Key West Mayor Teri Johnston joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
At a recent forum, City Commissioner Sam Kaufman announced his intent to run for mayor.
Johnston said, “I certainly give Sam and his wife Julia a lot of credit, because he put a lot of thought into this, which I certainly appreciate. Being mayor of the city of Key West, really is a full time job. You are here representing a lot of different interests, you’re here representing the city at a number of events. It’s a wonderful, rewarding job. But it is time consuming. I think Sam probably put a lot of thought into this. He is an incredible contributor on the City Commission. If you’ve ever watched a meeting, you know that he researches every single topic. He’s knowledgeable. He represents his constituents in a wonderful manner. I appreciate his thought process and his final decision, you certainly have to respect those. There’s a lot of people that you talk to that are thinking about getting into Key West city politics, but say it’s not the right time. It may not be for them and their family situation, because it does, it impacts your entire family, as we all know, that have been in politics. So kudos to him. I think the political season is very young right now, I think probably we’ll see a number of candidates decide to throw their hat into the ring, which I hope they do. My hope for this community is that we start getting some young family members who have a lot of skin in the game, and who can impact this community greatly. So I’m hoping that we are just overrun with candidates this time, and that we have a really lively election from people who care about the future of Key West.”
Would Kaufman have to give up his law practice?
Johnston said, “It’s certainly difficult. I was co-owner of Affiliated Design and Construction Managers and basically, you can’t do a thing while you’re here. So those responsibilities have to transfer to someone else while you’re serving as mayor. Certainly we have had people who have handled this position in the past as a part time position. But I think that we are in such a critical state right now. I know that we like to think of ourselves as a small little island here, but we are in a major business center. We are one of the most popular tourist destinations. When you come in, you open up a business in the city of Key West, you are talking about millions and millions and millions of dollars that you have on the line. So we really need somebody with a strong business background, somebody that certainly understands what we have at stake in the city of Key West, somebody strong enough to continue to improve our infrastructure because we are in a very vulnerable spot. We’re one of the lowest areas in and the state of Florida and Duvall Street is certainly a critical spot for us. It’s one of our most iconic streets and yet, if we do not start doing something underground to make that street resilient, we are going to pay for that in the future. So we got a lot of big ticket items that we’ve got to move forward and it’s going to take somebody really, really strong and knowledgeable to do that.”
Did any of this cause Johnston to reconsider her decision not to run?
She said, “I made that decision for so many reasons and it was one of the most challenging decisions I think I’ve made in my adult life, but for me, and my stage in life, and what we’ve been able to do to move Key West forward, I’m in a very comfortable state. So I would say, no, it, it didn’t move that needle at all. But I will certainly be here and support whoever steps in this role. I think it’s important. I will share everything that I’ve got to share, to make that the next mayor of Key West successful.”
The annual evaluation for the city manager, Al Childress, is coming up.
Johnston said, “Al Childress has had a tremendous impact on the city of Key West. He came in here with years and years of city manager experience and that is so evident to people who have been in my position for 14 years, is that things do not fall through the cracks. His communication is outstanding. I mean, we get daily communication, multiple communications, everything that goes on in the city of Key West, this City Commission knows about it, and we know about it immediately. He’s very open and transparent and has been one of the best things that we have done in the city of Key West in a very long time.”
What are some of the accomplishments Key West has seen?
Johnston said, “We have three major projects and they’ve been a point of conversation for a long time. But there are three major infrastructure projects. The first one, as I mentioned, is Duvall Street, we have got to get underground and make some major resiliency improvements underground for Duvall Street. While we’re doing it underground, we also need to beautify that street, above ground. So we’ve got an opportunity. We’ve been moving forward in that project for almost three years now, it’s going to be a multi-year project for the city of Key West. But we have got to move forward on that. We never want to wait until it’s a disaster and we’ve got to close that entire street down. So it’s important that we move forward, we do it organized, that we find we find the way to fund it, and we get it done. Mallory Square is another incredible opportunity and a big project for us, taking that beautiful piece of waterfront property and utilizing it, maximizing its utilization for the residents of Key West and also our visitors. Our infrastructure is another huge thing. As you can see, if you’ve tried to get down United Street or South Street, we’ve got major infrastructure projects that we have got to keep moving forward, harden Key West for future sea level rise events and keep moving it forward. So those are the types of things that we’re doing and one of the critical things is that this year, probably on our November ballot, we will also go out to the residents of Key West to request bonding, request that they approve bonding, because our infrastructure issues are massive. We’ve got a lot of them. They’re big ticket items, and we would like to move forward to make sure that this community is resilient and beautiful for generations to come. So you will be seeing that bond issue coming forward and that’s something that we have not done since we put it in the sewer system in the 70s or 80s, but it’s the first major bond issue that we have had in a number of years here.”