Monroe County Commissioner and Mayor Pro Tem Jim Scholl joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
Wednesday saw a long meeting with the BOCC.
Scholl said, “Lots of important items on there. I think the most important one that we had the longest discussions on was the potential for additional building permits, the ROGO, Rate of Growth Ordinance permits, because all of the the government entities in Monroe County are going to be running out in in less than two years of available building permits. This started, I think, a year ago or so, when the state had made an offer of potentially adding building permits, and since then, our planning department and our legal department have been working on establishing a number that would be appropriate if we were going to ask for any additional building permits. So that study has been ongoing, our strategic planner Kimberly Matthews, has been meeting with many civic groups and organizations and doing in person surveys, and then we’ve also had four online surveys thus far, and a couple more will be added to that here before too long, but trying to get as much community input as we can to decide if we are going to ask for more permits, and if we do, how many we would get, and a lot of that is based on the requirement for the hurricane evacuation to be able to be accomplished in 24 hours and under the current formulas, we could take an additional 220 units and still meet the maximum of 24 hour evacuation timeline, and anything beyond that would require some statutory changes by our state legislature in order to to exceed the 24 hour timeline. So, there’s lots to still be done, but the planning department is going to work on putting together an approval for an additional 220 units and and then, in parallel with that, with I think, a little more fine tooth comb evaluation of buildable properties, potentially ask for some beyond that 220 but those decisions haven’t been made. All the staff is just working on on what would be required for those processes. So we still have a long way to go in order to make a formal request or decide not to. But that will happen before the upcoming 2025 legislative session.”
Audits of the county departments are also taking place.
Scholl said, “We had been doing that, it just, I don’t think we were as open with the results of audits until recently. Of course, we absolutely have nothing to hide. I’ve said it, but not only audit ready, but inspection ready, investigation ready, every day. I always preach that at the city and even back in my leadership days in the Navy, you don’t get ready. You always are ready, and the audits are great ways to evaluate the processes and make sure that everybody is following the rules. Because with turnover of personnel and things, sometimes, some things aren’t aren’t picked up on right away. So, the audits are just great ways to keep the checks and balances in place. So if we need to make process improvements and adjustments, we can do that, but that’s part of our obligation always, to completely evaluate ourselves and make whatever changes or adjustments we need to make.”
The Keys are very ready for weather emergencies.
He said, “Since I’ve been here, I was here on the Navy base for ‘04 and ‘05 hurricane seasons, which were very active. And then, of course, I was at the city of Key West for Hurricane Irma, which was the last major impact that we had. Ian we had some but, but Irma certainly was, was a big event for the Florida Keys and Key West and and I think the biggest takeaway from all that is how well we coordinate collectively in Monroe County, all of the government entities, the local governments, the state government, the federal government, we work very well together. All the organizations, our utilities, of course, very important, the Keys Energy, the Electric Co Op on the other side of the Seven Mile Bridge and, of course, the aqueduct. Irma was an issue that was something that was never experienced before, which was the damage to the water system and the lack of water for an extended period of time was something that hadn’t happened before, but because of the coordination with all the entities it didn’t have as as bad an impact as it may have had if we didn’t have that cooperation and just the communication, the relationships amongst all of us, because no one entity has everything, but when we combine everybody together and work together, we can solve all the issues that may come up”
Scholl continues to serve the area.
He said, “I think I’m never done. As a Rotarian, our fundamental core value is service above self, and I believe in that and I’ve talked about the Navy core values of honor, courage and commitment. It’s important at whatever level you can, support your nation or your community to be active and be a participant. I think for me, I’ve been very fortunate in all of the leadership positions, to have a good team of people that collectively work together for whatever the mission is, and I was very fortunate at the city of Key West to have great directors and supervisors working for the city and providing them the ability to do their jobs. I have four rules. If you work for me, you have to know your job, you have to do your job, you have to not waste taxpayers money, and you have to follow the rules, and then you just if the people working for you, especially the senior people that are the department heads or the directors they need to have the confidence to be able to make decisions and do things in in the job that they’re in and and not be micromanaged on a daily basis. I’ve been successful with that, I think, as a leader, and it’s it’s certainly served our community well. Our democracy in this nation demands a choice, and we need good people to run for whatever position it is at whatever level. Good people need to sign up and run and our electors, the voters, need to make decisions on their own of who they think is the best candidate for whatever position it is. So I just want the voters to be informed and please, everybody, go vote. That’s how the process works and I support that 100%.”