BCC Minutes 09/02/1998 B (Pelican Bay MSTBU Budget) REGULAR MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COHMISSIONERS
Naples, Florida, September 2, 1998
LET IT BE REHEHBERED, that the Board of County Commissioners, in
and for the County of Collier, and also acting as the Board of Zoning
Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such special districts as
have been created according to law and having conducted business
herein, met on this date at 6:00 p.m. in SPECIAL SESSION at Hammock
Oak Center, 8962 Hammock Oak Drive, Naples, Florida, with the
following members present:
CHAIRPERSON:
Barbara B. Berry
Pamela S. Hac'Kie
John C. Norris
Timothy J. Constantine
Timothy L. Hancock
ALSO PRESENT: Robert Fernandez, County Administrator
RESOLUTION 98-367 APPROVING THE SPECIAL ASSESSMENT ROLL AND LEVYING THE
SPECIAL ASSESSMENT AGAINST THE BENEFITED PROPERTIES WITHIN THE PELICAN
BANY MUNICIPAL SERVICE TAXING AND BENEFIT UNIT - ADOPTED
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Good evening. I'd like to call to order this
special meeting where the budget for your HSTU will be set. And if we
could have roll call and then we will stand for the Pledge of
Allegiance, please.
Commissioner Mac'Kie?
COHMISSIONER HAC'KIE: I'm here.
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Commissioner Norris?
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: Here.
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Commissioner Constantine?
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Here.
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Commissioner Hancock?
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Here.
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: And Commissioner Berry.
If you will please stand for the pledge of allegiance to our
flag, please.
(Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Mr. Ward?
MR. WARD: Thank you, Ms. Chairman. First I'd like to take the
opportunity to welcome the board to Pelican Bay on your once-a-year
trek down here to listen to the community with respect to the adoption
of your fiscal year 1999 budget for the Pelican Bay Services, and to
consider the adoption of the resolutions with respect to levying nine
ad valorem assessments on property within the boundaries of Pelican
Bay.
My comments will be brief to you tonight. The budget for fiscal
year 1999 for Pelican Bay Services is approximately a 5.6 million
dollar budget. It includes both operating expenditures and capital
expenditures, primarily related to the restoration of the Clam Bay
system, and also to include this year capital expenditures related to
the irrigation and landscaping programs in Pelican Bay.
The residents of Pelican Bay pay for the services essentially in
two forms. The first is a non-ad valorem assessment composed of two
parts: Part one is an operating assessment related to the water
management and landscaping programs within Pelican Bay. That runs
approximately $182 per unit per year. And the other portion of it is
the capital expenditures related to two -- the restoration of the Clam
Bay system and also the capital assessment for the irrigation and
landscaping system analysis of this community. For 1999 that amount
is roughly $84 per unit per year. The total projected non-ad valorem
assessment for both the capital operation and for the operations of
the landscaping and water management system is $272.24 per unit per
year.
In addition to the non-ad valorem assessment, the community pays
for the additional patrols of the Collier County Sheriff's Office each
year, and for the street lighting system through an ad valorem tax
imposed on this community. The estimate for the millage rate for 1999
is .2488 mills on a -- roughly a 1.986 billion dollar ad valorem tax
base here within Pelican Bay. That ad valorem tax base is up over 10
percent over the prior year. That means that a homeowner living in a
$250,000 home will pay roughly $62 per year for that additional
community policing patrol and for the street lighting system here in
Pelican Bay.
The budget for the division has been reviewed by your advisory
committee at a number of workshops that it held during the past few
months, and the results of those workshops are contained in the budget
proposal that you have before you today. The notices have been sent
out to all of the residential units within Pelican Bay Services for
the proposed non-ad valorem assessment.
And I just need to take a minute and go through with you how we
assess this community on a non-ad valorem tax basis. We include, for
purposes of the assessment, a methodology which essentially converts
all of the single-family, multi-family and commercial and/or hotel
properties within this community into an equivalent residential unit
basis. There are roughly 77 -- well, there are exactly 7,755.93
accessible units within the boundaries of Pelican Bay Services
division to which each unit will pay $272.25 per accessible unit.
The advisory board went through an analysis a number of years ago
with respect to the methodology of assessment, including a recent
analysis during its workshop, of whether or not to change the non-ad
valorem assessment to an ad valorem tax. And it concluded at the end
of that discussion that it should keep the way in which it charges for
the services that I enumerated to you on a non-ad valorem basis. That
was due primarily to the fact that there is a divergent population
within this community in which the taxable values of homes range
anywhere from $150,000 up to multi million dollar condominiums and
homes in the Bay Colony area.
By switching to an ad valorem tax, it essentially shifted the
burden of the payment for the services that are provided by the
division to the higher end units when there really wasn't a legal
nexus that we could determine at the advisory board level that
indicated that those benefits essentially shifted to those higher end
units.
As a result of that, the advisory board took the position that it
wanted to try and equalize the assessments across the community
through a non-ad valorem assessment methodology, based upon the number
of equivalent residential units within the boundaries of the Pelican
Bay community, and that is what you have before you today.
With that, that's all the presentation that I have and I'll be
glad to answer any questions.
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Commissioner Mac'Kie?
COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I have no questions. I'm familiar with
the report.
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Commissioner Norris?
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Just for the record, Mr. Ward, this was all
approved for the -- by the advisory panel; is that correct? MR. WARD: Yes.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: And do you recall what the vote was on that
at the final hearing?
MR. WARD: I believe it was a unanimous vote.
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: Unanimous.
MR. WARD: Yes, uh-huh.
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Anything further?
COMMISSIONER NORRIS: No.
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Commissioner Constantine?
COMMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: No questions.
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Commissioner Hancock?
COMMISSIONER HANCOCK: No, ma'am.
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Do we have any public speakers?
MR. WARD: We have no registered speakers.
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: No registered speakers.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: For those that may not be familiar, is --
anyone that came here tonight with the intent to speak and did not
register, so raise your hand. Okay.
COHMISSIONER CONSTANTINE: Madam Chairman, I'll make a motion we
adopt the resolution approving the special assessment roll and levying
the special assessment against the benefitted properties within the
Pelican Bay municipal service taxing and benefit unit.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Second.
COHMISSIONER NORRIS: I'll second that.
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Okay, we have a motion and a second. If there
are no further questions --
MR. WARD: I just have one comment I need to put in the record.
I did receive -- out of the 7,755 notices that were sent out, we
received one comment, which I have provided to the recording secretary
for inclusion in the record, objecting to the assessment, but that's
for your record only.
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: All right. And that's noted in the -- in our
minutes.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: And we all received that.
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: As well.
COHMISSIONER HANCOCK: Everybody has it in front of him, so --
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: If there's no further questions, I'll call
the question. All in favor?
Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRPERSON BERRY: Motion carries five-zero.
If there is no further business to come before this group, and
hearing none, the meeting is adjourned.
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 6:10 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COHMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL
BARBARA B. BERRY, CHAIRPERSON
ATTEST:
DWIGHT BROCK, CLERK
These minutes approved by the Board on
as presented or as corrected
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT REPORTING
SERVICE, INC., BY CHERIE' R. LEONE, NOTARY PUBLIC