The Monroe County-appointed selection committee tasked with finding the best person to become president/CEO of the multimillion-dollar Tourism Development Council has chosen an experienced tourism executive as their first choice to take the newly created job.
But the TDC Board has the final say on the hiring. The board will have the final vote to hire the candidate as recommended by the selection committee, which chose a no. 1 candidate plus an alternate.
On Tuesday in Key Largo, the board will meet to begin working on a contract with the committee’s no. 1 pick, Kara Franker, 41, of Wellington, Florida.
The TDC Board meets at 10 a.m. in a hybrid online and in person meeting at the Murray Nelson Government Center.
Franker told Keys Weekly she wants the job and will relocate to the Keys once a contract is signed.
She said her first step as TDC president/CEO would be to start meeting with locals to learn what they want from the tourism agency.
“I come from a marketing background but I’ll be new to this community and I need to hear what people have to say,” Franker said. “Through the process, I’ve found everyone is so passionate about this community. I’m a passionate person, that’s just my personality. I need lots of face time with a lot of people. I need advice, I need wisdom.”
Franker wouldn’t be working for Monroe County. TDC has their own staff and board.
The president/CEO is a contract position with the corporation, 3406 North Roosevelt Blvd. Corporation, or Visit Florida Keys. The president/CEO salary range is $210,000 to $250,000.
Monroe County hired the recruiting firm SearchWide Global to handle the job search, at a total estimated cost under the contract of $85,375, according to Assistant County Attorney Christine Limbert.
Limbert recommended that the selection committee choose at least two top candidates, “in the event that a candidate doesn’t accept the position or an agreement can’t be reached.”
In a unanimous vote on July 26, the selection committee determined Franker was the best candidate. They chose an alternate, Nerissa Serrano Okiye, director of tourism for Martin County.
“I’d be extremely surprised, but we never know,” said Roman Gastesi, the longtime county administrator, said of Franker not becoming the TDC president/CEO.
“We have to have an alternate,” Gastesi said. “All four [finalists] can do it but we have to make decisions here. My vote is with Nerissa for no. 2.”
Franker left a CEO tourism job in Estes Park, Colorado, to return to Florida.
“I’m a long-term South Florida person,” Franker told Keys Weekly on Monday. “I’ve been coming to the Keys since I was a kid. I was in Miami 12 for years, Fort Lauderdale for two years. I did the Colorado thing and came back.”
Franker said her Florida Keys experience sets her apart from the other finalists.
“I don’t think anybody else has spent as much time in the Florida Keys,” Franker told the selection committee on “I’ve been coming for decades.”
Franker got engaged in Key West after her then-boyfriend surprised her with a trip. She said she’s stayed at more than 20 hotels, some more than once, she said.
She’s also seen Sushi’s drag queen red shoe drop on New Year’s Eve on Duval Street, and once walked past a Key West bar and heard a singer’s voice that she immediately knew was Kenny Chesney.
“We run over and it’s not even packed..you could walk in and there’s Kenny Chesney with his band.”
Originally from Kansas, Franker earned a degree in journalism before going to law school. Her first job out of school was as a prosecutor for Miami-Dade County.
But she went on to become an executive in destination market tourism – a specific area that the selection committee required to even consider a candidate.
The TDC has never had a president/CEO. Instead for years, the top job title was director of marketing.
The hiring process began three months after the TDC board unanimously fired veteran Keys marketing leader Stacey Mitchell, after a series of audits from the county clerk ripped the agency, which is funded with lodging and hotel taxes, for failing to maintain financial protocols.
Now, the TDC not only has a president/CEO coming onboard, but they are also seeking a Senior Administrator of Finance and Employee Services.
“The primary function is to provide supervision and direction to the financial team and coordinate the employee services activities of the corporation” according to the job description. Deadline for applicants is Aug. 9, 2024.
When she arrived in Colorado, Franker said she hired a CFO right away to work for her organization.
“Here in Monroe County, you need a CFO right away,” Franker told the committee during the in-person interviews in Marathon on July 26. “That is imperative to the future, to the risk management piece of this.”
Selection committee members said all four of the finalists could do the job well. But they chose Franker during a brief discussion.
“She has a detailed way of managing an organization and a leadership role,” County Commissioner Jim Scholl said. “Having a legal background is a plus coming into the organization at this time.”
Of the finalists who didn’t make it, Scholl said, “There are potential CFOs in there as well. Just a thought.”
