Meet the Candidates-Political Panel

The Ocean Reef Chamber of Commerce is hosting a political panel via Zoom on October 7th.
Free to all Chamber and Ocean Reef Club Members.
This is your chance to hear where our candidates stand, what they feel equips them to serve as your representative, and what direction they hope to take both on public policy and the myriad of programs that are part of making “our unique way of life” possible.
This Political Panel is an opportunity to understand what motivates our candidates and hear from them directly from a non-partisan source as we gather the facts to vote in this upcoming election.
After a brief installation of our 2020-2021 Board of Directors you’ll hear from several of our local candidates from the US Congressional Representative seat to candidates from our Board of Monroe County Commissioners, these candidates were selected at large.
The decisions the districts in the lower keys are prioritizing are also affecting us here in the upper keys.
Toll at the entrance to the Keys to fund infrastructure and sea level rise mitigation? Investment in coral reef restoration research and/ or Everglades Restoration? The question of whether funds from the Sadowski State and Local Housing Trust Fund will ever in fact be used for affordable housing? There is also a state ballot initiative about increasing minimum wage. What happens to parks, beaches and open spaces in the Keys as we move to having a Parks and Recreation Director for the county for the first time or struggle to get the county back to a point where they can move forward on projects after laying off 40 employees during the pandemic? What measures are being taken to address the flooding in Key Largo? Is the 2023 cap on development in Monroe County per growth management restrictions likely to be enforced? These are all decisions to be made by our local representatives.

The format is an intro for each candidate, a question for each, and a closing statement for each aimed at showing us they have the skills to do the job.

Zoom info (provide here)
Registration: free and open to all

If you have a question you would like to submit for our October 7th Meet the Candidates: Political Panel, please email Margie Smith directly at [email protected]

Margie Smith
President Ocean Reef Chamber of Commerce 2018-2020
Business Consultant, Florida Small Business Development Center at FIU