Michelle Lincoln, Monroe County Commissioner, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
The most recent BOCC meeting was quite lengthy and there were a variety of different topics discussed.
Lincoln said, “I think we were all surprised just how in in depth we went on so many different topics. It was amazing and frustrating and good and a whole mixture of different emotions throughout the day for sure.”
The TDC was on the agenda.
Lincoln said, “I brought this topic up and asked Bob, our county attorney to kind of give us a TDC 101 because I think there’s so much misinformation out there in the community about the tourist development tax and the bed tax and advertising and sometimes we hear comments of oh my gosh, they’re raising the tax again. We’re not. All the money that the county receives from the tourist development tax is by the actual number of heads on beds, and that is for pennies, and we kind of discussed that a little. The county commissioners, we have no say in how much how many visitors come to our county and how much money has grown in that account. So it was nice that Bob explained that and also explained that the Florida State statute pretty much dominates how the tourist Development Council is run, and the percentage and the budget that must go for advertisement. That is at least 40% of the money that is brought in from that bed tax must go for advertisement. So when people sometimes make comments that, oh, you shouldn’t be advertising so much with that money, we have to. It was also interesting to see not only that, but that the people who are on the Tourist Development Council must be in the tourist industry. So there were comments sometimes that, oh, well, the people on that board are just taking care of their own business when they approve project, Well, that’s what they’re supposed to do. They do have to follow certain rules of ethics, the Florida ethics. It really, to me opened up some of the misconceptions and we were able to clear the air on all of that with the whole goal of being how do we keep our tourist driven economy strong, and take care of our brick and mortar projects, and our advertisement, and have more transparency, and have more accountability for the way that tax is being spent. So it was a very good eye opening meeting. We’ve now hired a nationwide search organization. We’re also going to be forming a committee, that will be the search committee that will take the recommendations of that private organization and move forward on who we’re going to hire and maybe restructuring at the top level. So I feel within 12 weeks, we will be in a much better spot than we are now as far as how the organization looks. Yet through this whole process, the Tourist Development Council is still having their meetings, they’re still approving budget ideas, they’re still approving the advertisement, they’re still approving special events in our county. So it did not come to a halt. The organization is still doing what they need to do to keep our county viable in the tourist market.”
The marketing director has been removed from that position in the TDC. Will a new entity be running the TDC?
Lincoln said, “I don’t think so. I think we agreed after the presentation that we liked the way it was running. We like that separate arm and we want to keep it that way. We do not want to bring it in house. So that was an option and none of the commissioners had an appetite to pursue that any further. We feel like we like it being separate from the county and us just having the oversight. So that will remain the same.”
Insurance rates was another topic of conversation.
Lincoln said, “It was so nice to have Firm Fair Insurance rates of Monroe County, we had the director, come and speak to us. He has been doing this for 18 years. It is a grassroots nonprofit organization that’s attempting to save Monroe County and our property owners to receive fair, equitable and affordable property insurance coverage. It is an uphill battle and yet, Mel is there. He is in Tallahassee, he’s in Washington DC, he brings the Citizens Insurance Agency down to the Keys for site visits just to see how responsible we are in our growth and raising houses and building to the most stringent code in the state of Florida, and yet how $50 million a year go into their coffers, and we rarely get anything back and yet our rates keep going up. So once a year, we like to bring him in to just give us an update and also let him know how much we appreciate what their organization is doing.”
The commissioners also declared April as Fair Housing Month.
Lincoln said, “It’s on our top list of the three most important needs of our county and one of them is always on housing, affordable housing, safe housing, housing for our workforce, whether they’re on the lower economic scale or the middle or the higher. We need to make sure we’re protecting our homes and our home ownership for our residents here in Monroe County.”
The Key West International Airport was also on the agenda. March was a record-setting month for people coming through the airport.
Lincoln said, “It’s mind blowing, I guess everyone still wants to come to the Florida Keys and our residents want the ability to be able to fly out of Key West. That can’t be missed either that I know I love being able to fly out of Key West instead of driving to Miami, trying to find a parking spot and going through their TSA, which is even more of a nightmare than ours. It is definitely popular still to fly in and out of the Keys. We always like to prefer people to do that instead of driving through the Keys to get more cars off the highway. Yes, we’re all frustrated right now with how crowded the holding room is. That’s one of the reasons why we are doing this humongous project and can’t wait for a year from now when maybe part of it’s complete, and we can have better holding areas, a better Concourse, and it’s very exciting what we’re doing there.”
The Key West International Airport will sponsor five Independence Day fireworks again for the fourth year in a row throughout the Florida Keys.
Lincoln said, “I always want to make it really clear to everyone that that does not come out of taxpayers’ money. That money is from ticket use. For anyone who uses the airport, they pay a ticket fee and with that money, a percentage of it gets to go back into the community, promoting the goodness of the airport and so I just absolutely love that. I just love that every year that the airport is able to provide that for our entire county.”
There’s also a possibility the airport will be helping Marathon. The Chamber of Commerce in Marathon is also hoping to bring in some commercial travel as well.
Lincoln said, “That project in Marathon is moving along and within the next couple of years, it should be complete. They’re in the design and permitting and mitigation and all the different steps along the way. It’s moving along the way it should be.”
Lincoln will host a town meeting for Big Coppitt residents on April 29, at 5:30 at Big Coppitt First Baptist Church.
She said, “I’m super excited about that. I had some residents in the area reach out to me. They had a laundry list of topics they wanted to talk about. What’s going on with the park? What about the possibility of sidewalks? What about cars on the right away? They have a whole list. And I’m like, okay, let’s get the crew together. Let’s put together all of our staff. I just love when I have an opportunity to meet with the neighborhood and with the people who staff wise in the sheriff’s department can really help come up with some solutions for what their issues are. So we’re very excited about that.”