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.
Last Wednesday there was a special commission meeting to address 27 points of the grand jury recommendations from indictments of former staff members.
Henriquez said, “A lot of people were not happy with me, in reference to public comment, and please, let me explain that really quick, where in the ordinance, if there is discussion and or presentations, there is no public comment, it’s under the discretion of the mayor whether there would be public comments or not, because we’re not voting on anything. It’s just a discussion. So I, as the mayor, wanted to give them public comment and to be able to have a voice and to be heard. But I wanted them to hear us, because as a body, that was the first time that we were able to be together, to be able to go over the 27 recommendations. So people were not happy with me, because I figured, what? Let them hear our comments, what we’ve done, what we’re going to do, and how we’re going to move forward and it may answer some of their questions or comments that they may have had, but I will tell you some were happy, and there was quite a few people that were not and they really let us know on Facebook.”
Is the mayor satisfied in terms of taking an action plan forward in response to the grand jury investigation?
Henriquez said, “Yes, I am. I have said numerous times, and I will continue to say, I am taking that grand jury report very seriously. As you can see throughout the process, the city is moving forward. We are addressing the ones that we can address already, then our staff was able to get direction on what the will of the commission was on Wednesday night, on how to move forward on certain items and then there’s some things that are financial that will have to be part of our budget, which we’re going to be working on our budget in July. So I am happy with the way we’re moving forward and putting things in place like the Whistleblower Protection Policy, the ethics training, and making sure that every employee does the ethics training and the eight hours. They recommended 16 and I think right now, we probably do need 16 hours of training in ethics, but the minimum is eight hours. There was also a recommendation to make sure that the commissioners fulfilled their duties to the citizens by reading and signing off on any reports and the minutes and the information that we receive during our agenda review. So there is a lot going on, and we’ve just got to continue to move forward. We did discuss all the permitting regulations and inspections that are going on, and not only just the seven that were recommended first, but all 35 and then everyone after that. So there’s, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done here, and every single day, we are putting one in front of the other and moving forward.”
There is also a special city commission meeting tonight to discuss ICE 287(g) program.
Henriquez said, “Commissioner Haskell had sponsored this resolution, and that is requesting the city manager to direct the chief of police to terminate the 287(g) MOA, which is a memorandum of agreement with the United States immigration and customs enforcement. So they’re also requesting the chief of police refrain from entering into any new agreements under Florida Statute 908 and then also affirming that the city of Key West is not a sanctuary city. So I do believe we’re going to have another full house. This is a resolution, this is something that we would be making a decision on. So there will be public comment before, in the beginning, and then any of the discussion items, then there’ll be comments after we have those discussions. So just so they know they will be able to have a voice prior to this resolution. I do believe it’s going to have a lot of conversation between the commissioners and myself, so we’ll see what happens tonight at five o’clock.”
Could the city become a sanctuary city?
Henriquez said, “That could be a possibility. From my understanding, if they remove the 287(g) it’s a possibility that we could become a sanctuary city and that we could lose our funding from our federal and state level. Our Chief of Police is going to give a presentation and is going to explain a lot of this, so it’ll be very interesting. I’m glad that he is going to give a presentation, so we could hear from him as well.”
Michael Stapleford of KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM pointed out, “I can personally attest to the character of our chief of police, Sean Brandenburg. So I certainly want to again vouch for his character and his actions to date. He’s a fine individual. So I hope that people do hear him out and try to fully understand where we are and where we’re going.”
Henriquez agreed, “I have the utmost respect for our chief of police. On Wednesday, we do have our building department quarterly stakeholders meeting, and that starts at 7:30 in the morning, usually lasts about an hour, hour and a half depending on the conversation. Then also on Wednesday, there is a Key Lime Festival kick off special event. So this is a street closure. Duval Street, from United to South streets will be closed from noon until 10pm, so I just wanted everyone to know that if they’re in that area. Then the Rotary Club of Key West, with their celebration in reference to Fourth of July, that starts at four. I believe the fireworks normally start around nine, right when it gets dark. So everything will be closed around in that area between four and 10pm and then on Friday, the city of Key West will be closed in observance of Fourth of July. And there’s no plogging on Friday. Then Saturday is the first Saturday of the month. So we have the hazardous waste drop off event, which is for Key West residents only, and that’s from 8am to noon, and that’s at the Sonny McCoy Indigenous Park. So if you have any of the hazardous waste, you just drive right in, and they actually take it out of your car or your truck, and that’s between 8am and noon. So there’s a few things going on this week, not too many meetings, other than our big one that we have tonight. But there’s a lot of festivities and activities going on throughout our city, from starting today to Saturday. Happy Fourth of July to everyone. Have a great week and be safe out there.”