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.
The Key West City Commission will meet this week and a vote will be taken on the interim city attorney as well as appointing a building inspection company.
Henriquez said, “This morning, I will be attending the dedication of the new Kermit Lewin Stock Island Reverse Osmosis facility. That water treatment plant will only supply water during emergencies, and it has the capacity of 4 million gallons per day. So I’m very excited about that. I have a connection with Mr. Lewin because he did used to work at the tax collector office. He was a former mayor of the city of Key West back in, I believe, the early 60s. So I’m excited for that. Then on Tuesday, we do have our commission meeting starting at 9am here at City Hall, and the first order of business would be the commissioners will begin their morning session with a vote to approve one of two proposed interim city attorney employment agreements. So there’s a resolution on the agenda from Commissioner Kaufman, either with Dirk Smits of Vernis and Bowling of the Florida Keys, or with chief assistant city attorney Kendal Harden, who has stepped in the role just recently. So the commission will have first order of business before we even do the consent agenda, so that way we can have an attorney in place for our meeting.”
The City Commission will also consider launching a statewide search for the new city attorney.
Henriquez said, “The first one will just be an interim, and it should take maybe three to four months, just like it did for the city manager’s position, and we’re also considering launching a statewide search for the new city attorney, including approving the job description, application process, the timeline, advertising strategy, and establishing an advisory screening committee. So that’s another item that will be up there for discussion, and then we’re going to have a presentation by AH Monroe in reference to the Poinciana special needs housing section redevelopment update. So in the morning, there’s going to be quite a bit of discussion, and then we’ll reconvene at 5pm and try and see if we’ll pass any of those ordinances and/or resolutions. So we do have a busy day tomorrow, a lot of things that we need to address and take care of.”
On Thursday, the Bahama Village Redevelopment Advisory Committee will meet.
Henriquez said, “That will meet this Thursday at 5:30 at City Hall. So there’s a lot going on this week, and especially preparing today for our meeting for tomorrow.”
At the commission meeting tomorrow, commissioners will also be discussing directing city manager Brian Barroso to hire an independent auditing firm to review seven permits tied to the recent indictment of the chief building official.
Henriquez said, “That is another discussion or agenda item that we will be discussing, and we’ll see what the will of the commission is, as far as directing our city manager to get an independent audit firm to address those issues that come before us today.”
The discussion about raising the rent for live aboards at Garrison Bight has been postponed.
Henriquez said, “It is going to be canceled. I will tell you our city manager is going to have a another workshop sometime this month, which will be advertised because based on our workshop last time, which was very, very productive, in my mind, great conversation on the report that we received, and our city manager has gone out and got an outside appraisal to make sure information is accurate and true and correct. Because when we vote, we have to vote on facts, and they’re coming up with a compromise as far as a rate increase is concerned, I think they’ll be happy with the compromise that they may propose at the workshop. So as you can see, with all of these things going on, even on the outside, with the investigations and everything here at City Hall, we are still moving forward and still can do continuing to conduct business.”
Henriquez voted to terminate the former city attorney with cause.
She said, “In my previous world as tax collector, I would always tell my staff, and they would tell you that if they went out and say, for instance, like New Year’s, if they took the wrong picture, please don’t come to work on Monday, because not only do you represent yourself, but you represent the tax collector’s office, and that was for 20 years, and coming to City Hall, I’m not going to change. If you take the wrong picture, not only do you represent yourself, but now you reserve represent City Hall as well. Yes, I did vote with cause, but it was the will of the commission to vote without.”
A shooting following a dispute on lower Duval Street in the 500 block of Green Street happened early Saturday morning.
Henriquez said, “That was a very unfortunate. I do know the victim that was shot, and our prayers go out to that family and to him. Our chief of police and our police department and our emergency fire department rescue, they were there attending to the victims. That was a very sad situation. We did get an alert. Our chief did notify us about five in the morning to let us know as mayor and commissioners of what was happening in our in our city. With everything going on, our city hall is still moving forward. We’re still working towards our projects and getting them complete. If you can come to our meeting tomorrow, and if you would like to have a voice, please sign up. You have three minutes to speak and let us know what your feelings are. But we do have a busy week this week, preparing for our commission meeting tomorrow, and just have a great week and be safe out there.”