A
REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF
APRIL
17, 2007
The Lake County Board of
INVOCATION
AND PLEDGE
Reverend
Dr. S. William Tyson, from the
AGENDA
UPDATE
Ms.
Cindy Hall,
Commr.
Cadwell stated that under his business, he asked Mr. Gregg Welstead, Deputy
County Manager, to work on a problem with the
MINUTES
On
a motion by Commr. Stivender, seconded by Commr. Hill and carried unanimously,
by a vote of 5-0, the Board approved the Minutes of March 13, 2007 (Regular
Meeting), as presented.
On
a motion by Commr. Stivender, seconded by Commr. Hill and carried unanimously,
by a vote of 5-0, the Board approved the Minutes of March 20, 2007 (Regular
Meeting), as presented.
CLERK
OF COURTS’ CONSENT AGENDA
On
a motion by Commr. Stivender, seconded by Commr. Hill and carried unanimously,
by a vote of 5-0, the Board approved the Clerk of Courts’ Consent Agenda, Tab
2, Items 1 through 7, as follows:
List of Warrants
Request
to acknowledge receipt of list of warrants paid prior to this meeting, pursuant to
Chapter 136.06 (1) of the Florida Statutes, which shall be incorporated into
the Minutes as attached Exhibit A and filed in the Board Support Division of
the Clerk's Office.
St.
Johns River Water Management District Comprehensive Annual Financial Report
Request to acknowledge receipt of St. Johns River Water
Management District Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for Fiscal Year Ended
September 30, 2006 (CD), as audited by the accounting firm of James Moore &
Co., P.L. and accepted by the St. Johns River Water Management District’s
Governing Board on March 13, 2007.
Meeting Notice – Southwest Florida Water Management
District
Request
to acknowledge receipt of Meeting Notice - Southwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board Meeting
Agenda for March 27, 2007, to be held at 9:00 a.m., at the Tampa Service Office
Board Room,
City
of
Request
to acknowledge receipt of City of
Letter
of Notice regarding Annexation Ordinances from Town of Lady Lake
Request to acknowledge receipt of
Letter of Notice regarding Annexation Ordinance 2006-45, Comprehensive Plan
Amendment 2006-46, and Rezoning Ordinance 2006-47, amending the Town of Lady
Lake Comprehensive Plan by amending the Official Future Land Use Map, annex,
and rezone property South of Wildwood Street and West of Arlington Avenue,
owned by Stonewood Village, LLC. Said property consists of 40+/- acres. The
proposed large scale comprehensive plan amendment is to change the future land
use designation from
The general location of the property
is south of
City
of
Request
to acknowledge receipt of City of
Lake
Request
to acknowledge receipt of Lake County Water Authority Annual Financial Audit
& Annual Financial Report.
Village
Center Community Development District Financial Statements
Request
to acknowledge receipt of Village Center Community Development District
Financial Statements as of September 30, 2006 (With Independent Auditors’
Report Thereon).
Commr.
Stewart pulled Tab 4 for discussion.
Commr.
Renick pulled Tabs 11, 12, 13, and 17 for discussion.
On
a motion by Commr. Stivender, seconded by Commr. Hill and carried unanimously,
by a vote of 5-0, the Board approved the County Manager’s Consent Agenda, Tabs
3 through 20, pulling Tabs 4, 11, 12, 13, and 17, as follows:
Budget
Request for approval of the following Budget Change
Requests and Unanticipated Revenue Resolution:
Budget
Transfer – Landfill
Budget transfer and Capital
Substitution - Landfill Enterprise Fund, Department of Environmental Services,
Solid Waste Operations Division. Transfer $10,839 from Buildings to Machinery
and Equipment. Substitute funds of $34,966 from Machinery and Equipment
(flatbed maintenance truck) to Machinery and Equipment. Need to purchase two
pickup trucks to replace two trucks that are no longer serviceable and have
been sent to auction. The landfill supervisors are currently sharing a pool
vehicle intended for general departmental use.
Funds
available in Buildings as the storage shed is no longer needed. The department
planned to use the shed to store landfill records, but per agreement with FDEP,
records can now be archived in the County's record storage facility. Funds also
available in Machinery and Equipment as the flatbed maintenance truck can be used
for an additional one to two years
Resolution
No. 2007-66 to amend the General
Fund in order to receive unanticipated revenue for Fiscal Year 2006/2007 in the
amount of $2,410 deposited into Partners for Fish and Wildlife and provide
appropriations for the disbursement for Aids to Private Organizations.
Employee Services
Request for approval to process initial payment and
execute sworn statement in proof of loss for tornado damage to building at
Royal Trails tower site,
Growth
Management
Request
for approval of very low-income and low-income impact fee waivers as refunds to
lenders on behalf of qualified individuals.
Procurement
Request for approval to award Bid No. 07-0817 for a one
time purchase of an International 4400 Cab and Chassis to Maudlin International
for $73,342.16.
Request
for approval to (1) declare the items on the attached lists surplus to County
needs, (2) authorize the removal of all of the items on the attached lists from
the County's official fixed asset inventory system records, and (3) authorize
the Procurement Services Director to sign vehicle titles.
Request for approval and execution of contract with MT
Stewart Construction, Inc. for reconstructions of living quarters at Fire
Station 76 in Yalaha (Commission District 3) and apparatus bay improvements at
Fire Station 109 in Clermont (Commission District 2). The cost of this project
is $62,200.00.
Public
Works
Request
for approval of Resolution No. 2007-61 recognizing
the observance of “Motorcycle Safety Awareness” for the month of May 2007.
Request
for approval of Resolution No. 2007-62 recognizing
the observance of “Train Safety Awareness Week” from April 16-22, 2007.
Request
for approval and signature on Resolution No. 2007-63 authorizing the posting of a “STOP” sign on Pine Meadows Lane
(6665A) at its intersection with
Request
for authorization to release a maintenance bond in the amount of $64,604.40
posted for Sunrise Lakes Phase III. Sunrise Lakes Phase III consists of 133
lots and is located in Section 26, Township 42 South, Range 26 East -
Commission District 2.
Request for authorization to execute the Hold
Harmless Agreement between Lake County and Pineloch Management Corporation for
a ribbon cutting ceremony to be held on April 21, 2007 at South Lake Trail, Phase
II Project No. 2005-05 - Commission District 2.
Request for
approval to execute change order # 1 in the amount of $280,247.55 relating to
additional work on the Countywide Resurfacing Project No. 2006-08, (Bid Number
06-135) - Commission Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
On
a motion by Commr. Stivender, seconded by Commr. Hill and carried unanimously,
by a vote of 5-0, the Board approved the
Request for approval of Agreement with Weigel-Veasey Appraisers, Inc. for CR 466 Segment B Project – Commission District 5.
PRESENTATION
IMPACT
FEES FOR EDUCATONAL FACILITIES STUDY
Commr.
Cadwell stated that Tab 22, a presentation of the results of the study “Impact
Fees for Educational Facilities in
Commr.
Stewart stated that she had a concern regarding Tab 4, but commented that she
was not unsympathetic, since the teaching profession was in the same situation
of being greatly underpaid. She
believed, however, that this was a time that the County needed to be thinking
about “tightening their belts,” and inquired of Sheriff Gary Borders whether
his department received raises in October of 2006.
Sheriff
Borders responded that the starting salary was increased $800 in October and
the rest of the employees got a raise of 2.8 percent. He commented that he was just trying to be
competitive with local agencies and that
Commr.
Stewart replied that starting salaries were important to attract quality people,
but that she was concerned about spending the money to give raises in general
right now.
Sheriff
Borders noted that they could not just raise the starting salary and not carry
it all the way up to the rank of lieutenant, or starting deputies would be
making more than three and four year deputies.
Commr.
Cadwell commented the problem was that they did not just lose people to other
agencies before they came to work, but they also could lose them up in the
ranks, especially dispatchers who did not make a lot to start with.
Sheriff
Borders commented that one of the areas of their concern was that Tavares was
starting their own dispatch at the end of May with a starting salary of
$26,000, which was almost $7,000 more than the County’s starting salary. He stated that they were planning on
increasing that salary in steps over time rather than at one time. He also commented that he understood money
issues, but that they still had to have quality law enforcement, attract
quality candidates and retain quality deputy sheriffs in this County.
Commr.
Stewart commented that she supported law enforcement completely, but she just
had to voice her concerns about the money issue.
Commr.
Stivender stated that she shared the same concerns, but that they had been
trying to work on it for the last three years.
Commr.
Renick noted that when they were discussing this the last time, they were
talking about the difficulties with recruitment and how it was important to get
those salaries up, and she thought they were just going to deal with that part
and would deal with the other raises at the next budget discussion. She stated that she realized that they would
need to increase the salaries of those who were hired very recently so that the
minimum was not higher than their salaries, but she thought across the board
increases would be coming at another time.
Sheriff
Borders apologized for any confusion and clarified that they were only looking
at increasing salaries of the sworn officers and the dispatchers through the
rank of lieutenant, and that he previously stated that they would address the
rest of the agency in October for the civilian employees in the agency.
Commr.
Cadwell commented that he understood Commr. Stewart’s concerns, but that he
believed that the request was reasonable considering the action of some of the
other city police departments and the County’s Firefighters’ union. He thought they should approve this budget
amendment, and at budget time, they would look at the civilian pay.
On
a motion by Commr. Stewart, seconded by Commr. Stivender and carried
unanimously, by a vote of 5-0, the Board approved Tab 4 of the County Manager’s
Consent Agenda as follows:
Request
from Budget for approval of Sheriff’s request to include additional funding
totaling $1,305,000 in the mid-year budget amendment to fund starting salary
increases for Sheriff's Office deputies and dispatchers. Also approve transfer of vacancy salary money
in law enforcement and in corrections to cover additional needs for the current
year. Funding
supports one additional bailiff to
allow adequate coverage during sick and vacation leaves.
Commr.
Renick commented that in Tab 11, there was a little bit of difficulty in
understanding how the EMS Grant worked, and that the cities had been accustomed
to receiving part of this grant, which they did not this year. She stated that she talked to Mr. Gary
Kaiser, Public Safety Director, and she did not want to delay this since they
had a time constraint and did not want to lose the grant. She asked Mr. Kaiser to address the Board to
share what they had previously discussed.
Mr.
Kaiser stated that they thought there needed to be a better system in place to
analyze these grants and how they were proportioned out to those cities that
would request funding. They believed
that mechanism was Dr. Jack Geelin, the County Medical Director, who was over
all the cities, medics, and EMT’s in Lake Sumter EMS, and that he had agreed to
do that. Mr. Kaiser explained that when
the grant came back, Dr. Geeslin would reprioritize what he felt was
appropriate, and they would send that back.
He also opined that Dr. Geeslin was the appropriate person to do that.
Commr.
Renick opined that she was confident that it would go through that process, but
that there was just confusion this year as far as it being more competitive,
and the cities thought they would just get their grants. She commented that she did not think even Dr.
Geeslin realized he was going to be the one making the final decision.
On
a motion by Commr. Renick, seconded by Commr. Stivender and carried
unanimously, by a vote of 5-0, the Board approved Tab 11 of the County
Manager’s Consent Agenda, as follows:
Request
from Public Safety for approval for the execution of the Florida Department of
Health EMS Grant and approval of the grant Resolution No. 2007-58 and approval
of the unanticipated revenue Resolution No. 2007-59.
Commr. Renick stated that she had a
question regarding Tab 12, and that Growth Management and Public Works had a
number of specific things that had to be done for this in terms of the re-plat,
the temporary easement, and all that, but in the resolution it looked like the
County was granting the vacation without stipulating all the other things they
had to have. She wanted to make sure
that they hold them to all of the other things that have to be done.
Mr.
Jim Stivender, Jr., Public Works Director, stated that they came to the County
wanting to vacate the portion he showed in red on the overhead. He explained that they would not just vacate
a part of a cul-de-sac since there would be a different lot configuration
without the cul-de-sac, so at the same time they had to have a temporary
easement for a new cul-de-sac, and that was what they had done on adjacent
property.
Commr.
Renick stated that she wanted to make sure that was what they were getting,
because it looked to her like they may be getting the vacation, but it was not
spelled out.
Mr.
Sandy Minkoff,
On
a motion by Commr. Renick, seconded by Commr. Hill and carried unanimously, by
a vote of 5-0, the Board approved Tab 12, on the
Request
from Public Works for approval and signature of Resolution No. 2007-60 to
Advertise Public Hearing for Vacation Petition No. 1109 to vacate right of way
and cease maintenance on a portion of a cul-de-sac of a county maintained road,
Parkdale Drive (#4532B) in the Plat of Park Hill (PB55, Pg. 33) in the Leesburg
area - Commission District 1.
Commr.
Renick stated that she had some serious concerns regarding Tab 13, but that
Commr. Hill had more history regarding what this had been doing over the years.
Commr.
Hill stated that when she got here in 2000, this was a $500 item, and then it
went to $5,000 before it incrementally went back down. She commented that at the time, it had been a
viable citizens’ issue, because the County did not have the MPO (Lake-Sumter
Metropolitan Planning Organization), and there were a lot of things they did
not have in place. However, since then
she thought they had gotten a lot of things in place that they were involved in
and she did not see any real activity on their side to equal or justify going
ahead with it. She opined that some
committees did a very good job and they should fund those, or if not, they
should back out and have a different level of participation. She also thought there could be problems with
the Sunshine Law if they overlapped several committees. She thought, however, that it was Commr.
Renick’s decision about whether this was still a viable committee or not.
Commr.
Renick stated that she was glad Commr. Hill wanted to pull this, and the
information she had gotten from this committee did not help a lot. She stated that there was a reference at the
very end of one of the memos that stated one significant service was
transportation advocacy efforts, potentially through lobbyists. She also pointed out that Clermont was
involved, since it involved their area, so they were covered there, and that
she wanted to be able to talk to all other parties freely without the Sunshine
Law concern.
Mr.
Stivender explained that the West Orange South Lake Transportation Task Force
was started by a group of cities and the two counties associated with the Hwy
50 corridor several years ago to promote that on a state level to get funding
for that corridor. He opined that it had
been successful bringing money back, and at the time, Metro Plan Orlando did
not have Hwy 50 on their schedule and that this group was instrumental in
getting it recognized on the Metro Plan Orlando list, and they worked closely
to work on that corridor. He stated that
there was a comfort level of the previous Board to keep it going, but they had
not attended meetings.
Commr.
Hill commented that she did not wish to diminish what that group had done,
since they did not have an MPO at that time in the County and they were very
instrumental in the Hwy 50 corridor, but she thought that they had grown up and
beyond since that time. She noted that
she did not know if not approving this would hinder the County in any way, and
encouraged other viewpoints from the Board and the MPO.
Commr.
Cadwell commented that when this group started, the County did not even have a
full seat at the MPO alliance, but since they did now, he felt that the MPO
would fill this void if they were not comfortable continuing with this group.
Mr.
T. J. Fish, Executive Director of the MPO, addressed the Board, stating that it
was a unique grassroots organization, with landowners, cities, counties, and
business chambers of commerce. However,
he understood if the Board felt that there were other things they could do
through the MPO to work together, and opined that through the MPO, the State
Road 50 situation was about to be solved.
He also stated that he would still continue to go to the group’s
meetings to help out and be a resource.
On
a motion by Commr. Renick, seconded by Commr. Stewart and carried unanimously,
by a vote of 5-0, the Board moved to not participate and denied the payment of
the membership dues of $2,000 to the West Orange South Lake Transportation Task
Force.
Commr.
Renick stated that she had a question regarding the memo for Tab 17, noting
that Planning and Community Design needed a number of things, and she did not
see any assurance that they had made the revisions that needed to be made to
the construction plans.
Mr.
Jim Stivender, Jr., Public Works Director, stated that everything that was
required would be included in there, and that this was the maintenance bond for
it. He opined that the job was
substantially complete, with just a few things left to be done that would be
taken care of.
Commr.
Renick commented that she was uncomfortable with that, since she would prefer
assurances that they already had what staff needed.
Mr.
Stivender stated that they could do a zero tolerance on these things and not
awarding the plat until everything was done, but they had been trying to be
lenient in the past.
Commr.
Stivender related that she did not think there was ever a case where everything
was not ultimately done.
Mr.
Sandy Minkoff,
Commr.
Renick stated that she did not think it was asking too much to ask the
developer to complete everything before it came before the Board in the future,
since she thought doing it this way was out of order.
On
a motion by Commr. Renick, seconded by Commr. Stivender and carried
unanimously, by a vote of 5-0, the Board approved Tab 17 of the County
Manager’s Consent Agenda, as follows:
Request from Public Works for authorization to accept the
final plat for Eagles Point Phase II, and all areas dedicated to the public as
shown on the Eagles Point Phase II plat, accept a maintenance bond in the
amount of $44,259.00, execute a Developer's Agreement for Maintenance of
Improvements Between Lake County and Paul Buchanan, Individually and as Trustee
and execute Resolution No. 20007-64 accepting the following road into the
County Road Maintenance System: Golden Tree Drive (Co. Road No. 5841C). Eagles
Point Phase II consists of 24 lots and is located in Section 7, Township 19
South, Range 26 East - Commission District 5.
PRESENTATION
- STATE AND FEDERAL FUNDING REQUESTS
Mr. T. J. Fish, Executive Director of the MPO, stated
that he had sent out a memo to the Board as well as the MPO Board members
regarding the unfunded priorities. He
reported that every year they evaluate their priorities for funding,
specifically projects that they knew were needs that had not gotten all phases
funded. He commented that sometimes they
would have done the study for a project and maybe designed it, but had not
bought right of way or had construction dollars, which was typically the case
with a lot of those projects. He
specified that the list that was adopted last summer had been given to the
Department of Transportation (DOT), and they were very strategic about what
they gave to DOT. He opined that the MPO
made some very good decisions last year about how to prioritize, some of which
were treating the entire corridor of Hwy 441 as still the number one MPO
priority, but they broke it up into separate sections. He also specified that for the Hwy 441
project, they were looking to widen from four to six lanes.
He
reported that the second priority was State Road 50, and the strategy on that
was to make it the number one TRIP (Transportation Regional Incentive Program)
priority, which will enable the MPO Board on April 25 to ask for authorization
to send in the application for State Road 50.
He also stated that they were using the developer funds from Plaza
Collina as the local match for those funds, and they expected to be successful
on that application.
He named State Road 46 as the third of the other current
major road priorities, but noted that they were waiting on the
He stated that he would be giving the Board an update at
next week’s Board meeting, where he will have Sumter County talk about a TRIP
project they had that was production ready with the local match, which was
County Road 468 near where the Villages was building an interchange to the
turnpike. He related that they were
going to look to four lane from that interchange to State Road 44, and that he
thought it was an ideal TRIP project. He
also related that he was working on getting the interchange in Clermont where
Hwy 27 and Hwy 50 met funded out of SIS (Strategic Intermodal System) funds
instead of using the DOT funds. He also
mentioned that he had been getting calls regarding the 56-year old Lake Harris
Bridge on Hwy 19 between Tavares and Howey in the Hills, but that there was no
funding currently in the process for it, and urged the Board to get both the
state and congressional representatives involved in it.
He also mentioned the enhancement project of trails,
noting that the South Lake Trail had remained the number one priority. He related that they were going to approach
trails and other projects a little differently than before, by breaking
priorities into those that they were trying to get studies and design for in
one category and the priorities that they were trying to do right of way and
construction in another. They were
finding that sometimes there were so many phases, that the priorities were not
communicated well because study and disbursement were not divided up.
He stated that, regarding transit, he had just gotten
some listing of routes that they wanted to get service development grants on,
but that he heard that DOT was only giving those grants if they were connected
to commuter rail. He also noted that the
Commr. Renick commented that
Mr. Stivender responded that a year ago they could not
get anyone to bid their jobs, so they turned their road construction program
into a design program, which is why the County had 80 projects in design and
not a lot in construction. He stated
that had fortunately changed for the better, that they were getting competitive
bids, and that the projects such as
Mr. Fish pointed out that the reason they put the new
category in this year was to help deal with the funding and cost issues that
were affecting things. He added that
impact fees were not used to fund some major projects, such as State Road 44,
PUBLIC WORKS –
Mr. Jim Stivender, Jr., Public Works Director, explained
that this was the final plat for
On a motion by Commr. Renick, seconded by Commr.
Stivender and carried unanimously, by a vote of 5-0, the Board recommended
approval to accept the final plat for Sawgrass Bay Phase 1A and all areas
dedicated to the public as shown on the Sawgrass Bay Phase 1A final plat,
accept a performance bond in the amount of $56,800.40 and execute a Developer’s
Agreement for Construction of Improvements between Lake County and Deluca
Enterprises, Inc.
ADDENDUM NO. 1-I
COMMUNITY SERVICES
MATCHING
On a motion
by Commr. Stivender, seconded by Commr. Hill and carried unanimously, by a vote
of 5-0, the Board approved Addendum No. 1-I, a request from Community Services
for a commitment of $250,000 in SHIP funds over two years at $125,000 per year
to the City of Mascotte as match for a CDBG Small Cities grant to be used for
home rehabilitation/replacement. The
commitment will be contingent upon priority being given to Mascotte residents
who were already on the County’s housing rehabilitation waiting list.
PUBLIC
HEARING
CDBG
CONCEPT BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007/08
Ms. Liz
Eginton, Housing and Community Development Director, Department of Community
Services, addressed the Board regarding the approval of the FY 2007/08 CDBG
(Community Development Block Grant) concept budget. She noted that they usually held the public
hearing much earlier, but they did not find out until fairly recently as to
what their allocation was to be for next year, because Congress had not passed
next year’s budget. She mentioned that
they would like to make some changes to next year’s budget, the most notable
change being under the public service projects, to substitute funding a
Community Health Care Coordinator position instead of doing the senior services
program, because there were other funding sources available for those
programs. Also, they would like to
combine this year’s Disaster Assistance for Tornado Victims activity with the
existing CDBG Housing Rehabilitation activity and focus on rehabilitation and
replacement of mobile homes, which were not eligible for SHIP assistance.
The
Chairman opened the public hearing.
There
being no one who wished to address the Board regarding the CDBG program, the
Chairman closed the public hearing.
On a
motion by Commr. Stivender, seconded by Commr. Hill and carried unanimously, by
a vote of 5-0, the Board approved the FY 2007/08 CDBG concept budget as
presented by staff.
REPORTS
–
AMERICAN
LEGION POST 76
Ms. Cindy
Hall,
On a
motion by Commr. Stivender, seconded by Commr. Hill and carried unanimously, by
a vote of 5-0, the Board approved the request of American Legion Post 76 to
sell poppies on May 11.
MEMORIAL
SERVICE AT HISTORIC COURTHOUSE
Ms. Hall
mentioned that she had received a letter from the Lake County Democratic Party
asking to hold a memorial service at the historic courthouse on Monday, May 28,
2007. The Board gave consensus for that.
Ms. Hall
also requested approval for the logo for
On a
motion by Commr. Stivender, seconded by Commr. Hill and carried unanimously, by
a vote of 5-0, the Board moved to place the
Ms. Hall commented
that it was done by their Information Outreach Department.
Commr.
Stivender added that this had been through the Transportation Disadvantaged
Board, which requested approval to do advertising to offset the cost of redoing
the buses.
Ms. Hall
stated that they had talked at times about having advertisements of that
nature, and they would be handling that through their department.
Commr.
Stivender also added that it would need to be approved by the
On a
motion by Commr. Stivender, seconded by Commr. Stewart and carried unanimously,
by a vote of 5-0, the Board approved the logo for
CENTEX
– HLM RELATIONSHIP REGARDING DOWNTOWN CAMPUS PROJECT
Ms. Hall
explained that there was an unforeseen development with their contract person
for the construction of the buildings for the downtown project. She recapped that about a year and a half ago,
they hired the architectural firm HLM Design to do all the architectural
designs for all of the buildings in the downtown campus, and they also hired
Centex through a separate process to be the construction manager. She commented that the system was built so
that there was a check and balance between the architectural firm and the
construction manager firm for the entire construction program. She reported that very recently the parent
company for HLM had purchased Centex, the construction manager firm, therefore
eliminating their check and balance system.
She related that staff had met with both the architectural firm and
Centex and with the County’s attorneys that had to do with construction in
Orlando, and was recommending to the Board that as a safeguard to the County,
to terminate the contract with Centex and immediately go forward with an RFP
(Request for Proposal) to select another construction manager firm.
On a
motion by Commr. Stivender, seconded by Commr. Renick and carried unanimously, by
a vote of 5-0, the Board moved to place the matter regarding Centex and HLM on
the Agenda.
Commr.
Cadwell commented that they had a great team, but that even though the County
did not create the problem, it was something they still had to deal with. He stated that he was going to give
representatives from Centex an opportunity to address the Board.
Mr. Mike
Ryan, Vice President, Balford Beatty (formerly Centex), stated that they
changed their name April 1, 2007. He
explained that HLM was owned by Heery, International, whose parent company was
Balford Beatty and that Centex was owned by Centex Homes out of
Mr. Ryan
claimed that they could offer more protection to the County than had ever been
provided, and that they were trying to protect taxpayers’ dollars and give the
County the best quality product that they could get. He noted that when HLM was first purchased by
Heery, International, the same type of situation occurred, but that project got
completed successfully, with no issues and no litigation. He also stated that he understood the
County’s concerns about only having one company to go to if there was a
catastrophe, but that his company was offering to the County some very unusual
protections. His firm offered to hire an
outside independent monitoring consultant, at their expense, to act as an owner
liaison and to monitor all of the money that went back and forth and make sure
it was above board. He also guaranteed
that there would be no litigation between his firm and the architect, and
reminded the Board that his firm was also bonded for the course of the
job. He stated that he would also
guarantee to hold
Commr.
Cadwell commented that he was not inclined to have a workshop with the Board,
but that he was inclined to put this off for a week to give the
Commr.
Stivender stated that this was more of a legal issue than a performance issue,
and that their performance was great.
She commented that Mr. Sandy Minkoff,
Mr.
Minkoff stated that he was prepared to respond, and commented that their goal
was to try to preserve this relationship from the beginning. He also stated that the four conditions Mr.
Ryan related at this meeting were a result of a group effort that the
attorneys, Centex, and HLM tried to work out and solicited. He explained that they carefully chose the
construction manager system mainly for the checks and balances that Ms. Hall
had mentioned, which eliminated the issue of bidding out jobs where a
contractor was totally at odds with the architect. He pointed out that there
was no way to cure the checks and balance problem when the architect and the
contractor became the same, because even though 80 percent of the time they had
the same goals and drives, 20 percent of the time they did not, whether it be
the type of design, the types of materials that were used, subcontractors used,
or prices; and the conflict was one of the better things about using the
construction manager system.
Mr.
Minkoff emphasized that the bigger problem, however, was that Centex was asking
the County to recast this transaction as a design build transaction, which
meant that a team was chosen to both design and build the contract and had
agreed to deliver a product. He related
that when they met with outside counsel, they were hoping to come up with some
language to incorporate Mr. Ryan’s suggestions and were told that they probably
would have to recast their entire contractual arrangement with both the
architect and the contractor to do that into a design build kind of
contract. He explained that the problems
with that were that the Board did not choose to go with that type of contract
and that the Statutes required that they use a very specific method if they
went with design build, which they did not do.
The County would have to advertise for design build and give everyone an
opportunity to go that way, and they did not think it was feasible to recast
the contract that way. He also noted
that if they stayed on with Centex and everything went well, there would be no
problems, but if things did not go well, then they would be out by themselves
in litigation and would be in a very difficult relationship. Also, they would have to relook at the
bonding and the insurance to make sure that those were recharacterized to take
those more significant risks. He
informed the Board that based on that, the staff decided that those
requirements were insurmountable with the time that the County had left in
going forward and that they did verify with the architects that there would not
be a delay in switching. He also opined
that the original choice between the top two applicants was very close, and
they believed there were other qualified construction managers that could do
the job. He commented that the most
conservative advice was to make this recommendation for the change, and to keep
the current contractor would take a complete rewriting of their contracts and
their relationship with the architects and contractor.
Commr.
Cadwell asked if this would affect that bond issue.
Ms. Hall
responded that it would not affect the bond issue, which was a pledge of the sales
tax, and that the actual construction of the project was not something that
would affect the ratings.
Commr.
Renick inquired of Mr. Minkoff why could they not just go with their original
second choice rather than doing another RFP (Request for Proposal) process.
Mr.
Minkoff stated that it was not a legal decision, and that legally they were
comfortable moving to the second choice, but the Procurement Department and Ms.
Hall believed it would be
more above board and fair
to redo the entire process and rebid it, since the original bidding was a year
ago.
Commr.Cadwell
commented that this was the largest project they ever had in
Ms. Hall
stated that she would be glad to bring that back in a week.
REPORTS – COMMISSIONER HILL –
DISTRICT 1
WATER
CONSERVATION MONTH
On
a motion by Commr. Hill, seconded by Commr. Stivender and carried unanimously,
by a vote of 5-0, the Board approved the execution of Proclamation No. 2007-65
proclaiming April, 2007 as Water Conservation Month in Lake County.
REPORTS
– COMMISSIONER STIVENDER – DISTRICT 3
EARTH
DAY
Commr.
Stivender stated Earth Day was Monday, April 23, at
TRAILS
MASTER PLAN MEETING
Commr.
Stivender noted that the first meeting for the Trails Master Plan would be
Wednesday morning, April 18, at 9:30 a.m. at the
PARKS
AND RECREATION ITEMS TO BE DISCUSSED
Commr.
Stivender commented that there were a couple of items brought up at the Parks and
Recreation meeting that she would like to discuss at the next workshop. She explained that they were discussing the
existing funding that they had been doing for the last 14 to 15 years with the
municipalities. She mentioned that the
Commissioners should have gotten letters from them, and that they depended
greatly on that. She also reported that
the CIP (Capital Improvement Program) grant applications had gone out for
2007/2008, but she believed that the Board needed to decide how to continue to
fund those or if they were going to cut back.
She opined that the municipalities needed to know that for funding
mechanisms for the next few years.
CITIZEN
QUESTION AND COMMENT PERIOD
Ms.
Deby Wilson, from Clermont, addressed the Board stating that she was concerned
that the building slowdown would cause an economic crisis in the County, and
cited the statistics showing a drastic decrease in building permits issued for
single-family homes for the last few years.
She noted, however, that there were no layoffs in the County government
staff of employees such as building inspectors, permit clerks, recording
clerks, and plans examiners. She wanted
to know how the County would be able to sustain their payroll with a decrease
in revenue and how the increase in taxes and impact fees could be justified if
the County did not make immediate adjustments to the government expenditures of
payroll and associated benefits in those areas.
-----------------------
Mr.
Chuck Powers, who resided on County Road 44A, east of Eustis, addressed the
Board regarding the intersection of Estes Road and CR 44A. He mentioned that there was another fatality
at that intersection a few weeks ago. He
understood that the County would be purchasing the right of way this year and
start construction sometime in 2008. He
requested that the Board “fast track” the proposed construction to that
intersection, because he was concerned for his safety and that of his family.
Commr.
Cadwell stated that he had talked to Mr. Jim Stivender, Public Works Director,
about doing some pre-things that would give a better line of vision until it
was engineered differently to make it a better intersection. He commented that a light there would not
solve anything, and they needed to make that intersection a different
intersection, but that in the meantime maybe they could do some site clearing
once they owned the property more than they had already, which might help some.
Mr.
Powers commented that on the northeast side, there were only about three
seconds to see someone coming around the curve, but that moving the trees back
50 feet would eliminate a lot of the danger right now until the construction
was done.
Commr.
Cadwell stated that the last time he talked to Mr. Powers about this situation,
Mr. Stivender was going to set up some time with him.
Mr.
Stivender stated that Mr. Powers was at the last meeting, and that he had set
up a meeting with him for today at 2:00 p.m.
He also stated that Mr. Powers was welcome to come by their office in
Eustis any time to look at the full construction plans.
Mr.
Powers asked why the County would spend money working on this intersection if
they were going to tear it up and replace it anyway. He stated that it did not make sense to him
and seemed a waste of money that they were putting in culverts and redoing the
sodding recently.
Mr.
Stivender stated that he directed their maintenance crews to do that to make
that intersection as safe as they could in the meantime. He commented that they had been working on
this project for six years and had a full design and were going to work on the
right of way acquisition and construction phase next.
---------------------------
Mr.
Steve Rosser, who resided on Hwy 19 in Groveland, in an unincorporated area,
stated that he was having a problem with his garbage collectors leaving trash
on the right of way after every garbage pickup.
He asked if there was any kind of County oversight or way of reporting
that type of thing.
Commr.
Cadwell suggested that he get with the
Ms.
Cindy Hall,
---------------------------
Mr.
Richard Stubbs, Sales Manager, 84 Lumber Company in Tavares, stated that he had
been in the County for 28 years, and that he had 13 salesmen at his location,
and out of those 13, probably about seven or eight were currently struggling to
provide a living for their families. He
stated he was concerned about the impact of the construction slowdown on the
economy, as well as the high cost of land, and that he knew of hundreds of
construction-related employees being laid off or financially struggling. He encouraged the Board to look particularly
at the language of the school impact fee documents and to think about the
impact on the economy and budgeting revenue for County programs. He also mentioned the high price of homes and
how he was concerned about others having the opportunities and prosperity he
has had. He opined that it was a
collective effort between developers, builders, land owners, suppliers, trades,
and the County government to make that happen.
Commr.
Stewart commented that the newspapers and media were unfairly maligning some of
the Commissioners, and that they deeply cared about the citizens of this
County. She opined that they were all in
this together and that they were not the “competitors in the round
building.” She reiterated that she just
wanted what was best for the County, and was not the enemy as she was sometimes
made out to be.
RECESS
AND REASSEMBLY
At
10:40 a.m., the Chairman announced that the Board would recess until the work
session at 1:00 p.m.
ALTERNATIVE
WATER SUPPLY OPTIONS WORK SESSION
Commr.
Cadwell opened the meeting by stating that the work session was regarding
water. He commented that this was an
informational type session for the County to give staff an idea of whether they
wanted to keep working on those particular issues or did not want to be
involved in that business.
Mr. Gregg Welstead, Deputy County
Manager, stated that the County had been wrapped up in this issue for three to
four years now, and that during that time, they had been doing what they believed
to be in the best interest of the County and what the Board wanted. He commented that before they did anything
further, they really needed to know what the Board wanted them to do in the
future. He explained that the three
issues were the future water supply, alternative water supply options, and the
future of the Water Alliance. He noted
that they were interrelated, but that each one of them had aspects that they
needed to address. He commented that the
future water supply options were going to be expensive. He stated that Mr. Doug Manson had been
working on this issue for three or four years on the OUC (Orlando Utilities
Commission) efforts and was going to be talking about water in general.
Mr. Doug Manson, an attorney with the
law firm of Carey, O’Malley, Whitaker & Manson, in
Mr. Manson commented that
Mr. Manson stated that the County
could be involved indirectly by helping with negotiations, representing the
interest of eleven cities, with the cities picking it up. The County could also bring in a transmission
pipeline without any direct service to any residents, with the cities signing
up the contracts to simply purchase the water, which the County would use to
pay back the cost of building the pipeline and transporting the water. He opined that there was a sliding scale of
involvement levels that could go up or down.
He commented that once the County became any kind of water provider,
they could mandate certain types of requirements for conservation as a proprietary
entity in their water supply contracts.
He stated that another issue was that if they were deciding where the
supply pipeline came into the County, they could decide where the transmission
would be in certain areas of the County to control growth. Mr. Manson commented that the difficulties for
the cities would be that it was very expensive and would take a lot of bonding
capacity to do it, and that would be hard to do without growth. He noted that the County could finance it off
of revenue bonds based on water supply contracts with the cities or private
utilities as well as utilize other financial options. He also mentioned that outside the city
boundaries, the State Statutes allowed the County to charge a 25 percent
surcharge as a subsidy for providing water to the unincorporated areas.
He commented that the County did not
have the option of being a full-service provider right away, where they could
be a retailer provider throughout the unincorporated areas and a bulk supplier
to the cities, but it was an option they could possibly achieve in five to
fifteen years from now. He stated that
now the County needed to start off with the smaller decisions about how much
involvement it wanted to have in the process.
He noted that during the last four years, the County had been a
facilitator for the cities and the water management districts, but now there
was going to be things that needed to be purchased, and payments would need to
be made to go forward to do any of this work, which increased the stakes of
what the County involvement would be. He
reported that it would be ten years to access the water, because they would
have to determine feasibility, design, finance, construct, and go forward. He stated that regional funding from the water
management districts through Senate Bill 444 would be limited, and the District
wanted to make sure that
Commr. Cadwell commented that he
could not envision a time when the County would be in competition with any of
the cities that were providers, although there may be a way to be a partner.
Mr. Manson opined that the cities and
Commr. Renick stated she did not wish
for the County to be a water supplier, to be involved in the provision of
alternative water supplies, or to be involved in the future of the Water
Alliance. She stated that she would love
to be a leader in affecting environmental change and protections and in
managing water, but she did not think this is where they wanted to go. She opined that she believed there was merit
in having staff at the Water Alliance just to know what was going on as far as
what the cities were doing, but she did not think they needed to have a seat on
the Water Alliance or to continue to be a facilitator. She also commented that she was not ready to
make sure they had all that in place so that they could grow.
Commr. Cadwell stated that a side
issue for the County would be concerning the systems that failed and would
automatically revert to the County, and that they needed to have staff look
into some type of policy of how the County would handle that. He noted that there may be a case of that
happening in his district in the next year or two, but that it was close to a
city. He emphasized that they needed to
have some type of plan in place on purely just an emergency basis.
Commr. Hill asked Mr. Manson if the
dollars available through the St. Johns River Water Management District for the
2008 budget year would be available to the cities and the private providers or
if it had to flow through the County to them.
Mr. Manson stated that theoretically
the matching money was available, but it was easier to get the contracts done
while dealing with one entity than working with several entities to create a
water supply authority by August of this year.
Commr. Renick stated that she thought
the County still played a role in terms of protecting the County water users
and their wells, and if they did see a city’s consumptive use permit as
possibly damaging to wells that the County was responsible for, they would
still need to look into that issue. She also wanted to know more about the
water system failures that the County would be responsible for if they
happened.
Mr. Manson explained that private
water utilities typically did not thrive in the State of Florida, because they
could not capitalize infrastructure beyond three years because of PSC (Public
Service Commission) regulations, limiting them from building for future demands
or doing an alternative water supply, and that they ended up running on a
shoestring budget barely enough to keep them going. He went on to explain that some of them ended
up failing or not meeting DEP requirements, which encouraged an entity such as
a county or nearby city to take them over and run the facility and retrofit it
if it was not properly built to begin with.
He commented that if they went under, the County could contract with
another private utility or consulting firm to run it until such time as it
could be incorporated somewhere else.
ADJOURNMENT
There
being no further business to be brought to the attention of the Board, the
meeting was adjourned at 1:35 p.m.
____________________________________
WELTON
G. CADWELL, CHAIRMAN
ATTEST:
__________________________
JAMES C. WATKINS,
CLERK