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The Florida Association of Local Housing Finance Authorities held a quarterly meeting at SunTrust Towers, Conference Room C, 200 S. Orange Avenue, Orlando, FL on this 13th day of April, 2006. Mr. Jernigan called the meeting to order at 11:04 a.m... at which time he determined a quorum of the Board was present.
The first item on the agenda was the approval of the minutes of the January 12, 2006 quarterly meeting. A motion was made by Ms. Braynon, seconded by Mr. Ferguson and passed unanimously to approve the minutes as presented.
The next item was the presentation of the financial report. Mr. Ferguson presented the financials for the period of January 1, 2006 through March 31, 2006 and informed the Board of the checking and money market account balances as of March 31, 2006 , $66,447.77 AmSouth Checking, AmSouth Money Market Account, $105,196.66, Bank of Pensacola Money Market Account, $103,121.71, and Gulf Coast Community Bank Money Market Account, $82,130.12. A motion was made by Mr. Jernigan, seconded by Mr. Morris and passed unanimously to approve and ratify the financial report.
Next, Ms. Sindel presented an update on the FLALHFA Membership Drive. Those who have not renewed their membership for 2006 will be contacted once again reminding them the cost of non members to attend the Key West conference is more costly and that they will not be listed in the annual membership book.
The Key West Conference followed. Ms. Feezor reported on corporate underwriting stating that all of the sponsors from 2004 and 2005 have been contacted. This year, the first 10 platinum sponsors to actually provide payment will have their logos on the goody bags. Mr. Popkin pointed out that FLALHFA needs to try and recruit not only new sponsors each year but that some of them should be from the development community. Mr. Tim Hammond of U.S. Bank will be working with Mr. Feezor to secure new sponsors. Ms. Sindel then reported on the Welcome Reception, Dine Around and the Sunset Dinner. Once again, we are returning to Mel Fisher's Museum for the Welcome Reception on Wednesday evening. For Dine Around, we are using seven restaurants but this year we will have Café Marquesa join us as we not returning to Antonios. Housing Finance Authorities will be allowed to sign up for Dine Around prior to the rest of the conference attendees. Board members were asked to serve as "hosts" for the various Dine Around restaurants with Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Jernigan, Mr. Morris, Mr. Fischer and Ms. Braynon volunteering. Ms. Helen Feinberg of RBC Dain Rauscher will host Mangos. The Friday Sunset Dinner will be very similar to 2005 and we will once again have live entertainment. Mr. Popkin then handed out drafts of this year's conference program/agenda. For Friday, July 14th there will be only one afternoon session instead of two due to lack of attendance. The conference agenda will be posted on the FLALHFA website. Mr. Jernigan mentioned that Mr. Hosken will need to be placed as a speaker for Thursday and Saturday in order to have his travel approved. Next, discussion regarding the nominating committee report was held. Ms. Abbott offered to chair the nominating committee, consisting of her and Mr. Morris. Their report/nominations will be presented at a general session in Key West.
Mr. Kiss then presented the legislative update as Mr. Hendrickson was attending the Hillsborough Housing Finance Authority meeting. Per Mr. Kiss, affordable housing for Florida will occur, but the question is how many dollars will be available. There appears to be a one time explosion for funding of affordable housing and yet a serious need for subsidy. Mr. Jernigan noted that some governmental officials mistakenly believe Sadowski funds do not just need to be used for affordable housing. Mr. Popkin stated that the Sadowski Act will expire in 2007 and in order to extend it there will be a cap of $193 million with any additional funds going into the general budget. Mr. Kiss announced that on April 19th from 12:30 - 12:45 p.m. there will be a Workforce Housing Rally at the old capital in Tallahassee, FL. If you can attend, please do so, and please contact your local legislators telling them to "Scrap the Cap…Full Funding." The concern is that unless the cap is removed and full funding reinstated, there will not be substantial monies for the necessary subsidies needed to make our bond issues work. Mr. Jernigan noted that Escambia County, which was severely injured during Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis, was totally left out of the hurricane relief funds. Mr. Popkin stated that an "across the board" plan for hurricane relief needs to be developed. Not continue to pass individual legislation for each storm. Per Mr. Kiss, the Florida Housing Coalition website provides information regarding how many affordable housing funds should be coming into your politician's district vs. what they are actually getting. He encouraged everyone to have their local politicians review this information on the website. It was also discussed that more media attention regarding these issues is needed throughout the entire state. Ms. Sindel stated that a lack of staffing at the local level (growth management, planning and zoning) has created problems with housing as many projects are stuck in the permitting process. The issue of inclusionary zoning, requiring affordable housing in every new subdivision was mentioned. It was also noted that even though we can not mandate the market, we need to encourage it to move in certain directions.
The next meeting for FLAHFA will be the annual meeting to be held July 12, 2006 at 4:00 p.m. in the Dewey Board Room of the Hilton in Key West, FL.
There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 12:29 p.m.
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