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.
New Year’s Eve will be a big night in Key West.
Henriquez said, “We are gearing up for our big week. We can already see that there’s lots of people in our town to celebrate the new year. So yes, our fire department, our police department, they’re gearing up, having lots of plans and people in place and be ready to help and protect and serve and make sure that we’re safe. But I will tell you, there’ll be a couple drops throughout our town. You can go to Sloppy Joes to see the conch shell drop, or you can go to Bourbon Street Pub and watch Randy Roberts and his spangled, super sized red high heel shoe or you can even go to the Key West historic seaport, and watch the pirate winch be lowered from the mast of the tall ship America 2.0 and will be completing her descent as the clock strikes and cannons boom to welcome our 2025.”
Michael Stapleford of KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM said, “We certainly want to thank all of our police department under Chief Sean Brandenburg, and their partnership with Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, the firefighters, first responders and even maintenance workers, who all work so very hard and extra hours to make sure that New Year’s Eve is a fun and safe event for all. So thanks to all of them for that.”
A new city manager has been appointed.
Henriquez said, “Our city attorney and Brian Barroso, they were able to negotiate a contract. So we do have a copy of it, and it will be presented to us at our January 7 meeting for approval. So I’m very excited about that, and as soon as we approve that, then that way he can get in that position and start moving our city forward. Another one of our items that is going to probably be quite a bit of discussion is the water quality monitoring partner. Last month, we had approved to postpone item number I19, for the ILA (Inter Local Agreement), for the water quality, to allow our city attorney to look into the current proposed ILA. In doing so, the current ILA had some discrepancies, and the current ILA was expired since April of 2024. The ILA had decreased the water quality testing from bi-weekly to monthly, and then it was also approved by resolution that it was required to have annual extensions and the new proposal was a two and a half year agreement. So as our city attorney was reviewing the new proposed ILA, the City Commission received a letter from the president of the college of the Florida Keys to terminate the ILA between the city of Key West and the college, and the city has no desire to eliminate or remove water quality testing. So you’ll see on the agenda that item number 19 that we approved to postpone until January has been withdrawn, and then Commissioner Kaufman has the item on our agenda for discussion. So I would expect that there would be lots of conversation on this issue, but there are other agencies that can do this. So it’s not like the city is going to go without any water quality testing. It’s just now not going to be with the College of the Florida Keys.”
It looks like 2025 will see a full City Commission seated as well as a new city manager.
Henriquez said, “I’m very excited. First point of order will be to make sure that we approve our new city manager’s contract, and then that way everything else we can move forward. After the new year, new commission, new city manager, and let’s start getting some of these projects off the shelf.”
The ROGO and BPAS issue was decided upon recently by the county.
Henriquez said, “We’ll see how legislation goes. I know we have a Zoom meeting in the next week or two with our Senator and our House of Representative. I’m sure that will be one of the conversations that we’re going to have. So we’ll see how the state moves forward, how legislation is this year and we’ll know what path we need to take.”
City offices will be closed on January 1, but Key West Transit will be on the move to help people get safely around the streets for New Year’s Eve.
Henriquez said, “I would also like to wish you and your listeners a happy and prosperous new year. Have a great week. Be safe and again, happy New Year.”