Village Community Development District No. 14

Got a call to order the September 11th meeting of District 14. If you would please stand, we'll say the Pledge of Allegiance. Allegiance one Nation. Now I have a moment of silence, please. Thank you. I wanna welcome all the attendees here today, and at this point in the agenda, we would hear audience comment. If you have a comment you would like to make, please come to the microphone, state your name and address, and we'd love to hear your comment. And this is for anything not on the agenda. So if there's something that's on the agenda you would like to speak about, if you can please hold your comments until that time. Good afternoon. My name's Alex Orti. We're at 1262 Elkington in Lake Denim. Um, we're aware that we're getting an 8% increase in the maintenance fee, and I'm here to say we're not getting our money's worth. If you walk around our district, as I have, and have taken photographs over time and see all of the discrepancies, the lack of weed control, the dead grass, we have neighbors who are being penalized for their dead grass, yet you can walk through the common areas and see worse conditions. So we're paying for things that are not being well kept. We have covers to, um, our electrical equipment, water, uh, irrigation systems that are broken, that tractors have run over the lawn. People have run over these things and broke them. I was told by the property at the head of, uh, the property division for the CDD here, that they're responsible for paying to replace those things. However, we're getting the 8% increase. We have broken dislodged utility coverage. We deteriorating grass, dead plant, broken bench. I reported this bench that was installed by a family in honor of their family members who have passed. Somebody broke the brackets on this bench. It's just loose on, on its stand or on its cement slab. I had the property manager come out and take a look, and he said, we'll handle it. It's been four weeks. Nothing has been done. The metal trimmers that they used to edge the lawn, they're throwing them into the bushes and leaving them in the lawn. We had pesticide markers put all over the plate, no word that this was going to be happening. So all of us who have dogs we're kind of in a bit of a quandary as to when this happened, and that we couldn't walk our dogs on the path because of the pesticides that were put down. And then nobody came and pulled the signs, the little markers that they put in the lawn. And guess what? They ran over 'em with their lawnmowers and broke 'em all up, and they're just laying in the grass. I don't think the current company who's providing our services should be rewarded in any way of the imagination because of the poor quality of services we are getting. When you go up north of 44 and you look around, you don't see this nicely kept, but you come north, south of 44 and it's a totally different, or shall I say, when you hit Lake County and further south, it's deplorable. So I don't think our property, common areas are being monitored well by our property group. Our district 14 needs to be aware of this, and I just want you to be aware of this, that I'm opposed to an 8% increase when our community is not looking well. Thank you. Thank you. So if, if you have comments that are maintenance related, this would be an appropriate time to report those. But if you're wanting to talk about the 8% maintenance assessment or anything budget related, there will be a public hearing shortly, and that would be the appropriate time to, to talk about that. Are there any more audience comments? Yes, sir. Several. My Name is Stan, or I live on Mickey Lee Road 69 11. You Better? He's got, Is that better? Yeah. Okay. Stan Urban, I live at 69 11 Mickey Lee Run, uh, gentleman that was up here previous to me. Uh, I can reiterate everything he says. I I usually email, so I have a track record. I emailed, uh, the day after the holiday about, uh, landscaping. The flowers that, uh, in front of Mickey Lee run in the entrance on the exit. Terrible gentleman did come out. I don't have his name come to, uh, come down right now in front of me. But, uh, he came out and he agreed everything my email said, he said, it's a disgusting mess. I asked him if he would walk with me to take a look at another situation. I knew it wasn't his. It was about three houses down. It's where Mickey Lee golf course is. Path path that crosses the road that goes to the last three holes. The weeds, no joke, are 30 inches tall. Try to get somebody, and he said it's executive golf. I've got a list of emails I send executive golf, they try to wear you out. It's disgusting. And that's really all I'm gonna say. It's a landscaping around our area. And Mickey Lee run and the Mickey Lee pitching put is disgusting. We are not getting our money's worth. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Hi, uh, Reed Canis stab me. I'm here every month. I, uh, put it on Facebook. I try to be as neutral as possible, uh, except I think I got a curve ball last time. Uh, anonymous complaints saying, uh, it's all due to statute one 90. Well, I actually read one 90 and, uh, especially 1 91 0 0, 0 6 and 0 0 7, where it gives the board of supervisor's duties and, uh, the, um, district manager's duties. And I was surprised to see that the district manager's duties may be prescribed by the board will be okay. So, um, once again, why can't we override and get anonymous complaints taken away? Because you're the electorate, you're the will of the people. Can't you override what the district manager says? Thank you. Thank you, thank you. If you'd like me to, would you like me to address? Yes. So for the, for the landscaping, um, comments, thank you for, for reporting these, um, district property management does oversee the majority of the maintenance contracts within District 14 as it pertains to, um, the water retention basins, the landscaping, the paths, things like that. Um, not the Mickey Lee area that is not district at all. That is still owned and managed by the developer, so I'll certainly reach out to them on that one. Um, but it is our job to make sure that the contractors are adhering to the contracts when it comes to mowing and weeding, um, picking up trash, things like that. And so, certainly, uh, Mr. Mellinger is the assistant director with, with property management. He's going to go back to his team and make sure that we are doing our due diligence with the contractors. Um, I don't have the information in front of me, but I've been taking notes on all of the concerns, and we'll make sure that those get addressed and that we follow up with the board, um, as to our, our findings for that. When it comes to, uh, deed compliance, chapter one 90 of the Florida statute gives community development districts the ability to adopt rules, to enforce restrictions once certain criteria have been met. The criteria, according to Chapter one 90, is that the majority of supervisors have to be elected through a qualified election process. Because District 14 is still so new, none of you have been elected from a qualified election process. In fact, district 13 is not even eligible under Florida statute to enforce deed restrictions. So it's not that you, you can or can't or, or anything to do with overriding the district manager. And it's that Florida statute does not give you the ability to do that yet, it is all done through the developer. But a later agenda item on your agenda today, the developer is going to allow District 14. If you would like to choose whether or not anonymous complaints are accepted within the boundaries of District 14. You still can't adopt a rule. You still can't enforce D restrictions. But because residents come to you and say, we support anonymous complaints, we don't support anonymous complaints. If you would like the ability to make that determination, then the developer's allowing you to do so. But that will come up later on the agenda. I'm, this is kind of related to the anonymous complaints. It, it's on, so don't push the button, just get closer. Hello, My name's Howard P*****k. Uh, I live in, I live on Fort Wine Loop 1527. I've been here for two years. I'm here to today to address, recently affected myself and six neighbors with the issue of anonymous complaint regarding landscape decor. A gentleman came to our door and said, send seven anonymous complaints had been lodged against us and six neighbors regarding our landscaping, uh, decorations. We were told to remove various items in our landscaping and small hand painted rocks that cannot be seen from the road. They're flat, they're three inches, they're only visible to if you came to the front door. These rocks were done by my wife, who was recovering from a near fatal car accident and are less than three inches around. They're part of a private side of our landscape, and in no way can be seen. We understand rules are important and help keep our community looking beautiful, but rules should be applied with fairness, reason and context. And you must identify yourself. This isn't about rocks, it's about how we balance rules with respect for each other's property and privacy. When one anonymous complaint leads to a wave of notices on one street, which without knowing if the complainant even lives in the villages, the action appears to be more malicious rather than true concern for our community. We would like to abolish the amount, the anonymous complaint system as we just done, I think with District 13. Instead, encourage neighbor to neighbor communication before involving formal complaints. I hope we can work together to create guidelines to keep our community beautiful, safe, and without un unnecessary tension. Thank you. Thank you. So there, there will be a presentation on anonymous complaints. So if you have any other comments on deep compliance, anonymous complaints or support or not, if you would like to wait until we present that item to the board, they will then ask for public comment on that specific item. Good afternoon, my name's Joe Ra. I live at 70 27 Sugar Creek Path. I'm wondering, does anyone follow up the contractors when they do their work out there on the landscape? Yes, They do. Yes. Well, I think they need to do a better job. Well, as I said, I, I don't have those follow ups in front of me, so I don't know if 72 hour notices have been issued. I don't know what communications we've had with them. Okay. Once I meet with my property management team, we'll update the board. And when we do that, we always post those updates to the agenda so that you can see 'em as well. Okay. I'm usually out every day, uh, either walk or cycling, um, along sen the weeds or out control. Um, we have two cul-de-sacs on Sugar Creek. They're all weeds. The grass is all dead. Uh, I have, I had some communication back on July 25th. They said they'd be out to spray. Um, they must have sprayed everything's dead and no one's followed up to come back and replace the grass or anything. I have to agree with the gentleman that have spoken in the, in the past here about it's not looking as nice as it did when we moved in. In my opinion, things should look better as it gets older. Uh, I take pride in my property and I think, as they said, everything north of 44 looks pretty damn good. Everything south of us, it's not looking like it used to. I mean, today they are replacing sawd in front of Sawgrass, which is nice. But there's a lot of other places that need to be worked on. Um, my suggestion is we're paying these contractors if they're not doing the job, get rid of 'em to somebody else that will come in and do the job. Maybe even better, who would appreciate the work today. So that's what I have to say. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you. So I live at Lake Creek Circle 7 27. I live at Lake Creek Circle 7 27. Um, I live by the pool, so the back of my house, my sliders face the pool. So I pretty much can see when the landscapers are there and to be very specific when they come. Here's a particular issue. When they're throwing down the new pine straw, they come, they throw down the pine straw. They don't spread it, they don't take off the findings that it comes in. I've gone out there for a walk. My ankle has got caught on the binding. Somebody else who wasn't stable on their feet could fall. I pick them up all over around the walkway from the pool. It's pretty dangerous for people who are walking to get their foot caught in that. I don't think it takes a whole lot for them to cut it off to actually take a rake for by hand and spread the straw. So when you're walking around the pool, you'll see huge clumps, almost like the whole bale. And then you'll go a few more feet and it doesn't look like they've done anything. I think when they're out there doing supposedly specific jobs, someone needs to follow up afterwards and make sure those jobs are done correctly via their supervisor, somebody from the district. Um, but somebody really needs to follow up and make sure what we're paying for, we're actually getting done. And I'm not sure who's responsible for spraying the ant, but if you've ever walked around the dabney pool on all that green, and not just there, but throughout the property, the ants are horrendous and they're pretty dangerous for someone to step in the ant pile. And when they mow, they just mow right over 'em. And then it just makes it bigger. There's some that are bigger stepping stones out there. It's just dangerous for people. And if you have an allergy, it's even worse. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name's David LaRosa. I'm 1 3 6 5 Redwood Road. Uh, I have to agree with everybody else that has come up here. We're not getting our money's worth as far as landscaping and care of our, of our properties in District 14. It's very noticeable as you head north, especially when you get over 44, that everything, uh, gets much, much nicer. Um, even taking into account that, you know, our our landscaping is new and it's growing, there's still a very distinct difference between the two. Uh, I also understand that the district is not quite, is still controlled by the developer. So maybe that's the reason. I don't know. We don't get any answers. Uh, but I did wanna talk about one item, uh, on our street, sugar Creek Road. There is a, uh, island where it should be bushes and some nice landscaping and it's nothing but weeds and two, two trees that look dead. And we brought this attention to landscaping and nothing's happened. One of my neighbors said that, oh, they told us they want the natural look. I didn't come here for a natural look. I'm not paying for a natural look. I'm paying for landscaping, flowers, trees, bushes, palm trees. So if somebody can address that, somebody can go and ask them what's happening here? That would be much appreciated. It affects our property values as well as just our quality of life. So I, I don't understand what you mean when you say it's, it could be like that. 'cause this district's controlled by the developer. What do you, what do you mean? Uh, I thought you were saying earlier that deed compliance is, Deed compliance is, yes. And budgets are still controlled by the developer. Maybe the Budgets are controlled by the sport. By the sport. Okay. So And is there somebody that is in charge of landscaping? There is, um, Mr. Ryan Mellinger, his department district property management, um, they maintain all of the common area infrastructure. So all of these, these landscaping items that you've been addressing, um, it's his office that will be, will be addressing that. Is he Here Today? Yes, Ryan, if you wanna, you can talk with him after the meeting if you'd like. Okay. Um, to address your, your comments though, when we look at cul-de-sacs specifically, we do get a lot of requests from residents, especially south of 44, that say, I want palm trees or I want this in my cul-de-sac. When the developer designs certain areas, they give us what we call as built and it has every cul-de-sac on it. It has every landscaping bed, and it has what the, what was installed at the time of, of build. So if your cul-de-sac had a certain amount of bushes or trees, that is, that is what it was intended to have. And we don't go and change that or enhance it because then we could potentially have 1200 cul-de-sacs where residents want different things done. And you don't have the funds to necessarily pay for that. But what we do is go out there with those as-builts and make sure that it does have all the plannings that were intended to be there. And if they're dead, if it's full of weeds, we certainly will fix what's dead. We'll put in something else. We'll, we'll clear the weeds, but it's not a, it's not something that we would go in and add palm trees if the intent there was to have a magnolia tree and a couple different shrubs. We keep that. And south of 44, the design intent is natural. You have Florida friendly everywhere. You have a lot of the rocks, you have a lot of pine straw, you have a lot of open areas that are not St. Augustine grass and maintained and mowed weekly. They are kept higher and it is meant to have that more natural look. South of 44, you don't have that anywhere. South of 44 is maintained completely different. And that is, the district doesn't determine that. The district takes that over from the design of the developer and then maintains it in that same manner. Okay. Well I would ask for him to go out and look because there's our little, our little area there has three different cul-de-sacs and the one that I was addressing is just weeds and dirt. He'll send a member of his team out with those ads built and then we'll make sure that it is how it's supposed to be. We, I mean, weeds and dirt are, are is not the design intent. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, my name is Michael. I reside at 8 84 Donald Circle in Dabney and The back of my house, uh, faces a retention pond there. First I'd like to say that I agree with everybody that's already come up here regarding the landscaping. Not to reiterate it, but it is a mess and it's disgusting. Just drive up and down. I think the, the cinch bugs have destroyed everything. So I don't know what kind of pest controls or any other controls you guys are managing, but you're not. So I'll leave that there. But regarding the retention pond around my house, that is not maintained either. I have to maintain my property, take a look at my house, you look at my property, it's perfect. You look what the retention pond I'm responsible for, it's dirt. There's ant mounds all over the place and weeds growing on that. I actually go down and I cut the grass myself around the retention pond behind my house because I'm sick and looking at it. And the fact that I want the aesthetics of my house to be beautified, I maintain that area right in front of you, even though you guys still come around and cut the grass. But that's all you do. Right? And it's not maintained as far as the weeds and dirt. I mean, it, it should be grass. And I'm not saying it has to be the St. Augustine grass that we have on our properties. You can still maintain it with the shepherd, but it should be a nice grass. Anyway. I don't wanna belabor that. This document you sent out the notice on August 13th. Are you planning to go through this document? Yes, that'll be part of the budget. Public hearing All because I'll wait to then to ask questions 'cause there's things I need to get identification on. I don't understand some of the terminology and I'd like to get a little more understanding of what it means. I think maybe a, a more detailed description of what infrastructure means and what basically is saying here that's costing us over $2 billion a year to maintain this. Right. And this document is so vague that $2 billion seems like way excessive. So this, this board has been working through their budget all summer. They had a budget workshop at one of their meetings in which we presented to them line by line information of what their budget was going to consist of all of the reoccurring landscaping charge. The one, um, one off landscaping enhancements, the infrastructure storm water improvements, um, it could be multimodal, could be tunnel. Um, all of their contracts that are gonna be coming up for renewal. And what we anticipated, the increases were going to be from that, we looked at five year outcasts of what their expenses are expected to be compared to their revenues. Their main revenue driver is the maintenance assessments. So if their budget is not going to be able to cover their expenses, then that's when you look at the maintenance assessment increase as well as starting to develop reserves. So this has, this has been in discussion, um, hopefully some of you have been at some of those meetings where they're we're going line by line to make sure that they fully understand the budget and what they're voting on. All of it's also online. So when you go online and you go to their budget, you can see line by line how much is, is allocated to each line item. That letter is required by the state of Florida and unfortunately we are required to write it in that exact same way where you don't understand it, um, where you don't have the discretion to change it. That verbiage is put out by the state. Um, but really the goal is to get you here so that you can see the budget, you can have input as to the budget and the maintenance assessments. So when we go through the budget, we're going to give a high level overview 'cause we've already done the details, but if you have detailed questions, then we can either help explain it at that point or we can tell you on the website where to find it. Okay, great. I would like to get that website if possible. I'm fairly new, I just moved in myself, so this is my first participation, but I do want to obviously get involved to understand what the, the community is doing and what I'm paying for. So absolutely, if you can provide that website, that'd Be great. The web, the website's actually located on the back of your resident ID card. Okay. So when you pull out your resident ID card, it's also probably on this agenda, but it's district gov.org. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other comments? Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to share my, my thoughts with you. Um, I'm Ann Marie Estrada. I live right down from the Franklin Rec Center and we have a retention pond behind our house. Back in early June, I complained about the lily pads. They are now four times the size of what they were when I initially complained. Um, the individual that I spoke to assured me that they would be addressed at this point they, I believe they have sprayed from the side of the, of the pond out, but they are so dense now that the spring is not reaching the full length of where the lily pads are. It looks like somebody's gonna have to get out in a boat. And my husband is interested in, you know, cleaning this up and he's like, we gotta get a boat. So I wanna highlight that that's an issue that we're having. Um, and I'd like to get it resolved. It's really an eyesore. Thank you. Thank you. And we'll address that, that pond as well. We are, um, you actually approved at a previous meeting, um, at the EMAC meeting, a new aquatic weed, um, company to come in and manage all of those basins because we were not happy with the one we currently have. So you should start seeing significant improvements in all of the basins, but we will certainly, um, go look at that one. Oh, quick question. Okay. You mentioned regarding the cobra sacs and things like that, that whatever is there. You Do have to do your name and address. I'm Sorry, my name is Vis Estrada. Uh, I also live on, uh, we live on uh, Vanta Circle by Franklin Rec Center. Uh, just curious, okay. You talk spoke about the Cobra Sacs that were all the plantations and things that are there, are there, and you're not gonna change anything. What about if the landowners around the area wanted to change it? Would you allow that? No. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no more, uh, comments to be made, we'll move on. Uh, next item on is, um, the consent agenda. Are there any questions or comments or discussion from board members? No, sir. I move to approve the four items on the consent agenda. We have a motion. I need a second. I second the motion. We have a motion to second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Item number three, moving on to the public hearings. The adoption of resolution 2025 dash oh five, the 20 26 25 26 final budget. Good afternoon, Karen Clary budget. I'm here today to request adoption of resolution 2025 dash five to approve your fiscal year 20 25, 26 final budget and to set your maintenance assessment rates. As you know, the board of supervisors reviewed, discussed, and approved fiscal year 20 25, 26, proposed budget and proposed maintenance assessment rates during your June regular meeting. After much discussion, the board provided direction to staff to prepare a balanced budget with an 8% increase to your maintenance assessment rates. Staff continued to work on the budget over the past few months to update amounts including the final cost allocations. The fiscal year 20 25, 26 final budget is $1,853,623 or a $119,323 increase over the current year. Amended budget primarily due to an increase in EMAC fees due to new areas turned over for maintenance. The fiscal year 20 25 26 final budget is an increase of $54,023 from the fiscal year. 20 25 26. Proposed budget approved in June due to final cost allocation amounts for your EMAC fees. Indeed compliance services, any accounts with changes are identified and highlighted within your packet. At this time, staff recommends adoption of resolution 2025 dash zero five to approve the maintenance assessment increase of 8% and to adopt the fiscal year 20 25, 26 final budget in the amounts of general fund $1,853,623 and 2022 phase one debt service at $9,654,713. Staff is here for any questions you may have. Otherwise, we would request that you open the public hearing at this time. Any questions at this time? Nope. No sir. We will open the, uh, public hearing regarding the budget. If you'd like to make a comment, please come to the microphone and state your name and address. Hi Joseph Doria. 6 5 3 5 B and Kat in Newell. I'm just gonna ask a couple of quick ones, but I'm sure it's gonna be some more to get in deeper. Uh, on this, the comment, um, that was made about the budget for new areas that have, that were released for coverage. Do we foresee, uh, are there going forward, do we foresee largest sections again being added that we would see another increase to cover that additional area? Um, that's one because like last year right, there was, there was a large increase and then it was scaled back a little and then the 8% this year. But this new areas and then also on in the, I see one, one sentence in here scares me a little. It's under on the back. Um, the email that went out where it said frequently asked questions. Uh, section two, the last SEC sentence which said this is the maximum assessments that the board of supervisors can adopt in September. That's a very, um, scary sentence 'cause it sort of implies that we wanted more, but eight was the limit that we were able to ask for. So just clarification on those two areas. That's a great question. So for the maximum, and as I mentioned, the boards have preliminary budget workshops and meetings, they are required to adopt a preliminary budget in June of every year at that June meeting, they have to choose a maintenance assessment rate that they would like to include for their final adoption here in September. Whatever number they choose in June, they cannot increase it in September. So if they had chosen 10% in, in June, then they could reduce it to 8% today or they could reduce this 8% to 7% today. But what they cannot do today is say I would like 9%. Okay. That's really has to do with the, yeah. And then the first part of my question about do we, because I know that there's a section of District 14 that's on the other side of the turnpike that right now is a big field of grass. Is that gonna be something that next year we're gonna have to start maintaining and expect another big budget hit? So as properties are turned over from the development phase to the district, yes, you start maintaining them, but additional revenue comes with that. So it typically goes at a pretty easy pace where new things are turned over, but there's enough revenue to support all of those new things coming over. A big portion of your budget is also part of the Eastport Maintenance Advisory Committee fund and don't get thrown off, when I say eastport, it has nothing to do with the downtown and they are also contributing. So District 14 is contributing into that based on accessible acreage. District 15 is contributing to that, district 16 is going to contribute to that. As that pool gets bigger, then typically, again, it all levels itself out. You're just not quite there yet. You're just not quite leveled out. Okay. I guess that, because that explains, because one of the statements very specifically stated just three minutes ago was that part of the budget increase was because of additional areas to be maintained. Yep. That we're not. So we are saying is we're not budget. Do we foresee next year us equalizing so that we don't see another eight to 10% raise next year? The, I believe what we recommended for this board will be 5% for the next two years and then next three years. Uh, um, now again, we look at that every year. So something changes and we don't need 5%. We certainly wouldn't recommend that. Um, but this is pretty common for the growth of a district, um, especially when the maintenance assessments started out a little bit lower here than what they, they were in other larger districts. So our forecasting, we are expecting 8% this year, 5% for the next three years. Again, looking at it every year to make sure that it's still applicable. Thanks for the clarification. Thank you. Can I actually say something on the property you mentioned across the highway. It was originally district 14. It's not anymore. They've updated the maps and I had a conversation with, um, district staff Even though that's in Lake County, Even though it's Lake County, it's not District 14. Okay. There's a lot of developer owns a lot in Lake County. Right. It's not District 14. Okay. I just wanted to add a little bit to what Carrie had mentioned. Um, as she said 14 had started a little low on its maintenance assessments and in your May budget presentation, we did do a whole couple of slides showing where you were in comparison to the other districts that were instituted around the same time and are about the same size. And our projections show that by fiscal year 28, 29, you would be on par, uh, maintenance assessment wise with those other districts like 12, 13, um, and 14. So we are trying to get you there slowly. Um, but since they did start out low, there'll be a few years where we need a little bit of growth. Okay, Thank you. Yes. Sorry, I'm Michael. It was up earlier. So pertaining to this document, I just wanna bring up that in it, it talks about the 8% increase, but there's a sentence that says District 14 is anticipating increases in multiple expenses accounts including a $38,000 for villa lighting projects and $146,000 an increase in EMAC fees. Is that addition to the 8%? No. So the 8% will include those increases. Alright. And for my own edification, since I'm not, uh, pretty new here, what does EMAC stand for please? Eastport Maintenance Advisory Committee. Okay. Um, with regard to, and one last statement regarding District 14. I went to the Village's Homeowners Association a week or so ago, and I followed up with some questions with the county and Leesburg. Uh, district 14 is complete as far as everything that I was told. Um, so there really shouldn't be any further work getting done on District 14 with the exception that at the end of Dabney there is commercial real estate. There's a lot back there, still underdeveloped, which is, I guess under developers jurisdiction. Um, and I'm not sure what's gonna happen with that particular lot. Does anybody know any anticipated, because there's been a lot of talk about commercial property going there and as far as anything going across 4 44, uh, four 70 I think it is, uh, there is no, uh, anticipated work going on over there at all. So from the 2 96 going east towards, let's say, uh, what's that, 33? There's nothing getting built on the other side of four 70 at all. Nothing. The rumors that you've heard about hospitals and stuff that's on the other side of the bridge going East towards And sir, sir, if you redo, you would need To, I'm sorry, just mention. Okay, I'm sorry. So just for clarification, I was looking into that with Leesburg, uh, municipalities as well as Lake County and they sent me some documentation and stuff on that, but I just wanted to make sure that District 14 is done as far as I know today. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. The Eastport, Uh, re again, the Eastport Advisory Committee. Uh, which one of you were lucky enough to get voted in for more work? I think one of you. Which one? Okay, thank you. Any other comments regarding the budget? Seeing none, we're gonna close the public hearing. We entertain and, uh, entertain a motion to adopt resolution 20 25 0 5, adopting the fiscal year final budget. I move to adopt resolution 2025 dash zero five to approve the fiscal year 20 25, 20 26 final budget and the amount of general fund $1,000,853 $853,623, uh, 2022 Phase one debt service fund, $9,654,713. I have a mo I second Motion. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Moving on in the public hearings. Uh, item three B is the adoption of resolution 20 25 0 6, the Uniform Method of collection and certify the assessment rules. Good afternoon board Jennifer Lee Norris Finance here to request the adoption of resolution 2025 dash zero six, uh, for the Uniform Method of Collections and to certify the assessment role. Um, the district adopted resolution 2025 dash zero five earlier in the agenda regarding its budget, which included certain maintenance assessments for fiscal year, beginning October 1st, 2025, um, including an increase in maintenance assessment from last year to provide necessary funding for the operations and maintenance of the district's infrastructure. The district desires to continue to use the procedure provided for in Section 1 97 0.3632 Florida statute call the Uniform Collection Method to levy bill and collect all assessments, beginning with the November 1st, 2025 annual property tax bill issued by the Lake County Tax Collector. In addition, by September 15th of each year, the non-ad alarm assessment rule shall be certified to the tax collector. In order to utilize the Uniform collection methods, certain procedural steps must be taken by a unit of local government in order to adopt this collection methodology. A newspaper ad and individual letters to each affected property owner have been issued noticing the required public hearing to adopt the Uniform Collection method. A public hearing must now be held in order to complete the process to use the Uniform Uniform Method of Collections. The method substantially increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the collection process while minimizing cost of the district following the required public hearing. It's recommended that the Village's Community Development District number 14, board of Super supervisors adopt resolution 2025 dash zero six authorizing the use of the Uniform Method of Collections, approving the assessment rule and providing for the certification of the non at alarm assessment rule. Just more plainly put, you've approved that increase, um, and you're required to have a public hearing to put that increase on the tax role. Um, and the district has utilized the Uniform Method of collections before and it's an efficient process. Thank you. At this time, we'll open up the public hearing regarding the, uh, uniform Method of collection and certify the assessment role if anybody would like to make a comment. Okay. Seeing none then, I'm sorry. We have a term on Alex score is 1262 Uniform Collection Method. Please explain what the method is that's currently being used as to why we need to change what we are to something new or different. Okay. So the Uniform Method of Collections, um, allows you to put the assessment, your maintenance assessment, your bond assessment on the tax bill. That's what we're currently using. Um, since you have the increase, um, we are just asking to put the increase on the tax roll, you're required to have a public hearing for that. Mm-hmm. So, so there's no really change in the method, it's just allowing the increase on things to the tax roll. Uh, Thank you. David LaRosa of 1 3 6 5 Redwood Road. Uh, this may not be part of it. I was curious about the 2% fee that, uh, that, uh, Leesburg is collecting or the Lake County is collecting for, uh, our fees. I thought that was a bit high. 2%. Is that standard? Yeah, that's, that's a statutory fee, uh, that the tax collector gets for placing the, um, placing out on your tax bill. Has anyone ever negotiated that one? It seems a bit high. It's statutory, so it'd have to be a change in Florida statute. I'm good with that. Uh, the other is, um, I was wondering about the fact that, uh, you know, last year we got hit with a new tax from the city of Leesburg saying that we are in the city of Leesburg. Last time I looked at it, I thought we were in the villages. So I'm getting hit right and left with all these additional taxes from that, from, uh, Leesburg, and I'm not happy about that. Can you address that please? Uh, We, we don't, I, depending on where you live, you pay taxes to the county. If you live in a CDD, you pay to taxes to the CDD and you pay taxes to the city. If you live in a city, there are no duplication of services. So, for example, to Leesburg, you're paying for all of your road maintenance and, um, city of Leesburg Police Department, you know, any services that are being provided by Leesburg, you're paying specifically for that. For example, the residents in Wildwood are doing the same thing. They're paying their district 12 or 13 assessment. They're paying the city of Wildwood for the services, for their roadways for the road road, right of way maintenance for police. Um, but then they're also paying District 13 for CDD services. So that is, that is common in the state of Florida. Um, with this type of government structure, there are residents who live in the unincorporated areas of Lake County and Sumter County who don't pay city fees and they receive all those services from either the CDs or the counties. But that's just part of, of your due diligence that you have to do when you're determining which area you want to live in. Just, just clarify, I, I'm pretty certain I know what it is, but just to clarify, because we, um, last, what's your name and address, sir? Tax bill. Name and name and address. Oh, sorry. Joe Doria. I was up already. Joe Doria 6 5 3 5 Boen A in Newell. Um, the last year we got the fire tax paid to Leesburg, but was serviced by VPSD. So if you can just clarify because you're saying no duplication services, but that bill looks like it's a duplication of services, So you're not, you're not paying, um, VPSD, you're paying Leesburg and then they're remitting funds to Village center to provide that service. Okay, Thank you. Are there any other comments? Seeing none, we'll close the hearing. Need a motion to adopt the resolution? Um, I make a motion to adopt resolution 2025 dash oh six Electing to use the uniform collection method provided for in section 1 97 0.3632 of Florida statutes To levy Bill and collect the non valorem assessment and further approving and certifying the non-ad valorem assessment role. I have a motion. Need a second? I'll second that motion. I have a motion to second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Moving on to new business. Yes sir. The first item on new business is adoption in goals and objectives for fiscal year 25 26. If you will recall, last year, Florida statute changed and it requires special districts to establish annual goals, objectives, and performance measures, and then report them annually by December 1st. This is the second year that you'll be adopting these goals and objectives and we are requesting that you keep that same structure for your second year, which includes goals in the broad categories of financial management and budget oversight, long-term planning and resource allocation, then during contract management, board governance and accountability, and then community engagement and communication. We did look statewide at other districts to see what type of goals they were adopting. They were very similar and a lot of them were exactly similar, um, because this was so new that a lot of districts looked for guidance from other districts. So, um, at this point we are recommending that you adopt these year two goals and objective as presented. And then, um, we will be reporting this year's goals in December. Questions or comments? No, sir. Need a motion? I move to adopt the year two Goals and objectives as presented in continued compliance with Florida statute Section 180 9 0.0694, maintaining the established annual report format. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Item four B, the consideration of adoption, uh, to adopt resolution 25 20 25 0 7. Yes, sir. In your general and procedural rules, the board meetings, um, are put in there that they will be canceled in accordance with the board's policy adopted via resolution. This is the first time that we are asking for you to actually adopt a resolution to codify this process. And there are three options, um, in which you can consider. The first is that staff will contact the chair, then inquire with all of the supervisors, and then ultimately go back to the chair, um, for a final decision. So this would be in a case where there are no actionable items. It doesn't occur as often in your district because you are on the shorter meeting schedule, um, which is the new model that we are going with and other districts are actually changing to it as well. Um, but if there was nothing to take action on it, there may not be a, a reason to meet. The thought in calling all of the supervisors is you may know that there's a hot topic and we're going to have a room full of residents. And so you, you don't wanna cancel the meeting. So at that point you would say, no, Carrie, I think we're gonna, we need to meet, we're gonna have a room full of residents. So when we call the chair, we would say one of the supervisors would prefer to meet due to a, a resident issue and chances are we would meet. So that's one option. That's probably the one of the most common options. The second one is just contact the chair and let the chair decide. And then the option three, um, one of our boards has this one, which is no board meetings will be canceled due to lack of actionable all items. So at this point we are just seeking direction and then, um, you can adopt the resolution based on the options that suits your needs. I personally like the first option because right. E we don't, we don't talk. So, um, and some of our board members are not residents, so they wouldn't even know if there's issues or not. Mm-hmm. So I, I think it's important that each of us have the opportunity to speak up and I would agree with that. I do have a question for Mr. Briana's. Um, we don't risk violating any sunshine laws with that option, do we? Not based on the, um, questions that you'll get, there won't be any business discussed. The question will be very simple as to whether there's anything that you want to, uh, discuss at a meeting such that we should have a meeting. Okay. Sounds like the preference is option one. That would be mine. Okay. Uh, you need a motion to pass to, I'll make a motion to adopt option number one And, um, resolution 2025 dash seven. Yeah. Thank you. And I'll make a motion. Second. Have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Old business. You have no old business. Oh, My informational items. These are just for your information. If you have any questions on them, we have staff available to help. Questions or comments? No, sir. Seeing none. Okay. Uh, district manager reports? Yes, sir. The first item is the Multimodal Path discussion Group. This is something that, um, was done several years ago and then, um, had reached the end of its useful life and purpose at the time while District four asked to restart the multimodal Pass discussion group, which consists of a supervisor from all districts. The multimodal Pass discussion group is not a body that can, um, make decisions or past actions. Rather, it gives all supervisors an opportunity to come and talk about challenges, safety concerns, everything regarding the multimodal pass or traveling throughout the community. Some of the topics that have recently been discussed include the RPMs on the multimodal path, um, striping on RPM or striping on multimodal path. And we are asking if District 14 would like to join that group. If so, we would put a resolution on your agenda for your next meeting that will formally put you in the multimodal path discussion group. Again, it's not, it wa it does fall under public records and Sunshine Law. However, it is not going to make any decisions that would be binding on District 14. So if the consensus of the group was to add multimodal path, um, RPMs through the centers and your representative came back and the board as a whole said, absolutely not, we don't want anything to do with that. They're, they're your path. You would not have to do anything. So this is just, again, if you would, if you would like to attend it, we'll put the resolution on your agenda. The next meeting is actually coming up before your next meeting. So if you would like to, I would certainly suggest that if you plan on attending, you just go and sit and participate. Okay. I, I think this is important for us to have, um, a seat at the table, even if it's not actionable. Um, we have a lot of people who are, are concerned about safety, um, on our multimodals, um, and all of our, um, golf cart paths. So yes, we need to have someone on there and I agree with that. We, we should have a seated table. Okay. And we have a lot of residents that are concerned about multimodal. So, um, Katie, do you have the date off of the top of your head? It is Tuesday, September 23rd at 2:00 PM At the Savannah Center. Turn on. I'm sorry. Savannah. Savannah. So if you tell us who plans on attending, we can send you a, a calendar invite for that. You got it? Yes, I plan on attending. Okay. And then you can at your meeting where you have the resolution, decide as a whole if Supervisor Stevens will continue to be the representative. Okay, Thank you. Yep. The next item on District manager report is to save the date for a night with DPM. Um, a lot of the audience had a lot of feedback from district property management and this is a great opportunity to go and learn what they do. All of their divisions, their water resources division, infrastructure, facility, landscaping, um, they do a lot of work behind the scenes to keep the villages moving forward and operating and, um, being maintained as it should be. So if you would like to come and have conversations with them and learn more, it is September 17th at five o'clock at Zel Recreation. It is from five to six 30. You don't have to be there for the whole thing. You just come in, meet some people, learn, um, take information, but it's a great opportunity for all of you to come in and have an opportunity to speak with their different teams. We would also like you to save the date for National Night Out on October 7th, which is, um, hosted by Community Watch and a thank you and show of appreciation for all of our police and community partners, um, local law enforcement and first responders. Um, it's not your typical National Night out as it is usually geared, geared more towards families with bounced houses and grills and hot dogs. And we don't have bounced houses in the villages too often. It's probably best. So, um, this will be our own take on National Night Out. But again, if you'd like to come and show your support to, um, the local law enforcement is a great event. We are also hosting our government day. It is our 28th annual government day at Eisenhower Recreation Center on November 1st, which is a Saturday from 10 to one. This is a great opportunity for residents to come and again, you would have the city of Leesburg, lake County District 14 all at one location. So if you want to learn the different services and the different taxes that you are being, um, issued by all of those governmental agencies, it would be in one building at this opportunity. We also have state agencies that are there. We have federal agencies. Um, again, great events, 10 to one. You can come during any or all of it. Um, and we're also known to have some pretty neat giveaways for you to shove in your purse. So lots of, um, great things coming up. I would also like to remind you that your meeting schedule, your locations are going to be changing and we will be having your meetings at the Olympia Recreation Center. Um, we initially thought we were going to be able to host your November meeting at Olympia. It is not looking like we're going to, so please be prepared and we will follow up with a calendar invite for it, um, that you will probably be coming here for your November meeting. And then hopefully we'll be starting our January meetings at Olympia. It is also, um, your meetings are going to be the Thursday before the second Friday at 11:00 AM So we'll be meeting a little bit earlier. And finally, um, what I think, uh, we have other people here that came to talk is going to be our deed compliance presentation. Um, as I stated before, you do not, and it's very important for residents in the audience to understand. You do not have the ability to enforce the restrictions. You don't have the ability to say whether we accept anonymous or non-anonymous. The developer is asking you if you would like to, and then they will direct us based on your decision to accept decompliance complaints in that manner. Um, so as Mr. Armstrong goes through this presentation, he is going to provide you with different options. If this is something that you would like to consider, what I would recommend is that we put it on your next agenda and actually vote on it on your next agenda so that you can put what you intend to do, um, and solidify it in an actionable item. Good afternoon, Matt Armstrong Community Standards. Thank you for the opportunity to come speak today. So throughout the districts we have four opportunities and when an, an individual can submit a concern, currently right now in your district, you allow for anonymous complaints, which means anybody from anywhere are permitted to provide a concern at that time. Our ID compliance team will file the complaint. We will then go verify the concern. If it is, if it, if it is verified, we will then reach out to the homeowner and ask for voluntary compliance. If we do not observe it, we leave the, the, the scene, the premises, we do not knock on the door. They do not know we were there. And we move on to the next concern that we have on file. Our next one is not anonymous, but you can reside anywhere in any district. So you could be a resident of district 13 visiting a front end district 14. You notice something that's out of place, you contact community standards. We will still collect your contact information and then we will move forward with, um, notifying whatever the process may be, reaching out to the homeowner and then try and bring up voluntary compliance. Again, if it's not a deed restriction violation, we move on. We never make contact with the homeowner. But in this instance, you can't be anonymous. You can, but you can reside in any district that you want. The third option is if you want to keep anonymity, but you wanna limit it to individuals within your district. So in this case, district 14, what you can do is ask for the individual's unit number. A unit number is specific to a district. There is not a unit number that is duplicated on any of, without any of the other districts. So you provide the unit number, that individual, you then know that that individual then resides within that district. And then we will proceed with, uh, reviewing whether the concern exists or not. Again, the same process when we look out for those concerns. The last option, option four, is you must be a resident within that district and you cannot be anonymous. In that instance, we would provide, they would need to provide their name, address, their unit and lot. And then also their telephone numbers. Staff didn't need to verify that that individual is indeed a homeowner of that district before we move forward with any concern. If for any reason the individual does not provide any of that required information. We clear the, we clear the concern, and we do not go out. We do not verify. If they do verify that they are resident, we do confirm they're a resident of that district, then we will move forward with the concern process for, for individuals that, um, there's one district that does limit the number of complaints to one method per communication. That is district seven. So if we get a call, they can only submit one complaint, you're more than welcome to hang up and then call me again. And then, which we can have a secondary conversation. But it's one, one complaint per method of communication. So if we receive a letter and it has eight addresses on it, we take the first one and we have to clear out the other seven. 'cause it again is only one complaint per method of communication. So on this particular side that we have on the screen, this is a breakdown of all the number districts and what their current methodology is. Um, it's across the board, it's the fit the needs specific to their districts. So to say, well what is this district to, how is it different than this district? Again, it is unique to what you observed within your district and what they would like to provide for the residents within their districts to fulfill those needs. So I would say don't try to compare yourself to another district and what they're doing, what is currently the status of what's going on within your district to help make that decision. District 13 did recently at their last board meeting decide to go to not anonymous and must reside within district 13. I will say it is kind of fun when you have a district that butts up against each other and they both have the same rule, but you are literally separated by a street. I'm saying, sorry, but you can't file a complaint because you're not a resident of that district, although you literally have a street that separates both of your districts. Mm-hmm. And that does happen between district two and district four. So first option it would be to keep anonymity, which is your current option. Option two would be to require a name and address, but you could be a resident of any district. Option three would be to require the unit number, which again would, would allow for anonymous concerns. But it does help us confirm that you're a resident of that district. And then option four would be to require that person require all of their contact information, which we then verify before moving forward with any particular concern. So what I, what I would recommend that you do, um, 'cause district 15 actually started four minutes ago. Um, is that you, if you want to do this, if you want to pick one of these options, allow us to put it again as an agenda, a new agenda item that's actionable on your next agenda. And in the meantime you can be talking to your residents and finding out which option do you want. If you're part of VHA or any other group, ask them to solicit information as to what type of of feedback they want and then ask them to come to the meeting. And then at that point you'll make your decision on which option you want. So today really I just need to know, do you even want to make this decision? I think we do. Yeah. I agree. I have a question for you Mr. Armstrong. Yes. Um, on anonymous or not anonymous. If it's not anonymous, is the violator notified of the complainant If they ask who submitted this concern? Yes. I would have to provide that information to them. Okay. That's what I want. Thank you. Yes. That we wanna, So it sounds like we'll put this, um, under new business on your agenda, um, in November. And in the meantime, um, we can put notice on the postal stations if you'd like, that it's going to be discussed at your November meeting. And then you can use your outlets as well and ask residents to come and provide the feedback. Okay. Thank you. Very good. Understood. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, district council? Yes sir. Just one report. We have one more, uh, ethics and public records training scheduled for supervisors. And that is on October 27th at one 30. And that will be held at the district office. If you need additional hours, you can sign up for the clerk's office. Thank you. Board. Any questions, comments, Uh, just reporting on emac. So today I attended the EMAC meeting and a couple things did stand out to me that impacts us. Um, one which we already discussed that we are getting a new, um, contractor for basin maintenance. It's a big deal. We were not pleased with the service we were getting. So that contract is, um, changing. And then the other thing is, um, part of emac and I, I think it's really hard for people to understand go to CDD orientation Resident Academy, but CDD orientation will help you understand the infrastructure responsibilities. Um, but one of the things that emac and therefore District 14 pays for part of emac um, EMAC is the broad, a broad area with the districts that we share. Um, and there's a lot of property that have been turned over last year this year. And part of that is some tunnels, some corners, um, around gates and things where there's no, um, currently no reflectors or raised markers. And those, um, got approved on the EMAC budget to put a lot of those in and some of the new development where you go down a tunnel and you come out, there's no markers on the lane on the multimodal. So those two things that stood out at ema. Thank you. Right now it's Eastport District 14, 15 and then 16 will be joining shortly. Any other questions or comments from the board? Uh, no. We have one general and for any, um, member of the audience that still had remaining questions for staff, they will be able to step out and answer any questions after the meeting as well. Entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Had a second? Second. All a favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Meeting adjourn. Thank you all for coming.