KONK Life Presents the first on this year’s Candidates Questionnaire
Beth Ramsay-Vickrey for Key West Utility Board, Seat D
Q. In 20 words or less, let our readers know the reasons in general that you believe you would make the very best person to fulfill the position for which you are running.
A: I’m the only candidate with experience forming and advancing our local utility and conservation policies, and I’ve been doing so for more than 10 years.
Q. What specifically are the top four factors you believe qualify you over the assets of any other potential candidate?
A: Local experience and involvement matters because “the function of the Key West Utility Board is to form the direction, policies, goals, and guide the financial business of the utility”.
- Not only am I the only candidate with experience and involvement in forming our local County policies and goals regarding utilities and conservation efforts; I’m the only candidate with experience sitting on a local governmental board that has decision making authority.
- As a private citizen, I spent more than 3-years attending over 50 meetings participating in the updating of the County’s new 2030 Comprehensive Plan where I concentrated on the electric, utility, and conservation sections. I’m the only candidate who participated in this public process.
- Because of my work on the Comp Plan, I was appointed to the County Planning Commission where I’ve helped manage and advance our local utility and conservation policies, goals, and initiatives, and helped write the 2030 Monroe County Land Development Code.
- I’m the only candidate who has worked with KEYS on a new electrical extension project, and I have served on their advisory board for more than 6 years.
Q. What is your personal view on the state of the nation in this year’s particularly interesting political season?
A: I’m choosing to concentrate on the local level, where I feel we can most make a difference.
Q. Given your personal awareness of governance in Southeast Florida, are you optimistic about relations between the public and the powers that be?
A: I always choose to be optimistic for betterment.
Q. Do you feel that the general tenor of political discourse is becoming less polite in Monroe County or staying about the same?
A: I feel it’s less polite where discussions are had of a National level, and are the same where discussions are had of a local level.
Q. Tell us more about your personal history –- your work and family life –- and how they relate to your political ambitions.
A: I’m a successful businesswoman, married, with two beautiful daughters and one amazing granddaughter. I retired 12+ years ago at the age of 42. Upon retiring, I moved back home to the Keys to be closer to my family (I grew up here, in Marathon). I moved to the Lower Keys (Big Pine/No Name) looking for the quieter lifestyle of the old Keys I knew and loved.
My foray into utility issues began with the complicated process of extending electricity to No Name Key and my subsequent involvement with the County Comp Plan, Code, clarification of the autonomous nature of electric utilities and PSC jurisdiction.
From there I dove into the public process of updating the 2030 County Comprehensive Plan, then the later 2030 Land Development Code. Through this, and other public processes, I was able to advocate for, and advance, many utility and conservation policies, goals, and initiatives, including allowing for new grid-tie opportunities, ROGO points for concrete cisterns, expansion of the Cudjoe Regional Wastewater System (getting several thousand more homes off of on-site systems and into the central collection system), new marine water quality initiatives, and I’m still working on a new process for community canal restoration permitting.
My father, mother, and brother have all been active in our County policies and politics. My father in particular always encouraged me to fight for what’s right, but to always do so in a manner that makes friends, not enemies. We live in a small community, we have to work together in a positive and productive manner, even when we disagree. I’ve taken on some of the most difficult issues, yet at the end of the day I have more friends for that process.
I’m extremely proud of what my father and brother have accomplished, but they are not running for this utility board seat; I am. I’m running on the local concerns we all care about: costs, community and conservation; and on my record of local involvement and accomplishment, not theirs.
So that’s who I am: A still married to the same old guy, mother of two, grandmother of one, a local gal who moved away then moved back home, dog-loving, successful retired businesswoman, who’s been actively involved in our Keys community and working on Monroe County utility and conservation issues for more than 10 years.
Q. From your personal experience, would a generally peaceable outlook in the Keys depend upon a measure of control over the number of our visitors and residents?
Yes
Q. What do you personally love most about Monroe County and the Florida Keys?
A: The water. I think that’s why most of us live here, and why so many visit here. My favorite time and place is summer on my boat. When the crowds have left, when it’s quiet, when the water is like a gin-clear bathtub, when my husband and I can spend the whole day in the back-bay and never see another boat… this is where I find my soul.
Q. What troubles you the most about today’s Monroe County and the Florida Keys?
A: The damage left behind from Irma, the lives and homes destroyed. The lack of affordable workforce housing, and road congestion.
Q. What planning or political mistakes do you personally believe were the worst to be inflicted on the Keys over the past decade?
A: Affordable “Workforce” Housing
Q. Who is your favorite character in the history of the keys?
A: My dad, Dick Ramsay.
Q. Who is your least favorite character?
A: Irma
Q. What is your favorite book?
A: Wind from the Carolinas, Robert Wilder
Q. What is your favorite movie?
A: Gone with the Wind
Q. What is your favorite quote?
A: You can’t buy love, but you can rescue it.
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