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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 06-09-2010 ST LUCIE COUNTY PROPERTY AND HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION Minutes of June 9, 2010 Meeting Convened: 10 am Adjourned: 11.45 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. Present: Kathleen Ivins – River Park Homeowners Association Patricia Ferrick – North Fork Property Owners John Ferrick - “ “ Tim Bargeron – Resource Presenter for School District Bob Bangert – Holiday Pines Kit Linberger – Palm Grove Andy Stark – Palm Grove Gary Gonsalves – Sheriff's Office Mark Godwin – Criminal Justice Coordinator Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky Terri Ann Palumbo, Executive Aide to Commissioner Dzadovsky Toni Trabolsi – Coalition Sandpiper Bay Eva O'Donnell – Commissioner Craft's Executive Aide Frannie Hutchinson Paul Hiott Mark Boston – Florida Alliance Retired Americans, Area Vice-President Faye Outlaw, County Administrator 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 May 12, 2010 minutes. Approval was moved and seconded and passed unanimously by a voice vote. ITEM #3 – ST LUCIE COUNTY SHERIFF’S REPORT Deputy Gonsalves reported People calling 911 has been very helpful in terms of more arrests, particularly in foreclosed homes with appliances, pipes, etc. being stolen. Deputies are being pro-active, particularly in the evening hours and at commercial areas. He said that they do ticket people speeding through school zones. He said that he would tell the Traffic Supervisor about members' complaints about speeding on Virginia at 13th and 25th Streets, as well as by the middle school. A member asked about internet fraud, that she got an email supposedly from SunTrust Bank, which was illegitimate. Deputy Gonsalves said any time someone asks for your account number or PIN, it's a dead giveaway, because a bank would already have that information on its customers. There are still people who fall for it. He said that even the Sheriff's Office has gotten some spoof emails saying there are packages to be delivered from UPS. He said rather than call the number in an email, it's better to call the original number you have from your credit card company or bank and ask them if the email is legitimate. Commissioner Dzadovsky asked if the Sheriff's Office could schedule a meeting with HOAs about email fraud, and Deputy Gonsalves said they've done that. Mr. Banger said that he read I-95 is the most dangerous road in the country but he never sees anyone pulled over. Deputy Gonsalves said FHP pulls people over all the time. Commissioner Dzadovsky said that over the weekend a number of Sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement were out in force along Dynamite Point, North Beach – there were thousands of people out there and that people were thankful for their presence and a job well done. Deputy Gonsalves said in some unincorporated areas of Fort Pierce, they'd be saturating the area particularly in parks and community centers looking for persons trying to sell drugs. He and the traffic unit and K9 units will be out on weekends when school is out. ITEM 4 – ST LUCIE COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT REPORT Catherine Chaney was not present. ITEM #5 GUEST SPEAKER – Mark Godwin, Criminal Justice Coordinator Mark Godwin introduced himself and measures his Criminal Justice office is trying to initiate to offset the County budget in the fine and forfeiture area that deals with the Sheriff's cost of maintaining inmates. He works with the court system in detail. He asked people to email him and he would send them a fantastic website that shows caseload details, everything about the inmate population and who's in jail. It shows the daily population reports, when officers were out doing sweeps, average length of stay, top 25 inmates who have been in there the longest waiting to go to trial. Courts can't move the cases fast enough. There is a feature where the inmate population can be searched, as well as judge's calendar. They look at cases coming into the court system vs. cases that are being cleared. They never catch up. They can't move enough cases and bring in enough judges from outside the area. The website is https://slccjis.stlucieco.gov/cjis_stats/ There is a drug screening lab at the courthouse that is $20 per test. The judges like this program because there are many people who have to be tested often, sometimes daily, to be sure they're not on drugs or alcohol. With more frequent testing, drug users will stop using because they know they'll get caught. They can run tests within 15 minutes now. They test for 11 different types of drugs including oxycontin, which is the number one drug of choice here. Now there are more positive results on oxycontin than for marijuana, which is the first time he's seen that in 30 years working in the criminal justice system. They also test for methamphetamines. Parents also bring their children down before giving them the keys to the car, etc. Juvenile drug courts, adult drug courts and mental health courts are all in place as specialty courts now to help the work cases and hopefully be successful. He also talked about the pre-trial program, which only has 8 staffers who work 24/7. Some work in the courts, some work at nights and weekends – they rotate. They check on people who are on ankle bracelets. These are for individuals who are low risk or need to be guarded but if they bond out of jail the judge wants an extra level of security to keep them under house arrest. There are 27 satellites they connect to, and can actually put a border around the offender's house, and every block – and if they are not supposed to have alcohol, perimeters can be set up around liquor stores. Most importantly they're using them in domestic violence cases to make sure the victim's house and work have a perimeter sometimes up to 5 miles so that if the individual goes near the victim's house all the bells and whistles go off and law enforcement and his staff can respond. Commissioner Dzadovsky asked if bondsmen do this for offenders who are not part of the pre-trial release program. Mr. Godwin said he doesn't know of any bondsmen who do that. Mr. Godwin said that the most important part is that in 2009, as a result of people being on ankle bracelets in lieu of being in jail, they saved 50,000 bed days in the county jail, which comes to $3 million in 2009 savings. So far this year, the first quarter through March, we've saved 12,593 bed days, which comes to $755,580. Those are indirect costs being saved – they do not come out of the Sheriff's budget to reduce his jail costs, but we have jail costs that are $29 million, but that doesn't include everything. The facilities are $1.8 million, and inmate medical costs are estimated at $4 million outside and $4 million inside, so it's pushing about $36 million total for the inmate population for jails. Commissioner Dzadovsky said these costs that aren't the Sheriff's budget are the County's budget paid by the taxpayers, so when we talk about different budgets, although the Sheriff owns the jail, the County is responsible for the infrastructure, the medical, and that type of thing. Mr. Godwin said there were 3 cases where inmates needed surgery. One was a woman who has a broken finger. The doctor said she needed surgery. Lawnwood charges 400% above Medicaid for that surgery. So, if that surgery would normally cost $20,000, it will cost the County $80,000. If she were out on GPS, it would cost the County nothing for her surgery, because she could go in with her Medicaid card and get the surgery from Medicaid benefits. Another has a skin cancer needing surgery, and another had a back issue that required outside surgery. His office is looking at all three of them to get them out of jail because of the high costs of their surgeries. Those are direct cash savings to the taxpayers. Commissioner Dzadovsky said we have to pay attention to what happens on the state legislature side because of the unfunded mandates that come down to us and costs that are passed on to us. Almost every county wanted the legislature to pass legislation that limited jail medical costs at the Medicaid rate. Mr. Godwin said that on June 24th there is a Public Safety meeting with four counties, and the four chairs of the County Commissions, the four sheriffs, the legislative delegation that encompasses four counties. There will be a presentation on all the bills that were proposed and the ones that did pass. Mrs. Ferrick mentioned that there's a commercial that says to call the Attorney General's office to report the 400% above Medicaid costs as fraud. She said she was told to call Medicare, submit what they paid and what they didn't pay to the Attorney General's office and they'd take a look at it. Commissioner Dzadovsky said there are still ongoing negotiations with the local hospital. Ms. Outlaw commented said that at this point they don't have a negotiated fee with Lawnwood but they are trying. Mr. Boston asked about the other hospitals. Mr. Godwin said if the inmate has an acute emergency, by law, they have to be transported to the closest hospital. He said he'd be willing to do presentations at Homeowners Association meetings at any time. ITEM #5A – GUEST SPEAKER: Tim Bargeron, Asst. Superintendent for Business Services, St. Lucie County Public Schools Mr. Bargeron said he had a PowerPoint and that he'd be happy to send any copies to anyone requesting them –he brought business cards to hand out. He's been the Asst. Superintendent for Business Services for the last 8 years. In the private sector that would equate to a CFO position. Prior to that he was with KPMG. His wife is a teacher. He gave a presentation to put information into more generally understood presentations because there are a lot of acronyms that get thrown about. The school district's annual budget is about $500 million, including the operating budget, capital outlay and debt service. His presentation covered the district overall. He said there is a ballot amendment to try and cap class sizes at a school average, so it would be calculated as a school average instead of each individual classroom, which would be a good thing financially and from a parent and teacher perspective. There have been significant reductions in their utility costs due to installing automatic light shut-offs, revamping cooling systems to lower rates, etc. Class size reduction at the classroom level is very expensive. They are budgeting $13 million in teacher salaries that must be hired if classrooms get split up. The legislature passed a mandatory increase in Florida retirement system contributions of $1.6 million to the school district. The additional expenditure requirements from the state make it very difficult for the school system. Lottery dollars for 2010/2011 were $1.3 billion for the state education enhancement fund. $319 million of that goes to debt service. $981 million is left. $230 million goes to universities, which leaves $750 million. $120 million goes to community colleges. Bright Futures scholarships and other financial aid gets $370 million. $250 million goes to public schools – Awards and school recognition bonuses take the largest chunk of that ($129 million). The district has no control over that money – it cannot use it for any other expenditures. The legislature is not funding class size operational expenditures fully. $9 million is left to finance public schools with no strings attached. It amounts to $3.42 a student per year from the lottery funds that actually come to the district at all. The school district has a plan to pull in funds from a capital outlay bank account but that's a non- recurring option. Federal stimulus dollars go away at the end of this year. Expenditures are trending down with the revenues because they have to. Projected increases in health insurance costs could potentially be passed on to the employees. Collective bargaining agreements and unions will not ratify a shift in health care costs to their members so that will be an imposed change. The millage rate for the school district has slightly increased over the last four years. RLE = Required Local Effort (required by the state legislature). If the school district didn't levy what the state required them to levy, they wouldn't get any extra state money to bring them up to the state average on student funding. If millage rates increase but taxable rates decline, the revenue is adversely affected. There are declining revenue streams at both state and local levels. The local school board can't do anything about it because their hands are tied due to millage rates being capped, and they have mandatory expenditure increases. The legislature determines what the revenue stream is going to be each year. The school district will have to pay people less, particularly if they have to have a certain number of employees by state mandates. The real concern is that they will start losing some quality resources. This is a statewide problem, not just a problem for St Lucie County’s school district. There are no direct costs to the school board for FCAT but there are costs that trickle down. There is concern about the current ability to maintain SROs/SRDs. Commissioner Dzadovsky talked about the County’s commitment to the SRO program. At $1.2 million the County has put up for the SROs, and the school district was unable to participate in last year’s budget, Commissioner Coward found an alternative to move funding from one millage area that was capable of maintaining services at that millage rate with a reduction while increasing millage at another side to find $1.6 million. So the County not only maintained its funding for SROs, but added another $1.6 million for a total contribution of $3.8 million. It also picked up a portion of Port St Lucie and the total loss from the city of Fort Pierce. Faye Outlaw said it was a shift of millage from the unincorporated MSTU to the law enforcement MSTU. Commissioner Dzadovsky said he wanted everyone to understand that the county has always been a partner in the SROs. The three partners that were with the County are no longer there, Commissioner Dzadovsky stated, so it is down to the County and the Sheriff’s office. Mr. Bargeron said they were not sure about Port St Lucie. They do not have any SROs or SRDs contracted for 2011. Commissioner Dzadovsky said that as part of the solutions from last year, there was a specific millage discussed that would have to be a referendum approved by voters to have a continuous funding source. He asked Mr. Bargeron if that had ever gone any further. Mr. Bargeron said he wasn’t aware of any work going toward that special taxing district. Commissioner Dzadovsky asked him to take that back to the school board and have that information so it could be looked at as an option. We have to find continuous funding source that could be strictly designated and remove the politics from the issue, and get the voters a chance to vote. Another option he’s talked about is creating a law enforcement district, not unlike the fire district, which is its own agency and its own taxing district. We need to talk to local officials to get the law enforcement groups to see if they would even sit down together and have that conversation. Mr. Bargeron said he would do whatever was needed to provide information, and provided his telephone number and email address. ITEM #6 OLD BUSINESS Commissioner Dzadovsky asked if there was any old business to discuss. There was none. ITEM #7 NEW BUSINESS Commissioner Dzadovsky reminded the group that the next meeting will be on July 21 because of budget workshops. Mrs. Ferrick talked about the flooding situation in St Lucie County. She has asked for help every year since 1985. She said Commissioner Dzadovsky mentioned doing something about flooding at the last workshop about the comp plan, wanting to talk about water going into the river based on nutrient load and flooding situations. She said there is a way to correct the problems. She asked the Homeowners Association to pass a resolution to give to Commissioner Dzadovsky to take to the BOCC that will mandate the statutes that already are and the land use and the comp plan regarding flooding. The amendment has to say that the flood prevention ordinance is amended to meet the requirements of the State of Florida’s model code on flood prevention. If we amend the land use code and comp plan, we will be able to put into place the state model for flood management, which St Lucie County has not adopted. She said that this will take care of a lot of flooding problems and put into the code level that we meet the federal management practice for flood plains and flood hazard areas. What happens now is that the County has an ordinance that states you may build at or above the flood plain level for the County. Most developers are too cheap to add the extra foot of fill so they are building at instead of above, Mrs. Ferrick stated. The state model code does not state at or above. She said she is asking the BOCC to support changing the ordinance to make it inclusive for the model code and the federal management system for flood plains. She has been flooded over the years. When waters come to fast, they go up because they have nowhere else to go. She has been flooded in 1985, 2004 and 2008. The Army Corps of Engineers decided our attenuation facility is not to standard and could leak if it had a problem, so they released the attenuation facility floodwaters at the same time the north St Lucie River Control did, and at the same time Fort Pierce Farms and other city entities did. All the water was released at one time and we flooded all over St. Lucie County. Her property is at plus 11. She came within 2 feet this time of being flooded inside her house even though she is at plus 11. She said we need to make sure we are not filling in our flood plains. This is the kind of year where we can get flooded and our water has no place to go. The north fork of the St Lucie River is the main drain because of gravity flow, coming from the east and from the west into the north fork and then it spreads out if the north fork is full. She said that we can’t dig the ditches that are dug because of South Florida and environmental restraints so we need to amend the ordinances to try and alleviate some of the problems. Commissioner Dzadovsky asked if she’d be willing to hold off on a resolution until next month’s meeting so that Growth Management and Public Works can provide background from a government standpoint for more information and answer questions. Mrs. Ferrick said that Growth Management had recommended adopting the model code from the state of Florida but it never went anyplace. She said the code states you must build above – not at, but above – the flood plain level. She said they’ve been looking at it since 1985. She said there is case law that states if the County passes an ordinance and it is greater than any existing ordinance, it supersedes the existing one because it is greater for the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the community. Al Rivett wondered if the meeting could include an update of 10 Mile Creek also. Mrs. Ferrick said there’s been a conclusion that the Corps is now going to be the place to call when water releases are done in any given district. If that is the fact, our ordinance needs to state that. Commissioner Dzadovsky said there was about $25 million spent in creating the reservoir but there was an engineering flaw that undermined the actual facility itself. The fix would be another $25 million. So anything that was going to be used for that has now been pulled aside for the Florida Crystals as well as to re-manage the water to the south. Mrs. Ferrick said her husband worked on the fixing of the dike for FPL. Had they used the same mechanism that they used when that leaked, they wouldn’t have had to go back and fix the other attenuation facility. Commissioner Dzadovsky thanked everyone. The meeting was then adjourned. Respectfully submitted by Terri Ann Palumbo, Executive Aide to Commissioner Dzadovsky