Mother Nature and I are having a battle these days.

And of course, I’m losing.

I have always prided myself on knowing that Mother Nature will always win the war, even though I may win a battle or two along the way.

If we screw up this planet enough, Mother Nature will just let us wipe ourselves out and hope the next incarnation does a better job in stewardship than we did.

But the current battle is of short duration, nothing so colossal as global climate change or sea level rise. It’s all about the cold right now.

I’ve been her full time for 14 years. I can safely say this is the coldest winter on record for me. I can remember winters where I wanted a good, warm coat for a few days, and maybe a jacket for a week.

But I also remember winters where I called my northern family members on New Year’s Day to gloat about being out on the boat fishing while they were shoveling snow from around their behind’s or chipping ice to get into their cars to go to work.

This winter, they’re laughing at me because there’s no heat.

Anyway, every morning before I get dressed for work, I step out on the porch to check and see what that day might call for.

Even if the forecast calls for it to warm up, if the weather at that particular instant calls for pants and long sleeves, I go out of the house in pants and long sleeves.

Better plan on being warm enough than worry about being too warm.  If I get too warm, I can take off a shirt and cut off the pants into shorts. Those are the battles I win with Mother Nature.

But twice this week, I have stepped out on the porch to get a feel for the weather. Both times, it told me shorts and a heavy t-shirt were probably the rule of the day.

So I compromised, having lost so many battles in the past few weeks, and put on pants and a short-sleeve short.

Once, I was proven prudent as it remained tolerably warm all day and I was able to get inside before the sun was completely gone.

The second, I was so cold by the time I got home that I fired up the space heater. My dogs appreciated that move as well.

Then I stepped outside two days ago and it felt nice to the touch. I switched my pattern and put on shorts and a long sleeve shirt.

The air had a little nip, but the wind was down.

I believe Mother Nature had a good belly laugh at my expense on that one.

I live in the middle of the refuge surrounded by trees. When everyone else is kiteboarding down their street, I’m floating feathers to the ground.

I should have remembered that. I really should have remembered that.

The walk to the car was pleasant. The drive to the office was pleasant. But I knew I was in trouble when I hit the traffic light on Big Pine and the signs were bowing in the wind.

I stepped out of the shelter of the vehicle and the cold wind shot up my shorts into regions I would rather not mention. When I have no wind at home, that’s not a sure sign that there’s no wind elsewhere.

I really should have remembered that.

I could almost hear Mother Nature—way off in the distance—guffawing at me as I tried to run into the office where there is heat.

Once in the office, I could hole up in there all day and pretend to be warm with the heater running. And I wouldn’t have to admit to one more losing battle against what has now become a major nemesis—Mother Nature.

But before I made the office door, a colleague across the breezeway spotted me wearing my shorts and rubbing my cold-induced goose bumps.

He laughed at me.

“Are you some kind of lunatic, running around in shorts on a day like today?”

I had to admit it—I was a lunatic for that very reason.

So tomorrow, no matter what the forecast calls for, I’m going to dress warmly. If you see me out at one of the events around town, you might see me sweating profusely.

You see, I’m as proud as the next guy. If I guess wrong again, there is no way Mother Nature is going to get me to cut off another pair of pants into shorts to make up for her inability to make up her fickle mind.

Just give me warmth.

I have no place further south to which I can move.

Some county officials had pinned their hopes on a possible extra penny in sales tax to offset costs for the system, estimated at $194 million.

County lobbyists had declared their intentions to put the penny sales tax on as an amendment to the bill that might extend the July 1, 2010 deadline for upgrading Keys wastewater at the last minute.

State Rep. Ron Saunders has said that the appetite for raising taxes, particularly in this pivotal election year, might not be very great, and could possibly jeopardize the authority for the one cent sales tax here.

But the Legislature will face a sales tax question of its own this session as House Bill 115 makes its way through the halls of Tallahassee. That bill adds a penny in sales tax to the state’s portion of revenue from goods and services sold, and would raise the overall tax rate in Monroe County to eight-and-a-half cents on the dollar.

If the Legislature gives Monroe County the authority the ask voters to approve another penny to pay for wastewater and storm water systems, approving that would raise local sales taxes to nine-and-a-half cents, the highest in the state.

If history is any indication, if state lawmakers have a choice to raise money at the state level by increasing sales taxes or allowing an individual county to raise money by that method, we know who loses that battle.

The state has become increasingly good in the last two decades at mandating programs that the counties have to pay for.

And it’s always the consumer that loses.

Tax revenues have steadily fallen since 2007, about a year after the current recession really started to be felt around the country. Every taxing authority, with the exception of the local mosquito control district, has had to tighten its belt and raise tax rates on property owners to maintain balanced budgets.

The taxpayer is just about over it.

Yes, Monroe County needs the money to complete the wastewater projects. But what it needs more is the extension being contemplated of the state deadline. Without that extension, property owners here will begin to get letters of non-compliance, with whatever penalty the state sees fit to impose, starting July 2.

If asking for an additional penny sales tax jeopardizes the extension, perhaps we can wait another year to ask that.

All we’re going to get anyway is the state’s blessing to ask the local voters if they want to self-impose another penny on sales tax. The changes that would pass in today’s fiscal climate are slim.

Our leadership saw this train wreck coming four years ago, yet no one had the political will to come to the voters and ask for a funding source that might be least painful we can come up with.

Now that our leaders have been forced to reach into their guts and come up with the political will, the state may have beaten them to the punch.

We hope the state won’t increase our sales tax. We hope we get the authority to ask our local voters to add a penny on ourselves, with a lot of that to be paid by our visitors, and we hope that the voters will choose the lesser of all evils.

But those hopes get dimmer with each passing day.

The current bill that would extend our deadline here also includes a provision for the state to give us $200 million—when it feels it can—to help us meet their unfunded mandate.

Let’s get those two in place first. Then let’s put our collective heads together and find a way to upgrade wastewater in the rest of the county that doesn’t include adding a penny we may never get, especially is the state takes an extra one for itself.

We still have the option to get voters to extend the existing one-penny infrastructure sales tax that will sunset in 2018. With that, we could borrow a little money, then borrow a little against our operating funds, and maybe come out on the other end with a wastewater system that does the job and a bite out of our wallets we can all live with.

The Sale Clerk violations are up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine, $235 in court cost, $75 in cost of prosecution, and $40 in cost of investigation.

The Licensee Violations are:

1st offense $1000 fine and 7 day suspension

2nd offense $3000 fine and 30 day suspension

3rd offense Revocation of license.

The remaining business checked were in compliance with the law. This operation was conducted in cooperation with the Monroe County Coalition for a Safe and Drug Free Community.

People living from Stock Island to the Seven Mile Bridge can stop by the Freeman Substation on Cudjoe Key and drop off old, outdated medications during business hours, or they can call and a deputy will stop by and pick the medications up. The drug disposal program is also operating in the upper Keys, from Plantation Key to Key Largo. The medications will then be burned by Detective Sgt. Bobby Randolph, who operates the Sheriff’s Burn Unit and who holds a special license to burn narcotics.

People who call to have medications picked up can do so with no questions asked. “Our goal here is to dispose of this stuff properly, not to catch people with illegal pills,” said Lieutenant Gene Thompson, Commander of the Freeman Substation.

Proper disposal of prescription and over the counter medications is important. Flushing them down the toilet or sink can introduce dangerous and environmentally damaging substances into the water system; throwing them away in the trash can also introduce them into the environment, and runs the risk of them winding up in the wrong hands.

If you are part of an organization, like a Crime Watch group or a Homeowners Association, and would like us to collect old medications at one of your meetings, in the Lower Keys, call 305-745-3184; in the upper Keys, call 305-853-3211.

Local businessman Danny Coll, owner of Keys Medical Transport and NAPA Auto Parts on Big Pine Key Wednesday filed paperwork to run as a Republican against the three-term incumbent in the August primary.

Coll will face off against Neugent in the Republican primary in August.

Neugent was first elected in 1998 against a host of other candidates, but faced perennial electoral loser Joannie “Bicycle” Nelson in the 2002 race and perennial electoral loser Sloan Bashinsky in the 2006 race. He handily won both those elections.

Coll said he felt as though he needs to run because Neugent has been in place too long and needs some good competition.

“George is as nice a guy as they come, but he’s getting complacent and not doing for the people of his district what they need for him to do,” said Coll.

District Two covers from Shark Key to midway through Marathon. Coll lives on Sugarloaf Key while Neugent lives in the Marathon section of the district. County commissioners run county-wide, however, and Coll is aware that Neugent’s name is much better known than his own in the Upper Keys due to the long tenure Neugent has spent on the commission.

Coll said there are a lot of issues facing folks in the Lower Keys, particularly the business community, that aren’t being properly addressed.

He’s also concerned that smaller issues, such as a long-term solution for the animal control issue on Big Pine Key and the traffic congestion issues on Sugarloaf Key aren’t being as strongly addressed as the people would like.

During Neugent’s tenure, Big Pine and Sugarloaf Keys have both been the recipients of brand-new community parks, Big Pine’s at the end of Sands Road and Sugarloaf’s at the school.

Neugent has been at the forefront of the county’s battle to upgrade wastewater treatment throughout the county.

Coll feels as though the Lower Keys got short shrift in that fight and is now the only major service area in unincorporated Monroe County without either a completed or definitely planned central wastewater collection system, with local residents potentially facing fees thousands of dollars higher than other areas for hook ups and monthly fees that could run some of them out of the island chain.

Coll said he is also deeply interested in reaching some conclusion to the downstairs enclosure inspection issue that is amenable to the Federal Emergency Management Agency yet less Draconian on the people of the Lower Keys.

Coll is also worried that tax rates continue to go up on commercial property and non-homesteaded properties while the commission does little in the way of cost cutting to bring those rates down.

Nuegent has said that this campaign would probably be his last, and hadn’t decided to run until a new commission was put in place in 2008.

“I have some learning to do to get up to speed on issues that George has been part of for more than a decade, but I’m a quick study,” said Coll.

Coll is a former member of the Big Pine and Lower Keys Rotary Club, a member of the Sugarloaf Key volunteer fire department, a volunteer instructor at Lower Keys Medical Center for rescue personnel and a business owner twice over.

Neugent is the former owner of Porky’s Bayside in Marathon and 53rd Street Dock and Deli. He is a long-time member of the South Florida Regional Planning Council and the National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Board. He also sits on several other non-profit boards.

No other candidates have yet filed intention to run for the District Two seat, which at this point means the winner of the August primary will win the seat. Should no other candidates file, the primary will be open, allowing all voters regardless of political affiliation to cast ballots.

The current county commission is all Republican save District Three Commissioner Heather Carruthers, a Democrat.

The seat of District Four Commissioner Mario DiGennaro is also up for grabs this year, with the incumbent set to face off against former seat holder David Rice in the Republican primary.

FEMA had mandated the program, after a few years of wrangling with county officials to start bringing a high number of non-conforming downstairs enclosures into compliance.

As the county tried several times to wriggle out from under the mandates of the program, former leaders had to keep promising tougher inspection procedures to attempt to eradicate properties that wouldn’t be encompassed by the flood insurance renewal program.

Two weeks ago, however, the Monroe Board of County Commissioners approved a resolution asking FEMA to terminate the pilot program. It was that resolution to which FEMA said no.

And the reason it said no is because there are still a considerable number of homes in the inspection pipeline, as well as more than 400 that haven’t even yet been identified to flood insurers.

A couple of years ago, former Growth Management Director Drew Trivette told the Board of County Commissioners that the flood insurance inspection program was about 85 percent completed, with more than 75 percent compliance.

That isn’t the case, according to county staff emails.

The county had estimated as little as 2,000 non-conforming downstairs enclosures and possibly as many as 4,000. Thus far, just over 5,000 have been submitted to the inspection program, and more than 3,000 of those are still in the pipeline.

The pilot program was to have run seven years, and begin in 2001. The actual program didn’t start until mid-2002, however, and is past its original cut off date.

According to county documents, however, that need to extend the cut off date was anticipated in the original FEMA mandate because staff was guessing at how long it would take to process enforcement of downstairs enclosures.

So FEMA says it will not allow the county to terminate the flood insurance renewal inspection portion of the downstairs enclosure inspection program.

During last Thursday’s conference call with FEMA, county staffers also learned that FEMA officials weren’t entirely sold on the idea of allowing the county to cancel its building permit application inspection program.

That is the second of three phases of the inspection program, with flood insurance renewal and sale of the property being the other two.

The permit application phase has been called Draconian by most seated commissioners and has given birth to the most unintended consequences.

The permit application phase of the program has resulted in property owners, even those with conforming downstairs enclosures, declining to do needed work rather than have code enforcement personnel poring over their property. Still others are doing the work themselves without benefit of a permit, or hiring unlicensed contractors who will do the work without benefit of a permit.

“The construction industry is suffering, and our people aren’t doing what they need to do to maintain their homes properly,” said Commissioner Mario DiGennaro, who has been the most vocal proponent of ending the inspection programs.

Part of FEMA’s reticence toward eliminating or even greatly amending the building permit application inspection program stems for a letter sent to the Commissioner Jack London in which FEMA lauds the county for its actions, but points out that the bulk of non-compliant enclosures are discovered during the permit-application process, thus its unwillingness to allow eradication of that program.

John November, a law fellow with the grass roots organization Citizens Not Serfs which has urged an end to the downstairs enclosure inspections, said he expected FEMA not to approve termination of the pilot program, but that the stance taken by the county commission opened doors for the group to lobby in Washington for high-level pressure to get FEMA to change its stance.

Christine Hurley, the county’s new Growth Management Director, said that as a result of the call last week, “FEMA is sensitive to the county’s challenges with permitting, and is open to considering alternatives to the county’s inspection-upon-permit and point-of-sale programs they might present.”

“The county will research options and review what other communities in Florida and across the country are doing to prevent downstairs enclosures being converted to living space,” she wrote in a memo to commissioners.

Hurley said staff will discuss the call from last week and present possible options at the next county commission meeting on March 17.

Her memo states that Monroe County is in no danger of having higher-than-normal flood insurance premiums as a result of the pilot program because rates are set on a national level, with every flood-prone area in the same classification having the same actuarial multiplier.

She also wrote that no increase is being anticipated this year, although policy fees will increase by $5.

Citizens Not Serfs leaders and other community members, had been concerned that Monroe County’s status as a non-compliant community would result in higher flood insurance premiums as FEMA phases out flood insurance subsidies to make up for a $17 billion shortfall in the National Flood Insurance Program.

Hurley said any increase is Congressionally capped at 10 percent per year.

County Commissioner George Neugent has been advocating elimination of the inspection-upon-permit program and replacing it with a stricter point-of-sale inspection program whereby any non-conforming downstairs enclosure would have to be brought into compliance with current code before new buyers cold receive approval from the county to occupy the home.

Assistant County Attorney Bob Shillinger has been working on an ordinance to that effect for a couple of months.

The upside would be that property owners could continue to maintain their homes and enclosures while they still own it, and would then have to negotiate with the eventual buyer for who pays for compliance.

“At the very least, everyone would know if they were buying a property with a non-conforming downstairs enclosure and that it would have to be brought into compliance before they could occupy the structure,” said Neugent. “By attrition, we would eventually bring every home into compliance.”

Neugent hosted a town-hall meeting about sea level rise last week, with guest speakers talking about the impacts on property values, the impacts on habitat and wildlife, and potential ways to combat the effects of sea-level rise.

“Five years ago, only scientific communities were talking about sea level rise. Now, it has risen to the level of a daily conversation on street corners,” said Neugent. “Our biggest question will be ‘Is this something we can do anything about?’”

“Eventually,” said Neugent, “there are things we’ll have to do. And there are things we can do right now to prepare.”

He suggested that all governmental entities with road maintenance responsibility begin to raise road levels each time a surface is repaved, and that all municipal building be done with graded drives and parking lots.

Neugent said he would like to see local sewer authorities find a way to reuse all the dirt they are digging up to put in collection lines instead of hauling it away to the mainland and disposing of it, using it to raise road beds or up-slope the grades on public waterfront parcels.

“We also have to make sure that we are continually checking on salt water intrusion into our fresh water aquifer,” he added.

That scenario came much too close to being a reality last year when the normal dry season lowered levels in the Biscayne Aquifer, from where Monroe County derives most of its fresh-water supply, to the point where salt water incursion became an issue.

“We have to find ways to protect our potable water delivery system from salt-water incursion,” said Jim Reynolds, executive director of the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority. “It may cost us billions to protect the hundreds of millions we have invested in our critical infrastructure.”

Reports available at the meeting stated that the National Weather Service has documented a nine-inch rise in sea level in Key West since 1913, which is about the same level the more moderate projections show for the Keys in the next 90 years.

But even the most sophisticated models have come under fire in recent weeks, not because they no longer forecast a sea level rise, but because they claim they can no longer predict the rise with any certainty given that is seems to be accelerating.

“We don’t know exactly how fast or exactly how much sea level will rise, but we know that it will,” said Chris Bergh with the Nature Conservancy.

He says even the anecdotal evidence reveals some rise in sea level surrounding the Keys.

“If you look at some of the near-shore natural basins, you can see pine stumps under water where a pine tree couldn’t have grown unless it was dry at one time,” said Bergh.

Anne Morkill, manager of the National Key Deer Refuge, said that aerial photography shows where actual coastal configuration changes have occurred on a small scale.

“As the levels continue to rise, there may be periods of transition where rocklands become salt marsh, which changes the ecology of the parcel, and further endangers the habitat and wildlife that use those parcels,” said Morkill.

Members of the audience pointed out other areas of daily lives that may well be affected as seal levels continue to rise.

Some reported that auto manufacturers have begun not to honor warranties on cars used almost exclusively in a salt-rich environment such as the Keys.

“Beyond the warranties, we’re looking at increased maintenance of vehicles from driving through salt water more regularly,” said local contractor Dave Tuttle.

Others also suggested that auto insurance companies might scale back coverages in the Keys to factor out salt water damage, and that flood insurance providers might stop offering the coverage as normal rain fall produces increasing flooding in ground-level homes and out buildings.

“This is a much bigger picture than whether we can see a higher water level in our canal,” said Neugent.

There were about 25 percent of the people in the audience who were there simply to try and refute sea level rise as a phenomenon.

Local resident Cindy Cameron, wife of the chairman of the county’s planning commission,  called sea level rise a major worldwide hoax, and read passages from a book that purports to “bust the myth” of global climate change and sea level rise.

The book from which she read has been discredited by scientists from around the globe for a number of years, according to Doug Gregory, county extension agent for marine resources.

“Whether sea level will rise in the coming years is not the issue. The issue is how much and how fast,” said Gregory.

Gregory said the county has just completed an emission inventory survey designed to discover where the carbon footprint exists and how it might be reduced.

“Monroe County has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent over the next 10 years,” said Gregory. “First, it will save the taxpayer money, and second, it’s the right thing to do.”

Gregory said the county has begun an inventory of such mundane items as the number of refrigerators available to staff, the replacement of normal hot water heaters with solar-powered hot water heaters and the use of more hybrid vehicles.

“There are many small things the county can do to reduce its emissions footprint by reducing energy consumption that will save the taxpayer more money in the long run,” said Gregory.

Bergh said there are many areas where doing something good for the environment and sea level rise might result in a win-win for those issues and for the taxpayer wallet in the short run.

“We have to explore where those lucky coincidences exist and take full advantage of them, and we need to push our political leaders to allow the latitude to find those coincidences,” said Bergh.

He also pointed out that the brute-strength approach utilized by other communities, such as dikes and levees, won’t work here in the Keys.

“We are on a porous limestone rock. The same foundation that allows our water to drain and filter its way to the ocean will allow the ocean to filter its way onto land that is below sea level,” said Bergh.

Scott Donahue of the National Marine Fisheries office said there are also other issues at work with global climate change and sea level rise that will be more noticeable sooner to a large segment of the Keys economy.

As carbon dioxide levels rise in the atmosphere, says Donahue, the acidification of the ocean’s water increases.

“The process creates a calcium carbonate that ocean life uses, however, they won’t be able to use it at the rate it’s being produced, raising the acidification levels even more,” said Donahue.

In response to the naysayers in the audience who suggested just planting more trees, Donahue pointed out that the massive deforestation of the planet has already created a spiraling upward curve in carbon dioxide levels as plants take in the gas and emit oxygen. With fewer plants, there are fewer oxygen molecules released.

“We can’t plant enough trees to use al the carbon dioxide we have now,” said Donahue.

And that will begin to be felt in the local fishing industry long before residents notice higher water levels in their canals.

“The building blocks of ocean life will begin to die off as the acidification continues. That will begin to filter out into the food web,” he said.

He said that ocean acidification, and its effects on marine life, “will fundamentally change  what we do here with many marine species dependant on carbon dioxide for survival.”

Neugent said he will host further town-hall style meetings in the future to continue the dialogue.

“We have to keep the public dialogue going on this issue,” he said. “The Keys will be one of the areas where sea level rise is first noticed because of our low-lying status. We have to be out in front of this one.”

At least concerning how much has been used and how much remains to complete the 20-year planning horizon of the Incidental Take Permit.

The ITP is a development agreement between the county, the State Department of Transportation, the State Department of Community Affairs and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

The permit allows limited human development over the next 17 years in exchange for mitigation of habitat loss at a three-to-one ratio.

“We were close to the same page, but not entirely,” said Christine Hurley, new growth management director. “The meeting was amicable, not at all adversarial. We have a good team right now that wants to pin down the right information so we can plan where to go from here.”

She and her staff sat down with representatives of the federal agency Monday to iron out discrepancies in the county’s annual mitigation report between USFWS numbers and county numbers.

The impetus for the meeting, said Hurley, was a concern from FDOT that enough mitigation be available for them to complete the three-laning project through Big Pine later this year.

“We are all in agreement that we have more than enough to cover that project,” she said.

The county is allowed to use 1.1 H, or harvest value, of habitat to support Big Pine and No Name Keys’ endangered species over the life of the permit. That amount roughly equates to a total of 200 residential homes, or 10 per year for the life of the permit on the two islands.

That total could change if more building is done on high H-value parcels, or commercial uses with a high traffic intensity move onto Big Pine.

The proposal also covers already planned projects such as the US 1 enhancements, the Overseas Heritage Trail, the new fire station, the Big Pine Community Park and road widenings on Key Deer Blvd.

The former two are yet to take place. The latter two are already completed.

“We agreed that the H loss for the US 1 project wouldn’t be as steep as once thought, and that the H loss for the new fire station wasn’t as steep as had been planned,” said Hurley.

Unable to devise a mitigation fee ordinance that met with the approval of county leaders for more than three years, Monroe County has thus far been supplying all the mitigation for every project on Big Pine, private or governmental, from its H-bank of credits.

The county achieves credits primarily through the purchase, or donation, of environmentally sensitive land equal to three times the H value of the land used for development.

“We seem to agree that the county has a credit of 1.8317 H for development to this point,” said Hurley.

That is about 1.5 H short of the 3.3 the county needs to cover every development forecast on the two islands over the life of the permit.

There has been concern among county leaders that there won’t be enough conservation land available from willing sellers to meet the mitigation load for everything projected under the ITP. All mitigation lands must come from the area encompassed by the ITP, which is Big Pine and No Name Key.

More than 65 percent of those two islands is already in public ownership, and according to reports to the Monroe Board of County Commissioners over the last two years, every vacant parcel owner has received no less than two offers to purchase land from one of the interested agencies, county, state and federal.

All three received new money yearly to purchase environmentally sensitive, which up to this point has been the only way USFWS has allowed it to be used as mitigation because purchase retires all development rights. It also takes the property off the county’s tax rolls if the county or state buys it. The federal government pays a fee in lieu of taxes for lands it owns.

“That’s a valid concern, and one that we just don’t yet know the answer to,” said Hurley.

She said there is also concern among the parties that planned infrastructure extensions might skew the original permit numbers.

“We did talk about potential mitigation requirements for infrastructure,” said Hurley. “But we didn’t come up with any answers yet.”

USFWS has asked the county for more detailed information on where a central sewer system planned for Big Pine Key would be routed so it can assess the impact to habitat.

“One of the unique things about this is that we don’t necessarily issue permits for infrastructure development,” said Hurley. “We don’t permit DOT, so what we did was ask DOT for a written request for the amount of mitigation it needs from our bank. That gives us a paper trail down the road.”

DOT said three years ago that it would not pay mitigation fees to complete the widening project because it had paid a portion of the costs for the original Habitat Conservation Plan that resulted in the ITP, a six-year $600,000 undertaking.

“We may have to do the same thing with Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority, or Keys Energy,” said Hurley. “We wouldn’t normally get a permitting request that would automatically kick off a mitigation calculation.”

The county is allowed to development up to five percent of H over what it has available until more is made available.

How to handle that potential issue is a policy one, said Hurley.

District Two County Commissioner George Neugent, who represents both Big Pine and No Name Keys, has been asking for the mitigation questions surrounding infrastructure development to be ironed out for a little over a year.

“If the sewer system needs more mitigation that we have available, it would be up to the BOCC to figure out a way to address that,” said Neugent.

According to National Key Deer Refuge Manager Anne Morkill, the service is waiting on detailed plans and some wildlife studies to determine the impact on habitat for endangered species before any talk of mitigation numbers can proceed for both sewer lines and a possible extension of commercial power to No Name Key.

He particularly wants to make sure the two, particularly County Administrator Roman Gastesi, are able to continue to make public appearances on behalf of the county at functions where their meals or other incidentals may be provided gratis.

The need, says Neugent, stems from a series of recent chastisements from State Attorney Dennis Ward.

Ward campaigned, and handily won the race, on making government accountable to the people, on a promise to ferret out illegal and unethical behavior.

He admonished county commissioners last year for attending the annual Ocean Reef dinner because more than one elected official appears at the same venue without public notice, and the general public isn’t invited to the gated community soiree.

He admonished them again this year, but three attended, including Neugent, and took Gastesi with them.

Ward has said that Gastesi’s attendance is a violation of the county ethics policy which stipulates that county employees and staff may not accept any gifts or gratuities, and the free dinner is just that.

“Roman can’t do his job under those conditions,” said Neugent. “He is asked by community groups all the time to come and speak at a function. Typically, they comp the meal. Under these parameters, that’s a violation of the ethics policy.”

Neugent said it would be more in the county’s interest to tweak the ethics policy to ensure that there is no violation that to have Gastesi stop all those speaking engagements.

Neugent and Mayor Sylvia Murphy, however, disagree with Ward on whether Gastesi’s presence is a violation.

They both claim that because the administrator and County Attorney Suzanne Hutton are contract employees to the Board of County Commissioners, the policy doesn’t include them.

Neugent says that they should instead be covered under the existing state statute which limits gratuities for elected officials to $100, which would cover all but the most outrageous dinner party.

Neugent said he spoke with County Clerk Danny Kolhage and Hutton, and they are in agreement with his assessment.

Ironically, it was Gastesi himself who pushed hard for the current ethics policy two years ago after he came aboard as administrator. Former Growth Management Director Drew Trivette was scolded by Gastesi for accepting fishing trips and dinners from developers trying to get favorable consideration for a proposed waterfront development ordinance at Safe Harbor on Stock Island, prompting Gastesi’s action.

Ward has been badgering county commissioners to adopt a stricter ethics policy for themselves than the state limits, as low as $50, and to adopt a lobbyist registration ordinance that would let voters see who is being paid to lobby commissioners, for what and for whom.

Commissioner Kim Wigington has twice tried to get BOCC support for a lobbyist registration ordinance, but has met with significant resistance. She has said she doesn’t want to introduce something so watered down it becomes meaningless.

The primary criticisms of the proposals thus far have been that the ordinances were too vaguely worded and could include anyone who spoke to a commissioner outside the BOCC meetings, or that non-profit groups simply asking for more money in the budget would have to pay a registration fee, or that homeowner groups, such as Ocean Reef Homeowner’s Association or Sugarloaf Shores Property Owner’s Association, would have to register to host county officials at routine meetings.