The Loxahatchee Groves Water Control District Board of Supervisors will meet in a special session on Tuesday, Aug. 29 at 4 p.m. to consider final approval of a resolution to turn over the balance of LGWCD roads to the Town of Loxahatchee Groves, to decide the scope of a forensic audit of district funds and consider the $1.4 million budget for fiscal year 2017-18.
On July 24, the board approved conveying the balance of all district roads to the town, and on Aug. 14, the board approved ceasing maintenance on all roads on Sept. 30.
On the Aug. 29 meeting agenda is a proposed quit claim deed for the balance of the roads
The remaining roads to be conveyed include South A Road, North B Road, North E Road, South E Road, North Folsom Road, West G Road, East G Road, 25th Street North, South North Road and South C Road.
The proposed scope of services for the forensic audit is to be structured in two phases, with phase 1 focused on the $2.6 million BankUnited loan that was taken out for road paving, and phase 2 for general district operations over the past five fiscal years.
The audit precedes the district’s plan to turn over about $300,000 in bond money to the town that remains for maintenance of several paved roads that have been transferred to the town’s control.
The board will sit as the selection committee, and the award of the forensic audit will be based on a scoring formula assigning 50 percent to government experience, 30 percent to price and 20 percent to the firm’s perceived ability to do the scope of work.
The proposed 2017-18 budget consists of three options that the board must decide upon.
Option 1 would assume that the district is successful in conveying all the district roads to the town prior to the end of the 2016-17 fiscal year and does not increase or decrease the maintenance assessment rates that were in effect during that fiscal year.
Option 2 would assume that the district is not successful in conveying all the district roads to the town before the end of the 2016-17 fiscal year, and applies a uniform maintenance assessment rate for all district landowners.
Option 3 would assume that the district is not successful in conveying all the road to the town, and increases the maintenance assessment rate for all district landowners.
Options 1 and 2 would be based on assumptions that the district does not maintain roads, resulting in a reduction in fuel consumption, rock purchase and maintenance of graders and water trucks. Those options also assume that the graders and water trucks will be sold, and that an allowance will be included for contract services for culvert cleaning, restoring North D Canal, removing an earthen berm covering North A Road and North Road, conducting the forensic audit and maintaining four field employees.
Option 3 is based on assumptions that the district would continue to grade and water roads, seeing a minor reduction in fuel consumption and rock purchase and a reduction in grader and water truck maintenance, would sell graders and trucks, would do contractual culvert cleaning, restore North D Canal, remove the North A Road and North Road berms, maintain five field employees, and rent or purchase a grader and water truck.
The quit claim deed to convey the balance of district roads to the town, along with a town resolution to accept the balance of district roads, would be hand-delivered to the town manager on Wednesday, Aug. 30, according to the LGWCD staff report.
It is anticipated that the town manager would include the quit claim deed and resolution on the Sept. 7 Loxahatchee Groves Town Council agenda, in time for the district board to ratify the documents at its regular meeting Monday, Sept. 11 for reporting its non-ad valorem assessment roll to Palm Beach County on Sept. 12.
