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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012 01 18 Consent 200 Requesting Approval of the TLBD Regular Meeting Minutes of October 19, 2011 CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES TUSCAWILLA LIGHTING AND BEAUTIFICATION DISTRICT ADVISORY COMMITTEE '"0 REGULAR MEETING "0 OCTOBER 19, 2011 CALL TO ORDER The Regular Meeting of Wednesday, October 19, 2011 of the Tuscawilla Lighting and Beautification District Advisory Committee was called to Order by Chairperson Mary Brook at 7:00 p.m. in the Commission Chambers of the Municipal Building (City Hall, 1126 East State Road 434, Winter Springs, Florida 32708). Roll Call: Chairperson Mary Brook, present Vice Chairperson Helen Baker, present Committee Member Luci Coker, present Committee Member Donald Gilmore, present Committee Member Carolyn Wolf, present A moment of silence was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Chairperson Brook recognized Mayor Charles Lacey, City Manager Kevin L. Smith and Mr. Shawn Boyle, Director, Finance and Administrative Services Department as being present. INFORMATIONAL AGENDA INFORMATIONAL 100. Not Used CONSENT AGENDA CONSENT 200. Office Of The City Clerk Requesting Approval Of The July 20, 2011 Tuscawilla Lighting And Beautification District Advisory Committee Regular Meeting Minutes. "I MAKE A MOTION TO ACCEPT THE JULY 20, 2011 MINUTES." MOTION BY ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBER COKER. SECONDED BY ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBER WOLF. DISCUSSION. CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES TUSCAWILLA LIGHTING AND BEAUTIFICATION DISTRICT ADVISORY COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING - JULY 20, 2011 PAGE2OF9 VOTE: CHAIRPERSON BROOK: AYE VICE CHAIRPERSON BAKER: AYE COMMITTEE MEMBER COKER: AYE COMMITTEE MEMBER GILMORE: AYE COMMITTEE MEMBER WOLF: AYE MOTION CARRIED. AWARDS AND PRESENTATIONS AWARDS AND PRESENTATIONS 300. Not Used 400. REPORTS No Reports were given. PUBLIC INPUT Mayor Lacey was called upon to speak regarding an Agenda Item that was discussed and Approved by City Commission referencing Resolution 2011 -54. Mayor Lacey remarked, "I wanted to be sure that we are all on the same page about the Debt Financing and how it came about. At our last meeting, we had this on the Consent Agenda for the City Commission and it was Approved — without much discussion — so, it was a non - controversial item." Furthermore, Mayor Lacey noted that by the conclusion of the City Commission meeting, a Tuscawilla Lighting and Beautification Assessment District Advisory Committee members addressed the City Commission about the item and "It turned very controversial and that is very regrettable because that was certainly never the intent. It was not viewed to be that way. And the problem is that apparently the Commission and the TLBD[AC] (Tuscawilla Lighting and Beautification District Advisory Committee) did not have adequate communication about how this refinancing was happening." Mayor Lacey then mentioned that a few months ago, Chairperson Brook had taken him through the Tuscawilla community to point out concerns and issues related to the Tuscawilla Lighting and Beautification District. CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES TUSCAWILLA LIGHTING AND BEAUTIFICATION DISTRICT ADVISORY COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING - JULY 20, 2011 PAGE3OF9 With further comments, Mayor Lacey noted, "And then at our Budget preparation for this year b the request was put forward for the TLBD (Tuscawilla Lighting and Beautification District) Assessment — to go from one hundred twenty [dollars] ($120.00) to one hundred twenty - eight [dollars] ($128.00). For a variety of reasons, the Commission made the decision to leave it at one hundred twenty dollars ($120.00) per year." Mayor Lacey added, "It was felt that since Shawn (Boyle) has come on with the City, and with Kevin's (Smith) assistance we have done a job of picking through every budget item in the City to try to reduce expenses to the absolute minimum as possible; and we appreciate everything that this Board has done and that Steven (Richart, Urban Beautification Services Division Manager, Community Development Department) has done to do that. With further comments, Mayor Lacey noted, "We made a couple of decisions, one (1), I mentioned to keep the rate down in the one hundred twenty dollar ($120.00) range, but the other was to specifically task Mr. Boyle to go off to see what he could do to try to find savings in the area of financing of debt. From my point of view, I made a commitment to Mrs. Brook that we were going to try to do that; to save money for the TLBD (Tuscawilla Lighting and Beautification District). So, when Shawn (Boyle) came back to say that he had looked at that and had come up with some successful strategies for doing that, I felt like it was completely in -line with what we had discussed and I was very happy to hear that. It did not occur to me, at that point — that we were doing anything out of the ordinary that triggered a belief on our part that we needed to call a Special meeting of the TLBD[AC] (Tuscawilla Lighting and Beautification District Advisory Committee) to inform you. I assure you, no slight intended whatsoever to the work that this Board is doing." Mayor Lacey pointed out, "We want to make absolutely certain that you do not think that there is any intent by the City Commission, the Mayor, or the City Manager to give any insult to the work that this Board is doing." Manager Smith stated, "I have spoken to the Chair about this topic that the Mayor just discussed, but as you all know, I have not spoken to you all; so, I don't know your level of concern with this item. The decision to place this on the [City Commission's] Consent Agenda was solely mine." With further comments, Manager Smith noted, "We are doing our best to try to grab any opportunity we can `To save money without sacrificing levels of service' as Mayor Lacey always says. So, refinancing debt, if you will is low hanging fruit. So, when Shawn (Boyle) came to me and said `That we have an opportunity, rates are good, let's lock this in', I said `Make it happen, put it on the Agenda, let's seal this deal and let's take advantage of this three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000.00) in savings'. CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES TUSCAWILLA LIGHTING AND BEAUTIFICATION DISTRICT ADVISORY COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING - JULY 20, 2011 PAGE 4 OF 9 I do apologize if there was any miscommunication or concern on behalf of anybody on this b Board because nothing was intended other than singularly to save three hundred thousand dollars O ($300,000.00) to the benefit of our taxpayers. I just wanted to take the opportunity to tell you all that and I appreciate you hearing me." C d { With additional remarks, Mr. Boyle added, "In regards to the debt refinancing, as the Mayor pointed out, they challenged the Finance Department to look for any savings that we could J possibly find." Then, Mr. Boyle stated, "We have to date, refinanced - this will be the fifth debt instrument that they issued and most of these are about ten (10) years old. What we realized is that Bonds — are a little different than a mortgage or a simple debt that you would go out and secure from a bank; in that Bonds are not what we call `callable' anytime you want. In other words, you cannot go out and issue Bonds and a year later decide `I don't like that structure because Interest Rates are now in my favor'. When you structure these Bonds on a periodic basis — these Bonds would be callable and basically that is the time where you could consider a refinancing." Mr. Boyle added, "We went out to the major Banks that we felt were credit worthy. We had three (3) responses. By far BB &T (Branch Banking and Trust) came back with the best interest rate." Further discussion ensued regarding refinancing. Chairperson Brook stated, "Shawn (Boyle), you are telling us then, that this is not going to help us with the problem that we have with a shortage of funds." Mr. Boyle stated, "Unfortunately on the maintenance side, it is going to help those who did not pre -pay their debt for this particular project, but it is not going to help you on the maintenance side." Furthermore, Chairperson Brook remarked, "If we accelerate the debt payment, how soon — would it be paid off?" Mr. Boyle stated, "We are looking at approximately three (3) years, so we have reduced it down from an eighteen (18) year debt mortgage, if you will, down to about a fifteen (15) year." Then, Chairperson Brook commented, "I don't see that we can lower the Assessment because we need more than we have in the Assessment now. Would there be any possibility that we may have the ability to raise the Assessment next year ?" Mr. Boyle noted, "Let's look at them in buckets, we have two (2) debt buckets; the one that we just refinanced is the first debt that you issued. You have another debt instrument — that is coming to the end of its life. Then you have the Maintenance bucket; they are separate from the Capital buckets. They are mutually exclusive of each other. We really cannot mix and mingle. I am not prepared to talk about the Maintenance right now. Kevin [Smith] may have some insight." CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES TUSCAWILLA LIGHTING AND BEAUTIFICATION DISTRICT ADVISORY COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING - JULY 20, 2011 PAGE5OF9 Manager Smith commented, "The original goal in this exercise was to try to find sufficient dollars to be able to maintain that `Level of service' that we all want; have come to expect and C our taxpayers have come to expect. So, we looked at several options to try to do that. The first thing and the most immediate thing that we could do was to refinance that debt. As we did that, C we realized that for legal reasons we would not be able to use that to help us in the Maintenance C7 Fund. But, we certainly still wanted to refinance the debt and save it on the Capital side. So, I recommend that we move forward with that, accelerate the payoff. But, then we need to go to step two (2), three (3), and four (4) to look for additional ways to address the Maintenance Fund and look for savings." Additionally, Manager Smith remarked, "One of the reasons we wanted to take this extra time and leave this Budget the same as it is, is to give us some time." Continuing, Manager Smith stated, "We pledge to you that we will make every effort that we can to insure that we have the resources for you all to provide that `Level of service'." Advisory Committee Member Donald Gilmore stated, "We are using the word `Maintenance'. Can this be used to replace any `Capital' equipment that we had ?" Manager Smith stated, "I believe even though I am using the word `Maintenance', I believe we have `Capital' or `Debt', maybe we should refer to it as `Debt', then we have operations which includes `Capital' and `Maintenance'; and the buckets are separated that way." Advisory Committee Member Gilmore asked, "What I am trying to say is, if we bought this plant with this Bond Fund and the plant needs to be replaced, could we not use the same Bond Funds to replace that plant? Manager Smith replied, "No." Vice Chairperson Baker inquired, "How much money have we lost ?" Manager Smith stated, "It is not actually that we have lost money; it is that we have a situation where we are using our reserves, our savings, and that is going to run out after a while. So, we have to be sure that we are paying recurring costs with recurring revenues, as opposed to savings which are not recurring. We will not be able to sustain that long term, we are going to run out of money. So, we either need to cut expenses or raise revenues. That is what we are challenged with right now, to make the `Maintenance Fund' sustainable." Mr. Richart remarked, "First of all, on the `Maintenance' side, we do have sixty (60) units online that will give us approximately seventy -two hundred dollars ($7,200.00) in additional revenue at Tuscawilla Greens." Continuing, Mr. Richart noted, "Based on how the economy is going, we have hired a new lawn company that has resulted in a twenty thousand dollars ($20,000.00) savings to this Fund as well. I am hoping that with additional adjustments and additional measures that we can take, I am hoping to give us more time with that." CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES TUSCAWILLA LIGHTING AND BEAUTIFICATION DISTRICT ADVISORY COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING - JULY 20, 2011 PAGE 6 OF 9 Additionally, Mr. Richart explained about projects that have been done in the Tuscawilla * Lighting and Beautification District and noted that these projects fell behind their completion O and payment did not have to be made until each project was done. Mr. Richart further noted that C this allowed us to have a large Fund Balance because we did not have to start paying to maintain tfi the projects right away. Mr. Richart then commented, "So, we had some money built up in the maintenance area for that, that — kept building our Fund Balance. That is not happening anymore and we are eating into it 'm°' "° every year. So, at the rate we are going now, we can buy some time as long as we can keep our expenses low through the contracts; with additional revenue coming in, units that are coming in. If that kicks in within a year to a year and a half, that is found money. I am hoping that we can get another maybe five (5) years before we have to make a decision on what we do as far as raising Assessments or that type of thing. I do not think it is a huge immediate problem but we do have to spend wisely. There is no other answer." Continuing, Mr. Richart added, "My advice is let's go ahead do this refinancing, lower this cost, work on our maintenance side to keep our maintenance low; we will work as wisely as we can with our money. We can manage what we have and do the best we can with it." Advisory Committee Member Gilmore stated, "I guess the answer is we cannot replace an asset using the asset money." Further discussion. Further discussion ensued regarding the refinancing. REGULAR AGENDA REGULAR 600. Community Development Department — Urban Beautification Services Division Budget Review. Mr. Richart reviewed the Budget with the Committee Members and stated, "We spent less than we budgeted. I just wanted you to know where we came in at, at the end of the year." Furthermore, Mr. Richart noted that there is a hefty water bill due to the backflow at Tuscora (Drive) that was not on the Budget review. Discussion. Tapel /Side B CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA MINUTES TUSCAWILLA LIGHTING AND BEAUTIFICATION DISTRICT ADVISORY COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING — JULY 20, 2011 PAGE7OF9 2 REGULAR b 601. Community Development Department — Urban Beautification Services Division Review Of Maintenance Items And Progress Report. Commenting on this Agenda Item, Mr. Richart mentioned the fact that plants that have died will be replaced. Mr. Richart noted that we are now in the Winter months. Discussion. REGULAR 602. Community Development Department — Urban Beautification Services Division Update For Tuscawilla Unit 12/12A Wall And Proposed Tuscawilla Lighting And Beautification District Phase 3. Mr. Richart introduced this Agenda Item and stated, "This is on the Wall and we are preparing to take it to Commission next month." PUBLIC INPUT No one addressed the Committee at this time. ADJOURNMENT Chairperson Brook adjourned the Regular Meeting at 7:59 p.m. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED: CAROL A. LALLATHIN ASSISTANT TO THE CITY CLERK NOTE: These Minutes were approved at the , 2012 Tuscawilla Lighting and Beautification District Advisory Committee Regular Meeting.