Commissioners balk at raising City Marina mooring rates
BY PRU SOWERS
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
Key West city commissioners approved a no-brainer Aug. 19 when they voted unanimously to place a referendum on the Nov. 4 general election ballot giving the city permanent possession of over eight acres in the Garrison Bight.
The 8.87-acre parcel at 1801 N. Roosevelt Blvd. Is already being managed by the city as part of the 245-slip Garrison Bight City Marina but is technically owned by the state. The parcel of uplands and submerged land was given to the Florida Department of Transportation in 1963 as part of the Palm Avenue Bridge construction project and was supposed to be returned to Key West once the project was completed.
But personnel changes on both sides dragged the return transfer out to the point where local laws changed and now require residents to vote on any municipal property acquisition, even if it is a no-charge transfer from the state.
Other events have been keeping things lively at City Marina, as well. Ignoring both a consultant’s report and staff recommendations that rates in the City Marina are too low. Several city commissioners are advocating leaving the rates where they are despite a lack of funds to make sorely-needed improvements at the marina.
At a budget workshop on July 22, commissioners heard a recommendation from Red Oak Consulting and Key West Port and Marine Services Director Doug Bradshaw to boost mooring rates in the marina in the 2015 fiscal year. Right now, the $1.6 million the city receives in mooring and docking fees produce a $200,000 profit every year after expenses. However, badly-needed renovation and delayed maintenance costs are estimated to cost $1.2 million annually from 2016 to 2019, Bradshaw said, more than erasing that profit.
“Once we build something, we tend to not maintain it. That was the problem at City Marina for a long time. It got to the point where stuff was falling into the water and it got dangerous,” he told commissioners.
As a result, the consultant’s report recommends docking fee increases at the marina beginning on Oct. 1, when the 2015 fiscal year begins. Per foot rates for daily transient boaters would rise from $1.90 to $2.47; commercial charter boats would go from $19.51 per foot to $20.10; and monthly mooring fees would increase from $325.23 to $371.71 on Oct. 1, then rise to $394.35 in FY 2017.
That got the attention of the boaters on the dais, Commissioners Mark Rossi and Mayor Craig Cates. Both men worried that the rate increases would be too expensive for the so-called “liveaboards,” people who live on their boats in the mooring fields.
“We talk about affordable housing here in this community. You’re raising the rates over 10 percent for the liveaboards [for boats with a beam of less than 15 feet]. You’re going up almost 20 percent [for boats with a beam of more than 15 feet]. That’s a lot of increase. These people are not millionaires over there,” Rossi said.
Mayor Cates, a long-time boating enthusiast, said he thought the current mooring field rates are too high, judging by the number of unrented space in the marina.
“We’ve got tons of vacant buoys out there. We’ve got to get competitive to do better, in my opinion.”
But Bradshaw said there was no other way to pay for maintenance needs that have been put off for almost a decade.
“Our rates are too low. I think they have been for a long time,” he said. “I know the two people who sat in this [port director’s] seat before me knew that was a problem, attempted to get rate increases and we just haven’t done it. So, again, we’re behind the eight-ball.”
The commissioners weren’t swayed, however, and asked Bradshaw to come back at the September budget workshop with a reduced capital improvement budget that would allow the rates to remain steady.
“I think we need to take the middle road here,” said Commissioner Tony Yaniz, “and come up with other solutions except than to go ahead and make an across-the-board increase that’s going to drive people out of there.”
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This is very curious. I re read this 3 times, and still cannot find any mention of the liveaboards, without the asinine quotations marks around the word, who have been living in the marina for many years. I see mention of transients, commercial and mooring field residents.
There are several hundred people that LIVE in the marina. Most are working people, or retired working people. A percentage are snow birds for sure, but the vast majority are not and have been fighting a constant battle against the city raising dockage for years. When I first moved here I was told by the then dockmaster, that a variety of rules were in place in order to maintain the affordable status of the floating home community. Subtly, over the years, this has all gone.
If you want to raise the rates to match those of other municipal marinas in Florida. Then you need to raise the quality of the marina to match them. Just having it be in Key West, is not enough. A quick Google will show you marinas with recreation centers, dog parks, restaurants and ship stores within them. We have a crumbling, filthy laundry/bathhouse and some randomly planted flowers.