Key West Commissioner Sam Kaufman joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
The water quality agreement for the city is in place.
Kaufman said, “There’s some good news there. I think there are also some concerns. But the good news is that we do have the water quality agreement in place. Finally, after a year and a half of separating the city from the partnership with the College of the of the Florida Keys. The good news is there is mention of turbidity in the contract, and that there will be testing in the harbor, and that Stantec is a very well known organization and professional but some concerns are in the agreement in reading it, it was published yesterday. There’s acknowledgement of a lack of funding. There’s an acknowledgement of not specific timelines or the amount of testing that will be done. And it just highlights, to me, how much we lost when the current administration decided not to continue its relationship with the college, because there was so much testing being accomplished around the island, all the different parts of the island, and clear recommendations that were forthcoming, how to improve our sewer system, how to improve the areas around mount trashmore and beach closings and things like that. And so we’re way off on getting any more recommendations, probably. But the good news, at least we’re getting somewhere, and we’ll be able to ask these questions to Stantec, the new company that’s doing the water quality testing.”
Transportation was a discussion at the recent commission meeting.
Kaufman said, “Of interest to some of your listeners would be the use of TDC funding. That’s the tourist tax dollars that are collected. And my position is pretty simple. I think that we need to balance using tourist tax dollars, and I think that most people would think it’s fair and reasonable to have a little bit less in the use for advertisement and a little bit more used for infrastructure in our city, because, look, we need to take care of our flooding issues. We need to take care of Duval Street and other areas in town, our streets and sidewalks, and without the funding to do so, our locals and our tourists can’t enjoy the island to the extent that we want them to. So the discussion came up, and to me, it seems very, very obvious that tourist tax dollars should be able to pay for the Duval loop. The city lost funding for the Duval loop, and it’s been suspended. That’s our bus system that makes a loop around Duval Street, all the way up to Grinnell and the area of the ferry terminal. And so I’m just hoping that there’s follow through with the current administration, and I’m dedicated to doing that.”
What about what could be happening with property taxes at the state level?
Kaufman said, “I think that’s going to be very important coming up this year, in the next six months, as we as a city go into budget season again. In July every year, the city has the budget workshop, and starting in April, so only a few months from now, all the city departments will start looking at the budget. I’ve been an advocate for many years to reduce taxes, and I don’t vote for increased taxes, to the chagrin of some of the folks in City Hall, and every year, they try to convince me as long as we have $52 million in reserves across the board, I have no explanation of why we need that amount. I’m not going to support higher taxes. That being said, there are important reasons why we do need to have some property tax. We have to support our first responders. We have to support our police department, our fire department, all the different departments, our ambulance service, etc. So I think we can reasonably expect the state legislature to make significant cuts to the city’s ability to collect property taxes, specifically, probably with respect to homestead property owners. If that is cut entirely, we’re looking at a $4 million cut in the city budget, which is a huge amount, considering where that money is placed, without getting into the weeds and the details of that. But I have to say that I really wish the city over the last couple years, as I’ve advocated, was reducing taxes. If we had been reducing taxes, we would be in a better position, but we are not in a terrible position. The county and the school board and other local government agencies, they rely much more on property taxes than the city does, so we’ll be okay, but there’s going to be a lot of work that needs to be done. Last year, the city created 10 new positions. That’s a lot for a small town, I don’t think you’ll find a town of our size across the state of Florida that has the same number of employees. We have, last count that I saw, 548 employees. We do have a large budget, a total of $285 million, but I have to say that we need to be more efficient, but we also need to be cognizant of what the reality is with respect to what’s going to happen. Governor DeSantis is extremely serious about cutting property taxes. We’ve known this, and that’s really all he talks about these days. And they’re going to have special session. They’ve been working on this. We can expect that. So we have to prepare and do the best we can to have a successful budget. We don’t want to have to terminate employees. I think we should be looking at not rehiring with attrition as it occurs, as people retire, and figure out how best to provide the same quality of services to our community, but with less personnel, because that’s just the reality of what we’re going to have to do.”
Kaufman also serves on the Lower Keys Hospital District Board.
He said, “This is a board appointed by the governor, all locals and we’re all in the same situation. We all possibly at one point or another in our life, if we haven’t already, we’re going to have to rely on the one hospital that we have. So we all want to make sure that it has the most comprehensive services within reason and can take care of us and in the highest quality that’s possible. Thankfully, the group I’m a part of is a task force that advises me as a commissioner and we’ve been together for about two years now. I’ve been involved in this issue since 2017. As your listeners may remember, 2017 there was a lot of activity with regard to these issues at the hospital. But in any case, the good news is next month, the next meeting of the hospital district board is February 3, they’re expected to approve the request for proposals. That means the process, the competitive bidding process for hospital operators that are interested to apply, and within the next several months, probably by April or May, we will see applications, whether it’s Mount Sinai or Baptist or Kendall Regional or University of Miami, or whatever the agencies are, whatever the companies are, we’ll be able to see those proposals, and the board is engaged in that process. The current agreement expires in 2029, which a lot of people in 2024 were asking me, well, why are you starting this task force? It seems so early. It’s five years ahead of time. Well, the board now is saying, well, they don’t even have enough time, because there’s a whole negotiation process and a transition process, and you’re talking about a major complex transition when it comes to insurances, equipment, personnel, etc. And there has to be the negotiation of a new contract, whether that’s with the current operator, CHS, or a new one. This is something that’s very timely. Even though it’s 2026, the timing is now, and the board is recognizing that. By the way, we have some great leadership on this hospital district board, so we should all go to the meetings, support them, but pay attention to make sure that the end contract serves our best interest. It took two years to get this RFP, the request for proposals even out so that the applicants could make their applications. Being involved in government sometimes it’s frustrating with how long things take. It’s a lot different than the private sector, I can tell you that.”
A celebration of life for former City Commissioner Mary Lou Hoover was held on January 10.
Kaufman said, “I had the honor and privilege of serving with her during her two terms, and she was always thoughtful, prepared. She cared about the community, she cared about those vulnerable people with mental health conditions. She was at the forefront of supporting organizations that were in the effort of preventing suicide, and especially with our veterans. And she is missed terribly.”