Michelle Lincoln, Monroe County Commissioner, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
Lincoln and Shannon Weiner, the emergency management director, are attending a governor’s hurricane conference.
She said, “We both were invited to the governor’s hurricane conference, which is being held in West Palm Beach, I guess, more centrally located for the rest of the state of Florida. So Shannon and I’ve been invited to speak on what I think is a really unique and exciting panel on the different role an elected official has during a state of emergency. During normal blue skies, like we like to call when there aren’t any emergencies, the five county commissioners are the policy makers. We are the go-to people and we are the ones that you call when you have a pothole on your street. We’re the one you call when you have an issue with code compliance. We’re the people you call when you need information on you, name it, it’s the county commissioner that you see at the grocery store, that you see at Rotary, that you see at church, that you say, hey, commish, I want to talk to you about something and we are the fountain of information and yet, when there’s a state of emergency, we switch form of government to an incident command and to the national plan where it is the sheriff, the fire chief, the city manager, the emergency management director and the mayor are the five people who are the initial decision makers, and that’s a little different for a county commissioner who’s used to being large and in charge. It’s just a matter of, how do you set your ego to the side, and then how do we still make sure we’re getting all of the information that we need, because we are still the face of our government, and we are still the person that people reach out to for reliable, truthful, valid information, not the rumor mill.”
The new EOC certainly helps with communication during emergency situations.
Lincoln said, “The training that the commissioners go through under blue skies, of us all understanding what our role is, and us then brainstorming on, how do we make sure we get that information we need immediately? We put together a liaison program, and it really works. It’s during the blue skies that you do the majority of your preparation, so that when you’re under the storm, everyone knows exactly where they belong, where their silo is, where to get their information and to respond and not react.”
A ribbon cutting for the airport is coming up.
Lincoln said, “I’m so excited about this one too. This has been so many years in the making, and I know there was some apprehension among people who loved the old feel of the Key West International Airport. They loved getting off of that plane and walking down the runway outside and getting smacked in the face with humidity, but they equally could have gotten smacked in the face with pouring down rain. They could have equally been smacked in the face with the propeller of another airplane if they weren’t paying attention to where they were walking. So this was not just an esthetics, this was safety. This was a culmination of a lot of thought and process, and I am just super proud of Richard Strickland and his staff, who have done a tremendous job of keeping an airport up and running while constructing on the top of it, literally on top of it. It’s so exciting to be at this point. It’s phase one. We still have phase two to go through, which will be improving the luggage facility. We don’t stop, and it’s just a continual process of, how do we make our county better? Really looking forward to this ribbon cutting on Tuesday.”
It was not paid for by tax dollars.
Lincoln said, “Absolutely true. Also phase one, even though the concourse is open, there’s still some tweaks that will be happening. It’s not completely finished yet, so like artwork and some of the nicer amenities that will be added there, they’re just slowly all going to be put into place.”
Almost 40 new units for affordable housing will be moving forward and were made possible by the one time grant from the Tourist Development Council given to the county of $35 million last year.
Lincoln said, “This one again makes me want to do cartwheels. Government is so slow we’re like syrup pouring out of a jar onto a piece of toast. The thought of this was when I believe Craig Cates was the mayor, and he was, at that point, sitting on the Tourist Development Council, and was seeing this chunk of funds that came in when COVID happened, and we did not feel we were going to be bringing in a lot of resources and revenues. So there was this extra chunk of change, 35 million, and it was just sitting there, and it wasn’t attached to advertisement, and it wasn’t attached to bricks and mortar, and he brought it to the attention of the commissioners, and then, like, we all unified around this, and we’re like, yeah, but it’s going to take an act of our legislators to change or tweak the Florida State statute, and then we involved our legislators, and we then involved the Florida Association of Counties, because we’re like, we need all 67 counties to rally around us for this and we truly got it passed in one year. I’m just so thrilled and excited. We have a time frame of how many years we’re allowed to hold on to this money before we spend it, and we don’t want to hold on to it. I mean, the whole goal here is to find quality housing for our community members who work in tourism and so super excited that we’ve now identified a project in Key West, one in the Lower Keys, one in Marathon area, and I believe we’re getting really close to one in the Upper Keys. So I’m just, again, super excited by the teamwork, what all it takes, and the ability for us to see something through the finish line.”
What’s happening with the ROGO units?
Lincoln said, “The main goal, and let’s not lose sight of this, the main goal in getting more ROGO units was to prevent legal lawsuits, taking cases from an individual who says, I cannot build on my lot. So that is the main goal. The second goal, which was very close, was the ability to create more workforce housing. So main goal is going to be achieved, and that second goal is now going to require everyone to be more creative, which is why the commissioners wanted 70% of these new units to be identified as units for people who were going to live and work in the Florida Keys to kind of circumvent the vacation rental, having a vacant lot and building a vacation rental home on it. We want people to build homes and live here, because we have lost our middle. We have lost our middle income. We have lost the people who live here, work here, volunteer for the soccer team, are involved in the community, and we want to protect them, and that is our workforce. So maybe we need to flip the switch on thinking of massive apartment buildings and look at individual homes in our already established neighborhoods. I remember years ago learning that when you’re at a table negotiating, everyone compromises, everyone gets one little thing they want, and maybe they have to put something in that they don’t want, but in the end, everyone leaves the table with feeling all right, we did the best we could. I feel that’s how I see the whole ROGO scenario. We had all the community meetings. We went from having a massive number of 8,000 to some people saying take zero, and everyone in the middle. I believe that now this is a really good compromise of spreading these over 10 years with the guard rails in place and with the number that will protect us from lawsuits.”
The county commissioners will meet on the 21st.
Lincoln said, “We will be having a discussion on our resiliency projects and the thought of raising roads in communities, and who’s going to pay for that and a capital tax for those neighborhoods. I believe the number on our agenda says up to 25,000 and we will be having a very robust discussion on that. I really encourage everyone to weigh in on it, attend in person or Zoom it, because this might affect everyone whether you’re living in a neighborhood that receives the benefit of having your road raised, or if you don’t live in a neighborhood, but you might end up paying a tax for it. So we’re going to have another discussion on this theme that we’re trying to get it right. We heard from the Upper Keys, they weren’t happy with the solution. So we’re going to meet with them more. For my constituents in the Big Pine area, we will be having a meeting in the end of July, a neighborhood meeting with you all in the evening to discuss what the thoughts are for Sands, because the five commissioners don’t want to force something that nobody wants. But we do need to come up with some solutions, on flooding roads.”
Guidance Care Center Week in Monroe County will be May 12 to the 18.
Lincoln said, “Again being an island chain 120 miles long, it’s so hard to make sure everyone gets the mental health care they need, spread out so far, and the Guidance Care Clinic does such an amazing job.”