The Monroe County Tourist Development Council Board on Tuesday voted to hire Kara Franker, a destination marketing executive and attorney who has worked in South Florida previously, to take the helm of the Keys multimillion-dollar tourism agency as its first president/CEO.
A county-appointed committee unanimously chose Kara Franker from four finalists left standing after the job search began months earlier, at a July 26 meeting.
The TDC board voted to approve Franker for the top job, but both sides still need to negotiate a few contract terms and sign it.
“I am grateful to the TDC Board for having the confidence in me to join the team,” Franker told Keys Weekly after the vote. “I have so much respect for their leadership and for the current team. I have lots to learn and plan to speak with as many people as possible to get insight and advice. I’m excited.”
Franker would officially work for Visit Florida Keys, the nonprofit that TDC staff work for, and answer to the volunteer TDC board.
The hiring comes after a tumultuous period for the TDC, which is funded through a tax from hotel and lodging establishments, or a “bed tax” meant to take tourists’ money rather than property taxes. On Oct. 31, 2023, County Clerk Kevin Madok released the first in a series of audits critical of the financial practices at the TDC.
The bed taxes fund marketing campaigns and some building projects to promote the the Keys, where the main economic engine is tourism, as a destination.
In March, the TDC board unanimously approved a motion by County Mayor Holly Raschein, who sits on the TDC board as a representative of the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners, to fire the TDC’s marketing director Stacy Mitchell.
County leaders, including longtime County Administrator Roman Gastesi, later stuck up for Mitchell, saying the TDC has needed a chief financial officer on staff in addition to a marketing leader.
Mitchell didn’t speak publicly at the TDC meetings where her employment status was discussed. But her attorney Zachary Zermay eventually appeared at a meeting to tell the board Mitchell was treated unfairly. Zermay told Keys Weekly that he is preparing a wrongful termination lawsuit to file by the end of the year.
Zermay said Mitchell is being “thrown under the bus” because she became a political target over $150,000 in TDC funding of Monroe County’s recent 200th anniversary celebration.
“It’s an election year,” Zermay said.
The request was initially denied because of a deadline issue. But the money was eventually granted to pay for the drone fireworks show in March 2023 was eventually provided by the TDC.
