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.
What’s going on with the rainbow crosswalks?
Henriquez said, “So what’s happened since I spoke to you last Monday, in reference to the letter that we had received and our interim city attorney has been working diligently on this and spoke with the District Six director, and he stated that if we elect a hearing with the crosswalks that they would not be removed on September 3. So what we are doing is we did elect to go to the hearing. It’s in Orlando, September 3, at 10am, unfortunately, we have a commission meeting that day, so either herself and or she will have somebody there in her place, representing us and we’ll see what happens at the hearing. I cannot speak to if they will be removed after the hearing, depending on the decision made, or if we’ll be ordered to remove them by a certain time, but we’ll definitely have more information after the hearing on September 3, at 10am in Orlando. I believe that there’s maybe one or two commissioners that would like to file a lawsuit, but the interim city attorney’s feelings are that filing any type of lawsuit before the administrative hearing, because we have not exhausted our administrative remedies, and therefore our case could most likely be dismissed. So we’re going to wait and see what happens at the hearing, and then we’ll see what our next course of action is going to be.”
Do we have a defense to preserve the crosswalks?
Henriquez said, “We were told that at least two of the four crosswalks were compliant, but per the District Six director, he’s saying none of the crosswalks are in compliance. So we’ll see what happens at the hearing. I wish it was tomorrow instead of next Wednesday, but we’re going to continue to gather our information and see what happens this week with all the other cities and we’ll be prepared for our hearing on September 3.”
September 3 will also be a commission meeting.
Henriquez said, “Starting at 9am, so this week they will start forming our agenda. We’ll start having agenda meetings and being ready for our commission meeting, and it should be a busy one. So we’ll be preparing for that this week. So today, at 3pm in the chambers, the advisory screening committee for the city attorney will be giving us recommendations at our September 3 commission meeting to see who would serve as the acting city attorney for Key West, and it should be on a month to month basis for a period of 12 months to 18 months. So depending on what happens today, at three then they’ll give us an attorney or a firm, and then it will be presented to us at the commission meeting, on September 3.”
The Labor Day weekend will likely be busy.
Henriquez said, “On Friday, of course, plogging, and we’ll be at the Conch Republic Seafood like it was last year, starting at 8am and it’s hosted by just a few friends, Key West 2025, Reef Relief and the Conch Republic Seafood Company. Last year, we had over 100 ploggers participate in this event, so we’re looking forward to having just as many and or more this Friday. So that will definitely kick off the Jimmy Buffett weekend. And there are a lot of activities. You can go on to our website and look at all the activities that are going on, starting Friday all the way through Monday. What we do is volunteers there’s a bunch of volunteers in our city, and we go out and we pick up trash. They go around, and each Friday there’s somebody who sponsors that, plogging or picking up trash, and we have volunteers throughout our city, and we go and pick up cigarette butts and trash, and you’d be surprised how much trash we pick up in one hour. We’re busy this week and with all the different meetings and preparing for our City Commission meeting the following week. Just a reminder, City Hall will be closed on Monday in observance of Labor Day, and we’ll open up again on Tuesday, and then our commission meeting would be that Wednesday. As things develop this week, we’ll make sure that we reach out to everyone if there’s any changes in the crosswalks, and we’re just diligent working on that and being prepared for our meeting and our hearing on September 3.”
Budget meetings will be on September 11 and September 25.
Also, remember not to feed the Key West chickens, no matter how convincing they might be.
Henriquez said, “That is correct. I’ve been at Dunkin Donuts and I’m always afraid they’re going to fly in my window.”