Islamorada kicked off 2025 with some shakeups in government, specifically with the village manager’s resignation and a councilman’s abrupt exit. Selection of a new councilmember to fill the vacant seat, as well as the council’s pick for a new manager, brought some stability to the village. Spending for operations, the state of the wastewater system and the school district’s proposed improvements to a baseball field at Founders Park dominated the headlines throughout the year.
Council parts ways with manager
Islamorada Village Council kicked off 2025 by voting 4-1 on a separation agreement with then-manager Rob Cole during a Jan. 7 meeting. Before the vote, Cole announced his resignation from a post he was unanimously selected to by a previous council in February 2024. The lone “no” vote, councilman Steve Friedman, said he was troubled in how the matter of severing Cole’s relationship with the village came about. Friedman said he knew Cole “liked his job and was not seeking to resign.” Council chose chief building official Sheila Denoncourt as acting manager.
Councilman Pinder resigns
A shakeup in Islamorada government continued with the resignation of councilman Joseph “Buddy” Pinder III on Jan. 10. First elected in 2020, Pinder told Keys Weekly he was ready to move on from his public service to enjoy time traveling.
Council decides replacement
A special meeting on Jan. 30 saw a stalemate among the council members over candidates for the seat vacated by Pinder. Two voters were for Anna Richards, co-owner of a surveying business and a licensed floodplain manager. The other two were for Greg Dully, a real estate agent, deacon at First Baptist Church Islamorada and chairman of the village’s Land Acquisition Advisory Committee. Council members didn’t change their votes and a stalemate persisted through the night. At the advice of village attorney John Quick, the council ultimately agreed, via 3-1 vote, to table the decision to a March 18 meeting — despite needing to pick a replacement within a 30-day period as required by the charter.
Council members ultimately made the choice sooner, approving Richards to the seat during a Feb. 11 meeting. It came after Dully stepped away from being considered and urged council to pick Richards. He said it wasn’t an easy decision, although he believed the move would foster unity while hoping that it would allow the council to move forward.
State attorney investigates village
Events surrounding the departure of then-manager Rob Cole were under investigation by the Monroe County State Attorney Dennis Ward’s office, the Keys Weekly learned in early March. Specifically, the state attorney was looking for a possible Sunshine Law violation over Cole’s exit and separation agreement. Sunshine laws require that officials conduct business at scheduled meetings and not by consultation out of public view.
In July, Ward’s office announced no Sunshine violation occurred in Cole’s exit. “We pursued this investigation with the highest level of scrutiny and, after extensive interviews, document reviews and analysis of communication records, we found no violation of Florida’s Sunshine Law. While the community’s concerns were valid and warranted examination, the resignation process was conducted lawfully,” Ward said.
Village safeguards natural lands
Islamorada council members and staff gathered off Porto Salvo Drive in the Venetian Shores community on April 9 to dedicate an 85-acre property as a nature preserve. What started as litigation became preservation. Glynn’s trust and heirs attempted to obtain limited development approval for upland area along U.S. 1 frontage of the property through applications submitted to the village for small scale comprehensive plan amendment and associated rezoning to allow affordable housing development. Those applications were denied by the village in 2019. The matter eventually reached mediation in 2023, which led to a settlement agreement in which the village purchased the property from the Glynn heirs. The village paid $650,000 to acquire full ownership of the 85 acres.
Council chooses Saunders as village manager
Former Florida House member and lifelong Keys resident Ron Saunders was unanimously selected as Islamorada’s village manager during an April 10 meeting. Before the selection process, Mayor Sharon Mahoney stressed the importance of a 5-0 vote for whoever the council would choose as next village manager.
First citizens budget task force
Composed of five village residents, the village’s first budget task force was created by Saunders to instill more transparency and citizen input into the village government. Task force members spent time reviewing financial statements while examining current and past budgets; with it came critical questions and recommendations to tackle issues of excess spending.
Among the task force’s suggestions were examining the total number of employees, creating a merit-based raise system for employees to ensure “accountability and high performance” and reducing the taxpayer costs on insurance for employees and their families.
Village approves budget
Village council members approved a $92 million budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, as well as a 2.65 millage rate, or $265 per $100,000 of a property’s assessed value. In total, the village will receive $18.2 million in property taxes in addition to other revenues from permits and fees, fines and forfeitures and charges for service, to fund day-to-day expenses. Total day-to-day expenses in the village are $23.2 million, of which fire rescue and law enforcement services account for $12.6 million.
Village works through wastewater issues
Concerns over an Islamorada wastewater system plagued in recent years by line breaks and overflows will be resolved, following a state order and subsequent agreement between the village and Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District.
At a special meeting on Nov. 17, council members were briefed on a response and remedy plan to the wastewater collection system issues, which were highlighted in a consent order by Florida Department of Environmental Protection. An Oct. 15 report by DEP noted a series of violations with the village’s system, including six sanitary sewer overflows and discharges, from May 2021 to as recently as last March. The incidents were in violation of state regulations which prohibit sewage, wastewater or biosolids from being disposed of without treatment.
Tom Brzezinski, chief business officer of engineering firm Wade Trim, said they will examine transient hydraulic loadings in the pipe and dig up sections where the break occurred and look at these joints. But the heart of the consent order hones in on construction of a new inline booster pump on North Plantation Key. Brzezinski said the inline booster is designed to keep a consistent pressure in the conveyance force main to the Key Largo treatment plant.
Baseball field work brings discussion
Efforts by the Monroe County School District to inject roughly $6 million in improvements to the Founders Park baseball field drew much discussion and debate over the year. And the debate continues over the type of playing surface at the Founders Park ballfield, as some experts weighed in during a November public meeting in Islamorada. School officials are backing the use of synthetic turf, a manufactured product using fibers that mimic the aesthetic look of natural grass, on any future field improvements they undertake, including the field at Founders Park.
Village council members approved a preliminary design, but have yet to sign off on a baseball license agreement with the school district. Discussions will continue in 2026.
Peacocks preserved
Taking or feeding peacocks in the village is now outlawed following the council’s unanimous vote in October to create new protections for the nonnative birds, which have roamed the area of Plantation Key for decades. The ordinance prohibits anyone from removing peafowl and their eggs. There are exemptions, however, for property zoned agricultural and for property owners who would like to remove peacocks from their property, so long as they don’t physically harm them.
The residency of peacocks in the village almost came to an end after a local homeowners association was seeking to have bounty hunters remove the birds, which have been flocking onto the Plantation Key property. It caused quite a stir in a community with residents who’ve come to adore the peacocks’ existence on the island.
A large response from the community to protect the peacocks led the Port of Call Townhouses Homeowners Association’s board of directors to hold off on their removal. Per the homeowners association’s attorney, the root cause of the peacock problem was the continuous feeding of the animals by two owners within the community — a violation of the association’s rules. Despite multiple violation letters sent by the association and its legal counsel, the letter states, these owners continue feeding the peafowl and exacerbating the issue.
