August 15 – Because the previous Key West City Commission meeting had some commissioners who were absent, a number of items were pushed to the next meeting – and that will be tomorrow night.
Key West Mayor Teri Johnston joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s happening in the city.
The city commission will have a pretty heavy agenda.
A memorandum of agreement between the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the city of Key West is one of the items on the agenda.
Johnston explained, “They are going to allow us to use some of their parking spots to make it convenient for our liveaboards and we are going to give them office space in our new dockmaster office.”
Additionally, the commission will approve the state of Florida Department of Economic Opportunity federally funded community development block grant mitigation program sub-recipient agreement.
Johnston said, “What that does is we are signing the agreement, the state is giving us $500,000. The city of Key West is putting in another $394,000 in order to complete our vulnerability assessment for sea level rise in the city of Key West. So congratulations to our sustainability coordinator Alison Higgins who worked really hard on this.”
The commission will also look at an agreement with Poinciana Gardens for transportation should a hurricane evacuation required.
Johnston said, “We are going to have our buses there in order to safely transport out the residents of Poinciana Gardens and any equipment that they need to go with them.”
The first reading of an ordinance for the police and firefighters retirement plan will also be heard.
Johnston said, “I’m sure we’ll have a lengthy discussion on that.”
The commission will also take a look at a workforce housing initiative at Trumbo.
In fact, affordable housing is a critical issue throughout the entire Keys.
Key West will also be looking for a city manager and a selection committee has been formed.
Johnston said, “They will work with our outside consultants who will go out, we will set the parameters up on what we’re looking for in a new city manager and then the consultant will bring in the resumes that they feel fit the qualifications. Our group that we seat will go through those and pare those down to two or three or four or five qualified people.”
One qualification would be experience in sea level rise mitigation. Key West is the third most vulnerable spot in the country for sea level rise and climate change.
Johnston said, “The city of Key West operates under a strong city manager government which means that the seven of us elected officials are actually closest to the people, but in order to get anything done, we need to work very closely with the city manager who actually manages all 525 employees in the city of Key West. So you have to have a very close working relationship there and a really transparent, open communication style.”
The city manager also need to understand a tourist destination place, including maintaining the quality of life for the residents.
Tomorrow night’s meeting will be 5 p.m. at City Hall.
Johnston said, “There’s some pretty weighty items that we’re going to be discussing that have a great deal of impact on the city of Key West so please, if you can join us, come to City Hall at 5 o’clock.”
The meeting can be viewed on Channel 77 or livestreamed on the website.
Johnston said, “Please get involved. Get your opinions known so that we can make good decisions that represent the entire city.”
For the agenda tomorrow night, click here: https://keywest.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=991904&GUID=4F6A7F03-3B99-44FA-889C-D3B859658648&Options=&Search=