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Minutes 11-09-04 (2)MINUTES OF THE COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY WORKSHOP HELD IN THE COMMISSION CHAMBERS, CITY HALL, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2004 AT 5:30 P.M. Present: Jeanne Heavilin, Chairperson Henderson Tillman, Vice Chair Alexander DeUarco (arrived 5:41 p.m.) Don Fenton Marie Horenburger Douglas Hutchinson, CRA Director Lindsey Payne, Board Attorney Absent: James Barretta Steve Myott I. Call to Order Chairperson Heavilin called the workshop meeting to order at 5:33 p.m. The Recording Secretary called the roll. I1. Legal Presentations Mr. Hutchinson explained to the Board that initially, 7 firms responded to the RFP for legal representation for the CRA. Staff has narrowed the pool to 2 firms, both of which were in attendance to provide a brief background on their firms. Staff recommends both firms equally. Mr. Fenton asked that one firm leave while the other was presenting. He was informed the meeting is a public workshop and his request was against regulations. The representative from Lewis, Longman & Walker, Ken Spillius, offered to leave the Chambers. Chair Heavilin said she would leave that up to Mr. Spillius' discretion. Mr. Spillius left Chambers prior to the presentation from Weiss, Serota, et al. A. Weiss, Serota, Helfman, Pastoriza, Guedes, Cole and Boniske, P.A. Nancy Stroud, Partner, provided a brief synopsis of her experience and history of the firm. Their offices are located in Ft. Lauderdale and she has lived in Boca Raton for 22 years. She had practiced in Palm Beach County during that time for a number of communities in Palm Beach County. Until 5 years ago, her office was housed in Boca Raton for 16 years. She was the managing partner of a Chicago-based firm that had an office in Boca Raton. As a result, she has practiced in the courts in Palm Beach County and, within cities in Palm Beach County. Currently Ms. Stroud is the land use attorney for the City of Palm Beach Gardens and is involved in their Scripps related work. She has Meeting Minutes Community Redevelopment Agency Workshop Boynton Beach, Florida November 9, 2004 represented the Town of Jupiter and the County. For 5 years she was the General Counsel to the Palm Beach County countywide planning council. Ms. Stroud also practices in other parts of the State, such as Monroe, Dade and Breward Counties. Because each community is different, she feels this is a strength she brings to the table. Mr. DeMarco arrived at 5:41 p.m. She attended the University of North Carolina and obtained a joint degree in Planning and Law in 1978 and her first professional job as a lawyer was for Florida Atlantic University. Ms. Stroud worked with Governor Graham as part of his transition team when he was first elected where she was thrown into growth management and community development land use issues in Florida. Ms. Stroud has been in private practice since 1983, always with a private law firm, but with a focus on local government representation. Throughout her 25+ years, approximately 80% of her work has been representing local and State government. The Regional Planning Councils have been clients, as well as various Community Redevelopment Agencies (CRAs.) The Boca Raton CRA was the first major work Ms. Streud provided for a Community Redevelopment Agency. She was General Counsel when the Board was an independent CRA and at the point that Mizner Park had been approved and was being constructed. The CRA in Boca not only dealt with the kinds of community redevelopment issues that Boynton Beach's CRA is tasked with but they also sat as the Planning & Zoning Commission for the downtown. As a result, a lot of the normal Planning & Zoning review was part of their work. Ms. Stroud has also represented CRAs as Special Counsel and is currently Special Counsel to the Coral Springs CRA who is establishing a Development of Regional Impact (DRI) for their downtown. The process involves rebuilding their comprehensive plan and working through the DRI process. Their process also involved negotiating with the County on transportation issues. Broward County has a major role, as does Palm Beach County, in transportation within cities. This issue was a big focus on Coral Springs DRI. The Regional Planning Council should review the DRI in January. Ms. Stroud was involved in helping to pass the Transportation Concurrency Exemption Area that allowed the development of CityPlace. She processed the amendment to the DRI that was necessary to make that happen and consulted on several other land use issues. There were some transfer development rights issues such as litigation over the ownership, etc. Weiss, Serota, et al represents 10 different cities in Southeast Florida as General Counsel, many of whom have CRAs. As the Director of the Municipal Land Use Group, she is often called upon to do various projects within those CRAs. For Meeting Minutes Community Redevelopment Agency Workshop Boynton Beach, Florida November 9, 2004 example, the CRA from Homestead, created after Hurricane Andrew due to the major development issues from basically ground zero to communities like Dania Beach, is now trying to develop its community redevelopment agency. She has handled an extensive array of issues for their CRA due to the extent of the development issue in that area. Ms. Stroud is also the Special Counsel to Ft. Myers CR. Ft. Myers, being a very historic town that has been the center of that region, has had a lot of trouble jump- starting its downtown. They are in the middle of a major renaissance with 5 key residential and hotel developments going through the planned unit development process and the approval process in their downtown area. The process has involved development agreements, changing their zoning code, and adopting a new downtown plan within its comprehensive plan. Ms. Stroud has found this to be a very exciting project and this is the type of work she thrives upon. She stated this type of work is what she's been trained to do and what she has devoted her career doing. Ms. Stroud stated she is very used to the whole process of development - working with citizen groups, interest groups including development corporations, city councils, and sitting with planning & zoning boards. She feels, because of her interest and passion in the development area as a whole, people can trust her. Ms. Stroud stated she would provide whatever amount of time is needed from Boynton Beach's CRA. The budget requests 5 hours per week, but she would expect that some weeks will only require a day or two of concentrated effort and some weeks would only require a few hours. She is prepared to spend whatever time is necessary because she wants to be in South Palm Beach County and finds it rewarding to see how a community can change and really become so much more vital. Ms. Payne confirmed Ms. Stroud's time estimate of 5 hours per week is fair. She said some weeks would involve 2 days of effort and the next week would be a little less than 5 hours. Ken Spillius and Bill Capko, Partners with Lewis, Longman & Walker, P.A., presented an overview of their firm. Their organization has offices in Bradenton, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, and their headquarters is in West Palm Beach. They have been in business for 10 years and began their work in the Tallahassee office doing a significant amount of legislative and regulatory work. The consider themselves to be a governmental/environmental/regulatory boutique firm. They handle only governmental law and some commercial (real estate.) They currently have 28 attorneys representing over 100 local government clients, including counties, cities, and special districts. Special districts make up a large number of their client base. They are the General Counsel for the Florida Association of Special Districts which itself has over 90 members throughout the State. Meeting Minutes Community Redevelopment Agency Workshop Boynton Beach, Florida November 9, 2004 The firm's governmental practice also includes a significant legislative and lobbying practice. Many of the firm's lawyers based in Tallahassee and West Palm Beach have experience as legislative lobbyists. The firm has built good relationships across the aisles between the executive branch and the regulatory agencies in Tallahassee. They also employ one person as a lobbyist who is not an attorney and whose services would be part of the package. Their environmental practice includes extensive experience across all agencies. They also perform a significant amount of permitting work along with a large amount of work with the Army Corps of Engineers, the South Florida Water Management District, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and local government agencies such as counties and the Department of Environmental Resources Management. CRAs, as special districts, are within the area of law in which they have particular expertise. They do and have represented CRAs on a Special Counsel basis. They have done bond work for the Westgate CRA and Mr. Capko, in particular, has represented CRAs as Special Counsel. Also, as Assistant County Attorney, Mr. Capko was involved with CRAs. Mr. Capko is General Counsel to several special districts and heads up the firm's public finance department where bond work is a significant element. In a bond issue, there are legal opinions that have to be delivered by the CRA counsel separate from the tax opinion delivered by bond counsel. Their services would include document review and commenting on any that would be particular for the Board. They would also work with bond counsel and the financing team to proceed with the bond issue. Terry Lewis, another attorney with their firm, is considered one of the foremost experts in the State with regard to special district law. Mr. Lewis drafted major portions of Chapter 298 with regard to water control districts and his practice focuses on that. They also represent similar agencies, such as community development districts, in the creation/development stages and then represent them. Mr. Capko is General Counsel to the CityPlace Development District that has worked hand in hand with the West Palm Beach CRA in the development of CityPlace and the infrastructure for CityPlace. The firm's land use practice includes representation of a large number of developers in their land use needs with regard to zoning approvals, comprehensive plan approvals, DRIs, and the entire scope of land use regulatory work. They pride themselves on their ability to solve problems to keep their clients out of court and out of the administrative hearing process. However, they have represented many clients in court against administrative agencies and their governmental clients Meeting Minutes Community Redevelopment Agency Workshop Boynton Beach, Florida November 9, 2004 on the defense side. A significant part of their litigation practice is representing cities and special districts in litigation that is brought against their client. Mr. Spillius has experience representing a number of special districts as Special Counsel in litigation. In addition, he represents cities and special districts in contract negotiations, code enfomement matters, and bid challenges. He currently represents the Town of Ocean Ridge as General Counsel and has done so for the past 5% years. His governmental practice began approximately 12 years ago but he has done a significant amount after joining Lewis, Longman & Walker 7 years ago. Mr. Spillius stated the firm is open to negotiating a fee arrangement, other than the hourly rates submitted, such as a flat fee for covering the regular monthly board meetings. This would make it easier for the Board to build the firm's fees into the monthly budget. Another fee arrangement would be a blended rate structure where the firm would bill one rate for all timekeepers whether they are paralegals, associates, or shareholders. The rate would be reviewed at the end of each year to ensure the Board, or the firm, is not being over/undemharged. Mr. Spillius was asked to expound on the amount of time that would be allocated to the CRA. He explained that whatever time is necessary is what his firm would allocate to the CRA. One of the benefits of being with a firm such as theirs is the amount of assistance he has from other attorneys and paralegals. Research work and that type of thing doesn't require his presence. His role would be General Counsel. As such he would attend every meeting and be available to meet with the City's executives as necessary. Also, a potion of his job would be to provide advice to all Board Members on topics such as record retention and the Sunshine Law. Mr. Spillius explained he has consulted with the Mayor of Ocean Ridge prior to responding to the RFP from Boynton Beach CRA. According to Mr. Spillius, the Mayor and he decided that since the relationship is only with the CRA, which has a specific focus being the Heart of Boynton Beach and downtown Boynton Beach, the likelihood of a conflict of interest happening is miniscule and would probably not occur. If something comes up that brings Ocean Ridge's interests and the CRAs interests in some sort of conflict or apparent conflict, he would discuss it with both entities in both agencies and ultimately withdraw from that item in representing one or the other. Mr. Spillius was asked to expound on his work with the U.S. Department of Engineering in reference to the coastline and the intracoastal. He explained he has worked with the DOE in a variety of contexts. He is currently involved with Ocean Ridge in a multimillion-doilar storm water drainage improvement plan. The project involved obtaining grant money from the Lake Worth Lagoon Grants from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) because they are cleaning the water that goes into the Intracoastal by cleaning drainage water. His firm has represented clients along the coast and water law is a major part of the practice. They also do a lot of work with the Army Corps of Engineers. They firm does dock-permtting work 5 Meeting Minutes Community Redevelopment Agency Workshop Boynton Beach, Florida November 9, 2004 on the intracoastal. They are aware of the environmental issues not only in terms of the pollution but seagrasses and those types of environmental issues. They do a lot of work involving the Clean Water Act and represent interests in the Everglades with regard to the Everglades programs. The firm has represented the Department of Transportation (DOT). Occasionally the firm is hired as special counsel. A waiver is then obtained from the DOT in terms of conflict because the firm often represents governmental entities, or private interests, who have interests with regard to State roads. Mr. Spillius has had to work with the DOT in terms of some of the issues in Ocean Ridge and the storm water drainage, the improvements, and how the improvements will impact U.S. Highway A-1-A. He negotiated a reimbursement for Ocean Ridge from the DOT for some of the work that would be done on A-1-A because Ocean Ridge would be improving the drainage on the State's road. Mr. Spillius explained, when asked, that the firm does a lot of work for the Lake Worth Drainage District (LWDD.) They have represented LWDD and the Florida Association of Special Districts on a recent case that was argued in the U.S. Supreme Court - the Miccasoukee Tribe vs. South Florida Water Management District. Mr. Spillius prepared the brief for the LWDD and presented it to the Supreme Court. Spillius explained, even though they represent many special districts, there is not a conflict because they are not their general counsel. He assured the Board that it has been a benefit in those occasions when the firm has worked as general counsel for a city of a special district that has to deal with another special district that the firm has sometimes acted as special counsel. Conflict waivers are obtained and, if it is felt that the conflict is such that there is any concern about their independence, then they withdraw from the representation. The situation has not happened in Palm Beach County, to Mr. Spillius' knowledge. The firm has not run into a situation where a conflict has arisen that it would cause concern to any of its governmental clients. Mr. Hutchinson reminded the Board that a discussion of selection would be addressed during the agenda at the regular meeting. The Board may select representation at that time, if they so wished. III. Adjournment There being no further business, the meeting properly adjourned at 6:24 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Deanna Ewing ~ Recording Secretary (112204)