Residents appealed to Villages officials Thursday morning to keep the amenity fee cap in place.
An overflow room was required for the meeting of the Sumter Landing Community Development District Board, which had just enough supervisors show up to form a quorum.
The SLCDD was acting on the recommendation the Project Wide Advisory Committee, which last month voted 6-2 to eliminate the cap on the monthly amenity fees paid by residents.
Budget Director Barbara Kays once again presented a forecast that showed that by the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the amount of amenity fees collected would begin to outpace the expenditures required to maintain and run the facilities.
You can see her presentation at this link: PWAC-SLAD_Deferral_Rate_Recommendation__-_SLCDD_Board_Meeting_5-17-19
Villager Lee Rooks, who spent his career in finance, questioned the accuracy of Kays’ forecast.
“This is like a business that is never satisfied with the profit. At some point you can’t increase your profit any more,” Rooks said.
Other residents questioned the budget process, objecting to some costs, including those for Community Watch.
Former Community Development District 6 and 7 Supervisor Ron Ruggeri, who was a member of PWAC at its inception, challenged the authority to remove the cap. He pointed to language he claimed required a cap that was to be re-examined from “time to time.”
The SLCDD Board’s attorney, Scott Gerken, differed with Ruggeri on the interpretation of the language. Gerken also offered a reassurance to residents.
“The decision to eliminate the deferral rate doesn’t mean you can’t have one again,” Gerken said.
Community Development District 7 Supervisor Jerry Vicenti, a member of PWAC who voted against the removal of the amenity cap, repeated his belief that collecting fees from guests could help prop up the amenity fund.
But the budget director said the math doesn’t add up.
Kays said last year there were 193,000 guest IDs issued south of County Road 466. If $1 had been charged per guest, it would have only raised $193,000.
One resident went to the podium and said charging fees of Villagers’ guests would be an “insult.”
Community Development District 10 Chairman Don Wiley, who sits on the PWAC board and voted to remove the amenity cap, explained his vote.
“We had to look at this on a rational and long-term basis,” Wiley said.
He added that raising the cap would have been the equivalent of “kicking the can down the road.”
SLCDD Board Vice Chairman Joseph Nisbett, acting in place of Chairman Mike Berning who was absent, noted the PWAC is an advisory board.
“But I can’t think of a time when we didn’t take PWAC’s advice,” he said.
Board member Randy McDaniel made a motion to remove the amenity fee cap, which was seconded by Board member Gerald Lachnicht. The final vote was 3-0. SLCDD Board member Brad Brown also was absent.
