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 been going on in the county.
What were the benefits the county has seen as a result of the legislative session in Tallahassee?
Scholl said, “It’s always an interesting time when we’re dealing with the state legislature. I can tell you Representative Jim Mooney, and our State Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez did a great job this year in trying to help keep the focus on what is important to the Keys. Of course, the environment is at the top of the list always down here and what we can do, and we did get the Florida Keys environmental fund that is $20 million a year that was funded again, and also the $5 million that we use for land purchases and things that we can do to try to protect the fragile environment down here. So that all worked out well. Those things are recurring funding, but we have to go ask for it every year. We’re one of the very few areas of state critical concern down here, which means Tallahassee and the state government in theory helps us to be able to have legislation and controls on things down here, but that’s not always the best thing. I think one of the issues that just goes back three or four years now, where the state preempted all not just down here, but all of the state in being able to regulate vacation rentals. They had some issues this year that really didn’t get passed, but it didn’t allow local communities to do any more enforcement than what was already in place. But that’s just the reality of private property ownership. If people want to use their property for short term rentals, they can do that, and the local government, if they didn’t already have some sort of restrictions on short term rentals aren’t allowed to control that. The state just says, no, we in Florida, encourage this as private property rights and if you don’t already have your own local ordinances in place, then you can’t create them and if you do have them, they can stay in effect, but you can’t modify them. If you would choose to modify them to become more restrictive, then the entire thing gets extinguished. So, I mean, just down here in Key West, we had a short term rental ordinance where private property owners are required to have a transient rental license if they want to rent for less than 30 days, and the county, something similar but in the Florida Keys, and our area of critical state concern, the vacation rentals have really expanded over the last several years more and more as private investors buy properties and turn them into vacation rentals. But our challenge is that removes them from what would traditionally have been long term rentals for our workforce down here. Workforce housing is getting harder and harder to provide to those folks that want to live down here and work down here, but aren’t in a position to be able to afford to buy property, but ordinarily would rent. That availability has been diminished significantly, certainly in the last 10 years, and even more so in the last five years. We’re not talking about people just coming down here and retiring and living here. We’re talking about teachers and first responders and medical personnel. It’s really a challenge to try to be able to hire people. It’s a challenge to be able to hire educators. We can’t pay those types of folks enough to be able to live here. So I mean, vacation rentals, that’s a great thing for people that own property to be able to make money off their property, but it certainly can complicate the availability of longer term housing for rentals.”
The Haitian crisis is a real concern. Scholl was appointed by Governor DeSantis to the Florida Defense Support Task Force. He has a master’s degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College.
Governor DeSantis has talked about deploying troops to Haiti.
Scholl said, “I would just like to say that the crisis down there is different, I think, than most issues with governments that are causing problems in Haiti. It’s a different environment altogether, where, I mean, the government essentially has collapsed. Now, it’s really unfortunate that the crisis there is one of no government. They’ve got the different factions of thugs, for lack of a better term, that are now in control of things and the normal citizens are really struggling to just survive due to lack of government. The Haitian people are trying to figure out the best way to survive, and for a lot of them, that means they want to try to get out of the country. That’s different, I think, then a lot of the issues with migrants trying to get to the US. I mean Haiti is truly a humanitarian crisis and we are trying to help stabilize, if it can be done with the government’s response to the issues in Haiti. From my experience, at the city, and with the county, the Haitian people are for the most part, just really good people and the folks that have come here and are here legally, they all work so hard. When they get here, they’re just so glad to be out of Haiti, they come here, they work really hard and then they end up sending most of their earnings back to Haiti to support their families. Their culture is one that they’re not the ones that are leaving their country to exploit the benefits of the United States or work, I mean not everybody that comes here from other countries are doing things that are criminal activities, but some are, but the Haitian people, that culture down there is different and it’s just amazing. In my days in the Navy it’s one of the few spots when I was flying for the Navy, when I flew over that island, just to be able to see it geographically. The western side of the Hispaniola, which is half Dominican Republic, and half Haiti. Haiti was like a desert and the Dominican Republic is like a jungle. Just that line of demarcation, the border, it’s amazing to see that, but again, that goes back to their culture. They cut down all their trees. That that was their culture, the way they cooked with the charcoal and everything, but it’s just a different world. I’ve never been on the ground in Haiti. But I know a lot of our folks here in Monroe County, that have been down there multiple times, and especially with hurricane relief, and their earthquake relief and everything else in their own vessels going down there to help out and just the challenges of trying to help the Haitian people. So I think that a mass migration, I don’t think is going to happen because they don’t necessarily have the resources to get off the island. I don’t think it would be as challenging as trying to manage the land border in Texas and New Mexico and Arizona and California, all that. So, yes, we need to have resources available, but my opinion more so to help the folks than to repel any folks coming by water anyway, from Haiti.”
The abnormal behavior of the fish in the Keys has been a topic of conversation.
Scholl said, “The Florida Keys is its own unique natural environment, with our reef and everything else. The issue with the sawfish and the other species that are being impacted with this unusual malady is something that needs to be figured out. I mean, what is the root cause? They’ve ruled out so much so far. But I think, Representative Jim Mooney, great job in being able to secure those initial additional funds. So we can really go out and rapidly try to figure out the root cause of what’s going on in this environment. I know, at least to date that there’s no real indication of what this causes for sawfish and the other species. But at least, they’ve been able to rule out a lot of what would traditionally have been a problem. I mean, salinity, and pH and some of the biological issues. Right now, they haven’t been able to determine any specific cause whether it’s chemical or biological, or environmental. So it’s just an unusual issue and, we need to figure it out. It’s important to the whole ecology down here, and of course, the aquaculture, and our unique world down here with our reef and everything else. So the marine sanctuary and all the other organizations down here that support marine life or are really trying to figure out why this is happening. I really applaud representative Mooney and the Florida Legislature for recognizing that as an issue that needed support.”
Scholl enjoys his time in the Florida Keys.
He said, “We’re all very fortunate that we get to live here in the Florida Keys. I’ve lived all over this country, but I’ve lived here longer than I’ve lived anywhere now. I’ve been here 21 years and there’s no place like it and it’s great to be here. The culture, the community, all we do is an amazing thing. With my background, the support for the military, at least way down here in the Lower Keys is superb. What the military is able to do down here, believe it or not, it can’t be done anywhere else. So it’s important. The Navy got here in 1823 and the Coast Guard, and everybody else has been here ever since. Just between the military and the residents, there is no other place like it. So we’re all blessed to be here in the Florida Keys.”