Hometown! candidates forum goes on in shadow of Rossi’s elimination

Hometown! candidates forum goes on in shadow of Rossi’s elimination

BY PRU SOWERS
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

With all the fuss over Key West mayoral candidate Mark Rossi being removed from the Aug. 28 primary ballot because his treasurer missed the deadline to pay a $225 election fee, a recent candidate’s forum sponsored by Hometown! was overlooked in the commotion.

Hometown!, the local non-partisan resource for candidate and election information, held the first candidates’ forum after the primary election ballot was finalized June 22. In addition to several state and Monroe County candidates for office, most of the candidates running for office in Key West attended. Locked into a brief three minutes, some of the candidates stuck to the big picture, making non-specific promises, while others drilled down into governance details.

Teri Johnston, former Key West City Commissioner and current member of the Monroe County Planning Board, was first of the Key West mayoral candidates to be called to the podium by Todd German, Hometown! chairman. Johnston, who along with George Bellenger and Margaret Romero are considered leading contenders by outgoing Mayor Craig Cates, was specific in some of her top priorities if she is elected. While outlining a few of the quality of life issues she believes the city is facing, including Monroe County being the third most expensive county in the nation, Johnston said it is “not rocket science” to improve the quality of life in Key West for residents while still supporting the tourism industry. She proposed repaving Duval Street and installing benches and public restrooms in the main business corridor.

“I’m also going to push for a pilot program for a pedestrian mall on Duval Street,” she said to applause. “What we would like to do is have Duval Street be the type of street that our families are proud enough of to come back to.”

Bill Foley was the next mayoral candidate to take the stage, drawing laughter with his seemingly unrehearsed, rambling speech. He started off by saying he had given $20 to the bartender at the forum event and there were few in the audience who doubted him. Foley veered between topics, calling the tree commission “a whole lot of crooks” and saying affordable housing and traffic congestion “are really the same thing.”

“Fiscal accountability, blowing up the Bubba system. I know you’re all looking at me like that’s impossible but I plan on trying,” Foley said, outlining his campaign priorities. “I’m a finance guy. I’d be willing to bet that there’s not another mayoral candidate that has a copy of the city budget on their coffee table.” Informed by Johnston, sitting in the front row, that she, indeed, had a copy of the budget in her home, Foley replied, “You do? Well, then it’s you and me.”

George Bellenger outlined his resume as a 30-year community activist fighting for “progressive ideas and personal liberties.” People should be able to do what they want in their own houses, he said. Bellenger, who owns and operates Key West Eco Tours, is a longtime environmental activist and said he holds conservative values when it comes to fiscal responsibility and security.

“I’ve been involved in the environment. I’ve been involved with business. We also need to concentrate on our future security,” he said, adding, “I’ve been involved with local issues. I’ll put locals first.”

Mayoral candidate Randy Becker started his speech by outlining specific “crises” Key West is facing, including the lack of affordable housing, sea level rise, parking and traffic congestion. But with only three minutes to speak, Becker directed people to his “call to action” brochure that outlines 65 proposals to improve the quality of life in Key West and build coalitions to move towards “a better future.”

“I want to lead us in that new, better direction. I know our city and its neighborhoods well through all kinds of active participation in numerous civic and community organizations. You’ve seen me engage in all kinds of civic activity and witness events in the past decade. I don’t just talk the talk. I walk the walk,” he said.
Perennial mayoral candidate Sloan Bashinski took Bill Foley to task, saying that Bashinski has always been the “chief lunatic” in the open-air asylum that is Key West.

“Until Mr. Foley got up, I thought I was the only professional weirdo running for mayor. I’m going to have to call my copywrite lawyer. [Foley] infringed on my patent,” he said

But then Bashinski got down to business, outlining the issues he is concerned with, including the shrinking tree canopy in town, and cruise ships’ impact on Key West Harbor.

“The dirtiest cruise ships have been calling, and you know it, off Key West for decades and the city has done nothing about it and knows it. Just ban them. Don’t let them come into the harbor,” he said, drawing applause. Bashinski then took other candidates’ promises to task, pointing out that nothing is approved in the city unless it receives four votes on the city commission.

“You know they [other candidates] ain’t going to do any of it because they ain’t going to get three more votes,” he said. “But I will be more entertaining than any mayor you ever saw.”

Current Key West City Commissioner Margaret Romero said she is giving up her District 5 seat after one term in order to serve the whole city instead of just her district. She said she will continue to fight for fiscal responsibility, accountability and transparency in city government. She said she is good at listening to residents and city staff and responding quickly. She also referenced the criticisms she has faced from some of her fellow city commissioners that have led to public arguments during meetings.

“I like to think that I have fought for you on many issues and stood tall when there was a lot of emotion on our dais. I’d like to come forward with business decisions, not things based on emotions and heartstrings,” Romero told the Hometown! audience.

Last up on stage was Cari Noda, also one of the seven candidates running for city mayor. She talked about her background as a “disaster analyst” and a family drug addiction therapist while living in New York. Homeless now in Key West, Noda has previously said that she is living on the streets by her own choice.
“How do we define affordable housing,” she asked the audience at the Hometown! forum. “Is it anything that the average person with a degree from a good school up in Tallahassee would want to move down here for?”

Noda also she said she has lived through several hurricanes and that people don’t understand the different categories of damage. She hit her three-minute time limit before she could elaborate.

Three of the four candidates running for the two open Key West City Commission seats also spoke at the forum. Greg Davila, running against Jen Stefanacci Doll in District 4 – current commissioner Richard Payne is not running for reelection – said he will put residents’ needs before the local tourism industry.

“I understand tourism is vital to our community. However, I think now is the time to refocus and bring the attention back to us, the residents of the city of Key West. I think that every decision that comes before the city commission needs to be judged first by how it benefits us, the residents of the city,” he said.
Stefanacci Doll did not attend the forum because of a previously-planned family vacation.

The two candidates running in District 5, Romero’s seat, also turned out at the forum. Wally Moore, wearing a “Get More with Wally Moore t-shirt, advocated easing some of the building restrictions on developers to encourage them to build affordable housing.

“We need to think outside the box. We need to work with these private developers… They have some awesome ideas,” Moore said.

Mary Lou Hoover, the other contender for District 5, laid out several areas she would focus on if elected, including more street lighting for safer streets, changing the way people are appointed to the tree commission so that each city commissioner gets an appointee instead of the mayor selecting that entire board, and creating more athletic fields for local sports.

“Over the last several years, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of [sports] participants, our children and adults. We’ve also at the same time seen a lot of our field space come off-line,” Hoover said.

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