Three Republicans will vie for the District 5 seat on the Board of County Commissioners in the Aug. 20 primary. Incumbent Holly Rascehin, current mayor, will square off against newcomers Melissa Ptomey, owner of the environmental consulting firm BioBenthic and Island Music School, and Paul Wunderlich, retired county employee who worked in the engineering department. District 5 serves Tavernier north through Ocean Reef.
With no Democratic challengers, the primary winner will take the seat.
The Keys Weekly asked the candidates:
- What is your vision for the number of ROGO units Monroe County should request from the state Legislature in 2025?
- Audits released in recent years have heavily criticized the operations of county-affiliated agencies like the Tourist Development Council. What is your plan to restore confidence in the county’s ability to maintain the fiscal integrity of agencies that rely on tax dollars?
HOLLY RASCHEIN
- We are currently in the process of developing that vision, gathering input from residents, as well as municipalities within the county, and I encourage robust public participation in this process. Please, take the surveys, make your voice heard. The Florida Keys, thanks to our status as an area of critical state concern, has had growth regulations in place for decades that have been largely successful in maintaining our small town character and preventing massive, over-development that has occurred in other parts of coastal Florida (we don’t want to become Miami Beach). So regardless of what the state’s Department of Commerce decides about new ROGO units, at the local level we must maintain our commitment to limited, targeted, slow development that takes into consideration our infrastructure constraints and sensitive environment. And if any new development rights are granted, the focus should be on workforce housing and protecting taxpayers from takings liabilities.
- All of these audits highlight the value of the audit process in identifying issues when they do exist and outlining corrective actions. A regular and consistent audit schedule of county-affiliated agencies, undertaken by the clerk’s office and/or independent auditors, is one way to restore confidence and ensure public trust between the agency and taxpayers. Some agencies already do this (congratulations to the sheriff’s office on their 21st consecutive perfect financial audit) but more consistent audits could reinforce an expectation of transparency in financial operations. Then there also must be accountability if issues are identified, and the corrective recommendations of the audit need to be implemented. Sometimes this requires changing the leadership, leadership structure (or both) of an agency to ensure the audit findings can be addressed and faith in the integrity of the institution can be restored, like we are currently experiencing with the TDC.
MELISSA PTOMEY
- The current method of collecting feedback for continued vacant lot build-out is incredibly disingenuous. This is one of the most important decisions our community is making in our lifetimes. It has been reduced to an anonymous survey, instead of a roundtable discussion or an advisory board representing many local professions, businesses owners, contractors, and government employees. I have asked the BOCC on several occasions, if all participants are forced to remain anonymous, won’t we have vested interests filling out the surveys multiple times? As such, the BOCC already knows it will be asking for 2,200-3,000 ROGOs (don’t be fooled that they actually care about local input, the Tavernier Publix vote showed us otherwise). The number should be as small as possible, 100-300 max spread out for the next 30 years with higher ROGO points assigned for those that dedicate vacant land to encourage land dedication to limit future litigation cases.
- I believe that audits of the BOCC budget and expenditures should also be included in the audits being done. The county budget has exploded since my opponent has taken office in 2021. It went from $465 million to the current approved budget yesterday of $715.7 million. That is for a county of 82,000 residents. The BOCC always says how proud they are of all the federal and state grants they bring in. Yet, the budget remains hard to find where all that money goes. I believe a forensic audit of the BOCC in the last three years would be eye opening and that 20% cut of spending would be easy to find and come off the top, not from any staff cuts. There have been many workshops, events and large contract bids that are significantly eating away our tax dollars. The public is entitled to a current BOCC budget audit.
PAUL WUNDERLICH
- Originally called the Monroe County Comprehensive Plan and established in 1986 the main focus was to control the growth of the county to ensure the safety of its residents and their quality of life. In 1992 ROGO was implemented to control hurricane evacuation and every year the state seems to find ways to navigate around it. Before inquiring about more ROGO units for 2025 I would like to focus on exactly how many affordable housing units or vacation rentals can be evacuated between 25 and 48 hours before a storm as the state maintains but have not mentioned exactly how many workers can be evacuated in that time frame. Also, I would like to focus on how the state and county officials plan to evacuate all these individuals for weeks at a time with their family and pets to the mainland when the majority of these individuals’ only mode of transportation is a bicycle or electric bike. Before we continue the trend of overdeveloping the Florida Keys we should take a good look at what the counties present state is and when to say enough is enough.
- In 1981 the TDC was formed with the goal of helping tourism by improving the Florida Keys environment and community services. Though I have questions about how any tourism benefits the environment the TDC does help restore some of our treasured landmarks. When it was first created it was controlled by individuals with good intentions and ideas, like Fantasy fest. But over time has become a complex and well-funded organization. As such it requires more of the county’s attention as to where the funds go. In order to do this the county can either create a new department within the county to oversee the daily operations of TDC funds or hire an outside firm to do so with semi-annual audits of TDC funds. Regardless of which avenue the county chooses, the financial records of the TDC should be available for public scrutiny as to where the funds are spent and how much goes for improving our key’s environment and how much is used for community services for tourism.
