MINUTES OF MEETING

Discussion Concerning Fire Station

Mr. James Shucart, Port of the Islands Resort and Marina, stated I just got back into town but my son, Christopher Shucart, met with some members of the Board this week and there may be some possibly of working together with respect to some land we own. Mr. Christopher Shucart met with the committee this week and outlined a potential area we may have available for the fire station. It seems to be, according to the Chief and other members, a good location. They can address the issue themselves, but it is the impression we got. What I would recommend is, if the Board wants to pursue it further, that we have a few more meetings with the committee to discuss some of the more detailed items and perhaps they can come up with some kind of recommendation to the Board for their consideration with respect to the details involved in it.

Mr. Bissell stated I want to make sure the committee does not act as the Board. The do not have authority to make any actions.

Mr. James Shucart stated they will only make recommendations.

Mr. Cox stated let me step in to clarify what this committee can do unless it wants to be subject to the Sunshine Act. The committee can provide you with alternatives; it cannot make a recommendation.

Mr. Gatti asked are you saying if we find a site that is acceptable, the Fire District is in a position to go ahead with this?

Mr. Mack responded according to the Chief, when we spoke the other day, he felt strong that he could expedite the whole thing and not even have to go into a temporary site.

Mr. Christopher Shucart stated they are in the process of figuring out their budget for 2006. From January to March is when they push everything into their budget. This means there is a window of five months to find a site, get budgeting numbers together from the land, construction and engineering portion of it, and to have it ready for the 2006 budget, or it will it be pushed to 2007?. .

Mr. Gatti stated let me go back to my question. If we have a site, do you feel the Fire District is ready to proceed?

Ms. (Jane) responded yes.

Mr. Gatti stated the process in proceeding will be bringing it up to the county board and looking for the financing.

Mr. Christopher Shucart responded it is part of it.

Mr. Gatti asked what is the status of the station at US 29 and I-75?

Mr. Mack responded that has been discussed for years according to Mr. Summers. He feels we are far ahead of where they are in putting something together.

Mr. Gatti stated I suggest to the committee that we find out what the status of it is. My understanding is that is, in fact, being submitted as part of the budget process.

Mr. James Shucart stated I was told there is a Congressman pushing it.

Ms. (Jean) asked is the CID or the Board willing to purchase or barter something for the land? Are we looking to have it donated? I do not see why one person will be obligated for the ~~whole~~ good of the whole community and think we should starting thinking about spending a little money on the land so we have it. At this time we have two opportunities and the Board should start considering how much they would be willing to spend on the land.

Mr. Gatti responded I believe you are right and the process has to be with whatever is involved; that we have to get a piece of land.

Ms. Dillon stated there are a lot of questions like how will you determine the value of the land and what is the benefit to someone who donates it, in terms of tax benefits. There are many ways to go at this. This is the very first time the Port has had some funds to work with and we have been driving mostly towards a water and sewer plant, itwhich is number one and has to be more important than anything else we do. Spending however much we are talking for a piece of land, even though it is time sensitive, has to take a second seat to improvements we have to put into the water and sewer plant. I believe it is a good idea and the committee can continue to work on this and come up with some alternatives.

Mr. Gatti stated it is important that whatever alternatives come before the Board ~~they~~ are given consideration. We have to throw all of the cost in a hopper and see what we have to work with.

Mr. Ziko stated Mr. Goscicki and Mr. Cox can possibly help us to find out how much money we do have. We assessed everybody out here last year and the money was spent before the assessment went through. As far as the Board or the CID having a lot of money to spend, I do no think we have all that much. We want to end the assessment as soon as we possibly can, so with what Mr. Cox comes up with on the sale of the RV park and what Mr. Goscicki has in the books ~~then~~ we can then make a determination on how much money we really do have to spend on this.

Mr. Goscicki stated to put in perspective; in the general fund and the water and sewer fund you have along the order of $200,000 and you know on both funds you have capital projects underway that you have already committed to that are moving forward and will be drawing them down. You will be replenishing some of it next year and you are in a good financial situation; meaning you are not at risk of not having the funds to go forward with the projects you have. I was going to suggest when we got into the discussion on the action list of the capital program that in October I ~~would like to~~ sit down and do a workshop with the Board to go through the engineers report, the capital program that has been recommended, what the fund balances are and do some prioritization with the Board based around how much money you have.

Mr. Gatti stated Jeannie, your point is well taken but what we have to do is to take everything into consideration. First, we have to find out how much money we really have. Mr. Cox, has anybody given us a check?

Mr. Cox responded I do not know if any checks have flowed through to the District yet. The checks that are going to be coming from the Collier County Tax Collector are just that. The money that came into my account was strictly for bond debt and has been transmitted to the Trustee. That was in relation to the Olde Florida property;, I forget exactly what the District is supposed to get out of it, but I believe it was close to $300,000 and is being held for you in trust right now by the Collier County Tax Collector.

Every indication is that they are going to close on the purchase of the property at the end of the month. That means the rest of the tax certificates outstanding, which did not have any bond debt related to them, will be paid at that time.

Mr. Gatti stated Mr. Christopher Shucart’s ~~your~~ point is well taken. We have what appears to be a timeframe ~~we have~~ to move on it so I ask the committee that whatever we can put together it is important we move ahead with..

Mr. Christopher Shucart stated I am willing to spend whatever time it takes to meet with the committee, to go to the Fire Chief;, whatever time is involved in doing it I am willing to put ~~the effort~~ forth in an effort to move forward with it. I think it is essential that the committee play a vital role in this because the Board meets once a month and with alternatives to be brought to the table, time passes quickly.

Mr. Gatti stated give them a circumstance where if things start to focus down we can have a special meeting if it demands it.

Mr. Shucart stated we are going to have to move toward that and maybe even a workshop of some kind going forward to bounce ideas around and try to get the ball moving in a positive direction into something more concrete.

Ms. Dillon stated I know you already talked to some extent about money and how we will do the land deal; do you want to talk about some of it now?

Mr. Christopher Shucart responded the only thing I can say is we are open to the idea. We are not in a position where we would consider donating it. We have a lot of expenses here;, we put a lot of money into bringing this property back and renovating it so we are not in a position where we will donate it.

Mr. Gatti asked shouldn’t we have the Fire Chief here when we get into this?

Ms. Dillon responded he is not involved in the dollar piece of it. He is there to look at sites and such.

Mr. Christopher Shucart stated partially he is involved in the dollar part because with the piece of property we are presenting there is an opportunity to go from temporary versus permanent where you have a cost saving in building the infrastructure, lease costs and other ~~cost~~ associated ~~with it~~costs. So, I do believe he has an input to some extent.

Mr. Ziko asked what will the property cost? Speaking to Mr. Cox and Mr. Goscicki, we are not the First National Bank and we do not have a lot of money. I understand we have to have the property in place before the Fire District will consider it.

Mr. Cox stated there are going to be a couple of things that come into play. I do not know where the property is they are talking about, but on the part west of Northbrook Drive, all of the ERC’s have been moved to the hotel property. If that is the area they are talking about there is no development price associated with that property. The only thing to do would be to have a couple of appraisals and work it out from there.

Ms. Dillon stated one of the other people we have talked to before is talking about donating land as well. It may not be as optimum a piece of land.

Mr. Christopher Shucart stated again, it goes back to time is of the essence.

Mr. Gatti asked where are we going with usthis? What is the Board’s feeling?

Mr. Ziko responded until we find out where the property is, how much it costs and if the Fire Chief says “A” okay.

Ms. (Jeannie) asked when is the budget due to be adopted?

Ms. Dillon responded August 29^th.

Mr. Cox stated after the Board meets on August 5^th, I can meet with the committee and Mr. Shucart.

Ms. Dillon stated we have a special meeting planned for August 5^th to review two proposals to take over management of the water plant. There are going to be a couple of other issues anyway and I do not know why there cannot be a follow up on the fire station at that time as well.

Mr. Gatti stated if the committee has something to report we will be available to do it. Focus on that and we will go from there.

Mr. Christopher Shucart stated with respect to your potential acquisition of the property it can possibly come in two areas; one is purchasing the property for a certain dollar value to be determined in some fashion and the other is, as we have stated in the past, we have interest in acquiring some ERCs and that might be a way but, again, it is up to you.

Mr. Cox stated the District does not have ERCs and the process for creating ERCs will take over a year.

Mr. Christopher stated the ERCs do not necessarily have to be given at the time of the sale; the process can still move on as long as the ERCs are available.

Mr. Gatti stated let us proceed on that basis.

THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS Questions and Comments on the Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2006

Mr. Goscicki stated the regular Board meeting in August will be the adoption of the budget, so now is the time if the Board has questions, concerns, or modifications they would like to put in.

Ms. Dillon stated I do not understand the workers compensation figures. There is $6,000 in the general fund and it is also on page 21 for $6,000 and I thought the total for workers compensation was $6,000. Has it been doubled in here somehow?

Mr. Ziko stated along with that, on page 12, we have workers compensation of $11,600 in the insurance for both the general and sewer plant. Now we are looking at $24,000 a year in workers compensation.

Mr. Goscicki stated I will make sure there is no double accounting in the budget.

Mr. Gatti stated what you cannot answer now we will look to you to find an answer.

Mr. Ziko stated as long as he gets back to us before the next meeting. We have very bad communication and I want to make sure this is cleared away before you say let’s adopt the budget.

Ms. Dillon stated I have the same thing with the health insurance. I do not understand the increase.

Mr. Ziko stated you have $6,700 on the general and the sewer plant for health insurance, which is over $13,000. How do we get $13,000 for one full-time employee?

Mr. Goscicki responded two full-time employees.

Mr. Ziko stated we do not have two full-time employees.

Mr. Goscicki stated you have not had them continuously.

Mr. Ziko stated you have it budgeted for four full-time employee’s right now.

Mr. Goscicki stated again I will check it to make sure it is not double accounting because it should be split 50/50 in terms of percentage.

Ms. Dillon asked are you saying our health insurance cost per employee is $1,000?

Mr. Goscicki responded I would think so. This is based on current Board policy that has been in place for quite sometime, on what you cover on health insurance.

Mr. Ziko stated I thought the employee was picking up a portion of the cost like everybody else in the country does.

Mr. Gatti stated is full benefits for the $1,000.

Mr. Goscicki stated let me review this one. What we do in other districts is a cafeteria plan, and I am assuming this is the same as the others. The policy amounts have gone up substantially in the last five years with and the policy has not changed to reflect it.

Mr. Ziko stated it needs to be resolved before the next meeting when we are supposed to pass this budget. Can you send us information on it?

Mr. Goscicki responded I will send you emails on it to tell you if the numbers are correct based upon the number of employees budgeted.

Mr. Gatti stated let’s focus in on what we are doing. We are looking at information we need to pass the budget. If we get into discussion of each individual item, like the policy and what we are going to do with health benefits, we cannot do that at this point or we should not do it at this point.

Mr. Ziko stated we cannot pass the budget, ~~we have~~until to we get into these.

Mr. Goscicki stated let me suggest this; one, I need to verify these are the right numbers. The secondary issue after we have the right numbers is I would recommend you still go forward with the budget and if, as we move forward, you decide you want to change the health insurance program for the employees that is perfectly within the latitude of the Board and means you are going to create a surplus within it that can be used for other things. You are not committing to spend this amount you are planning to spend this amount;, there is no commitment, which says you have to spend anything that is in this budget, it just establishes a planning ceiling for you to work around.

Mr. Gatti stated $1,000 a month is not out of line for health benefits.

Ms. Dillon stated all of us have been requested over time to pay more pieces of our health insurance. I am not trying to take something away from the employees, it just needs to be looked at.

Mr. Gatti stated get us the information if you can and we will proceed.

Mr. Goscicki stated I will have it to you by the end of next week at the latest. Ms. Dillon stated the way it is set up right now, as the supervisor of our employees, a lot of times these expenses are just spent because they are in the budget. In other words, we do not necessarily see them or have a chance to do something about them. It was like we said; if we put a raise in the salaries it does not mean we want to give someone a raise but you would be in a position to say well, there is money in there to give this guy a raise, and then you give him a raise without our input.

Mr. Goscicki stated it is not really the job of the Board to determine whether or not employees get raises, ~~or not,~~ that is what you ask the manager to do. The managing employees make theat determination as to whether or not they deserve a raise this year, ~~do they deserve~~ a merit increase, or ~~do they deserve~~ a bonus. The Board budget’s for certain levels of salary increase but whether or not they get the salary increase and the level they get is really the responsibility you put to the management.

Mr. Ziko stated I think we should take the management out of this and the Board should determine any further compensation increases. I believe it is really getting out of hand with some of this stuff that the management company is just handing out these raises and doing things that the Board is responsible for but we have no control over.

Mr. Ziko moved that the Board be the one who approves the raises.

Ms. Dillon stated or has input at least.