Board Meeting Minutes – June 26, 2017
Pinelands Public Improvement District
Board Meeting Minutes – June 26, 2017
Location: Blair and Bondurant Law Office, 1368 Old Fannin Road, Brandon MS 39047
Present: Kevin Prince, Lori Voss, John Everitt, Marion Alford, Marti Morgan, Kristi Thompson (Accountant for PPID)
Meeting called to order at 5:23 pm.
• Minutes from May 30th meeting reviewed. John Everitt made motion to approve, Marion Alford second, all in favor.
• Affirmed Board email decision to award lawn maintenance along the parkway to SchoggenScapes for mowing, trimming and trash pickup, and to Weed Warriors for chemical treatments. Details are in signed contracts on file; Kevin will forward originals to Kristi for filing.
Documents/papers/records recovery from prior PID Board: Kevin Prince reported he sent Tracy Diaz a text message at 10 am today. She responded she has some records, checkbook etc. and will meet with Kevin tomorrow or in next few days. Fred Tyner, former Board member reached out to Kevin and met with him, turned over a large folder of old paperwork. Lori Voss took possession of these to review. Along with the folder was a sealed undated letter by Fred resigning as a Board member.
Financial Report:
Kristi supplied Balance sheet and P & L statements, and asked us to advise what we want to see going forward. Current total balance in all accounts is $1,742,040.44 as of May 31.
Kristi advised the audits for 2013, 2014 and 2015 are close to finishing. She is in process of making some final adjustments in entries the auditor requested. Due to receipt date of some income from assessments, the $707,000 in October 15 thru Sept 16 will actually be adjusted to $738,000.
Kristi supplied the last invoice received for the PPID insurance policy, with Wellington Associates; invoice was dated Dec. 2015 for a February 2016 renewal date. No invoice received for 2017 renewal date and no cancelled check in the records. John will follow up with Wellington Associates tomorrow to investigate new coverage placement.
Trustmark Bank: Kevin Prince, Kristi Thompson and John Everitt visited Trustmark Bank, met with Sharon Bray in the Brandon office. Made changes in signatures to Kevin, John, and Kristie.
Hancock Bank: Kevin Prince, Kristi Thompson, and John Everitt met with Hancock Bank (Susan Tsimortos and Brittany Skok). Discussed the various accounts and learned we can easily close the Operating Account as we are now paying our own maintenance and day to day expenses out of Trustmark account. We can also close the Construction account. Kevin made motion to close these 2 accounts and receive a check to post to Trustmark Bank, Marti seconded, all in favor. Kevin also made motion to request view only access to the Hancock accounts online, and change the mailing address for these accounts to either a new PO Box or Kristi’s business address, Marti seconded, all in favor. Discussed the “Bond book” a large bound book with all the details and legalities of the bond issue, Attorney Morrow was given two copies. We will ask for at least one of those back from Morrow for PPID records. We were told by Susan Tsimortos that the funds to pay the principal and interest on the bonds are automatically taken from the Revenue account and transferred to the Depository Trust Co. (Bond Clearinghouse) to pay bondholder interest and principal. The Debt Service Fund (actually the Debt Service Reserve Fund), is required by the terms of the bond issue and by law, and consists of enough funds to pay approximately one year’s interest on the bonds. This fund currently has a balance of $601,319, and should only have transactions if we don’t collect money from assessments. The Interest account functions as a pass-through account to pay accumulated interest on bonds. We also will have a Rebate report to submit, which is basically a calculation for the IRS that we are not making more money in interest on the bonds than we are paying out. This has to be completed every 5 years. Requested no online transfers to be made from our accounts for operating expense. We will hand deliver a Board resolution/minutes to Hancock and obtain a hard check, which we will then deposit in Trustmark. This should only occur once or twice per year.
PPID Map and Assessments Overview: Kevin, John and Kristi met with Pat Sullivan, Rankin County Tax Assessor – received the Map layout of the land in the PPID, which was previously shared via email with everyone. Kristi, John and Kevin will meet to calculate a maintenance budget + amount needed for debt service and set assessments for next fiscal year, will bring this recommendation back to the next board meeting as fiscal year starts in October.
Litigation with Hancock Bank involving fraudulent money transfers from PPID account, money stolen: Kevin Prince, John Everitt and Kristi Thompson met with Matt Vitart, attorney with Randall Segrest Law Firm representing the PPID Board against Hancock Bank.
Prior treasurer’s Gmail account was hacked on 4 different occasions. Matt Vitart shared evidence the account was accessed from an IP internet address in South Africa on the 4 specific days bank transfer requests were sent. Only after receiving the 4th request did Hancock investigate with the previous PPID Board. There is no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing at this time on the part of any previous PPID Board member.
Discussed settlement confidentiality: There is a clause in the release PPID can share information with accountants, attorneys, tax advisers, and the Internal Revenue Service or as otherwise required by law. We are a public board and would have to disclose to constituents (those paying PPID assessments) if requested.
Matt Vitart considered our case against Hancock to be “good” but not “excellent”. Hancock relied on the email coming from Tracy’s email account, with the form letter approval attached signed by individuals from the prior board, and with an invoice attached to cover the transfer. This transfer was out of character for this account, which Matt argued successfully with Hancock. Settlement was based on fact court date was 2 ½ to 3 years away, with the real potential of losing in court for some obscure reason. The eventual legal cost for the PPID board for discovery, depositions, motions, etc. would likely equal or exceed the Hancock settlement offer plus legal costs, with no guarantee we would fully prevail in court.
Matt Vitart advised he was not aware of any crime insurance covering this loss that the PID owned, and not aware of any Hancock Bank owned. The settlement was brokered by Hancock’s in-house counsel.
Matt was unaware of any arrests or restitution made in this matter. Marti Morgan will check with law enforcement contacts to ascertain if the case is closed, if still open what the potential outcome might be, and report back at next meeting.
Pending lawsuit against prior PPID Board from Pinebrook: Lori Voss advised they don’t want to drop the lawsuit until our Board receives all documents, files, records we possibly can. She feels the lawsuit should be maintained or we might not ever get anything.
Overdue water bill from City of Flowood: Marion Alford met and discussed this with the City. Was told by the City our irrigation system had a serious leak, City turned off the water meter. Someone turned it back on. City came back out and put a lock on the meter. Lock was subsequently cut off and water turned back on. City finally came back out and removed the meter. City of Flowood is not going to negotiate this bill down given the circumstances. John Everitt made motion we pay the bill and get this issue behind us, Marion seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.
Budget Review: Kevin, John and Krisi will meet to put together numbers for budget and present to next meeting.
Damage to median on Hugh Ward Parkway from auto accident: We have quotes from the Landscaping companies to replace landscaping destroyed. We are currently awaiting irrigation invoice, piping and wiring damage with trees uprooted. Insurance company will pay when we obtain invoices and send.
Streetlights: John and Kevin met with the County Comptroller and learned the lights were indeed a federal grant. We must keep them in place until such time as the Government conducts an audit to make sure they are present. If they conduct no audit, we are safe to replace after 10 years. In the meantime, we discussed potential of some waist high lights on the walking sidewalks. Will investigate and discuss further at a later meeting.
Stop Signs and safety: Will draft letter to Mike Harrison, County Road Engineer requesting stop signs and crosswalks at entrance to Turtle Ridge I (Turtle Ridge Dr), Pinebrook East (E. Pinebrook Dr), and Pinebrook West (W. Pinebrook Dr.) We will cite safety, large numbers of pedestrians using sidewalks and street crossings, and extreme speeding by motorists, along with the recent high speed accident on the Parkway. There are also numerous incidents of late-night drag racing on the Parkway which are creating a safety hazard. Discussion around potential for speed humps to be installed on the Parkway.
Next meeting: Monday, July 31, 2017, 5:15 p.m. at Blair and Bondurant Law Office.
Respectfully submitted,
John Everitt
Secretary/Treasurer
Kevin Prince
President