The Committee is expected to meet at least once a month. The deadline is May 31, 2026, for the committee to approve a final report advising the Village Council of any proposed amendments.

All meetings will be open to the public. Be sure to watch for notices of the committee meetings. Public engagement will be critical. The charter equates to a Village constitution.  Not only does it provide the governing procedures, it can provide critical regulations that cannot be altered except through a referendum requiring a vote of Village registered voters. (Example - the village 35’ height restriction is in the charter and cannot be changed by Council vote.)   

Click here to read the Charter.

Almost 3 years ago a Major Conditional Use Permit was approved by council following a lengthy public hearing. The conditional use allowed for the construction of 4 restaurants with a total of 13,511 square feet, 12-Unit Hotel/Motel, 30-Slip Docking Facility, a 180 square foot bait house.

This new, nearly 5,000 sq ft tiki, is to be restaurant seating (100 seats) for a mobile food truck according to the site plan submitted last summer. Is this site plan a replacement for the 2023 site plan, or a Phase 1 that potentially needs council approval? According to code, any restaurant over 5000 sq ft requires a public hearing.  While the tiki is listed in the site plan as a 4,975 sq ft restaurant- what about a food truck instead of a kitchen for a 100-seat restaurant. Just a way to avoid a public hearing?

Every successful entity produces and executes a Strategic Plan. In my experience they are usually reviewed annually.

During the last election every candidate spoke about the importance of implementing and following a Village Strategic Plan.

As of today, none of the Village Council members elected 14 months ago has discussed or said the words “strategic plan.”  I write it off to the “I will say anything to get elected” posture of several of our council members.

Just last week I listed a dozen issues that could be the starting point for the village to launch a successful and productive 2026. A follower of our newsletters and property owner in Islamorada commented that much of the list looked like the start of a Strategic Plan.

What a compliment.

The list is sound organizational advice that our village should adopt. But is it a bad idea because it comes from the ICA?

Some may feel that way, but good ideas are there to be stolen and applied by our government to improve our village no matter who comes up with the ideas.

My list last week was intended to be the beginning of goal setting, a “to do list” for 2026. Click here to look at my suggested goals for 2026.

The last official Islamorada Strategic Plan was approved in 2017. In the very first paragraph the Plan stated:

“The Strategic Plan is intended as a guiding document to be utilized for annual goal-setting, budgeting, and evaluation processes to direct the Village’s actions,  investments, and engagements with partners.”

Now let’s talk about Strategic Planning.

The Village 2017 Strategic Plan has 30 goals listed in order of priority. The ratifying vote to determine priority ranking consisted of 15 staff and 5 council members.

Why this heavy disparity? Staff should have input but not the majority of the votes.

They were not elected by residents, and most do not reside in the village. Last I heard, the residents are to be in charge of their government through elected officials.

The 2017 Plan is full of serious flaws not in sync with current Village needs. Yet a new or updated Strategic Plan has not been discussed or produced. It was mentioned by Elizabeth Jolin several years ago, but got no traction or support.

The last goal, Goal #30 in the 2017 plan, was implemented quickly :

“Transition from contracted to in-house wastewater operations and maintenance services.”

That has proven to be a huge multi-million-dollar mistake. This decision needs to be reversed.

I look at Council meetings and think “these guys/gals have no direction.” They often seem to be running a rudderless ship.

A vetted Strategic Plan would provide current goals and direction to all the village personnel and elected officials.

If I were a betting man, and I am, I would wager that most of the current council and current staff have never seen the 2017 Strategic Plan even though it is available on the Village website.

Click here to see the 2017 plan. The top priority back 9 years ago – a place for public works. We are still working on it.

There is no need to hire a contractor to help with a Strategic Plan and push this off another year or two. We make the mistake of contracting plans at the drop of a hat.

The Monroe County Strategic Plan could be adopted by the Village as is. It is a generic plan that prioritizes critical goals. Same goals we all have in the Keys.

Using strategic plan goals, annual goal-setting could then establish a “to do list” and budgeting to accomplish the goals.

Monroe County made their strategic plan simple and clear. It has just three categories:

• Quality of life,

• The environment

• The economy.

  
  

It lists areas of concern and priorities in each category. Period.  A concise list any local government in the Keys could use that would guide to specific annual goal-setting.

Click here to see the Monroe County Strategic Plan.

We certainly need a replacement for the 2017 plan -  a precise set of goals that can be used to prioritize the village agenda.  And there should be no doubt… the new plan must be in the best interests of Village residents.

Council… do the job you were elected to do.

Tom Raffanello

And just 241 pages in the Thursday Land Use agenda…. including the 70-page outdated September 2007 Workforce Housing Support Study we see, sometimes multiple times, in Land Use agendas, included to demonstrate a dire need for workforce housing - and justification to approve more growth. But a 20-year-old report - surely things are not the same as they were then.  

What’s Missing? Based on the minutes from the December Council meeting, we expected to see:

• the Founders Park Baseball Field License Agreement with the School Board, but the design seems to be progressing without an agreement

• Plan for Transferable Development Rights Registry

• RFP/RFQ for Village paid parking

• RFP/RFQ for Workforce housing at the Machado property at MM88.5

And these are just items discussed in December.