Controlling Traffic and Renaming Old Positions

At Monday evening’s city council meeting, a presentation was presented by Phillip Kurth, Senior Traffic Engineer for Florida Traffic Engineering, Inc., and Trebilcock Consulting Solutions, who serves as the city’s consultant regarding the traffic study. Their report concentrated on ten major traffic intersections throughout the island, with a recommendation to follow up and deal with other signalized and non-signalized intersections.

The traffic study was first called for by Councilor Brechnitz over two years ago in response to citizen inquiries about traffic flow issues at the intersection of North Barfield and Collier Boulevard and safety concerns regarding that same intersection.

The study pointed out the need regarding the updating of both the layout of intersections throughout the city’s infrastructure, which will entail adjusting hard-surface adjustments on many of those intersections, as well as improvements in other intersections throughout the island to enhance pedestrian safety issues.

The equipment found throughout many of those intersections is outdated, some of which dates back to 2008, whose software is no longer supported by the manufacturers. Parts themselves are becoming harder to support the regular maintenance cycle and/or emergency repairs, which will soon become a major issue.

At one point in the presentation, in response to a councilor’s inquiry, the engineer agreed with councilors that traffic flows had either reached or were approaching a “saturation point.”

Improvements to the North Barfield and North Collier Boulevard were included within the 2024 capital budget, including monies for new traffic control systems at that intersection.

The entire report from Florida Transportation Engineering, Inc. can be found here:

https://marcoisland.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=d840da9a-c422-46a3-a634-bef20344ca8c.pdf.

The Traffic Operational Analysis from Trebilcock can be found here:

https://marcoisland.legistar.com/gateway.aspx?M=F&ID=24a617b0-4f9e-4130-aef7-d25e19b65446.pdf

Referendum Questions for March 2024 Ballot

Two referendum questions will appear on the March 19, 2024 ballot. 

The first Referendum Question will deal with increasing salaries for councilors and will read as follows. Commencing with the 2026-27 Fiscal Year, the salary of each Council Member, except for the Chairman, shall be $11,500.00 per year, payable in equal monthly installments. Commencing with the 2026-27 Fiscal Year, the salary of the Chairman shall be $17,200.00 per year, payable in equal monthly installments. Thereafter, the salary for the Council Members and the Chairman shall be increased on an annual basis, in an amount equal to the cost-of-living increase provided to all City employees.

The second Referendum question will deal with changing the designation of the title previously called Chairman to that of Mayor and that position shall be elected from the seven elected councilors. That position shall be elected each year. The Mayor shall preside at meetings of the Council, shall have a voice and vote in its proceedings, and shall be recognized as head of City government for ceremonial purposes and for purposes of military law.

Councilors will also elect a Vice-Mayor at that time to serve for a one-year term who will serve in those same duties in the absence of the Mayor.