Undergrounding: Too little, too late?

Will a Nov. 3 referendum asking voters to fund the burying of overhead power lines and utilities pass?

We’ll have to wait to find out, but there’s growing concern from some Key residents and business owners who question whether the effort the town will ramp up in September to inform property owners about the referendum will be too little too late.

Town Manager Dave Bullock said staff is busy this summer preparing a PowerPoint presentation on the referendum and is continually adding informative questions and answers about the project as they arise from Key constituents.

“We will reach out to homeowner association groups, Condo Fed and any community association or group that wants to talk to us starting in September,” Bullock said.

Public workshops will also be held in the fall at Longboat Key Town Hall.

Bullock said the town, which can only inform residents about the referendum and can’t advocate for or against it, “isn’t doing a big push in June or July because there’s not a lot of people here right now.”

“Our push begins in September, and we will hit any group that wants us,” Bullock said.

But some current and past residents of the Key who took part in past referenda campaigns question whether the town is doing enough to educate before the election.

“What’s obvious to me when reading through the history is the educational process was key in the turnaround for the beach district referendum,” said resident and former vice mayor David Brenner.

Back to the beach

Marnie Matarese, of JWood Realty in Sarasota and a former Longboat Key resident, was part of a successful referendum informational group that helped establish two beach districts voters approved  in December 1990 by a mere 15 votes. The two districts fund sand renourishment projects to this day. The issue, though, was wrought with contention for years.

A beach renourishment project straw vote put before the voters in January 1989 initially failed by 550 votes. A year later, voters voted it down again in a January 1990 straw vote by 585 votes.

“At the time, people were acting like the beach only has value for those that live on it,” Matarese said. “But if you live in Bay Isles or anywhere else, the beach still makes your home valuable, and at the end of the day, people understood that. If you take that beach away, there’s nothing special about the island.”

Matarese credits the informational group for swaying public opinion. Informational group volunteers worked for 10 months to educate the public on a plan that has property owners west of Gulf of Mexico Drive paying 80% of beach projects and properties east of Gulf of Mexico Drive paying for 20% of the projects. The beach districts were officially validated by the Legislature Oct. 15, 1992 after the state Supreme Court initially declared them illegal  because the vote concerned two counties. 

The undergrounding referendum in November only asks voters whether they want to approve Gulf of Mexico Drive undergrounding. But that question needs to pass for a second referendum asking for the future burial of utilities remaining on other parts of the Key to come before the voters in March.

“People have to realize how important it is to pass the first project,” Matarese said. “The town will have to get off its (butt) and do something. You have to stop behaving bureaucratically and reach out personally.”

Referendum redux

Longboat Key Chamber President Gail Loefgren, who helped spearhead a successful referendum in March 2008 that created a tourism unit pool of 250 tourism units, emphasizes that although the town cannot advocate in favor of the referendum, others can.

In 2008, the town appointed Planning, Zoning and Building members Jim Brown, Brenner and Sandy Gilbert to act as official spokespersons who went into the community to inform and educate. At the same time, the chamber became part of the process as a political advisory committee, known as a PAC, that was able to raise money for flyers and buttons that advocated support for the referendum.

“We formed a speakers bureau and touched base with every condo group on the island,” Loefgren said. “It was tiring and exhausting.”

Loefgren said education is the key to a successful referendum.

“In my opinion, it’s probably not a good thing there’s not a lot of talk around town about this referendum,” Loefgren said. “If the town wants this to pass, they need to appoint a committee, and you need longer than a month or so to get the word out.”

Brenner also worries that not enough people will be educated in time to make an informed decision at the polls.

“People just don’t understand it right now,” Brenner said. “There’s a lot of misconceptions, and people are worried about the second question. In my opinion, that will make them vote against the first question.”

Question mark

The town, though, can’t discuss the second referendum question because the commission hasn’t approved referendum language or approved a funding mechanism for the neighborhood utilities project and won’t until the Gulf of Mexico referendum passes.

Mayor Jack Duncan, though, isn’t worried about a perceived lack of education.

“I don’t think there’s a need for a complete education program on Referendum 1 when most people aren’t here,” Duncan said. “I think people understand GMD and the implications of that.”

Duncan said he supports the town’s education effort for the November referendum ramping up in September.

Duncan believes a comprehensive educational program similar to the 2008 effort should be crafted for the second referendum question if the GMD project is approved.

“There’s still time to address language for the neighborhood question and resolve the fairness and equity issue for funding it that is circling around that issue,” Duncan said. “And I believe the beach district model needs to be considered as a way to fund it fairly and equitably.”

Bullock, meanwhile, said the town will answer residents’ questions.

 “This is a pretty smart community,” Bullock said. “They will understand the costs involved.”