Audit Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

I guess it's warm down there in Florida. So I woke up today, it was thundering and lightning and raining here on the East Coast. So that's a cool way to start the day.

Yeah.

You don't see many of those cool days. Nope. And I see, yeah, I see Linda and Phyllis, I think, there. I thought I saw Rod get up and move.

MS. We're ready to begin.

MR. Good morning.

MS. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's July 2nd Hideaway Beach Tax District Board meeting. Kristen, could you call the roll, please?

member Bartow here members Incan here member Schreiber here remember Ramirez here and chair Ryan here Thank You Kristen we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance I see America

for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Our Pledge of Allegiance has a special meaning this morning as we approach our 250th anniversary in a couple of days here. So it's terrific. We have two members, Member Zinken and Member Bartow, participating remotely. So I'd like to have a motion to approve their remote participation and voting ability.

Motion.

I'll do a second.

Okay. Motion by Member Schreiber, seconded by Member Ramirez. All in favor? Aye. Passes unanimously. Okay. Next is approval of the agenda. Does anyone have any changes to the agenda as currently presented? Okay. Not hearing any from the team here, I'm going to make one change due to scheduling here and move our financial discussion on the budget and mill rate under new business to our first item and then we'll go through the items under old business. So I'm moving item 7 ahead of item 6 and then will do the old business. So if I could have a motion on that.

Motion to move the financial discussion to the beginning of the meeting.

I'll second it.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes unanimously. So the first discussion will be about our 26-27 budget and mill rate. And if – we always have uncertainty when we come to this discussion because of hurricanes and also because we never know what construction costs will be for a particular project because It depends on what else is going on at the time. If there's a lot of activity where contractors are busy, that raises the rates for a particular project. So we always have that uncertainty. But as you know, this year, our attorney, David Tulsa, sent us all a copy of the property tax proposal that's going to be on the ballot for approval in November of this year. So that adds additional uncertainty to our environment this year. But with that as background, our Treasurer, Steve Zinken, has prepared a couple of cases for us in terms of what our millage rate might be and what our budget would therefore be under a couple of different scenarios. And this has all got, I think, Steve, the very latest and final certified property values that just came in this week. So I'm going to turn it over to Steve to take us through that.

Thanks, Linda. I think everybody received the certification of tax value within Hideaway Beach. And in the last couple of years, our mill rate's been 1.60. And if that indeed was what everybody chose, then the ad valorem proceeds would be $1,550,000. Alternatively, if we tried to stay basically revenue neutral as close as we could to last year's ad valorem proceeds, we would use what we would call a rollback rate of 1.5430. And that would generate ad valorem proceeds of $1,494,797. There's also attached a proposed budget if we used the rollback rate, and it would result in approximately a million dollars in an unassigned contingency, specifically the $996,476, assuming that the other income and expenses were what we project them to be. and given the fact that as Linda indicated there's a lot of uncertainty with regards to what happens this time next year if the assessed value is substantially different due to the property tax reform that would be on for voting this fall and we also look at currently we have approximately three million dollars cash on hand and if we would do the rollback rate we would have generated approximately another million dollars or a total of four million dollars for our proposed construction budget that would start in November of twenty seven so That's where we're at, and I would open it up to discussion at this point in time for any input.

MS. And I think, Steve, we also try to keep a minimum of $1 million cash on hand for unforeseen contingencies, and I think actually in more recent discussion there was talk of it needing to be higher than that. So we have to keep that in mind as well, right?

MR.

OK. All right. We'll open it up for discussion.

My question is, what does Steve recommend? John, frankly, I'd do the rollback rate of the 1.5430. I could support 1.530.

OK.

I would not. My own view is, given the amount of uncertainty that exists with respect to the legislation, how that legislation would be implemented, what the revenue impact to that on us, which is likely to be material to us, would be, if it were enacted, that changing our millage rate to reduce our revenues when we have large projects coming up in 27, 28 doesn't make good fiscal sense to me. We can always revisit this next year. at this time when we have more visibility on what our actual revenue streams will be like and also a better fix on what our costs will be rolling into those projects and what the contributions will be from those who we expect to contribute. It's worth noting, obviously, that if it passes, there's going to be a dramatic impact on the budget of Collier County, who is one of our partners in all of this. And it just adds another level of uncertainty, reducing the amount of money we have available for this project with hurricane season, both this year and next year. In front of us, even if it's not an enormous difference, like $60,000 at this moment, Rolling into the future, that number does get bigger as the impact of the reductions or real estate tax reductions, if they're implemented, would take effect.

I sort of agree with that. Also, Steve, I want to ask you some questions about the fiscal year 27's proposed budget. Wildlife monitoring has been left at zero, but I see the professional services increased. Yeah, I couldn't.

Melissa would, yeah.

That was my fault. Okay. I asked Melissa offline, because obviously I can't talk to Steve offline, to move the wildlife monitoring into professional services because every year, Although we do wildlife monitoring, it is not separately billed, and so finance does not put any expense against that line item. So because that's happened the last at least two years, I said let's put that in professional services because that's where that expense is landing. And if finance doesn't have any issue with that, I would take the wildlife monitoring off of our budget because it's being paid for under professional services. Is that all right, Melissa?

That's correct.

Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. One other question I have for Steve. Steve, when you said to reduce the millage rate to revenue neutral between last year and this year, does that revenue neutrality take into account the inflation rate and inflation rate differences? Said differently if the inflation rate last year was 4.2, 4.3, somewhere in that range. Does the millage rate attempt to create parity between the two numbers, take that into account?

MR.

I'll try to answer it this way, Rod. What I did for our known expenses, I increased them. Ironically, Linda, I did have wildlife monitoring and professional services initially, and I tried to put prints including wildlife, Melissa said no, so that's the reason I then took it out. But, Rod, to answer your question, yeah. So I bumped professional services up another $40,000 beyond the wildlife monitoring. Legal, David, has been very fair. It's been below our projected budget. Beach raking is fixed. Under repair and maintenance, our tractor repair, I think I had a pretty high number in of $30,000, which left $170,000 for any beach repair. unexpected repairs there on the beach so if I'm answering your question yes for all known numbers we tried to do that as Linda indicated the big wild card is if we do have a hurricane which contractors are in the area what type of equipment do they have and we've been very fortunate in the past to be able to take advantage of that that's probably the biggest unknown right

The other thing I would point out is our run rate on professional services this year in terms of actual is 300 – closer to 364,000, which is the revised annual budget. So it is even higher than this proposed budget here.

MR. And that would include, Linda, I would assume, for our – in anticipation of doing the actual work starting November 27. MS.

I'm sorry. Steve, say that again.

That would include the professional service fees necessary for all the various agencies in order to start our construction work in November 27. MS.

Which number would that be, the 240?

MR. No, the 300 that you mentioned.

MS. Well, the 364 is this year's revised budget, how much we're anticipating spending 25-26. So our original budget for this year was 160, and we've had to transfer funds from our unassigned contingency to get up to 364. So it's hard to say. That's why I was very comfortable with your increase on professional services because we're actually above that this year in terms of our

our rate and we did some one-off things but as you plan for projects you know there will be additional professional services so Phyllis did you so you feel comfortable with the 240 when we're at 360 this year just asking you know you feel comfortable with that number I mean we've increased it but that also includes so the wildlife monitoring and so is 240 may be too conservative.

MS. I guess Mohammad is here. I would ask for Mohammad's input on professional services expenses in the next fiscal year.

Good morning, and apologies for being a few minutes late. The professional services for next year would be the typical monitoring and expenses that we typically do every year, which is primarily environmental monitoring. and physical monitoring, plus the professional services that would be needed, as Steve indicated, for the preparation for the restoration projects for Hideaway and Sand Dollar Island. I don't have an exact number for that yet, but I would anticipate at roughly $100,000 for those services.

From what we spent this year or from the 240 that we're currently proposing to budget?

From the 240. What was the delta this year other than the additional raking and the escarpment removal and the bird monitoring that is associated with it? that those are things that should be in a contingency of the unforeseen because those could happen any time and as many times as compliance required from us. So the 240 plus whatever contingency we have for such incidents and then the major project and its professional services which would also I am not 100% that we would need additional surveying work, but we plan to use the monitoring survey for the preparation of the plans and specs, and that's where the delta for the project should be something separate from the consistent budgeting for each year. Because the big project is supposed to be every four or five years, so it should be a line item by itself.

So tell me what the rest of you think, but it's sounding to me like at a minimum we're going to be at the level we were at this year, which is the 364. So that's another $100,000 beyond what's currently budgeted. Do people think that should be higher, or do you think putting it at something like 360 would be appropriate?

I would say 360.

Rod?

Yeah, I think that's right, or whether we create a separate line item that we track against that and know where we stand because it seems like it's different than the overall professional services.

Especially that it is a large-scale project that is scheduled on a five-year cycle. It should be tracked in its own entity because it is a major project and it has a significant budget, so it should be a line item by itself. But how do you put it in a... Budget for one year and then take it off the following years. I would defer that to Finance and how they can Linda if I may Melissa Hinton budget manager for the city of Marco Island Just to update the number for you If you can hear me, let me know.

Yes, we can currently on your May financial statements you are showing $364,000 as a revised budget for the month of June there was an additional $61,000 transferred out of contingency to professional services and that was for additional surveys and engineering professional services. So now your total year to date for that line item professional services is sitting at 425,000. Okay.

Thank you, Melissa, because we are approving a couple of items this meeting, and I forgot that these are end-of-May numbers, so those additional items. And that, I think, will be pretty close to our final. And even though our actuals are significantly lower than that, we do have purchase orders against this.

Yes, you have encumbrances set up so there's really little funds left over if all those encumbrances are used by the end of the year.

And some of those are approved for contingencies that may not be used. Right. And the survey that is coming up in the agenda or the geotechnical investigation is also in the long-term planning and the permit modification proposals that are, again, as a one-time thing, not necessarily like recurrent.

You could argue that it's part of project costs because we wish to get that sand from the expanded offshore borough area for future projects.

Yes. But we will do the geotechnical investigation by CEC once and then submit that to the EP, and we don't have to do that next year or the year after. It's just data collection that is necessary for supporting our program.

So the number is sounding more like 400. Rod, do you agree? At least for 2027.

Yeah, for 2027.

Steve, your thoughts?

I don't disagree. I thought that as part of the outstanding of the $245,000, you had $74,000 in there for coastal engine. I thought we had approved at our last meeting or perhaps it was the one in the prior meeting to that, various one-time fees that I thought were going towards the project that we were undertaking in November of 27. And can you help me on that, Muhammad, if you know?

Excuse me. What exactly is the question for the project for 2027? We were just discussing that that's one special event that occurs every four or five years.

Let me rephrase it. Did we have any proposals from you that we had approved with regards to one-time projects that were needed for the construction, the professional services required? Not yet.

Not yet.

OK. OK.

I think the one that we're seeing, Steve, is the one we have yet to discuss today, which is the proposal from CEC for the geotechnical analysis of the expanded offshore borrow area.

So that will be – That's the one for 50 – or 49. Right.

Correct. That we'll be reviewing today when we get to that item.

Okay.

I THINK THE OTHER EXTRA SURVEYING THAT WE WERE DOING WAS MORE WITH THE MANAGEMENT PLAN. I THINK TO HAVE AN EXTRA LINE SO WE HAD COMPLETE SURVEYING FROM THE COUNTY SURVEYING DOWN ON SOUTH AND MIDDLE MARCO AND THEN OUR SURVEYING ON THE NORTH END OF THE ISLAND SO AS PART OF THE MANAGEMENT PLAN WE HAD THE SURVEY DATA FROM END TO END.

And that additional cost is about $2,000.

Yeah, it was very minor. And then the other, I think, contingency was in case something changed over the summer, whether it be hurricanes or something that required us to do another survey, and you gave me the authority to approve that up to a certain amount of money.

So if we were to approve both of the proposals, that's another $51,000 or $2,000 that comes out of our contingency in this budget?

Yes, we would transfer additional money from unassigned contingency. into professional services in this fiscal year. So that's why Melissa was saying our budget for professional services for this year then would be 425.

Wait, she's taking into account those two? Right. Already? Okay, sorry.

Yeah, so that's how she gets to the 425. because she's received that request to transfer that money so that when we approve these projects today, we will have the funds and professional services to allocate to them.

And so then the extra $100,000 is something in addition to that related to the project that we're creating line items. So we're functionally reducing by what we – are talking about today, at least in this moment, are contingency by another $150,000. Unassigned contingency. When we're looking at the budget.

Yeah, when you say, how do you get to the $150,000?

Well, Mohamed suggested that the incremental professional services related to the project this year will be $100,000, right, in addition to that.

So I'm adding... For this coming year, not this... fiscal year, not 25-26, for 26-27. 26-27. Yeah.

Well, I'm looking at the proposed budget. Okay. And it's showing a 996-476. If I'm looking at it wrong. Okay, okay.

No, no, I'm getting confused between current year and... Oh, yeah, no, no.

So I'm just looking at the proposed budget because I'm, again, in my mind thinking about... what we're going to do with village, or village, millage, so that this number, and unassigned, really overstates by $160,000 at this moment. Correct.

Correct.

Got it?

Correct. So I think that has a, this discussion has a material impact on how we're thinking about this.

Yeah. Okay. And the contingency unassigned from 2026 will change. Okay.

Yeah.

So that will also change the percentage. Right. So that's all the, yeah.

Yeah. Okay. All right. Any, I think, I guess at this point I would entertain a motion and then a second and then we can have further discussion as appropriate.

What do we?

Make a motion on the millage rate what you want to do.

I would make the motion in light of the uncertainty here not to change the millage rate and to review it next year.

So to keep it at 1.6?

Keep it at 1.6.

Okay. Do I have a second on that? I second. Okay. Any further discussion?

Hi, this is David Tolstice. I just want to make sure of the numbers so it's 1.6 mils flat, no other decimal. No other numbers, right? Well, what is the?

Yes, that's what it is.

Is that right? Yeah. OK. Oh, I see. OK, yeah, 1.6. That's it. OK. OK. Yep.

OK. So we have a motion and a second. Any other discussion, or should we move to a vote? Okay. Not hearing any other discussion. Kristen, could you call the roll on this, please?

Member Ramirez?

So I'm saying no. Yes.

Vice Chair Bartow?

Yes.

Member Schreider?

Yes.

Member Zinkan?

Yes.

And Chair Ryan?

Yes. Okay. Okay.

And Madam Chair, just for the record, there are no members of the public in the audience today?

No. Okay.

All right. Thank you.

all right so that motion passes unanimously and now we need to approve the budget I think we've been discussing changes so the ad valorem tax revenue line would be consistent with the report we have right Steve a million five five oh one oh one six is that correct yeah okay and then I think If you go through the other lines, the rental income has been adjusted for the new agreement, correct? Yes. Okay. And professional services, what is the number people would like to see there?

Are we creating a separate line item for the $100,000 or are we not?

No. I think it's good to track it. I don't know whether from a finance standpoint we want to create a separate line item. Do you have any thoughts on that, Melissa?

What line item are you asking to create?

When we look at professional services, we have some services that are ongoing that we have to, by permit, do. We have certain surveying we have to do. We have environmental monitoring we have to do. And those are things we have to do pretty much every year. And then as we look forward to a year when we have a project, there are additional expense professional services associated with a project. So that was the question, whether we should separate those into a line item to track those, and I didn't know how feasible that is for finance to do that.

My recommendation would be to leave the account number set up as it is. And if you look at your May revenue and expense report that I submit, Steve had asked me also about this earlier when we were talking about the budget. And with the repair and maintenance, he wanted to see a separate account number for repair and maintenance. Well, it's a lot of work for us to do setting up the chart of accounts. And whenever we already have an existing account that we can capture those expenses in, as you can see under repair and maintenance, I have a separate line for repair and maintenance in general. and then tractor repair and maintenance. So I could do the same thing under professional services, track your standard work and then track the unexpected or project professional services separately. I would recommend doing that versus adding a new chart of account number. Okay.

That seems like a good solution. It also gives us flexibility if we need to move things between items that we could do that.

That's true. And if you wanted to track it by project, I can just do a separate analysis for that and attach it to the monthly report.

Okay. And then we just would need to make sure on PO's, Kristen, that we make clear what is project related versus ongoing professional services and and environmental monitoring and so forth. Okay. That seems reasonable. So then the question is, what's the recommendation relative to what we want to put in professional services this year?

Are you talking about maybe not keeping the wildlife monitoring? Because you put everything in. Yes.

So I think we've already said it's a minimum of 400. Does anyone want to hire? Oh, you're looking for a dollar value. Yeah, I'm looking for a dollar value of what we want to have in professional services. Again, correct me if I'm wrong, Melissa, once we put an item in there, it can't be moved to another item. So when it's in unassigned contingency, we can apply it to various items.

That's correct.

When we put it in professional services, we can't take it out of there and put it somewhere else during the fiscal year, correct?

You can, but it would have to come before you as an item to be discussed. Okay.

Okay. That's helpful. Okay. Okay. Steve, your thoughts? Do you think 400 is a good number?

Sure. I mean, yeah, what do you want to put on that 400, however? Then will we have a subcategory for project-related professional fees?

Yes. I think that's what Melissa is saying.

So should it be 500 less? And then 100 for, that would include 100 for project related fees?

MS. Yeah, that's the question. If we – I mean, if this year's run rate ended up at 425, the question is should it go to 500 or do we leave it at 4 and we can always move money from unassigned contingency into professional services, which is what we've typically done if we need to do that. But it sounds like a minimum of 400 is going to be required when we include both project-related and ongoing professional services.

Was there anything different about last year that would suggest that we need to give full credit for it or not full credit?

I think we had expenses in the management plan, we also had expenses related to the presentation that we had to put together on looking at our long-term options for preserving our beach and shoreline. There was background work that Phyllis did with both CEC and Humiston and Moore, and then the final presentation to the Hideaway Board. So those were one-time items. I'm trying to think, Mohamed.

Order of magnitude, what was that?

order of magnitude maybe 50,000 related to that. Can you think, Mohammed, any other one-time items that – well, we also had the additional probably – the 4,000 we're going to approve today and the 4,000 that we had to do to knock down escarpments on Sand Dollar for sea turtle nesting season. We ended up having to do that twice. We also did tilling, which was an additional expense. So that was probably, in total, all of that was probably, what, $15,000? Yeah. So, yeah.

I don't know. Steve, what are you comfortable with? It seems like $400,000 is... you know, a good benchmark number on the basis of all of that. We're not stuck with it in any event. If we end up needing more, we have unassigned. And if we need less, we'll move it into unassigned.

Right.

Yep.

Okay. All right. So if we go with 400 there, we'll update the budget for that. The legal... stays the same right Steve we took out the wildlife monitoring the brief beach raking you've adjusted for the new agreement okay and then the repair and maintenance there was some thought that that would be less this year but it was what was your thinking on that Steve

Linda, I can't find my notes to be candid with you as to what I had initially.

I think you might have had 30. I think it seemed more like focused on the tractor maintenance and that we're not planning. to do repair and maintenance, you know, after this summer, but we never know. MR.

Exactly.

MS. So that's why we always carry the 200 there. And if it's not used, it would go into unassigned contingency, and it always can be used if needed towards the project in the future. I don't know if – is there any downside to keeping it in repair and maintenance? versus leaving it on a signed contingency?

Melissa, I think, would be the one to answer that.

Yeah. Again, based on what Melissa said, that we can't always vote to move it. I think maybe we leave it like you have it here. That makes sense. So I'm just going to summarize this, because then we'll need to make a motion. The ad valorem tax revenue comes out at the $1,550,016. The rental income is the $6,000. The professional services will be $400, legal $15. Wildlife monitoring will be taken off altogether. Beach raking is 49,221. Freight and postage, 100. Repair and maintenance, 200,000. And then the balance, Melissa will put together, the balance will be in unassigned contingency.

Sounds good.

Okay. All right. So we'll need a motion to approve the budget as proposed. Okay, so motion by member Schreiber to approve the budget as I just outlined and second by member Ramirez any further discussion If I may just to let you know the new contingency unassigned number, okay will be eight hundred ninety one thousand six hundred and ninety five dollars Okay. Okay. Good. All right. Kristen, could you call the roll, please, on the budget approval?

Member Ramirez? Yes. Vice Chair Bartow?

Yes.

Member Schreiber?

Yes.

Member Zinkan?

Yes.

And Chair Ryan? Yes.

yes okay thank you all very much so now we're going to move back to item six old business and the first item there is the tiger tail lagoon sand dollar island maintenance update ahmed dhabi's homestead and more i'm sorry chair but yes did y'all ever approve the minutes Oh, I'm sorry. Maybe I skipped over that. I apologize. Okay. So we need to have a motion to approve the minutes. Does anyone have any changes they want to make to the minutes? Okay. Then if I could have a motion on them.

Motion to approve the meeting minutes from April 23rd. Okay.

Second. I second it. Bar tough.

Okay. Any opposed? No. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. So the minutes from our board meeting of April 23rd, 2026 are approved unanimously. Apologize for that. Okay. So now we'll move on to item six, old business. All right.

So for the Tiger Tail Sand Dollar Island project update, the main update is that FWC reached out to us earlier last month because of an escarpment that developed on the constructed berm. and we are always grateful for having contractors that are our pre-approved vendors that allowed us to be responsive to our compliance requirement. We had a proposal from Earth Tech Enterprises for $4,000. We discussed it with the chair and Justin, the public works director, and were able to respond within a week to knock down the escarpment as required by permit. And the amount is within the authority of the public works director to authorize and then ratify in the next meeting, which is why this proposal is in front of you now. The PO was issued, the work was done for the $4,000, and we did not add anything. any professional services fee for that, whether it's bird monitoring or engineering services, just to be responsive and allow this work to get done within the authority in a timely manner. Purchase order was issued the work was completed and I believe Justin is not here today. So On behalf of the project team We Are grateful for the mechanics of the administration that allows this to happen and I don't know exactly the The administrative process to ratify the amount that was already spent Thank You

I think we just need a motion to approve this expense for the required knockdown of the escarpments on Sand Dollar Island. So if I could have a motion from someone.

Motion to approve the Earth Tech proposal for $4,000 for the additional escarpment project. I have a second.

Seconded. I second it. Bartha?

Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. Overall, as a project update, we continue to monitor the stability of the berm and the environmental monitoring, which is quite extensive to prepare the deliverables at the end of each year. and that's ongoing. We're also ahead of the tropical season, so we're keeping watch on the weather and the condition of the berm as part of our continued services. in addition to that we're also looking at the outlook for the long term and for getting the berm to the design profile as well as the coordination with the county and the state on future management plans we've had already meetings with the county and with the state on developing a management plan and it evolved from a management plan to a segment of Marco Island to a literal cell regional management for the entire Marco Island. And we're working on assisting the state in making that initiative and then having a management plan for all the projects that are concurrent on Marco Island. for us specifically, coordination between us and the county on projects related to Collier Creek, sand resource management, whether from the offshore borough area, all are connected between permit authorities to us and the county, and all these will be updated following the survey that CEC is currently doing this month. And then we'll keep you appraised on the process assisting the state in developing a beach management agreement that includes the county and the city on all the active projects for the city of Marco Island. We will continue coordination, me and Michael, with Ms. Ramirez on that effort since we started that effort collectively last year, and we'll keep her appraised, and then we'll come back to the board when we have draft submittals to the state and so forth.

I think a couple of key points you said. This will be a state-led initiative. Yes. And it is more of a – it's a breach management agreement, but it's a little bit more of a – called a strategic plan. It's something that's going to take two, maybe three years to put in place. It's not something that will happen overnight. But it's important that as personnel changes over time that we have documented all of these projects and how they work together. so that we have a complete view of beach management for the whole Marco Island area. We're not taking on any additional responsibility than what we normally do as a tax district, but it puts our work in the context of the overall Marco Island plan and kind of more clearly documents our work with Collier County.

Especially that we share sand resources with the offshore borough area and the coordination and management of Collier Creek, which is on our boundary. So it kind of makes an understanding or a common understanding between all the stakeholders on what is going on in our area. kind of neighborhood and making sure that everything is coordinated rather than, you know, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. And the state benefit from having that coordination because it makes their administrative and legal process a lot more streamlined and reduces the potential for contentious relationship between neighbors.

Okay, good. MS. All right. The next item on the agenda is the expanded offshore borrow area. Michael was unable to be here today with the change in the meeting date, so he's provided his materials to Mohammed, who's going to take us through his proposal.

So this proposal is our recommendations to complete the permit modification that the county is already in process for Collier Creek, which is our permit for hideaway that the county added Collier Creek management to it. And a big component of that permit is the borough area.

And if I can use the overhead...

projection to just show a map. So the original permit for hideaway was the hideaway beach nourishment and the management of the tea groin and then Collier Creek management was added to the same permit by by Collier County, and the one component that is shared between the two is the offshore borough area that initially was the borough area that was used in 2005 to nourish Hideaway Beach, but then later it was designated by Collier County as the disposal area for material from Collier Creek. And as part of our management effort and coordination, we're trying to make sure that the material dredged from Collier Creek be placed on adjacent eroding beaches on hideaway or sand dollar iron rather than being disposed offshore. And that's one of the key component of why we're trying to put a management plan. then as part of the county's permit they've expanded the perimeter of the borough area as you can see with the dotted line and that will be permitted moment like already permitted by the state would be permitted by the Army Corps and for us as a strategic plan and knowing that this is our vital sand source we would like to add the ability to take sand from that additional borough area if needed, when needed. So to do that, we need to modify the permit yet again for that purpose. And to do that, we need to provide to the state confirmation that the material that can be dredged from that approved or expanded borough area is beach compatible. To do this, CEC is going to conduct five fiber cores or taking samples two feet below the authorized depth for dredging, and the proposal is in front of you from Coastal Engineering Consultants for an amount of $49,355 to complete that geotechnical investigation and include it as part of Michael's permit renewal when we submit the permit renewal later this year.

Any questions? I have a question. So have we done this in the past? Have we requested these services before? Or is this something that we do every time we go to renew our permits?

No, no. This is because this area is added. The already approved, the area in the dark, within the dark line, we've already done the QA, QC that demonstrate to the state and the Army Corps that if we dredge material to the depth in the permit, it is suitable for placement on the beach for wildlife compliance as far as percent of fines and color and other geotechnical characteristics required for beach nourishment. The additional area doesn't have Samples done in the past, so we need to just complete that item to take advantage of the added sand source that is available for us. And again, it's part of our strategic planning to allow not just the ability to complete the projected project for 27-28, but also allows us more resources for future projects.

I was just asking, because it says the samples are kept up to a year. So I guess the data remains.

So basically, the data is collected and then analyzed. And then when they take a core sample, they drive a pipe and vibrate it down to almost 20 feet below sea level and then collect it and then when they split it they have a profile of the layers and the stratas of the different layers of whether it's sand or sand with shell and it provides stratification that is important for designating where we can dredge to make sure that the material is beach-compatible. And the spacing between the cores allow good certainty on the overall area, and then we submit that to the state, and then the state approves that as a sand source.

So did we pick this additional borrow area? Sorry. on the basis that we believed it would have the same consistency as the area that we have a permit for? I mean, why did we pick this area and why are we going out?

The area and the specific outline of it was picked by the consultant for the county because at the time they knew they had 30,000 to 40,000 yards that they would dredge from the entrance to Collier Creek. And they didn't know where to put the sand. At the time, hideaway template was full when they were applying for their permit. And they needed to put the sand within the literal system so that they don't have to pay severance, so that the county doesn't have to pay severance for hauling the material off site, which is also at an additional cost. And by statute, the material needs to be placed within the literal system or within the inlet system. So they picked that area because it had enough depth so that they can put the material. And then when we developed our plan for Sand Dollar Island, we kind of discussed with the county that a better destination for that disposal would be on the adjacent eroded beaches, whether it's hideaway or sand dollar, but since that area was already designated and permitted, it gives us an opportunity to expand our sand sources. So it's basically where put sand in that same area, we've already expressed to the state and to the Army Corps and to the county that that is given the current situation and the current disposal areas that were added since they filed for their permit five years ago, that we have better use of that material on the beaches and berms of northern Marco. And it would also be more cost effective since they don't have to have long pipeline and offshore disposal that would be more difficult so everyone verbally agree on how this should be managed and that's among the reasons why we made the initiative to work with the state and initiating a beach management agreement between the parties so that if the players change or if uh again the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing no one is going to pick a permit and act in a way that would be contradicting to another stakeholder any further discussion and i'll entertain a motion on this item i'll do a motion to approve the offshore borough area

Viber cores proposal for forty nine thousand three hundred fifty five dollars second Okay, all in favor aye Any opposed? Okay motion passes unanimously Thank you. Thank you Okay, next up is the Hideaway Beach Tax District Financial Report as of May 31st. We did not yet have the June report available. So, Steve?

Yes. Quickly, the revenues were an additional $77,620 over the March 31. by the way each revenue and expense report which consists primarily of an additional collection of on the lower property taxes of seventy six thousand three ninety you had your rent to five hundred dollars you had a net gain of seven hundred thirty dollars resulting in that collective total of seventy seven thousand six twenty on the expenditure side as of May 31 You had an additional $87,604 in expenses. The biggest one was to Earth Tech that we approved under repair and maintenance of $49,250. You had an additional $33,197 in professional services and the others, legal fees, beach raking, postage. resulting in a collective difference between the revenues and expenses of $9,984. And when you look at your cash on hand at the end of March and your cash on hand at the end of May, that is the difference between those two figures. So the end of May was $3,189,694 less your open purchase If there's any questions, we'd be happy to try to answer them.

So it looks, Steve, like from a cash standpoint, we just have a couple of items that we approved today, and that should be close to our final for this fiscal year because we probably will not be making any additional commitments between now and October. Is that correct?

That's a fair statement, assuming we don't

right right okay okay good anyone have any questions for Steve okay thank you very much Steve Next up is staff communications. Justin is out today. I'm here. MS. Oh, you are online. Good. We hope you are doing well, Justin. And did you have any updates for us?

Just two quick things. They're not directly related to – one of them is not directly related to Hideaway Beach, but it's something that you might find of interest, the Collier-Barfield traffic signal. We're expecting that to be operational within the next two weeks. Right now, they're installing the last bit of components inside of the traffic control box and wiring terminations. And so within two weeks, that traffic signal should be operational and all the MLT will be removed, the barrels, and that intersection should go back to normal with the improvements that have been made. And then number two, it's that time of year in Collier County solid waste needs an updated list of phone numbers and right of entry forms and hold harmless agreement for storm debris removal within gated communities. So I just need to know who to coordinate that with so that Collier County has that place so that if we have a tropical storm or hurricane the following debris removal in the aftermath they can access hideaway and be able to remove debris okay I think probably the appropriate person would be Tom Ryan who you already know

Okay. You have his contact information, or if not...

Yes, I have an email address.

I'll contact him. Okay, great. Thank you very much. You're welcome. I don't see any City Council members present, so we don't have any City Council communication. I don't see any members of the public here in the room, and I don't believe... Madam Chair? Yes?

Hi, David Tolstice. I just wanted to just a brief update on the proposed property tax assessment matter. Just to let you know that my firm has filed suit challenging the ballot language as being misleading and not necessarily consistent. So we are in the process of litigating that up in Tallahassee. If we get an update at some point in time, We will certainly let you as well as city councilmen.

Right. We appreciate that, and we appreciate your communication and updates to the entire board on this subject because it's obviously a very important one to all of us. So thank you for staying on top of that and keeping us up to date.

You're very welcome, and just wishing everybody a very happy Fourth of July.

Thank you. You too, and thank you for being here today. You're welcome. Back to public comment. I don't see anyone here for public comment. Our next meeting is scheduled for October. Let me pull that up. Make sure I have the right date. Scheduled for October 15th at 1.30. And if something happens over the summer, we will let you know. But that is our next scheduled meeting. And then following that, we have November 19th and December 17th to finish this year. Do we have any – it's a ways away, but does anyone have anything that they want to be sure is on our agenda for the next meeting? Okay. not hearing anything, we won't add anything there. Other committee communications, does anyone have any updates or comments they want to make for the whole committee? I would just make a couple of comments. Rod, I appreciate your help in working with David on this property tax thing and staying abreast of what's happening there and understanding, you know, Impact to us and impact to the county and possibly the city as well But in terms of funding the impact to the county is going to be very important to us And Phyllis, I know you've been working on the management plan if you could Also work with Mohammed as we're moving forward to this next project in staying abreast of the details of that and where we go from here I'd appreciate that and and Steve I talked to Melissa offline she does have access to the HOMESTEADED PROPERTY INFORMATION FOR HIDEAWAY BEACH THAT WILL ALLOW US TO GET A MORE ACCURATE VIEW OF WHAT THE IMPACT OF THE PROPOSED PROPERTY TAX CHANGES COULD BE IN THE FUTURE. AND SO I'VE ASKED HER TO SHARE WITH THE WHOLE BOARD THAT INFORMATION WHEN SHE HAS TIME. IT'S NOT URGENT, BUT WHEN SHE HAS AN OPENING IN HER SCHEDULE, WE APPRECIATE HER SHARING THAT INFORMATION WITH US. So that will be helpful. And I think that's it. So unless anyone has anything else, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn.

Second.

Okay. All in favor? Aye. Thank you very much, everyone.

Take care. Bye-bye.