Anti-Social
We' not anti-people, just anti-social media. Interesting topics, with some logic, originating from the island paradise of Key Biscayne, Florida.
Anti-Social
Council Candidates: Mark Fried and Frank Caplan
WE START OUR 2024 SERIES of candidates for the Key Biscayne Village Council with two well known men on the island. Six people are vying for three seats in November.
We ask about a $350 million stormwater project -- the "Big Dig" -- and other top issues -- and the answers may surprise you.
--MARK FRIED, an attorney and service club leader, says he was motivated to run after the death of cyclist Megan Andrews.
--FRANK CAPLAN, a former mayor, is now running for reelection to his seat on the Council.
Important Election Dates
- Last day to register — Oct. 7
- Last day to request mail ballot — Oct. 24
- Early Voting Oct 21 - Nov. 3
- Election Day - Nov. 5.
The views expressed in the following program are basically hosting guests and do not necessarily represent those of the cheapest name, independent or Miami for the state portions were pre recorded. She will she will always be my
Tony Winton:friend. Live from Key Biscayne, Florida. This is anti social, the podcast where we're kind of like an umbrella keeping you dry, and the downpour of social media and chats that sometimes flood our phones, I'm Tony Winton
Jan Dillow:and I'm Jan Dillow,
Tony Winton:trying to be a little metaphorical. Yeah, I
Jan Dillow:hear that. I love it, having been drenched twice today already, it's become the monsoon season, yes,
Tony Winton:and kind of out of nowhere, right? Because it was much earlier in the year. I think our rainfall was a little bit below average. The heat was, well,
Jan Dillow:March or something, or April was, like, outrageous, right? There was all that flooding. But yeah, yeah, this summer, you know, our summers, the last couple of summers, they seem to me like they weren't the traditional like, every you know, you would get the rains in the afternoon. Like, I don't feel like we got that in June, but now it's definitely, we're getting it every day,
Tony Winton:right. And it's a it's kind of directly related to what is now introducing to our listeners this season of political interviews. It's kind of a tradition here on anti social, where we work on bringing you each candidate for office that we possibly can and earlier in the year, we had many of the sheriff's candidates were on the ballot come in this year. Now we're moving into the last phase of the election that's coming up on November 5. But I want to point out that ballots are going to be mailed out as early as the 26th of September.
Jan Dillow:And you said that there's a lot of people in Key Biscayne. Yeah,
Tony Winton:there's, yeah people. People in Key Biscayne tend to vote early, and they tend to vote by mail compared to election day that they have in the past. And so the election really is not november 5. The election is starting in like, less than 30 days. That's when the first first ballots for candidates will be cast, and one of them is here right now in the studio today, we'll have two guests who are running for Key Biscayne Village Council. Yeah.
Jan Dillow:And I truly believe that an informed voter is a good voter. So I'm really, really pleased that all of the candidates and our guests today have agreed to come and talk to us
Tony Winton:all right. And so our first guest is Mark freed, and he won. Well, we were going to have a coin toss, and our second guest is going to be frank Kaplan. We were going to have a coin toss, but these guys are so gentlemanly that they decided, hey, you know, whoever wants to go first, just go first. So that's mark. Oh,
Mark Fried:good afternoon, Tony and Jan. I appreciate your inviting me here. And I don't know, can I be social here? Should I be anti social? Because I know how to do that too well.
Tony Winton:I think we appreciate anybody who's willing to come on the show and answer questions that some questions will be softballs, and some questions be not so much of a softball. But I will get started though, by by letting our one current event that kind of has come up just this week was a kind of a flare up that happened at the village council meeting that involving the Big Dig. And we have been covering this on this show and in our newspaper for some time, projects of 300$350 million that range from taking care of the beach side, the bay side, utility undergrounding storm water, even raising streets to deal with the threat of sea level rise and to increase the resiliency of the island. And at the council meeting, it got so bad towards the end of the evening that the mayor, Joe Rasco, actually got up and left the dais, kind of disgusted at what was happening, and vice mayor Allison McCormick had to take over for the remainder of the meeting. Part of it has to do with this questioning of the estimates that were used in preparing some of the work. And this is a suggestion by some members of council that there be an independent study or an independent review of all of the costs. And well, here's how manager Steve Williamson responded during that meeting, because if
Steve Williamson:you're talking about, well, you're talking about questioning the entire modeling of what AECOM did, and that way we start the entire project over. And I don't think anyone is willing to go back and start this entire project over.
Tony Winton:All right, so our first that's kind of tee us up topic wise, but, but I do want to ask you first on that, because. It is the biggest issue on the on the entire island, where are you on resiliency, the projects and what the village should do?
Mark Fried:Well As a resident of Key Biscayne, and having seen what our storm water system does today versus what it did when I grew up, it's so much better. I don't we don't have tadpoles in our mud puddles anymore, because they're gone in a day. But I look at that project. I'm not an engineer. I haven't studied it, but anything that big, if the new Council's coming on, we all should take a new look, and if it's in the best interest of the long term for the community and the spending of money to look at it and start over again. And I would vote that way. If there's some parts of the process and process that are still valid, and the majority of the council is going to vote want to continue that way, we'll take a look at it.
Jan Dillow:It's a very controversial issue since it's been ongoing, and there's been a lot of, frankly, there's been a lot of money spent, as on this backwards, back and forth. It seems like that would that there's, you know, I think there would be a lot of back and forth on on that issue. If we had to go back. Are you saying you would want to go back and look at the whole issue, or some of the things that have been
Mark Fried:I do not have all the facts. I have not been studying it or keeping up currently with it, but when I do get facts and process, I think I make pretty good decisions. That's one reason I want to be on the council. And if, in the long term, if spending time and money, saves money in the future and gives us a product that will protect us. I think that's in the best interest. It's in my best interest because I looked at the article and saw what it's going to cost me a year for this, this project, it's
Jan Dillow:it's not going to be cheap. Resilience is not going to come cheap to the island. So that's
Tony Winton:it, all right? So, so you're, you're, I guess, if I want to make sure I don't put words in your mouth, you want to hear. You want to collect more information before making a decision. Either way, or do you really think,
Mark Fried:well, yeah, to answer your question, I don't have the facts. Okay? To answer that question, when I see the facts, I'll process it, I'll assess it, I'll listen to friends and neighbors, and to turn and make the best informed decision I can together with the other council members to see what we can do. But some of the prices out there, some of the money being spent, and at what point I want to be convinced? At some point when, where they're looking for sea level rise, and what do you do to keep it out? At some point you need bathtub sized walls to keep the water out. All right,
Tony Winton:we, I want to, you know, forgive my manners. But we that question is so important that we wanted to start off with that, because we'll be asking, obviously, every candidate about it. But why are you running for council, what led you to decide to throw your hat in the ring?
Mark Fried:Two items came. One is, for years, members of the community, friends, neighbors, acquaintances and mayors, councilmen, former mayors have asked me to run this this cycle, I received calls from three or four people, one person who'd been a council member. She called me three times, and I'd been on each side of the fence. I'm tending this way, and I go, I've got travel, I've got this invitation to go here. Maybe that's more important. And the third call, I thought, okay, you just sway me to run. The other reason is, there's certain decisions that come before the council certain issues, and they just get put off and put off and put off and there's no action. And when Megan Andrews was killed, it really affected me when I knew it Megan, since she was seven or eight years old, she'd come and play at my sister's house and at my house. In 1963 I saw her growing up. And in February 2023 I attended a rotary club meeting where the chief of police talked about the current topics, and 90% of the time spent was about E bikes. Next month, I went to a Key Biscayne Bar Association meeting, and it was going to be current topics of Key Biscayne, the manager was there, the former manager, Mayor, and one other governmental official, and the topics that covered 95% of the time.
Tony Winton:And I want to play a sound bite for you. Of you speaking to the Council
Mark Fried:on this village, on you, on the chief of police, I think you failed us. I think you failed the community. You failed the family, and you certainly failed me. I.
Tony Winton:I was in that was in February.
Mark Fried:That was the end of my letter written in February. 2023 was a scenario where someone gets killed. And it was, is this what it's going to take for the Council to act? And the next day, Frank, I'm sorry, not Frank. Joe Rasco called the meeting, I republished my letter, and then I went to the meeting, and I saw that is it upsets people. How do you make a decision when people have invested three, $4,000 in a really neat e bike? But you have to make the decisions I've been in positions in the Yacht Club, in the beach club and the Rotary Club, where I've looked at the trend of the leadership and I questioned, is this where the majority of the members really want to go? And I talked to friends, and I coalesced, and we got it, we got others to join groups, and in each case, I had a it appeared to me, I'm not certain if the majority want to go where the leadership is taking us, and I've turned the direction of the organization. With the Yacht Club, we stopped a project that had 100,000 already invested at the beach club. We were insolvent. We had had directors who I grew up with, a manager who was my mother, was his Cub Scout, den mother. And I had to go in the boardroom and tell people my hat says director of the key bibiscayne Beach Club, not I like Mike. And I'd go and what am I looking at? What's in the best interest of the organization and the membership? And I took a stance that had risk, that had some bad press. People didn't like me for it. But in each case, it turned around, the beach club went from being insolvent to having a new board that could execute and have money in the bank.
Tony Winton:What was the nature of the failure, in your view, because the council did discuss trying to regulate e bikes and scooters. Put it off. They started. They passed something involving the village green, other village parks, but hesitated. What in your view was the failure? Because that's the word you used.
Mark Fried:Two failures. One, when they did make the ban on the village green, it was enforced for two or three days, no enforcement. The other is failure, to sit here and go, we need to make a decision, and what is the cost? We all knew. People talked about it for a year. I can't believe they didn't get killed. Everyone has an E bike story, a lot of close calls. So it came to the point what, you know, I looked forward in my campaign, it's gonna be freed looking forward. And that's what I did. And I thought you need, you need to act. And if people aren't happy with it, it could save a life. And what's the cost? Immeasurable.
Jan Dillow:Yeah, absolutely. I it's it was a big and controversial issue. Do you have some other issue? You know, when we're talking about E bikes, we're also talking about the schools and the education. I'm just wondering if you have any thoughts about, you know, school and the safety and and just the transition that we're probably facing at this point with this you know, it seems like the the, well, the population of the public school is going down, whereas I think St Agnes the population is going up. Do you think that that's going to is that anything that has a an implications? Do you think for the community,
Mark Fried:it may, but it also may be beneficial to the children going to the Key Biscayne, K through eight, because I have smaller class size which, which will be beneficial to all. I went to keep his cane. My kids did, and my granddaughter's going there now. So I'm so it means something to me, and I don't know. Again, it's a topic that I haven't followed. I haven't had kids there until two weeks ago, my granddaughter Alice, started there. Let
Tony Winton:me ask you to switch into another topic, because we, believe it or not, we've covered a lot of heavy ground already and a couple of more things to go. You will, if elected, you will be on the council that will be dealing overseeing what appears to be a pretty big redevelopment of the silver sands, a new condo 14 stories, a key vote getting passed with a zoning change that may, may be finalized by the time, if you're elected, you come on council, but there'd be a lot of Site Plan Review, be a lot of other things going forward. What's your take on that project and on. A development in general, very hot one here in Key Biscayne.
Mark Fried:Well, one take is the owner of private property has certain rights, what they can do on the property. There are a lot of different fingers in that, from county village, whatever else that are going to affect what they can do on that property. Seeing what happened before we were incorporated, we're able to extract some parkland and some right away from some of these developers. I know it's going to be happening again, and I don't know how much we can fight when they have a right, a legal right, to build on there. I know we want them to comply and be good neighbors, and yesterday, at the I think last night or two nights ago, but it was the presentation sounded good. They want to be nice, nice to us, and we're going to do this and that. But of course, the developer wants to maximize profit, and the village wants to maximize fit, and I'm going to be on there again, listen, assess, evaluate, advocate and vote.
Jan Dillow:And does that do you have further views for regarding development, on any other issues related to development on the island, just I
Mark Fried:want to, I mean, my view, I wish, I wish we could make that a park, and we could take four stories off every building over 12 stories. But it's history. I was there when the population was 800
Jan Dillow:right? But, you know, we're going to be facing more questions of development going forward, just because, especially with some of the rules that we've got from from the state government. So that was what I was trying to get to. There's only
Mark Fried:so much we can control. I mean, DeSantis has taken over where he can. And you see it in communities that have passed laws and they have a they pass a law to where the state overrides it. I would love to see less development, but one of the problems with development is a single family home. The nature of the family has changed. When, 20 years ago, there might have been two or three cars at a house, now there are five or six cars at a house,
Tony Winton:and we just could grab bag of questions, do you think the village is? There's an annual debate every year about taxes, property taxes. You'll be joining it if you're elected. What's your view on it is the taxation level in kibas? Gain fair? Are we low? Medium high? What do you think about taxation and value for services
Mark Fried:compared to Dade County? I'm very happy. But what we could do, what we do do, again, I haven't studied all this. I'm not prepared, but I think that the village could lower its millage rate. I think we could take a look and shave a little off the budget, try to be a little more efficient. I'm a physical fiscally conservative, and I'm going to look at it from that, and I'm going to get pushback from each department head.
Jan Dillow:I'm sorry. I just wanted to go back to the schools for a minute, and there's been some talk about putting metal detectors in schools. Do you have any do you have any perspective on that, particularly if it would be something like it at Mass probably most
Mark Fried:saddens me. Yeah, it saddens me the fact that we're at that point in today's civilization, that of school is mass being one of the best schools in the country, that those students would have to subject themselves to going through a metal detector, and that's what it takes to protect them from one of their own
Jan Dillow:right. Well, we've had some issues also in this, in Key Biscayne with, let's call it, I call it hooliganism. But you know, with some kids, you have the
Tony Winton:yeah, there's a case of some, some, some kids taking boiling hot water and throwing it on people from the police, you know, invest there was a decision not to prosecute that kind of sometimes, sometimes flare ups of whatever you want to call it just bad behavior. Yeah.
Mark Fried:I mean, I don't have a comment on that. I want to get back to one of you asked me the reason I'm running.
Tony Winton:Yes, we're about to get to the closing statement. So maybe this is a good segue to
Mark Fried:but the other reason is, I think that the nature of a council meeting needs to change. How so he needs to be more efficient, much more efficient. I tried to go and attend the whole meeting, and it's impossible for so frustrating. Well,
Tony Winton:I Billy, Billy, John Louis, one of our reporters is in the room here, whatever, but he had to and others monitoring a meeting that started at six before six o'clock and didn't finish until 11:20pm it was another marathon. Session. So you're not going to get any complaints on the reporters like
Mark Fried:I'm going to, again sit there, assess and see what can be done to try to make it more efficient. It is. We
Tony Winton:do have to. We have another guest waiting. So it is the time for your closing argument. You have one minute many
Mark Fried:key because came residents, including former and current mayors and council members have asked me to run for village council because they believe in my ability to lead and make a positive impact on our community. As a director and president of organizations, I have honed my ability to listen process and assess the facts before advocating my position in my leadership roles, I challenged the status quo when I believed it did not align with the best interests of the organization and its members. This brought risk and discomfort, but ultimately, the members validated my positions through their votes. If elected to the Key Biscayne village council, I will bring the same level of commitment and determination a challenge to the status quo on the council and the village manager would happen when it appears that policy decisions and actions are not in our community's best interest. I deeply appreciate and trust in the encouragement given by so many I'm committed to serving with integrity, transparency and a focus on what is best for all of us. I'd be honored during your vote and the opportunity to serve on the Key Biscayne village council
Tony Winton:just a little bit over time there. Councilor, but we're not going to enforce the rule there. Thank you for thank you for being our guest on antisocial I hope you'll stay in touch and we'll keep our listeners informed and and the pages of the key became key. Biscayne, independence, I truly appreciate the experience. Thanks a lot. All right, and we'll be back with the Next candidate right after this. You
Jan Dillow:said, fly welcome back. I'm Jan Dillo.
Tony Winton:I'm Tony Winton, and you're listening to antisocial. And
Jan Dillow:we have our second candidate of the day, someone who is familiar to most people on Key Biscayne, but we're going to let him reintroduce himself. It's Mr. Frank Kaplan. How
Unknown:do you do? Yes, and
Tony Winton:thank you for being our guest on anti social. Former Mayor and now council member and running for reelection in a field of six candidates. I'm
Franklin Caplan:pleased to be with you, even though I don't associate with antisocial very readily.
Tony Winton:Well, I first question is, just tell us why you're you're you've been on for, as we pointed out, a long time, and you're running again. Tell us why.
Franklin Caplan:Yes, that's a very good question. I asked myself that question for the last couple of months, repeatedly, agonizingly. Actually, the answer boils down to, you know, the call to duty persists. I feel the calling undiminished after all of this time. I also consider the complexity of some of the issues that we're facing, how long and hard we've been working as a body on them, the knowledge that we've amassed over that process and thinking about what's ahead, the importance of the decisions, the consequences that will be rather lasting and impact. I had a hard time shrugging the notion that my continuation and the continuity and the knowledge and the experience that I've gained would be best kept on the dais that also was reinforced by an awful lot of people who were very strongly urging me to run, including my present colleagues.
Jan Dillow:It sounds like you were referring at least in part, or one of the things you may have been referring to is the so called Big Dig the resiliency of the island, and that has been ongoing for well, at least six years, right? Probably longer. I think the undergrounding might have been being studied for 10 by now. But what are your thoughts on where we are? The process where we should be going,
Franklin Caplan:I actually consider this entire array of issues, and there's kind of multiple things going on all at once as dating back, antecedents to this go all the way back. We've had flooding forever. We've had disappointments, frustrations with power outages, recurringly for ever. So the word that I use is not the Big Dig, which I associate with traffic patterns in Boston making it impossible to find Logan Airport even in a cab or an Uber. The word resilience is it kind of speaks to the array of issues that I think we're facing going all the way back. Well, certainly in the 90s, post incorporation, lots of study, lots of analysis. So so the seed work that's leading to where we are right now, today, and where we're going to wind up, hopefully very soon, has antecedents that go back in time, that, you know, build on each other, creating a greater level of knowledge, a greater ability to plan with, You know, empirically, with with facts on the ground as part of the planning, and not supposition. That's guesswork. So now, you know, I think the politics of the Big Dig, as you put it, may be more at issue than than the planning and the status that we've reached because of the planning. Now the question is, to me, do we just stay the course and continue the careful, thoughtful, empirically based, using the best prognostications about the external conditions that are driving engineering and budgeting decisions, or as was suggested during Tuesday night's council meeting, do we, you know, flip the page and hire another consultant and go back and relook at all of this iterative work that has gone back at least 30 years or more? I'd
Jan Dillow:love to know how much we've spent on all those, all those studies over the years, because it does seem like a lot.
Franklin Caplan:I don't know, but it's an easy thing to know, because we keep track of all of this. But the some of the work, I'm aware of this just because of being involved in this, this issue for a long time, some of the work, particularly in the 90s, if memory serves, and I think I'm right about this, was in response to perceived emergencies, you know, deteriorated conditions that just became untenable. So in a series of one off, patchwork decisions, some of the work that was cited in some of the you know, the history, the chronology of all of the efforts that have led to where we are today were, as I would put it, emergency responses, or deteriorated condition responses, at least, if not emergencies. The sum total of all of that work may be approaching $15 million maybe higher,
Tony Winton:if I'm if I may, though, but to zero and about so that you are on a council that voted there's been a series of studies, the studies of first AECOM, coming in and coming up with a set of essentially, performance standards. How much water do we need to move from the streets? How much flooding can we tolerate? Right? What is, what is the performance goal, and that was revised downward because of the initial cost. And then the next step was bringing in this firm, Black and Veatch, to essentially be your add the depth to the village council, the village staff, which is a relatively small staff, to help manage what will be a very complex series of projects, and that contract was approved. And the next phase was getting the 30, 30% design criteria for phase one of these multi phase projects, arriving the worst area, the k8 school. Have you seen us to clarify you you think the village, you guys have the village has made the right decisions, hired the right leadership, and the form of Mr. Williamson is on the right path to do this that you've seen nothing to at this point that would prompt you to do a re examination, as some are now suggesting,
Franklin Caplan:no but important, but we've not turned over discretion fully and absolutely to consultants contractors. It's our job to monitor basically every single decision, to study, to prep, to be informed, to ask the hard questions and to the. Push back if we think it's appropriate to do so, and we have, as you observed a moment ago, we I wouldn't call this second guessing, but you develop a strategy based on a desired level of service, and then you continuously reassess whether that level of service is the right answer. And then when you start to budget for achieving that level of service, that starts to bring things into a very tangible focus. And yes, we did. We did take a step back and rethink the suitability, desirability, necessity of, you know, of the higher level of service at a significantly higher cost, where a step back reduction in service is both suitable, acceptable, in our collective opinion, and and much more affordable, and still avails all of the ancillary benefits that we think are going to be able to occur outside of this zone one, because of the improvements in Zone One being sufficiently sized, sufficient capacity to be holistically, availing of improvement in neighboring areas. But I would go back farther, and I think maybe some of my first responsibilities included. This is maybe the 2010, era, hydrolog hydrology studies, water flow studies, to basically understand what's happening scientifically in terms of where the water is flowing, where it comes from, where it goes to, where it pools, to be able to make these other assessments more knowledge based, more more pertinent to our physical conditions. I think that was the right step at the time as a first it's not a first step. There are many steps that preceded but everything we're doing now is based on that particular, localized, vetted knowledge of basically what water is doing and also what the historic stormwater system is doing, how it functions, where it degrades, where it breaks down, where it doesn't function adequately, and what to do about
Tony Winton:it. Change topics here, because we're starting to eat up the time, and we have to be fair to each candidate, the other one of the other huge stories this year, the Valentine's Day death of Megan Andrews in an E bike. You heard the clip that we played at the top of the show from now, one of your rivals, Mark freed talking about what he felt was a failure of the police department and the village council, and he repeated that just now in the earlier argued that's the reason he decided to run for counsel. Was it a failure?
Franklin Caplan:Emotions run high. I think whether it's a failure or not doesn't distract from the maybe the worst event of all time. We all just felt horrible about it. The question of whether it's a failure is probably if you're going to be rational and reasonable, looked at in context of the reality that existed, the preemption question that affected us maybe afflicted us in our decision making. I personally wish that we would have taken the step that we took earlier, and if we had, I think that Megan Andrews might be alive today. So if that correlates to a failure, I'll own it not our best day. I think that it's worth noting the deteriorative effect of preemption is not just the inability to take the action that is preempted. It's the attrition in discretion and the headwinds that cause workarounds to be much more difficult, and the delays that result in trying to sort through how to work around a preemption predicate are not easy.
Tony Winton:Is it a case in this follow up of basically overthinking a problem. I mean, people in Key Biscayne knew that there were, this was dangerous. There were lots of warning signs, near misses. There were actually some accidents, and some of them fairly serious, involving scooters and E bikes. There was growing rising concern, raised first by the police, because they kind of popped onto the scene very quickly, you know, with technology, and everyone went out one day, I think the police chief said, and seemed to get one for Christmas, and they're all over the streets, but manager, police chief saying, we're worried about diverting traffic into Crandon Boulevard. And so that's one block. The other aspect is the village. Attorney saying we're preempted. Well, other people are saying, well, how do you really know you're preempted? Did you try? I mean, so why not just go ahead and take that fight if you're seeing an imminent public public safety threat? I guess the question is almost being overthinking a problem and saying, instead of looking right in front of you and seeing, hey, this is really something. I know there was education, and I know there was out lot of sessions with parents and a lot there wasn't. There wasn't an attempt to confront it. There was. But is it the kind of case where sometimes it just became a much of too much thinking?
Franklin Caplan:Here we go with the benefit of hindsight from the ball. The preemption issue is not ambiguous. There's a law you read the words in the statute book, and it says what it says, the question of what to do, despite preemption could have been, ultimately, was to ban these things, and that could have been reached earlier. And I regret that we didn't. I think that our members of our council unanimously saw this at the very early stage, very earliest stage, as something like a clear and present danger because of the multiplicity of these packs of these kids on high speed, essentially heavy motorcycles and the conflict points along the curb cuts and the, you know, traversing into the automobile lanes because, you know, riding in packs. We I wish we took step, a step earlier against all of this, against all of this public safety concern, there's also this policy question about micro mobility. So now it's, it's easy to say, in retrospect, that we ought to have subordinated all of that consideration about micro mobility and exalted faster and more assuredly public safety. And I think that is the right answer, notwithstanding the interest in having the use of these types of devices to be able to, for example, get to school at mast on the on the path in the back, so as to reduce the dependency on cars and the traffic to drop off and pick up. There's a virtue in that. Okay, so I think maybe we think too much about trying to balance the positive that micro mobility could theoretically and maybe even actually represent against the need to forestall conflict points and basically a traffic emergency because of these bikes. I think we didn't get that right,
Tony Winton:and going to be our last question before the statement. Okay,
Jan Dillow:well, I think we better move on then to the one thing that it's also always on the mind of voters. And we've just seen in the last Council meeting, you approved the moving the silver sale or allowing the silver sands to basically become a condominium, I guess my question, and I think there's one more reading on that it was unanimous in this first in the first reading. I guess my question really is, you know, there was obviously a decision made that, that that was a better idea than a hotel. But my, my question, really, I guess, is development in the in the larger sense, and and included in that is the question, Do you Do you think that as a council, you have as much ability to do something about over what some might see as over development of the Key Biscayne, given the restrictions that we have at the state level. Now, if you're
Franklin Caplan:referring to the state law that we were dealing with on Tuesday night, I think the steps that we took with respect to that, which is commonly called liblocal, were prudent and necessary, even if the application of live local is probably a bit theoretical for Key Biscayne, because of our demographics and Economics, I can tell you throughout the state, because I serve on the Regional Planning Council, and as a result of that responsibility, serve in the state umbrella agency for all of the Regional Planning councils. There is a degree of consternation over this law, the likes of which I've never seen. The E bike ban was a problem in many municipalities, problem in many counties, from my conversations with county commissioners throughout the state, but this is kind of a more fundamental concern about the possibility of the. Losing the character of Whole neighborhoods, whole communities. So the steps that we took the other night, whether or not they're a theoretical application because of the unlikelihood of a live local invocation for Key Biscayne, I don't think it's impossible, and there are other properties, not the silver sands, that theoretically could be palatable opportunities for live local so I'm pleased with what we did. I thought it was prudent, thoughtful, smart, and it's in the books now. All
Tony Winton:right. Frank Kaplan, we I we could go on and on and on, and you've so many thoughtful things to say, but we do have to be fair to all the candidates. So we've reached the point where I have to switch into closing statement mode. Counselor, you have to make your case for re election to the village council 60 seconds.
Franklin Caplan:I think that all I would really like to say. I've said this throughout all these years, it seems to me, the character really counts. The different permutations of human beings on the council seven people either function very well together or less. So it depends on who's there. And I think what I bring and have brought are proven to be valuable in facilitating the best debate, the best discussion, the best ability to tease out of each other, the ideas that might not otherwise surface. If the process on the council is limited to seven people each having a couple of minutes of their own talking points and not having a conversation, I think that's what I'm able to do, and have done, facilitating those types of the discourse that leads to better results. The only way I can continue is if I'm on this ballot. So here I am.
Tony Winton:Frank Kaplan, another admirable job at keeping to the time limit, but that's you have done that as the mayor, so you have to watch public comment so you have some extra skills there. Thank you for being our guest on anti social.
Franklin Caplan:Thank you for having me. Thanks
Jan Dillow:very much,
Tony Winton:and we'll be back right after this. You that's and we are back on antisocial. I'm Tony Winton and I'm Jan Dillo. And so the first of two of six, we've just had our first third Yes, all that is coming to you. On about coming to your mailbox or if you wish to vote in person very soon,
Jan Dillow:yeah, yeah. This is going to be a very active season for for races everywhere, right?
Tony Winton:And, you know, we have, we didn't even talk about the national effect, but we're expecting nationally, very high turnout, because it is obviously a presidential election year. We have a very important amendment on the state ballot involving reproductive rights. And, of course, the issues here in Key Biscayne, front and center very large public works projects, and you've heard both of our guests will. Our commitment here at antisocial is to continue to bring you these candidates, and we're going to use this last closing segment to beg for money. Because, you know this independent community, hyper local journalism, which is what we do, and what you can't get anywhere else. Needs your support, so please go to our website, kbindependent.org, your generosity is appreciated. If you're not a subscriber to the key biscuit independent, you can subscribe great deal. You get premium access. And
Jan Dillow:I just want to say thank you to the people who have donated in the past. I think that that cannot be overlooked. We've been on, we've been operating now for four years, and that has really, you know, we've written grants, and people have been shocked, because local news is hard to fund, but just in this year, our donors have helped us to stay, stay on the air and to to write good stories. We've been able to get a grant from RFA, and we'd love to have your help. That
Tony Winton:would be report for America. Sorry, yes, sorry, report for America. A lot of lingo here in the news business,
Jan Dillow:right? We'd love to have your support to help pay for that, because that is a matching grant. But you know, in this year you also, you know, not only paid for news, but you've also paid for an internship. So you're helping the education of journalism, you know, next generation, the next generation and and we want to thank you for that, and we want you to remember us. You know, in your donate, donating, especially as we come, you know, come closer to the end of the year, you're given a lot of money, I know, to maybe some political campaigns. But it would be helpful if you would help the people who are trying to cover them,
Tony Winton:indeed, and again, local journalism, where you get these conversations with the people who are making decisions closest to you. This is, this is where the rubber hits the road. And again, to emphasize everything, Jan said, Thank you for those who've supported us, if you haven't supported please take a minute again visit our website. We're very grateful, right?
Jan Dillow:Www dot KBI,
Tony Winton:AV, independent.org, with that, I'm going to say farewell smooth sailing,
Jan Dillow:and have a great week.
Tony Winton:I'm Tony Winton.
Jan Dillow:I'm Jan Dillo. We go
Unknown:down to the trails of the north point of the bear cut bridge.
