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Integrity and accountability ... severely lacking. A grand jury report filed by State Attorney Dennis Ward blasted Monroe County leadership's response to an internal audit and other findings from investigations into the 2022 theft of narcotics from the Monroe County Fire Rescue's (MCFR) Trauma Star medical evacuation program, subsequent cover-ups, and failure to act by county leaders. The Citizen, Keys Weekly and the Miami Herald have all covered the scandal.
- Read the full report. Keys Weekly provided a concise summary of the grand jury's report, but encouraged readers to view the thirteen page report in its entirely. The Weekly provided a link to its earlier coverage of the dozens of indictments issued by Ward's office to four contractors and county staff. The report contains fourteen recommendations.
- Top administrator charged. Former top county administrator Roman Gastesi was among those indicted; for felony official misconduct.
- Outside investigation ordered. Monroe County commissioner Crag Cates proposed, and his colleagues agreed to hire an outside firm to conduct an independent, in-depth investigation into MCFR and other county departments.
- Commissioners 'owning it' ... now? “...it’s about leadership, and our leadership has failed,” said Monroe County commissioner Michelle Lincoln. Commissioners David Rice, Jim Scholl and Holly Raschein agreed, with Raschein emphasizing the importance of transparency and accountability, and of the commission “owning this.” Now? They've known about the scandal for two years.
- Candidate Massicotte appalled. "... it is appalling ... gross negligence and lack of oversight that allowed a drug theft scandal to fester ... a damning indictment of our county's leadership. The theft of powerful narcotics by MCFR staff under the nose of our current County Commissioners is not just a scandal—it's a betrayal of the public's trust," said Chris Massicotte in an email to his supporters. Massicotte is the Democratic candidate for Scholl's seat on the commission in the November 5th election.
New Key West Mayor and Commissioners sworn in. A new era of Key West politics arrived with the swearing in of incoming Mayor Danise “Dee Dee” Henriquez and incoming city commissioners Donie Lee and Monica Haskell. Term-limited commissioner Clayton Lopez will leave office in November after the election contest between Aaron Castillo and Marci Rose determines his successor in District 6.
Governor Ron DeSantis distanced himself from his own 'half-baked' plan to put golf courses in Florida state parks that was part of his own initiative.
- Controversy. Over 100,000 people signed four online petitions opposing Gov. Ron DeSantis' Great Outdoors Initiative, which plans to develop nine state parks, including three golf courses in Jonathan Dickinson State Park.
- Tart it up? Although the initiative did not mention our beloved Ft. Zachary Taylor state park, Linda Cunningham pulled no punches (but avoided expletives) in her biting sarcasm.
Push poll. The Monroe County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) sought public participation regarding state-mandated hurricane evacuation modeling discussions that will continue through January 2025.
- Thumb on the scale. Like the earlier three surveys, this one's design clearly telegraphs its intent to provide political cover to the BOCC to issue additional residential building permits over the objections of residents concerned about hurricane evacuation times and environmental impacts.
- Sixteen groups opposed. A coalition of 16 community organizations led by Last Stand have been united and vocal in their opposition to new permits.
Sea level rise input sought. Monroe County’s Office of Sustainability kicked off a series of meetings to receive public input on the county’s vulnerability to sea level rise and coastal flooding.
Florida sued over book bans. Six major book publishers teamed up to sue the state of Florida over an “unconstitutional” law that has seen hundreds of titles purged from school libraries following right-wing challenges.
Our Eyes
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| Bridle path - C.J. Groth |
Previously in Key West Voices
Election results and aftermath. Election results were finalized. According to the Supervisor of Elections web site (which was down the day of and following the election), turnout was a dismal 28.19%.
- Key results
- KW City Commission District 1 decided. Monica Haskell was easily elected to represent District 1 on the Key West City Commission, in the seat that had been occupied by former commissioner and mayor Jimmy Weekley.
- KW City Commission District 6 runoff. Neither Aaron Castillo nor Marci Rose attained the 50% plus one vote to win the District 6 seat outright; the race will be decided in the general election on November 5th. Until that time, term-limited commissioner Clayton Lopez will continue to represent the district on the commission.
- The Miami Herald initially reported this race as having been decided in Castillo's favor, but Castillo fell at least five votes short of winning outright.
- In its Wednesday special edition, Key West Voices reported that no races were too close to call. As of Wednesday morning, this one obviously was. KWV regrets the error.
- Newcomers Castillo and Rose face off in Key West's Old Town district 6, which includes Bahama Village. Castillo has a huge cash advantage, which Rose identifies as substantially coming from outside corporate interests and local tourism mogul Ed Swift's many companies. This race could be hotly contested over such issues as tourism policy including cruise ship restrictions, and the future of expiring transient rental licenses in Truman Annex.
- Monroe County Commission District 1 - Holly Merrill Raschein, incumbent, was reelected. Citizen coverage.
- Monroe County School Board Member District 2 - Yvette Mira-Talbott was elected. Citizen coverage.
- Races to be decided by the November 5th general election.
- U.S. Senate. Rick Scott, incumbent, Republican nominee vs. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, Democratic nominee.
- U.S. House of Representatives, Florida District 28. Carlos A Gimenez, incumbent, Republican nominee vs. Phil Ehr, Democratic nominee.
- Monroe County Commissioner District 3. Jim Scholl, incumbent, Republican nominee vs. Chris Massicotte, Democratic nominee.
- KW City Commission District 6 (nonpartisan). Aaron Castillo vs Marci Rose (see above).
Childress saga nowhere near over.
- Texts and emails subpoenaed. In connection with the June firing of KW City Manager Al Childress, State Attorney Dennis Ward’s office subpoenaed cell phone and email records for all six city commissioners and the mayor, as well as for city attorney Ron Ramsingh and his brother, Raj Ramsingh, who is the city’s chief building official.
- Meeting canceled. The special Key West City Commissioners meeting Sam Kaufman and Mary Lou Hoover called for Monday August 26th was canceled. That meeting was to consider rehiring former City Manager Al Childress, whose controversial firing in June was opposed by the two Commissioners and every one of the dozens of members of the public who commented at the meeting.
Sworn in. Danise “Dee Dee” Henriquez was sworn in as the new Mayor of Key West at a ceremony on Monday, August 26th. Keys Weekly's profile revealed that she does not support rehiring Al Childress, likely among the reasons for canceling the special meeting. Monica Haskell was also sworn in.
Bad Monkeys. Linda Cunningham connected the fictional corruption depicted in the Apple TV+ series Bad Monkey (set and shot in the Keys and elsewhere) with the very real history and culture of local corruption that includes the saga of Bum Farto and recent grand jury indictments of former Monroe County administrator Roman Gastesi along with county employees and contractors.
ROGO process questioned. Monroe County officials presented recommendations by its Affordable Housing Advisory Committee in a recent meeting.
- Flawed model. Members of the public, including Last Stand president Ann Olsen, argued that flaws in the hurricane evacuation model used to determine ROGO (building permit allocations) merited an independent review. A previous review showed that the Keys are not in compliance with the rule that all residents have to be out in 24 hours. An analysis showed that the Keys have reached an evacuation level of 26 hours.
- Last Stand (representing a slew of community organizations) expressed its opposition to the ROGO allocation process in an open letter to the Monroe County Commission in July, and public statements at meetings since.
Food insecurity. WLRN ran a story describing how increased demand for food assistance in the Keys has not been matched with an increase in donations.
Traffic on the stretch. A resurfacing project on the 18 miles stretch was slated to begin today. Over the next year, expect periodic delays and detours as FDOT repaves 4.4 miles of the stretch between Jewfish Creek Bridge and the Miami-Dade county line.
Not erased yet. Business owners who cater to Florida's LGBTQ+ tourists objected to the latest attempt by officials in the state to erase the LGBTQ+ community. Several outlets ran an AP story and original reporting that Florida's tourism marketing agency quietly removed the “LGBTQ Travel” section from its website sometime in the past few months.
Get Bent. Mark Hedden appreciated Arthur Cleveland Bent's legacy of “Life Histories of North American Birds,” a massive, 20-plus volume assemblage of all the then-known information about the bird species found in North America. Hedden recently saw a blue-gray gnatcatcher (gotta love the name) at Fort Zachary Taylor, which let him back to Bent.
