MINUTES OF MEETING LAKE ASHTON
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT

The regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the Lake Ashton Community Development District was held on Friday, December 8, 2017 at 9:00 a.m. at the Lake Ashton Clubhouse Ballroom, 4141 Ashton Club Drive, Lakes Wales, Florida 33859.

Present and constituting a quorum:
Borden Deane Brenda Van Sickle Michael Costello Bob Ference

Also present:
Darrin Mossing Andrew d'Adesky Tricia Adams John Cruz
Alan Scheerer Numerous Residents

FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS

Vice Chairman Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary

District Manager District Counsel Community Director
Community Watch Solutions Field Operations Manager

Roll	Call	and	Pledge	of Allegiance

Mr. Mossing called the roll and established a quorum was present and Mr. Deane led the pledge of allegiance.
Mr. Deane: If you could stand a moment for a prayer.
Mr. Ference: Heavenly Father, look down from heaven from your holy dwelling place and be present to Paul and Carol as in this hour of need they look to You for strength, guidance and a path to everlasting life. We are grateful for the many blessings that you have shared with them and with us and together we come together to strengthen their will to understand what is Your divine will for them. Oh Lord be mindful of all your children, especially those who have most need of your help, and today that would be Carol and Paul. Every blessing is from above and we thank You. Amen.

December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS	Audience Comments on Specific
Items on the Agenda (speakers will fill out a card and submit it to the District Manager prior to beginning of the meeting)
Mr. Deane: Audience comments. I have one from Alan Goldstein.

Mr. Goldstein: Good morning. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and we hope we all feel that way when we leave the meeting today. I want to just speak for a minute on what I brought up before the last three meetings we discussed it, but nothing has been done since. I think it needs to be done and I think this is a good time to end the year and end the process. As most contracts for a CDD are bid out by the CDD, or by the administrator, I would like to know why the District Manager's position and GMS has not ever been put up to bid. Now I have been told it's been on the job for 12 years. Some people tell me no, it is five years. I don't know how many years it is, but I know it is not up for bid. I don't care if GMS wins the bid or not, I care that the process is done to make sure that our monies are handled correctly. Speaking about our monies, our monies are tax monies, and you as CDD Supervisors are responsible to watch over the money. You have heard from all the political parties and political activities over the last couple of years what is the most important thing is transparency. The way that we are operating is not transparent. We have employees that should be CDD employees that are GMS employees. We don't know what their job descriptions are. We are not allowed to hire or fire and all we do is rubber stamp what GMS says. I would like to see that corrected and keep our neighborhood a growing prosperous and happy place. That is basically it. If you want to know all the paperwork I have quoting all the laws and all the rules, yes, you do operate under 190.6 and you do a good job with it. I think some of our residents don't understand what the Sunshine Law is. They think if you have dinner with another member of the CDD you are breaking the law. That is not the fact of the case. I mean you can have dinners. The five of you can get together if you want 5 to 7 days a week and have dinner as long as you are not talking about business or making decisions about business of the CDD. You are allowed to have your friends, but because of rumors and non-transparency these types of problems happen. So I am asking today to put a final to

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it. Make a decision and let's bid all our processes. I wish everybody a Merry Christmas. Thank you.
Mr. Deane: Al, with regards to what you said 4 years ago, it was bid. The only bidder for the management was GMS.
Mr. Goldstein: Who asked for the bids?
Mr. Deane: The Board requested a bid for the management. The only bidder was
GMS.

Mr. Goldstein: Ok I think it needs to be done again. Again, in the bylaws, or in
the statutes it says that the CDD is to allow, to instruct the job description, the hiring, the salaries, etc. of all the employees. That means that it should be your employees, not the management company's employees. They are your employees. This is where the loyalties and loyalty matters should come from.

Ms. VanSickle: I do have a quick question. I think the way we usually do this is to hold for an agenda item, but I don't recall this being bid out four years ago. We renewed the contract but I don't recall it being bid. I was on the Board four years ago.
Mr. Deane: It was bid out.
Ms. Adams: I think Darrin has all the dates that it was actually bid. Ms. VanSickle: I was here and I don't recall that.

Mr. Mossing: There are technically two contracts. There is what we call the administrative management of the District, which is our office here in Orlando. Then we have a separate contract for our onsite personnel, which includes Tricia and her onsite group. The part that was bid was the amenity management lifestyle services of the contract. So that is the $300,000 line item in your budget. It was 2012, I believe.
Ms. Adams: I recently looked this up Darrin and I have been discussing this as well, but as I recall it was bid out in 2009-2010 and the only responder was Lake Ashton Management. That was very close to the time that that Board transitioned from being a developer-run to resident-run or resident elected Supervisors. In 2010 in January the newly elected Board requested that there was a workshop for various services. At the time all of those services were run by Lake Ashton Management, which was the

developer's group. That included security services, restaurant services, amenity management services, and landscaping services. The Board spent several months working through requests for proposals and defining the scope of services for all of those positions. In May the Board made a decision to hire GMS for amenity management services. I think that was as a result of the services recently being bid out and the net being cast pretty wide throughout central Florida and only having one responder, which was the developer. I thinl, that was seen as an opportunity. The Board was looking for an opportunity to make a different decision, and was looking for solutions to that challenge of not having a lot of amenity management servicesbidders come forward. On the other hand, there were bidders that came forward for landscaping services and for security services. When the Board became resident-controlled in the calendar year 2010 there were quite a few changes.
Ms. VanSickle: I was on the Board then so I was well aware it wasn't bid out four years ago.
Mr. Goldstein: Brenda, if you would let me just finish this, and I will get out of your way. The District Manager may hire or otherwise em.ploy and terminate the employment of such other persons including without limitation professional, supervisory and clerical employees as maybe necessary and authorized by the Board. The compensation and other conditions of employment of the offices and employees of the District shall be as provided by the Board. I am going to drop it right there because that doesn't mean leave it up to the third party. Thank you.
Mr. Deane: Any comments?

THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS	Approval of the Minutes of the
November 10, 2017 meeting
Mr. Deane: We have approval of the minutes from the November 10, 2017 meeting. Any additions or corrections? We need a motion.

On MOTION by Mr. Ference seconded by Mr. Costello with all in favor the minutes of the November 10, 2017 meeting were approved.

 	 	

December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Engineers Report
Mr. Deane: Now we have the pleasure of the engineer, who has shown up for a change.
Mr. Malave: Just for the record only because you have asked me not to come. I do not take that personal. Good morning. A couple of things we have on our list. One, some of the construction that we still want to undertake were put on hold until we get the water to come down further again. We still have that information and work in progress to go forward with that contractor so we will still have our eye on the water levels where we can go and economically do those repairs as we have in that bid that we originally had with All-Terrain. All the work that was done with him with what I have seen is in good shape and we have inspected all that. Number two is there is a request that was submitted to everyone and to be precise it is Item #6G. Since it is a little bit of engineering in there I would like to request from the Board if we could bring that forward so that I can comment on it and provide direction a little bit on it. I looked at both sites, when I say both sites I looked at this particular address 4564 Turnberry Lane, and all those houses along Olsen Road have the same conditions. The survey basically shows two easements there. One is an egress easement that is not ours, is not the CDD's and there is a 15 foot drainage and utility easement. That is per the plat. We have rights to that especially from the drainage standpoint. Therefore we do have control over that easement. In the request they are asking for a 5 foot encroachment into that 15 foot. The site is basically when you look at all those lots along Olsen Road, generalities from the back of the house to the street drains towards Turnberry. The back yard generally drains toward Olsen Road or away from the house. There is substantial fill there for all those lots. Olsen Road is pretty low and therefore somewhat drains to portions of what can be construed as a swale which is what that 15 foot drainage easement was originally intended for. Based on some of the information provided, what we would recommend that if the owner of that lot, there is also another house that never got a change, so they are technically in violation of the easement also. That is on 4588 Turnberry Lane about five or six houses down, does have a pool. They do encroach into the easement. What we would recommend is that both of those units, this one in particular 4564, obtain a

December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

letter waiver from within our permit with the Southwest Florida Water Management District. They have already indicated that it would be minor and if they were to provide that modification that we should recommend approval for that incident and for all those houses that would probably want one. The key element here is that most of the drainage will go towards the road. It is only the back yards, very little in any case, and there is no way Olsen Road or even the back yard could drain into a swale and into our lake. It will probably go down Olsen Road, which is the low point, and then into our pond anyways. So that would be my recommendation. It should not be at a cost to the CDD since it is not our work. It should be of the owner of the house because he wants the pool. With that any questions you may have?
Mr. Deane: Rey, is what you are saying is if the owner gets the variance for lack of a better word from S.W.F.W.M.D., then we will approve the requests.
Mr. Malave: It is a permit modification.
Mr. Deane: S.W.F.W.M.D. has to give the permit modification. Mr. Malave: They can do that by letter.
Mr. Deane: That is what it says in their thing. Ok. We are probably going to need to vote on that.
Mr. Costello: I make a motion that we follow the recommendation of the engineer. Ms. VanSickle: Second.
Mr. Deane: We have a motion from Mike and a second from Brenda. Anymore discussion?
On MOTION by Mr. Costello seconded by Ms. VanSickle with all in favor the request from the resident at 4564 Turnberry Lane to encroach into LACDD easement would be approved once the resident obtained a waiver from Southwest Florida Water Management District per recommendation from District Engineer.

Mr. Malave: The second one is.
Ms. Adams: Do you want me to introduce it? While Rey is here in deference to his schedule and billable hours we thought to bring forward all of the projects that touch on

December Br 2017	Lake Ashton COD

engineering. Two of them are related to hurricane repairs and hurricane restoration. Included in the agenda packet is a community director report. Attached to the community director report is information regarding 400 linear feet of shoreline restoration. The target area is south of the clubhouse; approximately from the west end of the pool deck; and then moving west towards the pavilion. There is about 400 feet of shoreline that requires restoration. Unfortunately Hurricane Irma eroded that lake bank to the point that we have some safety situation near the golf cart path. The Board had recently considered and made an approval for shoreline restoration back in August so what you have in the packet is you have cover memorandum, you have the proposal for the 400 linear feet of shoreline including some diagrams identifying the targeted area. Then just to refresh the Board's memory I included that information packet that was presented in August. In August staff bid out the project of 160 linear feet of shoreline restoration. There were three different vendors that came forward with competitive proposals and different solutions. Two of the solutions were very similar. The geo-tube solution which the District has utilized in the past and then also a new solution called dredge sox. It is very similar to the geo-tube. The difference being that it is more like a sling rather than a totally encompassed structure. Eventually with the dredge sox solution it actually vegetates all the way through the dredge sox which really secures that shoreline very well. Happily, the dredge sox solution is also the least expensive of the three options. There seemed to be a lot of reasons to go forward with that solution. When we had additional damage after Hurricane Irma, Lake & Wetland Management came down onsite. Two different times they met with staff and they actually were able to be here when the District Manager, George Flint, was here. They ended up meeting with both of us at the same time. We carefully looked at that project. Based on the amount of erosion that occurred after Hurricane Irma they recommended 12 feet width of the 400 feet of shoreline restoration. They were deferential to the cost that the District had recently endured with the other projects that they discounted 160 feet of that project by
$35 a linear foot. At this time I will take any questions about the project and also the

engineer is here to take any technical questions about the project.

December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

Mr. Malave: Just for the record, these are solutions that have been used in other CDDs and other shoreline restoration projects very similar. We do recommend either, but this one is definitely the best, and being the least expensive it is definitely the best way to go.
Ms. Adams: So if the Board doesn't have any further questions, staff would be seeking approval for the erosion control agreement with Lake & Wetland Management for $24A00.
Ms. VanSickle: So moved.
Ms. Adams: So if you are at the community director report and you go back to the very first page of the Lake & Wetland Management Erosion Control Agreement, in the middle of the page, bold underlined it says total dredge sox investment $24A00. That is dated November 28th on the top of it.
Mr. Ference: All-Terrain is a whole lot less but does not give as much.

Ms. Adams: Just to be clear and to clarify the information that I presented, the other proposals that you see are a reiteration of what you saw in August and that was for 160 linear feet. What we are looking at now is 400 linear feet because we had additional problems after Hurricane Irma. So the 160 feet that was previously repaired needs restoration as well as an additional 240 feet for a total of 400 feet.
Mr. Ference: All- Terrain never bid on that additional linear feet?
Ms. Adams: We did not because it had been so recently bid out a few months ago and because this was the most economical and best solution, we sought a proposal from just the one vendor.
Mr. Ference: Are we satisfied with just getting one bid on that? Rey, what do you feel about that?
Mr. Malave: The cost based on what I see with other vendors is right in line with what it is so that is why I deferred to not getting other ones. All-Terrain was proposing a different system. It is not really comparable. When you look at the different ones this is definitely the better one for what we would like based on what I have seen in other CDD's that have installed some of these. The cost is within mind.

December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

that.

Mr. Ference: $65 a square foot?
Mr. Malave: That is in line with what it is including restoration, sodding and all

Mr. d'Adesky: We are not required to get it. It is under the threshold.
Mr. Ference:	I just want to make sure Al is listening to our request for other

information.
Ms. Adams: If you want to review the proposal you see the All- Terrain, Lake & Wetland Management and Dragonfly Pond Works when you look at those three you are comparing apples-to-apples vendors. Lake & Wetland Management is the least expensive option.

Mr. Ference: Ok, let's move on.
Mr. Deane: We have a motion and a second and no more discussion.

On MOTION by Ms. VanSickle seconded by Mr. Ference with all in favor proposal from Lake & Wetland Management for $24,400 for shoreline erosion repair was approved.

Ms. Adams: There is one more thing that is not explicitly on the agenda but a couple of Supervisors had inquired this week regarding the shade awning on the patio. The shade awning on the patio was damaged during Hurricane Irma and the insurance adjuster is looking both at the cost to temporarily repair it, as well as the replacement cost. Those would be covered expenses. Some Supervisors have inquired during Board discussion and then reiterated an interest in understanding the difference between replacing the shade awning on the existing aluminum frame that is outside or upgrading that environment to a hard roof structure which would allow screening and a more water tight roof. Right now that shade awning protects against the sun but it is not a waterproof hard structure that would allow for screening. So as some Supervisors are aware, there have been various times over the years that the structure out on the patio has been damaged. It was damaged during Hurricane Charlie. There was another wind storm that came up in 2010 that damaged that structure. In 2010 it ended up that the frame and the shade on the awning were both damaged. At that time the Board asked staff to seek

 	 	

December 8; 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

proposals for both replacing the type of structure that is out there now or the hard roof structure. There were two bids that came forward for a hard roof structure. One of them was from Rogers Construction, who is no longer in business. The other estimate that I found that had been included in the Board agenda packets is a vendor that I am not familiar with but it is called Lumatech. Back in August 2010, they provided some light engineering specifications and they also provided a proposal in 2010 for $37,600 for a hard roof structure. Rey has briefly just looked over these drawings. He may have some comments about them but I would be happy to pass that down if the Board has an interest. I also have information included in the agenda packet about how much it is going to cost to replace the shade awning. We are ready for Board discussion on this item or any questions for the engineer.
Mr. Malave: From our perspective doing a hard roof is probably your longer thing. You have already replaced it a few times. It will give you that and the range you are talking about is probably about $20,000 assuming give or take a little. So that gives you an idea of what you are looking for. I think what we would recommend is giving direction to staff to obtain hard bids on both options recommending that this is probably your better bet. I would assist with helping with some of the structural in the designs and the specs so that we can get a good structure there.
Mr. Ference: I would make a motion that we pursue the bidding on hard replacement since we already replaced the other awning three or four times already and not go that way again. I think we would waste some time and energy trying to rebid the soft shade so let's just go with the hard shade. Get some bids and then let's get it done.
Ms. Adams: Do I need a motion?
Mr. Mossing: No, that is a Board direction.
Mr. Malave: We will do as requested. With that, that is all that I have unless you have any questions for me as the engineer.
Mr. Deane: Rey, thank you.
Mr. Malave: Thank you and I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.
I will see you all next year. Blessings and lots of health.

Mr. Deane: Thank you.

FIFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Unfinished Business
Mr. Deane: Unfinished Business. We have nothing in unfinished business, but we
have Mr. Goldstein, who has a request. Any discussions with regards?
Mr. Costello: It appears that Mr. Goldstein quite honestly and even with what Brenda just said maybe we should make a motion that the contract is reviewed on a timely basis. Make it two years or four years. From what we are being told by Tricia nobody else is bidding it. I will be very honest with you. We do operate every day. It is not like we are not operating, but in an effort to be calm and a little bit more, quote unquote, transparent maybe we should make it where we will rebid it. The only problem that I honestly see is the fact that Tricia, and believe me I am not trying to get on anybody, but you do work for this company and your loyalty is going to lie to this company. I don't blame you in the least for that. My question becomes how do we get more bids in to see if there is another company out there that is going to be a little bit more in line with what we want? Quite honestly, I am not dissatisfied at all. Chances are if nobody else is bidding it, you are going to remain here. I don't know what to tell you.
Mr. Ference: We could just advertise it. The numbers speak for themselves. We advertise the contract.
Mr. Costello:   You are right, Bob.	The only thing is Tricia told us that it was advertised last time and nobody bothered to bid it. It is like a dog chases its tail more or less. Even if he catches it, what is it going to do, but at the same token if appears that we are more transparent by rebidding it on a certain cycle, I think it would be the way to go. Mr. Deane: I agree with that. I think maybe it should be put out like our other contracts. Put three year contracts I believe if I am not mistaken. Most of our contracts
are three year contracts. One year with two year possible extension.
Mr. d'Adesky: For our non-professional contracts.
Mr. Costello: The question that I continuously come back to like I say is that and believe me, like I say, Tricia, I am not trying to, it is a matter of your loyalty lies to that

company. Who do we get to write the RFP on this and ensure ourselves of transparency that this is being done in a proper manner?
Mr. Ference: Well the same conditions by which the company we have now operates. Those conditions should be advertised to any other company that wants to compete with them for price and for contract. I don't think there is any question about re-writing. We have already established the modus operandi and those who would like to bid against it can do so. I don't think Tricia has anything to say about that.

Mr. d'Adesky: Part of the field management contract, too, because there is two contracts. You are talking about with the District management services. That is what the District Manager does, which you are required by Statute to have to provide certain services, auditing, budgeting, etc. Then you have field management. There is scope of services. There is a contract. There is a scope of services for those services. It is already there. It is a matter of taking that scope of services, putting it in a RFP and sending it out.
Mr. Costello: Ok then let's go with it.

Ms. Adams: I would recommend that the Board reviews the scope of services because the scope of services that was last developed by the Board as I said as a workshop for several months in January, February, and March 2010. Subsequent to that time there has been some tasks that have been assigned to the amenity management team, for example issuing guest cards, issuing identification cards, registering guests and various other things that have been added to the scope of services that are not yet articulated. So it would be very healthy for the Board to review and make sure that everything that you want for your amenity team to do is contracted.
Mr. Ference: Tricia, we can't dot every I and cross every T. How many copies do we make to someone? We can't cover everything.
Mr. d'Adesky: I think it is in terms of major items that you want incorporate in the contract. You need to list those because if you don't you are going to end up with a management situation where they just frankly don't do them. We have dealt with this with management companies that come to us and say it wasn't in our contract to issue guest cards. We are not going to do it, too bad, that costs them part of their profitability.
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Mr. Ference: If that is the way the business is run then I guess we have to comply with our standard practices. I am just saying that we can't always cross every T and dot every I when it comes to management services.
Mr. d'Adesky: Absolutely that is why you paint the broad stroke. Mr. Ference: Very good.
Mr. Mossing: On the comment of Tricia's loyalty being to the company, I just want to disagree with that. This is the onsite staff. Other than Valerie doing some part-time work for us, this is their only work here. Tricia doesn't provide any services to any of our other clients. So I disagree. Her loyalty and her staff's loyalty is 110% to this community because whether she is a District employee or a company employee I don't see any difference. Just for clarification.
Mr. Costello: I don't see us as being quote unquote enemies or anything of that nature by any means. What I am saying is that Tricia's check comes from you people and quite honestly all I am saying is people want it to be transparent, so let's make it transparent every three or four or six years, on a regular basis let us go out and re-bid the contract. This way nobody can say to us well somebody is in your pocket or anything of that nature. All I am saying is this way here it is above Board.
Mr. Ference: Let's move on. I think we have discussed ad nauseum. Let's move on. Mr. d'Adesky: So I thinkjust to clarify and make sure we are all on the same page.
I thinl, the Board direction is to maybe at the next meeting bring back the RFP with scope of services so we can talk about the broad strokes and we will discuss it at a future meeting.
Mr. Deane: That should be at the next meeting. Mr. d'Adesky: Ok

SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	New Business	and Supervisors
Requests
Consideration of Joint CDD Meetings
Mr. Deane: Consideration of Joint CDD meetings. It was proposed that we join with the other CDD if we could have a joint meeting sometime in the first part of next year. Is everyone in favor of that is what I am trying to find out? I believe we are.
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Ms. VanSickle: Yes.
Mr. Ference: Absolutely yes.
Mr. Deane: I will go to this afternoon meeting and ask a question there and see if we can set it up.
Discussion on Merging Lake Ashton CDD and Lake Ashton II CDD
(requested by Supervisor Deane)
Mr. Deane: The next item is Discussion of Merging Lake Ashton CDD I and Lake
Ashton CDD II. This was my request. Over the past few months there has been a lot of comments made to me that it appears that the two CDDs are going in different directions. I do know that there was an amenity that was going on for several years that had been cancelled. Now the CDD II wants to hold their own new resident orientation and not participate in the resident orientation that has been going on since the beginning. I believe that it appears that the CDDs are going in opposite directions. When I moved into this community it was one Lake Ashton. There was no CDD II at the time when I moved in. It came later, but I have always thought of this as one community, Lake Ashton, and I believe that we should have discussions of making it just one community by joining the CDDs. That is my opinion and I am open for discussion with anyone.
Ms. VanSickle: My concern is these two CDDs need to work together. I think that we can do that through our joint meetings. I think we are two separate places in our growth and development. I think we are fairly established. They are still in the building process and still adding a lot of things. We run by a management company onsite. They aren1t. We have separate security companies. Theirs runs 24 hour rovers, we don1t. I think there are too many differences at this point. I think for that to ever come to fruition maybe down the road we would have to grow closer together. I think right now there would be too many obstacles.
Mr. Costello: I agree with Brenda. They are in a development stage. They are not fully developed. A month ago when I brought up certain aspects that went on over there compared to what went on over here, I was reminded that is there and this is here. I agree with you we have to work together, but I was also reminded that they have a totally

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different management style. I would like to know how you feel we are going to merge two management styles.
Mr. Ference: Well personally we must determine if the West has the same feeling about unity. We absolutely if I understand you correctly, where you feel that the East does and we came here in the beginning thinking it was one Lake Ashton and that attitude probably still permeates in the East. I think I have that same feeling. The West may not feel that way so I think what we have to determine is there a common desire. We may have it here in this CDD but if they don't feel the need for unity or oneness or one Lake Ashton it is a moot question. Before we pursue any effort to make it one we must determine if they have that same desire to make it one.
Mr. Deane: I agree with what everybody has said. I just want to open this discussion to possibly coming down the road and making this one community here.
Mr. Ference: We can always overcome obstacles if the desire and intention is there. All this stuff about they do this and we do that if we are driven to a goal we will do what we need to do to get to that goal. If they don't want to get to that goat then it is frustrating so the purpose is not to kind of delineate all the obstacles and decide whether we want unity at all first.
Mr. Deane: Right I agree. It has to be decided if we want to make it one development or if everyone wants to be one development. In my opinion it should be one development, but that is my opinion.
Mr. Ference: Take it to the West.

Update on Hurricane Plan (requested by Supervisor VanSickle)
Mr. Deane: Update on Hurricane Plan.
Ms. Tricia: I think it was requested by Supervisor VanSickle. Ms. VanSickle: Yes, I wanted an update.
Ms. Adams: Included in the community director report for November 2017 and December 2017, under the public safety section there has been updates regarding the hurricane plan. Just as a reminder, this is the hurricane plan for staff preparations. This

is not the hurricane plan for residents that we are speaking about right now. So as a result of Hurricane Irma, we reviewed the hurricane plan that staff uses as a guideline for preparations before, during and after a hurricane. Staff directed me to meet with Mike Costello and review the plan and get input because Mike Costello has a significant public safety background in professional fire services. Mike Costello met with me on October 16th and on November 2nd. There were three different aspects of public safety services that we looked at. One thing that we looked at was the opportunity to use the lightning detection system to sound an all community wide alarm. As the Board may recall a few years back we installed a strobe light connecting to the lightning detection system that is owned by the golf course onto the clubhouse. You are probably also aware that we have an alarm installed on the clubhouse that sounds in the event of lightning. I did reach out to the pro shop staff to get a better understanding of how that equipment operates if we needed to sound a community wide alarm. The only way to do that is to physically be in the pro shop. You can't access that remotely and you can't access that from one of the supplemental locations. So that was not a very feasible thing. Another thing that we are still researching is determining the extent that we have equipment that is necessary to continue operations that might need to be powered by a generator during a power outage. Right now we don't have any generator backup for any CDD assets. So we are kind of working with Mike to determine what would be critical equipment. At a future time we will bring forward a proposal for a generator to power that in the event that there is a power outage. A third item that was looked at was the ability to send voice and text messages for public safety purposes. This again was primarily looked at as a result of storm preparations and hurricane plans but of course public safety messages have other opportunities as well. So staff reached out to the platform that currently hosts ashtonliving.net website. That ties into the resident directory so for residents who have entered a home telephone number or cell phone and have the ability to receive voice or text messages there is an opportunity to add a console sort of speak onto that plan which is called Messenger Service Plus. It is simply an upgrade. The cost on that would be $20 per month. I did include an information sheet on that back of the community director's

report for your consideration. If the Board would want to pursue this I would want to coordinate with the HOAs, who assist funding the website at this time. Mike, did you have any comments about our meetings?
Mr. Costello: No. I think one of the things that we did come across was like you said was the Messenger Service Plus. It is offered at a very attractive price. It is something that I am sure we have all received phone calls through the sheriff. In the beginning of the school year usually we get one that school is beginning, be careful on the roads. We even had a situation yesterday quite honestly when I was reading the emails that they are going to be working on the roof here. You could use that to reach out to people and let them know that there is certain areas that they may want to avoid. At $20 a month financially you are talking like 2 cents a month per resident here. I also would hope it would eliminate the problem where after Hurricane Irma a lot of people were upset that quote unquote we weren't getting information out fast enough. I think that would totally eliminate that simply by putting out a robo-call. It is up to you what you are going to do with the information.
Ms. VanSickle: Who would put out that information?
Mr. Costello: I would imagine it would be Tricia. It is simply a very efficient very fast way of putting out information to large groups of people. Like I said I know that probably a lot of us getting as you sit down to dinner at night trying to sell you oceanfront property or something like that, but quite honestly it does have a positive use and I think that the money it is going to cost us is inconsequential.
Mr. Deane: It is a lot quicker than using the TV station.
Ms. Adams: In terms of policy issues we will bring this forward again as I get additional information about implementing this, and reach out to other Lake Ashton stakeholders  to  make  sure  there  are  no  issues or  concerns.	Mike and I originally discussed this as a tool for public safety efforts, not to promote activities or promote events but really to focus just on public safety efforts for this particular broadcast system.
Mr. Costello: Isn't there a license that we would have to uphold that we weren't using it for any kind of commercial?
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December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton COD

Ms. Adams: I think you are thinking of the FCC guidelines for cable channels for our local channel we do have guidelines.
Mr. Costello: Like I said I had an email that they were working on the roof. You could put a robo-call out please avoid these areas if at all possible. If they have to shut down one of the streets you could put out a notice, this way the information goes out very quickly. I make a motion that we go ahead and go with the Messenger Service Plus.
Ms. VanSickle: Second.
Mr. Deane: We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion?

On MOTION by Mr. Costello seconded by Ms. VanSickle with all in favor a proposal for Messenger Service Plus for $20 a month was approved.

Discussion on Access to Distributing Media (requested by Supervisor VanSickle)
Mr. Deane: Brenda, the next item I believe is yours, the Discussion on Access to Distributing Media.
Ms. VanSickle: My concerns are towards Hurricane Irma. At some point when staff is not onsite, I think someone onsite needs to have access to media to get our emergency information.
Ms. Adams: Is that something that you would want me to potentially train security staff with?
Ms. VanSickle: Security staff, the Chairman, the Vice Chairman, I think somebody needs access to that information.
Mr. d'Adesky: We would strongly recommend it be a staff member because for liability purposes you would incur tremendous liability if you do that as a Chairman or Vice Chairman. We would not recommend that.
Ms. VanSickle: Technically our security should be onsite. As we found out during Hurricane Irma that did not happen. Security should have been onsite but they weren't. Ms.  Adams:	Mike and I are continuing to meet regarding the hurricane preparedness plan as additional information comes forward and facts come forward so that this is something we will consider and incorporate into the plan. Before the plan is

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December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

finalized, it will be presented to the entire Board. Happily, the hurricane season for 2017 is over so we are looking ahead to preparing and updating the hurricane preparedness plan for 2018.

Discussion on DistrictfOnsite Management (requested by Supervisor VanSick.le)
Mr. Deane: Discussion on District/ Onsite Management. Brenda?
Ms. VanSickle: This follows in suit with some of our earlier discussion, but I was concerned about reviewing contracts every so many years. Usually we are happy, we go forward. I have some concerns with our onsite, and it is nothing new, nothing George and Tricia aren't aware of. In 2013 I had a long list of things and George met with me the next meeting after our Board meeting and said there is nothing on your list that we haven't already gone over. That is my point. Because of the Sunshine Laws I can't go to Mike or Borden or Bob and say these are my concerns. I think I need to do that. I want to make sure that you are aware what my concerns are. It is nothing new. Very briefly and I know last time you asked me for a list and I said I would give you a list, but I am not going to do your job any more than I am going to do their job.  It is our responsibility to stay on top of things. A lot of this goes back to Hurricane Irma. That brought everything to a head for me. Things didn't happen that should have happened. When we were talking about if afterwards, some of the things and George's comments, well some of my Boards we try and keep you from being inconvenienced and some of our Boards don't want to meet for more than an hour a month or whatever. I was asking for information. I feel as a Board member I am entitled to that information. I feel that these residents are entitled to that information. He also said that they managed contracts. I came back with well why I am able to come forward with so many issues. If you are managing the contracts, why are these things happening? It is not my job to keep saying this needs to happen and this needs to happen. We pay a management contract to do that. Examples, clean restrooms or lack thereof, running out of propane should not be the signal for refill. That has been going on for years. We didn't even know that we had a gauge on that system. That is a problem. Trimming CDD property trees hanging in the

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roadway. That was recently taken care of, and I appreciate that, Alan. Shingles and flower beds a month after the hurricane. Timely dissemination and integrity of information in spite of, I told you, Tricia, George, I told everybody. I said at Board meetings I want to know what is going on around here. We make a policy, you all implement it, but if we don't know what is going on we can't make an informed decision. And that is why I appreciate Tricia meets with me weekly. I meet with George. When I have asked for him, he comes in. I appreciate that, but I want it clear, and I want the rest of this Board to know that. I know that some Board members don't feel like I do. I don't think I can vote on an amenity policy unless I have read it. I want to know what is going on around here. Website is grossly out of date. This was an issue back in 2013, and is still an issue. I don't spend time going over the website. It is not my job, but when a resident comes to me looking for something and I point them in that direction, just an example, as of last month's meeting, Supervisor Costello who has been here with us a year now almost was not listed. Jose Restaurant was still on the management organizational flow chart. Lake Ashton Grill was still listed on the information for new residents. Fitness orientation with a date of June 23rd at 5:00 p.m., bread making with an April date, water color painting with a June date, pet play park information was still listed as both parks still available and one is closed. It is pretty bad when I was looking for a time for something that I was going to attend and I go on ashtonliving.net I can't find it. We have a resident with a website, I pulled up hers. Thank you, Iris, I got that information immediately. We have paid staff to do that yet we have residents with their own website that is more accurate. That is not good. I have said before that I think staff coverage of this building needs to be staggered. I asked for this back in 2013 per our contract. I would like to see this building covered more. I am sorry, Andrew, but who does our attorney work for? When I ask a question, do you work for us or do you work for GMS? If I ask a question it doesn't have to be filtered through them.  I resented that. I resented it took a week both times to get an answer, but when I contacted George, I got it immediately. That is a concern. We need to be transparent in everything we do. Everything should be online for easy access. All our contracts. Al keeps saying we don't
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have job descriptions. We have job descriptions. You can get them through public records requests. We shouldn't have to. All that should be online. There is nothing we should be hiding. We saved thousands a few years ago on one of our road contracts. We had a resident with a road engineering background was able to give us ideas that saved us thousands of dollars. We have a very talented and educated resident base. They could be very helpful if they knew what was out there. The CDD Supervisors as a group hired this management company to manage the day to day workings of this community. This does not mean that we as Supervisors stick our head in the sand and don't pay attention to what is going on. I am not one of those. You may have some that are but I am not. I want to know what is going on. Who does staff work for? The interest of our residents should also be a top priority. This keeps coming back for me to the restaurant. I feel staff has bent over backwards to accommodate the restaurant but sometimes at a cost to our residents. I resent that. These are the things that I think are fixable. I think that they can be fixed. Like I said nothing on here is new. I wanted to make sure my fellow Board members know where I stand on those issues. Thank you.
Mr. Deane: Any other comments?
Mr. Costello: I would like to say that I agree with Brenda. We have an obligation to the people of this community to remain truly transparent. We quite honestly should not have anything tied as far as any type of business that goes on within this community. Hopefully we will find a way to open up the lines of communication and let people know what is going on here.

Discussion on Card Access to Lake Ashton CDD Amenities (requested by Supervisor VanSiclde)
Mr. Deane: Next item up is Discussion of Card Access to Lake Ashton CDD Amenities. Brenda?
Ms. VanSickle: I brought this up several years back, and it didn't fly. We got cameras instead. As we are growing and getting to be a bigger community, I am hearing more and more of instances of people coming in and using our facilities that should not be. A resident recently called me and said that a jogger came through the west gate. I
21 

said we have no control over the west gate. I said we can't keep a jogger or anybody else out, they are public roads. She told me they come in, but what is to keep them from using the fitness center. Good point. We hope that our security is following up on our ID badges, but that doesn't happen as nearly as often I think we would hope.	Plus if somebody comes in once or twice they get used to seeing them, and pretty soon they think  they belong anyway.	I heard instances of people coming into the pool that shouldn't be. Recently one of the residents told me that somebody was turned away and left, got on his motorcycle and went out the main gate.	He said I have seen that person in here several times before. I hear people coming in and joining our clubs. Our amenity policy says that our clubs are for residents only. People coming in for classes. I was at a LA Belles event on Wednesday and the complaint was that someone that had moved out was still coming in and going to classes and using amenities. I think we need to do something to deter that. As we grow larger, we don't have enough space and like our entertainment is sold out for our residents. When people hear outsiders getting those tickets they get very upset. So I think we need to be very careful. We stopped some of that, but I think we need to be very cognizant that as we are growing this is becoming more of an issue. I don't know if we should start small, maybe just on the pool, or if we should do it on the building, but I think it would also help like during a hurricane when we didn't have access. A gentleman spoke to me the other day, he was concerned about the HFC, what time they opened. He likes to exercise early and he had heard a rumor that they might start opening later and if they did then he lives on this side and he was going to come to us and wants us to open hours earlier so he could get in. Well if there was a card access he could get in and use that facility. I would like to open that discussion. Mr. Deane: That is something that I agree with. That is something that should be discussed between both CDDs because you are talking about amenities on both sides, not
just one side.
Ms. VanSickle: We only control the amenities on one side.
Mr. Deane: That is why I said it has to be discussed between both CDDs. Ms. VanSickle: I am not proposing putting them on the HFC.

 	 	 	

December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

Mr. Costello: Hopefully we are going to get a meeting within the next couple of months and we can straighten a lot of this out.

Request from Resident at 4564 Turnberry Lane to encroach into LACDD Easement
This was discussed earlier in the meeting.

SEVENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Monthly Reports
Attorney
Mr. Deane: We are now down to the attorney's report.
Mr. d'Adesky: The one thing is there was a question about some question that I think Supervisor VanSickle brought this up about Airbnb regarding to use of renting of certain properties and there was a question to what we can do about that in terms of restricting guest access. As you may be aware Airbnb is a service that you can go online and you can book an apartment for a day or two to use as a substitute hotel. It's much like Uber. It is a very disruptive technology that is throwing off the hotel industry. A lot of cities and counties are trying to regulate it. It is really not permissible in a lot of places. It is really ruining a lot of places like New York who are having extreme problems with it. There is a lot of case law going on about it. Long story short we can't enforce HOA covenants, but we can require that if somebody wants to use our facilities as a guest, they need to have a valid rental agreement. Now a valid rental agreement can't be in violation of any city, county, or other restrictions. Usually one of those is usually to pay the occupancy tax for a rental if it is a hotel or whatnot, or have a long term lease agreement, which in the case of Airbnb wouldn't happen. I thinl< that is the way to say they either produce the rental agreement and if they are not able to produce the rental agreement then we can deny them access as a guest. So I thinl< that is the answer to that question. We definitely don't go about enforcing in any instance any HOA covenants. The HOA can take separate action which is great but we are operating on a different access.
Ms. VanSickle: My concern is that they were advertising the use of CDD amenities.

Mr. Ference: Borden we moved onto Andrew, under New Business I was going to address the letter we got back from Larry Maxwell regarding interest in selling the assets. Is that an opportunity before we go on to monthly reports?
Mr. Deane: Yes.
Mr. Ference: I think we all received communication from George Flint concerning his meeting with Larry Maxwell regarding interest in selling the assets or the purchase. The point to us was, and I won't read the letter, but Mr. Maxwell made it clear that we were only tasked with determining his willingness to sell. The Board has not taken a position as to whether they were interested in acquiring the assets. So I would like to go on record saying that we are indeed interested in acquiring these assets. So I would like to go on record to say that not only have we had George test the water to see if Maxwell was indeed willing, but yes he is willing, and so are we willing to acquire those assets. I would like to go on record and say yes, indeed we don't want a third party coming in and buying up the properties that Mr. Maxwell currently owns. So whatever it takes for us to determine and show our willingness to buy what Mr. Maxwell is willing to sell, I would like to go on record to say that it is our purpose and intention.
Mr. Deane: Bob, I agree with you. What I think we should do, Mr. Maxwell didn't mention any prices, but I think we should get appraisals to find out what these properties are worth before we can we are going to go out and spend millions of dollars.
Mr. Ference: The point was that we only inquired and what he is asking is that we have not taken a position as to whether we were interested. I am saying that we are interested. That is the point of my statement. Now where we go from there is up to the Board and George to determine fair market value, etc., etc., but I just want to point out that we are interested because we just inquired whether he was interested in to sell. Now we are to determine that we are interested to be the buyer. That is all I am saying. I am not talking about price. I just wanted it to be known publically that we do want to participate in what it would take to acquire these assets.
Mr. Deane: Does any other Board member have an opinion?

Ms. VanSickle: I think there is an interest, but a lot of that would be based on price. What is it going to cost? I don't think these residents want their fees going up to purchase this, so I think there is a lot that needs to be considered, but I think we need to go down that road to do some investigation.
Mr. d'Adesky: Just so you know from a logistical standpoint in terms of how we would pay for that, buying these things, especially particularly the golf course. Right now we just spoke to the underwriter at a separate District totally unrelated but it is relevant to this, your revenue from golf courses is so poor that there is no way that any underwriter in their right mind would issue a bond based on the potential revenue from a golf course. So what you would be looking at if you are looking at bonds, if that is the route that we eventually went would be assessments. Assessments would be going up to pay for a bond to purchase if that was the route, just so you know. There are usually two options if something can generate revenue you could try and base it on that revenue but that is not an option in this case, just so everyone knows.
Mr. Deane: It is an option. You have the commercial building across the street.
You have the RV storage lot, which produces thousands of dollars a month revenue.
Mr. Costello: The only thing there in reading the letter, it was pretty well noted that he would like to sell everything. Everything is a package deal. He wants it all as one package. Quite honestly, we would have to do an appraisal on what each property was worth. Hopefully nobody is going to come up with the money to buy the entire package and maybe we could pick and choose what was in our best interest to buy.
Mr. Ference: Michael, the communication said Mr. Maxwell was undecided at the time as to whether he would sell all assets as a package, or break them up and sell portions.
Mr. Costello: That is what I was referring to. That is telling you that he is going to do what is in his best interest.
Mr. Ference: We can't decide if he is going to do one or the other so I amjust saying he is not certain he is going to sell as a package.

December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

Mr. Costello: We are talking about a large sum of money. Who knows maybe somebody will come in and buy the entire package. I think we could do welt maybe owning the building across the street or the storage lot. I think that could do very well. I would like to see us buy the whole package, but we are going to have to see where he goes with it.
Mr. Ference: Well as far as community awareness, we have seen how we need parking. It is just amazing how congested and how the streets are when we have an event here or wedding. The opportunity for us to buy property, I am looking at that parking lot next to the sales center, would be an ideal for a parking garage. It is not intrusive in anybody's line of sight. We are taking about the future and where are we going to put all these cars. What happens when well I don't have to go any further to say that we are already beyond our capacity to park? This is only one of the few opportunities that we have to find acreage wide enough to accommodate something like a very unobtrusive parking garage. People don't want to see their assets or monthly costs go up, well where are you going to park your car if you want to bring your family and relatives to a party, dinner, or lunch etc. etc.? We have to face the reality of what we need, and we have to be able to afford what we really need. Certainly if nothing else needs a place to park That is one of the only places available in this whole community, right across the street.
Mr. Costello: I think of it right now we are looking too far ahead. You are right. I believe that we should let them know that we do have an interest in the package and see where they go from there, then come back instead of sitting here right now and trying to make a decision on what we are going to do. I think we should wait and see what their answer is.
Mr. Ference: I am just saying the short side is that people don't want to see their monthly asset price go up. We have to remind them that, well, let's just leave it at that. We will go there in the future. Thank you.
Mr. d'Adesky: I would add that if you were going down the topic that puts an appraisal, that might be something you might want to consider in a joint meeting because

December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

once again, once an amenity comes online, subject to the local agreement it is shared so there is something to be said about sharing an appraisal for a potentially joint endeavor.
Mr. Costello: I just believe right now that the best thing we can do is let him know that we do have an interest and to see what he comes back to us with.
Mr. Deane: Can we instruct George to get back in touch with Mr. Maxwell telling him that we are interested in possibly purchasing the property that he is going to offer? Maybe he will come back with a price,  or maybe he will want to sit down and negotiate, I don't know. Mr. Maxwell is going to look out for Mr. Maxwell. We know that.
Mr. Mossing: George and I also had a conversation with the District's investment banker. In 2015 the District refinanced all of its bond issues. As part of this conversation, if you were interested, and you did want to use bond financing for the acquisition, there are some problems with your existing bonds since they have two provisions. There is a ten year call provision on those bonds, and you also cannot issue parity debt. You cannot issue additional debt to acquire capital assets while those bonds are outstanding. So the investment banker suggestion is, we believe there is only one bondholder that he  could go to the bondholder and see if they would be willing to negotiate those provisions. That would be a step, assuming that you require some type of financing. It is going to be problematic with your existing bond structure.
Mr. Deane:  Thanl< you.

Community Director
Monthly Report
Update on Hurricane Irma Repairs and Expenses
Broadcast Text & Voice Messages
Ms. Adams: As previously mentioned including in the agenda packet was a multi-
page community director report. It had updates on various onsite projects and aspects of operation. I also want to note that from Community Watch Solutions, who has the Lake Ashton CDD security services agreement, John Cruz is here. He is the account manager. Did you have any remarks for the Board, John? No remarks. I do want to mention since the November meeting we did start withour seasonal pool officer. I want to commend Community Watch Solutions.   They brought forward  a very high quality
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December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

employee who is performing very well at the pool and we appreciate that position hitting the ground running. First of all, do you have any questions about any of the content that was included in the report? I have a few other updates that were subsequent to the report being published. One issue our local insertion channel, our cable community channel 96/732. Part of the MX agreement included the local access channel or the insertion channel. I had reached out to Spectrum several times over the course resolution of the lawsuit and the closing of MX Communications to find out the status of that channel. I recently received communication back that the District will have a couple of options to consider. One would be the discontinuation of that service. Another option would be to be direct billed from Spectrum for that service.  I did ask that they prepare a proposal for
the Board's consideration that would be considered at an upcoming meeting.  Not today     I  don't  have  that number today.   That would be  considered at an upcoming meeting. I
will also have some data for the Board regarding resident perspective on channel 96/732 because this technology has become very outdated in terms of the preferred communication methodology that staff uses to reach out to residents. In the last millennium this was good technology but now with adding of personal devices, cell phones, computers, the prolific nature of electronic mait it has just become a less desirable technology. Also, just an update, the City of Lake Wales recently reached out and confirmed that for Lake Ashton they would be continuing that book mobile service for 2018. That has been a very good partnership with the Lake Wales Library. They did mention to staff that Lake Ashton is their most popular stop in terms of the number of customers that they service. So that has been a good partnership with the City of Lake Wales and they are going to continue that service for the upcoming calendar year with stops twice a month at the clubhouse. Also I was recently contacted by a peer out at Warner University. They had mentioned to me that he has a very high performing communications student who is looking for an internship. It would be unpaid. I had previously mentioned the concept to the Board with another organization and the Board endorsed that, but just in an abundance of caution I wanted to bring that forward again.  I  would like to  utilize  this  student from Warner University for the spring semester and
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forward him some on the job experience and internship. There would be no cost to the District. Does the Board have any input?
Mr. Deane: I think it is a great idea.
Ms. Adams: Also, Brenda at the last meeting asked for staff to provide an update regarding furniture on the pool deck. We all understand that at peak season we have a high demand for furniture at the pool when the weather is nice. She did want to know exactly how much furniture was out there. We currently have 44 lounge chairs and 32 chairs on the pool deck. There are times when residents perceive that we could put more furniture in but I do want to point out that we need to be careful to not put furniture in front of the newly installed emergency phone. We also don't want to put  furniture around the shower that we ask residents to use before they enter the pool. We don't want to put furniture around the life rings. So there are some areas that we don't have furniture. We did recently review that area. We ended up moving some plants from the pool deck to make room for as much furniture as we could put down there. Are there any question about pool furniture? Alright if there are no other questions, that is all I have for the Board. Thank you.
Mr. Costello: One of the questions that I have been asked by several people is the entertainment series. I don't know is there any way we can add another show? Has anything been brought to you or that you looked at that?

Ms. Adams: Yes. This is the very first year that we sold out with season tickets for the entertainment series. It is very popular and it has a very prestige factor  affiliated with it. Recently regarding some planning for 2019, we are looking at some different options to see how we can accommodate the most people for the most popular events at Lake Ashton. You will also notice this year that we are offering quite a few individual shows. I am trying to really get an accurate count.
Mr. Costello: I realize that you are working very hard on it.
Ms. Adams: The District's exposure for these shows, when you are talking about booking Chubby Checker off the top of my head I think that contract is $45,000, there is a lot of exposure. The way that we have been able to keep the ticket costs low is by cost

December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

averaging for a series. We are looking at this very carefully. I will have some thoughts for 2019 and part of that is going to be based on how many performances we can schedule with key stars.
Mr. Costello: I think everybody has done an excellent job on it. I think there are a lot of people who would have liked to have had the opportunity to maybe attend a series and it just wasn't there for them.
Ms. Adams: I can tell you that human nature is such that they want it more because it sold out. So we are very careful about how much we offer and making sure that we can break even with those shows.
Mr. Costello: I just wanted to see if there was some sort of plan going forward. Ms. Adams: Yes. We are looking for 2019.

Field Operations Manager - Monthly Report
Mr. Deane: Alan?
Mr. Scheerer: I am good. Good morning. The field manager's report was included as part of your agenda. One of the things to add to that since this was mailed out. Applied Aquatic' s team was onsite to perform the quarterly maintenance throughout the community. So far so good. I am not sure if they are done yet as that was Wednesday while I was here. I also had a meeting to review all the ponds throughout the community with Applied Aquatic. In the field operations report we are still battling the Aberdeen pond and the Berwick pond as far as algae goes, but Archie was here on Wednesday and hit it pretty hard so if there is some chemical smells it shouldn't last too long and pray for some rain.
Ms. Van Sickle:   I have a couple of questions.	A resident came to me with a question about the hedge height on the Boulevard. What is that height supposed to be?
Mr. Scheerer: There is no specific height. If the Board remembers when we first hired Yellowstone I think that was almost up to 20 foot tall. It is due for a trim as you can see we have some fresh growth which is always good to see. I spoke with Chris at Yellowstone about that. There is no specific height. I think at the time we had a resident

 	 	 	

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that lived behind the hedges that we cut them over the course of six months or so to bring the bourgenvilla down and make sure that these areas that are from the homes that you can view the golf course with them maintained at the current height but there was never a specific height that was ever established for them. We just cut it down and worked with that particular resident. It seemed that everybody was happy so we are leaving it where it is at. If you want it shorter we can make it shorter?
Ms. VanSickle: No. I would think that you need to check with that group of
residents because after we cut them before there was one that was extremely upset. We ruined her backyard and her sunroom.
Mr. Scheerer: None of this changed since I have been here.
Ms. VanSickle: The one now is asking for a height because  she  said they used to be shorter and now they have gotten so tall they are not getting any light. She said you  have to hire the trucks with the lifts to get people to cut them. It would be easier  if they were lower. I am just asking what is that height supposed to be or what should I go back and tell this resident?
Mr. Scheerer: Well the height is whatever preference you want. Those things can continue to grow. It is a great plant. It provides a great screen wall from noise and traffic and flying golf balls for those of us that can't hit straight. They are due for a trim. They will be trimmed before the holidays. We also have some palm tree work that will be going on. It is all a performance. It is not an industry standard for that particular plant.
Ms. VanSickle: So we  don't have  a set amount we cut or  anything?  Just so  I can  let this resident know. She asked me.
Mr. Scheerer:  There is no set height.	We will trim them and if she wants to meet with us, I will be happy to accommodate.
Ms. VanSickle: It was Ursula McFarland.
Mr. Scheerer: If you can give me an address and phone number. Ms. VanSickle: I will be happy to email you that.
Ms. Adams: I will send it to you.

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December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

Ms. VanSickle: Thank you, Tricia. My second question is what is the status on the shuffle board courts?
Mr. Scheerer: The shuffle board court, Matt was going to reach out with the vendor to come back out and take a look at the couple of concerns that were raised at the last Board meeting. It has not happened since that meeting, but we haven't lost sight of that.
Ms. VanSickle: After I saw it on your report I said what are your problems? Then I was invited to shuffleboard that night and there were a lot of issues that they said on one court the puck or whatever it is called will sort of bounce and then in another part it will go so far then turn right. They were very specific about wanting signs on the courts that said do not walk on the courts.
Mr. Scheerer: We are addressing that. That is maybe something we can do in house, too, if we have to. We did pay a vendor to do that work and we are reaching out to them to get them on site to review the concerns. That is the first I had heard of any concerns was at the last meeting.
Ms. VanSickle: They said it is worse now than it was before the work was done. Mr. Scheerer: We are working on that.
Ms. VanSickle: Thank you.
Mr. Scheerer: Anything else? Thank you.

CDD Manager
Mr. Deane: CDD manager.
Mr. Mossing: We have nothing further to report.

EIGHTH  ORDER OF BUSINESS	Financial Reports
Approval of Check Run Summary
Combined Balance Sheet
Mr. Deane: Financial Reports. Approval of the check run summary. Are there any
questions. If not, we need a motion.

On MOTION by Ms. VanSickle seconded by Mr. Costello with all in favor the check run summary was approved.

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December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

Mr. Deane: Combined balance sheet is there. We don't need any motion on that.

NINTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	General Audience Comments
Mr. Deane: Are there any audience comments?
Mr. Goldstein: You know I can't rest until I get something finished. I think we took two steps forward, and we took a step backwards. I thank Supervisor VanSickle and Supervisor Costello for bringing up all the matters that count. The transparency has been asked for, but then we put if off into the next meeting. How many meetings do we have to have before we give a direction about the bid system? Then all of the sudden we jump over going to commit that we are going to buy the golf course in the community. It is like we are going to Mars before we even get to the moon. First thing that I think you need to do is check into other areas in the state of Florida that have made this move and ask them how it has been going. Ask them how their fees have been raised. We have a high price golf course right now which covers basically $4,800 or $5,000 a year, $425 a month. That is high. Do you realize what we would have to pay for 25 % of residents to play golf in here? Also going back to how do we investigate or do this bid system etc. Let me just make a suggestion. We have congressional committees or oversight committees, I suggest we have a good working Board and we have a good HOA in this area maybe you can get an oversight committee to work on a plan on how to get this through. We have avoided the question about when we talked about transparency we avoided the question about how we are going to hire. How we are going to fire. I understand there are two different contracts. How are we going to do this? I just don't think that the five people on the Board have the time or knowhow. We have about five people who are sitting in here that have worked on government contracts their whole career. Incorporate some of these people to show you how to put a bid system out and how to bid responses to do that. That is all I have to say. Thank you.
Mr. Doug Robinson:	Chairman of Lake Ashton  II CDD.	In regards to your
comments, Mr. Deane, I know Lake Ashton II is very interested in having a one community concept. We are very interested in that. We promote it all the time, but I did

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have to take affront from your comments because it examples the cheapest used to suggest that you are the person that is trying to divide us with your lack of information and lack of support. I am upset. Now just so that the audience understands.  We did have a vote, 8 votes in favor of a single security force. Borden Deane changed his vote so it would be divided. That is the person who divided us. Not me.  Not our side.  Next,  the amenity that is missing that you used it missing because a resident wrote a letter to the golf course and threatened to sue them because the damage from the hurricane and they closed it because of the liability. Get your facts straight. Let me finish. It is my turn. I am allowed my three minutes. Next talking about the new member orientation we had lots of comments and suggestions the residents didn't like it, we took feedback and we decided to improve it. Getting somebody a new member orientation after two months that they have been here to tell them when their garbage is going to be put out two months later is not appropriate. They needed something more efficient.  We came up with a new one. We tried to work with your staff. We came up with a new way. We have met with Tricia and we have a solution. We have always participated. We invite your staff over to ours. I think we have a better way of orienting new people. Suggesting that we don't want to participate is wrong. So you need to get your facts straight and then you wouldn't be having me stand here annoyed at you for how you treat us.
Mr. Deane: I am sorry you feel that way, but I didn't mention the dog park.
Mr. Robinson: Yes but you referred to it as a closed amenity. Mr. Deane: I did not.
Mr. Robinson:	Why don't you just try and talk to me instead of just putting  innuendos on the floor.
Mr. Deane: I am not putting innuendos.
Mr. Robinson: You just did. Never mind, I got your attitude.
Mr. Sosinsky: Good morning. I am Bob Sosinsky. I happen to be President of the Lake Ashton HOA and in response to Ms. VanSickle, Lake Ashton per ashtonliving.net is owned and operated by the HOA. We actually discussed this at our last meeting regarding why doesn't the CDD pay for ashtonliving.net? It is our understanding right

now that if it were the CDD that owned the site it would have to be public. Right now it is private, just open to Lake Ashton residents. I may be wrong but am I right in this?
Mr. d'Adesky: You are right.
Mr. Sosinsky: So right now we have no paid employees. Valerie has been helpful in updating the site and keeping things up-to-date. Now we have Iris Realmuto, who is a great asset in helping update the site. Like I said, right now it is private for Lake Ashton residents. We would like to keep it that way. We have limited resources to update it, but we appreciate the help we have had from Valerie.
Ms. VanSickle: My concern is as part of onsite management contract that website will be updated. I don't see that happening.
Ms. Adams: Just for clarification for the meeting minutes I do want to state that all of the CDD documents and all of the CDD records, all the required CDD information for regulatory compliance is public. People do not need to log into the website to see the CDD information. Only certain aspects such as the resident directory and certain activities that we don't have out there public, but all of the required documents are on ashtonliving.net under the CDD section. I just wanted to state that for the record. I didn't mean to interrupt your conversation.
Ms. VanSickle: That is fine. I understood they would handle the classified and Bargain Bay and he is telling me they are responsible for updating the whole thing. Maybe that is our problem we don't have anybody responsible for it.
Ms. Adams: I was not involved at the HOA meeting. I didn't participate in the
discussion, but just for clarification, the URL or the website name ashtonliving.net is	
owned by Lake Ashton CDD and the District has owned it for years and will continue to. The District has always operated ashtonliving.net, but years ago the HOA asked if the site could be migrated to a different hosting platform because the HOA wanted to utilize certain aspects such as the ability for residents to log in and see their account information, to submit ARC forms and some other helpful things. So at that time the HOA had funding available and the HOA for Lake Wales pays the pro-rata share, the HOA for Winter Haven pays a pro-rata share, and we migrated the website name ashtonliving.net

 	

December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton COD

to that hosting site or that hosting platform. This is the third hosting platform we have utilized. It could be a different hosting platform years from now, but the HOA maintains certain content and features, and the District has an agreement with the onsite amenity manager to maintain certain content.  That is just for the record.  You are correct.  You do have an agreement with the onsite management to maintain information on behalf of the CDD, as well as information on behalf of activities, resident services, and posting on behalf of club groups and organizations. We have not been rigid about that. If the HOA ever wants CDD staff to post on behalf of their organization we have done that, too.
Ms. VanSickle: What portion are your people controlling? Mr. Sosinsky: Let me give you the person with the answers.
Ms. Realmuto: Currently the HOA maintains just information on HOA business. So our minutes, our documents, our agendas, and we post on the HOA page and anything relevant on the announcement page. We do not post anything on any other thing about activities or clubs or anything like that.
Ms. VanSickle: What about Bargain Bay?
Ms. Realmuto: We have notbeen involved in that until a recent incident.
Ms.  Adams:  Bargain  Bay  is  self-published,  which  means  residents  have  the opportunity to log in and publish their own content on Bargain Bay.
Ms. VanSickle: I do have a request, and as long as we have HOA and CDD here, I think names should be on those and dates because I think some of those you look at those and you don't know where it is coming from. There was a negative comment recently. I think when you fill out the form to post something, you put that information, but that information doesn't always show. Can that be changed?
Ms. Realmuto: The trouble with doing the way that it is setup currently is it's just posting like an article with no information. If we were to do required name and information it would then have to be manually entered later. There is no way to automatically get that in. So the HOA this past Wednesday voted to remove the referral part of it, but keep the classified currently as it stands. We are pending HOA West agreement since they also are involved on the website.

 	 	 	

December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

Ms. VanSickle: So the items I brought forward earlier were onsite staff correct? Ms. Realmuto: Correct.
Ms. VanSickle: Thank you.
Ms. Realmuto: While I am up here I did have one question. In terms of bidding out it was mentioned that there are two contracts, one for the District Manager and one for field staff. Was bidding out going to be for both or just for one?
Mr. Deane: Field management services is what we understood.
Ms. Realmuto: Why not also do CDD management since there are two contracts?
Mr. d'Adesky: You could if you want. It seems like most of the issues that were generated seemed to be field management, and once again that is up to the Board.
Ms. VanSickle: I think with any of our contracts they need to be reviewed and may be reviewed annually. We have some that we are very pleased with it and we go forward with. We can never forget an incident with Yellowstone. They showed me why I really like this company. We all think they do a wonderful job with our landscaping. I walk the dogs and walk around the neighborhood, I saw some slippage. I was told they will check it and it will get fixed. It went on for a couple of months. I said this isn't good, somebody is not paying attention. So I shot Alan an email and I said I think there has been some slippage, and I gave him some information. He said he would come on Wednesday and he would check and follow-up like he does every Wednesday. Then I started sending him pictures. Within a week or so we had a double staff from Yellowstone out here. I don't even remember what those issues that I was complaining about were, but I will never forget the response. They took care of it. That is all that I am asking with any of our contracts. If we have issues, fix it. It takes a process to put a bid out. If we are happy with something I don't think it needs to go out. If not it needs to be fixed. We played around with our security contract for at least a year before it went out to bid. We knew there were issues but we kept trying to fix it and it didn't happen. So it had to go to bid.
Mr. Deane: Are there any other comments?
Mr. Ference: I make a motion we adjourn the meeting.

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December 8, 2017	Lake Ashton CDD

Mr. Costello: I will second it wishing everybody a Happy Holiday. Mr. Deane: Yes everyone have a Happy Holiday.

TENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Adj ournment

On MOTION by Mr. Ference seconded by Mr. Costello with all in favor the meeting was adjourned.

Assistant Secretary/Secretary	Chairman/Vice Chairman

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