Residents spoke out about the Key Colony Beach Meetings in October:
October 16, 2025Response to the Attitude toward KCB Volunteers
To: Mayor@keycolonybeach.net, letters@peopleareasking.org
Mr. Mayor
I find your comments about me today offensive and uncalled for.
I have given hundreds of hours to the city of Key Colony Beach. No matter where I am located, I have kept up to date on all the recreation committee activities.
Cynthia Catto
Chairperson
KCB Recreation Committee
Key Colony Beach
What did the KCB City Commission do at the Public Hearing and Regular Meeting on October 16?
The commission corrected some bad actions by prior officials.
The commission acted on a variance request for a pool on 10th Street and on a request for an after-the-fact variance for an already approved, four story home on Coury Drive. Current building official Tony Loreno reported that the Coury Drive property owner "did everything right." The property owner and his architect had many conversations and correspondence with Lenny Leggett and Karl Bursa "prior to submitting the plans."
Mayor Foster addressed the "mistakes" Leggett and others committed. "Our own building official caused this to happen," Mayor Foster said. Leggett not only directed the architect to use the erroneous height of the house, He "actually changed [it] to go and have him build it from that elevation."
Read a transcript of the full remarks here.
SWIG Director of Operations Vince Seibold presented the plan for the first two-year marine pilot program to remove 2.7 pounds/year of phosphorus and 18.6 pounds/year of nitrogen from a section of the 7th Street canal. These slides from the SWIG PowerPoint discussion show the project site plan, projected removals, and an overview of how the system works. The system can also be scaled up on barges rather than the land based modules. The commission gave a head nod to go forward with the EPA grant using SWIG as a sole source provider. Mayor Foster said they will put it on the agenda next month to step through the process for legal.
City administrator John Bartus reported that three city hall bids "in the range of $5.5 million to $5.8 million or thereabouts" were received. The Bid Review Committee will meet in Marble Hall and on Zoom on Tuesday.
The commission asked for public input on Daryl Rice Management's proposal for the golf course. There was no vote planned.
Doug Lipke who has playing this golf course for 50 years thought the public was to address why this was in the public interest. "Daryl has been involved for 17 years and he has consistently improved the condition of that special golf course each year," he said. He noted that Daryl's proposal complies with the procedure the city uses. He called the two-year contract "wonderful because Daryl wants to retire after two years so it gives the city an opportunity to have Daryl continue to improve the course and manage it. Daryl has committed that in the second year he would continue and work with you guys train or work with the transition team which is the best option to continue the improvement of the course and then give the city an opportunity to move forward with the transition." He reminded the commissioners to make the contract more of a joint venture with a commitment by the city to fund additional improvements. "I think you should move forward to determine that it is in the public interest."
Cindy Catto: "called from the farthest away... somewhere in the ocean between Japan and South Korea to show you how important this is." It's in the best interest to accept Daryl's proposed contract. The ladies league sent one letter of approval rather than 34 letters. The league wants to get started and needs to know they will be able to "so I'm asking you to please expedite this matter."
The commission discussed Commissioner Diehl's proposal to consolidate the Recreation and Beautification Committees. Commissioner Harding noted it would displacing five or six people who love to give input to the city. "I think we're very lucky to have a lot of volunteers. Now that they can all do their meetings by Zoom, there should not be a quorum issue."
Mayor Foster cautioned. "people that are reporting on conditions in the city, really kinda need to be in the city so I think we need to focus on that in the future. It's hard for somebody to comment on bocce courts when they're in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. That's my only caution."
Rec Committee Chair Cynthia Catto attended the meeting via Zoom from the Pacific Ocean. Commissioner Colonell attended this meeting via Zoom from "somewhere near Amsterdam." And Mayor Foster has used Zoom to great advantage in these last months while also out of state to deal with a family crisis.
Several KCBers commented that that was a "lousy way to treat a dedicated volunteer."The commission tabled the motion.
The commission received a lower quote of $113,008 for the John Deere Triplex Mower, Trim and Surrounds Mower, Walk Greens Mower, and Aercore Aerator for the golf course and approved the purchase unanimously. They chose Christian Landscaping for $28,250. to do purchase and install trees and landscape improvements by the Pickleball Courts and Golf Course. They told legal to update the ordinance for pool setbacks.
Mayor Foster introduced a potential settlement with Jody Cox, Kari Ann Tremblay, and Christopher Corso over a code enforcement mistreatment and lawsuit driven by Lenny Leggett and Barry Goldman. "This is the disappointing part about this job. I have to undo ... a wrong that was done," Foster said. "There's a lot of stuff I think was harmful ... and not in the best interests of our citizens," The city attorney will settle with the property owners with "all the fines and repair obligations to be waived." The motion carried unanimously. "Again to the people who were involved in this, I apologize. Dark days," Foster said.
The commission passed the first reading of another new ordinance amending the docks, piers, and mooring equipment, Section 5-44. The second reading will be November 20.
Commissioner Harding noted the general fund finished the fiscal year with a net loss of $205,000. Overall revenue was 1.2% above the budget and ad valorem taxes were 0.2% below the budget. City Hall itself exceeded the budget because they planned to be in the trailers for only six months rather than the full year. The city also spent $752,000 from the Infrastructure Fund. He looked at recent years and found "this is the first year we've had a negative account.."
The wastewater report shows COVID is back in the city and is up to moderate level. Influenza-A is also now present in the city.
Commissioner Colonell clarified the procedure to get contractors to follow the contract. Smits said various officials can "send that letter." Foster noted that the city can issue a Stop Work Order or just not pay the bill.
Mayor Foster introduced a novel way to finance the city hall project. He says about $8 million in our "kitty" has the building department at $479,000, plus $2.2 million in the general account, $2.1 million in infrastructure and the $2.2 million grant. He wants to "sell the building and we would rent from ourselves." Smits has done this for school buildings. A 'certificate of participation' is a financial tool "to get around public finance issues [when] you cannot borrow money for longer than a year." The lease payment stream is what funds the loan. Foster wants to use building funds, stormwater funds, wastewater funds and so on to pay for their portions of the building.
Commissioner Harding wanted to make sure there's no miscommunication. "There's funds in wastewater of about $2 million. Those funds are not available for city hall by our own ordinances."
Foster closed with "I don't want to solve it here. I'm just telling you what my idea is. That way, it also shows we're paying for the building ourselves. Just like when Mr. Turner took over, his salary was paid from different avenues."
Turner's salary and other administrator expenses were general fund expenses.Read a transcript of the full remarks here.
Consolidating Beautification and
Recreation Committees Is a Bad IdeaTo: Mayor@keycolonybeach.net, Doug.Colonell@keycolonybeach.net, kirk.diehl@keycolonybeach.net, Tom.difransico@keycolonybeach.net, Tom.Harding@keycolonybeach.net, cityadministrator@keycolonybeach.net, cityclerk@keycolonybeach.net, letters@peopleareasking.org
The Beautification committee is a hands on, physical working committee. Committee Members need to be in KCB for most of the year. They need to have a knowledge or want to learn about plants and landscaping that is Keys friendly.
The recreation committee is the protector of all of KCB recreation areas. They are also the supporters of all sports and activities that occur in these areas and committee members often participate in these sports and activities. Also the recreation committee supports the Beautification committee and their wonderful work.
Recently, with the aid of Tom De Fransico, a community survey was distributed and many citizen ideas were submitted. The suggestions were compiled, divided between beautification and recreation and then each committee prioritized the projects. Work on these projects is already underway.
In my opinion, merging the two committees would not streamline the committees’ work. Instead it would make it less efficient.
Cynthia Catto
Chairperson
KCB Recreation Committee
Key Colony Beach
October 21, 2025
City Hall Bid Evaluation
To: letters@peopleareasking.org
A Bechtel construction manager worked for me on that $42.3 million job I did in Texas ($89 million today). He told me, "You could throw a blanket over these bids and nothing would pop up. That means there is a street price, and the plan is to try to hit the street price, get the job, and then turn it into a profitable venture with project change orders."
And that is what they did.
The other big issue is that the bid (and the RFQ it is responding to) must be combed through meticulously by the bid examination team to be sure scope items haven't been left out that will have to be added later (at --- often --- several times the cost had they been in the original the original RFQ or bid.) Sometimes this is done where the bidder overtly excludes that scope, and sometimes he simply studiously ignores scope that was assumed to be in the RFQ but wasn't.
That's the moral to this story: You're going to have to watch your contractor and the commission like hawks to keep them in line.
Name Withheld
Key Colony Beach
KCB City Hall Bids
To: Concerned in KCB <conch@keysmail.net>
True, I have done many large construction projects (this one is small). So be careful the contractor makes his money on change orders. They don't know what they are in for.
Dan Schott
Key Colony Beach
KCB City Hall Bids
To: Concerned in KCB <conch@keysmail.net>
Construction Management is a recipe for disaster and the real looser is the owner .
Gregory Burke
Key Colony Beach
Bid Evaluation
We need to pull together a citizen team of people with engineering and contracting backgrounds to review the RFQ right now since the bids are already in hand. If there are flaws in the RFQ, we need to find them before the commission thinks they are ready to award.
Then the team needs to review all three bids, since there may be insight that pops up based on differences or common themes in the bids. What the other letter said about scope is dead on. The team will find items that were left out that will have to be added later at much higher cost . Some bidders purposefully exclude that scope, and some bidders ignore items that were assumed to be in the RFQ.
This could be a real cluster.
Retired Project Manager
Key Colony BeachSealed bids, proposals, or replies received by an agency pursuant to a competitive solicitation are exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution until such time as the agency provides notice of an intended decision or until 30 days after opening the bids, proposals, or final replies, whichever is earlier...
Bid Review Committee Chose Keystar
The KCB city hall bid review committee--city administrator John Bartus, commissioner Doug Colonell and architect Brandan DeCaro via Zoom, public works head Mike Guarino, and building official Tony Loreno--met on Tuesday to select the best bid to build and renovate city hall.
Bids were received from:
Keystar, Incorporated, $5,831,428.09 DL Porter Construction, $5,964,750.00 Pedro Falcon Contractors, $5,560,616.00 Some KCBers suggested pulling together a citizen team of engineers and builders to review the bid package, and then review the bids themselves for differences or common themes and, of course, to see if they met the scope of the project.We can't. KCB won't release the actual sealed bids, proposals, or replies in this competitive solicitation because they are exempt from state law and the state constitution until the city awards the bid or until 30 days after opening the bids, whichever is earlier. The exemption to the sunshine was likely made "to avoid trade secrets or financial plans getting out" but it keeps citizen experts in the dark.The committee were told to choose based on three criteria:
Lowest bid. "Responsiveness" which means the bidders included all required documents in the bid package, not whether all facets of the project were covered by the bid. "Responsibility," based on other projects and financial strength of the bidder. DeCaro said Keystar met the details of the plan. That was the only comment by any panelist about any bidder that addressed meeting the scope of the project.
Commissioner Colonell thought the Pedro Falcon financial report was convoluted. The committee discussed the different entities in the Pedro Falcon bid. After extensive discussion, they decided that Pedro Falcon wasn't responsive because they didn't fill out the forms required in the bid documents.
The committee found that Keystar Inc has the best insurance. With very little discussion on the merits, they unanimously recommended Keystar Inc as the lowest responsive bid.The Keystar Inc bid at $5,831,428.09 is $1.93 million or 50% above the city estimate of cost for building construction and renovation.
100% City Hall Drawings
Here is an abridged architectural plan showing the elevations and floor presented by CPH plus the elevation and 3D image from the citizen proposal to to create a legal two story entry and to resolve the ADA access: http://peopleareasking.org/resources/100_submittal_set_floorplans-08-14-2025.pdf
KCB has added the 08-15-2025 City Hall 100% Design Development and the 08-15-2025 Opinion of Probable Construction Cost to he city website under "About Our City" on the page for "City Hall Renovations." The 17.5MB 2401034_Key Colony Beach_City Hall - Architecture.pdf is the 60 sheet architectural package. The other drawing sets include Electrical, irrigation, landscape, mechanical, plumbing, and structural drawings.
October 24, 2025
Who Won the City Hall Contract?
The city commission held a special meeting to award the city hall construction contract on Friday, October 24.
Mayor Foster asked city attorney Scott Black to "go ahead and cover the line item... Nobody met the qualifications as submitted to the city."
With no discussion or hesitation, Black responded "Nobody met the five projects for the city so waiving that formality keeps everybody on board."
The commission unanimously passed resolution 25-12 "waiving certain informalities and previous experience requirements in invitation to bid ITB 25-06 for all prospective bidders". That authorized "the city and staff to proceed with the notice of award to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder."
Worth noting: After extensive discussion on Tuesday, the bid review committee had decided that Pedro Falcon Contractors was not responsive. Moreover, in the August commission meeting, DeCaro had estimated a $3.9 million building cost alone plus all the furnishings, gingerbread, and other costs and without any consideration of change orders or cost overruns. Mayor Foster said at that time he "can support a $4.5M" because some of the costs won't be paid in 2026. The commission approved putting $4.5M in the budget as the total cost of the city hall project next year.Mayor Foster found, "Based on the tabulations ... Pedro Falcon Contractors offered a bid of $5,560,616... Pedro. Contractors would be the lowest bid received."
The motion to approve Pedro Falcon Contractors passed unanimously.
Commissioner Colonell reminded the commission that this building would cost "half what the previous plan was."
KCB filed a Notice of Intent that declares the city intends to award the contract to Pedro Falcon Contractors, Inc:The City of Key Colony Beach, Florida has reviewed the bids submitted in response to ITB 2025-06. After evaluating the bids for responsiveness, responsibility, and best value (including lowest cost conforming bid), the City intends to award the contract to the above-named bidder.
Bidder Awarded: Pedro Falcon Contractors, Inc.KCBers may want to ask our commissioners about this award.
The commission will negotiate the contract and call a special meeting to ratify it in the coming weeks.