At least two people in Key West will not see their pockets lined by the City creation of a Stormwater Utility, and imposition of a monthly rain user fee. (The $5 monthly residential user fee is small, but we've got to start somewhere.)
"User fee." At the latest City Commission meeting they kept reminding us that this charge is NOT a tax, but a "user fee." Does this mean that we can refuse the service? Does this mean we won't be charged stormwater fees during dry months when there is only trace precipitation? People who catch their roof runoff in cisterns will be entitled to a rebate, right? Certainly a home cannot be liened for refusal to pay a "user fee," when its inhabitants spend six months up north?
According to a local water treatment specialist, John Larkin, all this rigmarole should not be necessary— treating stormwater should be a fairly simple ancillary job for City utility staff already in place. But obviously that puddle in front of City Hall is already too much for existing staff to handle.
Instead, we put $600,000 last month into the studying of stormwater rate structuring— and no end in sight, noted City Commissioner Harry Bethel at the panel's Tuesday meeting. The multi-million dollar cash flow generated by the Keys' newest utility probably won't trickle into Bethel's pocket anytime soon: he cast the sole vote against it.
"Five, ten dollars a month is peanuts— but it's every five and ten dollars we approve every so often that accumulates. Property owners aren't going to swallow it, they are going to pass it on to renters. And there goes your affordable housing! It's a vicious circle, what we do up here," Bethel said.
He shared the concerns of restaurateur Elliot Baron (a first for Bethel!), when Baron said he wanted to critique a proposed rate study before the City Commission authorized the utility and its taxing authority. But it's not a tax, Elliot!
The other person who will not make any money on this alleged "federal grants magnet" is Veronica Stafford, business-woman, who expressed concern that something be done to indemnify the struggling small businesses that may go bust— as some did during recent sewerline construction— when street work disrupts access for weeks at a time. Dream on!
Deevon Quirolo glowingly commended the City for "taking a leadership role" by creating a new bureaucracy and taxing authority to deal with runoff. She publicly thanked Ken Williams for providing data on the highest standards of stormwater treatment, which she urged the Commission to adopt. "We should be the cleanest little City in America," she said.
Williams is the local representative of the multinational, privately-held corporation CH2M Hill. It has already made a mint from our City sewer system, and now stands ready to engineer, build and finance our yet-unspecified stormwater treatment facilities. I wonder if he donates to Quirolo's Reef Relief.
Just how much leadership we are taking in the Race against Runoff? As much as Miami's? As much as New Orleans' Stormwater Authority? (Do they even have one?) What do they charge their residents? Both have rivers which discharge into the sea and mingle at that Gibraltar of the Caribbean, Key West. Not that their pesticides and hydrocarbons could conceivably affect our reefs!
We, the burgeoning populace of the Keys, and our pets and chickens, are responsible for the death of our reefs— to hear Commissioner Merili McCoy talk about it. "The time has come to address this issue!" she insisted.
Why the urgency? We need to have rate data in hand to meet federal grant deadlines. Utilities Director David Fernandez warned the Commission that "if you are not ready" to spend the federal grant money, "you will be passed over in favor of those cities that ARE ready to spend the money."
Wow. We must stop questioning the need to spend, and speed up our spending! The spending of money that will be forced out of our pockets every month and out of our paychecks every quarter. "Shut up and deliver!" Now that's leadership.
Four words: Harry Bethel for mayor!