FERNANDO VAZQUEZ is an engineer and a former Village contractor who helped developed the goals for what could be $250 million in sea level rise projects.
Now, he wants to bring his expertise in a bid for one of three seats on the Village Council -- but what are his views on other subjects?
FERNANDO VAZQUEZ is an engineer and a former Village contractor who helped developed the goals for what could be $250 million in sea level rise projects.
Now, he wants to bring his expertise in a bid for one of three seats on the Village Council -- but what are his views on other subjects?
The views expressed on the following program are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent those of the Key Biscayne independent and again, I think I will always be my friend.
Tony Winton:Live from Key Biscayne, Florida, this is antisocial. The interview show where the beestings of social media are medically treated with logic. I'm Tony Winton,
Thom Mozloom:I'm Thom Mozloom. We're treating beestings with logic. Well,
Tony Winton:I ran out of the other stuff
Thom Mozloom:I use sarcasm to the astringent of sarcasm to treat the stings of social media. That's my that's my go to
Tony Winton:astringent. Yes, good word. Yes. Very Bitter.
Thom Mozloom:Thought it was apropos to as a descriptor of what I do.
Tony Winton:Well, you know what time it is Thom
Thom Mozloom:Iguana mating season, Tony. It's hard to watch radio. Yes. What are we? What's today's subject? We're
Tony Winton:talking about municipal elections? Ah, yeah. Almost as hard. Yeah. Is
Thom Mozloom:Yeah. And another mailer come out? Are we?
Tony Winton:Where are we are we doing about mailers? Yeah, we will get to that in our second segment. Okay. Yes.
Thom Mozloom:Okay. Yeah, no, no, I like this is actually my favorite season. I like I like when all the candidates come in, and we get the interview. Right. It's a it's a good time. And today joining us is, is candidate Fernando Vazquez who is a, an engineer on the island has been here for 20 years and has been gracious enough to come into the studio, and answer your questions and put up with me,
Tony Winton:one of five people running for council, three seats this year and one of four political newcomers. So welcome to antisocial.
Fernando Vazquez:Oh, pleasure to be here. Thank you very much for inviting me.
Thom Mozloom:Now I have to I have to lead with a disclaimer, you are at a disadvantage. Two of the other candidates came in last week. I was not here. Oh. So Jan Dillo sat in admirably. And she is obviously way smarter than me. And probably a lot more fair, and a lot less distracting. So you're going to have to fight through the arrows of my nonsense. While Tony asks you important questions.
Fernando Vazquez:No worries, no worries.
Tony Winton:Well, we have this municipal election, I guess the first question is, why did you decide to run?
Fernando Vazquez:Great question, actually? Well, to tell you to answer that I have to say that I have collected through my years and experiences, you know, both in the public and private sector, I feel that this is a very relevant time. And it's the right time for me to come into government and bring all that experience that I have collected through the years and apply it directly. Case in point, probably you've all taken a look at a little bit of my background. But 30 years of experience working in, in usual infrastructure projects, stormwater projects, infrastructure projects, larger programs, I see the village we are at a point right now we're kind of at inception point. We're kind of flipping from being a you know, beautiful community, what I call the last bastion of a small town USA, into a more complex environment. A lot of people speak of growth, I like to call it more as more as a complex environment where people and society is becoming more complex and the needs are becoming more complex. So having that experience applied in cities like Fort Lauderdale, and Miami Beach, I feel like you know, I've collected all this knowledge. And I'm 60 years old now and getting to a point of retirement, I think it's the next logical step to take and to bring in that knowledge into my community. And I have a stake on this one too. I live on the streets that lead the most. I live in an area that is significantly impacted by by the impacts of climate change, sea level rise, rising tides, etc. And I feel like I can bring in that talent and know how in that specific skill set,
Thom Mozloom:yet resiliency is going to be a big issue. Particularly exists well, particularly with a bond out there, particularly with the managers report on the $250 million that will need to be spent which is you know, 103 $2 million more than the bond is, side by side, therefore, is not just the roads and bridges and hardening, but there's the money. And so where do you stand on borrowing that kind of money, which is going to lead to a lot of other questions, there's going to be debt cap questions, there's going to be questions about raising taxes, there's going to be millage questions, there's gonna be a lot of that coming out.
Fernando Vazquez:Yeah, I think first of all, we need to obviously, I understand, you know, we all understand that we have to make significant improvements. We're entering a programmatic stage for lack of a better word into the village, we have all these great dreams, these fantastic ideas, his vision plan, expansion, potential expansions of public facilities, looking at the causeway, looking at all the utilities we have to do. We're not dealing with pennies here, when dealing with dollars, we're dealing with millions, we're dealing with a multitude of dollars here that we have to we have to really look at. And I definitely feel that we do have to extend our ceiling to a point that we are comfortable enough that we have enough to take us for a period of time. Now, does that answer the entire question? Well, that all depends that all depends on the type of infrastructure that all the infrastructure needs that we have. And I guess the projection that we have in doing this, I mean, take a look at it, we have to do we have to fix all our stormwater systems, we that we have to do also our undergrounding system, right. And to that, we also have to take into consideration the sea walls because as the tides are increasing, the sea walls have lesser and lesser capacity that we're adding also, issues related to the causeway where we are anticipating to have some involvement, I don't know specifically what that means. And the ability to share of whatever the Army Corps and the exactly in the village exactly, well, nonpoint sea walls will
Thom Mozloom:end up with between nourishing between nourishing will end up with more flood control, flood control will end up with raising roads, this is all interconnected when you start thinking about it. And
Fernando Vazquez:I'll give you you know, a perfect example from my own personal experience having worked in Miami Beach as city engineer, Director of transportation and environment, as well as director of capital improvements. The city of Miami Beach started with a back in the 90s. If I'm correct, started with a $75 million bond program for parks that took into consideration some landscaping. Now there are 3.3 billion okay. So is it is it strictly Are we are we just allocating the money strictly for the material not we also have the materials one component, you have to take into consideration the logistics, the you know, the implementation of a unified program where you including, you know, utilities for which we have really no control, we have a lot of control over our own utilities, our stormwater are to a certain degree, we have a good agreement with water and sewer, Miami de water and sewer. So we can combine that, but what about at&t? What about FBML? What about Comcast, those have different priorities, and they also have priorities on installation. So now you're getting into kind of a logistical conundrum for lack of a better word that needs to be put together. And then the residents because once you start opening street residents would like to see some improvements of above ground improvements. So there's been discussions about one weighing some streets now you have to take a look at the traffic, the traffic flow, you know, but considering the residents,
Thom Mozloom:the residents want those improvements, but they want it to be like a magic trick. They don't want the actual hindrance of the process to make those they want to, you know, like, like, like every municipality that I work with. The residents want to thing they want their engineering to be invisible.
Fernando Vazquez:Yes. And toward the end to a degree that what their construction to be invisible to. Getting to
Tony Winton:the specific question, though, is I because I interviewed before about the bottom cap. Yes. But the debt cap question. Right. And I heard you say that there is going to be a need for increased borrowing capacity. Yes. So are you are you in favor of that's the question in front of voters. Are you in favor of doubling the debt cap?
Fernando Vazquez:Yes, at this point, I am at this point. And I think it's not just double I'm going to be honest with you. I mean, if that's why I started talking about this, to give you a sense, that you know, is $180 million, which really that's kind of what it adds up to when you look at the 1% and the 2% going from 90 to 180 Right? Is 180 sufficient? I don't want to alarm anybody or anything like that. But I just told you that Miami Beach started 75 and ended at 3.3 billion. So so the Segway the follow up to that is yes, I'm in favor of increasing the cap for obvious reasons. We have some significant costly infrastructure that needs to be put in place because we need to enable the village for up for other things too. We have a vision plan to that takes into consideration. Future future I would say we really are wrapping up the traffic circle, we're talking about a resiliency hub that looks at new shops that looks at new infrastructure all gaming the community center, it's well, yeah, that I want to talk a little bit about that. We'll definitely get to that. You know, we also have intends to have some participation in the causeway those are some, those are some significant dollars that we're talking about. So when you say, Okay, let's put it in the case, I want to improve my home, I need to take a home equity loan, I'm just using a kind of a parallel, right? Is it maybe $100,000 Enough? Well, you know, I got a big home, I want to do these I have these great dreams, I'm need to make sure that my home is able to withstand, you know, impacts with flooding, etc.$100,000 seems enough, but is it going for a certain period of time? The real question here is, is it enough for what everything that we want to accomplish? So that's really where I feel my role comes in. And the sense that how to manage those dollars accordingly how to look at these things as we're human, we
Tony Winton:shouldn't we should tell our listeners that you actually presented to the village council when the water targets were adopted by the council unanimously, and some would say they're fairly aggressive targets in terms of moving the storm waters quickly, certain amount of time, certain amount of rain based on the current, you know, sea level rise estimates and everything. But you You are the head of AECOM, right a vice president I
Fernando Vazquez:was a vice president I was assigned to the to support the project here to do that to support the project that were
Tony Winton:eligible to do if anyone knows the intimate details of together the what Key Biscayne could expect it, I believe you you said that our current drainage system is just completely antiquated. Yes,
Fernando Vazquez:it is. And it's, it's, it's it's what's the proper word for that it's woefully inadequate to handle the level of service that we expect to have. A lot of people speak about these waves, we're getting more storms, climate change, and all that. That's all great. And no, nobody out there is room I sat down and tables that sit down in many different groups of people that have spoken between scientists, economist FEMA, Wall Street. In fact, if we had them one time, in all one room, there was a big conference in Miami where we spoke with them, and none of them really have an idea what to do with or how to handle the issue of climate change. And I don't mean to digress on that, but it's not. Because that has an impact on how we further predict what we need for infrastructure. So right now we have to adopt a level of service that the county has been adopting, which is a 10 year storm event, or 10%, or maybe one month out of the year, where it rains very hard, maybe between eight to 10 inches. So and that's just a statistical thing, it may happen one year may happen may not happen another it may happen twice the next year, etc. So with that, we have to, we have to develop a sturdy system that can handle that flow, why sea level rise is a looming impact. It's really a catastrophic event when you think about it, because at the end of the day, we have to adapt to that. But but we have to adapt, but that's longer term that's looming. It's really going to be coming out slowly. We'll anticipate and we'll see it. What can we do right now to battle that? We certainly have strengthened our infrastructure and also try to divert or try to mitigate the the impacts related to insurability reinsurer ability and all the speculation that's going on associated to that. Because if you're not telling me that Wall Street is not speculating on sea level rise, then I got you got another thing coming. These guys know exactly that all these coastal communities have to invest in bonds, they know we have to take care of it. And they know we want to retain our way of life. So to them, Moody's comes in and says, hey, guess what, you know, if you guys don't take care of your of your infrastructure, we're gonna reduce your credit rating or your credit rating may be impacted. So we have that threat. That is what I call our immediate threat. It's a financial threat. And so we have to be prepared for that. And those are the shorter term solutions to do already started with insurance. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So you know, we need to we need to look at how we manage that and how do we how do we handle our reinsure ability to ensure ability throughout the entire village? I tell you, you know, Tony, and just, I've been walking around. I've been, you know, meeting several folks in my campaign and getting the chance to go and walk through the driveways. And I see a lot of people that are, you know, the old math homes, you know, that have been that are subject to flooding. Those people are completely disenfranchised. They feel like what am I going to do you know, the guy next to me build a big mansion and he's like seven or 10 feet above ground, and they're flooding me You know, and I have to I have to deal with the brunt of all this work. I mean, the area back was a Condominiums are you know, we have a little residential zoning area there. Those people are tremendously affected by this. And you know, are we thinking about them? Are we taking care of that? It's not just enabling our community for future redevelopment, because we're technically built out really all we can do is redevelop. But we also have to take care of our residents. And we have to ensure that they're not flooding, because they're the ones who also who are their condition, not them, but their condition is not helping our insurance rates. we
Tony Winton:We have we have so many other topics here. Yeah. The exit question on this is do you think the village is in good hands? So far? You worked on the plan? Yep. That was that the still you'll being mapped out? It's very an initial thing. These other firms are coming in to integrate all these services? And how will we plan to make sure that the we aren't you're digging once, not twice? That kind of thing? Is the village on the right path? From what you can see?
Fernando Vazquez:Yes. I think I think we have a an exceptional manager. That is mission driven. He understands he's a civil engineer, he understands what it is to implement a program. And I'm telling you, he's few far in between, I've worked under other managers, and some of them are infrastructure challenged. We were very, we should be very thankful for the staff that we have. And so we need to be we need to make sure that whoever is in council is able to drive policy that supports this administration, and moving forward with their plans.
Thom Mozloom:I'm going to tell you the flaw in your campaign. Please, I've met you now for eight minutes. I've listened to you talk. You're clearly the smartest guy in this room. If you run for council, they can't hire you to consult on this job. You should be running this as the as the as the provider, as opposed to sitting right, we're losing a really good vendor. Don't vote for him. We need
Fernando Vazquez:Well, in the absence of that the next best thing that I can provide is my knowledge. I do have all the faith in the manager. You offer me a
Thom Mozloom:It's a terrible idea.
Tony Winton:You're too valuable to lose on the council? I can't
Fernando Vazquez:Well, you know, when you think about I've been under I've been under a lot of different commissioners, I guess and not not councilman, but commissioners on the beach and other places. And it's tough sometimes because you really are trying to relay very important ideas, you know, life changing ideas, and to people that I mean, it's not an you know, look, I'm not a cardiothoracic surgeon, I don't step into a room and operate on a heart. But I think it's important that we have somebody at council that can understand what is being presented. Otherwise, we rely too much on consultants, to quote councilmember load either, right? We relied too much on these we okay, do a master plan for this, do a plan for that do this. And we're just depending on them. And at the end of the day, we're not implementing because we don't know which way to start. So I tell you how to answer that. I'll provide a roadmap I can I understand what the roadmap is, and I can be a guiding light to the village, to the council and to the administration on how to implement this. My implementation days are over, by the way. I mean, right now, I just want to focus on being able to counsel Yes, let's move
Tony Winton:on to some of the other topics. Because we we've already been talking long time the village budget is coming up for a final vote next week. So there is some tension every season, every municipality has the same tension keep its gains no different. The managers, current version of the budget is called for about an 8.7% increase in property taxes for people who are not homestead exempted. So about a third of the island is homestead exemption. So they're only going to pay 3%. Everybody else that commercial properties and people who are don't live in their homes or renting them out, they're going to be paying 8.7%. And one of the big changes made recently was to delete we talked about this, the Community Center expansion has been planned now for a couple of years. It's been at least it's been kicked down field, what's your view of the budget? It's going to be if you're elected, you're going to be dealing with this budget, whatever the vote is next week, because you'll that that comes in in November. So what's your view of it? Well, how would you vote if you were on the council now?
Unknown:I think I think though I think the budget increase relationship to what the budget is. We're talking would have been reduction right now since the last budget meeting and$500,000 So that's about, you know, maybe divided by 15,000 people, I don't know, I'm gonna do quick math here, but maybe something in the range of about 40 bucks per person, that you're I mean, that's it, okay, that's that, to me, those types of budget discussions are better handled at an HOA level, we know we are a complex community, we have to really be serious about what we're doing here. If we're dealing with little numbers, we're never going to get away, we're never going to be able to address the complex issues that we have. I understand it's a big issue, I understand that some council members take a position on that about I wonder sometimes, if the full vision is there, I mean, to argue over five and I'm and I'm not saying it's it's it's it's small numbers, but in relationship to the issues that we have in relationship to the needs that we have. I was in a meeting with with the chief of police. And he's a great guy, by the way, and I asked him point blank, I think the issue of the boat is going to be taken care of from another side. But I said, How many boats you got? How are you handling the marine issue? You know, like in the mash, descent, and Sandra sandbank, and all the issues that we have there, we need to have that those areas are getting packed with people, we need to have more more of surveillance, more policing in that area. And we're just fighting to try to keep a boat that is dilapidated. And I just find that I just find that
Tony Winton:antiquated, can't really be operated on the Atlantic side,
Unknown:it cannot, it cannot. So we how do we protect, you know, and but also, you know, we have, we have all kinds of activities that are happening in the ocean. And we have to be able to participate in that and have a significant participation, and not just be scrounging out little pennies for something like that, just to say we cut the budget to a certain point, look, we need to be responsible. We have a fiduciary responsibility, but we can't be obtuse. And I think we are being that
Thom Mozloom:you're going to have a entire political faction on this island that's going to say those nickels and dimes add up. So we have to draw the line somewhere. And I honestly tell me, what do you add up to you make you may not need to talk to them at all to get elected, but there's going to be a group that says the minute you said, Yeah, I'm okay with raising the debt. They're not voting for you. Nope, that cap. That's it? Well, it's almost like a political litmus test on the island. You don't have Republicans and Democrats per se, but you do have a no tax low tax group versus a what would you call a responsible government faction? How would you? How would you categorize
Unknown:vote whether they vote for me or not? They're voting against their own best? And yes, you know, that's, that's the way I look at it based on experience, facts are facts, imagination and things, you know, God, you know, we're they're ripping us off, we're giving them a blank check and all this stuff. None of that makes any sense. It's absolutely illogical. As an engineer, I see it as absolutely logical. We do need people that are that are support the stormwater, the ones that seem ones that are oppose the bonding. It doesn't make any sense. So yeah, I take a strong position on that, because I know for a fact that we're going to need that money.
Tony Winton:Let me get back to the budget, though. The reason we're talking about that. So the question I asked was about the community center. Yeah, it's overcrowded. It isn't. It is at peak times. It's, it's jam.
Unknown:Okay. Yeah. I mean, traffic also gets packed in peak times, we have to build new highway built 20
Tony Winton:years ago, when the population of the island was smaller. And the demographics of the younger were different, and it has been been on the wishlist for a long time. You're okay with cutting it?
Unknown:I'm not I'm okay with. Okay, so here's what I want it, here's what I would like to how I would like to approach that I would like to get a better understanding of the flow that's coming in and out, I would like to understand, I would like to get a better understanding of the peaks and how we can mitigate that first, before we go into constructing a brand new building, not to say that I don't want to have more facilities. In fact, let me let me let me just let me just state I'm in full support of community growth and full support at night, my daughter went to school here. And you know,
Tony Winton:she shows me that you're an engineer, show me the numbers that you're saying, Yeah, show
Fernando Vazquez:me show me first, the program, show me the programmatic problems. What I mean to say by that is show me what time people are coming in where the peace out? Can we mitigate that first? Right, before we invest in a full building, and we start creating further impacts into the community? Let's understand how that need suffices, you know, can we meet that even you know, and this, um, and you know, maybe, maybe now it's the time that we want to take the opportunity to assess that. I'm not saying we don't need it. But what I'm saying is that we do not have enough data to support a 100% need, and that's what I'm going. But if the
Thom Mozloom:data is there, I'm
Fernando Vazquez:not going to sugarcoat that.
Thom Mozloom:That's if the data is there.
Fernando Vazquez:A horse I mean, if the data is there, and it fully supports that we do need one and we don't have you know, we have no other mitigation opportunities, like you know, here in St. Agnes with the new new center that they're building, do if we do not have other opportunities to mitigate the over Hello. I think it makes for a great longer term objective. I have walked through community center many times and I have seen I haven't seen it packed up. Sometimes I see it packed. Sometimes I see it empty. You know, it's
Thom Mozloom:interesting stare. So
Fernando Vazquez:I'm wondering, I'm wondering sometimes
Tony Winton:streets are dry on sunny days.
Fernando Vazquez:Flooding eggs. Yeah. What's interesting, but but our insurance rates are not just saying, Yeah, well, but our insurance rates are not.
Thom Mozloom:What's interesting, though, is as the conversation has developed, we've watched your position on this develop. You started off in the money conversation saying, listen, we're nickel and dime. We're arguing about pennies. Just put the community center back in. But as we got further into your framing sort of changed, that's actually positive. I'm not I'm not but I'm not negative.
Fernando Vazquez:Yeah, but I don't think I changed my framing. I think my framing is exactly correct in the sense that it maintains because I want to see numbers, I would like to see something that truly justifies it. A lot of times we get we invest ourselves far more than we should strictly on perception.
Thom Mozloom:Well, there's a I was going to my next subject matter is, is police and fire because there is a hot conversation that comes often on this island, about over investing in police and in fire. They're coming up on their contract this year. Right, Tony? It's about a year off. But so you're going to if you get elected, you'll be on a council that's going to be negotiating a contract with police and fire and likely involved in that contract is going to be how many bodies? How many police? Are we putting in the street? How many firemen are we putting in the street? Where do you stand on that?
Fernando Vazquez:Yeah. Okay. So I, again, back my discussion with the chief, I think you've he felt comfortable with relates as it relates to the the current medical the shifts that he has allocating staff, and then he's running 12 hour shifts. And he's got four patrols. And he's you know, he's evening with that. But, you know, I said, I think that the sense and again, that goes back to perception. Crime is a moving target. When you think about it, right? You really can't contain it. But we do know for a fact based on the trends that is becoming more and more complex. I think that they are first of all, being an engineer. I also believe incepted, I worked a lot with septet, which is crime prevention, through community through design, Environmental Design. And there's a lot of components that we can do to help mitigate and to facilitate the police department and getting a better grasp on our overall security. And cept. It is includes not just you know, cutting branches down increasing the lighting in some areas, making sure there's visibility, but also, you know, having a sense of self governance, and having a sense of of community that folks are also keeping an eye on what's going on. So, you know, we have we enjoy the benefit that we have a one way in and out of the village. So that in itself, it's a plus for us. I think that we need to look at that very carefully. I hope I answered your question I want to make sure I do.
Thom Mozloom:You don't have to answer my questions. I know. But I might answer, Tony. I'm just curious, just
Tony Winton:a question that an economic question is going to be coming up in terms of collective bargaining relationship? Yeah. So you know, we've had different council members have taken a big interest in it. Others have basically said, I'm going to trust the managers of the departments, because primarily the big drivers are police and fire and do that at the table. Some people have felt that That's incorrect. And others have said, No, we trust our managers to help form what the directions are to our bargaining team that bargains with the unions. Right. So I don't know whether you've been involved in that or not. You've had
Fernando Vazquez:I have been involved actually talking to the chief but we were both I was involved with the FOP in Fort Lauderdale, because I related with with a utility group that was part of the NFLPA and I have dealt extensively with collective bargaining agreements and negotiations with them. So yeah, I understand. I have to see the details of that before I sit here and mouth off on
Thom Mozloom:understand a little more how many police officers exactly do we need? I'd like an answer, right.
Tony Winton:Well, I mean, you have the budget. And just for our listeners perspective, right, is that we have a budget that not just this year, but next year, at some point, you'll have to plan for wage increases. There's a 4% cap on what the police department got inflation has been more than doubled that it's reasonable to expect that the unions will be coming back and saying you owe us a little bit of money from last year.
Thom Mozloom:The pension issues will be well,
Tony Winton:yeah, so that's what I'm saying hourly rates and 60% of the budget is personnel. Okay,
Fernando Vazquez:so we can we can start by understanding that it'll likely be an impact. The question is how do we meet gate that impact and how do we work around that with the proper logistics and the proper understanding. And I have full trust in this chief. This is a great chief. He knows unions. Like I said, we both dealt with similar unions and in Fort Lauderdale. And I know how that union works in Fort Lauderdale. So I have trust that he understands how to handle this.
Tony Winton:I think we're time for the
Thom Mozloom:Yep. So you've got 90 seconds closing argument, your when it comes to issues of resiliency and engineering and the the stuff that this community is going to have to do I I don't think anybody could argue against your expertise. So you've got 90 seconds to make a closing argument about all of the other stuff.
Fernando Vazquez:Yeah, well, I think about perfect. Why am I running for council for the other stuff?
Thom Mozloom:That's a campaign slogan, you're welcome.
Fernando Vazquez:Well, for the other stuff is because I have again, I've been working in I worked in the public sector for more than 1213 years or so I've dealt with every single department that you can imagine from fire police planning and zoning, you never asked me about the planning and zoning by prepare for that, for planning and zoning, beaches, speech erosion issues related to wellness equals climate change, etc. I feel that I am the most. And I honestly feel I have the skill set. I have this third
Thom Mozloom:party endorsement
Tony Winton:to go start his time again.
Fernando Vazquez:I just don't have to run man. Just Don't run. Don't interrupt. Don't interrupt.
Tony Winton:Where's the bolt?
Thom Mozloom:I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Fernando Vazquez:No, that's okay. I bring
Tony Winton:the Collect start again.
Fernando Vazquez:No, it's okay. It's okay. We'll we'll do it on our Terrell. I have no all the experience that I've collected through these years, both in the public and the private sector. Make me the right candidate with the right skill set to guide the community guide the council guide the probe be prepared to provide my input to the council as well as the administration and a roadmap to success for our community. That's pretty much what I can say.
Thom Mozloom:Tony with the mic, yep. Fernando, thank you for coming in. We
Fernando Vazquez:thank you very much. It's
Thom Mozloom:been eye opening. I have mixed emotions about your reading. But I really appreciate you coming in and answering all our questions. Thank
Tony Winton:you for being our guest on antisocial and we'll be back in a moment thank you.
Thom Mozloom:And we are back on anti social it is the the candidate round Tony, where we get to we get to have the candidates for village council come in and have a conversation with us. sort of tell us where they stand on issues so that the voters of Key Biscayne could make the most informed decision. Right.
Tony Winton:And it's a different field from last time. Last time two years ago, we had 10 People running. Yeah, that was a train wreck. Yeah, this time, it'll be easier. And that's why we're able on this. This round, we're able to give each candidate their own show, so to speak. Yeah. And and they're all going to be available on our website. So people can do that. And also a transcript transcript will be up of the interview. So if you prefer to read along, or just read, you can do that, too.
Thom Mozloom:Awesome. So today we're, we're doing two shows, right? And this is the first of two,
Tony Winton:this is the first of two. So I can we can do our banter now or we can wait till after the second interview before we close this one up. We have a lot to talk about, though. Anything, anything on your social media feed.
Thom Mozloom:You've been following my social? Well, the
Tony Winton:I mean, last No, Jan was the last two shows. So we talked about, you know, the death of Queen Elizabeth the Second. Yep. And the reaction. So we've kind of covered that ground. I don't know if you have any take on that people might just be curious what you think
Thom Mozloom:I'm interested in the opposite. The contrarian view of the Queen it seems to me that a lot of people have come out to make a point about colonialism.
Tony Winton:Oh, a lot of a lot of in our neck of the woods. A number of countries are thinking about terminating the Commonwealth status. Correct, Jamaica?
Thom Mozloom:Yep, the question that I have. While I appreciate Queen Elizabeth and all that she has done over the 70 year reign, I questioned the need for a monarchy anymore. But I'm not British. So, you know, it's it's kind of like some guy who doesn't live in Key Biscayne spouting off about Key Biscayne. Oh, I do that too, right?
Tony Winton:Well, it's a system that for some reason, I guess its historical reasons. It's the most robust monarch, the only monarchy in the world but the most robust and well developed and well funded certainly,
Thom Mozloom:yep. Yep. Are you paying attention to American politics at all?
Tony Winton:How can I not? It just
Thom Mozloom:strikes me how odd this primary season was, and now winding up into the general how it's almost like the candidates are running for different countries. They're so different across the country. If you look at all of the senatorial candidates, you know, you've got Fetterman and oz, you've got Walker and Warnock. You've got Kelly and no, I've forgotten. Arizona. It's, it's fundamentally different, not just hey, we're on different sides of fiscal issues. We're on different sides of every issue.
Tony Winton:Well, you're seeing compartmentalized bubble politics, people run it, running within their own spheres, and sometimes their own media ecosystems of you know, only dealing with media they want to talk to, and then hoping it's going to be my base versus your base, and I can get more my people to show up and your people can show up,
Thom Mozloom:and the stunting the media stunting, like the Abbott and DeSantis busing people busing migrants to other areas of the country. That just seems like a stunt like a made for TV stunt, as opposed to actual real politics. Like, are we sure we want to talk about whether or not bussing migrants to Martha's Vineyard is a good thing or a bad thing, as opposed to talking about immigration
Tony Winton:as migrants to Martha's Vineyard? Spending $12 million of Florida tax dollars,
Thom Mozloom:right? So do do we want to? Do we want to have that conversation? Or do we want to have a more serious conversation about the border, and immigration as a whole? It just seems to me like the political stunting to try to get elected, or try to make somebody else look bad, is a distraction from the actual the actual issue of immigration at the border. It's a serious issue. It's it's 8000 people a day coming into the country illegally. It's the highest numbers in our history. And there doesn't seem to be a plan to either make it more organized, or make it go away. I mean, don't you have to pick one?
Tony Winton:That's a policy question. People don't want to talk about policy. They want to talk about emotion. It's boring.
Thom Mozloom:Policy is boring. Just listen to the show. Right?
Tony Winton:Policy is boring. I don't know. Well, those are that's just two of the social media feeds. Yeah, we can talk about and we have to, we actually have to do shows. Not I'm not sure what to do a show about the monarchy. But we should do a show about immigration. You think I think we should do you think
Thom Mozloom:I think yeah, I think that's probably where that's going to be a heck of a show won't be a great show. All right. Is it gonna be a live Colin show? So people
Tony Winton:screaming? You know, I'm not sure we really want to do the live call thing. I've been thinking about that. Yeah, that's a bad idea. Yeah.
Thom Mozloom:Let's just invite people
Tony Winton:to have to have like an hour long tape delay.
Thom Mozloom:And you need the beep.
Tony Winton:Yes. So and then there'll be a question of who's the beeper who has the control of Sydney available?
Thom Mozloom:Maybe? Yes, Sydney, visualise. Very good. She's Yes. She was the most powerful woman in the in the room during the debate woman. Yeah, no doubt.
Tony Winton:Well, we'll be we'll be having another debate. So we should be advertising that soon.
Thom Mozloom:Are the candidates going to show up? Yes, they will. There'll be drama about whether they show up or not ahead of time.
Tony Winton:Drama, there's drama about the issues right. That's where the drama should be. Yeah, what's good why I'm opposed this why I'm not opposing something. Or maybe you keep wanting something. Maybe we get Mandy the throw us off the air again. Column. All right. All right. Well, I That wraps up this show. Our next guest is waiting for our council interviews will thank our show number two. Yeah, sure.
Thom Mozloom:Well, that's all for antisocial for this time. We'll be back. Well, we'll be back whenever you want to download us because we are now available all the time, every time and on demand. That's
Tony Winton:right. You can just listen To the next show on the playa but for now be safe everybody
Thom Mozloom:I was at the lineup again I will always be my friend