Key West Mayor Dee Dee Henriquez joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
The selection committee for the new city manager is in full swing.
Henriquez said, “Last Wednesday, at three o’clock, they met for the first time, and they are moving forward and trying to find a new city manager. From my understanding, there are 12 complete applications, 20 not complete that they’re still either missing something or they still need to continue to send in the rest of their information. So I believe the cutoff date is the 20th, but they have until September 27 to send in the rest of their paperwork. Then the committee is going to meet again on October 7 and then October 16. So they are definitely moving forward as quickly as they possibly can. There are a few locals that have applied. Like I said, there are 32 applicants total, and then 12 of them are complete. So this week, I will be looking through the applicants that I currently have and start going through them myself, and then we’ll see what the committee recommends.”
The city did not pay for a consulting firm.
Henriquez said, “I am very excited about that. Everyone knows how I don’t like to waste taxpayer dollars when we can do something at in house in City Hall.”
The city budget was also passed last week.
Henriquez said, “Back in July, the finance director had presented a budget to the Commission at a 12% over rollback and she heard from the Commission, she sharpened her pencil, and on September 5, she brought it down to 6% over rollback. She still listened to the Commission. They wanted her to tweak it a little bit more. So she did present it on September 17, and it is going to be 5% over rollback, which is the 2.0134 millage rate, which got approved by the Commission.”
The Emergency Operations Center for the county will open today in Marathon.
Henriquez said, “I’m really excited. It was needed for our community, our county, and just for everybody. So I’m looking forward to the grand opening.”
Henriquez is also seated on the Tourist Development Council.
She said, “As I became mayor and got sworn in August 26, it’s been busy ever since, and I did get appointed to the TDC board meeting, and on my first meeting, the Board had voted to recommend to the Monroe County Commission to be able to remove the Newman PR firm without cause. So as mayor of a few weeks into it, we’ve had to make some tough decisions.”
The Duvall Street revitalization project continues.
Henriquez said, “I am making sure that we are continuing to keep that dialog and that communication going. When I ran for office, all of these projects, I don’t want them sitting on a shelf that’s all of taxpayer dollars. So I am trying to keep that communication, and the planning department is definitely moving forward with that communication. We met last week, and we met with the quite a few stakeholders, and in October, we plan on having another public meeting where everybody’s invited, so they’re gathering some dates that’s good for everyone, and we’re keeping that project moving and moving forward.”
The affordable housing project at Poinciana is also continuing.
Henriquez said, “That was a conversation that we had on the on the commission meeting that evening. And yes, that is a project that’s moving forward and that is with AH Monroe.”
A project for the cemetery is also in the works.
Henriquez said, “This project, actually is one, it’s going to be one of my personal projects as mayor, as far as the cemetery is concerned. So I am meeting with parties, the city manager, the Community Service Director, our city attorney, and I just want to look at it as a whole. There needs to be a lot of attention there. So my first meeting with everyone’s going to be on Friday to see how we can improve the cemetery.”
What’s on the agenda for this week?
Henriquez said, “Tomorrow I’m driving to Miami. I’m going to be meeting with the Speaker of the House, in reference to trying to build our partnerships and our relationships back with the state. He’s the speaker designee, which is Danny Perez, and so I’m going to be speaking with him. I have a meeting with him tomorrow, and there’s about 10 to 12 representatives that are going to be there. When I was running to build our partnerships back with within our city, with our municipalities, our county, our state and the federal level. So starting tomorrow, I’m following through. We’re trying to build those partnerships. I want to be able to call Tallahassee instead of them saying, oh, take a message, it’s Key West. I want the perception to be, oh, it’s Key West, and see what they need down there. So I’m already starting, I’m going up to Miami tomorrow, and trying to build those partnerships back. We’re moving forward. We’re making a lot of progress at City Hall. Sometimes it seems like it’s a very slow process or baby steps, but as long as we’re moving forward, we’re doing good.”