CDD 9 supervisors debate whether they’ve got too much of residents’ money

Community Development District 9 supervisors on Thursday afternoon debated whether the $16 million held in reserve is too much – or too little.

CDD 9 supervisors have been discussing the topic for months and have inspired copy cat discussions in other community development districts in The Villages.

CDD 9, which includes 5,409 homes, most of which are located directly south of County Road 466A, has built up the reserves through the collection of maintenance assessment fees from residents. The greatest expense in the CDD 9 budget is the annual allocation for the Project Wide Advisory Committee, which amounted to $1.6 million in fiscal year 2020-2021. PWAC includes all CDDs south of County Road 466 and pools resources for infrastructure expenses.

“The thing we really need to keep our eye on is PWAC. That’s the greatest chunk of our budget. I just think it is incumbent on all of us to watch the PWAC budget,” said CDD 9 Supervisor Don “Smoke” Hickman, who has been a driving force in the need to take a hard look at the reserve funding.

Dan Warren of the Village of Gilchrist has appeared several times before the board, continually warning that CDD 9 is holding onto too much of the residents’ money. He has argued that maintenance assessment rates could be lowered.

Supervisor Dan Ruehl agreed it might be time to look at lowering maintenance assessment rates.

However, Village of Pinellas resident Allen Holter said it’s not clear if CDD 9 has too much money in reserve.

“I don’t feel we know if $16 million is too much or too little. We don’t have the details to make a good decision,” he said.

CDD 9 Board Chairman Jack Reimer said Sumter County’s decision to raise taxes by 25 percent in 2019, and the voter revolt that ensued, should serve as a cautionary tale.

“In the short term, I am not concerned about annual maintenance fees. I would rather have too much in reserve than not enough. Look at the county. All of a sudden everybody was hit with a big increase. I don’t think we want that to happen,” Reimer said.

CDD 9 includes the villages of Sanibel, Charlotte, Fernandina, Gilchrist, Pinellas, the Haciendas of Mission Hills, the Clifford Villas, the Atwood Villas and the Lofts at Brownwood.