MINUTES OF MEETING
CORAL SPRINGS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
A regular meeting of the Board of
Supervisors of the Coral Springs Improvement District was held on Monday, December
15, 2008 at 3:10 p.m. at the District Office, 10300 NW 11th Manor, Coral
Springs, Florida.
Present
and constituting a quorum were:
Robert
Fennell President
Sharon
Zich Vice
President
Glenn
Hanks Secretary
Also
present were:
Kenneth
Cassel District
Manager
Jane
Early CH2M
Hill
Sean
Skehan CH2M
Hill
Cory
Johnson CH2M
Hill
Brenda
Schurz Severn
Trent Services
Dan
Daly Director
of Operations
Jim
Aversa Chief
Operator, Wastewater Plant
Doug
Hyche Utilities
Director
Randy
Frederick Drainage
Supervisor
Kay
Woodward District
Accountant
Jan
Zilmer Human
Resources Manager
FIRST
ORDER OF BUSINESS Roll
Call
Mr. Cassel called the meeting to
order and called the roll.
SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval of the Minutes
of the November 13, 2008 Meeting
Mr. Fennell stated each Board member
received a copy of the minutes of the November 13, 2008 meeting and requested
any corrections, additions or deletions.
Mr. Hanks stated on page nine, in the second
line of the last paragraph, ‘continuation’ should be ‘attenuation.’
On MOTION by Mr. Hanks seconded
by Mr. Fennell with all in favor the minutes of the November 13, 2008 were
approved as amended.
THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration of Bid
Awards
A. Project
IH-2009-1 Pump Station Trash Rack Inspection and Debris Removal and Culvert Pipe
Inspection
Mr. Cassel stated this one is in
your agenda book.
Mr. Fennell stated we had two
different bids.
Mr. Hanks asked are there any
concerns with the way responses came back?
Mr. Hyche responded not for my part.
On MOTION by Mr. Hanks seconded
by Ms. Zich with all in favor Project IH-2009-1 was awarded to the lowest
responsive bidder, Industrial Divers Corporation.
B. Construction of Water Treatment Plant
and Plant ‘F’
Mr. Fennell stated I
believe I received this in the mail.
Mr. Cassel stated this was sent by
email and there is a hard copy in front of you.
It is the recommendation of the award of construction contract to Lanzo
Construction Company for the lump sum of $17,600,000. The total contract price, because we have
some allowances in there, is $18,155,000.
Mr. Fennell asked will it be the
same for the other bidders to.
Mr. Cassel responded the allowances
will be the same for any of them.
Mr. Fennell asked what is the
engineering estimate and the amount which is in our bond issue?
Mr. Skehan responded approximately
$25 Million.
Mr. Fennell stated we are looking at
$7 Million less.
Mr. Skehan stated it is about $7.5
Million in savings. It is a significant
function of the market. We have a
similar ongoing project in the Florida Keys, in Florida City. It is basically the same size water
plant. I did the bid almost two years
ago, or a year and a half ago, and the project bid for $24 Million. A similar project in Fort Lauderdale, which
has just been completed, is a little bit larger as far as plant size, but it
bid for $26 Million or $27 Million. The
function of where you are in the marketplace is good.
Ms. Zich stated maybe we should wait
another year to bid again.
Mr. Skehan stated I think you are in
one of the real sweet spots of the market.
Ms. Zich stated I am kidding. I think so too.
Mr. Skehan stated this is a
phenomenal time. It was tight between
each of the contractors. It was good to
see the numbers come in where they did. It
is representative of what is in the market right now. Everyone is really tight and trying to keep
people busy. Vendors are looking to keep
their products moving.
Mr. Fennell stated okay so we bid
everybody down. Does it mean they can
really build the plant?
Mr. Skehan responded it will be
incumbent upon us to be able to make sure that takes place. You have to keep a tight reign on your
contractor in making sure he is on top of his sub-contractors and you are
getting the submittals, you are getting the equipment you asked for and they
are not trying to replace it with something we did not look for in the
specifications. It will be a little bit
more challenging from a management standpoint to be able to do this, but it is
still part of the service we will be providing for you.
Mr. Fennell stated just as a side
note, I think I talked to Mr. Cassel about this earlier, in an informal way I
had contact with one of the deputy building officials of Coral Springs. Apparently they have a procedure where they
can go through, review programs and projects to try to find ways to set up all
the inspections so they go smoothly.
Mr. Cassel stated I have been in
contact with the city and spoke to Ms. Clark.
We are working on getting the plans over there for a pre-bid review
scenario to make sure we are squared away and make sure we have all of the
proper inspections tagged rather than the improper inspections. We are working with them to make sure this is
a smooth process and not like some of the ones we had in the past.
Mr. Skehan stated Mr. Cassel and I
talked about this extensively over the past couple of weeks in trying to make
sure we have what they are looking for, which is a couple of sets of signed and
sealed documents. We will go in there
for a pre-review. This will help with
the whole process with the contractor coming in. They have a list of inspections they can make
in total. We do not want to have them
check all of them off. All we want is just
a few of those checked off, which are going to be applicable to what we will be
doing out here. We have our arms around
this at this point. We will probably
have the documents done for them tomorrow at this stage.
Mr. Fennell stated okay. Let us take advantage of that. This sounds like a great opportunity where we
can work with the city closely and get the plans done ahead.
Mr. Skehan stated we are going to
have a number of these permits in place right now to be able to move
forward. The notice to proceed takes
place between now and when the contractor gets all of the documents executed
and in place.
Mr. Fennell stated you think you
built something to the current inspection levels, then you change it again to
find out you made changes to this particular guide, which is exclusive of a
couple of other inspections. Those kinds
of things can snowball.
Mr. Hanks stated the other thing
which happens sometimes has to do with any major equipment being put in. In the past, on different components, we
would go ahead and purchase the components and have the contractor install
them. There have been little bits of
problems. I am thinking, in particular,
about something having to do with the blowers they had to redo. We had some change orders going on. Is everything included in this contract so
they are responsible and they know the generator has to be able to connect to
the draw springs, the BIP pump has to work with the structure filters or
something along those lines?
Mr. Skehan responded that is a great
question. We discussed this much earlier
in the project as to what advantages this may or may not pose for the
District. You can save some money from
taxes, but ultimately you are looking at what your warranty responsibilities
are. If you get something here and it is
not delivered in time, the contractor can point back at the District as being
responsible. It can become very
complicated and very messy in the long run if the contractor does not have
complete control of everything.
Mr. Hanks stated we have the time of
completion. Is it tied down to so many
days and so many months from the date of this transaction on this contract?
Mr. Skehan responded it is tied down
to the Notice to Proceed. Between the
date of the approval, which I assume is today, there will be a month for them
to get their documentation signed as well as get their bonds in place. This will all come back to us for review to
make sure everything is ready to go and is given a good legal review. It can be four to six weeks, which is
typical.
Mr. Fennell asked when can we
anticipate it being done?
Mr. Skehan responded 660 days from
the beginning of February.
Mr. Fennell stated two years.
Mr. Skehan stated about two
years. We are trying to look at how we
can streamline the process. This
contractor is going to be interested in being able to purchase his equipment
and his materials as soon as he can, given the volatility of the market. If they were buying fuel six months ago, they
would be paying two dollars more than what we have right now. The cost of fuel to fill up the tank out here
in the standby generator, which is an 8,000 gallon tank, at two dollars a
gallon is a $16,000 savings to the District.
Across the board we are looking to be able to help the contractor
proceed through the submittals and getting them approved or disapproved. The review process will be very important in
moving forward as quickly as possible.
Mr. Hanks asked are there
contingencies in the contract if they are late on the project? Are their damages in there?
Mr. Skehan responded we have
liquidated damages in there of $2,000 per day.
Mr. Hanks asked are there bonuses?
Mr. Skehan responded no
bonuses.
Mr. Hanks asked did you say we put
bonds in place so we are reasonably protected should something happen with the
general contractor or one of his sub-contractors?
Mr. Skehan responded yes. It is beyond reasonable. You are protected such that within the
definition of the bond, whatever the contractor or sub-contractor is
responsible for, the bond company has to come to the table for it. This is something we do not want to get into
because it becomes a complicated mess at that stage. The key thing is to work together as a
team.
Mr. Hanks asked did you do a sample
comparison between Lanzo Construction Company and Wharton-Smith, Inc.?
Mr. Skehan responded one of the benefits
we had in the pre-qualification is there was initially 20 contractors who
expressed interest in this overall project.
Once they learned what some of the limitations were of the project there
were ten contractors who picked up the packages and submitted them for pre-qualification. We were able to disqualify six
contractors. There was one highway
contractor. There was a contractor who
never did this kind of work. Another one
was into asbestos remediation. What we
really had was a pre-defined group of contractors, all of which we have done
work with in the past.
Mr. Hanks asked do you have any
concerns about the performance histories of Lanzo Construction Company versus
Wharton-Smith, Inc.?
Mr. Skehan responded no.
Mr. Hanks asked is there anything
that would cause us to be concerned? I
do not know if you read today’s paper about the concerns in San Antonio with
the contractor for the new hotel to serve the convention center. They are getting sued left and right. This big contractor is getting sued for, you
name it. Look in today’s Sun-Sentinel
and you will see what I am talking about.
There were a lot of issues associated with this one contractor. Have you done your homework and are we going
to be good?
Mr. Skehan responded we are comfortable
with where we are at right now with this recommendation.
Mr. Hanks stated I know you cannot
guarantee it because everything goes forward on its own, but have there been
any red flags that would give you concern about going with one or the other?
Mr. Skehan responded no.
Mr. Hanks asked counsel, do you have
any input on this?
Mr. Lyles responded not at this
point. The bidding process, as you know,
is handled by your consulting engineers and District engineer. Now that the bids are in, their due diligence
has led you to this point. It is a
matter of making sure the contracts provide for the types of protections the
Board is looking for and Mr. Skehan has been describing for you. We were not part of the analysis which was
done to get it to this point.
Mr. Hanks asked Mr. Cassel, do you
have any input?
Mr. Cassel responded I am
comfortable with the recommendation CH2M Hill is making.
Mr. Hanks asked is there any other
input from staff?
There not being,
On MOTION by Mr. Hanks seconded
Mr. Fennell with all in favor the contract to construct the water treatment
plant and Plant ‘F’ was awarded to the lowest responsive bidder, Lanzo
Construction Company in the amount of $17.6 Million.
Mr. Cassel stated I believe we have
to amend the motion due to the allowance additions, which brings the cost to
$18,155,000.
On MOTION by Mr. Hanks seconded
by Mr. Fennell with all in favor the previous motion was amended to allow for a
not to exceed cost of $18,155,000.
Mr. Fennell stated so in two years
we will get this plant working. Is it
working partially before then?
Mr. Skehan responded no. The weir-flow portion of the project I
believe is at 365 days from the notice to proceed date. This portion of the work will have been put
into operation at that point in time.
Mr. Fennell stated we still have our
older plant out there. We need to get
two more years out of it. What is that
looking like?
Mr. Hyche responded good.
Mr. Fennell stated I think we
revitalized some of it.
Mr. Hyche stated yes we have.
Mr. Fennell stated very good. I would like to say congratulations to
everybody here. This is a big deal;
taking down the old one and putting in a new one. We are basically setting up this community in
South Florida for the next 30 years to be a viable community. I think it is an important step forward. Frankly, we have been able to do it. We have been able to get the money. We have the bids and now we just have to do
it.
Ms. Zich stated I am excited we just
saved $7 million.
Mr. Skehan stated $7.5 Million. Looking forward, there are other requirements
through some of your permits. We
originally expected to look out for a second bond issue. This will go a long way towards potentially
steering away from something like that. The
implications in the positive sense are maintaining your rates. If you do not have to go for a second bond,
the rates stay down. This is across the
board very good for the District and for the District’s customers.
Mr. Hanks asked what kind of tank
are we going with?
Mr. Skehan responded a well
tank.
FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Consideration of First
Amendment to Interlocal Agreement between Coral Springs Improvement District
and Sunshine Water Control District
Mr. Fennell stated I
did not really see too much in there.
What is it about?
Mr. Cassel responded this is a
revision to the Interlocal Agreement we did about a month and a half ago. It has been back and forth between SWCD, the
attorney’s office and me to get it to the point where we believe the Board’s
direction was on this.
Ms. Zich asked what has changed on
it from the last time we saw it?
Mr. Cassel responded the last time
it did not specifically address the participation in the insurances as well as
the pension and retirement system.
Mr. Lyles stated it makes it clear
at this point that we will not unreasonably withhold the membership for their
people as long as it is at their total expense and no expense to CSID. Secondly; if it causes an increase to our
rates by adding this other group or if it brings the cost up in anyway, we can
terminate this so their employees are not allowed to participate in our pension
or insurance plans. It has to be
completely revenue neutral to CSID for them to participate. Assuming that is the case, we are willing to
let their employees be part of our group plans.
Those are the clarifications on page two.
Mr. Hanks asked are you comfortable
with this?
Mr. Lyles responded yes I am
comfortable with where this is at this point.
Mr. Fennell stated I think this is a
good deal. I really do believe when you
are applying for insurance rates, the bigger you are the more leverage you
have.
Mr. Hanks asked is this going to be
a motion to accept or a motion to adopt?
Mr. Lyles responded a motion to
approve the proposed amendment to the Interlocal Agreement between CSID and
SWCD.
On MOTION by Mr. Hanks seconded
by Ms. Zich with all in favor the proposed amendment to the Interlocal
Agreement between CSID and SWCD was approved.
Mr. Fennell asked is there anything else
before we get to staff reports?
There not being any, the next item
followed.
FIFTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Staff
Reports
A. Manager
i. Annual and Monthly Water & Sewer
Charts
ii. Utility Billing Work Orders
Mr. Hanks stated I have
a comment on the monthly water and sewer charts. It looks different.
Mr. Hyche stated I believe you asked
at the last meeting that we make one chart showing everything. I am following your direction.
Mr. Hanks asked are there any
concerns about the amount of wastewater we are treating versus the amount of
water that is produced? Is this
discrepancy accurate that we are looking at about 45, 46 Million gallons during
the course of November or is this the difference in recording periods again?
Mr. Hyche stated it is not the
difference in recording periods. There
is actually a much larger groundwater input to the wastewater intake.
Mr. Hanks stated it is going up from
what I remember.
Mr. Hyche stated we had a little
more rain last month.
Mr. Fennell stated I think your
graph shows inadequately. In the other
one you could see the different seasons, but this really does not show the
effect.
Mr. Hanks stated we are talking
about 140 MG versus 90 MG.
Mr. Hyche stated historically it has
always been that large of a difference.
Mr. Hanks asked is this within the
normal expectations for a system which is 30 years old? It seems high to me.
Mr. Skehan responded we have to look
at this closely. One of the things,
which is always a factor is your I&I issues; whether anything coming into
the system is at elevated groundwater levels and then coming into older pipes,
which may or may not be 100% whole.
Depending on what is out there in different places, 10% or less is
ideal. This is significantly above
that.
Mr. Hyche stated if you recall, I
thought we were tracking this and I was always keeping track of the lift
stations.
Mr. Fennell stated years ago we
actually relined some pump lines in the older area. If I remember, it did help; at least in that
area. I know the City of Coral Springs
did it a long time ago too.
Mr. Hanks stated the city was just
undergoing it in the last month or so at the end of Wiles Road and in some of
the other commercial areas out there.
Mr. Skehan stated this ties back to
something mentioned at the last Board meeting, which is the desire to be able
to look out ahead for the other things the District needs to be doing to manage
the infrastructure. One of the items we
have not paid attention to is some of the other mainlines.
Mr. Hyche stated most of these areas
are in the Ramblewood area. The problem
is the old clay piping laterals.
Mr. Hanks asked having the extra 45%
we are treating and the extra 40 Million gallons which were treated, how much
cost does it translate into?
Mr. Hyche responded it is actually,
this goes back to Mr. Moyer, cheaper to treat it. It is going to cost a lot of money to go in
reline all of these lines.
Mr. Fennell stated unfortunately we
need to make this decision before we can redo our infrastructure. Nevertheless, it is a good point. How much does the Ramblewood area represent
of the 49 gallons?
Mr. Hyche responded probably 90% or
80% of it.
Mr. Fennell stated so we are not
talking about redoing the whole area.
Mr. Hyche stated no.
Mr. Fennell stated I thought some of
that area was redone.
Mr. Hyche stated not the laterals. Just some lines from one lift station to the
other, which really did not reduce it very much.
Mr. Fennell asked when you say the
laterals, what is that?
Mr. Hyche responded the ones coming
from the houses to the mainline.
Mr. Hanks stated the ones where the
landscapers have punctured completely through.
Mr. Fennell stated this gets us into
a whole different kind of issue.
Mr. Hyche stated yes.
Mr. Hanks stated years ago, and they
may still be requiring it, Miami-Dade required sanitary sewer evaluations every
five years for private properties. What
was the mechanism they implemented?
Mr. Skehan responded they had a very
extensive program they went through as far as identifying where the issues
were. The clay pipe laterals are where
the big issues are. We are not sure what
the rest of the system is put together with, but having sections of 18 inches
of clay pipe put together and all those joints along the way, whether they are
still there or not is an issue.
Mr. Hyche stated you can shut down a
lift station in Eagle Trace and it would be three days before…
Mr. Fennell stated with the lift
stations you can tell by…
Mr. Hyche stated you can tell by the
hours run on the pumps.
Mr. Fennell asked is there any kind
of program?
Mr. Skehan responded there are a lot
of different ways you can approach it.
There is smoke testing you can go through. Fort Lauderdale has just gone through a huge
program with all of their collecting system infrastructure. It is part of the program they have been
involved with in the past three or four years.
That program is just going through the television surveys and video
surveys along the large lines. They do
not get into the laterals for the most part, but you can video pretty much
anything if you want to. They have been
in a very large program of replacing old bad pipes. This program in Fort Lauderdale probably cost
them about $600 Million. This is sewering
new sections of town, which have not been sewered before. Originally the city only had, about 60%
sewered. Those are some of the early
numbers. The numbers were significant that were not
really sewered. They are relying on the
septic tanks and the level of groundwater contamination from all of this in one
concentrated area was significant. They
wanted to get different inequities taken care of throughout the city. This is going to be finished in about another
year.
There are significant issues which
accompany this. There is another utility
I am familiar with in Fort Pierce. They
have I&I issues. One of these big
storms will come in and they will go from 5 Million to 6 Million gallons a day
of collection to over 23 Million gallons in a period of a couple of days. The 23 Million gallons will be sustained for
over a week. The implications are
significant up in Fort Pierce. They have
a discharge to the Intercoastal up there.
They were able to treat it. It still
is their emergency outfall to be able to accommodate these kinds of events
which take place in 1 in 50 or maybe 1 in 100 years. It is hard to measure them you have several
of these kinds of events over a two or three year period, somewhat
consecutively.
Mr. Hanks stated so the good news to
pull out of this chart is we are very good on getting our water to the
customers and having them pay for it. The
bad news is we are not doing such a great job making sure we do not get
wastewater back into our plant.
Mr. Fennell states it looks like it
is coming from where the homeowners are at.
Is there a program out there which would actually pay the homeowner to have
the pipe replaced?
Mr. Hyche stated maybe with the new
administration there will be.
Mr. Fennell stated one of the other
things which has happened here is if we are going to be restricted as to how
much water we can take out of the Biscayne Aquifer, we are essentially doing
it.
Mr. Skehan stated it is a different
kind of recharge we are talking about right now.
Mr. Fennell stated surface water is
what we are using.
Mr. Skehan stated you are absolutely
correct. I am not sure if the Water
Management District will…
Mr. Hanks stated there have been
cities which have approached this. It
has been one of the topics addressed by the Water Resources Task Force. That was one of the proposals presented to
South Florida Water Management District by another district, to conserve their
infiltration. South Florida Water
Management District looked at them and said, “No, you are not getting any
increase in your water withdrawals. You
just committed an illegal withdrawal from the aquifer.” It may just be something we want to keep our
eyes open on.
Mr. Hyche stated at least we are in
a position where we can treat the water.
We have our own wastewater plant, unlike the City of Coral Springs which
has to buy capacity from Broward County.
I believe there has been instances where the director has called here
and asked SWCD to lower its canals so he does not have bad infiltration.
Mr. Hanks asked have you done a comparison
test and kept our canals high to see if it increased in the event of a rain
event?
Mr. Hyche responded yes.
Mr. Hanks asked what was the result
of it?
Mr. Hyche responded we know there is
infiltration.
Mr. Hanks stated it may infiltrate
from the groundwater as opposed to surface runoff entering into manholes.
Mr. Hyche stated when I cannot hold
water because they drain it down. It is
groundwater. We try to hold extra water
during certain times of the year and we cannot do it; especially on the east
side.
Mr. Hanks stated it sounds like it
is really close down to the manhole connection.
Your houses are up to 11 feet or higher.
As soon as you come out you are not going to be down 6 feet.
Mr. Hyche stated it is down to the
water table where the connection is from the lateral to the main.
Mr. Hanks stated it sounds like that
is where your problem is; although, it may still be on the right-of-way or our
easement.
Mr. Hyche stated it is a
possibility. The lift station pumps go
from a few hours a day to 24 hours a day.
Mr. Fennell stated well I hope we
can solve this.
Mr. Cassel stated I have one other
item for you under the Manager’s Report.
You will notice before you the safety review which was performed. I apologize, but we received our copy of it
after the agenda package went out. There
are still a few minor issues to work on; however, we have some positives. An individual contractor made statements in
some paperwork sent to us about an unsafe condition. The safety group which investigated this
found the claim to be frivolous.
Mr. Hanks asked so are there any
major red flags?
Mr. Cassel responded some minor
things we already discussed internally and they are working on them: signs,
processes, some lighted exits and things like it.
Mr. Fennell stated it sounds like
they had a number of comments and suggestions.
Mr. Cassel stated we are going to
give this to staff and they will start working on it.
Mr. Fennell stated what we need to
do, we will do it. It is good to have
someone else come in and take a look because frankly, like everyone else, you
get used to the way you are doing things.
After a while you are so used to them, you do not think it is that
bad. It looks like there are a bunch of
things here to do. I would like to come
back in March and understand what we have done.
In March we will have not only an evaluation, but results and follow up
to what we have changed. Staff, take it
as an opportunity to put in effect those things. It is the same thing with quality too; the
higher you elevate your staff like this, the more actually gets done. Anything else on this?
Mr. Cassel responded no. That is all I have under this.
B. Attorney
There
being no report, the next item followed.
C. Engineer
Ms. Zich asked why did
we just get this in the morning, WA-50?
Mr. Skehan responded this is
something Mr. Cassel and I worked on last week to finalize the numbers. We worked on it closely up through
Thursday. I believe it was sent out on
Friday.
Ms. Zich stated mine came today.
Mr. Cassel stated I believe there
may be an issue with your email Ms. Zich.
We are going to have to check into it.
Ms. Schurz stated I did not receive
a read receipt. That is the reason I resent
it this morning, because I did not receive a read receipt.
Ms. Zich stated it was not in my
email. Anyway, when I saw the amount of
$2 Million and it just says services during construction and expenses; how did
we come up with $2 Million?
Mr. Skehan responded it is one of
the things we worked out in the last two weeks.
We talked about this with Mr. Cassel.
The total number of hours we have accumulated into this is probably
14,000 hours.
Ms. Zich stated I wish we had
something saying where we pulled the $2 Million figure from.
Mr. Skehan stated well the
description…
Ms. Zich stated I see the
description, but…
Mr. Skehan stated that was how we
approached it with Mr. Cassel. Instead
of providing a voluminous amount of detail, we provided the breakdown of how we
got there. I can describe briefly that
there are probably 25 or 30 people who worked on this project during its
duration.
Ms. Zich stated I still feel like
this number is just coming, I am an accountant so I like to see numbers. It says $100,000 fee allowance (contract
extends past 22 months). I hope we are
not going in there thinking it is probably going to go over 22 months so we
want to extend it.
Mr. Skehan stated that is not the
assumption. It is just to….
Ms. Zich stated you have to
understand I am…
Mr. Fennell asked is it a penalty?
Ms. Zich responded that is what I am
trying to figure out. I wish I saw more
detail to know about the $2 Million. I
realize you guys may have talked about it yourself and you know about this many
people and that many people, but it would be kind of nice, because we work with
you all the time, it would be kind of nice, I like to see all of my ducks in a
row.
Mr. Skehan stated this was the
conclusion of our discussion and we spoke to Mr. Hanks on Friday also, just to
walk through what the level of detail was; trying to understand what the level
of effort was going to be for the entire project. One of the questions Mr. Hanks had initially
was; how many people are involved in this?
Is it a handful of people or how many people is it?
Ms. Zich stated we are talking about
$1 Million a year. It is like if we were
doing a budget for this department and Ms. Woodward said we are going to have
$2 Million worth of expenses in the next two years. I would say, “Wait a minute Ms.
Woodward.” If you are going to have $2
Million, give me an idea. I know it is
written here, but it is still not written so I can understand it. CH2M Hill may understand it because they are
engineers, but for me it is just $2 Million.
I would like more of an explanation other than $2 Million. We are going to do work.
Mr. Skehan stated right.
Mr. Fennell asked has some of this
work already been done?
Mr. Skehan responded no. This is upcoming work.
Ms. Zich asked Mr. Hanks, do you
understand?
Mr. Hanks responded I understand
what they are doing here. Keep in mind
one of the things you can encounter is you can have contractors come in,
present a lower price to make sure they get the work. Once they get the contract they start to
shuffle things around.
Ms. Zich stated I also worked in
construction so I understand. I
understand the construction part.
Mr. Hanks stated a lot of diligence
is going to be required.
Ms. Zich stated I understand that,
but when you just put $2 Million there it bothers me. It is a lot of money.
Mr. Skehan asked what were you
visualizing to help me better understand?
Ms. Zich asked out of the $2
Million, how much of it is your employees doing physical work?
Mr. Skehan responded about 14,000
hours worth.
Ms. Zich asked so is that $1 Million
of it?
Mr. Hanks responded 14,000 at an
average rate of $110.
Ms. Zich stated there was a
percentage here of 7.5% which was expenses calculated on a lump sum basis.
Mr. Fennell stated I think she is
right. You need to come back to us with
a good breakdown sheet which talks about the number of hours spent in the
various different fields, what the expenses will be used for, the anticipated
hours, who the people are you are going to assign to it, those kinds of
things.
Mr. Hanks asked are you going to
have one or two people full-time?
Mr. Skehan responded there are two
people full-time. There is a
construction manager who will be out there full-time for almost two years. There will be an inspector out there
full-time for two years as well as the project manager.
Ms. Zich asked is it some place here
and I missed it?
Mr. Skehan responded yes. It says full-time.
Mr. Fennell stated it talks about
people, number of hours worked, what their pay range is, how many hours are
going to be spent, that kind of stuff.
Mr. Hanks asked do we have anybody
within our organization who has the expertise to work on one of these projects
and to provide those construction observations as well as the certifications?
Mr. Cassel responded no.
Mr. Hanks asked is there anyone to
handle paperwork associated with the bonds?
Mr. Mr. Cassel responded no. We do not have anyone on staff who could run
a project of this magnitude.
Ms. Zich stated I am not saying they
cannot handle it. I would just like to
know where the $2 Million comes from.
Mr. Fennell stated I think she is
right. We need to see it with more
details. Break it down as you usually do
with the project expenses.
Ms. Zich stated you guys do a good
job and I know you are going to be working for the next two years. I would just like to know where the $2
Million is going.
Mr. Skehan stated I could have
provided that. We do not just pull a
number out of the air.
Ms. Zich stated I was hoping to see
a little bit more than the bottom line of $2 Million.
Mr. Skehan stated we can do that.
Ms. Zich stated good.
Mr. Fennell stated I think we are
going to table this until next month.
Mr. Hanks asked is this going to
pose any problems?
Mr. Skehan responded the only thing
which will happen is we are going to begin to accumulate some charges between
now and then. Our current work
authorization has come to a conclusion with the bidding of the project.
Mr. Fennell stated that is
understandable.
Ms. Zich stated tell me what the
extra $100,000 is.
Mr. Skehan stated it is just an
allowance.
Ms. Zich stated if it extends past
the 22 months we might have $100,000 worth of expenses.
Mr. Skehan stated not quite that
way. It is more a number based on an
approximation of what we might be spending on a monthly basis. If we got to a point where the contractor was
extending beyond the 22 months, we would sit down with Mr. Cassel and Mr. Hyche
to discuss the issues taking place. We
are not going to spend it without having some authorization from staff with CSID
to make sure we can do it. One of the
other things we have got in there is if the project is completed shorter than
the 22 months, we offered some prorated amount we will be able to reduce the
budget we have so we are not spending all of the money. The District should benefit from any
shortened work period there is with the contractor. Although there is not a bonus for the
contractor, there is a benefit for the District should our work period be
shortened.
Mr. Fennell asked I think a lot of
this is how are we building? Does he
know how many people he has, what their salary is and what they are working
on? When it comes to this, how do we
know if the engineer is actually working on our stuff? You must build this stuff out internally.
Mr. Skehan responded it is similar
to most of the projects we have been doing for the past several years. It is all on a lump sum percentage
basis. Once the project gets going, it
is difficult to say how a project like this will take place. It will be very dependant upon how the
contractor pursues his work. If he
pursues the work right off the get go from his Notice to Proceed and he is
aggressive with submittals, getting his work force going and his yard piping
taking place, you are going to see a spending curve which is going to be
flatter as well as equivalent on a month to month basis. Other projects where contractors take some
time upfront to get warmed up, do things procedurally and a little bit slower,
you will see a bell curve in spending where you will see a lot of the submittals
come in between a 6 month period all the way through a 14 or 15 month period. In this period of time you will see a lot
more spending taking place. It will
depend an awful lot on how the contractor approaches this. It could be a flat line spending curve and/or
it could be somewhat of a bell curve.
Mr. Hanks asked what are the main
differences between this and your typical 7.5% construction services?
Mr. Skehan responded the complexity
of the project you have is significantly different; some of the specialty
inspections you have, your inspection control.
There is an awful lot of instrumentation you would not have, which is
going to go into a pipeline project.
Mr. Hanks asked does this not also
contribute to the construction cost to a certain extent? If you were just to build, what is it a 3 MGD
plant on the nanofiltration?
Mr. Skehan responded 7 MGD.
Mr. Hanks asked if you were to build
a traditional 7 MGD plant, what magnitude would it be on as far as the total
cost of the plant for a line softener?
Mr. Skehan responded off the top of
my head I am not sure.
Mr. Johnson stated I can speak to
that a little bit more. Line softening
is going to make it a little bit less, but you still have a significant amount
of infrastructure whereas membrane plants are much more compact.
Mr. Hanks asked it is slightly more
of a cost is what you are saying, but what additional instrumentation? Are you saying there is additional
programming to get all of the controls right?
Is all of this taken care of in this contract?
Mr. Skehan responded yes. This contract, the way it is set up right
now, is a comprehensive construction management program. One of the things you mentioned at previous
Board meetings was making sure there is a significant amount of detail paid to
scheduling as well as a monthly report which will come out so you can see what
is taking place with the spending and progress of the overall project; from the
pay estimates for the contractor for the bond report which will have to go out
monthly across the board all the way through the construction manager who will
be onsite. The construction management
program we use is tied to a scheduling program which will be made available to
Mr. Cassel and Mr. Hyche so as the project moves along, there will be a program
called contract manager. It is a complex
program everyone will have access to.
Anybody who wants access to it can have access to it to see where the
submittals are, to see what questions the contractor may have, to see where the
spending is, just across the board every piece of documentation which has taken
place within the project. This will take
place from the inception of the project all the way through the
conclusion. At the end of the project,
this will be documented and put together on whatever number of CDs to be turned
over to the District for its long term history of the project.
Mr. Fennell stated okay. There are a couple of issues here. This is more than the typical 7.5% which is
traditional, at least on an $18 Million bid.
In fact, it is like 12% or 14%. You
think there is some justification for this.
We need to understand this justification. There are two ways we can do this. You are bidding the job and saying no matter
what it takes this is what it is going to cost.
I know before this there were standard briefs you were using. I assume you were charging us. Right now this is sort of a you take it all
type of thing.
Mr. Cassel stated the intent on this
was a little bit different than what you have done in the past. It was a lump sum total responsibility for
the project to make sure it comes in on time.
That was the difference in approach so we did not have some of the
issues we have had with the two current projects we have been languishing on
certain issues with. We did not have
enough direction or gave them enough direction.
There really was no one held to the fire. This allows Mr. Hyche and I to hold their
construction manager’s feet to the fire to make sure he is on target and on
time so he can hold his contractor’s feet to the fire. Both of them being lump sum, they are both
looking to produce it faster. The
contractor produces faster because he has a lump sum contract. If he brings it in two months earlier, it
drops to the bottom line. So you know
the contractor is going to be pushing to bring it in as fast as he can. We want to push CH2M Hill to do the same
thing, to continue to push it so it does come in and we do not have a
languishing two and a half or three year project, which should be a 20 to 22
month project. We took a different
approach than we have in the past. This
is all inclusive. We are not going to
see invoices for preparation documents.
We are not going to see invoices for submittal reviews. We are not going to see, as we have in the
past, all these invoices come in for different components. You have a fee structure, but then you have
all these component pieces come in. They
are all included in the lump sum amount.
Ms. Zich asked what is included in
the lump sum?
Mr. Cassel responded the only thing
which is not spelled out is the actual number of people. If you look in here, there are 290 submittals
included, 150 RFIs, up to 20 requests for qualifications, 5 change orders, a
total start up of the facility. I made
them spell out a number of things such as inspections. They are having 18 person days for the start
up. They are bringing personnel in from
wherever they have to bring them in from.
It is all included. I tried to
make sure it was all nailed down so we do not have some of the issues we had
before. If you look at Task A.2, it
talks about the full-time construction management which is a full-time
construction manager for 22 months and a resident project representative onsite
for 22 months.
Mr. Fennell asked who is that?
Mr. Cassel responded I believe it is
W.D. Brown.
Mr. Hanks stated you have geotech in
here, you have structural instrumentation, you have everything. Like you said Mr. Cassel, we are not going to
be seeing a separate quote for new technical services. You have the required compaction. You have the right soil beneath the tank or
building.
Mr. Skehan stated with regard to one
of your points with the percentage right now, the difficulty we have in this
situation is that by all rights a year ago or two years ago this project would
have bid up in the market anywhere from $24 Million or $25 Million. Those were the numbers we used for the bond
money. It was a good estimate back at
that time based on the experience we had with other local projects. Ultimately, the level of service we provide
for a project like this, to be able to take it from day one all the way through
its conclusion, remains about the same. If
the cost of the project goes down, as it has, in order to manage it properly
our services will remain the same.
Mr. Fennell stated however, it has
been bid today at $18 Million and 7.5% of that will be substantially less.
Mr. Cassel asked did the 7.5% you
were working on before include a full-time resident construction manager or the
other resident inspector?
Mr. Skehan responded it was a
part-time level of effort. There are
several factors here. If it was bid at
$25 Million for the two projects, Plant ‘F’ and the nano plant, we would be
somewhere around 8% with the fee we estimated here now. That is a very good number given the scope of
the project. There are two different
projects out there. The level of service
is commensurate with…
Mr. Fennell stated well we have this
level of service which will be funded. I
think Ms. Zich is asking for proof. Here
is the level of service we think this project needs and here is what we
estimate the cost will be. I agree with
her. I think we need to see this. I understand you are trying to do something
different here. That is good too, but
prove your level of service. You need to
come back to us with those kinds of costs.
It does not have to be more than two or three pages.
Ms. Zich stated I just want
basics. A page is good. Having just a number is what bothers me.
Mr. Fennell stated we have no
problem with you getting under way here.
Mr. Cassel stated what they will do
is they will accrue it towards the approval at the next meeting.
Mr. Hanks stated there are a couple
of things I want to point out in this thing; the obligations of CSID. Mr. Cassel, are you comfortable with the
obligations set forth here? Permit fees
are our responsibility.
Mr. Cassel responded yes.
Mr. Hanks stated we are to provide
an owner’s construction manager who processes change orders and payments.
Mr. Cassel stated that would be Mr.
Hyche. Mr. Hyche, Mr. Daly and I will be
reviewing those as they come in.
Mr. Hanks asked who will be
responsible for coordinating all communication to and from the contractor?
Mr. Cassel responded that is Mr.
Hyche.
Mr. Hanks asked will they be having
some direct communication?
Mr. Cassel responded they have
direct communication, but Mr. Hyche will be in the meetings making sure
everything is going on properly.
Mr. Skehan stated the intent of it
is if specific communication is going out to address issues which are over and
beyond construction related issues, you will have purview to all of it. Mr. Cassel and Mr. Hyche will have an
understanding of what is taking place.
Mr. Hanks stated just so we are all
clear, CH2M Hill is going to have some direct communication with the contractor.
Mr. Cassel stated yes.
Mr. Hanks stated you will speak up
and it is not coming back.
Mr. Cassel stated no.
Mr. Hanks stated I just want to be
clear on this.
Mr. Daly stated Mr. Skehan, I have a
question. Earlier you had explained the
$100,000 was to be a cushion if the project went over 22 months.
Mr. Skehan stated that is correct.
Mr. Daly asked why is CSID on the
hook for that. If there is a delay, is
there a way to make the contractor be on the hook for you having to be onsite
for an additional two months as opposed to CSID?
Mr. Skehan responded the contractor
will be on the hook for $2,000 a day for anything he goes over and beyond the
scheduled time for the project. In
essence, the $2,000 a day will be coming to CSID, but as part of this contract
here it eases the managerial component of it.
As was suggested in the work authorization it will be on a time and
materials basis so it can be tracked closely.
If it goes over a day, you will get $2,000 from the contractor,
theoretically, if you are justified in collecting liquidated damages.
Mr. Fennell stated we are asking for
a couple of things. We are asking for
more justification of the cost so we can understand it and to see if we can
save any costs while keeping the same type of constraints Mr. Cassel is looking
for.
Mr. Cassel stated just as a point, I
already beat it down by $200,000 last week.
Mr. Skehan stated that is absolutely
true.
Mr. Fennell asked Mr. Cassel, what
do you think?
Mr. Cassel responded I understand
your concerns. We will bring it to the
January meeting with the explanation you requested. In the meantime we will proceed with the
project accruing the expenses against the first pay request.
Mr. Fennell asked are we just
tabling this for a month?
Mr. Cassel responded it is not
really being tabled. We will just bring
it back to you at the next meeting.
Mr. Hanks asked is our next meeting
on January 26, 2009?
Mr. Cassel responded yes.
Mr. Hanks stated that is the fourth
Monday. The third Monday is Martin
Luther King, Jr. Day.
Mr. Cassel stated that is correct.
Mr. Fennell stated okay, so this
item is tabled.
Ms. Zich stated I have one more
thing on the engineering. The monthly
project and status report and chart, I like looking at that. It is not here.
Mr. Cassel stated I am not sure what
happened to that.
Ms. Schurz stated the corrections to
the chart were not received in time to place it in the agenda package.
Ms. Zich stated I like it because it
shows me where things are going when I am wondering.
Mr. Cassel stated we will send it
out as a supplemental to this as soon as we get it squared away.
Mr. Hanks asked considering we just
authorized the award to Lanzo Construction Company, do we have all the permits
in hand from the city, state and the county for the nano plant and Plant ‘F’?
Mr. Skehan responded in general we
have everything lined up.
Mr. Hanks stated not “in
general”. Do we have everything so there
will not be any delays?
Mr. Skehan responded the contractor
is responsible for getting certain permits.
Mr. Hanks asked do we have the
permits you are responsible for?
Mr. Skehan responded we do have
those and we have one permit, which is outstanding. This is why I say “in general”, we have them
covered and we are in the process of responding to, I think, one last one.
Mr. Hanks asked is there anything
which would pose a problem?
Mr. Skehan responded no.
Mr. Cassel stated we are not going
to issue the Notice to Proceed until we have what we need to have, as a
District, in place so that anything outstanding is anything the contractor
would have to pull. At the same time, by
working with the city on some of the plans early on, we are getting a head start
to help the contractor so his timeframe for reviews is lessened.
Mr. Skehan stated the Notice to
Proceed is different from the Notice of Award.
What we have here today is the Notice of Award.
Mr. Cassel stated we are fully aware
of past mistakes.
Mr. Fennell stated pulling off a
successful project like this will enhance or hurt a lot of people’s careers in
this room; everywhere from Mr. Cassel to the engineer and everybody else. Being able to pull this thing off well,
having it come in on time and do a good job will be a feather in everyone’s
cap, not to mention a great thing for CSID.
Unfortunately, as we all know, there are examples of things which did
not go well in this area for a variety of different reasons and we certainly do
not want to join those ranks. In Coral
Springs you can have things go well and things go poorly. The police station and fire station went
well. The Arts Center went poorly.
Ms. Zich stated so did the swimming
pool. Do you remember?
Mr. Fennell responded yes.
Ms. Zich stated they had to re-dig
it because it was not deep enough. They
were going to do Olympic diving and they found out they did not make it deep
enough. Are you guys aware of this?
Mr. Skehan responded no.
Ms. Zich stated people who have
lived here for a while are. They had to
re-dig the pool after it was finished.
Mr. Skehan stated the goal here is
to make this a Hallmark Card.
Mr. Fennell stated you can expect
various walkthroughs and things like it from our own standpoint. We will have a high level of interest.
Mr. Skehan stated we are anxious to
be able to demonstrate what the project will be all about. It is something we are also looking forward
to.
Mr. Fennell stated I think it is
exciting. What we are considering is
state of the art. Let us just make sure
it gets done right. Is there anything
more from engineering?
Mr. Skehan responded as a side note
to this, we are bidding the monitor well right now and that bid is supposed to
be coming in January 9, 2009. There will
be another Notice of Award if everything falls into place and there will be
another work authorization that will be for the services during construction
for the monitor well also.
Mr. Fennell stated so you can see what
we are looking for a little bit more.
Ms. Zich stated you know what we
need, which is excellent. It is the
accountant in me. Just numbers on here
does not make it.
Mr. Skehan stated I guess I should
have learned by now. Next month there
will be two of these on the table for you to give consideration to and we will be
able to take it from there. Over the
past few days we have been testing blowers out here. One of the blowers does not seem to be
working properly so we originally thought that by the end of this month the
project would be brought to a conclusion.
We are looking to see where the issue is right now. Most of the facility has been tested in the
various states of start up, but the one blower will be a problem in dismantling
one thing before we install something else.
We are still on track on getting this thing completed. We are not far from it. We thought it would be complete by now, but
it will probably be a couple of weeks.
SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Approval of
Financials
A. October Financials
i. Summary of Cash Transactions
B. November Financials and Check Registers
i. Summary of Cash Transactions
ii. Projected Cash Flows Operating and CIP
Mr. Fennell asked Ms.
Woodward, do you have some information for us?
Ms. Woodward responded yes. I can briefly describe it. When you are looking at the October and
November financials the background on this is, as you will recall, at the last
meeting we were only able to give you the check registers for October. This is a catch up version where you get the
actual full fledged financials for October and you are also getting November. Just to give you a highlight of what you are
looking at, when you look, and I suggest we look at the November statement
because it is cumulative so it will capture some of the information from October
as well, you will notice in the general fund that we have basically budgeted in
November for approximately $60,000 worth of assessment revenue. Basically, what we are doing there is
prorating the budget in the general fund on assessments to reflect the
accumulative percentage we actually collected in the prior year. What you will find when you receive your
December statement next month is over 75% of the revenue has already been
collected; $1.4 Million was actually wired and received into our bank account
on Friday of last week. That will be
reflected in both the prorated budget number and it will show the bulk of the
revenue has been collected.
One of the things you will notice in
the water and sewer revenue statements is you have an anomaly which indicates
we are well below the revenues we should be collecting. This is something which normally occurs at
the very beginning of each year and at the very end of the year as a result of
the cutoff the auditors require on when revenues are recognized. Ms. Zich and I talked about this
earlier. Her recommendation is, and I
agree with her, that instead of you panicking when you see this in your agenda package,
we actually put a note at the beginning and end of each year to let you know
what the effects of it were so it will be a reminder that it is not a true
major loss of revenue. It is just that
things we would have normally called October revenue, the auditors have asked
that we reflect it as September of 2008 because of cutoff issues. The money is not missing and it is not a big
crisis. A way of proving this is if you
look at the October financials for water and sewer and compare it to November,
there is only a $60,000 to $100,000 drop in revenue from one month to the next,
which basically lets you know that did not all occur in the first month.
Mr. Fennell stated I saw, in the
very last part, different cash flows.
Ms. Woodward stated yes. We did a couple of things. We took the legal sized page spreadsheet on
your operating cash flows, which we were projecting before, and we collapsed it
into a quarterly statement so it will be easier to follow. It is basically the same information, but it
has been converted into quarterly. In
addition to this we have taken and given you a summary over the next, basically
completion of the project. The CIP. If you look at the very last page, you also
have our projection of cash flows with respect to the construction fund and the
2007 bonds. One of the things you will
notice is; number one, a caveat that I need to let you know that not having the
bid information in front of me and available, I used the actual projection of
the cost at the time the bonds were issued.
So the higher number for the project is what I have assumed needed to be
accounted for on cash flow and that has been flowed through here.
In addition to this, because we are
currently earning 1.09% interest at US Bank, SBA and other places where we have
operating funds, I made conservative estimates on this projection so you are
actually going to make 0% interest. If
we make 0% interest and the project comes down at a higher number, plan for the
worst, prepare and then the best will happen.
Obviously what CH2M Hill has shared with you is the bid has come in at a
lower number so we are not actually going to have a $678,000 deficit at the end
of this. This is the reason why this
deficit is showing. We showed the
original contract we were expecting and we also anticipated 0% on interest
income.
Mr. Fennell stated so we do have
this flow here of cash. It looks like we
are good for at least a year with the cash flow we have on the bond
issues. What I saw is our bond issues
basically covered our expenses. I think
it was $600,000 short there, but now it will not be.
Ms. Woodward stated that is
correct. It will not be.
Mr. Fennell stated the bond issues
should cover what we planned to spend.
Ms. Woodward stated what you are
looking at here is a summary of just one of the accounts from the bond issue. This is for construction funds only. So, yes, the project is taken care of. In addition to this account there are several
other accounts at US Bank which are also related to your bond issue, which is
basically debt service. Every month we
actually fund 1/12 of what used to be in there based on our annual budget such
that in June and December, when we actually make our debt service payments,
there are sufficient funds at US Bank for them to cut the check and make sure
the principal and interest payments for the year are taken care of. Those are not reflected in this and they are
in fact part of what we have to expend on a monthly basis. We actually fund real dollars into the
principal and interest account so those payments are available.
Mr. Fennell asked is that somewhere
here on this total cash flow chart?
Ms. Woodward responded it would be
on the operating side. If you look at
the projected cash flow for the water and sewer fund, which is account 0535, in
the expenditures section of the bottom, you will notice we have taken, in
total, the administrative budget, the debt service funding from US Bank, the
plant budget and field budget and allowed you to see what those numbers would
be. It is $196,000 per month which is
actually going into US Bank for those purposes on debt service.
Mr. Hanks asked do we put aside $2
Million a year.
Ms. Woodward responded just a tad
over, actually.
Mr. Fennell stated I really like
this a lot. You did an amazing amount of
work on this. You probably do not need
this amount of detail, but maybe you like it.
Ms. Zich stated once she did it the
first time, you should have all of the formulas in place so it should be easy
to keep up. The first time you do it, it
is a little testy. Once you do it after
the first time, you just re-plug the numbers.
You have the formulas already in there.
She has done the first one so keeping up with it should be easy.
Mr. Fennell stated we set a budget
per year, but the budget basically only covers operating expenses. It did not cover things like capital expenses. This covers everything; not only how we
operate and how we pay off debt, but also how we are going to fund a new
construction and where that money comes from.
A lot of companies who have had a balanced budget still go broke from
cash flow. This happens to governments
too. It looks like we are in good
shape. The last question is should we be
paranoid or not? Where should we put our
money and where is our money today?
Ms. Woodward responded you should
always be a little paranoid only because it means you are concerned and are
forth planning. One of the things which
was left in front of you should be a package with a staple in the upper
left-hand corner. There is only one page
consultation on it, which is proposed investments and certificates of deposit. All of the pages attached are simply a
printout of the current qualified public depository list from Tallahassee. This is for a point of discussion in trying
to get a feel for how the Board would like to proceed on trying to be a little
more cautious with some of our funds and making sure that operating funds are
available if the worst happens and a bank has our funds locked up where we
cannot get to them. Even though we are
covered by Qualified Depository rules,
we will have to file for those funds to be released and it could be up to 45
days before you have access to those funds.
In this computation we made an initial assumption that while 45 days is
what they tell us, we are going to assume it is really going to be three months
because we would not be the only ones filing and we do not know what the time
constraints will be.
Basically, at the top of the page, I
gave you a thumbnail sketch of what each of the budgets are currently requiring
in way of expenditures for the fiscal year ending in 2009. You will notice the general fund has
administrative and field costs totalling approximately $1.8 Million. We are saying we would like to see
approximately $400,000 plus safely in a bank, other than Wachovia, where we
currently have our operating fund in CDs such that if we needed to, we could
pull those funds and have them available to make payments for operation of the
general fund until such time as Tallahassee could clear our funds to be
returned to us.
In water and sewer it is slightly
different in that water and sewer is actually collecting on a monthly basis
fees from all the customers. As a result,
we are looking at roughly $780,000 a month we are anticipating spending and
that is what we are expecting in the way of revenues. Obviously things can go wrong if there are
more bankruptcies in the world and people do not pay the fees. We just wanted to make the assumption that we
really might want to put aside one month’s worth of revenues in case it was light
on collections due to a severe down turn in the economy. This initial proposal simply says we might
take $400,000 out of the general fund because we currently have $1.3 Million in
designated funds for ongoing future projects to renew and replace certain items
around the plant. As a result, those are
funds we do not feel we need to tap into.
For water and sewer, $700,000 can be placed. These are not magic numbers. You can bump them up, you can bump them down,
but they are simply for further discussion.
As you are probably aware, when you go out to purchase CDs now the
change in the rule is that per CD, per person or per entity, it is FDIC insured
up to $250,000 and the fine print is insured for that amount until next
December. My assumption is to be super
conservative and leave it at the old FDIC insured rate. We can put the money in several different
banks and the funds are there, available.
I do know the Board at one time had briefly mentioned they might be interested
in investing in Treasury Bills. While
that can be done, a similar scenario is going to be protected, my understanding
is that when an online account is set up for the treasury, it has to be
attached to an existing bank account.
The only bank account we have is the bank account we are saying we are
making the assumption something terrible can go wrong and we want to make sure
we have funds outside of it. This is the
only reason why I did not put treasuries down as an alternative idea for
keeping some of these funds safer.
Mr. Hanks asked what about using
three different banks and separating it out rather than going through all the
different CDs and the other options?
Due
to a malfunction of the recording equipment, the remainder of the minutes could
not be transcribed verbatim. The
following is a summary of the remaining actions taken at the December 15, 2008
Coral Springs Improvement District Board of Supervisors meeting, which is based
on notes taken by the District Manager.
On MOTION by Ms. Zich seconded by
Mr. Fennell with all in favor the October and November financials as well as
the November check register were approved.
SEVENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS Supervisor’s Requests and
Audience Comments
No
formal action was taken.
EIGHTH
ORDER OF BUSINESS Adjournment
There being no further business,
On MOTION by
Glen Hanks
Robert
D. Fennell
Secretary President