Key West legislative priorities set for 2017

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

Key West City Commissioners recently spotlighted a legislative wish list containing both new and old political priorities for officials to pursue in 2017.

“Every year we try to get a feel for legislative issues that would be pertinent to the city, not only within the state of Florida but at the federal government, as well,” said Key West City Manager Jim Scholl on Dec. 6, the last city commission meeting of the year.

The tough nuts to crack legislatively are on the list again this year, including slowing runaway rate increases for storm and flood insurance, sustaining water quality in the surrounding ocean and preservation and development of affordable housing in the Key West. Receiving federal approval to turn the local ferry terminal at the Key West Bight into an international port of call for travel to Cuba is also a top priority, several commissioners said.

Hoping to jumpstart another issue that has faltered, Commissioner Sam Kaufman asked that lobbyists working for Key West continue asking the U.S. Navy to reopen the 166 apartments in Sigsbee Park for use as workforce housing. An effort in 2016 to convince Navy officials to reactivate the currently empty apartment buildings hasn’t gone anywhere. Sigsbee Park, owned by the Navy, is an island about a half mile north of Key West. The apartments have been empty for the past five years.

“The Sigsbee housing is stalled and that’s disappointing. I think we need to ramp that up somehow and get our [state and federal] representatives involved,” Kaufman said.

“That certainly is an existing stock of workforce housing that we would like to get back on-line,” Scholl agreed.

Commissioner Jimmy Weekley wants several environmental issues to be on the list, including a possible ban on plastic shopping bags. He also asked the city to convince state officials to allow elected officials and city board members to attend meetings via video-conferencing and be counted as part of that body’s quorum. Currently, officials can attend via computer but cannot vote or be counted as officially attending the meeting.

Weekley also requested that research be done to find funding to restore the Key West Cemetery, where he said several old tombstones are in danger of being lost forever. Sea level rise and its impact on Key West was also on Weekley’s political agenda and he wants to find grants to fund a study to research the issue.

“Are there locations we need to start looking at either increasing the height of the streets or doing whatever we can,” he asked.

Commissioner Clayton Lopez, in addition to encouraging more affordable housing development in the Key West, asked that the city address “a little more aggressively” the restoration and preservation of local historic buildings.

“We’ve got a lot of buildings and the like that our city depends on that are historic in nature,” he said. “They’re actually jewels, not just for our city but for our country. They need help.”

Some commissioners agreed that researching methods of installing alternative energy sources should win a top spot on the legislative agenda. Scholl pointed out that not only is Key West literally at the end of the road, it is also at the end of the state and federal water and electrical systems, leaving it vulnerable to shortages and outages.

“So [energy] alternatives, when either Tallahassee or Washington are looking for places to provide pilot projects, I try to encourage that type of review and consideration from our lobbyists to let us know if those things are available,” he said.

The city currently employs two outside lobbying firms, GrayRobinson working to influence state issues in Tallahassee, and Holland & Knight working on federal issues in Washington, D.C. GrayRobinson is paid $72,000 a year while Holland & Knight is paid $60,000.

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