Craig Cates, Commissioner of District 1 for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been happening in the county.
While our area has seen some flooding from Hurricane Milton, farther north, folks were not so lucky.
Cates said, “Our hearts go out to everyone that was in the path of Milton as it crossed the state, and there’s a lot of damage up there, and I’m sure we’ll be sending help from whatever we can do down here to help those up there, because they always reach out and help us after storms. But it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, and we’re all thankful for that and obviously in the Keys, it was much better than what it could have been. Last night, the last time I was out checking at the marina was about 11:30 the water had started coming up, high tide wasn’t until two o’clock down the Lower Keys, and it was getting really high, about a foot over king tide, and then as the storm went on across the state, it just started to recede just as fast down here. I heard in the Upper Keys they still got some flooding, but down in the Lower Keys, the worst is over for us.”
The Keys were very prepared for the storm.
Cates said, “It was great to see, because of the storms and because of emergency management, the county’s leadership and the city’s leadership in past storms, that people were prepared. It was great to see people taking the cars to high ground, the buildings boarded up, sandbags in the low areas to protect from any water intrusion. So I think that at the end of the day, damage will be minimal, and we can clean up and go right back to work. County staff is out cleaning up today and assessing the damage, if any, and we’ll move forward and it’s also because of preparation will help make it a lot less of an impact.”
Christine Hurley, hired by the Board of County Commissioners as administrator, brought a lot of experience.
Cates said, “We are fortunate for her to decide to come to work for the county as the administrator and with her experience, everyone knew what she was capable of and the way she managed. So it’s something definitely we need right now with the issues we’ve been having with some of the audits, and it’s embarrassing to us, but it’s also a time to make sure we move forward, and don’t have these issues in the future. It’s a great time to change our policies, make them stricter, more oversight and when you haven’t had any issues for years, you kind of get lax and that’s just normal, the way human nature is. But we’re definitely going to take care of that, and I know the county commission is on board 100% to correct this. Our mayor Holly Raschein is leading the charge here to clean this up and make sure that we bring the confidence back to the county residents that they deserve and have the best directors we can and the best employees moving forward.”
Talk of ROGOs is certainly a priority.
Cates said, “We’re getting a lot of input and we’re thankful for the community. We have a meeting next week. We had to postpone it with some of the residents and organizations to discuss the ROGOs and get their input on a one to one basis, to discuss the their concerns, which I can bring forward at a commission meeting. It’s going to be a tough decision, but it’s definitely our future in the county, what direction we’re going in. I think everybody understands we’re going to need some amount of ROGOs to handle the takings cases. But what that number is, I myself want a smaller number over a long period of time, and as we move forward with those units being built, say, over 20 years, we will be able to make the improvements in the infrastructure, between the water lines and the power lines, and although we have great you know public works, electric company, water company that will be prepared and will keep making improvements, but the reality is, it costs money, and who’s going to pay for that, and how that should be a charge to the residents or the new homes? So it’s a lot of discussion, but I look forward to it, and I look forward to trying to make the best decision for the residents of Monroe County.”
What about the funding for workforce housing?
Cates said, “I’m the chair of the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee for Monroe County, and we’ve got some great members on that committee, and we’re discussing a lot of issues, how to use that money. The county will make the final decision on how that money is spent. We’re getting advice from the TDC as to what they need, what kind of units would best cover the issues and the shortages of employees that they have, one bedroom studios, two bedroom, we need their input by the employees they have. As far as affordable housing, the construction, the purchasing, that’s going to be probably decided by land authority, Affordable Housing Committee, the commissioners, obviously the final say in it. But a lot of the attorneys, the land use, all those professionals that deal with this every day, will come up with the details, but right now, we’re taking recommendations, got some great ideas, will be presented to the county, probably at the next meeting. I don’t believe this meeting coming up, and then we’ll start moving that direction. There’s some opportunities out there with the land authority in Key West, some projects they’re building. They already have ROGOs to build those units, and we look forward to splitting the money up of basically how it was earned. About 50% of the money is generated in Key West tourist bed tax, about 8%, 10% goes up to the Seven Mile Bridge. So the people that live in both of those areas work in both of those areas, we could do projects in either one of those and benefit both of those. I think we’ll come up with a great plan, but also be very efficient with the money we spend.”
It’s important to remember our neighbors to the north.
Cates said, “I just want to say keep everyone up in central Florida in our thoughts and prayers and our hearts go out to the families that lost their loved ones in the tornadoes, which was horrible. So we’re very blessed here, and look out for our neighbors to the north.”