ISLAMORADA -- Councilman-elect Bob Johnson last week said he plans to use his first meeting on the dais to call for discussions on such major campaign pledges as repealing last year's $21.8 million sewer assessment and conducting an examination of the cost and utility of individual package plants.

"I think it is kind of obvious that the voters have spoken, and they have spoken their minds for at least two candidates that represent a major change of direction," Johnson said. "I think it should be sooner rather than later."

Vice Mayor Michael Reckwerdt, who was re-elected without opposition in January, says he would support repealing the village-wide assessment and replacing it with one that applies only to middle Plantation Key, where the village could use $7.9 million in federal grant funds it has already been promised.

"I believe that we should do wastewater as we have some funding to match and that we should do it neighborhood by neighborhood with neighborhood assessments," Reckwerdt told the Free Press last week.

His comments, coupled with the election last week of Johnson and fellow sewer opponent Dave Purdo, both of whom dropped out of a lawsuit against the assessment after their victories, could mean that the sea change in sewer policy hoped for by their supporters is on the way.

Last week's election is being viewed by many as a referendum on the village's estimated $132 million sewer program, which absent further state and federal funding is expected to cost each Islamorada household upwards of $20,000.

Over the past several months the village has also been in negotiations with the Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District on an agreement that would lead to the construction of a pipeline between the Key Largo treatment plant and Islamorada.

Reckwerdt was among four Village Council members who voted for the pipeline plan over the winter. But he says he is undecided as to whether he could support a binding contract with the Key Largo district before more grant money is obtained.

"It may or may not be too soon," Reckwerdt said.

Meanwhile, Mayor Don Achenberg, who was re-elected last week, and Councilman-elect Ken Philipson are vowing to press on with efforts to move a village-wide wastewater system forward.

"With the new council I don't expect to move forward as fast as with the incumbents who lost, but I don't plan to let up," Achenberg said last week.

Philipson even expressed hope that Reckwerdt will emerge as a swing vote on wastewater, a role that would differ sharply from the vice mayor's staunch opposition to a village-wide system throughout 2009.

"He's stonewalled everything," Philipson said. "The time has come now where he is going to have to make tough decisions. I think he will be more open minded than he has been in the past."

Indeed, despite signs that village wastewater policy is likely to change, there is no guarantee it will happen quickly, or even at all, as the rhetoric of the election campaign melds with the more complicated reality that is governance.

Purdo seemed already attuned to that difference last Thursday, two days after finally winning a seat on the dais after two failed attempts.

"I have to learn procedure," he said. "I don't want to get out there on my first meeting and make five or six demands and look like an idiot."

rsilk@keysnews.com