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HomeMy WebLinkAbout_2006 06 05 City Commission Special Minutes CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING JUNE 5, 2006 CALL TO ORDER The Special Meeting of Monday, June 5, 2006 of the City Commission was called to order by Mayor John F. Bush at 6:35 p.m. in the Commission Chambers of the Municipal Building (City Hall, 1126 East State Road 434, Winter Springs, Florida 32708). Roll Call: Mayor John F. Bush, present Deputy Mayor Michael S. Blake, present Commissioner Robert S. Miller, absent Commissioner Donald A. Gilmore, present Commissioner Sally McGinnis, present Commissioner Joanne M. Krebs, present City Manager Ronald W. McLemore, absent Director Of Utility/Public Works Department Kip Lockcuff, present City Attorney Anthony A. Garganese, arrived at 6:36 p.m. The Pledge of Allegiance was followed by a moment of silence. City Attorney Anthony A. Garganese, arrived at 6:36 p.m. REGULAR AGENDA REGULAR 300. Office Of The Mayor Asking The City Commission To Meet With The New Owners Of The Winter Springs Golf Course. Mayor Bush welcomed the new owner of the Winter Springs Golf Course. Mr. Christopher C. Cathcart, Attorney At Law, Ossinsky & Cathcart, P.A., 2699 Lee Road, Suite 101, Winter Park, Florida: introduced himself as the Attorney representing the Los Lagos Winter Springs LLC, the Corporation that purchased the Golf Course. Mr. Arman Rahbarian, Post Office Box 216177, Sacramento, California: was introduced as the Purchaser of the Winter Springs Golf Course. CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING - JUNE 5, 2006 PAGE20F7 Mayor Bush pointed out to Mr. Cathcart that "On your Incorporation papers, you have put down the address of the Golf Course as the address of your office - you put 'Winter Springs' instead of 'Winter Park'. You might want to correct that." Mr. Cathcart stated, "Thank you." Mayor Bush noted, "For the benefit of the public, Arman [Rahbarian] is the purchaser, and Mr. Cathcart, I don't know if he is an investor or not, but he is the Attorney that represents the Los Lagos Winter Springs LLC, I believe, is the Corporation that actually purchased the [Golf] Course. Is that correct?" Mr. Rahbarian stated, "That's correct." Mr. Rahbarian then remarked, "In a short period of time, we did not finish up as far as doing a complete - our due diligence; so, we decided to go ahead and - purchase the property; and go towards - remodeling the property as much as we can and come up with a better idea during the - near future to work with the community, work with the City- come up with a better idea to develop this - work with the City very closely to make this a better cash positive value. Make it - financially viable for us as an investor and for the City at the same time; also better for the community at the same time. So, that's what we chose to do." With discussion, Deputy Mayor Blake stated, "I received an email from someone. I don't know if they are in the City or out of the City, or what they know or what they don't know; but, this email, and I don't know if you have seen it, references a redevelopment of a part of the property into a Gentleman's Club? Could you address that at all?" Mr. Cathcart said, "We have no intentions whatsoever, doing something like that." Deputy Mayor Blake said, "I really felt that was the case, but I thought it would be important to have that on the Record right up front here so that we can talk about the very positive aspects - with you and your client and what the investors are planning to do with this property." Commissioner Sally McGinnis thanked the visitors for coming to the Meeting and spoke for the Record on giving food to the Grove Counseling Center. Next, Commissioner McGinnis noted her concern about, "The maintenance of the grounds, particularly - the fairways, greens - the property that abuts to private homes." Mr. Cathcart stated, "We, of course, haven't done a full study of what we're going to do with the course, and maybe we relocate holes and - there's different things we're going to be looking at, that we haven't had a full opportunity to do. But, in the interim, we plan on maintaining the Golf Course as best we can with the mowing and keeping it at the proper levels." Commissioner McGinnis stated, "Very good." CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING - JUNE 5, 2006 PAGE30F7 Furthermore, Commissioner McGinnis remarked, "There are some people that - bought a Membership, what happens to that Membership?" Mr. Cathcart responded, "As part of the Closing, we asked them to refund those people their money. So, if those people need assistance with finding out who to contact, 1 have that information with me tonight if somebody needs it. So, they should first try to get monies returned from those people, the sellers, and if that does not work - and if they can present to us with some type of proof that they have prepaid, we'll be happy to talk to them about refunding some of that ourselves." Commissioner McGinnis asked, "How would they know how to get in touch with the previous owners?" Mr. Cathcart asked, "I can tell you that right now..." Mayor Bush stated, "...Just give it to the Clerk [Andrea Lorenzo-Luaces]." Mr. Cathcart added, "This is the card of Greg Christovich, who was the person in charge of the Management Company that ran the Golf Course. He served as the Agent for the Bane of America Strategic Solutions, who was the prior owner." Mr. Cathcart also stated, "That was our contact prior to purchasing." Commissioner McGinnis asked, "Do you have an estimated time frame here? Are we talking a year, nine (9) months, a year and a half?" Mr. Cathcart responded, "We'll know better in a few months, after we've had a chance to get with our Planners. But, yes, it could be up to nine (9) months to a year." Mayor Bush said to Mr. Cathcart, "I noticed that you now have security on the [Golf] Course?" Mr. Cathcart stated, "Yes, we have hired a private security company now to assist us with keeping people off, that may think it's still an open Golf Course. As you know, it's private property and we would like to get things figured out and in the interim, we would like people to stay off as much as possible." Commissioner Joanne M. Krebs inquired, "Are you planning, or have you any plans, or are you thinking about doing anything other than a Golf Course or Mixed-Use there?" Mr. Cathcart stated, "As you know, we're a private company. We would like to have a profitable venture here. And, we don't know exactly what the best use, as far as we're concerned, for the property is. We want to try to have a golfing facility there. That's our ultimate goal." Mayor Bush said, "Are you looking into doing any commercial along [State Road] 434 there?" Mr. Cathcart responded, "We haven't fully looked at it, so we're not positive what the best use that we want to use for it is, at this point. We were somewhat forced to close quickly on this. And, while we've done a full review of the Title, we've seen some ofthe numbers that the Bank had, and the prior owners had, as far as profitability. We've seen the Report - where the Report said it was going to take six hundred fifty thousand dollars ($650,000.00) to fix it up and even then you wouldn't make a profit until 201 0." CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING - JUNE 5,2006 PAGE40F7 Next, Mayor Bush stated, "Our Manager actually responded to that Report with a follow up and Andrea [Lorenzo-Luaces], you might make sure they get a copy of the Manager's response." Mr. Cathcart stated, "We have not seen that." Mayor Bush continued, "Basically, he was saying that if the City were involved, they would have to set aside funds in case another hurricane hit, for clean up." Mayor Bush added, "You might take a look at that - that was written back to the Consultant. And the Commissioners have all seen it, it is a Public Record." Commissioner Donald A. Gilmore stated, "I heard with interest when you said, our desire is to have some kind of a golf facility. That could mean anything." Commissioner Gilmore added, "What does this really mean?" Mr. Cathcart stated, "At this point, we haven't owned the property more than a week. And, we really haven't sat down and made a full determination of what would be the best way. It may be a driving range, it may be different things. But, we want to have a golfing facility there. That's our ultimate goal." Commissioner Gilmore then said, "So, it could be something other than a - eighteen (18) hole Golf Course?" Mr. Cathcart stated, "It could be many things. We're limited as far as what can be there. As the Commissioner stated, there's a Conservation Easement on the property. So, at this point, we wanted to sit down and look at it before we make the final decision to move ahead." Discussion. Regarding the purchase of the property, Commissioner Krebs asked, "What was the intention then? If you were just hoping that you can keep it as a Golf Course? Or, you read a Report that made you not sure, but you bought it anyway?" Mr. Cathcart stated, "We're private individuals that purchased - this property subject to the restrictions. And, there are many reasons to buy a property. We want to make it profitable for us. And, we also wanted it to be something that is good for the community, as best we can. And, we may not know exactly what we want to do with the property, it was a good buy when we bought it. We knew all the downside of it; but, ultimately, this property has been - the Golf Course has been subsidized for a long time; losing money. The Bank had it last, they weren't making money at it, and they had professionals in there running it. So, we had to figure how to get more people either to play golf or to pay more money to play golf. And, we just can't just sit here and decide that right this second, within a week. We've just got to have more time. I don't mean to be putting you off or trying to hide the ball or anything, we just need some time to sit down and analyze what's the best way to go forward." CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING - JUNE 5, 2006 PAGE50F7 Commissioner Krebs said, "What you told me was, you had bought a piece of property that was once a Golf Course and now you're not sure that is what it should be anymore and you really don't know what it should be, but it was a good buy, so for now - I am directly asking - intentions, when you bought it did you intend it to be a Golf Course?" Commissioner Krebs added, "Or, did you buy it on spec?" Mr. Cathcart said, "Our ultimate goal is to have it be a golfing facility." With further discussion, Deputy Mayor Blake stated, "I don't know if you can make it work as a Golf Course or not, either. But, there is some commercial area up front, that has been pointed out, and that property is zoned such that, I think that there may be some potential there for you. But, once you get off of [State Road] 434, all of that area needs to be retained as green area. And, hopefully you will be able to find a way to operate it as a Golf Course. And, hopefully you'll be able to do that at a very high level and make money while doing it also. I think everybody here is behind you, everybody in the room hopes that you make a lot of money operating this space as a Golf Course. But, I think the signal that someone is trying to send, or perhaps all of us are trying to send is, Conservation Easement's in place, and it's not going away." Brief discussion. Mayor Bush said, "As - you can tell - this Commission, as well as, I think everybody who is sitting here, we want to see it stay a Golf Course. And, we would like to see it upgraded - we knew they had some drainage problems; we know they have some trees that needed to be removed. There are a lot of things." Furthermore, Mayor Bush noted, "I think you can be assured that the Commission will work with you as much as we possibly can to help you achieve keeping this as a Golf Course." Discussion. Commissioner McGinnis said, "I would like for you to keep us informed. Updates, periodically, would be appreciated - 'Three (3) months - this is where we are and this is what we've done'." Mayor Bush asked Mr. Cathcart, "Would you be the contact person on this, if any of the Commission had any further questions?" Mr. Cathcart answered, "I'm local, I'm in Winter Park, feel free to contact me any time." Mayor Bush added, "Also, for the benefit of any of the citizens who were members and wanted to know how to try to get a refund, if you'll contact the Clerk, she can give you Greg Christovich's information. And then, let us know how it goes. If you have trouble, then we will give you Mr. Cathcart's information as well." CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING - JUNE 5, 2006 PAGE 6 OF 7 Mr. Kip Lockcuff, P.E., Director, Utility/Public Works Department stated, "I was just going to comment about the Reclaimed Water Agreement. As you are aware, it didn't get done with the Bank. I don't know how much of that information made it to you. But, I encourage you to contact the City Manager in the coming months and go over that - the Commission set some parameters to work from." Mayor Bush said, "Kip Lockcuff, he probably would be the contact person that you would have on issues with water, for instance. Maybe Andrea [Lorenzo-Luaces], if you will send Mr. Cathcart the information on the Reclaimed Water issue, both - the Commission's action and the letter we just recently got from the Bank about that, so he has those copies." In other City business and specifically regarding the Leadership of Seminole, Class of 2007, Commissioner McGinnis said, "I have been nominated by the Mayor and the Grove [Counseling Center] to participate in that and I was honored. I gave it a lot of thought. However, I do think that it is more appropriate that we send a Staff person. I think this is just a great opportunity to send a Department Head. Kip [Lockcuff], I would ask you to weigh in on this." Mr. Lockcuff stated, "I think that would be more appropriate for Ron [McLemore] to speak to, than me." Mayor Bush said to Mr. Lockcuff, "Would you bring it up to him then, when he gets back?" Commissioner McGinnis added, 'I even have an Application; I will give it to you." Attorney Garganese said, "We'll be contacting you because we need to schedule an Attorney-Client Session to consider the City's position regarding the Charter Amendment Lawsuit. My preference would be, because Ron {McLemore} won't be back until later on this week, is to have it in the morning, next Monday, if that's okay with the Commissioners?" Attorney Garganese stated, "Monday is actually the last - day of a filing deadline. " With further discussion, Mayor Bush asked Commissioner Krebs, "Can you make Monday morning?" Commissioner Krebs responded, "Yes." Deputy Mayor Blake stated regarding hold this Attorney-Client Session on Monday, June 12,2006 at "8:00 [a.m.}?" Mayor Bush asked Commissioner McGinnis, "Eight o'clock?" Commissioner McGinnis stated, "That is fine." No objections were voiced. Mayor Bush then said, "You will contact Commissioner Miller?" Mayor Bush remarked, "We will meet here at 8:00 [a.m.} and then we will go to the Conference Room. " CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING - JUNE 5, 2006 PAGE70F7 ADJOURNMENT Mayor Bush adjourned the Special Meeting at 7:12 p.m. RESPECTFULLYSUBAfITTED: DEBBIE FRANKLIN, DEPUTY CITY CLERK II LORENZO-LUACES, CAfC LERK _'J>~ - _. '~ , NOTE: These Minutes were approved at the June 12,2006 Regular City Commission Meeting.