Is anyone in Village Hall listening?

Islamorada planners strive for the bare minimum. Why is that? Rather than independently evaluate what is best for the residents and make recommendations, the Village now simply touts its decisions as being “consistent with the Comp Plan” — you know, that document that sets the absolute floor of decisions and has been decried by all who have read it as being inconsistent and in desperate need of revamping. The Comp Plan: The document that is over 25 years old and has been the subject of Band-Aid amendments. Yes, that comp plan. The comp plan has been exploited, piecemeal modified and abused for over 25 years. Take the Crooked Palm amendment case: Village officials accepted the minimum, claiming it met the Com Plan guidelines — but which ones? The Comp Plan is so inconsistent, anything would meet at least some of its goals. But there is rarely any mention of the goals.  What are they? Rather than simply holding the line of the voluntary concessions that resulted from the months-long negotiations with residents that were deemed necessary to obtain the transfer of the liquor license and use the property as a bar several years ago, the Village just eliminated the agreed upon conditions.    This despite its proximity to schools and churches, the Village has decided, oh well, now removing all those carefully considered and negotiated conditions is fine — all because Crooked Palm supposedly meets the bare minimum of the Comp Plan. Whatever that is. Why are they striving for the minimum? What is the minimum?  To help out a “good neighbor” — who cited only financial underperformance as the justification to renege on the painstakingly negotiated agreements. Was that all for show? It looks like it. Many factors must be considered to determine whether to grant major conditional use conditions — or in this case, remove them (despite there being no process in the Code to do so). Whether a particular use of property violates the Comp Plan is the bare minimum, the starting point, not the ending point. It is an excuse to hide behind the continued lack of transparency and fair evaluation of what is best for the property, the neighborhood, and the Village, irrespective of who owns it. It is certainly not a goal to champion and frankly, embarrassing, that “the code is the code” is all the Village had to say to justify such unprecedented actions. When this establishment is sold, what is our guarantee that the next owner will be a “good neighbor?” There is none. My feedback on my prior article regarding the Crooked Palm was 10 to 1 in favor of maintaining the restrictions in the original deal. Does anybody care? I would love to write positive things about the village that we love but the horrible decisions and gamesmanship consistently on display, prevents me from being very positive.   Elections have consequences. Tom Raffanello Reply to: ICA.in.Keys@gmail.com

Thank you Maria Bagiotti for your efforts in making Founders Park an amazing centerpiece for our community! Article courtesy of The Free Press.

Finally there is positive communication between Islamorada and Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District (KLWTD).

The KLWTD engineers have made recommendations for improvements to help prevent recurring problems with the Village’s wastewater system, including improvements expected to address the issues at MM92 with force main pipe leaks.

The Village has budgeted $4 million for the coming year to correct the issues that have been ongoing for more than 5 years. KLWTD recommendations will be on the Village Council agenda at the October 7 meeting for review and discussion.

The Islamorada Library is offering programs for the community while the branch is closed for a refresh. The 9/15/25 closing is expected to last about five weeks.

During the closing, Islamorada branch staff will be holding events in the community. To follow them click here.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said rising property taxes are putting pressure on homeowners across the state, and that meaningful reform must be a top issue in the coming election cycle.

Ingoglia said state leaders are working to bring a property tax reform measure before voters.  “… so we can get real property tax reform on the 2026 ballot and have people vote for their own tax cut, not have to worry about the locals doing it for them,” he said.

Governor DeSantis: Abolishing property taxes on Florida homeowners would put “a thumb on the scale in favor of traditional homeownership, allowing more everyday Floridians to purchase the same homes that are now mostly affordable to investors.”

Currently, 19.41% of taxable property value in Monroe County is homesteaded property.  Hard to visualize a potential budget season in 2026 with almost 20% of real estate property values no longer taxable. Would there be tax cuts - or just a shift to ask vacation homeowners, investors, and businesses to pay more.

And then Insurance Costs: “Analysis says Florida is the most expensive state for homeowners’ insurance.”  via Drew Dixon of Florida Politics — Florida has made some gains in reducing homeowners’ insurance costs in recent years. But the state still has the most expensive premiums for coverage in the U.S.

Last week, Islamorada Community Alliance Pres Tom Raffanello commented that Crooked Palm changes were a fiasco: the poster boy for our Village making decisions based on influence and business relationships rather than the merits of the case.  He promised more details: Here they are.

From Sec 30-632 Findings Islamorada Land Development Regulations: “Ensuring workforce and their families live in the village is important for maintaining community character”  explaining there is a “general sense of community that occurs when persons and families who work in the community, live in the community, attend schools in the community, participate in civic organizations in the community, worship in the community, and vote in the community.”

Have the Village Councils, over the last 25 years, done enough to “Ensure the workforce and their families live in the village?”

Perhaps only big profit projects get attention.  

The Village has close to 130 employees - a significant percentage commute from Key Largo, Tavernier or the mainland.  

The County gets TDC funding to pay 100% of the purchase price for 12 newly finished 1-bedroom apartments for the workforce - and still needs to charge rents starting at $1797/month… and require minimum income of $71,880 to qualify.  

The Village uses some of the available affordable housing funds to buy potential sites for affordable housing then does nothing with the land.

• 12/2021, Island Silver and Spice, MM82: $2.75 Million

• 5/2021, Machado, MM88.5, $1.8 Million

• 8/2024, Church, MM83, $3.995 Million

Islamorada got 300 affordable BPAS allocations after Hurricane Irma in 2018 and the allocations just sit unused.

In our next newsletter we will try to figure out what is wrong.

Bills are already being filed for the 2026 Legislative Session in Tallahassee, and the Village has yet to discuss legislative priorities and the contract for a lobbyist.

The GrayRobinson contract ends September 30.  This Council requested competitive bidding for a lobbyist at the April, 2025 meeting.  The RFQ was issued and then canceled. The Village has been hiring a lobbyist for $108,000, year after year, waiving competitive bidding.  It looked like it would be different this year.

With or without a lobbyist: Aren’t there concerns that the legislature could address that would be advantageous to Islamorada?

In the past, Islamorada spent $108,000/year for GrayRobinson but never provided a list of priorities.  The funding is in the budget again for 2025-2026 - but no contract yet.

At Sun Community, MM87.5 there are 55 elevated modular homes exempt from paying property tax because of Florida Statutes that treats them as vehicles with a $88/year vehicle registration fee instead of property taxes. Shouldn’t these modular homes selling for $600,000 - $900,000 pay property taxes?

TDC bed tax revenues this current year will total $60 million – required to be used for advertising to bring more tourists to the Keys or for bricks and mortar projects that attract tourists.  Shouldn’t TDC funds help support services required by tourism – affordable housing, road/bike path maintenance, park maintenance, public safety? It would require a change to Florida law. 

SB 180 – a bill passed last year that prohibits local government from passing amendments to Comprehensive Plans and Land Development Regulations that are more restrictive than current regulations.  Right in the middle of our costly Comp Plan review.

Isn’t it time to let the legislature know what Islamorada priorities are.

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

Is anyone in Village Hall listening?

For many years, I was responsible for the submission and execution of substantial operational government budgets. Result? I have an opinion based on experience.

I can honestly say that I have never seen a budget process as broken as the Village budget protocol. At last week’s Budget Hearing, in less than 5 minutes, the Village Council approved spending $60 million resident tax dollars.

The budget Task Force of village residents commissioned by Manager, Ron Saunders, a few months back, did a great job and made common sense, actionable recommendations. They recommended a review of the “gold plated Rolls Royce” of employee benefits, including health insurance benefits bestowed by prior manager, Ted Yates, without Village Council approval (ignoring law?) Where was HR? Where was the Village Attorney?

They took a baby step to try to fix the issue, reducing employee family health insurance coverage from 97% paid by taxpayers down to 80%.  They then used the savings to provide salary increases.

Task Force recommendations also included:

• A request to improve the budget process and presentation to the residents.

• Suggested hiring a full-time grant writer to supplement funding

• Institute performance-based standards for employee raises

All these recommendations hit the mark and are common practice in the real world. Unfortunately, so many very relevant recommendations seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

We may have shared the following information in prior newsletters but it needs to be repeated.  The cost of government/resident:

• Islamorada (7,170 residents) - $2301/resident

• Marathon (9,689 residents) - $1,070/resident

• Key West (26,444 residents) - $817/resident

Our total general fund expenditures have increased from $11 million in 2021 to $17 million in the current cycle. A yearly increase of 11.24%. When does this stop and why do we spend so much?

Has anyone on Council ever executed multi-million-dollar budgets made up of taxpayer money before? You can’t manage what you don’t understand.

In order to stop the bleeding, we have several recommendations:

• Conduct an operational audit. Perhaps programs that were begun several years ago can be tweaked or eliminated. We have never done this in our quarter of a century existence.

  
  

• Require staff to submit cost cutting budgets: 10% and 15% potential budget cuts in future submissions. That would reveal programs and positions that can be eliminated. It is efficient and good business. Throughout my managerial career we were required to submit three budget requests: 10%, 15%, and 20% cuts. This is not a foreign concept. This may demonstrate some full-time positions that could be contracted out to avoid costly employee benefit packages.

  
  

• Invite the Florida Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to help us analyze how we can be more efficient. Why would any government official not welcome DOGE assistance? DOGE recommendations do not have to be implemented, but for the first time in a quarter of a century, the Village would have a state-of-the-art analysis performed by an outside entity.

I think that knowing we are not going about budgeting efficiently should be an eye opener for residents.

If you don’t care how your tax money is spent, then I am not speaking to you. I am speaking to those who do care.

Contact your Village Council and Village Manager and urge them to do better with our taxpayers’ funds…  and listen to residents.

What they are doing is not working.

Thank goodness that elections have consequences.

Tom Raffanello

Reply to: ICA.in.Keys@gmail.com

The 2026 Florida Legislative Session begins on Jan 13, 2026 and there are bills already being introduced.  

The Village contract with lobbyists, Gray Robinson, will end on Sep 30, 2025.

At the April 8, 2025 Council Meeting, the current council directed staff to finally require competitive bidding for the Village lobbyist. The RFP was posted and immediately canceled.  Why?

We have had the same lobbyists for over 10 years, each year approving a contract, while waiving competitive bidding.  

The contract with the Village lobbyist expires in two weeks.  The 2026 legislative session is right around the corner. Islamorada hasn’t created a list of priorities.

Legislative Wish List: A year ago our lobbyist was asked at a council meeting… what have you done specifically for Islamorada.  The answer - “You haven’t asked us for anything.”  

Are we just wasting $108,000 of taxpayer money?

Monroe County has an entire Legislative Affairs Department and creates a complete agenda for their lobbyists… a vast majority of their “wish list” would be identical to the Village priorities. Perhaps we should team up!  Click here to see the County priority booklet for 2025, or just their summary one pager.