Letters to the editor

+ Longboat Key must keep its pension plans
Dear Editor:
I am a retired pension actuary and was a member of the Longboat Key Firefighters Pension Plan Board of Trustees for two years ending Sept. 30, 2010. I agree with your conclusion in the first part of the March 10 editorial, “Don’t take the bait,” that Edward Seidle has not found much in his “forensic audit” of the Firefighters Pension Plan and that it would be a waste of time and money to pursue the issue further. You reach this conclusion even while overstating the unsubstantiated, hypothetical losses that the fund might have sustained as a result of using “tainted” investment advisers.

However, your conclusion in the second part of your editorial is not supported by anything you wrote. There is no indication that the pension boards and their advisers were not fully abreast of the management of the pension money. Nor is there any evidence that the town should not be in the pension business. Using the argument that most private employers are converting to defined contribution plans might make sense if the town were a private business. However, unlike many private businesses, we do not have stock options to offer as a supplement to a defined contribution plan. We must have a benefit plan, at least for safety employees, that is competitive with other municipal plans. Very few municipalities in Florida have actually converted to a defined contribution plan.

It is possible that the benefits under the firefighters pension plan are too high and should be reduced. But that does not mean the town should end the plan. Most of our employees do not live nearby and have to deal with a longer commute than they might otherwise have. We need to design our compensation and benefits to attract and retain the employees we want to keep.

If we have to pay higher taxes to fund an appropriate level of benefits to get and keep the best employees, I would be happy to do so. Focusing on reducing our taxes caused the town to change the funding of the pension plans, which helped get the plans in the position they are in today. Let’s not compound the problem by making another bad decision now.
Arnold M. Malasky
Longboat Key

+ What is going on with the beach renourishment?
Dear Editor:
Please bring the readers up to date on just what is really happening with the Longboat Key beach renourishment  project. The dredge is in place and all work has stopped — started — stopped again, and now no one seems to be working.

The original $4.5 million project was to place sand north of Broadway. It now appears that (project) is going start by placing sand close to one-half mile south of Broadway. This section of the beach needs no further sand. This is a waste of taxpayer money.

Residents of Seapines Condominium Association met with (Town Manager) Bruce St. Denis and requested that no further sand be added south of Broadway. Seapines residents are tired of seeing the beach grow to the west every time sand is added to this section of beach. Over the last 40 years, the beach has moved 120 yards west and residents can hardly see the water. Enough is enough.
Thomas King
Longboat Key

Editor’s note: The beach project has stopped because an engine blew on the dredge that sits offshore. Work is projected to start again this week.

And according to Public Works Director Juan Florensa, a small portion of the sand being brought on shore will be placed just south of Broadway. The reason sand needs to be placed south of Broadway first, even though a wide beach already exists there, is because the sand will migrate north due to the currents in that area and help to fill in the beach north of Broadway.

+ Departing local leaders are Longboat’s loss
Dear Editor:
How unfortunate for Longboat and the Town Commission that Bob Siekmann will no longer be sitting in the high-backed chair. It was my distinct pleasure to have the benefit of his accounting and philosophical positions while we were on Planning and Zoning together, and he always added another point of view to the commission discussions. Although Bob Siekmann and I did not always choose to share the same road, I have great respect for his intellect, hard work and willingness to stand for a position he felt might be unpopular.
 
Brad Saivetz, who will not reapply for Planning and Zoning, has the best understanding of our comprehensive plan and regulatory documents of any engineer or landscape architect I know, and he is tenacious in analyzing, finding deficiencies and proposing modifications he feels essential to improve our regulatory, fiscal and physical environments. We might not always feel his directions are where we should be going at that particular moment, but we must admire his scholarly, tireless approach to find solutions he feels should be implemented.

Longboat Key needs to hear and consider the alternative voices and positions, and we are better off because of them.

I salute the services of Bob Siekmann and Brad Saivetz.
Al Hixon
Longboat Key

+ Town should widen bike lanes
Dear Editor:
As a boomer resident who has recently started biking the length of the Key for exercise, I would like to suggest a simple solution to the bike lane debate. The town should simply widen the current bike lane by 18”-24”. A slightly wider bike lane would be far safer for both bikers and drivers. The current bike lane is simply too narrow to be safe for the many residents who wish to enjoy this form of exercise without fear of being accidentally struck by a car. The town needs to move forward with amenities that genuinely appeal to the now retiring boomers.
Alan Lenowitz
Longboat

+ Watch out for dangers of the cardboard palm
Dear Editor:
Last week we had to put our little dog, Ginger, down because she ate the fruit off a Cardboard Palm in our yard. We, of course had no idea how toxic this plant was. Neither did our landscaper or our vet. The pinecone-like fruit contains red berries that are fatal to a pet or small child. There is no antidote. It is a slow and painful death. Yet these plants are all over. I noticed them in the new plantings along the sidewalk median at the north end, a place where people walk their dogs, as well as around St. Armands Circle. This is just a warning to people and the town to beware of what you plant in areas where pets walk or small children play. And to keep your pets away from these plants.
Judy Christian
Longboat Key