Mayor Eyes 2020 Priorities and Ticking Clock

Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey eyes priorities in 2020. (Tony Winton/Key News)

With less than half of his term in office remaining, we caught up with Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey on his 2020 priorities.

“I’ve got 290 days left,” said Davey from his office Saturday. “Ideally I’d like it to be two years and 290 days, but that’s going to be up to the folks out there.”

For now, he has a hefty to-do list. At the top of the pile is the Rickenbacker Causeway. The island’s only road to the mainland was the subject of more attention than usual in 2019 due to several significant events.

First, Ultra Music Festival brought 170,000 people and traffic chaos across the causeway to Virginia Key last March. Although the festival has returned to Bayfront Park in downtown Miami this year, the 2020 Miami International Boat Show takes place on Virginia Key at the Marine Stadium Feb. 13-17 with some 90,000 visitors expected.

In November 2019 a tragic accident closed the road for seven hours and pushed residents to call for better emergency plans — an issue that came up at a recent policing Town Hall. 

It’s not only traffic. Weather events and a rising sea level also affect access, particularly to aging structures like Bear Cut Bridge, which Davey says he would like redone.

The bridge, which connects Virginia Key to Key Biscayne, underwent extensive repairs in 2014 that were then estimated to extend the bridge’s life by 40 years.

“I want a plan in place for the Causeway by the end of 2020. It’s an important thing for us,” Davey said, adding he is confident of City of Miami support in helping improve access to the island.

The mayor’s next priority is resolving the undergrounding of utilities, a contentious topic for the Village in 2019. A special task force was working through the complexities of burying power lines across the island and figuring out how to pay the $46 million price tag until a Florida Senate bill tabled the project in May.

In 2020 Davey wants to clarify “what to do with a future plan” now that Florida Senate Bill 796 has changed how utility companies like Florida Power & Light may finance undergrounding projects.

The third priority Davey singled out for 2020 is “all-round infrastructure,” such as beach renourishment, including the addition of sand to the shoreline to mitigate erosion. 

“Ideally we will get in to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study and then be included in their plan,” he said, noting “it’s less under our control.”

At the last Village Council meeting of 2019, Davey tried to convince fellow Council members to add a meeting to their calendar and move faster on their priorities. He was unsuccessful, and the first meeting of the year is not until Jan. 28.

Ticking clocks aside, Davey is focusing on being mayor today. 

Last week he met with City of Miami Commissioner Ken Russell to discuss the creation of a composting site on Virginia Key where the Village could deposit excess sargassum seaweed as well as yard and commercial waste.

“It was a promising conversation,” said Davey, who will bring up the topic to the Council “maybe in February, when we have a better idea of what we’re looking for.”

He also travels to Tallahassee this week to meet with State Senators José Javier Rodriguez and Nick Duran to push the Village’s legislative agenda. Last November the Council outlined $3.14 million in appropriations requests, all for projects tackling resiliency and sustainability, such as sargassum management and land acquisition for green space.

“We want to get out in front and work on the issues we see as critical — resiliency and sustainability,” said Davey of the trip. “They’re not just buzzwords.”