Meeting Minutes for October 27, 2023
Lake Lucie
Community Development District
The regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the Lake Lucie Community Development District was held on October 27, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. at the Village of Lake Lucie Pool Cabana, located at 8452 Village of Lake Lucie Drive, Port St. Lucie, Florida. The meeting was intended to be available for remote attendance, but there was no internet connection available.
Present and constituting a quorum were:
L. Morris Daniel – Chair
George Rowe – Vice Chair
Jean Auletta – Assistant Secretary
Tom Wood – Assistant Secretary
Anthony Kerzic – Assistant Secretary
Also present were:
Cal Teague – District Manager, Premier District Management (PDM)
Residents
The following is a summary of the actions taken at the Lake Lucie Community Development District Board of Supervisors meeting.
FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS Call to Order and Roll Call
The meeting was called to order at 10:00 a.m., and all Board members were present. Also in attendance were District Manager Teague and several residents.
SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval of the Agenda
On MOTION by Supervisor Rowe, seconded by Supervisor Auletta, with all in favor, the Board accepted the Agenda, as presented.
THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS Audience Comments on Agenda Items
There were no comments.
FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval of Meeting Minutes
A. Draft Meeting Minutes for June 27, 2023
B. Draft Meeting Minutes for August 22, 2023
The Draft Meeting Minutes for June 27, 2023 and for August 22, 2023 were both created from recordings provided by the Board from prior to PDM’s attendance at meetings.
C. Draft Meeting Minutes for September 22, 2023
On MOTION by Supervisor Auletta, seconded by Supervisor Wood, with all in favor, the Board accepted the Draft Meeting Minutes for June 27, 2023, the Draft Meeting Minutes for August 22, 2023, and the Draft Meeting Minutes for September 22, 2023, as presented.
FIFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Old Business
A. Transition Update
District Manager Teague stated that the new district website was now live and contained all the legally required content and can be found at https://LakeLucieCDD.org. He also explained the importance of the Board email accounts that had been created and provided per the special limited interim agreement. He encouraged the Board to utilize only these accounts for Board business so as to protect their personal accounts from being subject to Public Records Requests. He further explained that Staffers can access the Board business accounts to search for records, but they cannot enter personal accounts, so in the case of Public Records Requests of a time period where the Board were using personal email accounts, the individuals on the Board would be legally required to search their own accounts, and to provide information to fulfill the requests.
B. Remote Meetings Going Forward
District Manager Teague explained that the plan for running the meetings in future, once local broadband internet is available at the meeting location in the Pool Cabana, is for the meetings to be attended only remotely by the District Manager and Staffers. If the internet is functioning by the next Board of Supervisors meeting in January 2024, it will then be the last meeting that District Manager Teague will attend in person. In future, Board meetings will be run over the internet, utilizing GoToMeetings, and DM Teague will run them remotely.
$200 worth of equipment has already been purchased for the Board to connect locally to these meetings: two speaker/microphone units, a web camera and tripod. A laptop is also needed and PDM has one that can be sold or rented to the Board. Additionally, this laptop will have read-only account access to the District’s records, to provide local access to District electronic records as required by Florida Statutes. Establishment of the local records office is addressed later in the meeting in Resolution 2024-05.
C. Oaths of Office, Form 1, Form 1F
Oaths of Office for all current Supervisors will be filled out and notarized and will be properly submitted to the Florida Department of State. At the time that PDM assumed district management responsibilities, not all Board member’s Oaths had been submitted to the State of Florida. Additionally, some missing Form 1 Statements of Financial Interest, for those Supervisors who had not submitted them, will need to be filled out and collected after the meeting.
D. FY 2021-2022 Audit Update and FY 2022-2023 Audit
As the Board was aware, the State of Florida had cited the district for failure to submit the Fiscal Year 2022 financial and audit and annual financial report by the June 2022 deadline. Staffers have been in contact with the state and with the district’s auditor, Berger, Toombs, Elam, Gaines, and Frank, and have begun to pull together the required items from the District’s former accounting firm. The new deadline of November 21, 2023, cited in the letter of non-compliance received from the state, is being aimed for. If submission cannot occur before this deadline, the state may refer the non-compliance issue to the legislature for review and consideration of penalties or other actions.
The Fiscal Year 2023 audit preliminaries are also underway.
SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS New Business
A. Discussion on CDD/HOA Areas of Responsibility
District Manager Teague noted that the only agreement provided in the records transfer is a lease of the CDD-owned Pool Cabana to the HOA. He asked for a clarification of the maintenance and ownership responsibilities. Chair Morris explained that the HOA owns nothing and has no responsibilities other than those in the lease agreement. He further explained his understanding that homeowner properties went up to the sidewalks, the CDD maintains the sidewalks, and the homeowners mow the grass between the sidewalk to the edge of the asphalt of the the county owned roadways.
B. Quote for District Officers, Liability, and Property Insurance
The current insurance policies through the HOA covered some district property but did not insure the Board of Supervisors for errors and omissions liability. PDM has secured quotes for District insurance from FIA/EGIS and the Board authorized the DM to sign the policies for District general liability, workers’ compensation, and directors and officers’ errors and omissions policies. Quotes for District property had been presented, but the Board opted not to insure its properties at this time. The properties identified by EGIS on the property appraiser’s website included the pool, the cabana, and two distinct areas of fencing.
On MOTION by Supervisor Rowe, seconded by Supervisor Wood, with all in favor, the Board authorized executing the insurance policies for District general liability, workers’ compensation, and directors and officers liability, but not for its property.
C. 2024 Elections Process
A memo was distributed in the packet on the process for county-run elections. It was noted by the Board that the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections already has run prior Supervisor elections. District Manager Teague noted that the Supervisor of Elections provided the district registered voter count at 271. Supervisor Auletta explained that a candidate will not appear on a ballot if they run unopposed.
D. Engineering Issues
i. Request for Qualifications
The Board will need to follow Statutory requirements for the solicitation of qualifications from new engineering firms.
ii. 20 Year Stormwater Needs Analysis
A 20-year Stormwater Needs Analysis, newly required by the State of Florida beginning in 2022, has not been done. The DM would like the Board to authorize an Engineer to perform and submit this.
Chair Daniel stated that he had submitted a letter that should have sufficed for this requirement. He will supply it to the DM so that it can be determined if this is satisfactory.
iii. Piecemeal Work with Culpepper & Terpening
The Board did not have interest in paying the prior District engineering company, Culpepper & Terpening, any money for the recovery of any District records that it may have.
E. Organizational Resolutions
i. Banking
a. Board Reorganization
This resolution was presented to ask the Board to appoint Cal Teague as Treasurer and Jennifer Miller as Assistant Treasurer. In the past, the Board members held these positions, but DM Teague explained that bills can more efficiently be paid, and financial reports more efficiently filed, if PDM Staffers held these positions, instead of seeking Board member approval on every transaction.
On MOTION by Chair Daniel, seconded by Supervisor Wood, with all in favor, the Board authorized executing Resolution 2024-01 to reorganize the Board, appointing Cal Teague as Secretary, and as Treasurer, and Jennifer Miller as Assistant Treasurer, with Morris Daniel as Chair, George Rowe as Vice Chair, and with the Jean Auletta, Tom Wood, and Anthony Kerzic as Assistant Secretaries.
b. Check Signing Authority
On MOTION by Vice Chair Rowe, seconded by Supervisor Auletta, with all in favor, the Board authorized executing Resolution 2024-02 to remove check signing authority from all previously so-authorized, and to appoint Cal Teague and Jennifer Miller with the authority to sign checks for the district.
c. Qualified Public Depository
A new bank account at Valley National Bank has been opened for the district. This bank is a Qualified Public Depository as required by Chapter 280.17 Florida Statutes, and also provides 5% interest on checking and money market accounts, and has no fees. The current bank accounts at Chase Bank will be closed, and monies transferred to the new account. The St. Lucie Tax Collector will be contacted and directed to deposit assessment collections to the new accounts.
On MOTION by Vice Chair Rowe, seconded by Supervisor Auletta, with all in favor, the Board authorized executing Resolution 2024-03 to change its authorized public depository to Valley National Bank.
ii. Designating Registered Agent
The District manager presented this resolution to appoint the district’s new legal counsel, Gregory L. Urbancic of Naples, Florida, as the new registered agent. The registered agent is the official point of contact for the District and is so-listed with the state.
On MOTION by Supervisor Auletta, seconded by Supervisor Wood, with all in favor, the Board authorized executing Resolution 2024-04 to set the district’s Registered Agent as Gregory L. Urbancic.
iii. Designating Principal Office and Local Records Office
The DM explained that the official mailing address for the district will be the address of Premier District Management. On a question from Chair Daniel, the DM explained that the Florida State Statutes require a local records office to exist inside the county in which the district resides. This resolution appoints this office inside the community. He further explained that a laptop will be provided, for a fee, on which database software is installed allowing read-only access to all of the district’s electronic records. The standard process for fulfilling a public records request will be for PDM staff to respond and to provide records, but in the case that someone wants to locally inspect records, a Board member will have the laptop in the community to assist them in accessing these records. The DM will provide training on utilizing the laptop and software. This laptop will also be used for the Board’s access to the remotely managed Board meetings.
On MOTION by Vice Chair Rowe, seconded by Supervisor Auletta, with all in favor, the Board authorized executing Resolution 2024-05, which establishes the District’s primary administrative office address at 3820 Colonial Boulevard, Suite 101, Fort Myers, Florida 33966 and establishes its local records office address at 8452 Village of Lake Lucie Drive, St. Lucie, Florida 34952.
iv. County-run General Election
Resolution 2024-06 requesting St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections to run the 2024 Supervisor elections on behalf of the District. As the Board stated that this is already occurring, the Resolution was not voted on.
SEVENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS District Manager
A. Update on Financial Statements
District Manager Teague stated that, when these are ready, they will come in a different format than the Board is used to, as PDM utilizes a professional governmental accounting system, and not the Quick Books program that their former district accounting firm utilized. He hopes that the October and November 2023 financials will be ready by the January 2024 meeting.
EIGHTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Financial Statements
There were no Financial Statements presented.
NINTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Attorney
There were no legal issues updates.
TENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Engineer
There were no engineering issues updates.
ELEVENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Supervisor Requests/Comments
There were no Supervisor Requests or Comments.
TWELFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Audience Comments
Resident Hamilton stated that some sort of public address system is needed for everyone in the Cabana to be able to hear. Chair Daniel stated that there is a public address system which can be utilized.
Mr. Hamilton asked if the meetings can occur at 7 p.m. so that working residents can attend. The Chair stated that the meetings have already been advertised for the year, and DM Teague added that, once the internet is running and GoToMeetings is recording meetings, then those who can’t attend will be able to request to see the recordings of past meetings.
Mr. Hamilton asked about the possibility of a loan to pay the $150,000 assessment for the pool, instead of increased assessments on the residents. DM Teague stated that this would be up to the Board.
Another resident asked if any of the recent resolutions could be changed in future, and DM Teague stated that they could be supplanted by new resolutions.