Key West Mayor Teri Johnston joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
The Key West mayor and Monroe County mayor were asked to speak with college students recently.
Johnston said, “On two topics, politics, and leadership. We just had a great conversation with the students. These are students who are in their last year of college and it is just fascinating to hear their concerns, their ideas, their hopes for the future. It really does bode very well for us for the future, because these young men and women are very bright and are very interested in our community and our world, and are interested in making a difference. But the thing that I took away from there, Dr. Penwell at the end of the class said it gives me great hope, listening to the two of you, because Holly is a Republican, I’m a Democrat and yet we work hand in hand. Particularly during COVID, we were just relating some of the ways that we interact and work to get things done. During COVID, we had so many people who were out of work for the very first time in their life, and our state unemployment system was just overloaded and unprepared for a situation like that. So every day, we would sit here and we would get paper applications out for people who didn’t have computers. I would scan those and I would get those immediately to Holly who was our state representative at that time, she and her administrative aide would walk those through the system. I can’t tell you how many people in the city of Key West that that were able to get their unemployment benefits and keep moving forward during that unique time because of our relationship and the good working situation we have.”
Johnston was interviewed recently on television.
She said, “It was very interesting, because one of the television station had just been hounding me to talk about how Key West was being overrun by illegal Haitian migrants. I would keep politely saying, well, that’s not happening. That’s not what we’re seeing. They begged me to be on the station. I even sent them my notes and I said, here’s the situation in Key West, because Key West, based on the currents, and based on the geographical location of Haiti, most of the migrants will land somewhere up around Key Largo. That’s been proven time and time again. So when I went to explain that, the newscasters simply wanted to let the public know that Key West was overrun by boatloads of Haitians, running drugs and guns. I said, it’s simply not happening. I said, in fact, my viewpoint is think about the unfathomable conditions that would prompt a family to get in to a vessel that in most cases is not seaworthy and they’re putting their life on the line to escape their situation in their home country. I said that’s my viewpoint of this. They went on to say, well, you and the governor on opposite sides and I said, no, we’re not. I said, what we are in lockstep in is the fact that we both want to be prepared for anything that could potentially occur and we are doing that. The governor has issued more law enforcement officers for Monroe County so we are ready should anything happen. I think that’s the area that that that we’re very much in agreement on is that you need to be prepared for anything. Plan for the worst and hope for the best and let’s keep moving forward.”
What about the TDC?
Johnston said, “I think it’s been in the news, has had considerable coverage, as many of you may have heard, we made a substantial move during our meeting on Tuesday. It was a unanimous decision, but we are replacing the director, and we will have a nationwide search for a new TDC director. I think that bodes really well. We had a very dark time. I know that we are going to grow from that and improve policies and procedures. But DMOs and TCDs these days are big, big business and it requires a skill set, that’s very unique to manage that amount of money, and do it with a lot of different needs up and down the Keys. We’re all in different areas of our development, as far as a tourist destination, Key West probably being the most advanced and had a tourist destination of this nature for the longest. So we’re in a little different situation than Tavernier and Key Largo. My ask for the TDC has been for the last six years, is help us improve the visitor experience. Don’t try and cram as many people as we possibly can in Key West, let’s make it a better experience for the people that are here. That is streets and roads and its events and its making this community better not only for the 3 million tourists, but also for our locals that actually make this a wonderful spot to visit for our 3 million tourists. So let’s keep both of those entities in mind when we’re doling out TDC money.”
Will there be other changes?
Johnston said, “It is just the director and that was what came out in the audit. It was a reoccurring theme. So we will be replacing the director again. What we’re looking for is to bring in a very strong director with a good deal of experience and from then we believe it’s the director’s job to say, do I have the right organization to run a business of this magnitude? There were several comments during our meetings about we should have a CFO and, and we were pretty much in unison in the fact that that’s the decision of the new head of the TDC when he or she is hired, is what kind of organization do you need in order to be successful and allow them to make those calls?”
A Key West City Commission meeting will be held on April 11.
Johnston said, “Right now we have 30 items but as we all know it’s going to balloon up I’m sure to about 60. But we’re already taking a look at Pride Fest and Commissioner Kaufman brought up an agenda item is a fantasy fest zone. So we’re going to be discussing that again. We’re trying to move to a more creative event, less nudity. We are we are moving forward on storm water. We’re doing some tide valve replacements. We’re going to recognize the 40th ambassador class, which seems unreal, and we’re also going to have a water quality partnership quarterly report from Dr. Patrick Rice. We meet with them and are doing a joint water quality project around this Keys.”
The Duval Street revitalization project has a meeting coming up.
Johnston said, “That will be on Thursday and we will have two sessions, one for business owners and businesses down on Duvall and a later one for the public.”