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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 05-12-2010 ST LUCIE COUNTY PROPERTY AND HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION Minutes of May 12, 2010 Meeting Convened: 10 am Adjourned: 11.00 am The meeting of the Property & Homeowners Association was held Wednesday, May 12, 2010 in Conference Room 3 of the St. Lucie County Administration Annex, 2300 Virginia Avenue, Fort Pierce. Members Present: Craig Mundt, North Beach Association Kathleen Ivins, River Park Homeowners Association Marie Gouin, Office of Management and Budget Director Faye Outlaw, County Administrator Roger Bollman, Indian River Estates Linda Bollman, Indian River Estates Walter Fauth, South Beach Bill Hammer, Reserve/PGA Bob Bangert, Holiday Pines Tony Roach, Lake Forest Point Toni Trabolsi, Coalition of Sandpiper Bay Associations John Ferrick, North Fork Property Owners Also Present: Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky, Chairman Terri Ann Palumbo, Executive Aide to Commissioner Dzadovsky St Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara Deputy Gary Gonsalves, St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office Sherry McCorkle, Congressman Tom Rooney’s office Charline Burgess, Executive Aide to Commissioner Coward Patti Tobin Mark Boston, Florida Alliance for Retired Americans Frannie Hutchinson Ethel Rowland 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 for a motion for approval of the April 14, 2009 minutes. Approval was moved and seconded and passed unanimously by a voice vote. ITEM #3 – ST LUCIE COUNTY SHERIFF’S REPORT Deputy Gonsalves reported they are doing a good job catching individuals stealing wires and air conditioning units, including one that was called in by an observant citizen. He encouraged the members to call if they see anything unusual or suspicious. 60% of arrests made in thefts of metals have been initiated by the public. Mr. Mundt said that in the pickup truck of the person arrested on N. Hutchinson Island there was a list of houses up for auction. Fort Pierce and Port St Lucie have a program called crimereports.com – the Sheriff’s Office is now participating in the program. Stluciesheriff.com has the link to the crime reports. Deputy Gonsalves asked them to put this information in their newsletter. ITEM 4 – ST LUCIE COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT REPORT Catherine Chaney was not present. Commissioner Dzadovsky said he will be looking for help from the public to push legislation regarding brush fires. The Dept of Forestry deals with brush fires and right now there are only 2 or 3 individuals who are Red Card trained. It’s a shame that we can’t train current firefighters in Red Card for the Dept. of Forestry. He’s working with Mr. Crooks from the fire district to see if we can push legislation on that issue. He also said our firefighters are well equipped to fight brush fires. ITEM #5 GUEST SPEAKERS – Faye Outlaw, County Administrator, and Marie Gouin, Office of Management and Budget Director Ms. Outlaw focused on the general fund and fine & forfeiture budget, which is where the bulk of the operations of the County are funded, as well as outside agencies. These include BOCC operations, the constitutional officers, state-mandated agencies, the CRA payments to the two cities, some non-profits and outside groups. The CRA is the Community Redevelopment Agency. In the year that we’re in, (numbers rounded off) the operating budget is $173 million, our operating revenue is about $116 million. We have one-time money balancing this year’s budget of $57 million. For next year, our operating budget is projected to be around $157 million, operating revenue based on property value projections from Mr. Furst is about $105 million – based on an 11.5% property value drop. The property appraiser just advised the drop is higher now – at about 12%. So, an additional $500,000 has to be calculated into our numbers. One-time money on account planned for 2010/11 is about $52 million to balance for 2010/11, which st starts October 1. When we look out to 2011/12, if the operating revenue were to stay flat, with an additional 5% drop in values for 2011/12, the operating revenue is projected at about $100 million, which leaves an operating gap of $57 million. We were projected to have about $18 million of one-time money to use in 2011/12, but that is not sustainable money. Working deficit in 2011/12 would be $38 million. The County’s gap for 2012 is $56 million. We have one-time money that we are projecting to have to help plug the $56 million gap – but we still have a working gap of $56 million. Having the one-time money only gives us the ability to deal with a portion of the gap in 2012 and then deal with the remainder of it in 2013. The newspapers fail to indicate that the gap is $56 million but we are projecting to have $18 million in one-time money – which gives a false impression that we only have a $38 million dollar gap, as opposed to the $56 million gap. We have 57 different funds, but the funds other than the general fund and fine & forfeiture can only be used for designated purposes. The funding from those other funds make up the rest of the County’s total budget. In the $600 million dollar number there is some fund balance money that inflates the budget, but the working budget is much lower. We must budget year to year with unused money that rolls over. The budgets of the Tax Collector and Property Appraiser are not based on budget requests for certain services. Their services are based on a fee for the particular service they perform for the County. The Sheriff and Clerk of Courts submit budget requests to the County. Court Administrator, Guardian Ad Litem, Medical Examiner, Public Defender and CRAs from two cities are also mandated. The statute provides for an appeal for the Sheriff of the County’s budget. He is a constitutional officer who has a right for appeal in the statute. County administrator, building official, mosquito control director and emergency management director are all positions that are mandated. Quality of life within county includes park and recreation department, which runs aquatic programs, history museum, our summer camps. Community services deals with all the housing programs – including transit. County extension office provides a number of educational services including 4H and school enrichment programs. We have 5 libraries in the County. Veteran services is also set up to provide service to veterans. Health and safety – county funds public safety operations such as lifeguards an 911, animal control. Public works deals with mowing and road resurfacing, canal spraying, sidewalk repairs and ditch cleaning as an example. These are all non-mandated, but within certain departments there are mandated positions. With utilities, that operation is set up as an enterprise fund – revenues that it generates are supposed to cover its expenses. General fund does not fund it. Other non-mandated are non profits, ARC, Council on Aging, Health Dept., Healthy Start, 211 and the Homeless Coalition. Outside agencies that we fund include the Economic Development Council, the Transportation Planning Organization, and the Sewer and Water agency. Ms. Outlaw showed a graph portraying the 10-year trend of funding. Commissioner Dzadovsky asked for an explanation of what unfunded mandates are. Ms. Outlaw said they are initiatives that the State gives County governments mandates to fund without giving counties the funding to carry out those particular mandates. Often CRAs are referenced as unfunded mandates. In terms of actual unfunded mandate that the state has put on us, one that we are wrestling with, and still waiting for the outcome, is the state mandating a change in the voting machines without providing funding. If they don’t agree to put that on hold, we would have to fund the change in switching out voting machines -and the cost of that is projected to be about a half million dollars. State mandates some of the things with the Value Adjustment Board without providing funding to the county. The state had a backlog in notification to felons of their rights to vote or not vote and the backlog extends back many years. They are projected to mandate that the supervisor of elections actually catch up that backlog and send out the notices to felons – then there will be a cost that the County will have to pick up for that notification, as opposed to the state providing funding for the notifications. Mark Boston asked what is the total amount that we have to pay for the state mandates. Ms. Outlaw said she didn’t have that breakdown. They are keeping a running log of the various bills that are being considered and trying to calculate what would be the impact on those as part of strategic planning. There are 4 ballot issues that have been approved for 2010 and there is a fifth one being considered. We are tracking those and calculating what would be the financial impact if they were to pass on this upcoming ballot. Mr. Mundt asked what drove the services spike and why. All of a sudden County expenditures exploded from 50 million range to 93. Answer from Marie was in part about the hurricanes. Commissioner Dzadovsky also talked about the growth activity having peaked at one time. Ms. Outlaw said at one time there were 53 growth management employees, and now there are 12. Environmental Resources was also a function of growth management and then was grown out to a department and staffed accordingly. Solid Waste was also created as a department given what was happening with debris related to hurricanes. It had been a division of public works but was poured out into a department. One of the other operations that accounts for that increase is that the county created a division of criminal justice and that operation was staffed extensively to try and help curb crime, and working with various constitutionals to rein that in. Ms. Outlaw showed a table showing population and operating expenses to come to per capita costs. She explained that CPI is the cost of living factor. Some question how accurate it is when looking at County government because the things that the federal government include in CPI are not things that County governments have to deal with. If we look at operating expenses of the county over the 10 year period based on population, we have a straight-line calculation of what the per capita costs of services would be, without any adjustment for CPI. She said she believes that CPI is not an accurate number to use. The population in the County peaked in 2008, we were at 272,000 and had some residents move out of the county, so the population numbers have come down slightly between 2008 and the current year. Mr. Boston asked about seasonal residents and whether the population number included residents who are only here four months out of the year. Ms. Gouin answered that no, they are the numbers based on only permanent residents within the county. Mr. Hammer asked if people declared permanent residency but only live here a few months a year, are they included in the numbers? Ms. Outlaw answered yes. Mr. Bangert said it’s interesting the population went up 32% or 34% and yet operating expenses went up over 50% Mr. Fauth said he thought we shouldn’t discount CPI because those early years of 2001, 2002, 2003 were affected by inflation bond markets, and that inflation was high in those early year. Ms. Outlaw then showed a chart portraying rollback rates. Our millage rate is 6.2 mills. If we were to go back to rollback rate it would be 6.9. But because of what’s happening with property values, the rollback actually translates into being a roll-up. The net increase would be .788 and what that would generate in additional tax revenue would be $11.1 million. For a house valued at $100,000 after exemptions, it would be $78 annual increase. A $200,000 house after exemptions would have their taxes increase by $156. A 1 mill increase would generate more revenue than the rollback/rollup rate. For a $100,000 house after exemptions, annually it would be about $100 additional tax. At $200,000 it would be about $200 annually in additional tax. If we were to go to rollback/rollup rate for 2012, it would be a 6.4 rounded, which would be an increase of .2348 and that would generate an additional $3.2 million in tax revenue. It would be about $23 additional taxes annually for a $100,000 house and for a $200,000, it would be roughly $47 annually. If we look at a half-mill increase for 2012, it would generate roughly $6.7 million which is higher than the rollback/rollup rate. For a house at $100,000 it would be $50 annually and then for a house at $200,000, it would be $100 – about the same amount if we were to do it in 2010/2011. And then for 2012, a one mill increase would generate $13.5 million of additional tax revenue. For a house at $100,000 it would be $100 additional taxes annually, and $200 for a house at $200,000 after exemptions. Commissioner Dzadovsky asked which if any of those scenarios would balance the budget for 2011/2012. Ms. Outlaw said she has a $56 million projected deficit for 2011/2012 and if the BOCC were to balance it based on tax revenues with no expenditure cuts, it would have to be about 4 mills just based on tax increases. Commissioner Dzadovsky explained he asked for a description of millage increases because none of us want to pay more taxes, but the question was raised “what is a mandate/what is a want/what is a need”, and when you look at going to complete rollup rate, it came to $78 for a $100,000 home – do you want libraries and parks open, etc., roads resurfaced, drainage ditches cleaned, utilities maintained properly – he has had that question from a lot of residents. When he looks at $78 or even $156 additional taxes a year to go to the rollback rate, that’s still doesn’t get us to covering the gap in 2011/2012. But, if he didn’t go out to dinner four times a year, he’d save that $156. It’s a choice we all have to make as to whether or not we want to go there. Jeff Furst said on Tuesday night that 54% of the homes in St Lucie County are “underwater”, and valued at much less than their purchase prices. Most people say they don’t want their taxes increased but they still want the same quality of life. We are at a point where we’ve cut $250 million from the budget in 2 years, we’ve cut 34 to 35% of the employees from the county and at this point he believes we’re at a point of diminishing returns. We have to decide what we want. We’ve cut 50% of our departments from 18 down to 9. Government has had to respond and to cut. We are at a point where we have to decide whether $78 or $156 is worth maintaining our parks, tennis courts, drainage, road surfaces, etc. It’s up to the voters to tell government what they want. Libraries are now closed 2 days out of the week and there was outcry. That departments’ been cut 32%. Nonprofits provide exponential return for the County’s investments Mr. Fauth said that if you went to New Jersey, there are boat launching fees, beach tags, and other things that people pay for, and it’s a nice stream of revenue. Ours are free and that’s great but maybe they shouldn’t be free anymore. Commissioner Dzadovsky said we will have those discussions during Strategic Planning. What is the cost for personnel at a boat ramp to collect those fees, or do license fees, etc.- those will be discussed. That’s a revenue source but there are also upfront costs involved as well as costs to manage those funds. A member said a lot of government agencies are adding nuisance fees. He also talked about a new business owner who was appalled at all the costs involved for licensing a new business. Mr. Hammer suggested thinking about it not as an either/or situation but as a scale-back based on demand and who’s willing to pay for the service. He gave examples of putting tags on trailers, and said that volunteers could be used. Mr. Fauth said that was his thought, and that the Sheriff uses a lot of volunteers. Sheriff Mascara said he rarely gets a chance to comment on the county’s budget – they are usually commenting on his budget, but one thing he has concerns about is in the 2011/2012 budget, he believes the County Administrator is using a 5% budgeted decrease in property values. What he sees from his operation with sales on the courthouse steps and the continued vacancies, he thinks it’s going to be greater than 5%, which means the actual County deficit for 2011/2012 is going to be greater than what’s projected. Ms. Outlaw said he was on point, and that she had a conversation with the property appraiser last week, trying to find out whether or not the projected 5% for 2012 was still good, and he said she needed to brace herself – that that number was going to be higher, but until he gives her another number, she can’t change it. Mr. Hammer said the average property value nationwide was just announced at $170,000 on a residential unit. In St Lucie County, it just got up to $100,000 again. So compared to the rest of the country, we are not as flush. Sheriff Mascara said when our forefathers made the constitution of the state of Florida, they felt public safety was paramount, and that’s why that statute directs the Sheriff to go directly to the governor if in fact there are any squabbles with the budget that’s funded from the BOCC. And back then, when the constitution was written, most of the squabbles were political in nature, where the BOCC might be one party and the Sheriff was another party and they would never fund his budget. They wanted to take the politics out of there and that’s why that statute was written. He said he also was wondering if Ms. Outlaw had an actual cost of all of the non-mandated services the County provides based on the total budget. Ms. Outlaw said she didn’t have that off the top of her head. That is one that was asked for earlier and she will have it for Strategic Planning. Sheriff Mascara said another point of interest was the enterprise funds. He knows they have the utilities, and the function of the enterprise fund is to make money for the County but in reality there are many enterprise funds that the county operates now that lose money and we continue to pour money year after year in enterprise funds. At some point in time he thinks the BOCC has to make a decision that they can’t afford to do that anymore. Ms. Outlaw said she agreed with some of his comments but wanted to make one clarification: In her opinion, enterprise funds are not intended to make money for the County. Enterprise funds are intended to cover the expenses of that operation. We can’t take any profit that an enterprise funds generates and use it for a general fund operation. It just goes into the reserves in that account. With that said, there are some enterprise funds within the County that never have covered the expenditures within that particular fund. There are not many. The building enterprise fund was actually run in a deficit for the last 2 years, eating into reserves. If we were to have done nothing, at the end of 2011, that fund would be wiped out. Because of the last round of layoffs that went into effect on the third of April, that fund was balanced. But given what the property appraiser told her, she knows there is additional work to do, and most likely her recommendation to the board is going to be to outsource it. She’s gone from 53 employees to 12. You can’t go any further down and still run a meaningful operation, and that’s a discussion that will be had in a couple of weeks. The biggest enterprise fund that she’s most concerned about that has never operated as an enterprise fund, and she’s not quite certain why it was set up as an enterprise fund when it never really functioned as one, is going to be a major problem for the board to deal with because we have a long-term contractual agreement on that operation. When you look at how to get out of that legally binding contract, that’s going to be something they have to wrestle with. She has had a meeting with the principle involved with that operation, and tried to reason them into working with the County to cut down some of the expenditures by legal agreement we are bound to provide. And they’re not there yet, so that’s going to be an interesting discussion. The other enterprise fund that they have had problems with has been the golf course and everyone has seen the articles about what the board approved for replacement of the greens, which she wants to footnote that that money could not be used for anything but parks. It could not help us out on general fund side of the county. Her golf manager tells her, supported by the parks and rec direction that replacement of the greens will generate enough revenue to bring that fund into balance, as well. So going into strategic planning, she has one enterprise fund that is going to be a cantankerous discussion with the BOCC. Sheriff Mascara said his last comment was that the 57 other funds that the county has – there is a fund balance associated with each one of those. He asked for the total of those balances. Ms. Outlaw said the balances in those sub-funds are rolled up into her fund balance number. Ms. Outlaw said that last year’s total fund balance was in the ballpark of $236 million for all funds. The portion of that for the general fund was half of that. That was the $100 million number. Sheriff Mascara said he was bringing it to light because the state facing its economic crisis last year raided every one of those fund balances, swept them to a zero to balance their budget. He asked couldn’t she, in their economic times, take a small percentage of that fund balance from those accounts and balance the County budget for 2011/2012? Ms. Outlaw said she wasn’t going to say what she was going to do with her budget and what she was going to present to the BOCC. She said she was looking at every single fund within the County. She has spent countless hours bottom-scrubbing because she is literally going through every one of the major funds and the sub-funds and is going to first present that information to the Board of County Commissioners, and not to the Sheriff. Commissioner Dzadovsky said that the public tells him all the time that we have duplication of services, whether it be road crews in the cities of Fort Pierce and Port St Lucie and the county, whether it be drainage issues or law enforcement. We have three law enforcement agencies in the County. He said he had asked the Sheriff in Strategic Planning what would happen if the Sheriff’s Department became like the Fire District in that we had one law enforcement agency for the entire County and it was its own taxing district so that instead of having a situation where the Sheriff’s office was dealing with the County, they would go to their own board about millage increases or decreases. He asked the Sheriff if that was an option, and whether he had investigated it. The city of Fort Pierce has a deficit with their police department, and 62 officers are being laid off in Port St Lucie due to a huge deficit there, too. So the question he gets from the public is “Why aren’t we consolidating these agencies?” Sheriff Mascara responded that when the County was formed, the Sheriff was the chief law enforcement officer. When cities are chartered, they have the option of creating their own police departments. It does not matter that they do it or not – the Sheriff still has the responsibilities of control within the city and to respond to calls within the city if asked. He said they were called into Port St Lucie 10,000 times in 2009, even though they have their own police department. Now, they have their own city council since they are chartered, to do away with their police departments. If they do that, then they would ask the Sheriff’s department to contract for the services on a fee basis. He said he is not aware of any county that does this like the fire district with an MSTU tax, even though the city would contract with the Sheriff for services, the BOCC would still fund the Sheriff’s budget in that scenario – but it would be offset by the income that’s produced by contracting for services. Frannie Hutchinson said she had to correct the Sheriff that the Fire Board is not an MSTU, it’s a special district provided by the state of Florida. Commissioner Dzadovsky said the reason he brought it up is that if you look at Martin County’s fire system, they have fire departments in the city of Stuart, the County, and so forth, and it’s duplication of services and they end up covering the same fires. When we’re trying to find different ways to manage government, it keeps popping up that we have three law enforcement agencies. He said the Sheriff’s right in saying he has to cover the entire County regardless of the other two agencies – so should we be having that conversation with our local cities and say “it’s time – we’re in a time that we have to reinvent the wheel, especially our law enforcement officers. They are responsible for capital equipment, training, weaponry, protection devices they utilize, homeland security, unfunded mandates that come down from the federal and state levels are largely place on our law enforcement agencies as well. So when we’re thinking about solutions, he said he is still convinced that St Lucie County could create a law enforcement district not unlike the fire district. It would then take the political side out of the equation, the sheriff could ask his board, which would be made up largely by commissioners from each of the cities and a governor’s appointee, as is the fire district. It’s its own millage-setting agency, they’d have to argue their budget with their board and be responsible to the taxpayers there. The fire district is a perfect example of how you’re able to use all those assets. Frannie Hutchinson spoke (volume too low). The Sheriff said last year the Fort Pierce city council asked him to come in and do a presentation about contracting for their services. Last year the police department’s budget was just over $11 million and the Sheriff’s quick review of the entire operation came in at just under $7 million to do a job. That’s over a 35% savings. Mr. Mundt asked if the Port St Lucie department would be in the same ballpark. Sheriff Mascara said he would assume so. Consolidating the administrative functions would save a tremendous amount of money. Mr. Hammer said if there are standalone operations, it’s important that the residents have a say. But when it comes to budgeting, the residents ought to vote up or down on the budgets for those individual agencies rather than just having them pay the bill. Commissioner Dzadovsky said it would be an administrative nightmare to figure out how to get 272,000 people to vote on a budget. We can’t get people to the polls to vote for a President, and in an off year it’s worse. The last election was 10%. So to get people to the polls to vote on a budget item is difficult. Mr. Hammer said that he spoke with Gertrude Walker and tat one of the things that is an additional expense and should be corrected is having so many separate elections – each one is very costly. The School District, etc. should have elections in November along with the major elections going forward. They do a great job in the Elections office but there are ways to cut costs by using common sense with election times. Commissioner Dzadovsky agreed. He asked if there were other questions. Mr. Mundt said he wanted to take a straw poll to see how everyone felt about rollback rate, and maybe not today, but to talk about discretionary operations within the County, and maybe today isn’t the day to say libraries vs. art in public places or those types of things, but he’s looking at the rollback rate. Commissioner Dzadovsky asked who wants no tax increase and continue to cut everything. The second is in between – continue to streamline but also take a slight increase in millage rate. The last is to go with the full rollup rate and maintain services. Mr. Mundt said he would support the last but he didn’t think Ms. Outlaw could get there with only the rollback rate. One member said the middle line. Mr. Hammer said none of the above because this isn’t a representative group. Commissioner Dzadovsky said it was just a straw poll and a way to see where they are and what they want. Mr. Bangert said he thinks we’re past the big down slope in property values. Commissioner Dzadovsky said maybe in residential but not necessarily true in commercial. Ms. Outlaw said the reality is that the County has scaled back the staff, starting with layoffs in 2008, and that we are at the point where we will actually be closing down certain programs and cutting services. She said using the library as an example, w were operating the Fort Pierce 2-story library with sometimes just 2 staff members there and that’s just a dangerous situation if something were to happen. If one goes to lunch there’s just one person there operating a 2-story library. They had the library manager and the staff foregoing their lunch hours and rolling around to try and over the libraries. She said she couldn’t in good conscience continue to put the staff in that situation, or the public in that situation, so we are at the point where she can’t recommend continuation of a program at a scaled back level. Her recommendation now has to be elevated to the next level where you stop providing a program of services because we’re already operating with a skeleton crew. You will see that progression with other operations within the county. A member asked how many days a week the library is open at this point. th Ms. Outlaw said they are open six days of the week at this point, but effective June 6 they will start being open 5 days a week. All libraries will be closed on Sundays and Mondays – one late hour day till 8 pm per week. Mark Boston would like the figure of the total mandates that the county’s paying per the state. He also thanked the BOCC for the traffic light at Nettles Island. ITEM #6 OLD BUSINESS Commissioner Dzadovsky asked if there was any old business to discuss. There was none. ITEM #7 NEW BUSINESS Mr. Hammer said he had thoughts on long term planning for the budget and would bring it up in the future. Mr. Ferrick said he wanted to talk about the rollback and taxes. He said that if you skip dinner once a month for a year, you have the money for the additional taxes for a $150,000 house – or skip two packs of cigarettes a month – if you don’t smoke there are other things, like 5 less coffees a month – in a year’s time you’ve got your money. He said the reason he’s bringing this up is more for the SROs – we are going to lose some, and maybe lose them all eventually . The tape ran out at this point. It was decided to have representatives from the School Board make a presentation and answer th questions at the next meeting, which will be held Wednesday, June 9 at 10 AM. The July meeting date will have to be changed due to Budget Workshops. st The July meeting will be held on the third Wednesday that month, which is July 21. The meeting was then adjourned. Respectfully submitted by Terri Ann Palumbo, Executive Aide to Commissioner Dzadovsky