City votes to use Bight cash
for New City Hall financing
BY TERRY SCHMIDA
Key West just took a Bight out of its cash inventory.
More specifically, the City Commission voted on May 5 to “transfer” $1.3 million from the Key West Bight Board reserves to the City of Key West New City Hall Fund.
The motion was sponsored by City Manager Jim Scholl, and passed after a vigorous debate, with District 3 Commissioner Billy Wardlow, and District 4 Commissioner Tony Yaniz voting against. Commissioner Jimmy Weekley, representing District 1, was not present for the tally.
The seven-member Bight Board, which oversees rental space at the city-owned Historic Seaport voted to hand the money over to the city at an April 15 meeting.
The project to transform the former Glynn Archer Elementary School into the New City Hall is now estimated to cost nearly $20 million, more than double the amount originally envisioned.
Yaniz and Wardlow were not happy about the proposal, with the latter describing it as “robbing from Peter to pay Paul,” and opening up a “can of worms” by leaning on the Bight’s capital. Yaniz asked about the state of the Bight’s assets, wondering if emergency needs might arise for which the cash could be put to more appropriate use.
However Scholl insisted that the Bight, serves as a “revenue generator” for the city, making its contribution to the New City Hall a welcome, but not outlandish gesture.
District 6 Commissioner Clayton Lopez, eager to build a consensus, suggested that perhaps the deal should be made in the form of a loan.
“We don’t want to create “a precedent to come back and bite us,” he warned.
However Commissioner Mark Rossi, of District 2, who is generally known as a fiscal hawk, saw nothing wrong with spending Bight money on a building that’s going to be used for such city business as – the Bight Board.
“It makes sense,” Rossi said. “If there’s a surplus over there, what are you going to spend it on?”
Mayor Craig Cates also sounded off, asserting that the naysayers were “out of their minds to say it’s the Bight’s money,” and not the city’s.
District 5’s Teri Johnston concurred.
“We need to finish this building,” she said. “Let’s move forward.”
After the transfer, the Bight will still have $4.9 million left in its reserve fund.
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Of course not living on the island anymore probably disqualifies me from remarking on the actions taken by the city commission, but that’s never stopped me from speaking my mind on issues pertaining to that island I still love, so I’ll just say it. It just seems to me that taking over a million dollars from the Bight funds is asking for trouble. What’s going to happen if this year is the year for another catastrophic hurricane season that tears into the Bight, making major repairs essential? Where is the money coming from if the city commission has already taken it? I see no other reason why it should not be given to them for financing the new city hall, but since we saw in 2005 what can happen to Key West during a catastrophic hurricane season, it seems it is a very sound reason for the money to stay with the Bight Board.