MINUTES OF MEETING
DOUBLE BRANCH COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT

The regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors of the Double Branch Community Development District was held Monday, May 9, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. at the Plantation Oaks Amenity Center, 845 Oakleaf Plantation Parkway, Orange Park, Florida 32065.

Present and constituting a quorum were:

Cindy Nelsen	Chairperson
Scott Thomas	Supervisor
Tom Horton	Supervisor
Andre Lanier	Supervisor

Also present were:

Marilee Giles	District Manager
Mike Eckert	District Counsel (by phone)
Jay Soriano	Operations Manager
Chalon Suchsland	VerdeGo
Crys LaFata	S3 Security
Marla Dietrich	S3 Security

FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS	Roll Call
Ms. Giles called the meeting to order at 4:06 p.m.

SECOND ORDER OF BUSINESS	Audience Comments
There being no members of the public present, the next item followed.

THIRD ORDER OF BUSINESS	Approval of Consent Agenda
Approval of the Minutes of the April 11, 2022 Meeting
Financial Statements
Assessment Receipt Schedule
Check Register
Ms. Giles stated included in your agenda package are the minutes of the last meeting, the financial statements as of March 31st, your assessment receipts schedule showing you are 98% collected, and the check register totaling $92,468.92.

On MOTION by Mr. Horton seconded by Mr. Lanier with all in favor the Consent Agenda was approved.

FOURTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Acceptance	of	the	Audit	Committee’s
Recommendation
Ms. Giles stated the Audit Committee met prior to this meeting and recommends to the Board the selection of Grau & Associates to conduct the Fiscal Year 2022 through Fiscal Year 2026 audits.

On MOTION by Mr. Thomas seconded by Chairperson Nelsen with all in favor the Audit Committee’s recommendation to engage Grau & Associates for audit services was accepted.

FIFTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Other Business
There being no other business, the next item followed.

SIXTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Staff Reports
District Counsel
There being nothing to report, the next item followed.

District Engineer
Ms. Giles stated we are within the 60 window for the stormwater needs analysis, so I’ll follow up with Peter Ma on that. He has reached out to me and Jay to obtain information for the reports, so we know he’s working on that.

District Manager – Report on the Number of Registered Voters (5,532)
Ms. Giles stated Florida Statute 190 requires us to provide the number of registered voters in the community. As of April 15th, there are 5,532 registered voters within Double Branch CDD.
Also, staff will be looking for the Board’s guidance as we prepare the FY 2023 proposed budget.
Mr. Horton stated I looked to see how many registered voters there were last year. For some reason, we lost about 300 registered voters in Double Branch. I find it a little bit strange. What does Middle Village have this year?

Ms. Suchsland responded 4,873.
Mr. Soriano stated we require residents to change their address on the driver’s license to a District property to register for access. Right now, I think we have four or five special requests to get their card without getting their driver’s license. They can’t register to vote if they don’t do that either, so we do get a lot of people in the neighborhood that are not registered voters.
Mr. Horton stated it could be a lot of renters.

Ms. Giles asked Jay, do you have an update on the capital study?
Mr. Soriano stated Charlie has been here three times now. Once when we did the tour, and he’s come back multiple times just because there’s so many things in your report that we have updated or replaced. I tried to give him notes on everything so we could send pictures and even amounts of money that we spent to replace something, but there are so many things on there for seven years’ worth of work in your capital study. Of course, your capital study is large because we have a lot of facilities and a lot of property. Almost everything is included. We even have all the split rail and vinyl fencing included. There is not an extra charge for him to come out to try to get it updated as best as possible. He’s not done with the study yet, although I will tell you we’re going to see an increase on that just because of inflation. One thing he pulled out for me to look at for this next year is we don’t have any large one-time projects as far as a $100,000 replacement of big HVAC units, or anything like that, but we do have a lot of little projects. We do paint all the time, but there is painting in there at $2,000 or
$3,000. We generally do a lot better than that, but he plans for those amounts, and he also plans for the small repairs for the pools, or things like the motor allowances. We’ve gotten much better at that over the years because we’re stockpiling and preparing for those things to go down, so our costs are really low. When he pulled out all of the expectations for this next year, it added up to quite a few hundred thousand dollars. Like I said, we tend to do better than that, but that is a big amount. If we are planning on some of those things like paint to increase in price, which it is right now, that makes me think that capital study will show we’re much lower off than what I had planned. He’s being extremely thorough on the study, which is good, but it’s taking longer because of that. I’m hoping I’ll have it before our budget to give us some a little backup with the budget.

Operations Manager - Memorandum
Mr. Soriano stated we will be starting some of our summer activities. The pools are getting busier. We are still on the alternating schedule, so today your pools are open, but they close down tomorrow, and this side will be open tomorrow. We go back and forth like that throughout the month of May. Friday, Saturday and Sunday they both are open. When we get to that Memorial Day weekend, that’s when we’re open full blast until August when the kids are back in school. A dive-in movie was planned for this Friday, but I may have to adjust it by one week. We haven’t put it out there by email yet, because I have two lights in the pool that are out, and I want to make sure we have enough lighting and it’s safe. If I can’t find something temporary to do on the deck lighting to make up for it, we will hold off until I get those repaired. The School’s Out party will be at both pools right after school is out, I think it’s the 27th, so we will have a DJ and activities.
You will see a little tick up in usage of the facilities, but we still have a long way to go on your side. This side is doing better to where they’re almost filled every week. We are having a lot of tours, so hopefully we will see that number come up. That gives us a little offsetting revenue.
I’ve mentioned the capital studies and the timeline, but the one thing I don’t think I mentioned was the painting. That was really the key point on there. He thought the facilities were doing great and we’re doing a good job with keeping up with the heavy equipment, but he would look at putting more money to cosmetics and things like paint. We do touch up painting constantly, but he’s talking about big paint jobs, so he has in there repainting the whole building at one time. It costs something like $20,000. That’s the only thing he put on there to note that he would like to see. I will look at that. We’ve already done quite a bit, but as we move out getting into the neighborhood areas and the buildings outside of the parking lot, that’s what we want to see. Next month you guys will get the first run of the budget. It is the approval meeting, so we have to be ready. We have pretty much an increase across the board from every single vendor. There is a big one from our Sheriff’s Office, 26%. Some of our smaller ones might be 3% to 5%, which we’ve dealt with in the past. I even had some such as Lake Doctors go a year or two without an increase. There’s nobody going without an increase this year and 5% is about the lowest I’ve seen. When I add that in, I start to get a little worried

for your budget. As I look at it now for standard operations, maybe we need to address an increase. We can always look at cutting amounts going into our capital. I wouldn’t recommend that, but the way we look at it now, when we have a concern, or we want to buy something, or get something fixed we hand over the money and say go to work. What I’m looking at for next year, if we’re not doing an assessment increase, that may not be the case. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get through without the assessment increase to begin with. We generally start off with some surplus, so we can use that and cut the amount of money going in. There have been times I’ve tried to spend money and times you guys have allowed me to spend money, but we’ve never cut corners and that’s what I fear if we’re not doing some type of increase this next year. That’s why I wanted to start with one of the big ones. We handle our own staffing to save money, which has done a good job over the last couple of years, but even that is going up with the five-year plan to increase minimum wage. Five percent is not much, but if that’s coming from ten, fifteen or twenty lines, that 5% is big.
We’ve got some things that we have done this year that we’ve already figured out money set aside for. There are two things I’m still waiting on: fitness equipment and the playground. The playground was the one that warned me that it would be six months. I was hoping that would be an exaggeration, but it doesn’t look like it. That seems to be the case with a lot of items this year. Even the painting. We’ve done a lot of work on your pool deck this last month. Polyurethanes are really hard to come by right now. We use two-part and three-part hardeners, so we get some really hard exterior paint work that lasts longer in this Florida weather, but that is becoming hard. I had to run to three different stores to make sure I could get the second part.
Mr. Thomas stated I saw the coordination of pickleball. Will the pickleball court be included in the capital study?
Mr. Soriano responded it’s going to be added in. I walked him through that area. It shouldn’t increase it that much more because we already had courts there. The fencing may make a little change, but the paint and surface are already there, so every so many years he adds in a little money to resurface them. The tennis courts were already expected to be resurfaced. We didn’t because we don’t use them that much. We resurfaced about seven years ago and he had already had it in there to be resurfaced again. If it wasn’t for the pickleball issue, we would probably sit on it another year or two. So, the only difference you would see is

if there is more usage. That increases our need to put money aside to be prepared for that. We would like for all of our facilities to be used.
Mr. Thomas asked where do we stand on the court needs?
Mr. Soriano responded I couldn’t even start until this last month because they wanted to do their fundraising event, so really, it’s ordering the surfacing, and finding time for my guys. I’m hoping once we get paint and the asphalt materials in this month that we will be able to get in there. My guys have to do some of the bigger work. We have to jackhammer some of those cracks out and we have to level the surface out. I can coordinate with them to do the painting, but that’s about it. Even the demoing and the fencing, I don’t want them doing that work. The hard part is, their doing that while dealing with pools. The pools are open and that’s the priority right now. I’m a little bit behind, but the pools are doing pretty good, so I’m hoping I will be able to pull them off when the summer starts.
Mr. Horton so basically nothing has been done?
Mr. Soriano responded we haven’t started anything yet, other than getting quotes for paint. We do have contract companies already so when I tell them exactly how much I want they go ahead and get everything together. But it also does me no good to get drums of new paint if I don’t have time to get out there. I have drums of asphalt material that has to go down in the parking lot. I got an extra guy last year on my maintenance staff, but even with that, when it comes to summertime when we’re dealing with pools, I have to squeeze them in where I can.
Mr. Horton stated you ought to look at upping the rates a bit or hiring one more person.
Mr. Soriano stated some of the hourly rates probably will not move. They’re going to go up in a lot of other neighborhoods, but I’ve always been higher here. There are guys that handle just your neighborhood. Ed was here for eleven years. He just left last year, but he works now for you guys as just a District employee, so we save money on it too. He does just the pools. The guys that I have here on maintenance, we train here, I do more training for them, and we do a lot more work here in this neighborhood, so they do get paid better. I’m hoping we won’t see an issue there but putting them in spots to have more time and hours, and that gives me padding if I have to borrow somebody from another neighborhood. So, it would be an increase in that aspect, the repair and replacement line. The supply lines that we have are all

going to go up. I’m already seeing that in our bills. But I’m hoping individual rates won’t change because they’re already high here.
Mr. Thomas asked did we ever get with that other neighborhood and Clay Electric, so we don’t continue to pay for their lights?
Mr. Soriano responded Clay Electric hasn’t been out here yet. I have to coordinate with them because you have two problems. You have one for the Village Center that I’m still dealing with, and one for the new one. They are nowhere near ready to set up accounts though, so until that neighborhood is a little closer, they’re probably not going to give me an idea of what is going to happen with the streetlighting. I don’t think there’s a reason whatsoever, even though we own property there, that we should be handling the lights. I think that should be their HOA. That would be the case if it was not in the District and it was just an entry on Argyle. I don’t want to get stuck with that and all the sudden we’ve got four to six lights tapped into our meter on our property. I’ll stay on Clay Electric as we get closer, and I start seeing poles going up for their entryway.

SEVENTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Audience Comments / Supervisors’
Requests
Supervisor Requests
Chairperson Nelsen asked how many years has it been since we’ve had an increase in assessments?
Mr. Soriano responded I think it’s been 13.
Chairperson Nelsen asked would you mind checking into that, Marilee?
Mr. Soriano stated it’s since I’ve been out here, and this is my eleventh summer. Even then, that one was not a large increase. Everything is going up. That doesn’t make it any easier for our residents. That seems to be the norm this year.

Mr. Horton stated you got the pool leak fixed, but you’re still keeping an eye on it?
Mr. Soriano responded I am. I have one section that is leaking, it’s a very small leak, so I did go ahead and buy a fitting for that pipe, and we can repair that. It’s not something that’s causing a major issue, but we can’t bury it like that. We’ve had it open this whole time to watch it and it does make the ground wet enough and it is chemically treated water, so I’m worried about it starting to react to the outside of the metal fitting that is doing all of the work

on the big pipe. If I just bury it and it starts to rust underground, then five years now it fails, that was a lot of work to do to just get a few years out of it. So, I’m going to go ahead and repair the other side that is leaking. Hopefully I can dig everything back up to give me enough space to work, cut the other pipe and put the new fitting on. That has already been bought and paid for. I don’t see anything extra other than my time.
Mr. Horton asked so once you get the leak figured out and buried again, do we move onto the salt pools?
Mr. Soriano responded yes. Your salt is already set up, I’ve already gotten quotes on it, so really it was just waiting on the install. The one big issue I have with that is if I couldn’t get it done in the winter, I’m going to keep Poolsure, because I do get a cheaper amount of chlorine and a better delivery with them during the summer. They make all their money in the winter, so as long as I can get rid of them next winter, we will save money. They are one of your vendors that have asked for two increases this year, and I can promise they’re going to come around again come January and ask for another. That’s with anything pool related, whether it’s construction, parts, or chemicals. Everything in that field has gone up triple or more, so I’m happy we went that route. I am going to get them moving on your other two pools. The middle pool and your lap pool are doing fine, so there’s really no sense in waiting. It still doesn’t allow me to get rid of the chlorine delivery from Poolsure until later in the summer. Once that is done, the slide pool will be installed also.
Mr. Horton asked the cardio room, I guess we’re still waiting on the equipment? Mr. Soriano responded yes.
Mr. Horton stated with the vandalism at the Cannon’s Point, you were going to work with the kids to work out some kind of community service thing. Is that coming along?
Mr. Soriano responded one parent has contacted me and one parent has fallen off completely. We will continue to move on that. Community service is nice, and I can use them for the events, but I can only use them so much. It also takes time for me and staff to be able to do that. What I don’t want for them to start to think is that is going to be part of a give and take. The most important part is restitution here. I’m concerned with the fact that I think one of them is not going to be a part of that and it’s going to create a problem for the other two.
Mr. Horton asked part of the community service?

Mr. Soriano responded part of the restitution. She may not be involved in community service either if there’s no contact with her. There was one family that talked about being evicted, so I don’t know how we’re going to get a hold of somebody if we don’t even know where they’re at.
Mr. Horton asked they’re still going to court though, right?
Mr. Soriano responded Clay County has given me some problems, because they were moving in a direction that is more civil. We can still press charges, and I told them that’s what we wanted to do. I think they’re thinking, why can’t you guys work that out amongst yourselves, and I don’t agree with that. I think they still need to go to court. I know they had some bad stories, and we want to work with them, but we still have to make sure the District is made whole in the end.
Mr. Horton asked the stormwater needs analysis is still on the way?
Mr. Soriano responded yes. He’s got a couple of neighborhoods he has to have done by this next month, so Marilee will continue to poke him, and we will get that in.
Mr. Horton asked is there anything that we should about that has gone on in the past month related to security?
Ms. LaFata responded the only thing for your district is some vandalism that revolved around the basketball hoop. We observed it and it was damaged, but we don’t know how it happened or have any suspects. That’s the only concern we’ve had as far as noticeable damage to the property. As usual, we’ve requested non-residents that shouldn’t be on property to leave, and we haven’t had any issues.
Mr. Horton asked have you all made use of the golf cart yet?
Ms. LaFata responded we have not. We are in the process of training the officers. All of the officers that are here are not familiar with our riding protocols, so we’re in the process of training them to be familiar with that as far as writing reports on the vehicle and recording any activity that is on it, so as soon as we’ve got all of the officers trained on that, we will implement the golf cart into the property duties.
Mr. Lanier asked do you have a timeframe for using the golf cart? Ms. LaFata responded it should be this month.
Mr. Lanier asked how is it going as far as getting the right people on shift. Have we missed any shifts?

Ms. LaFata responded we have not on this side.
Mr. Lanier asked could we narrow down the timeframe in which the basketball hoop was damaged?
Mr. Soriano responded if I can figure out the time it was damaged, then I could possibly figure out the person that damaged it based off who has checked in.
Mr. Horton asked what was the damage?
Ms. LaFata responded it’s crooked. You can see that it’s bent down.
Mr. Soriano stated over the years we get people that like to hang on it when they dunk. We’ve had to repair a couple in the past and I was just going to look at changing out a couple of the rims and repainted the black poles when we do the pickleball work since we’re going to be out there anyway. We haven’t done a lot of work over there, so we will spend a little time making that look better.

Mr. Lanier asked Chalon, do you have any concerns?
Ms. Suchsland responded I’m still down two people, but my guys are keeping up and are working extended hours to get it done.

Ms. Giles stated I was able to get an answer on the last time assessments were raised. It was 2012.

EIGHTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Next Scheduled Meetings
Ms. Giles stated the next scheduled meeting is June 13th at 4:00 p.m. at the Plantation Oaks Amenity Center. We will be approving the proposed budget.

NINTH ORDER OF BUSINESS	Adjournment

On MOTION by Chairperson Nelsen seconded by Mr. Thomas with all in favor the meeting was adjourned.

Secretary/Assistant Secretary	Chairman/Vice Chairman