Key West officials have no idea what annexation of Stock Island and Key Haven would entail, nor whether the residents of those areas even want to become part of the city. But they’re prepared to find out, to some degree.
“I’d support a maximum allocation of $25,000 for the study to start at the bare minimum,” Commissioner Sam Kaufman said at the April 11 city commission meeting. “The next commission can decide if they want to go further.”
Kaufman was acknowledging that a majority of lawmakers will be replaced in the coming election, as Commissioners JImmy Weekley, Billy Wardliow and Clayton Lopez are term-limited out of office, and Mayor Teri Johnston is not seeking reelection.
“This is a vastly complex issue,” Kaufman said. “There are pros and cons involving city services, facilities, voting districts, taxes and more.”
The authorization of a study to explore the idea of annexation was on the April 11 city commission agenda, following a planning board vote in February that suggested it.
The planning board was acting on a provision in the city’s Comprehensive Plan, which regulates development in the city and “specifies that by 2017, the city was supposed to prepare an annexation study for Key Haven and by 2020 was supposed to prepare a study for the south side of Stock Island,” assistant city attorney Larry Erskine told the planning board in February.
The north side of Stock Island, which includes College Road, the hospital and golf course, is already part of Key West. Those residents and entities pay city taxes and can vote in city elections. Stock Island on the other side of U.S. 1, as well as Key Haven, are part of unincorporated Monroe County.
But that could change if studies show that annexation would be beneficial.
Weekly told the commission that he had heard that residents of Key Haven had formed a committee to look at the same thing.
“I do think it’s something we need to look into,” Weekley said.
Commissioner Mary Lou Hoover said she wants to know what role the county would play in an annexation discussion as well.
City Attorney Ron Ramsingh told the commission he would mention the matter to the county attorney during their weekly phone call. The commission also directed the city manager and staff to perhaps reach out to the Key Haven committee and others to get more information about a potential study.
Weekley suggested perhaps a Florida university urban planning class could assist with such a study rather than the city hiring a professional consulting firm for up to $100,000.
City manager marks 1 year
This month marks the one-year anniversary of city manager Al Childress’s first day on the job. Each commissioner completed an evaluation of the manager, and all of those were attached to the April 11 agenda, but not discussed at all.
Reviews were mixed, with the highest marks coming from Johnston, Kaufman and Hoover and the lowest coming from Wardlow, Lopez and Commissioner Lissette Cuervo Carey, who told the Keys Weekly last week, “We’ve all had different experiences with Mr. Childress.”
Childress’s overall score, averaged among all seven lawmakers, was a 3.71 out of a possible 5.
“I have worked with six city managers, and Al Childress is the most qualified, transparent, equitable, efficient and principled city manager I have had the pleasure of working with,” Johnston wrote in her evaluation.
“The city manager needs to work on a better understanding of the needs of the Keys community and the will of the residents,” Carey wrote. “While his previous experience in Miami provides him with relevant experience in municipal government, the initiatives he is attempting to duplicate in Key West are out of touch with what our citizens want.”
All seven of the evaluations urged Childress to forge a better working relationship with the city attorney.
The evaluations were approved in bulk as part of the consent agenda on April 11, with no discussion by the commissions or the city manager.
