Mayor Teri Johnston told the Key West Business Guild’s lunchtime audience that she took a different approach with this year’s State of the City address.
“Instead of talking for 45 minutes about each city department — which is still covered in this year’s Annual Report — I thought I instead needed to do a State of the Community presentation,” Johnston said. “Because if ever there was a year for this island to come together to put us on the road to recovery, 2020 was it.”
She then showed the guild audience a 30-minute video that highlights the people behind the nonprofits that kept people fed, housed, clothed and sheltered during business shutdowns, layoffs and an unusable state unemployment website.
“In this, my third and most tumultuous year in office, we’ve endured, sometimes more gracefully than others, but we’ve never wavered in our commitment to the locals of this community,”
Johnston said before answering a few vaccine-related questions from the audience.
With a masked staff, socially distant seating and seated meal service rather than a buffet, the Marriott Beachside Hotel masters the luncheon in times of COVID. 
Key West Business Guild president Chuck Licis-Masson welcomes members to the organization’s February luncheon at the Marriott Beachside Hotel. 
Bartender, fundraiser and chick about town, Laure Thibaud drops her mask for a quick pose. 
‘We’ve had to learn to smile with our eyes,” masked business guild board member Misha McRae says at the February luncheon. 
Roberta DePiero and Pete Arnow take a break from planning the Anne McKee Art Auction to announce the online event at the Key West Business Guild luncheon. 
Key West Mayor Teri Johnston introduces the ‘State of the Community’ video during the Key West Business Guild’s Feb. 3 luncheon. MANDY MILES/Keys Weekly
