The Marathon City Council tackled a litany of issues in one of its lengthier sessions on April 14, working through numerous code enforcement issues and ordinance changes while outlining the terms of its search for a new city manager.
Manager search begins
With a refreshed city manager job description generated by City Attorney Steve Williams and HR Director Evie Engelmeyer, the council will begin a search for its new staff leader after voting 3-2 in February to fire then-manager George Garrett.
Last month, the council appointed Williams the interim manager, with Williams clearly stating – and reiterating Tuesday night – that he had no interest in maintaining the position permanently.
He told council members he recommended starting with a local search for candidates, as familiarizing a candidate from another county or state with Marathon’s complex building rights laws and restrictions could take at least a year.
Multiple council members told Williams to list a bachelor’s or master’s degree as a preferred, but not required, qualification, arguing that job experience in similar posts could override a degree in a successful candidate. Councilman Lynn Landry said he preferred a broader search from the start, not limited to local options.
“Let’s ask for what we want,” he said. “Let’s get all the applicants at once and go through this one time. … There could be somebody that lived in the Keys, it could be someone in Tallahassee who understands the Rate of Growth Ordinance.”
Williams agreed to advertise the position statewide, with a limited team of staff members including Engelmeyer conducting a preliminary screening of candidates for council consideration. Following individual interviews with council members for top candidates, Williams said, the council could call a public meeting with a select top few or clear top candidate and vote as a group to begin contract negotiations with the chosen manager.
Hiring could happen as soon as May or June, he said, but could take longer if needed, as Marathon’s code only requires the council to begin a search for a new manager within 90 days of the vacated position.
Salary range and benefits were not immediately specified, with Williams recommending the position be advertised as “pay commensurate with experience.” At the time of his departure, Garrett’s base salary was set at $219,650.
The Keys Weekly requested a copy of the finalized job description when it was posted for candidates, which was not immediately provided at the council session.
Weekend construction crackdown
Following concerns brought to council over unlicensed contractors working in the city on weekends, Vice Mayor Debbie Struyf led a discussion to consider prohibiting contracted construction on Sundays.
Local contractor and former Code Board member Chad Neller told the council the city faced a twofold problem: unlicensed contractors working on Saturdays and Sundays, knowing city code officers rarely work on Sundays, and workers disregarding common courtesy by using loud equipment in the early morning hours. As currently written, the city’s noise ordinance prohibits loud noise from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
“There are some very extreme things happening, and on top of that, common courtesy is not common any more,” he said, giving an example in which a boat lift was illegally installed with no permit over the course of a weekend. “Our (noise) ordinance is simply that Sunday is the same as every other day, (but) who wants to hear jackhammers and equipment firing up at 6:30 on a Sunday morning?”
Council members weighed addressing the issue by targeting construction noise as opposed to contracted work altogether, debating whether a blanket ordinance change could affect homeowners unable to work on their own property on other days or contractors performing quieter work.
Williams said the city would coordinate with code staff to begin working on certain Sundays, as well as establish a weekend hotline that would forward complaint calls to an officer. Attempting to differentiate between noise made by residents and contractors, he said, would face legal difficulties.
In other news:
- Sheriff Rick Ramsay returned unused funds of more than $22,000 to the city from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office annual budget.
- Council members and Fire Chief James Muro recognized the life-saving actions of Key Colony Police Department sergeant Jamie Buxton, who in February successfully resuscitated a young patient with CPR and an AED until other first responders could arrive on scene.
- The council unanimously approved $36,250 to fund the city’s annual July 4 fireworks show, orchestrated for years by former councilman Randy Mearns and former members of the city’s volunteer fire department. Council members clarified that while the Rotary Club of Marathon organizes food and beverage offerings for the day of celebration at Sombrero Beach and accepts donations to help fund its charitable activities, the fireworks show itself is a budgeted expense by the city.
- Due to school graduation events and proximity to Memorial Day, the council will cancel its May workshop session. The city council’s normal monthly meeting will take place on Tuesday, May 12 at 5:30 p.m.
- With repeated reports of false alarms from faulty fire signaling devices throughout the city, the council asked Muro to begin more strictly enforcing the city’s penalties for repeated false alarms if faulty devices and systems are not repaired. Penalties per the city’s ordinance include a warning for three false alarms within a calendar year, followed by $250 fines for each additional alarm.
- Williams asked the council for guidance regarding enforcement of the city’s sign ordinance, reportedly violated by multiple businesses along the U.S. 1 corridor. He proposed and received informal council approval for a uniform “sign sweep” throughout the city from Duck Key to the Seven Mile Bridge, advertised in advance, to remove noncompliant signs.
- In compliance with Florida’s new Senate Bill 784 and House Bill 927, the city’s planning department, not the council, will administratively review and approve land plats. Williams and Planning Director Brian Shea told the council the new bills brought an unforeseen change to approvals of the legal land maps that contain vital information like utility easements, right of ways, public spaces and more, removing some opportunities for public comment and local control by elected officials and requiring a seven-day turnaround by city staff. Williams said the city would still strive to hold public comment meetings for newly-proposed developments, regardless of whether council members could vote.
- A new Report It system will soon allow city employees to anonymously submit workplace complaints to the city’s HR and legal departments without fear of retaliation or threat of termination. The third-party service, which Williams said will cost the city less than $2,000 per year, replaces employee names with unique codes for written communication if further investigation of an incident is needed.
