A LOOK BACK ON STORIES IN THE NEWS 2006- 2008– WISTERIA ISLAND AND MORE

A couple of weeks ago, we looked back on some of the stories of the year during 2000- 2005. This week, let’s re-look at a few more recent stories, starting with 2006.

During 2006, beleaguered City Manager Julio Avael was still trying desperately to hold on to the job he had held since 1996. Even before the city elections in 2005, he knew he was in trouble when several of the city commission candidates were promising to dump him if elected. His response to this was classic Avael. Just a few weeks before the election, he tried to slip a contract extension onto the commission agenda. The plan was that his cronies on the lame-duck commission would quietly approve the contract extension before any of those pesky anti-Avael candidates could take office. But when the press picked up on this story, the plot imploded. We have told you before and we’ll tell you again– we don’t make this stuff up.

Avael was right to be concerned. After the election, the mayor and commissioners actually discussed firing Avael on the spot, but opted instead to give him a one-year “transitional” contract to give themselves adequate time to search for and hire a new city manager. Humiliated, Avael announced that he had planned to retire anyway. But that wasn’t the case at all. To Avael, the transitional extension just gave him another year to try to convince at least four members of the commission to give him a multi-year contract. Part of that plan was to try to curry favor with the newly-elected members of the commission. For example, he openly fixed a job for a longtime buddy of new City Commissioner Danny Kolhage. And, suddenly, Kolhage became one of Avael’s defenders on the commission.

2007. When the city commission officially announced the search for a new city manager, it probably finally dawned on Avael that he wasn’t going to be the guy, and he sent a memo to the mayor and commissioners confirming that he was retiring and that he was not going to be a candidate for the job. But in April, just minutes before the deadline to apply, he sent his application to the screening committee. As it turned out, however, that was just a ploy to negotiate a more lucrative departure settlement. Our page one headline on April 27, 2007, read, “Julio: I’m Out. No, Wait a Minute, I’m Back In. Oh, No, Never Mind, I’m Out.”

Finally, in early June, it was over. Jim Scholl had just been hired as the new city manager and Mayor Morgan McPherson could hardly wait to throw Julio Avael down the stairs at city hall and out onto Angela Street. The ink was hardly dry on Scholl’s contract when McPherson sent out a memo to all city department heads telling them that, effective immediately, Julio no longer had any authority to make decisions or to sign anything important. Julio’s contract called for him to act as a consultant to Scholl for several months– but as far as we know, nobody asked him to consult on anything. There was a small going away party for Avael. Employees who wanted to attend were asked to bring a dish.

The long-running Wisteria Island Scandal had its beginnings in 2007. The owner of that little undeveloped island in Key West Harbor asked the city commission to annex the property to allow development similar to neighboring Sunset Key. On first reading, the vote for annexation was 5-2. But just before the final vote, it was learned that several city commissioners had been wined and dined on Sunset Key by the potential developers of Wisteria Island. The resulting public outcry resulted in the tabling of the second vote. It also launched a movement that resulted in the amendment of the City Charter that requires a public vote to approve any city commission vote to purchase or annex property.

Also in 2007, the city commission created the position of Internal Auditor to uncover fraud, waste and abuse in city government. But the woman hired to fill the job was soon fired and the job eliminated– because she was uncovering too much fraud, waste and abuse.

2008. Police Chief Bill Mauldin resigned amid allegations that he repeatedly sexually harassed his public information manager. An irate Big Pine woman complained to the Monroe County Sheriff’s office that Capt. Bob Peryam had a long-running affair with her 21-year-old daughter. She said that she caught them “in the act” in her kitchen, She said that after she had blown the whistle on Peryan, sheriff’s deputies began to harass her family. Peryam went on to be elected sheriff. Allegations surfaced that when City Manager Jim Scholl was commander at Key West Naval Air Station, he was instrumental in diverting the flight path of loud jets from Key Haven to Stock Island. It was also alleged that, in return, some influential Key Westers had promised to help Scholl become city manager. Everybody denied that. Meanwhile, the jets began flying over Stock Island and Scholl became Key West city manager.

Dennis Reeves Cooper founded Key West The Newspaper (the Blue Paper) in 1994 and was editor and publisher for 18 years, until his retirement in 2012.