Just follow the slime trail.
Loads more ethics violations for the county commissioners. Looks like “Grinder-Pump-George” isn’t the only sleaze, or even the worst. Outstanding work by Rick Boettger at the Blue Paper.
There’s a great song by Lyle Lovett, “Creeps Like Me”. It runs through my head a lot when I think of the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), the iPhone Bandit, and all their squirmy little minions. Here’s a few lines packed full of wisdom. Continue reading
Update: County staff referred my questions to Manuel Castillo, the Executive Director of the Key West Housing Authority. Apparently, the Key West Housing Authority (KWHA) manages public housing units owned by the county? It’s reminiscent of the county’s “partnership” with the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority (FKAA). Remember that Frank Toppino, Richard Toppino’s daddy, serves on the KWHA board. Anyhow here is Castillo’s response.
There truly is an affordable housing crisis in the Keys, and Irma has made it even worse. Monroe County has permitted many, many affordable housing projects in the Keys, but what happened to them all? Where are they? Are they still around? Are they actually affordable?
And how many commercial permits, especially for hotels, have been permitted? There was a moratorium on new hotel rooms at one time. It seems to have fallen by the wayside in the midst of the “crisis”. Continue reading
The Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District (KLWTD) seems to have made it through the storm. From the Free Press.
During Hurricane Irma, the Key Largo district was the only sewer utility whose customers never lost the ability to flush, aside from a smattering of remote properties not connected to the central treatment plant that rely instead on electric-powered grinder pumps.
Congrats, hard-working crew. You know what’s even better? The District is not content with this success. They are still looking for ways to improve. Continue reading
Update: My husband, who is very smart, pointed out that President Sunburnt-frog is probably trying to distract from his latest Obama-care repeal failure with this latest tantrum. Also, the sunburnt-froglings are now struggling with their very own email scandals. And after they made such a huge deal out of proper email usage during the campaign. How very embarrassing. “Lock them up!”
President Cheeto-batter is at it again. Stirring up crap on Twitter. There must be something really juicy coming out about the Russia investigation. Looking forward to that. In the mean time… Continue reading
Mirror, mirror on the wall who’s the biggest offender of them all?
The Citizen served up an extremely hypocritical lecture urging the community “to stand up and hold our elected officials responsible for the financial harm they are inflicting on our community“. Really? How interesting.
There are two major points to be made here.
First of all, when it comes to enabling reckless, incompetent, and possibly corrupt local government, the Citizen is the worst offender. By far. Numerous examples can be found on this blog.
Second, concerned private citizens are already very active in monitoring and vocally opposing all that is wrong with local government in the Keys. There’s this blog and the Coconut Telegraph. There are numerous citizen’s groups. Dump the Pumps, Dig Deep Cudjoe, Last Stand, Key Largo Federation of Homeowners. All these groups are pursuing positive change at the local level.
How is possible to forget the Citizen’s one-sided body slam against a couple of property owners seeking relief? When those property owners attempted to “hold our elected officials accountable”, they didn’t receive very positive coverage from the Citizen. Quite the opposite.
For these reasons alone, the Citizen’s editorial is extremely obnoxious. Continue reading
I’ve been on a whirlwind lately. Early summer is a busy, busy time of year. Lots of projects, visitors, work – everything. Haven’t had too much time to blog or keep up on Keys stuff. But I did have a chance to check in today. Read on. Continue reading
The Keynoter/Reporter has an editorial up about the dangers faced by journalists these days. Greg “the body slammer” Gianforte immediately springs to mind. The editorial isn’t wrong, but are the folks at the Keynoter/Reporter really the right ones to deliver this message?
Let’s face it, the meek, timid bunnies at the Keynoter are as safe in their cozy, little dens as they can possibly be. They might take a swipe at low-hanging fruit or pile on somebody who’s already been targeted, but they will never risk ruffling feathers by asking tough questions when it really counts. I left a comment pretty much saying that.
Funny enough – it looks like they’re up for an award for prettiest website or something. Nothing wrong with “pretty”, but informative would be great. Just sayin’.
Unfortunately, the Keynoter/Reporter isn’t even the worst news outlet in the Keys. That “honor” would go to the Citizen, a publication which passes on lies to the public even after being called on it. Here’s an item about one of their more blatant deceptions. (Be warned – you have to scroll past my Trump rant.) The Citizen is ballsy at least – but not in a good way.
Here’s a really good piece on the topic of sickly Keys media. It’s at the Blue Paper, of course, the only reliable news outlet in the Keys.
Why bother with the play acting?
The Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority (FKAA) responded to my public records request. Their follow-up on the Dean residency issue was underwhelming to say the least. I’m sure this surprises absolutely no one. Basically, the FKAA sent the letter and investigative report to the governor…and that’s it.
The governor didn’t respond. Unsurprising. The letter never asked him to. So rather than following up or handling the situation themselves, like you might expect from grown adults, the FKAA weakly fell back on an email from Cheri Smith of the Key West Canvassing Board to buttress their self-serving decision to do nothing. Here is a link to all the documents provided. Continue reading
I’ve been circling back to some dormant issues lately. One of those is Bob Dean’s apparent violation of the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority’s (FKAA) rules regarding residency requirements. Simply put, board members are supposed to live in the district which they represent.
For most of us, this is a straight-forward matter. Where do you get your mail? Where is your family? Where do you keep your stuff? Where does your dog hang out? Where do you sleep at night? Not for Mr. Dean. More on that here. Continue reading
The questions keep piling up.
In this post, I talked about three questions I posed to Monroe County and the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority (FKAA).
For Freedom And Responsible Government
A critical look at Florida Keys government.
A critical look at Florida Keys government.
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