NOTE: The page 1 headline in the Key West Citizen Wednesday said "New Noise Law Passes." Wrong. It wasn't even voted on. It was tabled. Here's the real story.
Everyone has an opinion about noise in the City of Key West. Most people agree that neighbors should work together in a friendly, cooperative fashion when they have noise-related problems.
So naturally the leadership position adopted by the City Commission on Tuesday was: "Let's create some laws that will give neighbors a chance to take each other to court over sound levels! Let's provide them with good grounds for suing the pants off each other!"
By most accounts, there is just one Duval Street bar that is still thumbing its nose at everyone and refusing to cooperate with appeals to cooperate and tone it down— to reduce or buffer its sound levels.
City staff tells KWTN that the bar's manager is adamant that he has a "Constitutional right" to blast his neighbors' cups off the shelf. A typical dude with attitude.
Well if that isn't a good reason to overhaul the City's noise laws and hire a full-time "noise specialist" police person to keep an ey e on all of us, what is?
In case a tougher ordinance is not enough to crush this man's resistance, it will be accompanied by an ordinance allowing the City Manager more leeway to revoke any restaurant or bar's occupational license on the grounds of non-compliance with noise laws. (Isn't it only fair that all establishments which play music should lose the same amount of freedom as the one that refuses to be a good neighbor?)
Some cynics at the Commission meeting muttered that the whole process was probably bogus and moot, since Mark Rossi— the owner of Rick's Bar and Durty Harry's— is a prominent committee member and helped draft the bill. (He was complimented by Commissioners and City staff for his outstanding efforts.)
"The Commission is letting the bar owners draft the noise ordinance so they can all slip through the loopholes they wrote into it," said the Cynical Ones. "It happens every time."
Indeed, Mayor Jimmy Weekley noted that the Noise Ordinance has been coming back before the City Commission about every three years since 1985 when he was first seated as Commissioner
And your KWTN reporter, who has been attending meetings since that very year, can confirm it. The noise problem is never "fixed" to anyone's satisfaction. The "new" ordinance never works, blame is generously distributed, the ordinance is once again hauled back before the Commission, committees are formed, the law is rewritten, and tax money is spent on newer decibel-meters and more staff training.
In vain. When City of Key West noise offenses land in court, they are always dismissed on technical grounds, usually involving questions about instrument calibration and use. And everyone says, "You see? The law isn't tough enough. The last Noise Ordinance committee— composed mostly of bar owners— wrote too many loopholes into it. We need tougher laws. Let's form a committee and draft some."
The other buzz circulating around the room (in a counter-Cynical direction) was that certain bar owners and certain Commissioners had written these laws in collusion to put certain competitors out of the bar business. This is another recurrent theme since 1985. Everybody loves a good conspiracy theory, especially in this town, but frankly both theories are sooo . . . 20th Century!
Former Mayor Sheila Mullins pointed out that the proposed law regarding animal noise doesn't require the "same burden of proof" for a barking dog as it does for a live band, and she suggested this was unfair and should be corrected. (As it stands, the City can prosecute animal owners based on a neighbor's allegations, without any decibel readings or police witness.)
If decibel-meters fail to provide satisfactory evidence of noise levels for prosecution purposes, the prospect of using subjective judgment is even less promising. Few people can agree on what constitutes the line between "music" and sheer, screaming "noise."
As Architect Michael Miller told the Commission, "Noise is like obscenity. I can't define it but I know it when I see it."
Duval Street resident Zenaida Sepulveda was common-sensical: "Start with the simple things. Get rid of speakers on buses at 1 am, and speakers on sidewalks. Do it in stages starting with the worst offenders."
Commissioner Harry Bethel said he was reluctant to pass more laws "that we can't enforce. If we could only educate people to respect one another, as some have: keep the noise inside the establishment."
But Commissioner Merili McCoy wanted to give the proposed new ordinance a whirl on the dance floor. (No sense in letting three months of grueling weekly committee meetings go to waste. With that much effort invested, you've GOT to pass SOMETHING.) She suggested they "approve it for six months, then review it."
Commissioner Carmen Turner wanted the allowable commercial decibel level reduced from 85 to 75. By the time the Commissioners had added amendments, City Attorney Robert Tischenkel recommended they table the ordinance rather than approve it, since it would take three readings to pass with this degree of modification.
The Commission unanimously tabled the ordinance and its companion-piece, the ordinance allowing the City Manager to yank occupational licenses for non-compliance with noise laws.
Both ordinances will be addressed at a special meeting— to be announced— because a high level of public participation is expected.