recommended keeping trees away from the
water. There is a small drain flowing
out to the C-14 Canal. We are limited by
SFWMD on how much we can drain out. Then
there is a question of how much water the canals can hold before water will
overflow the banks. The system was
designed for the water to rise up to a certain level in a 10 and 100 year
event. If we go beyond the 100 year
event, we are in trouble. However, we
found out we are in trouble at the 10 year event. It depends on the area you live in. We are all in trouble if these canals do not
flow, as we could have significant drainage problems. We never had this problem 20 years ago
because there was nothing to get in the way and now there is. In the future, we may have to look at some of
the streets, especially some of the areas around 2nd and 3rd
Street as the culverts are small. We may
have to build bigger culverts or some parallel paths. We are going to try to mitigate as much as we
can. Be prepared in the future to
re-design these canals in a way to give us a better safety margin than we
currently have. I live in the east
District and I am not happy with the safety margin we have.
Ms. White stated we will take
measures to protect ourselves at this point.
Mr. McKune stated what Mr. Fennell
mentioned about plugging the culverts is true.
The culverts need to be clear. If
you picture the palm tree near the water, aerodynamically it will withstand the
wind but the fronds falling into the canal will go downstream and block the
culverts. Even though the tree will
stay, the fronds will not.
Mr. Petty stated we are looking at
an engineering answer to try to mitigate these types of blockages. We are doing more than just clearing the banks
of nuisance species. We are also looking
at hydraulics.
Mr. Fennell stated thank you very
much for coming. We understand the
interests you have and appreciate it. We
have the same interests. This is our
number one concern.
Ms. White stated we just want
clarity.
Mr. Petty stated thanks for taking
the time. It is nice to have guests.
SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS Organizational Matters
A.
Appointment of
Supervisor to Fill the Unexpired Term of Office (6/2007)
Mr. Fennell stated we have a couple
of people here today to volunteer to serve in the unexpired term; Ms. Rhonda
Calhoun and Ms. Sharon Zich. We are
familiar with Ms. Calhoun from her City Counsel days. We will give them five minutes to explain
what they can bring to the Board.
Ms. Zich stated I have lived in
South Florida since 1970 and in Coral Springs since 1978. I have a degree in accounting and worked for
one of the major builders in Coral Springs as an accountant. This position ended in 1986 when they were
purchased by Lennar. I worked for a CPA
for a few years and then for Ameripath.
I have always been a numbers person and an accountant all my life. I am currently unemployed by choice as my
children graduated college and I decided to take some time off. I live in Shadow Wood off of Riverside Drive
and went through the flooding of 1979 when the entire area was under
water. I had only moved in a few months
before and thought there was no way we were going to flood but my garage was
under water. It is amazing we have not
had flooding since then. Water has
always been of interest to me with the hurricanes. I am not an engineer but my experience is in
accounting. My children grew up in South
Florida and I have been married for 35 years.
When I heard about this opportunity, I thought I could help as I have
the time.
Ms. Calhoun stated I have lived in
Coral Springs for over 20 years. I live
in Glen Isle on a canal. It was
interesting to hear some of the earlier discussion. I have recently completed 12 years of public
service on the Coral Springs City Commission, which I believe is an asset to
this Board as I have relationships with key people within the city. I think this will help me be a good
ambassador for CSID. I am now employed
by the Broward League of Cities as an Assistant Executive Director. I will be taking over the Executive
Director’s position when the Executive Director retires in September of
2006. When I served as a Coral Springs
City Commissioner, I was a relationship builder. There are many issues the District needs to
look at, not only hurricane issues but mandates coming from Tallahassee as well
as water quality issues. I am familiar
working with the legislatures on some of those issues. I have 12 years experience working for a high
performing fiscally conservative Triple-A Wall Street municipal corporation and
have familiarity with budgets, bond issues, RFP’s, public hearings, etc. I am wondering whether I want to do this
again but then I watched what Mr. Fennell did when everyone left. Everyone laughed and had a good time and I
appreciate that. If you are going to be
doing public service, you must enjoy what you are doing.
I like working on a pro-active
basis. I have a basic understanding of
the customer service requirements and the standards of the Coral Springs
residents in regards to what they expect from any governmental agency they work
with such as how to communicate with them.
Education is key and finding the right way to get to the residents of
Coral Springs. I worked with the
residents in good times and bad.
Sometimes they were screaming at me and then six months later they loved
everything we did for them. The goal is
working on a partnership basis with the residents. They certainly appreciate it. I am crazy about public service and this will
be a good way for me to give something back to my neighborhood and to a smaller
community within the City of Coral Springs.
Mr. Hanks asked how do you feel
about the city’s recent activity on absorbing Special Districts?
Ms. Calhoun responded the hurricane caught
everyone off guard. From the city
standard, there were many years of taking care of the canals and making sure
they were clean but there was a disservice to the residents. In regards to the resident who asked how they
could allow those trees to be planted, the city is not allowed to go into the
backyards of residents homes. I have
been off the City Commission since March 12, 2006 and have not been privy to
any public conversations between this District and the City of Coral
Springs. There was non-responsiveness
with one of the Improvement Districts, but not this one. Mr. Fennell came to the Coral Springs City
Commission when I was still on the Board and spoke to the Commissioners and he answered
their questions. This District was not
part of the bill filed in Tallahassee.
The city tried to meet with the Board but the Board did not meet.
Everyone in the city thinks their
entire tax bill goes to the City of Coral Springs. We are trying to educate the residents that
we only receive 16 percent of the money with only 30 percent going to the
county. Only so much goes to the School
Board. When people were having a problem
with their canals, no matter in which District, when they saw the trees several
months later, they called the city. All
the calls went to the city because they did not know who to call. There was a level of frustration.
Ms. Zich stated I am interested in
everything occurring with the canals.
Mr. Hanks asked as a citizen, do you
think the city should take over all the canal and drainage services?
Ms. Zich responded we have to cut
down the trees. When I worked for the
builder and looked at the trees we planted, I was aghast at the trees planted
in my own yard. I have since removed
almost every tree and replanted new ones because they have been such a problem
for so many years. Many trees in the
city need to be removed from the canals.
I feel sorry for the people who have them in their backyard but they
have to think of the city as a whole.
After the hurricane there was debris from those trees in everyone’s
yards and canals. They have to be
removed.
Mr. Fennell stated there are
consolidation issues. I thought about
running for the commission a couple of times.
I looked at the city budget and under utilities I saw the city was
taking 10 percent off a publicly owned utility.
Ms. Calhoun asked are you talking
about the Water and Sewer Fund?
Mr. Fennell responded yes.
Ms. Calhoun stated we have not
raised taxes in 13 years. The money has
to come from somewhere.
Mr. Fennell stated we should be 10
percent cheaper because the 10 percent you expect to pay back to an owner, we
give back to our owners. Maybe there is
something more the city can bring to us as far as better management. They had significant problems with their
water and one time came to us and asked us to take over their facilities. We are getting bigger and our management
resources are spread out. I found out
the size of their tanks and the structures they build tend to be of standard
size. If you have those kinds of
standard sizes, there is replication. I
realized this is a business the residents own.
Ms. Calhoun stated the Board has a
fiduciary responsibility to the people they serve. In the last 12 years, conversation has gone
back and forth between the city and the CDD.
There was other management here 12 years ago. In the past year, everyone has been caught
off guard and there is a lot of frustration involved.
Mr. Fennell stated it actually did
not have anything to do with water and sewer.
It had more to do with drainage.
These Districts can stand alone.
The city does not bring any real expertise to water drainage. If you wanted to consolidate, you have to obtain
approval from SFWMD who sets how much water we get, how much we can discharge
and makes the rules. The city does not
bring anything to the table as far as drainage.
I wish they could but there is nothing of management value. They did not give NSID money when they were
rebuilding their canals and did not co-sign the bonds. From a business standpoint as owners in this
area, I have a hard time with this. I
think we need to change how we get elected.
Mr. Lyles stated we discussed this
issue before and there are a couple of ways; one is through a special act
amendment through the local legislative delegation, which will only affect CSID. You can pursue this independently. The other way is to consider an amendment
applying to the chapter of the Florida Statutes governing Special Districts
across the state, whether it is a Special Improvement District like this
CDD. An amendment to the overall chapter
allows the District to have the flexibility to change its system of elections
to increase the size of the Board to perhaps an electoral system as opposed to
a landowner system. The problem with the
system we have currently is through our Special Act, we are bound by the
Florida Legislature requiring a petition or referendum. This is a fairly complex, cumbersome and
somewhat expensive process to get the necessary signatures on the ballot, have
a referendum election and then have the election. Several different districts in South Florida
are looking at this issue. Some members
of the legislative delegation have expressed interest.
The fairest assessment I can give
you at this moment is there is going to be a relatively inexpensive and
comprehensive and therefore even handed way of achieving this somewhere in the
next year or two coming forward as a bill.
This is my prediction. If you
want to do this on your own, you can always do this through an amendment to
your Special Act, which was recently codified.
I am sure the reception would be positive. As part of your budget process, the manager
prepared for legislative matters in Tallahassee if it comes to that. Those are your options.
Mr. Fennell stated at this time, we
need to make a decision on which candidate will serve on the Board.
Mr. Petty stated I suggest you ask
both of them to serve as there is an existing seat open. Two seats will be opening in June of next
year. When you have interest and they
are willing to serve, I would not let one out the door. You can choose one candidate to serve now and
ask the other to come back in June. This
job is a lot of work. As you know, there
is no “thank you” at the end of the day.
There is barely recognition. You
serve in this post until you are relieved.
If we have people who are interested, keep them hooked in.
Mr. Lyles stated as you point out,
there is a vacancy on the three member Board.
It is within your power as the remaining members of the Board to appoint
a replacement supervisor by motion for the remainder of the term.
Mr. Fennell stated both of these
candidates are interested. They have
very different strengths. Frankly, we
can use both of them.
Mr. Hanks stated I am wrestling with
whether we need political or accounting fire power.
Mr. Fennell stated I nominate Ms.
Zich. The reason why I am doing this is
because Ms. Calhoun is going to be back next June.
Ms. Calhoun stated I will not run
against an incumbent.
Mr. Fennell stated we will be going
out for a bond issue and need to get away from our engineering background and
have a stronger accounting background on the Board. However, we certainly have some other issues.
Mr. Hanks stated I nominate Ms.
Calhoun because she brings a certain political savoy to the mix. We have nine months until the next election.
Mr. Petty stated there is nothing
requiring you to vote today.
Mr. Fennell stated we need to make a
decision and get the Board established.
On MOTION by Mr. Fennell seconded by Mr.
Hanks with all in favor Ms. Sharon Zich was appointed Supervisor to fill Mr.
Eissler’s unexpired term.
Ms. Calhoun stated congratulations
and good luck. If you need me for
anything, please give me a call.
Mr. Fennell stated thank you very
much for coming. We appreciate it. I wish there was a way we could put you to
work. Thank you for the offer.
Ms. Zich stated I am looking forward
to serving. This is something I have
been interested in for a long time.
Working for a builder, I know the lot and block of every house in
Oakwood, Shadow Wood and Ramblewood.
B.
Oath of
Office of Newly Appointed Supervisor
Ms. Rugg, being a notary of the
State of Florida, administered the Oath of Office to Ms. Zich, a signed copy of
which will be made a part of the official record.
The record will reflect the meeting
was recessed at 5:30 P.M.
The record will reflect the meeting
was reconvened at 5:35 P.M.
Mr. Petty stated I provided a couple
of documents to Ms. Zich. If you have
any questions, please call Mr. Lyles or me.
Mr. Lyles is District Counsel.
Ms. Rugg and I work for Severn Trent and we are the contract managers
and administrators for this District.
C.
Election
of Officers
Mr. Fennell stated typically we
appoint the newest member of the Board as Secretary.
On MOTION by Mr. Fennell seconded by Mr.
Hanks with all in favor Mr. Hanks was elected Vice Chairman and Ms. Zich was
elected Secretary.
THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval of the Minutes
of the July 24, 2006 Meeting
Mr. Fennell stated each Board member
received a copy of the July 24, 2006 minutes and requested any additions,
corrections or deletions.
Mr. Fennell stated I request Ms.
Zich receive agenda packages from the past six months.
Mr. Hanks stated on the bottom of
page five, Mr. Petty stated, “Special Districts put out bonds equal to
$4,500,000,000.” Is this statement
correct?
Mr. Petty responded yes, however,
the next sentence is not. It is not
still available.
Mr. Fennell stated on the bottom of
page 20, the sentence, “It was due to the wrong tree in the wrong tree” should
be “It was due to the wrong tree in the wrong place”.
Mr. Hanks stated on page 29, Mr.
McKune read the letter into the record, not Mr. Hanks.
On MOTION by Mr. Fennell seconded by Mr.
Hanks with all in favor the minutes of the July 24, 2006 meeting were approved
as amended.
FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration of Resolution
2006-6 Rescheduling the Public Hearing on the Adoption of the Water and Sewer
Budget for Fiscal Year 2007
Mr. Petty stated at the last
meeting, the Board asked whether there was enough time to advertise the public
hearing and we said yes. We spoke with
District Counsel who said he checked with staff and there was enough time. However, our discussions with the newspaper
lasted several days and our time period shrank.
We are now asking you to reschedule this public hearing now that our
negotiations and discussions with the newspaper have become prevalent. Our notice can be placed in the newspaper in
a timely manner. Therefore, we request you
formally adopt the resolution rescheduling the public hearing on the Water and
Sewer Budget for September 18, 2006 at 4:00 P.M. at this office.
Mr. Fennell asked do we have a
choice?
Mr. Hanks responded you can go after
September 18th.
Mr. Petty stated this is a formality
because of the notice requirements. We
apologize for the delay. In due honesty,
it was mostly due to the business atmosphere and not lack of preparedness. We were ready.
Mr. Fennell stated the resolution
needs to be corrected to reflect the new Secretary.
Mr. Rugg stated the resolution was
prepared prior to Ms. Zich being placed on the Board.
On MOTION by Mr. Fennell seconded by Mr.
Hanks with all in favor Resolution 2006-6 Rescheduling the Public Hearing on
the Adoption of the Water and Sewer Budget for Fiscal Year 2007 was adopted.
Mr. Fennell stated this will give
Ms. Zich a chance to review the budget.
FIFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Questions and Comments
on Proposed Water and Sewer Budget
Mr. Petty stated this is a standard
item for every meeting between adoption of the preliminary budget and final
adoption for discussion on any items the Board wishes to bring to the attention
of staff or staff wishes to bring to the attention of the Board.
Mr. Fennell stated we need to have a
better way of getting information out to our customers and residents. Our biggest flaw and what the city criticizes
us for is we are not communicating enough with the residents in our District
about what is needed, where we are going, who we are and how to contact
us. From this standpoint, we need to set
aside some money. Most of the time when
something happens we are fine but we need to do something better than what we
are doing.
Mr. Hanks stated I do not know how
feasible this is but I suggest each Board member have their email address
posted on the website so if citizens have a concern, they can approach us. It is not as intimidating as coming before
the Board.
Mr. Fennell stated good idea.
Mr. Petty stated this was an item we
wanted to include in the budget through management services. As discussed, Severn Trent has a public
relations service it can provide. We do
public relations for specific clients, typically site specific, full time
applications. We did not think it was
applicable here so we recommended an outside company. We looked at their pricing and recommend to
the Board that we budget a line item in the Water and Sewer Fund budget of
$17,500 for this purpose. If all we are
doing is printing a newsletter every other year, this is what we have been
doing and we can continue to do so. The
issue is more of putting a face to the District. We have been efficient for 30 years and our
assessments show it. We just increased
our assessment from $80 to $150 a year because of a hurricane. This is the best signal of efficiency I can
possibly think of. This was the biggest
construction project in the drainage system since we built it and all we did
was raise assessments to $150 per unit per year. The efficiency of this District is
unparalleled.
Mr. Hanks stated efficient does not
equal warm and fuzzy.
Mr. Petty stated the residents still
do not know us nor understand the value of what we provide. I do not think we can continue to live in the
background. We must get customer appreciation
and satisfaction and their input on how we do our jobs. We have a full-time Communication Specialist
through our management firm for the City of Weston. The cost for this position is $100,000 with
salaries, perks and expenses. We do not
wish to create a position here and are not recommending this to the District as
we feel you can get economies of scale with the sister districts we share
facilities with. The firm I am
recommending is known in Tallahassee and was recommended to us by the Florida
League of Cities who is a client of theirs.
We are looking for similar recognition and for them to help make peace
with our neighbors and other local governments in Broward County, which is a
significant task to do at this time. We
are looking for someone who can help us communicate and rebuild our
relationship; we believe this is the firm who can do so. This is a very economical price for this type
of guidance.
Mr. Fennell stated a good public
relations firm should tell you how to communicate successfully, how to
communicate truthfully, determine what is in your best interest of how you
communicate, who you communicate with, what channels to use, how to write it so
people can understand what you are talking about and determine how to make sure
you are filling in those channels.
Mr. Hanks responded it sounds very
much like what our attorney does.
Mr. Fennell stated on occasion. A friend of mine is involved in public
relations. Sometimes it is related to
the advertising but mostly it is determining the right way to communicate with
people. There are things we need to have
in a memo stating who we are going to communicate with, what channels we are
going through and how it is going to be handled. This is what a good PR firm should be doing
for us. Probably the weakest point we
have is the governmental body. This is
what Ms. Calhoun would have recommended.
Mr. Petty stated this is the
amendment we wanted to add to the budget.
Mr. Fennell asked can you give a
brief overview of the budget?
Mr. Petty responded yes. Our budget is broken into two pieces; the
General Fund for the assessments and contracts, which was adopted and the Water
and Sewer Fund, which is supported by user fees. We will provide Ms. Zich with copies of the
General Fund and Water and Sewer Fund Budgets.
We will be happy to answer any questions at any time on this issue as we
have excellent people on staff. Ms.
Larned is our Chief Financial Officer and comes to us with a plethora of
experience in this regard.
The Water and Sewer Fund budget is
broken out into different revenues. As
you can see from your budget, the main revenues are going to be coming from the
water and sewer billing in the form of capacity and commodity charges. Capacity represents the fixed costs and commodity
represents the variable costs of a water bill.
This is where we get most of our revenue. Line connection fees do not generate a great
deal of money because we do not have much construction left. Facility connection fees remain the
same. Meter fees are what we charge to
install meters and/or replace or rebuild them.
The rest are old rates that are still hanging around. Delinquent fees and processing fees generate
some revenue because of the shut-offs from people not paying their bills for a
variety of reasons. There are some fees
for turning the system off and turning it back on.
The next item of significance is the
Technology Sharing Revenue. This
represents a computer hardware and software system for doing the governmental
accounting and utility bills. CSID is
the owner of this equipment and is selling this service to its sister districts
in Coral Springs or Parkland, which are NSID, Sunshine WCD. and Pine Tree WCD. In this District, we also have the General
Fund paying a portion since they also use the computer system but are
co-owners. CSID owns the computer, the
software and gets economies of scale by offering those services to its sister
Districts and others on a cost recovery basis.
They also provide this same service with some contract personnel. This particular building belongs to CSID, yet
it rents space to NSID, Sunshine and Pine Tree.
Its field and administrative personnel also provide services to those
districts, which provide good economies to CSID.
We also do utility billing since we
have such a great computer system for utility billing. We offer our software and personnel to six or
seven outside Special Districts in the State of Florida. We hope to bring a great deal of the cost
recovery for CSID’s expenses on its computer and software system to bring a
benefit to the CSID residents.
Under expenditures is the Debt
Service Fund for the outstanding bond issues, such as the principal and
interest for the 1992 and 2002 Series.
Then we get into the breakdowns of administrative, salaries and
wages. Owning all of the personnel for
this service is $488,000, which was not an increase from last year. It is a difference in how we budget. This year they became solely owned by CSID,
whereas in the past they were shared with CSID as a paternal partner. CSID is the strength and the other districts
get cost economies by sharing on a cost recovery basis.
Mr. Fennell stated we set up
substantial debt. How much do we have
now?
Ms. Larned responded $16,000,000.
Mr. Fennell stated we paid off the
canal bills but we have not paid off the water and sewer. We do quite a bit of debt service each
year. We incurred $1,300,000 this year. It is a good paying job. We are going to start getting aggressive with
some of our facilities.
Mr. Petty stated of interest, under
administrative, we are changing the pension plan from an RA style to a State of
Florida program.
Mr. Fennell asked are these defined
benefits?
Mr. Petty responded yes.
Mr. Fennell stated it is interesting
to see the country went away from defined benefits. It has not served people well.
Mr. Petty stated there were a couple
of concerns with the Florida program 15 to 20 years ago when we told the
District’s not to do it. The State of
Florida corrected this years ago. They have
a very good program now and tiered the units they could not get rid of and went
to a newer, smoother operation which is self-sustaining. It is done by calculation based on the
dollars.
Mr. Fennell stated you can go one
way or the other.
Mr. Petty stated our personnel will
be given this choice because some people will be retiring before they become
fully vested. They can participate in
their old RA program until they do. We
hope to offer this because we feel the employees deserve it and in order to
maintain our competitiveness. As housing
costs increase, it is difficult for us to maintain the median income
worker. Our water plant operators are
median income workers and so are our field personnel. We have people who come here to train, get
their licenses and then move on to more competitive surroundings offering
better benefits.
The next item is legal fees. The increase is nothing more than us
anticipating Mr. Lyles having to submit some codification changes to
Tallahassee. Our sister district
suggested we send codification changes to help them in their purchasing
authorities and pay allocations for its Board members. There are some economies we may have by
joining with them. There is money
allocated for Mr. Lyles under this line item because he would have to supervise
any and all work going up to Tallahassee.
Mr. Hanks stated health insurance
increased quite a bit.
Mr. Petty stated this is for
ownership of the employees versus the shared personnel. It did not increase much.
The next item is the decrease in
Project Management Services from $42,000 to zero. This was a fee to Severn Trent for having an
engineer on-site. We will now be doing
this with a new engineering firm, which we believe will be Mr. McKune. I cannot compete with them.
Special Counsel Services will be for
our lobbyist in Tallahassee if we intend on doing any codifications, which you
may wish to do this year. There are two
new items. The first item is Transaction Overlay, which is the result of a
special audit we did in the accounting sector of the District. We have an experienced person doing the
accounting but it is a singular person.
One of the glaring defects of the system is if this person gets hit by a
bus, we would not know where we stand and how long it would take us to rebuild
what had been done to date. My firm
supplies oversight in the form of Ms. Larned but she is not doing data entry or
overseeing the accountant. She has a
strong financial background and is looking at it from that avenue. The transaction overlay is a double entry
accounting system or purchase order system in the form of a transaction. Every transaction is written down as a
purchase order so it can be re-billed and retraced. One handles revenue, another handles all
purchases and yet another handles all corrections. It gives us a way of managing our cash. It is something our managers have asked for a
very long time. This system is being
built specifically for CSID and its sister districts.
The other new item is the electronic
document storage, which is a document management system. Ms. Rugg has a great deal of experience in
this operation. She collects our
documents and stores them electronically under the contract you have with Severn
Trent for management services. This is
not only to handle those documents but the vast amount of documents our field
staff uses such as blueprints, plans, drawings, submittals, etc. We have file cabinets to handle these
documents both in large, standard and electronic formats in order to be able to
take them offsite during emergencies but have efficiencies of retrieval by
staff on a daily basis. This completes
the overview on the administrative items.
The line items are as you see them and are self explanatory. Electric is increasing from $556,000 to
$720,000 due to FP&L increases. The
remaining items are standard operation items, which are evolving. Field Operations include all the costs off
this utility site and the distribution and collection system of our water and
wastewater lines and staff.
The meter replacement program is
something we are bringing back. Last
year we adopted it but it was cancelled for nine or ten months out of the
year. We think it is important to keep such
a program and implement it. This is for
the accuracy of our meters and is how we get our revenue. If you do not replace your revenues you lose
revenue. They are by design. As meters wear, they record less of the water
going through, not more. For us, this
means we lost revenue so we put it back in.
Mr. Fennell stated every once in
awhile you come up with an idea of having electronic meter reading.
Mr. Petty stated the cost of
installation is rather high and are usually proprietary. There has been a great deal of discussion
over the years about the value and payback period. The payback period for the installation is
typically beyond the lifespan of the meter.
Therefore, I cannot justify such a system to you. Most people cannot but others want to take
the leap. I cannot tell you from my
experience whether this is worthwhile at all nor has your staff been able to do
so.
Mr. Hanks asked why would cities
like Boynton Beach require electronic meter boxes?
Mr. Petty responded to handle meter
complaints of incorrect readings and billing issues. We have trained our own meter readers. We find if we train people properly and send
them out there to do a good job, this works well. However, if you hire people from a temporary
service, you do not get good meter readers.
Mr. Fennell asked if you are going
to replace a meter, is this an opportune time to make this change?
Mr. Hanks responded are you
referring to the cost differential between a plain meter and a fancy meter?
Mr. Petty responded there is a 50
percent increase in cost between a standard meter and an electric meter. Secondly, the meter volt itself typically
gets changed as well as the spacings but normally they will fit in the same
slot. The issue is not so much the meter
but the hardware and software to read the meter. Let’s say I choose the Sensus Meter which replaces
the Neptune Meter we have been using for 25 years. It is possible their proprietary system may
stop in five years and I would be at 51 percent conversion or even bought
out. If it is proprietary, most
operators and managers will recommend a universal system across the board. If it is non-proprietary in nature and can
scan the numbers on a standard meter such as optical character recognition, we
already have the backpack computer systems.
All we need is the transmission to do the reading and we are fully
automatic. I am looking forward to having
something like this versus a proprietary system or universal adaptation.
Mr. Fennell stated this gives me
something to think about.
Mr. Hanks stated we are cutting into
our surplus by $350,000.
Mr. Petty stated we started doing a
rate sufficiency analysis in-house to bring to the Board because of this
concern. We still have our heads above
water but in speaking with the engineer about the capital improvement program
and the age of the facility in the future, we will be doing a rate
sufficiency. We would be happy to bring
this back to you at the first part of the fiscal year.
Mr. Fennell asked when will we be
seeing a long term capital plan?
Mr. Petty responded it is part of
this year’s budget, which is being worked on even before this fiscal year
starts. We are going to push Mr. McKune
to give us this program as soon as he is able.
I would like to make it a standard part of the agenda so we can have
discussions each month until it is complete.
Mr. McKune stated between Mr. Hyche,
myself and Mr. Petty we hope to have it next month but there are no guarantees.
Mr. Fennell stated it does not have
to be all in one month. You can just
come and say, “Here are the major areas we are looking at”. I would like to see the big vision.
Mr. Petty stated this is what he is
offering to you. There is no way he will
have all the details.
Mr. Fennell stated it may be time
for a site tour.
Mr. Petty stated good idea.
Mr. Hanks stated with the rate
sufficiency study, I am concerned about dipping into our surplus.
SIXTH ORDER OF
BUSINESS Acceptance
of the Audit for Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2005
Mr. Lyles responded the audit was
provided to the Board last month.
Mr. Petty stated this is what is
referred to as a clean audit, meaning we passed the requirements of the State
of Florida. There are no matters to
report back to you on other than we are happy to have a clean audit. Ms. Larned can answer any specific questions
since she is familiar with this process.
Mr. Fennell asked do we have to
accept it at this meeting?
Mr. Petty responded we would like
for the Board to accept it either at this meeting or the next one so we can provide
it to the Auditor General’s office in a timely fashion.
Mr. Hanks stated I would like to
review it next month. I need time to
review it.
Mr. Fennell stated maybe we can have
Ms. Zich take a look at it.
Mr. Petty stated we are supposed to
provide it to the Auditor General within a year of the closing date. We can wait until the next meeting.
SEVENTH ORDER
OF BUSINESS Consideration
of Right-of-Way & Surface Water Management Permit for Construction along SR
817 (University Drive) to the Canal L-104 Bridge Crossing
Mr. McKune stated DOT is considering
resurfacing and improving the drainage along University Drive from the south
end of the District to the city. This is
going to involve rather extensive drainage modifications to our storm
sewers. They are re-doing most of
outfalls into the District canal systems.
This permit is asking for our blessing to allow them to do this
work. We reviewed the plans and found
some items need to be corrected. I
provided to the Board the standard letter recommending approval with standard
special conditions. There are several
notable exceptions unique to this type of project. We recommend approval.
Mr. Fennell stated you were talking
about making changes for drainage.
Mr. McKune stated this will not
affect it.
Mr. Fennell stated this is the
golden opportunity to move something from one place to another since they are
going to be digging up the roads anyway.
Mr. Petty stated they are not going
to be digging up the road. They are
improving the drainage, which is outside of the road. If there is an advantage for us on a
crossing, we will definitely take advantage but we do not see any advantage,
nor have we been able to assess any advantage from the blueprints. This is mostly the peripheral drainage of the
roadway itself from the street flooding you occasionally get on the road.
Mr. Hanks stated you are referring
to the roadway south of CVS and the Auto Mall.
This is one location and there are periodic locations throughout the
city. There is a condition where no
headwalls are allowed. Why?
Mr. McKune responded we had headwalls
many years ago and they tend to get undermined and collapsed. They damaged the pipes. When we installed concrete pipe, the same
thing would happen.
Mr. Hanks stated my concern is there
is a narrow canal on University Drive south of the Auto Mall and I do not know
how deep it is. I am picturing it will
be piped from the south to the north.
How far do you have to extend the pipe north to clear the bottom and will
you be putting it close enough to the north side creating an erosion problem? I am wondering whether in this situation it
makes sense to take the risk on the headwall.
We may want to pull it back because we do not want to undermine the bank
and cause it to cave in.
Mr. McKune responded I can look but
I do not know the answer.
Mr. Petty stated on certain matters
we will have a pipe coming out of a three foot drop and a concrete bottom for
the pipes sticking out rather than a headwall.
If a pipe is too close to an exterior wall, we installed concrete, more
rip rap than anything else as a diversion wall for any heavy flows coming up
from an outfall pipe that may cause erosion.
Mr. Hanks asked is the
recommendation calling for reinforced concrete into the bank?
Mr. McKune responded corrugated 40
feet is the standard.
Mr. Hanks asked do you understand what
my concern is?
Mr. McKune responded yes.
Mr. Hanks stated I will approve this
subject to further review by the engineer to consider using headwalls in
certain situations.
Mr. McKune stated it will be a year
before this work is underway.
On MOTION by Mr. Hanks seconded by Mr.
Fennell with all in favor the Right-of-Way & Surface Water Management
Permit for Construction along SR 817 (University Drive) to the Canal L-104
Bridge Crossing was approved subject to further review by the Engineer allowing
for the flexibility of using a headwall design in certain situations.
EIGHTH ORDER OF
BUSINESS Reconsideration
of Drainage Permit Request for Chick-Fil-A Located at the Corner of Shadow Wood
Boulevard and University Drive
Mr. Hanks asked do we have answers
from CH2M-Hill as to whether or not we need this land for drainage mitigation?
Mr. McKune responded we looked at
the property and even if we were to use the entire property, which is
approximately an acre for some form of mitigation, whether it be for additional
storage areas, the effect on the entire east basin is diminimous. They are going to provide their own
exfiltration trench. I think this permit
should be approved as presented.
Mr. Hanks stated the application
represents 2.9 acres versus 161 acres.
However, when you add up the different components they listed, it does
not add up.
Mr. McKune stated .15 acreage is a
portion of roadway, which was omitted. I
had the same question.
On MOTION by Mr. Hanks seconded by Mr.
Fennell with all in favor the drainage permit request for Chick-Fil-A located
at the corner of Shadow Wood Drive and University Drive was approved.
NINTH ORDER OF
BUSINESS Consideration
of Selection of Surveyors to Provide Professional Land Surveying Services
Mr. Fennell stated this came about
when we were doing our hurricane and water studies. It turned out no one surveyed the canals to
see how high they are. There is one berm
coming down from a canal north of us that is three feet off of the berm. We felt this could be a serious problem and
wondered if there were any other issues where suddenly developers decided to
flatten things out. As a result, we
decided we needed a surveyor to get up to date topographical maps. Who do we want to hire?
Mr. Petty responded we are waiting
to hear from the Board. We advertised
for surveyors in accordance with the engineer’s evaluation of
qualifications. We do not have any
preference.
Mr. Lyles stated the process we are
under is the Consultants Competitive Negotiation Act. District staff and the manager obtained
proposals and made a recommendation through the District Engineer for the top
three firms. However, the Board either
needs to ratify and accept this recommendation or re-rank them. At this point, we authorize staff to
negotiate a contract with the top ranked firm.
Failing this, staff will negotiate with the second ranked firm.
Mr. Fennell asked are we ranking
based on cost?
Mr. Petty responded we are ranking
based on qualifications at this time. You
should choose the firm with the greatest qualifications of benefit to the
District. We will then negotiate with
them what we consider to be a fair price for the Board to approve.
Mr. Fennell asked can we ask the top
three to submit a bid?
Mr. McKune responded this was
advertised to be a rotating assignment.
Mr. Lyles stated then we advertised
wrong. I did not see the notice but we
have to rank the firms in order of background and experience of qualifications
in order to engage surveyors, similar to an architect or engineer. You can come back with some other arrangement
after you go through this process.
Mr. Petty stated when we started
this process, the intent was to do what municipalities and counties do which is
to have a number of engineers and surveyors available to them and rotate the
work accordingly so you do not have reliance on any one group. This is what we hoped to do. We were following a model from the county
when we did this and this was the intent so the District has the best available
resource from qualified firms in the area.
We have the luxury of having more than one qualified surveyor
locally. The ratings were close. The only reason why we chose the number one
firm was because they have site specific knowledge. These are competent firms, which we feel the
District will benefit from by being able to rotate these as necessary.
Mr. Fennell asked what is the next
step?
Mr. Lyles responded assuming the
Board does not have any further questions regarding the proposed rankings, all
you are required to do today is to make a motion to rank them one, two and
three. Staff can work on the details
because you will not be awarding the contract today. All you are doing is authorizing the
negotiations.
Mr. Hanks stated I worked with everyone
on the list. However, I am not working
with anyone currently. Does this present
a conflict?
Mr. Lyles responded no. Past professional relationships that are not
current and do not inure to your financial gain is not a conflict.
Mr. Hanks stated it is not a
contractual relationship. We happened to
be on the same team.
Mr. Lyles stated then there is no
conflict. However, any information you
have, which may be more pertinent than something staff came up with, because
they are not privy to this information, is relevant now. As long as it is directed to the
qualifications we asked them to submit in the bid package.
Mr. Fennell asked would you cross
anyone off of the list?
Mr. Hanks responded each one has a
different reputation. A great deal depends
on which survey crews are out there.
They are all professionals and licensed by the state. Mr. Brewer has a great deal of experience.
Mr. Fennell asked which ones can
take more latitude?
Mr. McKune responded all nine firms
can. The reason why Mr. Brewer was
ranked number one was because he has done all the surveying on this site for 25
years and has the blueprints.
Mr. Fennell asked would you make any
changes to the ranking? I will
personally go with staff’s recommendation.
Mr. Hanks responded I am going to
leave it to staff. I would hate to be in
staff’s position to cross off any one of those firms because they are all qualified.
On MOTION by Mr. Hanks seconded by Mr.
Fennell with all in favor Paul E. Brewer & Associates, Inc. was ranked
number one, Pulice Land Surveyors, Inc. was ranked number two and ConsulTech
Surveying & Mapping, Inc. was ranked number three to provide surveying
services to the District on an as-needed basis and staff was authorizedto enter
into negotiations with the number one ranked firm.
TENTH ORDER OF
BUSINESS Staff
Reports
Mr. Petty responded stated the money
has started coming in from NRCS. It is
arriving in fairly large chunks. We are
happy.
Mr. Fennell asked how much money
have we received so far?
Mr. Petty responded $800,000 for
CSID alone.
Mr. Fennell stated we submitted a
reimbursement for $1,000,000.
Mr. Petty stated we expect to
receive our full 75 percent share. We
have not heard from anyone who received the last 15 percent from the
state. We feel NRCS is going to honor
the full 75 percent.
Mr. McKune stated plus 100 percent
of the engineering.
Mr. Fennell asked do we have the
money in the bank yet?
Mr. Petty responded we have the full
$800,000 in the bank. We just submitted
our final pay estimates, it is being processed and we expect payment before the
next meeting.
Mr. Fennell stated part of the
reason we were able to get this money back was because we went out for
bids. We saved a considerable amount by doing
so. By having a clear plan on what we
were going to do, we were able to get the money back. Job well done for clearing the canals and
getting the money back.
Mr. Hanks asked where do we stand on
the generators?
Mr. Hyche responded they will be
delivered to our supplier on August 25th. The contractor needs three days to fit them
with the apparasses we need for our lift stations. We should receive them by September 5th
or 6th.
Mr. Hanks asked do we have enough
people to bring those generators to the lift stations?
Mr. Hyche responded yes.
Mr. Hanks stated it makes no sense
to have the generators if we do not have the people. Something else to consider is this building
was not built to withstand hurricanes.
Mr. Petty stated not this building
but the building next door can.
Mr. Fennell asked what about the
underground tanks?
Mr. Hyche responded they will be
included with the next wastewater expansion.
Mr. McKune stated they are currently
under order.
Mr. Petty stated the contract was
awarded and the contractor is building the system as we speak. He already purchased the tanks but we are
waiting for delivery. When will we start
digging on-site?
Mr. McKune responded I have not
heard about the latest delivery on the tanks.
It is probably going to take 10 to 14 weeks for the equipment. This is standard.
Mr. Fennell stated this means we are
not going to have them for this hurricane season.
Mr. Petty stated probably not.
Mr. Fennell asked what is plan B?
Mr. Petty responded to have
redundant suppliers of oil or cash in a safe so we do not have issues with
people not being able to use their MasterCard machine or purchase orders. We are making sure our tanks are topped off
at all times.
Mr. Hyche stated in the event we
receive word a storm is going to hit us I will make sure we have some portable
tanks. I will also make sure I have at
least 5,000 gallons of extra gas on-site.
Mr. Fennell stated make sure you
have a way to tie them down.
Mr. Hyche stated we will put them in
the garage.
Mr. Hanks asked does it make sense
to line up a supplier from Georgia?
Mr. Hyche responded the difficulty
with this is you are going to have to leave the tank on-site. They will not come down and deliver the gas. You are talking about having a 10,000 gallon
tanker and we do not need this much.
They will not come down to give us a small amount.
Mr. Petty stated some cities had
contracts with Mobil Oil at the gas station across Alligator Alley and after Hurricane
Wilma, they had to keep their tanks full and could not give gas to anyone else
under preferential treatment. In other
cases, the stations sustained damage and were shut down for six months. They could not fill the tanks because there
were safety issues. We had the same
issues here. If we have direct damage to
our tanks, regardless of what he has done, we are down. We can only do the best we can. We have enough gas to handle our trucks. Now our focus is on how susceptible we are to
injury on any of our components.
Mr. Fennell stated there was an
issue discussed tonight on canal bank restoration. Is erosion of the banks an issue?
Mr. McKune responded I do not
believe it is.
Mr. Petty stated when they said they
lost two feet, we have lost two feet. As
you described, we are cutting into the coral to get to the canal bank. It is such a short cut to where the dirt is,
which is approximately two feet in. You
are going to see it drop to its stabling point which is where it is going to
have a solid wall of coral stone.
Mr. Hanks stated you may also see
situations where you had an upper layer of cap rock, then a layer of sand,
layer of rock, etc. It depends on the
thickness of those various layers. What
you may be seeing is a situation where you have to cut vertically to get
through this rock. Then what happens is
sand comes out from underneath and this rock loses its stability and caves in.
Mr. Petty stated in our water
management program, we have some experimental use of structural elements we
have been discussing with the engineer.
We hope to have some trials in place in the Drainage District. We do not plan on doing anything large
scale. These are small scale experiments
to see how it works and what the benefit is.
There are areas where you can appreciate the aesthetics of the canal because
you have straight lines and nice banks.
There are some architectural elements you can put in to stabilize the
well. We are going to be trying this
out.
Mr. Hanks stated we received a nice
stormwater report but I feel we should obtain a letter from the engineers
addressing a couple of issues related to the design and subsequent permitting
of the District. We should receive
confirmation on whether or not design assumptions as originally presented are
sufficient to provide flood protection.
Mr. Petty stated these are solid
questions. We are almost asking for an
as-built of the facility but in advanced data for 30 years. I think this can be done.
Mr. Hanks stated they need to say
whether we need to make any changes to our Permit Criteria Manual and whether
the original assumptions were followed.
With these new modeling techniques, we need to see whether or not the
initial assumptions provide flood protection.
Then they need to provide a recommendation as to what changes will be
implemented to our Permit Criteria Manual or remedial action if necessary.
Mr. Fennell stated I was thinking
along those lines only I was thinking of a letter to the city stating we need
to make sure our permits for trees include keeping trees away from the bank and
the types of trees. We never told the
city what they should be doing. We have
been talking to them back and forth but we never actually put it in writing.
Mr. Petty stated I have seen several
letters asking for such things but they have always said, “Enforce your
ordinances”.
Mr. Fennell stated I think we want
them to change their ordinances.
Mr. Petty stated we are planning to
update it. We need to continue our talks
to the best of our ability.
Mr. Hanks stated we should consider
putting in our budget implementing a procedure by which we send a mower down
the right-of-way once a year.
Mr. Petty stated your suggestion is
well taken. We actually have some monies
in the General Fund for us to start taking ownership of the banks and mowing
them. In the past we always tried to
work with Code Enforcement but I can show you several canals that were walled
off by the residents either with fences or other means and you have 20 to 40
feet of bank with nothing but overgrown brush.
We need to take ownership of this and start taking care of this property
to the best of our ability because there are concrete walls between these homes
and the canals. There is no way they can
get back there to maintain them.
Mr. Fennell asked how much are we
talking about?
Mr. Petty responded we are only
talking about starting the program because we have mowers at one of our sister
districts, Pine Tree Water Control District, which we have access to. We also have two very large bush hogs. We would like to go out there to see how tough
the job is.
Mr. Fennell stated one problem area
is the canal by the Sawgrass Expressway.
We had issues there all along.
All the trees along the canal are nuisance trees.
Mr. Hanks stated one advantage of
doing a bush hog once a year is you are not going to get any of these long tier
trees. You are not going to have them
reach a stage where they become a tree as defined by the City of Coral
Springs. They get cut in their early
stages.
Mr. Petty stated we are going to
start bush hogging the main outfall canals.
Some of these canals need specialized mowers. We are in discussions with the contractor
doing the construction along the Sawgrass Expressway because they exceeded
their boundaries. They actually pushed
dirt onto us. We do not have a
maintenance platform for this canal bank.
It is such that once you plant Wedelia, you are going to let it go and
hopefully the Wedelia will be the predominate species because it has good
stabilized material or else natural species are going to push in. As long as something is growing there, we are
thrilled because we do not have erosion.
It is not maintainable other than jumping out of a boat and crawling up
it. We do not have access from the
Sawgrass Expressway due to the installation of the concrete wall. There is going to be a three to five foot
wide walking path on our side of the wall but you may have to walk three miles
to get to this site specific location.
We are currently working with them to repair all of the areas damaged
from removal after the storm. I suggest
doing this now before they install the wall.
They are working with us with our due diligence.
Mr. Fennell stated we are planning
to have a meeting in two weeks.
Mr. Petty stated we are hoping to
schedule a town hall meeting for August 25th. This will be an informational meeting on the
tree issues we are concerned about. We
will have presentations, state our concerns and take resident questions and
comments. In doing so, we hope to
educate the residents to our worries and bring back those comments to the Board
so they can make a decision on the next phase after going after the four
species we discussed today.
Mr. Fennell asked what is going to
be on the agenda?
Mr. Petty responded there is going
to be a PowerPoint presentation. We were
hoping since we made specific arrangements for the 25th around Mr.
Fennell’s schedule that, you would make a presentation.
Mr. Fennell stated I can prepare a
speech. Mr. Petty should play more of a
role. We should talk about where our
water area is, what the basins look like, the residents should have an
understanding of what the canal situation is, what happens under rain
conditions and what problems we perceive.
Mr. Hanks stated we should have big maps
showing lot and blocks of the entire District so people can point out their
houses.
Mr. Petty stated we have self
standing maps.
Mr. Fennell stated bring in some
examples of the cleanup from Wilma.
Mr. Petty stated we can bring visual
aides.
Mr. Fennell stated we should also
have a presentation from the Arborist.
When they walk out of the meeting they should be saying, “Here is what
we should be planting in our yard”.
Mr. Hanks stated we cannot suggest
any particular firms for tree relocation.
Most of these people are not going to know what to ask for.
Mr. Petty stated we can refer them
to the city and the city can refer them to a licensed certified Arborist in the
community.
Mr. Fennell asked has the city
provided any money for tree mitigation?
Mr. Petty responded no. We are still amenable to talking with them on
this subject but we have not heard anything.
However, this does not stop us from considering the matter.
Mr. Fennell stated we should put
some limits on this.
Mr. Petty asked would you like for
us to bring something back to you at your next meeting?
Mr. Fennell responded we cannot do
it tonight. They should walk out of the
meeting knowing what we are going to do.
Mr. Hanks stated Mr. John Sutton
said it will cost $400 to $500 to replace the trees and install native species
of trees.
Mr. Fennell asked what is the city doing?
Mr. Petty responded offering up to
$200 per home.
Mr. Fennell stated let’s match what
the city does.
Mr. Hanks stated keep in mind we
also have to abide by city code, unless they are going to relax it.
Mr. McKune stated or you will pay
the city $800 per tree.
Mr. Fennell stated the city does not
have anything to do with the backyard of residents homes.
Mr. Lyles stated neither do we. It is beyond our jurisdiction.
Mr. Fennell stated they are not
going to give us money to plant trees.
They have to plant the trees someplace else.
Mr. Petty stated this is why staff
worked with you during our discussions with the city on participation in the
program under us voluntarily cooperating with them on their canopy
requirements. Implementing this in-house
was going to be difficult.
Mr. Hanks stated unless the city
gives us a tree for tree requirement or species not on the nuisance species
list.
Mr. Petty stated even though we have
not heard from the city, they are amenable to accepting funds from this
District for a tree replacement program or participation in their existing
canopy program.
Mr. Hanks stated it is still going
to come down to the cost per tree to the city.
I bet it is going to be around $500.
Mr. Petty stated I think the cost is
going to be much lower. We will be happy
to find out. The dollar value stated
earlier of approximately $200 per home, we can work out to the number of homes
generally impacted. I do not know how we
can approve it without knowing the sum total before the next meeting. Other than saying at the meeting on the 25th
we hope to have an additional program.
Mr. Fennell asked could the Board
approve up to a certain dollar amount?
Mr. Petty responded yes. If you make a decision today, regardless of
whether or not the program is in-house or participating in the city’s
program. Do you see an issue, Mr. Lyles,
for participation with the city?
Mr. Lyles responded we have to
comply with the city’s mitigation program if we are going to remove trees from
our right-of-way. At the same time, we
are attempting to work with residents and have some of them remove the trees on
a voluntary basis. If we seek a permit
to remove a non-nuisance species, my understanding is we have a lesser
mitigation requirement as a government entity than a private, corporate or
residential landowner has. I believe the
city has a relaxed requirement for us.
Mr. Petty stated I suggest we have
voluntary cooperation. Instead of
saying, “I must comply”, I would rather say, “I voluntarily cooperate”.
Mr. Lyles stated the code says what
it says. What is it we are proposing to
expend District funds to do other than removing non-nuisance or non-exotic
species from our right-of-way?
Mr. Hanks responded when we are
budgeting for the removal, we should be budgeting for the potential mitigation
requirements.
Mr. Petty stated if you follow the
permitting functions of the city, you are.
Mr. Fennell stated if you are going
to mitigate moving a tree, you are going to put one back someplace near where
it was. The fact is the tree was in the
wrong location in the first place and it is wrong to put it back.
Mr. Lyles stated mitigation means in
a proper spot. The trees are not going
back in our right-of-way. They are going
somewhere else.
Mr. Hanks stated just like if you
are doing a development parcel, if you have 10 trees to come down, you are not
going to find new homes for those exact 10 trees on your site. You have the option of relocating trees on
your site to keep them in place. You
also have the option of planting additional trees at selected locations to
provide the mitigation or the option of paying into the city’s tree fund.
Mr. Petty stated this is a good
idea.
Mr. Hanks asked would you rather
have these trees be replanted in Betty Strading Park on Wiles Road or in CSID
where the citizens can enjoy the benefit of them? I am almost of the opinion we should find a
way to assist the homeowners who are affected by removal of materials from the right-of-way.
Mr. Fennell responded if the people
are happy, the city has no complaints.
We can make the city happy by giving free trees.
Mr. Hanks stated the city gets the
credit for providing the trees. We are
not improving our image.
Mr. Fennell asked can we remove
trees from our right-of-way and give it to someone to put in their yard?
Mr. Lyles responded we can do this
under the heading of maintaining our right-of-way in an effort towards
hurricane preparedness mandating the removal of some trees from our right-of-way. It has a cost associated with it. If the closest residential lot is willing to
accept the tree and move the tree as opposed to cutting it down, which triggers
the mitigation requirement, then we could participate in the cost of removing
the tree from our right-of-way so it goes into this resident’s backyard in some
way shape or form.
Mr. Hanks stated we are still faced
with this general cost but we can break them up into components.
Mr. Petty stated if you are going
with the city program and obtain a permit for removing Ficus Trees from our right-of-way,
by the permit standards they are going to charge a mitigation fee for the
replacement thereof, which means you satisfied this issue. In addition, if you have a program to add to
the canopy in Coral Springs for “x” number of trees on this site, this is
adding to the canopy. This is exactly
what we wanted to do. We wanted to
increase the canopy in Coral Springs after Hurricane Wilma. You will be planting trees in areas so as not
to cause harm to the system.
Mr. Hanks asked did you say we are
paying a mitigation fee to the city?
Mr. Petty responded yes. There will be a fee. Mr. McKune spoke to the city and the issue he
is currently waiting for is for them to calculate what they will charge.
Mr. Hanks asked is this a permit
fee?
Mr. Petty responded no, a mitigation
fee.
Mr. McKune stated we have a permit
with the city for 175 Ficus Trees along the Auto Mall.
Mr. Petty stated the city said they
will work with us because we are a government agency in partnership with them.
Mr. Lyles stated the city code for
utilities specifically excludes a canopy or diameter replacement value. It is a tree for a tree program. You can cut down a 24 foot oak and because we
are a utility, we will replace it with one tree. Please do not let the City Forester try to
tell you otherwise.
Mr. Fennell stated the city through
their code can force people to put trees there.
Are we going to have to cut them down and pay the city?
Mr. Hanks responded we have to
mitigate for it.
Mr. Fennell asked is the money going
to the city?
Mr. Hanks responded I would like to
see it go someplace else.
Mr. Fennell asked after they put new
plants in?
Mr. Petty responded yes.
Mr. Hanks stated if we can provide a
mitigation option, it may mean we take more time on the removal of these
non-exotics or non-invasive species.
Let’s put together a plan. We can
provide some of these trees in one of our parks. I believe we have title to some parks because
according to the plat, CSID owns a number of parks.
Mr. Lyles stated I am not aware of the
District maintaining park property.
Mr. Petty stated the District
maintains water retention areas. For
example, the city maintains a huge water retention area in Cypress Park.
Mr. Hanks stated I suggest we look
carefully at what the District owns by plat.
If we have not given it away to the city, let’s tell them we are going
to put the trees there.
Mr. Fennell asked can we get the
city permit in order for us to cut down the tree and put it on our property?
Mr. Hanks responded the city may not
have a permit but it does not matter.
The tree is there. It could be a
natural tree or someone planted it voluntarily.
Mr. Lyles stated someone could have
gone to Home Depot, purchased a tree and planted it 10 years ago. It does not matter how it got there. It is there.
If it is going to be removed, there is obligation on the city code to
permit the removal and do the reduced mitigation we are entitled to as a
utility. If we join this cooperative program,
it may be something different from the reduced mitigation.
Mr. Hanks stated I am not so sure I
want to join the cooperative program because the city will get the tree for
free.
Mr. Fennell stated I was hoping the
city will provide some money. This is
just a deal to get more money out of us.
Mr. Petty stated so far this is what
is happening with the next phase but we are not at the next phase yet. We are currently in Phase 1. The only item we are asking for is for
removal of the Ficus Trees. Because it
is not on the list, we are requesting the city come back with a bulk rate
mitigation cost, which we will consider and bring back to the Board.
Mr. Fennell asked is the money going
for any other purpose like a new Art Center?
Mr. Lyles responded it is a
segregated Enterprise Fund dedicated to a tree canopy. It is city wide, unless we negotiate
something different.
Mr. Hanks stated we need to figure
out a way to keep the residents happy.
There is a perception they are being harmed.
Mr. Fennell stated it sounds like we
need to put together our own concrete mitigation policy.
Mr. Hanks stated and present it to
the city for approval.
Mr. Fennell stated a great deal of
work needs to be done on this.
Mr. McKune stated it will help to
have it quantified, which we will be able to do when we are through with Phase
1. We are recording the numbers of
trees, type of trees, size of trees and which lot the trees are on.
Mr. Hanks stated we still have 175 Ficus
Trees to deal with.
Mr. McKune stated we have more than
that. There are 175 Ficus Trees behind
the Auto Mall.
Mr. Petty stated we are trying to
get a feeling for how the city is going to react to this request because we
expected Ficus Trees to be on the list.
It was on the list but Broward County recently took it off the list and because
the City of Coral Springs did not update their website it caught us both by
surprise. We are working with the city
to try to find out if there are any impacts to the District. We need time to obtain this information.
Mr. Hanks stated on new permits, we
need to add a standard condition for all stormwater permits to perform the
clearing down to the edge of the water at their cost.
Mr. McKune stated let them get the
permit.
Mr. Hanks stated they are pulling the
tree removal permit but since they are developing a site, they should take care
of it.
Mr. Petty stated we had a suggestion
from the Board to update our Plan Submittal Manual, which we will consider and
bring back to the Board at a future date.
Mr. Fennell asked does there need to
be a motion?
Mr. Petty responded no, we can take
direction from the Board.
Mr. Fennell stated we are going to
have a meeting on August 25th.
Mr. Petty stated correct. We do not have a location or time but are
hoping to have it at the City Center at Mullins Park. If you recall, the city offered this as a
site and to assist us. We asked what the
fees were and were provided a cost of $1,400 plus cleanup costs for a total of
$2,000. We decided to call the people we
know at the city to see if they will donate the facility to us.
Mr. Hanks stated we can have it at
one our parks.
Mr. Fennell asked can you give a
list to the attorney of the parks we own?
Mr. Hanks responded we own the
Maplewood Park on 19th Street.
I will provide a list to Mr. Lyles.
Mr. Lyles asked are you expecting
Board members to attend the town hall meeting?
Are you going to notice it in the normal fashion in case two or more
supervisors attend?
Ms. Rugg responded yes.
Mr. Petty responded it will be a
workshop since no decision is being made and will be informational in
nature. We are trying to get this
scheduled in a timely fashion but we may not be able to get both Supervisors to
attend.
Mr. Fennell stated at this meeting,
we will have the engineer and Arborist make presentations. We should have a pamphlet for the residents
of our recommended plan. Unfortunately I
do not know if we will be able to come up with a mitigation policy.
Mr. Hanks stated August 25th
is in 10 days. Do we want to push this
out so we are better prepared?
Mr. Fennell responded part of the
deal with the city was pushing us to do this.
Mr. Petty stated people will
perceive it as we are stalling. We already
sent the door hangers out to everyone.
Mr. Lyles stated they need to limit
their agenda so items are not discussed the Board is not ready to discuss.
Mr. Fennell stated we are still
discussing removal of the nuisance trees.
We still have a lot of work to do on the mitigation policy.
The record will reflect the meeting
was recessed at 7:00 P.M.
The record will reflect the meeting
was reconvened at 7:05 P.M.
Mr. Fennell asked are you going to
be able to enlist some help from your PR firm?
Mr. Petty responded yes, on the
graphics and brochure. We will be happy
to work with our associates on a policy.
Mr. Fennell stated since we are to inform
the public, we should make sure we have a pro guiding us.
ELEVENTH ORDER
OF BUSINESS Staff Reports
A. Attorney – Update on Lake Coral Springs
Issue
Mr. Lyles stated I have nothing
additional to report on legal activities this month. Due to vacation schedules with our firm and counsel
for the Lake Coral Springs Association, this is still a work in progress. We have not finalized the agreement we
reported on last month but we expect it to be completed within several weeks
now that people are back in town.
Mr. Fennell stated they own the area
around the lake. Do we have a right-of-way?
Mr. Lyles responded no. We have a flowage easement through the lake
and the master declaration requires an agreement with the association to make
sure there is quality control being done on the aquatics and lake
maintenance. This is all we are trying
to comply with at this point. Now that
we are not going to be in the business of towing out beach boats or coconuts,
they are not so concerned and they are happy to go forward with the
agreement. It is only to make sure
whatever chemical or processes are used is one we approved. Keep in mind, we are going to do our basic
level of maintenance in this lake because we have a flowage easement and it is
paid for with the general assessments.
If there is something additional Lake Coral Springs residents feel like
they want or need, they are going to pay for it, not us and clear it with us so
they should talk to us. This is all this
agreement is going to provide. I predict
it will be business as usual for the foreseeable future.
B. Engineer –
Consideration of Hourly Rate Increase
Mr. Petty stated the engineer
submitted to you an hourly rate increase.
Mr. Fennell asked are these 10 to 20
percent increases?
Mr. McKune responded these increases
come out to five percent per year.
Mr. Fennell stated $138 to $161 is
not five percent.
Mr. Petty stated he is saying five
percent per year based on three years of not raising rates. Is that correct?
Mr. McKune responded yes.
Mr. Petty stated therefore it is a
17 percent increase overall. They are
going backwards in time.
Mr. Fennell stated if we do this,
the Federal interest rates will slow down inflation and this will throw us into
a recession because it will cause great harm to the economy.
Mr. McKune stated this letter was
also sent to the other Districts based on corporate costs to date being
absorbed by CH2M-Hill.
Mr. Petty stated while they may be
competitive with rates around the state, this is not a take it or leave it
scenario. If you feel the rates of 10
percent are more applicable, I am sure CH2M-Hill would like to hear our
response regardless of what our opinion is.
Instead of keeping the rates as they are and tell them they cannot have
an increase or accept what they are proposing, we can suggest an
alternative. In this case, if they have
not raised the rates for three years, I see no reason to give them three years
worth of raises. If you would like to
look at it as what is material to doing this type of work now and give them a
rate increase of five or six percent, which is a one year increase, this is
something we can send back to them.
Mr. Fennell asked have the engineers
received these rates?
Mr. Petty responded no.
Mr. Fennell stated then I fail to
see the need to raise them.
Mr. McKune stated you need to speak
to the corporate accountant. This is
largely an overhead increase.
Mr. Fennell asked if the engineers,
clerk or technical representatives are not getting these types of raises, where
is the money going?
Ms. Larned responded to pay off the
debt from the acquisition.
Mr. Fennell stated too bad. I also watch engineering rates and for the
last five years, these rates are better than what Civil Engineers are
receiving. Furthermore, the rates for
engineers in general in the US have not significantly increased over the last
five years, which is certainly less than the cost of living. This is more than the cost of living.
Mr. McKune stated you are exactly
right for the pay rates you are addressing but this corporate rate includes
insurance, healthcare and those items increasing well in excess of the cost of
living.
Mr. Petty stated this is a very nice
way of saying they included everything.
This is not a take it or leave it deal.
What you think is fair and reasonable is also a standard in the
industry. There are a bunch of rates
encompassing the zero to five percent rate increase as well.
Mr. Hanks stated I would like to
find out what each engineer is being increased to. For example, what is Ms. Jane Early known as?
Mr. Petty responded she is a
principal.
Mr. Hanks asked is Mr. McKune Senior
Project Manager?
Mr. McKune responded yes.
Mr. Hanks asked who is Mr. Ed Flavin?
Mr. McKune responded Senior
Engineer.
Mr. Petty stated some of the people
are worth the increase. The question is
whether they are getting the money. I
think we just answered this question by saying this is not relative to the
talent we are getting but to a corporate allocation of costs.
Mr. Hanks stated the other side of
this is whether Mr. Flavin was getting billed at $161 an hour. Mr. Flavin is a good engineer but he is not
principal level.
Mr. Petty stated this is one of the
reasons we asked for a Capital Improvement Coordinator to oversee just this
issue. We have someone in mind and are
going out for an RFQ to see if there is anyone else we can match with. We will bring this back to the Board at the
October 1st meeting, which is the beginning of our next fiscal
year. Hopefully we will make the award
in this month. In the meantime, a
modified position is more realistic.
Mr. Hanks stated I think we should
look at other engineering firms and get competitive bidding. Under our contract with CH2M-Hill, are we
obligated to provide them with our work for the full year or do we have the
option of going out for RFQ‘s at any time?
Mr. Lyles responded you can go out
for RFQ’s at any time.
Mr. Petty stated we serve at the
pleasure of the Board.
Mr. Hanks stated we can say, “We do
not have a problem with these rates but we are putting it out for RFP”.
Mr. Petty stated remember the RFQ
process is based on qualifications and then you negotiate a fair and reasonable
price. We are watching CH2M-Hill and
paying attention. Maybe this will wake
them up. I would like to see this
myself.
Mr. McKune stated up to this point,
all of CH2M-Hill’s work has been paid on an hourly basis. We may end up with engineering fees for
capital projects based upon a percentage of construction constant in the
industry, which provides 95 percent of all billings under this percent of
construction. The remainder will be an
hourly rate for miscellaneous items.
Regardless of the hourly rates, the percent of construction will not
change.
Mr. Fennell stated good point. What is his official position?
Mr. Petty responded District
Engineer.
Mr. Fennell asked do we have an
engineer on our payroll?
Mr. Petty responded we have a
Quality Control Specialist or CIP Coordinator for engineering in next year’s
budget. This individual would do quality
engineering. His fees are pulled from
percentage performance criteria. This is
what we proposed for next year. I think
we answered the question you are looking for which is cost effective
engineering starting on October 1st.
Whatever you are asking for in this last 30 day period is not a big
deal. We can hold this matter.
Mr. Fennell stated it is not so much
the changes in the firm. The firm was
purchased by another company. Frankly,
there comes a point where we need some good competition and stir things up a bit. Maybe we need the option of having one more
than one engineering firm. We are
talking about having more than one surveying firm. I would also like to see our own records,
which other firms can have access to.
Mr. Hanks stated keep in mind they
are our records.
Mr. Petty stated by contract they
are ours and Mr. McKune knows where they are.
Mr. Fennell asked are they his
records?
Mr. Petty responded no.
Mr. Fennell stated we definitely
need competition. We also need to look
at different engineering firms to see how they conduct service going
forward. Frankly engineering firms
change from time to time and get bought out.
We need to look at ways of continuity for our services other than just
through one firm.
Mr. Petty stated your direction is
not to approve the engineer’s request for hourly rate increase and direct staff
to put out an RFQ for engineer.
On MOTION by Mr. Fennell seconded by Mr.
Hanks with all in favor the request from CH2M-Hill for an hourly rate increase
was denied and District staff was authorized to advertise an RFQ for engineering services,
pursuant to Chapter 287 of the Florida Statutes.
C. Manager
1. Meeting Dates for Fiscal Year 2007
Mr. Fennell stated we always have a
problem in February because of Veterans Day.
Mr. January 15th is
Martin Luther King’s Day and February 19th is President’s Day.
Mr. Lyles stated in prior years,
when other governments are taking a holiday, you have been taking it as
well. Both of those dates changed last
year.
Mr. Petty stated I suggest you
change those dates as the public may not be able to attend.
On MOTION by Mr. Fennell seconded by Mr.
Hanks with all in favor the meeting dates for fiscal year 2007 were approved,
subject to moving the January meeting to January 22nd and the
February meeting to February 26th.
Mr. Hanks asked when is our Water Use
Permit up for renewal?
Mr. McKune responded in a year and a
half.
Mr. Hanks stated I spoke with Mr.
Don Eckler who suggested we perform a Feasibility Study.
Mr. McKune responded we had to do
this study to renew our Operating Permit for the sewer plant six months
ago. We showed them it was feasible but
too expensive. It will be part of this
overall capital improvement program.
Mr. Petty stated we will address
this issue.
Mr. Hanks stated we have to look at
the alternative sources.
Mr. McKune stated this is why we
want to start early.
2. Monthly Water & Sewer Charts
Mr. Fennell stated I would like to
discuss the July hydrant flush.
Mr. Hyche stated it should not be
included.
Mr. Hanks asked what is super
chlorination?
Mr. Hyche responded it occurs at
least once a year, sometimes twice a year.
If you treat by four means, you sometimes form a biofilm inside the
pipes. We have to clean them out
periodically with a free chlorination.
Mr. Petty stated it is a standard in
the industry. Total chlorination is not
as effective as free chlorine residual.
Iron reducing bacteria, which happens in everyone’s distribution system
where they have exposed iron to some degree or another, can create nodules
where the iron bacteria will create a colony.
They can actually grow in such magnitude as to reduce the size of the
pipe. You super chlorinate to make sure
this does not happen at least once a year to clean the pipes out totally.
Mr. Fennell asked do we have iron
pipes?
Mr. Petty responded most are cement
lined up to iron or PVC.
Mr. McKune stated we clean them out
with iron fittings.
Mr. Hyche stated you start getting
more odors when a cleaning is needed.
Mr. Fennell asked how did we do?
Mr. Hyche responded we are done.
3. Utility Billing Work Orders
Mr. Petty stated there is nothing
out of the ordinary.
4. Complaints Received/Resolved
Mr. Petty stated there are very few
complaints. Most of these had to do with
the tree notices.
TWELFTH ORDER OF
BUSINESS Supervisor
Requests and Audience Comments
There not being any, the next item
followed.
THIRTEENTH ORDER OF
BUSINESS Approval of Financials and
Check Register for July
Mr. Fennell asked why do we always
have to approve check registers?
Mr. Petty responded you are not
required. We ask you to approve them so
we have a record of your approval. It is
also utilized as a budget amendment as we change our expenditure levels. This serves as a way for us complying with
our requirement to modify the budget.
Mr. Fennell stated I see $800,000 in
the checking account. Have we paid our
bills?
Mr. Petty responded the vendors are
paid.
Mr. Fennell asked did we pay for the
trees already removed?
Mr. Petty responded we submitted
paid invoices. We anticipate
participating in this monthly process more so in the future. When we get into the transaction overlays, we
will actually do this on a cashflow basis, which will be more understandable.
TWELFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Adjournment
There being no further business,
On MOTION by Mr. Fennell seconded by Mr.
Hanks with all in favor the meeting adjourned at 7:49 P.M.
Sharon Zich Robert
Fennell
Secretary President