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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 03-11-2009 ST. LUCIE COUNTY PROPERTY AND HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION Minutes of Meeting March 11, 2009 ' Convened: 10:05 A.M. Adjourned: 12:40 P.M. The meeting of the Property & Homeowners Association was held Wednesday, March 11, 2009, in Conference Room 3 of the St. Lucie County Administration Building Annex, 2300 Virginia Avenue, Fort Pierce, Florida. Members Present: Craig Mundt, President North Beach Association Toni Trabolsi, Coalition of Sandpiper Bay HOA Kathleen ivins, River Park HOA Andrew Stark, Palm Grove HOA Diane Andrews, Queens Cove HOA Tony Roach, President, Lakeforest Pointe at St. Lucie West HOA Dennis Ring, Lakeforest Pointe at St. Lucie West HOA Jon Carroll, President, Indian River Drive Freeholders Owen Lease, President, Harbour Cove Walske Fauth, South Beach Also Present: Commissioner poug Coward, Chairman ' Charline Burgess, Aide to Commissioner Coward Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky, District 1(joined the meeting for a brief time) Faye Outlaw, County Adminstrator Marie Gouin, Management & Budget Director Deputy Glenn HofFinan, St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office Swendy Ariyanayagam, St. Lucie County Code Compliance Mark Boston, Florida Alliance for Retired Americans ' Stu Gartside, Nettles Island ' Paulette Lease, Harbour Cove ' Alice Schmi~, Portofino Shores Steffi Rohr, Portofino Shores Aris Atoa, Lake Forest Pointe I Robin Schifilliti, PGA Village ' Properly & Homeowners Meeting March 11, 2009 Page 2 ITEM 1- CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 10:05 A.M. Commissioner Coward led the Association in the Pledge of Allegiance. The Homeowners' Representatives and visitors in attendance gave self-introductions. ITEM 2- APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Commissioner Coward asked for a motion for approval of the .lanuary 14, 2009 minutes. A motion was made by Bob Bangert, the motion was seconded to approve the minutes of the January 14, 2009 meeting. One change was noted that Ms.Kit Lindberger was present at that meeting. The motion carried unanimously. Commissioner Coward introduced Deputy Glenn Hoffman. ITEM 3- ST. LUCIE COUNTV SHERIFF'S REPORT : Deputy Glenn Hoffman announced the "Operation Safe Medicine Cabinet" event sponsored by the St. Lucie County SherifF's Department, the St. Lucie County Fire District and many local pharmacies to keep prescription medications out of the wrong hands. He said that you could help the community by turning in your old prescription medicines and receive a$5.00 gift card provided by either Walmart, Walgreen's or CVS Pharmacies. The gift card is per family, not per medication. Deputy Hoffman said that the department is still experiencing problems with property thefts, and breaking into vehicles. He said to please lock your vehicles and make sure ' all personal items are taken out. He said the main number to call for patrol would be 772-462-7300. There were no questions for Deputy Hoffman. Commissioner Coward introduced Ms. Swendy Ariyanayagam, Contractor Licensing Supervisor. Ms. Ariyanayagam told the group that she was there to answer any questions they might have regarding code compliance issues. There were no questions for Ms. Ariyanayagam. Commissioner Coward thanked Ms. Ariyanayagam for coming to the meeting. Properly & Homeowners Meeting March 11, 2009 Page 3 ITEM 4- INTRODUCTION OF GUEST SPEAKERS AND TOPIC OF DISCUSSION OVERVIEW OF THE COUNTY BUDGET: Commissioner Coward introduced Ms. Faye Outlaw, County Administrator and Ms. Marie Gouin, Director of Management and Budget. Ms. Outlaw thanked Commissioner Coward and the Association Members for inviting her to speak. Ms. Outlaw gave a power point presentation on the county budget (see attached.) She said that this is the first time that the county has done a two-year budget, so we now have a balanced budget for the ne~ two years. She noted that the county is in good shape financially, with $17,691,624.00 in Reserves for the 2008/2009 budget and $18,691,624 for 2009/2010-budget year. Commissioner Coward said that it is important to note that the board of county commissioners budget does not include the constitutional ofFices budgets. He said that law enforcement was the only budget that was not reserved. He said that our budget ' has numerous different sources, property taxes; sales tax; gas tax impact fees, etc. He also noted that when he was elected in 1998 there was $3.5 million in reserves, and even after three major hurricanes and one tropical storm, look at what we have now. He said it is partly due to several things: 1.) All salaries have been frozen for county employees 2.) The county has reduced it's workforce by 22 percent 3.) Health insurance N there will be significant savings with the new health clinic 4.) Hiring a new grant writer will bring in more grant dollars to the county ' Commissioner Coward explained that with the unemployment rate in St. Lucie County at 12% (certain sectors up to 40%) along with 15,441 foreclosures the Declaration of Emergency proposed by the board and the local stimulus package, should put local residents back to work. Ms Outlaw also noted that the two grant writers that the county has now are almost working full time on bringing in disaster funds, like FEMA, which still owes St. Lucie County money from the 2004 hurricanes. She said that another grant writer is part of the stimulus package in order to bring in more dollars. Mr. Tony Roach asked whether or not the stimulus package would be for one year. Commissioner Coward said that their plan is to ~~jump start" the economy. ' Property & Homeowners Meeting March 11, 2009 Page 4 Mr. Roach asked whether or not a county department had to spend all the money in their budgets each year. In other words if a department leaves money in their operating accounts at the end of the year, then it would be assumed by the county administrator that they do not need that much money for the next year and the county administrator would cut their budgets. Ms. Outlaw said that it doesn't work that way. Each department brings their budget before her, they are "critiqued" and looked at very carefully. Mr. Craig Mundt said that any monies that are left in the accounts at the end of the year goes back into the county's general fund. There was a discussion regarding the Enterprise Funds within some of the county departments and Commissioner Coward expressed his concerns regarding providing utilities. Ms. Outlaw announced that the Board's Strategic Planning Session that had been scheduled for March 23~ and 24th has now been moved to June 1~ to allow for a number of things. We will have the preliminary property values in and any legislative bills that will impact our budget that would have been passed, therefore giving the board more information to make policy decisions on our budget. Commissioner Coward said that it is ironic that the state legislature has tried to push all of these tax cuts, but if you look at your tax bill you will see that the State actually sets the school board's millage rate, so the county and the cities all reduce their millage rate and you will notice it was their school board portion that actually went up. They keep pointing fingers at us and yet they are shifting hundreds of millions of dollars of unfunded mandates to the local governments. Discussion ensued. There was a lengthy discussion regarding foreclosures in homeowner associations and how the current economic crisis is impacting these associations and the abilities to pay the assessments. Commissioner Coward said that the two county sponsored seminars on foreclosures were held because of the direction that he received from this group. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Coward thanked Ms. Outlaw and Ms. Gouin for a very informative presentation. ITEM 5 - OLD BUSINESS: Commissioner Coward gave an update on the two highly successful foreclosure seminars. The January 14th meeting was geared more towards the impact on homeowner association's foreclosures. There were about 72 people that attended that Property & Homeowners Meeting March 11, 2009 Page 5 meeting. The second seminar on February 27th was more about the impact on individuals going through foreclosure, or trying to avoid foreclosure. We estimated about 100 plus came to the second seminar, which was sponsored, by the Board of County Commissioners, the 19th District Court and the St. Lucie County Bar Association. After the seminar was over, Erick Gill, Public Information Officer interviewed the participants for a show to be aired on St. Lucie T.V. and on the county website. The show is called "In Depth Conversation." Commissioner Coward said that one gentleman came up to him at the second seminar and informed him that he had attended both seminars and thanks to the information that he got he was able to avoid foreclosure. Commissioner Coward said that if those meetings helped just one person, then he felt everyone had done their job. ITEM 6 - NEW BUSINESS : Commissioner Coward stated that the members had specified topics for their upcoming meetings, so he asked that they review the list and come up with topics for future meetings. Some suggestions were county taxes and tourism. Commissioner Coward gave a brief overview of the Citizens Budget Committee (CBC) that meets once a month throughout the year to discuss the county budget and then makes recommendations to the County Commission. He also talked about the Tourist Development Council (TDC) and the , recent visit from the Bahamian Council to St. Lucie County. Discussion ensued. He invited anyone that wanted to attend those meetings to please do so. The CBC meets the 3~d Friday of each month at 7:30 a.m. in Conference room 3 and the TDC meets the 2"d Wednesday of each month at 12:30 p.m. in Conference room 3. It was the consensus of the members to have Michael Lannon, School Superintendent and Judi Miller, Chairwoman of the School Board to speak about education and other school issues at the April 8, 2009 meeting. The second consensus was to tour the new Emergency Operations Center at the May 13, 2009 meeting. Commissioner Coward thanked the members and the public for coming to the meeting. With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 12:40 P.M. Re pe Ily submitted / ~ ~ i~~~~ Charline Burgess, Aide to Commissioner poug Coward (772) 462-1412 3/11/2009 S - ~ _ - e . Budget Overview Homeowners Association March 1 l, 2009 1 S' - , ~ " _ , , . . e ~i~~~-2008 Budget • ~ - • County fiscal year - October 1 St to September 30~ • Amendment-1 capped the millage rate the County can levy. Due to the reduction on the County's millage. Tax revenue reduced by approximately $3.9 million ~ We had a total budget of $765,111, 351 • We developed a 24-month budget (we normally do a 12-month budget) z 3/11/2009 ~~~g~ • ~ 3• S M ~ ' S - ~ Reserves . , _ 2008/2009 2009/2010 Emergency Reserves $ 17,691,624 $ 18,691,624 Contingency 1,000,000 1,000,000 Vehicle Replacement* 310,480 310,480 Future Staff Needs* 500,000 500,000 Total 19,502,104 20,502,104 * If not spent current dollars will be carried into 2009/2010 5 S - ~ 1 _ . ~ . ~ • . . ~ Summary • The projected surplus in the amount of ~5,613,702 at the end of fiscal year 2009/ 10 is based on the following assumptions : - 20% reduction in property values - Employee reductions - Freeze on capital projects except those already funded ~ - No salary increases ; s 3/11/2009 ~ ~ ~ 2009/ 10 ~ e ° ~ ~ Budget Process • Budget kick off: Janua.ry 26~ • County departments proposed Budget: February 23ra • County Administrator's reviews: March 30th to April9tn • Constitutionals proposed budgets: May 1 St (Sheriff, Clerk of Circuit Courts 8s Supervisor of Elections) • BOCC budget workshops: July 13~ to July 17th ~ BOCC budget public hearings: September 3rd and 17~ s