MINUTES OF
MEETING
NORTH SPRINGS
IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
The regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the North Springs
Improvement District was held
Present and constituting a quorum were:
Matt Lauritzen
President
Salvatore J. Mendolia
Secretary
Bob
Miner
Supervisor
Also Present Were:
Rich Hans
District Staff
Dennis Lyles
Attorney
Donna Holiday
Recording Secretary
John McKune
Gee & Jenson
Roger Moore
District Staff
Bill Joyce
District Staff
Joseph Guttuso
WCI
Vince Peluso
S.F.W.M.D.
Mr. Lauritzen called the meeting to order at
SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS
Approval of the Minutes of the November 6, 2003
Meeting
Mr. Hans stated that each Board member had received a copy of the minutes
of the
There not being any,
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia
seconded by Mr. Lauritzen with all in favor the minutes of the
Mr. Lyles stated the reason we need to modify the agenda is that I am
appearing before the Broward County Legislative Delegation on your behalf at
I want to report to you that Mr. Lauritzen and I along with Mr. Fennell
of the Coral Springs Improvement District Board of Supervisors met with
Representative Ritter this past Monday to discuss this bill, her feeling that
changes need to be made to the way Board members are elected, and her feelings
on things generally related to the District. Essentially, the way we left the meeting
was in a very positive way.
Representative Ritter does not intend to hold up our bill at the hearing
today and that has occurred for one reason or another in the past. She has agreed to propose an amendment
as this Board and the C.S.I.D. Board proposed a year ago, that Chapter 189, F.S.
which covers all special districts in the State of Florida be amended to provide
that when the Board members feel it is appropriate and timely, the manner of
electing members of the Board of Supervisors will be converted from a landowners
election to an electoral vote by all the registered voters within the
District. It will be up to the
Board to make that decision and to implement that rather than having it done by
someone else forcing the Board to do it and rather than having to go through the
expense and trouble of a petition and referendum process which was another way
of achieving the same result. Based
on the direction of this Board and C.S.I.D.’s Board, we proposed that again and
this time Representative Ritter feels comfortable that that concept is a
workable concept and she is going to, with your support, propose such an
amendment once we get into the legislative session in
Mr. Lauritzen stated I think Ms. Ritter’s main objective is that we be
elected by general election. We
don’t have a problem with that.
Mr. Lyles stated as you will recall a couple of years ago we had a bill
filed that would have changed when you are elected, how you are elected, how
many people are on the board, it would have mandated your meeting times, really
taken away your elected official discretion on a number of items and that bill
was vetoed in Tallahassee. We are
discussing the follow-up to that and we don’t want to be in a position where we
are hiring lobbyist’s and fighting over vetoing a bill
that doesn’t work in the Board’s best interest. I think the compromise on the table is
exactly what you asked for last year when we proposed an alternative to what was
on the table then. With that in
mind, I think it is wise to be cooperative and to work with Representative
Ritter and the other members of the delegation to have a bill that we can live
with and operate under and I think that is what we have
now.
Mr. Lauritzen stated I originally thought she wanted five Board members
but that is not an issue with her anymore.
She is fine with three members.
Mr. Lyles stated C.S.I.D. is within the City of
Mr. Mendolia stated I concur with what you said in reference to the way
to handle this.
Mr. Lauritzen asked do you just need our verbal support on record?
Mr. Lyles responded yes. We
will need something in the future in writing to show this is the Board’s
position that the amendment that Representative Ritter is proposing is with the
support of the Board. We will do
that but the session doesn’t start for a couple of months and we will be timely
if we do that at the next meeting.
It depends also on what happens tonight. If you agree with the outline of the
outcome of the meeting that we attended, then I have what I need to go to the
delegation meeting today and get that part of the process out of the way.
Mr. Lauritzen stated thanks, for a job well done. We should also take up the request for
an increase in the fees at this time.
Mr. Lyles stated this will keep it consistent with C.S.I.D., the same
changes in the cost of living index over the years since 1996 when the fees were
first established. This is the
first time I have asked you to take a look at the fee schedule.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Lauritzen with all in favor the request for a modification to the Attorney fees was approved in accordance with the attached letter.
THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS
Update on Drainage Basin Study by Vince Peluso of
S.F.W.M.D.
Mr. Peluso stated we have been working cooperatively with your district
on the overall compliance issue of the Everglades Forever Act and meeting water
quality standards for discharge. We
have done the basin as a whole and looked at potentially using some lake area
north of this District to minimize the need to discharge off-site. The next phase will be to model the
Discussion of Matching Funds Available
from S.F.W.M.D.
Mr. Peluso stated we have a cooperative agreement with you. We had matching funds and we are funding
half the money being spent on monitoring water quality and setting up telemetry
and we paid for half the pump station calibration to determine the exact
flows. We extended that contract by
two years. In the extension there
is an understanding that we are going to give you the $38,000 that we have left
in our budget for this cooperative agreement. That is going to be 50% of certain
capital improvements and other items that Mr. Moore has identified as being high
priority.
Mr. Moore stated
We would like to have $39,000 to match
Mr. Peluso stated we will give you the money in a lump sum and it is up
to you when you spend it as long as you document it. By 2007 they hope to have the
Mr. Hans stated I believe we need acknowledgement that you agree with the
program Mr. Moore outlined to utilize the matching funds from
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Lauritzen with all in favor the extension of the cooperation agreement with S.F.W.M.D. for the matching funds and the program for expending said funds was approved.
FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Consideration of Change Order No. 8 for Heron Bay East Pod 5 and Heron
Run Drive Phase II with Florida Sewer and Water for a Net Increase of
$11,286.70
Mr. McKune stated this is for addition of some curbing and the cost of
this change order is a WCI responsibility.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Lauritzen with all in favor Change Order No. 8 for Heron Bay East pod 5 and Heron Run Drive Phase II with Florida Sewer and Water for a Net Increase of $11,286.70 was approved.
Mr. Hans stated the letter from Gee & Jenson indicates that the plans
meet all the requirements of the District and they recommend approval of the
request. This is a permit request
for drainage into the S-2 Canal.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Lauritzen with all in favor the permit request from WCI for Parkland Golf & Country Club Pod 3 surface water management was approved subject to the conditions listed in Gee & Jenson’s letter.
Mr. McKune stated this request is for a lake excavation permit for the
northwest corner of the District.
The plans have been reviewed and approved by our
firm.
Mr. Craven pointed out the area on the map and stated this is an
excavation permit for the new lakes.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Lauritzen with all in favor the lake excavation permit request from WCI for Heron Bay North Plat 1 was approved subject to the conditions listed in Gee & Jenson’s letter.
B. Engineer
Mr. McKune stated I have two additional items that were not on the
agenda. For some time we have been
building tennis courts at Heron Bay Commons and they now want to put in the
landscaping and brick pavers at the bicycle racks in the amount of $33,900 and
an additional 33 days added to the contract. We decided this was the most cost
effective and quickest way to accomplish this work.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Lauritzen with all in favor change order 3 for the tennis court expansion for a net increase of $35,900 and an additional 33 days was approved.
Mr. McKune stated two months ago you approved a change order to the Felix
Contract to release 50% of the retained moneys to them and that would have
represented about $250,000 for work already done. The day after you
approved that change order we were informed by Felix that the bonding company
was reducing their staff on the job. When I spoke with Mr. Lyles we agreed
not to pay them because we were afraid they were not going to get the job done
in an expeditious manner. We did
not release the money. Since that
time, they have done some work, we have received our certification from the
health department that the plant is completed and we can use all the
facilities. We are days away from
the final certificate of occupancy on the major structures. We can reduce their retainage to
5%. We will still retain about
$370,000 of their money after this check.
There not being any, the next item followed.
There not being any, the next item followed.
SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS
Supervisors Requests and Audience Comments
There not being any, the next item followed.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Lauritzen with all in favor the requisitions and invoices were approved.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia
seconded by Mr. Lauritzen with all in favor the meeting adjourned at
Salvatore J. Mendolia
Matt Lauritzen
Secretary
President