Roosevelt Blvd Affected Businesses Gearing Up For August 6th Town Hall Meeting and Maybe a 1960’s Style Protest?

The Coalition of North Roosevelt Affected Businesses (CNRAB) gathered last Tuesday (July 7, 2013) for its second meeting at the VFW.

“Believe me,” said Commissioner Rossi, “I feel your pain.  I’m a small business owner.  I know what it takes.”

Looks like the Boulevard businesses are finally getting some attention.  Dale Ransom who owns Domino’s Pizza and is President of the CNRAB noted that for the first time ever there were 30 people actively working on the project – just outside the VFW.  This was an all-time record according to Ransom who said the most he’d ever counted previously was 12 workers on any given day.

“FDOT has become very aware of what is going on here,” said Rossi.

“The problem,” according to an Engineer who has looked into the details of the project,

“is that the contract has been frontloaded for this project.  De Moya got paid 4 Million for mobilization and got another 2.6 Million up front for traffic control.  Do you see any traffic control?  De Moya has been paid 15% of the contract upfront.  How do you give a contractor incentive to work on a project when he has already pocketed all of his profit up front?”

That report didn’t help much with the mood.  The aspect of the project which everyone seems to have the hardest time with is that the entire Boulevard was gutted but no one was seen working on some of those sections for what some say is six months afterwards.

Apparently that method was used to save some subcontractors the costs of going back and forth to Miami which would have been necessary had the work been conducted in sections.  The ratio of what was saved by the contractors compared to the inconvenience and financial loss to Key West residents and businesses is sure to remain a very delicate issue. McDonalds alone claims losses approaching 1 Million dollars to date.  How much was really saved by the subcontractors by not having to remobilize is a piece of data Key West The Newspaper is still trying to collect.

There were some good moments:

“Can we bribe de Moya?” asked one eager attendee.  “I mean, seriously, how much will it cost to get them to go faster?”   As we pondered whether or not to actually write down that particular quote, everyone in the room began raising their VFW draft beers and cheering him on for the bribery idea.

Then Rossi stood up and just when we thought things couldn’t get any weirder, he proclaimed,

“I’ve already done that!  I knew this thing was important and it could get out of hand, so I convinced FDOT to add a million dollar incentive if the project were finished early.  Now I am told that this is totally unique and that FDOT has never agreed to give that type of incentive before  – ever.”

Then the Engineer who’s been going over the contract with a fine-toothed comb, reported that he had spoken to a lawyer in Miami who would take the case for a $20,000 retainer and charge $450/hour.  That didn’t get any cheering at all.  Actually, we could almost hear the mental calculations going on as to how many thousands of Big Macs, pepperoni pizzas, and snorkeling trips it would take to pay for the Miami lawyer.  Had he been in the room, he might have ended up shot out of the cannon along with the de Moyas.   We’ll have you know, there actually is a cannon in front of the VFW.

Then it was time to hear from local attorney, Robert Cintron.  He entered the lion’s cage with a big smile.  “I believe there is negligence.  I believe de Moya and FDOT negligently prosecuted this project,” said Cintron.   “I don’t care how good of a contractor de Moya is, I don’t think they care.”

The bad news is, according to Cintron, a lawsuit against FDOT would be very difficult –something having to do with the old adage, ‘The King can do no wrong’ – otherwise known as ‘sovereign immunity’ and we can’t be too sure but it looked like about half of the room let out a sigh of relief at the idea that the “Coalition” was not going to rush into some financially ruinous lawsuit.

Having the attention of the crowd, Mr. Cintron got all nostalgic, remembering the 60’s and how people used to make signs and protest everything and anything. “You need to put people out there with signs that say, ‘I’m losing X amount of dollars a day!’ said Cintron.  “You would probably spend your money more effectively that way than by hiring a lawyer.”

So, where does that leave us?

“The main thing,” said Doctor Boros, “is to stop the bleeding.”

The practical solutions discussed by the Coalition that would lead to an improvement of the situation fall into two categories: 1) have FDOT do whatever it takes to have de Moya accelerate the path: work at night, spend more money… and 2) modify the traffic maintenance plans to include two-way traffic with a third lane in dormant areas and work in sections!

Dr. Boros struck a cord when he proposed that a public campaign against de Moya would have more effect than any lawsuit.

“Posting information about how slow and disorganized de Moya’s project has been might give us much more leverage than a lawyer or a politician,” said Boros.

On August 6^th at 3:00 p.m. at Old City Hall there will be a closed meeting with all sorts of important people in attendance:  Ananth Prasad (Secretary of the FDOT), de Moya, State Representative Holly Raschein, the City Commission, the President of the CNRAB, Virginia Panico of the Chamber of Commerce and even a top representative of the Governor’s office.  That will be the opportunity for the Coalition to convince FDOT that the project should be re-organized and that the second part of the project should include timing considerations, two-way traffic, and sectioning of the roadwork.

Immediately following that meeting, there will be a 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. Town Hall style meeting when everyone in the community will have an opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns.