MINUTES OF MEETING
NORTH SPRINGS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
The regular
meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the North Springs Improvement District was held Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 5:04 p.m.
in the district office, 10300 N. W. 11 Manor, Coral
Springs, Florida.
Present and
constituting a quorum were:
Steve Mendelson President
David Gray Secretary
Vincent Morretti Assistant Secretary
Also present
were:
Doug
Hyche
Dennis Lyles
Jane Early
Brenda Schurz Rod
Colon
Nick Schooley Kay Woodward Dan Daly Howard
Solomon Peter A. Tappert Brian S. Dervishi Demetri Rapanos Donna Holiday
District Manager
District Counsel
District
Engineer
District Administrator
Director of Operations
District
Drainage Supervisor
District Accountant
CSID Director of
Operations
United Community
Management
Weissman, Dervishi, Borgo & Nordlund, P.A. Weissman,
Dervishi, Borgo & Nordlund, P.A. Epoxytec, Inc.
GMS-South
Florida, LLC
FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS Roll Call
Mr. Hyche called the meeting to order at 5:04 p.m.
SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval of the Minutes of the December 2,
2009 Meeting
Mr. Hyche stated
the next item is approval of the minutes of the December 2, 2009
meeting. Are there any questions or
comments? There not being
any,
On MOTION by Mr. Gray seconded by Mr. Mendelson with all in favor the minutes of the December 2, 2009 meeting were
approved as presented.
Audience
Comments
Mr. Hyche
stated I would like to ask for audience comments at this point.
Mr. Tappert stated Brian Dervishi and I are attorneys
for the court appointed receiver who
has been appointed to manage the Parkland Commons Shopping Center at the
far north intersection of University Drive and Trails End. The North Springs Improvement District owns the far north section of
University Drive, which we understand
has been closed for a period of time. The development is a brand new development and was developed by Monroe's Prestige
Group that went into bankruptcy, which
resulted in a receiver being appointed. The receiver is trying to inject some
new life into this project which is
anchored by Publix which we think is an important tenant and important business for the community. It just has
a few other tenants at this point and he is trying to attract new tenants. One of the things he has targeted as a
major need is to open up the access road. We understand that NSID owns that
road and the portion of County Line that
intersects with University has been turned over to Broward County which we have been told by Parkland city manager
that Broward County is ready to open that
section of County Line but the delay has been that that section of University
hasn't been accepted by a public
body. We have been told there has been a date set of March 28th which is a deadline given to the Florida
Department of Transportation to accept that portion of University and if not I
guess the NSID will at that point open the road and perform maintenance if the Department of
Transportation doesn't accept the road. We are asking if there is anything the board can do to advance that date to
sometime sooner than March 28th.
There is an urgent need for this development. The development needs some momentum and it has a new management company,
Sembler Company out of Tampa. In addition to getting some signage on the
property to make the community more aware of it hooking up the access road to increase the traffic flow has come to our
attention as one of
the most urgent needs. We are asking the board if there
is anything you can do to advance that date from
March 28th to as soon as possible?
Mr. Gray asked
what is the deal with the road?
Mr. Mendelson asked are you asking the board to vote to
open the road?
Mr. Tappert responded yes. As I understand it the road
has been complete for quite some time and it
is just barricaded off. The issue has been who is going to maintain the road in perpetuity.
Mr. Colon stated originally the City of Parkland was
going to take ownership of University
Drive, which is the major reason we paid permit fees to the City of Parkland, which we would have never done we would have paid them
to the Department of Transportation
of Broward County?
Ms. Early
responded we wouldn't have had to pay either one if we were going to keep the road ourselves.
Mr. Colon stated we did pay permit fees to the City of
Parkland; they wanted control of
University Drive because they didn't want it to ever cut through to Palm Beach County. Now they don't want control of University Drive
or Trails End. We are trying to find another
government agency to take ownership of the roadway because we don't have a public works department.
Mr. Gray stated
they don't want it because they don't want to spend the money on
it.
Mr. Colon
responded correct and we don't have a public works department and it is going to cost us to maintain these roadways and we
didn't want to open it and have someone cause
damage to the roadway and then we have to pay for it. That is why the roadway has been closed. Lately I have been working with
Jeff Smith of the Florida Department of
Transportation and turned over some deeds to him hoping that FDOT would take it. I haven't heard anything back yet. The
City of Parkland is pushing to open the roadway.
Mr. Gray asked what does it mean that they are pushing to
open a roadway that they were
supposed to take that they don't want?
Mr. Colon stated it means that they want the roadway
open but they don't want control of the roadway. They don't want to maintain
it.
Mr. Gray asked are they going to give us back our money?
Mr. Colon responded I haven't addressed that issue. Right
now we are in a very critical
situation with the City of Parkland.
Mr. Mendelson asked who is going to maintain this
roadway?
Mr. Colon responded if no one takes ownership we will
have to and we will have to assess the
residents. We are going to own Trails End Road and a portion of University Drive and we are going to have to maintain the roadways
and medians.
Mr. Mendelson asked does that mean that the homeowners
in that area are going to be assessed to
pay for this?
Mr. Colon
responded yes.
Mr. Mendelson
asked are there any other options?
Mr. Colon responded the option for us to keep the road
closed. If we do that it is going to cause
a lot of frustration with the City of Parkland and us and right now they are sponsoring one of our local bills.
Mr. Lyles stated
we have had a number of meetings at the staff level with Parkland and with their city manager, city attorney. Rod was with
one of their elected officials this morning and we
were in front of the Broward County Legislative Delegation last night, us and Parkland on annexing property into Parkland and on us
expanding our boundaries into the wedge
to take in some of that property and with the city's support we received unanimous approval for that piece of legislation that
will expand our boundaries and provide the
mechanism by which we will be a service provider going forward to a number of significant parcels with significant development. I
think what Rod is alluding to is while it is
completely inconsistent with the whole history of NSID how this road situation is being handled all of a sudden we have two roads which
technically we do own, we anticipated
turning them over to Parkland but Parkland has had a change at its elected official level, it is not coming from the manager it is
coming from the board, they don't want to own and
maintain these roads. They want them owned and maintained by others
whether it is
an HOA or another government entity. Trails End and University Drive they consider to be our responsibility. We developed those
roads, we own them and they want us at least at
this point they would prefer us to be the agency that owns and maintains the roads. They are still the legal jurisdiction for law
enforcement purposes which is handled by BSO but in terms of the ownership and
maintenance responsibility we have it now as we have had many times in the past where we build these
roads it is just that the last step which is an
agreement that was prepared long ago for taking over the roadway they don't
want to sign that agreement and go forward with that.
Mr. Mendelson
asked are the homeowners in that area aware of the fact that they will be assessed?
Mr. Colon
responded they would be assessed no matter who owns it.
Mr. Mendelson
stated if they are not aware that this is coming they are going to be made aware pretty quick if we say this is going through.
Is the maintenance going to be handled in-house
by NSID or do we have to contract with a vendor to maintain the berm and the
whole thing?
Mr. Colon
responded we would have to contract with a vendor. We don't have a public works department.
Mr. Mendelson
stated the bottom line is they know they are going to be assessed to pay for this and you want us to okay it. It is going to
go through anyhow. You have two roads that have to be opened.
Mr. Hyche stated March 28th is the deadline for
University Drive.
Ms. Early stated
Trails End is open.
Mr. Schooley
stated this road at the end of their shopping center we have a barricade. It goes up to County Line Road which was just
turned over to the county, over to Nob
Hill/Coral Ridge. There is no access to any homes and all the homes are
Parkland Golf &
Country Club but it just goes from Nob Hill to University and that is all it
does right now.
Mr. Colon
stated there is also another piece to this puzzle. We just found out that we own a 65 foot easement all the way from County Line
Road to Lox Road that was
deeded to us in
1988. The reason it is so important is because it is a major right of way and we didn't know we had it. However, we want to make sure
that we reinforce these barricades over
there because BSO wants access which Dennis is working on with the City of Parkland to allow BSO to cut through this roadway but
we need to come up with a method to put
gate access there because we don't want people driving through there and dumping. If we open University Drive and they open
County Line Road a lot of traffic will go through
there. We want to make sure we are set up for people not to drive on our right of way to cut through all the way to Lox Road. It
is our responsibility since we own it to put proper
safeguards in place.
Mr. Hyche stated BSO will patrol it daily.
Mr. Colon stated
before we open the road we have to consider this and put safeguards in place. Tomorrow morning I am meeting the
sheriff out there to patrol the area because we have to identify the area and
we don't want other vehicles driving up through there.
That is another reason the road is closed.
Mr. Mendelson
stated we can't really do anything until we hear from BSO and then we can say okay or not. We have until March 28th unless
you want to have an emergency meeting between
now and then.
Mr. Colon stated I don't think it is an emergency but
there is a possibility that we could open it
before March 28th I just want to make sure we have safeguards in place for the
roadway.
Mr. Gray stated
it definitely needs to be safe because we don't want to be sued. From a legal standpoint as far as liability how does
this affect us with insurance and all the other things
involved in owning an operable road?
Mr. Lyles responded our standard government entity
policy anticipates owning significant
amounts of public facilities, public thoroughfares. Whether or not our insurance company underwriter is going to look at this
and decide it needs to affect our premium or not
I don't know because I doubt that we have said anything in particular to them.
Mr. Colon stated
we haven't yet.
Mr. Mendelson
asked why don't we research this first?
Mr. Gray stated the other question I had was about
dumping that you mentioned. Mr. Colon
stated that's right. There is a refrigerator out there and there could be other things out there.
Mr. Gray asked what can we do to prevent that once it is
open?
Mr. Colon stated BSO doesn't patrol it now because the
barricades are up. Once the road is open
BSO will be able to cut through there. When I referred to dumping I was referring to the property that we just found out that we
own in the wedge.
Mr. Gray stated I understand you want to get the traffic
coming over from the other side down the
back road. T know the Publix that is there. It doesn't have a lot of traffic. I
know Parkland wanted to control it
because I used to go to their meetings and there were big fights over the fact
that they did not want it going into Palm Beach County because of the traffic flow that would be created. Is that totally
dead at the state level? Is that completely off
the table?
Mr. Hyche
responded I believe so.
Mr. Gray stated
originally the highway department was saying it is already approved and you don't get to change it and they were
getting legislation to alter it as part of some other
deal.
Mr. Lyles stated
it was part of the wedge transaction putting this to bed once and
for
all.
Mr. Gray stated the only thing we are talking about is
opening it up to the county
line.
Mr. Mendelson asked what is the bottom line?
Mr. Colon responded I would like to research it and
contact our insurance company and put the
proper safeguards on the property that we own off of County Line Road and bring it back to the next meeting.
THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration of Proposals for Purchase of
Golf Car
Mr. Hyche stated the
next item is consideration of proposals for the purchase of a golf cart.
Mr. Schooley stated November 1st we took over Heron Bay
mitigation and we are not doing that on company time we are doing that on
overtime because we don't want to take North Springs money into the
mitigation area. We worked a few weekends there and when we did the
survey we had tons of vines covering all of the mitigation plants. Because of the
weather we haven't done any spraying but we are taking these vines out by hand. We have to
go in the water also and get some vines out of the water. Instead of going through
the golf course we are going to have our own golf cart and go when we want to go and
that is why we need that to get around that area. It is almost impossible to get it by a boat
because in the mitigation areas we have fences for the fish so we can't get to
where we need to be.
Mr. Mendelson
asked would it be better to lease it or buy it outright?
Mr. Schooley
stated they are not that expensive.
Mr. Mendelson
asked are they gas or electric?
Mr. Schooley
stated I think they are electric.
Mr. Mendelson
stated see which is more cost effective whether it is gas operated or electrical.
Mr. Gray stated the proposal is for gas, it specifically
says gas on the second one and the third one. The first one from Golf Car Connection
is a little more interesting in that he offers a lease option and he
also offered a Yamaha Yamahauler Adventurer for a lot less money
that he says is similar to the Carry All 252. Have you looked at that? Is that a possibility?
Does that work or do we need the more expensive one? He claims it is similar.
Mr. Schooley
stated if that is the 4-wheeler that would be better than the golf cart. Ms.
Early stated that is a good price.
Mr. Gray stated
you can buy it at $4,500 or lease it you can do either one.
Mr. Mendelson
asked if we decide to purchase this is there a maintenance contract with it?
Mr. Schooley
stated no we have a mechanic in-house.
Mr. Gray asked
can you check into that one?
Mr. Schooley
stated I haven't seen any of them.
Mr. Mendelson stated you have to see if it has lights in
front because some have headlights and some don't.
Mr. Colon asked can we get a second option for approval
if that doesn't work for
us?
Mr. Gray asked what does the total on the lease come out
to? How much interest are we paying?
Mr. Hyche responded a one year lease at $425 a month and
you buy it out for $1 at the end of the term. I would assume the maintenance
would be with that company during the lease term.
Mr. Mendelson
stated let's not assume anything.
Mr. Schooley stated it doesn't make any difference we have
an in-house maintenance
person who can fix anything.
Mr. Mendelson stated if they are responsible and we are
paying for this they have to know they can't
just pick it up they have to bring a replacement until that one is fixed and bring it back when it is finished.
Mr. Hyche asked
do you want to table this and bring it back next month?
Mr. Gray stated because there are only two left I
propose that you could go ahead if that suits your
needs you could determine either one of these options that you felt best suits the conditions and I would approve that one. If
that one doesn't suit your needs then the cheaper of
the other models is the third one which is Jeffrey Allen assuming that is an apples to apples comparison. That one appears to be the
cheapest of the three options. If the first one suits your needs I would like
to propose you can buy the $4,500 Yamaha. If that doesn't meet your needs that I would go for number
three which is $7,638 because it is the cheapest of
the three bids for the same thing.
Mr. Mendelson stated let's find out what it comes with
because you need lights. Is it cheaper for
gas or electric.
Mr. Colon stated
these are all gas. When we solicited we solicited gas.
On MOTION by Mr. Gray seconded by Mr. Mendelson with all
in favor staff was authorized to purchase the Yamaha Yamahauler for $4,500 if it meets the needs and
if not then staff was authorized to
purchase the Carry All 252 Golf Car from Jeffrey Allen, Inc. in the amount of $7,638.
Mr. Schooley
stated other than the three or four times we have been out there salary-wise we
have saved over $10,000 on our contract. In the spring we are talking about putting on another crew and if not we are going to
send our guys on the weekends to spray we will save a lot of money.
FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Staff
Reports
A. Manager
Notice of Bid
for Lift Station Rehabilitation Project 2010
Mr. Hyche stated
this is the notice of bid for the lift station project. You had requested that any bids going out be put in the agenda.
The dates and times are there if any of you would wish to attend.
Mr. Mendelson
asked Vince can you be here for that?
Mr. Morretti
responded yes.
33rd Annual Waterway Cleanup-2010 Sponsorship
Opportunities
Mr.
Hyche stated the next item is the 33rd annual
waterway cleanup 2010 sponsorship
opportunities. We do this every year.
Mr. Mendelson asked what did we do last year?
Ms. Schurz
stated last year we did $5,000 typically we do $3,000.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by Mr. Morretti with
all in favor sponsorship of the 33rd annual Waterway Cleanup in the amount of $5,000 was
approved.
Discussion of Heron Bay Commons Management Contract
Mr. Hyche stated the next item is discussion of Heron
Bay Commons management contract.
Mr. Colon stated at the last meeting the board asked that
we place this on the agenda.
Mr. Gray stated I wanted a copy of their previous
contract and a copy of their current
contract.
Ms. Schurz
stated I sent it to you by email.
Mr. Gray stated
we were talking about whether or not they had the ability to do what they were doing and I don't know if you verified
that. Did they assign it or did they just continue
with the contract with us and then hired them as a subcontractor? That appears to be what they did.
Mr. Lyles stated I was under the impression that there
was an assignment but I haven't been
presented with any document to review. I am basing my presumption on the fact that it has been described as an assignment and we
have Mr. Solomon here so he can straighten us out on that.
Mr. Solomon stated there has not been an assignment of
the management agreement
between NSID and the Heron Bay Community Association.
Mr. Lyles stated
I was referring to the agreement that the Community Association has with its
contractor that operates the facility. Our contract has not been assigned. In our contract with the community association they have the
right to hire people to run the facility and
that was the contract I was referring to and I don't have that contract and I'm
not sure that anyone does. Our
management contract has not been assigned.
Mr. Gray stated
then all they have done is change their subcontractor.
Mr. Solomon stated that is correct.
Mr. Gray asked do we have to approve that or is it just part of
our contract that they can do whatever they want?
Mr. Lyles responded we do not have to approve that. I
think the reason you may be thinking about
that approval mechanism where there is going to be an assignment, under
our
previous management contract with
Severn Trent that we used to have it was up to the board to approve and in fact approval was required if
they were to change the individual who
is going to serve as the primary management representative and attend these meetings and deal with the board. That required
your approval just for them to make changes
within their own organization. In this contract and it was amended in 2006 they have the right to hire who they feel is appropriate
to run the facility for them for lessons,
maintenance, landscape, whatever it is they have the right to do that. Our
control as a district since we pay the bills
is our ability to terminate that contract on 30 days notice. At any point if there are problems with the
administration of the facility, the services to the residents the district has the ability to terminate the
contract and get somebody else in there and do it
in a different way.
Mr. Gray stated
in our previous conversations a couple of statements were made that would seem to be inconsistent with what happened.
One had to do with the fact that in having you
manage it before we were hiring the person who was doing it. You had your employees and you were hiring subcontractors under
your employees who were running the
Commons.
Mr. Solomon stated correct.
Mr. Gray stated
now what you have done is you have taken your employees out of the equation and hired a subcontractor who handles all of
that.
Mr. Solomon
stated not quite, what has really transpired is previously Heron Bay Community Association is the one that held the management
agreement and it had contracted with
WCI to provide the employees to work at the facilities and also had contracted with an accounting firm by the name of Myers
Brettholtz to do the accounting. The Heron Bay Community Association has terminated those two contracts and has retained United Community Management to provide those
same functions. All of the personnel that worked at the facilities before for
WCI have now become employees of United
Community Management and are serving the same functions at the same rate of pay
as they had been receiving while they were at WCI. United Community Management is now providing the accounting function as well that
previously had been provided by
Myers
Brettholtz. In terms of the economics of it the fee that had been paid to WCI
in the past which was $5,000 a month is the
same fee that is being paid to United Community Management for providing the same function. However,
United is also providing the accounting work
but at no additional fee so there is a savings to NSID of about $16,000 over what was transpiring in the prior system.
Mr. Gray stated
I read that on a memo that you sent us that they were taking that out. One of the advantages of the way it was before that
was brought up in the previous meeting was the
fact that if there was a complaint we don't deal with it. If there is a compliant now United Management actually handles the
complaint, correct?
Mr. Solomon responded if there is a complaint at the
association level or if there is a complaint at the
facility level, if someone complains to United that complaint goes to the board of Heron Bay Community Association. We are no
different than a pool contractor or a landscape
vendor to the Commons. The HOA board is the ultimate authority throughout the whole thing whether it is the association,
Plaza del Lago or Heron Bay Commons. It is the association board that has the
decision-making authority. United is only operating
within its contracts and the ability to implement those decisions or to carry out the policies that the board has determined.
Mr. Lyles stated I might want to
slightly modify that statement just because we are on the record and it is a public meeting and somebody
years from now may be looking at this, the ultimate authority actually rests
here. Contractually the Community Association has been given the ability to while they are doing a
good job run things there and to hire subcontractors
of a type and in the number that they feel is appropriate but it all comes back to the board ultimately. You are not stuck with
their bad decisions for instance if they make bad
decisions you have the ability to step in on very short notice and correct a situation if this board determines it needs to be
corrected. Hopefully, the way it will work is smoothly and the problems will be resolved at that
lower level but the ultimate responsibility
is not at that lower level. They are your contractor and it comes to you if it can't be resolved satisfactorily at that level.
Mr. Mendelson asked would you be opposed to putting this
out to bid?
Mr. Gray stated
as a point of reference one of the comments and I never spoke at the meeting but I was at the meeting because I live in Heron
Bay was that you felt there was a great advantage
and I think there is in having you run both of them because you get to share overlapping items and it is one big community so I
think that works out well but a comment was made
that the homeowners should make the choice. I can tell you in that meeting those homeowners were not in favor of you
continuing with the current management the
way it is. You were there so you are very much aware of that. Having said that it is not currently being run by the
homeowners it is currently being run by the HOA which is still run by the new WCI. All I'm saying is
I'm okay with the way it is right now because I do
think the overlap helps but it is not because the community is behind it at least not the people who were at the meeting it is
because it works financially for us and that is our
goal that we save money. We are trying to be very fiscally conservative and appreciate the fact that you got the accounting thrown
into the deal and saved us money and I
appreciate that. I think the comingling of the two should be saving us money in
the long term but having said that if in
the future there is a financial savings to us in some other fashion then you
would at least need to compete with that. You have first rights because it is beneficial to everybody that you be there.
Mr. Solomon
stated let me throw another economic point out. The budget as it exists today for the operation of the Commons the biggest
line item in it is the personnel costs which is
computed at the actual wage plus 21%. That line item was put in there years ago when health costs were a lot lower. I will tell
you that as of today if you take the federally
mandated employer taxes and workers comp and unemployment insurance and the health insurance that has to be paid for these people
that the costs we are incurring is not 21% but is
29% so that 8% difference our company is covering and is actually reducing that $5,000 fee we are receiving to be a net of around
$3,700. There is a savings there that is really not
obvious.
Mr. Gray stated I did see where you had changed and I
think that was a good savings on the
accounting side.
Mr. Solomon
stated my intent and my purpose here is to try to do really what is right for the association as I tried to indicate before
and to try to be under one umbrella regardless if it
is my company or if the homeowners when they take control they feel we are not doing the right job then they will hire whoever
they want and I will take my chances with the
homeowners and try to make them happy.
Ms. Schurz asked we pay a lump sum for the management so
how do we save the accounting?
Mr. Solomon
stated NSID pays a lump sum pursuant to the budget that had been approved. If the Commons is operated at a lesser level
then there is a surplus that goes into some form
of pool or reserve for the Commons to be spent at some point on some other expense that may crop up. That money is retained by
the Commons despite that there is a word
in the agreement called "profit" that profit is not gleaned by
anybody it is retained by the Commons.
Mr. Mendelson
asked do you think the board would be opposed to going out to bid and see what
management organizations would be interested for operating that facility? Anybody has to be within a certain ballgame I'm sure.
Your contract is $619,000.
Mr. Solomon
stated my contract is for $5,000 a month.
Mr. Mendelson
stated I'm talking about the overall cost of everything.
Mr. Solomon
stated there are two different contracts that we are talking about. One is the contract between NSID and Heron Bay Community
Association which as I maintained in
prior board meetings I am firmly of the belief that that contract should stay with the Heron Bay Community Association. I think it
would be improper for that contract to be
let out to an independent management company.
Mr. Mendelson
asked why?
Mr. Solomon stated I could very well have not come here
two months ago and tried to say to you
as I did that this contract should be with the Heron Bay Community Association. I could have kept quiet and had I done it I
believe the board at that point would have taken
the contract for the Commons and put it out to bid. I believe if you had done it my company then would have been in a position to
step in and say we are
qualified to
bid. We are qualified because we are probably one of the largest management companies serving residents here. My thinking is if I
was able to put forth a bid on economic terms
that the board felt favorable it would then put my company in a position where we would have the contract to manage the Heron Bay
Commons and whether or not we were
there is solely up to the board here. It has nothing to do with the board of
the Heron Bay Community Association or
the members there. All they could do is to come here to complain to you that they don't like who you
hired meaning me. That would give my company I
believe if I had that contract a form of leverage with the Heron Bay Community Association and the contract I have with it
because if I'm managing Plaza del Lago too and
sending my employees back and forth and given the economies of scale if they wanted to fire me at Heron Bay and I still had the
contract for the Commons that would be some
factor for them to not want to necessarily get rid of me because it could cost more money to put people in to managing Plaza del
Lago. That would have been an asset to my
company to have that type of leverage. I didn't want to have to have leverage. I thought as I maintained before that as this was always
formulated to be going back to the bonds that this
facility, the Commons, should be managed and operated and controlled by the Heron Bay Community Association and if the market had
gone positively rather than the way it has
in the past few years Heron Bay would be built out, WCI would be gone and you might even be on the board of Heron Bay Community
Association and then it would be that
entity's decision who is going to operate the Commons. That is the way I
believe it should be rather than being the judgment of this board who is going
to be there. I don't think
there should be a third independent party even if it was me.
Mr. Gray stated
I will just comment on the things that you said and I'm in favor, think you have economies of scale, I appreciate the fact
that you saved us money on the accounting.
Having said that, you don't need leverage on the other association because as
you know you guys run it so they don't get a choice. You don't leverage
yourself which is what you are basically saying. You are the association, you
are the company working for them, you don't need leverage against
yourself. The homeowners do not run the association
and that won't take place for years so it is not like we are talking about what
that contract
would have changed. That contract wouldn't have changed anything at that time. It may have in the future but at the time it
wouldn't have changed anything. As far as the second
point about who should run it, the bottom line is if they want to buy it then that will take place. I don't believe one person should
own something and have the liability for
it while another person or entity runs it. I don't think that is the proper way
to do it regardless of who lives there.
If I were a private company I wouldn't let somebody run my business. We are
basically that, we are not part of that association we own it. Even though I live there I don't agree that they should
have that ability and if it was a private company
I don't think they should. I think if they buy it and we would be glad to sell
it to them in the future that can take place. Having said that I think at the
moment your package should be bringing
economies of scale to both the association and us because if I'm mowing the grass and I just go down the street
past the clubhouse to mow it is going to save me money
than just bringing in a crew to mow my grass. The same with the pools, if he is coming to do the pool he does the pools. I hope
in your negotiations United is getting those
economies of scale to give us a good price that we could not otherwise get if we go out separately to do it.
Mr. Mendelson stated if we go out to
bid on this with another association management
group, let them bid, you bid and given all the things that have to be done let's see where the ballpark for you comes out
then let us make a decision. Change is not always bad sometimes change is good.
Mr. Gray stated I'm certainly someone who would have
agreed with you wholeheartedly
in that I thought we should have gotten a reduction and I think you finally did give us some reduction.
Mr. Solomon stated we brought about $50,000 in
reductions, some of those reductions were
before we started which was six days ago.
Mr. Gray stated
I do agree that you did bring that to the table and I think as long as that attitude continues then there is not a financial
incentive for us to go elsewhere. At the moment I don't
think it is a free ride to do so because I think you guys have to do work to
get the proposals and everything else.
Mr. Morretti stated you manage Plaza del Lago and the
Commons.
Mr. Solomon
stated yes.
Mr. Morretti asked and it all goes through NSID.
Mr. Solomon
responded no just the Commons.
Mr. Morretti
stated then Plaza del Lago goes through whom?
Mr. Solomon responded Heron Bay Community Association and
NSID have nothing to do
with it.
Mr. Morretti
asked how do we comingle the employees?
Mr. Gray stated
by him hiring them both and they are all in one community as I said if I'm the pool guy I should be giving him a better
price the pools are right down the street from
each other. If I'm a landscaper or cutting the grass I'm taking my machines right down past it, it is one trip. With personnel he
splits part of the personnel at Plaza del Lago and part
at the Commons so you are getting economies of scale on top of that. All I'm saying is in theory he should be able to give us the
best price or United Management if that is who he is hiring should be able to
give us the best price of anyone there whether or not they are which is what he is saying is questionable
but he should be the guy who could give us the best price.
Mr. Solomon stated one of the examples of these
economies of scale is the manager who is Joe
Sabino who is frequently at your meetings. He spends half his time managing Plaza del Lago and the other half of his time managing
the Commons. The Commons is not a facility that
would require a 40 hour a week manager of the caliber of Joe. If the Commons were to go out and try to hire somebody if they
were going to hire somebody part time I don't know that they could get somebody
of that caliber that would be willing to work part
time. Here we can hire somebody of a certain management expertise but only have to allocate half of that person's payroll to
the Commons and the other half can go over to Plaza del Lago. That is a savings
where you are getting more for your dollar.
Mr. Morretti asked is Joe Sabino's salary coming out of
NSID funds or is it coming out of Plaza del
Lago funds?
Mr. Solomon
responded Joe Sabino's salary is being paid by United which gets paid partially by the Commons in terms of that reimbursement
of personnel costs plus 21% and partially by the
Heron Bay Community Association to United to pay for him for the work he does at Plaza del Lago. Also remember if we go out to
bid that one of the things we are going to face is
that line item of personnel costs and 21% which is a budgeted line item that goes back years and when you put it out to bid the
health insurance costs today alone can exceed 21%
when you are talking about people who are getting $12.00 an hour. $12.000 an hour person is getting an annual payment of
$25,000 a year and a $500 a month health
insurance program for that person is $6,000 is almost 24% alone. Just the
health insurance is more than what is in
the current budget. What I would fear is that either you are going to have somebody bid and get people who aren't
going to have health insurance which could be a
problem if the federal government passes this health reform because then it is going to have to come in anyway. My point is
the 21% is an old number that is still being
adhered to. The excess cost is really being eaten by my company and the reason I'm eating it is because I can afford to because I am
managing Heron Bay Community Association. There is a savings there that is not
that visible that if you put it out to bid I don't think other people are going to be able to come in
and provide that savings if they are going to do an apples to apples.
Mr. Mendelson
asked why don't we find out?
Mr. Morretti stated maybe he could break it down exactly
what the Commons is costing him and what Plaza del Lago is costing him.
Mr. Solomon stated what the Commons is costing is in the
Commons budget.
Mr. Gray stated
I think the concern would be this, if I were going to look at it from a negative standpoint we could say how do we know you are
not charging us for more of the time for
employees than should be compared to the time they are there. If we are splitting employees maybe we are getting charged a
higher percentage than we should be. Theoretically
we should be saving money on what you are doing.
Mr. Solomon stated so far I have been bringing to this
table savings of money. Mr. Gray stated
I agree.
Mr. Solomon stated I said we would bring more given the
opportunity. Give me the opportunity
and let's see what we do.
Mr. Mendelson asked why would you be opposed to bidding?
Mr. Gray responded I say let's give them a shot, give
them another three months and see how it
goes.
Mr. Mendelson stated okay.
Mr. Lyles stated I want to make sure that everybody has
in front of the board the mechanism that would be required to put this
management of the Commons out. That contract is
between Mr. Solomon's management company and the Community Association. We don't have a contract with him. The only
way we could put this out is to first terminate
the management agreement we have with the Heron Bay Community Association. We basically no longer have that agreement
we have a 30 day notice period on that. There
are other things covered by that agreement that we would be terminating. For instance under that agreement they have to buy the
insurance for the Heron Bay Commons
facility, that is their obligation. We would have to immediately run out and
get insurance to cover the facility and
this board and your staff would become at least in terms of Heron Bay Commons the management company while you go
through the bidding process and
evaluate the proposals. I'm not suggesting that is not something you want to do I just want to make sure that I outline for the board
the steps and what we would be taking on of
significance. We would have to insure that facility we don't insure it currently it is insured by the Community Association.
Mr. Gray stated my personal opinion is that I have had
issues and having been in my own meeting
with the association where I listened to other people they have issues with the
current pricing. I do think you did bring us back savings which you said you would do and I think as long as we continue to see that
attitude then I don't have a problem with
what you are doing. My personal opinion would be to give you a continued opportunity for a while to see that we get benefit from
it.
Mr. Morretti stated I don't object to that. That is fine.
Mr. Mendelson stated there is still a 30 day termination.
Mr. Gray stated
there is still a 30 day termination so there is no real downside to seeing that it continues and that we get something. I say
we see what happens. You negotiate the other
contracts and we will see where it goes from there.
Mr. Morretti
stated maybe we should see a breakdown of both facilities.
Mr. Gray stated
I don't think they are going to give you a breakdown of the other one but I'm in the community and I have the sheets that
were handed out at the meeting. It is a budget item.
Mr. Mendelson stated I agree with Vince. Why can't we
get a breakdown of what it costs for the
Heron Bay Community?
Mr. Solomon stated I don't mind
giving it but I don't understand what it is that you
want.
Mr. Mendelson stated I think we should look at it and
see if we can save money here or there.
Mr. Solomon stated you are provided monthly financial
statements that reflects actual expenses.
Mr. Mendelson stated a breakdown of individual expenses
for the mowing, chlorine or whatever it might be.
Mr. Solomon stated that is on the income statements that
you get every month. Mr. Mendelson
asked is that in our book?
Ms. Schurz stated it is not included in the financials.
We get financial statements from them and I
can give you what we receive.
Mr. Colon asked would it be an issue if United were to
provide us with the financials and
contracts with who you have for secondary vendors?
Mr. Solomon
responded it would be our pleasure. The general ledger will give you the breakdown of each of the categories. I can show you
a breakdown of the personnel costs. I will
send one over from last month to Rod and you can put it in your package and you can see what was done.
Water Production Reports
Mr. Hyche
stated the water production reports are in your package.
Utility
Billing Work Orders
Mr. Hyche stated the utility billing work orders are
included in your package.
B. Attorney
Mr. Lyles stated I have a couple of follow-ups that we
started talking about earlier in the meeting.
One, just to close the loop your staff and a representative from our office appeared before the Broward County Legislative
Delegation last night and achieved unanimous
approval of the special act to be proposed to the legislature that is going to amend our boundaries to take in most of the wedge area.
We had some discussions with representatives
of the Hendricks property which is on the east side and goes down about the future. They are in the process of a land use plan
amendment. They want us to assist them with that
effort. We are going to have to decide how far we can go in representing that we can provide services to them at some future time
when we discussed with them the importance
of coming into the district to lock in our position concerning their property. That is a story that is still being written but
three major chunks of property and a couple smaller
ones have all been approved to come into the district so that I think is a very good thing for the district.
As part and
parcel of all of this and following up on some of Rod's statements earlier we have had a lot of involvement with the City of
Parkland on several issues in the past 30 to 60
days and they have asked us to take up approval of a couple of things tonight and I'm going to take them up with you now. They are not
in your agenda but the staff is ready to answer any questions you may have and
I have draft documents here if you want to see those.
Medians that are arguably our responsibility, in the past roads have gone to Parkland with fairly complicated agreements and they have
always had an agreement with an HOA or
some entity to maintain the medians. They don't do median maintenance is their position and we have this new position on the
part of Parkland with respect to University Drive that we discussed earlier. We
also have a piece of road along Holmberg Road that is a
median that we have been maintaining for a substantial length of time.
However, we don't have an agreement to that effect that
is in place. They have asked us to turn that into an agreement that can be
approved by this board, approved by the City of Parkland that essentially provides for us to do the
median maintenance that we have been doing and we
have prepared a schedule of what that maintenance is. That is part of the agreement and has been reviewed by staff. We are all
satisfied with it for the stretch of Holmberg Road
that runs from West Glades Middle School west to the city's western boundary approximately 1,000 feet. They have injected
into this whole discussion University which
we talked about earlier. I have not submitted to them an agreement. They signed
off by the way on the form of the agreement we are asking you to approve here and the type of maintenance that we are going to
do. If for some reason our contractors
don't maintain those medians appropriately then they reserve the right to step
in as the city do the maintenance themselves and charge it back to us and we
are agreeing if they have to
step in we will pay that. We have now their request that we do the same thing with respect to University Drive from the County
Line down to approximately Parkland
Commons. I have asked them to provide me with a more specific delineation of what the stretch of University Drive is but what I have to tell you right now is County Line down to Parkland Commons approximately. The same deal,
we are going to maintain that median pursuant
to the schedule that we have all agreed is appropriate maintenance services. If they have to step in and do it they will
back charge us for it. Either side can cancel the
agreement for cause but I think the intention is that we will do this
indefinitely. Obviously, if
Rod is successful with his discussions that are ongoing with FDOT there will be no need for this maintenance agreement as to
University it would roll into FDOT's jurisdiction and
be their maintenance responsibility but for now while we have the situation that we have and while we are working really
hard to get the City of Parkland on our side they
have asked for these agreements to be taken up by the board and hopefully approved tonight and I have indicated that we will bring
it before the board and you take the action you deem to be appropriate. If you
are satisfied with that description and you want to authorize those one motion for both median
maintenance agreements one for University
Drive one for Holmberg Road would be appropriate at this time.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by Mr. Gray with all
in favor the median maintenance
agreements for Holmberg Road and for
University Drive were approved.
Mr. Lyles
stated they have one other request which you heard about earlier. This right of way that has recently turned up as part of the
title work and land use plan work that is going
on with the wedge property is a 65 foot strip that runs north and south up to the new county line starting at old County Line Road.
That was deeded to the district back in 1988 by
the then trustee for the bank that owned it. In any event we were provided with a copy of that by the engineer for the
Huizinga parcel, it checks out, we do have it, it was
unknown to the engineer, the attorney or anybody but it exists and the city if aware of its existence. They want in light of their
own annexation plans for that property a
license agreement from the district that would authorize them to go into that
65 foot strip with their public service
and emergency services. They want to access it whether it is police,
paramedics, any kind of city public works and emergency services they would like a license agreement in their favor allowing them to
go in there. In the future that may become a paved
road and fairly significant thoroughfare and once that happens it is all sort of moot but right now it is not improved as I
understand it.
Mr. Colon stated it is a dirt road.
Mr. Mendelson stated we are going to allow them access
and we are going to maintain it.
Mr. Lyles stated we are going to allow them access. We
are not going to do any particular
maintenance. It is a dirt road.
Mr. Colon stated
they just want to cut through.
Mr. Lyles stated we are requiring them to have insurance
and we are requiring them to
indemnify us if there is a problem. There is no risk to us.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by Mr. Gray with all
in favor a license agreement with the
City of Parkland for the 65 foot strip in the wedge was approved.
C. Engineer
Consideration of Work Authorization No. 195 Booster Pump
Station Landscape
Plan Upgrades for the Amounts Outlined in Item Three
Ms. Early
stated the north property line that goes in front of the booster pump station is considered a landscape buffer in the current
Heron Bay assessment bond issue. This work
authorization is going to design the landscape buffer, the irrigation system
and some security fencing that they need
up there. This will all be paid out of the existing bond funds. This is just for the design and permitting
with the City of Parkland.
Mr. Colon stated the City of Parkland is also looking at
possibly designing some type of
greenway depending on how much money is left.
Mr. Mendelson stated this is quite a big job then.
Ms. Early stated this one isn't. I was going to discuss
County Line Road after this. This is just in
front of the booster pump station, the north property line.
Mr. Gray stated I don't know the size of it but if I
understand correctly you are doing the
landscape plans, irrigation plans, security fence is just a perimeter fence and
a contractor will do it.
Ms. Early
stated we are just designing, we have to have signed and sealed engineering plans in order to get everything permitted.
The landscaping and irrigation we will put the bid specs together for that.
Mr. Gray stated it is $33,000 to draw a landscape plan
and a fence plan. Is it going to cost us
$33,000 to do the whole job? How big of a job are we talking about?
Ms. Early stated
I think the buffer there is 40 feet. We want to landscape this pretty heavily so that you have a buffer from County Line Road
that we are going to build from seeing the pump
station.
Mr. Gray asked is there a reason we are doing this?
Mr. Colon responded there are a couple of reasons. The
first is security concerns and the second
one is we are going to have heavy traffic there and we are trying to
provide more permanent defense from cars going in and out
of there and also the City of Parkland I
think they don't want to stare at it.
Mr. Gray asked what budget does this come out of, the
bond?
Ms. Early
responded yes the Heron Bay bond issue, there is about $3.9 million left in that bond. That is the one we have been discussing
doing the two lanes of County Line Road which I
want to talk about next.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by Mr. Gray with all in favor work authorization no. 195 for the booster pump
station landscape plan upgrades was approved
in the amounts listed under item 3
basis of compensation of the work authorization.
Ms. Early stated the second item is pump station no. .1
that is under construction. As you will recall that was bid and the low bid was
evaluated and found they were non responsive. Then we went to the second bid
and that was Florida Sewer & Water, they started working on the contract, we started reviewing
shop drawings, had a preconstruction
meeting and it was moving along. Then they came back and said they were closing up their shop. Rod got some additional
prices got another contractor, Intrastate. Now
we are started with them again, they have submitted new shop drawings, they wanted to use a different valve, we have had
construction meetings onsite. They had a little bit of
problems, once they exposed the pipe the pipe wasn't exactly 48" round, it
wasn't perfect, it was constructed
30 years ago so they had to fabricate a piece of pipe, they had to weld it so we have been spending a lot of time in
the field on this project. It is sort of like we have done it twice. Our
original inspection service was for $36,000 as a lump sum and I'm at my budget limit. There is a line item on
this contract that says additional services as
approved for hourly. We still need to finish out this contract and we have a
couple more weeks of engineering work to do.
Mr. Mendelson
asked how much are we talking about?
Ms. Early responded between $5,000 and $8,000.
Mr. Mendelson
stated let's get it done.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by Mr. Morretti with all in favor the additional inspections services for pump
station no. 1 was approved in an amount not
to exceed $8,000.
Ms. Early stated
the third item is County Line Road. You wanted to know when bids are coming. That is a bid that will be in the
newspaper because it is over $500,000. This bid will be
two lanes with curb from Nob Hill going west to the end of Plat 3 in Heron Bay which is approximately 7,600 linear feet. That
is going to be advertised in the newspaper within the next 30 days.
Mr. Mendelson asked you are talking concrete, paving,
drainage, landscaping? Ms. Early responded no landscaping.
Mr. Colon
stated the bond calls for paving the roadway, landscaping, we are going to be
putting in a culvert also. Also if there is any money left over the City of
Parkland wants to know if
they can do a greenway there. Just for clarification she is only talking about the first phase which is paving the two lanes of
County Line Road. Whatever money is left
over the bond money is going to be spent for those other projects.
Ms. Early stated
it includes curb and gutter, drainage, culverts, everything and that is all covered in this Heron Bay bond issue. We met with
Parkland and they want to do a greenway trail
because we are only using 60 feet of the right of way which NSID owns. That
road will ultimately be turned over to the county. With the other 60 feet of
right of way the city
wants to do that which in the bond issue there is money for landscape buffers along Nob Hill and County Line Road. We talked to the
county to see if they would permit this
because this does have to go to the county for a permit, the other 60 feet,
they want to meet with us and Dave
Huizinga and revisit exactly what we want to put there. If it gets approved or
if we can vacate the 60 foot right of way or work out something that would be phase 2 that landscape buffer. We are going to
be bidding within the next 30 days the actual
two lane paved roadway and I wanted you to be aware of that bid. It has to go
into the newspaper. It has to be advertised for 30 days because of the size of
the contract and then we can take bids.
Proj ect(s)
Status Report
FIFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval of Financials and Check Registers
Mr. Hyche stated the next item is approval of financials and check registers.
On MOTION by Mr. Gray seconded by Mr. Mendelson
with all in favor the check registers were approved.
On MOTION by Mr. Mendelson seconded by Mr. Gray with all in favor the meeting adjourned at
6:25 p.m.