Village Community Development District No. 1

Okay, my clock says eight o'clock. So we will call the Villages Community Development, district one meeting to order. Uh, we have four of our supervisors present this morning, and, uh, we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a moment of silence, Flag of the United States of Republic, one Nation under God liberty. Thank you. Okay. At this time, we'd like to welcome our attendees. If you have something that you'd like to address the board with, please come to the podium, give us your name and address for the record, and then give us your comments within about a three minute timeframe. So if anyone that wants to address the board, may, may come forward at this time. Yes, sir. Morning, my name is, uh, Bernie O'Donnell, and, uh, I've been involved with this issue of Lake Argo Lego. And I'd like to start out with a few comments. I want to thank the board, first of all, for supporting, uh, improving the Lake with Mike Junk in that next month. And, um, also I want to thank Carrie Duckett, who's the Deputy Property Manager, who I think has been very instrumental in providing some help within Property Manager to get some action on This In terms of conclusions. But I understand now, this weekend, somebody from Elite Pro, I've never heard of them, is supposedly coming in to remove the junk from the lake that, that's Brian Mellinger sent me an email on, which is great. Uh, the people doing the chemical processing are basically Cross Creek. Unfortunately, I feel they're the same people that have been involved in the past, and I have, I think, a legitimate concern about whether they're going to do, or whether they're even paid to do the things need to be done to prevent this problem of junk in the lake occurring. Um, it's a complicated problem. Uh, getting rid of hydro. I think the board's decision to put carp in there was very good. That's probably the most strongest thing to do. But there is chemical processing, and I've talked to several people and it, sometimes it gets expensive chemical processing to get rid of this hydro. I'm just concerned that the right amount of effort and funding for the, uh, people who are actually Cross Creek is doing this, that they're the same people that have been doing it all along. I'm concerned because the problem has been going on for six or eight months with the chemical processing, and it frankly has not worked. So I don't know how well their contract has been modified. I think we need some straight answers, and I think it's gonna take some time. I have questions in here that I could leave off at the end of the meeting for the board to ponder on and perhaps get, uh, more importantly, to get the property management to, to respond to in a timely fashion. I do think it's gonna take some time. I'm just interested in what they're already doing different and how they're analyzing stuff, because it's not easy to get rid of a drone. I think that's a true statement. I just don't want to see it happen again. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anyone else? Okay. Not seeing any. We will move along. Uh, next on our new business, we have the, uh, approval of minutes. If you've had time to, uh, review those, we'll entertain a motion or discussion. Motion to approve the minutes. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Uh, the next item on our new business is a, um, agenda request that I put forward, um, because we've had some openings on this board in the past few months, and, um, I realized that we didn't necessarily communicate to our citizens that, uh, the, the desired job description or the job description and the, and the skills that would be beneficial to this board, uh, in replacing candidates or even electing candidates for that matter. Uh, so I undertook a little project there while I was board over a weekend, and I put together some, uh, some information, uh, for our, um, potential candidates, uh, so that at least coming forward, uh, people understand the, uh, the job description itself and, uh, and also, uh, some of the desirable skills that, that we may have, uh, as a board. I'm not going to go over all of those, but, um, uh, the, the basic concept is to, uh, identify the, uh, foundational qualifications that people have matters like integrity and, and ethics and, uh, strategic thinking, uh, being able to, uh, to work as a team, those kind of things. As well as specialized skills that benefit the overall, uh, group effort when it comes to, uh, to dealing with contracts and landscaping and, and those kind of things. People that have backgrounds in, in those kind of, uh, things can benefit this board because that's a lot of the things that we deal with. So, um, that's what I've, uh, put forward for your consideration and I'll certainly entertain your comments, uh, or any suggestions that you may have and how we want move forward. Do you have this in paper form by chance? I do not have it in paper form. We can provide it to you to take with you after the meeting if you'd like. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty difficult too. It's A lot of information in there. I think It was well read. Yes, it is. There's a lot of information in there. Sometimes when I get started, I don't know when to stop. So there you, Well, I do have one overall comment on this, um, topic, uh, regarding the overall makeup of each board. And it doesn't apply only to district one, but to all the districts, it might be ideal. It would be ideal to have a mix of various types of backgrounds and skills. For example, construction and urban planning is important, business is important, and so on, in addition to the ethics and other strategic planning and so on that you mentioned. Mm-hmm. And, um, not that a board couldn't be successful without that mix because people can do research and reach out to others with the key expertise that's needed for a particular issue, but to have it on the board, I just remember when Kathy Porter was here, she was a master gardener and anything to do with weeds or, uh, bodies of water and so on, she just, you know, picked up and told us everything. She had written several books on it and, um, our friend here knows an awful lot about water and construction and so on. So, uh, just to consideration. Okay. Any other comments? Alright. Staff have any particular feeling on this? I, I think it's a great idea. Um, I think that a lot of residents don't really understand what the board does, and this gives them a little bit more of an insight as to what your roles and responsibilities are before they apply for a supervisor position. Um, so certainly I think any, any information that we can give residents who may be interested is a great idea. We can certainly post this on your website, um, either only when you're seeking new supervisors or we can do it all of the time. That way they have an idea of, um, again, what it means to be a board member. But I, I think it's a great idea. I think, uh, potential candidates on any of these boards comes with a frequency idea of what the meaning is of the title of the board, and you are the first ones that, you know, get hit with the, uh, request to have a little more of a summation of what, what goes on. And so, uh, that's why I asked the question. Okay. Good question. And to, uh, further that having those, uh, guidelines published in the Daily Sun or the Village News would be good power plays or whatever column would be terrific. Yes, ma'am. That would be a good idea. Okay. So I just need to know if the board wants to move forward with, with what we, we presented here, uh, to help recruit people or at least, um, educate people about what the job entails and, and what we do. Do we wanna put it on our website as a matter of reference, as well as information? Or, or does it need more work? That's what I'm asking. I think the manner of communication is the key there. If you have in the news, more people read the newspaper than watch it. I, we don't know. Yeah. But I think it's a great idea and I'm a big fan of executive summaries and then if somebody wants to dig in further, have the resource available for them to do that. Okay. Alright. I think we your consensus on the board, so we'll move forward with that. Thank you. All right. Moving along. We are, uh, going to interview candidates for the, uh, current vacant seat, uh, that we have. That's seat number one. And, uh, we have three candidates today. And I'll start by saying to those three candidates, uh, thank you very much for your interest in this board and we certainly appreciate you applying for that. Uh, we will interview the candidates in, uh, what looks like alphabetical order. So, uh, the first candidate we'll interview is Cindy Bowen, or if you prefer, we'll call you Cynthia. Alright. I don't see Cynthia Bowen. One more time. Cynthia Bowen. Cindy Bowen. Alright, we'll move along to Brian Goodman, would you please step forward to the podium, sir? Good morning. Welcome. Good morning, sir. Uh, we'll, we'll start with, uh, an opportunity for you to, uh, introduce yourself a little bit. We do have your, uh, your application and resume in front of us. Okay. My name is Brian Goodman. I live at five 15 Carrera in Ella Vista West. Uh, I've lived here since October of 2022. And, uh, in the course of doing the resident acade and CDD orientation, um, got an interest in, um, in public service. Uh, my career was in public service as a, uh, really a, as a council to a, a large, uh, pension fund. So I'm used to governmental accounting, I'm used to governmental things. And so, uh, I think it would be an honor and pleasure to, uh, serve the community here as, uh, at this point supervisor. Alright. If I can take a second, let me echo the, uh, I, I really, really found the, um, job title and summary useful in there. You did leave out can lead to, to building that a single bound, but that's okay. We can go without that, but, but I wanted to commend you on on that because it's a very helpful document and I think it would be nice to, uh, to global search and replace that with other districts too and just have them as an advance. Thank you, sir. Alright, we'll, uh, start with the board's questions. Ms. Cora, do you have questions, Mr. Oh, sure. You'll have only lived here a short while since late in 2022. Have you had a chance to get involved at all in governmental stuff or, uh, anything in your individual community with your neighbors? Well, I, I do coordinate the communication within Ella Vista West. So I, I have a mailing list and then when issues come up, uh, I will communicate. I'll send those out and, uh, and inform the, our, uh, neighborhood about things. We also had neighborhood meetings when, um, uh, we talked about different issues and stuff, and I was also, uh, interested in the, uh, issues that were surrounding the, uh, amenity authority committee. So I came to several of those meetings and then I, I've been to, uh, district one meetings as well and all of that together has peaked my interest in that now that there's an opening I think that I can, uh, contribute in this past year. Yes. Are you aware of the fact that I think I could be wrong. I'll have to ask the attorney. Uh, are you aware of the fact that our biggest charge, if you want to put it that way, as it appeals process for things like architectural review and, uh, decision I made, and we have to learn how to use a microphone, but I, uh, and so we, we deviate a lot from an appeals process, but, uh, I think that was the initial, uh, goal of the, uh, or of our functions, and I could be wrong, some that's been here longer than I might add to that or say, well, it's, that's only one I'm sure. Well, I am familiar with the administrative appeal process. Um, I conducted, uh, I don't know, probably hundreds of, um, such types of appeal hearings for in, in the context of a retirement system, basically denials of disability, retirement or denials of other types of, uh, benefits that were appealed. And, uh, of course it was in Virginia, but, um, I assume that it would be variations on a theme here in, in Florida. And fortunately there's an attorney over there who's licensed in Florida who can help us out a lot. Yeah, okay. I, I see that you spent some, uh, quite A bit of time with the Legal Affairs and compliance as a compliance coordinator. What's something that, I know you've done a lot of lot there. What's one or two things that really stands out the most rewarding thing that you've done during that time? Um, one of the more rewarding things was, um, in structuring some of the reports that went to the retirement system Board of Trustees. Um, I put together a, uh, a sheet, it was called a, um, a board action, a Request for Board Action. And it just had a big box of, of, uh, bold, large type, which asked, which stated the action that the board was designed to take. And underneath it would be a summary of it, description and background of the, uh, case and then the legal authority for the board to take that certain action. And, uh, that is still in you. So, um, so that was rewarding because you see it over and over you go, you can almost say, Hey, I did that. But, um, that, and, uh, also, um, in, in, I wish I had the transcript with me, but one time I was at a, a hearing in circuit court and, uh, and the judge said to the person who was, who was appealing a decision, you are very, very fortunate to have this gentleman representing the retirement system here. You know, we basically, we basically, that really gave her a do over, but I saw an opportunity to say, Hey, let's send this back and get this looked at again, where the alternative would've been, no, you're done. It's over. And, and the judge pointed that out. It's very rewarding because I think my statement was, I'm not here to win, judge. I'm here to get it right. And, uh, that was very rewarding. Thank you. Um, what would be your foremost priority as a CDD one board member? I think, I think the first thing is, is fill in probably the gaps that I, I have in knowledge now, as before pointed out, you can't learn everything in three years. Um, but there would be gaps in knowledge. I think the other is to realize that, um, district one, as the, as the first one established, we are gonna be in a phase where the other districts aren't in that we're not looking at, we're looking less at repair and more at replacement because after 30 years, and I think one of the things to look at is to see the other dozen 15 districts, they've had a chance to learn from what happened in District one and say, well, this is a good idea. That was not such a good idea. Let's do this. Let's not do that. I think District one is in the same position now to look at those others that have learned from us and say, okay, once we're in a spot where we're going to replace things or do something a little different, what did they learn that we can put in here? And I think that the Nucleus staff that has gone through that transition can come back and say, Hey, we think we have a better idea when this needs to be replaced. I think we have a better idea when this needs to be repaired. And I think that's uppermost if we're, we're, are in kind of a unique position, I think everybody above four sixty six is, um, let's call it mature. Okay. Uh, so I, I think that's the highest priority. Ms. Court, you, Um, in the limited number of board meetings that you've attended, I think you get some overall sense of what we're about and so on. Is there anything that stands out as something you disagree with procedurally or something you think we could do better? And we're not sensitive to criticism. We're very open to it. So no, I, if I do with all elected officials, I thank them for doing a thankless job, which, which will say, well then why do you want to go sit in that chair? But, um, but I think it's a good chance for, uh, service. What, um, what I think I'd like to see if maybe borrow something from, uh, from District four district Deon has a communication, you know, he'll have a question and answer period. And I think, I don't know whether it needs to be the whole board or, um, I could conduct one. We probably can't have the whole board. We will run a following Sunshine Laws, but I would like to be able to communicate, um, just the issues and the resolutions, issues that arise at a meeting. Because as we look out, there's 25 people here perhaps, but there's, you know, we may have 3,500 people that are in the district and give them another opportunity to at least learn or maybe even a more convenient, uh, venue and time for them to, uh, hear about what's going on in the community and get that feedback pro and time. Okay. Anymore, do you feel that the, uh, staff responsibilities are to coordinate, for example, what does Center District do? What does District one do? Do you have any kind of sessions where you say there's interaction here or the same problems it gets over a year, maybe ahead of time? What's happening in the District 10 that maybe has already been foregone and certainly in Center district? Certainly, um, probably Decompliance and Architectural Review is the, the biggest example of that. When things start, um, or trends start changing down south, and we have residents who see new, um, home types or, or styles when it comes to how they decorate the outside, we come back to this board and others to, um, for your consideration to, to determine if that's something you want to allow within your district. So we certainly take what's happening in other areas and at least give you that information to consider if that's something you would like to institute within your district. Yes, sir. Okay. Any more questions, Mike? Okay. Uh, I have one last question. I guess Mr. Goodman, um, just tell me what your definition of being a representative of the people means to you. Uh, I'm real familiar with the idea of a fiduciary duty because I teach it, I taught it to our, the board as I, in my earlier career. And I see the supervisors in a similar position as those of fiduciary to the community in that my personal needs and goals do not take precedence over those of the whole community. Um, and, uh, I'm not naive. I'm not gonna make everybody happy, but you have to look at and help people to understand that the decisions that you make or the votes that you take are based on what you see will benefit the community as a whole. And, um, I mean, every once in a while you'd have to, you'd have to be parochial in the, in the sense that I saw the action about, uh, the screen, um, right in the village so that it, it, uh, it affects a very small group within the district, but then by the same token, those that would affect everybody, you just have to make sure that people understand that you are doing your best to look out for the community as a whole and not just yourself or your neighbors, or, well, sometimes you may do, but you know, you know what I mean? Thank you. Sure. Further questions. Mr. Goodman, thank you very much for your time here and for applying to this job. Thank you very much. And our next on the list will be James Vaccaro. Good morning. Good morning, sir. James mc Carro on 5 0 2 Rera Court and deal with Mr. West. And I'm excited about being here finally. So, Mr. Vaccaro, tell us a little bit about yourself. We do have your application and your resume in front of us, but certainly we'll give you the opportunity to, to say what you, you wanted us to hear Most about you. Well, excuse me. Well, most about me, I guess I'm, I'm an outgoing type human being, and, uh, I'm the type of person that, you know, would really go out and get opinions from people. And we do a lot of, you all do a lot of work of, you know, making decisions and we're looking at the 10 roof coming. I don't know if anybody's been following the 10 roof, all of a sudden 10 roof are coming, you know, Hey, we gotta have 10 roof. Everyone wants a 10 roof. Well, let's go out and talk to the people in CD one, which is a little different than the a c where it's such a, a broad stroke of people. CDD one is a fairly confined type of group. So it's something I think that can be approached. I mean, I'm not afraid to go out and talk to people at postal stations or, you know, things of that nature. I'm really not opposed to that one bit. Um, or anyone that knows me. Um, so, you know, I'm really that outgoing type of person that can bring what I think the people want, what they think, put it up there on the board. And I kinda like the position here because from this position, you can really speak to things and convince people that your ideas are good or bad. I, I like that the CDD one is a much more confined area than some of the other areas that I get got myself involved in. Okay. Thank you. Ms. Core, do you have a question? Um, it would be hard to come up with, uh, questions because we know you so well from your reporting about the A a C and just, you know, as a friend. But, uh, what would you have to support you differently from what you've seen procedurally or regarding any particular issue? Well, you know, in terms of, uh, you know, the major issue in my mind, it started, you know, three or four years ago when I almost got killed on North Morris Boulevard, has been to solve that problem, at least take some steps to make it safer. Um, so in my mind, being on the board, I would like to continue to move that process forward. I think it's the most dangerous section of road in the villages. I continue to see that. I continue to see the accident and I continue to want the board to put something together and approach that county something that's gonna work. And, uh, you know, I traveled overseas, I saw ideas, you know, I keep talking to people about ideas. And every now and then, a good idea will come up and, you know, you gotta go explore. You gotta look at it. You gotta see does that idea make sense? And believe me, I've been working on it for three years. I appreciate what you guys did. You put together a, a, a proposal to get Kinley horn on board and give us some ideas what can and can't be done. And as much as people think that that was a bad idea and we wasted our money, they came up with the one thing that no one, you know, Hey, you don't have to take anyone's property. You don't have to condemn anything. You can make this thing work if you want to. So you have the money. That's a whole different issue. Can we come up with a proposal for all of us to agree on to approach the county? And I thought that, and I, and I'm really kind of disappointed that it kind of ended. 'cause I thought we were doing that, putting together a survey and going out to all the residents and asking, but it seems to have dropped at some point. So I want to continue, I want to continue the path of making North Morris Boulevard safer for all residents that use that road golf carts and bicycles and cars, actually, and might wanna run for the county board at one point. I'm not kidding. Why not? I just think that's a big priority in my mind. CDD one is part of our world, bill. I I almost could ask both of you candidates this. Uh, the longer you're in the villages, the more you know about the activities of all the committees and all the goings on in particular, if you're involved at all, you can't miss it. There are other, other organizations that do things entirely differently. We do. And, and, uh, they have a definite goal that they're trying to determine. And the more this is, this is basically a years of experience in the community, uh, situation. You can't avoid a lot of this if you never even read the newspaper very well. And, uh, and I, but it all adds the functions of all these other committees, if you're aware of what they do. To some degree, it's has a big bearing on what we might do here. It certainly influences it. And, uh, to me, uh, both of you folks are well qualified, no doubt about it. All you have to do is read a resume or two. And in, uh, in, we've got it down to an idea of qualifications, but the actual, uh, goings on in the villages that might be beneficial to us or might be detrimental to us. There's a, there's a big factor in, in that certainly, uh, asset to anyone who comes to sit on this board. You know, we are not the almighty board down the street does a lot that might be affecting us more than we realize. Mr. Miller, do you? Yes, Sir. We came to a lot of the meetings. I see. Uh, what, what issues or concerns have you brought before the board and what were the results of them? Hmm. Well, I, I gotta tell you that the North Morris Boulevard issue has been the biggest issue that I brought. And that as a representative of any other place other than myself and my wife, that almost got killed and went, did survey of people. And we came up with ideas and we presented the board and the county commission, by the way, we went to the county commission with two or 300 of us, you know, to find out that they weren't gonna do anything for us. And we had to come back to the board. And they came up with every reason in the world why they weren't gonna do anything. And we came back to the board, the board went out and did a survey from Kimley Horn and came up with possible solutions. And in my mind, that was one of my major achievements that we did come up with. Here's something that can be done. If you can afford it, here's something that can be done. So in my mind, that was a major accomplishment. There's other things that come. I mean, I'm, I'm here all the time. I've been coming for two years or longer, uh, to the meeting. I just kind of enjoy seeing what's going on in our community. And I certainly have done surveys. I go out, I'm, I am no quiet human being, let me tired. I go do my, what I think is my job to get the ideas from the people that live here in this community. The community at large is a whole different stuff from this community. It's a small community in reality, you know, two or 3000, what, 3000 roof stops or something like that. So it's not much. What is one of the biggest Accomplishments that you have done In my life? In your life? In my life? I retired. Now. I retired. That was a good one when I retired. Be careful now what you say? What that, uh, listen, I haven't retired since I've been here. I know that. But, uh, no, um, no. I had a very successful career. I kind enjoyed my life. Uh, have a very successful world that I lived in and worked in. And, you know, I've been in a management level for a long time. I really enjoyed what I did. I mean, automobile car parts. So anybody's got a key fob in their pocket. I probably made it back in the day. We made millions of 'em for everybody around the world. We also made four wheel drive units for people that drove full wheel and drive vehicles back in the day. And I just had a great career and I'm really lucky. I've a great wife. I got, it's just one of the most experiencing fun places to live is here in the villages. We came here, we've been here for eight years, and it's just a marvelous place. So Mr. Vagaro, you're, you're the, uh, representative for district one on the Amenity authority committee? Yes, sir. And, um, legal advice has been that, uh, you can't serve on both committees. Uh, so what would be your intentions, uh, if you were to be appointed to this board? Well, you know, my intention is that I sit right next to somebody on the AAC c board that's on a CDD board. And when he had a run for the AAC c board, no problem. He's had problems. He's on that board run for the C board. In my mind, there's something different about the a c board that's different than any other board for some reason or another. I, I'm sitting right next to somebody, well, if he can do it, what's wrong with me? Why can't I do that? I mean, I really want to be involved. Just, I want to be involved. It's not like I don't have to be, I'm busy. I have a very full life, but I want to be more involved. I want to be involved. You know, I've got, you know, seven, eight more years of being involved and if I can, I want to be involved. You do? I think it's right that he can and I can't. No, I think if he can, I can. That's the way I look at it and right or wrong in my mind. What's good for the goose, what's good for everybody else. I think, I think I have a legitimate right to that suit. Okay. Any more questions? Yes ma'am. No. Um, I recall your organizing, um, pretty visible protests on more Boulevard Demonstration. You, I use the word demonstration Yes. As we better for today in Los Angeles and all that. We didn't start any fires, but we had nice signs prepared and, uh, got a lot of recognition from passing motorists and, um, there was news and so on. But, uh, as a follow up to that, um, was anything actually done? You, did you take the results of that and the turnout and were you able to do anything with it to move ahead to get a traffic light or anything specific? Oh, you know, it's kinda interesting you asked that question. I appreciate it. Um, I know that when we had the demonstration and we just showed up and we stood there for three hours, and if you ever want to know what traffic is, try and stand on Morris Boulevard from nine to 12 or 1230. It was interesting. It was, uh, uh, unbelievable amount of traffic. Yeah. Um, and we did have the Orlando newspaper come and do an interview with, uh, the folks that were standing there. And when they took their concept and went to the county commissioners, they county commissioners said they are waiting for CDD one to make a suggestion to their board. Now, I don't know how far back that was, six months ago, we did it and I thought Patsy was going to move forward with a survey, talk to all the residents, and get some ideas of what the residents really wanted on an electronic email, and she left the board. Well, I don't want that ball to stop. I don't sure I can put something together like Miss, like Patsy was trying to do, but I certainly will get out there and keep pushing until we do put a committee together, take the best ideas we can come up with and get to the county commissioner with it. Mm-hmm. So it, it is my mind. I am following up in my mind. That's what I'm doing. Okay. Any more questions? Alright. Don't see any, thank you very much Mr. Bacaro. You're welcome. Appreciate it. You're welcome. And board, before you vote, I do want to let you know that I do have some concerns. Um, as some of you may know, you have two attorneys, um, your attorney, along with the attorney for the A a C, um, who has expressed their opinions that you can't sit on both boards, you must resign from one. So again, my concern is the potential liability for this board. If you were to appoint someone with the advice that you really shouldn't be doing that, or that this individual really shouldn't be sitting on a board unless he intends on resigning. And it sounds like to me like he doesn't intend on resigning from the A a C. So again, um, you have the opinions from two different attorneys saying the same thing, and, and that's gonna be my advice to you. Um, so just wanted to put that on the record. Um, mark, what in what attorney is involved with the TDD four, where the person can Sits? That, that is me. Um-huh And that opinion was not asked for until Mr. Deacon had already been sitting on both. But, um, Mr. Deacon is aware of my opinion and he's aware of Mr. Stone's opinion as well. Okay. But nothing legally. Well, it's not you, you know, it's not for us to do anything other than advise. That's what we do. Um, we advise boards, we advise individuals, but ultimately it's up to someone else to decide whether they want to do something about it. Well, I'm not an attorney of course, but it's just a legal precedent or I don't think so. I mean, again, you know, Mr. Deacon, nothing would've ever come up, had nobody asked the question. Um, the question was asked, the research was done, the answer was provided, and Mr. Deacon is aware of it. Um, you know, that's all I can say about the issue. Okay. Okay. I will, um, I'll give the board just a couple minutes to make your decision. Write it down. If you're ready. Just give me a nod and we'll, we will go ahead and let the clerk pull the board, Okay? Okay. Uh, chair Kaiser Supervisor Miller and supervisor co voted for Mr. Goodman and supervisor for Jim. Alright. Majority. So the majority was three, three to one vote for Mr. Goodman. Uh, so at this point in time, we'll ask the board to, uh, make a motion to appoint Mr. Goodman to the, to the board. I make a motion to appoint Mr. Goodman to the board. Second, we have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motions carries unanimously. Mr. Goodman, would you please step forward, sir, we're going to put you to work today. Before you go ahead, You put your stuff down and raise your hand. Raise your right hand for me. Court, Mr. Congratulations. The staff has a procedure to make sure that you understand. You better check the legs on that chair. Well, And before we move on, I'd just like to say that I appreciate both candidates. It's, it's so much of a luxury for a board to have two excellent candidates, uh, to apply for a position. And, uh, it makes for a tough decision for us. Uh, but certainly, uh, we appreciate the, uh, the effort there. Mm-hmm. Alright, moving along to, uh, item D, our proposed budget. Yes, sir. This item will be presented by Ms. Karen Clary with the budget department. Good morning, Karen. Good morning. Karen Clary Budget. I'm here today to request adoption of resolution 2025 dash zero eight to approve your fiscal year 20 25 26 proposed budget, and to set the public hearing to adopt the fiscal year 2025 final budget for September 12th, 2025 at 8:00 AM here at the Savannah Recreation Center in accordance with Chapter one 90. The district must approve by June 15th, a proposed budget, proposed maintenance assessment rate, and adopt a resolution to set the public hearing for the budget adoption. Once approved, the proposed budget will be submitted to the local governing authorities for a 60 day review and comment period. Prior to the budget adoption, the approved proposed budget will also be made available on the district's website. And at the village's Community development district's administrative offices, the board of supervisors reviewed and discussed the fiscal year 20 25, 26, recommended budget and capital plan. During your May regular meeting, the attached proposed operating budget of $1,426,237 reflects a decrease of $257,852 or 15% from your fiscal year 24 25 amended budget based on board direction at your budget workshop. There is no increase in maintenance assessments in fiscal year 25 26. The final budget will include the maintenance assessment rates based on the direction of the boards of supervisors, but cannot exceed the rates set today in your proposed budget. At this time, staff recommends approval of resolution 2025 dash zero eight to approve the fiscal year 20 25, 26 proposed budget, and to set the public hearing to adopt the fiscal year 20 25, 26, final budget and final assessment rates for September 12th, 2025 at 8:00 AM here at the Savannah Recreation Center. And we're here if you have any questions. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Cleary. So just to reiterate what she just said, uh, the most important thing we're doing today is to set the, uh, the rate which cannot be changed. And, uh, at our last meeting, um, based on our discussion, we decided to remain at the same rate as as previous year. So, okay. Any further discussion from the board, we'll entertain a motion, then motion. Motion to approve the, uh, solution. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. The, uh, the public hearing that was scheduled has been pulled, no need for, for that. So we'll move along to old business and I'll turn it over to the Deputy District manager. Yes, sir. Thank you. Um, the only item on old business was the ongoing, um, maintenance concerns at l Largo Lago, which was also brought up in audience comments. I will ask Mr. Harris to come up, um, and give you an update on where we are with that maintenance. Okay. Thank you. Good morning. Mike Harris, district Property Management. We have completed all the necessary purchase orders and all the internal documentation. And this will take place Monday morning. Monday morning, weather permitting. Okay. I may ask. So Good. Um, And, and if I could just as a, just as an add-on, um, the resident also expressed some concerns with Cross Creek, which is the maintenance contractor of all of the water retention areas, um, and, and links throughout the villages. And as, um, I just wanted to make sure this board was aware that we did go out for solicitation for a new contractor. Um, certainly Cross Creek can, can, um, apply for that, but rather than having one contract for all of them villages wide, we broke it into three areas trying to not give one contractor so much to maintain. So that will be coming before you in a future meeting for consideration of a new contractor as well. That's the future honor that will happen in the future. Yes, sir. I, I think that's an excellent strategy. Um, because it also avails additional contractors potentially for the other districts. Uh, Mr. Harris. Um, I I have one, um, comment, uh, as we move forward to the future, I've ridden and past some of these lakes that, that we're having issues with and, uh, to me it seems difficult to evaluate them from the ground because you really can't see what's going on in the lake. Uh, so I, I would like to see a different AP approach with regard to managing these contracts so that we have an aerial view of, of what's happened when the contract begins, and we can see whether or not progress is being made with regard to the vegetation and how it's being controlled and if it's growing or if receding and things like that. Uh, so that we can, we, we have a way to measure it. And in my world, you, you can't, you can't manage it unless you can measure it. So that's why I'm trying to come up with is an idea. You may have a better one, but that's, that's just mine. No, I don't, I have your idea. So that's why we have a drone fleet right now that are inspecting basins and I would love to show you if you have time sitting down and show you the inspections that are being done with the drones. Awesome. Of course, this is a new thing for us, so, but we do cover more ground a lot faster. We can see, as you say, hydro you, you, it, it could be gone, but you, you fly it from the air, you see the hydro in the lake. So we have incorporated that over in probably the last six months in our program and it building that right now for the inspection process. Thank you, sir. I would like to also add along with the new basin contract, the management contract. We did add another one for mechanical removal. So if we ever have need for these services in the future, we don't have to go through the six week process of, of bids and pricing. We'll have contractors in our toolbox to handle those services. Okay. Good News. Thank you very much. And I did have one, uh, Bruce. I did have, I mean Mike, I'm sorry. Um, I did have one question from a resident who drove around and noticed that some of the ponds and retention areas are lower than they have been. And of course we're coming off of drought, but, uh, we have had some heavy rain and they asked me, gee, was the villages keeping the level or depth of these water areas low in preparation for any upcoming hurricanes and storms? No ma'am. Okay. We are not the, every basin you see is strictly, the water levels are dictated by a rainfall. We do have basins that can be supplemented that have pump stations on 'em, because of course if we run a pump station in the low basin, it would burn up a very, you know, expensive pump. But, but the majority of the basins in the villages, it's strictly stormwater drilling. Okay. So they come up as the water, as we get rain. And what you'll see, especially with the hydro drilla, hydrilla is a nuisance throughout the state. It's there, we kill it, we knock it back, it comes back, it comes back. When that water gets a foot deep, there's nowhere to hide anymore. So we go spray it and then of course we generate another issue of dead high drill that's visible that can't sink. So right. As those water levels come up, I'm very confident that we'll be getting calls of complaints of the water's too high before long in the next couple months and not too low. So, um, we're the rain's a great thing and you'll see a lot of improvements. Yeah. This wasn't a complaint, it was curiosity and I really didn't know what to tell him. More rain, we get the better off we are. Yes. Yes. Thanks. You're welcome. And Mr. Chair, we have one more item on old business, which is the Courtyard Zilla front entry screening petition process, which will be presented by Mr. Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong. Good morning Gordon. Matt Armstrong Community standards. So we do have a request for a petition for a courtyard bill to screen in the front entryway of you on your, uh, agenda item. There is a drafted sample of the Revised Architectural Review manual as well, what the language would look like that would allow for this petition process. And if you are interested in allowing this petition process, we ask that you proceed with the approval. If you feel it is not a good addition to your district, we would ask that you deny the request and I leave it to the board for discussion in any questions. Thank you. I'm going to refer to Our resident, uh, expert first. Mr. Miller. Well, These, these, these, uh, these have been, uh, screen and ries have been approved in other areas and that's, that previously mentioned some ideas to get ideas from houses. And I'm in favor of making it an option of whether they want to filed a petition to, to get that approved or not. Okay. Okay. Uh, I mean, it, it's at under the roof line, just like the home. Okay. All are you saying approved as policy or approved as project? Approved As the project. Okay. For Them to, uh, for the individual areas to petition to get that done. Oh, okay. Now it was, it's been my understanding that we've been down this road before on these enclosures at the front of those courtyard bills, for example. Okay. And I thought we had come to a decision, I'm not really truly, and I remember the ACT decision, actual decision, but this is not something new that we just arrived at. Uh, I believe Can staff help me on this one at all? You're, you're correct. This, um, this is something that has been done in ev in other areas. Um, so this would just allow, if 75% of the courtyard villa owners wanted that screened in this would allow them to do that. Okay. Okay. So it's the scope of whatever the project is, is what you're, you're saying? Yeah. Yes, sir. As a measure. Correct. So that would be an option for each Courtyard Villa owner in a community to do it or not, and not a mandate that they all would have to do it. That that's right. So what, in this situation, we have a resident in a courtyard villa that wants to screen it in. So she is going to have to take that initiative to get 75% of the owners within that courtyard villa to approve it. Mm-hmm. Anybody, if you allow this, then anybody in a courtyard villa would be able to do that process, but it would not, they would not have to do it. Okay. Thanks. Is this, maybe, I may try and recall this, was this addressed in the review of deed restrictions? So this is part of your architectural review manual? It is. I know, I know that's what I'm Saying. It's not prohibited from the deed restrictions. Prohibited sent you the word. So it's not an external deed restriction that, uh, It hasn't been address, it's Been recorded. Yeah. It is an option that three fourths of the owners would have to agree to before they could do it. So it's a pretty high standard when you come down to it. Sure. And, and as you've done before with this board where someone did come previously, um, if there's an HOA involved, you would work with the HOA as to whether or not they would like to see this as well within their community. So it's a double pull for those folks. Okay. Alright. Just outta curiosity, do you have an idea of how many Courtyard villas are in District one? Not off the top of my head. I don't have that number. No, I wouldn't expect that. I just didn't know whether it, whether it came up, didn't know what this lady's workload was gonna Well, no, this is just for her particular unit. So this would just be for the mayor of Bella. Now anybody who has a courtyard would be able to say, well, now that the petition process has been approved by the board, I know I can go out and start the process without having to come specifically for their unit. So you're, you're approving it as a broad scope for all Courtyard Village, but she will just address her, her particular area. Got it. Mm-hmm. My Courtyard Bill neighborhood just approved a change in the color palette for, for our area. It used to be only two colors, now it's multiple, uh, it required 75% petition owners and that took over two years for that person to get, get all those signatures. So it's not an easy undertaking. It's, it's, it's actually a very challenging undertaking, uh, because a lot of the courtyard bill of owners are not even present this time of year. You know, they're, they're somewhere else, You know? Uh, Mr. Hyder, I think 75 or 85% is much too high. I would like to see that level of f around 40%. Yeah. I don't necessarily with you there mean. I think we might be getting a little Yeah, I, I I'll Would I, I couldn't, I couldn't support that at all. No, I don't think so. Yeah, because it affects an individual villa, but not so much all the others. Well, the color of your house and, and whether or not you No, no, no. I meant screening, not the color. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Any further discussion by the board? Not we'll entertain a motion. I make a motion to approve the petition process for screening the front entries in the Courtyard bill unit. All right. We have a motion. Second and a second. All in favor say aye. A Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you ma'am. Thank you. Board. Okay, on informational items, we have the, uh, the normal financial statements, the monthly report from property management, uh, the a MR meter change out. Does anybody have questions about that? That's, that's something that's changing. Um, in other districts, uh, what some people have observed is that they use more water after the meter change out and, uh, that's not unusual. Okay. Old meters that are worn don't necessarily record as many gallons as a brand new meter does. So when the change out starts happening in district one, you may hear some issues about that and that that's perfectly normal. That's, that's what you can expect. So, uh, it's not the fact that, that the meters are designed to charge you more for your water, it's the fact that they're more accurate in recording the gallons that you use. Okay. Um, And the public hearing updates, anything about that? We're still, still moving along. We've got a couple of challenges there, but we're, we're in a position now to, to better address those. Is that right counselor? That's correct. Alright sir. Alright. District manager reports? Yes sir. The first item is your amenity authority committee after agenda, um, which is attached for your review. And your district one representative is also in the audience. Alright, Mr. Bacaro, Good morning again. Congratulations, Brian. Glad you've got your sheet. Alright. So, uh, in terms of the, uh, uh, amenity authority committee, we, um, I, I thought had a very nice discussion, which originated from Mr. Higher on where, where we wanted to get the cap on the amenity fees. I remember coming here a year and a half ago, two years ago with him asking for it, and we brought it to the Amenities committee and it started a new ball rolling. And at this month's meeting, the calf on the amenity fee, which was rejected last month, came back up to be put back on the agenda the next month. Well, after a little bit of debate, uh, about the issue, but, you know, we certainly got it back on the agenda and I think it's gonna be run in at $199. So that was what, uh, we came up with. And it's gonna be on next month's meeting. We would really appreciate lots of attendance at that meeting to try and make sure that people understand what's going on and what battle you have to fight with the attorneys and with everybody else, try and get something done. Um, LA Hacienda, I thought it was kind of neat when I read through the notes, LA Hacienda, which is closed now for a new air conditioning system, uh, it's gonna open up on August 18th. I thought that was a really nice thing. Uh, the budget for the a a C did pass. Uh, I, I did not vote for it because of the Mirror Mesa building that I rejected last year and I rejected again this year. I just don't think it's a real amenity. Um, and then there turned out somehow or another, and I really don't know how it happened, it turned out North Morris Boulevard came up as a way to save money from Community Watch and it came up on the agenda or someone discussed it actually. And we got it on the agenda for next month, uh, of dealing with some issues, some adjustments to the gates, and maybe we could save some money on community watch, which I think a lot of people are interested in because the budget's $3.6 million just north of 4 66, if we can save some money and staff seems to be one of the bigger issues. Uh, it came up as if we got rid of the gates and we did this and that. Uh, so I think next month, again, on top of the amenity fees, I think some discussion on North North Boulevard and safety and concerns is gonna come back up. Okay. Any questions? Um, two questions. Uh, regarding the, uh, gates. Do you know how allegating or our, uh, manned gates compares with the PA system? Do we have a higher percent, lower percent? Oh, I don't really don't, I'm sorry. I don't know that, you know, I know that Mr. Nehemiah Wolf Yeah. Came up with, you know, here, here's the traffic at the South Gate on North Morris Boulevard, which the day that they took the reading, and again, if you happen to be in the demonstration, it must have been at one of them days, it was 15 plus thousand cars coming through that gate, back and forth. He said, he said it included people going back out, right. So I'm, you know, okay, I'm gonna have to buy into that. But it was a really busy and there were times you couldn't cross the street for five minutes. There was that much traffic coming through. So it was a very interesting discussion. I think it's gotta be the busiest gate in the villages. Uh, right now, I don't know about what's going on down south. The busiest gate, the gate, mm-hmm. On the north end of North Morris Boulevard was 11,000. So 15,000. 11,000. Okay. Thank you. You are welcome. And, um, another question about the cap. Um, how about, and I don't know where to suggest this, but getting a lot of publicity about the meeting regarding the cap, you said the more people that come, the more support we would have for a cap on the amenities fees. Uh, if we could get that somehow in the Daily Sun or the Village News, or any public, you know, public relations outlet, that would be great. And hopefully it would be after September when some of the people start coming back, the snowbirds. Well, the meeting is next month. Oh, okay. So, you know, it is what it is, right? Yeah. Just like your meetings. It is what, it's, it's on the agenda. It doesn't mean it's gonna go away. It's gonna get on the agenda and I think it's gonna be discussed, uh, thoroughly. Uh, but I do think there'll be a nice representation from people. I know that our neighborhood put something out to get people to come to the meeting last month and the, you know, the late for three hours where people were sitting there, You know, unlike the general apathy we get in village in, uh, district one where people don't wanna be involved unless there's a problem. They're retired, some of them are older and they just wanna live their lives peacefully. When it comes to money, a lot of times you get more of an interest. So, um, I'd like to see us appeal to that, uh, because if there's no cap, you know, the, there's no limit on future increases. It was the most interesting, um, uh, piece of paper that they put out was the, what people are paying right now. Mm-hmm. So it seems like a majority of people, almost a majority of people are at, at about 185 to 190, $99, but there's still people paying 218. So there's people beyond that number now. Mm-hmm. So if you start cranking 3% on top of this, and on top of that, the numbers start to, you know, escalate pretty, pretty quickly or two point a half percent. Mm-hmm. Whatever we happen to use the developer uses. So, you know, I think that if we can hold it and, and north of 4 66, personally, personally, think that we have the budget to withstand it, and, but when our bonds, which are going to expire in 36 right around the corner, you know, we've been paying them for 25, 25 years, they're gonna expire and we're gonna pick up a lot of money that we, you know, should be able to help maintain the infrastructure, at least in my mind, maintain the infrastructure that we need here. Um, without holding, without raising the fees. It's a big issue. You know, give, gimme an idea of what you think that pot's worth. What pot is that? The amount of money that's, well, I think, I thought it was like $12 million a year extra. Yeah, that's what we would get. I've heard a figure before, but I don't, I think it's, I think it's really more than that, but that includes the interest. Yeah. But right now, you know, I think in 36 we pick up that 12 million. Yeah. 12 million's a lot, right? Yeah. That's a lot of income. So if we can withstand it till then, and there's reasons why you can't withstand it, which is what would be reviewed every year. There's reasons why you can't, there's a bond minimum you have to have in a bank and you can't exceed that fine minimum. Yeah. Okay. You can't drop below that, but we can, if we can make it that far, you know, all of a sudden we're picking up 12, 13, Gee, we could fix Moores Boulevard with 12 million. Well, we can't. I Could probably do it for nine or 10 20 million. Anything else? Questions? Thank you, Jim. I appreciate it. Thanks Jim. And the only other item I have on District manager report is a meeting schedule that has been included. Um, if you look at the overall meeting schedule, you will see that staff has attempted to combine all of the meetings for district fours and committees into one week of the month. Uh, we currently have about 26 meetings every month and growing as the villages continues to grow. So this was an attempt for us to, um, only have one week of designated meetings, both for ourself and the district councils that also have to, um, attend all of the meetings. Uh, you are unchanged though, so we are proposing that you remain on the second Friday of the month at eight o'clock here at Savannah Center. Um, so as long as this board is agreeable to maintaining that schedule, we will have this on your agenda in August for final approval and adoption. I think we see consensus there, and I appreciate your efforts to try to be more efficient with that. I certainly understand why you, you need time to work on projects instead of going to meetings all the time. So that's, uh, that's a nice, uh, a nice effort there. Thank, thank you. I'm sure it took a lot of effort to put that together. So, district council? Yes, sir. I have two reports. I wanna start with the second one first, which deals with my attendance at the Architectural Review Committee meetings, uh, with a new check, uh, schedule change. You'll see on Wednesdays, I'm gonna be attending meetings for District 11, nine and 10, and Architectural Review Committee is actually held on Wednesdays as well. Uh, that, um, and in combination of the budget that you guys have been working on in an attempt to save you guys some money, the question is whether you need me to continue to attend the Architectural Review Committees. Now, I've brought this to all my other districts, and I represent one through 10 for ARC minus seven. Um, and so far they've all, excuse me from that, attending the Architectural Review Committee, uh, meetings. And so what we would do going forward, if you agree, would be I would work with staff, um, before any meetings to review any, uh, applications that might have issues or concerns, uh, resolve those before the meeting. If anything came up during the meeting, uh, they would table that to the following Wednesday and meet with me in between to discuss the application and have information for the Architectural Review Committee at the next meeting. Now, supervisor Miller, he's the one who was the most recent from this board on the Architectural Review Committee. And I think he can attest to the fact that staff really does, um, the majority of the work. There's rarely any legal issues that come up. Staff is very familiar, obviously, with all the rules and the deed, uh, restrictions, um, the Architectural Review manual because they're the one. So again, I, I rarely speak at these meetings. Uh, sometimes I'm asked questions, but they're not really legal questions. Um, and again, I'm confident, um, that staff can handle it and working with me. Um, I do meet with them weekly as it is now. I'll continue to meet with them and discuss things from, everything from deed compliance issues to, uh, architectural review committee issues, application issues and things like that. So I personally don't think I need to be there. My understanding is for many, many, many years, uh, your, your attorney didn't attend these architectural Review Committee meetings, but I have been doing it since I've been, uh, an attorney for this board, which is, uh, over five years now. Uh, so again, the question is do, are you okay with me not attending these meetings, saving you guys some money and we'll continue to work with staff with any issues that may come up with regard to those applications. I wanna ask. Thank you. Bill's opinion. Pardon me? Yeah, I, I'm happy with that Mr. Mill. I agree. Okay. That does, right. Tremendous job. They, they've got a, a set of standards that they have to use and there's not much deviation from that. That requires an awful lot of, uh, additional judgment. I don't think I, I tend to agree. And, and if an issue comes up, we, we've still got the avail a availability. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I think we have a consensus, sir. Yep. Okay, great. Uh, the next report is gonna be just a reminder that your next supervisor only training and ethics and public records and Sunshine Law scheduled for August 18 at 1:30 PM and that's gonna be held at the district office. If you're unable to attend that one or you need additional hours, I'm also providing that training on October 27th at one 30. And that's at the district office as well. Uh, if you need hours and for a new supervisor, you're required to have four hours of ethics training per year. Each one of my training sessions last about two hours, so you can claim two hours per. Um, there's also additional resources that you can get from the clerk if you, uh, want to attend, uh, maybe by internet. There's online courses that you can take. In any event, if you're interested in attending either one of these or both, or if you want to get information on, um, online resources, you can just reach out to the clerk's office and they'll provide that information to you. Thank you. And