MINUTES OF MEETING

NORTH SPRINGS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT

 

            The regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the North Springs Improvement District was held Thursday, December 4, 2003 at 4:00 P.M. in the District Office, 10300 N. W. 11 Manor, Coral Springs, Florida.

            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

            Warren Craven                                           WCI

            Joseph Guttuso                                           WCI

            Vince Peluso                                              S.F.W.M.D.

 

FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS                         Roll Call

            Mr. Lauritzen called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. and Mr. Hans called the roll

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 November 6, 2003 meeting and requested any additions, corrections or deletions.

            There not being any,

 

On MOTION by Mr. Mendolia seconded by Mr. Lauritzen with all in favor the minutes of the November 6, 2003 meeting were approved as submitted.

 

Attorney Report - Consideration of Request to Modify District Counsel Fee Structure

            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 5:00 p.m. at the government center in downtown Fort Lauderdale and I will have to leave a little early.  The reason I am there is because our codification bill is on their agenda.  It is a local bill that has to be approved at a public hearing of the legislative delegation and I will be there to present the bill and to hopefully, get their approval on that. 

            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 Tallahassee after the first of the year.  She has asked that the Board authorize a letter or resolution supporting the concept and subject to your discussions today, Mr. Lauritzen and I both said we didn’t see a problem with that.  As a fallback to that, if it is not possible politically or realistically to get Chapter 189, F.S. amended on a state-wide basis, she wants to be able to propose an amendment to our special act during the session in Tallahassee that will do the same thing but just in N.S.I.D.’s boundaries, authorize this board to convert the District’s manner of electing Board members from landowners elections to electoral vote, to take place in conjunction with the general election held within the two cities so that you don’t have to pay the expenses of a special election and the board will remain three members.  You essentially get elected by all the voters as opposed to the landowners but it will still be three members.  Subject to discussion and confirmation today, Mr. Lauritzen and I both indicated that we thought that based on the positions taken in the past by the Board, that would not be a problem.  It achieves the result that you indicated you were satisfied with and we don’t have it being done to us against our will, we have it being done with our cooperation, our input and we will probably draft the language for the bill that gets taken up in Tallahassee.  Since I am going to the legislative delegation in a few minutes for this very purpose, it is important for me to have your feedback on how you want to proceed and if you want to proceed in the way I just outlined.  If we want to modify that in any way, now is the time.

            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 Coral Springs and they will all run at large.  North Springs is different in that we are in two cities.  If you have the desire to run from districts then we need to put that in this act.  What we have now is one board member from Parkland, one from Coral Springs and one at large.  We don’t have to make that decision today because they are not going to vote on that today. 

            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 Hillsboro basin and look at how much water can be redirected from the Everglades into the Hillsboro basin.  That is with the consideration of all the things that are happening in this area which includes the Hillsboro impoundment area which is a CERP Project.  The goal is to not pump into the Everglades at all.  There is a deadline of December 31, 2006 where all discharges into all areas of the Everglades protected area must meet the 10 ppb phosphorus criteria that was recently added.  We are still around 22 ppb to 30 ppb.  We had a meeting earlier today to work on other things that can be done upstream of the pump station to improve water quality. 

 

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 South Florida is spending about $150,000 in modeling our entire basin.  They used an existing model from Gee & Jenson and at a meeting last month they commended the information in that model and they took that to the next level to find out if we took our water off-site to places other than the Everglades.  This will involve more technical monitoring and now we have an opportunity to install telemetry in the pump stations.  We are under contract to put in a backpump on University Drive pumping from the west basin into the east basin to help replenish the wellfields and our eastern basin.  We need to monitor that by telemetry.  South Florida is wiling to put that telemetry in the pump stations for a year at no cost.  If it doesn’t work we can take it out.  I also want to put in some flow meters to monitor the discharge.  We may also change the pump sequences. 

            We would like to have $39,000 to match South Florida and we will spend that on testing, pump meters, and telemetry.

            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 Hillsboro impoundment area on line and all the water you presently pump into the Hillsboro Canal can be put in the impoundment area and that water will be available during the dry season. 

            Mr. Hans stated I believe we need acknowledgement that you agree with the program Mr. Moore outlined to utilize the matching funds from South Florida.

 

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.

 

Permit Request for Parkland Golf & Country Club Pod 3

            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.

 

Heron Bay North Plat 1 Earthwork & Lake Excavation

            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.

 

FIFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS                         Staff Reports

            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.

 

            C.     Superintendent

            There not being any, the next item followed.

            D.     Complaints 

                     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.

 

SEVENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS                  Approval of Requisitions and Invoices

 

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 5:00 p.m..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                      

Salvatore J. Mendolia                                             Matt Lauritzen

Secretary                                                                President