Konk Life’s Political Questionnaire

 Konk Life has invited every candidate in the upcoming elections to answer the following questions about themselves and their candidacy. 

Q&A with Lynda “Captain” Schuh

Interview conducted by Mark Howell

Tell us your age, what office you’re running for and any previous offices held.

I’m 67, running as an Independent candidate for the Mosquito Control Board District 2. I was a candidate for this office 12 years ago and have been appointed to and served on a variety of community boards.

District 2 of Mosquito Control has three contenders this year: One Democrat, one Republican and one Independent. Independent is an actual political party, not a write-in or no-party affiliation.  Since none of us are competing with anyone else within our party we don’t need a primary.They are having a primary in the Upper Keys District 5 and the two winners will compete in November. Both District 2 and District 5 will be in the election in November.Judges and School Board are non-partisan— which Mosquito Control should be, too — so their election will be final this month.

 

Explain your platform and why you are running.

Twelve years ago I received more than 90 percent of the vote in Key West and about 42 percent countywide. I believe that in the 12 years since then, the taxpayers have become fed up with the shenanigans and spending of the Mosquito Control Board and are ready for real change.

Also, since then, there has been a significant shift in public awareness about what we are doing to ourselves, our families and the natural world through the use of toxic pesticides as evidenced in society’s demand for natural products, organic food, pure water and even healthy pet foods.

Mosquito control pesticides kill butterflies, dragonflies and bees, something Mosquito Control fails to mention. Their pesticides are highly toxic to crustaceans and marine organisms especially near shore where the spray can’t help but get into the water.

There are ongoing studies of pesticides at the reef and in larva. Other studies have shown aerial sprays kill hermit crabs. Pesticides are in our water, air, cattle, fish, vegetables, baby food and bodies. There are links to autism with pesticides sprayed on farms, some of the same pesticides we are spraying from trucks. Our friends and family aren’t dying from West Nile. They are dying from cancer, which will be the No. 1 cause of death by 2030. Dibrom, (naled) the adulticide we spray from airplanes, is banned in California for being cancer causing. The other pesticides are suspect and I believe not far behind.

Ask me again why I am running! Someone needs to be saying these things and making the public aware. The Mosquito Control Board, while acknowledging and responding to the potential for mosquito-born illness, needs also to be focusing on both the short-term and long-term effects of these pesticides instead of just keeping people fearful.

When mosquito control trucks spray after sunset, and the airplanes at sunrise, they are essentially targeting nuisance salt-marsh mosquitos, not the disease carrying freshwater-type that are mainly out during the day. We are most likely breeding those ourselves in standing water in our own back yards.

I have been following Mosquito Control for the past 12 years and many readers have seen my letters and have told me, “It’s time for you to be on this board.” I have participated in a variety of community and non-profit boards since 1983 and am presently on the Monroe County Marine Port Advisory Committee. My background and experience in business and in adult education makes me more than qualified to be on this board. And I am also a fierce taxpayer advocate for financial transparency.

 

Detail how you differ from your competing candidates.

I have not yet met either gentleman but from what I have read, Mr. (Roger) Cousineau, the Democrat candidate, is in real estate and is concerned about mosquito control having enough funding. Enough funding says to me taking mosquito control back to when it was flush with taxpayer dollars due to real-estate values and a time when the “gang of 5” commissioners doubled their own salaries and gave themselves perks like life-long health insurance. The incumbent Republican, Mr. (Phil) Goodman, was appointed to his position by our Tea Party Governor Scott and his background is in the chemical industry.

I have been in both the public and private sector and was raised to give back to my community. My only agenda is to be accountable to taxpayers and be responsible on public health issues to all in the Keys, whether residents or visitors. Public health to me means both mosquito-born illness and setting a direction and goals toward the elimination of toxic pesticides.

 

Tell us your personal history — education; professional career; family life and how long you’ve lived in the Keys or the county and your relationship to the Florida Keys and/or Key West.

My father was a proud non-political public servant and Battalion Fire Chief and my mother was the outspoken daughter of a highly visible and political City of Milwaukee Fire Chief, Peter Steinkellner. I take after both.

Except for a few brief years after Hurricane Katrina, when my husband, Frank Herdliska, and I lived in his birthplace in the French Quarter of New Orleans, I have lived in the Keys since 1983. In 1998 we moved from Key West to Upper Sugarloaf where we live now. Frank is an architect in Key West. I am a 1977 graduate of FIU in Miami with a BS in International Hotel/Hospitality Management. I have a Diplome Elementaire from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and, as a lifelong learner, have studied various topics at several other schools. Prior to moving to the Keys I managed restaurants in Southeast Florida with up to 300 employees, and in the Keys I was the director of the Hospitality Management program at FKCC. My nautical career led me to having my own eco-charter vessel, the Mangrove Mistress, and becoming Captain of the Conch Republic Flagship, the Tops’l Schooner Wolf. I have retained my USCG 100- ton Masters License and as a Florida notary have married many couples on board or through my business, Island Ceremonies. In my 30-plus years here, I have also driven a cab, cut fish, been a garde manger (keeper of the food), was the TV host of “Eye on the Keys,” owned an art gallery, sang in “Messiah,” drove the water taxi, volunteered for wildlife rescue, was in “Jesus Christ Superstar” and served on the non-profit boards of Reef Relief and Last Stand.

In New Orleans I worked with wildlife, especially after the BP oil disaster, and was an extra in movies with Nicholas Cage and Jim Carrey and was in “Benjamin Buttons” with Brad Pitt, who has a house with Angelina two blocks from ours. I also studied acting and worked with children, including being a CASA, or court appointed special advocate for youth in foster care.

 

Touch on your personal passions in addition to the above.

I want to die snorkeling. Loving and protecting Mother Nature is my passion.

 

Describe where, in your view, we might be going wrong in the Keys and/or Key West.

There are so many good people on our islands just doing their best or what they need to do to live. We all play different roles. I have sounded off a lot over the years about the Keys and Key West, especially about growth and impacts. Today I want to narrow my focus to doing research on mosquito control issues and bring the district and citizens away from using toxic pesticides and into progressive thinking. I want Monroe County to be a leader and shining example to others in how the control of mosquitos can exist in concert with the health of its citizens and its environment.

 

Tell us anything you feel you need to explain or any misapprehension you believe voters may have of you.

People hate mosquitos. And probably the old- time Keys folk more than others. They lived with the clouds of mosquitos before DDT and their lives changed to the better because of having something that killed them. And despite the horrendous devastation DDT caused, it is still being produced and used in other countries around the world such as Belize. Also there are those still blaming Rachel Carson for getting DDT banned in the U.S. There might be citizens who do not want to hear what I have to say or even care. “Just bring on the spray.” They want the mosquitoes gone and don’t want to hear about consequences. That is why I believe doing research on alternatives is one of the most important things I can do. There are already many plant-based repellents that are non-toxic and other mosquito-control operations elsewhere doing research on alternatives to adulticide spray.

I believe the future of mosquito control will become more door-to-door and personal than neighborhood or island-wide treatment.

Twelve years ago I didn’t win the election because there were not enough voters convinced that mosquito pesticides were a danger. Today I believe that has shifted.

 

Name your favorite movie

I don’t like violence or scary movies. I like drama and I like to laugh. No particulars.

Your favorite TV show

I like to laugh. I still like “Earl” and “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?”

 

Your favorite TV talking head

John Stewart.

 

Your favorite newspaper columnist

Locally, Mark Howell, of course.

 

Your favorite book

No favorites. We have some great new books by local authors Vicki Weeks and Jaynie Royal that I am reading.

 

Your favorite character in American history

All of the Native Americans. Mark Twain was pretty cool, too. And John Muir, who founded the Sierra Club.

 

Your favorite person in Florida Keys and/or Key West history

Captain Tony. He was a dear friend.

 

Your favorite quote or proverb

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has” —Margaret Mead.

 

Is there any secret strength you’d like to reveal about yourself at this point?

I cry when people win something on TV or get good news such as a medical report or having a baby. I used to look at crying as a weakness when I entered the male-dominated business world but today I view it as a gift and a sign of being on the right road to a heart full of compassion for all beings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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