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DocuSign Envelope ID: 8F926BA2-6947-4E65-9BCE-E775773FB06F

July 5, 2023

Ridgewood Trails CDD

MINUTES OF MEETING RIDGEWOOD TRAILS
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT

The regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the Ridgewood Trails Community Development District was held Wednesday, July 5, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. at the Azalea Ridge Amenity Center, 1667 Azalea Ridge Boulevard, Middleburg, Florida.

Present and constituting a quorum were:

Marty Genska	Chairman
Jacqui Proctor Miller	Vice Chairperson
Dennis Schroyer	Supervisor
Michael Weatherbee	Supervisor Also present were:
Marilee Giles	District Manager
Katie Buchanan	District Counsel by telephone
Jay Soriano	GMS
Tara Lee	RMS
Several Residents

The following is a summary of the actions taken at the July 5, 2023 meeting.

FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS	Roll Call
Ms. Giles called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. and called the roll.

SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS	Public Comments
Mr. Edson stated I am in the Freedom section. The last time there was a new member for the board I applied for that position; I didn’t get it for several reasons, perhaps experience. I want to address reckless spending. I’m trying to improve things and will hold my other comments until we get to the budget.
Ms. Giles read the comment card from Ms. Herrera, what happened to our old gym equipment, we could use them in addition to what we already have. There is not enough equipment for all of us to use especially during the summer.

Mr. Soriano stated that was disposed of and taken to the vendor that sold us the new equipment. We only have so much room and it was getting to a point where if there are too many people in the room it is a fire marshal issue.
Mr. Miller stated there are a few things we would like to add to what we already have but the most important thing is we invested in a universal machine that isn’t accommodating our needs because of the breakdown time. While it is under warranty perhaps we could trade it in for something more durable to accommodate the amount of people that use that machine.
Ms. Giles stated your second comment was, are new residents aware that they have to clean up after fireworks? And unfortunately that is not a CDD issue, it is probably an HOA issue. The CDD only affects what the CDD owns, which is the common areas, amenity center, pool gym, those things. Next was, is there a crew to clean up the garbage around the retention pond.
Mr. Soriano stated we don’t employ a crew to clean up around the retention ponds. We do have a janitorial person that goes out to clean up the dog pots and we try to get what we can, but it is very limited hours. We also asked the landscaper to do it. I was getting complaints that they were not doing a good job of trash pickup and sometimes they run over it. I have been leaning on them. We don’t employ or have funds for a person that just goes around the ponds and cleans up.
Mr. Genska asked what can we do?
Mr. Soriano stated you can put money towards hours for somebody. Your janitorial is 12 hours or so a week. All I can do is get on the landscape people to do a better job. There is a very small amount in the contract for trash pickup.
Mr. Raska stated last year I was new I wasn’t aware of how much police patrol time there is in Florida. I thought we were getting an exceptionally greater number of patrols and I now know it was because we were paying for it. A lot of people in freedom think they are totally separate from us and if this place becomes a war zone with every other house having pit bulls our place is going to go downhill. I have lived in towns with neighborhoods like this and this is an ideal neighborhood for professional criminals. There are three entries and exits to this development that is something they look for along with lack of police presence. I take back what I said last time; the money was well worth it.
Ms. Boughter stated when I looked at the reserve study for 2023/2024 it generally read asphalt/mill/overlay parking lot, landscape and irrigation and the total was $8,405 on the reserve study. Is that reflected in the budget currently?

Mr. Soriano stated the people who conduct the reserve study break it down and tell us how much to budget to put towards those numbers. We plug in what they tell us to plug in. They try to catch everything, but there may be something that you don’t expect. We recommend updating the reserve study every couple years to keep the numbers up to date.
Ms. Giles stated the reserve study is on the CDD website.
Ms. Sinift asked is it possible to get an AED for this pool? It is something we should have. On June 9^th Brightview came down our cul-de-sac with their truck and I have not seen them before or since. They did a huge loop in our cul-de-sac and the guy flipped us off. I don’t know how that gets reported.
Mr. Soriano stated we can note it and talk to Brightview. Scott did call me when that happened and he said he had a video of it but then told me the video doesn’t really show it. If that is happening, their manager needs to take care of it.
Ms. Giles asked is the AED under the threshold?
Mr. Soriano stated they are expensive but if everyone agrees that is a good idea and is something the district purchases we can do that; it is not something that RMS or GMS does. They cost about $3,000 and you need to replace the pads every year. I will work with Katie on this too. If it is locked up people can’t get to it, there is no staff here. Some places will put them on the wall and let anybody use it and that would be a concern here. That is probably why the developer didn’t go that route. I do agree it is a good idea.
Mr. Schroyer stated it is a good idea, but there is liability.
Ms. Giles stated if the board would like, Jay can bring back proposals to the next meeting. Mr. Genska stated please do so.
A resident asked the $10,000 coming from the CDD for events, you mentioned the HOA is in charge of picking up and stuff but I don’t see where the CDD should be funding events when we can’t participate. Give the HOA the money and let them provide the events so the community doesn’t pay for that.
Ms. Giles stated the special events line in the budget is for special events held by the CDD. Last month the board agreed to allow the HOA and CDD to cohost an event, but this budget line is for the CDD. This is Tara’s first year but historically they host holiday parties, stargazing, farm animals, easter egg hunts.

Mr. Soriano stated there is a list of events; this budget only pays for the things the CDD organizes and is open to everybody. The HOA in the front will fund a portion of it to make the event bigger and better.

THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS	Public  Hearing  Adopting  the  Budget  for
Fiscal Year 2024
Ms. Buchanan stated the resolution just identifies the funds, the appropriation the district is going to make. The budget you will be approving is going to be attached to the back. It is a generic resolution that adopts your budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts October 1^st and ends on September 30^th.
Ms. Giles stated there is an increase of $6 per month or 13% for the 691 homeowners. The table on page 2 breaks out the assessment by lot sizes.

On MOTION by Mr. Genska seconded by Ms. Miller with all in favor the public hearing was opened.

Mr. Edson stated the pond fountain, $503 per month times 2 on page 7, I recommend we turn that off, $1,000 a month for a light is too much.
Mr. Soriano stated it is the electricity also, it is a meter. It is your choice to turn it off more hours or have a fountain.
Ms. Giles asked is that the discussion by the board? You want to turn ff the pond fountains? Mr. Weatherbee stated it does help with the aeration.
Mr. Soriano stated it helps slightly. If we see algae buildup in those ponds and the residents complain we can get an algae treatment. It will be an extra cost outside the contract.
A resident stated I don’t understand about the $10,000 for activities. I thought what we paid was for operations not activities. I thought that fell on the HOA.
Ms. Giles stated it is more than activities; it is anything for the special events such as decorating for the holidays.
Mr. Soriano stated that is still operations. Operations is everything done on this property through the CDD.
A resident asked why are you doing that?

Mr. Soriano stated most CDDs do events, some do one or two and bigger districts do four or five a month.
Mr. Schroyer stated $10,000 is astronomical.
Mr. Genska asked but are we spending that much?
Ms. Giles stated there is an actual column. So far we spent $2,171. Mr. Genska stated let’s reduce that to $5,000.
Mr. Schroyer stated I think it should be $3,000.
Mr. Weatherbee stated the events give the community an opportunity to come together. We had a good time Saturday and there were a lot of people. Don’t reduce it to the point where we can’t have a community event.

On MOTION by Mr. Genska seconded by Mr. Weatherbee with three in favor that Mr. Schroyer opposed the special event line item was reduced to $5,000.

Ms. Giles stated I will make that adjustment and that will affect the assessment by about 1%. What do you feel we should lower the fountains by?
Mr. Soriano stated if you want to make it the full $12,000 that is not a concern.
Ms. Giles stated electric under the amenity center is forecasted to go over budget and that is why it was increased to $16,000. Under grounds maintenance it was $9,000 in 2023 and it is at
$6,800 right now and she is forecasting that to go over budget and that is why it was increased.
After further discussion it was the consensus of the board to reduce the grounds maintenance electric from $15,938 to $5,000.
A resident stated on page 1 the insurance went from $19,505 to $21,000.
Ms. Giles stated that is a big deal in the State of Florida and we haven’t written the policy for 2024 yet, but that is the proposal they gave us.
A resident asked why is the amenity manager going from $63,000 to $67,000?
Mr. Soriano stated it is proposed to be 6%. The minimum wage goes up as much as 4% every year without an increase so additional time for being here a year, two or three years just because we have to automatically give our lowest level people $1 more per hour. People we train to do more work and are worth it we would like to give more than the 4%.

A resident stated I’m very encouraged by the positive discussion. What is the actual increase for last year and what is the proposed percentage increase for this year?
Ms. Giles responded when we started this conversation it was 13% increase.
Mr. Genska stated last year was very high because we did not have any carry forward. A resident stated maybe we can have more discussion and we can lower that more.
A resident stated the people in Freedom are paying $200 per month for our HOA then you add another $100 a month for here, that is $300 a month. Most of the people in Freedom are physically fit and there are programs for them but not for the mobility challenged or older people. We are paying $200 in Freedom for next to nothing and $100 here for nothing. You leave us no choice besides try to exit the CDD.
A resident stated when we were talking about reducing the electric cost, we need to make sure we figure in the cost to treat algae in those ponds because you are no longer going to have aeration.
Mr. Soriano stated I would not be able to estimate what it will cost for The Lake Doctors until we go for a couple months and see growth.
A resident stated my point is we shouldn’t lower it so much in case you need to turn it back on due to algae buildup. Nothing is wrong budgeting for something and not spend it. If it doesn’t get spent it doesn’t get on the budget for next year.
A resident asked the highest item in the budget is landscaping and Jay and I have worked together over the past two months and I have given him a lot of information about what is not happening. Even as high as the landscape is we cut back on the ponds every two weeks, the front ponds every two weeks etc. We are paying all this money, but they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing.  We are nickel and diming events, the fountains, and stuff like that but
$128,000 and we get third class work. Jay is doing everything he can.
Mr. Soriano stated all I can do is continue to go after them. Tree Amigos had their issues too, but at the same time they at $97,000. If you want to change the scope we can do that but if you change it for $5,000 it is not worth it.
A resident stated our scope is minimal.
Mr. Genska stated if our scope is minimal and they are not doing it, we have to do something.

Mr. Soriano stated if they are not serving the scope of the contract then they don’t get paid either. That is why everything was asked to be detailed so if they are not picking up trash for example then that needs to come off and give credit to something else.
Mr. Genska stated have Brightview at the next meeting.

On MOTION by Mr. Genska seconded by Mr. Weatherbee with all in favor the public hearing was closed.

Consideration of Resolution 2023-08 Relating to the Annual Appropriations and Adopting the Budget for Fiscal Year 2024
Ms. Giles stated the guidance I have so far from the board is reduce the special event line from $10,000 to $5,000; under grounds reduce electric down to $5,000 and cut off the two pond fountains. I am not the accountant I’m just using fuzzy math here and it does look like a 2% decrease so unless there is any board discussion the motion would be to approve Resolution 2023- 08 in substantial form.
Mr. Schroyer asked on the insurance since that has gone up so much and we haven’t signed the contract, have we gone out for bids yet?
Ms. Giles stated if you want I can go out for bids. There are only two other companies who do this type of insurance and another district went out and one of them opted to not bid and the other one did. I’m still waiting on those proposals. I can still do that.
Mr. Schroyer stated we need to save as much money as we can. We don’t want to sacrifice services, but I don’t want to throw good money after bad.
Ms. Giles stated I can email our insurance specialist to get a proposal. We can approve the budget tonight with the changes made on the record and if they come back with a better proposal then I would introduce that to the board and the difference in money stays with the district.
Ms. Miller stated last meeting we talked about changing something at the pool so as not to have the problem we had last year. I see chemicals but I think we talked about changing the system.
Mr. Soriano stated we talked about controllers and we ended up getting forced a little bit because the health inspector came in and closed the pool down because of some of that stuff. The repairs are outlined in my report. There are other things we can do that cost about $2,000.

On MOTION by Mr. Genska seconded by Ms. Miller with all in favor Resolution 2023-08 was approved in substantial form.

Consideration of Resolution 2023-09 Imposing Special Assessments and Certify an Assessment Roll for Fiscal Year 2024
Ms. Buchanan stated this is the resolution that imposes your annual operations and maintenance assessment. It essentially instructs Marilee to put the assessments that are levied and tied to the budget you just approved on the tax roll so people will pay it concurrent with their property taxes.

On MOTION by Mr. Genska seconded by Mr. Schroyer with all in favor the public hearing was opened.

A resident stated even though we have a little increase, our CDD fee are 3/8^th what we pay in taxes.
A resident asked have you ever looked into the management fees, RMS, GMS?
Mr. Schroyer stated yes, last meeting we requested that we get bids to replace RMS. We didn’t want them for this meeting, but we are in the process of looking around.
A resident asked why did you not get the proposals in before the budget is approved? If it was less we could have saved money.
Ms. Giles stated at the last meeting the discussion was to bring back the scope of services and that is what the supervisors have tonight.

On MOTION by Mr. Weatherbee seconded by Mr. Schroyer with all in favor the public hearing was closed.

On MOTION by Mr. Schroyer seconded by Mr. Weatherbee with all in favor Resolution 2023-09 was approved.

FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Discussion of Suspension Letters
Ms. Giles stated some of those suspension letters went to minors and I ask that we be mindful of that and not say the minor’s name as we discuss this.

Ms. Buchanan stated I agree with not addressing the minors by name. You can go over the situation and your recommendation and the board can discuss if they want to continue with the recommendation or make any modifications.
After discussion the following actions were taken:
For the resident who gave her access card to someone else, it was three months to include time served, which makes it September 7^th.
For the minor resident, initials, SJ, smoking on property, all amenity privilege were suspended for three months to include time served from the date of the incident.
For the minor, initials HL, who gained access with illegal card, three month suspension from all amenities from date of the letter, June 21, 2021.

FIFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Staff Reports
Attorney
There being none, the next item followed.

Engineer
There being none, the next item followed.

Manager – Discussion of Fiscal Year 2024 Meeting Schedule

On MOTION by Mr. Genska seconded by Mr. Weatherbee with all in favor the fiscal year meeting schedule was approved as amended with the January meeting being January 10 and July meeting being July 10, 2024.

Ms. Giles stated at the last meeting Dennis asked for a scope of work, job descriptions provided by RMS. I put it on your table and there was a discussion as to whether the board wanted to go out for an RFP. Before we do that, I would like a scope of work and what you have is currently in the RMS contract. If the board wants to go out with an RFP, the first step is direct staff to do that and prepare a scope of services.

Operation Manager’s Report –Report

Mr. Soriano updated the board on the lights, controllers for irrigation and stated I am working with Clay Electric on your meters. The pool issues we talked about, we got new feeders. The feeders in the back are not owned by us. At one time the developer installed them and the mounting plates are still there but they went away and by the time we came in those were not in place. We have a Pool Sure contract and they bring their own equipment. I have a concern because it is not our equipment. They also don’t allow us to adjust or repair when there are problems. You pay a lot for that service, but they are one of a very few companies that delivers chemicals. I’m going through the process of getting quotes and designs for salt cell and that would cut down the chemical use. That would be a good idea for the future to save money in chemicals. I reported the lights that were out to Clay Electric.

Amenity Manager
Report
Ms. Lee reviewed the amenity management report, reported on the last event done with the HOA and upcoming events.

Landscape Inspection Report
Mr. Soriano gave an overview of the Brightview report, copy of which was included in the agenda package.

Brightview Proposals for Trees/Palms
Mr. Soriano stated unless there is an objection, we will proceed with the two proposals from Brightview that are within our spending limit.
Ms. Giles stated I reached out to the accountant and making those two changes in the budget resulted in the proposed 13% increase now being 11% increase.

SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Supervisor’s Requests and Public Comments
Additional comments from the supervisors and residents: On Woodland Glen one post is rotten at the crosswalk, it should have been a 6 month suspension rather than 3 months since it is a second offense for one minor, frequent damage to district property by teenagers, trespass by Clay

County, prior board members fiscally irresponsible, qualification/election process, little support from community, resident volunteer cleanup.

SEVENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Approval of Consent Agenda
Approval of the Minutes of the May 3, 2023 Meeting

On MOTION by Mr. Schroyer seconded by Ms. Miller with all in favor the minutes of the May 3, 2023 meeting were approved as presented.

Balance Sheet & Income Statement
Assessment Receipt Schedule
Approval of Check Register

On MOTION by Mr. Genska seconded by Mr. Weatherbee with all in favor the balance of the consent agenda items was approved.

EIGHTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Next  Meeting  Scheduled  for  Wednesday,
September 6, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. at the Azalea Ridge Amenity Center, 1667 Azalea Ridge Boulevard, Middleburg, Florida
Ms. Giles stated the next scheduled meeting is Wednesday, September 6, 2023 at 6:00 pm. in the same location.

On MOTION by Mr. Genska seconded by Mr. Schroyer with all in favor the meeting adjourned at 8:35 p.m.

Secretary/Assistant Secretary

Chairman/Vice Chairman