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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 06-10-2009 ST. LUCIE COUNTY PROPERTY AND HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION Minutes of Meeting June 10, 2009 Convened: 10:01 A.M. Adjourned: 11:30 A.M. The meeting of the Property & Homeowners Association was held Wednesday, June 10, 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 Walter Fauth, South Beach HOA Bob Bangert, Holiday Pines HOA Linda Bollman, Pres. I.R.E. HOA Roger Bollman, I.R.E. HOA Pat Pacitti, Pres., President’s Council of South Hutchinson Island William Bradley, Sunland Gardens HOA Tony Roach, Pres. Lakeforest Pointe HOA Kathleen Ivins, River Park HOA Bill Hammer, Reserve/PGA Also Present: Commissioner Doug Coward, Chairman Charline Burgess, Aide to Commissioner Coward Liz Martin, Aide to Commissioner Grande Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky Terri Ann Palumbo, Aide to Commissioner Dzadovsky Tangie Jennings, Legislative Staff to Representative Kevin J.G. Rader Deputy Gary Gonzalves, St. Lucie County Sheriff’s office Catherine Chaney, PIO, St. Lucie County Fire District Swendy Ariyanayagam, St. Lucie County Code Department Owen Lease, Harbour Cove HOA Kathryn Lease, Harbour Cove HOA Ed Boslow, Oleander Pines, HOA Ethel Rowland, Resident/taxpayer Havert “Coach” Fenn, representing Lincoln Park Mainstreet Ruby Smith, Sunland Gardens HOA Betty Bradley, Sunland Gardens HOA T.A. Wyner, Sunnier Palms Property & Homeowners Meeting June 10, 2009 Page 2 Ken Mascara, St. Lucie County Sheriff Donald Shinnamon, Sr., Port St. Lucie Police Chief Captain Gregory Kirk, Ft. Pierce Police Department ITEM 1 ~ CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 10:01 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 May 13, 2009 minutes. A motion was made by Bob Bangert and seconded by Bill Hammer, to approve the minutes of the May 13, 2009 meeting. The motion and second carried unanimously by voice vote. ITEM 3 ~ ST. LUCIE COUNTY SHERIFF’S REPORT: Commissioner Coward introduced Deputy Gary Gonsalves with the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s office. Deputy Gonsalves announced that there was going to be a program that they would be “kicking off” in the next couple of months, and it is called “Rape Aggression Defense.” He said there is a company that came into the sheriff’s office and trained ten of their deputies. He said he did some of the filming and the training was pretty intense. He said then these ten deputies are going to train females on how to prevent rape. He said the tactics are some of the best that he has ever seen in his career of law enforcement. He said that the class will be either at the college or the sheriff’s office, that it hasn’t been decided yet. He said the class is only for women, men will not be allowed to go to the class. He said there is another class that will be “piggy-backed” to that one, and it will be for seniors. He said there may not be a charge for the senior class. He said to watch the newspaper for the announcement of the classes; it will probably be in the Fall. Commissioner Coward thanked Deputy Gonsalves for being with us today. He asked if anyone had any questions for Deputy Gonsalves. There were no questions for Deputy Gonsalves. Property & Homeowners Meeting June 10, 2009 Page 3 ITEM 4: ST. LUCIE COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT REPORT ~ CATHERINE CHANEY, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER (PIO) Commissioner Coward introduced Catherine Chaney, PIO for the St. Lucie County Fire District. Ms. Chaney stated that she will continue to e-mail the group with information to put in their clubhouses or newsletters to distribute among their groups. She said that she will be e-mailing something about public education regarding “tamper resistant outlets.” She cautioned everyone about summer events, especially pool safety, and that the information is available on their website at www.slcfd.org. She asked if anyone had any questions. There were no questions for Ms. Chaney. Commissioner Coward stated that since there are a lot of new faces here today, that he would like to take a moment to give a brief overview of the committee. This committee was started by another commissioner about 15 years ago. The group meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 10:00 a.m. in conference room 3. They have one- on-one interaction with elected officials. The board liaison changes to a different county commissioner each year. The committee identifies the topics and speakers that they want to hear or discuss. They all share information and focus on the most pressing issues in the county or their neighborhoods. ITEM 5: GUEST SPEAKERS AND TOPIC OF DISCUSSION ~ GANGS, DRUGS & EONOMIC SITUATIONS WITH KEN MASCARA, ST. LUCIE CO. SHERIFF, CAPTAIN GREGORY KIRK, FT. PIERCE POLICE DEPARTMENT (FOR CHIEF SEAN BALDWIN) AND DONALD SHINNAMON, SR., PORT ST. LUCIE POLICE CHIEF. Commissioner Coward thanked the guest speakers for being here. He said that he also invited Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky here because he had just being appointed, along with Sheriff Mascara, to a state wide gang related task force. Commissioner Coward then introduced Sheriff Mascara and thanked him for being here today. Property & Homeowners Meeting June 10, 2009 Page 4 Sheriff Mascara thanked Commissioner Coward and said that he was honored to be invited here today. He said that he had the new 2008 Sheriff’s office annual report with him today, which lets residents know what the men and women of the sheriff’s office are doing for us, and his web page and e-mail address are also in the report. He said that if you have a concern or issue, please e-mail him. His web-site is www.stluciesheriff.com He said those of you who have taken advantage of this know that his response is immediate. He also passed around copies of the of the Sheriff’s office Crime Prevention bulletin which addresses tips and trends that have been occurring recently. (Please double-click on the icon to view a copy of the bulletin.) Crime Prevention.pdf He said that gangs are not just in North County or in South County, but all across our county. He said that gangs are making an impact with crime as well as violence. He then restated the statistics from the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office Gang Information. He said that he went back and looked at schools from June 1, 2008 to June 1, 2009. They took juveniles that are under the age of 18 that they have identified as gang members through their interaction with their School Resource Officers. He said that to him the stats that are the most alarming are the students that are under the age of 15. (Please double-click on the icon to view a copy of this information. Please note, after copying and scanning, some of the headings may be too dark to read the totals, but the information is below it.) Gang Information.pdf Sheriff Mascara said that there is definitely a gang problem in St. Lucie County. He said that it has been his theory that if they can target the hierarchy of the gangs, that we can make an impact along with the cooperation of the City of Ft. Pierce. In 2007, they identified 8 or 9 of the hierarchy gang members; one received 27 years in the Federal Penitentiary. He said that when they did the search warrant on his house in Port St. Lucie, he had $85,000 dollars in cash lying on his coffee table. He said that some of the gang members try to legitimize ways to attract younger kids to this lifestyle, is with money, jewelry and cars. By taking away their leaders, it takes away the business. Discussion ensued. Sheriff Mascara stated that sadly the female population is up in the jail. Mostly because of prescription drug related offenses. He said that 95% percent of the people in jail are there for drug related crimes, with prescription drug (Oxycotone and Oxycodone) use Property & Homeowners Meeting June 10, 2009 Page 5 being #1 for arrests. He said the jail population last year at this time was 1,555 inmates, this year it’s down to 1,350. Sheriff Mascara stated that as far as the economy being affected by drugs and gang related activities, last year when the economy started to soften, it was his opinion that the demand would fall for the demand of drugs. He said it has been just the opposite, the demand is higher and drug sales have gone up even now. He related it to the stress of dealing with the economic situation. He said that the percentage of burglaries and larcenies have gone up. He said that it’s sad to say that a lot of the thefts are like an invitation when a car is left unlocked; garage doors left open; or you leave valuables in the car when you are at the beach. He said that you have to take responsibility to lock up your stuff. In this economy, we are seeing people that normally would not steal, that are stealing. He said that the number one crime in America continues to be identity theft, and has been for the last five years. He said that people are still falling prey to the Nigerian scam. He explained the many ways to protect yourself. And with that, he said he would turn it over to his colleague. Commissioner Coward thanked Sheriff Mascara for being here and told the group that he would take questions and answers after the guest speakers were done. Commissioner Coward then introduced Captain Gregory Kirk with the Ft. Pierce Police Department. Captain Kirk stated that Chief Baldwin sent his regrets that he could not be here today. He said that the sheriff did an excellent job of presenting the current status of everything that is happening in their community as well as the county. He touched on the economy, relative to the increase in crimes being up rather than down as the Sheriff has said. Rather than repeating what the Sheriff said, he gave some updates on new efforts that the City is involved in. He mentioned the new camera system along the Avenue D Corridor, and their hope is to expand that program to monitor their high crime areas in order to prevent crimes before they happen. The other program is called their Juvenile Monitoring Program, which targets gang members, especially the violent ones that are known for violence and robberies and are on probation, we check them many times throughout a day. He said that he has directed every officer on shift to go and check juveniles at their house to make sure they are not in violation of their probationary status. He said that the officers are checking them 24/7. He said a lot of parents are not happy about that, but it has proven successful in getting some of our most violent gang members off of the street by violating their probation. He said their ultimate goal is to put the juvenile on the straight and narrow and continue to do the right thing in society and not violate the law anymore. He said that the City too is monitoring these gangs. He said that that they are counting on a true success to that effort. He said that violent crimes have dropped due to the collaboration between the sheriff’s office and the cities. Commissioner Coward thanked Captain Kirk for being there. Property & Homeowners Meeting June 10, 2009 Page 6 Commissioner Coward then introduced Donald Shinnamon, Sr., Port St. Lucie Police Chief. Chief Shinnamon thanked Commissioner Coward and the group for having him here to speak today. He said that he is a firm believer in everyone coming together and talking about problems, whether you work for the Cities or the County. He said the Sheriff did a great job in giving an overview today. He said that one of the things that he has been impressed with in his first five months working here is our relationship with the sheriff’s office and to a degree with the Ft. Pierce Police Department. He said that they all work closely together and share information. Chief Shinnamon reiterated the statistics that Sheriff Mascara had brought forth as it relates to problems in schools, and gang members in Port St. Lucie. He said that they are finding that Port St. Lucie is becoming “home” for gang members from South Florida. He said that they are seeing a disturbing trend of home invasions, robberies and drive-by shootings. He said they had four home invasions last month, no one was hurt, but it is very disturbing when they are related to gang and drug activity. He said that when he was hired last January, there was no one on the police force to brief him on gang activity. At a time when he is down-sizing his agency, he had to find a Detective to dedicate to coordinating their efforts with gangs and they will get their first briefing tomorrow morning. He said that since he started with Port St. Lucie, they had 266 employees and he now has 256. He said that he should be able to give residents the same level of service with the layoffs, but it will difficult at best. He said that depending on which version of Port St. Lucie’s next budget gets approved, he could be facing a reduction of as many as 40 additional employees. He said that they all are acutely aware of the issues going on around us. He stated that he is an optimist, the area will rebound, and this too shall pass. Mr. Bob Bangert asked why there are more kids today involved in crime than there were in past years. Chief Shinnamon said that his personal opinion is that he doesn’t think its any worse. He said kids have always been involved in gangs. He also that said that we have the media focus attention today on us more than we did back then. Today, there is also a break-down in family structure and kids need that sense of belonging to someone or something. There was some discussion about illegal’s and Haitian’s in gangs. T.A. Wyner asked what the policy is at the jail right now regarding children visiting their parents. Sheriff Mascara stated that he didn’t think they allowed it. Discussion ensued. Property & Homeowners Meeting June 10, 2009 Page 7 Mr. Walter Fauth asked what this group can do to help. Chief Shinnamon said the way you can help, as the Sheriff said when he was summarizing his report, about locking your cars, your doors; don’t invite bad people into your homes. He said he sees cars with their windows down, with lap tops on the seats; it’s like asking a thief to “rob me!” Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky said that was a great question. He said there is crime watch education through the sheriff’s office and the municipalities and by getting involved in crime watch; you are the first line of defense for any crime. If you see suspicious people in your neighborhood, call the police. He said he wanted to talk a little about gang reduction strategies in region five which includes Brevard, St. Lucie, Martin and Indian River Counties. He said that gangs do move, so if you are doing good things in your neighborhoods, then you have to talk to your neighbors and be the first point of defense for police and law enforcement. He said that they were able to do a lot of good things in Hibiscus Park, so don’t be afraid to call. There were several good suggestions from the group and Commissioner Dzadovsky for safety information and ideas on how to protect each other and their properties. They all agreed, do not be afraid to call 911; it helps to intercept a crime before it happens. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Coward asked whether or not there are ways to get that information out to the public. Sheriff Mascara said there are crime prevention tips on his website, and the show on the government channel that comes on every Sunday. Both Captain Kirk and Chief Shinnamon concurred that their cities’ website offers good information as well. Mr. Bill Hammer suggested having Sam’s Clubs and other stores run some of these helpful hints, on their big screen televisions as you walk in their doors. He told the guest speakers how impressed he was with their presentations and the fact that they all work so well together. He said that he was appalled at the costs to treat prisoners in St. Lucie County at Lawnwood Medical Center was almost twice the cost that Indian River and Martin Counties pay. He said someone needs to talk to Lawnwood and tell them how much money they are taking from the taxpayer’s pocket. He also spoke about the School Resource Officers and children that are disruptive in classes; and how there was no control over the rules that had been set forth at the recent high school graduation he attended. Property & Homeowners Meeting June 10, 2009 Page 8 Commissioner Coward stated that the board has been taking the hospital cost issue very seriously, and have been working aggressively with the hospital to try and bring those rates down. There was a lengthy discussion between the members and the guest speakers about children not being able to visit their parent while he/she is incarcerated. It was stated that the child should be allowed to be exposed to the bad part of the system as well as interact with their parent, in order to learn what happens when you break the law. Commissioner Coward said that when he was about 10 years old, his classmates were taken to the local jail and locked up as a part of the class demonstration about crime and punishment. He said that being locked up for just a few minutes had a lasting impact on all of the students. He asked if there were any similar programs out there today. Sheriff Mascara said that their policy is to not have anyone under the age of eighteen visit anyone in the jail during visitation. He said the reason being, is that during visitation they will take an entire dorm which could include two hundred inmates and then we have visitors come, not inside the dorm, but through a glass and there’s a large group that is usually waiting, they only have ten minutes to visit, and having a child in that atmosphere is not good. He said what they will do on special occasions is bring a child to meet their parent, one on one in a very private setting. He said they give ththth numerous tours of the jail to classes, 7 8 and 9 graders. He said they have a scenario set up which includes a correctional officer that is dressed as an inmate that goes absolutely wild inside his cell, so if that doesn’t raise the eyebrows of these kids, then nothing will. Sheriff Mascara said he wanted to get back to the cost of medical in the jail. He said last year they had 1,555 inmates, and this year they are down about 200 less, and that makes us about three times bigger than Indian River County, and about four times bigger than Martin County. He said that you have to take into account that St. Lucie County has the highest Aids, Tuberculosis and Hepatitis rates in the State and they deal with that in their jail on a daily basis, which increases their medical costs to treat those inmates. He said when those inmates have to go to the hospital; it is the taxpayers that have to pay. It’s not the Sheriff’s office budget that absorbs those costs. He said that he has been steadfast in supporting the Medicare rate for those inmates, because if they were not in jail, then Medicare would pay for their care, because then they would be indigent care, so why should we pay any more. He said it is a tough battle taking that up with HCA Hospital. Commissioner Coward said that he knew they have pursued legislative changes. He also knew that they have been very aggressive at trying to tackle the issue. He stated that when he had the opportunity to go and tour the jail and the medical facility, one of the Property & Homeowners Meeting June 10, 2009 Page 9 things that had astounded him was that the staff informed him that people were purposely getting arrested in order to get medical care. Sheriff Mascara said that now that there is a public defender at the jail, they are getting very good at identifying those people. In fact, it is common to have a drug addicted female that is eight months pregnant, had never seen one doctor, she gets arrested for something petty, shows up in our jail and wants them to take care of the fetus, deliver the baby and then have post-birth care. Commissioner Coward then opened the floor for questions. A lady from the audience asked whether or not there were any king of programs to train kids, maybe turn them around, that aren’t bad kids, but rob or steal to get money or food for their families, once they are arrested. Chief Shinnamon said that decision would be up to the Department of Children and Families (DCF.) He said there is the Juvenile Assessment Center (JAC) in this area, but the funding for the Center for the Treasure Coast was cut by the Legislature this year. He said that internally DCF found $100,000 to fund it, but he thought they still needed $150,000. He said that his experience with JAC is that it very, very positive. He said if we lose the JAC center, it is going to be a very negative thing for all of our communities. Commissioner Dzadovsky said that the Region Five Gang Force reintroduces these children or these criminals back into society. Part of it is job training, vocational skills, the colleges and technical schools are involved and what they are doing in Region Five is trying to coordinate best practices of all those types of things. He said that one of the initiatives they have in St. Lucie County (the only county in Florida) working, is Kids At Hope. He said that they have trained over 300 what they call “Aces” or “Treasure Hunters” and basically it’s an initiative about changing a culture and how to deal with the children who are part of gangs or having trouble fitting into society. A lot of it is to be a mentor to these kids. He said that if anyone would like to be trained at Kids At Hope, to give his office a call at 772-462-1410 and he will put you in contact with Wendy Wolfe and some of the other folks with the Executive Roundtable. He said this is all about kids that can succeed, no exceptions. Kathleen Ivins asked whether or not there is a program about inmates training dogs to help people. Sheriff Mascara said they have a lot of programs at the jail. He said that he has offered the Humane Society two programs, 1) to train dogs, and 2) for the females in our jail to learn how to groom dogs. So far the Humane Society has not taken advantage of his offers. He said a couple of things that they do is to train inmates in the culinary arts to Property & Homeowners Meeting June 10, 2009 Page 10 give them basic skills, so when they leave the jail they will have something to rely on. I can tell you that 98 percent of the people that end up in the jails have no skills, that’s what got them there. He said that some do not have high school diploma’s, we are the largest institution in St. Lucie County that gives GED’s. Commissioner Coward said that one thing that the county commission is doing right now is working with more than a half dozen building trades to set up a job training and apprenticeship program. The county is going to be dedicating about 10,000 square feet at the Logistics Center and basically putting that square footage into this program and then the building trades have raised about $50,000 to date for the materials and will actually construct the facility with their trained skilled craftsmen. He said they will have this program up and running and the county will be integrate that apprenticeship program into things that we are doing. He said that he was pleased that the Sheriff’s office was looking into the pre-apprenticeship programs where they may be able to target folks within the prison that may want to look at getting a new skill and be able to come out and have a legitimate opportunity to work and make a living. He said that there are a lot of exciting things happening right now, there’s not a lot of local governments in this state that are working on apprenticeship programs, but we are very close to making that happen here. Mr. Craig Mundt said that he had also had the opportunity to tour the jail and that he was very impressed with the professionalism and the way it was operated. He said some construction type projects were being done by inmates, so some inmates are coming out with carpentry skills. He said that in regard to “phishing” calls coming out of the jail by inmates to resident’s homes, you can block them, or you can call Major Tighe at the jail and he will have all calls blocked to your phone. He asked whether or not “phishing” e-mails should be reported. Sheriff Mascara said report the e-mails. Just forward to him and he will take care of it. Both Chief Shinnamon and Captain Kirk concurred with Sheriff Mascara. Ms. Ethel Rowland asked if anyone had taken a look at U.S. Senate Bill 714 and whether the committee members or elected officials would consider supporting it. Commissioner Coward said that he had reviewed S.B. 714, which he noted was co- sponsored by more than 20 U.S. Senators, and that he was supportive of their efforts to re-evaluate the judicial system. He said that it was ironic that we live in the “land of the free” but have the highest incarceration rate in the world. He said the Bill calls for the creation of a national committee to review all facets of the criminal justice system. He mentioned the study done by Dr. Kalmanoff for St. Lucie County that made an important distinction between individuals that are a danger to society and need to be locked up and those non-violent offenders that need mental health and drug rehabilitation Property & Homeowners Meeting June 10, 2009 Page 11 programs. Finally, he mentioned that the Senate Judicial Committee was scheduled to hear this Bill on Thursday. Mr. Fauth asked for more security with regard to their personal e-mail addresses being given out. Commissioner Coward said that we would take care of that. Mr. Tony Roach asked Chief Shinnamon why he has so much trouble obtaining a complete copy of the Crime Activity Report in Port St. Lucie. He said that he needs it for his neighborhood watch, and the reports that he gets are not complete. He said the information should be provided to the Homeowners (HOA’s) and POA’s Associations. Chief Shinnamon told Mr. Roach that his comments disturbed him very much. He said that we have every statistic you could ever want. He said a lot of departments make statistics accessible by their website. He said they just started their website, he said the city is divided into districts with a liaison to monitor each district. He said he would be happy to meet with Mr. Roach regarding his concerns. A statement was made from the audience that he gets both Ft. Pierce and the Sheriff’s reports daily for his HOA to look at locations. Havert “Coach” Fenn stated that he is representing the Lincoln Park Mainstreet (LPM) Program and that he had worked with Chief Baldwin about the cameras on Avenue D. He said that with LPM input, he feels that it has helped to curb some of the crime; especially in the summer months. He explained how the camera’s work. He said it is not just Avenue D and that he is very pleased with what the City of Ft. Pierce is doing with these cameras. Discussion ensued regarding Senator Webb’s Bill SB714 and how putting non-violent people in jail is costing the county so much money. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Coward thanked the guest speakers for taking the time out of their busy schedules to speak to us today. ITEM 6: OLD BUSINESS: Commissioner Coward asked whether or not there was any old business to discuss. Seeing none, he continued to Item 7. ITEM 7: NEW BUSINESS ~ PRIORITIZE FUTURE TOPICS OF DISCUSSION Several suggestions were made by the group. One was to hear the status of Martin Memorial opening a branch in Tradition in Western Port St. Lucie. Another was to hear about Harbor Branch and Florida Atlantic University. It was decided by the members Property & Homeowners Meeting June 10, 2009 Page 12 that instead of taking a tour of the Education and Research Center, that we could ask Ben DeVries, TCRDA Director and Larry Pelton, Economic Development Director to come and speak to the group. In a future meeting we would have speakers in from FDOT and the county to speak about transportation projects. Commissioner Coward suggested we could also invite our District 81, State Legislator Adam Fetterman to a future meeting. Commissioner Coward announced that our next Homeowners meeting would be July 8, 2009 beginning at 10 a.m. at the County building in Conference room 3. Commissioner Coward thanked the members and the public for coming to the meeting. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:30 a.m. Respectfully submitted by Charline Burgess, Aide to Commissioner Coward