Village Community Development District No. 13

Bring to your attention and some of the financial observations that we saw during the year, and you were up to date with this, but there were some fence replacements. Uh, your investment earnings weren't quite as good as in the prior year. However, you still are remaining a good rate of return. Um, your general fund expenditures were under budget, and, um, something that's in your audit report regarding the reserve policy there at the very bottom, um, that you have this policy, it has not been met yet because of the newness of the district, but you have three years to obtain that goal, that you have enough reserves put aside, and management believes that you, you'll be compliant within 2027. And so I wanted to put this financial statement up here, and the first column is your original budget. The second column is the amended budget, the year to date, actual and the variance. And so you'll see that, uh, the focus is mainly on expenditures. This is what you expect to spend. And of course you have budget workshops, a lot of detail, and this is probably your biggest internal control to ensure that, um, there's no over expenditure of your budget. And you'll see that you came in, uh, 64,000 under budget with your expenditures. So, um, you are properly amending it if you need it for unforeseen, um, situations. Of course, I think that one was the, uh, fence repair. There was an amended budget for that. So this is a good tool right here, um, to show that you are safeguarding, uh, and overseeing the specialist maintenance special assessments that are coming in. I'm happy to answer any questions on that. Again, we'd like to thank, uh, your finance team. Uh, and, uh, today you have finance director, you have your CFO, um, and, uh, your new assistant finance director, Mr. Dishman. And we appreciated working with everyone, and they were very attentive and, uh, was able to get this, uh, audit report done timely. Are there any questions for the audit report? It was riveting reading. Yes. It's always good when it's good news. You wanted to keep it that way. Yeah. Do we have a motion then? Motion to accept. Have to read the motion. No motion to accept is, is that okay? Yes, ma'am. I'll second. All right. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed on the old business? Thank you. Thank you. Sorry, my computer is spinning. Well, we've talked about this. The first item. Thank you, Mr. Bres. The first item on old business is the villa entry lighting, uh, which this was for staff to provide an update on the schedule, um, on the lighting and what needed to take place at each one. We did provide that via email, um, just recently. So if you haven't had time to digest that and would like, um, to discuss it next month, that's fine. Otherwise, Mr. Harris is here if you have any questions on it. Well, my question is, can we make a recommendation that we don't do anything like this? That's just because the other CDD did without specifically knowing and voting that we're gonna be doing this over the years like this, if I'm understanding correctly of how this happened, because it happened in the other districts that we put lighting in the villas. That's correct. Um, typically this information is, is part of your budget review. So that's when the, the projects like this are presented to you for approval. Um, I don't know of any more that are, um, optional like this one. Um, but certainly if it is something that is optional, staff can call, um, special attention to that moving forward. You don't have to continue adding these. This is completely at the discretion of the board. Again, this is something that has gone back with all of the other districts, um, from inception and, and been added, but certainly it is your prerogative if you would like to continue adding 'em to your v And I didn't go back to the budget. Maybe someone else did, but I didn't go back to look and see exactly how it was stated or worded, you know, whether or not it was in there and just something we needed, you know, we felt like it needed to be done versus, you know, what it really is that it just kind of concerns Me. Sure. No, any, anything that is, um, not, or anything that is considered an enhancement or optional, certainly we can make sure that you understand that that is, um, a project that we are recommending. However, it's not something, um, necessarily that you have to do. So there's, the verandas don't have those and there's other, I don't know, cottage homes or whatever that don't really have anything. They have a street going into it. What, why did we pick these particular I houses to do that? I don't know the answer to that. I, I think that the answer is probably because when this first started in the beginning of the villages, there weren't cottages or verandas. Um, specifically verandas is something that didn't start until you came south of 44, whereas villas are located from district one all the way through Mr. Harris, did you have something to add? No, My care, history, property management, he took worked right out of my mouth. So that is something that certainly, you know, you could look at if you wanted to do it for verandas and cottages as well. Um, again, this is something that it doesn't have to be done. It was again, prior to my 19 years with the district, but my assumption is that it was based on residents, um, asking for it. And the boards at the time decided to go ahead and move forward as it would benefit the entire villages similar to adding the lights into the tunnels and things like that, where it's not done on construction, but it's something that has gone, um, back and added at a future date. Yeah, I can, I can see in the tunnels, especially with these brilliant people that wear black clothes and black shoes in the tunnel and there's no lights, um, that that's a safety issue to have lights and stuff in the tunnel. But I, you know, if we do this and then all of a sudden the verandas wanna do it all that, that's a lot of money. I mean, to me, I, they, they, they bought the development the way it was and that's the way it should stay. I, I haven't heard anybody, you know, say, why aren't there lights at the entrance of our bill yet? I don't, I don't know if anybody else has. Well, we had some residents here. Was that last month or December that was wanting theirs moved up down in Una? Yeah, in De Luna. One of theirs. Well, they didn't know when it was scheduled. They just knew some of them had 'em and some of them didn't. And that's what brought this schedule forth. Um, I, I'm having a problem with it. It's a, it's a lot of money. Um, but I also, you know, I know that with the villages, one thing, you know, we try to strive for is consistency. Um, yeah, I think since we may have already started doing it Yeah. But in this particular case, we may have to finish it, but, you know, if if another group asked for it, I don't, that'd be difficult to tell them that we would do it. Can I just get a quick clarification? When you say Villa, are we talking patio Villa, courtyard Villa, or both? Both. Both. Yes, sir. Gotcha. So this has been a pre-programmed no thing, way before, right? A lot of us, because we do have a lot of communications with residents wanting their, their, their sign lit up, they wanna be able to see it, they want their friends to be able to see it when they come at night. So along with like Mrs. Duckett said, the the tunnel lighting, it's, it's, it's just a pre-programed thing that's happens, happens naturally from as far back as I can Remember. Yeah, probably when we started it was 30 bucks. Well, we used to put solar in, but the solar, the trees got big, the solar, we found out that the maintenance of the solar systems exceeded what the costs are for line voltage, so, sure. Um, it just kind of evolved over the years. Well, and I know I spoke for, because I live in a veranda and we have solar that a resident put in and it's been there for two years, you know, pretty cost effective and I'll be glad to volunteer to buy the next session, you know? But Didn't That report show up going out to like 2034 or something like that? Yes, it is. We only have a, a handful scheduled per year. Um, again, that's based on the, the plan that DPM has now based on the direction of the board, we can speed it up, slow it down, or mix it all together. Um, this is just something that, again, as Mr. Harris stated, is pretty consistent throughout the villages. It's something that is put on their to-do list automatically because it's, again, just something that has, um, been done throughout the years, but it, again, it is district property, so it is completely up to the board whether or not you'd like us to continue with this project. But our, our goal or our question for today is that whether or not we'd wanna move da luna, those villas in de Luna up, right? Is that our, is that even a question today? Because I can't read these numbers when they would come back up in the next budget. So we, we don't have a question. You, the board asks us to provide you with the schedule. This is the schedule. Uh, we're going to continue on with this schedule and adding them based on the schedule, unless the board directs us to do something different. Well, again, I can't read these numbers, so I Don't know. Yeah. The other, the other, the other thing that kind of bothers me is we have, you know, at the different villages, we have one entry where we have a sign, and some of the villages have come back and said, well, you don't have an entry at this place. And then we said, well, you know, if we add any, you know, if we accepted every request, we'd be spending millions of extra dollars. So, you know, someone could come back and say, well, you're adding lights and there's no, you know, that doesn't, um, that doesn't accommodate everybody. You know, everybody doesn't have lights. So it, it's a conundrum. Agree. That's the word of Today. I agree with. I, I, I agree with you. It's very tough because I, and we've had this conversation, when we do plant enhancements, I think we should call 'em something else because that gives people the opinion that we are enhancing what the developer left us, where maybe rep, I don't know, we, we need to find a different word, but, um, I guess I wonder how many people even know that this is planned, this far out, you know, and whether or not we, I mean, what would happen if we said no, we're gonna stop it now, and then if we get feedback, then maybe we look at it again. Is that a possibility? Anything's a possibility. Um, you know, I, I wouldn't necessarily stop it until people ask, because then that's exactly what you just referred to, that we don't do it because people ask. We do it because we think it's in the best interest of the district. So if you think it's in the best interest of district 13 to add lights to the entries of these villas, then this is part of your five year budget forecast. You have adequate funds. We, we, our recommendations on your maintenance assessments are based on the fact that you're going to do this. So if you think it's in the best interest of district 13, then I would recommend continuing forward. If you don't, if you think that this is not something that you should be using your maintenance assessments on, and it's not benefiting the residents of District 13, then I would recommend that that's what I would say. I would stop it. What I wouldn't do is piecemeal it. So I wouldn't wait to have residents come and ask you for certain areas and then move forward. I would either do it for all of them or decide it's not something that, a project you want to move forward with and stop. Um, if anything, I'd, I would, um, be curious to know how much it would take to add it onto the cottages and the verandas, just so that you have that number in your back pocket. Because I, I do believe that the only reason that that's not part of the plan is because we didn't have verandas and cottages back when, again, 20 plus years ago when these projects started. I don't know that to be true, but that might be something too that would help you in your decision, because if it's in the best interest of the villas, then maybe it's in the best interest of the cottages and verandas and it, it may be something that you wanna look at for all or nothing For, for district, say district 12, south of 44, are they doing the cottages in verandas also, or are they they're just doing the same plan. You've got the patio and in courtyard bills, just for my own benefit, and I'm not holding you the number, what does it cost to put in lights, ballpark? Um, I don't have that in front of me. It is on the sheet that Ms. Williamson has. You're welcome to read. Do you have a microscope? So it, it really depends based on, um, the, the villa unit, but it looks like on here, it ranges anywhere from 4,000 to 10, 11,000. Does that sound right? Yes. Younger I, yeah, with no glasses, but, But really anywhere between 4,000 and 11,000. So we, we did email that spreadsheet out. It was too late to add it to the agenda. So we can certainly add that to old business for next month if you'd like to, to discuss it when you have it in front of you. My, my main concern is the feedback we got when we raised the taxes, which was legitimate for, you know, financial security. But, you know, over the next five years, are we gonna have to raise taxes again? Because my main concern is not spending money so that we can avoid paying because interest rates are lower, we're not getting as much money, um, we're not building anymore, so we're not gonna get any more income. Um, I, you know, you said we have enough money in the budget. Do we have enough money in the budget over the next five years with the income that we have? That's, these plans were taken into consideration when we provided you with that five year outlook. I don't remember off of the top of my head what our recommendations were for maintenance assessments over the next five years. That is something that we will be providing you, um, during your budget workshop, your meeting this, um, this year as well. And we can certainly, I mean, even if you want to hold this until we have those budget meetings so that you can better understand the next five years and where you look financially before you decide on this. We can certainly put a hold on this with any new, um, installations moving forward until you've had time to go through your budget cycle. Yeah. 'cause if you, if you, how many houses do we have left to do? Or how many entrances? Um, just a just a guess. Just the guess is fine. So you, uh, the majority of them, yeah. Yes. I mean, yeah, you probably have about five a year for the next 10 years. So that's, that's 50 times, let's say the average of $5,000, that's 250,000 if my math is correct. Yeah. Um, that's, that's a lot of money. And you know, if something comes up, uh, like a, a sinkhole or whatever it is, uh, you know, another bridge problem or whatever that's gonna cost us money, that $250,000 would be very, you know, helpful. And I, it's just, it's, it's a lot of money. And does it benefit anybody? No, it doesn't benefit anybody. I What's the benefit? It looks nice. Well, I mean, again, I would just refer to the resident who came, the, the whole reason we're having this discussion, it was that the resident wanted the lighting added to her villa sooner. Yeah. But, but again, this, it's a policy decision on the board. It, it is completely your decision if this is something that you would like to move forward with. Um, but certainly if at a minimum, if you would like us to hold on the project until budget, um, it gives you a little bit more time, you know, to maybe have conversations with your residents and then see what the next five year forecast looks like. Yeah. Yeah. I think that would Be good. I guar, I, I agree with what your assessment is, but my, my whole issue is the villages is a whole, and if we're going to not do this one thing, is district 13 gonna look different than the rest of the districts in, you know, in the villages? I don't know. Again, John, I I totally agree with you as far as, as far as the money situation goes, but as far as the aesthetic, You know, is it, is it gonna be a, is it gonna be an issue over a period of time? You know what I mean? I I I agree with you personally. Yeah. I would remove all the flowers. They, that, that way we don't have to keep replacing 'em. I'm sorry. I I know, I know I would be strung up and tar and feathered and dragged out into the street for that, but, you know, I just, you know, But we bought with the flowers we didn't buy with lighting. Yeah. I, I would, let's, let's take a look at the budget. I think that, and I mean, if we're, if we're comfortable and it looks like we've got, you know, a good, a good hold on it, uh, then we can cont I mean, we can always, in three or four years, if something really bad happens and we start getting into financial trouble, we can stop, you know, we don't commit to it. Hopefully we don't get to that point. Think That makes that much sense to look at it again. That way we are being responsible with, you know, our Residents. I mean, if it was $20,000, I, but $250,000 is a lot. Could we discuss about District 12 and District 14? See what their scope is? I mean, is that, Is the, how much Are they gonna do the same thing? I mean, what are they looking at? Do we Know they, yes, they, um, I'm not sure about 14. Um, I don't know how many villas they have, but District 12, just like all the other districts have added lighting, But they'd probably be like us. They won't know to question it depending on how it's presented in the, and I'm not doing that as a slam. 'cause I don't remember, I just wrote myself a note to go back and look at the budget, but they wouldn't know to, to question it. They, they, you're right. Um, you know, certainly it, again, we don't present it as in a do you want to, because it, it does remain staff's recommendation to move forward with it. I mean, this is something that, as you stated, consistency is very important throughout the villages. Um, and, you know, we, we wouldn't be doing it if we didn't and we wouldn't be continuing with this project if we didn't think that it was in the best interest of the residents. Um, so it will remain our, um, our position and our recommendation to continue moving forward. That doesn't mean you have to accept our recommendation. And, you know, certainly you can delay our, our hold off on it, but we, we would continue with the, the other districts with recommending that they continue with these projects. And so, like in District 12, has there ever been any discussion about this so that they even have the thoughts that, you know, that have come here? Not in a meeting that I've been in, yeah. But I don't start with meetings, um, with board meetings until they're usually several years down the road. Um, so that doesn't mean that that discussion didn't take place prior to me taking over, but just like, just like with district 13, it wasn't until several years ago that I started attending the, yeah. Okay. So we agree. We're gonna wait and discuss it again at budget time. Okay. We'll make sure this is a, um, a line item to be discussed during your, your budget. All right. Thank you very much. And the next item on old business, um, is a FEMA reimbursement update. I don't have an update. We, um, have not received anything from fema. We can certainly continue to keep this on your old business, but I assure you as soon as we receive an update from fema, we will provide it, um, under the non-district 13 items. Uh, we have sod concerns. Uh, we don't have any updates, but Mr. Harris is available if you have any questions. I'll be back there dancing. Um, the M 18 tunnel, um, as you've been, um, aware, we have been, um, moving forward with adding that additional drainage. That update has also been going to the project wide advisory committee at a fund through them. The performance update on the new aquatic maintenance contractor will be provided at your next meeting in March. And then, uh, we have the update for 1307 Tate Terrace, which will be provided by Mr. Armstrong. Hello board, Matt Armstrong Community Standards. So, um, when we receive the concern regarding the, uh, property at 1307, about a makeshift fence that was being put up for a dog permanent structure, we went out there and the homeowner was out there and he had this little rinky-dink makeshift, um, put together for, uh, his dog. Uh, his answer was that it's temporary. He puts it out there and instead of tethering his dog, um, he puts this out there. So when he's outside the dog to be out there and not tethered, um, we did inform 'em that, you know, fencing is not permitted. And, um, we also discussed about a concern that we had received regarding an rv. Um, an initial one was over a year ago, which just kind of reiterated, reminded him about the ruling. He goes, yep, I understand completely after your first visit. I, it comes and goes. I don't bring it back here and there. Uh, we did receive a concern four days ago regarding a, a trailer in the driveway when staffing out there. There was no trailer in the driveway. Uh, so if there was one, it was gone. Um, again, we don't feel like the homeowner's playing cat and mouse with us. I know that we discussed that at the last board meeting if they're gonna be playing games, and that's something we'll definitely move forward with the Dr. 'cause we're not going to do that. Uh, but after initial discussion, he goes, no, it is just my way of letting my dog kind of be out in the yard with me when I'm there, type of a thing. Um, I have spoken with the homeowners, um, before this meeting, um, and said that, no, that's not really the case. Even the dog gets out, he sticks it between two lawn chairs and the dog goes running free, then we're out chasing the dog. Luckily, the dog hasn't gotten hit yet, so, um, it's still something that we will continue to review underneath the current, um, the current, uh, complaint. We haven't closed it yet, um, to see if there's something that we can see regarding if there's a violation that exists for what he's, he's he's doing for his dog. So he can put up a makeshift fence if he's sitting there. Just so I understand the need restrictions, figure out will put up a permanent structure barrier and things like that. Where he's doing is, he's not tethering the dog, he's just kind of putting up into play pin space for him. So I really don't have an answer yet for that. We'll review it to see if there's something as far as a violation would exist. Okay. And I conclude all this. Alright, so now we have our informational items or, uh, financial statements. Are there any questions or comments about that? No DPM monthly report? Any questions? And now back to you, Ms. Duckett. Yes, ma'am. Um, the, um, first item on old on district manager reports, I will once again turn it over to Mr. Armstrong, who will give you an update on gov build, uh, which we gave you a preview to a couple months ago. Hello again, board at Armstrong Community Standards. So we'll see if it shows up. I know we're having some network issues. If not, we can always bring it back next month. Um, on the agenda is a, it was a brief presentation regarding, um, screenshots of what the architectural review process looks like. Uh, if you've seen it before we got to the meeting today, it is a exact comparison to the paper application process. The questions are the same. The information that you're gonna provide is the same. The only difference is instead of processing, like we did last year, it was close to 13,000 applications, but each application is five pages long. So that's a lot of paper. Now, we've electronically gone to this method of, of submitting applications online. Uh, when we receive paper applications, we actually put them online. So what happens is a user, a homeowner or a contractor will, uh, create an account and all that asks is for your email address, your name, and a password. That's all that we need. Once that's created, here's your, your landing page and you'll see the architectural review application. You click on it, and again, it's the same exact way the form looks. So you put your contact information on there, you would end up also, there's a page for your contractor's information on there. Then you're gonna describe what the project is. The last page is the disclaimer, just like any, all the other applications where you say that, yes, I understand it's a publicly noticed meeting and you're gonna sign for your application. You hit submit and we receive it. Only difference is now is you receive an email that states thank you for submitting your application. It'll be received, received and reviewed within 14 business days. My staff being received on our big dashboard of applications that have been submitted. And we assign it up a date to be reviewed by the hearing officer, at which time they then received this email that says, you now have been assigned a meeting date. And in this case it was December 17th, 2025. It's completely automated. The homeowner now receives this as well as the contractor. If they want to, they can view their application and just view where they are in the process. We now have our meeting, and if it is approved, you receive this email that states, thank you very much, your application was approved. Here are the stipulations and the signature from the chairman, uh, for the, in this case, uh, this was for the a RC meeting in the morning meeting with my example. So, um, but these are the types of communications that residents will now receive along the process to let them know where they are in their architectural review process of having to call us up, Hey, where's my application? Hey, has it been reviewed at? Hey, what's the status? You automatically get those emails now, and they actually have it to where it is saved in their user profile. So they can see applications and they can see their current cases and they can view where they're at, or they can edit ones that they haven't finished submitting to us yet. So that is gov built and that is phase one of our implementation process. Phase two's gonna be decompliance, but residents won't know the difference because that's all behind the scenes. They'll just know that they sent an email and it comes to us through them as well. That, do you have any questions? I'm here. So you mentioned the contractor could do this. Absolutely. And then I know we had, uh, Al and Eyeglass in the contractor submitted and I saw it. Okay, so I'm good with that. So contractor comes up, he gets them a log on, and then he puts my, my information in for the lot and I have to give him a copy. I mean, I didn't have to give my contractor a copy of my, uh, tax to, to confirm that I own that thing. So I'm just wondering how that works if a contractor does this electronically. Contractors Are working with the homeowners when they do that. Um, if a contractor is providing the services for them, they're typically in the office and they're saying, Hey, can you just provide the upload? And they upload it and it goes in, again, it goes into where they're both the homeowner and the contractor receive the same emails with the supporting documents. So all the information is there. And then when we upload the applications, it's there for the Architecture Review Committee to see and also the hearing officer to see, to prove that yes, you are the homeowner, some renters not providing, you know, trying to change something on your house and then see, you know, the site plan and everything else that goes with the project. Other questions? Thank you. And I do have one other item just leading into Mr. Brian's report and that, um, as you may be aware, we, um, fall under the purview of the Southwest Florida Water Management District, and they have recently put us under a phase two water shortage, uh, order, which will result in different, um, impacts to our residents. The district has taken the information from Swift Mud and is providing it out. Um, any, everything ranging from a 5% surcharge on the utility bills to help encourage, um, not wasteful usage of water, uh, to modified watering days. We are placing that information has already been on district gov.org. Um, it is also being printed and put on all of the postal station bulletin boards throughout the community to help get residents, um, familiar with that. It is also an impact to decompliance and as, um, you don't have view compliance under your purview yet. We did want you to know, um, that there has been some modifications that Mr. Brianis will go through, um, as far as decompliance within District 13 as it pertains to this water Shortage. Sorry, right. That, yeah, I need to, um, so essentially this, uh, plan that was created was, um, pursuant to the, um, water restrictions that were enacted that became effective yesterday, February 8th. And what it says, essentially, for purposes of deed compliance is that they will, there will be an abatement time period, um, where if a case is brought before the deed compliance hearing officer, it probably won't be brought before that the hearing officer actually, because if it has to do with grass or something to do with water restrictions, um, community standards is not gonna proceed with that case until, um, the order is lifted. Um, or the expiration date that's listed on that as well. Questions, and again, that only be affected by, again, issues with grass, um, maybe some landscaping, things like that. If it has anything to do with water restrictions and the ability of a property owner to use the water, um, to rectify the deed compliance issue. Mm-hmm. Uh, then deed compliance will not proceed with that case until, again, this is lifted or until the date expires. Is that shared with Ms. Duckett? My concern is that people don't read the, they don't get the district bulletin, so they haven't read it there. They may have caught it in Saturday's paper, may not have, may, I mean, I get the paper and didn't see it. But, um, I just, I'm kind of concerned about the amount of communication going to our residents about this. And I know this is not a district enforced, this is not the district. This is not anything, you know, this is part of a swift you say Swift mud. Swift mud. So, um, you know, but, uh, still, I don't believe a 5% surcharge is going to change behavior if we're truly wanting our residents to adhere to the one day a week. Um, the residents that I've talked to, my friends, no one's even heard of it. You know, they haven't seen it in the paper, they haven't seen that. So I am kind of concerned just for information for the rest of the board. Mike talked to Peter Russell this morning and he's gonna have something put out through the VHA trying to, to provide some more information about this and, and what, you know, the watering restriction days are, and even, and the information that we received talks about, you know, whether or not, I guess you could pressure wash your house if you're having it, if you're having it painted, I, there's nothing that's gonna stop you from doing it. They just saying you don't, you're not gonna get a deed Issue, I believe. Well, so the, there are other restrictions. The shortage a provides that HOAs or other entities cannot enforce deed restrictions that require water usage. So we cannot require somebody to pressure wash their home. Right now, I believe what the shortage says as far as pressure washing is that you're allowed to one time per year and you're also allowed to, if you are preparing for something like a paint or another project that requires it. Um, but it does, there are some workarounds for homeowners. For example, if you have planted something, you can manually mow your, or manually, um, water your lawn. What you can't do is turn on your irrigation multiple times a week. Um, I did verify, based on our conversation, um, we do accept, um, complaints from residents who have concerns that one of their neighbors is not adhering to the water restrictions. Community watch also has the ability to, um, notify. And what they will do is notify Swift Mud. So if there is non-compliance by homeowners, then it would be reported to Swift Mud. So is with, with the exception of, um, power washing and surface cleaning, this is just your lawn watering? Correct. The Space two water shortage goes into a lot of information. I would recommend that you go and actually Swift Mud put out FAQs. Um, if you go to the district's website, we link to it. It's also, I believe it's Water matters.org. Um, but they, all of the information, um, from Southwest Florida Water Management District, as far as Lot on Water, Inc. Um, what you can and can't do with, with water in general related to this water shortage is all on their website. What I'm talking about potable water. Well, they say don't wash a load of laundry unless it's a full load. Because my, That's what's in there. My concern is because I, I have fish that I use quite a bit of water every two weeks. I mean, they monitoring how much water you use for potable water, They're, they're not monitoring anything. You're going to be getting a surcharge of 5% onto that usage, encouraging you to conserve water. But I mean, so Regardless of how much water you use, you're gonna get a 5% surcharge. Yes. Well, they're, they're figuring to Lexi use the, the smaller the surcharge, But I, as expensive as our water is, I don't think five percent's gonna affect behavior wells. 5% is 2000 pounds worth. Exactly. That's not a very Hard decision. No, that's not a hard decision. Yeah, but I just, I I, I'm, I'm concerned that our residents don't, haven't seen this information and don't understand, and it, and it started yesterday, When they get the surcharges, they'll understand. Yep. And it actually does, I have it pulled up now. It actually, it discusses aesthetic fountain use and, um, they do provide exemptions for things such as Qua Pond. So you, it, the full information is attached to their rule, which is on their website, but they go into pretty good detail. Thank You. Yes, sir. So I didn't read that. So we need to turn our fountains off too. It says it is limited to eight hours a day. Oh, okay. I did read that. I do remember that now. Okay. Okay. Um, supervisor comments. Kerrigan, you want go for cac. So there's, there were two items of discussion. Um, the continuous golf cart pass on number five, long number three, lowland number two, there was a lot of discussion on that. It's $201,000. Um, My, myself and District 12 supervisors did not approve it, however, the other supervisors did. So they're gonna go ahead and put those in. Um, the other one was the Lake Sumter Landing. Um, aquatic leak control. Um, some people don't like the lilies in the, in the lake, and some people don't like to call grass. And supposedly they were saying that when they play golf there, that it looks awful to as an actual, the water. Um, our, our chairman did a smart thing and we submitted it to the championship golf committee, whoever they are, whoever runs championship golf to say, Hey, is this a eyesore? And if it is, what are you gonna do about it? Um, I, I can't see taking natural woolly pads out. 'cause people don't like the way they look. Um, I can understand the, the, the weeds, the grass. It's called grass that had pictures of it. It doesn't, I again, like natural stuff going all over the place. I really carry a problem. So we deferred that. We'll see what, what happens. It, it isn't really expensive, but it's the point of if it's a preserve, it, it's not a question because we can't go in and rip stuff out of preserve. That's, you know, those aren't touchable. I don't know how many other places are like this, but it's one of those things that keeps coming up, especially the key West. You know, somebody wants this and then somebody said, oh, they got this, so now somebody wants that and then somebody wants this and that. Um, we're trying to curb that as much as possible. That, that's all I have. Supervisor Kraus, nothing. Any comment? No. Donna, I have nothing. I have nothing else that I haven't already said today. So can I have a motion to adjourn? I'd like to make a motion to adjourn. I'll approve. Aye. Aye. Motion Bring to your attention and some of the financial observations that we saw during the year, and you were up to date with this, but there were some fence replacements. Uh, your investment earnings weren't quite as good as in the prior year. However, you still are remaining a good rate of return. Um, your general fund expenditures were under budget and, um, something that's in your audit report regarding the reserve policy there at the very bottom, um, that you have this policy, it has not been met yet because of the newness of the district, but you have three years to obtain that goal, that you have enough reserves put aside and management believes that you will be compliant within 2027. So I wanted to put this financial statement up here, and the first column is your original budget. The second column is the amended budget, the year to date actual and the variance. And so you'll see that, uh, the focus is mainly on expenditures. This is what you expect to spend. And of course you have budget workshops, A lot of detail, and this is probably your biggest internal control to ensure that, um, there's no over expenditure of your budget. And you'll see that you came in, uh, 64,000 under budget with your expenditures. So, um, you are properly amending it if you need it for unforeseen, um, situations. Of course, I think that one was the, uh, fence repair. There was an amended budget for that. So this is a good tool right here, um, to show that you are safeguarding, uh, and overseeing the specialist maintenance special assessments that are coming in. I'm happy to answer any questions on that. Again, we'd like to thank, uh, your finance team. Uh, and, uh, today you have finance director, you have your CFO, um, and, uh, your new assistant finance director, Mr. Dishman. And we appreciated working with everyone and they were very attentive and, uh, was able to get this, uh, audit report done timely. Are there any questions for the audit report? It was riveting reading. Yes. It's always good when it's good news. You wanted to keep it that way. Yeah. Do we have a motion then? Motion to accept to read the motion? No. Motion to accept is, is that okay? Yes, ma'am. I'll second. All right. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed on the old business? Thank you. Thank you. Sorry, my computer is spinning. We talked about this. The first item. Thank you Mr. Bris. The first item on old business is the villa entry lighting. Uh, which this was for staff to provide an update on the schedule, um, on the lighting and what needed to take place at each one. We did provide that via email, Um, just recently. So if you haven't had time to digest that and would like, um, to discuss it next month, that's fine. Otherwise, Mr. Harris is here if you have any questions on it. Well, my question is, can we make a recommendation that we don't do anything like this? That's just because the other CDD did without specifically knowing and voting that we're gonna be doing this over the years like this, if I'm understanding correctly of how this happened, because it happened in the other districts that we put lighting in the villas. That's correct. Um, typically this information is, is part of your budget review. So that's when the, the projects like this are presented to you for approval. Um, I don't know of any more that are, um, optional like this one. Um, but certainly if it is something that is optional, staff can call, um, special attention to that moving forward. You don't have to continue adding these. This is completely at the discretion of the board. Again, this is something that has gone back with all of the other districts, um, from inception and, and been added, but certainly it is your prerogative if you would like to continue adding 'em to your bill. And I didn't go back to the budget. Maybe someone else did, but I didn't go back to look and see exactly how it was stated or worded, you know, whether or not it was in there and just something we needed, you know, we felt like it needed to be done versus, you know, what it really is that it just kind of concerns Me. Sure. No, any, anything that is, um, not, or anything that is considered an enhancement or optional, certainly we can make sure that you understand that that is, um, a project that we are recommending. However, it's not something, um, necessarily that you have to do. So there's the verandas don't have those and there's other, I don't know, cottage homes or whatever that don't really have anything. They have a street going into it. Why, why did we pick these particular I houses to do that? I don't know the answer to that. I'd, I think that the answer is probably because when this first started in the beginning of the villages, there weren't cottages or verandas. Um, specifically verandas is something that didn't start until you came south of 44. Whereas villas are located from district one all the way through Mr. Harris, did you have something to add? No, My care, history, property management, he took the worked right out of my mouth. So that is something that certainly, you know, you could look at if you wanted to do it for verandas and cottages as well. Um, again, this is something that it doesn't have to be done. It was again, prior to my 19 years with the district, but my assumption is that it was based on residents, um, asking for it. And the boards at the time decided to go ahead and move forward as it would benefit the entire villages similar to adding the lights into the tunnels and things like that, where it's not done on construction, but it's something that has gone, um, back and added at a future Date. Yeah, I can, I can see in the tunnels, especially with these brilliant people that wear black clothes and black shoes in the tunnel and there's no lights, um, that that's a safety issue to have lights and stuff in the tunnel. But I, you know, if we do this and then all of a sudden the verandas wanna do it all that, that's a lot of money. I mean to me, I, they, they, they bought the development the way it was then that's the way it should stay. Uh, I haven't heard anybody, you know, say, why aren't there lights at the entrance of our bill yet? I don't, I don't know if anybody else has. Well, we had some residents here. Was that last month or December that was wanting theirs moved up down in Una? Yeah, in Una. One of theirs. Well, they didn't know when it was scheduled. They just knew some of them had 'em and some of them didn't. And that's what brought this schedule forth. Um, I I'm having a problem with it. It's a, it's a lot of money. Um, but I also, you know, I know that with the villages, one thing, you know, we try to strive for is consistency. Um, yeah, I think since we may have already started doing it Yeah. But in this particular case we may have to finish it, but, you know, if if another group asked for it, I don't, that'd be difficult to tell them that we would do it. Can I just get a quick clarification? When you say Villa, are we talking patio Villa, courtyard Villa, or both? Both. Both, yes. Gotcha. So this has been a pre-program no thing, way before, right? A lot of us, because we do have a lot of communications with residents wanting their, their, their sign lit up, they wanna be able to see it, they want their friends to be able to see it when they come at night. So along with like Mrs. Duckett said, the the tunnel lighting, it's, it's, it's just a pre-programmed thing that's happens, happens naturally from as far back as I can remember. Yeah, probably when we started it was 30 bucks. Well, we used to put solar in, but the solar, the trees got big. The solar, we found out that the maintenance of the solar systems exceeded what the costs are for line voltage. So. Sure. Um, it just kind of evolved over the years. Well, and I know I spoke for, because I live in a veranda and we have solar that a resident put in and it's been there for two years, you know, pretty cost effective and I'll be glad to volunteer to buy the next Destin, you know. But Didn't that report show up going out to like 2034 or something like that? Yes, it is. It is. We only have a, a handful scheduled per year. Um, again, that's based on the, the plan that DPM has now based on the direction of the board, we can speed it up, slow it down, or nix it all together. Um, this is just something that, again, as Mr. Harris stated, is pretty consistent throughout the villages. It's something that is put on their to-do list automatically because it's, again, just something that has, um, been done throughout the years, but it, again, it is district property, so it is completely up to the board whether or not you'd like us to continue with this project. But our, our goal or our question for today is that whether or not we'd wanna move da Luna, those villas and Luna, right? Is that our, is that even a question today? Because I can't read these numbers when they would come back up in the next budget. So we, we don't have a question. You, the board asks us to provide you with the schedule. This is the schedule. Uh, we're going to continue on with this schedule and adding them based on the schedule unless the board directs us to do something different. Well, again, I can't read these numbers, so I Don't know. Yeah, the o the other, the other thing that kind of bothers me is we have, you know, at the different villages, we have one entry where we have a sign and some of the villages have come back and said, well, you don't have an entry at this place. And then we said, well, you know, if we add any, you know, if we accepted every request, we'd be spending millions of extra dollars. So, you know, someone could come back and say, well, you're adding lights and there's no, you know, that doesn't, um, that doesn't accommodate everybody. You know, everybody doesn't have lights. So it, it's a conundrum. Agree. That's the word of today. I agree with you. I I, I agree with you. It's very tough because I, and we've had this conversation, when we do plant enhancements, I think we should call 'em something else because that gives people the opinion that we are enhancing what the developer left us. Where maybe rep, I don't know, we, we need to find a different word, but, um, I guess I wonder how many people even know that this is planned, this far out, you know, and whether or not we, I mean, what would happen if we said no, we're gonna stop it now, and then if we get feedback, then maybe we look at it again. Is that a possibility? Anything's a possibility. Um, you know, I, I wouldn't necessarily stop it until people ask, because then that's exactly what you just referred to, that we don't do it because people ask. We do it because we think it's in the best interest of the district. So if you think it's in the best interest of district 13 to add lights to the entries of these villas, then this is part of your five year budget forecast. You have adequate funds. We, we, our recommendations on your maintenance assessments are based on the fact that you're going to do this. So if you think it's in the best interest of district 13, then I would recommend continuing forward. If you don't, if you think that this is not something that you should be using your maintenance assessments on and it's not benefiting the residents of District 13, then I would recommend that that's what I would say. I would stop it. What I wouldn't do is piecemeal it. So I wouldn't wait to have residents come and ask you for certain areas and then move forward. I would either do it for all of them or decide it's not something that, a project you want to move forward with and stop. Um, if anything I'd, I would, um, be curious to know how much it would take to add it onto the cottages and the verandas just so that you have that number in your back pocket. Because I, I do believe that the only reason that that's not part of the plan is because we didn't have verandas and cottages back when, again, 20 plus years ago when these projects started. I don't know that to be true. But that might be something too that would help you in your decision. Because if it's in the best interest of the villas, then maybe it's in the best interest of the cottages and verandas and it, it may be something that you wanna look at for all or nothing For, for district, say district 12, south of 44, are they doing the cottages in verandas also, or are they they're just doing the same plan. You've got the patio and, and courtyard bills. Just for my own benefit, and I'm not holding you the number, what does it cost to put in lights, ballpark? Um, I don't have that in front of me. It is on the sheet that Ms. Williamson has. You're welcome to read. Do you have a microscope? So it, it really depends based on, um, the, the villa unit, but it looks like on here it ranges anywhere from 4,000 to 10, 11,000. Does that sound right? Yes. Younger I, yeah, with no glasses, But, but really anywhere between 4,000 and 11,000. And we, we did email that spreadsheet out. It was too late to add it to the agenda. So we can certainly add that to old business for next month if you'd like to, to discuss it when you have it in front of you. My, my main concern is the feedback we got when we raised the taxes, which was legitimate for, you know, financial security. But, you know, over the next five years, are we gonna have to raise taxes again? Because my main concern is not spending money so that we can avoid paying because interest rates are lower, we're not getting as much money. Um, we're not building anymore. So we're not gonna get any more income. Um, I, you know, you said we have enough money in the budget. Do we have enough money in the budget over the next five years with the income that we have? That's, these plans were taken into consideration when we provided you with that five year outlook. I don't remember off of the top of my head what our recommendations were for maintenance assessments over the next five years. That is something that we will be providing you, um, during your budget workshop, your meeting this, um, this year as well. And we can certainly, I mean, even if you want to hold this until we have those budget meetings so that you can better understand the next five years and where you look financially before you decide on this. We can certainly put a hold on this with any new, um, installations moving forward until you've had time to go through your budget cycle. Yeah. 'cause if you, if you, how many houses do we have left to do? Or how many entrances? Um, just a, just a just the guess is fine. So you, uh, the majority of them, yeah. I mean, yeah, you probably have about five a year for the next 10 years. So that's, that's 50 times, let's say the average of $5,000, that's 250,000 if my math is correct. Um, that's, that's a lot of money. And you know, if something comes up, uh, like a, a sinkhole or whatever it is, uh, you know, another bridge problem or whatever that's gonna cost us money, that $250,000 would be very, you know, helpful. And I, it's just, it's, it's a lot of money. And does it benefit anybody? No, it doesn't benefit anybody. I What's the benefit? It looks nice. Well, well, I mean, again, I would just refer to the resident who came, the, the whole reason we're having this discussion, it was that the resident wanted the lighting added to her villa sooner. Yeah. But, but again, this, it's a policy decision on the board. It, it is completely your decision if this is something that you would like to move forward with. Uh, but certainly if at a minimum, if you would like us to hold on the project until budget, um, it gives you a little bit more time, you know, to maybe have conversations with your residents and then see what the next five year forecast looks like. Yeah. Yeah. I think that would Be good. I guar, I, I agree with what your assessment is, but my, my whole issue is the village villages is a whole, and if we're going to not do this one thing, is district 13 gonna look different than the rest of the districts in, you know, in the villages? I don't know if, again, John, I, I totally agree with you as far as, as far as the money situation goes, but as far as the aesthetic, you know, is it, is it gonna be, um, is it gonna be an issue over a period of time? You know what I mean? I I, I agree with you personally. Yeah. I would remove all the flowers. They, That, that way we don't have to keep replacing them. I'm Sorry. I know, I know. I would be strung up and tar and feathered and dragged out to the street for that. But, you know, I just, you know, But we bought with the flowers, we didn't buy with lighting. Yeah. I, I would, let's, let's take a look at the budget. I think that, and I mean, if we're comfortable and it looks like we've got, you know, good, a good hold on it. Uh, then we can cont, I mean, we can always, in three or four years, if something really bad happens and we start getting into financial trouble, we can stop, you know, we don't commit to it. Hopefully we don't Get to that point. Think that makes that most sense to look at it again. That way we are being responsible with, you know, our residents. I Mean, if it was $20,000, I, but $250,000 is a lot. Could we discuss about District 12 and District 14? See what their scope is? I mean, is that Something it's, uh, how much Are they gonna do the same thing? I mean, what are they looking at? Do we Know they, yes, they, um, I'm not sure about 14. Um, I don't know how many villas they have, but District 12, just like all the other districts have added lighting, But they'd probably be like us. They won't know to question it depending on how it's presented in the, and I'm not doing that as a slam. 'cause I don't remember. I just wrote myself a note to go back and look at the budget, but they wouldn't know to, to question it. They, they, you're right. Um, you know, certainly it, again, we don't present it as in a do you want to, because it, it does remain staff's recommendation to move forward with it. I mean, this is something that, as you stated, consistency is very important throughout the villages. Um, and, you know, we, we wouldn't be doing it if we didn't and we wouldn't be continuing with this project if we didn't think that it was in the best interest of the resident. Um, so it will remain our, um, our position and our recommendation to continue moving forward. That doesn't mean you have to accept our recommendation and, you know, certainly you can delay our, our hold off on it. But we, we would continue with the, the other districts with recommending that they continue with these projects. And so, like in District 12, has there ever been any discussion about this so that they even have the thoughts that, you know, that have come here? Not in a meeting that I've been in, but I don't start with meetings, um, with board meetings until they're usually several years down the road. Um, so that doesn't mean that that discussion didn't take place prior to me taking over, but just like, just like with district 13, it wasn't until several years ago that I started attending the meetings. No. Okay. So we agree. We're gonna wait and discuss it again at budget time. We'll make sure this is a, um, a line item to be discussed during your, your budget. All right. Thank you very much. And the next item on old business, um, is a FEMA reimbursement update. I don't have an update. We, um, have not received anything from fema. We can certainly continue to keep this on your old business, but I assure you as soon as we receive an update from fema, we will provide it, um, under the non-district 13 items. Uh, we have sod concerns. Uh, we don't have any updates, but Mr. Harris is available if you have any questions. I'll be back there dancing. Um, the M 18 tunnel, um, as you've been, um, aware, we have been, um, moving forward with adding that additional drainage. That update has also been going to the project wide advisory committee at a fund through them. The performance update on the new aquatic maintenance contractor will be provided at your next meeting in March. And then, uh, we have the update for 1307 Tate Terrace, which will be provided by Mr. Armstrong. Hello board, Matt Armstrong Community Standards. So, um, when we received the concern regarding the, uh, property at 1307, about a makeshift fence that is being put up for a dog permanent structure, we went out there and the homeowner was out there and he had this little rinky-dink makeshift, um, put together for, uh, his dog. Uh, his answer was that it's temporary. He puts it out there instead of tethering his dog. Um, he puts this out there, so when he's outside the dog to be out there and not tethered, um, we did inform 'em that, you know, fencing is not permitted. And, um, we also discussed about a concern that we had received regarding an rv. Um, an initial one was over a year ago, but just kind of reiterated, reminded him about the role. He goes, yep, I understand completely after your first visit. I, it comes and goes. I don't bring it back here and there. Uh, we did receive a concern four days ago regarding a, a trailer in the driveway when staffing out there. There was no trailer in the driveway. Uh, so if there was one, it was gone. Um, again, we don't feel like the homeowner's playing cat and mouse with us. I know that we discussed that at the last board meeting if they're gonna be playing games and that's something we'll definitely move forward with the Dr. 'cause we're not going to do that. Uh, but after initial discussion, he goes, no, it is just my way of letting my dog kind of be out in the yard with me when I'm there, type of a thing. Um, I have spoken with the homeowners, um, before this meeting, um, and said that, no, that's not really the case. Even the dog gets out, he sticks it between two lawn chairs and the dog goes running free, then we're out chasing the dog. Luckily the dog hasn't gotten hit yet, so, um, it's still something that we will continue to review underneath the current, um, the current, uh, complaint. We haven't closed it yet, um, to see if there's something that we can see regarding if there's a violation that exists for what he's, he's he's doing for his dog. So he can put up a makeshift fence if he's sitting there. Just so I understand the de restrictions, figure out, put up a permanent structure barrier and things like that. Where he's doing is he's not tethering the dog, he's just kind of putting up little playpen space for him. So I really don't have an answer yet for that. We'll review it to see if there's something as far as a violation would exist. Okay, And that concludes all business. Alright, so now we have our informational items, our, uh, financial statements. Are there any questions or comments about that? No DPM monthly report? Any questions? And now back to you, Ms. Duckett. Yes, ma'am. Um, the, um, first item on old on district manager reports. I will once again turn it over to Mr. Armstrong, who will give you an update on gov build, uh, which we gave you a preview to a couple months ago. Hello again, board Met Armstrong Community Standards. So we'll see if it shows up. I know we're having some network issues. If not, we can always bring it back next month. Um, on the agenda is a, it was a brief presentation regarding, um, screenshots of what the architectural view process looks like. Uh, if you've seen it before we got to the meeting today, it is a exact compar