By Mandy Miles and Alex Rickert
Many of the year’s top news stories in Monroe County were continuations and conclusions of events that began in 2023, as last year’s investigations and audits led to this year’s indictments — and the replacement of top officials. But first, some good news from 2024.
No hurricanes, but a new Emergency Ops Center
Despite some coastal flooding from tropical storm conditions, the Florida Keys dodged the devastation of a hurricane in 2024.
But the county is now more prepared than ever for a major storm, having opened its new, $37 million Emergency Operations Center at the Marathon airport on Sept. 23. The new facility is 17 feet above ground and built to withstand 220-mph winds. It can sustain and protect up to 150 people for up to 96 hours, including food, drinking water, generators, wastewater storage and satellite communications.
On the same day it opened, the new EOC hosted its first storm coordinating call, watching the path of a storm that would become the deadly Hurricane Helene.
Mosquito Control turns 75
Without the efforts of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, life in the Florida Keys would be unbearable for most of us. Thankfully, the district has been keeping the blood suckers at bay for 75 years. Mosquito control began in the Keys in 1949, when the state Legislature authorized the creation of the Monroe County Anti-Mosquito District, which was overwhelmingly approved by local voters. The name changed in 1970 to the Monroe County Mosquito Control District and in 2002 to today’s Florida Keys Mosquito Control District.
And now for the not-so-good news of 2024….
2023 drug audit leads to 2024 indictments
In August, a grand jury indicted three senior county employees and a former flight nurse. All stemmed from an investigation into the theft, loss and attempted cover-up of more than 600 missing vials of fentanyl, Dilaudid, morphine and other narcotics from the county’s Trauma Star medical helicopter service, whose medical staff is managed by Monroe County Fire Rescue.
Retired county administrator Roman Gastesi, who was slated to return to the top job the following month, was charged with official misconduct, a third-degree felony.
The grand jury also indicted Dr. Sandra Schwemmer, who was the medical director contracted to oversee MCFR and Trauma Star, and Capt. Andrea Thompson, who was MCFR’s division chief of emergency medical services (EMS) and Trauma Star.
Schwemmer was charged with official misconduct; providing false information to law enforcement and altering patient records. Thompson was charged with two counts of official misconduct, one count of providing false information to law enforcement, two counts of evidence tampering, three counts of witness tampering with witnesses, and one count of altering patient records.
Christine Hurley gets top county job
Following the indictment of Roman Gastesi, the county commission enthusiastically promoted Christine Hurley to the position in September. She had been working as executive director of the county’s land authority, and previously headed its growth management division, which regulates development. Hurley also served as assistant county administrator under Gastesi.
Tourism turmoil
And then there was the turmoil at the Monroe County Tourist Development Council (TDC), which also started in 2023, also with an audit that was critical of the agency’s financial management and oversight.
The unrest continued this year as the county clerk released three additional audits of the TDC’s contracts with its public relations firm, its advertising agency and its website provider.
In March, the TDC board fired marketing director Stacey Mitchell as a result of the 2023 audit and began a search for a new president and CEO.
In August, the board hired Kara Franker to lead the TDC. She started work on Sept. 9.
In September, Mitchell filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the county.
The three additional audits eventually prompted the TDC to terminate its longstanding contracts with NewmanPR, Tinsley Advertising and Two Oceans Digital.
Franker said she plans to bring much of the PR tasks in-house, while the agency issued Requests for Proposals seeking an ad agency and a website/digital services provider. Responses to those RFPs were due Dec. 19 and selections will be made in early 2025.
And finally, the row over ROGO
As the few remaining building rights in the Keys dwindle, it’s been a year of debate, analysis and input for Monroe County and the islands’ municipalities, ending in an eventual request to the state for more allocations. Through dozens of surveys, workshops and community meetings, leaders saw residents and stakeholder organizations clash, pitting environmental, traffic and quality of life concerns against proponents of property rights and the looming threat of millions of dollars in takings cases potentially falling on taxpayers’ shoulders.
Unfortunately for the Keys, communication from state leaders has been a moving target – down to the final weeks of December, when county officials learned that an ask for 220 building rights within the Keys’ 24-hour evacuation model, previously thought of as a done deal, was anything but. A contentious meeting on Dec. 19 eventually produced a request to the state for a change to the statues governing the Keys as an Area of Critical State Concern, potentially increasing hurricane evacuation times up to 26 hours and adding more than 3,500 building rights to the island chain – but the final answer will need to come from the state Legislature.
