Council Meeting Roundup: Firefighters, Fishing, Tallahassee To-Do List and – yes – the Library

The family of Former City of Miami Mayor Maurice Ferré listen to the proclamation with members of the Village of Key Biscayne Council, Oct.29. (Annali Hayward/Key News)

Tuesday’s Village Council meeting covered so much ground, you’d have been forgiven for donning a hat and calling it a derby. 

No surprise visits from County Commissioners this time, but state Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez (who represents Key Biscayne) came to witness a heart-warming proclamation honoring former City of Miami Mayor Maurice Ferré. Ferré, Rodriguez’s grandfather-in-law, lived on the Key for some time. His family members, including Mercedes, his wife of 64 years, were there to hear Mayor Mike Davey proclaim Ferré will be remembered for his “far-reaching imprint on his adopted city.” 

It was a night of decisions made versus decisions discussed, deferred or otherwise dillydallied. 

To the votes first:

Unanimous show of support for Ron and Angie

The flames of a story Key News has been following for some time are finally out. In some of the most emotional scenes in the chambers this year, residents were overcome when speaking of Ron Erbel and Angela Herrera, two local heroes “who run into fires when we run away from them,” as one speaker said.

A long standing ovation accompanied the unanimous vote to grant the pair the same benefits extended to firefighters whose cancers were diagnosed after 1, July 2019, according to a new Florida law (theirs being beforehand). 

Village Manager Andrea Agha embraced Erbel and his wife Victoria Jackson after receiving verbal confirmation from union representatives that they would accept Davey’s last-minute amendment to extend coverage back to March 1, 2019, thereby granting Erbel compensation of $30,921 for sick leave since his March diagnosis. This is in addition to the $25,000 pay-outs and treatment compensation for both individuals. 

Davey had asked for the item to be discussed as soon as possible on the evening’s agenda. 

Although it was an imperfect process, Key Biscayne Fire Rescue Chief Eric Lang said “I’m relieved; it’s done.” 

Fishing lives to swim another day

A moratorium was placed on fishing off Mashta bridge, with an understanding that staff would work with both resident groups to come to some “creative” solutions. It was not a very happy vote – almost all council members expressed unease at overregulating or banning an activity, but only Vice Mayor Allison McCormick and Council Member Brett Moss actually voted against it.

Former Mayor John Festa teamed up with his daughter Elana to present the case for fishing. As they left the chambers they shook hands with Alexander Hernandez, one of the six Mashta residents who spoke against it. They continued discussions outside. 

Look for more on this story in Key News.

Tallahassee to-do list

As they do annually, Village staff are working with lobbyists to define a list of priorities for the 2020 legislative session in the state capitol. Part of the list is asking for money – appropriations – from the state budget. There are deadlines involved and in order to meet them, Council had to approve (or not) the list set out by Agha and lobbyist Mario Bailey last night. 

Council members passed two of the three appropriations requests, leaving a pre-approved blank space to be filled in during a Special Council meeting directly after the water quality workshop Nov. 5, in order to accommodate needs identified during that session. 

The items approved were requests for $750,000 for stormwater utility improvements, and $1.6 million to cover 40 percent of the cost of the recent purchase of 571 and 599 Harbor Drive for open space. Davey expressed interest in asking for higher amounts. 

Debate on the third ask ($250,000 for bike and pedestrian safety, which was removed) culminated with McCormick’s warning that “if you give [state] low-hanging fruit, that’s what they’ll go for.”

As for the list of eight topics that the Village set out as priorities, Council Member Luis Lauredo decried it as a “Christmas tree” and asked for tighter focus on a shorter list of key points. 

Council members will take another look at the list at a future meeting. 

Shoreline shenanigans

Tim Blankenship of coastal engineers Moffatt & Nichol was called upon to answer questions on the proposed $50,000 cost-benefit shoreline analysis, which Agha says could be the next step in getting Key Biscayne closer to being included in the Army Corps of Engineering’s beach renourishment program. 

Council Member Ignacio Segurola was concerned that the Village would make this initial $50,000 investment and end up continuing with incremental investments into beach renourishment without the ACOE’s help. But Council Member Katie Petros, one of the local leaders who recently met with the ACOE in Jacksonville, said the study could still be used for the Village’s benefit even if it remains outside of the ACOE program. 

Council Member Ed London, as is his wont, broke it down as a business decision, pitting the $50,000 outlay against a guesstimate from Blankenship of $50 million that it would cost the federal government to do all of the work for the Village.

Look for further coverage on these topics. 

Decisions for a later date

As predicted, the Reports and Recommendations section of the meeting was jam-packed. 

The library discussion reared its head again, giving rise to some of the most passionate comments Petros has made in the chamber as she defended herself against the notion – which persisted in the form of comments from Segurola – that Key Colony homeowners should have already been “consulted” in the matter.

“Consulted on what?” asked McCormick, who was one of many on the dais who pointed out that a project cannot exist until the result of the county’s declarative action is determined. On the same evening, Key Colony HOA authorised lawyers to ask the court to be an intervener in the case. 

Segurola asked the council to consider directing the attorney to draft an opinion on opting out of the Miami-Dade County system (in favour of another option such as the SunTrust building – which may not be available anyway). Nobody much liked that idea, with Petros saying it would send a bad message to the County. 

At the end of the discussion, Davey denied Key Colony HOA board member Tony Camejo’s request to speak.

The communications issue received a relatively quick update, with Davey asking for feedback on Agha’s proposals before the Nov. 19 council meeting. In the interim Agha succeeded in requesting approval to hire a temporary resource to plug the gap left in the team when a website coordinator recently left. Agha will also proceed with soliciting quotes for a new website. Moss raised the fact that in the future clarification is required between the Clerk’s and the Manager’s job descriptions. 

‘Grants’ turned out to be a dirty word. Council members liked the gist of Segurola’s outline for a more formalized process for community group funding – but they were clear the word ‘grant’ should be removed. It will be back for a vote probably during one of the November meetings, and is likely to be a fairly big change for some community groups during the next budget cycle. 

Now hiring? Segurola suggested some council members – himself most certainly included – may like to consider getting some help with some of the administration involved in the unpaid role, in the shape of an intern. The rest of the council was intrigued enough to ask Segurola to bring something back for consideration at a future meeting, along with his draft resolution on removing a state statute pre-empting municipalities from banning plastics and other environmentally damaging items. 

Other items of note:

• Davey will start work on a homeless task force
• Segurola wanted to know if other groups can use Suite 200 or if it will only be the Historical Society whilst they operate their pop-up museum. The answer from other members of council was that others can of course use the space after the pop-up has run its course, and meanwhile there is plenty of other meeting space
• Petros put item number 46 on Agha’s solicitations log (meaning, things she has to ask contractors or providers to quote for) by moving forward with the project to put solar panels on a field at MAST Academy