1. Call to order

A. The Trustees of the Lake Asbury Municipal Service Benefit District (LAMSBD) met in the Lake Asbury Community Center, 282 Branscomb Road, on the above-stated date. Chairman McMillan called the meeting to order at 6:39 p.m.

2. Roll/Quorum

A. The following trustees were present: Chairman McMillan, Vice Chair Tyrie and Trustees Huggins, Kocher, and Petrucci - a quorum of five. Trustees absent: and Trustees McCallister, Worley, and Newton. Staff present: District Attorney Wayne Flowers, District Accountant Tom Hallquest, District Engineer Mike Bueme, and Secretary Melody Pickens.

3. Administrative Announcement:

A. Chairman McMillan gave the Administrative announcements.

Election of Board Officers

Secretary Pickens opened the floor for the election of board officers.

Trustee Petrucci nominated Chair McMillan to be retained as Chair. Carried 5-0.

Chair McMillan nominated Trustee Petrucci to be elected Vice Chair. Trustee Kocher nominated Trustee Tyrie to be retained as Vice Chair. Trustee Tyrie declined the nomination. The board voted 4-1 to elect Trustee Petrucci Vice Chair, with trustee Kocher dissenting.

Chair McMillan nominated Trustee Kocher to be elected Treasurer. Carried 5-0.

Chair McMillan made a motion to retain Melody Pickens as board Secretary. Carried 5-0.

4. Approval of Minutes

A. A motion was made to approve the December 3, 2018 board meeting minutes by Trustee Petrucci and seconded by Trustee Kocher. Carried 5-0.

5. Treasurer’s Report

A. District Accountant Tom Hallquest presented the Treasurers Report. Trustee Huggins moved to approve the January 7, 2019 Treasurer’s Report, seconded by Vice Chair Petrucci. Carried 5-0. Trustee Petrucci said that the final loan payment for $132,000.00 will be made in June.

6. Approval of Checks

A. Chair McMillan made a motion to approve checks 3419-3425. Seconded by Vice Chair Petrucci. Carried 5-0.

7. Staff Reports

A. District Engineer

1. Mr. Bueme told the board that he was honored to be their new engineer. He asked to see the dam permit for the Lake Ryan dam. He asked for copies of dam reports. He also needs a copy of the work that Mike Kelter did on South dam. He needs to know about any open permits. He also wants to create a master agenda. Chair McMillan said that the permit for the Lake Ryan dam was on hold because of a request for additional information. He told Mr. Bueme the board plans to put a spillway in the Lake Ryan dam and sheet piling the North Lake dam. He also said that the east kettle of the Lake Asbury dam had a broken support and was leaning and the Lake Ryan kettle looks like it needs repair. Chair McMillan will take Mr. Bueme to look at everything.

2. Secretary Pickens will make Mr. Bueme a copy of Mike Kelter’s thumb drive.

B. Attorney Wayne Flowers

1. Sunshine Law.

a) Trustee Huggins asked that Mr. Flowers present the Sunshine Law review next month. Trustee Petrucci asked how long the Sunshine rules have been in effect. Mr. Flowers said since the 1970’s.

2. Insurance Guidelines.

a) Chair McMillan asked Mr. Flowers to table this discussion until next month.

C. Secretary Melody Pickens

1. Website Update.

a) Secretary Pickens told the board that the site is set up and currently being populated. Chair McMillan asked if the board they would be getting new emails and Secretary Pickens said when the site is up. Mr. Flowers reminded the board to read their official email.

2. Letter from the Public Lands Research Program.

a) Secretary Pickens presented a letter that described two properties owned by the board and requesting that discrepancies be reported. Chair McMillan said it was the wedge of property at the corner of Aldersgate and Branscomb at the brick house near the dam.

3. Commission of Ethics Board Member update.

a) Secretary Pickens asked Chair McMillan for permission to login to his account to update the Commission of Ethics annual board member listing. He gave her permission.

4. Secretary Pickens told the board that in their handouts she had given them printouts of an updated board member listing, attendance record, and 2019 meeting dates.

D. Accountant Tom Halquest.

8. Trustee Reports

A. Chairman

1. Chair McMillan informed the board that County Manager Stephanie Kopelousos now works for Governor DeSantis. The Fire Chief is the interim county manager.

2. Assignment of board member duties. Chair McMillan emphasized the need to share responsibility and work as a team.

a) He noted that Carl Kocher is now Treasurer and is working with Secretary Pickens on record keeping and the website.

b) Trustee Tyrie is the insurance point of contact.

c) Chair McMillan will be the point of contact with Bueme Engineering.

d) Vice Chair Petrucci will cover for Chair McMillan when he’s not available.

3. Assignment of board signatories. Chair McMillan said that the signatories (McMillan, Kocher, Petrucci) need to complete and submit the Ameris forms for signature cards. All other existing signatories should be deactivated.

4. Chair McMillan informed the board that he may be moving to a new fire station and may not be able to attend all meetings.

B. Vice Chairman

1. (Note from Secretary: this is not a transcription. If you would like to listen to the recording, please contact me – I am writing this for the record and in some detail because I was accused of being party to an unauthorized investigation)(Minutes 41.36 – 46.27 on recording) Vice Chair Petrucci said he had something he wanted to inquire about just to make sure that it’s being done correctly and not (garbled) and with our funds. He said that up until December he wasn’t aware of an investigative committee attached to the board that uses board funds to publish whatever they want to publish under the boards website and whatever they want to do. He said that Carl had apparently thought there’s something wrong with the way bid process went and contacted Mr. Bee’s and he’s having an investigation and that’s fine. He would like to know when Carl plans on wrapping it up. Treasurer Kocher said that he’d had no investigation going on. Vice Chair Petrucci said that he had a letter on his phone that Treasurer Kocher would like Wayne to contact Mr. Bee’s to see if they wanted to make a complaint or protest or something. He said that the letters should have been made known to the board before they were put into the record. Treasurer Kocher told him that he’d read the letters to the board. Vice Chair Petrucci said that he didn’t think Treasurer Kocher should use the boards assets to do investigations of people on the board. He talked about four letters on his phone that he didn’t send to himself. He said, “Melody, unfortunately, it’s from you, but they all say they’re from Carl.” He offered to read one, but told Secretary Pickens that maybe she’d like to read it because he’d have to put glasses on to read it. Secretary Pickens said that Carl read the three letters into the record at the last meeting (I looked at the email on Vice Chair Petrucci’s phone and saw the agenda for that nights meeting, part of the email I sent to the board on December 17, 2018 that included the January 2019 agenda, December minutes, and the three letters that Treasurer Kocher read into the record at the December meeting.) Secretary Pickens told him that she sent the emails to everyone. Vice Chair Petrucci asked if he was at the last meeting – he didn’t remember Carl reading them. He said that everything he did went through Wayne. He said to Treasurer Kocher that he was curious if this is going to keep going on. Treasurer Kocher said no, not from him. Vice Chair Petrucci said that if all he had to do get him to stop was confront him at the table, he would have done it two years ago. Treasurer Kocher said he didn’t know what he was talking about.

2. Vice Chair Petrucci brought in a box of a variety of files from his home that he asked to drop off. He didn’t know if any of the documents were from Mike Kelter’s thumb drive. Treasurer Kocher said that you would need Autodesk to read the files on the thumb drive. He will take the records. He suggested giving the thumb drive to Mr. Bueme to copy, but Mr. Bueme said he’d prefer looking at the paper records. He will copy what he needs and return it. Treasurer Kocher said he would take the box of files.

C. Treasurer

D. Trustees

1. Trustee Huggins.

a) Trustee Huggins announced that this would be his last board meeting. He has taken a job in Augusta, Georgia. He expects that the job will last up to three years. He thoroughly enjoyed his ten years on the board.

9. Unfinished Business

A. Lake Ryan spillway project update. Tabled until the next meeting.

B. Kettle rehab. Tabled until the next meeting.

C. Cleanout boxes. Waiting for the county, which promised to work on this and other issues after the first of the year. Chairman McMillan asked Mr. Bueme to include him if he meets with Dale Smith (County Engineer).

10. New Business

A. Comments from District Members.

1. Kay Manly, 420 Wesley Road, asked if Forrest Groundworks was mowing the small strip of grass at the Lake Asbury boat ramp that their current mowing contractor was mowing. She was told that Forrest Groundworks was indeed mowing that strip now.

2. Carol Wright, 959 Arthur Moore, asked if she tell potential buyers that the problems with the fingers would be addressed. Chair McMillan assured her that they would, eventually.

11. Adjournment: Trustee Huggins made a motion to adjourn at 7:41. Seconded by Chair McMillan. Carried 5-0.

Melody Pickens ____________________________________________

District Secretary Mark McMillan, Chairman