Battle for city manager job takes off

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

It looks like the race to replace retiring Key West City Manager Jim Scholl is turning into “Game of Thrones.”

City commissioners unanimously voted to extend Scholl’s employment contract by three months to Oct. 2 to allow him to finish budget planning for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. The extension will also give more time for the commission to decide how to replace Scholl, whose five-year contract is set to expire July 2. But that unanimity evaporated when commissioners started to talk about possible candidates.

Reports of backroom jockeying and outright threats have been coming out of City Hall all week. Mayor Teri Johnston told Konk Life that the campaigning has been endless, with late night telephone calls being made to her and other commissioners urging them to consider one candidate or another. At the May 7 commission meeting during public comment, one man made what sounded like a campaign speech for Assistant City Manager Greg Veliz, calling him “the most qualified man in the city,” while another speaker urged commissioners to undertake a national search for a new city manager.

Commissioners themselves were divided, with long-timers Billy Wardlow, Clayton Lopez and Jimmy Weekley pushing hard to promote Veliz into the top spot. Mayor Johnston and commissioners Sam Kaufman and Greg Davila wanted a national search, although Davila said he believes Veliz is the best candidate “right now.” Commissioner Mary Lou Hoover held the lone spot in the center without advocating for Veliz, another candidate or a national search. However, she said people need to be ‘realistic” about the chances of finding a good non-local candidate and that the city needs “cohesiveness” going forward after Scholl retires.

” That needs to be a huge consideration in this decision,” she said.

Promoting Veliz actually came close to reality at the meeting, when Davila noted it looked like there were four votes in favor of the move and Wardlow actually made the motion. But there was no second to Wardlow’s motion and then Weekley changed his mind and agreed to have a May 30 workshop discussion to outline the skill set commissioners want the new city manager to have before they actually hire someone. The mayor strongly agreed, saying it looked like the current discussion was coming down to who was loyal to Veliz.

“That’s not it. This is about finding the most qualified person who has the skill set to take us forward for the next 10 to 15 years,” she said, adding that Key West is not the same town it was 20 years ago. Sea level rise, a worsening affordable housing crisis and a municipal infrastructure that’s in “very poor shape” requires a city manager with hands-on experience in those areas, she said.

“I believe that we’re all jumping the gun. I think we need to sit down as a commission and say what kind of skill set do we want, do our citizens expect, to move us forward for the next 10 or 15 years,” Johnston said.

Wardlow said that he has been a city employee or elected official since 1976 and has seen the results of several expensive national searches for a new Key West city manager.

“We’ve had national searches. And every one of them [new city manager] that’s come has left here with big pockets. They really haven’t done anything for the city,” Wardlow complained.

Commissioner Lopez agreed, saying the only two national searches that worked were when they recommended local residents for the job. He mentioned the hiring of Jim Scholl, who had just retired as commander of Navel Air Station Key West and lived in town, and local resident Julio Avael, who was city manager from 1996 to 2007. Lopez said hiring Veliz would smooth over the transition when Scholl leaves.

“There’s a learning curve that we won’t have to deal with and paying somebody big bucks for,” he said.

“Opportunities are earned. And I think in this case that Mr. Veliz has earned that opportunity,” Weekley said before agreeing to the May 30 workshop to determine the expertise the new manager should have.

In other news, commissioners unanimously voted to begin contract negotiations with a new vendor for the popular annual powerboat races, ousting longtime producer Superboat International Productions (SBIP), which has operated the November race series since its inception 38 years ago.

Newcomer Race World Offshore (RWO), formed in 2017 as a powerboat race sanctioning body, came out on top in a ranking evaluation undertaken by city officials. RWO received a score of 87 out of 100, while SBIP and a third contender, Offshore Powerboat Association/Powerboat P1, tied at 82.4.

A deciding factor in the ranking was that RWO agreed to give Key West a cut of the revenue; $3 per gate admission ticket, $3 per paid car in the Truman Waterfront remote parking lot, and $3 per VIP ticket sold. In addition, the RWO proposal did not require the city to contribute police, fire and public services assistance. Under the former contract with SBIP, the city paid for those services above the first $35,000, which SBIP paid.

“In the previous agreement, expenses such as recycling, contracted clean-up, security, etc., were capped at $35,000, with a gradual increase of the cap each year of the contract. The city picked up additional costs above the cap, and in several years those costs exceeded $20,000,” assistant city manager Veliz wrote in a memo to Jim Scholl recommending that RWO get the new contract.

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