Monroe County Mayor Holly Merrill-Raschein joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to highlight what’s going on in the county.
With the recent indictment of charges regarding missing drugs from the Trauma Star rescue service with Monroe County Fire Rescue, have there been any updates?
Raschein said, “I think our number one priority is restoring faith in our community. I’ve said that over and over again, and that’s certainly my number one priority, and I think the entire commission feels that way. This is a wonderful place, and we need to be operating at our highest level, and we’ve taken measures to do that. We are going to be hiring an investigative firm to take a deep dive into the Monroe County Fire Rescue and Trauma Star to search out some ways to improve that. It’s one of the most vital services that we provide the community. Obviously, life saving services, one of the most robust air ambulance programs in the United States and we are proud of the men and women that serve us, and I think that we’re going to learn and have some opportunities to improve. I know it’s going to be maybe a long process, maybe a difficult process, but it’s something that needs to be done, and something that we are again, moving forward, and a very immediate action. So I’m sure we’ll have more to report on that soon.”
The announcement of Christine Hurley being new County Administrator was made recently, too.
Raschein said, “It’s very excited to bring Christine on. She’s a veteran of Monroe County. She has taken our Monroe County Land authority program to new heights. It was, again, not probably operating at its highest degree that it could and we are just kicking butt when it comes to buying land for conservation, buying land for workforce housing, which are both priorities of our community and of the commission. She knows the staff, she has a very deep knowledge of the issues that face our community. She’s been here for a long time. She was our Deputy Administrator for a number of years, and she is ready to hit the ground running. She’s got some ideas. We obviously have some ideas. Again, this is an amazing place to live, work and play, and we can do better. As a commission, we’re owning this. We are. We have taken ownership of the situation. It starts at the top, and having a leader such as Christine at the top I think is going to be so, so good. I’m really excited about that. We are going to be not just looking at Monroe County Fire Rescue or Trauma Star. We’re going to look at every department. As a commissioner, we get a lot of feedback from the community, a lot of feedback from business owners on little snags. Sometimes they’re bigger snags that they face in this journey of making our community even stronger and better and smarter. Christine, I feel, and I’m grateful to Commissioner Cates for bringing her name forward, because we don’t have to wait on a search, we don’t have to hit the pause button. We can just move forward very expediently, and that’s why I put that item on the agenda during our budget hearing. It’s our first very formal budget hearing on Wednesday. I could do that as the mayor if I felt it was in the best interest of our community, and I wholeheartedly felt like it was in the best interest of our community to have somebody at the helm that can get right in. Get to work and get going. Think about this whole ROGO, evacuation model discussion we’re having. She knows it. I’m just so proud that we had somebody, in our deck, to be able to step forward. So we’ll probably see her contract on the agenda this upcoming Wednesday.”
A utilities workshop relating to ROGO happened recently as well.
Raschein said, “It was so awesome. I learned so much. I think the community members that were in the audience and hopefully online, I think our staff learned a lot, and the impetus behind this was during these ROGO presentations and kind of getting out into the community, a big concern was infrastructure. If we’re going to add ROGOs, if we’re going to add development to our islands, what does that mean for our water resources? What does that mean for the aqueduct authority, what does that mean for the utilities down south for Keys Energy services? And then, up the Keys, Marathon and north, for the Florida Keys aqueduct authority? I really wasn’t sure what to anticipate and all in all, everything was so positive. Our utilities have really taken it upon themselves to plan for the future. What is their current capacity? What does it look like in the future? They’ve already been doing this work. They have plans for five years. They have plans for 10 years. Some of them have plans for 20 years in terms of, again, this was all under the umbrella of, if we add more ROGOs, and most of them said that if we were to take the 8,000 and of course, we’re not, we’re not even considering that number, it’s something much, much smaller, that they can absorb that, no problem. So that was really, really good news. We learned a lot, and I felt, living on an island chain, when those functions are vital to life, electricity, obviously, water. I felt really good. I felt emboldened. I felt empowered, and I felt proud that we have these entities that are overseeing these important functions of our community. Then we have these school Superintendent Teresa Axford, because, you’ve got to consider schools. If these families are moving in and they have kids, are there going to be enough teachers? Do our schools have enough room for extra students? And they do. The one big takeaway I took is something that we’re experiencing as a county, and what we are as a community, is the lack of workforce housing. The schools will recruit wonderful teachers, veterans, veteran teachers, also new teachers. Then they make it through the onboarding process, and then, boom, they can’t find a place to live, and so they leave. So we go through that whole process, it’s very arduous, and then we can’t keep them. That was just another highlighting the issue of workforce housing and our need. I know we’re not going to build ourselves out of it, but we are doing things up and down the Keys to try to alleviate some of those stressors. So that was very eye opening.”
There was also discussion with FDOT.
Raschein said, “That would be the one area that I think we need to put more focus on when it comes to infrastructure and alleviating congestion and traffic and things like that. Obviously, if there’s an accident or boat falls off a trailer, things like that, those are acute situations. But from a long term standpoint, apparently there are lists of improvements. We have our own list as a county, and the department has their own list of improvements. So I’d like to see us really delve into those improvements. If we can be doing those, we need to be doing them now, because we see traffic. I’d like to know a little bit more about that. I know we submit a list to the agency. They kind of come through it and they say, yeah, no. But could we have a little more gelling there? That would be the one area that I think we need to put more focus on. We’re good on water, we’re good on power, we’re good on schools. Obviously we need to work on housing. I’ve made no secret that that’s a priority of mine and but the traffic, we’ve got one highway, the lifeblood of our community and let’s look at how we can improve that, whether it’s more turn lanes, better traffic signals. I know we don’t have a lot of traffic lights, but we do have some, and they do slow down. Then there’s obvious areas, like the bottlenecks in in Islamorada. But all in all, that would be one workshop that you may want to go back and listen to because it was extremely helpful. It was informal, it was a conversation we got to ask questions. I look forward to additional workshops as we move this process forward.”
The director of transportation for the county has also been fantastic at working on traffic.
Raschein said, “His job is to remove vehicles from the road, focus on better mass transit, and we’re already seeing the fruits of his labor with the Freebee program from Stock Island to Key West, Key West back to Stock Island. The ridership is going through the roof, and I’m excited to maybe move that to other areas that need a little more help with mass transit, and then I’m really excited about the long term plan. You can’t just wave a magic wand and say, oh, we’re going to take this many cars off the road. I wish.”
What updates are there on the budget?
Raschein said, “The budget focuses on three major parts. First is public safety, numero uno, 72% of our ad valorem dollars go towards public safety, and that’s obviously the sheriff’s office, Monroe County Fire Rescue. Another big portion of our ad valorem goes to the constitutional officers. That’s the state attorney, the Property Appraiser, the tax collector, the supervisor of elections, and then we have the portion of the budget that we use as operating resources, and so that’s parks and beaches and libraries and all sort of feel good stuff that we’re able to accomplish as a county. Government is no stranger to inflation, just like the everyday consumer. So we’ve seen a rise in fuel, we’ve seen a rise in insurance and goods and services. So you’re going to see an uptick in that just a tiny bit. Then another part, because we always hear the budget has grown. The budget has grown. Well, we are paying off massive, massive capital projects. The biggest single project that we’ve ever had, I think, in our in our county’s history, is the new Key West airport. So that is a massive capital project. Again, no ad valorem taxes paid for that. That is largely funded by grants. Then, of course, the three new Trauma Star helicopters that are on order, those are paid for by the infrastructure sales tax. A lot of our capital projects are paid through that. So again, no ad valorem taxes go towards that. So all in all, I think we have an extremely favorable budget, and next year, you’re going to see it shrink, because we are paying off the debt service from the Cudjoe regional wastewater. I mean that projects like 25 years old, and so I’m proud of our budget. We’ve got $10 million in reserves. We’ve got enough money in the bank to run our county for five months if there’s an emergency that happens. We will have our final hearing on Wednesday after our regular BOCC meeting.”
Don’t forget about the rising costs of insurance.
Raschein said, “There are solutions out there, and they might be a little complicated, they might be a little difficult, but for all the stakeholders involved, but they are there, and I have hope. I’m an eternal optimist, which people might think is strange, given the career I have chosen. There’s a lot of moving parts going on in our community, and if folks have any questions or have any input, we’re all accessible. We often fail to mention that public service includes that constituent service. If you’re having an issue with the county or our department or permit or whatever it is, please reach out. I think a lot of folks forget that, and they become victims of the system, so to speak. But that’s why we’re here. We’re here to help. We do have a lot on our agenda, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that we’re here to serve the people. I just hope that everybody recognizes that we live in, well, I’m biased, but one of the best places on the planet and we can all work together and get there. Thank you to the voters of Monroe County. Thank you so much.”