BELLEAIR – Town commissioners Dec. 15 debated over what role their manager should have next year in the Belleview Biltmore’s restoration process.
They presented their criteria for a wish list of projects that they would use in evaluating Belleair Town Manager Micah Maxwell’s job performance next year.
Commissioner Stephanie Oddo asked that Maxwell “facilitate success with the Belleview Biltmore.”
Calling Oddo’s suggestion vague and lacking any meaningful method for evaluation, Commissioner Karla Rettstatt said, “We don’t want to micro manage the town manager and at any rate how would we as a board go about assessing his ‘success’ with that process.”
The owners of the Biltmore, Latitude Management Real Estate Investors, closed the Biltmore on June 1 in preparation for extensive restoration promising the famous hotel and spa would reopen in 2012. Lawsuits brought against both Belleair and Clearwater over elements of the design and how code enforcement exceptions were handled by the two jurisdictions have delayed construction.
While Belleair’s suit has been resolved, LMREI has maintained that the project, which includes demolition and new construction on a portion of Sand Key called the Cabana Club, remains under litigation.
Belleair Mayor Gary Katica seemed to agree with Rettstatt.
“What’s going on with Clearwater (Sand Key) is totally out of our hands; it’s up to God now,” Katica said.
“There is nothing we can do and we shouldn’t hold the town manager to that goal,” he said. “When we set goals, it should be something we can control.”
Oddo stood by her proposal, maintaining that despite the delays there are still options for the town manager to facilitate the project.
As if to underscore her point Maxwell replied, “In eight months if the legal issues are in fact resolved we can simply strike that evaluation goal off the list; if on the other hand they (the Biltmore owners) come tomorrow and say we want to pull a permit then we should be ready.”
Other items on the wish list include continued street lighting improvements, which began late in 2009, enhanced code enforcement using a newly created code officer position, training for new volunteer board members and undergrounding utilities.
In other town matters, three candidates have been qualified for the upcoming March elections to fill two seats on Belleair’s commission. They are incumbent Tom Shelly, Patricia Irwin and Brad Ackerman.
