Audit Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

This one, John. You want me to

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to today's meeting of the Hideaway Beach Tax District Board. Kristen, can you call the roll, please? Member Barto?

Present.

Member Zinkin?

Here.

Member Schreiber?

Here.

Member Ramirez? Here. Chair Ryan? Here. Okay. We'll do the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I think all of our board is present here today, but I understand Alan Gabriel, our city attorney, is on Zoom for David Tolsys today. Is that correct, Alan?

Yes. I'm here if you can hear me.

Yes. I can. Thank thank you. Perfect. Thank you for joining us today.

Absolutely. Happy to be here.

Before I begin our regular agenda, it's with great sadness that I want to acknowledge the passing of City Councilor Eric Breschnitz. Eric, as we all know, served on City Council for eight years. For those years, he served as chairman. And he lent his considerable municipal government expertise, as well as his institutional knowledge from having served on both the planning board and then the city council for so many years to our city. But for this board, I also want to acknowledge that Eric was a founding member of the Hideaway Beach Tax District Board.

And he served, again, as chairman for many, many years. And I really should say that he was the founding member, because the tax district was Eric's idea to address the problem that we had with beach renourishment. And he's the one who worked with the city to put the tax district in place. I also want to acknowledge that Eric served on the Hideaway Beach Association Board. And again, he served as president of that board for several years.

So despite his career in investment management, I think there's theme here, which is public service and leadership. And so I want to today thank and recognize Eric for his public service and leadership for the city of Marco Island and also for the Hideaway Beach community. And as a friend, as a mentor, and as a colleague, I want to personally thank Eric. And Eric, if you're listening out there, you left some very big shoes to fill. So thank you.

If I turn now to the first item on our agenda, it's introduction of our new board member. You may recall that at the March, Dick DeLaughter finished his thirteen years of service to this board. And so today, I'm happy to announce that Rod Schreiber is joining our board. Rod joins us with background as a corporate attorney for a major global law firm in Chicago, where he served his clients in multiple ways, but primarily in the areas of corporate governance, capital markets, and mergers and acquisitions. And he also served on several firm wide committees, including the governing body of his firm, the policy development committee.

So I'm delighted to have Rod's legal expertise as well as management and executive expertise on this board. And I'm sure you'll find his input very valuable. So thank you, and welcome, Rod.

Thank you.

Okay, the next item on the agenda is election of officers, which we do annually. And you should have in your packet the procedures for this. I'm going to ask everyone today to use this yellow Request to Speak button. And then I will be able to call on you from the speaker list that I have in front of me. But the process is that I will call for nominations.

We don't require a second to a nomination. If someone is nominated and they don't wish to serve, they may decline. And once we have all the nominations, we'll have discussion, and then we'll go to a voice vote. Today we'll be electing a Chairman, a Vice Chairman, a Treasurer, and a Secretary. So with that, I will open it up to nominations for the position of chair.

Steve Zinkin.

I I nominate, Linda Ryan to be our our chairian.

Okay. I

didn't hit the speaker button.

You took the words out of my mouth.

Okay. Steve, you can undo your button then if unless you do we have any other nominations?

Sorry, Steve. No. That's fine.

Okay. Alright. Kristen, could you call the vote, please? Member Ramirez? Yes. Member Barto? Yes. Member Schreiber?

Yes.

Member Zinkin?

Yes.

And Chair Ryan? Yes. And thank you to the Board for your confidence in me again. Now I will open it up for nominations for Vice Chair. Steve Zinkin?

I'll nominate John Bartow to be the vice chair.

Right. Any other nominations? Okay. Not hearing any. I will ask Kristen to call the vote for Member Barto for Vice Chair. Member Schreiber?

Yes.

Member Zinkin?

Yes.

Member Ramirez? Yes. Member Barto?

Yes.

Chair Ryan? Yes. Okay. Thank you. And I think that means, John, that you and Phyllis need to change seats now. Oh, I'm sorry. The voice because I'm just stuck because my name tags. So gonna take my tag

with you.

Yeah. Yeah. You can take your tag with

I said moving up, Steve.

Yeah. Gotta take take your name too.

Sorry. We're using my

insurance. No.

It was but my spot was just there. My spot was just there. Oh. No.

Had to change.

Mine used to

get I was gonna say, did I screw things off?

At all.

I apologize if I

Stay past that. I was gonna come back. Oh, okay. Let me Alright.

Let me drop you without a

That's when we

Hour. Out.

All right. After all that shuffle, I'll open it up for nominations for treasurer.

Madam chair?

Yes?

I don't believe that you have any other offices other than the chair and vice chair.

We have a treasurer for sure. We've usually had a secretary as well. They've not had many opportunities to sign for things, but there have been cases in the past.

Please proceed.

Okay. Thank you. I'll take nominations for treasurer. Phyllis? I nominate Steve Zinkin.

Okay. Oh, I think I think, Phyllis, if you hit your button I did it off already. Do it again. Okay. I think. No. Oh oh, I know what's happening. You have to do it, John.

I'm signed over.

Yeah, you have to Oh, do that's right. Now I'm John. Okay. Okay. Get used to these buttons. Okay. Do I have any other nominations for treasurer? Okay. Not hearing any. Christian, can you call the vote for Steve Zinkin for Treasurer? Member Schreiber?

Yes.

Member Zinkin?

Yes.

Member Ramirez? Yes. Vice Chair Barto? Yes. And Chair Ryan? Yes. Okay. And then the final is nominations for secretary. So I'll open it up for that. John?

I I nominated Phyllis Robb since you knew I I couldn't do it. Thank you.

Okay. By elimination. Okay. We have a nomination for Phyllis Ramirez. Any other nominations?

Kristen, could you call the vote for that, please? Member Ramirez? Yes. Vice Chair Barto?

Yes.

Member Schreiber?

Yes.

Member Zinkin?

Yes.

And Chair Ryan? Yes. Okay. Thank you very much, everyone. That concludes our elections for today. So the next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda. Does anyone have any changes that they would like to make to the agenda as currently presented? Not hearing any, I will take a motion for approval of the agenda.

Make a motion to approve.

Motion from Treasurer Zinkin. I'll second. Okay. Second from Member Ramirez. All in favor? Aye.

Any

opposed? Okay. Motion passes. The next item is approval of the minutes from the March 19 meeting. Does anyone have any changes to the meeting minutes as drafted? Member Barto, you have a comment?

Yes, Linda. I'd like to add that I was absent, but actually I was on the phone, lost in the cloud. They couldn't retrieve me. Okay.

Alright. Alright. Anybody else have any other changes they'd like to make to the minutes? Okay. Then I'll take a motion to approve the minutes as amended.

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes.

I'll second it.

Okay. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay. That motion passes unanimously. Okay. Turning now to old business. The first item on the agenda is Tiger Tail Lagoon, Sand Dollar Island maintenance update. Mohamed Dibiz from Humiston and Moore Engineers.

Good afternoon. First, I would like to echo the chair's condolences for the passing of Eric Brechnitz and same with my partner, Britt Moore and all of Humsun and Moore engineers to the city and to the family of Eric Brechnitz. I'm a strong believer that we are where we are because of the mentorship and the guidance from those who helped us along the way. And Eric was an instrumental help for getting the tax district to where it is now. So we're all grateful for crossing paths with him.

As far as the project update, over the past month, we've basically completed the requirement to prepare the the the Sand Dollar Island as nesting habitat for turtles by raking and grading the beach and also we did the telling on the last day pre nesting season so that we can minimize potential for escarpment. And also we were appreciative of one of the residents of Hideaway of documenting the Easter weekend, both activity in the system as you can see at the entrance of the lagoon, how the system is attracting a lot of tourists and residents and the vast majority as you can see are smaller local boats that take advantage of beautiful environment that is supported by the districts and the county's efforts to maintain the system. And as you can see in those pictures, these are the pictures right before we knocked the escarpments. You can see some escarpments along the Gulf front and that on April 14, the tailing of the beach was completed after we knocked down the escarpment as part of our pre planned maintenance. These are pictures of the Tailed Sand Dollar Island.

We also took that opportunity to tail Hideaway Beach from South Point all the way to the 6000 Building. And these are pictures showing the post telling conditions. So that's basically as we prepare for the nesting seasons and nesting activities, we believe that we did all what our compliances require us plus some to get our beaches ready for the season. We're also ahead of the tropical season for 2026 and we're hopeful that we will have another calm season like the 2025. But in any case, as I always reiterate, it's always good to have contingencies and have to have plans.

And we have developed those systems and appreciate the availability of the city public works as well as the district chair to be able to respond to any post storm events during the season where we don't have regular meetings. I think that concludes my project update.

And I think the next item on the agenda is the beach management plan update also from Mohammed Dees So and Hamasun

Martin, if you can move to the second attachment.

Not

this one. No. No.

While we're waiting for the slides to come up, I will just comment that this management plan update is really in response to a request from the county manager some time ago to put our projects into a broader context of a management plan for this area. And so Mohamed and Phyllis have done a tremendous amount of work on this. And he is going to show you some key portions of it today. And this document should be finalized in the next couple of weeks, and we'll be beginning an initial review process at the city and county level.

Don't think I see it in the listing here. And the items are labeled differently than what I submitted to the city.

It This this may be the issue that we had, Kristen, where the agenda was correct on the city website, but it was not correct in the email. Martin, are we able to pull up this presentation directly from the city website? Because that is correct.

Not this item, no.

It's a series of graphic charts.

Yes, that's one. This one.

That looks like it. Thank you.

So we as Ms. Ryan indicated, we've had few years of coordination with the county where we were able to get cooperation with the county on work that covers part of the overlap in the northern part of Marco between county and district objectives primarily or mainly in the management of the Collier Creek as well as the other project of the ecosystem restoration for Tiger Tail Lagoon and Sand Dollar Island. As part of that, among the requests that were emphasized by the counties to have a management plan. We had follow-up discussions with the state and the state were very receptive and very encouraging of having more of a regional approach to looking at things to expand it into not only management of the existing projects, but to also look at the inlet management as well as the island wide management. And in that perspective, we are moving to have a brief management plan with strategies that align who is responsible for what within the literal cell of Marco Island by identifying who is the responsible entity for each segment and what those segments require for sand management.

And in the table in front of you, you'll see primarily five already existing permits and projects that are managed between the tax district and coastal zone management in Calle County and some that has cost share coordination with Tiger Tail Lagoon Sand Dollar spit. That table kind of identifies the responsibilities and the purpose as well as the funding mechanisms. So the management plan document that we're working on, the initial draft was presented to your board a few months ago. And as Mr. Ryan indicated, I've been working on that plan with Ms.

Ramirez and with input from Michael at CEC and the state as well. That roughly gives this slide gives the overall content that goes, that defines the area, the stakeholders, the objectives of each element of the project. And then the highlighted portion that I would like to cover here is an important aspect that the state always like to see management plan, which is a sediment budget that identifies distinct features in a system. And then the sand budget meaning if it's an area that is accretional, that's a surplus. If it's an area that is erosional, that means it's a deficit.

And then the management plan would identify target goals to address some of that deficits. And then that would should lead to a regional strategic plan with recommendations and who is responsible for what. With that in mind, and if we take Marco Island, as we explained in many previous discussions, is an island that's surrounded by water from all directions. And by identifying distinct cells, and what I mean distinct cells is a cell or a portion of the island that has distinct differences from the cell next to it. So and if I break them down from north to south, you have the inlet in Capri Pass, the Anmarco River to Hideaway Beach to Sand Dollar Spit to the Central Marco and then South Marco and then the South boundary is Kexampus.

And then by looking at the behavior or the dynamics of each of those cells, we can drive whether it's a stable, accretional or erosional cell. And the Hideaway Beach, which is of primary interest to this district is stabilized over time because of the efforts that was started in the late 90s to this day and the continued monitoring and action on Hideaway Beach to make it a stable beach with 19 structures and monitoring and renourishment. And then the second distinct feature is San Dollar Island. The western side of that island is erosional and it is basically like the first line of defense for our system that we artificially enhance to make sure that it remains functional in protecting the ecosystem behind it, as well as feeding sand into the accretional cells, north and south of it. And one of those accretional cell is the northern part of San Dollar Island where we have the authorization to repurpose that sand and put it back to address some of the erosion on Sand Dollar Island.

The central cell, as I indicated, is accretional and doesn't require much action at this time. And the south area is stabilized at the South End with multiples of structures, but also it's part of the Kexampas Pass management as far as the dredging of material from the pass gets placed on the beach. And sometimes like in 2023 And then in this year, the county is also planning truck haul to complete to address some of the erosion on the South Beach. So all these while they are, as I mentioned, distinct cells and have their own dynamics, they are interconnected and the health of the entire system is reliant on an overall mass plan that manage the entire system that currently doesn't exist. And among the objectives is to streamline those sand repurposing that are in the system.

So those purple arrows that you see are basically highlights of the sources and the sinks or the sources and the destination of where the sand is that is being dredged from Collier Creek, from offshore bore area, from the sand trap, and from Kexampus where they're earmarked to go based on the overall functionality of the system. And that memorializing that in a document, we know who is in charge of what and we also want to ensure that when the county who are in charge of an inlet like Kaxampas or Collier Creek, when they move to address a shoaling area in Collier Creek, they know that the level of the regional prioritization that is to be finalized that where the sand from Collier Creek needs to go on the adjacent beaches rather than taking it offshore. So when we put the picture all together and I didn't want to put all that in one slide without having the breakdown of the natural forces and then the sand repurposing for stabilizing the system, you'll see putting the picture together is not just helpful for us, but it's also helpful for other stakeholders like the county and the state to understand how the sand is being repurposed or used within the system to maintain the coastal resiliency of the entire island.

And that does not mean that we're taking charge of any parts of the counties. It's just having the right hand know what the left hand is doing. So not only we make sure that we earmark the sand sources that we need for our projects, it's also for coordination so that when there is regional projects and we can coordinate timelines, it may help reduce costs for mobilization and other coordination. While for the state, it represents balancing sediment budget or balancing a whole island or a system for as a regional approach, which is something that the state and the federal government will be in favor of rather than managing small fragmented projects. So as Ms.

Ryan indicated,

this

final iteration, we have additional feedback that we would pursue from the county and then we'll try to have a more updated plan for discussions with the state and the county to make sure that we have something that everybody agrees on.

Any thoughts, questions? Personally, I think this is really good because it's putting the pieces that we have in the bigger context. Be careful we have multiple entities managing pieces of Marco Island and the waterways here on Marco Island. So by pulling it all together, I think it shows better how we can work together for the overall benefit of the entire system and for the island of Marco Island. So I am anxious to move this forward and we will be meeting with coastal zone management at the county as a first step to get their agreement and to move this forward.

I think if there's no questions on that, I think you have one other proposal. Mohamed?

Yes. To tie into the project update and to the continued services to bring the sand management to a deliverable that would meet the requirements by the state and the county as well as your Board. I have a request for additional services that covers additional bird monitoring for Terrell Hall and Associates to meet some permit requirements in addition to the task that we already have and that's for an amount of 3,420 and the engineering professional services to complete the current draft for the management and sand budget analysis is 17,784 for a total request for professional services of 21,204.

Mohamed, can you pull that up or you need Martin to pull Martin, that

can you put the additional services 8B? Yes. So that's the two additional services for the two items that I just described. Okay.

Any questions or discussion on this item before we vote on it? Okay. Hearing none, then I'll take a motion regarding this proposal.

Make the motion we accept it for 21,000. I lost my screen.

204.

204. I'll second John's motion.

Okay. Any other discussion or comments? Then we'll take a vote on this. All in favor of this proposal say aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

Thank

you, Mohammed. The next update is vegetation planting update from Terrell Hall and Associates. We discussed this at the last meeting and there was some additional follow-up we needed to do I think we have Tim Hall from Terrell Hall and Associates to give us a further update on this.

Yes, ma'am. For the record, Tim Hall with Terrell and Associates. After the last meeting, I did go back out to review the plants again and was pleasantly surprised that we have some regrowth coming out on the majority of the plants that are out there. Even the ones that were laying flat on the ground were still leafing back out. Okay.

So we talked to the to the contractor and part of the outer row of plantings was was either dead or or missing because of the the storm events and also a lot less plants need to be replaced in that area. And in lieu of that, so we've got him to give us a quote for the the few plantings to replace, but also to give us a day labor rate to have his guys out there for a day and stand up all of the trees that have fallen back down and restabilize them so that so that they don't get covered by sand and and all and and have a better chance to to go. And That's the quote that was presented, although I think that that's being looked at by the HOA instead of this group because of where those plantings are.

Yes, believe it was about $4,000 and it turns out these plantings are, to remind everyone, on the inner shoreline of the lagoon, south of our picnic area primarily, and on hideaway conservation property or on the beach. And the mangroves that we had planted on the beach, I believe, are okay. The damage from the February storm is to the buttonwoods that were planted on the upland, and the association had paid for those. So Terrell Hall is working with Tom Ryan at the association to bring forward that expense for them to take care of those plants. And it's a relatively minor expense, I'm very pleased to hear that the plantings are doing better than you expected.

I was well, I was and you can see the top photo I tried to to capture what, you know, what I saw when I was out there. So Yeah. The majority of the plants that even the ones with with no leaves had new growth coming out on them and they were still flexible and living. I was very happy to

see that. And are you continuing to see more mangrove growth and improvement?

Yeah. I I think I have. There's some there's actually some some good the the top photo here shows a lot of the the little regeneration that's coming back. There's a lot of of black mangroves and some red mangroves that are resprouting along that shoreline. They're small. It's going to take them a while to grow up, but they are definitely coming back in and recolonizing that area.

Good. And as we discussed last time, because of that, you're not recommending we do any additional mangrove plantings because this board, I think, would be fully supportive of doing more if you recommended it. But it sounds like the natural hay growth is a faster process, and you recommend that we let that happen.

I always like to let nature do its own thing rather than try to force when I can. And in this case, the the shoreline, the the bottom photo kinda shows the the new plantings that we did as well as some of the old die off area, but even those dead trees, the root systems and all are still there. So they're still stabilizing that shoreline while those new seedlings come in and get and get going. So I am I my recommendation is to to just give it some time and and let it go. I know from an aesthetic standpoint it doesn't look great but think if we give it time a couple of years you'll have growth coming back up in there again and it'll look good barring any more catastrophic events.

Okay. Great. Well, we will follow your recommendations. Thank you very much for the update.

Okay.

Does the Board have any other questions for Tim? No? Okay.

That's the question I was going to ask about the mangroves that looked dead or died in So the

he addressed your question?

I believe so, yes.

Okay. You, Tim. All right. The next item on the agenda is the financial report as of March 31 from our treasurer, Steve Zinkin.

We're still in a good situation. I kinda looked month to month like our cash on hand. The February was $3,000,003.85 $0.04 1. We paid $211,689 in invoices in March, including the big one to EarthTec for a 145,000.

Mhmm.

And that left you with a cash on hand. In addition, we had approximately $26,000 of additional revenue, about $20,000 of additional property taxes, and approximately 6,000 in net gain on investments. If you take those figures, that cash on hand as of 03/31 is now $3,000,001.99 $2.51, our total amount of open purchase orders, which, Rob, if you look if you followed behind the financial statement and go down underneath, that will give you a detailed list of what was paid and what is open. And that amount's $339,806, leaving you on available cash after future payment of these purchase orders of $2,000,008.59 $4.04 5. So we're in a good position going forward.

Any questions on the financial report?

Also, Rob, it helped me when I first came on the board, our annual run rate's about 285,000 a year. So when you look at projected income, less like professional services of 200 a year, and not including any emergency repairs, but for legal expenses for the tractor on beach tilling, our annual run rate is about $2.85. So I kinda use that as my lodestar against whatever the income is, if that helps you. Yep. Yep. Thank you. You're welcome.

Any other comments? Okay. Then we don't have any new Mrs. Today. Justin, do you have any updates for us? No? Okay. And I don't see any City Council members present. Public comment? Is there anyone registered for public comment? Our next meeting is scheduled for June 30. We do not have a May meeting since we were this far in April. And I wanted to have the June meeting to set our millage rate once we have the property values available. Please note that that meeting is at two p. M, not 01:30.

And could I just take a show of hands as to who is going to be available here physically for that meeting? Okay. So we have three of us. We have a quorum then.

So I

won't Yeah.

Light on that.

Right. But, I I do hope that, John and Steve, that you will be available via phone, right?

Yes. Martin, will make sure that we get access.

Right. Because that is a very important meeting and I want to be sure everyone is able to participate and vote in that meeting. Proposed agenda topics for the next meeting. I have a millage rate and I also understand, Michael, that we may have a proposal from you regarding some additional work related to our expanded offshore borrow area. And I see you nodding.

We will have that on the agenda for June. And that is all I have at the moment, but I am sure some other things will come up between now and then. In terms of other committee communications, I just had one update. I think you are all aware that on April 8, I made a presentation along with Mohammed and Michael to the Hideaway the association board of directors regarding our plans and strategies as we look to the future. I just comment that it was very well received. The board spent a couple of hours with us so they really had an opportunity to understand the work that we are doing and where

we

are going in the future. So I just want to let you know that that was very well received. And I thank again Phyllis for her support and involvement with Mohamed and some of the preparation for that. Does anyone else have any other items that they would like to discuss or mention? Not seeing any, I'll take a motion to adjourn.

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

Second it.

All in favor? Aye. Thank you very much.