Read the Key Colony Beach Regular City Commission Meeting Agenda here.
The Key Colony Beach City Commission will meet on Thursday, August 17, 2023 at 9:30 a.m. in the temporary meeting place for the City of Key Colony Beach at the Key Colony Inn Banquet Room at 700 W. Ocean Drive, Key Colony Beach, Florida, and virtually via Zoom.
Join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device:
Please click this URL to join. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88028499793?pwd=WG05OXB5K2FBMTk5VDFlN0o2T1gvZz09
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Another One Gone
Key Colony Beach has suffered another loss.
Long time KCB Utility Clerk Pat Hyland resigned last week, citing the toxic work environment. She's not alone.
City administrator Dave Turner has completed a "clean sweep" of city hall. Not one city hall employee remains from before his regime which means the only ongoing knowledge of city operations now resides solely in a few residents and the former employees. Neither the Gang of 3 (Commissioners Harding, Trefry, and Vickrey) nor the city administration listens to those few residents or former employees.
People Are Asking ... how is that possible?
The KCB City Commission meets Thursday, August 17, 2023, in the latest "temporary meeting place" at the Key Colony Inn and virtually via a Zoom webinar. We'd love to see you there. Even better, KCBers need to ask the commissioners to answer for their actions.
The meeting agenda is long. Here's a look at what People Are Asking about:
We encourage every KCBer to pick a topic from the list below and to Ask Your Commissioners to answer it. Click here to email the commissioners and city clerk:
6. We hope the Utility Board will report on how it can move forward without Pat Hyland who did so much more than just send you a bill every six months. How does the commission plan to replace her?
8. During the Budget Update, the city administrator will discuss fines for failure to comply with sewer pipe testing and inspections. People Are Asking if so many people have not been notified of the requirement because the city needs those profits for the "rollover funds." Do the fines meet Florida statute?
9. The Secretary-Treasurer's Report will include the updated city hall financing plan. That should include a number of facts that Commissioner Harding simply ignored (the corrected analysis of the City Hall financing plan is here):
- The question of how much of our city reserves for disaster recovery or unfunded pension costs and the like makes up the "infrastructure cash" he claims we have on hand .
- The asbestos abatement estimate covered testing only. Abatement costs $10-15 per square foot so it could cost around $112,000, not the original $3,495 or the reduced cost of $2,700 from a different contractor whom commissioner Harding used. We want to see that estimate.
- The fact that the city wants to spend $142,000 for new furniture after they somehow managed to give everyone a desk in the trailer houses already.
- The fact that the city has no estimates for electronics or for park furnishings.
- The fact that the estimated demolition costs for city hall are about half the industry standard.
- The fact that another $150,000 in trailer rentals are just buried in the general fund budget, not part of the city hall cost.
- The fact that Commissioner Harding's six hour estimate for Engineering and Legal Support Services is a pipe dream. By industry standards, those services will add almost $2.5 million to our costs.
- The fact that Commissioner Harding's 5% estimate for change orders is another pipe dream. Those change orders will add almost $1.7 million to our costs.
- The fact that the performance bond is still in question should scare the taxpayers silly.
- And the biggie, in addition to all the imaginary cash on hand, the fact that Commissioner Harding did not include the likely financing costs in the bottom line. His inadequate spreadsheet shows some $1.8 million in interest alone. An estimate of real costs triples that interest to about $4.9 million even with the H-O-B bid the commission loves.
- The corrected analysis of the City Hall financing plan is here
Click here to email your questions and comments to the commissioners and city clerk.
10. City Attorney updates.
The City Attorney will review the USPS contract. People are asking to see the written demands the USPS actually made--not what the administrator claims--in return for the free ride the city gives them.
The City Attorney will do a "personnel policy update." People are asking if that policy addresses the toxic work environment employees have cited.
The City Attorney will hold a closed special attorney/client session pertaining to Laurie Swanson vs. Key Colony Beach. That is the request for an injunction to stop the city from moving forward with HOB until the voters have spoken. We caution the city that they must follow both the spirit and letter of the law and not attempt an end run around the will of the voters.
11. Under Ordinances & Resolutions
The Resolution imposing the annual Stormwater Utility Special Assessment looks like just another hidden tax that pays for something we were assured was covered by grants.
The Ordinance Amending the Monthly Rates and Charges for Sewers and Sewage Disposal will be presented as "simple inflation" People are asking when the inflation rate went to 33%? Can the city show this increase is not a way to pad the general fund?
12. Under Commissioner's Reports & Comments
People are asking Commissioner Harding why the Dry Floodproofing Project is both workable and allowed on the city maintenance building but apparently he thinks it can't be done to the existing City Hall which has flood barriers that were never deployed.
Click here to email your questions and comments to the commissioners and city clerk.
Questions the Commission should be asking that aren't on the agenda
People are asking why the work environment is so toxic that every "before-Turner" employee has left the city?
The full swing turnover includes long time KCB Utility Clerk Pat Hyland who just resigned citing working conditions. City Clerk Becky Todd, Assistant Clerk Holly Rosado, and Executive Assistant Sara Staten quit. The building department lost Gerard Roussin and Greg Lawton. Even more recent hires like code officer Stacey Stahl and Building Assistant Christine McLeod are gone. That's just the "short list."
Commissioner Foster's and Commissioner Raspe's evaluations of the city administrator took him to task for turnover, management style, and working conditions. Resignations have increased since that evaluation. The Gang of 3 ignored the facts and gave him a raise.
Sunshine:
Commissioners get a "packet" which is typically about 100 pages of paperwork that supports all the agenda items. The agenda and the packet were both created August 10. The commissioners have their packets (both the PDFs and the paper copies) for the August 17 meeting but despite citizen requests, city officials delayed putting the packet on the city website until Tuesday, August 15. That gave KCBers less than two days to analyze it.
The Government in the Sunshine manual makes clear that the packet should be published to the public at the same time it is produced for the commissioners. People are asking why it was not.
Click here to email your questions and comments to the commissioners and city clerk.
This meeting will be held at the temporary meeting place for the City of Key Colony Beach at the Key Colony Inn Banquet Room at 700 W. Ocean Drive, Key Colony Beach, Florida, and virtually via Zoom.
Join from a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device:
Please click this URL to join. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88028499793?pwd=WG05OXB5K2FBMTk5VDFlN0o2T1gvZz09
Passcode: 614784
We maintain a local copy of these items to track any changes made:
8-17-2023 Commission Meeting Agenda
Commissioners' Packet for the 8-17-2023 Commission Meeting Now available as of 8-15-2023
