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COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY (CRA) BOARD MEETING
Ocoee Commission Chambers
150 North Lakeshore Drive
Ocoee, Florida
October 2, 2007 MINUTES 6:00 p.m.
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Vandergrift called the Community Redevelopment Area Board together at 6:00 p.m. in the
Commission Chambers of City Hall. City Clerk Eikenberry called roll and declared a quorum
present.
Roll Call: Board Member Hood(absent), Board Member C. Johnson, Board Member Anderson
(absent), Chairman Vandergrift, Board Member Keller(absent), Board Member Corless and Board
Member R. Johnson.
Also Present: City Manager Frank, City Attorney Rosenthal, City Clerk Eikenberry, Assistant City
Manager Croteau
I. Approval of Minutes of the October 3, 2006 Regular Meeting and the October 26, F
2006 Workshop.
Board Member Corless, seconded by Board Member R. Johnson, moved to
approve the minutes October 26, 2006 workshop. Motion carried 4 -0, with
Member Hood, Member Keller, and Member Anderson absent.
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a) Review of FY 2007/2008 Budget
Assistant City Manager Croteau said that there is good news this year. She said we had
approximately $291,000 last year and we are carrying over about $280,000 of that to this year.
She said they limited expenditures last year due to concern over the property tax revision; we
held off hiring the CRA position. Our contribution next year into the CRA should be $862,390
and we anticipate miscellaneous revenue of approximately $14,000. That should give us
$1,100,000 in the budget next year.
She made two corrections in the budget package; on page 12.1 the under the heading revenue
where it says property taxes and on page 12.2 the heading property taxes and advalorem tax,
both of those should read contributions and not property taxes.
Ms. Croteau reviewed some of the items budgeted for the 2007 -2008 Fiscal Year:
Expenditures Summary (pagel2 -3)
• $67,435 in Personnel is carried over into the budget for a CRA Manager for half of the year.
Operating
• $107,000, there is money included for master planning, which includes transportation,
utilities, stormwater, and possibly a transportation overlay district. There is also some
surveying and market analysis work.
• $75,000 for legal costs on Colony Plaza; she said they are continuing to move forward with a
resolution on that
• $60,000 for engineering work on a turn lane on northbound Maguire Road turning east onto
Old Winter Garden Road; she stated it is a much - needed turn lane.
Capital
• $200,000 set aside for milling and resurfacing Blackwood Avenue
• $75,000 to do some additional streetscape work in front of the hospital.
• $400,000 for land acquisition for Maguire Road Phase 5 to move forward with the widening
of Maguire
Transfers
• $104,324 Reimbursement to General Fund
Member C. Johnson asked if there would be an update on the status of the Colony Plaza.
Assistant City Manager Croteau said the Code Enforcement action has begun; the City
Attorney is working on that and they will bring an update in the next few months.
Member R. Johnson asked if they could have a copy of the breakdown of the tax money that
comes from the county. Ms. Croteau said she thought it was included in their packet, but it is
$424,138 from the County and 438,250 from the City, which totals the $862,390.
b) Resolution adopting CRA Budget for FY 2007/2008
Member R. Johnson, seconded by Member Corless, moved to adopt Resolution
No, 2007 -001 approving the CRA Budget for FY 2007/2008. Motion carried 4 -0,
with Member Keller, Member Anderson, and Member Hood absent.
III. Update on Florida Supreme Court Ruling (David Cardwell)
Mr. Cardwell said that in a surprising decision on September 6, 2007, the Supreme Court issued
an opinion in the case of Strand Vs. Escambia County saying that they were receding from the
Miami Beach decision of 1980 that had upheld Tax Increment Financing (TIFs) and found that
the way that Escambia County did it was unconstitutional. They also cast doubt on the validity
of Certificates of Participation (COPS) that are issued by school districts to finance school
construction. Last Friday the court issued a revised opinion saying COPS are okay because they
are only one year obligations, but they still maintained that TIFs are illegal fiction. They also
issued an order on the oral argument for the rehearing on Strand which is set for October 9, 2007,
and the Florida Redevelopment Association (FRA) along with the Florida League of Cities
(FLC) are representing all the CRAs in the state. The FRA has retained retired Justice Stephen
Grimes, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who will argue that the Miami Beach Law
was good law for 20 years and should not have been overturned without hearing any arguments.
He said they are hoping that at as a result of the rehearing they will send the case back to
Escambia County and tell them they did not do it right, because the road project on Perdido Key
was done under Home Rule, it was not a CRA situation. They will hopefully say CRAs are
okay. There are two other oral argument cases pending in Bay County, City of Parker and the
CRA Regular Meeting 10 -02 -07 Page 2
City of Cedar Grove, that will be heard on January 10, 2008. He said they were thinking the
court would send back the Strand Case on narrow grounds and wait for the other two cases to
really address CRAs. However, this morning he found the Supreme Court turned down the
motion of FRA to file the amicus brief on the cross appeal in the Parker case, which is where
Bay County is attacking the constitutionality of CRA TIFs. He said he is baffled as to why they
did it. He said he believes there will be a decision in the Strand case by the end of the month.
The Parker and Cedar Grove cases may not have opinions until March, which is significant
because the legislature starts meeting in March. The FRA is already thinking about remedial
legislation they can do to fix the quandary we are in right now because of Strand.
Mr. Cardwell also said that he prepared a document for the FRA members on the effects of
Strand where there is a page and a half of questions and one paragraph of answers. He said in
Strand, if you want to issue TIF you must have referendum, and we are asking when and by
whom. We always thought once the money went into the trust fund it is no longer ad valorem
revenues, now they want it traced from its source to its end use. There are several questions as to
what type of referendum needs to be done. He added it is going to be an interested several
months coming up. There is a conference in Daytona Beach later this month about Strand, and
they hope to learn more then. There is also a program the Florida Institute of Government is
sponsoring on Strand in November in Fort Lauderdale.
He said the other news is that Standard and Poors put all TIF debt on credit watch soon after the
Strand decision. They announced last Friday, as a result of the revised opinion, that they were
reconsidering that but as of an hour ago they have not taken us off credit watch. It is credit
watch with negative implications; TIF bonds for more than 12 months without a referendum
have no market. All CRAs are looking at their obligations trying to pay as they go, or keep it to
less than 12 months; some are being advised by their bond council to no longer drawing down on
their lines of credit. There are questions if the courts decision applies to contracts, such as
Development Agreements, where we agree to make payments for more than 12 months. He said
that there are still many unanswered questions.
tIV. Designation of Chair and Vice Chair
Board Member Corless, seconded by C. Johnson moved that the CRA Board
maintains the same Chair and Vice Chair (Chair Vanderdrift and Vice Chair
Anderson) as the last Fiscal Year. Motion carried 4 -0 with Members Keller, Hood,
and Anderson absent.
The meeting adjourned at 6:20 p.m.
APPROVED:
Attest:
1 Eikenberry, Secretary S. Scott Vandergrift, Chair 7
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