MINUTES
OF MEETING
PINE
TREE WATER CONTROL DISTRICT
A
meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the Pine Tree Water Control District was
held on
Present and constituting a quorum were:
Margaret Bertolami President
Paul Brewer Vice President
Donna Benckenstein Assistant
Secretary
Mark Weissman Supervisor
Also present were:
Edward Goscicki Interim
Manager,
DJ Doody Attorney
Warren Craven Engineer
Randy Fredericks Field
Superintendent
Brenda Schurz
David Rosenof City of
FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS Roll Call
Mr. Goscicki called the meeting to order and called the
roll.
Mr.
Goscicki stated Mr. Rosenof is present.
He has resigned effective with his election to the City Council of the
City of
Mr.
Weissman asked when is the next meeting?
Mr.
Goscicki responded in May.
Mr.
Weissman stated I suggest we make our decision in May.
Mr. Weissman MOVED to wait until the next meeting to appoint
a Supervisor to the vacant seat and Mr. Brewer seconded it.
Mr.
Doody stated pursuant to Chapter 2001-320 which is the special act governing
PTWCD it states under Section 5, sub-paragraph 3, “All Supervisors shall hold
office for the terms to which they are elected or appointed and until their
successors shall be chosen and qualified.
In the case of a vacancy in the office of any Supervisor, the remaining
Supervisor of Supervisors (even though less than a quorum) may fill such
vacancy by appointment of a new Supervisor or Supervisors for the unexpired
term of the Supervisor who vacated office.”
Mr. Rosenof is an elected official who held an elected office. I believe the term is for three more years.
Mr.
Goscicki stated the term expires
Mr.
Doody stated he was recently re-elected.
Whomever you select to fill the vacancy will serve in the capacity of
replacing the elected member of this Board and will service for the remaining
period of three years.
Mr.
Weissman asked do we have an obligation to do it at this meeting?
Mr. Doody responded there is no time
referenced.
On VOICE vote with all in favor the motion as previously
outlined was passed.
Mr.
Goscicki stated we still need to take on the election of officers with the
current members we have. I did not
review the section on election of officers, but I am going by what we do in
other districts.
Mr.
Doody stated it does not go into details.
The remaining members can vote amongst themselves to appoint a President
of the District.
Mr.
Weissman stated I would like to nominate Ms. Bertolami as President.
Mr.
Goscicki asked do we have any other nominations?
There
not being any,
On MOTION by Ms. Benckenstein seconded by Mr. Weissman with
all in favor the nominations for President were closed.
On MOTION by Mr. Weissman seconded by Mr. Brewer with all in
favor Ms. Bertolami was appointed President.
Mr.
Goscicki stated congratulations.
Ms.
Bertolami stated thank you.
Mr.
Goscicki stated we should appoint a new Vice President. I suggest we open nominations to appoint a
Vice President.
On MOTION by Ms. Benckenstein seconded by Ms. Bertolami with
all in favor Mr. Brewer was appointed Vice President.
Mr.
Goscicki stated congratulations Mr. Brewer.
Mr. Brewer stated thank you.
SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS Audience Comments
There not being any, the next item followed.
THIRD
ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval
of the Minutes of the November 1, 2007 Meeting
Mr.
Goscicki stated each Board member received a copy of the minutes of the
Mr.
Craven stated I have a correction on page 14.
The second line regarding
On MOTION by Mr. Weissman seconded by Ms. Benckenstein with
all in favor the minutes of the
FOURTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration
of Permit Request from Whispering Woods Homeowner’s Association for
Reconstruction of Existing Drainage System
Mr. Craven stated according to the plans they submitted they
are going to demolish the existing gatehouses, install new gatehouses and
modify the pavement to accommodate the new gatehouses. There is no drainage being installed. They are utilizing the existing
drainage. I do not see any reason for them
to get a permit from PTWCD.
Mr.
Brewer asked is it on private property?
Mr.
Craven responded yes. All of the roads
in there are not designated.
Mr.
Brewer stated either way they have to get a permit from the city. The city is not going to let them build a
guardhouse on a public road. It has to
be a private road or they will battle the issue.
Mr.
Craven stated they already have the permit from the city.
Ms.
Bertolami stated it is private.
Mr.
Goscicki asked are there any drainage structures connected to our system?
Mr.
Craven responded no. Their system is
self contained. They have their own
retainage and they dump it way down by the Sawgrass Expessway.
Mr.
Weissman stated it does not impact us.
Mr.
Craven stated no.
Mr.
Weissman asked did they put in a written request for a permit?
Mr.
Craven responded yes.
Mr.
Weissman asked can we send them a written response that we find no necessity
for a permit?
Mr.
Goscicki responded I think we should. It
should come from the engineer.
On MOTION by Mr. Weissman seconded by Ms. Benckenstein with
all in favor the Board directed Mr. Craven to send a letter to the Whispering
Woods HOA stating there is no necessity for a PTWCD permit.
FIFTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration
of Award of Contract for the Purchase of Aquatic Weed Control Chemicals
Mr.
Goscicki stated the Board will recall we brought this to your attention at the
previous Board meeting and the Board questioned some of the quantities we were
purchasing. You questioned whether we
could get a better price if we purchased in larger quantities. We looked into it.
Mr.
Frederick stated I called all of the people who put bids in for the chemicals
and they advised me the savings will not be significant if I buy them in
barrels. It will be minimal because I am
not buying enough to make substantial savings.
Mr.
Goscicki stated the same bid information was brought forward to both the NSID
and CSID Boards. Both of those boards
moved to approve this award based on this information.
Mr.
Frederick stated I highlighted the chemicals I prefer to use.
Mr.
Weissman stated you are suggesting we use the three of them.
Mr.
Frederick stated one chemical is a set manufactured price. No one can give me a different price. I will deal with all three vendors.
Mr.
Weissman stated those are the three suppliers you will be using for all the
chemicals.
Mr.
Frederick stated yes.
Mr.
Goscicki stated I should note for the record, because I do not recall if I
noted it the last time, not all of these are the lowest price for the chemicals
when you look across at the comparisons.
Some vendors offered an alternative chemical. Based upon the staff’s review of these
chemicals they determined they were not equal; therefore, they did not accept
them as a responsive bidder on that chemical.
Mr. Weissman MOVED to award the contracts for purchase of
the aquatic weed control chemicals to Helena Chemical, UAP Distribution and Pro
Source One as recommended by staff on the tabulation sheet and Ms. Bertolami
seconded it.
Mr.
Brewer stated on the bid tabulation there are three at the same price. Will you buy it from whomever you want?
Mr.
Frederick responded that reward is a set price.
Some of these vendors have gotten other chemicals on the bid. If I have one of the vendors I am ordering
chemicals from and one of these vendors I am not ordering from, I will give
them the reward business. Everyone will
make money every time I order. I will
try to keep it even.
Mr.
Goscicki stated the contract award will allow Mr. Frederick to buy the reward
from any of the three suppliers. We will
give all three of them an acceptable low bid on that product.
Mr.
Doody stated for purposes of simplifying everything the Board should accept the
recommendation from Mr. Frederick.
Mr.
Frederick stated most of the reward business will likely go to Pro Source One
because they only have one of the chemicals on the list of bids. At $12 a gallon they will be making the least
money out of anyone else. I will
probably get most of it from them so everyone makes approximately the same.
On VOICE vote with all in favor the motion as previously
outlined was approved.
SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Discussion Items
A. Request
from FDOT for Final Closeout of Permit 2005-2 for Sawgrass Expressway Six Lane
Widening from Coral Ridge Drive to Florida’s Turnpike
Mr.
Goscicki stated this was deferred from the last meeting pending follow up
between the engineer and FDOT.
Mr.
Craven stated I came here with all good intentions of recommending we closeout
the permit. Someone lied to me yesterday
so today I am not in favor of closing out the permit. Mr. Frederick has done an inspection of the
project and everything seems to be great.
The only problem is where they allow us to have access to our control
gates. They put up a fence in the middle
of the road and we cannot get to it. I
talked to them last week and told them this was a problem. They said they would take care of it. I talked to them yesterday and they said the
fence had been taken down. Mr. Frederick
had people go out today and the fence has not been taken down.
Mr.
Weissman asked will you have to bring this back to us in May?
Mr.
Craven responded I suggest you give me authorization if they can remedy the
problem. The agreement between the
District and FDOT with regard to the operation of culverts has never been fully
implemented.
Mr.
Weissman asked should we have a written agreement with them?
Mr.
Doody responded I had prior discussions with Mr. Gaines and we now have the
number of a lawyer. I was not able to
get to him this afternoon. I anticipate
we will complete our discussion on this sometime next week. It is nearly completed. We will have to come back to this Board at
the next meeting for formal approval.
Mr.
Brewer asked does this issue affect the permit?
Mr.
Craven responded no, but I do not want this to get lost. In my opinion we need an agreement.
Mr.
Doody stated I concur.
Mr.
Brewer asked do you want to leave the permit open until we get the agreement?
Mr.
Craven responded I do not think we are threatening anyone.
Mr.
Doody stated I would not. Is that FDOT
property?
Mr.
Craven responded yes.
Mr.
Doody stated they have to take the fence down.
Mr.
Craven stated yes.
Mr.
Doody stated your approval of the permit closeout will be subject to
confirmation the fence has been removed.
Mr.
Craven stated they are going to jump through a couple of hoops before they get
it approved.
Mr.
Weissman asked should we make a motion to authorize finalization of the permit
contingent upon resolution of the fence issue?
Mr.
Doody responded the access issue.
Ms.
Bertolami asked did we talk about the drainage?
We have not had significant rain to see how the pond issues are?
Mr.
Craven responded I do not care. If they
have ponds from wall to wall, it is not our problem. They are constructed. They are certified by a professional engineer
that it was built according to the approved plans.
Due to failure of the recording equipment,
this portion of the meeting could not be transcribed. The following is a summary of the minutes and
actions taken during the unrecorded portion of the meeting.
On MOTION by Mr. Weissman seconded by Mr. Brewer with all in
favor final closeout of Permit 2005-2 for Widening of the Sawgrass Expressway
to six lanes from Coral Ridge Drive to Florida’s Turnpike was approved
contingent upon resolution of the District’s access issue.
B. Volpe Erosion Problem
A
letter from the District engineer regarding this issue is attached hereto and
made a part of the public record.
SEVENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Manager’s Report
A.
Pinetree Estates Drainage Improvements
A letter from the District manager regarding this issue is
attached hereto and made a part of the public record.
B.
Butler Farms Drainage Improvements
A
letter from the District manager regarding this issue is attached hereto and
made a part of the public record.
On MOTION by Ms. Benckenstein seconded by Mr. Brewer with
all in favor the Butler Farms drainage improvements were approved contingent
upon the District engineer’s review of the submitted plans.
EIGHTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Attorney’s Report
Mr. Doody stated I was under the impression the Board was
looking for a list of legal issues or for me to identify matters this District
could begin to establish in providing a basis for determining the ownership of
property the District has. To that
extent I handed out to you a memorandum identifying items, which can be
considered a starting point. Other than
this, the attorney’s report has nothing to bring forth at this point.
Ms.
Benckenstein asked do you have any idea how much all of this will cost us?
Mr.
Doody responded no. That is the magic question. It is a big endeavor, which entails legal
expenditures and time as well as engineering and assistance from the District
manager’s office. I do not know if you
are still interested in pursuing this.
Mr.
Brewer stated I think we have to.
Ms.
Bertolami stated we will as soon as a hurricane hits us. Is number four the most important: Survey and
obtain legal description of District owned property. Can we do that with just a legal description?
Mr.
Doody responded I am not sure. Do we
have a list of District properties?
Mr.
Craven responded no. We have the list
you have. Ms. Parrish sent out a list
with folios. There must have been 30 or
40 folio numbers. I visually checked
them to see if they were folios being used by the District. They were canals and other things. I do not think we have in our hands a
complete list.
Mr.
Doody stated folio numbers from the property appraiser can be considered a
starting point with perhaps an aerial photograph of the District. I can defer to these two gentlemen.
Mr.
Brewer stated you can go online today and pull up anything you want.
Mr.
Doody stated an overall aerial photograph to identify these particular parcels
of property, if it is possible, to the folio number. Just to show them on the map.
Mr.
Craven stated there are errors on our map.
Mr.
Doody stated you can start with surveys of those areas identified as being
owned by PTWCD with an assignment of the folio number identified by the
property appraiser’s office.
Ms.
Bertolami stated I think it will be a good start.
Mr.
Doody stated I think it is the only way you can start.
Ms.
Bertolami asked will it be our engineer who does this?
Mr.
Doody responded you have to hire a surveying company.
Ms.
Bertolami asked how much will it cost? I
guess it depends on how many properties.
Mr.
Doody asked how many folio numbers are there?
There are 30, so we are getting 30 surveys. If you have 30 surveys, can you ultimately
put them all together so you have one map at the end of the day?
Mr.
Craven responded if we obtain a copy of all the recorded plats in the District
and isolate them, we can determine many things they are considering as folio
numbers.
Mr.
Weissman stated you mean picking up District owned properties designated on
these plats.
Mr.
Craven stated yes, or they have assumed we acquired because we use it. They have water on it. They see anything with water and they assume
it is District property and it is not necessarily the case.
Mr.
Doody stated we cannot do any legal title work until we have a survey.
Mr.
Craven stated it will give you a picture of everything, which was platted. The things which are not platted you can look
at and determine how you want to approach them.
Take Pine Tree Estates for instance.
If you do a survey on that, you can spend $300,000 to $400,000. It is ridiculous.
Mr.
Brewer stated we need to have something on our hands Mr. Doody will feel
comfortable with legally. Let us say we
do have another hurricane. You can feel
comfortable going back to people and say we own this stuff. I’m not saying we have to survey every
backyard, but we have to be able to say we own this from here to here. Something you feel comfortable we can
determine ownership with.
Mr.
Doody stated maybe another way to go about this is identifying the major
drainage systems and ascertain the ownership there. Can that be a starting point?
Mr.
Craven responded I was trying to get the biggest bang for your buck. The recorded plats give you ownership, legal
descriptions and parcels any surveyor can go out to survey.
Mr.
Goscicki asked do you recommend all the recorded plats for properties within
the District or just the recorded plats, which overlay the drainageways in the
District?
Mr.
Craven responded almost every recorded plat contains a parcel that is either
dedicated to the District or easements granted to the District. Those are our responsibility.
Mr.
Brewer stated the big issue is north to south because 90% of the flowage is
from north to south. It is between 441
and Pine Tree. Most of it is on the east
side and all of it is recorded.
Ms.
Benckenstein stated it is all platted.
Mr.
Brewer stated yes.
Mr.
Craven stated if we can get the plats near the tier isolated, we will be a long
step ahead.
Mr.
Brewer stated you will have well over 50%, 60%, 70% of the District.
Mr.
Goscicki stated for the record we are talking about the east third of the
District.
Mr.
Doody asked how do you go about obtaining these plats?
Mr.
Craven responded they are available, but they will cost money.
Mr.
Doody asked who prepares the list. I do
not have a list. How do I get a list of
all the recorded plats?
Mr.
Brewer responded I will get you a list.
There are not many. I can sit
down in an hour and do what someone else will take five or ten hours to do. I will send you something to look at; a print
out on a sheet and it can say if you start off on the north end, it will get
you to the south end. I do not think we
are talking about ten plats.
Ms.
Benckenstein asked is there anything not platted in our area?
Mr.
Brewer responded not that far east.
Ms.
Benckenstein stated then everything in the District is platted and we can get
the information from there.
Mr.
Craven stated no. The other ones like
Pine Tree we know what the properties are there. We do not have any right-of-way properties
because we do not have any right-of-ways.
Mr.
Brewer stated exactly. The only thing
you have is north of the Sawgrass Expressway.
You have something going east to west there.
Mr.
Craven stated it can cost us $200,000 to figure out who is doing that.
Mr.
Brewer asked doing what?
Mr.
Craven responded the canal.
Mr.
Brewer stated you have something on the North side of the Sawgrass
Expressway. There is something there or
we need to have something stabilized there.
What do we have east, west, south of the Sawgrass Expressway?
Mr.
Craven stated nothing. This is all
platted, this is Whispering Woods and this is not our District. Once we get all of those I’ll be more than
happy to sit down at a congenial rate and go over them.
Mr.
Brewer stated the big thing we need to look at, and I think it is going to make
a difference, is if we have a continuous route.
Do we have any holes in it? It is
a real big issue. We might be going
through properties we do not have rights to.
If we have overlaps, it does not affect us. It needs to be done. If we do not do it, I think we have stepped
on ourselves. I know it is going to be
expensive and it has been pushed around for many years. Everyone keeps dodging it and it is not going
away. It is still there.
Mr.
Goscicki stated I need to remind this Board we budgeted $0 for this activity
and we have a limited budget for both your engineer and your attorney. We have a budgeted fund balance forward at
the end of this year somewhere between $40,000 and $70,000. The budget the Board adopted this year is a
stringent budget. You did not give
yourself a great deal of leeway. I think
it is good to start moving forward, get the plats, start identifying what the
next step will be, but I will forewarn we do not take any concerted effort. We need to come back to the Board with an
estimate of the next step forward. As we
get into the budget process, we will be starting the budget process at your
next meeting, a great deal of this will fall into your next fiscal year. You will most likely be looking at an
increase in assessments in order to be able to fund some of these
activities.
Ms.
Bertolami stated to recap; Mr. Brewer is going to get a list of the plats to
Mr. Doody and you are going to take a look at it.
Mr.
Doody stated I will locate those plats and then I think before Mr. Craven
starts we will come back. Mr. Craven can
take a look at the plats and come back with an estimate of what the cost for
the next step is.
Ms.
Bertolami asked can we know by May?
Mr.
Craven responded we can have an idea of where we are going by then.
Mr.
Goscicki stated this is progress. We are
moving forward on this issue.
Ms.
Bertolami stated thank you Mr. Doody.
NINTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Engineer’s Report
Mr. Craven stated there is a note in the minutes from the
last meeting that Coral Springs has the right-of-way for the canal north of
Butler Farms and would love to give it to us.
Let us get it because we need it.
Mr.
Goscicki stated we are working on it. We
are actually working as a two party deal.
They want to give it up. At the
same time we are working it through NSID for some acceptance of roadway median
maintenance. We are working on both of
those agreements. The city is actually
working on this agreement to make this happen because they are motivated. The city wants to get rid of this. We are happy to take it off their hands. We had some conversations with them a week or
so ago on this. They sent it to Mr.
Lyles.
Mr.
Craven stated we are taking care of it.
Mr.
Goscicki stated yes sir.
Mr.
Craven stated it affects other ponds.
There is a discharge, which goes right into the canal. As part of buying land for public purposes
Broward County acquired the poleman track, which is at Cypress Head. Being this is abut elevation 17, when the
firemen stopped pumping water the trees started to die. Now all of a sudden they have a big problem
and they want to alleviate it by pumping water out of these lakes. Apparently they cut a deal with the HOA. I have no objection to it if Broward County
supplies water to this area similar to how they do it for ours; for recharge
out of a new connection located in this area.
This will replace any depletion of water in your lakes.
Mr.
Weissman stated we will be acting as a conduit.
Mr.
Craven stated yes.
Ms.
Bertolami asked which area is this?
Mr.
Craven responded it is on Parkside Drive.
I do not know if there is urgency in this.
Mr.
Brewer asked is this something where we do an interlocal with Broward County?
Mr.
Craven responded yes.
Mr.
Brewer asked do we have to go to SFWMD or they do not have to?
Mr.
Craven responded the best way is to give this to Mr. Goscicki and let him get
back to all the Board members. We can
take action on this in May. I do not see
a downside for us. It gives us extra
recharge water. We need to verify the
HOA is happy with this.
Mr.
Brewer stated the down side of this is if Broward County forgets and they do
not recharge this.
Mr.
Craven stated this is why we are going to have to make sure the homeowner’s are
happy with it.
Mr.
Frederick stated the down side is the amount of pumping, which is going to have
to be done to get the water over it. We
pay for part of the recharging.
Mr.
Craven stated no. This comes free. The recharging is disconnected.
Mr.
Brewer stated you have to check with the HOA.
Mr.
Craven stated I cannot check with the HOA.
Is the ex-commissioner still active with the HOA?
Mr.
Weissman responded I do not think she ever was.
Her ex-husband was president of one of them.
Mr.
Craven stated we need to touch base. I’ll
call to get a contact name and we can write a letter.
Mr.
Weissman stated you can get all the names for the associations from city hall.
Mr.
Frederick asked who is going to be operating the structure?
Mr.
Weissman responded they all have management companies.
On MOTION by Mr. Weissman seconded by Ms. Bertolami with all
in favor discussion of the Broward County discharge/recharge issue was tabled
until the next meeting.
EIGHTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Attorney’s Report
(Continued)
Mr. Doody stated in my sabbatical you talked about having
meetings on a less frequent basis. I
looked at the act and I will bring to your attention the fact the act adopted
by the legislature, 2001.320, seems to codify all the prior acts. It provides, “The Board of Supervisors shall
meet at least one time every month to conduct the business of the District,
provided that items shall have been submitted 14 days before the meeting. In the event no items are to be considered by
the Board of Supervisors of the District, the District manager may cancel the
monthly meeting.”
Accordingly,
I will respectfully suggest you schedule meetings every month and if there are
no items to be discussed, the District manager may cancel the meeting. You should have adherence to the act. The end result is you may not meet until May,
but you should have meetings scheduled every month in accordance with this
act. If there are items to come up, you
can meet.
On MOTION by Mr. Weissman seconded by Mr. Brewer with all in
favor all previous motions referencing the May meeting were amended to reflect
the ‘next’ meeting.
TENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Supervisors’
Requests
Mr. Weissman stated I have a question after going through
the expenses. We pay a portion of the
waste management bill. I guess it is
billed out to CSID. Is the waste
generated and used by the District all in the office?
Mr.
Goscicki responded no. It is acquired
throughout the District.
Mr.
Weissman stated so it extends beyond the borders of the City of Coral Springs
and possibly into the City of Parkland. Do
we have any idea what the percentage is because I am assuming waste management
is paying a franchise fee into the City of Coral Springs? We generate a quarter. Of that quarter, do we know how much of the
waste is coming from Parkland and Coral Springs? Can we estimate what the percentage is? We know some portion is coming from Parkland.
Mr.
Frederick responded right now the bulk of it is coming from Parkland because we
are doing a great deal of work on the canal running along the Sawgrass
Expressway.
Mr.
Weissman stated unless there is something in the statutes that would exempt the
District from having to pay the franchise fee portion of the billing when they
are billed by waste management, assuming there is disbursement of a portion of
the bill back to the City of Coral Springs when in fact the collection is not
all from Coral Springs. Parkland
residents are paying into this District.
Do we have to contact Coral Springs to see how far how back this goes
and find out how many dollars may be involved?
The City of Parkland may be entitled to a portion of the franchise fee
collected, remitted to them from waste management for the payment of these
bills and to the future.
Mr.
Goscicki stated you are getting into an issue of where was the waste generated
rather than where is it being collected.
I’m stretching my memory back 15 years to when I was involved in this
business. The franchise, from my recollection,
is to collect waste from within this area.
Mr.
Weissman stated so we are trucking it all back.
Mr.
Goscicki stated we are trucking waste there in the back of pick up trucks and
putting it in a dumpster at CSID because we do not have a place where we own
property to site a dumpster here. If we
could site a dumpster here someplace, we could site our own dumpster, have our
own contract with waste management and not go through CSID.
Mr.
Weissman asked how much will it save the District if we do not have to truck
all of this waste from Parkland down to the District office? It sounds like it could be a savings and the
city will receive that portion of the franchise.
Mr.
Frederick responded we do not have a dumpster onsite, but if the city has a
dumpster, they can let us use it.
Mr.
Weissman stated between now and the next meeting I would like to get together
with the city manager.
Mr.
Goscicki stated we can give the city manager a call and see if there is an
opportunity.
Mr.
Weissman stated it may mean us having separate billing.
Mr.
Goscicki stated we prefer to set it up as separate billing.
Mr.
Weissman asked do you think we are paying more than we should for this
District?
Mr.
Goscicki responded no. If there is no
motivation on one side, it is on the other.
It is the same people involved.
One of the things you see when you go through the check registers is a
number of small checks made out to CSID for fuel allocation and copier
toner. As we get into budget preparations
for next year, this is a good program where we are sharing resources and not
having to hire our own people or build our own buildings, but we will try to do
this in a more allocated fashion where we develop a cost allocation for the
space. We can include fax, fuel, copy
toner and not get into all this detailed accounting check writing where we are
writing checks for $24. It is not worth
the administration to go through it. We
will clean some of this up next year.
You can see where we can segregate these things out.
Mr.
Weissman asked then will you get together with the city manager between now and
the next meeting?
Mr.
Goscicki responded yes sir. Are there any
additional requests or comments from the Supervisors?
Mr.
Brewer stated one more issue I want to bring up. I am going to throw it out one more time and
then I am going to surrender. I have an
owner who wants to come in and develop property along the Sawgrass
Expressway. I told him if he does and we
go through Broward County to plat the property, he is going to lose 50 to 75
feet of the property according to this map.
He asked me how he can stop this from happening. I told him not to plat the property. At his cost we got the existing map with what
they claim they own. Broward County
wants us to take this thing and do something with it.
Mr.
Doody stated they are saying the District owns the maintenance path.
Mr.
Craven stated no. They say they own it,
but they gave it to us.
Mr.
Brewer stated I have a gentleman who wants to plat a piece of property against
it and if we go through the platting process with Broward County and plat this
right-of-way map, they are going to pull this map out and make him plat the
boundary. Then the only way you can ever resolve it if the District made a move
later on in life to accept it, he will have to go back and re-plat it. I do not want to put him into a corner. It needs to go away. I do not know how we will make it go away,
but it does exist.
Mr.
Doody stated but it exists, I think respectfully, because of the interpretation
by the county.
Mr.
Craven stated it is recorded.
Mr.
Brewer stated they went in and recorded it.
The property lines of all the lots in PTWCD are in red. There are some lots in there, which will lose
as much as 75 feet. They are taking the
stance that the reason they created a map was because during the construction
phase of the Sawgrass Expressway they would not have maintenance. They created this thing almost overnight and
threw it together. As they quoted to me,
they can take it as being for the safety and well being of the public. They did not ask anybody. It is back to whether it is legal and
valid.
Mr.
Doody asked do they want a quit claim deed from the District?
Mr.
Brewer responded they want to give it to the District. I think the District has some issues in this
area because, what do we have?
Mr.
Craven responded we do not know.
Mr.
Brewer stated right. Do we go get an
easement? Do we go get something from
it? I do not know, but the map exists.
Mr.
Doody stated from a legal position what you are saying is the county’s
position, because of the existence of the map, is that arguably on some lots up
to 75 feet have a right-of-way in favor of the county and they now wish to have
the District take over the right-of-way.
Mr.
Brewer stated they are saying they do not feel the map is their issue, but the
map exists.
Mr.
Doody stated their position is they acquired a right-of-way through the
recording of this maintenance map.
Mr.
Brewer stated yes.
Mr.
Goscicki asked are they asking the District to take over the right-of-way?
Mr.
Brewer responded no. I am asking
somebody to tell everybody that if you want me to, I will go out and lay some
of these lines out and ask people to get their houses out of them.
Mr.
Doody stated you do not know about the maintenance map if you do not show
it. Most surveys do not show it, but the
county says it is there.
Mr.
Brewer stated the county says it is there.
Mr.
Craven stated not only the county says it is there. It is there because the map is a recorded
instrument in Broward County.
Mr.
Brewer stated the only thing about it is, being in a miscellaneous pile, it
does not just come out to bite you.
Mr.
Doody asked what are you proposing the District undertake?
Mr.
Brewer responded I would like to see the District either approach Broward
County and say, “Alright, you guys created this mongrel. It is going to create title issues for
someone someday.” I do not think the
county cares if it exists. I do not know
why he could not take it back and instead of it being an ownership thing, why
not have the District take it over as an easement. If this map is valid, every house on the
Sawgrass Expressway is in violation of set backs.
Mr.
Craven stated that is correct, on the other side. This District has a canal, which is essential
to the drainage of everything to the North of the Sawgrass Expressway. The same properties he said are going to lose
property. That is the only means of
conveying the water from the west end of the District to the east end of the
District. That is the only thing we have
to hang our hat on legally for the canal.
I do not disagree with Mr. Brewer that we need to do something about it,
but in doing something about it we need to validate our right to the canal
which exists.
Mr.
Brewer stated if we take the easy route and abolish the map, the District will
be left with no access to the canal.
Mr.
Craven stated this is the same discussion we have had over the past half dozen
years at one time or another.
Mr.
Goscicki asked why would we as a water control district want to touch this at
all? Mr. Craven is saying we need this
recorded map to maintain our right to maintain this canal, which exists within
this platted right-of-way.
Mr.
Brewer responded if this map ever comes up and I survey a piece of land or
somebody else surveys it and they find it, would you like to be the guy sitting
with a $1.5 Million house there?
Mr.
Goscicki asked I understand it is a problem, but why is it this District’s
problem?
Mr.
Brewer responded we were involved in the taking. Our name is on the map.
Mr.
Craven stated yes.
Mr.
Doody stated so we get sued for taking it.
Mr.
Brewer stated we could. I do not
know. It has come back to me again. I have a client who wants to do some addition
to it.
Mr.
Doody stated I understand, but I am not sure what action this District can take
to resolve the issue.
Mr.
Brewer stated well let us take the hypothetical where I can convince Broward
County tomorrow for them to allow us the map.
I need to make it go away because my client wants to build house.
Mr.
Weissman stated what we need to do is create a new map.
Mr.
Brewer stated exactly.
Mr.
Weissman stated the only way to create a new map…
Mr.
Brewer stated is to do a miscellaneous map.
Mr.
Weissman asked at what cost to the District?
Mr.
Brewer responded I think a map can be done for $2,000.
Mr.
Weissman stated maybe we can go to some of the homeowners who will be impacted
by this and have them share the cost.
Mr.
Brewer stated exactly, or you do an easement.
Mr.
Doody stated if you convert the right-of-way to an easement, you also move it
in whatever direction you are going to use it.
Mr.
Brewer stated I believe the map was done in the late 1970s.
Mr.
Weissman asked do we know how many properties are affected by this?
Mr.
Craven asked how many streets are there?
Are there 40?
Mr.
Brewer responded more than that. It goes
all the way to Riverside Drive.
Mr.
Weissman asked do we have the ability to special assess?
Mr.
Doody responded I thought of it, but I think it will be counterproductive.
Mr.
Weissman asked may I suggest during the next budget process we include the cost
for this?
Mr.
Brewer responded yes.
Mr.
Weissman stated this is not something, which came up this week for the first
time.
Mr.
Brewer stated no. It has been banging
around for years. It was signed by Mr.
Wells in September of 1979.
Mr.
Doody stated so it was in anticipation of the Sawgrass Expressway.
Mr.
Brewer stated I think it was and somebody put it together to say we are
protected.
ELEVENTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval
of Financials and Check Register
There being no questions or
comments,
On MOTION by Mr. Weissman seconded by Ms. Benckenstein with
all in favor the financials and check register were approved.
TWELFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Adjournment
There being no further business,
On MOTION by Ms. Bertolami seconded by Ms. Benckenstein with
all in favor the meeting was adjourned.
Donna Benckenstein
Margaret Bertolami
Assistant Secretary
President