Garden Leaders drops lawsuit against Lakewood Ranch CDDs

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Landscape contractor Garden Leaders has dropped its lawsuit alleging three Lakewood Ranch Community Development Districts violated state open-meeting laws while selecting a new landscape contractor.

Garden Leaders on Sept. 16 dropped the suits, filed in late August, after two of three CDD boards voted not to renew the company’s contract and instead hire another vendor for landscaping services. The third board — CDD 1 — had not yet voted.

Garden Leaders also dropped a fourth suit filed against the Inter-District Authority Board, which oversees employees of Town Hall. Garden Leaders is dropping its bid protests as part of the deal, as well.

“It looks like everything’s a go,” Lakewood Ranch Town Hall Executive Director Eva Rey said of the agreement.

Supervisors on Lakewood Ranch CDDs 1, 4 and 5 voted Sept. 15 in favor of the settlement deal, which required the districts to hire Garden Leaders as an interim landscape contractor through Dec. 31 in exchange for dropping the lawsuit and withdrawing a bid protest. Garden Leaders had until the end of day Sept. 16 to finalize the deal, or the districts would have hired another interim contractor recommended by staff.

Town Hall’s Director of Operations Ryan Heise said he supports the solution and expects landscaping to continue as usual.

“The continuity of operations is there,” he said.

Heise also said he has made changes to the bid-evaluation process by making changes to evaluation criteria and including the times and dates of evaluation committee meetings in the new Request for Proposal. The changes address concerns raised in Garden Leaders’ lawsuit.

On behalf of the districts, Town Hall Operations staff is seeking a new Request for Proposal for landscaping services after district attorneys said doing so would reduce potential legal expenses and expedite and simply the process going forward.

Town Hall staff had planned to recommend a neutral interim contractor until the proposal by Garden Leaders came forward last week.

Garden Leaders’ regular contract is set to expire Oct. 1.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

IN OTHER BUSINESS

CDD 1:
• Supervisors granted permission for a representative of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to conduct a fish survey for both Trophy and Summerfield lakes.

CDD 2:
• Attorney Andy Cohen reported an agreement with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office to utilize off-duty deputies for security services should be finalized for the board’s October meeting.
• The board deferred action on updated transponder and remote policies. The policy would allow non-resident members of Lakewood Ranch Golf & Country Club access to the community through at least three gates.

CDD 5
• The board deferred action on updated transponder and remote policies. The transponder policy would allow non-resident Lakewood Ranch Golf & Country Club members access to the community through at least three gates.

IDA
• Supervisors voted to extend the contract of Andy Avalar for information technology-related services through Jan. 31 in an amount not to exceed $30,000. Avalar will assist with the implementation of a new IDA website.