Miscellaneous
Office of the County Attorney
P.O. Box 1026
Key West, FL 33041-1026
305/292-3470 - Phone
305/292-3516 - Fax
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
MAYOR Charles .Sonny. McCoy, District 3
Mayor Pro tem Dixie Spehar, District 1
Murray Nelson, District 5
George Neugent, District 2
Nora Williams, District 4
OK~~rY ~o~~~E
(305) 294-4641
April 3, 2002
Carolann Sharkey, President
Key West Botanical Garden Society
PO Box 2436
Key West, FL 33045-2436
RE: TDC Funding Agreement
Dear Carolann:
I have spent a number of hours reviewing documentation submitted to the Finance
Department in order to advise the Finance staff as to the propriety of making payments
under the existing contract between the Botanical Garden and Monroe County. Also, I have
had at least one meeting with Anne Meyer regarding the same subject. It seems that the
extremely detailed budget and the attempt to characterize costs to fit those items, although
the donation of a service building changed the overall plan, keeps us bogged down with
allocation issues that could be addressed in an easier manner. Accordingly, I would like to
suggest a contract amendment whereby the budget would be revised and the categories of
in-kind services and reimbursable (or direct pay) expenditures could be defined in broader
terms.
I anticipate that at some point a contract amendment will be required anyway
because the line items which have money available for use will not have any relationship to
the actual services and goods remaining to be acquired to complete the project, and those
services and goods will not be able to be characterized to fit into the categories or line items
of dollars available. The next TDC meeting is May 14, 2002, and I would suggest that we
pursue a contract amendment to be submitted to the TDC by May 7.
If you would like to sit down with me and any other individuals you think would be
appropriate for such discussion, please let me know as soon as possible.
Also, if Mr. Horn, who I believe is the project architect, is not already certifying the
progress reports, the County would like him to commence doing so as soon as possible for
purposes of future payment request submissions. Actually, we need a report showing the
status of all work in progress to date.
Sincerely,
Suzanne A. Hutton
Assistant County Attorney
SAH:dct
cc:
Harold Wheeler ~
Danny Kolhagev
O.'!~y .1'~~E
(3051294-<1&41
BOARD OF COUNlY COMMISSIONERS
MAYOR Shirley Freeman, District 3
Mayor Pro tem George Neugent. District 2
Wilhelmina Harvey, District 1
Nora Williams, District 4
Mary Kay Reich, District 5
Office of the County Attorney
P.O. Box 1026
Key West, FL 33041-1026
305/292-3470 - Phone
305/292-3516 - Fax
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Maxine Pacini
Tourist Development Council
Suzanne A. Hutton /" j) ~
Assistant County Attorney 'ffJ
FROM:
DATE:
September 22, 2000
SUBJECT:
Key West Botanical Garden
This memorandum is to bring you up to date. Mr. Kolhage and I met with representatives
from the Botanical Garden and Melissa Kendrick to discuss a number of items that were of
concern to DAC 1. Some changes needed to be made to the contract and to the Botanical
Garden's proposed budget, particularly with regard to the types of proposed "in-kind services"
which would be acceptable to the County. Those changes were made, and it was ascertained that
the County could accept more than the federal minimum wage amount as an hourly amount for
basic labor, and that could be based on fair market valuation of day labor in this area.
One issue which still needs to be ironed out is the verification process for purposes of
determining if it is appropriate for payment to be made. We discussed the County's Engineering
Department possibly participating in the verification of the completion of different types of work
in order to determine if sufficient in-kind services have been rendered to support the County's
payment on those items requiring cash payments for which the County would contractually
obligate itself. Upon seeking a response from the Engineering Department, I was informed that
there were some other problems which needed to be addressed between the County and the
Garden Society because of title and encroachment problems which existed for many years and
were eventually resolved between the City and the County by an Interlocal Agreement.
Unfortunately, the Garden Club submitted plans which would have impacted the County's
parking area. It is my understanding that the Botanical Garden people have represented to the
County Administrator and the Public Works Director that a new plan would be submitted which
could be incorporated into the contract to ensure that the County continues to have adequate
parking in the area adjacent to the gardens. However, I have not seen any such plan and have not
incorporated it into the last draft of the proposed contract. Until the plan is submitted, the
contract cannot be completed for further processing.
Maxine Pacini
September 22, 2000
Page 2
Also, the County administration is not particularly amenable to participating in the
verification process since we would not be in privity with any of the sub-contractors of the
Garden Club in carrying out their construction.
Please feel free to call if you have any further questions.
SH:rj
cc: County Administrator
'" Danny L. Kolhage
Dent Pierce
Melissa Kendrick