Key West Mayor Dee Dee Henriquez joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
Interviews occurred last week for the city manager position.
Henriquez said, “That was a very exciting day. The past Tuesday, we had interviews with the five applicants. It went very, very well. It was a very long day. But like I said, after the interview process, there was a meet and greet at the DoubleTree, and that was very well attended. So I am looking forward to be able to vote on a new city manager at our next commission meeting on December 12. If there are any commissioners that would like to have a second interview, it still gives them time to be able to do so, and it’s also going to give time for our Commissioner Elect, Castillo, to be able to set up interviews with each of the candidates as well. So if we don’t have enough time, because we’re still trying to set up those interviews for our Commissioner elect, and also an opportunity for our directors to meet with the five candidates, we could always have a special meeting. So my goal would be as of January, to be able to have a new city manager in place, as well as our new commission. So January 1, we could start moving our city forward.”
Aaron Castillo will be sworn in today as a new city commissioner.
Henriquez said, “We’re all so excited about that. So today, at noon, our city clerk swears in our new District Six Commissioner, which is Aaron Castillo, and we will also be swearing in the new utility board member for seat number c, and her name is Rachel Orapeza and she’ll be getting sworn in today as well.”
So could the new city manager be chosen as of December 12?
Henriquez said, “That’s our next commission meeting, December 12. So I’m hoping that our HR director will be able to do all the background checks on all five candidates, and being able to set meetings up again, with our commissioner elect, Aaron Castillo, and having the opportunity for our directors to meet with them as well. So if we can get all of that accomplished, I’m hoping to be able to make a decision on December 12, but if not, we can also call for a special meeting.”
The city commission meetings have been moved.
Henriquez said, “We did vote. The commission decided to change our commission meetings from the second Thursday of the month to the first Tuesday of the month, but that will start in January. So starting January, it’ll be the first Tuesday of the month instead of the second Thursday of the month. So that was voted on at our last commission meeting. As of right now, we’re still going to only have one meeting per month.”
There is a HARC, Historical Architecture Review Commission, tonight.
Henriquez said it will be “starting at 5pm and that’s going to be in the commission chambers as well. They’ll go ahead and look at the different issues that they may have on the different properties and things that they’ll need to vote on. I’m not sure if they have a full agenda or if it’s going to be a light agenda, but they’re always very productive meetings.”
Veterans Day last Monday saw a number of services.
Henriquez said, “I was able to participate at the service at Bayview Park that was at 11 o’clock. And then we have the parade, which was very, very well attended on Duvall Street, and that started at four. I was just very honored and proud to be a part of that process.”
The holiday parade is coming up in just a couple of weeks.
Henriquez said, “Applications are coming in every single day. I believe we’ll probably have 70 to maybe 80 participants in the parade. That’s always a wonderful family oriented holiday celebration. So the city is looking forward to that as well.”
Then there will be the New Year’s celebration.
Henriquez said, “We just finished with the boat races. A lot of people as well. Our community service director, he’s very, very busy trying to keep those streets clean and keeping our city with very little trash on the on the streets. So between now and New Year’s, there’s a lot of work to be done.”