Wording agreed for emergency bonding vote amid Covid-19 response discussion at virtual City Commission meeting

BY TERRY SCHMIDA

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

Commissioners met in cyberspace on April 21 to unanimously agree on a path forward for funding solutions to future infrastructure-related issues – even as they tackled the present, pandemic-powered crisis.

Battling occasionally finicky computer connection, the five commissioners, City Manager Greg Veliz, and City Attorney Shawn Smith, all gave their approval to a question to be put to Key West voters on the Aug. 18 primary election ballot.

To wit: “In the event of a public emergency, shall the City Commission be authorized to issue bonds payable from revenues other than ad valorem taxation upon a supermajority vote of the Commission?”

Voters will be able to respond with a “yes” or “no” to the ordinance. This will amend the city charter to provide the government with what staffers have said is the necessary flexibility to access funding sources in an emergency. To this end, they will use the future income from city-owned utilities, rather than ad valorem (property) taxes as security “It’s kind of a no brainer,”  Commissioner Sam Kaufman said following the meeting. “It’s a little complicated, though, which has led to some misunderstandings. There’s a very narrow window of things that this emergency funding could be used for.”

By way of example, Kaufman brought up problems arising from the city’s sewage treatment plant on Fleming Key:

“So, the Fleming Key bridge has been hit three times by vessels, causing leaks to the sewer system,” Kaufman said. “We’re planning on running it under the water instead of in the future, but when things like that come up, and staffers recommend fixing it right away, those are the kinds of situations when we’d use it.”

The push for the measure, which began last year, has no direct impact on economic issues created by the Covid-19 pandemic. These too were discussed during the meeting.

Despite Florida’s enviable status as the eighth-worst affected state (despite being the third most populous, and having an above-average population of older people, especially in winter), hints of distrust of far off, Republican-dominated Tallahassee, was palpable during deliberation on a timetable for an eventual reopening of Key West’s economy.

“We need that flexibility to tailor plans to meet the needs of locals”, Commissioner Jimmy Weekley opined during that discussion. He added that Key West’s ability to resist what it might consider premature moves in the direction of economic reopening had been impressed upon the city’s lobbyist at the state capitol.

Following the second reading in May, the funding question will be placed on the August primary ballot.