Key West City officials submit their 2014 report card
BY PRU SOWERS
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
Key West City Manager Jim Scholl says he’s having déjà vu when it comes to the 2014 annual report for the city.
In his first annual report card since retiring as city manager in 2012, only to be brought back last July to replace outgoing Bob Vitas, Scholl said the city is maintaining its positive course.
“I’m pleased to say, as I did in the last annual report I presented to you in 2012, that each department within [the] City was successful at protecting public safety while staying within stringent budgetary guidelines,” Scholl said in the introduction to the 33-page report. “I’ve always said that, in addition to our responsibility for the public’s welfare, we have a sacred responsibility to fiscal responsibility with taxpayers’ money.”
The report, which can be read in full on the city’s website, www.cityofkeywest-fl.gov, pulls out a few achievements of merit, according to Scholl, including the fire department taking over emergency medical services, completing the new Fire Station #2 on Simonton Street, and building a new transit facility on Stock Island.
“A look back a 2014 wouldn’t be complete without taking note of the completion of the two-year reconstruction of North Roosevelt Boulevard by the Florida Department of Transportation. Our community pulled together during that difficult time, supporting local businesses and bearing with the inconvenience,” Scholl said, adding “Now we have a showcase entrance to our island that is safer than ever before.”
The annual report gives a department by department overview of projects underway or completed in 2014. In the building department, headed up by Director Ron Wampler, revenues grew by $775,000, to $2.5 million, in building fees alone. Business tax and regulatory fees also increased in 2014, jumping $70,000 to $1.45 million.
Rod Delostrinos, Key West Director of Community Services, took over for former Director Greg Veliz in 2014 when Veliz was promoted into a new position of Assistant City Manager. Delostrinos pointed to completed renovations of the Nelson English and Willie Ward Park and Bill Butler Park, and accomplishments in city landscaping, public works and fleet maintenance that his department completed last year.
“Every park of Key West is touched by the work performed by Community Services Department,” he said in the report.
The city planning department has the longest review – five pages – in the report, despite losing its director, Don Craig, who retired in 2014. Senior Planner Kevin Bond has been interim director and a permanent new director, Thaddeus Cohen, was just hired. Cohen will begin on March 30.
Responsible for long and short term municipal planning, planning department staff received over 2,800 applications to the city boards it supports in 2014, including the Historic Architecture Review Commission, the Planning Board and the Tree Commission.
“In addition, the Department occasionally hosts special workshops on important issues, such as FEMA compliance, historic signage, sustainability initiatives and affordable housing. Over the last year, the Department has provided staff for a total of 100 public meetings and workshops in these and other categories as directed by the City Manager,” Bond wrote in his report.
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Beware of the explosive nose growth of the perpetrators of this report. Let us consider the unnecessary and extravagant new city hall, the also unnecessary handicapped access to the firefighters’ living quarters above the also-new fire hall, the installation of coconut palms along the full length of N. Roosevelt Blvd., which will require constant maintenance, pruning, and removal of coconuts, awarding the trash removal to the high bidder, all this and many more burdens to be born by the local taxpayers.
Wherever, one wonders, is the fiscal responsibility cited in the report?