Key West The Newspaper

by Walter Lagraves…….

Dear Editor:

Last Friday Ralph DePalma wrote a letter to the editor slamming certain members of the current Florida Keys Mosquito Control Board and promoting the candidacy of certain persons now competing for a seat on that Board. He wrote in support of incumbent candidate Commissioner Steve Smith and others.

Mr. DePalma’s letter made good reading if you are a fan of fiction. But it is redolent with the aroma of sour grapes and mendacity.

While you’re reading what follows please consider that membership on the FKMCB board is voluntary. Those who seek membership should be very aware that it is public service for the sake of public service. The board meets once a month.

Mr. DePalma had been a long term employee of Mosquito Control. He ultimately was placed in charge of that agencies very small IT department. He played no role in killing skeeters, policy making, in personnel matters, or in administering the operation. He was in charge of what is/was a one or two person operation. In terms of Mr. DePalma’s tenure, suffice it to say that he likely was very happy when he retired, that emotion was shared by others at mosquito control.

Over the years Mr. DePalma enjoyed astonishing perks that were voted into place by Commissioner Shaw and incumbent candidate Commissioner Smith. He owes Shaw and Smith a debt of gratitude.

FKMCB employee’s enjoyed some fabulous perks. For example….. free health care for life. Not just for the employees, but even for the board members. Allow me to repeat that….free health care for life for board members. Amazing.

In 2010, the makeup of the FKMCB changed. Mr. DePalma complains about that change because it saw the beginning of real fiscal responsibility. That reality also caused much much dismay to Mssrs. Shaw and Smith.

Shaw and Smith also took great care to make certain that they too, personally, received free health care for life. Imagine that…free health care for life. That was one of the FkMCB benefits that cost you and I millions. When fiscally responsible commissioners came to the board, those benefits were done away with for new employees. Smith and Shaw fought tooth and claw against it. And especially hard to keep their own personal health care for life. In spite of them, the benefit was done away with for board members., You saved millions. No surprise that Shaw and Smith voted to keep their lifetime free health care. In fact it was their votes that gave them the lifetime benefit has resulted in the FKMCB having $14 million in unfunded liability.

The new board majority also set about trying to cut the very generous salaries of the elected board members. Remember it is a volunteer part time post. Once again Smith and Shaw fought tooth and claw against it. They voted against this waste of your tax dollars. Smith and Shaw lost, the board’s salary was cut. A year or so later, another attempt was made to again cut the board’s salary…once again Smith and Shaw fought against it…that even though this part time volunteer public service post actually pays nearly $20k per year. Not too shabby for attendance at 12 meetings a year. Smith and Shaw, true to form, fought against it…this time they prevailed.

Smith and Shaw took very, very good care of Smith and Shaw; at your expense. Mr. Smith has been taking very good care of Mr. Smith for the last 20 years….now he wants another four. Geeesh! Smith is the poster boy for term limits.

Mr. De Palma complained about the soon to be new big Coppitt FKMCB facility. It’s worth noting that incumbent candidate Smith voted for the new building in its initial modest but perfectly functional configuration. Then it was to have cost about $1.2 mil. That sound policy making was short lived.

Smith then became the ardent champion of morphing the proposed stand alone utilitarian structure into a architectural gem of a two building complex that would have cost you and I about $6.2 mil., maybe more. If Smith had had his way, if his vote had won, the Big Coppit Key Skeeter Taj Mahal would have increased your skeeter tax by about 45%. I say again..45%. Once again Smith was at the forefront of the waste of your dollars.

DePalma claims that the FKMCB now has only about $2 mil in reserves. That is not true! The reality is that the board currently has about $4 mil in reserves…and that’s even after paying for the new Big Coppit facility.

The Key Haven field trial of the Oxitec process is nothing new to FKMCB. The process had been approved by every Board since about 2009. Mr. Smith then, to his credit, had been a supporter of the process and the project. Indeed he voted for the project at every turn. Every time the issue came up Smith was a strong supporter. Recently however, he has been bowing to the hysterical howls from the Anti GMM activists. He appears to be folding, bending and collapsing like a cheap lawn chair.

Certainly Mr. DePalma longs for the good old days. Those days were very good for him and for the old line commissioners. Certainly we can understand his debt of gratitude. But trying to claw us back to the days of waste and inefficiency is beyond understanding. Thankfully those not so good old days are gone. They left with the the beginnings of a Board that cares more for the people of Monroe than for self aggrandizement.

DePalma owes Smith, big time. DePalma and Smith are hoping that you are uninformed or have a short memory.

DePalma received that housing allowance. Smith received that housing allowance. The new faces on the board took that money away from them Now we know why DePalma is railing against the new responsible fiscal policies of the Board.

Mr. DePalma also wrote that candidate Janet Woods was denied funding by the Monroe Republican party. He claimed that was as result of a vendetta against her by the Chairman of the Board. That is not true. Janet Woods received $500 from the Monroe Republican Executive Committee. But that’s not all..she also recieved $200 funding from the Upper Keys Republican Club. She may have received additional funding from other Rep clubs, but her campaign reports don’t show it.

There you have it. Given what we have learned, perhaps I was too generous in labeling De Palma’s letter as being fiction. His letter was full of misstatements of fact. Is De Palma a liar, or are those who are informing him intentionally misleading him, or is there some other explanation for his many misstatements of fact?

Given that De Palma is no longer a FKMCB employee, you’ll probably wonder who his sources are. Are they current Board Members and/or candidates for the Board? You’ll decide.

Those are but a few of the reasons why I did not vote for Steve Smith, he is a poster child for term limits. But I did vote for Mr. Pinder, and Ms. Cranney-Gage.

I hope you will join with me

I also hope that you will vote in favor of the Oxitec field trial. As this is written the Florida Department of Health is reporting that there are over 1114 reported ZIKA cases in Florida. That number is growing by more than 30 a week. Now there yet another reported cases in our county. Two new reported cases in a very short time. Try to imagine the catastrophe that a a Zika outbreak would wreak on our community!!

Walter Lagraves
Big Pine Key, Fl.