The Tourist Development Council’s failed audits led to the firing of its top director and have subjected the tourism marketing agency to public scrutiny that it’s never faced in its 40-year history.
But the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners has no interest in taking over the TDC, according to officials.
It’s not the TDC’s structure – it’s the financial controls that were the problem, the BOCC agreed at its April 17 meeting.
A takeover would just mean more government, County Mayor Holly Raschein said.
But transparency and accountability must improve, she said, starting with routine TDC audits.
Even nonprofits on shoestring budgets have to undergo an audit every year, yet the TDC, dealing in tens of millions of dollars, chugged along for decades unchecked, the commissioners noted.
In October 2023, County Clerk Kevin Madok launched the first of four separate audits on the TDC and its advertising and marketing partner agencies.
When was the last time the TDC was audited?
No one has the exact date.
“It was talked about at the TDC that it was 20 years or longer since they had had an audit,” said commissioner Craig Cates, of Key West.
The TDC collects a four-cent “bed tax” on every dollar spent at Florida Keys hotels and lodging establishments. The money is used to advertise the Keys as a vacation destination, promote events that attract visitors and fund construction projects to enhance tourism.
They’re the experts on marketing the Keys, commissioner David Rice, of Marathon, said.
“It would be really easy to overreact,” Rice said. “When I think back through the years, we probably reached a point where the revenue for TDC became large enough that they should have brought in a chief operating officer, a financial officer. That would have helped. Spilled milk.”
Rita Irwin, the TDC board chair, thanked the BOCC and county staff members who were sent in to work with the agency after the audit, which found repeated noncompliance with county policies and questionable accounting practices.
“I appreciate the confidence in us getting better,” Irwin said.
“We need to do this right and to keep Monroe County bringing in this tourist money that keeps our property taxes lower,” Irwin said. “It’s important to keep this engine running.”
A final tally
For years, people in the Keys have bandied about the number of privately owned vacant lots that remain to be developed in the Keys. It was always “nearly 8,000” or “about 7,900.”
Now, Monroe County staff has pinned down a realistic total at just under 3,000, as the county prepares a response to the state’s FloridaCommerce department on a request for building permits – which is directly tied to the Keys’ hurricane evacuation plan.
The 7,900 figure that the state was using as a reference had been based on the number of privately owned, vacant properties across the entire Keys.
But county staff found that if you take away the lots that can’t be developed due to environmental restrictions and zoning laws, the grand total of vacant developable lots is realistically 2,997.
“I am going to start saying 3,000, myself,” Emily Schemper, the county’s senior director of planning and environmental resources told the BOCC on April 17. “It’s an approximate number to begin with. It’s too much of a mouthful for me.”
After FloridaCommerce released a series of hurricane evacuation models for the Keys, several that expanded the 24-hour requirement to safely evacuate everyone, the BOCC asked for a year to hash out their options.
“We’re mapping out the future of the Keys,” Raschein told Keys Weekly. “There’s a finite number now.”
The state is expecting Monroe County to submit a decision.
“They’re not ruling with an iron fist,” Raschein said. “They’re yielding to us to make a decision. We will ultimately decide and send something to the state.”
Between now and December, when the BOCC plans to make that final vote, county staff will make presentations at a series of public meetings up and down the island chain. The county will also take public comment online.
County planners have already started visiting Rotary Clubs, housing associations, real estate agents and other community groups.
The bulk of the 3,000 vacant lots awaiting development in the Keys — 2,220 — is in unincorporated Monroe.
Even though Key West was listed as having 84 lots, the city said each is already taken. The same goes for Layton’s 10 lots.
Key Colony Beach doesn’t participate in the rate-of-growth-ordinance building permit allotment, so the 39 lots the state had factored for KCB aren’t applicable.
County staff confirmed that Marathon has 556 vacant lots and Islamorada has 221.
