MINUTES
OF MEETING
NORTH
SPRINGS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
The
regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the North Springs Improvement
District was held on
Present and constituting a quorum were:
Salvatore Mendolia President
Steve Mendelson Secretary
Also present were:
John Petty Manager
Dennis Lyles Attorney
Jane Early Engineer
Denise Ganz Ruden McClosky
Fernanda Haido Prager, Sealy &
Jean M. Rugg
Janice Larned
FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS Roll Call
Mr.
Mendolia called the meeting to order and Mr. Petty
called the roll.
SECOND
ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval
of the Minutes of the September 13, 2006 Meeting
Mr.
Petty stated each Board member received a copy of the minutes of the
There
not being any,
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded
by Mr. Mendelson with all in favor the minutes of the
TENTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Staff
Reports
A. Manager’s
Report
Mr.
Petty stated we have news from our underwriter regarding the pricing of our
bonds. The pricing for these bonds,
which are supposed to close tomorrow, came in better than what we
discussed. Our underwriter wants to give
us the good news and discuss the sale.
When we get her back on the line, we will come back to this.
THIRD
ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration
of Resolutions
A. Resolution
2007-1 Designating John Petty Assistant Treasurer and Assistant Secretary
Mr.
Petty stated this is a housekeeping clean up matter
because Mr. Goscicki is no longer in this position. I will be able to back up Ms. Larned in the
signing of checks as well as paperwork for the District.
Mr.
Mendolia asked did we discuss this or have a meeting
regarding this before?
Mr.
Petty responded no sir. This is the
first time it is coming to you. You
currently have Mr. Goscicki as Assistant Treasurer and Assistant
Secretary. He is with Severn Trent
Services and was the acting manager for a period of time. We want to do this as a housekeeping issue because
I have been the manager for approximately a year.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson
seconded by Mr. Mendolia with all in favor Resolution
2007-1 designating Mr. Petty as Assistant Treasurer and Assistant Secretary was
adopted.
B. Resolution
2007-2 Designating Signatories
Mr. Petty stated this item is a duplication of A and we would
like to pull it from the agenda.
Mr.
Mendolia asked is it done under the same circumstances?
Mr.
Petty responded yes.
FOURTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration
of Chemical Bids for Aquatic Weed Control
Mr. Petty stated every year we go out to bid on the
chemicals we use for our aquatic plants.
You have a summary of this. We
are asking for approval to award this to the lowest responsive bidder in each
category. We take the best prices for
each chemical and award to that supplier.
It has been reviewed by staff and recommended by your manager. Is it in the agenda package?
Ms.
Rugg responded no. The bid tabulation
started at
Mr.
Petty asked did you open the bid tabulations?
Ms.
Rugg responded I opened the bid tabulation.
We have one issue. From what we
could ascertain, a sealed bid arrived after
Mr.
Lyles stated let me give you a couple of issues you have to deal with. Depending upon the circumstance under which
it arrived, this is a minor technical irregularity the Board can waive. At what time did the sealed bid arrive?
Ms.
Rugg responded it arrived at my office after
Mr.
Lyles asked at what time did it arrive here?
Ms.
Rugg responded I do not know.
Mr.
Petty stated it came in late and was not in the package for your
consideration. Staff has not had a
chance to evaluate the impact of all the bids because we just opened it today. Let us place this on next month’s agenda.
Mr.
Lyles stated in order to consider it, because it arrived late, the Board has to
make the determination that it was a minor irregularity.
Mr.
Petty stated I am not asking the Board to consider opening this letter. I am asking the Board to wait until next
month when we come to you with a clear bid tabulation, which staff has
evaluated properly.
Mr.
Mendolia asked are we going to consider the late bid
next month?
Mr.
Petty responded I do not want to ask the Board for anything or to specify what
our actions will be until I am able to talk to staff and find out if it is a
material bid we are considering opening late.
I am not ready to make a recommendation to the Board.
Mr.
Mendolia asked can we afford to wait a month to make
this decision?
Mr.
Petty responded yes. We have enough
chemicals at the moment.
Mr.
Lyles asked is it your intention to potentially consider this late bid, which
has not been unsealed?
Mr.
Petty responded I do not know until I talk to my staff.
Mr.
Lyles stated that is not my question. If
we are even going to open it to determine whether or not it is potentially the
low responsive bid, we need the Board to authorize it to be opened late based
on the circumstances under which it arrived.
Mr.
Petty stated I am not asking for Board approval on this. I thought I made it clear.
Mr.
Lyles asked do you not want to consider it?
Mr.
Petty responded I am not asking for approval to open the letter at this
time. I am asking for the Board to hold
this item on the agenda until next month’s meeting.
Mr.
Lyles stated we will be in the same position.
Mr.
Petty stated no sir. I do not think we
will.
Mr.
Mendolia stated it is still going to be late whether
it is now or then.
Mr.
Mendelson stated yes.
It is a late bid.
Mr.
Petty stated the option to re-bid is open to us.
Mr.
Mendolia asked why are we so
concerned with just one bid that came late.
Do we have enough bids? Let us do
what we have. Why wait?
Mr.
Lyles responded it is a Board judgment call.
If you believe the bidding process was not affected by this late bid,
which was somewhere from one minute and two hours late, we are not sure how far
into the two hours it arrived at the District facilities, but if it is your decision
it is a minor irregularity and it did not affect the bidding process, it has
not been opened and this proposed bidder did not have the opportunity to view
what the other bids had, you can waive this as a minor irregularity and staff
can take it into account. If you do not
want to consider it because of the passage of time and this person had an
opportunity to quickly put together a proposal, slip it in here and beat the
other proposals, you do not waive it.
You can also reject the whole thing and let staff re-bid it because of
the irregularity. I do not believe staff
can open the late bid and then come to the Board. You need to authorize staff to open the late
bid if it is what you want to do.
Mr.
Petty stated let me add the option of no action by the Board today. Let this be on next months agenda without
authorizing staff to open the unsealed bid or authorizing staff to award the
bid. You can defer it until next month’s
schedule. Speaking for staff, we are not
in the position to tell you these numbers did not leave this building.
Mr.
Lyles stated then you are not in a position.
This should make your decision.
If we cannot have the assurance from staff, we will have to wait to open
it a month from now.
Mr. Mendolia
stated we will do it this way.
FIFTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration
of Engagement Letter with Berger, Toombs, Elam, Gaines & Frank to Perform
the Financial Audit for Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2006
Mr. Petty stated we struck a theme when we talked about
things, which will be deferred until next month. This was increased by $12,000 from last
year. We are not happy with this audit
firm and their submittal. We wanted to
show you what they submitted. We would
like to talk to them and see if we can get the price closer to the $20,000
figure they previously had.
Mr.
Mendolia stated I believe we talked about this one
time.
Mr.
Petty stated the audit came in later than what we like this year under
understandable reasons. It has been
difficult for every auditor we work with throughout our company. Almost all of them have been late this year
due to personnel issues in this area. It
is difficult to keep working class people here as the price of homes gets out
of control.
Mr.
Mendolia stated we will defer it until next month.
SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration of
Work Authorizations
A. Work
Authorization 149 (Addendum) –
Ms.
Early stated this is a housekeeping item.
I did not get it on the agenda last month. We awarded the contract for this work. This is our work authorization for
inspections. It is in the Heron Bay
North Plat #3 area. The contract was
approved by the District and is underway.
This is a clean up of our work authorization.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson
seconded by Mr. Mendolia with all in favor Work
Authorization 149 (Addendum) was approved.
TENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Staff Reports
(Continued)
A. Manager’s
Report (Continued)
Mr. Petty stated we would like to bring the bond pricing up
for discussion. We have our bond counsel
present and Ms. Haido is on the phone.
Ms.
Haido stated I have excellent news. We are pleased with the way the pricing of
the Heron Bay 2006 Bonds went this morning.
Before I tell you the rates and the par amounts we were able to achieve,
I want to make sure it is clear we priced the bonds within the parameters
included in the delegation resolution approved by the Board in the August
meeting.
In
terms of interest rates on the long term bonds, we achieved a 5.20% rate with a
slight discount of 99.75% and a yield of 5.22%.
This is with a maturity of May, 2027.
The B Bonds have a May, 2014 maturity.
We were able to achieve a 5% par.
As we represented to the Board before, we are sizing both as long term
bonds and short term bonds on the revenue on the assessment levels, which were
approved and kept by the Board. The
lower the interest rate is, the higher the par amount of the bond.
We
were able to get a par amount of $6,930,000 in the A Bond and a par amount of $2,165,000
for the B Bonds. The total is
$9,095,000. Because we had a higher par
amount, we generated more construction proceeds than we originally anticipated. The total generated in construction proceeds
is approximately $7,728,024. The last
set of numbers we presented to you included a long term interest rate of 6% and
a short term interest rate of 5.5%, which generated a par amount of $8.4
Million and construction proceeds of $6.9 Million.
With
the low interest rate we were able to achieve today, we generated almost $1
Million more in construction proceeds. We
are excited about this. We were able to
generate more in construction proceeds based on the same assessment
levels. This is a reflection of the
great credit of the District as well as the
Ms.
Ganz stated pursuant to the authority of the resolution adopted on August 9,
2006, authority has been delegated to the President of the District to sign the
bond purchase contract with Prager, Sealy and
Company, which reflects these terms and conditions. The bond pricing is within the parameters
approved in the resolution delegating the authority to the President. We will put together the bond purchase
agreement tonight. The working group
will review it and it will be executed effective as of tomorrow.
Mr.
Lyles stated my firm and I have been involved in every step of this on your behalf. Everything you heard from the underwriter and
bond counsel has been part of an ongoing process we have been part of. We received a good deal on the market. It is time to pull the trigger on this. Based on the previous authority of the
resolution and the other actions you have taken, we will have these documents
ready for the President to sign. The
reason why we wanted to make a full presentation with all the numbers at this
meeting is so you know we are not plugging in these numbers in some of the
documents. You will see some of the
documents have blanks where these numbers will go. We are here to represent to you all the
numbers and terms outlined are what will be going in the final documents we are
putting together. We have a pre-closing
scheduled for
SIXTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration
of Work Authorizations (Continued)
B. Work
Authorization
Ms. Early stated this is for the last extension of
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson
seconded by Mr. Mendolia with all in favor Work
Authorization 168 was approved.
SEVENTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration
of Permit for
Ms.
Early stated this is our standard surface water permit for the last portion of
the golf club in Parkland Golf and Country Club. There is a recommendation letter in the
package. You have the typical standard
conditions attached. We recommend
approval of the permit.
Mr.
Mendolia asked who is taking care of the finances on this?
Ms.
Early responded WCI Communities, Inc.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson
seconded by Mr. Mendolia with all in favor the permit
for Parkland Golf and Country Club Golf Club Facility was approved.
EIGHTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration
of Conveyances
A.
Mr.
Petty stated this has been reviewed by our engineer as well as Mr. Schooley. As we have
taken on these water management facilities and subdivisions, the easements have
not followed. It is appropriate we clean
this up. We are working with WCI
Communities, Inc. to do this. I will
defer to Ms. Early because I believe there is one she wants to pull for
consideration.
Ms.
Early stated we recommend approval of one through nine with the exception of
number five. It is only showing an 8’
easement and we need a minimum of 12’.
WCI is reworking it.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded
by Mr. Mendelson with all in favor lake maintenance
access easements for Parkland Golf and Country Club number one through four and
six through nine were approved.
Mr.
Lyles stated this is a matter, which came before you in September of 2004. At the time you approved execution of a
series of deeds regarding construction of
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded
by Mr. Mendelson with all in favor the re-execution
of the
NINTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration
of Modification to
Mr.
Lyles stated we previously were granted a right-of-way by WCI Communities, Inc.
along
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded
by Mr. Mendelson with all in favor modification to
the County Line Road Deed was approved.
TENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Staff Reports
A. Manager’s
Report
Mr.
Petty stated the first item I have is consideration of the financial audit for
fiscal year 2005. The reason for it
being late has been described to you as a problem persisting in
Mr.
Mendolia asked have you seen it?
Mr.
Lyles responded no. We did not get it in
time for the meeting. Mr. Petty needs to
transmit this. You have the summary
highlighted in the management letter at the end. From everything I am hearing, it is a clean audit.
You did not meet the threshold for a state of financial emergency. If your timing is such you need an acceptance
today, you can accept the audit and any questions can be brought up at the next
meeting. There can be an addendum if
something needs to be added.
Mr.
Petty stated I am under no time constraints.
I can ask for an extension on the reporting requirement.
Mr.
Mendolia stated I like what Mr. Lyles said.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded
by Mr. Mendelson with all in favor the financial
audit for fiscal year 2005 was accepted.
Mr.
Petty stated the next item is part of the PR issues we discussed as a
possibility of working with our residents to have a better understanding of
what the District does. Part of this is
communicating with them on work being done at The Commons. The PR firm suggested we do a public service
announcement. It will talk to them about
the hard work done by field personnel during times of storm events. We can put it on the local cable
channel. It will be on video. The cost to do it will be between
$5,000 to $7,000. We feel it is
an economical way to talk to the residents.
Doing a newsletter can cost the same amount in postage. We would like to recommend this to the Board
for consideration. We do not need action
today, but the PR firm is ready to go forward.
Mr.
Mendolia stated we will save it for next month’s
meeting.
Mr.
Petty stated the next item is to talk to you about the bonds you just approved
as well as the past bonds we have gone through.
Staff is preparing schedules along with the engineer and developer to
quantify what you purchased in hard fixed assets. You have agreements from the developer to
finish the development. The total
construction costs will exceed our bond amount.
Staff is accounting for this so the Board is aware of what you
purchased, what is left for WCI Communities, Inc. to contribute and what is
outstanding.
You
asked for a better explanation of the funding agreements and other items of
concern. We talked to you about coming
up with a different schedule where it is a CPI format. Now that we issued the bonds we feel this may
be more appropriate. We will have this
starting at the next meeting.
B. Attorney’s
Report
Ms.
Early stated we talked about this on at least two previous occasions. I told you our deadline for submitting our
proposal to the legislative delegation to amend the special act giving the
District its powers is due by
We
address the issue of compensation of Board members on page two. You have been underpaid for some years. Other special districts we surveyed are at
the $400 per month level. We are adding
language to provide for the first raise in over 30 years to $400 per month,
which is more appropriate in light of what other districts’ board members are
receiving. We are also providing for
travel expenses, if you incur anything on District business.
The
other area you identified you were interested in, along with the engineer and
District manager, is on the bottom of page two; contracts for goods, supplies
and materials purchased will be subject to the same bidding thresholds as other
state and local government agencies of Florida.
Instead of $4,000, it will go up to $150,000 in many cases. We will still follow the Consultants
Competitive Negotiation Act, which appears on page three. When you are hiring engineers, architects,
landscape architects and surveyors, you have to go through a notice as well as
an evaluation ranking proposal process.
Maintenance surveys will be set at what is called Category 4. It is something the state sets the increases
for. It is currently set at
$150,000. They may increase it in the
future to $200,000 if inflation and other factors apply.
All
of these things we are talking about are going to save the District a
noticeable amount of money by not having to publish newspaper advertisements as
well as not involving the District’s engineer’s and legal staff to get bid
packages together. There is one other
area Ms. Larned is going to mention regarding the potential for us to go to a
bank for a short term type financing as opposed to a big bond issue. She will describe it to you and if you agree,
we will add it to the package we are submitting to legislature. At the end of this I will ask that you take up
a motion authorizing this to be filed on behalf of the District.
Ms.
Larned stated in the last few months we observed some of our districts need
financing from time to time, which is not always attractive in a long term
form. Their options have become limited
by using the current cash on hand or going out to sale bonds. We have been able to establish relationships
with our banks and other potential lenders, which may be able to fill the gap
of short term bonds. We would like the
Boards consideration to include in this bill the authority to proceed with any
kind of short term mechanism up to and including bank loans.
Mr.
Mendolia stated it will save time and money. I agree.
Mr.
Lyles stated with this addition to the proposed bill before you, a motion
authorizing staff to submit to the Broward County Legislative Delegation the
proposed set of amendments to Chapter 2005-341, Laws of Florida, is appropriate
at this time.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded
by Mr. Mendelson with all in favor staff was
authorized to submit to the Broward County Legislative Delegation the proposed
set of amendments to Chapter 2005-341, Laws of Florida.
C. Engineer’s
Report – Heron Bay Clubhouse
Mr. Petty stated I asked the engineer to pull the item
called Heron Bay Clubhouse roof tile.
Although this body is capable of picking out a roof tile, we feel it is
something we can handle in house.
Mr.
Mendolia stated I take this as an insult. I agree you can handle it. I can handle it too, but I will not do
it.
Mr.
Petty stated I may have misspoken.
Mr.
Mendolia stated you should leave it to the engineer. They can handle it well.
Ms.
Early stated with regard to the clubhouse, I spoke to Ms. Smith today. She is pleased with the progress. They started approximately two weeks
ago. They are almost complete with the
second floor painting. Once the second
floor is finished they will start on the first floor, which is due Monday. The pool contractor started draining the pool
this past Monday. He came across broken
tiles under the coping, which I spoke to Mr. Petty about. His work is scheduled to be done in two
weeks.
Mr.
Mendolia asked who is the pool contractor?
Ms.
Early responded I do not know who the subcontractor is, but I can find out for
you.
Mr.
Mendolia stated that is alright.
Ms.
Early stated the pool contractor found 43 cracked or loose tiles under the coping
and eight pieces of loose coping. The
hand rail in the spa needs to be replaced.
The architect did not include for the spa to be diamond bright along
with the pool. The pool contractor is
saying it will not match. He submitted
it and wanted to know what we want to do.
I spoke to Mr. Petty and we all agree we should do the diamond bright in
the spa as well. To replace the broken
tiles, the coping, the hand rail and to do the diamond
bright, it will be a change order of $8,000.
Mr.
Mendelson asked what is the timeframe on this?
Ms.
Early responded they are currently working on the pool so it will be the same,
two weeks.
Mr.
Petty stated we asked him to look at items needing repair. The spa is structurally fine. It is an aesthetic issue, which came up.
Mr.
Mendolia asked where is the money coming from?
Mr.
Petty responded from us.
Mr.
Mendolia asked do we have enough money?
Mr.
Petty responded yes sir, we do. Ms. Early’s husband is going after the insurance company.
Ms.
Early stated he met with the insurance adjuster on
Mr.
Mendolia asked are we getting more money from the
insurance company?
Ms.
Early responded yes. I believe he is
trying to get $220,000 for the clubhouse.
Mr.
Mendolia asked what is the total we received?
Ms.
Early responded they only gave us $20,000 for the roof, which Mr. Petty did not
accept.
Mr.
Petty stated the most being proposed by our insurance carrier was less than
$40,000 for everything.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded
by Mr. Mendelson with all in favor a Change Order No.
1 for clubhouse repairs at Heron Bay Commons with a net increase of $8,000 was
approved.
Ms.
Early stated in regard to the tennis courts, the
architect is due to submit to the City of
ELEVENTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval
of Requisitions and Invoices
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded
by Mr. Mendelson with all in favor the requisitions
and invoices were approved.
TWELFTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Supervisor’s
Request and Audience Comments
There
not being any, the next item followed.
THIRTEENTH ORDER OF
BUSINESS Adjournment
Mr. Lyles stated with the closing coming up, we suggest the
last regular meeting of the Board be recessed rather than adjourned in case we
need to take action on an item at the last minute in connection with the bond
transaction. We typically announce the
meeting is being recessed to the day of the pre-closing or the day before. The day before will be
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson
seconded by Mr. Mendolia with all in favor the
meeting was recessed to
Steve Mendelson Salvatore Mendolia
Secretary President