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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 04-08-2009 ST. LUCIE COUNTY PROPERTY AND HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION Minutes of Meeting April 8, 2009 Convened: 10:05 A.M. Adjourned: 11:30 A.M. The meeting of the Property & Homeowners Association was held Wednesday, April 8, 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 HOA Toni Trabolsi, Coalition of Sandpiper Bay HOA Andrew Stark, Palm Grove HOA Diane Andrews, Queens Cove HOA Jon Carroll, President, Indian River Drive Freeholders HOA Walske Fauth, South Beach HOA Bob Bangert, Holiday Pines HOA Roger Bollman, I.R.E. HOA Godfrey Adams, Port St. Lucie North HOA Pat Pacitti, President Council Also Present: Commissioner Doug Coward, Chairman Charline Burgess, Aide to Commissioner Coward Dr. Judi Miller, Chairwoman, St. Lucie County School Board Terri Ann Palumbo, Executive Aide to Comm. Chris Dzadovsky Deputy Glenn Hoffman, St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office Robin Schifilliti, PGA Village Linda Bollman, I.R.E. Fred Cook, PSL Arlene Goodman, White City Improvement Club Sherry McCorkle, Field Representative, Office of Congressman Tom Rooney Don Wilson, St. Lucie North HOA Catherine Chaney, PIO, St. Lucie County Fire District Property & Homeowners Meeting April 8, 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 March 11, 2009 minutes. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of the March 11, 2009 meeting. Two changes were noted, one, that Mr. Bob Bangert was present at that meeting and Ms. Diane Andrews made the motion to approve the minutes, not Mr. Bangert. The amended motion and second carried unanimously. Commissioner Coward introduced Deputy Glenn Hoffman. ITEM 3 – ST. LUCIE COUNTY SHERIFF’S REPORT: Deputy Glenn Hoffman announced that the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office School rdthth Resource Unit’s 3 Annual Carnival will be held April 9th, 10th, 11 and 12 at Lawnwood Stadium in Ft. Pierce. He said it is free admission and free parking. He handed out discount tickets for the rides. Deputy Hoffman said that the department is still looking for Citizen’s on Patrol (C.O.P.) rd volunteers. He said there is a class scheduled for May 3. He said that the C.O.P. volunteers actually helped them out with making some recent arrests on Hutchinson Island. He said they are still experiencing problems with property thefts, garage doors left open and thieves breaking into vehicles. He said to please lock your vehicles and make sure all personal items are taken out. He said to please put out notices about this in your homeowner association newsletters. He said the main number to call for patrol would be 772-462-7300. There were no questions for Deputy Hoffman. Commissioner Coward thanked Deputy Hoffman. Commissioner Coward announced that we had a request from the St. Lucie County Fire District, more specifically their Public Information Officer Catherine Chaney, requesting that she be put on our agenda on a regular basis like the sheriff’s office, to give us brief updates on the district. He said he thought it was a great idea and wanted to get the committee’s thoughts on this addition to the agenda. The consensus of the committee was in the affirmative. Property & Homeowners Meeting April 8, 2009 Page 3 ADDITION TO ITEM 3: Commissioner Coward introduced Ms. Catherine Chaney, P.I.O., St. Lucie County Fire District. Ms. Chaney thanked the committee for having her here. She said that in the past the fire district offered homeowners association presentations, so she wanted to let the group know that they were going to update that and you would be able to have the fire chief update you about the fire district. She said that her goal is to start better communications with the associations because the newspapers do not always report everything we want them to report or cover everything correctly. She said that she would like to send out e-mails, flyers for your clubhouses or offices. For instance, you can go by any fire station and have your blood pressure checked for free. She also mentioned the I.C.E. program, (In Case of Emergency) you program into your cell phone address book with a phone number for your emergency contact. She said they teamed up with the hospitals, the sheriff’s office and other law enforcements regarding the program. She said she could be contacted anytime at her office (772) 621-3333, her cell phone (772) 201-2490 or by e-mail at cchaney@slcfd.org. She asked if anyone had any questions. There were no questions for Ms. Chaney. Commissioner Coward thanked Ms. Chaney for the good information and for attending the meeting. ITEM 4 – INTRODUCTION OF GUEST SPEAKER DR. JUDI MILLER, CHAIRWOMAN OF THE SCHOOL BOARD AND MICHAEL LANNON, SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT. TOPIC OF DISCUSSION, OVERVIEW OF EDUCATION AND SCHOOL BOARD TOPICS: Commissioner Coward introduced Dr. Judi Miller. Dr. Miller said that Mr. Lannon could not make the meeting here today because he is giving this same presentation somewhere else. She said that she would like to start with a power point presentation on the St. Lucie County school budget. She asked if anyone could help her with the computer? Ms. Terri Palumbo volunteered. Dr. Miller said the links for the power point presentation of their budget could be found on the school board website at http://www.stlucie.k12.fl.us/budget.aspx and the School board budget http://www.stlucie.k12.fl.us/pdf/budget/myth-or-fact-update.pdf or you can send your comments on the budget to: mailto:budget@stlucie.k12.fl.us Property & Homeowners Meeting April 8, 2009 Page 4 Dr. Miller explained that they are working with a thirty million dollar budget cut, which amounts to a 19 percent reduction in two years. She said they started the school year last year with a budget of $285.3 million. In the middle of the year they received a cut from the state down to $276.7 million and this year they were cut down to $271.5 million and then they received another mid-year cut to $261 million. She said the just th received a letter from the governor asking for a 15 percent holdback on the 4 quarter funding. So, with the $30 million dollar cut, our budget is projected to be $231 million. Dr. Miller said that they are frequently asked the reasons for the upcoming closures of the three schools. She said it would save 7 percent of the total plan. Port St. Lucie Elementary School is thirty-five years old and has a bad roof. She said it would cost eleven million dollars just to put on a new roof. They will also be closing Southbend K8, a “hybrid portable” school and Anglewood Center School. She said they have reduced in every single department and every single program that they can. She said that they want to continue to keep high academic standards, so they have involved their bargaining unit partners in this whole process. She said that recent legislative budget proposals allege to “hold education harmless” – meaning equal to 2008/2009 $23 million cut level. Commissioner Coward asked Dr. Miller if she could explain how a charter school works. Dr. Miller said that former Jeb Bush brought the concept to Florida. The idea was to open the schools without bureaucratic rules and regulations, the schools would operate very successfully and it would be a partial answer to a lot of problems. She said that it has not always worked out the way it was planned. She said that they had to ultimately close the one charter school that opened here, mostly due to bad management. Mr. Roger Bollman asked Dr. Miller if she would explain the definition of a Magnet School. Dr. Miller said a magnet school started as a desegregation tool. She said it was used to desegregate Lincoln Park Academy. At that time the school board had been under a court order for twenty-five years, but they could not get people to agree to send their kids to Lincoln Park School, which is on Ave I in Ft. Pierce, so we could not get enrollment there. The enrollment they had was almost 100 percent African-American, so under court order they couldn’t allow for that, so they did a magnet school. A magnet school is a school with some kind of special emphasis of some kind. We chose to do traditional, back to basic academics for that school and it drew kids from all over the county, so it was a countywide magnet. After that they added Fairlawn, F.K. Sweet and Village Green for the same purpose, desegregation. She said it is a very expensive program. Property & Homeowners Meeting April 8, 2009 Page 5 Dr. Miller said that they are trying to keep the public involved. They held one town hall meeting and have another one coming up, to take input from our residents. Commissioner Coward said that it is important to note that the school board’s millage rate is set by the State. He 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 how the money is spent that that the school board receives from lottery funds (1%) the ½ cents sales tax; impact fees, etc. Commissioner Coward said that some of the county commission’s role is by helping collect school impact fees, funding the School Resource Officers (SRO’s) and infrastructure, such as sidewalks. Discussion ensued. Several of the members offered some cost saving suggestions to Ms. Miller. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Coward thanked Dr. Miller for a very informative presentation. ITEM 5 – OLD BUSINESS: Commissioner Coward asked if anyone had any old business to discuss. There was no old business. ITEM 6 – NEW BUSINESS: Commissioner Coward stated that at our last meeting, the members had specified topics th for their upcoming meetings, so our May 13 meeting will be a tour of the new Douglas M. Anderson, Emergency Operations Center. We will all meet there at 10 a.m. for the tour. He said that we will provide directions. th For the June 10 meeting, it was the consensus of the members to invite St. Lucie County Sheriff, Ken Mascara, Ft. Pierce Police Chief, Sean Baldwin and Port St. Lucie Police Chief, Donald Shinnamon to speak about gangs, drugs and the economic situation. Commissioner Coward thanked the members and the public for coming to the meeting. With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:30 A.M. Respectfully submitted, __________________________ Charline Burgess, Aide to Commissioner Doug Coward (772) 462-1412