MINUTES
OF MEETING
NORTH
SPRINGS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
A
meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the North Springs Improvement District was
held on
Present and constituting a quorum were:
Steve Mendelson President
David Gray Secretary
Vincent Moretti Assisant
Secretary
Also present were:
Edward Goscicki Interim
District Manager
Ken Cassel Manager
Dennis Lyles Attorney
Sean Skehan CH2M Hill
Doug Hyche Utilities
Director
John McKune Capital Improvement
Coordinator
Nick Schooley Drainage Supervisor
Brenda Schurz
Terri Lusk
Joe Sabino
Warren Craven Craven
& Associates
The following is a summary of the
minutes and actions taken at the
FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS Roll Call
Mr.
Goscicki called the meeting to order and called the roll.
SECOND
ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval
of the Minutes of the April 2, 2008 Meeting
Mr.
Goscicki stated each Board member received a copy of the minutes of the
Mr.
Lyles made a correction on page 6, changing “construction bonds” to
“construction funds”.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by Mr. Gray with all in
favor the minutes of the
THIRD
ORDER OF BUSINESS Supervisors’
Requests and Audience Comments
There not being any, the next item
followed.
FOURTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration
of Permit for Bank of
There
being no questions or comments.
On MOTION by Mr. Gray seconded by Mr. Mendelson with all in
favor the permit for Bank of America in the
FIFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Staff Reports
A. Manager
i. Monthly Work Orders
This item is a summary of customer service work orders and
is provided for informational purposes.
ii.
Distribution of the Proposed Budget for
Fiscal Year 2009 and Consideration of Resolution 2008-2 Approving the Proposed
Budget and Setting the Public Hearing
iii.
Distribution of the Proposed Water and
Sewer Budget for Fiscal Year 2009 and Consideration of Resolution 2008-4
Approving the Proposed Budget and Setting the Public Hearing
Copies
of the proposed budgets were distributed to the Board and the following was
discussed:
·
The
proposed budgets will be approved for the purpose of establishing the public
hearing date. The public hearing can be
held at the July or August meeting.
·
Staff
is recommending a 7% increase in assessments for the general fund budget. The budget and the assessments were kept flat
last year. In order to maintain the
fiscal year 2008 budget flat, money was taken out of the fund balance.
·
A
significant fund balance remains within the general fund. There is a $715,000 fund balance on a total
budget of $1.2 Million. This amount can
be cleared out if a hurricane hits the District.
·
The
7% increase results in a new rate of $79 per unit compared to $74 per unit.
·
Property
owners need to be notified through a mailed notice of the increase in
assessments. The cost to mail notices is
approximately $1,200.
·
There
was Board consensus to have a 5% increase instead of a 7% increase.
·
The
budget for Heron Bay Commons was not self sufficient last year and was complicated
by the tennis court issue. The
assessments were not increased. In order
to accomplish this, $95,000 were spent out of the fund balance. To make up for this the Heron Bay Commons
general budget will need to be increased by 18%, which is $38. The current fund balance is $350,000. If the Board chooses not to increase the
assessments for Heron Bay Commons, the fund balance will be reduced to
$250,000. Ms. Lusk pointed out there
were increases in the assessments for Heron Bay Commons in 2005, 2006 and 2007,
but not in 2008. If the community does
not want an increase and they do not want deficit spending, the choice is to
curtail services and reduce those expenses.
The Board requested figures with just a 9% increase.
·
Mr.
Cassel pointed out the District lost approximately $20,000 worth of interest
from investments because of the drop in interest rates. Staff can put together a summary of what the
interest trends have been and what the expenses have been in Heron Bay Commons.
·
Staff
requested a detailed breakdown of the management contract for Heron Bay Commons
from Mr. Sabino for the next meeting and will consider approving the proposed
budgets in the
·
The
Parkland Isles budget consists of maintenance of a berm around the
perimeter. Due to a change in their
property management firm, staff is experiencing difficulties in progressing
with an agreement for them to maintain this berm. The Board suggested a 3% increase to develop
a larger fund balance.
·
The
Heron Bay Mitigation budget is for the wetlands located within Heron Bay
Commons. A significant amount of money
has been spent over the last two years in redoing the mitigation areas. There is a five year contract with Arazoza
Brothers to rebuild the mitigation areas.
It is now a maintenance program and there are three years left in the
maintenance program. A wetlands and
mitigation program was started this year to meet reporting requirements of
regulatory agencies. Assessments do not
need to be increased. There will likely
be a reduction in assessments in the future.
·
The
Bond issues are debt services and do not have an increase in assessments.
·
The
water and sewer budget is a relatively flat budget. The total for personnel and administration is
being reduced from $699,000 to $689,000.
Field expenses are going down from $1.56 Million to $1.48 Million. Plant operations are going up from $3.8
Million to $5.6 Million. This is due to
the operation of the county’s waste water plant. NSID does not have its own wastewater
plant. The wastewater is sent to the
county under a long term agreement. They
sent us notice of a proposed 30% rate increase.
There is a meeting among all the large users on
·
A
line item was included in the general fund budget for special assessment
services provided by Severn Trent Services in the amount of $15,000. Money was not budgeted for these services
last year and the District was not charged for those services.
·
Staff
recommends the Board authorize RFPs for a comprehensive rate study. This will include looking at the operating
water and sewer charges as well as the capacity fees and charges. The costs associated with a rate study range
between $50,000 and $75,000.
On MOTION by Mr. Gray seconded by Mr. Mendelson with all in
favor the Board authorized staff to proceed with RFPs for a comprehensive rate
study.
iv. Consideration of Resolution 2008-3
Designating Ken Cassel as District Manager
There
being no questions or comments,
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by Mr. Gray with all in
favor Resolution 2008-3 designating Ken Cassel as District Manager was adopted.
B. Attorney
Mr.
Lyles reported the following:
·
All
the legislative bills attempting to restrict some of the District’s
capabilities were either withdrawn or did not pass.
·
In
addition to the Florida Legislative, the Florida Budget Reform Commission
met. This is a constitutional body which
meets every ten years. They took up a
measure to go on the ballot which would have affected local governments and
special districts. It would have taken
away the District’s power to adopt a budget as well as other things. It did not pass by 3 votes out of 30.
·
Mr.
Mendelson was served with a summons and a complaint from Ms. Walker who is
filing a lawsuit. She claims she was
wrongfully terminated and is seeking damages from the District. She was a former part-time employee of the
District and became a full-time employee of CSID. CSID terminated her and no one from NSID took
part in the termination process. The
District’s insurance carrier has been notified about this. They want to settle for $50,000. Staff does not recommend the Board pay this
settlement.
C.
Engineer
i. Consideration of Change Order No. 1 –
There
being no questions or comments,
On MOTION by Mr. Gray seconded by Mr. Mendelson with all in
favor Change Order No. 1, Heron Bay North Plat 3 (65s) for a Net Decrease of
$22,120.56 was approved.
ii.
Summary and Discussion of Meeting with
SFWMD Regarding Water Use Permit Application
Mr.
Skehan reported the following:
·
Mr.
Skehan and Mr. Hyche met with SFWMD representatives to get approval to move
forward with using a model SFWMD has used for planning purposes. Their planning group has a model they
established to get a handle on all the water use in South East Florida.
·
SFWMD
did not respond positively to the idea of the District using this large model
because they think it is going to take up too much of their time and effort to
evaluate the model.
·
SFWMD
did not like staff’s suggestion to hold more water within NSID, CSID and SWCD. They feel if the districts hold more water to
help with water levels for the aquifer, it will be taking away from water going
into major canals.
·
SFWMD
suggested the District use a different model and other data in their
files.
·
Water
use permitting is integral to where the District will be going in the
future. Currently, there is 3.5 MGD
coming out of the District’s plant. It
is projected in 2025 that 7.4 MGD will be required. This ties into the rate study and capital
improvement plan. Whatever SFWMD decides
in the water use permitting process, they will limit the District to 3.4 MGD. The District will have to find another way to
get water to make up the 3 MGD shortfall, which will likely be from the
Floridian Aquifer. This will be a
significantly more expensive process.
SIXTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval
of Financials and Check Registers
There being no questions or comments,
On MOTION by Mr. Gray seconded by Mr. Mendelson with all in
favor the financials and check registers were approved.
SEVENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Adjournment
There being no further business,
On MOTION by Mr. Gray seconded by Mr. Mendelson with all in
favor the meeting was adjourned.
David Gray Steve
Mendelson
Secretary
President