The Village Manager of Islamorada Ron Saunders joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5 FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the village.
Saunders has a great knowledge of the state legislature.
He said, “I was familiar with the area, being in the legislature for 14 years. I also had an office up here in Plantation Key when I was in legislature, so I already knew a lot of the people up here, which I think was helpful as far as getting off to a good start. One thing we just got last week was the official notification from state Attorney Dennis Ward that he had formally closed an investigation into the resignation of our former village manager up here, similar to Key West, Key West terminated their city manager, Mr. Childress, but that led to an investigation that actually led to some charges. They did a similar investigation here in Islamorada because we also had our manager resigned, but they found that nothing improper happened in Islamorada. I worked with Dennis on that. I’ve known Mr. Ward for a long time. I appreciated him doing a very thorough investigation, which he did. We fully cooperated, and we’ve determined that there was no violation. There’d been no Sunshine Law violation. Everything was done properly. I think it was good that we were officially cleared, because it happened before, obviously I was on board. But it does impact people when there’s something going on that people question. So I think the fact that Dennis and staff did a very thorough investigation, we cooperated with them, gave all materials, interviewed with them, and he came out and said it’s formally closed, and nothing improper happened. That’s always good news to hear from the state attorney.”
What about the budget?
Saunders said, “All the government bodies in the Keys, are going through the budget process. We’re all experiencing tough times. Revenues are starting to head downward. We also have the uncertainty what’s going to happen with FEMA as far as if a storm hits in our reimbursement situation, collection of sales taxes appears to be going down somewhat. Tourism is suffering a little bit. So all the revenue sources that we’re looking at are least in question. In the meantime, our expenses continue to go up. We have a collective bargaining agreement with our firefighters that required mandatory pay raises. We have a contract with the sheriff where he also has some pay raises incorporated because of his negotiations. So those increases are passed along to us. So we had increased costs without having increased revenues. So we looked at initially a three mill budget, which is higher than our current 2.65 millage rate. As most of your people know, when you take the millage rate times the assessed value, that equals the property tax. So we started at 3.0 which I said I wanted to lower. So we had three workshops last week, and at the third one, I presented a 2.65 millage rate, which is our current millage rate that ends on the fiscal year, September 30. We got made some cost reductions, we found some cuts, we transferred some funds. So basically the village of Islamorada is holding the line where our millage rate at 2.65 is exactly the same as our current rate. We’re not raising the millage rate. We are having an increase in some taxes because some values have gone up, because the property appraiser reassessed the values, but our expenses went up too. So we held the line. We don’t want to raise property taxes. I hate property taxes, but it’s the cost of doing government. But still, we want to keep it down as much as possible. We did some reorganization, we made some cuts and some purchases, so we’re able to keep it at 2.65. We have another budget hearing on September 4, and the second and final budget hearing will be on the 16th. So we’re still looking for any input. We’re always open to how we can make it better. From this point, I think we have a pretty good budget, considering the tough, difficult times we’re in, and hopefully the council will approve it in September.”
Islamorada is looking for feedback regarding the baseball field at Founders Park.
Saunders said, “The baseball field here that Coral Shores baseball team plays on is owned by the village of Islamorada. It’s in our Founders Park. But for the last 20 some years, we have had agreements with the school board to allow Coral Shores to play on our field. They approached us with a proposal to redo the field, and in the proposal, they actually put in artificial turf, and that’s been somewhat controversial. Some people want artificial turf. Some people want keep it grass. I’m currently in discussions with the school district, about maintenance agreements and use agreements, etc. So no decisions have been made. Any decisions will be made by the school board and by the village council, because they want to put the money in. But we want to we own the field, and so it has to be mutually agreed upon us. We’re making some progress. We want to make sure that the Coral Shores baseball team is taken care of, that the field is adequate, and so we’re still looking at that, but there’s more to be done, but we have made some progress, and we continue to work very close to the school district and the Monroe County School Board. They’re our partners and we want to keep that great partnership going.”
Could the council be looking at helping with transportation?
Saunders said, “Freebee has been in effect for a couple of years up here. It’s partly a grant from the state, and also partly, obviously, from our village budget. We had a robust discussion about a month ago, when the contract was up for renewal, a lot of people came to our village council meeting and expressed support for Freebee. The council did make an affirmative vote to keep it. Of course, about a month later, Monroe County came in and abolished the entire transit department. Mr. Clark was doing a good job there. But unfortunately, I guess, with budget cuts, they chose to do that, and did away with Freebee, and it connected to us, because we were supposed to have the county take it over from us next year. We intend to try to keep it at least for the next year, because it is a valuable service to help people get to work, etc. I’m also working on a bigger transit plan with maybe a trolley loop or something to help improve the transportation. We want to keep as many cars off the highway as possible to relieve that congestion everybody experiences up and down US 1. So for now, yes, Freebee is still in our budget. We want to keep it there, and we want to keep looking for other alternatives to help reduce traffic on US 1. With the high cost of living here, unfortunately, a lot of our employees, particularly in the hospitality industry, actually commute from Miami Dade County. They live in Miami Dade and work in the Keys. My concern is that Miami Dade County is going through the same budget crunch in Monroe County is, and potentially they could cut that bus service from Miami Dade down to the Keys, in which case our hotels and restaurants might be hurting because their employees will have no way to get down here. So that’s a serious concern we have no control over. That’s why we’re looking at other alternatives, because we need that bus service from Miami Dade to get people down here. We’re also looking at providing more housing in the Keys for workforce, but that’s a long range goal. In the short term, we’re keeping our sharp eye on Miami Dade County and see what they do with that bus service. Obviously we’re very concerned that something bad could happen if they make those budget cuts in Miami Dade.”
When are the budget workshops?
Saunders said, “The next budget workshop is September 4, and then the final one’s on the 16th, then we also have a village council meeting on September 9, and then a meeting on the 11th. So it’s going to be a busy September.”