Quit fiddling and put out the fire already!

I saw this editorial on KeysNews.com a while back:  Fiddling While Rome Burns.  I like it.  It’s well done.  Some of the local Keys governments leap from “shiny object” to “shiny object”.  There’s no plan.  There’s no data.  There are no logical priorities.  If there’s an opportunity to waste time or money, they’ll gladly take it.

There’s an adage that’s been very helpful to me in life:  If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority.  To be effective you have to decide what’s most important and then spend your time and resources on that.  Monroe County government does the exact opposite.

Overspending on capital projects has been an ongoing problem for years.  The county just cannot get a handle on it.  Same with the high kill rate at the Upper Keys animal shelter.  Rather than trying to get their arms around the situation, county staff spins the numbers in an effort to mislead the public.  The wastewater funding disparity suffered by Key Largo taxpayers is another ongoing issue that has not yet been adequately addressed.

While these very serious issues persist, the county involves itself in silly peripheral trivia.  The editorial’s discussion of Comm. Carruthers’s monorail sums up the situation very nicely.  Too bad they didn’t mention the logo contest – also proposed by Carruthers.  Or the Emergency Services Surtax (ESS) proposal which contained numerous falsehoods.

I would imagine that our county government, particularly Comm. Carruthers, is just trying to distract the voters and taxpayers with fluff.  You see, Carruthers is up for re-election.  Despite her disastrous performance, she’s actually filed to run again.  [So  has Kolhage.  Ugh.]  You might recall that in addition to being a promoter of frivolous ideas and misleading information, Carruthers was also a huge proponent of the massive over-spending on Cudjoe Regional.  Maybe she thinks a new logo will make us forget all about that.

There are a couple of other things I’m sure Carruthers would like us to forget.

• Her role in the iPhone scandal.
• Her occasional misuse of P-cards, and extremely defensive reaction to being called out on that.

The best possible thing Carruthers could do for the voters and the taxpayers of Monroe County is to quietly withdraw from the race.  The Keys need leaders that are honest, fair, and willing to control spending.  Carruthers has proven repeatedly that she lacks every single one of these qualities.