It Takes a Village

During the next few months, the north end, and especially the village, may see the town commission proposing revisions to the existing town comprehensive plan and building codes to allow a major tourism development on the commercial land located at GMD and Broadway at the north end of Longboat Key.

I hope the north end community will participate in large numbers in this process. If the residents participate, there is much more likelihood that the land at the entrance to the Village will be developed with an intent to maintain and protect the ambiance of the neighborhood.  If the north end community does not choose to be an active part of the development planning, then what happens at the north end may not be in the best interests of the major stakeholders in the area, namely the homeowners.

Let's look at the difference in composition between shopping centers that cater to residents in a community, compared to shopping centers that cater to tourists. Are the two appreciably different? Perhaps we can compare two such shopping experiences located adjacent to the north end. One is the Center Shops on Longboat Key and the other is Bradenton Beach. Both are thriving, yet each caters to a different clientele.

The types of businesses located at the Center Shops rely on local customers to survive. The businesses include the well attended Longboat Key Education Center, a bank, three locally supported restaurants, a frame shop, an exercise center, a UPS store, several offices, dry cleaner, kitchen shop, window treatment store, etc.


Bradenton Beach enjoys two seasons, drawing patrons in the winter from Anna Maria Island and during the summer from beach goers and day tourists. The types of businesses in Bradenton Beach are largely tourist oriented. I do not think anyone believes the few residents of Bradenton Beach are capable of supporting such a robust group of tourist oriented businesses. Ed Cliles' Beach House restaurant is a major draw for Bradenton Beach and appears to enjoy a year-round clientele.

The unique location of the north end commercial property, its relatively low cost, and its access to the north end beaches might attract a developer interested in creating a day tourist destination. Such a development could be a lot more fun than Coquina Beach on a year-round basis for tourists and Manatee County residents. However, I cannot see how local residents and day tourists share similarities in lifestyle. I am trying to imagine what types of businesses would attract beach going day tourists and young people to a commercial center on the north end of Longboat Key.

In recent studies it has been found, that when commercial tourism is introduced into a previously residential community, the local residents tend to lose territory, as they retreat from tourist activities.

The composition of the proposed commercial overlay district at the north end is a question of who's interests will be favored. If it is residential taxpayers, then there will be restrictions as to what sorts of businesses can be located within the overlay district. If it is simply finding a way of resuscitating a failed commercial center, then a more open approach will most likely be considered. Reference: ordinance 2012-06 Future Land Use Elements GOPS discusses north end overlay district.

Last evening, at the Observer/PIC debate, Commissioner Brenner stated that "retail does not work" at Whitney Plaza, and we've seen that that has been the case for years. If retail does not work, what does work, and do we want it? 

The residents of the Village need to be involved.



 

Your Cell Phone and Fixed-Mobile Convergence

Much of the success of recent Apple products has been their elegant user interface making IPods/Ipads/IPhones easy to use. Google Android has emulated the Apple approach with great success. Simplicity of use has proven to be a viable business model. Smart phones and other smart data devices are taking over the world, or so it seems. My daughter and sub-teen grandchildren recently informed me that, even though I am "the greatest grandfather in the world", they only do texting, and that voice calls and email are yesterday's news. As I said technology is taking over our lives.

The cell phone carriers have not been oblivious to user wishes and demands. As a result, data usage on cell phones, notebook computers and pad devices has been increasing exponentially. In an effort to further simplify using a cell phone,, the carriers are migrating towards what is called Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC). FMC is the bringing together of previously disconnected communication technologies (cellular and wifi) to form a seamless umbrella of access for all modern data devices including smart cell phones such as IPhones, pad devices such as IPads and IPods and notebook computers.

The ultimate goal of FMC is to optimize transmission of all data, voice and video communications to and among end users, no matter what their locations or devices. In the more immediate future, FMC means that a single device can connect through and be switched between wired (wifi) and wireless networks.

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Rogers and other carriers currently offer FMC to their business clients. Modern computer driven communication technologies enable companies to meld together various networks into a transparent web.

Any discussion about cell towers needs to be weighed against the overwhelming onslaught of newer technologies that offer vastly improver service along with simplicity of use compared to cell tower technology. FMC will offer phone users the option of a single phone number that will connect to land line phones, cell phones and other data devices such as IPads. FMC offers the opportunity to greatly reduce cell phone and/or land line costs while improving reception.

The backbone of Fixed-Mobile Convergence is the marriage of cellular networks with wifi networks. Most people on Longboat Key already have wifi in their homes. The town needs to extend wifi coverage throughout the community by installing a community wifi network on the island. Currently there are more than 126,000 square miles of municipal wifi globally, with the majority being in North America and Asia. I work with local tourist facilities where people ask for wifi access far more than they want cell service. Visitors want to be connected more than they need voice communications. We already have fairly good outdoor cell coverage. There are small pockets of poor service, along with individual residences with building construction issues. All these individuals can easily solve their indoor reception problems by switching carriers and/or using a wifi based FMC app on their cell phones.

Fixed-mobile convergence works will all cell carriers, even for foreign visitors who will no longer need expensive SIM cards or expensive global cell phones. In addition, all their other data devices will also function throughout our community.

Fixed-Mobile Convergence will deliver superior indoor cell phone access compared to any sort of cell tower that may or may not be constructed with one or two carriers. Cell towers will never improve access for all our data devices that we love and seem to need.

Fixed-Mobile Convergence is already in use by all the major cell carriers. We may never get a cell tower depending the economy and our community's continuing shift towards seasonal property owners. On the other hand FMC will be island-wide, indoors and outdoors for all data devices including smart cell phones. We need to embrace today's technological advances and leave the past behind us.

Pension Plan Procrastination

The commission has been kicking the pension plan problem down the road for a couple of years. While I was on the commission we had meeting after meeting about the pension plan. We heard from and listened to many pundits and experts. And we did nothing about the pension plan predicament.

From that time to now, while the commissioners have been continuing to take no action, 17 new hires have been added to the pension plan, and to the already considerable financial obligations of the taxpayers. The commission seems to be suffering from pension plan paralysis.

The pension plan issue boils down to two choices. The first involves joining the Florida Retirement System (FRS), which would require fully funding our current pension plan financial obligations as a condition of admittance.

The second option is to put all new hires in a "defined contribution" or 401K retirement plan, while maintaining all current employees on their "defined benefits" pension plan. The town could offer to buy the employees out of the current pension plan but that would require as much money as buying into the FRS. It seems that the Florida Retirement System is the best choice.

If the stock market was currently at say 18,000 we would not be having a pension plan discussion, because our plans would be fully funded. The upside of "defined benefits" pension plans is possible gains on investments that offset pension obligations. However, the vicissitudes of the market have not been kind to our three volunteer investment committees, and our town finds itself in the unenviable situation of being in the bottom 10% of funded municipal systems.

Defined contribution pension plans require a fixed rate contribution into employee 401K plans. Most of the town's management are on 401K plans. I suspect there may be a few of these employees who wish they had stayed with the defined benefits system instead of being underfunded for their retirement due to market losses. The town manager receives a 28% of annual salary contribution into his 401K. It should be noted that the amount of money required for yearly defined contributions plans is usually greater than payments into a defined benefits plan.

Our present, locally funded retirement plan does not allow employees to transfer benefits if they move to another location. The FRS does have transportability within the state. Even though the FRS suffered recent losses in their investments, the FRS is still ranked highly in state retirement funds.

I can see no future in continuing with our current volunteer pension fund committees with their duplication of fees to advisor's, lawyers and brokers. The FRS can afford to hire the best fund managers. We cannot, and that is reflected in our underfunded pension plans. We are in the bottom 10%.

While the commission mulls over its alternatives, the town continues to add to the obligations of its pension plans. Joining the Florida Retirement System is the most prudent choice. Moving to a defined contributions plan will not lessen our current debt. Nor will it attract the best workers as long as there are other communities that offer a more secure career track either by being part of the FRS or by offering their own guaranteed retirement plans.

Being part of a huge state pension system would stabilize our pension plan issues, add portability as an incentive to attract new workers and most importantly assure our employees a secure retirement. A 401K plan does none of these.

What's Wrong with Tourists?

Should we label tourists as second-class economic citizens on Longboat Key?

What do tourists bring to our community?

Recent studies have demonstrated that residents and tourists do not mix well. In communities where commercial tourism has expanded, residents most often relinquish territory to the tourists. On Longboat the tourist influx during February and March means crowded roads and restaurants. Residents know better and do not plan trips off-island on weekends when the beaches are filling up or tourists are heading home. We prepare ourselves for long waits at local eateries during season while mumbling about the need for tourism to keep local businesses alive. We modify our life style because of the tourists yet we are the ones who pay all the taxes. Does that make sense?

Do tourists keep our businesses alive? Probably not the same businesses needed by residents such as medical, lawn, municipal, home repair or domestic services. While residents have little need for tee-shirt shops, shell stores or jet-ski rentals. There seems to be very little that tourists and residents have in common except being on the same road at the same time two months a year. 


The residential community realizes almost no financial benefit from commercial tourism except for a small portion of collected sales taxes and real estate taxes which represent a small fraction of the total tax burden.

A few property owners rent their houses, mostly on a monthly basis, with mixed reactions form neighboring homes. The chamber of commerce along with some current commissioner/planners now advocate relaxing the monthly rental restrictions and allowing weekly rentals to encourage more tourists to come to Longboat by offering reduced cost accommodations. We all know that weekly rentals quickly deteriorate into weekend rentals. There are no controls as to how many people can occupy a house. A property owner near me rents to different people for weekends on a weekly basis even though it is illegal. Sometimes there are eight or more people occupying the house including boisterous young children. Our town continues to demonstrate that it is not prepared to effectively regulate residential rentals, nor should it, for the town is not be in the vacational rental business. The weekend rentals continue island-wide, though the economic downturn appears to have reduced rental traffic.

I do not believe that the great majority of our island residents even want monthly rentals much less weekly/weekend rentals. Yet the current pro-business commission appears to be on the verge of approving a vision plan that encourages weekly/weekend rentals. Of course, our chamber of commerce also seeks increased tourism and relaxation of the current thirty day rental restrictions.

If you own a home in a neighborhood where rentals are allowed, and you do not want your neighborhood to be turned into a short-term rental community, then I suggest that you log onto http://www.longboatkey.org/ go to the commissioner's page and email them how you feel about weekly rentals on Longboat Key.

Lastly I want to bust the myth that young Yuppie tourists will become future home buyers on Longboat Key, and that is why we should want hoards of them to be visited upon our beautiful serene residential community. By the time these people are old enough to want to retire to our island, I will most likely be beyond caring and my heirs will also be too old to care.

I believe we should be marketing our island to the retiring baby boomers, not weekly tourists. As soon as the economy recovers we will be looking at a large population of retirees. The more fortunate of those retirees will want just what we wanted when we bought our homes on Longboat Key. Who wants to wait twenty years for the Yuppies to grow up and retire, when there are so many perspective home buyers much closer at hand?

We do not need more tourists. We need discriminating home buyers right now. The best way to attract these people is through sophisticated marketing and advertising.

We do need to spruce up our act, put on a big smile, invent all sorts of things to do as a community and tell the world that we are a wonderful place to live. Did I hear tourist in any of this?

"What our commissioners fail to understand is that the community, not the developers, should define community identity. That is the purpose of the zoning code. Variances should be the exception and not the rule." ... SH 




Pension Plan Problems - Perhaps

The commission wants to raise taxes this year so that they can boost contributions to the town's supposedly underfunded pension plans. One supposes that our taxes will continue to be higher in coming years for the same reasonings. The commission's reasoning appears to go like this - we need to raise taxes so we will not have to dip into our overly rich reserves to pay for town operations. In turn we can take money from the same reserve fund and contribute to the pension funding mess. Do you get the logic? The only things missing are fiscal responsibility and reduced spending.

The two times I campaigned for commissioner, I railed against the town's current pension funding system; comprised of three small volunteer amateur pension plan committees along with too many over-paid lawyers, advisor's, actuaries and investment agents, who all have been spectacularly unsuccessful for the past decade.

Compare pension plan performance of our pension committees with the Florida Retirement System (FRS) and weep. We are in the bottom 10% of Florida pension plans when it comes to being underfunded.

This year FRS returns on investment have ranged between 14% and 28%. At the end of 2009 FRS was at 88% valuation, down from a 2008 valuation of 107%. Longboat's pension plan valuation has been negative since 2001.

http://www.myfrs.com/imageserver/pdf/forms/FY_2009-2010_Wrap-up_press_release.pdf

For the past five years I have contended that Longboat should be in the FRS system, rather than relying on volunteer investment committees. The argument used against FRS membership is that we cannot afford to transfer into the FRS system, just because of our underfunded situation. I counter by pointing out that the longer we wait the more underfunded we become. Do you remember the parable of Sisyphus?

Assumptions: Making assumptions is the foundation to actuarial assessments of long-term investment strategies. The set of assumptions currently in use are more than a decade old. Lots has changed and the assumptions need to be reformulated before we make even more assumptions based on dated data.

Wage and benefit projections are no longer valid. Reassessing these assumptions might have sizable impacts on future pension plan liabilities, yet we continue to operate under the old projections.

When I was on the commission I advocated a re-assessment of the assumptions that are causing so much fear amongst the commissioners. How can our community make intelligent decisions when we do not have up-to-date information?

Perhaps the time has come to cease punishing the taxpayers of Longboat for the failings of the government.

There are causes associated with our current pension fund problems.

Most recent FRS audit - http://edr.state.fl.us/conferences/actuarial/2009%20FLA%20Valuation.pdf