Village Community Development District No. 7 (2026-04-08)

Call to order the April 8th District 7 Supervisors meeting. Let's do the roll call first. All supervisors are present. Let's stand and do the Pledge of Allegiance, please. After the Pledge of Allegiance, we'll like a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. Oh, boy. I want to thank the three people that showed up. Pretty good. I appreciate it. I just wonder anybody in the audience, which it's three of you. I know one person is, and I'm going to address that in a minute. It just happened, the woman there lives right next to me in the same neighborhood, and we have a problem I want to bring up. But that item that she wanted to discuss is on our agenda. So what I'd like to do is, I want to move that item up so she won't have to wait an hour and a half to get that. So let's do first, we'll do second. Anybody else in the audience have any item they want to bring up that's not on the agenda? No? Okay. Linda, please come. Stand up. Now, the item that I want to move up is the supervisors' comments on water meters. Before Linda starts, I could email- Hold on, Linda, one second. I'll get it. Before we start, there's a problem with the water meters, and I'm going to bring it up real quick just to start this foundation. What happened with the villages now, and I don't know if you're aware of it, but in Seneca Village and Villers, and a lot of other areas in the villages, they're putting in two meters. They're putting in the irrigation meters and your regular potable water meters, and they're replacing them. Now, they started doing it about a week and a half ago. About three days after they replaced them, I got four phone calls, and of course, I emailed Brittany, all at once saying, "They were here, they left. My sprinkler system's not on, but it's on." Okay? So I kind of know what's wrong with it. In the past, I used to do that and did have a job before I started in the port authority. I mean, in the villages. I worked for the port authority, and I had a very nice job, but that's beside the point. So I know a little bit about the subject. What happened was, when I got the first phone call, you didn't think anything of it, but I always tell everybody to email me first because I use their email, so when I email higher-ups like Brittany and whoever, Ken Block or Jesus, whoever I email, they know what's going on. The resident knows exactly what the answers are, what the questions are, and what the responses are. About 10 minutes later, I get two or three more. I got about four or five that day, phone calls from people in the neighborhood, in Seneca Village, which has about 62 homes in that village. I thought it was going to be another cable problem, another Quantum problem, but it didn't seem that bad. One of my neighbors paid $184 to get the problem fixed. What happened was, after they replaced the meter, the sprinkler system was on, but the system was off. Okay. Now, if any supervisors have this problem, I don't know if you got a call on it, anything. What's happening is, and this is what's happened, and I brought that up in my email to Brittany. What happens is when they change the... And this is a fact. Now, you can't prove it. When they change the meter- But it's a fact. It's a fact ... Yeah. You know what I'm going to say. No, it's a fact, but this happens. No, it's a fact, it happens. Just because it's hard to prove. Okay? And if you listen, you'll know what I'm talking about. When they change the meter, dirt gets in the system. Your sprinkler systems have valves. That dirt goes into the valve and locks the valve open. Okay? So your system could be off, and you still could turn on your system. Your water's still working. What I mean is, if your system's off, your timer, and you go to your little box and turn that one valve on, your system will come on, even if your system's off. That's what the dirt does. It goes in the system, opens up the valve, and the valve doesn't close because it blocks the valve from closing. Now, I told one of the neighbors that, and they went to a Massey, they're the people that did this system, and they said, "Nah, we replaced it. There was dirt in it." But they called up the water company, they came, and they said, "No, we just replaced the meters. We replaced the meters. That's it. We're responsible for that. I don't know if it's dirt or not. It may happen." That's what they said. "But we're not responsible." Well, there was two residents that pursued it a little bit more. Linda's one, that's why she's here, and she's going to tell you her story. And another man which said, "The hell with it." He paid his $180 to get it fixed, and he just doesn't want to be bothered. I don't know if it's widespread, but if it is, then obviously there is a problem. If it's not widespread, then it's just isolated, and obviously - It's still a problem. Yeah. Linda, you go. Give your name and address. Linda Findora. I'm at 1053 Burke Court. And- Put the mic down. Put the mic down a little bit for us. Yeah, there you go. Perfect. Okay. One of the neighbors was walking by my house and He noticed some water by one of my palm trees. It was about the size of a saucer and my system was off in the garage and so he went and turned the system off that's in that hole in the ground. And I got my water bill the other day, I have used 24,000 gallons of water in 10 days. Wow. Now, I don't know much about sprinkler systems. We've lived there almost 18 years, we've never had a problem. I'm by myself, my husband has passed away, and I'm kind of at a loss. And so I started making some phone calls. I talked to Jerry, I talked to the other gentleman that had a problem, and since then I've done a little bit more investigating. I guess I didn't have anything to do. So I called the number that was on my bill and I get a gentleman, he was very nice, and he says their job is to get the water to go through the meter. Yeah. That's it. And I tried to tell him what was happening with me. I got everything off and I didn't know what to do. So I then get my water bill, I've used 24,000 gallons of water and I call up the number that's on the bill and I get another lady and she says that I obviously have a leak somewhere. On February 26th, they put in the new water meter. Now, one girl told me they only did the potable one. The other girl said they did both. I don't know what really happened. I talked to the gentleman that came along as he was putting someone else's meter in and he said his job is to put the meter in and get water running through it. I stopped another guy that was doing the same thing. Their job is to get the water running through the meter and that's it. I don't know what to do. So I called and talked to some girls and they said that on February 26th, they put the new meters in. On 3/2, they noticed that there was a lot of water going through even though my system is off in the garage. Mm-hmm. And it got steadily worse until 3/13 when the neighbor came and turned it off and she said there's no way he could turn that water off without a special tool. I don't know. And so they said that a gentleman came out yesterday and left this card on my door and he said everything's perfect. The meter inspection passed the test, everything's great. The lady that I talked to, a Bobby, said that they would've left a note saying they would be back to check. No one has called, nobody came. I just don't know what to do. I'm still using water, irrigation water, and I'm not irrigating anything. It has been off since before we had the frost. I only have seven things that I water. Four little shrubs about this big, and they have drip lines so it doesn't use as much water and it gets right to the plant, and three palm trees that also have drip lines on. I don't know what to do. Linda, just to get the low, and let me butt in now. Your bill, you told me that your bill was... How much is your bill? When your system was off, how much is your bill on your irrigation system? Last month, for the irrigation it was 11 cents. I used 50 gallons of water and my system was off. This time I used 24,000 gallons of water and they billed me $94.58. Okay. I have my bills that go back to 2022 and I've never used that kind of water. I recommend right away, like you said, I think you did say that you have a guy coming in. Make sure he comes in soon because that water could be still going on even though your system's off. And I don't want to get into... Brittany may know, but they have a system where they do give you a relief on your water bill one time lifetime. Mm-hmm. Okay? People don't realize that. So if they give you a relief now and five years from now your system's messed up and it costs you $500... Because there's people that have this problem, remember I'm doing this 13 years. I know people have a bill for $300, $400 and didn't realize their sprinkler was on. And then they had to eat most of that. And if they give you the relief, now you don't get anything.So it's very hard to prove that it happened because of the dirt, because once you open it up and shut it, you could clean it out, and that blockage now is not there anymore, so they can't say it was the dirt that did it. That's my point. It happens, but it's hard to prove that it happened, okay, and when it happened. And Brittany, I don't know what we could do. I think she could put in for a relief of the $94, because they're going to keep coming out and say everything's working because it is working. Okay? The problem is why did it happen? I'm hoping, I hope it doesn't happen, but maybe because I don't know how many are doing it in the area, in the villages. I know Seneca Village, they did them all in two days. There was five, six groups going out. The more they do, the more problems they're going to have. The more problems they're going to have, the more it's going to make what I said is what's going on. Because if we don't have a lot of people with this problem, I got a feeling you're going to end up eating that bill. What do you recommend, Brittany? So the meter change-out project is the move to AMR, and all utilities are doing it. So we're roughly a year and a half into changing out 140,000 meters. And unfortunately, I know for Ms. Vendora, this is the first issue I've heard of like this for any of the meter change-outs. They're only touching the meters, and they're only turning the water off at the meter location. They are currently working in the geographical area of District 7, so it was LSSA and VCSA utilities north of 466, and then as you move south, it goes to the North Sumter County Utility Dependent District and NSU and CSU utilities. I do have, and Ms. Vendora, I do apologize because this information came through at about 4:45 last night, and I know I did request utility billing reach out to you again, so I'll make sure they do that today. I do have the usage report where it does show that big spike starting on the 2nd, but it looks like it dropped off to no usage or very minimal between the 12th of March and the 22nd. There's only a little, little tiny bit of usage in between that last week or so. But residents are eligible for the leak credit adjustment, and that's what I had discussed with the utility billing manager. So we'll make sure to get you all of that information. Brittany, I'm not as concerned about the money. Yeah, do I want to pay it? No, because it's outrageous for me turning things off and trying to do the right thing and not use water, it's still running somehow. Not as much, but it's still using some. Even when I had it turned off last month, it still used 50 gallons. And I'm getting different information from different people. I'm leaving to go back to Ohio on the 22nd. I need to get some closure to this. I don't want to waste water. That's why I had all the drip lines put in. I'm trying to do what I think is best for not only myself, but for the villages. And if you have any suggestions what I can do, I certainly will try, but- Linda, I would get that person, like you said today, get that person in to a PM, do a checkout your whole system, and they'll fix it. Now, obviously, there's going to be a cost, but you're going to have to do that. Brittany, I wonder if possibly, this would obviously delay, but I wonder if the homeowner is there when they do that, that before the technician leaves, have the homeowner shut off the system and let the technician look to see if water is running through the system. Then they would know immediately that there's an issue, and they could then, whether it's their responsibility to fix or not, at least at that point in time, the homeowner would know that there's something amiss. That it's the same issue that she's having and what Jerry explained. I don't know if they would be willing to do that if we talk to the installers, because it's going to take an extra minute, five minutes- ... to go ahead and do something like that if the homeowner's there. But you would at least know immediately that my system's off, but the meter's ticking, gallons of water running through it. I think they're going to have to actually run the sprinkler first, let that mud carry down to block off the solenoid. Yeah. Well, once again, you're talking about a difference of 5, 10 minutes. Yeah. Run through- It's not much time, but they might not be willing to do it ... shut it off, make sure everything is shut down. But the problem is that when they came in Seneca Village, they came in like five different... There was two people, probably three, four trucks in 62 homes. And they did it all in one day. So that means most people are snowbirds, most people are not in, most people are playing golf that day. You're going to have to get everybody that's home. That becomes the problem. Yeah. I realize that. That becomes the problem. And I'm getting ready to close up the house because I'll be leaving, and I want to take care of the problem, and- Yeah. Well, Linda- I just... My husband could fix anything. Me, not much. Linda, just get somebody there. It's going to cost you. Get somebody there. Do away with the leak now, if there is a leak. Do away with it running because if your system's turned off, the system should not be on. So get that. Once the professional comes, they'll fix that.Brittany's working with you to get some of your money. Hopefully, they give you all of it back if they determine that was a problem, and hopefully this will take care or rectify the problem. Where did all that water go? It went into the ground . It might not be your meter. I've had the same problem, and it wasn't- You need to- You need to come to the- Yeah. You need to come up. Yeah, you got to come up and talk. You can't just talk. We got protocol, okay? No problem. Go speak. Come on up. Come up? Come on up. So I'm sorry, I just want to tell you. Yeah, give your name and address. Hi, my name's Valerie Brown. I live in the village of Hadley. Okay. And I've been here for two years, and so now you're like my little ward, or you're not district, so I'm all new. I'm from Las Vegas. Anyway, so I had the same problem you did. And I'm like, "What is happening?" And what it turned out to be, because I threw a fit and it wasn't the meter, but the meter was ticking. The trees got into the roots and got underneath the sewer line, and it erupted something under that turned my meter on. And Massey did come out. They had to dig up the entire... We had to turn off the water for the entire villa. And my name was mud, and there was mud everywhere. But that was in your irrigation system, was it? It was my irrigation system. Irrigation system? Yeah, and then they took care of it, and then the water district refunded all the money, and they replaced everything. Try that. Yeah. Like I say, I'm just trying to do and make phone calls and get as much information as I can. Great. And hopefully I can get it fixed by the 22nd, because I have to leave. You will. Once you call the guy in today, hopefully, he'll fix it within the 20 minutes that he comes. It don't take long, unless it's something more like digging lines or something. But that's all. That'll take care of the problem. And get him to write up the cause. Yeah. Okay. And I don't know who to even call. Do I just go in the phone book and call somebody, or is there somebody that- Next door? Yeah. Who takes care of your lawnmowing stuff? I have a landscaper. Okay, no, who? But I've never had any water issues since I've been there. Do you have somebody come and check the irrigation system on a regular basis? No. Okay. Because that would be the best place, not a phone book. Okay, thank you. Linda, well, just go to one of the neighbors. You talk to the neighbors. Find out who they go to. Even Joe across the street, find out. He goes to Massey, if you want to go to them. But go to somebody. Okay. Several people have said their bill was higher, and they just paid it. Yeah. And like I say, it isn't the money as much as I'm worried about all the water usage, and if it's going to do damage in my house, or I don't know. No. You'll get it fixed, and you won't have to worry about it then, yeah. And work with Brittany to try to get some of that money back if you want. Yeah. If you have the system turned off right now, which it sounds like you do, there's no activity on the meter. So the activity, something occurred between February 26th and March 2nd, which is if your system was on, that's where your usage drastically- It wasn't ... spiked. Well, the water was on, so it indicates a leak. Out in the- Yes ... hole in the ground? Yes. And then it sounds like your neighbor turned off your system at the box. Mm-hmm. And there hasn't been any activity since then. Okay. So that generally- I'll get that checked ... indicates that there's a leak. Yeah, and that tells me more so that that valve was stuck open. Yeah. Because once you shut off the... See, that's what I mean. It's hard to prove. And bottom line is you may not have that problem again, but have somebody PM that system. Periodically, they say you should have it PM'd once a year. Well, I- I get mine every couple of years ... I use it very little, really. Yeah. But because you don't have really a sprinkler system, you have drippers. Yes. You're great. Yeah. And I don't have many things to drip on. Yeah, I understand. We got that. Thank you. It'll work out, Linda. We have a gentleman who wants to speak. Yeah. Sir, yes. Give your name and address. I'm Walter Rood, Village of Hadley. I've been here since Thanksgiving. Welcome. Thank you. I drank the Kool-Aid. You want to lift the mic up so we can hear you? Sure. Sorry. So in any event, the situation here seems to be a quality control. Not to point fingers, but if there's a pattern of this occurring, absolutely the installation was flawed. If I took my sneaker off, opened the door, and then tried to close the door with my sneakers in the doorway, all the AC will leak out, and on and on. So this is what I think is happening with this. I've done some irrigation work. And the pattern seems to be a quality control issue. And I don't think that it's fair for the homeowner to be penalized. If this was an isolated incident, truly, it would be. But if you got those, they made contact like that, in that window of time, where's the liability? I don't think that's a homeowner issue, really. Thank you. Yeah, Brittany, if there's a number of these, there ought to be maybe somebody to have a discussion with the installer and say, "Okay, this is what we're experiencing as a result." Can they come up with any solution as to how to mitigate it or modify or change their swap-out instructions that would possibly alleviate that concern or maybe reduce the number of instances? So this is the first incident I've heard of in a year and a half into the meter change-out. Jerry, did you get calls from different people? Well, two emails went out, and I gave her... My procedure is, because I've learned- Yeah ... when people complain, unless it's something really major, I make sure they email me. Yeah. Because that shows me- Were they different cases? Yeah. Of the same issue? Well, I had four phone calls, but two of them only emailed me. So I addressed the two. Okay. Okay? I don't address anybody if they see me at McDonald's, I don't go there, and they say, "Listen, I got a problem." Got it. Because I need it in writing, and I do that to everybody. So technically, I don't know until I saw it become saved if it is... It's hard to believe it's only us, but it's possible. Could be. Yeah. It's possible. Okay. And believe it or not, a lot of people don't even realize their sprinkler system is going through a lot more than it usually does- Until they get the bill ... until they get the bill. Yeah. And it could be a month before they get the bill. And some people are away. So we may get more complaints. Now, you're saying this is going on for a year, tells me it could be very isolated. Right. We're a year and a half into the four-year change-out. Yeah. But that's why we do have that leak adjustment credit with the repair. So I'll make sure utility billing explains that process so that that is a benefit to the residents to be able to get the reimbursement for that. But make sure you know it's only one time. I took it once because I had a $600 bill I'm going to go through. So, bottom line is they gave me, I think, 50% off. And I'm at the point where I say, "Hell with it, I'll take the half of it." But it's only one time. So now, if it happens again five years from now, you're not getting anything. So you got to be careful when you use it. I have another question. If it seems to be something that's happened in the last couple of weeks, because they just did Hadley and they just did you guys- Yes ... then have they changed crews? It's all different crews. If it's a quality control issue, and they've brought in new crews, is the crew the problem? So at least they have something to look at. Yeah. But Joanne, they come in with like five crews. No, I understand that. Yeah. The same. But what I'm saying is if there's been, in a year and a half, if this is the first anybody's heard of it- I got you ... then maybe there's been a change. Maybe the company started parcelling it out to somebody else or something. And Dennis from National Metering Service, I believe he came on site and spoke to the two homeowners that the chairman indicated. So National Metering Service, who's doing the change-out, has been on site at these residential properties. Yeah, they did come out. Okay. Sorry. Everybody good in the audience? Good. All right, let's move on. Consent agenda. A motion to approve the consent agenda is a motion to approve all recommended actions. All matters on the consent agenda is considered routine and no discussion is required unless desired by board supervisors or members of the public. Two items on the consent agenda is approval of minutes and project-wide monthly invoices. Are there any questions on it, supervisors, on both items? Motion to approve. Do I get a second? I'll second his motion. Okay. All in favor? I. Any disapproved? No? Seeing none, that's it. Let's go with new business. Wow, I haven't seen you in months. Yeah. Oh, man. Shannon and I, we like to rotate boards every once in a while. So I'm with you guys this month, but we're going to be doing that rotation a little bit more frequently. So good morning board members. Matt Armstrong, Community Standards. So before you today, there is a request to discuss the fines for case number D70725. This case came before you back in August of 2025. There were a couple violations on the property. The homeowner's deceased. During the process of taking care of the affairs, I believe, another family member had passed away as well who was in charge. So then it went to the next in the family line, and it was a brother, and he went, "What's going on with this? What's with the case?" We explained it to him. He took care of all the situations very quickly, brought the property into compliance. But now there's the outstanding fines. He would love to sell the property, and I believe he does have it for sale. Or at least last time we checked, it showed a sale. And we actually had a title company ask about it as well. So, there are $8,200 on this particular case. There's only $250 in cost to the district in regards to what we've had to deal with it, per the public hearing. We had to go out there and maintain the property one time, and also the postage that we had to use, so about $250 there. So we request the board to discuss. We have two options as to whether to direct legal counsel to discuss a settlement with the homeowner or deny the homeowner's request to waive the fines. Well, it's not the homeowner, but the brother of the homeowner who has power of attorney on the property now. And what was that number again? Which one? The total number that they own in fines. 8,200. Wow. Matt, quick question. Are fines still accumulating on this? No, not at this time. That's ceased. Okay. 8,200. Mm-hmm. How'd they get to $8,200? You guys only went out and serviced the property once. They had a daily fine. They had electrical work that was exposed. The sconces were removed. Oh, I see. Okay. So the property... So it wasn't planned to be done. Okay. Got it. Okay. So I have a question. It says that the outstanding fine balance is $8,200. The budget impact is $5,708? So that's your decompliance fund. So whenever we collect fines, it goes into a decompliance fund for District 7, and we utilize those funds for maintaining properties. So whenever we bring fines in, it goes into this fund for you guys, and we use that for maintenance. And so currently, you have a current balance of $5,700 that we can utilize for maintenance or legal costs. So that's just information. That's just information. No, if for any reason, it would stay at $5,700, but you're not going to add to that fund for future expenses associated with the compliance. Okay. I'm just like, "Why is the budget impact?" Yeah. It should be $8,200. Yeah. Okay. Now, the procedure is we have an option. The two options you gave is that we have our attorney negotiate with them. How would you do that? We tell them, "We'll give you 50% or 30%?" Then what will it cost us? I can give you the option of the board, what I would recommend is- Okay ... to call a special meeting of the board members at item six, and define the parameters today on what we are willing to go down to, essentially a not so fee. And then we can reach out to the brother of the homeowner, and see if he'd be available to at least come by and collect. Then I'll make a reminder that they are in violation of this ordinance, and basically settle on paying this thing, other than nothing. We can let the treasurer's office lucky play to act in a quick manner to respond to the compliance, as we do a lot of these cases. The other way is up to the board to decide what they feel about the action to get the ball rolling and to actually collect. So what are we paying per hour to get a few dollars back? What it comes down to is- Hmm? ... we can just forgive the fine, or we can pay to collect something. Well, what was the cost that would be for our lawyer fees, any cost for the village's staff, just to do this process? What was the cost on that? Obviously, there's some kind of cost. Can we end up applying that or know what that figure could be? Well, our district cost right now is $250. Okay. So just charge him the 250 and move forward. Wait a second. Yeah. I was thinking about half. We can't. We have to have a policy here. Yeah. It's not picking a dollar amount. It's a policy as to what we can sustain in the future when the next case comes before us. We can't sit there and say, "Okay, we'll settle for 50% of this," because what is the next storyline behind the- I agree ... the request to mitigate the fine? Is it better or worse than this one? And we sit there and say, "Okay, let's drop it 75% or give it all away, or we want to collect." This is more a policy issue for this board and this district than it is worrying, thinking of the dollar amount. Well, I agree. That's why I asked what the cost was, because if the cost is 1,000, 2,000, that becomes our bottom level where we start. But we want to reclaim that money that we spent on this fine if there is any. Now, it's only 250, which is kind of low, okay? That was the reason why I asked that. We need a foundation. It's funny, after 13 years of being on this board, this is the first time we ever had this incident come up. That's amazing to me right off the bat, that that's what comes up. That could be, but we have some further discussion- Yeah ... later on in this meeting as- Yeah, I was going to say, we've got three on the agenda ... which is married to it. It's a nice idea. Now, I'm only asking for suggestions. We're only brainstorming here. It's a nice idea to up that amount that we have in there, which is 50 something hundred, whatever it is, because that's the money we use when we want to cut people's grass and whatever, we want to maintain, where we can't get a hold of the person, and the neighborhood's getting mad because the grass is four feet high. We need that fund. I like to build that fund up a little bit. It really would be nice. What do you think about that? Oh, that's the purpose of the fine. No, thank you. But the bottom line is that's what I like to do, and we have an opportunity. I'm not taking advantage of them, and I agree. I agree that we should have some kind of procedure. We can't just go one day, wake up and give this guy 20. Let's give him the 5% and charge this guy another 100. No, we should have a procedure. I agree. But how do you want to do this? My personal opinion on this would be we would seek, through legal counsel, the entire amount of the outstanding fines accumulated through non-compliance. And then later on in our discussions, I think we need to have a procedure, but I don't think we can just sit there and say, "Let's forgive it," or, "We'll accept less than that." And this will probably come up in future discussion at the meeting, is that we can't sit there and say in advance that our attorney fees, if they go above $2,000 in collecting $8,000, then we have to stop. No. I think we have to have the policy that or procedures that we're going to follow. So my view is that we seek to collect the entire $8,200. And I agree. And it don't open up Pandora's box. We're giving people more breaks than others. There's a standard, and I agree. Anybody else? Any supervisors got any suggestions? I think we've got a unique situation where the original homeowner was dead. The person who took it over- Is dead. Died ... died. And so we've got a third party who has gotten the issue taken care of. Yeah. And so we're basically ending finding a third party who actually got the work done, and do we really want to hit him with a- Well, we're fining the estate, we're not fining him. I'm speaking. Do we really want to hit him with that major fine when he's the one who's willingly come in and taken care of anything? I agree with Ed that we've got to have some sort of policy, but we've also got to have something to- Yeah. Leeway. A little grace. I agree because what the-Mr. Armstrong, I don't know if you could answer this honestly. Because this is the only time in 13 years or so that this subject come up, this issue, most of the time we end up when the person dies or... So how many times today we have fines where we just end up not collecting anything? It's a pretty big percentage. Am I correct? In District VII, it's only happened a couple of times where the property transferred ownership, and so the fines were waived. And this is almost a similar situation- Yeah ... where the property is for sale. If it sells- That's my point ... you guys are going to get nothing. Yeah, my point is it's nice, and you hit a good note. It's nice that person from that family wants to do something. That means we're getting something. Usually, we get nothing. But in this issue, when this subject comes up on this, usually we end up, if they have a fine of $8,000 they owe, they sell the property, but we get nothing anyway. In this case, we're getting something. Maybe that's why we first time in 13 years this item came up, this subject, we never got much of it. We just let it go. And so it's up to the board. What do you want to do? We need a procedure. We need a process, I agree. But what do you want to do? You want to give him a little... What determines how much? I would drop the, my personal feeling is drop that fee down to 500 or basically 100% of what we actually have invested. Mm-hmm. I would be fine with that. And the problem that we have here, we've going about is the chicken or the egg first, because part of the reason that Michelle's here is to discuss this actually. So if we do this now and then in, I don't know, 15 minutes, come up with a procedure and this isn't part of that procedure, then I don't know what we're doing. Well, you- I think at the end of the day- We have to come up with an answer, but he needs something. I know Mr. Armstrong needs an answer on this. I do. Yeah. And to help answer the previous question that was asked, so far historically, this is historical for District VII, there's been $34,300 imposed in fines for various reasons. You've collected $4,550. You have only waived $1,900, and that's due to transfer of ownership of property owners. So you currently have an outstanding fine balance of $27,950, which 8,000 of it is this case. So that's where your balance comes into play, where you have the $5,000 in your decompliance fund. That tells me currently our system's not working. No, of course. It's not working. It tells me we were just letting it... Well, like you said, like Julian said, and you said, we're going to bring this up. This is on the agenda. But it's amazing that we let this slide. The fund became, if I didn't want to pay it and I got a fine, if I didn't want to pay it, I just didn't pay it. Yep. And we let it go. Yep. And that's through all the districts. That is just not us. That's all the districts. So, I think we'll open up Pandora's box, but it's going to pay off because we could end up having a little more money in there when people don't cut their grass. But shouldn't we take care of this one issue first? Yes, now. Get rid of that- Yes ... get that off the books. Daryl, what do you got? Anything? Any items, ideas? Well, I'm reading the documentation here, and if I understand, the bulk of all those fines is because of the lights not working? They had- You said it was an electrical issue ... they had exposed wiring. The sconces were off the house. The wires were exposed. Their house was not in full repair. Okay. Very polite. Hmm? Very polite. So, I'm okay with just modestly getting this off the books, but I want to kind of expand for just a moment. I want to bring up something, and then Matt can ask you later. But tons and tons of trees are dead all over the place. We're going to have all kinds of compliance issues, I believe, in the next two, three, four months because people aren't going to get that all adjusted, I don't think. But you're looking at thousands and thousands of dollars on some of these trees. Some of them are going to have to be removed, not just trimmed off. So I want to know what we're going to do about it because I think that's going to become a big, expensive problem in the very near future. Well, that's part of the second issue that we're going to discuss in 15, 20 minutes. Yeah. I think right here- Isolated to this case. Yeah. I understand. I agree with you. I just wanted to bring that up, though, because I think that's the bigger policy question, issue. Mm-hmm. It is. So okay. That's all I have to say. Okay. Let's go back to... Right. No, I agree. Let's go back to what do you want to do about this? You want to give him a little grace? You want to do what Ed said and the fines are the fines? And I think we should negotiate this because technically, if he has a good lawyer, this guy, his lawyer would tell him, "Listen, just don't pay it." Sorry, but that's what my lawyer would say. So, I don't know. What do you want to do? I think something's better than nothing because we were getting nothing before, so. Well, let me throw one out there. I move that we reduce the fine to $500 in this case, waive the balance. Boy, that's like Santa Claus coming to his house. Merry Christmas. Yeah. My concern would be with that is that how do we document that and justify it for the future? If the same situation comes back to us six months from now, a year from now, how do we take our documented decision-making and apply it to the next scenario of a problem? Somebody has a long story of concern. Or we could say we just change the policy. I don't mean to be hard-ass, but we change the policy, because technically we don't have a policyI need to change it. We're going to have a policy, hopefully within the next month or so. So, okay, you want to stick to your- I do, but I think, and Michelle's going to weigh in here. I think our safest issue would be to pursue the total amount and authorize the attorney to serve in our best interest in whatever she can negotiate for us. But we've got to give her a guideline. She's got to go back to us, "What do you think?" What if he comes back and says, "Oh- Well, and that may be. But let her- So I think two things can be true together. One is that we are going to discuss an enforcement and collection policy generally that's going to apply on a day-to-day basis. That's just the general policy we're going to have, right? And then also, you're going to come to situations where when these are very fact-specific circumstances. This guy is asking for a waiver based on his factual circumstances. So what you are granting today is very narrowly construed against these facts, and so I don't think that there is a worry that this is going to set a specific precedent. Each and every time somebody makes these types of requests, you will have to consider it on a case-by-case basis. So again, two things can be true. This consideration is very unique in that, just based on what I've read and the backup that was presented, the homeowner who was fined, the deceased, it seemed like he was already not in the best conditions to deal with anything but his health at the time that the first incident was brought to his attention. And so those are just facts. If I am dealing with my own health, I'm not really going to care about my lawn issues or my electrical. I'm going to be worried about my health. So I would just consider the facts at hand and see what you all would think would be the best business decision on this particular circumstance. And then when we go to discuss generally how you want to move through the tiered approach of how we're going to enforce our collections of outstanding fines that is more normal, as in there's homeowners existing there, there's somebody responsible and to be held accountable, we can move through that process as a separate thing. So I did want to make that distinction because I do think those are separate and distinguishable situations. You do have a motion on the floor. All right, let's hear it. Is that seconded? Yeah, it's been seconded. So, okay. We all understand what the motion is, right? The motion is to reduce the fine to $500. Okay. Which is twice what we have invested. That's what I want you to tell me. Okay. Let's get a vote on it. Shall we have more discussion? I haven't said anything. Yeah, well, I'm waiting. So one of the reasons that we're actually having the later discussion is because wasn't the point that we don't actually have permission to do liens and stuff like that? We're actually not allowed to do that. So how do you enforce it if you're not going to put a lien on it? You're going to negotiate. So we're going to negotiate now. And I'm with Ed. There's got to be a standard, and that's why I'm like, "Okay, too bad that came out of order, but this is what we have." We can't just keep giving it away. I agree, but this is- But we also have no right to collect it legally. But what our attorney just said, we don't really need a-- On this issue, we can make a decision. Yes. And I honestly believe what we're going to discuss the whole problem of having a procedure because we don't have a procedure right now on this issue. I think we should put this to bed. Obviously, ask our lawyer to negotiate with them, but she needs to know where to start and where to end that negotiation. So we- Okay ... and your proposal, $500, it's probably a great idea to get this off the books. And we- Ed? ... don't have to have the- Yeah ... attorney get involved. Right. We just have our fine community standards take charge of this and tell them what a great deal they're about to get. Yeah. Now, what you're trying to say with Ed and Judy Ann, I don't know if this is what you're telling me. Tell me you're telling us that you want to hold off on making a decision on this until we discuss the other factor of this whole issue. I don't know if that's good because obviously, Ms. Armstrong wants to put this to bed. So do we. Well, we all want to put this to bed. So what do you want to do? Well, we have a motion. We have a second. Okay. Do we get a second on this? We do have a second. Okay. Seconded. All in favor for the $500 and lay on the... All in favor? I see. All right. Okay, so that's- Four. Any- Opposed ... opposed? Opposed. One opposed. So, okay. We'll go with the motion to go with the $500. Okay. So I will reach out to the homeowner, or to the- Brother ... the brother, the POA, and then inform him of the $500. And then if he walks out, I will work with Brittany and legal counsel to give you guys an update as to what was said, or if it was accepted. Then if he doesn't want to accept that, he can pay $8,000. Yeah, but he won't have to until we ... Yeah. Right now, he don't have to pay anything. Tell him that. See what he says. Say, "Listen, you go for the $500, or you're going to get assessed for $8,000, but you don't have to pay." See which one he goes for. I'm being facetious, but yeah. Well, we can have the district file in small claims court. Yeah. That works. Thanks. Are you going to be the person that's going to go to small claims court and hang around all day? Yeah. Thank you. Mr. Armstrong, you're the best. Seriously, thank you. Okay. Let's move on Wow. Legal services. All questions to the board supervisors. Just so you know, we have two invoices for this. We got the month of, I have it right here. Hold on. Okay, good. We got the month of February, which was $2,016, and the month of March, which was $4,415.77. So, the motion is to accept both months. So any questions on that, from what we paid for our lawyer fees? Motion to approve. Yeah. Okay. I'll second. You got a second? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none, motion passes. Thank you. Next, old business. Yes, good morning again, board members. There's three items on old business under the non-district seven items. Well, actually, the first item was for staff to attempt to determine if someone is residing at 2355 Notch Avenue, and that was a deed compliance case that came before the board. The answer is yes, there has been documented activity at the home. So from our perspective, it's not an abandoned home. That was the one with the garage door, right? There has been activity. Yes. So Community Standards is, they are aware of that for any future action or issues that present at that property. The second item was pertaining to NSCUD and the gray water inquiry. So we do continue to send out information on their current situation. Unfortunately, we have moved to phase three. That has been imposed by the Southwest Florida Water Management District. I think part of the confusion was when we talk about reclaimed water, we talk about that that is a mix that includes groundwater, and groundwater is lower Floridan aquifer water. So that is a factor in the overall permit issuance for water usage through the Water Management District. And as such, the imposition of the surcharge built into the rate structure was all approved as part of that package. So now that you've brought up the new tighter restrictions- Yes ... it was very clearly stated in the information we were sent that there should be no house washing, no power washing of homes. That's listed right in it. So I know that power washing is still happening, so should we be reporting power washing companies that are still power washing? I don't know what to do with this information. You can report them to the Water Management District. So Community Watch, because they're already out patrolling, are documenting irrigation schedule violations, like if anyone's watering outside of the posted notices that the Water Management District has put out. Those reports are sent over to our utility billing division, and they handle the notification to the residents. It is more of an educational effort, because the surcharge is in effect, that is also a deterrent or supposed to be a deterrent to watering during these conditions. So I guess my follow-up question is, has anybody sent direct information to the power washing company and said, "You should not be washing homes in the villages or anywhere in this district for now?" I mean, I don't know. So it's not just the... I live over in Citrus, and we're in Southwest Florida Water Management District as well. Right. Their jurisdiction encompasses multiple counties. They have their own educational efforts. We are educating the residents based on their irrigation schedules, but the private companies, it's really incumbent upon them to make themselves aware. I know that a lot of them are, but they need to monitor their activities as well. If nobody's reached out to them and said, "Haven't you noticed that you're not supposed to do this?" If the water district isn't being proactive about notifying companies that utilize water for those things, then... I can't speak for... I know that I've seen it everywhere, just even outside of this community. It's incumbent upon the district to advise the residents, and unfortunately, we can't reach all of the private companies, but we would hope that the education level that we're providing to the residents, that they would also take that into consideration for any type of services that they're receiving or engaging or- They don't understand it. Hey, Brittany, is the full extent of any penalty for non-compliance as a resident for irrigation is my surcharge that's on my water bill, correct? Correct. I mean, they're not going to ultimately come back, and if they catch me the third time or something of that nature, "Okay, here's a $100 fine." There's- No, that's why the- It's just what it is ... surcharge is still coming, yes. Okay. And it is at 10% now. Okay. Yeah. And if somebody's using my water to power wash my house, which is usually what happens, they hook their hose up to their thing that gives them the pressure, then I'm paying way more than- Yes ... okay. I just- Yeah. Okay. Got a question for you. With community standards semi-enforcing this, could that also be considered selective enforcement? Should community standards not look at other areas around there for deed compliance? So it's not community standards, it's Community Watch. Okay. Community Watch. It's not deed compliance. Should Community Watch- So we're using them as a resource because they're already out there. Right. But they're a completely different funding mechanism. They're not funded by this district through maintenance assessments. Perfect. Thank you. Okay, good? We're all good? Yep. Okay. What we got? Third issue, then. Yeah. We did that. We have information items only? No, Brittany's got- Oh, it's just that- Oh, Brittany, you got more? Oh, I'm sorry. No, that's okay. We did include information. I know concerns were raised regarding Palmetto and Churchill Greens. We did provide an update on that, and then further updates on courses. And I know Supervisor Coleman was at Project Wide on Monday of this week. And we did have all of the golf course contractors in attendance as well, and there was recently a meeting held with all of them, really to discuss the conditions and expectations of the courses. Any input on that from the left? This is our new superintendent. I truly believe he's doing everything in his power to get this under control, to right the previous wrongs. But it does not appear that he's getting the support of his contractors and of his subordinates that are doing the inspection on the courses. And that's my concern. We should have the same level of service on the executive courses that they do on the championship. But we don't, and that is what I would like to see addressed. And quite frankly, I'm not sure how to do it short of canceling contracts for some of these companies that are theoretically maintaining them, because some of the issues that I've seen are not something that's happened over a one-month period. It's something that's been prolonged neglect. And I'm not sure what the best path is to get this corrected and get our executive courses up into a condition that the residents deserve. How about the district, do you have any suggestions? So we understand your concerns and that level of accountability with the contractors, and that is one of the reasons why they were all requested, and did attend Project Wide to understand and be able to hear firsthand the concerns from residents. So all of the contractors that have courses south of 466 within the Sumter Landing territory were in attendance on Monday, in addition to other meetings that have been held recently. Did they provide a reason that the course has got in this condition? So I don't have that information before me to give you the detailed analysis of the exact course conditions, but there are various contractors at different courses. I will say that the current weather conditions are certainly not helping. No. But there's many different factors involved. I think the only, I guess, explanation that was initially provided was the winter that we experienced as a contributor. They did acknowledge that there are inconsistencies among the coverage of the various courses throughout the villages. And like Brittany said, the contractors were there. They did not speak. They were not actually asked any specific questions regarding the courses under their individual purview. But there was a discussion that they are having meetings, I think either more routinely or not, between the district and the representatives from the landscape companies in dealing with those inconsistencies. And there was a couple of supervisors that brought up, "What about this course? Hole number one, hole number nine?" Those kinds of things. But it was more of a general discussion about acknowledging that there are these inconsistencies across the villages. And I am happy to see that the contractor that has the problem is paying for the sod replacement. So they have been, isn't that right? Yeah. That's their financial responsibility. So they know that there are expectations and that there's a cost if they don't meet them. All right. Any more, Brittany? You done? Or you- That's it for me. All right. Information items only. Any questions on the e-compliance, financial statement, DPD monthly report, community hearing updates? Nothing? Okay. District manager report? Nothing on the agenda, but we did place a printed copy of the annual report at each of your seats, and just would encourage you to take a look at that if you have not already, and it is available to the public on our website, districtgov.org. Brittany, won't we start discussing the budget next month on the May- Yes. May. In May. That's what I thought. Usually, yeah.Okay. District counsel report. Here we go. Michelle? Thank you. I circulated to you all yesterday a memo on the summary of the enforcement mechanism. So today, we will talk about those alternative options for collecting the outstanding fines, and more importantly, why we're recommending a particular path forward. As you'll recall, our office previously advised that the district cannot simply lien a property for the unpaid fines, and that's an important constraint we do have to work with. So the question becomes, what can we do? And I've identified four different options for you. First, a quick recap for the benefit of those hearing this for the first time, perhaps. A quick recap on why we cannot use a lien directly is that under Florida law, a CDD's power to enforce deed restrictions is limited to what's actually spelled out in the existing covenants. Those covenants allow us to pursue legal actions via injunctive relief and recover attorney's fees if we are successful. But neither the covenants nor the statutes authorize specifically the power to lien a property. I know that some neighboring districts have adopted a lien rule anyway, and I've discussed this with Brittany and Matt, how are they able to do this? And my understanding is that some of those boards even brought up the question as to whether the districts had the specific legal authority, and it was explained to them that it is a gray area, just like I am telling you. But the theory has not been challenged in court, so ultimately, it was a business decision on each of those districts' parts to take that risk. It's, again, not challenged in court, so you are running that legal risk if you do choose to go that path. But we believe our more conservative approach is what would protect the district from the potential liability in the future. So with that context, again, I've identified for you in the memo that was circulated ahead of time, four different pathways that you do have as options. First are demand letters. It's straightforward, and it's low cost. It would take me about an hour to draft the demand letter, and from then on, you have a template to work from, so each case would just be switching out the fact specifics. That also demonstrates good faith, and it establishes a clear record. The downside is that there is no enforcement mechanism, so it depends on how somebody will react to that letter. Usually, a scary letter from an attorney's office does tend to at least grab people's attention, so it's a good start. And the second option, which may be the most cost-effective option, is to engage a collection agency. It's my understanding that the utility districts utilize a collection agency as well. You all know hospitals use collection agencies. It's third-party companies that we can hire to go after these outstanding fines and take the work off of the district staff. The reason why it would be the most cost-effective option is that typically, collection agencies don't get a fee until they've actually collected, and it's a percentage based on what they collect. Based on my research, that percentage of fee is somewhere from 10% to 50%. That's a wide range. If the board would like to go that option, I would have to defer to the management staff to determine what best options are available. Again, it frees up staff time. It reduces legal fees because my involvement will be very limited in that case. Again, there's no guarantee of recovery, and collection agencies are not received in the best light. So, the downside may be that you have created some friction with residents by engaging that method. Third is the small claims court route for fines under $8,000. This is a viable option. Filing fees are relatively modest. It ranges from $55 to $300 for claims that near the $8,000 cap. The process is streamlined, and we can recover attorney's fees if we prevail because attorney's fees is provided for in the covenants. It still requires our time, and if we win, we still have to collect on the judgment. But once we do have a favorable judgment for the district, that judgment itself can serve as a reason to lien the property. This is an important distinction aside from us not being able to lien just for the fine itself because we're acting on a legitimate judgment against that property. The fourth option is the circuit court option. If we are seeking injunctive relief, as in we want them to specifically perform the act that we are seeking, that's if they're just not doing the work they need to in order to bring the property into compliance, as well as seek damages above the $8,000 cap. Again, if we win, we may be able to recover attorney's fees, and also use that judgment to record that lien against that property. The key point in all this is that if the violator still won't pay, then we do have these additional tools, collection agency being one, and one of the most cost-effective options. A recorded judgment does become a lien on the debtor's property, so it will pass through the title transfer. So, in which case, we would be able to issue an estoppel letter conditioned upon the fact that they need to pay this fine because it's outstanding judgment lien. It, again, flows from the court's judgment itself. It's on solid legal footing. We can also pursue injunctive relief, obviously.So these are different options, but I think ultimately what would benefit is a tiered approach. You can first start with demand letters to see whether that kicks people into action. If that doesn't, we can turn it over to collection agency after a time certain. If they're still unsuccessful, we can then follow a small claims suit. And then if that also doesn't work, then we can raise the bar to circuit level if it meets the dollar threshold for filing in that route. So you do have collection options. It's just that we have to work within the legal confines that exist today. I did go back and had my associate do an overhaul of the research previously done. The law has not changed, unfortunately. It is where we are today. Two things that we are also continuing to do is obviously our office continues to monitor any legislative changes. So if there is any change to the Chapter 190 that does give us the ability to lien based on the outstanding fines, we will know about it and we will immediately put into action. And then another thing is, we can make the ask to the developer who is better positioned to lobby the legislature to change the law. No guarantee that they're going to respond favorably, but there's no harm in asking, right? Lobbying is a huge undertaking, is a very costly undertaking, so we wouldn't recommend that you take that on yourself at an individual district level. But again, that's why we would make the ask. Because having that specific statutory authority would not only benefit District 7, but all the remaining villages districts who are operating within this deep gray area. So, we can make that ask. That was a lot of information. Let me stop there. That was great. That was my question to you. How can we lobby? And I figured it was very expensive and a little over our heads, in plain English. But thank you for answering that. That's good. So board, my opinion of saying, I think it's a good idea to start with the demand letter. Because I'm always worried about cost. And it becomes, and I said this last meeting, we always got to worry about how much we're collecting. When is it going to become counterproductive where we're paying more for lawyer fees and fees, where we're looking for 2,000 and it costs us 6,000 to get the 2,000, that's kind of dumb. So that becomes a problem. So it's all about how much that individual resident owes us and how much fines they have. That becomes a process, obviou