Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 02-10-2010 ST LUCIE COUNTY PROPERTY AND HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION Minutes of February 10, 2010 Meeting Convened: 10 am Adjourned: 11.00 am The meeting of the Property & Homeowners Association was held Wednesday, February 10, 2010 in Conference Room 3 of the St. Lucie County Administration Annex, 2300 Virginia Avenue, Fort Pierce. Members Present: Tony Roach, Lake Forest Pointe Diane Andrews, Queens Cove Mark Boston, Association of Retired Americans Bob Bangert, Holiday Pines Charlie Brown, Indian River Estates Roger Bollman, Indian River Estates Linda Bollman, Indian River Estates Charlotte Wollenhaupt, Oleander Pines Stu Gartside, Nettles Island Maurice Levine, Nettles Island Mary Chapman, North Beach Association Allison Walsh, Bank of America Also Present: Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky, Chairman Commissioner Doug Coward Charline Burgess, Executive Aide to Commissioner Coward Terri Ann Palumbo, Executive Aide to Commissioner Dzadovsky Catherine Chaney, St Lucie County Fire District Anita Neal, St Lucie County Cooperative Extension Heather Leuke, St Lucie County Attorney's Office Deputy Gary Gonsalves, St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office Tangie Jennings, Rep. Rader's Office Frannie Hutchinson Ethel Rowland AI Rivett ITEM #1 - CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order. Commissioner Dzadovsky led the Association in the Pledge of Allegiance. ITEM #2 - APPROVAL OF MINUTES Commissioner Dzadovsky asked Terri to address a problem with the emaillist and said that it would be corrected in the future. Commissioner Dzadovsky then asked for a motion for approval of the January 13, 2009 minutes. Approval was moved and seconded and passed unanimously by a voice vote. ITEM #3 - ST LUCIE COUNTY SHERIFF'S REPORT Deputy Gary Gonsalves said he wanted to make the membership aware of a program offered by the Sheriff's office, called Seniors vs. Crime. The Attorney General's office came to the Sheriff's office just prior to the hurricanes to tell them about Seniors vs. Crime, which would help with civil issues in St Lucie County. Martin County, Broward, Dade and some other counties had already partnered with the State Attorney General's Office. They were given office space in the Sheriff's substation in the courthouse, but the hurricanes hit just as they were getting ready to set up shop. Once the hurricanes cleared, they were able to assist a lot of the seniors who were taken advantage of by people doing bad roof jobs, etc. The Sheriff's Office was overwhelmed with charges about scam contractors at the time, most of them from out of state. Seniors vs. Crime was able to get back approximately $400,000 in deposits that were taken during that time, mostly from senior citizens. The Sheriff's office felt the most important thing was to get the money back, although they did charge some of the contractors. It is a program that falls under the Attorney General's office. They've helped people at car dealerships with pricing, leases, etc. They don't deal with anything involving insurance. If there's already an attorney involved, they don't get involved, either. Anyone who feels he or she has been taken advantage of, however, and call and make an appointment with Seniors vs. Crime, and they will follow up. Deputy Gonsalves asked the membership to take the informational brochures and put the information in their newsletters. He said that at the next meeting he would give information on how to select the right contractor. Commissioner Dzadovsky asked if there were any pre-emptive education involved or if it was after the fact. Deputy Gonsalves answered that unfortunately it's mostly after the fact. Mr. Roach asked if there was a website to check on someone's license and insurance. Deputy Gonsalves said Seniors vs. Crime can look up that information and tell whether or not someone's licensed, but if one wants to do that research on one's own, the Department of Business and Professional Regulations is where one would want to start. Mrs. Andrews mentioned the St Lucie County website, stlucieco.gov and said that on the home page there's a dropdown menu that lists all the licenses in the county, and said a contractor can't get a license without insurance. Deputy Gonsalves suggested just giving Seniors vs. Crime and asking them and letting them do the research. A member asked about the program checking units and homes for "snowbirds". Deputy Gonsalves said to call 871-5303, and to ask for a house check. One type of house check is for law enforcement, but the other is for people going away for a while, even if they live in gated communities. ITEM 4 - ST LUCIE COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT REPORT Catherine Chaney apologize for not being at last month's meeting. She said that this past year the Fire District has been going through a strategic planning process covering planning for the next five years, and that they will be having a public meeting March 17th at the Public Safety Complex at IRSC to review the strategic plan and their budget. ITEM #5A GUEST SPEAKERS - Commissioner Doug Coward, Bill Casey from Oculina Bank Commissioner Dzadovsky thanked Commissioner Coward and Bill Casey for stepping in at the last minute after a conflict with the previously-scheduled agenda. Commissioner Coward provided information about the CDFI (Community Development Financial Institution) program. He started with the letter written to the Secretary of the Department of Energy. The county has been looking at all types of renewable energy, and the BOCC is enthusiastic about trying to promote rooftop solar. They've been looking at programs all over the country such as Berkeley First, and programs in Boulder, Colorado, Hawaii and others that have developed financial programs to assist homeowners and businesses go forward with rooftop solar. They are not trying to create a subsidy, but to create financial means for homeowners and business owners to be able to afford to have rooftop solar and other energy efficiency programs. A Community Development Financial Institution, or CDFI is certified through the US Treasury Department. St Lucie County is trying to create a nonprofit bank that will offer low-interest loans through the CDFI program. The collection methodology the county is proposing is the property assessment methodology - some have referred to it as PACE - where a purchaser agrees to pay the entity back over a 10 or 15 year timeframe at no interest. This ultimately provides cost diversion and energy savings. If a solar energy system costs $5,000, this program enables the homeowner to have the upfront money to make that investment, but after the solar hot water system in installed, a homeowner will have savings because they won't be pulling power off the grid - they've made their own power on their rooftop. A $5,000 loan at 10 years and 4% interest works out to about $50 a month to payoff the principal and interest. Putting a solar hot water heater on the home will save between $40 and $60 a month through cost diversion. By year two of one of these loans, hopefully a homeowner will have gotten a federal rebate which is $1500 - now the loan amount has gone down from $5,000 to $3,500, so the loan payment will go down a bit, as well. The loan payment is actually less than the energy savings, so essential one is making money. At year 10, the loan is paid off, the system has 10 years of additional life, and there will be no payments in year 11 through 20 - yet the homeowner will still derive about $600 a year in energy savings for putting the system on the roof. So, it costs nothing up front, it will basically be a break-even scenario or better for the life of the system, and over the life of the 20-year program, you will probably have between $5,000 and $7,000 in energy savings. That is the basic model of how the county wants to offer loans to homeowners and business owners. With unemployment ranging between 25% and 40% in the construction industry, there will be direct benefit to skilled craftspeople who would have additional employment opportunities installing the systems. IRSC and the County are creating Green Jobs Training Facilities right now. The premium situation would be if the solar system manufacturers themselves would be interested in coming in to St Lucie County. Commissioner Coward pointed out a spreadsheet regarding renewable energy, and which make the most sense. Of all the alternatives, rooftop solar can produce the most renewable energy based on current technologies. However, huge energy monopolies in Florida such as FPL and others don't do rooftop solar. So they won't pursue the alternatives. He said he views the rebate as an option solely to the wealthy without a CDFI program, and rebates are not the solution. New Jersey is the #2 solar state in the country, with over 100 megawatts of solar. Florida has 3 megawatts of solar, and we have three times as much solar potential here as New Jersey. Finding the financial program that allows the average person to participate is essential. In Boulder and other areas they are setting up self-taxing areas so people can voluntarily participate. In St Lucie County, four different financial institutions have pledged $20 million toward this effort, while the county goes after a $5 million Department of Energy grant. The $25 million will go toward creating the nonprofit bank, get a board of directors and get the program moving. $25 million would allow them to double the amount of rooftop solar used in Florida today in St Lucie County. CDFls have existed since 1994, to help with community development, affordable housing and community programs. The CDFI model does exist in the green sector but not exactly the way the St Lucie County model will operate. Commissioner Coward also showed a report from the Pugh Foundation showing the green sector leading the way and growing at a faster pace than biotech, and being poised for explosive growth in the future. He sees this program as positioning the county for the inevitable changes that are occurring nationally and globally. Commissioner Dzadovsky commented about adding in the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). Commissioner Coward said that the RPS is in place in 27 states right now and it mandates that all the utilities within a state have to have a certain portion their energy portfolio derived from renewable energy sources. Florida does not have an RPS and it needs to be done at the state level. The studies he's seen show that of those 27 programs, there was a less than 1% variation in the rate. He is hoping to get the CDFI operational in 2010. Mr. Casey said there's a lot of data that's very heady information, but what the commissioners are doing with CDFI is thinking outside the box, and that this could explode the notoriety of the county - it's that important. We are looking to do something that no other locality in the nation is doing, and we could do 500 times more than what anyone else in the country is doing. He said that from his bank's point of view, it's something they couldn't pass up. Oculina has grown to eight offices, has $120 million in assets and is financially strong, he said, and that he thought the CDFI had to participate and that's why they pledged to invest $5 million in the program. From an HOA point of view, he said he could think of a lot of ways it would be beneficial to the membership, for both community buildings and individual homeowners within their communities. Spreading out the payments will be a wonderful way for those on fixed incomes to be able to afford it. He said there is a huge commitment by Commissioner Coward and the BOCC, and that the members should be very proud. Commissioner Dzadovsky said that when one puts a photovoltaic solar system on their home, when they've reached their capacity of use, they can put the energy back on the grid so they actually get paid by the excess energy they create. He said we need to be looking at every opportunity to produce energy at every level, not just at centralized production. Diane Andrews asked when they expect to hear about the DOE grant, and if they don't get it, can we go on by ourselves. Commissioner Coward said they expect to hear back in the beginning of March. The category they applied for out of several categories has a total pool of $60 million for the entire country. The maximum in that category that the county can get is $5 million, which is what they've requested. He said he can't stress enough how competitive this is, but as Bill Casey mentioned, their main program ideas are to provide leveraging on those private dollars, and we probably have the highest leveraging in the company at 4 to 1. He said he knows of one entity in Southwest Florida that had a pretty impressive presentation but barely had a 1 to 1 match, let alone a 4 to 1. The other aspect of the program is its ability to sustain itself over time - because this is a revolving loan fund, it will be replenished as people are making their payments. They're also hoping to grow that fund so it can sustain itself. He said the one area where they could have done better with more time was that the DOE wants to see a regional approach, so the BOCC's application said they will start it in St. Lucie County, but they have every intention of spreading it throughout the Treasure Coast and they've already gotten tremendous interest from the neighboring counties. They are already working with the Regional Planning Council to think about how they could grow the fund by having counties partner with St Lucie and bring additional banks in so they can grow the fund from $20 million to possibly $100 million in 5 to 10 years, which is the original goal. He said this program can be replicated in local governments across the United States. The DOE grant will help them expedite, but it's not a deal-killer if they don't get it. They've already identified a $1.5 million grant at the State level that's available so there are some Plan Bs. DOE is the best option and the fastest option to make this happen, but it's not the only option. Commissioner Dzadovsky talked about developing an area-wide permitting process so that we meet those hurdles in advance of ever having to apply. He recognized Commissioner Grande, who had just entered the room, as being vocal on this issue as well. Bill Casey said Oculina is committed to doing whatever it has to do to get this moving, even if the county does not get the DOE grant. Commissioner Coward said the nuance was they need to get the seed money to establish the organization and the track record. Once the CDFI certification is in place, it's at that point that the bank money comes in. The initial step is extremely important - although it's not a deal-killer if they don't get it, it will set the program back at least 3 to 6 months if they don't. He said they envision packages of different loans that may be available. They applied for energy conservation block grants with an emphasis on rooftop solar, but there needs to be fundamental first step in energy conservation and there may be outdated appliances in a home - those would be lower- tier packages, to make sure a home is energy-efficient. The next tier is to go into the solar hot water heaters, which are the most cost-effective. The premium package would be actually installing photovoltaics on a roof. Not only is it cost-effective but it will buffer homeowners from future rate increases. In 2008 the voters approved a constitutional amendment that any improvements you make to your house for renewable energy are not taxable. So making this capital investment, it is providing equity from a market standpoint for the homeowner in terms of resale but it is not providing an increase in the taxable value of your home. He said they want to be aggressive in marketing the program to the public. Mr. Casey said face-to-face marketing is the most successful way to promote programs. Mr. Bangert asked Commissioner Coward if there had been any progress with starting solar energy on the County's buildings. Commissioner Coward said that one of the options he ran into in researching this was solar-powered purchase agreements (Solar PPAs). How it works is that the County has about a million square feet of flat rooftops. Under the Solar PPA model they could actually contract with a private solar company that does rooftop solar, and they would come in and pay for the entire cost of upfront installation of solar on all of the appropriate county buildings. The county would have to lease the rooftop essentially for free for a dollar a year, and would have to guarantee that it would buy the solar energy that they would produce - but they would do so at a discounted rate. Once the local government agrees to do that, that provides the private companies with the ability to secure a loan because they have a guaranteed payback from a local government. That model enables the local government to have solarization on all their roofs without any upfront costs or any ongoing maintenance costs, gives an immediate reduction in energy bills and an opportunity for the county to promote renewable energy programs and create jobs, as well. But the only way it works is when the retail price of solar is about 18 cents a kilowatt. FPL has one of the lowest rates in the nation at about 12.37 cents. However, in municipal areas with their own utilities, that model is applicable and is already being actively looked at. Commissioner Coward said he's met with 3 local companies who want to do solar PPAs, and has met with Michael Lannon and the staff who works on all the school buildings to see if there's a way to do solar PPAs on all schools in addition to the county buildings. ITEM #5B GUEST SPEAKERS - Heather Leuke, Assistant County Attorney, and Anita Neal from the St. Lucie County Ag Center Director Heather Leuke said they'd passed out copies of the draft ordinance for both irrigation and fertilizer. Last year the legislature passed Bill 494 which directed the DEP to draft two model ordinances: one is Florida Friendly Fertilizer, and St. Lucie County is required to pass this ordinance. The second is Automatic Landscape Irrigation Systems, which is optional for the County to pass. The Automatic Landscape Irrigation Systems ordinance requires that contractors who work on landscape systems, if they see that they system is set on a timer but doesn't have a rain gauge to shut it off when there's enough moisture, the contractor is required to report that homeowner to County code enforcement. In the county draft ordinance, it states that code enforcement would work with the homeowner to bring them up to code, or else they'd go in front of the code enforcement board. The Fertilizer ordinance has several parts. The first says that commercial applicators of fertilizer would be required to go through IFAS' training program and get certification, and they have to be certified by 2014. The second half has restrictions on anyone using fertilizer, whether commercial or single family homeowners, so that it's buffered from the water. You can't fertilize within a certain number of feet from the water, you can't let grass clippings end up on sidewalks or streets so that they end up in storm drains, etc. The County will have several workshops and as soon as they know the date and time for those, Ms. Leuke said she'd have Terri let the members know if they'd like to attend. She then asked for questions. A member asked when the fertilizer ordinance would go into effect. Ms. Leuke said it does not have a deadline from the state. The county ahs to pass it but the state didn't tell them when they have to pass it. The county heard from DEP that there's going to be a "glitch bill" for 494 so the model ordinance may change - and that is why the county is going very slowly through this process. They won't pass anything until they're sure what the legislature is doing. There will be a year between the passage of the ordinance and when it would actually be in effect because they need to let all the commercial applicators know, when they re-up for their occupational licenses, that they will need this new certification. They will be given a year to comply with that part of the ordinance. The irrigation system ordinance has a deadline of October even though it's not mandatory. Anita Neal said that the "glitch bill" addresses 494 in its entirety, for both ordinances. They've heard that the changes will be minor, but they don't have a time or day yet when it will be brought forward. She asked for any other questions. Commissioner Dzadovsky asked why the state would want the county to manage its fertilizers. Anita Neal said that it follows the Clean Water Act. We have a lot of nutrient loading into our waterways, some of which is natural. Some of it, though, comes off of golf courses, farms, homeowners and different non-poi nt-source pollution, where it can't be identified exactly where the nutrients came from. This tries to maintain levels of fertilizer. Right now you can't buy a lawn fertilizer that has NPK (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium). The number has to be 2 or less. We don't need to add phosphorous to our landscapes to a large degree because we mine phosphorus here - and when it gets into waterways, it can cause a lot of problems. The DEP is working with the EPA to come up with some measurable criteria for levels of nitrogen and phosphorus that can be in the water systems. Commissioner Dzadovsky talked about ORCA, a research and education firm that's created a product called Killroy that can measure phosphates and nitrates and so forth. The lagoon has over 2200 species that need protecting. He's also been working to try and rid the county of spreading of sludge on our agricultural lands (bio solids and human waste from water treatment plants that is then trucked). He's pushing to have the licenses to do that not be renewed so that there isn't continual nutrient-loading in our estuaries. A member asked if this would apply to Nettles Island. Ms. Neal said she hoped the workshops on the 494 ordinances will be on a regional basis because we are dealing with an economic issue as well as dealing with people who do this for a living - so consistency is important between areas. Mary Chapman asked if there was a ballpark idea on when the workshops might occur. Ms. Neal said Michael Thomas from the DEP has asked that they hold off until the "glitch bill" is finalized. Ms. Chapman said that the Harbor Advisory Committee, which she chairs, is under a lot of pressure to get their own recommendations, and that she doesn't want to do that until she's sure what the bill will contain. She said she would be in touch with Ms.Neal for further questions. Mr. Roach said the net effect is for humans as well as wildlife. He said he'd like to see that all the water utilities test their water on a regular basis for radon, since we have nuclear power plant and the second line of defense in detecting any leaks at the nuclear power plant is the water utilities. Right now the water utilities do not test quarterly or yearly - they test every 7 to 9 years. He wants to see the County make it mandatory that every utility tests quarterly for radon. He doesn't want to find The Acreage here, with unknowns when it's too late and people have contracted cancer. Commissioner Dzadovsky asked if the members would like to have FPUA, and utility representatives from the county and Port St Lucie come and talk to them about water testing in a future meeting. Mr. Roach said all we'd get from them is why they don't have to do it. The EPA tried to make it mandatory in 2001 and got shot down by the White House. He wants to know why the water utilities don't test quarterly. Commissioner Dzadovsky said that in Pittsburgh when you buy a home, you have to do radon testing and create a piping system to keep radon from your home, so he doesn't see it's out of line. A member said radon has nothing to do with the radiation that comes off the power plant. He said it's a substance that comes out of the ground naturally. Mr. Roach said that's true but according to the EPA if there's a leak in the tower, radioactive material would show up in the power supply and the only way it can be detected is by doing a radon test. Commissioner Dzadovsky said it would be best to have some experts at the meeting to have that discussion, and that he'd get more information. ITEM #6 OLD BUSINESS Commissioner Dzadovsky asked if there was any old business to discuss. He asked Diane Andrews if she had any updates about exemptions. She said the situation at Queens Cove where the member felt they were totally exempt from taxes had been resolved by a legal opinion from their attorneys stating that it had to be approved by 100% of the membership if someone claimed they were exempt, and 100% of all lien holders. It's going to be fixed in their documents, and the party involved paid what they owed their HOA. ITEM #7 NEW BUSINESS Commissioner Dzadovsky said he would move forward with a banker to do some foreclosure studies for April - it's proven to be a bit difficult in terms of the banks disclosing certain information. The meeting was then adjourned. Respectfully submitted by Terri Ann Palumbo, Executive Aide to Commissioner Dzadovsky