MINUTES OF MEETING

PORT OF THE ISLANDS

COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT

The regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the Port of the Islands Community Improvement District was held on Friday, February 24, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. in the Egret Room, 25000 Tamiami Trail, Naples, Florida.+

Present and constituting a quorum were:

Richard Gatti Chairman

Dale Lambert Vice Chairman

Ted Bissell Assistant Secretary

Norine Dillon Assistant Secretary

Richard Ziko Assistant Secretary

Also present were:

Edward Goscicki District Manager

Dan Cox Attorney

Ron Benson Engineer

Tom Mack Staff

Bob Dick Severn Trent Services

Christopher Shucart POI Hotel & Marina

James Shucart POI Hotel & Marina

Doug Crenshaw Government Services Group

Peter Pimentel Special District Services

Todd Wodraska Special District Services

Chuck Adams Wrathell, Hart, Hunt & Associates

Michal Szymonowicz Wrathell, Hart, Hunt & Associates

Craig Wrathell Wrathell, Hart, Hunt & Associates

Rudy Kumpf Resident

FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS Roll Call

Mr. Gatti called the meeting to order and Mr. Goscicki called the roll.

SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval of the Minutes of the January 27, 2006 Meeting

Mr. Gatti stated each Board member received a copy of the minutes of the January 27, 2006 meeting and requested any additions, corrections or deletions.

Mr. Lambert stated on Page 34 in the third paragraph ‘Shucart’ should replace ‘Molberg’. On Page 39 in the second line from the bottom ‘pump’ should replace ‘well’.

Ms. Dillon stated in the motion box on Page 39 we restated the previous motion. Did we also move and vote on this motion with regard to the sale of the ERCs?

Mr. Ziko responded yes, however, the page is incomplete. We had a motion which was seconded and voted on, but does not show in the minutes. There are three more paragraphs which were omitted on Page 38 at the second paragraph. Perhaps you should go over the tape and redo these two pages.

On MOTION by Ms. Dillon seconded by Mr. Lambert with all in favor the minutes of the January 27, 2006 meeting were approved as amended.

THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS Discussion of RFQs for Operation, Maintenance and Management of Water and Wastewater Facilities

Mr. Gatti stated I hope there was not a misunderstanding. Mr. Cox will elaborate on what he asked for.

Mr. Cox stated the first proposal is a request for management services with the alternative second bid of presenting proposals to handle contract management of the wastewater treatment plant and potable water productions

Mr. Gatti asked did you ask for presentations for today’s meeting?

Mr. Cox responded yes.

Mr. Gatti stated we just received the material this week.

Mr. Cox stated when we meet again on March10th, you should hear the presentations and we may consider ranking and actual selection at the next meeting.

Mr. Gatti stated I apologize to the presenters, but we are not ready to discuss this.

Ms. Dillon stated I do not see a problem with listening to the proposals to give us some more background.

Mr. Gatti asked how can we listen to the proposals, not make an evaluation and then have another presentation in March.

Mr. Cox stated you will not have another presentation. The presentations will be made today in order to get you familiar with the different groups and services which they will be able to provide you. We will then look at formal written proposals to see the answers to questions about staffing which will be addressed. You will do a formal evaluation and rank them at the next meeting.

Mr. Lambert asked if we have questions after listening to the presentation and reading the information given to us, how will we go about getting them answered?

Mr. Cox responded if someone has a specific question, it will be best if we ask one representative from each group to attend the next meeting. If the questions are of a general nature, all of the presenters must have the opportunity to respond. You can send the questions to me and I will send it out to all of them for a general response to the Board.

Mr. Ziko asked do you have any ranking sheets with you?

Mr. Cox responded I do not.

Mr. Gatti stated this was sent to me by mail earlier, approximately the middle of last week, and I did not distribute it.

Mr. Cox stated the formal response is what should be considered. This is general background information about the organization.

Mr. Lambert stated we should have received everything which we are going to consider. This is additional information we received this morning.

Mr. Gatti asked did they actually submit?

Mr. Goscicki responded yes.

Mr. Cox stated the holiday on Monday delayed this process.

Mr. Gatti asked should everyone be in the room?

Mr. Cox responded although it is a public meeting, out of courtesy, the other presenters were not in the room.

Mr. Gatti stated the reason this is unfair is when the first is done and the other two presenters have to listen, it unbalances things. Therefore, we should make a decision on how we will ask questions.

Mr. Goscicki stated since these are public meetings you cannot require anyone to leave as Mr. Cox will tell you, but as a professional courtesy among these groups, I believe you will see only one presenter at a time in these presentations.

Mr. Gatti stated I disagree with both of you because I have gone through many of these and we never had people together in the same room. We will have the presenters come up in alphabetical order.

Mr. Cox stated the order will be Governmental Services Group; Severn Trent Services; Special District Services and Wrathell, Hart, Hunt & Associates.

Mr. Lambert asked can we limit the time allowed for each presentation?

Mr. Gatti responded we should allow 15 minutes for presentations and 15 minutes for questions, if the Board agrees.

Mr. Ziko stated we have other items on the list. The gentleman with the fire station does not want to wait two hours while we have presentations.

Mr. Gatti stated this makes sense, if it is acceptable to the submitters. This actually will give you more time to work with. Perhaps we should go through the open items.

Mr. Lambert stated I was not able get them updated this time.

Mr. Cox stated since we meet again in a couple of weeks, perhaps we can discuss the ones which are more important and take care of the remaining ones later.

Ms. Dillon stated perhaps we can discuss the fire station and hold the other ones for after the presentations.

FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Discussion of Open Items

Fire Station

Mr. Mack stated I am in contact with DJ, the manager of the gun club, and Mr. Holecek, the owner of the property. They are currently in the process of doing a site plan of the property. There are also some rezoning issues which must be resolved before he can commit to us. I will introduce him to Mr. Colletta and they can discuss how to resolve the rezoning issue, which will help both us and them. This will probably take a couple of months, and until this happens, we will have to wait and see.

Mr. Lambert asked how does this affect the fire chief and what he budgeted for this year in getting something done?

Mr. Mack responded this is part of the problem. I am not certain. The fire chief is aware of what is going on and waiting to hear something positive before we can proceed, however, I do not believe it will take more than two months.

Ms. Dillon stated it is safe to say everything is positive.

Mr. Mack stated we are on the right track and hopefully we can resolve all these issues.

Mr. Lambert stated I am not confident two months is reasonable when it comes to rezoning.

Mr. Cox stated this is not enough time to have a preliminary meeting with staff to go over ideas you have for the property and determine what kind of staff level you will get. If you have few staff level interruptions, you are not going to have many problems in the future.

Mr. Lambert asked will it go directly to the Board after staff reviews it?

Mr. Cox responded it takes time because different departments have to review it before it can actually be included on a Board agenda. The entire process takes a minimum of six to seven months. I assume they will go for a planned unit development property and include use in planning and development so that we do not have to go through it again later.

Mr. Mack stated since the fire station is involved, I believe we can get tremendous help from Mr. Colletta in order to proceed forward.

Mr. Lambert stated I also want to ensure Mr. Cox keeps in line with this part of it so we do not have to go through another six months after they get done.

Mr. Mack stated I will keep in touch with Mr. Cox, but things change from week to week.

Mr. Gatti stated Mr. Shucart asked me to make a brief presentation on an issue which affects the Board and the community, and has nothing to do with the hotel. With the Board’s permission I would like to give him a few minutes to discuss.

Mr. James Shucart stated one of the most important issues facing this community, which is close to the water, is access to the Gulf for boating pleasure and the safety and maintenance of our property values out here, whether it is for the hotel, marina or individual homes. Issues have come to our attention with respect to certain areas which are difficult to navigate due to filling in and shifting of the channel. We conducted interviews with several guides and captains in the area, who tell us the situation was worsened due to the recent hurricane. We would like to analyze which areas pose problems since we feel it is important for our marina, as well as the community. We already spoke with a couple of people and had a bathometric study made at our own expense to isolate these areas, which will give us an opportunity to see what costs may be involved in remedying the situation out there. In the last couple of days, Mr. Christopher Shucart spoke with a gentleman who said there may be some matching funds available to assist in this process, and he will fill you in on the details.

Mr. Christopher Shucart stated I spoke to Mr. Chuck Littlejohn, who is a lobbyist for the State, and he informed me there is an appropriations package which the State has allocated for what they call the ‘Financial Mitigation for Hurricane Damage’, with a sizeable amount of money available. Unfortunately, it goes into session one week from this Tuesday. I discussed this with Mr. Littlejohn and he recommended we contact Mr. Mike Davis, our County Representative. We plan to contact him during this week, and he has a presentation next Thursday in which we will try to discuss our situation. Mr. Littlejohn informed to us there are a few necessary steps to be taken in order to be eligible for these funds. One is to get some affidavits from the community stating there was an effect due to the hurricane, which we are in the process of doing. We already have some affidavits stating this. We also must obtain information showing how the original depth changed as a result of the hurricane. They are going to ask who is involved with the situation and if they are the only contributors. We believe their thought process is a matching process. If you come up with a certain amount of dollars they will match it in a proactive way to resolve the situation. We had a few thoughts with regard to the initial fund-raising to go to the State, such as asking the County if they had some funds available, the CID itself and private funding from us. We decided as private individuals to match anything which the community can put together up to $150,000 for the work, however, we do not know exactly what the cost is going to be. We have been trying to move the project forward for a few weeks, but we do not yet have the scope of how much material will need to be dredged. At this point, we are aware there is a situation and we have an opportunity to get some funding from the State for this project. We wanted to bring it to the Board’s attention and try to determine where we can move forward with this.

Mr. Gatti stated we should probably discuss this when we have more information since the economical effect may be considerable, although I wanted the Board to hear this because of the timing aspect. I suggest we proceed with these presentations and discuss this later on.

Mr. Lambert stated I believe the County has to be the major supporter of this program and I am not certain it falls under our jurisdiction.

Ms. Dillon stated I agree, and part of this area is a federal waterway.

Mr. Gatti stated I cannot tell you about the dredging aspect, but the Army Corps of Engineers will definitely be involved. We also had a question as to who will maintain the signs out there and, after some deliberations, the County agreed to do this. I do not know what impact this has on anything, but we are going to have to pursue in this direction.

Mr. Christopher Shucart asked what signs are you referring to?

Ms. Dillon responded a few years ago the County replaced many of the channel markers.

Mr. Christopher Shucart stated we lost some markers out there as well and we will use this funding to replace markers and add additional ones if necessary.

Mr. Gatti stated there also some posts sticking out of the ground through the water.

Mr. Bissell stated the County has been doing most of the dredging in these areas.

Mr. Gatti stated we should pursue this with the County and perhaps a Board member can be involved.

Mr. Cox stated although this is a community issue, the CID is not empowered to do this. Perhaps you should reactivate the HOA and use it as a tool to raise the money.

Mr. Gatti stated even if we wanted to pursue this, it is not appropriate for the CID to spend money in this area.

Ms. Dillon stated it is not appropriate for the CID.

Mr. Gatti stated we should contact the County, the CID can support the issue, and go from there.

Ms. Dillon stated I wonder if it is appropriate to see if there is a voting audience member who can become our point person the same way Mr. Mack has been for the fire station, in order that there is someone aside from a Board member representing our interests and reporting back to us.

Mr. Gatti stated I believe the Shucarts fill this role.

Mr. James Shucart stated we are open to anyone who is interested in assisting us.

Mr. Lambert stated residents should email Mr. Colletta to make him aware of the community’s concerns.

Mr. James Shucart stated I believe the timing of the issue makes this difficult. We were hoping the CID or District would have some funding available which we can match, but it does not look like this is possible.

Mr. Christopher Shucart asked are their requirements on what they can spend?

Mr. Cox responded the Statute has specific powers which the CID is authorized to pay. I do not believe we can segue this into surface water management.

Mr. Christopher Shucart asked is maintaining property values the Board’s responsibility?

Mr. Cox responded maintaining or enhancing property values is a measure of the validity of the special assessment, but it is not a power of the District.

Mr. Ziko stated a resident may want to add something to this.

Mr. Rudy Kumpf stated if you use your boat on, or close to, a daily basis as some of us do, you will realize we have lost a lot of depth. Last month when we had many periods of low tide, there was less than two feet of water in substantial areas and less than one foot of water in other areas. You lost four channel markers due to the hurricane, and one of them is strategically located at the entrance. If you cut this short, you may lose the bottom of your boat since the area is made up of coral. Even though it is not the CID’s responsibility, there should be a program of continual maintenance.

Mr. Ziko stated by law we cannot do this.

Mr. Cohen stated this does not mean much as long as it is open, but when it is closed and can no longer be navigated, everyone will lose property value.

Mr. Gatti stated we all recognize the need for what is being proposed, however, I believe the point as to where and how we can put this together is the issue.

Mr. Cox stated we are not empowered as a Board to do this.

Mr. Gatti stated there is no question about what you are saying.

Mr. Goscicki stated the CID is a special purpose local government which has specific duties and powers, and maintenance of navigable waterways is not one of them.

Mr. Christopher Shucart asked can this ever be amended?

Mr. Goscicki responded I do not recall seeing this in a permissible list.

Mr. Cox stated it is possible, only through special legislation, which is unlikely due to the history of Chapter 190 which was created for uniformity to types of districts, and very few districts in the state are interested in maintaining waterways. There are different special districts which can be established for navigational purposes, but not under Chapter 190. The quickest way is to reactivate the HOA to handle this.

Mr. Gatti stated we should focus on the point of the issue. We cannot come to a decision within a couple of weeks since all aspects make this impossible. We should try to pursue this with the County, and I believe the Board will support this.

Mr. Christopher Shucart we would like to be able to get a letter of support to give us some backing because we will still have to submit for emergency funding even though we do not have all the information. It is an opportunity which will be lost.

Mr. Lambert stated I do not believe we should be making recommendations on something which is not part of our area.

Mr. Ziko stated I can support a petition to be circulated throughout the community as a private citizen, but not as a Board member.

Ms. Dillon stated the County paid for the dredging of Wiggens Pass, but I do not how they have matching funds since it is an open waterway.

Mr. Gatti stated we should proceed on the basis that individuals may write a letter of support.

Mr. Lambert stated most importantly you should give your comments to Mr. Coletta because he will be able to help us.

Mr. James Shucart stated I suggest we do this in a somewhat organized manner; perhaps members of the community can call us and we can have a meeting of those interested in moving forward with this. We are open to any suggestions and assistance which can be provided, however, we cannot do it all on our own.

Mr. Gatti asked will you work on this for us?

Mr. Kumpf responded absolutely.

Mr. Ziko stated since Mr. Colletta answers all of his emails, the community can email, as individuals, their concern on this issue. Perhaps a format can be developed in which we fill in the blanks and send him an email.

Mr. Lambert stated he needs to know how many people are concerned.

Mr. Gatti stated you should take these concerns into consideration as you put this together and perhaps a few people can help you disseminate this information in order to accomplish what Mr. Ziko was talking about.

Ms. Dillon stated I am willing to walk around neighborhoods to get signatures on letters, among other things which can be done.

Mr. Gatti stated we will proceed on this basis.

THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS Discussion of RFQs for Operation, Maintenance and management of Water and Wastewater Facilities (Continued)

Government Services Group

Mr. Gatti stated as a courtesy the presentations be done in alphabetical order. The first one is Government Services Group (GSG).

Mr. Crenshaw stated I want to thank the Board for allowing me to discuss what GSG can do to assist the District to move forward. I will follow along with the handout I distributed. GSG is a 10-year old government consulting firm which only serves governmental entities from special districts, cities, counties and authorities. We serve over 150 governmental entities throughout the State of Florida. We do not serve private sectors, thereby avoiding any conflict of interest. We were incorporated in 1996 and we are excited about celebrating our tenth anniversary this year, showing some stability as a well-rounded firm who has accomplished a controlled, slow and steady growth over the past 10 years. Our work involves everything from assessment programs, to utility management, to park and recreation, golf and country club services, among other things. Our finance and accounting departments are all in-house and we can offer all these services which districts and various governmental entities need in one firm. Our CEO is Mr. Robert Sheets, who founded the corporation. We come from a consulting firm with more than 150 clients and we manage over $130 million annually, which is approximately $90 million per year in capital projects and approximately $30 million in operational funds. Our company’s structure has grown and diversified. Our corporate headquarters are in Tallahassee, which hosts our Technical Services Division. with Mr. Mark Brown as Vice President and the Government Services Division with Ms. Camile Tharpe as Senior Vice President. Between those two divisions they process more than one million parcels of special land assessment programs annually. Our third division, which is Contract Services, is lead by Mr. Charles Sweat, who manages and operates utility systems, special districts, some of our CDDs around the State of Florida and authorities. As shown in the GSG team organizational chart, Mr. Sheets is the CEO; the three presidents, as I mentioned, are Ms. Tharpe, Mr. Sweat and Mr. Brown; our Operations Manager is Mr. John Dunty; our Business Management Manager is Ms. Linda Schnaufer and our Finance Procurement Director is Mr. Gregg Cabbott. Our sole focus is to serve only governmental entities. One of the primary things we found GSG can be a great deal of help with is managing contracts. For the past many years we have seen many different areas of governmental entities and special districts privatize certain aspects or the entire operation. We focused a great deal on operations and management. We handle accounting, financing, budgeting, governmental clerk services for full compliance with Chapter 190. We bring our clerks to Board meetings. If you check with some of our existing clients you will find one of the things we get a great deal of compliments on is the accuracy and readability of our minutes, which is something we take a great deal of pride in. Our clerks to the Board handle all record keeping, filings, public notices in full compliance with Chapter 190, capital projects, administration and project management, as well as the primary areas we discussed, overseeing approximately $90 million per year in capital projects. I understand the District is anticipating many capital projects over the next few years and looking at a great deal of growth over the next five years. We believe we are best suited to help oversee this. Although we submitted our proposal for district management services, we have not submitted a proposal for contract operations for utility systems since it has not been decided whether those will be separated or with a single company. We feel as a district management firm we can oversee the contract on behalf of the district to monitor contract operations and all construction and capital projects. We also focus strongly on working with our boards to identify their goals and objectives, as well as create strategic planning sessions which allow us to identify the ultimate goal of the board on behalf of the district, and we follow up with annual reviews what we are able to get accomplished and identify the next strategic plan for the next year moving forward in order to stay focused and keep communication with the Board, and ensure we are moving in an appropriate direction to provide the leadership. Revenue enhancement from the assessment programs to creative grant funding is one of our strengths. Things of this nature allow communities to operate efficiently and effectively to build the type of reserves necessary for a community of this nature. With regard to communications, we also have a Director of Communications and our technical support staff, who build and maintain websites, create newsletters, as well as the distribution and printing involved because we feel it is important for us to communicate on a regular basis and be involved with the Board and community. The community needs to know and understand what the Board and district management is doing, therefore, we believe it is important to foster a sense of community as you are growing, since it is easy to lose touch as the community grows. We offer communication and service and anything necessary when dealing with media representing the district, as well as golf and country club services, which does not necessarily apply here. Our company experience includes management of the Florida Governmental Utility Authority, which operates over five counties, with more than 140,000 customers. Key Largo asked us to set up a treatment facility from an operational standpoint, and turn it over to Key Largo staff. We were able to accomplish this within 24 months. St. Lucie West Service District, on the east coast, and the Crossings of Fleming Island are a couple of CDDs which we were awarded as it transitioned from Severn Trent Services. We have a great deal of background working with Severn Trent, and we have been through the process of transitioning from the financial side, public records and reduced the learning curve in working together through the transition.

Ms. Dillon asked did you take over Crossings from Severn Trent?

Mr. Crenshaw responded yes, along with St. Lucie West. We were awarded a certificate of excellence for our financial reporting from the Governmental Financial Officers Association over the past four years for both accuracy and timing. We pride ourselves on getting financials to the district within 30 days. Waiting two to four months is not acceptable from our point of view. We pride ourselves in providing the best services to our clients. We were also awarded the Plant Operations Excellence Award from the DEP. We often receive calls from DEP when they have significant issues, whether it be a financial or compliance issue, and different utility systems throughout the state. We often serve on a consulting basis with DEP. We have more than 40 years of utility operations experience in the State of Florida. We believe our client relations are second to none, and involve communication and the commitment of resources. We see ourselves as a district management firm. You have the full support of a team dedicated to the district. When you have financial issues, you have the ability to talk directly with the lead accounting staff. If it is a utility question, you can speak directly with our inspectors and construction managers. This is something we feel does not need to necessarily be funneled through one person to communicate since it can create delays. You have direct communication with our different departments. We believe this will help expedite communications as well as provide greater accuracy. We have expertise in transition both from private ownership entities to public owner entities, as well as privatization of public operations in entities. With regard to our client relations and developer communication, we have a hands-on approach and a reputation for responsiveness. As we discussed the importance of accurate financials, as well as building reserves, we feel the approach must be a partnership between the district and the GSG team. Our track record speaks for itself in reference to the management model, increased flexibility, decrease in overhead, utilizing third-party contracts and managing them efficiently and understanding the importance of the district management transition. In closing, we want to reiterate our ability to serve the district from communications, utility management, our proven track record at transitioning, our financial management in accounting services, our clerical and administrative capabilities and our assessment programs services, which are second to none in the State of Florida.

Mr. Bissell asked do you have your own plant operators who can come in and take over?

Mr. Crenshaw responded we have not proposed contract operations of the utilities at this time. However, as the district management firm, we will be responsible for managing the contract on behalf of the District and the Board, as it is done for your irrigation or your lawn maintenance contractors. We are able to manage this and to ensure the contractor is doing the right job efficiently and effectively.

Ms. Dillon stated you will be our management company, and when it comes to running the plant you will hire a contractor to handle different aspects of running the plant, and you are responsible for their reporting and supervision. Is this correct?

Mr. Crenshaw responded we would not hire employees to operate it. We will manage and oversee whomever we hire as the operator. It is their responsibility, according to the way your RFQ and RFP were set up, and for them to be responsible for permits and compliance, among other things. It is our job to manage the contract and make sure they are living up to it.

Ms. Dillon asked who is responsible for the daily operations of the plant?

Mr. Crenshaw responded it will be your contract operator, whomever you decide to award the contract to.

Ms. Dillon do you do the staffing?

Mr. Crenshaw responded no, we manage it.

Ms. Dillon asked do you have satellite offices in this area?

Mr. Crenshaw responded our headquarters are in Tallahassee and our Contract Services Division is in Orlando, however, we do not have an office in South Florida at this time.

Mr. Lambert stated our district is small compared to some of the numbers and sizes of the areas you are currently managing, however, our expectations are probably similar and I am concerned how you will address this based on our size.

Mr. Crenshaw stated the size of a utility system or community should not have any impact on the level of service and attention the client receives and we feel strongly in the way we do business, and I think you will see we feel it is important to understand over 10 years of steady growth. With regard to having offices down here, we do operate two large utility systems in this immediate area. We have one of our construction managers and inspectors handling the utility systems in the Golden Gate/Naples area, therefore, we will have an on-site and close relationship.

Mr. Lambert stated we currently have our own employees running the plant. If we decide not to go with a contract to have an organization run it for us and continue with our own employees, are you prepared to oversee those employees or is this something you did not anticipate?

Mr. Crenshaw responded we are capable and prepared to do this. During our site visits a couple of weeks ago, I had an opportunity to spend time going through the plants as well as the entire community, and I spent some time with Mr. Stephens getting input and feedback from his side. I also spoke with Mr. Cox and Mr. Benson in order to understand your situation over the past, as well as the direction you are looking to go. If the Board chose to leave those staff members as district employees, or change the parameters in the RFP or RFQ, then we may be interested in looking at the contract operations side or any other creative structure. Since we handle payroll and everything of that nature in-house, we are perfectly set up with personnel expertise, software to handle payroll, benefits and everything of this nature.

Mr. Lambert stated I wanted to ensure you understood we can still possibly go in this direction.

Mr. Gatti asked what do you see as key issues which need to be taken care of and are not being attended to?

Mr. Crenshaw responded this is a difficult question to answer.

Mr. Gatti stated if you did not have enough time to look at this, I can appreciate it.

Mr. Crenshaw stated we have video and more than 200 photographs of everything, and I definitely have serious concerns with regard to some compliance issues and practices which we believe should be improved from a liability standpoint.

Mr. Gatti stated please be specific.

Mr. Crenshaw stated I am referring to issues from a preventative maintenance standpoint, overall appearance. and some maintenance practices from a chemical standpoint, however, I am not a utility person; my background is in recreation and golf operations, and I cannot answer technically.

Mr. Gatti asked if we award you the contract who will be here on a daily basis if we have a problem or need immediate attention? For example, last night we had a water main break.

Mr. Crenshaw responded if it were from the utility side, you would see one of our utility operators/inspectors immediately. If it involved an issue from the standpoint of irrigation and landscaping, I monitor those contracts. Generally, you will see a variety of people depending on the need, which is why we stress that this is more the district management firm versus district manager.

Ms. Dillon asked how would you handle the situation if our plant manager resigned?

Mr. Crenshaw responded we have staff members to handle this situation within hours, since we are approximately four hours away. We have several certified engineers. Although we do not perform engineering services, many of our inspectors are engineers and certified operators. Our Vice President, Mr. Charles Sweat has been operating utilities in Florida for more than 42 years.

Mr. Ziko asked do you have operators available who are licensed by the State of Florida?

Mr. Crenshaw responded we have certified operators, and we can step in and address this issue. As a matter of fact, DEP calls us for some of these services.

Mr. Gatti stated thank you very much. The Board will take this under advisement and go from there.

Mr. Crenshaw asked with regard to the selection process, once you have seen all the presentations, will there be discussions or possible questions?

Mr. Cox responded we will do this on March 10^th .

Severn Trent Services

Mr. Goscicki stated good morning. I am the present regional manager from Severn Trent Services, and Mr. Dick, who is our Operations Manager, is also in attendance. It is a pleasure being here to talk to you about Severn Trent. We did not bring a presentation or proposal, other than the proposal we submitted. We would like to talk to you about who we are, what we do and where we are going. We have a long history with the CID, and our goal is to continue this long history. You will hear from four different companies this morning all telling you about their background and experience. This District is familiar with Mr. Dick and myself, and you met a few other people in the past. We have gone through significant changes over the last year. One of the firms you are going to hear from later today is comprised of all of our former employees. We are unique in this business, and some of the unique features we bring are highlighted in the executive summary of our proposal. We have been in this business for 30 years, and despite the fact we lost some players over the years we still have more than 200 plus years of experience with our senior managers in utility, district management and governmental management services. I believe this is an important differentiator when you look at the experience of the people we bring to the table, such as myself, Mr. Daugirda and Ms. Larned, who is our fiscal manager. Some of our other senior accountants bring 15 to 20 years of governmental fund accounting experience and governmental management experience. Having a governmental management experience is an important differentiator, and we are unsurpassed in terms of people we bring. Another feature is our depth of resources. If I have issues on a particular item dealing with POI, I have a depth within the organization to work with. I have a team of experts with this experience that I can rely on. Recently, one of your residents was querying me on the election process. Although I was unable to answer the question immediately, I made one phone call and a fact sheet was given to her within 30 minutes with all the details of the process. We have this depth and breadth on essentially all aspects. I know all the firms here, and we are the only firm who can provide the full level of services you are looking for. We are the only firm who can provide the management service, fiscal management, assessment role, maintenance services, fiscal analysis services, utility billing and customer service and utility operations oversight management. We are the only firm who can do all of this in house. With regard to utility operations, Mr. Dick brings this expertise and there are others in our organization who understand utility and operations issues. I believe you have seen some progress over the last six months, as Mr. Dick has been actively engaged in getting the utility up and running. The fact that we are on site is another differentiator. We have locations in more places in this state than any of the other firms, and we are close to you here. Mr. Dick’s office is in Fort Myers, which is within one hour of this location. He is available and is here on a regular basis. I believe only one of our competitors has an office anywhere nearby. We are here for you, and we have been responsive. You get this responsiveness because of our understanding of POI. I have been with you for approximately one year, and this is a complex organization in terms of your roles and responsibilities. It is complex in terms of your financial history. Mr. Cox and I are in the process of looking at the funds. We have been a partner with you during some tough times, and we want to continue this relationship going forward. You deal with issues ranging from utility billing and customer service to capital planning and programming. I believe we united as a good team in this last year with Mr. Cox, Mr. Benson and ourselves by moving forward to address these issues. I enjoy working with Mr. Benson, and I have achieved an understanding of the engineering side, and being able to commence the structure a five-year capital financing program which goes in synchchronization with the capital planning program Mr. Benson has already done. The most major issues this organization is currently facing are operationally oriented, and we have some significant concerns we have been working through. We have serious concerns with regard to utility operations and how they continue to move forward. If the Board wants to stay with internal operations, we have a proposal to move forward on this, and it will be basically engaging Mr. Dick in a more active role. You witnessed this already with some memorandums to Mr. Stephens, indicating how we are going to operate in the future. There is no negotiation on these issues. You must comply with policy and procedures. These are our expectations in terms of service quality the community expects. These are our expectations in terms of facility maintenance. We have the capabilities on our operating side to respond and deal with many other issues and emergencies. Most recently, there was a clogged force main coming off the main sewage lift station which our team responded to. We are the team who is able to do this unaccounted for water analysis. We are the team who deals with other utility management issues because of our experience. We had the expertise when it came to hurricane responsiveness. We came up with the resources and we were able to get them on site. We are responsible for helping you manage all of this, whether we are your contract operator or just your manager, and we are going to bring the full resources of Severn Trent to help you. We have gone through many challenges. Our financial system is being transitioned as we speak. We transitioned 60 of our 140 districts onto the new system. We will be generating new monthly reports for your review over the next couple of weeks and months. Mr. Bissell raised some good questions earlier this week which I responded to. We need to spend time walking the Board through the financials, such as what they show you, what their purpose is and what other information you want. As fiscal managers, there is information we must see and there is information you must see to meet your fiduciary responsibilities.

Ms. Dillon asked do you think it is in our best interest to have someone run the plant or should we continue with the way things are currently handled?

Mr. Goscicki responded it is usually more beneficial for an organization of this size, with a staff of two full-time employees and a couple of part-time employees, to look to contract services, the same reason why we look to contract services for landscape maintenance, and amenity center pool maintenance. You are dealing with a limited number of employees which, by nature, is going to give you a limited skill set, therefore, you are limited in terms of the capabilities the person brings; you do not have the back-up, you do not have learning and growth. We recommend to all of our clients, not just you, to look to a contract operation for this type of operation, and whether you choose Severn Trent or someone else, I still think it is better long-term in terms of stability, accountability, and protection for the district. With regard to the problem you had last week with sewage overflow, you have no third party to go back to. Your district employee is responsible. If you had a third party, there would have been other backups.

Ms. Dillon asked do you find a difference in the cost when going through the district?

Mr. Goscicki responded when we looked at your numbers, we put together a proposal and kept the cost essentially the same. Although I have not looked at it in a couple of months, our price is generally the same. This is a lean organization. The challenge you have is not more efficiency in your utility, but more effectiveness and reliance in your utility. I do not recommend contract operations as a way to improve efficiency, but I recommend contract operations as a need for more reliability in the utility operation. You do not have a reliable operation because you are reliant on one person. You have reliability, consistency and level of service to your customer issues which need to be enhanced. This is difficult to do when you are limiting yourself to one or two key individuals.

Mr. Ziko stated it is obvious to all of us we lost confidence in the management abilities of the plant operator. If we were to go with a contract operation such as Severn Trent, who is familiar with the situation, what will we see in the next year and how will you effect the change?

Mr. Dick responded we are all disappointed with the condition of the facilities. I will welcome any Board member to view some of our other operations as a comparison. The standards of Golden Gate, which is right up the road from here, are much higher than what we have here. I am not blaming Mr. Stephens or anyone else’s work, but we would not allow our facilities to get into this condition.

Mr. Ziko asked how would you bring this about and what will we see one year from now?

Mr. Goscicki we identified for Mr. Stephens a number of maintenance items which need to be taken care of and we would handle them immediately by putting together a team to get it done, therefore, I believe you would immediately see a significant cosmetic and visual change. We are going to get the facility looking good quickly. We are going to get the site cleaned up and get rid of old materials which are lying around abandoned and not being used. You will see us implement immediately a computerized preventive maintenance program to keep the facility maintained on an ongoing basis. You will see improved process control. One of the issues we will bring to the table as the operator are our process control experts to get this facility up and running the way it is supposed to. Currently, you are relying on Mr. Stephens’ expertise. You received advice and counsel from Mr. Benson, but he cannot go out there and turn the valves. He can only provide advice to Mr. Stephens who, in turn, is going to do as much as he can with that advice.

Mr. Ziko asked what is one of your closest areas I can go with Mr. Dick and look at what you accomplished?

Mr. Goscicki responded the closest one is Golden Gate, which is a couple of exits north on I-75.

Mr. Ziko stated I want to go up there sometime next week.

Ms. Dillon asked will all the work you stated was going to get done fall under the dollar amount of your contract, or will the extra work be an additional cost?

Mr. Goscicki responded the only extra, and I will not even call it extra, is on our contract when we put our price together we created a maintenance budget with money allocated for facility maintenance in one year, which I believe is approximately $30,000. If we identify $60,000 worth of maintenance which needs to be done, we would have to get the Board’s authorization to spend more than that $30,000. It probably will be more during the first year, however, we will get the work done. In the past, we put together work authorizations, replaced doors, cleaned up sites and performed some electrical repairs. We are trying to move on these issues, and most of them are housekeeping-related, which is not a big dollar item.

Mr. Bissell stated you talked about maintenance which you would take care of and get rid of things which are not necessary. If we continue as we are now, can this be done?

Mr. Goscicki responded we are starting to put specific requirements on Mr. Stephens for housekeeping and maintenance, along with policies he will need to conform to and the timeframes to get everything done. We are starting to hold Mr. Stephens accountable since he has the staffing in place. If he cannot be successful in moving the agenda forward, we will recruit and find someone who can.

Mr. Bissell stated I want to know why Severn Trent cannot bring in the crew, clean it out and get it in shape. I am aware we will have to pay you extra and then work from there. If it is not maintained, other things can be done, but I do not see this being cleaned, what we have now.

Ms. Dillon stated I understand what you are saying but we are paying a wage to certain people over there, and because they are not doing the job, we are just going to pay more money to someone else to do it. This does not make sense to me.

Mr. Lambert stated we had a couple of incidents within the last couple of months, and my background is preventive maintenance. Are our problems due to a lack of preventive maintenance or aging of materials?

Mr. Dick responded I believe the last couple of incidents were a combination of both, but preventive maintenance can minimize some of the problems we have had and accelerate overcoming some of the other problems we have had. Aesthetics are one thing and you can bring in a bunch of people to make it look nice in a short period of time, but, as Mr. Goscicki referred to with regard to the reliability of the facility, there are components which do not function as they were designed to, which is leading to non-compliance in my opinion. You had compliance inspections from the DEP on both the wastewater and the water plants over the past two weeks. We have not seen the results of those inspections yet, but I believe they are not going to be attractive and they are going to point out these deficiencies, however, Mr. Benson and I spoke about some of the processes over there and some of it does not work because it has not been maintained or exercised.

Mr. Ziko asked who is held responsible if these reports come back on a negative basis as you believe they may? Does the Board take on the responsibility? Does Mr. Benson bear some of this? Does Severn Trent bear it, or does Mr. Stephens get his license taken away? We seem to have a big problem with our major operator which is why I want to know where we will be one year from now.

Mr. Dick stated if Severn Trent becomes your contract operator, you will have the type of facility you are looking for with regard to the appearance, reliability and operations. I cannot stress enough that I want to take you to some of our other facilities in order to get you to see what you are envisioning. Many of these miscellaneous issues, such as telephone and gasoline bills, will not be concerns of yours anymore.

Ms. Dillon asked how would we know about it?

Mr. Goscicki responded it will be part of a lump sum fee. You are currently considered the owner of the facility and Mr. Stephens is considered the licensed operator, therefore, you have specific responsibilities on both sides as the owner and operator. When we contract with our clients for contract operations, we provide you a written guarantee. If there are performance problems as a result of anything we have done, we stand in front of it and if there are fines for the District, we pay.

Mr. Gatti asked if we award the contract to Severn Trent, will you commit to us that Mr. Dick will stay on site?

Mr. Goscicki responded as the overall operations manager, absolutely. The only thing I will add is you have not asked if I will stay on site. Assuming you want this, over the last three months I cleared a lot of my calendar.

Mr. Gatti stated I am glad you brought this up since this is important to us as well.

Mr. Goscicki stated some of the districts who left us have created a few management challenges and we have brought our financial system under control. I am directly involved with two districts, this one and one which is developer-controlled and meets for 15 minutes once per month.

Special District Services

Mr. Wodraska stated my name is Todd Wodraska and this is my boss and President of Special District Services. We are here to discuss the District Manager role, and I just want to give you a brief overview of our company and then about Pete and myself. Special District Services was created in the middle 1990s to create and manage special taxing districts. They have grown the firm and manage approximately 60 special taxing districts, primarily CDDs, throughout the State of Florida, but we also manage other special districts. Some of the most notable districts we manage are the Ave Maria Stewardship Community District in Immokalee; the Verona Walk and Village Walk of Bonita Springs, which is north of here and is done by DeVosta, and further north, the West Villages Improvement District, which is the old Thomas Ranch in Northport. The West Villages Improvement District and the Ave Maria are in excess of 8,000 acres. We are familiar with what is going on in this area. We read the briefing on the POI CID and one of our portfolio districts we manage is in Palm Beach County called the Beeline CDD which closely mirrors what you do because it runs its own water and wastewater utility plant. We have experience in a vast array of special districts. We manage and help create many special taxing districts. We have 18 employees, and our organization is split into two departments, Finance and Government. We do not want to get much bigger than 18, since we find it to be cost-effective for our clients but also large enough to have someone to answer your questions when necessary. We do not like to just manage or attend meetings, we also like to try to solve problems. We will try to work with the landowners and come up with some alternatives. We like to try to work with our clients. Lastly, I wanted to tell you about ourselves. Mr. Pete Pimentel is the President of Special District Services. He started his career in Planning with West Palm Beach. He was the Executive Director of the Northern Palm Beach County Improvement District for 25 years. This was the special district in Palm Beach County which oversaw construction and financing for all of the infrastructure for PGA National; Mirasol, which is where they hold the local PGA golf tournaments, and Abacoa, which is a large traditional neighborhood in the Town of Jupiter. I joined Special District Services approximately one year ago. I am the Vice Mayor of the Town of Jupiter, and was elected approximately two years ago. I oversee Abacoa, which is within the Town of Jupiter. I worked on Wall Street for approximately six years and I have my Masters Degree in Business from Rice University in Houston. Mr. Pimentel will be your District Manager, and I will be your Assistant District Manager, if we are chosen, however, in all likelihood, I will be the point of contact for the Board and if I were not able to answer one of your questions, I will have the expertise of Mr. Pimentel as well as the rest of our staff.

Mr. Lambert stated basically you are going to provide us managerial service, not operational service.

Mr. Pimentel stated we have experience with operational aspects, but we do not have qualified operators on staff, however, we have extensive administrative experience in managing the operation.

Mr. Lambert stated currently we have three or four employees and we are not necessarily going to change from this, however, we are investigating the possibility of expansion. If we stay with the same process, are you prepared to oversee some of those employees?

Mr. Pimentel responded absolutely. In fact, the water and sewer plant in the Beeline District, which we manage, is operated under a contract by Severn Trent and we work well with them.

Mr. Lambert asked do you see problems from the standpoint of one organization overseeing the managerial and financial area and another organization overseeing operations?

Mr. Pimentel responded no and I do not want this to sound self-serving, but I believe it makes more sense to have checks and balances with management not tied with the operation, and people should stay in their area of expertise. Our arrangement with Severn Trent and their operations work out well. We are going to build the entire water and sewer system under our administration for this West Villages project, which is approximately 8,000 acres and that is underway, and I believe it will be better served by dual operations.

Mr. Lambert asked if you were to take over the managerial and financial part of our organization, what is the first thing you will do to make yourselves comfortable?

Mr. Pimentel responded we recently took over several districts from other managers. Most of them have a 60-day termination clause and we immediately get involved. Even though we are not going to start officially for 60 days, we will attend meetings, get involved with your current manager, begin to look at their files and look through your records in order to prevent a gap in operations and management. We have done this successfully in approximately five different cases over the past two years.

Mr. Lambert asked when you step in and become the responsible party do you do any auditing in order to ensure everything is clear?

Mr. Pimentel responded we will rely on your last audit. We have a CPA on staff who will review the audit and we have financial staff who will look at your financial records in order to do an audit, however, I believe it is your responsibility to make the decision as to whether or not you want an independent auditor to audit the final books.

Mr. Lambert stated I was curious about what you will do when you step in there to make yourself comfortable with what you are taking over.

Mr. Pimentel stated the timing is such that your auditor must have his audit done by March. You will have a current audit as of September 30, 2005, therefore, you have a few months of this year’s operation to look at.

Mr. Ziko stated I was looking at the compensation page and it seems to be on the low side. Is everything we need going to be covered or are we going to get extras thrown in?

Mr. Pimentel responded this contemplates the fact that someone else will be operating your facility, which does not include operations. We believe this compensation will cover management of your district as well as overseeing your employees and handling your payroll.

Mr. Ziko asked does this cover attending a monthly meeting here as well as bringing us up to date with the financials?

Mr. Pimentel responded we are doing it at this price with a number of our districts. We will seek an escalation of approximately 4% each year to cover the cost of living. However, we are committed to doing it for one year to see how it works. If it is costing us more, we will discuss it with you, but this is not our intention.

Ms. Dillon stated according to you proposal you provide field management services. Can you elaborate?

Mr. Pimentel responded we will check with you periodically to ensure the operation is being maintained properly and do an inspection of the area as many times as necessary. If your staff is doing their job properly, we will only have to come over once or twice per month.

Ms. Dillon asked can you describe your miscellaneous services?

Mr. Pimentel responded it involves something beyond the normal management of your district. For example, if you have a bond issue we can negotiate a fee to assist in coordinating this activity. If you had the powers to do dredging and you wanted us involved, we can negotiate this as well.

Mr. Gatti asked where are you building a wastewater treatment plant?

Mr. Pimentel responded it is being built in Northport.

Mr. Gatti asked what is your role in this project?

Mr. Pimentel responded we are the district managers and we have an administration portion of the contract where the engineer does all the inspections. We are attending their construction meetings and coordinating with their project manager, however, we are not the construction manager. There is a clear division of authority, and we do not direct the project.

Mr. Gatti stated the engineer designs it and provides the contract services and you oversee the process.

Mr. Pimentel stated we can offer our assistance in obtaining a permit.

Mr. Gatti asked if we had to get someone out there immediately to start running the plant, would you solicit bids from contract operations for our purpose?

Mr. Pimentel responded yes.

Mr. Gatti asked do you have a list of available contractors to do this?

Mr. Pimentel responded although there are not many around, there are a few we know, and we will solicit them and work with your engineer to assemble a bid specification package.

Mr. Gatti asked will you be able to contract with companies providing licensed operators?

Mr. Pimentel responded the Board will contract this.

Mr. Gatti stated you will put the package together.

Mr. Pimentel stated part of my career was spent as the Executive Director of the Loxahatchee River Environmental Control District. We built a regional wastewater treatment plant under my administration, operated and maintained it. I hired the Class B Operator who reported to me. Therefore, I am quite familiar with utility operations.

Mr. Gatti asked is this part of your past experience?

Mr. Pimentel responded yes.

Wrathell, Hart, Hunt & Associates

Mr. Wrathell stated I am the Managing Partner with Wrathell, Hart, Hunt & Associates. Mr. Chuck Adams, who is the Director of Operations for our organization, Mr. Bob Casey, who is the Assistant Regional Manager in Southwest Florida and Mr. Michal Szymonowicz are in attendance. We brought Mr. Szymonowicz out of the organization approximately two weeks ago. I have a good deal of experience within the CDD as well as special taxing districts. We have a combined 50 plus years experience amongst the group here, and I enjoyed the opportunity of working for you from my days as being Manager for POI when I worked for Severn Trent. I have evolved my career to the point of recognizing and appreciating an opportunity in the industry, not only from the incumbents being more in a position to be challenged than in the past, but for the opportunity of serving communities throughout the State of Florida residing within special taxing districts and CDDs, in this case a CID. We built an organization which was crafted specifically to successfully serve the residents’ needs in these particular communities. We also work closely with developers. We currently have 23 clients under management contracts, and we are also in the process of forming others around the state. Approximately 50% of our districts are resident-controlled boards, and I believe the credit goes to Mr. Adams to a great extent with his experience in managing many of those districts, some of which he managed for a period of 15 years in Southwest Florida. Mr. Adams brought over many of those districts from his past employer, Severn Trent, and he has been with some of them from the inception of the district when the developer was statutorily transitioning it over to the residents. Mr. Adams has the competence and experience to serve these communities, and he built a level of trust with the board which obviously helped the transition from the developer to the residents. I think this is incredibly important. POI is currently going through a different process where the District is in a unique position where it is effectively bringing the community back to life in a great sense. The real estate market in Florida generally provided for the boom of this community as well as the rest of the state, and I have seen a tremendous change in POI since I have been away. This is a mature community with new growth and development, some aging infrastructure which is being addressed through your capital improvement program, as well as taking advantage of some of the developer opportunities, and also to provide for the infrastructure within the community. POI is at a positive crossroads in its history and lifespan. One of the things which separates us from our competitors is the expertise of Mr. Adams and Mr. Casey with regard to operating and running these districts. POI is far more than just an administrative-type district. It has an operational component, which relied heavily on Mr. Stephens in the past. I am not certain of the status of Mr. Stephens in this sense, but the community has evolved to the point where you need to supplement the current team which is in place in order to grow and more effectively provide management of this community. Mr. Adams has 15 years plus experience of managing districts from creation to maturing communities. He has taken from some of his municipal experience in the past where we actually worked in the Keys for a number of years to set up a new city. Mr. Adams has implemented and effectively utilized CDDs, and special taxing and improvement districts to implement redevelopment programs such as this. He has a tremendous amount of expertise in this area and has actually applied for and secured grants for recreational purposes on behalf of a couple of his communities. I believe this was to be one of the first in the State of Florida to have a special taxing district apply for a grant through the DEP which went toward recreational improvements within the community. Mr. Adams has done well in addressing community needs and complimenting them with grant programs as well. Mr. Casey, who works for Mr. Adams, is our focus person for Southwest Florida and actually lives in Collier County. I understand you bid out your water and sewer operations, but I think it is important to have a manager with expertise in this area and Mr. Casey was a licensed water and wastewater treatment plant operator in his past life. He worked for Collier County for a period of 15 years, and handled enforcement on behalf of the district from time to time. He is extremely familiar with the dynamics which face this community. Mr. Szymonowicz’ forte and strength is on financing components, such as developing assessment methodologies and capital infrastructure financing programs for bond issuances or other types of indebtedness on behalf of the district. Obviously, our intent is to provide the maximum benefit for the least amount of money in order to benefit the district.

Mr. Adams stated my name is Chuck Adams, Director of Operations for Wrathell, Hart, Hunt & Associates. I have 17 years of experience working with CDDs. I started at Pelican Bay, which was a Special Act District in 1989. I have grown through the operational ranks and eventually landed in the District Manager’s seat in my final five or six years with Severn Trent. I had the pleasure of actually coming to this District on one or two occasions and sat in for your regular manager when I was with Severn Trent. My forte is in operations, landscaping, security, street lighting, parks and recreation, water management, drainage, and a whole myriad of services which these districts are set up for legislatively and able to assume for a community. Some of our high profile clients here in Southwest Florida which we were able to bring to our new company during the course of 2005 and who I served for a number of years under Severn Trent were Fiddler’s Creek, Key Marco, Mediterra, The Brooks, Pelican Landing, Verandah and Miramar Lakes. I worked out of Southwest Florida for my entire 17 years. I have a local office in Fort Myers, which will give you a local presence through our firm. We brought on Mr. Casey within the last couple of months to bring some operational expertise since we have a good-size client base at this point and our commitment to our clients is more focused on service. As CDDs evolved, clients generally wanted more service than they were getting and I believe the original approach from these management firms were more driven to helping the developer get through the infrastructure installation process and financing, but not necessarily the follow up as these communities transitioned to resident controlled districts. I have been through many of these transitions from developer to resident controlled boards, helped to make a smooth transition, was able to share the history, expertise and experience to help educate those residents sitting on the Board with what they are in control of now, what they need to be aware of and what they need to look forward to in the future, in terms of redevelopment, because usually it is 6 to 10 years before the boards are turned over to residents. Some of your infrastructure is starting to age and you are looking to redevelop this and give it a fresh look. In some cases, you will look to upgrade your water and sewer systems to ensure compliance. Mr. Casey has 15 years of experience with Collier County, and more experience in the water and sewer field and I will let him share some additional information.

Mr. Casey stated I was employed by Collier County for 15 years. Prior to that time I was on the east coast of Florida operating water and wastewater facilities. My experience in Collier County started out primarily on the operations side where I was involved in overseeing day to day operations and management functions of water and wastewater systems for approximately seven years. As I progressed in my career with Collier County, I became a Reclaim Water Coordinator. I was the Manager of the Reclaim Water Distribution System which, in itself, was the largest water distribution in South Florida. I was responsible for overall management, budgeting activities and capital improvements. I was a Project Manager on multiple renewal and reliability projects for the County. I have experience with pumping stations, capital improvements and installation of infrastructure within the utility environment. There are some challenges to overcome on the utility side, which we look forward to addressing. I have a wealth of experience in capital improvement programs with utility infrastructure. I believe I am a good resource for this improvement district to move forward and get these things done efficiently and effectively and to allow future growth of this community. I am a licensed water and wastewater operator. I am certified in many different arenas such as backflow prevention and reclaim water distribution. I have experience in water distribution and wastewater treatment. I noticed on your engineer’s report you have multiple groundwater and surface water wells in use. I also managed 13 potable groundwater wells in Collier County for approximately eight years. I have been through the permitting process in making minor and major revisions to the operating permit. I have done permit applications with all the regulatory agencies such as SFWMD and FDEP. We look forward to this opportunity, and we see the challenges ahead with the technical and administrative experience this team has, and I believe we can make a good transition to keep this community moving forward.

Mr. Adams stated I would like Mr. Szymonowicz to introduce himself. Our firm had the benefit of transitioning over a number of districts from different players in the industry, and one of the healthy processes we go through as part of this is basically transferring over the financial records. We have a different system than our competitors as we actually have to create a chart of accounts and literally do an audit on behalf of the district. We recreate the financial data on our system. We have actually found this to be an incredibly healthy process of evaluating the district’s finances in the current situation. Mr. Szymonowicz will play a key role in this process and will probably wrap up since we finally got our projector working. Although you missed most of the slides, I will go over them because we feel we have both the front end team as well as the back room support which compliments our management activities.

Mr. Szymonowicz stated I previously worked for Gary Moyer PA, Severn Trent and now Wrathell, Hart, Hunt & Associates as a financial analyst. My educational background is in economics, and I was hired to provide a varied spectrum of analysis and finance-related services throughout my years of experience, which was mostly spent with Severn Trent Services. I was involved in many aspects of budgeting including municipal budgeting with a 2004 budget of $100 million. I was a budget director for a city of approximately 60,000 inhabitants in Broward County for five years. I have experience in developing capital and operating multi-year budgets for a variety of entities, some of which have been CDDs, CIDs and municipalities. I handled plans ranging from three-year to 10-year plans which addressed capital needs, service delivery and operating and policy needs of a particular government. I performed financial analyses of different systems. I performed different rate studies, including a wastewater and water rate study for one utility provider who itself is a CDD. I also have written numerous special assessment methodologies and was responsible for administration of multiple special assessment roles, including ones which not only dealt with difficult municipalities, but other services, including set-up of special assessment methodologies, as well as operating needs which can be justified with special assessments.

Mr. Wrathell stated our organizational layout is consistent with what we have in the proposal books. The important part of all this is to demonstrate our support team, and Mr. Szymonowicz’ title is going to be Director of Financial Services within our organization. Mr. Szymonowicz will coordinate closely with the Accounting Department and link the budgeting component, rate analysis work and all the methodology work, along with the agenda preparation, distribution of public notices and the rest of the process and records retention. As Mr. Cox will tell you, there is no statutory requirement to hire a certified municipal clerk to maintain public records and fulfill those functions, but Ms. Katey Selchan who has been in this industry for 12 years, is a Certified Municipal Clerk and Debbie has been in this industry as well for approximately 10 years. We introduced the management team on this side from an accounting perspective. Mr. Ted Knapp has been in the industry for a number of years and Ms. Madonna DellOllio provides a dual function. Not only is she a Senior Accountant but actually oversees the entire process. Obviously, we brought on individuals with a high level of expertise for our backroom support, which I believe is incredibly important. It is one thing to come to a meeting understanding the issues, but it is another to actually have the mechanism machinery behind you to implement it. This is why we structured this organization. We took the positive experiences of working for Mr. Moyer’s organization and tried to avoid some limitations which evolved as the organization grew. I actually worked with another industry competitor for one year before starting this company and saw how it was done differently, and we believe we developed the best backroom support system in the industry which will ensure our success for years to come.

Mr. Ziko stated in looking through your brochure I noticed the Fee Schedule on Page 29. What is the negotiated fee?

Mr. Wrathell responded our fee is typical.

Mr. Cox stated it is important we are comfortable with the level of service you are providing. Our current budget is not going to provide you the level of management