$144k consultant contract is awarded before new planning director review

$144k consultant contract is awarded before new planning director review

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

Timing is everything, except when it is not.

 

Key West City Commissioners debated recently whether to move ahead with awarding a $143,700 consultant contract to rewrite the city’s land development regulations – a project that has been on the books since 2012 – or wait until the new city planner begins work on March 30. Thaddeus Cohen, Key West’s new City Planner and former secretary of the state Department of Community Affairs under Gov. Jeb Bush, will be intimately involved in any proposed changes in the land development regulations (LDR). As such, city commissioners wondered whether they should wait to award the consulting contract until Cohen could be part of the selection process.

 

“Should the new director of planning not be given the opportunity to comment, review and perhaps advise the commission of his thoughts,” asked city commission candidate Sam Kaufman at the March 17 city commission meeting. “Does the new planning director even know about the [LDR] contract? This is the most important thing in planning bar none.”

City Manager Jim Scholl said that Cohen was aware of the plan to update the city’s LDR but did not know staff had already selected Calvin, Giordano & Associates to do the job. Updating the city’s land development regulations will be a long process that Cohen will have ample opportunity to contribute to the review, Scholl said.

 

“It needs to be done,” he said about the land development update. “The process will have many, many reviews by staff. There will be constant interaction, not only by the planning director but with staff.”

 

But City Commissioner Tony Yaniz argued against moving forward with awarding the $143,700 contract after he heard acting City Planner Kevin Bond say there would be no penalty if commissioners decided to wait.

 

“It’s such a long process. What’s the harm in postponing it? Let Mr. Cohen get here. Let Mr. Cohen be involved in the decision making and the planning part of this. It welcomes the man to Key West as a team member,” Yaniz said.

 

But Commissioner Jimmy Weekley pointed out that delaying the contract wouldn’t change any of the deliverables called for from the consultant, nor would it change staff rankings of the two consulting companies that bid on the job.

 

“Nothing will change in the contract so why wait? It’s not any disrespect to Mr. Cohen. It’s just doing daily business that has to be done in the city. Keep moving it forward,” Weekley urged his colleagues, who then voted 6-1 with Yaniz dissenting to award the contract to Calvin, Giordano & Associates.

 

Updating the LDR is a critical component of the city revising its Comprehensive Plan in 2012. The Comprehensive Plan is one of the city’s most important policy documents and guides the city’s approach to growth management. The required “major update” of the LDR is necessary to comply with the new Comprehensive Plan as well as correct inconsistencies and outdated regulations.

 

City planning staff members have held a series of meetings and workshops with other city department staffs, public agency staffs and the public to determine the scope and direction of the planned LDR amendments. That scope includes accommodating the goals of the Key West Strategic Plan and the Climate Action Plan, as well as revising the workforce housing ordinance, which has become a high priority for the city commissioners.

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