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