Dear Mike,
I am contacting you regarding Key Biscayne’s curfew. I apologize for my insistence, but last night we were visited by an official from Miami. He gave us a verbal warning that everybody had to be out of the restaurant by 10 p.m. and that it was up to us to kick out our own clients from the premises.
I know that he was trying to follow the rules of the new ordinance. This implementation of this ordinance is arbitrary and unreasonable. By the time he visited us we had already stopped furnishing services to our customers. We had closed the kitchen, we closed out all the checks and we were cleaning the premises. There were just a few customers left enjoying their drinks.
Key Biscayne’s ordinance improperly burdens restaurants with the task of enforcing their own laws. At the very least the official and Key Biscayne should be in charge of notifying customers. Small businesses should not be burdened with kicking out their loyal customers during this difficult time. Please understand that most of our customers do not show up until 9 p.m. and it is impossible to expect them to exit the premises in less than an hour.
Would you please help us and talk to Miami-Dade to see if we can extend the closing time for one hour? Or at the very least stop
Burdening restaurants with the enforcement of these arbitrary ordinances. In these times we need leadership that is willing to represent the interests of their constituents, even when antagonistic to leadership. Thank you for your service to our community.
Sincerely,
Javier Cividini
Mayor Davey’s response:
Javier,
I have spoken to Mayor Gimenez about this on a couple of occasions. I understand your frustration, but the Mayor has said that he will not lift the restriction until at least after this coming weekend. That said, I will follow up when we speak again next week to urge him to reduce the hours of curfew.
Key Biscayne is required to enforce the curfew. As I have told several people, there are county officials monitoring compliance and they will not hesitate to make an example out of restaurants that do not comply.
Your arguments have merit, but for now we have to comply.
Mike
Michael W. Davey / Mayor for the Village of Key Biscayne
Editor's note. On Wednesday, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced the curfew will move to 11 p.m. starting September 14.
