MINUTES OF MEETING
NORTH SPRINGS IMPROVEMENT
DISTRICT
The regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the North Springs
Improvement District was held on
Present and constituting a quorum were:
Salvatore Mendolia
President
Steve Mendelson
Secretary
Also present were:
John Petty
Manager
Dennis Lyles
Attorney
Jane Early
Engineer
Denise Ganz
Ruden McClosky
Fernanda Haido
Prager, Sealy &
Jean M. Rugg
Janice Larned
FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS
Roll Call
Mr. Mendolia called the meeting to order and Mr. Petty called
the roll.
SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS
Approval of the Minutes of the September 13, 2006
Meeting
Mr. Petty stated each Board member received a copy of the minutes of the
There not being any,
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Mendelson
with all in favor the minutes of the
TENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Staff Reports
A.
Manager’s Report
Mr. Petty stated we have news from our underwriter regarding the pricing
of our bonds. The pricing for these
bonds, which are supposed to close tomorrow, came in better than what we
discussed. Our underwriter wants to
give us the good news and discuss the sale. When we get her back on the line, we
will come back to this.
THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS
Consideration of Resolutions
A.
Resolution 2007-1 Designating John Petty Assistant Treasurer and
Assistant Secretary
Mr. Petty stated this is a housekeeping clean up
matter because Mr. Goscicki is no longer in this position. I will be able to back up Ms. Larned in
the signing of checks as well as paperwork for the District.
Mr. Mendolia asked did we discuss this or have
a meeting regarding this before?
Mr. Petty responded no sir.
This is the first time it is coming to you. You currently have Mr. Goscicki as
Assistant Treasurer and Assistant Secretary. He is with Severn Trent Services and was
the acting manager for a period of time.
We want to do this as a housekeeping issue because I have been the
manager for approximately a year.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by Mr. Mendolia
with all in favor Resolution 2007-1 designating Mr. Petty as Assistant Treasurer
and Assistant Secretary was adopted.
B.
Resolution 2007-2 Designating Signatories
Mr. Petty stated
this item is a duplication of A and we would like to pull it from the
agenda.
Mr. Mendolia asked is it done under the same
circumstances?
Mr. Petty responded yes.
FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Consideration of Chemical Bids for Aquatic Weed
Control
Mr. Petty stated
every year we go out to bid on the chemicals we use for our aquatic plants. You have a summary of this. We are asking for approval to award this
to the lowest responsive bidder in each category. We take the best prices for each
chemical and award to that supplier.
It has been reviewed by staff and recommended by your manager. Is it in the agenda
package?
Ms. Rugg responded no. The
bid tabulation started at
Mr. Petty asked did you open the bid tabulations?
Ms. Rugg responded I opened the bid tabulation. We have one issue. From what we could ascertain, a sealed
bid arrived after
Mr. Lyles stated let me give you a couple of issues you have to deal
with. Depending upon the
circumstance under which it arrived, this is a minor technical irregularity the
Board can waive. At what time did
the sealed bid arrive?
Ms. Rugg responded it arrived at my office after
Mr. Lyles asked at what time did it arrive here?
Ms. Rugg responded I do not know.
Mr. Petty stated it came in late and was not in the package for your
consideration. Staff has not had a
chance to evaluate the impact of all the bids because we just opened it
today. Let us place this on next
month’s agenda.
Mr. Lyles stated in order to consider it, because it arrived late, the
Board has to make the determination that it was a minor
irregularity.
Mr. Petty stated I am not asking the Board to consider opening this
letter. I am asking the Board to
wait until next month when we come to you with a clear bid tabulation, which
staff has evaluated properly.
Mr. Mendolia asked are we going to consider the
late bid next month?
Mr. Petty responded I do not want to ask the Board for anything or to
specify what our actions will be until I am able to talk to staff and find out
if it is a material bid we are considering opening late. I am not ready to make a recommendation
to the Board.
Mr. Mendolia asked can we afford to wait a
month to make this decision?
Mr. Petty responded yes. We
have enough chemicals at the moment.
Mr. Lyles asked is it your intention to potentially consider this late
bid, which has not been unsealed?
Mr. Petty responded I do not know until I talk to my
staff.
Mr. Lyles stated that is not my question. If we are even going to open it to
determine whether or not it is potentially the low responsive bid, we need the
Board to authorize it to be opened late based on the circumstances under which
it arrived.
Mr. Petty stated I am not asking for Board approval on this. I thought I made it
clear.
Mr. Lyles asked do you not want to consider it?
Mr. Petty responded I am not asking for approval to open the letter at
this time. I am asking for the
Board to hold this item on the agenda until next month’s
meeting.
Mr. Lyles stated we will be in the same position.
Mr. Petty stated no sir. I
do not think we will.
Mr. Mendolia stated it is still going to be
late whether it is now or then.
Mr. Mendelson stated yes. It is a late bid.
Mr. Petty stated the option to re-bid is open to
us.
Mr. Mendolia asked why are
we so concerned with just one bid that came late. Do we have enough bids? Let us do what we have. Why wait?
Mr. Lyles responded it is a Board judgment call. If you believe the bidding process was
not affected by this late bid, which was somewhere from one minute and two hours
late, we are not sure how far into the two hours it arrived at the District
facilities, but if it is your decision it is a minor irregularity and it did not
affect the bidding process, it has not been opened and this proposed bidder did
not have the opportunity to view what the other bids had, you can waive this as
a minor irregularity and staff can take it into account. If you do not want to consider it
because of the passage of time and this person had an opportunity to quickly put
together a proposal, slip it in here and beat the other proposals, you do not
waive it. You can also reject the
whole thing and let staff re-bid it because of the irregularity. I do not believe staff can open the late
bid and then come to the Board. You
need to authorize staff to open the late bid if it is what you want to
do.
Mr. Petty stated let me add the option of no action by the Board
today. Let this be on next months
agenda without authorizing staff to open the unsealed bid or authorizing staff
to award the bid. You can defer it
until next month’s schedule.
Speaking for staff, we are not in the position to tell you these numbers
did not leave this building.
Mr. Lyles stated then you are not in a position. This should make your decision. If we cannot have the assurance from
staff, we will have to wait to open it a month from now.
Mr. Mendolia stated we will do it this
way.
FIFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Consideration of Engagement Letter with Berger, Toombs, Elam, Gaines
& Frank to Perform the Financial Audit for Fiscal Year Ending September 30,
2006
Mr. Petty stated
we struck a theme when we talked about things, which will be deferred until next
month. This was increased by
$12,000 from last year. We are not
happy with this audit firm and their submittal. We wanted to show you what they
submitted. We would like to talk to
them and see if we can get the price closer to the $20,000 figure they
previously had.
Mr. Mendolia stated I believe we talked about
this one time.
Mr. Petty stated the audit came in later than what we like this year
under understandable reasons. It
has been difficult for every auditor we work with throughout our company. Almost all of them have been late this
year due to personnel issues in this area.
It is difficult to keep working class people here as the price of homes
gets out of control.
Mr. Mendolia stated we will defer it until next
month.
SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Consideration of Work Authorizations
A. Work
Authorization 149 (Addendum) –
Ms. Early stated this is a housekeeping item. I did not get it on the agenda last
month. We awarded the contract for
this work. This is our work
authorization for inspections. It
is in the Heron Bay North Plat #3 area.
The contract was approved by the District and is underway. This is a clean up of our work
authorization.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by Mr. Mendolia
with all in favor Work Authorization 149 (Addendum) was
approved.
TENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Staff Reports (Continued)
A.
Manager’s Report (Continued)
Mr. Petty stated
we would like to bring the bond pricing up for discussion. We have our bond counsel present and Ms.
Haido is on the phone.
Ms. Haido stated I have excellent news. We are pleased with the way the pricing
of the Heron Bay 2006 Bonds went this morning. Before I tell you the rates and the par
amounts we were able to achieve, I want to make sure it is clear we priced the
bonds within the parameters included in the delegation resolution approved by
the Board in the August meeting.
In terms of interest rates on the long term bonds, we achieved a 5.20%
rate with a slight discount of 99.75% and a yield of 5.22%. This is with a maturity of May,
2027. The B Bonds have a May, 2014
maturity. We were able to achieve a
5% par. As we represented to the
Board before, we are sizing both as long term bonds and short term bonds on the
revenue on the assessment levels, which were approved and kept by the
Board. The lower the interest rate
is, the higher the par amount of the bond.
We were able to get a par amount of $6,930,000 in the A Bond and a par
amount of $2,165,000 for the B Bonds.
The total is $9,095,000.
Because we had a higher par amount, we generated more construction
proceeds than we originally anticipated.
The total generated in construction proceeds is approximately
$7,728,024. The last set of numbers
we presented to you included a long term interest rate of 6% and a short term
interest rate of 5.5%, which generated a par amount of $8.4 Million and
construction proceeds of $6.9 Million.
With the low interest rate we were able to achieve today, we generated
almost $1 Million more in construction proceeds. We are excited about this. We were able to generate more in
construction proceeds based on the same assessment levels. This is a reflection of the great credit
of the District as well as the
Ms. Ganz stated pursuant to the authority of the resolution adopted on
August 9, 2006, authority has been delegated to the President of the District to
sign the bond purchase contract with Prager, Sealy and
Company, which reflects these terms and conditions. The bond pricing is within the
parameters approved in the resolution delegating the authority to the
President. We will put together the
bond purchase agreement tonight.
The working group will review it and it will be executed effective as of
tomorrow.
Mr. Lyles stated my firm and I have been involved in every step of this
on your behalf. Everything you
heard from the underwriter and bond counsel has been part of an ongoing process
we have been part of. We received a
good deal on the market. It is time
to pull the trigger on this. Based
on the previous authority of the resolution and the other actions you have
taken, we will have these documents ready for the President to sign. The reason why we wanted to make a full
presentation with all the numbers at this meeting is so you know we are not
plugging in these numbers in some of the documents. You will see some of the documents have
blanks where these numbers will go.
We are here to represent to you all the numbers and terms outlined are
what will be going in the final documents we are putting together. We have a pre-closing scheduled for
SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Consideration of Work Authorizations
(Continued)
B. Work
Authorization
Ms. Early stated
this is for the last extension of
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by Mr. Mendolia
with all in favor Work Authorization 168 was
approved.
SEVENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Consideration of Permit for
Ms. Early stated this is our standard surface water permit for the last
portion of the golf club in Parkland Golf and Country Club. There is a recommendation letter in the
package. You have the typical
standard conditions attached. We
recommend approval of the permit.
Mr. Mendolia asked who is taking care of the
finances on this?
Ms. Early responded WCI Communities, Inc.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by Mr. Mendolia
with all in favor the permit for Parkland Golf and Country Club Golf Club
Facility was approved.
EIGHTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Consideration of Conveyances
A.
Mr. Petty stated this has been reviewed by our engineer as well as Mr.
Schooley.
As we have taken on these water management facilities and subdivisions,
the easements have not followed. It
is appropriate we clean this up. We
are working with WCI Communities, Inc. to do this. I will defer to Ms. Early because I
believe there is one she wants to pull for consideration.
Ms. Early stated we recommend approval of one through nine with the
exception of number five. It is
only showing an 8’ easement and we need a minimum of 12’. WCI is reworking it.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Mendelson
with all in favor lake maintenance access easements for Parkland Golf and
Country Club number one through four and six through nine were
approved.
Mr. Lyles stated this is a matter, which came before you in September of
2004. At the time you approved
execution of a series of deeds regarding construction of
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Mendelson
with all in favor the re-execution of the
NINTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Consideration of Modification to
Mr. Lyles stated we previously were granted a right-of-way by WCI
Communities, Inc. along
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Mendelson
with all in favor modification to the County Line Road Deed was
approved.
TENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Staff Reports
A.
Manager’s Report
Mr. Petty stated the first item I have is consideration of the financial
audit for fiscal year 2005. The
reason for it being late has been described to you as a problem persisting in
Mr. Mendolia asked have you seen it?
Mr. Lyles responded no. We
did not get it in time for the meeting.
Mr. Petty needs to transmit this.
You have the summary highlighted in the management letter at the
end. From everything I am
hearing, it is a clean audit. You did not meet the threshold for a
state of financial emergency. If
your timing is such you need an acceptance today, you can accept the audit and
any questions can be brought up at the next meeting. There can be an addendum if something
needs to be added.
Mr. Petty stated I am under no time constraints. I can ask for an extension on the
reporting requirement.
Mr. Mendolia stated I like what Mr. Lyles
said.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Mendelson
with all in favor the financial audit for fiscal year 2005 was
accepted.
Mr. Petty stated the next item is part of the PR issues we discussed as a
possibility of working with our residents to have a better understanding of what
the District does. Part of this is
communicating with them on work being done at The Commons. The PR firm suggested we do a public
service announcement. It will talk
to them about the hard work done by field personnel during times of storm
events. We can put it on the local
cable channel. It will be on
video. The cost to do it will be
between $5,000 to $7,000. We feel it is an economical way to talk
to the residents. Doing a
newsletter can cost the same amount in postage. We would like to recommend this to the
Board for consideration. We do not
need action today, but the PR firm is ready to go forward.
Mr. Mendolia stated we will save it for next
month’s meeting.
Mr. Petty stated the next item is to talk to you about the bonds you just
approved as well as the past bonds we have gone through. Staff is preparing schedules along with
the engineer and developer to quantify what you purchased in hard fixed
assets. You have agreements from
the developer to finish the development.
The total construction costs will exceed our bond amount. Staff is accounting for this so the
Board is aware of what you purchased, what is left for WCI Communities, Inc. to
contribute and what is outstanding.
You asked for a better explanation of the funding agreements and other
items of concern. We talked to you
about coming up with a different schedule where it is a CPI format. Now that we issued the bonds we feel
this may be more appropriate. We
will have this starting at the next meeting.
B.
Attorney’s Report
Ms. Early stated we talked about this on at least two previous
occasions. I told you our deadline
for submitting our proposal to the legislative delegation to amend the special
act giving the District its powers is due by
We address the issue of compensation of Board members on page two. You have been underpaid for some
years. Other special districts we
surveyed are at the $400 per month level.
We are adding language to provide for the first raise in over 30 years to
$400 per month, which is more appropriate in light of what other districts’
board members are receiving. We are
also providing for travel expenses, if you incur anything on District
business.
The other area you identified you were interested in, along with the
engineer and District manager, is on the bottom of page two; contracts for
goods, supplies and materials purchased will be subject to the same bidding
thresholds as other state and local government agencies of Florida. Instead of $4,000, it will go up to
$150,000 in many cases. We will
still follow the Consultants Competitive Negotiation Act, which appears on page
three. When you are hiring
engineers, architects, landscape architects and surveyors, you have to go
through a notice as well as an evaluation ranking proposal process. Maintenance surveys will be set at what
is called Category 4. It is
something the state sets the increases for. It is currently set at $150,000. They may increase it in the future to
$200,000 if inflation and other factors apply.
All of these things we are talking about are going to save the District a
noticeable amount of money by not having to publish newspaper advertisements as
well as not involving the District’s engineer’s and legal staff to get bid
packages together. There is one
other area Ms. Larned is going to mention regarding the potential for us to go
to a bank for a short term type financing as opposed to a big bond issue. She will describe it to you and if you
agree, we will add it to the package we are submitting to legislature. At the end of this I will ask that you
take up a motion authorizing this to be filed on behalf of the
District.
Ms. Larned stated in the last few months we observed some of our
districts need financing from time to time, which is not always attractive in a
long term form. Their options have
become limited by using the current cash on hand or going out to sale
bonds. We have been able to
establish relationships with our banks and other potential lenders, which may be
able to fill the gap of short term bonds.
We would like the Boards consideration to include in this bill the
authority to proceed with any kind of short term mechanism up to and including
bank loans.
Mr. Mendolia stated it will save time and
money. I
agree.
Mr. Lyles stated with this addition to the proposed bill before you, a
motion authorizing staff to submit to the Broward County Legislative Delegation
the proposed set of amendments to Chapter 2005-341, Laws of Florida, is
appropriate at this time.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Mendelson
with all in favor staff was authorized to submit to the Broward County
Legislative Delegation the proposed set of amendments to Chapter 2005-341, Laws
of Florida.
C.
Engineer’s Report – Heron Bay Clubhouse
Mr. Petty stated
I asked the engineer to pull the item called Heron Bay Clubhouse roof tile. Although this body is capable of picking
out a roof tile, we feel it is something we can handle in
house.
Mr. Mendolia stated I take this as an
insult. I agree you can handle
it. I can handle it too, but I will
not do it.
Mr. Petty stated I may have misspoken.
Mr. Mendolia stated you should leave it to the
engineer. They can handle it
well.
Ms. Early stated with regard to the clubhouse, I spoke to Ms. Smith
today. She is pleased with the
progress. They started
approximately two weeks ago. They
are almost complete with the second floor painting. Once the second floor is finished they
will start on the first floor, which is due Monday. The pool contractor started draining the
pool this past Monday. He came
across broken tiles under the coping, which I spoke to Mr. Petty about. His work is scheduled to be done in two
weeks.
Mr. Mendolia asked who is the pool contractor?
Ms. Early responded I do not know who the subcontractor is, but I can
find out for you.
Mr. Mendolia stated that is
alright.
Ms. Early stated the pool contractor found 43 cracked or loose tiles
under the coping and eight pieces of loose coping. The hand rail in the spa needs to be
replaced. The architect did not
include for the spa to be diamond bright along with the pool. The pool contractor is saying it will
not match. He submitted it and
wanted to know what we want to do.
I spoke to Mr. Petty and we all agree we should do the diamond bright in
the spa as well. To replace the
broken tiles, the coping, the hand rail and to do the
diamond bright, it will be a change order of $8,000.
Mr. Mendelson asked what is the timeframe on
this?
Ms. Early responded they are currently working on the pool so it will be
the same, two weeks.
Mr. Petty stated we asked him to look at items needing repair. The spa is structurally fine. It is an aesthetic issue, which came up.
Mr. Mendolia asked where is the money coming
from?
Mr. Petty responded from us.
Mr. Mendolia asked do we have enough money?
Mr. Petty responded yes sir, we do.
Ms. Early’s husband is going after the
insurance company.
Ms. Early stated he met with the insurance adjuster on
Mr. Mendolia asked are we getting more money
from the insurance company?
Ms. Early responded yes. I
believe he is trying to get $220,000 for the clubhouse.
Mr. Mendolia asked what is the total we received?
Ms. Early responded they only gave us $20,000 for the roof, which Mr.
Petty did not accept.
Mr. Petty stated the most being proposed by our insurance carrier was
less than $40,000 for everything.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Mendelson
with all in favor a Change Order No. 1 for clubhouse repairs at Heron Bay
Commons with a net increase of $8,000 was approved.
Ms. Early stated in regard to the tennis courts,
the architect is due to submit to the City of
ELEVENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Approval of Requisitions and Invoices
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Mendelson
with all in favor the requisitions and invoices were
approved.
TWELFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Supervisor’s Request and Audience Comments
There not being any, the next item followed.
THIRTEENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Adjournment
Mr. Lyles stated
with the closing coming up, we suggest the last regular meeting of the Board be
recessed rather than adjourned in case we need to take action on an item at the
last minute in connection with the bond transaction. We typically announce the meeting is
being recessed to the day of the pre-closing or the day before. The day before will be
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by Mr. Mendolia
with all in favor the meeting was recessed to
Steve Mendelson
Salvatore Mendolia
Secretary
President