We continue to work diligently to educate the public regarding local issues that impact quality of life, our fragile environment and our limited infrastructure.

We continue to make rational suggestions. Is anyone in Village Hall listening?

There was an important agenda item during the Nov 10th Council meeting regarding the Baseball field renovation.

Why is this important? Let me count the ways. 

While the issue is not in the Council agenda for a decision, just a report, with no public comment, we have been led to believe that the Council may waive their meeting procedures so they can actually vote on this controversial issue, without appropriate public notification. 

That is wrong on many levels.

This adds to the procedural missteps that have plagued this project since 2021.

We are prepared to list the procedural violations and are forwarding them in a letter to Village Council and Village Attorney.

It is incumbent on the VILLAGE ATTORNEY to opine on the legitimacy of these proceedings.

The failure to adhere to our own laws is a concern and we seek the Village legal opinion on the record. An immediate opinion is both appropriate and necessary.

If the Village Attorney needs more time, we understand. Then postpone the baseball ”discussion” until such time as the Attorney can provide his opinion.

Bottom line, the baseball field project needs to be resolved by adhering to all requirements of Village regulations, all in the Sunshine.

• Did the Baseball Design Committee follow public notice requirements for meetings that have been taking place since at least 2021. It does not appear that they did.   

• Islamorada is a party to the proposed Design Build contract but has never signed the contract – yet the contracted designer is hard at work without a legally signed contract.

Consider these factors:

The Interlocal Agreement signed by the School District and Village, requires a Baseball License and Use Agreement.  A first step.

The terms in that agreement need to be succinct and agreeable to all parties before a design can be determined. It must be carefully negotiated with School District approval with very specific terms as to the allowable uses as well as all capital costs, operational, maintenance, and replacement costs during baseball season as well as the remainder of the year. Who is entitled to use all of the facilities, when. Who does the maintenance. 

The draft of the license document provided in tonight’s agenda needs significant improvement and school board agreement before design decisions are appropriate.

We do not think the public and Village Council have been provided all the facts and data regarding the use of our community park.

• Have we heard all the pros and cons about artificial turf versus real grass? 

• Have we weighed the cost, safety and environmental concerns?

We’ve been told repeatedly that the costs are school board costs, not Village money. Isn’t the School Board funded by our taxes?  Of course it is.

Check your tax bill – school taxes are listed. We pay both school and village taxes.

The Islamorada Taxpayers are entitled to a Voice!

And consider the fate of the Baseball Task Force:

Our Village Manager appointed 5 members of the community to a Baseball Task Force to help sort out the facts. 

• These community members put in significant time and energy.  

• A majority of task force members proposed the need for a community survey to assure the taxpayers of Islamorada have a voice. 

• There is no report from the Task Force in the agenda this week. 

• There is no discussion of a survey.  

Why did we have a Task Force?

If we are incorrect with any of our assertions in any of this editorial, please help us correct the record.

Our goal is to report the facts and we will gladly correct any part of our assertions and publish the replies.

The taxpayers of Islamorada own Founders Park.  We all deserve a very loud voice.

Hear us!

As a community we must do better. Remember, elections have consequences.

Tom Raffanello

An EDU is an “Equivalent Dwelling Unit”assigning wastewater system usage based on the water consumption.

There are major wastewater concerns in Islamorada.  We will continue to highlight concerns every week until there are none left to highlight!

The wastewater system is operated as an enterprise fund… a self-supporting government fund that sells goods and services to the public for a fee… just like a business.  We question whether the Village Wastewater Enterprise fund is operating in a businesslike manner!  

Self-supporting? No - they show major deficits year after year.

To address consistent deficits in the wastewater fund, when Greg Oravec was Village Manager, the council voted on 9/30/21 to approve a wastewater rate study at a cost of $42,820. The study was presented and approved by Council on 3/31/22. Oravec was no longer manager and the suggestions in the rate study were never implemented.   The Wastewater Fund continues to operate at a significant deficit year after year.

The current council has now been in office a full year - a year which resulted in a $5 million wastewater deficit….   No longer able to blame the past.

Thank you Islamorada Council for finally scheduling a wastewater special call meeting Nov 17 at 5:30 PM.  Now, let’s find solutions.

This week’s concern:

1. Several budget concerns highlighted by Nov 10 wastewater agenda items:

• Year-end (9/30/25) budget amendment shows a wastewater DEFICIT of $5,343,345 for the year just ended.

• Approval of work authorization with Wade Trim to fix MM92 force main raw sewage leaks at cost of engineering at $846,505, while only $370,00 is budgeted, potentially increasing the $775,128 wastewater deficit projected for current year by almost $500,000. Engineering costs are in addition to the $4,125,000 million projected for the actual construction.

• Time to correct wastewater rate problems and inequities

  
  

These wastewater budget concerns should be moved to the Special Call Wastewater meeting Nov 17.

Note - In recent past newsletters we have already questioned:

1. Why isn’t Sun Community paying their fair share of wastewater costs?

2. Why is the tiny 1947 trailer park near the Post Office paying more than their fair share?

3. Why are the three breweries in the Village paying a minimal amount?

4. Why does Village policy provide a volume discount for wastewater costs to the larger developments, resorts, marinas, restaurants with more than 10 EDUs?

5. Need for public special call meeting about Wastewater FDEP consent order approval. (Special Call Wastewater meeting now on the agenda for Nov 17, 5:30 PM)

We will continue to add/delete concerns until all have been resolved.

In June, 2024, the Village agreed to pay consultants, Miller Legg, $175,750, to create a master plan for the park. According to the Nov 10 staff report “The finalized Master Plan reflects the desired vision and conceptual plans for Founders Park as determined by the citizens, appointed and elected officials, and other stakeholders through community participation.” Does the plan reflect the community’s vision? Should specific unpopular suggestions be eliminated or at least listed as “need more public input?”

Storage in the hammock at the Hill Portions that may be questionable: 35,000 sq ft two-story community center and parking expected to cost near $50 million? The storage area in the hardwood hammock on “The Hill” bayside of Village Hall, with large maintenance building and 50 paved parking spaces. Better to restore the hammock - not reward for damage done with fancy storage paid by taxpayers.

According to a survey released last week by Florida Atlantic University nearly 50% of those questioned have considered leaving Florida.

• 90% of those surveyed are at least somewhat concerned about inflation; 56% are very concerned.

• 80% are concerned about housing affordability, with 49% very concerned.

• Nearly 50% say they’ve considered moving out of Florida due to cost of living.

We wonder what the results would show if those who participated were residents of the Florida Keys, or of Islamorada?

In Monroe County the median income is now $118.000 per year - the highest of all 67 counties in Florida. Result - in Islamorada a single person making $127,820 qualifies for affordable housing; family of 3 - $164,220.  These are not the incomes that are causing our valued workforce to head north. This is why “affordable housing” may be a misguided issue here. Click here for 2025 Village fact sheet.

Sheriff Rick Ramsay announced he will be refunding  $123,253 in excess operating funds to the Village.  The Sheriff had estimated his costs for the Village Law Enforcement services would be $3,079,678, the amount then approved during Islamorada hearings for the budget ending 9/30/25.

According to the final budget amendment for 2024-2025, to be approved Nov 10, 2025, Ramsay billed the Village just $2,852,954, $211,623 less than projected.  

The projected law enforcement cost for the current year, 2025-2026, is $3,474,321, an increase of $394,643 for the current year.

King tides were back this week, with full moon Nov 5. The full moon last Wed morning was the closest the moon has been to Earth since Feb 2019. The closer the moon is to Earth, the stronger its gravitational pull is on the oceans.

The photograph is the moon rising over the ocean in Islamorada last week… looking much like a sunrise!

King tides are exceptionally high tides that happen a few times a year when the moon and Earth align to strengthen the gravitational pull on the ocean, regularly during a full moon in spring or fall.

Democracy means far more than the right to vote every two years. It means the right to participate in every aspect of community decision-making. People must believe that they can take part.

On Monday Nov 10 at 4PM our Village Council will be meeting in a private Executive Session to discuss litigation strategy for a lawsuit against the Village filed by a prior Village Manager – Ted Yates. 

The nonsense has to stop. Yates came to Islamorada on with a one-year contractual term and served at the pleasure of the Village Council. Before the contract was to auto-renew, a 3-2 vote of Council (Jolin, Mahoney and Rosenthal, with Pinder and Gregg dissenting) chose not to allow the contract to renew.

Therefore, it expired at the end of its initial term. 

Village council members had their reasons for non-renewal. Yates and his attorney came up with the ridiculous notion that anyone who had previously disagreed with Yates’ actions as manager should have recused him/herself.  That’s ludicrous. As an example, Supreme Court Justice Kagan argued for ObamaCare, as solicitor general, in front of the Supreme Court.  When appointed to the Supreme Court later on, Kagan voted for the approval of ObamaCare. Did she recuse herself because she argued in public to uphold the law?  No. And there was no recourse, criticism or lawsuit.

The Yates lawsuit (filed 10 months after his separation) has no basis and claims “termination” circumstances that are simply not covered in the employment contract’s very specific “without cause” termination provision. 

The contract spells out the circumstances – there are only four – in which Yates would be entitled to severance.  Not allowing the contract to automatically renew is, of course, not one of them.

Our Village attorney’s associate commented that the case should be dismissed.  After conferring with several of my attorney associates with employment law expertise, I strongly agree.

So after 18 months why hasn’t the Village:

- filed a motion to dismiss?

- filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings?

 -filed a motion for summary judgment?

None of these legal maneuvers have been taken by our attorney.  Yet they are the logical legal steps to be taken after acknowledging the legal weaknesses of a lawsuit such as this.

I am not going to detail various reasons that the council voted not to renew the Yates contract.  Suffice it to say, they exist.  Ask the council members serving then.

We have kicked this lawsuit down the road for 18 months. Some want to offer a cash settlement to make it go away.  That is the easy way out.

When you are right, you must be strong and determined.

My final takes:

The law community has figured out that the Village will cave and pay, rather than stand behind their decisions. 

This just invites more frivolous litigation, and ultimately more tax dollars spent and less respect accorded to Council’s resolutions.

We often pay opponents’ legal fees. This is wrong.

We also need to reassess how we enter into contracts and their content. I have not been impressed:

• Contract content should be based on the best interest of the Village residents and the environment.

• At this point that has rarely happened.

We must do better. Remember, elections have consequences.

Tom Raffanello

An EDU is an “Equivalent Dwelling Unit” assigning wastewater system usage based on the water consumption.

In recent newsletters we have already questioned: Is Sun Communities paying their fair share of wastewater costs? Is the tiny 1947 trailer park near the Islamorada Post Office paying too much? What about the three breweries in the Village paying a minimal amount? Why does Village policy provide a volume discount for wastewater costs to the larger developments, resorts, marinas, restaurants with more than 10 EDUs? This week’s concern: On Oct 30, the Village agreed to the consent order from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to address MM92 issues and the raw sewage leaks. There was no public discussion and vote by Village Council before agreeing to a fix estimated to cost $4.5 million. The twenty-day time limit for response to FDEP seemed to allow time for a special call public meeting… not just phone calls to council members for approval.   The Islamorada wastewater department is required to be self-supporting. When is the last time the Village established updated EDU counts and reviewed the billing policies?  Now there is an urgent need with an FDEP mandate for costly fix.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and House Speaker Daniel Perez, both Republicans, are at odds over proposals to slash or eliminate property taxes as the 2026 legislative session approaches.

Here's the list of eight proposed resolutions to date, which must be approved by three-fifths of the Legislature before appearing on the ballot:

• HJR 201 — Eliminates non-school homestead property taxes.

• HJR 203 — Phases out non-school homestead property taxes over a decade.

• HJR 205 — Exempts residents 65 and older from paying non-school homestead property taxes.

• HJR 207 — Creates a non-school property tax homestead exemption equal to 25% of the assessed value of the house.

• HJR 209 — Creates a $100,000 non-school homestead tax exemption for residences with property insurance.

• HJR 211 — Eliminates the cap on portability, which lets homeowners transfer tax savings from their previous place to a new one. This means a homeowner can transfer their Save Our Homes tax cap benefit to a new home.

• HJR 213 — Limits how much the assessed non-school property tax can grow for a home, from 3% every three years instead of 3% annually for homestead property, and 15% over three years for non-homestead property instead of 10% per year.

• HB 215, which would make various changes including requiring a supermajority vote from a local government to pass a property tax increase and allowing newly married couples to combine their Save our Homes tax cap benefit.

  
  

According to Perez, "It is our position that the House does not need to limit itself in presenting one single plan, but instead allow the people of Florida the ability to choose some, all, or none of the proposals on the 2026 ballot,"

Governor DeSantis disagrees and believes a single issue should be on the ballot in November 2026 to simplify the process for voters.  DeSantis has called for the homestead property tax to be eliminated.

There is a Legislative Delegation meeting November 13 for local governments and taxpayers to tell their Tallahassee representatives about wishes for the 2026 legislative session.  Property tax is likely a controversy to be addressed.

Nov 13: 10 AM Monroe County Legislative Delegation Meeting; password:500812