I have often questioned why people that don’t live or pay taxes in the Village are sometimes key figures in making decisions that impact the lives and future of the residents of Islamorada.

An interesting discussion about this subject took place at last Tuesday’s Council meeting.

When the council was discussing the annual citizen advisory committee appointments, Mayor Horton asked if there is a requirement for members of committees to be registered voters in Islamorada.

Attorney John Quick looked up the Village code and confirmed that committee members must be residents while serving on committees, but are not required to be registered voters.

We also support the idea that people serving on our committees should be registered voters in the Village of Islamorada.  Amazingly, that has not been a requirement of those making decisions that affect our lives and pocketbooks for the past quarter century.

So why is this important?

Those that make decisions should have “a dog in the fight”, and live within the village that they will impact.

Now think about the Islamorada paid staff - they have even more impact than committee members!

I have worked in 9 different cities across this great land and have been involved in municipal and state governments in varying degrees for over 30 years (not counting Islamorada). Rarely have the administrative and government personnel in the aforementioned cities lived outside the city they served.

Why? Because they must live every day with the decisions made. That is the premise, and it has been successful.

Additionally, in order to qualify for the cost-of-living benefits that some of these cities provide, employees were usually required to reside there. The Village has no such requirement.

Let me say that I am familiar with many Village staff personnel and they are competent, knowledgeable, cordial partners but…….. of the approximately 130 staff members few are residents of Islamorada and not voters in the Village. Shouldn’t we expect a better mix of residents and non-residents for key positions?

Not all of the 130 may be likely to individually influence the members of Council but consider the staff members that are the head of critical, influential departments: Finance, Building, Planning, Human Resources, Clerk, Attorney, Wastewater and Public Works: How many of them are residents of Islamorada, let alone registered voters here?

Many department heads, at one time or another, stand at the microphone at Village Council meetings or attend Village Council briefing sessions and make important recommendations to council members, often influencing the vote of council.

Do members of council study the line items of a 130-page budget or do they just trust the finance department? I would venture to say that the latter applies.

Evaluation committees to rank proposals that result from competitive bidding are required to be made up of members of staff. Often the members of staff live outside the village.  This policy should be changed to allow knowledgeable experts to serve on selection committees.

On Tuesday’s agenda, staff committees ranked two critical RFPs – for the Machado Property and for Ride-share services. The staff recommendation was expected to be confirmed by council. Only the proposal of the top choice of the selection committee was provided to the Council as an option.

Too much power without some balance and scrutiny is harmful.

Recently an RFP was advertised to find a wastewater contractor to fix the long-time sewer leak problem at MM92, that is estimated to cost $7.5 million. (Perhaps we have mismanaged wastewater for decades)

The committee to evaluate the technical skills enumerated within the wastewater proposals, will be staff members who do not live in Islamorada, do not pay property taxes here and may not have any real wastewater expertise?

Is that smart governance?

Vice Mayor Mahoney did suggest that the council needs to see more than just the proposals ranked first by staff. We agree.

Examples:

• Able City East was selected to do our Comp plan update after their presentation to the Council even though staff did not rank them #1.

• Our auditors were picked after being ranked by a selection committee made up of residents with significant financial backgrounds.

Do we need more than staff members living outside the village making important recommendations to council on highly technical issues? You bet we do.

Balance makes common sense.

Of all those impacting our policies and our budget, the members of council are currently the only ones that are required to be registered voters as well as residents. Therefore they have to answer to the taxpayers and residents come election day.

It is the members of council that need to assure that important contracts and contractors and all critical decisions are carefully considered before obligating constituents to the recommendations of folks who don’t live here or pay taxes here.

Isn’t that what Mayor Horton was trying to express when concerned about committee members that may not vote here?

We think he fell short of the real mark. Go a step further, balance staff recommendations with input from residents.

I submit that there are residents with expertise in wastewater and many of the technical issues that are decided by staff. We, the people, want to help make important decisions that affect our lives and environment.

Balance is key.

Use some creative measures to get qualified residents and Islamorada voters involved.

It’s your move council.

Elections have consequences.

Yours,

Tom